#286: Tyler Boss - Writer of Exquisite Corpses: Rascal Randy

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtights.com I'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. Once again, this episode is brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and Collectibles. At galactic comics and collectibles.com today we welcome back Tyler Boss, who is the artist behind such series as four Kids walk into a Bank, what's the furthest place from here? And a ton of variant covers. Recently, Boss has created and wrote books like you'll do bad Things as well as Universal Monsters, Phantom of the Opera, and two issues of Exquisite Corpses, which is now having a spin off series based around the character and serial killer Rascal Randy, which comes out July 8th. Boss is here to talk about all things Exquisite Corpses and Rascal Randy right here on the podcast. But before you listen, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blue sky, threads, all those places you can rate, review, subscribe to our podcast over on Apple, Spotify or wherever you find your podcast. The video portion of this podcast can be viewed over on YouTube.com and as always, you can check out capesandtice.com for so much more than this is compa. Creator, artist, writer, cartoonist, whatever you want to call him. Tyler Boss, chatting Exquisite Corpses and Rascal Randy and so much more. Enjoy, everyone. Welcome to the podcast. Tyler, how are you today? [00:01:16] Speaker B: I'm great. How are you doing? [00:01:17] Speaker A: I'm doing wonderful. I'm doing wonderful. Tell you what, I am pumped. So it's funny, I actually talked to someone at my book club. We were just talking about book club before, but we just read Final Boss. Oh, yeah. By Tyler Kirkham and which I absolutely love. That thing was so much fun and just like, I don't know, there was just so much going on but like, just like people's heads getting smashed. I just. I don't know, I just don't have that enjoyment in comics in a little while. Like just, just straight up, like full on, like, don't care what's happening. I just want to see people annihilated. And it was, it was. It was fun. I also like saying in my head, brutality every time a brutality would come on because like video games. Yeah, but at the book club. [00:01:55] Speaker B: Oh, sorry. Okay. Oh, it's just, it's. [00:01:58] Speaker A: It's. [00:01:58] Speaker B: Yeah, no, for real, it's. It's that great. It's like 90s. It's like a full 90s throwback. Just like we're doing fun. We're doing, you know, it's. And even I almost got free Copies of the book because of Tyler being his first name and final boss being the last one there was multiple times Image sent me an email being like, how many copies you want? I was like, oh, like 60. Just, I mean, don't worry about it. [00:02:20] Speaker A: Yeah, Tyler. And I'll sign him as Tyler Kirkham too. Just so people don't know. Just like a diet or just Time Tyler so no one will really know. You know, his signature is pretty easy. You can figure that out. No, but yeah, we were saying, and as we were leaving, we're like, well, we're going to do this next couple of months and what books we're going to be reading and so on and so forth. In October, the plan is to read Exquisite Corpses and the Volume one. And my buddy was like, wait, it takes a place in a fictional town in Maine? I was like, yes, I'm like, we're in Maine. Like this is like exactly what we need to have happen. And then it got brought up again and I ran a horror panel on Friday night with some horror authors in town in Bangor, Maine. And it got brought up again because we were talking about how like it's actually easier to come up with a fictional town in a state than it is a real life town because a. You don't have too as much research because if you say something that's wrong, it's like, well, it's not real anyway or you don't offend a bunch of people or kill a bunch of people. And so Exclusive Corpses has come up quite a bit in the past couple of weeks and fittingly it is a very popular title and a very exciting time. So I'm excited that you came on here to talk about that. This on here and Rascal Randy and so much more. But like, what's been up other than that? What have you been up to? You've been doing anything fun? Summer started, you're in New York. [00:03:33] Speaker B: What's going on? I'm a. I'm a new dad, so that's my life right now. I'm five months in. He's the best. It is the cliche that everybody says we are, you know, cards on the table. We're recording this at 10am if it was pre dad life, I wouldn't be awake yet. I now, now I'm up at 6am every day. So that's, that's my new reality is [00:03:54] Speaker A: that it's funny about this. That's fittingly right too because Matthew Rosenberg, your, your partner in crime sometimes also doesn't record this early on he's definitely not awake. And to be fair to Matt, he [00:04:08] Speaker B: just went to bed like two hours ago. So that's, he's, he's. Yeah, his. But yeah, so it's funny, we, we can talk now at like 6am, but it's just before he goes to bed. And it's just when I got, it's [00:04:20] Speaker A: funny, I was like, most people, like, it's just this, this, this back and forth. There's like two segments of people that record on the podcasters, the people who are like, yeah, oh my gosh, I, I absolutely love the fact that you can record during the day on a Monday because normally these people podcasts are like, can you record at 9 o' clock at night? And I'm like, I don't want to do that. Like I'm done with my work day or whatever. And then there's the other segment who are like, I actually have to be busy during the day, so can we record at night? And I say I love the people who are like, oh, you can record at 10 o' clock in the morning. And I'm like, to me it's 10 o' clock in the morning is nice because I could get it out of the way. I can move on my day and edit and do all that stuff. But like 3 o', clock, 4 o' clock in the afternoon, when I'm getting done with my day, I'm like, yeah, but then I'm not gonna edit it to the next day or like if it's a, if it's a one that I am stressed about, I'll be like stressed all day about it. And it's all this stuff that it's just like, you never know what came [00:05:07] Speaker B: up before in the day that's good. Like you can't anticipate this way. Yeah, it can't be. [00:05:12] Speaker A: I'm a dad too. I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old that just turned 5. And so to me it's always one of those things, like I'm planning ahead, but I'm like, I don't know what the hell is going to happen in three weeks on a Monday. You kidding me? This is ridiculous. I can't plan this. Like, it's just ridiculous. So my, my son, you know, not to get too far into it, but he takes a prophylactic antibiotics, he doesn't get sick. Sick. And he's five. And this one past dose is like giving him diarrhea, you know, get personal. So like right now it's like waiting for the phone call from the school to be like, hey, by the way, your kid pooped his pants. And I'm like, God damn it. No, but luckily, I have a great outfits there. Exactly. That's what I said. I luckily have a great partner and my wife, Taylor, so she'll. She'll help, you know, during these moments. But, yeah, I've definitely had to cancel podcasts because of. Of children, so cancel things in general because of children. And it's usually just typically so you can just be in the same room as them. It's not like you actually have to go and save the day. But, yeah, but we're here, so I'm glad you're awake, or at least somewhat awake. I'm sure sleep amazing right now anyway. [00:06:11] Speaker B: But I mean, you know what it is? It's that you just sort of. The first two weeks is kind of your figure, and then you're just in it and it's. And it is what it is. So. No, yeah, we're. [00:06:20] Speaker A: I do remember watching, like, all of the animated Spawn series when I had my son. [00:06:25] Speaker B: Okay, this is good. So we. So I read. I had never read it before, which I know is, like, sacrilege, but I'd never read Ultimate Spider Man. And so we. You know, I had the night shift with him, and so what we did every night, we called it Spider man hours. And we read. For the first month, we just read every single issue of Ultimate Spider man the whole way through. So now we've covered that. And then I was like, oh, what if we go and read all of Spider Man? And then I was like, oh, it's about to hit issue 1000. Maybe that's not. Maybe that's not gonna happen, but gotta [00:06:53] Speaker A: have another child because of this. No. The stupid reasons to do things. [00:06:58] Speaker B: Animated Spawn. [00:06:59] Speaker A: Oh, I did all the animated Spawn because I wake up and I'd feed my son, and then he'd like to try to get him to go back to sleep or whatever. He'd just be in my arms. And so I was like, my wife isn't really into that. So I was like, I guess. And then it gets to the point where I'm like, no, I'll get the baby. Because I wanted to watch Spawn. And it was the weirdest thing. And it was weird because I'm like, now I'm like, if he has nightmares, I'm like, is that. Why? Is it Todd McFarlane's fault that my son has nightmares now at 5? Or is it my fault as a parent? But no, it was funny because I Did find myself doing that. And I do find myself doing that now. I. I'm 40 and I. For some reason, my son woke up this morning at like 3:00 clock in the morning, just, dad, where are you? And I went into his room or whatever and I sat in the chair and I was like, now I'm up. Like, I'm going to be up for a little bit. Like, I can't just go back to bed 15 minutes later. It just doesn't work that way. And so I picked up a book I'm reading and I was like, oh, I'll just read it. So I do actually get to read more because my child wakes up in the middle of the night, which is kind of funny. So. Not that I want that. I'd rather sleep through the night, Tyler. I don't want to wake up in the middle of night. [00:07:57] Speaker B: But. No, but it's. I hear you. It's. Yeah, those little. It's when I. So I. When I lived in New York City, my best reading time was on the subway. And now I don't commute at all. I just am in my house all the time. And so it's now it's. Yeah, my reading time is late at night with my son when it's. He needs to eat and. Okay, we're gonna read, you know, whatever issue of Batman that came out or something. [00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just the future. Because now you're gonna read with your son together at some point in the future. And that's the, that's the, that's the [00:08:24] Speaker B: other joke we always have where people are like, oh, what are you reading now? And I'm like, we're reading Chicka chicka boom boom. We're reading. You know, blue truck says go. [00:08:34] Speaker A: Some of them are like, this are actually pretty good. And some of them, I'm like, I don't know, man. You. What's the best is, is that my son, and thanks to Steve Fox for this, has a signed copy of the Super Mario Brothers Little golden book on the wall in his room. Because Steve wrote that. So you're gonna have to get so many books. Yeah, he actually wrote a sticker book for Super Mario Brothers as well. Like, there's a couple things that Steve wrote that I'm like, you're also writing like stories about, like, monsters and shit. And then you're also writing like Super Mario Brothers for my kids. You know, you're Steve. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Steve. I don't know how Steve does it, because Steve, he edits so many books. He, he writes a Bunch of prose book, like the Golden Books. There's even. He even has other books. Like he has a Diamond Dumber book. He wrote. He has all these other. And then he's also written comics for Marvel. He's also writing comics for. Yeah, it's. Steve is insane. [00:09:27] Speaker A: So he wrote. It looks like right here on bookshop.org he wrote a Pokemon ABC book for Little Golden Book. And then the Super Mario Brothers Golden Book. Excuse me. Obviously, it's like Spider Ham and other ones that are Marvel related to. It looks like he wrote a Zelda book. But yeah, I have to grab some of those. Yeah, so. So it was one of those things where I'm like, awesome, this is great. And then I look at my son and I'm like, but you can't touch this because this is kind of not. Not because I don't want to, like, hold on to it, make it perfect. But like, I want you to have this later on in life as something to be like, oh, look at this. It's pretty cool. And Super Mario is one of those ones that you can grow with. It's not like it's Paw Patrol where you're like, at some point, you're like, okay, I'm done with Paw Patrol. Like, Super Mario bro should be something he never grows out of. But yeah, there's a couple of things on there. I think. I think Joey Esposito is Sesame street comic book. He wrote a Sesame street comic. And Joey's from. Lives in Bath, Maine, which is like about an hour and a half from us. So he signed up. He's one to two Nova and stuff like that. So there are some books that are signed specifically to him. And then my son's name is Nova, by the way. And so that's around the wall. But yeah, Steve was the one. I was like, this is cool. Like, I can't believe, like, this crossover of, like, my son wanting Little Golden Books and you can't read them. He just looks at the pictures. But it's. It's fine. Yeah. Steve is prolific in that sense to have all that stuff. It's also many different revenue streams. I'm guessing that's a good thing to have too. You're busy, but, like, you can pay the bills if you have all those revenue. I think he love. [00:10:49] Speaker B: He just. He loves the. He loves the work. And also, I mean, you know, he's. He's the editor on Exquisite Corpses too. And. And. Or one of them. There's three editors. It's him and Greg Lockhart and Eric Carbon. [00:11:00] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's. He said that relationship with Tiny Onion is pretty cool too. I think the whole thing. So, like, speaking of that, like, you know, not that everyone wants to hear talk about dads, which, I mean, I guess that could be a cool episode too. I bet, I bet it would actually work for a segment of comic book people. Like, it's like this whole thing. We did talk about that at the beginning of our book club. Like, can we have a half an hour of like just decompressing his dads and then we can go into book club because, like the owner's a dad, a couple other people are dads, and I'm like, yeah, but the people that are like 20 and don't give kids are not going to be. [00:11:27] Speaker B: Want to be here. [00:11:27] Speaker A: But Exquisite Corpses, there you go, transition there. You wrote you'll do bad things. You've also wrote. Written other stuff, but you also are an artist in the world of comics. This is different though. Like, Exquisite Corpses is one of those. Like, comics are collaborative in general because you have obviously you and the writer and the artist and you and the editor and the publisher and all that stuff. But this was like, this is like ultimate collaboration if you think about it. Because like, if you look at. If anybody reads Opens like the first issue or any issue of Exquisite Corpses, it like says like the Exquisite Corpses crew. Like, it just lists all the people that are part of this book. And it's just, it's incredible the names that are attached to this book. Was that like, is that fun? Is that like, different? Is it. Is it harder? Is it like, what's it like being in this like collaborative team with this legitimately? [00:12:17] Speaker B: And this is not to like, I feel like people sometimes give. It was some of the most fun I've ever had creatively. You know, obviously I. I work with Matt Rosenberg all the time and he's sort of my like creative brother and everything. And this was such a different experience for me because Matt's sort of my comfort zone. Like, me and him know each other. Like, we know he takes. We know how to make each other laugh. And it's just sort of a constant one upmanship with one another. But being in this room with. And the room was, you know, it was put together by James Tynan with Tiny Onion and Michael Walsh, the other series co creator. And they brought in, it was me, Pornstack Pinch and Show, Jay Grayson and Jordi Belair. And that was sort of the writer's room. And then obviously the rest of the Corpse crew. We have Valentine Delandro on our. Gavin Fullerton, Adam Gorham. Oh, God, I'm blanking on. Oh, my God. Mariana and Ignazi. And everybody brought their own thing to it. But being in the room, it was awesome. I mean, so we brought them all out to Buffalo, which is where me and my wife live, and put them up in a hotel, and we basically did, like, two days. It was also really weird. I'm a big hockey fan. And they were doing the NHL scouting compine in the same hotel. So it was all these really beautiful young Swedish dudes all walking around then. Just like us. Planning a murder book. Exactly. [00:13:42] Speaker A: We're playing a horror book, and we're a bunch of comic book nerds. It just doesn't, like, work together. [00:13:47] Speaker B: The room we're in is like a big conference room that looks out next to the Buffalo Sabres hockey arena. And then the room next to us is just a huge hockey rink. Like, if you open the other. So it was, you know, and they're all. It was very weird, but no. So sorry. Getting off track, you know, James. James and Michael. James wrote the first issue and had the script, and they basically had a Bible, and they gave it to all of us beforehand. We're like, read this. And then, you know, just so you're familiarized with the world. And when we came into the room, Michael basically was going to do the second issue no matter what. And so he had his issue loosely broken down. It wasn't like everything, but it was loosely. Here are the beats. And so we had James's script, which is done and very tight. Michael's going to draw. And then we had Michael's beats, his loose thing. And then from there, we each rolled dice to see who was going to go next in the story. And so we went porn sack. And then it went che. And then it went me. This was the only time we reversed things where we did my whole issue. And actually after Jordy went, we should flop, because it would just work better. But mostly it was the sort of thing where it was a true sort of like handing of the baton, and people would jump in on other people's issues. And it was always. No one ever felt like their idea had to win. It was just best idea win. And so it was one of those things where it's like there was truly no ego in the room, and everyone felt very comfortable. And it's hard, too, because a lot of us just didn't know each other beforehand. Like, Michael and Jordy were very close. Me and James have been friends for years. I had met Pornsack maybe like two months prior, really briefly at Comics Pro in Pittsburgh. And I had met Che really randomly. I'm very. I was very close friends with their downstairs neighbor. We found out. So it was like a really weird thing where it was like, oh, that's weird that me and your downstairs neighbor were buddies. But the. I don't know. It was great. It was all. And you know. You know, you go and see what everybody's doing now with porn sack on absolute Green Arrow and Che on absolute Catwoman. And, you know, obviously Jordy doing the. Every book coloring the best ones. And James is James. And then Michael's got. I don't think it's announced his. He's got a really cool D.C. thing coming to that he's doing. And then. Yeah, I don't know. It's. It's. It's cool to sort of, you know, we're gearing up now for season two already, and so I can't wait to do it. And we're all getting back in the room and I don't know if there'll be the scouting. NHL scouting combine happening at the same time. [00:16:10] Speaker A: You gotta find out. You gotta find out where that is next year and then just do it there. For some reason, it works so well where it was that he's. It's the connection that. No one ever knows why it connected that way, but it's just. [00:16:20] Speaker B: What was the secret saucer? It's like we needed a lot of really fit Swedish people around. [00:16:25] Speaker A: Well, it's kind of funny is like, again, Galactic Comics and Collectibles in Bangor, Maine, is where I. Where I grab my comics. And actually Paul Eaton, the owner of that shop, is my. My daughter's godfather. A godfather. Because we've just been friends for. For a while and it just worked out that way. And he's a humongous hockey fan. I'm a hockey. I actually used to write for hockey. I used to write a little bit of the Bruins and I used to write college hockey. And so it's got. [00:16:49] Speaker B: It's kind of funny. [00:16:51] Speaker A: I actually wrote for UMass Lowell in Lowell, Massachusetts, because that's. I actually lived. I lived in the apartment complex, literally. Next, like, I looked my window out to my room, looked at the arena, which was really awesome at that point. I like walk to games, and after the games I'd go get some beers and stumble. It was just a really good. It was really worked. It worked out really well. Yes, actually kind of funny. My cousin was a Cheerleader at a local school in the area. [00:17:17] Speaker B: And. [00:17:17] Speaker A: And she had some sort of cheering competition at the arena. And my aunt had texted me and was like, hey, do you want to come, you know, support your cousin? I was like, yeah, absolutely. And then I realized that, like, it was, like, 25 to get in or something like that. And I'm like, well, I don't know if I like my cousin that much. Like, that seems a little ridiculous. And so I also didn't want to sit around all day because I'm like, this is a bunch of, like, high school students cheerleading. And I feel like that's creepy if you're not like, I don't know. I just felt really awkward to be there. [00:17:41] Speaker B: Family members. [00:17:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And so I was like, I'll go for your competition and then leave. And then I'm like, but that's. Again, that's even worse. $25. So I use my press pass to get in the back door, like. And I walked in, like, I knew what I was doing. Like, I was like, hey. And they're like, hey, you don't worry. And I got it for free. And I was like, I got to start doing this more. I got to figure out how to make this work. No. [00:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah, do it at TD Garden. [00:18:04] Speaker A: The sad part is, I. My first ever scheduled covering of the Bruins is the day of the bombing, the Boston Marathon bomb. That. [00:18:14] Speaker B: That parents are actually there. [00:18:15] Speaker A: And so I was in Boston. I was actually there. And I. They're like. I walked up. I didn't really. I was driving to the city. I didn't know what was going on. I lived a little north of the city, and I was like, the heck? This is weird. And, like, I got there, all the trash cans, like, lids were off, and I'm like, what the heck? My ex wife. Ex wife, now wife at the time goes, you should probably come home. And I was like, well, I don't know. This is probably the safest place to be right now is the Garden. They've got security. They've checked the whole building. I'm like, leaving might be actually harder, like, more dangerous. But luckily, I got the outlet I was working for moved. I was filling in for someone, and they're like, hey, we'll get you a game future. And then that point on, I started covering the Bruins more. But, yeah. Yeah, I couldn't. The Garden's a little harder to do that in Tyler. The local college arena was a little bit easier to get into with the press pass. [00:18:59] Speaker B: You never know. You gotta. You know, you Try. You've gotta try. [00:19:03] Speaker A: All they can say, I'm actually officially there, but I'm like, aren't you the guy that tried to sneak in that's like, wasn't there, like, a Kanye concert you tried to get into or something like that? For them, it was Bruins badge. [00:19:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:15] Speaker A: No, but. Yeah. So there's a crossover between. There is. It's kind of funny because we always laugh when someone comes in the shop when I'm hanging out there, and they're like, you guys sell sports cards. And he's like, we're a bunch of nerds here. Sorry. Like, and there's more reason to. That he would carry sports cards. But there's a. There's a lot more involved to carry sports cards. But he usually uses that excuse. He's always like, we're a bunch of nerds here. Like, we don't carry sports cards even though we should or want to. But, yeah, hockey is a. Hockey is the connection to. To exquisite corpses. I guess we'll figure that out, right? At some point. [00:19:45] Speaker B: I mean, Walsh is a huge hockey fan, too. Sadly, he's a Leafs fan. So, you know. Well, I mean, it's not his fault. He's. He lives in Hamilton, you know, it's. [00:19:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And I never blame that for someone. Like, there's someone. Like. I had a friend that grew up, was a big Yankees fan, and, like, up to, like, age 10, he. He was. [00:20:01] Speaker B: Well, he had a choice. He could have been a Mets fan. [00:20:03] Speaker A: That's a good point. But I also like relationship with parents. My dad's a Jets fan, so, like, I don't. Like. [00:20:08] Speaker B: I'm sure that's just a tough life. [00:20:10] Speaker A: That's horrible. I've always respected them, though, because when the jets ultimately lose, he cheered for my Patriots, so it was like. [00:20:16] Speaker B: It was. [00:20:16] Speaker A: It was okay in that sense. [00:20:17] Speaker B: Okay. So there's. [00:20:18] Speaker A: He knew better. [00:20:19] Speaker B: I'm a. I'm a Bills and Sabres fan, so all I know is pain. But, you know. [00:20:24] Speaker A: And you had no choice, though. Like, it's. Oh, yeah. I at least get some sort of excitement of being a New England sports fan every once in a while. But, like, some sort. [00:20:33] Speaker B: You got Title Town, [00:20:36] Speaker A: and some of them are struggling a little bit, but, yeah, you know, it's. It is what it is. Hopefully, we'll. We'll do better in the future. But. Yeah, actually, Swift Lehman, the goalie for the Bruins, is actually friends of. I work for a brewery during the day, and he's friends with our brewery because he went to Humane and I Work in a town that humane's in. So we have that connection there too, which is awesome. He came in one day and asked. I was like, can I get your autograph? He's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I have a card I found randomly of a rookie card of you, and I want to just put it in the office. It's not going to try to sell it. You can write two justice. I don't care. Can you just sign this for me? He's like, yeah, no problem. But yeah, he's. [00:21:13] Speaker B: He was standing on his head during that series. [00:21:15] Speaker A: Oh, dude, I. We could talk hockey again all day. Same thing if I. When I. I did an episode with David. I've been. Got a couple episodes of David Harper of Off Panel and the same thing. I'm a huge basketball fan too. And I'm like, we could, we could just talk basketball for the entire episode. But I'm like, but I also want people to re. Listen to this episode. I know. And find out about your comics. And you know, like all. I don't want people turning it off because they don't like that subject or whatever. But no. Exquisite corpses equals hockey. That's what we're getting out of this whole discussion here is hockey. No. And so I think the two most recognizable characters in this series so far are the Fox Mask Killer. Obviously it's a first issue, so that helps with like the COVID of the first issue. People like recognize that for a while that becomes the trade cover and so on and so forth. Like someone talks about exquisite corpses. Likely that's the COVID they use to promote it because that's just the number one. But I also believe Rascal Randy. I think that those are the two that like, to me, and I don't know if it's because, like, I'm in this vacuum where I'm like researching things because I'm having a conversation with you. So Rascal Randy kind of like comes up. It's also the first solo spin off series, so there's that too. And so like, there's this. This connection to Rascal Randy. But do you. Do you think that too? Although those are the most killers in this series. [00:22:28] Speaker B: When we, when we got the Bible. So part of two. When we each got to our issue, we had to kind of take a character with us. So like, when we'd roll, we'd be next and we'd sort of be like, all right, you have like the. You take. You pick a killer basically for your issue. And after seeing them all, I Really? I was like, okay. The three that I feel like are the most iconic were, yeah, Fox masks, Randy and Lone Gunman, because of the mask. But I didn't want to. I didn't want to touch him at first. I was like, issue four feels too early. I'll take gamer kid. Like, I'll. I'll say, I know what that dude is like. I under. Like, I grew up in Modern Warfare 2 COD lobbies. I understand wholly what this character and person is, and we're going to run with that. And then towards the end of my issue, Randy makes an appearance, not to spoil anything. And it was the sort of thing where it was like. It was. I was hedging. It was like, I didn't want to take him, but it was sort of, you know, I wanted him sort of immediately. And, um, I think Fox mask, you know, the things I see, I think Randy's hard to cosplay. Kind of, you know, Tiny Onion has a costume now, and the way they got it was they sort of reached out to these furries who are like, you know, that's what they do. And, you know, they built the suit, but you kind of got to know people like that. Whereas Fox mask. It's day one, people had masks. Like, people found 3D prints of it. They went and sculpted their own. They. Whatever. And then it's like, all right, it's. That it's. And then simple, too, right? It's a suit and a mesh shirt, and then as long as you got the mask, you can rock it. And that's. You know, there's something really cool that I've never really been a part of until Corpses, where it's like, you know, there's a. It taps into a little bit of that superhero fandom where it's like, the characters are easy to cosplay. You can. You know, you can dress up at them as a convention and come and come to a signing, come to an event. And, like, it feels like you're building this community, an excitement around a book that, like, then has all these other components, right? Like, we have the game, we have these other things, and you're building out this big world. And part of that really is, I think, to James and Michael's credit, they really honed in on that, where it's like, we need people to want to be, like, into these killers in a way that, like, want to dress up as them. Like, you can imagine their. Their outfits on a party city rack. And then, you know, the fun part then, too, is that, like, you know, they. They have. Some have had more backstories than others. Randy sort of didn't have anything beyond the suit. And so that's what I was so excited about when they were sort of like, okay, we think if this series does well, we're going to want to do offshoots of these characters. Would you be interested? I was like, yeah, I want to do Randy. And I think this is my. My way into it. I think this is, you know, what would be fun and maybe most interesting about this character because, you know, you see it sometimes. The thing about Randy that's so exciting off rip is. Is the mystery of it, right? Like, you don't super. Like, it's just this weird, ambulatory mascot outfit wandering through the woods, and you're like, that's a creepy image, and that's fun. And sometimes finding out too much about that could ruin the horror of it or ruin why it works. And so I was really cognizant of that and really tried to have a different approach to what we were going to do with him, because he. Him and fox masks, I think, have become sort of the official mascots of the book. Just visually, you know, you said it with the first cover or whatever. And I think Clone Gunman, I think it's hard for him to fully be the mascot of the book, just because you don't want to do it with. Especially in America with, you know, 75 assault rifles strapped to him. To be the mascot of your book. Unless you're. [00:26:03] Speaker A: Yeah, yes, exactly. Well, I think the colors you're thinking about, like, the Fox Mask Killer. You got the colors off the first issue with the orange and the. And the pink and then the oranges of it. Bright, bright colors on it. It's just like, it draws you in. I do think that, like, yes, Rascal Randy has this, like, creepy. I don't know. Do you remember, like, years ago when they had this, like, thing where people were clowns were dressing up and just, like, standing awkwardly? [00:26:25] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. Wasn't that, like, for it, though? Like. No, but it was. Speaking of Maine. [00:26:29] Speaker A: Yeah, but I feel like it was just, like, this random thing. I think it was, like, around that time, but it wasn't it costumes. It was just like, clowns and you, like, walk onto campus at, like, a university and someone, like, be sitting on a bench, dress up as a clown, just sitting still. And I'm like, it was, like, so creepy and weird. I feel like Rascal Randy could be that. But the problem is, like, you'd have, like, you mentioned the costume, like, you'd have to have like a. Like, you couldn't just do that. But I could like, picture like walking through downtown if it's some area and just seeing like Rascal Randy, like standing in the window of a store or something that just like creepily and then just like move like, what the fuck? Like, it's creepy. It's like that eeriness. Like the clowns have always had this like, stigma to clowns in the sense that. That people are afraid of them. But I feel like bunnies, there are some scary ass bunnies. Like, have you seen those pictures of like, kids at Easter Bunny, like sitting on the crowd and like the teeth are all like, jacked up and it's like, what the hell? Yeah, it's like a scoff cuddly bunny that kills people. Yeah. It's crazy. [00:27:30] Speaker B: It is that pervert. It's. It's. You have these childhood sort of iconic image, you know, clowns or a bunny or even Santa. Like, you know, you do these things and then you, you turn in a way where it's when you take it from a place of comfort and you go, oh, no, this is the worst. [00:27:47] Speaker A: It's a. It's a. But it makes it scarier. And I guess foxes are, are. Are like villains and things and things like that. Like, they are the bad creature. They're. They're a predator of sorts. So like that, that does. But again, the like the femininity of the character of fox. Muscular does add that, like, softer touch to it in the sense that, you know, a fox is really scary, but like, they're also sleek and things. Like that bunny is like, there's no, like, rabid bunnies are scary. It's it. And I guess ones that are dressed up like characters and kill people, it's also scary. But like, otherwise they're just like. They're always just soft and cuddly to me. So I think that does add that extra level of fear and scariness to the character of Rascal Randy, for sure. [00:28:30] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, I mean, with Randy too, I think there's. There's some really fun stuff we did, sort of tapping into like, specifically rabbit iconography. There's like, weird even like, art history references to like, Albrecht Durer's rabbit. If you're like, into stuff like that, you know, different rabbits across cartoon history, you know, not just Roger or Bugs or whatever these things, but sort of touching into these ideas of animation and studios and, and what it means to have sort of a cartoon mascot, you know, I think there's some wonderful horror stuff with a sort of starting touch point was oh, why am I blanking on his name sitting next to me? El Colombia's amnesia where it was like these. He has these sort of like one off drawings from the golden age of animation where it's just these horrible things happening and they're supposed to each be a feature and they're one image. And the thing that's great about them is that you look at them and then you sort of get to imagine the story behind everything. And that was sort of a touch point of specifically the horror with Randy where it's, it's sort of the stuff left unsaid is the scariest stuff. And so you trying to present the reader with sort of these different images of these things and then letting the things unsaid be the scariest part. [00:29:57] Speaker A: And Randy has this. Obviously volume three hasn't come out in trade yet and the issue 13 literally just dropped like last week, I believe it was. So I don't want to like spoil anything for anybody, which would be much more fun to talk to you about it right now as, as of what happens and what goes from there. But like there's a trajectory for Randy and is a mystery outside of just who the character is and there's more of a mystery of what happens to some of the some extent. But it's cool because like I think that the creating collaboration of all of this is, well, multiple facets to that. One amazingness is the fact that for marketing aspects like this tiny onion group of people is, is a huge. They're very smart. James and the team are very, very smart people. And, and having this many amazing creators on it too helps with the, with the marketing on it because like if I'm a Tyler boss fan, obviously I want to be involved in this. But I'm not just going to read issue six and issue nine. I'm going to read all of them. I'm going to buy them all, read the trades or so on and so forth. And if I'm a Michael Walsh fan or a tiny fan or whoever you're going to like, there's just so many people promoting this book and I thought that sometimes that works great, sometimes it works the opposite because it's just like it feels like when you read issue one and then issue two written by people, it's like it feels segmented in a way that just doesn't work. Yes. This works so well. Like I don't think that if anybody did not look at the creators of these books for each individual issues, like a writer and the artist on it. I don't know if it's that many people who are just picking up this volume My Body who just picked up the trade. If he picks it up and picks up the next trade, I don't think they'd be like, this is by different people. Like, it's just you guys work so well together on writing these and making these things seem that way. And even the artwork has their own sight variations to each one, but they're not like it's all of a sudden some sort of cartoony one or so sort of vintage looking one or some sort of like abstract horror style one. It's like they still look similar. And I'm guessing that was a goal of the whole thing. I'm guessing that was when you guys talked in that room that day that like that the idea was to make it cohesive while also standing apart. But I think that was just as huge to me. It was like, I love the idea that I could touch onto different creators and read different things, but also have it be like not so, so blatantly obvious that it's a different team working on each comic. [00:32:14] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's all, you know, we started this conversation early about it, but that's really a massive credit to Steve Fox, Eric Harburn and Greg Lockhart, the editors where they did an amazing job of after we sort of have broken the whole story together. Not that there were rules put in place for your writing, but they were very cognizant of letting each creator follow the things that excited them as far as be it horror, voice of the character, whatever, while making sure we're keeping it consistent across the line that like what the exquisite corpses tone and world is. And that that was sort of, you know, the, the golden carrot we all had to make sure was in front of us that we were chasing and you know, artistically on the art side, having jordy color the whole thing to make sure that like at least even though, yeah we're going to have art styles are going to shift because of course they're going to shift if you're using different artists. But the having it be colored by the same person and also to yeah being, being within every artist is different, but they're within a similar box of. Of you know. Yeah, there's no like crazy cartoonists versus like it wasn't like we were like, okay, now this issue is going to be James Stokey and then this is who's gonna be, you know, Alex Ross, like, it was. It's were. [00:33:29] Speaker A: You know, I was just like, picturing like. Like Trish Forstner, like, or some sort of, like, stray dogs looking issue that you're like, what the hell just happened? Or, like, yeah, what they did with Uncanny Valley with Tony Fleece and Dave. Like, the idea that, like, they're different styles on purpose. Like, I'm glad it wasn't that for sure. Yeah. [00:33:46] Speaker B: But that's also what's been super fun about the offshoot ones, is that, you know, Dylan Burnett, who's drawn the Rascal Randy series. Dylan has a much more cartoony style. It's much more kinetic. It has sort of a root in manga, but also really like Street Fighter and video game art from the 90s. Like, Dylan really is such, like, a fighting game head. And he has a great book from Skybound called Arcade Games that everybody should check out. But he. He really brings, you know, it's. I don't exactly know how he would fit with the other group of artists if he was doing a main book because it's maybe just a little bit too cartoony. But with Randy, it really feels still a part of the world. But even it's its own thing because our book is a. It's a prequel to the. To the story, the main Exquisite Corpse story. Ours takes place before. It's basically, our story is how New Jersey comes to select Rascal Randy as their killer through ways of sort of. We're doing. I'm really happy it comes out in July because it's set up to sort of be a summer slasher story while also being these other things. So it's supposed to tap into some of that fun, while also it's doing something very different. Hopefully people think it's different and cool, but it's doing something where we're sort of cutting back and forth through time from 1920 to 2009 to 2024, and we're hitting, I don't know, a lot of different points in history to try and. [00:35:16] Speaker A: No, it is. I got a chance to look at it the other night, and it was. You mentioned the artwork part of it. I'd say you could. You could do completely drastically different for each character in these offshoots because of the fact that I feel like the main story in Oak Valley and that place needs to look the same because it's all happening at the same time. And it's this whole, like, progression. It's like. It basically is like a TV show or a movie in that sense of set up that way. That each issue is a episode and it's called Episodes is that if it looked different in each one, it'd be really weird. It would be off putting and stuff like that. But I feel like the offshoots, comic books, a spin off comic books, like you're talking, telling a story about Rascal Randy. So, like it could be Rascal Randy's, you know, build up to this could make sense. Or the Foxglass killer or so on and so forth. You have all these killers that could be their own style and you could do something that was like completely abstract and different because it's focusing on that one character at a different point in time or a different place. And that's why I feel like that worked really well with this comic that you have coming out. I'm also happy that it's multiple issues. This is not like what I was afraid of when I first saw that it was coming. I'm like, there was nothing else solicited after that, what I saw. And so it was like issue one. Then I'm like, is it going to be a one shot? Because I feel like it would have probably worked great as a one shot because you get like, you could push it all in there, but I feel like you would have had to force everything into one issue. I don't know how it would have been cool, but it also would have just been the same, like too little. And I feel like all of us that are invested in this series, like, no, if we're going to focus on one character, I want to focus on a character that's like some, some actual time and effort into this character. [00:36:46] Speaker B: It's. [00:36:46] Speaker A: It's multiple issues. It's multiple issues. How many issues is it going to be? [00:36:50] Speaker B: So it's five issues right now. It's a little bit sort of like the absolute stuff where it's. If people show up, it might be a little bit more. But it's. It'll be a complete story in those five issues are. And it's. The fifth issue is going to be big. It's. It's long. The. But the. There's things too with our book where it's, you know, I say prequels. People go, oh, like, I don't really want to know. I don't really care how Randy sets up. But there's things that we're doing that hopefully they set up different threads that'll eventually come together in different seasons. There's. There's other things that happen in these. It's. It's a little bit where it's you know, if you read these things, hope you'll get a full complete meal that will be fun. And it's its own story and it functions. You can just read that book. But if you're a fan of Exquisite Corpses as a whole property and you like enjoying each part, then you'll get. You'll pick up on things that are happening across the issues that you wouldn't pick up on, not just for season one, but things that are coming in season two. And so there's. There's stuff like that bouncing around in there. But my goal and Dylan's goal when we started was to tell the specific story that we were telling with Randy as the vehicle. And so the. Yeah, it's. It's. It's hard. It's. There's like. It's. It's. I. I keep wanting to. I just finished issue four, and so we're writing issue five right now, and Dylan's finishing issue three. But it's. You get so excited, you want to start spoiling all the goofy stuff we're doing. Because even in issue one, you don't. Which I sent to you, I don't think. You know, in issue two starts, we're back in 1920. We're in the heyday of golden age animation. And then, you know, later on we'll be in Hollywood in. In 2000, and there's different things that are sort of happening. So, yeah, it's. It's. Our main story takes place in Aurora Springs, which is, you know, if Oak Valley is sort of our nod to Stephen King and Maine, small towns. I was like, well, I'm a New York kid. So we're doing this specific sort of like New York town on a lake with the. All set against this. I had to change the name. Originally it was called the Wally Walleye Fishy Frenzy. We toned it back a little bit. Now it's just the Wally Walleye Fish Festival. But a big thing up here in upstate New York is sort of like fish festivals where people go out and do a bunch of fishing and then you fry them or whatever. And so we're setting it around that as this thing where exquisite corpses was set around Halloween. So it's. There's fun parallels between those two things to sort of. That will hopefully be familiar to readers. But then we do a very different kind of story with it. [00:39:30] Speaker A: And I. I think that's one of those things. It does feel like Exquisite Corpses, which came out as a whole series. Now 13 issues is like that tentpole film or that tent pole Thing in like Marvel or dc where you like all the individual characters get together and do their thing, but in the opposite direction, which I think works so much better in that sense because a. You could, you don't have to do every character if you don't want. Like, you don't have to do a spin off on every single. All 13. Yeah, you know, all the. [00:39:55] Speaker B: I don't think people are claiming for a nurse, Pete. [00:39:57] Speaker A: No, it's like, well, if it works, it works. Or you do a one shot for something like that or something. But like it also means that like the characters that are popular get it. But also like you said, people could just pick up Rascal Randy and read a story about a serial killer in a suit and learn about the history and all that stuff and not even read any Exquisite Corpses, which is really cool and like 100% it's its own thing. But it also uses the Exquisite Corpses machine to help promote this book in a sense that if you are friends of this, you have this thing to look at and go into, which is really cool. And I do feel like even, even the issues themselves could be like right out of order in a sense. I mean, you would lose some continuity of the whole series. But it's like if you were like, I'm just into Rascal Randy, you could just like pick out specific issues that would work very well for you. I recommend reading the whole thing. It's, it's, it's, it's phenomenal, phenomenal reading. It does remind me, you know, the, the, the excitement behind something's going to children and you know, it has that kind of excitement to it. And also now James has been doing it long enough now in the independent comic world that like I feel like he obviously knows a little bit more about, okay, this is how I'm going to more of a plan going into it instead of just writing a comic book and releasing it. There's a lot more involved behind the scenes that people aren't aware of. Like you mentioned the whole meeting to try to figure this out. Like also like card game and all that stuff. Like this is all. So that's really cool. And I was, I back the card game. I was like, of course I'm going to back the card game. This is amazing. And then I like passive aggressively send it to my friend who's a local comic book shop owner and be like, hey, by the way, they have a 10 pack or whatever it was, 20 pack, whatever it was of ones you can sell in your store. And he's like he just recommended back, we're going to be carrying it now or whatever, something like that. I was like, awesome. He grabbed, he grabbed some too, so that's awesome. But yeah, we're like, yeah, it looks like it's gonna be a blast. It's gonna like, it's one of those things that's just like, I don't know, it just seems more like immersive in the sense that like you could, you could just. There's just so many avenues and options for this. There's merch, there's all this stuff that goes along with it nowadays that just makes your passion for some, some really good series so much more fun, I think. I think like there is now Erica Slaughter and there's all these different stuff you can get in the summons, killing the children world. But it didn't at the beginning. And I think that those people were die hard fans. Like the first 1520 issues were like, you read the issues, you read the trades. That's about it now. It's like with exquisite corpses, like, okay, I get a little bit more. That's me. I'm like, when I get passionate about something, I want it all. I want to do. I want to play video games. I want to play. I want to play. I want everything. I want everything. Stickers, I want. I want merch. I want all. And so this is kind of cool in that sense that there is this and the characters are all created in a way that they're like iconic. Like you mentioned. We mentioned about like the fox mascot killer in Rascal Randy. Like, that's a sticker. I can see someone having on like their water bottle, like Rascal Randy sticker. I could see just like that creepy like off to the side with a Brent ear. Like, just like I could see that so much. And that's what's cool about these things. But I'm so pumped and I like, I said I pumped about like the creators that are behind these things. Like seeing you taking over doing the Rascal Randy one, I was like, yes, I'm so excited for these things. And then also like it gives it up for like Dylan, like to get another artist involved, which is really cool. Like adding to this team. It's going to be like, it's gonna be like a football roster here in a second. 40 people on it. Like, who writes for Exquisite Corpses? Who doesn't everybody droppers now at this point. But yeah, it seems like fun. I think that's what's cool about it. I think it's like it's also one of those things that, like, do cool with your friends. And I think that's just, like, what this feels like, too. It feels like people are passionate about these things, and they all want to work together. It's not like. Not like person A and person B are bickering and fighting. That's why they're not on the same issues. It seems like this is like a, let's make some cool together. [00:43:30] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. And that's all credit to, you know, James is, you know, James a monster. He's. He's the biggest writer in comics, you know, and it's. And he. He's. What he could have done was pull the ladder up behind him, and instead what he's done is just thrown down 20 different ropes of, hey, come up with. And so I can't say enough kind things about what James has done, not just for creators or people like us, but what he does very intentionally to try and grow this. This medium and this industry that we all love. You know, things that people, you know. Yes, we have the card game. We have corpses. We have these things. But he's starting nonprofits to do, you know, comic shows in Brooklyn, again, for the alternative scene. He's a lot of other. I hesitate to say because I don't want to. Maybe there's things unannounced, but the. Yeah, I just. I can't say enough about that man. And the. You know, he's such a talented writer, such a talented creator, but what to do it for, you know, so many other people. It's a pretty cool thing. [00:44:34] Speaker A: I just. I'll tell you right now, to give James credit is the fact that I know at least a half dozen, if not more readers of comics now have come into comics because of his comics. So, like, there's people who are like, okay, I can get into something. You hand them the number of. The number one selling trade at my friend's local comic book shop is something skilled in the Children, Volume 1. Like, it's the number one selling trade history I had in years. I don't even think it's close, to be honest with you. It might be things like absolute Batman now because of how big that is, but also, like, they can't keep it up in print. So it's like one of those things is, like, it's harder to get something. You can't. You can't sell something that's not in print or print it. [00:45:10] Speaker B: Printing 35 of issue. [00:45:13] Speaker A: There's. There's all these. [00:45:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:15] Speaker A: So there's definitely this. This pulling in. He's like, people read comics because of the stories that this person's created. And I think that's what's amazing about it. But I also feel like I hope other people learn from this. In a sense that, like, I am a humongous Walking Dead fan. Like, I love the Walking Dead comic book. I want this secondary part of this, like, the whole idea that you're doing this Rascal Randy comic book. I want that in the Walking Dead. I want Robert Kirkman to be like, hey, Tyler, write a Negan comic book. Or, hey, someone, you know, Like, I want this offshoots of that universe done now. That builds up the other characters. But Robert could just sit there and, like, creative, direct, and, like, you know, do a Todd McFarlane thing with Spawn where you're just like, okay, I want to make my hands in here, but I'm not going to actually, like, sit here and write the comic book. You can do that. That's what I want in the Walking Den universe. And I feel like hopefully these models work, that these characters are being written by other people other than James, which, again, James has his input. I'm guessing him and Michael have this input on what's going on because it's their creation as well. But, yeah, I think that. That, to me, I think other universes that are big. I'd love to see these offshoots of these. These comics written by other people, other top names in comics or even up and coming people. It doesn't matter to me. But I think that I want more from that universe outside of the deluxe editions, which I love too. But I just thought, be kind of cool, like, learn from some of these. Some of these people who are creating these universes that, like, again, have these other creators helping because obviously James can't also write it all. He's. He's only so many people. [00:46:38] Speaker B: Yeah, no, he's. Yeah, he's already got so many books. [00:46:41] Speaker A: Yeah, he's not slowing down at all. It's not like he's like, okay, when I slow down, it's like, it's. It's just ramping up, if anything. But, yeah, I just think it looks like a cool thing. And again, it's not a proven concept yet, because obviously we hope that people buy Rascal Randy. That's our goal. [00:46:55] Speaker B: Yeah, please, please go. Yeah, we're gonna get canceled at issue three. [00:47:01] Speaker A: Didn't work, though. [00:47:03] Speaker B: It didn't work. That's. And it's your fault. Not you, me, but the. The. No, it's. It's yeah, people I hope will check it out and things. And it's, and it's an interesting thing where it's like, obviously it's. I heard from a retail where they're like, why would I sell a book from James's series that's not James? And it's like, well, you do it with Batman. And so the idea is, can we do that here in a more like independent creator owned space? And you know, it's a risk and we'll, we'll see what happens. But I, you know, it feels like a good risk to take. And it is that thing too where it's like, you know, you go to absolute and what a, what an awesome thing it's done for comics. Like the, the. It's. You hear constantly from retailers the amount of new people coming into the shop. Kids who grew up on anime and manga who then are like, oh, I get this. Batman or Superman or Wonder Woman or whatever. And then, you know, that's great. And they have those books but then they're looking for the next thing. And so do they pick up corpses or do they pick up if destruction be our lot? Like, I mean that book from Matt is. I'm. I'm cards on the table. I'm amazed so many people are connecting with that book because I was like, brother, I love this book. It is so weird. You're good. [00:48:14] Speaker A: I completely agree with you. There is so off the wall where it was like Matt reached. I'm like, first of all, Matt, you don't have to ask. Just send the copy to me. I'm going to read it. Like, I don't. You, I'll read anything. You could, you could write a story about like the directions on how to make waffles and I'd probably read it, Matt, so don't even like question that. But then I read it like, yeah, you're right. It's like people are. The number of people who wanted that book. It was insane. It was just, it was, it was. Yeah, you're right. [00:48:35] Speaker B: I think we're, I think we're in a. It's. I think we're in a really cool moment right now. And who knows how? And it's, you know, it also to go to Robert, like what he's doing with the Energon universe with Joe and Transformers and Void route and everything. And they got a bunch of new stuff coming with that too. And I don't know, it's, it's a really. I feel like 2021 to like 2025 was kind of everybody. Like, I don't know how this, like, it's, it was feeling. There was like sort of anxiety in the industry of like, I don't know what everyone's doing. And it really, starting in 2025 with Absolute, it sort of just felt like it's carried up into the right and so trying to ride that wave and, and keep new readers and old readers, lapsed readers excited and coming back and you know what our industry does, right, where it's, you know, it's, we're asking people to throw down four bucks for one episode of a show. And so we really got to make sure it's worth it for them. And so just always trying to make sure, like, okay, every at bat has got to be. We're swinging for the fences. [00:49:40] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Well, it's funny how you mentioned that because I have a long box sitting right next to me right now. We're having a yard sale in two weeks and they have a long box and there's, there's multiple, probably 15, four or five issue miniseries that I read and we're like, that was good. That was, that was fun. But like, if they ever continued these, I don't know if I would read them again. I don't know if I could. And that's. The boxes are going to go up for the arts. And I'm like, but it's hard to know that ahead of time. So like, you have to throw that four or five dollars down ahead of time. And then I'm the kind of guy who was like, well, I'm going to get the whole series. I'm not going to read two or three issues and be done. I mean, a 13 issue series might be a little different, but like a four or five issues, like, come on, like, I can, I'm going to, I'm going to be able to read that. And I'm a Wednesday warrior. I want my comics on Wednesday, you know, that kind of thing. So, like, to me it is asking a lot for people, but I have met so many people in the past, like 18 months who said that, like, thank God for the absolute universe. Like, it's not people who have written it, people who have read it, people who are not even anywhere connected to it in any possible way, who write comics or create comics who are like, that has helped so much in comics right now because people are flocking to the stores to get these stories. And then while they're in there, they're like, oh yeah, I'll take this or I'll get this or Whatever. And it's like it's creating so many more. I mean, I wasn't a big DC reader, Tyler, until this absolute stuff led [00:50:52] Speaker B: me to more of a Marvel guy or. [00:50:53] Speaker A: Yeah, more of a Marvel guy. And mostly independent. It's been. Used to be like, my whole pull. This was Marvel, then it was Marvel Indie, and now it's like, I'm actually probably on a Wednesday cooking up, like, four DC comics in three, three Marvel comics. Like, it's. It's weird how it, like, works that way. And it's not just absolute, but absolute let me into next level. You know, reading Lobo and leading Deathstroke and all this, but by creators that I'm absolutely, absolutely love to see them write comics like this and seeing that connection that that crossover should be like. You're also giving new fans love with absolute. But you're giving the longtime fans love with those characters that people maybe forgot about or don't get enough attention. They're just. I said to my buddy, I was like, 2026 really is. You know, 25 was. But 26 is, like, the year of D.C. for sure. I think that's like, you know, and hopefully independent comics could feed off this, like, I think is. But there's just a really good amount of books out. And I'll tell you right now, the Absolute Green Arrow is one of my favorite comics I've read in a long time, and I cannot wait for more. [00:51:48] Speaker B: I shouldn't say proud, but I'm so pumped because I love porn sack so much. Like, and when I heard his. It's so. So I knew he was doing an absolute book two and a half years ago, but he didn't know what the book was. He was like, they want me to pitch. I have this villains book, but I don't know if they're gonna go for it. And so every time we'd hang out, I'd be like, he got that absolute book. And he'd be like, no. He's like, I don't know. And then he finally, you know, he's. He cracked it. He has this thing, and. And it's. And it's to watch people's response to it and him sort of not be able to comprehend people's. It's. It's great. It's awesome. [00:52:21] Speaker A: It's so phenomenal. And I think that's what it is. As an independent comic lover. It's like, it screams like, this one particular one screams a lot more independent side of things. Like, the story just feels like it's not like, if you didn't have Green Arrow in it, you'd be like, is this an independent? It doesn't scream dc, which is amazing in that sense because I just feel like the independent world has such a wide variety of comics that DC and Marvel don't have. But for fitting reasons, obviously, because you're selling superhero stories versus other stories. But like, to do this whole absolute thing and be able to do this in a way that this. I don't know, it's like, it does remind me a little bit of Ultimate Universe from years ago in that sense, but just so much more risk taking and so much more off the edge. It's not just like, so this person's now Spider Man. It's like there's just so much more deeper changes in these characters that just make it so much more fun to read. And hopefully people pick up that and then pick up Dark Knight Returns or they pick up other dc. [00:53:17] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, the classics. [00:53:18] Speaker A: Yeah, it's helping all comics. I think it's helping comics in Kickstarter. It's helping comics in the comic store. My, My buddy lives in a new shop that, that he doubled in size and he says it's not guaranteed that income would go up, but, like, income has gone up because of, because of things like absolute and stuff like that. And it also. Some people buy the coffee off the shelf because you don't know how much it's going to be worth after the fact. [00:53:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Or if it's even going to be there, you know, five minutes after you look at it. [00:53:45] Speaker A: Oh, it's insane about the number of things where I was like, I like White Sky. I actually read the comic ahead of time and I was like, cool, I'll go pick this up on new comic day. And I forgot to put it on my poll list. And I went in there. He's like, yeah, we don't have any. Like, what? Like, yeah, it's like a $70 book now. And I'm like, what is going on right now? [00:54:01] Speaker B: Yeah, that and dork. [00:54:02] Speaker A: And yeah, the whole. Well, it's like, it's a way. Someone asked me the day about during the pandemic, variants were like that thing where people were like, it's just, you make money, you can pay your mortgage on buying and selling variants is insane. And then it was like, now it shifted to this like, almost like stock market tree. I go almost like speculating, but on speculating on what comic book's not gonna be ordered a lot. Instead of like the quality of the comic or the COVID of the comics or anything. Like that's like what stores are gonna like not take a risk on this comic. That's the one that we're gonna pick and that's the one that's doing well because like White sky and Dork and Nectar was the other one that was like people didn't order a ton of, from a kind of unknown people. And that was the ones that like, I'm like, but I want to read this comic and stop making it a $40 comic. I don't want to pay $40 for a comic that's worth $4. Come on. And even, even the websites now say beware of these things. Like, like, don't, don't play into it. They're like, almost like do what you want. But like this is not something that's normal. So please do not go out there buying forty dollar comics that are going to be three dollars next week. Just be careful on that. But it's a, speaking of variants though, but I wanted to quickly finish up here. Is your cover, your, your cover B. Is it the one that says how to draw Rascal Randy? That is phenomenal. Like, that's like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm usually a cover A kind of person and then there's a special cover B or whatever. C. I'm like, I'm gonna be buying B as well because that is like, that's so cool. I don't know what is that? Just, is it gonna be similar like that? [00:55:28] Speaker B: The. So the A covers by Dylan are all sort of like, you know, they're the state. They're what an A cover should be, which is, it's the character. It tells you what the story is or what it's going to be. And then for my B covers, they're like, you can do whatever you want. And so I was like, okay, I'm kind of going to do these weird sort of in world covers. And so like the how to draw Rascal Randy is like, oh, that's just like a how to draw. But then we got, you know, the blood that makes this thing. And then the second issue, which I can talk about just because I think it's been solicited, is sort of a pastiche of all the Life magazine with the creator of Rascal Randy sort of posing with his original creation and that's that. And then, you know, we keep going. The fifth cover is I, I oil painted a rabbit. Like the fifth cover is a full oil painting of a, of a rabbit wearing the costume as like Almost like a baroque piece of art. There's. What. What are the other ones? [00:56:22] Speaker A: The. [00:56:22] Speaker B: Oh, there's one of him. Yeah. Holding hands with a child as they go to the fair together. I don't know. They're really fun and they're different. So those ones was fun because they were kind of like, you can do whatever you want. So I was like, okay, I'm going to take Randy through these weird sort of different sort of in world things that maybe like, we can't. We wouldn't normally touch on, but they can act as sort of. You know, when I mentioned the Al Columbia thing, right. Where it's. You see them and then they create a story within your head separate from what we're telling in the book. But they sort of add hopefully holistically to the. The world we're building. [00:56:58] Speaker A: And the 1 in 25 variant of number one by Javier Polito is the. The Pez dispenser with the teeth in it too. Like, that's also like super creepy. Like, in a sense that, like, it's like, I understand it because obviously there's a lot, like, if you read the comic, there's this like history to, to the collectibles and things like that around it. But I was like, but when you open it up, there's like these little teeth inside of it. I'm like, that would be. Oh, my God. That would scare you. That'd be. [00:57:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, Polito, he's a genius. I love that man's work. [00:57:24] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And that, that's. That kind of stuff. That, that's the kind of stuff I really like. That's why one of my favorite artists is Michael del Mundo. And the fact that, like, he's phenomenal artist, but also like, the. What the. How his brain works in a way that he's like. One of my favorite covers is the Darth Vader cover where Anakin Skywalker's like, in the mask of Darth Vader, like, he's in prison. And I'm like, first of all, it's phenomenally created, but also like, how the hell did you freaking think of that? Like, how did that get in your mind, like, in the first place? And then to be able to take that and put it on paper, I was like, you suck. And I also. What do I always say to people? And he's also not bad looking. So he's got everything. What the hell's going on here? Yeah, for the rest of us. Yeah, exactly. Save some for the rest of us here. [00:58:05] Speaker B: Raphael. Grandpa. These guys Are Adonis's and also can draw. Draw circles around most people and like, [00:58:10] Speaker A: and like think of these cool things and they probably can write well and they just don't. And so like, it's like we save some of the. For the rest of us, but yeah. And you also had. You just finished up Phantom of the Opera, Universal Monsters, which is like, awesome. You know, I wanted to talk a little bit. We want to finish this up here quickly. But like drawing Big two or writing Big two comics like Marvel and dc, you're obviously dealing with some iconic characters. But like, this is an iconic character. Like, this is an iconic story. Was that I'm guessing was fun. [00:58:40] Speaker B: I loved it. It was. It was. As soon as they announced that Universal line, I so desperately wanted to do one, but I never, I never vocalized that. I sort of just like almost like Oprah. The secret of it in my. In my heart. And then, yeah, to get the opportunity to do that, especially on a character like Phantom, was. Was awesome. It's. There's. I getting to do it with Martin too, in a way where it's like, okay, I have somebody who I know is gonna hit these things hard. And so making sure to like, leave him room where, say, people don't even people who are Phantom fans who maybe don't like the take I would bring to it, they'll at least get these gorgeous Martin images. And so making sure we set that so it's like no matter what they'll be satisfied with, they'll be like, well, I don't like that he did X with this, but at least we got this cool thing. But it was great. I mean, we. Universal really wanted us to sort of hem to the 1943 version instead of the Lon Chaney twenties version of the film, which was great in the sense that it opened up the opportunity to do like, okay, well, then we can take that sort of skeleton of that movie, but like, let's do our own thing with it. And so we got to lean into. You know, I went and was reading versions of the script of that movie that didn't get made and pulling from that as well as the book as well as. You know, there was one version that almost feels like it would be like of that script that would be like a contemporary a 24 movie where they were going to take his mask off and he was going to be completely unscarred, but he would have been in the war and his PTSD internalized. He'd see himself as the monster. And I was like, they were Writing this in the 40s, that's pretty good. Like, I was like, a 24 would put that out today. [01:00:20] Speaker A: Yes, it should. I'll tell you that right now. It should. Yeah. [01:00:24] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, I think Guillermo del Toro is doing a. Is apparently working on a phantom meditation. But no, Phantom is so iconic. And to get to touch on it a little bit and put me and Martin be able to put a little bit of our, you know, our version of the character out there and the story. Yeah, I'm immensely proud of that book, and I can't wait to get my hands on the hardcovers of it. I have all the Universal hardcovers, and I guess I just saw there's. Yeah, there's. There's Martin's a cover, but there's also a Danny B. Cover. And I was like, okay, both of those out. But, yeah, I'm immensely proud of that book. [01:00:57] Speaker A: It's. I was looking forward to all of them, but in the same sense, it also, you know, like, one of those commitments. You're like, okay, I'm going to do this. Like, the other day someone came into the shop and was like, I'm going to collect all those Magic the Gathering covers. And then after the. After they're like. Like, realize it's like seven a week for like four weeks. Like, oh, shit, I have to commit to this now. I was like, I committed to the hardcover Universal Monsters now. And I'm like, every single one now I need to get. Because if I don't get one now, it's going to stick out in my shelf here. And then I was like, okay, they're all excellent, too. But it also reminds me a lot of, like, what this exquisite corpses is. Is like, it's like Universal Monsters, but by a group of people. Because, like, obviously Martin and James and all a bunch of these people have worked on multiple ones. And it's really cool to see that and moving forward to see, like, it's like this again. Like, it could be like the Universal Monsters crew, in a sense, for these books. Each individual series is done by a different group of people. But it's like, it does seem like with James doing a couple and so on and so forth, it's really kind of a cool thing. And I think it's doing well in a sense where some people have missed a little bit on Universal Monsters in the past. Like, this is actually doing. All of them are amazing. And I can't wait. There's more coming, which is amazing. [01:01:59] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I got to read the first issue of Blood of The Wolf man from Leo Max and Josh Williamson. And it's such a different take, and it's so fun. That's the other thing that's great about him, too, is each one is its own. Invisible man is sort of a prequel to the movie. And Dracula is Dracula straight, but it's told from Renfield's point of view. And Creature from the Black Corn is a sequel. And, you know, our Phantom is, you know, a pretty. We're doing Phantom. We're doing just that story. But we're going to. We're going to make it a horror book, and we're going to. That is the, you know, and really try and do what we think is the idealized version of what a gothic horror phantom would be like. That was our edict from Go was like, that's what we're going to try and do. And it's great. You know, Alex Anton, the series editor, you know, he. He really is there to champion your vision and help build it up. And there's. There's one more that I know of coming after Wolfman that I think fans could probably guess and will be really excited by. And the creative team on it is so exciting. Like, it's. People are gonna be pumped on it because it's like. It's like, oh, yeah, of course. Like, this is. [01:03:08] Speaker A: It makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:03:10] Speaker B: It's. [01:03:11] Speaker A: It's fun. And like I said, I think it's one of those things that, like, you're gonna get longtime fans of these things and newcomers to do it. And again, to me, and is also the side of, like, I'm a big fan of Tyler Boss. I'm going to buy. Even if I don't know much about Phantom of the Opera, I'm still going to, you know, like, there's this, like, multiple facets that draw these people in. And again, artwork by Martin. It's just this. It's phenomenal. You can't get, like. It's like. It's amazing in that sense, too. So that's September. September 23rd, I think, is the date for the hardcover on that. So you want to tell your LCs to grab that. Make sure you get that cover from that. And then you'll Do Bad Things is available now in trade. So grab that, too, as well as. If you can grab Four Kids Walk in the bank. Try to grab that. No, unclear. [01:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:53] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And obviously there's. What's the furthest place from here? There's all kinds of stuff we could say. Just go to your local comic book shop and Say, hey, can you guys, like, put into your ordering system Tyler boss and anything that he makes, I'm going to want to bring it. No. It's exciting. And then, obviously, Exquisite Corpses, volumes one and two are out now. Volume three is coming soon. It's actually not that far away, I don't think. Even though the issue just came out. [01:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I think maybe what is it? Because there's a break. Maybe it's June. I don't know. [01:04:21] Speaker A: I'm gonna look it up. Look at. I have it. I have the ability to do this trade Paper x. We have volume August 19th. It's actually not that far away. We're not that far away, which is great because I feel like there is this certain publishers, certain things. Certain things where it's like, issue 13, history rules. Eight months later, like, you got the. Like after the. The momentum of the actual series is over, then the trade comes down. You're like, ah, it would have been nice to have that out, like, while people are still, like, amped about it. But you also don't want it out, like, next week. So people don't buy single issue 13 because they could just buy the trade. So there's that just by the trade. [01:04:54] Speaker B: Yeah, but, yeah, you know, you'll. There'll be a. There'll be. What is it? Because we're in. Well, we just entered June, so, yeah, there. There will be no exquisite corpses for June after basically one being in shops for a straight year. But Rascal Randy will be out. Number one will be out next month. And then I guess they're actually. I. Yeah, I think they're staggering the solo series in them, too. So I think by the time we're on issue three or four is when the first issue of Fox Mask comes out. So Shay will have absolute Catwoman and Fox Mask, and that should be pretty cool. [01:05:25] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. And it also is pretty cool because I believe, now that I think about it, we're past. Or by the time this episode airs, will be past FOC for issue one, but issue twos, foc, because I think Rascal Radiant number two doesn't come until August or does come out in August. So actually it's July 20th or something like that, so there is, like, enough space in between issue one coming out and issue two coming out, which I actually love sometimes. Now, I see nowadays where they're like, foc for issue two is today and Wednesday is the first issue comes out. Yeah, it's like, what the hell? I wouldn't even know I wanted it. But, you know, have Some faith and just do it. No. Yeah. July 8th is when Rascal Randy comes out. So it also gives you opportunity to catch up on your reading. Exquisite corpses. If you aren't read up. Kept up to this right now, you can read all that. And again, if you're waiting for volume three. I understand people want trades. They want to be price conscious. I understand. Just go to your local comic book shop and buy it. And actually trade paperbacks you can get at your local bookstore, too, or a library. If you tell the library, I want this. That's also good for comic books. But, yeah, that's awesome. So congratulations on having a child. That is a fantastic. That is way more cooler than comics, I'll tell you that right now. Not just coming from a dad. Even though you did none of the work. No, you did the fun part of the work, not the hard part of the work. [01:06:44] Speaker B: I stood by and said, yay. [01:06:46] Speaker A: Yay. Well, actually, a funny story quickly is that I actually bought a comic book while my wife was pushing for the first time because I. This is the story she knows. And she. I had no. The nurses there, and everything was so new, and no one was communicating anything to anybody. So, like, I thought she was just sitting there, and I'm like. I don't want to be right on top of her. So I went and sat down and I got my phone out. And then, like, I'm, like, literally checking out and like, push. I'm like, oh, shit. [01:07:13] Speaker B: Like, what's going on? [01:07:13] Speaker A: Why didn't someone tell me? And so, like, it's been a joke ever since that I. It was a Joseph Schmolke book. Book. It was. It was something to do with Joseph Smokey here in Maine. So he's get the credit for that. But, yeah, I should have named my child instead of Nova. [01:07:25] Speaker B: I should. [01:07:25] Speaker A: I guess I should have named him Joseph because of that. But no, no. [01:07:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:28] Speaker A: I stood by you, definitely. And it's a lot of work. I said infants are a lot of work. There's one of the reasons. One of the main reasons we only have two. We didn't go for another one. Is that the work between ages 1 and 2 or 0 and 2 or. It's a lot of work. And so, yeah. But, yeah, it's a lot of work to do, but it's fun. And. Yeah. So congratulations on that. Congratulations to your part. Partner in crime there as well, because that's. It's a lot of. A lot of work. But it's fun. It is. It's gonna be. And I Just can't wait. Like I, I want to share so many of my comic book passions with my son. Like, but like 90 of it's horror and I'm like, I gotta wait again. Like he just watched Star wars, the first Star wars because he went to Disney World with my parents and so he, he had to go to the Star wars universe down there. And so he wanted to watch Star wars. And he actually was like at four, almost five years old, he was like riveted to the screen. I was like, interesting, interesting. This is like a lot of talking. There's not a lot of action. There's a lot of talking in Star wars. But yeah, it's fine. So congratulations on that for sure. But also congratulations on all the exquisite corpses stuff and Rascal Randy coming out July 8th. You'll do bad things is amazing. And the Universal Monsters, Phantom of the Opera. So pumped that those are all out and you're doing such a good job. I want the next illustrated book from Tyler Boss, but it's coming. [01:08:38] Speaker B: It's. We're still trying to. We're so we're finishing fur this place just quietly. We're just finishing all of it and then we're going to release it. We got some. Me and Matt got some other things too that should be pretty fun coming. But yeah, another. There'll be a couple of. There's a. I'm doing a one shot that I'm both writing and drawing for a series that'll be out. Actually, I don't know when they'll be out, but it's coming. And yeah, no, it'll be. There's a. There's a bunch of stuff coming. But yeah, one, we did the story you just told about your kids with Star wars and going. We took the boy, he's what, he just turned five months today. He was a New Year's baby. But we took him to a, like a, a horror convention in a hotel yesterday where it was just like, it was like a B horror movie thing where they had like, you know, like actors from there where it's like, oh, they were in, you know, Slaughterhouse 25. Like get your signature. And so it's just like us with the stroller walking the, the kid around to be like, look at it little one, look at this severed head on it. And me and my wife going over the vinegar syndrome table being like, well this one looks pretty. So. [01:09:47] Speaker A: Well, it's like the whole Beethoven listen, have your kids listen to Beethoven. Is the same idea on the opposite side of like, if you want Your kid to be into horror growing up. After he gets older, he has to immerse him in it early because if not, then he's not. He's gonna be like, oh, scared of everything. Like, just immersive. [01:10:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:02] Speaker A: He's like, I have this weird memory of being in a horror commission when I was 5 or 5 months old. [01:10:06] Speaker B: Weird faces looking at me. [01:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's true. It. It was hard. My son was born in the pan during the pandemic. So, like, my son is like, was like, sheltered for the first two years of his life. Like, he didn't go anywhere. And my daughter is the one that's 2 years old who's like a minion and wants to like, crime over everything and, like, wants to be outside all the time. He's not scared of anything. And it's just like, how drastically different they could be. She'll be the one that's probably like next year or so be like, can I. Can I read some horror comics? And then my son will be like, oh, my God. Nightmares. But yeah, so it'll be fun. It's like I said, I. My buddy who runs a convention here in Maine, a bigger pop culture convention. I've had this conversation because he has a 7 year old and about how sharing your passion, your pop culture passions with these people, with your kids, it's like, it's just so much fun. Something like, my dad was into some things, but he wasn't really passionate about any, like, pop culture things. So, like, I didn't get that experience. And I can't wait to share that experience with. With my kid. I mean, your kid's gonna be like, dad, you write comics? [01:11:01] Speaker B: Oh, no, the joke. The joke me and. Me and my wife have because we're both artists, is that our kid's gonna be super into, like, private equity. Yes. We'd be like, we don't know anything about that, man. I'm sorry. [01:11:12] Speaker A: Like, very structured, very, very clean. Yeah, yeah. It's like, sorry. Yeah. No, that's one of my things. I'm like, so afraid of my son being like, Star wars is stupid. I'm like, oh, God, what the hell? No, it's fine. And again, they'll do whatever they do, but, like, being around it. I could imagine your kids being at least artistic, friendly. No one's saying they're tolerated. [01:11:32] Speaker B: They'll put it up. Yeah. [01:11:34] Speaker A: As long as they don't use a computer. Automated. [01:11:38] Speaker B: I'll get that. I'll help you get your blade. Run a replica gun off the roof. If you do some push ups. [01:11:43] Speaker A: As long as it's not AI generated artwork or artwork. Yeah, we're all good with that. We're good with that, right? But yeah, I appreciate it. We'll stop rumbling rambling on here. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule here, Tyler, to talk with us, with comics and so much more. We'll get you on again in the future to chat more stuff. But until then, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day. [01:12:01] Speaker B: Thank you, Justin. Thanks for having me. [01:12:02] Speaker A: Absolutely.