Episode Transcript
[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 brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and collectibles. At GalacticComicsandCollectibles.com we welcome writer Dan Bailey and artist Tim Bradstreet to the podcast to discuss their new graphic novella coming out from AWA Studios in partnership with Vertigo Entertainment, called Lookout. Okay, it's a graphic novella. So it's a combination of novella and a graphic novel. It is absolutely phenomenal and you should definitely check it out when it hits stores on May 7th. Dan is a new writer who, who got discovered on Reddit. Tim is a longtime comics artist out there who has been known for his work on the Punisher covers and Hellblazer covers, a Buns amongst so much more. But this, this AWA Vertigo partnership, you know, Vertigo is known for movies like Barbarian It, Late Night with the Devil, and so much more. So this is a. A book that feels like a graphic novel, a novel, a comic book and a movie on one. And it's absolutely phenomenal. So you gotta check it out. It's called Lookout. It's coming from AWA Studios on May 7th. And this is Dan Abailey and Tim Bradstreet talking about it. But before you do, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Threads, all those places, as well as over on YouTube. You can subscribe to our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your podcasts. And as always, you can find more stuff over oncapes and tights.com. but this is Dan and Tim talking lookout from AWA Studios. Enjoy, everyone.
Welcome to the podcast. How are you two doing today?
[00:01:45] Speaker B: I'm doing awesome. Doing absolutely fantastic. How are you?
[00:01:48] Speaker A: I'm doing wonderful. How are you timing?
[00:01:50] Speaker C: The longer the day goes on, the better I feel.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: I have a co worker in my other job that I, that, that their husband had gotten sick over and over and over again. She's like, I keep on missing it. I keep on missing the sickness. This is great. And then like, all of the sickness that he had, like, came back at her on one day once, and she, like, it was like Friday and she's literally been like, down for the count for like, every day. And she's hoping that it gets better and better and better. And by the end of the day she's like, I, I start to feel a little better. Then I go to sleep and my body just like resets. And wake up like a. Yeah, it's horrible.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: From scratch.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Yes.
But welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited when I'm a big fan of AWA Studios. So when this email came through that this, this new graphic novella was coming out, I was already on board, you know, from the start, I obviously. And Tim, I've.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: I'm.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: I'm a fan and I know your name, Dan. I'm a little less. You're a little less, you know. You know, in the pub.
Yeah, exactly. Well, it's funny, actually, I think on. On Wikipedia or somewhere. I had your day the year you graduated college, Tim. And I'm just gonna say that I was not born, but.
[00:03:04] Speaker C: Sure it wasn't graduated high school. I didn't graduate.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Oh, so that's about high school. Maybe that's what it was.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: I started high school, started working freelance before I, you know, while I was in college. And I was like, all right, this.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Is what I want. Yeah, sounds very common story for people who, who draw comics and such that the end up being like, this is what I want to do. I'm not going to do this anymore. We don't need no drawing. Yeah, exactly.
But, yeah, so I was pretty pumped and I read it. I was absolutely astonished at how amazing it was. It was so pumped. I was. Flew through it. It's two of my favorite mediums, really. You know, comics and prose, you know, novels that kind of like blended together. That was really cool to see. And it was, you know, a quick read, but it was like, I don't know, there's just so much into it. I want to go back and read it over and over and over again.
[00:03:50] Speaker C: And so it was like people that modeled for me, I said, you need to read it, you know, you know what you're doing.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:57] Speaker C: And. And I said, listen, it only takes 40, 45 minutes. You know, it's pretty quick. It'll be. You'll be done before you know it. But yeah, check it out. You know, it's true.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Because I do think it's one of those daunting, daunting things those comic book readers expect. A few speech bubbles and not seeing much like full pages of text. And I think when a comic book reader sees that, sometimes I think, you know, this is just generalization here, obviously, but there. Sometimes they're like, oh, gosh, I just want to read comic books. And seeing that, sometimes it does. It is one of those, like, I don't know if I want to do this, but though, you know, Dan, the way you rewrite the way that it. It's. It's scripted in there and the way all that stuff it actually made it flew through it. Plus the story is amazing, so that helps the actual.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: It means a lot from the start.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: That's good to hear as well.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So I wanted, I wanted to tell you at the top that it was absolutely wonderful read. So there's that.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: Thank you so much. That means a lot. That means a lot.
You said you, you.
[00:04:50] Speaker C: I thought I heard somewhere that you had. You had written this story a little while ago.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: A lot of feedback from people like that. Had read it on your site or.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Yeah, so I, I posted it to Reddit in 2020 during sort of the lockdown in the UK and again it gained a more traction than I thought it would.
So that obviously led me to writing some more stories, but that was sort of like my, My baby, my. It's my first story I've written. That's cool to see. To see it come obviously to this point is. Is pretty crazy to me, but I'm very excited to sort of.
[00:05:25] Speaker C: I had you picked as a seasoned.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: Veteran, man, so you know, quite. This is my first thing.
I mean a lot for you guys.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: It's so cool. Yeah. It's a day. Like, it's also like, I guarantee there's a bunch of people who write comics and out there who are like, oh, cool, you got, you got this new project and you got paired with Tim Bradstreet. Like everybody else out there probably be like, what the hell, man? I've been doing this forever.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: I can only apologize to them, but I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna take it to be honest, because I'm absolutely buzzing with sort of how things have. Have happened and it's just crazy that it's five years ago. I mean, it doesn't feel like five years ago, but I'm looking at the date in the corner of my computer right now and just five years ago. Right.
[00:06:01] Speaker C: I feel like I'm displaced in time. It's the, the whole pandemic set me up. No sense of like what 10 years ago or 5 years ago is.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: And then so Tim, you, you awa just put you two together, right? This is like a, a thing that they reached out to you, Tim, and said we have this new graphic nolla we want to do and, and, and you're going to be the artist kind of thing.
[00:06:20] Speaker C: I've always. I started out in illustration and one of my favorite.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: My.
[00:06:25] Speaker C: Probably my favorite thing to do is is illustration for books or illustrations for. I started out in role playing games and when I, the first guy that called me to, to invite me to do a comic book cover was Axel Alonso.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: Axel is, was a senior editor at Marvel for a long time. He was my editor at DC when he started in at Vertigo. And, and then he left Marvel and he started up with this company with some other people, the awa. And you know, that's the nice thing about, you know, you build a relationship with somebody and wherever he goes, he drags you along. Right. But Axel knows my capabilities very well. Like when we were, when I was working for him at Vertigo, he tried to get me to do a lot of sequential and I did it here and there. I did short stories and stuff like that, but I never really got into anything too much because I didn't want to have this big commitment. And so he's kept me going through. As soon as he crossed over to awa, I started getting calls and I've done a lot of work for those guys where they're doing covers. But when he asked me to do an illustrated book, like he told me about this project, I was like, oh man, I'm so in hope the story is good, you know, and of course the story was great, so I hope.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: It'S good as well.
[00:07:38] Speaker C: And, and so to me it was, it was a no brainer because this is, this is kind of my wheelhouse. And it was funny because Axel's been doing comics for songs. Never. I don't know if he's ever edited a, a illustrated story before. I kind of had to, he kept hitting me with, hey, hey, what about this scene? What about this scene? What about this scene? You don't have anything for this. And I'm like, yeah, we have limited space and I have, I have contract that says to do 25 illustrations. I've 135, you know, like, how am I supposed to fit this stuff in? You can only fit so many illustrations of things that happen on one page. On one page, right. And I chose to do a lot of full pagers. So because I, I, I felt like it, you had to have these moments, right? And, and the spot illustrations, I think I had a lot of fun with those too, but a lot, there were a lot of things that demanded a full page. So they let me run with that. They let me decide whatever I wanted to do and which was a little, it was a little scary at first because I sent him this list of like a hundred moments in that story that we could speckle throughout the, the story and, and have a great illustrated book. And I was hoping for some feedback, which I didn't get for some reason. And then I found myself kind of like, I need to get started on this thing. And, and I got a late start on it and yeah, it was, it was, it was tough getting going, especially because it had been a while since I had done a project like this. I've been doing covers for a long time and so I had to dust off and break the rust off and it took me a while, man. I honestly did. And we've moved cross country since. The last time I did it, I hadn't used my camera equipment in like three or four years. It was ridiculous. So it was actually a bit of a daunting jump off.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: And you have to obviously, as an illustrator in something like an illustrator book like this, like do you know art, art that supplements the story, but also let the story speak for itself too. And so like with me on writing this story, you have to like let him shine in his spots and Spartans too. And not just probably. Whereas like in a comic book, a straight sequential artwork comic book, you have to, you're taking in there. There's more imagery than there is words. So you're trying to do a little carrying the story a little bit more. But yeah, it must be a. It's one of those things you have to like, let both breathe.
[00:09:53] Speaker C: And I'm glad you brought, I'm glad you said that because, you know, one of the things that, you know saying that, that there was this learning curve between me and editorial on what to do and where to do it and, and I just kept telling them, I'm like, re read what's there. How am I going to be, how am I going to top that? It's better. This is horror, right? So it's better to let the, the reader just give them a couple clues and then let them visualize some of this stuff. Now you got to do some of the, the big set pieces, but most of those hopefully are. I'm like, I'm trying to establish things and then we just let it run because the text, everything's there and I would, I don't want to step on it, you know, so all I want to do is maybe give them a glimpse of what this creature looks like, this entity.
And is he, you know, there's this, you know, the whole thing about, you know, is this guy hallucinating? Is this really happening? You know, there's this such a great vibe in the story. And that's what's good about new writers, too. You know, like you. You. Even though you're. You're probably a fan of writings while you're doing it, your perspective is a fresh perspective.
And you don't know, you know, like. Like you can't set down a bunch of rules and go, these are the rules. You kind of write your own rules. You're kind of like, just testing the waters. You're trying to see what floats. So it's. I think it's a great thing.
Sorry.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: No, you're great. It's great. Dan. Like, what was. Was it like, you know, experience? You obviously wrote this. You said. Like I said, it was ended up on Reddit, and you had this story, this idea in your head during the pandemic. What was it like having this come to actual visualizations, like actual. Having someone draw part of the story that you actually created in your mind. And now seeing Tim's illustrations and paintings.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Honestly, I still pinch myself. I still don't fully believe it's happening yet. You know what I mean? It's like, obviously it's coming out next month.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: So I'm just. I'm still in disbelief. And see, when I saw sort of the final product, I was. I mean, I was hooked. And, you know, to be hooked to a story that I wrote, just obviously all the credit to Tim for the. He just brought it to life. He just, like, smashed out the park. And like all those years ago, five years ago, as I said, the sort of. The imagery I had in my head captured it pretty much perfectly. And as Tim said, obviously, it's like, it's the unknown. You want your own mind to sort of bring, you know, your own elements into what you're imagining when you're reading. And I mean, the artwork coupled with obviously what I wrote, and I just think it's. It's a. It's a hell of a read.
[00:12:27] Speaker C: It's.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: It's. He. He. He finalized sort of my vision, which is. Which I cannot thank him enough for that because it was really, really cool to read. Especially because, I mean, I hadn't read. I hadn't reread it for ages, so I'd forgotten some stuff that happened when I was first approached, and I was like, I should probably reread it.
But to read it sort of in that form, it was just. It was really cool.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it's such a. Unique and cool, I guess the illustrated novel or graphic novella, however you want to say it, it's such a cool way of doing it. Too. Because a lot of us, when you read a novel or a novella, you have to try to picture in your head what these characters look like. You have to almost use your imagination. And a lot of times. I'm actually currently reading Stephen King's Hollywood right now. He's getting ready. Stephen King's getting ready for another book called Never Flinched that features this character. And in my mind, the only character I could picture is Holly from. There was a TV show based on the Finders Keepers series that he wrote. That was Holly. So now my Holly, in my mind when I read these books, is the actress who did it. And so it's kind of a benefit to us to have Tim's illustrations in there to be like, okay, this is what your main character looks like. This is what the woods look like. This is what the tower looks like, and all that stuff. And you get that it broadens your picture of what this thing is.
This is part of that Fear the Future series at awa. That's Vertigo Entertainment's partnership in collaboration with awa, which Vertigo is known for their movies like Barbarian and things like that. And so they've got the film side of things figured out in this. It's like a bridge between a comic book, a book, and a film. It's like a weird amalgam of this.
[00:14:06] Speaker C: Yeah, it was so visual reading it. I saw it as a film from. As I was reading it. In fact, the first time I read through it, I stopped, like, after about three or four pages, and I just started taking notes, like, this is great. I need to, you know, I'll get into this. This is. This would be a great place to get. And like I said, you know, by the time I got finished, I was like, man, I was like, 150 spots like, okay, we got to whittle this down.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: I mean, it's truly horrifying. I will tell you that right now. Not spoiling the book too much for two people. But, like, the book is. Is horrifying. There's moments where I. I couldn't stop reading. Like, I just wanted to keep on reading the book. But there's moments where I, like, I want to stop. Like, there's a sound going to happen. I'm going to.
And there's a sense of, like. So it's in this. He's, you know, obviously in this tower, watching for fire tower and all this stuff in this wide open space. If you think about, yes, trees are there and stuff like that, but it's in this wilderness place. But it's isolation and claustrophobia still, the claustrophobic part of it, like puts it in there. You wouldn't think in this. Technically wide open, you can go anywhere you can. You're not stuck in that spot. It's still claustrophobic because of what happens.
[00:15:18] Speaker C: That's where he sleeps. That's where he eats.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:21] Speaker C: That's where he. He does a lot of things. So basically that's his cocoon. Right.
Those fire outlooks are freaking tiny, right? They're like maybe, you know, big ones are like 25ft by 25ft and a lot of them are smaller. And so you're. You're really insular in there. And I was like. The thing that was daunting me was, God, you know, I've never, I've never. I've been up a fire outlet before, but I've never really stood in one. And I was like, how. How do I want to present the interiors? Like, how am I gonna. It seemed like a big task because I kept seeing it very broadly. I kept seeing a big. I. I kind of wanted to do it. If I was going to do it, I knew I wanted to do it kind of like, so you could see all this stuff and. And I just couldn't, like, I couldn't figure out how to technically make that happen. And. And so I would just show snippets and things like that. I think the biggest look we get is a. A shot where it's a great moment in the story where, you know, he's. He's been hiding and shivering and freaking out and. And getting over this last little interaction he has with this thing, which is mostly sound.
And he's looking at. He's just kind of. He's already scanned the horizon and looked all around for this thing and he can't find it and there's nothing there. So he's like, just starting to relax a little bit when he. When he's kind of glancing over and he sees the reflection of the lamp in the window and. But then he notices that there's a face right there too. And it's such a great moment. And I was like, man, that's just the best. I've got to try to. That. That was the one I really wanted to go after.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: Go after? Yeah, and get it in there. That's a full page one too, right? That was one of those full PA Spread art pieces that are in just.
[00:17:05] Speaker C: That silent figure, right. I mean, just staring at you from a. That's terrifying, man.
Or whatever, you know, and you're like, yeah. And then you just kind of glance out and you see something out the window, even if it's not really even there.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: You just.
[00:17:19] Speaker C: You want to just jump scare. It's fantastic.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: And you get it in a. In a book or in a graphic novel. Like, this is like something that you potentially get. You know, the scared, the scary moments, the eerie moments that I got in this book were. Were. Were similar to what you'd see on film or what would jump scare me in, which is what. You know, what it was there, what it was like. I mean, Dan, did you. Have you been in Fire Towers before? Like, how. Where did this come up?
[00:17:42] Speaker B: I've never been in a fire tower. When I was. Maybe I was obsessed with horror growing up. Like, completely a horror fanatic.
[00:17:51] Speaker C: It's a whole new spin on the cabin. Horror movie, right?
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:55] Speaker C: Passion Shack or whatever they call it.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: There was a. There was a. Like, a tower. I grew up sort of Southeast Asia, and we used to walk to the beach, so every weekend. And there was a. Like a tower that was just abandoned. And I always thought, like, every time I walk past it, that is creepy. Like. Like, imagine staying up there kind of thing.
And it wasn't until, obviously, I grew up and I was like, I'm gonna write a story. What's a creepy setting? And as you say, it's sort of like. It's the isolation, the claustrophobia. Despite being in this, you know, like, completely open space, as Tim says, you're confined to that tower. So if you're up in that tower.
Yes. You can see sort of for miles around, but there's nowhere to go.
If something comes from below. Yes.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: You go anywhere further up.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: You know what I mean?
[00:18:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: You can't go up.
[00:18:44] Speaker C: You can't as well be in an elevator.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: Exactly. So I just thought. And I've never really seen Fire Outlook Towers be used in horror. And I was a bit like, why not, man? It's a creepy place. And then obviously, the sort of speaking to the other Outlook Towers, I won't sort of spoil anything, but I thought I could really play with that as well. Like, who are you speaking to? You know, you don't actually meet these people, but you are speaking to them constantly. And I thought I could build on that a bit, which I tried to do.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: Well, that moment reminded me, I don't know if you're a big Walking Dead fan or not, Whatever. When Rick talks to his dead wife on the phone and he's like, no, she's there. She's saying things. She Wants us to come these places. And everybody's like, dude, the phone's not even connected to the wal. I don't know what the hell you're doing right now. This is apocalyptic times. You're not actually talking to your dead wife right now. But. But it's funny because I wrote in my review of the book was that I've been, like, in the hours and mindless hours of doom, scrolling through Instagram and stuff like that. You come across people who actually do the fire tower, you know, months at a time, and they just go up there. And this one woman was explaining how, you know, this is what my food is and all that stuff. It's good, like, hammock. And she makes it look so nice.
[00:19:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: And I was like, oh, that'd be so much fun to do for a couple months. Well, Dan and Tim, you ruined that for me all together, so I'm never gonna want to do that again. I'm not even gonna want to get near one now at this point. Like, so it's all done.
[00:20:04] Speaker C: Story within. The story is. Is a big part of it, too. And, you know, it's. It's. Those things are intriguing to a reader.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Right?
[00:20:12] Speaker C: You want to. You want to solve this mystery. You really try to figure it out in your head what the heck's going on. And you. You just. You get fed those things in small bits, and you start to slowly kind of put things together. But even when you think you have it figured out, you don't really know what the hell's going on. And that's. That's one of the great things about it. It's. It keeps you kind of guessing and keeps you reading, you know, and having that.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: That protagonist, that. That main character that. That has gone through loss, like, has no friends and has been through a divorce and, you know, looking for a job and, like, being like, oh, this is an opportunity. I've had this. I've been divorced. I've also had this time where I've separated from a girlfriend or broke up with a girlfriend and moved to another state and was like, oh, I'm just gonna start fresh. This is gonna be fine. I drove a little pickup. Little pickup truck with whatever my belongings were on the back. And I just want. I want. This is it. This is all I want to do. And at that moment, I mean, it's. That was like in my early 20s, I probably would have done, you know, what this guy did and go up through a fire tower and lived up there for a few months and so on, but Yeah, I don't think I would have been the same person afterwards. Forget the horror aspect of this. I don't think I would have been the same person after staying three months by myself in a fire.
[00:21:18] Speaker C: There's a lot of people that. That's intriguing too, because. And this is why, in retrospect, I bet there's a lot of writers out there that are just kicking themselves for missing the boat on the fire outlook. I mean, come on, it seems so obvious. Right.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: Right there, peeking over the trees.
[00:21:35] Speaker C: Never seen anything like this.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: Let's be honest, the story was on Reddit and someone just didn't steal it either. Dan.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Not I know of exactly.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: Well, no one else has gotten this big out of it and had a. About it. So yeah, it's a. It's one of those things. And then title itself look out with the lookout. But also look out for other stuff. Like that stuff is. Is there. It does. It totally reads like a movie. And I think that that's a big thing for a lot of people out there. I think, you know, I can see it being, you know, produced into a film, which would be awesome. And I know that's not the plan. I know that's what Royleigh has talked about. You know, Alex Alonso, they all have said that this was a graphic novella. That's the point of this whole thing. That's the, that's the reason why we made this thing. But no one goes into creat something like this and saying, yeah, I don't want the next thing to come from it.
Right, yeah, you got to go into it saying, oh, it'd be awesome if it was adapted into a feature film. But as of right now, I think it's really cool that this is what, this is how it lives. This is the medium it's in. And I think that, you know, if it never got went any further than this, I think it's perfect in that spot. I hope you agree with that.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Yeah, when I, when I, when I wrote it, I literally wanted to scare one person. That's all I wanted. I just thought because as I said, I grew up with horror and I'd almost like, out hard myself. Like I. Nothing was scaring me anymore. So when I, when I was writing the story, I was like, I'm going to write what would scare me, and that's bound to scare someone else somewhere. And I just wanted to scare one person. I remember thinking that when I wrote.
[00:23:01] Speaker C: It, that desensitized to it. Right.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: Like almost. Yeah.
So when I do come across something that really scares me. I get, like, the buzz back as if it's like the first time I've ever watched a horror movie.
So I was like, I'm just gonna write something that would really scare me, and someone down the line is bound to read this and get scared. And that's all I want. So to see it come, obviously, to this point is awesome. I just wanna scare people. I just love the thought of scaring people.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: I mean, it does. And it's. Honestly, I will say it's not to make you like your head bigger than this, Dan, but it's. I believe it's hard to do in a written format to scare people really badly. I think it's one of those things that when you're watching a television show or a movie and something scares the shit out of you, you've got to find, you know, you got to find the remote to try to pause it or turn the TV off or walk away or close your eyes. A book you just like, it gets to a point where it scares you. You just stop reading, you close the book and you're done. And so personally, I'm like, you have to draw that balance, that line between wanting you to read the next paragraph but also scaring the shit out of you at the same time. And I think that there's that balance there. And same with your imagery, Tim, is that you didn't. You did scary imagery. But it's not to the point where I wanted to close the book, wanted to know what the hell happened.
[00:24:14] Speaker C: Flasher imagery or gore or anything like that. It was.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: The mystery was still there. I still wanted to know what the hell was going on. And like, you mentioned, is this real? Is it not? Is it? Is it? You know what's going on. I know also, like, not spoiler alert, but I don't want. I'm glad he didn't at the end, be like, and he was at his apartment the whole time and he woke up.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: How do you know about that?
[00:24:35] Speaker A: I think so many people would have been like, ah, God damn it.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: The ending was sort of the toughest bit to come up with, dwell on it. But the funny thing about writing it was I was back when I was released, I was releasing in parts, so there were 13 parts. So I was trying to do what you said there, sort of draw people in so that the next week they'd be, like, waiting for it and come, come back to read it kind of thing. So I'm glad I've managed to do that somewhat. Keep people drawn in.
[00:25:03] Speaker C: But Endings that aren't the Shawshank Redemption are really hard to sell to movie studios and stuff like that. But those are the things also that are going to make your movie stand out from everything else or your. Your story. You know, when Frank Darabont was doing the Mist.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:20] Speaker C: He wanted to shoot it in black and white and he wanted the ending that he wanted. And who was it? Harvey Weinstein? So whoever it was that that paid for it said, I'll give you a check for like twice the budget you want right now if you do it. If you just say you'll do it in color and you'll change that ending. And Frank said, I'll take the check for half. And then he went to Shreveport and shot a great movie.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a thing. And so.
Excuse me. I just love the story behind not only just knowing this thing. And I feel like this is one of those things that really, people should know this story more about how you two got together and how the stories create. Was created in the first place. And then how it got to the point where now it's at awa. It's a graphic novella. It's a great story in that sense too. But it also seemed like, even though it was Dan's, you know, original story and your artwork, Tim, it seemed like was the two pieces work together.
You mentioned, like, feedback and stuff like that.
Okay. Yes. That's the thing, is that you guys got to the point where you guys got to know each other through each other's talents in a sense, on that, you know, but it's one of those. One of those cool things. So, like, there's, you know, this is actually like the second page in, so it's really not spoiling much. There's a rules that this. That this character finds in the very beginning of this stuff. Those all rules that you had in the original story, Dan, or is this stuff that had to be, you know, some of this stuff had to be changed or it was changed.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: Stuff's been changed. The rules.
No, the rules were in the original story. Okay. I like the idea of almost being told exactly what you need to do, but can you do it or not? You know what I mean? Like, if you get what I'm saying? Like, yeah, the thought of, you know, you're aware that if you don't do this, something's gonna happen, and you might not even know what's gonna happen, but something's gonna happen, so you better. Better follow them.
It puts a lot of pressure on the character and the reader. Hopefully you know, like, so if the reader is reading and recognizes something's happening that's related to one of the rules, they're like, oh, man, I've read something similar to happening this before. This is one of the rules.
So that's sort of why I wrote them. And I just thought it would be so different. But also add to that sort of like, almost like, as back to the claustrophobia. Things like, you have to live by these rules. Like, you can't go outside them, otherwise something will happen, which I obviously won't talk about.
[00:27:41] Speaker A: We have to read adds a whole nother layer to a fear in the sense that you read this thing. Because I don't think anybody would read these rules if you or I were just, like, stumbling up. I had this job and went up there. You've stumbled upon this piece of paper. I'd be like, someone's trying to screw with me. You think it was not real.
[00:27:55] Speaker C: You have that moment, right?
[00:27:57] Speaker B: It's.
[00:27:57] Speaker C: And the thing that makes it so effective is that you're with this guy. You know, you're sane, right? You're reading it. You're like, I'm. My sanity's intact. This guy seems reasonably sane. And so you're with him, you're him. And so as he goes through things, you're going through it with him. And so as you experience these things, the list, all this stuff.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: He.
[00:28:18] Speaker C: He's talking about how he's. You know, he's reacting to it. And. And. And it's exactly how you're reacting to it.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: Right.
[00:28:25] Speaker C: And it's. It's just great stuff, man.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: It.
[00:28:27] Speaker C: It really personal. Yeah, it's extremely personal. I mean, everyone can kind of read it and kind of use and adapt it in their head any way they want to, like, but they're with that main character. They're with that narrative. And that was the strong. That was the strong thing about it. You know, it's what I really responded to because I felt like that was me walking through the woods. Yes. Like, that was me in that fire outlook.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:53] Speaker C: And. Yeah.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: I mean, that's scary as hell, man. Like, absolutely.
[00:28:58] Speaker C: I don't know how you stumbled on it or how we came up with the concept, but however you came up with the concept, it's such a strong concept. I mean, just any way you look at it.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: Have you written stories? Sorry, go ahead. And what was that?
[00:29:13] Speaker C: Oh, I was just asking, did the title Go through an Evolution?
[00:29:18] Speaker B: The title of the book?
[00:29:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: You mean Lookout?
[00:29:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: So that was sort of Us, myself, and so AWA talking. So when I, When I posted on Reddit, it was called I Took a job as a Fire Outlook. In the middle, I found a strange set of rules. And the reason it's called that was like from the other sort of Reddit stories I was reading.
They usually like, just put like a sentence to draw you in to basically like make the premise of the thing. Yeah, the story just to sort of draw you in. So I just named it that on Reddit, but look out sort of just came from after, after I started speaking with awa to turn it into graphic novel. So I won't take the full credit for.
[00:29:59] Speaker C: It's funny because I didn't know what the, the. I kept hearing different titles.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: The Reddit title initially, but that would have been great.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: I think you needed like an, like a variant cover with the whole, the original title as the title.
I mean, there's some writers nowadays, like Matthew Rosenberg and those guys over there that are doing like these titles that are like sentences long. You know, just join the, Join the club on there, that big long.
[00:30:23] Speaker C: And put, put our main character Oscar into that title. Yeah, with the flashlight, like he's searching throughout the title and going through it.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: Like, you need that special edition, second printing. There you go, right there. No, but that list too. I mean, Tim, you, you drew that piece of paper with a list on it. Is that your handwriting? Is that your actual real handwriting or is that special for this one character?
[00:30:45] Speaker C: I was telling those guys, I said, you know, since the advent of email, I don't write anymore. Like, like longhand. And so my, my handwriting is atrophied horribly. You know, I go to sign stuff or write stuff and I'm like, oh my gosh, like, I, I gotta slow down. Right? And so I went, you know what? The way it describes this thing is written, it's, it's. I don't know whether you use the word erratic or not, but, but it's kind of along those lines. I thought, wow, if there was ever a time my handwriting might come in handy, it's now. And so I just did what I do, just did my handwriting, right. Except I just tried to do it a little faster, which made it even more manic.
It's so funny because at the 11th hour, they're going to the printer. I, I get, I get a series of emails from, from the book layout guy did a fantastic job, by the way. I want to cite him specifically. The guy who laid out the book, the Art Focus, did a tremendous job. I'm really, really happy with what he did.
But he goes, is there any way you could. Well, there were some words we had to change because we kept changing the protag, the antagonists name, if they're amazing.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:03] Speaker C: And so that also went through some evolution. So while I was doing it, I was like, well, I don't know what it's going to be. So I just called it something and that was still on the thing. And in the meantime, they'd come up with this is what it's going to be. So they wanted me to go back and just kind of fix that. But then also he's like, hey, by the way, could you fix. You can't really read that right there. You can't really read if over here. You can't really tell. It's illegible. So I went back and I actually fixed like key. Key moments just so that things were legible enough to read it. Yeah.
[00:32:34] Speaker A: Well, I love that. That added another layer of fear to me. It was like, what if you had a rule here and they were telling you everything to do, but you actually couldn't fully read it? So you're like, oh, crap, was this light on or is it supposed to light off? Oh, like I tried to put my.
[00:32:49] Speaker C: Head in the scene. I mean, when I was writing it out, I tried to put my head in the. In Harvey is his name, I think, the guy who was in the fire before it. So the person who another entity creates the rules.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:02] Speaker C: And so when Oscar gets the rules, he's like, what the is this can.
But the way it describes that it's written, it sounds like this guy's trapped in some kind of horror. Right. So I just tried to get inside that when I was writing it. So it wasn't just me kind of speeding up my writing. It wasn't as simple as that. I really kind of took it on as a experiment.
[00:33:24] Speaker A: It's great. And then those are. The one page is on that one page. And then when they're referenced later on throughout the book, they cut and they're split out those things. And you get to read that again. And I think it adds to it. It adds a lot to it because of the fact that this, this visualization of these things, like if this is just a regular novella that I read and I picked up that list of rules that are in, this would probably just be a list of rules. It would be something to do with rules.
[00:33:50] Speaker C: Robert E. Howard Books, or Eduray's books, where you'd have an illustration on the page. And there would be this little excerpt of text. Right. And specifically for one of the full pagers, it was. I was like using a line of text. This is what I'm drawing, right. And so I just ripped apart out of that. I didn't rip it out. I pulled the. Just the letters out of it and I knocked it into the illustration and made it part of the illustration. I think that might have cued them to maybe go that route. I don't know if that's true or not, but I was trying it as an experiment and I just was kind of turned it in and was kind of bouncing it off to see if they'd want me to change it or not. But they ended up going with it, so it worked.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: And I think that you mentioned the layout. I don't know if it was a Chris Ferguson who did the logo and stuff too. I don't know if they're the ones that actually did. Chris. Chris, yeah, yeah. Who did the layout and the book design. And it's just. It's just flows so well and there's. It's not like a point where like, okay, you flip the turn on the left hand side is your illustration, right is your text, and then you keep on going. It's like, that's the challenge. Full page. Some are like small illustrations, some are big half page illustrations. And I think it just. And it flowed well. And it was like one of those things where you got to take almost a break. You're reading your. Reading your paragraphs and then you go, oh, cool, I can take a break and look at this nice imagery here. Sometimes it scares the shit out of you. Sometimes it's just a nice picture of a person looking at a map or something. But almost like I said, as someone who, up until about, I don't know, three or four years ago, very rarely read anything prose, anything novel based. I was so not so great at reading and my speed was so slow that I would just. I'd get so disappointed and frustrated with the fact that I couldn't finish this book and I'd give up. I read the beginning, the first three chapters of so many books and so like, like, this is refreshing. I think that this could be that, that entryway to some people who, who don't even know if they like comics, but also don't know if they want prose novels. And I think that this mixture of the two is a format that I hope that a lot more people end up doing in the comic book world. I know illustrative books are out there. But I'm saying like the AWA connection, the comic book publisher side of these things, that I'd love to see other publishers, including awa, do something similar to these, you know, this, this hybrid of, of mediums. Because I think it is entry, entry way for both people.
[00:36:02] Speaker C: Yeah, they comics industries never really taken to it. Right. They tried picto fiction back in the 60s, early 70s. They try it here and there. They do little experiments. You know, if it doesn't sell, it's like, it's like opening weekend. If it doesn't make $80 million opening weekend, it's a, it's a, it's a failure. Yeah. It's like, okay, you can go straight to hell with that kind of concept as far as I'm concerned.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:24] Speaker C: But it's, it, it truly is like a big part of. Hold on saying I just got this. I just got completely distracted by a dog. My dog. Pardon me.
[00:36:36] Speaker B: That's acceptable.
[00:36:37] Speaker A: That'd be awesome. It was just a dog.
Random dog in this house right now. But no, just came in. It's asking for help. The horror movies, horror stories are continuing here on the podcast with this stuff. Yeah, Dan, and you have this story. Okay. You put it on Reddit now. It's getting printed. It's going to be out in comic book shops here pretty soon in May. And is this light a fire on your butt to do more? Is this what those things where. I mean, this is not your job, so hopefully this is something you want to do, continue doing.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: Oh, I'd love to.
The whole, obviously I've written other stories. This one, as I said, is my baby, my first one.
But I just, I would experience obviously like burnout just with my job and coming back there to write and Ryan's what. Ryan's what I love, love to do. Not my job, but just, even, even, just this whole process. I'm in shock still. I still don't fully believe it's happening, even though it is. Yeah, I've said, I've said to all my family and friends and all that once this is out, I'm getting back to it. Because. Because why not? It's why it's what I like to do. And this is certainly lit sort of a fire. Fire under me to, to get back to it because I love it and I love horror and I've even, even would venture outside of horror. See how I see, I see how I feel doing that.
But no 100 lit a fire in me.
[00:38:07] Speaker C: Those moments in your career are, you know, come fleeting. You know, they're they're peaks and valleys. Right, Right.
[00:38:13] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:38:13] Speaker C: So when you do catch fire on something like that, man, it's, you've got to take full advantage of that motivation. All that stuff. It'll, it'll, yeah, it'll kindle for the next, you know, couple years till you, till you top yourself again, you know.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: On my phone I have so many like, ideas for horror stories. And I'm just like, why haven't I written any of these? Just like very generic basic ideas that I could think I could really grow up on. And after I was scrolling through them maybe a few days ago and I was like, damn, I don't even remember right now, but that's a good idea. You know what I mean? So like 100, I'm gonna, gonna get, just jump straight back in because I do, I do miss it.
[00:38:50] Speaker C: It's been, Confidence is a great motivator, you know.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:53] Speaker C: And that when you do something like this, it really builds your confidence a little bit to, to do it exactly what you were saying. I got this list of ideas and that's good because there's going to be editors out there that are going to go, do you have any more ideas?
[00:39:04] Speaker B: Okay, I've got a few, but I mean, I haven't written an original story in about, probably about a year.
But this is definitely as you say. I, I need to jump on this. I know I do and I will, I promise I will. Because it's, it's just, it has lit a fire in me for sure.
[00:39:22] Speaker C: Follow up on what I was saying a second ago. Just real quick. The whole thing about illustrated books or illustrated prose and comics.
Gosh, I, I, I really hope this, this gets awa to kind of go, you know what, maybe, maybe we'll do another one of these. Do another one. You know, whether it's me or not, you know, I would love to see more of that kind of thing.
[00:39:43] Speaker B: Me too. Like, it's drawn me in like this whole world of these graphic novels. I want to, I want to read more as well. So. I agree with you there.
[00:39:49] Speaker C: It's interesting too, because you can only do so much in a paperback novel or a trade edition size, you know, like book. Like I illustrated this book called El Borax Desert Adventures. It's all this Robert E. Howard stuff, but man, everything's just so tiny and it's just seems like there's no space for anything. But this presentation really impressed me because it really brought, you know, like, it really utilized the artwork to its utmost and still blended it on the page with the pro. So it. I just want to see more. I've always wanted to see more. This is not a new tap dance for me. But man, do more. Please somebody.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah, and that's. I think there's space for it. I think that there's, you know, in an industry and there's a lot of people. I mean this is the. I think think it's going to be 7.99 shelf price for this book or maybe it's 999, I don't know, somewhere in that space. And I think that that price is one of those things where like comics in general are expensive nowadays. Like they're getting more and more expensive and in current climate we're in and prices of paper and tariffs and all sort of stuff is obviously going to change the industry a little bit more too is they want a complete story. I think a lot of people like this trade for it. But also sometimes trades for some people are too long, which is crazy in my opinion. But like this is that one of those things that. This is one of those shorter stories that. That kind of meets everything in the middle and you get a complete full story and you pay one price for it on a Wednesday when you go in to get it and. And hopefully it comes back out. And the other thing is.
Yep. And it's this, you know, the one shot. So AWAs done a couple of these one shots that are not just. This is a graphic novella one shot. But like, you know, Mark Russell had a run shot come out last year, I believe it was. That was phenomenal in that sense too of that 1 799, 899 complete story in this like, you know, thing. And it came out in like a. I think a hardcover later on, things like that too. So this is like those things that like the next. That could be special edition versions of it and stuff that people could put on their shelf instead of just putting in a bag and board and putting it in your. In your comic box. But this is one of those things. And I think that's beautiful. I think it's a gorgeous, you know, thing. It's 8.99. That's what it's actually going to be. Which I said that, I said, didn't I say 7.99 or 9.99 right in the middle.
[00:41:55] Speaker C: Honestly, this is one of those stories that, that I think is infinitely adaptable. You know, it's like I'd love to see what Bruce Timm would do with this story. I would Bill Sienkiewicz would do with this story. I would love to see what a lot of guys would do with this story, because, you know, I'm a fan of those guys, you know, so it's to see it through someone else's filter, their lens.
I think you get a different experience every time, you know, so, you know, when. When this one peters out, and then. Then I think just do it again with another artist.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: All right, all right, all right. The prequel as well.
[00:42:26] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. Harvey story told there, it's probably there. It's one of those things that, you know. And if you get it at least written in your mind when they do adapt it, then there's the second film you have right there.
Yeah, there you go. It's all there. It's all right there for you. But, yeah, it's been cool to see this evolution, this experience for you, Dan, because like I said, this is not your job, and this is something that's kind of cool. And I'm sure a lot of people out there who have been writing comics and pitching comics to publishers for a long time are pissed at you, but only because they hate us, because they ain't us kind of thing, where it's like you're getting the attention that they potentially didn't get. But are you going to see yourselves, like, signing at conventions and things like that now? Or is this, like, something you're still going to just sit at your house and write your stories and if people.
[00:43:12] Speaker B: Want me to sign at conventions, I'll do it to me in my head. I'm just Dan. I'm just Dan. A story on Reddit one day so that I'm doing that is wild to me, but I'm happy to do anything and everything.
But I mean, even just thinking about that scope through my brain, there's lining up to meet me would be very, very strange decision on their behalf.
[00:43:35] Speaker C: An autograph from a guy who played a guard on an episode of Doctor who 30 years ago.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. We were just talking about that the other day. We're like that, like the. Oh, I was a walking dead zombie. And you're like, really? You're like, yeah. You know that horde in episode two where there was like a million zombies? I was. I was number 391. There's. There's a line out the door game.
[00:43:52] Speaker C: People signing career off that bit part, right?
[00:43:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's.
[00:43:55] Speaker B: It's.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: It's so awesome. It's like I was the dead corpse in. In an episode of csi.
So for someone who Read a really well written and amazing story. I would be very happy to see people lining up at your table. But are you based in. Where are you based?
[00:44:10] Speaker B: I'm in Glasgow, Scotland, so I'm not from here. I don't know if you think I sound Glaswegian or Scottish, but I grew up, Yeah, I grew up in.
[00:44:22] Speaker C: In.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: Southeast Asia, so I moved here when I was 18 for university and I've been here since 10 years now or so.
[00:44:28] Speaker C: So how long were you in. In Southeast asia?
[00:44:31] Speaker B: I was 18 years old, so. 18 years.
[00:44:33] Speaker C: Wow. That's. And that's kind of a pretty, pretty imprintable time of life too, so.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's. So my. In my mind is still that side of the world for sure. But.
But no, I like Glasgow. It's a really nice people here and I'm enjoying my time here.
[00:44:51] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's really cool to see. Yeah, I'm just, I'm like, I said I was pumped and when I, when I, I read the book or got the, you know, the PDF sent to me, I was like, oh, this is gonna be. This is so good. I. I was gonna like, okay, I'll read it over a couple of nights. This is great. And I was like, no way I'm reading anything else. I'm reading this whole thing to the end. I don't care.
I usually go to bed a little early. I have kids, so, like, they're young and so they wake up in the middle of the night and I'm like, I don't care if I have. Like, I'm up when they wake up because I'm reading this book and I'm so pumped to just bust through it. And I was so happy to read it it. But then when I was like, you know what, I really want to talk to these people. So let's, let's see if we can get them on the podcast and chat about it. I'm so glad I did because it's just so much fun talking to people.
[00:45:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: This is the story behind the story and getting this book made and stuff like that. And it wasn't like you were looking to get it made. It wasn't like you were like pitching it to people. It's like, really someone that came to you, which is really cool.
[00:45:43] Speaker B: Like I said, I just wanted to scare one person. So this is wild to me.
[00:45:47] Speaker A: This is so funny.
[00:45:49] Speaker C: That's what, what. You know, people like, like Axel and, and the crew at awa, they're always looking for fresh material. They're looking for material, you know, stuff that they would want to do. And so they, one, one part of that is always looking for new talent and whatever. I don't know how the two collided, but it makes perfect sense to me. I mean, I, I, I think that, that that's the only way to kind of come up. I mean, you get the same guys over and over and over, and maybe those guys have a history and, and have a, a fan base and you, you make money with these. But, you know, it's, it's, you gotta, you gotta bring new, fresh ideas in and, and yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty cool, man. I, I'm pretty impressed. I was sold. Like, when I got asked to do the job, it was like, hey, this is a, a story by Dan Bailey and it's by, and it's from Vertigo, the people behind, you know, all these movies.
[00:46:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:44] Speaker C: And so I thought the writer was like some screenwriter, honestly. I mean, I had no idea who Dan was.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: Just a random dude in Scotland.
[00:46:53] Speaker C: No idea.
[00:46:55] Speaker A: That's great. It's amazing. Hey, I'll tell you right now, the number of writers out there who would love to have this glowing review from someone like Tim is crazy. I've got a long list.
[00:47:06] Speaker B: My arms are on the screen because all my hairs are standing up. I've got goosebumps. Thank you.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: That's so awesome. And Tim, your job on this and work on this is phenomenal. It's stunning.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: So good.
[00:47:16] Speaker A: It feels, you know, there's moments where, like, this is not a real picture. This is a, it's a picture. This is not an illustration or painting. This is amazing. And I love that stuff. And I think there's certain stories that it fits well with and certain stories that it doesn't. And I think that this fits really extremely well together. It mashed up really well. And I think AWA did a 100% amazing job, you know, casting the creative team on this, on this book, because it's actually phenomenal.
[00:47:42] Speaker C: And that's what Axel always does. He always, always, I always say when you put together an art team and a writer and an artist, it's like casting.
[00:47:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:49] Speaker C: And that's always been one of Axel's biggest strengths as an editor.
And he's great at it. He always finds great people and puts them together. And that's the key to making good stuff, right?
[00:48:00] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And so, so, so looking forward to more from, from you, Dan. I, I will be a fan. I will be watching for the horizon for the next thing to come from you in any format. It is, man.
[00:48:10] Speaker C: What's next? Come on.
[00:48:11] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
I always love that people talk to, like, people too. Like, the book comes out May 7, and I'm always like, there's like, people talking podcasts, like, what's next? And you're like, dude, can we, like, get the book on the shelves before we.
[00:48:23] Speaker B: That's literally my time frame. Get a book in the shelves and then we'll. We'll get back to the drawing board. Yeah.
My favorite thing, just briefly about writing it. I love almost every story I've written. I've sort of connected them somehow in a. In a very strange, subtle way.
Yeah. Basically, like, almost like maybe like potentially like sort of same universe kind of vibes.
[00:48:47] Speaker C: And it's like Castle Rock and like.
[00:48:49] Speaker B: Ah, yeah, exactly. I just like, like knowing it's in there. And like every now and then I used to get messages, read it being like, hold up, like, this story that you've written compared to, you know, this exact line was, you know, used in a story a year ago. Is it linked? And I'm just like, oh, that's. That's one less sort of Easter egg. So in terms of what's next, who knows? But I'll make a reference to look out for sure. Whatever comes next. Because I just love these sort of interlinking.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: It's crazy. It's. People are sharp. Like, I love that stuff too. Yeah. I've talked to Charles Soule about certain books. Like the president will be the same president in two different books. And I'm like, wait a second, is it in the same world or what's. They don't interact with each other or they're not in it, but they're like, wait a second, that store was in that book. What the hell's going on here? That's awesome. I'm excited to see.
[00:49:39] Speaker B: But there are little sort of each Easter eggs in lookout, so keep an eye out for those because there are sort of little hints as to. Well, I won't say what. I'll give it away, but just. Just keep a sharp eye.
[00:49:50] Speaker A: But for those people who can't. Who don't know or anything like this and aren't on Reddit. Is there a place where you can read your other stories on Reddit? Is there like a place I can send people or tell people? You can tell people?
[00:49:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it's under my. My Reddit name. Squishy Cabbage is my Reddit name.
So not as elegant as Dan Bailey, obviously, but it's almost. It's on my Reddit name Squishy Cabin, which is one of my other stories here.
[00:50:11] Speaker A: That's awesome.
Go read them. Yeah, I love it. The fact that you DM Bailey, but it would have been even better if it was, you know, AWA Studios book from Squishy Cab.
[00:50:20] Speaker B: Part of me was like, should I just keep Squishy Cabbage?
None of my friends would believe it was me. So I was like, I'll say. I'll say my real name.
[00:50:28] Speaker C: The USFL of comic publishers.
[00:50:32] Speaker A: Squishy Cabbage is where it's at. No, the book. The book hits local comic book shops on May 7. If you have, if you listen to this before then and you want to just tell your local comic book shop FOC has passed. Like just tell them that you want it and they'll get you a copy of it. Don't worry about it because they can reorder and things like that. Hopefully it's on the shelves at a bunch of places. You can just grab it and pick it up and read it on May 7th. But yeah, do it because this book is phenomenal. It's a great mashup of novella, graphic novel, comic book illustrations are phenomenal. Story is wonderful. It will scare the shit out of you. I'll tell you that right now. And I'm waiting for the day that we get to talk again. And when we're talking about. About your book being adapted into a film that's coming, I'll tell you that right now.
I don't have any inside information, but I'm putting it out in the universe right now that this will eventually be a film or a badass TV show because a TV show would work too. Like a streaming 10 episode run of a TV show where each episode is a different part of this story. I could see that happening too. Would be awesome too. Or a anthology style where it's the next person in the town power trying.
[00:51:36] Speaker C: To keep that tension up over that. Yeah, it would be a challenge. Wouldn't be impossible. But it definitely.
[00:51:42] Speaker B: I love a challenge, Tim. I love it.
[00:51:43] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a great idea.
[00:51:46] Speaker A: But that's awesome. I do appreciate both of you taking the time out of your day to chat. Look out. And so much more here on the podcast. And. And I hope at one point in the future we'll get you back on to chat about comics.
[00:51:55] Speaker B: Thanks so much.
[00:51:58] Speaker A: Absolutely. And we'll talk soon. Okay, thanks.
