#200: Liana Kangas Celebrates Capes and Tights Milestone

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtites.com I'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. This episode is once again brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and Galactables at galactic comics and collectibles dot com. But for this 200th episode, we welcome comic creator Liana Kangas back to the podcast to chat, celebrate, and discuss a beer. But Liana is known for things like Star Trek, Star Wars, Know youw Station, True Cult, Marika, Between Worlds, and so much more, including many variant covers that are out there. Leona is a wonderful comic book creator, writer, artist, and just a wonderful person in general. So we chatted a little bit about the history of the Capes and Tights podcast, talked a little bit about projects that Liana is working on right now and so much more. So check out this 200th episode of the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capes and Tights Dot com. Enjoy, everyone. Thank you. Welcome back to the podcast. You might be up there for the number of creators, number of times a creator's been on here. It's kind of a weird thing I was talking to my wife about this is that I've had a number of like my, my buddy Paul, who owns a comic book shop in my area, he's been on like out of the 200 episodes are now on is he's been on like 50 of them or 40 of them. So. But like he doesn't count. He's basically like a semi, semiannual guest or semi episode guest on. Host on your. Yeah, he's a co host on here. So. So like long term, I'm thinking like Jonathan Hedrick has been on three or three times or so. You. Ben Bishop has been on three times, but he was also in a different iteration of the podcast. So this one of those like in like basketball, like ABA versus NBA. Like some of the championships are like, you know, like, you know, I just. [00:01:53] Speaker B: Figured out what that was literally yesterday. Yeah. Because Memphis the Grizz debuted the new, like, city retro jerseys and I was like, what is this? So now I know what the ABA was, which is pretty interesting. But I love that the other Floridian also was the same amount of times as me. Jonathan. [00:02:12] Speaker A: Yes. [00:02:12] Speaker B: He lives in my hometown. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Well, he now lives in Italy. I don't know, overseas now. I think he was with his wife. He moved overseas. [00:02:22] Speaker B: Oh my God. Incredible. Wish that could be me. [00:02:25] Speaker A: He got wind of what was going to happen in the United States. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah, he was like. [00:02:31] Speaker A: Good luck. [00:02:32] Speaker B: Oh, my God. [00:02:33] Speaker A: But you guys. I mean, now you guys both escaped Florida, I guess. You know, no offense to Floridians there, but I'd rather not live there for multiple reasons, but I'm not going to get into it. One is the weather. I'm sorry. I live in Maine and we get snowstorms, which is great. This is fine, whatever. But, like, if I had to, like, evacuate on a regular semiannual basis because of weather, I would probably not be very happy. [00:02:54] Speaker B: So, yeah, as someone who lived there 26 years, I literally never evacuated once. And that says a lot about me when I'm just, like, pushing my little canoe down my street during a hurricane. [00:03:06] Speaker A: It also says something about climate change. [00:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I, too, would not live there due to the weather just because it's so hot. [00:03:15] Speaker A: Well, it's like, what was the. Stephen King said, these once in a. Once in a lifetime storms are happening twice a year now or something like that. He tweeted out. [00:03:23] Speaker B: He's not wrong. Sweating. Yes. [00:03:27] Speaker A: And then, you know, so, yeah, so it's. Jonathan's been. Jonathan was great. Jonathan was one of those ones I fell in love with the recount. When the recount came out years ago. And that was one of those once early days of the podcast, Leona, that I like, was like, holy. I got Jonathan Hendrick. Like, that was, to me was like, jonathan's coming on the podcast. This is going to be so amazing. And then, you know, nowadays, looking back on it, Jonathan's a great writer, but it's like, working back on it, I'm always like, I didn't realize it was going to go up. Like, you know, not up from there because it sounds so bad, but, like. [00:03:58] Speaker B: Your list of guests, that's. I mean, like, what great company to. [00:04:03] Speaker A: All be in, you know, so it was fun. And then, so, like, now I was like, you know, I have so much the recount stuff. I have, you know, a page, the print plate page on the wall here from issue one. [00:04:14] Speaker B: Right? [00:04:15] Speaker A: Yes. [00:04:16] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, yeah. [00:04:17] Speaker A: Sadly, I mean. I mean, I'm not gonna go into that now, but yeah, so it's. It's been fun since the beginning of this thing. So we've been. Liano, you've been on. In episode 94 was your first episode, so. And then you came on episode 124, so it was 30 episodes. And then you. We talked via email for Star Wars Week, and so that was. So if you. If you add the interviews in there, this is your fourth time being, quote, unquote interviewed for the podcast. Oh, yeah, because we did Star Wars Week stuff, But it's been 80, almost 80 episodes on here. Where have you been? I'm just kidding. [00:04:54] Speaker B: I know I disappeared. I'm sorry. I promise I won't disappear again. It's been a time. It's been a time. We're. We're good. I'm back. Hello. Welcome, everyone, to the 200th episode. [00:05:08] Speaker A: It's a. It's. Yeah, it's been crazy. And it's one of those weird things that, like, I know we're talking off recording. Dan. David Harper was one of the reasons why I, you know, the main reason I got into podcasting in the first place is actually Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith. I don't know him. He's actually on my wish list of like, you know, like, bucket list of getting on the podcast. Because I'd love to have a conversation with Kevin about podcasting and stuff. But he said one day on a podcast, he was talking about, like, if you want to start a podcast or make a movie or do something, just do it. Like, that's like, you know, just to steal a line from Nike or just do it. He says, get the equipment, start recording. Don't stop. Just keep on doing it. If you, if you don't want to do it anymore, just stop doing it. But if you keep on going, just keep on going. And from that point on, I was like, okay, I want to do this. Even if I get three listeners or 3,000 listeners or 3 million listeners, I want to do this because it's fun. I get to talk to people like you, Jonathan, you know, so on and so forth. [00:06:03] Speaker B: Passion, you know. [00:06:05] Speaker A: And so we started a podcast in 2020 during the pandemic with my buddy Adam, talking to people in Maine. And so it was like, oh, let's talk to people in Maine. Then we thought, it's a finite number of people and there's a finite number of listeners. And then you have the people who only want people from Maine and so on and so forth and yada yada. And then I said, well, comics is my passion. I stumbled upon off panel podcast with David Harper, and I decided to pivot. And so in 2021, pivoted to capes and tights. And we've been going since then. My podcast host, Adam, moved it back to Illinois. And so it, it, it's easier via zoom. We can do these things, but just timing our schedules out was a pain. So I said, adam, just like, I'll step away. And then from that point on it's been just me. And so it's been fun. So David's been on twice to talk about comics and podcasting, things like that. He's been. He's been a tremendous, you know, someone I look up to. I mean, this. He does the same thing. It's not like he has a full time job, just like me. And so David does this as a passion, really. He loves the comic book industry and just wants to be talking to cool people. And that's. To me, I'm like, whatever. If I get three people listening, this is great. I get. I get to talk to Liana today. [00:07:15] Speaker B: So you know what? I think as somebody who previously, when I started this career, I listened to David's podcast to essentially, like, figure out and learn how to do comics. And like, what you both do is something that's sort of like journalism in a sense that we don't have a lot of comics journalism. The comics journalism we do have is very much run by, like, sweat, blood and tears by a lot of people, but the people who also do comics journalism and podcasting on top of that, it's a lot of hours. As someone who did a podcast with Matt Emmons Comics inebriated, which we too were like, our schedules are too busy. This is a lot of work. It's a passion. But, like, at what point do you make this as like, kind of your career as well? And I think what you both do is important, and to hit 200 episodes is like such an achievement that you should definitely celebrate. So I hope you have plans to, like, do something fun for yourself or buy yourself a little gift. [00:08:19] Speaker A: Exactly. Well, I have two new young kids, and I'm not buying anything myself. Are you crazy? [00:08:24] Speaker B: Fair. You're like, that goes straight into the college fund. [00:08:27] Speaker A: Exactly. Well, my wife said if we didn't have kids, we'd be saving so much. I go, I don't. What are you talking about? I just have more comic. I don't know, this whole savings. [00:08:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. You're like, do you see this? [00:08:37] Speaker A: It's. It's a. Yeah. And I thought it was funny. I pinch me moment as being a podcaster in comics journalism was this blue sky transition from Twitter to blue sky for a lot of people and getting added to these starter packs that Blue sky does, these comic book creators and things like that, and having myself, my personal one and the podcast one be part of the podcasters and things like that. It's like, it's not just. It was a really kind of like a whole, like, it's nothing like an award or anything like that, but it's like to be included in that group. [00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah, you're like recognize as a pillar of the community, which is really cool. Also. You have to send me that list also. I hope my Internet's okay. No joke. I am downloading my Twitter archive right now. It's still downloading. That's how long I've been on Twitter, which is not a great sign. [00:09:22] Speaker A: You're. You sound fine. [00:09:24] Speaker B: Okay, good. Okay. [00:09:26] Speaker A: Here in Maine, we can't do that. You can't do two things at once in Maine. It just doesn't work. We don't, you know, we have little carrier pigeons carrying data from us for us. Yeah, it's. It's a. It's. It's a fun thing. And I think that I used to. In a. In a previous life. I say that I'm only 38, so it's not like I've been around forever. But in a previous life I lived in Massachusetts and I was a sports journalist. I want to be sports journalist. And I covered the Boston Red Sox, minor league baseball teams and college hockey and things like that. And again, same thing. It wasn't just for my. It wasn't for money. I mean, I've spent more money on. On doing that, traveling, parking, food, all that stuff, doing these games. But it was like the opportunity to interview a future. I interviewed Connor Hellebuck, who's the goaltender for the Winnipeg jets, and he's won Desno Trophy winners for the best goaltender in NHL. He's, you know, high up there at the NHL level. And I've interviewed him and it was like, just to have that and be like, cool. It's an awesome thing to do. Same thing here, you know, having that ability to talk to some creators that I appreciate, follow support in Patreon and stuff like that. It's fun to just do this. And so again, my goal is to help further the comic book industry. You know, I mean, like, my goal is to like, help. Help promote your books. But in the end, it's also a selfish thing where I just get to have a conversation with cool creators, which is really cool. [00:10:46] Speaker B: I mean, that's like the give and take, right, though, as long as we can all as a community, like, it's like constantly helping each other up, you know, the ladder or like what they call it, rise in tides, lift all ships or whatever. Like, you know. [00:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:03] Speaker B: So it's mutually beneficial as long as everyone's like, happy about it. [00:11:08] Speaker A: Because, I mean, you go into it and part of it is to how to book guests like you. And I talked back in for episode 94 via email or whatever, and I contacted your assistant or whatever. We talked personally, not through a publisher. And as I've grown in the number of guests and the different creators, a lot of those do come through publishers. So, like, thanking Dark Horse has been a huge, you know, helpful person or people to the podcast. Melissa over at Don't Hide PR has been phenomenal and getting guests and things like that. And more recently, Greg over at IDW has been a great person in the industry. And so these people have come through that. So, like, over time, it's been one of those things where you have to like, sell your. Not sell yourself, but try to like convince the publisher to say, oh, Liana should come on, because Liana's got a book coming up, so we should really promote that book. And really, I just want to talk to Liana. And that's the. That's the difference. So I felt like some days I feel like I'm David Letterman in the sense where I'm like, the only reason I'm talking to this person because they need that five minutes to help push Right station or whatever. And then the other part of me goes, that's the end. That's the. As long as I cover that subject, I can talk about whatever and I can have this conversation. And in podcasting is obviously different than late night TV interviewing, where we have a lot more just conversation than actual make sure we're hitting the bullet points. And so. But yeah, I have to use that in a lot of times. I was like, good. [00:12:36] Speaker B: I was gonna say the only downside is that we can't play like some ridiculous, like late night show game at the same time. You know, I think that's the plus. [00:12:43] Speaker A: Side is it's not David just Mulching's Late Night with the Devil. So there's like, you know, let's give and take in there. We don't have possessions going on in here and people like going crazy and. Yeah, but it's true. It's like I. I talked to Brian Michael Bendis a couple months ago, and to me that's a. I fell in love with Marvel Comics because of it, because of him. And so I wanted to talk about Marvel Comics, but I talked to Dark Horse to get Brian on. So that was like, okay, we have to talk about Masterpiece and all his stuff he has going on now and touch on Marvel. And so there's a balance in that where I'm like, whoever's helping me get the guest. I have to make sure I make them happy first. Because in the future it's. [00:13:25] Speaker B: And it's like, yeah, absolutely. [00:13:28] Speaker A: But it's been fun. And I'll tell you right Now, I had 200 episodes. I never thought I'd make it this far. And I think it's dedication some days where my wife's like, you don't need an episode this week. Don't worry about scheduling. And I'm like, no, I gotta get an episode out. And she just like, you need to calm down. [00:13:44] Speaker B: It's a drive that most people don't have. [00:13:46] Speaker A: Yes. [00:13:47] Speaker B: You know what I mean? Like, I think a lot of people that survive in comics is because it's that exact drive that you're just like, oh, well, I'm not gonna give up. So. [00:13:56] Speaker A: And that was one of the things that Kevin said was like, you just make sure you're consistent too. That's the other part is don't come up with like, you know, I have another podcast I started years ago that we, that we brought back called Rock and the dad Pod. And it was talking about being dads. And we released three more episodes after bringing it back. And then we went quiet because again, I was focused so much on trying to make this scheduling work. Trying to schedule another podcast was like, I don't know how people do it. And then I go, wait, the people with multiple podcasts, Leanna, are the people who have, like, people doing stuff for them. [00:14:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I was about to say, this sounds like a network situation in which I wish existed, you know, but like, I'm. [00:14:35] Speaker A: Thinking, like, I'm like, I follow some of these major podcasting people and I'm like, wait, you have three podcasts? Because you don't do any of the booking, you don't do any of this stuff. You just, you just sit there and you sit there and someone else does all the booking. So you're like, okay, Thursday at 11 o'clock, you've got an interview. Cool. And then you're not sitting there, right in. Yeah, yeah. [00:14:53] Speaker B: They have a studio. They got, they got assistants looking up stuff on Google for them. [00:14:59] Speaker A: Yes. [00:14:59] Speaker B: They got like the other, you know, the other, the two way, like, situation. [00:15:07] Speaker A: You know, it's, it's not me. [00:15:10] Speaker B: That's a business opportunity that somebody needs to pick up and pick up all of you for. [00:15:16] Speaker A: Yes. Well, I mean, that's, it's true. Because when you have it. I talked to Ben Bishop at our local convention that happened in October. Ben is a friend and a friend of the podcast. And he lives right here in Maine as well. You know, he know, known for killing off the turtles. He's also known known for creating some new one, helping create some new ones. But he was talking about a network of booking for cons and things like that. Having a group of people that helps with like, hey, you know, if you book Liana, you also can book so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so, all for a base, like a price, so that like a bunch of creators get it to go together in this one thing. And then you also know these people, which is nice. It's nice. You obviously know going to conventions and stuff like that to see people you haven't seen in a while. But it's also nice to have some familiarity, like to have some people that, you know that family. Right. [00:16:01] Speaker B: Like, as much as you could use that term, it is nice, like, especially when you're in a city that you don't know that you have a group of friends where you could be like, hey, let's all go out to dinner and I'll feel marginally safe walking to this restaurant. [00:16:13] Speaker A: Well, it depends on where you are. No, just kidding. The. Yeah, so it was kind of funny how like he said, I would love to have that for podcasting like this, you know, network where people were like, okay, so Liana needs to be on an episode and then that person gets in touch with a bunch of different podcasters to get them all on and we're on that list or something like that would be kind of cool in the future. [00:16:33] Speaker B: But I don't know if other creators do this. But usually when I am on a podcast and I have a great time, I'm like, hey, do you want to talk to Gailey or Scott, my writers? Because I'm like, they're amazing. You would enjoy talking to them. So that's two automatic, like bookings that I hope would happen, you know, but that's mostly just me being. I'm like that friend that wants everyone to be friends. And so I'm like constantly being like, you should hang out with this person, or like, you gotta go meet them. [00:17:01] Speaker A: Oh my God. You might not like them, but you need to hang out with them. Because I like them. But yeah, I mean, and it's, it's conventions have been fun. Like, that's like, I want to go to do more. That's my goal for 2025 is to try to do more. I, I, like I said a second ago, I have a three year old and an eight month old. And so that's not easy for me to do. And so when, when creators are getting on and talking to me right around New York or San Diego or whatever, like, hey, would I see you on the floor? And I'm like, yeah, that's, you know, not really in the cards right now, but maybe in the future. And I think that my goal would be to do that, just to go and network with people at conventions. But the local conventions have been helpful for me. Bangor Comic and Toy Con, which is now called the Queen City Expo, and the main comic into Icon, which is now called the Pine State Expo. They changed their names because there are not very many comic creators that are coming. I don't want to. I don't want to fully get into that. So they changed it. So there's a lot more celebrities coming. And so now they change their names of it. But I've been able to network with people and see people there. Dana Snyder was actually the first real guest on the podcast outside of Friends or local people. Because at Bangor Comic go to Icon, which was at the Bangor Mall. Okay, so. So in 29th, 2020, it was October of 2020, but because of the pandemic. No, it's supposed to be March or April of 2020, but because of the pandemic, it had to be canceled. And then trying to bring it back, the person that. The place that they usually go to for this convention had booked the dates that were necessary for the, for the, you know, the next one. [00:18:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:37] Speaker A: And so now the Comic Con was. Convention was like, they were like scrambling. Where are we going to go? What are we going to do? How are we going to make this happen? And the Bangor Mall is like a ghost town right now. So our mall has like, say there's 50 stories, there's like 15 that actually have tenants in it. The rest of it is just empty. [00:18:55] Speaker B: It's so wild to me that they keep the lights on of that mall. [00:18:59] Speaker A: There's a whole thing. The city of Bangor is actually suing the mall for not keeping up with the building and the paving and the parking lot, this whole thing. But at this time it was empty. So they approached the mall. They're like, hey, on a weekend, can we put vendors? So, like the comic creators, the people selling old comics, the people selling crochet, whatever would be in the hallways to the mall, the con, the walk. [00:19:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:19:23] Speaker A: And then a couple of the big, like the debs and the bigger stores that were there was the panel room and one of like the celebrity Guests in there. So you still needed a ticket to get into these rooms because they were in the stores. But you could be. It was free to the people who wanted, like, so it. Which was great. So anybody who just wanted to come buy something from some artist table or from some vendor's table helps the economy. Yeah, yeah, it was great. And the downside, like, what's his name? Kane Hodder, though, showed up to the back of the mall, who he was at this convention and he basically told his handler there was like, turn around, I'm going back to the airport. Because it was at a mall. And he was just like, what con is that? Like, this is gonna be horrible. Was one of his better conventions of the year. Like, people just showed up and he did go inside and he had a great time and he made his guarantee and it was great for him. But the fact that it was at this abandoned, Abandoned, like semi abandoned mall, he was just like, I'm turning off about this. [00:20:16] Speaker B: Economically, it makes sense. It's built for tons and tons of people to spend money. [00:20:22] Speaker A: Like, the funny thing is that they didn't open the mall until 11 on Sunday normally. And we were there at 10 for the beginning of the convention. And the time the lights were on timers. So, like the hallway lights didn't actually come on until 11. So like the first hour was just like natural light from the ceiling lights and things. [00:20:38] Speaker B: Everyone's like waking up still. [00:20:40] Speaker A: They're like, we're all like trying to like get our tables. [00:20:42] Speaker B: Not too bright, like. No. [00:20:44] Speaker A: But because of that, we had. It was. My buddies helped run that convention. I was like, hey, can I set up a table and try to promote this new podcast thing that I'm doing? And we were going to go live there and do all that stuff too. We were in an old GameStop. Leah. I'm like, it was weird. It was the weirdest thing. Like, I used to buy video games in here. [00:21:01] Speaker B: That's hilarious. [00:21:02] Speaker A: And they had moved outside of this, Outside of the mall. They had like a, like a strip mall place outside the mall. And so I sat there, we had our table, we had stickers, we handed out flyers and we had our table and we did some live recordings. Well, this is Dana Snyder's at this, at this convention, tabling and signing autographs and so on, taking pictures and so on. And someone comes up to me and goes, what kind of equipment do you have? I'm like, well, I'm showing my equipment, you know? And he's like, this will work. I think this will work. And I'm like, for what? And I'm like, dana is getting an offer for a TV show to do a voice of someone who backed out of a show. Out of a. [00:21:37] Speaker B: Out of an animation show. [00:21:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And he needs to record tonight to get this done, like now. And now it's like, well, okay, do you have the ability? Can you do this? Cool. And then we. My buddy who runs the convention works at a different place as well and was like, we're going to go over there and do this, but can you bring your equipment? And we'll. We'll do this because it's. It's all via the Internet. So there'll be someone in California who's pressing the buttons, recording and so on and so forth. But we need some interfaces and stuff like that. It's like, cool. So we went. We got in the car. So Dana Snare is now in my car driving, driving, driving down the road like, okay, this is crazy. We go to the place, record the voices, so on and so forth, and we go back the next day and he takes pictures with us. It was. It was a lot of. It was so such an experience that was like, I was sitting there, I'm like, oh, my God. And you can hear him doing the takes over and over and over again and stuff like that. [00:22:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:22] Speaker A: Wait, what? [00:22:23] Speaker B: The show ended up being so I. [00:22:26] Speaker A: So I get this. This is amazing. I'm telling people about it. He's like, you can't tell anybody about the show because the character he was replacing was an actual, like a regular on the show or semi regular on the show. And there's a person who voices that character already. And it might have some backlash with the people, big fans of the show if they replace the character. And it was just because this person couldn't do it. And so I was like, oh, okay. So I can't tell something. We told people we did this thing. We just couldn't tell him what show it was. And he gave me his phone number and he texted me and he goes, hey, I'll tell you when this show is about to air so that you can then promote it and do all this stuff with it. It could help you out and so on and so forth. It's like, cool. A couple weeks go by, and he texts me and he goes, they decided not to use my voice. [00:23:07] Speaker B: No. [00:23:09] Speaker A: And I was like, are you kidding me? And he goes, yeah, the person who was supposed to do it originally was able to actually do it the next day. And they decided that it's probably Best for continuity, you know, that they're not going to do it. So thank you so much. I appreciate it. You know, so on and so forth. So this is 2021 now. So this is three years ago at this point the show's aired and so forth. But he signed my interface that I used to use, and it says, we'll always have Bob's Burgers. And says, record on this machine, 10, 1, 21. And then Dana Snyder. And he put a little master shake on it. Thanks again. I've since changed my interface, so I thought, I'm going to keep this. I mean, normally I'm the kind of guy was like, okay, this is cool. I'll just sell this as a. For someone else who wants to start a podcast, whatever. But now I'm forced to keep this because now it has this thing on it. [00:23:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:56] Speaker A: And so, yes, it was supposed to be Bob's Burgers. And I was like, oh, my God, this is so crazy. This is so amazing. My. My co host at the time was like, oh, my God, I can't believe we're sitting here doing this. And I was supposed to have him back on after the episode air to talk about this experience. And then now he's never been back on, but he came on that. [00:24:14] Speaker B: Don't worry, I'll give him some shit. [00:24:15] Speaker A: Yeah, he came on that weekend. So he. Because of that, he says, thank you for so much for doing that. He sat down with us in the old GameStop and recorded an episode with us. [00:24:25] Speaker B: That's so awesome. [00:24:26] Speaker A: This is like episode 10 of this podcast that I never would, in our dreams would have ever been able to think. I wouldn't even thought about it as a guest to start off with, let's be honest, it was like a obscure one. But to have him on episode 10 helped. I don't know, maybe it helped us. Maybe helped legitimize the podcast to a point where, like, we're getting someone who's not just, you know, a local artist up and coming trying to do this or whatever. And then it was a couple episodes later to Eliza Clark from the showrunner for why the Last man came on. And so went from that point on. [00:24:56] Speaker B: I need to go back and listen to these episodes. Like, I've listened to a couple, but I'm really bad at podcast listen. [00:25:02] Speaker A: Yes, I'm actually pretty bad too, if you think about it. But yeah, it was a cool, like, early experience of it. And then, like having Eliza come on, we were like, oh, my gosh. Then it went from there. Ben Came back on because Ben was on the previous iteration. Ben Bishop. And then to the point where Kevin Eastman on, like, I was. It was crazy. So my pinch me moments are Scotty Young, huge Scottie Young fan. I've actually got. [00:25:27] Speaker B: I do remember that. Yeah. [00:25:28] Speaker A: Got a young tattoos. And so that's a fun one. And so, yeah, it's been a crazy ride here to 200 episodes. And, you know, I could just blabber on, on and on about this, but originally episode 200 was going to be some. No, this is going to sound so bad for you big guests. Like, you're talking like some. What am I? One of my bucket list guests? Like, Kevin Smith was one of the ones I put on the list of, like, okay, Kevin would make sense to me because it would be. Kevin just actually had a movie come out. 430 movie. So he also could promote the movie. He's got comics that have come out recently. He's one of the reasons I got into podcasting all this stuff. And so I respond wrote up to Dark Horse because they publish his comics. And they put me in touch with his, His, His PR people. And they responded back saying, let me check with Kevin. And then they never went anywhere. Which is fine. Like, I'm never offended by this. And whatever I've gotten from people, I. [00:26:24] Speaker B: Mean, people have lives. [00:26:26] Speaker A: Yep. I'm okay with that. Like, there's no issue. Kevin doesn't need me. That makes any sense. Like, it sounds. I don't want to, like, put myself down, but, like, he doesn't. Like, Kevin doesn't need my podcast to promote his stuff. If he was doing it, he'd do it as a favor to us and to help us and celebrate 200. Then I backed up and said, I don't want someone new. I want someone who would be able to chit chat with me and actually tell stories and actually have, like, this conversation with. And I said, you're the first person that came to mind. And I was like, let's put Liana on that episode. If. Yes, why not? [00:26:56] Speaker B: Aw, I feel like a co host now. Thank you. That's awesome. [00:26:59] Speaker A: You're more than welcome to come on whenever you want. You have to bring cool people with you. Sorry. [00:27:04] Speaker B: Oh, easy. [00:27:05] Speaker A: I'm gonna use you to your contacts. [00:27:08] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. Why not? Who would be. I mean, if someone comes with me, that's usually what it's for. [00:27:15] Speaker A: They can't come on unless they bring someone else with them. Sorry, we're done. You've been on. You've been on too many Times solo. You gotta bring people who have more clout than you. [00:27:24] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:27:25] Speaker A: But no, I'm serious. I was like, oh, this is. Let's celebrate with someone who's been on before and do this. And so I reached out, obviously, and you're like, absolutely. And Kelly's been amazing, too, because she's been so great about, like, she's so. She's almost as excited as you are to be on this episode. [00:27:43] Speaker B: I'm sure she listens to your podcast and everything. She's, like, such a good. Beyond her being, like, the best assistant of all time, she's also just such a huge nerd, like me. So, like, we'll often be like, oh, my God, like, she'll show me, like, an original page that she went and bought, and I'm like, wait, who's selling pages? And then, like, I'll just, like, go run over and like, you know, we're both. We have a lot of similar interests, so that's awesome. [00:28:09] Speaker A: It's funny. There is true. And I do think that there's other people that like. So Caitlin Nash from Dark Horse, they do our. They. They help me get guests on from Dark Horse, and they're very good about reaching out and asking if we need anybody in, like, Star Wars Week, because they publish a bunch of the Star wars stuff. Hey, do you need anybody? So on, so forth. And. And they've sat in before, like, nice. Caitlin's like, I don't need to be here. I have other stuff I can do. But they, like, come into the zoom and they sit out and they turn off their video or whatever, and they just listen live because they're interested in what's going on. So. Yeah. So if Kelly ever. If we're ever on this and Kelly ever wanted to come on and be here, she's more than welcome to. But I should have said that to her ahead of time. But. But 200th episode, right? We're at 200 episodes. And I thought, what a better way to celebrate, because my day job is working in a brewery and which is also. I live a pretty good life, I'll tell you that much. I have a beautiful family. I work at a brewery. [00:29:06] Speaker B: Picturesque. [00:29:07] Speaker A: I get to do art. I get to do artwork for a brewery, and then I also get to talk to comic creators and read comics as a side gig. And so I said, liana, will you do a beer label to celebrate 200 episodes of the podcast? And you said, for a million dollars? [00:29:22] Speaker B: Yep. No. No less. [00:29:26] Speaker A: And it needs to be up front. It needs to be up front. It needs to be on small business. [00:29:31] Speaker B: In a duffel bag. [00:29:33] Speaker A: And I said, cool, I got it. I mean, I mean, obviously we're a podcaster, so obviously I make millions of dollars. Everybody knows that. I'm the same as all these top podcasters out there. I get millions of listens. And no, jokingly, Leonard were like, yeah, let's do this. And so I just basically said, leon, I do what you want. Actually, I didn't say anything. I just said, hey, will you do this? And so we didn't. [00:29:54] Speaker B: You didn't give me any guidelines. It was great. [00:29:56] Speaker A: We created bicentennial beautiful beer for. I mean, it's hard to see there. That's a four pack. Liana's got one right there. Mine's cold. I don't know if you're. No, yours is probably not cold right now. I was like, I was gonna, I was gonna drink it on the podcast. I was like, oh, I'll just be like drinking this here and be like, oh, by the way, this is it. But then I thought, I've gotta talk to. I'm gonna talk to a different person later on. And I, I was like, I don't. If you go back, if anybody ever wants to listen to previous episodes, I highly recommend. But don't recommend episode 99. And that's with my buddy Paul Eaton of Galactic Comics and Collectibles, which is my lcs, who is an unbelievable dude. Good friend of mine, he's actually the godfather of my daughter. And after I met him through the comic book store too. So it's not like we're friends. He opened a comic book shop. He had his comic book shop. Then I became friends with him. Then it was my godfather's from my daughter and we got a little drunk. [00:30:50] Speaker B: That's going to be the first episode I go back and listen to at. [00:30:54] Speaker A: Little Giants Comic show, old School Comic show in New Hampshire. We both drove down to do this event and be there and we went back to the hotel and we're like, oh, let's do an episode. We'll do episode 99 before we get to episode 100 and which was Kyle Starks, which I love Kyle Starks. [00:31:09] Speaker B: Oh my God, so great. [00:31:11] Speaker A: And he's like, yeah, let's do it. And then we went out to get drinks and eat dinner. After we, we drove down from. It's about a three and a half hour, four hour drive from here. And we drove down. Didn't eat anything along the way, obviously. Didn't eat anything at the convention. Right. Who would Eat at a convention that. [00:31:24] Speaker B: Says you're paying $80 for a hot dog. [00:31:28] Speaker A: But then we decided to go get drinks and then drank way too much. We go back to the hotel and we're like, I don't know what the hell we were talking about, but people seem to like that episode. So I'm like, maybe there's an alcoholic component that needs to be part of this. [00:31:41] Speaker B: A lot of views based off of drunk podcasting and confirm. [00:31:48] Speaker A: Like, I was like, every time someone's. [00:31:49] Speaker B: Like, you had a podcast, I'm like, you don't need to listen to it. [00:31:52] Speaker A: No. Yeah, well, that's the thing is, I was like, oh, crap. God, people are gonna like, oh, you have 100 episodes now. Let's go back and listen to them. They're gonna start with like, episode 99. I'm like, no, please don't. Please don't. Like, I debated them taking it down. I was like, no, I'm not gonna take it down. It's not. It's not that bad. [00:32:05] Speaker B: Internet archives. [00:32:06] Speaker A: Well, that's a. It's. The thing is, like, we used to do it when we first started. We used to do it at night and at 7 or 8 o'clock at night, and we drink. And so by the time the episode ended, we were saying creators names wrong. We were. It was so bad. It was just like. It was just not good. It was just not good. So we're like, maybe. So now I record with him at like 10 o'clock in the morning. So we're both like, just tired and less drunk, hopefully, by the way, us. [00:32:31] Speaker B: Recording at 10 my time. The best scheduling of all time. Best podcast schedule ever. [00:32:39] Speaker A: I'm telling you right now. I told someone else about this, and they said that the number of creators I've talked to who've responded back and saying, oh, we could do this in the morning, is far greater than anybody who's like, I can only do it on Saturday and Sunday or at nights. Like, it's so insane that I've said. [00:32:57] Speaker B: No to is typically because it is past 5pm my time. And let me tell you, my ability to focus on anything after 5pm 0, especially with the time change. You're not going to get me after 5. I'm sorry. Honestly, even after 3pm probably not good. [00:33:14] Speaker A: It's also your work day. I mean, if you're trying to do the right thing and do your illustration and doing your. Doing your artwork and doing your writing at between the hours of 9am and 5pm Your time, because you obviously want to have a life and things like that, like having someone who's. Who you don't have an office job, so you could do it whenever you wanted to. But like, to actually create a good lifetime is to have a good schedule and so on and so forth. By asking the creator to say, take time out of your day already to come talk to me, that in some cases, like I said, exactly. Some cases the benefit is me helping that creator. But for the most part, it's a lot of times, like as we grow as a podcast, there's that shift that it's like 60% they're helping me and 40% I'm helping them kind of thing. And so they come on at 7 o'clock at night while your kids are home or your spouse is home or whatever it may be, and talk more about the things that you could do between the hours of 9 to 5. I was like, I would hope for most of the time if we can do that. It also helps my personal life. I haven't recorded a night podcast in nine, 10 months and my wife loves it because now I don't have to go in the office and record podcasts. So, yes. So it's very beneficial to be during the day, in my opinion. [00:34:29] Speaker B: Obviously, there's no, like, shade towards anyone who has to do this type of stuff at night after people go to bed, things like that. I just, you're not going to get my best. And after realizing that over the last couple years, especially after the pandemic and everything, I was like, I can't. I can't give you 5%. Like, that's not a good look on me. And that's not a good look on your podcast either. You know what I mean? [00:34:54] Speaker A: You look all ragged down and ragged. You're like, I can't do this right now. Well, I've had that. I had that with people. I've had that with talking to people. And I'm like, they almost were like, okay, let's go, let's get this going. Let's get it over with. Because of that fact, the downside is, as a possibility, you could talk for way too long in the morning because you're active, pumped up. Yes, exactly. It's one of those things that balancing and finding the right balance and find the right. I'm lucky enough with my job that I have ability, some. Some leeway to do this as well. So it's like, you know, on Mondays I work from home and I have an office at the brewery, but like at home. So I start a Little earlier because I don't have to drive the brewery and I can work later because I don't have to drive home. And so there's that part where I'm able to like flex my schedule a little bit out and throw these episodes in. And so that's a benefit to me. And. But again, I would doubt that the more people that would ever decline me because of timing is probably higher than, you know, because I could do this during the day, which is nice. But yeah, it's been, it's been. It started because I started working from home during the pandemic and then I went back to work four days a week instead of five. And that's where I was like, oh, cool. I could use Mondays. [00:36:07] Speaker B: Honestly, I think that every single office job should have a one day work from home or two half days. Because like the amount of, even me going to my own studio, like the amount of stuff I get done sometimes in my own office at home, which I'm not allowed to call my office anymore because it is no longer my office, quote unquote. It's my, my like hobbies studio. I wouldn't even know what to call it, but I sometimes get a lot done. It's like, you know, you get your whole list to do like boom, boom, boom emails, like get it all out of the way and then by the time I'm at the studio I'm like ready to go, you know. [00:36:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:44] Speaker B: So. And I think a lot of people could use that like, and catch up with their home life and things that won't ruin the rest of their week and things like that. But I mean, that's a whole other discussion about. [00:36:55] Speaker A: Well, I think it's like as we talk about this year and you and I, like, I think that there's a. Having these, you know, tips for anybody who wants to be a comic creator or creator in general of anything is to find these right balance of things and so on and so forth. That puts a passion and don't, don't. I mean consistency to me is a huge thing too. Like, I think if you consist keep consistent hours, then you're gonna focus during those hours and so on and so forth. I feel like if I'm like, whenever I can do it, I can do it. You tend to procrastinate and you tend to not get things done. But if you're like, I'm gonna work between the hours of nine to five, you know, you need to get this done by five because that's when you're gonna, hey, I'M done. The other thing was, for the longest time, for the first two years of doing this podcast, I thought I wanted my own studio. I had researched finding a place on office space to put everything off site so that I could go to that place and do that. And then I realized that my schedule is actually the secondary schedule when I'm booking. Because if I'm booking a guest and I'm looking at you and I'm saying I need you to be in that if I can give you options, that if I has to be at 6:00 or 5:00 on a Tuesday, because that's the best time for you, I need to be able to say to my wife, hey, you know, I know you're home at five, I'll be ready for, we can eat dinner at six. Because I'm going to report between five and six and I can just pop in here and then pop out. The same thing with my buddy who owns the LCS, Paul, who it's his place is 12 minutes from here. And we do it via Zoom because of the fact that he can just turn on a Zoom record for an hour and turn it off and not have the chit chat before and after the drive to and from all that stuff. And so having that ability, we do all of our, basically all of our interviews now and podcasts via Zoom to help with scheduling. And so that, that's why now I at my office is here in my house and it's going to probably stay like that. We go to buy our own house in a while because I want to have the flexibility to be able to just pop in here, do some things and leave. But that's because I have a day job. Like I have a different job that pays the bill. So like I go do that there most of the time, but it helps on Mondays because I have a space to do work from here on Mondays as well. But yeah, so it's finding that balance. And then also like I said, podcasting wise, it's consistency, in my opinion, is the if you're going to release an episode weekly, do it weekly, same day, same time. Because that's how you get your people to listen. Is that those people who are regular podcaster listeners expecting my episode to be when they go to work on Wednesday, they're expecting a new episode. And that's if you don't, if you're missing a week or it's like, oh, whenever I get to it, you're going to have the consistency is going to go away and people Aren't going to listen. Yeah, but that's my own. That's my. My own little two cents on the thing. But we've been jumping all over here. I mean, we were talking about the beer here. Let's go back to the beer. Look at this beer. [00:39:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty. Pretty sweet. It's the. I really like that I got to do whatever I wanted. Thank you so much. It's. I. I know that you could have designed it. Thank you for letting me design it. That was very nice. [00:39:50] Speaker A: Can I tell you, I didn't want to. I didn't want to do it. [00:39:53] Speaker B: You want to design it? Oh, perfect. [00:39:54] Speaker A: No, because there's. There's a part of me that, like, I've had this. Want to do it at the brewery. I've always wanted to do a beer called New Comic Day and. And have it be like panels of comics. And I. One of the ideas I had was that each panel would be from a different artist. And so like. And do that. And so there's been this goal for me if I want to do that at some point. But outside of that, one of the benefits of doing the beers with Daniel Krauss we did was just this book art. So the book art for. For Railfall and the book art for Pay the Piper. So it was just like I just needed to put it in the format and we're done. [00:40:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:25] Speaker A: Because part of it goes the beard. Having it released and all that stuff was excitement for me. I design labels all the time, and so having someone else do it was. Was. Was something that I would love to have had happen. That's why I did this as well as you were the guest on episode 200, so it all correlated. Well, I think in. In that sense, like, it might have not meant as much if I just had you do it. And then you came on like six months. [00:40:47] Speaker B: Well, you did give like the perfect template and already pre made like all of the information label stuff, which it says brewed to celebrate 200th episode of Capes and Tights. Podcast comic creator Lana Kangas illustrated this commemorative label and joins to this episode. This IPA has big, juicy flavor from Strata Citra and Sabro hops. Visit capesandtides.com which I think is really nice. [00:41:13] Speaker A: We. We. So all the funny thing too is it all fits our mold. So like, when we first launched the brewery or first doing cans, we had a big hop in the middle. We had our. It was like everything looked the same with slight changes. And then we got away from it. So it Says Orner Brewing in Maine at the top. And then it says the beer name and the. The type of beer it is in the ABV at the bottom. All of that stays the same on all of our cans. Now, the side pretty much has the description on it and the other side has the legality stuff like the upc, where it's made government warning, all that stuff. And then we have an Independent brewers association logo on it and everything else is pretty open. So I've had some fun doing labels and doing stuff like that over the years, but having this partnership and creating a collaboration. We're the brewing industry is a world of collaboration, similar in a sense to the comic book industry, where you have like, you and a writer and you and, you know, other artists and things like that, people doing cover, you doing covers for someone else's comic, that kind of thing. We do a lot of brewing brewery collaborations, but what we've found out in the past couple years that I love the most is these collaborations outside contributors. So we are. We are. Our Blueberry beer is collaborated with the local blueberry maker, Wyman's Blueberries in Maine. They're the biggest blueberry supplier in Maine. Family owned company, and so on and so forth. We collaborated with them on a blueberry beer, the Daniel Krauss one. Things like this, we've done ones with a guy for tick research. Like, it's just like these things that are outside the box. Collaboration. [00:42:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:45] Speaker A: Things is. Were more fun to me because you are probably happier about doing this than a guy who works for another brewery who's like, this is just part of my job. I just need to do this, you know, I mean, like, yeah, yeah, that's true. [00:42:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:57] Speaker A: Because you're like, I don't think it's. [00:42:59] Speaker B: Like, yeah, how, like, what type of brew that you ended up picking? Like, you know, like, why did you pick this one specifically? Like, what's the story behind which one or who made. [00:43:13] Speaker A: You know, so the beer itself, we are a brewery that makes this like IPAs, New England IPAs, what it's called because it's hazy. West Coast IPAs, made in San Diego, things like that. With Sierra Nevada back in the day, it's more clear. Those are piney and bitter, whereas a New England IPA is unfiltered and hazy and more. Has more tropical and in. In. It's called softer feel to it. So it's a lot less bitter than. So if someone goes IPA back in the day, you'd be like, I don't want that. That's Way too bitter. It tastes like you're eating grass. This is more juicy. And so, yeah, this is our. This is our flagship style of beer. Our number one beer is called Tubular IPA and that is 75 of our business, and that is a New England IPA and so on and so forth. So it's. The ability to do an IPA is the easiest beer to do because that's what we make. The other idea was making it into a logger, which we were making at the same time, but the problem was we didn't know if the logger would be done in time. And so that was the reasoning behind that, too. But, yeah, so it was just easiest to do with ipa because it's going to sell the best here in Maine, too. People are going to want IPAs more than they want in the US. Yeah. [00:44:27] Speaker B: In terms of my customers. Someone's already emailed you to buy. [00:44:34] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. It's a. It's a fun thing. And so the other thing we do is they gave you labels. And so I have. It's hard to see. You can't see them here, but there's beer labels on the wall. Daniel Krause's sign one we did. There's the snoochy brewski one I've done before. [00:44:48] Speaker B: The texture of it a lot. [00:44:51] Speaker A: And that's. Our friends at In Touch Labels in Massachusetts got those to me in no time because they're super fast. [00:44:58] Speaker B: They are amazing. And they totally. [00:45:01] Speaker A: And they're clear backing. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Identical. Yeah. I was so scared of the colors, like, let me tell you, like four times. I reopened the file and was like. [00:45:14] Speaker A: It'S so funny. So doing a label. Yeah, we talked about a little bit before we started recording, talking about stickers and stuff. Doing a label is a lot easier than doing printed cans. So we're working on printed cans for our. We make vodka seltzer too, and we're making. We're doing new cans for those. Color matching on printed cans is a nightmare. The. The type. The type of colors they can print on a can and so on and so forth is insane. When you print a label, like, I could just tell them, this is what I want it to look like, and they make it look like the screen. So it's not, like, amazing. It's insane because they basically use just regular printers or industrial sticker printers. And so it works out pretty well. Only once in a while, I've actually got a label back and I'm like, that's not the color that I really wanted. But, you know, it's been Nice. [00:45:59] Speaker B: I actually specifically reached out to a colleague of mine here in Memphis that I worked with for the Memphis poster. Yeah, St. Francis Elephator ride, because he's done a lot of beer labels and stuff too. And I was like, hey, I need help. You have experience in this. Let me, you know. And he very much would like, he would be available if I was like asking him for advice, but I think I kind of just took what we did with the Mempho Fast poster and I like utilize the similar colors and it turned out really good. [00:46:30] Speaker A: It looks, it's phenomenal. And it's one of those eye catching things too, because we. This is actually colors that actually match our brewery a lot too, because we have a lot of 90s themed stuff, like a tubular can. It's like light blue with pinks and purples and yellows and things like that on it. And so our hard seltzers are all bright colors. And so seeing bright colors on it, it fits our vibe. But also I had the four pack on the bar as I was leaving on Friday to come home and someone walks up and goes, what's that? Like one of our employees? And I was just like, oh, wait, hold on a second. You can't know about this yet. No. And so they were like, oh. And they just, they were like, they were like, this looks beautiful. And so on and so forth. So I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. I explained Liana and so on and so forth. And they're excited. So the plan for like getting this beer to people as it hasn't been decided easily. It's so Maine's laws for shipping beers is technically, I can ship beer anywhere in the United States. That allows me. The state allows beer to come into via shipping. Not every state's the same. So, like, I know I, for example, like, you know, Chicago, I think I was able to send beer to Daniel legally because so on and so forth. Outside of that, there is some legalities to sending out beer and so on and so forth to people. So what I'd like to say is that in all likelihood, if you don't live in Maine or let's say New England, then you're probably not going to be able to get this just because it's so much of a headache. It's also super expensive to ship beer. I don't know if anybody ever realizes. [00:47:52] Speaker B: Hope y'all have a friend that lives in Maine to like. [00:47:54] Speaker A: It's ship. Shipping beer is like, you know, if a case of beer costs a hundred bucks, it costs like, 50 bucks to ship it. [00:47:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:00] Speaker A: And so, like, it's just really. It's the weight and stuff like that. And, you know, shipping stuff is super expensive nowadays. And so that's the other reason why. [00:48:06] Speaker B: It'S hard liquid combustible. You know, like, I'm glad it made. [00:48:10] Speaker A: It to you because I sent that. I sent that air. And typically I don't send beer air because of the fact that it. The change. [00:48:19] Speaker B: Because of the pressure. Yeah. [00:48:21] Speaker A: So if I send beer to anybody, like I said Daniel Krauss, the beer. After we did a Daniel Cross beer, I sent him a couple cases and that I sent ground because it just stays on a truck. It doesn't have to worry about anything. Downside to that is it takes longer to get there, which means there's more of a chance of it being damaged. And so there's like this. How does it. So sending. It's not easy in the first place. So, yeah, that's a whole, like Memphis. [00:48:42] Speaker B: Because It's like the FedEx hub of America or whatever. Like, everything that comes to me typically is not damaged. I just got a sticker app order from Sweden in like a day, which is. [00:48:54] Speaker A: I don't know how that works. Insane carrier pigeons. [00:48:58] Speaker B: Yeah. FedEx just. It's like a. It's like a sorcery that I've never quite understood, you know? [00:49:05] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean, so having you on it was no question. Like I said, after I decided not to have a special random new guest, I was like, oh, I want Liana on here. And you were gracious enough to say yes. You're gracious enough to say yes. Doing this label and celebrating on this. You have true called out for people to get which has the greatest and brightest trade paperback cover in the history of comics, I think. Right. I mean, there's no other trade that. [00:49:31] Speaker B: Has neon I don't think I've ever seen. So we actually worked with the designer, our editor, and another person at IDW to get the, like, exact pantone and like, everything for this neon pink. And it is fluorescent. [00:49:52] Speaker A: This doesn't even, like, doesn't do it justice. Like, you can't even really tell how. [00:49:55] Speaker B: Like, it's like, let us do spot glass. Wow. Like, it's just. I think it's by far one of our favorite parts of the book is just that in general. [00:50:05] Speaker A: So like, and also Pentagram, everything is just awesome. But no, you station which we read for our book club, which people love, just to let you know. So that was a fun, fun little thing there. You've done Star wars stuff. You're doing Star Trek right now. Like, how is. What's Star Trek like? I mean, are you a Trekkie? I mean, have you been a Trekkie for a while? Or is this just, like, a dream come true? Or. [00:50:27] Speaker B: My. My editor, Heather. It's interesting because my first. First work on Star Trek was a Picard cover. And she was like, hey, do you like Star Trek? And I was like, yeah. I mean, like, casually. I like the J.J. abrams movies. [00:50:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:42] Speaker B: School, you know, Like, I used to be a big Zachary Quinto fan from, like, the show Heroes and stuff like that. So I'm, like, dating myself a little bit. I know that that's fine, but my experience with Trek was not from the TV shows. [00:50:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:58] Speaker B: And a lot of my friends growing up, I have two close best friends, one Melissa, one James, and one's from second grade, one's from college, and they both are huge truckies. Like, I mean, if I had a question, which I have had in the past, I would just text one of them and just be like, hey, does this look right? And actually, some of my covers that I've been, before I turn them in, I'll text one of them and be like, will you tell me if this looks like this person? You know what I mean? But so I wouldn't say it was a Truckee. And then Heather was like, hey, for homework, just watch this show. Lower decks. You'll like it. It's fun. But also, you'll get a lot of, like, the knowledge you need to continue working on the ip, blah, blah, blah. Well, I watched that thing so fast and then immediately started watching, like, Strange New Worlds and then went to DS9 and all these other things. So I've been watching consistently. I've even gone back and watched, like, all of the J.J. abrams movies again, just to, like, for nostalgia purposes. So, like, it's funny on a lot of panels and stuff at, like, San Diego Comic Con, things like that, people will be like, how long have you liked Trek? And it's been probably the most supportive community to be like, not only say this publicly to, like, five or six hundred people, but then for them to be like, all right, who's your favorite captain now? You know what I mean? [00:52:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:24] Speaker B: So it's been nice. And also, I got to work on a lot of my favorite characters so far, like Rafi and Nine, and I can't spoil issue 25, but there's a lot of crossover of which I did not think was possible. And Jackson and Colin are great writers and I really enjoyed working with them. And the more I get to work on that license, the world in general, you know, the more people I need, the more like I've messed the actors and it's just what a great community of people. Like, I feel like I'll never stop learning about it. It's just like an infinite universe of knowledge. [00:53:04] Speaker A: You know, I, I hadn't been either. I've watched the J.J. abrams, you know, movies and I, you know, the newer stuff I tried, I don't know, I want to say six months ago or whatever, just be like, I'm gonna go back and start watching. I'm gonna watch everything Star Trek. And that's like, that's a daunting task. [00:53:21] Speaker B: I haven't even watched everything like, and I've had a couple years now. [00:53:25] Speaker A: But the funny thing is I watched like the first two episodes of like the early shows and all I wanted to watch was the Orville and Orville. [00:53:32] Speaker B: What a fun show. Oh my gosh. [00:53:34] Speaker A: I had David Goodman on the podcast who wrote on the Orville and wrote the Orville comic book for Dark Horse. And that was so much fun. But all I wanted to talk to him about was the show Wings that he wrote on years ago. The one that's based in an airport in Cape Cod or Nantucket or whatever. But yeah. [00:53:50] Speaker B: Oh, I've never heard of that. [00:53:51] Speaker A: But it was. [00:53:52] Speaker B: You know who you should have, you should have Eric Palecki come on and then Adrian Palicki so that way you can get the brother sister duo. But the Orville. [00:54:02] Speaker A: You know, I love Orville, but you know, it was weird thing and I read Lower Decks, the new Lower decks comic book book that just came out over iew. [00:54:11] Speaker B: Oh, the go your own way or. [00:54:13] Speaker A: No, it's like two weeks last week. It just came out last week. Literally the new series has started from, from. [00:54:19] Speaker B: I think I'm thinking of the graphic novel that Chris did. [00:54:22] Speaker A: Yeah, from Derek. Derek Charm and. [00:54:25] Speaker B: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:54:28] Speaker A: Who is it now? Now I'm gonna hate myself for this. But yeah, it's phenomenal. It's like one of those things I'm always like. It's like it's for the non Trek fans and the Trek fans. It's. It's a weird because like it's got comedy in it and it's got this like they're able to make fun of themselves and also not take their life, take the comic book too seriously in a sense. But like that could, I could see why that could then breed in other people to bring in to read other Star Trek comics or watch other Star Trek things because it's. [00:54:53] Speaker B: The show is identical, like in that sense. Like, nice way to introduce you to the. It's great because like, sort of like, because there's so many rules and so many different things in Trek, it's daunting to try to like jump into. And that's the easy delivery, right? Like easily gives you like a lay of the land before jumping in. And like actually watching all the, you know, episodes, seasons upon seasons of just content that's endless. [00:55:26] Speaker A: So. And I think it works in Star Trek and I don't think it would ever work in the other star. In Star wars. Like Star wars, it works for like kids shows and then like the adult shows and things like that. But like that show that makes fun of itself in a sense. Like. Or just comedy. Like if you did the. The people working on the Death Star, I would love. I would watch that in a heartbeat. If it was just for workers, like office comedy, like, like workplace comedy based in the. The Death Star workers would be a phenomenal show. I just think that the Star wars that are people who are Star wars fans wouldn't accept it as much as Lower Decks is accepted by the Star Trek fans. [00:56:01] Speaker B: But see things like franchises that do like, do that, like Deadpool makes fun of the entire universe and like, you know what I mean? Like, clearly it shows that it does well marketable wise. And so it's. It should. I mean, everyone still remembers the Adam Driver skit from snl. Like there's such a huge market for it. [00:56:22] Speaker A: You know, we are proof of it. Yes, exactly. Ryan north was the writer of that. So it's Ryan north and Derek Germ of Lower Decks, the new series. It's phenomenal. But yeah, but yeah, you get to play. You've also got to play in both worlds. You've now done Star wars, you've done Star Trek. Obviously that's insane for anybody who's a nerd and likes these things to have the ability to do that. You done create your own stuff, obviously. And then you've got your issue of hello Darkness is coming up here soon. [00:56:50] Speaker B: We're recording two days before it comes out, which is awesome. And it is with Sarah Gailey again, which is even better than I could have imagined in terms of collaborating with a now friend more than once. And we hope everyone likes it because it's something very personal to us but also very horrific. So I hope everyone enjoys it. Good night. [00:57:20] Speaker A: It's hello Darkness thing has been. Has Been so much fun too, I think, I think the one I'll tell you right now on a sense that has nothing to do with your story or whatever the pet peeve was the, the solicitation was, oh, a six part story from, you know, something's killing the children. And then you go to pick up issue two and it's not in issue two. Like the six part story wasn't six consecutive issues. It was going to be like, oh, every other play. Well, it's like I thought, okay, issue one will have, have first part, issue two will have the second part, and so on and so forth. You open up issue one and you're like, cool. And it like obviously leaves lands on a cliffhanger a little bit because they want you to roughly read the next part. And so you pick up issue two and I'm like, oh, what's it's done in this? And then the next year three had it in it, so it must be all other issue. And I was like, whatever. I understand they never specifically said six consecutive issues, but it was just one of those things that I assumed and I was gonna get it anyway. And I wanted to read the anthology stories anyway, but like, it was just kind of funny. I'm like, oh God, James, gotta wait. [00:58:15] Speaker B: Shoot. [00:58:17] Speaker A: Waiting in this world stinks. No, we love comics here at the podcast. Like, it's fun. We've also started to talk to authors a lot more, to people from tv, movies, all that stuff. But the whole core of it is comic creators. And you and your colleagues are doing tremendous work and working very hard to further the comic book industry in a world that is becoming ever more hard to promote your stuff because of things like social media being kind of a hellhole right now altogether. There's no perfect spot. I know someone said, hey, let's move from Twitter over to this Blue Sky. But it's like, But I have 50,000 followers on Twitter and I have 600 followers on Blue sky. So I don't know how much this that's going to benefit me. But what it seems like it's Blue sky is just, it's like going crazy right now. [00:59:08] Speaker B: Every time I try to log in, I have like 80 notifications of following like, which is great. And I'm so happy that people are switching over because nobody wants their work AI scrubbed or you know, that. [00:59:20] Speaker A: And also like just, it's just a. I mean all of us have known Twitter and X have been a successful but like we've had to like force ourselves to like ignore things or block have hundreds of different things blocked to try to get. To weave through that stuff. And now it just seems like people are like, oh, we're just done, and we can't. We can't do this anymore. And so it's just hard for you. For you. For you guys to. To promote your stuff. And so, you know, I don't. Can't imagine comic creators trying to promote their stuff nowadays. So I'm happy that you come on here to help promote it, which just makes me happy because it helps us, you know, further the podcast and get other creators on in the future. [00:59:54] Speaker B: You know, what's great is I'm not screaming into the void and I have somebody to talk to and, like, have a good time. And I feel like my time was genuinely spent. [01:00:04] Speaker A: Well, yes. [01:00:05] Speaker B: And, like, had value. I'm not saying anything about social media other than it is exhausting. [01:00:13] Speaker A: It is. And that's the things that I don't understand. When someone says, I don't have an Instagram or I don't have this as a. As an artist or a creator, I'm like, how do you get people to read your stuff? Like, how do you promote your stuff? How do you do this? And I. I guess they just hope for the best or whatever. But I'm just saying I hate. Hate over promotion. So I hate the idea that every day I'm getting someone who posts their Kickstarters. You know, here's my update on my Kickstarter. To me, that is borderline annoying. But I understand why you have to do that, because you also have to get people out there to get to understand. [01:00:44] Speaker B: Right? [01:00:44] Speaker A: Because you're in a world where you might. You might post it 10 times in 10 days, and I never saw it, and I saw the day. And so I understand that. But, yeah, every once in a while I'm like, okay, I understand. You get an extra 50 on your Kickstarter. I understand. I understand it. Let's move on. But then I'm like, wait, no, I understand. I know why. Yes, it's so hard, and I understand that. And so it's one of those things you have to kind of wade through the bushes and try to get to where you want to be on social media. It's just hard. [01:01:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. [01:01:11] Speaker A: So I'm hoping that it gets better in the future, but 200 episodes. We're at 200 episodes. This is the 200th episode. I can't imagine. [01:01:19] Speaker B: Bicentennial. [01:01:20] Speaker A: I can't. Yeah, I can't. I can't believe it. And so as we finish up here and conclude, because I don't want to go too long on this episode. We've got already through 210 episodes planned, which is great. We're booking pretty far out now. [01:01:36] Speaker B: Anyone I know? [01:01:38] Speaker A: I can tell you because I don't mind telling. One of the cool ones for me is Tim Jacobus is coming on. Tim drew 60 of the first 62 Goosebumps covers. [01:01:50] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:01:52] Speaker A: I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I tried to get R.L. stein on. They want me to pay. Oh, they want to make it. It's just fine. But again, he'd be helping me more than I'd be helping him. It's a To that. To him, he puts podcasts, cons, all that stuff all under. All under appearances. To him, it's an appearance fee at that sense. Like, it's not, you know, he's appearing on the podcast. It's not promoting anything, which is fine. I understand that. But yeah, we've got Patrick Horvath's coming on. You know, Patrick Beneath the Trees. Fred Van Lenti talking blood. I read his Bloodshot book novel that came out over at. Ed Brisson is coming on, and I think Mike Henderson's going to come back on with AJ Lieberman because they just promoted their Hive comic book that's coming out at Image Comics in February, as well as a couple of authors like Eric LaRocca and Keith Rosin. Keith Rosin wrote a phenomenal novel called Fever House and the Devil by name. [01:02:50] Speaker B: Which actually, I have that on my tareem shelf. [01:02:52] Speaker A: Yes, Keith's amazing. Keith's actually legally blind, too, which is crazy. Like, he. He has like this weird. Like, the vision is like. I don't know. He was trying to explain. I actually met him last month with Joe Hill. They did it here in Bangor because Stephen King, Joe Hill's dad, is. [01:03:09] Speaker B: Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. [01:03:11] Speaker A: Joe Hill's actually from Maine, too. I should say that he's from Bangor as well. But like, yeah, he came on. Oh, we had this discussion. It was so much fun. And Keith's like, yeah, come on, I'll get you to get Keith on the podcast. Because Keith's publicist is also CJ Leeds, publicist, who CJ wrote two phenomenal books, American Rapture and Mayfly. But I was like, oh, this is such a cool world. But Keith's amazing. And I think with True Cult, I think that the Devil by name in Fever House would be right up your alley in that sense, too, because the Fever House is about a possessed hand, basically, that. That when people are in hold onto the sand, they do some screwed up shit. And so. And then there's other things. There's conspiracy theories and it's. It goes on from there. And then Devil Taught me Fever House. [01:03:53] Speaker B: And it's been. I meant to read it in October, but I had a convention every single weekend. So that did not happen. But it's on my to read pile. So I'm very amazing because I've been interested in it, like, and I, I want. [01:04:08] Speaker A: I've tried to get James Tiny in the fourth multiple times and multiple times the creator is too busy and which is fine. They're busy people and I understand that. And then I. Kevin Smith, I want to get on here. We have dreams of having Robert Kirkman and more attainable ones like Daniel Warren Johnson and Joshua Williamson. I want. Tilly Walden would be great. I love the Clementine books. And so those are all like hopes in the future. But we'll see. And I'm. I'm up for whoever wants to talk comics. I owe Adam Rose from Huge Detective an episode because I had to cancel on him. And then all of a sudden I know where it was. Like, it just spiraled out of control to the point where it's been like two months. And so I want to get Adam on here to talk Huge Detective. But yeah, it's going to be fun. 2025. I'm planning on going for 300 episodes and more. So we'll get you back on too, for sure. [01:04:54] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I'll be back. [01:04:57] Speaker A: Not 300 episodes next year, but going into 300. I'd like to get to 300 episodes by. I won't be next year. Hopefully it'll be the year after that. But we'll see. We'll get you back on for 300 episodes. Right? [01:05:07] Speaker B: Like, that's very ambitious. That's like two. [01:05:09] Speaker A: No, no, I can't. No, I did. I went to. Was it 2002? 23. The. The winter of 2020. Like January, February, March, or 23. I did two episodes a week. They're like, oh, I could do Monday and Wednesday. This would be great. And then I got to the point where, like, I can't do this anymore. [01:05:25] Speaker B: We tried doing that one and I think at one point Matt and I were just like, you again. [01:05:31] Speaker A: I just, I think it's mainly because I wanted. There was like a backup of guests. It was a backup of guests. It was like one of those things where I'm like, I want to record with you on Monday and release it on Wednesday. So it's the freshest possible, you know, whatever. And then I had to say, stop it. I can record three weeks in advance, two weeks in advance, and just make sure that we're aware of that when we record. And so then I was like, I'd just rather have better episodes with. With better planning and so on and so forth, and then end up having one a week than having too many. And then the only time I do that more than that is when I do my weeks like Star Wars Week and Horror Week. I usually do four or five episodes in the entire week with four or five different creators of different medias. So you have like authors and writers. [01:06:10] Speaker B: Me in for at least Star wars since me and Alyssa Wan's new High Republic thing is coming out in January. So. [01:06:20] Speaker A: Yes, but yeah, so 200 episodes. I'm so thankful that you did that. The beer follow capes and tights. If you're not obviously people social media to let you know a little bit more about that. Maybe we'll do a post about it and so on and so forth. Maybe I'll get a quote from you. I'll have to email you and get something from there for that thing. And those people in Maine or New England, I should say, because it's not that hard to get to Maine from other places in New England. If you want it, you can going to be able to pick it up here in Maine. But yeah, thank you so much for doing that. I'm so happy. 200 episodes. I couldn't be happier with celebrating it and talking to you on this episode. You know, you are extremely talented artist and writer and I'm so happy that you took the time out to come talk to us. [01:07:07] Speaker B: Of course. I'm honored that you wanted me to come hang out for the 200th celebration. This is awesome. Thanks for letting me do this rad label. I mean, that's a big bucket list thing for me. Thank you so much. [01:07:19] Speaker A: So, absolutely. I thought it was kind of funny. One last thing about the label is that John Allison was on the podcast last year and I went to his website. I was looking at somebody says, no commission except for beer can artwork. And I was like, that's such a weird, weird statement. I go, is this something you just like doing them or what's going on? He goes, I've never done one and I want to do one. So I want to make sure that people want to contact me to do one. It's just not. They don't see the. [01:07:47] Speaker B: No, nothing. Except I show that for my website too. [01:07:52] Speaker A: I was like, that makes sense. That's amazing. And then another person who does one regularly is Ryan Brown. Does them for Half Acre in Chicago. They do beer. They just did a 8 billion genies one, and the brewery and Ryan were not able to send me one, but they sent me a label, so I was able to put it on a different beer. So I have a can here that doesn't actually have the beer in the same, but it's at least a can label in my office. Over 8 billion. Genius. Because I absolutely love covered that comic. And as a beer can label designer, I thought this would be kind of cool to have. But, yeah, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day, your busy schedule. I'm so looking forward to more from you in the future. Thank you to Kelly for all the work that she did to get this happening. And again, happy, happy, happy, happy times. We're getting your Patreon stuff and so much more. So congratulations. Thank you. And yeah, and Happy New Year. And I hope 2025 is extremely successful for you and all your endeavors as well. Okay. Leana, thank you so much. Thank you.