SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Blurred Spectrum Podcast. We are here today to actually we're here today to do a plethora of things, but they got reduced down to one thing. But we're gonna do this one thing to the best of our damn ability. We are here to promote and talk about our black comic book creators and illustrators and writers, just everything black and comics. You know, we've been reading a lot of us have been reading comics for years, decades, and you know, uh we're all you know sitting and watching these comic books being pristine conditioned, like, well, can I open it? Can I crack it open? Can I see the content? Well, we have that content right here for you. Uh, we have a special guest here. He's gonna talk about his his content, his comics, his creations. Uh, first, of course, I want to introduce our panelists, uh, starting with myself, your moderator, Suchino Shogun. Uh, also gonna switch it over and introduce the doctor. That's good. Introduce Shammy B, aka Coke Biceps, EKA uh uh shampoo bracelets. What's good, then switch it over to the Leo inspired Virgo Talen Pompa Doo wearing Ms. Skittles. Hello, and of course, now I'm gonna introduce our guest, uh comic book creator and writer, Mr. Jack Harris. How you doing today?

SPEAKER_03 1:18

All right, how you doing?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Doing doing great, could be doing better, but doing great, doing great, doing great. So um, today we're gonna talk all there is about Jack Harris and one of his comics, uh Terminus Veil. Like I've you know had the pleasure of reading through it, looking through it, uh, absolutely phenomenal. I believe we met him at a convention at one time, and uh we since then we've been plotting, slowly and meticulously plotting to get him on the podcast, uh, finally coming to fruition. Uh so you know, I just want to give you the opportunity, just give us a little bit of the rundown. One, who is Jack Harris? And then two, what is Terminus Fail?

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Cool, yeah, yeah. So yeah, what is who is Jack Harris? Um, yeah, um just a overall comic book geek, video game geek, play, you know, that's that's my life. Uh when I'm not writing, I'm programming computers. Uh so I get paid, I guess. Um but yeah, that's that's me. And uh, I mean, the the idea of terminus fail was a story that I don't know for a decade I've been thinking about, um, and just slowly kind of you know writing, writing, and and really thinking about it in full kind of building the world. And uh about a year ago, I said, you know what, like I've been thinking about this too long, like let me actually make something happen. So uh started working on the scripts, uh you know, learned all the you know things you have to do to put a book together kind of deal. And and now it's out and you know, got issue two out now, and it's uh and it's just it's been awesome. And you know, uh Terminus Vale is basically the story of uh this private security team that uh they're transporting a new invention, and uh, while they're transporting it, they get attacked by some guys, they come out in helicopters, shooting at them, blasting at them. They're kind of trying to figure out like you know, why are we being attacked, what's going on. Uh, and that ends up leading into like a bigger conspiracy that uh they kind of fall into. So yeah, it's it's a lot of action. Um, you know, try to try to have some comedic moments in there, there, uh in there, uh here and there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Awesome, awesome. I so like I said, you know, I I was we were given the uh not an advanced copy, but we've given a copy of the uh first issue, and yeah, I was taken by the first like four pages. I was like, okay, this is oh, this is a road, this is a journey. So this is like an expansive story. And you know, once you get further along into the first issue, you see which exactly what you said that there is a uh a larger conspiracy going on, something else that's gonna continue through the next several issues. So I'm I'm very excited to see what comes next in issue two. Um, I know Shammy B had the pleasure of uh reading through the first issue, and he actually had a couple questions uh that he wanted to you know throw your way. So uh Shammy, what you what you got for Mr. Jack. I keep saying Mr. Harris. Jack.

SPEAKER_05 4:19

Um how you doing, man? As I was reading through the comics, one, I I noticed um this is more for the artist, but there was a particular style that uh that I thought I'd seen in many comic books before. Um more so is uh it seemed like it was an older style actually that was used for this. Was that a design option that was just chosen by the artists themselves, or was that something that y'all had talked about in terms of like how you wanted the look of the world to be?

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Uh it was more of the artist's style. Um, I would say. Uh I mean I I you know went through a few artists trying to just look and see, kind of feel something that felt right. Um, but I I I never really told them like, hey, I wanted to feel like this or feel like that. It was more just, you know, getting the characters and getting that side of it right, um, and and letting the artists kind of do what they do. Um like I I never wanted to, you know, um box them in because I felt like, you know, I want the artist to do what they can do best. Um and however that style is, whatever style they do, um, you know, I just kind of let them run with it.

SPEAKER_05 5:28

Yeah, it was more like how like how you just wanted them to do what they felt best with because you think you'd better be better for it. Okay, I understand that. In terms of your uh, in terms of your style, excuse me, of storytelling, how you start out with um is this one of those situations where it's like, okay, this is where we're at, and then you kind of go back a little bit to show how you get to this point. So it's almost like how uh the perfect example, um, 24. Where it was like they showed you certain points, but they it was almost like they kept jumping from this is where we're at, but this is what happened in Pas Legis. This is where we're at, but this is what happened in Pennsylvania. And they just keep the jumping back and forth scenario, or is this one of those things where it's like, yeah, this is where we're at, and this is and you're going off of we're going towards the future, but for us to continue going to the future, every once in a while we gotta jump back to the past. How was how was that style? Uh, is that the type of style that's playing into this? Or is that, or is there, is there like what's the thought process when you write that?

SPEAKER_03 6:31

So, you know, there I would say there's definitely a lot about the story that is in the past from this point, from the point of the first issue. Um, you know, my like I've trying to try to say the best way without being like, hey, this is how the story's gonna tell you the full story. It it definitely has um, you know, my goal is to the story should be, I don't know, in a straight line. It's going forward, it's always going forward, but there'll definitely be a lot of flashbacks. Um, it won't be a lot of jumping around when I, you know, I think the way I like to tell it is, you know, when we jump and go to the past and explain and kind of give some exposition on things, it'll be uh, you know, an issue or two issues itself, just that that whole kind of setup of how this one point, you know, now got set up, if that makes sense. Um, but it won't be as you know, jumping back and forth a lot in a particular issue or stuff like that. I that'd probably be too fast for me.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Awesome, awesome. Okay, um, I also know the doctor has a uh a question that he wanted to ask uh Jack. So go ahead, the doctor.

SPEAKER_04 7:45

Yeah, so first of all, thank you. Definitely thank you for being here. You know, it's always good to really get talk with you know black comic creators who, you know, have like this expertise in the field and whatnot. And I wanted to know um your thoughts on what do you think were some of the biggest challenges and successes when you were starting up?

unknown 8:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Uh challenges was finding an artist, and I'll honestly that was probably the the biggest part, and it's still a challenge today. Um every every issue I've I've had a different artist. Um so it's been a it's been a challenge to get you know to get somebody to lock in for a full time. And I understand, like I'm a new writer. Um, you know, it's a new book. It's you know, so I don't know, I'm not gonna bother by it, but that's probably been the biggest challenge in learning how to work with artists. Um it's definitely a little different than the idea of just, you know, um, you know, working with somebody and say, hey, I need you to put this thing together. Like artists, they're definitely, you know, they have their days where they're really productive and their days when they're not. I understand it, so I don't get mad at it. It's just it's learning, you know, it's a whole deal learning. Um you know what I mean. So um that's probably been the biggest challenge. The biggest successes um has been uh I don't know, just you know, getting to talk to people. Um I've been doing trying to do cons and pop-up shops and stuff like that. And it's been cool just talking to people. Um that especially somebody that's read it, and you know, I think I was uh there's this uh pop-up shop I did like maybe like two weeks ago for at a comic book store. Um and uh this like a store slash bar. So I was outside selling books or whatever, and um guy came up, bought a book, and I was like, all right, yeah. I was like, thanks, you know, cool, happy to see him buy the book, went into the bar. And I was out there two hours later, he came back and he was like, hey man, tell me what's gonna happen next with Bird. Like, I just read the book. I was like, oh man, that's awesome. Crazy. You know what I mean? Like, and so you get to have this conversation with somebody and they're you know, they're asking you about the characters and stuff like that. So I think that part of it is probably the biggest successes. Like, yeah, we've I sold some books, haven't sold what I want, but I kind of know we're gonna, you know, this it's a path, and we're I'm I'm learning the you know how to market and trying to understand, you know, all the things you're supposed to be doing. But the successes of just talking to people that that actually are interested, that's probably bigger than me than anything.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

That's what's up. So, you know, you are the creator as well as the writer of the uh uh of Terminus Veil. And you know, you did just say that you know, trying to get a consistent artist is one of the difficulties. Is was it your goal to have the exact same art style throughout the entire comic, or if it morphed, would you be okay with that as well?

SPEAKER_03 10:46

Yeah, you know, my initial goal when I first started this was you know, it was naive, I should say. And I was thinking, yeah, you know, you have the same artist, same art style, and you know, things just work and go and go and go. And um, you know, I've I've learned that it gotta be flexible, you gotta be adaptable to, you know, if you want to have a product out, I don't want to sit and, you know, you know, maybe I could have worked with the same artist again if, you know, when his schedule opened back up for issue one, for issue two, but you know, that might have been a difference of you know four to five, six months before I'd have been able to get issue two out. Um like that's you know, still want to have, you know, I don't want people waiting, especially if it's a 22-page comic. Like it feels weird to wait, you know, half a year for it, right? For the next one and the one after that. Um so you know, yeah, it was definitely my plan now. But now I think the next, I'm gonna get to issue four, and then I'm gonna basically release them all as a trade. So one through four altogether, and that's why I'll focus on distribution. Really, I've just been selling them um online and by hand ed cons. Um, and my next set, I want to do another four round like this, and I think I'm gonna try to get an artist locked in for all four. I think it'll be a little easier to um this time around than it was, you know, starting.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

So for for you creating Terminus Veil, did you have the initial thought process? Because you're you know, going back to kind of the artistry, you of course had the story behind it and you had the concept behind it. Did you already know what you wanted the characters to look like, or were you leaving that solely up to the artist based off of the inspiration?

SPEAKER_03 12:29

No, it's it's pretty much I knew the characters what I wanted the characters to look like. Um I kind of worked before I even got the artist for the book, I worked with a few concept artists um to get the characters kind of at a point where I was like, all right, this is what I like, and this is what I was looking for. Um and then after that, it's you know, I I still to this, you know, I'm still working with concept artists with you know characters that new characters are trying I'm trying to introduce, as well as going back and saying, can I make this character even a little better? Um so it's just uh I don't know, it feels like an ongoing process with that. Um but yeah, I I I try to have as much detail before I even work with the artists because I don't want them to feel like um at this point, I'm not really ready to share ownership. I think there'll be some point where I'm at a point where I'm gonna share a lot of the ownership. But um somebody who told me initially was like, hey, like make sure you have all this kind of buttoned up because there is in comic books, it's you know, if you if you give the artist uh the ability to create and you kind of it's there, it the difference of it being your idea or their idea really gets into question if you don't lock in some of the details.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Very true. So a big question that I had, uh, because you know, I know nothing about the comic book creation process in any way, shape, or form. Um, so you initially said that, you know, you're into anime, you're into comics, you're into gaming, um, and you, you know, just decided a year ago to go upon this journey. When was the initial thought that you wanted to do this? Because, you know, doing this podcast, we were thinking about this, thinking about it, and then we decided, you know, two years ago, two and a half years ago, we're gonna do it. But I've been thinking about it for years before this. So when was that initial prox in your head, like, hmm, I can make a comic?

SPEAKER_03 14:28

I don't know, man. Maybe when I was 11 years old, 11 years old, 12, I used to draw comics and write them and you know, make my own. And just me and my cousin, we would do it, you know, all the time from when I was 13. Um, my dad was one who was a pragmatic man, and uh I was exceptionally good at math and science, but I really wasn't good at drawing. So I kind of you know learned to be a programmer um as I became an adult and just kind of you know get used to paying the bills type of deal. Um, but it was always something that I thought I was gonna do. Um and like I said, it just at this point I was like, hey man, like if you don't do it now, like are you really about it? And so I was like, I'm gonna let me get to it.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Okay. And that kind of leads me into one of our you know panelists, um, Miss Skittles. She's a graphic designer, she's been a graphic designer for a very long time. Um, and you know, she's told her story sometimes about you know how she got into graphic design, creation, and things like that. Um and she, you know, alluded a couple times that, you know, she wanted to do it, didn't want to do it, but then she decided to kind of move forward with it. Um, I wanted to ask Miss Skittles to have you, you know, ask, you know, Jack about, you know, as it pertains to artistry and creating the ideas that go behind your end goal product, what is the how how do you create that timeline? Like, you know, he said a year ago you wanted to go ahead and do it, but he also said he didn't, you know, there's a couple things that he overestimated on. So as a graphic designer, what would have been a uh a way of doing it that you would say that our listeners could maybe uh absorb from the situation? Hmm.

SPEAKER_06 16:14

Why you put me on the spot like this? Um I mean, from from a designer's perspective, um there's a process. There's always a process. Um, like I I mean for me as a designer, it's it's easier for me because I'm naturally um organized. So like I make I make lists of you know the the steps in the process, where I'm at, what I want to do, how I want to get there, the time frame that I want to get there in. Um and I mean for me, it's just it just comes naturally to me. But for a lot of people, you know, when when they start making lists, they get overwhelmed. It's like, oh my god, when I make this list and now I see everything that I actually have to do, it can be overwhelming. But I think the key is to the key is managing your time. Um and when you're managing your time and other people's time, you I mean, that can get stressful, but you have to let them know, like, look, and in order for like this is not just about me at this point. I mean, we're doing this together, and I and I need you all to make this, you know, make this a reality. At the end of the day, you're you are a valued member of my team. So um when you're placing deadlines on people, I mean, yeah, it's important to, you know, take in account their outside life and things that they have going on, like work-life balance. But at the end of the day, you have to you have to put deadlines and manage your time well when you're when you're trying to get things done. Um as a deny as a designer, sometimes sometimes things go wrong, but as long as that communication is there, like, hey, okay, like your artist is like, hey, I have this, this, and this going on. Um, is it okay if I shoot you, you know, these panels um next week, or you know, if it's beyond the the deadline or whatever. And as long as they're communicating that, and as long as you communicate, okay, yes, but I need these next week. I need these on this day next week. So it's um, yeah, I feel like when you're creating something, it's all about one, knowing what you need to get done. Like from the beginning. Yeah, you might miss some things here and there, but when if you start to lay things out before you start your process, then you have um you minimize the chance of, oh, you know, I could have I could have done it this way, and having to do things over, and you know, that messes with your time management from the junk. So laying things out from the beginning, um, looking and seeing what you need to get done, also sharing that layout with your team as far as your expectations, um, and then just working together to get it done at the end.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Beautiful insight, beautiful insight. So, which goes back to Jack. So, for anyone who wanted to also start, because again, you said you started a year ago, for anybody else who's you know on the fence about starting a comic and you know moving forward with some type of graphic novel or webtoon or thing of that, or even a manga, you know, if they want to just go ahead and get started, what would what would be your advice? What would be the steps based off of what you've taken that would help somebody move forward?

SPEAKER_03 19:53

Yeah. Um, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, first is you know, how much do you know about the story you're trying to write, the script, right? Like, because that's that's key as a writer if you're writing it, um, and you're creating it. And maybe you're not the writer, maybe you're just saying, John, there are people who you know want to do just general creation. You still gotta have some overall you know idea about the plot. You gotta you gotta write that out, have it proofread or you know, edit it and write it a little more again afterwards. Um I would say get that part butt down. Um because then after that, it kind of if you have a script, it really makes things really, really easy at that point. Um, as far as the next steps, I feel like the next steps is you know, finding your artist. And um if I could go back now knowing what I know, then look at I used Art Station. I kind of just went on ArtStation and really just scoured it and sent out a ton of emails for artists. But if if I could go back, I'd probably say use Instagram. Um like it is by far, um, you see, so it's so easy to find a ton of people who do art on Instagram once you get into that kind of category of looking at people on it. Um and it's just easy to DM somebody really quick and find out. I mean, usually if you see somebody who's active on Instagram, they'll probably hit you back on a DM if you're talking about paying them. Um so uh I would say that, you know, try to utilize that because that'll help you find you know the art style that you're looking for. It'll also give you some perspective on, you know, who's probably not gonna reply back to you on the DM side. But the R Station doesn't really give you. RStation tells you, yeah, like here's their portfolio. Um, and they've got followers and stuff on there too. But you know, once you see somebody get, I don't know, 10,000 likes on a post, 20, 200 comments, like, yeah, probably not gonna reply to you. They just did a you know, Black Panther for Marvel. They're probably not kind of. You know, probably not. You know what I mean? Not to say not to shoot your shot, just yeah, you can wait. Don't wait on it. But yeah, no, I think that those two things. Um, short of that, it's you know, after that it's budget. Um, it's a, you know, it's a it's a it's not like you can just assume uh that you can, you know, I want to pay this rate and it's gonna play out like this. You know, the artist has a lot of say in what they're gonna make. Um and you know, depending on what you're trying to go for, you know, me, uh the brand I always wanted to have was I wanted the art to always be high quality. Um, you know, that was big for me. I felt like especially since I'm a new writer, it was really gonna be something that would, you know, help, help with the book, especially early on. Um and that means there's a cost to that, right? There's a cost to paying somebody that maybe, you know, could have saved some substantial amount of money going with some different art. Um, but from that standpoint, I would say, you know, once you have your budget, then you know what you're looking for out of art. You know, what you know, what's what's feasible. Um, and after that, it's you know how you want to go about it. I know a lot of people do Kickstarter. Um, I kind of didn't want to do that because I just I don't feel like I'm a a networker at that like that that I think you need to be on to be um really good at Kickstarter. But if you are then I mean there's a ton of people doing it. I'll probably eventually do Kickstarter for a book. Um, but right now I just felt like it was best to kind of grow it myself. Um but yeah, those are I would say maybe the the things to do. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Definitely inspiration. Go ahead, Doctor.

SPEAKER_04 23:43

Yeah, so no, this is super interesting, and um, especially the points about Instagram and Kickstarter. Um, really just made me you know more curious about how do you think that social media has changed the comic book industry, um, especially for you know young and upcoming artists and creators.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

You know, yeah, I mean there are some, you know, from I I mean Kickstarter's changed the comic book industry totally. Like it is, you know, by far, when I see, you know, anybody who's telling me about they've made a substantial amount of money, this they're probably from kickstart. It's probably been because they had a really good success with Kickstarter. Um like it's you know, it's wow, it's hard to sell books in stores, all right? Um, because there's a you know you're going against a thousand of you know thousands of other books in there. Um, you know, Marvel and DC and Image and all the big comic companies, they've got whole full walls, and you know, you're gonna have this one indie wall in your comic book store, right? And um, you know, so like that part of the fact that you can leverage Kickstarter and you can, you know, as an artist, I would, you know, you can leverage Instagram to really do commissions, you know what I mean? And yeah, I mean there's you know, like I said, there are people who are in the creation business, whether that's you know, just general, you know, well, you know, I don't know, comic books, video games, any of that, you know, it's people you know doing commissions for concerts. I mean, I've I've one of the concept artists I work with a lot is you know, that's pretty much all they do is Instagram commissions, you know, commissions they get from Instagram. Um so I think you know, social media's changed it. I mean it social media's changed a lot of stuff for just the fact that you can be small and still, you know, be able to compete um and not and not have to, I don't know, how to deal with a lane that you can't control, right? Like you can't control what the comic book stores where they decide to place your comic. Um if you're all the way in the back where nobody ever walks, then you know how many sales did you miss out, how many ops did you miss out on, right? But um, you know, you can control social media, you can, you know, if you gotta like a thousand other people's posts and you know, send DMs nonstop to get your word out, you mean that's all on you, right? And it's all, you know, so having that power to be able to advertise and market, I mean, uh, that's it's huge, you know. Like, and a lot of people, uh on the comic book side, Kickstarter is like I said, this king right now for indie creators.

SPEAKER_07 26:28

Definitely.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

I mean, that and indiegogo and you know, all the crowdfunding platforms. That's really interesting.

SPEAKER_04 26:35

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

So I kind of have an elephant in the room question. There's a character, self-proclaimed Panthera, um, that uh just so happens to have a certain mask on. And I kind of wanted to know if there was inspiration from another character behind the mask that he's done. I mean, you don't have to tell me if there is, you know, copyright infringement and all that stuff. I kind of wanted to know. Was there inspiration behind that mask from somebody else? That's cold.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Um, no, it wasn't though. Um, you know, I I can tell you behind the mask, it's a white dude. Uh it's not a Black Panther, but um, but I can I can tell you that. But uh no, no, it was just this uh I've got the uh these uh basically these mercenaries, this group, this mercenary group. Um they come from uh a uh family who bears a uh kind of a lion's crest, so they they like cats names, um, type of deal. That's why he wanted to go with Panther.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Just making sure. Got it, got to ask some questions.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Hard hitting questions here. Hey man, I'm here for. I'm here for.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

So, okay. So now um, you know, we got a little bit more about Mr. Jack. I keep doing this. The Mr. is very difficult to shake. Um, but no, so we got a little bit more about you and you know how you've got into the game and um, you know, a couple of tips for our audience, potential audience.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Um, so what we want to do is, you know, ask you a couple questions about comic books in general. That Mr. Sterling.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

Hey, what's going on, fellas? How's everybody doing?

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Good, good, good, good afternoon. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 28:28

I'm doing well. I'm so sorry for uh being a little delayed. Um, how's everybody doing at the Blurred Spectrum Podcast?

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Uh, we're doing phenomenal. Well, I guess we could just have a you know round robin, as I always love to do, just asking quick questions about you know comic books, um the industry, how people enjoy those different types of things. So if you were to pick your top three, top three comics that could have influenced you in terms of, you know, not necessarily your art style, but in terms of your writing style, your creation style, what influenced, you know, Terminus Vale or anything else you want to do in the future, what would be those three comics?

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Man, three comics that influenced me. Um overall, I'd say probably I'm a big action guy. Um and the comic book that probably was the biggest inspiration from when I was a kid was Grifter, Wildcats. Um like that was just like I had to go to the store every every time a new one was released. So I think that, you know, always having a lot of action, um type of deal. Probably where I get, you know, that's probably the closest thing I would say. Two others, though. Hmm. Let's see. Um man. You know, I'm a I'm a big Black Panther fan. Um so I mean, I guess everybody is, right? Um I'm a big Black Panther fan. Um, I'm probably I don't know, more of a Captain America fan, though. Like I love the Winter Soldier run uh by Brue Baker. Um uh love that style. Um just all that kind of espionage and yeah, tactical type stuff. Um and then just a as a general uh fan and somebody who I think is does crazy stories um with you know a big set of characters, I would say it's probably Jonathan Hickman. Oh yeah, I'm a huge, a huge fan of the Avengers, uh the alumni know the whole Illuminati time runs out run. Um that's something that's like I don't know, it's like gold standard to me as far as stories, but it it's uh I guess it's a dream to be able to work with the characters that you've you know you've been reading all your life and then get to do those type of big stories and that type of story that you know you don't always see those crossover events play out and actually be good. Um so to see one that was really good, I thought was uh pretty good. So I would say those are probably the you know books I think of or you know, stories, characters.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Okay. And then another question I have is you know, you say you're into anime as well and you know, gaming. Are there any, I guess, anime influences? Because you know, most people think, you know, American comic books, mom, these two completely different categories, two completely different industries. They never cross over. Um, but you know, when you really pay attention to it, you can see a lot of crossovers art uh based off of art, based off of the storyline. Um, you know, some people always say, you know, uh at the at the core, at its core, most storylines have the same, you know, kind of plot devices. Uh were there any influences from you know any anime that you used to watch or still watch or manga uh that could have you know influenced your core creation style? Yeah, um you know, without giving your secrets away. I don't give a secret.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, well give them all away, why not? Oh no, ghost uh Ghost in the Shell is probably the one that that sits with me and you know it's it's I I love the the politics of it, right? And the fact that I mean it still has you know those again, high quality, crazy action scenes. Yes. When they have them, but um there's also always this kind of you know political, you know, what what's going on, you know, as far as in Japan and you know how it plays out with these, you know, now they're these cyber-minded people and all this type of stuff. I think that part of it is really cool. Um, and I can say that yeah, Terminusville, like I I would be lying if I say that have some type of influence from it, like it does.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

You can you can definitely like without it's funny, now that you say it, I can feel Ghost in the Shell like kind of seeping through those panels. That's actually really cool. Um, okay. And then um before I continue, does anybody else have any questions? Miss Skittles, the doctor, Jamie B? Any pop into your head?

SPEAKER_05 33:09

Um, I actually do have a question for you. This is more uh this is more for like because um so some of the is uh some of the ins some of the characters kind of pop out to me, and um, particularly uh the um Amy. I wonder if I think that was uh I think that was Burt. Burt, exactly. Burt. Her character particularly kind of pops out to me as somebody who might have a deeper story involvement with this, especially with the experience she has. Um what what are some characters that are gonna be maybe something we should look forward to in future to to learning more about in future issues?

SPEAKER_03 33:50

Well, you know, um Dash. Dash is should should look forward to um a lot of uh, you know, I think there's gonna be well, I know I'm a writer since he's like a thing I think. I know uh I know there's gonna be a lot of big things as far as um you know him, him and both um and Sue. They're both you know the new people on the team. And so you get to really, the story's gonna really show them growing from being kind of these, you know, noobs for lack of a better word on this team to being you know very capable and uh they're having their own kind of I won't say powers, but maybe techniques. Um and so they I would say they've you know there's some people to look forward to. Um there's a character he isn't in issue one, but he's in uh issue two. And um uh his name is uh uh Chuan. And he's the the whole the story really revolves around a lot of the things that Chuans did in the past and uh going forward. So um yeah, I would say those are the characters to look forward to. Don't worry that though. Bird's got a lot of a lot of craziness as well that she's she's gonna get into. But um, yes, and the low-key lookout for Dash, look out for Sue.

SPEAKER_05 35:18

I thought I saw that kind of with Dash too, actually. I was like C there was there was some stuff coming with him as well. Um another question I have for you is um on top of this, I know how some people take it one at a time, others are prolific, they just drop one after the other. Um, what is a plan that you have for the future in terms of your uh ideas for other writers? Um are you saying as far as you know, like other books or other books, one-shots, like maybe one, you know, some people they'll buy do a little break from their current story to do a one-shot just to keep the creative juices flowing, type thing. What are any plans they've got come out?

SPEAKER_03 36:03

There'll there'll be some one-shots for for pretty much, I would say, the majority of the characters. Um, like I've I've got one plan for another character to introduce in an issue to Bodia. Um, and I know that that one will be uh pretty soon. Um meaning I would say in the next, I don't know, six to eight months. Um But overall, you know, I'm just really right now I'm I'm kind of just locked in for to get to um really to issue eight um a terminus veil before I really start doing any one-shots. Um just trying to get yeah, trying to get them done as as high quality and fast as possible.

SPEAKER_05 36:44

So excellent, excellent. Very appreciated. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

But uh I do have another project, I guess, that is I shouldn't say I guess. I know. Um I have a I have another project. I was saying, I was guessing. Um but no, I've got another project that I'm working on currently in tandem, and that's uh Terminus Vale, um a 2D beat em up game. Um like I said, I'm a programmer by like I said, trade, so I've been doing it for a while. Um, so I'm working on that again. The animations uh basically in production now. Um animations getting created, working uh out the first kind of demo, and I just set to get this demo out hopefully around February of next year is what I'm what I'm shooting for is to get the first demo of it out and get people to be able to play it. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

Is this top secret information?

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Did we just get like a scoop?

SPEAKER_07 37:38

Is that what that was?

SPEAKER_03 37:38

Uh no, it's not it's not top secret. I've told some people, but yeah, it's definitely definitely new. It's just it's we really just did I just hit production um in the last couple of weeks. So I've been in pre-production before then, just getting everything ready. Um and now you know actively working on it.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

So I was just about to ask you how your programming skills kind of incorporated into the but I guess there's the answer to the question. Uh 2D beat em up. I'm quite excited. Please let you know if you need any beta testers. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

I'll definitely let y'all know and y'all can uh get your hands on the demo, y'all can tell me what y'all think.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Oh, most definitely. We will we will let you know 100%.

SPEAKER_04 38:18

Um it's so funny because I was thinking of that exact question when you said you know you're a programmer. Right. Oh, I wonder like how much of that might overlap into an indie video game space. So like that's the big intersection where those two line up. So yeah, that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

February? Most definitely. Yes, you let us know. We will rate, promote, boost. You let us know what you got to do. We'll we'll help you out. I'm excited. Um uh man. And I lost my question because he said that, and that was my question because I was gonna talk about programming. Okay, so um, oh right. So, I mean, other than of course the 2D beat em up, um, what other potential projects uh does Jack Harris have coming up? Um, whether it be, you know, I let as you said you're trying to get to you know the eighth, uh, eighth edition or eighth issue of Terminus Veil, but what else do you have coming up that you may want our listeners or anybody else to uh know about?

SPEAKER_03 39:18

Those are the two things, you know, the the the comic book and the video game, Terminus Fail. Like I said, I'm locked in fully for those. And you know, I'm trying to trying to keep that uh that focus on those, um, just so I don't spread myself then. Um, but yeah, no, that's that's that's what to look forward to.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Excellent, excellent, excellent. All right, so um, before we go and move into Mr. T J Sterling, uh, why don't you tell our listeners how you can be found, how they can get a copy of Terminus Veil. Um, yeah, go ahead and give them your skill.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Yeah, so you can check Terminus Veil out at terminusveil.com. Yeah, the spelling is just T-A-E-R-M-I-N-U-S-V-E-I-L.com. Um, we've got issue one, issue two, shirts, other merch on there. Um, you can also check us out on Amazon. Uh, we've only got the digital versions on Amazon, though. Um what else? Follow us at Instagram on Instagram at terminusvale. That's usually where, you know, and Twitter. Um it's usually where we're you know giving updates when stuff comes out, um, you know, things like that. If we're gonna be at a pop-up show or um convention or something like that. Um yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

Excellent. All right. So uh did you want to stay on when we do? I've just cut this part out. You want to stay on uh when we talk to the sterling or yeah, yeah, I love to listen in. You stay in listening? All right. Uh TJ, you still there?

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Sir.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Are you just in here just listening, ain't you?

SPEAKER_02 40:50

You're just taking it in, man. It sounded like a very exciting story. I'm definitely gonna check out Termin's Vale. So uh shout out to Brother Jack Norris for uh sharing his IP and his um his journey with us. It's pretty been dope to listen in. And um the doc Chammy B Ms. Skittle Shogun. What up, y'all? It's pleasure to be back on. Pleasure to see you guys.

SPEAKER_07 41:11

Uh hello. Good.

SPEAKER_04 41:12

Nice to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

Always, always, always a great uh gift to have you on the podcast. We see you all the time at all the different conventions that we uh frequent. We I think it's the second year in a row, we've seen you at BlurredCon. Uh all of your different like I could sit down and like start talking about like all of the different things that you work on, but I don't have enough time, nor do I have the list in front of me. So I'm gonna allow you to go ahead and um give your opportunity to kind of list off what you've been working on. What is the what is the current um piece of work that you're promoting the most? I have like a couple of images I'm gonna show a little bit later, but you go ahead and tell people what you all about right now.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

Yeah, I appreciate that. Again, uh my name is uh TJ Sterling. I'm the uh president, lead artist, and writer at uh Ray Comics, R-A-E comics.com. And uh currently we have about three different titles that are out, and uh a fourth title is about to drop in the next month and a half. So the first title is uh Okamist. It's a sci-fi martial art action story where the main character um has uh latent superhuman abilities trapped in his DNA that's essential to saving the broken world for time travelers. So kind of an interesting story that's um, you know, the main tale that we've been telling over the last, you know, five or six years in business, and that currently has about six issues in the series. We're getting ready to draw and complete the last seventh book right now, so that's also in the works. Um, we just just dropped Okuma's Dark History at uh BlurredCon, and that's actually the backstory of the main continuity of the Okuma series. So if uh, you know, if any of y'all are Dragon Ball Z fans, you know, Goku had his run, and that's kind of what like Dragon Ball Z, I'm sorry, what Okuma's Dark History is like. It's kind of like you know, the father's story, and then Okuma's is like Gohan's story, it's the son's story. So um both set in two different um environments, two different time periods. So it's very, very interesting um and a lot of fun. The fans definitely you know gobbled that up at BlurryCon. We pulled up with about 150 copies and sold out of those in about you know two and a half days. So really grateful to everybody. Yeah, thank you, man. I know you yo, Shogun, I think you checked the book out, so I appreciate you, man. Um yeah, you know, it was really dope because um, you know, I get a lot of love in the DMV and I love everybody who lives there. You guys are really incredible and um have shown me love since the beginning. And uh we the the the artist that we have on the series, uh Sean Damian Hill, who's um doing tons of great stuff right now for Marvel, DC Milestone, he's doing stuff for everybody. He's actually the artist on the Series for Okamist Ark History. So and he's you know from DC, born and raised. So, you know, just um got got some people from the area really working on a lot of books, which is really exciting. Um, last year we dropped uh Joystick Angels and Joystick Angels is our uh space opera title centered around five young black space pilots trying to save the universe from evil alien empire trying to destroy it. So if you guys were a fan of uh Star Trek or Gardens of the Galaxy Ultron, you're gonna dig this book. Um that's currently only on issue one, it's a brand new series. Um only uh I think it's about 15 bucks on our site because it actually comes with a soundtrack. We actually had a legitimate producer create um you know music for the actual book itself. So that's really, really cool. So you can download right from the issue when you open it up. Um, Spotify, Apple Music, all that good stuff. Um, shoot, what else? I was gonna say um issue two is in the works that should be out by the beginning of next year, halfway done with art, and um we just gotta get lettered and printed, so that's gonna be available as well. So uh, and then um the last last book is uh villainous. We did a Kickstarter campaign. Me and my writing partner, Newton Lillipwild, Crescent City Monsters. Um, we did this book. Um yeah, I'll be down in one second. Yeah, so you see, families like, yo, we we make it breakfast. What's good, what's happening? You know what I'm saying? So um, yeah, what I was gonna say was that um villainous is a is a fun, very, very fun story specifically because um we wanted to do it from the perspective of a villain. And you know, the main character's name is Shatter, and he's basically we call him Shatter because he's a broken man on every level and he's lost everything and he's become this villainous character that's kind of you know challenging the status quo of the system as a whole. So ultimately um we want to do it from a different perspective. It is a cyberpunk uh noir book, so it's kind of done in this, you know, fifth element, you know, uh biopunk type of thing. It's really cool, man. We just had a good ass time with this.

SPEAKER_01 46:13

You've definitely piqued Ms. Skittle's interest. Yeah, yeah. You said all the keywords.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

Yeah, I mean, because you know, it's it's a fun genre. Like, I mean, it's just a fun genre to play with, to write, to um develop characters for. You know, there's just, you know, we've got cyborgs and robots and all kinds of fun stuff. We might get into some space travel. So like we're gonna do a lot of stuff with that book, but we're dropping that um for all of our Kickstarter backers by um you know early October. And that's gonna be a hundred-page graphic novel with four different variant covers. So that one's coming out really, really, really soon, which you know, I hope you guys, when you log on to uh raycomics.com, R-A-E comics.com, you can easily just you know sign up for the mailing list and we'll let people know when these dope ass books are available. Um, but right now there's tons of great stuff available on my site for purchase. Um, I don't know if anybody's listening to the podcast, they're gonna be in Atlanta. I'm gonna be at Dragon Con next weekend from September 1st.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

So it's Miss Kittles.

SPEAKER_07 47:12

I was on there.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

Miss Kittles, please pull up. We're gonna be in the America's Mart on the second floor artist alley. Um, I can't even remember my booth name. I think it's like A something, but either way, I'm on the main floor and uh the second floor where the main the main artists are. So please come by, check stuff out, hang out. I'd love to you know see you in person again. It'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

I definitely uh I'm gonna send Miss Skittles with some monies. Uh, because I every time and it's the problem. So every time, and this is also why Mr. TJ is on this episode. Every time I see TJ, I have to buy something else from him. Um he traps me uh and I have to like get things signed. Like that's like I like I said, I already have OpenA's dark history. I have like several prints like just laying strewn about my house. Just there's another one right there. This is amazing, right? You can't even see it. I blurred my background, so you can't even see what I'm talking about. Yeah, several prints from him, like it's just phenomenal stuff. And then there's this one, it's amazing. I love this one. Like, it's just dope. So I'll put that a little closer so you can see what's going on with that. Excuse the ring light. It's phenomenal stuff. So, like, what my quote one of my questions is you know, you've been doing this for some time and you've been promoting your work, you know, nationwide, literally. Um, what is uh, and it's actually goes back to one of the doctor's questions. What is the hardest thing now that you're this far into the game? What's the hardest thing that you encounter on a daily basis while you are working on all of the different projects that you're working on? What's the hardest thing?

SPEAKER_02 48:44

Yeah, that's a great question. And um, for me, it's uh, you know, how do I say this? It's like, you know, because after you've been in a business for a long time and, you know, you have a certain reputation, now it's like, you know, delivering on that, um, you know, and and really just making sure that you can continue to serve the community with the stuff that you're doing consistently. Um, you know, making comics is a very, very difficult business. It's not easy by any means necessary. So um uh, you know, coming out with a new book for me is like my main goal every time, every new, every year, I want to come out with something new for you guys, something different, something fun. Um, and then also thinking outside the box to create different characters that you know can kind of resonate and you know, basically putting, you know, the finger on the vein of the community of what we're at, what we're doing, and what's happening in our world and making a story that is dope that we can talk about. I mean, shoot, you know, uh every story that I've put out thus far has, you know, just different over just different tones, man. Like I think, you know, Okamist has a very super Sentai-inspired look and feel. And, you know, that was, you know, something intentional because just we there wasn't really any of us in that space, you know what I'm saying? As much um uh when it first came out, but it also has overtones of like, you know, police brutality and you know, uh, you know, our people being targeted for the greatness that we have in us. There's a lot of that going on. We speak to um um the Black Lives Matter movement with the villainous series. We we talk about a lot of these different things in these books. So um just again, wanted to create something really dope for you guys, man, and staying consistent and um you know trying to just extend the reach. I think for me, marketing is a big big challenge um because I'm not really a marketing person. So, like being on these podcasts with help and you guys help with that, and then you know, going to the cons, man. Um the cons circuit can get real, real uh tiring after being in you know 15 locations a year. It's like good lord, man. When's this dude sleep? Like, yeah, I don't that's the answer.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Nah, seriously, I I I marvel, no pun intended, at your um at your schedule. Because uh, like I said, I'll see you at Blurred Con, and then um I'm like, I'm taking a week off because I know I gotta go to older con in two weeks, and then you're at another con the next week, and then you're at another con the next week, and then you'll maybe take like two weeks off and then get another con in the next month. I'm like, yo, uh TJ. You got a lot on your plate, man. That's uh that's it's only 52 weeks of the year. It's not many weekends.

SPEAKER_02 51:29

Um serious business.

SPEAKER_01 51:30

Enough, seriously. I I I always marvel at that. Um, so you know, on top of that, you know, you to you talk about giving, you know, being able to give back to the community. What are some of the main things that you do to give back to the community in all of the uh time that you put into your your your end your comics and your industry as a whole? What have you given back?

SPEAKER_02 51:56

Yeah, it's a great question. I think for me, um the philanthropy part has really always been at the core of our business and what we do. And, you know, a lot of that starts with um mentorship. You know, I do a lot of uh mentorship stuff for up-and-coming artists or people who want to learn about the business or just, you know, students of art, you know, students of comics. They want to learn how we do what we do, you know, how the business works. So I do a lot of that stuff. So, you know, I've had a couple seasons of you know, interns at Ray Comics um shoot. I've also um done quite a different, you know, quite a few speaking engagements at different locations throughout New York City and, you know, New Jersey. And um we'll be doing eventually doing some here out in California now that I live in LA. And um yeah, man. So I just just doing what I can to um you know show my face and what we're doing and you know the possibility. Because I think for me growing up, I never saw people that look like me creating comics um consistently and you know, really doing cool stuff that wasn't, you know, derivative or you know, just just something unique. Like um, so I think having that because comics is really dope because it's the gateway. Like I call the gateway drug of art because comics can lead you to gaming, can lead you to animation, can lead you to movies. I mean, just you you pick a genre, comics usually are like at the original starting point. Um, shoot. I mean, like toys, like it's kind of everything, which is really cool, man. So um that's what I would say.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

Excellent, excellent. Um, I know the doctor has a question for you as well.

SPEAKER_02 53:31

The doc, what up, bro? Talk to me.

SPEAKER_04 53:33

That's good. And first of all, love your work. Uh, really talented. And I just, you know, I really love to see like kind of black excellence in the comic space. So uh it's great to have both you and Jack here. Um, and one of the things that you know I think about um, so you mentioned mentoring, I think it's amazing and so important that they kind of have mentoring as a component, you know, of this. Um, what would you recommend or what advice would you give for up-and-coming, you know, creators who are really interested in developing their own comics, but they just don't know how to get started?

SPEAKER_02 54:08

Great question. Uh, advice I'd say to, you know, in terms of beginning is just to um start in any way you can. I mean, if you have ideas about characters and about a story, I mean, you know, get yourself like a small notebook. Um, I find that writing things down with your hands is a little bit easier in terms of transferring your thoughts. But I mean, if you're, you know, maybe if you're a younger generation, you know, teens or twenties, maybe writing on a computer or, you know, your notepad on your phone works better. I mean, whatever, whatever is clever, you know what I'm saying? But ultimately, um just doing an idea dump, putting everything you can out so you can visually look at it. And then once you can kind of visually see it, it gives you a better idea of like, okay, this idea is pretty dope. Um, what do I want the character? Like, you know, what's the overall plot of the story? Like, you know, what does it look start to finish? Like, okay, for example, um you could even start with an idea of something simple, like, I want a super powered character, you know, to go through the trenches and basically start, you know, origin story as a human being, and then at the very end of his story, uh, I want him to like maybe have maybe become a villain, or maybe I want him to be like the best hero. So, like, how do you start from beginning to end?

SPEAKER_01 55:27

All right, awesome.

SPEAKER_04 55:28

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 55:29

Yeah, so I do have to ask, um, I remember one of the times that we saw you at BlurCon, you did happen to tell us about a collaboration that you were supposed to be getting started that you weren't supposed to tell us about, that we had to, you know, maybe confirm, and then you both confirmed. So is the collaboration with Greg still happening? Is it happening soon? Should we be, you know, on a on a mailing list to know when it's gonna drop? I you know, I just wanted to know. I mean, yeah, I was working on it, so I was just trying to see.

SPEAKER_02 55:58

Yeah, that's a great question. Um, so so not to put you on the spot or anything, you know. Yeah, Greg, Greg and I are definitely working on a project. We've already started it, and you know, it's just it's it's slow moving because I think um the pandemic definitely kind of threw a monkey wrench in a lot of our different projects that were going on. And you know, um I I've been, you know, I how do I say it? It's um I've been in corporate America a long time, you know what I'm saying? So that has helped me sustain my other projects. And um, you know, Greg has a very different style or style, I guess some structure in terms of the stuff that he's doing with, you know, uh, you know, his regular gig. Like he's you know, camp counseling and you know, he's doing um, you know, mentoring and teaching and a few other things. So like, you know, his his his schedule is a little different than mine. So we we still have to reconnect in order to work on issue two and three because our plan was to give you guys a series that was, you know, just like anything else, a hundred pages long, like a little, a little tight, clean graphic novel. But right now there's only one book done out of three, so we still have some work to do, but it's still happening, it's just you know, slower moving.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

All right, because you you dropped all these keywords and we was all excited, and we was like, wait a minute, and you was excited. And the problem was you were so excited about it that you had nothing to show me, and I got excited. So I was like, crap, now I'm excited, and he's like he's like, he's about to bring it to me. I bet up.

SPEAKER_02 57:26

Yeah, you you you gotta you gotta do me a favor and you gotta poke Greg, your great man talking to TJ. Don't do that, because you know I will see y'all, man. So he knows that people curious about it too.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

Okay, you say that, but I got I got several people that can poke Greg and like let them know, hey, we're waiting. And TJ says it's on you. So let's go. I bet. So we're gonna do that. Um, you know, go ahead. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 57:53

I have a follow-up question. This just made me think of this. Um, when you mentioned the pandemic, um I'm wondering what was it like or how did things change with the pandemic when it came to, you know, how basically the industry looks, you know, for you. Because I mean I know, especially with just all the chains with cons and you know, cons really fairly recently kind of becoming, you know, or going um being as open as they once were close to or closer to as open as they once were. I'm wondering like what were some of the biggest challenges when it can't come to navigating the pandemic?

SPEAKER_02 58:28

Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, during the pandemic, I didn't do any cons at all. And you know, that's a big part of my business um to you know meet people directly and you know, for you know, um just you know, building the network, you know, I'm saying building the fan base, you know, making new friends and such an important integral part of what I did, and not being able to do it for like a year and a half was was pretty rough, you know what I'm saying? So I basically kind of pivoted to doing you know Kickstarter campaigns and you know doing fundraising for my next next projects, which allowed me to um get you guys, you know, directly to consumer, putting that product right in your hands. So a lot of people who I would see at cons were essentially going to Kickstarter campaign. And um now I'm still doing Kickstarter campaigns, but they're a little bit less important um just because I'm back at cons and now people can get those issues right in, you know, in you know, in person. And like I said, it's just an interesting balance of um, you know, uh, how do I say like promoting marketing and then saying, hey, this is where you can see me with the new book. And you know, like I said, for BlurCon, we made it a big deal because, you know, Sean Hill came down, and Sean doesn't really do cons like that. Like he's kind of like a, you know, I wouldn't say recluse, but like he's in the lab, drawing, creating, and working all the time. So he came down to BlurCon and he was literally signing that book with me the end, you know, for all day Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, and it was special for for the fans because they got to finally meet Sean and they got to see him and hang out with him and take pictures. So like we're trying to do more stuff like that where it's in person. Um I think the uh um the mask mandate kind of fluctuates between cons. I think BlurredCon was very strict about it. Some other cons like San Diego didn't people there was no no nothing strict at all. So mad people were getting COVID. Like um, yeah, just kind of it's changing now. It's slowly getting back to normal, but people are still out there getting sick. So, like if y'all if y'all like feeling well, chill at home, don't come to the con or you know, double triple mask up or do whatever you gotta do, you know. Definitely.

unknown 1:00:38

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:39

No, I I I definitely uh appreciate your willingness. One, your willingness to go out and be at these cons and you know, see each of your you know, fans, followers, you know, subscribers personally. Um it to me, it like it's almost like going to like one of those mom and pop shops in like the middle of a neighborhood where like whoever's behind the register knows everybody in the neighborhood. Because from what I've seen, and maybe I'm just a very rememberable person, every time TJ is in a you know in a con space, it's like he remembers everybody who comes up to the table.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:12

Oh yeah, I remember you when we when I saw you at OdaCon. Yeah, oh yeah, we were at New York Comic Con. Yeah, I remember you, I remember you. Oh, say the end.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

Like it's like every single person that comes up to the table, they say, Oh yeah, you remember me. TJ almost instantly remembers. Now I have to ask, is this a true skill that you have?

SPEAKER_06 1:01:27

It's like a against YouTube where you like Do not do not have Umman reveal his secret.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:36

I'm just asking for fine. I won't ask the question. Question redactor.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:41

Thanks. Nah, it's um it helps if I've seen the person more than once, but I I mean I do my absolute best. It's very difficult though, um, because I'm super good with faces, but a lot of times the names escape me. And um, so yeah, but it it takes a lot of, you know, just it's like going to the gym mentally, you know what I'm saying? Like, how do I recall this person you know asking certain questions, just really taking time to get to know everybody? But you know, I do also tell people like, hey, please don't get mad at me if I don't remember 100% because I do meet thousands of people at these shows. Right. So um I I'm definitely trying my best to remember people. A lot of times it's like just, you know, um, man, like I think you know, Shogun and I, we we've definitely, you know, um just broken bread a couple times, talked, you know, about his podcast and what you guys are doing. I was been on one show before. So, like, you know, that also helps just like seeing people I know over and over again. But yeah, man, um, I love you guys, man. I love the fans. So I'm very, very grateful and appreciative of the consistent support and y'all looking for me. It means a lot, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:46

I don't know, 100%. Ms. Skittles, that was a positive question that I was asking. Um, no, but seriously, it it for me, the reason why I asked is because it shows me how dedicated that TJ is to his fans and to the people who support him. Because it's for me, you know, it's a big thing. Like that's that's the reason why I support, you know, artists and you know, black businesses or any business. It's show me what you're not necessarily what you're gonna do for me, but show me what you do for the people who support you. Because it's you know, just like the podcast. If there were no listeners, we would just be talking to ourselves. So it'd be no point. Um if, you know, if you're watching a show on TV or sports, if there are no fans in the stands, and you know, those that that brand is gonna close down really soon. So it's if you don't give back to the people who are giving to you, then you're just spinning your wheels and you're spending your money for no reason. And that's one of the things that TJ does continuously. Um, whenever I see him, at least. Like he'll instead of talking to like 50 million people, he'll have like a dedicated conversation to each person and still tell the next person, hey, hold on, I got you. Don't walk away just yet, and finish the conversation. And this is just it's a really good rapport that he builds with everybody. So I I'm I'm saying that to thank you for being able to do that and wanting to do that with each person that walks up to your table, no matter what con you are at. Uh, it's uh definitely a huge thing in my book personally.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:09

Appreciate that, man. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:12

So this is normally the part of the con uh conversation, I almost said the con, uh, where we ask what is coming up next. You kind of already told us, but what big project is uh would you say is coming up next that you wanted to make sure that people know about?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:27

Yeah, I mean, I guess I haven't really talked too much about some of the so I've got about three or four other projects in the pipeline right now. Um, and the way I'm working at this thing is that I'm trying to get as much assets completed behind the scenes. So when you know it's time to drop this, the all of these, you guys don't have to wait on the art. I think the biggest issue that a lot of times indies have had is that they will put out one comic book and then it takes forever for the next one to come out. And I think for me, the new strategy I have as a business is to, you know, produce a whole bunch behind the scenes and then drop it like, you know, okay, like a hundred-page graphic novel or like five comics in once or something like that. So um right now I'm working on um the follow-up to the Oakma series, and that's basically uh the Tessina miniseries. Tissina is the uh black, you know, woman lead character in the Okmas series that's kind of like you know the toughest out of the group. And she starts out as a villain, but eventually her story becomes a uh a story about you know heroism. So that book, you know, that series is a six-part series. There's four issues done behind the scenes, and I'm basically trying to pull up to you know, you to y'all with like all six done or all five out of six done. So you guys don't have to wait that long, type of thing. So there's that. Um I've got an African historical fiction book coming out that has magic and monsters and all kinds of interesting stuff. I've got a um uh what is it called? Um Obviously, Villainous is coming out, Cyberpunk book. That's gonna be out in October. Um, Joyce Dickanials 2 will be out next year's uh space opera. Um I've got uh another very, very fun book that I'm writing with um brother Robert Jeffrey, who is a DC comics writer and a really great guy. Um, it's actually our uh take on if uh, you know, it's kind of a splice between Dragon Ball and Harry Potter. So it's kind of like magic, dinosaurs, you know, um secret orders, all kinds of stuff. So we're you know, I got like a very interesting YA magic book coming out. So yeah, man, like a whole bunch of stuff, bro. A whole bunch of stuff. Next couple years is gonna be like ducats, just just me dropping everything, man. So I just get ready, y'all.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:47

All right, so now I I need you, I need your con schedule because I have to find you and come pick up these issues because the way the way you dropping these things, six at a time, I gotta be prepared because if they sell out, I'm gonna be quite upset. Um, so uh as always, um I also want to make sure you have the opportunity to let people you already kind of did, but how can people subscribe or how can people find out uh either where you're gonna be or how they can obtain it or how they can put in to get an issue?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:16

Yeah, super easy, y'all. I mean, I'm at Ray Comics FB. That's R-A-E-Comics, and that's you know, um Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Um, I'm super active on Instagram, also active on my website, raycomics.com, R-A-E comics.com, and you can get single issues, you can get the collected edition of Oak Miss, you can get Oakmas Dark History, 100-page graphic novel, you can get joystick angels, you can get t-shirts, art prints, pretty much everything is available there on the site. So yeah, check me out online, follow me, friend me, talk to me. I'll be happy to hear from you guys. And yeah, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:53

Awesome, awesome, awesome. As always, you know, thank you, TJ, for showing up. Thank you for uh giving us a little bit of your voice uh that we can uh promote you. Uh because uh, like I said, your work is amazing. Uh thank you, Jack, for coming on today. We really appreciate it. Uh Terminus Veil. Um, uh I'm hoping, you know, TJ, knob knob, you know, poking with the elbow, checks it out and uh definitely uh y'all collab in some way, shape, or form because I think that'd be dope for both of y'all. You know, that's that's what we like to do, of course. Uh Blurred Spectrum. We like to get the collaborations popping. Uh just let us know if you need us to promote said collaboration, uh, because that'd be dope. Um uh let us be the scoops because we like to scoop. Uh so uh no, but thank you, Jack, for coming on, going over Terminus Veil. We're excited uh not only for you know the next uh up to eight uh uh issues, but also of course for the uh 2D side scroll. I know I'm I'm all the way hype uh for the game. Uh uh definitely. Um so uh we are excited to you know definitely promote them. Uh please stay tuned uh for the next edition of uh our Blurred Spectrum podcast as we go over some more content creators. Uh, but of course I have to give each and every one of our panelists the opportunity to state how they can be reached, uh starting with the podcast itself. Uh, that is the Blurred Spectrum Podcast, uh, which can be found on Instagram, Facebook, uh, as well as YouTube and Twitch at the Blurred Spectrum or Blurred Spectrum. Um myself, I can be found on IG, Suchi No Shogun, Suchi underscore no underscore shogun. Suchi is spelled T-S-U-C-H-I. Um, also you can hit up our mailbag, which is um what is that mailbag? The blurred spectrum at unbelievage.com or the blurred spectrum at gmail.com. Uh oh, I can also be found at Blurred Creations, Blur Creations.com or Blur Creations Shop on Facebook, Blurred Creations on Instagram, um, oh, and blurred creations on TikTok. Uh, each and one, every one of those, uh, you can see our new back to school sale that's coming up where we're gonna have a bunch of stuff for you and your kids. If you like it, go and buy it. If you don't, go and buy it. If you don't want it, still go and buy it and send it to somebody who will. Um uh also we have our Zodiac Girls line that has been created by the graphic design extraordinaire uh Ms. Skittles. Yes, I had to. Uh, she's actually wearing uh one of her uh creations, the uh Leo, uh um, the Leo Zodiac Girls shirt. Uh right now we just had Virgo come out. Of course, as the seasons come out, we'll have new lines come out created by her. Uh so maybe that's another collaboration that could be done with TJ and Jack. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:38

Uh yeah, Miss Skittles, come talk to me at Dragon Time, man. I want to see that.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:48

Uh, but uh I'll go ahead and let Ms. Skittles give her uh how she can be reached and how her artwork can be seen and you know all the other ways for her to you know prop some money. Go ahead, girl.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:57

Oh my gosh. Okay. Y'all can reach me at Ms. Mz Z Skittles S-T-R underscore cosplay on Facebook, uh, TikTok, and Instagram, and Twitter is M-I-Z Skittles2K02.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:15

And then um the doctor, how can you be reached? Doctor T on Facebook. Uh Shammy B, how can you be reached?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:24

Uh you can reach us at Blur Creations on Instagram and on um, well mostly just Instagram, and on the website itself, blurcreations.com. Uh, you can reach me um pretty much any of the video games. Just look out for either uh Shammy B or look out for Bruiser Brody, one or two.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:42

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And then one more time, uh Jack, how can you be reached? How can your fans and our listeners reach you?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:50

Yeah, yeah, it's at uh terminusvale via Instagram or Twitter. Um, and then it's terminusvale.com if you want to you know go out and uh support the book. Um, yeah, and I want to make sure to thank you as well for you know letting me in on it today. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:07

No problem. Uh this is what we do, and uh, we enjoy doing it. Uh TJ, one more time, how can you be reached?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:13

Yes, sir. I can be reached at racomics.com, racomics.com, and it's also R-A-E comics at Instagram and Twitter. Appreciate y'all.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:25

So phenomenal. Hopefully y'all can you know connect, collaborate, you know. Miss Kittles, don't forget, visit the table, DragonCon. Actually, everybody visit uh Ray Comic Con.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:34

I'm gonna have to visit this table at DragonCon, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:36

See, up see now Jack's going to Dragon Con. All right, it's about to be popping. Put that joint on live, uh, Miss Skittles. We gotta see that joint. Um, so it's about to be a party at uh Ray Comics, R-A-E comics at Dragon Con. Uh, maybe y'all can catch Miss Skittles and Jack Terminus Veil uh at the TJ Sterling Ray Comics table. Um, but as for this episode, we want to thank you all for listening. And as I always say, Sayonada.