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00:00:01
Greg Petre and Graham Smith
210 Plays4 years ago
If you got your sweet hands on a copy of 'Santos Sisters' I know that you want to know where such a wonderful piece of art (a comic for 'Generation X') came from.
I got the answer. Artists Greg Petre and Graham Smith join the show to chat about comics, art, philosophy, Taylor Swift, proclivities and predilections.
They describe that "One day while combing the beach, the Santos Sisters discovered a pair of beautiful medallions. What happened next changed their lives, forever. Follow Ambar and Alana, the Santos Sisters, as they balance spicy superheroics with the drama of their everyday lives in this GIANT SIZED extravaganza offset printed on decadent newsprint.."
Please support independent funny books!!!
https://www.santossisters.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Guests
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Ken Delante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
00:00:18
Speaker
This is Ken Volante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast and have a great episode here with Greg Petri and Graham Smith, creative talent behind Santos Sisters, a hot comic book you hopefully can find at your independent bookseller. But we're going to be getting into that comic and getting into the minds. But first,
00:00:43
Speaker
uh greg and graham welcome to something rather than nothing thank you for having us yeah thanks ken yeah it's a great it's a it's a great pleasure and i know um
00:00:57
Speaker
We were talking before we popped on.
Artistic Origins and Inspirations
00:01:01
Speaker
Something rather than nothing we get into comics. Sometimes I'm a huge comics fan and really want to get into your creative work. But I want to ask one of the big questions we ask on this show. A little bit of an intro of an origin question. And we'll start with you, Graham. Were you an artist when you were born?
00:01:26
Speaker
Yeah, probably. I think so. I mean, no, I guess because I think that there's like the vocation aspect. But then there's also like the intention aspect. And I don't think like, I guess, you know, I probably had the vocation from an early age, even if I didn't know it, but I did without the intention or even you know, the knowledge of the Academy and all that stuff. So I'll say no. But basically, yeah.
00:01:51
Speaker
No, but basically, yeah. Right. Yeah. Hey, hey, hey, Greg. So you're, you, you pop on to the earth and, uh, you got this, uh, artistic instinct. Are you an artist when you're born? Uh, geez. And I don't know, really, I guess your parents kind of tell you, you had a proclivity for it. I, I know I like drawing like, uh,
00:02:19
Speaker
I mean, every kid loves drawing when they're, when they're little, but I kept liking it and I kept doing it. So I don't know. That's good enough to keep going, right? I suppose I had a proclivity for it, but a proclivity. Yeah. Proclivity. Yeah. Talking about proclivities and predilections. Um,
00:02:47
Speaker
Well, let's talk about comic books and creativity.
Creation of Santos Sisters Comic Book
00:02:53
Speaker
Let's talk about comic books specifically. You put out an independent comic book here and it's a deep labor of love getting it out there, putting the pieces together. Greg, starting with you as far as the Santos Sisters comic book. Yeah.
00:03:17
Speaker
What brings you towards that? What influences you to make to go out there and say, let's get this comic book out into the world. What happens there? Oh. Yeah, that's a good question, I guess, just to see if we could do it. I mean, we've been we've been trying to make comics for for a good 10, 10 years now, but. Longer than that, Craig. Yeah. Yeah, you think. Yeah, I guess probably right.
00:03:48
Speaker
I was in my apartment in 2009, 2008, at least. And that was part of the game plan then. So, but yeah, like more, I guess, when it gets down to the nuts and bolts. Oh, yeah. I guess when it's over 10 years, I just say 10 years.
00:04:09
Speaker
that's it
00:04:20
Speaker
it's also different because like now you've succeeded right so like if you had been if you were still trying to successfully produce publish and get distributed an independent comic book and it had been 20 years it would be kind of weird to be like oh yeah we've been working on it for like 10 years or something because like the people in your life would know like dude it's been longer than that but i do
00:04:44
Speaker
As you've succeeded, it's fair to be like, yeah, we were trying for like, I don't know, 10 years or something, but hey, who cares how
Artistic Style and Influences
00:04:51
Speaker
long it was? We did it. Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, that's true. And like, I guess I will ask this, I should totally know this, and I do. So I'm just asking this question for the sake of the audience. What was the genesis of the two Santos sisters as like the leads in a comic book?
00:05:14
Speaker
Well, we had that Madame Sosostris figure, which is based off of, I mean, we get the character from you somehow. That's right. I made it up. I created something. I started from T.S. Eliot, but you know what? By God, I shall still take credit for it. Right, right. And we kind of take your ideas and just
00:05:39
Speaker
And just well, I have the uh, I have the You know the the lead-in the the lead-in that you have uh into is that one day while combing the beach The santo sisters discovered a pair of beautiful medallions What happened next? Changed their lives forever. Yeah, and then um
00:06:01
Speaker
You quickly go into the hotter the lobster or lobster from the East Coast, the sweeter the juice. Right, right, right, right. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we just go into it.
00:06:20
Speaker
I mean, so yeah, I guess it's, I think that part of what works so well for it is that like, you feel as though you're in this fully formed universe and you're kind of joining it in medias race or whatever, but it doesn't feel
00:06:39
Speaker
exclusive at all so it's like this uncanny but inclusive and obviously there are touch points things that it feels similar to. I remember when I saw the review comparing the art style to I didn't even know the guy who did the Archie books. I didn't realize that was a style. I saw a comparison to that. I was like
00:07:03
Speaker
that's kind of like rude like and then I went and like looked at some of that I was like oh okay I guess I can so there's like that there's that connection it's obviously a compliment too but like it is that mix of like you know kind of what you're looking at you kind of feel like you have its number and then like and you're comfortable enough proceeding but you realize it's not quite what it seems right is that inaccurate that sounds about right sure yeah
00:07:32
Speaker
You jump right in, you get the idea that there's like a backstory and stuff. There may or may not be, but you don't really need that to tell a story. You can just kind of go into it.
00:07:46
Speaker
so tell tell us about now i talk about like the the comic getting into the world right so like i was uh...
Challenges in Comic Distribution
00:07:53
Speaker
i ran into a floating world comics you know what we're talking about like i don't maybe likes cities and places that have uh... you know your independent comic book stores comic book culture which would certainly be the case and place like chicago and uh... out here in uh... portland oregon and you know all the metropolitan areas so uh...
00:08:14
Speaker
You know, you look into place this 56-page issue and get it around the country, but could you take us a little bit more into the second printing of this issue and getting it distributed and just trying to crack at it as an independent maker? There's an independent podcast. You do an independent book.
00:08:39
Speaker
What's going on to get your thing, to get your art, the thing that you created, to get it in my hands? I'm in Albany, Oregon. I got it in my hands from Portland. How do you get that done? Mark would be a good one to answer that one. He's not here, unfortunately. Yeah, Mark did a lot of the legwork getting them into your hands, I'd say.
00:09:07
Speaker
I think he already knew the fellow over at Floating World Comics. We did this other comic book, Bee of Gems. So he's been chopping that around. He's kind of developed a whole list of contacts. And yeah, I don't know. A few people with a sphere of influence have gotten their hands on it. And it's pretty much been word of mouth
00:09:39
Speaker
I mean there yeah, I'm It's a good product. It's like a we did a lot of work getting getting Getting it printed and stuff making it look nice. I think that's half the battle Yeah, what about what about
00:10:00
Speaker
comic books or funny books themselves, right? Because this feels like in the good old Like that offhand reference, you know funny books or old comic books there's always been this like hustle like in weird history with comics about You know around art or like their validity or popular culture and I think over time what you've seen is like
00:10:26
Speaker
You know, like looking at the incredible work that you do as creators, penciling the colorist, the ideas that go into comics that make them like, that make them pop. So I wanted to ask the art question, however you want to, however you want to answer it.
Comics and Art in Culture
00:10:44
Speaker
But the question is comics, comic books as art.
00:10:51
Speaker
And what is art? What is art? Graham, you want to start? Well, Greg, why don't you? Because my answer is going to be long and pretentious as hell. And it's going to be good. So Greg, I'm curious to hear what you say first. Well, yeah, as far as comics, they can. Let's see. I think comics is more heavy on the craft side.
00:11:21
Speaker
as if you compare it to something like oil painting. But even oil painting, I think craft gets left out of the equation a lot of the times. Because there is art, and that covers poetry and film and everything too. But those things all take craft too. And I mean like a set of rules that have been established over time, like what works and what doesn't work.
00:11:51
Speaker
And a good artist can play with those rules, go outside the rules, but stay within the rules. Sometimes you have artists that are very artistic, artsy. I don't have the vocabulary for it. But then you have ones that have a good craft work.
00:12:21
Speaker
And sometimes you'll have someone that's really heavy on the art side, but the craft isn't that good? I don't know. I don't know if I'd be insulting Jackson Pollock, for instance. There's not much craft work, but the way that he moves the stuff around is really artistic, and you can feel it and all that. And then you can have someone that's really good at the craft aspect.
00:12:50
Speaker
Like, what's his name? Hopper, you know? Because paintings aren't very artistic. But they're, I guess, no, those kind of are because they got like a real mood about them. But you know what I'm saying? There's like, yeah, like, it can be like very technically. You got to have the technical and the ethereal. Is that the right word? So I'm going to build off your answer a little bit, because
00:13:19
Speaker
I hadn't really thought of it this way, but this kind of makes sense in my grand unified theory. I am kind of a perennial comics outsider, I guess. I grew up reading comic books. I still love them, but it's not one of the things that I've chosen to put a bunch of my time into, like reading and paying attention to it, right?
00:13:41
Speaker
for why I think comics. And I kind of connect it with pop music, but I'll make a distinction for why I think it's better. Like, you know, art is leaving the word art aside, right? Like a creative expression that is designed for appreciation and interpretation by a community, right? So let's say that that's how I define art. And like comic books,
00:14:11
Speaker
To Greg's point about how you have these rules, right? I've never seen a completely abstract comic book that also tries to tell a narrative, right? That wouldn't really fly. And in the art world, knowing, like Jackson Pollock did, when a novel idea
00:14:32
Speaker
is not only novel, but also will connect with a, you know, with the existing community and with a larger segment of the community like that is what I think of as the artistic side of it. And honestly, like in fine art, like, particularly I haven't been to galleries in a couple years now, but like,
00:14:52
Speaker
I used to go to galleries a lot, and there was a trend of what I could think of as just bad figurative painting. And it was obvious that successful professional painters were like, the new movement was like, let's just make paintings that look like bad paintings, like bad college paintings, right? But knowing when that shift is possible to make and making it, that's the artistic side. Craft in the fine arts, I don't know.
00:15:20
Speaker
You know, Jeff Koons gets maligned. I'm not crazy about Koons. Again, I grew up loving Jeff Koons in the 90s for some reason. I remember being like, why can't I find a book with a bunch of pictures of Jeff Koons' artwork? And like, I got my wish, right?
00:15:35
Speaker
like his craft is amazing but he doesn't do any of it because he realized early on like I need to hire people whose entire job is to like build molds to like create gigantic metal things that look like mylar balloons right like is that
00:15:52
Speaker
And a lot of people think the fact that he doesn't do the craft, like, matters somehow. That doesn't matter. Go and look at his stupid sculptures. Either you like them with, you know, not knowing any of the facts or, like, his smug, stupid face. Either you like it or you don't. The problem with fine art is that, like, it... it both doesn't allow that cult of personality aspect, and it also, like, kind of...
00:16:20
Speaker
absolutely is dependent on that, right? Like Gerhard Richter, like, I'm sorry, his work is just not, none of it is that good as far as I'm concerned. It's all fine, it's all art, whatever. Like, there's no reason, the fact that like he has this like persona that like, no, but like people who know who Gerhard Richter is, they don't actually know anything about him. He's not a celebrity like Drake or something, right? But like that's responsible for making, you know, transmuting his paintings into gold, right?
00:16:51
Speaker
So to bring it back to comic books, there are these sets of rules and you work within them, but also like you're, you're not really battered by them because a lot of what you're trying to do is kind of show off your technical skills for a community of people who are, you know, predisposed. Uh, what did you call it? Uh, I forget the, the pre-word and proclivities.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah. So, you know, you're showing off your skills to a community of people who is not, you know, they want you to show off your skills too. They want to have fun. They want to like get out of their own head, right? They want to get into a different world.
Art's Role During the Pandemic
00:17:33
Speaker
The way that the two sides feed off each other is actually pretty healthy. You think about nobody is suing people for dressing up. I mean, I'm sure Disney will sooner or later, but people aren't suing people for dressing up like they're characters at comic-cons. If you tried to sell a fake Gerhard Richter painting or something at an art fair, that's not going to go well. People tend to think that
00:18:01
Speaker
the best art is not populist, right? Or for lack of a better word. To me, it always is. Pop music, like people have, I'm a musician primarily, right? A pop musician.
00:18:14
Speaker
People have more intense, passionate connections with their favorite pop songs than they do with any book they've ever read, much less any painting or any immersive art installation. And comic books are an even better form of that because it is ultimately collaborative between the creators and the audience. And it's kind of a symbiosis or a dialogue. I don't know.
00:18:41
Speaker
I've already, I can see I've just like completely maxed out the bars here down at the bottom, but I'm happy with that answer. Hey.
00:18:49
Speaker
Hey, Graham, you were making an abstract piece of art with the sound waves down there. Exactly. So it was just a manifestation of what the theory was that you were talking about there. So it was all appreciated. No, I mean, seriously, it's really cool to talk about these things. And I have these conversations about music. I talk to my son about like,
00:19:19
Speaker
Like, you know, my kids are really into music. I'm like really into music. And I think you're right. I think sometimes when we get into the art conversation, like,
Pop Music and Artistic Influence
00:19:31
Speaker
Like we're not supposed to talk about pop music or when we're around our serious like music friends, like we're not supposed to say certain names and we all get like influenced by that. And I think, you know, I always thought comics were like kind of like this, always like this outsider stream, right? Like, you know, you could always do it. And somebody's like the comic book guy on like The Simpsons or like, there's a weird little thing about
00:20:00
Speaker
people who are into comics but it's like it's the comfort in enjoying that type of stuff and I think that's where the fun is in the Santos sisters and in pop music and and just like drop you into a scene there's funny-ass dialogue weird shits going on these superpowers don't have like a super strong basis in the cosmology but all of it's happening so
00:20:27
Speaker
for sure funny feels good it feels it feels good and I'm most of this is just to say as I explain this the way is that I'm a huge Swiftie and Taylor Swiftie and I'm always trying to rationalize and embed my Adoration of Taylor in a philosophical basis to take on all comers. Well, can I can I put a question to you? I couldn't talk about on Twitter. I mean, I guess I don't know
00:20:57
Speaker
As a Swifty, I want to know what is your position on the Damon Albarn stuff? This is going to be the lamest thing I could possibly answer.
00:21:14
Speaker
but I just encountered it just very recently and I haven't even like delved into like I thought the art questions around there of uh you know like co-authorship and authorship and like
00:21:30
Speaker
Um, making assumptions about creativity. I was like, whoa, like what's being, what's being, uh, said what's being said here. So like, when I read that, I was like, man, like the, so what I'm referring to of course is like questions and accusations of like authorship.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah, in how things are created. Let me ask you, Graham, like, is that like the frame of it in? Yeah, to me, that's so I kind of eventually came around to realize like, it is shitty for him to say that. Because what did he say? What did he say?
00:22:06
Speaker
So he basically said, he was misquoted by the Guardian or somebody as saying, yeah, Taylor Swift doesn't write her songs. I was, you know, upset to learn that. And that's not the quote that he actually said. But I think the whole story is like,
00:22:23
Speaker
She does write songs. She is absolutely a songwriter. She also is a business and I believe solicits outside like some sort of like demos that then maybe she rewrites or whatever. So like for me as a person who like takes my songwriting really seriously
00:22:42
Speaker
like I at first was like wait he's like he's telling the truth she does work with the team but ultimately it's a very misogynist thing to put out there and like there's no reason that he should he should have been more careful to say to not say what he said they shouldn't have misquoted him
00:22:58
Speaker
and her calling about was all right. But it is weird, right? Like, authors, like, everybody should know that, like, there aren't any, like, Bob Dylan, Kat Stevens, like, people who, like, have 100% final control over the way their songs sound. Like, I don't believe that that exists anywhere anymore. So, like, when I first read it, I was like, oh, cool, Damon Albarn wants to talk about that aspect.
00:23:23
Speaker
So that was kind of my take on it, because it's a machine, right? It's big business. It's not for nothing that she's methodically rerecording all of her old albums instead of writing new songs, right? There's big money in this stuff.
00:23:38
Speaker
Absolutely. Hey, Greg, you're hanging in there with the with the Swifty Banter. We got this as a timely podcast, making sure we engage all all issues big and small. And just we're just checking on you over there, Greg. You're hanging in. OK. Oh, yeah, no problem.
00:23:56
Speaker
Greg, do you think that eventually Taylor Swift could sing a song that I wrote? Because I've often thought about that. Maybe I should just sell songs to Taylor Swift since my songs are so difficult for people to deal with. I don't think I could do it, but what do you think?
00:24:13
Speaker
We're one step closer to having Taylor on this podcast. It's always been the eventual goal of the podcast, which I've said, you know, a couple of times out loud. So, yes, we could see it. But from Taylor Swift to the Santos sisters in two comics,
00:24:39
Speaker
Greg, in putting together the art and putting together what this world looks like in the comics,
00:24:55
Speaker
It's fun and it's comfortable. I know there's like the Archie's reference and I saw that in the Quimby's quote and that feel. In creating this, in putting this together, are you trying to evoke something specific? Where's this world come from? Or is it just haphazard and happenstance? Well, I'd say what...
00:25:25
Speaker
If we start with the Archie similarities, really what we're trying to do is just get the process down as efficient and clean as we can. And that style of comic, Archie, a lot of the old more cartoony books, Richie Rich or some of the Disney golden key books and stuff like that.
00:25:56
Speaker
It's all structured very soundly. If he can get a working structure in place, you know what you're doing every step along the way. So the characters, they're all kind of by the book. You draw the little circles and make those stick figures.
00:26:22
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you also have like the universe there, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's what I kind of contributed to in some small way is like imagining what are all of the nooks and crannies of the world. Right. As long as you kind of know that that stuff's there, then you can fill in stuff at a moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's a good point. You kind of build up the universe. You make characters and you kind of build a pool of characters to draw from. So in the early stages, it's all character design.
00:26:50
Speaker
and stuff like that, hammering out costumes, how the person's face looks. Because you want to be able to draw the same person from panel to panel. So you have to work out the structure of their face and other clothes look and stuff like that.
00:27:07
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Hey, I wanted to ask, I wanted to ask you both an art question, but it's just like, what's art supposed
Art and Connection in Pandemic Times
00:27:18
Speaker
to do? I mean, the question I ask is, what's the role of art? So like, I've asked this at different times and amongst different artists, and it's like,
00:27:29
Speaker
What's art supposed to be doing right now? And is it any different during our like pandemic times? Is it more important? So what's the role of art? You want to go Greg? I got a couple thoughts. I'll try, I'll try to be able to, you know, keep it under control a little bit. I think that there's both. So in the pandemic times,
00:27:55
Speaker
interesting there's not as much art coming out and I don't know if that's because artists like there's still art coming out but a lot of it is commercialized right so like commercial art is supposed to make money I there is non-commercial art I think and what non-commercial art is supposed to do and honestly what commercial art is supposed to do too hopefully is make you think make you learn more and make you
00:28:25
Speaker
a better person like i said to me it's like it like and feel stuff i guess but i don't know i'm you know autistic or whatever so it's like feeling and thinking like i'll feel stuff but it's not really real until i turn it into thoughts so you can add feel in there too but i think that
00:28:43
Speaker
You know, the connection aspect as a musician, it's interesting because it's very much a push model, right? Like you just kind of put songs out there and then you get adulation, but there's not, it's not an iterative process. I've written a ton of songs and like, I wish I had more listeners, but like, you don't really get that much feedback. I feel like comics is better at that to the point earlier of art being, you know, so like the artists,
00:29:10
Speaker
Art, for me, making art exist to make me feel better. I'm going to do it no matter what. But for people, you know, then there's the other level of like, what, you know, what are people going to get out of the art that you create? So feel something, think, learn, become better people. Comic books are probably more effective at that than music or much less like fine art, academic painting, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And well,
00:29:38
Speaker
Thank you for your mentions of music. My son and I are going to do a small project that I've never done before. I grabbed the Zoom mic to be able to record. He's a musician. He could play electric guitar and bass and drums. I learned so much about music from him, but we're going to try to record a little something just like ad-hoc. Never done that before.
00:30:07
Speaker
little art project that I'm taking time to do over the next couple days so I actually just really dig talking about music you know we're talking about all art here and it's um uh really really exciting to me uh hey Greg just you know I mean what's what's art supposed to do it's supposed to make us laugh uh supposed to make us escape or what's the role of art well I suppose it has lots of different roles those things you mentioned
00:30:37
Speaker
escaping and making you laugh and inspiring. Just telling a story, specifically with comics, I think that that's exactly where it is. It's just telling a story. And in the comics case, it kind of sort of takes a backseat to the story. There are comic books that
00:31:08
Speaker
The art will be the main focus. I know for me, I've never really read a lot of comics. I've got a handful that I really like, but for the most part, it's just flipping through the art for me. But it's important to tell a story.
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah, I found as I've talked to a lot of artists of different sorts or even like the doing the philosophy podcast is, you know, it drops back down to stories, you know, we use that term a lot. And I think but I think it's I think it's true, like the narrative, a way of telling something or telling about the experience. Yeah. And you know, I like you shouldn't be shouldn't notice the art that much, you know, you should just be immersed in it.
00:32:01
Speaker
You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, I don't know, I won't go off on a rant here, but I think immersion can be overrated. Like I think part of what, for me, what is so beneficial about, I'm thinking about video games, but also like experiencing art is
00:32:22
Speaker
placing it within the context of the other stuff that you know and think about. So on some level, yeah, if you're just trying to escape, then immersion is great. But you hopefully don't want to escape all the time. So I don't know. Now that I think about that, it's not just the immersion. You want something, at least for me. I like the pictures. I like fun pictures to look at. Yeah.
00:32:52
Speaker
yeah it's funny you mentioned that about that like i read comic books back when i would buy and consume comic books but like i never really read them because the stories were i mean that's the comics i were reading i was reading the stories weren't great i guess and the art was really good and that's what i looked for
00:33:09
Speaker
I don't know. I've been thinking about Lobo a lot recently. I feel like I need to go back and read Lobo because I have like the most intense personal connection to that comic book. And I have a feeling I would still think it's really funny. I was like in seventh grade. It's not like I was like four years old or something. Love and Lobo. All right. Yeah. All right. Flashbacks to Lobo. Yeah. Devil Devil make here. I'm going to go about it my own way. Lobo period.
00:33:39
Speaker
For context listeners, I'm going through the complex process of just not giving a shit about Marvel at all, and I guess embracing the fact that maybe I kind of like DC. So that's like, I won't bore you with further details, but that's the context there. I do love Lobo. That's where it started.
00:33:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a rare one where as far as the major publishers, I grew up Marvel, but I've been like almost, I buy DC for the past decade or so, and a lot of indies. But most people I talk to with comics would be like, I grew up this way and that's my universe. Yeah, right, right. It's kind of like the Nintendo versus Sega Genesis argument. Nintendo where you were Sega Genesis.
00:34:27
Speaker
Yeah, Nintendo. Yeah, right. But then you go to Tokyo in the summer of 1999 and get to bring home a Dreamcast before it's for sale in the US and all of a sudden your Nintendo allegiance is a little shaky. Oh, very shaky. Very, very shaky. Rock to its foundation after that type of event.
00:34:52
Speaker
Hey, we're going to reach for the stars with this question. I might have another absurd question or two, but reaching for the stars, the something rather than nothing question.
Philosophical Reflections: Why Something Rather Than Nothing?
00:35:07
Speaker
So I've asked it two ways, and you can answer it either way. Why is there something rather nothing? Or how?
00:35:20
Speaker
Is there something rather than nothing? I don't know who's going first. You're both chomping at the bit. Not people can't see the video, but they're both like two race horses right up. Yeah. I really can't answer that. I can't, I can't, I can't begin to know and I'm fine with that.
00:35:43
Speaker
Greg is humble. He was ready. I thought he was right on the gates. He was just wanting to get his math. Maybe on another day. Greg's just grateful there is something, right? And that's a good way to be. I started reading this philosophy book
00:36:00
Speaker
that I read about I guess I was reading Nietzsche's Wikipedia page and I came across this book by a person named African Spear and obviously I thought that was a cool name to have first of all but I read a lot of people were very into this book called Thoughts and Reality and I only got through like the first 40 pages I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it but it's like you can't get it on Kindle so it's like you have to scroll through a Google Doc whatever
00:36:23
Speaker
I believe that, like, what I took from the first part of that is, like, we're always trying to recreate something, right? So I guess it's like the chicken and the egg question, like, how could that work? Like, you have to, but, like, I, I, the way that I read it, I'm obviously biased, you know, trying to get my own agenda, is, like,
00:36:43
Speaker
we're trying to capture something that like sticks with us and means something to us. And so we're kind of trying to recreate that somehow because we think it's valuable to other people. I guess that connects to my other answer that you're trying to give people more information and feeling so that they can, you know, do what they need to do to become better. So that's why there's something because we can all be better.
00:37:13
Speaker
the the
00:37:28
Speaker
As we get into these profound things, now, the basis for the conversation was my love of the Santos Sisters comments. So as we reach for the stars, we also know that there are chapters in the Santos Sisters such as, out of gas, kiss my dolphin ass, right?
00:37:50
Speaker
And such vignettes of, how do I set up a tent? So, you know, we're going to get to cover it all.
00:38:03
Speaker
And so everybody, the Santos Sisters, American Nature, Independent Comics, Greg and Fake, we're all talking to Graham Smith as part of the creative team, Greg Petri.
Where to Find Santos Sisters and Music Projects
00:38:21
Speaker
putting together this fine comic. What I wanted to ask you both is just the open-ended thing to make sure our listeners can connect with this cool art that I like that you've done.
00:38:38
Speaker
And whether, Graham, it's like music, whether it's the the comics and stuff. Could you could you let us know kind of like how folks can come in contact with what you create, where to get a copy to Santos Sisters, maybe places to look however you want to, like, lead the listeners to what you create both of you. Greg, spit out some URLs. I know Greg and thank that blogspot.com is a good source. That's a good one. Yeah.
00:39:08
Speaker
You can find the comic through there. It's a bunch of shops all over. It'll be in stores. It's in some stores right now. But like us, I don't know if I said it earlier, but we have distributors now. So your local shop may have ordered some if you didn't ask them to already. But you can definitely look
00:39:38
Speaker
Look up Greg and fake and you know, just. And I saw Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine and in the Chicago area as well. Quimby's bookstore where actually, folks, the first issue of something rather than nothing, zine.
00:40:02
Speaker
will eventually arrive on the shelves of Quimby's that I happened upon for the first time in my life when I visited Chicago a few months ago, when bookstores change your life. Love that event running into Quimby's. Graham, some added things as far as information, where to find your art, find the Santos sisters, music, et cetera.
00:40:28
Speaker
that
00:40:51
Speaker
For me, KGW.me.me, it's the Montenegro TLD. KGW.me is my main band, Kleenex Girl Wonder. 28 years young, the band is. I wish I were. I guess if I was, then I would have been an artist when I was born.
00:41:10
Speaker
H-E-A-V dot I-N, Heaven, but with an I. H-E-A-V dot I-N, that is Gates of Heaven, another band. I guess RE3P, R-E-E, 3P, thatbandcap.com, that has a bunch of other stuff.
00:41:27
Speaker
Then there's art at ogfine.art, u-g-h-f-i-n-e dot a-r-t. And that's, I mean, then Twitter, Graham Smith on Twitter, you know, my life is art, you know, put me in a gallery.
00:41:41
Speaker
Yeah, man. That's great. No, thanks. Thanks for all that, too. And folks, we'll have that in the all the links in the show notes. And I think what I'd like to say, too, is, you know, thanks for the creative team here and then the popping on to the
00:42:01
Speaker
the podcast and bouncing around and talking philosophy and comics and Taylor Swift and music and creativity.
Conclusion and Thanks
00:42:12
Speaker
I really appreciate what you're doing and everybody, you know, for the comics and just asking listeners to support, you know, the independence, an independent podcast, independent
00:42:26
Speaker
comics and creators and musicians. If you could, spend that extra minute or two and check out a lot of the great things that you're doing.
00:42:39
Speaker
Greg and Graham I just really want to thank you both for spending the time for creating the art that you do and for popping on to zany philosophy program something rather than nothing Just really want to thank thank thank both of you. Yeah, this was great. Thanks so much for having us Yeah much much much appreciated and
00:43:08
Speaker
Keep creating and have a great day, both of you. Yeah, you too. You too. Thanks. This is something rather than nothing.