Galaxy Con 2024 | Episode #464

In this episode, we sat down with some of the independent comic creators from this year’s Galaxy Con, plus shared our spoiler-free thoughts on You Can Call Me Bill. Whether you’re a fan of comedy, manga, fantasy or something else - this episode has something in store for you. Check out the links below and support the creators:

03:04 - You Can Call Me Bill Spoiler Free Review

17:35 - The Hellfire Verdict (https://covasillustrations.com/) Tales from Cape Fear (https://www.talesofcapefear.com/) 

25:31 - Ancient Illumination/Nyumbani Chronicles (https://ancientillumination.net/) 

35:15 - Spider Squirrel & Trash Panda (https://linktr.ee/charliemcelvy) 

43:25 - Moon Lair Studios (https://www.moonlairstudios.com/) 

53:33 Decay, The Exorcist Club & Tap or Die (https://www.decaycomic.com/) 

If you or someone you know is reading this right now and struggling with suicide, depression, addiction, or self-harm - please reach out. Comment, message, or tweet at us. Go to victimsandvillains.net/hope for more resources. Call the suicide lifeline at 988. Text "HELP" to 741-741. There is hope & you DO have so much value and worth!

This episode of Victims and Villains is written by Josh “Captain Nostalgia” Burkey & Allen Cramm. It is produced by Burkey. Music by Mallory Jameson (https://bit.ly/expandmal) & Purple Planet (https://bit.ly/ppcoms).  Help us get mental health resources into schools and get exclusive content at the same time. Click here (http://bit.ly/vavpatreon) to support us today!

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
What's going on for Victims and Villains. My name is josh Aka Captain Nostalgia,
and today we are jumping into ourcoverage of this year's Galaxy Con.
Now we got to interview a fewcreators, talk to them about their projects
and how art really affects their mentalhealth, practical mental health, things that

(00:28):
they do to keep good at mentalhealth. Along with getting to see the
world premiere of You Can Call MeBill, which is actually going to kick
it off and I had a chanceto go see this movie with Alan from
You have to watch this podcast andBrilliant but Lazy, which you guys can
catch right here on the Victims andVillains podcast Network. If you guys are

(00:49):
interested in any of these projects.Links for everyone is going to be in
the show notes below. Thank youto Galaxy Con for having us this year.
Thank you to everyone that made thisepisode possible. And as always,
if you are someone you know isstruggling with suicide, addiction, self harm,
or depression, click the links inthe description below to check out our
mental health resource library. We'll beback this Wednesday with a brand new episode

(01:15):
of Abyscasing. If you are someoneyou know is listening to this podcast,
right now and you're struggling with suicide, addiction, self harm, or depression.
We encourage you, guys to pleasereach out. This is the heartbeat
or why we do what we do. Suicide is currently the tenth leading cause
of death in the United States,and as of this recording, there are

(01:38):
one hundred and thirty two suicides thattake place each and every day on American
soil, and when you scale backinternationally, there are eight hundred thousand successful
suicides. That is one death roughlyevery forty seconds. So if you were
someone you know is struggling, youguys can go to Victims and Villains and
dot net Forward slash Hope that resourceis going to be right in the description

(02:00):
wherever you guys are currently listening orstreaming this, there you'll find resources that
include the National Suicide Lifeline, whichis one eight hundred two seven three eighty
two fifty five. You can alsotext help to seven four seven four one.
We also have a plethora of otherresources, including churches, getting connected

(02:22):
with counselors, LGBT resources like theTrevor Project, and also a veteran hotline
as well. Please if you hearnothing else in the show, understand that
you, yes, you listen tothis right now, have value and worth.
We get it. Suicide, depression, mental health. These are hard

(02:44):
topics and this stigma around them doesn'tmake it any easier. But please consider
the resources right in the descriptions belowwherever you guys are listening, because once
again, you have value and youhave worth, So please with us.

(03:05):
Hi. This is the voice ofAlan cram Co, host of Brilliant but
Lazy, the pop culture podcast hereon the Victims and Villains Podcast Network.
And I'm with Captain Nostalgia himself,who is currently driving. But we just
got out of the world premiere screeningof You Can Call Me Bill with William
Shatner, the legion m film thatmade his debut here in Richmond for Galaxy

(03:30):
Con. We got we had achance to talk to mister Shatner himself.
I'm gonna call him Bill the movietold me to. But yeah, we
just got out of the screening,So Josh, right off the bat,
what were your thoughts of You CanCall Me Bill? It is a movie
that I can appreciate, but it'sa very niche audience. I feel like

(03:57):
this was made for made with thosethat grew up on Star Trek or introduced
kids to Star Trek or in theStar Trek fandom, and that was a
boat that I missed and I've neverreally gotten into. So for me,
I appreciate it, like the vulnerability, the philosophical musings of it, but
it felt like a very like targeteddemographic for this particular documentary. For me,

(04:23):
I don't even think you have tobe a fan of Star Trek to
understand what's going on in this film. If you understand, if you wanted
any insight at all into William Shatnerthe man, this film provides that.
It might be confusing and it maynot make much sense, but it's very

(04:44):
much off the cuff, very philosophical, very much. The philosophy of William
Shatner plays out in this a lotmore than this is my life story.
It doesn't go beat by beat ofthis is what it was like growing up,
This is what it was like doingStar Trek. This was like doing
miscongeniality. It jumps around and talksabout Yeah, well they never they didn't.

(05:11):
That's like the one thing they didn'tshow clips of was miscongeniality. They
were able to, but they wereable to get the rights to everything else,
So there's clips of Boston Legal andthe Price Line commercials, but it's
very much of the you get toknow William Shatner a bit. My friend
Bill the Man loved my shirt,so I'm gonna live with that for the

(05:38):
rest of my life. We hadthe chance to talk to William Shatner before
the screening. He hadn't seen thefilm yet and I was able to ask
him what does he want people totake away from this film, and his
answer was, I want them tobe entertained. And I think at the
end of the day, this filmis entertaining for the most part, but

(06:02):
there are moments that seem a bitpreachy, which is fine, but it
does drag on a bit. Andthere were some strange editing choices that I
saw in the film, with theway they played with aspect ratio, because
they use so much stock footage fromStar Trek and stuff older than Star Trek,

(06:26):
stuff from the forties and fifties thathe was in the old the old
westerns. They played with the aspectratio and the stuff that they shot with
him in a studio where it's himbeing interviewed today is full screw like wide
screen, but then they branch itback out from the four x three aspect

(06:46):
ratio, which I found a bitdistracting in spots. Did you catch any
of that stuff or yeah, Imean I didn't catch it. I didn't
mean it to It didn't come acrossas distracting me. I think. I
think going off of what you're talkingabout, where it feels like there's a
little bit of like a tunnel inconsistencyto it, I think it's kind of

(07:06):
was some of the biggest problems Ihave because you have these moments where he's
talking about these like really deep philosophicalthings like life and death and religion,
but then he gets into talking aboutclimate control and then how to be a
perfect like stand up and like theart of comedy, and you know,

(07:29):
it felt like really inconsistent to me, and like I there were things Again,
it's a documentary that I appreciated aboutit. It's like you were saying,
like you got to really know him. This felt very vulnerable. I
was surprised by how deep it got, especially for a publication that addresses mental
health. I think this is thisis like a deep, like really naked

(07:54):
look into the icon of who WilliamShatner is as a person but it also
in that personification, it also showsthe flawed and I think that flawed carries
out how to how the film laysout the narrative and how it lays out
certain choices like whether you're like whatyou're talking about with editing or how everything

(08:20):
flows together? Do you does itever bother you when you have a film
that has like title cards that's likechapter one, chapter two, because this
is a film that has those,and that to me was a little bit
distracting because it felt like a seriesof short films rather than just an all
out like natural flow to the tothe order of things. When you get

(08:43):
into documentary it sometimes you don't alwayshave a script of what the film is
going to be when you sit downto do it. What this seems like
is they put William Shatner in aroom for a day and talk to him
and then Okay, we're gonna makea film out of that. And the
best way to do that is tobreak it up by chapters and be like,

(09:05):
Okay, we're gonna talk about theacting side of things. We're gonna
talk about the early childhood, we'regonna we're gonna break it up in the
chapters and put it together that wayin a way that it makes sense,
so when it comes to documentary,it's not necessarily distracting from me. It's
one of the ways that the artform of documentary works is you don't know

(09:28):
what you have until you're in theedit. A lot of documentaries are made
in the in the editing process,and that's probably a choice that they had
they made in editing because it seemslike they've been working on this for a
few years. Because some of thefootage from a few weeks before his main
interview, people were still wearing COVIDmasks in the shots. So it's a

(09:52):
long process. But I think whenyou see that, it's more of a
bringing the story together in a cohesiveway, and I think breaking it up
in the chapters and focusing on thedifferent ideals, ideas and ideas that he's
talking about in the film worked forme, okay, So I feel like

(10:13):
it would have worked for me alittle bit more had they kind of related
to one another, like had astronger flow where it just kind of seemed
like it was like a stream ofconsciousness where director was like called action and
just kind of let him talk aboutwhatever he wanted to, and they attempted
to just kind of make a filmaround those musings, and it just to

(10:37):
me, it just it didn't work. And like, that's kind of one
of the lower parts of the documentaryfor me. But again, this documentary
emotionally, I think it hits reallywell. It leaves the audience with a
lot to consider, a lot tothink about, and just thematically, it's

(10:58):
a lot deeper than I was expectingit to be, and it was also
a lot funnier than I was expectingit to be. Yeah, the segment
where he talks about how comedy worksfor him and timing, I think is
I got more out of that thana whole college course I took on comedy.

(11:18):
It's almost a masterclass in the middleof this film, just talking about
how timing works and what happens whenit doesn't. But I think William Shatner
is a one of a kind talent. Whether it's Captain Kirk or the Price
Line negotiator, there's no one elsewho does what William Shatner has done in

(11:46):
his career, and this is avery fun and interesting way of looking at
his career and the man himself.It's not just look I did this,
look I did that. He's alsovery surprisingly, really humble and like you

(12:09):
got that leg it's and that's oneof the things that like I picked up
doing the Red Carpet tonight is thathe's a very like, genuine kind of
guy. And I'm glad the filmmakersdidn't set out to like portray this like
false facade of him, but theylike caught like the genuine nature of who
Shatner is as a person at hiscore. Yeah, he he was very

(12:37):
exciting. He seemed excited to bethere. Yeah, and for a man
who's in his nineties, very spry, Like I was very impressed by the
way he conducted himself for his age, because when they said ninety in the
clips of him going into space,like that was two years ago, so
he's got to be ninety two atthis point. It it's impressive that he's

(13:00):
still doing cons and doing premiere eventslike this, because I know Sunday he's
doing this again with Neil deGrasse.Heison in New York, and I keep
you get seeing ads for a screeningin LA with Kevin Smith. So he's
he's out there and making the bestof life, so more power to him.
He talks in the documentary too thatlike, this is the busiest he's

(13:26):
ever been in his life too,He's making more now than he ever has
and whether that's content or there's aportion in the documentary where it also like
it gives a segment to his likehim being a grandfather and like wanting to
see his grandkids grow up and seewhat they become and how their lives kind

(13:48):
of branch out. Like I alsoreally appreciated that. But you like,
yeah, like the dude's like stillkicking over ninety. I hope I have
that energy. He has definitely livedlong and prospered. I had to go
there. One of one of thefavorite, my favorite moments of the night
though, was as we were aboutto interview him, a fan gave him

(14:11):
a piece of art from Star Trekand it had spot on. He's like,
this is great. That's the wrongguy. Like, I'm also glad.
The documentary commented on like the culturalimpressions that they've that they've made.
Yes, the the uh William Shatnershatnerisms, there's something on the wing some

(14:37):
thing. Yeah, the chat Shatnerimpression that everyone does probably a lot better
than I just did. But yeah, I don't really have much else to
say. If you're a fan ofWilliam Shatner, I think this is documentary
is definitely worth checking out if you'reon the fence about Shatner and Star Trek.

(14:58):
Maybe not for you, but II I recommend at least the portion
on comedy for anyone who's interested incomedy and has enjoyed anything that he's Shatner
has done comedically, because I thinkhe gets overlooked as a comedic genius and
I think it's there and just nota lot of people see him for that.

(15:18):
Yeah. I would even go asfar as to say that even if
you're not even if if you areon the fence, this this documentary may
push you over into being a fan. Like I'm not the biggest Shatner fan,
but there was a lot about thisdocumentary that I walked away with any
respect for him, really enjoyed.It was entertained. It's somewhat a little

(15:43):
bit kind of messy at times,but uh, we're putting this on the
Rorshack rating scale. I'm giving thisa three. Where would this land for
you? I haven't done the Rorshakrating in a while. But over on
brilliant but lazy, we do brilliantor lazy. I'm gonna say brilliant but

(16:06):
the I think there's a lot ofgreat things here. It does drag on
in spots, but I think atthe core of it, there's a very
interesting story here and very personal insightinto the man, the myth, the
legend, Captain James T. Kirkhimself, uh William Shatner. So I

(16:30):
I I guess that would relate tolike a four. Okay, that's fair.
See, but you're a Star Trekfan. I I feel like Star
Trek fans will appreciate this documentary morethan me, even not being a Star
Trek. He outs like, there'snot much about Star Trek in here.
There's not it. It's a lotmore like there's not stories of like there's
this one time where DeForest Kelly andI and Leonard Nimoy, Like, there's

(16:53):
none of that. I it itfocuses more on his philosophy of life and
of acting and of being an entertainer. So the last thing I will say,
though, is if you get achance to see this movie, watch

(17:14):
it. But if not, youdon't want to watch the movie. Find
the comedy bit for one and two. Seek out his opening for the AFI
George Lucas Lifetime Achievement Award. Yesit's great, Yes, it very very
much. Is Mary with Joe andMercedes? They are there are a couple

(17:41):
I create comics together. So howare you guys doing today? Good man,
it's been a great show. Wegot here Thursday, set up,
and yesterday we've just been kind ofrock and rolling all weekend. So yeah,
it's been good. What do youthink I would say about the same
things. It's been good. It'sbeen steady and we're having a good time.
So I gotta add because it's notevery day you guys get to meet
a couple that creates content together.What came first, the work or the

(18:07):
relationship? I would say the workcame first. The work led to us
meeting. We actually met working onthe third issue of Tales of k Fear,
So yeah, we we walked intoa meeting and you know, shook
hands and became friends and started drawingtogether and kind of spring rolled from there.
So all right, so tell mea little bit about The hell Fire

(18:32):
Verdict, which is one of thecomics here that you are. You're talking
about today. So Healthfire Verdicts writtenby Dan Alvarez h. He's a Canadian
author who wrote the story about foureveryday individuals who mask up and become vigilantes
and they take a corrupt politician andput them kind of on a kangaroo court,
you know, to to bring himto justice. So there's no heroes

(18:55):
or villains in the show or inthe in the book, we don't we
don't applaud what they do. It'sreally left ambiguous up to the reader to
decide whether or not they would agreewith you know, their their means and
their methods on how they you know, meet out justice if you will.
So, yeah, but it's itwas released by Marcosi Enterprises in twenty twenty.
It's my first published work, youknow. So we come out to

(19:18):
the convention circuit and try to youknow, try to spread the word if
you will, and you know,get the book out there. So,
So, if people aren't here atGalaxy Con this weekend, where would they
be able to find this? Canthey pick this up online? Can they
read it digitally? Absolutely? Yeah. You can pick it up through Comicxology.
You can order it through you know, Barnes and Noble Books, a
million, Walmart, anywhere that youknow you can purchase books from. You
can also buy it from local comicshops if they carry it. I know

(19:41):
we're from Wilmington, North Carolina.Our local comic shop, Memory Lane,
carries it. So so yeah,but I mean, you know, it's
it's pretty much sold through every majorretailer. Now, Mercedes, you are
the author on Tales of Cape Fear, on a couple of the stories.
So, Tales of Cape Fear isan anthol series, a bunch of local
writers and artists to get together everyyear and put together stories based on local

(20:04):
lore and locations surrounding the KPE,thear area. So I've got a couple
of short stories. I've been apart of this project since twenty twenty,
and my partner since what would yousay the year before that? Yeah,
and so yeah, it's just acompilation of a lot of different short stories.
I've got a couple of stories thatI've written. And I've been an
artist in all but one issue withanthologies, especially one that is very particular

(20:26):
to a particular location, particular mythologiesand kind of like legends, what's the
research process like? So I can'tspeak for everyone, but I can speak
for myself personally. On the laststory that mine had a lot to do
with the culture of the Gullageechee people, and so it was a lot of
finding first hand accounts, learning theirlore, learning about the culture that is

(20:51):
unfortunately slowly fading in the area.So, you know, a lot of
it is interviewing and speaking to localpeople that I already know. A lot
of that is getting into the internet, finding people who study these things as
well, but I think most ofall it is kind of taking us back
to the folks story side of things, where you know, it's a story
you've heard before, it's a legendthat you know because you live in the

(21:11):
area and you're able to go inand get more detail. So obviously as
sort of like that, it's alittle bit more heartbreak in a little bit
more emotionally heavy than vigilantes. Youknow, what are some of the what
are some practices that you have interms of taking care of your own mental
health to kind of separate yourself fromthat work. Honestly, for me,

(21:33):
I find that finding the ways thatI can take action and kind of letting
go of the things that I can'tcurrently affect help for me. You know,
if there's a way to monetarily helpa situation, great, I'll do
that. If there's a way toget my hands on the dirt, so
to speak, and get involved withthe community that's having issues, a community
I've read about and I've been ableto read the word about, then that's

(21:55):
what I do. I feel likeI heal a bit through doing the work
connected to what I'm learning that isabsolutely heartbreaking. All right, So what
are I'm gonna ask this question?This is gonna be the theme of this
episode in Galaxy con Interviews. Whatare some mental health practices that you guys
do to kind of do rest orkind of keep yourself in a healthy mental

(22:18):
health space. I mean, forme, I feel like I use my
artwork to kind of stay above water, if you will. I've been drawing
all my life and it's where Ifind my relaxation. It's something I love
doing. It's something that you know, helps inspire me to push forward.
You know, we all suffer burnout, We all suffer you know, depression,
self doubt. You know, forme, being an artist, I

(22:41):
suffer a lot of imposter syndrome,for instance, because I feel like I'm
surrounded by some of the top artistsin the world at an event like this,
you know, whether it's you know, through illustration, or whether you're
the top artist in your field ofacting or or you know, I just
sometimes feel like, man, doI even belong here? You know.
But but we have people to cometo the table, and you know,
we have stickers that make them laugh, we have books that pique their interests.

(23:03):
We have artwork that's like, youknow, oh, man, I
grew up watching that show, youknow, and that's why I do it.
You know, at the end ofthe day, I can come here
and you know, make a fewbucks and it helps pay the rent.
But if I make nothing, youknow, I still get those experiences,
and for me, that's a reallybig booster for my mental health because it
makes me feel like there's a reasonto move forward. The next day,
I was like being seen and likeheard. Yeah, I mean it's not

(23:25):
so much of you know, youknow, selfishly, it is a little
bit of an ego booster, butI think that you know, in this
field, you kind of need thatsometimes, you know, to to kind
of move forward. And you know, it just I don't know, it
feels good to, like you said, be seen, and you know,
I mean I'm seen by this wonderfulhuman being every day. And you know,
we we really supported each other throughour artwork. But coming out here

(23:45):
and meeting complete strangers who you canmake that connection with, you know,
it just makes you feel whole asan individual. I guess you know.
So I might sut a little dramatic, but for me, that's what makes
sense. And the same question I'dsay, I've got to reiterate the connection,
whether that's connection with other people orhonestly, as who as it sounds,
connection with nature. I like toget out sometimes when I can,

(24:06):
with my art go to the beach. You know, we live at the
beach, so go to the beach, sketch some things there, go on
a walk to kind of get outof my own head, get out of
my bubble. And the same foryou know, the connection, getting out
of my own bubble and connecting withother artists and other people that consume the
media that we're into. And yeah, I really think connection is what it
boils down to for me as faras you know, keeping my own mental
health in check, and you knowthe practices we do, all right,

(24:29):
So I asked show this, butfor Tales of Cape Fear, is it
available online? You can actually findTales of Cape Fear through the Tales of
Capfear dot com website. We arecurrently wrapping up book five, so when
the kickstarter begins, we would loveto have all of the support you can
give us on that kind of getit out of the door. But we
are also working on a trade versionthat's going to have several of these issues

(24:52):
all together because it's an anthology.Though if you were to order any of
the issues, you don't have togo and order all of the short stories
in there. You know, ifthey're connected, they're vaguely connected. All
right, So where can people findyou guys? Online? On Instagram is
probably where I've just played the mostof my work. I'm at Joe Coobas
co v As Creates, So atJoe Cobos Creates is where I'm at,

(25:17):
And I'm at Mercy Nickel m ER c y N I c k E
L on Instagram. You can alsofollow Tales of Kate Theer and all of
the artists and writers responsible for thatpiece at at Tales of Kate Theer on
Instagram as well. All right,Thank you. I'm here right now with
Rod Van Blake. He is thewriter, the author behind the fantasy series.

(25:41):
All right, so tell us.So the Young Banny Chronicles, I
say that, right, Bonnie.Young Bonnie Chronicles is a fantasy series about
uh. Basically, I have theArisha West African gods of Europa that rule
over Young Bonnie. And there's amajors or a wizard who loses his love
in battle and a god creeps upon him and says, I can bring
back to you if you raise aremnant army in my name. Not a

(26:02):
smart thing, but because he thinkshe's about to do, he agrees to
it. And when he starts todo that, it corrupts magic and he
inadvertently wakes up three elder dragons whouse magic to hibernate. So when their
sleep is disturbed, they get angry. They come up seeing what's going on.
The god look down, see ablight going across the world, and
everybody's looking for this Waywood Majors.So that's Young Bonnie Chronicles. How that

(26:23):
story kind of starts out, andthen we have two comic books based on
the first couple chapters of that book. I have the second book out Your
Bonnie Chronicles two, The Draconian Tribunal, And before that, I published my
Ancient Illumination science fiction series. Butthat's the first series. Young Bonnie's my
newest series. So tell us alittle bit about the Ancient Illumination. Ancient

(26:44):
Illumination is basically a what if scenarioabout beings of pure light that come to
Earth sixty eight thousand years in thepast to teach mankind. We're still in
the stages. The Crow Magnin,one of them, of course, thinks
we're too dumb, so he getsbored and says they're not gonna get it,
so he starts experimenting on mankind andthat gets him in trouble, and
as punishment, his kind exiles himhere on Earth and forced to stay behind

(27:06):
to enlighten us. So we geta bunch of different mutant races, we
get a bunch of technological advancements throughouthistory that happens as a result of him
being here, and the mutants bandtogether try and find this alien to prove
that he's the source of all ofour conflicts. So it's a military action
space opera sci fi story that Iwrote. I put the Marines in there

(27:26):
because I was Marie. I'm amarine veteran, so I had to add
the military experience into it. It'skind of a jumble of all things alternate
history, but yeah, that's ancientillumination. Can you talk about the challenges
of not only a world building butalso kind of bringing together multitude of subgenres
and kind of making it feel likea thrilling epic that point, I'm not

(27:51):
sure how challenge it's coming up withthe things. I think. Fictional writing
is kind of the most difficult becauseyou do have the world build and create
kind of from scratch. There's nothingnew under the sun. Everything is kind
of derivative. But you have totry and find a way to make your
stories unique enough so it stands apartfrom whatever it is you've been consuming yourself.
That's mainly the hard thing is tryingto make something unique when there's so

(28:15):
many sci fi and fantasy stories outthere that have been done. I'd nauseum.
It is the most difficult thing,but I kind of roll with it.
I guess I kind of infuse someof my personal experience into it,
so it's kind of personal to me. People that I went into throughout life
experience, though they might give mea version of them as a caricature of

(28:36):
that person, so it's not theactual person, but I've kind of added
my own little special sauce to aperson. I may judge them up and
have them more extreme than they actuallyare in the stories, but you kind
of have to do that to makethe stories new and different, and that
way it's tailored to me, andpeople that kind of came up with me
will know where I got certain thingsfrom or have experienced certain things that I've
experienced, will know where it's from. But it's unique to me, but

(29:00):
a still there's enough there to relateto a wide variety of people. We
talk about infusing some of your personalexperience as a marine and kind of the
vulnerability that comes with writing stuff thatlike that more or less. The attitude,
the jargon, the vernacular that we'rekind of used to, the hurry
up and wait. People that havebeen in the military will know what that's
about, command knowing things that thelower tier people will not know. The

(29:26):
enlisted may not know what's going on. We're just kind of so that attitude
and having to deal with those thingsare infused into my stories as well,
So it's not necessarily I'm not acombat vet, you know, I'm communications
So it's not necessarily that experience thatcomes into it, but the overall attitude
and what we had to deal within the day to day kind of drudgery
of being in the military, inaddition to the dangers and other things that

(29:48):
we deal with are kind of inthe stories as well. So going back
to the Manny, your Manny,your Bonnie chronicles, I apologize. Can
you uh tell you mentioned that alot of the the lore comes from African
folklore. Well, we get thesame pantheon the gods, in my opinion,
we get the Norse gods, weget Celtic gods, we get the

(30:11):
Greek and Roman versions of gods.If they do touch afcrits, usually the
Egyptian gods. So I don't seeas many of the arsha use a lot.
So I wanted to use a differentpantheon to give a different feel and
experience to the fantasy genre. Oloh yah shango babblo aya. These different

(30:32):
versions that have existed and basically havekind of been changed into other things,
but not claiming them as what theyare in other lore. I wanted to
use that lord because it's kind ofdifferent, you know, you know,
a Nanci. We've seen the Nancia time, you know, American Gods.
I love that story, but thenfor whatever reason, they stopped using

(30:53):
him in season three, so Iwanted to give a different feel in my
own spin on the fantasy genre isthat that's kind of like what we've seen
before, but different yet and stillat the same time. What were some
of the challenges moving from a scifi story into a fantasy story? Not
very different at all, the differencemainly being that science fiction has to be

(31:15):
foundationally based on science, whereas magicand things that can't be explained over time
are what's governs fantasy. So Ihave a scientific rule that rules my science
and the mutants and where they comefrom. The beings made of pure lad
I came up with that because whenI was a kid, we taught about
matter and there were three forms ofmatter, but now they're teaching plasma is

(31:40):
a fourth form of matter. Soit became a what if of what if
there were organic beings made of purelight because a unit of light photon is
kind of gaseous, solid, liquid, and plasma all at the same time
in one unit, Well, whatif there was a sentient being made of
that? And so that's kind ofhow the what ifs neil built from there.
Whereas it's based it's only on magicon the fantasy side, and it

(32:01):
just depends on kind of like howthe forces. Some people have it,
some people don't. But in mybooks it's called unasifiewel, which is the
gift in Swahili, So that's wheremagic comes from. So either you have
the gift or you don't, andthen there's just very various stages of it.
So you could be a demi godif you're half god half human,

(32:21):
then you would have obviously a lotof it and you'd be able to mat
or you have none of it becauseyou're just all human, or a god
could gift it to you, oryou're naturally just born with it. So
there are different tiers to the magiclevels in the fantasies, and that's mainly
the difference with fantasy. I cansay the magic words, there's nothing in
my hand, and then when Isay these words, something magically appears in

(32:42):
my hand. Those are the rulestype of thing. Now, if you
veer from those rules, then readersare going to be upset with you.
If you have like a genie andyou have three wishes from the genie and
you all of a sudden give yourprotagonists a fourth wish and break your own
rules, then they're gonna be upsetabout it. So that's really the kind
of difference. You have to knowwhat the difference between the genres are and
what governs what's happening within the world. And of course you can have what

(33:06):
I think Star Wars is a mixof the two. Yeah, So one
of the last things I'm trying totalk to independent creators about this weekend is
what are ways that you do foryourself that keep you in a healthy mental
health space. Me. I workout, and I take time off.
I read and do the things becausethat's kind of what got me into writing,

(33:28):
was reading a lot. That's kindof my escape, in addition to
movies and things like that. Invideo games, even though I'm old as
he I'll be fifty at the endof the year, I still play games
so I can shoot up stuff andbeat folks up on a digital plane and
not in real life, so Idon't get in any trouble. So that
kind of gives my brain a breakand allows me to take time and reset

(33:49):
kind of mentally for the real world. All right, well, where can
people pick up the books online?And where can they read them? Check
them out? Ancient Illumination dot netis my website. You can get both
Seen Mares, literary novels and comicsand graphic novels Ancient Illumination That meant all
right, rod Well, I thankyou for your time and go check out
both series appreciates. How would youguys like to help us get mental health

(34:13):
resources into schools, conventions, andother events. Well, now you can
simply go to Patreon dot com FordSage, Victims and Villains. For as
little as one dollar a month,you guys can help us get mental health
resources into current and upcoming generations,educate and break down stigma surrounding mental health,

(34:36):
suicide, and depression, and toget exclusive content that you can't get
anywhere else. And you guys cantell us which Nicholas Cage movie you want
us to cover and we'll do it. All it takes to get started is
to go to Patreon dot com ForwardSage, Victims and Villains or simply click
the link in the episode description.Wherever you guys are currently listening or streaming

(34:58):
this episode, pick your tears andget started today. Yes, it's that
simple, so clickly selected tier thatyou want and help us get hope into
the hands of the depressed and thesuicidal today. I mean with Charlie,
he is the I guess I probablyshould have asked this before we started,

(35:20):
but you are the writer artist oncomic Spider Squirrel trash BANDA tell us a
little bit about these books. Yeah, Spider Squirrel and trash Band is a
Buddy Cup action comedy. It's kindof a I guess, a modern throwback
superhero book. It's a lot offun. The biggest thing is it's it's
really a book kind of based onmy personality about you know, I act

(35:42):
like I take nothing seriously, butI really take everything seriously. And it's
such a great it's a great releasefor me to kind of exhibit a way
to go throughout the world which isalways serious and laugh in the face of
things and be stoics sometimes and reallykind of keep yourself centered. So for
me, it's a nice way toshow that in a comic book form.
So I got to ask what aname like trash Panda does it come from?

(36:06):
Guardians. No. Actually, sobefore Guardians came out, this was
already in production. We'd already startedbecause I built this for about three years
before I finally went our Kickstarter andthen in the middle of that, of
course, Guardians and Galaxy came out. And that's fine, But no,
my buddy's a marine, Jeremy.He's a retired marine now discharged. He

(36:28):
had a condition and we joked abouthim being he was a big raccoon thing
and trash panda. We started callinghim trash Panda and it kind of stuck,
and he's the model for the actualcharacter. So it really came from
my buddy. This is not everyday that I get to interview somebody that
has a little bit of comedy interjectedinto it. Obviously, the your banner
behind you is whether or not Pineappleshould go on pizza. It's an ongoing

(36:52):
joke. Can you talk about bringingin that breath of fresh air and kind
of those more comedic moments into themythology? Yeah, I mean I think
you know, it's uh, likeI said earlier, it's kind of like
my mantra on life is to laughas much as possible. I think it's
so healthy to laugh and you know, we as parents. You know,
with my wife, we have sevenkids, and I think throughout all the

(37:15):
struggles of just parenting and living,whether it's financial struggles or whether it's raising
a kid or kids, you know, just learned to find those moments to
laugh because they become a reprieve inano of themselves. And so for me
to write comedy and to kind ofexpress it in a way that hopefully makes
other people laugh is really important tome because I think we need to laugh

(37:37):
a little bit more, and Ithink it's I think it's healthier. You
know, it's it's proven we leaverelease indorphins when we laugh and we smile.
And so for me, it justmeans the world to know that people
are out there reading this and they'retelling me, hey, I found this
as an LOL moment, or heythis really made me smile, or I
totally like vibed on this and it'sreally made me laugh because something like this

(37:58):
happened to me in real life.And and it takes those serious moments and
to kind of exponentiate them too,some weird comedic moment is everything. I
just I think it's important. Soso comedy is one of those things that
can be literally a multitude of differentaudiences. Obviously, the things that make
kids laugh aren't going to make adultslab and vice versa. So when you're

(38:20):
writing the comedy aspect of it,and also kind of the adventure side of
this, was the audience that youhave in mind. For most of the
audience are just knuckleheads like me.Really, if I'm going to giggle at
it, I think somebody else mightgiggle at it. It's kind of a
good twelve to ninety nine year oldhumor. There's a little bit of everything
in there, so you know,we'll have some butt jokes and we'll have
you know, actually, in themost recent release, his entire costume gets

(38:44):
ripped off, and so we havenice little pixelated nethers, if you will.
So a little bit of silly goofy, maybe even sex jokes, but
not raunchy, you know, justmild. Why is the sock on the
window and not on the doorknob,you know kind of a thing. So
those moments are there, and thenthere's those, you know, some dad
jokes for sure, because frankly,I'm a dad, and there's food jokes,

(39:06):
and I don't know, there's allkinds of nonsense in there, just
to play a little bit of funon a little bit of everything. So
I wist say there's all kinds ofhumor. I just say it's a nice
gamut. So the world of independentcomics, you can have series that are
limited that will do four issues.They're done told the story they want to
tell. You're setting out to writethis particular story. What do you have

(39:27):
in mind in terms of like theend goal? Yeah, no, that's
a that's a really great question.I wrote the first arc as a mini
series and and I published it assuch, and with the intention that it
was popular enough I do more,and so I did a special which we
did and I just released and nowI'm actually in the middle of writing volume
two. So I'll continue to dothis as a as an Indian going so

(39:49):
it'd be like a series of miniseries, but it'll be an arc and
the numbers will be consistent, sothe next issue is four. But the
end goal I actually did. It'sfunny you asked, I actually wrote already
the Last Spider Squirrel Story, asI call it. That's the tentative working
title. It's not going to bethe final and the you know, without
being a big spoiler. The culminationof it is is Spider Squirrel talking about

(40:10):
how everyone thinks he's a joke,how he's just a cornball, and he
acts like that, he talks likethat, but at the end of it
all, he's passionate about taking careof his people, taking care of the
world, doing the right thing.And so it's a very serious, almost
like a tear jerk kind of amoment for me personally when I'm writing it,
because I do act like an idiotall the time, but I take

(40:32):
everything seriously. I'm really passionate aboutmy family and my neighborhood, my community,
my world, and it'll come outin that last story. You talk
about balancing the emotions as a writerand also like how to convey those emotions
visually as an artist. Yeah,I think of a moment. So I

(40:52):
love slapstick. It's one of myfavorite forms of comedy. My kids love
slapstick. So it's you know,he's kind of a nice family thing.
I think have visual jokes and havinga good art team that I can collab
with is really critical. And dC. Stultner, who's the artist that
I first started working with, isa master at crafting these visual expressions and
these little subtle moments that just catchbecause he gets the vibe of what I'm

(41:15):
doing. I think I write someof it, but it really comes down
to the art team. They're truecollaborators, true co creators, So I
can't take all the credit for that. So if any of the humor's visual
some of it probably came from theart team, if not all of it.
So, so, stepping aside fromthe series, what are some ways
that you, as an individual takecare of your own mental health or would

(41:37):
you advise listeners to take care oftheir mental health? To be honest,
I think cons are actually one ofthose ways I get I get here,
and my wafe will tell you,I might eat four hundred calories the whole
weekend. I vibe off the energyof the people and the energy and the
passion that they bring to the tableliterally and figuratively, you know. I
look at the cosplayers and the amountof efforts some of these folks to put

(41:59):
into it, and I look atthe other co creators like the guy's behind
me, a Pat and Stokes overhere, who who put together their own
works, and it just fills mewith a lot of energy, and I
do go home exhausted, but youknow, it's a it's almost a couch
session for me, Like I reallylove this I do, and it's hopefully
it comes out in my passion too, So it's just great. It's also

(42:21):
great to talk to people about thisand share it with my wife and and
so forth. So when I'm notat a con, writing is a great
outlet. I've written so many storiesthat will never get published because I just
feel like I just need to dumpit out there and just kind of exhaust
myself onto paper, whether it's digitalor physical paper. So I mean comics
just that another release, you know, So if that makes sense, Yeah,

(42:44):
no, I get that. Man. I'm I'm the same way when
we get a chance to do consthat are behind table, So I get
it. My last question is goingto be where can people find the books?
Where can we support you? Andso on and so forth. Yeah,
I'm all over social media, soI'm pretty easy to find. It's
Charlie McKelvey mce l vy pretty muchat Charlie McKelvey anywhere, and you can

(43:05):
also go to Zion Studios Zion withan x so xio in studios plural dot
com. I just put a newonline shop up. I only have digital
right now. I'll add some physicalstuff later and from there you can contact
me via contact form and stuff likethat. Oh well, thank you for
your time, sir dude. Thankyou very much. I appreciate what you
do. Here's something that you don'tfind every day. I am here with

(43:27):
Michelle and Andrews. Smart. Theyare the writer artists couple behind Moonlayer Studios,
and that creates manga. How areyou guys doing pretty good? Yeah,
pretty good. Thanks. So youguys have an entire imprint. Can
you guys talk about some of theprojects that is underneath the imprint? Yeah?
Sure. So currently we have fourtitles released. Go A Ganzi is

(43:53):
our main one. That was ourfirst full length manga volume, and then
we have two issues of Aku MeJosher Blue is coming later this year,
but we've got the sneak peak alreadytoday, and then the V series,
which is kind of our version ofShown and Jump. Yeah no, absolutely
yeah everything that she said, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah,

(44:15):
and I go write the stories.All right, Well, how do you
guys? You know, manga's traditionallya Japanese art that has had a huge
blossom in the last forty years herein the States. So how do you
guys kind of take something that istraditionally not American and bring your worldview on
it, your backyard into it.Yeah. I was gonna say, actually,

(44:38):
do you want to start this oneoff? Yeah. So, I
mean I grew up with manga.It was something that and actually when I
started kind of watching either cartoons orcomics, like like, I noticed kind
of the influence that kind of Americancomics and American kind of superheroes kind of
had on like kind of just theentertainment kind of world just kind of all

(45:00):
together. And so when I gotinto manga and anime, I knew it
was different, but it still hadthat sort of, you know, kind
of creative freedom and kind of hadthat, yeah, just creativity to it.
So for me it's something obviously,you know, I'm an American,
so I'm going to bring kind ofmy kind of own identity into it.
But like the creative freedom I thinkthat manga has is very kind of reflective

(45:23):
on what like classic American cartoons hadlike just you know, just pure imagination,
pure escapism, and so that's somethingthat I know, for us,
like we really want to kind ofbring back that golden age of like manga
where they were really kind of youknow, going out there and just creating
kind of whatever they wanted. Soyeah, and some of the stuff,

(45:45):
I mean, not everything we dois old school, but a lot of
the stuff we do is inspired bythose eighties, nineties, and early two
thousands manga and anime, and duringthat time period a lot of the stuff
coming over to the US had somesimilarities. Like there's you know, historical
reasons why manga has a lot ofinfluence from American comics, and now we

(46:06):
see it going the other way whereAmerican comics are starting to have, you
know, take influences from manga,so as Americans were always gonna put our
kind of spin on it, likeAndrew said, but you know, we
really try to pay homage to thatclassic style. So Andrew got a question
for you, specifically since you broughtit up. The for American comics like

(46:28):
you know, Tarzan, DC,Batman, Superman, the golden age is
considered like the nineteen thirties to likeearly nineteen fifties. What would the golden
age of manga be for you?Oh, I would have to say,
like like early eighties to early eightiesto early I want to say early two
thousand, late nineties for me.I mean, they just had some wild

(46:50):
stuff. So I would think that'skind of the golden age of anime,
and that's where like a lot ofmy style kind of comes from, just
because again, the creativity, theand I feel like a lot of anime
tropes were kind of born from thoseon that time period that we kind of
kind of take for granted or justsort of it's part of the anime aesthetic
for those tropes, and I thinkthose were born out of those on that

(47:14):
golden age of just creativity. Soyeah, all right, So question for
you guys. So one of thethings that I'm fascinated by, particularly about
your project is manga is notorious forhaving very long story arcs that take very
long time to kind of come tocompletion, and when it comes to DIY
comics, it sometimes can take yearsbefore you guys are able to actually kind

(47:38):
of see that. So how doyou guys kind of take that tradition of
storytelling and bring that into the craftof DIY artistry and comics. Well,
I think part of it, firstoff is, you know, understandably,
like any indie creator we're gonna beslower than the big guys. You know,

(47:59):
we're never gonna be able put booksout as fast as they are,
So part of it is just ustaking our time. But the other thing
too is that, you know,with the manga classics, they are built
into arcs. So although the overallor over arching story could take two hundred,
three hundred you know, chapters,episodes, whatever, there are those
pockets of time where you'll get,you know, just ten to twelve chapters,

(48:22):
maybe even on just five. There'ssome really fantastic anime and manga series
that are not that long. It'sjust that once people saw that they were
hit, they kept going with it. Yeah. Yeah, and actually just
sort of mixing kind of the traditionalare the the American side with it.

(48:42):
We've actually started doing them an issueform. I feel like that is the
way we have to do it,like you know, just being American,
Like doing an issue form is reallygood. And I tell everybody all the
time, like indie comics already kindof had it sort of like renaissance,
where in the beginning it was hardfor people to kind of get things out.
Now indie comics are kind of flourishing. I feel with indie manga,

(49:07):
it hasn't had that renaissance yet,like you know, you know in America.
I mean, obviously people have beendoing it, you know for a
long time, but you know,not having that sort of stride sticking to
a sticking to a a story orone story for so long. I feel
like like it's a very sort oflike you know, manga traditional type of

(49:27):
way. But with indie comics,like you do an issue, you put
it out, you see how itgoes. For us, we want to
kind of put out as many differentstories to kind of see what people like.
But issue format is kind of theway we want to go. So
I'm talking to Michelle about this beforeyou uh, because you were you're outdoor
dash as one does any convention,but traditionally in this sphere, it's really

(49:50):
rare to find an independent manga.So when you guys are stepping into the
cons you know, how do youguys stand out from like more traditional common
creators. Yeah, so, Imean, I mean one of the things
that that we try to make surethat that we do is like just I
guess kind of focus on kind ofthose those classic things. I mean,

(50:12):
we definitely don't want to be ina box. But we're we're just I'm
sorry, I lost my thought.Ye sorry, yeah, just I'm just
trying to bring back back that creativity. I mean, that's one way that
I think we we stand out.Another way is kind of on a d
I y kind of thing, islike really encouraging creators to kind of you

(50:34):
know, kind of take the ball, you know, by the horn.
A lot of this stuff we doin house. We do the you know,
we do the crafting, you know, by hand, We do the
design obviously the story and the artwork. But that's something that I feel like
we're we're you know, we reallywant to encourage more creators to do and
stuff. So, which is partof the indie kind of space is just
you know doing it yourself, whichI think indie comics did a really great

(50:55):
job of doing so. So oneof the things that we've been asking creators
this week is this weekend, isyou know, when it comes to your
own mental health, what are somepractices that you take to keep yourself in
like healthy conditions. Yeah, absolutely, definitely take breaks, you know,
take breaks not just from from drawing, but taking break from social media.

(51:19):
You know, comparing yourself to topeople, make sure that you're that you're
you know in taking things that youreally kind of love, you know.
You know, some people just focuson the business aspect of it, or
you know, the money aspect ofit. But like for us, like
we have a great time. Likehonestly, I find myself the happiest is
when I'm creating. Like, youknow, when I start feeling stress,

(51:40):
it's because I'm focusing on the competitionof things like sales and all that stuff.
But you know, if you're acreator, that's what you love to
do. Make sure you're filling yourmind your spirit with you know, creations,
you know, and and sometimes youhave to like balance that out because
you don't want to spend all yourtime consuming you know, content. You
definitely want to make sure that youare producing and but uh but yeah,

(52:02):
taking breaks, taking breaks up ofsocial media, you know, and and
and making sure you're giving yourself thatgrace, especially as an indie, you
have to give yourself that grace becauseyou're doing everything by yourself. You're a
social media person and stuff like that. Also get around like minded people,
you know, stay away from negativepeople. Like I know that sounds cliche,
but seriously, like you know,make sure you're around people that not

(52:23):
only will tell you that you're doinga great job, but if you're not
doing a great job, they willsay, hey, let me show you
a different way, or you know, you know, let me help you
with this. So so yeah,that's one way that that we definitely,
you know, I keep myself sayingso so Michelle had to step out and
take a phone call. But uh, where can people find you online?
Are we able to actually read thesebooks online and support you guys? Yeah,

(52:45):
no, no, absolutely So it'sat Moonlair Studios dot com. That's
our that's our main website. Weare really active on Instagram. I believe
it's Moonlayer Underscore Studios on Instagram,and we have all of our books on
the main website, either digital.You can purchase digital or you can purchase
physical. We're gonna start putting outlittle sneak peeks, so so you guys

(53:09):
can kind of get a kind ofa good understanding of kind of all the
different series. But yeah, that'sthat's basically where you can kind of find
us. All right, Well,I thank you so much. I don't
know where your wife ran onto,but I thank you guys for your time.
I thank you guys, say youguys have a fascinating project here,
keep it up and thank you.Appreciate it, Thank you so much,

(53:30):
appreciate it. Yeah, I'm herewith Anthony the writer, artist, creator
behind multitude of books. How areyou done? I'm doing fantastic. You
got quite a like array of stuffhere. Can you gotta talk about what
the some of the titles here?How about absolutely So? I have my
first series of k It's a revengethriller. And my other series, God's

(53:52):
We're Dead It's a fantasy stiller.Oh my god, a fantasy series.
I have a Tapper Die which ismy wrestling series and Intrusive Thoughts. It's
actually about mental health, which isa hard supernatural mystery. And I my
Mother'sy's Extras Club as well, whichis a supernatural comedy. Essentially, you

(54:13):
gotta talk about juggling a multitude ofdifferent genres and jumping into different worlds.
Oh yeah, I've always uh,I always wrote in multiple areas, and
I felt like, essentially when Icome to a con the emphasis I want
to be able to have something foreverybody, and so it's a point of
inferensis and I like working in differentgenres. I like different genres. I
don't just I don't just consume onegenre or medium. So I want to

(54:34):
be genre less in a sense.Do you have fun writing one genre over
another? Not really, No,It depends on the idea, depends on
the premise to the artists. Sometimes, yeah, so it doesn't matter.
I will jump into I will jumpinto some of these titles. Real quick.
Decay, give us a quick rundown. What's it about? Absolutely,
it's a supernatural Vince Durler. It'sabout a guy that gets killed at the

(54:58):
house party, wrong placeer on time. His sister brings him back to life
and it gets revenge. Intrusive thoughts. You talked about it being mental health
based. Can you kind of talkabout some of the influences there and where
that story comes from fluences. It'skind of like a G. Gabman thing.
My first series, Decay, itwas very literal. This is more
of a metaphorical kind of direction.And basically the premise is about an orphan

(55:21):
never met his parents, get droppedoff at a police station when he's three
years old, two years old,and he's got anxiety depression, sleep paralysis,
and his sleeper houses demon breaks uphis head and bites his classmates.
So it's uh, you know,it's a it's about mental just strets it
up with like genre stuff, youknow, and wrestling. You have tap
or die here. What are youan independent wrestling fan or a major wrestling

(55:44):
fan? I would say major,Yeah, major wrestling fan. Favorite wrestler,
he's about Hoot my favorite wrestler.Oh, it's stone cold, you
know. That's why I grew upwith for sure. How you doing last
time we got here is Exorcist ClubContending time to tell about jumping into the
world of supernatural comedy and kind ofbalancing the two. Uh, you know,
it's I don't know, it's hardto it's hard to say. I

(56:05):
kind of just write whatever feels right. I just trust my instincts. It's
hard to like you kind of justget into the flowid things, you know.
All right, So my last questionfor you is gonna be uh,
as a as an individual, whatare some ways that you kind of take
care of your own mental health?I'm I I really don't. It's unfortunate,
you know, I wish it wassomething I did take care of more.

(56:25):
I'm just kind of in the grindof things and the floward things,
but it's something I should put moreof emphasis on, certainly, where can
people find the books online? Thekcomic dot com. Well, thank you
for your time, sir. Absolutelyabsolutely, yeah, no problem,