[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on capesandtyce.com dot. I'm your host Justin Soderbergh. We welcome back Zach Kaplan to the podcast his return, his mighty return to the Capes and Tights podcast here to discuss his upcoming comics kill all Immortals as well as the Midnight Shadows. Coming to Dark Horse comics this year, Kill all Immortals comes in July to Dark Horse, and in October, the Midnight Shadows drops in trade paperback format over there at Dark coast as well. But Zack is the mind behind books like Beyond Real Mindset, Breakout, Metal Society, Forever Forward, join the future, the Lost City Explorers, port of Earth, Eclipse, and so much more. Please check out kill all immortals when it drops in July, as well as make sure you pre order with your local comic book shop for the Midnight Shadows or actually any bookstores anywhere can actually get that as well. But this is Zach Kaplan talking.
Excuse me. Kill all immortals and the Midnight shadows here on the gifts and tights podcast. Enjoy everyone.
Welcome back to the podcast, Zach, how are you today?
[00:01:12] Speaker B: I'm good, how are you? Thank you. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Absolutely. How's the weather? Is it good? It's sunny here in Maine.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: It's a little, it's surprisingly gloomy in southern California, but it's still been generally very nice. So it's good.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: That's good. Yeah. It was funny. I like brought my son to daycare.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: On opposite ends of the country. I guess if you're up in Maine, I'm down in southern California.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: So as far away as possible in the United States without you being in like a continental United States.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Opposite ends. Yeah.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Or continuously. Where's the continental contiguity? Contiguous United States. How do you say that? Is that what it's. How do you say in the United States, not Alaska and not Hawaii?
[00:01:50] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know how to use the United States. Contiguous. Yeah. It's the weirdest word that no one uses except when they want to talk.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: I honestly think the United States is probably the only people they use.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Everybody else is just part of the country. I don't know what you're talking, but yes, it's nice. We have dropped my son off this morning it was like sunny and then I went out and got like lunch and it was gloomy and then I went back outside to get something else and it was sunny again. So I don't know. The weather can't make its mind up here in Maine, but we think, we think it's summer here or spring we don't know.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Socal. SoCal is no different. So sometimes it's sunny, sometimes it's a little gloomy, but it's always kind of nice. So it's. We got that.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: You've been busy. You've been. You've been doing. Doing some work here. I mean, you got a lot of stuff to promote to. I mean, you got, you know, we'll get into other things right off the top. I wanted to mention that the beyond or beyond real just hit. And then they try trade paperbacks also being promoted now. So, like.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah, so fifth issue is coming in a couple of weeks for beyond real. That's the. The series finale, essentially. And, oh, man. The final issue of Beyond Real has so many artists that are amazing, obviously. Fabiana Mascolo and Jordi Belair, Jorge Corona, Liana Kangas, Luana Vecchio, Hasan Otzman. El Hao is lettering, and. Yeah, it's just, the finale just hits hard. I cannot wait for people who have been reading the series to see how it all ends and pulls together and then, yeah, if you have been excited about the book and have or have not checked it out, the graphic novel is just around the corner in August, and we're collecting pre orders for that. And I think it'll really be an amazing read to see all seven artists kind of artwork all in one place.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it's one of those things that's something that you lose. We have short term memory nowadays, but, like, you lose some of that between issues, but having it all collected after reading all of them individually is really cool to see.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And this, this series, for sure, is definitely, like, we. We made. We tried our best to make sure that each issue stands on its own as. As an experience, each in and of itself. But obviously, since this is about a character who is traveling through different layers of a simulation and the art keeps changing, the ability to see that all collected is definitely going to be the most immersive kind of experience you could ask for.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: You know what's kind of cool is I helped out my LCS owner, Paul Eaton, who owns Galactic Comics and collectibles in Bangor, Maine. He had to go through his daughter's baton twirling competition on, on a pre comic book day. And so I, you know, took the bullet, and I said, I will. I will come in, help you. He has. He has an employee there that's great. He's wonderful. He's awesome. He just sometimes gets overwhelmed when it gets busy. And so I was there as a support structure. You know, I run a restaurant. I used to run a restaurant. So I had the, I know what busy times are and so on and so forth. And one of the things we did was any of the leftover issues of beyond real number one, as well as unnatural order. Obviously, we gave them away. It's like, it's part of the free comic book day. And I think people were kind of cool. So that's kind of a cool little.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Thing that maybe if someone missed you. That is amazing. That is amazing to hear that you guys did that. And that is really exciting. And I mean, I heard a lot of anecdotal information about other shops that when they gave it away, readers subscribed and it was not the kind of book that would have been on their map. But they checked it out and they read the first issue and they were really excited and impressed. So that initiative that vault did of giving issue one away worked to a lot of extent in terms of bringing in new readers to a book that they wouldn't have normally checked out. So that's great that, that shop, galactic comics, is that what it is?
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Yes. And it was cool. It was awesome little thing there. And he had him on a little shelf, honestly, it got more coverage, I think, like visual coverage for people because it was a free, he opted, he doesn't charge for anything. He was given for free, basically free comic book day. So basically any leftover free comic book day books or he buys a collection as an FCBD book in the, in the collection, it's, he doesn't charge for it. I don't, he doesn't care if it went up in value. He's like, this is original purpose of this book was to give it away for free. He treated beyond real and unnatural order in a very similar fashion. So as you like, left the store, there was a little shelf on the bottom that had like the leftover issues in it. So if you missed, you know, the first release day, it was still there for free. You could grab one on your way out. Uh, he's like, I'm not going to charge for it now. Weeks after we gave it away to everybody for free. So he's like, right. It seems kind of weird that like, you know, to charge for it now. But he said, uh, it worked out pretty cool. And I think it did sell some issues, two and three and so on. And hopefully someone reading that, maybe they picked that up and they'll pick up the trade because they missed the other ones or so on and so forth. So it's really kind of a cool initiative that vault did with that. And again, I mentioned we should continue mentioning unnatural order was also done that way, too, and it was.
But, yeah, that's exciting. I'm excited for people to get the trade in their hand. It's a really cool thing coming up here. But you've got other books that are coming out, too. Outside of kill all immortals, which comes out in July, dark horse, and then the shadow midnight, which comes out this fall, in October. What else are you working on right now? Is there anything else that we should just quickly get out of the way off top, or are you just focusing on these things?
[00:07:14] Speaker B: Secrets, my friend. I have one book that's. I have one book that's dropping any day now, to be honest. But that has to drop in its time and its place. But that's another very exciting new series that will be out this year that I'm very excited about. So I will have four different books out by the end of this year, which is a lot and a lot of fun. They're all super different, and I think they're all going to amaze and be a fun ride in different ways. And then I'm already working on comics for 2025. I mean, I'm already working on four so different comics for next year, so nonstop.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: But it's crazy how fast the next year comes. Like, we're here in May, and I do a lot of comics, but I also do novel, you know, and stuff like that coverage. And I'm seeing, like, advanced copies of books that are coming out in January, start hitting, like, my inbox and things like that. I'm like, what the heck? Like, what the hell is going on here? We're not even halfway through the year yet.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: No, you don't even understand, Justin. I mean, guys, if I'm pitching a book right now to a publisher, it is possibly, at this point in the game, a late 25 book to even, there's scenario where it could be 26, because when you pitch a book, it takes time to assess it and process it and contract it and put the team together and get the first issue ready and get the designs ready. And then once the artist, that's months and months and months. And once the artist goes, then that artist needs, you know, sometimes it's a year to complete, you know, nine months to a year to complete, you know, 100, 100 to 120 pages. It depends. And so, yeah, and then you solicit ahead of time. So, yeah, it all adds up to things I'm putting together now are definitely summer, fall, winter 25 or. Yeah, it's, it's far out. It's so funny. But that's the way it works.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: And then you can come up with issues or things. I mean, kill all immortals is out in July. It wasn't originally. Right. It was supposed to be another time. So.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Yeah, kill all. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Kill all immortals, which is my new action series from Dark Horse, was originally slated for February. We had brought in Jordi Belair. I had worked with Jordi on colors on beyond real, and, you know, absolutely. She's amazing colorist. So I shared with her kill all immortals. She came on the project, but when it came time to actually start to work on it, Jordy had had some things come up, and we really tried to make it work for several months. She really tried. We really tried. And at the end of the day, it just wasn't able to happen. And we were happy to say no worries. And so I had worked with Thiago Rocha on the midnight, which is my other book that comes out in October, such an amazing, new, talented colorist.
And so I just said, you know, would you like to check this book out? And he loved it. And so we brought him on to kill all immortals. But because we were making that change and kind of shifting on the creative, we wanted to give it time to truly come together. And so we didn't. We needed to push it, not just for a month or two. We needed to push it to the summer so that we could do it proper. And I feel that we really did it proper. It's a gorgeous looking book. It's really all come together. I think that I can appreciate that. There's been a lot of excitement about the book because we, I think, announced it last October or so and maybe around New York Comic Con. And so, you know, it's been, it's been in the, it's been on the map for a while, but no one is more excited than me to get it out and let fans truly see what we have in store for them.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: It's funny because I, like, talk to people and I always say, like, how exciting is it that now people have these in their hands and so and so forth, and there's certain people who have, like, solicited for a couple of months, and then there's other people who have solicited, like yourself for almost a year.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah, a long time. But, I mean, now we finally, we've been finally revealing artwork and, you know, things like that and being able to finally let people see how, how awesome.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: It looks yeah, and it's absolutely wonderful. What do you give for, like, an elevator pitch on the book for people? Like, how do you explain the book to people?
[00:11:43] Speaker B: It's. It's a succession family drama of immortal Viking, modern day fighting, John Wick style. So if you like secession meets John Wick with immortal Vikings. That's what this book is. It's about a family of Vikings. They're immortal.
The only daughter in the family of three other brothers and her viking father. She's not part of their cutthroat, barbaric family business. And finally, circumstances push her to want out of the family, so to speak. And to do so, she's going to have to fight through her family and her bloodthirsty brothers and her father. And so it's very action driven. It's very violent and exciting. It's modern, it's stylish.
It's drawn by Fico AsiO and colored by Thiago Rocha and Hassan. Osman Alauhau is our amazing letterer. Tom Mohler does an incredible graphic and design in the book. We've got some amazing cover artists and, yeah, really, it's my most action packed kind of book. I mean, it's still in the kind of Sci-Fi supernatural genre space, but it definitely brings it.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Yeah, the writing is wonderful. I mentioned off the top before we started recording that I absolutely loved it. I was able to read it twice this weekend, and the first issue, at least, and it's phenomenal, and your writing is wonderful. But let's be honest, the star of the show is Fico. I'm not sure, like, you know, no offense to you at all, but, like, I don't know how Fico was able to make me feel the movement in the pages. Like, there's just, like, there's a, you know, I'm not obviously spoiler for anybody, but there's a scene where you kind of, like, really meet who these people are and you feel it. Like I said, you mentioned John Wick. I felt like I was watching John Wick in single still image panels. It was phenomenal.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, it brings it. This. This series brings it. It's really.
It's noir and calm at one moment, and then it's aggressive at another moment. You know, if you like.
Yeah. Complex, but. But violent. You know, it's. It's really. It really brings it. And Fico is really good at that. I mean, the funny thing is the fight sequences only get better as this series goes on. Like, they only continue to get more crazy and dynamic and, and John Wick in style. And he is really a master of bringing that, that velocity and that energy to a scene. And, you know, it's a fight sequence, but you really can feel it. You can really feel it. And you can really see it take twists and turns and feel the energy. And it's exciting. It is really exciting. And, and Chiago Rocha, the coloring, it's, it's, it's just, it's, yeah, it's moody, but intense and modern. They made a great team. And it's really some exciting visuals. It's, the whole series has got a lot of amazing landscapes. You know, it kind of goes through a lot of locales. It's kind of a bit globetrotting. And they, they draw some really impressive stuff. So the first issue is really incredible. And it's also kind of the tip of the iceberg, which is really, really super cool.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Do I want, I want this issue to be in 3d for like, 3d.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: See some of those axes, those viking weapons flying out at you?
[00:15:13] Speaker A: That would be, yeah, that'd be intense. Like a special, like, you know, limited edition. And the angles, it's not even just the, the actual, the angles of the art and the angles of seeing these staturing people. You know, obviously you want to impose this strength and that angle, the lower angle of these towering people over you, uh, drenched, you know, having blood in some scenes and just, I don't know, they just feel powerful. And that's, that's, where does it, where does a comic book like this come from? Like, this is not, like, this is not simple as, like I'm gonna tell a ghost story or I'm gonna tell a viking story. I'm gonna tell a secession story. This is like, you know, or horror story. You're like, I was take all of this and just like push it together.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: And make Justin, this is my thing. Like, this is my, this is what I like to do. I like to take things and mash them up. You know, like, uh, you know, I like to Sci-Fi Western, you know, or robots are boxing, you know, in an MMA style fight for equality. Like, I like to take different subgenres and mash it up. But I think it's like there's something really interesting about the reflection of vikings in our modern business world and how violent and barbaric they are. And I feel like as readers, check this out, you aren't surprised by that aspect in our modern world. You're kind of, it's, it's shocking, no doubt, but it's also like we're the conversation, you know, and the way people kind of handle conflict in our culture in the past ten years or so feels like it has elevated so much, people are so much more aggressive about handling things. And so I feel like these vikings kind of feel like a real representation of how cutthroat we know that business and power are in our world. And so it just seemed, it seems like just such an interesting reflection and kind of explores themes of power in our modern day. And then, of course, it's just badass to see vikings in our modern world. And they still have the haircuts and the weapons, but they're dressed in, like, high fashion. And Fico does a great job with the character designs of making them feel both modern but also making them feel viking and barbaric and, and making these modern moments feel very cinematic at times, but then very high octane at times. We talked a lot about as we designed the layouts and designed the kind of style of the book. Fico is really a versatile artist. He did a series of dark horse called no one left a fight. It went two arcs, completely different style, super colorful, super dynamic. I mean, I guess similar in terms of the high octane velocity and kind of action of that series, but the look couldn't have been more different. And then he goes and does Mister Miracle at DC or action comics. So, you know, a lot of, a lot of range. And so because he had all that range, we talked about what this book was and the energy that it was bringing. And at times, we wanted it to feel Fincher esque and kind of cinematic. And then at other times, we wanted it to feel like blood is spraying everywhere. Like, it's really aggressive because that aggressiveness, it's not just too, it's not just also for our gore sake, but for, like, it's, the intensity of this world is kind of what you feel, you know?
[00:18:44] Speaker A: So I reading recent series of, like, there's blood for blood's sake, like, just to make bloody things, but there's, like, purpose behind it, I think. And you mentioned cutthroat, and I'm like, I wanted to say right off the bat, there's no pun intended there at all. But there is.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: And the funny thing is about these giant viking people, it's like, I wouldn't be surprised going into a business meeting with someone in a nice, nice fitting suit, muscular, looks like they go to the gym every day and to the point where, like, you could hide in plain sight in a sense that you were an immortal Viking. Because there are people who dress like that now. Like, this is, like, longer blonde hair, like, nicely, but, like, chiseled and, like, walking into a business meeting, you're not, like, always seeing these nerdy people anymore.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: It's just kind of funny. I'm like, if you just saw this person walking down the street to business suit you just like, it's just a business person.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: It's just. Yeah, it's just a guy. Just a traitor or something. Like, he just works out a bunch. Yeah, well, yeah, they're kind of invisible. You know, that's. That's another kind of thing here. Like, they're. They're all powerful. They're immortal. They cannot die, so they just keep coming back to life.
They're not vampires, and they're not gods. They're just immortal. And we don't know why. And that's a mystery to the series, but they are kind of powerful businessmen lurking in the shadows, and kind of, they have this massive billionaire empire. And, yeah, I feel like there's something to that kind of invisibility where, like, the true wealthiest of the wealthiest and the most powerful in our society are invisible. Like, we can't. And so, yeah, there's just a muscular viking guy, but then they suddenly come out, and that shows itself, and it's like, oh, wow. The intensity of it, it was a lot of fun. It's a lot. It's a lot of fun to write this series. A lot of fun to pull together. Yeah, for sure.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: And have you have the daughter. What's her name again?
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Frey. Frey.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: Frey. Frey is like this person who knows who her family is but just doesn't want to be that much a part of it, but then gets forced back into it for a reason. You'll find out in the first issue. So it's cool to see that also the position that you. And the artwork and the coloring on it, it's like when they're dark and being bloody to her in her life and then going to Iceland, those kind of color has changed really well as well.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Yeah, the coloring brings up the different kind of layers to the. To the series, you know, from her. Her is a more romantic and softer and removed energy, and their energy is a little more masculine. And then Iceland is a very sterile when they come to their home in Iceland, it's a very sterile sort of place where you can sense that something is off. And, yeah, she's a very interesting character, for sure. I mean, she's the only daughter in this very masculine family. She is powerless and she knows it. And she has chosen to exert her power by removing herself from their business and she kind of has agreed to tolerate it. She's kind of raises money for charity and she's trying to do altruistic things in the world as a way of offsetting the horrible things that she knows her family is doing. And even though this family is 1000 years old, the irony is that there's still an evolution to their story. And you can sense that her position has worked for her. But now we're in modern times and there's something that's not working anymore. And so she's a really, she's immortal, family's immortal. And how do you stand up against that and how do you make choices about your life and your place in the world and the impact that you have? It's very. Yeah, it's a really kind of complex, I think, story. And so that's, I think what's really exciting is I think people are gonna pick up this book because they vikings in suits, fighting it with axes is just cool and fun and the visuals are great. But then when you get to this character story, it is really, you really feel for this, this young woman and you really don't know. You want her to succeed and find her path, but you don't know how she's going to do that. How is she going to stand up to this family, Trey?
[00:23:06] Speaker A: And it proves you can't really choose who your family is. Yeah, you can choose who your friends are and things like that, but in the end, if you have such a powerful family like this, they cause so much problems, it's like it's inevitably going to come back and get you. And he said, like, I'm not going to spoil anything on why, but, like, she now has to be reunited with this family and her distance is now.
[00:23:24] Speaker B: Closer and it's more complex on the kind of, like, there's evil in the world and you have to stand up to it and it's. Okay, okay, fine, sure, there's good and there's evil and they're bad and she's good, but is it so simple and they're immortal, so is it so simple as just standing up to them? And like, how do you stand up to something that does not stop, that does not end, that does not die? Which then again, brings in this kind of theme about power and the billionaire class in our world and how kind of, we can see all the things that are wrong with a very few controlling most of our world and exerting power in this way. But what are you to do to stop it? It feels immortal. It feels like it will not stop. It is not just a single person that is the issue. And so I think that's kind of the very complex dilemma that she faces. And it's a very interesting journey. We're really hoping the kind of, I think, you know, one of the inspiring touchstones has been a character like Erica Slaughter that's emerged in recent years and kind of seeing that an action heroine can not just kick ass, but that can have a really interesting character story and journey as well. And so, you know, I think that, I think that readers will really be, enjoy Frey's story in that regard.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And you could tell that she wants to be her own person, but she also still is a badass. Like, she's still, like, she's got the half sleep tattoos and she's got, she's.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: Definitely, she's a viking.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Yes, someone's ass. But, like, she also doesn't really want to, you know, I mean, like, she can do it if she want, if she needs to, but she doesn't really want to do that. And she'd rather be separated if possible. But, like, push comes to sub, she's gonna kick your ass. Sorry.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: It's a little John Wick, right? It's a little John Wick. Don't make me do it.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: Yeah, just don't kill his dog.
[00:25:15] Speaker B: And, yeah, the only difference is, yeah, she's, she's in a family of John Wick. So it's like she can take care of the, she can take care of the mercenaries and that, this and that. But, like, what do you do when you've, when your brothers are all John Wicks and your dad's John Wick and you don't want to be a John Wick, but now, yeah, it's a genie. It's a fun setup. It's a really fun setup.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: And it's brought together, like I said, your writing and your story behind it, it's wonderful. I did write a note down last night when I was reading that. I don't think that many comics had me hooked on issue one in 2024 so far, as much as this one did. And it's not just because you're coming on. I literally put it down and I was like, holy crap. Most of them are get through. I'm like, oh, this is cool. Let's see how the series goes. And as the series progresses for a lot of these comics, I'm like, oh, this is phenomenal. This is great. There's some good books out there this year. I don't know something about this. I don't know if it was a mixture of all those things you mentioned, you know, the Vikings, the secession part, the John Wick part. If all of that together just makes me go, oh, I can't wait to see where this goes.
But, yeah, it was that. But also, the artwork, like I mentioned, is phenomenal.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: Yeah, the artwork is stunning, too.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: But Hasan's lettering, I don't know. I don't know if I just noticed it more in this book than others that Hasan has lettered, but, like, the little bubbles that are attached to each other.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:32] Speaker A: I feel like I haven't seen that much in many comics where it's, like, it's not one big speech bubble. It's, like, broken in this way. I don't know if it's way that, like, someone says a sentence, you know.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: I write a lot. I do actually write in my scripts a lot of ellipses, dialogue that segments out, and so someone will say something, but then say something else, and it divides. And I do a lot of that, but I also do a lot of that. I've worked with Hasan now a lot, and Hasan is the best letterer in the business. I'm so excited to see him nominated for an Eisner award finally, for the first time.
Hassan deserves to win that and win it for years. He is.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: How is it? The first Eisner nomination?
[00:27:14] Speaker B: It is amazing, but he is amazing. He did amazing lettering in mindset. Amazing lettering and beyond real. I worked on with Hasan on join the future back a few years ago, and, yeah, the lettering here is really just, it works. He understands how to navigate Fico's artwork and take you through these really exciting layouts and make it really easy to read. And he has all sorts of really nuanced techniques that just pop up very subtly, but if you actually look at them, you're like, oh, wow, what an interesting choice on the. On the sound effect or on the tails, you know? And there'll be little squiggles and moments that just personify how the character is feeling at that moment. So it's very emotive.
You know, it all came together really, really beautifully.
[00:28:06] Speaker A: It does, because I feel like sometimes I find myself just, like, you know, robotically reading a comic book where it's like bubble to bubble to bubble, and I'm just like, okay, here you go. But I felt like that movement, I felt like it's a flowing thing. And then again, with the artwork. Having that movement, I felt like. It felt very cinematic.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: In a sense, which, again, has that John Wick feel and we mentioned before, but, yeah, there's something about it and something about a complete team like this, like, having that. Everything having. And you've been lucky enough with some of these books that you've done to have, like, a team that hasn't had this, like, one.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: Yeah. No wink links. No wink.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: You're over here saying, yeah, everybody was great, but internally you're like, eh, okay.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: No, yeah, yeah. I think, yeah. It's a. It's a. The book has really been effortless.
Dark Horse has been extremely amazing to work with. I work with the same editors that I did break out, and the midnight shadows, which is Spencer Cushing and Connor Knudsen, and they're fantastic. And we're a well oiled machine. And it's been a very seamless but passionate experience to bring this world to life. I think that the world of immortal Vikings, modern day, it's like all these things that people love. People love stories about immortality. People love vikings. You know, people love modern, you know, action like John Wick. And then to, like, pull it all together, it's crazy idea, but it all really came together so well.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: I think part of it is one of the things I look for in comic books nowadays. If people ask me what I'm looking for is something different and unique, this isn't your normal, like, you could easily have just told the story of, you know, brutal business people who use their power more of a mob scene thing, or that the physically abuse people or hurt people to get things that they want. But adding the Viking, or even they could be immortal.
[00:29:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: It's possible for you and I to be immortal right now. And you'd be talking on, you wouldn't have to be Vikings, because at some point, someone has to, either.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: Justin, I. Can I tell now, everybody, listen. The truth is, I am immortal.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Don't tell people.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: I'm not supposed to tell people, but.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: Oh, the idea that, like, vikings is a cool. It just adds a whole other element to it that's not necessary, but fun. And I think that's the cool difference, I think in here, and I think there's a difference between.
One of my favorite comic books of the past couple years is a legacy of violence from Colin Bun, and that was a straightforward horror. Like, it was like, it felt like it could be. You could be living in this horrorful world that this actually could happen. And then there's the supernatural part of. Parts of books, like something's killing the children or whatever. And the same thing with this is like, this one thing. It's like, this could be real if they weren't immortal vikings. Yeah, but I think so. It makes it unrealistic.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: The real trick is to make sure that the story is really simple and stands alone on its own. And at the core, this is a family power drama.
You have a family and you have the daughter that doesn't want to be a part of it. So in that way, it's godfather.
It's just something that's so timeless that we know all too well about a family at war with itself. It's secession. I mean, this was an amazing show because at the core, it was a family at war with itself. And so this is a family at war with itself. This is a daughter in a very masculine family. We immediately empathize with the dilemma that she faces. She has ideals. She has values. She does not want to be a part of this, but she is stuck.
And we get that. But we've seen that. So how do you make that different? And, yeah, I don't know that we've seen immortal vikings as billionaires. And so that's the fun world that we get to step into. And we, and then we try to service each of those things to make sure they're authentic, to make sure that really does feel like they're vikings, to make sure it really does feel like they are billionaires. And that wealth and that lavish lifestyle and that privacy is all really there. And they talk like that. And, yeah, I think if this ever.
[00:32:10] Speaker A: Gets optioned for a tv show, I feel like what they need to do is, like, Vikings. The tv show is like, the first half of a season, and then the second half of the season is just secession. So you have to learn how they became immortal and all that stuff. But it's like, full on Viking era. Like, if I were going to, if.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: I had to pitch this as a tv show and use, like, images, I would be using images from those two shows. It would be like, here's the Vikings tv show. Here's secessions tv show. Like, now imagine them together.
[00:32:37] Speaker A: Like, you can do, like, flashbacks in it, too, would be kind of cool. Or, you know.
[00:32:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it's cool.
[00:32:43] Speaker A: I guess it has this, like, I don't know. There's just so much to it that a prequel series wouldn't be out of the world, you know, out of the question, like a one shot telling you how you. How they.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: I don't think I'm. I don't think I'm going to spoil anything by. By telling you that we actually have a couple flashbacks in this series, so.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Which makes sense. It only makes sense to do that.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: You know, this family's been alive for a thousand years. We actually do have a couple flashbacks where we get to go back to see the family struggle in the past. So.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Yeah, they've been wearing suits their entire time. You'd have no idea they were.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: Yeah, they. How did they have that Armani suit? Because it's time travel, too. That's the other thing that comes. No, it's not.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: No. This is actually an offshoot of beyond real. You didn't know that? It's just, like, dimensions of things. Don't worry about it, guys. No, it's a phenomenal series. Like I mentioned, it has this difference to it that, I don't know, it just stood out to me. I mean, obviously, you tend to like to read things by writers you like, and I'm a fan of your writing, so that helps. And then when you open the pages up and you see the visuals that match your writing, I'm like, okay, cool. This is awesome. I'm going to enjoy that.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: I'll tell you, I was.
I was a little nervous to take this one on, to be honest with you. I mean, a lot of the things I've done are Sci-Fi and they're different. And, I mean, I wanted to do it for sure. I mean, I had. I was excited to do it, but as I was starting to put this story together at the very beginning, you know, being so action oriented and being just a little bit different, it was. It was a. I was nervous, but I, you know, by the time that the art started to come together and we started to pull it all together, I, you know, started to feel like, okay, this is really. This is really. We got something here. So, um.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I like. I like issue one. I mean, it could all go downhill from here. Zach. No idea.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: Terrible. Issue two is. I'll send it to you. Issue two is terrible.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: It's terrible. Horrible.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Pico drew stick figures, and the budget.
[00:34:40] Speaker A: Got caught, completely pushed it too far out, and now it's no color. Thiago only did the first.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: I lettered it. Hasan doesn't letter it. I lettered it. It's just, like, boxes, and I couldn't fit them all in. So, like, I have that thing that you do in, like, kindergarten where you're, like, the word comes over here. Like, I want to fight you.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: There's a local place I'm not going to call it out on here, but a new restaurant who looks like they put up a big sign on the side of the building was painted and it was like, looks like someone didn't, like, do the spacing correctly. So, like, the last word is, like, really squished towards the end. And I'm just like, oh, God, that.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: Would be how I would let her.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: And that's why you have someone like a son. It still baffles me that this is Eisner. You actually honestly also baffled me about their, baffled me about their Eisner nominations, that Tim Seeley didn't have a nomination before now either.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:35:24] Speaker A: I would have thought. I would have sworn that Tim had a nomination. He's like, no, my first one. I'm like, wait, what a second, huh? And so that's fascinating about that.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: But, yeah, you know, there's a lot more that goes into it. Just like all these award stuff, you know, who knows? Who knows what goes.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Well, local man has less, you know, people in bikinis and murdering people and all that stuff. So maybe that's why.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: Yeah, that was acceptable. I don't know. But yeah, another, another very deserving creator, for sure.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: And I always love to cover my buddy over there, David Harper,
[email protected]. Got a nomination.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: Amazing.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. For David. Yeah.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: And I love. Yeah. He's been really on top of. And I love the James Tynan series that he did over the past year.
[00:36:08] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: Great.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: Phenomenal. So I'm really. And, but the thing is, though, this comes out in June, so we'll know. I think by the time this comes out, we might actually know. But my Celtics are pacing his pacers in the Eastern Conference finals in the NBA. So, like, you know, go, Celtics. Screw the pace. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Fair enough.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: Hopefully, I don't, like, shoot myself with the foot here. And they find out. They get swept by the pacers by the time this releases. I feel like an idiot now, but no, but, yeah, this is different. You mentioned. But, like, what about your other series of dark horse? Now, the series book that's coming out of dark horse? I feel like that's different than this book.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: Yeah, the midnight shadows is different, too, for sure.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: But, like, I'll tell you about this book again. I want to mention the artwork. Do you have two artists on this one? Correct?
[00:36:50] Speaker B: We do. Yes. We have Steven Thompson and Janoy Lindsay and I can talk about why we have two different art styles, but there are two different artists on issue one. And then Stephen Thompson takes over most. Most of the. The series until the very end. Yeah.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: But I will say, I, again, about the artwork because obviously in this one especially. Because, I mean, if you think about it, you get me some of the first chapter. There's like some quote unquote writing scripting in the first page and a half. But most of it's just visual parts to it. But the second page or the big. The first two page spread on that.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: I stared at that for 20 minutes, probably.
[00:37:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's online. It's online. It's a post apocalyptic mall. Yes. And these kind of cyberpunk soldiers have landed in their spaceship. And they're coming into this post apocalyptic, eighties, nineties style mall. And the level of detail in this holy smokes. It is amazing. It is amazing. And to be honest, that is the taste. That is the proper taste of this series. Because the number of locations that have that level of detail. This series will blow your mind in terms of, like, double page spreads of amazingly detailed. There's so many double page spreads of amazing, detailed landscapes and locations like this one. It's really breathtaking. Stephen Thompson and Chaga Rocha just do an incredible job in that world. And, yeah, it's a gorgeous book. Gorgeous book.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: I wanted to mention that at the top. Let's back up a little bit and say, so, midnight shadow. Midnight. It's the midnight shadows. So the midnight is what you explain to people.
[00:38:30] Speaker B: The midnight is one of the largest synth wave bands in the world. They have a million listeners, roughly on Spotify. They tour from India to Australia, from Europe to here in the States. They've been around for, I want to say, about eight years now. And just some really incredible poetic synth music and synth wave for people who are like, well, wait a minute. What's a synthwave? It's kind of this electronic rock sort of, kind of combination that comes out of these touch tones from the eighties or nineties. And kind of, you know, very indicative of tron kind of music. And a lot of cinematic soundtracks that came from the eighties and nineties. And. But the music is far more than just that. And it's really fantastic storytelling in the music. And that was what drew me to their music is it's really just a very aesthetically driven. All their album covers and everything have this really strong presence. And I had been a big fan for years. It was also coincidence that I happened to know the lead singer prior to this band being formed. And so we had conversations about a collaboration and it finally came to be.
And we talked about, you know, this is a. A story that is kind of the best word I can describe is it's a reflection of the music, which is to say, the series entirely stands alone. It's not like we took the band and they, like, transport to, like, you know, like, hey, it's not like Bill and Ted's here. Like, it's a completely different, original story. You could read it without ever having listened to or know about the midnight. I think if you like my comics, you'll absolutely love it. It's thought provoking action adventure. It's got fantastic character, you know, journey, and it's beautiful to look at, and it's really.
But it reflects this music, and it reflects kind of the themes that they sing about. They sing a lot about nostalgia, a lot about growing up and kind of losing yourself and kind of indulging in fantasies versus, you know, kind of accepting responsibility in life and. And.
Yeah. And falling in love and, you know, all these kinds of really themes that we took and then kind of put into the story.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: It's cool, too. And you mentioned this to artists in the first chapter you sent me, there was this 1999 versus 2108 style artwork, which is really cool. I love that when people do that, it's very simple for me. Oh, we're going back in time, and it's the same artist. You're like, you don't have the same feel. When it had that different in art style so drastic. You'd be like, okay, I don't have to. You don't have to tell me at the top. You have to tell me once. This is 1999, but you don't have to tell me every single time the page turns that that's where we year we're in. Because the artwork speaks for itself.
[00:41:34] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. So the premise of this book is that you have a young man who is on the precipice of fatherhood. He's expecting his first child, and with it comes all these feelings about fate, you know, losing his own adolescence and what this future means for him. And I think anybody who's had children can relate to that bridge, for sure. And in the process of cleaning up his childhood things, he finds a video game from his past, the midnight game, and he ends up trying to get it repaired, and he gets sucked into the game, which is very Tron, for you would think at the beginning. But here's the twist. The twist is he gets into this video game world, and they tell him that he is actually the character from that game. And this is this the game world is actually real life. 2108. The future is real. And this life that he's been living, this ordinary suburban, working as a mechanic life that was a game. That was a dream, that was something else. This is real life. He doesn't know which is real. And so he is forced to kind of figure that out and confront the fact that he's in this game world with its own antagonists. And so to reflect those two different worlds, we have two different artists drawing Janoi. Lindsay draws the, let's call it the ordinary world, which is kind of feels, Janoy has a very kind of light feel to his. To, you know, he draws a superboy over at DC. And so he really has a way of capturing kind of a heartfelt kind of nature. It feels really kind of just, you know, light.
And then Stephen Thompson draws this far more noir, post apocalyptic world that is very different. They're very different world. And so that really kind of lends to this mystery of what's real and what's not real. And you see this character kind of translated into two different forms, and he doesn't know which one, you know, which is his reality. So that was kind of the fun impetus of working with these two different artists. Jago colors both of them, but in two completely different coloring styles.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: It's like your blue is your pinks, your blacks, your car in one side, and you have, like, your orangish, like, I don't know, like, you know, sun. Sun drenched. Uh, other side of it is phenomenal.
[00:44:05] Speaker B: Sundrenched. Yes, that's right.
[00:44:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it just, it just has to feel. Like I said, I love when you don't have to work. One of the things about comic books I think that's much different than some other mediums is that you don't want to work so hard at it. Like, if the, the author, the artists, the colorist, and the letters all do their jobs, you just have to flow through the book. And I feel like there's like, I read a lot of novels, too. And sometimes you're like, you have to do so have to work. You have to visualize things sometimes. And sometimes they have to tell you where you lose. Like, if I'm reading a book that has multiple character viewpoints in it, I'm always like, who is this again, the comic book? It's, you can visually see it. And that's one of the things I think about it, is that I didn't have to work. I just immediately went to that page and go, oh, I know where we are.
Yeah, and that's good. And some people can do it.
I'm sure both these artists could have done it on their own. They're not saying that they couldn't have done it. It's just sometimes nice to be able to say, you draw your way, you draw your way, and we'll make it all into one comic book.
[00:45:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. But I felt like they have different strengths as artists, and their strengths are accentuated by the worlds that they're drawing and the styles in which they're drawing. I mean, obviously from beyond real. I'm a big fan of finding artists and giving them something to draw that is in their, that accentuates their art. I don't want to, I don't want to challenge an artist in their style. I want to support their style and challenge them in what, what they're drawing, you know, not the style.
[00:45:30] Speaker A: So.
[00:45:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: You don't like working with different artists at all. It's not.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: I work with a lot of different, yeah.
[00:45:37] Speaker A: I will say, too, one of my favorite things about this new book, too, is your letterer. And we mentioned Hasan. But like, I have a DC Hopkins. And guess what one of my favorite lettered pages of all times is. It's, it's common for people. Is this book three, or number three of Noctera was tractor trailer truck driving, and he writes room down the side of it, and we get one of those in this book. We get a very similar thing, which is phenomenal to me. It's not overdoing it, not anything. I'm just like, I turn the page and I'm like, hell yeah. Go DC Hopkins.
[00:46:06] Speaker B: There's a lot of that, too. He does a great job with the effects and the lettering, sound effects and things like that. There's a lot of it because the, the premise of this is kind of that he enters a game world. He's the hero of the game. And so he is supposed to have superpowers and he's supposed to be fighting monsters in this world. And so I'm not going to spoil too much, but there are, with that premise comes inherent a lot of fun opportunities for the lettering to show off those effects and those rooms and those things and, yeah, DC does a great job. It's a great team, for sure.
[00:46:47] Speaker A: And I will say, like, we live in a world right now where nostalgia, nostalgia is a huge thing. And I think that this tickle, tickles that fancy. Like, it's not straight up. Like, I'm writing a book for nostalgic sake, but, like, this book has that. That if you're looking for something nostalgic, this will tickle that fancy, if that makes any sense.
[00:47:04] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's also. I mean, this is indicative of the midnight and the lyrics and the themes that they sing about. They sing about nostalgia, and sometimes they have songs that sing about nostalgia in a very fantasized, idealistic way. And sometimes they sing about nostalgia and how it limits us and how it prevents us from engaging in the modern world. And it is a two sided thing. There is benefits and drawbacks to nostalgia. And I think that complexity and that duality is really fun and important to explore. I think that it like to just criticize nostalgia or just to embrace nostalgia becomes kind of one sided. And so I really think that this is a kind of a fun experience because we're trying to kind of explore nostalgia. Explore. And specifically nostalgia for the eighties and the nineties and the kind of video game craze, mall hangout kind of culture. When I think before we had Internet, social media, but we had some technology emerging, and anyone who grew up in the eighties and the nineties or who has connected with that era will feel we have a sense of nostalgia for something that felt a little more innocent at that time. And we were a little more disconnected and a little more excited about what the technology was bringing. Technology was kind of purely positive, you know? And we were like, ooh, games. Ooh, computers, like, ooh, all these things, they're going to change our lives. They're all for the better. And now we're aware of the benefits and the drawbacks. So there's a real kind of identity to the feelings that we had in the eighties and the nineties.
And this is kind of an exploration of that. And it's interesting because it kind of perfectly connects to the main character's journey about facing his childhood versus adulthood. And kind of, as you go into adulthood, the things that you kind of have to understand and change about your perceptions about the world and understanding the duality of the world. So, yeah, it's a really interesting character journey. And I think it's something that a lot of people, especially who maybe know of the eighties and nineties will relate to.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: Funny is, I don't like the fact that, like, I'm trying to figure out, like, my son's three. I'm like, what is he gonna be nostalgic about now?
[00:49:40] Speaker B: Like, I don't like man.
[00:49:42] Speaker A: Like, it's not like I could. I was born in 86, so I know, you know, again, I was four years old when we turned when the nineties happened. But, like, I know that stuff. I remember that stuff. I remember playing NES and I remember those kind of, those things. And seeing the nostalgic things, watching things like that nineties show, to me resonates in a way that I'm trying to figure out. Like, my son watches a show about the year he was born. I'm like, what?
What classic cars, they're going to be out there, you know, a Kia sportage. Like, what's, like, what is going on right now? I have no idea. Like, I try to, I don't want to, I don't want to think about it. So mean to me. Nostalgic. And thinking backwards is great, but it's not over the top. And that's what I like about it, too. It's not just in your face. There's a reasoning behind it.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: It's not, we don't know. We won't know what we're, we won't know what we're nostalgic about until we've lost it. It, that's the, that's the crazy thing. You only realize what you miss until it's gone. And, you know, whether it's driving our own cars or folding our own laundry or writing our own emails instead of dictating them to AI, we won't know until we are on the other side of that and we've lost it. And, and then we have a generation that says, drive. Yeah, like your car, drive. Why would you drive? Like, why do you need a car that you can drive or something like that, that you kind of, then you become nostalgic for that era. And so, yeah, I think there was, you know, going to the mall and losing yourself in an arcade. I don't know if people still do that. I'm sure they do.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: But there's an arcade in our town, in the town that my office is in, and that's just opened, I don't know, six months ago.
But then they hope it's not like.
[00:51:24] Speaker B: A throwback thing where it's like, experience the eighties and nineties, like, you know, like Marty McFly going back to, like, hunt or something like that.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: I'm glad you said Marty McFly because I was just thinking about that line from the movie where he's like. And it's actually, what's his name from Lord of the Rings, what's the actor's name? But it's him. And he goes, you have to use your hands to play the video game. And I was thinking myself, I'm like, that's actually kind of funny, because I could picture someone saying that, like, years from now being like, you have to use your hands. Like, VR is the only thing you.
[00:51:56] Speaker B: Can use your eyes. Like, this is on a screen.
Weird.
[00:52:01] Speaker A: Ridiculous.
But, yeah, I know. It's one of those things, like, you.
[00:52:06] Speaker B: Have to use a controller and you don't use your hands and your VR.
[00:52:09] Speaker A: Funny, because he kind of went like this because it wasn't there a. A while there, like the Wii example, for example, but then there was, like, the Xbox, like, the thing that you could just, like, play video games without doing anything, and then that kind of went away for a little while. Then VR came in and so, like, it's weird how we, like, have the cycles of things like that too, though.
[00:52:26] Speaker B: Like, the cycles are us just finding it. Like, I kind of feel like humanity. Humanity doesn't just know where it's going. We write where we're going. We discover as a collective where we are going. Like, we know we're going towards robots. Like, who are we kidding? Have you seen all the reels about robots and stuff? Like, they always show up. I'm a robot person, so I see nothing about reels of robots walking and doing flips and talking to people and doing all this stuff. Like, we've written it. We've written our own fate forward. And so if we're surprised when we get there, like, everyone, I don't know. Like, I think we're Terminator.
Yeah, I don't know.
[00:53:09] Speaker A: AI and Terminator. Has anybody not seen Terminator?
[00:53:12] Speaker B: Yeah, we're all kind of like, what are we doing here? I don't know if it'll get that dark, but I don't think that there's any question that AI and robots and things like this, flying cars, like, who are we kidding? Like, of course there one day will be flying cars everywhere. Is it 50 years or 200 years from now? I can't say, but of course that's going to happen. This is.
[00:53:35] Speaker A: And that's we're nostalgic about, though, is that 1980s films thought it was, like, gonna be, like, ten years from now. So we now understand that it likely will be 50 years or plus from here. We're not writing movies about the future.
[00:53:44] Speaker B: And being like, I have Waymo cars driving around Los Angeles, and there's no one in these cars. And, you know, they're just driving around and you're like, what?
[00:53:52] Speaker A: What did I just watch? I just watched good Burger two. I don't know why, but I watched good Burger two. And part of that, they have, like, you know, robots. Robots that serve you your food in a self driving car that drives you away. So, like, that's that. We wrote that into a good burger movie. Let's go, people.
[00:54:08] Speaker B: Yeah, but look, this is the, this is the, like, it's very easy for us to say, like, we missed this one thing. The thing you miss is beautiful and had its positives. The thing we gain can also be beautiful. There can be drawbacks. It's so complex. And I think that looking at the world through rose colored glasses or in one two dimensional perspective is where we really go off the rails. And I think that this is a story about two worlds and which way to view the world, and it's about a character who is torn between them. And so it is all very kind of relatable as we face technology coming towards us. I think that readers are really going to connect to the, the story. Not to mention, I mean, like, again, at the end of the day, in the same way the kill all immortals also just kicks ass because it is immortal. Vikings fighting.
What? You don't see a ton in this first chapter, but the Midnight Shadows will come out as a full graphic novel experience in October. It's not issue to issue. And the whole thing is actually also action packed. It's got a ton of exciting action, really amazingly drawn. And I think that when readers start to see more of that revealed, either through previews or just even when it hits shelves and it gets experienced, it's quite an amazing ride. Some of the action sequences in the midnight are very impressive, too.
[00:55:42] Speaker A: And let's mention quickly to the COVID by Raymond Swanlin, too is going to drop people in on its own to.
[00:55:48] Speaker B: It has amazing cover.
Raymond Swan Lynn did a cover for us, and then there's a deluxe version of this book as well by a cover artist that is done a ton of work for music and has done a ton of work for the midnight. And his name's David Legnan. And that cover is amazing in a completely different way. But two really amazing covers for this book. Yeah, but that Raymond Swanlin cover is really dynamic and impressive and draws you in with the, the eyes up there and then this fantastic city, and then you've got this guy with this, like, cyberpunk helmet and his cool car. It's like if you like Blade Runner and Tron and all of this kind of futuristic cyberpunk sort of stories, you will love this book.
[00:56:39] Speaker A: It's one of those things that I don't know. And again, I think this has this who you are like, you know, I mean, like, being a fan of your writing may drew me to this that I don't know, outside of, you know, following your writing, whether or not this would have been one that would have jumped off the shelf to me until I saw the COVID Like, we had mentioned this a while back about doing this, and I was like, oh, when I saw the COVID I was like, okay, I can see that. And then I read that, I was like, okay, I definitely am down for this, for this book to come out. And I'm loving the multiple covers thing because I feel like this is a new trend, which I'm happy about in comics where there's like, you know, direct, exclusive kind of things. I've seen like the Universal monsters hardcover, just the Dracula just came out this past week as of recording this, and it came out with like a boom. Regular cover and then like the boom.
[00:57:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:26] Speaker A: And it's pretty cool. That's pretty cool because I think that we are going into a trend that I think there's more involved into trade paperback.
[00:57:32] Speaker B: I know the dark, the deluxe cover of the midnight has a whole ton of, like, added content as well. So there's like, it's, it's a deluxe experience with a lot of making of.
[00:57:44] Speaker A: For sure, which is cool because I guess it's a different option. If you're a big fan of either you're writing the artwork or the midnight the band, then you have reasons to buy this extra thing. And I just got an email today about like, Mark Brussels traveling to Mars is getting a Kickstarter campaign for their hardcover exclusive. Big thing. So like, I just feel like there's more going into trades and graphic novels and things like that, which is awesome because I think there is something to be said about a nice hardcover or a nice deluxe option, but also I think you need to have it approachable. So if you have the regular, I just want to read the comic. I don't care about all the extra stuff version of it, which is great, too, because that's sometimes, you know, sometimes if you don't have a price range that matches with someone's wallet, they just don't read it and that's how they steal it. And we don't want either one of those. Yeah.
[00:58:28] Speaker B: The trade, the trade paperback of this book is, is $20.
[00:58:31] Speaker A: It's 1999 normal standard trade paperback size. And it's, you know, your, I think it's 100 and 3640 pages. So you're, it's a normal cost for that thing. And I'm guessing the deluxe will have. I mean, I'm sure the deluxe isn't going to be more than $10 more. You know, it's probably going to be like no, 2099.
[00:58:47] Speaker B: No, the deluxe is got a lot more. I think the deluxe is uh, like 60 or bucks or something. Okay. It's a lot more.
[00:58:54] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:58:54] Speaker B: Oh yeah. It's larger format. It's bigger. It's not just, it's not just a hardcover. It's a, it's not just a hardcover, um, book because they do hardcovers that are like 30 that are just like the trade, but they're just hardcover, but they're the same size. The deluxe is oversized. It's got a ton of bonus material. I think it comes with extra prints. You can go to the midnight, it's only available through the midnight's website and you can google that and go to their website. And then they have like tie ins where if you're a fan of the midnight, you like vinyl. They sell like vinyl with the, the deluxe. So no, the deluxe is like a very premium sort of kind of experience to really get a lot of expansion into it. For someone who really wants a more immersive experience, you know, if you just want to read the series, the trade is the way to go. It's got that amazing Raymond Swanlin cover and yeah, what's amazing about this is.
[00:59:53] Speaker A: That the midnight is a band right there since they play all over the world, all this stuff. And if you go to their website right now, Zachary, their homepage featured our thing is the book.
See, you're making waves here.
[01:00:05] Speaker B: Synth waves. Let me tell you, they dropped, they dropped that book.
We were blown away by the response. The amount of orders and excitement that they had around that book was something else for sure. So it's been really amazing to watch. They have an amazing fan community and they, they were very excited for it. And I'm really excited for comic readers who do not know the midnight to check this out because I think that it's an amazing graphic novel. You're going to love it. And you probably afterwards are going to go listen to the midnight music and go like, oh, wow, this is what this is about. And so it'll be a love fest all around, but yeah, well, I could.
[01:00:48] Speaker A: Just picture like reading the book, getting it all in, taking it all in, and then just like going through and like skimming through the book while the, while the midnight's playing on in the background. Kind of like just getting this, like just looking at the imagery of the book and just listening to the music. I could picture that happening too. And now I don't know which cover I like better. You suck.
[01:01:04] Speaker B: Oh, you saw the other one? Yeah.
[01:01:05] Speaker A: Oh God, it's so, it's like, it's that similar field, two page spread mall, and then it's got a, he's holding a flashlight and it's just, I don't know, there's something about it. And it comes with a, their website also comes with a print. I don't know if you mentioned that.
[01:01:20] Speaker B: I didn't.
[01:01:22] Speaker A: The print. Print that's also signed. Who signed it?
[01:01:26] Speaker B: I think the band will sign it.
[01:01:27] Speaker A: And maybe you'll sign it.
[01:01:30] Speaker B: I might sign it.
[01:01:31] Speaker A: Maybe you'll sign their music now. You're now part of the band.
No. So kill all Immortals is coming in July.
[01:01:39] Speaker B: Kill all immorals is coming July 10. So just a few weeks away, the midnight shadows is on pre order. So if you like what you hear about it, you should definitely preorder it from your comic shop. Tell them you want the graphic novel that is out October 1. And.
[01:01:58] Speaker A: Yeah, both dark horse books quickly. Did dark horse. Was dark horse just. You like working with dark horse or how did that.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: I love working with dark horse. And, yeah, it's just, I mean, after breakout, I had such a great experience with breakout, I just ended up bringing them both of these projects and they were both, they were excited about both. And, um. Yeah, make good. Make great books. Make great books with great people, great publishers. Uh, uh, I got a good thing going on with dark horse and we're, we're, we're killing it, so, uh, yeah.
[01:02:30] Speaker A: I love dark horse, so that's, no, that's a, that's a good thing. It's awesome. Yeah, killing it. Cut throat, you know?
[01:02:35] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:02:36] Speaker A: Killing it. So kill all mortals is great. Also, beyond real, last few issues is coming out. Uh, yeah, check the trade out this summer, August 21.
[01:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I imagine, I imagine the, the word in just the closing round of pre orders for the graphic novel as well. So if you want to get the graphic novel for be unreal, I recommend letting your shop know as well. And then my newest book will be dropping any day now, so I would keep your eyes peeled for that.
[01:03:04] Speaker A: Keep it, keep your eyes follow. You are on social media and stuff like that as well, so. Yeah, I appreciate you taking the time out, Zach, and come back on here and talk and all that stuff. It's great. Two amazing books come in too, so they're amazing. And also if anybody wants to check out mindset too, that's one of my favorites. So check that out there, too.
[01:03:21] Speaker B: It's available.
[01:03:22] Speaker A: Yeah, trade as well.
[01:03:22] Speaker B: Mind control. David Fincher s thriller. Yeah. Just came out a year or so ago. So, Justin, I have to send you off to send you a little more. Both of kill immortals and midnight. I think I have some come and sauce and you some.
[01:03:35] Speaker A: Of course, we're always willing. I'm always willing to read that stuff and. Yeah. But thank you so much for taking some time out. Hopefully weather is more steady over in California, but enjoy the rest of your day. Okay, thank you.
