[SPEAKER_01]: what is up everybody welcome to comic book club of Alex i'm Justin and we got another bonus episode for you today with a great guest love talking to this guy he has a bunch of new things coming out but the big one we're going to be talking about is mind management new and improved number one which is coming out June 24th from Odie Press final order cut off
[SPEAKER_01]: is April 27th, so get in your orders.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, ladies and gentlemen, the creator of my management and many other things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Matt, Kent, Matt, welcome back to the podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: How's it going?
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for coming on early in the AM to talk about one of our favorite books.
[SPEAKER_01]: The return of one of our favorite books.
[SPEAKER_01]: to set this up a little bit more, we talked to you about this bit back at New York Comic-Con, so it has been a little while, but you are taking your Flux House imprint, moved it over to O'Ne and the two first titles are Mind Management, and then we're going to be getting for Psycho.
[SPEAKER_01]: Other dates I've mentioned, the other date I should mentioned,
[SPEAKER_01]: is free comic book today, which, if I remember correctly, is May 2nd, you're going to have a back-to-back special, a double-header special of both of those titles, which is very cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: But all that info out of the way, let's talk about Mind Management, because like the title says, this is Do It Approved.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you never read Mind Management before,
[SPEAKER_01]: based on the first issue without going to get to spoilers.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got a chance to read it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can jump right in.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know how to know anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Though it does pick up off the plot of the previous series as well in the status quo, what was important to you in terms of rebooting this property coming back to this property and saying, and I'm sure we could talk more about this, but saying new
[SPEAKER_00]: It was pretty tricky because I was never going to go back to it, you know, I always, but I kept having ideas for different things and different ideas that would be perfect for it, but I was like, I'm not going to come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when I only approached me, they're like, have you thought about it?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, yeah, I haven't literally no book full of ideas that I'm just sitting on, you know, because I was like, I don't,
[SPEAKER_00]: It just wasn't the, I don't know, just wasn't the right time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't feel like it was, it was a, I didn't want to repeat myself either.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how do you not repeat yourself?
[SPEAKER_00]: But also make it the welcoming to new readers and everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I figured out a way I have this brand new character called the eraser who basically wipes out all the history.
[SPEAKER_00]: So nobody, you don't need to know anything and readers don't need to know anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can come and do this cold.
[SPEAKER_00]: And have a fun, easy reading experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then yeah, go ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I was just going to lay out a little bit more of the plot for, and this is all out in the solicit info.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't think it characterizes as spoilers.
[SPEAKER_01]: But at the end of bind management, there was a big blow up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lots of characters died and went out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here we're picking up, I think years later, we're following two investigators who are investigating what seems to be somebody eliminating old members of mine management, which to take you for a broader view.
[SPEAKER_01]: Simplest version is it's like a psychic spy agency that they all have different abilities and ways of approaching that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that all seem fair?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or sounds like lies to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to infer and see him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: To get a little further into it, and this is brushing on spoilers, but you do set this up in the first couple of pages.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very current, like you're really responding and feels like to the world we are living in right now, and the overload of information.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to believe that was in part the inspiration for this book.
[SPEAKER_00]: That sounds horrible, nobody wants to read that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll show it's fine, if it's like during the great depression, musicals and fun things were like, that's the movies we're about, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what this is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a fun, like, detective murder mystery and we got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I, I, I, I, I.
[SPEAKER_00]: I found that I had to delete everything off of my phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to figure out, how can I make my phone stuff?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just the thing that takes and receives and gives phone calls.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I was going to ask you about that in your relationship with information overloads, sorry, to cut you off Justin.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you are actually deleting stuff off your phone.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think you're very active on social media either.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, don't tell me, social media person there.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's life like on the other side?
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, it's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was funny is like, uh, I deleted everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I, and then I still found, I found Reddit where it's great, because you can subscribe to like comic book things and whatever topic you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I don't, uh, post on it really, but I read read topics.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I realized that that was just filling the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: waste of time that all the other ones were.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I deleted that for like an hour.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need it back immediately.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's just funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like how sticky that stuff is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, man, I got a, I spent the first 20 years of my career not having a video game machine in the house, because I knew that if I did, I, that's all I'd want to do and I do that and I wouldn't make comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now we're all walking around with this thing that's even worse for your time management than video games And so it was tough anyway, that was that maybe was the inspiration or at least that like Yeah, I don't know it's just part of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's it to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's it's fun to sort of explore like
[SPEAKER_00]: what your brain does and that's my manager and it's kind of always been that for me is like how does that brain work and and what can we do and what are how can we fix things.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I mean, going off on Alex said like we've never needed mind management more than now like the overwhelm the like too much in sort of like clarity and moving through.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it does feel like Alex is saying a reflection of the time is, but I'm curious, is that reflected in your notebook that was building up to this?
[SPEAKER_02]: Were you writing down current things were because I also think there's so much stark imagery in this.
[SPEAKER_02]: It feels very like you had a vision for some of these and ended up becoming this first issue.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I have a, my idea is I honestly, I don't think in current events or those kind of, I'm always thinking like character kinds of characters, fun little plot points, you know, different, and with mind management, it was always like, oh, what kind of, what sort of abilities, what could you get your brain to do, like, you know, it's all relatively grounded.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody has powers, you know, everybody like works to earn the thing that they're using, you know, so in a way, I feel like it's,
[SPEAKER_00]: The things aren't possible, the things that it's like just turned up to 12 instead of 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: If tens of reality, this is like 12 or 13, maybe 14.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've talked about this before, so apologies if it's repetitive, but this book that you're writing and drawing yourself versus you've also been writing a lot of titles or at least it feels like a lot of titles are coming out all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's different about your process when you're doing something like this, something like my management where you're pulling double duty?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, really, if I'm not doing everything, I feel like I'm not...
[SPEAKER_00]: not every part of the book is being part of the story where what I'm writing, drawing and doing the design, all that, even the lettering, all that, I'm writing while I'm doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like if I'm designing the cover, that's the page one of the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: So whatever that is, that has to be, that's part of the narrative, you know, in the back cover, the inside front cover, the, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: the lettering, if I have put stuff on this, you know, as I'm lettering, I get bored.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, wow, I could lay us some extra things in here to sort of create another reality or do something interesting with the layouts, all of its story-driven stuff, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of that, again, like, I'm going back to the notebook question you had, I don't think I fully answered it, but a lot of those ideas are like formulas ideas.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, what can we do in comics?
[SPEAKER_00]: What have I seen yet?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be bored.
[SPEAKER_00]: reading it, and I don't want to be bored making it, and I want to try to do something the least done before, so a lot of it's that kind of stuff, and some of it's, there's a character initiative for that really the whole first three issues is building up to this character we don't see until it's you for, and then
[SPEAKER_00]: And that character is an idea I've had for a long time that I didn't even know it was going to be mine manage But I thought let me listen to the spirit's own thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's it's it's a kind of the Star has a dark sort of twist to it, you know, but I think it was also funny Funny and horrible, so yeah, I do feel added.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you feel added pressure with this book specifically to push the form like you're saying like this feels like the home in a way
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, the pressure with for me was like, don't do the same thing again, like I know there's a lot of gimmicks and everything and I share a studio with Brian hurt my collaborator on Fort Psycho and he's he's uh, he's always like, oh yeah yeah you're probably is whatever you're going to hold up to light and there's the secret code or you turn up right down.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just roasting you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's like it's.
[SPEAKER_00]: all the stuff that I can can be crutches in my wife's always like don't if that's a crutch don't do that you're using as a story crutch and I was like no no I know no these are all valid valid concerns you know I like the harsh sounding boards around you know he doesn't say is a creator if you if you can't have people around you that are can just tell you are in the barnis truth and then and you be able to take it
[SPEAKER_00]: more valuable than anything you know I agree with you completely I like harsh notes and my wife is also good at giving them yeah I know it's great and it took me a while to learn it's it's uh there's a skill to taking criticism or feedback you know and uh yes so so there is that concerns like I don't want to do this because uh just just to do it or just to be it had to be story driven and all those ideas
[SPEAKER_00]: like the story and the character and that kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there are some similarities to the first series, but I wanted to try to do something different and new.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm subtly doing it and I'm doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sort of in more subtle ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like even the storytelling, I wanted it to be,
[SPEAKER_00]: Something where you could never have read nothing before and then you pick up this you want you like Oh, it's a murder mystery and there's two detectives.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all these super recognizable tropes of Kinds of fiction that we enjoy you know that are sort of put together and it's like the guy in the girls like are they are they falling in love Is this gonna be like you know I'm trying to I try to pick them most like comfort food kinds of story ideas to
[SPEAKER_00]: plant at the beginning, so that not the time you get to use you for 5-6 year, but it's good to not have any idea where you're headed and wonder how you got there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's interesting to hear you talk about troops.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been talking about a lot of your work lately, and I know you're wrapping up a bunch of your stuff at Dark Horse, but a lot of it feels like riffs on other things, like as we're taping this night city, just wrapped up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the way that I was pitching that when we were talking about an overview podcast is that it's sort of what if Superman fell asleep and woke up as Clark Kent.
[SPEAKER_01]: like that's that's sort of the idea but then it goes into other places and goes into other thematic places that you're dealing with the same time mine management seems a little different but when you're approaching some stories like this what what do you start with do you start with like thematicly what you were dealing with and say a night city or fort psycho is a riff on g i j i what I believe and things like that or do you start with like what if it was Legion of Superheroes but a little different
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, uh, it's just every story is different.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was just what's run the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: It real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, I'll say the base got was a Legion of Superio story that they were never going to let me do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was like, well, I'll just do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Night City was, uh, I don't ever have no desire to write Superman or do any of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, uh, but I, I was like, oh, it would be fun to steal my other idea of revolver.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you ever read the graph now will revolver.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did it where to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, I'll never get the rights back to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was like, I'll just steal my idea back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Make a different book and have Superman in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, uh, these are very, I'm boiling this down to like,
[SPEAKER_00]: But like there's a lot more that goes into it and that kind of thing and then uh, well, the other one you said, that was what you got for a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that one is just abacked into into that idea because it started out as I just wanted like these all these retired super agents on an island and then one of them's the bad guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all the good guys that sort of get falsely accused of war crimes and they put on the island.
[SPEAKER_00]: But oh, they,
[SPEAKER_00]: one of the bad guys is on there and the guy they've been trying to find this whole time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that was the original pitch in the plot of the whole story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they're just trying to find which one of us is it, you know, that was the plot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when I started working on it, I was like, well that's going to be, I don't want to draw like just people in prison suits on an island the whole time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was going to draw this also.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so I was like, well, how do I, what do I do to make it more visually interesting?
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, oh, I'll do, I'll split it between them and the island and then the other previous adventures and all these crazy missions they went on, and then they can have color out, out of color full outfits and, and that's where I was like, oh, this is, this is like,
[SPEAKER_00]: my 13-year-old dream comic, you know, the flashback stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that wasn't, it never started with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was that was like, how do I make it fun to draw?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I share a studio with Brian.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was telling everything I just told you I was telling, I figured it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I figured out how to make this real fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, he's like, I want to draw that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then in our schedule just happened to work out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cooking up all the characters and the love of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, just to get back to it for a second, though, and use spacecouts as an example, and I know you're saying everything is different.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when does it go from, hey, I'm doing a Legion of Superheroes riff that's my own, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is sort of a treatise on the Forever War.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I don't think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think, here's what I will say.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think about the theme of a book or what it's about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Until I'm sitting in a convention and somebody comes up to me and they start telling me what it's about.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's sick, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is, you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, because I think if I did it the other way, it would just be too heavy handed or like,
[SPEAKER_00]: obvious, you know, and then I guess sometimes I look back and I was like, oh, it's obvious, but it's not what I was, but I was, I was seeing what the character and these cool things I went to have happened, and I wanted to do, I really wanted to do a kind of medium superhero story where, but like, like, some got a die, you know, and then I know and you'll lead to a couple of them did, and it was a big deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I thought that would be more interesting to have, so to make it
[SPEAKER_00]: like a competition, like a, and it was, a lot of it is stuff from there, but like I want to do it for real.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but what if we did it for real, and then what would that be like, what would the competition look like?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it would be more like reality TV, I guess, which also kind of enjoy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've, like if I enjoy any sort of subgenre as more than others, it's time travel, and it's
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I think those are my like two favorite things, you know, so spacecoats to me was like a great way to so scratch a couple of those edges.
[SPEAKER_02]: So do you, uh, these books you just described are, is this you emptying the bag or you like, oh, I want to do this all the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to take these, these larger ideas that I can sort of smash with a hammer and make my own.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's Boogie talking about?
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, those sort of small or series that are like this field concept, three concept driven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I think some of those are just like their fun ideas I've had and finally get to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, even mine management this character that shows up later, that was like a fun idea I had.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I want to do it actually I have, I have a lot lines for a book that's about this character and like,
[SPEAKER_00]: how he was trained as a child, I don't want to spoil anything about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the luckiest person on earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, how did he get to be the luckiest person on earth?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's trained in all these crazy horrible, horrible ways, which really is kind of a spoiler already.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I had a whole book about this guy and then I started on my management.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think
[SPEAKER_00]: element of this bigger this other story and I'll put him into it and it just makes this the mind management story richer because this is all these other back stories within.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does it feel like though letting go of that other story that because if you had been developing it, you don't care.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the idea this my life doesn't like when I say this idea is there a diamond dozen.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like and they really are.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like you I have no
[SPEAKER_00]: So every once in a while, a couple times a year, I'll pull all of the places I've written notes like from my phone and different random notebooks and pieces of paper, I'll put them all all in spot and I'll type it all up into documents so that don't lose it, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like there's so many in there that's like I'll never get to those and then I've already had more since then or even typing those up give me ideas.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, uh, to me, it's always just like, what am I interested in most right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then what makes sense?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, uh, and the good ideas, if they're good, those ideas will constantly, uh, float to the top, you know, and then eventually they'll get to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I have something I've had.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have this big master list, you know, and then some of those ideas have been there on there for like 15, 20 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, those are not, those aren't good ideas.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they're my little blankets that I tuck in at night.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
[UNKNOWN]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but interesting hearing you say that like you like this is the Legion story you never do they won't let you do a Superman story like this What is the idea that you're holding on to that you're like maybe they will let me do this one is there are there any like that in your one of your noble
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't hold on to ideas, yeah, if I have an idea, it's in the book, it's like, I don't know if you saw the Key and Peel Remlins 2's getting, they did where it was like, that's how I feel about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially with mind management, I was like, if I have an idea, while I'm drawing it, I'll just, I'll redo it and put it in there if I need to, and that's the fun, that's what keeps the interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, this might be more of a question for Hunter Gordon said, I don't know, involved you or this, but they're really pulling out all the stops with advertising, mind, management, a short version of what I've seen so far.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was an ad campaign on billboards.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know they had the leaflets that they passed out of comics, pro and other places where you can call a number and I did this.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was very fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: take a little of mine management quiz and then they start texting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Updates, there's also a blind bag program that is a little different that the usual blind bag program, including some covers that don't exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: What were you involved in any of this?
[SPEAKER_01]: And if so, what was the brainstorming process?
[SPEAKER_00]: I was.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hunter has been great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've worked with him since our valiant days.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and so we've always sort of got along and got each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, and I know he...
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a fan of my management.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're original series when it was coming out before he knew me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think there was instantly I like him for that, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we got one.
[SPEAKER_00]: He asked me if I wanted to do more.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like, he had come to me with a bunch of ideas that were ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was already inhabiting this world as much as I was.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it got me excited.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, yeah, this is,
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the vibe of this book is, there's like an absurdity to it, you know, in a very, like, craft sort of marketing to this very subversive organization and idea that works perfectly, you know, we should have an 800-dumper.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I wish I would figure it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd have it down here right now, flashing the phone number.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the number is in the notes, whatever, but please call it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's really funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, yeah, Bill Boards, they wanted to do skywriting.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, what's that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that message be, you know, it's sort of fun to like,
[SPEAKER_00]: inflict the idea of my manager under like a unsuspecting real public, you know, one of the beach gore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like, what is this?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's great for two reasons.
[SPEAKER_00]: One, if it's a theme of the comic and then the other one is it's maybe we'll get some new readers, you know, it's like a, I love comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: So anything we can do to pull in somebody who's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: What is this weird thing, you know, and it's just a good entry point for him?
[SPEAKER_00]: Last time we talked about the great entry point.
[SPEAKER_02]: Skyrette, how do you eigened the comics?
[SPEAKER_02]: Saw some clouds.
[SPEAKER_02]: We talked at New York Comic-Con.
[SPEAKER_02]: Last time we saw you about you just you have had so much coming out.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a big time for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it feels like now you're in it.
[SPEAKER_02]: How are you feeling now that the
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, writing is part of the bigness boy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm overwhelmed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like I was like thank God like Hunter and only they're doing such a great job of like running with that stuff and in making sure it's all working You know, so that can just write and draw I forgot here's the truth is I've I didn't do mind management again because I I after I did 36 issues where I was doing it all is writing drawing in King penciling
[SPEAKER_00]: watercoloring, lettering, designing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then every page of it was content.
[SPEAKER_00]: Inside cover is back cover, there's no ads.
[SPEAKER_00]: And monthly for three years, and then at the, I forgot how I felt after that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which was never again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, and then I forgot how much work that was.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now I'm like, I've just finished issue four is in the can, you know, and I'm like, oh my God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I forgot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Came back pretty quick, did it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we got right around, right around, when I finished this, you wanted that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, hey, you should two's about a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, oh my God, it never stops.
[SPEAKER_00]: It never stops.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you feel like you have another 36 issues in you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like my magic to do the truth or you're like, that's a good thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm done it for.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a really good question.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, I have, I outlined like two years worth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so let's see after that, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think this, this T's up nicely.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't remember whether it's to be with my management or forth psycho, but you recently designed a logo for 100% human-made to say that things are not made with AI.
[SPEAKER_01]: We exclusively debuted it on comic book club, which I was happy to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: What, I mean, I know what led to that, but I'd love to hear from you and what led to that decision to put that out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, I guess AI.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That tracks.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I guess part of it was I was starting the right mind management.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is an interesting story too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I started to write it and I'm like, how does anybody know anymore?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a lot of my ideas are weird and like just like,
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just, and I'm messing around with a lot of things, and I was like, how people, how people know that I'm actually making it, you know, I don't know how to, how to prove it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, how don't I prove that I had an idea and I wrote it down and I drew the thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's no way, there's no way to really do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: really.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I started to change my process.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now mind management, I write everything my hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have found my hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got into fountain pens as like a sign hobby.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't recommend it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of expensive.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really good to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I stopped.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have like, I have like, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: I have like 10 pens in my wife's like that's 10 pens and that's a good anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't use one of 10 and I agree You can't use more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't buy more than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the thing though, pens are a real bridge to watch is and that's where you guys really watch Yeah, I I know and that's even more expensive
[SPEAKER_00]: as I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I did what's funniest.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how those are connected, but I don't either have management story about it, but there's somehow there is.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I did, I dab briefly in it, enough just to get, I had to swatch, watch what I was in high school that somebody stole.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was like, I'm gonna fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna get, I want my watch back, but I bought the original and then they didn't update, so I bought that updates.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could have one way around when I don't mess up.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's as close as I got to watch.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna see if I have, do I have?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I have the books with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, so this is a different book, but I just buy these books now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's where I'm in the notes this book yet, but
[SPEAKER_00]: But then I just write it all out by hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: What's cool?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can pick, I got, I'm at my desk right now, but you can have all kinds of inks and then you can pick different colors.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I thought, well, this is the way I can show.
[SPEAKER_00]: If my first draft is from my head to paper with a pen, then I kind of have a receipt.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, you can see where I, you can see where I cross the thing out and then I'm like, bad, then work.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then eventually it gets typed up into a script that I can send to the editor
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but at least you'll see this first version and it's kind of cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: You get to see the very first draft.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and so that was part of the process that I just changed on my own because I was like, I want to be able to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: that people know that I'm doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then because it's so easy to just cheat.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't think it's great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I haven't seen anything come out of it that's been any good.
[SPEAKER_00]: But so that's where it started is like, I want to show my work.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to have receipts, show my math, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then,
[SPEAKER_00]: I did the first four issues like that, and then as I was doing it, or we started, I started design the cover and all these other things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, oh, it'd be cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: We should just have an ingredient label of some kind to show that like, what went into this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I was like, I'm doing it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, I, this being an label that says that, and so I think that's where it came from.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I started thinking about ideas like a lot of people have done like the AI with the cross to it and everything and I just feel like those things I don't want something that says AI on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It sort of helps the reverse in a weird way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's negative.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's such a negative thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems like.
[SPEAKER_00]: a warning label rather than something positive.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I'm on something that's like 100% organic or like all natural, you know, something that's a positive label that's, you can be excited about something you want to have a two-shirt up, you know, I'm like, you know, what a 100% human made.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that's where it came from.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where the visual came from.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I was like, I'll just put on my books
[SPEAKER_00]: how about we'd make it available for public use, whatever, there's like some legal term, or whatever, but everybody can use it on anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know that's awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, it's, I believe it's open source and it's under the read of comments.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, good.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have all the terms.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have the part because I've just had it.
[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, this is a little bit of a step back, and this is probably too much about myself, but whatever I hear about a writer writing something, like somebody says, oh, Matt Kent wrote this.
[SPEAKER_01]: In my head,
[SPEAKER_01]: Every single time I flashed like an old-timey picture of like Ben Franklin at a desk with a fountain pen You know, it's nice to know that at least this one time it's happening It's happening here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got I it's so funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about this stuff in a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look here's my pen It's a little pan carrier, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the box.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the box I can't go past so like this is all I get You have a pen jail.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is very specific.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a he's me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been grounded
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to ask you about the other side of the business a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, when we talked to you a year, a comic-on part of the deal with Fluxhouse was that only has the media rights to this stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: And throughout the years, there's been various stabs at-bied management.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Ridley Scott was going to maybe do a movie back of the day on Curtis Gwyn, who I know from like UCB stuff, but since he's got out to do like Walking Dead and Stranger Things and other things, I think it was going to do working on a film version as well in 2022.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are there any talks about that continuing either a fresh or from previous versions?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, it's definitely, it's been in the works a few times and then there's always talk about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the one everybody's excited to do but it's the hardest one to crack, you know, because it's the weird book and you want to stay true to the thing and then I want to stay true to some kind of picky about it, you know, I think some of those are really early stabs
[SPEAKER_00]: would have been bad, because three times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Although I will say Curtis has a best take.
[SPEAKER_00]: Curtis, I worked with him on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he turned in something that I was like, I was like, this is exactly exactly the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: He 100% got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the way Hollywood works from my experiences by the time you get a person in place and they get the thing and they get the take.
[SPEAKER_00]: The executive that was putting it all together is that a different place is like always not there anymore, and the new guy is like, I don't know what this is and then it's like I didn't make it so I don't want it so yeah, so that's literally what there's been a couple ones that are really close and they're they would have been good, you know, and then something like that happens it's not your control and it's like okay, we just seem to you need to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: quicker.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, well, everybody has their job.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's, it's just a lot of money.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we want to do it right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm fine being patient with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's crazy to spend a lot of time hoping a rich person keeps their rich person job.
[SPEAKER_02]: And being like, if this happens, these would be good for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're like, um, yeah, bummer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, it's funny as I've been doing college 25 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've been, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: To me like option money is like a it's like a nice little bonus check every once a while You're like oh good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can keep I can afford to keep doing comics, you know, it's yeah It's uh and then the other I get them around like I Because I think it's really easy to get distracted by all that too.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like oh You should do a nice and heavy off from meetings and then it's like they're trying to like
[SPEAKER_00]: Star struck you or something or I'll get you hyped up and they're hyped up, you know, and then it gets you excited and then nothing ever pans out or or it's just constantly in limbo and I think I was like, oh, that's just time that I could be making comics and guess what in comics, no one's I'm not getting another input, unless it's my wife saying, you know, don't do that thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: You always do and then, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: uh, nobody's bothering me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could, I unlimited budget.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can do whatever I want.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, uh, the older I get, the more I'm like, this, I picked a perfect medium to work in.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like so many creators are saying that specific thing now too, where it's like, I'll even people who are like, sort of in the Hollywood machine a little bit more, they come out of it and then they just do comics for a while.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then go back into a with another thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, you can't, it's just such a minefuck to be doing both at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, it's not tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a, I'll just branch off to Bezirker a little bit because I think that that can be perceived as like one of the bigger, like, oh, this is, they're doing it to make a movie or this of that or it, that's definitely on like a dual track that we're running with that book and I can promise you that I work with counter for like two or three years on that book and never once that we talk about what the movie version would be or what the TV
[SPEAKER_00]: They were at the door, everybody was at the door and we could kind of feel them there.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, pre-exex breathing heavy from another room.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was credited to his credit.
[SPEAKER_00]: He protected us so that it's like, there was no talking about any of that until we were until he was 12, script was locked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, that's really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: The bar thing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, and then let's adapt it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but I think that's uh, I was so happy that he was like that because that's how I've always worked.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we got along.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like if there's one celebs whose comic book creative bona fides have been proven, it's piano.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I feel like everyone's like, he seems to be really into this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, he, it's one of those were like, oh, he did a good job writing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I co-wrote it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I for sure co-wrote that book.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was not, it was not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That all the stuff is great stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is always great catching up with you before we let you go Obviously we've talked about a lot of things coming up everybody should check out mine management doing improved number one When it comes out, Joe in June 24th for Modi press but do tell your comic book shop You want to get it before April 27th so they can actually order it for Psycho as well is coming up and that looks great But anything else you want to plug anything else people check out obviously your social media which you're very active on but any other notes
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I'll say about the final order cutoff and mine management line, the foil bag.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the foil bag variant that's like a blind bag.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you don't know which one you're getting and there's a bunch of weird covers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: That one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, mostly because I think it's fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the foil bag, they pitched me this idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I grew up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I worked at a calm shop in the 90s.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I just remember,
[SPEAKER_00]: having to move fistfuls of oil variants and all these different, you know, and it's like, I grew up in that area and I was like, I, well, it makes me nervous, but I was like, let's do, so with with this, I think all the covers are really neat.
[SPEAKER_00]: and uh but the blood bag I was like let's make the bag have a story let's make the bag have value so it's not just the bag that like you're ripping off tearing away so the bag is like a thing there's like a story and some funny little mini mini pros thing on the back of it and uh and it's been a lot of time on the bag that's awesome by it just for the bag you know by the bag you're using the whole buffalo
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what that's my management in a nutshell.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Matt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much again.
[SPEAKER_01]: It always great talking to you looking forward to the rest of the run and everything that's coming out.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's just stand up to never get The reason they might get And I want to be That no one gonna mind With their promises And it's done now And it's done now And it's done now And it's done now
[SPEAKER_03]: They sit on graphic cultures, and they let us see the moon And he's a monkey, they let us special guests meet To wrap your brain paleo, don't be late, or it goes very well