Latest / 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast / With Great Power #343... 22 Panels with Katie Skelly

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With Great Power #343... 22 Panels with Katie Skelly · 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast

0:02
Tad Eggleston: Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome back to 22 Panels. My guest today Kind of for the second time because Because she and Jaime played Bloody Mary and Scary Gary way back for the
0:15
Tad Eggleston: Santos Sisters Halloween Special
0:18
Tad Eggleston: But it's Katie Skelly, and this is the first time we get to talk talk. So, Katie, it's great to have you. How.
0:25
katie: Hi, I'm great. Thanks for having me.
0:27
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, you've, you've, you've got a busy week. You, you, you were, you were up in Portland in Washington and, and I've got you just before you run off to secret headquarters and then down to San Diego Comic-Con. So like.
0:40
katie: Right.
0:41
Tad Eggleston: How, how is the book release going?
0:43
katie: I would say it's going very well, and I have… I've gotten feedback on the book that is very positive, very encouraging, you know, just…
0:54
katie: the things that you want to hear. So, I'm very happy about that, and yeah, you know what? The amazing thing is, like, beyond, you know, sales and appearances and all that stuff, people are picking up on
1:07
katie: what I only hoped they would pick up on in the book, and that just makes me feel really great. That feels like a big accomplishment, so I'm super happy right now. I can't wait to do this signing, I can't wait to go to Comic-Con, and I'm just… I'm so thrilled.
1:24
Tad Eggleston: Well, be before like when I was trying to figure out how to talk to you.
1:30
Tad Eggleston: It was a challenge because, because A, your comics are.
1:35
Tad Eggleston: They need to be read. They need to be read. I don't even know how to talk about your
1:40
Tad Eggleston: Because of those layers, because of the fact that, like, I'm now debating whether I asked the question, well, what are they picking up on that you were hoping that you're picking up on? Or, wait a minute, no, that's almost like ruining the book.
1:55
katie: You know, I don't think it would ruin the book necessarily. It's just these little details about the characters and really, you know…
2:04
katie: I don't think they're echoing anything that would spoil the book, just, like, the mood of it. They're just really getting the mood, and that feels awesome.
2:13
Tad Eggleston: Okay. I mean, the mood to me is one of like.
2:20
Tad Eggleston: Quiet desperation, but without being willing to give up on hope.
2:24
katie: Yeah, I like that.
2:29
Tad Eggleston: You know, it's, it's uniquely teenage, but adult at the same time.
2:34
Tad Eggleston: Which is a hard thing to pull off.
2:36
katie: Yeah, thank you. Thank you.
2:38
Tad Eggleston: Oh, yes.
2:39
Tad Eggleston: Go ahead.
2:40
katie: Yeah, no, it's, it's definitely a tight rope and
2:43
katie: I had to make a lot of decisions about, you know, like, these are young characters, how sort of willing am I to take this into a really dark place? And what I found as I was writing is that I… it didn't feel…
2:58
katie: Worth it, like, really just dragging them all to hell. It felt like there was something else there that needed to be explored, and I think.
3:07
katie: Yeah, it just, it was diving into this.
3:10
katie: crazy feeling that I had when I was that age, when, you know, it was like, there are so many possibilities, and life is so infinite, and I don't know anything about it, I'm so ill-equipped, but I want, you know, I want to be, like.
3:24
katie: my own person, I want to make my own decisions and think my own thoughts, and yeah, it was just trying to capture that feeling of exhilaration and terror that I felt when I was a teenager.
3:38
Tad Eggleston: Well, and one of the interesting things that you do and can be done with a book like this, or really, like, most of the books that you've done, which are, like, one foot firmly planted in reality and one foot
3:55
Tad Eggleston: kinda in…
3:57
Tad Eggleston: I mean, for this and My Pretty Vampire, kind of the horror world, for the agent… agency, more of the…
4:05
Tad Eggleston: One part Barbarella, one part James Bond.
4:08
katie: Sure.
4:08
Tad Eggleston: Maids obviously was, you know, fact-based, but it still kind of fit there.
4:17
Tad Eggleston: Where, like, when you talk about taking them to dark places, I don't know if you're talking about the dark places of…
4:27
Tad Eggleston: The the the surface
4:29
Tad Eggleston: you know, oh, I've got them in a strip club, you know, how bad… or the dark places that you don't actually mention in the words, like, mom's an alcoholic that we don't see.
4:41
katie: Mmh.
4:42
Tad Eggleston: she's working at the strip club and then hiring her own maids, and I loved how much they looked like the maids from Maids, to clean up the house at home.
4:51
katie: Right.
4:52
Tad Eggleston: Like where there's both this deeper feeling of desperation. my God, she's in a really bad place.
5:00
Tad Eggleston: But also that, oh, she's going and doing this stuff at this weird place so that she can improve both her place and her mom's place.
5:09
katie: Yeah, it ended up being this kind of symbiotic relationship between heaven and everything else that, you know, is going on with the club and this sort of mysterious space. And it was really, my cat is chiming in. Okay. It was really like, oh my God, hold on.
5:30
katie: What's wrong?
5:31
katie: Okay, yeah, it was…
5:34
katie: Like, for me, the… the actual horror of the story is what's going on in Dolly's house. Like, that… there's not actually… I mean, there's horror in the strip club, of course, but…
5:45
Tad Eggleston: I mean.
5:45
katie: really more about, like, what something is, like, deeply wrong. And everything going on around that is almost to me, it's almost like
5:56
katie: set design. It's like, okay.
5:57
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
5:58
katie: know, when you're when you're going through something that is, you know, you have all these stressors and your child and you can't really make sense of it, the world might as well be like a haunted strip club, because that's.
6:08
Tad Eggleston: I mean, when you…
6:09
katie: You know.
6:09
Tad Eggleston: vampires and the Lovecraftian horror and make them the comic relief.
6:13
katie: That's.
6:14
Tad Eggleston: the world.
6:15
katie: Huh.
6:16
katie: I think so, I think so. I think that was… I think that was my teenage mindset, and it feels cool, because it… I think it's resonating with people on that level, too, that are like, oh yeah, that was a very… that was my period of cosmic dread, and I was, like, only 17.
6:30
Tad Eggleston: Right.
6:32
Tad Eggleston: I feel like we went into the book almost more than I intended to, right?
6:36
katie: Off the bat.
6:37
Tad Eggleston: Give us the quick front counter pitch for anybody who hasn't seen heaven yet who hasn't hasn't like really for my mom and brother who are listening to this podcast and and like We'll either ask for it from their library or…
6:56
Tad Eggleston: You know, ask me when I'm going to drop off a copy, that sort of thing.
7:02
Tad Eggleston: I would say… What's your basic pitch for he.
7:04
katie: I would say it's a strangely touching coming-of-age story about a haunted strip club.
7:12
Tad Eggleston: That.
7:13
Tad Eggleston: I think that nails it.
7:15
Tad Eggleston: That nails it.
7:17
katie: Thank you.
7:19
Tad Eggleston: See, this is what this is what I love about a good conversational podcast is like all of my plans have already gone out the window.
7:26
Tad Eggleston: You know, I'm gonna…
7:28
katie: Thick lines. Welcome to my.
7:29
Tad Eggleston: I know, this is why I like thick lines. And that was actually one of the things that, like, made it hard for me to figure out, okay, how am I going to…
7:40
Tad Eggleston: Like, cause often, like, we'll fall off the rails, but like, we'll talk about the books a long way on the way to talk about the rails, but I know how much you like to just talk about other comics, and I knew we were on a schedule.
7:51
Tad Eggleston: Which is why it's like, okay, what I really need to do is I need to pull out my comics.
7:59
Tad Eggleston: biography story, or bibliography story, is what I like to call it. No, no, biography story, not bibliography. Don't tell me about the comics you've made, tell me about the comics that have made you.
8:11
katie: That's a great question.
8:13
katie: Well, I would say I would… I would take it back to when I was about Dolly's age, the main character in Heaven. You know, 16, 17, 18, I started going to my local comic book shop, which was Dreamscape Comics in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which is where I'm from.
8:29
katie: And that was when I really started getting into the alternatives and manga. And the superhero world just kind of passed me by. I did not… I just didn't know what an inn was, and…
8:41
Tad Eggleston: Right.
8:41
katie: Aesthetically, it didn't…
8:43
katie: quite register for me, for what I was looking for at that time. So I was really…
8:48
katie: I was looking at a lot of extremes, honestly, and I look back and I'm like, wow, that's crazy. I was reading Ripple by Dave Cooper at the comic book store that was in the adult section. I would go to the adult section to read a little bit of it at a time before I got caught, and then come back out.
9:03
katie: I was reading Pulp Magazine, really getting into, like, offbeat new manga that was happening at that time, Secret Comics Japan.
9:12
katie: I… I loved the Sailor Moon comics, I loved the Sailor Moon manga, and… gosh, what else? Oh, I loved The Max, RIP Sam Keith, I was a huge fan of that, Friends of the Max.
9:24
katie: I enjoy… and I was buying that, like, as it was coming out at a certain point, and that… you know, that's just not really my history with comics, and I always feel kind of jealous of people that are like, I was buying Electro Assassin when, you know, it was a miniseries. I'm like, what the he.
9:38
Tad Eggleston: No, I bought…
9:39
katie: Fair.
9:39
Tad Eggleston: And all together, Yeah. In single issues, for, like, 10 bucks.
9:45
Tad Eggleston: Somehow, before it… Before, like… I don't know, before what? Because, like…
9:52
Tad Eggleston: I, like, I… apparently comic prices exploded in the early 2000s, and I didn't know it, and I did my Frank Miller, like, find everything in, like, 97 and 98.
10:03
katie: Okay,
10:05
Tad Eggleston: Which I'm so, so happy because for a long time the most I'd spent for a comic was, was the $20 I spent on the death.
10:11
Tad Eggleston: death of Elektra.
10:13
katie: Okay.
10:14
Tad Eggleston: And I've only beaten that by a little bit now
10:18
Tad Eggleston: Graphic, like hardcovers, graphic novels, whole different ballgame.
10:22
katie: Mmhm.
10:23
Tad Eggleston: Single comics, they're supposed to be ephemeral. Yeah, nothing.
10:28
katie: It's.
10:28
Tad Eggleston: Better than that?
10:30
katie: But.
10:32
Tad Eggleston: But I have trouble spending a lot of money on them.
10:35
katie: I get that.
10:35
Tad Eggleston: I just want to read him.
10:36
Tad Eggleston: You know, you don't spend $1,000 on something and then take it out and read it.
10:42
katie: Oh, no, totally. And I, you know, my jealousy really just stems from…
10:47
katie: the ability to get that as it was coming out.
10:50
Tad Eggleston: Oh yeah.
10:50
katie: Because it was so fresh, I have to imagine, I have to, you know, only kind of speculate. I wasn't there, but to me, that's just something that's so exciting, and it also felt like kind of a throwaway, you know? Even, like, Miller and Sienkiewicz didn't seem to put that much stock into it.
11:07
katie: In terms of, you know, versus something like The Dark Knight, right? So, I was, you know, that stuff would come in to my periphery later.
11:15
katie: But…
11:16
katie: I went to college, and I was reading… I remember, like, literally scraping a copy of Kramer's Ergo 4 off the ground from somebody's dorm room. It was, like, stuck. I remember, like, scraping it off, reading it, being like.
11:30
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
11:31
katie: you know, the comics that always resonate with me are the ones that make me go, is this allowed? Are you allowed to do this? I just had no clue you could tell stories like this, and so that anthology was really, really exciting to me, and…
11:44
katie: yeah, that kind of is what I would say, like, set me off on the path of, like, I can do indie, you know? Like, just seeing the breadth of work.
11:54
katie: and all these different voices and different stories, like, different styles, that… that was really major for me.
12:03
katie: and then, yeah. And then I would say, you know, as I got older, I just… I'm a big fan of
12:09
katie: Jose manga, I love the, like, you know, the sort of adult contemporary women's comics, like, I love Kyoko Okazaki, Moyoko Anno, Ayazawa. Yeah, and so it was really, like, me just picking up on all these things and just kind of being like.
12:27
katie: take what I like and leave the rest. Like, I, I loved
12:30
katie: these sophisticated stories that these manga were telling, but I also loved how blunt and direct something like Ripple or something like 8-Ball was, you know, where it was just so confrontational. So, yeah, I think those things all just kind of stayed in my mind, and
12:47
katie: formed, you know, the concept of where I wanted to start going.
12:53
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
12:54
Tad Eggleston: I love that. And you know it so well that I didn't manage to type half of it down.
12:59
katie: One sec.
13:00
Tad Eggleston: Might bug you for a list, actually.
13:02
katie: Absolutely.
13:03
Tad Eggleston: I need my new reading list, Katie, because you mentioned enough things that I know, and I know you, your podcast, that sort of thing, that I know we have crossover, and enough things that I didn't know that's like, oh, I need to explore that.
13:21
katie: Mmh.
13:22
Tad Eggleston: I need to explore that.
13:24
katie: Yeah. That's the… that's the really fun thing about doing the podcast, though, because a lot of that stuff is… I'm… I have never encountered it, either. Yeah. Like, this is my first time reading it, and it's been such a blessing, because my comics…
13:36
katie: world has expanded so much more. It's almost kind of like that original experience of going and reading Kramer's again, except I'm just not literally scraping something off the floor, I'm just talking to my friends.
13:48
Tad Eggleston: Right. No, I totally, totally get that feeling as I look around a room filled with stacks of comics and boxes of comics.
13:57
Tad Eggleston: shelves of comics.
14:01
katie: Mmhm.
14:02
Tad Eggleston: Because, I mean, you hit on something there with, I didn't know you could do that, which is, to me.
14:10
Tad Eggleston: What makes comics so special?
14:14
Tad Eggleston: Yes. Is there a limitless medium?
14:17
katie: They are, they really are, and I've, I've seen.
14:21
katie: I've seen comics tell stories that I'm like, I never could have fathomed this in my life, you know, and I.
14:26
Tad Eggleston: Right.
14:27
katie: Like, reading Mouse, I read Mouse by Art Spiegelman when I was in the sixth grade. I had a very, a very thoughtful English teacher who loaned it to me, and I just thought, oh my god, you can do anything. You can really do anything. And not only that, but that also
14:44
katie: really, like, expanded my interest in 20th century history, too, because I was like, I've never seen history presented this way, and it was so…
14:55
katie: personal, and it's so dark, and it… it's just relentless, and, you know, more than… more than, like, a film, it just… it puts you there, and I was so… I was very, very, very impressed by that.
15:06
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean… My day job is I teach.
15:12
Tad Eggleston: So, so I, I look at the educational side a lot and part of it is that, like, you can't passively.
15:19
Tad Eggleston: Experience a comic.
15:21
katie: Mmhm.
15:22
Tad Eggleston: You have to pull the words and the pictures together.
15:26
Tad Eggleston: Like, you can read a book without… without really putting together what's being said.
15:35
katie: -H.
15:36
Tad Eggleston: You know, without building the picture.
15:38
Tad Eggleston: I mean, for someone like me, I can't make a picture in my head to save my life.
15:43
katie: Okay.
15:44
Tad Eggleston: The more graphic the writing is, the more I'm like, okay, I really have to think about what they're trying to say here.
15:51
katie: Mmh.
15:52
Tad Eggleston: Come.
15:53
Tad Eggleston: And with a movie, I mean, it's incredibly easy to be passive with a movie, but beyond that, like, the pacing is 100%
16:03
Tad Eggleston: Set by somebody other than you. So you can only catch as much as, as you catch.
16:10
katie: True, yes.
16:12
Tad Eggleston: Whereas a comic, because you not only have the words and the pictures, but you have to provide the connective tissue and you get to decide how long to spend with it.
16:27
katie: That's very true.
16:28
Tad Eggleston: There's just like the possibilities become limitless.
16:33
Tad Eggleston: As do the, like, different… I mean…
16:42
Tad Eggleston: I think when the, the, the non…
16:45
Tad Eggleston: comics geek public are thinking of comics, they're just thinking of the pretty pictures and whatnot, but, like, I find myself thinking about, okay, how many panels did they put on the page? What is this doing to…
16:57
Tad Eggleston: my Experience, you know.
17:01
katie: Totally.
17:02
Tad Eggleston: Took me forever to figure out that what I love the most about Jesse Lonergan's
17:08
Tad Eggleston: 1,000 panel pages that are still just one picture, is that… By splitting that…
17:15
Tad Eggleston: picture into 40 panels, he's forcing you to spend time with it.
17:20
katie: Yo.
17:21
Tad Eggleston: Absolutely. Because you're so used to scanning panels that even when you know, oh, this is really a splash page.
17:32
Tad Eggleston: Because it's panels, you stop and you linger in a way that you wouldn't necessarily.
17:37
Tad Eggleston: Linger on a splash page.
17:39
katie: Yeah, I think comics is always challenging you to be a better reader, too, in that sense.
17:44
Tad Eggleston: Right.
17:45
katie: You know?
17:45
Tad Eggleston: Right.
17:46
katie: I think… I… you're… you're touching on some good points, which is, you know, films can be a very passive experience, and I see…
17:56
katie: I see so many people, like, kind of seeking out the answers to not just film, but, like, art in general online. Like, what was, like, the meaning behind, like, what's the secret meaning, or what's the lesson, or whatever, of, I don't know, obsession, or whatever is a new movie, you know?
18:13
Tad Eggleston: Right.
18:13
katie: yo essays about it. And I'm like, well, why don't you just like
18:17
katie: Like, you would have to do with a comic. Like, if you're reading a comic, it's probably something obscure that
18:23
katie: no one else cares about. So if you wanna, like, solve that mystery, like, what's really going on here
18:28
katie: Congratulations, you're Sherlock Holmes. Like, you could be the one to crack the case, you know, like, just spend time with it, become a better reader. And that's definitely something that the show, the podcast, has challenged me to do because it's like, well, now, you know, every week or every other week or whatever, I got to fill an hour with my amazing bon mots and insights about.
18:48
Tad Eggleston: Whatever I just read.
18:50
katie: But that really does push you to see, like, okay, well, what are the actual, like, defining qualities of this work? And, you know, beyond, like.
18:58
katie: What does it have to say? You know, it's more like, how do I formally sort of analyze this? And we're also, you know, like you, we're working in strictly audio. So we are very uphill because it's such a visual medium.
19:10
Tad Eggleston: It is. I like that challenge every once in a while.
19:13
Tad Eggleston: I'm not doing more video, but it's like…
19:16
Tad Eggleston: I kind of like the having the conversation and therefore encouraging people to go off and read it if they can't.
19:22
katie: Yeah, and…
19:23
Tad Eggleston: neatly wrap themselves around it.
19:25
katie: Totally. And you know, in a way, you know, it's like you'll never, who knows, maybe you will, I don't know if I will, you'll like never necessarily break wide with that kind of approach, but you are like garnering the right kind of readers in your audience too. So even if it's like a very small number of.
19:45
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I have no idea my audience size, but I know that cool people say yes when I invite them on.
19:51
katie: There you go.
19:52
Tad Eggleston: Have you on right now?
19:54
Tad Eggleston: You know.
19:55
katie: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So all, yeah, I mean, it's, I still, you know, I work in, I worked in the art world. I've worked in a lot of places where like the barrier to entry is very high and it's very difficult. And that world was not giving me the same kind of insights I was, that I get out of comics. Like it's not, it's not as enriching.
20:15
Tad Eggleston: How cool is it how low the barrier of entry is in this field?
20:19
katie: It's the American dream. Like, it's the last place you.
20:22
Tad Eggleston: I mean, it would be great if more people, it would be great if more people could actually like make a living and have that part of the American dream as well.
20:30
katie: Yes, that's true, but I don't know, I mean…
20:33
Tad Eggleston: Part of the club is really easy.
20:36
katie: Yes, I think so. And everybody I don't know, I like everyone has their strengths. Everyone has what they sort of bring to the table. And, you know, it's it's always so fun just going out and going to a show and seeing new work, even if it's not.
20:51
Tad Eggleston: Oh yeah.
20:51
katie: like, oh, I love that. It's more like, oh my god, like, all of these, this ecosystem is still flourishing, and that's really exciting.
20:59
Tad Eggleston: I will.
21:00
katie: Your will.
21:01
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I love, like, teeny tiny zine shows.
21:06
Tad Eggleston: Because of that.
21:07
katie: Totally.
21:08
Tad Eggleston: You know, the people that, like, printed their comics at Kinko's this morning.
21:13
katie: Yes.
21:14
Tad Eggleston: You know.
21:16
katie: Mmhm.
21:16
Tad Eggleston: Or, or, or, or stayed late at the office to print their comics last night.
21:23
Tad Eggleston: Because Kinko's was too expensive, and they stapled them themselves.
21:28
katie: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
21:31
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
21:32
Tad Eggleston: Because, again, yeah, I mean, when I talk to Shelley Bond, she talks about, like, spending time on Instagram finding the next people, which I still haven't… I still haven't, like, mastered the whole…
21:45
Tad Eggleston: scrolling thing. My brain needs more structure than that.
21:51
katie: Yeah, I love, I love to be offline. I don't want to be.
21:55
katie: The nice thing about comics is that I can be as, at this point, like, I can be as offline as I want, because I just feel like I'm operating in, like.
22:02
katie: Almost a strictly physical realm, like I'm.
22:06
Tad Eggleston: Right.
22:06
katie: The books are produced. You have to go in person to buy one, you know. Yeah.
22:12
Tad Eggleston: Right.
22:13
Tad Eggleston: I mean, it's funny, I'm actually relatively online, it's just like… A very curated, very… like,
22:23
Tad Eggleston: I don't trust… it's not even I don't trust the algorithm. The algorithm doesn't get me well enough to understand me, or to interest me. I get bored scrolling. The algorithm doesn't get me. It might show me the stuff that I want to buy, but I'm not… I'm not there to buy stuff. I'm there to learn stuff.
22:41
katie: Right, yeah, I have, like, an incredible algorithm right now. I don't know what I did, I'm just blessed right now. When I look at Instagram Reels, I'm getting, like, specifically the, like, craziest, smallest accounts of women who are, like.
22:58
katie: I can, like…
23:01
katie: Channel James Dean or something like people that are like really doing wild stuff that does not make sense.
23:07
Tad Eggleston: I want, I want.
23:08
katie: And they have two views and I'm like, I love this.
23:11
Tad Eggleston: I want your algorithm.
23:12
katie: Yeah, you… I don't know what I did. Somebody… somebody up there likes me, and they're just sending me really good shit right now. I hope it continues.
23:20
Tad Eggleston: Hahaha!
23:21
Tad Eggleston: Oh.
23:23
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, okay.
23:24
Tad Eggleston: So.
23:25
Tad Eggleston: I mean, you talk some about how… how working the… the podcast has changed the way you look at comics. What…
23:33
Tad Eggleston: like… Okay.
23:35
Tad Eggleston: Since, since I'm, well, I'm gonna use heaven and, and, and,
23:42
Tad Eggleston: Pretty Little Vampires as our bookends because Because I noticed that they're possibly books in a series.
23:52
katie: There's a connection for sure.
23:53
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
23:55
Tad Eggleston: between those books, I mean, that's kind of the, the, the bookends of, of, of your.
24:03
Tad Eggleston: Not your entire career, but, but, but your, your most public career, what do you think are some of the biggest things?
24:12
Tad Eggleston: That.
24:14
Tad Eggleston: You've learned and or.
24:16
Tad Eggleston: Change your thought processes on, in terms of what comics are and can be.
24:21
katie: Mmm.
24:22
Tad Eggleston: And how… what were the things that made you look at them differently? You know, whether it was conversations, or books, or whatever.
24:31
katie: I feel like… Well, I… I'm…
24:37
katie: Hmm. I'm not sure, actually. I mean, I'm married to a cartoonist, which is.
24:41
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
24:41
katie: We talk about comics all the time.
24:43
Tad Eggleston: He's he's done a few.
24:45
katie: Yeah, I always just tell them, I.
24:47
Tad Eggleston: He might be on the wall behind me.
24:49
katie: Yeah. I just want him to stick with it, and, you know, he'll get there. You know? Like, he's getting there.
24:55
Tad Eggleston: One day.
24:56
katie: Yeah, you're.
24:57
Tad Eggleston: Actually, I had Henry Barajas on recently, and we both, well, he told me that he took you to a baseball game.
25:05
katie: He did! It was so…
25:06
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah.
25:07
katie: time.
25:08
Tad Eggleston: But, but we noticed that we had the same poster over…
25:11
katie: Fox.
25:12
katie: Nice, nice. Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, honestly, I don't… when I'm thinking about my own work, it's really difficult for me to think big picture.
25:23
katie: Because if I try to create and analyze at the same time.
25:27
katie: Like, it's shot. It won't happen, you know? Yeah. So I just, I really…
25:31
katie: I'm into, you know, the David Lynch school of meditation. I really just try to just focus on whatever I'm doing and get to a flow state with it. And I have a good, I trust my flow state when I get there, I just go with it. So I think I just am kind of absorbing things over time and those sort of get like.
25:54
katie: channeled and filtered through my subconscious, or whatever is in the driver's seat there, and then it comes out on the page. So, but I'm struggling to think of, like, a concrete example of that,
26:08
Tad Eggleston: I mean, you live in a world of comics, so I knew it was a…
26:13
Tad Eggleston: broad question. You don't have to come up with a concrete example.
26:16
katie: I'm very fortunate in that regard, you know, because, you know, I'm with Jaime, and then I'm out here in LA, and we have Sammy Harcombe, who edited Kramer's Ergot, so that's, like, that feels insane to be able to.
26:29
Tad Eggleston: Right.
26:29
katie: And then Steven Weissman, who I think is.
26:32
katie: so funny, great cartoonist, Jordan Crane, who's, like, a mad scientist when it comes to actually putting your book together, you know, beyond being a great cartoonist, there's this
26:42
katie: whole, like, engineering side to Jordan that really, like, he hits a flow state with his books, and it's wild. Jazz Heiss is a new friend. She's also out here in LA. I love her work. And yeah, I just, you know, it's a great
26:54
katie: environment to be in. I feel like I'm here, it's the right time of my life to be here, like, I turned 40 here, it just, yeah, it feels like…
27:03
katie: it's a very good spot for me. So, I just try, you know, I just try not to take it for granted, and I try to just, like, hit the drawing board and give it my all, and, you know, yeah, whatever I've taken in will eventually come out in some way.
27:18
Tad Eggleston: I mean, that's another question I always like to ask. How much do you plan your comics, and how much do they just kind of come out?
27:24
katie: It depends. Like, with maids, I knew, like, everything that was going to happen. And sometimes it just crystallizes, and you're like, okay, yeah, let's go.
27:32
katie: with Heaven, you know, that was something I started working on as I was, like, transitioning between New York and LA.
27:39
katie: And that was difficult because, you know, I'm changing jobs, I'm changing locations, my entire routine is different. Where do I fit comics in? I'm also married now, you know, I have less time to myself, which is good. Like, it's good to, you know, spend time with your partner and not just, like…
27:57
Tad Eggleston: It is, it is.
27:58
katie: So.
27:58
Tad Eggleston: I mean, not just because they like it, because, because I will say that, that partners tend to like it when you spend time with them, but even when you're a hermit, it turns out that, that being around other people is generally good for your wellbeing.
28:13
katie: So good for you.
28:14
Tad Eggleston: I have discovered.
28:15
katie: Mmhm.
28:16
Tad Eggleston: That was a hard lesson to learn, because I like to just hole up in my room with a stack of books, or…
28:21
Tad Eggleston: My baseball video game, or…
28:23
katie: Okay.
28:23
Tad Eggleston: Whatever, you.
28:26
katie: Oh my God. Well, I got into like such a funk during the pandemic because, you know, I was still in New York, which was chaos. And I didn't see anybody that I knew for three months. And I just got into this place where I was like, okay, I do my job remotely now. So when I'm not doing my job, I had finished maids already. I didn't have another comics project lined up.
28:46
katie: I would just, like, play Nintendo Switch, like, and just, like, sit on the couch, and just, like, check out, you know? And getting out of that, and coming to LA, I was surprised by how difficult it was to kind of shift out of that mode. I think that's my, like.
28:59
katie: my default state is I would love to just be, like, kind of checked out, doing something else, but it's not good.
29:07
Tad Eggleston: I was pleased to discover That that, like, I can quite happily.
29:15
Tad Eggleston: Like, not leave the house for 3 months and not get bored.
29:20
katie: Yeah.
29:22
Tad Eggleston: I mean, that, that was a pleasant discovery, but then you have to not decide that that's just an okay overall life.
29:30
katie: Yeah, well, the next time you have to go out, you're like, Well…
29:36
katie: they get to meet the new me, and I'm crazy, you know, and that was really, like… I think that was what really changed things for me. I was like, I… I don't want to… I like being with people, I want to be social, I don't want to be…
29:49
katie: sequestered away. So, you know, I've never read The Artist's Way or anything like that. I'm, like, semi-interested in it, but I do think having routines that are, like.
29:59
katie: completely unrelated to your practice.
30:02
katie: help the practice so much like that makes sense every Thursday like I know that we go and have dinner at like this place and so that means I'm not working that day so I'm gonna plan to like work on Friday and then that means that this happens but like if I don't socialize with someone let's say I'm like let me just like call Jazz and like let's get together and get coffee or something if I don't do that I'm gonna put myself in like a mental state of
30:27
katie: distress eventually. So let's just do it, like, let me schedule fun on my calendar so that, you know, this stuff can actually get done. And I'm very fortunate in that, you know, most of the stuff on my calendar outside of, you know, my jobby job is stuff that I want to do.
30:46
Tad Eggleston: Right.
30:46
Tad Eggleston: I mean, you just… you just hit the,
30:49
Tad Eggleston: the single largest problem of, like, making and maintaining adult friendships. You have to schedule and put them on your calendar. I mean, when I learned that, and it was also the pandemic that kind of taught me that, it's like, oh.
31:03
Tad Eggleston: oh, when I want to see people, I need to… there are new ways, because I can talk to them on Zoom rather than in person if I have to.
31:11
katie: Totally.
31:11
Tad Eggleston: person is often better, but like, but if you want to have a friendship.
31:16
Tad Eggleston: You can't just count on bumping into each other in the hallway, because once you're out of school, you don't bump into people in the hallway.
31:24
katie: Mmhm
31:26
katie: Yeah, no, totally, totally. And I think it's… I think it's all… it's always worth it, you know? And when I was in New York, it was way easier to just be… when it wasn't COVID, it was way easier to just be out and about and just be like, hey, like, I'm at, you know, I'm on the corner here, like, what are you doing? Like, I'm by your apartment. You know, that was…
31:44
katie: Easy. LA, it's much more difficult, but.
31:47
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I was supposed to say, how has that changed? Like, from the city where nobody needs to own a car, to the.
31:52
katie: Yes.
31:53
Tad Eggleston: You can't get anywhere without a car.
31:55
katie: You know, I…
31:57
katie: I I'm I hate to say it, but I just took to it like water. I was like, bye. Bye, New York. I'm done. Like, because by the time I left, you know, it was 2021, and I had been working at that point remotely for a year anyway. And so I just kind of, like, lost all the muscle memory for New York. And then by the time things were sort of opening up again and I was going out and about, a lot of the places that I loved were gone, and a lot of my friends moved away. So I was like.
32:22
katie: you know, okay, I… I don't want to live in this, like, ghost town anymore. I'm ready… I'm ready to say goodbye to New York. So, LA to me was, like, a godsend because, you know, I'm with Jaime all the time
32:34
katie: we have a great relationship, we're talking about comics. Even when we're not talking about comics, we're just talking all the time. We don't shut up. Right. So, no matter what, like, there's… there's always…
32:44
katie: Someone there and it's a very
32:46
katie: creative and supportive environment, and then, you know, our friends out here, yeah, you do have to kind of go out of your way to be like, can you get together, you know, it's July 17th, can you get together, like, August 29th to have coffee for one hour? But you do, and then, you know, it's like…
33:02
katie: I don't know, you have these, these kind of, like, social contracts with each other, where you're like.
33:07
Tad Eggleston: Right.
33:08
katie: we all like each other, and we know that this is ultimately good for us and.
33:13
Tad Eggleston: Oh, yeah.
33:13
katie: Very pro social.
33:15
Tad Eggleston: No, no, none of that was supposed to be critical. Certainly not of any one place. It was more like the things that suck about adulthood.
33:25
katie: Totally.
33:27
katie: Yeah. And and it's so easy to just get pulled into the bog. You know?
33:31
Tad Eggleston: Right.
33:32
katie: And that was what was happening to me at the end in New York. And I was like, I just, I gotta pull myself out of this.
33:37
Tad Eggleston: I mean, it's one of the reasons why I think comics… one of the things I think makes comics work as much as so many people
33:48
Tad Eggleston: Become disenchanted with them is.
33:53
Tad Eggleston: The cons and the fests, because…
33:55
katie: And.
33:55
Tad Eggleston: It, like, forces…
33:57
Tad Eggleston: social interaction with each other. Now, there's a huge difference between going to San Diego and going to Insert Name Zine Fest in Minneapolis.
34:07
katie: Yes.
34:08
Tad Eggleston: But, like, one of the things that I'll sometimes tell friends of mine who are creators, they're, like, burned out on everything, is, like, you gotta go to, like, a con just as a…
34:20
Tad Eggleston: person.
34:21
Tad Eggleston: You're not doing work. And no, don't go to San Diego just as a person. I mean, maybe go to San Diego if that's your thing. But, but like.
34:29
katie: You can't be, you can't be a person in S.
34:32
Tad Eggleston: Right, right.
34:33
katie: Well, you go to Comic Con, you're just like, I'm a cog.
34:36
Tad Eggleston: Right. But, but like, find the smallest library con in your area.
34:43
katie: Yeah.
34:43
Tad Eggleston: find, and just go and talk comics with people, or see what other people are doing, and, and you'll feel better. Are you, like, the, the one, and this, this gives me an opportunity to, to, to, like, congratulate you, what, 12 years after the fact, for being the first emergency
35:01
Tad Eggleston: Emerging Artist at CXC. Oh, thank you.
35:04
katie: Thank you.
35:05
Tad Eggleston: That's the one that, like, anybody I talk to, like, I'm like, oh, you gotta do CXC, oh, my con schedule's… I'm like, no, no, you don't get it. You need to take a weekend off, and go to Columbus, and just go to C.
35:18
katie: Columbus is so fun, too, and, like, I love…
35:22
katie: My friend… I'm gonna shout out my friend Lauren, who works at Laughing Ogre. Like, there's just… there's a.
35:28
Tad Eggleston: Oh yeah.
35:29
katie: fun. I shouldn't say little. I don't mean to, like, mean to be pe.
35:32
Tad Eggleston: I mean…
35:33
katie: it's a rich world, it has a rich tapestry, and then you have the Billy Ireland, and then, yeah, of course you have CXC, like, it's… it.
35:41
Tad Eggleston: I, like, as a language nut, I'm gonna say that I like your use of little, not as pejorative, but little in that, like.
35:50
Tad Eggleston: It's in the middle of an Ohio State town, like the number of people that don't know that this, this ecosystem exists.
36:00
Tad Eggleston: is staggering in, like, the best way, because it's like, oh, I'm in this… I'm in this, like, galaxy-sized, wonderful world, and I'm out to coffee, and… and I bring up why I'm in town, and they're like, what's that?
36:15
katie: No.
36:16
katie: Yeah, you know, that was… that was always, like, my favorite thing when I was… when I would be working in New York, and I'd be like, okay, I need a Friday off, because I have to go to, like, Boise, Idaho, and they'd be like, why?
36:29
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I…
36:31
katie: I have to go be a special guest at a show in Boise, Idaho. Like, I'm a celeb in Boise, Idaho. Can you guys get that through.
36:39
Tad Eggleston: No, I remember one of the years I was at CXC, I went out for a late night cup of coffee and I was at
36:46
Tad Eggleston: a coffee place that had, like, a graphic novel selection. I think they were mostly used, that sort of thing. And… like…
36:55
Tad Eggleston: when I… I think I had to give my zip code or something, and like, well, you're not from around here, and I… oh, what are you in town for? And I told them, like, what's that? And I'm like… I just walked over to the rack, and I'm like, that guy's there, that guy's there, that guy's there.
37:10
katie: That's awesome.
37:12
Tad Eggleston: How do you not know?
37:14
katie: Yum.
37:14
Tad Eggleston: Come to the library tomorrow. It's free.
37:16
katie: Huh Yeah, I mean, you know…
37:21
katie: I don't know. There's something about… there's still something about doing shows for me. There's still… there's still something about all of it to me. It has never… somehow, it's never gotten old. It's never been a drag. It's always been…
37:35
katie: very fulfilling, and… yeah, I, you know, I just, I salute everyone that is out there putting these shows together. I think doing a comic show is the most thankless job in comics.
37:46
Tad Eggleston: Oh, yeah. It seems like it.
37:48
katie: Gotta be. I mean, having a shop is also, like, up there, you know? Yeah. And then.
37:53
Tad Eggleston: Well, particularly the shops that are, like, trying really, really hard.
37:58
Tad Eggleston: To promote the medium.
38:01
Tad Eggleston: Rather than just cash in on collectibles.
38:04
katie: Yes. The indie ones that are out here, like, busting ass, like, Partners in Time, Secret Headquarters, like, they're not just selling the comics, they're doing talks, they're doing signings, they're doing merch, you know, they have, like, social media, like, savvy that I don't have. It's…
38:22
Tad Eggleston: Me neither.
38:22
katie: And…
38:23
Tad Eggleston: Thankfully, my wife handles the Instagram.
38:27
Tad Eggleston: We'd have, like, almost no social media presence.
38:29
katie: I get that. I totally… I go to.
38:31
Tad Eggleston: Blue sky everywhere.
38:32
katie: out.
38:33
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I go to Blue Sky every once in a while when a Kickstarter that I really want to fund is lagging and we'll do math lessons.
38:41
katie: Oh.
38:41
Tad Eggleston: That's the extent of my social media presence.
38:44
katie: Sounds like a good way to do it. It sounds, yeah.
38:47
Tad Eggleston: I seem pretty effective. I mean, since I started doing the math lessons, I don't think there's been a…
38:52
Tad Eggleston: And I don't want to take the credit, because, like, lots of people do a lot more work than I do, but I don't think there's been a book that I did a math lesson for yet that didn't wind up getting across the line.
39:06
katie: Mmhm.
39:06
Tad Eggleston: And generally.
39:07
katie: Math lesson, what do you mean?
39:09
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I'll put up things like,
39:13
Tad Eggleston: Such and such book is this far from.
39:16
Tad Eggleston: Funding. I have this many followers. You can get a physical copy for this many dollars. This many followers times this many dollars equals funded.
39:28
katie: Nice. Yeah. You know.
39:30
Tad Eggleston: I'm a… I'm a teacher, so, like, it's part of how.
39:34
katie: Mmh.
39:34
Tad Eggleston: I don't just look at it and I go, oh, they're $4,000 short. I was like, okay, what will it take to get to $4,000? How can I?
39:43
katie: Yeah.
39:43
Tad Eggleston: And I share that. My wife has now turned it into the actual chalkboard things for the Instagram.
39:50
katie: Huh. Cute. I like it.
39:53
Tad Eggleston: Oh.
39:54
Tad Eggleston: Reminds me, I gotta do another, a new one for, for Shelley Bond's new anthology. Subculture is still…
40:01
katie: There you go. It'.
40:02
Tad Eggleston: the line, yeah.
40:03
katie: The variables out.
40:04
Tad Eggleston: That's right. You know, I was cursed with a math, math, mathematical brain.
40:11
katie: That's not.
40:11
Tad Eggleston: It'.
40:12
katie: Belie.
40:12
Tad Eggleston: It's, well, no, it's good sometimes, but, but not so much other times because we're really numeracy in this country is terrible. So sometimes like actually knowing what you're talking about just pisses people off.
40:28
katie: Yes.
40:29
Tad Eggleston: That's neat.
40:31
katie: I get that.
40:32
Tad Eggleston: But here, but, but, but, but…
40:34
Tad Eggleston: If you give 100, no, there's no such thing as 110%.
40:37
katie: Right. Yes, exactly.
40:40
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I once like this certainly like I was young and stupid, but like I had a manager writing me up for not focusing enough on the profit lever categories and pointing out that this store was at 40% of this and this store was at 40% of this and this store was at 30% of that.
41:02
Tad Eggleston: And we should be number one in all of them, and I finally drew him to…
41:07
Tad Eggleston: Pie graphs on the wall.
41:10
Tad Eggleston: Like, okay, 40%, 40%, 30%, we've gotten to 110%, and we haven't sold a product yet.
41:19
katie: Right.
41:21
katie: I love it.
41:23
Tad Eggleston: You can't have 110%.
41:26
katie: Listen. I I think this is great. I think this is needed. A lot of people.
41:33
katie: A lot of people have a hard time… I just did a Kickstarter, and I, you know, figuring out the.
41:38
Tad Eggleston: How did I miss that?
41:39
katie: Oh, it it was for.
41:40
Tad Eggleston: Kickstart.
41:41
katie: It was for a tarot deck. It was my new.
41:43
Tad Eggleston: I still would have done it.
41:44
katie: Yeah, it's, it's comics adjacent, but it's, that just ended the other day, and we met the goal, and I was, like, I was doing all my little projections and stuff, and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna try to raise
41:57
katie: more than I've ever tried to raise before, and let's just go for it, and, like, see if the momentum is there, and it was, and I'm just, like.
42:05
katie: so thrilled. So… Yeah. Yeah. I could have used someone calculating how many more people I…
42:11
Tad Eggleston: Well, you…
42:12
katie: I could have had a very specific messaging. I could have done it myself.
42:15
Tad Eggleston: You have been.
42:15
katie: Yeah, that's important.
42:16
Tad Eggleston: twice, and I will re-emphasize, as I did the last time, reach out anytime.
42:21
katie: You got it. Thank you.
42:23
Tad Eggleston: I know I'm one guy in a big, wide world of Katie Skelly comic book people, so, like, I don't expect to get to be your best friend tomorrow, but I'm available!
42:34
katie: Okay, I got it. Got it.
42:35
Tad Eggleston: And if I may add.
42:36
katie: No.
42:36
Tad Eggleston: Talk baseball out the wazoo.
42:39
katie: There you go.
42:40
Tad Eggleston: I mean, that's still on my dream list. So, like, put in a word for me.
42:44
katie: I will, I will.
42:45
Tad Eggleston: He hasn't come to one of the baseball roundtables.
42:47
katie: Oh, okay, okay, yeah, let me see if I can.
42:50
Tad Eggleston: I do them every October. And this year I did them opening day because it was my birthday. And it looks like the first full slate of games next year, assuming no lockout, will be on my birthday again. So we might start doing two a year baseball and comics roundtables. Just saying.
43:09
katie: I'll see, I'll see if I can put it on.
43:12
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I'd love to talk about comics too. There is a Love and Rockets book club almost weekly. I've talked to his brother three times.
43:20
Tad Eggleston: I've talked to his brother 3 times and his niece once.
43:23
katie: Nice.
43:24
Tad Eggleston: And they've all seen… they've seemed to like me.
43:26
katie: Hmm. Yeah, I'm sure they do.
43:29
Tad Eggleston: Beto keeps coming back.
43:32
katie: Yes, he loves, he's great.
43:35
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, he is. I know that you have to get to… to secret headquarters, so I'm gonna roll into…
43:42
Tad Eggleston: my closing questions, because I don't want to have them rushed. This is my…
43:49
Tad Eggleston: Almost fifth year. This is actually the 901st recording.
43:54
katie: Dam.
43:55
Tad Eggleston: over five years of this podcast.
43:59
Tad Eggleston: And I feel like I've entered the Twilight Zone.
44:03
Tad Eggleston: The things that I do.
44:07
Tad Eggleston: On a regular basis, the people that are friends of mine, the people that I text about baseball.
44:12
Tad Eggleston: who used to be, like, names in books that I treasured.
44:18
Tad Eggleston: Not… not people that I thought.
44:20
Tad Eggleston: Oh, I can just say, hey, you want to do this or whatever. The conversations that I've gotten to have, the places that I've gotten to be all because of, of devoting.
44:32
Tad Eggleston: This part of my life to comics just has blown my mind. If I never make a cent off of it, it'll be more than worth it just for that, right?
44:40
Tad Eggleston: Umm.
44:41
Tad Eggleston: And I find that that's true of pretty much everybody in comics.
44:45
Tad Eggleston: So I started collecting stories.
44:47
Tad Eggleston: Tell me about a surreal experience.
44:52
Tad Eggleston: Just one of those things that when you think back on it, you almost have to pinch yourself. You go, was that really me?
44:58
Tad Eggleston: That got to do that, had that happen, met that person.
45:03
katie: Mmh.
45:03
Tad Eggleston: Is friends with, I mean.
45:06
katie: I, you know…
45:08
Tad Eggleston: No.
45:09
katie: There, to be honest, there are a lot and I've been very fortunate.
45:14
katie: And I've made connections that I never thought I would have made, like Darwin Cook. I was on a panel with Darwin Cook, and this was in 2014, and he…
45:24
Tad Eggleston: One of my guests yesterday would have been really, really jealous of that.
45:27
katie: Yeah, -hu.
45:28
Tad Eggleston: I had Elsa Chartier as part of…
45:32
Tad Eggleston: Conversation of Absolute Martian Manhunter yesterday.
45:35
katie: Nice.
45:36
Tad Eggleston: Darwin is like her.
45:40
Tad Eggleston: Absolute, like… Holy Grail.
45:45
katie: yellow Yeah, I was on a panel with him. This was like 12 years ago. And.
45:51
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
45:51
katie: he… he read the book I had just done at the time, which was called Operation Margarine, and he… on the panel, he was, like, he just took over and was asking me a lot of questions about my comic.
46:01
Tad Eggleston: I just.
46:01
katie: I felt like, I was like, oh my God, this is.
46:04
katie: This is unreal, you know, that was very cool and I, I love just.
46:09
Tad Eggleston: I'm just.
46:10
katie: That little.
46:10
Tad Eggleston: Sure thing.
46:11
katie: back in my head. Darwin Campbell.
46:14
Tad Eggleston: Cook hijacking a panel.
46:16
Tad Eggleston: To talk to you about your comic.
46:18
katie: Yeah. It was in a bar too. So we were all, we were.
46:21
Tad Eggleston: There's no, now I'm.
46:24
katie: It's the right environment.
46:25
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, who? Where? Where do you have?
46:28
Tad Eggleston: Who, what, what bar had a comic panel? Like if they still exist, they need to be.
46:34
katie: Yeah, no, this was just, like, TCAP, like, they had a, like, you know, programming.
46:38
Tad Eggleston: Of course it was in Canada.
46:40
katie: She was a kid.
46:41
Tad Eggleston: Thank you.
46:42
katie: They get all the spoils, don't they? What else?
46:46
katie: I mean, it's not like a…
46:48
Tad Eggleston: Pretty good. You don't have to give me more.
46:50
katie: Well, just on the flip side of that, one time I was doing a show in Brooklyn and someone talked to me and they had a half cooked piece of spaghetti on their shirt and I thought that was really remarkable.
47:02
Tad Eggleston: Like, how did you do.
47:02
katie: Got it.
47:04
katie: How? It's like, you know, it's cooked on one side, and then the other side, it's just that hard pasta, and it was just affixed to their shirt, like, whatever, you know?
47:14
Tad Eggleston: I'm sorry.
47:14
katie: Just don'.
47:15
Tad Eggleston: Was it on purpose, or…
47:17
katie: Seem like it.
47:17
Tad Eggleston: Did not.
47:18
katie: like it, and it stayed with me for at least 10 years, so whoever.
47:22
Tad Eggleston: I lost that.
47:22
katie: I would love to hear more about you, but also, like, I'm totally okay not knowing what was going on there. Right. Leaving it a mystery.
47:30
Tad Eggleston: I love it.
47:32
Tad Eggleston: I love it. Alright.
47:33
katie: Thank you, pasta man.
47:35
Tad Eggleston: There.
47:36
Tad Eggleston: So, my closing question, almost since the beginning, and one of the reasons that I have so many books on the shelves and whatnot around me, tell me something you love.
47:47
Tad Eggleston: Preferably a comic, but we don't have rules. Preferably storytelling, but again with the rules, but something that you love.
47:55
Tad Eggleston: That not enough people around you have experienced, and you'd really like them to, so you have more people to talk about it with.
48:02
katie: Oh, that's interesting.
48:06
katie: Who I think there are.
48:10
katie: There's a lot, I would say.
48:13
katie: I'll take.
48:14
Tad Eggleston: More than one.
48:15
katie: Yeah, well, I mean, I can only really…
48:18
katie: Think of film right now, but I know there's.
48:20
Tad Eggleston: Film's okay. Beto.
48:22
katie: It's.
48:22
Tad Eggleston: This gives me film.
48:23
katie: You know, I would love to talk to people about the actual content of Guido Crapac's comics because I think he gets sort of pigeonholed as like
48:32
katie: you know, this great black and white cartoonist, and an influence on Frank Miller, and, like, they're sort of fashion-y comics, but his actual mode of storytelling is very strange, and it's completely his own. It's so idiosyncratic.
48:46
katie: And they can be kind of challenging to read, like, I love Crafax, but he's not always my favorite cartoonist to read, and I'm just curious, you know, and he has such a huge breadth of work, I mean, he worked his entire life, so I would be curious to have other people, like, actually
49:01
katie: take the time, sit and read something like Emmanuel or Bianca.
49:06
katie: or the Frankenstein comics, and, like, have a conversation about what is actually in those that doesn't just rely on what the style of the comic is. Because I think he's… he was… he was working with some very strange stuff.
49:19
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, first, I will absolutely say that I'm always down, but second.
49:25
Tad Eggleston: Paul Pope brought up Guido Crepex to me a couple of times, so… so you might… might have your guy there.
49:31
katie: All right. We'll see. We'.
49:32
Tad Eggleston: But if you wind up setting up a conversation with Paul Pope on
49:36
Tad Eggleston: thick lines to do with Guedo crepe packs. I expect it to be at least like in the peanut gallery. You'll get to have that.
49:43
katie: up, for sure For sure.
49:46
Tad Eggleston: But yeah, no, I love that. And now it just went higher on my list because.
49:52
katie: Yes.
49:52
Tad Eggleston: Like, I can't think of, of, of,
49:57
Tad Eggleston: You know, there's certain things where, like, I mean, there's certain people… anything you told me was gonna go high on my list, just like anything Paul tells me goes high on my list, but like…
50:07
Tad Eggleston: I just got recommendations for… for…
50:11
Tad Eggleston: for a comic from you that I've…
50:13
Tad Eggleston: Got not like recommendations as much as he just heard him wistfully talking about, oh, I've been looking at these lately.
50:21
katie: Yes.
50:22
Tad Eggleston: Oh, wait, Paul and Katie are saying go check out Guido Crepex. I should go check out Guido Crepex.
50:30
katie: Yeah, and like looking is really the active word there because again, it's like you're not reading Crepex, you know what I mean? You're like looking at, and I'm not trying to pick on the vocabulary or anything like that.
50:41
Tad Eggleston: Right.
50:42
katie: That feels like the natural extension of the way you would talk about cray packs is I'm looking at cray packs versus reading cray packs, which is a whole other experience.
50:52
Tad Eggleston: Well, and this is where we can also plug Fantagraphics, who you can buy Heaven from, has also been putting out Guido Crepek's collections. So they are very much in print and very nice looking hardcovers.
51:06
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
51:07
Tad Eggleston: For people who want to look at that.
51:09
katie: A couple thousand pages of cray packs, and get back to me, and we'll.
51:12
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, well, I mean, you did bring up Frankenstein, and the Dracula Frankenstein was already kinda on my
51:20
Tad Eggleston: Radar, because it's been a while since I did…
51:25
Tad Eggleston: I mean, you brought up Darwin Cook a minute ago. We did a roundtable years ago called Parker Across Mediums, where a number of us, like, dove in, not just to the Parker comics, but, like, read a couple of Parker novels, watched a number of the movies that were based off the comics, and talked about
51:45
Tad Eggleston: Attacking the character from different perspectives,
51:50
Tad Eggleston: And I've kind of been thinking that it would be fun to do that with either Frankenstein or Dracula.
51:55
Tad Eggleston: Because they're… They're… they're so… There's so much a part of, like, the ether now that, that, like.
52:07
Tad Eggleston: I don't even know how many people, including myself, I don't think I've actually read all the way through either of the original novels.
52:14
katie: Mmh.
52:17
Tad Eggleston: But there are movies, there are comics, there, you know, everybody, you say Dracula, nobody, nobody's like, what are you talking about?
52:24
katie: Right, right. Yeah, and I think the…
52:29
katie: The Frankenstein one is especially interesting because that was one of his last comics he ever did.
52:36
katie: So it's… it's late in life. He died of multiple sclerosis. So he's… you know, it… it has, like, a…
52:44
katie: It's very relevant to.
52:46
Tad Eggleston: Right.
52:46
katie: his life, and I think it gives it this extra texture that I think is really…
52:52
katie: interesting, brings a lot to it. It's rich. I think it's one of his richest.
52:57
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, that.
52:58
Tad Eggleston: That sounds, fantastic, and it might be… might be a soon read for me.
53:07
Tad Eggleston: And who knows, maybe we'll reach… be reaching out and going, Katie.
53:10
katie: Yes.
53:11
Tad Eggleston: Club.
53:12
katie: Yeah.
53:13
Tad Eggleston: I know that's what you do on your podcast, but do you want to come do it on my podcast?
53:17
katie: Listen, just put a nickel in me. I don't stop. It's fine. We we could talk for another 100 hours. I do.
53:23
Tad Eggleston: Well, no, we can't, because you need to get.
53:25
katie: It'.
53:26
Tad Eggleston: to… to, Secret Headquarters, so… That's right. For Katie Skelly, the book is Heaven, out from Fantagraphics now, and this has been 22 Panels, and we will see you after the next page.