Grant Lankard stops by to talk Beowulf!

Grant Lankard – Interview

 

[00:00:00] Jeff: Hello listeners, a spoiler country today on the show. We have the fantastic grand Linkerd how’s it going, sir? Going good. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me. No problem. So I want, I usually always ask for as my first question to our combo guest is how for how long have you loved comics? Do you remember when you first started with the comic book?

Was.

Grant Lankard: I remember like I grew up in the nineties, which is back when you could still find like comic books and like pharmacies and grocery stores and stuff like that. And I remember we started on that and then there was a comic book store in my town, and I remember driving by it a hundred times and.

And it never clicked what it was. And then one day I just asked my mom, like, what is that store that, that we drive by? Cause I remember it had like Spiderman on the sign. And my mom taught me in, I probably, when I first got serious about it was probably like 11, [00:01:00] maybe 12. And like I said, this is the early nineties when comic books were just crazy, you know, they were saying they were selling like 6 million copies.

I don’t remember the first exact comic book I read. It was a Chris Claremont slash Mark Sylvestri X men, or I guess it would have been uncanny X-Men and I don’t remember what it was, but something about it just. It was all of the excitement of like a big screen action movie, but just in a comic book.

Jeff: Now, do you remember the Chromebooks or was it like the cliche, you know, the, the dingy kinda, you know, holding the wall complex or was it like a big, massive store?

Grant Lankard: It was kind of in the middle. It was, it was, I grew up in a college town, so it was on a college campus. It was called Patty’s paperbacks and comics.

Like I said there was a, the sign out front had a [00:02:00] picture of Spiderman on it. Probably not legal, but that’s what it was. And it’s funny one it’s it’s when I’m like really stressed out. One of the easiest ways to like come calm myself down is to think about Patty’s paperbacks in comics. I just remember like, as a kid that.

Like a visit to that store was just joy incarnate.

Jeff: It, it totally taking me back to to my childhood because I mean, I’m guessing I, I must’ve grown up then sometime around some similar to when you did. I think I started buying comic books in like 89 90 something. It was because of the partly because of the Batman movie, 89 Batman movie.

Yeah, because my father was a comic fan back in the day, too, but. I think that’s when I got kind of curious is when Batman came out and mostly I bought in the nineties and I remember the comic stores, I went to like fifth dimension a little bit, not quite the same as Excalibur, but there’s something about going to the comic store, you know, with all the comics everywhere.

It’s [00:03:00] like a, it’s like a, like an amusement park, just

Grant Lankard: books. Yeah. Isn’t it. I mean, when you first find out that a con that comic book stories exist as a kid, it’s just, it’s the greatest thing you can ever imagine.

Jeff: I agree, a hundred percent there’s I mean, it’s so Samantha, then you find the back issue that, that they have back issues and you can go back, you know, decades of with some of these complex they’re like, Holy crap.

I’m holding a comic book that I’ve seen only in images from like 20 years ago.

Grant Lankard: Yeah. The thing that’s the funniest to me is like, I think about like the guys who work there. And they were all like these, like these grown men who lived in their parents’ basement and stuff, but like at the time they were, they were gods to me.

Jeff: Oh, yeah, the, the, the coolest person in the world is the comic book store owner. I think the one that I remember the most was this place called Kelly’s column books and the guy around Christmas. Cause I guess he you know, I was a regular customer, so he got me [00:04:00] for Christmas in autograph profit issue it profit number one from Dan Pannonian, it was fucking a maid.

I was like, Holy crap. This is. You know, an autographed combo and it really is a magical thing. And to think that at one point in Warwick where I live, it was five comic book stores. And now there’s none in any of the local cities around me, including where I live.

Grant Lankard: Yeah, I don’t. I know for a fact that comic book, store pens, paper bags, it went out of business right.

When the crash happened. So like, I mean, I want to say they went out of business, like maybe 96, 97. So they literally just in there for that boom. Yeah. You know what? I don’t visit my hometown enough to know. If any comic book stories are there now, but I would, I would imagine not.

Jeff: Yeah. It’s kind of a shame when you’re buying your online now at the same,

[00:05:00] Grant Lankard: it’s not.

Yeah, you’re right.

Jeff: But I was just speaking of that, though. It does open the doors to a wider range of availability that comes. I mean, I’m now finding common books online that, you know, back in the day, it would have been a gold mine to have found them. Now they’re familiar, available to most everybody.

Grant Lankard: Are you throw, are you throwing me a softball over the plate right now?

Oh,

Jeff: not purposely, but go right ahead.

Grant Lankard: Sorry. It sounded like an intro for me to pitch my my comic book, which is, which is called Beowulf. So yeah, Beowulf issue. Number one was on Kickstarter about a month and a half ago. It was successful beyond my. My imagination, well, no, probably not beyond my imagination, but it was, it was very, very successful.

And we’re getting that printed out. We’re getting issue. Number one, printed out right now. You can still get it on Indiegogo. If you search [00:06:00] Indiegogo for Beowulf, it should come right up. Issue number two is going to be out. I, I, I think we’re aiming now for mid may an issue too. Issue two is going to continue the story from issue.

Number one, which is the story of Hazel. She’s a 13 year old girl who discovers that her cat is reincarnation of an eighth century wizard when they both have simultaneous visions of a dragon waking after a thousand year nap. So many has the idea to go track down the reincarnation of the titular hero Beowulf.

But unfortunately in the last thousand years something has gotten lost in translation and he’s kind of reincarnated into a, just a 30 year old slacker. So the story which begins in number one and is continued through, it’s going to go through issue six is of Moonee and [00:07:00] Hazel getting the guy Victor into shape so that he can go up against this dragon.

Well,

Jeff: I was lucky to have read the story and I really, really enjoyed it. Thank you. One question before we get too deep into the, to the common with, I think a lot of listeners are going to pick your brain about is the fact that you ran a very successful kickstart campaign. And as someone who has tried twice myself and failed, what insights do you have for us to, how to create that successful campaign?

Grant Lankard: So, the big thing that the big hurdle that I had was getting over talking to people online, I’m getting over that guilty feeling or feeling like a used car sales. And then you have to get over that feeling. I dunno if that, if that’s something you suffer from, but I know I hate, I hate when I walk into a store.

And I can tell that the salesman is trying to pitch [00:08:00] me something. So that was an emotion that I had to get over. And I, I, to be honest with you before I started doing this, I wasn’t a big social media person either. So really the secret to it is, you know, find other comic books. On Kickstarter that you would say are similar to the comic book that you want to pitch and then find on Twitter or, or Instagram or Facebook people who liked that comic book and then just, you know, strike up a conversation with those people.

Jeff: So I think, well, one of the issues, I think a lot of people have with Kickstarters as well. It’s trying to determine what they asking, what they’re asking for. Did you have a lot of like what kind of extras did you offer? And are they going to be repeated in the second Kickstarter? So

Grant Lankard: the, the, the big thing that we did was we did do an alternate cover.

We did [00:09:00] it to locks furniture, which is a few dollars, more expensive. But that’s basically there for people who want to maybe throwing in a few extra dollars to the campaign. And also you’re going to get some, you’re going to get some additional art with that one. I may be promised too much art because it got to the point where it was like, so I said that I was gonna give one, one pinup for every $500 that we raised.

Thinking that we were gonna gonna earn you know, $1,500 when we earned a little over double of that I was like, Oh God, now I have to get ups together.

Jeff: Now was that a pin up to everyone who donated or everyone who spent $500?

Grant Lankard: That’s a pinup for, for everybody who bought the deluxe version

Jeff: of the column, what was the price point?

Do you remember?

Grant Lankard: For that? I think it was, I think it was $11 plus [00:10:00] plus shipping. Okay.

Jeff: That, like I said, I, I think that’s, it’s, it’s really interesting hearing how people do it. Right. And I imagined the reaction to the images they saw for Beowulf drove a lot of it.

Grant Lankard: Yeah. So yeah, so the comic book is drawn by Antonio Brandao. Who’s a semi-professional comp regardless. He has a lot of complicated student’s name.

He’s super talented. I helped him out with the art. I did the inking. Well, I did the thinking and the coloring and the lettering. I think now that the comp, because off Kickstarter, I can admit that I, I used pseudonyms for the colorist and the letter, but I mean, it’s not really a secret.

Jeff: Well, I mean, you’re you have a degree from, was it Pittsburgh?

Is it Pittsburgh art school in illustration? So I mean, you, yourself [00:11:00] are highly skilled in that as well. And you were, and that helped probably not only financially, but also help promote your comic book. Right, right. No.

Grant Lankard: Go ahead. Yeah. Sorry. What were

Jeff: you going to ask? Well, let me say, when you chose Antonio bin bin, as the penciler, who I’m listening to, you’re also a talented illustrator.

Were you looking for someone who fit a style that you were good at inking? Or did you look for someone who’s right for the title and you inked as close to their art as possible?

Grant Lankard: I mean, I was basically looking for the best artist that I could afford at my, you know, with a limited budget. Which I mean, that’s another great thing about Antonio.

He was willing to work with my budget, which was great. But yeah, I mean, I think Antonio is just a great artist. I mean, as far as, as matching a style to the story, I don’t necessarily have, I don’t know if I can necessarily articulate why I thought his style would be right for the story. Other than just [00:12:00] he’s good at, you know, action scenes, which are a lot of

Jeff: so, well, I thought I felt kind of interest about doing Beowulf.

Is that everyone? I mean, they will, there’s a very famous story. I mean, it’s one of the earliest known works in Western literature. Right. Was this a story of particular fondness for you? Was there something about, Beowulf’s the original story that you felt compelled to build off? And how much research did you do to prep your combo of the original myth?

Grant Lankard: The legend? So the story came from when I was a kid, my parents had these Time-Life books about fairytales myths and legends, and the one that really, and I read all of them, but the one that really stood out for me was the story of Beowulf. And the reason why it stood out was because it sounded, it reminded me of like a superhero story.

So [00:13:00] that was kind of like the beginning of me getting excited about mythology and kind of realizing, you know, all of these stories are kind of cyclical, you know? I mean, they’re kind of just taking. One story from another, they kind of build on each other. And I remember as a kid coming up with the idea, you know, what, if they will force a superhero.

And of course you know, I did drawings and I, I made like little comic books out of my character Beowulf, but. Of course, you know, the character that I’m doing now is a lot different than I used to. You know, it’s changed a lot over the last 25 to 30 years.

Jeff: Well, I mean, one interesting, interesting, well, your comic book is that it does kind of show how our view of a hero has changed through the century.

I mean, Beowulf is such kind of like the alpha male [00:14:00] hero version of, you know, the, the bad-ass who, you know, fights to fight doesn’t, you know, he’s not, I don’t, I don’t believe they w th the initial. Story from, you know, thousand something years ago, put you in and years ago. They don’t really flush them out in motivational or the fact that he’s a bad-ass he, and he wants to prove that he’s a bad-ass right.

Our conception of heroism has changed remarkably in the last 20, 25 years, I think. And I think you’re a combo seems to highlight that. I don’t know that was an initial goal of yours, but definitely I think exists that way. Yeah. So I don’t know

Grant Lankard: if that specifically was a goal. I definitely wanted to have a character who wasn’t a bad-ass from page one.

That was definitely a goal of mine. Cause I felt like comic books have gone too far in that respect, not just comic books, but also TV show movies. I mean the most obvious one is if [00:15:00] you look at the evolution. Of like John McClane from die hard. One through what? Diehard five are they up to? They’re up to five

Jeff: now.

I think six is on his way to where it’s like

Grant Lankard: in the first diehard movie, he’s an ordinary guy. He gets injured, you know, you see him bleed. Then you think about like diehard number four and five where it’s like, he might as well just be a superhero. I mean, I mean, he’s doing back flips over. What’s the one, there was one special effect then I can’t remember if it was like diehard four where it’s like,

Jeff: he’s, he’s

Grant Lankard: like he, he jumps around in this car.

He reaches out of his car and grabs a bomb off of another car and then lands the car successfully or spare. I can’t remember if that’s the [00:16:00] exact special effect, but it was just like, so ridiculous. Everybody on the internet was like making fun of it.

Jeff: I don’t remember which movie that is, but just feel like all of them other than the first one.

Yeah.

Grant Lankard: So, yeah, so I definitely wanted to create a superhero. Who I feel like is more realistic. Somebody who’s not like Batman or Superman, or even, you know, Spiderman at this point who are just perfect. And, you know, they know exactly how to defeat the villain, you know, almost before the fight is begun.

Jeff: So w.

Looking long-term. How closely are you going to mirror the story of Beowulf? Is it there? I mean, are you, is it story first or are you trying to hold to the initial [00:17:00] legend?

Grant Lankard: I’m playing fast and loose with the legend. In my justification for that is that, I mean, that’s kind of the point of myths and legends is that you.

You know, it’s you have like an initial story there and then you can kind of, you know, put your own spin on it. Hmm.

Jeff: Well, I think I know that you do, I don’t know how much of a deal, big deal it is, but it was a wonderful touch is that you dedicate. The first issue to your cat? Eva. And I thought that was so funny.

And you consider him the character Mooney later on. So how does Eva feel about

Grant Lankard: this? Well, so Eva, well, Eva was a cat that I had about, I got her about five years ago and she passed away about two years ago. I think as the story goes on, we’re going to get more into the relationship of Hazel and Mooney.

And we’re one of the themes of, of the comic book is going to be how special that [00:18:00] bond is between. I mean, especially, you know, a 13 year old girl and her cat, because I mean, you know, I have a stepdaughter who’s 13 years old and You know, seeing how torn up she was about Eva passing away. And then when we got, we, we got a, we actually got another cat who, whose name is actually Mooney and is actually the cat that, that the Mooney from the comic book is based on.

And, you know, seeing how special that bond is for Jennifer, my stepdaughter. That was a big inspiration for this comic book.

Jeff: Well, as someone who has three cats of their own, I will say Mooney does seem to answer the question of what is your cat thinking? You know, I mean, I feel like every owner goes w kinda personifies their cat just to a certain extent.

I think Mooney does a good job of expressing that.

Grant Lankard: Yeah. And I think. [00:19:00] I dunno, Mooney in this comic book talks the way I picture cats talking just like they’re smarter than everybody, you know, they don’t have, they don’t have patience or time to listen to your BS, you know, just, yeah. I think if you’re a cat lover, I think you’ll enjoy this book.

Yeah, I

Jeff: definitely think so. I mean, and there’s a fickleness of cast as well, where. They’re interested in you for as long as you do with necessary. You know what I’m saying for them is moody similar in the sense that Hazel is valuable for as long as Hazel is useful, or is the bond between Mooney and Hazel stronger than that?

I

Grant Lankard: think it’s a little bit of both. I think, to a certain degree Mooney kind of views all of the other characters, Victor and aunt Hazel as being a means to an end. At least on the surface, but I think underneath that [00:20:00] he does actually care about them.

Jeff: Well, so many interesting elements about your series.

For instance, once again, there’s a lot of references to the dragon and anyone who reads Beowulf knows the role of the dragon in bale touching the second part of well, it’s that second part of the final arc of Beowulf. If the dragon that exists in Beowulf is real, do the other monster such as Grendel and Grendel’s mother also exists or because they die in the book, they are not going to be in this.

Grant Lankard: I mean, that’s, I mean, they’re not going to be in the first six issues. I’ll put it that way. As far as, you know, if I do, if I continue the series, then, then yeah. I think everything from the mythology, I mean, maybe not. Like you said they did die. So that’s the question. I mean, are they going to be maybe in further?

I mean, are we going to necessarily see them in modern day? I don’t know about that. So I guess the, the answer [00:21:00] to your question is I haven’t decided yet.

Jeff: And I also think Victor, the way you introduced Victor also is very interesting. I think a lot of writers are going to be able to relate to them. Because Louisiana not only is in every man, but the kind of every man that I don’t know, I think as a writer, I kind of felt like him, you know, sometimes, you know, the kind of unhireable writer type feeling is that kind of what you’re the writer that can just can’t get a job.

Can’t, can’t seem to get the writing off the ground as it were. And I, I kind of like saw a little bit of myself in him as

well.

Grant Lankard: Yeah. And I think A lot of that, you know, is part of growing up and, you know, realizing like, okay, I’m probably not going to grow up to be Stephen King. Like I thought I was and you know what I mean?

He even has like a part where he says like, you know, I’m just an ordinary average guy. Maybe I wasn’t destined for greatness. Of course the, the obvious irony there is that he was. [00:22:00] You know, the reincarnation of one of the most legendary warriors of all time. So I don’t know. Maybe we all have a little bit of greatness in us.

Jeff: I would like to think so because I’ve already crossed my forties and I’m not seeing great as quite yet. And it’d be nice to think that somewhere in there, there is a greatness

Grant Lankard: somewhere in there. It was great

Jeff: once we would both have, when we. Yeah, I believe in you. Thank you. I thought it was kind of, it was funny.

It made me laugh. It kind of was like a sad laugh, but still laugh. Victor became a substitute English teacher as someone who’s also a high school teacher the comment that he became a bit he’s English, he’s a writer. He became the backlash of the English teacher who can do it. So you teaches it.

I thought that was

Grant Lankard: really hysterical. I mean, so yeah, so that’s not, I mean, that’s not a hundred percent taken from real life. But, I mean, I was somebody who was an artist and then I became a graphic designer. So it’s kind of the same. I mean, that’s my day, my day job is being a graphic designer.

[00:23:00] Jeff: We, I think a lot of us have writer writing is that dream that we hope to make a profession, but at the moment it’s, that’s the, the side gig that we are all hoping towards is that, Oh, go ahead.

Sorry.

Grant Lankard: Well, I mean, you know, I mean, in my own life, I can say, you know, just because I’m not world famous doesn’t mean, you know, I’m not doing it. And like I said, you know, you know, I, they took a chance on Beowulf and you know, people backed it. You know, I think every writer’s big fear is, you know, you put something on Kickstarter and you get that zero, zero backers

Jeff: been there, done that zero.

But I, like I said, I did two campaigns and not don’t either one or both of them fell short, but there’s, there’s definitely that sense of you know, a writer. I think it’s hard. I mean, the [00:24:00] profession on its own is one that requires. Praise of others, which is always a hard thing to strive for. Yeah. And I think with the character wasn’t late, like Victor, he’s also someone who maybe at some level is striving for some sort of purpose.

Am I getting it correctly?

Grant Lankard: Yeah. I think that’s exactly what it is, but I think also like a lot of artists and writers and creators. His head is kind of in the clouds and he kind of maybe has a tough time you know, getting to that without somebody pushing him, which is hopefully what, what Mooney and Hazel are going to be doing in the next few issues.

Jeff: Now this, him, Victor being an English teacher. I, once again, based on from Beowulf, is there also, is that going to be played up as well? Is there some knowledge or backer that he has now available that [00:25:00] is going to help him as he discovers who he is or does able to not exist quite in the same way as literature as it does in our world?

Grant Lankard: Oh yeah. For for sure. There’s going to be either outright or symbolic. He, you know, he’s going to have to, he’s going to have, there’s going to be an issue at some point where he has to teach the legend of bare walls. And I haven’t decided whether it’s going to be played for laughs or whether it’s going to be paid for play dramatically.

But yeah, that’s definitely going to be a plot point.

Jeff: Well, as someone who has taught bear with multiple times, I will say kids. Do enjoy it. You don’t, you may not think it would because you know, the Epic poetry aspect, but every time I’ve taught it, I must admit kids love, love the car. Cause he is so bombastic.

Yeah. I mean, it,

Grant Lankard: it is kind of like the first action story. I mean, I mean, you have like the Greek [00:26:00] myths and stuff like that, but I mean, that’s more of a, like a soap opera than an act. I guess Hercules is kind of like, I guess he’s up there with the first. Action heroes, but I don’t know. I can’t remember which one of those two would have come first, but

Jeff: I mean, this Hercules they’re Samson, but not all the stories that I remember with them in it though.

And even Gilgamesh we’re never as action oriented as bail bill was straight out. Action. The other stories were more talking with action happening offset. If memory serves. Yeah. Yeah. And the nice thing about your, your, the way your story’s set up is that it kind of offers by having victories of reincarnation of Beowulf and off it opens up a certain kind of questions.

First to kind of, as we mentioned a little bit earlier, it kind of discusses what our society views as, you know, a hero, but it also kind of, question that I had, I think when I was reading, it was, if it Wolf was reincarnated now, [00:27:00] Is Victor the first reincarnation of him. Okay.

Grant Lankard: Yeah. So that’s, that’s something that’s definitely going to be covered in future stories.

And that’s one of the things that’s exciting for me about Beowulf is that, you know, because reincarnation is such a prominent feature of the story, you can kind of have a story set in any timeline. You know, why not have, you know, a Victorian era Beowulf? Why not have an old West era Bayer walls? I haven’t, maybe one day we’ll do a science fiction.

Beowulf. I don’t know. It might be a little bit too weird, but why not?

Jeff: Does Victor, Victor have memories of the other versions of him? Yeah, so that’s

Grant Lankard: and that’s going to come up too. Like he’s going to have other visions from some other lifetimes, you know, there might be, there might be [00:28:00] lifetimes where Mooney is the human and Victor is a cat, you know,

Jeff: stuff like that.

Now, how does Mooney connect to be? Well, because I mean, once again, Mooney does re. We’re seems to suggested that for a cat. I think you mentioned that at the minimum has been 40 years, 40, 40 years of the cat’s been around. Right. So Mooney is more than just even a reincarnation of a cat. It’s something more, a lot more going on with Mooney.

Is that correct?

Grant Lankard: Yeah, so you’re gonna, so you’re going to find out how Mooney knows Victor. You didn’t eat you. Did you read issue two? I know I sent it to you.

Jeff: I had issue one. I did not have issue two yet. Okay.

Grant Lankard: Yeah. So in issue two, we’re going to find out how Mooney and Victor are or how Mooney and Beowulf met each other.

Mooney was kind of like a guy who helped. [00:29:00] They wore out while citing the dragon.

Jeff: So I think another interesting question that it all connects to as well is idea of, I guess, fate as because once again, like once you take a character and only vicar as a reincarnation, you have Mooney reincarnated you know, with the cat, then you have Hazel who Mooney.

I suspect. Chose is that correct? What were, did Hazel connect to the cat? And if that’s kind of just coincidence that it’s, that Mooney is a special cat or did Mooney choose Hazel for a Pacific?

Grant Lankard: So Hazel obviously has some magic powers because she was able to see the vision of the dragon as well. And for anybody who’s read issue one, I don’t know if issue one will be out by the time this comes out.

But you know, I’m not giving any spoilers there. You find that out an issue. One, Hazel has some magic powers. And [00:30:00] yes, right now they’re very undeveloped, but I think we’re going to, we’re going to find out later in this first storyline that Hazel did, or that Mooney did pick Hazel for a reason.

And maybe in future storylines, we’re going to develop Hazel’s magic powers. Hmm.

Jeff: Does Hazel also have a longstanding connection? I mean, what’s the deal with reincarnation is Hazel connected. In history to bail because I know there’s without giving too much away. There’s this, there is a scene where you flashback to Beowulf rescuing a woman.

Does that connect to Hazel or is Hazel separate from that aspect of the day a Wolf? I

Grant Lankard: mean, to be honest with you, that’s kind of the first, this is the first that I thought of that. That’s an interesting idea. That’s but that’s no, that wasn’t intentional. The idea of him [00:31:00] rescuing a woman. Her being connected.

No, that is, that is interesting because like, I’m guessing, like anytime I put like a side character in any of these comic books, now people are going to be speculating. Oh, was that Hazel was that Mooney? So that’s an interesting side effect. So in issue two, there is a scene where Hazel says to Mooney, are you going to show me my past lives?

After this and Mooney just instantly changes the subject and yeah, in the future in future storylines, we are going to find out about Hazel’s past lives. As well. And like I said, I

Jeff: think that one of the reasons, I think your comic book is so interesting because there’s so many possibilities with it.

There’s so much going on with it, that it does open so many potential doors. I think that’s [00:32:00] why

Grant Lankard: works. Yeah. It’s a, it’s at least what I’m trying to do is I think what every good fantasy story does, which is, it creates like a lived in little world.

Jeff: And, and it’s kind of, I think I thought something else that was kind of interesting.

I’m curious what the significance of it is. If you don’t mind when you introduce Hazel and you need to use Victor, you go into a description of the city where they live, you discuss with the population, the year founded the type of business that it is. Is that, is there a, a purpose of it beyond the description that gives us a sense of the town or is there a further reason why.

You go into that kind of detail with it? I don’t think

Grant Lankard: that that, I mean, I don’t think those things are going to specifically come up in the storyline. I think that was more to establish the world. I’ve always been a bigger DC guy than I am a Marvel guy. One of the things that I liked [00:33:00] about DC is that all the cities are kind of like made up and have their own kind of character as opposed to Marvel, which.

No just uses like basically all of their stories take place when we work.

Jeff: I agree with you a hundred percent.

Grant Lankard: That was something that I wanted to do with my own comic books.

Jeff: Yeah. I agree with you. I understand. Once again, going back to, with the idea DC, I felt DC builds a world better than Marvel does. Marvel kind of leaves you with it’s everything’s happening in New York.

We lived someplace else. DC has more sense of it’s the whole world. You know what I’m saying? Is more like world building. And then I think I prefer it. Don’t you ever

Grant Lankard: wonder, like in the Marvel universe, like what’s going on in all the other, like places like Los Angeles, like who takes care of like the monsters were invading Los spans?

It was.

Jeff: Exactly. I mean, what is it? [00:34:00] All the problems just exist in New York? What the hell is wrong with New York? They keep spawning these people and villains and yeah, it, it opens a, a real question of if New York is a shit and there’s being destroyed. Fairly weekly. Why wouldn’t you just go someplace else?

Who wants to go to New York,

Grant Lankard: but they go there so that they can watch the superhero

Jeff: side. That that’d be interesting to have a story of just the idiots who would go back in New York. And just as like, you know what, I kind of enjoy watching this happen, you know, regularly. My, my home destroyed, but DC has a great idea of apparently everywhere in DC world sucks.

There’s assholes in every city. And, and I appreciate that. And that’s kind of what I was when I was reading your story in there. And you go to those locations, I felt that those descriptions also kind of help differentiate Hazel from Victor. Cause cause like the way, cause once again that the town of town, that Hazel is in kind and kind of world that Victor lives in is totally [00:35:00] different.

Grant Lankard: Right. The town Hazel grows up in is more like the town that I grew up in, which is very, very small not a lot going on. The town that Victor lives in is kind of like more where I moved to, which is not the biggest city in the world, but kind of like a nice kind of medium sized Midwest city, which I.

I live in Pittsburgh now, which is kind of like the epitome of like medium size, like Midwest city.

Jeff: So w so can you kind of give us the readers, our listeners, a pitch for what can they can look forward to in future issues available?

Grant Lankard: So issues. So this storyline is kind of run through issue six. We’re going to see kind of.

The protagonist is going to go back and forth between being Hazel and being Victor. Sometimes, sometimes Hazel is a little bit [00:36:00] smarter than Victor. Sometimes think there’s a little bit smarter, but eventually what you’re going to see, Victor have to go up against this dragon and that’s going to be one of the most terrifying things he’s ever done.

And then we’re going to see. I’m not going to give it away. It’s either going to be Hazel or Victor who actually ended up defeating the dragon by using their brain more than using their breath. Hmm.

Jeff: So when can they expect the second Kickstarter to launch? So

Grant Lankard: right now, issue two is issue two is completely done.

I think I’m, I’m going to go back and clean up, maybe some of the lettering and stuff, but. For all intents and purposes, issue two is done. I’m really just waiting on the printers to get issue one out, because I don’t want to put anything on Kickstarter if I don’t want to put issue two on Kickstarter until everybody has their copy of issue [00:37:00] one.

Got it. So, right now I’m pretty much just waiting for the printers to get me copies back, which Yeah, dealing with printers has been a, a, the whole new or deal.

Jeff: W w where can they find issue? Number one, is it available in stores is available through like, previews, where can they find it? You

Grant Lankard: can find a preview copy of issue.

Number one, which is just, I think, six or seven pages on my website, which is Monarch publishing. Dot net. And when issue two is up on the internet, you’re also going to be able to buy a copy of issue. One. When the Kickstarter for issue two is up, there’s going to be a tier where you can also get

Jeff: issue one.

All right. Well, that sounds awesome. And I will, once it does go live, please let us know so we can help plug it for you. Oh, thank you. And I said [00:38:00] it was a pleasure to meet you, sir. Thank you so much for talking to us about Baylor is a really fun story.

Grant Lankard: Yeah. This was a really nice conversation and I hope you decide to take a third stab at.

Kickstarter because I’d like to see whatever you’re working on.

Jeff: Oh, thanks so much. I think there will be a future Kickstarter for my series Malik issue two should have one and I’m working on a, another Kickstarter. So I’m going to keep trying Kickstarter. And if I keep failing, that’s fine. Cause it’s just how it goes.

But I might have to plug some courses, get some courses out of you’d be like, Hey, so what do you think about how this is set up? Yeah. I’d love to see it, but thank you so much. I greatly appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Have a very good night. You too.