INTERVIEW: Patrick Horvath

Hello, this is Patrick Horvath, the creator behind Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, and you are listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. you Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host, Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 187 of the Oblivion Bar podcast. I'm your genius billionaire playboy philanthropist Chris Hacker and joining me is the show's anthropomorphic turtle with a bit of a stabby problem. My co-host and BFF, Aaron Knowles. I like turtles.

man. Did you like how I struggled through that intro there? I did. That's pretty good. That's good times. It's sometimes it hurts me like on a spiritual level, but you know, there are things in this world. just can't. can't be good at everything, guys. He's got to be bad at something. this sexy and read good. I don't read good. All right. But I look good. So, you know, you know, that's that's debatable. Anybody welcome back, everybody, to the Oblivion Bar podcast this week on the show.

We are talking to comic book creator Patrick Horvath. He joins us once again here on the Oblivion Bar to talk about Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees or IDW and his upcoming one shot over at Oni Press Free for All, which is sort of the central pillar of this conversation. Right, Aaron? my favorite bit on the show where I set Aaron up to talk and he goes, or right. I'm sorry. Say that again because I had a little thing that popped up and it said reconnecting. No, we're just gonna run with it.

We're gonna run with it. Okay, I answer normally Okay. I was just worried. I'm sorry. Ha We've been recording for like three hours, everybody. So we apologize if we're a little slap happy at this point. But what a pleasure it was to have Patrick back on the show. He is the best. Like everybody, just everybody listening right now, if you're not familiar with Patrick Horvath and his game. You guys can't see what I'm doing here. I'm talking with my hands currently, but Patrick Corbett is the best.

He is just he's the man. God you he's one of those people. It's I don't know.

I don't want to say it's romantic Have you ever been to like Chris, you know this you've been to a convention and like you see somebody that you know who's tabling and you see them from afar and then they see you and it's just like we need to reenact this at like New York Comic Con or San Diego, okay, but you see him from afar It's just like that that like, you know full house like intro credit smile Anyway, you love it

You know, I and nobody can see what I'm doing, but it's like smiling like an idiot But like you see your best friend. It's like yeah, and he's like he's that guy like he's like an orange aura behind him. There's like smoke coming up from the ground. He's the guy who's like, see him and like, you know who he is and he's just the nice. It doesn't matter if you've ever met him. If you've never met him, he just, he, he is so welcoming and like a warm, like, like person and a warm existence.

And like, he is so nice and like, he just genuinely like loves that people enjoy his shit. Yeah, and we do. We absolutely love it. And we say in this conversation, I think it's worth reiterating here in the intro that Patrick is such an easy person to root for in comics. You know, he's just again, sort of to articulate what Aaron's saying here in a different way is that like he is so warm and nice to everyone and he gives his time to everybody who comes up to his booth.

And it'd be so easy to be a fan of his outside of the fact that everything that he puts out is fucking incredible. So. I mean. And granted, it's two things so far, everybody. He's done Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, which, of course, is an Eiser nominated series through IDW. It was nominated for best new series last year. And then again, we're sort of talking about today, which is free for all over only press. was previously Zoop crowdfunded. Right.

And now it's being released over at only press, who we absolutely love. So this conversation with Patrick is great. We go into great detail about basically the success post Beneath the Trees or sort of mid.

Beneath the trees and then sort of present day here with free for all which again We're very excited for everybody to check out free for all the week that this episode comes out So as you listen to this on Monday that following Wednesday, you will be able to go to your local comic shop and pick up And this is a book that you guys want to support This is the book that we hope down the road We don't really get into it in this conversation

Aaron, but it is something that we would love to see more of down the Yeah, he hands at it. Yeah And we hope that it happens, you know? And I think this, Aaron, this might be a, should we tease the thing? Should we tease the thing? No, don't tease the thing yet. It's not real yet, right? Okay. Sorry, everybody. I don't want to, I'm not going to cut this either. We're just going to leave it up into everybody listening right now.

We're going to premiere a thing in the next week or two that sort of is pertinent. I'm gonna say is this is the only way that we let it go is when we get the contract. everybody listening right now. I only want to tell you something when it's real. OK, so yes, just be ready for that when it eventually comes. That contract in my hand. Aaron tell the people how they can support the Ablobbing Bar podcast It's a lot easier than getting a secret out of Chris.

If you want to support the ability of our podcast, it's easy. Consider checking out our Patreon. For your support, you can gain access to a bonus episode each week called The Grid. Thank you, Chris. A behind the scenes. I let you do it this time. I'm always I'm always shaking things up, you a behind the scenes look at how we prepare each episode with our episode transcripts. and Patreon polls, a whole bunch of other exclusive goodies.

We just package up a whole bunch of stuff and set it to our Patreon members. we are loving, we are absolutely loving the fact that people are posting what they're getting and like kind of showing off like their swag. I fucking love these. I love it. So if you want to be privy to all that goodness, make sure that you guys go and check over on patreon.com forward slash oblivion bar pod where you can actually. Also sign up for a seven day free trial just to give it a shot.

You know, I'm not going to say that you're not going to love it. There's a non-zero chance that you will love it. Yes, non-zero. Yeah. I don't want to do like a double negative. You will never love it. You will. Yeah, you will not not like it. There you go. Or check out the show and check out the links in our show notes. That's right. All right. And now don't you?

Yeah, this is the kind of craziness that happens when we record for three hours, everybody, without further ado, without more madness happening here on the front and back bumper, you'll get more of it after this conversation with Patrick Corbett.

And now, this week's special guest. Joining us today is the Eisner nominated comic book creator of the 2024 smash hit, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, over at IDW Publishing. He's here today to discuss his upcoming giant sized one shot at Oni Press, Free for All, which delivers a brutal new vision of capitalism, where in the not so distant future, the only thing left to fight for is yourself. It is our pleasure to welcome Patrick Horvath back. On TV Oblivion Bar podcast.

Hey, thank you so much for having me back. Patrick, so great intro and great job there. Patrick, so great to have you back on the show. Aaron, I, you know, secretly behind the scenes have been feening to get you back on since absolutely the release of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees. Quick, I guess not spoiler, you know, kind of a sidebar is that we had you on the show right before I think the release of issue three of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees.

And while it was starting to gain a lot of popularity and traction, it hadn't fully boomed, I think, yet. at that point, maybe it was maybe it was around that time. I think is where it started to really get crazy. And I do want to pick your brain on that whole scenario with beneath the trees where nobody sees. But first things first, I want to ask you, Patrick, you're based out of Los Angeles, if I'm not mistaken, how have been since the wildfires in January?

It has been a lot better than the first, you know, basically all of January. I believe that the fires kicked off around January 7th and it was pretty gnarly. Especially at the beginning of February, things have kind of gotten to normal with the sense that there's this like horrific, you know, trauma in the Palisades and in Altadena where a lot of... folks are just homeless. They're basically trying to rebuild their lives as best they can.

And we're at a point now where there's actual removal of the burnt structures and everything. the city, think the state of California is helping out with that financially as well as the cities. it's the idea that we're moving on. We're rebuilding and there's still a concern about all of the toxic ash that kind of blanketed everywhere. And there's a concern about just being even like within a mile of the burn areas and not having any sort of like mask or protection or whatever.

So that's going to be an ongoing thing. basically for, you know, the next, I don't know how long, be honest. Like that's kind of the scary part. That's the sort of the long lasting effects of it. Yeah. And and then the rest of the city has seemed to have like, you know, we're we're back to sort of functioning as we were. But then that in and of itself was a whole different mess. So I like I honestly don't feel like this this town ever really got back on track.

since the strikes, in 2023. And just in terms of the industry, it honestly never has felt like it, like everything's changed. it's strange, strange to be here. I've been here since 2006. so it's, I've definitely seen a lot of different, sort of evolutions just in that time of the town. and how much like, you know, streaming has changed everything and stuff like that. so this and COVID obviously.

And so like those, you know, sort of wild, wild evolutions have kind of made a, made a mark on the town here. Yeah. But then it feels like the wildfires are like the latest. just impacted like an impactful kind of environment, like every small thing that kind of a well, not small thing, but everything that kind of occurs in the world in that in that industry affects you in that area specifically.

Well, it's wild because it's, you know, I mean, like the strikes, for instance, huge, huge impact financially for the whole city, like cost the city billions because that because stuff's not running like normal. Restaurants aren't doing like catering is not happening. know, prop houses aren't operating, which already they were taking a huge hit from even like the like 2010 ish or something like that. We started having prop houses closing down, I want to say. And it was.

And we had we had like a writer's strike in 2008. No, 2007, think, right at end of 2007. know that because of the office. The office. yeah. Weird hiatus. But I do remember that. Yeah, I lost my job in 2007. I was working at the time on a talk show and it was, you know, I mean, it's, you know, that's what happens. That's the impact, right? And so that one, I believe cost the town like about two billion. So I can't even imagine what this one in 2023 cost us. So that's wild. That's wild.

And then you have all these people who literally have like built their lives up out here that work on stuff and there's just nothing shooting here, but they've like basically built up a life that they can survive out here in the industry where they do their work that they do, that they've been doing for decades or whatever. And it's just not, there's so many people that left.

There's like a ton of people that left and they're just like, I have to reinvent myself at 50 because this life is no longer sustainable, which is wild. So it's just kind of like, it's weirdly I feel, and I myself, like little more background people don't know, like I worked in film and then I also... Working in comics has been a completely like kind of like a big left turn for me.

I'm in my mid 40s right now and so it has been Weirdly, I've always kind of been doing a lot of different stuff and that has served me well It's you know, it's just the fact that I've been sort of a jack-of-all-trades a master of none. I've been able to sort of You know survive I think the master of none thing can be challenged. We may challenge that throughout this conversation, I think. And if you don't mind, Patrick, I'm to try to dig us out of this hole here.

I wanted to double check and make sure everything was good for you. Good with you on your end there in L.A. But this conversation, I hope, is going to be sort of a reprieve if we can help or at try to provide that a little bit, because we're going to spend the next 35 to 40 minutes just putting you on a pedestal and buttering you up. if we may. You know, and the last time we talked, as I said earlier, was around the initial release of Beneath the Trees where nobody sees.

And what proceeded to happen since that release has been this insane year with twenty twenty four was this insane year for you, think. I see it from the outside as a fan. was just wild to see this great instant success. Yeah, it was great to see. It was insane to see this again. Mega success. You know, garnered yourself an Iser nomination for best new series last year. And it's, you know, it's gotten a ton of commercial and critical success.

So it's sort of a big question here for you, Patrick, but how have you been adjusting internally to like the uptick and success and attention? It's been really overwhelming in a good way. I'm very proud of this book and how well it's done and obviously elated that the success has been so great, but it's also the type of... I'm not used to this at all.

like I'm like, I am really trying to temper it by not thinking about it too much and not letting myself go sort of spiral out with my... in my head of just like trying to maintain anything. You know what I mean? It's strange because I don't like the big concern. So if nobody knows yet, like it has been announced we're doing a book two for Beneath the Trees and I'm in the middle of that right now.

And at the start of scripting for that, was that was just my immediate like sort of, you know, concern was that I was gonna get to in my head about like, man, I hope the follow-up. is gonna be well received. And then you start thinking about how it's gonna be received, and at that point, I feel like you're in trouble.

And so I sort of pumped the brakes and then just kind of took a look at the story itself and what it needed to be versus if there's anything I should lean on from the first book, you know what I mean, that did work or whatever.

The bit, mean, just to take a step back, the stuff that I was the most surprised about was the stranger elements that I put into the story that I personally didn't think were going to resonate with readers necessarily, but I put them in because I never thought I'd have another chance. I was like, well, this is a book that I make. Like, let me make it as much me as I can. Let me put the weird stuff in there. if they want to, if they want to push back.

Like if editorial was to push back, I'll let them make a case for it, but I'm just going full steam ahead to see what I can get in here. I felt it was necessary, but I felt like some of it's strange. So the fact that it was well received, was just like blew me away. And then I guess that was my sort of North Star in terms of going forward, right? that it was like, well, if I guess it's just the whatever the weird thing that's talking to me in my head, like I should be following that.

then, yeah, let it get weird. And then, I guess, and then just let it, know, maybe I am gonna fall on my face, but at least I was just being myself. Yeah, you're genuine. Can you give us some, some of those weird things? Can you, can you tell, give us a couple. for sure.

The two biggest ones for myself were issue three, which follows Melody the Butcher and then her sort of secret life that she's been, this interior life of grief that she's been dealing with and her deceased husband and how she deals with that specifically. And then also issue five, where it's Samantha kind of having like the dark night of the soul. issue where she's wrestling with a lot of, you know, I guess like literal internal demons, so to speak.

like the the that those were like I remember writing issues. So issue five is like almost all of it's in the second person with the narration, which I didn't even know I was going to do until I started writing it. I was like, I guess it's in the second person. And so I and I just kind of rolled with it and it. Again, that was definitely one of those, I don't think I should do this, but I guess I'm gonna. Because it felt necessary as I was doing it.

And then I just waited to hear what editorial had to say about it. And Maggie Howell was my lead editor. And again, they were great. IDW was wonderful. They didn't push back on anything. They just made stuff better. All the notes were better. IDW, where weird happens. dream. It was a total dream in terms of like I got so lucky with just the who you know how the how the book was received over there and everything.

So the yeah they didn't they didn't have a problem with it so I just kept going with it and yeah but those for sure were the two weirdest that I was like there this is I don't know how readers are gonna react to this especially after the first issue came out and I was like well they're gonna get to three and be like what the hell is this and then and then five and I was like five is gonna be I don't know what they're gonna make a five, but you know, we'll just whatever.

Because also like five isn't even necessarily like, it's kind of like a grizzly whodunit is the setup. And five isn't that at all. Like it's more of like she's haunted by sort of her past in a way. then she's having this struggle with herself and like there's no like murder necessarily. there's a definite like a fight to the death. guess that happens in it. But I mean like the... Yeah, the sort of strangeness and everything, I don't know.

But I mean, but yeah, as far as I know, like a lot of people were really into it. They felt it was as compelling as the other issues and stuff like that. So, some of it, I mean, to be honest too, like those were the moments as a creator that I was so excited to put in because they're not necessarily like, they're not as easily digestible. And so they tend to be things that the reader will take with them beyond the book and might have like spinning around their head.

And those are honestly some of my favorite elements to put into my work. Like just those moments that you'll carry with you. yeah, same thing with in the film work too. Like if I can put those moments in like there it's, yeah, I just feel like really interesting art to me is the stuff that you take with you from. on it. absolutely still am stuck on. There's the scene where Samantha is like burying the body and then the bear comes into the scene.

And that is that for some reason still like lives rent free in my head and just like plays over. It's just it's just such a surreal. I don't even know. I still don't know how to describe it. It's just like a surreal yet powerful. introspective moment that you're just trying to like understand in this universe while Samantha's kind of doing the same exact thing, you know, and it just, it just implanted itself. I don't know if you've ever described what that means. I don't. Here's the thing.

I want that to be like your rosebud. I don't want you to explain it. I want that. I want that to just live rent free in all of our heads forever. And then we just sort of speculate on it forever. Like that would be my hope unless you've already talked about it in which none of this matters. But I kind of hope that it is. I've discussed, I mean I've discussed like my inspiration for it. I'm not, I've been very hesitant to spell out like what it means for me specifically.

But the, but it, but you know a lot of the, I think I can't remember if I mentioned this last time or not, but the obviously like children's storybook stuff was a big inspiration. And the specifically Richard Scarry's series of books about Busytown. And there's a book. that he did one of the Busytown books called What Do People Do All Day?

And on the cover of that is a, it shows a bunch of stuff and one of the segments is a little series of shops and one of the shops is a butcher shop with a pig that's the butcher and they have sausage links and the window and you're just like, this is so twisted. I mean obviously it was very tongue in cheek but at the same time a lot of children wouldn't think twice about it I would imagine.

But it seems so insidious to put it in a children's book and then that honestly was like the big inspiration for melody the cat the butchers like there's got to be a butcher and then also there was the They you know, obviously in existence of some sort of food animal in the busy town universe And I was like and then you also see like pets like they have like dogs and stuff that they're walking or cats or And so I was like, well, there's like, you know, it's like Pluto and goofy or whatever.

We've got like the two types of animals. Like, let's definitely do that. And I honestly just want just because of those two things. That's why I wanted to have regular animals. And then the more I thought about it, I was like, well, like we should have like nobody hip to what Samantha has been doing, except for like the animals, the actual animal animals. And they see the truth of Samantha in some way. Right.

Well, they're at least on the very base level, they literally are aware of what Samantha's doing. Even if they don't, they're just animals. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're like witness to it in their own animal way. And I was like, that's interesting. And then that was my starting place with that stuff. There's also the element of like your animalistic side is looking at you as your.

I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah the fact that yeah, I was very specific was like it has got to be a bear that's looking at Samantha and then the more and I didn't even know where I was gonna go with it yet as I was writing issue one, but like obviously like it sort of bloomed into a larger thing but But that was very yeah, it was just kind of a it was a funny weird thread to follow And it really I mean I was really happy with how it paid off Yeah, paid off for me.

So, yeah, you've already kind of mentioned this in the conversation so far. You said that, you know, IDW did announce the sequel to Beneath the Trees called Rite of Spring. So it's a it's part of their new horror imprint IDW Dark. So far, the only detailed tease about the sequel is that we are jumping eight years in the future, placing Samantha in the 1990s. We're not going to try and mind you for insider information, but is there anything?

significant about this next story being set in the 90s that you can kind of give us an appetizer. Yeah, for sure. Like, I definitely am leaning into the context of the 90s, which is very similar to like the US of the 90s. And it takes place in the US, but it's like slightly different. If you really want to go deep in it, like if you look at the calendar and issue in the first book, it's off from our calendar by a couple of days. Like it doesn't match up by a couple of days. You know what I mean?

Like because it place in September of 1986. and the days don't match up right. And so I made it slightly askewed so that there were animal people and you could play, there's no town called Woodbrook in Vermont. There's no city that looks like New York that's nearby, you know what I mean. And so in regards to that, I kind of wanted to keep it loose, but at the same time, I do want to have those cultural moments that we were going through.

in the 90s and like, and this was, this was set in the 80s, obviously. So I was like, one, I wanted to have a big time jump. And then as I thought about it, was like, well, it's set in the 90s. What would that mean? So if it's like 1994, like globalization is starting to happen. We're losing a lot of like factory work and stuff. And that's going over overseas, you know?

And then also the internet is a thing like, especially in the States, they were becoming connected and we, there's, you know, a lot of. Yes, exactly. And then also there was a a boom in real estate with with suburbs exploding and the and like forest clearing to make room for, you know, corporate land development and stuff like that. So like there's like all these elements that felt like that was like, her world's like getting smaller and it's becoming a problem.

Like what would that what would that setting? What would the story be like in that setting? And also, of course, we have everyone who survived the first book is eight years older. The children have grown up. It just felt like it was really rich to make that jump. And then also have something for folks that are aware of it, could kind of sink their teeth in two in terms of what the 1990s in the US. Yep. A little bit of that. little bit of. And also, made it. And it's not to say like.

It's nostalgia, but then also it's something that I still feel like is a direct line to where we're at right now. Yeah. And we're still dealing with the fallout of like, well, the 80s, to be honest. But like, but I mean, you know, anyway, so. particular leadership that was involved around that time frame. This might be kind of a big question.

I'm just curious based on what you just said there that, you know, with the 1990s and sort of, the reflection of the 80s and then now we're into the 90s, you said that her world is getting smaller. It feels like this world is just rich of different interpretations of where you can take it. Do you feel that way? Do you feel like you could continue to work on beneath the trees for as long as people want it?

Or do you feel like right to spring is just sort of the next thing you want to talk about, right? Like, are you just sort of planning up to right to spring or is there much more do you feel that you could potentially go to? could definitely do more. I am of two minds, which was the same way I approached the first book, which is to say, I hope I get to do more.

I have a plan to do more, but I also have a plan to be like, if we get to, like for instance, when I was writing the first book, I was like, if this is it, then let's have it be closure, but not be complete closure. And so that's the same way I'm approaching the second And but yes, I doubt there's like so much there's so much more to that could be done with it I even just after writing the first couple of issues on that first book. I was just like well There's obviously like man.

I could do a lot like there's like so much more we could be doing I don't want to limit myself But at the same time yeah, I like don't want to I just felt like would be such a face plant to be like, and there's obviously like so much more story that has to be told and then be like, and you never hear from me. It's like, like, let me just, you know, let me just bring it to a sort of close. And so the same thing, same thing with two. I definitely.

Yeah, I mean, it's I feel like, I don't know, it seems kind of it seems like you're you're sort of tempting fate at that point if you if you sort of, you know, plan too far. you know, meticulously. And I feel like I'm being a bit presumptuous because I think that there's so many different aspects of Beneath the Trees that are so open to creation, like creating more and then and also like being adapted. Is there any kind of talks of adapting Beneath the Trees into any other format?

It's so there's definitely been like there's definitely been talk.

There's been talk about doing a series has been talk about doing a film and I think the most recent thing that had been going around was the film version of it and To be honest, I haven't heard anything follow-up wise from that the deal I have with IDW is like I mean they're they're heading all that up I I believe they just kind of have the rights to run with it and then I get the rights back after a certain number of years basically as kind of how it's just a rights reversion deal that I have.

But the, mean, there's interest, but as far as I understand it, the, it's weird, I guess. And for those execs that would be the people calling the shots, I guess it would be weird for them. I completely appreciate that. To me, I feel like it would do really well as a thing. But at the same time, I'm also very not precious about it.

And if it if it like for instance, if it does happen and it's not really the version of the thing that I would want it to be I have the book already and it was exactly like I wanted it to be and so so anything else is sort of just you know, Icing on the cake or if it's weird and not really that well done then it's like well, it's you know, that's was that thing I made it as a comic and it should be read as a comic type of you know, to be it's it's fine.

I have no I have no drive to try and do something with it myself. do want to be involved if I can be, because I would like to help offer guidance as a supervisor producer or even writing. I would write the scripts. You obviously have experience in that realm already, so. Exactly. That's kind of like what I was kind of getting at. But. Like. I definitely don't want the pressure. Make it successful because there's so many other.

I know there's so many different moving pieces when you once you get into whatever there's like just all these other you know if it's animated then you know it's going to be animated you know animators working with it I don't know what the if it's going to be a 3D or if it's going to be just a 2D thing or it's going to be stop motion or what and. What would you think would be the most, like your, if you could choose, what would be the format? Movie, TV, I a series would be good.

I would totally just do it like as the six episode series and then do it stop motion. And that's the way I would do it. so that it felt like, so it felt really tactile. And because I feel like that's really important to the vibe of it. Yeah. I was sort of viewing like, you know, the old PBS cartoons like Arthur and sure, Franklin, like I was thinking like those maybe that kind of vibe. But obviously you're the expert in it. don't I don't have any real say in it.

I mean like, yeah again though, not precious. could totally... I mean that's go Japanimation. All right. Yeah I feel like all the anime kids would love this. Yes, absolutely. think like to speak on this and I want to get in. This is sort of my loose transition into free for all. I think both of these could very easily be adapted into like an adult animation style. Right.

And again, this being my segue into that next topic here free for all, which is your new one shot giant size one shot over only press hit shelves on March 26th. It'll actually be coming out the week that this episode is coming out. And this tells the story of a world at peace housing, food, education, healthcare, all the basic requirements for living are now provided by the world finance league and is being being funded. What's that? Luda Chris kind of world is that World beyond worlds.

Impossible. Things are happening over here. And it's all funded by a lottery. And this lottery has the wealthiest citizens in the world being picked randomly and given a choice to either donate half their funds and their assets to the greater good. When I hear the greater good, think of of of. it's not fun. Calling yourself a community that cares. But we do care Nicholas all about the greater good How can this be for the greater good? How can this be for the greater good?

The great good Of the world or they will fight to the death to keep it all so among these trillionaire billionaire Gladiators there are two former lovers square off in this global arena to settle those their differences once and for all now Patrick Saying all that, this is a two part question that I have for you here. Was there a particular moment in history that sort of prompted this idea? And then part two of that question is, can we make this a real thing like tomorrow?

Like, can we make it a real thing? So part one, the book was basically born out of frustration following the 2016 US election. I just felt like a lot of the turmoil had this central kernel that it was wrapped around that was like income inequality. It felt like a lot of it was this really frustrated feeling that a lot of it seemed to be tied to income inequality and then the problems that came out of basically.

And I and I was just like, man, it would be, you know, awesome if we could solve income inequality, obviously. I mean, we've been dealing with it forever. Ever, basically. But what I mean, but the the, you know, in 2010, I think it was Warren Buffett and Bill Gates started this thing called the giving pledge. And it was like, hey, we want to try and, you know, convince rich people to donate half of their wealth. Like 50 % of your wealth. It's called the giving pledge.

Let's sign you up and you know and have you promise to do that and that was their big thing and it would be like 50 % of their wealth in given to like philanthropy like so that was their idea which is problematic in and of itself like that just having the whole rich savior thing Is a whole notable sidebar that issue for now, but the but it was just in and of itself. I was like Well, I mean, yeah, or they could just pay their taxes.

I mean, it was like, it's, you know, basically like if they could what if like what if they gave like 50 % of their wealth? And I was like, well, I mean, I guess that would be a step in the right direction. But then I was like, it would be like and then my mind immediately just went to like a sort of Paul Verhoeven version of like what that would be. And it was like, oh, yeah, upon pain of death. Like that would be like that would be the thing.

I was like, no. Like what if it was like you could keep it all but you had to fight to the death for it? And I was like, that would be interesting. And I was like, cause you know, like some people would refuse to give any money away even though they can never spend it in a lifetime. And so that's kind of where it came from. And at the time I also just wanted to make something that I was honestly just gonna put out. just going to put it out digitally just to just be done with it.

I just wanted an example of my work just to make it. And so I kind of had that cathartic drive to just do something at the time. And I wrote it down relatively soon after that. Now, honestly, I didn't finish it till much later, but the but that was was kind of how it all came together. Was it on your website for free for a bit? was. Yeah, like way back when I first finished it.

Like and then it goes to zoop Yeah, and then we went to Zoop and after Beneath the Trees came out, Zoop asked if I'd ever want to print it. And I was like, yes, like that would be great. Let's do what, you know, I was definitely curious about their platform. So I gave that a shot. then, and then right when that campaign stopped, I had people that were like, and I was tabling a bunch during the year. And so after the campaign, they were like, this free for all looks cool. Can I get, I buy that?

I was like, well, it's not, we did a campaign. They're like, great, what do I sign up? was like, it's. It's actually already done. And I had like so many more people that were like, oh, OK. But then it was around that time, Hunter Gorson from Oni reached out and was like, hey, what are your plans after the ZOOP campaign is done? And I was like, well, don't. She's going to live on my hard drive again. I don't really have a plan. They were like, well, could we give it a home at Oni?

And I was like, yes, we could. So felt super blessed that he even reached out about it. so that's yeah, that's how it came to find This release with Oni and they have like totally put a ridiculous amount of muscle behind it They've been great and and it's just like I don't know.

I feel very lucky basically, like I've had this amount of luck that's popped up around the end of 2022 and I've just been riding this wave of Just really good fortune that I'm I'm very happy to take as long as it lasts, because I know it doesn't last forever. Again, we've been sort of speaking on this entire conversation of that, that exact wave and to sort of speak on Oni as well. My gosh, what, do they, what have they gotten the water over there? was early part of only saying.

It's so their whole slate for the year is awesome. And it's been again, just very good fortune on my end to be included in that somehow. a headline to get Patrick. What are you talking about? I mean, feel like I mean, even as we're speaking, I think today out of Alcatraz came out and it's so good. It is so good. I yeah, I ended up I put it on my poll list as soon as I read issue one because I was just like, this is like I want it.

One, I want to just read it with my own hands because I do prefer that. And then two, it was just like it's pitch perfect, you guys. Like, it's so good. I was really blown away by it. and have enjoyed the work from both of the creators for quite a while in their own regards. So it was just like, you know, and they make a hell of a team. So it's been really fun. but also many other books, too, that they got coming up and we were at Comics Pro in February.

And so I went along to help, you know, spread the word about the book. But also just as I got to sit in on their presentation and they just have an awesome slate. And it's a ton of really cool creators and it's just really neat. I love that you're just trying to distract us from from talking about your book more. And I don't know why. And just full transparency to the listeners, Chris and I had a chance to read Free For All, which is what it's what forty six pages. Fifty six pages.

It is perfect. It is. It is great. is so timely. It is entertaining. Weird. It is. It is a little weird. the tightest 56 pages you've ever read. It's all right there, all you need. Like I blew through that thing twice and I'm just like, this is exactly, this is such like a, like a current, like palette cleanser with everything that's going on in the world. is so like, this is the perfect time for it to come out for people to hold. Yeah. Yeah. It's great.

So like, again, I, the characters are like, just so interesting. The premise is, is I want to say in capturing or just, I don't know. I want to go back and read it again, because just the, it's like this interesting mix. It's like an amalgamation of what would you call it? The gladiator gladiatorial combat and the rich eating the rich.

And it just meshes it together in this world that also is like, again, a commentary on our just disgusting intake of social media and screens and just like, It just hits on so many things in the right way subtly. And I just want to read it again. So like, I'm telling people, like, if you, if you're not on board or you haven't seen free for all on your pull list or at your shop, go get it.

Cause like, you don't want to miss this one because like, it'll just make you it's violent, but it'll make you feel better. It's a weird thing to say. Well, that's very, very sweet of you to say all that. I really sincerely appreciate it. was definitely a... another thing I should mention too, like inspiration-wise, was Scott McCloud's Destroy. Are you familiar with that? It was sort of a cathartic thing he did.

was this oversized comic of these two superheroes just like going at it over Manhattan. And they basically tear Manhattan apart as they're fighting, which is funny because like it was done very ironically when he made it. And it was then basically replicated unironically in the Superman, the final fight of the first Superman. And I remember watching, mean like this is like destroy, nobody, but this is not tongue and cheek. This is like very whatever. But anyway, it's a, and again, like.

Destroy from Scott McCloud like if you haven't checked it out like please check it out. It's a total masterclass It's hard to get your hands on but it's around And if you can find it like I highly recommend it.

It's it's super smart and well done Mine is not nearly as well done But it was very much inspired by it because it was this sort of oversized one shot that he did that was just kind of he was just getting it all out you know what I mean, and it's funny because I think even like I want to say like I'm probably getting this wrong, it was something like Alan Moore had sort of spoken about how it like it had unwittingly ushered in the age of like image superheroes or something

like that, like this comic did. But yeah, so anyway, that was part of it too. But I very much wanted to do something that, you know, got my frustrations out and also was something that was. I very much wanted it to be easy to read, just easy on the eyes as you made your way through so that you could kind of just devour it in a quick sitting.

But I'm really glad to hear that you're revisiting it because that was the other hope is that it would be like a multiple reader, which is what I was kind of aiming for. It absolutely is. Absolutely. It's one that makes you like look at it and then like, you're like, huh? And then you go back to a certain page and you just find yourself like rereading through it just to see what you kind of miss.

Because again, like I'm thinking about all these, they're like, there are people who are, and I'm again, not spoilers, but there's like people who are witnessing this big event. I have so many things to say that I don't want to give up, but there's like, there's, there in the audience and they're still looking at screens. Yeah. Also like. Let me just real quick talk about one thing I love about any good story is resolution. And in this book, there's just this simple like bow at the end of it.

And it's not, it's not something that's flashy. It's not something that's big, but you go through this story and you're like, this is interesting. this is interesting. What could happen? And then it just wrapped up with this nice, again, simple bow and it just works. So wow. again, like that's what, again, you're giving somebody who is like a resolution whore, like a much needed like fix, you know?

Yeah. And you know what I love about it, Patrick, honestly, besides the entire 56 issue span of the book is you sort of front load the beginning half of the book with a lot of information. You let people know what's going on. And then like the last 12 pages is just as a brawl. is back and forth the two combatants. And again, we're going to try to say this for the possible. That's like really cable guy. It's just back and forth action.

And as Aaron said, it's very satisfying that this final, you know, I would say four or five pages for sure. Thanks guys.

I'm glad that worked out and I definitely, I mean it was a big, you know, I definitely wanted to paint the picture that this was like a globally, you know, watched thing that and in the future it was just so like, you know, it was sort of the idea behind, you know, going to see movies, whenever I go to see movies after digital theaters started happening, it felt like I was just in like a big living room. Bye!

Like there's this weird sense that like the sort of magic of the theater stopped a little bit because I was like, so we're just watching like a projector from like that could be like a TV screen. But because it wasn't film anymore, it was like less magical to me. And then there was this and everybody's just on their phones, except for like some theaters, obviously, that are a little more like strict about it. But like, and large, like screens are kind of everywhere.

And then any time you go and see like a. show like a live music show. It's just like a sea of just screens. I mean, it's. I'm not living it. You're literally watching it through your. I know.

Yeah, and it was so strange to me to be like this is what we're always gonna see and so it's it was funny to me that it was gonna be like we're just You know, had to be like a part of it and then also the idea that like It was I don't know that there was no real difference between like experiencing it They're experiencing it on the screen or whatever sort of weird video apparatus thing you have but then also it was like the Truman Show

you know, move of like every, you kind of get to see everyone in their own weird little, you know, domestic bubble of how they're watching this thing. And at the same time, it's like, it's resonating with people, right? Across all these different ways too. And so like, was very interesting to be like, I mean, the starting place where the society was in my mind, kind of like a almost like Star Trek, like post-scarcity.

thing where like, you know, money hasn't been abolished yet, but it's probably not far away. And it was, you know, so in many ways it seemed utopian, but then obviously like this, this weird fight to the death thing being at the center of it all was very problematic. totally desensitized to everything. Yeah, exactly.

That's what stood out to me because I, and before we move on to the next question, cause I know, and you know, I know we don't want to take all your time this evening, but it felt like this was supposed to have been like, again, a further developed society that was, they had figured out how to pay, how to, to, you know, solve like sickness, homelessness, you know, hunger, like all this money was being poured into society by the rich and yet

This is still like, this is such a mirror to society because we don't change. We're still animalistic. We're still just suckers for the screen and the entertainment and the death and the gore. So like, that's what I felt it was like it was like, could tell me all day long that in the, future in Star Trek, yes, there's no money. Everybody's so evolved and educated, but I guarantee you there's still some instinctual darkness that lays, you know, believe beneath the trees.

Yeah, there has to be there has to be um, and it felt like that and to me I mean This is obviously like the the satires turned way up on this thing, right? But the but at the but at its heart though. Yes That was like it's it seemed impossible to imagine A version of this that didn't have like what's the problem? You know, it's like yes, this all seems great. But like what's the what what's still a problem? You know what I mean?

um, and I feel like um, I i'll also say like this this one shot is very much like it's I mean, I told the story I wanted to do and I was done with it. I'm very excited that it exists as it is. But again, the same thing with the first book, Beneath the Trees. Like, it's possible I might revisit this thing at some point in my life. Because like, why not? You know what mean? Because there's like obviously so much that you could do with it. But it's billionaire that can die.

Yes. We can always kill a billionaire. The, it felt like it would be, you know, just something that there's just so much, it was just so rich in terms of, you know, where you could do with it, whatever. Absolutely. Now, let's dig a little bit deeper real quick because there's one thing that we want a little bit of clarification on. So the bottom of Ted's breastplate reads, De Melior Cider, which we think translates from or translates to from a better star.

It feels like you make a specific point to show the reader that towards the beginning of the issue, first, like, were we correct with the translation? And then second, what does that phrase mean to you? Lord, it was. I have to do a deep dive on this. It's a good question, you guys. There was a reason for it. I'm trying to remember. way that I sort of interpreted it was from a better star, meaning that Ted throughout the story.

And again, without spoilers, he, sort of feels though, as he deserves this stuff, he deserves to be a billionaire. He deserves to have all this money. You could sort of see that through his actions and from a better start, you mean you could, you could say that earth is a star, right? Like a star to me sort of feels like a place rather than like a ball of fire floating in space. Right. So, from a better star, just, sort of interpreted it that like he is He's from a better place.

He's a better person. He deserves to have this money, the fame that goes along with him participating in the free for all, all the things. I mean, yeah, I think that's fair. me, Ted Brooks, just in general, is basically a very much like... He feels like he's very much a self-made man. And his... I mean, the main problem he's got going on is hubris. He just feels like he's untouchable. And he's also essentially a psychopath.

And I feel like he feels essentially ordained by... all of history and all when you get into that weird as you read the book, there's these pages that like I don't want to ruin them if you haven't seen them because they're kind of fun to come upon. like they're these wild likes like flayed head pages that get into the mantras that are going on inside them. And with Ted, it it very much was. I found it. I think you guys. Sorry. I'm like looking at the same time that I'm talking.

So Demi Liori Sidere, I think, had to do with like Kings and the and the main reason why we asked was because it feels like there's a couple panels where it is so prominently shown that you were trying to show it to them. And as we've talked about, like through beneath the trees, we were talking about the calendar. It doesn't feel like a lot of things end up in your books on accident.

No, it was like yeah, I mean yes and good catch it definitely was part of here it is Yeah, I think I mean Demi Lloris Adary I think was it was from it was the coat of arms From Pope Innocent the seventh it this is like the 1400s but it was I think it was very much like a The idea of it being like ordained by God to sort of be this leader. And his own mind was sort of like, without fault. And so that's part of the reason why I wanted him to, he has a very like old school Roman frame of mind.

And I feel like he couldn't, you know. He like it's impossible for him to not think that he's just like basically player number one in his own video game if you're sort of take a line that's been said about some other billionaires of recent time and so the the that was the main the main reason for it the I feel like the the armor itself was sort of important enough to take time and I did different versions of what it might be For Ted, very much was Roman inspired.

And then with Luella, it was more Aztec. And it felt like it was culturally sort of part of their own ancestors. So it felt like that was kind of where to reach from and put something in there. It's mask sort of reminded me of like a dark elf from like the Thor comics. It has this very particular pointy eyed view, almost like stoic, unemotional. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It's almost like he's putting on the mask of an emotion in a way. I don't know. There's probably a more romantic way to say that.

It was totally just like, was this very stoic thing is why he goes into the fight with with Luella too. The idea that he would just sort of be, I mean, that's how he feels on the inside is kind of how I felt about it. And then he's doing it because it's very, it's interesting because with this, especially with this setup, with this gladiator setup, there's a theatricality to it, especially for Ted. And then also with the first billionaire that gets thrown into the fight.

He is sort of like at the camera. Yeah, Cam Miller. hoarding children's cancer medicine. Like... That was also, I think that was exactly at the time when that I felt I had some feelings about. yes. What's his name? Yeah. The guy who was was EpiPens that he was boosting up prices. Yeah, I think. Yeah, I can't remember his name. He doesn't he's not even worth remembering. Honestly, everybody look it up if you want to. But he's a piece of shit.

The thing that I saw about the about that and the armor and things, some of these things that you put in there was to me, it felt very important to these, like especially like a lot of the characters that they all had their own like internal mantras or like philosophies. it seemed like each of these characters was was so driven by their own philosophy and his. He felt like kind of like what you said, he kind of felt like he was.

quote unquote, chosen by God to be like almost, you know, the, the, the chosen one, but he just had that. That's why he was like, the lottery. He just knew that he was going to win. that's in his brain. He knew he was going to win because he felt that his philosophy was, was much more like basically his, his value, his philosophy, his ethics were like so much more important than everybody else.

He just like, he just walking around the arena, like fucking people out part of my language, but Like, and, and, because it felt like it felt like everybody had their own, again, mantra that was like important to them and kind of like carried them through the story. 100%. Yeah. And it felt that to me it was, that was why he was so good at business. You know what I mean? Like that was like, he's, he's as ruthless as you need to be.

Ted's like a lot of billionaires, seems like, which is that a lot of money at some point is no longer important to them. It's power. and we're seeing that right now, everybody. They turn on the local news. like, yeah, it's it's interesting. I mean, speaking of it. And again, we mentioned this a couple of times already. And so I obviously made this a while back. Like the inception of it was definitely like a while ago. And it couldn't have been it's like even more prescient.

Like I even like had thought of it at the time, like to like the degree like it's nuts. The richest person in the world is literally like firing people. Did Patrick Horvath just tell the future? And so the I mean, shall see. But the the the thing that's wild about it to me as well is just that the the oh, man. Oh, I just read this.

The I don't know if you've read this yet, but there is the book Careless People that just came out from Sarah Wynne Williams, who was a former foreign policy person for Metta. But before they were metal, like when they were just Facebook and then she came on around 2010 and just literally just came out like last week. It's a tell-all memoir about Is she the one that was doing the ghost writing for a lot of the Republicans? No, I think of the right person. OK. I think this is somebody else.

She's New Zealand. She's from New Zealand. anyway, so she kind of just has like, you know, a ringside view of like, where she was just in it, you know, basically while they kind of came to power, like Facebook came to power. and the, know, I'm listen, there's probably issue that you could have just in her own participation with all this stuff, et cetera. But I feel like it's a fairly like, you know, accurate portrayal of a lot of what was going on.

And it just kind of struck me that like we're just have been, you know, in the modern era, just kind of trying to ride the Bronco as like billionaires are just doing whatever the cost effective thing to do is that's their plan. it's and yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's like, well, what's wild to me, too, is there's this wonderful podcast called it's also a radio show on KCRW out here called Question Everything.

And they did a round table discussion about different journalists whose beat is like millionaires, billionaires. Like they have been covering them a lot in different aspects of everything. one of the main discussion that kind of comes out from this is that a lot of them, like the former guard of billionaire was sort of like the Trump era where it's like they're all concerned about legacy. or getting your name on things, whatever. And the new guard is more like, so the apocalypse is gonna happen.

I just wanna know how much money I need to survive it and where do I build the bunker? That's the main, and the irony is that the apocalypse is happening because the way they're amassing their wealth is kind of facilitating it. Yeah, yeah, so like, and so. It just, I don't know, it's so wild to me to find ourselves in these times where we're just like, it's just crazy, it's like every day's something new.

And it just seems to be going faster and faster and I feel like something's gotta give at some point. And who knows what that's gonna be. But it just blows me away that this is the world where this book's coming out. Patrick, I'm going to try to dig us out of this billionaire hole because I have one more segment for you here. We have one more segment and it's called it's a brand new segment that we just premiered with Matt Fraction and Michael Allred last week.

It's called Hey Kids, It's True or False Time. All right. Now the name is pending. OK, it's not a great name, but we'll we're workshopping it currently and we'll we'll come up with something better. But the name of the game here, Patrick, is that it's a speed round of 10 true or false questions. And there only two rules. Two rules are You have to answer as quickly as possible and you can only answer true false. All right.

Now, generally the kicker with this game is that if you answer more than eight questions, we had seven for those two, but it was too easy. So we decided to up it up it to eight questions. Right. If you get eight questions right, we will donate our entire month's worth of Patreon money to the hero. man. So unfortunately, unfortunately, fortunately, both Matt and Michael got seven questions right. Eight questions, right.

So they've already got our money for the month, but we still wanted to play with you because we curate these questions for you. So are you ready to play our true pulse game? Okay. All right. Let me get my song. Let me get my music ready. And this is actually this is Aaron's first time playing the game as well. So it's the first time for both of both you guys. All right, Patrick. Here we go. Question number one. California has more billionaires than the rest of the United States combined. true.

It's actually false. California has 186. The rest of the United States has 573, but that's a good, they are leading by a lot. I guess is the main point there. Question number two, the average speed of a brown bear is 50 miles per hour. true. The average is 35 miles per hour. Let me give you a 35 35 miles per hour. Yeah I was gonna say 30 something but I was like it'd be cool if it was 50. Yeah. All right, here's a layup David Lynch question for you here, okay?

All right, David Lynch's 1986 film, Blue Velvet. Dennis Hopper, his character, Frank Booth, is the only person to say fuck in the film. Falls. It's actually true. He's the only person to say fuck. That's true. Yeah. He actually says in every sentence but one sentence in the entire in the entire movie of all of his lines. That's all right. Question number four. We're not doing good, Patrick. We're over. Okay, you should have hired me on first. You Question number four to be honest.

These are a little bit harder. They're not as easy as what Matt and Michael had Guitars composer Glenn Branca was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania That is true Yeah, Glen Branca's awesome. Yep. Question number five. Blood is approximately 30 percent of the adult human's weight. It's real. It's false, only 10%. I can't. I mean like... okay. You All right. The first, okay, here's question number six.

The first universal monster to get his own film or to get their own film is Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hyde. That is true. It was the 1913 movie. Herbert Brennan was the first one to put out Universal. 1932, I was gonna say 1920s Frederick March one. Oh, far out. Question number seven, Wolverine, the jungle adventure is written by Mike Mcnoya. That is correct. That is false, is written by Walter Simonson, but it is illustrated by Mcnoya. Yeah, Big Neon Knocks it out of the- Yes, appreciate it.

Haha Question number eight. We have the first slice bread machine was invented in Iowa yeah, true. That is true. Yes. Otto Frederick. Rolwalder. I think it's how you say that last name. Yeah. Yeah. It was invented in Davenport, Iowa. That was the first single single loaf bread slicing machine. Question number nine. The 2011 film Drive features Ryan Gosling, Ron Perlman and Christina Hendricks. True. That is true. All three star in the film. Last question here.

Number 10. We have the 1982 film Creep Show. was Stephen King's first screenwriting credit. Hmm, false? That is true. It is his very first screenwriting. It's not his first film, but it's his first screenwriting credit. OK, Aaron, what's my math there? Is that was that three questions right for Patrick? three. I plead the fifth. From now on, Aaron, you're in charge of getting you're in charge of keeping the questions of the tallies.

You know, Patrick, I feel like this is not the last time we're going to have you here on the oblivion bar. So we're to try again the next time and see if you do a little bit better. Yeah, listen, I'm game anytime. I had fun doing it. I stopped. It was funny. I remember playing Trivial Pursuit, like young, like way too young and just understanding that I was horrible at it. Yeah. And then and then it set the bar for me to be like, I'm not that good at games. Like very much like, OK, with it.

Sometimes I get a hot streak. That was not one of. I'll tell you, like I'm a big fan of a lot of things. I'm a fanatic. I'd say in a lot of things, but my recall is never great in like trivia settings. So I don't ever judge anybody who's not good at this kind of thing, but. my gosh. Yeah, no. I'd like to be horrible. I'd be like, mortless. Well, Patrick, always a pleasure to have you here on the Oblivion Bar podcast. So excited. you guys, thank you again so much for getting me back on.

Oh, absolutely. a pleasure. Yeah. And I mean, I love your show regardless. So this is a treat. It's a huge treat. Yeah, we love having you on. Let's not wait an entire year next time to get you on. You know, let's get you on for something sooner than that. But, you know, I will say and I think I can speak for Aaron here. I'll say that like it's easy to root for some of these creators.

And I think you are among those like the top of folks that whether we are a fan of the work, whether we would be a fan of the work or not, we would still root for you. But it just so happens that all the things that you've done so far, Patrick, we love. So it's easy. It's super easy. Thank you so much. You guys are the sweetest. Thank you so much When you can get my wife to like want to read a comic, like that is that is amazing. And so like she I don't know.

I don't know if you remember because you were actually you were pretty busy at your at your table when I want to say it was C2E2 and you had these the cards, the the covers. And like I showed my wife the the the covers that you had at your table. And I was like, yeah, it's Patrick. He's been on the show. Like it's amazing. And she's like, what's the book about? And she's like, You have to buy it, buy it. Like that thing's gonna be worth like so much more.

You're never gonna find another one like that, it. So like from the minute, the first minute, like my wife was like super supportive of your comic book as well, which never happened. you are, that is talent, my friend. That's a huge honor. I appreciate that. And yeah, those little trading cards were hilarious Those were like a super sweet special little thing we had for last year. So glad you got that dude Yeah, me too. Again, it's one of my one of my prized thing.

The fact that you you signed it for me, I keep it in the box just so that thing doesn't rub off and I'm good. I'll hang on to that thing forever. Patrick, the last thing I'll say before we had here is, you know, and I meant to mention this earlier when we were talking about sort of this amazing amount of success that you've had since the release of Beneath the Trees is that you handle it extremely well, too.

Like you are still very current in terms of like going on other podcasts, not just ours, but I feel like you're on a show at all times, like at least weekly. You're on some kind of. Right. But also.

Well, I want to say very specifically like at conventions too, like I've witnessed multiple times just sort of there are times where I want to go up and say hello to you and you're already being swarmed by someone doing something and you were just you've always got a smile on the front of your face and you're always really open. Just it's always it's very admirable and really cool to see.

thanks. I, know, I, I feel I may not mention it already multiple times, but again, like this book has been very much a gift to me. Like Beneath the Trees is very much a gift to me. And I don't, I don't, I'm just glad to be here. Like I'm glad I get to do more. And it's, it's just, I mean, like, listen, I've met both of you now. And it's been like in real life as well. And it's just been like, it's huge treat. And I don't know.

mean, I think I mentioned this before too, but like I've done this for just a couple of years now in terms of actually like being with a publisher, et cetera. But it's like the first time maybe ever that I've really felt like I'm doing what I should be doing. so it's it's just like, yeah, I don't know. Like I might disappear at some point. Nobody cares about anything else. I do whatever that's I'm totally prepared for that to happen at some point, but like I'm so happy to be here right now.

Well, if we if we need to look for you, we'll look at the we'll suspect the bear first. Yeah. Well, Patrick, before we let you go, how can folks get all you know, how can they follow your career? Is there anything cool that you have upcoming outside of the sequel to Beneath the Trees? Well, at the moment, yeah, that's the thing I'm working on right now is the fallout to Beneath the Trees.

So I'm working on Rite of Spring and I'm pretty much gonna be like neck deep in that for most of the year probably. I mean, best way to keep in touch with me is like, if you just go to patrickhorvath.com, you can find everything you need there. I've got like a newsletter, if I do have updates, I'll put it on there or you can also follow me on Instagram at CapBirdPlanet so you can follow me. on bluesky at Patrick Horvath and that's honestly like some of best ways to get in touch.

We'll have everything linked in the show notes everybody to make it real easy on you, but Patrick What a pleasure as always. Thank you so much and we cannot wait to have you back on the show at some point down the road I'm looking forward to it you guys. Thank you All righty, there's that conversation with Patrick Horvath, as we said in the intro. What a guy. We're just a huge fan of his top to bottom, as we said a moment ago. He is just the best. So once again, free for all March 26th.

Go grab it. If you haven't read Beneath the Trees for some reason, freaking first of all, yeah, shame on you. But also like go do it now. Stop listening to us and go read Beneath the Trees where nobody sees. love the fact that he just went full on into like do the weird thing. Do the weird thing because that's one thing I think that is so awesome about his work is that it's so genuinely abnormal. Yeah. Authentic, is a good way to describe it.

it's authentic, but it's also authentically like abnormal. It's not the cookie cutter stuff. It's not the same thing. It's not the common formula. It is something that we've never seen. And honestly, it's his weird thing that he created. And I fucking love the fact that he did the weird thing. And I think it's worth saying that like we embrace the weird, right?

Like. One of my favorite memories here on the show is when I said that Fiona Staples matched Brian Kavon's weird and he's like, but she's not weird. And I'm like, you're not hearing what I'm saying, Brian. It's a good thing. Weird is good. Like we like the weird. We want the weird because like you said, it's very it's a singular voice in a landscape of house style. Right? Like when someone has their own voice in the medium, I latched to that.

It's part of the reason why I started really loving, you know, lot of the creators, a lot of my favorite creators working today are because they are so singular in their voice. Like I love a house style. I love a Daniel San Pier and a Dan Mora, but there's something about a Zoe Thurga. There's something about a Trad Moore that really speaks to me on a level that have their own particular style that we really latched to. that's really important.

All right, everybody, well, that'll do it for our conversation with Patrick Horvath. Once again, Patrick, thank you so much for listening. We appreciate you. And we will have you back on the show in the near future. That is the hope. Did that not make you giggle that he's like, I love your show? He said it the first time he was on the show and he said it again here. We'll never get tired of that.

Anytime that we have a creator on that we adore and they say that they a listen to the show that right there. Not not yeah, let alone like it right the fact that they fucking listen. Yeah, it's like Yeah, it'll never it'll never not be awesome. Another double negative for you. But yeah, it's just it's one of those things that the fact that Patrick did so terribly at our hey, kids, it's true or false time doesn't even bother me. The fact that he had a good time. Yeah, he had fun.

That's all that matters. You know, so next week on the show, everybody, it's kind of ambiguous, Aaron, to be honest, not 100 percent of what we're going to do here. I currently have it because at the time of this recording, as you're listening to this, I have already gone off. to Planet Comic-Con in Kansas City and had a great time with some friends that you may know, the first issue club there out in Kansas City.

So we may put together a little interview-a-thon over in Kansas City, but if I, for some reason, don't want to do that, we'll come up with something else. So just keep your eyes peeled and your ears open for something that we plan on in the next week or so. So stay tuned. I know that's super ambivalent and not really committing to anything, but... I'm just saying don't press us on the subject. Stop. Don't worry about it. Like, why do you even care?

You know, and Aaron will be in Iceland, so he's definitely not going to care. It's not like we're be versus the world or anything. Right. You know? Yeah. Scott. you punch the highlights out of her hair. He punched the down over here! Gelato's not vegan. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to the Oblivion Bar.

Aaron, take us out of subscribe to our podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, Audible, iHeartRadio, wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, that's where we'll be. Thank you to our patrons, Alex, Alice, Aaron, Bodder, Chris S, Chris Y, Chris D, David, Elliot, Erica, George, Johnny, Greg, Haley, Hamsticks, Jake, Jeremy, Kyle, Losey, Mac, Miles, Mike, Olivia, Ryan, Robert, Saunter, Sean, Trevor, Travis, Zach, and Brad and Lisa. He punched the highlights out of her hair.

You know, I mean, you know, mean, to out of time, it took to get all these names together. Two hours. If you want to support the show without spending any money, follow on your preferred podcasting platform and a five star rating and or review on Apple podcasts and Spotify helps the show a ton. I don't know how many times I got to say this. One hundred eighty seven times, one million times. Just go and just drop a review. Five star review. Yeah, Please, please. It helps. helps.

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Thank you DJ sky back for our grid theme and don't forget to tip your bartenders 20 % or more or you'll get seated right next to the bathroom door at an all you can eat buffet. everyone, please don't hold us to the tease at the beginning of show. We don't know if it's real yet, but we hope it's real and we cannot keep things a secret here on the Oblivion Bar. So I'm too drunk to taste this chicken. And with that, that'll do it for the Oblivion Bar, everybody.

We'll see you next week for episode 188.