[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast, right over
[email protected]. I'm your host, Justin Soderberg. This episode, we welcome Anthony Cleveland to the podcast to discuss his upcoming comic book. On December 13, Charred remains with Andrea Mutey and Taylor Esposito at Mad Cave Studios. It's excellent. We talked a bunch of different things about this comic book and so on. Anthony's also written books such as Star Razor and Show Zen over at Mad Cave. But this is his upcoming one, Charred Remains, which is amazing. But before you listen to this issue, this episode, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Blue sky, as well as rate review, subscribe, all those things over at Apple, Spotify and all your major podcasting platforms. But this is Anthony Cleveland, comic book writer of Charred remains at Mad Cave Studios. Enjoy everyone.
Welcome to the podcast. Anthony, how are you tonight?
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Good, how are you?
[00:01:04] Speaker A: I'm doing wonderful. We, you know, chatting on a weeknight.
Did you have a busy day today or what was today like for you? What's a normal day for Anthony?
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Yeah, today was day job came back from vacation, so that was not as fun as Monday.
Getting back into the groove of it. Just four days off and it took a while to get back to it today, but I had two donuts, so.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: That helped those statements of we always need a vacation from our vacations. It's true. It's so true. My wife and I now basically, we're going away for Thanksgiving and we're like, okay, we're going to go. Leave Thursday, go away Friday, come home Saturday. So we have Sunday to do nothing. Because I think just that one day of nothing, it's perfect.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: It really helps. It really helps.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: And I live in Bangor, Maine, which is, we have an international airport, but it's not easy to fly in and out of. So you always have to do like 17 layovers and all that stuff. So a lot of times people try to fly to Portland, Maine, which is a couple of hours away. But then when you fly back from your vacation, you have to get in a car and drive 2 hours home. It's just a pain. It's like sometimes it's worth the extra money in the layovers to just fly into your backyard than it is to actually fly 2 hours a. It's a know, vacationing is different for us working folk over here. But yeah, we're not here to talk about your vacation or work or anything like that. We're actually talking about fun things like comic books and mainly charred remains. Which is coming from Mad Cave Studios. But before we get into that, so you obviously have a day job, you're also a comic book writer. What is your journey into reading and collecting comics? How did you get into the industry of not writing comics, but just like, enjoying comics in general?
[00:02:56] Speaker B: When I was growing up, I really liked horror comics because I came from that 90s era where tales from the crypt was big and it was hard to find horror comics on the shelves back then. That were what I was looking for. So mostly I read a lot of movie IPs. I grew up with the dark Horse books. So it was aliens, Predator, Terminator, starship troopers, maybe some Star wars books from them here and there. But that's mostly what I read. And of course, superhero stuff, like that's everywhere. They used to have that on the Spinner rats and video stores. So that was easy to do. But then I studied film because that's mostly what I was interested in. And I guess that's why I read the IP books. So I studied that and then.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Didn'T.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: Really get into it as deep as I wanted to. And then I kind of circled back after a while to comic books because it's more, I don't know, just visual storytelling, I guess. It's better there for me. Works better for me.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Yeah. I grew up not being able to read very well. And so comic books in general were like that medium in between taking in the pictures and the illustrations and reading, which then now I read a book a week, which is amazing because that's the difference between some of a segue into things. So, yeah, it's a visual medium is a fun way to get into people who don't really read that much or they read a lot. It's one of those different storytelling devices, for sure.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: For me too, those books were from R rated movies and I couldn't always check out R rated movies from the deal store or the library. But comic books, no one really checked that stuff out, even though that stuff was pretty bloody.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: And you could sneak it. Like, you could hide over in the corner and sneak and read a comic book. You can't really sneak watching a horror movie. It's not very easy to.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: No.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Nowadays, I think kids could. They could probably watch it on their iPad or their phone.
The TVs you have behind you, it's like you'd have to watch it on this tube TV and someone be like, what are you watching? Is that the actress? Yeah, it's a horror comic books. I mean, that's what you do nowadays, basically, is you're writing. I would think that tried remains is in that horror category.
Show's end probably fits in that horror category.
You now are a writer of comic books as well. You not only enjoy reading and collecting comics, you were a writer of comic books. How did that get into starting.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: From studying film, I wanted to get into that. Didn't really work out, and I kind of decided to try comic books because I think what really appealed to me to that was it's two minds, or one mind, depending on what kind of book it is. I can't draw, so I got to depend on somebody else. But from mind to pen, visual storytelling is something that I don't think could be touched with any other medium. And it's almost magic. It's mind to pen. So whatever you see in your head, you can put on the page. And you're only limited by your ability or your talent. So I think that's what's really kept me here.
But no, I got into that. I was doing a lot of OD jobs, so I was able to afford to hire an illustrator for an indie book. We put that out, and then shortly after that, I saw the Mad Cave talent search, and I entered that and was able to get into there and do shows end and from there. I've been with Mad Cave pretty much the whole time.
A few of other publishers, but nothing as great as what I've got there with them.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: I've just heard wonderful things I couldn't say. I haven't heard, unbelievably going almost amazing things from Medicaid, but I haven't heard many negative things. That's a positive, in my opinion. It's one of those things that, as a person on the press side of things I was mentioning before we started recording, too, is that they send these tubes, I want to say, once a month, once every other month of their upcoming stuff. And I just got one for Skeeters is a new book coming out over at MaDcAd, poster, and a little mosquito sticker and a bookmark. And a lot of times they'll have these advanced reader copies in there as well, which is really cool. And it's one of the only publishers that's actually putting money and effort into these things. And I wouldn't say I'm a big presence, humongous presence in this industry, but it's nice to see these people with a smaller presence out there getting these things. And then I was getting them before my LCS was even getting them. He's now getting them as well. So it's pretty cool to have those posters up and things like that, but a lot of times it's like Marvel and DC and then, like, Mad Cave sending these things out. Like, Marvel sends out the big posters of, you know, number one coming or whatever, but then no one else really does it. And seeing Mad Cave do this is really cool. And so having your books there and you can't see them right here, but in front of me here, I've got don't spit in the wind and the devil that wears my face posters that came free to me from promotional things, and it's pretty cool to have them up on the wall. So they do a great job on that side of it. So I'm guessing multiple comics in, you've enjoyed working with them as well.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that's been that way since shows end. I still have promo stuff from shows then I try to give away at shows, but the chard remains was a bit different because they thought really outside the box of what they could do with it marketing wise. And there's still a lot of stuff that hasn't come yet that I'm excited to see. But, yeah, it's really cool to see how much has changed and how much they've grown since shozen and even before that with Midnight Task Force. And.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: You'Re one of many guests that have been on the podcast that have created a comic book at Mad Cave. It seems like they're not only getting your talent search kind of people, but you're also getting your heavy hitters coming over to write or illustrate over there. I mean, you have Andrea Moody's one of my favorite horror artists of all time, and you were lucky enough to work with him on tried remains on this. Was that something they put together, or did you know Andrea before this?
[00:08:57] Speaker B: Both. We tried to get together maybe after Stargazer came out. I think he DM'd me on Twitter, and we were trying so damn hard to get together on a, it's just so many stumbling blocks for us to get to anywhere.
Pitches. We hit everybody up on at least four different pitches. We were trying to line things up together. He liked my stuff. I liked his stuff. He liked the ideas that I was trying to get out there. And then we came to Mad Cave, and Mad Cave mentioned him, I think. And I'm like, yes, that would be great. That would be perfect if we can get that lined up. Yeah. And that's how we got finally, like I said, 2019, 2020, how long we've been trying to get together now it's 23, tail end of 23, and we're finally getting a book out together.
Really cool.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: Honestly, it could be perfect timing in that sense, because I think that Andrea's artwork works so well with this. Like, there's some people we read at my LCS, we read a legacy of violence for our book club a couple of months ago, and there were some people that were just kind of turned off by Andrea's artwork because I hate to say messy, but it's that messy and artistic. It's more free flowing than it is simple art. And some people were just like, it's just not my thing. And I was like, I just fell absolutely in love with it because I felt like, I don't know, there's more interpretation in it and things like that. And with it being a fire, like flames, it just fits that styles because Andrea's art lines are great, but then there's this other watercolor stylesque stuff behind it that I just felt like when I read this book, I'm like, this works so well with this fire theme to it.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I always check out his horror books. I think it was maniac of that. I read that the highlight for me was just the gore, the slaughter, him tearing through the subway. That was great. But I think that's what I focused on. But now that I'm reading, Chag remains, it's the quieter scenes, the dialogue scenes that he does, and I'm like, the way he captures the motion at the right time on the panel is master. Like, masterful. It's really impressive. I love it. I'm blown away every time I get a page from him.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: You partner that up with the fact that we're here talking to you, Anthony. But you also have a letterer in Taylor Espzito. You hit, like, a home run on this creative group on this book.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah. That's the first time I worked with a letter that wasn't Justin Birch. And it was just like, Taylor, we got.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: And Taylor's great. Amazing. And it would have been great to have Justin on this, too, because Justin's also amazing. But it is one of those things that Taylor's artwork or lettering, I should say, does stand out pretty well in a good.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. It was just very surprising to see you. I'm just used to Justin. That's why saying, like, we talk a lot, and every project, every pitch I try to get to him is him, but just getting somebody else different like that, that make it flow that well, seeing it, it was really cool. Really cool to have it happen.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Finally, as we're getting in, we're obviously talking about charred remains and jump right into talking to you about it. And that was on me. But can you give a little bit of I hate the word elevator pitch, but a little bit elevator pitch to people who may not know what Charred remains is all about, what the book is about?
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Yeah, bear with me. I'm terrible at it.
Chard remains is about.
How about it begins with Amy? She's about nine years old.
There's a fire in her apartment complex, and the firefighter there tries to help her. And they both witness, or they both see together an entity made of fire, smoke, and ash. Years pass, Amy's still trying to find out what happened that night. And the firefighter has since moved on, denied it, mostly for her sake, to help her move on. And then something happens in the first issue that brings them back into it to finally find out what happens. That was a long elevator pitch.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: It's great. It's like there's certain things that I hear every time I listen to another podcast where it's like, do this, do this. What's this about? And the word elevator pitch always comes to mind. I could have just read the solicitation that's on Previews world for it, but sometimes that also doesn't get enough information out there. So sometimes I like to have the Creator talk about it, but, yeah, very good. I think that's perfect. You nailed it for the first. Congratulations. You can continue writing the book. No.
Is this a book that mad cave approached you with a base on and then you ran with it there? Or is this something you've been trying to get created for a while?
[00:13:51] Speaker B: No, this is something they approached us with and they put the teams together on that.
But yeah, I think it was. I've been talking about them getting a horror book, like straight horror book because I think shows ends kind of fantasy horror, almost superhero sometimes. And Stargazer is Sci-Fi thriller. I pulled for a lot from horror, but it's still Sci-Fi and then this is the first book that's like firmly, this is horror. A little bit noir I pulled from, but it's the first horror book, I think, that's out.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: That's the one.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: The first horror book I've done that's out. Released before. Any other ones?
Yeah, I think it was pitched to me and I'm like, my last job, my last part time job before I got into comic books, I was a coroner deputy, and there are some cases that really get to me and I just straight up told them, like, burned bodies. It's nothing like, I can't. It bothers me. It freaks me out. And I'm like, let's do it. Let's make a scary book about something that freaks me out. And I think that was a big selling for them. And we've just locked since with that.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: It's funny how you mentioned that. I obviously did a little bit of research before, and I did saw that you had gone from a coroner deputy to writing comics.
I was like, what is accounting, coroner's deputy's job? What is the actual definition of the job? And so I was, like, googling it, and there was no in the requirements, like, lift 30 pounds. There's nothing about having a strong stomach. There's nothing like, you should really be able to deal with this, this and this. Because I think it's probably just assumed that you need to be able to deal with this stuff if you're going to need a corner deputy.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: Yeah, you really do.
I think my pitch for when they said there was an opening, it was just like, so how are you around dead bodies? It's like, I don't know, but I went to a scene, shadowed it, and it's so close to storytelling. You're retracing the steps, collecting evidence to figure out how this person died. So you need to figure out those hours or days that led to their death, or even beyond that being discovered, what happened between A and B. And your job is to collect the piece of the story, to put that together. And I was pretty good at it for that reason.
Medical stuff, they teach you enough, but it's good to have someone on standby. If you notice something that doesn't line up right or something looks OD, but.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: It still takes a special person. I think, in general, there are certain jobs, take special people in general to be able to do that. I don't think I'd be able to be around dead bodies. I think you passed the interview when they said, you don't know, which means, okay, this person hasn't murdered anybody before, so we know that much.
I'm actually really around dead bodies. Wait, your resume doesn't say anything about.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: Right?
I think I was trying to figure out the last funeral I've been to, and even then I couldn't do it.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: New comic. Now that's a corner by day, comic book writer by night uses that to help write his comics.
Every story is based on a real, true story. And you could be murderer in the background, too. You can also murder people, and no one will ever know.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: Yeah, no one ever know. Just write it off.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: Exactly. So you mentioned this is a horror comic book in the sense that it's that noir horror. But I guess every horror book has a subgenre, really, to it. It's not just specifically horror. Sure. And I was looking for that. I was looking for some new books, like actual prolific novels to read. And I was thinking, like, I would consider this horror, but some people put it in the thriller and mystery suspense category and so on and so forth.
Other than the fact that you said it's more of a horror book, charred remains, different to those who, people who read Anthony's work, your work in the past, Targazer, Shozen, what makes this one stand out different? Or are there tones that would go between all three of them?
[00:18:12] Speaker B: For sure there are. I think all three of them do have that big mystery. I think with Shozen, it's what's Laura Lie's story with Stargazer, it's what's going on in this book, pretty much what happened that night. And then this one is also what's going on. Who's behind the fireman? What is it? Can it be stopped? That kind of thing. So I think that's always going to be there for me.
I think it's something that gets me excited when I write is that mystery for the readers to kind of pull apart for this one being different, it's probably the most grounded one. I think one of the things that pulled me to it was like, I kind of thought of it as like a Gotham City audition tape or something like that.
So I approached it like all the Batman detective books I like. And that's something I hope people catch from it. I guess that's a big thing that's different from it.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: I like the grounded part of it, too, because people who've listened to this podcast religiously will know that I've said this way too many times. But that's my favorite type of horror, is the horror is in the sense that while you're reading it, this could be based on a true story and then slightly veers into the unbelievable. And I think that's where a true horror in my mind is, because I'm reading this going, oh, my gosh, if my house caught on fire. X, y, and Z. There's some things like we talked during our horror week we did here over at Capes and tights, is that Michael Myers, for example, was believable for the first know, Jason, maybe the first three movies, his mom, him, so on and so forth. But when they start electrocuting Jason with lightning bolts and he comes to resurrected and comes alive, okay, now you're veering too much into the supernatural part of it. And the grounded part of it is like this. Basically, the first issue is just about some houses that caught on fire and some things that went on with it. There isn't this super unbelievable narrative in it that makes me go, okay, this is definitely a comic book. This is fake. This could be based off of someone's actual true storytelling. Storytelling. Like, you could actually read this and go, well, this person probably believes that this is actually what happened. And that's what I think is the more scary part of these books is that fact that I could read this and be like, this could be based on a true story. Paranormal activity, the first paranormal activity movie was like all the way up until the last ten minutes of the movie. I'm like, this literally could be someone's security footage.
We could believe this. And that's what makes it so scary. I do feel like this falls into that category of believable to a point. You know what I mean?
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Yeah, we don't get that far out here. Out there with this one. Besides having the fireman kind of up here, he's in the first three pages, so there's something there. We don't know what it could be, but there's something there that we do show.
But, yeah, we don't get that far out there in this book. Maybe in the last issue we do. Last issue is fun.
If there's one issue I'm looking forward to seeing drawn, it's definitely that one. There's some cool stuff in that one. Some hype. Some hype.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Is this a five issue miniseries? Is that what the plan is?
I mean, that's something that I've seen more recently over at Mad Cave, too. I think the six issues is what they started to do too, because I think monomyth was six issues. Legacy of violence is twelve. But that's basically, in my opinion, like two six issue series, if you think about it. But yeah, I like that six issues. I think that's perfect.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: Honestly, working with Mad Cave is awesome.
When I first started with shows, then it was pretty bordered. It was five issues, 20 pages. And I struggled with that because I came from indie comics and that was, you want to do more pages, pay for them.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: Do more pages, pay for them. So that was kind of something I had to get used to. But then I think after there was more wiggle room in Stargazer, and then with charred remains, it was like, take as much space as you want. Just let us know ahead of time. And that was really cool creative feeling to have.
And I try to balance it out, like, okay, if I go 24 pages here, I'll go 20 pages here, I'll trim something off here, but let's leave it longer here. And they're happy to work with that. And it was just cool to see how much stuff that got approved. And we were able to tell the book as best as we could.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: We see all you creators out there growing. If you read your first story that you wrote in the comic book industry compared to what charred remains people are going to see, obviously, you've grown as a writer. It's nice to see that publishers like Madcave, for an example, are also doing that in the sense that, like you mentioned at the very beginning, maybe they had a little bit more boundaries, know the bumpers on the lanes, whereas now they're a little bit more like, no, we got to let these creators that we brought on, that we chose to bring here, do a little bit of their own thing and see what happens. And I feel like it's worked. A lot of those comics are getting better and better and better at this place.
[00:23:24] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
They always kind of have been that way. So when they share one of their IPs with us, it's, here's our idea. Do whatever you want with it. But of course, it's got to be still approved with an outline or whatever.
I think Stargazer was one that was just not similar at all to what was pitched to me. We came with something completely different, and that was still approved, but, I mean, that went through some back and forth. I think mine was, the original was a little bit more darker, and it's a way better comic now for that back and forth that we had.
Charred remains is the first one. I'm like, no, let's not touch it. I think this is pretty good as is. I think the only thing I changed was, I think the uncle from the first issue worked in a library, and I changed it to a resale shop. I really think that's the only change that I made. From their initial pitch, it's only like a paragraph pitch, if that, maybe three sentences.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: They're like, no, Anthony, you're fired. No, they have to work at a library. I don't know why you changed this.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: I think the only reason why I changed that is because in horror stories, there's always, they're looking through the microfilm in a library, trying to figure out what happens. And I think that's the reason why they had that in there, so she could have the access to the records in the library to figure out what happened there. And I'm like, yeah, let's try not to do that. I get it too, because it's a library, it's all paper. So that would be really cool to set on fire and whatever.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: Did you have to do research on fires? Were you sitting there doing some Googling on how fires work and start firefighters or stuff like that? Or did you have to do all that for this? I've only read, obviously the first issue, so I don't know where this actually goes. But was there some research that needed to be done?
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Yeah, there was research, but it was mostly on Just New Orleans. New Orleans infrastructure, New Orleans history. We get into a lot about how their flooding system works, their underground canal system, water treatment facilities, things like that. That was the big thing.
I was surprised how deep we got into just city infrastructure. But yeah, it really sucked me in how they manage that city. It's nuts.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: I feel like some people write books in their own backyard because they don't have to do that research. Like, I'm going to write a book about Maine because I don't have to do that research. I know how Maine works. It's hard for me to write a book about New Orleans. I've never been.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: I try to.
That was a part of the initial pitch was it's New Orleans.
So we stayed there. But yeah, if I'm doing it, I'm going to write. Yeah, about a cornfield or something that's next to me.
[00:26:13] Speaker A: Exactly.
It's very common. That's why Stephen King's books are all based loosely in the pseudo main area.
And it's because, like I said, it's really easy to be able to write what you know instead of writing something that you have to do research on. It takes more out there on it.
Hold on 1 second.
I just got an email. Sorry, I got an email. The email is charred remains from Mad Cave Studios. While we were recording this episode, I got an email saying that and they sent me a drive link of it to read it. Interesting. The world thinks they know we're listening to this. They're talking about charred remains. But speaking of charred remains and getting emails and things like that, my budy Jesse Lundberg did a variant cover of charred remains for a comic book place in.
It's called Santana Collectibles.
They did a variant for it. He did a variant for it that they're doing. A portion of the sales are actually being donated to the National Fallen Firefighters foundation, which I thought was pretty cool. A tie into this book as well.
Say, I've met Jesse a number of times at comic conventions. I want to say Jesse is a former firefighter.
Being an artist too, on the book, and being a firefighter is pretty badass. And I don't know if you've seen all the variant covers for at all, but if you haven't, I will actually forward this email over to you. But it's a pretty cool cover with a face coming out of the smoke and the flames. That one's really cool. But yeah, that's cool. He was at a local convention we had here in Maine recently, and he had those covers, had a picture of the COVID displayed for me to see. And he was like, this is coming out. And then he emailed or said something later about the foundation fundraiser. And then I was like, I couldn't find anywhere. We were trying to get the audio to work on the podcast. I was like looking for it. And so I just found out. I was like, I'm just going to email him and ask him. So he responded back with that statement, it's for the Fallen Firefighters association, which is pretty badass that you can actually have something that's tied in like that too, obviously. I'm guessing you had nothing to do with that, right? No offense.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: It was discussed, it was brought up and we talked about it. We were looking for the right, I guess, charity to go for it with it. And there was a few that were brought up and I guess that's the one that they went with.
But yeah, that was really cool to see because there's a few ideas that we hit up in the marketing and what we could do.
I don't know, turn the book into something more than just this, do something extra.
And that was just really cool to see.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: I don't remember him talking about this when I saw him for the first time. Like I said, I saw him post something on the Internet and that's where I saw this. And that's pretty cool. And I said that fact that he's actually a firefighter was actually really cool too, to see someone who worked in the book that's actually a firefighter. But the big thing to me is your main covers are done by Mon House, which is also pretty crazy. Is that something they put together?
[00:29:25] Speaker B: I'm guessing that was a big surprise to me. That was another one like maniac New York. I got that one for the art, too. And then, oh, man, I can't remember the aftershock book that he was on. It was just like, demons and soldiers. I can't remember the name of it. That was just what I bought. I hate to say I bought for the art. It was just Manhouse's art. And that was, I don't know, four years ago, three years ago. And it was just from then I was hooked on his art, and I was like one of those. There's a bucket list of artists, horror artists, I would love to work with. And I'm halfway through it already.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: Was it.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: But, yeah, sometimes you hit gold and it's like, okay, great publisher working with, and you got Andrea on it, you got Taylor on it, and then now you have like, oh, House is doing our covers, too. Oh, my God. And Andrea has a variant cover for number one. I don't know what your variant cover, if there's going to be A's and B's and C's and all that for the rest of them. I know previous world only has the A for issue two solicited right now, but I'm just guessing the first issue hasn't even come out yet, so I'm guessing there might be some catching up to be done.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: Yeah, there might be a few other covers, I'm not sure, but yeah, it's the lantern one that Andrea did, and then the fire chest one, the ribcage, I think that's the two we have. And then the charity cover.
That's awesome.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: I was trying to find, because a lot of times, Madcape also has their own exclusive on their website, too. I know they had like the one in 100 or the 100 they printed up or whatever it is that they put on.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: I feel like there might be one more, but I'm not certain.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: It's funny, too. We like doing these, obviously, pre the issue coming out, so we can solicit, help solicit the issue. We're big fans of it, so it also helps us tell people about it before it actually comes out. Obviously, we're now in that window that I don't know when FoC is for this thing or if it's already passed since we're recording this.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: No, it's the 20th, I think, of.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: This month, which would be great, because I think this drops the 15th. So you'll have a couple of days to get to your local comic book shop. However, sometimes all the information is not out and the covers aren't all really revealed or something like that. So sometimes you're waiting for things to be seen.
But yeah, it's really cool we can do this before because like I said, I can't speak highly enough about it. I tend to only talk to people on the podcast with things that not, you know, CNN or any of these big news agencies who have to just talk to people about the. So, like, you could know forward or against it and still have to talk about it. For me personally, I'd be like, if I read it, I would have emailed Melissa and been like, I'm all set. I don't need to talk to Anthony if I didn't like it. Luckily enough, I was able to like it and I was able to interview Andrea for our horror week. Just talking about horror art, horror comic books in a written interview. And so both you two got that box checked out because I was actually a big fan of charred remains. So people should definitely read it and tell your comic book shop to buy it to get it.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: I think people need to get it because it's absolutely wonderful.
You mentioned that image of the firefighter, and I'm not going to explain that because it's actually, what, third page in, but it's honestly my favorite imagery and they told it entire first issue. So I will say that much.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: Yeah, those first few pages were fun to write. I wanted to make it even shorter, but they made me stretch it out a bit more. But yeah, I think that's a good hook for a horror story.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: And I'll say like this to me is if you're a fan of the other Mad Cave Studios recent series, Legacy of violence with Andrea's artwork, then you're definitely going to be a fan at least of the artwork on this book because you could put them together because of the artwork is very similar all across on those. Obviously they're different stories. However, they are both pretty grounded, in my opinion. I don't know if you've read a legacy of violence yet, but just the first one.
Luckily, they put my Poll quote on the back of the second volume trade, and it was about being grounded and then veering into the unbelievable. And that also has that tie to this, too. So Andrea's got that in their pocket with drawing some realistic looking, in a sense, horror comic books, but you're also nailing it. Shows them was amazing. Stargazer is amazing. And then Charter Mains is absolutely wonderful as well. So you're kicking butt in the comic book industry. So all hats off to you, Anthony.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: Absolutely.
Outside of this, obviously you're promoting this. You're heavily into this right now. It comes out December 13 at your local comic book shop. And then obviously issue two will follow that as well. And we mentioned FOC. Make sure you just tuck, even if you don't get a chance to listen to this until after, still tell them you want it because if it doesn't immediately sell out, they can just place a reorder and get it in. So we'd like to get this to a point where mad cave is like, we should do a second printing. Yeah, always. Definitely tell your LCs if you do want it. And if you miss out on always altogether, like maybe you have missed out on Stargazer or shows end they're available in trade paperback, so you can get those at your local comic book store or any bookstore, which is badass too. That's the school about trades is you can get them anywhere. You can get them at Borders, you can get them at Amazon, you can get them anywhere, which is pretty cool. Are you working on other stuff too? I'm guessing there's some things you can't talk about or still are into Hopper, but I'm guessing you're still working on writing other stories as well.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm mostly pitching right now.
So I think Chartered remains was kind of last year, late last year writing that. So this year's book that I've written is done and will be out next year. And that's my first creator owned book, so we're excited about that.
Also horror, also with another dream artist.
Another horror dream artist.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: There you go.
Obviously you have other work to do and stuff like that. Does it take up a lot of your time to do comic books on top of having something else to do?
[00:36:02] Speaker B: Not too much. I think what I spend a lot of time on is outlining, plotting.
Scripting is not so bad. Scripting is like, I just write dialogue first, so dialogue, then I'll break it up in panels as I do the dialogue. Dialogue is kind of stream of conscious for me. So then I just focus up and clean it so I can knock out an issue in, I don't know, a few hours maybe, but then cleaning it up, coming back, that'll take me a week or two to get done. So no, it doesn't take me too long, but just the plotting and figuring things out.
Even after you think you have a rock solid outline. I think tribe remains was one of those where it's like, I got it. I figured it was completely done, rock solid outline. And because it's noir mystery, you notice things that could be for the better. You go back and try to fix or you find things that are wrong. I think that happened twice, and that was not fun to do. But I think what was nice about it was Andre was doing legacy of violence at the, so he, that was a big book for him to get through. And so there was plenty of time for us to double back, clean up the writing, and we're still cleaning up the writing with the dialogue or whatever it might be.
So that was a cool experience because normally they're too close to where I am writing, to where they're drawing, and there's not a lot of time. Stargazers was like that. I couldn't go back and fix things I would have liked to fix now, but this one was, like, plenty of time.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: So that was cool to do.
Obviously, you work together. It's one of the cool things. If anybody doesn't know the comic book industry, the cool things about the comic book industry is working in tandem with another person or other people obviously have editors over at Mad Cable. You have Andrea, and you are working together on this book. It's not just one or the other. Did you know notes for Andrea in there, or did you just let Andrea say, hey, this is the scripT. This is what we're doing. Run with it? And was there a good team effort on that, or was it just basically like, I'm going to do my thing, you do your thing, and we'll just go with it?
[00:38:20] Speaker B: Yeah, this was like 2019, 2020.
I think back then he was just doing not full scripts, but, like, the Marvel style. And I think he did a book with Colin Bunn before Legacy of violence, and that was full script. And then after that, he said full script was fine. So that's what we went to, and I told him I could do anything. Whatever you want to do, I will do.
It doesn't matter to me. I would like to do Marvel style sometimes because I'd never done that before.
But, no, we did full script, and I told him, you can change anything you like, I don't care. It tells a story however you think would be best.
I'll come back and I'll fix it.
But no, he's pretty much stick to this script for the most part. Nothing's really changed too much.
[00:39:20] Speaker A: That's awesome. You also get a talented creator who's done a lot of stuff, so it's not know if you're know fresh. It might be one of those things that either one of them are trying to put your mark on, like your book. If Andrea does an amazing job with the art as they have. You do a great job with the writing as you have. The book's gonna sell and do well. So you guys scratching each other's back is actually a good thing than one trying to be more controlling over the other, in my opinion. When someone works together as a team, it shows, and I think that's what this, in the end, he let you do your thing, you'd let him do his thing, and then you got your perfect book out of it.
[00:39:59] Speaker B: I try to do that with every book is just be out of their way. Let them tell the story any way that they think is best.
The only time I step in is if I catch a continuity error or a storytelling problem that will be down the road. Then I'm going to speak up because I got to make sure the story is right for future issues and everything kind of lines up. Or if there's, like, a story seed that's not being displayed. Right, I got to speak up about that. But above that, no, whatever's best to tell the story, I think they would know better.
[00:40:35] Speaker A: They would know better. Exactly. And it's like I said, you're also editing your own book, as well as having an editor as well. So you're editing, meaning that you want to make sure this book is as perfect as possible. And that person, whoever your artist, might notice, also saying, you said this and this page, but actually, they may catch that as well. So I'm hoping that both sides of this would speak up when they need to. And the same thing with a letter. When you go into a letter, the sentence doesn't make any sense. Can we fix this? And you be like, yeah, of course. Let's make this happen. And that's why that's great about this collaborative effort. I've talked to authors that write their own books, and then they have an editor, and it's like, that's just me. And so I don't have that thing to bounce ideas off or have someone else to look at outside of me or my editor. And that's pretty cool, having that artist and a letterer to work with. And Andrea does their own colors, too, so it's not like you have a colorist to also work off of. But there's a benefit of having Andrea do it all, because there's a complete package right there as well.
But I think you nailed this 100% on this book. The COVID itself, like I mentioned, monhouse's cover, this is absolutely stunning. Cover two is also beautiful.
So just check that out, and then cover B with Andrea's artwork on it is also stunning as well. So I think that everybody should grab it. It's FOC closes on the 20th and tell your LCs that you want it. Grab Stargazer and shows in on trade paperback, right?
Yeah, definitely.
[00:42:08] Speaker B: Volume one and two shows.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. Get both of them. Read them. Read them while you're waiting. If you can get them now, then you have until December 13 to read this book and then pause to read this book and then pick back up where you were left off. Just read, you know, also, I want to mention this when I just said your name. Don't just GoogLe Anthony Cleveland either, by the way.
[00:42:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. Yep.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: Now everybody's going to. I hate that. If you Anthony Cleveland comics, you get all your stuff. Just Anthony Cleveland, you get jumpsuits and orange jumpsuits. I was like, oh, this is not.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: Yeah, lots of serial killers.
Wonderful.
[00:42:50] Speaker A: I was like, oh, this is interesting. Yeah, it just happens. That's the Google machine for you. I'm sure once you created hundreds and hundreds of comic books, you're going to overtake that person, those people.
[00:43:00] Speaker B: I'm trying to pull the algorithm back. I'm trying to now.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: But the problem is you're going to write a book about a serial killer and it's just going to screw the whole system up because they're going to be like, wait, this movie is the same person.
[00:43:16] Speaker B: Come back to that one. Come back to that one next year.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: I'm so glad you were able to take time out and we were supposed to do this last week. I had to reschedule. Thank you for rescheduling and taking time out of your day to talk. Charred remains over at Bad Cave Studios hits shelves December 13. FoC coming right up. So check. Tell your LCs. And then, Anthony, you're on social media and all that stuff, too, so make sure people go out there and find you on social.
You're on Twitter, I'm guessing, and Instagram all that stuff, too.
[00:43:44] Speaker B: Yeah, just at ant Underscore Cleveland, Instagram and Twitter. I don't do much on the other ones.
[00:43:52] Speaker A: That's fine. I'm there. You're probably going to shift over to just Instagram or something at some point because this Twitter thing is a dumpster fire.
No, again, I really appreciate it. You're kicking butt. And I was so pumped when I saw this come. There's a couple of times, Melissa over at don't hide. Who would send me an email with this PR press release of something? There's been two times in the past, I don't know, year and a half where I was like, oh, my God, I need to read this book right away. And this is one of them. So this is definitely up there. The other one was the devil that wears my face, which is David Peppos and Alex Cormack, who nailed that book as well. Yeah. So. And, yeah, thank you so much for taking time out to chat with us, and we'll get you back on again when you have some more comics to talk about. How about that?
[00:44:42] Speaker B: Perfect. Yeah. Thank you so much for taking the time to do it.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: Awesome. Thanks, man.
One.
