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 galactic comics and collectibles.com we are entering the holiday season a slight bit early this week with welcoming Jordan Hart and Chris Ryle to the podcast to discuss their horror holiday anthology Dread the Halls which is the second year it's happening.
Jordan Hart is the creator of Eisner and Harvey Award nominated comic series Ripple Effects as well as the Cabinet.
Chris Riel is the co founder and publisher of Syzygy Publishing, an imprint and image comics and the co creator of Dread the Halls. Chris also has been the publisher and president and all this other stuff over at IDW and a bunch of other places over the years. The two of them together created Dread the Halls. This is the second year they've been doing it. They also have Dread the Hall H which comes out in the summer. But this year, Horror Holiday anthology coming out December 3rd. So check that out. But before you listen, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blue sky threads, all those places. Rate, review, subscribe over on Apple, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts as well as find us over on YouTube for the video portion of this podcast. And as always you can visit capesentice.com for more. Enjoy everyone.
Welcome to the podcast YouTube. How are you today?
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Doing great, how about you?
[00:01:24] Speaker C: Yeah, great, thank you.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: It's always awkward when I say that when there's two people because you're like, who's gonna answer? I don't want to talk over someone or. But yeah, it's pretty easy. Also I've already said that to both of you as we signed on to zoom in the first place. So that's also the awkwardness of pressing record.
[00:01:40] Speaker C: But yeah, yeah, we're like, we're still good.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: It's changed a lot since I first met you here. It's actually horrible now. No, we're here technically not in the holiday Christmas holiday season, but we're recording to release then. So happy holidays to you too.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Well, according to the Hallmark Channel, it's it's holidays for like a month already.
[00:02:01] Speaker C: So yeah, day after Halloween. Yeah, it starts.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: I saw a clip on Instagram of this woman and her husband like coming back from Trick or Treating and as she's walking into the house, the husband walks first and the kids go in. She like flips over a sign on the front steps to from Halloween To Christmas. He, like, sits down on his chair or the couch, like, changes shoes or takes his shoes off, and she sneaks up behind him and removes the Halloween pillows and puts the Christmas pillows. Like, he, like, within 30 seconds of being home, he just, like, blinks, and the house is just Christmas. All of a sudden, he's like, what the hell just happened? That's how the world is nowadays.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: That's what. That's the.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: World we live in now, for sure.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: I feel like we should start a campaign of, like, selling how Thanksgiving decorations. Like, making Thanksgiving something bigger than it is, at least that people are forced not to do that or something, you know, like, take a break.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:48] Speaker C: There's this. There's this publisher, biblioassis, who puts out these little. These little ghost stories. And there is an old tradition of, like, in the holiday season, you know, at the end of the year, reading, telling ghost stories. And so I think the natural transition from Halloween to Christmas and Dread the Hall is, like, It's a perfect fit.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: I think so. So I've always said, nightmare. Nightmare. Sorry, Nightmare Before Christmas. Yeah. Jack Skellington, like, that, to me, is like a Thanksgiving film, in my opinion, because, like, it has that Halloween ness, too, but also the Christmas like you watch in November. And then my wife and I have always said if we're going to watch Christmas movies or do anything early, we watch a little bit more of the horror Christmas or, like, the.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: The.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: The oddball Christmas movies, not the ones that feature, like, Rudolph and things like that. That's what banks. This. This month is. Is for, is a little bit more of that. Like, okay, I'm not ready to actually, like, put the tree up. It's more like, I want to watch, you know, a horror Black Christmas or something like that.
[00:03:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
And that's what's perfect for Dread the Halls. But. Yeah. So. So, Jordan, you've been on. You talked to Cabinet when you were on.
Chris. You're the first time on here. You've been in comics for a long time. So I don't want to bore people with how you got into comics because it's been. Your story's probably long, Chris, and that you've done a lot of jobs and been in this industry for a while now. Not saying you're old. I'm just saying that it's been. You're not a freshman in the world of comics by far. But how did you two come together? Obviously, we'll talk about how Dread the Halls came together, but how did you two meet in Start Doing this, this thing together. If you want to start off. Chris.
[00:04:26] Speaker C: Yeah, it's funny, like you say, I've been doing this a while and I've kind of reached the point where when people ask, I'm like, I've been in comics for about two years, you know, because it's been. Been a couple decades now.
But I mean, Jordan and I were like music and comic buddies before we ever worked on, like, actually doing projects together. So it was just kind of. We would talk about old comics and I don't remember how that started.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: I do, I do.
[00:04:52] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: So I moved to California in like 20, late 2013, and I knew at that I've been reading comics since I was 4 and I knew that I wanted to write comics.
So Chris was in San Diego at, at idw, and he was literally the first editor. I cold email emailed, like right at the top too. Go to the editor.
And he actually responded. He's like, yeah, come come over to the office for 15 minutes. It'd be great to meet. Like, we were talking about music somehow, I think I've written an article for the Huffington Post that was about hair metal, I believe. And he saw that and he's like, dude, you like hair metal? And then we just started talking about that. So, yeah, it was 2014, I went to the IDW offices. First time I ever stepped foot in a. In a comic publisher. First editor I ever met. I'm like, this is great. Comic editors are going to get back. And then like, then fast forward 10 years of just never getting a reply or never getting anything. And I'm like, oh, he's. He's a rare unicorn in this industry. And he is for many reasons, but, but, but, yeah, that is, that's how we started. He was kind enough to hit reply on a cold email, which is like, I would say a 3% chance.
So, yeah.
[00:06:09] Speaker C: And sometimes it works out like. But I do. Yeah. Now I guess I probably should have been more standoffish in general and just, you know, try to develop some mystique. But instead, like, I don't know, I used to pitch back before I got into comics and I. It always annoyed me that people didn't reply. Like, it feels like the reply is the least you could do when somebody reaches out. And so, yeah, I've always tried to get back to everybody, but, you know, especially when they want to talk hair metal and old comics. Like, yeah, those are my things. Like, that's the perfect gateway.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah, we're talking Rat and Jack Kirby. I Mean, what else do you want? And I was like, you know, Rat, you know, Trixie. I'm like, who is this. This guy? And took off from there.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Jordan, you didn't, like, tell people, like, oh, so if you want your comic published, like, you call up Chris over there, talk about hair metal, and he'll get. You'll get a meeting with him. Don't worry about that.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Insider. Insider tip for sure.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: So they're like the opposite.
[00:07:02] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Go in there and say, I hate music. And there. There you go. That way your comic gets pushed to the front and everybody else's gets pushed to the back.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: I can see it already.
[00:07:11] Speaker C: I remember when I was.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Sorry, I was gonna say as I was telling that story, I'm like, great. Chris is gonna get, like, three years of rock music only themed comic pitches from now on. But maybe fun, but I mean, like.
[00:07:23] Speaker C: When I was a kid, like, Anthrax would sing about comics and stuff, you know, and so there was always that weird crossover anyway, so when you found anybody that could speak both, it was like, like, George says, that's a unicorn, and that's people I want to hang out with.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I'm cool with that too. I mean, you know, it's a cool connection. But that's like, obviously a number of years ago now. And now we're at Dread the Halls last year. So you've had three. This is your third, you know, Dread the Halls adjacent book is obviously a Dread the Hall H that came out around San Diego Comic Con. But this is the second holiday themed one where. Whose idea was it originally to do this? Like, was it Jordan? Was it Chris who? How did this come about? Did you guys, like, call each other at the same time, be like, we should make a Christmas theater holiday theme book?
[00:08:08] Speaker C: Well, it's funny because, again, like, old comics were kind of the gateway to the conversation. There was this comic that Marvel did way back called Bizarre Adventures, and it used to be a magazine, but for some reason, they switched from the magazine format to a comic. And they're like, I think maybe just their final issue, and it was all Christmas horror stories, and we both just loved it. It was just one of those that, like, somehow we came across and, like, just stuck in our heads and we're like, wouldn't that be cool to do more stuff like that? I think that was just kind of the. The gestation of the idea of, like, yeah, why not? Why not try to do more, you know, holiday themed horror stories in a unique way? And so, again, yeah, that Was that was kind of the lead into it all.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: I think that myself personally, I try to like, plan things around. Like, I try. I watch horror movies and read horror novels and things like that in comics all year long. But I try to make sure that like, when I'm in October, like, that I'm not reading something different, romance or, you know, I'm trying my best to be like, okay, this is the month to focus on it. Even though I do it all year round, this is the month. I also feel like I shift that. You know, November is a. Whatever month. And then I shifted into December where it's like I still want. I want to try to get, you know, like, you know, books that come out in previous years, even that like the trade is now out. And I want to read that during December. And so I try to focus on that so I can see the pull towards that. And I think that horror is awesome. And so like mixing like a more horror themed anthology together on that is amazing. What though, specifically to the both of you is holidays. Is there something about the holidays that. That really pulls you into it? And then how did that connect into horror really, you know, vibe from Jordan?
[00:09:46] Speaker B: I think, you know, the holidays and horror just go together so well because it's all about peace on earth and joy and happiness. And then like, that's always the key to a great story, any story, is to get that like contrasting worlds and smash them together. So that's, that's like, you know what I've always loved. Why, Like Chris said, The Bizarre Adventures 34. It's like a Joe Jusco cover with Santa and the chicken, but he's a skeleton. And like, it could be an Anthrax album cover, it could be a comic. So like, it just works so well and you know, like, it's nothing new Christmas story, right. Maybe one of the most famous horror ghost stories of all time. Right. So.
So yeah, it just, it just. Wait, is it a Christmas story?
[00:10:35] Speaker C: Christmas Carol.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Christmas Carol.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: But I mean, you could put your eye out with the BB gun too. Yeah, yeah.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: I mean, there is some horror.
Your tongue getting stuck on a pole, which, you know, Justin, being from the north, I'm originally from Wisconsin. That's not.
That's real. That will.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Yes. Right now, like, it's, it's. It's November and I could do that probably right. It snowed yesterday in my town in Maine. In Newport, Maine. It snowed yesterday. It's gone now, but it was snowing. I was like, what the hell? It's not even Thanksgiving. Yet what's going on right now?
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's too soon. So that's just where. Where it came from. And, you know, like, EC and dc, they did great Christmas horror covers back in the day. And, you know, one thing Chris and I, as you can see, we're huge fans, and I think we're fans first. That's why we're in comics. So we had this, like, love of it that existed, and we just thought, well, why not do our. Do our own? You know, try it. Try it ourselves.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: It's funny how you mentioned how, like, there's that. It's a juxtaposition, obviously, between holiday happiness, everybody's getting together, and that horror side of things. My. My wife's a huge, like, cheesy Hallmark movie kind of person, and she's the person who. Who, you know, October 31st, we kind of talked to, you know, the calendar switches over to November 1st, and she's ready for holiday at least holiday movies. This house still is in Disar with Halloween candy everywhere. But she wanted to watch a holiday movie. The other day on Halloween, she wanted to watch a scary movie. And again, she doesn't watch these kind of things. So we're talking about it. I'm trying to, like, what movie do I want to watch that's not over the top? Something I can watch? I'm like, something that's horror, but not, like super horror. I'm like, well, maybe get out or. Or something like that where it's like, not going to be like blood and guts everywhere, but like, something we watched Halloween Town. Okay, so that's where. That's where we ended up on that Halloween. So, you know, fast forward this past weekend. She's like, I want to watch the Christmas movie. So whatever. You pick it. She picked a Hallmark movie. It's called a novel, Noel. It came out last year. It's about a bookstore in a fake town in Maine called St. Ives, where someone comes in in December and takes over the bookstore for a month, lives in the apartment upstairs. And so, you know, it's. It's actually wasn't that horrible.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: He's an editor, right? I've seen it. He's like, yeah, she's like an editor from New York that's there.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Like, she doesn't tell them that she's an editor, and then the guy ends up writing a book, and so he's, you know, whatever. But I was like, as she's like, setting this whole story up, I'm like, my wife's name is Taylor. Like, Taylor, this could be a horror movie. I'm like, just the way that he's, like, going to a town you don't know for a month, you're getting to live in the apartment upstairs. Like, all this other stuff, like, all these things with one sweet, slight twist in it. Could be blood and guts, a horror movie altogether. So, yeah, I can see that connection. But what takes, you know, Dread the Halls, what makes it special? Because obviously other people are doing this. This is not like, oh, my gosh, you two are the pioneers of Christmas horror comic books. What makes it special and different than everything else? I think the design, Jordan, I think that the name, the design, all that stuff is absolutely stunning, and that's a draw. But otherwise, what focus did you have on making this different than any other horror story that comes out near Christmas?
[00:13:36] Speaker B: I think the editor.
[00:13:37] Speaker C: I mean, for us, like, it's.
I think it's just the fact that we're both.
We're both writing the stories ourselves, you know, so it's not just like casting a wide net and taking various pitches and things like that. Like, so it's. It's very much run through our sensibilities. So I kind of always approach stories with a bit of the ridiculousness. You know, I like to throw in bits of dark humor where I can. And I. I think. I don't know what makes anything special is the people telling those stories. And so we just try to. You know, we've read, like Jordan says, we've read comics our entire lives, and so we've seen a lot of good and bad. And so you kind of get a sense of what works and what doesn't. And you also get a sense of what's been done. And so we're just trying to find unique ways into stories that maybe other people have approached. Like, I do a knockoff, a version of Christmas Carol in this book, but I. I sort of headed it in a direction that I hadn't seen before, and I think that's kind of all we can do is find a cool, high concept and then take it in a unique and interesting way that, you know, hopefully we haven't seen anybody do before.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: Yeah, and speaking of Hallmark, the lead story this year is the reason. I know that I watched a ton of Hallmark movies, and I've always thought the same thing. So literally, the lead story this year is a Hallmark movie that the rug gets pulled out on. And, I mean, I did it all the things they did. The main character's name is Holly. Her love interest name is Nick. The Mechanic is Chris. It's set in a town called Chris Christmas Dale. She gets in a car accident, gets stuck there. It's like all the stuff, stuff that you see on the Hallmark Channel and then it just, it just flips and, and to Chris's point, you know, with us just doing it, I, I do feel like a really big sticking point for both of us is art. Like, we want, we like, we want to like release the best looking art of the season and we want the widest range. Like, our goal is for every story to look different and like just completely stand on its own. So, you know, as two writers that, that do the series, like our goal is always really art first to, to really just make it something different and something that still seems fresh.
[00:15:46] Speaker C: You mentioned, I think, Justin, like you were saying. Yeah, sorry. Just to just kind of punctuate it. Justin, like you were saying earlier, there is a fine line between sort of the treacly, you know, sappy Christmas story that I think, you know, we all enjoy, especially when you just spending time with family and friends around the holidays. But there's like, I'm a genre guy, so I am. Almost every story I read, I'm like, that was good. Maybe better with a monster of some sort. So, you know, that's kind of the starting point with, with the Christmas stories is like, what's a cool, fun Christmas story that I can then make into something a little horrific by just turning the dial or heading in one slightly different direction.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: I love that because my wife and I, every time we're like in like home goods and I see a picture of like a cow on a like one of the, the picture frame area or whatever. I'm always like, oh, that's great. But it would much better if there's like a like slit across and blood was going down. I did this joke like once like five years ago now. Every time I see something, I'm always like, that's cool. But like, it would be really good if there was an axe murderer in the behind it. And she's like, we stopped doing that. I'm like, that's just where my brain thinks. I'm like, that's cool. But it would be better as a horror film.
[00:16:49] Speaker C: And.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: And they thought the same thing. I'm like, the movie wasn't like, out of all the Hallmark movies that I've seen, this novel. Novel wasn't horrendous, but it did had all those tropes and all those things. I'm like, there's. I live in Maine. There's not a town in Maine that has a downtown village area that's dressed up by Christmas like that for an entire month. I'm sorry, it's just not existing. First of all, snowy. No, it's not even snowy yet. We don't get real big snow until, like, January. Like, it's like, funny about December. Like, we're always like, christmas, Are we gonna have snow on Christmas? Like, it's just it, you know, nowadays with the. Where the global weather is, it's like, I don't even know what we're going to get. We could get 80 degrees on Christmas Day. I have no idea. But, you know, this is so funny. Like, how. Like that there's that thing. And I think that story you mentioned, the opening story, is that it's like, you just look at it, you're like, yeah, I would love Hallmark to just one day do it. And all of a sudden we're like, flip a switch. And all of a sudden I know it's just a horror film. And we're like, what is going on? Hallmark has gone crazy.
But you mentioned the artwork, and I love that. Like, that's the point. I think when I was reading, you know, Jordan, you sent me the copy last night, and I was reading it, and I was like, wait a second. Where did I remember that? I love these anthologies that have such different artwork, and I would probably wish to read the Halls 2024 that I actually originally thought that I was like, wow, this is pretty cool because there's, like, different artwork for each one of them, and then there's like, completely different artwork in one or two of them. Like, there's just like. It's not even like, oh, this is a different style. Or I like this person's lines, or, like, this colors or whatever. It's like there's one story that just is completely different than everything else in the artwork style. And that was cool because, I mean, it's like multiple different of comics in one. Like, you have your 72 pages. It is like, it's, you know, four or five, six comics in one thing, which is nice. And it's. You don't have to wait for it. It's not one of those things that, like, there are Christmas stories that come around. I mean, tiny and the deviant is Christmas adjacent. But you had to wait. It's like it started coming out in August, and, like, you know, you're still reading about Christmas in October so they can get the issues out. This is like, okay, December 3rd, you're able to get this you're gonna be able to read it gonna be the whole thing. I'm guessing that was important. It was important to do that and also important to do it as page one shot and not a graphic novel or anthology trade paperback. Like it's. You want it to be like in the, probably the approachable price range for people and all that stuff. You can get it done all in December, things like that. I'm guessing that was all important in this too, right? The way you released it as well.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:19:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: And. And the nice thing about it being a single issue as opposed to a trade is, you know, covers are so, so great. You know, like maybe it's because we just want to fill our spinner racks as you. Yeah, but you know, like when we do, when we do a one shot issue, we we to seven covers and we try to like not make them incentives and, and charge a ton for them because we just truly want like people to like use them as a decoration and like get in the festive spirit. But Chris puts a lot of thought to the release window, you know too. Like if you want to talk about how you decide like, fine line between coming out too early when people aren't ready for Christmas, but then to you know, like.
[00:19:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean the goal is to not only kind of get out in front of the, what seems like now a glut of Christmas horror anthologies that are happening all over the place, but also make a good book that not only gives a lot of value to people, you know, it's 699 and 72 pages, which I think is a great page count for dollar value, especially compared to a lot of the others I've seen. But also you want to make a book that gives comic stores plenty of shelf time. Like a lot of books have a one week shelf life and then gone and onto the next thing. We figure if we can get this out first week of December, it's a book that they can sell all month long because people are kind of in that Christmas mindset all month long. And so yeah, we wanted to get out of the gate quickly and offer a whole lot of value with the book. So I think we've done those things.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. And I think that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is also a really weird Wednesday. I feel like there's a lot of people who like myself. Like if I'm traveling, I might not pick up my books at my local comic book shop until the following week anyway. So like you might put it out a week prior and then all of a Sudden no one's actually going to read it until the following week anyway. So it actually kind of makes sense. Plus, it does nice. It's a nice thing to be out in December. It's a holiday thing. Let's put it out in December. December 3rd. I think it works. It's a nice timing on that. But I do think the price is huge. I think we talked about it at my local comic book shop, Galactic Comics in Bangor, Maine, that it's tough nowadays. Like, there's this, like, you know, we talked about previous catalog. We were talking about how, like, he just gave them to like, some of his loyal customers. But there's a price on those things. When they were selling, they were for sale. You were supposed to buy that. And I'm like, there's no way in hell that I'm gonna see someone pay $5 something that they could put $5 towards an actual single issue of a comic book. And like, it seems so weird because people are doing that right now. They're tightening their belt, you know, like, we're trying to figure that out. And so December is also slightly slower in the competition. Like, I was like going through and looking at like, what books are coming out in the next month, you know, two months, and I'm like, December kind of sucks for. Not, like, overall, there's some good stuff coming up, but, like, there's not much. Like, it's not one of those things. Like, I do a featured four every week of four comics that I'm looking forward to. And it was hard sometimes to fill the four comics because I'm like, I. I guess I could talk about the third issue in this miniseries or something like that. But like, that also helps with this time of year. Like, it gives us something new to read, something fun to read. We know it's the time of year. It's again, 72 pages. I read it in one sitting. But if someone wanted to, they could read, you know, your first story and then put it down and come back to read second story and so on and so forth and get a lot out of it for $7. Like, it's. I think it's a. I mean, it's.
[00:22:18] Speaker C: Going to feel like it's going to feel like a soft cover trade paperback, you know, like, it's got the spine. Like it's. It's going to have some real heft to it. And so again, we wanted that. We wanted to give people just, I don't know, like you say something special to end the year, give retailers something special that they can hopefully do well with all month long and I don't know, also have plenty of pages so we can have fun and tell all kinds of different stories.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: So promoting a story. So if you like, for example, Jordan, when you're promoting the cabinet, you're reporting a one whole story over five issues and all that stuff promoting this is a little bit, you can't really spoil any of this because it spoils the whole thing. Because you spoil like that's the same thing. Also with short stories it's like you really can't spoil anything because there's such a small finite number of pages per story that if you spoil even the slightest, say, oh, it's on the first page, I'm like, well that's part of the five page story. So you have to like not do that. Is it more difficult to kind of come on here and do this, like to promote a story like this or is it just the holidays? People want this kind of stuff so it's kind of easier that way.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: You're exactly right. Yeah, we got it. We got to lean into the, into the holidays, into the excitement and, and yeah, the covers, we just try to, you know, really like make it, hey, it's a stocking stuffer. And like Chris said, especially this year with the higher price count, it is a midi mini trade. It's, it's got, you know, like thicker covers, it has a spine, it's, it's perfect bound. So it's, it's going to feel, I think worth like, like a ten dollar prestige edition, you know. So it's, it's, it's got a great value. So we try to do that. But to your point, you know, we try to run previews of each story and it's like you can't really do more than three pages because after that it's like, I don't know, might as.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Well just put the whole story out there.
I guess that could be an option if you had a story of a year where you just said we're gonna release one of the stories. So you kind of get an idea what the whole book's gonna be like. But then you, in order to rest the stories, you have to buy the whole thing. But do you have a list? Like are you guys. Obviously this is the second one you've done this whole holiday themed. Is there like a running like shared notes page of all this or a Google Drive of all the stories you'd want to tell on these things?
[00:24:20] Speaker C: No, we probably should have that. I think separately we've made A bunch of notes, like, we'll email or text each other with the thought of, like, hey, next year I want to do this, or I'm gonna. I'm planning to do this. What do you think? That kind of thing. But, yeah, maybe I guess we could formalize it a bit more and have a central depository for various thoughts. But, yeah, we have thoughts for the. The next Comic Con. Dread the Hall H issue for next holidays issue. So, yeah, it's one of those things where it's like. Like, once you've started it, it's. There's always other stuff that's occurring to you that you want to get to next time.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And we have never done it for this Christmas one, and I'm surprised we've never had overlap, honestly. Especially, you know, it's been almost 10 stories. But, you know, a big thing about this series for me is, like, I. I love getting the story done and just sending it to Chris to, like. To, like, hopefully, like, get him excited or to make him laugh or to, like, make him smile because we're such close friends. But also, he's gonna roll his eyes. But he is an industry legend. You know what I mean? Like, he is. So it's like, I'm always, like, trying to write for. You know, they say, right. For yourself. Which I do. But, like, I try to write for Chris, too, and, like, kind of jolt him and shock him and hear what he thinks and then say, did you see any typos or does this work? You know, then ask him. But.
But, yeah, we. We are a lot tighter, I'd say, on Hall H, because, like, that's. That's at a Comic Con. So, like, we have to make sure we're doing different stuff just. Just to, you know, keep it different. And also, we try to, like, what we're going to try. This isn't a spoiler.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: We're going to. This year at Dread the Holidays, we're going to try to weave our stories together so there's, like, a shared continuity. So we'll be a lot tighter on the.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: I guess the main reason to ask. I just recently went to a book event, the End of the World as We Know it, which is the anthology horror story is based around Stephen King's the Stand.
And I went to the release party here in my.
And three of the authors are there, and they were talking about how obviously it'd be a little bit more difficult when you have multiple people doing this compared to just the two of you. But, like, they're like, oh, we have a dog story, so we can't do that. We have, you know, like, there was, like, you know, things you can't do. So is that in the communication, though? Like, if you were to tell, like, I'm doing something based on the Christmas Carol and so that. Jordan, do not touch that, because we already have one of those. I'm guessing those are the kind of conversations that you do have, though.
Yeah.
[00:26:43] Speaker C: Like, I knew early on Jordan had a Krampus story and a sort of a specific personal Krampus story he wanted to tell, and so I was never going to try to. Well, I have a cramped story, too, you know, so then it's just, like, you find other outlets and, you know, it just feels like there is an endless number of paths we can take to kind of, you know, make horrific different parts of the holidays.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Well, you don't. You don't say Chris, like. Oh, it's. It's. It's my publisher, so I'm going to do it the way I want to do it. Jordan, you take a backseat.
[00:27:12] Speaker C: Not at all. No.
Absolute democracy.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:16] Speaker C: Never.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Well, so we're not going to publish this now because Jordan let me do what I want, and we're not going to publish.
Yeah, right.
That's how relationships work really well right now. Yeah, that's. I mean, that's. It's true, though. And I think that it also. I don't think. I also think that Christmas is one of those ones that, like, I'll watch four different Christmas Carol movies in one Christmas season. Like, I don't. It doesn't matter to me that they're. They're all the basic same story with different variations to it. Like, you'll watch the. You know, I want. My favorite Christmas movie of all time is the Muppets Christmas Carol. So I watched it.
[00:27:46] Speaker C: I was gonna say that's the only. That's the only answer to that question. Yeah.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: I told my son. My son's four. He's watching. Like, he's watched him in the past. Like, this year. He's actually, like, grasping some of it. And I'm like, these two, Gonzo and Rizza the rat could. Could, you know, narrate anything, and I would watch it. Like, I'm just. I don't understand why there's not more like that. Like, I don't. Like, I would love to hear, like, any movie possible, any old classic tale, just have these two narrate the whole thing. And I would absolutely be 100% okay with that. And he's like, oh, my God. He's like, I saw a rat the other day on tv. He's like, it's Rizzo. I'm like, yep, Rizzo the rat.
I want a Rizzo the red tattoo. Like, it's so bad. I want this, but I watch that one. My wife likes the Mickey Mouse one. I'll watch, you know, the classic ones. And so you. Technically, there's gonna be some crossover in this Dread the Hall H. I'm expecting where people are, like, I don't really don't want, like, two anthology stories to be almost identical in this book. Whereas, again, you could tell two Santa Claus stories in Dread the Halls and no one would really probably bat an eye at it because that's what this season is mostly about.
Yeah.
[00:28:49] Speaker C: Although the cool thing is somehow even not, like, orchestrating it too tightly, like, we haven't had any kind of weird overlap. And, I mean, every story does feel unique and different, and they almost feel like stories pulled from different eras because the art styles are also different. And I think that was important to us is just not to have stories that kind of have a uniform look and feel, which, you know, some of these anthologies do, especially when it's, like, corporate characters and they're all drawn. Not a house style. But I think we have a bit more freedom to push in all kinds of wild directions. And I think we try to take that freedom as much as we can.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: It's not necessary. But it almost feels necessary to do the different art style, too, though, because, like, you don't want them to all look the same because then they're different stories of different characters and different universes, in a sense. And so, like, you probably. If they all look the same, you're like, wait a second, that Santa Claus was in that last one. And I don't understand what's going on here. And they're not connected in that way. But it also gives people. I think, also if I gave it to a Christmas. This. This Christmas anthology or holiday anthology, I should say to someone that's not huge into comics, it gives them a little taste of, like, the variations of storytelling and art styles that are out there.
And I think that changes a little bit. If it was all the same and they didn't like that art, then you might not be a fan of the whole thing. But if you're like, oh, yeah, I'm not a big fan of that, but it's only 5, 6, 8 page story, you can just move on to the next one and you can read the next story. And so on and so forth. But you also are. You guys have voices that are similar but also different, which is good. And so you do get. Get almost the feel that the bigger cast of characters are creating this thing without having to have the bigger cast of characters creating these things. You have the artists that are different, but to have you two telling these stories. But there's just enough of a difference that I'm also like, okay, I can see they're not the same person, which is pretty cool. And it makes it easier. Yeah. I don't know if you agree, but.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: I'm definitely well, and if I can. So not to. Not to just reciprocate the compliment, but Jordan is definitely sort of the unsung or the MVP of these books. Like the design on these books, like you were mentioning Justin, the logo design and then the. The title treatment that every single story gets. You know, with the credits and the sort of wrapping paper background and his wrapping paper cover and the. There's just a sort of look and feel that shows care kind of above and beyond what is often delivered or expected in these kind of things. And I think that just makes the COVID to cover experience so much more gratifying and cool. Like, I love that lead in, you know, as a fan of this stuff as much as a creator of it. I love those kind of extra touches that really just kind of show the love and care that are put into these things. And I think Jordan is, you know, the reason for this book feeling special and standing out amongst all the others.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: I agree. My. My day job, I'm a graphic designer, a creative director for a brewery. So, like, design is always a huge thing that stands out. To me, it stands out more. And I don't know if, Jordan, you agree with this. When it's bad that it doesn't, it's really good. I'll tell you that much. Like, when you see a title treatment of a comic, I'm like, who said yes to that?
[00:31:50] Speaker B: Like, who in the right on massive books. That's what blows my mind.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: And then it's like, big two books. I'm like, who said yes? That title? True.
All I can picture is someone was like, oh, crap, we don't have a title. Someone. Someone's hurry up. Someone do this last minute and they threw it on there and they just send it to press. Because I just. Sometimes I'm like, up. But then there's other sides of things. It's like lettering, in my opinion, like, lettering is one of those ones that shouldn't stand out.
But sometimes it does in such a good way. And. But I feel like it should just blend in with the comic that you don't really know. You're just reading along and so on and so forth, which I think you have a talent for, Jordan, as well, is that in that lettering side of things. But, yeah, so, like, this is, like, it's beautiful. And I think that you talk about page count and price. I don't think a lot of people. And the novice. And this is not a knock at any comic book reader, but like the novice comic reader who goes in there and just picks up a comic, it's the price. It doesn't matter how many pages it is. It doesn't matter.
But what they get it. If they get it and it's not quality, I think that's when they start going, I'm not going to try that again. Like, if they get the book and it's got no page breaks in between stories, or no, the title is kind of bad. Or the, you know, credits page is not that good, or so on and so forth. If you get it. And it's, you know, perfect bound, like you mentioned, and has great artwork on top of the artwork for each story. It just adds so much more value to the comic. And I think that having you attached to it, Jordan, be able to do this kind of stuff, you know, makes it makes it easier for both of you.
[00:33:12] Speaker C: Thank you both.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Thank you both.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Yeah, Chris knows I. I, like, go full tilt on these.
Ultimately, I want to be proud of it too, you know, and. And. And I've gotten approached more to be a designer and writer in this or a designer and letterer. You know, Sometimes the writer is like, no, it's not what I want to do. They're like, but dread looks so good. I'm like, yeah, but that's, like, different, like, because that's our book. You know what I mean?
I don't need to do that for other stuff. I mean, I wouldn't mind it, but, you know, I like writing way, way, way, way, way more. And the coloring, the lettering, the design is always just to say that save money to put more money into the artists, you know, so.
So I'm glad. I'm glad it's connecting, though.
[00:34:00] Speaker C: It also means Jordan gets hammered at the. The deadline time, you know, because all the crunch time, all the last changes, all the nitpicking, all the file prep, all of that ends up falling on him too. So there's a. A downside to it as well, I'm sure. But the end result is so good.
And I don't know, like you say, there's not only is there a ton of comics out there, but, but it's a tough economic environment. And I mean, every, you know, we're asking people to spend $7 on a book that they don't know. It doesn't feature Batman or Spider man, you know, So I mean, I, I, we appreciate every retailer and every customer who picks this thing up. And so you want to, you want to make it worth their while and whatever the cost is. Like something costs too much if it sucks and it's, you don't think about the price as much if it feels like it delivered on or exceeded your expectations. And so that's what we're out to do is try to exceed whatever people expect from these books.
[00:34:52] Speaker A: I mean, it's. The cost to the, to the consumer is there too, but the cost of the retailer is there too. Obviously any more book that costs more costs more money to buy for the retailers too. So they have to, when they pay, you know, their price for. And I don't know if people know the economics of comics or not, but I'm not going to say it so you can figure it out on your own. When you pay what you pay. You also need to move that faster or want to move that faster. If you think of just straight up financially than a, than a $4 book or, you know, what used to be the spawn series at $3 is, is, is that it's the lot. You could sit on those a little bit longer when they cost half as much to buy. And so they also are more, you know, pushing that, I think, to it. I think what's happening is this is the second iteration. So I'm hoping, or for the holiday season at least one. I'm hoping that the first one was one where people were like, I'm coming in to get this. They didn't have any. Cause they didn't order enough or whatever it may be. And that this time around they're actually heading, had planned ahead and are planning to order more of these to have in stock. Because again, like you mentioned, it's not evergreen, but it's evergreen each season, I guess. I don't know. Many people are gonna be like, I'm gonna read this book in February. But like, if you don't buy it and put it on the shelf and then read it next holiday along with next year's iteration and things like that pull it out every year. That's the other thing is I haven't done it yet. But you don't think I'm gonna pull out last year's book and read it this way this holiday season? 100%, yes. And it'd be cool.
[00:36:10] Speaker C: Like, then you have a spinner rack rack and then outfit your spinner rack with Christmas covers, including Dread every holiday season, too. So that's. That's the ultimate end game is eventually we will be selling Dread the Hall branded spinner racks.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: A year five. You need, like, a hardcover hardbound one collecting the first five years of Dread the Halls so that you have something you can pull out. And I can because, like, I have a tradition. My dad always had loved to read us stories during Christmas. So my son, when he was born in 2021, the tradition was every Christmas we buy him a different version of Santa Claus. Sorry, Santa Claus is coming to town, like the night Before Christmas. And so, like every year. So he has a rat, you know, this will be the fifth year. He has five of those books every year, and he reads them. My dad lives in Connecticut, we live in Maine, so it's usually via Zoom, but he reads the. The book on Christmas Eve to him. And so I was like, well, maybe I'll just switch to that when he gets older. We'll just switch to just have my dad read Dread the Halls on Christmas.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: I love that.
[00:37:07] Speaker A: I think it's perfect. I think it works out perfectly for us. No, there is that. I do think that, like I said, that the horror is, I hate to say it's having its time, because I feel like it's always been there. I just feel like people are seeing it more. And I think that there's some amazing horror comics that are out there right now and to blend that into the holiday season. And this, to me, stands on its own. Because if you're not a spawn fan, for example, you might not read their holiday book. If you're not a so and so fan, you might not read their holiday book and so on and so forth. Where this one stands on, on its own, you can take a chance on it and actually read this thing and just be like, if you're just a fan of the holidays and horror, this will meet your, you know, meet your needs. It's harder. Like, if you're not a Spider man fan, why are you going to read the Spider Man Spectacular Holiday? You know, like, it's. It's a category of its own. And so Dread the Halls has a little bit of everything in it, which doesn't have Spider man in it, but at least Legally, it doesn't. I don't know. Yeah, I don't want to spoil anything for anybody.
Spiderman is not in this comic book. I'll just let people know that now. I could spoil that one. Yeah. But it's true. I think it stands on its own because again, you don't have to be connected to anything unless you're other than horror in the holidays. You don't have to be a fan of anything in particular.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:38:16] Speaker C: No though. So I would. I would encourage everybody to pick up every one of these holiday books that comes out this year and then compare them all. And I think we're pretty confident that ours is going to, you know, come out on top of just about all the others. So. So, yeah, I mean, I, you know, you don't want there to be so many that people are tired of them in general as a concept.
But I think we're both so happy with what we produced here that I think it's going to really deliver, even compared to all the others that are coming.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: It's a fun thing. I think the holidays are one of those things that there's traditions to it where we watch the same movies over and over again and so on and so forth. And I do think that this is. Now some people. I don't think I'm the only person that's going to pick up this. Dread the halls every year and pick up, like I mentioned before and read them again every year. Why not?
[00:39:02] Speaker C: Right.
[00:39:04] Speaker A: I forget comics I read last month. So, like, it's easy enough for me to forget what was in last year's book to read it again this year. You guys wrote the thing. You probably forget what's in last year's book. No, it's just the way it is. And so I think that that's cool. And I think now that I have, you know, maybe the weekend prior, I'll be reading 2024 and then read it again with 2025. I think it's worth it.
[00:39:21] Speaker B: So.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: So local comic book shops should have. Most of them should have us on the shelf December 3rd. So go there and check it out. This. I think this episode is actually going to drop on December 3rd.
I. It's either the week before or that week. And so just go to your local comic book shop and grab it. If they don't have it, they likely could probably potentially get it. So make sure you do that. There's much multiple covers on these things. I mean, do you know, off the top of your head, Jordan or Chris, who the covers are or you have to look that up.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Cover artist.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Maria the Wolf is cover A.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: She's.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: She's always our cover A on the franchise. She's definitely. If we, you know, if she's like the fifth beetle of Dread the Halls, I would say it's Maria. She's incredible. So she's cover A. Cover B is Luana Vecchio, who did the Hallmark story. Cover C is myself. It's a wraparound.
It's a wraparound Christmas present with a gift tag for writing. If you gift it to someone, it has a two from. We did it last year. It was great.
Cover D is Toby Wilsmer. Did I say that right?
[00:40:26] Speaker C: Chris Wilmsmer.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:29] Speaker C: He's a New Zealand artist who's primarily done like 2000 A.D. judge Dredd kind of work.
[00:40:34] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like a really cool bizarre tale, Bizarre Adventures 34 Painting of Santa and the aliens. And then cover E is Toxic Virgin variant of Maria's cover. So it's just like crazy. Like the old marble blacklight posters and.
[00:40:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: Then there's. There's two other special ones. Right, right, Chris?
[00:40:58] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did. We did two special ones that are only available through us. So. Yeah.
[00:41:04] Speaker B: So cons and. Cons and signings, which we will be doing the signing at Golden Apple on release day. If you are in LA, we'll be at Golden Apple at 11am on today or December 3rd and then Saturday. Chris is nowhere, right? In San Diego.
[00:41:22] Speaker C: Yeah, Nowhere. Games and comics in. In San Marcos, which is like North County San Diego. Yeah.
[00:41:29] Speaker A: It's so much fun to do. To do. Like I said, you're in this time in the season. You can be in the holidays because you get a signed copy to give to it to a person for Christmas. You know, give it to early though, so they could read it for Christmas. Right. It's one of those. One of those things that we had a present the other day. I'm like, to my wife, like, this is a thing my son wants to play during the holidays. It was a train. It was a Grinch train. I'm like, I don't want him playing it. It's like. Plays Christmas music. I'm like, I don't want him to play in that in January. Can we give it to him now so that he can play with it during the time that, you know, prior? I mean, it's such a cheaply made. It's going to break before Christmas anyway. But yeah, so I think I'll have it on the 26th. This will come out the 26th. So I moved it up a week so this will come out a week prior. So you have the ability to go tell, you know, get into your pull box, do all that stuff, go to these events, get signed comics and things like that. And I believe like golden app on some of these places you can buy them afterwards. If you are not in that area, you probably sign for them.
[00:42:16] Speaker B: That's what I was just going to say.
Golden Apple always has a sign like 20 extra ones that they post online that you can order from anywhere. So yeah, you'd like sign copies from Chris and I go to golden apple.com. they'll, they'll have them on release day.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: That's really cool. It's so exciting. I think this is cool and I think that you know, you guys have built this dread the halls world of sorts with the holiday ones and now the summer Comic Con version of it. I think this is a cool thing and I think that you guys are great and talented creators and writers on this thing and I think it's phenomenal. It's beautiful. Again, affordable in the sense of what you get for what the price is, is amazing because again,699.79 those areas now people looking at comics like as long as it's chunky, it has a good, good, good quality content in it. It's worth the price for sure. And again, I actually have Graveyard Tales is that the R.L. stine books from, from from Boom.
Are perfect bound and they're actually on my trade paperback shelf. They're not even in a combo thing because. Because they fit so well. So maybe this will end up on that shelf as well as a trade of sorts, but not really being a trade. But yeah, it's awesome. I love it. So people should get it. December 3rd, you know, wherever comics are sold, it's worth the purchase and worth the reading this holiday season.
If you guys agree. Do you guys agree with that?
[00:43:33] Speaker B: Yes, very much so, yes.
[00:43:37] Speaker A: Buy the covers and comment. You know you're not going to read each cover cover, but buy all the covers. I think it's worth it.
[00:43:42] Speaker B: I need to end with speaking of metal, a David Lee Roth quote. It's my, it's one of my favorites. It's like if you love it to all your friends, if you hate it to all your enemies. So.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: Hey, actually I want to give a shout out to you should buy a Marvel Age of comics Daredevil. Born. Was it? Which one? Was it yours?
Born Again. Yeah, Born Again. Yes. I just read it, actually. I read it I read all three of the ones that were coming out. It's the best one out of the three.
And I have a review up on our website. But mainly it's like you were able to focus on one couple issues, you know, I think, whereas, like, doing an entire decade of something and try to squeeze it in that size is a lot harder in my opinion. Or not harder, but, like, I got. I got lost. I wasn't the Avengers one. It was good, but it was like, okay, there's a lot going on. When you can focus on one storyline, it's a little bit, I think, a little bit easier for people. And I appreciated that. So I was like. I listened to it actually in audiobook because I get an advanced copy from Libro FM and then it came with the PDF that you could follow along. So I, like, listen to the audiobook, then I go back to the PDF and look at all the different, you know, cutouts of the different comics and things like that. But, yeah, that's actually.
[00:44:47] Speaker C: They didn't ask me to read the audiobook.
I don't blame them. But in fact, let me see if I can.
[00:44:56] Speaker A: It technically comes out the day after we're recording this on November 11th. I think the audiobook actually comes out on Thursday, which is weird. It's like, it.
[00:45:02] Speaker C: The.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: They're like two days apart for some odd reason. I've seen them come out, like, weeks apart, but, like, for two days I'm like, I don't understand that one. But it's awesome. They're cool. I think they're. I'm excited to read the future of these things too. It's a. It's a cool little concept to have, like, learning chunkets from, you know, Marvel and things like that. And I'm a comic book reader, but I'm also into novels and books and things like that. And so, like, it's like a nice crossover between the two of them where you can get, like, you know, if you're ready for like a. To read about something instead of just, you know.
[00:45:27] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I appreciate the mention. And it's one of those things where I love digging into all the reasons. Reasons why some books last or resonate or influence other creators. And I. Born Again is certainly one that I think has done all of those things. So, yeah, it was fun to spend 30,000 words basically talking about why I think it's so great.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: It's awesome. I knew some of the stuff too, which is also fun. But I think reading Born Again is amazing. But to read it and then read the stuff that surrounds it and read your take on things or your history or your research on it is really cool on that stuff too. So grab that too. That's a great Christmas present for anybody who's a Daredevil fan or a Frank Miller fan or Marvel Comics fan or any of them. Actually. Grab all three of them. They're not that bad. They're awesome.
But yeah, thank you so much, both of you. Taking time out of your busy schedules to come on here and chat Dread the Halls available December 3rd, comic book shops all over.
Yeah, we'll have you get on at some point in the future. Maybe we'll come on this summer and talk Dread the Hall H. That'd be great.
[00:46:21] Speaker C: I would love it.
[00:46:22] Speaker A: Yeah, we still gotta get dread. You still gotta get Come on and talk ripple effects at some point too. We gotta get that happen. We mentioned that like when you're on with Cabinet, which was like two years ago, so we'll do that soon too. But yeah, I appreciate you both taking the time to out to chat with me today.
[00:46:35] Speaker C: Of course. Yeah. Great talking to you.
