[SPEAKER_02]: What is up everybody welcome to comic book club.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am Alex and I am on the New York Comic Con floor at the IDW booth.
[SPEAKER_02]: They have a lovely side area where you can just sit and chat with lovely people like Patrick or Vath.
[SPEAKER_02]: Patrick, welcome to the podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello!
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for having me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I sincerely appreciate you guys bringing me on.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my gosh.
[SPEAKER_02]: So excited.
[SPEAKER_02]: We love the book.
[SPEAKER_02]: We love beneath the trees, where nobody sees.
[SPEAKER_02]: For anybody who hasn't checked it out.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right of spring, the sequel.
[SPEAKER_02]: I believe the third issue just came out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just came out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Back.
[SPEAKER_02]: We love everything, but I want to ask you about something else for us because the news came out in.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to say it was the Hollywood Reporter about the tree pole or we call it the tree pole.
[SPEAKER_01]: The tree pole?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys coined it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've not heard that yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, good.
[SPEAKER_01]: The tree pole.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's how I wanted to ask you about.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I was very excited.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a tree pole.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you can also call up beneath the threes.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was going either way out of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's totally up to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Trinkles like super fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I can top there right now It's quite good, but the thing that I was reading the article that was very excited to hear there's more because we love this series But then like buried fifth paragraphs like oh by the way You did the storyboards for weapons correct.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh no, I was a storyboarder on weapons.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't do them all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe I boarded the first section
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I boarded segment, like the gas station fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: If anybody's seen it, there's a gas station fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry to spoil you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there's a bit at the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: A tiny, teeny, tiny bit at the end that I afforded as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you, you have a background in movies and hard movies, but how did you get hooked up with that?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I, I've known that cragger for a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, um, and then he,
[SPEAKER_01]: like we I'd met him around 2008 I think 2009 and then it just threw friends yeah and then it wasn't until like I mean and I would see him around from time to time but he had then done barbarian and I didn't get to see an early screening of that so once it came out I saw it and I was like blown away and I was just I texted him and I was like excellent work I finally saw it this is like
[SPEAKER_01]: incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't even know what to expect in this blew me away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Congratulations.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he had said that he had a new script that is called Weapons and he I've read it and then he had asked if I'd be.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like your storyboarding now.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like yeah and this is like
[SPEAKER_01]: like right like before I had started beneath the trees and and he had asked if I wanted to board for him so I did and then and that was as far as I got and of course I mean 2023 is a crazy year then the industry there was the writer strike and an actor strike so
[SPEAKER_01]: stuff didn't get going and he I mean I don't even know like the trials and tribulations he went through to get that thing made But I I had done that segment and then I really got taken up with beneath the trees and Making the deadlines for that and so I couldn't continue I'm just curious because these were questions as soon as I drop that news and I'm gonna book club discord people were like
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, first of all, they were wondering about buying that art.
[SPEAKER_02]: They wanted to buy the storyboard.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I mean, like that, they're all digital.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't buy it, like they exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think they're technically property of like Warner Bros.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, I don't even know what I would do with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm like, I'm sure, maybe they,
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, I got to find a way to show them at the very least the thing that immediately came to my mind though that I was wondering about to loop back to the comic book is as soon as I heard the story words in my head What a picture was Julia Garner as a bear and I don't think that's what you did But how close was this style to what you do for something like that with to save the trees.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm huh
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good question.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not entirely my brain like functions differently when I'm storyboarding versus doing comics only because it's a different like like when I'm boarding all those shots for come up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those were those are created by Zach like Zach was like.
[SPEAKER_01]: and then I want to see this and I want to see and he was literally just telling me everything wanted to see.
[SPEAKER_01]: My job was just like making it so visually and then he would look at me like yes like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Excellent.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so because I mean the whole job, the storyboarding job is like you need to get the what's in the director's head into everybody else's eyeballs like is cheaply as possible and that's the drawings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so um, so style wise like it's it feels different than what I was doing with the teeth of trees.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but I feel like I mean, I don't know all that stuff is like swimming around my head on top of like the
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, hundreds and hundreds of movies that I've like grown up watching and whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like I'm sure like there's like stuff that I bet you could find stuff that Zach came up with visually that I'd boarded that you would see maybe in beneath the trees or even like other people's like like I saw a thing I didn't even realize it still I did it.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a call back to Psycho and issue three of right of spring that I didn't realize was I didn't even look at Psycho again, but in my mind I was like, oh yeah, this is like this scene, which if anybody knows like what they I'm talking about you'll know anyway, and so the the the moment kind of came up and then like I didn't realize when I've re-watched Yeah, Psycho recently.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like that was a very visually similar.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I did and it was like it's undeniable.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty funny
[SPEAKER_01]: But strangely Tony Fleese did the variant cover and it's a psycho this psycho cover and I don't think we I cannot remember if we talked about that or not
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, I guess it's kind of like just, and I mean, this complimentary, but like, it's a soup up there.
[SPEAKER_02]: It'll reference the 100% of the age.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's talk about Redis Ring of Anybody.
[SPEAKER_02]: As I read it, it's about a serial killer bear named Sam.
[SPEAKER_02]: Things have gotten very complicated.
[SPEAKER_02]: We've jumped a bunch of years into the future.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the things that I was really struck about this book, and I think the last time we talked was last New York Comic-Con.
[SPEAKER_02]: So about this, at least, before it had launched,
[SPEAKER_02]: is the differing perspectives.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like the first series felt very focused on Sam here.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the first issue, we're getting the sister of one of Sam's victims.
[SPEAKER_02]: The third issue kind of switched the focus around as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we're still on Sam a little bit, but what's that like for you when you're approaching the story, giving these other characters space, giving them time?
[SPEAKER_01]: It felt like if we didn't expand the perspective of the story, it was going to miss out on a lot of the ripple effects that we've had from the first book.
[SPEAKER_01]: So seeing how it's impacting Monica, obviously, was like a big driving force.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then also like Charlie's family,
[SPEAKER_01]: of his two children in his wife.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Pauline has a substance abuse problem with benzos and the son is now like a sophomore in high school and the daughters now in college.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like you're seeing how that trauma is impacted their family.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're seeing how also like how it's affected Birdie the turtle who's essentially an introvert now and is getting really into internet culture.
[SPEAKER_01]: But also like his
[SPEAKER_01]: like growing interaction with the nursing home that's nearby.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there was just these elements that were like, I feel like I would be, it would be a disservice to the whole story if we didn't, like let the story expand out to these other perspectives.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think part of it though is maybe holding back on Sam and that George style, like we've seen her?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's definitely part of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I mean, a big,
[SPEAKER_01]: one of the most compelling elements is like what the Sam have got like what is Sam doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that there's a she's obviously like manipulating Monica but like to what extent and do like what's the plan you know what I mean she's fascinated by her and also just by the the idea that the like for the first time has like had a window into the lives of the people that she's affected
[SPEAKER_01]: of family members from murder victims, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, for her, it's sort of like, it is a bit of that mystery.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it is holding that back.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the, I mean, yeah, we're definitely gonna see what she's got in store.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think there's an opportunity for her to change or is part of her psychopathy, psychopathy?
[SPEAKER_02]: I never don't want to pronounce that word.
[SPEAKER_01]: Psychopathy?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what the word is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Crazyness.
[SPEAKER_02]: It does that prevent that because she is this external force.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean like.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think she has it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think she's like she is she's sort of as stuck in and who she is as it could be.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I don't know that she's like.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that she can change, maybe, but I don't know what that would be, but I also like, I don't want to spoil anything, so we'll see it in a bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: You do change her physically though, because this is down the road, and at the very least, she has a little grey around her chin and fur, she's just like aging myself, like I'm like grazing the mirror now, and I'm just like, well, she's got to be older.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's everybody's hair is like a little different, it feels the same thing with, like,
[SPEAKER_01]: You're finding all these different ways to tell the story, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: That are outside of just the panel of the panel.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like what's inside the panel that we could change?
[SPEAKER_01]: But what's in the character design that we can help to tell their story?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like with Monica, like everybody's hair became a thing in this, this, like art, like Monica's hair is like a reverse ombre.
[SPEAKER_01]: She died, like her hair's white, because she's this white dog.
[SPEAKER_01]: But she had died at black, but then let it grow out and didn't care.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like that just felt like that felt really interesting and important to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then like
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, he started when he did pre-Ludium, which is the, that was that, like, Ash can little, you know, it's kind of like a prequel set in the 60s with a young Samantha fresh out of college, and her hair has like these weird bangs and like she's a little more fresh-based.
[SPEAKER_01]: She has like one less wrinkle around her snout, like there's little things that like,
[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of think I realized during doing the Ashcan that I was like, we have to watch her age throughout the course of this thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course at that time, I knew I was doing the next thing was going to be this set eight years further.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it feels like it's just like this necessary element to all of it for sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: one element.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know how much you could talk about, but really through me at the earlier issues that I see on this point is a regular bear wanders.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just because we have these talking animals wandering around, to have a normal bear, yeah, alarming.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's a meter.
[SPEAKER_02]: What can you say about that?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to be like too explicit about it, but it was like it's a thing that was sort of a sign of the times in this town, which is to say like we have like internet culture coming in and we have like globalization starting to happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: in commerce and in industry and then we also have like big box stores coming in and like there's land development that's happening and like it just felt like a natural progression to have like animals that were in town that were used because where they were staying like isn't there anymore the idea of having like the idea of having a bear out of hibernation that wanders into town is like a problem for the
[SPEAKER_01]: It was so on the nose, but at the same time, like this book allows for the cornyest takes, and it still has room for it, and so like, I very much like leaned into it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it's probably a little eagerly to talk about the three cool, so I'm not going to push you for too many details, but one of the things we talked about last year was, and I don't know if you use these exact words, but you don't want this to be dexter, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So going into a third series, how do you avoid that problem?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't what's the dexter, I haven't seen dexter, so like I don't know what the dexter problem is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I guess I've been like just always having being like,
[SPEAKER_01]: I know she's a hero.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I see what you mean.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see what you mean.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I most definitely have a plan for that, but I can't talk about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a, but it's, but doly noted, and yes, like, I, I, I,
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, even when I, I guess that's kind of why I feel like it's evolved in the second book because it's not like to me the bad version of this is going to be like, let's do, um, let's just do another murder thing and she almost gets caught or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to me, it was like lean into it and she's reaching out and we're, like, this is an orchestrated thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, to me, it's sort of the up and the expectation because it would be so boring to just keep the ball floating in the air.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, will they, will they find out what's happened and whatever?
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, that was the first book.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now this is a totally different situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel like,
[SPEAKER_01]: It's necessary for them to each have their different flavors for sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: I could have to let you go to second because there's a bunch of people who are waiting to have you sign at your place of books, but I didn't want to ask you real quick about in the THR story they also mentioned there's potential circling for like a movie or a series or something like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, I'm sure very early to talk about this, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you being a filmmaker, is that something you're potentially interested in being on the other side of not just take this and run with?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh no, yeah, I would love to be involved with it, and I sincerely hope I get to.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, I feel like if something does happen, I probably will be able to enjoy that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like whatever, like fingers crossed or something happens,
[SPEAKER_01]: If something happens, I'm not a part of it and totally fine too, but I, I mean it's weird, like, I'm trying to practice not being precious about something because I have this book, and I love the book, like I'm super proud of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that sense, like, if something happens and is completely out of my hands, that's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the same time, like, yeah, just because I have worked on things that I would love to, like, also join it on this part of the journey, like, I would very much like to be involved.
[SPEAKER_02]: Awesome, Patrick.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_02]: Really enjoying the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a pleasure.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, looking forward to the all animal version of weapons.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's be coming over.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just stand up to number one There is even I get again I want to be That no gold mine We stand up and it's in sales And it's in now Let's stand up and it's in now Let's stand up and it's in now Let's stand up and it's in now
[SPEAKER_00]: They sit on crappy couches and they let us see what we can And he's just a monkey, they're like fast, they're so fast So grab your ring, hammer, don't be late for it, hell fair