[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on capesandtights.com dot. I'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. This episode is once again brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and collectibles in Bangor, Maine. You can find
[email protected] and check out their stuff like their TMNT number one exclusive by our buddy Bob Takik. But this episode, we talked to the creators of this land is our land, a blue beetle story. Writer Julio Anta in artist Jacobi Salcedo. They're here to talk about their book. It comes out October 1 from DC Comics. It's an original graphic novel origin story about blue Beetle. It's so amazing, so timely, so poignant, so wonderfully illustrated and wonderfully written that you should all check it out and so on. But Julio and Jacoby are also the Eisner nominated creators of books like Frontera, as well as other things that are out there, including Jacoby's come on in the past to talk about his comic with Kurt Piers. It's only teenage wasteland, but this episode, they're here to talk about a blue beetle story. This land is our land. So check that out. But before you do, find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter threads, blue sky, all that stuff, subscribe rate, review, all that stuff over on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you find your podcasts, as well as check our YouTube channel out and our website, capes and tastes.com, for so much more stuff and beyond on there, including a review of a blue beetle story. This land is our land. But, yeah, check this out. This is Jacoby and Julio talking their graphic novel. This land is our land, a blue beetle story. Enjoy, everyone.
Welcome to the podcast. How are you? Both of you? I guess good.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Yeah, we're doing good. We're doing good.
[00:01:42] Speaker C: We're good. Thanks for having us.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Welcome. I was reached out to by someone, a publisher, about having someone on the podcast. And, like, can you get all three creators on there? And I'm like, geez, yes, we can. But that's a lot of trying to figure out who's talking, when they're going to talk, and so on and so forth. I like this. This is the Max I like is the two people.
[00:02:01] Speaker C: Hopefully two of us is okay.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Yes, we'll see.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: We can do it. I don't know. Jacoby might steal all the thunder here. He might talk too much. I don't know. We'll see.
[00:02:10] Speaker C: That happens.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Well, I mean, like I was saying, right before we recorded, Jacoby's been on here to talk. It's only teenage wasteland, which is a wonderful comic over there at Dark Horse. But we're here to talk. This land is our land, a blue beetle story, which is an original graphic novel coming out from DC here in October. But before we jump too far into it, Julio, do you want to give us a little background on how you got into comics and into writing comics and so on?
[00:02:37] Speaker C: Yeah, sure.
So I had, you know, I kind of came up in music and playing in bands, writing for zines, booking shows. And I had a record label, essentially. And I had started really, like, focusing on other people's creativity rather than my own. I'd stopped playing in bands. I was just running the label.
And then I just felt this push to go back into my own creative work. And at the time, my first book was a book called Home.
And I've been a comic book reader for as long as I can remember, really.
And with my first book, Home, the idea for home is really what inspired me to become a comic book writer. I essentially taught myself and looked for resources, things like the Brian Michael Bendis book, words with pictures, things like that, comic scripts. I did all that in service of wanting to write a comic based on the idea of home, essentially. So that's, I guess it's a very abbreviated version, but the slightly longer version is I started doing mini comics, which also brings us to how me and Jacoby met, which I got the advice that instead of starting off with a mini series or the big Magnum opus that you want to create as a comic creator, which for me was home, you should work on your writing chops and also get your name out there by doing mini comics and short four to ten page comics. So that's what I started doing.
And with my second one, I hit up Jacoby.
I'd seen his work online.
I didn't know him at all yet. So I just cold emailed him, gave him a brief little pitch on what this seven page comic was going to be. And he was on board from the beginning, and he obviously killed it. Did an amazing job. We became friends that way, and we just kept making more mini comics together. And eventually that led to making our first graphic novel, which is called Frontera. That came out last year.
And then that leads to blue Beetle, essentially, with DC, you know, seeing our work and asking me, what. What is my take on blue Beetle?
And then dragging Jacobi along with me, too. So I love it.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: I watch.
I had Covid a month and a half ago, and I was stuck at home and I was like, what do I want to watch? That's not like I need to pay super attention to because if I fall asleep, I don't want to miss something, and so on and so forth. So somehow I got on West Wing, and I was watching West Wing and I don't know why. And now I'm, like, stuck. And I feel like I have to watch it, finish it. But on the show, they were doing this, they did this bet, and there was, they were at a bar and they said, you know, if you lose this bet that everybody you see for the rest of the day, you have to tell them that you work for the White House. And so you have to be like, hi, my name's Justin, and I work for the White House. And someone on the show eventually goes, you know, it'd be a lot cooler if we found that out on our own that you work for the White House, that you showing off that you work with the White House. So I'm going do something here. I'm going to say the Eisner nominated Frontera. You know, so you didn't have to say it to tell anybody and make it out there, but it is an Eisner nominated original graphic novel. So congratulations to that for both of you. It's awesome.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:06:04] Speaker C: I'm glad you learned that lesson on Sam's expense. I think it was Sam who lost that bet, right? Yes.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Yeah, there it is.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: And actually, I think this is the one that says to Justin from Jacobi in there.
But, yeah, so it's kind of funny. So you don't want to continue being like, oh, Eisner nominated. Yes, Eisner nominated a writer and artist here, but no frontier. It's just over a year now that it's been out. So that's pretty cool. I mean, we can touch on that really quickly. What's that like, been like, how's the Eisner nominations been like, how's that been like for both of you guys?
[00:06:37] Speaker C: I, you know, it was, it was surprising and also very validating of the work that we do. You know, Frontera, for those who aren't aware, it's a story about this undocumented immigrant crossing the border to make it back home to the US. And along the way, he meets the ghost of a migrant that died in that same desert nearly 100 years ago who has seen the way that the border has changed and how it's become more dangerous and how immigrants have become more vilified over those years.
So you know, for a book of that, of that, of those themes, to be nominated for an Eisner was very surprising to us, but also, again, validating and, you know, really special.
And, you know, my only complaint is I wish the food was a little better at the Eisner's, but, you know, but that's it.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: I won't complain about that.
[00:07:32] Speaker C: Jacobi actually liked the food.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: They had a solid a brownie, dude. It was nice and gooey. I loved it.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: I just love how that's the takeaway when you don't win the iceberg.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: You know? I think the thing is, too, is like, we had no expectations. We're just happy to be there.
I am proud to say that I guessed who the winner of our category was going to be, which, you know, that surprise in itself, but, yeah, we were just really honored and hopefully that nomination brought more ice to the book and that's what matters, you know?
[00:08:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: And it's one of those things that winning or not winning, you still can always say that you were nominated. They can never take that away from you, which is awesome kind of thing. I mean, think about it. Out of all the graphic novels that could have been in that category and all the different, all the different awards, I mean, our friend David Harper was nominated in the media.
[00:08:32] Speaker C: Shout out to David.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is awesome. And same thing. He went into it. Be like, we have no, I have no expectations on this. Like, if I win, cool. But if I don't, that's not like, whatever, I'm going to San Diego. This is amazing to be there and be like, oh, I'm here for a reason. Not just because I'm visiting. I'm actually here because I could win an award. It's a fun thing. So when I saw that, it jumped out at me too, which was pretty cool to see that. Yeah. And have a book of that meaning to be nominated is pretty cool. And then, you know, it's a beautiful book. I think everybody should get it. One of the cool things I love about trades and graphic novels, that they're available at bookstores and at your local comic book store. So if you don't have an lcs near you, you can always go to a local or a local bookstore and say, can you please get this book for me and pick that up? Which is pretty cool. It's at HarperCollins, I believe.
[00:09:15] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Their imprint, Harper Alley.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Oh, cool. Yeah, that's awesome. Those are. I do a lot of book stuff, too. And I still so confused by. I'm confused by the comic book publishing side of things. But the book publishing side of things is even more confusing, in my opinion. And that's where, I mean, it leads to this, too. I mean, this land is, our land is a DC comic. It's based on blue Beetle as the character, but it's also a graphic novel. So it's in the book market style. Look at that. You have right in front of you, right hands for the video watchers.
I was lucky it was funny because I was talking back and forth with Jacobi about reading it and getting it, you know, reading it before, before you guys released it of the comic and Netgalley had it because it's, again, it's a book publishing side of things, too. So I was able to read it on there, which is a little weird because the app is not designed for graphic novels. You know what I mean? Like, it's designed for books. So, like, it was, like, very choppy. And I feel like it, when it went to load, it was loading really slowly. It's very graphic intensive. But, yeah, I got the, I got to read it. I got to enjoy it. I got to be immersed in the comic book. And so that was fun to do that. But, yeah, so how, I mean, you said quickly on how you got involved in it, but, like, this is a big thing, and I will say that sort of, you know, not to get Jacobi in trouble or anything like that, but, like, we signed off last time we recorded. He says I got something coming. He didn't say what it was, but he did say he's got something coming. I should keep an eye out. And when I heard, I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. So something.
[00:10:41] Speaker C: It could have been a lot of different things.
There's a lot out there.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: This is one of those things. He did say it was big, and my interpretation of that was big two kind of thing. If you think about it, big is like a big two thing. But, yeah, with this land of Zarland, a Blue Beatles story, I mean, they contacted you mentioned, and you're just now you're on the book and it's coming out. Like, how did that go and how did creating the story come about?
[00:11:07] Speaker C: Yeah, so I was part of a program at DC called the Milestone Initiative. And this was a program for underrepresented creators based on the ethos of the milestone comics company that DC now owns. And it was like a, you know, it was kind of like a fellowship where they bring you in for like six months.
You do classes with them online. You also go and spend, I think we spent like, four or five days in Burbank going to the offices, meeting a bunch of editors.
And we also all got paired with an editor. And the editor that I was paired with, Courtney worked in the young readers division.
And I had already, obviously, I'd written Frontera. I think they might have had a PDF of it. It hadn't come out yet, but they knew that that was the space that I tend to work in a lot, you know, the book market, graphic novel side.
So once the program was over, you know, Courtney and I, we'd gotten to know each other. We had a great time working together.
And she essentially just asked me, you know, do you have any thoughts or ideas on Blue Beetle?
Which was super exciting to me because Blue Beetle is, if you asked me, you know, if you asked me at the time, you can write any DC character because I'm not as business savvy as maybe I should be. You know, I wouldn't say Batman.
I would have said blue beetle. Jaime Reyes is blue beetle. Yeah. So, you know, I was ready. I was ready, you know, the blue Beetle movie hadn't come out yet, so I hadn't seen it.
All I knew the only little bit of insider information I had is that it was not based in El Paso.
And to me, and I'll also just say I loved the film. I thought it was great. I thought it was a lot of fun.
I loved all of the references that really. I think it was funny for anyone to watch it. But I think for the latino community especially, you know, there were a lot of things that, like, we grew up with that we're seeing, you know, on the screen that, you know, it's kind of like a wink and a nod. Like, we, you know, this is made by people like you.
But so, so I love the movie. But for me, a big part of Jaime Reyes is the fact that he's in El Paso.
And as somebody who tends to write, like, very grounded stories with maybe just, like, one twist in it, you know, Frontera, it's the ghost home, it's the superpowers, but everything else is just straight grounded work.
The fact that he is in a real Us city, which very few of the DC heroes are, and that it's this border community, to me, opens up so many possibilities. And I immediately knew that that's where I wanted my story to be.
And I wanted it to be like my other work, grounded, all based on true events.
And that's what, you know, that's what it ended up being. You know, in interviews about Frontera I said this, and the same applies to this book. Everything that happens in this book is real, with the exception of, you know, an alien bug attaching to this kid's back and giving him superpowers. It's a big thing, but that's the only thing that isn't real.
But, you know, I I, at the time, most of the work that I do tends to just come out of my own curiosities, my own interests, my point of view. What am I thinking about? What do I want to.
What do I think is important enough to address in the work?
And what I was thinking about a lot at the time was obviously the immigration crisis that was happening at the border.
Some of it manufactured, some of it organic, and because of a lot of climate issues, and then also the way that teenagers are being radicalized by, you know, right wing sources and these social media algorithms that favor right wing sources and push kids down this road.
And I kind of made a connection early on between that and the experience that Jaime has with the scare up, which is also a radicalizing presence that pushes him to his most base instincts and wants to use him as their YouTube know, their vessel for, you know, their violent invasion of earth. Right.
So I saw a lot of parallels between that, and that was interesting to me, so I kind of just, you know, explored that and eventually landed on. On the story.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: And, Jacoby, were you attached at the beginning, or was this something that came out later on?
[00:15:56] Speaker B: So I wasn't attached to the beginning, but it was something that, like, I've been tracking that Julio's pitching, and then, like, it was kind of came up with, hey, what's your schedule looking like? Even though he definitely knows my schedule, because everything we're doing is together, so it's more. So you think you can do this?
Probably not, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: We're gonna find out.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: We're gonna make it work. And we found out, and it worked out, and, yeah, but it was just something where every time you would, like, pitch it or, like, tell me the pitch, I was like, they're not going to do that. And then they accepted it. And then he showed me the script. I was like, no way they're going to agree like this. And then, yeah, next thing you know, I'm drawing it, and I'm just like, okay, I guess we're this.
We got this far. And that's, uh, that's been, honestly the super, like, interesting part just how much, like we were able to do, like, it was. I felt like it wasn't reserved at all, like.
But, yeah.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Do you think you had a little bit more freedom because of the fact that it was a graphic novel outside of a, you know, floppy single issue, week to week to week, or month to month thing where they might have been more constraints on you?
[00:17:08] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. I think a few things, like, just to, like, double back on what Jacobi is saying, I didn't think they would. And again, because I maybe am not. I don't think of the work, like, as business savvy as I should. You know, I. When I pitch things, I try to. I try not to self censor. Like, I know what they might be. The editors and the whole editorial department, everybody who greenlights these books. I know what they might be thinking when they read these pitches. But despite that, I try to just give an unfiltered pitch of, if no one was going to stop me, this is exactly what I want to do. And then I let them tell me what I can't do, and then we go from there. So I try not to practice any self censorship when I pitch. So I did that again for this book with the expectation that they would pull me back and then I'd make edits and we'd find a happy medium.
But that didn't happen in the pitching process. That didn't happen in the scripting process.
I worked with a really great editor who gave me a lot of notes on the characters, and maybe you should think of this, but I never felt constrained. And to your point, I think a big part of that is that it's a graphic novel and that it's all written at once, but way before anybody reads it. Right. Like, in the single issue market, you might be writing issue four or five when issue one comes out.
And if this was being serialized as single issue, it's very possible that when issue one comes out and there's potentially a backlash to it, I'm getting notes on the issue four or issue five, and I'm being told to bring things back, pull things back. Right.
So, yeah, I think we get a lot of freedom in the fact that it's a graphic novel and also that it is not necessarily marketed to these.
Trying to be diplomatic in how I say this, but, you know, these more toxic single issue fandom communities.
So, yeah, I think that really worked in our benefit, for sure.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm just picturing in my head that people I picture, like, the person at my lcs or the person walking in and being like that would not have bought in this book in my head. And I'm just like, oh, God, no, please stop. But no. And also, I mean, I think you mentioned it before, too, with the whole not Batman not being business savvy on that sense, but, like, it's also blue beatles. You have a little bit more of a, this is not one of the big top three, four, or five horror characters in the DC universe. And so having that ability to, to play with it and also have it, I mean, what kind of, you couldn't tell this story, really, with, with Batman or, I mean, with Superman? I guess you can, but it's more of a intergalactic type, like being a foreigner from another, you know, planet, not, you know, a different country or area. But, yeah, that's kind of the blue Beetle thing. I'm also glad that I read this and this was out after the movie because I really finished. I liked the movie a lot. I did like it. And I'm, I'm not a huge DC person, and so, and I am definitely not a huge DC movie person. And so when I watched it, I was like, oh, this is really good. But I feel like if I read this story prior, I would have been like, I really wanted it to be this story. Do you know what I mean? I would much rather have had this story as. And so I'm glad it was the opposite. Cause at least I got to enjoy that as that and this is this and not have to be interfered with either one of them because. Yeah, and someone did write that on. I was, I do search the Internet a little bit. And on Goodreads when your reviews was, this is better than the movie. And that was like, literally the only review. And I was like, I guess that's a pretty good review, I guess.
[00:20:43] Speaker C: Well, that's very sweet, but I would encourage everyone to watch the movie because the movie is good. And I hope that that blue Beetle, you know, show low the actor, I hope that he's able to continue to do blue Beetle. But also, to your point, like, I wrote this as, you know, the first question I asked myself when I was asked to pitch washing again, not knowing anything about the movie other than, you know, it's going to be set in a new town was, what is my blue Beetle movie? You know, if this was DC films asking me to write a blue Beetle movie, what is my movie? Because that is how I view graphic novels. I view graphic novels, you know, as the equivalent to film. And I view single as the equivalent to, like, tv where you need, you know, cliffhangers and, you know, but, yeah, so that's where it started, really. It's like, what would be my blue Beetle movie? And, you know, maybe one day some stuff from our book will show up in other mediums, hopefully.
And, you know, we can see it in that form, too. But for now, you know, I just tried to write, you know, what I would do in that, you know, scenario of having one full, complete story to tell.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: And, Kobe, you got to illustrate this book, you know, blue Beetle story, and you get to tell the story. And I know we've talked in the past, when you were on before, too, about stories that are important and things like that, like, for thera and stuff like that are very important to you guys to tell these stories, because there's more to it than just a funny book. There's a deeper meaning to it, but not. And then another thing is, I think, another person who mentioned online, I wish I. And it wasn't pre. It's not preachy to people who don't. People just, you know, there's this difference between people who just want to escape the world that we live in and read comics, and then there's the people like myself who are like, well, I like to escape. Escape a little bit. I want the two truths and a lie to be the lie be the superhero and the true truth be what's going on in the world. But you have to just illustrate this, and you get to tell a story along here with Julio, your partner in crime here on this blue beetle. What has the experience been like? Has it been fun? Has it been stressful? Has it been you never want to work with Julio again?
[00:22:45] Speaker B: Horrible. Just constantly over text, voice memos and everything. What the hell is this?
No, it's honestly been amazing. I'm probably gonna be working with Julio for as long as I live. Whoever dies first, we'll see.
It was the same thing. I mean, like, I'm texting them throughout the whole process, getting questions, you know? And, like, we're just always, like, trying to brainstorm, like, for a hopeful book, too, you know, like, you know, just something that we're just. We've always been collaborating. Collaborating. And this process was nothing different, if anything, better, just because we've had the years now to go towards it. So it's gone. Yeah. Just amazing. I love working with them.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: They see. There you go.
[00:23:40] Speaker C: I feel the same way.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: It said on this podcast, now you guys have to work together forever.
[00:23:45] Speaker C: We already got two. We got two more books already that.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: Were contracted for next. Actually, we probably are working together for a while.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: That's what you say, we love each other.
My best friend. Contractually, I have to say that. Two books coming out. No, I'm glad. I'm glad you mentioned the idea that it's in a real us city, because as a. Not a huge DC fan, one of my biggest complaints about DC has always been the DC versus Marvel thing is that Marvel is like, when I was my son's three, so when he goes to New York City, he'd be like, where's Spider Mandev? You can't go to Gotham City. There's no actual Gotham City out there. There probably is a Gotham in this country. I don't know for sure.
[00:24:25] Speaker C: Thank God there's no Gotham City for your kid to visit.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: It's dark. No, but the idea that it's based in a real city, I was like, it didn't even dawn on me until you said that, that it actually was a real city. I've just been so used to reading Marvel and to have El Paso being a real place and would be in a Marvel comic book, they would do that. And so that being a real place, it just added more, you know, authenticity to it. But also, the story is not what you guys discuss in the story. And the story is about is not new in this world we live in. But it's so timely right now, too. Like, it's just like this book couldn't come out at a better time, in my opinion. It's like, you know, right before this political climate we're in in November coming up here, it's coming out right before that. It brings awareness to some things that have been going on for a long time, but it's, like, been insanely magnified and insanely amplified over the past five, six years. And so, like, I really was. I love that about it, is that it's like, it's timely and thought provoking as well as a, you know, Scarab is helping, you know, fight some crime and kick some ass.
[00:25:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, you know, I'll say I hate that about the book.
I would. I would love for this not to be timely anymore, but I think the, you know, to your point, the reality that we've been living in, you know, for, I think this heightened reaction because this has been, you know, this has been going on. These things have been going on. Just maybe not with the sort of mainstream news coverage that we've seen over the last ten years.
And, you know, there was a part of me when I was writing this book to. It must have been two years ago at this point that when the you know, everything was heating up in El Paso.
You know, I did think, like, is this still going to be relevant, you know, when this book comes out in two years? And unfortunately, it is, you know, but, you know, a big part of the story, like, is also that. And, you know, I think we, we haven't actually, like, talked about what it's actually about, but, you know, it is a coming of age story, right? It's about, you know, our hymen, this story, when it's an origin story. So he starts out without powers. He's this kid who is obsessed with stargazing and astronomy. And he has seen the cycles of this immigration conversation and El Paso being villainized and uses this sort of political pawn on the national stage. He's seen those cycles happening to the point where it doesn't really affect him anymore. It's just a way of life. He knows that, yeah, there's troops at the border again, but, you know, they'll be gone in a few months and it'll go back to normal, and then they'll be back, you know, it'll, you know, so he's very disengaged politically, whereas his friends include, especially Brenda, are much more engaged. Right. And I think the journey that he goes on through the story is not just about embracing these powers that he finds himself with. It's also, you know, a story of a different kind of political radicalization, but one that is radicalized by, you know, him seeing these dangerous words that are maybe shared online turned into real danger on the streets and the way that these hate groups come together in the story. And he, as the blue beetle, has to stop them while also fighting an actual alien invasion of the reach.
But, you know, so it's at both times, a coming of age story and also, you know, this superhero Sci-Fi adventure with aliens. And for us, it was also really important for that to be at the core of it. Right. Like, there was, I come into it with a pretty strong point of view, and I want to, you know, use these characters to say something and hopefully also use it to teach and to make people aware of things. But at the end of the day, like, it's really, you know, this Sci-Fi superhero story. And we wanted to make sure that that was truly, like, at the core of it and everything else was in service to that.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: It definitely is. Like, you could tell that it's a blue Beetle story. And I do like, as a person who is also not a huge DC fan or person, is that. That, I don't know, a lot about blue beetle. Actually, most of what I know about Blue Beetle right now is from the movie, probably because I haven't sit there and read a bunch of blue beetle stuff. So having it be an origin story, too, helped me because it made me sit.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: Now I'm learning with this character from the beginning. And also I believe I have a, I'm part of a graphic novel book club at my lcs, and it's always hard to pick DC or Marvel books to read because you need something to, it's like, oh, this is pretty good. This is standalone. Like, we read a Spider man life story last month and it's like, oh, this is pretty standalone. Like, it tells through. But, like, there's other characters in there you kind of have to have previous knowledge to kind of understood. So by the time it was over, people were like, I still didn't understand it as much as I'd like to because I'm not into Spider man. And I was like, well, this gives you the opportunity to get a news story, but also, you really don't need to know anything. Like, you, you're taught from the beginning of this first page to the end of this about this character and about this world that he lives in, which is amazing. That in addition to, you could have easily avoided what's going on in the world right now, though.
It's like this whole, I mean, I don't know, the LeBron James quotes from back a couple years ago where someone said, just shut up and play basketball, the whole thing. And it's like you could just say, shut up and just write comics. But I, you don't avoid it, but you also don't overly do it. And that's why I think for this story becomes very, you know, purposeful as well as being a origin story and a superhero story. It's just, I don't know, I just, when I, when I read it, when I, when I got done with it, I was like, I like the way, the way where you went with it had this perfect balance of everything, which is, you know, not to make your guys's heads really big and, you know, well, fit off the screen here.
[00:30:18] Speaker C: But you did mention our Eisner nomination.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: That's exactly, that's what I was like. They started off. Your head was really small, and now it's really. No, but it's true. It's a true, I don't know. I think, like I said, the biggest thing I think I took out of it is it's poignant, but also it's an origin story. And to me that was huge because I can really recommend this to anybody. I could say, here, read this book. You don't need to know anything. Just pick this book up and read it. Which is awesome.
[00:30:44] Speaker C: Yeah. And that, you know, that was, that was important to me mostly because I just hate continuity.
You know, Jacoby's really good at that. You know, I've done some like, single issue stuff at the big two.
And he, you know, I, like he said before, you know, Jacoby and I are really close. We talk about all our projects, whether it's together or set or, you know, working with other people.
And he's generally been the person that I'll tell him an idea. He's like, well, actually, you know, there's this continuity and that always just, you know, it's always a point of frustration for me because I want to tell stories that anybody can just jump into. Those are stories I like reading.
I don't have this encyclopedic knowledge of all DC and blue beetle continuity and chronology, but I've read what I care about and I want to tell stories within that. So I think that's what's great about this line that DC has, this young readers line, the ya, middle grade line that you can just tell these stories out of continuity because you're writing. You know, we write these, we make these books for, you know, whether it's frontera or this. We make it for all ages, really. But the, the market for it is 13 to 17.
So, you know, these kids are not reading, you know, all of this old DC continuity. You know, Jacoby does a really good job and, like, a really fun job at like, putting Easter eggs in to the book.
I think that's maybe the only piece of real feedback that he got is he was asked to take away some of the Easter eggs. Maybe you want to talk a little bit about that.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: Which one are we referring to? Because I feel like there's a couple.
[00:32:36] Speaker C: Well, there was one that. It was a brand, right? Like you were mixing a brand with a DC character.
[00:32:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I definitely did. Like a Lex News and Fox News, because I was like, oh, there's an x and there's three letters. And that was like, no, we're not gonna. We're not gonna do that.
[00:32:52] Speaker C: Yeah, that was. They didn't.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: They didn't like that one, which is. I get it.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: Well, that's funny how you mentioned that. I'm reading right now. Clay McLeod Chapman has a book coming out called wake up and open your eyes. And it's about watching his parents, guy's parents watching tv and getting sucked into fax news.
[00:33:08] Speaker B: Fax news.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: And it's like everything else he talks about on the entire thing, CNN, all that stuff. It's the one station that they just call facts F a XDev. And I keep on reading it. I'm just like, oh, my God.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So, like, basically I was like, hey, yeah, our villains.
Like, Luther's bad, but he's not. Like, he's not associated with that. He just doesn't, like, super.
[00:33:30] Speaker C: There's limits.
[00:33:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: Trying to think about it. I think there's a couple other ones where likenesses are just, like, someone, like the right wing youtubers just.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: Like, like, DC villains and those just like that same kind of, like, we're not gonna do that.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: Which is funny because a 13 to 17 year old might not even. I might just go over someone said most of them are gonna be really too entrenched in that anyway. But, yeah, it's pretty.
That's what you get your most feedback. And I guess that's pretty good, right? I mean, if that's that, they wouldn't want you to do things like that, I'm guessing. And it's playful. It's comical. Artwork. Your artwork style is perfect for the story, I think, as well. Was there some important things that you did want to put into this when you're invisaligns on this that you got to do? Or is it.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, kind of like, I think I've talked about this with you for, it's only teenage waste. And then, like, even though, like, a lot of the graphic tees and, like, whatnot are, like, Easter eggs as well. But, like, you know, that street wear vibe I, like, did a lot of research and was actually, like, scoping a bunch of, like, El Paso high school, like, their instagrams just, like, seeing, like, what are kids wearing? Let me just make sure it's not. I don't just self impose just how I like to dress to these people. And also, I mean, like, you know, other than the aliens. Yeah, the story is, like, super grounded. And I had, like, my Google Street View open, like, the whole time I was drawing. And I, like, drew reference from, like, real places in El Paso. I mean, we have the El Paso star. There's a chico's tacos.
[00:35:20] Speaker C: Yeah. Cieloista.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: Yep. Oh, yeah.
[00:35:23] Speaker C: That where the whole takes place.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Yeah. The third act with the part that has, like, an alligator fountain of. Fountain, which I was like, this is truly, like, for the people in El Paso because I mean, I lucky when I was drawing it because, like, there's a shot with the alligator fountain.
So people from El Paso, that. That is purely for them, because for everyone else, I feel like they might be like, why? What is. What are these alligators? You know, this is a lot of.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: People from that area, though. It does from certain areas. Like, I was reading a local man from Tony, Tony Felice and Tim Seeley. And in the second issue, where you open it up as a big Paul Bunyan statue, and I'm in Maine, and I live in Maine. In Bangor, Maine, we have the identical Paul Bunyan statue. It's not from Maine, but it's just like, to me, I was like, it meant so much to me because I'm like, that's down the street from me.
[00:36:15] Speaker C: Jacob's for the people.
[00:36:17] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: The El Paso people reading this book.
[00:36:19] Speaker B: Are gonna be like, oh, my gosh.
[00:36:20] Speaker A: I know exactly where that is.
[00:36:21] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, I wanted to match the groundedness that Julia, like, put into the script. I don't want to, like, do that and just draw random location that's slightly El Paso related.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: Well, that's what they do in the movies, right? They just do in the movies. They shoot you. El Paso, it's really some random state.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: They're on the sepia tone, and you're like, yep, we're near by the border.
[00:36:43] Speaker A: Well, it's so funny also, like, thinking about. I never even thought about the idea that you have to. You can use things like street view for that. Like, you know, years and years and years ago, you would have to get, like, in up on a plane or a bus or something like that and drive to El Paso to actually see what El Paso looks like. Now you can just, like, quickly google it.
[00:36:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:37:00] Speaker C: Not just that. Like, part of the references that I put in the script, like, one of them was just, like, a walking tour of, like, downtown El Paso for one of the scenes, you know? And I was like, this is where I want this scene to take place. You know? And he just had a video that he could use as reference.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: You know, I had a backtrack in Google. Like, Google, like a store that I saw there. And I was like, because I couldn't find. Like, I saw the video, and that's helpful and all, but I need the street view. And I like, from that video. Yeah. Like, backtracking where I'm just like, okay, I think this. Oh, there's that downtown sign. So there we go. I'm gonna work with that. And. Yeah, like, a lot of big locations in the book are, like, basically, like, the high school.
[00:37:44] Speaker C: El Paso high.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: Yeah. The. Even the auto shop was, like, loosely referenced off of a shop. I just, like, this looks like the perfect location.
[00:37:54] Speaker A: For months afterwards. Your two Instagram feeds are just like, you want to travel to El Paso, don't you?
[00:37:59] Speaker C: Well, worse than that, I started following, like, you know, I feel like every city or has one of these where it's, like, a meme account for things that are, like, related to this town. So for El Paso, it's called fitfam El Paso.
And I still follow it, you know, but, like, you know, it's because I have a few friends from El Paso, so, you know, I use them as kind of, like, advisors in a way. You know, to, like, tell them the story, walk them through it, got some feedback on it, you know, make sure you put chicos in, make sure, you know, you do this. Follow this account so you can just, like, see what's happening in El Paso.
And for me, research is a huge part of every project that we do, and that's part of it. Interviewing people just to talk to people from wherever a project is set, and then also things like that, just online following accounts. Looking at location tags on Instagram, too. I think Jacoby alluded to that earlier, but looking at the location tags for El Paso High and how kids are dressed right, doing things that are, like, relevant to that area, like, you know, we gave one of the kid, one of the main characters, Paco, we gave him an Edgar haircut. I don't know if you're familiar with the Edgar, but it's very much.
Definitely very, like, mexican american teenager, but also it crosses borders throughout the, you know, latino youth. Yeah, but, yeah, so one of them had an Edgar, which I've been wanting to do for a long time in a book.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: That was a good one. I'm glad we got to do that one, because that one really is for it. Like, hey, if you're mexican, this is that. Like, you'll see that haircut you like. Yeah, this is an Edgar. They threw an Edgar in the book.
[00:40:00] Speaker A: That's amazing.
I mean, it shows that you guys both. You care about the stories is not just in the book itself. This is not just a paying gig. I got to get this done and so on and so forth. Like, there's passion that goes into these writing, and I think that it shows in the end that the story is extremely well written. And I was, like I said, point it timely to me. Again, as much as I also hate that it's also timely, but it is. And it's one of those things that you can't avoid it at this moment. And so having that and then the origin story part of it, to me, is huge. You know, I quickly touched on that when you disappeared there for a second, Jacobi. But, like, the origin story of it all is being. Is. It's huge. Because, again, this is something I can easily bring up to my book club and be like, this is a story that no one needs to know anything. Just read this story, and we'll enjoy reading it, which would be amazing. But, yeah, quickly, before I forget, you actually wrote on. Who wrote on Urban Legends 21 for DC, and we just had Joey Esposito at my local comic book shop doing a signing, who also wrote on that, which is kind of funny. But it also reminded me a quick story that he told me that he just wrote the Sesame street comic issue one, and he said he brought, like, five different pitches to them and what they wanted for a Sesame street comic. And the 6th pitch was the one that actually got picked up.
[00:41:14] Speaker C: That's how it goes sometimes.
When I did that urban legend story, I pitched three ideas, and they chose the one that I thought was the least likely to get chosen.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: I told Julio not to throw in a throwaway or not throw away, but just the pitch that you do not want to do. And it was just.
[00:41:36] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:41:36] Speaker C: Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't that I didn't want to eat. It was just that I was like, oh, yeah, they're not gonna let me tell the story of how Renee Montoya was, like, a corrupted cop at first, and now it's coming back to, like, haunt her.
But that was. I'm glad I got to do that one. But, yeah, so that's how it goes. Like, you know, luckily, all it took was the one. I only had the one blue beetle pitch anyway, so, you know, I was. I was really hoping that they wouldn't say no to all of it, and I'd have to just come up with something brand new.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: What else you got?
[00:42:15] Speaker B: Nothing.
[00:42:16] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. But, you know, also, like, that's also not the world that we're coming from, you know, because of the work that we do in the book market. Like, the pitching process is very different. We're telling original stories, and we're just, you know, our agent is taking this pitch to a bunch of publishers, and the ones that want it will tell us, and then, you know, we'll decide on which one to go with. But it's much less of this, like, big two direct market pitching process where, like, you're throwing multiple pitches out at the same time. You know, like, this is the story we want to tell, and let's just find the right home for it. And that's kind of how, you know, I approached this one as well, because, like I said, I didn't have. I didn't have anything else to, you know, I have more blue beetle stories in me, but in that moment, that's how I wanted to start it. I didn't want to start with something different than that.
[00:43:12] Speaker A: Yeah, it turned out extremely well. And I will say some other people online agree with me that if this is the future of what DC stories could be like, this is definitely, you know, a great, great beginning to that, or, you know, start of that. Uh, because, you know, hopefully they'll tell more stories like this, uh, in the future. Over at DC, uh, I think even put in my. My review, but those in charge. But that, like, those people in charge of reading my review, but it's okay.
[00:43:38] Speaker C: Forward it to Jim Lee.
[00:43:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I just, like I said, you two partnered together, create good stories in the first place. But also, just, like, I. If they do more like this over at DC, I will become more of a fan of it. I just. I just came into it. My biggest thing is I came into it too late again. The whole you mentioned, julio, about, like, going back and reading older issues, the continuity of it all. Like, I followed the continuity of Marvel for years and years and years and years. And so it's easy for me to jump in and be like, oh, I know that's going. I know where that's from. But for me to jump into a DC story, I'm just like, I'm gonna have to start at the beginning, and I definitely don't have time for that right now. So that's why these stories are great. These. These origin stories, these one off kind of stories are where I'm at because it's a lot of fun to get involved in a character. And then, you know, having a blue beetle have a movie out within recent time brings the character to the forefront and allows people to be like, go to their lcs at a local bookstore and be like, do you have any blue Beetle stories? Like, hey, we've got one just right here. Just came out. I think that's huge. And I'm so pumped that this book was made. Um, yeah, I think. I think, uh, I think it's worth picking up. What do you guys think?
[00:44:48] Speaker C: Thank you. Yeah.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: You agree?
[00:44:50] Speaker C: I encourage everyone to check it out for sure.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: For the art, at least.
[00:44:55] Speaker C: Yeah, just for the art.
[00:44:57] Speaker A: Just for the art. It is a picture book, right? You know, funny book. No.
It comes out October 1 at bookstores everywhere. I believe that's it because, I mean, it used to be DC was a Tuesday as well. So I think it's, if you're gonna get your local bookstore, I think it's the next day, but I don't know how that works exactly nowadays.
[00:45:14] Speaker C: Yeah, bookstores. Bookstores are Tuesdays now that I think DC is back on Wednesday. So in comic shops, it'll probably be Wednesday.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:45:23] Speaker A: But either way, and you can get it, we recommend bookshop.org if anybody wants to order online because it supports local bookstores as well. And you can pre order that now, which is pretty cool. And I think they give you a little deal right now. I think it's like 10% off or something like that right now, which is pretty cool on there, but yeah. And then I obviously frontera. They could get that too out there.
You two are working away at other stuff too. So I'm excited to see what else comes from the pairing of you two in the future. But this blue beetle story is wonderful. This land is our land. A blue Beetle story is available October 1.
Anything else.
[00:46:00] Speaker C: You know, pick up from data for sure. Pick up our other books. Pick up teenage wasteland from Jacobi home and home. Yeah, all the books. And follow us on social media so you can keep up to date on our upcoming projects. Jacoby and I have another book in 2026.
It's a middle grade book. Then we have another ya. In 2027.
You know, maybe some more DC stuff.
And, yeah, you know, we're. Graphic novels take so long. You know, we're way, you know, I've. I've already written the book that comes out in 2027.
Jacoby's about to start drawing it. You know, it, these things take a while, so we're, we got more stuff coming.
[00:46:55] Speaker A: It's funny. It's also, like, one of those book market things is like, graphic novels fall onto the original. Graphic novels fall into that book market side of things is that. That it's funny because I've known about this for months, and it's like, I usually don't even find out about a comic book until, like, foc to date. You're like, oh, that's coming out here pretty quickly with the graphic novel. You're like, oh, this is gonna look so cool. Wait, six months from now?
I can't, but I will.
[00:47:17] Speaker C: Say this, we made this book way faster than any other book we've read.
[00:47:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:47:22] Speaker C: I think we made it in like a year and a half from the time I started writing. Tahi finished drawing, which is kind of like, crazy when you consider, you know, Frontera was like three years from the time I started writing to the time he finished drawing.
So. So, yeah, you know, can't complain about the timing on this one.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: Speed on that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. A lot of it's fun.
You say 13 to 17. I think one of those things I've always talked about with a young adult or younger ya stuff is that just because it says that doesn't mean it's not. It's basically meaning that someone under the age of 13 probably shouldn't read it, but that it means that anybody over the age of 13 could read it and that those who get the most out of it will probably the 13 to 17 year olds. So everybody should read it, though. If you're a fan and even if you're not, if you want to jump into DC like myself and read something different. Blue wheels, worth checking out. And again, like Julio said, go see the. Go see it. Download the movie on streaming or whatever it is, or by the blue.
I said streaming. I corrected myself there. I'm like, download. No, don't download.
Stream it online or by the blue rays.
[00:48:32] Speaker B: One, two, three.
[00:48:32] Speaker C: You know, just in case. Just in case Jim Lee is listening to this, let's, you know, let's actually.
[00:48:38] Speaker A: Think it's XYZ freemovies. One, two, three.org.
but no. Yeah, so check it out. But yeah, definitely check out Blue Beetle at your bookstores everywhere starting October 1. Thank you both for joining us on the podcast and taking time out of your busy schedules to come here and chat about your graphic novels and books and stuff. And we look forward to talking to you both in the future. Sound good?
[00:49:01] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Thank you.
[00:49:01] Speaker C: Perfect. Thanks for having us.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: Thank you.
