This episode is brought to you by Endless Comics, Games and Cards. Whether you are a dedicated Wednesday warrior or looking for the latest drop of TCG or sports cards, Endless Comics, Games and Cards has you covered. While Endless is known for their large collection of both single issue comics and library of graphic novels, not to mention their monthly comic book club, they also stay fully stocked with singles and sealed product for Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and many others.
What's the best part? You can set up a pull list online at endlessCGC.com and they'll send your books to you. So head on over to endlessCGC.com or check them out on social media at endlessCGC. you Hey, this is Sean Hainsworth, scriptwriter and founder of SHP Comics, and you are listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. um Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host, Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles.
Joining us today is an accomplished scriptwriter and founder behind Sean Hainsworth Productions and SHP Comics. It is my honor to welcome Sean Hainsworth onto the Oblivion Bar podcast. Hello and thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yes, thank you so much, Sean, for being here. It has been, uh I'll say this before we actually get into the conversation. I just, a little peek behind the curtain for the listener is that this conversation should have happened about a month ago.
And because of my hectic uh medical schedule that I'm sure folks that are listening right now already know about, and I won't go into extreme detail about it it is pretty annoying. We had to reschedule. So I guess I want to just publicly say here at the beginning of the conversation, Sean, thank you so much for being flexible.
And I'm excited to talk about sort of your career, everything that you've done up to this point, and then also SHP Comics, which is sort of a newer venture from what I understand. Yeah, yeah, SHP started in about 2021. Okay. So a little bit after COVID and actually that seems like a pretty easy and awesome transition into the first point, which is, and we talked about this a little bit off air, but I want to just sort of get into it now. I want to learn a little bit about you.
I want to sort of expose the listener to your career thus far. Now preparing for the conversation. I know that you've, you've been running the film circuit for a bit. Now you were, you know, like as I said in the intro and accomplished script writer, can you sort of lay it out there for the listener? Let them know what you've done thus far. and sort of, guess, end it into transitioning into the world of comics. Yeah, sure. um So, you know, really it goes back to like the late 80s.
I studied um film, mostly documentary film. was making, um you know, what we thought of as cinema verite before reality TV came in and changed everything. So I actually had made five feature like documentaries back um in the 90s. you know, was always I've just always been a film nerd, probably like a lot of your listeners and like you.
And yeah, so then I had my kids, my first child in 2006, and I kind of just focused on uh my day job, which is in computers, uh but was always writing in the background, always tapping away on some unfinished novel, some short story, some screenplay, some whatever. um And then I got to a certain point, probably around 2000. 18 or 19, where I was like, you know what, if I'm going to do this, it's time to do this, getting any younger.
um So that's when I really started um taking a lot of the ideas I had accumulated over the years and writing them. know, first I started doing screenplays um and, you know, did the screenplay um circuit, you know, won some awards, nothing huge. um And eventually I was at the Austin Film Festival. I think it was in 2021. and just kind of clicked that being a screenwriter is extremely difficult.
you know, I always knew that, but something further clicked, which is that, you know, even if you find a certain amount of success, you sort of lose control of your property, right? Unless you have a lot of negotiation, you know, a lot of leverage going into a negotiation, you generally give up a screenplay and let it go off into the world and people do whatever they want with it, assuming they want it in the first place.
um I was really much more interested in seeing the work through and actually creating, bringing my stories to life. And that's when I really started to think about um bringing them to life as comics and graphic novels. um What's interesting and ironic is after I had made that transition just to jump ahead a little bit, um I ended up writing a screenplay based on one of the comics and then produced that as a short film and then did the film festival circuit. We did really well with that film.
um You know, won awards like 30 or 40 film festivals and, you know, we're up to a million hits on YouTube, which is crazy. So I did kind of come back to, it, but, once again, I control the, was able to control it's a short film. So I was able to, you know, produce it the way that I wanted to produce it and not just sort of send it off into the world and say goodbye. Sure. Yeah, you know, it's interesting that relationship between script writing and comic writing.
I know they're not at all the same. They're very different mediums, but I think that they're like sort of cousins in a way because they're sort of formatted in a very similar way. And I know that a lot of people in the scripts that I've seen sort of on the surface without really diving into them sort of look like a screenplay. And I find that really interesting. And you often will see folks.
I mean, I don't think it's a secret for anyone listening to this right now that There are a lot of comic writers that eventually make that transition over into TV and film. And it seems like a pretty seamless transition. Am I curious? I guess I'm curious and I'm willing to ask you here as well, since you sort of worked in both fields, what is that transition like? Since you sort of came from, you know, the TV, film, documentary field over into comics, how was that transition for you?
It was really great, honestly. you know, as a screenwriter, more and more, you know, it seems like it's frowned upon to write too much camera direction, right? You're not directing the film and uh you're, know, um so you really, even though you're visualizing something in your head, clearly while you're writing it, um you know, the job of visualizing that is up to the directors and photographers that are down the line.
when I write um comic scripts, and actually what's interesting is I use Final Draft. Final Draft, you know, I'm just so used to it. It has, you know, comic script mode, um and it's actually kind of cool because I can then take a comic script and... change it into a screenplay pretty quickly and then my scene headings become pages and panels, but that's easy to fix. The basic structure is there and you can use the beat board and there's other things in Final Draft that I like.
it's interesting in the comic book world, your relationship is really just with the artist or artists who are working on it. And so it depends on your ability to really visualize it, depends on who you're working with. Famously, Marvel scriptwriters will typically just write what happens on the page and allow the artist to visualize it, to visualize the page, the panels, of, that's the artist's job and the writer's job. Sort of the modern Marvel way in a way. Yeah, exactly.
But for me, I really do write um page and panel. um And I spend a lot of time thinking about how the story is told visually, what happens between the panels, the flow of the panels. I really like working with the sketches initially. um And what's fun too is that since I'm sort of at the on top of the pyramid and I can make the decisions for my own little company. um You know, I will tweak the dialogue a fair amount um once the pages are done. um I often find I can trim out some more dialogue.
really try to keep things pretty minimal. um You know, I try not to write uh a lot that isn't dialogue. um You know, it's funny, I've been going back and reading the old DC comics in the 50s and the pages are just... filled with text, right? Which is great, totally different style. But for me, I really want to get out of the way, kind of like you do as a screenwriter and let the visuals tell the story.
um so it's just a very satisfying process of, you imagine something in your head, you give it to a, you know, generally a really talented artist, they add all their, you know, ideas and vision and how it's going to look. And then you bat that around and you come up with something you like. uh And then your story comes to life and it's very satisfying. Even the short film I produced, it was like two hectic, very expensive days with 14 people on set. It's a totally different thing.
And your control over what happens is, um you really depend on all the artists around you, obviously. um But there's something really nice for me about doing a comic book, because it's you and... in most cases, it's just one artist and we just, you know, it's got that intimate, relaxed feeling where we're just going back and forth. We're in that creative space. We're sharing ideas. um And that's a very, you know, it's a nice way to work.
And at end of the day, I get what I, you know, initially imagined to some degree and, you know, but with all of the things that are really talented artists added that I never thought of. So, you know, ah that's great. Yeah, mean comics are one of the more collaborative mediums out there, right? It's uh there's something really cool about getting with someone who is equally if not more talented than you know, the writer and adding their own little spin to it as well.
I think it's just this really cool sort of microcosm where you know, you can put on the page exactly how you want it to look and feel and sound and then an artist is going to come up behind you and they're going to interpret it. in a maybe a wildly different way or maybe the similar way. knows? I and I'm curious, you you sort of spoke on this a moment ago about how when you are script writing, you write the script, you're happy with it, you send it off.
And then it's just sort of almost like not yours anymore. Right. uh In comics, as you said, and I actually have heard you talk about this in other interviews, I think you were talking to someone for Cannes and you mentioned how in comics you can. and you've also sort of talked about it just here a moment ago too, that like you can dream up something and then you can just put it on the page and it's immediately there.
ah Is there a, this might be a hard question to answer, but I'm just kind of curious if maybe you have a preference. Is there more satisfaction with having that gratification of being able to do it when you want to, or is there a certain level of accomplishment when you put it through the system of film and then it eventually gets made and all those things? Well, I have to say, I love the comic book process. I really do. I love film. I love to watch film.
Making film is really... you know, it's a lot of people, a lot of money, a lot of stuff, a lot of moving parts and it can, and I guess, my personality is a little more tame. You know, I kind of really like just working with one or two other people. So I find the comic process much more satisfying. What's interesting though, also is that, you know, so one of the comic books, Woodstake, which is about a vampire at Woodstock in 1969, I wrote as a comic.
I'm sorry, I wrote a screenplay and that's what I took to Austin. And I'd done like, I don't know, seven or eight drafts of that screenplay. And I was like, this can't be any better. I'm done with this stupid script. I never want to look at it again. It's good. But then I started producing as a comic and I was like, okay, wait a minute. Now I take the writer hat off and I put the producer hat on and I'm like, okay, so now we're really telling the story and we're really bringing it to life.
And okay, oh, I can improve this. Oh, I can change that. Oh, you know, it needs a prologue. Oh, you know, whatever. uh And so actually bringing something to life, um you just see the material in a different way and it you to refine it and refine it and refine it. And eventually I will go back and rewrite Woodstake as a screenplay, essentially based on the graphic novel.
um But um it will be way better than that version that I said I could not make any better three or four years ago because there's nothing like. dealing with all of the problems and the minutiae. So why does this person go there? Or how did that happen? And uh how exactly do I visualize that? And is that necessary? And all the questions that come up when you're working through something um make it better at the end of the day. Sure. Can I can I suddenly challenge you for a moment?
This is something I generally do here on the Oblivion Bar. But I'm curious because I actually just saw this pop up on my feed a couple of days ago. And it was Alan Moore, of course, uh famed comic writer, one of the greatest of all time, right? uh Sort of a crazy wizard in today's world. But when is he not been?
uh But he had this sort of uh I think it was a master class that he did not too long ago where he talks about how uh comics can't be uh authentically transitioned into other mediums because if you're writing a good comic, that comic can only do things that comics can do in a very similar way as like prose novels. The best prose novels can only do what prose can do.
And that's I'm saying prose because like that's how I. Sure, yeah, I know some people like why you call it pros it's better than like what my grandma used to call comics which is like not real calm not real reading or whatever, but Maybe you call them funny books. How are your funny books? And I love that term. I will take funny book that because they are they are they can't be funny.
But so to get back, though, like Alan Moore, his thought on like and again, we all know that Alan is a little bit of a pessimist when it comes to this medium, although it seems like he loves it. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that topic of like if a comic is doing exactly what the comic if that comic is going out and making the best comic possible, can it ever properly be? you know, adapted into another medium properly. Well, so I think it's a great question.
And I actually would agree with Alan Moore. I'm sure he he's going to be very gratified by that. Exactly. No, I do think every medium is distinct and what works in it is distinct and comics are I mean, both film and comics are visual mediums, but they work totally differently, I think, you know, your experience and the way they work. um So can a comic be adapted into another medium? Sure, but it's going to be different. It's not going to give you the same feeling.
It's not going to necessarily work the same way. um You know, I think about this too, like, do you remember they remade psycho in the nineties? think it was Gus Van Sant remade psycho shot for shot. And it doesn't feel like psycho and it doesn't work and get it's a shot for shot reconstruction. So in a way it's kind of like even within a given medium, ah it's very hard. to catch lightning in a bottle twice, right? um And so, but yeah, no, I absolutely agree.
And I think, you know, that's why when you go to a movie adaptation of a prose novel or a comic book, I think what we're all hoping for is something that's really good, but not identical because it can't be identical and work the same way, I think. um yeah, I, uh and I love how, I love how comic books work. It's very hard to describe. um You know, there's so much, there's been so much sort of scholarship on film and how film works. And there's been far less scholarship on comic books.
You know, we all go to the Scott McCloud book, which is like the best book ever. um But, you know, I think there's a lot more scholarship to be done about, about how comics really work and getting into the nitty gritty of how our brains kind of, this is your brain on comics. um But it's just a wonderful. medium and actually what I think is great is the graphic novel revolution.
You know now I mean my kids read more graphic novels than prose novels and I think this next generation is really growing up with that kind of reading experience and I think it's to the better right like I think stories are great that way. That doesn't mean you shouldn't read prose novels but every medium is different. So it's nice to see comics getting their due right because for so long you know they were just viewed as you know, trash for kids, right?
And we all know how untrue that is, but um I think there's a lot more work to be done on really exploring, you know, how not true that is and how great these things really are. Mm Well, you know, again, speaking of beautiful transitions, this, think, leads us perfectly into S.H.P. uh So, you know, again, S.H.P. Comics, as we talked about there at the beginning, and this comes directly from your website. So I'm just curious. I want to get a little bit of elaboration if I can.
An independent publisher focused on delivering genre bending stories, combining horror, science fiction, adventure and reimagined classics into daring, intelligent and unique comic books and graphic novels for readers of all ages. Now, to sort of poke at that last part there, you've got. SHP Kids, have SHP on the edge, comics on the edge, excuse me. And then you also have your mature SHP comics as well. uh Let me start off at the beginning though.
Just a little bit, tell me a little bit why the decision was made to create SHP comics. And then also uh sort of the different imprints that go along with that and how's that been for you thus far since creating again in 2021. Yeah, so I mean, once again, I think it came down to control, right? Like when I started thinking about, OK, I want to do Woodstake as a graphic, as a comic book and eventually as a graphic novel. Do I want to shop it around?
You know, at that point, you know, for example, Scout was acquiring and, you know, there are other publishers, image, whatever, who acquire. um And I think that can be great. But in a way, I was like, you know what, I want to. I want to own this process. want to understand this process. I want to learn the business. And I want to retain control and decision making over what I do. um And so it took the leap. It's just like, going to make a comic company. And crazy is that. Sounds so easy.
Yeah, it was not easy at all. It's still not easy. Boy, I need to sell some books coming up, you know? And then diamond filing for chapter all over the world. know, yada, yada, yada. So I think it remains to be seen whether that was a smart decision. But I figured just before kind of once again, just sort of turning my work over to another another entity to manage to market to, you know, Because you never know.
mean, the thing about being a publisher, I think, is that you have to have a slate of titles. Every publisher has a slate of titles, right? And you've got your front list, you've got your mid list, and you've got your back list. And the front list gets all the marketing love, right? ah And you want your mid list and your back list, and you're hoping, if you publish 25 series a year, you're hoping three or four of them make a real dent in the market, they become part of your front list.
And uh so I... That's the business and you can't blame anybody for running the business the way the business has to be run. But if you don't get on that front list, it's a lot harder, right? And you don't have control because you're not spending the marketing dollars. They're spending the marketing dollars, right? So I think that was a large part of it. I had run, I ran a computer consulting business for years. I learned a lot about business.
I was able to tuck away some money, which allowed me to get off the ground. And yeah, I just threw caution to the wind. and jumped basically. For better or worse. We'll see if there's a landing. I'm a big fan of just sort of jumping in the water and seeing how well you swim kind of deal, right? Cause sometimes you find out that you're a great swimmer, right?
And it sounds like you are a pretty good swimmer when it comes to starting this because you've already got, and again, you sort of talked about a couple of them here, Woodsteak being one of them. You mentioned your short film that you had, which I think is an adaptation of Eurotech, correct? Yeah, so Aerotech or Aratech, depending on how you like to pronounce it. um so Aratech is an office comedy about a Silicon Valley startup that makes sex robots that misbehave and need more debugging.
And it's basically an office comedy, but an adult office comedy. But it's not, you know, wall to wall sex. It's a lot of, uh it's character driven. And I think it's a lot of fun in that regard. uh That whole thing started out as a short story I wrote called the SEX 6000. uh which was a very obscure reference to RoboCop, the 6000 SUX. I try to slip in the RoboCop references everywhere I can. But that was from the customer's perspective.
That was like an unboxing video where the robot arrives in the mail, or not in the mail, but delivered and the man. you know, runs into trouble and has to call customer service. And, you know, it's the typical customer service experience that we've all experienced, except there's a sex robot chasing him around the room, trying to whip him, right? Because she's in dominance mode. So uh that was the short story that started it.
um So we did Aerotech one and two, and I decided that we're and Jeff, the artist who's amazing, wanted to do the SCX 6000 as a one shot, just a 12 page one shot we would add as a Kickstarter reward. So we did that. um And once I had the one shot in my hand, I thought, you know what, this will make a really good short film ah because it's basically two characters in a room plus the customer support representative. um And so uh I thought it was just kind of funny. It was easy to get the joke.
And uh so yeah, so we made it as a film technical support. um And that was really fun to go back on the film festival circuit and you attend a bunch of film festivals. And I still think that it's a really good idea at some point for, you know, a television show, you know, because it could be it could go in there's so many directions it could go in. But for right now, we uh we've got our tech. We're working on five for the last issue, which will wrap up the first series.
And that will be um on shelves in October. So, yeah. So that's the the era tech franchise. And in terms of the The imprints. So I had Aerotech, right? Which is 18 plus. And then I wrote another story that was really for my kids. So I have two kids and they're currently 18 and 16. But back when they were a lot younger, I used to pretend that I, don't know where this came from, that I was a character named Baby Zicky.
And I would tell them that I always had these ninja sword fighting adventures while they were asleep. And they would be like, oh, you. you didn't do that, blah, blah, blah. And was just this kind of running gag and it was fun. And I decided to write Zicky as a comic. And what's really cool about it is that I got a manga artist to do the fantasy world.
So basically it's sort of like Little Nemo in Slumberland or whatever where he goes on these adventures when everyone else is asleep and then he wakes up back in his bed in the morning and he's just a little kid. And so that. And I really love that story. mean, it's just kind of great to bring it to life. I just got the graphic novel reviewer copies back and I signed them and gave them to my kids and they've been reading it. that's the thing. But I had this kid's title.
So now I've got Aerotech 18 plus sex robots and Ziggy, kids title. And I wanted to just make sure I separated the marketing from day one. I didn't want kids. who may read Ziki and like it to go to the website and start reading about sex robots, right? That just seemed like a bad fit. uh I thought about separating Aerotech out, like just removing the content from SHP uh and doing like a separate website. But anyway, I decided to settle on the three imprints.
um And so Ziki is kind of my first kids title. Woodstake and The Killing Machine, which is the other one, are my kind of regular SHP comics titles. And then Aerotech is the mature title. And that's how the imprints came about. I don't know how all this stuff came about. I just start doing things and then all of sudden I've got a publishing company. I've got three imprints. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. uh No, I like the strategy here.
I like the fact that you've got different flavors for different people, different strokes for different folks, because, you know, in today's comics, I think one of the bigger complaints and I'm not even sure if I fall in this category, but I do know that there are a decent amount of people who are maybe trying to get into comics or maybe had just gotten into comics and they go straight to Marvel and DC and go, man, this all sounds the same, looks the same, feels the same.
I'm not I'm not in the comics the way I'm just going to go back to manga or watching movies or doom scrolling on TikTok. And, know, right. And I don't agree at all, but I guess I sort of empathize and maybe sort of somewhat understand where they're coming from. I, you know, I wholeheartedly disagree with the fact that there's not something out there for someone in comics.
But, you know, when you're when you only read, let's say big two books featuring Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and the X-Men, you're probably going to think that everything looks and feels the same because those are their sort of staple characters. Right. So when it comes to SHP and you're, and you know, this is your imprint. I love that a, have multiple different that you can go down and, uh you know, create different titles.
Cause just because you like sort of a erotic sex robot, uh sort of slasher, you know, I don't even know how else you would describe that. But then you can, but I know a lot of people who also like your sort of your YA. young adults type of book. So I love that. And I think it's interesting. I want to backtrack just a little bit though, because you were talking earlier about the Kickstarter of it all.
And that was actually a big question that I had for you here in this conversation is, being that this is a smaller, somewhat newish publisher, I wanted to get into the distribution of it all. And again, you mentioned Kickstarter. Can you walk us through how you've been able to sort of distribute your comics? And I've even seen you at cons and such. What is sort of the overall strategy when it comes to getting SHP out into broader hands in the comic stores and so on?
Yeah, mean, so before I go there, just very quickly on your comment, yeah, there is something for everybody. But if you're outside of the comic book world, it's really hard to know where to start. Right. I think your best place is your local comic book store, because the person who runs the store. can recommend things, but people don't realize that comic book stores are these wonderful little ecosystems where you can go in and say, I like this, this, and this. What should I read?
And I don't want Superman or Batman for what I, you um So um yeah, it is a hard world to get into um if you're coming from the outside. Everybody who grew up with comics, it's it's second nature. But anyway, so that aside, distribution. um Yeah, so Kickstarter is a wonderful place to start. um For everybody who's back to Kickstarter comic book campaign, thank you. mean, Kickstarter is the lifeblood of indie comics right now.
You're selling comics for 10, 15 bucks for a single issue where you can go buy Marvel DC for $4.99 in your local comic book store. um But indie creators can't produce it for that. And we can't print it for that because when you're printing 10,000 copies, you can print them for 75 cents a copy, especially if you're printing them abroad.
But when you're printing, you know 200 for a Kickstarter you're paying four or five bucks a book um So and then you're mailing that book and you know, yada yada yada. but yeah, and it also it's a good way to find Fans and kind of find what works right so I've Five Kickstarter campaigns one zoop campaign and one backer kid campaigns. There's seven crowdfunding campaigns plus a campaign for the film technical support um and You know, the first one was a lot of friends and family Right.
And just kind of learning the ropes and how does this thing work? But I got like 25 organic backers and a lot of those backers are still, you know, maybe 10 of them are still buying SHP books. So that's great. Um, you know, and then AeroTech did really well, you know, we had 180 backers on that one and a lot of them continue to come along for the ride. Um, and you know, so what you're doing is you're, what I always say is you're building your fan base at the same time you're doing a campaign.
If you're focused just on the money. I need to make X dollars. Great if you make X dollars, but don't set your sights too high initially. This is your planting a flag in the marketplace, introducing yourself, what kind of work do you do, and finding the people that might resonate with that. But in terms of the overall distribution strategy, think you really, right now we're at a... You know, as many pokers and as many fires as you can have, right?
So Kickstarter is a great place to start with your early backers. You get a premium for the books. You know, people love being part of the early process. They love getting special rewards. I love to, you know, like I really try to give deliver more to every Kickstarter backer, like extra stickers, extra bookmarks, extra whatever, because. But then. After that, you can do digital distribution. So we're on Global Comics. can go out and read Woodstake and Killing Machine on Global Comics.
uh I go to cons. I go to a lot of cons and sell books, um which is great. Great way to meet fans, talk to people about things, introduce people to the books who've never heard of you before. um I was just at Stoker Con, which is a great con. Actually, one piece of advice I would have is... When you're at a Comic Con, there's 500 comic book creators and it can be hard to stand out.
But if you go to a horror con, um you may be one of five comic book um sellers and you get more attention, which is great. um And then I wanted to go try the traditional distribution route. So I signed up with Diamond last year. My first two books, Killing Machine and Woodstake, went out through Diamond. They both did pretty well for first titles, um but that's pretty well. It's not financially very well, right?
m You know, when I say pretty well, mean, you we sold 1200 copies of Woodstake, right? And you need to be selling like three to five, you know, seven to really do well. And that's, that's its own marketplace. mean, retailers, so there's no returns in comics traditionally, right? So retailers, if they're going to take a chance on something, if they don't sell it, they eat it, right? They recycle it. um So new publisher, new title.
They kind of have to know there's someone in their store who's gonna be interested in it or whatever. I think Woodstake, horror is an easier sell. People like horror, people like vampires. um So I went out to Comics Pro, which is the conference of retailers and met retailers and trying to convince them that I'm for real, I'm here to stay, I'm not a fly by night, I'm gonna keep delivering content. um So there's that whole thing. And then Diamond went.
belly up um and I was able to jump to massive Indies, Lunar via massive Indies, which is great because I think Lunar really is the big player in the market right now. Lunar, PRH and Penguin Random House and Diamond. I have no idea how many people are ordering from Diamond these days. We'll find out. So. Let the dust settle over there for a bit. Yeah, but it's, you know, it's its own world. It's tricky.
And then on top of that, now the titles that I finished last year, Woodstake and The Killing Machine and also Zickey, because it's done, I'm trying to get, I'm doing book distribution, graphic novel distribution. So I've just signed up with IPG, which is one of the big book distributors and getting the graphic novels out, but it's just constant work. Yeah. and learning new things like how does the book market work? How does the comic book market work?
The comic book market is the weirdest market you will ever find in your entire life. And so much it was twisted around the way Diamond did things for years and then poof, Diamond was gone and everyone was scrambling. Retailers are scrambling, everyone's scrambling. And now toys have got tariffs and that's really cut into a lot of people's business and it's rough out there um for retailers. So give your local comic book shops some love. They need it right now. And we need them.
know, think comic book comic book stores are unique. They're the only they are centers of community and centers of of You know, they are positive force in the community where they're not a big box bookstore or they're not Amazon mailing books out to people They are your friends and neighbors, you know um Selling books in a small mom-and-pop setting nine times out of ten. So um Yeah, so anyway, I'm trying We got two books.
So Ziki and Aerotech are hitting the market in the next couple of months and you know, hopefully we'll sell two, three, four thousand copies of issue one. That would be really nice. know, keep the ship going. Yeah, I want to just double down on what you just said there. Yeah, absolutely.
We're, big proponents of supporting local, but also just in general, uh, really key on what you said there a moment ago, which is the community part of your comic book shop is the mo one of the most important things when it comes to comic readers. mean, I think that a lot of the online discourse can get sort of vile and, uh, unproductive and bad. think if you meet someone at a comic shop and you have a disagreement, there's a more interesting. and a more productive conversation that can happen.
uh And that's just focusing on the negative. Most of the conversations that are happening at your LCS are positive ones, talking about things you really like. just read Ziki, you check it out. Like, it's really great. Here's issue one. Tony Fleece has a cover, check this cover out kind of thing. So uh that's the true value, I think, of your local comic shop. they deserve our participation. They deserve our effort. And uh we should all pay double just to... have that kind of place exist.
We don't want those places to disappear. it's also comic book fans are generally super nice people at comic book stores or cons. Nine times out of 10, someone will be positive, be telling you about things you don't know, haven't read, may be interested in sharing what they love. I don't know. It's a great community. I always enjoy being out, you know, at cons as much as, you know, ah New York Comic Con is a crush of humanity. injures my introvert soul a little bit. It's still a great place.
Sure. Are you, so are you going to San Diego next month? We're recording this on June 24th. will you be there? uh Yeah, I'll be in San Diego. hope some of my books will be at the Massive Indies booth. The Tales from Aratech, which is a, oh, so Tales from Aratech, very briefly. We thought the idea was so cool. We got 10 indie creators, really good indie creators, Dean Hasfield, Chloe Brailsford, Katie Mansfield. They're all gonna, they all took the idea of sex robot and went with it.
The only rule was the sex robot had to be vaguely anthropomorphic, like no squid creatures, right? Sure. And that was the only rule. And so we were telling indie creators, do anything you want. And they did anything they wanted. The book is wild. It's part horror, part comedy, part whatever. um so anyway, we'll have those. You can actually still probably get those. We're doing the backer kit um fulfillment thing. And you can pre-order late pledge, even if you didn't back.
But we'll also be at San Diego. Katie will be at San Diego, she'll sign your book. um So yeah, that should be fun. And I'm doing a couple of panels, one on horror comics and one on indie publishing. So we'll talk more about this stuff. Heck yeah. Can I ask you, so as a small publisher, as a smaller publisher, should say, uh you know, how do you, how do you bring in talent?
guess is sort of, I don't want to give you any financial secrets or anything like that, but I'm just curious when you're wanting to bring in a new title or you yourself have a new idea that you want to put underneath the SHP line, how do you entice talent to come and showcase their talents within SHP? Yeah, so I mean what's interesting is right now I've written all the SHB titles, partially because I have so many stories I want to Just bunch of ideas floating up there.
They are, and I just, wanna get them out. So it's really selecting the artist and or artists. And a lot of it is looking at people's stuff on Instagram or wherever they post their work, uh talking to people who know a lot more about the industry than I do. My friend Chris Longo and Tyler, um Chris Longo was the one who said, have to get a Tony Fleakes cover for Zickey. And I love the Tony Fleakes cover. It's just wonderful.
Um, so, and then I always do a little tryout and it's not so much a tryout of skill or anything. It's just a tryout of, we a good fit? Do you, is your vision of this thing similar to my vision of this thing, or is your vision of this thing so cool that I'm going to throw my vision away and go with your vision? Um, so, and I've gotten very lucky. Like Jeff Kroschick for Aerotech is just knocking it out of the park.
It's like a, you know, kind of a retro fifties mad men style, but with really bright colors. Um, it's very cool stuff. um Felipe for Wood Stake, um you know, totally. Actually, this is one thing I think is great. No two SHP comics look anything alike. Like the art is so different in all of them.
um And so for me, it's about just finding that artist who, um you know, whose work I like and think might fit and we get together and we see if we can work it out and, um you know, and then we go from there. And that's the fun part. What I've learned is not to rush, right? There's no... Um, you're going to work on a book for a long time. You're to spend a lot of money producing it. Cause I pay artists, you know, a good page rate.
and, uh, so you want to, you know, it's like being in a relationship. You want to take your time and, know, pick well. And, uh, so far I've picked well, um, knock on wood. so yeah, we'll see guys, Jack Purcell, he lives in town. Like I live in a small town in Western mass and, It's Northampton Mass. It's the home of Kevin Eastman. lived here for a while. In fact, there's a turtle's mural on the building where he used to live. So Northampton has a venerable.
There's a sewer thing, right, as well for? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, so we have a Venerable comic history here, but I met Jack online and then realized we lived 15 minutes apart. He used to work for DC and Marvel. so the great thing about working with Jack is we go look at pages over at a brewery uh and that's great because everybody else I work with is remote. know, Jeff's in Berlin and the guy who did Killing Machine was in Quebec and Felipe's in Brazil.
So I love being able to work with Jack in person. Sure. Now, do you have any, I'll say colleagues or even friends that are publishers themselves or work for or high up at a publisher that you've gone to for either advice or maybe even like try to emulate the system that they've sort of put in place for SHP as like a, you know, a up and comer publisher. Yeah, Chris Longo is my mentor. Chris is an amazing individual and incredibly nice and kind and thoughtful individual.
So he's starting Panic Entertainment, which is a horror imprint. And they've got three titles coming out this year, and they're awesome. um And Chris used to be uh with Heavy Metal. um And he knows the industry really well, and he is always the first stop. when I have a question about anything. And he has been, if SHP succeeds, um it will be in no small part due to the mentorship that I got from Chris.
But I think actually that's a really important question because if you're trying to do this, m try to find a mentor um because it is a crazy business. oh I mean, there are books out there, actually Gamal Hennessey, who's a great guy, he's a lawyer. He's had a lot of cons. He's fantastic guy, big comic book fan, used to work for DC or Marvel or both. And he wrote a book called The Business of Comic Books, which is a great book.
um yeah, it's just, there's a lot to learn and having a mentor helps a lot. Sure. Now, gosh, I feel like we could sit here and talk about SHP the entire evening, but I feel like we're nearing towards the end. And I just got to ask you again, as someone who likes a lot of the same things that I do, and this is something that we usually like to ask a lot of our guests as we sort of tune down each interview. And I'm really excited for SHP and everything that you guys are doing over there.
And I'm excited to see you. I mean, I'd love to meet you in person at San Diego again. We're recording this on June 24th. So we'll both be there. Love to chat more about SHP and just comics in general. But something I like to pick the brain of a lot of folks, but I think especially you again, cause we both are film, know, film lovers and comic lovers is we like to ask folks like, what are a couple of things that you've really been enjoying recently that you just feel like highlighting?
And they don't have to be like your all time favorites, but just like something that really stuck with you that you've watched or read recently or listened to, could be a podcast, could be an audio book, comic movie, television, what have you. Just a couple of things that you're really enjoying that you want to share with the listener. Yeah, that's a good question. So prose novels, I read old stuff for the most part.
just read uh Graham Green's The End of the Affair, which is just a marvelous novel from the 30s. That's not helpful to anybody. Actually uh older John, I backed him on Zoop. And I just love his art. I thought that was a really interesting book. um And I got to meet him at the con. And that was something that stuck in my brain. um Trying to think in terms of um movies, I'm often buried in the Criterion collection. I don't want to sound like a snob.
I actually just purchased the, well, the Enora one just, just delivered the other day of the criterion and I just bought the sorcerer criteria. yeah, I just rewatched the sorcerer, bridge scene. Yeah. Unbelievable. William Friedkin, go watch it. An entire criterion disc could be filled with just commentary on that scene. I'm like three months to shoot that scene or something. It's wild because it's I was telling my son is like there was no CG. They built the bridge.
The truck is falling through the bridge. Yeah, love that. also just bought Thief, the criterion for Thief. So, uh know, trust me, you're not I mean, I think there is such a thing as a film snob, but I think you're among friends here in this right here. You know, like if there's something in particular. Well, I'll tell you what, can can I put something on your radar? Because again, as someone who I always like people to put something on my radar.
Sure. OK, so someone who has actually directed documentaries and I'm a big documentary fan. Yeah, I am too. I'm not like, you know, and I'm not trying to poo poo anybody who likes a Netflix documentary, but I'm not talking about those. Like, I like a an actual documentary that uh tells you something is a piece of art kind of thing. uh There's a documentary that came out in 2020 called Bloody Nose Empty Pockets. Are you familiar with this? did not hear about that. Somehow I missed that.
So bloody nose, empty pockets. I'm going to write it down. Yeah, please. It's from 2020. It kind of fell under the radar because of 2020. I don't know if you know, but some crazy stuff was happening around that time. And it's by the Ross Brothers. It was directed by Bill Ross and Turner Ross. And it's basically about this hole in the wall bar right on the outskirts of the Las Vegas strip. And it's this bar that's open all day. It's like all day, all night.
They just sort of transition bartenders and they clean up between three and six AM. And this documentary is basically a slice of life. The very last day that this place is open, right? Like it's, it's, it's, it's finally closing. It's probably never been profitable. It houses and often invites a lot of like, let's say the disenfranchised, you know, the, you put it kindly. Right. Exactly. The folks who probably shouldn't be indulging in those kind of extracurriculars.
uh And it is just, it is enthralling. You just, you live the life of these people for an entire day. And I just think that you would really appreciate it. And I think the listeners right now, people who are, who love documentaries uh would really like something like this as well. Yeah, that sounds great. Just one other comic that comes to mind and it's sort of a plug, but I love Dean Hasfield and he did a um Kickstarter recently called Chess Face. That was really great.
If you don't know Dean's work, um it's very cool. um And he's a really unique guy. So he's a good indie creator if you don't know about him to follow. Most people know about him. pretty, he goes way back. He worked on American Flag with Howard Shake and way back when and he's been around for a long time, but he's great. Awesome. Well, Sean, it has been an absolute pleasure talking to you here today.
I'm very excited for you with both, you know, SHP comics and you know, your continued work both in film and television, then maybe even some documentaries down the road. And, you know, I would love for you to just sort of take this last moment to let the people know that's listening. How can they follow you, your career? Is there anything that that's really exciting that's going to be happening leading up to SA to send you a comic con with SHP, all the things.
Yeah, so, so yes, shbcomics.com or shbcomics on Instagram or, you know, whatever, where shb, shb underscore comics on Twitter. Um, and we're just kind of getting settled on blue sky. Um, so my time for social is minimal, so we're not doing much on blue sky yet, but, yeah, I mean, you know, the main thing is, if any of these books sound interesting to you, um, go to your local comic book store and ask them to order them. That's the best thing.
Um, you know, it, uh, it, it, You know, it just it puts more books out there. think Zicky is just a great book for, um you know, if you are a comic book fan and you want to get your kids into comic books, um it's fun to read together. It's got a lot of humor that adults will appreciate. um You know, he's and the main character is cheeky. um And, uh you know, I think it's fun to read together, um you know, and AeroTech if that will be coming out.
you know, that always helps enormously connect the customer with the retailer with. publisher. But yeah, otherwise just, you know, sign up. If you go to SCF Economics, you can download the first issue of Killing Machina Woodstake for free. Just give us your email address. We don't email more than a couple times a month. I haven't emailed in like six weeks because I've got too many other things to do. So we will not spam your inbox. But you know, those things help.
Just, just if what we're doing sounds interesting to you, then, you know, follow us and, and, and buy a book if you think it's interesting. I will just sort of put my stamp, my OBP stamp on SHP comics, everybody. If you're listening to this right now, you know that if you've been listening to the oblivion bar, you know, for however long you've been listening to it, I will tell you that I read Eurotech.
read the Kickstarter. I'm I'm obviously spacing the name, of course, as I'm bragging about it here. It's a 60. Is it 1600? the SEX 6000? thousand. you. Gotcha. And I just love the diagnostic scene at the very beginning of the comic where she's going through and asking, give me a face enabling and read the terms and conditions like all the things. It's just really, it's really, uh it's fun. It is.
I'll tell you, if you're into the kind of humor that that we're into, Aaron and I, I'll speak for Aaron, my co-host as well. You'll love this kind of stuff. And I actually, Sean, before we go, I just want to ask as like sort of a final stamp on this entire conversation. If someone were to invest in SHP, they were like, I just want to give this a shot and I'll link everything for everyone listening right now. If you're listening to this, go to the show notes.
I will have all things SHP, you know, along with Sean's short film as well. All the things will be in the show notes, but what would you hand someone say they want to get into SHP and they need one thing, say they're an adult so you can hand them Ziggy, you can hand them Woodstake, any of it. What would you hand them and why? Yeah, so you can also go to our website. We do sell stuff on the website.
Not everything is for sale because it's waiting to come out in the comic book stores, etc. But you can always email me and say, can I get a copy of whatever? And if it's left over from a Kickstarter campaign, then sure. um So, yeah, I mean, if you're into the kind of adult office comedy, definitely Air Attack. If you like horror, Woodstake. um If you're looking for something, you know, that a kid would enjoy you and enjoy reading with a kid, then Ziggy.
um And the other one, the one that hasn't gotten any m much talk on the show is the killing machine. It's kind of an epic space opera, but it's got, it's kind of like trying to pull in the uh Arthur C. Clarke, like it tries to be very cerebral and thought provoking at the same time there's a lot of space battle action. So if you like sci-fi, that one, but oh yeah, you could, like I said, come to the site, you can download the Woodstake Prologue for free, see if you like it.
um We have a few SEX 6000s lying around. If you email me and say, heard you on the oblivion bar, I'll send you a link to download the SEX 6000 PDF for free. So there you There you go, everybody. that's right. Everybody check out the show notes if you want some of that. So once again, Sean, thank you so much for coming on here. The Abilene Bar podcast. Again, I can't wait to chat with you at San Diego here in just a couple of weeks.
And, down the road, if you have something interesting that you really want to promote with SHP, hey, you know what? Doesn't have to be interesting. Whatever you want to promote going forward on. Bunch of uninteresting stuff coming out. this has been great. I really appreciate you making time for me. um And it's fun. It's always fun to talk comics. so, yeah, look forward to meeting you in person. Awesome, sounds good. Well, Sean, thank you so much and we'll talk soon. Yep