World Building with Sebastian A. Jones

[00:00:30] Hi everybody, welcome to the SyFy Sistas Podcast where we give you our point of view. I'm your host, Tamea Harper. Today I'm joined by my sisters, Yvette Blackman-Tom.

[00:00:40] Hello.

[00:00:41] And Sabrina Wood.

[00:00:44] Whoop whoop. I'm here, coming live from a party y'all, so please forgive me, I'm going back on whoop whoop moop.

[00:00:53] This child is going to be muted the whole time, if she can stay on, that is. It's Congressional Black Caucus Week, and we are so excited because we've got a really cool person here with us as a guest.

[00:01:09] If you guys know Stranger Comics, then you know this man. He's the founder of Stranger Comics and the creator of the world of Asunda. Did I say it?

[00:01:19] Yeah, I love it, yeah.

[00:01:20] Yeah, you gave an accent to it, it's perfect.

[00:01:22] You gotta have an accent to it, right? You know?

[00:01:25] He's none other than Sebastain A. Jones. Welcome to the show, brother.

[00:01:30] Thank you so much, Jay. Thanks to my SyFy Sistas. Woo-hoo!

[00:01:34] You know, hanging out on a Friday night with some lovely ladies, I mean, what could go wrong?

[00:01:38] You know, I appreciate you guys having me, you know, on this lovely evening, and I'm just super, super honored to be here. Thank you so much.

[00:01:46] We are really excited to have you here. So Yvette dragged you to us. Like, Yvette came back from Comic-Con and was like, look! Look who I met! And look what they're doing! And we were all like, ooh!

[00:02:00] Ooh!

[00:02:02] Right?

[00:02:05] And ever since then, it's been a mission to have you on the show.

[00:02:09] Yeah.

[00:02:10] Because the little bit that she was able to tell, first of all, Yvette, like, your enthusiasm about the work that is being produced by Sebastian and Stranger Comics was just huge, right?

[00:02:23] Yeah.

[00:02:23] Like, through the roof. Like, so it was totally infectious. And then she made the video. I mean, she showed us the video and made the video, and we were like, oh my God, we've got to meet this man.

[00:02:32] And the work is just amazing. So first of all, like, you're amazing. Like, we're going to get to Osunda and Niobe and stuff, but let's start with you. Right.

[00:02:45] Okay.

[00:02:46] Because they all, you're the source material, right? So can you tell us a little bit about who Sebastian is?

[00:02:56] Wow, who I am. Goodness gracious. Thank you. I appreciate that. Usually it's like, tell me about Niobe. Who is she?

[00:03:02] Who am I? I'm a mixed chap that grew up in England, and I moved to America over 30 years ago now when I was 18.

[00:03:15] And things that moved me, if you were to look at a dating profile, I guess, I would be, I like John Coltrane, and I like Sips of Tea, and Spaghetti Westerns, and Akira Kurosawa.

[00:03:32] Oh my God.

[00:03:34] Sabrina's losing her mind. She was like, yes.

[00:03:36] I'm like, I'm sorry. Is there a way that you can date, like, three people at one time?

[00:03:40] At one time?

[00:03:41] Oh, yeah.

[00:03:42] You definitely said three things. You're all like, what?

[00:03:45] Because the sci-fi sisters are going to be scrapping over you pretty soon.

[00:03:49] Okay, perfect.

[00:03:50] I'm so mad. I am on mute. Oh my God. Okay, bye.

[00:03:56] And my love language is people fighting over me.

[00:03:59] There you go.

[00:04:01] There you go.

[00:04:02] Match made in heaven.

[00:04:03] Right.

[00:04:04] And preferably all at the same time, and I'm there, and, you know, and I'm reading you books as well.

[00:04:11] I love it.

[00:04:12] This is going to go very, very, you know, Friday night.

[00:04:15] I love it.

[00:04:16] Off the rails.

[00:04:17] That's usually how it works here.

[00:04:19] Okay, good, good. I love that.

[00:04:21] Other stuff that I love, I would say, who am I? Nina Simone, Tribal Quest, boy, early Scorsese, Spike Lee, Fela.

[00:04:41] I'm just...

[00:04:42] Stop! Okay.

[00:04:43] Jesus Christ.

[00:04:44] Okay, so the name of the subtitle of this show is going to be Ménage à Trois.

[00:04:47] Because we're not going to be able to, you know, like physically split you apart.

[00:04:56] Perfect, perfect.

[00:04:58] Yeah, we don't need to talk about comic books.

[00:05:00] Yeah.

[00:05:01] So I think what was interesting is when I grew up, you know, in kind of those formative kind of times when I was a teenager in England,

[00:05:11] I grew up in a predominantly kind of white neighborhood and being someone mixed in those times got into a lot of, you know, you kind of know who you are quickly.

[00:05:21] Quickly.

[00:05:22] Quickly, yeah.

[00:05:22] And at times violently.

[00:05:24] And I was, I think, creating worlds and creating these concepts of worlds.

[00:05:31] You know, I played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons and escapism into Lord of the Rings.

[00:05:36] And at the same time, discovering James Brown's set, Light on Black and I'm Proud.

[00:05:42] So all these things kind of hit me all at the same time.

[00:05:47] And I think I romanticized about a world or, and I romanticized about a character, you know, being a young boy who could take on my vulnerabilities and my fears, but also my wrath and my anger.

[00:06:05] And I placed them on her wing shoulders and that was Niobe.

[00:06:09] And as I grew, she grew with me.

[00:06:11] And the world I was creating around her started to grow.

[00:06:15] And the world that was forming around me, you know, I opened my eyes and moved to America at 18.

[00:06:24] And my mom's best friend was married to a movie star called Cary Grant.

[00:06:30] You probably remember him.

[00:06:31] Yeah.

[00:06:32] Yeah.

[00:06:32] Just a little bit.

[00:06:33] Just a little bit.

[00:06:35] And so when I was young and I would visit, it would, I would see, you know, he was very much a recluse, lovely, lovely, lovely man.

[00:06:44] And would always say things to me as a young boy, like, one day you're going to grow up, you'll be very good looking, but that doesn't mean anything.

[00:06:51] And what's, what's the substance of, what's your substance of character in this, this, this?

[00:06:56] And I was thinking like, what?

[00:06:58] I just want to go and play video games.

[00:06:59] What are you talking about?

[00:07:00] Yeah.

[00:07:00] But, but, but then when I moved, I moved to America when I was 18 by myself and he had passed away by then.

[00:07:09] And I was in the early days, um, spending most of my time in Los Angeles in an area called, uh, Leimert Park in Crenshaw, where, um, most of my friends were.

[00:07:22] And it was kind of, it's kind of like LA's cultural black mecca.

[00:07:26] And so, you know, you would have done, so the, you know, before the black IPs were signed that, you know, you'd see them, you would see, it was the early underground scene of the, um, the LA freestyle scene with this place called Project Bloat, uh, Juju.

[00:07:43] Um, and that was kind of really, um, and that was kind of really, as a young 18 year old, um, coming from an area in England and then spending a lot of time in London, um, being a, being a, I was a dancer.

[00:07:59] Um, and, um, yeah, just, it was very, all these kinds of different cultures and influences and inspirations kind of all collide at the same time.

[00:08:08] And I used to do a bit of acting and modeling when I was young and pretty.

[00:08:13] And then, um, still pretty.

[00:08:15] Thank you.

[00:08:16] I appreciate that.

[00:08:17] I think he was waiting for that.

[00:08:19] That was right there.

[00:08:21] For sure.

[00:08:22] For sure.

[00:08:22] In hope.

[00:08:23] In hope.

[00:08:24] One of the three.

[00:08:25] Which one?

[00:08:28] Um, and then I set up a record label.

[00:08:30] My family followed me out about three or four years later and we set up a record label and it became the premier audio encyclopedia.

[00:08:38] Black American music.

[00:08:40] So, um, if you liked Delta blues, I had an album.

[00:08:44] If you liked Chicago blues, if you liked bebop, hard bop, free jazz, uh, soul jazz, the Ferris on the Ferris on hours cold train kind of period.

[00:08:54] Um, you know, I had, you know, 25 albums and during that time I was still being a geek.

[00:09:01] I did a lot of live action role playing running around the woods with swords.

[00:09:05] Nice.

[00:09:06] Oh yeah.

[00:09:07] Big LARPA.

[00:09:08] So I had this really kind of eclectic kind of upbringing of just going, oh, okay.

[00:09:13] Um, here's this grand Hollywood stage of, of, of folks that I've met when I was younger, but then I stopped because it just wasn't really my, my cup of tea.

[00:09:23] Um, and then Leimert park.

[00:09:27] And then being in the forest, being in the mountains, being, being a geek and, and, uh, and playing D and D and that kind of stuff.

[00:09:35] And all these kinds of things just kept on converging.

[00:09:38] And then suddenly I, I was, I was putting out 25 albums and lots of commercials I was acting in.

[00:10:15] Um, I had this opportunity.

[00:10:15] Um, and so I, I was like, I don't want to start another company again.

[00:10:21] The record business can be, uh, sketchy, you know, um, definitely many stories from that, from those eras.

[00:10:29] um and but when i pitched niobe to private investors to start other comic companies to

[00:10:37] start with a lot i would say most of them were very much like um fantasy doesn't sell in comics

[00:10:47] and then black leads do not sell in comics and then female leads do not sell in comics

[00:10:54] and i'm going yeah i'm doing all three right i don't know the whole lot and that's the way i

[00:10:58] want to introduce i've got a big global universe but i'm not introducing them through camelot you

[00:11:03] know through right i'm introducing through different parts of um the african you know

[00:11:10] continent of my world specifically here and specifically here are the reasons and it

[00:11:16] makes sense story-wise as well as this is you know intrinsically it's just or you know an organic

[00:11:22] um uh something organic for me and some of them were like well sure okay this would look good

[00:11:30] during our black history month i was like oh shit you guys are hollow vapid motherfuckers okay

[00:11:39] right um i gotta start a company again good lord to protect the integrity um and the vulnerability

[00:11:51] of niobe it was so i felt so ultimately responsible for her um and i started stranger comics around a time

[00:12:01] i was going through a divorce and people were some companies were coming after me in ugly ways and

[00:12:11] you know for a while i was sleeping out of my car and everything was on a credit card

[00:12:14] so we started with one comic book and um and a lot of a lot of horror stories um if that's horror

[00:12:24] stories a lot of horror stories um and somehow you know just uh through uh grit and um attrition

[00:12:35] and love you know we we just put one from front of the other and uh here we are can i go back to

[00:12:42] something really quick yeah sorry i was rambling oh my no you weren't rambling at all like we're

[00:12:46] totally in fact you know like you have such a an amazing story and i think that one of the things

[00:12:52] that's sticking in my head like which is only tangentially related to the comics that came

[00:12:58] later is the fact that you moved to another country across an entire ocean yeah at 18 by yourself

[00:13:08] by yourself i mean that stuck that stuck with me i was like wait by yourself like we gotta go back to

[00:13:15] that i'm like i'm like listening to the rest of the stuff that you're saying and i'm like let's go

[00:13:19] back 18 by yourself how motivated were you what was motivating you to make that jump at 18 i was not

[00:13:29] in any way capable of supporting myself right you know or thinking about supporting myself yes or

[00:13:37] thinking i mean i and i did go about and gallivant about the world and in the country a little bit by

[00:13:43] myself but i always knew i was coming home right yeah same i stayed in the same country uh-huh yeah

[00:13:50] i stayed in the same country for my gallivanting at that time right my gallivanting was in well

[00:13:54] mainly me for my state i didn't go out i stayed in new york state and that was it and i raised three

[00:14:01] 18 year olds and yeah i really need to know more about that because there was no way in the world

[00:14:06] three could have ever done that yeah what's the mindset of somebody who can who can handle themselves

[00:14:13] at 18 and or think that like yeah like i'm gone like deuces that's a great great i think i mean

[00:14:19] you know i just give uh credit to my parents um for you know you i think if i if i was to go back

[00:14:29] there's a couple of things that are determining factors i think europeans especially people from

[00:14:35] england generally travel a lot more than than uh americans do yeah if you travel to other countries

[00:14:44] i mean you know i've traveled a lot and it's if i've done backpacking or by myself or in like

[00:14:51] sketchy places where you're like oh i'm not gonna go there you very rarely see americans uh true do that

[00:14:57] because america is so fast and it's so big yeah like it's hard to get off of this place it's hard

[00:15:02] to get out it really is hard to get out right no but you know you go to new orleans it's a different

[00:15:08] country to california you know california um so you've got america to explore as well but i also think

[00:15:14] it is a culture um cultural thing that um you know europeans you know they they they travel you know

[00:15:23] universities um and also you know france is just over the right you know you just pop over to france

[00:15:30] or you're going up to scotland scotland isn't england it's another country you experience certain

[00:15:36] things but um i think there's an allure that was sold the american dream the concept of possibility

[00:15:44] so other country america's sold that too so it's like well i've got this shit here

[00:15:48] so i don't need to go yeah we're already the greatest country in the world right is this

[00:15:54] it's uh this you know it's was on the it's like it feels it feels like it's on the dollar bill you

[00:15:59] know like right god we trust you know here we are we've got everything we go you know we got god we

[00:16:05] got um dough we've got american football we got jordan like what else do you need you know and um

[00:16:11] and i think um and it's like oh that's cute you're from england oh you know and um you know and i think

[00:16:20] it's this uh sense of then from the outside me when i would visit america as a boy i'm like wait this

[00:16:28] is where james brown comes from where he changed me like literally gave me courage so my heroes growing

[00:16:38] up were james james brown from that song bruce lee who made it when he went to america otis redding

[00:16:49] um and i was a big fight fan so you know and the english fighters didn't do as good as the america

[00:16:56] fighters right so so so you've had all these kind of like oh this is ready to be and then

[00:17:01] i think also for me acting um you know my mom being you know her best friend being married to

[00:17:10] carrie grant as a young boy who's impressionable i was like wait what does carrie do again he's got

[00:17:17] a really nice house yeah right right he does acting i'll do that shit right that looks easy

[00:17:25] and um and when i got here you know he had passed you know uh five or six years before and a lot of

[00:17:33] family promises that would that were given to me did not come through and at 18 i didn't want to uh

[00:17:42] go okay well nothing's working for me everyone kind of turned their back on me let me um i can't put my

[00:17:50] towel between my legs and go home um what do i do and so i excuse me i uh hustled pool really badly

[00:18:00] and i would go to pool halls and hustle wow and uh i uh leaned into being english so

[00:18:08] if you were yeah absolutely and you see and you got a bunch of big dudes and they were there

[00:18:14] they're girls they want to show off they're like they can see me as an easy mark and i would be playing

[00:18:19] and i'd say oh hello sir um i need to be home by um eight o'clock but okay yes we can have a game

[00:18:26] and then and they'd be like do you want to bet i'm like oh yeah no my mom wouldn't allow that

[00:18:33] and then i would lose and they were like do you want to do double or nothing i'm like

[00:18:36] what what does that mean

[00:18:38] wow so i was i was quite treacherous uh with it and then i would always like get like before they

[00:18:47] kind of realized um if once i hit like 50 or 100 dollars i was out out yeah um and i did that and

[00:18:56] i did portraits of uh rich white people so i would go to these areas i knew where rich white people were

[00:19:04] in the parks or at their house and i would knock on their door literally and go oh hello i'm from

[00:19:10] england would you like your portrait done and they were like oh you lean right into it i'm telling you

[00:19:17] why not it works every time english accents work like crazy accents period for americans work right

[00:19:24] but english accents in particular you know yeah it's helped a little bit yeah

[00:19:32] and they were like they're like you're from england you must you must be amazing come on in and i would

[00:19:35] say wow no that's okay i would let me just take a photo of your precious child and i will do it at

[00:19:40] home um and i was i was really a c minus art student so i would take these photographs

[00:19:48] a plus hustler though yeah i was quite good at that and then um i would do these portraits and

[00:19:53] they'd be really average and sometimes terrible but i'd what i would do is i would get really nice frames

[00:20:00] and then i returned and i would judge their reaction and if they got a really bad reaction

[00:20:05] i'll go do you like the frames and they go yeah yeah the frames are really nice and they would pay me

[00:20:11] and i'd be on to the next wow and uh yeah and i tried a bit of dancing you know um not naked

[00:20:22] i was curious it was i know i could feel it you know us so well now yeah yeah but um but they

[00:20:32] get those abs right they wanted it i had abs back then let me tell you i had great abs look let me

[00:20:37] tell you you need to put that pole those 18 year old 20 year old bodies were just beautiful oh man

[00:20:43] i remember those days yeah yeah it was fun it was a lot of fun and i and i was honestly i think um

[00:20:55] i think i'm a big believer in i think i suffer a lot from fear and it's fear of it's the fight or

[00:21:05] flight reality um so fear of failure fear of not working hard enough fear of i'm a coward which makes

[00:21:15] me eternally you know like a fear of feeling like i failed my families um when a guy would challenge

[00:21:24] me to fight at school in the boarding house a lot into a lot of fights as a kid and and even if i was

[00:21:30] scared i would have to go through with it just to get rid of this feeling of fear to overcome it

[00:21:36] fear of fear of if i don't ask the girl out i'm going to be torturing myself um and i think that's

[00:21:45] and fear of honestly the big thing for me was fear of my father thinking i was a coward if i didn't

[00:21:55] punch a guy in the face or or follow through with this right and which internally made me afraid of him

[00:22:02] which is this constant thing i still wrestle with today yeah man that makes so much sense yeah i get

[00:22:10] that so so if i so i could i could when at 18 i'll tell you one more one more quick story because

[00:22:16] it's kind of funny so um there was a famous nightclub in l.a called the roxbury club back in the uh back

[00:22:23] in the 90s and they even made a movie about it right now the roxbury so by 18 i'm like oh that's where

[00:22:28] that's where you know the celebs go i'm 18 that sounds impressive at that at that that age i guess

[00:22:34] and um so i just phone up and say um hello yes i'm elton john's manager i need a limo coming to pick

[00:22:40] me up and my mate my mates were visiting from england they were like you're fucking crazy

[00:22:45] and so uh limos would come and pick us up and then we would go in right get in just make up whatever

[00:22:52] and now i'm in the club and we're 18 years old wow and these grown folks and i remember seeing

[00:22:59] tier carrera and from wainsborough yes and i was like oh i need i need to ask her out and it just being

[00:23:08] the eye the as soon as you challenge your fear fearless and i remember going on the dance floor

[00:23:14] and shutting my eyes and dancing and suddenly the whole dance floor i opened my eyes the whole

[00:23:19] dance floor cleared off and marky marks funky bunch jump on the stick now i'm having a showdown with them

[00:23:24] oh my god it's a lot of i had a lot of fun

[00:23:28] a lot of fun 18 18 years old yeah our kids don't believe any of that stuff no they don't

[00:23:36] like oh you never did anything i tell all of these stories about when i was that age you're like

[00:23:40] yeah okay right it's she i i don't know if i'm making it up you know i don't blame them

[00:23:46] i'm like like no i actually did that this happened it's all happening all of it

[00:23:51] now what now what i do is go oh 1500 piece puzzle

[00:23:57] and a good cup of tea right a good cup of tea i had my tea before we got on here

[00:24:07] came home and i was like it's a tea night it's tea time yes oh my god you like see this like this is

[00:24:14] why i wanted to ask you these questions because an interesting person an interesting mind had to come

[00:24:21] up with the the world that you've come up with like it's it's it's no dullard who comes up with

[00:24:26] something totally complex and totally riveting and and amazing you know like this i mean that's what

[00:24:33] you know it's i love people's work that they put out but i am always interested in who is the person

[00:24:40] behind the work you know who is you know who are you right you know what are you thinking about

[00:24:46] what are you talking about because we're all so different and you know that i love the way other

[00:24:51] people's minds work i'm just fascinated by like you know how how are you processing these things you

[00:24:57] know and especially as creative people we know that whatever we're using whatever creative outlet we're

[00:25:03] we're doing is is really us processing the world right and and our experiences in the world you know

[00:25:12] sure yeah so it's funny you mentioned that um when we we had a deal um at hbo for a while

[00:25:21] and when we when we started stranger comics um we had a quick office in right from the jump

[00:25:30] and the first project is the untamed that's the way you first meet niobe and i'll give you kind of

[00:25:35] give you the little spin on that but um back then i had producers saying oh this is great nothing been

[00:25:44] finished apart from one issue they were like but if you make niobe a white boy i'll i'll make your movie

[00:25:49] and i had like real offers and real things and and then uh years later of course we did niobe shears

[00:25:57] life with the mandler and we didn't realize we we didn't realize it at the time but it became

[00:26:05] the first nationally distributed comic book but with a black female author artist and hero in entertainment

[00:26:11] and we were like but this was not it was one of those things that were just these are just stories we

[00:26:16] wanted to tell and organically we're telling with the people we want to tell them with um and so then

[00:26:22] we had offers came in to make our shows and and movies and things but again it was a thing where i was

[00:26:29] always so protective of niobe this character um and if it never became a tv show or a film

[00:26:37] it would suck maybe obviously because you want to feel like everybody can experience experience it and

[00:26:45] hopefully connect with it on a soulful level um pay pay you know pay a few pills and things take care

[00:26:51] of your families and and that kind of stuff and people that work with you in their families and

[00:26:55] really understand those moral dilemmas um and then black panther came out and they get more offers oh

[00:27:02] this is suddenly a thing but it was i met with an a guy who was the co-head of drama at hbo at the time

[00:27:10] david levine and um he said to me in a meeting he said can i ask you a question sebastian is the stranger

[00:27:18] you and i was like oh my god um usually people ask these very perfunctory kind of questions

[00:27:25] you know like what's your demographic and all these kind of things and i was like yes he's my hope to be a

[00:27:30] better man and how could i get back to my family am i allowed a second chance as a man and um you know

[00:27:36] um are we allowed if we can forgive other people can we forgive ourselves and all these things that

[00:27:42] you know you wrestle with he's like okay cool cool he goes can i say something else is niobe you

[00:27:49] and i was like whoa yeah she is she is my conscience and she is my hope for salvation but

[00:27:57] she's also mixed like me but more importantly it's this feeling of the you you know wrestling with the

[00:28:04] goddess and the devil inside it's like this duality of spirit we all share and and i never feel like i

[00:28:10] belonged anywhere i'm trying to fit in but i think that's the same for everybody everyone's trying to

[00:28:15] find their tribe and he's like okay and i left that meeting another meeting that day with another massive

[00:28:21] studio big one eight execs in the room and um and they asked you know and there's one lady there who

[00:28:29] i love and adore but um it was david's seeing me as a person and not niobe as a commodity yes yeah

[00:28:40] made i said i was thinking like that dude could have been a telemundo and like i guess now he's speaking

[00:28:45] spanish because he's amazing right right right right it's it's um it's a it's a it's a beautiful

[00:28:52] thing to be able to connect to the creator through their creation yes i think it's i think it's a i love

[00:29:01] that i love you made me think of uh something else there when you're talking about being mixed you know

[00:29:08] that i grew up as a mixed child in this country but i present black right i present african-american

[00:29:17] black but it's still you know i was straddling a couple of cultures you know um and never felt

[00:29:25] comfortable in either one right like never truly at home and able to be myself and you know this it took

[00:29:33] a it's you know it's like in the 90s i started meeting more mixed kids yeah right and um starting

[00:29:42] to find another tribe like that it took all that time for me to find other people who just knew what

[00:29:48] i was talking about you know um you know and uh you know so i'm really grateful that there's a

[00:29:55] character out there who is also mixed who is wrestling with there's one of the reasons i always appreciate

[00:30:01] talking to michelle hurd you know um because she always says that like you cannot because what

[00:30:08] when i was coming up in the 70s like you know you were forced to pick one yeah you know and god forbid

[00:30:14] you'd be more than two things which i am you know there's a lot going on here yeah right like i'm i call

[00:30:20] myself a mutt like there's a couple of us we call ourselves mutts and people are like don't compare

[00:30:24] yourself to a dog i'm like whatever i'm not a dog like so i'm good i'm good i do i am it's perfect

[00:30:31] right like i'm a mutt like i got a lot going on inside of me you know and that you know but people

[00:30:37] is you know back in those days everybody wanted you to choose one of the yeah you cannot especially

[00:30:41] in america i don't know how it was in england but in america like you you got an ounce of black blood

[00:30:48] and you were black period right that's our history this is the culture that we're coming from so right

[00:30:54] you know everybody like you had to choose one the other and i being the ornery ass that i am refused to

[00:31:02] submit to that most of the time now culturally i really did grow up black mostly you know mostly

[00:31:08] you know um but you know it's a it's a it's a thing that we didn't start talking about

[00:31:14] um even amongst black folks right until like the arts right it wasn't talked about in the 90s

[00:31:23] at all did you see a book did you see i wrote a book with uh garcelle beauvais

[00:31:29] i am mix yeah it's wonderful it's actually in our um 12 it's been out for 12 years now 2013 right

[00:31:39] but yeah 2012 13 something like that and sold a lot of units and it was very very uh controversial

[00:31:45] at the time because everyone loves to talk about race you know and especially online so we didn't

[00:31:50] our sales were really really strong um but it's just such a topical conversation uh my mom my mom's

[00:31:56] from india she's indian um you know supposedly indian african dutch portuguese and english so um and i saw

[00:32:05] you know it's like i saw a picture of my mother's my mother's grandmother for the first time

[00:32:12] a couple of years ago um like oh there's a black woman there and you know you know like oh i'm

[00:32:18] piecing myself to get my puzzles of me together um and um and but you know it's i don't know

[00:32:27] i feel there's um i'm very militant minded culturally very very militant very strong minded and it's

[00:32:42] when people some people have the assumption that that like oh wait what are you and this and the other

[00:32:48] and um i don't i don't really i think i've created such a i'm so used to it that if someone's asking

[00:32:57] from an honest place of hey um are you black are you this can i ask a question why did you do this

[00:33:03] i totally understand it look i mean the history of the country is you know not you know isn't hasn't

[00:33:09] uh not to be trusted past right so you understand you know understand why someone's going to ask why

[00:33:15] are you doing this so when people ask me why are you doing niobe are you black are you mixed what are

[00:33:23] you to be doing a comic of a black female lead um and why does she have dreadlocks why does she have

[00:33:31] this you know and i and um and i and i think those questions are good um and even if people are aggressive

[00:33:38] i'm like i'm i'm good i because it's i think these questions need to be asked and um and i think it's a

[00:33:48] i feel that oh that's good black folks are wanting to excuse me protect niobe right and um even if some

[00:33:57] people are very um and when i say aggressive super aggressive um but for the most part i think it's more

[00:34:04] of a a curiosity and wonder from a place of joy and celebration of oh my goodness what is this

[00:34:12] it's like it's beautiful oh well you did this and like oh um you know and then they see my booth and

[00:34:18] my booth is like i would say if i've got 10 people there seven are black who are white i'm the ambiguous

[00:34:26] why are you you could play any ethnicity on tv yeah right right when i used to act but most black people

[00:34:33] know yeah we know each other like we always know each other way i don't know what he is but he ain't

[00:34:40] white yeah now right right i did a thing once it was around it was good blimey it was around 9 11

[00:34:49] uh just before just before just after and just before where a friend of mine's black lady she

[00:34:56] was a teacher at different universities um some super kind of like um you know preppy kind of schools

[00:35:02] and some in the city schools and she would have me come and i would sit there and not say a word and this

[00:35:10] my hair used to be three times as big beard all big and um and after about an hour of me sitting

[00:35:17] there saying nothing she handed out these pieces of paper and it was um who do you think this man is

[00:35:23] who do you think he is in relation to me uh what do you think his ethnic background is

[00:35:31] what do you think his sexual preference is what do you think his religion is all these things and it

[00:35:37] was fascinating so nearly every single black person i would say 90 percent and up said i was mixed black

[00:35:46] black something light-skinned or something every latino said i was definitely mexican or some form of

[00:35:53] every gay person said i was gay every muslim person said i was muslim wow yep and then after 9 11

[00:36:02] every white person said i was arab wow wow and so i thought well during the times of peace people are

[00:36:11] wanting to connect they they we are we are taught this like oh we've got to have these differences and

[00:36:16] so on but really i want to get to know him and i want him to be part of my my tribe my team um which i

[00:36:21] thought was one love lovely and then after 9 11 hit i had a lot of there's a candlelight vigil

[00:36:29] near my house and i was like hey guys they were like there's one now they started running after me

[00:36:34] you know shut up yeah yeah it's crazy wow but i'm from england so i don't really care

[00:36:40] yeah which is slightly different built over there um but um but yeah yeah it's um it's it's been a

[00:36:49] it's been a journey you know and then people say why does she have dreadlocks now and i say um because

[00:36:54] she's she's trying to connect to the memory of her mother and her people but it's the last memory

[00:37:00] she has of her mother is holding on to her mother's hair as she's being pulled away so there's there's

[00:37:06] there's deep-rooted reasons as well as cultural reasons and so on so um you know um yeah everything's

[00:37:13] very real very real to me yeah i love that wow this is why i love the series it's like

[00:37:19] it's very real to me good stuff you know yeah all right so like we have gone all the way around the

[00:37:25] bend right and like so i think we should probably actually tell people like give them the spiel

[00:37:31] like if they haven't you know like because i'm sure they're picking up tantalizing little hints here

[00:37:36] and there you know so the appetites should be nice and wet okay perfect okay um i was about to be

[00:37:43] naughty but i won't all right me too yeah i could see it there's a pause you saw it so that i heard

[00:37:49] the pause right yeah i did all right everyone's nice and wet and ready okay here we go that's another

[00:37:58] subtitle see they're like there's like at least four people are like i'm never gonna support this guy ever

[00:38:03] click um not out of the group okay perfect oh yeah our group no you're speaking our language yeah

[00:38:11] yeah yeah you're fine slide into my proverbials i'm on instagram it's strange um okay so here we go

[00:38:17] right so here is here is the here is the pitch and here is why you might want to get into the world of

[00:38:23] a sundown so let's start would you damn your family to save the world the untamed is a story of a man

[00:38:32] who's stuck in purgatory and after 10 years the devil comes along and he says i'll give you seven

[00:38:39] days to reap the seven souls that murdered you and your family he says sign me up returns to a

[00:38:45] one-horse town in a huge world and as his memory comes back in broken shards he realizes when he was

[00:38:52] alive he was a bad man and maybe he deserved to die but now he's on a path to save his family

[00:38:57] on his path of vengeance to save their soul he meets a little elven girl called niobe and she

[00:39:03] reminds him of how old his murdered daughter would have been giving this man a second chance to be a

[00:39:08] good man even a father but he only has seven days the kicker is what if she's one of the seven souls he has to

[00:39:19] collect and the devil set the whole thing up just to find her would you damn your world to save the

[00:39:28] would you damn your family to save the world would you damn the world to save your family because if

[00:39:32] niobe can stay alive in the untamed maybe she'll grow up to become our world's savior or destroyer

[00:39:41] that's the untamed okay are y'all there's some wet appetites out there now

[00:39:52] oh my goodness we spin off into uh niobe she's life it's kind of a beauty and the beast love story

[00:39:58] threaded with murder and mystery that leads to war but it's really about a young elven girl returning

[00:40:03] to her ancestors to try and find her faith the dusu spin-off tale is a story of a man with the spirit

[00:40:11] of the jaguar deep within his soul and when the ancient spirit of the wolf comes hunting him he has

[00:40:17] to risk unleashing his own inner beast and risk destroying the tribe he loves just to save them

[00:40:23] we have erathun it's kind of our avengers title our new nivy she tribe the one that's in stores in

[00:40:29] at november 6th which you can pre-order now from your local comic shop with two swim bedu is about

[00:40:34] tradition are all traditions good and if we are to change them who are who are we to change them

[00:40:43] and then once we change them do we then say okay peace out you got it from here kids

[00:40:49] and then they're left holding something new you know so that's my kind of challenge to

[00:40:56] laws traditions and things like that that's our tradition well that doesn't make it

[00:41:00] good or right but then who am i right so i like those kind of things that's that's something you want

[00:41:08] i love the questions you ask um in these books um thank you because it makes it i think the art brings

[00:41:17] you in like it gives you that wow and then there's these questions you ask and each and that just keeps

[00:41:24] you going i mean it's just something that i read a lot of comic books um and this i've never read

[00:41:30] anything like this when you when we first met and um i walked by your booth and it was just in awe of

[00:41:37] everything and then you told me about it um and then you talked about how uh neo niobe was gonna be

[00:41:46] this badass going to find these these women these girls that were taken oh yeah and at the time i was

[00:41:53] still i i i did a lot of work with um with uh smuggled smuggling humans wow and it just i think

[00:42:04] that that really clicked with us um and i i just never i never forgot that and because it was it was

[00:42:12] the way you said it um i know you were talking about a fantasy but you were talking about something real

[00:42:19] right you know and that's where that's where i was like yeah this is this is not this is not your

[00:42:25] average right right rich comic book here you know and um so you know i always i think every time we

[00:42:33] talk to people you just never know what people are getting from what you're putting out um and you

[00:42:39] never know who you're gonna sit the things you say to people that or the content you put out you don't

[00:42:44] know how it resonates right or move someone to do something you know so i just i i want to put

[00:42:51] that out there when you talk about these things because this is an everyday thing right missing

[00:42:56] women missing girls is every day and there's a there's a whole segment of the world who has no clue

[00:43:03] that this is a thing right you know this is a every women go missing every single day

[00:43:10] day and they're never to be seen again you know um and it's very dear to my heart um trying to find

[00:43:21] these these girls these women uh especially women of color because most of them are women of color

[00:43:28] and i think it was your you said our our our women or our girls i think that's what you said to me

[00:43:34] and i felt that yes you weren't talking about a comic right you know i mean i just felt that and

[00:43:42] i think i was because i was at i was getting ready to retire and i was finishing up some cases and

[00:43:47] i think all of that just kind of i needed that i needed someone to validate me saying you know i

[00:43:53] need to work on this i gotta get this done i gotta make sure these people are okay you know it was a lot

[00:43:58] of that so i always wanted to come back to you and tell you that you know it's not just a comic book

[00:44:05] you know right no man not just a comic book you know yeah i appreciate that there's a lot of

[00:44:10] it's a lot of people out there hurting because their people their babies are gone right you know

[00:44:17] unfortunately they usually don't come back you know unfortunately so that's so brutal it's so brutal

[00:44:23] it is brutal it is brutal the life of women and i don't i think we've been talking about this so

[00:44:29] much since since this election um how you know women are just we're we're we're thought of a second

[00:44:38] class third class citizens yeah and these things are happening to us things are happening to our

[00:44:43] children our girls um and i think until kamala um announced i don't think people cared i don't think

[00:44:52] they knew i was just reading uh i was actually just reading um a thread and someone was talking

[00:44:58] about credit cards how women didn't weren't able to have loans or credit cards and it was it was

[00:45:04] thousands of threads people going wait what yeah i didn't know this was happening i just posted on

[00:45:10] right you mean my mother couldn't get a loan that's right but she was the she was a single mother how

[00:45:15] did she get the loan that we needed how does she pay for all you know it was like thread after

[00:45:20] thread of all these young women trying to figure out even women our age is just trying to figure out

[00:45:25] well how did my mother do this right you know and god you don't want to know this was in our lifetime

[00:45:32] you know like i mean they can that women could have credit cards you know that we could sign a lease

[00:45:38] on our own that we could buy property yeah i think the 80s is when it was approved and i'm you know for

[00:45:45] black women they weren't approved of nothing so you know i mean i mean that that's we digress but

[00:45:54] it's what we do here you know yeah yeah yeah i mean it's it's honestly um i used to get in you know

[00:46:04] trouble quite a lot at school um with when and this is never to knock it you know i was pretty i don't know

[00:46:13] eight or ten and i remember in the assembly hall with you know the the principal right in england

[00:46:19] they called the headmaster which is already kind of a dodgy title right i went to one of those schools

[00:46:24] that you had a headmistress and right yeah um and i said i'm saying excuse me sir um why is god a man

[00:46:34] and um and he's like jones detention right uh you know just asking a question he's asking a question

[00:46:43] and so i think the you know you just for me when i was creating niobe um

[00:46:54] um and as i kind of grew grew and learned of other cultures and uh you know other other religions and

[00:47:05] other histories and other things and then maybe not doing as much research as i should but also wanting

[00:47:13] to feel what in you know this sounds really kind of i don't know potentially uh obnoxious or arrogance

[00:47:21] whatever i just wanted to feel what was in my spirit connecting with god directly myself yeah and um

[00:47:28] and then it wasn't until i heard alice coltrane and it it literally yeah i changed a lot of my

[00:47:39] perspectives and going oh okay i i am listening but i'm hearing and i'm connecting and everything just

[00:47:50] uh solid so it just starts to kind of organically flow and i was teaching in uh famu for just a

[00:47:58] couple of lectures there and and it's been a couple of times some ladies have come up to me and they

[00:48:03] you know like um you know the ancestors are speaking through you and you don't have to question it

[00:48:09] because sometimes you know it's like okay i'm you know some ambiguous dude what you know like the same

[00:48:18] questions that folks might have for me why you know um but it's not i've never been a person to

[00:48:27] i guess try and fit in or want to do something to impress or need validation and and those types of

[00:48:34] things um so it's i think i think i've just organically wanted to celebrate uh the vulnerabilities

[00:48:46] the softness the opportunity for a young black girl to be able to be a young black girl and not have

[00:48:52] the burden of the world of caretaker already thrust upon their shoulders yeah already or or the

[00:49:00] the minute you become 13 you're thought of as a woman or a sexual object a sexual object right at 13

[00:49:08] at 13 or 12 or 10 or 9 or 7 yeah yeah you know i mean you know those things it's just that that you

[00:49:17] know you that was kind of the i mean this let's show you one cover i think i'm showing it earlier

[00:49:24] um this one here was one that still really speaks to me yeah i love that cover it's the

[00:49:31] i'm not allowed to be a girl i have to essentially do this and i wrote a line in the the most recent

[00:49:41] untamed movie script it's going to be in one of the comics and it is this is obligation versus

[00:49:48] adventure obligation obligation versus just being

[00:49:51] being yeah i'm sorry is that the alternate cover or is that no this is yeah i want to describe it

[00:49:59] for the people who are listening jay lee did that one so that's this is the untamed cover

[00:50:04] it's the untamed volume two cover volume two cover okay so you guys who are listening

[00:50:10] like go check that out pull that cover up and you'll know exactly what we're talking about

[00:50:14] yeah it's beautiful yeah i had jay lee sign that because you had you i think you had a picture of it

[00:50:21] yes so i had i had jay lee sign it and i gave it to my middle daughter

[00:50:27] i just i just thought she i don't know she she it reminded me of her because it's so pure

[00:50:35] yeah you're finding your way right she was finding her way um at that time

[00:50:40] you know and it was so pure and it still was it was it was a girl becoming still being a girl but

[00:50:47] naturally like you said organically becoming a young woman you know not like you said not thrust

[00:50:54] upon her and that's what i was trying to i've always tried to do that with my girls i have three of them

[00:50:59] so you know just trying to let them organically become adults instead of i i you know i think they

[00:51:06] stay little girls for a very long time compared to their peers which was very hard to do yeah it's

[00:51:13] beautiful i mean it's it's lovely when you're very very family is supportive of that of you being able to

[00:51:20] be your age yeah yes i did it with my son my you know all my other family members for sure it's just

[00:51:28] really it was what happens actually jay lee i don't know if i showed you he's got the the cover b for

[00:51:33] cows of a sunda night be she tried so that's a beautiful one too you can also you guys um so i

[00:51:41] just google these go on stranger is stranger com is it strange comics.com strange comics.com

[00:51:48] yeah you can pre-order the stuff there too you can we will have the description in the we have the

[00:51:54] link in the description yeah for all of you for sure for sure definitely so yeah the line i was going

[00:52:01] to say oh yeah is um um a hero is not a chosen one a hero chooses to be one so that so that's so

[00:52:13] it's this concept when you know in the in the books is everyone's like oh now he's chosen one

[00:52:18] no now he chooses to be one which means you you can too right i love that yeah i love that because

[00:52:25] there's always a choice you know because the the one that the the the prophecy or the high priest or

[00:52:32] whoever says you're the one right you know somebody has to accept the responsibility to be the one

[00:52:38] right you know like you could choose to just ignore all the repercussions that are happening to

[00:52:47] right the world around you because you're not accepting the the responsibility that the

[00:52:52] universe has thrust upon you you know or whatever you know or whatever like there's always there's

[00:52:58] always a choice there's always a choice even though we sometimes don't see it as such it's still a choice

[00:53:05] yes absolutely you know absolutely that's the one that you uh uh connect with um with the nai

[00:53:16] sex traffickers and slave traders to reflect our own girls that get abducted that's kind of her journey

[00:53:22] and then what i'll have after she is life and she is death i'm gonna have she is spirit which she

[00:53:29] basically combines her faith and her fighting as a you know she really has to suddenly like grow in this

[00:53:36] arc and i'll finish with no maybe she is god wow i love it yeah oh i can't wait

[00:53:42] has to bind nations against the devil her father her father wow and because she's half angel half

[00:53:51] demon so you have this beautiful arc love it and uh what a world what i know right what a world you

[00:53:59] know and i think that the other thing that i love so much about um this particular series of work

[00:54:05] you know and others similar to it is that you know it's reframing the narrative of what fantasy is like

[00:54:11] i'm i'm a kid who was reading fantasy from a really early age right this was like this was what it was

[00:54:20] my jam you know and um once i read like the lion the witch in the wardrobe like nothing else but fantasy

[00:54:27] would do for me you know i had finally found like you know like and i and and and through my adult life

[00:54:33] like i very seldomly read just regular standard fiction right you know i i can't it's boring as hell

[00:54:40] to me like most of the time i am so bored like we're spending 30 pages on talking about this person's

[00:54:48] inner feelings like and the the and he went and got a cup of coffee and then this and like i'm supposed

[00:54:53] to like i'm stop stop stop like what's happening in this person's life why are we still getting coffee

[00:54:58] every day i don't get it um but um no i do read a lot of different things but i mean for real like

[00:55:05] fantasy and science fiction is is my jam so when but i i say that all that to say i grew up reading

[00:55:11] a lot of tolkien you know and all the standard fantasy i was like indoctrinated into a into standard

[00:55:19] fantasy tropes and it took me like you know to see octavia butler and to see a black woman on the

[00:55:25] cover of her book like and not these new covers that they did in the 20 in the 19s or like the

[00:55:32] the teen years just recently like i'm talking they had this gorgeous art on these covers of

[00:55:41] identifiable black they have parable of the sower they got a woman up there looking like harriet

[00:55:45] tubman right they don't have nothing to do with anybody in that damn book like there's no harriet

[00:55:49] tubman shit going on the woman is in a she's wearing a kerchief and a big ass like slave skirt

[00:55:55] what the what where did this come from it's a beautiful piece of art but what does it have to

[00:55:59] do with this book nothing nothing nothing when i bought my copy of parable of the sower there was a

[00:56:06] woman who looked like me literally looked like she could be my twin right and had the short hair and

[00:56:13] everything and i was like damn and it was this gorgeous piece of like fantasy spectral space art

[00:56:20] right and that's all her covers were like that and so you know that you get start to get this

[00:56:24] reframing and and and all of a sudden my whole world is flipped upside down i have a new

[00:56:29] understanding of what fantasy and science fiction can be yeah right because like and then i started

[00:56:36] reading people like uh like i remember running into like reading stephen barnes and um uh uh

[00:56:45] the lion's tale um and that's taking what's that's not the name of it which one is that um that's where um

[00:56:54] let me stephen barnes please excuse me uh for getting it like it's been so many years that i read

[00:57:02] this book because it it totally changed my life and um you know and it was basically like this retelling of

[00:57:10] slavery from a like like it's a it's alternate history of slavery right so instead of of um

[00:57:20] blacks being slaved it was like whites and irish people being enslaved um and um lion's blood

[00:57:29] lion's blood and zulu heart um lion's blood was out in 2002 um and i mean and it's a classic

[00:57:36] book like everybody who reads fantasy should know this book right because you didn't just be like

[00:57:42] oh now black people are in charge now no it's really in-depth meticulous world building

[00:57:51] and and asking really complicated questions and really examining the nature of what was happening

[00:57:58] in slavery like you know like you had a lot of the kids on plantations who were slaves or even not big

[00:58:04] plantations but even smaller places the white kids and the black kids they were all growing up together

[00:58:08] they were playing like they knew each other right intimately you know and then what happens with that

[00:58:13] power dynamic as they get older and everything you know so it these things reframed what fantasy could be

[00:58:20] and i see your work with her like you know in this in this family in the you know kindred with them

[00:58:30] you know it's a direct continuum of constantly reframing and looking and and letting people know that

[00:58:37] this is not the province of just you know people with pale skin and blue eyes like you know and

[00:58:42] and a black elf like not meaning that she's a bad elf what right right right right the dark

[00:58:49] elves right exactly like they're evil what yeah yeah no i that that as a young kid playing dnd i was like

[00:58:56] fuck all of that i i just knew from the jump i was gonna turn that on its head with with my world and

[00:59:05] i created a um a race called silver elves who um are elves that worship uh the moon and depending on

[00:59:13] and they've been kept underground and and depending on how blessed they are by the moon dragon shows

[00:59:19] different inflections of silver but the way i took it is a very kind of um geographical approach so if

[00:59:25] you're in the bad the quick pictures if you're an elf uh and you live in ujoa you're black your chances

[00:59:32] are right if you're an elf and you live in hudafang you're gonna be pale just geographic geographically

[00:59:38] but then within that i have uh gallim ren which are wild elves uh humans are called wild elves

[00:59:45] gallim ren so if you're a gallim ren in ujoa you're probably nomadic or tribal depending because it's a big

[00:59:51] joint right big place if you're a gallim ren or a wild elf in hudafang you might be more eskimo like

[00:59:57] um because you're more of that you know kind of wanderer type um then you have the selvanu who are the

[01:00:04] wood elves the shepherds of the forest that still build and construct and you have the quelya who

[01:00:08] still build towers because they have they take after their mother who is the first fairy and

[01:00:13] you know they just say they they don't trust so but so you've got them i want to combine like a

[01:00:20] mythological kind of vibe but also super super rooted in a culture depending on their habitat

[01:00:27] and their religion and how they they move and and how do they migrate and migration patterns as well

[01:00:34] all those types of things made a such a big impact onto the world that that we have so when people see

[01:00:42] our stuff they'll go oh okay here's my here's my normal dwarf in erathoon he's white yeah that's

[01:00:47] because he's in the scandinavian part of our world if we have dwarves in ujoa they're black okay you

[01:00:53] know yeah it's uh and that's you know kind of to me how it should be how it should be yeah and the

[01:01:01] world i created so when i'm dead and gone people can still paint within my world because it's i try

[01:01:07] to make it as big as earth and i can't explore all of earth in my time frame so i can't explore a

[01:01:12] sunda in my time frame so you know um you know that's why i liked working with a man laura or two

[01:01:18] so you know the odd person that might pop along and go here here's some fresh perspective like oh

[01:01:23] my god that's great let's play i love that and then i've got three and then it's the other one with

[01:01:29] prentice that i wrote the nive endure the one that you have with lauren hill homage yeah i did

[01:01:34] three different covers um i don't have them immediately handy but i did three different

[01:01:39] covers where dura the creator of the world of asunder one of the two creators her and her twin brother

[01:01:46] vasta is upbraiding nivy's hair um and they're three of the more beautiful covers we've done

[01:01:52] and i remember speaking to my art director and i was like i want to have a cover with

[01:01:57] um now i'll be sitting down and dura braiding her hair just something very very um

[01:02:04] you know day-to-day in black life but also passing on tradition yeah and so dura is going to be passing

[01:02:12] on the tradition or her own need for niobe to now be be the creator the caretaker of the world which

[01:02:20] again plays on the whole theme of black women caretakers for not just their families but other families and so

[01:02:26] on here's niobe here's doing having to take the caretaker everyone's family because she's a creator

[01:02:30] now just i'm braiding your hair it's gonna be you kid and and then i was like actually i want three

[01:02:37] different artists to do the same thing oh nice and so i have three different interpretations with

[01:02:43] different moods um yeah i'll email them uh yeah i want to see that they're they're all they're all

[01:02:50] absolutely beautiful and uh yeah oh now i i know we talked about the world of asunda but you have other

[01:02:59] things uh going on yes i do i do i do actually speaking of you you know we have a comic coming

[01:03:08] out at the same time we've partnered with a studio called legion m yep well yeah you know them well

[01:03:14] yes uh rob edwards who wrote princess and the frog so here we go we've got the uh the cane and white

[01:03:22] edition here is going to hit comic shops you can also pre-order defiant issue one the story of robert

[01:03:29] smalls and of course we're taking back the term which was very anti-black willful defiance uh

[01:03:36] a loophole in law so we're saying no we are defiant and this is our san diego comic-con exclusive i

[01:03:43] wanted to do an homage to of course uh one of my you know young you know heroes when i was young

[01:03:49] shaft the rich around yes i love it it's in the shaft uh font it's in smalls it's great

[01:03:57] so we have that that's absolutely amazing and um so yeah the guys at least and they came to me and

[01:04:05] said basically we we want you to do it they did a kickstarter then they came back and said you know

[01:04:10] can you help us actually put this together and when when the guys pitched me i was like oh okay

[01:04:15] yeah we don't want it to be in the classic kind of you know uh what seems to be or can be this

[01:04:23] vibe of more slave you know narratives which is now you know people are overwhelmed i think with the

[01:04:31] you know they use the term slave porn or torture porn or something yeah it's too much um but i'm also

[01:04:37] um of a minds of like the burning spear song do you remember the days of slavery love that song

[01:04:46] would you stop speaking my musical heart already

[01:04:51] you went from oh my god okay yes i'm sorry yeah yeah no yeah you were good uh so yeah yeah

[01:04:59] amazing amazing and it hits you right here and it also then instills

[01:05:04] the responsibility to still speak for the voice for the unspoken yes and when i hear people go i like

[01:05:15] that shit tell them do something else i'm like these stories cannot be forgotten it's just who is the

[01:05:22] person telling the story absolutely right in what way yeah and so we are doing our best to

[01:05:29] tell the life of robert smalls in a very heroic way and understand there are you know these folks are

[01:05:37] heroes you know so for people who don't know can you tell them a little who's robert smalls yeah robert

[01:05:44] robert smalls is a legendary uh a legendary figure it of american history and um the one of the more famous

[01:05:55] he's responsible for the public school system um his life in congress but he started what he's most

[01:06:03] famous for when he was younger was essentially um being on a confederate ship and then stealing

[01:06:13] the confet stealing in quotes the confederate ship and then basically taking his family and other

[01:06:19] families on this confederate ship into union waters where the union were about to blow them up because

[01:06:28] they thought here's a here's our enemy here's a confederate warship coming in and um and he managed

[01:06:35] to uh escape and free um his family and a whole bunch of other slaves and and head to the unit on this

[01:06:43] confederate ship and then became a naval captain for the union in in the war so just that story alone i

[01:06:53] know right so heroic and mind-blowing and then that's just one if you look up robert smalls i implore

[01:07:01] that you do see all the various accomplishments that this man did in one lifetime is so absurd it's just

[01:07:09] he should be as known as every great american hero and so it's a huge honor that i get to

[01:07:17] publish the comic and um i'm an editor on it and a producer on the on the movie so it's uh

[01:07:24] it's it's it's a huge huge honor huge honor and we we get offers to do other shit all the time

[01:07:30] and i'm a tiny tiny company you know putting out my stuff but i was like i have to be a part of yes

[01:07:36] yeah so important are you guys appetites wet you know

[01:07:43] which you can also find all the info on stranger comics as well yes yes you do guys please please

[01:07:48] please pre-order at your local comic book shop because it lets them know we have a voice right

[01:07:55] very good very good yes always always support your local comic book shop absolutely yeah because i'm you

[01:08:02] know me i have a comic book dealer i go see him at least oh yeah every other week yes exactly there

[01:08:09] you go yeah we have until the 26th to pre-order so okay okay i'll be bugging everybody everybody's

[01:08:15] going to be getting individual messages for me you know i'm a boots on the ground kind of you know i'm

[01:08:20] the president i'm also the truck driver and a guy that's sending messages you know yes we will

[01:08:25] definitely make sure that we have links for that too for pre-order and yeah you know we'll

[01:08:32] push it out on our socials on socials yeah because i think yeah we're definitely going to push it out

[01:08:36] on our socials yeah and i'll send you the some jpegs tomorrow the covers and things you can play

[01:08:41] around with it that's a huge huge huge help and okay super appreciate you guys thank you that's great yeah

[01:08:47] man we love talking to you i swear like i really could like first of all i feel like i've met a brother

[01:08:53] like like for real like it just feels like family you know yeah you're you're amazing and um like we

[01:08:59] i could talk to you all night like no joke you're just you're just really super interesting and a lot

[01:09:05] of fun and really down to earth and we just thank you so much for making time and space to come see us

[01:09:12] and you know i mean you're just dope y'all thank you i appreciate it back at you guys you know

[01:09:18] burning spear burning spear burning spear

[01:09:20] i cannot believe you oh my god okay do you remember a movie called country man

[01:09:25] yeah of course absolutely oh see yeah of course of course he says

[01:09:30] thank you okay i'm a huge uh toots in the maytals kind of guy

[01:09:35] all the og rock steady reggae yeah original scar scar music like og scar

[01:09:43] not the white boy stuff that they brought over to the states and stole and got famous for

[01:09:47] yeah they're the what they're called i think the english beat i mean that's you know they're not

[01:09:52] too bad no english don't get me started like i love english but at least english beats got some

[01:09:56] like people like they got a mixture of people like that folks for sure but i think the differences in

[01:10:02] england when you co there's a it's interesting in england when i go back if i'm around black folks in

[01:10:13] in london there's a sense of cultural pride that root that's really rooted but obviously has a

[01:10:20] different kind of sense of history for black folks you know i'm super quick generalizing um but there

[01:10:26] but also there's a different kind of pride of also being english i it reminded me like i remember being

[01:10:32] on the train and i remember this uh uh black and white geezer they were had like the white geezer had

[01:10:38] a suit on and he was in a in a briefcase and the black dude had dreads and he like was a work he

[01:10:45] worked for the maybe the train company and then they were like talking like old friends like they

[01:10:49] saw each other every day and they were talking about the crickets and like all right bill all

[01:10:52] right for it i'll see you tomorrow mate all right cheers and i found it so um refreshing and

[01:10:58] charming that it was just like um you're looking at just another human just a mate yeah right it's

[01:11:06] just like oh you're yeah cool you know and no one's necessarily and i'm also generalizing because

[01:11:13] there's a massive racist population you know like this fights every day well not every day but enough

[01:11:18] right um but i find that left that um that charm is beautiful yeah i think so too i love it and i like

[01:11:28] i think it's okay i'm just gonna say this and i'm gonna shut it up you know like that um you know it's

[01:11:34] i highly encourage everybody especially black americans if you get an opportunity to travel outside

[01:11:41] of this country do it you know do it i don't care if it's like a four-day cruise i don't care like if

[01:11:49] you got to go cheap like whatever yeah do it and experience what it's like to be black in other parts

[01:11:55] of the world because it is not the same as how we live all the everywhere it's how we live in this

[01:12:01] country you know like i mean these things exist you know in the rest of what we want to see the rest of

[01:12:06] the world and we want to feel what it's like and god if we get a chance go to africa

[01:12:11] go somewhere somewhere in the continent when i when i met you you had just come back i think

[01:12:17] i was like you did what i'm working on it that's my goal for this year like this year coming up it's

[01:12:22] like my mother and i've been trying right before the pandemic we were going to take a trip together um

[01:12:28] and then the pandemic came and since then we haven't been able but like the goal that we're claiming is

[01:12:35] in the coming year we're going because my mother's traveled back and forth to many countries in africa a

[01:12:41] lot of times and i've never once stepped foot on the continent so like i feel like i'm not

[01:12:47] it's a must yeah it's a must yeah okay well we're going to wrap it up because you've been more than

[01:12:54] generous with your time thank you and and we love you and yvette where can people get in touch with us

[01:13:01] if they have thoughts about because we've been all over around the bend i'm sure y'all are going to have

[01:13:06] some thoughts out there right to write to us about you can find us at sci-fi sisters.com that's s-y-f-y

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[01:14:13] after listening to this podcast please rate us peace peace please rate us and write a review we

[01:14:19] may just read it on an upcoming episode and i gotta say thank you to our associate producers

[01:14:26] as always we are so grateful for sailor marge karen jimera and stephanie baker we love you guys

[01:14:33] and we gotta say thank you and a shout out to the baddest engineer in any and all universes that's dose

[01:14:40] the anonymous one he's responsible for all the music you hear on the show as well as for the production

[01:14:45] and if you need him look him up on instagram at dose underscore the anonymous underscore one

[01:14:53] and uh that's it for us love we love you all peace love and hair grease we're out