Ep. 92: 'Spex Squad' Comic Creator John Dyess

Hey y'all, it's me Tara Strong, aka Miss Minutes for Bama Geeks. I hope you're ready to watch, and if you don't, I will have to prune you. Stay on your sacred timeline. And hello, hello, hello. We are live on YouTube. Hello. It is our... Regularly scheduled live stream, I guess. Back to your regularly scheduled program. Yes. All four of us are back in the saddle with a very special guest tonight. I'm Brock Parker, and way over on the other side of the screen, of course, is my wife, Jessica. Hello. Hello. And below me is Kevin Gardner. What's up? Oh, we're going back that far, huh? I've been wanting that to come back. What's up? And, of course, we've got Bo Bearden on the other side of the screen. Salutations. And right in the middle of us is a brand new friend of ours, Mr. John J.D. Dice. How are you, buddy? doing great thanks for having me oh it's our pleasure jd is the creator of a comic book called specs squad and we are going to learn all about that tonight I read the first three issues wonderful job and um if I'm not mistaken let me double check I want to make sure everything is right If you, uh, throughout this episode would like to get your hands on these comics, just check the description of this live stream in this video afterwards. We've got a link there that will take you to their eBay store that will allow you to purchase those, but we're going to learn all about that. Um, But before we jump into that, we want to make a fun announcement. Woohoo! Yay! Fun! This has been a year in the making. And we have been given, gifted, the domain BamaGeeks.com. We were gifted that the original owner passed away and his widow reached out to us a year ago and said, hey, I see you guys all over the place. How would you like his domain? It's like, well, that's fine. And she said, I'm going to gift it to you. And so it's taking a year to get this thing going. But our new website, BamaGeeks.com. Look at there. There it is. All right. This has been an undertaking. It's been a fun undertaking, but we finally have it. Real Life finally decided to pause for a second where I could get this thing done. But if you look at the website, first thing you're going to see is going to populate the episodes, the audio episodes. As soon as they're published, they're going to go right into that homepage banner. And then below that, you've got places where you can look up blog posts and all the videos that we're doing. As you see right now, this episode, you can go to the website right now, click on this first link for Spec Squad. And guess what? You can watch it right there on the page. I'm not going to do that because we don't want videoception. You know, but would invite you to check out BamaGeeks.com. I'm not going to go through everything that's on the site. Uh, but there'll be a lot more content added, uh, maybe on a weekly basis. Maybe we'll see. Yeah. I may, uh, put up our second, we've got a one blog post on there right now that, you know, just welcomed you to the site, but, um, I may have a second one on there next week for a special anniversary. You just have to keep going, going back to the site to see. Mm-hmm. But if anything, I encourage you to go to the About page. I'll pull that up really quickly. And right there, we'd love for you to read all about Paul Williamson. His wife, Pam, is the one who gifted us the BamaGeeks.com domain. So read all about Paul. He was a fascinating guy. Seemed to be a lovely man. I've been going back and forth for a long time with Pam. And hopefully we'll have her. On the podcast. We're trying to arrange something with her where she can come on and visit with us. Yeah. So, yeah. Nice. There you go. BamaGeeks.com. It's live. It's there. Just go check it out. That's where everything concerning the podcast will live from here on out. So, yeah. Yeah, it looks great. Brock's been working very hard at it. And just the little things that he showed me that y'all can, like I said, check out on the website. I think y'all will enjoy it very much. Yes. Yep. Real simple. BamaGeeks.com. And, of course, on social media at Bama Geeks. Check us out everywhere. So, yeah, if you've got questions or anything as we go through the live stream tonight for J.D. about his comic, I know that we're going to have some questions. I'm really curious just about how he got into the whole process of creating the comic and being able to put that forth, especially from here in Alabama. We want to learn all about that. So, J.D., if you don't mind, just tell us about yourself and let us know how you got into comic creation. Yeah, sure. Well, I've been born and bred here in the state of Alabama. I grew up for most of my life in Clark County and went to school in Shelby at Montevallo and where I studied to become an actor in theater. And I know, I know, wondering why I didn't go ahead and take that approach and move up to New York or California. Well, I mean, I know it wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but I mean, so I was fine with where I was around here. And also, I want to try other stuff. So I kind of got into a habit, kind of did in high school, writing scripts. And the ones in high school I wrote for like little kid-like shows we'd put on for like, hey kids, remember to eat healthy snacks and stuff like that. And yeah, we would go put them on for them and whatnot. And I was just like, okay, well, I want to write something of like, say of something that I like. I think I began writing a cyberpunk play at some point and I think I got as far as I think to what happens later to the main character but then I kind of stopped and went on a whole hiatus with that and some point I I did want to try and get concept art for that because I'm I'm kind of um I'm kind of on the idea I might try and turn it into a graphic novel but that's another story and um well that's just part of it. I just love stories. And I've always liked love superheroes, uh, anime, manga comics. I grew up with it. We would always trade comics with my cousin, my cousins and whatnot, even if they would come back a little bit tattered and whatnot, but that's another story too. And, uh, yeah, no, um, I love fantasy to science fiction. It was very interesting to me. And, uh, Well, going in college, too, I didn't really get much writing done. But, again, I was going to school for acting. That's where I met Mason. He's my producer and co-writer for this comic as well. And me and him, we connected by doing YouTube videos together. And, yeah, it was, like, do, like, huge nerd stuff. Very... I would say Kevin Smith kind of humorous kind of like stuff and because he's a big Kevin Smith fanatic and and so yeah we uh whenever he would have a script or whatever he'd be like hey read this I'll make sure let's do it I'll do it for free I don't care and um yeah that was pretty much it and so I kind of like started developing ideas for stories I wanted to tell, but I just never had the time to write them or I just thought, oh, they're dumb. They're not gonna amount to anything. And then I think at one point I just started, I think just writing out just something and I was just like, I don't know, it won't amount to nothing maybe. And so I'm just, writing out this story I just kept in my head rent-free for quite some time. I was like, hey, Mason, read this and tell me what you think. And he's like, it's not that bad. Well, I can't remember per se, but he was just like, it's interesting. Like, what do you want to do with this? I'm like, well, I kind of want to Made into an animated series, maybe. So yeah, that's kind of how Spec Squad, it was originally supposed to start out as an animated series at one point. I think it was back in twenty eighteen, whenever I moved over to Georgia and we put like a a tweet on Twitter asking if there are any voice actors who were interested to do like a reading or like actors in general, like they didn't have to have a video background or whatnot. We were willing to work with whoever. Okay. So we had like a little read through of what the, uh, the first script that I wrote for. And, and so, yeah, we had this whole idea. We got someone to do concept art and, uh, I will say the artists, they did a really decent job with the concept art. But in the back of my mind, and I'm assuming in Mason's, which was kind of telling me it could be better. And then kind of looking into how much it was going to cost us to animate this, it was at that point I had to face facts. I'm like, yeah, this ain't going to work. Even though we got an email from... powerhouse studios and powerhouse studios reached out saying, Hey, this is great. This is, and which is why we needed concept. It was like, just send this concept art and talk. So I'm just like, okay. And Mason had already been bugging me about, dude, if we can't do animated series, let's at least just try like a comic book. And so we can have both of our names on something published and out in the world. Yeah, sure. Yeah. And I just had to, I had to concede and I'm just like, all right, yeah, let's do it. And so I think we put out an ad to, um, someone to do the first issue it was I think I think we would just I called it the promo at first and uh we found this guy out in um out in california uh his name is james but I think his handle was um uh ninja something but uh really really cool dude uh young ambitious and he Actually, I think I kind of discovered him. Yeah, that's right. I remember a friend of mine, sorry. I was on Facebook and I was just scrolling and then one of my con friends had posted this picture that I think he got commissioned by James and I was just looking at the detailing, just like the shadowing and whatnot and I'm just like, I want this guy. I want this guy to draw this for me and Because what I wanted to go for, for this comic, because I think at this point, three, four years have passed. And I kind of got a hold of some like graphic novels and stuff. So Sin City, I think I was reading the first three volumes or three or four. And I loved how the black and white... For me, I get more detail from black and white because it paints a different picture. So I did enjoy the whole splashes of color in certain characters or moments. And I was like, I want to do that. I want to have this kind of artistic noir style for it. And so... We talked to James and he was just like, hey, so would you be interested in drawing this for us? We sent him like a copy and he's like, dude, I love the story. Yeah, I'd be more than happy to do it. We had him on board for about two years and He was dedicated and hardworking, but he just couldn't meet deadlines. And so we ended up having to let him go, unfortunately, but still a sweet guy. It happens. Yeah. And it wasn't until Mason, I think, went on Reddit, whatever the post for Reddit is. And yeah, we got like a couple of artists being like, hey, we're interested. What do you need? So he picked out maybe two or three of the artists that stroke him or, or like stroke his fancy and then thought would probably stroke mine as well. And I'm like, let's go with this person. And that's whenever our artists, um, uh, Dasha, uh, um, dark, I'm sorry, Daria dug on it. Uh, Daria came to, into the picture. Okay. and uh uh yeah and that's and it's been a blast working with her she she loves the story as much as we do and um basically I think it took us maybe a year or just a little bit under to get the first issue out and we had help from this comic shop owner that lived not too far away from where I used to live when I moved back here in Alabama. Um, uh, he helped us like reach out to like other comic shops. Um, but he, he was like first and forefront, uh, forefront because he was like, Hey, I, I like to sell indie works cause Indies kind of the new hot topic around here. So, okay. And yeah. And, um, I guess that's kind of how we got the first issue out. I'm sorry if I sound like I'm rambling. No, no. Oh, man, you're on the right podcast for rambling. You've come to the right spot. Yeah, but I guess that's how Specs Squad eventually came to be, was basically originally supposed to be an animated series. I had to face facts and reality. It's like, that's not going to happen because I'm not paying that much for animation. Yeah. Unless I'm getting a really big, generous backer. Yeah. So who is the local comic artists or the local comic store that helped you out? Oh, that would actually be Top of the World Arts and Collectibles. I like to say comics because, I mean, y'all have that there. They also have collectibles. They're set up in Alabaster, Alabama. Okay. I'd like to check them out. Oh yeah, no, they're really cool. David, the owner, him and his wife, they've been so helpful, sweet, and he's been trying to help us get notoriety as much as possible, trying to spike intrigue with his other comic book shop friends around the area. Okay. Which I think you can find a couple of our books in, like in Sasquatch Toys and Comics. Yeah. Yeah. I still have to go back and visit at some point because I've got some comic endeavors up there. Yeah. Then there's Valhalla. I know they have a couple of art issues as well. Okay. I was at this store called Nostalgia in Pelham, but it just wasn't selling. Oh, yeah? Yeah, we've been there, yeah. We spent a little bit of money in that store. Hey, I have, too. I have, too. And, yeah, we kind of had a little deal, and it just wasn't selling there. So it was just like, yeah, okay, well. she just thought I gave him back unfortunately but I mean she did at least take a chance on it so I do yeah uh I want to say sanctum sanctum has taken a couple of issues and then the comic strip over in uh around the tuscaloosa area yep I'm very familiar with that one okay and um sorry and sorry uh two final places um dreamcatcher comics and tallacy and alabama and Oh, why am I flaking on this one in Montgomery? Oh, I, oh. Why am I flaking? I think I may know what you're talking about. Yeah, I'm blanking on it too. Yeah, I think the owner's name is Rob. Robert? Yeah. Doggone it. Let me recheck. Okay. capital city comics thank you thank you I I knew it's like it's like it's like in montgomery yeah no uh he uh he's I think taking a couple of our books too he's he's also asked us to come out I think on free comic book day for next year so okay nice good looking forward to that and um yeah uh pretty much david uh that's who I was also with at alabama comic-con uh We both pay half the table cost and we're in talks about going up to, uh huntsville uh pop culture and uh comics uh con as well yeah yeah yeah I was trying to get him be like hey what about comic con it's coming up and he's just like uh he kind of gave me his uh his stance on and on anime comic like uh anime cons like all right I see your points maybe if whenever we uh uh bring in a little more extra dough for us to carry out the cost, then we'll probably try and take Comic-Con at some point. Yeah. Well, hopefully y'all will make it to Huntsville because we're going to be there. We have plans to be there to that one coming up. Yeah. Actually, I think it's going to be my first time going to that con. Now, I have been to HammerCon whenever it was around that part, but that was like the only one Oh, wait, I also went to Comic-Con High last year, too. Okay, yeah. Huntsville is a great con. So yeah, that would, it would be great if y'all guys could get in up there. Yeah. Oh, trust me. I'll probably even go up there even as a guest because I mean, have you seen who's going to be there? Like Chris Claremont and. Yeah, they're really, the guest list is really coming along with that one. And they've just started. Yeah. Yeah. My big selling point was Weird Al. That was, that was. Yeah. Definitely. I got you. Well, awesome. So, uh, did I read, uh, Daria is, is from Russia? Yes. Uh, uh, actually, uh, yeah, she, um, well for the first, uh, first part where, before she moved back to her, um, I think her hometown in Russia, uh, in Russia area, she was, um, I want to say she was near somewhere around Prague at first, but then she had to move back for some reason. But yeah, no. Mason found her on Reddit, and I took a look at her stuff, and it was kind of with what I wanted to go with. Because the thing is with... with spec squad, I wanted to give it a, I wanted to show my love for both comics and manga and seeing her art style, it felt like it was a, it was like a perfect chef's kiss light bland for that. And yeah, there's a, we've got the cover there. Originally, I think the cover was going to be in color, but due to printing costs, we had to go in another direction for that. But we have also been in talks about bringing what I originally wanted to go with, was add a little bit of specks of color to blood and powers and stuff to differentiate. Mm-hmm. Again, kind of going with that whole Sin City style. I get a lot of the influence of Sin City and also the original run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Especially the fight scenes. I got a lot of the Eastman Laird feel to that. I liked that. That was one of the things that popped to me. I was at the first couple of pages like, ooh, this is familiar and I like it. Oh, yeah. And and I guess I can if you don't mind me telling just like my inspiration for it. Go for it. All right. Sure. Yeah, we want to know all about it, man. So basically getting into, I think, from middle school, high school to now, I was always fascinated with like apocalyptic like stuff. Like whenever the Walking Dead show came on, I was like, I was goo-goo for Gaga for that. Like Watchmen, things like Watchmen as well. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so when we're at the point where zombies was kind of everywhere and it was kind of getting old and... I kind of then came across this other show that was by the same studio that did the show Hell on Wheels. Oh, yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And so this studio ended up doing a sci-fi, I think, original series called Van Helsing. Okay. And basically, it was about the world it gets overtaken by vampires due to this. I think all the volcanoes around like the world just started to emit like this really thick like smoke and covering the world in forever darkness, so to speak. Okay. And I was always fascinated with like, I mean, that that would be kind of cool because it's like they're not slow, they're fast. They're like these mystic like apex predators. And what would happen if you take the only thing that is that can possibly protect humans And then you have, like, these apex predators, like, take over, like, the world, and now the human race is now at the bottom of the food chain. I love that whole dynamic. And it makes me wonder, okay, well, how do we get back on top of the food chain? Like, how do we do that? Okay. And, yeah, no, that was a different take on the whole apocalypse, but also something that wasn't zombie-related. Not that I'm, like, dishing out on, like, zombies or nothing. It's just... Like everyone in my friend group who's told me that's watched The Walking Dead, it gets old to a certain point. I'm just like, I feel that. I feel that. I can't wait till we get a show that comes on where we finally, kind of like Terminator, where we finally get taken over by AI. You know, the AI that's driving, right? And then we have this whole massively long, like, Walking Dead season after season after season. And then it gets to the end, and someone just finally realizes that you've got to walk over there and unplug it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We only have three forms of entertainment. That, the Simpsons and Family Guide, shows up at the end. Yes. The entire AI is running on a Commodore sixty-four in somebody's basement. You just go unplug it. Yeah. I've got one in the back room if we need it but yeah just apocalyptic stuff like that that was just my um yeah my inspiration and then um on on the anime aspect um like okay so in middle school that was where and I got the anime bug like you know dragon ball z naruto um yugioh etc and right and I think somewhere whenever I started high school it just kind of disappeared for like four years and then coming back in college I noticed something that my cousin's watching and uh I'm like dude what's happening here it's like dude it's like we're about to get the reveal and uh I just I I just sit down I just watch him like uh not really minding the subtitles and I'm just instantly drawn in and that anime was attack on titan and oh yeah oh yeah and then whenever I'm like I kind of spoiled myself what happens in the first season but um but at that point I'm just like okay I need to re-watch this to get a full understanding and whatnot and after that my mind was blown I'm just like dude, this is basically Walking Dead for the Japanese. And I'm just like, this is awesome. As usual, they do it better. You're not wrong. But yeah, no. And so after seeing stuff like that, I'm just like, all right, well, what story can I tell? I just decided, well... I do like the idea where monsters end up like kind of just taking over the world at some point. So I'm like, okay, we got something for that. But what do the humans do? Like how do they counteract this? And I don't know. I just started like developing like, well, let's say it was, it was a comet or something that fell down and they took the radioactive essence or something like that. And- then eventually that turned out being um in this uh certain world where magic was kind of the uh the backbone of civilization and so I always like the whole idea with like a full metal alchemist where the whole um idea of um I forgot what the term is called but it's like you gotta equal out the balance so to speak And I was thinking, okay, what if these magicians, because they were probably tasked by some higher society or corporation or whatnot, let's figure out the spell for immortality. And so, it's dark art. Once they do it, they end up creating artificial vampires, like, through magic. And at some point, I wanted to, like, think, okay, well, since this world is not like ours, what if, like, they lived on, like, old, like, fairy tale stories of, like, monsters, but it's, like, they were indeed, like, historically there, but... And then I would watch stuff like Hellboy and see, particularly Guillermo del Toro's one. And I like the whole idea where it's like, fairy folk are there, but it's like, you can't see them. They have this strange camouflage, so to speak. And so, okay, well, what if they just, What if they just start coming out of the woodworks, basically, because they sense this whole change in the wind for them to now reappear. And so eventually you have the remainders of, say, the magicians trying to take out in one final swoop. But yeah, but it comes with a cost. it takes out the rest of said magicians, but it still has, you still have like half of the monster population still there. So then the humans, they just lost their only source of defense, which was like magic users at that point. So they're just like, okay, well, what do we do now? So kind of go into the whole idea of like, like chemicals. So some of the chemical essence from that from that spell was left that was left behind. So they started testing it on on on humans. It works, but only for a short amount of time. So they're like, okay, well, it's probably because of doing to the age of so-and-so they can't, it won't last that long. So then they get the idea to test it on children. It lasts a little bit longer. And so you have these like kids super soldiers, so to speak. And so that's where the idea of specs has come along because specs are kind of, Well, I thought I was being kind of crafty with being just like, ah, it's like special beings. Just take the sea and the rest of that at the end of there and just put an X on it. It's like Spexes. Nice. Yeah, because it's like... And basically, I wanted to add more like... intrigued with it like I'm like, Okay, well, I don't want I don't want the I want to add a little bit of more conflict within the good within like the good get the supposed good guys. Like I'm kind of going back to like Attack on Titan with whenever we find out a certain thing about like the the LDNs on Paradise Island. So I'm thinking to myself, well, what if we kind of do that with the Spexes, since these are special humans and they were crafted to defend the remaining of the human race? So what if that's all they ever saw as just like tools or weapons, so to speak? And so whenever I pitch this like spec squad to people, I'm just like, OK, think of Attack on Titan meets the X-Men, basically. Yeah. Right. That's awesome. Oh, yeah. And for the, I guess, kind of the aesthetic style, I think in college I kind of grew very interested in the whole style of, like, steampunk. Mm-hmm. And, oh, yeah, yeah. And since steampunk was already, like, in Attack on Titan, and I was just like, well, it kind of works interestingly with that because I don't want to, like... Well, I said like this, like it made me think also, it kind of makes me like, uh, the, uh, a lot of imagery, like from the rocketeer that, that, uh, yes, that, that are the, uh, sky captain in the world tomorrow type stuff. Yeah, very much so. And yeah. And also, I think I was also getting off of like watching arcane as well. Um, never played the game, never played league of legends, probably never will. But, um, but, uh, just looking at the styles of like, um, I guess kind of what, that's where I wanted to go with like this whole, like, magical steampunk um era society where it's all just mix match but it just works for some odd reason and uh yeah and so basically you have the readers following this uh this group um group of spexes uh where uh they're would you find out um probably not in this arc or the next one that they They're kind of the test. They're the test of a independent specs unit. Because they wanted to see what they could do on their own. Okay. And so they end up coming across this young lady who's being accosted by these three strangers that turn out to be vampires. And that kind of sets up our first story for the first arc. Nice. Yeah. And I'm purposely not scrolling all the way down. So not to give away story things, but I definitely want people to see the art. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Please show off Daria's work because she's definitely earned that. this is the we're trying to do the the sam's club taster you know let it give everybody just something just the appetite but you know we don't want to oh yeah starting off being starting off being accosted by you know uh a larger force that's kind of like me for vendetta you know like how it how you kind of start getting that that that intro where it's you know the woman that she's being accosted by the yeah yeah yeah yeah That's pretty cool. Oh, man. Now, that first artist that I mentioned, we had, I think, a good majority of the first issue, some pages drawn out. And what was interesting about James' art style, he did a very almost shadowy kind of a style to it yeah like there's a oh my god like the part where the um the werewolf transformation I've got to say that was probably the bloodiest one for for james's virgin like you literally like see him just like and and that's what I that's what I kind of tell my artists is like I want this to be a gritty comic because I feel like we don't get enough of that these days and And so I just kind of wanted to do something that's kind of for mature like audience. Right. Something I don't have to censor down, so to speak, because and like the whole idea of like of the werewolf, like I'm sure you've seen the movie Trick or Treat. Yes. I got to say, I love the whole transformation of the, of the werewolves because I love that whole idea that it's that the real costume is the human skin. Yeah. And so, and so I told both my artists, whenever I was like pitching the idea of how this needs to be drawn, like it needs to be bloody. It needs to be like, they're ripping at the seams. And I just, and I just love that. Yeah. Well, let's see the cool thing about, like I said, you know, you're talking about, you're worried about it. You want it to be more very bloody, discreet. Cool thing about it is like, I just made me think how you're able to get an artist from, from Russia and y'all guys are doing all this. That's the cool thing about the modern world with this. You can, you can get out there without having to appease of, you know, Oh, we don't want this on our shelf. Well, you know, you can make it more direct to consumer. Yeah. And I think what's been hard for us to, of getting this out to more of the comic shops, like here in the state is, um, Well, I don't want to sound mean or nothing, but I mean, this is just like how it was kind of told to me was just like they're most of the most of the shops around here are not willing to risk sell indie comics, which I understand why, because I understand that for most of these shops, the mainstream, which is DC and Marvel, is like their bread and butter. I get that. I get that. But yeah. But I mean, I like to remind people, even though I don't remember much of that because I wasn't into comics in the early nineties when image became a thing because I was born in ninety four. But whenever I saw the hype for it in a documentary about image, I'm like, this is incredible. Like at a time whenever like the two main streams were like at war or they were just like really like. low on quality at the time, you had like these guys that were working for him just being just like, yeah, we want the art to be owned by us. We want to be represented and we are willing to leave to go and like do it ourselves. And I love that. And that's what kind of drove me to want to just like tell the story because I'm just like, you know what? They could do it, so can I. And yeah, no, I just... Oh man, I think, actually, I think the first issue went through two, three edits, probably. And it's probably best that Mason is my editor because I tend to get a little wordy with the subtext. And that's where me and him are different as writers because he's all about getting to the point, which I respect. But me, ever since I would like write stuff, like I'm very visual and I'm looking at it more from whenever me and Mason did like... did like youtube stuff like I would be very visual being just like okay this is what the actor needs to have in their mind whenever their lines are about to come up like this is what you're this is what you're seeing like this is what's going to be in your mind's eye and this is like the emotion you should be like feeling and whatnot or trying to get to that point to deliver these lines and Yeah, also, I like to draw out the whole ideas of fights and stuff, and I think that was the main thing Mason was just like, yeah, you just get very worried with those fights, man. You need to tone it down to like a this. That's a good thing that y'all pair off each other. You know, you're trying to be very descriptive. You want to give the most information possible where, like you said, he's kind of want to get, let's cut to the chase, but usually good to the point. I mean, good, good combos that, that makes a good thing. So you can find that common middle ground for anyone. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I will say there are some times where I'm just like, I feel like he's being a little too stern with me. But then again, I have to also think in his shoes. I'm like, he's kind of right, me. I agree with them because... it's like and I had to also remind myself it's like look we don't have to write it out like that we don't have to write out all the fight stuff we can just like talk with daria and be just like hey can you add this right make it look as badass as possible so everybody has their part to play in the whole in the whole in the whole uh the whole story of it and telling the story yeah oh yeah very much now the collaboration um you and mason you guys live near each other Actually, he lives with me and my girlfriend here in this house. Oh, okay. Perfect. Well, the reasoning behind that, I shouldn't get into details, but on the upside, it works for us, particularly whenever we get to eventually start writing the second arc at some point. But unfortunately, he is on tour at this time with Paw Patrol, so... Right now? Oh, yeah. So it's like right now. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Don't just drop that information casually on us. Come on. From vampires and fight scenes to Paw Patrol. Chase is on the case. We're going to get to Bluey here in a minute. Hang on. And someone who had a toddler at the height of Paw Patrol. So this strikes a chord with me. I got you. I got you. Well, again, me and Mason, we went to the same school together. And that's how we met. And we also uh we were going into the same department as well uh he took more of a um uh technical side of theater I took more of the um the acting and directing well he also directs stuff too like probably probably better than me but um but uh yeah like that that's how we came to be like I did more of the acting stuff occasionally I would do technical stuff like if he asked me to come and like hang lights or something I'd be just like I got nothing to do sure Well, okay. Well, that makes it handy for you guys to be, you know, that close. know when he's not at paw patrol um but getting with with daria to to figure out the art and everything like how does that process work do you guys like hop on zoom or or do you just email back and forth and say hey this is what we're looking for and let her go or well we did try um I think it was last year whenever I was like getting trying getting moved over here and trying to find a place to live Um, we, uh, we did have a video call with her. Um, it was through discord and it had to be at a certain time because, Hey, you gotta love that whole like different time zone stuff. So not so much video calls, more emails. And, um, I always have to remind myself, okay, add Mason into the email. So everyone knows the plan. particularly whenever we're trying to get like details sent over to her, like, we'll be just like, okay, uh, this is what, um, and usually whenever we find, uh, we'll send like the, um, the script to her and she'll, she'll draw out like the, um, the storyboard. And, um, she'll let us know how many pages, uh, and how much the rate will be. And that's whenever you will usually come to the decision. Okay. Well, if it's going to cost that in total, we're going to probably half that because, um, For the main majority, Mason has thrown his hat in the ring to finances, but it's kind of mainly coming out of my pocket for the most part. I I can't I can't spend awfully too much because yeah because adulting kids is right exactly we know nothing about that yeah my daughter's a college freshman right now I feel that Yeah, I dread that day whenever that day comes. But for the time being, yeah, that's kind of what we do. And we'll send the script to her, have her send the storyboards. We'll look at them and we'll... Depending on how we want the fight scenes to look or certain scenes to look, we'll type in, okay, here is possible edit for so-and-so. Could you possibly redraw this? And then usually she'll be like, yeah, sure, no problem. But yeah, it's mainly communication through emails. Okay. Yeah, usually it takes a bit of time, understandably so, because whenever she gets started drawing the issues, it's... probably a couple couple of weeks until we hear back so that's why if you have a question like send it to her and you'll have to wait whenever she responds do the george lucas go faster more intense very much and uh but yeah no um she's she's been a joy to work with she's very dedicated um And I'm, I'm very happy. She's, she's committed to deadlines too. I'm very much, I'm very much pleased by that. Yeah. And, um, but yeah, not, uh, we've also, we've also had to make compromises with her too. Um, cause, uh, you know, I, I, I do like love giving credit when credit is due, particularly to my artist. And I do try to, I do try to make sure everyone will, um, that my artists are paid off as much as possible. But if understandably, I'm like, hey, I can't exactly reach you at that point. Can I meet you somewhere in the middle? And for the most part with Daria, it's been, it's been compromisable in a good way. So no troubles there. And also with some of the other artists that have done our variant covers too, like William, who did the newest cover variant for Three. Whenever he gave us his total amount for his rate, I was like, can I do a bi-monthly thing for you? Because I can do that. I can't do that, but I can do this. yeah and he's like he's like yeah sure no problem dude and that uh I gotta say that's that's why I'm I'm very thankful for artists and creators alike that are very understanding because um oh man this this project it's had its ups and downs and uh but it's been one heck of a ride I've enjoyed my time with uh artists and creators alike But but yeah, and. So this is the one that we're showing now. This is the variant covered from William. Yes, this is issue number three right now. Like I say, if you're in the live stream watching us or you're watching this after the fact, going down into the description of this video and there's a link to their eBay store and right now you've got the first two issues up there, correct? uh yes yes we do uh the first two issues uh on our ebays uh uh sorry ebay god I cannot talk southern you gotta add the s to it yeah the walmart ebay let me just look at my notes again I mean it's like uh yes uh one and two they are on our ebay I believe uh they are in the links in the in y'all's description and uh also mason wanted to let me know if you are interested on the issues that are being sold on our eBay. They are going for fifty percent off during this live stream. So if you are interested in purchasing both one and two, please run. Do not walk. Click that link. Click it fast. While we are live. Then please explain to me how you ran to eBay. I want to know. Well, it's quite simple there, Kevin. Because if Jonah Hill has proven us that there is a store that you can walk into and try and resell the shoes that you thought you wanted, that you did not want, that you tried to resell, but you can't resell. And plus, you've got to remember, we're all from Alabama, so we've got to break out our forests, and I just had to run. Yeah, I just kept running. I kept running. I don't know why particular today, but I started running. I just kept on running. So this third issue, you've got the first two on the eBay store. When does this third issue come out? Well, third issue, it's actually going to be premiering at a live event this coming Saturday on the sixteenth. Oh, look at that. And Calera, right? Yes, yes. Calera, Alabama. It's going to be at Nerdfest. This is their first time doing this event. I've actually got an artist friend of mine who's going to be, I think he's the head guest. His name is Geoffrey Gwin. Oh, yeah. Good friends of ours. Oh, OK. Yeah. Oh, really? No kidding? Yeah. Nice. Yeah. We've known him for years. Absolutely. Oh, yeah. No. Once I posted it the first time and I saw that he was going to be there, I'm like, dude, I'm going to be there, too. Awesome. Yeah, we've all probably we've all gotten some artwork from him at some point. Yeah. Over the years. Actually, I've let me see if I can pull it down real quick. Yeah. Without ruining anything here. Well, the nerd fest came through my timeline. But yeah, like I remember. Hang on. We're going to make you big here. Hang on. I got you. I got you. There you go. It's the D&D cartoon that he did. Oh, nice. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. And also, he gave me a deal, I think, for the two for Attack on Titan. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, we've got one of his prints. It's in one of our Ghostbuster compartment totes, but he did a great print of the Ghostbusters we loved. Oh, right on. Yeah, and one of our dear friends who just recently passed away, part of our Alabama Ghostbusters, Chuck Elam, he and Geoffrey, they always, Geoffrey did a lot of art for him as well. Yeah. Yeah, see that Calera Nerd Fest, November the sixteenth at Calera Courtyard. Okay. Oh, yeah. I'm real excited. I'm hoping big for the turnout. I also got some other merch I'm going to try and do. Unfortunately, they didn't come out too well, but still regardless, I do got a couple of stickers. But the next time when I do go to an event, I'm probably going to try something else with stickers that actually do in color. Oh, and also a friend of mine at Alabama Comic Con taught me that if I do like bookmarks and give them out for free, it also kind of intrigues a little bit of interest. But also I added, oh, here, let me see if I can pull one. Come on now. All right, here we go. First one here, it has a brief little summary. Uh-huh. of uh spec squad got a little piece of art there too oh well it's kind of a little laminate glare right there there we go okay there you go yeah yeah and also those that are interested they can follow us on instagram here but also get a good look at william's art uh front cover art yeah that's awesome yeah that's good nice and of course uh we've got the instagram link down uh in the description below as well so Yeah, definitely check out the eBay store and check out the bookmarks. Well, we don't have a link to the bookmarks. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. The stickers and the bookmarks will be at NerdFest. Okay. I was trying to say we've got a link to the Instagram as well. yeah and uh but yeah no just uh I'm really looking forward to it um I've actually got a couple other friends that are going to be there selling their wares too so actually the uh the art uh my friend uh he actually did the art for the stickers so uh yeah if you buy a sticker take it over to him and see if you can get it signed okay there you go yeah well I did I I have net have never been to calera nerd fest so so yeah I'm Definitely interested to see what happens down there. I don't know if I'll be able to make it this time because, you know, kids and archery tournaments and stuff, but we'll see. Oh, man, archery tournaments? Yeah. He's like, you get a pass. Well, I will say this, though. NerdFest is actually, which kind of struck me strange, it starts from six p.m. to twelve a.m. and ends at twelve a.m. Yeah, I did notice that on the time. Okay. Wow. Yeah, not a daytime thing. That would make it fun, kind of like an evening social type thing, also on top of a gathering. That's cool. A festival-style event will display anime, K-pop, art, and more. There will be dance and costume competitions with prizes, as well as independent artists and vendors. You guys have K-pop? That's awesome. Oh, yeah. My friend's girlfriend, she's going to love that. She's a big K-pop fan. That little lady over there, you like BTS? Yes, I love BTS. Really? Yeah, I do. They're basically like eighties, nineties boys bands, but just modern now. That's right. I'm a product of- Is that K-pop? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, BTS is. What about girl groups like Dreamcatcher? I haven't really heard much of the girl groups. I guess I've kind of caught more onto BTS because they've become more mainstream. Current music, it's kind of rare that I've listened to a lot of current music. I'm more kind of eighties and nineties and even older than that. But I do like BTS. I mean, I listen, I'm unashamed to say I listen to Blackpink a lot. Okay. Which is another K-pop band-ish. Yeah, yeah. I like that. It's all right. I mean, I will say not so much K-pop. Well, I mean, of the K-pop that I do listen to is probably Dreamcatcher. Like, I've heard a couple of their songs. Okay. But I do like to listen to J-rock, too. And I think the J-rock group that I love to listen to the most would be... I think it's... Ah, crap. What am I flicking on the name? One moment. Don't feel bad. I had to pull up YouTube music to find out. I can remember what it was. And I listen to it all the time. The only thing I've been exposed to in that genre that I like that is interesting is baby metal, which I just... For the rocker metal guy in me... yeah oh okay uh their uh their name is a man with a mission they they like to have they have these like kind of wolf uh head masks on whenever they play um they're they're very they're very uh bumping I will say that it's it's pretty good okay okay I'm gonna check that out yeah I I don't I don't tend to tend to dive into the current music a whole lot my you know at my age, you don't have too many more wrinkles that can form in the brain to store new info. Yeah, so I stick mainly with I think I'm, I'm, I'm up to new metal. Well, I can, I can blame Emma for the BTS thing because yeah. And I think I gravitated more to them because like I said, they're a boy band. So, and I come from the, you know, from the, from the boy band, uh, love and things like that. So, yeah. I mean, don't feel bad because growing up, I listened to the Backstreet Boys, so... Well, hey, if anything, like I said, as we mentioned, we already dropped the Deadpool reference, but if anything, you know, it don't matter, guy or gal, we enjoyed Bye Bye Bye. Oh, yeah. No, no, no. I literally was singing that song whenever it first came out. I'm just like... Dude, if that movie had... Well, the movie had ended right there. Like, the opening credits ended. That would have been worth the price of the ticket. I would have been okay with that. Oh, yeah. I was actually working in radio when NSYNC and Backstreet Boys and all that stuff was out. Got to go backstage and hang out with ninety eight degrees at one point and get all their autographs and photos with them. Oh, look at you. You have to meet Nick Lachey. I did. I did. And I sold every bit of that stuff. Businessman. Hey, it wasn't long. I'm like, OK, look, I got photos with them. I can prove that I was there. I can prove that they signed everything. And it lasted about a couple of months in my house. And then I. I put it on eBay and figured some teenage girls would enjoy it more than I would. Hey, when music moved on from boy bands, they moved on. We really moved on. Oh, yeah. They really went bye, bye, bye. And then Korea said, hold my beer. Here we go. Well, and just in case anyone out there is interested, there is going to be a documentary on Paramount Plus, Larger Than Life, Reign of the Boys, Reign of the Boy Bands, that will also, just like Wolverine and Deadpool, drops on Disney Plus on November twelfth, so will that documentary. So there you go. Are they going to start with the Jackson Five, though? No, I don't think they're going that far. They may, you never know. It's late eighties, nineties, nostalgia's a thing. You got it. Oh, over Thanksgiving, there will be a lot of binging in our house, it seems like. And not just on turkey. No. Nope. Awesome. So, all right. Before you send him off, now we're talking Thanksgiving. I got to know. It's a very, very important question. Oh, yes. All right, J.D., when it comes to Thanksgiving, what kind of cranberry sauce is the best? Hmm. There's only one right answer. I just say no. Well, I don't tend to go with cranberry sauce, but... Come on now. You've got to take a side. I think the one? I don't know, dude. I think he's more... Not the brand or whatever, but is it canned or jelly? There we go. Thank you. Canned or the... Or the frou-frou stuff that your grandma makes. I'm assuming can? Of course. Yeah, can, yeah. It's got to be ocean spray. It's got to be ocean spray. Okay, okay, you've answered correctly. We're going to take the thing off your neck now. Oh, man, I didn't know this was Battle Royale. you all, you know, in our member exclusive, we were talking about saw. So yes, we were discussing horror movies. The battle Royal is a great movie. Oh my goodness. All right. So clear a nerd fest. Um, issue number three is going to debut. And, uh, For people who can't make it to Calera, will this be also put into your eBay store? Yes, eventually. To the stores that do carry our books, as far as I know, David at Top of the World, he's going to be carrying his copies, but I'm probably going to have him hold off until after the sixteenth, or I'll just probably take him to him on Sunday. Well, he's closed on Sunday. Shoot. Logistics, man. Logistics, yeah. But I would say definitely after the sixteenth, they will be hitting the shelves where they are carried, wherever. But yeah, most assuredly they will be on our eBay as far as I know. Okay. And yeah, and hey, if you are gonna be at Nerdfest, you definitely cannot miss me with the big sign saying Spec Squad, but also I will be dressed in steampunk garb. Nice. Okay. Gotta represent. That's right. Exactly. But, uh, but yeah, as far as I know, uh, it will be going, it'll be hitting the, uh, the shelves, um, uh, uh, the day after whenever I can, uh, get ahold of the, uh, carriers, uh, whenever I can. All right. Sweet. Fantastic. So how far, how far along in the process are you like, are you guys already, have you, are you working on issue four or five or. Well, the thing was, I guess before finding an artist, we wanted to make sure that we were near the end of where the first arc was going to end, and we wanted to have it already written out, set in stone. Obviously, there might be a few little edits here and there. Me being kind of flip-floppy with a couple things, because I'm like, okay, this does need to happen. But uh but yeah no um fourth issue um it's already written out um it will probably start production around the uh sometime in march because I'm not gonna lie the uh the holidays they they kind of eat that yeah if I was working on the fourth issue now through like november and in december oh I would have to probably be getting two extra jobs and um But yeah, I kind of decided we just wait till March because coming back from January will probably be hitting at me financially too. But also, there's the whole thing. I want to go to Comic-Con with some friends and my girl and just try and get that out of the way before it's like, okay, back to the project. So yeah. Yeah. So I would expect for your viewers, expect issue four in the least later spring, I would say. Okay. Okay. Awesome. Okay. Yeah, so we are trying to keep, I think, the issues at like six at most. But again, it just depends on what that last script that we wrote is going to... It's going to be like a big payoff at the end for like a big final battle. And it's a good little cutoff to whenever we can dive into arc two. So yeah. Okay. Gotcha. All right. Well, as we've mentioned throughout the episode, if you go into the description of this video, we've got a link to their Instagram. We've got a link to their eBay store where you can get those. If you're local to the Birmingham area, hit up one of these comic book shops that he's mentioned and definitely grab a copy. Grab two. Yeah. Grab three. Oh, very much. You're not limited to just one. That's right. Yeah. Well, actually, there was... I think it is... The variance that we do have for the issues would be two and three. Okay. But I think somewhere around... see the first or the second one uh wait yeah it was the second issue uh mace and I we discussed hey let's add some back cover you know I don't think that's ever done enough and I I also want artists to get some notoriety as well and uh so yeah uh after issue three there's going to be no more variants but there is still going to be front and back covers for stuff because I don't know, I like artwork and again, I want artists to get their works seen as much as possible, get free marketing, et cetera. I love the concept art. Like I said, I'm not going to share too much of the story because we want people to buy these issues and get into it. We try to be a spoiler-free podcast as much as possible. We try. Unless it's for Bo, then we just spoil everything. Yeah, Bo doesn't care. Bo's like, I don't care. I still enjoy the ride, even if I know where I'm going. Actually, oh, sorry. What was your question, Brock? I was just going to say, so this is the back cover for issue two? Oh, yeah, yeah. Actually, this is what I was going to tell you about. This was actually for the main one for issue two. It was done by a father and daughter, and the back cover here was done by the artist's daughter. And yeah, I believe in life. She's like, uh, I think she's like, um, a junior in high school. And I know, I know she's like still in high school, but I'm just like looking at like, like some of her concept that her father sent me. I'm like, dude, yeah, no. Like I, and I, I told, I told him, I told him that, Hey, like, I'll let you know whenever, um, I want you to come and like do more art for me just, uh, cause with what she's doing with this, I want her to get attention for this because it's beautiful. It's very descriptive. Yeah. It's gorgeous. That is. Oh, yeah. What a great talent. Oh, yeah. And both of them, they're just really sweet. They're such dreams to work with, and I really do hope I get to work with them again. I think they're actually locals around Alabaster. Okay. Wow. Okay. That's fantastic to hear of all these, you know, with you and Mason and these artists, all the creative people around Birmingham. This is fantastic. Oh, yeah. I mean, I found out that one artist here in Birmingham, he's actually done work with Frank Miller. Oh. Wow. Yeah. With the three hundred comic, it is so awesome. And David actually knows the guy. He actually recommended that we try and reach out to him. And I told Mason, I was like, I want that guy. I know. I know. I know his rates a little bit high, but I think we can maybe work out a partial like a bimonthly payment. Yeah. Because his like from. from what David had shown me of what he's done with like three hundred for the covers. I'm like, this is perfect. This is exactly what I'm looking for. I mean, we might have to do like his obviously colored because it would make it make sense. But yeah. Wow. Yeah, it's just it's so cool. It's so cool to find out there are so many talented people here like around the area. Yeah, absolutely. And we are thrilled that you and Mason reached out to us so we could help put a spotlight on guys like you. That's incredible. Yeah. That's one thing that we love to do here on Bama Geeks. I mean, we're all around the Birmingham area. We love our state. We love everybody in the state. And we love to put a focus on people who are creative and can bring enjoyment. to, to people, you know, a lot of people have so many misconceptions about Alabama. We like to highlight, Hey, now we've got a lot of good people and a lot of good things that happen here in this state. And so we're thrilled that you guys reached out and that we can help share, uh, share your story and, and share your, uh, your projects. Yeah, sure. And, uh, And again, I guess when discussing the origin, sorry if it sounded a bit rambly and whatnot. It's just like, oh, man. Dude, that was awesome. It's like I should have probably wrote this down exactly. Well, I mean, there's value in it being organic, though. Yeah, that's coming from the heart there. That's your passion and what you're wanting to do. We actually have a term for things like that. It's called Bama-splaining. Bama-splaining. Bama-splaining. Bama-splaining. I like it. Copyright, trademark, whatever. Copyright and trademarked by Bama. I mean we we've got a we've got a facebook group uh a private facebook group for people who are fans of the podcast and it's called the bama geeks front porch because you know what do you do in alabama you sit on the front porch and you just shoot the breeze and you talk to people and you just you just have at it and so yeah you're you're saying you have that second conversation when you're trying to leave you're on the front porch you know but you're still talking again you're trying to get going yeah those southern goodbyes Well, is there anything else you'd like to let the audience know, promote or anything? Well, let's see. Well, again, y'all will be seeing me at NerdFest, but also I will have one final one next month. It will be in Huntsville, actually. I guess I'll go ahead and say that too. Okay. Yeah. Let me just pull up that one final thing. All right. I got a lot of friends in Huntsville. Well, sure do. Mm-hmm. Ah, here we are. It's going to be on the fifteenth of December on a Sunday. The Huntsville Anime Fest. I will be there. I'll have a table set up. If... hopefully I can try and get more, get more stickers made that are in better quality. Gotcha. Huntsville Anime Fest. Okay. December fifteenth, our anniversary. Oh, that's right. Sure is. Aww. So, will all this information be available on your Instagram? Yes. We do try to post as much as we can, but particularly whenever we're at live events as much as possible. It's It's just, um, it, we always just have to remind ourselves it's because we know we're both like working and whatnot. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Uh, either hear it on our Instagram or our, um, uh, or our Facebook, uh, just look on, just, just type in specs wide and you'll find it. Okay. Yep, and we've got the links both to their Facebook and their Instagram down below in the video description. Hit those guys up. And, J.D., I really hope we can have you back on again, man. Yeah, sure. Yeah, man. We have thoroughly enjoyed this. Thank y'all for having me. This has been fun. It's been great geeking out with you guys. Hope to run into y'all at any cons if y'all are ever around. Absolutely. We'll definitely be seeing you in person very soon. Alright. Again, all the links for their eBay store. And if you're catching this now after, you know, if you saw this live, you know, you hit that percent discount. But but after the live stream, we normally pick up a lot of viewers. So hit that link below for their eBay store, pick up some issues and hit their Instagram and their Facebook. And while you're there, check out our new website again, Bama geeks.com brand spanking new website, like launched yesterday, Saturday. Um, and that's where you'll find everything, uh, for the Bama geeks. And you'll find all of our, all of our social media links at Bama geeks everywhere where we're not hard to find. And of course, as we said, the Bama geeks front porch comes to the spell. And if you want to join the YouTube channel, hit that join button below, or you can join us at patrion.com slash Bama geeks. I think also Bama geeks.com slash join. We'll get you there. If it doesn't, I'm sorry. I have not memorized all the links yet, although I've been trying, but yeah, Yeah, anywhere you can join us, we certainly would appreciate it. If you're on iTunes or Spotify and can leave us a five-star rating, we'd appreciate that. Leave us a review. Those reviews and ratings actually populate on our website, too. So you can go there and see what people are saying, good, bad, or indifferent. We live for it all. Engagement is engagement. That's right. Yes, we love you guys. Hey, yeah. So make sure you also leave a like on this and subscribe to the channel. We'll have some more stuff coming up soon, but, but JD, again, thank you so much for being with us. We have thoroughly enjoyed you being here. Yeah. Thank you. Sorry. I was going to say, thank y'all again for having me. Absolutely. Our absolute pleasure. We're glad all this worked out. We'd love to have you back on again. And, um, The comics are great. I've read the first three issues and absolutely enjoyed it. It's fantastic. You guys are doing a great job on those. Dude, that means a lot hearing that from you guys. Thank you so much. Oh, you're welcome. Yeah. Yeah. It's our pleasure. So we're going to sign off, but like I said, if, if you're checking this out afterwards, hit the link, buy some issues, leave a comment. Even if it's just your favorite emoji, just do something to say hi, you know, leave a smiley face, leave a. engagement is engagement we hope you leave a smiley face thumbs up don't leave the other one sorry I was not for the longest time that was uh chocolate that chocolate was chocolate pudding yeah I still want to believe that truth is out there But again, thanks so much. Visit BamaGeeks.com. Visit the Spec Squad Instagram and eBay store and Facebook. And for Kevin and Bo and Jessica and JD, I'm Brock. We're the Bama Geeks. Thank you so much for being with us. And we'll catch you again very, very soon. All right.