[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtights.com I'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. This episode is once again brought to you by our friends at Galactic Comics and collectibles@g Galacticcomicsandcollectibles.com we welcome back to the podcast Jeremy Hahn into the podcast Mike Tisseran to talk about their upcoming series over at Ignition Press, the debut series at Ignition Press Murder Podcast. But before you listen to this episode, check out us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, bluesky, threads, all those places you can rate, review, subscribe over on Apple, Spotify or wherever you find your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube and as always, you can visit
[email protected] for so much more. But this is Jeremy Han and Mike Tisseran talking about Murder Podcast from Ignition Press. Enjoy, everyone.
Welcome to the podcast, gentlemen. How are you guys today?
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Great. We're ready for this.
[00:01:03] Speaker C: Are you ever.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Is anybody ever ready for this, though?
[00:01:05] Speaker B: No, no.
I started this with a lie. Let's be honest. I'm like, I need more coffee and a nap. How about that?
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a can answer. Yeah, I recorded earlier with David, ian and Rebecca McKendree, who wrote Barstow for Dark Horse, and they are like, yeah, we'll get on. Let's be 8:00 o' clock a.m. this time. It's 11:00 your time. And I'm like, you guys really want to do a podcast at 8 o' clock in the morning? They're like, our kids are up. We're up at 6:00'. Clock. I'm like, okay, whatever. If you want to do that, that's cool with you.
I mean, usually people want to do the opposite side. They want to do it at 9 o' clock at night, not 8 o' clock in the morning. But I appreciate you guys taking the time out to chat on here about all things comics, murder podcasts, all that stuff. So again, Jeremy, you've been on before, so a little bit. People may listen back. Might might know who you are. Mike, you're a little unknown anyway, right? I mean, you've been working in creation of animation and drawing and things like that for a while, but like, in the comic book world, people don't really know who you are that much. Where the hell have you been? I read the first issue of Murder Podcast and I'm just saying, where the hell have you been in my life?
[00:02:12] Speaker C: Thank you. I don't know.
Just floating around the world.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah, but like, so You've done some animation and stuff like that. What, were you and Jeremy friends? How did this come to be about you starting to illustrate for Murder Podcast?
[00:02:26] Speaker C: Well, so, yeah, probably. I think it was 2013, Jeremy and I were put in touch, and we worked on the Kickstarter.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Bad karma.
[00:02:42] Speaker C: Bad karma. I have bad attention stuck in my head. Sorry.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Bad karma.
[00:02:46] Speaker C: It's on my bookcase here.
Yeah, that was the start of it. And then I kind of wandered back to animation for a decade plus, and then we got back in touch here, and what a podcast began.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Began. Exactly.
Go ahead, Jeremy.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Oh, I was gonna say we. Yeah, it was kind of like, I.
You know, there's people that you. You work with briefly. We did this story called Chaos Agent for. For Bad Karma.
And you have people that you work with, and you're like, oh, yeah, that was great. You know, and then you kind of move on, and then you have people that kind of haunt you forever. And then really, that was my. For me, it was. I liked him. I liked his work, and I was always like, oh, I kind of want to do more of something. It didn't matter what it was.
And so I think it really became this thing where, like, you know, we check in with one another, just, you know, life, so on and so forth. But, like, pointedly once a year, I'd be like, hey, do you want to come back and do comics?
And it wasn't until this where just, like, the moon and stars aligned perfectly.
And I love that.
I saw the magic of what he does and was like, everybody's going to love this. And now seeing everybody just reacting and the best way, it's. It's. It's a great feeling.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: It's. It's. So I've been a fan of Jeremy's work for a while. Like, so. So the first volume of the Beauty is one of my favorite volumes of comic books there is. And so there's a mixture of the writing and the illustration in there that really does it for me. And so my review hasn't been published yet for Murder Podcast number one, but I. When it goes out there, one of the things I say is I really love and wish that you would do all the work, Jeremy, until someone else does the artwork. And then I'm like, oh, it makes sen. Like, not that it's a better. This is one of those things that's like, okay, this works. And I really like this and really enjoy this. And so to me, it was like, oh, like, opening the issue. I'm like, this is not gonna be What? I want to see Jeremy Han draw on this. And then I open it up, I'm like, damn, I'm happy. This is good. This is the way it is. And so that's how I felt with this. With this Murder podcast number one, Mike. So. So not to make your head any bigger, but it was phenomenally illustrated, just so you know.
[00:05:07] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: It's true, though. I mean, I mean, that. Does that go into it, thinking about that, Jeremy, about the idea that. Yes. I mean, obviously, if you had all the time in the world, it's nice to do your own artwork to your own story, but, like, having someone as talented as Mike doing the. Do the illustrations for you or in your comic book together, does that help, you know, ease the ability to make a good comic?
[00:05:31] Speaker B: I mean, look, I'm a ridiculous masochist. Like, I. I want to write and draw everything, you know, and. And I think even one of the biggest challenges for me in my. In my career was always, like, I kept holding back.
You know, the. The laundry list, the 20 things on this list that I wanted to do because I was like, I gotta write them and draw the whole thing, which. That's not healthy. That's a word. That's a ridiculous. I will never in my lifetime write and draw all the stuff that I would want to do.
So I have a rule.
I only work with people that are better than I am. Like, that's, that's like. Like, if. If I'm working with somebody, they. They're the person that can make that story shine.
And when we were talking about murder Podcast and, And especially, you know, like, there's.
This is the launch title from Ignition, right? Like, this is. This is our. Our new new company. And we're, you know, I'm so excited about everything with it, and, you know, I'm like, I'm not going to draw this thing. I don't have time to draw. I can't, you know, I just can't make it work.
Who would be perfect for it? And we talked a lot about, you know, different artists, and I was like, got this guy that, like, I think if we let him loose and let him do his thing, it would be so much more disturbing than if I drew it.
Is it really good? It's, it's, you know, like, even, like just the cold open, there's a moment that I wrote into it, and again, we're doing spoiler free, so I'm not. But there's a moment where I wrote a bit of violence, and I was like, oh, it's like this. And then Mike, because you're seeing it in this, this beautiful stylized style. You know, it's so much more disturbing when he does it. And it's just, it's like that all through the series.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: It's a beautiful.
This discussion of saying that hiring someone or not hiring some, working with someone that is better than you.
It's kind of funny because let's be honest, we all are our own worst enemies on that too. So a lot of people in my mind is better than me at what I do. But the truth of the matter is, like I said, I opened it and I was like, there couldn't be. It's one of those weird feelings you can't put your finger on that. I couldn't feel like it could be better illustrated time seeing it and so on and so forth. And so that to me, blew me away of it. But the story itself is pretty, pretty awesome and pretty, you know, like the idea of a murder podcast or a true kind podcast of sorts involved in a horror comic book is not groundbreaking, right? Obviously you know that this is not like, oh my gosh, it's the first person to ever think about this. However, the way you do it is to me is groundbreaking, fresh, unique perspective on it or take on it, and that's really cool. Or what was this kind of for Mike here? What was it like taking this idea you guys worked on and illustrating it? Let's talk about that.
[00:08:41] Speaker C: It was.
I appreciate the kind words from Jeremy, but Jeremy's quite the artist. And so for me, it was intimidating, you know, because I think I told Jeremy this early on that I was reading the script and I was sort of in my mind, I'm like, well, how'd Jeremy do this? And yeah, so it was intimidating.
Just the way it plays out, it plays out really well. And so you're just trying to hit, hit those beats, you know, as well as you can, essentially, you know, to make as much of an impact on the reader as you can. And so, you know, I was basically like a scared child just drawing this stuff, trying to punch it up, make it look good, make it play well, make it work.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: And.
[00:09:27] Speaker C: But yeah, that was, it was fun and. But definitely, you know, coming from animation, going from boards to comics isn't a one to one thing.
So, yeah, there's a bit of, you know, figuring things out on the page and, and, you know, getting that more cartooning, illustrative look to it and just trying to get it work. Yeah, it was intimidating. It was very rewarding. It's it's been fun and. Yeah.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Do you. You have a history in 2D and 3D animation, but like, is a lot of that. Is there any of that or all. Any of it at all? Murdering people? Like, is this like a common thread? Is this or something new that you're working on with this stuff?
[00:10:08] Speaker C: I think, I think in 20 years I've only murdered one character in television. It was the most fun I had.
So I've far exceeded that.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: Starting issue five here.
[00:10:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
So you far over that? Yeah, it's so. It's so. It's different. But that's what I think I liked about it. And that's the thing Jeremy mentioned too is the idea that the style kind of like not clashes, but it works differently with it. It makes it so it takes a different approach when you actually, when you read it and you see it, you're like not expecting it. Almost like you're leading a nice calm panel of someone talking and then a nick turn the page is like, holy shit. And that I think is what did it for me. I think it was one of those things that was like, not completely out of the way. It's not like you have this bubbly, you know, Simpsons looking characters and also I know where they're being mur.
It's like this borderline of it that works for me and I think that's what people. I think people are going to see it and notice it. That it's like everyday people walking down the street and then the next day you're seeing someone get their head cut off or something. That to me is, you know, that's not spoiling anything by the way, people. That's an arbitrary generic statement about getting a head cut off.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: That is exactly what happens in Issue too. So you've ruined all of this, man.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: That's it. They're done. No, I mean, I can't imagine. I mean, come on, a horror comic where someone doesn't get their head cut off. Let's go. Come on. Let's be honest. This is what it is. But.
So this is the first title, you know, you had Cold Open, but this is the first title to be released under Ignition.
I'm guessing this was planned to be this way. This is the purpose behind this, this series. So did a lot of thought go into that that this is going to be the first title and so you need to do something different and special with this.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: So the, the truth of it is is that we had worked for quite a while building the line prior to, you know, Laying out, like, you know, the release schedule and stuff like that. And there was a.
We knew that Murder Podcast was going to be one of the launch titles.
But my own absolute need to. To not be.
I don't really like being the center of attention on stuff ever. I don't. Like, I. It makes me nervous and uncomfortable. And also, I just. I have such a devotion to our entire, you know, group of creators. And.
And, you know, I didn't. I was like, no, my book shouldn't be the first one out. Like, I don't, you know, I'm a. I'm a partner in the company and creative director. I was like, no, I don't. You know, and there was an internal discussion where, like, everybody kind of really talked about, you know, what fit and what fit as a start for what we were doing. And they're like, you and Mike are doing this thing, and it is kind of everything that we want to leave, you know, with.
And I had to kind of set my weird feelings about that aside a little bit and be like, okay, you know, this is going to be the first book. And then it hit me that this is going to be the first book. And then I got just terrified. I was suddenly like, okay, well, yeah, no pressure. We joke that at Ignition. I've kind of. I'm kind of the guinea pig for a lot of the stuff that we do. You know, if I'm. I'm the guy that's like, well, we're going to try, you know, we're going to test a way to get a cold open in people's hands, you know, and sometimes stuff works, sometimes it doesn't. But the reason that we do it also with me sometimes, is because we want to make sure that it's really perfect for the amazing people, like, you know, Stephanie Williams or Cullen Bunn or. Or, you know, Tim Seeley, like, whenever they're coming in, you know, like, we want to make sure that it's perfect.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: It makes sense. And I thought about it, like, if you were to launch Ignition Press and Be, and you're the name per se, like, if you're the people that people would at least know, you know, you've done some big two comics and things like that, so you have. You have a name behind you, at least you have the beauty. You have, you know, the realm, stuff like that, redmother.
But your cast of characters, your creators that are coming on and doing these comics, they're no simple names. Like, it's. They're all bangers. And so to me, it's not like you need your name to be like, oh, we're going to put, you know, Jeremy Han's name on this, because at least someone knows this name. Everybody else is just up and coming. No, all those people out there could, could have had their initial comic book and people would have been like, yeah, I know who that is. So it's not as simple as. It's not a simple feat, but, yeah, testing it with you, I could understand that. Getting it right, figuring that out so that there you set the future creators comic book series up for success. Success.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Well, and, and just, I mean, like, it really did say a lot that they believed in this project enough to lead with it, you know, that they really felt like we were doing something genuinely special. And it was an honor. I mean, you know, like, we've worked really, really hard to try to live up to that. And, you know, I, I'm writing issue six right now, and Mike's drawing issue five, and having the latitude to work on this and get it. I mean, you know, like, the, the book, literally, what comes out in two weeks is. It is two weeks. Yeah.
You know, like, to be working this far ahead and to know where it's going and really have such a strong foundation, it feels good. And it's, it's the company believing in, in the people that we're working with. And, you know, we.
Another nice thing is, like, you know, we can show that with this book, you know, we're doing it the right way and we are going to continue doing these things the right way.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: We've talked a little bit so far about murder podcasts and so on, but can you, can you explain what people who maybe not know who. What murder podcast is a little bit about what, what the actual comic series is about?
[00:16:19] Speaker B: So, you know, so many of us are obsessed with podcasts and, you know, great stories, everything from, you know, like, if there, if, if you're into it, there's a podcast or seven for it. Right.
And this, this thing started because a group of us were sitting around having a conversation and.
And I kept hearing a small group talking about some terrible thing.
I was like, what are you guys talking about, a horror movie? And they were like, oh, no, we're talking about this. This true crime podcast that we all listen to. And I was like, oh, my God, like, that is more brutal than the plot of any horror movie that I've ever, you know, seen. And it stuck with me that, like, we listened to podcasts, especially true crime podcasts, that are worse than anything that Our crazy minds come up with, and people eat it up. You know, you, I mean, like, you know, there's. And it's a wide demographic, but, like, if you talk generally to a woman in their 30s to 50s, they're probably listening to some really disturbing true crime podcasts. And I kind of wanted to do something that, like, tapped into that, that connected with that audience. It's not just, you know, like the comic books that I'm wanting to tell and that I'm interested in telling. You know, I love superhero stories, but let's face it, or. And weird stuff, you know, like, I want to connect with people that are, you know, my wife and her friends, ages.
And so I kept thinking about it and I kept writing this down, little notes about this thing, a group of women, so on and so forth.
But the. To answer your question, Murder Podcast is a story about a cursed podcast that for some inexplicable reason, keeps popping up in people's feeds. Now, the trick of it is when you hit play, you black out.
And when you come to, you have indiscriminately murdered everyone around you.
There's no, there's no saving grace. There's no stopping because it's your family member or your best friend or people in a, you know, library or wherever it is you just kill.
And these people, they.
There's a. One of the things that I did for this, I wrote the entire first episode of the haunted podcast, this cursed podcast, Dead Sounds. And when you go into this fugue state, you speak with the podcast coming in through your AirPods. But so you're saying, you know, on July 13, you know, and, and so you have this person's walking towards you, talking, repeating a podcast while they brutally murder you.
Yeah. And so it's. Yeah. Story about a group of women that are. That are podcast obsessives that decide they're going to try to solve this murder, this series of murders.
And, you know, it's. Everything goes kind of crazy from there.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: It's true. And that's where I'm saying that unique, fresh take on it. I've read recently, read a couple of comics that had to do with something to do with true crime podcasts or so on and so forth. But the idea that it takes you over almost and makes you do unspeakable things to me as a kind of a unique thing in that. But it's not like it's unique. We've seen it in movies and things like that, but like, it's one of those, like that grasping it and putting it around that thing. But yeah, you're right, there is podcast for anything and there's true crime for anything. Like, I've watched documentaries recently on Netflix or whatever it may be about true crime. There's podcasts, there's books, there's all kinds of stuff. But the big thing I think it is is that podcast is one of those things. People are always listening to that podcast. And it's fascinating to me those same people sometimes could not watch a horror movie. Like, they're like, no, I can't watch a horror movie. Can't do that. That's too much. That's too scary for me. I'm like, this is about a person. Like you're next door neighbor murdering someone. You're listening to my podcast. You're like, no problem at all. But watching Mike Myers slash up people in Halloween. Nope, don't want to do that.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, there's a ghost in something.
You know, people are just like shutting down. But, you know, and that's the thing. It's like I wanted. And you know, like, we, we sort of did this through like a really very, you know, like, horror story. I mean, there are definitely like some cosmic horror elements to this. And where this comes from is it gets much bigger and crazier very, very quickly.
And I love that. You know, I, I don't know, man. I just love, I just, I just love making funny books. And we're having a blast with this.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: One and I love that. I think that, I mean, I'm guessing, Mike, you're having a blast doing it too. Like I said, a little bit different than what you've been doing, which kind of helps like, you know, with the creative juices and things like that. You're now illustrating issue five of this.
Have you gotten into a routine or are you used to it yet? Of murdering people?
[00:21:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I, I took to it quite quickly.
Yeah, it's. It's a nice.
I should say it's nice to draw people being murdered. But, you know, just from where I came from, it's. Yeah, it's a new thing to sort of dip your feet into. And definitely, yeah, I'm starting issue five here. I definitely feel like I'm in the groove now in the book and enjoying it. And I think it's turned out really.
[00:21:52] Speaker A: Well because there is a balance too. I mean, there's definitely panels of a woman cutting a melon, you know, putting her AirPods in, getting ready to talk or to listen to our podcast. And then there's pretty gruesome panels on there. So you have to have both sides of things, too. There's like the. And you almost have to have it obviously calm, cool, and collective to have the, you know, visceral murdering to go on. So there's that balance in the panels that you're. Turn the page, you're like, what the just happened? And that's what this comic book has. And that's. That's. That's a little fun, but blood spurting and things like that. It's a little different. It's a, you know, it's fun to get into. And I think it's the same.
It's different, but the same in the sense that I am looking towards horror comics all the time. I'm always wanting to go towards horror comics. It's probably a similar mentality. Those people who want to read the True Crime Podcast, they just have this love and passion for it. Just a little bit different. Like I said, it's. That's based in real life and based in fiction stories. A little bit different. So you've now blended the two of these two with. With Murder Podcast. And so you said you're working on issues six, seven, things like that. I mean, are you hoping this to be ongoing or is this a maxi series? What's the plan for. For Murder Podcast, Jeremy?
[00:23:00] Speaker B: It's a maxi series. It'll wrap up with issue eight.
We wanted.
When we talked about it initially, we were like, oh, you know, this is a tight five.
And then I did the writerly thing, and I was like, but I have so many things that I want to tell with this. You know, I have so many moments.
It's a story, I think that. That can go on. But, like, the satisfying thing, the thing that we wanted to do with this was tell a story that had a decided beginning, middle, and end and a character flow throughout it.
Eight's just a nice number for this. It really fit.
I knew it wasn't five initially. When we talked about it, we're like, it's five. And then I came to Mike and I was like, are you cool doing eight?
But it really added a thing, a layer that we needed.
Could have been more. But, you know, I also don't want to pad stuff.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. Is Ignition. So Ignition is this new publisher that you have these comic books coming out. Is this going to be like an 8 collected issue? Do you know what the plan is for the actual future of these things? These eight issues is a weird. Not weird, but it's very unusual. But more unusual than usual to see that long of a series. I mean, five issues seems like a good trade paperback, whereas eight is a little bit too much.
Is there a plan for that? I don't want to get a court before the horse, but one of the.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: Things that we have is that we do.
We did the cold open, which. The cold open is effectively an issue zero. Yeah.
And. And we have that. And you know, you, you, when you do a trade, you want it to be at least 100 pages. Right. Like that's, you know, most like five, five issue miniseries break down because they're. They're also. Most companies do 20 page issues now.
We, we don't. We.
Our standard issue length is 22 pages, like, you know, old school. But then we have a little bit of play with that throughout an arc. So we have about 10 extra pages that we can kind of play with.
So the idea for this is we're going to release it as two trades. There is a Mike just finished it. There is an absolute great moment at the end of issue four that like everything builds and builds and builds and builds and builds. And then this thing in issue four happens. And that is a great spot to leave off on. And then we're, you know, doing volume two. But it's not. But they're skimpy. We like, you know, we're.
Each Trade will be 100 pages or slightly more even.
Yeah. So we wanted to give people a value that we felt like was important. The other thing, one of the things that we really wanted to do with Ignition was try to keep trade at that 1999 price point.
You know, they're getting a lot higher than that regularly for even slimmer volumes right now. Trying to say in a really positive, it is good in the industry way.
[00:26:25] Speaker A: It's disappointing sometimes when I walk up to the shelf and like, oh, look at this new trade came out and it says 24.99 on it and there. And it's not any longer. It's almost even shallow shorter. And honestly printed in material that's not as nice a material even. And that to me is always like, it's kind of a letdown because like it basically costs the same as it is for me to buy all five issues and should be a little bit more of a break on it or whatever or what, you know, just the same. And sometimes it's more. And I don't understand that. Sometimes I'm like. And I'm a kind of guy who buys floppy. I love floppy comic books. Like, that's. To me, single issues are going to Be amazing. And I do love, like, variant covers and things like that. I don't, I don't think that Murder Podcast number one should have 100 variant covers, but a few variant covers. Yeah, it's perfect for me. And so there is that. But I'm also the kind of guy who like, I like Murder Podcast so much that I'll buy the trade too, so I can actually have something like read instead of taking the bags and boards out every time, and I can just pick it up off the shelf and read it and stuff like that. So when it's like buying the comic book over again sometimes or more sometimes, it kind of hurts the wallet. So. Yeah. So keeping it under 20 bucks makes a lot of sense, especially with this price of things going up nowadays. You know, you're not going to sell as many and have people reading your story you've worked so hard on if it's really expensive.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: We, yeah, and we just, we believe in, in the value of the thing, right? Like, I mean, like everything from the paper quality that we chose for the books, the, the COVID stock, just how it feels in the hand was really important to us. We want to give you genuine value for what you're getting. I mean, you know, and stories we believe in, it's all art that we think, you know, that we are incredibly excited about and think that you're going to love. It's a quality it, you know, not to, not to get too, like, you know, out there with our philosophy, with it. But we believe that if we give you a product that actually matters and is connective, it's, you know, it's going to be a good thing and we can have that butterfly effect of just making the industry just a little bit better each time.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: And speaking of variant covers, Mike, you have a variant cover on these that are connectives too. Is that correct? So issue one, two, three, is it. Is all eight issues are going to connect or is this volume one? What's going on with that?
[00:28:35] Speaker C: Well, so far, one to five connects.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: To be determined what goes on there.
[00:28:41] Speaker C: Yeah, six, seven, and eight will connect. Yeah, we haven't totally discussed that yet, but yeah, the first five issues connect.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: It has. They're so good with the people, like, killing each other in the background. Just phenomenal. I love it. It's one of those, like, weird things. I think I typed in Murder Podcast number one cover or whatever. And I think the first cover that came up actually was the, Was the B cover like on Google Images or whatever. And I was like, oh, this is really awesome. And then obviously it's not cover A, it's cover B.
But then, yeah, the COVID All the covers are great too. The whole thing. The whole thing. I say it has this cool vibe to it, and I don't. Sometimes I can't explain it. I just read a book recently that I'm like, I really into where this was located and like, the author's not describing things overly, but I can somehow picture it in my head and I was just couldn't figure out why and pinpoint why I was able to do this. And there's something with this, this, this issue one that I read an issue two, you know, just the idea that there's something. I can't pinpoint why I like it so much, but I do. And that's. It's pretty cool. I. You know, I don't know. Like I said, I don't want. I wish I could tell you guys it's this, this and this, but it's. People just need to read it. How about that?
They can decide for themselves.
[00:29:50] Speaker B: That's good for us.
We're perfectly fine with that.
[00:29:54] Speaker A: Exactly. And I wanted to mention too, the lettering is great too. GC Hopkins did. Did the lettering for InWorld. And it's phenomenal too.
You know, there's a. There's a. I'm not gonna explain everything, but there's a. There's a panel where they're explaining who the people are and they have all those letters and there's just. It just laid out well in that sense too. And the lettering is really good too. And DC is excellent at DC's job of lettering this comics too. Was it, Was it fun to work with DC as well? I mean, I guess. Have you worked with DC before, Jeremy?
[00:30:23] Speaker B: This is my first time actually working, working.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: But.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: You know, we, we really believe in antworld stuff and like love what they're doing. And I think we're going to continue this, you know, until they, you know, until they get bored with us and move on or something like that. But basically, like, it's. The vibe is perfect. That's. I think that's one of the things to like from, you know, Scott Newman is our designer and on the book and world on lettering, Nick Fi is coloring this. Like, every single piece of this is so intentional and so thought out.
You know, taking it back to like the design, like the logo, you know, we talked about what we wanted to do for the logo, we talked about the vibe of the lettering.
All these things fit together in a way that it's. It's nothing happens because we have to do it the last second. Everything that ignition is doing is, is intentional.
Except for when we screw up.
Yeah.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: Hey, yeah, you intentionally did it to see if people noticed it. Yeah, exactly. No, it's true, though. I've actually had these long conversations at my local comic book store, Galactic Comics and Collectibles. Is that why sometimes I'm like, oh, so and so this happened and the comic book's delayed. I'm like, it's the next issue.
Why are we always so far behind? And you guys are all busy and it works well, but like, being able to be five issues in, mostly done when, when the first issue comes out would be so amazing. And I know it's budgetary, I know it's paying people. I know, I know there's a reason behind it, but it just, it feels so nice to know that I may at least get to get five issues of Murder Podcast basically instead of something some serious happens. We're not gonna get anything but like, it's, they're mostly done. So that's just, it's nice to hear. You know what I mean?
[00:32:27] Speaker B: I mean, look, we're all fans too. You know, we've had that thing where, where, you know, you get issue one and it comes out and when they say it's going to an issue two, it's a week late and by issue three, the wheels have kind of fallen off and issue four kind of finally comes out a year later. And, and you know, I know how the sausage is made. I've seen how hard everybody's working and, and I know that, that sometimes we're tilting at windmills when we're making comics. You know, we're just, we're just doing the impossible task.
But as a company, one of the things that we felt like our responsibility was, was to plan this out in a way that, that we do what we say we're going to do when we say we're going to do it.
That's old farm mentality. That's something my grandpa said to me growing up constantly, you know, and, and it's, it's, it's a thing that we, we believe in at ignition. It's like if we say we're going to put a book out and one of the things like, you know, that traditionally comics, you know, were released on a, every four week basis as time has gone by. One of the things that happens with that is you get, you get retail partners having to order books completely speculative, speculatively. They, they, they, they don't know how a book is going to do when they're ordering the next issue. So we're releasing these on a six week basis, you know, which is, is, you know, a little different than what we did classically. But I don't notice like whenever I go to the shop, I don't, you know, unless I'm really, really type, you know, tied in like when something's coming out, if it's a five week or six week thing between it just, you know, we didn't want to hit bimonthly but it was very important to us to make sure that retailers could order the book and know how it was going to do before we asked them to get like by the time you get to issue three, people still aren't, you know, really seeing they've had to order three issues. That's really, really rough.
So.
[00:34:43] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it's true. I mean I've number of conversations I had with the owner of Galactic Comics about how like he's had to force to issue order issue two before the issue one has even hit the shelves yet. And it's like one of those things that like it's the onus is on him to hopefully sell all those comics and hopefully it does well and so on and stuff. Or not dive too far into it and then screw the whole thing up because now he's trying to place reorders and all that stuff like having this a little bit of gap between it. But like there was, I'm not gonna name comics, but there's comics that were out there that was like waiting three months in between issues. And you kept. I read the first issue like 16 times because I was, I kept on rereading it to remember where we were three months later. And I kept going and to the point where I'm like, I could memorize and just say out loud what the first issue was all about and recite it because of the fact that. But yeah, so I like it that this passion behind it and the people that you guys have on a creative team there all care. Even we talked, you know, with your new marketing person, Steph, right before. I mean they seem very excited to be doing this and it's not like just another job. And this is really cool. I'm guessing from creators down to all the, down to people working in your offices or doing office work, it seems like they're passionate about doing this. And that includes Murder Podcast and all the other stuff at Ignition.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's look, it's hard work. I mean like, let's you know, like, let's.
I.
I wake up and I'm excited to do this every day. I. You know, I hope that you're excited to draw the silly things that I write, Mike, every day.
But, like, the reality of this is it's still incredibly hard work. I mean, it's long hours spent at the table. You know, I always kind of have this thing that I say where it's like, you know, we are. We're people of all the genders sitting in dark rooms for long hours making things that we don't know if anybody's gonna ever give a about. Yeah, hopefully.
But, you know, like, we put a lot of ourselves into making these things, and we. I just finished my company Wide Monday meeting, Zoom Call before this, and you're sitting there talking about the hard stuff that you have to do. These things are on fire. These things are. Whatever it is, but it's still people that lead with care. They still want to make sure that things happen in the right way.
And every conversation that we have always runs through this full filter of how do we make this matter to the creatives, how do we make this matter to the shops, and how do we make this matter to the fans?
And we. We. We don't just want to settle for one. We don't just want to settle for, you know, like, it's all important. And I think the more that we realize that we're a community doing these things, the better it is for all of us.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: And Murder Podcast, I believe, is that. And I think that you have.
I am a big fan of your writing, Jeremy. I've read everything you've basically put out there, and now I've got another collective thing to have as many artwork done by Mike over here because, like I said, I loved it so much, and that stood out to me. And the partnership between the two of you in this series, people are going to like, I think. I think people are really. They're going to take a shining to it and they're going to like this, the style, this storytelling ability. And I think that having it surrender surround true crime podcasting is going to bring, I think, another group of people into it, which is great too. Which is. Which is another thing that. That. That can pull people into this. This comic book series. I've only read issue one, and like I said, I've definitely given glowing reviews, I will say, about an issue one, and then eaten my words by issue five. So I will say, say. But I always have. I've had very good luck with what you've done J. Like there's no. I have. You have a good track record in my mind. But I definitely have said glowing reviews to the point where they put my pull quote on the back of the trade paperback and I read the whole trade and I'm like, oh, God, why did I do that? But I believe in Murder podcasts for sure. And it's a fun thing.
And so Mike, you're still, you're illustrating, you're doing all this work for this series, I'm guessing, like Jeremy said, you must be. Hopefully you're excited to draw his silly things on. On page. Are you still. Are you still working in the, you know, animation, you know, industry job?
[00:39:07] Speaker C: I'm full time podcast since I think early in the year. I sort of. There's a bit of crossover there late last year. We started, I think back in October. And yeah, it's. Yeah, full time podcast. It's. It's been great.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: That says something, in my opinion. Either that or he works you to the bone and it's just too much work to do anything else.
Either you like it or you have to.
He has you. You're chained to the table, right? You're not. You're not allowed to leave.
It has a. But it has an ignition press logo on it though, so it's okay, right? It's. It's a. It's official. It's not. It's. You can auction that off afterwards after you're done with your.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Very well.
Blink three times.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: Exactly. Exactly. I mean, so everything is coming, Everything is at ignition right now. Including. Including Murder. Podcast is new. Like, it's a new series.
Minus is one, right? I mean, is the Beauty new stuff or is the Beauty a reprinting of the original stuff? What's going on with the Beauty?
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Yes, all.
Why not? Why not all?
[00:40:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm on for whatever you want to do with the Beauty, I'll tell you that much right now.
[00:40:15] Speaker B: So we, you know, we wanted, we did 30 issues of the Beauty at Image and we loved that entire thing. And Hurley and I always, even though we had like a real thematic ending with issue 30 and it really came back to the start of the story and did a thing exactly the way we wanted to do it.
So we were always like, if we never get anything else, we're happy with this.
But man, we always had other stories we wanted to tell.
It's. It's a world that's just, you know, it's, it's filled with questions, you know, what, what about this? What about this? And we only Got through a quarter of the kind of things that we sort of wanted to talk about. And we knew that, you know, we are. We are going to have a show on fx.
And it is coming right up.
Ryan Murphy and his amazing team.
You know, when we found out that there was a possibility that we were going to get a show, I was like, if, you know, nobody can do this except Ryan Murphy. And then Ryan Murphy was the guy that ended up doing the show.
And we had an opportunity to reprint the. The new or. Sorry, reprint the original series. Yeah, we wanted to do it in a way that felt special and intentional for us. We wanted to do something that kind of really mattered.
So we. There were six volumes of the original series.
We're doing two of the volumes in one of the new collections. So you get volume one and two are now volume one of this new one. It's 20 bucks still. So you're getting, I think, 11 issues in that first trade for 20 bucks. We felt like it was important with these if you're going to reissue something. We're going to make it special and we're going to make it incredibly cost effective.
They're beautifully designed and real attention to detail kind of taking, you know, going through each one, making sure that. That they're in great shape, they've got extra stuff.
So we're releasing those will be three new volumes or three reissued volumes.
And then we've got the new series and we are hitting the ground running. It is.
Manuel Lupichino is drawing it. And if you know her from her work at dc, she Titan stuff.
See, again, as I said with Mike, you know that thing where you're like, I'm only going to work with people that are better than me.
The series has never. And I just say this with nothing but love and admiration from everybody that, you know, I mean, we had, you know, we had Mike Huddleston, Stephen Green, you know, Brett. Well, messed up his name there. Brett Weldley, you know, Thomas Nashley. Like, we had an amazing crew working on that book all the way through it.
Emma is just coming. Like, she. She came in and like, threw down hard. She had.
She got. She got to see the entire series and what had kind of come before. So she knew what she wanted to do and she is just rocking it.
We.
She is drawing issue three right now.
We're writing issues four and five kind of simultaneously. It's, you know, by the time it's out in late, late October. Um, you know, we're going to send some good stuff.
We kind of had this thing where we were like, how much do you guys want to do?
I realize that I'm saying I am ignition. So it's that weird where, like, you know, I'm asking myself in a way, but, but I always with. With decisions about my own books, I ask my partners, you know, I asked, I asked our publisher, Philip Sadlek, and Jamie S. Richer editor.
You know, I'm like, I have to kind of recuse myself from this part of the conversation. So I'm gonna ask, how much do you want to do? And they were like, how much? How much do you want to do? It was, it was lovely. So we're just gonna, we're just gonna tell some beauty stories. If people like this and like, where we're going and like, what we're doing. We're.
[00:45:23] Speaker A: You ready?
[00:45:24] Speaker B: We're gonna do it for a, for a good, good while still. See what happens.
[00:45:28] Speaker A: Well, I was saying to someone the other day, I'm a sucker for these new release of things too. I have pretty much every release of Revival. Like, there's just a hardcover special edition single. Everything in Revival, I have Tim Seeley and Mike Norrie did a phenomenal job on that series, in my opinion. So I've just always bought the next thing. Same with Nail Biter. I've got all the Nail Biter stuff. So to me, it's like the beauty stuff. Like, you keep on doing this, you can release it all in one thing. You release the hardcovers, whatever, you're gonna get a buyer here. And so by making it more affordable, it helps my wallet too. Thank you very much, Jeremy. I appreciate that.
[00:45:59] Speaker B: Well, you know, we, we, I mean, again, we're all fans of these things, and we all, you know, and, and, you know, one of the things that doesn't get talked about nearly enough in this industry is just sustainability, you know, like, you know, you're talking about rebuying things.
I have every edition of Hellboy ever.
It doesn't matter. He could, he could, he could release it in chick tracks, you know, and I would. And I would buy it again. I probably would buy them for 50 bucks a piece.
But, but the reality of it is that, like, you know, I, I, I love these things, but I also, you know, we feel a lot of obligation to our fan base, and it's like, if we're gonna do it, we're gonna try to make it special and affordable at the same time.
[00:46:52] Speaker A: And it helps. It helps. Like I said, it's one of those things you can price, you price out A comic book fan. I know people who have slimmed down their list now that a lot more comics are more expensive or things like that. So, like, there you end up getting people. Less people reading things if they're more expensive. I know there's more cost and things like that nowadays. I understand that. I do feel like creators need to be paid better. So. So there is that side too. But, like, it just. It hurts. It hurts everybody when things are overpriced and they don't need to be overpriced, if that makes any sense.
But, yeah, I'm excited. So Murder Podcast number one, it's a cold open, it's available.
[00:47:25] Speaker B: And.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: And then you have Murder Podcast number one coming out here in September. And then you've got obviously, Ignition. It's like full force right after that, isn't it? It's like pretty much every week you've got a new ignition coming out.
[00:47:39] Speaker B: Yeah, we're doing. We're doing two, sometimes three releases a month. That's. That's kind of where. Where we're going to be.
We wanted to.
Look, the reality of it is, is that there's.
Again, with all new, with all due damned respect, there is so much stuff coming on the. You're hitting the shelves every single week. I mean, you know, we, we in the company, we show our pull lists. You know, I'm like. And it's just like this, you know, these stacks of stuff. Right.
The reality of it is that, you know, like, it's not. It's just, it's. There's so much stuff coming out and it's a weird time.
[00:48:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:21] Speaker B: So we wanted to put things out consistently. So, like, you know, two books a month, maybe three, depending on what, you know, what we've got coming out, but not, not really gonna over saturate the market with what we're doing right now. We also just want to shine a light on every book. I mean, you know, you're getting murder podcasts on September 10th, and forgive me, I'm gonna.
Because my brain's broken.
I think it's either the next week or the following.
[00:48:51] Speaker A: 17Th is voyeur. Right.
[00:48:53] Speaker B: So that's. Yeah. So that's, that's just a week later. Yeah.
Voyeur number one comes out and that's Leah Williams writing with David Baldion on art.
And it is so, so, so good and completely different in the best sort of way from Murder Podcast.
We wanted to give people different tastes of stuff and like, let you find that, like the, you know, it sounds lofty and maybe A little bit pretentious thing to say, but, like, we really look at like, a 24 as. As a film distributor. And like, you know, the, the thing about a 24 is, like, hereditary is not, you know, like, you know, warfare is not like, you know, I'm now. Now that I. I own the death of a unicorn. Like, each. Each of these things are slightly different, but. But the thing that unifies them is that they're good.
[00:49:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:56] Speaker B: And if I see something's coming out from a 24, it may not be my bag, but I'll at least try it.
And so we wanted that. And, you know, so we love that you're, you know, that you're getting Murder Podcast and then a week later you're getting Voyeur, and, and, and. But we want to shine a light on each one. And we really want. We want to give you as much information as the reader or as a retailer buying something about each book and not just be like, oh, you know, this is the. This is the one we're gonna pay attention and put money behind.
We really want it to be very, very fair.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. It makes sense. And if it's, you know, one shots by putting them out four weeks in a row, it makes sense, but you're not the issue two coming out, you know, and so you have issue three. And if you're liking.
[00:50:46] Speaker B: You want.
[00:50:46] Speaker A: You're liking multiple series, it means now you're adding three or four comics to your pull list from Ignition. So I understand, like, spreading them out, like, that helps. Helps, you know, even out the purchasing power of some of your readers and collectors and things like that too. So that's nice. And you have a local comic book shop day release of the Beauty, it sounds like, too, which is coming out too, which is pretty cool. But, yeah, I mean, I said Murder Podcast is definitely a great launching point for this. I think that. I think it's well written and well illustrated, well color, well lettered, well designed, well everything.
And I'm not just saying that because the two of you were on here.
It's true.
I wouldn't have wanted to have talked to you guys if it was shit. So there's that. And it's a very awkward conversation where you're like, yeah, the book sucks, but let's talk about it. It's excellent. I think that's cool. And I think it fits that. Like I said, it fits the void that I've had missing from some comics that I've wanted as of recent. And so, you know, having another book to Read from, from you, Jeremy. And again, being introduced to your artwork as a, as a sequential artist in comics, Mike, it's been phenomenal. So keep it up. I want to see more from you. I want your fingers to be bleeding because you're working so hard.
But no, it's excellent to see and like I said, couldn't have better launch. I mean, in my opinion for Ignition is having this book out there because I think it's excellent. So, you know, September 10th, it hits shelves. Make sure you let your LCs know that you want it and get it and buy user too, as well, because just, just tell them now you want it because I guarantee you that you're going to want it. Right? I mean, I think I believe that's true.
[00:52:18] Speaker B: I, I agree.
Yeah. You know, and I mean, the crazy thing is, look, I, I think this is the kind of thing that I was wanting to see on the shelves and you know, and, and look, I, I am, I am too deeply embedded at Ignition.
I'm, I'm, I'm self serving and wanting my stuff to, you know, do well.
I also, you know, believe in Mike and, and you know, I mean, like, you know, one thing that I say as often as I can is like, I'm honored that I get this moment, you know, with him doing this thing, because the reality of it is there's gonna be a point where I can't get him to draw anything for me anymore because he's gonna be too damn popular. But I am gonna make the most of it while I can.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: Well, I mean, you got murder podcasts right now, and then 12 years from now, you'll be able to do something else with Mike. So it's fine.
[00:53:22] Speaker B: He's like, I've done everything else that I want to do. I'm gonna, I'm gonna slum and come.
[00:53:27] Speaker A: Back and I need to pay my bills. Jeremy, can I work for you again? But yeah, you know, it's such, you know, every 12 years you're gonna work on a project together. It's gonna be great. Don't worry about it. It's fine. No, I said I hope, personally, a selfish level Mike, that you don't disappear from interiors of comic books. Because if it's not Murder podcast, I'm gonna be picking up whatever's next for you because like I said, I fell in love with your artwork work. It's phenomenal. It fits the story so well and really excited for people to read it and pick it up and actually see it. So, yeah, congratulations to both of you. For getting this comic book to hit shelves on September 10th from Ignition Press. I'm really excited for it, as you can tell.
But yeah, I appreciate you both taking time out of your busy schedules making these comics and doing all the fun stuff that we don't get to see behind the scenes. But yeah, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to talk to us here at the podcast. We'll have you both on at some point in time, time in the future when something else is willing to talk about and you want to just shoot off about things. But until then, thank you so much again for taking time out and talking to us.
[00:54:30] Speaker B: Thanks man.
[00:54:31] Speaker C: Thanks for having us.
