Episode 99 - Rat City 3 - with Guest Erica Schultz

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Christ. What's going on? What the hell am I. Good evening, and welcome to the Mal bowls. This is regarding Spawn, the world's best spawn podcast. I am your co host, Jon Fisher. [00:00:46] Speaker B: And I am your co host, David Williams. And Johnny, it's feeling. It's feeling awfully, uh, awfully, awfully cozy in the old, uh, in the old podcasts today. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Why is that? [00:00:59] Speaker B: I don't know. It feels like there's a presence with us, a presence that we haven't had before. [00:01:06] Speaker A: There is. There is a presence that is multitalented. I can't believe that they agreed to be on the show, but I'm so thrilled. And today, all our little hell spawns, we have with us writer of Rat City. Letterer of Rat City. Hell, yeah. Writer of many other comic books that, like, like to name would take way too long, but I just want to give a big introduction to the one, the only, Erica Scholz. [00:01:34] Speaker C: Woo. Thank you for having me. [00:01:36] Speaker A: Welcome. Of course. Thank you for coming on. We honestly are super thrilled. Like, we can't believe that you would want to come talk to this goofy. [00:01:43] Speaker B: Smart podcast, but I'm over here sweating bullets. Cause I'm like, oh, no, I'm gonna misremember, like, 40 X Men before I can even think about it. Talking to an X Men writer, that seems like a dangerous game. [00:01:58] Speaker C: Well, I mean, let's see. I've pretty much only written. I mean, cameo's notwithstanding, I've pretty much only written Laura Kinney in terms of X Men, so you don't have to worry about it. [00:02:10] Speaker A: That's good to know, because I know even less than David. [00:02:14] Speaker B: Johnny. Johnny doesn't have the propensity to fall down an x hole every once in a while. It's a great. It's a great time. [00:02:21] Speaker C: I mean, I I enjoy. I enjoyed. I grew up on Claremont and Bern and Claremont and Lee, X Men and such, so, I mean, I I love myself some uncanny. And Gail Simone just relaunched uncanny and Jed McKay, the regular X Men. It's not called the regular X Men, but just X Men, as opposed to uncanny. And the books are really good. I'm very fortunate that I get to sort of see previews of them before they go to press. So I've seen quite a few issues of all of the new X line, and I think. I think I'm in some pretty good. Pretty good company. Nice. [00:02:59] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:02:59] Speaker B: Excellent. I think that's an untapped title. The regular X Men. [00:03:06] Speaker C: It's all the ones that have, like, stupid powers. Like, they can change the color of paint on your walls and stuff like that. Yeah. [00:03:15] Speaker B: Useful in an everyday capacity, but not as much in a crime fighting capacity. [00:03:20] Speaker C: I mean, like, I would like somebody who had, like, I'd like somebody who had, like, really warm hands that could just, like, heat up a quick bowl of pasta or something, you know? That's a good. That's a good. [00:03:31] Speaker B: You wouldn't. You wouldn't have to wait 45 minutes for your uncrustable to thaw. Just. Ha. [00:03:36] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. [00:03:37] Speaker A: Get it right there. [00:03:38] Speaker C: And crustibles. [00:03:42] Speaker A: A classic. They always try to get me ordered on Gopuff because Gopuff is a great place in the city of Chicago to get cheap soda pop. And I love me some diet doctor pepper. And so they always try to get me to buy add on the uncrustable. So it's back being a part of my life. [00:03:58] Speaker B: It's a good sandwich. It's better than it should be. Toss it in your bag. Go for a bike ride. [00:04:02] Speaker C: Hey, I'm a little too old for uncrustable because when uncrustables first came out, I was working at the ad agency that was doing the advertisements for uncrustables. I'm, like, 20 years past on crust. [00:04:18] Speaker A: So, yeah, I'm probably too old for them, too, but I still have eaten them. [00:04:22] Speaker B: I'm technically too old for a lot of things that I enjoy, but, you know, I just like to think I'm a kid at heart. [00:04:29] Speaker A: No, we really. We're really thrilled to have you, Erika. We thought we could never top Thomas Healy, but we. Sorry. Thomas Healy. [00:04:35] Speaker B: No offense. [00:04:36] Speaker C: Don't say that. [00:04:37] Speaker A: I don't know if you're a first spawn rider. [00:04:41] Speaker C: I still need the job. I got mortgages. [00:04:43] Speaker A: You got it. You got it. [00:04:44] Speaker B: All right, well, mortgages. Oh, man. Excellent. [00:04:47] Speaker C: Technically, I own my mom's house, but I'm not allowed to kick her out. [00:04:50] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Okay. [00:04:52] Speaker C: I told her that she has to name me as her favorite daughter. [00:04:55] Speaker B: Okay. She's got a. Hopefully she's a model tenant. It isn't just like calling you up every day saying, my light bulbs need change? [00:05:02] Speaker C: No, she is a model tenant. But it's very strange that, like, when you're on the paperwork for somebody, for a house that you don't live in, you start getting mail for them. But also you start, like, they start getting mail for you and it's all junk mail, but it's just very, very bizarre how, like, public records work. [00:05:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Being from Oklahoma, every time there's an oil company that wants to buy land from somebody. I get just, like, hundreds of letters in my mailbox addressed to my mom. And I'm like, mom, what is this? And she's like, I just throw it away. [00:05:36] Speaker C: Yeah, it's all just, we want to buy your house, buy houses for cash and all that stuff. And you're just like, please leave me alone. Please. Thank you. Yeah, I hear you. [00:05:46] Speaker B: They call me now, that's very. That's very weird. [00:05:49] Speaker A: They call you. Oh, my God. [00:05:51] Speaker C: I don't know if it's possible to put them on the do not call list. But you can go online, and you can, like, add the numbers that do not call list, and hopefully they won't be able to call you anymore. [00:06:02] Speaker B: That's more work than I'm willing to put into it. I'd much rather just, like, awkwardly bow out of a conversation every couple of weeks. [00:06:10] Speaker C: Hey, that's on you, man. [00:06:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I know that is readily admit it. [00:06:15] Speaker A: Something that's on my call list always is calling up the spawn. Because this is respawn. For those of you who are listening, for the first time each week, we're bringing you two issues from Spawns universe. Except when we don't. And one of those times we don't is when we have a guest. We always just do one, because we'd rather spend more time with a guest. Than trying to yuck, yuck our way through two issues. So here we are, and today we are covering rat city number three. And, man, it's a lot of fun. [00:06:45] Speaker B: It is a lot of fun. Erika, I love this series. I'm glad that you write it. I'm glad that you came up with it. I literally couldn't be happier than a week when Rat City is in my pool box. I'm always like, ah. Then I try to get the folks at the comic book store to read it, and they're like, meh, spawn. But telling them. I tell them every week. [00:07:06] Speaker C: Well, I mean, it's. It's spawn, but it's not spawn. Because Peter sort of breaks every spawn rule. He's not dead. He's not called spawn. He's called the devianta. He's, you know, he kind of breaks those rules. But, I mean, if you saw any of the news at San Diego, the deviant's actually getting a figure now. [00:07:24] Speaker A: No, I did. I couldn't wait to, like, talk about that. Cause, like, how thrilling could that be? Like, to get an action figure of a character? You. [00:07:30] Speaker C: I didn't want to touch it. I just saw the prototype, and I refused to touch it. So when they wanted to take a photograph of me with it, there's a photo of one of the guys, like, holding it in frame because I did not want to touch it. I was like, if I touch it and it breaks, I lose my job. So, yeah, I was like, you got. I didn't want to. I'm not doing that on it or anything. [00:07:51] Speaker B: Or. Or if you broke it in a spectacular way, that could be part of its action. You could bring back the action figure action. It's like. It could be like a crash test dummy spawn figure, where you press a little button and it just goes pop. [00:08:06] Speaker C: None of. None of those things. [00:08:07] Speaker A: That's all we want. [00:08:09] Speaker C: Maybe. Maybe in my youth, I would be willing to take those risks that, you know, a few years away from 50. I am not. I'm not about taking those risks. Hi, puppy. [00:08:20] Speaker B: That was Cousco. [00:08:20] Speaker A: David has many dogs. [00:08:22] Speaker C: All dogs are puppies. [00:08:23] Speaker B: He's a sweet puppy. Except for when he isn't. [00:08:25] Speaker A: Yes, he's a puppy. Well, speaking of, like, you know, rat city and creating it, I'm just curious, did you always have a kernel of an idea for, like, a cyberpunk story? Or is this something, when you were offered spawn that you were like, I could see spawn in this world, or is this something you wanted to explore? Or how did the. What is the genesis of Rat City? [00:08:44] Speaker C: Well, this is where I want to dispel some rumor that you had perpetuated on an earlier episode, where I believe what you were saying is that Thomas Healey went up to Eric Schultz in New York Comic Con, and he was like, hey, you can write cheeseburger. She was like, fuck that shit. I can write something else. That is not how it happened at all. [00:09:07] Speaker A: Okay. [00:09:08] Speaker C: No, Tom. Thomas came up to me at New York Comic Con. We had a conversation. I said, I would love to write anything in the spawn universe, whether it's scorched or she spawn or salmon twitch or whatever. And I said, we'll, you know, we can talk. But your international listeners might not know. Your comic con is in October, and the next month is. Is November, which is thanksgiving in the United States. And things start, you know, it's coming toward the end of the year and everything. Everybody gets busy, so. And then, you know, you have Christmas the following month. So Thomas and I didn't actually get to sit down and have a conversation until the following February. So when we sat down and we talked, I had had enough time to sort of, you know, think about what I might want to do in the spawn universe, whether I was going to pitch something for scorched or sheath bone or whatever. And I kept coming back to this idea of going into the future simply because I didn't think at the time that any spawn story had been sustained in the future. They had had stories that would sort of flash forward, but I don't remember having a story that stayed in the future and was set in the future and stayed in the future. So I thought that that was an untapped market. Like, not market in terms of, like, capitalism, but, like, just for in terms of the story. And I thought that that would allow us to a lot of freedom to explore, because all of the people that all of the humans that Al would have been interacting with would be long gone, and Al would be considered like a myth, an urban legend, because all the people that would have remembered him would be gone or well into senility. So that is why I kind of thought about going into the future, basically because of the freedom of it. Because, I mean, spawn is a huge universe, and, you know, 355, I think, is dropping tomorrow, you know, and I've read probably 210 issues, give or take. Like, I've read, like, one to 150, and then, you know, sprinkled throughout. I have the compendium, so I can always go back. But trying to fit something in an unchanging universe is difficult. Simply like you. We were talking about the X Men previously. You know, the X Men, yes. They have had reboots and retcons and everything. And because of that, it's kind of easier to sometimes fit something in because there's been retcons, whereas there's. They don't have that in spawn. You've gotta. You've got to deal with the continuity that's there. And so to try and fit something specifically into that niche, whether it's, you know, Jessica or the scorched team or whatever, might not really work. And I wanted a challenge, but I didn't want a big challenge like that. So I liked the idea of going into the future, and Thomas really loved it. He thought it was great. The original idea was to be in 2092, so we were exactly 100 years from when al originally came on the scene. But they said, no, let's push it a couple of years more. And then Jay, Carlos, and I started talking and talking about the ideas of the design and things like that. And he was just, he would just bang out these phenomenal designs, and we would just sort of sketch back and forth and, yeah, I mean, he. He came up with this gorgeous design and this really cool idea, and we're just adding the to it. And, yeah, I mean, it's a lot of fun to work on. And Todd and Thomas and Yvette and Ryan and all the people, Nimani and Shannon, all the people who work there. Just really very cool. [00:12:52] Speaker B: Nice. [00:12:53] Speaker A: That's awesome. Well, thanks for setting us straight. [00:12:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And for also pronouncing ze Carlos his name correctly, because we've definitely been pronouncing it very wrong this entire time. [00:13:03] Speaker C: Like Jacques. Jacques Gabor Sachet J. Okay. Yeah. [00:13:07] Speaker A: Okay, cool. [00:13:08] Speaker B: Also, maybe. Maybe setting it a few years later than 2092 is a good idea because that's awfully close to 2099. And there's something else that's happening around that time. [00:13:18] Speaker C: You know, everybody keeps saying 2099, but it's. That's actually, like, a trademark thing with, with Marvel. So I wouldn't even be able to have said that even. Or used it even if I wanted to. You know, it's like, no, you're stepping on their copyright. [00:13:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:13:34] Speaker C: I mean, that's. And then somebody, I remember one comment was like, oh, duh. It's like Spider Man 2009, nine. And his name's even Peter. His name isn't Peter because of Peter Parker. Because Spider Man 2099 is not Peter Parker. It's Miguel O'Hara. [00:13:50] Speaker A: Could you imagine that? [00:13:51] Speaker C: Mixing your metaphors, fan? Yeah. [00:13:55] Speaker B: Old ass Peter Parker. [00:13:57] Speaker C: Very old Peter Parker. [00:13:59] Speaker B: Like, like, original. Original uncle Ben. Old, older. [00:14:05] Speaker C: So, yeah, if Peter's 30 now, and I think every five years equals one year in the Marvel universe, then Peter would still be, Peter would be, like, in his eighties. [00:14:16] Speaker B: Damn. [00:14:17] Speaker C: So, yeah, I mean, I don't see him whipping around in his eighties, but he can heal faster, so maybe he wouldn't age as much because his body has some type of regen. I mean, obviously not like Wolverine or Captain America. Maybe his body has, like, some type of regen. Who knows? I don't know. [00:14:36] Speaker B: I don't know. Somebody. Somebody will know, and they'll get. They'll get a script approved. They will know. [00:14:44] Speaker A: I don't know which one it'll be. It'll be either Tom hall and Andrew Garfield or Tobey Maguire. They will make a Spider man movie when they're 80. It's, like, unforgiven with Spider Mandev old. It'll happen in our lifetimes. You know it will. [00:14:56] Speaker C: Maybe it'll happen in your lifetime, but I've got. I've got a couple. Who knows? [00:15:01] Speaker A: Who knows? [00:15:02] Speaker B: The world's a wild place, so it most certainly is. [00:15:06] Speaker C: And having just come from San Diego Comic Con. It is really wild. [00:15:09] Speaker A: I bet. How was, how was, how was that? It seemed like a lot just from seeing it on Instagram and everyone there. It seems like there's. I would be overwhelmed. I've only been to. I've been to c two e two twice, and I've been to Star wars celebration, but that's about the extent of my big con. So I feel like I would not survive San Diego Comic Con. [00:15:28] Speaker B: I don't think I would. [00:15:29] Speaker C: I've done New York Comic Con 15 years in a row. This year will be my 15th year tabling at New York Comic Con, and I've done San Diego. This is my 8th or 9th time from 2012 was when I started doing San Diego. And I would go, like, every year for a couple of years, and then I would take, like, two years off and then, like, then two years and then take another couple. So this is. Yeah, this is like my 8th or 9th San Diego. It's crazy. Every, every single time you go and, and you think that, well, I've done this before, so I'll be prepared. No, it's like, if you want to make God laugh, make a plan, nothing will ever. And it's funny, like, when you talk to people who table at conventions and, you know, everybody's always trying to find, like, the science of the commerce, you know, well, if I sell this book at this time of day or whatever, every time you think you figured it out, the world just flips it on its head, so you just kind of got to go with it. [00:16:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I bet. [00:16:24] Speaker B: Were you at San Diego the year they did the demolition man? Fancy Taco Bell. [00:16:30] Speaker C: That had to have been before 2012, I think because it was around the. [00:16:34] Speaker B: Time that I was paying attention to San Diego Comic Con, which would have been 2010. 2011 is when I started paying attention. [00:16:41] Speaker C: To it, so I did. 20, 12, 20, 13, 20, 14, 20, 15, 20, 17, 20, 18, 20, 22, 20, 24. So this is my eight San Diego Comic Con. [00:16:52] Speaker B: I don't remember what has happened in any given San Diego. [00:16:56] Speaker A: You just wanted to go to that Taco Bell. [00:16:58] Speaker B: I just wanted to go to the demolition man Taco Bell. How awesome would that be? [00:17:02] Speaker C: I'll be honest. I mean, when I go, though, I tend to, like, be very focused on the panels that I have to speak on, the signings and everything. Like, I have a schedule, so I don't go to a lot of things. [00:17:12] Speaker B: So I can see that. I bet it is a job after all. [00:17:16] Speaker A: Yeah. We did one little panel at C two E two. And I was nervous all day, so I can't imagine doing multiple. [00:17:22] Speaker C: Yeah, I had, I think, two things every single day. So Wednesday night I had a meeting. Thursday I had two signings. Friday I had a panel and a signing. Saturday I had a panel. I had two panels. Sunday I had a panel and a signing. And then I had to take the red eye. [00:17:41] Speaker B: Oh, my God. [00:17:42] Speaker C: Sleeping off a little bit. You can't. You can't sleep too much, though, because you won't sleep through the night. You'll wake up at, like, 03:00 a.m. and not be able to sleep. So you gotta pace yourself. [00:17:50] Speaker B: I believe that. [00:17:52] Speaker A: Right? [00:17:52] Speaker B: I believe that. Well, if you. If you end up finding yourself a little. A little. You need to take a quick couple of minutes. Just don't mind us. [00:18:01] Speaker A: Yeah, please. I've done it before. I fall asleep with one of David Rance before on the podcast. I guarantee you. [00:18:07] Speaker B: Only one of them. Only one of them. [00:18:08] Speaker C: Wow, that's. Yeah, I'm not that type of person. I might. I'll do, like, the yawn, where I'll do with the closed mouth, and then you see my nostrils flare. Like, I'll do that. I used to work at a big corporate job. I know how to make it look like I'm not falling asleep in a meeting. [00:18:26] Speaker A: There you go. [00:18:27] Speaker B: I would be very bad at that. There's a reason I don't work at a corporate gig. [00:18:31] Speaker A: Well, there's one thing that doesn't make me fall asleep, and that's rat city number three on the show. Yes. I try. I try. We have occasionally, you know, sometimes we make it work, but we always start with the covers. And I have the. A cover with me right here. [00:18:50] Speaker B: The one I have. That's. That's the one we all have, man. [00:18:54] Speaker A: Yes. And it is, um. Well, it's pretty badass. It just reminds me of, like, an awesome blade runner apartment. Like, he's just sitting in the shadows. You got Peter there with the shades. It just sums it up so perfectly. And, like, the neon blue accents to the window. I love it. It's just. It's. It's. It's almost iconic already. And I know it's only a few months old, but I love it. [00:19:18] Speaker B: He's in just enough darkness that he's got the smokey eye, and I love a smokey eye. [00:19:23] Speaker C: So this is one of the. This cover concept was possibly for issue number one. We kept going back and forth about it because we wanted. Because in issue number one, we don't see the deviant. We only see Al in spawn, his spawn gear all the way at the end. So we were thinking, should we tease what the deviant looks like and then just really have the cybernetic legs showing and everything? But this cover concept was really from the beginning. We just didn't know exactly where we were going to put it in. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Well, it's a great cover. [00:19:54] Speaker A: It's a great. [00:19:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Shay is just kicking ass. [00:19:57] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:19:58] Speaker B: Absolutely. This is one of the most visually exciting books I've come across in a very long time. [00:20:03] Speaker C: He's a. He's working on issue number eight right now, and I try to stay two scripts ahead of him. And I'm only halfway done with the script for ten. So I'm like, slow down, please. [00:20:18] Speaker B: I mean, I would say to make him. Make him draw a lot more little, like detritus and details in the background, but there's already heliodetrides and details, so you can't even slow them down that way. [00:20:31] Speaker C: It's crazy. It really is crazy. And then I. When I, you know, and I see the pages as they come in, and then I look back when I'm lettering and I kind of feel like I almost have to completely re dialogue everything because his art is just so detailed and I don't want to cover things up and I want to make sure that, you know, the dialogue is getting crossed. But I also don't want to, you know, basically shit up any of his art because it's so damn good. [00:20:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I can see that being like, the greatest of puzzles, as being like, okay, here's this. And I know I got to put this on top of it. What am I going to cover up? What can I sacrifice in order to make it be the way it was supposed to be? [00:21:12] Speaker C: It is a big lesson in stealth editing, I will say that. [00:21:15] Speaker A: I bet the bee cover, which I don't have, but is awesome as well. By Kevin Keene. [00:21:22] Speaker C: Yes. [00:21:23] Speaker A: Is the deviant kind of chilling, brightly lit on top of some buildings, looking cool. [00:21:29] Speaker B: He's kind of spider manning, as we like to say. [00:21:31] Speaker A: A little bit. Yeah. [00:21:32] Speaker B: Because he's not quite batmaning. [00:21:34] Speaker C: No, he's not on a gargoyle looking groovy. It's not raining on him. Although I will say no. The first issue that I. That I wrote, the first draft of the first issue, we sort of opened in, like, the stereotypical on a rooftop, it's raining, it's dark, and Peter is talking on a calm link to Quinlan. And that kind of was the setup and I tend to tell a lot of stories in non linear form. So we'll be in the present and then we'll go to the past and then we'll shoot to the future and things like that. And I had sent in that script and Thomas was like, I like this. Todd likes it. But I think we need to start at the beginning because the whole sequence of the battle that we see now in the opening of issue number one was a flashback because Peter and Quinlan were having a conversation on the comlink and Quinlan said something about Peter being a Boy Scout and he says, I'm no Boy scout. And that cuts to the flashback of the, you know, them going into Azerbaijan and doing that whole thing and seeing the teenager being killed. So Thomas was like, let's play this one, you know, pretty straightforward and start from the beginning and then go through. I was like, all right. And I mean, that happens all the time in writing comics. Just in general, I tend, especially when I'm doing, like, my own independent work, I tend to sort of bounce around. So you have to sort of reframe your brain every once in a while when it comes to doing licensed work because you want to make sure that the client's happy, but also that the story is telegraphing everything it's supposed to. [00:23:17] Speaker B: Sometimes it also helps to write a little bit of the end to figure out how somebody's going to react in the first place. [00:23:23] Speaker A: Yeah, that's interesting to hear that. [00:23:26] Speaker B: I love the way that issue starts, by the way. [00:23:29] Speaker C: Oh, thank you. [00:23:30] Speaker B: I very much enjoy the big boss just doing business from the bed. [00:23:38] Speaker A: The conflict in the caucuses. [00:23:39] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. Well, I mean, everybody loves alliteration, you know, it's great. [00:23:44] Speaker A: It's a great, it's great. [00:23:46] Speaker B: It makes it ripe for the pundits if they ever show up in future times. [00:23:50] Speaker A: Well, we kind of get, I would say we get the descendant of the CRN lady in this issue. [00:23:55] Speaker C: You kind of. You kind of get it. Yeah, she's, she's going to be in the second arc, so she's definitely showing up in seven. And she's at the opening of eight, actually. [00:24:06] Speaker B: Okay, technically. Technically, I guess Brock the shock could still show up since he's a demon. [00:24:12] Speaker C: He could. Oh, my God. [00:24:13] Speaker A: Can you imagine? [00:24:14] Speaker C: Although, if you've noticed, we've kind of been sort of shying away from a lot of the religion in Rhapsody. And that's going to be, that's going to be explained a lot in the second arc about where sort of society is in the state of religion. Etcetera. Which is kind of another reason why Peter is very different from the other spawns. He has no link to violate or he has no link to hell. So that's another reason. That's another thing that sort of sets him apart. [00:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't think about that, but that's true. Yeah. That's awesome. So after the covers, we always go into the opening credits. And on this issue, we have script lot by someone named Erica Schultz. [00:25:03] Speaker C: Who's that crazy bitch? [00:25:04] Speaker A: We have art by. Art by Zay Carlos, color by J. David Ramos. Lettering also by Erica Schultz, which is amazing. You're pulling double duty on this book. [00:25:19] Speaker B: I like to say triple duty because script plot. [00:25:23] Speaker A: Script plot counts as two. [00:25:25] Speaker C: I think script plot is the same. It's the same. You're just coming up with. With the same story. Basically, the script just means you're. You're editing yourself when it comes to dialogue. [00:25:36] Speaker A: Okay, we already. We already covered the covers, and we have creative director Todd McFarlane, and editor in chief is Thomas Healye. And previously in Rat City, Peter is on the run from PCs. The organization that previously helped restore his legs has shown its true colors. Exactly. And they have, because we're at PTS. We open on PTS headquarters, where they're just. [00:26:05] Speaker B: They're just firing away. [00:26:07] Speaker A: They're blowing up Peter. [00:26:08] Speaker C: Yeah, well, they're trying to, as well. [00:26:10] Speaker A: At theater, trying to. [00:26:12] Speaker B: They're trying to pew, pew, pew, pew him full of holes. But he's got that. He's got that fancy cape, the suit. [00:26:19] Speaker C: Don't let it happen. You made all the things, and you got Reese. [00:26:24] Speaker A: Reese is down, but he's protecting him as well. [00:26:28] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:29] Speaker A: Which is. It's funny because, David, that issue we just covered, what, like 24. It was like, this is the first time that spawn suit helps someone else. Yeah, we would have, like, helped Terry, but this is already helping other people already. [00:26:40] Speaker B: It's another. Another difference between Peter and Peter and Al is Al's kind of a crotchety, crotchety loner, and Peter. Peter's much more of a team player than Al really ever was. [00:26:54] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:26:54] Speaker C: When you think about. I mean, Al was technically on a team with Terry and such, but I mean, Al Washington kind of a loan operator for a lot of the stuff that he was doing for Jason Wynn, whereas we only ever see Peter in some type of team up, whether it's with Reese and, you know, the rest of the. Of his squad, or it's with, you know, later on, it's with, you know, helping Quinlan, as, you know, as Peter asks, as Reese asks Peter to help Quinlan. So Peter's always got somebody there. [00:27:30] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. [00:27:31] Speaker A: And he's there for them because he's getting Reese out of there. [00:27:34] Speaker B: And he picks Reese up and is just like, running, running. He does his accidental first shadow blast. Although I guess we now have to call it shadow walking. [00:27:46] Speaker C: It is shadow walking. [00:27:47] Speaker A: Yes. [00:27:48] Speaker B: You named it. We've just. The first time we came across it, we were like, I don't know, shadow blast. [00:27:53] Speaker A: Not in this with like, an original spawn. We were reading it back in, like, our early episodes that are unlistenable of the podcast. [00:28:00] Speaker C: Hey, everybody learned that. [00:28:01] Speaker A: We called it shadow blast. [00:28:02] Speaker C: Everybody learns on the job. [00:28:03] Speaker A: Exactly. You've got to. [00:28:05] Speaker B: It was one of those times where Al Simmons turns into goop and then we learn about how painful it is to go through the shadows. And then he throws up. [00:28:13] Speaker A: Yeah, they used to throw up. [00:28:16] Speaker C: There will be some vomit in later issues. [00:28:20] Speaker A: Hey, that's what we're here for. That's what we're here for. [00:28:24] Speaker C: A little, you know, greenish lettering. [00:28:27] Speaker A: Good. [00:28:28] Speaker C: You know. [00:28:29] Speaker B: Hell yeah. [00:28:29] Speaker A: Yes. Gotta have it. But he whips him. He's whipping him through this alley. But I just gotta say how badass the alley is. You get like a giant, like, fan or like, futures of door. They get the. I love all the neon signage in the background and stuff. You always get. [00:28:42] Speaker C: We talked about. We really talked about the design of the city in general, of Manhattan and how Blade Runner it is and how it's like the dirtiest. I mean, if you. If you know who Sid Meade was, he was an architect and a designer and everything. And he did a lot of the concept work for Blade Runner. And, you know, it's sort of like Sid Mead on a really dirty day, you know? [00:29:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I had a. I had some Pluto tv on in the background a couple weeks ago, and the original ghost in the shell was on. And it occurred to me that New York City of this time is very much like the old Tokyo ghost in the shell, where it's like it tried to build up to the future, but then never did. And so they were like, let's start over again over here. It's cool. I love the lived in life overtaking that sort of architectural cleanliness and purity that everybody wants to build to. And it's like now life has to exist somewhere. Not everything could be as clean as people want it to be. [00:29:48] Speaker C: If you look up something called Tracy Towers. So my grandparents lived in the Bronx, and we used to go every weekend to visit with them. And we went past this huge building called Tracy Towers. And I learned that when Tracy Towers went up, it was supposed to be this, like, beautiful, modern, you know, you know, paragon of New York City living. But with everything, it became derelict. And now it's a, like, you know, you look at it and everything's dirty and everything. And I kind of thought of it this way. You know, that idea of, you know, New York is going to be building. It's going to be, you know, the city of the future. And then, you know, people have different priorities. So I always had sort of Tracy towers in the back of my head about that, man. [00:30:34] Speaker B: This is, this is like if Pruitt Igo were a Pokemon. This is the evolution of Pruitt Igo. [00:30:40] Speaker C: I have no idea who that is. [00:30:43] Speaker B: Pruitt Igo was a housing development in St. Louis. [00:30:46] Speaker C: Okay? [00:30:47] Speaker B: And when they demolished the. When they demolished the whole project, it's referred to as the end of modernism in architecture, because it was the ideal, like, living situation of the future that just, like, as soon as people realized, oh, you have to live with other people. I don't know. Fuck that. It just. It went down very quickly. [00:31:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Because, you know, if you. If you. Are you looking at Tracy Towers? [00:31:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. It reminds me of, there's a hospital in town here. It's the St. Mary's and Elizabeth, and it kind of looks like a slightly futuristic, slightly more futuristic version of these. It's the weirdest, the weirdest hospital I have ever seen. [00:31:32] Speaker C: You know, it's funny how architects, like, there's some. There's some architects that are making things functional, and there are others that are just like, screw it. Let's make this as weird as humanly possible, and if they get away with it, go for it. [00:31:47] Speaker B: I'm very much a form follows function person. Oh, no fun. Yeah, form follows function. Instead of one of those two, the one. The one where it's. You base things off of how it is easy to live in and not, you adapt yourself to a square box. [00:32:01] Speaker C: I I'm more. I'm more function than fashion, so. [00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good one. [00:32:04] Speaker A: Yeah, well, the detail, like, even the cab driver, when he's running across the cab here, has got the, like, metal. [00:32:11] Speaker B: Face, like, you know, like everybody's got a cybernetic implant. Yeah, he looks. He looks a little bit. He looks a little bit like a pal of ours, Johnny, don't you think? Does he think he looks a little. [00:32:20] Speaker A: Bit like Sam Burke? Maybe? [00:32:22] Speaker B: This taxi driver, he needs a sandwich. That he. Yeah, he's eating very messily. [00:32:27] Speaker C: My dad drove a cab in Manhattan, so in the eighties my dad drove a cab in New York. So I sent shay some old photos of my dad. He's kind of. He's got a little bit of my dad in him too. [00:32:40] Speaker B: Oh, hell yeah. [00:32:41] Speaker A: Oh really? That's awesome. Oh, nice. [00:32:44] Speaker B: We just read a quote from Todd McFarlane about if he doesn't write his family members and friends into his books, who else is going? So that's wonderful. I love it. [00:32:55] Speaker A: So he does another shadow walking. [00:32:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:58] Speaker A: And then we cut back to pts. [00:33:00] Speaker B: And we got the doctor who was definitely never. He wasn't a bad guy the whole time. No, this guy, he's definitely magnanimous. Doctor Bose, most magnanimous doctor ever. Trying to collect all of the nanites that have been spilled. That's a big job, trying to get all those neonates. [00:33:17] Speaker C: Well, it's the future, you know, I'm sure they have some, you know, special vacuum cleaner that can suck everything up. [00:33:24] Speaker B: Future cybernetic squeegee. [00:33:26] Speaker C: Yeah, why not? [00:33:27] Speaker A: It just soaks it right up. Yeah, I can see that. [00:33:31] Speaker B: The blood covered phone goes off. And so he's just like, let me answer this real quick. [00:33:35] Speaker C: Mind you, that shows that the difference between Peter thinking it's rude to answer somebody's phone versus Doctor Bose, who's just like, this is an opportunity, Peter. [00:33:45] Speaker B: PeTer thinking it's rude to answer somebody's phone after he's almost explicitly been told answer the damn phone. [00:33:53] Speaker C: Well, I mean. [00:33:54] Speaker A: And it's Quinlan. [00:33:55] Speaker C: Yes. Quinlan is in a bar trying to get ahold of Reese and didn't expect. [00:34:01] Speaker B: As they have been for a while. [00:34:03] Speaker C: As they have been for a while and didn't expect Doctor Bose to be answering the phone. Now remember Quinlan used to work at PTS. So Quinlan is very familiar with who Doctor Bose was. [00:34:14] Speaker B: Or is rather, this is, this is, I do believe the US. Us knowing that Quinlan knows Doctor Bose. [00:34:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I just, I just think that drink looks refreshing. It looks like a sparkling pink drink. Yeah, it looks refreshing to me. [00:34:27] Speaker B: It looks kind of like it's got glitter in it, which I can imagine in a cyberpunk future. Every, every mixer has glitter in it. [00:34:33] Speaker C: Whether they make edible griddle. They make edible glitter. [00:34:37] Speaker B: I mean, sure, yeah, yeah, I'm here for it. [00:34:41] Speaker A: That's what I love about the, that's what I'm most excited about, about cyberpunk future is like, all the drinks will be neon because I love like sweet fruity drink. So like I'm all ready for, like. Yeah, exactly. Or like. Like a. Like some kind of blue frozen something. [00:34:55] Speaker B: With blue Curacao in it. [00:34:56] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. If you can get it at Disneyland, Star wars land. I want to drink it. My philosophy. [00:35:04] Speaker C: I've never been to the Star wars celebration or to the. What do they call? Galaxy. Galaxy edge. Yes. I've never been to either one. [00:35:13] Speaker A: I haven't been either. I've been to celebration. I haven't been to Galaxy's edge. I want to, but it just is not, you know, it's a big deal to kind of go to Disneyland, you know? [00:35:24] Speaker C: Yeah, it is a lot of money. Especially, didn't they have, like, a hotel or something that they ended up closing because it was too expensive? [00:35:31] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:35:33] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:35:34] Speaker B: The immersive expensive. [00:35:35] Speaker A: The galactic Star cruiser, it went under, I think, about a year and a half. I think it only lasted. There's a great YouTube video by Jenny Nicholson about it, so. [00:35:45] Speaker C: Oh, about demise or. [00:35:48] Speaker A: Yes, about its demise. Yeah. [00:35:50] Speaker C: Oh, wow. [00:35:51] Speaker A: It's really good. It's like. It's, like, 3 hours long, but it documents her trip through it and then the demise of it, so it's worth checking out for sure. It's really interesting. You kind of get to live vicariously and be very glad you didn't spend, like, $4,000 to do it. You dodge a very. Anyone that didn't do it dodged a very expensive bullet. [00:36:10] Speaker C: Yeah. I don't know if I could spend $4,000 on any trip still in the United States. If I was spending $4,000 on a trip, I better be in Ireland or Rome or Madrid or space or Greece someplace or. Yeah, space someplace not still in the contin. I mean, I would maybe spend $4,000 going to Hawaii, but definitely not in the continental us. [00:36:38] Speaker A: No, definitely not. Especially in, like, a. Well, a really shitty, like, room. The size of the closet I'm recording is what you got on this spaceship. So it was not worth it. Yeah, they were, like, bumpy. [00:36:52] Speaker C: Yeah, it's like. It's, like, all over again. [00:36:58] Speaker A: No, it did. It looked like. It looked like a really futuristic dorm room. [00:37:03] Speaker B: Hey, I'd go to college. There. [00:37:08] Speaker C: You go. [00:37:09] Speaker B: I'd bet. I bet $4,000 for college. Yeah. That's a great deal. Is that all four years or two nights? [00:37:14] Speaker A: Two nights, David. Two nights. [00:37:16] Speaker C: Yeah. So anyway. So do you imagine we jump into St. Raymond Cemetery in the Bronx? [00:37:22] Speaker A: Yes. [00:37:23] Speaker C: Now, I don't know if you know this, but St. Raymond's actually, they have different sections based on different saints and my two grandfathers are both buried in St. Raymond's, and there's a military section, and one is born in, one is buried born. Excuse me. One is buried in the St. Peter's section, and then I forget where the other one is buried. I have it written down somewhere. But, yeah, they have a military section, which is why I had them go to St. Raymond's, because there is the military section of that. Of that cemetery. And I've been there for funerals. [00:37:55] Speaker A: No, I did not know that. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Sure, I know. I know very little about any cemeteries, except for I got lost in one and was almost late to a job interview once, so. [00:38:07] Speaker C: Because. Wait, you went in a cemetery before your job interview? [00:38:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So I was gonna be, like, 45 minutes early for the interview, and I was like, oh, hey, look, there's a cemetery here. I'll just wander through that and waste some time. And then when I got to the side of the cemetery that was close to where I was supposed to have my interview, I learned that there was only one entrance and one exit, and it was where I came in, two blocks away. [00:38:34] Speaker C: No, wait, you were 45 minutes late from walking two blocks? [00:38:38] Speaker B: No, I was 45 minutes early. And so I wandered through the cemetery, and then I was like, okay, I've got, like, ten minutes. This will be fine, and then had to. Had to get back. Only the only entrance to the cemetery. [00:38:50] Speaker C: Why didn't you just walk around the block? [00:38:52] Speaker B: Because there was a cemetery there. Why wouldn't I walk? [00:38:55] Speaker A: Well, I wouldn't have walked through the cemetery, for the record. I would just. [00:38:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it was, it was in a very, it's a. In a very spread out section of a near suburb. So there wasn't really blocks so much as I could either walk up and down the side of a highway or spend time in the cemetery or get haunted. Or get haunted already. Haunted. [00:39:17] Speaker C: Okay. [00:39:17] Speaker A: Man, I love the cemetery, though, that it's got the. Yeah, you do. You. I love that it has the holograms. Like, that's a really nice touch, that. [00:39:25] Speaker B: It's really cool. [00:39:26] Speaker C: The headstones. [00:39:26] Speaker A: Yeah, the headstone holograms are cool. And then you just get kind of a sad final moment of ries. [00:39:34] Speaker B: Yeah, it's real. It's a bummer. [00:39:37] Speaker A: I love the detail, though, that the spawn eye mask is burned onto his and burned onto his flesh. That's pretty intense. [00:39:44] Speaker C: Well, I mean, Reese wasn't, Peter wasn't the only one with nanites. That was, you know, caught in that giant shockwave in machine number one. So, I mean, we know that Rhys has had his hands and had nanites in his hands, so, you know, he was affected as well. And I believe Quinlan even talks about, you know, transformation. Where is that in the next issue? I don't know if I'm, uh. If I'm jumping ahead. [00:40:12] Speaker B: I think that might be a couple issues beyond, because I think issue four, Quinlan talks about, like, how they got the device and kind of. [00:40:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:28] Speaker B: Leading up to the. Yeah, not the big bang. The big bang. Something else. [00:40:33] Speaker C: No, the big blackout, which is when Al Simmons detonates the suit in 300 and 301, it shockwaves across space and time. So that's what becomes. It becomes. [00:40:47] Speaker B: It becomes all natural. Al. [00:40:50] Speaker A: Yes. [00:40:51] Speaker C: You're. [00:40:52] Speaker A: Because he gets all naked. Yeah, he gets all naked and puts the railroad spikes in his. In his arm. [00:40:58] Speaker B: So brutal. So brutal. [00:41:00] Speaker A: I love the robot dog, too. Those things creep me out. Those robot dogs kind of creep me out. [00:41:05] Speaker C: So, I mean, think about it. [00:41:07] Speaker A: Because they run so well, not only. [00:41:09] Speaker C: That, I mean, NYPD has them right now, so, I mean, it's not so out of the realm of possibilities that they're going to have. That they're going to be more ubiquitous in the future. [00:41:19] Speaker B: They. They also freak me out as somebody who is surrounded by dogs, but it's still. It still bothers me by living dogs, but it's still. It still bothers me when you watch the. The videos of them showing what they could do. It. It's just somebody, like, kicking it around, and it's like, come on. Come on. That's what's gonna. That's what's gonna make them turn against us. [00:41:41] Speaker C: Not only that, kicking around their dog. That's literally somebody living through, like, living the fantasy that they want to do, but know that it's not appropriate. So they're gonna kick a metal. But that's just. That's the psychopathic behavior. [00:41:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:54] Speaker A: Yeah. They're always kind of deserving those videos. I do love the slide that Peter does under the. Yeah, under the kitchen counter, where he does the slide out of the shadows. [00:42:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty great. [00:42:08] Speaker C: Any slides? Yeah, right under the sink. [00:42:10] Speaker A: Yeah, we got our opening quote. [00:42:12] Speaker B: Yes. [00:42:12] Speaker A: What the hell am I. [00:42:14] Speaker B: And then he starts. [00:42:15] Speaker A: He's had it. [00:42:16] Speaker B: Yeah, he's trying to. He's trying to cut the. Cut the suit, and it's not working. [00:42:22] Speaker C: Nope. [00:42:23] Speaker A: He tried to kill himself? [00:42:24] Speaker C: I think he does, because the. Quinlan says Peter didn't want to adapt. He wanted to die. I mean, he lost his best friend. He doesn't understand what's happening to him. And the only thing that he can think of is, all right, screw this, I'm getting out. Like, I'm getting as far away from all of this as possible. And if that means I got to die, I got to die. He's just, you know, overwhelmed with everything, and you gotta. You gotta remember this is only about 36 to 48 hours after the shockwave, after the blackout. So, I mean, everything's happening so fast, so much so fast. [00:43:06] Speaker B: This isn't. This isn't his first time around the crazy shit merry go round, either. I can only imagine that. It's just, like, I can only do this so many times, dude. [00:43:16] Speaker C: Well, I mean, one of the things that I really wanted to talk about, whether explicitly or implicitly, was this idea of PTSD. And, you know, sometimes wounds don't show. I mean, my dad was a Vietnam veteran, and he spent two years in Vietnam and with the army, and, you know, back then, they didn't call it PTSD, but he most definitely had PTSD from it. And the idea that, you know, you don't show weakness, you don't show fear, you know, that sort of toxic masculinity, it still goes on, and it's still, you know, it still permeates people, and, you know, and you don't have to be in war to have PTSD. I mean, there's a. I genuinely think that because of COVID probably the entire world has some form of PTSD because of all the, you know, everything that happened with COVID and you don't even need six degrees of separation to know somebody who passed because of it. So definitely, like, Peter's just had enough. I mean, how much. How many times can you break? You know what I mean? [00:44:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:21] Speaker C: And this was just sort of, you know, seeing his comrade in arms break. There is something that you had said, though, I want to say in the first podcast, where you said something like, when Peter says, oh, I can't deal with you right now, Rhys. And he clicks off the answering machine, and I think you said, I want to know what it is that Reese did that pissed Peter off. It wasn't. It, was it? There was nothing that Reese did. If anything, Rhys was like a brother to him. It was just this idea of, like, I'm exhausted. I can't deal with anything right now. And we all know that Reese kind of likes to talk a lot, and he talks your ear off, and that's something that's endearing about him. But at the same time, if you're like, dude, I cannot handle anything today. That's the last person you want to talk to. And Reese is also the guy that. That you don't answer his phone calls, he's literally going to show up at your front door. Show up at your door, which is what he does. [00:45:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:16] Speaker C: So Peter knew that if he didn't answer him, that he knew he's going to see Rhys in a couple hours anyway, because the guy's just going to show up. [00:45:24] Speaker B: Okay, awesome. [00:45:26] Speaker C: But at the same time, it's kind of an endearing. It could be kind of annoying, but it's also kind of endearing because he cares so much about the people that he cares about. [00:45:33] Speaker B: Yeah. I was actually just having a conversation with my mom about how sometimes just sitting on the couch doing nothing takes more energy than you actually have at that time. And it was very eye opening. The amount of pushback I got from that being a thing that actually happens, and it's like, well, I mean, I get it. I totally get it. [00:45:55] Speaker C: People will say, well, you write comic books. How difficult is that? It's a lot more difficult than people think, you know, sitting in front of a computer and typing away or even writing in a notebook, because I tend to hand write a lot of scripts first. It's a lot like. It's a lot of mental energy, and it's a lot of. Especially when you're thinking about, you know, crazy things happening. You know, talking about a girl who's got knives in her hands or a guy who has a nanite suit that covers his entire body. You know, there's to try and think about the plausibility of it and all the other crazy things and how do I make it believable but at the same time, make it. Oh, another puppy. But at the same time, make it, baby. Is that papillon? [00:46:45] Speaker B: No, she's Chihuahua. [00:46:46] Speaker C: Okay. Because she has the big ears. But, yeah, I mean, it takes a lot to think about these things. And I say, look, anybody can be a writer. Not everyone can do it professionally, and not everybody can do it for a living. So it's. It does take a lot of mental energy. And I know that there's some people like, oh, yeah. Writing so hard. Yeah, try it, buddy. Try it. [00:47:10] Speaker B: Yeah, those people suck. Just all around. [00:47:12] Speaker C: Well, it's not just that, but, like, try it and try. Try it and try and get your script past marvel. Then tell me how hard it is. [00:47:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I do. I do. I'm a playwright. It obviously doesn't pay the bills, but I do it, and I usually write, like, two or three plays a year. That's usually two, three is being generous, but, like, sometimes with short ones, that's hard enough. And I can't imagine doing that on a weekly to monthly basis. Like, it's. It is really hard. It's. You just go on a keyboard and bleed, I guess. I don't know. It's just. It sounds cheesy, but no, I can't imagine writing. And also, like, in theater, when I write plays, you have a certain boundaries of, you know, okay, this has to be seen in a theater. It has to be able to exist. Or with comic books, you can write whatever the hell you want. And that. It seems freeing, but it also is, like, I think, very challenging. [00:48:10] Speaker C: Well, what was that? [00:48:11] Speaker A: I think it would be. [00:48:12] Speaker C: What's that quote from Orson Welles? The enemy of art is the absence of limitations. [00:48:18] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. [00:48:19] Speaker C: Well, let me ask you a quick question about writing plays. Is writing a. A play the same in the sense that, like, when you're writing a screenplay, it's basically like a page a minute? Is that the same timing with writing a play about. [00:48:35] Speaker A: Yeah, usually maybe a little longer, but yeah, about. So, like, I always try to aim. Most of my, like, full length projects are usually about, like, a little over an hour with no intermission. And they're usually, like, 60 to 65 pages. So, like, yeah, about. It evens out, too. [00:48:52] Speaker C: But 70 pages for, like, 65 minutes would work. [00:48:58] Speaker A: Yeah, basically. Yeah. [00:48:59] Speaker C: Okay. Interesting. [00:49:01] Speaker A: Depending on. I guess it depends on the formatting you use. But, like, the formatting that I found is usually. Yeah, works out to about that. Maybe a little longer. Maybe like a minute, 5.05 per page or something. [00:49:17] Speaker C: I'm sure it all works out. [00:49:20] Speaker A: It does. Yeah. No, it's. I mainly do, like, storefront theater and stuff, but it's been a lot of fun, and it's really good to. I don't know. It's been a really interesting journey doing, like, Chicago storefront theater, you know? [00:49:31] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:49:32] Speaker A: It's been great. [00:49:32] Speaker C: No, but that's cool. You're a storyteller. [00:49:35] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean, as you know, it's a really cool feeling when people connect with that stuff, you know? And I really connect with Peter in this moment because I've also been desperate. And we cut to. Quinlan just kind of, like, wants to feel something, so she's. There they are climbing up the side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Brooklyn Bridge? [00:50:00] Speaker B: Yeah, from a. It's the kind of the same feeling, but from a different side. Whereas Peters wants to have it, I guess. No, I guess they both want to have it. Stop. But for different reasons. One of them's just tired, and the other one is very, very guilt driven. [00:50:17] Speaker C: Yeah. And broken. [00:50:19] Speaker B: Yeah. I haven't done enough of anything with my life that I can't imagine feeling this broken and, like, not having that as a. As a benchmark makes it just seem, like, daunting. I could. I could not imagine being in a place where it's just like, well, I messed up too much. I can't fix it. [00:50:41] Speaker C: I mean, and Quinlan is young. I mean, they're only, like, 26, 25, 26 years old, and already they feel this desperation and despair and this terrible guilt. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. [00:50:56] Speaker A: Well, it's like. It feels like each generation beyond has more desperation. And, you know, if you're born as a 26 year old and rat city, probably pretty desperate. Probably a pretty rough thing to be born into. [00:51:12] Speaker C: And we're going to see some of the things that Quinlan did before they worked at pts in upcoming issues. So. All right, so we're going to see the things that they've done before. And, you know, we. So we're going to start showing that these are not perfect characters. They've all had terrible. Not terrible, but they've all lived lives that have made mistakes. And sometimes you can run away from them, and sometimes you can't. [00:51:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:38] Speaker A: That's life. [00:51:39] Speaker C: So we go back to Peter in his apartment. Yeah, it is. Well, you know, I. I don't write Disney. We go back to Peter in his true. In his apartment, and he's. The suit is off. He's. He's sweating, and he's, you know, kind of like, I don't know what I'm going to do. And there's a huge harsh bang on the door. And it is not. It is not wreath banging on the door this time. [00:52:07] Speaker B: No, it's suited up guys with the. With the battering ram. [00:52:12] Speaker C: Yep. [00:52:13] Speaker A: Before they bust in, he gets a little bit of Quinlan's message in a badass hologram form, which, you know, I think it's far superior to the FaceTime. If we just held our phones like this and then, like, a hologram popped up, that would be pretty cool. [00:52:29] Speaker B: See, I don't even. I don't even like FaceTime that much because I have that problem where I can't focus on something. Like, I have to. I have to distract myself in order to pay attention. Like at a lecture. I can't just sit and listen to a lecture or I fall asleep. I have to move. I have to doodle. I have to. Basically, you're kinetic distractions. Yeah, I have to cause distractions to other people, and it doesn't work. It doesn't work very well. I'm sorry, everybody. So, so, like, if I have to sit there and stare at you on Facetime while I'm talking to you and try to hide the fact that I'm clearly trying to do chores, instead, I'm gonna get in so much trouble because they're gonna be like, you're not listening to me. [00:53:16] Speaker C: It's like, no, I I will be honest. So there's a phenomenal artist that I've worked with multiple times named Leanna Kangas, and they and I will make dates, and we will have Facetime dates where it's Liana cleaning the kitchen or me putting away laundry, and we're just having a conversation. We just sort of prop up the phone on something, and I'll just sit there and fold my laundry, or Liana will clean the kitchen or unload the dishwasher or whatever. And it's just, this is the time that we have to be able to chat with each other, and we're close enough friends to not really care that the other one is in the pajama, is in pajamas, just emptying the dishwasher. We don't give a shit. We just want to spend time with each other and talk. [00:53:58] Speaker A: So, yeah, that's badass. [00:54:00] Speaker C: There's nothing wrong with that. [00:54:01] Speaker B: That reminds me of a friend of mine said that he used to talk before his mom passed. They used to talk every day. And at one point, he was like, mom, you need to stop doing the dishes while I'm talking to you. And she's like, oh, I'm not doing the dishes. And she would just pee while she was talking to him. And I think that's a wonderful thing, to be comfortable enough with somebody to do it. But also, that kind of advertises that, you know, doing other stuff. [00:54:28] Speaker C: Yeah, but, you know, you can still keep up with the conversation. I mean, like, I'm sitting there going, you know, where are my black lightings? Oh, what happened at the convention? [00:54:38] Speaker B: Yeah, but that. That's a. That's got to be something that you both. You both can agree to. That's the way it's going to happen. Not everybody. Not everybody can even believes that you're paying attention if you aren't sitting there, like, just staring at them stock still. It's. [00:54:54] Speaker A: Well, speaking of being in the john. [00:54:56] Speaker C: I'm weaving these soldiers. [00:54:57] Speaker A: Check. [00:54:58] Speaker C: I'm going to say right now, he's. [00:54:59] Speaker A: Not in the john. [00:55:00] Speaker C: I'll say right now, I'm. I've been weaving bracelets this entire time. I'm on my second one. [00:55:05] Speaker A: Oh, awesome. [00:55:06] Speaker C: So I'm paying attention and weaving a bracelet at the same time. [00:55:09] Speaker A: So I know friend of the pod tiny spawny has bought some. So tiny. [00:55:17] Speaker C: How many. How many riffs does tiny spawny have because there's so many braces? [00:55:22] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:55:23] Speaker B: As far as I know, only two. [00:55:24] Speaker C: I'm confused because I'm like, how many wrists do you have? Are you giving them to friends? Like, what are you doing? [00:55:31] Speaker A: But, yeah, community is very giving. I got to meet him at Spawncon. I went last year to the first one, and it was a hoot. It was really interesting. It was fun to meet everybody. [00:55:44] Speaker B: Speaking of bathrooms, I was going to. [00:55:46] Speaker C: Say you were talking about the demolition man. Taco Bell. You noticed the Easter egg, the. [00:55:56] Speaker B: Here in this. Oh, boy, did I miss something. [00:56:01] Speaker C: Second panel. [00:56:02] Speaker B: Oh, the shells. [00:56:05] Speaker A: Oh, it's the seashells. Oh, my God. [00:56:07] Speaker C: We totally missed to do with the three shells. Well, Jay put. I didn't. [00:56:12] Speaker B: Who just gets the citations instead? [00:56:15] Speaker C: Jay put that in. Jay put that in. [00:56:19] Speaker A: That's awesome. Oh, my God. [00:56:22] Speaker B: Oh, wonderful. [00:56:24] Speaker A: So, yeah, you've mentioned the three seashells before in this podcast, David. [00:56:27] Speaker B: I have? [00:56:27] Speaker A: Oh, yes, you have. You talked about it. That's hilarious that we didn't notice that. Man, we got to resign. Well, this is our last episode. That's so awesome. That's hilarious that you put that in there. That's so funny. [00:56:41] Speaker B: That's also one of the things I love about this book is this every time I go through it, I notice something else that just. [00:56:47] Speaker A: That's true. [00:56:47] Speaker B: Like, one of the first. One of the things in the first issue that I just, like, couldn't get over was the fact that there were just children's stickers all over the window of. In Peter's apartment. And it's just like, they. You didn't need to do that. But it's great. It's. It's great thinking of. [00:57:05] Speaker C: There's graffiti everywhere. He noticed. [00:57:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's. It's great thinking of if Peter had children in his life that put those stickers there, or just if he was the kind of person to move into a place and there were already stickers on the window to just not give a shit enough about it to scrape them off. It's. There's. It's just so rich. [00:57:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:25] Speaker B: I love this book. Thank you for writing this book. [00:57:27] Speaker C: Oh, you're welcome. Thank you today for drawing it, because all these little details. You know, I will say one thing. If you go to the next panel and we see that Peter's fleeing. If you notice, he didn't take his medal. [00:57:41] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:57:42] Speaker A: Yeah, he left it there. [00:57:43] Speaker C: Yeah, he left his medal there. And in the first issue, he talks about, yeah, Rhys and I got these medals for being heroes, and they don't mean shit. So. Yeah, he left his medal. [00:57:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:55] Speaker B: I've. I've known a couple of veterans, namely my grandfather, who, like, he kind of knew that he had some stuff in a drawer somewhere, but he was like, ba. So my connection to that personally is that a lot of. Some people who have those medals, it's just like, what's. Huh. It's more of a bad memory than a commemoration of something that they've done very well. [00:58:24] Speaker C: Well, I mean, you have to ask, what is it that they did to earn that medal? Because it may have been. You might be a hero from our side, but obviously not the hero on the other side. [00:58:38] Speaker B: Yeah, but, like, what. What you actually had to do is. Yeah, it's always a fun question. It's always a. Well, not so much a fun question, but an interesting question. It's, what did you have to do? [00:58:48] Speaker C: There's an. The opening of issue number nine is. Is pretty intense, and it. It talks about what you are forced to do in war and what you are forced to do in these situations and how some people aren't able to handle it well or some people aren't hardened enough to it. And it's pretty interesting. When I was writing it, I was thinking about conversations that I had had with my grandfather, who was in World War Two and things like that. When you're a little kid and you think, oh, my grandpa's, you know, in the army, my grandpa's a hero kind of thing. But then when you get older and you understand war and you understand the complications of war and you understand the contradictions of war, you start thinking, ooh, you know, this. That's. It's a little weird, you know, I know. I saw the photos of you, like, on the tank, but what does the tank actually do? [00:59:49] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:59:49] Speaker B: Your grandfather was a tanky. [00:59:51] Speaker C: No, he. No, he was. He was third armored division. He was spearhead. [00:59:55] Speaker B: Okay. [00:59:56] Speaker C: I don't know if you've ever. If you've ever seen. It's a big triangle. It's, I think, blue, red, and yellow, and it's got a big three on it, and it's the third Armored division. He was the 997th bastard battalion of the third Armored Division. Yep. [01:00:12] Speaker B: I'm gonna. I'm totally gonna google that now. [01:00:16] Speaker C: He was in Battle of Bulge. He was in five major campaigns. Yeah, he was. He was in five major campaigns in the european and north african theaters. [01:00:27] Speaker B: Damn. [01:00:28] Speaker C: Theater of war. Not theater like, you know. Right about theater. Yeah. [01:00:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:33] Speaker A: Gotcha. [01:00:35] Speaker B: I've. My personal experience has been. I always. I never get the stories from the individuals themselves. It's always, uh, from somebody else who might have been able to put the story together. It's a hard. It's a hard thing that I don't. I don't like thinking about it. Um, a lot of people like to. Like to speculate that the world will fall into the prototypical post apocalyptic wasteland where you have to kill or be killed to survive. And at that point, I. I would much rather just, you know, get it done with very early and skip all of the. All of the terrible. [01:01:15] Speaker C: I mean, who knows these days where we're going? But I try and be a little hopeful. I mean, even in all the insanity of this. Of this book, I think at the end of. Especially of this issue, I think there is a modicum of hope, and I think that it shows that Peter. Yes, Peter, has nothing reconciled everything that he's done, especially in his military career. But I think he. He will set aside his. I don't know, his despair long enough to complete a mission that he was given by Rhys. And that mission was to protect Quinlan. [01:01:56] Speaker A: Well, his mission now is he's trying to escape. So he takes out these guards. [01:02:00] Speaker B: He's running. [01:02:00] Speaker A: He does like a. I give up. And then gives him the old. [01:02:03] Speaker B: Yeah, he. [01:02:04] Speaker A: Leg sweep. [01:02:05] Speaker B: He runs up. He runs up to the. To the roof, and we get a rainy rooftop fight scene, which is. [01:02:10] Speaker C: It's very daredevil. I know. [01:02:12] Speaker B: Always wonderful. I don't. I don't care if it's a cliche at all. I love it. [01:02:18] Speaker C: I'm still writing daredevil, so I put a little bit of that in this. [01:02:22] Speaker A: Hey. [01:02:23] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's nice. The acid rain fight. We need to clarify. All of this rain is acid rain, correct. [01:02:32] Speaker C: I mean, I'm not a meteorologist, likely, but yes, it's probably not great. This is not something that you're going to be, like, holding in a terrain and using to water your plants. [01:02:47] Speaker B: You don't want that rain barrel. [01:02:49] Speaker C: No, no. [01:02:50] Speaker A: One of my favorite things he does here is when Peter jumps off the roof, he uses the cape. He grabs a hole in the building and pulls himself into it with the cape. [01:03:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it's an anchor slash tentacles. [01:03:04] Speaker C: I use, I use a reference for Doc ock for that. [01:03:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:03:09] Speaker C: Because there's always this thing where like someone leaps off a building and they always make it. Well, Peter left off the building, and as you can see, he's not going to make it, but the cape protects him, and so he's able to, he's able to get it. You know, Peter has had more power than he possibly, than he thought possible. He just needed to control it. And that's what gets him to the other side, gets him out of there. [01:03:38] Speaker A: And then we cut to doctor Bose. [01:03:40] Speaker B: Who'S very, uh, it's a, it's a, it's a tall, it's a tall door. That's very akin to the tall windows we like to reference for villain. Villain offices always have tall windows. And he's got tall doors also, so. [01:03:55] Speaker A: You know, he's a bad guy. [01:03:56] Speaker C: Also, the office that Rafael was in, Spawn had the, when Al actually meets God for the first time, little old lady, that office has these very tall windows and everything. So it's kind of homage to that. [01:04:14] Speaker A: Oh, nice. But he is not, he's not happy. [01:04:17] Speaker B: He's not happy yet. [01:04:19] Speaker A: Got away. [01:04:20] Speaker C: No. [01:04:21] Speaker B: He is quick with the contingency plan, though. [01:04:25] Speaker C: Yes. He is quick with the admonitions and the continent. I don't even know if that's a word. Admonishing and contingency plays. Yeah. [01:04:33] Speaker B: He'll give us a stern. A stern telling off. [01:04:38] Speaker C: Exactly. Exactly. He will give you a stern talking to. But we do have a character similar to the talking heads from spawn when we've got on the next page. [01:04:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:50] Speaker C: So it is, you know, you don't want to copy it, but you want there to be just like a little hint, you know, for, for people. [01:04:58] Speaker A: DNA in there. There's that little bit of. Yeah, yeah. [01:05:01] Speaker C: Well, for people who are so familiar with the original series, you know, they'll. [01:05:06] Speaker B: Know that's also, it's also a fun device. I mean, you know, obviously, in a cyberpunk world, they're not going to walk by tv appliance store that just has a window full of televisions all tuned to the same channel. But I like the, like, the billboardification of everything is just kind of a cyberpunk thing. [01:05:26] Speaker C: That's really, everything's a jumbotron. [01:05:29] Speaker B: Everything. Yeah. [01:05:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:05:31] Speaker B: And everything has the craziest animatronic, sort of, sort of living billboard. They're also doing it with the news, which is, which is wild. It's crazy. [01:05:43] Speaker A: And it's keeping up with the spawn tradition of reporting on soldiers a lot because they used to. In their early spawn. They talk a lot about Al Simmons on the news. [01:05:52] Speaker C: Yes. Lieutenant Colonel Al Simmons, you know, allegedly dead or. Yeah, right. [01:05:58] Speaker B: Or took a bullet for the president or. Sexiest man alive. Even though he was a covert operative mercenary. [01:06:06] Speaker A: He did get. That's right. In one of those issues. [01:06:07] Speaker B: Doesn't it say that it's in the very first issue. [01:06:12] Speaker A: That's hilarious. [01:06:13] Speaker B: Took a bullet for the president. Because I remember we came across that on something else, and we were like, what? Then we reread the first issue, and it was the first issue. [01:06:24] Speaker A: He took a bullet for the president. [01:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Peter. Peter catches up the Quinlan on the top of the bridge tower there, and, you know, there's just the Sadeena said, hey, I heard this thing on the news that's literally right behind them all, you know, is it true? Did you kill him? And Peter's like, no, no, no. Why would I. Why would I have killed. Why would I have killed him? [01:06:49] Speaker C: Well, you think about it. I mean, Peter and Rhys had training to be killers, you know? And one of the things that Peter said is, you know, it's. This suit is following my instincts. And you wonder, what are those instincts to do? Is it to survive? Is it to survive by killing? Is it to survive by evading? It's literally fight or flight. I mean, it's. It's. You know, that. That system. That. That, uh, adrenaline pumping kind of thing. And, you know, Peter. He pulls the. The suit away from his face to show Quinlan his face to try and. And have some connection, some humanity and connection in this moment. Because just looking at the mask of the suit isn't really, you know, there's no humanity there. And I think Peter realizes that, and that's why he pulls. Pulls it, you know, to show his face. Like, look, I'm a real person here, and you're a real person, and we lost a real person between the two of us. [01:07:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:53] Speaker B: But Quinlan knows what Peter is capable of because they've read the file of what Peter and Rhys have done. So they're seemingly a little uncomfortable with Peter as an idea versus this is their first meeting, both of them. So it's reckoning what they know about him with kind of what they're experiencing in this moment. And it's very. It's very touching. It's very sad, but it is also very like, oh, well, shit, sometimes this is just difficult. It's just difficult. Yeah, there's a lot of difficult themes in this book. [01:08:37] Speaker A: It makes me very invested in their relationship with Quinlan and Peter. I'm excited to see them work together and confront their past and confront their own demons that they have. And it's a really kind of touching friendship. So I'm excited to see how it pans out. [01:08:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Peter, it's interesting. You're going to see a setup of how Peter's always been sort of like in one role and then with Quinlan, he sort of switches to another role because he's now in a protector role versus being the protected. And that's something that we're going to see. And we're going to see how throughout Peter's life there are times when he was very not sheltered, but, you know, he had someone looking out for him. And he always felt that that was it with Rhys. And he says, you know, Reese was like a brother to me and he saved my life in a lot. So we're going to see that and how. And how Peter sort of acted and reacted so. [01:09:39] Speaker A: Awesome. Can't wait to. [01:09:41] Speaker C: There's on the next page when Peter retracts the whole suit. There's something that I love that Jay did when you see Quinlan's heel on the edge. And Peter's like saying, come back from the edge and you see Quinlan's heel get more and more over the edge as they. As they sort of back up little by little. And Peter's sort of trying to coaxe them back. And then we. [01:10:08] Speaker A: You get kind of the cliffhanger ending. [01:10:11] Speaker C: Literally. [01:10:12] Speaker A: Literally. Where Quinlan, uh, takes the plunge. [01:10:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:10:16] Speaker B: Takes a reverse swan dive. [01:10:19] Speaker C: Yep. [01:10:20] Speaker A: And like you said, you get that great graffiti everywhere. [01:10:23] Speaker C: There's graffiti. There's like those little stickers. Uh, there's. In the first issue when Peter returns to the apartment, there's actually. Someone has graffitied welcome to ratified city on the wall right by his. His door. [01:10:38] Speaker A: And welcome us. They did. And then you get the. You get the spawn skull as the kind of button. [01:10:45] Speaker C: Yeah, it ties the whole thing. [01:10:47] Speaker B: It will make a great button. [01:10:48] Speaker A: Tie it all together. Then after that, we get the ads for the rest of the. Kind of like the new. The newer stuff that's been going on in the spawns universe. I like twitch and misery. [01:11:03] Speaker B: I like that. The Spawns origin collection number one is still only $10. That's a fun thing that image does. Is that their first. The first trade volume is always, almost always. I guess there's a few outliers, but almost always is $10. And that's just a great thing to just be like, go buy this, it's $10. You're gonna fall in love with it and then spend $400 getting all the rest. [01:11:27] Speaker A: I mean, it's only, like, $200 to buy all the compendiums. [01:11:32] Speaker C: I think that there is something to be said for this idea of, like, staying at 299 for, you know, regular monthly issues. I think that's something that is important for retailers, and I think it's important for fans as well. You know, everything seems to be getting more expensive these days. And, you know, let's be honest, comics are a luxury, you know. So to try and make that pinch be a little less, I think, is, you know, I think it's a very admirable thing, and I'm proud to be a part of all of this, you know? [01:12:07] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh. And, like, just the quality of the paper and the COVID for $2.99, $2.99. [01:12:13] Speaker B: It's amazing because, like, you know, you buy a, you buy basically anybody else's, and it's less quality paper all through, and the COVID is just regular paper quality and not this. This nice beefy stock. [01:12:25] Speaker C: Well, they call it a self cover because it's the same paper throughout as opposed to what bond books get, which is the nice cardstock. [01:12:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:34] Speaker B: I love, I love, I love technical. Jargeon. Jargeon. Jargon. [01:12:38] Speaker A: Jargon. [01:12:40] Speaker B: Jar. J. That's the new, that's the new Starter Star wars character. [01:12:43] Speaker C: Well, I mean, I've, I've worked in production and, you know, and in an art studio and everything, so, I mean, literally working with different stocks of paper and getting the calipers out for the. How many microns and things like that. Like, I've done all that ridiculously nice, you know, ridiculous minutiae. But, yeah, I mean, this is the book that I'm insanely proud of. And, you know, and I know Jay is as well. And we're really trying to tell something. We're trying to, we want to be truthful to spawn and the mythos and the legend of Spawn, but we also want to show people that there's another aspect, I think, that there is sort of this thought of, oh, Spawn started in the nineties, and we all know how nineties comics were, and blah, blah, blah. It's like, yeah, but first of all, Spawn was a one of a kind comic when it first came out, you know, and that in and of itself, sets it apart. But then also, I mean, there's so many other stories, like when you, when no home here comes out, oh, my God, everyone is going to be blown away. Daniel and Jonathan are doing something so incredible with that book. [01:13:53] Speaker B: We're excited for that one, too. [01:13:55] Speaker C: Yeah. I wish I could say more without saying what's going to get me in trouble, but no, they're doing such an incredible job with that book and with monolith and misery and all the fun, like, the fun little case files of Sam and twitch and stuff. I mean, yeah, we're trying to honor, you know, the legacy of spawn, but also make things for people who've never read spawn before, you know, and bring them into the universe. And if they never pick up any other book but Sam and twitch, that's fine. Or if they only pick up misery or whatever, or monolith or whatever, that's fine. But you've still brought somebody into the mythology and brought somebody into the spawn universe, and that's kind of cool to sort of bring them in. [01:14:40] Speaker A: No, it really is. I think. I think. I would say. I think Rat City is a great entry point to spawns universe because, I. [01:14:46] Speaker C: Mean, I can't, like, oversell my own stuff, so, you know. [01:14:50] Speaker A: I know. Yes, exactly. Exactly. But it's a great intro, and, like, it'll make you. It's its own thing. But even that little instance of using that blast from 301 or 300 will drive people to go seek that out. And that's so cool. That is that spawn can be Sam and twitch and misery and also be Rat City, which is also different. But all, you know, it's been a really interesting, because I started on. I like swan a lot as a kid, but I really got on and, like, decided to do the podcast when King Spawn came out. And just seeing in the last three years how much it's, like, stretched out as tendrils has been really cool. [01:15:38] Speaker C: Yeah. And Gunslinger is great. [01:15:40] Speaker A: Oh, it's a hoot. [01:15:41] Speaker B: Gunslinger is so much fun. Javi is an idiot, and I am here for it. [01:15:46] Speaker A: It's great. It's such a hoot. [01:15:48] Speaker B: It's so good. [01:15:49] Speaker C: There was a phenomenal gunslinger cosplayer at San Diego. [01:15:53] Speaker A: Oh, really? [01:15:54] Speaker C: Yeah. They got some shots of him at the. At the booth. I had just, you know, dropped in just to say, hey, how's it going, guys? And I saw Thomas talking to him, and they got some photos of him. Really, really great, great cosplayer. And that's the other thing. I mean, there are people that grew up with Spawn. I mean, like, when Spawn started it, I was in high school, and, you know, I read a bunch of it, and then I went to college, and then I went back to it and everything, like, like pretty much every comic that, you know, spawn, uncanny detective comics and things like that. And it's interesting because now you have people who are bringing their kids into spawn, and whether that entry is the compendium or like you were talking about, like, the six issue origins kind of thing or, you know, misery or salmon twitch or whatever, they're bringing their love to another generation. And then you hope that they go out and then say, hey, you know, back in, back in the olden days, you know, everybody used to buy, like, one comic, and then we would all swap and switch. You know, we'd all trade comics and be like, okay, I read uncanny this week. You get that, and then you give me externals or you give me detective or whatever. And now, you know, obviously, because people do a lot of things digital, it's not that like that. But the idea of, hey, you have to check this out, or, hey, you've got to. You've got to read this book. I think that that's important. And I think, you know, I think everybody just needs to broaden their horizons a little bit. And even as a writer, I get to really scratch that Sci-Fi itch with this. Whereas I don't always have that opportunity when working on something like Wolverine or Daredevil or black Widow. I have, you know, I'm working on blood hunters for Marvel right now, and I can, I get, it's about all about vampires. So I get to, you know, scratch that horror itch, and then I've got this for Sci-Fi and then, you know, I want, like, the super superhero stuff. You know, I've got Daredevil to do that with. So I'm very, you know, I'm very lucky to be able to sort of genre jump, and I kind of want to bring a little bit of that. I mean, there is a little superhero aspect in this, but then there's also, like, you know, old war comics, like, you think about, like, Joe Kubert and, like, ace and all those comics that, you know, and, you know, Russ Heath and stuff like that that did all those war comics. We bring a little bit of that in this, too, obviously more high tech version, but that idea and then dealing with the emotional themes of depression and PTSD and veterans issues and stuff. So a little bit here and there, just trying to sort of broaden people's awareness and, and everything that I write, yasha just elevates ten times. You know, like, the script is only a third or a quarter as good as what it looks like when Shay comes back and then David Ramos. Just beautiful, beautiful colors. [01:18:56] Speaker B: Beautiful colors. [01:18:57] Speaker C: And it makes just, everything just pops. So, yeah, I mean, I'm. I am. What do they call it? I have an embarrassment of riches right now, and, and I'm just trying to, you know, make sure that the, the fans are enjoying things and that we're hitting all the points we need to hit. [01:19:13] Speaker A: I'd say you understood the assignment you're doing. [01:19:16] Speaker B: You're doing a very good job at it. Thank you very much. I'm. I'm a fan of both. I love. I love genre. Just like, genre things. Like being like, I just want to, I just want to go to a bookstore, buy a shitty Sci-Fi book that has rockets on the COVID and do nothing but read that for a week. But then I also like to occasionally eschews genre, but I love, I love, like, being able to find a middle ground there where, like, you use genre to help, like, build a shorthand to where you're trying to go to, so that way you can build your themes on top of it and have them go further instead of having to build all the scaffolding up from scratch. So I love the way that you're using that as kind of like a stepping stone. Obviously, we're here for the cyberpunk craziness and the lurid colors that come with it, but also, we know where we start. We're starting at a place that we know, and it's easier to go somewhere where you don't if you have an unknown starting place. [01:20:24] Speaker C: And I think that that's very important to your point. This idea of, like, some people will sort of, like, scoff at, like, oh, it's, you know, it's this, you know, Sci-Fi trope, or it's this or that or the next thing tropes. I know. Like, that word in and of itself seems to have, like, this terrible connotation to it. But, like, if you think about storytelling in general, I mean, if you study storytelling and you think about Joseph Campbell, everything's a trope. You know? Like, there's literally only seven stories in the entire world, and you can, and when I used to teach, I used to teach writing at the Joe Kubert school. And that's one of the things that I used to teach is this idea of, like, there are seven stories of the world. And what makes one story different from the other, even though they're in the same genre, is the specifics, the characters, the, the emotional connection that the characters have to each other, the location, because a lot of times, the location is a character in and of itself. You know, Rat City is a character in this. The, you know, the detritus and the. Literally, the garbage on the streets, the neon lights, the graffiti everywhere, these, you know, tag stickers and things like that. That's a character in this story as well. I don't think that this story would work as well if you had a very clean New York City. It wouldn't, because it's. The whole point is that they're. They're like a lotus, you know, a lotus flower grows in mud. You know, they're. They're this prize that is coming out of. Of this crap, basically. And, you know, and I think that's where the drama is, and I think that's where the heart of the story is. And, yes, Peter and Reese, they're soldiers. They've done terrible things, but they also still have souls and they still have hearts. And I think that it's important that we see that. And I think it's important that we see that people are complicated. You know, even a good person has done something shitty, you know, and people are complicated, and. And I think the story has a lot to do with forgiving ourselves, forgiving each other, and. And she's trying to survive in this world, you know? And that's what we're trying to infuse. Jay and I are trying to infuse into the story and, you know, try to have people fall in love with these characters. Like, we've. We've loved. We love these characters very much. We love drawing, you know, Shay loves drawing them. I love writing them. And we hope that people will keep saying, yes, we want more. Because I have 30 issues planned. Jay and I have. [01:22:57] Speaker B: Not enough, not enough. Not enough. [01:23:00] Speaker C: Jay and I are totally on board for at least 30 issues. And I joked at the image panel this past weekend at San Diego when someone said, how many issues are you doing? I was like, I'm doing this book until I get fired, until Todd fires me. I'm going to keep finding something to do with this book because for that last. For that, you know, the last arc or issue number 30 is I have got a really crazy visual planned that I know Jay would kick ass at. And I just. All I got to say is dinosaurs. That's it. [01:23:34] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. [01:23:35] Speaker A: Big fans of that. [01:23:36] Speaker B: We're here for dinosaurs. [01:23:37] Speaker C: Yeah. That's all I got to say is dinosaurs. So I'm. I'm really hoping that we get to go as far as we do because I would really love to see the CJ draw this and God forbid we get fired off the job. It would probably be me. Now, Shay, let's be honest. I'm the rebel rouser. I would say. I would. I would. I would commission Nisheh to do just this one visual thing as a commission. So I. So I would have it so I would be able to see it visualized and be perfect. So, yeah. [01:24:06] Speaker B: Hell yeah. [01:24:07] Speaker A: That's got to be cool. [01:24:08] Speaker B: It does. It does. I have to say, I have to say, we haven't really seen him very much and at this point, probably won't see him very much longer unless you're going to spoil something for us here. But every time you reveal something new to us about Rhys, I kind of want you now to do a Reiss mini series of just Reese, Reese and around just Reese. Reese. [01:24:32] Speaker C: I can tell you right now, Reese is in issue number five. He, he's an issue number four. He's an issue number five. He is slightly in issue number six. He's in issue number nine. He is in eleven because I'm writing ten now. But I've outlined eleven. No, Reese. Reese's passing is. Does not mean that Reese is gone. Reese means way too much to our main character of Peter for him to just be gone. No. [01:25:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:25:05] Speaker C: No, no, no, no. Reese is, is going to be around for a bit, you know, because think about it, Peter wouldn't be around if Rhys wasn't around. So Peter owes his life to Reese and vice versa. [01:25:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:25:17] Speaker C: So, you know, as long as Peter. [01:25:19] Speaker B: Lost his hands for Peter, Reese lost. [01:25:22] Speaker C: His hands for Peter. Yeah, Peter lost his legs, you know, and, and we see an issue, too. When, when Rhys goes to sort of like, wake up Peter and stuff, he's there because he cares about him. He's there because he's worried. And that's kind of Reese's shtick is like, well, you didn't answer my call, so I worried, so I came over, you know, and like I said, I mean, it's sometimes annoying, but it's mostly endearing. And I think that deep down, you know, Peter knows that he has a lot to make up for. Reese knows that he has lots to make up for, and we're going to find out that Clemlin knows that they have a lot to make up for, too. So we're going to start seeing more and more of who they are now and how they got there. So their journey to be who they are now. [01:26:10] Speaker A: Wonderful. That sounds thrilling. [01:26:14] Speaker B: If it's possible at all, I am more excited for this book than I have been this entire time. [01:26:20] Speaker A: And now I'm more excited. [01:26:22] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know if I can get any more effusive about this. This series. And I know it. It kind of feels a little bit like pandering since you're here now. But if you weren't here and we were covering this, I would. [01:26:35] Speaker A: We're doing the same thing. [01:26:35] Speaker C: Well, I mean, you sounded like you were pandering on issues one and two anyway, so, you know, I just. [01:26:40] Speaker A: I just assumed. [01:26:41] Speaker C: I just assumed. Yeah. [01:26:43] Speaker B: Yes. That's what we just. Just assumed. The pander, and then we can. Maybe it'll get us somewhere, right? [01:26:49] Speaker C: Well, if you want me to. I'm not giving up spoilers. I'm not giving up spoilers. [01:26:54] Speaker B: No, no, no. I hate spoilers. I think I've accidentally spoiled, like, four things that I want to. That I didn't want to know about just by existing on the Internet. And it's like, well, just being, why can't anything go for me anymore? [01:27:10] Speaker C: I haven't seen the dead toll film yet, but being in San Diego, it's pretty much completely spoiled for me. [01:27:16] Speaker B: I was about to say, I have a feeling that, like, at least 10% of the cosplay were spoilerific. [01:27:23] Speaker A: I got. I got. I got a big spoiler on Instagram where someone just uploaded a sequence from the movie, like, that they filmed, and I was just like, okay, I haven't seen it yet, either. Yeah, I got. I got a big spoiler. [01:27:32] Speaker C: But, you know, I mean, I. I know I. It's. There's a lot of cameos. I know most, if not all of the cameos. The one that I. But the one that I really wanted to know about was Laura Kinney x 23. And I had a friend who had texted me, Eric Burnham. He's the writer on TMNt, Saturday morning adventures and untold Foot clan. Yeah, Eric. [01:27:57] Speaker B: Oh, hell, yeah. [01:27:58] Speaker C: If you like Tmnt, let me know. If you. If you do a thing on the podcast about it, let me know. I'll get Eric on for you. [01:28:07] Speaker B: I'm sure. I'm sure Johnny would just spend the whole time rolling his eyes at me if I tried to get. [01:28:11] Speaker A: No, David's a huge team of teachers. I wouldn't roll my eyes. Hey, come on. I'm supportive. [01:28:18] Speaker B: I literally quoted the TMNT movie today. The pizza dudes got 30 seconds. [01:28:25] Speaker C: Well, I will say that Eric is a great writer. Phenomenal, and he's usually, like, my partner in crime at San Diego. And he had texted me saying, I was driving home from the airport, and I said, screw it. And I stopped at a movie theater, and I saw the film, and I was like, don't give me any spoilers. She's like, of course not. I was like, I just want to know one thing. It's like, is Laura badass? And he goes, oh, very. I was like, good. That's all I want to know, because they just announced the new Wolverine book that I'm writing that stars Laura. So I just want to make sure that I'm, you know, going to have a good jumping off point. [01:29:02] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. Did you get yourself a popcorn bucket? [01:29:05] Speaker C: No, I did not. I did not get a popcorn bucket. I'm kind of afraid of them. They're kind of gross. [01:29:13] Speaker B: I'm confused about the sudden pop cultural relevance of the popcorn bucket. [01:29:20] Speaker C: Do you remember when Dune came out? [01:29:23] Speaker B: Yeah, when Dune came out. Yeah. [01:29:25] Speaker C: Yeah. They had those, like, weird, creepy sandworm. I don't know if you were going into its asshole or its mouth. They both looked the same. [01:29:32] Speaker B: Yeah, that's it. That's his mouth. That's its mouth. [01:29:35] Speaker A: Is it, David? Is it? [01:29:36] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Is it? Is it? [01:29:39] Speaker B: Well, it's a worm, so it's basically just a long tube. Yeah, but the. The mouth comes out first. [01:29:44] Speaker C: Look, I didn't do well in science, so I can't say whether it's his head, his tail, or whatever, but all I know is, how come. How is that comfortable? It reminds me of, like, spikes where, like, you go in one way and then you can't pull out the. Like. Like, you drive in one way, but if you try to drive back, like, it's gonna. It's gonna tag you. Like, I could just. Could you just imagine, like, there's just scrapes on your hands constantly. Who this? [01:30:10] Speaker B: As somebody who's to work at a movie theater, I know that that butter gets everywhere no matter what you do. I can only imagine that those little flaps just increase the spreadage of. Of the butter around. [01:30:23] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. It sounds like a nightmare. [01:30:25] Speaker C: You know, it's not real butter, though, let's be honest. [01:30:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I know. It's. It's a secret to it. It's. It's just. It's just canola oil. It's butter flavored canola oil. [01:30:36] Speaker C: Really? [01:30:36] Speaker A: Wow. [01:30:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it's kind of bad. It's just. It comes in, like, a two gallon bucket that you just hook up to the thing. [01:30:44] Speaker A: Wow. [01:30:45] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it doesn't stop it from being delicious, and I'm sure. [01:30:50] Speaker C: The nacho cheese is not real cheese. [01:30:51] Speaker B: So we. We didn't have nachos at my. At my movie theater because my manager refused to pay for it because she was like, we're just gonna have to clean it up off floor. Anyway. Fuck that. [01:31:01] Speaker C: That is. That is true. My brother worked at the local movie theater. It was, like, had, like, I think, two or three screen screens, and he worked at the movie theater, and he was just like, this is the worst fucking job ever. [01:31:12] Speaker B: My first summer working at the movie theater was the year Shrek two came out. And as the new guy, that got to be the theater that I cleaned. [01:31:24] Speaker C: Up every time that I worked, because they were kids. [01:31:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:31:28] Speaker C: Look, I know that technically, I've seen the photos, so technically, I have been a child, but there is a part of me that I'm like, I could have never been like that. And I will say this. My grandfather, ever since I was, like, five years old, he was like, you take yourself really seriously, Erica. So there's a part of me that's like, no, I could have never been a child. I was always too serious. I was always this serious. Dennis Nono said so, but, yeah, I can't even imagine. Like, I love my godson. I really do. But he's 13 years old, and. And he drives my best friend crazy. And I just. Sometimes I'm just like, listen, man, I love her more than I love you. [01:32:14] Speaker B: Hey, but he's perfect. Sponge. [01:32:16] Speaker C: Well, that's the thing, is there is a whole. There is a. It's like, a shelf in their bookshelf. It's basically, like, dedicated to Aunt Erica's works, and some of them, he's not old enough to read yet. Like, I have a horror book called twelve Devils dancing. That's, like, got a lot of body horror and nudity and everything in it, so he's not allowed to read that one yet. Although I think he's peaked at it. I think he. I think he opened it up and saw a naked. [01:32:42] Speaker B: He's definitely peaked at it. [01:32:43] Speaker C: Like, he's. He's seen, like, a naked woman with a note literally stabbed into her chest. And he was just like, what is this? But, yeah, so there's. So there's, like, a whole array of books, and the Rad cities are on that book. Are on that bookshelf. But, I mean, he's read the, like, strangely enough, I actually wrote a children's book several years ago, so he's read. He read that when he was a kid. [01:33:08] Speaker B: Nice. [01:33:08] Speaker C: But, yeah, he might. He's pretty good for rats of the age. You know? I will. [01:33:14] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, perfect. [01:33:15] Speaker C: I'll drop it and say, hey, you know, maybe don't use that. Don't use the first, the first printing copy that I gave you. Use that other printing copy that I gave you. That first printing copy, you know, put in a safe space. It might be worth something someday. Who knows what's on now? [01:33:30] Speaker A: 4Th, 5th. How many is it? [01:33:33] Speaker C: Issue one. Okay, last time I checked, issue one is on its fourth printing. Issue two is on its second printing. [01:33:41] Speaker B: Hell yeah. [01:33:42] Speaker C: And I don't know if, I don't know if issue three is on a second printing yet. I'm not sure, but yeah, it's, it's selling well. Every, from what I hear, everybody's happy. And if Todd and Thomas are happy, then I'm happy. [01:33:56] Speaker B: Hell yeah. [01:33:57] Speaker A: Hey, that's good. That's, that's, get that on a bumper sticker. [01:34:01] Speaker B: I mean, we're happy. We're happy, too. So we'll, we, we're happy for you. We're happy with the book. And, man, it's just, it's just, it's just great. It's just great. It's fun to see it's fun to see good stuff rewarded with multiple, multiple printings. I think, I think I saw, I think we talked about it, but I think, what, like, the day issue one went on sale, it was sold out at the distributor level. Is that correct? [01:34:28] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:34:29] Speaker B: Hell yeah. That's, that's amazing. [01:34:31] Speaker C: So literally within the, the first week, like two days after it went on sale, I got an email saying, yeah, we have to go for a second printing. I'm like, okay, we have, okay. And then like a week after that, it was, we have to go for a third printing. Like, we've already sold out. And I was just like, ah, okay. And then when they said, oh, it's going to afford printing, I was like, this is getting a little comical, guys. And they're like, no, people are going to, people are going to keep buying it. I'm like, screw it. You know, we had mold damage in my kitchen and the insurance didn't cover it all. I will happily take another round thing, you know, to fix that damn kitchen. I want, they always say, like, rightly, you want to read, and that is good advice, especially for people who want to get into creating anything, whether it's comics or novels or whatever. At the same time, like, you have to be practical about the commercial ability of a story. So, I mean, I love writing this, and I think all the ideas that we're coming up with are commercial, I'm hoping, but like I said, I'm gonna keep writing this until I get fired or until Jay gets so fed up with me that he wants to fire and he's just like, todd, we can't. We can't work with this woman anymore. She's insane to. She's insane. There's dinosaurs. Dinosaurs, Todd. Dinosaurs. [01:35:58] Speaker B: He's gonna start phoning it in. So that way, the. The sales go down, and it's like, what is going on here? [01:36:03] Speaker C: No, never. That is what? Well, that's part of Erica taking herself way too seriously. I mean, like, I literally write stories about people jumping around rooftops and pajamas. Like, how can I take that seriously? Oh, no. I take it very, very seriously. It's like, no, you know, Electra would not hold her side like that. Like, it has to be like this. And I literally started training inside so I could be able to take, like, reference photos and referenced videos for all the artists I'm working. Like, no, no, this is how you flip them. This is how you do. You don't do this because you're going to hit yourself in the head. I'm a little. [01:36:35] Speaker B: That kind of detail. I love that kind of detail. As. As Johnny well knows, I like to point out all of the impossible to sharpen knives that show up in gunslinger spawn because I, you know, it's funny. [01:36:50] Speaker A: Glorious knives. [01:36:51] Speaker C: I asked the other day, I was like, how is it, like, we never see him stopping with, like, a stone? [01:36:58] Speaker B: Like a. Like a. Like a. Like a whetstone. Yeah, and strawberry to get it nice. [01:37:01] Speaker C: And we never see that. It's like when you put a knife in and out of a sheet, especially a leather sheath, it's gonna get a little. [01:37:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's gonna tell. [01:37:09] Speaker C: Yeah, but no, not guns. Like, maybe. Maybe they're like, help. [01:37:13] Speaker B: Hell. Hell edges. They. They last forever. [01:37:16] Speaker C: Hell edge. That's actually. That's a really. That's a really good. Good line. Hellish. [01:37:22] Speaker B: That sounds like an X Men. Honestly. Hellish. [01:37:29] Speaker C: Sounds like a metal band. [01:37:30] Speaker A: I like it, man. [01:37:32] Speaker B: Speaking of metal bands, how. How into Gojira? Are both of you guys now? [01:37:38] Speaker C: None of. [01:37:39] Speaker B: No. Oh, the french metal band that did the thing for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics? [01:37:45] Speaker A: No, sorry. I didn't listen to it. [01:37:47] Speaker C: I didn't watch the opening ceremonies. I was in San Diego. [01:37:52] Speaker B: So for Johnny, they're called Gojira. They changed their name from Godzilla. [01:37:57] Speaker C: Oh, they had. [01:37:59] Speaker B: No, they just did. And they sing. They sing about saving the whales and making the planet habitable for future generations. It is incredible. [01:38:10] Speaker C: That's actually pretty. Pretty dope for a metal band. [01:38:15] Speaker B: Good for them. It's like Star Trek four, only they're french progressive metal people, only they're a metal band. [01:38:22] Speaker A: That's awesome. [01:38:23] Speaker B: They literally have a song called Flying Whales. [01:38:25] Speaker A: Well, we've reached a time in our podcast. [01:38:28] Speaker C: Poor Johnny's like, holy crap. Can we please go now? [01:38:32] Speaker B: He heard no, like, we gotta get off of this. [01:38:35] Speaker A: No, I'm just. I'm just trying to keep us on track here. This is usually where we give a shout out to our Instagram friends. [01:38:42] Speaker B: But we're not gonna make Erica rate her own work, Johnny. [01:38:45] Speaker C: I don't know. [01:38:46] Speaker B: Should we? I think. I think we should make. [01:38:48] Speaker A: All right, we're doing the rating. All right, this is the time where. [01:38:50] Speaker B: We always rate the puppies. [01:38:51] Speaker A: All right, pull up a puppy, David. Cuz it's time to rate the puppies. [01:38:59] Speaker C: What's that puppy's name? [01:39:02] Speaker B: This is Lottie. [01:39:03] Speaker C: Hi, Lottie. [01:39:04] Speaker B: She's our youngest. [01:39:05] Speaker C: She's very cute. [01:39:05] Speaker A: Hi, Lottie. Lottie gets. Lottie gets a five out of five. But now we have to rate rat city number three. I'm sweating cause I'm rating it in front of the ride. [01:39:15] Speaker C: I honestly like, if I'm being 100% honest, I would give it. I'd give it a four out of five. There are some things that I could have done differently. [01:39:24] Speaker A: There you go. So our tradition on the show, because you always give it four out of five. Something from the issue. So, for example, there you go. Four out of five seashells. That's perfect. Exactly. Yeah. I'm going to go a little higher. I'm going to give it a 4.5. I think it's a. You know, it's continuing what was set up in one and two. Kind of bridging to the future. It's a nice, like, bridging because you get that first, like, spark of the first two and it's good to bridge to the future stories of. I love the art. The writing covers the writings, the writing. You're really setting up these characters that were like, set up to care about. You get those intimate moments with Peter and Quinlan and you get the intimate moment. Peter and Rhys. It's just a really fun propelling story with multiple characters I care about. And like, I even I'm interested in what Doctor Bose is doing. Like, I. I just think it's a great. He's a fun, rip roaring yarn. If someone. If I was trying to get someone to spawn, I always say I give them king spawn, but honestly, now I might give them rat city instead. I'd be like, maybe pick one. Do you want King spawn or rat city? And see what they'd say? But, yeah, I'm gonna give it 4.5 medals left behind. [01:40:44] Speaker C: I thought you were gonna say 4.5 dead wreaths, bodies. [01:40:49] Speaker A: No medals left behind. [01:40:51] Speaker B: Oh, man. I'm also gonna give it four. I'm gonna give it four shadow walkings into a kitchen. Just because of the four issues that have been released so far, this is the most, like, middle issue, and so I like to rate the middle issues a little lower, just because if I rate everything high all the time, it kind of lessens the potency of. [01:41:17] Speaker C: Yeah, if everything's up here, then up here doesn't mean anything. Yeah. [01:41:21] Speaker B: Then, yeah. Yeah. So it's a great issue. It's the most in the middle. So I have to say, of the four so far, it is my least favorite of the ones we've read so far. But because it's the one that's the most necessary to get us to the next part where we're going. And it's just. It's just a normal part of a story. There's. There's just. There's always going to be a middle part of the story. Sometimes. Sometimes you just have to get there. [01:41:47] Speaker C: Have you read four yet? [01:41:48] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. And that's. That's. Four is part of why I love Rhys, because Rhys, he. He's just kind of there in flashback, not really doing much. He's just existing, and I love him for it. It's great. [01:42:03] Speaker C: And he's got a lot of. He's just a big, dumb heart full lug. [01:42:07] Speaker B: He's. He's. He's very much like Pacha from. From the emperor's new groove. Just kind of. Kind of suffering, but also just very jovial. [01:42:18] Speaker C: Yes. [01:42:19] Speaker B: Very John Candy esque. [01:42:22] Speaker C: With a little. With a little more muscle. Yeah, with a little more muscle. [01:42:25] Speaker B: Like, definitely. Definitely not current John Candy. John Candy. John Candy is. [01:42:31] Speaker C: Well, no current John Candy. John Candy dead. I'm so is Reed. [01:42:35] Speaker B: I meant to say Goodman. I meant to say Goodman. [01:42:37] Speaker C: Oh, there's a very big difference between John Candy and John David. [01:42:45] Speaker A: Come on. [01:42:45] Speaker B: I did. Yeah. [01:42:46] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [01:42:48] Speaker B: My brain. My brain is bad. I need to. I need to send it back. It's a little Abby normal. [01:42:54] Speaker C: I love that movie. [01:42:55] Speaker A: Well, we've now reached the point in our episode where we usually give a shout out to some of our Instagram followers. But today we're gonna give a shout out for you to follow at. Erica Schultz writes on Instagram. [01:43:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:43:07] Speaker A: If you're not. If you're listening to this podcast, you're not following Erica. That's pretty foolish because it means you're following us and not following Erica. Yeah, give them a follow on there. Keep up with all their projects. Is there anything you want to plug? [01:43:20] Speaker C: Well, Rad City number four is in stores right now. Rad City number five is coming out in August. And this is the 31st, 1st or 30th, 30 July. So pretty close. And if you are into superhero comics, in stores right now is lack, widow, venomous daredevil, woman without fear, and blood hunters. Hell yeah. [01:43:45] Speaker A: Check them out. [01:43:45] Speaker B: That's so many stories. I would get so confused. I would accidentally write somebody into somebody else's. Of the books you've written, what is one book that you want people to buy more of because you just. You fucking loved making it so much that it's like, more people should like this. What should we, what should Johnny and I go out and buy this week? [01:44:04] Speaker C: Technically there's three, but I would say there's two because the first book I wrote isn't really available in stores anymore, so you can only get it on my site. But there's a book I wrote for comixology, originals and dark horse. Put it out called forgotten home. And I really love that book. And if you like world building like we're doing with Rat City, but it's like urban fantasy, kind of like magic, but not that kind of magic. I think. I think people would like forgotten home. And the other book that I did that I really, really love because it was so personal to me is a book called the deadliest Bouquet, also out from image. And the deadliest bouquet, it takes place in New Jersey in 1998. And there is a lot of Easter eggs for where I grew up and kind of things. And it was, it was a really very personal book. As I was writing it, I was grieving the loss of my father. So it helped me really process things because it has to do with these three sisters whose mother passes away and these three sisters having to, who are estranged, having to come together and deal with their relationships with each other, but also their relationships with their deceased mom. So. And there's, you know, like a murder mystery and like crazy stuff involved in it too. But I would say, yeah, deadly's bouquet from image or forgotten home from dark horse are two books that I'm super proud of and I love. But I mean, if you like horror, you can get twelve devils dancing from. From Action lab at that. In stores. You know, all the Marvel stuff is still in stores, like the Darth Maul and, you know, Moon Knight and, you know, talk. Moon Knight. Talk about another person running around in shadows in their pajamas. [01:45:49] Speaker A: Darth Maul. Red, white, and black, right? [01:45:50] Speaker C: Yeah. Number three, issue three. [01:45:52] Speaker A: Black, white, and red. [01:45:53] Speaker C: Black, white, and red. Yeah. Yeah. [01:45:55] Speaker A: Black, white, and red. [01:45:56] Speaker C: Okay. [01:45:56] Speaker A: Not red. White and black. The other way. [01:45:58] Speaker C: Yes. Black, white, and red. [01:45:58] Speaker A: Nice. [01:45:59] Speaker B: Have. Have you considered doing an issue of Sauvage Opress? [01:46:06] Speaker A: David's obsessed with Darth Maul's brother. [01:46:08] Speaker B: I love Darth Maul's brothers. [01:46:13] Speaker C: He was voiced by Clancy Brown in the. In the cartoon, in the Clone wars show. He was, yeah. Honestly, it is the most subtle name, but two reasons why I couldn't bring Sauvage into black, white and red. One, he's not red. And one of the whole purposes of it is he's like a school bus. Yellow. [01:46:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:46:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I. And two, Lucasfilm, they. They have very specific rules and regulations for their characters. Who's considered in canon? Who's not considered in canon. You know, what relationships are considered in canon, etcetera. So if I were to bring in, because there was actually, in my initial pitch, there was a scene where I had this whole flashback to Darth Maul and Dathomir and everything, and that ended up getting cut. I don't know if I had had Tzavash listed as being part of the pitch initially, but there was a flashback to Dathomir. But, yeah, I mean, they tend to really kind of know what they want, and you more or less sort of make it happen. Or at least that's been my experience. I mean, other writers, like Rick Pawkatrel Sul, who works with them a whole lot, might. Might have a little more leeway, but they have a very controlled ip. I'll say. I'll put it that way. It's a very locked down. [01:47:36] Speaker B: Yeah, they. They have a lot of moving parts. I can understand that entire. [01:47:40] Speaker A: Well, they declare that everything's canon now. They kind of like, I guess, a. [01:47:44] Speaker B: Lot to, you know, a little more. [01:47:46] Speaker A: Careful, because, like, that could be a Disney plus series. We don't want you to step on that. [01:47:51] Speaker B: I want to watch the Disney plus series. [01:47:53] Speaker C: It's funny. The first. The first job that I ever got actually writing was for Marvel, for a television series that was on ABC, and it was called Revenge. And I wrote this treatment, and they said, oh, we love this. We're going to put it in the next season, which meant it couldn't be in the book, but that happened. But, yeah, I don't know. For all I know, something is going to be in Disney or whatever, so who knows? [01:48:18] Speaker A: Yeah. The savage oppress show. Oh, Mandy starring Clancy Brown. [01:48:23] Speaker C: Well, I was gonna say, who's gonna play it? Who's gonna play it? [01:48:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:48:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's true. [01:48:27] Speaker C: I mean, if it's live action, it. [01:48:28] Speaker B: Can'T be Clancy Brown. He's. He's not a. [01:48:31] Speaker C: Well, I mean, if they made it. If they made it when Clancy Brown was in the first Highlander, it could be Clancy Brown. [01:48:38] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Scary. [01:48:41] Speaker A: I always remember him as season two of lost. He was Kelvin. [01:48:46] Speaker C: I didn't watch the one that lived in the hatch. I didn't get. I did not get sucked into that insanity. My husband did. One of my close friends did. I did not get sucked into that. I ignored it. Hey, I didn't have one. Yeah, I know. So many people, so many podcasts, and they're still out there. Still trying to deconstruct the last episode in the church or whatever. [01:49:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it just. Right, it just. Netflix just got it back, I think so. So everybody's reinvigorated? [01:49:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Apparently I know what I'm doing after this. [01:49:21] Speaker B: Apparently somebody has gone through and recut the entire series in chronological order. So that way, instead of it being flashbacks, it's just the story from. From start to finish. [01:49:33] Speaker C: How much time do you have on your hand to be able to do that? Because that's like seven seasons, right? Six or seven seasons. [01:49:43] Speaker A: Six. Yeah. [01:49:44] Speaker B: That's a lot of movies. [01:49:45] Speaker A: Six seasons. [01:49:46] Speaker C: Wait, there's a movie too? [01:49:48] Speaker B: No, no, no. I'm just community joking. [01:49:52] Speaker C: Oh, I just got scared for. [01:49:53] Speaker A: I wish there was a movie. [01:49:54] Speaker C: Oh, my God. Why don't you. Why don't you start the petition? It worked for the Snyder Bros. Why don't you start the petition? [01:50:01] Speaker A: That's true. I should. Yeah. [01:50:02] Speaker B: Hey, maybe you can get Zack Snyder to do it for you. [01:50:05] Speaker A: No, he wouldn't fit at all. [01:50:08] Speaker B: It would be like four movies. Is the fritz the problem? [01:50:11] Speaker C: No, that would only be those Rutgers cut. [01:50:14] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And it would be in that. [01:50:16] Speaker A: The one you got on HBO if you. The weird black and white and look. [01:50:20] Speaker C: Like it looks like it was shot for Instagram. [01:50:25] Speaker A: Exactly. [01:50:25] Speaker C: I'm never getting a job with a vaccinator for that one. [01:50:30] Speaker A: Shoot. [01:50:30] Speaker C: Sorry, sorry. [01:50:32] Speaker B: Sorry that we just torpedoed it. You can blame us. Like, when it comes out that he's like, I'll never work with Erica Schultz, you can blame it directly on us. [01:50:40] Speaker C: Yeah. Cause that means one podcast. There's this one podcast called regarding Spawn. You may or may not have ever heard of it, but it's got. It's got a decent amount of followers. Yeah, they just talk about spawn all the time. I don't know. [01:50:55] Speaker A: Except for loves it. [01:50:56] Speaker B: Except for when we talk about Star wars. [01:50:59] Speaker A: Except for that. [01:51:00] Speaker B: Or I try to teach Johnny about Star Trek, but every time he's like, that's too much. [01:51:07] Speaker C: There's only one star that he can do, and it's the wars, which is fine. [01:51:11] Speaker A: Exactly. I do the wars. But if you want to yell at us for liking Star wars too much, you can always reach us at regardingspawnpod on Instagram or regardingspawnpodmail.com. [01:51:24] Speaker B: We love reading emails. We will read them on air if you want us to read them on air. And we'll send you stickers if you send us your address. So that goes for you too, Erica. If you would like to share, like, a PO box with us, we can send you some stickers. [01:51:36] Speaker C: I love the fact that you automatically. [01:51:38] Speaker B: Save the PO box because we're strangers on the Internet. I'm not going to have you give us your actual address. Come on. [01:51:47] Speaker C: I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And I do have a PO box, actually. Nice. [01:51:53] Speaker A: All right, well, yeah, if you hit us up with that, we'll send you some stickers. [01:51:55] Speaker B: It will get stuffed with stickers. [01:51:57] Speaker C: I can. I can send you. I can send you some spawn bracelets. [01:52:01] Speaker B: Ooh. [01:52:02] Speaker A: Oh. [01:52:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:52:03] Speaker A: Well, now that. Now that would be nice. [01:52:05] Speaker B: Sounds like. It sounds like we have a. It sounds like we got a trade going on here. [01:52:09] Speaker A: Sounds like it. While you're at it on the Internet, please make sure to rate, review, and subscribe. We are respond wherever you get podcasts and just want to say, Erika, thank you so much for coming on. This is fucking awesome. It was great talking to you. [01:52:24] Speaker C: Thank you for having me. [01:52:25] Speaker B: This is amazing. [01:52:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I. [01:52:27] Speaker B: Of course. [01:52:28] Speaker A: Anytime. [01:52:29] Speaker B: I. This is. This is. [01:52:30] Speaker A: Oh, look at that other chains. [01:52:32] Speaker C: Kind of looks like sushi. [01:52:33] Speaker B: Look at those chains. [01:52:34] Speaker C: It does kind of look like. [01:52:35] Speaker B: Yeah, well, um, I guess it looks like sushi if you're hungry enough. [01:52:40] Speaker C: True. [01:52:41] Speaker B: Could you imagine green smoking sushi? [01:52:45] Speaker C: It's like, necroplasm coming off of it. [01:52:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:52:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I would try it. [01:52:51] Speaker B: My favorite thing is about sushi is, like, 90% of people's food poisoning stories are, I got the pre made sushi at the airport. You'd think by this point, people would learn not to eat the premade sushi. [01:53:04] Speaker C: At the airport gas station. Sushi is not good for you. I will tell you. I worked at a restaurant in high school. So I'll tell you a little trick. If you ever are ordering fish at any restaurant, it doesn't matter if it's, like, a fancy restaurant or not. You never order fish on a Tuesday, ever. Because their shipments come in on Wednesday and Friday. And whatever they're serving on Tuesday has been there for a long ass time. So never order fish on Tuesday. [01:53:33] Speaker B: That's usually the day the specials, too, is the. Is the thing. [01:53:37] Speaker C: Never order fish special? Yeah, it'll be like a fish chowder or something like that. Never order it. [01:53:44] Speaker B: Yum. Also, while you're on the Internet, don't forget that Lonnie Bones does our music. Sorry, we. We got lost there. [01:53:51] Speaker C: You guys edit, right? You guys said it. [01:53:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:53:59] Speaker B: No, it'll be. It'll be the Johnny and the David bits get edited out. It'll just be you talking to, answering unprompted questions. [01:54:08] Speaker C: No, you can cut as much as you want. I ramble. Trust me, I know. [01:54:14] Speaker A: No, we love it. [01:54:14] Speaker B: We love a ramble. This is our passion project, is just getting to talk about spawn. It keeps us sane as much as anyone can call us sane. [01:54:26] Speaker C: Can I just say one thing? This entire time, I thought that you've had rubber duckies. Your shirt. [01:54:33] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, no, I need a. I need a rubber ducky shirt, though. That would be awesome. How awesome would that be? [01:54:40] Speaker A: It's lemons. [01:54:41] Speaker C: It's lemons. Okay, so it either. [01:54:43] Speaker B: I'm a sour puss. [01:54:44] Speaker C: So it either looks like leaves because it still has that yellow leaves on them. Okay, so now I see. So it looks like yellow leaves at first, but then in one way, I think it was when the seams came together, I was like, is that. Are those rubber ducks? [01:54:58] Speaker B: I mean, I would wear a rubber ducky shirt. Yeah. I like. I like a loud shirt. [01:55:05] Speaker C: Then go to effinbirds.com. my friend, Aaron Reynolds. Do you guys know effin birds? You can cut all this part. [01:55:10] Speaker B: I know effin birds. Yes. [01:55:12] Speaker C: Okay, so Aaron Reynolds does effing birds. He has hawaiian shirts with these beautiful birds on it that say, like, go fuck yourself and eat shit. I actually have one hell at San Diego, so let me go. You can cut this part out. So I'm gonna go and get it. [01:55:23] Speaker B: Because we're definitely leaving this in there as an advertisement for your friends. [01:55:28] Speaker C: Yes, it's an advertisement for. For Aaron. Their lovely shirt. [01:55:34] Speaker B: Oh, holy shit. I am looking. They've got matching shoes. Hell, yeah. [01:55:38] Speaker C: Oh, Aaron's got. So I was gifted this by Aaron, and if you look closely, it says things like, eat shit. And, oh, my God. What the fuck? It's amazing. It's amazing. They have. They have women's sizes, they have men's sizes. And it is a beautiful hawaiian shirt. Beautiful. [01:56:04] Speaker A: That is. [01:56:05] Speaker C: And. Yeah. And when people go close, they see these. This hawk saying, oh, my God. What the fuck? I'm wearing it to my in laws thanksgiving. [01:56:16] Speaker B: I do need. I do need the. I. Only because I wear these shirts to work, too. I would be very worried that I'd actually accidentally wear it to work. [01:56:25] Speaker C: Okay. I know the thing. [01:56:28] Speaker B: So. So my. My number one regret is that I went on vacation once, and there was a hawaiian shirt that the pattern was a shark swimming around with a foot in its mouth that was bleeding. And then I didn't buy it. Well, I couldn't justify spending the amount of money they wanted on it. But that has been the greatest regret of my life, is not buying the shark eating a foot shirt. [01:56:54] Speaker C: Shark eating a foot hawaiian shirt. I'll write that down on my list of things to do and see if I can't find. [01:56:59] Speaker B: It was at Chelsea Market in New York. [01:57:04] Speaker C: Yeah, I know Chelsea market. [01:57:06] Speaker B: It was also in, like, 2016, so it's probably not there anymore. But if it does exist, that's where it existed. [01:57:17] Speaker C: Okay. Shark eating foot wine. Shark. Well, the other reason why is because the comic shop that I go to, the comic shop called the Geekery in Madeline, New Jersey, I'm actually doing a signing there tomorrow. And their mascot is a shark because their shop is two blocks away from Jaws. Where jaws really happen. [01:57:36] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. Well, I. Hell, yeah. But also not hell, yeah. But hell, yeah. Yeah. [01:57:42] Speaker C: Yeah. It's. It's pretty crazy because just happened over a hundred years ago, and we were talking about it. The shop is owned by two brothers. And we were saying, like, I don't understand why the. Why, like, the mascot for the high school isn't the sharks. Like, why they really don't get into it. But on the. On the window, there's this huge shark with an open mouth. And if you go into the shop, you can put your face right there and you can take pictures of your face in the shark's mouth. [01:58:08] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. [01:58:09] Speaker A: That's awesome. [01:58:10] Speaker C: The first signing I did there, I came in a full head to toe shark costume. [01:58:13] Speaker B: That's awesome. [01:58:14] Speaker C: Yeah. Most embarrassing thing of my life, actually. Not really. But I've done way more embarrassing things. [01:58:20] Speaker B: I was about to say, if being an absolute badass dressed up as a shark is the most embarrassed you've ever been, then I'd say you're doing pretty good. [01:58:29] Speaker C: My four and a half plus decades on this planet, I have done way more embarrassing things. Then dress up in a shark costume and go to a. Go to a signing. Trust me on that. [01:58:40] Speaker B: I think that is the quality of speaker that needs to be at high schools. Instead of trying to scare kids straight for drunk driving and making it all morose or having the strong men who can rip phone books because of the power of Jesus, you should have people be like, hey, I've been around long enough. Embarrassment is nothing. That is the kind of motivational speaker I like. [01:59:05] Speaker C: I don't remember anybody ever ripping a phone book with the power of chiboo, but it had literally 13 years. [01:59:13] Speaker B: That was an Oklahoma thing. Oh, they broke chains and they tore phone books, and they blew up those hot water bottles, just like, with their mouths like a water balloon. Oklahoma's wild. [01:59:28] Speaker C: Well, I'm technically banned in Tulsa, so. [01:59:32] Speaker A: Oh, hell yeah. Congrats. [01:59:37] Speaker C: And it's mostly because, as you've read issue number four, you know what I'm referring to. So that's the reason why I'm banned in Tulsa. [01:59:44] Speaker B: Nice. [01:59:44] Speaker A: Wow. [01:59:45] Speaker B: That's excellent. Excellent work. Excellent work. We should all aim so high. So. So. This has been a very excellent evening. I've enjoyed being able to pick your brains, Erica. I'm sure Johnny has, too. But I should really probably run out of things to say, which means that I'm left with nothing to say. But, Erica, Johnny, may the scorched be with you. [02:00:14] Speaker A: And also with you, David. [02:00:15] Speaker B: Hell yeah. [02:00:16] Speaker A: Hell yeah. [02:00:18] Speaker C: Catholic school coming back to me? [02:00:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [02:00:23] Speaker A: It always. It always comes back to haunt you. [02:00:26] Speaker B: Yeah, catholic school doesn't stay very far away. [02:00:30] Speaker A: Well, what's not full of bad cliches is rat City is full of awesome stuff. And thank you so much for being on, Erica. Can't wait to have you back. I'm sure we will. You just got to pick another issue you want to do, and you can. You're more than welcome anytime. [02:00:44] Speaker B: You can even pick a non spot issue. [02:00:47] Speaker C: I'll come back for issue number nine. Rat City. [02:00:50] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. [02:00:50] Speaker A: Sounds good to me. Sounds like a plan. [02:00:52] Speaker B: Sounds like a plan. [02:00:53] Speaker A: All right, guys, thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. Next week is our 100th episode where we covered. Thank you. We're covering Spawn the movie as our hundredth episode extravaganza, so make sure to listen to that with guest Logan Branham. [02:01:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Be sure to watch the movie first and then come listen to it. It won't make any sense if you haven't watched the movie. [02:01:14] Speaker A: It's unfortunately not on HBO Max anymore for some reason. Yeah, but you can rent it. [02:01:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Or if you have the. [02:01:20] Speaker A: Come on, Warner Brothers, where's our spawn? [02:01:22] Speaker B: If you have a physical copy, you can just put in your physical copy. [02:01:24] Speaker A: Or if you're listening to this in the future, you might be confused and think, we're talking about the King Spawn movie that's coming out, but we're not. Welcome to the future.