Show Notes
John had a chance to sit down with prolific indie creator David Whalen, artist, writer, and founder of Correct Handed Comics!
Check out Correct Handed Comics:
https://www.facebook.com/correcthandedcomics/
Transcript by Steve, the drunk robot.
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David Whalen - Interview
[00:00:00] Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: Join the culture this morning. Welcome back to the country. I'm kinda Gregan that. That right there is mr Horsley and two day
on the show. What's writer? Artist, owner of correct hand comics. And today we're talking about offspring and a bunch of other ones. David Wayland.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah. Yeah. But before we get into that, why don't you tell them about what we want them to do and about, about what we want them to tell us about their compelling,
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: Yes, this is fun. So if you're a fan of the show, then you have heard us many, many, many times tell you how much in the oceans of podcasts that work at Hulu. And that just means that we like to break up the monotony and be a little bit more crazy and then have a little bit more insanity going on in our lives while doing this podcast.
And it's true, and I think it's true for a lot of people. One of [00:01:00] the things that we hardly agree with is something that we've actually said for probably over 300 episodes now, and that is to open the mind and read more. And that's what cathedral compels us to do. But. I want to know. Johnny wants to know.
The spoiler verse wants to know, what does cut-through Lou compel you to do? And you can hit us up on Twitter and Facebook and you know, we will probably do as many as we can that come in and we will
use your compulsion at the end of our podcast to say an ocean's a podcast. We are and can through Lou Capels you to your line here.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Exactly. Going to be a lot of fun. So please hit us up on Facebook or Twitter, even Instagram if you want to, and tell us what Kathryn compels you to do and we'll, we'll see what we can do. Add that to the end.
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: love it. Let's do this.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: now let's talk about David Whalen and Crittenden kind of books and the offspring. And I had a chance to sit down with them and talk to him [00:02:00] about all that he does. And you know, we, we're, we're, we're a very prolific podcast here. We put out pretty much an episode a day right now, and we've, you know, in, in less than three years, we're over 330 340 episodes.
So we
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: is insane.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: do a lot and it's awesome. And that's just kind of the way we function. We don't do anything half-ass. We do it with all of our ass. And David puts out a ton of books on his own with, with his, with some people he works with, but he puts out, you know, books, cons, and I'm not as worried about the offspring, but he went through other books where he works on a one shots here and there under Crittenton comic books and this, if you go check them out, look them up online and see all this stuff he puts out, you're like, how does this guy have time.
To do all this, plus, you know, have a family and have everything else that he does. And it's because he's up the minus like we are. But if you're passionate and you love something, you just find a way to do it and make it work. And that's just, it's, you'll, you'll hear that passion come through in this interview with me and it's, it's, it's a lot of fun.
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: did you guys go, well, let's sit back and listen to David in his own words.
[00:03:00] John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: All right. Welcome back everybody. I am here tonight with David Whalen, creator of the offspring I doing tonight. I am doing good. Doing good. So you are a book called the offspring. How many issues do you have out so far?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I am a 10
out. I'm currently in the middle of issue
11
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Nice and you're doing the art and the writing for it.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I do everything. Yep. I do the, the art, the writing, the coloring, the lettering. I have a great editor named, Patrick van Lewis, who has been helping me out probably for the last, six issues. really helping me to, hone in that story.
And, so yeah, so that's where we are.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: So doing it all yourself. , I'm an artist writer myself too, and I, I kind of, I tend to not what I do when I do work on stuff, I try not to do anything myself. I try to spread it out from a personally. [00:04:00] Right. How do we, it all yourself, do you find yourself getting, like, leaning more towards one aspect of it is feeling like you're a strong point for you or do you find like that it all kind of melds together?
Well, when you kind of know what you're doing in the whole, the whole scheme of the thing.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I think, you know, like, but like you said, there's, there's pros and cons to doing it all yourself. I would always say that I'm an artist first. so I went and whenever I get a story going or, or a concept or a, or a book, that I want to start to develop, it always starts with the art first. It always starts with a visual or character or something that I want to, a concept that I want to get through.
And then it'll all kind of wrap itself around that. So the good thing about being both a writer and the artist is, I work from, from usually work, from a rough outline of thumbnails. So halfway through, if I think of a better idea, I can, I can do it without having to consult anybody. So that's definitely one of the pros.
I'm doing the doing everything yourself.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Oh, for sure. [00:05:00] Yet, you're your own, your own voice of reason, which means you have more free to do it at one do.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Oh, yeah.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: So when, when did you start doing the offspring? How long ago did you start that
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I came up with a concept, about 30 years ago. Well, I'm an old man and, I wanted to do a book that had, cause I was a big superhero guy, big deal of DC, anything DC, I would pick it up. But I, I liked, the idea more of Marvel's grounded characters grounded in reality. So I wanted to do a book that had superhero aspects to it.
But, I guess you kind of, I guess you could say now the phrase is no flights, no tights.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: right, right.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: So really I thought of that 30 years ago. Okay. I'll take credit for that one, I guess now. But I
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: and in Smallville, Smallville store from you then, right.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Exactly. I want to characters that look a little bit more like me, that looked a little bit more like the people that I knew growing up.
and characters that [00:06:00] had a more, more down to earth struggles. And struggles from people that I knew when I was growing up. So I came up with these characters that had to not only fight their inner demons from the struggles that they had growing up in, in, torn up families and, problems with views.
but also, fighting outer demons where they're literally fighting. Demons and monsters and, and, spirits and ghosts and things like that as they, as they went through their journey of trying to understand why it's happening.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Nice. Nice. So are you doing all of this self published
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yes.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: and how's that been? How's that journey been for you?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: a roller coaster ride.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah. Ups and downs
David - David Whalen Interview.output: is a great learning experience. It's, it's, an opportunity to be able to do the kind of stories that I want to do. but being, being the sole engineer of all of it is, is, it's tough. I have, A wife and two kids who are very understanding. [00:07:00] When I shut the door in my art room and say, okay, I've got three more pages I got again, I've got to get this downloaded into a PDF.
I've got to do this. I've got to do that. They, they, they're pretty lenient with me. So I'm very lucky to be able to have a wife and two kids that no one, that door is shut. I'll be out in a little bit, but you'd be tired. ,
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: You'll have to teach me that trick is I shut my door to work on some pages or work on the podcast or to work on something, and my youngest who just walk in, no matter what, they don't care. Like, hi dad, I'm here, and I'm like, I told you I'm doing stuff. We'll play in a minute.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah. The biggest problem is we move the kids, X-Box into where I draw. So I've been pounding on the door a little bit more in the last couple of months. So that's a problem. I'll probably have it fixed.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: yeah. We had that at our last house. We had our X-Box is in my office slash studio area. I was doing everything at, so the kids were always in there wanting to play Xbox Xboxes nose for the most part. If I was just drawing, it was fine. If I was trying to do like recording stuff, then it became problematic.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah. They don't need to be on those X-Box as much. Anyway, that's my
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah. No, not all the time.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Go read a book.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah, [00:08:00] exactly. Read a book. There's lots of great, there's lots of great books out there. So, is it, you're out, you're working on issue 11 right now. You said
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I'm on issue 11 yes.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: she was 11. Is this a, I asked this of everybody who has a series out there. Is this a, is there a finite end to this series or is this, it was just an ongoing, it's going to keep going until you run out of ideas.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: No, I've got a plan. I've got it all outlined. and I, I'd say I've probably around issue 100, 101. depending on, depending on stories that I want to maybe try to get in there. I have three or four stories that are like two to three issue stories that'll, that'll, that'll be two, three issues long. that's, that I think are good stories, but they're there, but they're not, they're not hooked in with the overall storyline.
So I'm trying to decide if I want to maybe do those a little bit later or do those in between, but aren't actually maybe as just graphic novels, but aren't actually in the app, the actual run of each individual book. So, so yeah, [00:09:00] I've got a story in my, my plan is, I hope. That from issue one to issue 101 that, people look back on things that I have referenced or seen and said, Oh, he did have a plan.
So he wasn't just making it up as he went along. There's a, there's a story here that he was trying to get to and and that's, that's the overall plan to be able to make sure I go step by step and, and the hope is to get it all done before, before I can't get it all done anymore.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Right, right. It's a hundred issues or 101 issues. They're very ambitious plan. I respect the hell out of that cause. That's cool. most people.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: see what happens. I hope,
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: hope,
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Well, it sounds like there's only the passions there. And then passion breeds creativity, which breeds, you know, getting things done, which is awesome. so how often do you release an issue
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I'd say I'm on, doing everything myself. I get an issue out every two months.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: that's really good, actually. How many pages are for issue?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: 23 to 24.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah, that's a pretty good turnaround.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah. Issue four was 35 pages, just because, just [00:10:00] because I had so much to say and as before four 35 pages. So, but usually, yeah, 23 to 24, maybe 25. I try to stay in that, in that area.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: That's awesome. That's a great turnaround. Keeps it keeps vendors engaged. Now, are you just releasing them on like a website yourself or do you do Kickstarters for them or how do you release this? How can people find these.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I don't do Kickstarters since it's just me. I don't really have anybody else to pay. So, so, and I, like I said, the only thing that it really costs me is time. So I don't keep scars. I don't do crowdfunding. I don't do any of them. I hope it's just that I have to put out the books and hope that it catches an audience.
it gives them, the audience just keeps growing and gets bigger and bigger and bigger. I have, the individual issues on, on Amazon. Dot com and then I have the trade paperbacks on lulu.com
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Nice. Nice.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: so, and then we have a website correct handed, comics.com you can go on there. There's links to every book I've ever published to be able to get to where you need to go to purchase it.
[00:11:00] John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: so I guess by that title of the, of the publishing house, their crate hand that you're left, you're left handed.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I bill lefthand, I'm correct handed, yes.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Pretend you're my, my youngest son's left handed two or correct. 10. And I guess he, he.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: No, until that left hand to the chair and make him use his right hand.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Oh no. We encourage it cause he's, he's been left-hand dominant since he was born pretty much. And we've encouraged it since then. Cause my, my grandpa's left handed, my cousins left hand. We have, and my wife's grandma and her brother's left hands. We have a lot of lefties in our hand and our family,
David - David Whalen Interview.output: That's awesome. I was the.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I would say I always wanted to be lefthanded growing up, so I used to like practice writing left-handed and drawing on left hand, but I was definitely good at it, but I'd still, I wouldn't feel like in college, I swear to God, fuck. A year and a half I would assign my name and all the receipts with my left hand just because I wanted to be left-hand, not right, not right handed.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: That's awesome. That's awesome.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, my son, my son, he's, he, she's drawn everything right now and he's, so he's starting to draw it at six years old and he's using his left hand, which is, which is cool. but he's, he's learning, he's learning quickly that, you know, when you, if you draw with what inks it smears is, you run your hand over it.
So he's slowly [00:12:00] me not to try, try not to do that spreadsheets. Yep. Yep. Yep. So you've got the offspring going, you're going, you're going to get on that. What else you got out.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I have, a forest humidity here is actually, I just put out, the mini series is completed, just put out the second printing of it called evolution utero.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Okay.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: And it's a little bit more of a traditional superhero cause there is flights and there is tides in it.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: all right? All right.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: It's about the, the concept was about, Jay came off of being a parent for the first time 13 years ago.
And, and how being a parent changes you and how, or how it should change you to want to be a better person, to give your, you know, your life really isn't your own anymore. Now you're in charge of this little person that you need to raise to hopefully be of, the, a, Good person and an outstanding member of society.
So my idea was, what if you took the worst person in the world, the person that [00:13:00] was selfish, you didn't care about anybody else, didn't care about, about growing or learning or changing, and that person, this young lady becoming pregnant and then finding out that the fetus inside of her is developed developing superpowers.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Interesting.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: So the fetus through the fetus, she is developing super powers and trying to decide whether she wants to, how she wants to use these super powers if she is going to ignore it, if she is going to do it, to use it for selfish reasons or if she's going to do it to use it to help other people. And
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: cool concept.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: yeah, and it's, it's, it went real well.
I really, the first four issues, my plan is it's going to be in volume. So the plan is to be able to get out the next four issue mini series with it, and the next three or four years. but the first issue is a, it's a, crazy, there's crazy time travel stuff going on at the end too. So it really, it's really kind of a, more of a traditional superhero book, but I'm really proud of the way it came out.
[00:14:00] John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: That's cool. That sounds like a cool concept. It's a cigarette, the first four out and you're planning more. How do you balance that with having your ongoing as well, doing all of this yourself?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Very carefully. Yeah. What I try to do is I'll work on a, but a side project, like a mini series or a one shot or something. I'll work on the side project intermittently. Through working on the offspring. So, so if I, if I have some nailed the whole book of, one issue of a mini series or a one shot, I'll go through and I'll try to pencil out two or three pages and then I'll take, you know, the next week and do offspring.
And then I'll try to ink those three or four pages, and then I'll go back to offspring. And then I'll color those three or four ideas and that will go back off. So it really is a juggling act.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: It's a very delicate balancing act. Sounds like. Yeah. So are
David - David Whalen Interview.output: to be able to go like, you know. So you said you keep yourself really focused on the one thing. So with your, if I'm working on offspring going, I need to, I [00:15:00] need to step away from this to be able to get the other thing, keep the other thing moving forward. And then by the time I get those pages done that I'm ready to get back on the offspring a hundred percent.
So it's, so I found it's really good to be able to mix and match what you're doing, to be able to, to keep yourself, going and moving forward and interested in what you're doing.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah. Keep it. Keep it fresh for yourself. Don't, don't get stale on one idea. That's nice. so do you, do you do your penciling and stuff all, pen and paper or do you do on, on, on a tablet?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I do. I do do. I'm, I'm, I guess I'm more traditional. I'd do it all on pen and paper. I do everything. The only thing that I don't do on, with some, with a marker or something in my hand is the Keller Andrew that coloring digitally, like most people. but yeah, I really enjoy the pin, the paper and the ink and being able to have it right there in front of me.
I know a lot of artists are going digital and that's great. but I, I really, I really enjoy having the paper and the pencil and the, all that stuff in front of me and doing it that way.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I'm the same way, man. I can do, I, I color in on my tablet. You know, I've had pro that I color on or the Photoshop or whatever, [00:16:00] procreate and stuff, and I do it on the computer and too, but if I find myself, for the most part, when it comes to like. Sketching or drawing or penciling and thinking that I, I prefer the feel of the pen to the paper and the pencil to the paper.
Even with coloring and painting. Like for me, I find that the ability to undo on a computer makes me take it less seriously. So I'm not as, I'm not as, I'm concerned of my color choice or of my inky and choice, whereas when I'm thinking a page on my drawing table with, you know, a Quill or with a, you know, with the, a paper mate pen or whatever.
I'm very conscious of the lines I'm putting down and not just not just, you know, doing it quick. I'm paying attention to what I'm doing, so that's why I like it.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah. Mostly I'm the same way. Yeah. You want to make sure. Trying to make sure, and you know, as an artist, you are all perfectionist, but try to make sure it comes out exactly the way you want to, but not pull your hair out that 100%
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Right. Right. The old old adage of complete, not perfect, you know, or done not perfect is very true, but sometimes you really want it to be perfect.
[00:17:00] David - David Whalen Interview.output: Oh yeah. I can't tell you how many times I've had an issue done and I flipped through it and getting it all format and go, I can do that panel better. I'm going to do that panel again,
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I used to do web comics. I did web comics for 13 years from Oh three to 2016 and in that time for the retirements where I would finish a page and I would go, then publisher that I got back with, no, no, no, I need to fix this. I'd go fix it. I get caught in this loop of fixing pages all the time, and I'm like, no, I just need to just get them done and get them to where they look good and then release them and just like not think about them for a while.
So I don't go back and waste time fixing stuff that is actually just fine, but I'm just trying to perfect it. You know?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Oh yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. With with 10 issues out of the offspring, I, I always go back and I'll flip through issue one, you know, for reference, for something that I see that it's character set or a character did, and I will look at it. It's a panel here. Wording of a, of a dialogue there and I'll, I'll just think, Oh, I can do that better.
Maybe I should just go back and do it again. And re really? I'm like, no, I can't do that. You gotta keep moving forward, which [00:18:00] is very difficult to have that.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: So do you find after 10 issues of this, of the offspring that you've, you've grown as both a writer and an artist? You've either, you see yourself learning a lot from that
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Oh yeah. There's, it's, it's been such a learning experience. I, I had, with small press when I was probably five, six years ago. I'm an art teacher also. I work, I work with elementary, and as an elementary art teacher. So I'm drawing all the time. and, I found that when I was really ready, when I really thought my sequentials were ready to go, about five years ago, I started reaching out with some small independent publishers and, some, I had some really good experiences with, some I had some really bad experiences with, but, you know, made some connections and some friends that I still talk to now.
But, definitely from issue one of the offspring to issue 10 now and all the other books that I've put out, I really do think there's always, there's always gonna be growing and learning and changing, and one of the better and better and better. But I think that for me as a artist [00:19:00] first, my goal was always to, if there's no dialogue, can you tell what's happening in the story?
And
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah, that's the key
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah, I think, I think I've gotten to the point where, where you can tell, I mean, it's, it's, you know, trying to, obviously you're your own worst critic again. But, I had an editor a few years back now where I was turning in pages and, and he gave me a great compliment. He said they were without, without any dialogue or, or were balloons or anything.
He's like, I can tell exactly what's going on. So this is great. Thank you very much. And I said, Oh good. I am moving in the right direction.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: That that's, that's one of the hardest things to do as a, as an artist and a writer too. And I've found, not everybody can pull it off. Right? Cause w what you're saying that if you can tell a story in art in your sequentials that tells the story that is only enhanced by the words, but not. Not, you know, made a story about the words, then you've done something special with the art.
I wrote a story a couple of years ago, that's in a book that's coming out here next month. that is, I, I wrote it and I wrote it for myself to draw. I ended up, I ended up having a friend of mine, Rick bug trod, cause he's, he's, [00:20:00] like leaps and bounds, better artists than I will ever be in my life.
Right. And, he took it on and he, he ended up doing it. There were, now it's like, it's my story that I wrote for sure, but. All the stories told in the visuals. Now I feel like he just kind of made it this own thing. And it's, it's weird when you're, when you're a writer and an artist doing both parts and you do that, cause then it's like you may have to take both worlds, mesh them together like you did for yours.
You talked about and tell that story you wanted to tell. But then when you're, when you're writing one, have somebody else draw it. It's a different level because you wrote this and then all of a sudden you're seeing it with no words and it's just. It tells that story you were trying to tell, but it does it in a way that you didn't.
I, for me, I never saw it going that way. So it's, I love stories that don't have a lot of words in them because it makes you think more about what's going on.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Good. Yeah. That was one of when I started developing the overall. Concept for the offspring. There was, I wanted to do a, I guess it's called now, a silent issue to where there's no dialogue, maybe a few sound effects here and there to be able to drive the point home or certain things that are [00:21:00] happening.
But, I do probably, I'd say it's going to be issue 35 36. Where there's not going to be any dialogue at all. And there's a, there's a reason for it. It's not just because I don't want to let her that day. the story hitting the store is like develop to be able to have these hedges of situation where they are for this situation.
They are unable to talk. they're just not talking, but they're unable to talk. To be able to, and have to communicate with each other eventually in the story, in the story to be able to figure out how to get home. So, so yeah, finishing the story and having it be clear without any, any words or cues is, is tough.
But I, but I love the challenge. I love it.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah, it's definitely a challenge. Yeah. If you haven't read this book yet, there's a book out called forte, by Kevin Joseph. It's an indie book. Kimra, I think source point might've printed out or some other publisher put it out that was, wasn't source print, sorry. But it's a, pod mortar MRT, and it's a, it's a graphic novel [00:22:00] as there's no words in it.
There's like one letter in the entire thing and it's, it's, it's a beautiful exploit. A beautiful example of, of. Story with all art and no actual words in it that conveys an emotional story. And it's, it's what I always lean to when I think about writing a story without words, because it's, it's just fantastic.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Check that out. Thank you.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a great book. so back to your stuff here. So you've got the two, do you have anything else out that you or anything else you're working on.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah, I did a 100 plus flip page, graphic novel. it's black and white, so a little bit more indie flare there with a black and white book, but I did it with a writer that I met through one of the small press companies that I was talking about. I've known him now for four or five years, and he's got his own company called dojo, Coon comics, and it's, his name is Brian Menard.
And he's a, he's a writer and we've done some stuff here and there, some that came out for that small press stuff, some that didn't come out. but we, decided to develop together a [00:23:00] 100 plus page graphic novel about w we're both big fans of classic movie monsters. Dracula and a Frankenstein's monster and the werewolf and Wolf man and stuff like that.
So we talked about, I had a concept, but I didn't quite know what I wanted to do with the story, so I just kind of threw it to him and said, do what you want. I don't care. And it was, if the children of these classic movie monsters are banned and by their parents and then go hunt them.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Oh, turn it back on the parents
David - David Whalen Interview.output: It's called the loved ones. and it's out right now. While you can find it on our website, you can find it on amazon.com or on blu.com. And I'm really proud of the way it turned out. We, he did a great job of really developing these characters and really, doing stuff that I didn't even think of doing what I, when I was coming up with the major concept.
but he, he set it up in a way to where, there could be sequels for the rest of our lives. We want to, [00:24:00] so, it's, I'm really proud of it. It's a, it's a great read, I think, and a per a hundred plus pages and one graphic novel. It's what's not to like to go
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: right, right. So is this the one where you, excuse me, you did the, you did the, the art and stuff for it.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: under the art and the lettering for it. Yes.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I, I'm looking at the art now. It looks great.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Thank you very much.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I just probably just, I just, well, Amazon has a preview of it, so I pull that up real quick and look and look at the preview of it. That's cool. That's cool.
what do you find time to do all this with, having a job and a wife and kids and putting out these comics like this? This is, you have a pretty good, a pretty good turnout rate for different stuff you do.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah, I, I worked at pretty bad. I tried to work fast, but, quality and quantity is what I try to do. you know, my grandpa is only, it's important enough. You make the time.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah, that's true.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: sometimes it's, so like I said, sometimes it's, it's hard to be able to find the time to be able to do. I'm really lucky that as a teacher, there are designated breaks throughout the year.
[00:25:00] To be able to, to be able to, to be able to, you know, move, move forward at a faster rate than I would say during Christmas time. Christmas time is, for most people, I'm sure a no go it goes to try to get stuff done. And I still try to get stuff done here and there at the time. So it's, it's, it's tough, but fun.
I, If I could do it all day, every day and get paid for it and not have a full time job, even though I love teaching, I would, I would totally 100% do it.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: That's the adaptive dream right there to do what you love and yeah, I just, they just want us to know the cover for the loved ones. once I get to the, second printing cover that the silhouette one, that's a fantastic cover, by the way.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Thank you very much.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah, that is really good.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I tried to capture the, the, each character of each, each child without, without giving away too much of what was going to happen.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I mean, you can tell who each kid, who his character is supposed to be, which is good. That's good. So do you have anything else you're working on or anything else you'd [00:26:00] have to have out there? I feel like if like you asked that question that you're thinking, you're going to say no, I'm done. If you have more to say.
So
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I'm going to say, yeah, I'm not there yet.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I keep going.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I started a, kind of an imprint inside of the correct handed comics, imprint, called correct candidate. One shot. because I always have those little stories that aren't, and they're not quite many series. It's not an ongoing series of, maybe not a hundred pages.
So I started, crept handed comics one shots, and it's going to be, throughout the year, sprinkled throughout the year, just one shots of 23 to 24 page comics of different genres, different styles. And the first one I put out, put it out, probably had to be at the beginning of January. and I, it's called shady lady.
And I'm a big fan of new are thrillers like Frank Sinatra. Suddenly, if you've ever seen that movie, it's a, it's a great, just slow, dark thriller, or anything out for Hitchcock. Rear window is one of my favorite movies. [00:27:00] Love it. so it's kind of a thriller with a strong female lead. and a kind of a twist.
Turn ending, to try to show the motivations of the character and why she's doing what she's doing. but, my next one is going to be more of a superhero, straightforward superhero genre. I have a, it's probably gonna be like July that that comes out depending on the schedule. that's going to be more of a superhero genre, but also deal more with the physical, with the emotional and psychological effects of.
Being a superhero on trying to save the world,
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Nice,
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I'm done. I've got that bad. The covers done, the thumbnails are done. It's just a matter of getting, moving forward with the actual influence of inks and colors and or pencils and inks and letters.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: nice work, all that into the other things you're doing all the time. I think that
David - David Whalen Interview.output: So,
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: that's really cool,
David - David Whalen Interview.output: up and ready to go on Amazon. and I have a little issues, [00:28:00] 1112 and 13 of the offspring that I'll have done hopefully before Christmas, and I'm going to put it all together in one trade. So issues 11, 12 and 13 of the offspring along with shady lady. It's going to be in trade, hopefully by the summer.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Oh nice. Nice. That's really cool. So do you have anything else?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I do have one more thing.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I'm good. Good,
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I have a, I'm just a writer also, so I have a novel that I wrote. and I'm a big fan of westerns, so I wrote a Western with some twists and turns and some good shootouts and some, some funny one miners and some funny stuff. I think that is maybe never been seen. And this type of spaghetti Western, it's called the last ride to Tiber and it's, available on amazon.com and I'm really proud of, it's the first time I'm in the middle of my second book, which is more of a ghost story.
but, I sat down probably. Seven or eight years ago and said, I'm going to see if I can write a book, and for years later I finished a book.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: there you go.
[00:29:00] David - David Whalen Interview.output: So I'm real proud of it. I'm real happy with it. I think it's funny and I think it's action and I think it's, it's a traditional Western with a kind of a modern twist.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: That's cool. A Westminster fine. I think westerns westerns aren't going to come back because a lot of people are, are, are waiting them again, which is cool. And cause there's a lot of stuff you can do in a Western and you can't do that in other things.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Oh yeah. Yeah. I love westerns. Always have, I'd say it's my second favorite genre, but if, one of the movies that I have to sit down and watch when I see it on TV is tombstone. I can't, I can't, I will not turn it off.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Oh, that's such a good movie I wrote that came out. I remember I was, I was younger when it came out. I was a preteen teenager, and I remember watching with my dad and being like, just, it was just awesome. And I watched it again and again and again.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Well, I mean, we grew, I grew up with, John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart westerns. My grandpa was a big fan. You would actually take me to see some of the, the old school Western, she wore a yellow ribbon and a, and the [00:30:00] high noon and things like that. And that's awesome. It's awesome stuff.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: that is cool. So is that all you have out right now? Working on his remorse?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: That's it. I'm done.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Okay. So I have a question for you. So on Amazon, you know when you click on like your name and the author, it lists everything. Everything you've done, right, but it's not always accurate. There's a book, there's a book credit to you or to somebody with your exact name, call it cat house connection guide to brothel collectibles.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I wish that I wrote that. I wish that that was mine. No, that's not my, like, now I have to go read it.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Right? It's from 2002 and it's a guide to broth
David - David Whalen Interview.output: That's amazing. That's an amazing title.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Right?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: so that title,
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: It's, it's, you know, when you go to a brothel, what items to pick up to have, you know, we're the one be worth money someday.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: What do you take with you and what do you leave there and what you take out of that place? That's amazing.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Oh, it's
David - David Whalen Interview.output: up my world to a whole bunch of questions. Not sure where to go with.
[00:31:00] John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: See now, now you can incorporate that into one of your stories from your books as it being a thing, you know?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: There are, there is. There is a couple of rat holes in the last ride to Tibor and so
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Well, now if you need to do that again and have a book in there about it, you have the reference there.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: perfect. Perfect. I love it.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: So do you go to, or do you go to cons? Did you go to conventions and sell your books too?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I go to cons. I, I haven't been able to, like, like I said at the time restraints, I haven't been able to get tables at cons really with the correct handed comics. has only been up and running for about two years,
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Oh, okay.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: so I put out a lot of content in two years. So I was really focusing on the content.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: right? You've got tons of content now.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Oh yeah. So now I think I'm getting to the point, there's a, I'm going upstate New York. So there are, there's a handful of cons that I go to every single year and have met friends and have fun and all that stuff, and gotten to the point where I think I need to start getting tables
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah. You should with with how much content you have, we should definitely start, get some tables and you'd, [00:32:00] I'm sure you'd, you'd sell quite a bit
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I think so too. And I really enjoy the aspect of it. I, my, my kids usually come with me to the cons, so we'll see if they want to come with me with a table and sit there for 12 hours for three days.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I can tell you from experience I've taken, I've taken my kids to cons that I've done sell my books and stuff. they do. Most my kids do good most of the time, but after like day two, they're ready to go home and be done.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Oh yeah. We'll see. I bet my 13 year old would be five and my 11 year old will go a little answering her pantsy.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: yeah. Yeah. My older boy was fine. He's like, I don't care. I'll sit here all day. My younger one was like, alright, I'm, can I go walk around? No, you're, you're, you're, you're eight. You can't walk around. I'm sorry.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah, and maybe in 1982 of your eight you'd walk around, but not now.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah, no, no, no, no. But they'll, they love it. My kids love it. My kids would try and get them started to try and sell books and be like, Hey, you want to buy my dad's book? You? Which just always kind of fun.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Awesome. That's great. That's awesome. I should, I should use my kids to peddle my wares,
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I mean, why not? That's, [00:33:00] that's kind of what you have kids, right? So to make it, to make you make things easier for you.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Oh. I tell my kids all the time that when I tell them to clean up this or pick up that or do this, I sometimes go, why do I have to do it? I say, because until you're 18 years old, you're essentially my indentured servant.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: exactly. I pay, I pay your way. You do your chores.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: They hate it, but it's true.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I have a seven. I have a 17 year old and he's at that stage where I was like, he's a good, he's first off, I'll say this, he's a great kid, right? He's a good kid. But he's at the age where he's 17 he wants to backtalk and feel like he's the big boss of the house, the, you know, the in charge.
And I'm like, dude, I pay your phone bill. Like your, your ability to talk to your girlfriend and see your girlfriend relies solely on you making me happy. So do your dang chores.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah. The phone, the phone, and the girlfriend. That's probably great leverage.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: It's, it's such good luck. I mean, for the most part, but sometimes it's like, well, whatever, I don't care if it's me, what a bad, and I'm like, no, don't, don't, don't go to bed. Do, do what I ask you to do.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah. It's funny how eating would probably wouldn't be the same amount of leverage.
[00:34:00] John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: no, he doesn't care. He's like, whatever.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Either. Yeah, I will stop beating you, but okay.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: that's fine. I'll just eat tomorrow. Mom or mama feed me like, yes, you will, but stop. So do you have any big plans for anything new that you're like holding them back
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Yeah. Oh yeah. I've always got a thing. I have a list of. There'll be times where I just hear a phrase or a word and I will, and I will, come up with a story idea in the span of 30 seconds and I'll get up. My wife would get mad at me and I'll get up and start writing down. She's like, what are you doing?
I'm like, I just stopped talking to me for a second. Let me get this down. So I would say that as far as trade paperbacks or mini series or one shots go, I'm, I'm going to be busy for the next 10 years.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: So I have a feeling that if we talked again and pretty much one year from today, you'd have like three times the amount of content out.
[00:35:00] David - David Whalen Interview.output: Probably probably as a, as a school teacher, I was thinking the other day, probably about two weeks ago, I was standing in, the kids were doing their stuff and I was walking around and doing my job as a teacher, quote unquote. And I thought when I was in my brain, not saying it out loud, cause that would distract them and that's problem.
But I thought, what if aliens invaded right now? And what would I do? How would I, how would I handle it with these, with these second graders?
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: right.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: about two hours later I had a script. I was ready to go on it. So, so that's, that's gonna be one of my, probably, I think I, I think I was going to be a one shot.
I've got a bunch of extra like B storylines and stuff, but I think that might be a 24 to 25 page one shot. We'll see.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Nice. Nice. So do you use your comics or any of your comic art or stuff in your class with your kids?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: All of them. They love it. They love it. They, we [00:36:00] do, especially with fourth and fifth grade, we do comic books and we talk, or we, first of all, we really focus on the mechanics of drawing, using shapes to make forms and forms to build objects in the real world. So, and then we start talking about how we use forms to build people. And it's tough for him, but I think it's really important. They love it to be able to really see and understand what people look like because I tell them all the time, people think they know what things look like, but they do not know what things look like.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Right?
David - David Whalen Interview.output: getting it from your brain. So that paper is, is where the challenge lies.
So then we, from there, we start to build, you know, start thinking about the other teachers. I'm lucky enough to have other teachers, do that when they do reading and writing and say, Hey, can you have them work on a comic book? And they go, yes, let's do that. So a though in their reading and writing classes, they'll work on their own scripts and their own characters and we'll do character designs and we'll put together a one page four to five panel story that they've come with [00:37:00] on all their own.
And, and I've gotten some, some great stuff from them. They're, they're usually excited about, even if they are complaining the whole time, I can't do this. I don't like this mr whale and I don't know how to do that. Then there's your story. If you hate me and you hate this assignment, there's your story.
Write it down.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: man. I would have loved that assignment as a kid. I would have ate, I was told by my art teacher in, in school that comics weren't real art and that, there was no, no one respected client book artists because it wasn't traditional artwork. And it wasn't like. Museum quality art. And I was, I got so mad that I got in trouble at him.
And then I had a teacher in college told me the same thing. I mean, I quit his class, but I, I, I grew up, I grew up on camp. I learned to read by reading Batman and X-Men comics, you know, in the eighties and nineties.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I was at Archie comics is what I grew up going to. Sorry. Yeah,
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: I started on RJ, but I didn't read them. I just looked at the pictures and it wasn't until I got into Batman and Wolverine that I actually heard reading the stories and like comprehending it. And that's about like, that's about like eight, nine years old. And that like got me hooked.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I [00:38:00] was very lucky. growing up I had, art teachers. And not in elementary school. We didn't have art class in my elementary school, which I really hated, but my parents were very, very, accepting that's wrong, where I'm looking for a very, happy to help me in my process of learning. So in middle school and high school, I had teachers that saw that I love comic books and they said, turn it into a comic book.
I said, okay, great. And, my parents, by the time I was 13 or 14 years old, amazingly my parents let me take new figure drawing classes at the local community college. I'm sure I've had, I had friends 20 years, 20 years later, who I would go take just for fun, take a life drawing lessons, new figure drawing classes and friends would, who didn't know anything about art or anything would say, you mean they don't have any clothes on?
I said, well, yeah, how's she going to see her body? It's like, there's, there's employment and they're like the girls and boys. Yeah. It's cross and boys and you draw them. They just saved. Some people can't wrap their brains around it, so I was very [00:39:00] lucky to be able to have parents who supported me. and
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: really cool.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I knew that that's what I wanted to do.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: That's really cool. Because doing new new life artwork, no matter what you think about it, you know, outside work, outside, when they're doing it, it's one of the best ways to learn to draw people. It's, it's you learn. So I want to, once you get past, like the first time I did new artwork and our new drawings in front of somebody, it was probably, I think it was in college.
I was probably 19 or 18 fresh out of high school and it was, at first it was a little weird, but then like after the first session I was like, no, no, this is great because. If all these, the poses in the shield that can see real shadow with shades, and it's not like doing from a picture, it's like it's live in front of you.
So you've, you feel that rush of having to do it to make it right, because if they change poses, you've lost this pose you're looking at. So you've got to like, you got to get it down and, and not waste time and it's, it's exhilarating.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's amazing. I'm still from time to time, there's a bunch of art teachers that I know here in the area. We get together and we'd do three to four weeks of new figure on classes. I love it.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Nice. [00:40:00] Anybody listening to that wants to get into drawing and drawing people? It's a great way to learn.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: 100%.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Well man, I've had a good time talking to you tonight and I really hope that everybody listening gets out there and checks out your books. I will have links in the show notes to all of your stuff, and if you ever have more stuff that's coming out that you want us to throw things to, just let me know and I'll be happy to do it for you.
David - David Whalen Interview.output: I really appreciate y'all have a good time. Thank you for having me on.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: We're back from the interview
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: That was a lot of fun. It sounds like you had a lot of fun talking with him.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Yeah. Yeah. Another one I sat down did, did solo, which is funny, you know, it's the ones I do solo or ones where it's like. More discovery of what they do. I don't have to know anything going in, so I have to do, I don't have to do research, but that's fine.
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: wow. That is such a bullshit statement. I [00:41:00] don't even know how get into that one, but it's alright.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: But it's fun. I like, I liked the discovery. I liked the discovery of who people are and how they, and how they do what they do and why they do it through. That's a lot of fun for me.
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: Yeah, I think that's always fun. That's, that's a good thing. It's kind of funny too, because you don't do a lot of solo interviews and this is like the second one in like a week and a
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: Right. Right. There's a couple. I mean, I did a couple and I had fun doing them, so maybe I'll, maybe I'll do some more. I don't know. We'll see.
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: Yeah. Maybe. We'll see. We'll see. All right guys, I hope you enjoyed
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: yeah, that's a show, man. That's a show.
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: is a show. Hey Johnny. You know, one of the things that people can do for us is go out to their podcast, search for the country, hit subscribe. That helps tremendously, but on top of that, go to iTunes. You know, go to Google play and write a review for us and just say how much either you enjoy.
It could be a one sentence, it could be two words. You suck. I don't know. Whatever it needs to be and [00:42:00] share that out. Cause that helps tremendously.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: it does. Those reviews tell people, one tells us what you think about some to helps people find our show. So we'd hope you'd give us five stars or for a full great review, but you know, if we have something to improve upon, you can put it there, or you can shoot us an email at spoiler verse. Nope, she does.
Even at smaller countries, you might not come. And you know, we'd love the feedback you have for us.
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: You guys go? How was that?
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: that was good. I asked you asking me or the audience, cause they
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: I'm
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: they can't answer you. They
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: anybody that's listening.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: if you want, if
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: you're hearing the words coming out of my
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: go to Twitter and tell Karen how you, how it was. Cause he wants to know
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: Alright guys, that's a show. Don't forget there are notions of podcasts
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: are getting through Lou
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: and that's good too. Little compels you to do
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: go to Twitter and Facebook and scream and tell us what clue compels you to do so you can put it here.
Kenric - David Whalen Intro Outro.output: You guys go, one of us.
John - David Whalen - Intro Outro.output: all of us. One of us.
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