JT Krul and The Ivory King! (On Kickstarter now!)

JT Krul – Ivory King Kickstarter

[00:00:00] Kenric: All right, guys. Welcome back in today on the show. We’re super excited. You’ve heard him, I want to say about a year ago, which makes sense because it was right when the whole pandemic was really, really, really getting going and weird things were happening and he’s back today.

Cause we’re going to talk about. Well, we’re going to, we’re going to talk about the ivory King, right? We’re going to talk the ivory King, the whole new illustrated fantasy novel that he has going on. And the Kickstarter is launching soon or has been launched actually by the time you hear this, it will be launched.

JT cruel. Thank you for coming on, man. Thanks for having me happy to be here. Yeah. So how was life? What is going on in the world of JT?

JT Krull: You know, I think like everybody else, I’m getting very familiar and friendly with my four walls and and not going anywhere. So it’s been interesting. I feel like I’ve fallen in love again with a lot of things.

I, I think, I think a lot of it has started appreciating like all the things we like to do for our pastimes, like our reading, our comics or our books, or watching your TV shows and movies, [00:01:00] all those things. I think that. Not that we took for granted, but I guess we just forgot how much I did forgot how much they really meant to me, you know, how much I would have important place.

And so like, It’s been fun, reading new stuff and watching your stuff. But also I’ve been using this time to go back and revisit some of my older collection stuff, which has been kind of fun. So just kinda, just kind of a little more nostalgic, maybe I’m just want to read, read stuff pre pandemic.

Kenric: Right, right, right.

Cause it seems like all these things have started to come out that have parallels with the pandemic. You know, so like everything you read is just a, another reminder of yeah. Thanks.

JT Krull: I like the stand is one of my favorite Stephen King books and I just, I couldn’t, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the series, but I’m just like, it’s just, I don’t know.

I don’t, I don’t really know if I need that right

Kenric: now. Yeah. I wonder how much that’s affected them because. They, you know, they didn’t know that was going to happen when they started planning that show out and getting everything and started production. It was before the pandemic happened. So [00:02:00] now they’re like, well, we’ve got to release this.

I wonder if they really thought maybe we should wait. Yeah. I thought about

JT Krull: that too. But then like, when’s it gonna be the right time? How would you pick the right post pandemic time? Like when, or, you know, it’s almost like a too soon joke. Right, right. You soon have another pandemic thing. I don’t know. So.

Kenric: Craig and oryx, did you ever read that book right before the pandemic started? This girl said you should read this book. It’s really good. I was like, okay, I’ll check it out. And I read it and I was, and then literally like a month later, this pandemic started. I’m like, are you kidding me?

JT Krull: Yeah. That was a hard it’s even the simpler things.

Like you watch like a romantic comedy or a TV show from before the pandemic and yeah. You, you see two people sitting in a crowded restaurant having a conversation and you just get like all I get all like, emotional about it. I’m like, Oh, look at them. Look at them, sitting next to each other and

Kenric: friends, give each other hugs or

JT Krull: there a wedding.

Oh, that’s so cool. You know, like,

Kenric: Oh, but things are starting to get better. It sounds like.

JT Krull: Yeah. You [00:03:00] know, I, I think that the light at the end of the tunnel hopefully is there and case had been dropping. And I know you guys in Washington here in LA, like we got really bad. Hi again, in like in January because of the holidays.

But yeah, like I, you know, I filed the numbers now. And so the stock market, I feel like every day I go and look and see like, what are the levels at and chases and hospitalizations and You know, the announcement just now that, you know, everybody should have enough for vaccines for everybody by the end of may.

That’s fantastic.

Kenric: Yeah. Yeah. And that maybe, I don’t know. I don’t understand the whole herd human immunity concept. You know, I just, you keep hearing that Sprouse, but I guess

JT Krull: it has to do with, if, if, if everybody he’s gotten exposed to it, then you don’t have to worry as much about a surge in hospitalizations because you feel like it’s kind of, it’s wiped through everybody.

And the people that were going to get it, they get really sick, have gotten, gotten really sick and the people that were going to get it and didn’t have reaction. Like, I think that’s what this all was about. It was just about having that, that like a controlled [00:04:00] exposure so that the hospitals didn’t get swamped, you know, like getting the ships on shore anymore with those hospital boats kind of thing.

God, that just seems so crazy. Like, you know, the military putting up when Washington too, right. You had the middle, you had the military put up the temporary hospitals. And I think in LA they actually a hospital that had been shut down. They actually re. Calibrated it. And then one of the other hospitals work with the government to take it over, to basically open up a COVID special hospital, almost like a, in a case of emergency break glass hospital in itself with all the equipment and defibrillators and all that defibrillators, ventilators and all that.

And so when they need it, they could just open it up.

Kenric: Like it’s not, yeah, it’s nuts. I don’t know. I, I feel kind of. I feel kind of lucky because Washington, even though at, at, at the beginning, it was like the epicenter at the very beginning of everything. But the community seemed to really grasp the whole concept of let’s do some of this social distancing.

Let’s wear some masks. And let’s try to get things down. You still, it was still weird when you go to the store and you’d see somebody without a mask. And now [00:05:00] I don’t ever see that if I have to go to the store, I don’t ever see anybody without their mask on, you know, and at the beginning, you’d see it, like, it was a point of defiance, which I thought it was a weird line in the sand.

I was like, that’s what you’re going to hang your hat on. Is that one? Yeah. Yeah.

JT Krull: I, I, you know, every now and then you’d hear in LA every now and I need to get the, you know, the story or the, the viral video of somebody. Going in and throwing a fit inside of a trader Joe’s because they don’t want to wear a mask, you know?

And it’s just like, whatever, just chill out, chill out a little bit. Yeah. But I haven’t been, I haven’t been into it grocery store. I’ve started doing like curbside delivery now where like curbside pickups, you just go and you order it online in advance and you pull up and you open your trunk, they bring it out and drop it in and it’s free.

It sounds like. Yeah. Like, and I’m just like, cause that was always my biggest. You know, the grocery store was always the biggest hotspot where like, you know, cause you get that so much traffic and stuff, but yeah, I just, I, you know, I’ve got a couple of girls that are teenagers and they’re just chomping at the bit to get out of the house.

My oldest is you know, going to start college in the fall. So I’m just, I [00:06:00] mean, selfishly, I’m just hoping we all get vaccinated so that she can go away to school in the fall and not have, you know, do it remotely or, you know, you know, sit in her dorm room 24 seven to do classes from

Kenric: here. I’m kind of excited for the Johnson and Johnson shot.

Which is different than the other two, just because it’s a one-shot and then, but I guess it does a better job if you get a severe case of COVID, you know, and then if you do, and basically it just makes it to where you just you’ll get COVID, but you’ll just feel like it’s a cold. Yeah, the whole thing is everybody,

JT Krull: everybody talks about, Oh, it’s not as high of a percentage as the other vaccines, but it’s a single dose, not a double dose.

And you’re right. Like severe illness and hospitalizations and deaths are like 95 plus percent effective. And so

Kenric: I’ll take those odds. That’s fine by me. Yeah. My, my whole thing is I don’t want to die. So if I don’t, if I get sick, I get sick. But if I, you know, but if it keeps me out of the hospital, it keeps me from dying.

I’m good.

JT Krull: Also, just to know, [00:07:00] like take the vaccine and also like, if you could get a test to know if you’ve had it, cause you, I could have had it, you know, I was sick in February. My whole family was a little sick. We came down with something, it felt like kind of a bad cold, you know, and it was after I flew in February.

And we still think like, God was, that was that COVID did we have

Kenric: it? And you know, same thing with me, I that last, that December before December of 2019, went to Atlanta, came back, got super sick. As soon as I got home, like I was in bed for a week, coffins sniff the whole thing, like a really, really bad cold.

And it took me like a month and a half for the cough just to go away. Yeah. You know, partners like that might have been it, that might, because they said it, it really got here. And like they think the first cases might’ve been in October, November, Yeah. Not even in March when they’re, you know, when they finally started cutting things down, but I was like, man, that, that might’ve been it.

And I, I completely self, I always saw quarantine when I get sick anyways. So, you know, yeah. I don’t want to see anybody. We have a [00:08:00] room to feed. We’ll bring my food to the, to the door and knock on the doors. There you go.

JT Krull: Okay.

Kenric: So we’re good. I got a seven year old and I don’t need her getting sick. You know what I mean?

She has bad asthma, so I don’t want that even being worse.

JT Krull: You might be able to get the vaccine earlier if you have someone in your household that has bad asthma. Yeah. I’m

Kenric: to, well, I’m going to talk to my doctor and see if I can get in. Yeah. One I’m overweight. So I have a potential for heart disease.

And so I’m working on that, but it’s tough because I’ve been overweight my whole life. So it’s not the same way.

JT Krull: Also working on that at, during the pandemic, not really, you know, self care is more like a psychological thing than than anything else.

Kenric: And we bought a house during all this, which is weird to me that all these, like we just bought a house cause we were ready to buy a house.

You know, we’d been working on it for like the last five years trying to get to this point. And it just happened to be this year. And then I go back and I look, and I apparently house all the house sales had spiked quite a bit in 2020, [00:09:00] because. People got to hang out at home. They want their home to be nice.

JT Krull: Yeah. We actually moved to, we sold our home. So we’re in a rental now, but yeah, same thing. It was weird to move during that time.

Kenric: Yeah. Yeah. We got lucky. We got a diamond in the rough, we got super, super lucky more house than we needed, but it was like, we’ll take it. We’ll take it. That’s awesome. The ivory King, man, this looks, this looks cool, kind of anthropomorphic.

We’re going to follow the exploits of a Badger named Bixell and he’s they were getting ready for a big celebration of the elephant King and. I’ll let you kind of explain it what we’re, what we’re in for.

JT Krull: Yeah. So, it’s really like, I’m just a huge, like I just grew up and just always just been a huge fan of mythology and fantasy.

And so like token and presenter art and, and, and, and just Joseph Campbell, different myths, a different, you know, Arthurian legend and Celtic legend and, and you know, Greek and Indian [00:10:00] and all that sort of stuff. And so, So, yeah, so it’s about a blacksmith apprentice named Vixxo. Who’s a Badger and the King commands the elephant and they’re having a celebration in honor of the kingdom’s anniversary and some bad things happen.

And there’s you know, the on the CAS and it falls to Bixell to kind of be this humble servant to go off on his own on a. Miss a mythical quest, if you will, to find this elixir, this mystical Luxor that maybe the only thing that can save the King and the kingdom itself and the place that he’s called home for most of his life.

Most of the Fisher King myth aspect to it, which I was kind of inspired by. And and actually it was co-created by my artist collaborator, Jonathan Marks bear, Becky. So he did all the illustrations for the cupboard. Thank you. Thank you. And this really was a thing where we, it, wasn’t a matter where I created the story and then went to MP illustrations.

Like we truly started working on this project together. We’ve known each other for years, and we’re actually having lunch, talking about wanting to do [00:11:00] something as you tend to do when you find artists that you want to work with. And. He was just showing me some of his sketchbook and there was a sketch of a turtle, like a tortoise with like a, almost like a kingdom built on his shell, like an insect kingdom of structures.

And it was just this cool image and I kind of fell in love with it. And. And he’s like, this is the kind of stuff I’m doing now. And I said, that’s it, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going something like that. And it all just kind of bore out of there. And, and, and the cool thing about the Kickstarter campaign is one of the tiers you can get as you can get actually, a sketchbook of a lot of his developmental work design work for Bixell himself and the elephant King and other characters in it.

Just kind of give a sense of like the look in the field and the development of the pro the project itself. And for those who you out where there in terms of like the illustrated novel if anybody’s familiar with Bernie rights and Frankenstein was kind of the model we went after we have that that’s thing we want to do, we want it.

So it’s not a matter of just, Oh, there’s one or two illustrations or little illustrations on it. Like there are 15 black and white illustrations inside, so it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s [00:12:00] rich with illustrations and I, it’s just an exciting new world. And, and it was so much fun to do. And we’ve been working on for a couple of years now.

And so, yeah, we finally decided to take the plunge and it’s my first Kickstarter campaign ever. So baptism of fire and I’m excited about it.

Kenric: I think it’s going to go really well. Yeah. You know, what’s cool about the, when you, when you flip through the book and thank you so much for sending, sending out that PDF to me, because yeah, I started reading it last night, but I didn’t know what to expect.

Right. Cause they said, Hey, JT, cruel sending something over. It’s called the ivory King. And it’s uh it’s they said it was a one-shot and I was like, Oh, okay. So it’s a graphic novel. That’s what in my head, you know what I mean? And then I started, I’m like, no, this is a novel, this is a full book. And then you start looking at the art.

And when I read the when I read the description in my mind, I’m thinking, okay, it’s working with an artist. So it’s when I hear anthropomorphic, you think Disney. You know what I mean? You almost think like Robin hood Disney style kind of thing, and it [00:13:00] is not Disney at all. It is not that Disney is bad or anything like that.

People get the wrong impression, but this is awesome. And I think you comparing it to Frankenstein with Bernie Wrightson. That’s that’s perfect because people can see the w you can start to understand the visuals that you’re going to get from bear Becky. Cause that guy. His talent is ridic. It’s just ridiculous.

JT Krull: Yeah, he, he, we, we known each other for years. He, we met at Aspen and he was doing a book there and I was working on soul fire and we had to do. A scene where we were, one of the scenes in the book was it was describing like the mythology of the soulfire universe, which were kind of revealing at this time.

And I actually talked to Frank asked me and I said, you know, I’d love to get Jonathan to do like a double spread mural of this imagery and just kind of like. So I, so I sent him the description for it and he did it. It’s one of my favorite pieces. I keep trying to buy it from a buddy. We don’t sell it.

Thingies is a mean mean person, but it’s beautiful. And it was exactly what I was looking for [00:14:00] and all the rights and, and, and it, you know, the world of the comics is amazing. And I love that world and I get to meet so many amazing artists, both creatively and also just a personality and their demeanor and people that I just like.

And there’s so many people you want to work with. It’s so hard to find the time and opportunity and the right place to work with them because everybody’s busy and, you know, just, you know, the businesses, what it is and this perfect workout to be a perfect way. For me to work with him on a level that he could fit into his schedule and contribute substantively and like, no, don’t get me wrong.

Like I love great covers and that’s awesome. But I always knew that this story was going to be more impactful and, and stand out more for my readers to who know me more for my comp of working on my prep work. If we had this kind of the hybrid of I would call it cause you don’t see a lot of.

Illustrated novels out there. Like the present, I mean, the, the, the Brittany writes and book also, like I have like, you know, Howard’s like Conan work, like, and there’s ones with that where they have illustrations. Like, I love that stuff where it, it, it, it provides just like an [00:15:00] extra layer, an extra texture and extra dinette dimension to the world.

And, and that was the goal all along. And so I just, his stuffs, like you said, I agree with you. His stuff’s amazing. I’m so lucky to have him on the book and it’s been such a great. Experienced developing this with him and kind of building the project from square one.

Kenric: What was the collaboration like with the whole remote?

Not being able to be in the same room together?

JT Krull: Well, actually we’ve been working on this a long time, so by the time the pandemic even started most of the illustrations were done. Not all, if not all of them. And I was still working on the, the, the, the prose itself. And so, it was really a matter of.

Honestly, the last two months have been all about building up my familiarity with Kickstarters in terms of doing them and building the campaign and realizing what we wanted to do, the kind of book we wanted to get, getting the bids to make sure that we had the budget down and knew what the shipping was costs were going to

Kenric: be.

JT Krull: Yeah. You know, and it, it adds up quick, you know, and try to keep the budget as low as possible. [00:16:00] The goal is low as possible so that John could, could be taken care of and we can make the kind of book we wanted to. We also knew we wanted to, because it’s an illustrated novel. We want it to have it a good feel.

That’s why it’s a hard cover book. And we just wanted the presentation of ball because that’s what I love. I love when you get like either a Kickstarter project or I just got to. For Zetta book from the, for Zetta museum online over the holidays. And it’s great. We just love to get that. Like, I just loved those art presentation books and we really wanted the book to be like that.

So,

Kenric: yeah. Do I have the the other level I have almost all of his Vampirella covers. Yeah, like van Perla, number one is just so iconic and then you just go through them and they just look so good in that oversize worn books. And you’re just like, I can’t even, I can’t even imagine having that, that level of talent.

JT Krull: I agree. Yeah. And it’s amazing. It’s just, it’s really just uncanny. And so, and, and [00:17:00] Jonathan is great in the fact that. Not only is he a tremendous artist, but also his style works really well for something like this, where I wanted it to be something that wasn’t didn’t look like, like, cause I mean, there is a, there is a star with this could have like a mainstream chemical look to it with the illustrations.

But if you’re with the type of story, it was like you said, it has more of a grittiness to it, which I really, which I really think Even even deciding on the Badger as the main character, that’s the animal, which was part of the reason was because of the visuals of his ink style and how we knew it was gonna look like he loved playing those, the black and the white off of each other, you know, in terms of the, of the badgers

Kenric: for a Badger is a great choice.

For for an animal to anthropo anthropomorphize size. That’s a, that’s a tough word right there. Yeah, because they are, so they have so much determination and they’re tenacious and in their nature. And what a great character base to build your, your, your, your [00:18:00] protagonist off of, because, I mean, you know, you see all these other people, but at Badger, I thought I was like, Oh, this is perfect.

I don’t think I’ve seen a Badger be the main focus yet. Yeah. You know,

JT Krull: we tried to pick something that was, was a little, a little off the beaten path, you know? It was just, there’s some great fantasy stuff with anthropomorphic flares too. Like, you know, mouse guard is one of the first thing that comes to mind, you know, and then other stuff that I grew up on, like the secret and name.

Kenric: Yeah. See what her name was mine right there. So for

JT Krull: this project, like I went back and we read a ton of that. So if anything that had to kind of like the animal motif to it. So they’re like the secret name and wash it down and you know, animal farm and Island, Dr. Moreau, even like, I just kinda wanted to see like about how.

You know, different ways that it was done. And, and, and so, you know, there’s, there’s characters that are giraffes in it. There’s the elephant King of South there’s porcupines is you know, there’s all just also, we try to just really. Create a really rich tapestry with it. So, but also give the characters all their own [00:19:00] individual flair.

So it’s not just a matter of like, Oh, it’s a pig. We know that they’re sloppy or whatever, you know what I mean? It’s not done in that way. So, but that was half that was half the

Kenric: fun Kickstarter and not like random house or even going to other companies that, you know, cause like IDW has done. Novels, you know?

And so as some of the other combo companies, why, why did, what made you, what drove you to Kickstarter or do you independent scene? Is this just something you wanted to always wanted to do? It’s something

JT Krull: I would want it to do. And quite frankly, like it’s just wanting to kind of be in control of its own destiny in a way, you know?

And I really feel like, I think that when Kickstarter first started, it was, it was kind of that. Way for people to do it, that there were no other options for them. And that’s great. And I feel now to me, Kickstarter’s almost like a destination unto itself and it’s, it’s almost like an a, to like a band releasing an exclusive underground cut of their new LP before it goes wider, you know, and obviously, you know, we’ll see how [00:20:00] the Kickstarter goes and on how we fare, but like, that’s kinda how I look at it.

And so it’s also a way to, to get that. Quality of the book out. Not that IDW doesn’t do quality books cause they do, but it just, for them to take a to, to take a shot in something like this and have the, you know, the F the finances of it workout and the ownership and the piece of the pies and all sorts of out.

Yeah. So, you know, and what would that be? And so for me, it’s like, Also part of it was just during the pandemic. We just, I just want to put it out, you know, I just don’t, if I talk, we’re just like, look, we’ve got it. We’re ready to go. You know, we could shop around, but like, you know, like the way that business is right now, like the shelf space is hard to hard to get because like, you know, things are, while things are doing well, it’s also, the shelf space is also kind of contracting with sport.

And, and so we just, I just wanted to, to, to kind of, to try this and see if it could be a. A good place for me to do it and kind of start building that kind of presence on the, on the Kickstarter model. And if it has wider publication opportunities beyond that, then that’s, that’s great. [00:21:00] Yeah. So, yeah, that

Kenric: makes sense.

That makes sense if this succeeds, which I can’t see it not succeeding, so I don’t think we have to worry about that here, but once the succeeds put that once this succeeds are you open for another, another pixel adventure?

JT Krull: Oh, definitely. Absolutely. And, and even, even beyond the Mixel adventure because we are taking a, not a, not a chance.

I mean, you’re taking a chance anytime to do a Kickstarter, you know, if you’re going to hit, you’re going to hit the right market and get people’s interests, you know, cause there’s so much competition for her for funds and attention, but there’s not a lot of illustrated novels done in general, but also not on Kickstarter, you know?

Books, books have their kind of pocket and Kickstarter. They do. Okay. Comic books tend to do better, you know, overall. And so we’re kind of somewhere in the middle. And so it’s really gonna be interesting to see like what the marketplace is for the illustrated novel kind of format. And if this does well, like I’d love to do not only more adventures in this world, but I also have other ideas where [00:22:00] if I was developing it as like, say a graphic novel, or just as a novel, I might go this route for other, other types of stories because.

Again, it would give me a chance to be able to work with artists that I want to work with, that I love their work, collaborate with them in a way that it can work in with their schedule. It gives them a chance to stretch a different bone, a different, a different, different muscle, a little bit more

Kenric: highly stylized.

JT Krull: Yeah. Because yeah, the truth is when you do, and this is talking with Jonathan, is that when he doesn’t know illustration for the book, it’s not like a splash necessarily of a comic book. You know, the moments that he, he picked. Yeah. He basically, I basically let him pick the moments he wanted to do. And we discussed it as I was writing the book we discussed, what the moments for the illustrations would be.

And, and it all came up upon organically. And with an illustrated novel, it’s not necessarily about hitting like. A big battle scene. Like you couldn’t do that. And I’m sure it would look great, but that’s not really what it’s about. And so a lot of these illustrations are the quieter moments or the pieces that kind of establish the mood or set the [00:23:00] tone or, or explore the world.

And that’s what I think is that’s what I think is really exciting. What makes the illustrations stand out? Yeah,

Kenric: because if you did like a big splash page, it’s cool, but you’re taking some of the imagination of the reader away.

JT Krull: Right. Right, exactly. You know, and, and so you just spell it out for them. And so, you know, like, like in illustrated versions of like Lord of the rings, like yes, you can have the Gandalf versus the Balrog like, you know, ah, you know, and that would, I’m sure that would look great, but a quieter scene of just Gandalf smoking his pipe could be just as engaging and almost more so, and just get to more to the emotion of the, of the scene of the story.

Then the big kind of gangbusters

Kenric: one character development at that point is different. You have more of an intimate level of understanding of that character than just seeing a big battle. Yeah. Which

JT Krull: is cool. It’s funny. I remember when I was very fortunate enough to work with Aspen early on when Michael Turner was still around and I would have talks with them because he would get, you know, everybody wanted him to do coverage.

He was doing DC covers and Marvel covers and civil war and plaintiff [00:24:00] Hawkin, all those ones. And I asked him, we were talking and I was asking him like, is that hard? Like, does he not get a chance to do those quieter moments? Because if people get a Turner cover, they want to, you know, they want it all blown out.

You know, they want nine characters. They want, you know, it’s all gotta be like super Baroque poses, everything. Well, he was great at it and love doing it. I always wondered if like, it was a sense where like, you know, could he do a quieter scene? Would they be okay with that? Because, I mean, I’m sure they would take whatever they could get, but.

Did he have, it was harder to kind of justify doing that if you were going to do, you know, like he did that one. That was great where it was just Peter Parker. It was just the mask off or the cake’s cover in identity crisis. I think it was such a cool cover. And you wonder if like, if there’s any sort of like put FAQ or whatever on that, because it wasn’t like a money shot for lack of a better.

I

Kenric: hope it wasn’t a pushback, I think. Yeah. I hope not. I don’t think so. Doing a novel like this, a [00:25:00] fantasy illustrator fantasy novel. You’ve got a lot more words to, to describe and to have fun with, I guess, is the best way to put it. And what level is there a different level of satisfaction doing this compared to doing a comic book?

JT Krull: Yeah, it’s I mean, there’s just the, the sheer word number itself. Like there’s a sense of satisfaction of like writing a book, like as a writer for a long time and growing up and reading and always wanting to be a writer from, since I was a kid, like just the, is even as bad as a bad first draft can be the act of finishing a first draft is a achievement for me unto itself.

And so I, I try to take stock in that It, you know, it’s such a different muscle because the dialogue matches up the same on doing dollar for comics versus dialogue for the pros. But when I’m writing a script for a comic book, it’s really, I’m just talking to the artists. And so I there’s so much shorthand I can use, I can reference things and say, okay, Hey, this is like, let’s do something like that scene in that [00:26:00] movie.

Or, you know, let’s, you know, if there’s a visual I’m trying to get across, like I can use imprecise language to do it. We’re in pro it’s just, it’s just the words on the page. It’s all I got. And so, it’s harder. And I, I, I come through it a lot more, you know, there’s so many more passes on, on that. Whereas in the comic book script, I’m coming through the dialogue a lot more than I’m coming through everything else.

Right? This is matter of, you know, you’re, you’re re going through and almost rewriting every chapter and every paragraph and it

Kenric: gets, has exploded.

JT Krull: Yeah, it gets daunting. I’ll say that it’s overwhelming

Kenric: at times. How’d you do this? Did you just start, sit down and start writing? Or did you map everything out?

Like I’ve said all the writers I’ve talked to, I like to always ask this question because it is different. It is drastically different from person to person. Some people are very meticulous and they have to have an outline and they have a, and they do it. The old fashioned way, where they have a topic and then two supporting sentences and then a closing sentences.

And then they, they literally do that for their whole story. [00:27:00] And then they, and then they just kind of basically put it all together and then add some transitions and boom there’s there, there’s their thing, either a novel or, or a comic book or a movie script, whatever it is. And I’m always curious, are you, or, or they just sit down and start writing, you know,

JT Krull: I think that, you know, it, it comes in different ways, depending on the project.

Yeah. Yeah. I’m a, I love world building. That’s the thing I think I liked the most. I love building mythologies. I like building the backstories. I like knowing what I’m talking about. And so, like, I have another project I’m working with right now, which I have a whole notebook filled with just development of the, the characters and the, the, you know, the, the civilizations and the different people.

And it’s not even plot driven at first. And then the plot start coming out. It’s almost like you build a world and then you identify the individuals that you want to be the narrators or the focal points through that world. One animals as people, medieval story was kind of like the early impetus. And then we quickly, we quickly isolated on a [00:28:00] story of Bixell and the alien King and a quest.

And so that kind of, that kinda came quick. And then it kind of grew out from there in terms of building the world around. So this one went it’s like globally was like just a little, very brief development and global, like what this world looks like. And then it was about, and then it, it grew out of Bixell and his adventure.

And most times, because I’m dealing with the world building aspect, and honestly, I just get lost in it because I like it so much. I can spend more time doing that than I probably should. And finding. You know, and so like this other project, like I have several characters and their stories are kind of mapped out.

In broad strokes. And it’s just a matter of, you know, I kind of want to know where I’m going, but the pathway can change and how to get

Kenric: there. You’re world-building I imagine that that makes it easier when you put your character in a particular predicament that they can have some textually, you know, the decisions that they’re going to make based off of one, the world that they grew up in.

And two, the, the, the background [00:29:00] story of what made them, who they are. Yeah.

JT Krull: Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. And so, it’s funny, this one, this one new idea. And we’re going to now, I, it reminds me of what you read about when George Lucas was creating star Wars where like, where he started the story from, and then he ended up going in the middle because this character I have, there’s a whole life of a story and I’m like, wow, do I do it chronologically?

Do I start at the beginning? When he’s a boy? Where do I start? When he’s a middle-aged man? And then the boys stuff is there, but can come through. Through flashbacks or through like other stories, like where do I, where’s the best point to, what’s the real story I want to tell. What’s the, where’s the best point to, to activate it

Kenric: from I’m struggling.

I’m working on something for myself right now. And I struggle with the same thing. You know, I wrote act one, I’m working on act two right now. And it’s like mad. I go back and I reread act one to make sure that I get things right. And act two. But then I see an act one. Oh my God, there’s all these. Things that are [00:30:00] wrong, like that doesn’t make sense or that doesn’t explain why this is happening or anything or that, you know, and, and maybe I should spend more time on the world itself.

JT Krull: Or you could just, just soldier through, get through at three and get it done. And then you can start, you can start. And then you feel, you finally realized like where the strength of the story is the story you’re really trying to tell, to see if the scenes are kind of are kind of matching up.

Kenric: Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s kinda funny.

I don’t have any, any I don’t have any skin in the game, so I, you know, I tell people about it all the time, because. It’s like maybe someone gave me a good advice. Cause it’s, it’s really about a guy that is from, and people listening to show probably sick of me talking about it. But it’s really about this guy that is, he wants to be a 1940s.

Hard-nosed hard-boiled detective like a pulp fiction type of guy. But he’s in modern day, Seattle. I’m basing it all in, in Seattle. Cause that’s what I know. And. He’s hunting down a serial kidnapper. He may or may [00:31:00] not be killing these children. I haven’t, I know what’s going on, but you know, it’s, it’s kind of open to interpretation and, and based on what your opinion is, when you see what happens is, is you can decide how, what he is and he’s stealing children around Easter time.

So they call them the Easter bunny. And this lady in his apartment complex has enlisted his help. And of course he’s like this total misogynist sexist guy that always helps the downtrodden only charges to the big guys when it comes, because, you know, because the classic kind of Sam spade kind of mentality, that’s what it was in my head when I think about him.

But he’s in his sixties, you know, he’s, you know, not very tall, he’s not, you know, he’s a very ordinary looking guy, balding, all that kind of stuff. And he goes, and he follows all these clues. He goes to an Island, which has aptly been renamed Easter Island by Liz, by this guy that’s stealing children and he dies.

He gets, he gets hit in the head with an ax. As soon as he basically gets on the Island, the guy [00:32:00] that the killer gets him. We open up and then all of a sudden he’s, he’s, he’s dead and he’s seen the lights and all that kind of stuff. And then this entity comes and he basically says, all this stuff is going on.

There’s more going on than just this guy, you know, but I need you to figure this out with, with him and, and, and figure and solve this mystery. I can’t go there and do it because if I enter your realm, I’m going to tear apart your room just by the sheer who he is. He was like, okay. So he’s, you know, all this confusion happens.

Obviously this is over an overview, big time. He goes, okay, you’re going to, I’m going to have you be reborn, and I’m going to give you the gift of memory. So he’s, so this guy disappears. He starts to see a blue light and it gets closer and closer. All of a sudden he’s being pulled out and he sees the doctor’s face.

But he was just murdered like hours before and he remembers everything, you know, he’s the same person. He just happens to be reborn. So now. [00:33:00] He needs, he needs to figure out this whole mystery. I haven’t fast forward, like he’s three years old, but to him, he’s just him. Right. And now he’s struggling. I believe the 60 year

JT Krull: old dead hardball detective inside a three-year-old’s

Kenric: body.

Yeah. But at Tim, you know, he has been reborn as this. So the title right now, the working title is supernatural baby detective. And the whole thing is he’s struggling with the love of his new mom. Because he was born and she loves him and she takes care of him. She does everything, but for him, he’s like, you’re not my mom’s sweetheart.

My mom is this person, you know, but because of the experiences and everything that’s going on, he starts to feel those feelings. And at first I wanted to make it very corny and out of this world, but then I started thinking about it. I’m like, yeah, that would be super, super weird. And I’m working through all that kind of stuff.

And, but to get to that point, It’s difficult. JT is difficult also.

It’s

JT Krull: like you think about like, what’s like even just pulling them murder out of it. Yeah. We character standpoint, like [00:34:00] what is his journey? You know, his, his journey that, and just what you’re telling me off the top, off the top of my head, like this, his journey that he was kind of an asshole and in connected with nobody, because he was kind of jaded in his life.

And so what it’s really about is not really a second chance to. Solve the murder, but a second chance to form a positive relationship with somebody. And that’s the relationship with his mom? Yeah. You know, where something like that.

Kenric: Yeah. That’s exactly what I was thinking.

JT Krull: Like, like that’s like the thing, because then like you could have that.

Cause I could see that very fun playing out where he’s like he would have to pick his mom on the journey because he needs her to drive. He needs to do. I think it’s like, it’s almost like a a non. Like a weird with, with, I dunno, how do you do sexual tension between the three-year-old and a mom?

You know,

Kenric: keep it completely innocent. But I think if you just keep it to where you constantly remind the audience that it’s the [00:35:00] love between a mom and her baby. That it can change, you know, and there’s a part of me that like, I should change his sex, but then I didn’t want to deal with that part because that can open up a whole other thing that I’m not equipped to deal with or to talk about.

And then you know, and I have as a print, I have his secretary, her name is Pearl, and I want her to have to go and find her in, in the meantime, as he has gone through this three-year journey of getting to be three years old, she has taken over his detective agency and has become a. Star in the local news for filling out all these, these different things, all figuring all these different cases out, you know what I mean?

But she loved him. Like she was in love with him and now she has to, you know, and then he has to convince her that it’s me. Right. It’s really me. And he’s three years old. And then, you know, and then there’s going to be that whole dynamic where maybe he loved her too, but he never got a chance to say anything.

And now it’s completely, you know, she’s like, 51 years old, 52 years old, he was in his sixties. And obviously that’s never [00:36:00] going to happen now, you know? And how do you deal with that? Two ships passing in the night type of thing with the three-year-old. Right, right. And so it’s, it’s kind of funny. It is,

JT Krull: that’s a challenge.

I’ll get it. That that’s a challenge to walk that tight rope.

Kenric: I think it’s going to be fun, but that’s why I always ask, because I’m always curious with people on how they attack their stories, you know? Cause some people are so prolific. They just get through it so quickly. And it’s like, how do you doing that?

And I think those are the people that just sit down and can just write. I also like,

JT Krull: w you’re struggling, you think about like the tone you want to make this story, and there’s probably a way you could just really have fun with breaking up the linear aspect of it. You know, like I think that like, like.

Look, we’ve all seen a million romantic comedies in our lifetime. And I thought like the movie 500 days of summer, one of the things that did really well was it broke up the linear nature of it, you know? And it just, it just, it shattered it and it’s almost like they just took all the same stuff and threw them down.

Right. And just, I think stuff like that, like, [00:37:00] especially a story like that, where you’re dealing with his life before and his life. Now, there might be a way to figure out a different starting point. Yeah. So not a, B, C, D E you know? Not so

Kenric: linear.

JT Krull: Yeah. You know,

Kenric: maybe start with him being three years old and people are like, what am I reading?

JT Krull: Or if something happens and he remembers, so you don’t have to worry about him being that the whole zero to three where he’s like in that body and we can’t do anything. Cause then cause then it’s almost like if it’s that it’s. I’m going to date myself, but there’s this there was a movie in the seventies where Chevy chase was a detective and he was killed and he was reincarnated as Benji.

The dog. There was a famous dog in the seventies, Benji. So there was a movie and I don’t remember what the name of the movie was, but it’s actually, I mean, look, I haven’t seen it in Robert, but when I was a kid, do you remember liking

Kenric: it?

JT Krull: I like it. He was a detective and he gets [00:38:00] reincarnated as this dog and he has to solve this crime of kind of who killed him kind of thing.

And so, I mean, there’s, there’s elements you, I mean, it might be something to check out, just see how they play it, but like, Just in terms of like where you jump in and where you kind of, you know, interesting racer,

Kenric: please message me, man. I’m not saying to make them

JT Krull: a dog, but my, my daughter just had to watch this one because she was doing for an acting class.

She was studying the films of Emma Thompson and there’s a great movie called dead. Again, kind of brought in a film. From nineties I had to do with reincarnation reincarnation, and he’s the detective and she’s got amnesia, but she’s having these nightmares that are hearkening back to a previous life.

And there’s all this reincarnation stuff going on. And again, it’s about, there’s a linear aspect to it, but they didn’t do it in a linear fashion. And so there’s a mystery aspect to it. So. Yeah, that’s

Kenric: interesting. Yeah, that’s a good, it’s a good thing. I didn’t think about the linear aspect. I was going a, B, C, this happened.

So this happened, so this [00:39:00] happened, you know, and maybe break it up, like fiction style.

JT Krull: It’s a matter of the tone you’re going for, like, is it a serious tone? Is it more of a dark comedy? Is it, is it is it a comedy straight up? Like, you know, is it, you know, that, you know, you almost think like, No, like, just as an example, like, Ooh, how would Edgar Wright direct this film?

You know, it’s like, what are the kinds of ways you, or, you know, guy Richie,

Kenric: like, what’s the lighting right here.

JT Krull: I just mean in terms of the, I’m just meaning to terms of the

Kenric: tone. That’s what, I mean, the lighting has a huge impact on the tone. Yeah. Like when you watch a guy Ritchie film, you’ll notice that.

The lighting based on what’s happening or almost be completely different, you know, a lot of his action shots, unless it’s in the daylight where it’s in the middle of the day, when they’re in a, in a room, it feels like everything gets darker, you know? And it’s, and I think he’s just trying to, like I said, I think he’s trying to set that tone guy.

Richie is a, a brilliant. [00:40:00] Filmmaker to me. So, I mean, I liked that you brought him up. I need to check that out with Emma Thompson. And you said Kenneth Bradner.

JT Krull: Yeah. It kind of Brown it, well, he directed it. It was like the first thing that kind of put them on the American map. Cause he was doing all the theater stuff in, in swimming.

It’s called that again. Darren Jakoby is in it. Robin Williams has a small part in it. Like it’s a, it’s a little dated. It’s funny. Cause now with my daughters watching stuff, I see movies and I just see how like. You know, through watching it through their prism. And seeing like, Oh, that’s, you would never do that.

You know, it’s like, that’s inappropriate or, you know, it’s like things that you can’t things that just don’t happen now. And it’s just like, you really realize like, Oh yeah, that was really terrible. He’s you know,

Kenric: so I watched revenge of the nerds. Oh God. Yeah. Right. And it was just because, Oh my God. I love, I remember loving that movie in the eighties when I was like 13 years old, because a nudity that’s really the only reason.

But the whole panty raid scene and then him tricking the [00:41:00] cameras and then him in the fun house with the cheerleader. And he tricked her into having sex with her. I’m like, dude, that’s full on rape. This is crazy that this was such a huge, you know, when I read about it now and. It’s

JT Krull: the same thing with 16 candles with Anthony Michael Hall character.

Right. They tell Jake Ryan, his girlfriend’s drunk. They put in the crisis, I’m him, he’s me. And they ended up hooking up in his truck parking lot, you know, like it’s crazy, you know, it’s

Kenric: weird. It’s really, really, really odd. It’s like, I don’t know. There’s a part of me that feels like people should have realized this even then.

Yeah. You know, Cause it’s like, Hmm, that’s so inappropriate. And that’s like on a different level.

JT Krull: Oh my God.

Kenric: The, the Kickstarters is started now. Do you, by chance have in front of you the type of Levels that people can donate to or buy into [00:42:00] the, the,

JT Krull: the basic level to get the hardcover book is 25. We have a tier for 35 where you get the cover and you get the hardcover and you also get a print of the cover itself for 50 50.

Yeah, I think it’s for 50, we have. You get the cover. We try to make everything additive. So all of the subsequent tiers have the earlier stuff, right? So the $50 tier, you get the print and the book, and you also get a Jonathan sketchbook, which is great. It’s got a lot of behind the scenes stuff in it.

It actually has the the tortoise illustration that he did, that was like the Genesis of the whole idea does not appear in the book. Cause it was just more of a one-off thing. He did that actually, that, that inspirational image, if you will, that’s actually in the sketchbook was great. There’s some limited edition stuff higher price points where you can get a limited edition sketch by Jonathan, you can actually get commissioned a full watercolor commission piece by Jonathan actually, we’re actually there’s actually three of the actual illustrations from the book.

The original art are actually available in three different tiers, so you can get there’s really different original illustrations. You can get that. There’s [00:43:00] another level I’ve done where. You get the book and the print and the sketchbook, and then I’ll actually do a zoom, like writer consultation with you.

If you want to do that, kind of just some aspiring writers out there. Just want to learn about the process, or you might have

Kenric: done some stuff like,

JT Krull: huh? We can, we try to, we try to make something for everybody. And we also try to keep it simple and we have, you know, we have stretch goals. If we hit our numbers and we beat them, we have stretch goals, like fun, little things like stickers. And bookmarks. And then we also have some tears that we haven’t revealed yet that will actually be enhancements for the books that we’re hoping we can hit for that.

So we’re, we’re really excited about that. And we’ve got a lot of different stuff planned. That’ll both, either additional things that are just kind of fun also, but also more importantly things that’ll actually. Improve the presentation of the book itself and what’s, what’s in it. What the person gets in the actual finished products.

Yeah, so just a lot of different

Kenric: stuff. JT just did all of that from memory. So prices are subject to change. If you missed a price. I just don’t want anybody to go. [00:44:00] Why I, you and you said I got there and it’s like, put

JT Krull: a disclaimer was from memory.

Kenric: You never know I’ve I’ve been a party to that. So it’s like, come on guy.

JT Krull: I’ve got it on tape.

Kenric: You know what? That’s funny that, that right there dates both of us. I don’t say I record or I’m I’m, I’m recording my stream. Like you hear people say everything like that. It’s I got it on tape. I got on tape. I’m making a tape. Me and JT are taping tonight,

JT Krull: tonight, tonight,

Kenric: which is hilarious because yeah.

But talk to 20 something. They have no idea what I’m saying. What. I was

JT Krull: talking to somebody the other day where it’s like, like, I look don’t me wrong. It’s great. Having everything available and like Spotify, you know, you can listen and bring it up, whatever. But I have to say, like I do miss. The feeling of driving in your car, listen to the radio and a song comes on that you weren’t expecting and you turn it [00:45:00] up a little more, no matter how high the volume was, you turn up just a little bit more because that song’s on.

And that excitement of, of, of hearing a song that you didn’t know was coming up. So, and I don’t feel like we get that as much anymore because everything’s playlist and you

Kenric: just see delayed gratification that is gone. No. It’s like I worked at a video. I ran a video store. I w I ran a Hollywood video in the mid nineties and I miss, I don’t miss running a video store, but I do miss going to a video store, then one of your first jobs it was my second job.

So my first job was it really? Yeah. My first job was working at a computer store and building machines and doing all that. And then. I went to Arizona and did some tech trade school really quickly realized I don’t want to be an air conditioning guy. That’s not for me at all. I just needed something in my life going out of high school and it should have went to college, but I was like, man, I did that way [00:46:00] later.

But and then I came home and I was like, I just, I didn’t know what I was doing. And my sister said how it videos building a store down the street in front of the Fred Meyer. You should go apply. And. Yeah, I was there for like four years. Yeah, it was good though. I just, I missed the fact that going in and walking those aisles and seeing the cover box and, you know, is it Wednesdays?

I think it was Wednesdays new release day and you’d go in and you’d see the, all the cover box faced and, Oh, I forgot that movie that movie’s already out on video, you know what I mean? And they kind of going through that and you, you, you kind of miss that now, because now you can just. No stream, whatever you want or go to it’s like, it’s

JT Krull: like going to the theater at mine.

Granted when none of us is going into theater, but pretend it’s even like going to the theater and seeing a trail you didn’t know was out. You didn’t have to watch on your phone. You’re excited to see what trailers next, you get that green screen of approved for all audiences. Like what’s this one going to be now?

It’s just like, it’s, you know? Yeah. You don’t really get to go to

Kenric: YouTube. Right. You just go to YouTube and [00:47:00] then you see all the trailers and it was, it was different too, because if you went to a movie before your buddy went to the movie and you knew the trailers that were coming and you saw, Oh, I just saw this, you know, the preview for, you know, the X-Men.

Which was what, 1999. So, you know, that trailer might’ve been out online at that time, but online was super slow. So no one was downloading things like that. Very often there was no YouTube. So, you know, being able to see that video preview or the star Wars movies, you know, going home and your buddy, you’re like, Oh my God, this movie’s coming out.

And none of that.

JT Krull: We went, they aired it before star commander with Freddie Prinze Jr. And we went my buddies and I went to see it in Santa Monica on the prominent, because we knew the star Wars trailer was going to premiere before. And that’s the only reason I went to the movies. So they promoted it.

They promoted the movie with the trailer you were going to see before we all went. And there’s a bunch of us that went and it was so funny, like that

Kenric: hilarious. It’s, it’s a weird time, but I kinda like, so I’m watching Wanda vision. I’m loving all the Marvel stuff [00:48:00] that Disney’s doing. Yeah. And I like that there.

Waiting week to week because it’s building that excitement. You don’t get that. Like Netflix, they just drop everything. You’re you’re great for a day or two days, then you end up bingeing it and then it’s over then. No, one’s talking about it anymore after that, or if you did, they’re mad because you’ve ruined something where this one is like, you got a week between each one and it just builds.

And I don’t know, they kind of

JT Krull: my girls and I watch it. We love it. Like, it’s our, it’s our appointment television right now. We do about Thursday at about eight at 8:00 PM. Thursday night. What’s today’s. Thursday, right? Yeah. Okay. So tonight in a few hours, we will go on an, almost an internet embargo because we’re only thinking spoiled and we won’t go, we we’ll we’ll we’ll, we’ll get out of school and right when they’re out of school, we’ll maybe get some ice cream or just sit down and we watched the episode and I think, I think that’s a great thing.

And I think that shows they’re missing it. I think that I agree with you. Like, I think like a show, like stranger things, if you could have it, where was that? That I feel like loss was or game of Thrones where like the last two ones that were [00:49:00] great. Cliffhanger a week lag time where everyone’s talking about what happened, what’s going to happen.

Oh my God. You know, who’s going to die or what’s going on in the Island. Kind of mentality. And I think one vision’s capturing that I love, Oh, hysterical, seeing people complain about it. And it’s just, it’s just, it’s, it’s almost, it’s almost funny. Like it tickles my heart, watching people come, you mean about having to wait.

We, you know, and but I think it’s, I think it’s. Done so, well, I think it’s an extremely well done show.

Kenric: I can’t wait. I can’t wait to see tomorrow’s episode. I think I, I feel that it’s all Tron inside a white vision. So, I I’ve been telling everybody, I think it’s all trying to inside a white vision, or I think ultra is a big component of what’s happening and then I’d be like, nah, it’s Mephisto and it could be  who knows.

And then it’s, you know, but the fact that we’re having this conversation, it’s been weeks of having this. Yeah. You’re not getting that with anything else. Yeah.

JT Krull: The other cool thing is now it’s like I gave my daughter the VisionQuest storyline, Oh, [00:50:00] West coast, Avengers. I’m like hair. And I was like, I gave it to him.

Like, you know what, maybe don’t read it yet. If you don’t wanna have to show spot, because they’re already doing stuff that’s in it. Like Agnes in the show and all that. Like the Hartness, that’s all about it. Vision all torn apart. Like, cause it’s all about, it’s all about vision being dismantled and losing his memory kind of thing.

And then kind of rebuilding them. There’s also this crazy. I don’t know how familiar you are with the Avengers story from back in the day, but like. In that storyline, like there’s a character of the Avengers called wonder man, and he’s kind of a derivative of vision. They share like memories, like, like they gave wonder man visions memories.

And so they’re kind of like weird kind of grown brothers in a way. Yeah. And so there’s this really cool story that, that they did called vision quest. And and so she’s got it. So I told her just wait until tomorrow’s

Kenric: episode. And I think it’s cool that she you’re getting her into into books. I try and tell people all the time, you should check out this you’re a reader.

You should check this out. You’ll probably like it and they just, they can’t get over the fact that it’s a comic book and it’s just like, you’re missing out on some amazing you’re [00:51:00] 11, the MCU, what’s all based off of comic books.

JT Krull: I have to say that I am shocked that the Marvel universe and the comic book movies and the shows are as popular and is successful.

They are. And, and unless I’m just missing it, like the comic book world itself has not seen. A crossover of success on that. Like you didn’t see, like, based on what end game did alone, the Avengers comics should sell 300,000 copies a month. I know. I just don’t. I don’t it’s so it’s so sad. Like, it really is like, I just feel that and whether it’s.

The attention span thing, or people just don’t read as much. And the younger generation doesn’t read as much and I get it. There’s like, you know, you could buy comic and read it, or you could be Spider-Man in a PlayStation four game and don’t get me wrong. Those games are great, but like, it’s just, it’s, it’s, it’s unfortunate.

Like I just, you know, these are the things when I grew up, like talking about [00:52:00] recording stuff, like, the Batman, Michael Keaton, Tim Burton film, I remember. Recording entertainment tonight because they were going to premiere the trailer on it. I did the same test and I

Kenric: recorded it. I do the exact same

JT Krull: and recorded Spiderman as amazing friends on Saturday morning when Punisher movie came out, it’s not like it was a victory for the fans all over the world.

And now like all this amazing stuff and the Ironman stuff and Avengers and monovision and, and, and, and, you know, she’s am, and just all that, just all the great stuff they’re doing and, and. It just, it just, I just, I don’t get it. I don’t get how there’s not that, that, that translation

Kenric: that comes over. Well, let me ask you a question.

Why isn’t local complex stores going to theaters when these movies are opening up and having a pop-up store right here? I, I

JT Krull: I’ve said that for years that they should get it. I do know that some comic stores that, you know, like they would do a thing where they would give out coupons for comics at the thing, you know, But yeah, like, [00:53:00] honestly, they were like, like a vending machine, like a vending machine of comics that just had, like, if you had a Marvel vending machine in a, in a, in a movie theater lobby and it was just giving you trade paperbacks.

Yeah. It was giving you trade paperbacks of those stories of Wanda story of, you know, of, of, of infinity gauntlet. You know, you could

Kenric: do trade paperbacks of the first appearances of each of each character. And those things would sell like hotcakes. Yeah. Yeah.

JT Krull: Like, I, I, it does, it does kind of boggle the mind.

You’re right though. Why they don’t have a kiosk, like, like the ArcLight theaters out here, they would have like the gift area and they’d have books. Like you see it with books. Like you see books, the books get ordered a ton and stuff, but

Kenric: they just, they just don’t, it’s sad. It’s

JT Krull: so it’s so sad. And you’ve got all these amazing writers and artists, and don’t even restart it on the artists and the writers who.

Create the stories that these movies are based on and they have to set off for a special thanks at the end. And it was like, it’s some sort of,

Kenric: you just made a billion dollars off of this guys off of this person’s IP or this person’s [00:54:00] work and you can’t pay them a couple million dollars that they’re worth.

Yeah. I mean, you wouldn’t even have your storyline or understand the characters without that person’s work. And yeah, I think that’s a joke. I think all that money. And it’s not like you’re asking for a lot, you know what I mean? It’s not like they’re saying, Hey, you need to pay them a hundred million dollars.

No, but you should pay what it’s worth. And what’s it worth for them to, to write all of the framing of your story in the movies. And not only just the framing when it comes down to the description and the way that person is, the way that character is, but also the cinematography. You know. Yeah. I mean, you’re looking at a book that a comic book to me is basically a movie on paper and you can sit there and go through and you get the same type of shots.

They use the same type of framework where like, if you’re what to have that, that center line, and you’ve seen everything from the left, you know, and that stays that way. And it’s there, [00:55:00] it’s, it’s all very much similar in storytelling and it’s just a blow. It boggles the mind that they don’t give them the right amount of.

Appreciation to it. It’s weird.

JT Krull: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s it’s unfortunate. I mean, and it’s a sad, it’s a sad part of the business too, you know? I mean, it’s we’re, we’re, we all grew up loving these characters and we want to write for them and we do, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely when I’ve been able to write for DC or Marvel or, or IDW or dynamite, like it’s, you know, Battlestar Galactica or Titans or Superman or green arrow, you know, X-Men but you know, it is that’s I mean, that is why also I focus more on a lot more on creator stuff like the Abby King, because I’m in control of its destiny.

And if something great comes from it is the book fantastic. But there’s some other opportunity down the road, you know what? I’m going to reap the benefits of that because that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s, it’ll be an, you know, like I a lot of things I do now, like I try to make sure that it’s something that I have more of, a, more of a stake in so.

If something does happen from it that, you know, I can, I can benefit from it. Cause that’s, you know,

[00:56:00] Kenric: Yeah, you got it. I mean, I have a feeling you would, right? Whether you had a job in a corporate office inside a cubicle for the rest of your life, like Kafka, you would still be writing on the side for yourself.

But the fact is, yeah, actually, actually

JT Krull: during the pandemic has shown me that I almost want to do that job on the side or the other job, the day job, because yeah. This has been and look, I’m great, I’m fine. And everything’s cool and everything, and, and people have been hurt so badly during this pandemic.

And, and, and, and I’m very fortunate that, you know, you know, I have a roof over my head and food on the table and a place to stay, and my kids are all healthy and everything, but it’s, it’s, it’s w. You know, as a writer, you, you kind of are an isolation and, and this has been kind of a 24, seven forced isolation and, and, and it would be nice to be able to kind of switch gears a little bit and get, do something that was a little bit outside, outside.

I think, I think part of it’s the conventions being down too, because conventions [00:57:00] were a big time where I would get to interact with fans and also colleagues and talk stories and stuff. And that doesn’t happen as much. Like I don’t, I don’t know about you, but I don’t do a lot of Just social, obviously, no social gatherings, but even just phone calls.

Like I set one up like once every few weeks. But other than that, there’s nothing, you know, so it’s like that, that, that outlet isn’t there. It’s just snarky post on media, social

Kenric: media. Most of, most of my engagement outside of the house was with my brother or with people on the podcast. Yeah. And that’s it, you know, and it’s it’s yeah, it’s difficult.

I’m lucky. I have, I do have a corporate day job right now. And I’m super lucky that it’s a job that allows me to work from home and do a lot of things and not have that stress. I can’t even imagine what some of these, so many people are going through right now. You know, it’s tough. So that’s good. Well, JT we’ve been on for like over an hour already.

Wow.

JT Krull: Isn’t that weird? That’s crazy, but we get along, we have a disclaimer and have like a post COVID talk, starting point like eight minutes.

[00:58:00] right.

Kenric: The COVID dead. We can put that out as a clip.

Oh, that’s so funny. But I feel like you and I could probably talk for another hour. No problem. This is ridiculous. Yeah. You get along too? Well, I don’t know. Let’s not have you be a problem a year. Let’s let’s get you back on sooner because that’s just way too long. Yeah.

JT Krull: I used to, when stuff starts coming out again, we’ll just do a podcast where we’ll just talk about what we’ve seen.

Like what we thought about fast and furious nine or something like that

Kenric: delivers a King Kong is coming out so excited. I, when I was a kid, I lied to my mom and told her I was sick for a week because there’s a key Godzilla marathon on USA. This is like 1984, 1983. And then she took my temperature like three days in and I left the, the, the thing on the light too long.

So see what, one 97? It was like 110 or something. And she was like she called my sister who had you? He was much older than me. And [00:59:00] she’s like, yeah, it’s temperatures like 108. She’s like, No, the kid is lying.

JT Krull: He’s

Kenric: just clever, clever, but I love, but I did that because God’s a Lewison. And so I’m so excited for this movie.

JT Krull: Yeah, for me, it was shock theater at 1130 at night on the local channel. Again, I’m old. The local channel 13 shock theater was on at 1130 and I’d stay up late and watch that every, it was every Friday night. It would be a horror movie, but they did all the Godzilla movies. Nice. Great.

Kenric: I love it. All right, man.

Well, you have a wonderful time. Good luck on Kickstarter. I just got a feeling this thing’s going to blow up. Everybody out there it’s it’s it’s called the ivory King. Just look up J T K R U L on Kickstarter. It’s going to pop right up. I promise you check out all the route rewards or what do they call those tiers?

Poetry, words, check all those out. There’s a lot there. Let me know what you guys think, because I am [01:00:00] excited to check this out. I’m going to, I want to get, as soon as it’s out, I’m getting one, I’m going to pledge at least. Well, I want, I want to get your autograph on one of them. So is that, is that,

JT Krull: I don’t think it’s a tear.

I think we’ll just do it. I’m just going to sign as many as I can. So

Kenric: cool. I think I’m doing the $35 one. I can’t remember what all that was. Maybe I’ll look to see what the one where you help aspiring writers. There you go.

JT Krull: I’m sure we could work something out. Kendrick. I think, I think we will work out especially special.

Thanks so much for having me on it’s. This is great. I always like seeing ya and this is your it’s great talk to you and I appreciate you helping me get the word on this. I really do. I really think,

Kenric: yeah, man. Well, thanks for coming on. We’ll talk to you soon.