Bart & Michelle Sears talk Maiden!

Bart and Michelle Sears – Combined

[00:00:00] Kenric: All right guys. We’re back. I’m Kenrick. Of course. And today we’re so lucky because we have Bart and Michelle Sears here and they got a whole new thing coming out called maiden and it looks amazing, guys. I really appreciate you coming out. Thank you. Thanks so maiden. Oh yeah, no, it’s awesome to have you guys here really is.

Bart. I know you’ve been in comic books for. We’ll just say over a dog’s age and you’ve, you’ve done a lot. You’ve run the gambit. You’ve owned your own publishing company to working for the big two and a month of other things. Now you guys are working on maiden, you and Michelle together. What’s it like working together?

Go ahead and show.

Michelle Sears: Oh, I think it’s. Very cool. I enjoy it very much. It’s challenging.

[00:01:00] Kenric: Yeah. Is this your guys’ first foray in a partnership with, for this kind of thing?

Michelle Sears: Yes, I think so. Yeah,

Kenric: definitely. Yeah. Over the years we’ve

Bart Sears: developed ideas and stuff together, but this is the first one we’ve had the time to. Sell and

Kenric: produce. Yeah. Well, Bart, you’ve been a part of, a lot of different count book teams. What’s it like working with your wife on this? Is it, is it, is it more challenging because she can call you out on, on the BS or is it easier for you to get your points across?

Yes.

I always find it hard working with my partner. She’s always like, she calls me out quick.

Where did the, where? It goes both ways. Yeah. [00:02:00] All right, Michelle, is this your first writing experience in this type of medium? Yes, absolutely. Well, it’s, it’s a great, it’s a great concept. You have a vengeful spirit, but it’s more like an anthology cause you guys are going to have distinct stories that kind of are connected in a way.

And why don’t you give us a synopsis of what Maiden’s all about because I read the through that you get your, you, you, you gave, and now I want to go back and get the heavy metal three Oh two. So I can get that, that first look. Awesome.

Michelle Sears: Okay, so I’m not really good at this, but

Kenric: bear with me, maiden

Michelle Sears: maiden is there are Lenny stories when there could have been 40 stories, there could have been 60 stories and it’s really a story of sort of vengeance and there’s no, No redemption at all.

It’s just [00:03:00] straight up vengeance, which makes it really fun. I think, you know, but I’m like that,

Bart Sears: but you think, no, it’s pretty cool. I mean, women have been abused throughout history in rarely have a chance for I don’t know. Revenge. Yeah.

Kenric: Well

Michelle Sears: retribution. I mean, it’s, it’s really hard because there are of the 20 stories, the 20 different stories you know, one through 19 are each a different vessel for maiden spirit.

And then 20 you meet the inception of maiden. Yeah. Which is, it’s really a lot of fun.

Kenric: Michelle where’d you get your inspiration for the writing of it?

Did you have stories that you went back and read and said, Oh man, this makes me want to do this? [00:04:00]

Michelle Sears: Well, yes. I mean, they’re all the stories go across multiple genres. And I’ll read something. I’ll be like, Oh my God, that’s amazing story. Right there. Yeah, then we go and write it.

Bart Sears: It was

Kenric: really fun when we when heavy metal was

Bart Sears: interested, we immediately sat down and outlined our, you know, the 20 stories.

We knew the first story that I think we wrote the

Kenric: initial version of that. Years ago, long time ago, we were

Bart Sears: initially going to launch on Kickstarter and then I got busy with work and she got busy and we just never got around to it. And

Kenric: it’s my least favorite of all of them.

Michelle Sears: The first one’s like our

Kenric: favorite.

Cause

Bart Sears: we’ve lived with it for so long.

Kenric: I’m like this

Michelle Sears: story is like, My top three. So it’s really the first, one’s not even in my top five, but [00:05:00] because we’ve gone so far past it and really gotten

Kenric: into it. How many times did you rewrite that first story?

Michelle Sears: We’re still, are you writing

Bart Sears: or still.

Michelle Sears: You know, but the second story is like set in stone. I mean, there’s, there’s nothing to be changed about it in any way I would. Do you agree? Okay.

Kenric: The first

Bart Sears: story was funny because the way we wrote it, wasn’t for a comic book at all, and it

Kenric: didn’t work as a comic, right?

Bart Sears: Not in the format we’re doing for heavy metal.

So we really had to, you know, we took the same story and we just rewrote it to work better as a segmented you know, a chapter in series of chapters for heavy

Kenric: metal. So it’s, it’s been hard, a lot harder than

Bart Sears: we anticipated. That’s kind of cool though,

Kenric: actually. [00:06:00] Yeah, Michelle, how lucky is it to have somebody like Bart that has all of this experience in the comic book realm, and here you are writing maiden and you have a premiere artist and somebody who actually knows the ins and outs of how to do everything.

So when you’re working on that first one, or even all the way up to 20, is it? Cause I like me. If I sit down and write, it takes me 20 years, you know what I mean? To, to even come up with a concept and then they’re actually write out the panels. It’s it’s I don’t know, it’s tough. And to be able to lean on somebody like him, you know, how, how much of that really affected your writing?

Do you think?

Michelle Sears: All of it, it wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t there saying, you know, it’d be really cool if he, you know, and it definitely, I mean, maiden, it was an idea and I was like, you know, here’s this idea. I was like, you know, That’d be really cool. Well then you could do. And so [00:07:00] it was my initial idea, but it wouldn’t be what it is without his input.

Kenric: Is it weird though, to have you’re thinking of these things and when you write out your panels, you gotta write, you know, this is the action going, this is what’s going on in your head. Here’s the dialogue. And then he’s putting it to life. Did, did you kinda don’t I mean, to me, it’s like, When I, so I wrote a short story for an anthology a couple of years ago, and I got lucky enough to get Scott God list.

Scott, Scott, God Leschi on when he was in between projects. And he’s done work on a copperhead and Superman and the bat girl and bat woman. Cool. Yeah, he’s a great artist and I got really lucky, but to see the stuff come to life. What I had in my head and then have him actually bring it to life. Man, it made me fall in love with the guy I’ll, you know what I mean?

All over again with his work and his art and everything. And I’m wondering, Michelle, did you kind of have that feeling when you saw Bart putting that stuff together and then [00:08:00] you look at it, it just Springs off the page. At that point,

Michelle Sears: I think everything that I thought the story was has become so much more.

Yeah, I tend to be very scene centric when I write and working with Bart has really helped me look at the arc of a story and not just, this would be really cool. So

Kenric: that’s cool.

Yeah, it’s funny.

Bart Sears: We, you know, we write the scripts and get them done. And then I sit down to

Kenric: draw them and I start changes

to the back of the head. Well, what are you doing?

What was it like growing up and wanting to be a comic artist? Did you go to your parents and say, I’m going to draw comics for the rest of my life and did they go, no, you’re not. You’re going to be a plumber or did they. [00:09:00] Really support you in your endeavors?

Bart Sears: Well, that happened when I was 10, I decided I wanted to draw comics.

That’s awesome. And they were just like, you know, they were always supportive. That’s awesome. Very, very supportive you know, I found out later my dad didn’t always feel that, but he never, you know, let me

Kenric: see that

Bart Sears: I said anything that maybe think that there was anything wrong with what I was trying to do or, or, or, you know, anything

Kenric: like that.

Bart Sears: That’s great. And I always felt, I was very lucky cause I had a lot of natural talent, so it was pretty clear when I was 18 that I would be able to do this for a job. And you know, that proved true. So I was very lucky. Yeah. Yeah. The people, yeah. Struggled for years and train and stuff. And I did my share of that.

And a lot of it from the time I was 10 to 17 denied, mostly what I did was sit and [00:10:00] draw or sculpt or, or write, or some version of all three at the same time. Right. But you know, talk to a lot of guys who don’t break in until their thirties and. Tallies are thirties. And you know, I’ve always been very, very lucky that, you know, I had that talent that gave me you know, a good

Kenric: starting position, I guess.

Yeah. It gave you an edge. No, that’s awesome. What’s your, what do you think is your guys’s. What’s that you kind of broke up there? Well, I got in,

Bart Sears: I mean, nobody wanted to draw them. I mean, they sold weight better than me, but nobody know you thought of that as a career or very, you know, very few people did.

So it wasn’t a glut market, you know, that didn’t happen until the early nineties. So

Kenric: yeah, that’s I was That was a T I entered my teenage years in the late eighties. And then I was collecting comic books from like the early eighties, all the way through part of the nineties. And then I, [00:11:00] you know, discovered girls in the early nineties.

So that kind of didn’t happen as much. And then the bottom fell out that spectator market ruined what comic books were to me during that time. And. And he’s still kind of do it. Yeah. And it’s interesting to see it what’s what’s that, or

Bart Sears: they changed it forever, depending, I guess on your point of

Kenric: view.

Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. I don’t know. I th the art in the nineties was great. There’s some amazing stuff that came out. But it overtook everything. And I felt like the writing kind of suffered a bit. Now the writings back in a big way. And well, actually really, since the early two thousands, I think it really just kind of, it’s all about the storyline now and what’s going on and you’ve got some wonderful stories coming out and I’m excited for you guys with maiden because it looks fantastic.

And the colors that you’re, that you’re [00:12:00] using. I liked how she’s the first sequence that I, that I read about was when she’s walking through. And I think it’s the dream sequence and she’s got all of those. I, well, they’re all the spirits that are pulling at her and she’s wearing purple. And then as you go to that one panel, she pops in that yellow, orange reddish Cape.

And it’s the, and it’s the, I think it’s the reflection of the lighting. But it looks fantastic cause it just makes everything pop. Thank you. Thank you. So

Bart Sears: a lot more work has gone into the art than I anticipated and putting it

Kenric: mildly obviously

Bart Sears: coloring it, but it is all done digitally. Yeah. And This is taking too long, but I want it to be, you know, bright.

Kenric: Well, it looks great. So that makes stuff. Yeah. What [00:13:00] do you guys, hadn’t you have the first 20, or are we done after this or are we going to get more maiden once the first time 20 or done? Well, after 20 done, after 20,

Bart Sears: after the 20 stories, which will take about six years to be published in metal. It’s about 600 pages, I

Kenric: think.

Oh, wow. And then

Bart Sears: when we are done with it and then heavy metal has the right to continue on with whatever they want

Kenric: to do with me. Oh, wow. That’s, that’s a ton of that. That’s a lot of work. I didn’t realize it was that big.

Bart Sears: Yeah. So ages

Kenric: a month. Yeah. Wow. How has been working with the the groups over there?

Heavy metal.

Bart Sears: Oh, that’s been great. Those guys are very, very very nice and very accepting.

Kenric: Yeah. How did you get into that? Did you have to send them maiden [00:14:00] or did they come to you and say, Hey, you guys have any projects you’re working on?

Bart Sears: Well, like I knew Tim Seely from, you know, being around. And

Kenric: he did a,

Bart Sears: I asked him to do a a drawing for my drunk, powerful heroes.

One of my Kickstarter campaign is a proof of a drawing for that, which he did. And he was like, Hey, you should submit something. Have you been on. All right. So we did, I submitted a three, I think, three ideas we

Kenric: submitted.

Bart Sears: Yeah. And they just made

Kenric: this cool. That’s cool.

Michelle Sears: That’s a lot that story for whatever works

Bart Sears: I wonder.

And we did we’ve written a couple stories for wonder works. Three stories actually. Well, we’ve written three stories. One of them

Kenric: was the first one they produced. Yeah.

Michelle Sears: It’s the black ruins of

Bart Sears: Aramark, the black ruins of

Michelle Sears: Aramark. So it’s a podcast, it’s a story. [00:15:00] It’s it kind of reminds me of like a radio play, which was it’s really cool.

And you can listen to it on the heavy metal wonder works. It’s the wonder work. Okay, cool.

Kenric: They have it on any place you get most, no podcast. Put it in the show notes so people can link to it. That’s awesome for that.

Bart Sears: G say, come on. Yeah.

Kenric: So Michelle, what, where, where did your inspiration come for maiden?

What, what were you doing then? All of a sudden you had this, this fantastic idea to do a spirit of engines. Cause I always think, I mean, when you think spirit event eventual spirit, you obviously think there’s only two that I always think there’s three that I think of. Okay. So the actual, she was sleeping

Michelle Sears: actually originally came from a dream.

And I woke up and I told Bart about the dream and he drew a picture of my dream for me, but I’m not kidding. That’s how the story started. And I still have that [00:16:00] original drawing, which is actually one of the promotional pieces that we do, but it was this crazy dream I kept having over and over and over again.

And that’s where

Kenric: it goes. That is awesome. I had a, I had the same experience. I had a dream. I have a story that I still have still in my head that I want to get out someday, but, you know, we’ll see.

Michelle Sears: Yeah. And I have, I mean, I have another there’s a couple of reoccurring dreams I actually have that have led to other stories that are. You know, just, you can’t shake it. It’s just this, this dream that you have. And you know, it, it feels like it should have meaning, so give it some meaning.

Kenric: Yeah. It’s got legs.

Let her hand remember a single path. So

Michelle Sears: yeah, he was amazed that I, I had the dream and it was always the same and there were so many details. And so,

Bart Sears: yeah, I [00:17:00] never, I never

Kenric: remember dreams. So,

Michelle Sears: so he. Drew my dream for me picture stayed up on the wall for quite a while. And that was the beginning of, are

Kenric: you are you a comic book fan reaching back?

Were you a comic reader or is this like a whole new form? Oh,

Michelle Sears: no, no. Like I grew up reading comic books, but not superhero comic books. So I mean, I read some, like I read some. X-Men in like the late eighties because everyone did. Yeah. At least everyone I knew did. And then but I grew up like in the house I grew up in, I remember stealing the heavy metals from the living room and AMI and things like that, you know?

So the sequential art, the visual storytelling and like my mom was a huge Frazetta fan. So anything so [00:18:00] sequential art was always a part of my life. Just maybe not superhero so much. Yeah.

Bart Sears: Yeah. Was

Kenric: he like man age?

Michelle Sears: No Grenfell I’ve totally loved Grendel when I was young.

Kenric: Did you, did you read the Crow,

Michelle Sears: the Crow?

Kenric: What.

Michelle Sears: I read all the Grendel’s like, I mean, like I have Grendel number one still from when I bought it.

Kenric: So I was wondering because the same timeframe, the croak that the by, by James Robar, the Crow had come out at that same time. And it’s a very it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s not the same with what you guys are doing, obviously, but it’s in the same vein of being like, cause I was, those were the three that I always think of when I think of a vengeful spirit, I think ghost writer, specter and the Crow, and it’s nice to see a completely different new take on it, which you’ve completely done because it’s just there totally

[00:19:00] Michelle Sears: seeing the movie that’s, you know, I know that’s the worst, but I never, and then.

Specter. I never read that as a comic until after I saw the movie and was like, Oh wow. I was really disappointed with it. Or am I thinking of the right movie? I don’t know. Yeah. Anyways, the first one was really good, but then I wouldn’t, I think I wrote a few of the comic books, but I don’t really remember.

I think the oddest thing I read for comic books was like the Badger. And then I read a lot of the Sandman stuff and then my mom loved the elf quest stuff. Oh, nice.

Kenric: So

Michelle Sears: you had all of that stuff in the house. One

Kenric: time I was really young. I just think it’s cool. Doing something from a female’s perspective or a women’s perspective and having a protagonist.

That’s not just, I don’t know. Cause the Crow is [00:20:00] great, but it kind of falls into do you know who do you know Gail Simone, the writer. So she has that, she did that whole thing about women in refrigerators. Is that what it’s called women in refrigerators about using the death of somebody’s girlfriend or what?

Yeah. And it’s kind of nice to see, you know, and, and the Crow kind of falls into that vein to me, you know, that he, that the, the, his, his girlfriend or his wife is just there to move the story along at the very beginning. And then that’s it. And then the rest is just him doing it. And it’s kind of nice that you’ve taken a total twist on that and gone the direction that you went.

It makes it, I don’t know. It makes it, I can’t wait to read it. I haven’t, I only read what you sent me, you know, so now I want to go back and get heavy metal, three Oh two, which I believe is already out. Correct.

Michelle Sears: I think so. I think it is the, I think the most important thing about me is each maiden is different and each mate not a hero maidens [00:21:00] never, ever, ever end well.

And, and, and that’s like one of the rules of a maiden. So they come from a bad place and they don’t get any better.

Kenric: That’s a, that’s a scary dream fight. Interesting.

Bart Sears: No maiden maiden comes back for revenge to get retribution. Right? What happens to her after she’s succeeded? That’s that’s one of the interesting points for me.

And that’s actually one of our third story deals

Kenric: a little bit with that. So are you, are you a fan of doing more horror or do you like conventional or do you have a genre that you prefer? I should say. I

Bart Sears: like stories with an edge. I don’t care the genre

Kenric: story

Bart Sears: either.

Kenric: Sorry. I think we’re having kind of a bad connection. So sometimes I might be over-talking [00:22:00] you on, on accident and I apologize for that. Oh, that’s all right.

Bart Sears: A couple times you cut out, you know, your voice just goes away and I can tell you’re still talking, but

Kenric: I’m, long-winded just tell me to shut up.

Bart Sears: It’s okay.

Kenric: So you’re working on maiden now, Michelle, do you have any plans for anything else or are you going to really concentrate on maiden for the next 20 years of your life? Since you guys are doing. How many pages, 600 pages. That’s an insane amount. It’s a lot, it’s

Michelle Sears: bullet maintenance that it’s, from my standpoint, it’s mostly done on, I mean, this, the 20 stories are there and they need some

Kenric: stuff to be ready and the scripts, but yeah, you know, the outline’s done, but

Michelle Sears: there are lots of other things that we have in mind.

So. [00:23:00] Yeah. There’s lots of stuff. Lots and lots and lots

Bart Sears: and lots of stuff. Yeah. We used to write mostly alone, but we found it. We like our stuff better when we collaborate,

Kenric: bouncing off each other. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, it’s always kind of fun when you have a writing partner to be able to sit in the room and bounce off ideas, especially on the outline section.

Cause once you get past the outline, I kind of feel like you’re just. You know, you’re, you’re just writing it all out in the story for, at that point, but all the important bits, the, the turning and the main plot twist are already there for you.

Bart Sears: I think also because we don’t, neither of us write full time. Yeah. So we’re always up and a lot times it’s great to have a, you know, a voice right there that. And then I can say, well, wait, what about this? Or what are we going to do

Kenric: this? Or

Michelle Sears: I liked this about that. Why did you change

Kenric: it? Yeah. Yeah. [00:24:00] So a little personal question.

How’d you guys meet cross Jen, cross you in the comic book? Yeah. Like w were you at a convention or.

Michelle Sears: No, I worked there. I was the freelance coordinator and he was the art

Kenric: director. Oh, cool. Oh, very cool. So Michelle, you’ve been around comic books for a long time then?

Michelle Sears: Yeah.

Kenric: Oh, that’s cool. Are you guys reading anything new today? From today’s crop of comic books.

Michelle Sears: There’s so much I want to read, but I really haven’t gotten around to anything because of COVID and my other. You know, job that actually [00:25:00] helps pay. Yeah. Because sometimes topics don’t right. Well, no anyways so I, I work for a non-profit and I work with underserved youth or at risk youth in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

And it’s an art. So with COVID from like March 13th, we closed our doors and March 17th, we began delivering food and remote art lessons and all kinds of things, and it really hasn’t stopped. And everyone else, Oh, COVID has been the 2020 has been such a year of nothing. I’m like really? I just want, yeah. I just really want

Kenric: to lay down right now.

It’s been a challenging year. Huh?

Michelle Sears: It’s been a challenge for

Kenric: sure. Yeah. I’m sure I’m lucky my job went remote. So you broke up. I said I was super lucky with year because my job was able to go totally [00:26:00] remote for my day to day, you know? And then we were able to concentrate on the podcast, which we really want the podcast to take over everything on our day to day.

So, which would be great, but you know, it’s tough. You know, and COVID made it that much more tough because you can’t get together. You can’t coordinate, you can’t, you know, everything has to be online. So yeah. I just want to lay down. Yeah,

Michelle Sears: yeah.

Kenric: Nothing much changed. Well, that’s a true wake up and I stayed in the house and then I go to bed a

Michelle Sears: lot with what I do.

I mean, you know, the week before Christmas, we were out delivering hot meals and tea. All kinds of things. So, you know, and it’s been something, it wasn’t just Christmas. I mean, we’ve been delivering food and art lessons and all kinds of things, you know, since, like I said, March 17th of 20.

Kenric: Yeah. The daily thing.

Now

Michelle Sears: I have like a [00:27:00] daily class. I have a pause like seven students and, you know, they’re all remote learning students and all that stuff. And. There’s that, but it’s, COVID, it’s a completely, it turned the world upside down. Yeah. You know?

Kenric: Yeah. Seven year olds having a hard time with, with school, you know, she’s like telling me how much she hates school, which breaks my heart because I love school, you know?

And she just doesn’t get it. But today she got really excited for a science thing. So that means. Yeah.

Oh my Lord. So guys, so maiden, why don’t you tell people where they can get it, how they can get it and yeah.

Bart Sears: Well, I know

Kenric: you can get

Bart Sears: subscriptions to heavy metal. It’s monthly now. That’s probably the easiest way to get it. I know it’s in bookstores. On the racks

Kenric: magazine racks. [00:28:00] Nice.

Bart Sears: I’m not sure if COVID shops carry it or not, or if they all do or some do, but I know they can order it for your comic shop.

Right. And I think that

Kenric: some of it, yeah. Yeah. So then you guys go, go out to either get it on Amazon or WhatsApp

Bart Sears: may on Instagram. Does that, what does he call it? It’s me such as Maine tales

Kenric: of pensions, maiden tales of engines.

Not.

Oh, you guys are awesome. Let’s log in to Instagram right now and we’ll figure this out.

No, I’m pretty sure

Michelle Sears: it’s like meal maiden [00:29:00] tells of the vengeance. I think it is so I can find my phone. I had my phone. I’m not a good teenage. Oh, there it is. Hold on. I’ll look, I’ll check. Right.

Our youngest would be so ashamed. He mean,

Bart Sears: you don’t know, you could also go to art, Sears, art.com. There’s that

Kenric: embarks? Here’s Erin on Instagram. Oh, nice.

Michelle Sears: So it’s maiden underscore haunting tales

Kenric: of revenge. Ah, there we go. So maiden underscore.

Michelle Sears: Haunting

Kenric: tales, sump, revenge, tales of revenge. There it is nice. And then we will, we’ll link that into the show notes so people can go and check it out and then all of a Bart’s stuff so that we can be better. Put some

Michelle Sears: new stuff up there.

[00:30:00] Kenric: I think it’s cool. I think it’s cool. You know, one thing you could always put in the heavy metal covers. The ones that they’re in. Go from there. Yeah, it looks great.

Bart Sears: That’s what you’re saying in the

Michelle Sears: post. Okay.

Kenric: You don’t like me. I am terrible with Instagram. I know Facebook and apparently that’s for old people now. Yeah.

Michelle Sears: I’m so sick of Facebook. I wish I could cancel it, but I can’t because our non-profit I’m the manager of the page and you have to have an account to manage the page.

Kenric: That’s so ridiculous. Yeah.

Yeah. I would get rid of Facebook except for messenger. That’s messenger is ubiquitous. So that’s what I use.

Michelle Sears: You can get rid of the

Kenric: messenger. Oh, you can. Maybe I’ll do that.

Michelle Sears: I’ve done that. So I can still Facebook message them, but they don’t actually have a page anymore.

Kenric: Maybe I’ll do that. That’d be good.

[00:31:00] Bart Sears: Cause

Kenric: yeah. Oh, there’s there’s Bart right there. You got your own Facebook page. I’m going to follow you right now. Cause that’s how I do things

Bart Sears: to just a page or whatever.

Michelle Sears: Yes, we do

Kenric: her

Michelle, you do this and this and this and this. And I want to go backwards.

Michelle Sears: We should have done that. I’m like, what’s this week,

Kenric: Bart. I got to ask you you’ve done a ton of superhero stuff. When I was a kid, I love the superhero comics as I’ve gotten older. I’m in my late forties now. I’m not, I’m not as big on the superhero. I like a lot. I still like some of the Batman, I think there’s too many Batman’s right now. I think [00:32:00] he’s, he’s just too, he’s too much everywhere.

Kind of feel like they need to make it a little bit more special, but you know, and I still love Wolverine. I love reading Conan comics. You know, is there a cover or a story arc that you did in the superhero realm that still resonates with you? That you’re like, Ooh, that was my best work right there for that John rhe.

That’s a hard question, huh? Well, part of the hard part is it’s hard to write. Yeah. Well, you’ve done quite a bit. The dark night

Bart Sears: 200 was a blast.

Kenric: Everything I did on XO was fine. Yeah.

Bart Sears: I love the way it did with blade. I wish I’d gotten to actually draw it. Like I wanted to, instead of just having to do breakdowns.

Kenric: Yeah.

Bart Sears: And I wish I’d had my scripts edited a little more than [00:33:00] not at all.

Kenric: Yeah. On XO Manoa. That’s actually a good question. An XO Manowar what year did you work on that? Do you remember? Was it back in the nineties or was it on the rerelease? I guess not rerelease it, but

Bart Sears: 90 of my first. Short stint on it was 92,

Kenric: I think.

Okay. So what was valued like back then, and then. Cause they’re a much different company today than they were back in those days. Right.

Bart Sears: They’re a much different company when I first worked at Valiant. And did XO

Kenric: initially. Yeah,

Bart Sears: I worked that out smarter. I was stupid, but and that ended badly when I went back to XO, when they [00:34:00] became a claim, you know, it was a bar different company.

And then I worked on XO. Some mostly just covers in some odd things when value relaunched. And then they relaunched again, but, and I’ve talked to them, but I don’t think I’ve worked for them yet,

Kenric: but there was a small, you know, it was a small.

Bart Sears: Cool little comic shop studio. What, you know, when I first worked there, you know, and they were just big because they were under printing order to order so that their stuff became really, you know, desired.

Cause

Kenric: you couldn’t get your order. Right. And smartly,

Bart Sears: and really drove up the value of their books and orders except for Teresa and They got really popular and serving a lot of money and, you know, sold out to a claim.

Kenric: How is that? What happened there? And then that

Bart Sears: changed everything because that [00:35:00] was just before the market started to tank from all the.

Which they had hopes if not initiated

Kenric: right happening. Do I remember when Tara came out the dinosaur Hunter for Valiant and me and my buddies was so excited and we went and bought number one and we bought all the different variant covers and we’re like, Oh man. Oh, going to college on this. Yeah, no,

Nope. Yeah. You could literally find value or track number one for like $2 or a dollar at your local comic store.

Bart Sears: I have seen

Kenric: them online for a hundred. They must be where they you know, actually, what do you feel about the the grading of comic books now, and then putting them into, you know, Enter their their, their binders where you can’t see them.

Yeah. The CGC stuff and everything. Some people love that. I want to read it.

Michelle Sears: And we do have students, [00:36:00] the people at CGC are awesome.

Kenric: That was a blast. That’s cool. Yeah, that was really cool. The only thing I miss her, I have a couple of books that, that are slabbed. And once, because I, you know, I’m old enough now that I can get the books that I, that I really wanted when I was a kid that I couldn’t afford, you know, or you just couldn’t get them anymore.

Cause he just, you know, they just weren’t there. So it’s kind of nice to go back now and get them. But I miss when you get them, when I get them slabbed, I kind of want to break them open so I can read them because I want to read them. But then it’s like, but then I’m like, Oh, I don’t want to break it open because it’s slapped, you know?

And then it. You know, I, I, I struggle with it because one of the things I miss the most is opening the comic book and in the smell that comes out of it, you know, it’s like, Oh my God, that, that smells like 1983.

[00:37:00] Bart Sears: Yeah. I got a buddy that if he has a really nice copy of something, then he’ll get it slabbed.

But he will kill himself at shows or online to find a shit copy that he can put in his little spit or rack

Kenric: and read whenever he wants. Like, I have giant salad for $2 for whatever. I have a giant size X-Men number one. And it’s not slabbed. It’s, it’s a complete reader copy, but it’s one of my most cherished books.

You know what it is. I opened that book up and it fell and it smells like the seventies. You know, I’m eight years old, all over again. It’s awesome. It is awesome. So, well, all right guys, I think we’ve been on for like 45 minutes already, which is kinda crazy. It went quick and there’s a lot of, yeah, well, I hope you guys would be willing to come back on some time and go over when, when the next.

[00:38:00] I want to say volume, but when the next set of maidens are ready to go out, let’s, let’s, let’s talk again about what’s going on because I seriously want to go back and, and get what’s out so far. And if it’s not out, then, then great. I’m going to order that heavy metal three Oh two. So I can start from the beginning and then go from there.

And everybody listening, you can go on Amazon and I am I write heavy metal, three Oh two was the beginning of it, right? Yep. Okay. So you guys have not seen it yet, so yeah. So can you go to Amazon? Probably pre-order or order if it’s out today and then if it’s not go to your LCS, your local comic store support those guys through COVID they have struggled tremendously.

Tell him you want heavy metal, three Oh two. So you can check out maiden by Ben and Michelle Sears. You won’t or sorry. Bart, Bart and Michelle Sears. You won’t be disappointed. That’s at least I caught myself

Bart Sears: and or you get a [00:39:00] subscription monthly to heavy metal that you

Kenric: never miss it. There you go. I love that.

I had a subscription to Marvel when I was a little kid. That was the best.

Bart Sears: I had a couple, I had a detective or was it Batman? I think it was detective comics that I had for, for

Kenric: a year. And that was the most awesome thing every month. Bang coming in the mail. Yeah, that was so cool. I cut out that coupon in the back.

Marked off, like the five titles that my dad was willing to pay for. It sent them off. I was so excited. That was

Bart Sears: awesome. Remember the little ads in the back of the comics?

Kenric: Oh yeah.

Bart Sears: It’s a dollar or $5 or whatever, and get a box of army men or

Kenric: something. Glasses, the see-through glasses. And they would show the kid on the beach and the girl with the skirt and he could see through her skirt.

Yep. Oh yeah. Or the Atlas, the muscle man Atlas. Ads. I got that too. Sometimes. I wonder I’m like, if I find it, we’ll cut those out and send it away. What’s going to happen. It’s going to [00:40:00] come back is not returnable. No, it was great. Cause

Bart Sears: everyone I said, and I got something back. Every one of my brothers sent it.

No, there was never, if you didn’t get anything, you know, it’s like, what are you going

Kenric: to do? Right. Or

Bart Sears: whatever. Right.

Kenric: Right. 25 has gone the good old days. They don’t do any kind of ads like that in comp books anymore. It’s kind of weird. I actually, when I go through, there’s not a lot of ads in all income books now, so it’s not there. I haven’t looked at a

Bart Sears: comic in over a year, probably. Maybe

Kenric: more. Yeah. Yeah, does not. I wonder if that’s, I wonder, I wonder if somebody should bring some of those kinds of back.

I mean, they gotta be kind of popular cause he used to see all the Saturday morning cartoon ads and everything. Yeah. Those are great. Yeah. Live for those Saturday. I haven’t Avengers comics, cartoons to come vendor’s comic and it’s a [00:41:00] weird one. I think it’s number 200 or it’s the weird one where we’re captain Marvel.

She gets. The sh she gets raped by her own son and gives birth to him. And then, Oh my God. Then he goes back in. It’s so weird. Do you remember this one? And then, Oh yeah, it’s super weird. It’s super weird. And then on the covers, a big toys R us ad. It was like if only you guys knew what was inside this book,

you will never, ever you’re advertising. On top of that book, somebody lost their mind, always arrest.

Oh, it was such a weird, yeah, it was such a weird book. Everything was very esoteric as you read it, you know, but that was the underlying theme. And I can’t remember God, I can’t remember who it is. And she liked it. She ended up getting married to [00:42:00] him and it was just a weird thing. Yeah, it’s a perfect thing to end this podcast on.

All right, Michelle. Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate you. Guys’ time. Thank you, man. Appreciate you having us on. All right guys. We’ll talk soon. All right, take care. Bye bye.

Bart Sears: Bye bye.