Howard Berger & Marshall Julius: Making Monsters and Movie MagicThis week on Around the Galaxy: The Star Wars Fan Talk Show, Pete Fletzer an

This week on Around the Galaxy: The Star Wars Fan Talk Show, Pete Fletzer and Nick Mielke go behind the masks with two legends of practical effects and pop culture — Howard Berger and Marshall Julius, the creative duo behind the brand-new book Making Monsters (get it on sale here: https://amzn.to/3KFr47X ). 

Howard Berger is an Academy Award–winning special make-up effects artist and co-founder of KNB EFX Group, with over 200 film credits to his name. From The Chronicles of Narnia to The Walking Dead, Army of Darkness, and Kill Bill, Howard has helped shape some of the most unforgettable creatures and characters in movie history.

Marshall Julius is an entertainment journalist, broadcaster, and self-proclaimed veteran nerd whose wit and energy have made him a fan-favorite across the film and fandom community. Together, the two dive deep into the art, craft, and heart behind monster-making — and why these cinematic creations continue to captivate audiences decades later.

The conversation spans four time zones — with Marshall joining from the U.K., Howard calling in from a film set in New Mexico, and Pete and Nick running on early-morning coffee. The result? A lively, insightful, and often hilarious discussion about creativity, fandom, and the beauty of bringing imagination to life.

📚 Speaking of books — Pete’s own upcoming release, Who Owns the Myth?, explores why Star Wars means so much to so many of us. It’s part mythic study, part memoir, and part pop culture reflection — and it’s available for preorder now at WhoOwnsTheMyth.com.

🔗 Visit TheSSWNetwork.com for links to our socials, merch store, and ways to support the show — including joining our community as a patron through Join SSWN. 🎧 Sit back, hit play, and enjoy this conversation with Howard Berger and Marshall Julius — two masters of monsters, myth, and movie magic.


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(c) 2025 Pete in the Seat Studios

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
I know it's you know, you're You're in the latest
time zone right now of all of us, so I
wanted to make sure you were away. Get the very.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Least, just tell me to shut up. You don't have
to put on.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh yeah, we have, we have clips that once you
go to laws.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm trying to play you off already.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, yes, Galley, Welcome to Around the Galaxy, the Star

(00:48):
Wars fan talk show. I'm your host, Pete Fletzer, and
along with my co host Nick Milke, we take you
on a trip behind the Star Wars fandom, the people,
the stories, and the passion that keeps this galaxy far
far away alive. This week, we're getting a little monstrous.
It is spooky season, then, I mean that in the
best possible way. We're joined by two absolute legends of
movie magic. Academy Award winning makeup and special effects artist

(01:12):
Howard Berger and entertainment journalist, author, and professional pop culture
enthusiast Marshall Julius. Now, Howard's name might not be immediately
recognizable to you, but trust me, you've seen his work.
He's the co founder of the K ANDB Effects Group
and has been bringing nightmares and daydreams to life since
nineteen seventy seven. His resume includes The Chronicles of Narnia,

(01:34):
The Walking Dead, Army of Darkness, Kill Bill, Evil Dead Too,
and pretty much every movie where you've thought how the
hell did they do that? And then there's Marshall, a
man whose passion for film and fandom is as contagious
as it gets. He's a writer, broadcaster, quiz master, and
collector of colorful plastic things and an endless sort of
joyful movie trivia. So if you're not already following him

(01:56):
on Twitter at Marshall Julius, well what are you doing?
You're missing out on one of the most entertaining feeds
in the galaxy. Together, they've teamed up once again for
their brand new book called Making Monsters. It's a fascinating,
heartfelt look at the art and craft behind the creatures
that make movies magical, from the gory to the gorgeous.
They dive into how monsters are designed, built, and given life,

(02:18):
and why they continue to captivate us after all these years.
Now quick peek behind the curtain. This conversation was recorded
early in the morning for Nick and I, late in
the afternoon for Marshall over in the UK and even
further west. Howard was on set in New Mexico, so
four different time zones, two continents and one killer conversation.
And speaking of books, a quick personal note, My own book,

(02:40):
Who Owns the Myth, comes out on November eleventh. It's
part mythic study, it's part memoir, it's part pop culture reflection,
and it looks at why Star Wars means so much
to so many of us. Pre Orders are open now
at who Owns the Myth dot com and I can't
wait for you to check it out. Make sure to
check out the SSW network dot com for links to
all of our socials, show info, our merch store, and hey,

(03:03):
if you want to keep keep things going and support us,
well you can hit that Join the SSW Network button
to become a patron. Well, all right, it is time
to talk monsters, makeup and movie magic. So here, without
further ado, is our conversation with Howard Berger and Marshall Julius,
the creative minds behind making Monsters. We are joined by

(03:29):
Marshall Julius and Howard Berger, the authors of a brand
new book, I Hold It here in my hot little hands,
making monsters. Y. Hey, both of you have got it,
both got the copies, and uh, just I just got
to say I was telling that you got a copy
to Marshall.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
That's good, I do. I do.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
You must know somebody. We're joined by Howard and Marshall,
the authors, probably better than I can. Howard, why don't
you tell us just you know, what's the what's the
the elevator pitch, of whom Marshall? Of who Howard Berger is?
Actually should have to tell me who Marshall is.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
Oh god, I don't know who Marshall is. So strange.

Speaker 5 (04:05):
Kaine's guy that's been following me around for twenty two
years hugging me about writing books. So no, I mean,
I'm co owner of Kane the Effects grouping with Greg
Nikotaro for the last thirty eight years. And I've been
doing what I do, which is makeup effects and makeup
designer and department head for forty two years.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
You know.

Speaker 5 (04:24):
I started when I graduated high school when I was
eighteen years old and started working for Stan Winston on
aliens and it's been going strong ever since. So yeah,
I mean, I've done tons and tons of movies and
tons of TV shows, and.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
You know so much, so much.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
You know, I have an Oscar that I won for
in Our Jesus for Line Witch and the Wardrobe Chronicles
and Narnia, and then was nominated for Hitchcock, and you know,
heavily involved with the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and
Sciences in the Museum in la which is great and
which just opened up an incredible Jaws exhibit, which I'm

(05:06):
super proud of. Ye And but yeah, I mean, you know,
it's it's been a lifetime of monsters and movies, and
you know that's this is a book that I always
I mean, you know, our first book, Masters of Makeup
Effects was kind of spun off of a book that
I grew up loving called Making a Monster, which Sue
Roy and Al Taylor wrote, and I remember my mom

(05:28):
bought it for me for like probably for Hanukkah one night,
and that came out in the early eighties and I.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Just obsessed about that book.

Speaker 5 (05:36):
And that's really why I was like, oh, they should
do a sequel to this book, you know, a follow up,
and it just seemed to be perfect for you know,
the kid that walked around with that book in his
backpack for decades, right right, you know, and luckily I
met Marshall.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
But but yeah, no, it's.

Speaker 5 (05:52):
You know, it's been a life an adulthood of monsters
and creatures and makeup effects and running a giant, enormous
effects studio with Greg and yeah, it's been, it's been.
It's it's been wonderful. It's been a dream come true.
It's nice when you can, you know, have a hobby
and a strong interest and turn it into a career

(06:14):
is a really special thing.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
And yeah, yeah, I'm grateful every single day. Trust me.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
I wake up every morning and I'm thankful that I
get to do this, and I'm thankful to wake up
at four am and go to work, right, you know,
put in a good put in a good fifteen.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
To eighteen hours every day.

Speaker 5 (06:31):
But yeah, that's that's kind of me in a nutshell,
you know, I have I just have great people that
surround me, from my wife Mary and to my wonderful
children Kelsey, Travis and Jacob.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
And that keeps me.

Speaker 5 (06:43):
Going, you know, and they support this crazy life that
I've had forever and ever.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
So it's uh, it's super.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Nice, fantastic great And Marshall tell the world a little
bit about yourself.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
I am a professional appreciator. I suppose I I spent
years as a film critic, you know, the enemy, the
creative people, but it all came from a place of
kind of fan love and and you know, working with

(07:16):
Howard on these books has you know, given me more
of an inn. And now I feel like, certainly I
would not want to go back to being a critic.
I mean, I think that good film criticism has tremendous value.
But I think once you start working more with people
who are in the industry, you can't just then go
off randomly slagging people off anymore. It's just it doesn't

(07:40):
work like that. It doesn't, and that's fine. I think
that when you hit a certain age, I think when
you hit about fifty, if you've somehow managed to survive
as a journalist in this ever shifting landscape, then they say, okay, well,
now now you're entering your film historian phase, which sounds
particularly wanky, but there you go. Now I can and

(08:02):
now that's sort of sort of the space that I occupy,
you know, because I still don't have a proper job
and I'm not dead, So it's like they don't know
what to call me, so it's like, yeah, film historian.
I still call myself a word monkey. As you can see,
that's kind of my official designation. I just like making

(08:24):
with the words, you know. I just think I always
had had a knack for it. And if I if
I couldn't be writing, I really don't know what I
would be. Dying in a ditch somewhere.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
I think.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Service to fandom, you know, my whole life. I've just
grown up loving films and kind of genre TV. And
it's just you know, I'm a collector. Yeah, yes, yeah,
And it's just like everything is all part of the
same mad world. And since you know, we're talking about

(08:59):
families as well, it's like, thank goodness for my wife
Rutter keeping me a bit more grounded, because otherwise I
would be so away with the fairies. It would be
like I wouldn't even have a tow in reality if not.
I like writing books. I writing books with Howard. I

(09:22):
love writing books with Howard because we've made two books
that I'm really really proud of and I think we'll
stand the test of time and that you know when
you're when you're I will let you ask us some questions.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
But you're making it very easy for us.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
I think, I think, you know, for me, it's like
I think filmmakers, they want to make a film that
is special to people in a way that the films
that were special to them are. You know, It's like
you want to you want to make something that adds
increased adds to that continuity of like of classic films
or films that people love. And for me, it's it's

(09:59):
the same as an author. I want to write. I
want to write some books that people would love, you know,
the things I grew up with, some books and Howard,
did you know we all have things favorite books that
you know, if we would read over and over and
flick through the pages and that it would be like
it would be like one of the favorite things on
our bookshelves and we would just always have it out.

(10:20):
And I just always wanted to create something like that.
And I feel with masters and makeup effects and making
monsters that we've done that, and certainly the feedback that
we've gotten from people is so positive and nice and
feeling all sort of warm and fuzzy inside.

Speaker 6 (10:37):
That's greatout doubt, well, let's jump in there, because that's
a great way to transition into talking about this new book,
making Monsters. I love the tagline inside stories from the
creators of Hollywood's most iconic creatures.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
We've all grown up with monsters. We've all grown up
with these.

Speaker 6 (10:54):
Kinds of things as a part of childhood, as a
part of watching movies. Tell us about this book, Marshall'll
start with you. Tell us about this book, kind of
the inspiration behind it. We've tagged on it just a
tiny bit, but let's dig deeper into the genesis of
this book and.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Where we are, you know, started, and how you came
into it.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Well, Howard and I our first book was Masters of
Makeup Effects, and it's basically we interviewed just under seventy
was it Howard's under seventy people mostly friends and co
workers of Howard's, not entirely, but mostly people that Howard
had great history and working relationship with, people who were,

(11:31):
you know, kind of friendly and open to discussing, you know,
kind of every aspects of their kind of lives and careers.
And we had great success with that. It's very conversational.
It's just it's a collection of quotes and wonderful stories
and pictures. And when we finished that and the focus

(11:53):
was very much on makeup effects, so not just monsters,
but also age makeups, likeness makeups, and but you know,
the number one audience for that book are monster kids.
And so when the when we when we were asked about,
you know, doing another one, it was like, why don't

(12:16):
we just just just do monsters? You know, It's like
we felt like we you know, we've done make up,
like we really I felt like we kind of but
that people really loved on that, and we wanted to
do the same format. We love the interview for we
love the just the quotes and stories and pictures that
there's not a lot of fat there, you know that

(12:36):
it's just it's just cut straight to the good stuff
and the fun stuff. But we felt like we wanted
to do something a little a little broader, so we
did Monsters because this way and we can include things
that we weren't able to include in the first book,
like we couldn't do We couldn't talk about Ray Harroausen
in the first book outside of him being an inspiration
to make Up Masters, because it wasn't really it wasn't

(13:00):
about what he did, so it doesn't it didn't really count.
But for this book. He's got his own chapter because
we love Ray Harahausen and Ray hare House is incredibly
super important, I mean, probably probably more important than anybody
else in the history of kind of monster making in
terms of influence and and and and just pound for

(13:20):
pound creating more amazing filmmakers and inspiring more amazing filmmakers.
You know, I don't think you could you could beat that.
So and we were able to talk to, you know,
composers and Charles Bernstein who did the Number one else Street,
and Michael Gaccino of course. You know, it's just a

(13:42):
wonderful kind of genre kind of a filmmaker and composer.
And we were able to speak to writers and directors
and not just talk about monsters, but monster movies and
monster movie making and monster movie makers that inspired them.
And it's it's just like water monsters, every aspect of

(14:02):
monster movie making. And I've don't know if that's an
elevator pitch, because tall building by the time of the
end of that, but that's basically what the book is.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Howard, you want to give us some more detail your
perspective on the.

Speaker 5 (14:20):
Book, Absolutely, no, no, listen, it's it's it's fun because
you know, I have so many colleagues and friends and
so forth, and I felt like the both books Masters
and Making Monsters was a great opportunity to catch up.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
And you know, Marshall had been hounding me for years
and years and years.

Speaker 5 (14:40):
I'm probably like almost two decades to write a book,
and uh, that's what monkeys do.

Speaker 4 (14:47):
Yeah, they do stocking. And I just always was busy.

Speaker 5 (14:50):
And you know, when when the pandemic happened was when
Marshall's like, okay, you have no excuse, so you know
you're not going to go.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
Nobody's working.

Speaker 5 (14:57):
The world shut down, so that's the perfect time to
read out to all your friends and let's write a book.
So that worked out really, really well, and it was
super fun to talk to people, especially because everybody was housebound.
So it was like, you know, two to three hour
conversations with my friends and I really loved it and
I learned so much about each one of them that,
you know, it was more than I ever knew. And

(15:19):
then the publisher well back out of the UK reached
out to us, and our editor on Masters, Ross Hamilton,
was like, hey, they want you to do another book.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
It was kind of a backhanded compliment.

Speaker 5 (15:32):
They're like, we were really surprised your first book did
so well, and we're like, what, so what you.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Know, yeah, the most bizarre thing anybody's ever seen.

Speaker 5 (15:39):
Yeah, it's like, we were so surprised your book did
so great, and we're like, well, thank you so much,
and they're like, we want you to do another one.
So Marshall and I talked and talked and talked and
came up with this idea and we, uh, we waited.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
Till there was another pandemic, but it didn't happen.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
So we ended up utilizing the unfortunate actors and writers
strike that hit us, and we use that to figure
out the book really fast and then reach out to
like over eighty people or just about eighty people rather,
you know that that we really threw a very wide net,
you know, actors, directors, composers, you know, as Marshall was saying,

(16:18):
and and just and did it again. And it was
great because we were all out of work for the
most part, because we were waiting for SAG and w
GA to figure out, you know, what they're going to do,
and and you know, we had a lot longer time
to write this book. We had just over a year,
which was nice, but boy, a year goes fast, you know.
Marshall and I like, we got a year, We got

(16:38):
so much time to write this. And of course, you know,
two weeks before the books do the publishers like, hey,
we want the book now. We're like, but we have
two more weeks in our contract, like, we don't care.
So Marshall and I, you know, finished it off. And listen,
this book, both books, Marshall and I's fingerprints are all
over it.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
This isn't it. And it's really hard to write a.

Speaker 5 (16:57):
Book, you know, Pete, you know, because you have a
book coming out and it's it's like you said before
we started, it sounds like a great idea, you know,
before you start writing it, and you're.

Speaker 4 (17:07):
Like, there's a lot of work.

Speaker 5 (17:08):
So because Marshall's in the UK and I'm in the States,
you know, there's an eight hour difference.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
So I would get up at four am by normal time, make.

Speaker 5 (17:15):
A pot of coffee, hop on with Marshall and we
would have we'd review the pages that the publisher sent us,
that Ross sent us, and we would rework everything you
know that we felt because listen, nobody knows better than us,
you know, what the context should be and how they
should all go together. And they did their They did
a great job. It just sometimes things just the puzzle
pieces didn't quite fit. And so we literally would sit

(17:37):
there and go through the chapters that they sent us
and cut and paste on Photoshop and rework it and
like this goes here, this goes here, let's use this photo,
let's use this, enlarge this so it made more sense
to us, you know, And so we did that with
every single page so much so, which was nice. They
gave Marshall and I design credit, you know, along with
the designer, and that was great.

Speaker 4 (17:59):
We were real happy about that because I'm like, we
designed this, and that was Marshall.

Speaker 5 (18:02):
Marshall's like, hey, we we've spent every single morning for
like three hours to redesigning everything, so we should I
think we've earned it.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
And yeah, we were colossal pains in their.

Speaker 5 (18:13):
Yeah, I mean they must. The poor designer. Yeah, the
poor designer. I mean I think he hated us from masters.
We never met with him. I felt bad because he's
a really good guy.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
Ryan's a really good guy.

Speaker 5 (18:27):
But I think we just in his mind, probably you know,
bastardized all the work he was doing from from the
from the cover to you know, the last word in
the book. Marshall and I are like, nope, we're not
doing that. We're doing this so, you know, and.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
That was literally the back cover, all the words. Everybody,
there's nothing that.

Speaker 5 (18:45):
We just were like, yeah, because some people will write
a book and just hand it over.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
Yeah, that's all. That's all us.

Speaker 5 (18:51):
Figuring everything out, you know, And we really pushed it
down the publisher's throat.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
This was what I wanted, the actual headline, the.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
The the header of the book front.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah, and in the end they switched it around and
we let them have that.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
We let them have. But one thing, everybody loves monsters.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
I've actually never met anyone who said, oh I don't
like monsters. You know, from from the the you know,
the top to the bottom, you know, and it's like
people love. I mean, you talked to you know, you read,
you know, you listen to Steven Spielberg and he loves
monsters and and and you know, Gore, like, we did
a film called Amistad and we uh Greg Nikotaro was
on set for that and it was we handled the

(19:40):
uh portions.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
Of the mutiny in the beginning, and Spielberg could not
get enough blood.

Speaker 5 (19:45):
He just gets like more blood, more blood, you know,
great spraying blood all over the sale of it, you know,
and all that stuff and and uh crazy stuff and
guys are getting stabbed, and we had all these gags,
you know, and and he just was like a total
gore hound and he loves that stuff.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
But everybody does, I.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
Mean, even down to you know, Tom Hanks. I worked
on a film called The Green Mile and we were
talking one day about monsters and Tom Hanks loves Jason
to the Argonauts and he was a massive Ray Harry
Housen fan. Who would have thought, and he said that
one of his greatest things in life was to be
able to present Ray Harry Housen with his governor's lifetime
achievement OSCAR. And that was beyond thrilling to him. You know,

(20:24):
it was like, oh my god, I get.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
To meet my movie idol, you know, and this.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
Is coming from Tom Hanks, so it's it's super super cool.
You know, you just meet people when you're on set
and you know they're just like, oh yeah, crazy about
you know.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
I wanted to do that. I wanted to be a
monster maker.

Speaker 5 (20:38):
But I ended up being a giant you know, Oscar
winning makeup artist or actor, rather a giant Osco winning actor.

Speaker 6 (20:45):
So and there's a great picture of that in the
book of him with with Ray Harry Hausen and so
you captured y'all have encapsulated so many of these great moments.
And I want to dig in a little bit on
what you're talking about. You know, everybody loves monster. Looking
through this book, like, I forget how many monsters there are.
There's you know, the classics, there's the newer stuff you're

(21:07):
familiar with. But reading this book kind of activated that
part of my brain that remembered what was the first
monster I saw as a kid that had an impact,
And like probably the majority of people, it was the
creature from the Black Lagoon. It was the Gilman, right,
And so my question to you, and we're going to
stick with you for a second, Howard, but I want
to hear from Marshall two, what makes a great monster?

(21:27):
What is that thing that grabs you, that clicks, that
reels you in.

Speaker 5 (21:31):
Well, for me, obviously right away, like I'm looking at it, going, God,
that's super cool.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
You know.

Speaker 5 (21:37):
So when I did see the creature from the Black
Lagoon when I was a little kid.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
It blew me away, Like.

Speaker 5 (21:43):
I just I didn't think that it wasn't real, you know,
but I knew it. But I was so enamored with
how it looked and what it did, you know, and
how it moved and the silhouette of it.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
And I loved it so much.

Speaker 5 (21:55):
I was so obsessive that My mom was an artist
and she on a giant piece Butcher paper drew a
one to one scale creature from the Black Lagoon with
his hands up, and she put it on the back
door of my bedroom door when I was a kid,
and I would look at it.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
All night long, you know, and I loved it so much.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
I sure wish I had it still, darn it. But
it was really uh. I mean, they knew, my parents
knew I was crazy about monsters, So I don't know,
there's something about the creature. I just I love it,
you know. And then around the time I had seen it,
I went to my dad took me to this store
down in Hollywood, Hollywood, like cop magic and costumes or something,

(22:33):
and they had a creature, a dawn post creature from
the Black Lagoon head and hands. There was like forty bucks,
and I begged my dad to buy it, but we
were kind of poor when we were growing up, and
he's like, we can't afford forty dollars houred for a
rubber mask. I'm like, you know, I don't need to
eat for a week, you know, please, Dad. But I
was so fascinated with it. It was so beautifully sculpted and created.

(22:54):
But there's just something about it. I love the fact that,
I mean I look at monsters like they're victims of circumstance.
Like I don't ever think monsters are bad. I think
they just get you know, they get the shit into
the stick literally, like the creature was fine living in
the Amazon until these idiots show up and try to
capture them.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
You know.

Speaker 5 (23:10):
It's that's kind of the storyline with these poor monks.
I feel bad for the monsters. I you know, I
feel like they're my friends.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
You know.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
I have a huge imagination as a child and dreamed
of like knowing these monsters.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
And you know, I had all the Aurora.

Speaker 5 (23:27):
You know, monster kits on my shelf, and I had
like twenty creature once because I just couldn't get enough.
But you know, I don't know, I just there's something
about the creature's hands are really cool. He's got these
big claust hands are a little bit oversized, and I
love all the scales and I don't know, it's just
a perfect monster. And I'm kind of glad that they
have not remade that property yet at Universe.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
I'm fearful that they will.

Speaker 5 (23:50):
They'll mess it all up with like a CGI creature,
some shitty thing like that. I would like if they
came to me and said, Okay, we want to remake Creature,
how do you want to approach it. I go exact
same design, exact way they did it. It's a guy in
a suit, you know. And of course they'd say absolutely not,
because in their minds it needs to be something that,
you know, you need to come out and climb on

(24:13):
a wall and for no purpose at all and defy
gravity and physics.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
But yeah, I just I love it. But I just
love monsters in general.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
I mean another film I saw, which really I really loved,
and I just saw it again was The Thing with
Two Heads, you know, which was with Ray Milan and
Rosie Greer, and they had like two heads on it.
But there in the beginning of the film, there's a gorilla,
two headed gorilla that escapes and runs down Hollywood Boulevard
and it was Rick Baker in the suit. And when

(24:41):
I saw that, my brain was spinning. I'm like, oh
my god, look how real that is to it gorilla?
You know, you look at it now, and Rick like
really clues it. He even says like, I just I
got fun for from a fabric store and tried to
make this thing as fast as I can. But it's dynamite,
you know, And that really inspired me to So I
just I just all monsters are cool.

Speaker 4 (25:02):
I'm excited about.

Speaker 5 (25:03):
Things, and and even now, you know, like I love
seeing like when Guillermo del Toro does something like you know,
Ghirermo has this Frankenstein movie coming out in November, and
I saw him in July and he's like, oh, would
you like to see the monster? And I'm like, no, no,
I don't want to see it.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
I want to. I want to I want to see
it within the context of the film.

Speaker 5 (25:18):
I don't want to see, oh, this is what it
looks like in a photograph or whatever. So I'm super
excited to see that movie. And uh, yeah, anything that's that's.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
A fun film. And has cool stuff in it.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
One of the things that you wanted to do is
make a book that paid homage to the books that
you love, right, like the movie who Do I have
to say that, and Nick referenced it as well, This
book goes right brings me literally back to when I
was a child, not not just because of what's in it,
but because of the way I've been reading it. I

(25:48):
would love to tell you. We got the you know,
our copy from the publisher and I sat down and
I spent you know, ninety minutes just going through everything. No,
this has been a as Nick was saying before, carrying
it with me, leaving it in different places around the house,
taking the time to just you know, read one story
after another and look at the pictures. You have captured
that sort of thing from when I was a kid,

(26:09):
when I would have that book where we would get
so beat up because I would bring it with me everywhere.
And you know, for me, it was a lot of
the Star Wars storybooks and things like that. But you
said you wanted to do that. But was that a
conscious sort of approach to building this book, Like I
know how we were saying, you wanted to keep the
story short, But how did you go about sort of
deciding what was going to go where and how this

(26:31):
was going to flow.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
We had faith in the process that we would get
as many great people as we possibly could to interview.
We got many amazing people from our wish lists. Some
people eluded us, you know, some people are city or
you know, it's just not meant to be. But we

(26:56):
kind of trusted that if we talked more monsters with
as wider you know, with as wide a group of
people as possible within this, within this you know, sort
of more niche area, that we would sort of cover
all the bases. And uh, you know, we divided the
book up and by monster for the most.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
Part, and.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Rarely did I have to say, you know, we don't
have enough this monster, we don't have enough that monster.
Because if you everybody has favorites, and everybody has films
that mean something to them, and obviously all these people
worked on a kind of a wide variety of things, so
I was there was just I kind of hoped that
it would even out and that we were pretty much

(27:42):
touch on everything. But we haven't even started talking about
Star Wars yet, obviously.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Well, and that was going to be that was gonna
be my next transition.

Speaker 6 (27:57):
The passion that you both have comes through in the
pages of this, and I think, to echo what Pete
said about the different kinds of books. You know, this
gives me those vibes of the Star Wars books that
I loved as a kid and as I got older,
Like one of my favorite books still to just pick
up and leave through is the Lucasfilms Archives book because
I can see, you know, it's the segments, it's the

(28:17):
little bits that you get to consume it along the way.
You're not drawn into a big, multi page something. It's
little bits and stories, and then something clicks in your
brain and you go back to it later because you're like, oh,
I saw a show, you know, with the Bride of Frankenstein.
There's something in that book. Let me go back and
read what they wrote about it. It's such a great
way to do it. I do want to because you
said the magic words, Rick Baker, I do want to

(28:39):
throw and I'm gonna throw this one at Howard. Obviously,
we're a Star Wars leaning show. That's what we do
around here. Nineteen seventy seven, Star Wars comes out, and
you know, Rick Baker works with the CANTEENA and that
was something that we've seen monsters along the way. We've
seen you know, scary movies and different things, but that
to me, certainly as a kid, was just a whole
other world, like everything opened up and there were all

(29:01):
these monsters, all these creatures.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
Howard did that have? You know, was that an inspiration
for you?

Speaker 6 (29:06):
You know, in your honor as far as going into
the career that you have talked a little bit about that.

Speaker 4 (29:11):
I mean you you.

Speaker 5 (29:12):
Talk about it like it's it's pretense, but it still
is a huge influence. But also, let's not forget we
have we talked to Phil Tippett, you know in the book,
and I mean you talk about them, the Star Wars,
so you know, talking like like Marshall was saying about,
you know, American Wilworth and Thriller with John and Rick.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
You know, here we got to talk to Phil and
Rick about Star.

Speaker 5 (29:33):
Wars and listen, Star Wars is I'm right now, I'm
on location in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It's you know, you
guys have super cool backdrops.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
I have a boring kitchen.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
Uh, but if I was in my at home, in
my office, you would see all my Star Wars helmets
and my lightsabers and my Just monsters and just all
that I have.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
I'm obsessed with Star Wars. We both know when I saw.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
When I saw Star Wars, my dad took us to
the Chinese theater, you know where it opened, and I mean,
I had heard so much about it, and my mom
had bought me the to the two record set album
for my birthday before, and I listened to it till
I mean I still have it, which I love, and
I still play it on my on my player because

(30:22):
it sounds great with all the little pops and hisses
and all that stuff. But I really listened to it
and tried to like imagine what this movie was. And
plus seeing the Hildrand Brothers poster, which is you know,
I love that poster and Jaws poster. Those are my
two favorite movie posters of all time. I think they're
incredible and your brain spins when you look at it,
and especially the Hildebrand Brothers.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
The colors are incredible and I'm like, what is this
movie about?

Speaker 5 (30:45):
And there's a guy in a giant helmet and anyhow,
when I saw the movie, I just I was you know,
googly brained. And of course the Canteena scene is incredible.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
I love it.

Speaker 5 (30:55):
I love it so much, and it's so fun to
hear the stories of like it was real haphazard and like,
I don't know, we'll make some masks, you know, and
and Rick Baker, you know, and his crew, Doug Beswick
and all those guys you know, made all these masks
and working with Phil Tippett. My favorite creature in the
Canteena is the devil that quick shot and the devil
looking around, which is I think it's.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
Rick in that mask.

Speaker 5 (31:16):
So when I worked at Rick's studio working on Harry
and the Henderson's, that was there on the wall and
I was like, that's my favorite demon ever. I mean,
I probably sculpted like four versions of that, which of
course we're all shit. But when I was a kid,
because I was like, oh my god, you know, and
another makeup artist, Dave Miller, had sculpted one that was
really cool and he I was working for him at
the time and on a film called Night of the Creeps,

(31:37):
and he for my birthday, he ran one out of
his mold and painted in and I was like, oh
my god, this is the devil, you know. I was
so excited. There's something about that devil. It's simple, but
that's Rick Baker. Rick Baker's design sense is just like
he captures it in in form, you know, in the
silhouette and that I just loved the smile, like I
never saw anything like that before.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
I just love I love it. It looks so real
to me. It's just a slip lay text. Man.

Speaker 5 (32:00):
That's also where my love of Latex masks came from,
was from the Cantena scene and I'm like, I know
those are all just slip masks.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
They're incredible, They're so alive.

Speaker 5 (32:08):
And the way Lucas utilized it, you know, and that's
that guy with the big brain that is cool looking
at Rob Boteine sculpted when he worked for Rick. But yes,
Chewbacca to me was incredible, Like I tried to figure out,
like how did they do.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
The mouth, you know, the lip snarl?

Speaker 5 (32:25):
And I just like I have draw I still have
all my drawings of when I was a kid. I
had a little sketchbook from nineteen seventy seven.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
It's littered with Star Wars drawings.

Speaker 5 (32:34):
Every page is like Stormtroopers, Darth Vader tie fighters, you know,
and then like there's a whole, like a couple of
pages of just like this is how I think Chewbacca worked,
you know, And it was like little pulleys.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
It wasn't that.

Speaker 5 (32:46):
It wasn't until years later that you know, in Storre
Freeborn was responsible for Chewy and all the other stuff,
you know. And and there was an exhibit at Lakhma,
La County Art Museum about Stanley Kubrick and they had
one of the two thousand and one heads there and
it was splayed open and it was like a tongue toggle.
So the actor, in order to move the jaws or

(33:08):
the mouth the lips rather was, could push it, push
his tongue on these paddles that would snarl and make
the different expression. It's incredible idea. And that was the
same mechanism he used for Chewi. And I'm like, aha,
all these years I've been thinking it was something else,
you know, and here's how Stort Freeborn did it, which
is incredibly innovative. But yeah, I think Chewi looks so

(33:32):
beautiful if you think about it, it's like all hand hair,
hand laid hair.

Speaker 4 (33:35):
And it's a perfect creature.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
You know, I love it, and and the fact, you know,
they all have personalities. I mean, we all know, we
all love Chewbacca. He's part of you know. We understand
his heart, we understand his sensibilities, and you know, he's
he's I think, a wonderful character. And you know, and
we and even if you watch the Star Wars Holiday special,

(34:00):
you know, you're still like, okay, and that stuff was
done by Stan Winston. That's how I ended up finding
out about Stan Winston, that Stan did that special. And
I remember watching it and I saw Stan Winston and
I had talked to my dad about it, and he's like, oh, well,
I know somebody who knows Stan, so.

Speaker 4 (34:14):
Let me figure it out.

Speaker 5 (34:15):
And then I was like twelve years old, and then
I got Stan's phone number and I got to go
visit him, you know, and this is the guy that
did the Star Wars and it isn't When you're twelve
years old and it's Star Wars related, you don't care
if it's the biggest pile of crap that was ever made,
you know, And here it is. We still watch it
because it's such a catastrophe and like, you can't even
believe somebody said this is a good idea, you know.

(34:38):
But no, just to circle back, all the creatures in
Star Wars.

Speaker 4 (34:42):
I love, you know, we all do.

Speaker 5 (34:44):
You know My friend Jamie Kellman you know, has done
Star Wars makeups every single year, like on his kid
or on himself. And we're just we love Star Wars,
you know, and we love to see how everything looks.
And also I just want to say when we talk
about Star Wars, I'm really talking about Star Wars, Empire
Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, okay, you know,

(35:05):
and and those are the ones for me.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
You know. Obviously the prequels are the prequels. I like
Darth Maul.

Speaker 5 (35:11):
I think he's cool looking, uh and a really great,
great character. And you know that's that's all I got
to say about those prequels. But for me, but for me,
it's the the three Those three original films are you know,
captured my brain. When people say, oh, which you know,
we're real specific. When people and Marshall and I talk

(35:32):
about this all the time, like oh yeah, I like
the third Star Wars, I'm like, there is no third
Star Wars.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
It's called Return of the Jedi. You know. It's like,
oh yeah, I like that second one. I'm like, it's not,
there's not It's called Empire strikes Back. For christ, you know,
it's like.

Speaker 5 (35:44):
The Indiana Jones movies, like yeah, we were, yeah, well
Raiders a lot of it's not called Indiana Jones and
the Raiders a lot.

Speaker 4 (35:51):
And I'm like, I refuse to ever say that.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
It's like literally just saying that makes me want to
fly in for a rain.

Speaker 5 (35:59):
That's that's like a Disney Disney plus brand, Like we'll
just throw on Indiana Jones and Raid is a lost ar.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
No, it's called Raiders a lost Ark.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
And then there's Indiana Jones and the Da Da Da
And I'm like, damn you all. So but you know,
somebody was asking me, like, what's your favorite you know,
Star Wars and again Star.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
Wars, Star Wars.

Speaker 5 (36:22):
I meant, you know, the first film inspired me, like
my brain was spinning in circles. But I love Empire
strikes Back. I think Empire is the most well made
of the three. I think it's beautiful. I think the
storytelling is incredible. It looks amazing. I ditched school when

(36:47):
that movie came out.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
Empire.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
It was playing in Westwood at a place called the
Avco Embassy Theater, and I ditched school without my parents knowing.
I took the bus to Westwood from my house in
Northridge and I.

Speaker 4 (36:59):
Waited in line ten hours. Oh and I but I
was going to say.

Speaker 5 (37:03):
I was with my then girlfriend and we waited and waited,
and I was so happy. Actually after I saw the
film that nobody drove by screaming out you know, Darth
Vader is Luke's father, that nowadays they would ruin it all,
you know, everything's ruined and destroyed. But you know when
that came, when that was revealed, I mean, the whole

(37:25):
the air of the of the whole theater was sucked out,
you know, and everybody's screaming no, no, And it was
like those movies were incredible, you know. And and the
energy part, the energy from the audience participation is like,
you know, when did you ever stand up and applaud.

Speaker 4 (37:41):
You know, and scream and yell and you know, boo
and hiss. You know, it's pretty It was.

Speaker 5 (37:48):
It was an amazing time and I was so happy
to be.

Speaker 4 (37:52):
Alive and being able to see it.

Speaker 5 (37:54):
Matter of fact, that year nineteen seventy seven, I had
my bar Mitzvah and it was Star Wars theme. My friend,
my friend Genoman's dressed up as Darth Vader and a
homemade too. The funny thing was Darth Vader was like
five to two because Gene was really small. But I
still was like like overjoyed that Darth Vader came to
my my bar mitzvaht so.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
And Harold looked about thirty.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
I looked at us like this, yeah he had the beard.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
That's right, Yeah, I'm very grown up. It was true
when you turn thirteen and have apartments, so you do
become a man.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
So immediately overnight, overnight you're like, hey, you know, the
next day I think I said things he very yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
Yeah, it was like way way more. And that was like.

Speaker 5 (38:33):
The first Star Wars mask I bought from Don Post
was a Chewbacca.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
Mask and I wore it all.

Speaker 5 (38:38):
I remember, like as an idiot, me and my friend
Mike Fisher, we both had Chewbacca masks and we would
go to the mall wearing a Chewbacca mask and walk
around and we got kicked out of a ton of
stores like can you please leave the store, But it's like,
but I'm Chewbacca I'm wearing the Don Post mask, you know,
because I knew a little bit. I knew a little
bit about makeup then, Like when the hair started the

(39:00):
fall off, I could have spirit gum and reglue it
and make sure, you know, like some of the hair
would come out. I'm like, oh, it's crape hair. I
can relay it, you know. So I was always fixing
my dar my Chewbacca mask. I wish again, I wish
I knew where that was. But anyhow, Yes, Star Wars
massive influence still is. I love it more than anything.
And uh yeah, they're they're they're you know, Empire and

(39:23):
Star Wars are two of my most favorite films of
all time.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, Marshall, let me kind of stay on this topic
and go to you with with a I'll start as
an observation and let you go with it from there.
But one of the things, in especially seeing it in
the context of your book, seeing this, it dawned on
me that everybody talks about Yah, Star Wars is a
space western and a space fantasy and a space romance

(39:47):
and space samurai, but nobody ever calls it a space
harbor monster movie. And there are monsters everywhere everywhere, and
even in the animated shows that have come out since
they keep it that sort of important of monsters. As
you guys were saying, not as much anymore, but did

(40:07):
you as a kid recognize it as a monster movie
as well as everything else?

Speaker 1 (40:12):
I well, I mean, like Howard, I think I felt
like my life began when I first saw Star Wars.
You know, it's I loved everything he said about Star Wars, Howard.
I mean we've had conversations about it before, but just
to just say, okay, Howard, do you like Star Wars?
Just sit back and it's like you're going to get
a lot of enthusiasm. It's like nothing nothing expanded my

(40:36):
mind more made me kind of more aware of the
possibilities of things than Star Wars. You know, there was
like me before that, and then there was Star Wars,
and then there was everything else. And yeah, I mean,
you know, we you had it so much easier. You've
got it in May nineteen seventy seven. We didn't get
it till Christmas. I mean, it's ridiculous. So I'd already

(40:56):
had a poster, I listened to the soundtrack, I read
the book. I was a fan of that film for
months before I even saw it. But my first memory
of it, I mean I remember thinking, you know what,
was I like nine? It just turned it was like nine. Yeah,
And I remember I love the film. But even more

(41:17):
significant was when we came out of the cinema and
in the lobby they laid out there were all these
tables with all this merchandise, and that just completely blew
my mind. It's like Jesus. I mean, I haven't actually changed,
but it was like, can I have the program? Can
I have that? Posts? I? Can I have that post?
They've got badges as well, and she, I mean, I
don't know if she if there was anything she didn't

(41:38):
get me. And I did the whole of it, and
the posters everywhere. It was like Star Wars for me,
was it was it was the film, it was it
was the merch It was like it was just I
was so obsessed with it across the board. But always
I like the exoticness of it. And always it's always
been the creatures for me, creatures and Darth Vader. And

(42:02):
you know, the human characters are fine and fun and
I like them all, but for me, it's the more exotic,
the more different, the more other things are the more
you know, irresistible they are.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
So would you would you consider Darth Vader creature design
a monster design?

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Well, you know, we we in terms of the when
we did the book, we we decided that we wanted
to that. You know, Hannibal Lector is a monster. You know,
Nazis are a monster tucked and read as the Lost Dark.
I mean, these guys are monsters, and real monsters, like
actual villainous bad guys who who aren't our friends, who

(42:41):
aren't you know, kind of like creature, you know, the
victims of circumstance, but actual, you know, proper, proper villains.
So we thought we had to include those. So I think,
you know, I mean I wouldn't. I would call him
more a villain than a bad guy than a monster.
But you could totally yeah, I mean you could say that,

(43:01):
you know, the fate that befalls him into the character
he becomes is completely monstrous. You know, absolutely, it would
fit within our kind of remit. I mean, you know,
I understand he's just trying to put some order in
the galaxy. There's all these bloody space hip He's thinking
that they could just you know, do whatever the hell
they want, so I'm not sure. I think I'm probably

(43:23):
more of an Empire guy. For the record, Ponder is
my favorite alien, although obviously nobody called him that. I mean,
it's just such a crazy retro you know, kind of

(43:44):
sort of made up thing in school where you'll called
him Bumface, you know, because I mean literally, he's just
it's like there's a little tiny guy sitting in but
just through two it looks like about face, so correct
and a little side. Chris for Tucker was a wonderful

(44:06):
old makeup effects lunatic, sadly no longer with us. We
interviewed him and got very friendly with him for the
first book, and he worked a lot on the CANTEENA
sequence and even had a hand in designing Chewi with
Juart Freeborn. His friend and I went to visit him
after the after the book came out and to give

(44:29):
him a copy of the book, and I he told
us that he was actually responsible for the design of Bumface,
and so I pocketed many figures of that character, and
because I just wanted to show it to him, and
I just wanted to show that, you know, it's like
it's like my favorite character. I don't know what my

(44:49):
end game was thinking that maybe he would like to
take a picture with it or something or I don't know,
but I had in my pocket. I like to I
like to travel with the toy. The two most memorable things.
The first time he met me, he said, Oh, I
didn't think you'd be this fat Marshal. That was like
that was a more incredibly charming man that he was.
But I also I showed him. I showed him the

(45:11):
figure and I said, you know, I know that you
designed this, and I just you know, it's like one
of my favorite characters, you know, side characters in the movie.
And you know we all caught him bumface. He never
and he looks at me like I was mad. I'm
going to put the back in my pocket and we
will change the subject. Now, don't call me fat again,

(45:34):
and we can talk about anything you want. Did I
ever tell you the most horrific story, the most horrific
thing that ever happened in my life? And yeah, I'm
including some deaths in that. But even worse than that
was when I went to Return of the Jedi the

(45:55):
first time. I don't know if I've ever kind of
I'm sure I must have told you, but it's like,
you know, we waited three years. This is completely on.
I'll try and be brief, so, okay, I was desperate
to see Return of the Jedi. Obviously we all were.
You know, we waited three years. What's going to happen
to hand? I was just so so desperate, so desperate

(46:15):
to see it. So it's the first weekend and I'm
supposed to and my mum says to me, why don't
you go and hang out with your brothers? With your
brother Mark and Russell. Russell's not doing anything. So they're
both like ten years older than me. Okay, So I'm like,
what is so fourteen years old? And I'm going up

(46:37):
to town with Mark and he said, I said, well,
where's Russell. Russell's going to join us? And it's like, well,
Russell's going to come. We can all go and see
Return of the Jedi together. And I was very excited
about that, but honestly, I couldn't give a shit who
was coming with me. You know, it was like, fine,
he can come, you know, and literally hit I don't,
but you know it's I didn't care. I just wanted

(46:57):
to see Return of the Jedi more than anything, More
than anything and we're queuing, friend, there's a big queue,
and I'm getting so excited and just I feel like
I'm I could just feel myself vibrating with excite. Right,
Russell's not turned up yet, and this is pre mobile
phone day, so there's no calling him and saying, Russell,
we're in the queue, why don't we? And I said

(47:18):
to Mark, I said, listen, if Russell doesn't turn up,
we'll still go and see the film, right, you know
that's still gonna happen, right, And he's like, well, you know,
Mum said that we should all hang out together, and
I'm like, yeah, I understand. I understand that the sentiment
of us all being together, but you understand this is
Return of the Jedi, and that's I'm more important, right
than you your feelings or our relationships or anything. And

(47:41):
he's like, well, you know, we'll see, we'll see. And
he's just putting me under such stress, even when I
mean literally I've never forgiven him for this. I still
hold it against him. Still hate my brother Mark a
little bit for that.

Speaker 4 (47:54):
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
So we get to the cinema, we buy the tickets,
but Russell is still not turned up, and I'm saying
to Mark, I said, okay, look, we got the tickets. Now,
we're definitely going to see the film, right, And it's like, well,
ye know, but I'll tell you what. There's this there's
a phone inside the cinema. Let's let's uh. I don't
even know if I can get through this story without

(48:17):
welling up, but he said, let's see, we'll call Russell.
We'll give hi one last chance. We get inside the cinema, right,
and I can hear the music begin to play.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
This is already tortured.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
And it was like and it was like, please, please,
can we just said, you know what, I called Russell
but he's not answering. I really think we should go
because I'm fourteen years old, right, fourteen years old? And
he's like and I think. I got down on my
knees and I'm like, please, what are you doing?

Speaker 4 (48:53):
Do you know?

Speaker 1 (48:54):
Do you not know that this is like I have
to see this? And he's like, no, we have to go,
and he dragged me out of the cinema and I
was standing in Leicester and I just burst into tears.
I mean it was like I was fourteen years old
bawling my eyes out of this and I was so angry.

(49:16):
I don't think I've ever felt like so upset about
anything in my life. Right, So we're driving back and
to town to North London to go meet Russell, like,
you know, I could care about any of them at
this point, and we ended up going to a local
cinema to see Android with Klaus Kid and it's like.

Speaker 4 (49:38):
The fuck you I wanted to.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
And I'm they're thinking with Russell and I said to Russell,
I said, I said, you know, can you believe Mark
dragged me out of the cinema? Russell said, he said,
you should totally have just gone to see the film.
I don't care if you want, you know, if you
want to see it, I don't want to be you know.
And it was like I just I literally could have
murdered Mark. And because of that, you know, Jewish guilt
is a big thing where your mommy, I think you

(50:06):
should do that, because you know, I never got guilty
out again after that. I remember that. It was like
I will never let you manipulate me out of seeing
a Star Wars film or doing anything ever again. But
I saw it a week later, Yeah, a week later,
and yeah, but it was like that week that was

(50:26):
just the worst week. That was not the I'm sorry,
I really really, but that was just the worst.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
That's I mean that this is the whole thing with
Star Wars is it's this these core memories and it's
more than it's more than the movies. It's like, I
remember where I was when I saw it. Actually, never
go back to it. All nine of the the numbered
Star Wars movies, I can tell you where I was,
who I was with, was at nighttime, was the daytime?
And you know, you can you know all those those details.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
I believe you. Well, what's more important than movies? I
don't know. Most of my core memories are either movies,
talking about movies, you know, writing about movies, getting new toys.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
It's like it's.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
All involves around that, you know, and Star Wars. It's
what is it about Star Wars? Eh? That that's like,
I mean, there are lots of films that we're passionate about,
but there's something about Star Wars. There's just some sort
of magic in that. I just don't know. I think
it's I think it's indefinable that it started. It's like
it is like a religion, but like a good religion,

(51:31):
you know, except when people fight over it, which you
know all about people.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Well, yeah, I was gonna say, if you want to
know why I think people like Star Wars so much,
just didn't read my book, which is coming out of
November eleventh, myself. But it is called Who Owns the Myth? Yes,
it will be available on Amazon and on our website too.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
So he has been fortunate enough to read it in advance.
Liked it very much.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
I appreciate that very much coming from you, Marshall and
means atturn.

Speaker 4 (51:59):
So thank you.

Speaker 6 (52:06):
Well, I have to say, this has been such a
fun conversation. This book is incredible. I know that you
guys have a bunch of stuff that you're doing. We're
so thankful that you took some time to chat with
us about it. But Marshall, I know you've got some
events coming up, some things that you know, you've got
a big signing in October. Tell us a little bit
about how the promotion is going for you guys with

(52:27):
this book.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Do you want to hate that, Howard?

Speaker 4 (52:29):
Yeah. So we've got a couple, actually quite a few
coming up.

Speaker 5 (52:35):
So the week of Halloween in Los Angeles we have
our first event, which is October twenty fifth, from two
to five. It'll be at the Academy Museum, which is
on Fairfax and Wiltshire. And you know the great thing
about these signings are it's not just dopey Marshall and I.
It's we have like twenty contributors that are in the

(52:58):
book that are coming to meet and greet and sign
books as well. Really really incredible list of people. And
it keeps growing and growing and growing. And then on
the twenty six we're doing kind of through Dark Delicacy Presents,
which Dark Delicacy is this amazing store for thirty years
in Burbank and recently the owners Dell and Sue, decided

(53:22):
to shut down the brick and mortar, but it's still
alive and online. So we're doing at the Emerald Night
Books and Comics, which is their sun store. We're doing
another signing from two to four on October twenty sixth,
and again another twenty or so contributors coming. And then
I think I'm doing something November two at Roman's which

(53:45):
is in Pasadena. Marshall will already be heading back home
with his lovely wife to the UK, but I think
I'm gonna squeeze it in before I have to fly
back to New Mexico and get back to work for
the last month of shooting. And then Marshall's got a
great event coming up in November called the Prosthetic Event,
which is super cool. We went to it last year
to promote Masters, and so I won't be able to attend,

(54:08):
but Marshall will be our you know, representative there and
talking about the book and signing, and we have a
bunch of people that are in the UK that are
in the book that are going to join us as well,
which will be great.

Speaker 4 (54:22):
But it's it's been a blast. You know.

Speaker 5 (54:24):
We're going to do some signings in the UK in London,
We're going to try to do an East Coast in
New York, you know, the beginning at both in the
beginning of the year, between probably February March, and yeah,
you know, it's and it's you know, the book is
available at any bookstore. I'm here in Albuquerque and they
have them at Barnes and Noble here in Albuquerque, which

(54:45):
is great. That's great, and they're all over the place,
and then of course Amazon is a great place to
pick it up as well. And you know, there's also
we have cool merch because there's we we decided we
love merch, and of course Marshall needs to have a
whole new wardrobe. So our Uddi's John Hernandez and his
wife Lisa have a company called Funky Monkey.

Speaker 4 (55:04):
Funky Monkey and.

Speaker 5 (55:05):
They set up a site and you can buy the
t shirts through that site, which is making making Monsters
dot org. And they're really great, high quality shirts. We
made sure of it. And the decals are super cool.
It's all silk screened on and those guys are great.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Oh yeah, this is being true to wash a load
of times already and it's it's.

Speaker 5 (55:23):
So and it's been warned probably three hundred times, probably
the washer Marshall doesn't take off his shirts making Monster
shirt and Master shirts.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
So no, but it's great.

Speaker 5 (55:34):
I mean it's fun to get out there and meet people.
And and again you know a lot of book signings
are just the author of course, you know, but this
this because of what the book is and and you know,
all the different contributors. It really gives us the opportunity
to have people come out, you know, like people like
Dana Gould and you know, uh.

Speaker 4 (55:51):
We're going to have h marshalled.

Speaker 5 (55:54):
Why am I trying like the mcash is Aaron and
Mike mccash who are amazing make up makeup team.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
And and we've got Tom Hollands.

Speaker 7 (56:01):
We got you know, not not the Spy, not Spider Man,
not the Spider Man, tomhalland I keep Tom.

Speaker 5 (56:11):
Yeah, Tom Holland who did Fright Night and and Child's
Play and.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
Crimpton is coming out to Delicacy signing.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
Yeah, it's gonna be great.

Speaker 5 (56:20):
It's we have some really super fun people and then
we're still gathering some some other special guests.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
So I'm really happy with that.

Speaker 5 (56:27):
And it's plus it's just a nice opportunity to see
your friends and colleagues and hang out for a couple
hours and sign books and talk about monsters Bill corso
you know, uh.

Speaker 1 (56:36):
They bring their own books and they sign each other's.
It's like year books, you know them.

Speaker 4 (56:42):
Yeah, yeah, I just always right, have a bitch in summer.
Good luck. Love is great.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
You know, where where can people sort of get this
list and keep up with it? Where do you get
where's the best place to find out?

Speaker 5 (56:55):
Well, we're going to be We post on our instagrams
and Facebook, so we're actually going to post tomorrow the
new list of people that are attending both both signing.
So I think that'll be great and we'll keep updating,
you know, obviously as we get closer, we'll really start
plummeting or you know, pushing it, and hopefully it's so

(57:15):
many people will show up. I mean last time when
we did the Dark Delicacy event, I mean we sold
hundreds and hundreds of books. Same with the Academy Museum,
you know, so the you know, we figure we can
do both venues. Figure we can sign one hundred books
in an hour. So the event's three hours, you know,
and if we have to go a little bit longer,
we can go a little bit longer. But it's super

(57:37):
fun and it's a great event, and it's just fun
to go. And the Academy Museum is incredible and you know,
hop on to their their site and you can get
tickets to get the book and get the signing and
all that good stuff. And then also it's nice to
visit the museum because it's an incredible museum that everybody loves.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
I'm super proud of it. And yeah, fun fun things
to do, you know, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (58:01):
When you're in La right, absolutely absolutely, well, we'll put
the links.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
To to get back to the museum because I'm so
excited to be there during the with the Jaws exhibit,
even though I've seen on social media three thousand other
people moving the shark's mouth and stuff, and tell I
want to have a go on that as you send
me photos from the gift shop, and I'm so desperate
to go to the gift shop.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
They'd stuff, You're gonna need to bring an extra bag
for going home.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
I'm just going to throw my clothes away.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
Just order some more making Monsters T shirts. Yeah that's
all I wear anyway. Well, guys, this has been a
ton of fun. I'm going to make sure that I
put those links in the in the description, so if
you're listening to this podcast, go check that out. Howard Marshall,
this has been not Howard Marshall, but Howard Comma Marshall.
It's been great to speak to you guys again in

(58:57):
best of luck with this book and go buy it
right now. I promise you if you even remotely like Monsters,
and as you guys said at the top, I don't
know anybody who doesn't go get this book immediately. You will. It'll,
like I said, you will carry it around your house
for days and days and days, just flipping through it
at your at your leisure and then going back to things.

(59:17):
So but guys, best of luck with this book, and
we will talk to you again for the third book.
Yeah right, there's got to be a third one, a trilogy.

Speaker 4 (59:26):
We'll see.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
If there's another Striker Pandemic. Were guaranteed a book the day.
That's as far as you can.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
Yeah. I got my fingers crossed for zombie Apocalypse next.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
It's possible, Marshall, don't wish for that.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
Yeah, so it has to.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
Be something that we can come back from then, so
maybe maybe alien invasion.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
Yeah. So but hey, guys, thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (59:47):
It was a pleasure and we really appreciate it, and
we love being on your podcast. And you guys were yeah,
you guys were You guys were great. You guys were
great to us during Masters when we put Masters out,
so we really appreciate being invited back.

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
It's a lonesome Hey, did you know you're in the acknowledgement?

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
I did notice that. Think I actually told my dad
and he was really impressed with I think he's more
impressed with that than the fact that I'm writing my
own book, but it's uh no, honestly, it's a it's
a really great book. So all right, guys, well, how
we're going to.

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
Get some work done.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Marsh we'll go have an afternoon tea. I think it's
tea time, right, I'm yeah, excellent. All right, guys, thank
you so much, bye bye. Well that wraps it up
for this episode of Around the Galaxy. Thank you so
much to Howard and to Marshall, and for you for

(01:00:39):
checking this out. Remember check out our website at the
SSW network dot com so that you can find all
of our socials, you can find links to our merch
you can find links to my new book, and you
can also join us on Patreon from there. So this
has been copyright twenty twenty five Feet in the Seat Studios,
and our music is brought to us by the band
Apollo's Ghost. May the Force be with you, s