Ryan Parrott talks Mighty Morphin Power Rangers!

Ryan Parrott – Interview

Casey: [00:00:00] So creepy everybody. Welcome again, to another episode of spoiler country today on the show, we have writer of mighty Morphin, power Rangers, Ryan parrot, Ryan,

Ryan Parrott: how you doing, man? I’m doing good, man. How are you?

Casey: I’m great. I’m great. Today has been a day, so, oh yeah. So I’m, I’m tearing down my deck in the backyard.

I got that completely torn down. We’re we’re putting up a concrete patio and unbel headed enough to be like, just tear all that down on my own. It’s no big deal. I’m all cut up. Now. I got home from work immediately, took the trailer to the dump and offloaded all that wood. And then ran here, took shower.

And now I’m talking to you, which is a high point in my day, better make this right parrot.

Ryan Parrott: I’m amazed by that, man. I’ve got like, I’ve got curtains in the corner of my house that have been sitting there for like a year that I’m like too lazy to put up. So anybody who does any sort of physical labor that’s like destructive and building

Casey: this, [00:01:00] this is why This is making that the wife happy.

So I hear you otherwise, like deck would like fall to the

Ryan Parrott: ground. I would not give shit like making the wife happy as 90% of white guys do anything. I’m married guys do everything. Right. That’s all the reason you do. Yeah,

Casey: exactly. She’s like, I want, I want a concrete patio and I want a flower beds. I’m like, all right.

Get on that. So, that that’s been the That that’s been the project for the past few days, but we’re not here to talk about home projects. We’re not here to talk about how bad it sucks to tear down 300 square foot of plywood deck and you know, all that other fun stuff. We’re here to talk about Ryan parrot and what he does for boom doing the mighty Morphin power Rangers comics and thereabouts.

So Ryan man, how’d you get into

Ryan Parrott: comics. Well, I, I mean, I’ve always been in a car. We go way far back. Like I remember like my grandparents took me to this place called inner sanctum comics in Bakersfield. Huh? I’ve heard of that place. Yeah. It’s gone [00:02:00] now, unfortunately, which is like, well, unfortunately, so many comic stores from back then are gone.

But yeah, it was this place where I went in. I remember the first time it was like a, so pizza parlor and I was like, is that a comic store? I mean, I didn’t know there was comic book stores. I just, I always remembered my introduction to comic was the spinner rack at the end of like, you know, save on exactly.

Going into an actual store was like, Shangri-La. But I remember he bought me a death in the family that was like my first, the Batman book of Batman holdings.

Casey: It’s a good way to start

Ryan Parrott: such a invoke, such a crazy cover. You’re like, well, I got to get that. So I started reading that and that was sort of the moment. And I’ve always wanted to do comics. From that point on, I wanted to draw that’s I went to art school to be an artist. Yeah. And then I was like, I, my back hurts sitting over the top of this, this, this, this desk, my entire life.

And I’m not, I’m never going to be as good as Jay Scott Campbell. So I will so I was like, let’s not do that. So I went into film and TV and stuff like that, but I’m in the middle of doing all that. I was a film school and I met some buddies and I never stopped reading comics. I never stopped like liking them.

And I would go back [00:03:00] occasionally and pick them up and stuff like that. And I would, it was just weird, like to come in and, you know, sort of come back and forth. Like I was 14 when image came out and like I bought every single yeah. You were like prime for that. I mean, they were literally, I think I literally my box at my local store cause I just kept buying every book.

But so I was always one that was, that was sort of my thing. And so. In the middle of doing a few someone TV stuff, my buddy Kyle Higgins was somebody I went to college with and for power and your fans, you guys know who he is. And he was doing some other books and in the middle of he got, he got, I remember like in the same week, Probably doesn’t want me to tell him about this prescrip?

He, he got Nightwing and Deathstroke then for the new 52, he got him in the same week. And so he was like, he went from like doing like a miniseries to doing three, like two ongoing books for DC and like a week. And so he called me and he’s like, Hey man. So I need some help. I have to finish this.

Batman gets a golfing thing and like, I got to finish it in like three, we got three weeks to finish the next two issues. So he was like, can you help me with this? Because he already broke the story with him. And I was like, yeah. So we wrote it together. And like we [00:04:00] wrote two issues in three weeks and yeah, so that was my, that was my way to get into college was my first line of dialogue was Batman, which was like, it’s all downhill from here.

So, that’s all I got in. It was just the real luck, you know? And it’s like that thing, like I’d helped him for a really long time with pitches and we were really good friends. So at the end of the month, when he needed help, I was like, yeah, that would be great. And because of that, It sort of led me, JJ heard that I, I was working at batter a lot at the time.

And JJ heard that I did Batman and was like, Hey, would you be interested in doing star Trek, comic books? And I was like, yeah, that would be awesome. So I did that and then it all just sorta segwayed into job after job. Oh, that’s

Casey: sweet. That’s sweet. Yeah. So H how did you end up with the basically being the architect for the the power Rangers.

Ryan Parrott: Oh, I don’t know how that happened. That was, that was weird. Yeah, like I, I was at I done a little bit power in your stuff or no, sorry. I’d done some other stuff. And I got on a panel at long beach Comic-Con that was just about licensed work and I’d done a bunch. And so I got on that panel and it was a, it was just a much [00:05:00] means of other writers and a person who moderated it was a woman named Daphna Plevin who is the booms?

Sort of editor of the book. She runs all the books and we actually got a drink after all of us got a drink afterwards. And we started talking about movies and stuff like that. I remember I talked to her about how I didn’t like the winter soldier and she freaked out. Yeah, I am. I am since come around.

I was wrong about my, my re I had some issues with the ending, but it’s fine. And she talked me, she just basically laid the, she just destroyed me. And I was like this, we got along. That’s how we became friends. And she just destroyed me in an argument. But then in the middle of that, I was at comic con for some of the stuff and she said, Hey, do you want to get a drink?

And so she was like, yeah. And we started talking and she was like, well, they’re thinking about doing a power ranger SQL to the new movie. And I was like, and then we hadn’t come out yet. I mean, it was still trailer. I think the trailer was out and she was like, but it’s going to be one of those things where someone’s going to have to read the script like one time and then write the SQL because they want the SQL to come out like the week after the movie.

So, yeah. So I was like, yeah, that sounds like fun. So I went. She was like, I thought you could do it. So I went to the store, I went to a salon like while [00:06:00] there I remember I walk into the room and I could hear the, the back of the back of the conference room. It’s rattling. And like halfway through talking to him, I was like, what the hell is going on back there?

Like, oh yeah, we’re screening the movie in the other room. And it was shaking the building. It was like sword fight. And I was like, okay. So I read the script one time, cause they were still changing some stuff. And that I wrote that script and it came together pretty well. People liked it. You know, I and because we got along well.

DACA was like, Hey, we’re thinking about doing some other power Rangers books. Are you interested in doing that? And so I grew up on power Rangers, so I was like, yeah, I I’m. I feel like I know the mighty Morphin power Rangers. Well, I don’t know all the other I’ve since come to know about them, but I didn’t know all the other seasons.

And so we started talking about that and I, I did go by power Powerade just a little while and just, I just, we have a really great working relationship. I was, Kyle was writing the main tower in your book for a while. So we just, it was that sort of natural thing where it was like, we’re all just friends, we just talk about it and go to dinner and work stuff out.

And so he was doing shattered grid and I just kind of worked my way into that. So once he, you know, he’d done, I think he’d done a 40 issues. So he’d sort of moved on to, so [00:07:00] thank you probably after you do shattered grid, there’s really no other power in the story. That’s going to be bigger than that. So he basically said, Hey, are you, you know, you can step in here and see what happens.

And so I just started doing that now three years later I’ve written 60 something, maybe 50 something issues and three years.

Casey: And that’s a part of like the The fan knows fear or whatever, this part of fandom that I’m not really too familiar with. And so when I realized that boom was doing these books and not only doing them, but like going gangbusters on the stories, doing real stuff with that IP, it just blows my mind how much Hey, how much trust they have in you guys to take such a well-known IP that like you better not screw up.

And B just the fact that you guys are putting real stuff into the [00:08:00] books and their stakes. It’s keeping, you know, it seems like it’s almost single handedly keeping the fandom alive and keeping, keeping it fed. So, yeah, I’m right now I’m telling you have a lot of responsibility

Ryan Parrott: on your shoulders, so it’s getting harder by the minute.

That’s great. No yeah, I mean, it’s, I think it’s one of those rare IPS where I don’t even know how to say this, because when I say it, it sounds like I’m nagging the series and I’m not, I’m just saying it’s just that the original series was created under such a weird situation. You know, that idea of taking footage from Tokyo SoCo stuff and bring it over.

I’m probably mispronouncing everything and getting the names wrong. So I apologize. I’ll do it too. So yeah. Yeah. I’m very bad at pronouncing the south. I’m terrible at that. Exactly. So, so like I just, the way that the show was. Made right. Which was this idea of taking all that footage and sort of cutting half the show together with American footage and then, you know, cutting it together with like existing shows and some tight footage.

And doing all that, like it created a very unique and crazies [00:09:00] narrative. And I actually applaud the writers of the original show who were able to piece a lot together because I don’t know if I could do it, but I think because it was created for, it was created for a very young audience and because it was already making made in such a bizarre way.

It. It wrote, it created storylines. I think that like art, I don’t, this sounds like I’m negative, but I’m like, they’re very, they’re not super sophisticated Soylent. Cause they just didn’t have the ability to do that. Right. Like when you, you, you’re kind of stuck with the footage you have and there’s translation stuff.

And so I think the fact that. It had been around for so long. And so, so many of us grew up on it. We have like this very sort of nostalgic look at those characters in the stories. And so what’s great for someone who comes in and gets to sort of write the power of your comic books is I get to sort of feed off that nostalgia and not a, not a negative way.

I mean, in the sense of like we all maybe to sell just the wrong way, a wrong word. I get to. Feed off that affection for those characters and those, you have that connection that you have. And I get to hopefully take those and now ingrain them with sort of modern story [00:10:00] sensibilities, because we look at the way that movies and TV shows are in kids’ shows are even made today.

They’re much more sophisticated than they were. So I’d like for was kind of like there, there was a lot of room for us to. To right above and, and I feel like it, you know, I it’s been, it’s nice to have that, you know, like for instance, like it would be really hard to do Buffy and Firefly because I feel like, know that stuff was written.

Those first, those shows are about the writing bars. So high on those shows, I would be terrified to take over those comics, but I feel like with power Rangers, because we’re aiming for like a little older audience, it allows for. Sort of the room to sort of do things. And also we have more, we have more space, you know, the original power ranger episodes were 22 minutes.

If you’re lucky and 12 of it was morphing sequences and action sequence. And so there’s not a lot of character development. So we, we have the luxury of being able to sort of take those characters that you guys love and sort of expand on them and hopefully, you know, treat them like real people. Like the source

Casey: material.

I was maybe think of like a mashup between like saved by the bell and like [00:11:00] Supercenter. Yeah, like Vultron and say by the bell or something. And so you guys are taking it to the next level and it’s, it’s really impressive what you are doing and the affection and the love for what y’all do or doing the shows.

And it shows not only in just how well the books are, but also how they’re presented. Boom is really good. Yeah. And

Ryan Parrott: it knows what they’re doing are very good at they’re just good at knowing they, they, they knew like they they’ve, they, they mark it. They do, I don’t have anything to do with all that stuff.

Like I, I see the covers. I’m like, oh, I didn’t know about this.

Casey: Good on a bookshelf man. Yeah, they do. So, I’m assuming you, you love writing for a mighty Morphin power Rangers. Before that you said that you worked at bad robot. What exactly did you do there?

Ryan Parrott: Yeah. Well, before I, before I worked in comics or right around the time I started, I was I was JJ Abrams assistant for two years.

Yeah, it was, it was a weird, like weird path to get that job. It was completely random.

Casey: Oh yeah. I [00:12:00] don’t know the most powerful man in Hollywood.

Ryan Parrott: Yeah. W yeah, no, and I, I, I picked them all as dry cleaning. I was a big dry-cleaning guy and, you know, it was, it was cool. Like, I, I worked, I was actually, before I got into, like, when I was trying to make it as a writer and trying to forget some stuff, I was a nanny and took care of two kids, both of which are professional baseball players now, by the way, at one place for the reds.

So he’s a, he’s playing right now. That’s awesome. Yeah. I taught him everything in this. It was the nanny for those two kids and the, their mother was the head of TV about robots. So when they basically got so old that I couldn’t drive them around anymore she was like, Hey, I know you’re, you’re, you’re a writer and filmmaker, would you be interested in interning at bat robot?

And I was like, yeah, that’d be great. That would, that’s an amazing that I was, I think my first day as Jay’s assistant was the day before the finale of last. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I got to go to the finale with all of the cast and like, it was crazy. Like, it’s just like, that’s a weird job. Like your second day is like, you’re standing next to Damon Lindelof at the finale and I’m like, Hey, I love the show.

But yeah, so like I ended up. [00:13:00] I worked there for like two years. I worked there for like six months as an intern. And then eventually JJ was like, Hey, I need a new second assistant and all cause one of the things that’s kind of cool, there’s a lot of his second assistants have all gone on to become T TV writers.

They’re basically sort of, it’s like an apprenticeship a little bit. You work for them and get to, you know, be with them on set and sit in on meetings and read stuff. And it’s a great place to learn because bad robot does so much. Like I think when I was there. On to my right. I would do this thing where I like, kind of look because my desk was in the middle of the office and to the right was all the TV stuff.

And we had like five TV shows on the air. And then when we left, we were doing mission impossible and JJ was directing star Trek and stranger, or at, to add to that super eight And so like, like there was just, it was a great place to learn how to do film and TV and and so like, it was great to just be a part of that and be on set and watch him and stuff.

He’s a wonderful guy. He really is. I could not say never yelled at me. He had plenty of opportunities to I, the only thing I was mad, the only thing I was mad about. Cause I like, and I worked on the, his TV show revolution was. I remember like the second, I think it was like the beginning of season two.

I, I was in the [00:14:00] room when he, they, they revealed he was going direct new star wars movie. And I literally emailed them. I was like, did you wait until after I left to take over the one thing that I would give anything to them, like for a small thing of, here’s a funny little anecdote Morgan Damron was the person who replaced me.

She was the girl that had been on star Trek, and I was like, Hey, you should be at the second system when I leave. And her name is Morgan Damron. And so if you want to know where Poe Dan’s name came from. So if I stayed the whole parrot and everybody knows who I am, so.

Casey: That’s wild. That is wild. So, and you got to, you said you got to write the star Trek comics based off of working with JJ.

Ryan Parrott: Yeah. Yeah. They, they were, they, they were doing some . They were doing construction on comic books and. I was aware of the show. Cause I watched the first movie and they were writing the second one. And so he was like, Hey, he, and since I’d done Batman, it was sort of like, okay, you’ve done this before. And I’d love [00:15:00] some people that I know to be on this because Kristen Orsi was doing most of the books with a guy named Mike Johnson.

And so they just called the Mike and they were like, Hey, we’d love Ryan to be involved. And I know Mike was pissed when that happened. Cause he was like, really, they’re going to send some guy over here to get me this. He gets a right. And we, we sat or we have lunch and He was like very standoffish about the whole thing.

And I was like, oh, whatever you want. And he let me write the first issue. And then he called me after the first issue. And he was like, this is pretty good, man. I was like, oh, thanks. He’s like, do you want to do some more? I was like, what is like, yeah, like we’ll just keep writing together. And so we we’ve worked really good friends now we’ve been working together on other thing.

So he’s, he’s a fantastic writer, taught me everything I know about comic books, but it was a really funny to like, he told me after that, he’s like, yeah, I wasn’t real cool with you coming in, but you’re pretty good. So

Casey: that’s, that’s awesome. And I can definitely see like the transition of going from a team book, like star Trek.

To then going into power Rangers.

Ryan Parrott: That totally makes sense. I mean, if you’re, if you’re reading omega power injure books right now that would fight feature in the omega Rangers, [00:16:00] like it’s very star Trek. Like I’m not even hiding the fact that it’s very much a travel, the other worlds and moral, moral ambiguity and, you know, parables and all this stuff.

But yeah, I think that’s the one thing that’s, it’s the one thing about comics. That’s interesting and it kind of applies to every industry, but like, once you do one thing and they do it well enough to keep the job, like if you, once you’ve done like a license ensemble book. W Y it’s, it’s a lot easier to get more licensed ensemble books because you’ve done it.

Like you’ve learned that like star Trek is, you know, you’re right. Like, look, when you write the comic books for star Trek, you know that they’re, they’re the tale and the movies or the dog. Right. So you’ve got these stories that are character based because you can’t kill anybody because you’re what, Kirk’s not going to die in the comic book, spoiler alert.

Right. So you have to figure out a way to tell a story that is interesting and. I think the way someone explained it to me was it was like people who pick up licensed comic books want to hang out and with the characters longer than they were able to in the movies or TV [00:17:00] show. And so they really care about those characters and they want to spend time with them.

So the goal is try and do as much character as possible. Because they also know that you’re the big stuff’s going to happen in the movies, in the show, right? Like that’s the, where they’re going to save that. So, so once you, so it’s a good way once you’ve done that, you’ve learned that it’s helpful to sort of.

Use that like in the same way that, like I learned like how to do that with the star Trek characters. I’ve learned that when I did that with, you know, army of darkness or when I did it with the power Rangers oriented and stuff, like it’s like that thing where like, it’s like, you know, like in the show, like in the same, it’s a little bit different than power Rangers because you’re kind of doing a sequel prequel kind of thing, you know, it’s, it’s sort of like, Side timeline.

So it’s looks like, but like, you know, I can’t kill the characters because they were in the show. And so it’s a little different, but you know, you just try to warm your way through that and try to find the cracks and the areas that haven’t been. They haven’t really been mined and, and mind those. And I think that’s something I learned just by working in licensed book where you have to sort of find different places for story.

Has

Casey: that [00:18:00] allowed you like a greater degree of creativity, just because you have to go for the not obvious thing?

Ryan Parrott: I, what it taught me was not even like a greater sort of, I think what it taught me was what’s the most important stuff. I think we all get really excited about like death and like characters dying and big moments, you know?

Like I feel like that’s up is really like that stuff like gets, and that’s the stuff that you can pick the book up, right. That this is going to die. But I think the stuff that we actually. Walk away from like the stuff that you read the book and you go, I think the thing that is the difference between what makes a good book or not, isn’t, isn’t a shocking moment, but it was like, did you enjoy the story?

And did you enjoy the time with the character? Like there’s somebody said something to me a long time ago. I thought that was really smart, which is that plot is an excuse for character. You know what I mean? In the sense of like you only, when you tell a story, you create a situation so that it can reveal stuff about your character.

Is that makes sense? Like that idea, like you literally go, oh wow. I would love it. You create the plot is an excuse to [00:19:00] go like for it’s I’ll use Batman. It’s like, oh my gosh, like. He has to hang out with the joker. Like he has to work with the joker. That’s the plot, right. Batman and joker go on a detective scene.

But the point is because you want to see how Batman reacts to the situation. You want to see how, what you’re going to learn about him and how he’s gonna, it’s gonna what’s what’s surprising things are gonna come out because of the plot. So like that’s the thing that I learned from learning, like working at license was like, What’s the interesting stuff to unpack.

Like what are the things that I get us that like, for instance, like I did go go power Rangers for a little while. And to this day, it’s the one thing people will seem to like more than anything else I’ve done. And. And it’s just because they, like, I love that you dug into the characters. I love that you gave us information about Billy and skull being friends when they were kids or digging into what, why Jason got into martial arts and, you know, the fact that.

Billy, you know, like, like, Billy with the issues he had with overcoming, you [00:20:00] know, dealing with his own insecurities about being old with all these amazing athletes and this sort of, this nebbish kid who doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he doesn’t feel comfortable in his own body. Like those are the things that people who read the book, or really, those are the things I talked to me about.

It’s not the Zuora battle. It’s not the, I love the monster. You create an issue for it’s the character stuff. And I feel like that’s what I’m always trying to look for now is like, that’s what I think I learned from. From working in these books with these characters, it was like, what are the things that the people are read

Casey: valued?

And you’re giving them something to relate to like a window into that world that they they see in

Ryan Parrott: themselves. Yeah. I mean, my whole first run of go-go was based upon my high school in the sense that like when I was 14, they built a new high school. So all of my friends, I had a group of like six or seven friends and they built a brand new high school on the other side of the on the, in the, so they split our district down the middle.

So half of my friends went to one high school and half of us went to another and we would hang out on the weekends. But after time we basically lost connection because you know, you hang out with people from school. And [00:21:00] so what I wrote power into that was like, what if. That’s what this is. What if there was actually six friends in Gaga, there was the five of them.

And there was a character named Matt who was dating Kimberlyn was friends with, with, with them who didn’t know who wasn’t chosen to be a power ranger. And he, and they can’t tell him. Why they keep going off with them by themselves and why they have an inner middle gen side jokes. And it was just, that was based on the idea of forgotten friends and those friends you lose.

It was all about just high school stuff. Like what it means to slowly grow apart from people and how they can still matter to you. And that was all I, that was the, that was my entire approach. That was my pitch. For powering because it was like, how could I make it like high school? How can I make the people have the you’re already dealing?

That’s why I, you know, that’s why all the stuff with the monsters, those are just metaphors for high school problems. You know, like there’s one where Kimberly’s boyfriend gets turned into a puddy and she’s dating a guy. And it was just like, did like what happens when somebody, you think, you know, someone, but you don’t actually know them that well, it was just like, it was all just taken are real high school problems.

And just applying them in to sort of the, the [00:22:00] power injure, your mythology.

Casey: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So is, is it hard to get into, like when you write for IP? Is it hard to get into those characters that have already been so well established by other people? Do you kind of have to make your own rules or are you able to as the band puts it, take what you need and leave the rest?

Ryan Parrott: I think it’s kind of a double-edged sword a little bit. I think on one side they are well-established characters. So like everybody who grew up on the characters, they know how Billy talks, they know how Jason talks and Zach talks and then Kimberly talks. Training and like, they know that so it’s a little different because they’re not coming.

If you create your own characters, you get to establish who they are, how they talk and what they do. Right. So you’re a little bit burdened by the fact that like, you gotta get the voices right. Or they’ll know. Yeah, exactly. Right. So are you getting called out? Oh yeah. All the time and for dessert. So, but I feel to, to me, what I’ve always been, trying to figure [00:23:00] out is like, I, I try to sort of.

In the same way that like an artist who draws a character, they give their own kind of slant on them. Right? Like if you look at a whole bunch of different artists drawing different characters, like if you’ve seen. Somebody read off, like we’ve had four or five really amazing artists, all draw power engines, but they all draw the characters a little different, right.

They, they do their own, they look like the character, you know, but they’re a little different style. And so that’s cool. Right? That’s their style. And as long as you get, you know, most of it, right. We’re okay with it. Not everybody but most, but I feel like our writers are the same way. Like, you know, I try to make all the characters sound the way that I remember them, the way that I want them to, but also give them my.

I give them my own slack. Like one thing that I learned that was really interesting was. When I’m empowers, this is spoiler to anybody who’s gonna listen to. This is when Jason and Zach leave the power and yours and go off to become the omega Rangers. What was really interesting to me was I brought in the stone canyon trio, which was which is Iyisha Adam and Rocky.

And I realized as I started writing those issues, [00:24:00] that the energy of the team totally changed because. Everybody else had like a very set, like, you know, Zach’s the funny one or Zach’s the one who, you know, is that the funny one and trainees the heart and Kimberly’s the edge. And like th they all sort of, I can, I can, I could, they all sort of provided a different aspects to every situation.

So when I brought in these three new characters, I had to sort of re figure out how they would benefit the group and benefit the writing of the group. And that’s the hard part that, but that was ended up being fun, because what I got to do is I got to sort of. Remodel them in my own head. Like for instance, one thing I really like is I actually the actress who plays Aisha I’ve actually, I’ve got to hang out with her at signings before, so I know her very well and, and what’s great is when I’ve seen her at, at like, when she’s out with big group, big group of people, she’s the one in charge.

Like she decides where we go to eat everybody in check. And so I was like, you know what, I’m going to write that. Like, that’s the way I usually is in the comments. That’s awesome. And I don’t know if she actually was [00:25:00] that way in the show, but that’s the way that I know Karen. And so, like, I just liked that concept.

And so like, I just try to take the parts that, you know, and try and make it as close as possible. But I also try to figure out like, you know, what makes the most interesting character, how do I make, like, I love dumb Rocky. I think Rocky is awesome, but I like, I like to play him a little bit more of a bro, like a little bit more of a jock than he probably wasn’t the show because I just like the energy that he gives to the team.

That’s

Casey: awesome. And by doing that by kind of shaking the team up a little bit, do you think you were able to kind of leave a little bit more of your mark onto the book? Was that even like a conscious decision? Was that even something that you thought of.

Ryan Parrott: I want us to, I want to be here.

Casey: Yeah, we’re called smaller country, but don’t no, no,

Ryan Parrott: no. I think, look, I think everybody who writes a book wants to, like, I look at it this way. It’s like, [00:26:00] there’s. Every comic book that’s out there. They’re like Seminole, but works in that book. Right. There’s like, you know, like if you go pick up, I use Batman a lot.

Cause I know that. And like, if you look at Batman, is there there’s those like long Halloween and dark victory and lonely death in the family. Like those books that are like staples. Like if you, if someone wants to know like, okay, if you want a Batman, when you go pick up these books. And I think every writer or artist wants to be a part of to make something that is like the brick in the wall of those characters.

I I, you know, so like, I hope that, you know, when people go, Hey, you know, you should read the power of your books. I hope that one of my stories or one of my runs is something that they go, you should definitely go read, go, go volumes one through three. You should definitely go read necessary evil. You should definitely go read ultimate power.

Like I think that that would be cool because I think it would be great too. Give back to the characters that have given me so much over the years, you know, you just want to help, you want to make sure that you like anybody. Who’s a licensed comic writer, even non-licensed comic writers. We’re all kind of, unless it’s a creator owned book, [00:27:00] we’re all just leasing these characters, like someone.

Yeah. Yeah, like the next person’s like Frank’s going to come in, you know, at some point or someone else is going to come in and write more, you know, rights and power ranger stuff. And I’m not going to be the one in charge of that anymore. And so like, I gotta make sure that I, I added to that character, but also didn’t break them and made them hopefully better.

So that the next person that comes along can take that and carry it along as well. So like, I think that’s, that’s what I like is this idea that hopefully I can add a little to it and then hopefully make it. Create a little bit of a, one of the things I really wanted to do when it’s a go power on, cause I really wanted to create a little bit more of a Rogue’s gallery.

I didn’t want it to just be read and Zed. I wanted to clean the lens cause I love, I think different villains can bring a different things in the characters. And so I created, I created a bunch of villains that are sort of out in the wind that I just created and I’m like, hopefully somebody down the line goes.

That’s a cool character. I want to bring them back and do some story with them. Cause that’s what I was when I was a kid. Like I read Batman comic books and I go, okay, I want to do a scarecrow story or I want to do a Mr. Freeze story. I want to do a, you know, the, the ventriloquist, like all those crazy [00:28:00] characters.

Cause they’re fun. And I hope somebody wants to do the same thing with the power. Yeah. So that’s just more toys

Casey: in the sandbox. So that’s awesome. Yeah. Being that you’ve done so many IP stuff When you go back, you can see other people do projects that you’ve, you’ve worked on previously. Is it hard to see where they’re taking it or are you just like, eh, that’s, that’s their interpretation.

I’m always curious about that.

Ryan Parrott: I think, look, I, this is something that I’ve heard. And I don’t know if it later, if it’s true, because I haven’t really had the opportunity yet, but I’m pretty sure Mo a lot of creators who like finish a run, never go back and read what the person did after that. Like, I’ve heard that from like some big time.

Writers and like Marvel and DC, it’s like, oh, they took over, I left Nightwing and then they like never read an issue after that. It was just like, you know, I get it. It’s like, it’s your kid, right? Like, you’d let them for a little while. And it’d be hard. It’d be like, it’s like you date somebody. It’s like, you don’t want to go on their Instagram unless, you know, maybe you do, you don’t wanna go on their Instagram and look at how they, how, how great they [00:29:00] are and how happy they are after the fact.

But I, I think one thing that I have sort of learned is like, There’s been versions of stuff or like I wrote something and then someone else came in and ran with it and I’m like, why wouldn’t have done that? But that’s okay. Because they took it and told the story they wanted to tell. And, and that’s cool.

I, I feel like definitely down the line, you know, that’s going to be more of a hopefully if I keep working more of a thing I I’m trying to be, I just try to be remembered like, I, I think it’s when you, I followed him, Kyle’s done a lot of runs and I followed after Kyle. One thing that has been interesting is like, that’s a nice thing.

Cause we’re really good friends. So like, I sort of like. I know, I’m sure he would read my books and be like, that’s not at all what I would have done, but that’s okay. Like, I feel like that’s the way it just like everybody it comes and does the best they can. And then you do, you know, hopefully tell the stories that matter when people like them and you know, some people aren’t, some of them aren’t.

So like, I just sorta, like, I sort of think about it and be like, look, I, I didn’t create, I’m already working off other [00:30:00] people’s creations already. So it’d be weird for me to be sort of. Angry that someone else is doing the same to mine. If that makes sense.

Casey: Yeah. So I want to ask you a little bit about process if that’s okay.

Writing comics is, is a team sport. You have had some really amazing artists that you work with. And I want to know, like how involved are they in the day-to-day of the storytelling? Is it that you read the scripts and just send it off to them and they just handle it from there? Or do you kind of collaborate with them as you go as you’re planning it out?

Ryan Parrott: Oh they are my puppets. No, I’m kidding. I’m just telling you, it’s sort of varies from artist to artist. Also depending on how much time you have in prep and yeah, one time when they come in on, like for instance like Dan Mora and I, so my, my first power is broken with Dan Mora. Who, if, you know, if you don’t know who Dan Moore is out there, go look at his eyes.

Amazing. He’s amazing. He’s he is, I was just talking to him the other day about this. I was like, [00:31:00] I am see he’s right now, like drawing like two books. And like, I know he’s doing another on this, like it’s incredible. Yeah. Do you have one please? Yes. Monthly. Oh my God. And I was like, I don’t know how many artists are doing one book a month and you’re doing two in like a third, like another thing.

And he’s also like, and I was like, do you have like a twin brother that you like chained up? And you’re basically, he just draws for you all the time. Like, he’s incredible. He’s absolutely amazing. But like, for instance, when he came on a go-go, like we had a lot of time because we were like, we want to make sure that we got the book.

Right. And there was, nobody knew it was coming out. So we had a little bit of time to do some other things. And so, like, I worked on the, I worked on the outline for a long time. I’d sent him the outline early. He started doing character designs really early. And so it was a really. Like it was a really smooth process because I was able to, he was able to look at the outlines and start doing, you know, like if you have time, it’s really great to work with your artists to, you know, not only create new characters, but like, think about, like to have that time to be able to go like, okay, so this has been the monster that you designed I’d love it.

It could be like this. I was thinking it was more like this. This is why [00:32:00] why did you do this? Oh, okay, cool. There are, for instance there’s another thing that was really fun was when I was working with Daniella. I think designing the omega Rangers their weapons I had in my head, I had come up with what their weapons would be.

And then he did the designs of like, of the actual, of the actual migrates and that he drew the weapons. And I was like, no, man, these, these weapons are all wrong. And he was like, no, but then he explained to me why he had done that. And it was because he wanted you to go off the alchemy symbols of who they were.

And so. Trainee who was earth has the hammer and, and Zach who is air, has the co the commas, which spin through the year and the, and, and Kaia who has the, the, his water had the Trident. And I was like, oh my God, I’m an idiot. That’s really, really smart. And so that’s the thing where it had had he just done what I asked it wouldn’t be, it wouldn’t have been as good.

And he had just put so much more thought into it. So I think. It depends on like, so yeah, I’m sort of spinning around a little bit. I apologize. But

Casey: like I, I like hearing this and I like hearing the different, like. [00:33:00] It’s not all set in stone, how you do it is, is that’s what I’m getting it. And it’s kind of situational based on the artist and time.

Ryan Parrott: Yeah, it really does come down to time. I think comic books in essence are one of the hardest mediums I think, to work in, in some ways, because you just have such a tight schedule. I mean, you literally have to get the scripts gotta be done, right. You have 30 days to draw them, color them, letter them things gotta go fast.

And it’s w it’s one of the great things about comic books is because they’re always. You know, there it’s really great. You, you draw something, you write something and then in three months that things out, or four months that things out and it’s on screen and people reading crazy. And, and there’s a lot of give and take in comics that are really great.

Because like you can be writing something and then the book comes out and someone will say something like, oh, I’m writing that in this issue right now. So I can do that as opposed to TV and film where it’s like, once you finish it, you know, it’s just its own comics or not. You have a little bit more freedom.

But it was the to answer your question it sort of depends on the artist. The longer you work with the artist, the, the less the less [00:34:00] What’s the word I’m looking for. Like, I’m pretty well in the first few issues of whenever I, whenever I wrote, like we’re the new, new artists those first issues are usually very detailed in the script because I don’t quite know the give and take it.

I don’t know how you like to draw. I don’t know if you’re going to underst, like if you’re going to interpret what I meant, if it is there a clarity issue. Sometimes there’s also a language barrier because I work with a lot of, a lot of artists. So like, there’s the little bit of that give and take at the beginning, but then as you work, the longer you work, the script, the scripts get cleaner and cleaner and things get a little bit, you tend to trust the artists a lot more.

And then what’s really great about that is you work with somebody long enough. You can get there to becomes a bit of a give and take because you start to realize, oh, this is what they like to draw. Like, cause what’s really fun is you’ll, they’ll send a script in, right? And then the artists will send back thumbnails of the pages they’re going to draw, but they send them in the order.

That they want to draw them. They don’t send them in the order. It’s not like you get pages one, two, three, four, you get page like 16, 14, and 11. And so you start to learn real quickly. [00:35:00] What are the things that the artist wants to draw and what are the stuff that he’s just like, I’ll get to that. And so you start to like, realize, okay.

I, as, as somebody who was an artist at one point, I always want to try and script a book that the artist gets and goes, oh my gosh, I cannot wait to draw this. This is so much fun. Like nobody, nobody got into drawing comic books. Cause they’re like, I really want to draw two people sitting at a coffee table talking about their feelings for 12 or 22 pages.

You know what I mean? Especially if you’re drawing power Rangers, you want to draw them in the suits and the helmets on the Zords fighting. So like you got to find a way to like balance out the character and all that stuff. So I think that’s the fun thing about every, every, every situation is a little bit different.

Every. Partnerships a little different, you, you learn from each other and you start to hopefully work on each other’s strengths. And sometimes it can be, I will say this, like I’ve had some artists carry me, I’ve had artists, or I wrote a page and that artist is like that artist made that page 10,000 times better.

And I get to say all the credits. So it’s really nice.

Casey: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, [00:36:00] it’s always really gratifying when you send in a script and you immediately hear back from the artists like, holy shit. I can’t wait to do that at my I’m working on a book right now with a guy who is my co-creator he’s in England, so he’s six hours ahead of me.

And he he finished my script. It was like two in the morning. I have to wake up at four for

Ryan Parrott: work.

Casey: And immediately, like, as soon as I get up, I’m getting a call from him. Like, holy crap, I can’t wait to do this. I’m like, let me wake up.

Ryan Parrott: Even being six hours ahead, I’m sure you wake up a lot to like the thumbnails in the, in the, like you wake up and you’re like, oh, it’s magic.

That’s the best thing to when like you get those pages, like you’re like wake up and you’re like, oh yeah.

Casey: So when you, when you write. Do you have any process with that as like, do you listen to music? What do you do you have to have it silent? What do you, what do you do to get you in the mode to actually get those [00:37:00] gears?

Turning.

Ryan Parrott: I, it sort of depends on the process. We just got a puppy oh, that, that tears

Casey: everything up. I have two kids, two dogs. Yeah.

Ryan Parrott: Oh yeah. It’s okay. Yeah. And like, that’s the, it’s a, it’s a little bit of a process. And so like gets thrown off the schedule a little bit, but yeah, I mean, my process is pretty simple.

I attend to outline pretty I tend to outline pretty, pretty, pretty depth wise. Like, you know, if it’s a four. If it’s a forest view article, I’ll probably have like an eight page outline. So it’s like two pages per issue, just to sort of thing. Just, I feel like the worst thing you can do, look, some writers are very different than me, but like, I feel like where you, when you know where you’re going it’s a lot easier to write how to get there.

I mean, that’s like, no, your ending, no, your ending. No, no. Your point, right? No, no, that, and I have to know the ending of the point because. It’s you’ll realize if you don’t know it, you kind of, if the is fuzzy you’ll, you’ll start writing and you’ll, you’ll re that’s where I think writer’s block is actually comes from, it comes from this idea of not knowing what you’re writing towards.

That’s why I think everybody can write a first act of a movie because like, [00:38:00] because, so you’re just writing it, right. And you haven’t really figured out how you’re going to pay it off. So you’re just writing a writing and hit 35 40 pages. And all of a sudden stuff starts to actually have to pay off. And you’re like, wait, what?

What’s the point of my story? So for an outline, I write like, you know, a four to eight pages. And then I will panel what I, I do a thing called paneling, which is basically, I don’t, maybe this is probably what the other people do, but I just go through it. And I, I break down the script into pages. And I just write down what the point of each pages and then I will, and once I’ve done that and I sort of like go, I start at the beginning of the end, I go back and forth like, all right, page one is page one through three, is the speed, the speed, the speed.

Then I’m going to the end and I’m okay, this is the ending. And then I’ll just sort of. Yeah. I think when you go back and forth, you’re like, go backwards. So you sort of, so you know how much room you have, so you don’t get to the end of the script and everything. Oh, crap. I have an entire actually was this two pages, you know, you want to make sure you give yourself enough room, so I’ll do that.

But I write like that. And then when I go to script, actually write everything long from long form. First I I write in a notebook, so I’ll write, I’ll write it out. Longhand. [00:39:00] Yeah. And then I type it in because it’s, it’s a way of getting like a second draft, unless I’m really behind which I am right now on deadline.

I will probably do a thing where I’ll have, like, I know book next to me, I’ll start writing the scene and then I’ll just start typing it just so I can get past that process. Yeah.

Casey: That’s actually a smart way to do it is the, the notebook to, to typing because

Ryan Parrott: I’ve always felt that my, my brain works. I can write faster.

Long form. Like I can like typing. It’s almost too quick for me. Like it’s too fast. Like, I mean, since like, when you write slow, when you write long form, it allows your brain to like, Wait for like, so you’re write it out, right? You’re like, okay. Tommy walks into a room. Why is your writing that you can already start thinking of what the next thing is?

And so there’s a weird timing of, of being able to write long form that allows my brain to let not slow down when I’m typing. And there’s just something about it. It also, I tricked my brain into something being less permanent. You know, if you don’t have to get it perfect. You tend to be [00:40:00] more fluid. And so like, if you’re just writing it long or if you know, this isn’t even the final version he was going to see, you can cross stuff out and you can just keep writing.

So it just as a weird, like, I just got to trick my brain into like getting out of it’s out of its own way.

Casey: I’ve gotten to where I write like one shitty draft, just boom. Just type it out. And then. I go through and highlight or change the color of the crap that I don’t like and don’t need. So it’s in red and I can always go back and look at the red notes.

Ryan Parrott: Let me guess how often do you actually go back and use it? You go back and use some of the red stuff, right? Occasionally. And

Casey: then a lot of times though, I’m like, that’s fat. That can cut that fat. It’s not like, not like the red words in the Bible that you, you need to read. It’s, it’s the red words that are, that are dumb.

And it’s me, you know, taking more time to get there. It’s like, In family circle cartoons when like Billy would go all across the [00:41:00] neighborhood and you’d see like the little dotted line. That is my red notes.

Ryan Parrott: Yeah. No, I totally understand that. There’s a, I think sometimes that’s a thing. If you’re, if you hit like a dead end or you hit us, like you, you know, the scene has to be something and you sit down and start to write the scene and you’re like, just, haven’t quite figured out that really great way in.

So you just start, I just do the same thing. I’ll just start writing the scene. And I’ll go and I’ll go. And there’ll be times where they will write like you’ll you’ll know, it’s not right. You’re just writing the scene. Like two are talking, right. At some point in the middle, you go, there’s the first line.

Okay. Now I know the first line. And so you knew everything you just wrote, you know, is all gone, but what’s great is it was probably like one or two things in there. You’re like, okay, I know this is the first line. Can I work those two? Back into this part. So yeah, I totally know. It’s like, sometimes you just gotta, you gotta write the story out of you.

You gotta sort of just, just, just get it out on the page so that you can, you can, you can then start to pull it apart and realize, okay, I don’t need all that. I just need that one part, but like, that’s a good way to do it. And I do the same thing. Yeah.

Casey: If somebody drops like a really awesome line, you’re like, I [00:42:00] can use

Ryan Parrott: that for later.

So yeah.

Casey: I love talking to people about process. Cause I’m learning. Not at all, like, I did my first comic Kickstarter a few months back and we finally got that fulfilled and it was great and it’s fun. And I want to do more, but I’m not at all like a writer. I’m just a dude who writes when my kids go to bed.

That’s all riders are that you’re a writer, but so is it okay? Do you have anything coming up that we need to know about. Cause it sounds like you

Ryan Parrott: stay busy. I am. I’m a little busy right now. What is it going up? We are. I think we’re I’m writing right now. I’m writing mighty Morphin power Rangers, which is two comic books right now.

And they are sort of connected issue 10 of mighty Morphin is going to be a really exciting issue that sort of digs into Zuora on his past. We’ve been hinting at it for about 11 it’s about nine issues. Now that it’s up some stuff it’s coming. So that is going to be a really fun issue. Dan Mora drew [00:43:00] that, which was really cool to get to work with him again.

And so that’s a big one. And then yeah, I mean, I think there’s going to be some interesting. I think these next few issues of our vendors are going to get a lot of people talking hopefully, or at least the fans excited about what we’re going to do. I’m in the process of writing them as soon as this call is over.

So, but that’s this stuff. And then I think that’s. I’ve written. If anybody’s looking for any of my creator owned stuff, I did a book called dead day, which is with aftershock. They put out some great stuff. They do, I’ve done three books with them and they actually took me. I went with the head of the company to the Clippers game on, on Sunday.

Oh, nice. Nice. I’m sorry from Texas. And, and I apologize, but it was really great, but yeah, I did a book called dead day, which is basically the pitches. Excuse me. If the dead could come back for one day a year, would you want them to, and so it’s sort of like the purge, but basically the dead come back.

Some of the dead come back for one night from sunset to sunrise and, and it’s what the world’s like when that happens. And that was a lot of fun to do. And a [00:44:00] lot of, I think it’s got some good reviews, so that’s pretty cool. And then I suppose stuff coming up in future that I can’t quite talk about yet.

But we will if you like like power Rangers, it might be some more stuff coming down the line. So.

Casey: Anytime you want to come back and talk to us about power Rangers about creator owned stuff hit us up. Cause I’ve, I’ve really enjoyed talking to you. I understand you worked with Sina grace on on a power injuries book.

Super good guy. Oh, amazing. I really enjoy talking to him. He was a fun person to

Ryan Parrott: chat with. He came in. I, I will say this. He might be one of the most professional people I’ve ever worked with in regards to just coming in, in a really tough situation. You know, coming in sort of in the middle of a run when I was already writing the other book and he came in and just, I really, I think his voice is second to none.

I think his character sound like it was so fun. Like we write scenes together and there was a scene where he wrote a line where the character was like, I think mercury is in full retro grade. And I was like, I didn’t know what that meant, but I was like, Jason wouldn’t know what that meant either. So I literally wrote the scene.

I don’t know what that means, [00:45:00] but okay. And it was like that perfect example of like two people just writing a scene where it was the honest truth, but yeah, I think send this. Stuff’s amazing. I love his, I love his Iceman run and I think is some of the image books are really great and he’s just, I would work with him in a second.

He’s fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Super

Casey: good guy. And a much needed voice in comics and seeing, seeing that he goes from his creator owned stuff to writing power Rangers, like seamlessly. Yeah. It’s the type of talent that boom is picking up. Yourself included like, oh my gosh, it takes talent to be able to to go from, from IP books that everybody knows and ride them competently and add so much more to it and then go into your creator on stuff and do that and have your own voice with that.

It blows my mind the level of talent that is in comics right now. Is there anybody that’s blow your loan, your hair back?

Ryan Parrott: Well, my back right now, I’m wearing Tom king [00:46:00] stuff. Not as Batman enough, but I just read a strange adventures, which was just absolutely amazing.

Casey: I slept on that. And I regret that I did, because I I’ve heard that it it sticks the

Ryan Parrott: landing.

Yeah. I haven’t finished anything. I’ve got like two or three left, but I think what’s so cool about his type of writing is that he. There’s a way, I’m sure there’s another rider. You know what I mean? Like there’s a way that you kind of construct the story in your head. Most of the time, depending on how you do it, we all kind of do that.

Right. But like I, Tom constructs a story in a completely different linear way than I do. And the way that he sort of breaks down, like he just, he moves at a different pace. He moves in a different tempo. He T really writes from character. His BA is Superman up in the air book is fantastic. And so I got really, I’ve enjoyed reading his stuff because I just, he just, he just looks at comic books in a very different way than I do.

I just started getting back into a hundred bullets. I’m rereading a hundred bullets by why am I blinking on the R. No. It’s what is, that is not good. He wrote joker to that book. Joker. [00:47:00] I will be looking at it. I’m sorry. So sorry. It’s not bad radio. You shouldn’t know this It is written by Brenda’s relo thing.

I love his genre stuff. Like I’ve been rereading. I have, like I have in my bookshelf and I’m just going back and rereading that. So like I really, the, his stuff’s so cool. Cause it’s got this very kind of like cool and sort of like. It’s filmed to our super hero and some of our kind of like dark, edgy stuff that I really love.

What else am I reading right now? I don’t get to read as much as I like to because I’m so behind on stuff. But those are the two that are sort of the ones I keep going back to. As just sort of like the benchmarks and stuff, just like, you know, I think you always want to try and find books that sort of like challenge you.

Like you’re like, I could never write this. You need to

Casey: finish player piano by the way, because I saw you, I saw you tweeted.

Ryan Parrott: I do. I got to finish that. Yeah, that was Jonah Nolan was talking about how that was the inspiration for star wars. Part of the inspiration for Westworld. Oh, really? Yeah. So I was like, oh, that’s cool.

I Jonah’s I got into filmmaking because of memento. Like that was my favorite movie of all time.

Casey: And [00:48:00] one of the first movies I rented

Ryan Parrott: with my wife actually. Oh, really? That’s awesome. Yeah. I got to, I saw that in film school and I got to meet Jonah. Jonah did person of interest at bad robot. So I got to know him.

A little bit and, and we got to talk about some stuff. And so like, he’s just this really smart guy. And so the , I was like, I shouldn’t be, it’s funny again. I should probably read that. But yeah, there’s a bunch of them. My, well, my whole bedside tables. Ridiculous. Right now there’s so much stuff that I got to get to and then I’ll read like half of it and then I’ll be like, I got to read something else.

I’ll get ADHD for books.

Casey: So earlier you were talking about a comic shop that used to go to when you were a kid that’s no longer around. Is there any comment, shots that you would like to shout out now because we want to keep these places? Yeah.

Ryan Parrott: Oh yeah. Also, I mean, if you in LA I would say go to golden apple, go to collector’s paradise and Pasadena.

Those are the two best places that I know. A brave new world which is a little outside of town is a great place. I do agree with you. I think right now, I, I think comic book stores are more important than ever. And I mean that in a sense that. There are so much material out there. It’s, there’s [00:49:00] so many comic books.

If you’ve tried to find a new comic book, it’s you walk into a store and it’s, it’s a thousand issues and they’re all just a cover. You’ve no idea. And so if you’re looking for new books, if you want to discover new books, the person that you have, the people there. No, the good books, they are the ones you want to talk to.

Those curators are so valuable right now. If you’re looking for new material, that’s how I’ve always found the net. I, every time I go into, whenever I go do signings or any of that, I would go to a convict stump, a store in the area, and I will talk to the person behind the desk and be like, what are you reading?

What do you love? And then I’ll check out two or three books because that’s how you find good stuff. So yeah, if there’s a combo store company near our comeback store nearby, you go there and the people behind this, the staff, they, they live that world. They know that world and they there’s nothing.

They like more than sharing books with people that that’s why they kind of do it. That’s why I kind of love it because like, you just see their eyes light up when you’re like, I’m looking for something new and they’re like, okay, what do you like? And they get excited. Cause it’s like, it’s almost like a, it’s like a test to see if [00:50:00] they can do it.

And it’s really, and it’s

Casey: a community space too. It’s. When I was a kid, I didn’t have anything around that near me. And there’s a shop down the road from where I work and I will see kids, you know, just kind of hanging out, checking stuff out. And it’s something that I’m worried is kind of going the way the Buffalo, like actual places where people can meet and nerd out nerd out about stuff rather than like discord or the internet where it could go either way.

Ryan Parrott: Like, yeah. It’s definitely the energy is shifting. I don’t know if it’s going away, but you’re right. It’s definitely, it’s definitely you lose that face-to-face thing. It’s becoming Reddit. It’s becoming discord. It’s becoming Twitter. But I will say this. I know there’s probably a lot of people listening to these podcasts who like want to do comic books.

If you want to do comics and you don’t live in Los Angeles, or you don’t live in a major metropolitan area, comic book stores are a great place to meet people [00:51:00] who want to do comic books too. Like if you interested there, go there. Talk to the people behind the counter. I guarantee you, they might know somebody who’s looking to do the same thing.

And if you want to make a great comic book, you got it and do it alone. It’s I mean, you can, it’s just hard. And it takes a really long time. And it’s fun when you work with other people. It’s more fun when you have another somebody who, you know, an editor or somebody can help with our co-writers and we’ve got some, like, I always know, people are like, how do I break into comic books?

How do I do that? If I don’t live in a major area and I, and I don’t have, you know, my brother’s not the editor at a company. It’s like, that’s the way you do it is you go find people. In your community that want to do the same things, find those people that like, I think the best thing in the world is when you go into a comic store and you meet somebody.

That has the same interest and the same lights that you like. Like you just, you’re speaking in a language that’s short English to be going in a shorthand. Those people like the best because they become lifelong friends and then you make something together and it’s like, it can be hard, but it can, it’s what you guys can help each other.

You can keep each other and push, you can keep pushing each other forward. [00:52:00] I love that part. I actually

Casey: met Frank Gogel, not, not at a comic shop, but at an online forum. And we, we have a Group called the comic jam. And before he started writing like stuff that you would actually buy in stores, he wrote a few things for the comic jam and having a community where you can push each other is so important.

Ryan Parrott: Yeah.

Casey: Man I’ve really enjoyed talking to, I don’t want to take any more of your time up, especially cause you have you got, you got deadlines, buddy. So let’s I’m going to go ahead and say thank you again for coming by and Let us know whenever you want to come back on. Really enjoyed talking to you, man.

Likewise man was great. All right. Take it easy. And we’ll get this up soon. Okay. All right. Take these brother. All right.

Ryan Parrott: Bye. Bye.