[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtights.com I'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. This episode is once again brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and Collectibles. At galactic comics and collectibles.com we see the return of Alex Cormack and Anthony Cleveland to the podcast, who previously joined us on separate episodes. Now we get a two for one as they talk about their upcoming comic book coming out April 19th at Mad Cave Studios. Buried Long, Long Ago. Cleveland is a comic book writer. Behind the comic books like Charred Remains, the Show's End, and so much more. Cormac illustrated books such as Breath of Shadows, the Devil Wears My Face, and more. They come together on this project they've worked a long time on to put out and it's coming out now from Mad Cave Studios. But before you listen, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, bluesky, threads, all those places you can subscribe, rate, review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts. You can also find so much more stuff
[email protected] but this is Alex Cormack and Anthony Cleveland discussing Buried Long, Long Ago coming out from Mad Cave Studios. Enjoy, everyone.
Welcome back to the podcast, gentlemen. How are you? Tier day.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: Hey, how are you doing?
[00:01:17] Speaker C: Great.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Good, good. I use that term lightly, loosely. Right, gentlemen?
[00:01:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: But yeah, we're here to talk comics and stuff. I mean, you took as mentioned right before we recorded out here is that you both have been on at separate times and now we get to have a, you know, a two for one here on the podcast to chat comics and so on and so forth. So. But yeah, you guys have a new comic coming out with Mad Cave, Mad Cave Studios coming out here. It's called A Long Long, Very Long, Long Ago, which frustrates me. And the SEO of the Internet is sucks because putting the comma in the middle of your title now becomes not one keyword, but two keywords. So I just want to let you guys know that for future reference, but it's a phenomenal book. It's historical fiction, horror. I'm so pumped to talk about where did this come from? Let's jump right in. Does anybody want to come and speak of how this even got started?
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it's based off of Belgium, which is a local story to where I'm from, Northwest Indiana.
Serial killer from the 1900s who put ads and newspapers for men to come to her farm, bring all their cash with them, and when they showed up, she would Take the cash, kill them, and bury them in the hog pit.
So this story I learned early on because it's like, if you grew up in northwest Indiana, especially in, like, that far out area away from Chicago, more so, you know that story, you get taken to field trips to the museum where they had the exhibit, and you could see the, you know, the artifacts, the newspaper clippings.
God, they have a skull there that they found, bricks from the house. It's a very visceral exhibit. And when you see it young, like I did, it sticks with you. When you have a way overactive imagination, it really sticks with you. So, yeah, this one's been around in my head for a long time, or at least some versions of it before we got to Gary. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: And Alex, how did. Alex, if you want to speak on this, how did you become on this project Mad Cave?
[00:03:21] Speaker C: How did I get on this project?
[00:03:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:23] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. So Anthony wrote me out of the blue, like we, like.
Like we hadn't met or anything. And he's just like, hey, listen, I like Rotor Bones. I have this idea for a story, like, basically, what do you think? And this is like a good. Might be five, almost six years ago now.
But, yeah, I thought it was like, oh, this could be really interesting. This could be like, you know, it's a horror story that got me going right away. And.
But, yeah, it's how he was enthusiastic about it, how it was like a passion project for him. I was like, yeah, I'm on board. This is, uh, you know, anything like that. Like, yeah, let me. Let me just jump in. And so we. We put together, like a pitch kit where we did like, the first, like, four or five pages, something like that. And it was like the scene's kind of been. It's kind of in the second issue. It's kind of been mushed around a little bit. But.
But yeah, then we did that. We kicked it around some and.
And Anthony, you've talked more about how it landed on mad cake than I can.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah, it was, man, it was like five years pitch gauntlet Hell.
Because it was a lot of very much, like three, four, five meetings with one publisher getting close to the green light. And then. Can you change it to this? So it was like, okay, yeah, we can make it into a graphic novel. So we reworked the whole thing pretty much.
It was just a crazy amount of loops we had to jump through. And, like, we got ghosted.
Publishers went, like, completely kaput. And then just like, we'll get back to you in a year. And they get back to us in a year and it's, we're not going anywhere. And then, like, I don't know why we didn't initially go. I think just because we're just so damn burnt out and from other publishers that we just realized Mad Cave is right in front of us. And we both do work with Mad Cave all the time. And yeah, they jumped right into it. So it was awesome to have them just not just with it, but with the freedom that all, you know, Mad Cave always gives with their creators. And so it's the best home I could think of probably for this book.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, there is celebrating 10 years anyway, 20, 24. And so that's pretty cool that, you know, we're now into their 11th year doing this comic book thing and having this book come out. I mean, horror stories. I'm a big fan of horror stories. Obviously you two are a big fan of horror stories. But, like, the cool thing I thought was the fact that this is a historical fiction book. It's not just a fun horror story to tell about. It's like actually based around some facts that were spoken over the years.
Was it more difficult or easier to do? It's based around some sort of factual statements.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: I think it took a while for this one to actually get its form to where it's at now. And it's like I just say in a fairy tale version of a true crime story. So that's a hard, like tightrope to walk, I guess. So we're very cautious what to include, what not to include. I mean, the story is over 120 years old, but it was still a lot of the victims were always in our thoughts, what to show, what's appropriate, what's not to show, what to exclude.
So, yeah, yes and no. But I mean, like, I think just having it for so long has kind of made it a lot more clear and like it came together well in the end, for sure.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I could see that. I could see where if you were able to go from initial inception of the idea to publication super quickly, you might have almost regrets of things that you might have done differently because of how quickly it went, because of the five years. It sucks to go five years before something's actually published. But in the same sense, you were actually able to think about it over the last five years and change what you needed to change and make it more of a cohesive thing.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: There's always going to be times with a project where it's like, man, I wish I included that, like, if we had more page space and stuff, and they're like, there's a dog in the true story. I'm like, man, if we could have put a dog in there, we probably could have sold an extra, you know, thousand issues.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: As long as the dog survives, you're probably fine. The other side of that coin is that.
[00:07:39] Speaker C: Dog'S a goner.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: Acts like, oh, it sounded really creepy, but I want to kill a dog on a paint note.
[00:07:47] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Poor puppy. Yeah, exactly.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: I got cats. They'll be fine.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah. It's funny, I was thinking about when I was reading this, I was like, I had never heard of this, you know? Was it Bella Gunness? Is that her name? Yeah, I never heard of her, like, full on until honestly, recently when I was into this kick unfollowing, like, trying to read about, like, Ed Gein and all these other serial killers, you know, mass serial killers of the United States, and really trying to see, like, the body counts and things like that. Just, I was watching a documentary, and then they're making this new show for. For. As a. I forget which channel it's on, but they're making that new show that's like the. The real life drama again thing. And. And it's funny because I went through Wikipedia, like, top serial killers of the United States, and saw these names on there, and it's kind of funny. I think I stumbled across this name just because I was doing research outside of this comic book. It did just stumble upon a character. And then I'm like, holy crap. Like, not that long ago, I was looking into this on Wikipedia. Now I'm getting to read a comic book based on that character. It's pretty crazy.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, this going back to his body counts, it was when they found the bodies, it was just such a mess. They couldn't really make a correct tally.
So it's like depending on what's just, you know, re accounting you're reading about, it's either 14, sometimes it goes up to 40. But the bones were just such a mess. And altogether at that time, the coroner just totally lost count.
Very, very gnarly story.
Another thing, too, we didn't get to go into the comic book as well. Is like, after they did find the bodies, it became a tour, tourist like location. Yeah. So those crimes, that crime scene was totally trampled. So. And people would come in and force themselves in to look at the remains in the barn and stuff.
It was a circus. There's no way you can keep track of, you know, what the final total was. At the end, that's.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: It's insanity. Because I feel like nowadays I feel like some people think we're crazy to think about true crime stuff. Like, there's like, articles about, like, if you're obsessed with true crime, there's something wrong with you kind of thing to the fact that where someone's like that into it being like, I want to go look at the actual house with the bodies and that much of a true crime fan would be pretty crazy.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Oh, certainly. I mean, I think there's always been that morbid fascination that humanity has. They can't. Most can't seem to shake. And it's like, I know sometimes I see some people, how they react with like, murder, billiard and things like that. And I think we're actually better than we were comparison to 100 years ago. Thank God. But yeah, it's.
Yeah.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: Alex, was it. Was it different for you drawing? I mean, this is based. Like I said, this is not. This is a fairy tale version of the original story, but this is obviously based on some factual information here. Was that different for you? I mean, I know a lot of your stories are complete fiction and that stuff, but.
[00:10:35] Speaker C: Yeah, because basically everything up to now, like, was just kind of made up. There was some stuff in, like, sync, which John had from his childhood, but they were just kind of like rumors and that type of thing. Like, there was no, like, real things going around like that. So the fact this is like, actual people that I was that, like, that I would be drawing that these, you know, these real people, they had friends and all this type of stuff. So.
So basically what I did was like, Anthony had sent these, like, had this big folder, and he sent it to me with like, photos of the real people, the real handwriting, like the real newspaper clippings. Real remains, all the stuff. And.
And. But what I went ahead with, with it was I. I looked at that, I drew from it. But basically the final comic was each character, I kind of made up what they looked like just to kind of separate it from the real story. Like, Like, I said this before, but Bell in this one, like, her hair wasn't big like that. That's. I gave her my fifth grade teacher's, like, her. So I was like, I'll stick her to her. But.
But it was just like little things like that, you know, because, like, I. I just didn't want to be insulting to the real people, you know.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:55] Speaker C: I figured this is at least kind of a way to step. A step to the left or stuff to the right of you know, opposed to, like, taking photos, like tracing on their faces and putting them in these situations. Because there's a lot of stuff that. That, you know, we. We do know happened a lot. Some of the stuff, you know, it's kind of like the fairy tale aspect of it. Like, that's gonna. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, but. Yeah, but it was. It was. It was different than everything I've ever done before. And. And yeah, really, there's. And there's a specific scene trying to be as respectful as I could in that one. And that comes in later. You'll see that in issue three or four.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: I mean, it's typical, but I would think you guys obviously made it if. If some sort of, like generations later, someone who was involved or parents or grandparents or whatever, like, I guess were involved, us actually read this comic, which actually be pretty crazy in my opinion, but.
And if they came to you and were like, what the hell did you do to my family?
[00:12:58] Speaker C: Phone calls being like, what the hell did you do? Like, my nose doesn't look like that.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: I have pictures of my grandmother. She didn't look like that. I don't know what you're talking about, but, I mean, in the end, though, you're telling a fictionalized story of this. So in the end, this. This is a comic book. This is not a. You're not like taking, you know, in translating actual facts into this comic book so you could do have some freedoms that you're saying, in the end, this is a fairy tale version of this. And so take that. You know, we're trying to take the basis of the story and make it into something that's more. I say fun, but more entertainment.
[00:13:35] Speaker C: It's just, you know, it's.
Yeah, like you said, it's a comic book version. It's. It's based on, you know, it's. Because a lot of the stuff did happen, but.
But it's.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's the true story with some different characters.
And it's a very monstrous element added to it.
[00:13:57] Speaker C: I guess it's more true than most adaptions are, like.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm gonna be honest with that. Yeah. Any. Any other, like, serial killer. Like, this is based on a true story. And you watch and it's like. No, like Henry Portrait or Serial Killer or something like.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, right.
[00:14:15] Speaker C: You go back to Ed Gain and you mix in sounds of Lambs.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Oh, sure, yeah, yeah.
[00:14:19] Speaker C: Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho, right? Yeah, Shuffle them. You get something on the guy.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. That's the funny that if you think about it, like, when you go back to someone's like, oh, this movie, like, silence lens based on this. And then, like. And you watched. And you like, I watched a documentary on Ed Gein, and I'm like, I don't know. It's like, okay, he, like, wore a face probably at one point. And that's about the only connection I'm getting from this at this point. Like, okay, I guess it was based on one idea of this character, then spun off into this entire fictional story. But, okay, I understand where you're coming from on that.
You know, so obviously you had this. You know, Anthony, you had this story. Obviously, it's from where I remember you grew up in that area of the country and so on. Did you still have to do a ton of research? I'm guessing it's not like, something just, like, some person talked to you about, and you're like, cool, I'm writing a conflict about this. I'm guessing you had to do some research on this.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Yeah, there was a ton. I mean, I was. Went back to the museum, went through their archives, read the newspaper clippings. I read every single book that came out about her, including, like, the weird pulp novels that had, like, a bunch of made. Because there's. There's just a lot of. It's an unsolved. It's more or less an unsolved crime because Belle got away, supposedly faked her death.
So there's a lot of room for the imagination, which is probably my excuse as well, too, why we came to this. This version of the story. But I mean, like, back then, it was. They didn't really know who Belle was, so they made up stories about her being with a traveling circus and would chop up her doll's arms and things like that. Just all kinds of, like, probably more out there than very long, long ago.
So, like, yeah, I mean, even that stuff I read, and it's just interesting to see what imagination can do with, like, a crime that's completely unsolved like this. And it's like, it's been going on for. Since the story came out.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I've just recently another Mad Cave comic book that's coming out, the Slasher's Apprentice, where they. They. It's a podcast. Podcaster on it. And I just saw that. I was reading online that they. The true crime podcast on my favorite murder, did an episode on. On Bell Gunness. And so I'm guessing you listen to that one.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: I haven't, no.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Oh, you haven't?
[00:16:31] Speaker B: No, I will.
I'm getting bailed out a little bit, I'm not gonna lie.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: It's that thing where you like don't do the, the, your hobby as a career because you might get too much. You might, you know, take over too much of your time and fall out of love with it. Is this the whole like, you know, you fall out of the story.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: There's lat and it's like you, there's, it's just stories been told so many times. So you hear inaccuracies and you're like no, no, because it's, there's. Yeah, like a lot of stuff has been lost and confused and like Wikipedia fied I guess about the case.
So yeah, it's, I still do. I mean like I still listen. I listened to the last podcast version of it. That was pretty damn funny. I think they did a great job on it. And that came out I think after Harold Schrechter's book came out. And that's the best telling of the Belgiana story that does everything including the DNA testing they try to do on the body. And just like I try to tell the story like straight too as well. And I think with his, at the end of his book he just talks about how there is no truth to this story and I'm sorry, pretty much. And like that's what it is. I mean it's a 120 year old case that's just probably never going to be solved. I don't know, maybe it'll be solved like the solve like the Jack the Ripper thing that just came out.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: I don't know, maybe your comic book will bring attention, more attention to this case.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: That'd be great. It'd be great.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Some FBI guys like oh yeah, I was reading this comic book from Mad Cave and it made me think I should really look into this further.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, I mean things could happen. I mean you think of, find similar patterns from other, you know, criminals in history and Bell was, you know, keeping her hobby going.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Well, the biggest, the fascination to me was again so the, the horror genre of comic books is one of my favorite genre. And I say horror comic books in anything is honestly horror is my favorite genre. And, and so like I read a lot of horror comic books and, and there are some that cross over that are like okay, that's just another version of the same comic book and so on and so forth. But like this is the kind of thing that really you know, caught my eye. Obviously you two as a creative team on it Caught my eye because I do like your previous work, so there is that, too. But, like. And I'm a big fan of Mad Cave, so there's that, too. But, like, it set it apart from other stuff, in my opinion. Like, having that. That. That historical fiction aspect of it made it so that I was like, oh, this is gonna be a little different. And the fact that she was not only just a prolific serial killer, but she's like the United States, like, most prolific female serial killer. And that was a big part, to me, is like, you don't get to see that very often in fictional stories or in factual stories about actual being a female serial killer.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: Yeah, horror does have a lack of female villains, for sure. It's always been like that. I feel like if they do have one, it's typically, you know, an archetype you've seen before or something like that. And no, we haven't really had anything quite like Belle. I suppose you've got. What is it? What's the Stephen King one with Kathy Bates? Misery.
[00:19:31] Speaker A: Misery, Misery, Misery.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Yeah. I guess that's closest we got. I can think of.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: But even that's pretty far. Yeah.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: I mean, it's. The cool thing to me was the fact that not only did you just do a. Write a comic book based around a female serial killer, but it's also like, okay, this is cool. We're gonna bring this character into comics, but it's based on a true story of a female serial killer. So this is not me going, oh, we need a female serial killer. It's like, no, this is real life. We actually had this person who kill a bunch of people.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: So it makes. Like I said, it makes it more.
There's more depth to the comic book, in my opinion, because I get to enjoy this story. But also, I do find myself right after finishing the first issue, be it like, going like, oh, I want to learn more about this person and understand who this person is. And then part of me is going to kick myself if I learn more. And now I know more going into the second issue, and now it takes some suspense out of it. Is it. Is that going to happen to me or is that going to do. I feel like I'm still going to get something out of the second issue.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: No, I say, anyone go for it. They're two different stories. They really are. The only character that they really, you know, share is Belle. Okay. Belle and her crimes. I don't think we. That's consistent throughout and matches the true story above that, the Characters are different.
You know, people that passed, you know, with her, totally different. So.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah. I think it's fair game for anyone to check it out.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: Check it out. I won't get overbelled, though. I mean, if I do this, I don't know. I wouldn't take too much time to. All this other stuff.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: I think those are separate enough. You'll be okay if they were.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:04] Speaker C: Even if you do buy the issues anyways, because.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, of course you're gonna buy the issues. They're phenomenal. I mean, like I said, it's gonna.
Yeah. Buy all the variant covers, all that stuff.
And you need a reader copy and a collection copy. You need two copies. You need reader copy collection. Then you need a trade afterwards.
[00:21:20] Speaker C: Cgc. You got a cgc.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. We actually talked about that, the bookstore the other day. Someone was like, I already got two copies of that, but I think I need a third one. Can I buy that copy behind you? We're like, why do you need a third copy? It's like, well, one's in pretty rough shape, and the other one's graded, so I need. I need it in my. My long box. I need to create the collection, so I need another copy to go in the long box. And I was like, wow, man, that sounds like a tough life right there. If you have to buy. If you have to buy all the versions of it, so that one's on the wall, so I got to make sure one's on the box.
Hey, if it's a current comic book, I mean, all the power to them. Because they buy more copies for you guys, but from you guys.
Yeah, exactly. As long as it's this one.
But it means five years of making, like you mentioned, and it's finally coming out. Are you excited for people to learn about Belle and these stories and for them to read your story and see your artwork issue guys?
Yeah.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah. It's like I said, it's just been a gauntlet. So very curious to see how people are going to react to it. Very excited to see how they're going to react to it. But, yeah, like, I feel like a lot of comics kind of go through this long hustle, and it's just like, I think people are more excited to see the book than actually hear about the Hustle.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: He seems like.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: But, yeah, that was. It was one of the roughest journeys I think I've been on, and I'm grateful for Alex for sticking with me on that, because it was rough.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Well, it's like, we don't see about it. I hear about it when Mad Cave or Don't Hype PR does a lot of their stuff. Just. Hey, by the way, this is coming out from these two creators and, like, cool. I hear about, like, two months ago, three months ago. Whereas, like, obviously, you guys have known about it for a long time. And so to me, I'm like, I've been waiting three months for it. Two months for it. You guys are, like, waiting for a long time for it. So. Yeah. But I do think that there's something to say about that. Listening to people talk about their. Their journey to this. This location, this. This spot in this publishing journey, you know, journey is. Is that, you know, you work so hard to get there sometimes it might entice people to go, yeah, I was thinking about it.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: But you know what?
[00:23:18] Speaker A: They worked really hard for it, so maybe I'll grab an issue.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: It's true.
[00:23:22] Speaker C: Anybody who's like, yeah. Kicking around a book right now.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. All right.
[00:23:26] Speaker C: I got said no. Said no. Said no. Well, I guess no. I just keep working on it, keep kicking around. And, you know, it's. It takes a while, but it's, you know, you can get it done. And. And it's kind of like. Kind of a. Hell, yeah. It was five years, and it's gonna. It's awesome. And we. We did it, you know, and so. So there.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Yeah, we said five years, too. I mean, like, so Alex Pager's been done for. They just been the initial story. So you actually like the books been done.
[00:23:57] Speaker C: Last page, I think last color page. Right. Was New Year's Eve.
[00:24:02] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:24:02] Speaker C: That's exactly like the day before New Year's Eve or New Year's Eve itself was.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: So the last issue.
[00:24:08] Speaker C: Issue five, last page, I remember just trying to get it inside of, like, I think the last cover was. It got kicked into January. But no, the book's done. It's been done for a little bit. And I mean. Yeah, I can't wait for people to see this. I think it's.
I've said this before. All the stuff that I've done, this is the heaviest book I've ever drawn.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: I was gonna say that, like, you've drawn some pretty epic stuff, pretty gruesome kills. And there's. There's. There's some scenes in this thing where I use a lot of, you know, there's a lot of blood. There's a lot of gruesome and grotesque things, but not over top. Not over the top. But just, you know, if you're a fan of horror, you're gonna like this, in my opinion.
If you're a fan of Alex's. Yeah. I mean, this fits your artwork style. I will say I am a big fan. Just a look of issue two's cover. Cover A. I like issue one's cover A, too, but I just said, like, issue two's cover A was something about it.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: It drew me in. It's pretty. Pretty cool looking as well. But. Yeah. I mean, does this make either one of you want to do another historical, historical fiction comic book? Or is this like one of those things where now you're like, I want to leave completely in the. In the fiction?
[00:25:12] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: I mean, anytime I get done with the book, it's like, okay, I won't do one of those again. And then just yesterday, I'm like, oh, this would be a really cool serial killer comic. Yeah, true crime comic. But it's like, that's different. You don't want to do the same thing twice. I don't want to tell another, you know, something like this. I don't want to combine fairy tale and true crime again.
I probably will, though, subconsciously, because I'm just so used to doing it for five years.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: To me, I'm like, there is something. There's a space for that almost. I feel like there would be like a whole series of comics that are based around even just serial killers that are real serial killers that happen. I would read an Eden comic book. I don't know about you guys, but, I mean, there is one.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I got it on my shelf over here.
[00:25:54] Speaker C: You have it right there.
That's how you do it.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: They're sending me a check in the mail for promoting this book.
No, there is. There is these kind of things, but I feel like there is. I feel like there's a space for that. I do think that this fits that space, and I think that someone who has this book might actually put your trade on a shop next to it or something like that, because it will be one of those. There's a whole. There's a whole place for true crime right now, and I think that this fits that. True crime, horror. But also, if you do not give a crap about the actual historical accuracy of this comic book, it's still an enjoyable comic book, in my opinion, at least. Issue one is. I could go down the uphill from there. I haven't got issue two yet, so.
I'm just kidding, guys. I'm Just kidding. This is not. No, I. You know, I think. And I think that you guys laid the foundation for what we're going to expect, in my opinion. I actually. I don't know what is your 2, 3 and 4 and 5 are going to be, but I feel like you laid enough foundation for me to actually get, you know, entrenched and learn about and get to the point where I want to be to the next. I want. I'm ready for issue two. You know what I mean?
[00:27:00] Speaker C: Yeah. I think issue one is probably the calmest, the wimpiest one, because. Yeah.
Yeah, it's. Yeah. Especially the. My favorite is the end of the next one, which. I'm not gonna give it away, but.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:15] Speaker C: Yeah. How Anthony wrote it, it was just like a. Like just a three knockout punches right in a row, and I was like, oh, this is. I'm psyched to be drawing. This is great. But. Yeah, no, it's. Yeah, yeah. Wait till we get into it.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Wait, get into it. Okay. We're ready for it. Something I just thought about, we were talking about a second ago about it being done. Does this. Is this different for you guys? Like, I feel like. I feel like most of the time when I'm talking to someone, issue one, I know it's typically different. We're like, oh, we just finished the. Halfway through issue three or something like that, and you haven't done that. So. So are you. And I'm sure you're happy it's done and completed, but, like, in the same sense, are you now, it's even longer of a wait for issue five to come out. Like, what's the experience like, being done?
[00:27:55] Speaker C: Last time I talked to you, I think I was like, in the middle of drawing. Whatever. I was like, what's your. I'm like, all right. Yeah, right. Back to work on it.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: Yes. So is it different? Is it a different experience now?
[00:28:06] Speaker C: Like, it's more relaxing.
All right. You know, it's. It's done. It's in the cans. It's. It's.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: It's.
[00:28:15] Speaker C: It's. It's done, at least for my side.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: You know, I'm sure Mad Cave likes it.
[00:28:21] Speaker C: Yeah, right.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: I mean, sure, Matt. Mad Cave can be like, okay, these are when the issues are coming out. Unless we have a printer error, we're pretty good to go.
[00:28:27] Speaker C: Yeah, right.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: I mean, I'm sure if I was a publisher, I'd be happy with the issue, a whole series being done when it goes to publication, but.
[00:28:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Which world doesn't work that way? And I Know, I understand you guys work very hard, and I just. When I see comic books take forever because of deadlines being missed or, say the big two, they had to switch the artist out in the middle because they're taking too long, it drives me nuts because of the fact that I'm used to some artwork or so on and so forth. So I've always been like, why don't they just do five issues and then release the first issue? I know it's financials and all this stuff. This is me hoping and wishing into the world that things would change a little bit, but it's never going to. And I understand there's budgets and there's. I understand all that, but I just. One of those things where I'm always like, why are we waiting three months between issues when we could just, like, release. Get a couple issues in the bag and then release the first issue and go from there? But that's just me griping here.
It's me griping on the Internet for this, you know? You know something. You guys did it right? So I'm trying to say no.
So do you think that. Do you think that this is similar, different, anything, like, to what you guys have done before, both of you, in that sense? Obviously, as like I said, this is historical fiction, but, like, those fans of Alex Cormack and fans of Anthony Cleveland, are those same fans going to translate into this comic book, in your opinion?
[00:29:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. On both of us, for sure. Yeah. It's. I think people are pretty used to Alex doing the historical side of things.
Me. So, I mean, I think I only have, like, Charred Remains is probably the only horror book. I mean, like, full horror. I mean, Stargazer has creepies, and Chosen has creepies. But, like, I've been talking about horror comics for a long time. I think this is the first time I actually got to really make something scary, or at least try to make something as scary as possible. And it's my first creator own. Also, everything else was Mad Caves ip.
So this is my first time on my own in the wild with writing it.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: Obviously, you think the same way.
[00:30:25] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because, I mean. Yeah. As far as historical stuff, I mean, I've already done a bunch of. Most of my stuff. Is that so. Yeah, if it's right in there. And. Yeah. No, so if. If you like my stuff already that you. Yeah, you will. You'll love this. And yeah, like I said, it's the heaviest thing ever done, so it's gonna. He thought that other stuff was, like, tough and get ready.
[00:30:48] Speaker A: Get ready for more. Exactly. Yeah.
[00:30:49] Speaker C: Because it's a bunch of little girls on the COVID It's. It's good.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Looks like a nice little family on the COVID I don't know you're talking about. It's a cute, cute little family. Like, if you zoom right in on the family, I guess the guest bell looks like she's gonna murder. She looks like she's gonna murder someone.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Let's be honest. You had to take a family photo like that. You know, it's stressful.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: I look like that sometimes when my kids are in a nursery, you know, I might murder someone. You know, it's. It's the truth. And. And I think that it's funny how that. That you portray that picture. It does look like, oh, the kids look very calm and nice, and they look a little worried, but they don't look overly worried. I mean, it looks like Belle is gonna. It has an ax behind her.
Right? I mean, as that looks to it, for sure.
[00:31:38] Speaker C: Does that cover your idea, Anthony, or did I come up with that?
[00:31:41] Speaker B: I think that was all a combination. I think every cover has been like a combination of just a bunch of ideas thrown together.
[00:31:48] Speaker C: Well, I think the second cover was mostly you, right? You're like, we're doing the outhouse.
[00:31:53] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, a lot of it. Times, it's like you. I flip through and see, like, what's the most compelling.
[00:32:00] Speaker C: What's our scene in the book?
[00:32:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, let's go into it.
[00:32:03] Speaker C: I was trying to remember that first one because it's been a while ago now, but. Yeah, I don't remember how that got cooked up, but you gotta keep harping.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: On the fact that it's been a while. We understand it's been a while. It sucks.
I don't remember. It's been a while. I can't get to this thing right now.
I mean, obviously you're promoting this. It comes out April 19th at your. Your local comic shops. Obviously want people to pick it up. You know, grab flock to your comic book shop. And get this. I always like to say, if they don't have it for some odd, crazy reason, maybe they bought 500 copies, they sold them all already. It's a lot of nose still, because obviously, hopefully you can get a reorder in or if a second printing happens or anything like that, there's something involved in that. So you just let their. Don't. Don't walk into their shop and be like, oh, they don't have it, and then leave. Like, tell someone and like I said, preferably tell them ahead of time so they can plan for one and hold you one. That's. That's my whole thing. This is going to come out after foc, but it doesn't mean that on the day the comic book comes out that the local comic book shop might put one aside for you or, you know, that kind of a thing. You know, pull boxes and things like that. But, yeah, we want to make sure people get it. So you've been working on this for a while, and now it's coming out April 19th from AD Case Studios. Does this mean you guys are working on other projects right now at this time? Is that because you give you freedom to network on the next thing? Obviously, sometimes you can't talk about them, but I'm guessing you guys are both hopefully busy.
[00:33:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I think Alex is way more busy than I am right now, but. Yeah.
[00:33:27] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a couple of things going on. A few things going on right now.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:33:35] Speaker C: Trying to think of what I can talk about.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: No, you're fine if you can't.
[00:33:39] Speaker C: There's two things I can't talk about. There's gonna be more sync, so that's good.
Yeah, there's a. There's a Kickstarter book working on called Family Matters right now with. This is like a wearable story, which is gonna be a lot of fun and.
But yeah, but you know, he's got stuff going on. You got it. Right.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: So, yeah.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: Unless you're gonna start working at McDonald's then. Yeah, it's probably after. Yeah, it's. It's a. It's a whole thing.
You guys doing any conventions and things like that on anything up coming up, or are you just staying home?
[00:34:12] Speaker B: C2, E2 for me. I have a panel, and I'll be there on the Sunday.
[00:34:16] Speaker A: Nice, nice.
[00:34:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll be at the old school comic show, a little giant comic show.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:25] Speaker C: This weekend. And it's. Oh, golly, where is it?
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Hampshire. Conquer New Hampshire.
[00:34:32] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a New Hampshire. It's Concord. Yeah.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: I will not be there. I wish I could be there, but I will not be there. Bye, buddy. Paul, who owns Galactic Comics and Collectibles, will be there hanging out. Say hi and he'll come say hi to you.
Yeah. And so we're. That's exciting. We're funny. It's like buying my house. I'm closing my house in May. I put a convention on in. In Maine. That happens May 31st or May. Yeah, May 30th. May 31st and I have to delay my moving because of it. So it's like, why don't you just move? The last week in May, I'm like, I can't. I. I got a common convention to put on. I can't. I can't be doing this right now. But I was at Little Giants. Wasn't last year, but the year before that. And that's a lot. That's a. It's a. It's a. An insanely big convention for a small area, if that makes any sense. Like, there's a lot going on.
[00:35:15] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. It's honestly that, you know, it may not sound like, but it's one of my favorite shows to do. I love doing it. It's. It's always seen old buddies and everything, and it's a good crowd. Yeah, I always have a blaster.
[00:35:27] Speaker A: Don. Is Donny Cates still coming?
As far as I know he's coming. Which is. Which is kind of a cool thing to see him out and about.
[00:35:33] Speaker C: I'll be there. So, yeah, whatever. I.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: Just to see him out and about now after he said he's had a pretty tough couple years to see him coming. It'd be kind of cool to be there. But I've always been impressed with that show because the fact that, like, it's in a big. Or not that big of a big ice arena kind of place, like a local ice arena place, and it's like two thirds full of comic books, like physical long boxes and short boxes of comic books. This is something you don't actually see that often nowadays at comic book conventions. It's more, you know, the stars and things like that and toys.
But, yeah, I was so impressed by the number of actual bagged and boarded comic books that were actually in Little Giants show, which is pretty cool. And then the number of artists and creators you guys see there is awesome, too. And then the big names are also all the people that are just like, you know, trying to make a living too, which is pretty cool. And I. I like all the in between is really awesome. But C2, E2 obviously, is becoming a very big. A big show. Has a big.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been a big show.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: I'm just.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: You guys are talking. I'm just like, man, I'm so jealous right now.
[00:36:37] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Well, there's something for both because I do feel like there is this. There's. There's. There's some. Was a place for all these conventions. My show that I put on the main is. Is one day it's Six or eight hours. It's very small. Three or four hundred people come. It's not insane, but it's something for the area that. That we can. We can help, you know, get comic book fans together, you know, and then the next size up from that is something like little giants. And then it goes from there. And there's a place for all of it. I. I think there's a spot for all of it, so. Which is pretty cool. You're going to be in front of more faces, probably Anthony, than Alex will be, but. But in the same sense, you know, maybe you'll actually talk to the same number of people, which will be crazy. Think about it, right?
[00:37:16] Speaker B: Our panel numbers. I was surprised. I went to one, I think it was last year, and just to have a full haul. I was just. Did not expect that.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: Did you get nervous?
[00:37:25] Speaker B: No, I think the. I did. I did three panels that day. The first one for sure. And then the second one was like, loosened. And then the third one, like, I don't.
Let's go.
Don't care.
The third was like a horror panel. So it was like I was totally in, you know, my comfort zone.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got called by my buddy Jay and Will, who own Pine State Convention, or Pine State Expo, which used to be called Maine Comic and Toy Con. There's Bangor Comic, Comic, Toy Con here in Maine. They called me. They're like, hey, we have comic book panels that happen on Saturday, and we don't really know a lot about comics. They're all like, they actually book a lot of the celebrities. And he called me, he's like, do you want to run those panels? I'm like, ah, cool. I was able to come down, just hang out. I mean, I was actually going to work the whole weekend, whatever. But yeah, it would be fun to do that. So panels are fun. I think that the comic book panels are even more fun because I feel like you learn a lot and people learn about what you guys do and how you guys make these comics is pretty cool. So I like the fact that you both just mentioned one show that you're going to, which is great. You weren't like, oh, yeah, for the next 17 weekends we're not gonna be home.
Because I know people like that for sure.
But yeah, sweet. April 19th is when buried long, long Ago hits shelves everywhere. You can Also order on Mad Caves website madcastudios.com because they have. Sometimes there's like special edition things and all that stuff too. So you can pre order on there too, if you don't have a local comic book shop you can go to. Sometimes going straight to the source is a good place to, to do it as well. And then obviously there'll be digital copies and things like that too, if you can't get the print copy. But I, I recommend buying it. You know, all that matters is the fact that I said, you should. I shall sure buy it. So if that's an endorsement, it's got the green check on it saying, I think you should buy it. I think it's a fun, exciting story. It's. It's gruesome. It's a horror filled. It's. It's based on facts with some fairy tale elements into it, and I think it's gonna be fun for people to read. If you're into horror comic books, that's your thing. And I think both you guys killed it, so I think that's. That's a big thing.
Yeah, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It's one of those ones. I was actually read the first issue, like on Saturday night of the original date for us to record this, and it was like one of those things where I'm like, oh, I'm so glad I read this issue. I get to talk to you guys on Monday. And then we had to, we had to postpone because my kid being sick. And it's usually I read a comic book that I'm really into and then like, I'm like, maybe I'll get those guys on at some point on the podcast. It was like, it worked out so well, but then I had to delay it. I'm like, God damn it. But yeah, it was worth the, it was worth the wait to talk to you guys. So I really appreciate you two coming on and chatting your comic and so much more. We'll have to get you guys back on at some point in the future, but until then, April 19th, guys, y. Go do it.
[00:40:08] Speaker C: Hey, thanks.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: Thanks, guys.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: It.
