[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to another episode of the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtights.com I'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. Once again, this episode is brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and Collectibles. At galactic comics and collectibles.com we welcome back Matthew Klein to the podcast who has been on previously two times on the podcast. This is his third. This is three Pete here on the podcast. Matthew is the writer of IDW's crashing as well as a bunch of web comics over at Tapas. He also sells comics for Penguin Random House. All of his opinions on this episode are his own. And his new podcast, Comics for you can be found wherever you find podcasts such as Apple and Spotify. Yeah, he might talk about podcasting. He's joining the podcasting world and talk about what he's doing on this podcast podcast Comics for you. So check this episode out. But before you do, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, bluesky, threads, all those things. You can find us over at YouTube as well. Check us
[email protected] and subscribe rate. Review all that stuff over at Apple, Spotify or wherever you find your podcast. Yeah. So this episode is the three peat of Matthew Klein, comic book writer, seller, and now podcaster right here on Capes and Tights podcast. Enjoy, everybody.
Welcome back to the podcast. Matthew, you were on episode 68. Okay. This is episode 217. Okay. So this. But you also came on episode 112, and that was to talk about crashing the trade paperback as well. So you did come on twice. So it's 68 and 112, but it's been over 100 episodes since you've been on. So welcome back.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: I'm so excited I get to do a hat trick for you.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: It's funny, I was trying to put together. It's insane. I learned a lot, or try to learn a lot from David Harper over at Off Panel Pod Podcast. I think his, what he does is a phenomenal for the comic book industry and for fans and for podcasters and things like that as well. And he's always made the rule about not having a guest come on more than once in a year. And I've broken that a couple of times, but I try not to. And so this is it. So you came on in 22, 20, 22 and 23. You skipped 24, but now you're on in 25. So that's, that's close enough, right?
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Well, I apologize for skipping 24. It's it's all my faults. I. I was bad person, very upset about it. So that technically means, though, that I need to come back on one more time to make up for 20. 24.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: Yeah. At some point toward the end of 25, this. This could be shifted into 24. It's close enough to 24.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: We're not that far away. Here we go.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: We're in the first half right now.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean, welcome back. I mean, how's life been? I mean, you've been staying busy? I'm open.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Yeah, busy. Busy is not a problem, Justin. That's for darn sure. Just launched a new podcast actually, in the space called Comics for your.
At the time that we're recording, episode three with Heather Antos is about to drop. And I think by the time this comes out, I'll probably be up to at least four, maybe five episodes will be released, including with Robert Young, who's the creator and founder and runner of South Carolina Comic Con. So that's been keeping me busy. That was a lot of my Q3, Q4 last year was, as you know, it takes a lot to get something like this up and running if you want to do it right and want.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: To do it well.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: So I've been really, really, really stoked for that. I got my next webcomic getting ready to drop, it looks like in April, called Sight Rhyme. This is going to finish my Masonryme trilogy over on Topless. Rich Widzicki right now is finishing up the panels on that. I got some convention appearances coming up, which I'm really stoked for in April and May and hopefully beyond. So we're pound the pavement and just pitching books, man.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that's crazy. And not that we're going to get into it much, but you also touched on the fact that you also sell comics for Penguin Random House, so you're also dealing with that, too. So there's a lot of change in the marketplace between.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: I don't know what you're talking about, Justin. What change could you be referring to? I have noted. I. I do want to say, while we are on here, all opinions are my own. They do not represent Penguin Random House. I am required by my contract to disclaimer. So just a heads up, I don't.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Like trashing on things and things like that either, so. So it's okay. In my opinion, things are going to be positive on here. But I will say one of the benefits of the whole change in the marketplace is that, like, even my LCS has ordered more from Penguin Random House. So, like, in a sense that, like, it's actually helped streamline some things for him and made him a little at the moment. So there is that side of things. So things have been, been positive in that it's been hectic seeing his life of what he has to deal with as a comic book store owner. But there's small glimmers of hope in there and he's happy that he's been able to order things like through Penguin Ran, who has more and things like that. So he's hoping the future looks good. So that's, that's all I'm gonna say. I don't want to go too far. Go ahead.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: So here's what I'll say about this. Here's. Here's what I will say about this. I. Because I work with about 500 comic shops. That doesn't include my other accounts that I have to work with, but I work with about 500 shops. You know, when, when we as a, A, A marketplace as a whole years ago would, when I was with a publisher, when I was with, as a retailer, when we would complain about the monopoly that, that diamond seemed to have, but only really having one distributor to work from, there, there were a lot of gripes, There was a lot of. There were wishes for some additional opportunities.
What the book market understood was that the more distributors you have, the more time it takes to order books, because you do have to use more websites, you do have to use more ordering forms. Different distributors have different ordering platforms, they have different cadences.
No one is exactly the same. Right. So it does add more time on that front, which I think is something the whole marketplace had to adjust to these last few years. Right.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: But.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: And it does because it changes your workflow. And if you've been in business for 30 years and you've had a set workflow that you're used to and you're comfortable with and you base your whole schedule around, it does throw a monkey wrench in that. Right. You do have to find a way to, to adapt. And that's not an easy thing to do, especially if you're a small operation and it's just you or just you and one other person.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: It's a really challenging thing to, to do. That being said, to your point, the hope is that the trade off there is that you are getting better service as a result of having more distributors. You are having access to more product that can sell. In the case of Penguin Random House, you get product a lot faster on reorders.
So I've been told. So, like you're. We hope that there's enough trade offs to make the fact you have to do a little bit more work over here will make this work over here a little easier and more profitable for you. That's, that's the balancing act that we hope is out there.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: And I think it's a long. I hope it's out there.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Not we. Sorry, I can't use the term we that I hope is out there.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: I think there's a long term hope in this thing too. It's not. I don't think there's a short, a short term. I think a lot of times people just, just, just frustrated with the situation at hand. But like long term, like, like my LCS skipped a FOC date on accident somehow. Like with. He was trying to switch over from doing most of his diamond stuff to, to the stuff that can go to Penguin or Lunar, whoever else, and he missed it. And he came in, he goes, I didn't get any comics this week. And I'm like, what? And he goes, yeah, I didn't do it. But guess what? All of the stuff that he got, he basically realized on Monday or Tuesday because obviously orders coming in and things like that he was able to get by like Friday or the next Monday or something along those lines. Like he reordered everything and he got it right in and it was great. And he's like, yeah, it was a mishap, but it was his fault. He said, you know, I just wasn't paying attention. So. And so, so there's some turbulence in that. But I think in the long term, having, you know, Penguin Random House and having Lunar and having some people that are really dedicated to trying to continue this, this world we love in comics, I think it's, it's going to be a good thing. And so, yeah, it's a, it's turbulent months, but it's, it seems like it's getting settled down.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: We, we are our entire mindset at Penguin Random House. My mindset as a rep at Penguin Random Houses, my job is to help your business grow and expand. Yeah, right. And that is how I look at it. I want, I want a healthier marketplace. I want a healthier comic shop. I want a more diversified comic shop because those are the healthier ones. I want you bringing in the next generation of readers. I want a shop that's able to. I don't want shops to cede business to Barnes and Noble and, and book chains and specialty retail. Right. I want to enable a shop to have the tools to make the most out of every customer coming in their door and to bring in new customers. So I think one of the things that's really exciting to me at Penguin Random Houses I'm talking through, like, how do you display books in your store? Have you thought of this promotion or that promotion? And here's stuff other stores are doing that we hear are working really well. Or here, get some sample copies of books to find out whether it is a good thing for you to bring in or not so that you can make the most informed decision for you. Like, there. There's a weird stigma for sales reps out there that they're going to tell you to buy everything and they just want you to run up your numbers as much as possible. And it's not actually the case with me, because what I do is I'm there to help you make the best decision possible, meaning to curate properly. Like, curation is a big deal. Like, you shouldn't bring in everything. If you're a retailer, you shouldn't bring in one of everything. You should figure out what to bring in and what not to bring in. Right. Because I don't want you wasting money on the things you shouldn't bring in. I want you to have as much money as possible to bring in five copies of Batman Hush instead of two. Because, you know you can sell five copies of Batman Hush. Right. So I want you to have cash flow to do that. I want you to be able to buy deeper on things that you know will sell, because that's going to make you more money. And what's so funny is that the mindset of, like, a distributor. We're in it for ourselves. No, we're not. If your business grows, my business grows. Yes. Yes. So my job is to help your business grow first. And as a byproduct, my business grows. Right. Like that is. That is the mentality that I have as a rep. I'm only allowed to speak for myself. Yeah.
And I think that that is. That's exciting for a lot of retailers. I think a lot of retailers, you know, really love getting that sort of service. They like having that mindset of being brought to them so that they're not left in the wind. Sort of playing a guessing game, which sometimes that's all ordering comics and selling comics is. You're just guessing, like, maybe this will be the hit, maybe this won't be the hit.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: We don't know. True. Yeah, it is true. It's. I've talked to Matthew Rosenberg on the podcast about how he's like, he hates when people over order his book because he hates going into a place and seeing his books in the shop. Not because they haven't sold, but because now the burdens on the song comic book seller, the retailer to try to sell those comics, that's all this inventory in there, in their, in their back stock that they may get to move, they may not. And he's like, he'd rather have people order directly or the direct amount he needs or whatever. I work in a beer industry, so I sell. I don't, I'm not working the distributor, I work for the actual brewery. But I know the rules of like you want your beer to sell the third time, you know, like the first time a new beer is going to go on the shelf because it's a new beer, people are going to buy, retailers are going to buy it, they're going to put on the shelf, they're going to try to move it. The second time it's because they sold so much. The first time they bought it, they bought it from the supplier like myself again, because it sold so well. It's that third time the customer comes in and buys it to show that they actually want to continue carrying that product. And so I think it's a long term game in the comic book distribution and retailing side of things is that if you, if you got an order that sold thousands of copies to a comic book shop, but they moved none of them, they're not going to reorder again that many. So like it's all short term gain. You want these long term customers to buy comics that work for them. So they continue to buy comics from Penguin Random House and the people that, you know, the comic book publishers that you distribute. So it's a long term thing, it's, it's a curating, customer service and all that stuff. And I think that that's one thing that's potentially slacked at other distributors over the past couple of years. I think there's just been this, this disconnect of passion in the comic book industry. And so I think that's one of the things, the frustrations I've seen. I get to see my lcs, my LCS is in Bangor, Maine. Just very small lcs, Galactic Comics and Collectibles. And so what they go through is a lot different than maybe your midtown comics or things like that that are massive, these massive, big, still LCSs, but they're still bigger. And so I think I get to see it, I get to see him, his frustrations, his happiness is his. All that stuff I see on his face because he's also the godfather of my daughter. So that also helps we have a relationship and that it's, you know, gotta get the comic book, you know, she's gotta make sure she has comic books in her, in her brain now. Yeah. So it's a long term thing.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: I think part of that too is like the beauty of the comic book industry is that you can have a thousand different business models and they all could work.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: You know what I mean? Absolutely.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Yeah. That's one of the things that's really unique I think to the comic book industry than some other retailer retail sectors is that you can have the one man band, as I like to call them, that has to do everything themselves and then you can have a multi store chain and they operate in completely different ways and with different customer bases and different product categories that work really well and yet at the same time both can be successful.
And that's really cool. And it's one of the things that I find super interesting in my day job is like I am working with, I'm working on both ends of that spectrum and all points in between and I get to learn from all of them. Right. And not only that, but I get to then help one side learn from the other that maybe in a way they didn't even think to.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Like that's the cool thing for me. I get the 30,000 overview of the whole marketplace.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: So.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: But, but I tell, I tell comic shops use that. Like ask me your questions, ask me your ideas, ask me all these things. Because we are islands unto ourselves. Our most comic shops, it's tough to, to have that perspective, but they have access to their Penguin Random House rep who has that perspective at all times. So one of the things that I try and burn into my accounts brains is like please reach out to me, talk to me, ask questions. Don't feel like you have to do it alone and you have to know everything.
My job is literally to remove the guesswork, take out that legwork for you so that you can spend more time selling the books, ask those questions. So please encourage, encourage the godfather to your daughter.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Like if he does not have regular contact with his PR sales rep, start doing it. Like make requests, ask them questions. We love it. It's the most fun part of our job, Justin.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Well, we work at it. Like, like the only thing I feel like you're missing in your life is you need to go get like a part time job like forbidden planners Something you need to go as, like, a. Not a not. You're ordering comics. You're just literally on this, on the floor selling comics to people. Because I feel like now you have started.
If I'm sitting like, you need to.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Go back with Matthew Rosenberg. Matthew Rosenberg and I were selling comics at the same time Planet.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: It was Matthew, myself, Tyler Boss, Vida Ayala, Danny Lore. All of us together at Forbidden Planet on the same day were selling you comics. And Danny and Vita could also be. Danny especially, could be selling you, like, your DND stuff.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Vita and I would be working on board games. Like, we were all in there at the exact same time. If you were in there at 2012, you saw all of us working. We all helped you out.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: That's like one of those, like, you know, back in, like, LA or Chicago area. Like, the whole idea of, like, these actors that all did, like, improv together, that then you went into an improv one night, saw these random people, and then, like, fast forward years later, they're all, like, on the COVID of comic books as the name, as the people. That's pretty crazy.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: I'm begging Forbidden Planet to, like, create alumni section on their website.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: Like, how about a little wall of Fame on the.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: That's right. I still go in. I still go into Forbidden Planet like, every week, and I try and hand sell a copy of Crashing whenever I can.
Because you never lose it. You never lose that wanting of being a. If I see something that's weirdly shelved, I will. I will straighten it on the show.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yep, yep.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: And if I see. If I see a customer that looks totally lost, I'll be like, hey, do you need any help with finding anything?
And depending on what I'm wearing, I'm clearly not working there. But other times, they may think I'm working there. So I will be like. I will hand. Like, I will hand sell $200 worth of graphic novels sometimes.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: And then go up to the cashier and be like, hey, so, so and so is getting this, this, this, this, this. Tell them to buy this next, would you?
[00:17:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: And they look at me and they're like, damn it, Klein, just stop.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Please stop. And in that list, you just shoved a little copy of the trade of Crashing. Right? You just pushed that in there. Okay, good, cool.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: Absolutely. Also, my webcomic, no rhyme or Reason, I printed some copies. They very kindly stocking them there. So.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: See, they. You. You. You sold comics on the retail floor. You sell comics for Penguin Random House. You write comics so there's that, too. You, obviously, as I said, you have your web comics crashing at idw, and then. And then now you decided to get under the dark side over here and start talking on podcast about comics. I feel like you just have every. I think you just, like, can't decide where you want to be, but also you want to have fun in all. All avenues of it. And I'm here for it because I loved crashing. Absolutely loved crashing. It was phenomenal.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: I would get that signed copy in the.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: Yeah, back here, right there. You know, it's displayed, it's. I'm moving. I. We're putting. We're buying a house. And I am.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: Congratulations.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: Thank you. And I just am not, like, I'm just regretting taking all this shit down.
Like, most things, I'm, like, looking forward to the next step, which is like, how I decorate the next office.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Right?
[00:18:34] Speaker A: To me, I'm like, this all has to get packed away and, like, put away and stuff. It's just not fun. But, yeah. So you're a phenomenal writer, I believe. You sound like you're excellent getting people their comics to the local comic book shop. Brian and you. And you know how to talk on podcasts. That's one of the reasons why I like having you on a guest. You're very, very personable. You're very. So. So I'm excited for people to hear comics for you, the podcast. But what I mean, you have guests, you've already had podcast episodes, You've obviously been into it, and so on and so forth. First of all, Alex Segura is one of my favorite writers that's out there. So, you know, that's a hell of an episode. I loved talking to Heather Antos when Heather was on the podcast. They are wonderful as well. And so I'm looking forward to more from. From these podcasts. I always love new podcasts and listening to podcasts, but what makes you want to get into it? What makes you want to do this?
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Yeah, so. So some of it is selfish and some of it's not selfish. Right. So, look, I'm a creator, and I am trying to build my name out there and trying to build a brand. And so part of it is having a podcast, I think is going to help me, you know, build an audience. Because if I want to do Kickstarter books and everything like that, so. So I'm being totally upfront. Some of this is absolutely for selfish reasons. Right. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But there was also something like, I. I've Done a little bit of podcasting in the past. I did.
I did audio dramas for a little while with a venture called April's the Cruelest Month. And we also had a series once a month called Comics Corner, run by dear friend of mine named John Petrie, who's over at McMillan right now. And, like, once a month, we just reviewed a graphic novel, and sometimes we'd have guests and whatever, and we just had a blast, all of us talking on there. So I was like, you know what? And then doing. Doing press for Crashing, coming on places like this with you, Justin, I was like, one thing I looked at was what's. Is there something I could add to the space? Like, I don't just want. I don't want to be trying to do the same thing everybody else is doing, because people are already doing it and doing it really, really, really well. Right. So what I tried to do with Comics 4U is I took a little inspiration from comic book comic industry insiders that Adam Freeman does where he talks to retailers every week specifically about retail. And I was like, oh, that's really interesting. No one else was doing that. And what I thought of was, what about somebody who's new to comics in every way, shape or form, and maybe they want to be a writer, maybe they want to be an artist, maybe they're just a fan, maybe they want to get into retail. And I wanted to work on a project that basically creates an audio encyclopedia so that every single episode is a different topic. And then if you want to know about how to be an editor working with licensors, listen to the Heather Antos episode. If you want to be a writer who does both prose and comics, listen to the Alex Segura episode. If you want to be a creator that wants to primarily work on crowdfunding comics, listen to episode two with Cat Calamia and Phil Falco. Right? So, like, that's. That's sort of the. The mission statement is like, I want to create a. An audio encyclopedia for the comics industry so that anybody at any level could learn something from each episode.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Well, it makes sense. It does. I mean, it's a. It's the being. The selfish part is you have no reason to be hide that. It's not like they're. You know, I did this selfishly because I wanted to start. I wanted to have fun just doing it. I like to talk and so on and so forth. Selfishly, I get to have conversations with comic creators like, this is cool. Like, this is amazing. This is a dream come true in that Sense. Yeah. My buddy at the comic book shop, his name is Paul, started a book club. Him and I decided to talk about it. I heard a podcast that someone at a comic book shop had a book club, and it was like 60% of their business ended up being coming from this book club and all that stuff. And I tell him, I said, I want to be part of a group of nerds who talk about a comic book. That's the first and foremost. But I see this as a business thing for you, dude. And selfishly, you need to start thinking about it that way as well. Like, so every single book, he's like, I want to sell more trade paperbacks, and this is sold more.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: It's great.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: We have a community. We meet. We meet once a month, we talk about a comic. It's amazing, but true. In the back of his mind, it's 50% that and 50% I am selling a bunch more trades that I didn't sell before. And so moving forward in it, I'm like, you also need to start thinking about this in a way that, like, if you're deciding between two comics, I don't think you should be selfish enough to say, this one has a volume two and this one doesn't, to say that we're doing this one. They're both great. They're both equally wonderful comics. We're doing this one. But because people continue to continue reading it and you can sell the trade number two, like, you're a business still, like, obviously don't do it in a sense where, like, you're selling this crappy trade because it has six volumes. Like, you're obviously going to curate this to the point where we like the comic book that we're reading, but. Or enjoy the quality matters. Yes. But if it's equal, then maybe there is a pull towards that or whatever. So I think that, you know, being selfish about it is not a bad thing. However, you're also trying to help other people. So that's selfless in a sense that you're trying to get people to learn a little bit more what you do and about how they potentially can get started in an industry that is extremely hard to get started in.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Well, and there's so many. It's, you know, you can. You can go to school to be a comics creator. And I actually have Amy Chu. I have an interview with her in the can right now that's going to be coming out pretty, you know, in the next couple of months because she teaches writing for. At School of Visual Arts and other places. And, and, you know, it's. It's that question. But. But a lot of people don't teach comic book sales. They don't teach comic book marketing. They don't teach, you know, no program is a complete, like, boot camp on everything about the comic book industry. And the business side of the comic book side is something that a lot of creators are really at a disadvantage of when they enter into the field. Like, they don't understand the ordering cycle. They don't understand the mindset of the retailer. They don't, you know, and it's not because they're dumb. It's because they never learn. No one, no one ever. No one ever offered to show them this. Right. And so, again, like, if we can. If I can create a resource for them to learn about that side, and on the other hand, if I can help a retailer learn more from a publisher about why they do X, Y and Z practice so they have a better understanding of how they're approaching it. Right. Like, it's. I talk about it with Heather on. On episode three, because as an editor, part of her job is, is finding ways to communicate to every member of creative teams that we all go in the right direction on a project, but every member of the creative team might use the same word with a very different meaning.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: Right. And it's the same way that a retailer may use one word. A creator thinks of it a different way and a marketer thinks of it a totally different way. So here I want to help everybody build the vocabulary so that we all know how to talk to each other and we all know how to communicate with each other. And that way we can all learn to be a more inclusive and efficient ecosystem as an industry. That's part of the goals there. But I'm really stoked. Like, I'm bringing on people from all over the industry for that. Right. Like Alex. I talked about Heather from an editorial perspective. Crowdfunding comics. I've got Rob Young, I mentioned earlier for South Carolina Comic Con, because, like, what does it take to start a comic book convention? How do you run a comic book? What are the unique pitfalls and things that you have to do there? And that's a local regional show. Hopefully I'm going to have somebody on from Reed Pop to talk about bigger shows. Right. So. And then coming up, I've got, again, Amy Chu's talking about teaching comics. I've got Chris Condon coming on soon. So, like, trying to find people from all different sides so that you hear all sorts of perspectives and no matter what side of the industry you're on, there's something for you to learn. Yeah.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: And it's also different. Like years and years and years ago you got into writing comics, you basically wrote the comic, dc, Marvel, any of those companies sold the comic like you didn't have to. Not that you didn't have to do much, but you're not sitting there going on podcasts and talking interviews and trying to pitch your comic. Now where we've leaned a lot into the independent side of things, in the creator owned or the creator reader driven series, there's a lot more of personal having to pitch the comic book to get people to buy your comic and read your comic. And so that is one of those things that like, it's changed over the years and like even, even people who go to places, idw, Dark Horse or so on and so forth, they still have a self promotion part of this that they have to do.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: You have to.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: And so it's not, it's, you know, you're not trying to. Very less likely are you trying to pitch someone to read your Green Arrow run because Green Arrow fans are going to read that or people of D.C. are going to read that. It's less likely that Matthew Klein running a DC run is. There's less chance that people are going to be like, oh, I want to read Matt's work than it is, I want to read Green Arrow. No offense, it's.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: No, no, I, I agree.
[00:27:41] Speaker A: But the independent side of things, trying to get someone to read this book about superpowered human beings in a hospital and so on, like trying to get that you have to pitch that comic book to someone. And so having that, there's a lot more work goes into doing this than has been potentially in the past. But it's also more avenues for people to get their comic books out there too.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: So it's the double edged sword, right? There's more opportunity than ever for you to build an audience, but it takes more work than ever to build an audience. So you do have to be a self starter and a lot of creators get into it and they want nothing to do. They don't want to get on podcasts because they're very self conscious, they're antisocial, they're, they're not used to talking about their books in these terms in this mindset. Right. They, in an ideal world, of course somebody else would sell the books for you and market the books for you. But when you're starting out and you've got to build an audience, you've got to build up these muscles, and you've got to work on your weaknesses, right? You've got to build. You've got to turn your weakness into a strength. And. And it takes practice, and the more you do it, the better you get at it. But it can be really intimidating and it can be really time consuming because. And this is something I heard Amy Chu say, and I loved it.
Everything else you do takes away from making the book.
It takes away from the time you could be spending creating the book. And as creators, that's the thing that gives us the most joy. That's the thing that we're doing it for. We want to create the book. So it creates a time management question like, okay, I have to schedule seven social media posts this week. I have to try and be on two or three podcasts this month. I have to record five interviews. And I need to edit, you know, not just because for comics, for you, I have the main episode, but then I also have bonus episode content for Patreon subscribers. And I'm also putting together, you know, three to four promo clips to put, like, you know, all that takes time. That's, you know, that's a full day, basically, of my life. I don't get to write a comic book script. So everything you do takes away from doing that when you're marketing and selling your own stuff. And I think that's another thing that a lot of creators, we all struggle with is like, we just want to write the thing. We just want to. We just want to have the ideas. But it's all skill sets that if you want to be successful in the sense of you're making a living at comics or coming as close as you can to making a living in comics, These are the things that we. We have to do now for better. We can be mad at it or embrace it, but if we don't do it, we're not going to be successful. So you just got to do it, you know, you just got to make. Turn it into a positive mindset.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: Exactly. And actually, I've had people talk to me about. I tend to have far more of a percentage of writers on the podcast than I do artists. And there's. There's multiple reasons on that. One of them is there is, in a lot of cases, a language barrier. There's a lot of comic book creators that, you know, speak. Don't speak English or don't speak English well. And so there's a bunch of creators that I've been like, I really want to have you on the podcast. And like, my English is really broken. It is. This format doesn't work. So I've done like written interviews or email interviews or stuff like that. That makes sense. But also, let's be honest, when like, for example, when you were writing Crashing, you were not done, but you were practically done writing the five issues while someone was still drawing the five issues. So it's like one of those things that you were in a spot to help promote the comic book on a specific spot. Or writers sometimes are in a spot where they can take a break and take 35 minutes out of their day and write thing while the other creator is still over there, you know, whittling away at trying to draw the comp because you were done with that issue's first step or whatever it may be. And so there is a timing on that too. So sometimes I could talk to a creator, an artist, something like that after, potentially. And they do take some time out. But the majority of the time is the writer's the one that's more free at the moment. Not saying it's less work or more work. I'm just saying at the moment of trying to promote this comic book closer to the release date or foc date or something like that, the writer is usually one. They're like, hey, it's in the artist's hands. I don't. I can't tell you right now. I'm waiting for pages to come back and so on and so forth. And so that there's that, you know, it's just trying to fit this in and trying to fit people into your schedule and their schedule and so and so forth. I like yours because yours sounds a little. It sounds like it's evergreen, right? It sounds like you probably will try current moment things or comic books are specifically working on that time. But however, it's probably. It sounds more evergreen so that I can pick a random episode and listen to it. I can listen to this 10 years from now, hopefully. And I guess things. The industry will change in a sense that there will be some things that get stagnant. But it sounds like in a way that you can probably go, I've got three dates this week to actually record podcasts that I can release over the next two months. And it's fine. You're not like working with Alex being like, Alex's new comic books coming out on Friday. So I want to make sure you have. Or Friday next Wednesday, so you make sure you have the episode coming out near the release.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: It's more like be open to Doing those opportunities, obviously, like, there will be some here, there. But I also try and be upfront with the guests of saying to them, like, hey, this is. We're going to record today, but this probably isn't going to come out for, like, two months, right? So. So that they know, okay, if it's coming out in two months, what should I be promoting in two months? You know, not. They're not promoting the thing next week necessarily. So, again, like, trying to. Trying to find that balance of transparency. But you also know, like, it's. It's good to bank content so that you can make sure you are releasing content on a regular schedule. Like, consistency is everything, everything, everything.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: I get mad at myself when things don't get. And my wife's like, people aren't gonna care that much. I go, no, no, no. But I need to do this. Every Wednesday, I have an episode come out. It needs to happen. I don't. I don't care. I'll get on there and talk for 15 minutes by myself and throw something up there. I don't. It has to be, well, well, good content people want to listen to. But still, I need to do this. And so, like, this, this episode today, I emailed you and was like, hey, it wasn't specific. I had dates available.
This episode will come out in a couple of weeks. And it was like, I could have said, hey, the week of that episode, do you want to come on that Monday and talk for the episode coming out Wednesday? But I'm like, I had a date open up today in my schedule where I normally record a podcast and said, matthew, will you come on today to record this? Even though you know it might not come out for three weeks or so? It's because today I need to get in there. If not, I'm recording two or three episodes in a day, and I don't want to do that because you end up at the third episode. You're like, yeah. Mm.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: Oh, no. I'm learning that. Yeah. It's like, I'm really trying to avoid recording more than two episodes a day. Because you do. Like, you're. Because you got to be on and you're very active. You're actively listening, and you're actively paying attention. And it's one of those things, like, I'm actively listening, but I also have to keep in mind, okay, where do I need them to go next? What topics have I not covered that are on my list that I really do need to get covered here? Like, how do we. Like, you do have to think a Few steps ahead as an interviewer, which is something that y'all do that I'm. I'm really learning more and more about in terms of it, which is, which is a fun challenge. It's something new.
But like right now I can't go weekly yet. I'm gonna start. I'm gonna start two to three times a month. Really, like two times a month. Then I'll bulk up to three and as I get more comfortable, because the one thing I did learn from everybody I spoke with is like, it's better to add rather than subtract, right from an audience perspective. And the algorithm, you want to start at a certain. It's start, start less and then add more. Don't start more and then add less as you go over time. So.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: And get these. Are you comfortable in that? Because I did to a point where I had racked up the backlist of who I wanted to have on and people were like, yeah, I'll come on sometime. And so I was like, oh, cool, I'll start doing Monday and Wednesday. So every question started recording in episodes and doing them every twice a week. But then also twice a week means twice as many recordings. So then it was. And then it got to the point where I'm like, I can't do this anymore. I don't care if I have to push people out. I don't care if I miss people will come back to them later on, whatever. Maybe it needs to go back to once a week. And that mainly was because of the fact that, I mean, like I said, I have, we talked a little bit. I have two kids, I have a full time job as well. This editing, all that stuff. Scheduling, I mean, scheduling itself takes up enough time to figure that out and try to figure out and try to get not too far in advance for someone, but also not too close and so on and so forth. Some people like two or three months in advance, some people like it being the week of or the next or have the ability to do the week of or week, you know, whatever. I get lucky is that I work from home. So I always schedule my interviews on a lunch break of sorts. Whether the lunch break is at 11:30 or if it's at 3:00 in the afternoon, I just work through my lunch and then leave work early or whatever it may be. So I'm able to do that. A lot of creators like that. They're like, wait a second, I don't have to do it at 7:00 at night, 8:00. Awesome. And so there's that, that benefit. There's other side of it. Those people who are comic book writers who have full time jobs sometimes can't. And so it's a balance. It's a whole thing. And I understand. I said, and that's why I'm always like, I love doing it. And I don't have any sign of myself stopping recording podcasts anytime soon. But I always, like, ask people when they start, like, why are you so crazy enough to do this shit? Like, this is not like, it's fun. This is fun right here. What we're talking right here, around it is a lot more stress than literally just having a conversation with you. If I literally had a producer where I could just be like, here you go, I would do this for full time. I don't care if I didn't make any money at it. I would do it all the time. It's the around the work that just becomes. It can get stressful. And there's moments of. Not sadness and moments of like, man, I got to do this thing, but I really want to do this other thing, and so on and so forth. But overall, podcasting, I think, is fun. And so I'm glad you're in the field.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: And it's community building.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
[00:37:12] Speaker B: Like, for me, that's, that's what, that's one of the things I love about podcasting is it is about the community building that you're doing. It's like, because as you say, yeah, we get to talk with really cool, interesting people about comic books. It's like being in the shop. You know what I mean? Like, you're sort of simulating that interaction that you have in your local comic shop. You just get to have it, in our case, in our homes on our lunch break, which makes it easier.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: I mean, the adventure of zoom, the adventure of teleconferencing, the invention of this stuff in the pandemic. I said nothing amazing came out of the pandemic. Let's be honest, there's a lot of bad things that came out of the pandemic. But one of the most amazing things is forcing us into doing this technology, forcing us to have online meetings and discussions with family members or, or friends over zoom. Because then it made it easier for us to be like, cool, we could do this. I record my podcast, I do movie reviews with my buddy Paul, who owns the comic book shop. We review random ass Marvel and DC movies. And so. And he lives in the next town over. We still do it this way because it makes it so much simpler because him visiting the studio and hanging out. I do have it set up so I could do multiple people, but it takes like a three hour thing because it's like an hour of just shooting the shit and hanging out and then an hour of recording and then an hour of like, oh, let's, you know, maybe we'll get lunch. And so like it takes up a half a day on here. We sign on at 11 o'clock, we're done by 12 and I can go back to doing what I'm doing, edit the episode later and so on and so forth.
[00:38:34] Speaker B: So you just describe the entire appeal of working from home.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: It's like, it's. I literally, I wouldn't be able to do an interview with a creator if I worked on Mondays. I worked, I work from home on Mondays. The rest of the days I'm in the office. If I didn't work from home on Mondays, it would be a lot harder for me to schedule these things. I literally could take an hour out of my day and if I have to, it ends up taking two hours or I still need to eat lunch, whatever. I can work a little later. Cause I usually stop work at 4pm and my wife doesn't get home with the kids until 5 and so I have that, that extra leeway there too. I can work an extra half an hour. So working from home on Mondays to me was like, I don't care if you pay me less on Mondays. They don't. My job luckily pays me the same. But I would do this. So I had this freedom to have a conversation with you on a lunch break instead of having to worry about us trying to coordinate after lunch and kids and all that crap too.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: But yeah, look, I have so much better work life balance now that I work from home and I am so much more efficient. I get so much more done. I listen, I. When I was a Valiant, I had a team of seven people working under me at one point.
Sometimes my workday didn't start till 5pm because I was just in meetings all day and I would have people coming into my office and I loved my team. But you know, it just start eating away at all the time that you could be getting stuff done. And like now it's like, okay, if there's a, if there's a teams chat, I can wait five minutes to respond to that chat because I see what it is and how urgent it is, right? So like I am far more efficient in there. And you know what? On my lunch break I can throw some laundry in so that I'm not spending my whole evening doing laundry. I can do something else. I can relax more or go out to dinner or focus on editing a podcast episode during that time. Right. The work life balance of working from home has been revolutionary, I think for a lot of people.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: I've also felt like it was kind of funny on that quickly on that was like I felt like I work more focused because I have to justify what I do. Like if someone were to ever ask me what I did at home, I feel like I do twice as much work when I'm at home because of the fact that I'm like, if someone asked me, I need to prove that I'm doing all in the office. I literally could sit there and stare at the screen all day. But because I'm in the office, people are like, oh, Justin's working. But I don't have to justify what I'm doing because I'm sitting in the office. But when I'm at home, I feel I never do. My company I work for or in our brewing company is phenomenal. And they don't, they don't question I have some freedoms. I've been there for eight years. It's not. But I'm just saying if I ever needed to, I could be like, hey, look at all the stuff I did because I was working from home and everything. We've all heard about this. Any emails or any meetings that we always say at the end we go, that meeting could have been an email. Oh my God, that's working from home. They're all emails, they're all phone calls. They don't have to worry about it. You don't have to worry about a meeting. I get just like, you know, hey, cool, that, that we didn't have to have a meeting about that. I'm glad you sent me an email. That was great. We didn't have to take two hours out of our day to talk about something that could have been an email.
[00:41:23] Speaker B: Know there, there's, there's this assumption that if you're not standing over somebody, they're not working when in, I think the reality that is shown out in the, in the data, in the surveys because you even see like, like the UK and Europe are looking into four day work weeks now, right? They've been running, running these, these experiments and it's, it's that thing of like when you actually give people trust that they're going to do their job, they honor that trust.
When you treat them like an adult, they act like an adult about it. Like, it's. It's one of those really interesting things where it's like, oh, no. If I. If I do just say, please, go do your job. I believe in you, and I'm gonna give you the freedom to do it. They go and do it. You know, it's one thing like, they are more productive because. Because they appreciate it. Like, you feel like, okay, someone is placing their trust in me. I want. I don't want to abuse that. I do want to validate that. And so, like, yeah, I'm going to work my butt off because. Because you can't look over my shoulder. I want to make sure you know I am doing my job for you. And you can see it in my performance. Right.
[00:42:29] Speaker A: It's really funny. It's funny because I think I also, like, people email me in the office, and I email them back like this on a Monday when I'm working from home. But, like, on a Tuesday, I'd be like, I'll get to that in a second.
[00:42:39] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: That's like one of those things. I'm always just, like, on top of things. It's just amazing. And then it gives me the freedom to do this. And I think again, to circle back as we finish up here with the podcast, is that it gives you the freedom to do work around it, too. Because, like, I don't have a set lunch ever. Like, I, when I'm working in the office, too, is like, I eat through my lunch. It's not even like, I'm actually taking a break and going somewhere and doing something. But, like, it's like I said, if Matt, if you were like, hey, can we do it at 9am My lunch would have been at 9am and then I would have gone throwing something in the microwave or in the oven or something like that, cooked it, come back to my desk, sat and ate it while I worked and worked through my lunch. That. That's when my lunch break was. And. And so I have the freedom on that. And I also have the freedom to do it on a Thursday if I needed to, like, leave early. Sure. And go home. So. So working at a place, like, it's beneficial in my sense. I have a pretty free, free schedule to allow me to do this. Like, I'm recording with Liana Kangas and Alyssa Wong for. For our Star Wars Week coming.
Yes. They, Liana, and then Liana and Alyssa were able to do it like a Wednesday morning, and I'm like, oh, that's cool. I'll just make it work on a Wednesday Morning. We'll figure it out. I'll tell my work ahead of time, maybe even working from home on that day, and I'll just make it work. It's not an issue most of the time. I try to do Mondays and so it works out well. So that has made me be able to do this and I feel like there's a potential reason why or some way you're going to be able to do what you're being doing at Comics 4. Uh huh. Is because of some, some of that too. And I think that you have a lot of connections, which is great too. I mean it's not like you don't know people in the industry, which helps you do that. But here I'm gonna tell everybody who is listening to this podcast that wants to start their own podcast. It's possible. I knew about three main comic book creators, like not Maine as in like Maine, but Maine is in the state main comic creators. And from that point on I have now had 217 episodes with like 180 different people. And I didn't know anybody. And it's all about trying to work with publishers and things like that, you know, marketing agencies and PRP PR firms to get your to people out there. But you can do it. It's not, you know, and like what Matthew's doing here with the different side of it, different angle to comic book industry is awesome too because you're carving your own path that I think is not interfering, but also, but adding to the, to the world of comic book podcasting. It's pretty cool.
[00:44:52] Speaker B: Thank you, I appreciate that. I hope so. And I agree. It's one of those things too where it's just like you get a microphone, you're gonna spend like 60, 60 to 100 for a decent microphone. You get some headphones or some AirPods or what have you.
You download Audacity, you know, to edit everything. God bless, it's still free. Love that. And you know, in my case, I just tried to learn from you, Justin. I tried to learn from all the other folks. I'm like, okay. So I listened to a lot of podcasts and I was like, what do they do? It's like, okay, I need theme music.
I need a cue between the intro and the interview and an outro, little details and things. And I worked with a designer that I worked with at Valiant to build the logo. But I went to him and I said, hey, I need a logo and I need Patreon banners, any Facebook banners. I need all. Every social media is different. Sizing so it's like, because I'm thinking I'm going to make stickers, I'm going to make patches, I'm going to make like all these things. And like, you can build it, but. But all that takes is a few emails. Like, you know what I mean? Like, don't, don't go. Don't get in your head thinking it's more work than it is. It is work, but if you just chip away at it, it's. It comes down to, like, I make a few emails, I make a couple purchases, it's a few hundred dollars of investment. But you could then build something for 20 years of your life.
[00:46:16] Speaker A: And for you, like, you're saying, it's. Hopefully people know the name and then they, you know, if you pitch comic and you Kickstarters, whatever it may be, you're building a base on that.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: Publishers look at me and go, oh, he's done this podcast. He's got 70 episodes, so he must have a following. So, yeah, I'm more willing to look at his pitch now.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: You're like, no, no, my family listens to it and that's all. Don't. Don't fool yourself.
[00:46:37] Speaker B: I don't have to show.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: Exactly. Well, they're read. They're even hard as it is. There's like, it's like one place will tell you one number. It's a whole.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: Oh, God, it's a whole crazy. Yeah, I want to. I would love to. I'd love to learn your. Because I had some major snafus trying to find, like, the proper podcast hosting site to do it with and all that. I'd love to pick your brain more on the next time I'm here.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. It's. It's, It's. It's crazy. It's.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:47:01] Speaker A: I. I can't wait. I mean, your web comics are great too. I can't wait till the day I see you in another print comic. I. I love seeing your. Your name on the shelf crashing was phenomenal. I love it. Still, still promoted to have a bunch of people. You know, Morgan's work was phenomenal on the artwork as well. So I just. It's just the whole thing is great. I am so pumped that you started a podcast. When I saw that, I was like, wait, what's this new podcast? And I saw your name and I was like, wait a second, I know that person. And I'm so excited for people to listen to it and so on. So see who you get for guests and so on. So be jealous. When you have some guests that I haven't got yet, that. That. That's another one that would be there. You know, we'll see that coming.
[00:47:36] Speaker B: Just ask me and be like, hey, how did you get them on? Can you.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: Can you put it in word?
[00:47:40] Speaker B: I'll be like, sure, Justin. I'll put in a word.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: There's a specific guess that I'm not going to stay on here, but I'm that Liana. I was like, liana, you know this person. Come on. And yeah, I'll work on it with you. I'll work on it with you. So. So we'll have to circle back with Liana and find that out. For my 200th episode, Liana did a special beer label for a beer that was released for my 200th episode. So, yeah, I love Liana to death. And so they were like, hey, yeah, I'll help you out with that. They didn't go anywhere yet, so I don't know. And I think the person that Liana was talking to was. They were also new to talking to this person. Like, they.
Beginning of a relationship, a friendship, you know, partner in crime there. And so I think it was like, if they could slide it in, they were gonna say something, but if not, they'll wait till the next time. So we'll work on that.
[00:48:25] Speaker B: But, yeah, but you know what? It. Referrals matter. You know what I mean? Like, if. If you have a guest on the podcast. I took this from, like, Michael Rosenbaum. I love his podcast called Inside of you. And it's just. It's a mental health interview podcast basically, with, like, actors and stuff. But he gets really big names, and a lot of them will be like, well, so. And so was on your podcast and said it was really good and vouched for you. Yeah, So I was, you know, and it's like, yeah, the more. The more you do it, the more people have a good time, and they're like, sure, I'll put in a word. Or when you reach out to somebody, they'll be like, they'll reach out to another friend of theirs and be like, you were on that thing. Was it worthwhile? Like, are you going to do gotcha questions? And it builds that way, right? So that's.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: There's also that line in the comic book industry. There's someone doesn't need, like, no offense to. To anybody out there, but there's public comic book people that don't need me. Like their publisher, Their books sell on their own. They don't need a podcast. To do that for them. And so some of those people, there's that line that they go above that line where they don't really need you, that it's really a favor to me than it is a favor to themselves to try to get their book promoted. And so there's that line. I mean, Scotty Young is one of my favorite artists of all time. And Scotty was nice enough to come on a while back to discuss comics and things like that. Scotty didn't need me to help promote his books and stuff like that, but he was nice enough to do that. And so there's a, there's that, that line is. There's definitely people out there who are like, please, can I come on your podcast? Other ones are like, yeah, sounds good, I'll do it. And then there's other ones that, like, they don't say it like that, but they're just basically like, I don't take time out to talk to you is more detrimental to what I'm doing than it is actually promoting me. And so that's where you balance that stuff out. And for your side of things, I think it's great because people have to take the pressure off, I think, of just trying to promote their comics and just talk about the industry. And I'm, I'm excited for you on that side, too, because sometimes it's a little bit less of like, buy my shit and it's. Then it's just, you know, let's talk.
[00:50:09] Speaker B: No, and, and of course I'm going to plug like, whenever.
[00:50:12] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:50:12] Speaker B: Are coming out, obviously. But, but no, I do. You know, it's, it's meant to be a behind the scenes sort of podcast. It's like, these are. I, I am a comics professional talking to another comics professional. So you are hearing what it's like when two comics professionals are discussing the industry. You know, two people with intimate knowledge from different sides usually of the industry, are comparing notes, basically. Right. And trying to learn a little bit more. And that's it. That's. That's the goal. So you get to be. I, I want the listeners to feel like they're flies on the wall at that conversation between, you know, grizzled veterans, if you will.
And that's going to give them a perspective that they, they wouldn't be able to get elsewhere. I hope so.
[00:50:58] Speaker A: So here's my, here's my final gotcha question. You ready for this, please? Is are you going to get Rob Liefeld on. Robert Liefeld on to talk about how comic retailers are Unreliable. And they were.
[00:51:07] Speaker B: I would love to have Rob one.
[00:51:09] Speaker A: I would love that, though he wasn't going to send his new comic Youngblood or whatever it was to. To comic retailers because they're unreliable. I was like, oh, my God, you need a PR person, Rob, right now. You need a PR version.
[00:51:21] Speaker B: If. If Rob would be willing to come on. I would kill to have Rob Liefeld on my podcast. And. And this is not a clickbait thing. I would. I've never gotten to have a conversation with Rob. I would love to have a conversation and just shoot the proverbial with them. And. And I'm happy to discuss anything he wants to. About the comic book industry that he would feel interested.
[00:51:43] Speaker A: I'll tell you right now.
[00:51:46] Speaker B: And I would. I come from a different, unique side of things.
[00:51:50] Speaker A: I'll tell you right now, Matthew. I don't think he listens to my podcast. I don't know if you're getting maybe someone who knows someone. Knows someone. Knows someone. Yeah, exactly. Right.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: The algorithm will kick in somewhere along the lines. So, yeah, Rob, here you go. I'm putting it out there. Here's my invitation. Yep. You have a standing invitation anytime you want to come on Comics for you.
[00:52:10] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:52:10] Speaker B: And we'll talk about whatever you want to talk about, Rob. It doesn't. It doesn't just have to be the com. You know, plugging something. You want to talk about retailers, you want to talk about anything at all. Listen, I'll have a chat with anybody. Yeah, I'm a big believer. I'm a big believer in discussion. I'm not a doormat. If you say something that's untrue, I'll call you on it.
Or. Or I'll challenge you an assumption that I don't agree with, but I'm not going to be an either to be like, oh, well, you're definitely wrong. Like, no, no, I wanted this. I like discussions.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: Discussions, yes, Discussions.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: Discussions are great. We learn from discussions.
[00:52:45] Speaker A: Yes. It's. It's gonna be fun. I can't wait to see where you're going. I hope to see you reach 200 episodes like we have done, luckily, over here at Capes and Tights Podcast. I hope it does really wonderful things for you. You can find you're on most platforms, I'm guessing, for podcasts.
[00:52:59] Speaker B: Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, you can get it there. And look, if you want to give me feedback in person, I'm going to be at two conventions in May, so come on out to Phillipsburg Comic Con May 10th in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. It's a fabulous one day show run at the high school there by the comic book club of the high school. Faith Ron Koni is the organizer there. She is a powerhouse. It is a beautiful show. The kids run the show. They literally, they, they cook the food for lunch. They, because they have a culinary program, they create the decorations for you. They're running errands all day. They're running the panels like it's an incredible training program for them to, to learn about comics in the industry and get these skills. So it's, it's one of my absolute favorite shows every year to do Phillis re New Jersey and then a week later I'm going to be a fan expo Philadelphia tabling there May 16th through 18th.
So you know, go birds if you are. I get, I get to, I get to Bask for about 300 more days in the glow of the Super Bowl.
[00:54:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:08] Speaker B: So, but yeah, coming out, I'm from Philly, was born and raised not far from the convention center. So really excited. It's my first time doing a convention in Philly. I'll have some cool exclusives of things. One of the things I do, Justin, is I actually do writing commissions. So I have a 1984 typewriter and I will do, I will kill your favorite character for you. It's great. I take commissions at the show but they're all like typewritten so you know, it's a human being. They're all originals. They're all one of one.
[00:54:37] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:54:38] Speaker B: But I can't draw so I can't do an art commission but I can do a writing Commission. They're like 10 bucks. So if anybody wants one at the show, message me. Now you can find Me Matthew Klein. 316 on Blue sky, the happier place.
[00:54:51] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:54:51] Speaker B: I still check Twix every now and then. I don't call it X. I don't call Twitter. And then you can also find me on Instagram, Mac the Knife 11:16 for all the news and updates on Comics 4 you and the appearances and the web comics and hopefully some more stuff coming up as well.
[00:55:07] Speaker A: That's awesome. You can find them on Patreon too. Links are in your bio on those things too so you can check those out. But patreon.comx4u is where you can find that too. I'm excited. I'm excited to see it. I love this, this Comic Con in New Jersey. That's, that's phenomenal. We put a one day show on here in Maine. Me and my LCS one day Old School Comics is just comics, just comic book creators, just that stuff. But that makes me jealous. Like that makes me jealous that I don't. I didn't have this in high school. Like I know, right? Freaking. Oh, that would have been awesome. Awesome. Matthew, I really appreciate you coming on Talking Comics, your podcast and so much more. You'll come on back in the future at some point in the end, towards the end of the year because we got to get that. You got to do the four.
[00:55:44] Speaker B: I owe you an episode this year. I owe you an appearance in 2025. So at some point in Q4, I've got a. We got to record again. That's all.
[00:55:54] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:55:54] Speaker B: Well, at some point I hope you'll come on to Comics for you and I'll return the favor.
[00:55:57] Speaker A: There you go. That invitation is always open for that too. I appreciate that. And you, like I said, I'm excited for what you're doing. I'm so pumped is to see where it goes and what you do with it. It's phenomenal. And welcome to the Dark side. I'll say that again. And you're on all sides of things, but this is the dark side. You're a member of the media now.
[00:56:16] Speaker B: Oh gosh, I am. Aren't I that mean I can get a press pass for San Diego?
[00:56:21] Speaker A: I guess. I don't know. I mean, I've seen people do it.
[00:56:24] Speaker B: I wonder how many episodes I have to have published before I can do that. We gotta talk offline and figure out.
[00:56:29] Speaker A: It'S either either a number of episodes or the number of the rep of the guests you have on. I mean, Alex, you got Alex, your New York Times best selling author and comic book writer. I mean, it's your first episode. Bam, you're in the door. Just kidding.
That wasn't a diss at all to Alex. Alex is wonderful. That was not a diss at all to Alex.
[00:56:46] Speaker B: Actually, Alex is great because again, I had seven in the can and I had to choose who was first. And so I purposely chose Alex to be the kickoff for many reasons. And if you listen to the episode, you'll hear why. Despite me not quite having my mic volume where I needed it to be yet. But learning, learning.
[00:57:04] Speaker A: We're all learning. If you figure out.
[00:57:06] Speaker B: If you listen to episode three with Heather, I figured it out. And it's a much better sound episode there too.
[00:57:11] Speaker A: You'll just wait till the day you have to re record an episode because you did it the entire time and your mic wasn't on or something wasn't working.
[00:57:16] Speaker B: I had to do that with an opening the other day that I was editing. I was like, why is it not recording? And I was like, oh, because my volume's completely down on my microphone. That's it. Because I did it. I had to do it three times, which my partner is shocked I didn't have to do it. 5.
[00:57:32] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. So figure it out. But, yeah, comics for you. Comics. The podcasting world there, Matthew. I can't wait for more. So, yeah, we'll talk again soon. Sound good?
[00:57:44] Speaker B: Can't wait.
[00:57:45] Speaker A: Thank you.
