Hey, this is Kurt Pierce, comic book writer of Indigo Children, Galactic, Lost Fantasy, and all your other favorite comic books. listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles. oh Hello everyone and welcome to episode 191 of the Oblivion Bar podcast. I'm Chris Hacker, one of your co-hosts here and joining me is my BFF, Aaron Noles. Just want a buster sword. That's all I want.
I've never asked for too many things every year. Every year at Christmas, Aaron's just like, it's one thing guys. I need one thing. Welcome back everybody to the Blue B-Bar podcast. I would also love a Buster Sword. And the reason why we're talking about Buster Swords is because this week on the show, we are talking to writer Kurt Pears, who is the writer of the upcoming series, Lost Fantasy over at Image Comics with an Aaron. say incorrectly in the conversation, so I may need your help here.
Artist Luca Castellanguida. Castle Linguini. Yeah. that right? Castle of Linguini. Castle Linguini. The castle of linguines. Yes, there it is. Yeah. Yeah. I think you got pretty fucking close. All right. All right. Hey, you know what? It's progress. all I need. you know, sorry, Luca for messing with your name there, but you did an incredible job here on Lost Fantasy. And Kurt was a great guest, Aaron. He's also the writer of You've Been Cancelled.
It's only a teenage wasteland, Youth, Olympia, which we talk about pretty in depth here, Indigo Children over Image Comics. But mostly, again, it's sort of centered around Lost Fantasy and Galactic, which is over at Distory. So. We had a chance to read Lost Fantasy number one early. Aaron, what were your thoughts? Again, you are sort of show's subject matter expert when it comes to not only Final Fantasy, but I would just say RPGs in general. What were your thoughts?
Obviously very, very uh Hellboy vibes. If this was not, if I didn't know this was an image comic, I would say this is like a Hellboy spinoff. Like a dark horse sort of, uh you know, boy book. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, I mean, I'm digging it. I'm, I'm, cannot wait for, for more of it. It's got this, if you've ever watched the television show grim, it's got like a grim vibe to it. It's got a very much BPRD very hell boy, like the secret world of like trolls and things.
so I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm hooked. Yeah. think you're, you're hitting on the head of something because you know, that's kind of the central point of Hellboy. People who are fans of Mike and his work over at Hellboy at Dark Horse is that it is that intertwining of like a NCIS detective show, but in a fantasy, some would even say like religious based world, you know? And that's kind of what it feels like here. Kurt also mentions in our conversation a little bit.
about like the Harry Potter influence, which is interesting because of the multiple houses, Blackheart, Wolfsbane, Kitsune, Grootslang, and I'm going to really mess this one up here. TekuHumani. Aaron, you help me out there. Am I saying that even close to the great hunters of the lost fantasy world? TekuHumanimi. Yeah, there we go. Everybody knows at this point now, if you've been listening to the Blue V-Bar long enough, you know that I am the one who can't often pronounce things.
I look at things, I look at words. human I mean, the cumin human. I should have got Kurt to say this during our conversation. Human enemy. Yep. It's one of those. Yeah. And actually, you know, while, while talking to Kurt about all this, it's really interesting to hear him speak on sort of his influence and how he can sort of play in this world of the sort of RPG world. He is, he's one of us, Aaron, when it comes to the love of again, Final Fantasy is the low hanging fruit.
And he actually, he mentioned in the episode that he doesn't, he's never played Chrono Trigger, which is sort of blasphemous in the world of RPG. Yeah, you're a JRPG fan. played. Right. But you know, hey, it's we're not here to gatekeep at any point. You can play Carnage Sugar and enjoy it. you know, we'll get to that conversation with Kurt. I think it's great. Great to have him on the show.
And then also without really spoiling anything, I do get a chance to thank him pretty in depth for a thing that he did last year when I was going through all the cancer stuff. It was a big deal for me. But that's sort of the first thing we discussed in that conversation. I'll save it for later. Aaron, will you please let the folks at home know how they can support the Oblivion Bar podcast? What if it was a Busta Thor? Like Busta rhyme? know, like Busta.
Yeah. It's just like every time you killed somebody with it, was like, know, uh me of Fast and Furious. Remember the first one he's like, who let the Busta in the house? The Busta was the only one who didn't. You had me. You have me. Okay. If to the oblivion bar podcast, consider checking out the Patreon for your support. You access to a bonus episode each week called the grid behind the scenes.
Look to how we prepare each episode with episode transcripts, patron polls, newsletters, uh, gifties goodies and all the gotchas. Give it a shot with a seven day free trial at patreon.com forward slash with the bar pod or check out the link in our show notes. Little chotskies, right? You get little trinkets. Flare, like eight pieces of flare. Yeah, and choir here on the Abliving Bar, you must have at least eight to ten pieces of flair.
I've got, I've got 10, but, uh, but see Jake over there has 16, but the minimum is 10. It could be the minimum. You could be the minimum or it'd be like Jake. We just went from Fast and Furious, no, sorry, we went Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Fast and Furious, Office Space. Only at the Oblivion Bar, everybody. That's what you get here at the Oblivion Bar. All right, let's go ahead get this conversation with Kurt Pears.
Oni Press presents a monstrous new milestone in the immortal legacy of the one and only EC Comics with blood type number one this June. Crawling out of the pages of EC's best-selling anthology Epitaphs from the Abyss, Hugo Award-nominated writer Karina Beko and superstar artist Andrea Sorrentino are biting deep for EC's first ever standalone horror series. Meet Ada, an immortal vampire who has just washed ashore on a tropical island paradise teaming with welly tourists and superstitious locals.
The perfect getaway for a cunning bloodsucker with nothing left to lose. But as Ada stalks the boundaries of her new hunting ground, she'll soon become embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse by moonlight. As an older, wiser, and entirely different kind of monster reveals that this island is already spoken for. Who will survive when this brand new kind of blood type decides a vampire is the perfect prey?
Pre-order with your local comics retailer by May 19th and look for blood type number one. in comic shops everywhere June 11th only from Oni Press and EC Comics. And now, this week's special guest. Joining me today is the comic book writer of titles like You've Been Cancelled over at Mad Cave Studios, It's Only Teenage Wasteland and Youth over at Dark Horse Comics, and Olympia and Indigo Children over at Image Comics.
More recently, he has the ultra-violent space romance Galactic coming from a distillery, and the procedural fantasy Lost Fantasy at Image Comics. It is my pleasure to welcome Kurt Piers onto the Oblivion Bar podcast. Thanks for having me, Chris. Stoked to be here. Kurt, so great to get you on. We were talking a little bit before the recording here and I feel like it's important that I bring it up here.
I'm just gonna bring us in with the heaviest of heavy at the very beginning of the conversation. And I want this to stay light after this, but it's so important to me that I have a chance to thank you live here on the Oblivion Bar podcast. as someone who, uh you know, they may or may not know this, I went through stage four colon cancer last year in 2024. uh still kind of currently going through it, but feeling much better, doing a lot better.
uh And during one of my chemo sessions, I'll often like post a picture of a book that I'm reading or something that I want to highlight, a movie, what have you. And I was showing off my copy of Olympia here, which is of course your image book that you developed and eventually wrote with your late father, Tony.
And when I posted that, I may have tagged you, I'm not sure, we were already mutuals on Twitter at that time, but uh you sent me a DM and you asked if you could send me some reading material, which. I thought was just insanely generous and wonderful. You know, it may not have been a big deal to you at the time, but it really made my day. It was really, really just an incredible gesture. And I wanted to thank you here on the Oblivion Bar. So yeah, thank you. What we were talking.
Yeah. I mean, I, I used to go to my dad's chemo with them. So I know how much that kind of sucks. So when I kind of saw that you were going through that, just thought, you know, just be some kind of nice, right? Because it's like, the thing that struck me is that sometimes you go to them and the nurses like, aren't very nice. kind of the thing that always triggered me is like that you're there just doing the worst shit and, Some, some ladies just, they're like, Oh, I can't wait to clock out.
I'm like, are you fucking serious about it? you're, you're, these people are literally going through the worst shit imaginable. you're like, it's just sent, you know, it's not the. The biggest thing in the world, but I, you know, just if there's something I saw when you're going through, if there's something I could do to help that, I was happy to do it. Yeah, it meant a lot to me.
honestly, what you said just for everyone at home that's listening, you sent me issue one through three of Indigo Children. You sent me, think the Jenny Friesen cover of cover of issue one here. And then also, well, and also it's only a teenage wasteland as well. But I think more impressively, you sent me the one in seventy five black and white edition of issue one, which I've looked up since. And I obviously I still have it, but that's a couple hundred dollars. uh Kurt, so I appreciate you.
I'm sure these are probably comps from you. No way. I need to get you at a con one of these days. I'm get you to sign that, baby. I'm keeping these forever. You know, and of course, since that moment, and I already loved Olympia anyway, and like, I think this is the first work that I ever got of yours. uh And since then, I've become like a big, you know, a big, not only a big fan, but also a friend of Christian Ward's. This book has meant, and obviously the source material as well.
It all just hits directly in my right in my cerebellum. I love it so much. So again, just want to thank you one last time for all that. And it really, it made me excited to eventually get you here on the show. And it, sort of was serendipitous that when I saw the release of lost fantasy, or at least like the, the advertisements for it and all that, I thought this is the perfect time to get Kurt on because I am a, I was born in the RPG, the JRPG age of the PlayStation and the super Nintendo.
It feels like that's very much sort of the key in on the demographic that you're going towards with this, right? The initial idea, it's definitely the most video game inspired thing I've ever done. And I wasn't sitting down like, I'm gonna make something that feels like Final Fantasy or anything. But I think I gave myself the license to just pull in all the inspiration from like everything cool when I was a kid and like pretty much everything I still think is cool.
And a lot of that's just that shit where it's just like cool dudes with pointy swords. you I joke with people and I'm like, all the stuff I thought was the coolest when I was 12 is basically still the coolest, you know, I'm like, right. It's the same stuff, but yeah, the, it's really the first time I think, and it, I'm doing this more and more, but I'm just pulling from all sorts of things, right.
Where it's like very like, I mean, obviously you can trace the final fantasy seven back to like berserk and like, there's kind of. the lineage of the big sword in Japanese video games and manga. it's just like, I'm just pulling from stuff that I think is cool. And I'm trying to still build an interesting and grounded narrative out of it with good character work, because I don't think you can just... Cool imagery alone isn't enough to sustain a comic book.
I think that's what a lot of the 90s comics taught us. Some of them are better than others. No disrespect, because I do respect all those guys that are kind of like the OGs and they have so much enthusiasm and have done so much for the medium. But I just think I have the benefit of having read those comics and read all the ones that came after. So I'm trying to like always combine super cool imagery and ideas with, you know, some really compelling storytelling.
I mean, it's building blocks, right? Like you had to have lived during the image boom to know that you can make amazing looking comics and also thought provoking comics in the same book. Right. And I want to talk a little bit more about Lost Fantasy here. It comes out on April 30th. Here's a brief synopsis for everybody who isn't familiar with what Lost Fantasy is. There's a world of magic, myth and monsters that exist beneath the surface of the of our own.
Since first contact was made over 100 years ago, the great hunters have kept us safe from the creatures that lurk in the shadows. but last night something broke through and it's up to rookie monster hunter Henry Blackheart to stop it. Now, all I've seen from the masses from comic readers, you know, we're pretty keyed in here on the oblivion bar. got our finger on the pulse and it seems like the buzz and the excitement for this comic is, you know, turned up to 11.
And I just saw you post a video on Instagram just a couple hours ago talking about sort of the hype and the numbers that have been going along, you know, with this first issue of Lost Fantasy. And I want to ask you, do you think that it is sort of the the Final Fantasy nerds, the JRPG nerds that are really leading the charge with this excitement? Or is it something else that you think is getting folks so excited? I mean, I think it's all the above.
think it's like I found an overlap between the comic conceptually was something I really like and I like leaned into it and leverage that, right? And then it's also like more on that is like, I built it out in a way that like I would buy it from the store. So it's like, got the coolest Jay Lee cover. We got Derek Robertson to do a cover. It's like, It just comes down to like, made it what kind of I would want. And I think people respond to that.
And I do think, you know, part of our success for sure is that we're leaning into the fandom of like, Final Fantasy and all these other properties in like a fun way. ah And, but at the end of the day, if people weren't interested in the comic at all, like the homage variants or what, you know, it just doesn't matter. So it's like, I think it's all the above to be honest. Like I'm not. going to just pretend like, it doesn't help leveraging a mass massively popular video game franchise.
But it's like, I think at the end of the day, uh everyone's, you know, the cover a everyone's really excited about too, which is That Luca cover is my, respectfully, that's the best cover in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy because uh that covers obviously like still very informed by the Final Fantasy thing, but it's less a direct thing to it. But it's kind of just I think he just nailed it, right?
m Yeah. And so when you were coming up with this concept with you and Luca were sitting down talking about lost fantasy. Now, as I said in the intro, this is a both a procedural and a fantasy. Did you start like, was your central pillar of this house of the lost fantasy house? Was it fantasy or was it sort of a mystery procedural type of book?
It was like the mix of both because I wanted to find a way into fantasy storytelling that would be interesting for me as a creator and uh interesting to readers who are maybe not the most into fantasy, which is kind of, again, how I kind of feel where it's like, I like fantasy storytelling when it's done well, but I find it really hard to get into.
Right. But, you know, I kind of noticed there's a, uh a surge of like fantasy stuff I was enjoying, you know, like I played one of the biggest influences on this. I haven't really talked about too much was the Witcher video games where I was playing through that and the way he it's the way you procedurally sort of solve the things is actually really big influence on lost fantasy because he has the book or whatever and it's got all the creatures and the BC area whatever.
And so that I was like, well, that's cool. What if you just take that and make it contemporary? Right. And then the idea of there being a world underneath ours, sort of, uh, that's magical. And that's sort of hidden right below the surface is really inspired by like Harry Potter, obviously from when I, when I was a kid, that was the, you know, like so many children growing up in that time period. That's one of my favorite franchises.
And I still think just purely talking about the from a story standpoint, it's a brilliant creation, it's a brilliant world. It's why so many people want to spend time in it. That's why the Hogwarts legacy game or whatever, I haven't really played it, but it's a huge hit. It's incredible. it's I mean, I mean this like with no hyper bowl. It's probably one of my favorite video games of all time. Yeah. It's a world you want to spend time in.
so for me, that was like, okay, I want to do my version of this where it's sort of inspired by the Harry Potter thing. What's also inspired by, you know, manga and you know, stuff like, like east of west, which is very, you know, trace that back again, east of west is basically very inspiring. mean, everything's you're going to does is very inspired by, uh, knee hay, right? Like the mangaka. And so it's like.
just tracing all this stuff back and then making like a soup and sort of putting my own spin on it. So it's like a million different things, but just filtered through my sort of lens of storytelling. This is kind of a weird sidebar. You saying sort of these influences and all these things. Can I ask you, you don't have to tell me if you don't want, but how old are you? I'm 32. Okay, I'm 33. So we were literally into these same exact things growing up. And I can see that in your work, right?
Like not just with Lost Fantasy, but you know, Indigo Children and youth, like youth specifically, but also like Olympia, like all of these really key in on this, like, I mean, you can tell me if I'm wrong here. This is sort of my read, like a power fantasy. Like a lot of these, I think like a lot of the central idea with a lot of these books is like a power fantasy where like the one you wouldn't expect is the one that comes out, the one that deserves the power gets it.
Does that, that make sense? Yeah, I mean, it's sort of a lot of it's heroes journey stuff in a way, right? Because it's like, like the the heroes journey structure. I think when you utilize it, but differ from it a bit, it's uh it becomes very interesting. And you can apply that sort of structure to 90 % of storytelling. But yeah, it's I definitely like that underdog storytelling in this sort of sort of a mode.
Well, will tell you another thing that I really love about your work is that you often, you know, let your collaborator do a lot of the storytelling visually, especially like in like the cold openings, a lot of in a lot of your books, especially in those first issues, which we get plenty of in this first issue from in lost fantasy from Luca. It's always it always makes for like a really dynamic read. Maybe people who aren't well versed in like comic script writing.
I'm not even saying that I am, but I have a little bit of knowledge in it. But like balancing structure and spectacle. can be sort of a tightrope. can be pretty tough sometimes, but I think you do it extremely well. So when you begin scripting out your stories, do you purposely create space for your collaborator to sort of stretch their legs and showcase their talent? Or do you find that like that just happens naturally throughout your process?
I try not to overwrite or over script action or fight scenes because I hate it when I'm reading books. And it's like two guys are beating the shit out of each other and they're doing a paragraph on each panel. like the worst thing. Yeah. And it's like the most American superhero storytelling trope. So I just hate that.
And so I try and I, I try and avoid that and then also like higher panel count stuff like really Frank Miller inspired stuff is my you know Mount Rushmore of comics is definitely Frank Miller's on there and he with the he does the higher panel count stuff so well and it's like perfectly calibrated and I always like that that's you know Dark Knight Returns type stuff where it's like the 16 pound grader guys beating the shit out of each other. So I'm always trying to do something like that.
Sure. Have you seen American Genius, the Frank Miller doc? No, I want to watch it. It's I don't where can you even watch it? It's like, didn't they just do a couple like roadshow screenings? Yeah, they did a couple like single night viewings at like Cinemark, which I went and saw and they have like a quick panel with Frank as well. And it's great. Like, of course, we all know that Frank Miller is a genius and he's a pioneer in the medium.
that doc and you know, docs can be sort of they can glorify, they can glorify anybody. They can make you get side with anyone. Right. But like I already had warm feelings about Frank Miller, but that that doc really just to hear all of these legends come together and just talk about how revolutionary and how inspiring Frank is. It really like just brought it all home for me that like Frank's the he's one of the goats. he is.
And I just think if you're one of the people who like, just spends all day online snarking on his new covers or whatever, like, go fuck yourself, right? Like a seven year old guy who's contributed so much to the medium and his style's evolved and maybe it's not what people want it to be, but it's just, I don't know. I just hate how negative a lot of the discourse online around his covers are. It's like, Marvel doesn't put out. 10 million shitty comic book covers a month.
I'm not saying, yeah, I mean, know I sound like an asshole when I say that, but it's not like every Marvel covers a masterpiece, right? Like the vast majority of them just blend together. So the fact that people are so morally outraged by like one or two Frank Miller covers a month, just, I can't handle it.
Right. You know what I think it really comes down to, because I tend to agree with you on a certain level, is that it's a lot of house style, which, know, you included, but everyone in the comics medium is about 10 times more creative and artistic than I am. But I will say that, like, when you get a bunch of house style in a row, it does sort of blend together a little bit, right? Like the cross hatching and the bright digital colors and all that. So and I agree with you.
Like, of course, classic Frank Miller is like it's the best. But and this new version. It is a style, is a choice, but Frank Miller deserves to showcase and evolved into any style that he wants. Like he can do whatever he wants with his artwork. forward. Didn't even agree on his his work when he did Dark Knight's Tricks again, right? This is kind of extension of that, which was already very divisive.
And then you add to the fact he went through, you know, medical issues or whatever personal issues uh that I don't have any interest in speaking on because it's when he wants to speak on and he can speak on it. But uh that's contributed to as well. So I'm just like, I still some of those like I really like the Red Hulk cover he did. I saw someone making fun of it on an Instagram reel the other day and I'm just like, what? Like this is, it's cool as shit.
Like he looks, that's one of his best ones in a while. And the Spider-Man one he did not too long ago was like pure Ditko. Anytime he draws Spider-Man, I find it really cool because pulls really heavily from, from Ditko. Uh, but yeah, like a lot of these covers I find are pretty cool. And I was just talking to someone the other day. I'm like, fuck I wish I just.
$10,000 sitting around to just to get Frank Miller to do a cover for one of these books, but it would just not be $10,000 because then he draws it and then I'm going to want to buy the thing. And then so it's like, you really need like 20 or 30 grand lying around to just burn on getting Frank Miller to do a cover for you. Yeah, you're going to need to set aside like the amount of money you need to buy a low end Toyota to Frank Miller. Yeah. the investment in a Toyota though, fuck the Toyota.
The Toyota off the lawns, it loses half its value. think the Frank Miller piece is appreciate over time. Right. Well, I'll tell you, as someone who has a 22 Corolla, I kind of like it, to be honest. It's the best car I've ever owned. But I agree. Just like any car that you. Right. The depreciation immediately happens. But, you know, speaking of, you know, well, I will say undiscovered genius in this particular arena.
I firmly believe that in this first issue of Lost Fantasy and I put this on social media a couple of weeks ago. I believe this first issue of Lost Fantasy is a poster child for why comics fucking rock. I'm excited to eventually share this first issue and I'm not, I'm not trying to just butter you up now that you're here on the oblivion bar. I'm very excited to eventually hand this first issue or again, this first trade of lost fantasy to someone.
Cause I firmly believes, believe that this is why comics are cool, you know, uh, and my buddy, and again, we just talked about a minute ago, Christian Ward, he once gave me this profound piece of advice, and don't ever tell him that I said that anything he said was profound, but, uh, he said the, the, the best first issues are when you can tell the reader, that the story is this for 21 pages. And then at the last second, that last page, you flip that narrative on its head.
And I think you and Luca do that masterfully here with this first issue of Lost Fantasy. So my question for you is, you recently spoke about how you and Kirkman, or sorry, you and Robert Kirkman had a conversation and he actually inspired you to not be so precious with your twist. Tell us a little bit more about that conversation, how you included that in this first issue of Lost Fantasy. Oh, I didn't talk directly to Kirkman about that.
listening to, forget, I've just heard that story before about him and Valentino. And so I was thinking about that. ah I've never talked to Kirkman. I've talked to Todd McFarlane a bunch. ah He's cool. He's from the same city I live in. was born here. And so we kind of bonded over that. And he was... for a while we were like kind of working on a Olympia TV thing that we're kind of shopping around but didn't didn't end up happening.
Yeah, I mean, so in terms of like that that twist again, you not being so precious about it, what was it about what Kirkman said? right. Eliminating. Well, it actually wasn't even Kirkman's would Valentino said it's a, it's basically the story to back it up for everyone who's who hasn't heard it before is like the twisted invincible, which, you know, I'm not going to say it, but everyone, you know, probably knows what it is. originally was supposed to happen much later in the comp.
Can I just remember hearing that, You know, the, book was struggling or something and Kirkman was talking to Valentino and was talking about, well, this is going to happen. know, issue 12, it'll, it'll be great. Everyone read it. And then Valentino was saying like, he's like, the fuck are you doing? Like, you're not going to get an issue 12 if you, uh, if you don't move this thing forward. Right. And then he did.
So that's kind of like with lost fantasy, it was kind of, uh, kind of just trying to, trying to, to not. be decompressed in my storytelling. another thing I kind of referenced that was a big inspiration on the storytelling and it's not, don't think very visible, but it's like Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin, where it was all three issue arcs. And like, they're still like super satisfying to read and good beginning, middle and ending, but like they're jam packed of cool stuff.
so like that was, but that was my goal for this. Even though was very different book, I wanted just to be. it, the pacing to be relentless. Right. And so that's why Lost Fantasy is kind of, it's a four issue arc to start it. Right. But it's more than four issues of story, I guess. They're kind of oversized issues. So it's, it's a bit experimental. I think that the future of comics is not like 20 page comics. think it's like a little bit bigger, you know, 499, 599, depending on the size, but.
more of a meal, right? So I liked what I think the, you know, kind of close what we're doing here is the Black Monday Murders did something where it's like the issues were bigger, right? I don't like the design page as much as Hickman does, but I like that idea. think it's the right one where it's like, okay, I want you to have a meal, not a snack. And let's just make each issue super satisfying. I love that idea.
I just spoke to Aubrey Sidderson not too long ago about his new image book that's coming out, Free Planet. And that baby is dense. All right. It's got graphs and it's like reading a prose novel in a comic. It's 20, it's 22 pages, but it is like 58 pages of content. And I love the idea that both of you guys are sort of setting up in comics. I love having too much to chew on rather than not enough. You know what I mean?
So That's a great thought and I think that if the writer and the one the creative team in general are down for it that always makes for a better reading experience for the for the Reader right because there's no rule in place that says we have to finish this comic in one sitting Right, you can read a couple pages sit on it or go back and read it again. There's no wrong way to read comics. I don't think No, but I think there's two, there's such a thing as too much information into common.
22 pages, but with 58 pages of that could be problematic. mean, it's like Alan Moore said, there's a reason there's a sort of a, a maximum amount of information you should overlay into a panel because sometimes I'm reading a comic and I'm just like, well, I would just go read a book if I wanted to, to be reading this many words. And so I don't know. I hope that his experiment works for him. don't know if I feel exactly the same way.
I'm more talking just about sort of expanded, uh, issue size, right? I think comics is all about rhythm, right? So if you're really good, you can totally land that. Like an example, I would say, as you just talked about map fraction, Casanova is a book that's jam packed, but it's like, he's so good and his collaborators is so good. He pulls it off, but that's definitely hard mode. So it's like. uh I want to see how that one turns out because that sounds interesting. I haven't read that one yet.
Yeah, I mean, I will say that Aubrey nails it out of the park. He and his collaborator Jed, they absolutely murdered that first issue of Free Planet. But it is sort of intimidating when you first see it. And I agree that should not be the standard within comics. But I think it does provide an interesting sort of parallel to the idea of comics can be flexible. They also can be broken, too, as you said. Like it can be too dense to the point that it's not, you know, an enjoyable read.
But I feel like they can be flexible like. There was a book that came out by J.H. Williams a couple of years ago from Image where it was sort of like, it wasn't read sort of vertically, it was read landscaped. yeah. And it can be played around that way. And think that's sort of the main point here. And I do want to continue. I want to ask you about Luca a little bit. You you guys have done three books together and I'm going to try to his last name. Tell me if I say this incorrectly or correctly.
So it's Luca Casalunghita. Is that correct? I, you know, you might be right. think it's Castle in Guida or Castle in Guida. I don't know. Sorry, Luca. Luca, we're sorry, but I think we're both pretty close. Yeah, I mean, I don't think he'd be too offended. Right. Well, you guys have done three books together now. You've done a New America, you did money, and then now you're doing Lost Fantasy together. And I'm curious, what makes him so uniquely suited for this book here?
And is there something that he brought, something surprising maybe that he brought to the table that changed you from your original idea or script? You know, there's a couple of things. He's got a really good command of black and white, which, know, again, I'm, I'm a Frank Miller guy, like I said, so I like that. Reminds me a lot of RISO. You know, he's very fast and he can also handle, he can do kind of action as well as the talkie pages, right?
Uh, and, you know, like I've said before, to me, comics all about rhythm. So I like to work with guys who can kind of do both, right? I don't want to just work with guys who splash pages, but couldn't draw a conversation to save their life. But Luca, yeah, Luca's I'd sort of, he's sort of, his work just is effortless. I don't know, you know, it's not the most elegant way of saying it, but he, have a high degree of confidence in anything I tell him to draw, can.
And what's so interesting about Lost Fantasy is that the first two books we did together are a lot more grounded and almost, you know, dramatic in their nature. And then this is the first one where it's really, given him a lot of over the top stuff to draw and he draws it just as well, if not, you know, cooler. because he brings that sort of realism and uh grounds things as well as just making it larger than life.
You know what I found really impressive about Lucas work is that I feel like he's a really good actor. Like the way that he draws those intimate scenes that you were talking about where people are just talking, you know, I think that that was really impressive because of course he can draw the action. You see that pretty clearly again without spoilers, but you see that very clearly towards the back hack back half of that first issue.
But I really impressed with the beginning half where we're starting getting a lot of the exposition and sort of the back story of this world. So I wanted to at least highlight that with you. I mean, stuff, which now that you're bringing it up, is what I found crazy and was unexpected was the Mignola influence he brought into it. Where those panels, where there's, we're laying out the lore of our world and there's just some beautiful Mignola inspired stuff that was like new for me.
And I'm just like, man, this is so cool. Like, I think it's definitely his best work he's done. yeah, I'm just proud of it. He's just... The first few pages of number four coming in the last week or so as we wrap up the first dark and it's like, man, there's so much cool stuff in there. You can definitely see that Magnolia sort of vibe inspiration on the cover. The monster specifically, think that. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's, totally Magnolia.
Like it's even the eyes, like it looks almost like now I'm spacing it, but BPRD it's got Abe, it's got the guy with the dome head and then it's got the, monster guy. It looks like the monster guy. I'm spacing his name right now, of course, but yeah, it's, it's incredible. You know, I want to sort of bounce over to your distillery work. Now we talked about Lost Fantasy and again, I hope people are excited about it. I know I am.
Again, as we talked about, seems like a lot of people are, but I do want to slightly pick your brain on your upcoming distillery work, specifically Galactic, which is, you know, your upcoming work with artists. And again, I'm going to probably say his name correctly here, but Amilcar Pena? that? I'm a carpina. think I don't know. I mean, it probably be messing it up as well. Right. That's right. Again and again, here's the synopsis here for this galactic story.
So a hype kinetic blend of syncopactic blockbuster action and interstellar escapism galactic follows the roguish bounty hunter hired to retrieve a runaway princess on a psychedelic death bender. What should be an easy payday escalates into a collision course with an intergalactic war and maybe just maybe an unexpected romance along the way. Also, there is a talking dog named Wolf that pilots the starship.
Now, I've heard you talk about how your work is often a meditation on ideas or feelings that you're expanding on in these stories that you write. And I don't want to get into specifics because again, this book doesn't come out till July. So I wanted to ask you, what would you say sort of broadly is your meditation on galactic and your work over at Distillery?
Well, feel like so Galactic is a kind of I was thinking about this today that, you know, lost fancies, me finding a way to do fantasy storytelling that feels cool and not overly trope laden and kind of stale and galactic is me kind of doing the same thing, but with like Star Wars and and and sci fi because I love Star Wars and I love this stuff, but it just sucks so terribly now. And so I was like, why don't? What does my version of this look like?
And I just, I've wanted to do a, a, a version of this story for a long time. I actually, for years, I had an earlier version of the story that was, was a little more Indiana Jones, uh, where the main guy, it still had the, the, was like a treasure hunter instead of a bounty hunter. And it didn't work out because it was kind of like undercooked. And then I kept thinking on it more and I got really.
interested in the idea of uh it being like a folding in this like relationship slash like love angle to it because it just makes it so much more interesting I think when you have a human drama element in the midst of uh a big intergalactic sandbox. And so was thinking of like the way saga is like a family family drama, it's about becoming a parent.
ah Galactic is sort of about a guy who's kind of like a lone wolf, no pun intended, and him falling in love against all the chaos of the universe and stuff, which is something that when I started working on it, I kind of was also going through and relating to it. Now you've you mentioned just a moment ago how, you know, you sort of like the idea of having a little more room to breathe in terms of pages or landscape even. And I don't think there's really a better place for that than distillery.
Right. Like they're sort of uh putting up their pillar currently as the place to let your let your legs stretch in terms of the storyteller, both artistically and as a as a writer. Have you found that to be true in terms of like getting over there? You're working on it. What I think is three books at the story. Is that correct? I have more than three, but. We've been down to three.
Yeah, I mean, like, I think the cool part about them and what I like so much about it is, like you said, the format so cool. It's basically the IMAX of comics, right? like, I think you have to tailor the books to the formats, right? So Galactica kind of, me and Amilcar engineered it to have a lot of double page spreads. And even when there's higher panel count pages, there's stuff. spread across, you know, two pages and stuff, because it's, it's, that's sort of what it's made for.
And I think the really, the great books that Distillery has put out that are the ones everyone's really excited about are the ones that use it. Right. Like I think, you know, like Spectrograph is probably their, their best book or blood brothers mother. Right. And those are both books that use a lot of the, the widescreen format. So I'm just like, if you're doing a It's kind of like, uh, it is like IMAX where I hate when you go to see a movie and IMAX and none of it is a full IMAX thing.
So, uh, I'm trying to do as much full, you know, widescreen stuff as we can. Sure. Now I appreciate you because you let me get an early look at that first issue and I really enjoyed it and I had a thought while reading it and you can tell me if I'm incorrect here. But this and I it's funny that you're saying that the story is the IMAX of comics and I totally agree with you. This book Galactic feels maybe like your most cinematic book thus far. Would you agree with that?
Yeah, I think it kind of does just because of the, of the format, right? It's kind of like a lot of widescreen and splashy stuff in there. And I love the, the intro to Galactic and sort of just the, the, each issue Galactic has sort of a title spread that's really designed to, to, uh, to showcase the distillery format as well as just like cool. graphic design and our great logo and stuff. but that was something I kind of the first time I saw something like that.
No, this is totally kind of where I, stole it from, I'm bending it in my own direction is the umbrella Academy, right? And I love the, the double page title spreads at Gerard and Gabriel Bha would do, uh, where it's like the, the big future of font and all that stuff. uh And so the hard part of this was actually I working to make it look different enough from that, right? Because I'm like, just, I didn't want it to just be like, they're just doing the umbrella Academy thing.
So it's like, kind of went through five different versions of the fonts we used on there until I landed up on the one I was happy with. Sure. Well, you know, it's funny you're talking, we're talking about this. We've talked about saga, you know, just a moment ago and Brian, when he was on the show, he mentioned that original. I mean, everyone can have the same idea, but no one's going to tell the story the way that you do. So like everything is original matter, no matter what.
And I find I've always found that really interesting and uh true, honestly, like, you know, even saga he said is just Romeo and Juliet in space. And while I guess I see what he's saying there, it obviously is a lot more than that. And you can make that sort of correlation with most. comics and all that thing, all those things.
I do want to ask you, know, again, you've done some work both at Dark Horse, Boom, Comixology, but between Image and Distillery, some of your recent work has been at those two publishers. And I want to sort of key in on that. And this is not gotcha journalism. You can totally be as transparent as you want. You know, both of these publishers are very creator centric. They sort of give you guys the boat and let you steer however you want.
What would you say some of the main differences are between Distillery and Image and whether that be creatively, commercially, however. I mean, it's just, set up very different, right? The image model, since it was founded, it's basically, you know, image takes a small fee, you own everything else. They provide you with, with infrastructure, but, uh, you know, a lot of the work you do have to, you do have to your elbow grease into it, right?
You know, like, and you know, it's, it's a typical deal. in comics because it frankly doesn't really make a lot of sense. It's almost a utopian sort of ideological pursuit that image has where they think creators should own their stuff and this stuff. so it's like, Image, it's kind of, you can bet on yourself and you can win huge. And so, so I think it's great. And I want to really be, be careful here.
Cause I think there's a lot of times people misconstrue that like the image provides infrastructure for creators and there is resources and all this stuff. Like I've been helped immensely on the last fantasy launched by, you know, the, the, backend staff at image. So I'm not trying to say that image doesn't provide help to creators. saying it's just very different structurally speaking.
from what distillery is doing, where I think if you look at what distillery is doing, you can see they're building, you know, a lot of innovate, innovative, uh, digital products and, uh, tech alongside the comics, right? the, David Steinberger is like crazy smart guy. mean, I'm really smart guy and And some of the shit they're doing, just, when I see it for the first time, I remember seeing the remark, digital remark stuff in person. I'm just like, how did you guys think of this?
And so they're just very different. And I don't know that necessarily makes sense for me personally. It makes sense to do certain things at Image. It makes sense to do certain things at Distillery. I think it's uh really up to the creator and it's sort of, You know, it's sort of about managing your own brand as, know, it's kind of cringe to say, because I hate people who engage in like super serious marketing talk, but when you're a creator, you are kind of your own brand.
so, you know, if you're not controlling the product you're putting out or thinking carefully about who you work with, then your brand suffers. so they're both great partners, just different. different, you know, they're in different businesses at the end of the day. Like image doesn't own any of my IP or any of that stuff. And it's like with distillery, I'm happy to, to partner with them on some of that stuff because, you know, I probably wouldn't still be in comics today if wasn't for Chip.
So it's like, want him to have some of my shit because it's like, I want him to, if, if. if one of these things hits big, then I want them to benefit also. that's, you he's my friend. ah So it's kind of, it's, it's a very complicated topic. But I think broadly speaking, the issue in comics is not the deal structure. It's how the people behind the deals act. Right. So, know, it's, it's more about working with people who act in good faith. think.
The companies you see creators working with over and over again are the ones that probably treat people the best. Yeah, that's that's a good point. And I will say that one of my big gripes and again, this is coming from someone who hasn't written any comics and only talks to creators. But one of my biggest gripes as a reader is I think the marketing should not fall on the shoulders of the creators or at least not totally fall on the shoulders of the creators.
uh I really wish that publishers would make a better effort to market. Right. uh And some are better than others, of course. Like I really like what only press is doing right now. I think that Booms Studios does a pretty good job. I'm mostly kind of looking at the big two, unfortunately, but you know, they're some of their characters kind of sell themselves. So I guess I kind of get it to a certain extent, but not really.
But I think to be fair though, think the all in stuff they've done has been tremendously successful and that's been very well marketed. And so I would say they are capable of doing it. It's a way harder ship to steer when you're up underneath a publicly traded umbrella, right? When you're underneath the acts of Zaslav or everyone to say it to do that. And so the fact they pulled that off, I think is extremely impressive.
ah But I'd say actually do agree with you the biggest problem in comics and it's not even like big two. It's it's Indie comics is uh it's churn and like too much content. And when you see that people think, oh, you you're being hated. You don't want people to able to break in. It's no, I want you to be able to break in. But I want you to break in and publishers that will do their job and adequately market your book and not just vacuum up your IP and then shit it into the marketplace.
to like end up in a dollar bin. You know, I get it. I get it, Kurt. Yeah, it's one of those things that I see all the time. A great book. You know, honestly, I love this book. I didn't know about this until it came out on trade, you know, and that's I mean, it's image, but still like that's a problem, I think. oh Yeah, I mean, Olympia just didn't have the money to market the book. Sure, I guess that makes sense, yeah. I mean, this is one of your earlier books, right?
Yeah, I was like five years ago, I was still pretty much broke. yeah, I I hired a marketing guy and all this stuff, but it's like, yeah, there's only so much marketing you can do. And I think also that it's really hard to market. It's just a weird kind of superhero adjacent thing. It's just those books never going to be huge. Sure, sure. All right. Well, I've taken a lot of your time here today and I appreciate you sitting down with me.
I do have one more segment if you have a little bit of time. And this is a newer segment that we've been doing here on the Oblivion Bar here recently. And this is a work in progress. It's name is called Hey Kids, It's True or False Time. uh And basically the rules. I should ask you firstly, are you willing to do this? Do you want to do this? All right. Good. Good. All right. So basically for everyone who is only is hearing this for the first time.
Hey kids, it's true or false time again, name pending is basically it's a 10 true or false speed round where I asked Kurt a question. He says true or false as quickly as possible. He can only answer true or false. And if he gets eight questions more, uh eight or more questions, right. We will donate our entire months of oblivion bar, patron earnings to the hero initiative. If you're not familiar with the hero initiative, please look it up.
I will have a link in the show notes, but it basically helps a comic creators, older comic creators help with bills. and travel to cons and all the things. currently our highest score is Michael Allred at nine correct answers. Kurt, do you think you have it in you to beat Michael Allred with nine correct answers? Definitely not, but let's try. All right, here we go. I'm going go ahead and start us off here. Again, the name of the game, quick as possible, only true or false. All right.
Question number one, there are six Harry Potter books in the main storyline. else. Correct, it is false, there are seven books. Question number two, Squall Lionheart is the main antagonist for Final Fantasy VIII. Antagonist, that's false. I'm sorry. I apologize. It's protagonist. You're right. Yeah Okay, so if he's protagonist, true. Yep, that is correct. Calgary is the third largest city in True. That is true.
Question number four, 1993's Daredevil, The Man Without Fear is written and illustrated by Frank Miller. false is drawn by Ramita. That's right. Your buddy, John Romita. We didn't really get to talk about John Romita in this conversation. out Well, the next conversation I have you on, we're talking about Junior Junior. All right. Question number five. Metal Gear Solid debuted on the PlayStation on September 3rd, 1998. true. That is true. We are five for five, Kurt. You're doing good.
Question number six, Pulp Fiction beat out Shawshank Redemption and Forrest Gump for best picture at the 1995 67th Academy Awards. That's false. Do you know who won? That is, it is false. No, I don't. just know they wouldn't give it to Pulp Fiction over that other... That other stuff's way more in line with the Academy. Didn't Pulp Fiction win for screenplay or something? Yeah, I two other ones that I think supporting actor for Samuel Jackson. I'm pretty sure. All right.
Question number seven. The Calgary Flames celebrate celebrated their one and only Stanley Cup in the 1988-89 season. True. That is true, seven for seven. Question number eight. The director of the cult classic PlayStation classic Parasite Eve was Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy V legend, Takeshi Takeda. You finally got one. I never play like I think it's false Nope, that is true. Takishi Takita. I said it wrong the first time, Takita. That's like my, I never beat Chrono Cross.
I never played Parasite Eve, even though I meant to because the one with the two hot chicks with the big guns and then, know, it's right up my alley. That's right. That's right. I See, again, I knew we were kindred spirits. I thought you may or may not have played that one from back in the day. It gave me nightmares, but total body horror. um Okay. Question number nine. So we're, we're, uh we're seven for eight right now.
Jack Kirby was 33 years old when he co-created Captain America with Joe Simon. 33 S ah 33 years old. Damn, I think that's false. think it was younger. That's correct, he was false, he was 22 years old. Yeah, I've researched it quite a bit and he created like right before the war, which went and fought in, so wouldn't have been 33 going to fight in World War II. Alright, we are currently eight for nine.
Last question here, question number 10. The late David Lynch wrote a comic strip called The Angriest Dog in the World for over 10 years. True. That is true. Shout out to the the goat David Lynch for writing some comics. All right, Kurt, great job. You tied Michael Allred with nine out of 10 questions right. Congratulations. That's awesome. And you are currently our April contributor for the hero initiative. So thank you for that. That's awesome. Yeah. Those were good questions, man.
They're perfect because they're like stuff. Yeah. You did a good job picking them out. I'm really impressed. We like to I like to sort of key in on the things that I think you might like so And then make them like slightly challenging that maybe or you may or may not know so it still makes it it makes it fun So thanks for doing that nine out of ten is awesome.
You're currently again tied for first So Kurt, what a pleasure man Thank you so much for coming on to the Oblivion Bar podcast and just a reminder for everybody listening Lost Fantasy hit shelves on April 30th So make sure everybody reach out to your local comic book shop Add that to your pull list. Again, as I said earlier, this is the perfect first issue to hand someone to let them know that comics are awesome.
uh know, Kurt, I don't want to like ask you on a second date while we're on our first, but I'd love to eventually get you back on the show to talk about Galactic down the road or whatever you're working on at the time. Let's do it. feel like that's the move when you're on a first date with a girl you really like. You want to get that lock in that second date before you end the first one, the odds are a more in your favor if you're still there, right? If you're still with her.
But also you could just tell, right? Some girls you go on a date with and it's like, I don't want to go on a second date with you. Let's just end this. Yeah, you if you've done your job correctly, you can usually get a pretty good gauge on how they're feeling. And I agree with you. I am the eager type that if I've ever went out with someone and liked them, I always, I'm like, Hey, do want to go out again? I don't care if I sound eager or whatever, you know. Yeah, I don't really care either.
What's the point? Oh, wow. It's like, if she doesn't want to go with you, she's just going to say it. Who are you trying to look cool for yourself? Like, I don't care anymore. I'm over it. Let me know if I, if I'm moving on or does it go somewhere. Hey, you guys, your relationship pod, uh, new relationship podcast with vice from a 32 year old single man. and a 33 year old recently partnered, but mostly single most of his life.
So we were clearly the right people to ask and Kurt, before I let you go here today, before we give off any more very expert driven relationship advice, how can people follow you? How can people catch up with your work? And is there anything that you want to sort of highlight before I let you go? Oh, don't even know. just, I've just been doing the Instagram lately because it's, it's less toxic than um any of the other social networks I find a little more functional.
And there's still a lot of people on there where it's like the rest of them, feel like kind of just slowly melting away. So I guess, you know, follow me on the Instagram. It's it's Kurt Antonio appears. Uh, do that if you want, if you want to follow me, I don't know what else to tell you. don't like following people on. on social media too much. not going to beg you to follow me, but if you want the updates. Wait, hold on really quickly. Did you just say peers?
Have I been saying it wrong this entire time? I did say it right. Yes, but 99 % of people who have me on kind of say it. Yeah, they say it very differently. It's Portuguese. So it's like, kind of, you got to take into that, like, uh, they have like the weird like fish accent, right? Sure. All right. Kurt Pierce. It was such a pleasure you having here on the building, building more podcasts. And I can't wait to have you on sometime in the near future.
Yep, thanks for having me guys, appreciate it. uh Alrighty, there's that conversation with Kurt. Thank you so much for joining us here on the show Kurt. We appreciate it. And again, Lost Fantasy number one comes out on April 30th. So make sure you guys go and grab that again, as I said in the conversation here with Kurt, it is already getting a ton of buzz. I understand it's already sold out at distributor, which is incredible. It was a, it was a pleasure to have Kurt on the show.
We will definitely have him back because he's always doing something in the comic book world. He is definitely an ascending star in the comic book space. And it was just, it was a great time chatting with him. So I just wanted to ask you this real quick. Yeah. Have you looked at the variant covers or lost fantasy? I have seen a couple. there something that's catching your eye? To name drop, I'm gonna have to call up our friends over at uh Endless Comics Games and Cards.
I need to see if they can get me a copy of this. But there is a Final Fantasy VII variant cover of basically, you know, where Cloud is standing in front of Shinra, the building. it's, yeah. So that's the cover. It looks fucking sick. I want it so bad. The Alex Diato variant. Yes, I'm seeing it now. It's looks, yeah, it is a, it is an homage all the way down to the image comics on the side, looking like the black label of the original PS cover, all the things. Yeah, it looks awesome.
And I'm definitely going to want that one as well. So uh thank you, Kurt Pierce. And also I'm sorry for getting your name wrong, Aaron. was saying it wrong pretty much until the very end of the conversation. Then he very offhandedly just says his name the correct way. I've been saying it Kurt Piers for years now. yeah, Kurt. Piers is he says Piers it is Piers. So everyone, if you've been making the same mistake as me, now, know, and knowing is half the battle.
So next week on the Oblivion Bar podcast, Aaron, you've already seen this and we talk about it in episode 160, spoiler free, of course, on the grid. But Thunderbolts is out this next week and you had a chance to see it for everybody who didn't listen to the grid. Aaron, we briefly just discuss. sort of how you saw Thunderbolts and like give us a little bit of a teaser on your thoughts in that movie. I wish it were better.
Okay. Also talk about like the, uh, the night of like what we're, how, what was the night of seeing that movie? Okay, so it was really cool. I uh an early invite through Fandango to go see it. they, you know, they were giving out popcorn soda, like all this stuff. The popcorn came in the Weethis box with the Thunderbolts on it. And it was a great experience. Got to see the Ares, Tron Ares trailer. Yeah, it just, it is a great looking movie.
It is a fun movie, but it's Once again, it's one of those, unfortunately, it's one of those Marvel movies that's just not hitting the mark. I will not knock everything about the movie. There is a lot of amazing things to take out of this movie. All right. Well, I was going to ask more questions, but I'm just going to save it for next week because I want to discuss this thing in full. And again, I haven't seen it yet as most people in the world have not.
So next week on the show, as Aaron said, there will be discussing in depth the Thunderbolts, you know, the, the newest entry in the Marvel universe Thunderbolts. So join us next week and Aaron, if you would please take us out. When you do see it, make sure that you absolutely stay for the mid credit and post credits. Two credits, or two credit scenes though. Yeah, like you said, mid credit and credit. Do not skip those. Like you will be sad and mad and, and unglad at yourself.
I'm like to stay for that. You said the end credit was actually really good too, right? The end credit was the first end credit in a long time where I lost my shit. Let's go. Let's fucking go. Let's fucking go. OK. Jackie Jackie Jackie. Subscribe to our podcast. I will podcast Spotify YouTube audible. I heart radio. Whatever wherever wherever wherever we'll be together. You'll listen to your. Little Shakira? listen to your favorite podcast. That's where we'll be.
Thank you to our patrons, Alex, Alice, Aaron, Bodder, Chris S, Chris Y, Chrissy, David, Elliot, Erica, George, Yanni, Greg, Haley, Hamstick, Jake, Jeremy, Kyle, Lucy, Mac, Miles, Mike, Olivia, Ryan, I, Robert, A'shantar, Sean, Trevor, Travis, Zach, and Brad and Lisa are a couples. If you want to support the show without spending a frigging dime, a follow on your preferred podcasting platform at a five star rating and or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify helps us a ton. Please go do that.
Follow us on Blue Sky Instagram, Tik Tok and Twitch at Oblivion Bar Pod. Please go follow the Twitch channel. Please, please tell your friends to as well. Follow official merch. The show is on our website. OblivionBarPodcast.com. Get the Tide I want. It's super comfy. Official, yeah, already got the merch. Big thank you to Oni Press, Endless Comics Games and Cards for spying on the show. I already texted him while we were recording this to see if I could get that cover.
Thank you, KXD Studios for all of our Oblivion Bar art. He's at KXD Graphics on Instagram. Thank you, dream kid for all of our musical themes, DJ Skyvac. Thank you for our grid theme. And last but not least, do not forget to take your bartenders 20 % or more because last night I went to sushi with my sister and there was a family next to us. They were a horrible, horrible family of like four kids, food all over the floor, dumping food all over the table. It was disgusting.
They left and I was like, holy crap, that's horrible. And the waitress was like, yeah. And the only tip like $5. my gosh, of course they did. Because people who have that kind of self-awareness also don't have the awareness to tip correctly. So it's not all you can eat sushi buffet. So like you realize that if you leave too much or you don't eat it, you're supposed to pay for what's left. Right. And there was food everywhere. It was horrible. Anyways, they deserve a much better tip.
So I made sure I gave a little bit of extra just to make sure I supported the establishment because they are great people. Aaron, I'm proud of you for that because we need to be the good in the world. So thank you, everybody, for listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. We will see you next week for episode one ninety two.