Lost Interviews, Vol. 1 | Episode #462 - Victims and Villains

Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
Welcome to the Victims and Villains podcast. If you guys are new to this
podcast, this is a podcast extensionof the nonprofit called Victims and Villains that
creates content, host events to talkabout mental health through pop culture, and
twenty twenty three is coming to anend. And along the way, we
have done some incredible conventions this year, film festivals, and we have sat

(00:33):
down with so many comic writers,artists, podcasters, other nonprofits, filmmakers
and more that have just not seenthe light of day until now. My
name is Josh and today I'm goingto be taking you guys on a little
journey through our lost annals of interviewsfrom twenty twenty three events. And first

(00:59):
off, let me just say it'sthe deepest apologies to the creators that are
in the conversations of this episode.It was never our intention. It was
never my intention to hold it foras long as I did. Some of
these interviews we have been sitting onfor almost a year. The main reason
why a lot of the structure ofVictims and Villains were was changing while some

(01:26):
of these interviews were going on,and really just trying to be as present
as possible with some of those changes, that really needed, and as a
result, some of these interviews gotleft on the back burner. We also
started a second podcast that by theend of the year, you guys,

(01:48):
well, if you guys are bordersof our Patreon, you will be able
to hear that interview as well asa lost pilot that never really made it
to fruition and kind of the pilotstage, but to David Lynch podcast that
we were planning and hoping to start. It would have it would have eventually
boom a seven year project that wewould have been jumping into, and it

(02:15):
just never it never came to fruitionfor Just Life kind of only myself and
my co host Zach Gain, whowas the writer director on the independent film
Home Rerecord, which you can currentlystream on shutter. Our schedules just kind
of became a little bit too chaotic, and so you guys will kind of

(02:37):
get to see some of the behindthe scenes projects that we attempted to get
off the ground this year in twentytwenty three. But wow, before we
jump into some of these interviews,this is your reminder to officially go support
the Victims and Villain's podcast network thatincludes a Biscazing and horror podcast where we
have new episodes every Monday, talkabout mental health and whole brilliant but lazy

(03:01):
our pop culture podcast here hosted byAlan and Josh, and also That's High
Praise, which is currently on hiatusright now, but we'll return in twenty
twenty four. So without further ado, let's jump into some of these interviews.
The first set of interviews that youguys are getting ready to hear come

(03:22):
from Comic Con out of Wilkesboro,North Carolina. This con was the second
time we've done this, and weactually also did a panel which we'll be
releasing another date later that before theend of this year with our friends over
at Great State Paranormal talking about Gatewayhorror and mental health, and specifically the

(03:44):
interviews that you guys are getting readyto hear are comic creators, and they
are the creators behind the title CelestialKnight, Frit and Home Free. They
are writers, artists and creators andthese all three have vastly different feels and
tones for them. So if youguys love anything about what you guys hear

(04:06):
in these next few interviews, thenplease click the links in the descriptions below
to check out and support these guys. And I hope you guys enjoyed this.
We'll be right back. Hey.I am at wilkes Comic Con here
in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, andI'm here with Chris from KRIT and Dennis,

(04:28):
my creator of the Celestial Night.All right, so you guys gotta
tell me a little bit about thesebooks. So my book Krit is based
off of a Dungeons and Dragons gamemy friends and I play, and I
record the sessions, and I turnedit into a comic book a few years
ago. Okay, So I gottaask. My editor in chief is really
big into the D and D RPGsall the world, and he loves like

(04:55):
the let's play like kind of podcasts. Or did you kind of get inspired
from that and say, oh man, this would make like a really great
visual medium. No, Actually,my friends and I hadn't played in about
ten years. I called them,I said, hey, I had this
idea for a superhero D and Dgot them together. It was just so
chaotic. I was bored one nightand just started drawing it. I didn't
even know how to draw. Itaught myself how to draw, and then

(05:18):
it just kind of snowballed into whatit is now. So it was all
by accident that this even took intolike what it is. But it's become
a lot of fun for all ofus. And now we're on five years
in the same campaign. All right, how long in between issues? Because
I always know with independent comics ittakes a really long time. So how
long are we talking about to create? We launched issue one in twenty twenty.

(05:42):
I'm on issue seven right now,so roughly about three to four months
on every book. We also hada pandemic on your side though too.
Yes, I had a lot ofextra time. I did have a lot
of extra time, and we wereblessed because Issue zero, a friend of
ours, came in behind me anddid Issue zero, unched that side by
side with three, so I wasable to, you know, produce two

(06:02):
books at the same time. Butwe say, I stay pretty busy.
I'm always drawing or lettering or coloringor doing something. So that's awesome,
And all right, I gotta asktell me about your book Celestial Night.
I've been drawing since I was ayoung child. Created this character thirty five
years ago, was in my head, stuck with me for thirty five years.
Meeting this gentleman and the rest ofour crew gave me the bulls to

(06:25):
kind of create my comics. Sothirty five years later got the character put
in the print. Character named Jerremy. He's best friend's dog named Norman.
How they get their powers and theywind up fighting a Kaiju in Times Square.
So it's issue one, thirty sixpages. Wrote it, drew it,
inked it, colored it, younamed it. Other than lettering it,
he lettered it. But a goodSI se I don't say sci fi
a good cake book. If you'rein a superheroes, that's my lane.

(06:46):
And then we're part of the Sabbathsandbox. We have eight different creators.
We have all different genres. Sohe's a D and D guy, I'm
a superhero guy. We got ananime guy. We got a vigilante guy,
suspense and horror kind of guy.We all have different kind of lanes.
We all flow into. But we'reon the Just Savage soundbox publisher.
So I talked to I talked tohim about the process of his books.

(07:06):
But you're doing a lot more.Did you also write in draw years?
Yeah? I do. Yeah,we're pretty much on the same page.
I gotta ask because I think it'slike the first time i've i've in a
long time, i've interviewed a creatorthat actually like has that specifically, what
is kind of like the motivation tolike just keep pursuing that, because I
gotta say, like, that's that'sit. It doesn't sound like a lot,

(07:30):
but like from someone that does createand like you know edits podcast puts
out the social media like all ofthat stuff. I understand that the editing,
but like undertaking, but can youguys talk about the the undertaking and
like your own mental health like processthrough creating, so at least from mine,
it's a grind, it's definitely grind. You have your highs and lows.
I had a moment yesterday while youfeel like you're not good enough,

(07:51):
You're like, look at all thisgreat stuff that's coming out. But for
me, what keeps me going isone the guys I work with just seeing
the stuff they it out them keepingme up one of my lows. And
the same thing goes around when they'refeeling low. We're picking each other up.
But there's so much more to itthan that, especially for something for
I created thirty five years ago,there was a reason why I stopped drawing
for thirty five years and then thirtyfive year laters revisit it and brought it

(08:16):
back. But there's so many factorsthat go into that that, I mean,
so many different lanes that we cango down as far as mental health
in my own personal story of whythis book came out fifty years later.
But yeah, to that, itis a grind and you just got to
really assault yourself with some really goodpeople to get you through that. Grinds
good. I think it's good.Yeah, same question. So the my

(08:39):
why for all this actually drawing comicshelps me get over being depressed in things.
It's an I escape from a normalday. I've worked two full time
jobs during the entire process, andso most of my nights have been dedicated
to creating and getting better at mycraft. Like I said, I didn't
I didn't draw until twenty nineteen,so I started drawing. I didn't think

(09:03):
I was that great. I hada lot of creative backing from my wife
at the time. She was pushingme and getting me into it. And
now, just like everybody else,you have your high days your low days,
and when I hit that low,I pull up their work my friends,
like the guys in my group,and I look at what they're doing
and I get inspired and I say, okay, well, I know that

(09:26):
at least seven of my guys rightnow are going through stuff as well.
I'm going to push myself too,because seeing me push through because I've got
my own personal stuff I'm going throughthat, some of them know and they
know if I'm willing to push throughthrough my hard times, that they're going
to do the same. So wekind of do that together. And sometimes
I'll just tap them on the shoulderand say, hey, man, I'm
having a tough day. You know, I had a really bad day last

(09:46):
week. I called a buddy ofours that's in the group and I said,
hey, I'm just having a reallybad day. I don't feel good,
you know, And he said,well, what are you going through?
And we would just talk it out. So I think one of the
best parts about being in this indiescene and this creating with other people is
you're not alone. Yes, Iwork on my book almost solely by myself,

(10:07):
but I have these other guys thatI've been able to like collaborate with
and meet through social media and throughthe creative process that we've grown to know
each other enough that I know thatthey've probably been there. Hey man,
I'm going through something. Can youhelp me out? And we just talk
and I think, I think,you know, going back to pandemic being
on our side. One thing thatdid come from the pandemic, I think

(10:30):
for a lot of people was realizingthat mental health is a serious situation.
And I find more now people arewilling to talk about mental health than they
were three and five years ago,because when we were all locked inside,
it became a very apparent thing thatit's not uncommon for all of us to
feel a certain way. And I'mvery happy that, you know, after

(10:50):
three years, I can call someoneand not feel weird saying hey, I'm
depressed. You know, being afull time father, full time husband,
working two full time jobs, itwas tough to say, hey, I
feel this way and not feel likemaybe I'm failing. To call him Dennis
or another guy that's close in ourgroup and say hey, I feel down

(11:11):
today. What can I do?And they'll just let me right back up,
And usually it circles back into yourbook. Is awesome. Keep creating
your books. Put that energy backin there and that's what I like hearing.
It's funny if you pulled up.Right before you pulled up, we
were just having a heavy conversation andit was about like racism and PTSD and

(11:31):
how it's transformed our kind of livesand just understanding each other from different points
of view. It's just crazy howthese things as every day we deal with,
but then we all come together overcomics and to create a process as
that brotherhood of comics. And evenin the chat last week, I put
in there anyone else having a shittyday at work because that sounds the worst

(11:52):
day, and all the guys didwas I'm having a problem with this boss,
I'm having a problem with this one. And I didn't feel alone,
and it was like cool. Andthen we went right back and talking about
our comics and our good stuff,and it was like I just needed to
get that out and someone to say, yeah, I'm having the same bad
day, have the same stinky balls, I'm having the same bad week.
Cool, And then we get skeptup rolling back into our books and back
into that fun vibe we had,so just real interesting, Like you came
by when we're having this conversation.I was like, you behind you're like

(12:16):
listening to us talking about some shit. I I swear I was, and
I was just like scouring the thousand. I was like, all right,
I need I need some metopendic creators. Uh. I think that's really rare.
Like I have a lot of friendsthat do like independent comics, and
uh, some have had good experiences, some have had bad experiences, but
I don't I would never say that, Like, you guys might have be

(12:37):
the first time I've ever heard ofa communal experience like that. That's really
cool that you guys have that,because I think that that is like vital
to like champion one another, notonly for that, but like also to
like be reminded, like hey,like I'm not alone, like you said,
so, I think that's really cool. I want to jump back into

(12:58):
your book because I'm like, I'mfascinated by the fact that took, you
know, thirty design concept from childhoodand like brought it into adulthood. Did
as far as that character design,did it like did that character design like
ever change? Did it ever evolveover the years. So in the first
issue there's the back pages of it, you'll see actually where the character started.
His name was a little bit different. His look was different, and

(13:20):
then as the years went on,you kind of refined him. So he
definitely evolved over time. His storyalways changed over time, bigger things.
It motivation stayed the same, tobe honest with you, when I created
and when I was younger, becauseI was going through a lot of issues
when I was younger, and thenas I got older and I stopped drawing,
it really was because there was adifferent part of my life where where
when I was when I grew up, all this was nerd shit. You

(13:41):
didn't want to be a nerd.So when I got to that point where
I got I got the hot wife, that nerd ship would I talk that
away? And my wife didn't knowabout the nerd ship. And then when
the nurture started cheeking in line aswe got married and now she's now hot
wife, then it came to theforefront and she still doesn't understand it.
But back then it wasn't wasn't cool, And for me, it always buried
it like I didn't want endhim toknow that I was into this, that

(14:03):
I drew that it was kind ofI want to say it was frowned upon,
but it was called nurture in areally bad way. Now you can
say nurture or nerd and it's actuallykind of a cool thing. Oh he
has a community now. Well backthen it's a whole different story. But
yeah, so it took a longtime. I buried that. When I
went to college, I stopped drawing. I would do like fun things like
on Christmas cards or Birthday cards.I do things for my kids, but

(14:24):
yeah, most of the time justbecause I didn't want en them to know,
because you know, there was thatstigma behind it. Marvel changed a
lot of that. Those Marvel moviescame out and suddenly like superheroes were cool.
I was like, okay, actuallybe a little bit more of myself
and be a little bit of anerd. So I had kettle bells,
superhero kettlebells, and I was like, still, I'm still a cool guy.
I'm still tough and strong and goodfather. I can still but I'm

(14:45):
painting. You know what is Marvelcharacters on his kettlebells and still kind of
keeping a true to my nerd side, you know what I mean. Weird
process. It's everyone has a story, but everyone's process. There's so many
weird lanes that they go through toget to that you know where you are
right now. Yeah, it's inlike a lot of way you're talking about

(15:07):
like bullying, like kind of likefeeling like, oh man, if someone
finds out about this, like I'mgonna I was podcasting a couple of years
ago, and uh, we goton the topic of like guilty pleasure movies,
and I'll never forget this. Theguess that I had like stopped me
dead my tracks and was like,it's not a guilt. It's not guilty
if it brings you pleasure, Andthat forever like changed my mindset on it.

(15:31):
So like now like I have Ihave tattoos on my body from movies
that are like fifteen percent on rottentomatoes, and I'm like, these things
bring me joy. So at theend of the day, like you know,
you have to do really what makesyou happy. So I really respect
that journey, well even more thanthis. Again, I don't want to
go too deep into it. Butthe reason I started drawing is because when

(15:52):
I grew up with an a racistage, so I was in a neighborhood
that's frowned upon Asians, So tostay away from them, to stop getting
jong and beat up and call thosenames. I stayed indoors, and I
stayed in doors. I write comicbooks because it was it was about good
verse evil, and I'd sit therewith the next to my grandmother and I
with draw for hours about that fightof good verse evil. And then I
took that and then developed that talentinto something that we are now. But

(16:14):
it was taking that growing up inthat really shitty situation, feeling terrible about
myself. I'm terrible about my race, and then turning into something positive now
which I could actually show and belike, I turned something really shitty into
something really cool. So so youbrought up like the subject of like both
of you guys have like talking aboutthe conversation you guys were having beforehand of

(16:36):
like racism and kind of like howlike almost like divide it like different the
world feels now. Did any ofthose like elements like either influence or like
are they like featured like in thestories? So definitely in mind, because
it's actually the crux of this issuewas an American dream, and that's actually
part of his origin is him realizing, like there's an American dream like his

(16:56):
father had set for him, andhe's going to continue that legacy of or
his father. It's my story.My father came here from the Philippines when
I was two months old, andthere's a picture of him which was based
off this was picture of him landingin New York as he got off the
plane and how happy he was,And that was always in the back of
my head when I created this book. And when the crux of this story,
it's him realizing I'm carrying on myfather's dream. That's issue one.

(17:18):
But if issue too, his origincontinues. But for me, you know,
it came back to that one littlemoment in time of you know,
that whole American dream. And thenagain it's based on, you know something
that at this day and age,a lot of people destroy the American dream
right now. And I was actuallyjust listening on a Rogan podcast driving in
how they were questioning what the Americandream is right now, and I'm like,
yeah, it's great to have thatconversation though, that we can question

(17:41):
it whether what is that dream now, Like it's not the same as it
was before, doesn't mean it's goodor bad, but we should still have
those conversations of what is it nowand how do we define it now because
the world is so different than itwas back in the day of picket fence
and green grass and wife and dogand puppy and all that kind of good
story work. Yeah, right,right exactly as my book does not have

(18:03):
any racial undertones I have, youknow, there are. I do have
a friend that is he's an AfricanAmerican. And I asked, when we
were creating the book, do wewant any any racist undertones anything to deal
with because you know, like incomic books, you have the Nazis and
these other ault right of these thesegroups that you'll fight that are seen as

(18:27):
racists. And I said, doyou want anything like that? Because he
had dealt with that in his life, you know, he told me stories
about how he had similar to whatDennis was going through growing up in a
predominately white neighborhood, and things thathim and his father had gone through.
And I said, do you wantanything like that in the storytelling as we
play D and D. Do youwant to challenge some of those things?
And he said to me, no, because that doesn't define my character.

(18:49):
What's defining to my character as beinga hero. And you know, as
a I'm a white creator and he'sa black creator, and I said,
you know, part of the indiecomic community does help that there's a place
for black creators. Do you wantto be part of that? You know,
because I was trying to figure outwhere we were gonna go with this
brand, and he said, theonly reason my character is black is because

(19:11):
I'm black. So we're gonna keeprolling what we roll with. I don't
want that to be the defining characteristicof my character. He wants his character
to be the defining characteristic him beinga hero. And he's always trying to
be a hero. Actually, howI describe him, and this is straight
out of his words, he isif Eddie Murphy became All Might, and

(19:33):
that's what he wants the character tobe. And so we don't we don't
tackle those things. We decided reallyearly on that we wanted the story to
be more of an escape because playingD and D for us is a way
to escape to our normal daily lives. And you know, sadly that's that
stuff is something that someone us dealwith on a day to day. We
don't want to relive it in ourin our game and in our escape,

(19:55):
so we leave all that stuff outour our book reads more like an episode
of Ninja Turtles meets Power Rangers meetsanime. So it's a lot of fun,
and so that's what we try tokeep it as, is just just
fun. You know. I commendthe other guys in our group that have
those personal connections to their story.My personal connection is I got my friends

(20:19):
back together after ten years of noteven talking, and now we've been playing
the same game for five years andwe talk every day. So that's my
emotional connection is knowing that my bestfriends are able to have an outlet.
And one of my best friends hasyou know, he has three kids.
His kids get to walk in andsay, my dad's a superhero, right,
my kid gets to come in andsay, my dad writes superhero comic

(20:41):
books. And even in the storyof one of the characters, in real
life, he was an Olympic classwrestler and when he saw himself as a
superhero, he was like, ohman, I got to get in shape,
and he lost fifty pounds just tobe looked like his character. So
we do have some emotional connection toour book, but not nearly the same
as the American Dream. That's Ilove his story. Slash and Nights are

(21:03):
one of my favorite books that wepublish as a group. But Krit is
all about having fun escapism, andit will always be just more of like
an escape story. All right,Well, my last question for you guys.
Of course, we've been hyping thebook up for like ten fifteen minutes.
Now they got to know where tobuy it online. You can get

(21:23):
all the titles. You can findus at Savage Sandbox dot com. My
personal website is homebrew Comics dot com. Dennis has Sleepcomics dot com. So
we're we're an umbrella kind of likewhat Image did back in the early nineties.
We all have our own imprint.We publish under the Savage Sandbox brand,
but you can all you can findus independently as well. All right,

(21:44):
we'll provide links in the show notesbelow. Chris Dennis, thank you
guys so much for your time.Have a good day. Thank you.
What's going on? I'm back hereat wilkes Comic Con and Wilkesboro, North
Carolina with Miss Michelle Lodge. Sheis the auth artist on the independent comic

(22:10):
book home Free. How are youdoing today? I'm doing great. Thanks.
Tell me a little bit about whathome Free is so Home Free is
about a woman named Sarah and she'skind of trying to escape her situation in
an America that's kind of crumbling aroundher in this sort of brink of a

(22:33):
violent revolution. So she's trying toget out of America and in the midst
of doing it, so she hasto sort of confront her own mind and
confront her own past along the way. So cool. Cool. So one
of the things that I think comicreaders and like some of our some of

(22:56):
our audience may not be aware of. When you have corporation like DC,
Marvel Dark or stuff like that,you're pretty much assigned to the book.
But it's kind of different when youare doing independent when independent arts like yourself.
Can you kind of talk about howyou got hooked up with the writer

(23:17):
on this book and how you kindof came to be a part of the
project. Sure. Yeah. JohnKrakey and I started working together, I
want to say around two thousand andthirteen, I think it's been a while,
and we both really had this affinityfor noir. So he had a

(23:42):
script for a whole graphic novel thathe wanted a noir artist for and I
was that no artist looking for someonewith a noir script and that was on
a website I don't even know.It was like some comic forum, but

(24:07):
you know, worked out really well. We made that. And then the
nice thing about being independent is youreally do have control over what you want
to make, what you want tosay with your book, and how you
want to market that. That's alsothe challenge of it too, Like if
you're working for a DC or youknow something, you have their marketing team,

(24:33):
but it's it's freedom to make yourown book. Really, did that
answer your question? It did?And so I'm you said something that like
genuinely cure like raises my curiosity becausenew are I feel like it's such a
genre now that you don't see awhole lot of nowadays, and it feels

(24:56):
very pulpy, kind of like aroll back to the Golden Age era.
What is this specifically about that genrethat you as an artist wanted to tackle
and it kind of like lay inthat sandbox? Okay, Yeah, I
think what me and John both loveabout the genre specifically is that it's it's

(25:22):
it's not black and white. AndI say that kind of laughing because the
art is, but like the charactersare layered they are. They're not all
good all bad. They're kind ofa blend of motivations, as it were,

(25:44):
and it's just kind of dark andheavy and realistic and gritty. So
I think we both really like thata lot about the noir genre itself.
That's one of the things I reallyenjoy about comics is that I feel like
superheroes obviously kind of take up alot of the public domain, but then

(26:06):
you get into great stuff like Watchmenand be for Vendetta and Swamp Thing and
a lot you see hell Raiser,and you see like the multi layers of
this industry and like what the mediumcan be and NEWAR I feel like is
like you said, like it's reallylayered, and so like, as an

(26:29):
artist, does it help you kindof understand the mental health of the characters
because of how complex the newar canbe. That's a really good question.
Yeah, I think so. Iwhat really fascinates me is like being able

(26:51):
to see a character change and whatcreates that change, Like what events happened
to sort of propel them to makedecisions that they make or break down mentally
in you know, whatever way theymay be doing that. In the story

(27:15):
I lost where I was going withthat, I'm sorry. Well, so
for you as an artist is fine. For you, as an artist digging
into such complexities, such heavier themes, do you ever like find your own
like self kind of like like doesit ever have an effect on your own
mental health to kind of like beso deep into the trenches of that world

(27:37):
sometimes? Yeah, it's it's interesting. When I worked on The Black Wall
with again writer John Kracky, Igot really into drawing these characters. It
took me five years to make thisthree hundred page graphic novel, and the

(28:02):
character of Hank in that book goesthrough a really dark sort of he goes
down a rabbit hole, so tospeak, and it was tough to draw
him by the end of that book. I'll say that, yeah, because

(28:22):
as an artist, do you wantto I want to really make sure I'm
drawing the expressions, the poses youknow that these characters are going through in
the story, So to do thatyou kind of have to put yourself in
their shoes. So it's probably thesame for the writers. So people can't

(28:47):
see this right now because this isan audio podcast, but some of the
art that you do outside of thebooks are very fun very whimsical. There
is a Deadpool task Master step Brothersmovie poster back here. You have the
the Darth Vader sun copper tone.That's what the copper tone parody behind you

(29:12):
is. Is kind of like jumpinginto like some of these more pop cultures.
Is that help kind of like relieveused you of of the heavier tones
that you tackle? Absolutely? Yeah, that's It's like a steam valve,
you know, to create those thosefun pieces. Yeah. I love them

(29:36):
both, you know, I lovecreating the dark noir stuff and I also
love the fun stuff. So itreally is a very different feel creating both
of those. Now does does HomeFree? Does it stay in that noir
genre? Definitely? Yeah. Allright, Well this is my last question
because I see you have customers comingto your booth. Where can people find

(29:59):
you all line? Comic Lodge dotcom and all my socials are you know,
available through there? Michelle Lodge Comicson Facebook, Instagram? Yeah?
All right, Well, thank youso much for spending some time to talk
about your art and your mental healthbehind it. Thank you. If you

(30:23):
were someone you know is listening tothis podcast right now and you're struggling with
suicide addiction self harm or depression.We encourage you guys to please reach out.
This is the heartbeat or why wedo what we do. Suicide is
currently the tenth leading cause of deathin the United States, and as of
this recording, there are one hundredand thirty two suicides that take place each

(30:47):
and every day on American soil,and when you scale back internationally, there
are eight hundred thousand successful suicides.That is one death roughly every forty seconds.
So if you were someone you knowwas struggling, you guys can go
to Victims and Films dot net fordslash hope that resource is going to be
right in the description wherever you guysare currently listening or streaming this. There

(31:10):
you'll find resources that include the NationalSuicide Lifeline, which is one eight hundred
two seven three eighty two fifty five. You can also text help to seven
four one seven four one. UShave a plethora of other resources including churches,
getting connected with counselors, LGBT resourceslike the Trevor Project, and also

(31:33):
a veteran the hotline as well.Please, if you hear nothing else in
the show, understand that you,yes, you listening to this right now,
have value and worth we get it. Suicide, depression, mental health.
These are hard topics and this stigmaaround them doesn't make it any easier.
But please consider the resources right inthe descriptions below. Wherever you guys

(31:59):
are listening, name because once againyou have value and you have work,
so please stay with us. Welcomeback. If you guys liked what you
heard, fretts know more because wehave a lot more where that came from.
Last thing I will say, butbefore we move on to the next

(32:19):
comic con, Wilke's Comic Con is, without a doubt, one of the
best comic cons that we have everhad the pleasure of being a part of.
We've done it twice and we wouldcome back and love to do it
again in a heartbeat. The promotersthat run that show are absolutely incredible.
And with that said, we're headinginto Galaxy Con. So I'm brilliant but

(32:43):
lazy our pop culture. Earlier thisyear, we released an episode called Batman
and Mental Health that was taken fromthis year's Galaxy Con, and before we
actually set to do the stage,we had a chance to sit down with
an author, a comic creator,and the man behind a pretty interesting organization

(33:05):
and you guys are gonna get readyto hear all of those right now.
If you again, if you guysare interested in checking out more about specifically
these groups of individuals, than pleaseclick the links in the show notes and
check these guys out. With thatsaid, we'll be right back. Well.
Hello, we are alive at GalaxyConrad now. And as a fellow

(33:29):
Baltimore residents and a current Richmond residence, this artist is definitely worth the worth
your time if you're from either city, or if you're just like Gothic literature.
Her name is Catherine bab big Gara, and it's quite a mouthful,
but she is the author behind Poefor Your Problems. How are you doing?

(33:52):
I'm doing great. It's great tobe here, Yeah it is.
This is a great day. It'sgood. I mean it's not the weather
outside so so, but you knowhere, it's very lively in here.
But tell me a little bit aboutthis, because this is a really interesting
book you have sure. So.It's the world's only self help book based
on Poe's life and work. AndI got the idea a couple of years

(34:13):
ago when I was in a fitof terrible depression and I started reading Poe
again for the first time since Iwas a kid, and I just found
that he was kind of this heroicfigure to me because despite everything that went
wrong in his life, he kepttrying and he completed his work, which
is an early inspiring message for awriter, especially when going through what I
was going through. So anyway,I got super into him again. I

(34:34):
read everything he'd ever written, andI'm a journalist, so I wrote an
essay about it and it went viraland then it ended up turning into a
book deal, which was amazing.That was kind of my childhood dream and
the fact that Poe helped me achievethat was just really special. It's a
random question, but are you fromBaltimore or Richmond? I'm sorry, are
you from Baltimore or Richmond? Ohno, I'm from Richmond. I was

(34:55):
born in South Carolina, but Igrew up here, so it feels a
classmate or something. Yeah, I'mreally curious about like what was the process
of like where I guess, likewhat work of pos like eventually like kind
of kicked off the you know whatwhat? This would make a great self

(35:15):
help book. Absolutely so. ThePit in the Pendulum has this first line
that's like I was sick, sickon to death with this long agony,
and obviously that's poet maybe his mostdark, but that really spoke to me
because I was in a dark placetoo, and I suddenly realized that all
his stories about torture and death andwhatnot, they're all metaphors for how difficult

(35:37):
it is to live and to doyour work. So I don't know,
it kind of kicked off understanding thathe was talking on two levels like that.
And it turns out that like,I'm not at all the first person
who's read Poe like this. Aton of other writers have taken up,
like written whole books on him too, about how he has spoken to them
at dark moments in their lives.So it's really kind of inspiring and it's

(35:58):
from a strange place, but Ilike that about it. That's what I
love about the medium of like booksand like gothic, and I'm a huge
horror fan, so like, Ialways think it's like really interesting that when
you can find like hope or likeinspiration from like unlikely sources. And I
never would have like picked up aNaggar Allan Poe book and be like,

(36:20):
you know what, mental health yeah, I mean it's what he was talking
about. I actually think it's whathis stories are all about. If you
read them as being like about depression, anxiety, and mental pain, it
makes so much more sense. Likehe was writing this commercial gothic fiction that
was very successful. But it's kindof like it's kind of like Jordan Peele,
where it's operating on two different levels, like the literal and the figurative,

(36:44):
and so you're getting more out ofit than you might, you know,
with other writers. So I askedthis of the off the mic,
but I have to ask it onis this written from a clinical or satirical
standpoint or a little bit of both. It's very much a satire. I
honestly, I'm a little ambivalent aboutself help books. I think they can
be very simplistic, and also theykind of ignore socioeconomic problems in our culture,

(37:07):
telling people to pull themselves up bytheir bootstraps and whatnot. I think
that's kind of lame. So Iwas excited to sort of satirize self help
in general, but I'm also somewhatserious that I think Poe is like a
heroic figure who can feel like afellow traveler and a companion when you're going
through tough things. I love thatOne of the things that I want to

(37:28):
go back to something you had justtalked about was talking about how you had
been in kind of like a darkplace mentally in your life when you started
this process, or at least likestart the shadow of this process. Can
you kind of talk about the valueof like a creative outlift for your mental
health. Yeah, I mean thefirst part of this for me was so

(37:51):
I was in this really dark place, like literally crying in my bath,
having to take mental healthly from work, unable to eat or sleep. And
then I started reading Poe, andit's kind of it drew me out of
myself and got me interested in theworld again. And then when I started
writing about it, it was soabsorbing and I started to connect with other
people too, which is cool.You know, Poe has four million Facebook

(38:12):
fans, more than Danielle Steel orJames Patterson. There's a huge fan base
out there, and once you getreally into Poe, you end up meeting
Poe fans all the time. I'vegone to like festivals and conferences and so
on, and it's just kind ofI mean, does this sound too lame?
Like it's it's been a way tolike connect with people and make friends
and like find other interests, youknow, to kind of draw you out
of yourself as a content creator.Myself, I relate to that one percent.

(38:36):
Doesn't sound lame? Does it soundsilly? Because when I started doing
conventions with my wife's not here rightnow, but like when we started doing
conventions for the organization, you meanta whole lot of people. And some
of my best relationships have come actuallyfrom just doing conventions and like talking with
people that like similar things that Ilike, and you know, vice versa.

(38:59):
Yeah, I found the same thing. I think that's a wonderful thing
about him. You kind of getinto it before you know what you're going
to gain from the process, butit ends up being so rewarding, which
is just I don't know. It'smade my life better over the last five
or six years, for sure,that's all. That's so awesome. So
I have to ask, uh,Poe obviously has anthologies among anthologies of books,

(39:22):
what is your favorite story by him? Well, I really love the
poetry U La Loom is one ofmy favorites. I love his one alone.
Anyone who's suffered from depression or anxietywill get a lot out of that.
One. Among the stories, Ilove a manuscript Found in a Bottle,
which was his first It was kindof his big break as a writer
when he published this. And it'sjust about a guy who is getting sucked

(39:44):
into a whirlpool. But I thinkif you've ever lived through tough things,
then you will recognize it because itdoes feel sometimes like you're getting sucked into
a whirlpool. And I think he'stalking about both the experience of sadness and
about a literal whirlpool at the sametime. So it's a lot of fun.
And like I said, like he'sgot such a rich library of content,

(40:05):
and I'm curious, like does thisopen the door? Does this leave
the door open for like any futureself help Poe based books. I maybe
not about Poe, but I've beenthinking. I love Mary Shelley too.
She wrote Frankenstein. So I've beenthinking about a book called like Frankenstein Yourself
that would be also a dark selfhelp book. I call it Gothic self
help because I can't use the traditionalself help. It doesn't do anything for

(40:28):
me. But when I bring inelements of horror and Gothic literature and that
sort of thing. All of asudden, it sort of pops for me,
and I think that's It's been theexperience of reading the book for other
people too, at least I mighthave heard the reception has been very positive.
I'm excited to read this. Butif someone either watching this right now
or listening to this that they wantto go check this out? Where can
people find you online? Where canpeople get the book? Sure, it's

(40:51):
in any major bookstore. You findit at Barnes Andnoble, It's on Amazon
dot com. It's here in Richmondat Fountain Bookstore where they have signed copies,
and yeah, just about anywhere you'llfind books. It's in a lot
of gift shops too, because apparentlyit's a popular GAFT. Well, thank
you for your time. Yeah,it was great talking to you. Thank
you, Captain Sotlgier Here at GalaxyCon and Richmond. I am here now

(41:15):
with independent creator and artist mister WillSmith, and not the one you're thinking
of. How are you doing,I'm doing I'm doing pretty good. How
are you? I am? Wellgood. It's it's been a pretty hectic
couple of days, but we're we'remaking some moves with our with our project
and getting the name out there.Yeah, this this is like double in

(41:37):
size of what it was last year. Like, I was really surprised to
come in here and see how joinormousthis this place feels this year. Uh,
the last the last Galaxy I wasat was twenty twenty. It was
literally about three weeks before COVID brokeout, so it was it didn't seem
ominous, but looking back on it, it kind of was. But but

(42:00):
I feel like the the energy hereis really good this year. Everyone's super
super positive and and uh really reallyfeeling the vibe, uh with with with
the convention. And I've talked witha couple of creators over in the professional
area and they're they're all having agood time. So that's awesome. So

(42:20):
you are running you are currently likerunning a crowdfunding campaign right now for a
new comic. Can you tell usa little bit about that. Yeah,
we haven't launched the kickstarter yet.That's going to be going live in another
uh probably another few days next weekprobably, but we do have a five
page preview of the comic available.Uh. It's currently five pages from the

(42:43):
middle of issue number one. We'rehoping to have out by the end of
the year black and white for now, it will be full color when it's
released. It's called Southtown. Itis loosely based on a futuristic version of
Richmond. The writer is from here. Actually, the writer and colorist and
letterer are both Richmond natives. AndI kind of telecommute from Charlottesville, which

(43:07):
is about an hour away. Butyeah, it's a it's about twenty seventy
two. City is River City.Southtown is a subset of River City.
It's kind of the sketchier, darker, more impoverished version or subset of that
town. And in this future,the pharmaceutical companies and tech corporations run the

(43:30):
show, as many governments, andwe are following a gang from Southtown who
take on little odd jobs to usuallyfrom clients who are looking to dismantle said
oligarchy. Yeah, all right,So I always like to ask, and

(43:50):
I know, maybe maybe you don'tknow this, and since you're just a
since you are the artist on there, but what I guess, we'll like,
I guess for I'll ask you thisand for independent comics, like,
how did you kind of get attachedto this project? Because it's not like
you know, DC or Marvel orlike one of the big boys, where
you just get assigned an assignment.How did you kind of come aboard?
So Joshua Joshua Edie is our writer. He's not with us today, he's

(44:15):
actually at a wedding, but hewill be back tomorrow. He came up
with the concept over the last likefour or five years and kind of has
been developing the world. Around twentynineteen, he kind of started moving forward
with the scripts and the actual storyarcs that are going to be involved.
And at the time, Ali Slawson, are colorist and letter was going to

(44:39):
be doing the core artwork, andshe felt it was a little overwhelming for
her skill set. She's wonderful,wonderful artist, but she felt that I
was probably a better candidate for theartwork. So she reached out to me
last year, probably May or Juneof tw twenty two, and we all

(45:01):
met up and kind of went oversome things, and I started mocking up
character designs and actually started with theactual pages not too long ago, probably
in the late fall of twenty twentytwo, and we're looking to have the
full issue out by the end ofthe year. All things considered, And
I always like to ask this isbecause like when you step into for those

(45:22):
that may or may not follow,in the independent comics movement, there's a
lot of time that is in betweenthe issues, whereas traditional like more well
funded publications, you can get themout bettering over between weekly, two monthly.
How big of a scope is thestory for Southtown? It's actually intimidatingly

(45:46):
large. I was actually talking withwith Joshua last night after hours about his
grand plan, and he's thinking probablynine or ten issues for the first major
arc. And we we all dohave full time jobs. He actually drives
a truck for his career. I'ma career bartender, and I'm Ali's got

(46:12):
a full time job as well.So we're going to try to pad the
time between issues by maybe getting someprogress done on issue too before we actually
publish one. But yeah, it'sit's when you're a professional artist with with
a major studio behind you. Imean, Marvel's got Disney and and DC
has got Warner Brothers. When that'sall you have to do, that that

(46:36):
and that you don't really need tosustain yourself with another career, and you
have the time to do it sothat that can be that can be a
hindrance there, but it's one ofthe challenges we're probably looking for looking at
over the next months and years ismaintaining the audience attention between issues. Yeah,

(46:57):
I have a one of my bestfriends does write draws and then also
writes his own comics. So uh, but yeah, it takes in like
probably about like a year year anda half to do a single issue,
and I'm always like constantly going backand rereading because I'm always like, I
gotta catch up, I gotta remember. I need that that reminder. And
so I think, can you kindof talk about the art style that you're

(47:19):
going to be bringing to the tothe project. So the art style,
it's uh, I skew a littlebit more not quite cartoony, but the
realism is is definitely a little alittle bit. Uh it's looser in the
in the on the realism scale,but I still try to maintain the I

(47:40):
don't know if I had to comparethe style the artists that I follow that
I kind of have tried to inspireme, people like Chris Bachelo, Umberto
Ramis, trying to think, thoseare some some heavy hitters Fiona Staple who
does Saga. That's another series thathas kind of been hampered with some delays,

(48:05):
But that is also Brian Cavaughan,who has quite a name for himself.
But yeah, Fiona Staples has beena really big inspiration for me for
over the last few years. Herstyle is it's simple, but it's unique
and very It's like striking. She'svery good at like getting the focal point
and and and punching up the frame. I feel like too. You you

(48:27):
teased earlier about how the book rightnow is currently sitting in black and white
but will eventually be color. Doyou guys have like a plan of like
making like in like a black andwhite version of it, like down the
line once it's been like collected ina trade. I mean that's entirely possible.
I mean we have all the wehave all of the all the pages
that are completely penciled and inked readyto go. They're all digitized and everything,

(48:52):
So we definitely could put out ablack and white again. There there
might need to be a demand forit to do the printing costs and that
kind of thing, but the atthe the concept being kind of cyberpunk,
it really kind of relies on thosebright, vibrant colors. Like if you're
kind of like looking for like aBlade Runner or a mute style of future,

(49:15):
you want you want those neons toreally kind of pop. And I
think that's going color for the interiorsis the way to go to really kind
of sell the concept. Yeah,because I don't I don't think Blade Runner
would be the same if you youknow, didn't have those neon bright pinks
and greens popping. Yeah, Bladethe black and white version of Blade Runner

(49:36):
would be nigh unwatchable. It worksfor some movies. I prefer the black
and white version of Frank Derebance TheMist. It is the better version of
that film. But then again thatas a monster movie, if you if
you did that to Blade Runner,it would take away so much of the
heart and soul of what that movieis. And also just the the frames
that that cinematographer Roger Deakins puts together, that that man he paints a frame

(50:02):
and it's with without without the colorpalette that they use, it just wouldn't
it just wouldn't be the same.So you tease the Kickstarter launches in a
couple of days. By the timethis interview drops the Kickstar may already be
launched. What kind of perks arepeople looking at to support this? We're
definitely looking at, you know,a copy of the first issue. We're

(50:23):
also looking at like pins, shirts, hats. We actually are gonna have
some some merch links. I've actuallyI think I think I've given those to
Alan. If I haven't, Ineed to do that. But yeah,
like larger scale incentives, probably likeoriginal pages of of the of the artwork,

(50:45):
maybe a like a cyberpunk commission oflike a self portrait or not of
me, but like of of thethe don the Donor, uh, with
like an in world kind of conceptof of the Donor cyberpunk style. So
original artwork the first issue, thatkind of thing, all right, So

(51:07):
this is the last question. Ithink I'm asking this more along the lines
of as a fellow Richmond native,is are we like gonna see any any
like resemblance of like local businesses orlike other trademark like Richmond spots in the
comic funny you should ask that Idid so on page two in the in

(51:30):
the kind of the establishing shots ofof it's called river City in the in
the in the comic. One ofthe establishing shots of River City has the
bridge over the James. Essentially,I kind of I use it as a
reference point, so that is definitelyin there. Also, the main bar
where the gang hangs out is calledthe rats Nest, and that may be
loosely based on a dive bar intown. It might be across the street

(51:53):
from the veil. All right,well, well, I thank you for
your time. Where people follow youonline? And where can people find the
kickstarter? So I am online theWe've got a Facebook page for both my
artwork and Southtown Southtown Comic. Itcould be searchable on Facebook. Will Smith

(52:15):
Illustration, that's Will with one Lis on Facebook, also on Instagram.
You can also follow me on Twitter, which is a few and far between,
but at nerdly Arts an E RD L y A R T S
and I believe it's Southtowncomic. DotNet is our website, but I will

(52:38):
be linking that through my own website, which is Will Smith Illustration dot net
again Will with one L, butyeah, so you can link link through
all of those for all the updates. We'll be dropping artwork, will be
dropping updates, we'll be dropping merchKickstarter and crowdfunding updates as well. So
well, thank you for your time, sir. Make sure that you guys

(52:58):
check the links in the descriptions tosupport at the kickstarter and to check out
Will's art. Have a good one. Last interview of the day, I'm
here with Hector from Faith and Fandom. Hello, how are you doing?
Man? How are you? Iam? I feel like a claustrophobic armpit
in this con right now because it'shot and sweaty, but it's good.

(53:21):
Yeah, I feel that. Like, so, we have mutual friends with
our friends over at geek Devotions,and this is somehow the first time we've
met the as seen on Klab GeekDevotions. Congrat I'm excited for them for
that. Yeah, this is thefirst time I think we've formally been introducing
everything. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm really really excited to finally get
a chance to meet you in person. Can you tell me a little bit

(53:44):
about what Faith and Fandom is allabout? Faith and Fandom, for the
most part, is a book seriesof essays on faith and geek culture,
like a devotionals and Bible studies onvideo games, superiors, comic say to
Me, Sci fi all the thingsand outside of just being in the book
series, the main goal was totry and create at least a bubble in
the con circuit in my region wherepeople who are curious about faith can land

(54:09):
and ask questions, or people thatare believers that are passionate about nerdy things
can have a place they can goto be encouraged. I really love that,
like honestly, because I feel likewhen you step into a world like
this, there's a lot of peoplethat come to fandom to escape depression,

(54:29):
you know, bullying. That listjust goes on and on. And kind
of being able to use that todo something positive, like talking about you
know, Jesus in the Bible,something that could be something a little bit
intimidating at times, is like areally awesome outreach. It is. And
like, and you know, myfriend Ashley's joining me at the booth this

(54:50):
weekend, and I was telling andthis is her first show of like being
behind a booth, and I wasletting her nose like listen, you're gonna
get some different reactions here. There'sgonna be people that are gonna this and
be like ah, that's nice,or move on or not be There's gonna
people that are gonna think it's amazing, and there's people that are gonna hate
it with a passion. But Ijust wanted to you know, it's gonna
come with some negativity sometimes, butI as long as I know I'm handling

(55:15):
things well and I'm being light andsalt in a way that's faithful to what
I'm called to. I you know, I come in with the mindset of,
yeah, if there's some opposition,I shouldn't expect less than that.
This just kind of like came withthe you know, the service package of
being a believer. It's like you'regonna face like some opposition and that if

(55:36):
I put myself in a place that'sintentionally against the current stream, I can't
expect not to be affected. Yeah, I fully agree with that. And
like, you know, Jesus neversaid that this was gonna be easy.
So I'm curious about, like,you know, what was the kind of
the fantodom for you that kind ofkicked off or birth this idea. So

(55:57):
it falls the firefly for that.I had a friend put me on firefly.
I'd missed it when it aired likeI was over at friend's house for
Christmas. He got his wife themovie of Serenity, and I asked,
what is that? And he justliterally took the present out of his wife's
hand and gave it to me andthen gave me his DVDs and said,

(56:20):
go home and watch this now,and I got involved in it. I
watched it and like, just alot of what Shepherd book and the interactions
in Firefly really encouraged me. AndI started thinking, like, you know
what, I'm gonna write a bookseries. I'm just gonna write a devotional
just on Shepherd book. And Ikind of had that idea. And then
once I actually started attending cons andseeing that there wasn't a there wasn't what

(56:45):
I thought should be there of justsomeplace where people could connect, you know,
I decided, you know what,I'm gonna drop the Firefly thing and
make it a whole nerd devotional aspect. Yeah, that's kind of our similar
origins. When I started going tocons, I'd ask people, know,
why did how did you get intoBatman? How'd you get into Spider Man?
Uh? You know, why doyou play video games? Just a

(57:06):
bunch of different things, and withsimilar answers like that, you know,
like I I need like an escape, like I've experienced bullying, my you
know, parents harass me, orjust a number of other things, and
like there was nothing in our areaat the time that was like doing anything
like this, and it's like,all right, well, let's bring let's
bring the conversation of mental health forward, or uh, let's help them the

(57:37):
people are in there, come righthere and talk. Okay, all right,
sorry, oh you're good, I'lllet it all out. But you
would find that like there was likesuch a need for that. And so
when you guys first started doing comms, did you kind of kind of get
that experience or did you kind ofget met with the reaction that you talked
about with Ashley to where it's likekind of the half and half. I'd

(58:00):
say that the first show I everdid, like was ninety nine percent overwhelmingly
positive. In fact, it wasso encouraging that, like, you know,
I'd only planned to do it onetime and then like I was gonna
do one show as like a onetime mission trip project, and then it
so many doors were open. Othercons were inviting me to come like do

(58:23):
geek church services or to uh justset up at their shows. Like that
was encouraging. Now the discouraging stuffcame later. Like, you know,
I think the worst I've ever hadwas, uh, somebody literally flipped my
whole booth over, like just walkedup and flipped it over like like to
at this show. Like I've hadpeople that have gotten on our social media

(58:44):
tell us we shouldn't be allowed tobe here and we should be banned,
like just this weekend. Uh.But you know it's overall, it's not
been much that other than just badattitudes. So yeah, well that's that
is dope. So last thing isis where can people find you guys online?
If you look up faith and fandomon pretty much any social you'll find

(59:07):
it. My main website is faithinfandom dot org and on there you have
links to everything. But also ifyou go to the blog section, every
devotional we've written that's in all thebooks is available for free, so you
can read it like in blog format. All right, well, hector I,
thank you for your time, sir, Thank you man, thanks for
talking. All right, well,you guys go check out the links in

(59:28):
the descriptions below. Calling all costplayers and photographers and the vibrant Costplay universe,
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(59:49):
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(01:00:15):
Costplays Magazine, where imagination meets thepage. Join us today, Creative Costplays
Magazine. Be legendary, Be creative, Be you. Thank you again to
Catherine Will and Hector for their time, and thank you to Galaxy Con for

(01:00:35):
having us to do the Batman andMental Health panel this year. If you
guys have yet to actually check outthe panel, provided link for that in
the show notes below, so youguys can check out that episode of Brilliant
but Lazy and go check out Brilliantbut Lazy. If you guys are nerds
like so many of us here atVictims and Villains, and again just shout
out to go check out Creative Costplaymagazine who in their fall issue this past

(01:01:02):
year, and we're just awesome peopleto meet at this year's display World.
But up next for you guys,we have two interviews for you guys today
are both with filmmakers. First upis Nick Norman Butler. He is the
writer director on the independent film MyHouse, which you guys can currently stream

(01:01:24):
everywhere, and we also have aleftover interview from this year's Genre Blast.
Like I said, during our GenreBlast coverage early on, we covered so
many interviews. We had so muchthat it in fact had actually made some
of our computer crash and we're workingon rescheduling some of those interviews that we

(01:01:47):
lost in the process. But here'san interview with Randy Zuniga. He is
the writer director behind the short filmMy Roommate's Rents. I hope you guys
enjoy this the interviews and make surethat you guys hit the subscribe button wherever
you guys are currently listening to this, whether that's on YouTube, Spotify,

(01:02:07):
Apple Podcasts, or any other podcastcatcher, because it helps more people hear
about not only fandom, but whatfandom teaches us about mental health and most
importantly raises awareness of mental health andthese important conversations. So thank you,
guys, to everyone who not onlymade this episode possible. Thank you again

(01:02:30):
to Chris Dennis, Michelle, Catherine, will Hector, Nick and Randy and
conventioned like Wilkes, Comic Con,Galaxy, Comic Con, Genre Blast,
and independent filmmakers as well for makingcontent like this possible. Conversations about your

(01:02:52):
art, conversations about mental health,and more So, until next time,
I hope you guys enjoy this theselast two interviews and have a great night.
For those that might not be wehere, we're always one of the
poor practices of this channel of ourorganization is to constantly be encouraging people to

(01:03:12):
support independent film and independent cinema.And so for those that may not know
what My House is about, canyou kind of walk us through a basic
outline of the film? Yeah,sure, My House is it's a contained
thriller filmed in a found footage style, so you know, people who've seen

(01:03:37):
Blair Witch Project years ago, that'sfound footage. So the and it's about
a father and daughter that those arethe two main characters. They live in
a house together, and at thebeginning of the movie, Carla, that's
the daughter, she finds a camcorderin one of the sort of junk rooms

(01:03:57):
of the house and to use itand some of her films. Her world,
which we understand pretty soon, islimited to her house because even though
a lot of things in the houseseem normal, her dad seems like a
normal guy, there are several hardrules, and one of them is that
she's not allowed to leave the house, and so she videos with the camcorder

(01:04:23):
and gradually starts to investigate why thisis and what the truth is behind the
story that she's living under. Oneof the things I feel like this film
does really well is it constantly istaking you for twists and turns. I
feel like every time I thought Iknew where the characters were going, there

(01:04:45):
was something else that would kind ofpivot my expectations. When you were writing
this can you got to talk aboutthe journey of kind of crafting and standing
out within the found footage genre forone, but also at the same time
creating those twists. Yeah, Ithink you know this is a one location

(01:05:08):
movie, right, It's all takesplace inside the house, and it was
written that way because the story,the story serviced that, but also it
was very much a sort of wewere using the boundaries, the physical boundaries
that we had within the house thatwe'd imposed upon ourselves as a sort of

(01:05:31):
a test of creativity. And sowe knew that if you're going to just
stay in the house, we needto have a lot, we need to
keep it exciting and sore. Asyou say, that's right, there are
a lot of twists and turns asKarla slowly uncovers sort of the mystery.
I gotta ask full of, likeI feel like sometimes like the singular locations

(01:05:56):
like my house, when you're likewriting the script and kind of like rafting
out the story, I gotta imaginethat there's a little bit more of like
a challenge to keep a story ina singular location as to why, like
why this person would be here andwhy the story needs to place take place
solely here. Did you have anyof that kind of rafting the story and

(01:06:18):
kind of even like during the locationscouting process. Well, I think if
you go way back to when whenI was in the scriptwriting stage, I've
written many drafts of this movie overmany years where it was much more expansive

(01:06:42):
story. It was, you know, unrecognizable to what you see in the
movie now. It took place inAmerica for a start, unlike you know,
and it's ended up here in London, and it was you know,
I had two different time periods,two different eras to not parallel narratives,
and this is my debut feature film. So there came a time when I

(01:07:06):
realized that, you know, ifI wanted to get this movie made,
I needed to get really and justmake it something that was achievable from a
and attractive to a producer. SoI knew I had a good father daughter
story, and so I just decidedto cut away all the extra stuff and

(01:07:27):
just distill it down to what thatstory was about. And once I knew
I could do that, I thought, why not just keep it inside the
house? There's really like really compellingto hear kind of like the the early
process of this, because I feellike what makes this so surprising is the

(01:07:47):
fact that it is in a singlelocation. It's not just a you know,
hey, like obviously like the houseis it's not as I wouldn't say
it's necessarily big, but it's likealso like not necessarily small. At the
same time, it kind of fitsin that, you know, did you
have the location like like picked outbefore you started or did you got to

(01:08:11):
be like, all right, thisis what I'm a visioning, Like,
let's try and find something that canfit this aesthetic. Yeah, I mean
I think it's a fairly big housefor the UK, but for America it's
probably not true. Yeah, probably, But no, I didn't have the
house picked up while I was writingit until you know, I had a

(01:08:33):
draft which was goodn't you know,which the producers had sort of agreed to
fund, and then we went locationscouting and found this house and then you
know, how to quickly do aquick redraft to make to make the scenes
fit the house interesting. That's that'sreally cool. And I like, as

(01:08:58):
as a horror fan, I amcurio is like, uh, you know,
is it was it more budgetary reasonsor are you actually like a fan
of the found footage genre. Iwas never a sort of like a massive
fan of found footage over any othergenre. You know, I'll enjoy it

(01:09:20):
for for a good story. Ithink, you know, there has to
be a great, a good reasonfor it to be found footage. But
you know, but equally, I'mI admire movies that are made in one
location. I mean, there wasa great did you ever see the movie
Buried, which was yes, yeah, I mean who could have thought that

(01:09:44):
you could make a whole movie andessentially a coffin, but they did it.
And then you know, and Ithink Phone Booth was another one with
Colin Farrell in a phone booth.So you know, yeah, I admire
those movies from that sort of practicalpoint of view. But so look,

(01:10:09):
I mean, it was choose makingit one location movie was a mixture of
you know, okay, let's distillthe story down, make it simple,
but also let's make it attractive toproduce us. So it was it was
a mixture of serving the narrative butalso serving the sort of financial expectations.

(01:10:32):
One of the things that I feellike with keeping in the found footage genre
is that this movie plays around withthe different types of found footage that you
have. So like there's like securitycameras, there's obviously the camcorder to kind
of throw it back to Blair Witch, as you previously mentioned, but then
you also have like the cell phoneaspect of it. Why was it like

(01:10:55):
really important for you to kind ofblend in all these like different ages of
technology into this location, into thissingular story. Yeah, I think again
there was. I mean, Ithink it works for the story. I

(01:11:16):
mean, basically without sort of givingany spoilers away. At one point,
a stranger comes to the house whoand starts a conversation with Carla on a
day when her dad is away.And this stranger seems to know quite a
lot about Carla, more more eventhan she knows about herself. Even though

(01:11:42):
this is a guy she's never seenbefore. He's just comes talking to her
through the window and he ends uphe you know, prompts her to question
her sort of existence really, andhe gives her his own camera, so
and he has his own reasons fordoing that. So you know, again
it made sense from a character pointof view and a story point of view,

(01:12:08):
But we also were conscious of thefact that, oh, we can
freshen things up a bit here again. You know, it comes back to
that thing of when you're in onelocation, or not even just in one
location, when you're riding a thriller, I think you need you just need
to keep the pages turning and keepkeep everyone interested, so you know that
was that was also a consideration.You know, we can introduce a new

(01:12:28):
camera here. It's gonna you know, and Carla starts to film secretly.
Again not not much for spoiler,but she has her own reasons for doing
that, and so you know,and she can do that with this other
kind of camera. So it servesthe narrative as well as keeping things fresh.
One of the things I think thismovie does is it surprised me about

(01:12:50):
watching it. It was how muchit feels like how the dramatic elements really
work and really flow together to whereit essentially Chris crescendos into this like really
heartbreaking climax and you I know,you said like that you guys had kind

(01:13:11):
of like you had shifted between whatthe story was going to be. But
had it always kind of ended upwith the ending that we see in the
film. Well, no, noit didn't. It's going to be hard
to talk about the ending without givingit away. But let me see,

(01:13:33):
I'm just really curious about it.That's okay. Well, the ending that
you see in the movie was awas was written and in the final draft,
so it was definitely a late additionto the to the script. But

(01:13:55):
I mean we were we were prettyclose. We were there in concept and
in theme and what the resolution wouldbe for quite a while, but just
the practicalities came at a late stage. Now, as this being your first
film, what are some of thelessons that you learned on this film that

(01:14:15):
you're going to apply to net futureprojects. Well, that's a very good
question. I uh, this isawesome, but it's also hard for me
to answer, right, because thereare certain things which not not a lot,

(01:14:36):
but there's really only one thing actuallyabout this movie that I'm unsatisfied with.
But I only I don't only wantto say what it is because I
don't want to sort of, Idon't want to lower anyone's expectations of the
movie if they're thinking about going towatch it, or if I don't want

(01:14:57):
them to watch it and think like, oh, yeah, you know,
Nick was right and I'm not sureI liked that part. So but but
let's just say, you know,there is one aspect of it which I
thought I could have done better on. It's entirely on me, and you
know, I'll hopefully I'll get anothershot and do a lot better. I

(01:15:21):
think as a as a content creatormyself. I think it's one of the
things that is really we are.We're like we all stand back and like
we're always like the harshest critics ofour own work and our own projects that
we're putting out into the world.So it's not uncommon I feel like to

(01:15:41):
hear something like what you're saying.Mm hmm, yeah, yeah, I
wish I could sort of, Iwish I could. I guess it's just
hard for to sort of it's hardto sort of admit to something. You

(01:16:02):
know. I know that other peoplemay not be so harsh, or they
may be more harsh, but Idon't. I don't really want to like
publicly admit to one of the onelooking out for it. There. Oh
yeah, that's when Nick screwed up. Well, you know, I feel
like every first time director always kindof learns a lot of as they go,

(01:16:23):
and you know, definitely first timefilmmaker. And you know, given
that we're a channel that specifically talksabout like encouraging people to check out mental
health for any aspiring filmmakers out there, do you have any advice you'd like
to offer them? Well, I'malso very interested in sort of you know

(01:16:47):
how you guys, try to reducethe stigma of mental health, especially because
I'm writing something else at the moment, which deals much much more directly with
it has a protagonist who has mentalhealth issues. And one of my goals

(01:17:08):
in writing the movie is to reducethe stigma to do with that mental health
condition. And so, you know, and I think that, and the
methods I'm choosing to do that isjust to is to is to be open
about it, so and to writeabout what it's like for this character,

(01:17:31):
write about what it's like for themin a world where other people think they're
quote unquote crazy or you know,unpredictable or irrational, and what it's like
for them to be judged that way. Where mh so in just just as
as My House is, My Houseis a very subjective film, you know,

(01:17:55):
it's in the way it's film,but also because it's you know,
the clusing the title right, myHouse, it's it's one character's perspective.
And and this new one I'm writingis also from one character's perspective, for
that being the person who has aclinical diagnosis of of of a particular mental

(01:18:16):
health issue. So so I guesswhat I'm saying is a bit of a
long winded answer to say, like, you know, I really like what
you guys do. Maybe maybe inthe future, I'll send you this script
and you can all tell me like, here's here's another way you could reduce
the stigma of mental health in yourscript. But I haven't really answered your

(01:18:41):
question, the question being do Ihave any advice for other filmmakers, I
would say, you know, whenpeople ask me this question, I was,
what I say is, first,take a look at yourself. Like,
so, for me, I knowthat I'm a very impatient person.
Okay, I like everything to bedone fast, and so my biggest problem

(01:19:06):
not problem, but the thing Ihad to adjust to on set was when
things didn't go fast, I startedto get a little bit worked up and
needed to learn a bit more patience. But that may not be the same
for everybody. Other filmmakers might lookat themselves and see, oh, I'm
not good at communicating, so theyneed to when they get on set,

(01:19:29):
they need to work on communicating better. Other filmmakers might look at themselves and
say, oh, well, I'myou know, I overthink everything, so
they need to work on, youknow, being calm and keeping things simple.
So there's not one bit of advicefor everybody. I would say,
like, try to be try toknow yourself first, know what your weaknesses

(01:19:51):
are, and then work on mitigatingthat when you're making the film. It's
actually a great segue into my oneof my last questions is so for us,
like how we as a publication anda nonprofit, we take character journeys
and we look at, you know, mental health themes or that are woven

(01:20:15):
into the tapestry of film, television, comic books, et cetera, to
really kind of analyze and really bringthe conversation to like you said, like
just destigmatized. Because people are morewilling to open up and talk about mental
health. It's through the lens ofsomething that they're already passionate about. So

(01:20:40):
if there's something like you know,looking behind me, like you know,
Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhe's pinhead ghostface, like, people have more of
a willingness to be open and it'slike okay, well, X, Y
and Z characters have gone through this. And from my house. One of

(01:21:00):
the things that I feel like isa really strong thematic element is its concept
of identity. And I don't wantto give too much away, but you
know, presenting that and kind ofhaving that be you know, our protagonists
really main arc throughout the course ofthis is like, you know, identity

(01:21:25):
is something that is really crucial becauseI feel like sometimes if we don't aren't
sure of ourselves or aren't sure ofyou know, the things that you know
we are, I guess are sureof ourselves. Like that has a really
big handle and kind of messing upour mental health. And so when you're

(01:21:47):
kind of creating the character journey ofof the the young lady in the movie,
can you kind of talk about theprocess of you knowing that mental health
journey to life. Yeah, I'lltry anyway, let me just think about

(01:22:12):
that for a second. I knowyou said this. You can edit this
video. So yeah, So youknow, the character, the lead character,
Carla, doesn't have a I didn'tright her thinking this character has a

(01:22:32):
mental health condition, but she is. She does live in sort of what
we soon discover is quite an extremeenvironment, a repressive environment, but also
a loving one. So I guessin some ways you could say she's under

(01:22:58):
coercive control and uh, you know, it's not allowed to do and it
is deprived of a lot of freedoms. Mm hmmm. And through the film,
she not only comes to understand thisand see it for hers for what

(01:23:19):
it really is, but ultimately triumphsover it and and sort of emerges victorious
from it. So I wanted herto be a strong character. She was
always going to be someone who doesn'ttake any crap doesn't take, and I

(01:23:50):
wanted her to come out as awinner at the end. And I think,
what I suppose you know, shealso through the film she learns to

(01:24:10):
embrace her sort of as she makeseach discovery, though they may be shocking
along the way, she is ableto sort of embrace that. And what's
that phrase, the famous Navy sealmotto Improvise, adapt, and overcome,
And she she does that in largemeasures, all three of those things.

(01:24:34):
So I suppose I think that's agood that's a good motto anyway that I
try and sort of one of themottos that I try and live by.
And I think that might be agood takeaway for maybe for your listeners too.
Absolutely, So we've been talking aboutthis movie for like fifteen twenty minutes
now, and like, obviously,if people are interested, where are we

(01:24:56):
where can we find it, andwhere can people follow the journey of your
filmmaking. Sure? Yeah, sothe movies out on Apple, TV,
iTunes and Amazon, amongst other places, so you can find it there.
It's called My House starring Miron Mackand Francis McGee. And yeah, I

(01:25:20):
hope your listeners enjoy it. Howwould you guys like to help us get
mental health resources into schools, conventionsand other events. Well, now you
can simply go to patreon dot comford slash Victims and Villains For as little
as one dollar a month, youguys can help us get mental health resources

(01:25:43):
into current and upcoming generations, educateand break down stigma surrounding mental health,
suicide and depression, and to getexclusive content that you can't get anywhere else.
And you guys can tell us whichNicholas came movie you want us to
cover and we'll do it. Allit takes to get started is to go

(01:26:03):
to Patreon dot com Forwards one Victimsand Villains, or simply click the link
in the episode description wherever you guysare currently listening or streaming this episode,
pick your tier and get started today. Yes, it's that simple, so
clickly select the tier that you wantand help us get hope into the hands

(01:26:23):
of the depressed and the suicidal today. This film laid at the Friday Night's
midnight block. It kind of kickedoff the Saturday festivities, so to say,
played right before Fat Fleshy Fingers,which ended of itself that movie is

(01:26:45):
already weird, and this movie iskind of really experimental. Can you kind
of walk us through the premise ofthis film. It's about a woman who
can get to She's got some mentalissues and she's trying to get to her
pills and her her roommate is aprostitute, and she can't get into her

(01:27:08):
apartment, and she just starts tocompletely unravel, ends up seeing a bell
Pepper on the moon and just goesfrom there. What I love about this
movie is that it is very experimentalin the way that it delivers that so
like they're kind of summing up theplot in that way, like I never

(01:27:29):
probably would have summed it up quiteprecisely like that. Because the thing that
I think is really interesting about thisfilm is that the film actually has you
question reality as fall the antagonist isalso questioning reality. Can you kind to
talk about the way in which youwere experimenting with a lot of the ways

(01:27:54):
that you were storytelling and kind ofhow you wanted to perceive false perception in
this movie. I think I wantedthe whole movie to be like the viewer
is not quite sure what's real andwhat's just like she would be in her
state of mind, She's not quitesure what's real reality and what's fake.

(01:28:14):
And that's what I wanted the viewerto kind of feel like it works.
It really does, because like Ifelt, it felt like I saw I
saw this originally of the theater.I've seen it's this this short film twice
and both times, like I thoughtit was like a fever dream the first
time I saw it, and Iwas like, maybe I'm just tired.
Then watching it while I'm like wideawake, I'm like, nope, it

(01:28:35):
is in fact a fever dream.What were kind of the the elements that
you wanted to kind of bring intothis in terms of like tone and just
kind of like straight weirdness. Iyou know, it all stemmed from the
Bell Pepper. I was my mybuddy antique shop and that's where I found

(01:29:02):
the Bell Pepper, and I saidthis needs to be in a movie.
And it needs to be a reallyweird movie. Let's gonna ask at what
point the bell Pepper got introduced intothis movie? Yeah, So it was
just I saw I saw the eyeson it, and the eyes were so
like just wide eyed, and I'mlike, I need to use this.

(01:29:26):
I need to figure out what touse this for. So this movie kind
of has, uh, it goesthrough a couple of different realities. I
mean, it maacks so much intoits five minute run time you talked about
you talked to earlier about like theexperimental like wanting to really play around with
the story. Were there like anystory beats within this that you kind of

(01:29:50):
really, you know, regret nothaving in here? Are you happy with
this short as is? Is therelike an alternative version of this elsewhere?
There was? There was never reallyan alternative version, and you know it
never it never plays out in thefilm like it exactly plays out in your

(01:30:11):
mind. But I think the generaljust mass confusion came across, and so
I was like, Okay, I'mhappy with it. I think that the
roommate being a prostitute didn't come outas much as it should have. I

(01:30:34):
mean, it's implied in like acouple of different parts in this, and
I think that it's it's done ina really tasteful way. The word it
is because this is the kind ofshort film that you're not really diving into
the the environment around fall, butyou're really diving into the psychosis of Paul

(01:30:54):
as a character, and so muchso that it's you're kind of left with
this like, oh crap, kindof like moment in the last closing frames
of this and this this film endsin a very ambiguous way, uh,
you know, playing with perception andplaying with what we think we're experiencing as

(01:31:16):
the audience as a storyteller, youknow, I feel like the ambiguous ones
are always the hardest endings to do. When you were writing this, could
you talk about the what it waslike kind of developing this this ending,
kind of this this trauma and thisunderlining theme of like like kind of almost

(01:31:41):
like the pause of all false traumathat we kind of experienced about the short.
I felt like when she finds outand just captured when she drops the
phone, she had killed her fatherwhen she was young, and she had
kind of carried it deep into yourown mind, and the drugs are kind

(01:32:02):
of helping or keep it buried andwithout the drugs. In this crazy weird
way, it all came to thesurface, and I thought, the only
reaction get because I always wanted tobe about a five minute short, so
I thought, the only reaction thatjustifies is just her just and shock dropping
the phone or else you have togo into a much longer short. It's

(01:32:27):
always really hard, Like I alwaysthink that, like because you know,
I'm a I'm a programmer myself,and I always find that, like say,
storytelling short films are are like amaster work of in and of themselves,
because you have these really raceful shortsthat are you know, three to
five minutes that are packing so muchin it they're simple, and you have

(01:32:49):
these like these shorts that sometimes therange from fifteen from the you know,
ten to fifteen minutes that are sometimescapable of telling those stories and sometimes aren't.
And then you have the twenty minuteones that are kind of like the
five minute ones but on steroids,right, And I really think that this

(01:33:10):
one does a good job at kindof like being weird, being individuals,
and it kind of sets out tobe everything it needs to be set out
within within these these five minutes runthe time but this, I want to
talk about the set behind her becausethe city scape it feels very dream like,

(01:33:33):
but it's obviously that it's like it'slike cardboard and it's very like you
could feel the DIY elements in this. But I really think it plays into
her psychosis. So when you weredesigning the set around Fall and kind of
the environments that we as the audiencewould go on, how important was it

(01:33:53):
to kind of really kind of keepthese weird kind of like looking like buildings
and skyscrapers and stuff like that.Yeah, I was. I was debating
for a long time just doing agreen screen all the way across, but
then I was like, well,I wanted to look kind of funky and

(01:34:18):
doing the dream. I think doingthe green screen all the way across would
have had more of a realistic look, and I think it would have taken
us out of that moment. Butyou know, I go back and forth
on it. I go back andforth, but I do I like the
way it ended up, but Ido kind of go back and forth.

(01:34:40):
I think it works because it feelslike it's a perception. It's like a
personified perception of Falls Psyche. Solike the entire question. It's a kind
of like a great introduction to thethemes, that kind of experience that the
audience will have within the five minutesof the short. But this one's kind
of coming to its closed in termsof festival runs. But where can people

(01:35:04):
watch My Roommate's rents? Where?You know? Is it comingto YouTube?
Is it coming to the female howeveryou say it, I will I think
after probably on the first of theyear, I'll probably either put it on
Yeah, I'll put it on YouTube. I think that's the route. So
where can people find you online?Then Instagram is the best. It's at

(01:35:29):
rand r A n D zero eightone six. That's my Instagram page.
Is the best way to follow me? All right? Well, Randy,
thank you so much for your time. That is going to do it for
us. We'll got a link atthe show notes below where you guys can
find Randy's Instagram and to keep aneye on on our socials and when My

(01:35:50):
Roommate's rent goes live, you guyswill share it to our socials as well.
In the links down below, youguys will find links to our social
media atreon more podcasts and movie reviews, like what You're watching right now and
most importantly, our mental health resource, the Library. Make sure you guys
hit that subscribe button below so theway, you guys don't miss another genre

(01:36:11):
blast moment from us. Till nexttime, stay classy,

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Lost Interviews, Vol. 1 | Episode #462

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