Creators on the Couch – Grandma Chainsaw Transcript

Anthony: Hello and welcome to capes on the couch where comics get counseling.. I’m Anthony Sytko.

Doc: I’m Doctor issues.

Anthony: This is another creator’s on the couch episode, and we are once again, joined by our friends who at this point have permanent indentations on the couch from the number of times that they’ve been on the show Allen Dunford and will Radford.

Thank you guys. Once again for taking time outta your evening outta your busy schedules to join. This time to talk, actually grandma chainsaw.

Allen: I know it’s so weird. Not talking about pocus

Will: Change of pace.

Anthony: Yes. And this time this is a first, we are actually joined by another member of the creative team.

Jasen Smith, who is the colorist for grandma chainsaw. Jasen, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining.

Jasen: Oh, thanks for having me on. It’s gonna be gonna be a lot of fun here.

Anthony: So for those of you who. Maybe not familiar with the, as I said, the prior three times that Alan and will have been on the show, you can go back and check them out on our website capesonthecouch.com.

Or you can go back, scroll through the feed. This is the fourth time that they’ve appeared in just under a year. So as I said you know, we, we really like having these guys on, in fact, we broke our Hiat. For you because you were doing the Kickstarter for Pocus Hocus four. And Alan reached out to me and said, Hey, we’re, we’re launching the Kickstarter for this, can we come on?

And I was like, well for you guys, hell yeah. And then in the process of talking, if you listen to that episode, we did talk about grandma chainsaw coming up. If you were of a certain level backer of the Pocus, ho you did get that. Ash can copy the, sort of the preview as it were of grandma chainsaw. And so what we have now what we’re here to talk about now is the full fledged grandma chainsaw.

And number one. Issue is gonna be dropping on Kickstarter September 20th.

Allen: Yes.

Yeah. 10 days from now. And it it’s crazy how fast we feel like it’s it’s

approached. Yeah.

Anthony: Yeah. This episode will be released after the Kickstarter has, has opened, but it will still be live. You know, as of the, the release of this episode.

So Alan and will, we’ve chatted with you guys a number of times, as I said, anybody wants a background on them? Two, two great guys from West Virginia. West by God, Virginia.

Allen: You know, the slogan.

Anthony: Well, doc family from VA

Doc: I’ll I’ll take, I’ll take credit for that one. OK. Yeah.

yeah, we’re from, OK. So your family is from Virginia.

Well, my father loves the area. He actually, he grew up way south of that. He was born in Florida, then moved up to South Carolina, then moved up to DC, but all throughout it, he learned a lot of different things. So he, he learned that slogan. I’m like, oh my

gosh.

Allen: yeah, it sounds made up, but I promise you it’s not.

Anthony: Yeah.

So yeah, so as I said, if you wanna get more background on Alan and will, you can go check out the other times that they’ve been on. So Jasen, as the, the rookie, as it were, or the newcomer to the show we’re gonna put you in the hot seat for a couple of minutes. So what what is your background?

You said you’re the, you’re the colorist on this book? How long have you been in the industry and kinda what have you worked on prior to.

Jasen: I’ve been in the industry for 10 years. I’ve worked on a lot of different things for DC comics through

a whole bunch of league that’s DC related. I got really lucky when I first started out. I had just started looking for anyone that had coloring. And I got really lucky when Mark Sylvestri, you know, was like, yeah, a comic, you know, it’s

Anthony: wow. Okay. That is, it’s not a bad name to be attached to. So, what are some of the books that you’ve worked on? You mentioned you did some, some work for DC. What books in particular have you done for them?

Jasen: The, the longest running one that we were doing was futures end when, when that series was, was out. Lot of, I mean, it was, it was a ton of different ones, different kinds of super girl from Superman different justice league. From like the future versions to

all just all different kinds of versions of, of those DC characters over a hundred titles, its a quite a few, but I also got to jump over to doing fillin work with Marvel, doing amazing Spiderman with shadowing, Laura Martin, she’s a, a colorist and Wolverine.

X-Men and just kinda got plotted into doing a few pages here and there through. Being a fillin colorist.

Doc: Oh, wow. So yeah, those are some really obscure titles. I’ve never heard of any of those people.

That’s that’s amazing.

Jasen: I know you gotta start somewhere

Anthony: small ind books. exactly. Yeah. To pay your dues, work away.

Maybe someone will let you work on, on a big name comic one of these days. So, so how did you end up hooking up with Alan and will.

Jasen: A guy that I think we all know Mike tinner he sent me over to these guys and I heard that they never did comics before. And so that was a little iffy and ,

Allen: Hey, I get that.

Jasen: But they seem to have a, a good passion for it. So that really is what helped bring me into it was just seeing that they had a, this fun aspect to the, their storytelling

Anthony: now. I’ve spoken to some, some artists and, and pencils and things like that. Colorist, is, is a very specific and demanding job, obviously.

From, I guess, a creative process standpoint, is it a situation where. You were brought on after some of the pencils had been done and they said, this is what has existed. And, and we’d like you to color this, or were you brought in prior to the pencils being laid down? And you were you sort of speaking with the artists as the, pages were being drawn and inked,

Jasen: With these guys in specifically, it was I believe how we started was I saw the artwork and I like, I like the style of.

When I like the style, I could see what I wanna do. Colorwise with lighting and things like that. And that really helps.

Anthony: Being kind of invested in the work definitely brings out a, a higher quality of art or at least one would hope . And so far, at least with the, the pages that we’ve seen, or at least the doc and I have seen we’ve been obviously privy to some preview stuff that hasn’t made the Kickstarter yet.

You’re doing top notch work here and then we also got to see some pages that have not yet. Shall we say fully colored. There there’s at least one, one very prominent color present in those, those preview pages in terms of a, a deep shade of Crimson. Shall we say? I mean, it’s, it’s a horror book.

I don’t really think it’s that much of a shocker to say at some point someone’s gonna die and it’s not going to be clean or pretty. I really don’t think I’m giving too much away to say we saw what we were describing in the, the pre-roll before we started recording is the murder page. and my, my exact words To Alan over text or what in the cinnamon toast fuck is wrong with you.

and then doc when I sent him the pages had a very astute observation. Yeah.

Doc: So let me just make this clear. I’m used to horror. That’s something that Anthony and I don’t discuss as often. So it takes a lot to truly shock me. So I’m not gonna lie, guys. You didn’t shock me with this. So I just took it more on the analytical side.

And I said, well, these aren’t my words, but I’m gonna describe it to be a little more vague if anybody’s the movie mommy dearest the meme, no wire hangers,

Allen: no more wire hangers ever. Yeah. yeah,

Anthony: no wire hangers. Yeah.

Will: I, I didn’t think of that as, I mean, that certainly wasn’t the.

Consciously the inspiration for that. I don’t think, but that, yeah, I definitely see the resemblance now.

Allen: Oh, 100% yeah.

Anthony: This is a genre where to doc’s point, not really my bag. Enjoy it, dabble it. If there’s something there, but I’m very much not into visceral. Type stuff. Right. For me, I, I prefer hard to be more of the psychological bent. Yeah. You know, having said that I do get my kicks about watching some masked, or depraved individual chase around a bunch of teenagers looking to dismember them in various ways.

Whether it’s Nightmare on Elm street Friday the 13th, et cetera. And so when we were talking about PO focus last time, and we were sort of getting into the, the Genesis of this idea of you telling a horror story that is obviously very, very different from PO focus. And so, I’m not trying to repeat the questions too much, but for the, I guess the benefit of folks who maybe didn’t go back and listen to that episode or who haven’t read, focus, focus.

Really kind of drove you to tell this story that is very clearly different from, from Pocus hoki.

Allen: So this one was a, a challenge, obviously. But the one thing that we wanted to remain consistent was the team that we were working with. We obviously love Jasen’s colors, Brian’s pins and inks was amazing on PO and our letterer and designer.

Dave, obviously instrumental to a lot of things to really help us get started. In creating the whole process. Horror is a genre that will, I’m gonna put words in your mouth, even though I’m sure we’re gonna both agree. It’s a genre that both of us love immensely and it’s a genre we over. Yeah. And I, I think I.

I just had the idea and I approached it to will. And it was the fastest. Yes. He probably gave a together. And of course I got down on one knee pulled out my engagement ring, and asked Jasen will you be my colorist again, And Jasen was like, well, what’s the project obviously. And I told him, and it was pretty much just what the hell I’m in.

I think that with this though it, we are taking a risk because it is drastically different from Pocus, but I think that’s a good thing.

Will: Yeah. First and foremost, I think this goes without saying it’s a lot more R rated than focus is. Yeah. But I don’t say, yeah, definitely. It’s kind liberating in a way because it feels like. I don’t know, we, we have all these wacky zany ideas that might not be PO focus appropriate. And then, that this just kinda opens the doorway or opens the door and allows us to go there sometimes. And obviously that’s a great thing because writing focus was kind cathartic in that way, too, in the sense that it was like, we can just kinda have fun.

And with grandma chainsaw, there’s even more of that lack of. I guess, barriers. So it’s a lot of fun to write.

Anthony: Hadn’t noticed or, or really can’t tell that from the preview pages that we’ve seen.

I asked. Having seen at that point only just a handful of pages or, or very limited understanding of, of the story, how you are going to subvert a lot of the common tropes that are present in horror, because I do feel that horror perhaps more so than, I don’t wanna say any other genre, but, but a majority of genres Hart is very much a trope centric.

Genre for lack of a better term, that, that there are very clear, clearly established setups. And then the question becomes, okay, now we’ve taken this well worn beginning. How are we going to take it in a direction where you don’t see the end coming or you’re playing with it? Cabin in the woods kind of thing comes to mind.

Yeah. You know, some of the entries in, in Saw or final destination, early on you know, kinda played with that idea.

Had indicated yes it does start very Texas chainsaw massacre esque, but it quickly. Takes a turn into another direction. And what I can say after having read about, 15 or so pages there are very clearly homages to, Texas chain, but some of the things that I hope are setups in this. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how they’re going to be paid off.

And so my question to you then is how do you decide just how much foreshadowing to establish early on that this isn’t going to be just, a female, Texas chainsaw Massacre?.

Allen: Will do you wanna knock this one out?

Will: Well, yeah, we plan ahead and we outline as much as we possibly can with each project, each issue, whatever it is we’re doing.

So going in, we definitely, had that much and, and it, you know, kind of an idea of where we wanted to go. I think that in a lot of cases, I feel like we’ve leaned into the, the tropes a little bit and tried to pay homage to them and just kind of having that mentality it’s been liberating because I, I think that in, in paying homage to them, we kind of find new ways to explore them.

And it it’s just, kind of effortless in that way. But yeah, I think the, the ultimate answer to that question is, is we outline, we plan ahead and we know like all of our beats before we go into, writing individual issues, but as far as like the tropes go and the references and, and all of that, I think there’s just too much that we, we love and geek out over and, and wanna reference to be contained.

Within one particular, you know what I mean? Just to do like a basic slasher, we even start with that idea where we’re like, we, we just, but something that’s, that’s just, when we set down and have these writing sessions and about this stuff, just imaginatively, it just inevitably goes to places that we don’t even plan it to.

Allen: Yeah. And I feel that way, especially with how issue one ends too. I, I think it’s such a good setup obviously, or your issue. One’s obviously your, your set issue. You get everything out of the way. This is our world. This is our rules. This is our character, now let’s go. I think we were kind of scared, especially when we wrote issue two, because of how issue one ends.

There’s a lot that we have to resolve throughout all of issue two, but I’ve already talked to Jasen about the ending of grandma chainsaw and where we wanna go with it. And I, I think that no, one’s gonna be able to see where we’re going, but I still think it makes sense to the story with how we have it lined up.

Anthony: Okay. All right. And how far, or how many issues? I guess how far out do you have grandma chainsaw plan? I know we’ve asked this question about Pocus. How many issues?

Allen: Issue four. So a as of right now we plan on grandma chainsaw is gonna be a four issue mini.

Anthony: OK. Oh, wow. All right. So. I’m very much looking forward to seeing where and how things, ramp up based on just what I’ve seen. I’m like, if this is it’s wrapped stories, then yeah. Things are really gonna take off.

Allen: I, I will say after we, we wrote. And we cracked up, went back and we always do a dry reading session where will, and I both have the script pulled up beside each other and will just reads it in just a monotone voice. We’re pretty sure issue two is people are gonna love it. I could confidently say that we’re issue two.

We, we kinda just throw everything out there. Yeah.

Will: We were reading it. I think when we did the dry re when we read it back, didn’t we, we met over the phone, right. Or

Allen: no, we were beside each other in my office. Yeah, yeah.

Will: Yeah. I mean, I, I know that we had wrote it because I know that at one point I got COVID back in mid July and then I got a, like some kinda cold or sinus infection or something like three weeks later.

And there was one part in particular. I had difficulty reading because it would always make me laugh and whenever I would laugh, I would go into a coughing fit.,

in particular, we, we kind of outdid ourselves in a few different places,

Anthony: so. That. Wow.

Doc: That’s, that’s always a good sign. Yeah. When people that are writing are, are cracking themselves up that, that, yeah. And

Allen: yeah, we want that to, to come through that we’re having fun. And I think that’s, that’s something that Jasen said early on was, and Jasen and I, we talk all the time. Jasen always reiterates that.

Working on our stuff. Doesn’t feel like work because he can tell we’re all having fun. Like from the writing point from the illustration to the collaring, to the lettering, all of us are just having a blast.

Jasen: Yeah. yeah, that’s a good sign.

Anthony: So so Jasen, I’ll, I’ll pivot to you then for a bit obviously, you’ve worked with these guys before on the Pocus Hocus stuff, and now, now with grandma chainsaw, this is a little bit of a variation on the question I had, I asked before, but how much input do you have during the creative process?

Maybe with Brian, since you’re familiar now, having worked with him on, on now as he’s penciling and, and inking some of this stuff, does he provide input or suggestions for the color. And the flip side to that is, do you say, Hey, if this is what the script calls for, I think this should be a particular color or I’m, I’m envisioning this.

And then does he take that into account when he does his pencils? I’m just, again, trying to get a little more insight into the, the pencil or colorist relationship there.

Jasen: Not really so much in this case, it. It’s it’s great when you’re you’re hired and there’s a trust given to you cause you’ve been doing it for a long time. this is your job. This is what you’re supposed to

do. And it’s just, here’s the pages. This is what the story is, and this is what we’re going for. And that’s really the, the information that I need. And then I just create that. And. Use my own ideas. Maybe even play around with it, experiment, see what works, see what doesn’t use.

Lot of different reference, especially in this, going back to the seventies, eighties, horror movies, and just how film and trying to get that, that same kind look to it. The same kind tones that, that you see throughout that the haze that that is in the house. When you get inside, just trying to recreate those, those same kinda aesthetics. But Brian I think more so I think he just, he has a trust in me just as much as I have a, a trust in him. Trust in

Dave and trust in these.

Allen: Thing that I, I wanna say about the thing that I love so much about your collaring. I think I even said this to you guys last time. It’s obviously such a huge difference from, to this. It has an aquatic feel to it while also having a movie grain feel to it. I don’t know how you pulled it off. But Bravo

Jasen: It’s a little secret

Allen: OK. All right. Sorry, answer. Go ahead. Ask your question.

Anthony: well, hold on. I was just gonna say that it’s interesting that you bring up references for palettes because I’ve heard many, many artists speak about references and if they’re for, for pencils and things of that nature, when they’re laying the groundwork, they will pose themselves in a certain way, or they have figurines or they’ll look to, part.

Imagery and things of that nature. I, I guess maybe this is my own naivete or, or ignorance, but I wasn’t really aware that there were references for color palettes. I kind of want a little more information on that in the sense of, I would imagine it would be project specific, but how do you find those references and then how do you pull them in?

I. To sort of like a, like a patchwork or an amalgamation to fit the, the specific project that you’re working on.

Jasen: Yeah. Sometimes it, it kinda depends if just what the art looks like along with the, the storytelling, it’s the story and the art, like a certain way. And my job is to kind of create, well, I guess, cinematographer to create the, the look of it, the, the overall.

Just that aesthetic. And that’s what my job is, is to give you focus where it needs to go and give the details where it needs to have the details. Make it look pretty. And with each project it’s different, even when it comes to maybe even the same creative team, like, like you said, from focus to, chainsaw, is that even though that it’s the same team, the story and the genre of it is completely different.

So it’s up to me to look at that and see how I can create what it is that we’re all kinda wanting

as a team.

Anthony: Awesome. Awesome. Maybe without giving too many spoilers away, what were, some of the references you had indicated like seventies, eighties, horror, slashers, obviously again, the, the well worn trope of, of genre horror. I mean, I don’t think it’s gonna be too much of a spoiler to say, okay, well, I was looking at this movie because obviously the script is gonna be different, but what were some of the, the films or other sources of inspiration for the color palette on this.

Jasen: Yeah, absolutely. Texas chainsaw massacre of the original was, was a big one and

evil, dead, specifically evil, dead. There’s you know, there’s good one for now.

Anthony: You’re speaking our language. Yeah.

Doc: That’s, that’s a favorite

Anthony: because I’m not as, as Doc indicated,. I’m not much for horror. But comedy horror where it, it blends the two and it has to be done well, and it’s not always done well, but when it’s done well, it is magnificent.

And so I am very happy to hear that even in some small fashion, there are, you know, there is that continuation of. Ram and Campbell collaboration continuing forward, even, you know, 40 plus years after the, the original, oh, those, those films are, are absolute classics. Yes. So, so we mentioned, you know, the kickstart going live september 20th, you guys always have some really cool. Bonuses and different tier incentives for people. What are some of the, added little positives that that folks can get from back in the Kickstarter side, from the usual, PDF version and the physical version et cetera, et cetera.

What are some of the, the things that are unique? Grandma chainsaw. And how did you come up with them?

Allen: So what worked out really well for us on the podcast campaign was, well, I guess, actually for, for all of our campaigns I, I feel like what’s made us successful is that we, we take the backers into consideration.

I know that may sound crazy or, or weird, or like a lame answer, but We try to make everything an a carte system. So no one is strong, armed into getting a certain tier, just so they can get a certain item. So everything you see, you can usually do as an add on or you can just simply just get it by itself.

Which that’s always nice. Of course we have the bundle tiers where you get everything at a discounted rate for, for the big collectors, but, but still, we like to try to have an offering for everything. The metal covers, we definitely brought those back of all the covers that we have.

We, we did the hall of foil again. So one thing that we tried. That we did differently this time. We we’re gonna have a UV black light glow metal cover. That’s exclusive to the Kickstarter campaign. We’re doing 25 of ’em and they’re all gonna be individually numbered. So we’re really, really excited about that one.

We think it’s gonna be cool. Brian actually drew a separate cover for that one. So it’s not a rehash of one of the covers that we have.

Anthony: Shut up and take my money. Yeah.

Allen: Right. The other thing that we tried to do too you you’ll see, whenever you, you go through the campaign, we have hard candies that display the price on it because you know, it’s grandma chainsaw. Why not lean into it. Then with that, we also have aprons that have grandma chainsaw written on Jasen, do you have your apron close.

Jasen: Oh, no,

Will: I’ll go grab, you want me to go grab mine?

Allen: Yeah. Go grab your apron real quick.

Will: Yeah. Yeah. Hang on.

Allen: So yeah, we have aprons. The, the thing that we’re really proud about granted the, the concept for grandma chainsaw is stupid. So why not just lean into our own stupidity for even green lighting, this whole project. We have our eat slay love. T-shirts that looks like they’re crochet.

Yeah. So these are the the aprons .

Doc: Oh my goodness. I love it. Wow.

Will: Yeah, there’s there’s a picture of me there. There’s a picture of me stir frying,

Anthony: some

Campaign finalize it.

Will: And he, he gave me one and, and showed it to me and they were they were making dinner. I made a terrible mockery of their, their dinner by putting on the, over the The skillet, like I was fixing something that might not be as savory as what they were eating. So

Anthony: yeah.

Allen: So the, the other thing too, that’s really special to us.

I texted you while we were on the call. I’m not sure if you had a chance to see it yet, but it’s the, I,

Anthony: I just look at it now. Yeah.

Allen: It’s the Hazel’s memory maker. That is, will the, of the picture I sent you. He’s, he’s just gonna be the star of the campaign on this one.

So you get a picture or Brian will draw you beside Hazel. So we’re limiting that to 10 people just because it is gonna take Brian A. Little bit to draw it. And I think he does really well on everyone’s likeness. So you can we’ll have will for a reference. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The other fun things I do wanna mention really quick the sticker packs I, I’m a huge fan of those and I think they look great and obviously we’re we’re always a huge fan of the black and white edition.

And in case you missed it we have all individual copies of focus on here, the trade paperback, and also the horus in hell ashcan, which you guys have also read.

Anthony: Yep. We did get that. It’s funny. I was just, you know, it just occurred to me. You were talking about the apron and everything like that. I, the grandma chainsaw logo the, the wordmark there.

What about something? Kill me. I’m the chef.

Allen: next campaign. We’re trying, we’re already, always forward thinking, thinking of ideas. So kill the chef. Yeah. It’s like it’s written in blood.. Yes.

Anthony: See, we’re all in the same. There goes really my Barwick, but I, I, I can. Think of things off the top of my head, once in a while,

Allen: I think the most wild thing though, when we were building this campaign and this is just the Testament to, to Jasen and Brian for being able to, well, Dave too, for getting this stuff out as fast as I have as well.

We actually have a tier on there for our, the, the digital library. And for the physical library, we’re at that point now where we have six titles or six comics out, which is just bizarre to me, because will we started this thing a year?

Yeah. Yeah. Like it’s just, it’s, it’s, it’s crazy to about.

Anthony: Yeah. And we’ve been there, you know, since ever step since issue two.

I mean, we’ve been there. I can’t say day one. We’re real damn close. Yeah.

Allen: Very pretty close. Close. Yes.

Yeah. But yeah, it’s just, it’s wild, man. And also to mention on here running from October the 11th until November the 11th bad bug media is doing a horror anthology called rose blood manner and the Pocus Hocus grandma chainsaw team.

We have a eight page story on there called the wondering. And it’s gonna be right up your, alley Anthony, because it’s all psychological horror. Yeah. So, oh, yeah’s on that here, here before too long

Will: classic

Anthony: You had my interest, now you have my attention..

So before, before we wrap up. You know, we we’ve been focusing mostly on grandma chainsaw. I just wanna pivot back to focus just for a little bit just before we wrap up. Cause obviously, you know, we’re, we’re well acquainted with Pocus Hocus at this point. Doc and I we’ve got our trades.

You know, we got everything there. We’ll probably be doing some sort of a giveaway mm-hmm for at least one of the, the books there that we’ve. When can we expect to see Pocus Five?.

Allen: Yeah. So that will actually be PO two, one, AKA. Yes. Have already began writing it. So the, the idea is depending on how it up, we kinda like what, what happened with chainsaw how we had the Ash for it.

So I think our trajectory right now is we’re looking at, we’re gonna go ahead and release Graham chainsaw one. And then we’re gonna ahead. One PO five Ash can on the gram mal chainsaw, two campaign as a preview. So let’s get ready for PO again, and then we’re gonna launch PO. So the taking half from focus has been extremely helpful because will, and I, I think we were kind of stressed a little bit whenever we were starting our second arc, because we were so happy with.

The arc one turned out as a whole, and we were happy with how our cliff hanger ended. So we, we felt a lot of stress on ourselves to really drive, deliver. It’s like, well, how do we start our second season off? Super strong. Yeah. And working on grey mal chainsaw gave us a good mental break from just being so consumed with PO that the stuff that we’ve, we’ve written the first I think six pages.

Yeah. We’re so happy

Will: with six to eight with how it’s

Allen: turned out already.

Will: Yeah. It’s that I, I was actually say, I pretty much word for word you just that you know, which is that. The long and short of it is being able to work on Graham chainsaw and taking that break from PO and then coming back to it.

Mm-hmm and being able to look at it more objectively is very helpful. I think going forward that is like the ultimate, like that is a dream way to work creatively. I mean, at least from the perspective of a writer, because it’s going to be like, it’s you. Back shifting back and forth so that it never feels too, like right.

Not burned out or burn out on it. So,

Anthony: yeah. And we were

Allen: able to go ahead and do the wondering man with that as well, even though it’s eight pages, it was eight fun pages. I get to just keep slamming more pages on Jasen. Yay.

Anthony: I was just about to ask Jasen. So did you work on the wandering man as well? Did.

Allen: Yeah, you will be. Yeah. Be, ah, you’ll be, you’ll be, you be.

So we we obviously finish the script. Ryan’s already worked up the concept pages. Now he’s at the ink process. So as soon as those are there Jasen’s our guy. So we, we like to well, I hate change for one, but for two, I, I, I firmly. In my heart of hearts that this, this team together we all work so well together.

I just think that we, you can tell that in the pages and we all just mesh and produce that. That’s my, my biggest goal with any campaign. And I know it’s all, all the guys is it’s, it’s our quality. We want our quality to try to set us apart. From whatever else is out there too. We want, I want someone to open it up and be like, oh man, that’s that’s Brian’s that’s Brian’s art.

That’s Jasen’s collaring. That’s Dave’s. That’s awesome. Oh’s crappy name. That’s

Doc: interest. Interesting though. I just to go back a little bit with what you were talking about and although the book that I’m thinking of is it’s got a. Controversial name, but it’s, it’s not the, book’s not controversial. They steal like an artist by Austin Cleon but the whole point is other things that you do for enjoyment, for relaxation, for entertainment, even if it is directly related to something that you’re producing, if it’s part of a job or whatever the more that you spread out, the more that you do, other things, the better, your original ideas, get it just gives your brain an opportunity to really reset. Look at things at a. Different perspective and sometimes come up with things you wouldn’t have otherwise. Yeah. You know, it, it’s, it’s amazing how much of a difference that makes it to be honest. Not just from an energy standpoint, but it’s, it’s part of the reason why Anthony and I, why, you know, we don’t always. Come up with it in the moment, but it’s why we have seasons for our podcast. It’s why we don’t just do like fifty two episodes a year and make sure that it’s weekend week out. Although we do try and build up, you know, a backlog, we know we’re not always gonna get there, but even so we know we need to take those times to reset and, and come back new.

So I, I really appreciate you guys mentioning something like that, that doing one project allowed you to have a better perspective on another project.

Will: Yeah, I have a joke with Alan. I, I was reading over the I think it was the trade paperback. I I’d went back and, and this was after we had written like the first, at least the first script of real mal chainsaw, maybe the second one.

And I was going back and I was, I was rereading PO like from, from the start. And I, I texted him and mentioned that I was doing that and, and jokingly said, you know, I’m, I’m reading our comic book series and it’s not half bad. Like it just, it was, it was that idea of just being able to take that dis distance from it.

And then come back and like, you know, look at it again with, with fresh eyes. It’s, it’s super important for me to the, to the port, to the point where I wish I had a better, better handle, like better control over it. Like, I wish I could like write something and then be like, okay, I’m gonna walk away from it.

For two days and then come back and look at it objectively. Sometimes you just have to put something away and come back to it when it’s, when it’s right. And I, I hate not having control over that, but that’s a whole other thing, but it’s a super important part of the writing process is being able to have that, you know, objectivity there.

That’s why you also want people always want people reading it and, and looking at it, giving you feedback.

Anthony: Absolutely, absolutely. You know, at least from, from my perspective, That happens to me. When we’re on hiatus is I will get a whole slew of ideas of, of things and I’ll mention them all doc.

And then the problem of course, with ADHD is I get all the ideas, but then when it comes time to execute it’s ah, yeah. What to do first and it’s, you know, paralysis by analysis and which one do I do first? And then, yeah. Yeah. These are all wonderful ideas. But now I have to start them all. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Doc: My issue is I am incredibly, I’m not talking the political term. I’m very liberal. And what I mean by that is Anthony will text me and almost universally with rare exceptions. It’s like, yep.

Let’s do it sometimes, but

Anthony: he’s never that barrier to go. Well, maybe we should try this or maybe this is gonna be too much work for you.

It’s yeah. Do it, man. Go for it. He’s he’s the devil on my shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. And then on my other shoulder, You know, is, is still waiting. still waiting, still waiting. You know, my, it was like the family guy, my angels stuck in traffic. Kinda deal.

Doc: Yeah. And that’s the thing. Cause I’ll even admit myself. I’m like, okay, I have no idea how we’re gonna do this, but yeah, we’re doing it. Yeah.

Anthony: It’s a great idea. I don’t know where we’re gonna find the time. I don’t know how we’re gonna have the energy to do this, but yeah, right. Yeah. Let’s go for it. Why not?

Will: And sometimes, what it takes is just sitting down and, and doing it, whether you feel prepared or not.

Cause, I’m sure there have been some days when I’ve, I’ve come to write with, and it’s been pretty obvious that I haven’t been, a hundred percent. And usually when that happens, I always feel that by the end of it, he’s came in and like pulled me up to where I need to be, if that makes sense.

You know? So, having that team, having two people, it makes that a little easier to get through is to find that motivation and then. You, you have that objectivity immediately that other voice immediately so that you don’t make yourself something, this or that

you to

Anthony: the upside, to, to a team. Of course, the downside to a team is that if you’re. Yeah, let’s do this. Yeah, let’s do. You’re constantly hyping each other up and nobody is being the voice of pragmatist. Let’s the breaks here. And unfortunately, over the, the past twenty-five years, neither of us have done a wonderful job of being a pragmatist for the other.

One’s just, yeah, you do that. Yeah. Go for it.

Doc: That’s where, that’s where our spouses come in.

Anthony: Exactly. Yes. Our wives. Definitely absolutely mine and times five yours. I say that with all love. I, I, no, it’s true, but she’s absolutely the pragmatist to go. All right, hold up. You want my husband to do what now?

And you want him how much time? mm-hmm OK. And, and what are you gonna do about this and, and where do you. And how are you going to come to my house to pick up the slack? Because now you got him doing all these other things oh, oh, you’re not gonna do that. Oh, then you don’t get my husband for that. Like that is absolutely.

And you’re laughing. You’re laughing, bro. But it’s true. Absolutely imagine.

Doc: Oh, it’s absolutely true. I have nothing hidden about that. That’s great. I love it because yeah, it. It allows for me to live a sustainable lifestyle.

Anthony: Sustainable. We’re not talking like eco-friendly green. No, no, no.

Sustainable. As in livable, as in prolonging your existence and life on this that’s from burnout or murder at the hands of your spouse

Doc: My wife will kill me. Said to help

Anthony: and she absolutely would and she’d kill me for enabling.

Doc: Yep. Yep, yep,

yep, yep. Yep. That’s the next comic..

Anthony: Oh my gosh. One last thing on a bit of a funny note I know how much you guys are watching she Huk series.

Allen: Oh, I love it so much.

Will: I’ve not why I’ve not seen it. Yeah. I haven’t. Haven’t had a chance hearing,

amazing things.

Anthony: It’s absolutely fantastic. So it’s incredible Absolut. So Jasen, have you seen it?

Jasen: Yeah. Yeah, I have. Okay. Okay.

Anthony: So a and Jasen, this is kind of for you then in the most recent episode, as of this recording, have you seen Madison? Well, episode? That’s what I was Donny Blaze so many ways. Reminded me of Pocus.

Allen: I thought of the same thing.

Anthony: I was watching this going son of a bitch. This is Pocus.

Yeah. This is Pocus Hocus in the MCU.

Allen: Was thinking we already wrote PO before this episode, would’ve just, oh,

Anthony: it’s exactly was watching this going. Somebody did like, you know, did some of the writers and she. Back the Kickstarter feel like definitely

Allen: they knew Jasen was coloring it. So so they went ahead and just backed it and they likes

steals a like

Anthony: Madisynn was, was a great character, but I’m watching the Donny Blaze stuff and I’m going, holy shit, this is focus.

Allen: Yeah. I thought the same thing.

Will: If the next Marvel series features the chainsaw wielding grandma. Then we, that, that confirms it. Yeah.

Anthony: There you go. There you go. They’ll they’ll show up in secret invasion. Grandma Chainsaw is really a Skrull.

So we’re gonna have obviously links to the kickstart and everything else in the show notes. But to wrap up we’ll, you know, kind of run this down Alan, where can where can folks find you on the internet and, and your cat that seems to be making yeah, its appearance on your, on your screen?

Yeah. So you can find,

Allen: Me and Athena on Twitter at chaps of fury and always follow us on Kickstarter. That is the best way to get notified of everything and will, and I are actually in the process of working on a subst newsletter.

Anthony: Oh, okay. All right. Will, what about you? You can

Will: find me on Instagram @willrad82.

And you can find if you want to see my video work, you can go to vimeo.com/willrad

myd

Anthony: and Jasen, what about you?

Jasen: You can find me on YouTube, at Jasen station where I do live stream videos of me coloring

things on there.

Anthony: Okay, that sounds that sounds awesome. I think I’ll have to go and check that out. Jasen, Jasen, with an E

there’s.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And so you can we’re in the process of wrapping things up. So thank you again. Alan will and Jasen as always, you can find all of our episodes on our website capesonthecouch.com. You can also check us out on the website as we are a proud member of the geek network.com is a, a home for all of your wonderful.

Geeky podcasts legends of shield. I’ve been doing some guest appearances on there talking about sheet Huk and play comics. I know doc has finally booked his long standing episode. Chris has been, been waiting to get him on there for, for many, many moons. So that’s gonna be happening so you can check that out of play comics and, and again just a, a wonderful variety of shows over there.

Gonna geek.com. You can find us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at capes on the couch. And again, we’re gonna have some show notes links to the show notes and everything in there. After grandma chainsaw comes out and we get the physical copies, we will absolutely be doing a giveaway for the fans for anybody that you know, is follows us, we’ll figure out doc and I we’ll discuss how we’ll do that, but we will definitely make sure to get a, a copy of grandma chainsaw in your hands.

We also have, some, focus stuff that we’ll, we’ll talk about given away sometime soon. So doc, you got anything else you wanna add before we, we head on out?

Doc: The only thing that I learned from all of this is I need to brush up on my manners. If anybody, if anybody needs to know, then you, you definitely need to check out this book.

Allen: Yeah.

Will: will do for manners. The shark and jaws did for beaches.

Anthony: Will Jasen, thank again. It’s a pleasure as always, and looking forward to having you on for chainsaw two and then one I’m. Sad. We have to wait that much longer, cuz I’m I’m I need to know what happens. Oh, believe us.

Allen: We know,

Anthony: I understand. Hopefully it’ll be well worth the wait.

Yeah. And I’m sure it will be. So for, for Alan will Jasen and doc issues. I’m Anthony Sytko. Thank you so much for listening. We will see you next time.