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Episode 743 - What You Do To Artists f/ Conor McCreery and Jibola Fagbamiye
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The creative team behind the new biographical graphic novel Fela: Music is the Weapon is joining us on the show this week to talk to us about making biographical comics that do what only comics can, showing different states of being through color, drumming, and a whole lot more!
(Note: The Fela graphic novel is not authorized by the Fela Kuti family.)
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Transcript
Introduction to Hosts and Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
This show is recorded using Zencaster. If you are a podcaster or you want to be a podcaster and you want to be able to record remotely, you can do so using Zencaster.
00:00:12
Speaker
They also have hosting options and you can let them know that we sent you. Follow the link in our show notes or in the episode description and sign up for an account on Zencaster now to start recording your own podcast.
00:00:28
Speaker
Right as I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?
00:00:38
Speaker
got more rocket Ajax to bring back his body. Terminate! Exit! Go! Go!
00:00:53
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to a War Rocket Ajax. This is the internet's most explosive comic book and pop culture podcast and we are your hosts. My name is Chris Sims. With me as always is Matt Wilson.
00:01:07
Speaker
And Matt, you have seen me eat a muffin.
Muffin Eating Habits Discussion
00:01:12
Speaker
That is true. that the Unassailably true, yes. And i will take to my grave...
00:01:22
Speaker
The horror on your face, the confusion, the shock, the utter disapproval
00:01:34
Speaker
that you had when I ate a muffin in what I think is a reasonable way. And i know't probably the best way to eat a muffin. that What's hilarious about that is that you vividly remember this, and I don't remember this at all. How did you eat the muffin?
00:01:51
Speaker
ah What I do is i I unwrap the muffin, and I turn it over. and then i i don't Some people like tear it in half. I don't do that. I just eat it like an apple, but from the bottom.
00:02:06
Speaker
Oh, yes. i do I remember that now. so I'm holding on to like the muffin top part, but I eat the bottom part because that's the less good part. And you save the better part. and i say it And then I flip it over because you can't eat a muffin – you can't get a vertical slice of a muffin. It's too big. I have TMJ disorder.
00:02:25
Speaker
How am I going to get that in my mouth? Yeah, that's a good point. I don't think there is – A good, normal way to eat a muffin. It might have been a cupcake with like like filling in it, but if you might you were upset about it.
00:02:41
Speaker
And it's funny that you don't remember this, because you were like, what are you doing?
00:02:48
Speaker
So my question for you, Matt, is... Is there an unusual way that you eat any particular food? Yes. i mean, yes, there's definitely unusual ways that I eat. You could say that I eat muffins in an unusual way.
00:03:02
Speaker
Because, honestly, much like you, I will eat the bottom part of the muffin first. But I won't just, like, eat it like an apple. ah will yeah I will usually just, like, tear off pieces and eat them.
00:03:17
Speaker
Uh... that's That's my typical go-to way of eating a muffin. See, that strikes me as weird. Yeah. Like, in inefficient. Sure. i ah As I said, I don't know if there is a normal way to eat a muffin.
00:03:33
Speaker
Yeah, I don't normally look at how other people eat muffins. Yeah. Yeah. It is not my my wife's preferred breakfast pastry, and she is who I would normally watch eating breakfast more than anyone else. But yeah, man, you did you did not like it.
00:03:49
Speaker
So I thought I would bring that up. I was having a muffin earlier this week, and I thought about it.
00:03:56
Speaker
Fascinating. I'm trying to think if there's a food that I particularly eat in a weird way. do you eat hot dogs vertically? No. What was that?
00:04:10
Speaker
Kirk Franklin and Chris Haley did that one strip that was like, I think it was a parody of Flashpoint. should tell you how long ago it was. oh Where the... the the The joke in the last panel was that ah somebody went back in time and changed the past, and then they came back to the future, and instead of being all dystopian and weird um and kind of racist the way Flashpoint is, it was mostly normal, and then ah dude ate a sandwich vertically?
00:04:41
Speaker
Right, yeah. that's the punchline? Is the guy freaking out over that? Oh, i okay. I'll tell you the thing that I've had the most people freak out about when I eat.
00:04:53
Speaker
And that is um that I bite ice cream. Yeah, that's weird. Yeah. Like, I bite ice cream with my teeth. In a cone or a popsicle or whatever, I just like go right in and bite it.
00:05:08
Speaker
Which I think is like painful for some people, because... Yeah, I got got sensitive teeth, too. They have sensitive teeth, and they're feeling it. What they would feel if they did that.
00:05:20
Speaker
um But I don't have that problem. Matt, you're a dark empath. That's right. So you don't you like you want them to feel that.
00:05:32
Speaker
Sorry, I've been on TikTok a lot. yeah Yeah. Finding out about the dark empath. Hey, guess what, everybody?
Introduction of Guests: Connor McCreary and Jebola Fagbamie
00:05:39
Speaker
We got a great show for you this week. It's a very fun episode.
00:05:44
Speaker
of ah the podcast, guests have returned to War Rocket Ajax. And ah in particular, this week on the show, we're going to be talking to the creative team behind the new biographical graphic novel, Fela, Connor McCreary and Jebola Fogbamie.
00:06:04
Speaker
They have a lot of cool stuff to say about that book. And also we'll be talking to Connor a little bit about ah The Last Witch, another of his comics.
00:06:15
Speaker
And it's going to be a fun, fun time when we get to that interview. But Chris, we've got some stuff to take care of before we get to the interview. Starting with thanking our newest supporters over on Patreon.
00:06:28
Speaker
That's right, Matt. Now, these are the people who want to support the show. They want to help us keep doing War Rocket Ajax. Keep us showing up every week like we do, except for in the event of a natural disaster, or if, like, I'm kind of tired, or, like, we don't do one at Thanksgiving, because that's always on Thursday, which is when we record.
00:06:52
Speaker
And we take two weeks off between Christmas and New Year's. oh But otherwise, every every single week... Without fail, you and me, right here. They want to keep that happening. They want to support the show. They want to keep us doing Movie Fighters, Snack Situation, all the the Boko and Side Projects that we do here on the show.
00:07:11
Speaker
Maybe some of them want Talk to the Hand, the podcast where we talk only about Vampire Hunter d Maybe they want More Power, our episode-by-episode home improvement recap show that we've never done but have threatened to do.
00:07:27
Speaker
I did watch all of Gotham, so we do that one. But we kind of did that already. we kind We did one episode, which I think was
Patreon and Listener Support
00:07:37
Speaker
ah pretty much all we need to do.
00:07:39
Speaker
And we should – that's not – having watched them all, that's not the episode we should done. But – because there's weirder ones, bud. The whole last season is No Man's Land. I'm sure. i But I think we did an episode that gives a good idea of what the full series would have been if we'd done the full series. Did we do the one where there's two Jokers, neither of whom is the Joker?
00:08:01
Speaker
i don't think so. i Honestly, I've forgotten which episode we did do ah because it's been a long time. but Yeah, that's... there's there we should We should have done some.
00:08:13
Speaker
We should have done some other ones. You know what? I kind of want to do that show now. deep ah ah We don't watch it. You don't watch it. i just explain it to you.
00:08:24
Speaker
And every now and then I make something up and see if you can figure out what. yeah I give you like a list of events that happened in the episode, and do you have to figure out which one is fake.
00:08:34
Speaker
i have to fit Yeah, it's it's a Two Truths and a Lie, Gotham Edition. And if you want that... then the best way to tell us you want that is by going to patreon.com slash warrocketajax, where you can kick in as little as a dollar a month to help support the show, join the Gimmick Street gang, and maybe, maybe even go on down to 743 Gimmick Street while you're helping us pay those gimmicks that keep sending the mail call bills.
00:09:02
Speaker
That's right, Chris. And as member of the Patreon... member of the patreon you can get You can join the Gimmick Street Preservation Society, the group of people that are keeping Gimmick Street weird.
00:09:21
Speaker
and it's it's it's It's a non-profit organization, except for we profit from it. right So it's a profit organization, I guess. It's a for-profit organization yeah that keeps Gimmick Street beautiful and allows you to choose what goes at an address on Gimmick Street.
00:09:43
Speaker
And the newest member of the Gimmick Street Preservation Society is Chris Connors. That's my name. Who has submitted for 743 Gimmick Street the Crosstime Chris Club.
00:09:56
Speaker
A place for all Chris's to hang out, have some last laughs, and discuss important and or pressing issues that impact to the greater Chris world. That's great, because that is my name.
00:10:07
Speaker
Yeah. And i it's it's it's me. It's Chris Connors. Yep. It's ah Christopher Nolan. It's Evans.
00:10:20
Speaker
Hemsworth. Chris Evans. Chris Hemsworth. Not the other one. It's I don't know where the megachurch is on Gimmick Street. I'm sure there is one, because again, part of it does run through Greensboro, North Carolina.
00:10:31
Speaker
I think we put one there, yeah. Well, there is there's a church, but it ain't that one. Yeah, Pine. pin Pine can be there. Pine's absolutely there. yeah I give Pine a lot of flack, a lot of guff about those ah Star Trek movies he's in.
00:10:46
Speaker
Because the amazing cast, absolute garbage movies.
00:10:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. The second one is really bad. Yeah. Like, extra bad. And out front, we have a statue of ah Chris Christopherson.
00:11:07
Speaker
Ah, RIP. But it's spelled, it's it's it's Chris with a K, and then, in parentheses, Chris spelled the correct way, Christopherson with a K. So...
00:11:19
Speaker
as Like a nickname. Like Chris Christopherson's nickname was Chris. Yeah, you guys you guys can claim one of the boys. One of the boys was a Chris. one ah One of the high women.
00:11:30
Speaker
Yeah. I don't have any new ah donor names to read out on the show this week. But if you would like to be a new Patreon patron... You could help us out a bunch and help us ah keep doing this show every week. And some of those shows Chris mentioned earlier, because we don't do all of those shows regularly, but a lot of them.
00:11:52
Speaker
um And also you can get all of the shows that we do, everything that we do here at Klytus Media, completely ad-free as a patron. Even at the $1 level, you get all of the ad-free episodes of all the shows that we do.
00:12:04
Speaker
At the $5 level, you get bonus audio um and other content over there on Patreon, stuff that we've recorded especially for Patreon, outtake outtakes that I've cut out of the show and just put on Patreon, ah writing that Chris and I have done.
00:12:19
Speaker
That's all at the $5 level, a pretty nice little backlog of stuff there if you haven't joined at that level before. At the $10 level, you get line-stepping privileges for our segments, which currently include 1 to 10 of Swords and Every Story Ever.
00:12:34
Speaker
At the $15 level, you join the Gimmick Street Preservation Society, as I said. And at the $20 level, you get an annual t-shirt. I think everybody who got this year's t-shirt has gotten theirs. Certainly the most detailed and complex t-shirt I think we've done in quite some time.
00:12:50
Speaker
ah
Challenges of Independent Podcasting
00:12:51
Speaker
with With lots lots of in-jokes. More gags. per square inch than many shirts you are likely to encounter.
00:13:02
Speaker
I don't know if you'll find another shirt in the world that has a Kurt Fuller type on it. sure It sure does. If you can't help us out financially, you can help us out in other ways. You can leave us a five-star review on the podcasting app that you use, or you can spread the word about the show, tell your family and friends, let them know to listen to this show. We're Rocket Ajax.
00:13:22
Speaker
And ah maybe they can contribute to our Patreon. That would be a big help to us as well. um So do that if you can, and if you're unable to get on Patreon and help us yourself.
00:13:33
Speaker
Now, Chris, it's time for Tricks and Treats. Treats, what do you say? Let's do it.
00:13:45
Speaker
Matt, the the the tricks do be tricky. it's I hear it's tricky to rock a rhyme. in No, I wouldn't know. Okay.
00:13:56
Speaker
But I'll tell you what. You might recall last week, the tricks were that I had to purchase a new car. I do remember that, yeah. So I went on down to CarMax. There's one on Gimmick Street. You know about it.
00:14:11
Speaker
and I do. I'm aware. yeah Picked out a car. Test drove it. Took a friend. Everything's going good. it's It's even my favorite color.
00:14:22
Speaker
I buy it. Which always takes forever. It takes so long to buy a car. I don't know why. It always takes all day.
00:14:33
Speaker
It always takes all day. and I don't know why. Why is it taking – do you not want me to give you a bunch of money? and do you not want me to promise to give you money for the next five years?
00:14:50
Speaker
Yeah, we bought we bought a car earlier this year, like early on in the year. And I had to bring my work laptop to the dealership to like do work while I was there.
00:15:03
Speaker
And i i i was making it abundantly clear to the salesman that, like, let's make this as quick as we can. and and then he was like, let me show you some features on the car.
00:15:15
Speaker
Here's how you open the windows. And was like, buddy, i know. i didn't even i didn't even get that. I just took him, like, I'm not trying to try to make these people feel bad.
00:15:29
Speaker
you know they They're working a job and stuff happens. They had to send this form to my bank five times. And it's like, I'll give you three.
00:15:41
Speaker
But you do you do do this all day. yeah like yeah like This is a once every eight years occurrence for me.
00:15:53
Speaker
y'all do this all day. And finally I get it done. And finally I'm like, um like okay, this is this is done. this is i've I've got the car. ah At least this thing that I'm dealing with. Of the like five incredibly stressful things that I'm dealing with right now, at least this is done.
00:16:15
Speaker
I own this car for 15 minutes, Matt. I'm on my way home from the dealership. And I didn't get in an accident. But I did get the check engine light and an error message on my dashboard telling me that something was wrong.
00:16:36
Speaker
And I'm like, and I called i called up ah called up the CarMax on Gimmick Street. And i said I said, hey, I'm having a problem. And they said, oh, is this about the car? this Is this about this car? And I said, yes, the one I bought 15 minutes ago.
00:16:54
Speaker
And then when i called them the next day, i was like, yes, the one I bought yesterday. I believe it is still under the terms of the warranty. So I'm going to go get that checked out tomorrow. I made a service appointment.
00:17:05
Speaker
And hopefully it's just a glitch. Just, you know, something something got got hecked up to Goofenstein on the highway. but But, buddy, I'm exhausted.
00:17:19
Speaker
the The tricks need to end. ah I'm ready for comforts. I hear you. Well, the Comforts and Joys are coming soon, so be comforted. Be of good cheer.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yes. Matt, how's tricks with you hit this week? Well, um not much better. I'm sick. Oh, I'm sorry. If you can hear in my voice ah that I'm a little bit sexy, um that's because I got sick.
00:17:47
Speaker
I'm okay, and it's not COVID, but I did have to take a day off from work. and And but basically, I slept that entire day, and that was nice.
00:18:02
Speaker
um But yeah, I i got a little bit of of a froggy throat and and everything, but that's a health situation, as so as we've done in the past.
00:18:12
Speaker
um But ah I think I'll be better pretty quick. um The other thing I want to note is, like Chris, you talked about being very busy. And I'm also very busy.
00:18:25
Speaker
And I said something in the Discord about this, but I also want to say something on here. um There is a chance that even if you talk to me about a thing, ah like for One to Ten of Swords or Every Story Ever, by the time we record that episode, it will have left my mind.
00:18:43
Speaker
Not because i ah don't want to do something for you, but because um often, right before we record, I am gathering together many things to try to do the show and make it good.
00:18:59
Speaker
And sometimes things will slip my mind, or if there's not an email right in front of me telling me, hey, remember to do this, i i might forget. So if if you want to get mad about it, which, let me tell you,
00:19:13
Speaker
The reason I'm talking about this is that somebody did. But if you want to get mad about it, you have every right to. But more productively, um you can just say, like hey, Matt, um you said you would do this thing and and and you forgot.
00:19:31
Speaker
um Could you do it next time? And then I will be like, absolutely, yes. Please just remind me closer to the time that we're doing that. And then I will make sure that it happens.
00:19:43
Speaker
But I am juggling a lot of things and spending a lot of plates, and I have a full-time job. And so sometimes it's hard to remember everything. And I apologize for when I forget.
00:19:54
Speaker
I'm doing my best, I promise. But this is not a corporate podcast with – It could be. I mean – No one has offered, but yeah. um This is this is an independent podcast just being made by us. We don't have any employees. We don't have like a lot of the resources that other podcasts have um to ah keep things rolling. I...
00:20:22
Speaker
it's It's just us. So ah give me a little grace if you can, and it would be appreciated. And I promise I'm doing my best to keep you happy.
00:20:33
Speaker
ah So thank you.
Chris on Corporations and Nintendo
00:20:35
Speaker
All right. Time for treats. Chris, what's your treat? Now, Matt, we live under late-stage capitalism, as you know. Yes, I'm aware.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yes. And one of the truths that we all need to acknowledge about late-stage capitalism is that corporations are not your friends.
00:20:58
Speaker
And in fact, corporations cannot be your friend. Because corporations are not there to serve you, they're there to serve themselves, to to make profit.
00:21:11
Speaker
That's the only reason they exist. So a corporation cannot be your friend.
00:21:18
Speaker
Except for the Nintendo Corporation, which is my friend.
00:21:24
Speaker
And Matt, the Nintendo Corporation proved that they were my friend by releasing ah brand new Pokemon game on this very day that we are recording.
00:21:35
Speaker
Wow. What what serendipity. What other proof could we possibly need? What synchronicity. Yes. this is ah This is the brand new Pokemon Legends ZA.
00:21:50
Speaker
And it arrived today along with my brand new... Nintendo Switch 2. ah Which, I gotta say, is nice.
00:22:02
Speaker
Yes, I also i have a Switch 2 as well. Where did you get a Switch 2? We haven't talked about it. i've I've had it for ah a little while. it's It's what I've been playing Silksong on. It's very nice. Okay, see, I got i got um i got that on the Steam Deck.
00:22:15
Speaker
and Switch 2 is nice. i I need to wait until ah the ah equivalent of the Hori split pad comes out. Because I have the robust hands of an adult.
00:22:30
Speaker
Which are not what my friend Nintendo makes their controllers for. However, it arrived today, and I was responsible.
00:22:42
Speaker
I did, in fact, do my work... instead of going and trying to find my friend Bulbasaur and Snortlax.
00:22:53
Speaker
So I've only played a little bit of it I am not past the point of this Pokemon game where they tell you how to catch Pokemon. And as Pokemon is ah four babies and I'm the weirdo, and there is no button that you can hit that says I am 43 years old and I done been in this life...
00:23:17
Speaker
i You just gotta get through the first hour of any given Pokemon game. Now, as you may recall if you're a long-time listener, ah Pokemon Legends Arceus is my favorite Pokemon game.
00:23:31
Speaker
I think the twists that it made to the formula were extremely dope, and... ah I loved the the plot of going back and and you know making the first Pokedex and the kind of you know older setting.
00:23:51
Speaker
you know Setting the game in the past I thought was a really cool idea. The regional forms I thought were really cool. The inversion of you being the one who hides in the tall grass so that you can catch the Pokemon.
00:24:02
Speaker
Beautiful. Loved that. ah This game obviously doesn't have quite the same gimmick to it.
Chris on Pokémon Legends ZA
00:24:11
Speaker
oh Instead, the comparison that comes to mind is um Need for Speed Heat, where ah it's a slightly different game based on whether you're playing it in the in-game daytime or the in-game nighttime.
00:24:28
Speaker
ah Because apparently in Lumio City, at night, it's the Warriors. But with Pokemon. Okay. But with with my my close personal friend, Tepig.
00:24:41
Speaker
ah do you Like, there is a city-wide battle royale, and and if you are on the streets, you're part of it, baby.
00:24:53
Speaker
you got You gotta to make it across town, boppers. And in the day, you you go around and explore the city and catch Pokemon. do You know how a Pokemon game works, Matt, even though you are not I would say you're not in the fandom.
00:25:08
Speaker
and so i'm not I'm not a man of Pokemon, Yeah. I'll tell you who is a man of Pokemon. This guy. ah but i So I'm not through the tutorial, so take this as a qualified recommendation ah for both the Switch 2 and for Pokemon Legends ZA.
00:25:26
Speaker
But I do really like... the way that battles play out. ah Because they do... like One of the interesting things about Arceus was there were a lot of trainer battles. like Which is the meat of most Pokemon games.
00:25:46
Speaker
ah It was mostly like like you know catching Pokemon in the wild. Which is cool. Which I like. This one is kind of all about battles. And the battles are all real-time.
00:25:58
Speaker
And... ah In a move that I realized what it was going to be like right before it is revealed in the game, but that am like, oh, that's actually kind of brilliant.
00:26:12
Speaker
Pokemon are always limited to knowing four moves. And so in the battles, each move that your Pokemon knows is mapped to one of the face buttons.
00:26:23
Speaker
So that's how you fight. There's a cooldown for each move. ah which means that you will actually be using more than one move.
00:26:37
Speaker
I might have to learn how ah moves that don't deal direct damage work, which I've avoided for a solid 20 years. 30, almost. 25 years. But yeah, I love that. I love the idea of running around and and calling out the commands in real time and having each of them mapped to a button. That's a really fun gameplay mechanic.
00:27:01
Speaker
I'm really looking forward to diving more into it and ah seeing more of this game. But so far, for the couple hours I've been able to spend with it, and the couple hours that I'm going to spend with it...
00:27:13
Speaker
ah Tonight, once you and I are done talking, and maybe tomorrow, while I'm waiting for my car to get checked out, I am very much enjoying it.
00:27:24
Speaker
So, Pokemon Legends, ZA, from my good friend, Nintendo. Matt, what is your treat this week? Well, Chris, I feel like it's about time, since we've been been doing a couple of weeks of Tricks and Treats, ah to talk about a ah horror movie.
00:27:46
Speaker
ah For my treat. And so I'm going talk about one that you can watch right now on Homebox Office Maximum. Which is like the top of the pile of Not a Sponsor But Could Be.
00:28:01
Speaker
Not a sponsor, but arguably should be. Arguably should be, yeah. Given given all of the the free promotion we've provided...
00:28:13
Speaker
Warner Brothers Discovery's Home Box Office Maximum. They owe it to us by this point. But I'm recommending another movie that you can watch on Home Box Office Maximum. It is an Australian horror movie from the directors of Talk to Me, a great movie ah from a couple of years ago.
00:28:32
Speaker
um This one is called Bring Her Back. And I don't actually want to tell you anything about it. But the The basic premise is that a 17-year-old boy and his younger sister, who I think is maybe 14 or 15, who is visually impaired, their dad dies in a pretty horrific way, and ah they have to go live in a foster home.
00:29:04
Speaker
um run by actress Sally Hawkins, who you may know if you've seen ah The Shape of Water and and some other things. She's Paddington's mom.
00:29:15
Speaker
She's also Paddington's mom. yeah shes yeah she's ah She's a well-known character actress.
Matt's Movie Recommendation: 'Bring Her Back'
00:29:20
Speaker
and She is like kind of the centerpiece of this movie. And gives a an incredible performance here um as this foster mom.
00:29:32
Speaker
And after that, again, i don't really want to tell you anything else about what happens. It is a wild ride. It is very intense. um but ah One thing about Sally Hawkins is that she already has a foster kid named Oliver.
00:29:48
Speaker
And as soon as you see that kid, you know something the fuck is wrong. It's rude. Yeah. ah you Buddy, if you watch the movie, you would agree. Because the first thing you see Oliver doing is standing in an empty pool holding a cat.
00:30:02
Speaker
And, like, that's not – no regular kid does that. Yeah, you you you got me there. And also, like – I have to say that while I was watching the movie, I really wondered how they managed to do some of the stuff that they have this kid Oliver do in the movie.
00:30:23
Speaker
um Like the actor who's playing this kid. And like, not traumatize that child. ah like it's it It gets violent and rough, ah so especially with what that kid is doing.
00:30:43
Speaker
and And yeah, i I don't know, man. But um it is a very intense, very good, very scary movie. ah And...
00:30:57
Speaker
it's It's definitely absolutely ah worth watching if you're into that kind of thing. um So that's my recommendation. Bring her back. I think Talk to Me is a little bit better, um but this one is also very solidly good and very ambitious.
00:31:15
Speaker
So um it's it's it's definitely the best scary movie I have watched so far um this spooky season.
00:31:27
Speaker
And that is my treat. With that, Chris, it's time to talk about some
Chris Reviews 'Crypto No. 5'
00:31:31
Speaker
comics. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:31:39
Speaker
The texture choice for this week is Crypto No. 5, which I think may have shifted your thinking about Ryan North as a writer of comics. Not at all, Matt. I've always said Ryan North, one of the best writers going.
00:31:57
Speaker
Yeah, what but do you think right. that's you're You've been consistent in that. and I'm on the record. I've said it a million times. Ryan North, Grey Rider, finally... decided to use his imagination to put it to good use and imagine a happy dog.
00:32:13
Speaker
Very good stuff. ah A happy dog who is also heroic, who does a very heroic, good deed. Yes. dish And I've talked a lot about Ryan North and how Ryan North was misspending his gifts and talents upon this earth over the previous ah four issues of this book.
00:32:34
Speaker
Speaking of happy dogs. Yeah. Speaking of dogs, I'm just so happy that they will not be quiet. She's hearing you talk about crypto, and she's just like, I gotta get in on that.
00:32:47
Speaker
there's ah There's a panel in this, and I feel like the the the Ryan North contribution to this panel is, I want to recreate the scene from Superman Returns, a pretty bad movie.
00:33:01
Speaker
Where Superman gets shot with a gun and it kind of bounces off his eye. Which is a pretty cool scene in a pretty bad movie. Correct, yeah. um And so a mean lady, who I don't like, and i will I will say, I love that we only kind of know what this whole situation's about.
00:33:19
Speaker
well as What's really funny about that scene to me is the mean lady is dressed like she's going to work at ah at a copy shop.
00:33:32
Speaker
But she's holding a family hostage with a gun. Yeah, man. And, like, i don't know. She wants there to They were supposed to sell her their house or something. She wants their land.
00:33:43
Speaker
ah it's it's I love that we don't get any real details about this, because it's from Crypto's point of view, and that dog doesn't know what capitalism is.
00:33:55
Speaker
That dog don't know about real estate. So many Superman stories are about real estate. And it's kind of weird. That's Ryan North's contribution to this scene, is that he wanted to recreate that.
00:34:06
Speaker
Mike Norton's contribution to this is that... um The last panel on that page, there has never been a dog giving a better ah you fucked up now look in comics than Crypto in that panel.
00:34:24
Speaker
Crypto being like, that that's your ass. I have fucking heat vision. there's Yes, you do not want to see a dog looking at you like that. Yeah. I also, like, this lady sucks, too, because she she shoots Crypto, and then she punches k Crypto.
00:34:40
Speaker
And it's like... After seeing the bullet bounce off of Crypto, she's like, I'm gonna punch him. And then she's surprised when her hand gets broken. yeah um like Yeah. Like, you gotta be a pretty pretty rough customer, I'll say. ah you know I'll go ahead and say it.
00:34:59
Speaker
I think if you shoot a dog, you're a bad person. ah Agreed. But if you punch a dog, I think that's worse.
00:35:08
Speaker
Well, maybe no not worse. It's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. Well, there is at least, i think, one acceptable scenario that to shoot a dog, but we don't have to get into it too much. I can't think of any acceptable scenario to punch a dog. Matt, why would you bring that up?
00:35:27
Speaker
Matt, we've been podcasting together for 15 fucking years, dude! Why would you bring that up? Just to make a point, like, there's no acceptable scenario to punch a dog. That's your fucking journalistic... That's your... You're what's wrong with journalism, Matt.
00:35:46
Speaker
Because you're trying to present both sides. LAUGHTER And here you are, all you're doing is saying it's okay to punch dogs. No, I'm saying it's bad to punch. There's no good reason to punch a dog.
00:35:59
Speaker
I've seen Batman punch dogs on several occasions. It has happened many times, yes. The thing is, dogs should never be unhappy, as they have been in this book, but dogs are capable of evil and are capable of deception and lying. So, um, that's true.
00:36:15
Speaker
oh Yes. i And I think it's also worth noting that that dog, um brownie that um just like got s smushed a couple issues ago.
00:36:26
Speaker
um That hasn't changed. He didn't come back.
00:36:32
Speaker
they They need to put that dog in the Kryptonian gestation matrix. Bring him back. I mean, you know how this ends. You but have known how this was going to end always. But the panel where Krypto, like the whole sequence where Krypto realizes he can smell Superboy,
00:36:50
Speaker
is so good. And Norton does an incredible job drawing a happy dog. And the way Crypto looks at Clark is... It's really adorable.
00:37:07
Speaker
And I really liked it. um It's also great when Crypto shows up on the Kent farm and goes... And like john john Jonathan Kent is standing by like a a thresher or whatever that combine.
00:37:20
Speaker
He's standing by a combine and crypto flies in so fast that he just like flips the combine upside down. Yeah. and Jonathan's like, it's okay.
00:37:31
Speaker
Clark can, Clark can flip it back over. Yeah. I liked it. This, I mean, it ain't his first rodeo, you know, he's had to deal with this whole thing before. Yeah. Uh, but yes, it did make me, uh,
00:37:46
Speaker
that's like That's why you could hear Biscuit, because I could never be mad at a good dog. but Especially one who looks kind of exactly like this dog. ah The next book I want to talk about real quick is One World Under Doom, number eight.
00:38:01
Speaker
Another comic by Ryan North. This is by Ryan North and R.B. Silva. Doom has basically been outed here.
00:38:14
Speaker
outed here as power-mad despot. And um like early in the series, he was like winning people over. He was winning hearts and minds.
00:38:29
Speaker
And now, a big chunk of this issue is ah conversation between Doom and Valeria, where Valeria sort of convinces him...
00:38:44
Speaker
or start is is on the start to the path to convincing him that he's wrong to be doing this. Because she tells him, like, you can't hold an entire population by force.
00:38:58
Speaker
Like, you can win hearts and minds, but you can never, like, win people over through coercion. And Doom's response to that is, like, well, when you say that you...
00:39:11
Speaker
as as you in In the general, you, that's true. But I'm Doom. So it's going to work for me. yeah Yes. Yes, correct.
00:39:22
Speaker
And eventually he like sends Valeria away. But a cool thing that is really established in this issue and has been established throughout this series is that like Valeria is the one person That really has Doom's heart.
00:39:42
Speaker
Like. She is the one who can convince him of something. Of him ever being wrong. And she she is the one person that like.
00:39:53
Speaker
If he inadvertently hurt her. he He would be deeply affected by it. So guess what happens by the end of this issue. oh Also. um There's a part where. ah The Stormbreaker hammer gets like infused with all kinds of like magic energies. um And then Ben Grimm picks it up and says, i know you know what time it is. And that's fantastic and good.
00:40:26
Speaker
I love it. It's very good. ah Yeah, I had had a question from the start of One World Under Doom of like how it was going to be different from Emperor Doom.
00:40:38
Speaker
which we read a while back for catch-up. And it has been remarkably different. um So, good on Ryan North for really taking it in a different direction. This this notion of doom taking over the world.
00:40:54
Speaker
One last book, Chris, is one I haven't read just yet. It's Superman Unlimited number six. Yes. ah This is kind of the first time that we get to see Superman getting...
00:41:05
Speaker
like getting kryptonite overload and then taking his golden Superman form and then being in action and losing his powers and and there being kind of stuff that goes along with that.
00:41:20
Speaker
oh And it's very fun. ah like I quite like it. ah The Supermobile's in it. Lois does some good stuff in this. ah there's I kind of like the ah the kryptonite king, which is such a like ah silver age idea.
00:41:37
Speaker
done for the the modern day, which I think is is really great. oh And look, I know that Golden Superman, the way that we see Superman in the 853rd century, in DC 1 million number four, when he comes out of the sun and resurrects Lois Lane with the power of science, I know that like...
00:42:05
Speaker
I feel like in the parallel universe, where it's anything but that, what I would be saying is, but wouldn't it be cool if he was like the golden Superman from DC 1 million? But um the whole time I'm reading this, I'm like, but wouldn't it be cool if he turned into electric blue Superman though?
00:42:26
Speaker
Like, wouldn't it be cool if that was it? If he turned to it into electric blue Superman? Yeah. Because remember, when Electric Blue Superman was Clark Kent, he didn't have power. I'm just saying, he could turn into Electric Blue Superman.
00:42:37
Speaker
That could have been Superman's Super Saiyan form. It could have happened. i just I wish he could have been Electric Blue Superman, that's all. Yeah, a fair point. ah maybe they Would anyone have liked that but me? No, obviously not.
00:42:51
Speaker
Maybe it could still happen. it's it's it's There's a possibility. There's still a possibility. All right, Chris, ah that's going to do it for our comics reviews, which means it's time for our interview segment with Connor McCreary and Jabola Fagbamie.
Interview with Connor McCreary and Jebola Fagbamie
00:43:28
Speaker
Joining us for the program this week, we are very excited to welcome ah two new friends of the show. ah They are here to talk to us about ah the epic original graphic novel from HarperCollins' Amistad imprint.
00:43:41
Speaker
Fela, music is the weapon. We have Connor McCurry and Jabola Fagbamie. Fellas, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for having us.
00:43:52
Speaker
Yeah, thanks, guys. It's great. We're excited to be here and talking to the War Rocket. That's right. it's we We are in flight, I guess.
00:44:04
Speaker
I don't know. ive I haven't conceptualized it as an actual rocket in a while, but but here we are. I can see my house from up here, so I'm very excited. You know what I like? I like it when someone engages with the premise.
00:44:16
Speaker
Yeah, to except that if you accept the premise, then you're already doing better than some of our other guests, who I won't name. But who will be joining us for our annual Christmas special.
00:44:26
Speaker
yeah So I mentioned the the title, Fela Music is the Weapon. ah This is your ah bio-comic about Fela Cootie. who is someone I have, I know the name, and I've heard a couple of songs.
00:44:46
Speaker
i I do, unfortunately, have to hand it to Grand Theft Auto 4 for introducing me to Fela Cootie, but like also oh ah my wife actually got really into ah putting on Afrobeat playlists ah just when we were hanging around the house or playing board games or something, and there like there's so much great stuff.
00:45:06
Speaker
so But I'm There were things even in your initial email with which I was unfamiliar. So oh I guess that's where to start. Tell us a little bit about why you're doing this project and why. i mean, i I think it won't be ah hard to explain why he's an interesting guy.
00:45:30
Speaker
um Well, I think the big one is that ah Fella is just such a cultural and political and musical figure that i feel i feel every everyone should know about Fella because...
00:45:47
Speaker
you know he created his his own genre of music um sold over it's sorry created over 80 uh different albums during his career but that's just kind of like scratching the surface um you know he the genre of music created ah is called afrobeat which is ah fusion of jazz, funk, and high life and traditional Yoruba sounds.
00:46:18
Speaker
And, um you know, at one point he actually ran for president of Nigeria and created his own political party called Movement of the People.
00:46:32
Speaker
And he married 27 women in one day. And he also created his own country. So um I think the thrust of what the fellow was trying to do was to liberate Nigerians from the military dictatorship that we're facing at the time.
00:46:52
Speaker
And there was this one time he he sang this song called called Zombie. And essentially, the the song was calling military personnel in the country ah zombies because all they do is follow orders.
00:47:11
Speaker
And in return, they the military sent a thousand soldiers to his house, burnt down his house, assaulted soldiers. The people who lived there sexually assaulted his wives, threw his 78-year-old mom out the window, burnt down his house, and and beat him till they thought he was dead and took him to jail for 27 days.
00:47:36
Speaker
And then he came back on stage after that with crutches and you know Band-Aid. And the first song he sang was Zombies.
00:47:49
Speaker
zomby right So the fearlessness of him and the the stories and the myth, the the fact that he there's ah almost this mythicism ah around him, I don't know if that's a real word, um just makes him look such a compelling um hero for this time that we're in.
00:48:11
Speaker
And um we didn't plan for the world to go to shit. but um None of us do. None of us do. do yeah But here we are. And Fela is just sort of that a story that gives a lot of inspiration, especially now, for people to have a lot of courage and and um for people to not take – what's the word I'm looking For for people to –
00:48:42
Speaker
to Not take illegitimate powers seriously.
00:48:49
Speaker
I'm really curious as to how this project came together. um Because it is it is a hefty book. it is you know, you know, seventy plus pages of of comic about you know the biography of this incredibly interesting man.
00:49:10
Speaker
So how did it how did it come together? was it so Did you guys just meet and talk about it and kind of decide to do it together? Did one of you approach the other and say, hey, I want to do this book? And and how did it how did you bring it to life?
00:49:25
Speaker
Okay, so to be fair to myself, um I only he wanted like an 80-page graphic novel. ah Okay. agree And then um i went to talk to Connor and, you know, I had been working on it for some time.
00:49:42
Speaker
To give you a bit of a backstory, I saw the fella on Broadway ah play. Yeah, yeah. And I was blown away and really inspired and I was like,
00:49:53
Speaker
I can write a better story than this, you know? And then i started writing it and I had all these pockets of stories and I'd done all this research, but I realized that I actually could not write a better story.
00:50:06
Speaker
And, um, but know Connor could. Um, so, uh, I'd known him for many years, reached out and I, I asked him to just give me a little bit of direction on how to make the story a bit more cohesive, um,
00:50:21
Speaker
And he came back with these really beautiful, thought-out scenes and stories and how to connect it. And at that point, i was like, hey, man, do do you mind if we work on this project together? And, you know, Connor, ah in his infinite wisdom, went away into the mountaintop, came back, and I said, yes, yes, he will.
00:50:45
Speaker
And um he he he went away and wrote 360 pages. So my whole mission was to cut it in half to least 150 pages.
00:51:00
Speaker
But then I read it, I was like, God damn, man, it's so good. So um maybe he can explain why he was trying to torture me.
00:51:10
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's that's a little bit of the backstory. I mean, that's what you do with artists, right? You you torture them. Yeah. Horses and bicycles. That's what I like to do. You find out their least favorite thing to draw, and then you write that into the script as often as you can. Yeah, you fill that one ah So, Connor, was it just a matter of, like, there's too much stuff? Like, there's, you know, like, you cannot cover marrying 27 women in one day in one page.
00:51:47
Speaker
like Like, there has to be. they there head We have to give space to all this stuff. Is that, like, the, ah was that just... Yeah, no, I mean, you know, Jabal had done a ton of research already. So before he even got to the project, like, we know, when he gave me that original piece, because his original idea was was taking around, you know, Jabal spoke earlier about the thousand soldiers who attacked Bella's compound.
00:52:13
Speaker
And so that was actually the center point of his original idea. And it actually stayed the center point of of the book ah because it is such a key moment. And then Jabola wanted to use like some flashbacks to explain sort of like, well, why was this happening? Why are a thousand soldiers attacking this musician?
00:52:29
Speaker
So he already had done, you know, so much of the legwork and so much of the research. So I didn't really have to do a ton more. i'm You know, I'm a journalist by trade. And so, you know, that's sort of stuff that I'm used to. But I didn't have to do a ton more.
00:52:41
Speaker
And really, it was like you're saying, it was like, oh, there's there's too many good stories. There's too much information. There's too many things that seem impossible to believe. And so really the challenge was going through all this material And then kind of doing my, you know, then going off on my own and and seeing what else I could find.
00:53:01
Speaker
And then taking all that and saying, okay, well, how do we make ah really thing? you know meaningful but you know not confusing story.
00:53:14
Speaker
And so, yeah, so things did have to give time to breathe. There was some setup you need to do because you know ah a good portion of our audience are going to be people who are not necessarily super familiar with Nigeria or fellas music or the politics of the region. And so you know we needed to do the work so that people really felt like, okay, I'm in Nigeria.
00:53:35
Speaker
I understand what that means. I get enough of the cultural references that as the story develops, I'm not feeling like I'm lost. And so once we felt we'd put in a good base, then, you know, then we can start telling all these wild and crazy stories. And, you know, I think people should think of this a little bit like a Dewey Cox in walk hard. um You know, it is like a biopic, right?
00:53:59
Speaker
And it hits all, it hits all the buttons that, you know, that walk hard does. Weirdly enough, Walk Hard, I think, has become a touchstone for all sorts of bios because they really do follow yeah that model.
00:54:10
Speaker
Yes, it's it it's it knocks out every trope. It really does. It really does. And so, yeah, and so that that really was the hardest thing, though, was just how do we how do we tell a compelling differently?
00:54:22
Speaker
What do we have to condense? Where do we have to move things? And so in the book, you know we have a we have an author's note where we make it very clear where we've done compound characters, where we've had to change some of the timelines, just because otherwise it would have been it would have been so unwieldy.
00:54:38
Speaker
um But I think that people can pick up this book, even though it's big and there are heavy themes, and that you can read it and it's funny and you can have fun and that you can exit it being like, oh, I really feel like...
00:54:52
Speaker
I've been introduced to something new and that I understand it. That leads me to a broader question that I've been thinking about ever since i read through the book. And that is how the two of you kind of figured out to make a biography in comics interesting, because I feel like you know they're therere biographical movies and they very much fit a formula.
00:55:20
Speaker
um But I feel like movies are far more conducive to a sort of linear retelling of events. you know of of non-fictional events than comics often are.
00:55:36
Speaker
you know that's That's not necessarily playing to the strengths of comics to just rattle off, here's what happened. and i Part of me thinks that's why autobiographical comics are so much easier to do than biography um because you can get so much more into somebody's interior thoughts and feelings.
00:55:58
Speaker
And when I saw that this was described as kind of a magical realism take on a biography, I was like, oh, that's why it works. like that's Once we get into kind of like the things that aren't so literal, it's a much more interesting read than just rattling off those events. So I would just like to hear a little bit about the process of kind of arriving at that approach.
00:56:24
Speaker
You know, I think so. One of the things that made it easy with that was because a huge part of Fela's life was his, ah like, you know, his beliefs in traditional African spiritualism.
00:56:37
Speaker
um You know, he was somebody who who was raised Christian, like a lot of people in Nigeria ah were. know, Nigeria also has a really large Muslim population, so they really kind of are dominated by these two Western religions. And as Fela went on in his life, he started to really get suspicious of that and about whether that was actually aligned with kind of really traditionally what his people would have seen, how they would have interacted with the world, how they would have believed that the, you know, the the world beyond interacted with us.
00:57:06
Speaker
And there's, you know, I think it's, i think it's fair to say that part of Fela's belief in African spiritualism ended up getting exploited by, there's a character named Professor Hindu, who's a real person who, um,
00:57:20
Speaker
In many people's interpretations close to Fela, we're like, this guy took advantage of Fela's beliefs. And so on one hand, that belief system is is kind of shown in ah maybe a bit of a negative light because it's being used as ah as a tool to hurt Fela.
00:57:34
Speaker
But we also wanted to make it really clear that... you know that that's not the only way to look at these these spiritual beliefs. And so when you open the book, we actually start in Yoruba dream world.
00:57:47
Speaker
you know We are meeting the Orishas. We're meeting like you know sort of the the gods of the pantheon. And so we you know we felt that was a really good way to show that this was going to be more than as you're saying, just, oh, this happened, then this happened, then this happened. And I think you're exactly right. I think comics are a lot like ah live theater in that both of them work best when things are slightly magical.
00:58:11
Speaker
um And in both cases, you know, you're really aware that you're you know watching the storyteller tell their story. And so I think both they do their best work when things are hyper real. And so i think it was just a natural choice. like I can't really think of, you know, I think that's why comics gave birth to superheroes. You know, this idea of something that is not real.
00:58:32
Speaker
And I think almost any really good comic you read is going to have some element, even if it's like you said, if even if it seems like it's a autobiography, you know, something that should be very like cut and dried.
00:58:46
Speaker
There's always something in the best ones that make you go, Oh, now we've, we've stepped into the realm of the magical in some way, shape or form. And so I think it was a pretty easy choice for us, especially given how much magic there was in Velo's life.
00:59:01
Speaker
Yeah, just to even add a little bit to that, um ah it it was also pretty intentional because, like I said earlier, Phala lived this huge mythical and magical life. So, for instance, Phala Where Phelat performed was this place called the Shrine.
00:59:21
Speaker
And i during the show, he would have a ritual where he would, um how do you say it, serve offering to to the ancestors. And the my ancestors, it was his mother...
00:59:36
Speaker
Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, who is kind of like the father of Pan-Africanism. And um so it would be kind of like a missed opportunity if we didn't talk about the magical side or the spiritual side side of Fela.
00:59:55
Speaker
And one one of the books that I actually read that initially inspired me was this book called This Bitch of a Life by this guy called Carlos Moore. And I remember opening that book, and the first line from the book was, um the first time I was born, dot, dot. da And that that line hooked me right away.
01:00:17
Speaker
And the what he was talking about there is this this phenomenon we have in Nigeria called apiku, apiku. And an Abiku is someone who was born twice, right? So a child who, who dies and, and typically what happens, like they mark the child's body.
01:00:39
Speaker
And if the, and another child is reborn in the future that has that exact same mark, that child is, ah is, is called an Abiku and a spiritual child that is in between worlds. Right.
01:00:52
Speaker
And, um, Just kind of like um introducing that to to the world, especially to this part of the world where we don't get exposed to those sort of concepts was really important.
01:01:07
Speaker
And then when Phyllis sings too, you know, he he sings about zombies and animals and human skin and and his songs are so fantastical in his descriptions.
01:01:20
Speaker
And we were thinking, oh, wouldn't it be so cool then that when he gets attacked by the soldiers, that they are actually some kind of zombie or when he's talking about politicians, they're some sort of animal.
01:01:37
Speaker
And because we set up the stage for it to be a magic realism, it gave us the permission to do things like that. And yeah, it just, yeah it just made it a little bit easier for us to, to tell the story like that. i am very curious since, since Connor, you mentioned oh ah walk hard.
01:02:06
Speaker
Is there a Tim Meadows? Yeah. in this story. Don't do it, Dewey, don't do it. You don't want to do part of this, fellow cootie.
01:02:18
Speaker
There is. No, it would be it would be his friend JK, right? that He kind of serves that purpose in the story. And I think you know i think one of the things that's why so many of these... by know You can look at the Queen, Biopic, Rocketman, all of them really they really do follow such a trend. There's something about it. I think there's something unique about becoming a musician.
01:02:39
Speaker
There is... There is an immediacy. Like you can be a ah hugely famous actor, but you don't really engage with people in the same way. Like in theater, you know, you could be, you know, theater doesn't have the same scope anyways, but even if it did, you know, a theater crowd is, is, is quiet. It's paying rapt attention. It is, it is, it's more of an, more of a, like an inward energy, right?
01:03:04
Speaker
Where you know if you're a rock star, you're on stage and there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people losing their shit while they watch you. And I think there's something about that that just creates...
01:03:18
Speaker
this, you know, honestly, you know, it and makes it makes people arrogant. It makes them believe they can fly, that they're the biggest thing on the planet. And so I think, you know, all, you know, you often see in these stories, there's always somebody who is there to kind of tether that person to the ground.
01:03:35
Speaker
And when these musicians lose contact with whatever that tethering force is, then there's nothing to protect them anymore. And they, you know, it seems like they almost invariably,
01:03:48
Speaker
you know, slide into some bad places because there's nobody there to sort of be like, yeah, I know there's that wall of noise, those 30,000 people in this stadium who are going nuts and who like sing your songs and they they cry and your music means so much to them.
01:04:03
Speaker
But you're still, you know, you're still Fela from, you know, Abikuta, right? You're still this guy from from who I know. And so in the story when JK is kind of the guy who Fela's first place music with, he kind of acts as a bit of ah a defunding facto manager for a little bit in Fela's career, but he really is sort of his best friend and the person who's beside him.
01:04:23
Speaker
And when that relationship is broken, you know, kind of largely by Fela, it really, <unk> it's another key moment where you realize, oh, our hero is is sliding into a troubled path.
01:04:39
Speaker
um So yeah, there is definitely, and JK is a lot of fun. You know, he's a really fun character and he brings a lot of the humor and the levity to the book.
01:04:48
Speaker
Is there a a particular moment or or a particular story that stuck out to you in the adaptation of of this is the – like, if I had to explain one thing – about Philokuni to someone. like We have done it perfectly this.
01:05:10
Speaker
I have a couple, but pick one. um there's There's this... I'm not going to pick the one Connor likes, I'll pick another one. um There's this um story where this...
01:05:27
Speaker
a record company owed Fellas some money. um You know, he his house had recently been burnt down and, you know, some of the the people who lived at the house had become homeless.
01:05:45
Speaker
um And he sings about this in this song called Unknown Soldier, right? So, um, So it's um the Unknown Surch is almost like a documentation of what happened ah during that attack on Kalakuta, which is Fela's Republic.
01:06:01
Speaker
And um so the story I'm talking about is what you know what happened after. um And um he he you know yeah asked for his money back, and these people were just sort of The record company was sort of wasting his time.
01:06:17
Speaker
And you remember, Fela is married to 27 women. i think maybe around 200 to 300 people were living at his house at one point. um So what he ended up doing was he went to the record company with the whole crew.
01:06:35
Speaker
his wives, everyone in Kalakuta and moved into the office and said, until you pay me, I'm not leaving. So I live here now. Right.
01:06:46
Speaker
And they thought he was joking. And then he, he just set up camp there and they called the cops. And because at the time, um, the cops were actually kind of friendly with, with fella.
01:06:59
Speaker
So they didn't do anything. They just kind of left him. And, um, He just stayed there until he got paid. Right? So that's kind like a really short story to tell you.
01:07:12
Speaker
Kind of like this mischief mischievous character, you know?
01:07:18
Speaker
Before we move on to – I want to just briefly give Connor some time to talk about The Last Witch. But before we do that, I want to ask about the color choices in this book. You guys worked with two different colorists on this, right?
01:07:35
Speaker
ah Yes. ah I really... i love comics doing things that only comics can do. And I really feel like the the coloring in here very distinctly sort of differentiates between...
01:07:58
Speaker
like flashbacks to a very early time, which are kind of the most monochromatic parts of the story. And then there are the the current parts, which are um sort of not not monochromatic, but like not as vividly colored colored as other parts of the book. And then there are the really heightened moments that have the like really, really vivid colors. Like the the the the moments of of like meeting a lover or um being on stage or kind of being in a a spiritual plane and that kind of thing.
01:08:37
Speaker
um so So I'm really... Just interested to hear about like the process of of working with the colorists and and figuring out that approach.
01:08:49
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm really glad you asked that question. um So the the first time I saw something like that was and in this book called ah King by Ho Chi Anderson, um where he had one type of art style going into the into the graphic novel.
01:09:07
Speaker
And then when, you know, the story of album is about Martin Luther King and when GFK gets killed, ah the art style actually changes dramatically. And...
01:09:19
Speaker
I kind of wanted the experience of this book to feel like very similar to Ophela's song, but also just, and and so I borrowed that that idea.
01:09:30
Speaker
and like you said, um the story, you know, when when you start, it's kind of more pastel, pretty traditional graphic novel style.
01:09:42
Speaker
style. And um when we have the dream sequences, um they're more saturated and extremely colorful.
01:09:53
Speaker
And then yeah when Fela's life sort of falls apart, it becomes darker and a bit claustrophobic and really rough and It's supposed to feel almost uncomfortable even.
01:10:06
Speaker
And it was very important for me that as the the reader goes through the experience of reading the book, um that they they do feel those emotions and emotions.
01:10:19
Speaker
You know, like the parts that are super saturated ah when he's on stage, for instance, um you should feel that same sort of energy. And when he's sort of going through the blues, so to speak, you should feel like that because it's like like fella songs.
01:10:38
Speaker
are typically like that. Like he makes you feel all the different instruments. Right. So that was kind of like the color. That was why we chose that sort of, um, color palette and, and, um, um, style throughout the book.
01:10:55
Speaker
Um, ah yeah The challenge was coordinating everybody. um One of the artists was based in Nigeria. The other one was based LA. um i was based in Toronto.
01:11:07
Speaker
um It was during COVID. um you know so just And we all have different art styles. So just sort coordinating everybody to make it flow properly was a bit challenging. but um is Is any of it painted? There are pages that absolutely look like they're just fully painted.
01:11:27
Speaker
None of it was painted. You mean like traditionally painted? Yeah. Yeah, yeah not none of them were painted traditionally. It was all digitally painted. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
01:11:38
Speaker
You could fooled me with some of those pages. Yeah, I think it's because I use a lot of texturing in my in my painting. Because typically when I get the paintings, the coloring back from the artist, actually go back and and polish it up so that yeah it starts to feel a bit more uniform.
01:11:54
Speaker
But I texture a lot and it it makes it feel a bit more like, oh shit, this is this this is traditionally painted.
01:12:04
Speaker
Well, Connor, before we move on to listener questions, let's let's chat just a bit about The Last Witch Volume 2. I think that's pretty much just wrapping up now.
01:12:18
Speaker
Yes. every issue yeah so Issue number four is coming out ah October 15th, so tomorrow. And then there'll be one more issue after that, and that'll that'll wrap up. but Book one and book two are sort of one big story to together.
01:12:31
Speaker
so So any of our listeners who want to check it out can can now check out all of Volumes 1 and 2. And what why don't you you pitch it to our listeners before we we head ah on to listener questions? Sure, for sure. So basically, The Last Switch, I like to say it is Irish Avatar The Last Airbender with just the right amount of child cannibalism.
01:12:58
Speaker
Wow. Perfect. So what it is, it it is about a 12-year-old girl who lives in medieval Ireland who discovers that she can use magic. But she discovers that after a coven of witches has destroyed her village, leaving only her, her bratty little brother, and her scar-smoking grandmother alive.
01:13:16
Speaker
And they have to work with Saoirse, our main character, to help her figure out how to kind of master these four elemental magics so that she can stop this coven of witches from opening a door that could destroy the world.
01:13:31
Speaker
um So think of things like The Secret of Nym, The Dark Crystal, the original Brothers Grimm, or really a lot of Celtic mythology where it's those kind of stories that...
01:13:43
Speaker
are a little scary they're a little dark for dark for younger kind of readers viewers but that's why they stick with people and that's why i think they really like those were the stories that like when i remember seeing the secret of nim when i was a kid and it stuck with me because it was a little bit terrifying and so these stories are you know i would say they're they're kind of like all ages horror a little bit the last witch you know There's nothing there that is you know too much for a reader to handle, but so you know there are some things that happen that are you know a little intense, and you don't always know for sure if our main character is going to come out all right.
01:14:21
Speaker
and And that's because not only is she fighting these witches, um in the mythology of this story, you know we're kind of dealing with classic Celtic mythology. So it's the Tirnanog, which is the Irish Fairyland, and the Tualjadanthan, which are the the fairy creatures.
01:14:35
Speaker
Who are these sort of alien to humans, really. And the the idea is that the magic in this world is actually kind of leaking through that door I mentioned. And that magic, it's it's not for us.
01:14:48
Speaker
So every time Saoirse learns a new spell, anytime she masters a new type of magic. she is getting closer to defeating this coven but she's also getting closer and closer to becoming just like them because the magic is what corrupts us and that's why you have these horrific witches with you know needle-like teeth they started off like you or i but too much of the magic changed them and so in a little way it's a bit a little bit like a breaking bad type story because you you know the Really, I would say that even more so than the the antagonists, the big threat is will Saoirse lose herself?
01:15:26
Speaker
You know, this young girl who's always wanted to be special and now is. And can she give up the thing that makes her special, even if the people around her can tell that it is it is changing them?
01:15:39
Speaker
ah Connor, we're going to move on to listener questions in just a second, but I do want to i do want to iterate. on it I just want to pitch you on this, and you can take it or leave it. oh The Last Airbender, but you spell it E-I-R-E.
01:15:57
Speaker
i' but I'm going to borrow that one. Yes, I'm going to borrow that one. and i i mean Tomorrow when i put it when i've got my ah but I've got the Twitter and the Blue Sky feed going and reminding people the issue, I may use it right then. There will there will be a little at symbol for accreditation and thanks.
01:16:15
Speaker
All yours, bud. All yours. ah Now is the time when we like kick it over to our listeners to see if they've got any questions for you. ah And Matt, if our listeners do want to get in on these conversations that we have here on the show, how exactly can they go about that?
01:16:31
Speaker
Well, Chris, there are two places you can go if you want to ask questions for our listeners. You can either follow us on Blue Sky. We're there at warrocketajax.com. um Pretty easy to find us there.
01:16:42
Speaker
Or you can join our Discord. You have to be invited to be a member of our our our Discord, but if you ask us nicely for an invitation, you can ask questions for our guests just like ah these for Connor and Jabola.
01:16:56
Speaker
And our first question comes to us from Wiki on our Discord, who wants to know how key is Tony Allen's drumming to Fela's success?
01:17:07
Speaker
So the I remember a couple of years ago, um there was um there is this thing that was going around where people would say, um tony Tony Allen created Afrobeat.
01:17:23
Speaker
And i think ah what happened is that Tony Allen was just really instrumental in creating the drum patterns for Afrobeat, but obviously didn't create the the whole genre, right? So in the graphic novel, essentially what we did was that we...
01:17:45
Speaker
the The way we introduced Tony was, you know, Fela was just trying to figure out um how to put together his sound and was sort of struggling with that.
01:17:56
Speaker
And then he beat meets Tony. and um And this was one of those things that made me hate Connor because... um he I remember in the script, he was like, okay, so we're going to have two pages of just drumming.
01:18:12
Speaker
And I'm like, okay, so where are the words? He's like, no, no words. I'm like, I'm not drawing two pages. Let's make it two panels. It's like, no, no, it's two pages. you know so um And then I started putting together and I was like...
01:18:25
Speaker
um oh my god this is actually a lot of fun to draw without worrying with ah the the word bubbles are gonna go i ended up being one of my favorite pages but um i think i'm going away from the the question here but yeah that's kind of like how we treated it where tony came in just when fellow was just trying to develop his sound yeah And Fela talks a lot about, like, one of the Fela talked about was early in his career about how he learned quickly, like, how important a drummer was, not just, not you know, like, to to to music in general, but specifically to what he was trying to do.
01:19:04
Speaker
And so I think there are you know, I think there are a lot of people who are, you into Fela would be like, oh, like, As Paul McCartney is to John Lennon, so is Tony Allen to Fela Coote in terms of they had like a very similar type of um creative drive that shaped the music.
01:19:24
Speaker
um You know, and, and and not you know, there's there's a George Harrison, there's a Ringo here too. But, you know, if we're talking of those kind of two dueling characters, you know, that that there's a lot of that in in how Tony helped to build Afrobeat. Yeah.
01:19:38
Speaker
Yeah, if you're going to have the word beat in the name of your genre, you better have a pretty good drummer, I would say. ah Rattlesnake Kate on our Discord wants to know, who is your favorite fictional witch?
01:19:51
Speaker
Oh, my favorite fictional witch. um I'm going to say, i mean, yeah you you've got our Hocus Pocus witches are pretty good. i mean, all the witches in the craft.
01:20:03
Speaker
ah That was a a great touchstone for me when I was growing up. But I'm going to say witch that I actually stole some of their character. for this book.
01:20:14
Speaker
I mentioned I've got this old grandmother who smokes cigars. Well, anybody who's a big fan of witches in literature will know that that sounds a heck of a lot like the grandmother from The Witches, the Roald Dahl story.
01:20:27
Speaker
And I'd always loved that idea of this kind of, it's kind of transgressive, this old lady smoking a cigar. um But when i I remember when I read The Witches as a kid, I thought that it was actually going to go a different direction with the grandmother.
01:20:43
Speaker
And it doesn't go that way. And it just always stuck my head that, oh, what if my idea was the way it actually went? And when i first actually tried to put together the story of The Last Witch, had this little thing about this girl, but I didn't have a heck of a lot else.
01:20:58
Speaker
And I'm being bit vague here because it's a bit of a spoiler. But when i realized, hey, if my grandmother could be like Roald Dahl's grandmother, except have the little change that I'd imagined was going to happen, that would really open up the story. And so I always have a soft spot because I just, i love that character. I love it.
01:21:16
Speaker
This grandmother who doesn't give two shits, who is the total mentor for this little boy and who is punk as fuck. Uh, and so I kind of wanted to steal that for, for my grandmother, uh, with, again, with just a little bit of ah a twist.
01:21:32
Speaker
Uh, Jabola, do you have a favorite fictional witch? I was going to say Scarlet Witch. Oh, yeah. That's a great answer.
01:21:42
Speaker
ah to ah One that will get a lot of traction here, I think. ah chris Chris, do you have a a favorite fictional witch? Matt, you know I'm all about the Baba Yaga. Oh, yeah. oh yeah The Baba Yaga. That's a good one. We're not talking about John Wick. We're talking about the lady with that. I would also say that counts.
01:22:01
Speaker
i yeah I consider John Wick to be a facet of the larger Baba Yaga. ah We're talking about the lady with the the chicken leg house, though. Love that house. yeah um ah Keeping up with my ah tendency on this show to always name Looney Tunes characters whenever I can, Witch Hazel from Looney Tunes.
01:22:20
Speaker
Witch Hazel's very good. me Love her. right Yeah. Yeah. ah Our buddy Ben on our Discord asks, what are your favorite tricks for dealing with music in the non-audio medium that is comics?
01:22:41
Speaker
I don't know, Jabolo, when you were drawing, what how how did you try to create the feeling of music? um i I think that one was challenging because obviously comics are static, right?
01:22:55
Speaker
um And... um ah i remember i I remember struggling with this part too because the music notes, if you're just drawing the music notes, they just not feel right.
01:23:13
Speaker
So what I ended up doing was, um i mean, I'm going to go a bit technically, drawing out the shapes of the musical notes on...
01:23:26
Speaker
on Illustrator, Adobe Illustrator, and then just sort of distorting it in Photoshop, right? So that it it feels, it looks a little bit abstract when you look at it and it it goes between the art a little bit.
01:23:41
Speaker
um And then um a lot the scenes that we use, music notes, you know, it's interwoven into into the page itself.
01:23:53
Speaker
right So it's not just pasted on there. And then the other interesting thing that we did was that as Fela discovered his sound, the color of the music notes actually changed. So I think initially it was just typical, just like black and white and and and some colors.
01:24:16
Speaker
some color and then as when he discovered Afrobeat we added some shapes into and into the music notes um so so that just made it make you pay attention to the music notes a little bit uh rather than it just being this static thing in the background And then I think what I try to do for Jaboula is, you know, he already tried to shut me down with those, but like having several pages where there is nothing but dance, right? Because we can't do we can't do music, like Jaboula said, but we can certainly show how people are reacting to the music.
01:24:59
Speaker
And, you know and obviously, well, you know, any individual panel is static. you know, everybody knows that, you know, great artists and Chipotle is a great artist can give you, you know, real kinetic energy by stringing together their panels. And so that's, I think a big thing. We, you know, we have a few different scenarios where there is performance and then you Fela's style changes and as you know his fans become more and more rabid, you can see that change.
01:25:25
Speaker
And that kind of culminates in this big performance of that song, Zombie, that we talked about at the beginning, which is the one that you know would would cause the Nigerian government to send a thousand soldiers to basically try to wipe Fela off the map.
01:25:40
Speaker
Stone Cold HCC, an account that exists only to ask questions here on War Rocket Ajax, wants to know, If you didn't have a butt, what would you miss most? Pooping, sitting, or just shaking it around?
01:25:56
Speaker
I mean, is is there an alternate way to to deal with waste? Because like I feel like that would that would be just like a health issue. that like That's true. That could be like, i don't want to go septic. That's a bad way to die. But we're going assume that I'm now like expelling waste through some other orifice.
01:26:12
Speaker
And people have always said I had shit for brains, so maybe that's where it comes from. um But I would say you know it's it's dance, man. Like Cornel West says, you know any revolution that doesn't have dancing is not a revolution that's worth having. so yeah, man, shaking it around.
01:26:28
Speaker
and Jabola, do you have a choice of the three? oh man. I've seen Jabola dance, so it's definitely not dancing. Hey-o.
01:26:40
Speaker
Yeah. um so So, I don't... Okay, so I'm not sure if I actually fully understood the question. Is the question... um yeah it's it's it's an intentionally nonsense question. So, yeah if you don't have an answer, that's fine.
01:26:55
Speaker
Okay, I'll pass on the question. Okay, great. funna go I know, I know. I'm sorry. Another...
01:27:07
Speaker
another ah Another member of our Discord who is just RIPUSA, which I think is a Halloween name, um wants to know um if you have a favorite Halloween candy.
01:27:21
Speaker
So I have a confession about Halloween, right? Okay. um Last year was my first real Halloween where actually went trick-or-treating for real.
01:27:35
Speaker
And I've been in Canada for over 20 years. um And and that I think two years ago was the first time actually was part, you know, my son is five years old.
01:27:48
Speaker
And at the time
Halloween Memories and Candy Discussion
01:27:49
Speaker
it was maybe three. So it was just, real first year of properly going for trick-or-treating, but he was too scared to go out the that first year, so we just gave out candy.
01:28:01
Speaker
and um And then last year was the first time where i actually went out in a costume and everything had... a blast um and i just i don't know if i have a favorite candy ah um candy to be honest um but that that's my my halloween experience right there that's great uh connor do you have a favorite halloween candy I mean, i think it's probably like, you know, it's like a legal like the mini, that you know, really it's a mini chocolate bars, right? And it could be, you know, it could be mini Snickers. It could be mini like Mr. Biggs, Crunchy, like, you know, Butterfingers, any of those. ah yeahll I'll take, give me all the mini chocolate bars.
01:28:46
Speaker
Chris? You know what it is, Matt. ah Hit me. Hit me with it. Reese's Pumpkins. reese Okay, so yours is Reese's Pumpkins. Yes. Mine is when you got not the little Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but the full-size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
01:29:05
Speaker
those I like the pumpkins because I like a how ah holiday novelty. ah I know you do. I know you do. So do you also like those like marshmallow witches, or is that like a bridge too far?
01:29:15
Speaker
I mean, I don't dislike the marshmallow witches. Okay, that's fair. One last question. I don't get candy corn. That's the one I just – it's never been a big – I feel like it's more of an American thing than a Canadian thing. But even when I have had it, I'm like, I don't get this. What's what's the appeal?
01:29:32
Speaker
even Even Americans largely don't like it. It's –
01:29:37
Speaker
It's one of those antiquated things. I think it gets a bad rap, honestly. It's just sugar. Like bureaucracy in your country? Hey-o. Oh, boy. Nailed us.
Closing and Social Media Information
01:29:47
Speaker
i I think that's where we've got to wrap it up. ah ah Connor, Jabola, thank you so much for coming on the show.
01:29:54
Speaker
Before we let you go, um both of you, please let our listeners know where they can follow you and where they can find you and your work. um Sure. um for the well First of all, thank you so much for having us. This was actually a really fun conversation.
01:30:12
Speaker
um and I loved all the questions, even though I could answer half of them. um ah You can find us on, for the graphic novel, fellagraphicnovel.com.
01:30:25
Speaker
And I'm pretty active on Instagram, so jibolastudios. And my website also jibolastudios.com. ah Yeah. And then for me, I mean, probably the most places would also be Instagram, the real Connor.
01:30:39
Speaker
Also I'm on a blue sky and Twitter, both of those under Connor McCreary. And ah you can still find some stuff on me from our, from my old kill Shakespeare website, which is just kill Shakespeare.com.
01:30:53
Speaker
All right. Our guests have been Connor McCreary and Jabalafak Bamiye. Guys. Thank you so much. i I'm very excited about this book, and ah i had a great time talking to you.
01:31:06
Speaker
Yeah, us too. Thanks so much. Thank you.
01:31:11
Speaker
Thanks once again to Connor and Jabola for joining us for the show. That is an incredibly impressive graphic novel that is well worth checking out. Agreed.
01:31:22
Speaker
And beautiful to boot. That's it. Yeah, that's it. If you would like to get in touch with us, folks, you can do it at our email address, which is warrocketpodcast at gmail.com. You can also get in touch with us on Tumblr.
01:31:36
Speaker
We're there at warrocketpodcast.tumblr.com. We're on bluesky, warrocketajax.com there. Or you can join our Discord. Ask us for an invitation to the Discord, and we will get you one, and you can join over there and become part of that community, which is a very exciting.
01:31:53
Speaker
Good community of great people over there on our Discord. Our website is warrocketajax.com. It has every episode of the show that we've ever done.
01:32:05
Speaker
warrocketwiki.com is the fan-run repository of all the information you could want or need about this show. War Rocket Ajax. want to find me and my stuff, go to mattdwilson.net to find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias.
01:32:19
Speaker
Chris, where can people find you? Everybody can find me by going to the-isb.com. That is my website. It's got links and stuff. It's all there.
01:32:30
Speaker
It's all there. It's all there.
Upcoming Halloween Special Announcement
01:32:35
Speaker
It's all We'll be back next week with our annual Halloween special. It's sure to be ah spooky scary time. And probably will be fun.
01:32:50
Speaker
I think so. i i I hope so. but may I think we will try our very best to make it fun. Matt, this but this Benito Serino guy. I don't know about him.
01:33:03
Speaker
I know you like him. I know you like him because you do that show about haunted dolls. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know which way this guy's going to jump.
01:33:15
Speaker
We're going to get the blood or we're going to get the thunder? That's what I'm always asking with this guy. Are we going to get the Hector or are we going to get the Plasm? Oh man, I hope we get the Plasm. That is it, everybody. Have a great week.
01:33:26
Speaker
Join us for our Halloween spooky, scary celebrations. And until then, do not forget that Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights.
01:33:39
Speaker
Drag is not a crime. And cops aren't your friends. Free Palestine, we love you. We love you. Yeah! It's every one It's for every