Latest / The Grounded Show / Tattoo Artist Nickolai Kilin - #86

Transcript

Tattoo Artist Nickolai Kilin - #86 · The Grounded Show

0:01
Yo, Yo, what's going on? Yo? We are back again another
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episode of the Grounded Show. I believe this is episode eighty six. Today
0:11
is no Quincy or Joe. My guys are indisposed today, So I'm holding
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it down with Nikolai. What's going on, my guy? What's happening?
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Man? Nothing much? So what nikola I got here? First thing he
0:26
did was go for the comic books. So what's up with the comic thing?
0:31
Man? When did you get into that? I love Batman since I
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was maybe like my son's age, I'd be like three and a half or
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four years old, and I think I was introduced to him through like Adam
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West, you know, the sixty six nineteen sixty six Batman, the silly,
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goofy stuff, but I don't know, it's colorful, it was fun,
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and then that pulled me into looking for more Batman was Batman comic books,
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right, And there was a lot of that in the late eighties early
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nineties. So when you found the comics through Batman, were you already like
1:11
aware of like the others, like you know, Marvel and like the other
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superheroes and stuff for you was just specifically like locked in on Batman and that's
1:19
it. In the eighties, nineties, Like in eighties, I don't even
1:22
remember the eighties, like they'm not that old. I mean I am,
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but I remember in like nineties, early mid nineties, that's when I was
1:30
really getting into it, and I didn't I didn't think of it as being
1:34
separate as Marvel this or DC that. I would wonder why Batman wasn't hanging
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out with Spider Man. That's how I thought it. I thought it like
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in a real simple, like childlike kind of way, like an innocent kind
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of way. And then in the nineties they had the crossovers. Yeah,
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like you know you have in your collection. I seen where they managed to
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work it in, so it became like a normal thing. I was like,
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yeah, it's about time that they're doing this, Like it's weird that
1:56
they waited fifty years for these characters to exist to get other. But yeah,
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it was just it just it all seemed like a whole world that opened
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up. It wasn't like just Batman. It became stuff about Spider Man,
2:09
that became about the X Man, and it became about Spawn, you know,
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all that. Just it just kept branching out and it doesn't stop new
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comics come out every Wednesday, you know, so it doesn't really end.
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So you actually put me onto one of the comics that I had in there
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that was a gift from my mom's husband, Superman Speeding Bullets, Right,
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Yeah, so it kind of explained that the little backstory to that, because
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I didn't even I didn't even really know I had that in my collection even
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and you put me on to it. Well, it's it's like I was
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telling you, it's else world story, which is like if you followed Marvel
2:44
on Disney Plus at all, you've seen the what ifs, you know about
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what if? Well, those what if episodes come from what if comic books,
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which is just like they're titled in Marvel, it's what if this happened
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in this famous story? What if this happened differently instead of this way?
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You know, it was just like a what if kind of one of story
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that is just its own thing as beginning in and end, and it doesn't
3:07
really attach to anything else. It's its own world, its own universe or
3:12
whatever. Well, DC has its own version called the else Worlds, and
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in this one, it's basically what if the Waynes Thomas and Martha Wayne Batman's
3:23
parents instead of having Bruce as their son, they discover baby kal El,
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baby Clark Kent Superman. They discover him and they take him as their son.
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What if that is the way it played out? So basically Superman is
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Batman. You have like a flying Batman that exists in Gotham City. Yeah,
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and like we'll put the cover art the in the show. But the
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cover art is crazy because it's like a fusion of Superman and Batman, you
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know what I mean, because like you're saying, it's basically Superman as Batman.
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Yeah, and that the cover art itself for that issue is it's actually
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an homage to I think it's Superman Number one where he's flying in that same
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pose. They have the same border around it and everything, so it's it's
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flashing back to that. Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. The comic book
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world is dope because, like you said, there's so many like different universes
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and different stories and different threads that different people follow in that same world,
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and it's like some of them don't have anything to do with the other ones,
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but it's like the same character just a different like kind of like Timeline.
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Yeah, it's just like another, any creator that's interested in the character,
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maybe has an idea for a single story with this character that's already established
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and people already know. People already know Peter Parker gets bitten by Spider terms
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into Spider Man. But then some creator comes along and decides, you know
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what if I don't even know about this, and what if Peter Parker got
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bitten by two spiders? You know what copyright pat and pending on that.
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What if it was too spiders? How about that time we were talking earlier,
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also about that Fox Kids Spider Man show that ended after I believe two
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seasons, maybe three, but something like that. I think they made it
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to end like on a cliffhanger. It was like going into the multiverse.
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Peter had lost Mary Jane like early in the season and didn't know where she
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was at Green Goblin put her into a portal to another dimension, right,
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and then like somebody towards the end. I don't know if it was Craving
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or something. I forgot who it was, but basically told Spider Man like,
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hey, Mary Jane is good, She's just in another dimension. Doctor
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Strange, Doctor Strange. Yeah. I think it was. By this time
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they were crossing over with the X Men, and then they were pulling in
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like Captain America, doctor Strange stuff like that. Yeah, he like took
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took uh Peter Parker away, Spider Man away, like yo, let's go
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and we'll go get her. And then they just never dropped another episode,
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no closure, none. That was a heartbreaker. Man. It was like
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at that time where you couldn't even figure out why nothing's happening, Like we
6:03
didn't have access to know that they canceled the series or whatever, you know,
6:08
whatever the case is. It just was out of the lineup and you're
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like, Okay, all the shows came back except for Spider Man. What's
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going on? Yeah? No, you you got your heart ripped out,
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thrown in the trash and no feedback and you just had to move on.
6:20
You just had to accept it the worst Maneah. But now with that X
6:24
Men ninety seven, you were saying that it's kind of like a like a
6:27
feeler and hopefully that means that they bring that back and finish the story.
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Man. They have to. It's all about money, right unfortunately, but
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like it's gonna make the money if they do it, and they don't even
6:38
need to figure out what will they do. The story's right there, and
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the multiverse stuff is like hot right now, super hot, so it'll just
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like be perfectly in line with everything that's going on. I agree one hundred
6:49
percent. It's crazy because like, even as an artist you probably know this
6:55
as well, that when it comes to art and things like that, like
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your ress mez is like what you've done. So them having so many issues
7:04
and all these stories and all these things, it's like, whenever it's having
7:08
to make money a different way, they already have the archives to basically just
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redo it in the new way. You know what I'm saying something about them
7:16
not trusting the source material, and that's all they need to do, and
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whenever they do that, they're successful for both companies. Marvel, Yeah,
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who would have thought? We we enjoyed the comics, so now let's just
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see them in large form, you know what I mean? Who would have
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thought? I mean, I did all my childhood for real, like collecting
7:36
Wizard Magazine. Do you know about Wizard Magazine? Oh my god? What
7:40
was that? Wizard Magazine was the Wizard Magazine was the internet of comic books
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before there was an internet. It was a magazine that came out once a
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month. You're always you know, behind on the info right, kind of
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like the East Bay magazine where it was show yes, yes, same thing,
8:00
same thing, but as every month about comic books. In the back.
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The last maybe third of this thick little magazine, the last third of
8:07
it was a price guy to let you know, up to that month,
8:11
how much your comics are worth. Wow. Yeah, this was before it
8:15
was pre eBay. This was you know, oh, a Wizard magazine.
8:20
Bring that back. Even if it's an app or something, Come on,
8:22
a Wizard. You remember the old It's like an early nineties movie. I
8:28
believe the Phantom. Not only do I remember the Phantom, I remember when
8:33
it came out seven eleven. You could get a slurpy and get like this
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little It was probably lead. It was probably a lead ring. Do you
8:39
remember this? Did you get one? Bruh? I watched Phantom like as
8:43
soon as it came out. That shit hurt my fingers so bad. It
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was so tight. That was a Billy Zane right, yes, sir,
8:50
it was. Yeah, and the Phantom, bro. And the crazy thing
8:54
was I thought that movie was so fire when I was a kid. It's
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not definitely, but as a kid. It's just like the Street Fighter movie.
9:03
Man, Like when they dropped that Street Fighter movie in like ninety four
9:05
or whatever. It was like the intersection of me being John Cloud Van Dam's
9:11
biggest fan and being the biggest fan of Street Fighter and the fact that he
9:16
was battle bro. It just blew my mind that that was even possible one
9:20
because it was like, to me, it was like, there's no way
9:22
these two worlds are going to intersect, you know what I mean? And
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then it happened. Then it happened, and then in my mind the movie
9:28
was tremendous, sure, you know what I mean. And then it's like
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one of those things when you watch it back, you're like, wow,
9:35
this was a tremendous piece of hot garbage. There's plenty of movies like that,
9:39
but they still have like a you know, a nice warm spot in
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your heart just because you remember how it made you feel when you were little,
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right bro. Another we talked about a ruthless line from X Men earlier
9:52
that Magneto told Pyro, oh yeah. Another ruthless line was the Street Fighter.
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Oh remind me when freaking Bison roul Julia, Yes, so chun Lee
10:03
because she's like telling him the story of like how like he went through her
10:07
village and killed her family and all this stuff, and she's like her whole
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life waited for this revenge. And he looks at her and says, for
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you, I don't know the exact words, but he basically said, for
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you, the Dave Bison grace your village was the most important event of your
10:22
life. For me, it was Tuesday. Oh my gosh, bro,
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that was that was a piece of acting. It's just a line that was
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just a classic line that was just wasted in a movie that if that,
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if that wasn't any other movie, bro, that would be like performance.
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Yeah, this reminds me of what movie can I look back at? Like
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that's like that. I'm old enough to have seen the Super Mario Brothers movie
10:54
Hmmm, starring John Likesmo as oug buddy from who framed Roger Rabbits. Yes,
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me too, I'm sorry to him. He's awesome. But yeah,
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I saw that in theaters with my parents took me to the Dollar Theater,
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so I didn't even realize it had been out for like two and a half
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months. I was little. I'm gonna see Mario. Yeah, I ken't
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waiting for Mario to show up the whole movie that was until the end.
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One that was like a crazy one to adapt that way like that way,
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Like, what the hell, what a missed opportunity. This ship that my
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kid gets to see today as a Mario movie. Facts, this is what
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I always wanted dreams. Yeah, yeah, Double Dragon all the movies.
11:41
I swear it had to be the same. I think it was new last
11:45
cinema. I think they did all of those movies. Yeah, they had
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the same cameraman and everything. They probably shot them movies back to back,
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like in a weekend, because they all have the same look, the same
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act, the same everything. Bro. Yeah, and another one that was
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a tremendous dud was Mortal Kombat. Bro. The first one was not a
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tremendous dud. It was a dud, but the sacond one was in the
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sense like it was so dope, but its respecting the source material. I
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guess again again, what is it like? Why do you not trust?
12:20
Why people like it in the first place. I think people when they try
12:26
to create another version or take the source and move it into a different medium,
12:33
they think it has to be different because it is different. You're ingesting
12:37
it you're taking it in in a different way. So in that way,
12:41
it's already different. You can try to copy it the source material exactly,
12:45
but it's not going to be the same even if you try. So how
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do you feel about the Walking Dead dynamic of I don't know if you watch
12:52
the show, but just the idea that the way that they did the show
12:54
was they stayed pretty true to the comics. They just changed stuff here and
12:58
there, like to keep the comic book fans on their toes. I don't
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know if you know, but Darryl never existed in the comics. I didn't
13:05
know that specifically. He's huge, He's a fan favorite. That's crazy.
13:09
Yeah, that's I remember in April Fools one day, the creator of the
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Walking Dead comics like coming this fall, like Darryl's going to show up in
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the comic, and it was just an April Fools joke. He never shows
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up. Wow, that's wild. I didn't know that, but yeah,
13:24
that that So what do you think about that idea, like of doing it
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that way where you kind of stay true, where you just change a couple
13:33
of things to keep them on their toes. I got into the Walking Dead
13:37
comic shortly before the live action series came out, because there was such hype
13:45
about, Oh, this is coming out, It's going to be big,
13:46
just you wait, better read the comic before it comes out. I was
13:50
like, okay, so I didn't have the resources to I couldn't afford the
13:56
comics. I bootleg pirate of them online at the time, and I got
13:58
pretty far into the what would be the series? Yeah, and it follows
14:05
pretty closely to a point, and then it branches off and becomes its own
14:09
thing. And that was cool too. Yeah. Yeah, I think it
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can be done right, like with respect to the source material. It doesn't
14:18
have to copy it if you can do do it right. Yeah, but
14:24
if you ideally just just copy it like people loved sin City, right,
14:31
yeah, three hundred Both of these are Frank Miller books comics and who was
14:39
it? Zach Snyder made these right? And what did he choose to do?
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He used the the panels from the comic as basically the guides for the
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scenes. Yeah, yeah, man, and it worked great. Yeah for
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real, there's definitely like an appreciation for when you pay attention to that and
14:58
really try to like capture the essence of the characters and stuff as opposed to
15:03
like, for example, this freaking uh dragon Ball Z live action movies that
15:07
they've done where they're just like, bro, bro, are you talking about
15:11
dragon Ball evolution? Like, bro, what is that? What are you
15:13
even doing? How drunk are you? When this guy died last week,
15:18
a Kiratriyama, he died rest in peace, the guy who played Goku like
15:26
put out like a Twitter message like you know, we're real sorry for making
15:28
that shit movie, Like even he had apologizing a rest in peace to a
15:33
legend or whatever, like sorry we didn't do better type of thing. Yeah,
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that's always good. It doesn't even make any sense, man, you
15:39
can understand it. No, I can't. I can't begin to understand that
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one. Though they made some wild choices, a lot of them. Marvel's
15:48
doing is making some wild choices with this, like this Morbius movie that was
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utter trash, Madam Webb, Like who asked for that Craven venom with no
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Spider Man yet? Two vandom movies even zero Spider Man, so random,
16:03
Like why why are y'all pulling Craven up? Of all the we even asked
16:07
for Craven? Not a single person nobody ever said what's up? With Craven.
16:11
Nobody asked if anything, we're saying, what's up with Silver Surfer?
16:15
Baby? I guess they gave us a taste with the worst possible movie.
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But the way that the way he was good was so fire, bro,
16:26
so far was amazing. Fantastic four, Rise of the Silver Surfer. Oh
16:30
my god, he's even in the title, Yo. Just his presence in
16:34
it and the way they did the scenes with him were like amazing. But
16:37
that's bro, Why why would you do that? They had a perfect silver
16:41
ball and they dropped it? Why do you think there's certain like entities that
16:48
One they don't work no matter how much they try to reboot them. But
16:51
you mean, like Fantastic four, and why why are they so insistent?
16:55
Now? Man? I think they nail at this time. I think they
16:57
got it this time. First of all, you got Mando on there,
17:00
you got Pedro Pascal is mister, yeah, yeah, I know the cast
17:07
they dropped the people who's gonna play them. And two, it's taking place
17:11
in the sixties. Okay, it's like a period piece, right, so
17:18
they get to explore that time and they're gonna show us, most likely what
17:22
happened to them in the sixties where they got erased from Marvel's current time.
17:29
So we're gonna know what happened. Maybe they're going to come back and they're
17:33
going to pull in the mutants. Man, there's just so many like even
17:36
with like Spider Man, Bro, Like, there's so many angles they can
17:40
go in Spider Man, and they just keep retreading the same thing. I
17:42
mean, this new thing that we got is this multiverse thing, and that's
17:45
kind of getting I mean, there's so much, Like you said, there's
17:48
so much you can do. I mean, but even that, they still
17:52
hadn't even really explored the regular universe, you know, I mean it was
17:55
just always I mean, I know how much of a present screen Goblin is
18:00
too Spider Man, but it's like Dog, there's a lot of other sagas
18:06
that you even like the Senator six thing, they never they were never able
18:08
to put it together, even like when they were like introducing it, it
18:12
was like they scratched that movie right when they were like, all right,
18:15
this is finally coming. Yeah that was weird. So what you're saying is
18:21
we need to crave in the Hunter movie is what I'm hearing. Bro.
18:25
Even like Morbius was dope, I don't know I like the character. I
18:29
mean, not the movie enough. I guess the character, like vampire is
18:33
a vampire. How many vampires? You got a plenty of vampire. I
18:40
think I'm like a vampire. I'm racist toward vampires. You vampied out.
18:45
I never liked vampires. Yeah, I've never been, you know, the
18:48
only vampire thing. I kind of like Blade. Yeah, Blade, that's
18:53
he killed vampire. Yeah. But you ever seen this show called Being Human?
18:57
I know, it was like a UK show and then they made a
19:00
version. Yeah, it was basically I think I watched your first episode.
19:03
There was three roommates. It was a vampire, ghost, werewolf, and
19:07
a ghost. Yeah. And it was kind of like an actiony type show
19:11
like sci fi, you know what I mean. It wasn't necessarily like a
19:15
you know, like a Vampire Diaries or something, you know, it was
19:18
just more like it was more like a I don't even know how to describe
19:22
it. It was more like a lower type show as opposed to like a
19:26
trendy type show, if that makes sense. Okay, it was dope.
19:30
It was kind of like along the vein of you ever seen misfits or heard
19:33
of misfits? A UK show. Yeah, yeah, it is like that.
19:37
Yeah, I get that same vibe from the both those. I've seen
19:41
a little bit more Misfits than on the other show. Misfits was dope,
19:45
man, I ended up watching I had a cool intro whole thing. They
19:48
had a cool intro it had. It had a random little premise of like
19:52
there was like a whole bunch of kids on like what was it Like they
19:56
were doing like community service, like just based off getting arrested, and then
20:00
there was like a lightning boat that hit the city that random people just got
20:03
powers and like all the kids that's what happened. Yeah, Yeah, it
20:07
was like some kind of like lightning boat or shock thing happened and like random
20:12
people throughout the city got powers out and they all got powers. And then
20:17
they kind of figured out like, oh not everybody got powers, but there's
20:19
people out here that got it. So like the series kind of follows that.
20:23
Like this kind of reminds me of like Static Shock. You remember Static
20:26
Static Shock? Man? Static Shock was fired? Man, when are we
20:29
going to get a revival of that? When are we going to get a
20:32
live action of Static Shock? Yeah? That that right there is you know
20:34
that'll hit static Shock. Yeah, that would have hit ten years ago that
20:38
I hit. Now, A live action Samurai Jack would be crazy too.
20:45
Anything that guy touches is gold. Samurai Jack Dexter's Lab. You check out
20:52
Primal. Do you know about Primal? What is that? It's a you
20:56
know how Samurai Jack is like feudal Japan, Samurai Time. You're following the
21:00
samurai's journey to it's trying to get back back back to the past. Samurai
21:06
Jack. You know, it's in the song Primo. It's about a caveman
21:11
and his adventures with a t rex that he like befriends, and it's not
21:17
much talking. It's like a visual story telling the same guy, the Gendhi
21:22
Tartakovski whatever that did? You know, Like I said, Samurai Jack Indexter's
21:27
lap. So it's got like that that kind of style where it's just very
21:32
much his style and I don't know it's it's it's really simple, it has
21:37
heart. It's just a beautiful show. Highly recommend Primal. I don't know
21:42
why this made me think of this, but a show that was dubbed,
21:48
I mean that was subbed that I actually like. It was funny, bro
21:52
Like, I never really like laughed so much at a sub show was a
21:57
one punch Man? You ever seen one punch Man? The first season and
22:02
that's it, bro. I don't know, I never I think the second
22:06
season was pretty good. I don't know if they made a third, I
22:10
don't remember. I fell off. I just didn't get how the story could
22:14
keep going and it's not just like a twelve episode or twenty six episode thing
22:18
and just have an end. Yeah, are they gonna make it like a
22:21
forever thing? I don't know, to be honest, because I fell off
22:22
after the second season. Anyway, I don't even know if they kept going
22:26
or what. There's too many stories that have endings to get into these ones
22:30
that don't see. But I liked the little dance and the way, like
22:37
it's like they set up the premise of the show so you already know,
22:40
like this guy ain't losing, but somehow they wrote it in a way that
22:45
it was interesting. I think the comedy part of it was what really hooked
22:48
me, you know what I mean, Like I really yeah, the dialogue
22:51
was real witty. The way they drew it with the dialogue, I like,
22:53
you know what I mean. So it was like one of them shows
22:56
that it kept you interested even though you, like you said it, kind
22:59
of already knew what the ending was. You know that this guy is not
23:03
losing. It's just about making I guess, that godlike character relatable, just
23:11
like trying to make Superman. Superman can do anything, you know, And
23:18
that's the challenge I guess for writing for him, I would think is like
23:22
trying to figure out how to give him a problem. All right, so
23:23
check this out. That's why I don't like Superman. First of all,
23:27
you can't not like I don't like him at all, Man, so at
23:30
all at all. Man, I'll put you onto some good Superman stories.
23:36
I'll try a few, So check this out. What's your opinion on Doctor
23:40
Manhattan as a character. He's omnipotent, He's he's a really cool idea.
23:47
He can he can do anything, and they showed his abilities in a really
23:52
cool way. Yeah. Yeah, he might be my favorite comic book character
23:57
of all. You just like him because he's the most powerful. I just
24:00
like it probably is. I just like like again, like, I like
24:03
the way they wrote his dialogue. I like the way he thinks as a
24:07
character, you know what I mean? His that whole like it's just it's
24:11
just it's such a cool vibe to me, you know what I mean,
24:14
Like even just like I can imagine that scene to him, like do you
24:17
want to like him even more? What's up? Okay, so you didn't.
24:19
You didn't know how like the Watchman kind of worked their way into like
24:23
the main DC comics continuity. Okay, Well I didn't keep up with it
24:30
that well, but I remember there being rumor that the entire DC universe as
24:37
we know it, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, everything, all of
24:41
it was actually Doctor Manhattan's creation when he left Earth and decided to create his
24:47
own life. Yeah, was he created the DC universe? Oh damn,
24:52
Yeah, that's great. That was like a rumor or they actually I don't
24:56
know if it ended up going that way, because they made it into like
24:57
a twelve issues ser and then like things got off the rails and I couldn't
25:03
afford comic books for a few months, so maybe they did do that.
25:04
I don't know, so I know that was a thought. What did you
25:08
feel about the movie and the series? The series was really good. Yeah,
25:15
I'm saying I like both of them as well. You know, the
25:18
creator, Alan Moore, he hated any show, right, he hates anything
25:22
that's not the comic. He doesn't think comic should be adapted into movies.
25:25
Yeah, I know, I know that. I will read an article about
25:27
him talking about the show and kind of getting into things he didn't like about
25:30
it. He hate the movie, hates the show. He's awesome. He's
25:36
kind of a hater. But it's like, bro, imagine you. I
25:38
mean, it has to be like, damn, you created it, so
25:41
it's you know what it is in your head? You know what I mean,
25:45
And they're never going to be able to do. It exists in book
25:47
form, like you can buy a copy anywhere. It's like on its one
25:51
million printing. Like if people like that enough, then like let them like
25:55
another version of it too, why not? Don't get mad at it?
25:57
Yeah, and that that masterfully done. That you read the comic. I
26:04
read it one time. I want it. That's all it takes. That's
26:07
all it takes. I wanted it again. To be honest with me too,
26:10
I read it all the way through from beginning and one time, and
26:12
that's it. It's not with me though, for it's been decades. Yeah,
26:18
Bro, A lot of people like to downplay comics. But the the
26:22
the dialogue and the and the introspectiveness and like the way they write, Like
26:29
emotion in those comics is like super dope, you know what I mean.
26:33
Like they always it's always it's just like anything else bro Like there's a deeper
26:37
meaning behind it. Everything is not what it is on the surface, you
26:40
know what I mean, Especially with comics when you when you really like tap
26:44
into these characters and these stories and stuff, it's like that's that's why these
26:48
entities have been able to turn into these billion dollar things because the stories are
26:52
compelling, you know what I mean. That's why I can go to the
26:56
movie theater with my wife. She don't got to know nothing about the comic.
27:00
She watches that maybe ask me a question here or there, like oh
27:03
wise, and then I'll tell her, oh, he's this because so she
27:06
can get it, because she likes it enough to want to know a little
27:07
bit more. That's a little bit more to know about It's ENDROI it just
27:11
a little bit more. And they're just dope stories. They're coop on the
27:14
stories, you know what I mean. I always kind of like equate,
27:17
well not the same, but comics, you know, wrestling it's like it's
27:21
a different kind of art form and some people just don't they can't get their
27:26
minds, you know, they can't wrap their minds around a different kind of
27:29
art form than what they're used to, or even just the idea of Like
27:33
it's like, bro, everything is fake. You know what I'm saying.
27:36
You read the comic. The story in the comic is the same fake thing
27:37
that you're watching on TV. Like it's people. We talked about it recently
27:41
on the podcast, like people like to compartmentalize they're fake versus other people's fake
27:48
and don't realize everything's fake. You're you're talking about all fake ideas. So
27:52
you can't be holier than now about you're fake. You know what I mean,
27:56
You're fake is the same as my fake. You know, just let's
28:00
keep it a buck and keep it moving, you know what I'm saying.
28:04
It's funny you said earlier than now, because I think that you can gain
28:12
a lot of information from Bible stories, right, Yeah, for sure,
28:18
the same way you kind of can from a Spider Man comic book. Spider
28:25
Man is a good guy. He's trying to do at the end of the
28:27
day, he's trying to be a good Christian, you know, if you
28:30
want to put it that way, Like I mean, he's he's just trying
28:33
to do the right thing for everybody. Yeah, that means sacrificing himself.
28:38
I know you're a sin Feld fan. You like time. I know you
28:41
like comedy. You watch comedians and cars. I think I've seen all of
28:45
it. Yeah, So do you, by any chance to remember the Pat
28:48
and Oswald episode? Remind me of it? I see? I know he
28:52
picked him up in a Dolorean and they talk a little bit about Superman and
28:56
that Jerry asked him what's his favorite comic book character? And he's that was
29:00
on Spider Man, and his description of it was dope. And I liked
29:03
it why he said it on spider Man because he was like he really liked
29:07
the inner struggle of Spider Man, of like do I want to start a
29:11
family, Do I want to have my life? Do I need to save
29:14
the city? Like all that stuff that did not exist in comic characters before
29:18
Spider Man. He was the first like human superhero. Yep. Yeah,
29:22
Spider Man was a definitely ahead of its time, and it's probably why it's
29:29
been the entity that's really stuck with everybody more than I would say them,
29:33
more than any other character in the comics. You know what I mean?
29:36
That suit design is it's perfect, the blue and the red with the webs
29:41
what it can't be touched When it was a Ditko Steve Didko came up with
29:48
that one ye rest in peace to him as well. He really tapped into
29:52
something. So I'm gonna ask you a question about Spider Man. Right,
29:56
all right, here we go. Are you a fan slash? What's your
30:00
opinion of the scrawny Spider Mans? Well, you mean scrawney Spider Mans.
30:04
Bro Peter Parker was a buff guy man Peter, you mean the movie ones?
30:10
Like, yeah, man, why why the scrawny guy? Peter starts
30:15
out scrownny he gets bit and then he doesn't really lose his scrawniness. He's
30:21
kind of like a lank. He's he's a teenager when he gets bit.
30:23
He's fifteen, right, so he doesn't really grow into who we think of
30:27
a Spider Man until he's probably in college, and that's like like five years
30:33
into his his journey. So so yeah, they do usually always start at
30:40
the very beginning when they when they reset, which they didn't so much with
30:45
the new one with Tom Holland, like Uncle Ben's dead, we don't even
30:48
mention Ben, like great power and responsibility to even come from Uncle Ben.
30:52
This time it came from May and she had to die too, which that
30:56
was like, that was nuts. But yeah, at least they didn't do
31:02
it directly from the start with the Spider biting him with this most recent incarnation.
31:07
But yeah, man, they need to get into that older Spider Man,
31:10
like you was saying, Man like that, that's when that's when we
31:12
really get We kind of got him a little bit of the Spider know with
31:15
the Spider Verse, the one that that trains Miles. Oh yeah, yeah,
31:19
that's true. We only get clips of him, but he's finally fixing
31:22
stuff. One touched on it a little too, where he was kind of
31:26
like dancing with the idea of not being Spider Man no more. Yeah,
31:30
Spider Man no more? Yeah so good, so good? Yeah bro,
31:34
those classics man, you I mean, I know, I know you've done
31:38
a Spider Man before for sure, but like as far as like tattoos go,
31:42
well, yeah, something that you've done that you're like that stand out
31:47
to you that you've done, Like comic book tattoos. Spider Man's for sure.
31:52
I was just looking at the other day. It was like the anniversary
31:53
of a spider Man tattoo that I did that was for like the first promotional
31:59
pick sure of the Tom Holland Spider Man and he's, uh, he's hanging
32:05
upside down from a webline and he's he's like saluting or something like that.
32:08
So I did one of those a few years ago that if the guy that
32:15
has that tattoo can reach out to me, so I could rework it because
32:17
I could probably do it better now. Uh. And other spider Man's.
32:25
Uh. I see, there's a I did a Batman who Laughs? If
32:30
you know what that character is, No, I don't know. Can I
32:34
get into that. Let's go on, right. So Batman who Laughs is
32:37
another multi verse of the universe version of Batman where it's like a what if
32:43
that came through to like the main continuity and became like a major villain.
32:47
He is a Batman that managed to kill Joker, and in the Joker's last
32:54
breath, he has like this capsule or something in his mouth that releases a
32:58
Joker tos and turning Batman into a Joker, like infecting his brain basically,
33:05
so he doesn't even die. He gets to live on inside of Bruce Wayne.
33:07
So slowly but surely, this Bruce Wayne turns more joker ish and his
33:13
the way of thinking about, you know, handling crime and stuff like that,
33:15
even stuff with his family. Yeah, YadA YadA. This Batman uh
33:22
is evil now and he ends up? Does he kill like the whole Batman
33:25
family? I think if I remember Kreuk, this is a few years back,
33:29
he just yeah, he just just murks everybody. And then uh,
33:32
fast forward, it becomes like this omnipotent being and you haven't seen the Batman
33:37
who laughs? He has like this visor of spikes instead of like, oh,
33:43
okay, yep you're talking about I didn't know the name behind it,
33:45
so yeah, and with the joker mouth and smile. Yeah, it got
33:51
pretty wild there for a minute. But I got to do a tattoo him
33:55
that I designed that, which was pretty cool. Even got made into like
33:58
a sticker. So what would you say it is like? Because obviously when
34:01
I look at your work, I can see the comic book inspiration. You
34:05
do a lot of comic book characters, but you also have like your own
34:08
style of drawing it where like when I see your stuff, I know that
34:14
it was you know what I mean, Like I know it's somebody that drew
34:16
it as opposed to like you're just drawing like a replica of something. Like
34:21
whenever I draw comic book stuff, I just make it look like how it
34:22
looks, you know what I mean. Like you have a dope way of
34:27
like kind of turning it into your own and drawing it with a certain style
34:30
that has like its own look. But you know, you know the characters,
34:34
you're staying true to like the strength of the character, you know what
34:37
I mean, Or you're doing it your own way. Yeah. I think
34:39
that just comes from having been exposed to these characters for so long, Like
34:45
I can I can whip out a Batman or a Spider Man, those two
34:49
especially, whip out a Batman or Spider Man at least like a head sketch
34:52
or like something from them, just from memory and not for nothing. I
34:57
got a real shit memory when it comes to most everything. Yeah. But
35:01
uh, like if I have to like think of like drawing a horse,
35:05
I gotta google it. I gotta google it search starter. It's gonna have
35:08
six legs or something like that. But Batman and Spider Man. That's just
35:12
that's easy. So I try to kind of like maybe push and pull on
35:16
different like limitations to these characters that I've seen like much better artists do in
35:22
the comic field or even just like fan art online or even ai art now,
35:29
which has gotten crazy with it, Yeah, with like the different props
35:31
and stuff like yeah, yeah, just to get in a play around with
35:36
like perspective and stuff on these characters that are so well known and beloved,
35:39
like like just trying to figure out, like how far can I push a
35:42
design with one of these characters where it's even still recognizable as Spider Man.
35:45
And I think that's really cool just to see something new, something different than
35:50
what you're used to is seeing is like, oh, that's definitely Spider Man,
35:52
you know, which is cool too because it's cool that he's so recognizable.
35:58
Yeah, I said that suit is all awesome. That's dope, man,
36:01
And it's got to be just dope to think about the fact that you've
36:06
been able to to do that and have those drawings on people in the form
36:12
of tattoo, and like they're actually paying you to do it. Like it's
36:15
it's like such a dope thing too as an artist, you know what I
36:17
mean? Blessing for sure. There's so many times where I feel so happy
36:23
with the piece at the end. I'll be honest, I'm never one hundred
36:28
percent happy. I always feel there's something I could have done better. But
36:30
that's what I feel like, maybe pushes me to do better. Yeah,
36:35
But anyway, my happiest with the tattoo and the happiest reaction from the client.
36:42
Bro. If I didn't have bills, I would just let them go
36:44
and enjoy, like fucking you like it. You let me do that on
36:46
your body forever you trusted me. Fuck yeah, that's everything to me,
36:51
you know. But you know the way these bills are set up. I
36:54
mean, I gotta pay them unfortunately for real. So as we wind out,
37:00
hit you with like a kind of loaded question that I know it's gonna,
37:02
you know, be a few answers to it, but we'll get into
37:06
that. So you went from working an office job to like to a point
37:15
in your life where like most people kind of just settle into that, you
37:17
know what I mean. But now fast forward, you're nine years into being
37:22
a tattoo artist. You know what I'm saying, Like a working tattoo artist,
37:27
professional professional, paying your bills, like you said, being able to
37:30
do these dope things, different conventions, you know, different things that you've
37:35
done as far as the art goes, and just you know the style and
37:39
and and the things you've learned along the way. Looking back at kind of
37:45
like that crossroads where you were unhappy with your current situation and you made that
37:51
change. Looking back on it now, what would you say was like some
37:58
like just kind of elaborate on the feeling of reflect of just the idea that
38:04
wow, like I really made that choice at that time, and I'm in
38:07
such a better position like take us through like finally getting to that point and
38:13
just kind of where your mind goes when you think about like the progress you've
38:16
made just by saying, hey, I'm gonna pursue this thing. I'm gonna
38:21
give it what I got and we're gonna make it happen. There's a Spider
38:25
Man story arc that comes to mind when you make me think about this time,
38:30
and do you know about this villain called Morland. He kind of looks
38:35
like a vampire, but his whole thing is he travels to different multiverses,
38:39
killing different spider power people and then absorbing their like life force and getting stronger
38:45
strong, like the one with Jet Lee kind of like that. So in
38:50
this one comic, Spider Man had to basically to beat him. He had
38:53
to die, he had to kill him, and then he had to be
38:55
reborn. He had to evolve, and then the tagline to it was it
39:00
was just said, Spider Man, evolve or die, and that's what happened.
39:06
I had to evolve or die. I feel that. No, like
39:09
really really I wanted. I didn't want to. Waking up in the morning
39:16
was really hard. Yeah, just how to get dreadful when you get into
39:22
that, uh, that cycle of life where it's just like, uh,
39:25
a life sucking cycle, you know what I mean? Like I was starting
39:30
really easy. Yeah. I was talking to somebody recently about like their struggle
39:35
with office work, and it's like, yeah, bro, you're gonna struggle
39:37
with it because it's unnatural, you know what I mean. Like we're not
39:39
natural about We're not supposed to be in an office doing busy work, you
39:44
know what I'm saying, Like, that's not what we're here for. It's
39:47
like the most civil prison that you put yourself in. But like I was
39:53
saying it got so bad that waking up was a chore. Waking up was
39:59
like you know, here in the alarm and then seeing yourself in the mirror.
40:04
It's like every day was something to get through, Like fuck, I
40:06
woke up again, Like I can't believe I didn't die in my sleep peacefully,
40:10
like never wanting to off myself or anything like that, just not wanting
40:16
to exist anymore. If that makes sense, It makes perfect sense. And
40:24
for a minute you don't know what it is. You're like, everything's good.
40:27
I got this office jobs, paying the bills. I got enough money
40:30
at the end of the week to maybe see a movie. You know,
40:36
I don't know. After a while, that's not enough. And it sounds
40:39
kind of selfish, but like you just you want more than that. You
40:45
want to just be happy. I don't think it selfish? Is too being
40:47
happy is too selfish? Right, yeah, I mean the way some people
40:52
tell that it is, you know what I mean, especially with I mean
40:55
even just thinking about a job where you know, lord for you want to
41:00
take a day off, lord for ability, you want to use the vacation
41:04
time that you earned, right, you know what I mean? Like it's
41:07
just a crazy I always say that, like people that work jobs like that
41:10
they forget their people sometimes and they treat other people like through the lens of
41:15
the job as opposed to being like, bro, this is like I'm talking
41:19
to a person right now, you know what I mean. And it's like,
41:22
like I said, it's like a life sucking thing where you just kind
41:24
of turn into like one of the droids and it's like you that's That's another
41:30
thing, Like we always talk about hobbies like on this podcast, like just
41:34
people you know, pursuing the things that make them happy and things that they
41:37
could do on the side, like because like I said, bro, and
41:39
like we're talking about now, we're not made to just be working the office
41:44
job and then coming home and then going to sleep to them and go back
41:45
to work again. Unnatural with the fucking those those lights, you know,
41:52
that office those lights I always shut on anybody. Yeah, man, it's
42:00
it's I always think about you when I think about people that kind of fit
42:06
the the vibe of the show, fit the vibe of like the type of
42:08
stuff that I like as just from the point of view of you know,
42:13
you made that change, you made it happy, you made it happen,
42:15
You're living in that you're you know, you're living as an artist, which
42:21
is like something super dope. I always always have this thing where like if
42:27
somebody is surviving off being an artist, like to a certain point, I
42:32
can't tell them anything because they're doing that's the dream, you know what I
42:36
mean, When you're an artist, that's the dream. You want to be
42:38
able to live off being an artist, which is so hard to do where
42:44
you've managed to do it, you know what I mean, And it's just
42:45
dope that you you made it happen, you know what I'm saying, Like
42:51
it wasn't something that just was on a platter or you know, something that
42:55
you could just like slide into. You know, there's those hard parts and
43:00
that's always the part that people don't like it. There's those muddy waters in
43:02
the middle, you know what I mean, Like the muddy waters is there.
43:06
You got to pay it. In those waters you can't see your feet.
43:07
Yeah, it's scary. Something we said recently on the podcast is like
43:13
just that, like nobody, nobody want to get in those muddy waters.
43:15
But that's like you got to pay the price. Like that price is always
43:19
going to be paid if it's money, if it's something you go through,
43:22
if it's a challenge or lesson whatever it is, like that price, you're
43:25
gonna have to pay it. And the dope thing is you're able to come
43:30
out of it better on the other side, with the knowledge to move forward
43:34
and keep pushing, and everything becomes easier because you already dealt with all those
43:38
things that let you know, all right, this is how I need to
43:42
organize things to be my best self. This is how I need to make
43:45
things happen, for me to be at peace, for me to be happy,
43:46
and for me to be functioning at the highest level. You know what
43:50
I mean. That's like a super dope thing that a lot of people don't
43:52
get the opportunity to have, you know what I mean, Like just that
43:55
clarity of like this is how I got to move you know, yeah,
44:00
yeah, yeah, that makes perfect sense. So much of what you said
44:02
I already knew, but to hear somebody outside of my own brain saying it,
44:08
it's like, oh shit, I am a professional artist for nine years.
44:14
Like that means something. I guess I am doing something right. Sometimes
44:17
we get too deep into weeds, you know what I'm saying, Like that
44:21
that forest between the trees thing that people be saying, like you don't really
44:24
see what's going on, and even like you know, like I come from
44:29
like inner city vibes, you know what I'm saying, Like low income type
44:34
stuff. So like a lot of the people around me, you know,
44:38
was into some shit, you know what I'm saying, And like when you
44:42
come out of that situation, a lot of people don't really like come out
44:45
of it as well. Like it's like it's a cyclical thing, you know
44:47
what I mean, right, and you know you kind of see like those
44:52
things that that kind of suck people drives and bring them down and kind of
45:00
it's like, bro, like you don't know that you can change this,
45:04
you know what I mean. Like it's like it gets to a point where
45:06
you're like you can't you can't keep worrying about because at the end of the
45:09
day, it's you're you know, you're the one living your life. When
45:13
you go to sleep, Like when you go to sleep at night, you're
45:15
in your mind. You're not in somebody else's mind. Somebody else ain't in
45:17
your mind. You're in your mind. You're the one that has to think
45:21
about your thoughts. You're the one that has to live with your day to
45:23
day. So that's who you need to be thinking about. Being focused on
45:29
that guy, is what's going to put you in the best position to make
45:32
everything else happen. Like I always like to lead with that, because Bro,
45:37
if you're not your best self, you can't be the best self for
45:39
people around you, you know what I'm saying. Like for me to for
45:43
me to operate at my best and for my wife to operate at her best,
45:45
we both got to be happy in doing what we want to do as
45:49
far as like what feeds us, you know what I mean? Like everything
45:54
everything has to start with how can we you know, how can we at
46:00
peace? How can we be happy? Like that's why. Like it's funny,
46:02
man, I was talking earlier with a friend of mine on the phone,
46:05
like just about like neighbors that won't don't like a sign that you may
46:08
have or something that you have, and they'll come over and like, you
46:12
know, he had an incident where somebody actually came over knocked on his door,
46:15
like questioning something that he had in his house, Like, bro,
46:16
what does that got to do with you? Like imagine just being so I'm
46:22
curious. It was like a political sign you know what I mean. Does
46:24
he supports some imports a politician and people do that, and it made like
46:30
three people from a house at different times come and knock on his door and
46:32
ask him about it. Bro, Like, how sad does your little life
46:37
have to be that you're consumed by the fact that somebody that lives near you
46:40
has a different opinion than you. You don't like what you see when you
46:45
look out the window. It's it's crazy, man, it's crazy. Close
46:50
the window. Yeah, it's wild, man, like hurting you. And
46:54
that's like a fact that gets lost on a lot of people. Like Bro,
46:58
just focus on you and everything better, That's it. Everybody want to
47:02
say, Oh, this person doing this, this person doing that. People
47:06
need to do X, Y and Z. Bro, just worry about yourself
47:07
and everything will shape out, you know what I mean. If everybody just
47:10
worried about themselves, nobody will have these issues because they would realize that the
47:15
most important thing is their their life and their world, you know what I
47:19
mean. And if you're focused on bringing peace to yourself, you're not worried
47:22
about bringing no heat to nobody else, you know what I mean. It's
47:28
just it's crazy that it's such a like foreign concept to so many people,
47:30
you know what I mean. It's just they don't think about it. It's
47:36
just like a simple thing to overlook. Maybe, Yeah, and it's you
47:39
know, environment all that stuff. Man, there's just so many factors that
47:45
you just got to be glad that you have that awakening, you know what
47:47
I mean. Like that's always how I look at it. Like I have
47:51
a lot of friends that will like hit me up about like, oh man,
47:53
I can't believe this person, X, Y and Z this is that,
47:57
And it's like, bro, like they're not thinking how you're thinking.
47:59
So you can't even waste your time thinking about them because the time you're here
48:04
telling me about that person, they're not talking about you. They're living their
48:07
life and they're focused on their thing, you know what I mean. So
48:09
it's like you need to be doing the same thing and just realize right away
48:13
were not on the same thing. Cool, keep it moving, Yeah,
48:17
that's the way it should be. But it's made to be much more complicated
48:22
than that. Yeah, definitely, it's definitely a lot that we could get
48:27
into, and I definitely want to have you back with the guys so we
48:30
can just talk about kind of like that journey how you like even like more
48:34
of the specifics of getting through the tattooing and stuff as far as like you
48:38
know, things that you did to learn the type. Because at the end
48:40
of the day, bro, like all the stories we tell in this podcast
48:44
lead back to one thing. You got to work to make stuff happen and
48:46
you got to be dedicated, and those stories always line up, like no
48:52
matter what feel they're in. Like we've had so many different people on like
48:55
a box or you know, somebody that works in the film industry, comedians,
49:00
like everybody. The comment threat they have is they're grounded in their way
49:05
of thinking and they work hard, you know what I'm saying. Like that
49:07
that's success. Like people try to over complicate it. That's all that is.
49:10
Just have the same way of thinking and work hard and do good business.
49:15
That's it. It's a simple formula. But people over complicated so much.
49:21
That's a recipe. They can get messed up real easy, I guess.
49:24
Yeah. But yeah, man, let the people know where they could
49:29
find you, your handles and all that. Like I said, we got
49:32
Nikolai here, Nikolai killing. He's a super dope tattoo artist. Like I
49:37
said once y'all check his page out and just check out his work. You'll
49:39
see he got like his own style super clean as well. So man,
49:44
you're definitely gonna dig it. Thank you, bro. Just primarily on Instagram
49:50
on Facebook. You can find me on Instagram at my full name Nikolai Underscore
49:54
Killing spell n c k O l a I unders gore Line killing k I
50:01
l I N. Usually you spell just Nikolay that way and then you'll find
50:05
it will pop up. Nobody spells it that way, and my parents really
50:07
messed up, and we'll have we'll have your ads like and all the show
50:10
notes and stuff, and we'll tag you in all the videos too. So
50:14
anybody that's here and it, they can check you out for sure. Man.
50:16
But like I said, man, definitely want to have you back with
50:19
the guys. Love to anything else that you want to throw in there before
50:22
we wrap. Um, just appreciate you for having me, man, This
50:25
has been awesome. Yeah, Man, appreciate you coming back, man.
50:29
And you're very professional on time is overlooked with people in our line of you
50:37
know, artistry and stuff like that. People think that it means that you
50:39
don't have to be professional and it's quite the opposite. Now me you're giving
50:45
me any of your time is very much appreciated. Facts man, appreciate you,
50:49
my guy, state butter after at b apt at not not not not
52:43
not not not not at