Latest / 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast / With Great Power #347... 22 Panels with Eliot Rahal

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With Great Power #347... 22 Panels with Eliot Rahal · 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast

0:02
Tad Eggleston: Good evening, everybody! Welcome back to 22 Panels. My guest tonight… Eliot! I completely forgot what I normally ask before I start recording, except if you go back and listen to interviews, I… I,
0:16
Tad Eggleston: I probably forget.
0:18
Tad Eggleston: At least one time in four. Can you pronounce your last name for me?
0:21
Eliot: Yeah, no, I figured that as well. Hi, hi everyone. Hi, 22 Panels. My name's Eliot Rahal.
0:28
Tad Eggleston: Rahal, so it is… it's… it's, it's a… it's a hard A.
0:32
Eliot: No, I think that's the Illinois accent, though, to be honest.
0:34
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
0:35
Eliot: I think, because, I believe… Rahal is a Lebanese name, and I believe it's, traditionally pronounced Rahal, but I believe colloquial pronunciation, we Americanized it even further.
0:51
Tad Eggleston: Okay, okay.
0:53
Tad Eggleston: I might have gotten it right for your ancestors, but I.
0:56
Eliot: I think, I think, I think you got it right.
0:59
Eliot: culturally.
1:01
Tad Eggleston: Right.
1:02
Eliot: Presently, but…
1:03
Tad Eggleston: Right.
1:04
Eliot: but not… How we say it.
1:07
Tad Eggleston: Not how you say it, and how you say it is what I care about. That's what's big for me. So, Eliot Rahal.
1:14
Tad Eggleston: The, the next book is, is,
1:17
Tad Eggleston: I read it today, and I forgot. See, this is how you know I'm back at school. I read it earlier today, I remember monkeys and bananas, and I.
1:25
Eliot: That's how much… it's not a monkey, sir.
1:28
Tad Eggleston: Oh, I'm sorry, gorillas and bananas?
1:31
Eliot: job.
1:31
Tad Eggleston: Not gorillas, gorilla.
1:34
Eliot: who rely.
1:35
Tad Eggleston: Annas, And… and that it was hilarious and awesome, and I can't…
1:42
Eliot: Can I, can I…
1:43
Tad Eggleston: read more, but…
1:44
Tad Eggleston: But I managed to completely and utterly forget the title. That's how good it was. Crimes Against Nature. Crimes Against Nature.
1:55
Eliot: Thank you.
1:56
Tad Eggleston: Which is on final order cutoff, Did you say the 30th?
2:01
Eliot: I believe the 31st,
2:03
Tad Eggleston: First, that sounds right.
2:04
Eliot: Maybe I'm making that up.
2:06
Tad Eggleston: Well, I'll find out in about 30 seconds, because, you know, I'm a nerd like that, and I have a window… I have you here, and I have my research window here.
2:17
Tad Eggleston: And Mom and my brother and Britt and John can't see me do that, because we're just an audio podcast, but…
2:25
Tad Eggleston: you saw what I meant. Crimes Against Nature, the really cool Cover full of bananas.
2:32
Tad Eggleston: It's final quarter cutoff of August 31st, and in stores September 23rd.
2:38
Eliot: God, I was so worried I got those dates wrong.
2:41
Tad Eggleston: So now is the time to go tell your shop that you want it. It's really, really good. I have been following Eliot, not quite for his entire career, but for a significant portion of it. Thank you.
2:56
Tad Eggleston: and, you know, you're on my shortlist of, I see your name on a creator-owned book, or at least not a Big 2 book. I think most of what you've done with the big twos is anthologies, and I'm even…
3:07
Eliot: I've only done one big two-story, actually.
3:10
Tad Eggleston: Right. See? See? All of what you've done with the big two. Yeah, I know.
3:15
Eliot: I know, God, kill me.
3:18
Tad Eggleston: So, so, so, so yeah, the fact… I saw your name on a big two anthology, I don't even remember which one it was.
3:25
Eliot: Predator, black, white, and blood.
3:27
Tad Eggleston: Oh, yeah, see, Predator's also not a thing for me, though now that I think of it, which issue were you?
3:33
Eliot: the first issue.
3:34
Tad Eggleston: Oh, no, I did read that, because… because it also had a Sarah Gailey story.
3:40
Tad Eggleston: the two of you, it was like, oh, I do need that. So, I can say that you write Predator well, too, because I was really kind of blown away by all the stories in that issue, even though I don't… I read too many comics to remember randomly.
3:53
Eliot: I get, yeah, it's hard to do it, and then anthologies especially, yeah, and I get why, like, Predators… Predator's, like, cool in theory for a lot of people, but I think it's a tough nut.
4:04
Tad Eggleston: I've… I mean, it's funny, because, like, A, I did enjoy that Predator, anthology, and… and…
4:18
Tad Eggleston: one of the most underrated classics of, like, the last 20 years is Archie vs. Predator. Yeah. But that's the extent of the Predator that I give a damn about.
4:30
Eliot: Yeah, I get it.
4:32
Tad Eggleston: I don't even think I've ever watched a Predator movie all the way through.
4:36
Eliot: Oh, a couple of them are pretty good. The new ones are really good, too, so…
4:39
Tad Eggleston: Are they?
4:40
Eliot: Yeah.
4:41
Tad Eggleston: keep that in mind, but I mostly read comics. I watch, like, a movie a week, because my family has a movie club. I have to watch Battleship Potemkin, either tonight or tomorrow.
4:51
Eliot: I watched that in high school.
4:53
Eliot: Yeah.
4:53
Tad Eggleston: Well, then just give me the crib notes, and then I will…
4:56
Eliot: The glorious Russian Revolution, that's the crib nuts.
5:01
Eliot: the crib notes, and that they steal a scene from, not steal, homage, I should say, a scene in The Untouchables is from the battleship Podemkin.
5:13
Tad Eggleston: Potemkin. That's right.
5:14
Eliot: The scene with the baby carriage.
5:16
Tad Eggleston: The baby carriage.
5:18
Eliot: Yeah.
5:18
Tad Eggleston: That was something that got brought up when my cousin was picking the movie last week.
5:24
Eliot: Yeah. It's a glorious piece of propaganda, I mean, it's great.
5:28
Tad Eggleston: Yay!
5:29
Eliot: I mean, it's an interesting movie. It's an interesting movie if you consider it through the lens of that it is a, yes, a movie, but also specifically a propaganda piece, so… Right. Yeah.
5:41
Tad Eggleston: But, thankfully, only about an hour long, so I'll be able to squeeze it in somewhere.
5:45
Eliot: Yeah.
5:46
Tad Eggleston: So, give us the front counter pitch for Crimes Against Nature, if only because that will… that will give me a good idea of… of what you consider to be spoiler material.
5:57
Eliot: Okay, well, I mean, to me,
6:01
Eliot: Crimes Against Nature is essentially, what if Coco the Gorilla met the usual suspects, right? Or it's like Coco the Gorilla meets Midnight Run, if you like, comedy. And it's, it's about, you know, two, two, two friends, a man and his gorilla, at the height of their success.
6:20
Eliot: Who are framed for a crime they didn't commit, and now they're on the run, trying to clear their names.
6:27
Eliot: But in the process of trying to clear their names, it's gonna reveal, secrets that they're both, like, withholding from one another, and it's like a story, I like to say it's a story about
6:38
Eliot: Sins, Secrets, and Simeons, and it's a… it's a… it's a story about friendship, and complicated friends, and what do we do with all the complicated people in our lives, and…
6:50
Eliot: In this case, instead of people, also a gorilla.
6:54
Tad Eggleston: I mean, the gorilla seems like a pretty smart gorilla.
6:58
Tad Eggleston: and I think it's on, like, the first pages, so I don't think it's ruining much, say, like, up for an Oscar. Not many gorillas have been up for Oscars.
7:08
Eliot: He's nominated for… he's the first gorilla to be nominated for an Academy Award.
7:11
Tad Eggleston: This is what… this is what I'm saying. He's a special gorilla.
7:15
Eliot: Yeah.
7:17
Eliot: And his name is Amigo, which I'm really proud of.
7:23
Eliot: Yeah.
7:24
Tad Eggleston: No, the… the…
7:30
Eliot: He's essentially, like, the world's most famous gorilla, I would say. Right. Like, that's, like, that's the… he's, like, the Michael Jordan, like, prior, like, Coco the Gorilla would be, like, the, like, the, like, you know, like, the OG, and he is, like, Amigo is, like, the new best gorilla, you know?
7:47
Tad Eggleston: You know, simian buddy comedies are… are… are a tough thread to,
7:54
Eliot: It's an old genre.
7:55
Tad Eggleston: It is, it is, but they're also a tough thread.
7:59
Tad Eggleston: I would say Clint Eastwood failed.
8:03
Tad Eggleston: for my money, Kevin Smith and Jason Mews succeeded. That was the best part of the movie, was them and the gorilla. Like, the rest of the movie was…
8:14
Eliot: Yeah.
8:14
Tad Eggleston: was pandering, and fun, if you were one of the ones being pandered to. I mean, I love Jay and Silent Bikes right back, but the best.
8:21
Eliot: Yeah, yeah, he plays good. That's not a movie for other people, right? Yeah, right.
8:27
Tad Eggleston: Right, no, no, if you're not already all in for all things Jay and Silent Bob.
8:33
Eliot: You're not gonna…
8:34
Tad Eggleston: the movie to.
8:34
Eliot: Why, why, why would you see it? It's literally in the title, Why Would You See a Movie Calm?
8:40
Tad Eggleston: Right.
8:41
Eliot: If you don't know who those characters are.
8:43
Tad Eggleston: But I think it was the first time that Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher were in the same movie since Return of the Jedi, so…
8:52
Eliot: That would be insane.
8:53
Tad Eggleston: Significant.
8:54
Eliot: Yeah, that would be cool.
8:55
Tad Eggleston: We're not on screen!
8:56
Eliot: I like that movie, don't get me wrong. Me too. I mean, yeah, it's a fun movie. I, like, watched it, like, at least 10 times in high school.
9:03
Tad Eggleston: Oh, absolutely. I probably saw it 4 times in the theater.
9:07
Eliot: Yeah. I was too young to get into the theater.
9:11
Tad Eggleston: No, I was… I was just the… just the right age.
9:14
Eliot: Yeah.
9:16
Tad Eggleston: Right, no.
9:18
Eliot: Yeah, it's true.
9:19
Tad Eggleston: that came out.
9:21
Eliot: Yeah, I think I was… I had to have been in high school.
9:24
Tad Eggleston: Today, Silent Bob, strike back.
9:28
Tad Eggleston: Came out… I was 21 when it came out.
9:31
Eliot: So are you, like, 43 right now, then?
9:33
Tad Eggleston: I am 46 right now.
9:35
Tad Eggleston: 2001.
9:36
Eliot: Oh, yeah, yeah
9:38
Eliot: So I… that was the movie, like, we would sneak, you know, one of the sneaks.
9:43
Eliot: Not that my parents really cared, but, like, you know,
9:48
Eliot: That wasn't when you watched with them.
9:51
Tad Eggleston: I mean… They don't wanna… they don't want snoochie Boochies and… and Cocknocker?
9:58
Eliot: I… Cocknocker was funny. The Snoochy Boochie's thing, I never was that… I never liked it, but what I liked…
10:04
Tad Eggleston: But that's one of the things I loved about this movie, is that, like, Jay and Bob make fun of the Snoochy Boochie's. They're looking at it, and they're like, we don't say that!
10:16
Tad Eggleston: What is this shit?
10:21
Eliot: You're right. Oh, it's been a while.
10:23
Eliot: Anyway,
10:25
Tad Eggleston: But, but yeah, so, so, so you, you succeeded. Where I was going is you succeeded, at least for Issue 1, with, with our simian… Yeah, we'll see.
10:35
Eliot: It's been a challenge, I will say, like, I had the, like, I had the first…
10:40
Eliot: I knew exactly how I wanted Issue 1 to end.
10:44
Eliot: And, like, you know, you know, give or take a panel or two, right?
10:49
Tad Eggleston: Right.
10:49
Eliot: You know, like, cut a few panels, but, you know, as your 22 Panels suggests, you really dig in on, like.
10:59
Eliot: the location of some very specific ones, and this book utilizes a lot of sign language, so I had to be really… I had to be strategic about
11:09
Eliot: what gestures would be doing the most work, you know? Right. And then also, like, working with Mattia, it's like.
11:17
Eliot: You know, I, I, I do, and this is, this is not, something I,
11:26
Eliot: am consistently good at, and then I also do, like, other things as well.
11:32
Eliot: But, like…
11:34
Eliot: I own… like, because I will do 7 panels, I will do 9 panels, I will do stuff.
11:38
Tad Eggleston: Right.
11:39
Eliot: But I, like, I do try to, like, keep it at, like, 5 or below, right?
11:44
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
11:45
Eliot: Unless I'm, like, building to something, or I really need it. And, like, because, like, where I'm, like, where I'm trying to do something specific, you know? And, like,
11:57
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I once went through all of Saga and tracked the…
12:03
Tad Eggleston: Number of panels per page, and the average is 5.
12:08
Eliot: Visionary.
12:09
Tad Eggleston: 5 is the most common. Yeah. I think…
12:13
Tad Eggleston: You can count the number of times it goes more than 7 on a hand.
12:17
Eliot: It's incredible, and, like, it's a magnificent storytelling, and that's why, like, I try to keep it lean. I mean, not lean, but I try to keep it, like.
12:27
Eliot: tight, but that's not to say I don't, like, stray out that, and I do quite often, but I will say…
12:33
Eliot: then there's the other consideration, which is, like, okay, well, what's the burden on the artist here, right? And then, like, you know, like, the more panels can be challenging, and, like, I'm really, like, it's been a while since I've worked with Mattia, but, like, seeing him fly loose like this, it's a totally different…
12:53
Eliot: He's a totally different person to work with this time around, because it's like, oh, oh, you could, if you wanted to, put…
13:02
Eliot: 13 panels on this page, and it wouldn't look crowded. I have not done that yet, but I know, like, that's the level of skill I'm working with right now, you know?
13:12
Tad Eggleston: That's good.
13:14
Tad Eggleston: It can work. I mean, I… I, I agree.
13:17
Eliot: I mean, Absolute Batman does it all the time, but, like.
13:20
Tad Eggleston: Well, I actually recently came across a Beto Hernandez story that was, like.
13:26
Tad Eggleston: I think 40 pages, or 40 panels per page for… Right.
13:31
Tad Eggleston: for… for 4 pages, and I'm like, wow, this is amazing.
13:35
Eliot: Yeah, yeah.
13:36
Tad Eggleston: Europeans seem to average about 12.
13:39
Tad Eggleston: You know…
13:40
Eliot: I don't read much… I don't read European comics that really.
13:44
Tad Eggleston: Hmm.
13:44
Eliot: No, I don't.
13:46
Tad Eggleston: There's some good stuff, but… but they…
13:48
Eliot: It's not for a lack of not wanting.
13:51
Tad Eggleston: Right.
13:52
Tad Eggleston: No, no, I get it.
13:53
Tad Eggleston: They're definitely a different pace.
13:56
Eliot: Yeah. They're bigger, too.
13:59
Tad Eggleston: Most of the time.
14:00
Tad Eggleston: Well, always, because they're generally 50-page.
14:03
Eliot: Right, so that changes the… but that, like, but if you were to change…
14:08
Eliot: to that kind of style of storytelling, 50 pages, which I'm all for, by the way.
14:12
Tad Eggleston: Right. I'm all for seeing lots of different…
14:16
Eliot: But I will say, it will fuck with a lot of creators at first, because it sounds great, but I do, like, again, going back to the 22 panels, it's like, I like… you really are, like, you're thinking like that, you know what I mean?
14:30
Tad Eggleston: Meh?
14:31
Eliot: like, how do I, like, fit this all in? And so, it's like, if you were to change it to 55 Panels, I'm sure that same skill would develop, but it would take a second, because.
14:42
Tad Eggleston: The Europe… the Europeans still use the 22 panels. Right. Yeah. Wally… Wally would…
14:49
Eliot: Well, sure, I guess I… I guess I meant 22 pages.
14:53
Tad Eggleston: Agent is a different thing. Ages.
14:55
Eliot: 10 pages. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:59
Tad Eggleston: 22 Panels that always work do work in all languages.
15:02
Eliot: That's my, my, my, my mistake there. But I think you know, yeah, anyway, I don't know. I, I appreciate you,
15:10
Eliot: you know, I don't know, it's, it's, I've been going crazy, like.
15:16
Eliot: trying to promote and market this, so when you said people… when you said that people were talking about it, I was like, who?
15:25
Tad Eggleston: I, I, I, I have heard…
15:27
Tad Eggleston: At least myself talk about it.
15:31
Tad Eggleston: Tyler's talked about it.
15:36
Tad Eggleston: Phil went, hey, what's that? He's our most recent addition to the co-host family since Tyler bought his shop and can't even do weekly anymore. We pulled a third in for…
15:48
Eliot: Does Tyler have a shop now?
15:50
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, Tyler has a shop in La Verne. You gotta go and sign that.
15:53
Eliot: Oh, yeah, I would go there in a minute.
15:55
Tad Eggleston: I keep telling him to invite you, but he…
15:58
Eliot: I would go in a minute!
15:59
Tad Eggleston: getting to. There you go.
16:01
Tad Eggleston: Just, just pack up and… The Nexus Vault, La Verne, Minnesota.
16:06
Eliot: Yeah!
16:07
Tad Eggleston: Couple-hour drive for you.
16:09
Eliot: Oh, yeah! I would absolutely go.
16:12
Tad Eggleston: This is what I've told.
16:14
Eliot: My family and I could do a day trip there.
16:16
Tad Eggleston: I told him to invite you for free comic book day, but…
16:20
Eliot: I would have gone, I don't, I don't… Laverne's not that far.
16:25
Tad Eggleston: No.
16:26
Tad Eggleston: I've driven from La Verne to Minneapolis.
16:31
Tad Eggleston: 5?
16:32
Eliot: Well, I'll see him at Sioux Falls, and hopefully… or hopefully I'll see him at Sioux Falls, and we can talk about it.
16:37
Tad Eggleston: I mean, actually, I'm hoping… I mean, I don't know, I know that,
16:44
Tad Eggleston: Are you familiar with insert name ZineFest in Minneapolis?
16:50
Eliot: which… Wait, is that the name? Insert name?
16:53
Tad Eggleston: Insert name, Comic and Zine Fest.
16:55
Eliot: No, I'm not, I'm not, actually.
16:57
Tad Eggleston: It will be August 30th, I think?
17:01
Tad Eggleston: Let me check, yeah, August 30th, so the day before your FOC.
17:06
Tad Eggleston: at Odd Mart.
17:07
Eliot: Oh, I know, Oddmark, yeah, Oddmark Rules.
17:11
Tad Eggleston: We, we…
17:12
Eliot: Incredible.
17:13
Tad Eggleston: We have been a long time… Booster of that.
17:20
Tad Eggleston: that fest, and he hasn't actually made it out yet. I try to drag him every year. I'm there every year, so, you know, you should come meet me out there.
17:29
Eliot: Yeah, I would. Drop me a reminder, because I love… because that… they live on… I live on Northeast, and Admont's on South, but, I fucking…
17:39
Eliot: Love that store, and I.
17:40
Tad Eggleston: No, it's so… it's so cool.
17:42
Eliot: And I love Brad, and I do want to go, like, do a signing there.
17:48
Tad Eggleston: And for that matter, do you… and I don't know if this has been officially announced yet, so I might be breaking it. Do you like, like…
17:58
Tad Eggleston: low budget… Action, sci-fi, horror type stuff.
18:03
Eliot: Yeah, I mean, sure, who doesn't?
18:05
Tad Eggleston: Okay, so, Jim Terry, the cartoonist.
18:10
Eliot: Okay.
18:10
Tad Eggleston: Is their guest of honor this year.
18:12
Eliot: Okay.
18:15
Tad Eggleston: He made a movie.
18:17
Eliot: What movie does he make?
18:19
Tad Eggleston: called Shank last year.
18:21
Eliot: I didn't…
18:24
Tad Eggleston: you wouldn't have seen it yet, because it's only ever played in Chicago, but… but it's gonna get its first non-Chicago screening at… at the… the Eagles.
18:34
Eliot: I know Jim,
18:36
Tad Eggleston: Come home, Indio,
18:39
Eliot: I've met him before.
18:40
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
18:42
Eliot: He's a cool guy.
18:43
Tad Eggleston: He's an amazing guy.
18:45
Eliot: Oh, that's cool!
18:49
Tad Eggleston: So, so I think we're gonna have a screening at the Eagles Club.
18:54
Tad Eggleston: Saturday night of Shank.
18:58
Tad Eggleston: And then he'll be at the con on Sunday.
19:04
Tad Eggleston: That's my email say? I got the email earlier today.
19:09
Tad Eggleston: da-da-da-da-da.
19:12
Tad Eggleston: See, this is great audio, isn't it? Oh, yeah.
19:18
Eliot: something, so I'm just trying to pick something out of my foot. Yeah, no, but…
19:22
Tad Eggleston: Eagles Club number 34.
19:25
Eliot: Okay, yeah, hit me up about it. I can at least come this Saturday.
19:28
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
19:29
Eliot: He's coming to the signing. I can't promise a movie,
19:32
Tad Eggleston: I'll give you details.
19:34
Eliot: Yeah.
19:35
Tad Eggleston: Well, and it's not just signing, it, like, insert name Comics and Zine Fest is, it's like…
19:40
Eliot: It's like a whole thing. No, I'll take my family to that.
19:43
Tad Eggleston: And if you… I think the other big independent… have you been to Autopic?
19:51
Eliot: I have an initial topic, yeah.
19:53
Tad Eggleston: Okay, I haven't actually been to that one.
19:55
Eliot: That's more related to the university, I think.
19:59
Tad Eggleston: But, like, THE step down from that is insert name.
20:03
Tad Eggleston: Yeah. In fact, in fact, they're close enough that, like, there was a year that they were both on the same weekend.
20:11
Tad Eggleston: And they wound up sharing some guests because they coordinated with each other.
20:15
Eliot: Oh, that's nice. I like to see that.
20:18
Eliot: Oh, God.
20:20
Tad Eggleston: So that's…
20:21
Eliot: I mean, the comic scene up here is very good. Yeah. I would say, like, our big con is growing. I really want to do, like, something myself, but I'm not in the position right now, but I want to, like…
20:32
Eliot: I love the Midwest comic scene, and like.
20:35
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah. I mean, but, I mean, Minneapolis has… Peter Krause is up there, Xander Cannon's up there…
20:40
Eliot: Peter's a great guy, yeah.
20:42
Tad Eggleston: I don't know, still need to have Xander on. I keep talking to him, and I keep forgetting to email him, so I need to fix that one of these days soon.
20:49
Eliot: Talk to me about sleep!
20:51
Tad Eggleston: Oh, I love sleep.
20:53
Eliot: Yeah.
20:53
Eliot: I have to finish it still.
20:55
Tad Eggleston: So good.
20:57
Eliot: He's very good.
20:58
Tad Eggleston: like it better than I like Kaiju Max, and that's saying a lot.
21:04
Tad Eggleston: Soon.
21:05
Eliot: But yeah.
21:09
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
21:11
Eliot: I don't know, it's been, this book is, sort of, I don't know, it's been a long time…
21:17
Eliot: it's been a hard year, and it's been, you know, I've been having, I've been having, You know, I've been in comics a long time, and, like, I've felt,
21:28
Eliot: you know, I felt like I've experienced a lot of success, but also a lot of frustration, and like.
21:35
Tad Eggleston: Damn.
21:36
Eliot: I mean, I know, like, I mean, every image is, like, you know, and say what you want about it, but it is, like…
21:45
Eliot: you know, you don't get into writing stories, I think, with… especially with the… with the comics that inspired me, or like,
21:54
Eliot: without wanting to do an image book, so I'm…
21:57
Tad Eggleston: Right.
21:57
Eliot: you know, I'm hoping it's received.
22:00
Eliot: positively. I'm hoping people order it. Yeah, it's been also a financially challenging year, so,
22:06
Tad Eggleston: Ugh.
22:07
Eliot: So, you know…
22:10
Tad Eggleston: I feel about that.
22:11
Eliot: I'm trying to…
22:12
Tad Eggleston: I'll remind everybody really, really quickly that final order cutoff is…
22:16
Tad Eggleston: August 31st, please go to your comic shop and request it. Actually, it's got… it's got multiple really cool covers, so you can order it twice.
22:26
Tad Eggleston: If you order it 25 times, you can get the awesome Tyler Boss cover.
22:31
Eliot: This is my first time, really, so, like, those variants, you know, I mean, Clara Meath is doing a variant, an exclusive variant in, in, in, at Brookings, but you, I mean, I… I have… this is my first time really… I called in every favor I had left on this.
22:48
Tad Eggleston: win it.
22:50
Tad Eggleston: I mean, Stepin Mori and Tyler Boss are pretty, pretty,
22:55
Eliot: I… I don't… you would… here's the thing, you would… I obviously love…
22:59
Tad Eggleston: big in the covering game right now.
23:00
Eliot: I love their art, like, don't get me wrong. I love their art, and I'm aware of what you said is just true, right? But I don't…
23:08
Eliot: I don't… work in a comic book store, right? And I don't know…
23:15
Tad Eggleston: Well…
23:15
Eliot: really about.
23:16
Tad Eggleston: Well, and see, here's the thing, is I, like…
23:20
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I do kind of work in a comic store again, but, like, in both counts, they're probably still…
23:29
Tad Eggleston: niche guys. Tyler Boss is starting to break out more.
23:36
Tad Eggleston: Stip and Morian… You know, is doing his second… ridiculous series with Dennis Camp.
23:46
Eliot: I know.
23:47
Tad Eggleston: Right now, being hooked up with Dennis Camp certainly doesn't hurt.
23:53
Tad Eggleston: Dennis is also just a really smart…
23:57
Eliot: Sweet. Genius.
23:58
Tad Eggleston: Amazing guy, yeah.
23:59
Eliot: Yeah.
24:00
Tad Eggleston: I was lucky enough to have him on right before his…
24:04
Tad Eggleston: First book with Stip and Moore in,
24:09
Eliot: 20th Century Man.
24:10
Tad Eggleston: 20th century men.
24:12
Eliot: Yeah.
24:12
Tad Eggleston: But, but, haven't been able to pin him down since, because, you know, he's Dennis camp now.
24:19
Eliot: I think he's really busy, but he's got… he's just such a good-hearted, sweet man. He is.
24:25
Tad Eggleston: Actually, like, I'm gonna plug again, and I think you can find some of this stuff up at the autism scene, and The Beat had a great article about it. My friend
24:37
Tad Eggleston: Britt Payne, who runs an organization called The Autism Scene that works to get more
24:42
Tad Eggleston: More, explicit autism representation in pop culture, particularly youth pop culture.
24:52
Tad Eggleston: does an autism panel at lots of cons, and he had his autism panel at San Diego this year, and Dennis and his wife
25:02
Tad Eggleston: Joined on, like, 24 hours notice.
25:06
Tad Eggleston: And Dennis literally won all the awards in between, saying, yes, I'll come do your panel, and then coming to do the panel.
25:13
Eliot: That's so cool.
25:14
Tad Eggleston: So, so, yeah. And, like,
25:19
Tad Eggleston: He… that's where he confirmed that,
25:22
Tad Eggleston: that… that… that his… his John Johns is… is autistic.
25:28
Tad Eggleston: And… and that was what… what we were…
25:31
Eliot: Interesting.
25:32
Tad Eggleston: His John Johns is undiagnosed autistic, and his… the character's son in Absolute Man… Martian Manhunter is diagnosed autistic, and, like, the navigating that is part of what you're seeing.
25:44
Eliot: I'll admit I haven't read that run, but that's because I have two small children and no money right now.
25:52
Eliot: But I do try to keep up when I can.
25:55
Tad Eggleston: I will say that you should totally put that high on your list.
26:00
Eliot: Spain on her is one of my favorites. I like…
26:02
Tad Eggleston: I mean, Martian Manhunter is cool.
26:04
Eliot: I did a series on him, I really enjoyed.
26:08
Tad Eggleston: But this one, I mean, almost everything Dennis has been doing lately is next level.
26:13
Eliot: That's because Dennis is, like… Dennis is, like, one of those, like, incredibly… he's both incredibly intelligent, but… and also, like, he's had an incredible life experience, and so he's… and so…
26:27
Tad Eggleston: Well, and he clearly loves comics, because, like, what I will say a huge amount about both Absolute Martian Manhunter and…
26:35
Tad Eggleston: His other award-winning, amazing series, Assorted Crisis Events, is that…
26:42
Tad Eggleston: They really, really embrace and take advantage of the medium.
26:47
Eliot: You can go.
26:49
Eliot: Yeah.
26:49
Tad Eggleston: Tell stories in ways that you need comics to be able to tell.
26:55
Tad Eggleston: And that's cool to me.
26:56
Eliot: Yeah, and that's, like, that's the joy of, again, going back to, like, 22 Panels, like, that is the joy of, like.
27:04
Eliot: you have this, like, set canvas, right? Like, you know, and it's like…
27:11
Eliot: Finding the best ways to, like, you know, like, to really make.
27:15
Tad Eggleston: So it is also all but unlimited.
27:17
Eliot: Right, yeah, exactly, but it's also, like, it's… there are rules, though. Rules, like, not, like, hard rules, but there are rules. It's like, this is the size and the shape, and, like, that doesn't seem like a rule, but it is.
27:31
Tad Eggleston: Oh, no.
27:32
Eliot: It's a rule, like…
27:33
Tad Eggleston: Well, and as Matt Madden will tell anybody, like, putting constraints on yourself brings out.
27:40
Eliot: The best! Work!
27:42
Tad Eggleston: stories.
27:43
Eliot: Because it's like, you understand… you're making it… you're making, like…
27:48
Tad Eggleston: But I, I somehow…
27:49
Eliot: Every, every statue, every one of those fucking Greek statues starts out as just a brick, but you know, you know what you're gonna do, like, you know, like,
27:59
Eliot: And I, I really enjoyed, like, you know, you were talking about the first issue, of, of Crimes Against Nature, and, like, I'm glad you received it, but, like, I, like, you know, first issues are, like.
28:11
Tad Eggleston: Oh.
28:12
Eliot: They're so tough, and it's like, how do I get, like, you to care about this at all?
28:19
Tad Eggleston: The first issue has to be, like, a semi-self-contained story, but something that makes you want to do the next one. It's gotta answer enough questions that you don't feel lost while leaving enough there that you desperately want more. It's gotta grab you right in…
28:36
Eliot: Right.
28:37
Tad Eggleston: You know, until you have, like… I mean, comics, more than any other business, I think, in terms of storytelling.
28:45
Tad Eggleston: like… It takes forever to build that reputation that allows you to do a slow burn.
28:51
Eliot: Right.
28:52
Eliot: And even then, I would still say, like, You know, those first…
28:59
Eliot: arcs for those long-running, even current stories, like Saga, for example, those first issues, that first.
29:05
Tad Eggleston: Oh, no!
29:06
Eliot: Still full of the, oh, you're going hard, you know.
29:10
Tad Eggleston: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No.
29:11
Eliot: Because, like, it does, like, it still determines the life of the series, you know?
29:18
Tad Eggleston: Spectators.
29:20
Eliot: Right.
29:20
Tad Eggleston: Brian Vaughn's most recent straight to, like, graphic novel, rather than…
29:26
Tad Eggleston: than series. Was a little bit of a slow burn. But, A, he did it with Substack money, B…
29:35
Tad Eggleston: he had 10 years of Saga.
29:37
Tad Eggleston: Right. Before he released it.
29:41
Tad Eggleston: Right. And he and Nico had done Pride of Baghdad together, so people were willing to give him 50 pages to see where it was going.
29:50
Eliot: Right.
29:51
Tad Eggleston: Brubaker and Phillips, I think.
29:54
Tad Eggleston: like, since they switched to doing mostly graphic novels rather than doing series, I think they have had, like, one or two where they don't hit you right out of the gate.
30:05
Tad Eggleston: But again, how long have Brubaker and Phillips been doing their thing?
30:11
Tad Eggleston: And…
30:12
Eliot: And those guys are, like, all doing, like, these, like, experimental things now.
30:16
Tad Eggleston: Right.
30:16
Eliot: they're in a totally different phase of the career. Not that they still don't come out with, like.
30:21
Eliot: Traditional, like, books, but, like, they're still, like, yeah.
30:25
Eliot: I'm just trying to break through, man. I'm just…
30:28
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, you break… you break one through in some areas. I mean, I used to…
30:34
Tad Eggleston: like, the last comic shop I worked in, I managed to sell most of your…
30:39
Tad Eggleston: Stuff at a decent clip.
30:42
Tad Eggleston: Unfortunately, a decent clip for an average-sized comic shop meant that, like.
30:47
Tad Eggleston: I managed to sell, like, 5 to 10 copies a piece of… of,
30:57
Tad Eggleston: Would have started with, with,
31:00
Tad Eggleston: Hot Lunch Special, so it would have been a Hot Lunch Special, Midnight Vista, Leap Them Dry, The Vein.
31:07
Tad Eggleston: And knock them dead.
31:09
Tad Eggleston: I think I managed to…
31:11
Eliot: Thanks.
31:13
Tad Eggleston: To, to, to pull, pull 5… 5 to 10 copies a piece.
31:17
Eliot: Not bad.
31:19
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, to give you an idea, I think we had 30 subscribers on Saga. Yeah. So, like…
31:24
Eliot: Yeah.
31:25
Tad Eggleston: at our store, that wasn't bad. I mean…
31:27
Eliot: It's not bad for.
31:28
Tad Eggleston: Batman Walking Dead, and Saga consistently sold more than 10 copies.
31:32
Eliot: Yeah.
31:34
Eliot: That's crazy. Yeah, I mean, it's a while, but we'll see what happens. I mean, it's just been.
31:41
Tad Eggleston: Oh, it's such a… it's such an annoying business that way.
31:44
Eliot: Yeah.
31:46
Eliot: It's just been… it's been nice either way, you know, it's been,
31:50
Eliot: And, I don't know, I… I… working with Mattia on this has been,
31:55
Tad Eggleston: Well, I…
31:56
Eliot: I mean, it's a really joyful experience, so, you know, I mean…
31:59
Tad Eggleston: I can't… I can't believe that this, like, lost… because Tyler and I plugged the hell out of this one, too. Your last book, Don't Forget Your Briefcase, was a fantastic story.
32:10
Tad Eggleston: as well and I think…
32:15
Eliot: I think Tyler reached out to me about that, but I forgot to respond.
32:19
Tad Eggleston: That's a… I think he said that.
32:23
Tad Eggleston: But… but you have… you have children that aren't even in school yet.
32:27
Eliot: I just… yeah, I, I just…
32:29
Tad Eggleston: I'm surprised you sleep.
32:32
Eliot: Yeah, I mean…
32:33
Tad Eggleston: Or still no words.
32:36
Eliot: I… it's late for me right now, but, like, you know, I mean, my… my sleeping schedule, like, you know, I mean…
32:45
Eliot: I wake up sometimes at, like, 4, 4.30, or like, you know,
32:50
Tad Eggleston: You wake up, or you're woken up?
32:53
Eliot: No, no, like, I'll wake up before, like, it depends on where we are in the school year, right? Summer's tricky, because, like, summer's not as scheduled, and at the same time, there's a lot of things, so it's like.
33:04
Tad Eggleston: Right.
33:05
Eliot: some days I'm, like, waking up normal time, and then, like, but, like, you know, my daughter's at summer camp this week, so it's like…
33:12
Eliot: It's like…
33:15
Eliot: in between, but, like, most of the time during the school year, I'm waking up very early, around, like, 35 a.m, right before everybody else, and then I can, I can really get, like, a solid, at least two and a half, three hours, and, you know.
33:30
Tad Eggleston: Hey, that's fantastic!
33:32
Eliot: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
33:32
Tad Eggleston: I envy you that, because that's, like, the time of day that I am useless, unless.
33:37
Eliot: Well, I gotta train… I mean, I… it's… I'm not… I'm not going right away, you know, I need…
33:42
Tad Eggleston: Like, yeah.
33:42
Eliot: I need a gallon of coffee, and I need to take, you know, my medication, but.
33:47
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, but, but I'm, I'm…
33:49
Tad Eggleston: like, it's been a while since I had any sort of regular writing routine.
33:54
Eliot: But I, I mean, I have to have one, otherwise I, like, I don't work.
33:57
Tad Eggleston: Oh, absolutely.
33:58
Eliot: Yeah, so…
33:59
Tad Eggleston: That's why I'm not a writer anymore, is I don't have.
34:01
Eliot: I mean…
34:02
Tad Eggleston: He was writing routine.
34:03
Eliot: If I had a different job, I would do it the same… I mean, you know, it's just what you gotta do, like,
34:09
Eliot: Oh,
34:09
Tad Eggleston: No, again, though, I'm just jealous, because when I did, I could write at 4am if I was still up.
34:16
Tad Eggleston: But… but getting up and riding at 4am was not…
34:19
Eliot: I'm useless at night now. My mental faculties at night.
34:25
Tad Eggleston: I shot.
34:26
Eliot: are done. Alright.
34:28
Eliot: I can talk, and I can, like, make, like, a snack, you know.
34:35
Tad Eggleston: You make the grilled cheese, and you can use words.
34:39
Eliot: Yeah, this one.
34:40
Tad Eggleston: Mostly come together properly.
34:42
Eliot: Mostly, but I'm also like, where am I?
34:46
Tad Eggleston: So, so, so really quickly, just because, the.
34:50
Tad Eggleston: the trade should be still in lots of comic shops, and certainly still available for order. Give us the,
34:57
Tad Eggleston: Front… front counter pitch on Don't Forget Your Suitcase, because I.
35:01
Eliot: Oh, don't forget your briefcase, it's a man case.
35:03
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
35:03
Eliot: It's a story I did with Phil Sevey, who is great, and a friend, and it's about,
35:12
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, you…
35:13
Eliot: Just above.
35:14
Tad Eggleston: I've been blessed to work with some really great artists.
35:16
Eliot: Yeah, I have been lucky. I've been really lucky. It's a story about what, you know, the, if…
35:26
Eliot: If not everyone is familiar, there's a device called the nuclear football, which is a briefcase that an aide
35:33
Eliot: will carry next to the president. And it's basically a briefcase that contains, like, all of, like, the launch codes, sites, and it's, like, a first strike.
35:45
Eliot: kind of app, like, device, for the president to use, in… in case, like, we are attacked first. It's more of, like, a… a defense.
35:59
Eliot: sort of, kind of thing, but, like, it would still annihilate. It doesn't matter, it's the thing that… it's a big briefcase that can end the world for some reason. And…
36:10
Eliot: It's about what happens when that person, accidentally mixes it up with a 10-year-old boy who likes to, like, bring a little briefcase to the school. And, and it's like a, like a spy, like, comedy, like…
36:22
Eliot: thing.
36:24
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
36:25
Eliot: Yeah.
36:25
Tad Eggleston: And it was… it was fun, and thought-provoking, and… just… Weird and cool.
36:33
Tad Eggleston: In a way that I expect from Mad Cave now, and I expect from you.
36:37
Tad Eggleston: Let me… let me… since we're… since we're both running on… on…
36:44
Tad Eggleston: I don't even know what we're running on. I was gonna say fumes, but I haven't had any coffee in hours, so I think I'm even out of the fumes. I'm gonna go to one of my pack questions.
36:55
Tad Eggleston: G-give me your…
36:57
Tad Eggleston: comics biography. And when I say biography, I don't mean your bibliography. We can talk all day about the books that you've written, and we've talked about a few of them already.
37:09
Tad Eggleston: I mean, like…
37:11
Tad Eggleston: What books did you grow up on? What books do you remember loving at different times in your life? What books made you decide that you wanted to write comics? Or did you just decide that you wanted to write and fall into comics? That happens sometimes, too, like, like…
37:28
Tad Eggleston: Tell me about the comics that mean something to you.
37:31
Eliot: So, I would say, like, my journey reading comics began in high school.
37:41
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
37:41
Eliot: So, a little bit late, you know.
37:44
Tad Eggleston: In some ways, that's good.
37:46
Eliot: Yeah.
37:47
Tad Eggleston: A lot of us that start young decide that we're supposed to grow out of it, and then it takes us too long to come back. So, if you start when you can already appreciate it.
37:58
Tad Eggleston: There's something good about that.
38:00
Eliot: But… I would say… I got in,
38:09
Eliot: high school, like, I want to say junior, senior year, And I…
38:16
Eliot: was blessed with a friend who showed me the way, and we went to Graham Cracker Comics a lot,
38:23
Tad Eggleston: Which one?
38:25
Eliot: And the one on Ogden,
38:27
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
38:27
Eliot: in Westmont? Yeah, I know.
38:30
Tad Eggleston: that one?
38:31
Eliot: I want to say it's Westmont, Westmont, but
38:34
Tad Eggleston: The one in Ogden, Ogden, I think, is in Westmont.
38:37
Eliot: Yeah,
38:38
Tad Eggleston: Be the edge of Downers Grove?
38:40
Eliot: Maybe. Yeah, it's… I know it's, it's, it's, it's near one… an edge of something. But
38:47
Tad Eggleston: Trying to remember… Adele might have been there when you were…
38:52
Eliot: I would say I got… I just got lucky with, like… I just got hit with, like.
38:58
Eliot: at the time, what was the best, right? And both, like, what was current and not common. So, like.
39:06
Eliot: Jumped in on The Walking Dead.
39:09
Eliot: right at the perfect time, I got, like, Why the last man? I got, super.
39:16
Eliot: creature. I got.
39:18
Tad Eggleston: Right?
39:28
Tad Eggleston: That was a great…
39:29
Eliot: All of those, like… sort of best-of marquee books, like, you know, like, you know,
39:39
Eliot: Red Sun, Kingdom Kong, okay.
39:43
Eliot: You know,
39:46
Tad Eggleston: I mean, that was, like, the beginning of… The trade paperback era.
39:52
Eliot: Right.
39:53
Eliot: That's when…
39:54
Tad Eggleston: And…
39:54
Eliot: That's how I was introduced to them.
39:58
Tad Eggleston: And, like, the second peak of vertigo…
40:00
Eliot: Right, and that's when… like, yeah, Darwin Cook's, like, Twilight Children, except it's a little bit more.
40:08
Tad Eggleston: With, with, with, with, Beto Hernandez.
40:11
Eliot: Yeah, but that's more recent, I mean, well, recent 10 years ago, but
40:17
Eliot: like, the Darwin Cook stuff in general, like, and… but then, and that's, like, what started me, and then, like…
40:27
Eliot: And then, like, my… oh, we, like, oh, Punisher Max, for sure. Right. I love Punisher Max.
40:33
Eliot: And…
40:34
Tad Eggleston: Ennis made Punisher something that I liked.
40:37
Eliot: I loved the, I guess, I love the,
40:48
Eliot: And, oh, I can't believe I'm spacing on it. It was, like, paradise X, like, okay. Like, all, like, stuff.
40:58
Tad Eggleston: Jim Krueger…
40:59
Eliot: The stuff with, like… Alex Ross cover… Yeah, like, anything Alex Ross did, like, Marvels, like,
41:06
Eliot: And then… and then I would say, like, my first, like, big runs, reading things would be, like, you know,
41:14
Eliot: I jumped in on Geoff Johns's, Green Lantern right when, that began, and that was my first, like.
41:24
Eliot: weekly poll, I would say, or, like, a single-issue series I started, like, actively following, and then,
41:38
Eliot: Yeah, I was a really big Green Lantern guy, and then, and then I liked,
41:44
Tad Eggleston: Who's your Green Lantern?
41:49
Eliot: I would probably… I mean…
41:51
Eliot: I would probably still say it's Hale, but, like, I guess, like, I like Kyle a lot, too, you know? I mean, I'm not gonna say no to that, but I… the most of the.
42:00
Tad Eggleston: I'm not enough of a Green Lantern.
42:01
Eliot: Most likely.
42:02
Tad Eggleston: I don't…
42:02
Eliot: Most of the stuff…
42:03
Tad Eggleston: question that I tossed out for any of the listeners. I know their names.
42:09
Eliot: The stuff I've read is through PAL, I'll admit, though.
42:11
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
42:12
Eliot: I mean, it's not, like, for a lack of… it's more out of ignorance, I would say. And then, I'd read whatever I could get my hands on. I'd say my first big Marvel runs were, like.
42:23
Eliot: Spider-Man, fuck. When did that begin? I'm not… Was it…
42:31
Eliot: Brand new day, or was it…
42:34
Tad Eggleston: Brand new day would have been the end of Zinski's run, so it would have been, like, 2… it would have been right in there.
42:41
Eliot: I wouldn't say.
42:42
Tad Eggleston: Ultimate Spider-Man would be starting up in there, too.
42:44
Eliot: Just before then, and starting then, and then, and then, I would say…
42:53
Eliot: That was my first, like, like, Marvel Weekly, and then…
43:03
Eliot: Yeah, and then I've just been kind of, like, doing…
43:06
Eliot: reading, but, like, I'd say that that first…
43:10
Eliot: That first, that second generation of, like, Vertigo books is highly formative for me.
43:15
Eliot: Like you said, and…
43:18
Tad Eggleston: peak.
43:19
Eliot: And then, like, the second… what are you, the second age of Marvel in 2010? Like…
43:25
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, sounds about right.
43:27
Eliot: Right, right when, right when the first Iron Man came out, right?
43:33
Tad Eggleston: That would be when I wasn't reading Marvel, because my kids were…
43:38
Tad Eggleston: Right. Young, and I was broke.
43:40
Tad Eggleston: Right.
43:42
Tad Eggleston: So…
43:43
Eliot: Whoa.
43:44
Eliot: That was, like, my formative age of Marvel, and then, okay.
43:52
Eliot: you know, I've been having a hard time keeping up, because…
43:56
Tad Eggleston: Oh, of course.
43:57
Eliot: So, I'm, I'm pretty lost.
43:59
Tad Eggleston: This is what Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe are for.
44:02
Eliot: Yeah, I know, I know, I know,
44:06
Tad Eggleston: So… what… When did you decide that writing comics was what you wanted to do?
44:14
Eliot: And I don't know, I mean, I…
44:17
Eliot: it's both what I want to do, but also sometimes it's like.
44:20
Eliot: Sometimes it feels like it's the only thing I can do, because I can't get a job.
44:27
Eliot: So, I mean…
44:29
Eliot: I don't know, like, and, you know, I mean, they always made sense to me, if that makes any sense.
44:36
Tad Eggleston: Yeah?
44:37
Eliot: like, the way they work makes sense to me in my brain, in the way… in the way my brain functions, I've always thought visually. And then it is, like, my favorite form of, like, storytelling. I think it's, like, a really powerful way to tell stories, and, like…
44:51
Tad Eggleston: Oh, it is.
44:52
Eliot: And then, like, my appreciation as of it has grown even further now that I'm older, and I understand, you know, how much labor these things take, and how…
45:02
Tad Eggleston: Do you mean they don't just get tossed out in study hall?
45:08
Eliot: I know, no. So…
45:11
Tad Eggleston: But,
45:12
Eliot: the, the,
45:14
Eliot: I was doing stand-up comedy, I just have always been in, like, gravitated to writing, gravitated to the arts, and, like, I wanted to, like.
45:23
Eliot: write, and I wanted to, like, perform, and, like, you know, and I found an avenue into comics, and… and I started making them, and they started getting picked up, and I was like, okay, like, let's… let's…
45:36
Eliot: Let's see what happens here, like, you know?
45:39
Tad Eggleston: Let's keep doing this.
45:40
Eliot: Like, let's just, let's keep going, and then, like, you know, and then, like…
45:44
Eliot: really putting more pressure on it as I've grown, you know? You know, just because it, like…
45:51
Eliot: one thing led to another, and I was like, oh, is this… is this a good thing? Am I doing a thing now? Like, you know?
45:58
Tad Eggleston: Right.
46:03
Tad Eggleston: Before I start to nod off, I'm gonna get into my closing questions. I apologize that I didn't give you the two to three hours that I sometimes give first guess. You're only getting, like, an hour or so out of me.
46:16
Eliot: It's late for me anyway.
46:17
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, and it's late for both of us.
46:19
Tad Eggleston: You have kids, I corrupt kids. Well, I'm sorry, teach kids.
46:31
Tad Eggleston: This is, as we discussed off-air a little bit, we're coming into our fifth year of 22 Panels, or we're wrapping up our fifth year. Our five-year anniversary is right around the bend.
46:46
Tad Eggleston: And, like, I feel like I've entered the Twilight Zone.
46:52
Tad Eggleston: like, the experiences that I have.
46:55
Tad Eggleston: the people that I talk to, or text with, Or… Hang out with, or…
47:03
Tad Eggleston: the things that I've gotten to be a fly on the wall for at cons…
47:08
Tad Eggleston: whatever, the experiences that I've gotten to have, that if you told teenage me, or even 35-year-old me.
47:17
Tad Eggleston: hey, this is gonna be your life. I would have been like.
47:20
Tad Eggleston: Who the fuck are you kidding?
47:22
Tad Eggleston: I'm good at what?
47:24
Eliot: Right.
47:25
Tad Eggleston: But I've found that, like, everybody in comics…
47:31
Tad Eggleston: And really, everybody in the arts.
47:33
Tad Eggleston: has that feeling, and has that collection of stories where, when they think about them, they kind of pinch themselves and go, wait a minute, was that really me that was part of that story? So I started collecting them.
47:45
Tad Eggleston: Give me one of your, like, surreal, pinch-me, oh my god, this is Eliot getting to the do this.
47:55
Tad Eggleston: Stories from your time.
47:56
Eliot: I mean, I mean, I think it's a combination of that, and then also, like, a combination of, like.
48:03
Eliot: what are we doing? What are we working in? Like, what is this place? Like, you know, this is cool! Like, and then also, it's a combination of, like.
48:13
Eliot: The stories that you make, like, you know, not necessarily of the things you get to do, but, like.
48:20
Eliot: of the challenges, the fun, interesting challenges, like, or bizarre interactions that you've had along the way, you know? So I think it's… the stories run a whole gamut for me, in terms of, like.
48:35
Eliot: Oh my gosh, accomplishments?
48:40
Tad Eggleston: Or just one that's fun. Tell me one that you like.
48:43
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, no. I'll be back. I'll ask for more.
48:46
Eliot: You know, in terms of, like, in terms of… getting…
48:54
Eliot: like, working with somebody, I'm trying to think of, like, a time where I was like, really like.
49:01
Eliot: blown away, but I would say,
49:04
Tad Eggleston: You do.
49:04
Eliot: I would still…
49:05
Tad Eggleston: Jorge Fornes, before.
49:06
Eliot: I would, I would say…
49:08
Tad Eggleston: I will…
49:09
Eliot: I would say I was really excited to work with Jorge when, I, at the time.
49:19
Eliot: Just cause I loved its work.
49:22
Eliot: That I saw. But I would say, actually, like.
49:26
Eliot: just recently, I had one with Jorge, which was, like, the… he did a variant cover for issue 2 for me, for Crimes Against Nature, and, you know.
49:37
Eliot: that was a moment for me, like, because I was, like, you know, Jorge and I have kept in touch over the years after we did a hot lunch special together, and, like, he's always been trying to help me out, but, like, he really came through, and that was, like.
49:52
Eliot: that, like.
49:54
Eliot: that made me feel like… and then when, like, you know, when Tyler agreed to do… like, I don't know, just recently…
50:02
Eliot: when… I think… I think the entire experience of crimes against nature has been that for me recently. And then,
50:14
Eliot: And then, like.
50:16
Eliot: when they asked me to take over for Quantum and Woody, that… that specific time frame
50:25
Eliot: felt like I was being, like.
50:28
Eliot: tapped, right? Like, it felt like I was being, like, brought up, you know what I mean? And, like, that was a very exciting, stressful feeling, you know, because I had to…
50:40
Eliot: I had to salvage that series in a very short amount of time. And, I did. But, you know,
50:50
Eliot: stressful. Yeah, and then there are, like…
50:59
Eliot: like, it's just, like, the stories of, like, you know, staying out all night and, like, trying to, like, talk to people, I don't know, like, it's so silly, you know?
51:07
Tad Eggleston: Yeah?
51:08
Tad Eggleston: But that's fun, too.
51:10
Eliot: It is.
51:16
Tad Eggleston: I'm just… I found myself falling down the Jorge Forenz rabbit hole for just a second, because I knew that he'd done a bunch of stuff since he worked… so you can say you launched his career, and you know…
51:30
Eliot: I would not say that.
51:32
Tad Eggleston: I said, you could. I think for a…
51:36
Eliot: I think Jorge had a little bit to do with that, not me.
51:42
Tad Eggleston: But… but it had to have been weird to go, hey, I worked with that guy, now he's doing Rorschach.
51:48
Eliot: Well, you know, I do market, when I put my credits down, I put Hot Lunch Special with Jorge Funez.
51:55
Tad Eggleston: I love it.
51:57
Eliot: Yeah.
52:00
Tad Eggleston: Because I actually remember, because I'm a huge Tom King fan, when Rorschach came out, my first thought was, oh, the guy from Hot Lunch Special!
52:10
Tad Eggleston: But I'm probably in a minority on that.
52:17
Tad Eggleston: Just because it didn't get enough… enough attention. I really liked that book.
52:23
Tad Eggleston: And it annoys me that it's… it's hard to find right now for reasons.
52:27
Eliot: Worthack, you said?
52:29
Tad Eggleston: No. Hot lunch special.
52:30
Eliot: I was gonna say, that was everywhere. Oh, Hot Lunch Special? Oh, because it was a small print run, and
52:35
Tad Eggleston: And also.
52:36
Eliot: And it was, like, modest, right? I also didn't… I didn't know how to,
52:42
Eliot: market. Well, I wasn't sure what to do, you know, and
52:46
Eliot: I think that's why, I mean, I don't know if any of my marketing has, at all poked through, or, like, if other people are getting the word out, but I've been beating the drum as loud as I possibly can about this book.
52:59
Tad Eggleston: Mark… Marketing comics is such a crazy…
53:03
Tad Eggleston: If I ever figure it out, I'll let you know.
53:06
Eliot: Thanks, yeah.
53:09
Tad Eggleston: Alright, last question, my favorite question to ask.
53:13
Tad Eggleston: Tell me something you love.
53:17
Tad Eggleston: Preferably a comic, but we don't have rules.
53:20
Tad Eggleston: Preferably storytelling, but again, with the rules. But something that you love.
53:27
Tad Eggleston: And not enough people around you have experienced it, and you really wish they would so you had more people to talk about it with.
53:36
Eliot: Wow, is it said the first thing that pops through my brain is Little House on the Prairie?
53:44
Tad Eggleston: The books, or the TV show, or is it.
53:46
Eliot: It's a TV show from the 70s, yeah.
53:49
Tad Eggleston: 70s… okay.
53:51
Tad Eggleston: Alright.
53:51
Eliot: 70s into the 80s.
53:53
Tad Eggleston: So, the Michael Landon, I haven't watched that since the last, last…
53:58
Eliot: The last couple seasons gets a little unhinged, but, like, you know.
54:06
Eliot: You have to, like, it's a time and replace kind of thing.
54:09
Eliot: But it's one of those things where it's like, A, like, This is, like… Carter-era optimism, right?
54:21
Eliot: So, this is, like… It's like… Hamilton-esque in its earnest.
54:27
Tad Eggleston: Well, and like, I just realized that, like, I think it was off the air by the time you were born, which makes it even cooler that it's your thing.
54:35
Eliot: I just, like, like it right now, like, you know.
54:38
Tad Eggleston: Alright.
54:38
Eliot: in, and, and then, I, I… I like it because
54:46
Eliot: you know, yes, and I'm just acknowledging that, like, there, like, there are, like.
54:52
Eliot: There is, like, there's problematic elements to it, but it is one of those shows
54:57
Eliot: that is, like, trying its fucking best for the top. For the top, right? And so…
55:03
Tad Eggleston: I mean, the 70s and 80s, like, they were just problematic.
55:07
Tad Eggleston: Right.
55:08
Eliot: But this show, it's, like, also dealing with, like, colonial, like, you know, it's like…
55:13
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, colonial type issues.
55:14
Eliot: But, like, but this shows, like, trying… it is so sincere in trying its best.
55:21
Eliot: And… but it's so funny, like, cause it's like…
55:24
Eliot: It is some of the best…
55:26
Eliot: big stakes, like, small stakes, big stakes writing I've ever seen, right? Where it's like, how do you, like.
55:34
Eliot: In, like, this little vignette, like, care so deeply about this child, like, running for, like, like.
55:43
Eliot: school class president, you know? Like, and why am I crying at the end of this, like.
55:49
Eliot: episode about that, like, like, and it's just, like, the way that…
55:54
Eliot: it does such a good job of, like, making you care about something, is… I… through something so, like, simple, is, like, I think really cool.
56:10
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
56:11
Tad Eggleston: Have you watched any of… and I haven't watched any of it, but apparently there is a…
56:16
Eliot: Yeah, more so, but it's not the.
56:17
Tad Eggleston: New one. It's not the same.
56:19
Eliot: It's not… it's… I don't… I… apparently people don't like it. I'm not gonna say it's not bad. It's… it's…
56:25
Tad Eggleston: watch it at all.
56:26
Eliot: It's good, it's good. The problem is, is that the first one is, like, so covered with honey, like, you know, and it's like… and it's… and you would have a hard time doing it now. It's just so fucking earnest, but, like…
56:43
Eliot: This one is good, it's just not, like, it doesn't have that magic, you know, like,
56:50
Eliot: And Michael Landon, like… I mean, both guys are… Handsome, but Michael Landon-like.
56:59
Eliot: Commands, like, the screen, you know?
57:04
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, I remember watching it when I was a kid.
57:08
Tad Eggleston: Landon directed 89 episodes of…
57:12
Eliot: Yeah.
57:13
Tad Eggleston: little house on the prairie. My wife and I…
57:15
Eliot: to where Little House on the Prairie takes place in southern Minnesota. Apparently, they blew up the original set. They blew up the town at the end.
57:26
Tad Eggleston: Ugh.
57:27
Eliot: Yeah.
57:27
Tad Eggleston: It's sad.
57:30
Tad Eggleston: But typical of… of… production companies. We don't want anybody else using the stuff that we spent money on.
57:38
Eliot: No, but they literally blow it up in the series.
57:41
Tad Eggleston: Oh, in the series? That, I forgot.
57:44
Eliot: Yeah, because of what you're saying.
57:47
Eliot: That's the last episode. They blow up the town.
57:51
Tad Eggleston: So they wrote it into the script!
57:54
Eliot: They wrote it into the script. They blow up the fucking town.
57:58
Tad Eggleston: Did Jesse James come into town, or…
58:01
Eliot: No, no, like, they come up… they come up with, like, some reason to do it, something about, like…
58:07
Eliot: Something about, like.
58:09
Eliot: we're not gonna let them have it, you know? And so they blow up the town, and like, you know, it's dumb. The less… it's so ridiculous.
58:19
Tad Eggleston: I mean, you are making me want to go back and watch it again, and I don't think I've watched it since I was, like.
58:26
Tad Eggleston: I mean, the final episode was in 1983 when I was 3, but I think it was… it was on syndication pretty solidly during the…
58:35
Tad Eggleston: the…
58:37
Tad Eggleston: the time that I was growing up, so I'm pretty certain that I watched a decent amount of it.
58:46
Tad Eggleston: Between, like, ages.
58:48
Tad Eggleston: 5 and 10.
58:50
Tad Eggleston: But I don't think I've watched it since then, and now you're making me want to.
58:55
Tad Eggleston: So, I might… might have to…
58:58
Tad Eggleston: I'd have to actually go watch
59:01
Tad Eggleston: some episodes of Little House on the Prairie. My mom will be happy, she loves all the books.
59:06
Tad Eggleston: It's the one that introduced me to it to begin with.
59:10
Tad Eggleston: Well…
59:11
Tad Eggleston: Eliot, it has been an absolute pleasure. We will have to have you back when we can get all spoilery about crimes against nature, because
59:22
Tad Eggleston: Because I can feel already that I'm going to want to be able to talk about it when I can be all spoilery. But I can't even be all spoilery yet, because I've only read one issue, and how many issues is it planned for?
59:34
Eliot: fix.
59:35
Tad Eggleston: 6 issues. That feels like a good length for this.
59:40
Tad Eggleston: I am very much looking forward to it. Great to finally meet you. I will definitely drop you a line when I'm gonna be in town for insert name. I will remember that
59:50
Tad Eggleston: Tell Tyler to invite you out to La Verne.
59:55
Tad Eggleston: if you don't have a local comic shop, maybe he can even invite you out to La Verne for,
1:00:00
Tad Eggleston: The, the, the launch of, of, crimes Against Nature.
1:00:07
Eliot: I already have several events planned, but…
1:00:09
Tad Eggleston: Excellent. Well, then he'll have to do week two. Yeah.
1:00:13
Eliot: Alright.
1:00:15
Eliot: Okay, well, thanks.
1:00:16
Tad Eggleston: That's good, that's good. For 22 Panels, this has been Eliot Rahal, and we will see you after the next page.