Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (00:08):
Hi everyone. Shane here from X with Jerome. Hey guys. Hey Jerome. We’re here tonight to talk to SK and Isaac George. We’ll be talking to them tonight and we’ll also be reviewing some comics at the end with Brad again. I think he was on last week. So yeah, let’s just let me press the right button and we’ll get on with the show. Good evening everyone. Our first guest tonight is sk. He’s here to talk about, well, a few things to do with writing and so forth. I’ll let him introduce himself and we’ll get on with the note. Hi, sk.

Es Kay (01:17):
Hey. Hey, hey, Jerome. Thanks for having me on. Really appreciate it.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:22):
Thanks for coming on.

Es Kay (01:23):
Thanks for coming. Hey, I can see Rob and LA here as well in the chat.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:28):
Oh yeah, guys. Hey Sped, and I’ll put ’em up and Lee, Lee, I have a bad habit of not going to the comments when we start.

Es Kay (01:44):
No, it’s my go-to because if they are fantastic enough to come watch us, I’m fantastic enough to say hello and Mr. Darren Close.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:53):
Hey Darren. Hey Darren.

Es Kay (01:58):
Okay. Oh look, thanks for having me on. Look, when you approach me, I actually had this topic in my head for quite a while and it’s actually really to help newer creators because it’s sometimes you have fragments of what you want to tell, and if you have these fragments, sometimes it’s really hard to piece all these fragments together. I’m going to share some secret sauce, and it’s really, if you are a newer creator or even if you are an existing creator and you just can’t get that next story out, I hope these points will really help. So I’ve shared something with Shane. It’s if you guys really want this afterwards, I’m happy to share the Google link up to it. But this is how I basically build a story and people in the comments, people listening, Chuck questions the whole time. I’ll stop at any time to answer things through.

(02:53)
So don’t stress, just check through the comments, happy to stop and ask anything. Okay? So there’s two big components when you’re writing a story and it’s generic on in both cases. One of them is the world building piece. What is that world you’re trying to create? And the second thing is the plot. Now, if we’re talking world building, and to be really fair, I hate lazy world building. And what that means is, oh, it’s just Sydney, it’s just Melbourne, it’s just Manila, it’s just whatever. I’m going guys, there’s so much more to that. For example, somebody wants to use, and I’m having a chat to somebody who wants his main character to be a US Marine and all the rest of it. And he says, oh, he’s like a Punisher type character, blah, blah, blah. I’m going, great. Is us still a superpower? What do you mean?

(03:49)
Maybe they got invaded, maybe they haven’t. Maybe England has a recolonized the world. Maybe it’s Spain. Really? Why wouldn’t do that? I’m going, when you’re writing a story, there’s so much you can do for you to just have the story set in the real world. I consider that very, very lazy story writing. I mean world building mainly because gosh, you’ve got all this things, and I’ll come to the first point, which is basically the type of the wall. And that’s usually what you need to think about. Where’s it set time periods? Is it a fantasy type wall? Is it a cyberpunk, diesel punk? You could consider, actually a really easy way to start on the world is, and I love this as a concept, start with the energy source and you guys are thinking, what the hell are you talking about? Well, if you think about how energy sources play in human development, it’s actually huge because energy dictates what happens in the human civilization.

(04:54)
It it always has and it will continue to, okay, if your world is built off, say steam that steampunk, which means that you’re talking about making hot air balloons, things that are powered by steam. Hey, hey guys. And then you’ve got all this stuff that you’re building, and then you’ve got diesel punk, which is very much World War ii because that’s where you’ve got that use at Energy Source. Now you got to think, okay, now that you’ve got the world that exists and you’ve got something in your head, is it CyberPower? Is it whatever? You got to think what systems exist in it. And it’s sometimes really interesting because these are the rules and the laws of the world. So if you think about state in terms of story writing change, one law, one rule that you take for granted right now, and you can build an entire story out of it. I’ll give you a really cool example. What happens if murder was legal right? Now, that’s a fantastic world you can build around. What happens if death was legal?

(06:03)
Then you’ve got a whole concept about property is not worth anything because property doesn’t. Or maybe then in that case, because property death is legal or property doesn’t matter, you get a Star Trek type world where everything’s utopian, you don’t own possessions. Now if you break it down to anything, you change any one single law in modern society, you’ve got a total different world. Okay? Now we think about it in terms of, and this is where character like Dr. Strange, I find it’s actually very difficult to write properly, mainly because magic, it’s so easy for people to ignore rules, and you’ve got all the de ex mcna, Dr. Strange, and car spells. You can do anything you got to be worried about. It’s a very difficult thing to write because you can’t write conflict attention if the guy can literally do anything. So what some writers have done with Dr.

(07:02)
Strange is, and it’s where it’s inconsistent, is some make him too powerful and some make him too weak. And then you’ve got this inconsistency and true because you are switch moving from writer to writer to writer. Now, if Dr. Strange had a set rule of magic where all the rules are properly defined, which it hasn’t been, and you build those rules up, you’ve now got a system of magic which is explainable, and also it gets the reader invested. That’s probably the key thing, because the reader now knows the rules and the reader can now have expectations. You can always subvert those and you can always change the rules, but by establishing a baseline, it allows you to build on that. Same with technology, same with technology, and I’ll use the MCU in terms of technology. When Ironman first came in, his suit of armour could not fly very high.

(08:03)
And then as it then evolves through, you got the technology building on the technology. Again, Ironman suits are the absolute perfect discussion point here because it then allows you as the writer in this world that you’ve created to go, oh wait, I can’t make Tony Stock automatically have a suit that can have nannis. Because if you did that, jump straight away disorientates the reader, and you go, wait, wait a minute, I’ve had all these rules put in front of me, I need to see the progression and that actually gets good plot and good storytelling involved, which is the absolute keys. And it’s something to consider, absolutely something to consider if what is your underlying system that your world uses? And you’re talking technology magic, even if it’s a real world scenario. If you talk about spy thrillers, what technology exists there? What can or can the hero do?

(09:00)
And by establishing rules and systems, it makes it so much more exciting for the reader. There’s one absolute classic, absolute classic avatar, the last airbender, and people who like that, and I absolutely love it because, and you saw the deviations in the beginning, you only have the four elements to deal with. Hey, hey Mark. Hey Mark, a hundred percent, if you no can do anything, you do nothing basically, which is, but with avatar, as the bending evolves, suddenly you had, oh wait, I’m a fire bender for example. But if I use a water bending technique, I can now divert lightning and as one of the huge plot elements, and by knowing the rules of what the base is and then building on those rules and systems, the reader or the viewer will go, oh my God, that is so exciting. Now imagine if you could do anything. It actually would be a very, very boring series. The fact fact that they couldn’t do everything makes it very exciting is, so the thing is, most people when they start writing, the top two are given. They spend hours upon hours with, oh man, the world is this. Mike character can do this. This is his superpower, this is his weaknesses. They’ll spend hours on these two, and this is probably the most exciting part of world building. They kind of ignore the rest.

(10:41)
I’m sorry, it happens. They ignore the rest, but the rest is just as important. And the rest is in terms of storytelling, it helps the build. What are the people in the culture? And we’re talking in terms of the way people speak. And you know what? In a lot of the books I write, what I always do is if you ever, by the way, I dunno whether I should say this, I’m going to say it. I’ll get in trouble for this. There’s actually a lot of swearing in my books. There is, but I don’t put any swearing in them because what I do is, and I use the Disney technique of swearing, I make up words.

(11:25)
So that’s the apps. So I can go, Shane, you or the rolled down method, if you like the rolled down the Disney method, Shane, you was gobble, I’ve just swore at you, stupid was gobble. You know what I mean? That’s not my new word, by the way, trademark pending. But you know what I mean by having that? And the thing is, the coolest thing about writing different words in is in context, if you read things in context, it will make sense. You can use simple words, yes, no, I’m giving you the key words to use. Yes, no, dad, mom, a swear word, frustration word and excitement word. Now, if you use those in context, people can know what they’re trying to say without even you telling what those words are. But what that does is it actually builds more into the world that you think, oh gosh, this is how these people communicate.

(12:28)
And you can have really big cultural difference in the world. And the thing is, think about how people exist in the world. And unfortunately, some of it is stereotypical because as a writer, you can’t get every single nuance down. It’s very difficult in a very short period of time period. But you can generalise. It’s a culture, very inclusive. Is a culture very pushed back on strangers? Are they very authentic? You’ve got all these things to do in terms of the people and culture in your world. And just think about it in that in terms of say the real world scenarios and real world planning, gosh, you could do anything with culture, and that actually makes it very exciting because by putting in culture and people into your world, it makes it feel real and it makes it feel like you’ve thought about it. Okay? The next few, again, things that people skip but are just exciting physical structures in the environment, it’s actually really boring to keep going.

(13:33)
You know what, it’s a city, it’s a metropolis. It’s this, it’s done even in the will of Judge Dread. And I know if Mark’s still listening, he’s probably, he loves this one because I know in the UK 2080 it’s huge, but even in the Metropolis, they even explored outside mega city once and outside the other mega cities of what sits outside it. And just knowing those structures that exist, you can hint at things. By the way, when you’re wall building, you actually don’t need to know all the answers, but you do need to know enough that you can then tell the story out of it. And the coolest thing if you wall build properly is the number of plots that you can get out from wall building is incredible because as you wall build, you’re going, oh wait, this would be really nice to happen. What if somebody tries to shake the system up? Or what if someone finds a new tech or new spell or whatever it is, and that builds your story. Okay, the next point, look, I’ll have to say there’s only one person you can really reference with history token.

(14:44)
He’s got his story. He’s perfect. Yeah, look, I’ve read the Law of the Rings, and I always use this as a really fun example in the first a hundred pages, Frodo hasn’t left the Shire yet about his cow. You know about what billboard’s going to do with his? Oh gosh, a hundred pages. Lot of rings and they haven’t left the Shire. But guess what? I know the history of every single hot, I know who Frodo cousins, dogs, sisters, and oh gosh, but getting to the history of the story, and that’s the coolest thing, you can then start to build out the world a lot more. How did you come to the point you are now? And by thinking how you come to the point you are now, it actually helps develop and shows you where you need to go in the future. So that’s where you’re thinking, oh gosh, if I’m talking historical context, think about civilizations and how things have changed.

(15:48)
Without history, you wouldn’t understand why people make the decisions they make now. And I always think that it’s a very fascinating way to explore the world from a really historical perspective. And if you’d like, and this is where I always like to say, play alternate history. And that’s why I’m saying don’t play the lazy game of you know what? Everything just turned out the way it turned out and this guy is here for it. If you’re going to world build and you’re going to world build properly, play ultimate what happened to Russia at one, the World War ii, that would’ve been really interesting to say. And so again, there’s a computer game if you guys have played command and conquer, total alternate history, I love it. It’s the fun of the game where, oh, can you pop up later? Lee’s comment,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (16:44):
I wasn’t watching.

Es Kay (16:48):
I’m here now. I’m here now. I’m here now. So look, by the way, it’s not that even if you start your story and you’re halfway through it, it doesn’t stop you from doing all these things now. And it’s actually, if you stop, say Mider, to do all these things, it actually is very, very exciting because you can start planning, oh, this is my world and how to exist within it. Now talking back to that ultimate history link, there’s a lot of wonderful, wonderful what ifs, and I love this and I’m a little bit of history buff in terms of, for example, talking back historical context after Pearl Harbour, Japan could have taken over the US and they’ve said that they didn’t have enough ammunition, they weren’t ready. And one of the reasons the US was so powerful in World War II is because they weren’t invaded and basically us became the manufacturing hub of the Allied Allies.

(17:54)
Basically, England couldn’t manufacture much without getting bombed every second day. Nobody was bombed in the us. So the US would go, you know what? I’m going to build a hundred tanks and I know I’m going to make a hundred tanks because guess what? Nobody’s going to attack by factories. Now, historical change of history, what happens if Japan had launched a ground assault after Pearl Harbour US was not ready? And if the US has an enemy inside its country, would they have then said, I’m going to sign up to the war in Europe? They might not have. They might have gone, you know what? I’ve got a problem here. Until I solve this problem here, I’m going to go. What happens is the whole Manhattan project was built, was more or less developed in isolation. No pressure. If you know Germany at the time was trying, its the V one, V two and all the new rocket technology, they were trying to do the super tanks, all the rest of it, guess what the allies are doing? Oh, they’re going to build a V one rocket there that’s bombed that place. The scientists over there, let’s bomb that place. Manhattan Project was, you know what? We’ve got all the time in the world and we’ve got a huge desert out there. We can test all this stuff in. Nobody’s going to bother us. Now imagine if there was somebody there to bother them, would they have done everything they would have done in the same order, in the same context? That’s really good point.

(19:24)
By the way, that’s an entire story that has never been told. So I’m giving up free story ideas. By the way, if anybody wants, keep

Jerome Castro (19:34):
Listening guys,

Es Kay (19:36):
Not only am I telling how to do it for yourself, I’m actually giving away a lot of really cool ideas. And that’s a whole story concept. You can have what happens because gosh, I don’t know, maybe in a multiverse somewhere that happened, maybe it hasn’t. So if you go back to key moments, and this is where I think it’s always really fun, if you want to start off really simple world building, go back to key moments in history where you think one thing could have flipped one way or flipped the other way. And just always imagine what happens if it flipped the other way. Yeah, exactly. Japan launched a ground of salt after Pearl Harbour. Well, the world would’ve been totally different. What happens if say the Spaniards colonised Australia before the British did? I dunno what would’ve happened. And you can then use a lot of historical context to kind of answer these questions.

(20:36)
Like the spans went to South America in historical context. What happens if they didn’t go to South America and they came to Australia? Would things have been very different? Of course they would have. And that’s a whole story idea. You can definitely explore what happens if the world, you know how the continental drift, where the world split apart, what happens if there was no drift? What happens if we stayed as a single landmass? You know what I mean? Just having that one flip or that one change and the world becomes a different place. Totally different place. So that’s what I always love doing. And the thing is that then launches everything because by the way, having left history yet because people don’t consider that. And I think that’s the biggest shame involved. For example, I did write one called Transhuman, which is an alternate world reality where cybernetics become a lot more, it’s the cusp of cybernetics, which basically says is bionic arms and stuff were just happening.

(21:47)
So in that alternate history, cybernetics exist and are used, who’s going to get them first? Well, my case was the military will get them first. What happens if a wounded soldier leaves the military? Who gets the cybernetic after? And what would people’s reaction be to all that? And so I always find it very fascinating that you have to touch on the history. Hey Brad, Hey Brad. Hey Brad. Yeah, you have to touch on the history because without knowing the historical context of where your world is and why it is, everything gets missed out because you don’t know why systems exist the way they do, what rules or the laws exist the way they do? And it’s actually a very fascinating, and one thing about world building is, and I’ll caution this, is when you get started you can dig yourself this huge hole and never come up. And as exciting as that is and exciting as you to delve into it, my only advice would be at a certain point, step out of it. Because you then have to build your characters. And this is the point where people have a lot of fun, the whole character building and it’s character building now in context.

(23:00)
And you got to remember society and the world shapes who you are and how you react to things. So if in a world of magic people might not be afraid of it, it might be just commonplace, but think about the world of Harry Potter magic is commonplace, but only certain people. Yeah, it’s hidden. It’s a hidden world. So now you’ve got to consider how well muggles it and all the rest of it. How is it? And it’s fascinating. Look, there’s two ways when you world build to introduce the audience to the world building. And one way I like one way, not so much, but I understand the power in both. One of the easy way to introduce the world is what they call the every man scenario.

(23:45)
It’s such an interesting touch point because we’re the character part. So one of the characters is what they call an every man, which basically is our representation into the world. Harry Potter in the first book was our Every Man, which meant as Harry learned about how magic, the Wizarding School, Hogwarts and all those works, we were learning about that world through Harry. So that is one really interesting technique to introduce the world to the reader. Think about Ghostbusters. The world of Ghostbusters is a world where ghost exist and ghosts are real and they’re prevalent, and people acknowledge that ghosts exist.

(24:30)
Now, the main characters of Ghostbusters were all scientists, your Bankman and all the rest of. So the problem about that is when they started talking, it became very expositional. And that’s something you want to avoid in world building, which is basically, and going back to Avatar and the Airbender, the one thing that they did so wrong in the movie was they exposition probably about for 10 minutes in the beginning of the movie explaining everything. That’s horrible, that’s bad, bad, avoid. What you want to do is you want to, if you’re going to do exposition or narration, do just enough, just the absolute bare minimum because if I explain the world to you, it’s boring. It actually is very, very boring. You want to let the reader or the viewer or whoever’s getting experience your role, and that’s very different if you spend, and that’s why I’m not going to pick anybody, I’ll be good.

(25:34)
I won’t be nasty, but if you spend the first 10 pages of your comic book explaining the world, you’ve made a mistake because you want to spend the first 10 minutes, 10 pages or 10 minutes of getting the viewer immersed in the world and then have them discover its secrets as we go along. Again, Harry Potter, did you learn every single spell in the beginning? Did you learn there were magic society that nobody knew about you? It was a lot of it was inferred as the story progressed. So you learned about the train, you learn about this, you learn about, there’s a wizarding school, you learn about all that. And as you learn it, it’s a lot more immersive than, oh, by the way, yeah, there’s this, there’s this. Here’s the fact sheet. Just read through it and

(26:24)
And now having your characters in there. So back to that point of the characters, having the everyday man scenario is really key because having the everyday scenario allows the reader to immerse it. The other way, which I think is a little bit more exciting is just drop your reader into it. Let them figure it out. Have none of the characters to be everyday mans, have no Harry Potters to see it happen and just drop them in. You’re talking more like the law of the rings. There’s an elf, there’s an org deal with it. If you do it right, it’s actually a much better way because you’ll have all these questions and you’ll just be going and oh, what do they do there? And why is there a giant spider there and oh God, why are there giant spiders in the wall and that type of thing.

(27:15)
I think it’s actually, if you do it right, it’s actually a lot more exciting because it’s slightly less expositional, even with the everyday man. What happens with Harry Potter in the first book, if you notice, a lot of times he was just asking questions, Ron, what’s that? Oh, Harmani, how do I do this? It was a lot of question asking, which is still very expositional. Imagine if you followed without Harry Potter. Imagine if it was just Ron going to school. Then you can tell the story of say Ron going to school without all the exposition. And the viewer, reader has to just figure things out and try to work out the rules. A good example would say it’d be like fifth element, the Luke Benson movie.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (27:57):
Yep,

Es Kay (27:59):
Flying cabs just exist, deal with it. No explanation of how they work. There was a little bit of expedition, but it was very much plot based. It was plot based exposition. I need to gather who’s the fifth element I need to gather all the stones. It was very much plot pushed exposition as opposed to wall building exposition. So there is a big difference between the two and if you ever get round to doing it, know what your characters stand for. And usually that’s how you build your characters to be really fleshed out. Because if you know where they come from in your world, what’s important to them? What environment did they come from? Were they poor or rich? Did they get what they want as a kid? Did they not get what they want as a kid? Understanding all that history, your characters should be so fleshed out that even if you don’t, and this is the cool part about when you’re writing is subconsciously you’ll write them in a way that’s in your head.

(28:56)
You don’t actively have to think this guy is poor, but when it comes to money, maybe when you write it, you automatically think, oh wait, he wouldn’t have bought that or he would’ve tried to negotiate the price here. Or someone who’s rich and never had a word, which just have bought it. And guess what? Your practise then become very real. And if you do it right, it becomes very real and people will relate to that. And it makes your crackers a lot more interesting. Now, if everybody was just the same and you don’t understand how it works, they become a little bit of vanilla copies of themselves. And the worst thing is when a characters become, and I do a lot of lettering, and the worst thing that I always find is if I can switch dialogue between characters and it makes no difference, then that’s problem. Yeah, the characters aren’t fleshed out properly. If I can basically go, oh, he said that, she said that I can swap it and the story, nothing affects the story or it doesn’t affect the way they talk.

(30:02)
I was actually lettering a superhero team. And what you tend to find is I could move dialogue between all the characters because all the dialogue was exposition, oh, do this, chase this, do this. And it was nothing built around how the characters to speak and not having that or where they’re from or having that. Like I said, if you want to swear, swear make up words, not having all that in place. One thing I always do is, and again, if you ever read in my books, nearly every Mac has a certain catchphrase and it’s not like the Bar Simpson, I bash phrase. It’s just a way they always say something. I’ll give you an example. And just to make sure somebody who always is very optimistic, their term of phrase would be, when something goes wrong, don’t stress it’s fixable or let me fix it, let me help.

(30:59)
And these type of people, when they talk, they have a certain way of talking. Now someone who is very negative would go, oh gosh, not again. Woe with me. And if I swap the dialogue between say, these two people, even if it’s not the same thing, it’s different. Exactly. It won’t work. It won work. But if you write it very vanilla, guess what? I could keep swapping dialogues all over the place and man, you wouldn’t know, you wouldn’t care. And that’s the thing, you won’t care about the characters. And when you world building, that’s another thing that you have to be careful of. You tend to care too much. And I haven’t released this one particular book yet, but I’ve actually been world building this for too long and I have an editor of mine and I killed off on the characters. And her comment to me was, if you kill her, I’m never doing any of your editing ever again.

(31:56)
You can’t kill her. You can’t kill her. I’m not working for you. Again, you are a great guy. You pay on time. We have no disagreements, but I’m not doing it again. If you kill her, I’m out. And she was that strict. Actually, I brought her back, by the way, at the end of the day, I let her live. But I think it was important because the editor gave the reason why she should live. And I thought, well, that’s a really, really strong case. Yeah, she can live. But I did tell her she doesn’t make it to the end. I made it very clear. And that’s where she’s interesting. If you look at say, breaking Bad, for example, Jesse Pinkman was meant to die in season one, but because he was such a fun character, they let him last all the way to the end.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (32:51):
Oh, okay.

Es Kay (32:53):
That So yeah, it was never, he was actually written out. It was the viewer’s reaction and the righteous reaction to it that was so crazy. They kept it, but he was meant to die. He was meant to die in end of season one. Okay, we’re building out of the way. And I could keep going on, but I did promise I’ll finish this in 75. I could go on for hours, by the way. So now we get to the plot. Okay, look, what I always say to a lot of starting creators is look, break the rules, have fun. Break all the rules, do whatever you like, but understand the rules first. If you don’t understand the rules, you don’t understand why you’re breaking them. And I don’t like the whole concept, oh, I’m artistic, I’m creative. No, no, no, no. For example, a Picasso can still do and you see some like Van Gogh and stuff like that.

(33:50)
He can still do photo realistic drawings. I went to the Van Gogh exhibition before, if you know Van Gogh, he’s actually very abstract in his love, his paintings, but guess what? You can ask him to do a photo realistic sketch. And he has can do it. So he understands the rules, he understands anatomy, he understands how shadows, lights and all that work. And then he breaks the rules and that’s fine. But without understanding the rules, please don’t go and break it yet. At least get the basics down first. And then if you want to subvert the rules, knock yourself out, but understand also why you’re subverting the rules. Because if it’s just, oh, I’m just going to be difficult, it’s not going to make a good story. Now, if you have a reason why you’re doing stuff, you can build a case for it. But that’s why you do.

(34:43)
Why you do. Okay, I’m going to give you the basic act structures. Absolute basic act structures. True. And I’m going to use this is much more the Western way of framing the story, the act one, act two, act three, Jerome, if you know a lot of Chinese or Japanese cinema or Japanese writing or most Asian writing for a full act structure, not a tree where the conflict doesn’t always get resolved. So if you watch a lot of Asian cinemas, there isn’t always that big fight scene at the end. There is some of the excitement, but the resolution tends not to come up from that.

(35:27)
But I’ll give you the Western structure, which I actually really do. But once, if any of the readers from this or viewers, if you really enjoy how act structures work, research more. There’s the Shakespeare uses a five act structure, guess what? Because he knows what he’s doing. So yeah, for example, Hamlet, if you follow through, is a typical five act structure, and they is the hero’s journey structure, which is actually slightly different, still follows about the act three structure, but understand why these things are the way they are. Then write to the rules first. And then once you understand and you love the rules, break them. Do whatever you like, but understand first, okay? So act one is usually what they call the setup or the catalyst phase, which the wall is as it is. And you’ve built this fantastic wall with goblins or dragons or bionics or whatever, but that’s the wall.

(36:30)
It’s static, it’s just the way it is and it’s status quo in that environment, something has to change because if something doesn’t change, what are you doing? Nothing has happened. Yep. You need to disrupt. So you have to catalyst. The catalyst event is something that has to happen in act one where it forces the protagonist or forces the world to adapt to something that’s happened. Okay, so what could that be? Oh, guess what? Luke Skywalker finds out his dad is a Jedi. Well, that changes his world. He’s suddenly, oh my God, I have a light saver. I can have fun. There’s something beyond the Tuin farms, and this is the really key part about this particular act structure. The hero needs to make a choice. It’s really bad if the hero does not make a choice, if he’s just pushed in and it just happens, people won’t get the investment because they have to make an active and personal choice.

(37:43)
For example, y Luke chooses to leave tattooing. If you watch it, it’s a very minor choice, but OB one saying, will you come with me? And Luke goes, yeah, sure, why not? But he has to make a choice because if the hero is forced or dragged along, it makes for a very bad investment. And again, this is a rule, feel free to break it, but understand why it’s there. Again, you can break the rules, understand why. It’s because there’s no investment. If a hero doesn’t get deemed that he or she has free will, what’s the point of the story? The story just becomes, oh, this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens and this happens.

(38:28)
It doesn’t invest the reader or the viewer into the story. Now comes the fun and game section, which basically at this point is yeah, whatever choice the hero has made, look, I’m going to be a Jedi. I’m going to do this. I’ll start playing around with the lightsaber. I’ll start going to, once he’s made that choice, things change and then he’s learning about the choices and the ramifications from it. Usually in act two, the conflict gets brought in, which means in most movies, and most, again for this act structure, the hero needs to lose at this point. They have, and I’ll use one of the reasons why the Star Wars, the 7, 8 9 didn’t work is because sometimes when you subvert expectations too much, you lose a really good bit of storytelling. But in the standard act structure, act two, the hero has to lose because it builds up the excitement and it builds the learning into act three.

(39:41)
So in act three, now the hero is like, oh gosh, I’ve now realised something that I didn’t realise before. And at that point, the hero then learns and he steps up, he’s changed. He’s not the man he used to be, or not the woman she used to be. He steps up and goes, I can now with this altered worldview, I can finish off the story. And then comes the final resolution on how the hero finishes the story. I’ll give you the one example of where this was done badly in the Star Wars seven, eight, and nine. And again, it’s open to opinion. It’s just my opinion only. It was really the fight between fin and fsma. That’s story arc. And that story arc is actually really interesting because there’s a story arc over several movies. So if you remember, fin and FSMA have a couple of interactions.

(40:40)
The first big interaction that they have is where FSMA was brought on stage. She’s this absolute badass, shiny suit of armour. I’m better than the rest of the storm troopers and all the rest of it. And then in number two, I think was it one or two, they had a fight in two, and this is how it would’ve been. I think they had a final one. I take it back, they had a final one, which I think FMA loses. And in two when after in the star destroyer, she loses again. Now, I think if you think about it logically, you’ve built up this hype around this really bad character. She’s meant to be the nastiest of the stone troopers with its own set of armour. You hire Gwendolyn Christie, who’s if you watch Game of Thrones, she’s an absolute beast. I love her. She’s one of the best characters out there.

(41:41)
How the arc should have worked would be really nice is Finn should not have been able to beat her, at least not until the end. She should. He should have lost to her. And then as Finn learns, and because as a storm trooper, he was just a grunt, as a rebel fighter, he gets to do everything. He gets to play around with lightsabers, he gets to do all the stuff he never used to do. And as he’s learning, FMA is a learning. He is. And so he’s meant to lose the first couple of fights or he gets into a fight with fsma, or you could do that whole thing when they fight. And then Finn has to escape because Fas MA’s got the upper hand and he has to escape. And then when that builds up towards the end, and then when you get to the final one where Fsma and him meet up for the final time and it’s now as equals, and they fight, and then that’s exciting.

(42:34)
And then when Finn finally beats fsma at the end, that’s the excitement the viewers have invested in all this time, again, using law of pop culture, references, affinity, endgame game, Taos had to win. He had to, because if the stakes weren’t there, it wouldn’t have made end game and Infinity War the way they were, so they had to lose and having them, and it’s not a bad thing. Again, there’s a standard story writing trope and stuff. What I’m doing here is I’m giving you the building blocks and the base rules. Again, like I said, understand the rules and why you break them, but if you have your hero win every single time and every single encounter, it makes for actually very boring storytelling. They have to lose and they have to learn because if people don’t learn, it’s not exciting and they have to improve because a lot of the investment people have in characters is because characters change.

(43:41)
And having characters who stay the same when they first start and be exactly the same at the end is a very, very boring character arc. Very, very boring plot and very, very boring story if they need to change. And it’s actually really surprising when, again, if you actually watch and read certain things, a lot of people who get paid a lot more money than me, and I’m a little bit jealous, they forget this. You watch it. And a lot of times these movies or things absolutely bomb out and they’ll always say, oh gosh, it’s because this actor didn’t act really well and you just go, no, no, no. It actually, it was a really boring script when you guys try to tinker with it and you don’t know whether the studio or whatever it was, but the fact of the matter is the story was boring. The character didn’t learn anything from the beginning to the end. And without that growth, without that act structure, it’s not that fun. I’ll probably throw it to yourself a bit, Jerome, because I’ve got a few about five minutes left before to go off and you can share whatever you like to share. But Shane, tell me you were trying to do something, create your own story. How far along are you and can I ask what’s it about?

Jerome Castro (45:06):
Yeah, well, it’s not too far along. It’s in bits and pieces. Basically there’s an alien invasion where the aliens are shapeshifters, but they’re also insectoid and all female insectoid race basically. And they can’t be harm by most conventional weapons, especially metal metallic objects. So they basically decimate the entire earth and they start, much of the story basically is the protagonist and one of the alien invaders, the alien invader was his wife basically who pretended to be human at first. So they can go into different tracks in government and around the world and they can invade it from there. So I’m just that far off. And much of the story will be explaining how the invasion happened and basically how everything was planned from the background and how’s the war happening? How’s the fight happening?

Es Kay (46:27):
Okay, can I, of course ask a couple of interesting questions and sounds fascinating by the story. Where does the story start? Does it start after invasion or it start ation?

Jerome Castro (46:41):
It starts in the middle of the final invasion basically when the aliens are trying to decimate the entire, so it starts in the middle of the story, there will be some sort of a quick flashback, and then it will basically come back to the invasion itself.

Es Kay (47:01):
Okay, next question. Why do the aliens want to decimate the earth?

Jerome Castro (47:06):
Well, basically, it’s not that they wanted to destroy the earth itself. They wanted the resources first. And since they’re an all female race, they want humans as cloning material basically.

Es Kay (47:22):
Okay, so they are genetically similar to humans, then

Jerome Castro (47:27):
They assimilate races within them and basically get their best. What’s this? Get their best characteristics and integrate them into their society.

Es Kay (47:41):
What resources do they want from Earth? And look, by the way, I’m actually going to have a point at the end of this, so just hang tight because there’s going to be a point at the end of this.

Jerome Castro (47:55):
So far, the resources that they want from Earth is mostly water. And since they don’t care about the minerals at all, they’re just trying to make, convert more of the dirt into water basically.

Es Kay (48:18):
So water is their primary resource that they are? Yeah, that they’re not. Okay. And that’s actually an interesting point because Earth is actually one of the few place, at least in the solar system, where there’s actually been identified water. So you could play a lot of that off. And if they were, and I’m just giving you some background of look, if you were going to drop the story in, I would say they don’t want decimation in the world. I think that’s an interesting idea. But what they want is subjugation.

Jerome Castro (48:48):
Yeah, yeah.

Es Kay (48:50):
Decimation means I salt the earth. That’s the way I see decimation. It’s a barren wasteland. I salt the earth, I get nothing grows. I get what I want. I’m out of that. What you’re telling me, and it’s actually really fascinating, is subjugation of the world. And then you’ve got a lot of questions in your world building which you cannot start answering. What happens to the female population on earth? Do they kill every single female? Because if they only need, say the male species, are women useful to them? I don’t have the answers by the way. I’m just posing it to you. At what point, how do the aliens view females? Do they just get rid of them? Do they keep them? And if you’re saying that they shapeshift in and they’re trying to establish control and this thing, if you can shapeshift in, you don’t need to come out guns blazing.

(49:44)
You can establish governmental control. You could have it halfway that, oh gosh, the president, she’s a shapeshifter. And then you got to go, okay, what’s the population ratio? shapeshift is less or more, and I actually would see as much more a very interesting take that they’re in the midst of all this confusion. So the idea of if you could shapeshift that you come in and after material, they would try to come in very coily. You can come in and go, you know what? I’ll sneak in. I can establish government. I can kill the president and become the president and then have all the power. And so I don’t need invasion force. There’s absolutely no reason. And then you can open up that whole storytelling. What happens if, is there a telltale sign? And by the way, I don’t know all the rules. Is there a telltale sign that someone’s a shapeshifter or not a shapeshifter? Is there somebody that gives it away? Does the hero find that out And that the hero with that alien wife are their betrayers within the invasion race, but if the invasion was coming, why would they bring somebody who’s betraying them? And then you open what’s changed? And the whole idea about, and again, this is a bit more into the world book part, the whole idea of storytelling is then you start going, okay, I’ve now posed all these questions to you.

(51:15)
What plot can you make out of it? How do they discover? I don’t have the answer. By the way, how do they discover that’s a shapeshifter? Are they out in the open? Are they not out in the open? What happens? Are there more shapeshifters in power than they’re not? What happens if you go to the president and the president says to do this and you believe it’s a shapeshifter? Do you shoot the president? What happens in the case? But he just went crazy. And then you start another conflict because the general goes, you know what? You are a shapeshifter boom. Oh gosh, I made a mistake. How do I cover this mistake up? Then you’ve got the world in that perpetual confusion, that chaos. If I was a shapeshifter, I’ll be going, man, this is too easy. How about I just ship the water off here? Because, and you could even play a lot of world war scenarios. Have you heard of what’s happening with Nestle in California?

Jerome Castro (52:14):
I’m not entirely, I’m not 100% well informed. Yeah,

Es Kay (52:17):
Okay. If you get bored, Google, Nestle California water. So the whole idea behind it is Nestle Nestle, the company basically has a legal contract which allows them to take water out from California. The problem is California is currently in a drought, but because they have an eye in cloud contract, they basically said, screw this. I don’t care if people in California don’t have access to water. I’ve still got my quota. I’m going to take it all, bottle it up and sell it. So our aliens like that. Our aliens the next Nestle. There’s such a lot of real world and a lot of historical context you can give behind it. Maybe the aliens have always been here. And then as you start digging into the past, the innovation force, you go, oh, wait a minute. Maybe Cleopatra was one of them. I don’t know. Maybe Mary Queen of Scot’s was one Queen Elizabeth, and it opens that all up, that historical war building. Anyway, I think I’ve talked way too much. Look, by the way, I hope this helps. Yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (53:31):
Yeah, of course. Yeah. You got the thinking actually.

Es Kay (53:33):
You have a really strong idea, but you can see as you world build and start digging, I start asking questions. You start just digging slightly below the surface of your questions. You’re going, oh gosh. You could have in your story an entire section on how Queen Elizabeth from a shapeshifter took power and what she’s doing in that power. That’s our entire story, just right there. Just that one concept based in your world. And the more you dig, man, you will have plots just from what you’ve told me. You have plots coming out left, right? I envy you, but I wouldn’t want to be you because man, you can get stuck on plots a lot. Exactly. Look, Shane, I’ve talked too much. I’ve got five more minutes. I know Zach’s going to come on, so I’m happy to drop. But any last questions? Any last things before I jump off?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:32):
Yeah, well actually I wanted to share your links, but I wanted to make sure I was sharing the right ones. Word one, is that a current or?

Es Kay (54:44):
Oh, they’re both. They’re both in pre-launch, so I’m

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:47):
Very much they both in pre-launch. Okay.

Es Kay (54:48):
I’m very much in the Kickstarter pre-launch thing, which is basically before I launch a project, I always make it a point to get the pre-launch up, get a bit of hype, get a bit of excitement. Oh look, issue three is coming or issue four is coming. So anybody in the chat, anybody that’s out there, if you have a Kickstarter account, I would really appreciate you if you could click on the link and I really would appreciate if you could hit that notified button so that you’ll know when both kick

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:17):
Started.

Es Kay (55:19):
And I really,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:19):
I did quite a while ago. I just wasn’t sure if one of them had started without me knowing that’s all, because I haven’t been keeping up to date with my emails.

Es Kay (55:28):
No, it’s both in pre-launch. And to be fair, I’ve got a lot more work I still need to do on them, but I’m always a big advocate. Get your pre-launch page up as quickly as possible so that you can start building some hype around your work. And so when, the main thing about Kickstarters is you want a strong day one, and the only way to get a really strong day one is to have a lot of people know about what’s happening on day one before it happens.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:54):
True, true, true, true.

Es Kay (55:57):
Okay, look, I’m happy to jump off now, but look, thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate it.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (56:02):
No, thank you so much. It’s very informative. Thank you very much. Yeah, I’d love to learn more from you.

Es Kay (56:10):
More than welcome to. So I’m going to jump. Thank you so much. Oh, is Zach on the back

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (56:17):
Room? Yeah, Zach’s in the green room. Yep.

Es Kay (56:19):
Bring him up. I’ll stop sharing. Bring him up. I won’t say hi before I go.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (56:23):
Okay, cool. And here’s Zach.

Es Kay (56:26):
Hello. Hey, first time. We’ve talked before, but I’ve never seen you before. So nice to meet you face to face as you were.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (56:36):
That was a good chat.

Es Kay (56:38):
Oh God. Look, I have read Bronwyn and I love your artwork. I really do.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (56:46):
It’s not

Isaac George (56:46):
Terrible.

Es Kay (56:49):
I hope it gives you ideas, by the way, because you’ve built your world around her, but there’s so much more you can explore. I think you’ve touched the tip that’s like just imagine you start digging around a bit more. You can go, man, the sky’s the limit.

Isaac George (57:05):
I had an original one to three, which are out, which are in reprints at the moment. Everyone wants them again. Yay me.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (57:17):
But

Isaac George (57:19):
It’s wide is why I did the further adventures and it’s set like an anthology sort of setting so I could tell more stories without affecting the main plot, so much kind of thing. So that’s an eight park kind of thing of where I explore the Celtic myths and legends and throw her in the middle of it and stuff.

Es Kay (57:43):
Yep. Oh, that’s awesome. You’re taking your own spin on those myths and stuff, so it’s fantastic. Look, I just want to say hi because I am out ski. But look, thank you very much Jerome and Shane for having me.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (57:56):
Thank you very much, Steve. Thanks, Steven.

Es Kay (57:58):
Okay, see you guys. See you

Isaac George (57:59):
Later.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:03):
Hey Zach, how are you? Hey, Zach.

Isaac George (58:05):
Tired, but I’m always tired.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:08):
You’re always tired

Isaac George (58:10):
And yet I don’t sleep.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:13):
Sleeping’s weak week. Yeah. So how have you been?

Isaac George (58:20):
I’m currently, is you

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:22):
Busy? Busy?

Isaac George (58:23):
I’ve currently finished up uni, so it’s back to drawing Bronwyn and Vivian.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:31):
So Vivian,

Isaac George (58:32):
Keeping busy

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:36):
Stuff.

Isaac George (58:38):
Have a nice little sneaky

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:40):
Piece. This job, you look very nice. You’re still beautiful. Yeah, thanks.

Isaac George (58:55):
But that issue’s going to be my first digital coloured one. I’m going to let a colorist have a crack at it.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:01):
Oh yes, I remember you saying something about that. That’s really cool. Just for something different

Isaac George (59:09):
More, I noticed that I could draw like nine pages almost in three days if I didn’t colour them.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:16):
If you didn’t colour them. Yes. It’s all about efficiency. Efficiency. I like it.

Isaac George (59:21):
Yeah. So I’ve got Donna Lawson doing it.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:27):
Oh, yep. Cool. She did one of the colouring for Peter.

Isaac George (59:34):
Thank you.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:35):
In the calendar.

Isaac George (59:37):
Yep. That’s why I wanted to get her. She did a really good colouring job on that.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:43):
Oh yeah, she awesome job. So you’ve got, you’re starting back on Bronwyn. So where is Bronwyn at the moment? So as in, you’ve had the three original issues and you’ve got, it’s the further adventures. I’m getting this right, aren’t I? So

Isaac George (01:00:04):
Further adventures one, and then there’s a lot of different covers for that one, but that was the main one. And then I did a crossover with Matt K for the Wrath of the Coast.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:00:23):
Nice.

Isaac George (01:00:26):
Yeah, so the crossover is set after issue, the original one to three, and then the further adventures, except before the original one to three. Oh, there’s a page now that tells you how to read it.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:00:46):
Oh, nice.

Isaac George (01:00:47):
Getting confusing.

Jerome Castro (01:00:52):
You have a timeline page by all of them itself?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:00:57):
Pardon?

Jerome Castro (01:00:57):
Legend of Zelda.

Isaac George (01:00:59):
Yeah, because there’s timeline that in further adventures, number one, there’s a story that takes place 2000 years before she’s even born. That’s part of the main storyline. So each little chapter is dated. So eventually when it’s in a trade, it’ll be in one book in proper order.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01:26):
Oh, sweet. Where’s the fun in that? Have it all the

Isaac George (01:01:31):
Shot? No, I need you to have all 20 issues in a pile that you can jump to. No, nice. Yeah, I’m currently finishing up number two of the further adventures, which has already gone through a Kickstarter, so I’m hoping that’s done by end of next week. So I can letter and print and all that jazz. And then I’ll be doing a Kickstarter for a sketchbook.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:02:11):
Oh, cool.

Isaac George (01:02:15):
Essentially, I take 20 artists out of the industry who really influenced me one way or another. Cover, swipe their work, bend it to a Bronwyn cover and talk about what I learned from that cover, what I learned from them as a whole. Just explain my whole artistic taking comic.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:02:43):
Oh wow. That’s really cool.

Isaac George (01:02:45):
Kind of cool sketchbook.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:02:47):
Any ideas? Would I be pushing my luck by saying any ideas when that will be happening?

Isaac George (01:02:55):
August 3rd and my birthday, so everyone should be nice pledge.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:03:03):
Everyone should be nice and pledge. I like it. I that’s a good one. I have to remember to make sure one of the Comex ones are on my birthday just to

Isaac George (01:03:12):
Suck. It’s my birthday, although it’s my birthday

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:03:16):
Pledge.

Isaac George (01:03:17):
Next year when we do an issue, we could just make sure it falls on comic studio’s birthday and it could be a birthday issue.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:03:25):
Birthday issue. I like it.

Isaac George (01:03:29):
But yeah. And then there’s issue four of the main line, which I completely forgot. I had done for a year.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:03:40):
Whoop. Interesting story. What?

Isaac George (01:03:42):
I injured my foot and I was on codeine and it made me really, codeine knocks me out for some reason. I don’t know why. And I completely forgot that it was on my computer. So it set on my hard drive for like a year.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:04:03):
That’s impressive.

Isaac George (01:04:04):
It’s lettered in everything.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:04:07):
Oh, I need to get me something that I’m allergic to and see if it can get me to do more work.

Jerome Castro (01:04:21):
Yeah.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:04:23):
Sorry. Sorry, you were saying Zach.

Isaac George (01:04:25):
No, no, no. I’m just saying that’s pretty much where Broin is. And then Vivian is a couple panels off from the first part being done and I’ve already mapped out the second part.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:04:40):
Cool. And that couple of panels are random because you like to, if I remember correctly, I like to

Isaac George (01:04:46):
Do this jump from this page. I jump around pages. I don’t typically draw a full page. There’s a couple bits and pieces through pages.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:04:57):
Sweet. You got anything you want to ask Zach?

Jerome Castro (01:05:03):
Yeah, yeah. Well, for a few things. So before we,

Isaac George (01:05:11):
I’m still listening.

Jerome Castro (01:05:13):
We’ve been talking about Bronwyn and we’ve asked this from a lot of times, but can you tell the audience about Bronwyn and what is it about, and to those who don’t know about it so far?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:05:27):
Yeah, good question. I should have said that.

Isaac George (01:05:31):
Okay. If you think of it this way, it’s Xena meets Hellboy in a way. In a way. Doesn’t do the acrobatics or have the dark pasta. Xena. It’s easy to describe Chick with a sword that way. And then the ancient kind of setting. And then Hellboy is he’s thrown into different myths and legends mixed with his own overall plot. So that’s kind of how I describe it.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:06:05):
No, that makes sense.

Isaac George (01:06:07):
She’s Celtic Warrior and it’s tied into actual history. So actual historical events are referenced, hence the dates for story. So you can kind of pick where you are in history at that point just to add to the well a little bit.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:06:29):
Nice.

Jerome Castro (01:06:31):
And since it’s tied up to history, then, how do you build your stories lower? How do you isolate from, do you isolate it from things that are happening in real history or do you mix it with historical events?

Isaac George (01:06:51):
It is mixed with historical events. So her father was verse Tric who fought Julius Caesar when she was 10. Julius Caesar invaded ga, and there was the battle of E. So she was 10 when that happened. And after that, she got sentenced to live with the God like the 10 dance, which is like the Celtic gods. And so then I dropped little references of history in the new issue at references Caesar’s assassination. Cool. It just helps, I think ground. It’s something Buffy did, I think when they put it in high school, and it was like they referenced the high school shootings and stuff. It pulls all that fantasy back down a little bit and grounds the audience kind of. So it’s kind what I’m kind of do.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:07:50):
Yeah, makes sense.

Jerome Castro (01:07:53):
And in video games, that should be the equivalent of Assassin’s Creed, I guess. Yeah. So how, what’s make your medical historical fiction, especially yours, it’s Celtic is very less so. How do you make it more interesting for the average reader?

Isaac George (01:08:24):
I kind of pick the less intense Celtic stories kind of thing. And the main overall story arc that Bronwyn’s tied up into is when Lou fought Blaw in the Fian war. So that story arc is the main kind of beat. So Bronwyn’s the aftermath of that wall.

(01:08:54)
So there’s that, and then I pick random figures out of it. It’s what Zena did, they cherry picked through history, and then just dump it in there and just tied it all together. But I’m kind of picking some cool bits, like monsters and stuff out of it. So there’s the occasional monster of the week story as well as the long running story arc, but even the monster of the week episodes make reference to a major player from the main story will pop up and drop a little bit of info or stuff like that. Nice. I write very TV

Jerome Castro (01:09:39):
X files.

Isaac George (01:09:41):
Yeah, I think TV episode structure when I write stuff, if that makes sense. No, that makes sense. Which

Jerome Castro (01:09:52):
Is,

Isaac George (01:09:55):
But I do try and make it easy because Celtic stuff isn’t as known as Rome or Greek Roman or the Greek myths, the Celtic stuff. You kind of have to, I think, put it plain enough and then you thread it through and hopefully someone actually goes and looks up like, what’s a Fian? Or who’s Bella? Or who’s Lou?

Jerome Castro (01:10:22):
Yeah, maybe

Isaac George (01:10:23):
Look it up.

Jerome Castro (01:10:25):
And it did actually. And when I read further adventures initially my Celtic was rusty, so you actually made me reread my Celtic and Celtic mythology.

Isaac George (01:10:43):
That’s good. But yeah, it doesn’t get used enough, which is sad.

Jerome Castro (01:10:49):
Yeah. Good. Think about it. There’s a lot of interesting stories.

Isaac George (01:10:54):
It’s a very rich history. Funny because a lot of it is rewritten into Roman law with different characters. A lot of it’s into the Bible that was rewritten when the Christian monks came. David and Goliath is Lou and Bella, because in the proper law, Lou fought Bella with a slingshot. Interesting.

Jerome Castro (01:11:22):
I never made that connection. That’s interesting.

Isaac George (01:11:25):
Yeah, there’s a few docos that show you all the Pagan stuff that’s been integrated into Christianity. If you know that side of things, you’re like, okay, no worries. But yeah, I did a tonne of Celtic research to do this. I want to get as much of it right as possible

Jerome Castro (01:11:55):
Because most of my readings were from the AWA and the story about Ballor. So, and most of the stories are just about boudica usually concentrate around that time period. Sorry about that. Okay. Yeah. So well, when you are, you said you’re starting number four right now for Bronwyn

Isaac George (01:12:32):
Number four is there’s maybe one or two more panels. I just need to double check the issue. It was a year ago, so it might be something I want to redraw, but that’s almost, I’m pretty sure a hundred percent done. And further adventure number two, I’ve got maybe five or six pages and a few panels here and there to finish.

Jerome Castro (01:12:57):
Oh, okay. Do you start your stories, how do you make start an issue? Do you start with, you have a set of characters that you want in it and make the story around it? Do you have a specific plot you already have in mind? Can you tell us about it?

Isaac George (01:13:17):
I kind of focus on, I know the ending of Bronwyn, so I know she has to get there. I know how, who is a real Celtic figure. She’s the daughter of Bellor. I know what needs to happen to her and in further adventures, the new character called, and I know where he’s going. So I think when you do that, it’s best to understand where your characters start and what beats you want them to hit, because that will help you write the story. And then I just have a look through my book of Celtic myths or on the net and find a monster of the week. Put them in a situation, how can kind of flow into the storyline. Alright, cool. I don’t write scripts, I just thumbnail my whole story out,

Jerome Castro (01:14:23):
Which works actually. Yeah.

Isaac George (01:14:26):
Then I work out dialogue when the art’s done and I go to the lettering process.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:14:34):
Interesting.

Isaac George (01:14:34):
I kind of have an idea of what bro, who bronwyn’s character is. So that’s easy writing dialogue for her, but which i’s still figuring it out a little bit. Ly, she just wants daddy’s thrown. If that was taken away from her.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:14:53):
Makes it easy.

Isaac George (01:14:56):
Well, LAN’s story is still following. Originally Bella killed off all her kids because he viewed his grandchildren as a threat to the throne, except again, Christian Bible. She sends lu away, knocked down a river, but a sea, God adopts him, I think from memory and he raped, gets raised, brought up, and then he winds up killing Bella. Anyway, so it’s the aftermath of that all happening to Lon because then after that, Lou pronounced king of the Fian and the Tenah. So she loses her throne, which technically should be hers, but because the woman, she’s not allowed to have a throne, so she wants her throne.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:15:56):
Alright, cool. So you’ve got that overarching story going on.

Isaac George (01:16:00):
They all have an overarching story and kind of twine it together and then throw the Celtic myths in there just to flesh out the Celtic world.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:16:10):
Cool.

Jerome Castro (01:16:15):
Okay. So how do you, sorry, I don’t

Isaac George (01:16:17):
Know if I answered your question or not.

Jerome Castro (01:16:22):
Well, you actually did. I mean, it actually cleared the, what’s this myth in my mind that everyone’s scripts so,

Isaac George (01:16:38):
Oh no, I don’t see, if I was to give say you a script to draw, I would write you a script because in my head I know what I need. So I just jumped that step and I just go straight to thumb nailing it out. If I was to give it to someone else, I would give them a script or at least a basic, I need this, this, and this to happen. Run wild.

Jerome Castro (01:17:09):
The Stanley approach.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:17:11):
Yeah.

Isaac George (01:17:13):
Then take credit for it all.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:17:18):
Well,

Jerome Castro (01:17:20):
So let’s go to the nitty gritty. How do you work on the comics? I mean, do you sit down and make a lot of pages all at once or are you the type who does things when they feel like it?

Isaac George (01:17:37):
No, I draw every day.

Jerome Castro (01:17:40):
Oh, you draw every day.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:17:42):
Like a Stephen King with his writing, always a certain amount each day. Is it like that? Yep. Cool.

Isaac George (01:17:49):
I was drawing Bronwyn while watching. I’m always

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:17:52):
Drawn.

Isaac George (01:17:54):
I’ve always drawn. So it is just a force of habit at this point,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:18:00):
But well good. That’s how you get better and better and better. That’s how you improve.

Isaac George (01:18:04):
Because there’s days if I don’t draw the next day I notice I’m like, this looks shit.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:18:11):
But you

Isaac George (01:18:14):
Lose it if you don’t draw for while, you’ll notice that you don’t. It’s harder to get back into it. So that days drawing your relearning kind of.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:18:28):
No, that makes sense. I stopped drawing for years and I can’t draw. I used to, I just can’t. Whatever skill I had then is gone.

Isaac George (01:18:39):
So it comes back pretty quick. But it’s, your days aren’t as productive because it’s the, oh, I can’t get this face drive, but I could get it right two days ago.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:18:53):
No, that makes sense

Isaac George (01:18:55):
For me personally. Yeah. Oh

Jerome Castro (01:18:57):
Yeah. It’s a matter of consistency.

Isaac George (01:18:59):
Yeah. But pretty much I will draw at least a panel a day. Sometimes pages

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:19:07):
Cool random panels, apparently

Isaac George (01:19:11):
I loosely pencil out a whole page and then I cherry pick. If I loosely pencil out like four pages of broan in a fight, I’ll do all the panels with her face in it, because that way I’m in the mindset of drawing her face and that way that her face is more consistent. I drew all of it in one hit cool neck. They’ll be like, I’ll draw hands. I can focus on all the shots with hands. I don’t know, I just way it work.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:19:45):
Well if it works for you.

Jerome Castro (01:19:47):
Yeah, of course. It always looks good when I give it a look. So at least something’s working. So if that’s the case, it seems that you’re the meticulous type. Well, and you do the entire comics by your Yeah. And you do the entire comics by yourself, but are there any skill that you’re looking to improve further right now that can help your comic book that you think you’re still doing bad at

Isaac George (01:20:25):
Lettering? I suck at lettering. I get buy on lettering so when money picks up, I’ll get a letterer for that. I’m not Dave that I can’t hand letter that just hurts my head thinking that he hands letters everything that still hurts my head. And then eventually I want to get to a point where I have trust issues with handing growing out, but I do want to get to a point where I can start employing people to speed the timeline up to get everything out. But right now I’m a bit getting a colorist to do it. It’s like, okay, baby steps. But I’m sure most like that with the characters. You think you’re the only one who can. I have no problem getting a variant cover artist. I’m like, you looks cool. But the sequential art, the way that she’s drawn in that I’m really picky on kind of thing. Protective.

Jerome Castro (01:21:36):
Well, it’s your world

Isaac George (01:21:40):
Actually. Protective is probably a good way to describe it. Yeah.

Jerome Castro (01:21:46):
Well that’s okay. That’s okay. I mean, it’s your world and it’s your lure. So how you see it is how you do it. Well, let’s talk about Vivin Jones. Tell us the design behind, how did you decide on the design behind Vivian Jones?

Isaac George (01:22:08):
Good question. I know this jokingly, it’s a smoking giraffe and I apologise to Happy Harold in advance. I thought that was just a running joke. I didn’t think that was an actual

Jerome Castro (01:22:23):
Intentional thing.

Isaac George (01:22:26):
No, because all the detective noir photos and stuff I saw they’re always smoking. Okay. So it’s just a trope used in the detective noir setting. So I’m like, okay, him being a draught is, I want to draw something different than people because bro is people heavy.

Jerome Castro (01:22:49):
So

Isaac George (01:22:50):
It’s more of even the time period jump and stuff. So it’s like I don’t want to get comfortable just doing fantasy and ancient Roman stuff. So it’s more of a little bit of a expanding my skillset. But the draughts, I just like draughts. I like detective stories. Sorry,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:23:14):
What’s a good reason?

Isaac George (01:23:18):
Vivian came from my mom’s dad. That was his name.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:23:33):
I don’t even know what I was going to say now. Sorry, my

Isaac George (01:23:35):
Dog. It just

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:23:36):
Went. No, that’s okay. I did have a question, but it’s gone. I’m going to lie.

Jerome Castro (01:23:47):
Okay, then let me cover, so what’s this? He’s an cult detective, right? Are you free to say what type of cult things he checks? Or is it your own law or is it based on something else?

Isaac George (01:24:06):
This one continues a bit of the Irish law. There’s a reference to Morgan Lafe and

Jerome Castro (01:24:19):
Artur one,

Isaac George (01:24:19):
Her descendants is in it. That’s Nicola Fe. Nicola is named after Nicola Scott, and she knows and she, the character design, which is a bonus, but there’s still that stuff. This arc in itself is witches.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:24:41):
So it’s

Isaac George (01:24:41):
Exploring witchcraft and there’s also another witch in there from a different set of mythology, but you’re going to have to read to find out what one.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:24:52):
Oh, I like that you have to read to find out. Nice.

Jerome Castro (01:24:59):
She is getting a lot of marketing tips from Zach.

Isaac George (01:25:05):
My marketing class at uni paid off,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:25:10):
But mine does, I’m just starting mine.

Isaac George (01:25:16):
I only had to do one subject in it, and I’m like, this is hurting my head. Essentially. It was beginners 1 0 1 to it. So they’re teaching all the cliches of men like cars, women like makeup. I’m like stereotyping, but that’s how they’re teaching me the marketing thing. I’m like, no. So it kind of hurt my head that way. Yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:25:41):
It would

Isaac George (01:25:43):
Much about cars.

Jerome Castro (01:25:47):
That’s marketing from the sixties.

Isaac George (01:25:51):
So yeah, I still learned bits and pieces, but what I found was the way that the uni did it, which is weird. The textbook was even 2020, but wow. We’re still taught stereotype marketing. Interesting. But yeah, so

Jerome Castro (01:26:15):
Well,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:26:16):
I’m a bit late there. That was talking about cherry picking earlier.

Jerome Castro (01:26:22):
So did you do world building for Vivian, or do you have the entire world in your head ready?

Isaac George (01:26:37):
The

Jerome Castro (01:26:39):
For airport? Yeah.

Isaac George (01:26:41):
Vivian Jones is 12 parts, but outside publication it’s really four issues. So for those four issues, I know what’s happening. That’s it. So I dunno if I’ll continue with Vivian Jones or not after.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:26:56):
Okay. Well, just out of curiosity, with Vivian Jones, is it kind of set in a time period similar to where there’s actual humans or have you just made up your own whole set of rules to where they are? Or I’m going by their close? I would say they’re like, what,

Isaac George (01:27:16):
1920s? It’s 1920s. It’s the 1920s. It’s essentially instead of humans with human heads, it’s humans with giraffe heads.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:27:28):
Yeah.

Isaac George (01:27:32):
So I think the Egyptian God kind of thing, the human bodies and the animal things, but everyone’s giraffe. There’s no other random animal that’s

Jerome Castro (01:27:44):
Default for the world. Right. Everyone was giraffe from the start. Yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:27:50):
That makes sense.

Jerome Castro (01:27:51):
Yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:27:52):
That’s what I was just trying to understand was if it was a different world, no, you’re not

Isaac George (01:27:55):
Going to see a random human pop up.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:27:59):
Oh, no, no. I meant as in was it a different world or was it just our world with draught heads,

Isaac George (01:28:07):
Our world, with just people with draughts. It’s just something different.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:28:12):
Yeah, it is a bit different.

Jerome Castro (01:28:17):
Well, what was the challenge that you had with, did you have any challenges that you think when you were developing Vivian Jones, was there anything that you felt that you’re having a hard time working on?

Isaac George (01:28:38):
Him himself? Getting the body proportions right, because it’s not a normal head. So you learn aheads this, and then you go one, and then that’s the breast line, and then the belly button line and the crotch line. You just go down like that. So you kind have to draw a human head, do the body, and then alter the human head to a giraffe.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:29:08):
Well, I was going to say all the other artists who gave it a go did a pretty good job as well, I must say. Yeah.

Isaac George (01:29:15):
And then there’s the neck ratio of how long do you make his neck?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:29:20):
Well, everyone seems to do that differently, I noticed.

Isaac George (01:29:22):
Yeah. I just double a human’s neck. It’s a giraffe kind of thing, but I wouldn’t go by an action figure and just cut a giraffe head off and glue it on just so I have a reference point that’ll help me a lot.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:29:40):
Nice.

Jerome Castro (01:29:44):
Well, you said that you’re having a hard time letting others work on, especially on Bronwyn, but if there’s any creator, is there any creator that, whether it’s here in Australia or in the US, that you think you’d be okay working on Bronwyn? Anyone? Who is it?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:30:16):
I think I know.

Isaac George (01:30:18):
Oh,

Jerome Castro (01:30:19):
The tele.

Isaac George (01:30:22):
There’s a few people who’ve done covers. I would let Rob have a crack at her. I think that would be a fun.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:30:31):
That would be fun actually. Yeah.

Isaac George (01:30:36):
Daniel Watts did a really cool cover. He drew her really well. I like everyone’s cover in industry. I would want to actually see Nicola Scott Trier.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:31:02):
I was right,

Isaac George (01:31:04):
Adam Hughes. And then for the sake of it, Mike Mcla, I reckon he would draw. Really cool.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:31:13):
Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought of that.

Isaac George (01:31:15):
It would be interesting to see. I really like Hellboy, but Mike men’s style is, you either love it or you hate it, I feel.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:31:25):
Yeah, that’d be interesting, especially with the connection with how Bronwyn is kind of like the whole Hellboy and everything like that. Yeah, with the whole myth going through different ions.

Isaac George (01:31:39):
Yeah. His world building is insane. I read all Hellboy, most of the BPRD, all of which finder. I think there’s one or two other spinoffs I’ve read, but they all flow together. I’m like, how many core boards do you have pinned up with strings going to this into that. But yeah, so he’s good for world building. If you want to look at McDonald for anything, he’s world building is impressive, but,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:32:18):
Well, Zach, is there any easy way for people to find Bronwyn?

Isaac George (01:32:25):
Probably on my Facebook page.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:32:27):
Your Facebook page? Yep. So just look for Zach. George.

Isaac George (01:32:32):
Hang on. I’ll dump it in the chat.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:32:34):
Oh, okay. Yeah. Cool. Makes it even easier for me

Isaac George (01:32:48):
Then if you search what Zach Drew comics on Instagram as well, that’s there as well.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:32:57):
That’s shocking. I should have said that anyway. I should know that my brain’s not working. You should. Yeah, I

Isaac George (01:33:03):
Should. And then she’s in a few stores around Australia.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:33:09):
Oh, that’s awesome.

Isaac George (01:33:10):
That’s cool.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:33:11):
A few comic stores. Check out your comic store and ask for Bronwyn. Ask for Bronwyn if they haven’t got it, get it in.

Isaac George (01:33:22):
But the pre-orders, not pre-orders. The reprints go to the printer tomorrow, so I should have them by next week. And then Kickstarter the week after that issue. Two of further adventures and then after that issue four, and then get my ass into gear for the sketchbook.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:33:46):
Nice. Nice. I’m looking forward to that actually. That’d be really interesting. Doing the whole, what do you call it again? Where you take the art from another,

Isaac George (01:33:54):
It’s cover swipes,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:33:56):
Cover swipe. That’s it.

Isaac George (01:33:59):
But it’s cool. You

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:33:59):
Learn all these new terms.

Isaac George (01:34:04):
It’s interesting because you learn a lot from doing them, whether it’s you like that colouring, so you try and figure out how they did it or the lighting in that you figure out how they did it by redrawing it. So it’s more drawing exercises. Why I do them, they do sell, well, don’t get me wrong, especially if you do the right cover, that Spider-Man, jumping forward. Everyone’s done that one. But it’s more of a learning thing for me.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:34:44):
No, that makes total sense. You’re

Isaac George (01:34:45):
Drawn to the cover for a reason. So if you figure out why you like it, and then you adapt that lighting because you obviously like that lighting or that colouring or that makes sense. I flat out credit. I’ll even tweet them on Twitter and be like, look, I swat all your cover.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:35:06):
That’s the best way to do it.

Isaac George (01:35:08):
Oh no. A few of ’em have responded and said it’s great and retweeted it. So they obviously don’t care. In a way. I am not mass producing and making millions on it. No. And all that is Oh wow. People like my work.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:35:25):
Yeah. Well, that’s how I think of it. They would view it as a fan thing. Well,

Isaac George (01:35:32):
If you do them, you have to just credit them. Oh yeah.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:35:36):
That

Isaac George (01:35:36):
Makes the most credit.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:35:38):
Yeah, exactly.

Isaac George (01:35:39):
Yeah. Cool.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:35:41):
Well, I’m just going to do a little bit plug for all of us and for Vivian Jones, go to this link to get the pre-launch page. Vivian Jones, one of the stories on Comex presents. So that’s my little plug. Cool. Well, thanks so much for coming on tonight, Zach. It was a real pleasure talking to you. You want to put, but these

Isaac George (01:36:05):
Are available if you want to get them. These right now are in stock

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:36:14):
And the best place to go is to your WhatsApp Drew Comics on Facebook.

Isaac George (01:36:19):
Look, you can get a pretty sticker on the back.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:36:22):
Oh, nice.

Isaac George (01:36:28):
And then if you were interested in any of the stuff coming out, just message me and I can put your name down.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:36:36):
Yep. Cool. So yeah, if you want to get in contact with Zach, just go to that Facebook page that I posted there. It’s a what? Zach Drew comics at Instagram and at Facebook. Thank you very much, Zach. You have a great night. It was a pleasure talking to you.

Isaac George (01:36:51):
Thank you for having me. Thanks Zach. It

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:36:53):
Was our pleasure. Have a great night.

Isaac George (01:36:56):
You too. Catch up. Good night. Bye.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:37:05):
Well, that was two very interesting guests. That was a lot of fun. And we’ve run over time because of it. We had a lot to talk about. So yeah. So what we’ll do now is we’re trying to start this new tradition where we review some comics, and we’re going to do that with the help of Brad, Brad Daniels to be exact from Edge comics. I will bring him up if he’s ready. If he’s not, I’ll bring him up. Anyway,

Brad Daniels (01:37:35):
I’m ready. I’m ready.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:37:40):
Hey Brad, how are you? Hey, Brad. Hey. You enjoying lockdown?

Brad Daniels (01:37:45):
Yeah, it’s great being alive in Brisbane right now.

Isaac George (01:37:49):
Yes.

Brad Daniels (01:37:51):
Yeah, lockdown great. It doesn’t change my life at all. I rarely have, so it’s all good. I just have to wear a mask when I go out.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:38:03):
Yeah, that’s only difference to me as well. I work from home. How are you guys

Brad Daniels (01:38:08):
Going?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:38:10):
I’m going well. How about you, Jerome? Doing well.

Brad Daniels (01:38:13):
Doing well. Doing

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:38:13):
Well.

Brad Daniels (01:38:15):
Nice.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:38:16):
Having a bit of fun there with Steven.

Brad Daniels (01:38:19):
Yeah.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:38:21):
Yeah.

Brad Daniels (01:38:22):
Your story actually. Yeah. Good stuff. Ah, so yeah, great show so far. Want to talk about some comics?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:38:31):
Yeah, let’s talk about some comments. Yeah, let’s do that. Yeah, we won’t talk about the ones I’ve read. We’ll talk about the ones you’ve read. Brad,

Brad Daniels (01:38:38):
Why is that? Why is that? Actually,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:38:43):
Why don’t we

Brad Daniels (01:38:44):
Talk about the ones you’ve read.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:38:45):
I just thought it’d be more interesting to ones you’ve read.

Brad Daniels (01:38:49):
Okay, interesting. Interesting. Well, I’ve got a little pile here. So not a big lot today, but I’ve got some. Okay, so this is from cool. What was it? It was a week and a half ago. I was down in Sydney for Supernova Comic convention. I think I mentioned that last week. One of the things I picked up was this taxi cop taxi. Oh, it’s an ash can, it’s like a preview thing. This was done by, oh, let me see. Can I find the guy’s name? I should have brought my glasses.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:39:29):
Yeah, I’ve had the same problem with looking at the screen. I’m slowly losing my focus on the screen and tonight it’s really showing

Brad Daniels (01:39:38):
TJ McCallum is the man responsible. tj. Yeah. Nice. Now this is, the artwork in This is very cool. I found it very reminiscent of Macher, the guy who does ghost in niche, shell appleseed and all. Okay, cool. Yeah, there’s lots of, let me see if I can find a, so you got your Insectoid type robots. Cool. You got a lot of really good cartoony acting by all the drawings. So loving the work that it does here. This is just an ashcan preview, so it’s not complete. There’s pages where you have just no dialogue put in there. There’s just word balloons. But I was very, very impressed with the level of artwork that this TJ’s got going on.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:40:37):
Yeah, it looks really cool.

Brad Daniels (01:40:39):
It looks really cool. So I look forward to finding out. Well look forward to seeing the final product, but this was a good little sampler. It is like he was sharing with another fellow who I’ll get onto in a minute, sharing a booth and he didn’t have anything except this, but this is good. Five bucks for a preview, just like, and like I said, great acting, great little cartoony characters there, and I’m not sure why you have to drive. So that’s a taste. Taste of the future. Now let’s move on to something else.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:41:35):
Is this new sharing in the booth or a different one?

Brad Daniels (01:41:38):
This is from a different chat. I’m just grabbing them as they’re on the pile

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:41:42):
Here. Oh, yep, yep, yep.

Brad Daniels (01:41:43):
So that’s okay. No, logically I would go to the next guy who was in the same booth, but no, no. Why would I do it that way when I can show you Keep it

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:41:53):
Interesting.

Brad Daniels (01:41:55):
Pizza dude. The Supreme Pizza dude.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:41:59):
Supreme. Even better. That’s very cheesy

Brad Daniels (01:42:05):
Against the invisible enemy. I think we know who he is dealing with there. Now these were a lovely couple who were next to me at the Sydney Ocon popup earlier this year, and lots of cool retro, eighties style, colourful, good stuff. This is just like a little mini brought out because of Covid. Of course. Now does anyone remember Pizza Man? Which

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:42:34):
Rings a bell, but I can’t quite place why I know it, but I do know

Brad Daniels (01:42:39):
The name. It was an Aussie comic. Went out to the news agents in the nineties called Pizza Man. It was a superhero spoof. I never read it. I’m sure it was great. I’m probably insulting someone’s life work right now, but this appeal to

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:42:58):
Me.

Brad Daniels (01:43:00):
But this is just delightful. There’s nothing groundbreaking about it, but if you like having a little bit of a fun thing, it’s like what he does, basically, it just goes through what he does during Covid. Isolation.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:43:23):
Wash your hands there. Pizza man. I like it. Pizza dude.

Brad Daniels (01:43:26):
Sorry. He grows a beard. Grows a beard, of course, as everyone does. As you

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:43:31):
Do.

Brad Daniels (01:43:33):
Yeah.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:43:34):
It’s a dude beard.

Brad Daniels (01:43:36):
And the back page tells you how to wash your hands in case you know how.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:43:41):
Oh, that’s classic. Did you get from the health department’s psa?

Brad Daniels (01:43:47):
No, this is just this lovely fellow. I think it was John is his name. It’s, it’s cute. Lemme just check this out here. Yeah, John Deno Cullen. And as a bonus, he and his lovely wife gave me a lift back to my hotel after the convention. So highest possible marks for Lisa. Supreme Pizza. Dude. Great stuff. Pizza, dude, check it out. I actually probably Lee Lee just says she has two or he says he has two issues.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:44:23):
Two issues of what Lee tell us which one of Pizza Dude. Or Pizza Man.

Brad Daniels (01:44:29):
Maybe Pizza Man. Maybe he is one of each

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:44:35):
Two issues. Mind blown.

Brad Daniels (01:44:39):
Righto. So I should probably, I’ll put down, I’ll send through contact you for everyone, for each of these at the end when we go through all this.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:44:52):
Actually, that’s a really good point because we turn these shows into articles. Well, I love to say we, but really it’s drone. Take some credit that isn’t mine

Brad Daniels (01:45:05):
Doing the stand lead.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:45:11):
Yeah. So Jerome turned us into an article. So if you can share the details of where we can get these or get in contact with these people, Jerome can put that at the end of the article. That’ll be awesome.

Brad Daniels (01:45:22):
Will do. No problems at all. I’ll do that after we have a look now we’ll go back to the guy who was sharing with JK, whatever his name was. tj, I’m Craig names. This is John Hannah, another John. Nice. Okay. You can’t kill us. This is like a sci-fi Looks secure. Yeah, it is set in outer space on a space station. It’s very politically charged. It’s not like a brainless sort of shoot the bad guy sort of thing. It’s all about, instead in a future where everyone has sold their bodies to finance lifestyles. So there’s a new story that That’s interesting. Oxygen is going up, the breathing tax is going up 32% and people are upset. They say, oh, we had to sell our lungs angels ago. I think a rich people can afford to breathe. Anyway, so that’s the sort of dystopia you’re looking at with this.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:46:39):
That sounds really cool. That’s a good

Brad Daniels (01:46:42):
Concept. Really well done. It follows this lone dude. I’m not sure whether he’s deserted from the Army or he is just at a very unusual way of getting onto the Space station, but it starts with a long wordless sequence and then we get to meet him and find out a lot more about the world. Very socially relevant. The artwork. Now this is John style, which is sort of like anime es, but he has his particular thing. Yeah, yeah. It’s, and I found this totally different. I was really surprised when I read this. I think the story is good and the storytelling with the art is good as well. I know he’s got three issues of this out. I’m looking forward to picking up the others to find out where it goes.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:47:41):
You’ll have to chase that. It sounds like a really cool concept.

Jerome Castro (01:47:45):
The art is reminiscent of Megaman, the Megaman

Brad Daniels (01:47:49):
Series. Yeah. Yeah. It’s definitely got that megaman vibe, but it’s more he said, he says in his little afterwards that he’s inspired by cyberpunk, William Gibson and all that. So it is a very cyberpunk type of story vibe with that one. Ghost the shell sort of stuff. Yep. Very good. Very good. Top marks. Love it. Throw it away. Okay, next up we got Fox and Hound. Have you guys read this?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:48:31):
Oh yes. I’ve got Fox and Hound one, two and three.

Brad Daniels (01:48:35):
One, two and three. This is issue two.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:48:39):
Yep.

Brad Daniels (01:48:40):
Yeah, sorry. Lemme just see

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:48:42):
A little risque, a little

Brad Daniels (01:48:44):
Que. It’s a little risque. Needs cover. You’ve

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:48:46):
Got a risque cover. Okay. Yes. Nice.

Brad Daniels (01:48:49):
Yeah. Cover that needs to be held. APA bag.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:48:55):
I don’t think I’ve got that cover.

Brad Daniels (01:48:59):
Wow. Let’s leave it at that. Yeah, it’s a sexy girl adventurous story. Every single, everything they say is a double entendre, as far as I can tell. If that sounds appealing to you, then you will enjoy it. I mean, now, lemme see. Now this is, let me get the credits here. Created by NSK Ns K and yep.

Jerome Castro (01:49:33):
Good friend of the Soil

Brad Daniels (01:49:36):
And John Rhodes. Yeah, I dunno. It is obviously not for kids.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:49:51):
Oh, no, no,

Brad Daniels (01:49:54):
Very. I don’t think

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:49:55):
Anything that NSK does is for kids.

Jerome Castro (01:49:57):
When you see NSK, the name NSK on something, it’s likely not for kids.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:50:04):
Yeah,

Brad Daniels (01:50:07):
Yeah. And the presentation is beautiful. The writing is good. I still don’t, the characters just feel a little shallow to me, but I’m waiting to read more. It’s very well done. I don’t think it’s my cup of tea, which is disappointing. I love looking at boobies. But no, I’ve got issue two. I’m going to grab issue three and see if it clicks for me then.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:50:43):
Yep.

Brad Daniels (01:50:44):
And

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:50:44):
You’ve got a,

Brad Daniels (01:50:46):
There’s the back cover there.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:50:48):
Oh yeah. More covering. You’ve definitely got different covers than me. Mine are quite happily displayed.

Brad Daniels (01:50:56):
Oh really? Well, mine are not. So yeah, if you want a saucy adventure with lots of action and so much double entendre going on and spicy tails. That’s it. Ooh, spicy. Ouch. Ouch. Burns my fingers. Ouchie. What have I got left? Ah, yeah, I got one last one for the night. This is full disclosure. This is actually my neighbour and friend. This is, lemme bring it in there. Get an M, wrong side. Okay. Ku.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:51:42):
Hey, I’ve got this. He lives near you.

Brad Daniels (01:51:46):
Yeah, he lives across the road.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:51:48):
No way.

Brad Daniels (01:51:49):
Yes, way.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:51:52):
Brisbane is too small.

Brad Daniels (01:51:55):
Yeah. Brisbane. Where your brother’s is, your mother. Everyone knows everyone pretty much. So this is Sean Craig

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:52:04):
And

Brad Daniels (01:52:05):
Written by, let me get my little thingy, Susan tore.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:52:13):
Yep.

Brad Daniels (01:52:14):
Now I really want to plug this, not just because Craig lives across the road from me and lends me his comics all the time, but because this is something that is very rarely seen with Australian comics, and that is, he did it. He did the whole story. He did five issues of story.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:52:37):
Yep. I’ve got all five. No poll to read, unfortunately. Sorry about that.

Brad Daniels (01:52:44):
Well, they’re actually a good read and they’re a fairly quick read because they’re anime inspired, so there’s lots of the action. Yeah. Sean does a lot of really detailed, and I think he was saying it took him four or five years to get it all done.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:53:09):
Oh

Brad Daniels (01:53:09):
Wow. This is something that is rarely seen in Australian comics where someone starts a limited series of comics and they actually finish it. So you can find out how the story ends. So that gets high marks from me. So let me see.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:53:25):
Oh yeah, damn. Straight going to say, I’ve actually got his business card here. I met him at another world.

Brad Daniels (01:53:33):
That’s him. That’s the guy. That’s the guy officer. Yeah. So we’ve got some count. So he’s got very anime inspired artwork, very bloody. He loves Jeff Darrow’s work. He loves lots of detail. He loves lots of gore. The thing is, when I went and reread it all, and the crazy thing is that this story, probably the story itself only goes for, I don’t know, maybe a week, a couple of weeks. But reading it as I was reading it as he was making it, I thought, I was thinking, oh, this is a saga that goes off the years. But no, the story only goes over a very short span of time just because I was there while it was being ground out.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:54:25):
Oh yes.

Brad Daniels (01:54:25):
But yes, so my highest recommendation is for Zaki, get the whole thing, read the whole thing because yeah, it’s good. And it, it’s got all sorts of crazy twist anime endings. And you can see Sean’s artwork developed from the first issue to the last issue. It’s quite remarkable.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:54:47):
Oh, that’s cool. That’s really cool. I’m going to boost my window up because let’s see if this focuses, it’s not my focus.

Brad Daniels (01:55:00):
I’ll put my glasses off there. It’s

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:55:03):
There, it’s, there’s his business card. Everyone.

Brad Daniels (01:55:07):
Okay, everyone

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:55:09):
Comes in handy to run into me

Brad Daniels (01:55:12):
Screen cap. Screen cap that. Okay, now everyone just start bombing everything he’s got. Just start trolling that man. As hard as you can. Start ordering pizzas, sending him to his house, do it. So that’s it. But there is one other thing that I would like. So I’ll send through the links for all that stuff for you. Yep.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:55:36):
That’d be awesome.

Brad Daniels (01:55:36):
But Jerome, did you have a question you wanted to ask me? I’ve been waiting to ask

Jerome Castro (01:55:42):
About it. So how’s the sci-Fi comics going?

Brad Daniels (01:55:47):
I’m so glad you asked. Literally 20 minutes before you got me on, I finished it. I finished the latest page. So your motivation really helped, man.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:56:04):
Well done, Jerome.

Jerome Castro (01:56:06):
I’m excited to see it.

Brad Daniels (01:56:07):
Sorry, Jerome, I couldn’t have done it without you, but here it is. Here’s the latest page.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:56:15):
Oh, nice. Oh,

Jerome Castro (01:56:16):
Nice.

Brad Daniels (01:56:19):
Look

Jerome Castro (01:56:19):
At that.

Brad Daniels (01:56:21):
Yeah, so very well. I hate it already, but I’m very grateful for you giving me the motivation to actually finish that. So you get me back next week, right, Shane?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:56:40):
I can’t see why not.

Brad Daniels (01:56:44):
My challenge is to another page.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:56:46):
Yes, yes, yes. We’ll have you back. I’m very eager. Yeah. Sorry, I’m showing my eagerness.

Brad Daniels (01:56:52):
Oh yeah. Very eager. Yeah, totally.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:56:56):
No, it’d be great to have you back. You

Brad Daniels (01:56:57):
Barely contain yourself. I understand.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:56:59):
Actually, I should probably check the calendar in case we’ve actually got something else going on.

Brad Daniels (01:57:08):
So you’re really keen to get me back so long as you don’t have a better offer.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:57:12):
As long as I don’t have something that I’ve planned and forgotten that I’ve planned. Okay. Let’s see. Here it is. Here’s the calendar and we have no, that’d be perfect.

Brad Daniels (01:57:26):
Cool. I’ve got another heap of Aussie comics that I picked up, but I have to read through, so I’ll do a little bit more. I’ll give you some more impressions next week. But I do have another, oh, just jump away from another project for the week.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:57:45):
Oh yeah, comic

Brad Daniels (01:57:45):
Related. And that is, I picked this up on Gumtree for five bucks, so I’m going to give this a read.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:57:53):
Oh, nice. I’m curious what that’s all about. Actually, hang on, I’ll just boost you up there.

Brad Daniels (01:57:59):
Yeah. This

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:58:00):
Is another quality Australian indie.

Brad Daniels (01:58:10):
This is aad Moore’s favourite comic.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:58:13):
Oh really?

Brad Daniels (01:58:14):
He loves it.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:58:15):
Is this being sarcastic? Am I missing something?

Brad Daniels (01:58:18):
I’m being so sarcastic.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:58:20):
Oh, okay. I dunno the story. I dunno the story at all.

Brad Daniels (01:58:25):
I’m very interested. I wouldn’t want to have to spend $50 to read this, but I will spend five to see what it is. My general impression with Jeff John’s comics is that he writes good superheroes, but he doesn’t write good human beings. Everything is very superhero e. But I don’t think any, just not normal people.

Jerome Castro (01:58:51):
Yeah, they can be very godlike when he’s writing these characters. They’re always about people.

Brad Daniels (01:59:01):
Well, we shall see. But anyway, that’s my project. So yeah. Any other questions?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:59:10):
No, no. I think that sums it up. I’m going to try to at least read one thing by next week. Am I there to read Comex presents and then review that since we’ve got a Kickstarter for it. And no one else can read it but me because I’m the only person who has the pages.

Brad Daniels (01:59:30):
I get the feeling you’re going to give it a glowing review. Shane, I think you’ve, funnily enough, very positive on that.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:59:36):
Well, from what I’ve seen of it so far, it’s awesome. It’s absolutely awesome. And that was just from skimming it, so I’m sure if I get into the story, it will just be amazing.

Brad Daniels (01:59:50):
I can’t stop you. I can’t stop you much as like to, I can’t.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:59:58):
Well, I have a huge poll here, so I’ll try to get through one of them at least. So it’s not just you, Brad.

Brad Daniels (02:00:06):
That’s cool.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (02:00:08):
So thank you very much. Thanks for coming on. See you next week. Give us those details so we can whack ’em into the end of the article. And have a good night. Hopefully this lockdown ends soon. See a Jerome and see everyone who’s watching. See you guys.

Jerome Castro (02:00:27):
Take care.