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 once again brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and Collectibles at galactic comics and collectibles.com Moving into a new location soon. So excited for them. But this episode we welcome back fearless Fred Kennedy, comic book writer extraordinaire. Over. He's promoting his new comic book over at Mad Cave, the Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre. Yes, the fun comic book is as fun as it sounds, I should say. But yeah, he talked about that and so much more here, right here on the podcast. Before you listen, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blue sky, all those places, as well as YouTube for the video portion of this podcast. And as always, you can visit capesandtights.com for so much more. But this is fearless Frank Kennedy chatting his new book, the Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre, at Mad Cave Studios. Enjoy, everyone.
Welcome back to the podcast, Fred. It's been a while. Welcome back.
It's funny, it's been a while, but like when you were on the last two times, it was like weeks apart from each other because we were promoting like Dead Romans. But then we were also promoting mud 79. And so it was like you're like with, on within like two months of each other, a couple weeks of each other. Now it's like a year's.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: I was, I was talking about like that with, with my wife because, like when Dead Romans came out, I was also doing the radio play at the same time and that was such a time vampire. And I was like, I'm not doing that again. It was too much. It was too hard. And now like the, with, with the Hippo book coming out, it's like I'm like, I feel like I don't have as much going on. But that's good, man. That's good because I'm doing way more writing on other stuff too.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: See, there you go. That's the way it works. But yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a. So you, so you promote Dead Romans and then you brought 79. Now you're doing Hippopotamus cocaine, stuff like that. None of those are related in any sort of fashion except for the fact that you're behind all of them.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: So I was, you know, it's, I was talking with a comic book shop here in Canada. Like, that's like about a two and a half hour Drive from Toronto and Kingston Nexus. The shop is Nexus in Kingston.
And they were, like, asking, you know, hey, man, if you want to come out, do a signing, that'd be really cool. And then I was just.
Just talking with Adam, the guy who runs that shop, and just saying, you know, it's weird how when we pitch this book, I did not expect it to land through it, like, legitimately. And it's like, it's. Because it was so silly, and it was so fun. And, in fact, the only reason I really kept going on it was because I was having so much fun with James.
Like, I was just having an absolute blast working with James. And it's just. You work with people, and. And sometimes you gotta go, and you gotta know who you're working with. You gotta know their sensibilities. Right. And with James, it's just like, there was no way we could do it wrong, you know? Like, we kept culminating with more and more and more ideas. And if you take a look at the opening pages, I think it's like, page four, page five, there's, like, these crowd shots, and I had written them so that they could be pulled back crowd shots so that we could eat things up in the panel with another big thing here. So it's really a crowd shot, but you're only really seeing a few things, you know, which is you want to be nice to your artist, right?
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: But then he draws all of these faces. Like, if there was, like. There's, like, 72, 73 faces on these two pages, and. And the thing was, he gets them back to me, and then I'm like, oh, well, I gotta, like, have little jokes. So then we're, like, making up all these jokes for all of these faces. And we had such a fun time doing the pitch. So we did.
I think we did 13 pages.
And then we pitched it, and I. James kept going. Like, he kept working away on the first issue, and then I was like, oh, well, you should probably hold off a bit. You know, we don't know for sure if it's gonna go. He's like, no, no, no, man. It'll go. It'll go. It's gonna happen. And I'm like, like.
And our editor, because we've got an editor named James. James Emmett at Mad Cave, he was like.
He wrote us back, like, two days after he said he was. I love it. I love it so much. It's so fun. It's so fun. And it was. It's a. Was a very fast process, man. But I really am shocked that it even landed because it's, it's, it's so out there.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: It's something we all need. It's, it's. What I was thinking about on the, the six hour drive I mentioned before we started recording, I did today is that I was thinking, I was thinking like, I'm reading assorted crisis events right now by Dennis Camp and I'm reading, I just read, blinking, you'll miss it. But the duo, I can't remember their names off top of my head, Forgive me, but they're so awesome. But like, but also like different, but also the same as everything else at the same point. Like, it was like a good horror book or a good horror comic is like a great thing, but, but they all finish. They've all fit like a mold. And it was like one of those things where like this book was just like out there, like you mentioned, but it was like I needed it at the same time. Like, first of all, you're not kidding anybody with the name. You mean, like, it's not like you're pulling someone in and they're reading a book that I thought was going to be one thing. If you don't open this book going, this is going to be some off the wall crazy shit.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Then you're not getting the point from the beginning. But like, to me, I was like, this is so. And then as I'm reading it, I'm like, this breathes like they were having fun. Like, I think everybody who creates a really good comic book right now, I said everybody, the majority enjoy doing it. It's not like you're pulling teeth that people trying to get these people make these independent comics and these stories, maybe some big two stories where like they have to fit a mold. But like these independent comics, when it's really your thing, I would think that most people are enjoying doing it. It's not hard work. It's hard work, but it's not forced into it. This was like, this looks like you two. Like, we're like, let's just have some fun and if it gets it made, it gets it made. And like, you're reading that to your, like, I guarantee you they're laughing their asses off while they're making some of these things. Like this just like, let's put this in there and see what happens.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: The text change, the, the message change. So we predominantly message back and forth on like Instagram messenger is where it is. But like we have, we have a good 10 or 11 arcs ready to go in the hopper for this to Continue and do other things.
Because that was the goal from the beginning. The goal from the beginning was not that we're going to tell one story, but that we're going to create. Like, so there's a really bad movie that's an action movie, and it comes from that era of, like, it's a military action movie, but everybody knows kung fu. But they're also all bodybuilders. And it's this movie that Ed Brisson always talks about. This is an Ed Brisson suggestion. And it's called Kill Squad. That's what it's called, Kill Squad. And it's. It's as stupid as the title sounds. And so we wanted to create, like, our own squad. You know what I mean?
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Like, it goes out, does stuff. And so this was meant to be the adventure that drives them all together, you know what I mean? To create the Laser Drug Force. Because the full title is the Laser Drug Force in the Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre. And over the course of the story, the Laser Drug Force forms.
And all of the members of the Laser Drug Force are in the first issue, but they're not together at that point, but they will come together by the end of the story.
And it is. It's gonzo insane. And so we wanted to have that kind of vibe of like, a squad, you know, like those 80s action movies had. We got to get the team together. Like MacGruber, when he's getting his team together, we wanted to do something like that. And the biggest. The biggest issues that we ever had is, like, a creative team was that I wanted to go sillier and James wanted to go more.
And so, like, the thing was, is it was the two of us, like, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And I think us hitting each other in the head is what kept us in this line, because we walk a really weird line.
It is. So it's like, I read it again for the first time in, like, four months, just, like, a few days ago, and I was like, man, this is. This is something.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Well, the perfect spot that it fits in that sweet spot of, like, not taking itself seriously. But also taking itself seriously allows you to suspend belief on a bunch of things. You really can do anything in this comic book now, and you can't. Someone can't read it and go, well, that wouldn't happen. Like, that's just like. It's like, first of all, we're in comics, guys. Like, this is like, it's all fake. It's not. None of this is real. But the Ability to suspend belief and be able to just like do a specific thing or potentially have someone get blown up and not actually die. Like, it's all possible now in the situation you put yourself in. But also being able to stay at least a little grounded so the story at least makes somewhat sense. So you're not just like at the end of the story, you're just not like, well, that was a lot of stuff that happened, but what the hell just happened?
[00:09:18] Speaker B: I think it's a really tight story. I think we really like have a tight story for the whole arc of the whole way through.
And we wanted to like lampoon those like, anti drug specials that you'd watch when you were growing up where like the Saturday morning cartoon all Stars and it's like GI Joe and Cobra and Garfield are working together to stop some kid from smoking marijuana and ruining his whole life or making it better.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
Because I took the dare pledge.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, me too.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Yeah. All these, all these goofy things that we had to do. And like Mr. T and Nancy Reagan, like Mandy Laser, the main narrator character, she's Nancy Reagan. Like, that's pretty obvious. Her name is Mandy Laser. And Mandy Laser came from Ronnie Ray Gun. Mandy Laser, like, so there's all these pretty clear connections and things. Like if you grew up in that era, there's all those things that you'll see. But we didn't also want like the jokes to be dependent on that. So we needed everything to be like, ramped up rather than be referential comedy. Because I don't know if you've watched Austin Powers recently. Austin Powers, one of my favorite comedies.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: But I wish I said yes. I wish I've said yes. I've watched it recently, but now I want to. So go ahead.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Well, I watched it with my kids, so my kids are teenagers and I watched it with them and they didn't crack a laugh at all because. And this is what's interesting. And I didn't think about it like this because so many of the jokes reference 60s culture. They reference James Bond, they reference the 90s. And the comedy is referential in the sense that if you don't get what they're. Yeah. Joking. You're not going to get the jokes at all. And there are other comedies like Hot Rod, which is so silly, but it's from. It's only like, I think, like, actually I think it's a decade older now, I think about it. But still, like, Hot Rod is so silly that you don't need to. There's no references to anything. It's just a ridiculous story. And we watched Hot Rod and my kid thinks it's like the funniest thing ever.
So it's. We, we wanted to have a joke or a story where you don't need to get the references. But if you are of that era, it adds another layer to the comedy. Like the, the, the jokes about like creating like a form of cocaine so powerful it'll turn any God fearing town into a pack of fornicating socialists. Like, that's just ridiculous. That's just funny.
So you don't need to get. But like the thing is, growing up in the 80s, that was like what it was like, oh, he'll smoke the dope and become a socialist. It's like, yeah, like, but it's so silly. You think it's funny, but if you're from that era, you get why it's funny. You're, you know, that's what we're seeing. There was this movie I remember because I grow, I grew up in Belgium. We watched the afn, the Armed Forces Network. Any bass brats that are watching that lived in any of the bases overseas, they know exactly what I'm talking about. And there was this movie that they used to play all the time and they used to play it on like Saturdays afternoons. And it was called Ruskies. And if I remember correctly, the premise of Russkies was that this Russian nuclear sub washes up on the like a town and one of the sailors gets off and the kids are, some of the kids are trying to like hide him and the town are like, oh, there's a Russian, we gotta murder him. It's like. And I remember like, well, that's the way it is. Like, that's just how it is. But it's like that era was like that, you know what I mean? So tying all that stuff in like where the hippos are like going crazy on cocaine and they're like, it must be the Soviets, like saying that. Like that's really how it was in that era. So yeah, kind of rambled there.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: No, it did, but it's great.
The references are. There are fun, the enhances the story for those who get it. But yeah, you're right, it's just a fun comic. And that's the, and the thing about it is too, it's not like, I don't know, comedy style comics sometimes are so polarizing in the sense that like not everybody's comedy is the same horror. I feel like there's levels of Horror, like, there's like, you know, your splatter or you're like more, you know, tense and emotional horror. Like, you have this, like, level. But it's horror where comedy is like that. You mentioned. You just mentioned the Austin Powers versus Hot Rod like that. Yeah, they're two different styles of comedy that you. Yeah. Either get or you don't get. And so having comedy in books, it's like one of those things that someone might just not like it because they just don't like your style of comedy. And that's hard. And so. But I felt like. But there was such. Enough. Enough. I just spit it just. There's enough action in there to get you to go, okay. It's funny at moments, but there's like this intense action that goes along with it too, that I don't know. There's just something spoke to me and it was beyond the title because obviously the title makes you go, I've got to read this thing. Like, anybody who sees this on February 18th who sees this on the shelves doesn't go, I need to figure what the hell is.
Especially whoever ordered, like, any shop who skipped over ordering this comic is crazy.
Forget knowing anything about it. Forget anything about it. Just seeing the title would make you go, okay, we gotta at least carry this.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Yeah, like, we sold out. Like, the first printing sold out before the foc.
And so there's. There's some announcements that are coming because of that. But it was like, it was kind of cool seeing people message saying that, like, I tried to order it and there's none left. And I'm like, well, you know, it's. It's a very. It's a very important book. You should maybe get on that for next time.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: But I mean, it's gonna be in like, the, you know, the National Registry of Literature later on life. So you gotta get it now.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: It's like the.
The action comedy. Like, yeah, there used to be so many of those types of movies that would get made. And. And I like McGrew. I've mentioned MacGruber already. I love that movie so much because of how stupid it is. Like, and the. The word play of it. You and your dick jokes. I love seeing them. I love hearing. Well, that's why I keep saying. That's why I'm always list types of jokes, to me are like, the funniest thing y. And so with, like, with James, we're James. I don't know if you've ever read any of his other.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: I haven't. That's just I was gonna ask you how that. How. How your connection with that, too, came up. Like, how you got connected with James in the first place is. Is.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: I'm a huge fan of his art. I'm a huge fan of his art, and he does a lot of, like, grindhouse stuff, and I've mentioned that, and I don't want to sound like I am pigeonholing him as that guy. Yeah, he just does it really well, and he's got an incredible instinct for what works.
He did this book called Evil, and the. The broad stroke, which doesn't do it justice because it's. I think it's brilliant. Is like a guy wrestling demons from hell and he's a luchador, and it's just like, he does these things that are gone. So he's done, like, comic book adaptations of Philip K. Dick for no other reason than just to do.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: To do it.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Like, he's.
He's a pure comic artist in the sense that he just wants to do his stories, indie style stuff, and do it his own way without somebody telling him how he needs to draw. Like, there's that classic line, draw like you not like them.
He's got a style, man.
And I first met James years ago at Comic Con in Toronto.
And he. He had a book, and it was just a sketchbook of Rob Ford. I don't know if you remember Rob Ford, our mayor that was on, like, Jimmy Kimmel dressed like a Vegas magician.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: How could I forget?
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Yeah, so he did, like, these sketches of just Rob Ford. And then I was looking at his art, and he has this, like. I love the way he draws women because he doesn't draw. Like, everybody's.
Everybody's thick, everybody's curvy, everybody's like.
He's got that aesthetic to it, and. And I love that style that he does.
And his cartooning is fantastic. And he's. His. His posing and his anatomy is great. And the way he does action really lands it. And with an action comedy, the art is so, so pivotal.
And the initial concept for the story came from, like, a conversation with Adam Gorham. We were just texting about ridiculous ideas, and then he mentioned this, and then we started, like, spitballing with it. And I was like, listen, I know you're busy and you don't have time to do this. Are you cool if I just run with this for a bit? He goes, absolutely. So I ran with it, and what it was then versus what it is now is completely different. The original version was still more.
More actiony. It was Very.
The. What's the. Like the National Lampoons, like loaded weapon. Like, oh yeah, Sam Jackson Emilio. It was more like that because the. Originally the Clark Nebraska character, who is my favorite character in the whole story, she was a dude.
Initially, Clark Nebraska was a dude. And we described her as like a corn fed anvil jawed like, like superstar football linebacker washout that had to join the FBI.
Like ultimate over the top aggression in every scenario, ready to go, ready to fight.
And James was like, oh, we gotta make Clark Nebraska a woman. And I'm like, really goes, we're not going to change anything about her is. We're just gonna make you. We're gonna make her a woman because we, both of us, like, this is why, like we, we have our, our creative differences, sure. But our values about what makes a cool story and a cool character work are exactly the same because both of us were immediately of the mindset where it can't be the classic. Like, he's a loose cannon and she's by the book. Like, no, they're both the worst all the time. Like it's, it's almost like, who is worse? And you never know. And that my favorite. We come up with. We've come up with rules. We've come up with rules for the stories.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: And so the rules for the stories are every time the story moves forward, you learn more about her tragic backstory.
But everything about her tragic backstory is really just her ruining things for herself and thinking that she's been victimized.
Like, there's a scene in the second issue has. Because the thing we. We talked a lot about, like how the pacing of the story and we talked about how like a lot of times the second. The first issue is hard. The first issue is hard. The second issue is harder. Like, the second issue I think is harder to write. And so we were decided. We're like, what we'll do is we'll do the classic now you're going to get to know their relationship kind of thing. But she doesn't, she doesn't care about anybody's relationship. She just wants you to know about her. Like, it's so she talks about herself, but it's not like it's. At no point is it ever woe is me. It's always, look at what I've overcome.
I'm unstoppable.
And so like she's.
I don't think I've. Like, there's characters you really like. Like if a dead Romans. I love the Arminius character. I love Honoria. Because they're really cool. They're well researched, they're thought of, they're planned, they're intricate. But I.
I don't think I like writing anybody more than Clark because she's the worst. And like, there's no. The thing is, James and I have gone back and forth about like. And then she'll do this. And at no point I've ever gone, that's too far. It's always like, that's just enough. She's that terrible.
But the thing is, I don't think that they were like dumping on her and making her. No, because Miguel is just as bad. He's just as bad. So it's like the, the book is filled with just terrible characters. Like, they're all awful. They're all so horrible. I love it so much.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: It makes you want to like them. At the same time, it's like this weird. Like, I like to hate somebody. Like, their characters are unlikable. Like, if there was the one likable, really, really, really extremely likable character would make it so weird.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: And so like, it's. So having them both be unlikable and both be horrible people.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: You know, it just, it makes sense. And you mentioned the pacing in the first issue and stuff like that. It's like also one of those things where it's like. And I don't want to ruin it for anybody, but it's like I was waiting for the. The hippos to show up, but it's like. But you don't want it to be like opening page being like, here you go. Because it's just like it takes. You had to set that up. And I was like, I was. In my mind, I was like, I need these hippos to come up with the hell's the Hippos. And then you're like, wait, that makes more sense to be obviously paced a little bit different. But like, you obviously mentioned all the cocaine, the references, the people references, the hippo.
Was any of this have to do with like the cocaine love for like cocaine bear and like all that stuff? Like, because I know. And there's like, there's like the spin offs of those ones now to. Have you seen like cocaine raccoon and cocaine shark and also. But like, does that have anything. Was there any of the influence in there or was it just none of it?
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Okay, Nothing. Because I like, I used to go on Imgur all the time. Imgur used to be like my favorite place to go, but now it's the. It's just so bad.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: But it's like, I remember seeing the meme about, like this bear and he consumed this many pounds of cocaine, and for an hour and a half before his heart exploded, he was the most dangerous alpha predator on the planet. Very cool, very funny. Yeah, I remember reading about that. But the story, initial idea for the story came from Pablo Escobar, and he had his hippos and he would like, throw people that betrayed him into the hippo tank, whether that happened or not, because the hippos aren't going to eat anybody, but they'll rip them apart. Like, hippos are very aggressive and dangerous. And then when they raided his compound, the Colombian government kind of like, let them out.
And now there's hundreds of hippos in the waterways of Colombia and they're changing the rivers and streams because they've got no natural predators. There's no dry season. It's just great hippo weather all the time.
So all the hippos are just going around breeding. And you might think, anybody listening to me say that, you're like, well, how many did they start with? They started with like, like, I think it's like five or six.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: And they'll be like, well, wouldn't they be inbred? This is an interesting thing about hippos. Hippos are one of the most inbred, inbred animals in the world.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: They look like it, dude.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: Which contributes to their hyper aggression. So what happens is, is a group of hippos is called a bloat. But I know all the facts about hippos, man. I'm very versed on hippos.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: You had to do the research, man.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So we, we actually do a breakdown about why hippos are a perfect representation of a socialist in the book and why, like, if anything, this whole story is just a metaphor for the encroachment of communism on a free society, which is something. And these are things that we're talking about in the story because the whole story is like, set up like it's an After School special being narrated by the first lady, by the way.
But the, the thing about, like a hippo is that a group of hippos is called a bloat. It's a bloat of hippos. And farm cats are similar in this that there'll be one dominant male and they'll breed with all the females and then they'll make all the hippos, and then a new dominant male will come out of the offspring. They'll kill the dominant Male, then they'll eat all of the babies and then they'll mate with all of the females of age. Like and, and I'm just. The more you read like this is the Thunderdome, like, but it's like, like it's like nature is horrible and hippos are horrible, horrible creatures.
But yeah, but, and, and to put that in perspective, they're the least terrible. But of all the people this story, the hippos are the least.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: The nice people.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: Do you know how many, how many hippos are there now? Do you have any idea how many hippos in Colombia are now?
[00:25:48] Speaker B: I think there's like 400 or so. I think there's a few hundred. Yeah. But they've been breeding for like 40 years now and they've got nothing. They started calling them and that was where the story like came from as we were talking about like how we could do like a Hungry Hungry Hippo horror movie and set it in Colombia and base it on these hippos and have this like anaconda story about a hippo that was all coked up and it killed everybody. And then that was sort of like the initial like hahaha, that's so funny to it becoming there's like a big drug czar compound and it was originally supposed to be in downtown Columbia. That's what we're calling this downtown Columbia. And this big drug baron guy was having a party and then Miguel ends up being paired up with this, this FBI guy, Clark Nebraska, that he doesn't want to work with. And then the only reason he goes in is because his on again, off again girlfriend happens to be one of the people working undercover as serving staff. And he just wants to keep her safe. So that was the initial initial, like that was step two.
And then it became more silly and funny because I was watching the Righteous Gemstones and they have their big compound, right? And there's an amusement park on the compound. And so then we're like, okay, well there's some big action sequences with these hippos that are like operating the equipment, sort of like funhouse. And there's a really cool Parker story called Sleigh Ground that Darwin Cook did. And it's all about like him trying to escape these mobsters in an abandoned amusement park. And then it leaned on that. And then it's like, then it was just not at a drug party. It was just an amusement park owned by a drug drug lord. So there was all these like natural steps that the story kind of took and it was all just, like, talk. Like, we talked about the story for, like, a few months before we actually did it. Yeah. You know, because James, like, usually works on his own. He doesn't work with a lot of people, and it's because he wants to do something he's proud of. And I'm really, like, stoked that it really. He was like, no, man, I like this. We can do this. This will be fun. And then we started jiving, and it's.
So we've already. We've already pitched a second arc for the story called the Ninja Funhouse Kill Crazy Rampage.
And it's sort of like a combination of they live, but with ninjas.
Because, like, 80s we. So.
So James is always up later than me, and I wake up one morning, and he sent me this documentary about the history of ninja movies in North America and where they all come from.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: And about how, like, he's like, do you like ninja movies? I was like, dude, I. I love ninja movies. And so many of these ninjas, these ninja movies, I had, like, recordings of recording because there was a video store by our house that we always used to go. And we rent all those movies at. And there's the one movie, and I think it's Ninja Connection or something like that, where it's got. There's the meme. Now the guy's got the Garfield phone. Go to hell. And he slams the phone down. And that. That is like, this pivotal ninja movie franchise. And we fell into this wormhole, and we'd had all these ideas that we were like, you know, what if. Because you don't know if you're going to get a second arc, but if you do, you want to be ready. Right. So we had all these ideas ready. We'd actually even talked to our editor about ideas for a second arc. And then when they asked us if we had anything, all the ideas that we'd been working on for, like, months, we didn't want to do. We wanted to do ninjas. So we mean all this stuff we'd done. Like, no, ninjas are niche. Ninjas are cool. They are popular. They're due for a comeback. So we pitched the ninja story. So I don't know if we're gonna get to do that. It'd be cool. I can't really comment on anything just yet, but that's where we're on. We're on to ninjas now. But, like, I don't want that to see. My heart's not with the hippo tank, you know?
[00:30:01] Speaker A: Well, there's A space for this. That's. And that's like what I said at the very beginning about the idea that like horror comics, there's like I want my next horror. I'm a big horror comic reader so I want that next horror comic in that. But there's like this space for this style of comic that. That is off the wall but has heart, that has a storyline that's not like it's easy. And I say easy, but I say easy in the sense of just like to throw something together that's stupid and crazy and slapsticky. And you read this, you know, an anthology for example, of like just stupid funny stories. Yeah, it hits. It's funny. You let you move on. But like there's a space for this, like this, this, this love letter to action movies in a sense like 90s. There's a space for this. And I think that's where people are going to see. And obviously you obviously see this with, with pre orders is that people actually were taking a chance on this and, and wanting to see this. And to be honest with you, it's not like people who read Dead Romans are like, ah, can't wait for my next Red Kennedy book. Because like this is not the same, it's something different. But again, I just felt like there's like this space for it and as the time is now. And maybe that's why Matt Cavan, your editor, was like, yep, let's do this because there's the space for it. But also I love when you mentioned the whole idea that like working with, with James and, and him saying, no, we gotta make Clark Nebraska a woman. And you're like, okay, let's. Do you want someone that works with you but also pushes back against you? Because I feel like that's where the best creative minds come from and best stories come from. And the fact that James does normally work on, on his own to be able to. Willing to work with you and do all this, like do this together again, it shows. I think there's like I said love letter, but it's also a love letter for comics itself with this book. It's like you can have fun doing this. We're going to tell it with our heart and this is what we get. And it's got cocaine hippos and drug lords and in some funny moments of like, you have that Austin Powers moments in there, I think with like the. What's it called, like the buggy that the fat the drug lord drives around.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: And like the forklift.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: And the forklift and there's like, they're carrying around, but on the buggy, that stuff that's like, that's the comedy that they honestly mentioned Austin Powers. That's the whole buggy in the. In the. In the tunnel where Austin Powers gets himself in a spot where he can't turn the whole. The thing around because he keeps on turning around and is 100 point turn. He's just back and forth and he's like, that's the moments where I'm like, that's so funny. And it just. It felt so honest and felt so, like, I don't know, passionate.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: He was like, originally, originally, Jan's Muir Disco. More disco was supposed to be like this Charles Dance, Tyrion Land, Tywin Lannister, suave guy. But then the thing is, is if you're working with somebody, you can't be do this. You got to be like, yes, here's the idea. What do you want to do? What do you think? Comes back and it's like, he drew Rob fork. And I was like, amazing. So cool, you know? And this is what I was. I was about James specifically. This made me feel really good because, like, the cl. Every writer you talk to will always talk about, you're gonna do a book, you're going to work with an artist, and you got to make sure you're working with a good artist, right? And then what happens is, is your good artist will get picked up by a bigger name and then they'll go do bigger things. And you're constantly playing catch up as a writer. Catch up as a writer.
And then. So James is really good. Like, James is very good. And so before we were pitching the next arc, I was saying, I gotta make sure that we get a pitch in for the next arc. Because once this book hits, I know what's gonna happen.
People are gonna come and they're gonna snipe, man. I'm like, and I'm gonna be playing catch up with you. And. And then he goes. He's like, listen, man, I got no desire to go work with somebody and make a comic. It's like not something I'm making with somebody. Yeah, I don't want to work on any big to book. I don't want to work on any IP book. I want to do our book. This is the book I want to do. And I'm like, yeah, like, I got super amped up. Like, go team. We're the best. You know what I mean? So, yeah, like, James is in for the long haul.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:34:15] Speaker B: He's A trooper. It's great. So if this, if this becomes an ongoing, then like we'll. It's not. There's not going to be anybody new coming to the table anytime soon. Because not only is he super dedicated, but James is also really fast, like disarmingly fast when he draws. It's pretty wild.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: Like if you. It's cool.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Yeah. If you follow him on Instagram, like he's always. Yeah, he's always doing commissions and he loves doing like weird out there commissions too. Like just message him, he'll do it up. He doesn't care. He's great.
He does some really cool superhero stuff, but he doesn't do a lot of superhero stuff. I think that he would like. I think he would absolutely crush on a Superman book, to be honest. But I don't think he has any desire.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: Well, and then. And there's not a need. I mean, if you don't feel like you need to do that. There is this balance between or this thing that. Conversations I've had with other people about like, I need to get my big two books so that I can get a name for myself to make my own thing. And then there's the opposite side of the thing where you make all your independent books to eventually get seen to be on a big two. And then there's just. I don't need that. I want to make cool art and I want to make cool comics and hopefully people see it and people buy it and you know, whatever. And hopefully you're out there talking on podcasts to get people to, you know, to read it and buy and I'll just sit back here and draw some cool shit and do it faster. And the name off the wall and off the beaten path style of the comic book also leads to some cool. It's a cool variant for issue one. And like other people, maybe in the future as other series, potentially you do. And it's like getting off the wall. Someone's gonna be like, I've been drawing Superman covers forever, but I want to draw this stupid frickin ninja on the front of a cover book. Can I do that? And so you may have that opportunity too, which is pretty cool. But there's a very cover B. Who is doing the COVID B of this book? You remember?
[00:35:59] Speaker B: I have it here.
Is it like I love.
[00:36:03] Speaker A: Yeah, who is it?
[00:36:04] Speaker B: I always forget her name. Mirka. I got here somewhere, Dolpho or something and I've seen it wrong. But she's fantastic and I love her stuff that she posts on Mirka.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:14] Speaker B: Mirka Andolfo.
[00:36:15] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: So it's beautiful.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: And so it's so different than James, which is also cool, but not that I would want to see that artwork throughout the interior. Like, I love, like, it's. James's artwork is perfect for the story, but seeing a variant cover by someone else that. That, like, sees Clark, Nebraska in a mouth of a Pippa was freaking awesome.
[00:36:37] Speaker B: There is another one coming.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: And when they told me who was doing it, I was pretty blown away, man. Like, it's a superstar name who did one for us. And it's coming. It's about to be announced.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: We.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: You know, it's funny because we talked like we were working on doing another cover, and Mike Del Mundo wanted to do one for us.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: Don't even say the name. You know, my. You know it.
You know. You know, over here, he was like.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: He was like. He was like. He wanted to do one.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: But he's like, I. Dude, I just. I don't. Can't get. I need. I need it. If they needed it now, I can't do it. He goes, if they could give me another two weeks, I could get it done, but I can't, because. And then he was like. He was even saying, like, because he's a Toronto guy.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: And he's like, you two. He goes, you and James working on a book together is like, this thing's gonna sing, man. I don't think people are ready for what's coming. And I'm like, that's so nice of you to say.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: No, that's. That's. You know, I said I. To me. And we've talked about this before, but Mike is the.
[00:37:35] Speaker B: The. The.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: The goat for me especially. Especially. Mike's a phenomenal artist in general, but the variant covers in the way. I can only imagine how he would interpret a cover for this book in a sense that you'd look at it and go, again, I still don't understand how his mind works. Like, I don't. Like, how could he be that talented with a pencil and paper, but also have the talent in your brain to even visualize how the hell you're gonna do this?
[00:37:59] Speaker B: Like, still his B Boy dance videos.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[00:38:04] Speaker B: Like, oh, my God. It's like, yeah. Why? He's got all of this.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: He's talented. Like, what?
[00:38:08] Speaker B: He's got all these talent.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: And Fred, he's not ugly either.
It's not even like, they're like, oh, we're gonna make you really hideous. But also, you're good at this. Thing. He's, like, suave.
Come on, guys. And if he's. I'm blushing now, talking about Mike Del Mundo. Don't get me all blushing here now.
[00:38:29] Speaker B: But he wasn't, like, the best guy ever. You'd be mad about it. He's also, like, the nicest guy. Like, that makes it even worse.
[00:38:35] Speaker A: I mean, I have his artwork.
My wife and I agree. We bought a house in May, and we agreed certain pieces of artwork. Most of my stuff stays in this studio office space, but there's a few pieces of artwork that are in the actual house. And I have a limited print of only 100 of Scotty Young's Georgie holding the yellow in the rain jacket, holding the red balloon by the drain from it. We're Stephen King fans. Stephen King's house is, like, down the street, and so that needs to be out there. But the other one is Mike's Silver Surfer Galactus paint illustration where Galactus is head there and he's Silver Surfer spray painting on the back of his head.
That's downstairs. Upstairs is my Darth Vader helmet and Anakin Skywalker's in the voice box side.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: That is one of the best covers I've ever.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: And the idea that even gets through Mike's head, let alone making it into beautiful artwork, the idea that. The idea that the face mask is a prison, I'm like, Jesus Christ, man. And then I'm pissed off of the world for a while because every time I see it, because I'm like, again, all those things we said about Mike before, now I'm mad that there's no. There's no Florida Cocaine Massacre cover by Mike. Now I'm upset. Now you made me sad. I don't want.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: Well, let's hope. No, let's hope that we get the second arc and I'll make it happen.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: I'll do that. Yeah, Maybe we'll get a ninja riding a hippo just as an homage to the first series.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Well, there's not gonna be any hippos.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: No, but, like, they could do it. You could do a cover with it.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: Can't tell you why, but you. You, if you keep reading, you'll find out what happened.
[00:40:16] Speaker A: That's fine. That's fine. That's fine.
[00:40:17] Speaker B: No guarantee you it's not what you think is gonna happen.
It does not go the way you think it does.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Well, so, like, so, I mean, you're still obviously. Are you done? Are you done writing issue the last issue? This is it. Five issues done.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: It's four issues. We did four Issues.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: You're done. You're. You've written it all. And. And. And as James done. Is it all done like, everything's done?
[00:40:39] Speaker B: Or is James, like, He's like. That's the thing about James. He doesn't mess with deadlines. He's always on time. Everything is good to go. And then this is. We had. We ran into something that our editor has never dealt with before.
So we had everything locked and loaded. And then James is like, listen, can I go back and tweak some of the backgrounds in, like, a few panels? Because of the backgrounds I don't think are as clean as they need to be. And our editor was like, that's never happened. Like, that's never happened. Where the artist is like, I want to make sure the backgrounds are, like, perfect. They've got to be perfect. He's a perfectionist with everything that he does. So, yeah, like, that's funny.
[00:41:20] Speaker A: You got to make sure the cars in the parking lot. You got to make sure that missing a window on one of the cars in the parking lot. I got to make sure that's fine.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: Oh, man, the car. Everything about it.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it says, like, there's people. There's just bricks, like stones, like, flying off. Like, I could just imagine, like, him being like, oh, that one's just not. That's just not right.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: So the thing about the way this was. I gotta show you something. So the way we wrote it, and this was the most frustrating thing about the book is, like, we wrote it. Like, he just did thumbs, right? And then he would, like, send me the thumbs, and then I would print them off, and then I would write the dialogue out, like, on pen.
I printed it all out so that it was like, the right pages are, like, odds and evens and all that stuff. And then I would, like, write all the jokes. So I'm on the train, like, writing with a pen, everything. And the thing is, is that only about half the dialogue that we did ended up in the story. Like, we. That line of, like, killing your darlings, man, we killed so much dialogue because it was so easy to write jokes because there's so much insanity. Like, yeah, dude, I don't want to give anything away, but, like, don't. Yeah, there's, like, there's no name characters that have some of the funniest. Funniest jokes in the whole story. Like, but that makes this comic. Yeah, yeah. So, like, all of the characters and there's constant jokes about how, like, the. The workers are all in their union. I don't Know, I gotta talk to the union rep to see if I'm allowed to do that. Like little throwaway things like that. Like, no, quick. Protect my teeth. This might be covered by the dental plan. Like, all that stuff.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: Well, that's like one of the best things I know about, like any, like, cool sitcoms is when it's like an ensemble, a cast, that there is a star. But everybody makes great jokes. Like the writers room and the writers, people are like, no, this is great. And that's honestly what I saw about this. And talking about film versus, like in 90s action or just action movies in general. 80s action movies in general, and comedies and things like that. Like, film is like, I could see this as a movie, but as a comic, you got to do so much more. Like, say you pitched this to a studio to make the movie. You wouldn't have been able to do as much and have so much fun as you do when you get to craft a comic book. Because of the fact that this costs a lot less to make. These scenes that you make. James can go buck wild on some of these scenes that you couldn't be like, well, we need to fill a seaworld style stadium with people and do this and that and blow something up. And cocaine. Like, this gives you the freedom to make such an asinine scene, to do it with the freedom of just being like, we just have to pay James to artwork.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: If I could do anything with this story, I would want to write a stage musical.
I'm not even joking. Like, I would want to write a stage musical for it. And I think that it would work well as a stage musical.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: Oh, God.
[00:44:20] Speaker B: I think the only way it would work as a stage musical is as if there's no. No one's in on the joke. Like, it's played as straight as possible. And the thing is, is in the story, it is played as straight as possible.
[00:44:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:35] Speaker B: And we all watched movies that are this stupid, that are supposed to be serious. Like Hard Ticket to Hawaii. Like, come on. That was a big influence on the. What I was doing with, like, Hard Ticket to Hawaii, for anyone that's not aware, is a straight up action movie. But it is also one of the funniest things that you'll ever see in your life. And it's like. Like the classic 19. Another thing, like all those 80s action movies that were mentioning, generally speaking, are rated R. Yeah. With lots of nudity and lots of gratuitous sex and violence and swearing. There's no profanity in our book. There's no nudity, which is surprising.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:45:13] Speaker B: That's the thing is we were very adamant there can be no nudity and no profanity. And I think that what ends up happening is that makes it. You have to be funnier. I think that swearing takes away from comedy. I legitimately do.
[00:45:28] Speaker A: Have you ever seen the PG13 Deadpool, too?
It's once called Once Upon a Deadpool. And so what they did was take, like, it almost proved to people that this movie's still hilarious if you take out 90% of the profanity and. And, like, some of the violence and gore. And it's absolutely phenomenal. If you ever get a chance to watch it, it's so funny because it's almost funnier that they didn't say the thing or show the thing that it was that they actually showed the thing. And then obviously, if you watch it in comparison, it's funnier, but it's like Fred Savage is in it. Like, he's like. He's like. It's like Deadpool reading Deadpool to the movie, to Fred Savage. And again, like I said, they'll say things and they'll either bleep it out or. Or they'll, like, just not show the thing. And I'm like, that's almost funnier to me that, like, you could actually be like, hey, no, no, no. We went. We went crazy on this movie. It's funny, it's gross, and it's over the top, but it's funny just the same. If you take all that stuff out of here, too. And I think that's what you did that you did with this. This. This comic where it's like, yeah, you expect nudity and, you know, swearing, but it's funnier that it's not there.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: Well, there's like, even parts of it where, like, the Mandy Laser will talk about how it's getting. There's too much titillation in this scene. Like, it. She'll. There'll be a floating head where she's like, we don't even need this to be here. I don't know why the producers put this in the movie. And it's like there's.
There's a. That classic interview with.
With Frank Zappa on Crossfire. Crossfire, like from the 80s and talks about. It's not lewd, it's not pornographic, it's just titillation. And it's like, that's all we were willing to do.
A little bit, yes, A little bit of teasing. But even then they're talking about how this is actually for very logical reason. There's some scenes where there's some women in bikinis, but they're in bikinis because their clothes were getting too wet in the rain and they needed to run to get away from the hippos.
And it's, it's just, it's so, it's so silly. It's. And the thing is, is that that was what I was wanting to really focus on. And if, if it's silly, then it's okay, you know? Like, it's. It's. My wife read the whole thing and her description was, I just think it's really cute.
Perfect.
I think it's really cute. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just hoping like that everybody who snagged a copy today.
[00:47:57] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:47:58] Speaker B: Is like, is enjoying it as much as we had fun writing it, you know?
[00:48:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And.
[00:48:05] Speaker B: Right.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: I, I said, I, I, you know, I tend to not talk to, like, I wouldn't have messed. We wouldn't have messaged back and forth on Instagram, been like, hey, come on the podcast again if I didn't like it.
[00:48:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: I don't like, that's such an awkward conversation to be like, hey, Fred, so why'd you make this shitty comic? No, but like, yeah, it's so. It's like weird conversations, like, so. But I like doing it. So that's another thing. It's like, I always talk to people who. I like the comic book. I've declined. Yeah, I've declined. People have reached out, hey, read this book. And I've read the book and I'm like, love the book, man. Just not gonna. I don't have time or whatever it may be because I just don't have any love for what they're doing. And it may not be a bad comic. I just don't think the conversation would be very good because I didn't like it that much. I love this. I think it's phenomenal. I think it's fun. I think it's fun. Again, I get. I think there's comedy that's so subjective to people, but this is like, there's more to it than that as well as it's just, I think it's just different than anything else you're gonna read right now. I don't think you're gonna go to the shelf. I mean, there's definitely action style comic books. There's ones that are crazy and like over the top and I mean, Final box.
[00:48:59] Speaker B: Was it corpses right there?
[00:49:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
Final. Final Boss Right now by Tyler Kirkham is phenomenal and there's like people getting their heads ripped off in action. And like, there's like.
It's this Street Fighter style comic book that I'm not typically into, but I love the freaking hell out of it. Yeah, there's a place for that. There's a place for this, there's a place. And I needed that. I need that little. Like, it's not the palate cleanser that you'd expect to want. It's not like I'm reading romance in between my horror comics, but it's like there was just this like. I don't know if it was timing too maybe I read the advanced copy at the right time too. But obviously people reached out to comic shops and wanted it because the foc, you know, selling out and stuff like that. But if you didn't get a copy, you're at your local comic book shop today. So tell your lcs you want it because there's, you know, you know, just make sure they know they want it. So if there's ever any other options to get it, then they can get it, you know, ordered and things like that. Plus there's the trades that are coming out in the future. Digital, you can order it through Mad Cave.
[00:49:59] Speaker B: Mad Cave has an amazing deal where you can order like all the digital copies and then they'll get you the trade.
[00:50:05] Speaker A: Yes, yes. And so that, that to me is like, don't, don't sleep on it because. Ah, shit, I missed it. Don't ever sleep on that. Tell your LCs, first of all, if they, your LCS didn't order it, tell them they screwed up and then get into order two at least and so on because it's such a fun comic book and you were not say out of. You didn't have any. You had Dead Romance and then you were quiet for a while.
[00:50:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:30] Speaker A: But you also got, you have a story in the Speed Racer comic book.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So I've been doing a lot of stuff with Blizzard. Actually I've been doing a lot of work with Blizzard and I've been waiting on Nick to finish dead Romans 2.
[00:50:43] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:50:45] Speaker B: But he's been doing like stuff too. But most of the stuff I've been doing in between was, was stuff with Blizzard. Like a lot of stuff with Overwatch. They've got their webtoon stuff and.
[00:50:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yep.
[00:50:57] Speaker B: And they just did the massive relaunch and I've been very involved with that and doing a lot of video game writing as well. But there's a lot of things coming in April of the relaunch of the Samurai Pizza Cat.
[00:51:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I saw that too. Yeah, yeah.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: As well. And then the work with Speed Racer and stuff.
And. And I've. It's interesting because I like, I've been kind of like gun shy. I did some stuff with Conan too. I did a story with Andy Belanger and then with Marco Rudy for Conan and that was like a dream come true. But I've been pretty comfy cozy with Mad Cave and just like, I'm kind of gun shy to like really be pitching out other places. So there's Dead Romans, Invicta is supposed to be announced at the end of the year with Image and then the Samurai Pizza Cats and this. And I've got some pitches in the hopper that I'm working on. There's a very cool story that I'm working on with this dude Jim Rogers, who did a lot of work with Marvel like back in the early aughts and actually got it at a comics to write romance novels interestingly enough.
And he's like goes, it's the best gig. It's the best gig.
So he's been doing that. And then I'm working on something right now with Jason Lowe that I can't really talk about. But the. The stuff that I'm doing with Overwatch and I am NDA'd to the moon, that is like, that's some very cool stuff. And I have to say man, I.
My team that I work with at Blizzard are just the best people. Like, that's awesome. Working with. Shannon Waters is my editor on the stuff I'm doing right now. Chloe Fabroni is another editor that I've worked with for years.
And I have nothing but profound love for the Diablo team and the Overwatch team for all the opportunities that they've given me over the last few years.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: Man, that's. That's so cool to see. And that's such a. Like I said, I love the, the connection to video games and comics too is a fun thing. There's a of lot way more of a crossover than some people expect to be there. And a lot of the tell you right now, video game adaptations in comics are far superior than video adaptations on screen.
Yeah, I'll tell you right now.
[00:53:16] Speaker B: Yeah, that's.
[00:53:17] Speaker A: There's some good ones and there's some okay ones. But like reading comics that are based on video games tend to be better than my goal is.
[00:53:25] Speaker B: You know, my dream Blizzard project is.
I don't know if you ever heard of this game. It's called Blackthorn this is like. This is a super Nintendo game that is one of the first Blizzard games ever. I think it's before the lost Vikings even.
[00:53:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:53:40] Speaker B: And it's like this Prince of Persia sort of like, clone. It is the most. I'll give you the breakdown and then I gotta go because my wife. I can hear upstairs.
[00:53:49] Speaker A: No, but me too. Yeah.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: I'll give you the breakdown of this because it's the most. First of all, box art. Jim Lee. Pretty beautiful.
[00:53:57] Speaker A: Oh, it's beautiful, man.
[00:53:58] Speaker B: Like, so this is the premise of the game because it's. I love it.
[00:54:02] Speaker A: So.
[00:54:02] Speaker B: And I always. Every time I'm working with a new creator, I'm like, just so you guys know, that comes. Opportunity comes up. I want to do Blackwatch. I want to do a full graphic novel adaptation Blackwatch video game. I want it. So Blackwatch, for anybody that doesn't know, is like this Prince of Persia kind of clone. Right?
Except this is the game.
There's this land, the magical land of Tool.
All right. T U U L. And there's this wizard, and he's the king. And there's a dark king, Lord Zarkon, or something like, equally ridiculous.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:54:35] Speaker B: And Sarkon has this big army of orcs, and the orcs are World of Warcraft orcs. But there is no World of Warcraft. There is no Warcraft 1. There's just these orcs that eventually become the Green Horde in Warcraft, right?
[00:54:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:51] Speaker B: And his army attacks the kingdom. And then the. The king is like, oh, got to get my son and this magical jewel out of here before all is lost. And his wizards banish the sun to this other dimension, Earth. What do you think? The sun's name is Kyle. His son's name is Kyle.
[00:55:10] Speaker A: Kyle.
[00:55:10] Speaker B: Okay, so his name is Kyle. Kyle joins the army, becomes a special forces soldier, gets kicked out of the army. Then he's just riding his sweet hog in the desert and it's the 90s, okay? So of course he's got, like, biker boots and long hair and he's wearing his big amulet. Then all of a sudden, he sees a sparkle in the sky. This is all like that eight, like, 90s animatic. And he pulls over and he goes, it's time. And he just takes a shotgun and he teleports. And then you're fighting orcs in crazy orc land.
And when I was like, 15, I.
[00:55:47] Speaker A: Was like, that was like, this is.
[00:55:48] Speaker B: The most metal game ever. Like, it is perfect. It is so ridiculous and so over the top and amazing. Like, to Me, I think that, like, this is something that I would like to do in the same vein as the Florida Hippopotamus cocaine massacre.
[00:56:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:56:05] Speaker B: Like, it takes itself so seriously, but it's ridiculous. Like, I always talk about, like, it's World of Warcraft meets Renegade with Lorenzo Llamas.
Like, that's basically what it is. Like, that's the game. But, like, I would like it is. There's that in Highlander. There's the two eyes.
[00:56:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:56:23] Speaker B: To work on.
[00:56:24] Speaker A: Well, it also, like, you have to have. You know, they have to. It'd be like, hard not to have Jim Lee do a variant.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: Oh, no, he's not a variant. He's got to do the main cover. He's got to do the. It's just one graphic novel. There's no issues.
One graphic novel. It's 120 pages. Jim Lee does the COVID Yeah. And I don't like. And I don't know who does the. We'll get Lee Weeks.
We'll get a sod Ribbick. And like, I think, like. Like, that style of art with just insane story would. It's so juxtaposed. It's. I think it's brilliant. But I just got to convince everybody at Blizzard to let me do it.
[00:57:01] Speaker A: I mean, you could buy the cartridge. The cartridge alone tested on ebay right now for 45 US dollars.
Jesus, man. It's like buying a new video game right now.
[00:57:10] Speaker B: No, it's.
[00:57:11] Speaker A: That's amazing. That's amazing. And you know what? Put it out in the world. Put it out in the ether, and it's gonna happen.
[00:57:15] Speaker B: Why do you think I'm talking about it? I want it to happen.
[00:57:17] Speaker A: Yeah. That's amazing. Well, that happened. Who was it that.
[00:57:21] Speaker B: I see Jim Lee at the show. If I go to San Diego, I see Jim Lee. Oh, that's all I'm gonna talk about.
[00:57:26] Speaker A: That happened. That happened to Adam Caesar, though, about the author of Clown of the Cornfield. And he writes. He wrote Dead Mall for. For Dark Horse. They. He said to. Someone reached out to him about an adaptation of a movie. He's like, no, no, I don't have time. I don't have time. I don't have time. But if you ever get the Toxic Avenger remake. Yeah, adaptation. I want that. And like, two weeks later, they called him and like, hey, we could do that. Let's do that. You do that. And so you have to write the adaptation, a novelization of. Of the movie. And it's like, you gotta say it out there, man. You got people to know, Fred. People need to know they want to do this in some place.
[00:58:01] Speaker B: Yeah, like I always, I always message everybody about doing blackthorn. That's the one.
[00:58:07] Speaker A: By the way.
It's in your signature, in your email signature. Just let you know.
Only to Blizzard though. Only to Blizzard people though.
[00:58:17] Speaker B: Right?
[00:58:17] Speaker A: The Florida Hippopotamus cocaine massacre on shelves at local comic book shops today, February 18th.
You can get dead Romans in trade. You can get the other stuff. Like I mentioned, I've got the Speed Racer coming up. You've got pizza cats from, from what's the Nakama Nakayama Press at Mad Cave. They're the ones out. But.
[00:58:40] Speaker B: And yeah, there you go. Yeah. Yes.
[00:58:43] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. I got a T shirt somewhere. They sent me a T shirt and Tatsunoko.
[00:58:47] Speaker B: They do.
[00:58:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:48] Speaker B: Entertainment. Yeah.
[00:58:50] Speaker A: But that's awesome. Mad Cave's great. So that's great that this is also at Mad Cave. I'm loving that. I, I think.
No, I wore yesterday My Mad Cave 10th anniversary T shirt that.
I love that thing. But yeah, excellent, Fred. So much fun talking to you, chatting with you. Don't. Let's not make it a year or two years or whatever it is next time. Let's not also talk in four weeks. Let's wait a little longer.
[00:59:11] Speaker B: Let's do Pizza Cats when Pizza Cats comes out. April. There you go. If you, if you like it, we'll come on and we'll talk about it.
[00:59:19] Speaker A: And people are like, oh, I'm gonna read into this. Pride never came on the podcast. I'm guessing Justin didn't like. No.
[00:59:25] Speaker B: And I'll tell you this, if I get to do Blackthorn, you've got an oh, absolutely. Exclusive, exclusive announcement.
[00:59:32] Speaker A: We gotta play the game too, like on like some sort of like Twitch.
[00:59:38] Speaker B: We'll do an interview while we're playing and it'll be because it's so hard. It's such a hard game. Like, it'll be so like the worst lives.
[00:59:46] Speaker A: It just restarted. We can't even get past the first level. This is awesome.
[00:59:50] Speaker B: I got it, guys. I got it. It's coming. Don't worry.
[00:59:52] Speaker A: The story is good. I promise you guys. I promise the story's better than this. Absolutely wonderful. Keep it up. Keep up a good work. Listen to mud79 2 people. If you want a Star wars fan made story there. But yeah, again, once again, amazing time. We'll chat soon. But grab Florida Hippopotamus at your local comic book shop or tell them you want more of it because we want more of it. Whatever. Whatever form it. It comes in, so. But thanks again, Fred. I appreciate it.
[01:00:21] Speaker B: Anytime.
