Hello there, this is Christian Ward, the Comet Book Creator of titles such as Odyssey, Black Bolt, Bloodstained Teeth, Spectrograph, and Batman City of Madness. And you are listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host, Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles. Hello everyone. Welcome to episode 164 of the Oblivion Bar podcast. I am Chris Hacker, one of your co -hosts here and joining me this week. He is back everyone.
My BFF and co -host is after a two episode stint away from the show. He has rejoined us for episode 164. Welcome back, Aaron. What are you, what are you rubbing here? What is this? happening? That's my engine baby. And I'm ready to go. Ready to go. That's my batmobile. Remember from like the Batman? Oh my God. I'm not going to go watch that again. One of the coolest Batmobile scenes ever. Best scene. Maybe. Yeah, I said the best scene of the movie. Maybe I love that car chase.
Anyway, welcome back, everybody. The Oblivion Bar podcast episode 164. We are joined by our good friend in the comic book world. Dare I say best friend in the comic book world. Christian Ward is back on the Oblivion Bar podcast for his fifth time. increasing that lead above David Buhr and Tom King. So Christian Ward is back to talk about his upcoming, well, sorry, at the time of this recording, was the upcoming Zoop campaign of many worlds, -A -N -Y. Not many. Worlds. Not many. Not tiny. small.
Yeah, so many worlds is officially on Zoop. And Aaron, congratulations to Christian because it's officially, it's been funded. It's over, it's already beat it. So amazing. Of course. Yes. I'm waiting for a Christian to be like knighted, like officially knighted so he could be Sir Christian Ward. Yes. You know, that way, that way we can, you know, welcome back, sir. You know, whenever he comes on the show, welcome back. can do it. Yeah, we could, we could just do it. We could knight him.
He's, he's, he's a knight the oblivion bar. The next time that he comes on the show, we'll just, perform that right before the interview. Yes. Which I'm assuming based on his track record will be next week at some point. Yeah. We'll just like start the studio up to start an episode and he'll just be here already. Just hanging out drawing spectrograph or something. with Ward. We still need to get that, that segment going.
Yes. We're dragging our feet on that one, but that's a billion dollar idea just waiting on the table. But Christian, like I said, it's here on the show. again, talking about many worlds, talking about his his inclusion in the DLC for Alan Wake 2, which was a cool surprise. And you're a big video game fan. Was that what's before we get in this conversation? What's sort of your relationship with Alan Wake? Or were you a fan of it back in the day? Or to be honest, I've actually never played it.
It's one of those horror games that's kind of eluded me. And also it it kind of has its origins at a time where you may not know this, but I've for the long for a long time, I was not a horror fan. And that really Alan Wake kind of started before my horror fan like area kind of start my era of horror started, which I actually had a really good conversation with a new friend recently. And we talked a lot about current like horror films.
And, you know, I think one of the ones they said that I should not watch was I know we're going off in a little bit of a tangent here, but immaculate. we do. Have you seen immaculate of Aaron? Who's my dream crush right now? Of course. It's of Sidney Sweeney, Sidney Sweeney. That's why I was like surprised if you had. But yeah, they were telling me it's pretty horrible, like pretty like graphic and gruesome and brutal and just just a lot going on. The finale is very interesting.
I will say that I think up to that point, it's pretty much you're paint by numbers, pretty average horror film. But the final 10 minutes, I will say, is sort of worth the price of admission, especially if you're wanting to kind of see the range of Sidney Sweeney. Yeah, I will say that kind of on that similar boat. I guess it's we're already on this tangent. And Christian, I hope it's a listing right now. You're enjoying this. I will say the, the good Omen, I'm sorry.
The bad Omen, the bad Omen is a far better version of Immaculate. if you're, if you've seen Immaculate and you're sort of iffy, if you're, temperature is sort of low on that one, go check out the, the bad Omen. I would say it again, the bad Omen, which is a prequel to the Omen. So to round this all back to Alan Wake, that's my, that's my history with Alan Wake is not much I know of Alan Wake. have just had.
I have not played the games, which to be honest, like the fact that Christian is involved with it, much like his work automatically draws me in. Now I just want to go back and play Alan Wake, you know? I've even played Alan Wake one and now I want to play two. Actually, I haven't played two either. And I just got to get the DLC just because it's got his artwork in it. Absolutely. But along with that, he also teases a upcoming collaboration with an old collaborator.
So stick around for that conversation here in just a moment. Real quick, I should have transitioned with this, Aaron, a moment ago. We were talking about horror films. Everyone, if you haven't listened to our previous episode, 163, we were joined by Nick DiDizio from the former FN Nerds to talk about Long Lake. So if you've seen that new neon film, very divisive, Aaron, across audiences and critics. Device. If I've heard nothing but good things about it, critics love it.
Audiences are sort of lukewarm to average on it, I think, which is understandable. If you've seen the film, if you listen to our review, you kind of understand why, Aaron, I'm excited. to eventually have you see that film so I can get your thoughts on it. soon. Yes, I've heard a lot of the things that I've heard from or of it have all been again. I haven't heard anything negative. I haven't heard anything really like like you were saying, like lukewarm or mediocre about it.
I've only heard good things. I've heard people saying that this is one of the scarier movies that's come out in a very long time. And so it only oddly enough that draws me even more. What if I told you Nick Cage is in Yeah, yeah. He's the he's the I guess antagonist. He's long legs. He has the long legs. Mr. Longlegs, Dr. Longlegs in this film. Yeah. So if you're a big fan of Nick Cage, he makes some interesting choices.
Again, I'm not going to spoil any of that because we're here to talk to Christian today. If you want to listen to that conversation and that review with Nick, great, great conversation. Really happy with that episode. Go check that out. It's two hours long to Aaron. I don't know if you saw that. It's a very long episode. it's long legs. Long episode about long legs. So before we get in this conversation with Christian really quick couple administrative notes to go over very quickly.
If you want to support the show, of course, as we always say, Patreon .com forward slash oblivion bar pod for your support. You could have access to the grid, which is our weekly bonus podcast. And I get in front of a mic. We just spew out just word vomit right in front. Just whatever is on the front of our cranium. We give it to the patrons and for better or worse. It's a perk. Aaron is a perk. Is that the correct word for that? It's percolicious. It's percolicious. It's I think PRK. Licious.
I think it's a it's a definitely a perk because you know what? Where else can you go where you just hear here like two best friends like talking about everything like there's like there's really not a lot that's off limits. And that's the other thing. as a Patreon member, depending on the tier that you join, you actually get an opportunity to choose like a topic. was going to say like a theme, like a topic, like a narrative. Like that's your right as a Patreon member. That's right.
You actually get access to these transcripts that we're using right now. And you can get a Patreon nickname at the highest tier. If you want to get a nickname from Aaron and I, we've done that a bunch on the show here recently, which is really fun. And Aaron will give you a special shout out at end of each of episode. He'll do that here in just a bit. It's the best way to support the show. Patreon .com for slash a billion bar pod. Either go there or check our show notes right now.
If you want to support the show for free, five star reviews on Apple podcasts, Spotify. Sorry, I gotta get all the shameless plugs out of here. you get for free, they always say you gotta put the plugs into the beginning because you get, gotta get people while they're still listening. Right. You know, some people skip this part. Everybody just hit the 15 second mark. If you want us here, Christian talk about many worlds and, and Alan Wake, but actually I take that back, Aaron.
We need to talk about something very, we need to change the tone just a little bit for just a quick moment. Not a fun topic, but we have to talk about it. Good friends of the show, sponsors of the show. Aaron's Aaron's taking his glasses off because it's going to get steamy in here. Yeah. Sponsor, longtime sponsor of the show. Omnibus officially shut down earlier last week. Very, very sad news. This was a, mean, truthfully, no, no jokes. All seriousness was a total gut punch.
found out a couple of days before it was officially announced on social media. We are just such huge fans of Omnibus, of Travis, of the app itself. We really believed in it, Aaron. Like when we met Travis and Kenny at that time in San Diego of 2022, was it 22 San Diego 2022? No, it was 23. It was 23. You're right. Because I was in middle of chemo. Yeah. So 23 San Diego 23. We were all in, man. and they were all in on us, which is kind of my transition.
I'm going to pass it off to you so you can kind of say what you want to say about Omnibus. If nothing else, if you didn't fully believe in the app like you and I did, the fact that they believe in us enough, a lot of the cool things that have happened in the show over the last year are in a direct through line from Omnibus and their support. Even things coming. Yeah. And upcoming things, which we'll sort of tease here in a bit because here in about two weeks, we're going to take some time off.
And when we come A lot of things that we have sort of in the works or things that will be premiering in the fall when we come back will be in direct correlation with omnibus. So Aaron, I'm going to pass it off to you. What are your thoughts? were your sort of going through your head when Travis shot us that text and told us that omnibus was going away? When I read all of that, because I tend to come into the conversations a little bit later. I don't like to be on my phone.
Not saying that you do or anybody else does, but I don't. I tend put my phone down when I'm driving and I, you know, and I pick it up and I'll look through texts and things. And I saw that. And honestly, I read through the conversation as it was happening and it was just heartbreaking, you know, and kind of to echo what you said, it's, is exactly like that. When you have a show like we do and you find like, it's just, it's us too. This is us. This is our team. This is what we do.
And when we met Kenny and Travis, you know, when I first met them and, know, and met the Omnibus app team was and who they were. It was almost like a mirror image, know, kindred spirits immediately. It was kindred spirits and we got along. We hung out, you know, and it just became like this, this, what would you call it? Like a, like a, was very easy, like symbiotic. was very symbiotic.
know, we absolutely to, again, to echo what you said, we absolutely believed in what they were making, what they made, you know, cause yeah, things. Things are apps are are almost organisms these days. They're constantly changing, growing and becoming better. We loved what they were creating and it's such it's it is a downer because, you know, business is the way it is. And sometimes things just don't succeed despite being an amazing product.
There are some amazing things that you, especially in this industry of comic reading, you'll read a great book and then it'll just fizzle out for any number of reasons. So it just, was, it was heartbreaking to read that. And, know, obviously we wish everybody over at Omnibus all the luck in the world with whatever their future endeavors are, you know, this Omnibus will, will always hold a special place in our heart as our favorite comic reader.
And we hope, I don't know, that's, that's really all I can say is, you know, I don't think anything else will come close to what they created and, and, it sucks. to sort of build off what you were saying there, the comic industry desperately needs an alternative. reader, digital reader, digital shop and omnibus was, I mean, in my opinion, perfecting it to a certain degree. And comixology is bullshit. Everybody. I'll be honest with you.
Comicology could come to us tomorrow and say, we want to support the building bar pod. We want sponsors of building bar podcast. I would say no, because I don't like their product. And we've always said that we will never ever showcase or partner with anything, any, any brands or any products that we don't wholeheartedly love and use ourselves. And comisology is not Omnibus was that and it's a bummer.
If you have the Omnibus app and you've been using it a lot recently, you can go and download all the PDFs and sort of a lump sum. I've already done that. I think Dark Horse, weirdly enough, which is one of our favorite publishers does not allow you to download all of your backup PDFs, which is kind of a bummer.
But for the most part, almost everything that you've bought on Omnibus is immediately able to, you're able to download it and just transfer it to whatever reader you're to be using going forward. There's really no easy way to transition from this. There's no easy way to summarize. much Omnibus meant to us, how much our friendship from Kenny and Travis both, but specifically Travis in this situation because he believed in us. We were going to sign another year, We signed another year.
I'm fully okay letting the listener know right now that we were ready to go for another year. And it just so happened that the month that we signed another year, this happened. So it's a I want to give a specific shout out again to Travis for giving us a specific shout out. If you actually go to omnibus .app, he, you know, highlights the publishers. He highlights the tech, creators that put all the work out there, us, Brad and Lisa over the common book couples counseling.
of course, all, all the publishers that are the sorry, all the marketing managers that he worked with and his team. So forever on omnibus. And I'm very excited to see what Travis does next. I'll just say that. sending big hearts out to all the omnibus team and Travis. man, it was a beautiful ride. And if you have a good digital reader, shoot us a tweet, an email. I don't even know. I have no idea. I don't even know where to go next. I should know, but I don't.
think global comics or something is an option. I don't know. Anyway, on to better news. next week, actually the week that you're listening to this conversation, I will be in San Diego Comic -Con. Wednesday through Sunday. If you happen to stop by the Comic Sketch Art booth and Artisdali, think we have like close to 20 creators there for that week. Please stop me. I'll probably be losing my mind, Aaron. I think I have like, I actually have my list of whatnot shows here.
Jim's, I'm just gonna name off a couple here. Jim's is one of the creators I'll be talking to. Let's see here. Mitch Garrett's, Jason Aaron, Joel Jones. I've got Mark Brooks, the entire Radiant Black team. We've got Gary Dugan. We've got Tom Taylor, Brutal Rendondo. We've got, I mean, just so many here. Mirka and Dolpho, Erin, you love Mirka. Let's see here. Tom King and Mitch Garrett's together. Sweeney Boo, Rose Besh, so many creators.
have the ultimate pleasure of sitting down with and talking to you with the Comic Sketch Art team, excuse me, on whatnot. So go check that out. Follow them over on Comic Sketch Art on whatnot to see me lose my mind slash talk to a bunch of creators and try not to sweat and bubble over my words. So that'll be fun. If you happen to see me, please say hi. Enough of all that, Aaron. Are you ready to finally introduce and bring back our good friend Christian Ward on for the fifth time? Who?
Just some English guy we found at a comic, you know, at a con. Randomly walking around a convention. Just hawking Batman in the city of madness to folks. I've got this idea. It's Batman the Cthulhu. What do you think? Yeah. All right, everybody. Well, let's go ahead and get this conversation with Christian Ward. Before we that though, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right Hey everybody, our sponsor for today's episode is G Fuel, the official energy drink of eSports.
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GFuel, performance energized. And now, this week's special guest. Joining us this week on the show is the three times Eisner winning comic book creator behind titles like Aquaman Andromeda Odyssey Invisible Kingdom Black Bolt Bloodstained Teeth Batman City of Madness and Spectrograph. This is also his fifth one two three four fifth time on the show continuing to build his lead as the most visited guest in oblivion bar history.
It is our honor to welcome Christian Ward back onto the Oblivion Bar podcast. Thank you. yeah. Come on. I'm only here to obliterate. That's right. You're you have a two visit lead. Yeah. He might have his HBO Green Lantern. I mean, that's great. Sure. Fine. All right. OK, sure. But he's not been on this podcast five times. So who's the winner now? mean, truthfully, it is you. And I think you'll continue to build that lead.
And I got to say really quickly, I have no idea what that cadence was at the beginning, but I kind of like it. I kind of like where it was like a prolonged, like sort of Ric Flair pause in between every Aquaman andromeda, Odyssey, Invisible Kingdom. Like it was, it built up a lot of tension. was, I was in for it. Thank you. told you I've been practicing. Aaron doesn't know how to respond. He thinks I'm being facetious, but I'm being serious. I do. But no, seriously, I've been practicing.
I have been. I've been doing some community management and engagement and it's really helped my cadence and my presentation skills. It's been really fun. We're all nervous here. can tell. We have the butterflies and we have to sort of do an icebreaker, I think. So we're going to premiere a brand new segment here on the Oblivion Bar. We're going to call Quick Hitters with Christian. This will be a wrap around of random, a bunch of random questions that you have to answer in under 30 seconds.
And if you don't, I will start to boot you off that question with this very British buzzer. Good joke, boy. Are you ready? He had to use Doctor Who. I am. Yeah. Aaron, are you ready? I'm ready. Do you have a, do you have like a ding ding like we're starting? yeah, here we go. Christian, what's the worst piece of advice an editor has ever given you? I haven't had a piece of advice from an editor, but I had a piece of advice from an old college lecturer who said my coloring was terrible.
Screw you, dude. Alright, next. How much do you remember from your 18th birthday? Loads, because I used to be sad and dull and boring. And I think I wore like a waistcoat and had loads of people. I had loads of friends around at my house, but it wasn't like a house party because I had all my family there as well. It was excruciating bad. What was the last movie to make you cry? All the strangers. Is that the name of this? Yeah, all the strangers. Very good.
I think it was once since then, but I can't recall. But that's the one I can remember. Okay. I never heard of that one. Okay. it's good. Three comic creators you want to work with still?
None. Me me and me I mean I'm being facetious there's lots of you know there's lots of people that I probably maybe want to work with but I know I quite like doing stuff myself I like to do stuff with more artists I like to write with more artists, four more artists that's my next thing It's going well, like this. good. You're pretty good. I just wanted to use the buzzer at that point. You were well under 30 seconds. I just wanted to use it. Okay. Fuck, marry, kill.
Pulp Fiction, Interstellar, and Ex Machina. How do I know? Kill the one I don't want anymore? Correct. the one gone? Yep. Shit. That's difficult. Yeah. I mean, I would say kill, and this is gonna, I would say kill Pulp Fiction. Oh man. I mean, it's great, but Based on those three, of those three, it's the one I've watched, rewatched, least. And I would probably marry Interstellar and have a bit of hoof -de -shof -dee with my old friend Oscarizer.
Who is your favorite comic book creator at age 25? Frank Quietley. Oh, nice. Good choice. Any particular any particular title? Why that was like there was a one specific one that hang on a minute. Hang on. Maybe I'm just I've got to think about my age. Was he about when I was 25? I don't know. You were 25 like when he 1963. Is that around that time? think I'm 47 now.
I'm 25. I mean, it probably I mean, if it wasn't that if it wasn't Frank Wiley would have been Dagger King would have been those one of those two. OK. Or maybe Joe Mads. But that was probably when I was younger. I'm still going. If you could go back in time and see one band live that isn't around anymore, who would it be and why? do you know what? wouldn't because you've got to stand up, don't you? Do you know what mean? All that standing, waiting for the band to come on.
And that time between the time between when the support act and when the main band, it's excruciating. You just stand there like a lemon. Just like, come on the stage. I don't do gigs anymore. I'm like, no, thank you. But. I know, Bowie. Nice. Nice. Fair. But it'd have to be like a sit down gig. Obviously, like a grown up thing. Intimate. Yeah. Like an unplugged. Repeat the following words after I say them. Gutted. Gutted. Schedule. Schedule. Missle. Missle. Quinoa. Speak. Base. You know what?
What? Base. there it is. Tomato. There's another one. We just want to see which which words you pronounce in a British way instead of American. All of them, darling. Go on. We don't always that dirty, sir. There's two more. Two more. Here we go. Who do you think is a better kisser? Etrkin the demon or Ben Grin's the thing? Elaborate on your answer. It's got to be the demon, isn't it? It's got to be because he can like, he's got more, his lips are soft. Yeah, he rhymes a lot too.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know whether that comes into it. It might lure you in more. Yeah. But yeah, you wouldn't, mean, I'm sure Ben's lovely. He seems like a lovely chap, but I just can't say. Hug, maybe a good hugger. I don't know. Are those stones warm? I feel like he looks like a warm guy. I think he'd be warm. He's getting married. He got married, right? Yeah. least the Masters. Yeah. I might be changing my mind. I think I'm going grim. I like it. Ben, all up in that ass. you've gone too far.
right. Settle down. Settle down. All right. Best modern comic you've read recently. I mean, this isn't a plug now because by the time this comes out, it'll have gone out. But I read Nice House by the Sea today. I got a PDF of Nice House by the Sea. and it's phenomenal.
but like, but I would say from a complete package, Hands by the Lake is probably, regardless of whether I'm working with James or not at the moment, taking that out of the equation, I think Nice Hands by the Lake is probably my favorite modern comic. That ties with Something Beneath the Trees. But those two are, I would say, the biggest amazing modern comics at the moment. Good choices. Also all good friends of the podcast, Patrick Horvath, James Tynan the fourth. So good answers.
What did you think of our brand new segment, Quick Hitters with Christian? Exhausted, but it was fun. Like all good exhausted things. Like the old school show quiz show. Yeah. Yeah. Well, now that we're all comfortable, let's talk about the stuff you're really here for, which you've had a lot of cool things recently announced since the last time you were on the show, which as we had just mentioned, was only back in April when you were here with James Tynan talking about Spectrograph.
Most notably of those things that were announced, it was your art book, your art book collection, excuse me, Mini Worlds that you were crowdfunding through Zoop. tell us a little bit about the process of working with Zoop and - Worlds. Mini Worlds, Mini, Mini. -I -N -I. Many Worlds. Many Worlds. Many. Many. Like like many worlds like many like like like very mannish. Many men. Got it. OK. All Tell us about the process and what it was like designing the book.
So Jordan from Zupes, like the head honcho over there. He came by my table at New York Comic Con last year. That's where I met him. Yeah. Lovely guy. Introduce himself and. And basically just said, there anything that you would want to be doing at Zoop? I was very familiar with them because as you guys might be able to see, I've got the Winter Soldiers Art Collection behind me and I was really impressed by the quality of that book and how it was put together, et cetera.
And so I was quite open to the idea of doing something. I've always liked the idea of crowdfunding, but it You know, I juggle so many projects all the time that I had to be really... And obviously, I've been a young family. just was like, realistically, was... I'm just not going be able to do a crowdfunding because, I could probably run the campaign, but I don't know where I would put the books. I don't have the time to... That's of like fulfillment.
And so really, the idea that there would be a crowdfunding company purely for comics that do the lion's share of the work for you in the same way that I published it as the lion's share of work. And it felt like a really good partnership in that regard that I was really open to maybe doing something. It was just like, what would I do? And as we were having a discussion, I had one of my art books there. Every few years I'd do an art book for a convention and they always sell out.
They always do really well. And I'm often asked about volumes one and two that have long gone. And I thought, this might be the perfect opportunity because the vast majority of these art books are personal work. They're not published work. might have a selection of kind of some covers and stuff that they cover. It's over the year. But a lot of it is unpublished stuff, personal pieces, more kind of art pieces.
And so really it was a perfect vehicle to do it as a crowdfunder to sort of put all that together. and do it in a bigger format. And so for all these fans that have asked over the years, I republish them? It was a way of republishing those, but without kind of stealing the uniqueness of that particular thing if you happen to buy it, you've still got something unique that you bought back in the day.
And this would be a completely different package that would stand alongside it, but be really cool for kind of like. the fans that I've picked up over the last 15 years. So that was basically the idea behind it. Yeah. And then the campaign went live. When this is, this goes out, the campaign will have been live for probably around a week or so now. you know, hopefully it will be doing really well. It's not a recreation.
Like you said, it's maintaining that uniqueness of those original creations while still kind of incorporating what's, you know, what's been put out before for the newer audiences. And so I like that. Yeah, because I think kind of you always want to, you know, the fans that have like, you know, the fans who are there. mean, the first one I've got, I've got a copy of it here now. Like this first one, this was published in 2016.
This was my first art book and there's stuff in here that is not getting reprinted. Not a huge amount, but there's definitely, I would say about 20 % of this won't be in the new book. What was the decision in that? That was my decision. that, so anyone that's got this, you know, anyone that didn't get it will still get the lion's share of what they might missed out on.
But anyone that did get it, they can still go back to this and go, you know, and it might be that one of those 20 % pieces will be their favorite pieces. You know, it'll be like, oh, I love that one. And I've got that one. So it was just about making sure that, you know, it's like doing, you know, for instance, you know, if you're going to do a And you know, when I sold these, I sold them a hundred, there's a little number, eight hundred copies. There's only a hundred copies.
And so it was important to me that retains a kind of sense of limited edition. But then the new book, it's going to be in a different format. It's going to be hard, hard cover. It's going to be a, you know, much bigger size. It's going to be like a standard kind of like comic, hard book, comic book size.
It'll be a complete, like it's far more like retrospective of the the fast past 15 years and there's going to be stuff that's that's going to be in art you know the volumes one to three of the art books but there's also stuff that's not in any of those books that will only be in this this collection so it you know i think it's going to be quite a special collection what i find really interesting is that the covers of all of your art books including many worlds has this spaceman can you talk
a little bit about the significance of the spaceman and why that Many worlds. Many worlds. Many, many, -I -N -I worlds. Many worlds. The Spaceman. Yeah, it's a continuing motif that I've used many times. Many. All right, Guy, that was the many. I'll tell you where the first Spaceman came from. Because it was born from a collaboration with a good friend of mine called Jeremy Radway. who, when I used to live in London, he was a musician going by the name of Player Piano.
You can find his stuff on Spotify. And you'll know you found the right one because you will see the Spaceman. I loved his music. I was really into, kind of more than comics at that time, I was into live music. Now I'm like, I can't be dealing with that. As your question already - Couldn't even name a live band that you would want to see. I know, I know. And so I was a big fan of Jeremy's and loved his music, loved him as a person and did him some artwork for his first album.
His EP, then his album. And he had this one song called Radio Love and it was all, it just basically, his stuff has got like almost like, it doesn't really sound prog -rock -y, but it's got that kind of, feels very much like their stories going on in the lyrics. And even though the story wasn't this, it kind of felt like this, that it was about this spaceman going to the end of the worlds looking for radio signals because he was looking for a radio station.
That's kind of how I perceived the song and the album. And so I created the image of the spaceman with the antenna in the center and this kind of psychedelic kind of thing spread now based on my friend Jeremy's song called Radio Love. It was one of those images that the minute I did it, I just knew it was something very special. And out of every image I've ever produced or piece of art or print, it is the thing that's resonated with more people. I've sold more prints of that than anything.
I mean, at this point, probably close to a thousand prints of that one image and nothing even close to that. And over my other stuff. So it was really just, just every time I kind of did another space man, was, you know, partly maybe cynically trying to recapture that magic, but also just playing in the same field, you what mean?
And just, that's the sort of stuff I like, that kind of like, looks slightly kind of cosmo, you know, like a cosmonaut and looks slightly retro, but it's also kind of like, quite psychedelic and quite cosmic. And then, you know, you guys know from my comics, that's my... That's my bag. And so it became a kind of series and I've done this, this, this four of them now, four kind of spacemen helmet type things. And they will all be in this book.
But yeah, I think I always stick with it because it kind of came from a place, cause I did it for my mate. mean, I didn't charge him anything. It was because he needed a cool piece of artwork and I did it and my cool piece of artwork. It's nice. It's a, I feel it's almost like, no, I don't believe in kind spiritual stuff. But it is nice to feel like the thing that's rewarded me the most is something that I made with love.
is so much like your style and what I sort of I automatically attached to you when I see your work that spaceman is very Christian Ward. Like if you had sort of an icon around your body of work and you've done so much right like the variant covers that you've done the series that you've worked on everything that you've done very much that that spaceman. is very much sort of like your avatar in a way. yeah. It's my convention banner.
For many years, it's been my little, I mean, it's not in the moment, it's the thing that's been my little social media icon more than any other image. It's just, weird. It's, know, but like I'm really happy with it. just one of those, it's a weird kind of thing when you do an art that you kind of, you just have to kind of let yourself be opened up to it, but it was just one of those. one in a million images that just happened and it happened really perfectly, it happened really quickly.
It was just, know, everything came together really nicely. So speaking of, again, the Spaceman, Zoop, Mini Worlds, let's talk about the Kickstarter itself. Can you tease any of the tiers, like rewards that fans might have access to when the campaign does start? No, I'm not. I'm just getting started. When this goes live, it'll be people, you'll be able to... Put a link in the thing that people can see. I'll show you this. I raided my vault of drawings.
So there's going to be one thing you'll be able to grab. Some of it's like 20 years old now. Some of these drawings. there's some real... Long before I was doing comic book stuff, I was doing illustrations and fashion illustrations and things like that. and just doing stuff for fun. And that's what this art book is.
It's, you know, a lot of it is just artwork that I used to do just for fun and like finding my feet and finding my voice as an artist, you know, and that's very much what the story of this book is. It's me finding my voice as an artist. And so in regards to kind of like the kind of tears that people will be able to, you'll be able to, I mean, look at this one. This one's 2007, this one was done. But you can see I love my comics. Look at the graffiti. I've got a little cool watches.
The watch man. Cause even then, even then, mean, it's this, this, this predates me being a comic book artist by quite a bit. was a freshman in high school in 2007, not to make you sound old. There's lots of little things like this. And this is really cool. I mean, I get a kick out stuff like this. like the drawings like this and obviously it's fun working on a podcast, but you you flip it and there's other things on the other side of the drawing.
And what I would do is I would scan both sides of the drawing and then I'd be able to manipulate both parts separately. You know, I mean, this may, this stuff may have gone by the time this goes live, but you know, they'll all be these drawings. I've got another big box down there and I promised Jordan that if they go really quickly, I'll go back to the box and dig out some more, but there's going to be prints. You know, I'm a big, I love.
both as a consumer myself, but also as, you I like putting prints out as an artist who's pretty much solely digital now. I like prints as a way of kind of people to be able to enjoy my artwork. And so there'll be a line of prints that will go with the book and there's gonna be a signed book plate that will go in. You can also pay to get that remarked so I can do a drawing in the book There's going to be a whole range.
There's going to be a way of kind of like, think we're going to do a digital PDF. So if you don't want to spend too much, you can spend just a small proportion of what the final price would have been and get a digital version of the art book. If you just want to see the artwork, you can have it digitally. So I think it's going to be a really good campaign. I mean, here's the thing. I'm doing this I want to make a load of money. You know, as far as I'm concerned, you I'm working on spectrograph.
I've got my other projects coming up and that's my day job. In the same way that when I take an art book to a convention, the purpose of that art book is not about me making a load of money at the convention because actually because of the cost of the art books, they don't make me a huge amount of money. I do them because I know that fans like them. And I think it's important when you do a convention, it's about you kind of giving a bit of yourself back to your fans as a thank you.
The fans kind of support you and the reason why your career or my career has lasted as long as it has is because I've got a good fan base and people like my work. And so doing the art books at the conventions is a kind thank you to that. And this ZOOP thing is again, it's about connecting with the fans. saying, is this something you want? And if it is something you want, people can bid on it. If it's not anything they want, they don't have to.
It's not like kind of, you know, it's not a thing that exists that I have to go out and punt. It's a thing that can exist if people want it. You know, I think that's quite special and feels quite nice and, you know, genuine, like a nice thing, hopefully. And, you know, that's why I'm doing it.
think art books are like the perfect way to champion an artist or just a creator in general that you really I know when I go to conventions, I'm often looking for, like you said, like a print, prints are like sort of the easy impulse buy, you know, at comic conventions, but the art book, if I really love a creator and if you were to see the bookcase behind me here on the bottom shelf, it's just a full shelf of art books that I have from different creators over many conventions.
I mean, genuinely, not only as, you know, a fan of yours and a friend, I'm very excited for many worlds. Like it's something that I only have, I think I have volume three of your art book and I need to figure out a way to get the other two since you won't have everything included in many worlds. But I will say that many worlds is going to be one of those display pieces that I, when I have people over and I'm sort of discussing your work in some way, I can go, Hey, many worlds.
Can we go real quick? Actually, while I'm thinking about it, can I get many, can I get a mini version of many worlds, many, many worlds? Mini worlds? Like a pocket edition. That would be a good little mini mini mini worlds. Yeah, that would be good. Yeah. You guys were laughing a moment ago. What the hell was so funny when I was boasting you up? I was trying to buy you up there and you were both laughing. Why was that?
No, no, no. Because we're children and he can't stop doing he can't stop doing the mini worlds thing. Every time you say it, it goes back to that first conversation. He's like, you can see what he's giggling right now. He giggles. I giggle. I'm over here like Christian, I love your work. I'm a huge fan and you guys are laughing because I don't take myself seriously and that's why everyone likes me. Well, speaking of many worlds, you got Sam Lake.
It's also been recently announced that you've been secretly secretly working on three episode Night Springs DLC for Alan Wake 2 that actually premiered recently, June 8th. How in the world did that happen? Isn't that cool? Isn't that cool? It's really cool. Do you know what? like it so like, like my life is so remarkable. And sometimes I just have to pinch myself that some things happen to me because I don't like look them out.
They just these strange things, strange, wonderful things happen and work with Sam. That's been one of them. So like, I mean, basically, I'll give you some backstory. I'm not a huge video gamer, partly because I don't have the time, but I love video games. And the one thing I really like about video games is I really love the story elements. Games that kind of have like a cool story.
To me, I find that really fascinating because it's a strange in between of like the storytelling of comics, the storytelling of films, but something else because it's, you know, it's a nonlinear story. You are playing a story. I really love that. And so some of the games I really like are by Remedy, which were... you know, either directed or written by Sam Lake.
I can't remember if I followed him first or if he followed me, but we've been following each other on like social medias, the social medias, you know, a couple of years now. And just, you know, every now and again, just like kind of sliding into a DM and just being like, that's cool and blah, And the thing that I really love about Sam is that he's a real consumer of story. He loves film. and he loves comics, like he really loves comics.
And I think that's one of the reasons why he kind of like follows me. And I'm certainly not the only comic, but greater than he follows. But we kind of hit it off from me, we chat as you find with friendship, it kind of like starts off small and then kind of becomes more than what it was. And you talk about all sorts of stuff. That's what it kind of was like with me Sam.
And when I did Batman City of Madness, I was sending him PDFs and he was very kind and kind of like give me good pull quotes and talk about it publicly on his Twitter. And Alan Wake 2 came out. was like, this is amazing, mate. So then we have a lot of the same kind of sensibilities in story. Like we both like kind of quite meta stuff. We both like kind of cosmic horror. A lot of these games play with kind of cosmic horror and that kind of like strange clashing of aesthetics between old and new.
A lot of this stuff does that. And we just hit it off. And then he just sent me this email. This was about four months ago now. And was just like, do you want to work on Animate 2? We've got a DLC coming out. And do you want to do it? Do you want to work on a sequence in the game? And it was like, was the, you know, and at the point I was already working on Spectrograph. you know, it was really tough time -wise, but it was just one of those projects that you would just.
It's not about saying no, it's about saying yes and then finding out and working out how you're going to make that happen. Which turned out to be a lot of late nights and a lot of weekends, which I don't normally work on. I'm very kind of like making sure I have family time. But this was just, it was just too good to pass up. And then for about three months, it was a case of jumping on Zoom calls with Sam and the rest of the team at Remedy.
and worked with a really good video game director, Anansi, who basically helped. We basically had a Sam script and I would take that, I had to take that script because unlike kind of like a comic book script, it didn't read like a comic book. I had to kind of design without Anansi's help and how that would flow as a comic and how it would appear on the screen. Where was the character, the player interaction with that? It was great.
It was the whole, it was comics, but it was like a whole other level. And anyone that's, you know, if you've played it, it's also kind of like, has this kind of like almost like motion comic quality. So all the characters were on a different layer to the background and it was all animated and put to music. And then the actors, then like speaking the lines. was all like, you you had these actors. lines coming out of the characters' It was brilliant. was so much fun.
It was just such different way that video game people work. I found it really fascinating. Me and Sam went for breakfast and we were talking about this one day when he came to the UK. There were similarities in how you work in comics with people and also differences. was interesting see where the overlaps were. industry to industry. It was just really good fun. It was really good fun. It was a lot of work and very tiring, very stressful.
But it was also amazing to not be able to say anything about it. And then the day that I could say something about it, it was out. was no wait to see what it is. was just like the minute I could talk about it, people could pick up the PlayStation 5 and play it. Did you have anyone sort of reach out to you and be like, oh, I saw you were in the trailer for the DLC for Alan It was crazy. I don't do a lot of work for Marvel for no particular reason.
And I got loads of editors who I had worked with and done covers for. They would reach out to me and say, just saw your work in Alan Wake. And I had people I hadn't spoken to for a while going, was that you? And what's nice about it is just that reaffirming idea that you can never smell your own beer, right? You can't see your own style. So the idea that without even seeing credits, people see like a frame of it and go, you know, it's literally that Leonardo DiCaprio gift pointing at the screen.
Do you know what I mean? It's me. And it was, yeah. So it's great. You know, it's great just to have that thing. And it's just another like, you know, one of those moments, you that I'm so fortunate to have. I think, you know, I just love, I love story. You know, I enjoy working with people. I get a real kick out of it. How, how, how do you tell a story in the best way possible and the most emotive way possible?
And it just, to do that, even though was comics, to do that kind of like with one foot in another medium, was an amazing privilege. It's really cool to find yourself being like that recognizable. Amazing. And like it's It's just it's completely accidental really. I mean, it's just like I draw slightly wonk You know, I've got quite a wonky style in a way, you know, it's not like My stuff's not like I don't render like shading going on that.
It's all like quite sketchy and You know just if it works it works, you know, know it does and the other thing that's really cool goes like linking it all back to the art book is Sam's doing me the introduction to the art Which is amazing because the guy's a legend, you know, and he doesn't have to do that. But it's, know, it's nice, you know, but just, you know, it's it's I love connecting with people in different fields, you know, and without kind of, you know, freeing to name drop.
It was the same thing working with Oscar, you know, we, you know, we worked together, you know, it's just like you see these people and you hide, hide, you sort of like see them in such high esteem and just think, wow, they're incredible. But then when you're in a room and you're working together and you're just talking about a story and getting excited about a story, it's just a level playing field. And you realize they're just people. They're just people.
They're just people that are really good at what they do and have got lucky. And it's really nice. I really like that. Yeah. You literally just described our relationship with you. Like when we had you on the show initially, we were a fan of your work. I think you were about to start Aquaman Andromeda. And it just so happened that a relationship, a friendship sort of bloomed out of that.
And it's been, you know, you've been on the show five times about to be six, you know, sometime in the near future, I'm sure. Yeah. So, it's, funny how that works, right? It's so awesome. It's very serendipitous in that way. Like you said, where you meet someone and you just, know, you click and it's fun to sort of explore each other's sort of, you know, I don't think what Aaron and I do here is sort of an industry. but we do something here. This is our way of sort of celebrating the medium.
you know. Well, yeah. And I was going to make stupid jokes, but I'm not going to. Because actually, it's the same thing. It's about connecting with people over a shared love. And you connect with people. Isn't that what life's all about? Do you know what I connecting with people? Every time I put a book out, particularly a book that I write, you All I'm trying to do is connect with people. All I'm trying to do is like, this scares me in life. Does it scare you? This thrills me in life.
Does it thrill you? I love this about life. Do you love it too? That's what every piece of fiction that I do is about. It's about connecting with people and hoping that I'm not alone. know, I don't feel alone, you know, but it's all about not feeling alone and wanting to surround myself with like -minded people. you know, whether they be strangers, readers, fellow creatives, or, you know, all you bozos. That's right.
Well, and you know, I thought it was really cool in the trailer there, we see Lance Reddick for a moment. So, you know, everyone knows he passed away in March of last year. He narrates the beginning of the trailer, which is really cool. And I'm assuming he's probably in the DLC somewhere. I mean, I haven't played it yet, but I think so.
Well, speaking of connecting with people, One thing that we wanted just to kind of quickly comment on is like, how did you connect with Patrick Reynolds for this new Brave and the Bold? yeah. So they're at all, all out in the wild now. you know what? That's a great story. So I haven't told this publicly yet. So I'll tell you guys. Yeah, exclusive. Work with Patrick on, you know, bloodstained teeth. And you guys chatted to him. I don't know if you've been back to him.
like, but Patrick is... one of the loveliest people you will ever meet. And he's amazing. But I found working with him completely frustrating for reasons that I would go into. If I had a full head of hair when I started working with Patrick, I would still look like this now.
Because he was like, I've never met anybody has such a little understanding of how good they I mean, it's beautiful and it's lovely and it makes him the beautiful, lovely man that he is, but he has no idea that he's this sleeping giant. Worse still, he doesn't think he's good and he has like crippled himself down.
Anyway, so we met for the first time last year at Thorpe Obel UK Comic Convention and like, know, lovely, lovely man, him and his fiance, Jen, and got to spend quality time with him and really get to know him. Yeah, we became really good friends over blood, stone, And, know, I really, care about the guy.
And I really want him to, you know, I really, whenever I work with somebody, as an artist, as a writer working with an artist, I really want to be able to go, okay, I'm going to help you and put you on the next, you know, if I can help you, if I am in position to help you, I'm going to help you. So that's, I think that's really important.
And it's always about like, know, you don't kick the once you're at the top, you help people, know, lots of artists helped me when I started out, know, Frank Quietly was very kind to me. J .H. Williams was very kind to me. J .H. Williams was the first person that gave my work to Vertigo back in the day. had loads of artists that would help me. So I was like, I'm going to do that. You know, I'm going to like anyone that I work with, you know, I'm going to try and help.
So we hang out in Thought Bubble, have a great time. And then I'm going home on the Monday morning, heading back to Strewsbury where I live. And the weirdest thing, I'm waiting for the train and this idea, this fully formed idea pops into my head. And I call him up and I'm like, okay, I'm about to, I've got an idea for a story. It's a Batman story. And it's about a new villain that infects you with self doubt.
And I said to him, to Patrick, I said, basically what I wanna do is I wanna write a letter, the script is gonna be a letter to you and you're gonna be Batman and it's about me telling you that you're better than you think you are and that by the end of the story, you realize you're Batman and you're full strength. And it's all about dealing with self -doubt. Every artist deals with self -doubt. And I said, look, I know you've got gunslinger for Spawn.
try email the guys that I know at DC and see if they were up for it. And he was like, yeah, sure. So then I emailed the guys that I knew at DC and it was the quickest yes I think I've ever got. Like it was within hours. Within hours it was happening. And then of course he panicked. I was just like, I don't know actually. I'm like, are you kidding me? If you don't do this now, I'm gonna kill you. I've got your Batman story, you're gonna do it. I... And it's amazing. Like he's...
And, you know, he's edited Zungun's Stinger Spawn. I've been really, really, really understanding and I kind of really gave him the time to kind of like juggle the two. And he spent a long time and he's painted a lot of the pages. And it's a real... You know, I love... Blastantium was great. Machine Gun was great. And I think kind of like I think the closest thing I've come to realize what I set out to do would be Batman City of Madness.
But the thing that we've done is a 24 page story and it's so tight, so emotive and so like pure that it could be the favorite thing I've ever done. It's so beautiful and I couldn't be more proud of him. And I think kind of when people read it, they're going to be blown away. Did this change his perspective at all?
I mean, I know we're getting the putting the cart ahead of the horse here, but like, did he have any kind of like response after you like said, like, you know, because obviously you're talking about him having the self doubt. Yeah. And what did he kind of respond with that when it wouldn't like when you approached him with that? he got very emotional and he got it. You know, he understood I was very glad. I mean, in the script, I'm very like Patrick, this is you. We're gonna talk about you here.
But he put his heart and soul into this artwork. His heart and soul. You know, I think we're gonna do a story that's gonna make, that are gonna make people cry. Now this is a Batman story that's gonna make people cry. But they're still punching, they're still swinging for the night, there's still a cool sequence with the Batmobile. know, everything you wanted. And that's the thing, like, kind of like, Patrick's ambition was to draw a Batman story.
You know, so I was just like, I was Who's your bet? What villain did you want to do? What do you, and he was like, I don't want to do this, to that. And I put it all in there for him. But wrapped in this package, and like, know, the idea that he's got to co -create with me a Batman villain that if this villain resonates with people, you know, who knows how long they might just be in this one story, but you've never known of a Batman villain.
You know, they could be just become a thing unto themselves. But yeah, I think kind of, and the response from the DC editors was amazing, which, you know, did him the world of good. think it's, it's really, listen, I can't talk for him. You would have to ask him, but, but based on an outside looking and a friend looking at him, know, he seems to have become, he seems to have turned a corner, which is wonderful. That's incredible.
Yeah. And I think a lot of times what it takes is someone to sort of notice. In this particular scenario, you're absolutely right. Patrick Reynolds is a undiscovered genius in the medium. It's very surprising that it's like us and seven other people that know that Patrick is a bona fide all star in the medium going forward. There's no way that he doesn't have an Eisner in the next near future.
It's so nice to hear that you are sort of, I wouldn't say like coaching, but you're sort of making him recognize his potential. what he's capable of. And sometimes that's all it takes is that is those words of affirmation to sort of boost him up and make sure that he knows how great he is because he is. Yeah, he really is. I think, you know, I think, I think the kind of combination of, of Batman and then doing gun, cause I've seen these gunslinger spawn stuff and it's, it's next level.
So I think he's going to find himself in a very different place this time next year. I think he'll have basically whatever he wants to do. He'll have a, the pick of it. And it better be something with me. You're gonna have a big fall too, because you've got Batman city of madness, hardcover coming out in September. And then of course you've got the brave and the bold. Uh, you know, this issue, as you said, it was 18 with a UN Patrick. So the fall big time for Christian ward. Oh yeah.
And there might even be some big after I can't say. Who would know? Who would even know? Who would know? Who would know? Yeah, I mean, I can't wait. I did the final design approval on the hardcover for Batman. I think it's going to be a nice, handsome kind of thing that people can have and own. We decided in the extras of the book, because again, that was quite a personal book for me and there was a story behind why it existed.
So we put like I wrote this little thing up, so talking about what Arkham Asylum meant to me and what Batman means to me and why I wanted to do the book. you I think it's going to end up being quite a nice little package that will have some emotional resonance to it. So I'm excited for that to be in people's hands. I've been wanting to have this hardcover for since, you know, since reading that first issue up and I'm excited. you, Anne. Thank you. It's going to be, it's gorgeous.
It's going to be cool. Gorgeous, man, gorgeous. Well, let's end this conversation by talking about Spectrograph. At the end of this, because we got to get back to that. We got to get back to Ghost Guts and all of these amazing characters. At the time of this recording, issue two was just released last week, June 19th. If you're missing out on this, you're dumb. All right. Go out to your local comic shop and pick up every issue that you can find. You're dumb. You're dumb.
Last time we had you on, you and James both did a great job explaining the premise while also staying relatively tight lipped about specific details. Let's get specific this time since it's out. Going to the halfway point of the story, what elements of this process of working with James and Distillery have challenged you the most? mean, I think the thing that I found most challenging, and I use the term challenging in positive sense.
mean, whenever I do a project, it's, you know, why am I doing this? What's different about this project to some of what done before? And what's going to stop me from getting bored basically, you know, keep me flexing my muscles. And so really it was about how am going to do something even though there's a kind of psychedelic quality to it, it's very earthbound.
It's very reality bound and actually because of James and the way that he writes, 75 % of it is about the physicality and the kind of people relating to each other, very much kitchen sink real life. The biggest horror in the book is a baby that's been left at home. It's nothing to do with the kind of like the cosmic entrails of some creature.
the challenge has been, you know, really pushing myself to go, okay, what does my, you know, and I looked at lots of Michael Mann films, because I wanted this to feel quite cinematic rather than the comic booky. You know, what does my Michael Mann comic look like? You know, what does a grounded Christian Ward book look like? You know, and James, you know, James does this thing in his scripts. where his characters feel really real and his conversations in those characters again feels really real.
They're like real conversations. It's like he's heard them and, you know, put them on the page. They feel completely genuine and completely true to whoever's speaking them. And he often, he very rarely will put one person talking or two people talking in one panel. Very much like cut, cut, cut cinematic.
So it was about, how do I translate that cinematic cut within a comic page and bring a different design sense, storytelling sense to that without relying on some of the sort of like special effects of my previous books, you know, the colors and everything else. You know, not to there isn't colors in there, but it's a lot more, for the most part, either realistic or muted. And that's been really fun to do that.
Like I'm working on issue three at the moment and there's a sequence, it's not too much of a spoiler, where they kind of go underneath the house and they're in these tunnels. And James sort of says, you know, they can't see much. And so it's like each panel is like a little, almost we're looking for like a little keyhole because they've just got like this little light that's just lighting up parts of them. And it's just fun, just, okay, I'm gonna do something different, try something different.
and kind of trying to be cinematic and trying to kind of reference films that me and James like and that have influenced this book and the story. So yeah, I think that. I mean, deadlines of, you're working on a 46 page book and the pages are 50 % bigger than a normal comic book page, you know, and there's a lot of work there. That's tough just to keep that, you know, real talk, just to kind of keep. Keep that up.
You work with somebody like James and you bring your eye game, you're up your level because you wanna match them. You don't wanna be the, you don't wanna be, I James works with some amazing artists, Martin Alvaro. I don't wanna be the weak link. Do you know what I mean? So it's like, you wanna match what they're doing and do the story that he's giving you credit. And do you feel that James has matched you? Has he brought his A game to match your art? It's hard, right?
Like I said, I really love my favorite thing that the James has done is probably nice house on the lake. I think it's phenomenal. And I'm sick with this in the same way and read it. It's far more. take it apart, you know, far more kind of like forensic quiver. Like I do the way I read a script is I will zip through a script really quickly, like really quick. Read it all the way through. And then as I'm drawing I will have the page that I'm drawing the script open and I'll keep reading the page.
So I'll read that script page over and over and over as I'm drawing it. I'll read what the characters are saying over and over. Make sure I'm in the scene. Make sure I know what's happening. What happened before? What's going to happen afterwards? So I'm really reading it on a very intense way. So there's not a lot of enjoyment there because I'm just, really in it. So it's hard for me to say that, you know, that this I mean, it's certainly as good as anything he's done.
And the one thing I can say is I checked on comic book roundup today and it's the highest rated thing. It's like 97. And I think Nice House on the Lake was 94. No, Nice House on the Lake has got a lot more issues and I'm, you know, we may drop down by the time we've done the four issues, but it's very gratifying to see that the thing that we're doing together is at least as good as Nice House on the viewed by some people. I think it's great. I love it.
That was my roundabout way, by the way, of saying that you are a great artist and that he had to bring his A -game to meet you. You. You shucks. I think one of the true hallmarks of your career and your style is the panel layout. One of the most interesting panel layout strategies of any creator that I am aware of. And I think just looking through spectrograph issue two, and then you can see an issue one as well, is just the insanity that is, you know, the panels.
And I'm curious between you and James, what's the shorthand in terms of his scripts and how you sort of determine how to lay out each page? Because I would imagine, I don't know this for a fact. I'm curious of your thoughts on it, but I would imagine that he doesn't really give you a ton of direction. He kind of just lets you go crazy with the panel layout. Yeah, completely.
He's pretty like I mean, so basically a script from James would be something like, you know, let's, you know, he's laying out a scene between Jen and, and, and, and had names go out my head, but Vespa. So he's laying out a scene between Jen and Vespa. it's, it's, again, it's quite semantic. So he's kind of doing the stage directions.
So Jen will do this and then, you know, and Vesper will do this and then, but what's really important and what I really love is he'll talk about the emotional state of them. So he'll be like, you know, Vesper's upset, but she's trying to hide it. You know, he tells me what's going on internally. And that plays a big part into your storytelling. So what do I want the reader, what do we want the reader to feel in this situation?
And Pagelio, is a really good way of kind of like influencing what the reader's feeling. know, do you feel claustrophobic? Do you feel a little bit lost? Do you feel, you know, what are you feeling? like the page with, when we see the baby crying, the full panel page, like I don't know why, but I felt like it needed to be cut up to me. like it was broken up, like it was in a cage, the baby was in a cage and couldn't get out. So there's lots of little subtle things you can do with storytelling.
But yeah, James is like, you know, he's brilliant. He just, he gives me the story. He tells me emotionally what's happening with the characters. He tells me where all the characters are in any one scene, what they're physically doing. And then it's up to me how I portrayed that and how I direct it and how I lay that out. You know, it's brilliant. Yeah, that's awesome. You know, honestly, I think that'll probably that'll do all the time that we have here with you, Christian.
We told you that we wanted to have you on for, you know, 35, 40 minutes and here we are almost double that now. Who would have thought that, of course, when we get you on here, we want to keep you longer than we asked. So exactly. know, per usual, you know, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you here on the show. We will link, like you said earlier, the Zoop campaign for many worlds or many, many worlds. in the link in the show notes.
So many, well, this right now, if you're listening to this right now, go to the show notes and you will have the link for that campaign. and, you can get notified when it goes live. I think at this point it will already be live, which is incredible. and Aaron and will already have, put in our donation or not. Our, our, our funds to get that at some point, our support of this amazing man. That's right. Per usual.
Can't wait to have you back for a six time in the near future for literally any reason at could be around, I don't know, December time. Who knows? Or just another quick hits with Christian, another session of quick. Yeah. Just get me back on every week, every week to do one of those. He'll never catch. He will never catch me. And you know, when I say who, we want you to say who though. Tom King throw that gauntlet down plays for Tom King.
have Tom on the show next He's going to, he's going to come out for sure. He'll be crying into his HBO green lantern money. Wipe his tears of money. All right. Well, Christian, before we let you go, is there anything you want to highlight? Any, what cons are you going to this year? Is there anything you want to say before we head out here? I don't know it will be announced, but maybe you'll see me in New York. I don't know.
Aaron, do have anything want to say before we head No, I just again, Christian as always, thank you for being here. It's a pleasure to talk with you. you being a friend. Thank you for being a golden girl. But it's a love hate thing when you're on the show because ever since I want to say it was like three times, three like, you know, appearances ago, you've pulled out this poison Ivy, you know, poster behind you print and it's it's it's taunting me. This is G Clay, think, isn't it?
This is G Clay. It's taunting me. I can see you on. yeah. There we go. See, that's all I ever wanted. A little hookup. right, Chris. Well, thank you so much. We appreciate it. We will see you next time. We'll see you at New York Comic Con and we'll see you again whenever is the next time that you're on the show. All righty. There's that conversation with Christian Ward. Always a pleasure to talk to our good friend, Christian.
He is again, as we said at the beginning of show, one of our best friends in the industry. We've gotten breakfast with breakfast with him and say in New York. What, what did you think of Quick Hitters with Christian? Were you a fan of that new segment? I was. I'm, it's just funny because he has like the same like stupid kid. like the dumb boy humor that we have.
Like even though, know, it's like the, you're like, the British are like more, you know, more intelligent, more mature and we're just all being a bunch of dumb dudes. know? Yeah. It's so fun to just bro out with Christian here on the segments, bro -ing out with Christian. Yeah, that's I'm excited to see him in New York later this year. October will be, think, his only con the entire year. and I have sort of played.
We actually introduced the idea of maybe going to Thought Bubble in November, question mark. We'll see. If we do, we'll definitely see Christian there. But I know definitely I'll speak for Aaron here. Very excited for New York in the fall. Always, always a pleasure to have Christian here on the show. He will be back, everybody. Surprise, surprise. I'm sure at some point down the road in the near future, as we said, maybe next week.
Uh, actually, no, he won't be back next week because there's someone very special that we'll be introducing here in just a moment. uh, thank you again to Christian for being on the oblivion bar podcast. Always, always just a wonderful time. He'll be back soon. Cause he's that man does not stop working.
Not only does he not stop coming onto the oblivion bar, but he also doesn't stop just hating, just putting out bangers, just bangers, bangers, bangers next week on the show, Aaron, this is a big deal for a couple of reasons for episode one 65 of the oblivion bar podcast. I had the ultimate pleasure. sitting down with my favorite comic writer. I wouldn't say favorite comic writer, favorite writer, just overall, one of my favorite creators in the world of comics.
You've known him as the writer of pride of Baghdad, paper girls, ex machina, why the last man lost season two and three. Yup. Yup. Yup. Yup. Yup. And saga saga. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brian K. Vaughn for an hour long. And I told him, said 30 minutes, Brian, it's all I need. I just want to, I just want to introduce our listeners to The return of saga at the end of July with issue 67 comes out the last Wednesday of July.
he, he and I, Aaron, when I tell you, I'm so proud of this conversation. It is, um, it's special. think the only thing that would have made it better is if you were there, but I will say, think folks are really, really going to enjoy this conversation. I'm so happy that you got this opportunity because you have been like gushing and also like even before that, like working your ass off to get in. I'm every favor that I had. Yeah, calling in every favor to make it happen.
I'm just, I'm happy for you. Like I told you so many times, like I'm so happy that you got this opportunity. Cause you know, it's, I think that's what's kind of truly unique about this medium is that we've, especially you and I, we've got to talk to some of our absolute favorite creators on the planet. And it's just been like a wild ride thus far, you know? And I'm just, I was just happy. Like I was just, know, please does punch. that you got to speak to him. To your credit.
You were like immediate, like, please like do it by yourself. Yeah. And this is big deal for you because he is a, he's a bucket list creator. Like I think Aaron, I'd love to hear your kind of thoughts on this really quick. If you can think off the of your head really, really quickly, but it's like for me, it'd be like Brian K von Jim Lee, James gun, Chris Evans. I'm trying to think of someone else really quickly off the top of my head. Florence Pugh obviously would be great.
Just a couple of those folks, there's a bunch of comic creators I would love to have on the show, but yeah, Brian was at the tippy top of my bucket list creators to have on and I've already done it. We can shut the show down. I've got the one. Well, I sent you a picture the other day and I actually achieved very much multiple bucket list encounters. doing his part. Yeah, I'm doing my part. I literally went to Contropolis, New Jersey, which is a convention.
I went and basically, volunteered to do some fundraising with my, you know, with the New York City Ghostbusters who I am actually as of the Contropolis in New Jersey, I am now a full -fledged member. My probationary period is over. I'm official. I'm an official busta.
Yep. Not, but during that and I got to meet, speak with, do photos, get autographs of Dina Meyer, Casper Van Deen, Jake Busey, Michael Ironside, Seth Gilliam, all of them, the main cast and guess who's going to be here in New York City for NYCC. The same crew? Same crew, but also I'm gonna forget her name, but the girlfriend, I forget her name. Richards? Denise Richards. She's going to be here. No kidding. Yeah. For New York Comic -Con.
So, I may have to, to, to potentially crack open, a, I don't know if I'm going to do it. I don't really care. She's not my favorite character in the movie, but I sent my book to get graded with all of their signatures. Cause I spent that money, which No, no regrets. But those those those were bucket list. Honestly, like encounters like Dina Meyer as dizzy. What is he doing? Why is he so attached to Denise Richards when he has Dina Meyer on his jock the entire movie? Exactly. What are you doing?
Exactly. What a Dumber Casper Van Dude. What are you doing? What's Patrick Harris doing? Why isn't he? Why is he coming? I have not seen him. He's probably too busy being successful. He's too busy doing Other things, but I will tell you this, a really cool thing. speaking, Michael Ironside, probably one of the most bad -ass awesome guys, like just a complete, like Richter from total recall, you know, like just all this stuff that he wanted the party Richter.
Yes. he was, he was, what's his name in, in Top Gun, jester. yeah. He's one of the, Yep. Yep. He was jester and Top Gun, but also. If you have not seen turbo turbo kid, all right, turbo kid is an indie film. He told me that they're doing a sequel, which I'm fucking pumped about. But anyways, it was just great to talk to him. So great. Yeah. OK, so we just need to get the entire crew of Starship Troopers on the show for a rewatch. yeah. That be incredible.
Yeah. Amazing. Starship Troopers is really very important to both of us. I don't like we were we were ahead of the game. I know people are it's like kind of a cult. It's like a cult classic fun film. Everyone wants to pretend they've always loved Starship Troopers. Not necessarily. think for a long time folks kind of it was sort of a punching bag, but I think that it is truly like a classic. We should do a show on it. We should.
I don't know why we got on the, we got on the topic of Starship Trippers. I was trying to mention that we're having Brian gave on the show next week and that's what we do. That's what we do. Yeah. But I was going to say, I got this. So Michael Irons, I got his, his, you know, Gene Ratchack, Funko pop side and on the side, I didn't even see when he did this. All he did was see him sign and he put a little smiley face.
I was excited for the smiley face, but what I didn't see was that on the side of it, he wrote, everyone fights, nobody quits. is for you new people. I only have one rule. Everyone fights, no one quits. If you don't do your job, I'll shoot Yeah. Well, anyway, yeah. So 165 of the Abillion Bar podcast, Brian K. Vaughan will be here. It was an incredible conversation. I talked to him back in early June and I am genuinely so excited to get people's reactions. still pumped from it.
You're still jazzed. He doesn't do interviews, Aaron. Like the last, I looked it up. The last podcast interview he did was with Off Panel in 2021, but that was for the previous return of Saga. So it's on a little bit of a hiatus and now it's I don't know that he's, don't know if he's done any other conversations. kind of hope selfishly that he hasn't. So that way we're sort of the one -stop shop for, you know, saga, returnal, it's full, it's full spoilers.
So if you have not read up to at least to issue 54 of saga, I would recommend that you get there and then listen to the conversation because we talk about everything up to issue 66, but especially up to issue 54. So that is next week on the Oblivion Bar podcast. Very excited for that episode. Aaron, I think we've done it. Episode 164 is in the books. Take us out of here. We got a couple of new. We got like three new patrons last week. So thank you to Chris, Zach and Gianni for all joining.
Brad B is back. Danny, a lot of new patrons here. Very cool. And we just want to put out also, if you want to support the show without spending any money, a five star rating and or review on like a podcast or Spotify anywhere again that you listen to your favorite podcast, any kind of review word of mouth, that stuff helps. Awesome. You don't have to be a Patreon member to support the show.
You can do it like free and we just, you know, we're so thankful for Go ahead and follow us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, blue sky and threats at oblivion bar pod. Thank you. Omnibus for sponsoring the show for the last time, for the last time, pour one out for Omnibus.
Everybody, if you're drinking something, do it, do put her in the air because this is the last time we'll mention Omnibus on the show, at least in a like sort of business, you know, way we're always going to like Aaron said earlier, hold them in high regard. But yeah, episode 164 is the very last episode that is sponsored by Omnibus. You can find official merch to the show at our website, oblivionbarpodcast .com. Thank you, Kevin Ziegler for all of our oblivion bar art.
He's at the ZigZone on Instagram. Thank you, Dream Kid for all of our musical themes. Thank you, DJ Skyvac for our grid theme. And last but not least, don't forget to tip your bartenders 20 % or more. And don't forget to say your prayers for Omnibus tonight. That's right. Everyone, thank you so much for listening to the Oblivion Bar Podcast. We will see you next week for episode