Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (00:12):
Hello, this is Shane and Morgan from Comex. Well, I’m from Comex and Morgan from Comex. I’ve stuffed up the intro already Tonight we’ve got Lucas and Brian from Free Fall Comics that we’re going to talk about their comics, like Roadhouse, hooligans and so forth, and about how they got into the industry. So let’s get the show started. Thanks Morgan.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (00:35):
Woohoo.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01):
Still feel like it takes forever. Hey. Hi guys.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:07):
Welcome, welcome, welcome. I was just thinking we need sound effect for that last bit where the cartoon faces come up because it needs, yeah, we need

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:13):
Something there. It’s too silent and it feels like it takes forever.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:18):
We’ll work on a joint.

Lucas Keim (01:19):
It’s a good intro. Good job.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:21):
Yeah. How are you guys tonight?

Lucas Keim (01:25):
We’re good. We, their video chats, we’re good at these. We excel in these. These are our thing. Yeah,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:37):
It’s just like a meeting. Okay. So we have, maybe because you don’t have your names, I’ll get you to put your hand up. So Lucas, if you would put your hand up please, other hand, and Brian, if you could put your hand up, that would be, I mean, you’re obviously the other one, so that makes sense. So Lucas and Brian, first of all, welcome to the second reboot podcast for the comics show. So good evening. Let’s get right into it. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourselves, what got you into the comic creation business, and then maybe a little bit about your partnership, if it’s okay to call it that and whoever wants to go first. Go for it,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (02:27):
Lucas.

Lucas Keim (02:28):
I got it. Okay. Me first. Yeah, so I, I was always a storyteller. I love movies. I came from movie background. I got a little bit into filmmaking, just light filmmaking. I did some fun films that were really bad when I look back at ’em now. And then all the stories I was writing were just too big for Australia. They needed studio budgets and Australia just doesn’t do those type of films. And then I know with all the films that were getting made from comic books, I just felt like comic books was a good way to go to break into that. But then once I started in comic books, I actually fell in love with comic books. I was like, no, this is actually cool. I’m happy to keep it as comic books, but if it gets picked up down the track, then great. But I’m still, I found my love and passion writing comics and I had the freedom, do what I want. I had no rating system. As you might have known, we write a lot of adult content and stuff and with that kind of stuff, you can’t really get that through movies. You came with comics. I think comics rating system is a bit light, which sometimes it shouldn’t be. But yeah, then so I did that and then I met Brian at, what was it, a

Brian Kerr (03:38):
Comic bookstore. I was working with a friend at a local markets. We were selling old retro comics

Lucas Keim (03:44):
And I came out to him and we had, that was back when I had an ex who was doing it with me and we were trying to do a story and I put a post and said, Hey, can we print this poster and your story? Yeah, yeah, cool. Do it. And then yeah, from there we met up and he said, do you want to come over for drinks? I come over for drinks. He read some of my stories. He like, dude, these are great. And then from there it kind just went off. And then I changed the business name to free full comics at the same time. And then I said, do you want come in co? And he’s like, yeah, let’s do it. So yeah, obviously by then I went for a breakup. So she went out, he came in and it worked out less in disguise.

Brian Kerr (04:20):
What saying? Basically, I was essentially a rebound.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (04:28):
What a beautiful, beautiful story.

Lucas Keim (04:32):
It’s a comic book in itself.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (04:35):
There you go. Yeah. Well maybe that’s another project down the line to tell that story

Lucas Keim (04:40):
A free for Comics legacy. Cool. Well,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (04:43):
I’ll throw a question at just, so how did Roadhouse Hogans come about?

Lucas Keim (04:49):
Roundhouse Hogans S Roadhouse. Sorry, Roadhouse, sorry. It’s okay. The Roadhouse Move, which is a great movie by the way, and a roundhouse, sorry about, thats was actually started as a TV series even back before we had Netflix and stuff like that. My backlight just went out. So even before we had Netflix, and it kind of just turned into a comic book the same way all my other stories did. And then from there I was like, it started off as we had in production with another artist. And then I think when I went through a stage where stuff needed to change, I was going through a massive life change and I went back and rewrote it. I was like, this could be a much deeper story and it could mean more. So I started, the Darkness I was going through kind of turned into round slogan.

(05:43)
I was like this, it just changed and evolved into a more mature story and I want to have more meaning behind it and stuff like that. So yeah, so that’s how it kind of went. And then Brian’s always been a part of it. He’s always been there. So yeah, I don’t know the exact pinpoint where the story came from. Most writers don’t know where half their stories come from. They just appear. But yeah, it definitely evolved over time. I want to be more mature and be more meaningful and deeper and have more levels to it pretty much so, yeah, which it has become. That’s a very

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (06:15):
Cool story. I really enjoyed it. So yeah, very cool story. Cool. It is it really, this could be a good segue for us to go into the preview for it. So I might just play that for everyone at home. Who’s wondering what Roadhouses is all about?

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (06:30):
Round

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (06:31):
Roundhouse. I said it right the first time. Sorry,

Lucas Keim (06:37):
I

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (06:37):
Myself and I got it right. Okay, don’t worry. Don’t worry about me. I wonder why I got that in my head. Anyway, we’ll play the video. Cool. And I’m an absolute idiot. I keep saying the wrong word. I do this with other people as well. We had a girl on called, I’m going to get it wrong now, Millie. I kept calling her Miley so classic at getting things wrong. So that’s what

Lucas Keim (07:34):
Happens when your favourite music’s Marley Cyrus.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (07:36):
Yeah. Not quite funnily.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (07:41):
So question around where the idea came from. So am I right in saying, did I hear that it was originally a TV project or you had a script or something and then that was transformed into a comic script?

Lucas Keim (07:53):
Yeah. Yeah. So it was originally a TV series. I think I’ve got how many scripts? I think there was 12 episodes in the script run that I did. Each one going for half an hour long. I always pause it being an adult animated series, like a mature animated series. That’s what I want it to be like Castlevania, that sort of thing. Arcane, which just came out, that would’ve been amazing, but, and then it just turned to a comic and I think it works better as a comic. The writing works better as a comic. It’s more, yeah, excels as a comic, I think. Yeah.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (08:33):
So first question is how did you find going from that sort of script to a comic script? It seems like it’s probably an easier thing to do than going from a novel.

Lucas Keim (08:44):
It was easy in the same time, it was hard. I realised that the fight scenes had to be shortened because when I turned straight into script form, I think it was like 20 pages, one fight scene, which is pretty much a whole issue if you think of it. So I really had to down, and that was the hardest part, trying to find how do I fit all this story into this small page. But over time, I guess I just adapted and we both just adapted. And over time it just worked out well. But yeah, it was a learning curve, but I think now we’ve improved a lot more through.

Brian Kerr (09:21):
That’s also a big part to Ricardo and his art style and his storytelling through the way he draws. Even though we had to cut it down, I feel like you don’t feel it. He’s captured 20 pages in a couple of pages. The way he draws movement and action is just amazing. For some projects, we are pretty particular on exactly how it’s shot angles, everything. With Ricardo, he just seemed to kind of get it from the get go. He just seemed to understand it and he brought something else, like another element, another layer that even we couldn’t see when we were riding it. Yeah, just massive. Ricardo, he’s incredible. That’s always a good thing.

Lucas Keim (10:07):
And also the main thing of looking for artists, we want artists that could do good expression. It wasn’t so much like body types obviously, and anatomy is important, but we said, look, this is a drama driven story, not so much earth issue, but down the track. It gets very drama driven. And we said we want someone who can create emotion, who can have closeups on faces and make people cry if they need to. We need that. And Ricardo’s showing that he can do that easily, not easily. It’s probably really hard for him, but to us it makes it look easy. So

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (10:39):
He had a little bit more latitude once you’d sort of figured out his style and it worked well with your writing and everything.

Lucas Keim (10:47):
I think once he started writing, we definitely adapt to his art style. And also I do concepts. I use 3D models in certain scenes where I want be very detailed. I’ll do 3D models, I’ll create a scene in Blender, three freed Blender, and I’ll put the anatomy in and I’ll give it to him so he has a complete breakdown of what the shots look like close up over the shoulder. So I’m both pretty much directing it as he’s creating it so he gets a feel for, and then after a while he just goes, okay, I know what you want now. He pretty much knows we wants to look cinematic, but yeah, that’s really

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (11:31):
Cool.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (11:33):
We’ve got Darren Close, how about that? Lettering?

Brian Kerr (11:37):
Yeah,

Lucas Keim (11:37):
Darren. Nice, nice. Yeah, Darren’s great. The whole team is great. And yeah, they’ve, I’m sure we’ve annoy them at times with our learning curves and not knowing what the hell we’re doing half the time, but they’ve always been understanding and always have to say along the way. So we’re still new to the comic book industry, so yeah, we’re still growing, we’re still learning, which is great. And that’s a part of the fun learning about comics as you’re making them. So yeah,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (12:09):
Absolutely.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (12:09):
Speaking of which, with Roundhouse Hooligans, is that your first comic or just the first one I’ve heard of

Lucas Keim (12:16):
That is Yeah, go.

Brian Kerr (12:19):
Well, it’s the first one we’re releasing. So when Lucas and I first met, we were working on another project, we had an amazing artist, but just due to I guess

Lucas Keim (12:34):
Time restraints,

Brian Kerr (12:36):
Restraints, other work he had going on, we had to pull back from that one. And there was so much already done with Roundhouse Hooligans, we decided to direct our energy that way into Roundhouse Ligans and make that our

Lucas Keim (12:51):
Flagship,

Brian Kerr (12:52):
Our first published, yeah, comic.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (12:55):
Okay, cool.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (12:57):
One of the,

Lucas Keim (12:59):
Oh, sorry. We do already had our next two projects in the firing line. So we do have two more projects. Next one is a psychological thriller, very dark and intense, which should come out early next year hopefully. And there’s another, and then that was all me and And then the third one’s going to be a post apocalyptic. So yeah. Nice.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (13:27):
Okay, cool. Can’t wait. It’s good to be a writer, isn’t it?

Lucas Keim (13:32):
There we go.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (13:33):
You can do multiple projects. Yeah. So one of the things I noticed with the comic is you can tell when there’s a lot of intent behind it and a lot of deliberation around exactly what’s where. And a lot of thought, and just hearing you talk about 3D modelling and that sort of stuff, which, I mean, that’s the first I’ve heard of someone going to that length to help. Yeah,

Brian Kerr (13:58):
Because all patch projects, we have such a clear vision of what we want. I mean, we’re

Lucas Keim (14:06):
Very fussy.

Brian Kerr (14:09):
We’ve gone as far as taking photos for panels, kind of recreating the panel with the photo going, okay, this is going to be like 50 mil. We’re shooting this way, this way, and working out how people are going to fit within that panel and be natural. There’s a lot of work that we do behind the scenes to this come to life.

Lucas Keim (14:34):
It keeps us sane. So we’re not just writing the whole time. We’re actually, Hey, we’ve written for a two hours now let’s go take some shots and do some 3D modelling and try actually create something and see what it’s going to look like. Then we can test it and then go, once we’ve tested and go, okay, this page looks pretty good, let’s send it to the artist, and they can create a masterpiece out of what we’ve sent them. And

Brian Kerr (14:54):
While we do writing, we’re both very visual. I mean, Lucas, with his cinema background, I’m a professional photographer, so we just have clear images, we can sit in our heads and rather than sometimes trying to write that down and explain it to someone, we find it easier to be visual and create a scene either through photos or through Lucas, using 3D modelling to just make sure that the artist is interpreting a scene, a shot, a page, exactly how we’ve written it in our heads.

Lucas Keim (15:31):
Some scenes you can’t use photos for because there is some adult scenes that we just don’t have the power. That’s why

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (15:42):
Don’t use stick figures or anything.

Lucas Keim (15:45):
Even freedom models don’t work if you try to put a 3D model in like a pros you want, sometimes they go awkward and it can look wrong like some Twisted Karma Sutra. But

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (15:59):
Okay. So obviously cinematic background, photography background. What are some of your, and this isn’t necessarily from the comics world, what are some of your key influences or directors, writers, whatever, that have really, you’ve latched onto their style or they’ve helped you formulate your own

Lucas Keim (16:19):
Style? Writing wise and field wide, I definitely like, I’m Robert Rodriguez and Quin Tarantino, just like their independent style and the fact that they don’t break rules, they know the rules and they still break the rules. I love that they don’t really care what the industry thinks. They kind of go their own way and follow their own path. They go, Hey, I just want to tell an amazing story for my audience. You can’t change my mind on that. And they’re very strict on that, that’s a thing. But they’ll make fun projects on the side just for the hell of it, and I love that about them. So yeah, they’ve always been my massive influence. And then obviously you’d be going, Steven Spielberg, the first movie I remember seeing that, may You Want to Be a Storyteller, was Jurassic Park as a kid that I know for a fact. That was the first movie I saw and I said, I want to tell stories for the rest of my life being in film or any other genre. I just want to tell stories and be a storyteller and make people love my stories. That’s what, yeah, I remember that Jurassic Park was definitely my biggest influence as a kid growing up and I still love that movie now. Yeah,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (17:24):
Cool. Right. And Brian,

Brian Kerr (17:28):
I guess mine comes from love of books, love of horror, so Stephen King and massive influence. I’ve just always been a big reader and it sounds really cliche and very generic, but just, I love art on all mediums. Every few months you’ll find me at the art gallery just staring at a photo. There’s just, I dunno, there’s so much that can be said from a single still image if you do it right and

Lucas Keim (18:03):
That’s really cool.

Brian Kerr (18:04):
Yeah, I just love creating a scene, creating a feeling like using light shadow. And there’s just so much to be said for when a single shot, a single image, a single panel can just devote so much emotion. And I mean, it’s always easy. Sometimes it’s like a lot of work to get that, I guess horror background, just reading back just the novels I love and just my love of art in general.

Lucas Keim (18:38):
And we definitely try to adapt into every panel. Every panel to us is a story in its own, and we really try to push that where there’ll be small things in the background that will tell a story. People do picking their fingers or anything like that. And those small details as you see going on in time, they evolve. We try to push that in every single, especially

Brian Kerr (18:59):
What shows anxiety, is someone’s fist clench? Are they fidgeting? All these little details when you really stop to just watch and analyse people and how they behave and how they move and how you can I guess, show that in a still image. So I often find there’s so much power in insert panels between showing a scene of someone, but having this small insert to kind of guess evoke some sort of motion or something else going on within a single scene so you can see someone’s, the tension building, the anxiety, the uncomfortable. Are they uncomfortable? What’s going on?

Lucas Keim (19:44):
Especially with Torrance, our lead character, brown gans, only because it’s a story that’s full of more than one character, brown gans group. So each character needs to be on their own person. We can’t have every character the same. So Torrance obviously suffers from some anxiety, some PTSD, and we really try to show that. And then you’ve got her friends there who always comfort her through those times, who always there for her, which what Rous Nazar, it’s about a family who don’t care who each other is. They’re accepting of each other, they love each other, and it’s really about family. And showing Torrance when she’s at a lowest point and then her braver friends come and comfort her through those hard times is really what creates a compelling friendship or sort of things. So yeah, we try to push that in with Torrance was very challenging to write because she just got so many levels, but she’s such a great character and so much fun to write. Yeah,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (20:42):
And that leads to one of the things I was going to ask around the protagonists, plural, because obviously just from reading the comic, there’s a lot of layers to each of them and only certain aspects are shown in issue one, so obviously you’re hinting at.

Lucas Keim (21:01):
Yeah, so my whole point of view then was I wanted somehow for round school going to be immersive. So I wanted the reader feel like maybe they’re a new member to the group. And when you become friends with someone, you don’t actually see their whole backstory. You might see who they are, but you don’t know what made and who they are. So over time, as you evolve with the characters and you spend more time with the characters, you’ll go back in time and go, oh, okay, this is why they are who they are now. All these backstories are parts and levels that have made them who they are today. This is why they don’t like this. This is why they always do this. This is why they’ve got that hardass attitude when really deep down they might be a bit broken inside, but if you are starting to be friends with someone, you don’t always see that. So over time you’ll get to know each brown gans and I’m sure everyone can relate to one of them, at least one of them in some way or another. We want to be relatable. And that was the most important part. We friends,

Brian Kerr (22:01):
We just kind of wrapped up a newer issue of Roundhouse hooligans and it’s probably out of one and two, it’s got the least amount of action, but reading it, I’m a fan of it, it’s good. I’m enjoying seeing it come to life and it’s the one with the least amount of action so far, that’s my absolute favourite because I feel like I’ve gone through in the big scenario, like a bit of a small arc amongst the characters and I’m really starting to feel at home reading them and understanding them and this issue with very little action and just emotion, drama and just these characters interacting as so far it’s been my favourite.

Lucas Keim (22:48):
Yeah, awesome. Now I’m looking forward to it.

Brian Kerr (22:54):
The more more layers are revealed and the more you’ll get to know. And we just hope people will jump on board and love it as much as we do and stick around because there’s so much more to be told as the story and the characters evolve. It’s really, it’s

Lucas Keim (23:11):
So more

Brian Kerr (23:12):
Going on. Pretty exciting.

Lucas Keim (23:14):
Yeah,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (23:16):
Cool. And I suppose one of the things to mention for those that aren’t lucky enough to have seen it just yet is that there is a lot of emotional depth and drama right from the panel one, but there’s also a lot of action and it does have, I mean I wouldn’t want to call it, but it does have those kind of Tarantino esque elements, which good, because if you’re a reader and you want to get hooked early, it definitely has that. But you can see, yeah, there’s a lot of depth going on.

Lucas Keim (23:54):
I also always like Grindhouse, but being more drama driven as it’s more ground, it’s more real, but it’s still got that fun grindhouse skill. I think one of the reviews said it was drama punk that was a genre and we went with that and I’ve never heard it before. It just,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (24:13):
That’s a new one to me as well,

Lucas Keim (24:14):
Is drum punk and that’s the genre we’re going with and it works out well. So yeah.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (24:20):
Awesome.

(24:23)
Well, for anyone who is wanting to get a copy, the best, I’m in the wrong. I do this every time. The best place to catch up to all the information about you guys is Link tr ee, so three at three fall comics. So for anyone watching, that’s a great place, that’s a link tree. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Link Tree or not out there, but it gives you a few important links to different areas to go to for these guys. So you’ll show you where it’s sold, more information about them, where to subscribe, stuff like that. So I’ll just leave that up for a while so people can go over there.

Lucas Keim (25:01):
Yeah,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (25:02):
Sweet. Awesome. Okay, so next question, rapid Fire. You can pick one of the protagonists or a villainous kind of character. So if you are in a car with them going through McDonald’s, drive through, what are they going to order? So tell us about the character. What meal would they order? Could be something else be

Lucas Keim (25:28):
It can be a Oh

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (25:29):
Yeah, yeah, villain would be great.

Lucas Keim (25:31):
Well, villains haven’t been really introduced too much yet.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (25:35):
You don’t want to say too much.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (25:36):
Don’t say too much. That’s cool.

Lucas Keim (25:38):
Stick with now. I’d stick with tolerance though, because she’s just my favourite. What would she get? She’d get the lot. She doesn’t really care. She has the attitude where she’s not watching her diet. She doesn’t have time for that. And she definitely would eat fast food. She’s always on the go. She’s a free runner, so she does a little park out Parker, whatever it’s called Park. Yeah, but she’d get the lot. Yeah, I don’t eat much fast food, so I can’t actually, she, I’ll go straight to Big Mac burger. She’d get that large fries and coke. Yeah, she doesn’t really look after herself. She’s a very messy person, I guess is the way to say it. But yeah. Yeah, I guess it’d be Torrance and that’s what she’d get and I’d be happy to go to McDonald’s with her. She’d be a great date and awesome

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (26:34):
Answer. That’s an awesome answer, man.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (26:38):
So next question, same person or same protagonist. If you could sit down with a protagonist and give them one piece of advice, what would that piece of advice be

Brian Kerr (26:51):
For to,

Lucas Keim (26:52):
Oh, that’s a hard one.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (26:54):
Maybe one of you pick a different character. E.

Lucas Keim (26:57):
Yeah. Brian, do you want to do this one?

Brian Kerr (27:01):
Fuck, we’ve created some real messy characters. I’m like, we

Lucas Keim (27:07):
Many good characters.

Brian Kerr (27:10):
Honestly, I feel like if I tried to give Torrance advice, I’d get a backhand. I don’t, that’s how I interpret her. It’s like you can’t tell her what to do, how to feel. She’s too strong a director for that. As flawed as she is, as many problems as she has, I don’t think I’d be the right person to talk to her.

Lucas Keim (27:40):
She’s had some bad life experiences and that’s made her who she’s, so yeah.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (27:45):
Got it. Got it.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (27:47):
Cool. Well, speaking of advice, I’m guessing as your first comic that you’ve produced, what have you learned and what lessons do you think you could pass on to other people looking to create comics?

Lucas Keim (28:01):
Oh, it’s

Brian Kerr (28:02):
Holy shit. It’s

Lucas Keim (28:05):
Like riding through hell on a pedal bike while burning fire. It’s hard work. It’s nice

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (28:14):
Visual.

Lucas Keim (28:15):
Yeah, very usual. It’s hard work. It’s challenging to be real. I’m always going to be a real person. Tell what it is. You’re going to fail a lot. I’ve failed a lot. I’ve spent money in places and I’ve lost a lot of money, but I don’t regret it because to me it was a massive learning curve. But at the same time, I believe that you are going to grow as not as a creator, but as a person through this trial and error. And I think it’s important to chase that dream because you will evolve over time and you’ll become a better person for it. And life’s always better when you have a purpose. And once you find that purpose, I believe life gets much easier and it makes more sense. And yeah, that’s what I have.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (29:04):
What would

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (29:05):
Get that one?

Brian Kerr (29:08):
What’s that?

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (29:11):
We can see the mind worry.

Brian Kerr (29:13):
Yeah. Look, we’ve definitely made a lot of silly financial mistakes. How do I do this without, I don’t want to put anyone under the bus.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (29:30):
It’s fine.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (29:33):
Look, we’ve all bought blood diamonds at one time or another.

Brian Kerr (29:38):
I think one thing we could have done earlier on was probably reach out to people with more experience.

(29:47)
I think coming in so fresh, not knowing anything, and obviously you’re full of confidence and bravado and you’re, so when you’re writing something, obviously you love it, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it. And sometimes that confidence, that self-confidence can get in the way of making smart business decisions. And I think definitely there’s a great indie comic, there’s so many great people out there you can reach out to and talk to. And so far I’ve found ’em all really open. They’re so willing to give advice. So I think before you jump in the deep end, we did speak to people, learn from their mistakes, usually happy to tell you where they fucked up, what they did wrong, what they wish they had had done. And it might just put you three steps ahead of where you should be or where you could have been. Yeah, that would definitely be it.

(30:54)
The more we’ve done this, the more artists and writers and just amazing people we’ve met, just get as much information, reach out to as many people as you can because it can’t hurt. Sometimes you’ve got to put your email on the side and go, look, maybe I have a great story, but I dunno the best way to get it out there. I dunno who to talk to. And yeah, so talking to people like yourself, like other artists, there’s just so many people out there willing to help you out. Such a tight knit community in your comics. We’re all essentially struggling. So

Lucas Keim (31:31):
Also be real with yourself and be honest with yourself. If you have a story that’s not working, don’t put the money and invest in it. If you have a feeling that this is probably not going to sell, I’m not passionate about it, then don’t invest in it. We are very passionate about it. And that same time as being, even though we only put one published book, if an indie came to us first time Indie created and said, Hey, hey, do this. We’d let them know the mistakes to make. We’d say, don’t do what we did. That was a really stupid idea. Avoid that at all costs. And yeah, same time, we have no regrets. We’ve learned so much over time and we love what we do. Yeah, it’s been a struggle, but

Brian Kerr (32:13):
Have a well thought out plan before you dive in first.

Lucas Keim (32:17):
Yeah. At least a five year plan.

Brian Kerr (32:23):
I’m pretty sure we have a five week plan and it doesn’t pan

Lucas Keim (32:26):
Out.

(32:28)
And marketing, marketing, marketing, you’re going to hate it. But yeah, you’re going to have to market it. You’re going to have to be on video like this sort of stuff. We hate it, but anyway, we’re getting used to it. But yeah, you’re going to have to do things outside your comfort zone, and if you really want to do it, you have to get used to it and it’s going to be a big part of your life, putting yourself out there and being a face of your company. But if you truly believe in your company, then it shouldn’t be an issue. It should be easy to talk about. But yeah, and don’t be so hard on yourself.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (33:02):
Awesome. Good advice. Great advice, guys.

Lucas Keim (33:05):
Thanks.

Brian Kerr (33:06):
And also Jim helps.

Brian Kerr (33:15):
Yeah,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (33:17):
So we’ve got a couple of writers on, which is quite rare. We are usually with artists or creators that are artists and writers. Actually we’ve got a full board of dudes that can’t draw tonight from

Lucas Keim (33:29):
Yes. Not family.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (33:33):
So I suppose good to ask a question, specifically writing related, what is the most challenging thing you find as a writer? I know you guys do a lot of other stuff as well, but just on the writing front, what’s the hardest thing that you struggle with? Or

Lucas Keim (33:50):
Can I

Brian Kerr (33:51):
Jump in? Lucas, can I jump in?

Lucas Keim (33:53):
I know what you’re going to say.

Brian Kerr (33:56):
I think when you start really going pretty deep heavy into certain themes, it can be, I’ve learned it can be quite taxing on you emotionally. Yeah, we had a writing session, it was a little while ago now, but we’ve been sitting there trying to get through a scene for hours and it just got to the point where we were like, can we go for a walk? I need to get out of this space because I’m really getting depressed right now. What we’re writing about is pretty shit, but

(34:46)
I know the story needs to be told, but at the same time, I feel like we’re kind of carrying a lot of weight right now and we kind of need to remove ourself from this for a bit and let’s just go for a walk. And literally we went for a fucking walk around the block just to clear our heads. And I’ve found some things can be quite taxing, especially when you really care about it, when it isn’t so much some sort of, I guess some cliche superhero thing when you’re trying to, and I guess a lot of the stuff we’re drawing from ourselves and our past and things we’ve gone through and whether or not we’re using the same names, we know what we’re writing about, we know who we’re writing about, we know where it’s coming from. And there’s definitely been times there where after a great session we’ve wrote a great story and just feeling so drained. But at the same time, I feel like we know we are doing something right when it’s taking that much out of us to put pen of paper. Makes sense. So

Lucas Keim (36:00):
Yeah, we really go a long way to put it all into our stories, even if it affects us. I believe if a story affects you, then you’re telling a good story. And I think that story needs to be told. It’s definitely a good outlet. Writing has always been a good outlet for me personally. Whenever I’ve been down, I’ve always been writing my ideas down, even though they’re crap stories, I just write ’em down and eventually evolve into my own books. But yeah. Yeah, so what Brian said is totally right. Also for me, I’m super dyslexic, so grammar, spelling, yeah, Brian can tell you how bad that is. Sorry, bad. I’m the same. For me, that’s always been an issue. Even growing up in school, I’ve always been super dyslexic, unable to learn, unable able to focus. Just basic grammar and spelling. Something that some people find very easy I find very difficult. But I believe my good ideas make up for it. I think that’s a very big head thing to say. But yeah, well, it works that

Brian Kerr (37:08):
Lucas, it would be, here’s an ideas factory. He’s never short of ideas. Just sometimes he needs someone to help refine those ideas into something.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (37:25):
He hence the partnership, which is good. That’s another thing a lot of writers write alone or occasionally collaborate or whatnot, but the dynamic between you two seems really interesting because you’re working on it together, you’re agonising on it together and you both sort of share from what I can see of similar sort of visual sensibility, but bring different things to the table. And

Lucas Keim (37:51):
We’re always super honest with each other, which I think helps. If I have a seen idea and Brian doesn’t like it, he’ll tell me, he said, that scene looks, sounds stupid, don’t do it. And I’m open to those suggestions. I’ll be hurt at the first dude I afford affording this, but in the end it’s like, yeah, you’re right. It sounds really crap. And we’ll take that out. But

Brian Kerr (38:13):
Started, because when you approached me with that script and you asked for some honest feedback because at the time you can get stuck in a bit of an echo chamber with friends where they’re all like, it’s great, it’s great, it’s great, it’s awesome, it’s awesome, it’s awesome. And that’s not necessarily helping you be better, write better or tell your story. And I remember had my little yellow sticky notes and I was going through a script and just like you started the waffle on here, you lost me here. This was great, this was awesome. Here’s my idea for how I do this. And it was kind of through those back and forth over a couple of weeks at my place and a shitload of red wine that we realised we’re working really well together and rewriting this incredible story to where Lucas eventually approached me and said, Hey, how do you feel about coming on board full time and joining me with three, four comics? And yeah, I just think you need to surround yourself with people who will be brutally honest sometimes.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (39:23):
Yeah, and there’s that thing about, particularly if you’re going to be a writer, I’ve heard it said, it’s like being a boxer. You don’t, if you get in the ring, you’re going to get hit. That’s the thing. You’re going to get knocked back sometimes by people that you admire, sometimes by people that you don’t admire. But yeah, that’s part of the deal.

Lucas Keim (39:43):
We’re

Brian Kerr (39:44):
Really lucky. I’d say 99% of the time we seem to have this clear vision, which just seems to align where we’re like, that’s amazing. That’s amazing. But there is a small percentage of times where it’s like one of us will be like, I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s right. I think we should do this. And sometime your ego immediately jumps in and goes like, oh, no, no, no, you’re wrong. I’m right. I’m right. But yet you’ve got to be able to take those hits and

Lucas Keim (40:15):
It’s a game where you really need to let go of your ego as a writer or as any sort of creator, you need to let go of your ego because your ego’s going to get hurt if you have a big ego and you’re not going to be able to take criticism if you have a toxic ego. That’s how I feel anyway. Yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (40:32):
Agreed. And I have to agree with Darren Close on this one. It is an awesome comic, the artist still, but so was the writing, I must admit. I really love the story and it’s really got me hanging out for issue too. Which brings me to my next question. How long do we need to wait for issue two?

Lucas Keim (40:49):
So issue two part two is actually out already on our gum road issue two part one, sorry. It is out already on our gum road for a bit cheaper. We did that because one of our artists had to take a break in between it a long break for their own personal reasons, but we didn’t want to ride our readers to wait so long. So we did put out half an issue, which cool. It’s still an issue in its own, it’s still an engaging story. It’s still a great story.

Brian Kerr (41:16):
25 odd pages. So 25

Lucas Keim (41:19):
Pages long. Yeah, I think it’s about 22 pages long. And then the second one, we’re hoping to push it out by end of the year, and that will be a whole issue, which will be a bit longer. I think issue two might be maybe 34 pages long as a digital issue, so it’s going to be a bigger package. The only reason why is because when I wrote them, I went on a tangent and I just wrote too much of issue two. There was just so much story to pack into it. I was like, I can’t do this. And just 24 pages, because towards the end issue two, which together issue one, issue two will be volume one. It’ll be a whole book in itself. Think of it as a pilot episode for a TV series. That’s what it’s going to be. But yeah, there’s a lot of story that happens in issue two, and it really goes deeper into torrance’s mental issues, mental problems, cool. In issue two, you’ll definitely get a feel for it. And once they give you, okay, this is what she’s trying to work through, this is what problems are holding her back from being happy, but yeah. Yeah.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (42:29):
Right. So while I’m

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (42:30):
On, oh, sorry.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (42:32):
Oh, you go, you go and

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (42:33):
You go. All I was going to ask is do you plan to actually publish these physical?

Lucas Keim (42:38):
Yeah, we’re already seeing up a Kickstarter now, so we will be going to print next year. It’s actually been formatted by the amazing Darren again because he’s great. So he’s going to be formatting it. But yeah, it will be a hard copy next year and we’ll be doing a Kickstarter campaign for that. Look forward

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (42:57):
To that. I’ll be all over that one.

Lucas Keim (42:59):
We’ve already invested so much money to it and we can’t afford printing.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (43:05):
No, that’s fair

Lucas Keim (43:06):
Enough. And we actually want to invest in other stories like round two wants to keep on going, but we have other stories that we do want to tell. So we want to put our investment into other stories and bring them out and create a free for comics empire.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (43:21):
Nice.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (43:22):
So in the spirit of gifts and things, I think it’s that time in the show where we present you with a gift. You’re looking at me, you’re not at all.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (43:37):
I thought we had one question that we’re going to always ask. Maybe I got it wrong

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (43:43):
Before we

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (43:43):
Give the gift.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (43:44):
I think you should ask that question because I’ve forgotten. Yep,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (43:47):
I’ll ask it. Okay. We’ll get an answer from each of you. What is your favourite food to eat to your favourite movie?

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (43:55):
That’s right. You right. I can.

Brian Kerr (43:58):
I’ll go straight away. I’ll go straight away. I fucking love popcorn. Honestly, I consider it a food

Lucas Keim (44:07):
Group.

Brian Kerr (44:09):
I’ve literally gone up to the cinema just to buy a box of popcorn to walk around while I shop. I can’t help myself. Ul butter. I’m like, you got me. Yeah.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (44:26):
Cool.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (44:27):
And just to expand on that a little, what movie would you be watching with that popcorn?

Brian Kerr (44:31):
Oh my God, there’s just

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (44:36):
First

Brian Kerr (44:40):
Man. I can’t even think. There’s too many things. It all depends on how I’m feeling, what I’m going through.

Lucas Keim (44:48):
Yeah, true.

Brian Kerr (44:51):
I think of my favourite early movies were I used to love Japanese cinema, their detective stories. Watching Hollywood, it always seemed like there was, everything just fell into such a mould, do this, do this, do this, do this. And when I started watching, especially some Japanese detective, I can’t think of ’em off the top of my head, but I just remember sometimes there being unhappy endings. It’s like, all right, the movie’s ended, but not everything’s just, it hasn’t all come together. Peachy cream smooth for everyone. Everyone’s still come out a little bit kind of damaged from it. And I’ve just always a

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (45:39):
Bit confused.

Brian Kerr (45:40):
I’m like, I’m a little bit of a blonde hair, blue eyed goth guy. But I’ve just always appreciated that sometimes things don’t always work out for the best, and I feel like we might use some of that in our writing, the way we write. There’s no, life doesn’t always have some Hollywood ending. Oh

Lucas Keim (46:01):
Yeah, for sure.

Brian Kerr (46:02):
I definitely picked that up from foreign, especially the Japanese detectives, movies I used to watch growing up. It was just, I don’t know, as a teen, I was moved by it. I guess

Lucas Keim (46:17):
For me, my favourite dish, I’ve always been ravioli, something you probably wouldn’t bring to a cinema, but I love ravioli. I’d bring a homem dish to cinema. I’d be happy with that. Movie wise. Yeah, well, it’s not the same thing. I’d go Jurassic Park Up or Aliens, of course, second Aliens,

Brian Kerr (46:39):
Ripley

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (46:39):
Nice.

Lucas Keim (46:42):
I love Ripley. I love a strong female character, and they are true strong female characters. Ripley Sarah Connor. They’re the kind of female characters we relate to and what we write about. So yeah. Awesome. Popcorn and ravioli popcorn.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (46:57):
Awesome. And I am just going to answer Rusty on this one. The campaign hasn’t started yet, so I don’t think there’s a link. Have you got a pre-launch page?

Lucas Keim (47:08):
No, no pre-launch page yet. That won’t

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:10):
Come just yet. Yeah. So Rusty, there’s no pre-launch page just yet. We had an add question in the viewers. Yeah.

Lucas Keim (47:17):
Okay. Yeah, no, no pre-launch page yet.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:20):
Cool.

Brian Kerr (47:21):
Yeah, just jump on Instagram, Facebook, whatever. And that’s where you’ll be the first to know there. But

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:27):
Yeah, go to this link down here and get the different links to the different areas and you’ll be able to follow them.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (47:35):
So this is

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:36):
The part,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (47:38):
The gift portion. Thanks, sizzle. Yeah, I completely forgot about the question that we said we were going to ask every time. So as part of this experience, we like to draw something for you. So usually the rules are we have 10 minutes, we have to just sketch it, get it done. No real preparation. We sign it of course, because our signatures are worth so much. And then we give that to you as our guest. So you get a signed copy of images of one of your characters from your story. We’ve had a little bit of a change this time. Sizzle’s got an arm,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:16):
My right hand’s a bit out of action,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (48:19):
And I frankly cheated this week because I thought, why not? So mine was more of a, you can see if you can tell, it’s more of a trace than a free hand.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:30):
Bring

Lucas Keim (48:31):
It up

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (48:32):
It up. Anyway, this is my effort.

Lucas Keim (48:36):
Look, that’s tidy. Let’s love it. Love it. You are hired

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (48:43):
Tracing. That was not me drawing freehand at all, because you can actually recognise the character

Lucas Keim (48:49):
I’ve traced many times in my life. There’s nothing wrong with it

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:59):
Because I can’t draw. Because I had this procedure on Monday. I actually asked sped Rob Lyle to do a drawing for me as my willing sheet,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (49:09):
Which is completely unfair. Hence the reason why I chose

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (49:11):
Unfair, totally unfair professional artist. So I’ll just bring up the one I’ll be sending from him.

Lucas Keim (49:19):
Taha, I love that. That’s cool.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (49:24):
That’s not fair at all.

Lucas Keim (49:26):
Definitely not fair. Definitely cheated. I’ll be back next week. You both cheated, so you’re both in the same boat. Someone got a professional artist, do their picture. So

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (49:41):
That’s it. That’s it.

Lucas Keim (49:44):
Thank you so much. They’re unreal. Yeah, it’s great. We’ll have to do the same thing in return for you guys next time. We’ll draw next time. We’ll draw you guys

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (49:55):
A character of our choice or something. Clean this business

Lucas Keim (50:02):
Into character. There we go. We can’t do that. Good. So don’t show that. We might also employ, we’ll find a Facebook image and we’ll just trace it.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:17):
Trace it. Nice, nice, nice. Cool. Well just so everyone knows what they’re looking for, here’s a cover of Roundhouse Hooligans and so yeah, this is available I think on your site. Is it it your site?

Lucas Keim (50:32):
No, on a Gumroad site. So we have Gumroad account.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:35):
Gumroad site, yep. It’s also available at Comex shop. Yep. I sent a few links out earlier today about that and oh, we got Isaac George just came in. Thanks. Just coming in at the end. Nice one, Isaac.

Lucas Keim (50:50):
Hi Isaac.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:51):
So yeah, thanks very much guys. I’ll email you those pictures. Awesome. Yeah, it was an absolute pleasure having you on. Great answers. I must submit. I better answers. And I was expecting for some of the silly questions I had.

Lucas Keim (51:05):
Lovely.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:07):
That’s an awesome answer. That’s great. That’s so unexpected.

Lucas Keim (51:12):
Cool.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:13):
You got a fan here? Great First issue. Great first comic. I agree. It is great. So I really recommend people going that up.

Lucas Keim (51:21):
It just gets better from here. Trust me, rounds, gins is a good compelling story and we truly think fans are going to fall in love with it if they’re not on already. Yeah. There’s a carriage for everyone to relate to. And as a character evolves, I promise you’ll cry. You’ll smile, you’ll be afraid, you might be in shock, but it is a roller coaster ride and they’re the best kind of stories, the ones that you dunno what’s coming next. That’s awesome.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:51):
Cool. Well, I guess the end of the interview part of this show, and we’ll move on to the next part. It was great having you guys on. Brian and Lucas,

Lucas Keim (52:01):
Great being here.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (52:02):
Thank you very much. I’ll send out a link to everyone as well to all the platforms that I have access to through this software so that people can just click on them. I’ll type that in right now. I should have copied and pasted this from somewhere, but I’m not that organised. Let’s enjoy watching Sizzle, multitask. Multitask. Yes. So I’ll just send that link out to everyone so it’s a little easier to get to your link three so they can find all the things about you. Yeah, so thanks for coming on. It was a real pleasure. We’ll have to get you on again when you get your Kickstarter up and running. That’d be great.

Lucas Keim (52:41):
Sounds good. Amazing. Awesome. Thanks guys. Awesome. Thank you. And thanks everyone for tuning in. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do on your night than watching us. Hello.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (52:53):
This is the best thing to

Lucas Keim (52:57):
Thanks everyone

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (52:59):
To the right window. And I shall say see you later all see you guys, not all. Just see you to you guys. Sorry about that. I’m really fast tech stuff. All good. Like a well-oiled machine. Like a well oiled machine. All right, rusty, well-oiled machine. Okay, let’s go to the next section. Thanks guys. See you later and having the Kickstarter. Appreciate it. Pleasure. Well, Morgan, I’ve been really slack. All I read was I reread Roundhouse Hooligans just reminding myself damn name, right? So I will show the cover if I can find the right pick. So this is what I read today. Actually, I reread it today and forgot how much I love the story. It’s great. The start is just action packed and then it just jumps into a great story. I’m not very good at describing these things. I’m not a writer, I’m not an analyst or anything of technical things. All I can say is I walked away from this wanting issue two really bad. So I really want to see what happens next. I really want to see what happens to your main characters and just yeahs agreed. That’s why I asked the guys when’s two coming out. I really wanted to know personally,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (54:46):
Really just

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:47):
A little bit of the interior art, just so you can see what was going on.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (54:52):
Yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:52):
That’s a cool scene in the beginning. I’ll just flash through these. So you have to actually go out and get it to read it. That’s where the guns get into it and bang, bang, bang. Now go and get it people. Awesome story. I can’t wait to get the physical issue so I can hold it in my hand as well. So that’d be great, Morgan.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (55:15):
Sweet. All right. Onto me. So tonight I have my

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:22):
Job

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (55:23):
Complex by Daniel Reed.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:27):
Oh, nice.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (55:28):
Yeah, so I actually got, this was a Kickstarter that you ran a little while ago. So this issue one, issue two, the artwork is amazing. Yeah. The story is, hang on, I’ll show you some of the artwork. God, I’m no good at this.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:46):
It can’t be worse than me.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (55:48):
I probably am. Wow. Look at,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:52):
I’ve been doing this for what, six months and I still can’t get the buttons right. That’s awesome.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (55:58):
Yeah, so look, the artwork is stellar. The story is really, really, really cool. It’s right down my particular alley because it very quickly goes weird, which is amazing. Lots of action, really cool kind of sci-fi ideas, a little bit of time travel, little bit of, one of the things I really like about these is that one of the protagonists, or maybe the protagonist, it’s one of the few issues or stories that I’ve seen where the protagonist is just a horrible, horrible, horrible individual, at least in the early stages of the comic, which is a really good hook because it’s not the usual sort of thing, and you find yourself thinking what’s going to happen? I don’t like this guy, but really, really cool ideas. Again, some of the artwork is just absolutely amazing. And even just the chapter headings and things, they’re just so nice. It’s so well put together, really, really beautiful books and the story is great. So I’m through two issues. Can’t wait for the next section of the story. Really, really cool. Daniel Reed, awesome guy, awesome artwork, fantastic. Actually for one of my projects, he’s done a cover for me and it just looks absolutely amazing. So really cool.

(57:33)
He is. He absolutely is. He’s amazing. Really, really cool stuff. So go out and do yourself a favour, get some.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (57:42):
Yes, I’ve got them both, so I’ll probably forget that you’ve done it and later on I’ll review them as well.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (57:52):
There you go. Cool.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (57:53):
Well, I think that’s the end of the show. Thank you all for watching, and thank you again to Brian and Lucas for coming on and chatting with us. That was great. Learning more about Roundhouse Hooligans and about free Fall comics as well. So real pleasure. And yeah, so go out, got an ad

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (58:22):
Sizzle. Do you want to

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:23):
Ad reshow their ad or ad?

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (58:27):
Yeah, no, reshow their thing. That’d be a good way to go out.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:30):
Yeah, I’ll show their ad for the round house again. And just a reminder, you can get them from their store, but you can also get it from Comex Shop, see that they snuck in right at the end of that ad.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (59:20):
Yeah.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:23):
Cool. Nice. Well, thank you again, Morgan. I guess this is the time of the night when we get to say, see you next week. See everyone next week. Anyone watching? We’ve also got the drink and draws on Fridays. Don’t forget about them. And we are restarting. CC, oh, hang on. I always do too many C’s. CCCX on Saturday mornings with Lee Chaka and Dustin Brune. I always forget how to pronounce his last name, so yeah. Yeah. Thanks Rusty. You have a good one too.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (59:58):
Thanks all. Have a good one.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:00:02):
See you around. You find the right button and away we go. See you all. Have a good night.