Interview with Pat Shand on Robin Hood, Clonsters, and Destiny NY

Hey, this is Pat Shan, writer of Robin Hood,

and you are listening to the Geekcast Radio Network.

Grr. Arg. Hello, and welcome to The Polebag!

You are expecting to hear Batman TMNT Adventures

with Joe Reed and I. That will be out, uh, it'll

be out late, um... Joe just had a baby, folks.

I'm, of course, TFU and Mike, so Joe is dealing

with all this family stuff. But we have an interview

today, and we have a returning guest of Pat Shand.

Hello, sir. Hey, how's it going? It's going.

Sometimes I wish it would stop, but it's going.

Uh, and for those of you who don't know, uh,

for those of you who haven't listened, go back.

The link will be in the, in the post. Go back

to, uh, I, Steve and I did Robin Hood month.

I think it was July of 2015 or so. Yeah. Cause

it's been about two years since you and I talked,

uh, where we talked about the first kind of run

of, of Robin Hood over there at Xenoscope, which

Pat wrote and, and all of that. So check all

those podcasts out. Steve and I are going to

be doing another robin hood month here in june

are well coming up in june because this will

actually be out uh... later on the twenty -fourth

of may so this coming up next month we're doing

robin hood month in june inside the pullback

we're gonna talk about all four volumes of the

ongoing series which is uh... amazing uh... love

that series uh... love those characters uh...

Just want to kill that lady because of that cat

My least favorite ever review of Robin Hood was

this this person who posted that they couldn't

get past the first scene and it seemed that the

book was supporting animal abuse and it's like

no that's not the lead character that is clearly

the villain yeah she's on screen for like three

pages and then she's brutally murdered come on

yeah i mean come on yeah i'm um i'm very clearly

pro cat if you're on my social media yes we know

It's a cat -eat -dog world in your house. It

really is. So you've been doing Robin Hood for,

at the time when the ongoing ended, you've been

doing it for what, five or six years or more?

It was 40 years. I did it from 2012 to 2016.

Very awesome very long time man long time and

a lot of stories Yeah, you know it feels um looking

back I thought it was more sporadic than it was

but pretty much every miniseries that we did

before the ongoing did lead into another miniseries

So there was a mini a one -shot mini a one -shot

mini ongoing. There's almost no break at all

for four years. Yeah absolutely, and then the

ongoing came and it actually got me to read other

zinescope stuff because I'm one of those types

that my general default is superheroes but sometimes

when DC and Marvel screw things up like killing

Nightwing for one thing morons I know he's alive

I know he's back but it's not anyway that's a

whole other tangent so when I you know when I

first you know found your comic and you know

with Robin Hood and Zinescope and that they're

doing the Grim Fairytale stuff. I have not gotten

into a lot of their stuff. I've read all of the

Robin Hood stuff. I have read the 10th anniversary

issues, which those were six individual comics.

Lose Cinderella was amazing. Soon as he had Jack

Jack say Cinderella, I'm like, oh you magnificent

bastard you I've read various Red Riding Hood

stuff so I which is actually works because she

kind of ties into Robin and that's another one

of my go -to characters but i have not had a

chance yet to get into a lot of the other stuff

over there but you've got something new up your

sleeve which actually congratulations just got

funded last night oh yes thank you um yeah it's

my all -ages comic um it's called clausters uh

the creator is my fiance amy um and we're writing

it together uh it's an all -ages book it's kind

of like adventure time meets are real monsters

It is this fantasy world populated by these creatures,

these monsters made from clay, hence monsters,

who go on these adventures together. So it's

a very open concept where we could do more stories

as well. But right now, our first book in this

series just got funded. It's on Kickstarter right

now. We have 30 hours left to go. So if you like

all ages books, if you like Pixar, Disney type

stuff, but also that weird sort of The 90s Nicktoons

had this weird vibe that you don't only see in

cartoons anymore So we married that kind of strangeness

with the adventure of modern cartoons And I think

that readers will like that and we have it on

Kickstarter right now 30 hours left to go so

you can still get it Awesome awesome Now you

said that she had created these and I saw that

one of the videos one of the live streaming videos

you guys did These were clay creatures she had

been creating Yeah, she uh, she made that first

from polymer clay She is a sculptor she was just

messing around and She was trying to find something

original to do because when she was first starting

with clay she was watching tutorials and trying

to learn her way around and then one day she

just randomly put that aside and Started to do

her own creations her own idea and the first

thing to come up was a cluster and She has since

made men Many many clusters she makes them on

her Etsy. She has people who come into her job

and special order them So it's been pretty successful

as far as that goes. So when it was time to do

a second Kickstarter She suggested clusters because

I had been saying for a while that we should

do a book based on this and When we had an opening

she suggested to finally do the book and yeah

So who are some of the main characters in the

book? In the book, we have Polly. Polly is our

lead character. Her species is Earth Nugget.

That is a sort of nugget -shaped monster who

are primarily very friendly creatures. They're

almost like the human type characters. Her journey

in the book is she is a breeder of a species

called Splats. Splats are like the cats of the

Clonster's world. They're these funny sort of

tongue hanging out. cat -like lizard creatures

who are the pets of the Clonster's world, but

she has this respect for splats that other people

don't. Other people will poach their horns, they'll

sell them, Polly breeds them, and she helps cultivate...

good things for splats. She's almost like a splat

rescue. So when her splat goes missing, she goes

on a quest to find it and she explores her world

at large. We get to meet different sorts of creatures

like the wise pocket rocks. There are sea nuggets

who are mysterious and have a connection to the

splats that will shed light on what they are.

And it's sort of like there was this vibe in

the 90s cartoons where The cartoons had a message,

but they weren't preachy, right? Like you had

these environmentalist cartoons where it speaks

to you about how you should keep the world safe

without being like Captain Planet, right? So

we wanted to do a cat rescue type comic that

wasn't so, so preachy where you can read it as

a story and it doesn't even seem like a cat rescue

comic. But when you apply it to our world, it

is sort of an animal conservation type type idea

hmm very cool very cool where besides the Kickstarter

stuff once you guys actually put this into production

from the Kickstarter funds that you raised is

that gonna be done through a publisher are you

gonna self publish it are you gonna however how

is all that gonna work well for my first Kickstarter

for destiny in New York that that was my first

ever independently published book I opened up

a small publisher to do that. So this one's gonna

be going through that too. We're called continuity

entertainment and This is our second book. I'm

gonna have it at conventions. It's gonna be online

through our social media for sale So yeah, if

you just search continuity entertainment on Facebook

on Twitter, we're there we're gonna be selling

the book and I'll be I'll have it at my table

where Amy will also have her clusters are her

clay creations going forward Very cool. Very

cool. Is this also gonna have digital distribution

on Comixology as well or just print only? It'll

be digital. We're working on Comixology first

for Destiny New York We're gonna release chapter

by chapter of that. Hopefully one Every month

leading up to the Kickstarter for volume 2 this

September So yeah, I hope to debut Destiny New

York chapter one on Comixology this June and

then followed When that's all out, we'll probably

do one or two Pieces of Clonsters as either a

full graphic novel or two issues on comic solid.

Oh very cool. Very cool. Yeah, I It's been all

Clonsters the last three or four weeks. I almost

forgot about Destiny New York. I'm sorry We did

go hard for Clonsters because With Destiny, that

was a longer campaign. There was a longer build

to that. I put the first issue out as a webcomic

first so people could get a taste of it. But

Closers, we booked the artist, got some pages

done. We went right to Kickstarter. A short campaign,

it was just 17 days. And then we just blasted

through it. So it has been all clusters all time

these past few weeks, but destiny in New York

is coming I have my shipment coming I have one

smaller shipment coming either this weekend or

the beginning of next week followed by in like

next week or the week after a Shipment of a thousand

copies. So that'll be here soon I'll be sending

all the rewards out and that's the book that

we're gonna go harding if that is our ongoing

series Actually on the topic of Robin Hood That's

the book I used to fill in the gap of Robin Hood

in my life, because Robin Hood had always been

the book that I sort of poured myself into. It

was ongoing. I always had it. Destiny, I wanted

to do that without having to sort of take the

who owns the concept. I wanted to own the story

that I'm putting myself into at that level. So

that is Destiny New York, and that is coming

quite soon. Awesome, so with destiny in New York

for those that don't know about it. Tell us the

basic premise behind this all right, so the premise

is that Magic is real. It's a part of everyday

life, so it isn't exceptional right it's um Like

in the Harry Potter where magic is real you see

a world defined by magic Lord of the Rings magic

is such a big part of life, even though it's

just a part of life so I approached magic as

more of a a mundane thing where Alright, so We

eat right? We just we eat food all the time But

when you see a show if the characters never eat

if you never see them eating you don't question

it It's just a part of life Destiny in New York.

I didn't want magic to be the focus I wanted

it to be there in the world But I wanted to explore

what the world would be like if this was actually

real and it was it was actually real People wouldn't

be using it all the time. It wouldn't be this

big thing that defines life I wanted to do a

very down -to -earth grounded take on a world

where magic is a real thing and it follows this

girl Logan who had a prophecy about her when

she was 13 and She, uh, her prophecy came true.

She fulfilled her destiny. Now she is 30 years

old. She's trying to make it in life, trying

to find her way. And it sort of asks the question,

when you've already done the greatest thing you're

ever going to do, what's next for you? How, how

do you, um, how do you live in normal life knowing

that you've already peaked pretty much? That

sounds interesting. Um, and the first thing I

can think of when you say, you know, magic is,

is the background more than the foreground. I'm

like, so there's no, tall blondes walking around

wrinkling their noses at anybody. Gotta love

that bewitched humor. Could be. I've seen that

show in such a long, long, long time. That's

some Nick and Mike classics for me. Of course,

of course. Definitely. As long as there's no...

Hollywood girls that you know want to get into

acting but end up in a alternate dimension with

You know some guy being betrothed to them She's

got giant headaches folks cuz she's not part

demon yet What other characters is Logan gonna

run into in destiny All right, she has her girlfriend,

Lilith, who is a chain -smoking, sort of secretive

person who we're not sure in the first volume

if she's good, if she's bad, what her intentions

are. There's Gia, who has this... Gia is a classmate

of Logan. She's sort of like the most popular

girl in school. She is the one who has the biggest,

most important destiny. And Gia... sort of comes

to terms in this book with what her destiny means.

Because we always see a trope of fantasy fiction

is the prophecy that you'll have to kill some

dark lord. So with Gia, her arc is I have to

kill someone, but this is a person, right? And

it's sort of taking that idea of a prophecy to

kill someone and applying it to a real world

where people are people. There's Anthony, who's

a seer. There's Augustine, who is Logan's coworker

and best friend. There's his husband, Andre,

who is this guy. He's very oblivious to Augustine's

strife because Augustine wants romance. He wants

life to be lively. He wants action and adventure.

And Andre is a 45 -year -old man who's content

to be at home. playing video games, watching

Netflix, and just living life. And he has no

idea that he has this sort of underlying drama.

He just is oblivious to it. There is a trio of

younger kids at Logan's school. Logan is in graduate

school. When you complete your prophecy at Destiny

University, you stay in a graduate program that

sort of prepares you for everyday life. But there

are the younger kids. who are Joel Rollins, Sherry,

and Marybeth, who are 14, 15 years old, who are

about to be in high school, and they're also

coming to terms with what their prophecy means.

So yeah, it tries to explore the idea of destiny

in adolescence and in adulthood. Very cool, very

cool. With Klonsters, do we have a price point

yet? Yes. Clonsters um right now on Kickstarter.

It's $15. I'm going to figure out the price once

we have it as a book because um Without Kickstarter

part of the deal is not only are you buying it?

But you're part of this you're helping make it

a thing, right? Just because I have this 15 here

doesn't mean it's gonna be 15, but also um the

thing about destiny is That was priced at 25

on Kickstarter And that was just 120 pages but

by the time it was done, I'd added 30 more pages

and I have made enough money on the Kickstarter

that I decided that when I print the book price

it at 20 Because we have made enough money and

I felt that I was giving the backers a bigger

thing than we'd planned on, right? It was 30

pages of content longer, so I felt good about

that. But with Clusters, because Clusters is

a shorter book, so if that one ends up being

longer, I might not be able to cut the price,

because it will just be a lot more expensive

to produce. But I'm thinking either 10 or 15,

but I'm leaning 10. Okay, all right. so this

is what you're doing currently what's uh... are

you planning on doing just more creator on stuff

as you guys go along or are you uh... i mean

i don't know what he can say only i mean you

can sit here and say you'd love to do something

for this comic company that comic company but

do you have any other aspirations of going back

to work for a publisher all yet for sure uh...

all right so i mean my main plan is to uh...

Because here's the thing. Here's what no one

only talks about I live in New York right now.

It's on it's very difficult to live in New York

while being freelance so I take almost every

freelancing gig I can get just because Freelancing

is my day job, right? Like the creator on comics.

That's my passion and I really do enjoy freelance

writing but it is It's my day job so I can make

sure that I can pay rent that I can live somewhere,

right? But on that note though, there are work

for higher gigs that I would just love, love,

love to get. There are companies that I have

worked with, that I've loved working with and

would do so again. There are companies that it's

my dream to work for, so for sure. I do separate

it from my career and work, but it's a different

kind of passion. I still do love that stuff.

Like, for instance, today, my first ever novel

came out. It's my Guardians of the Galaxy novel.

It's called Space Riot. And that's freelance.

But it's also a dream come true. So it feels

disingenuous to compare it on my part to my creator

on work. Because while I do separate it, I can't

say that I'm less excited about Guardians. Because

it's a different kind of excitement. Destiny

arrives here, and I open it. I'm gonna look at

it like my child. But with Guardians, I'm just

like, I'm excited. I'm just, I'm glad to be part

of that universe. You're essentially Mary Poppins.

Yeah. I am, and I'm, I look toward freelance

work like this. I'll take what I can get, and

I will... take gigs that I know I can do a great

job on. But there are some gigs that I'm just

objectively more excited about. Like, I can't

lie. I'm very excited about Guardians of the

Galaxy. Getting that gig was very exciting for

me. And to have that book coming out this year,

and followed by two other Marvel novels. I have

an Iron Man and an Avengers novel both coming

out in July. And those are the ones I'm most

excited about. I have something for a publisher

I can't name yet. It's a publisher I've been

trying to work for for my entire career. It's

coming out this year I believe. It's a great

property as well. I wish I could say it. It's

physically painful that I can't say it because

I'm just so happy about it. I'll drag it out

of you when no one's listening. I have stuff

coming out from... avatars company boundless

um i have some more zeniscope stuff just um i

uh i just got this gig actually and no not just

got it but i just uh decided to do it uh spirit

hunters um is uh this zeniscope book that i had

um we plotted it like a tv show we sat in a writer's

room plotted it all out together and i wrote

um of the first six issues I wrote or co -wrote

for. And then toward the end, they called me

up and because I already have a plotting credit,

they asked me if I wanted to come in and script

the final three issues. And I said, sure. So

I'm working on that now as well. And that's the

extent of what I could talk about now. I have

greater homework though coming out from other

publishers besides myself. I have one coming

out next year from a company that has made some

waves this year And and I feel like such such

an ass that I'm just vague booking right now,

that's all right But but you know, I mean that's

we get in these phases where we've already announced

all we can talk about So what we're excited about

is what's next? Yeah You can't quite turn that

corner just yet. It's true, but what's funny

though is um right now. I'm working on almost

exclusively all ages content and then like hard

R content The thing that avatar and boundless

does is just like they take everything to the

extreme So the violence is extreme the cursing

is extreme. It's everything's extreme there,

and then I'm here working on clusters and it's

all ages other property that i can't mention

that i'm fucking dying to that's hilarious it's

like okay okay honey i'm gonna go to my day job

where i get to curse and right about blood and

guts and gore and i'm gonna come home to you

and we're going to talk about these little clay

creatures that were in your brain pretty much

okay do you have any convention appearances that

you want to talk about upcoming yeah i have on

for new yorkers i have eternal con that is a

long island con i'm doing it in july followed

by Rock con it's a Rochester comic -con that

is in September same month. I have Baltimore

comic -con and Unless I'm mistaken and to be

honest, I probably am I probably am missing something

that just off top of my head But those are the

ones that I'm aware of right now I didn't book

as many cons this year because I'm getting married

in August and I'm learning two kickstarters.

So my idea is that uh when i have more stock

just for for the primary primary um convention

run of my life i've been selling zenoscope books

and um now that i'm um out of zenoscope as a

staffer and i'm on my own producing work i want

to sell that work so um yeah i want to uh build

up some more of that before i dive into the convention

is hard again so yeah right now i'm looking at

eternal Rock on and Baltimore and maybe some

more maybe some more Already then So folks, as

I said at the beginning of this, coming up in

June, Steve, Megatron, and I are going to dive

into Robin Hood. That sounds creepy and wrong,

but we are. We're going to dive into the ongoing

series from Xenoscope, and we're going to talk

about all four volumes. I have only, on its initial

issue by issue, single issue run, I've only read

up to issue 17, but I do have to ask you, did

you get... a satisfying conclusion to your story.

You've been working on this for four years. Do

you feel the 20 issues in the annual and the

holiday issue, all that stuff, do you feel that

you had done everything that you wanted to do

with that character and her world? At least to

that point. It's hard to answer that because,

alright, so on one level, I wrote a good ending,

I wrote the right ending. It would have ended

around that way no matter where I ended it but

I can't say that I didn't eventually not eventually

initially want like a hundred issues Everybody

wants a hundred issues, dude. Yeah, you know

and I had ideas but To be super honest my ideas

were based on what I originally wanted it to

be and very early on Oh, you want Robin to date

Marion? No. So from jump, I had to sort of repurpose

my idea. And I was doing the book I wanted to

do for the most part. And that's why I wanted

to do Destiny. Because when you're doing a book

that you're so passionate about, as I was about

Robin Hood, it's that the most part that sticks

out. Robin Hood was 99 % my dream book and that

1 % that I couldn't do my way and Here's the

thing. I understand like they zenoscope owned

Robin Hood If I were to write Batman, I couldn't

go on and do it 100 % my own way DC owns Batman,

you know, so I understand it 100 % But that that

lack of ownership is why I wanted to do my own

thing But yeah, the answer is that in those 20

issues of the ongoing plus the holiday issue

and the final annual, yeah, I did what I wanted

to do. Would I have liked more? Would I have

had stories for more? Yes. But at the same time,

I could have done more. They weren't saying get

off the book. I left the book. That was my choice

because I did get the note. that they wanted

it to be more of an action -centric book. And

that wasn't how I saw the book. So I was just

thinking, maybe it's just better if I end my

run where it still feels like my run. Because

I wouldn't want to say, I know right now that.

who co -created Xenoscope, who's the co -creator

of Grim Fairy Tales, he's co -plotting a lot

of the books. And I wouldn't want that. Like,

I wouldn't want a co -plotter on Robin Hood,

just because for those four years, I was writing

Robin Hood, you know? And that was... Just me,

pretty much. And I would get these notes and

apply them, and I would feel good about some,

others not so much. But I didn't want to change

how I was doing things, so I thought it was best

to finish it up while it still felt like mine,

you know? Yeah, absolutely. All right, where

can the people find you online? I am at Patch

Ham pretty much everywhere. All right, you want

to give out the Kickstarter info again? Before

we get out of here. You know, there's a longer

link, but you can just find the easier one to

click on my Twitter. It's on Twitter .com slash

Pat Shan. I'm at Pat Shan there, at Pat Shan

on Instagram and Facebook. So if you go to any

of those, pretty much all you'll see is Clonsters.

You'll find that link. And also, hey, if you

missed Destiny New York, there's a tier on Clonsters

that you can order that as well. So you can get

both of those books there. But I do want to say,

too, I'm very excited to hear your take on Robin

Hood, because looking back at my run, I love

the trilogy, but it's the ongoing that feels

like I got to do something crazy. That was just,

I sat down and I made up some solicits, but pretty

much every month I sat down and said, what do

I want to do now? And that was cool. So I'm very

much looking forward to hearing you revisit that.

And I'll read the end for the first time because

it felt very me in that moment. So I'm excited

to see how it feels to someone else now. Yeah.

I mean, like I said, we blitzed two years ago.

I blitzed through. the first three volumes and

the Age of Darkness, One Shot, and things like

that and whatever else. And I was ready for the

ongoing and I was reading it almost monthly.

I was almost reading it, you know, when it was

coming out and I loved it. I thought it was great.

Going back to it, you know, it's really not that

hard at least for, like I said, the first two

arcs of it at least. it's just you know that

that and section that i didn't really didn't

really catch the time so that's gonna be kind

of fresh for me uh... and i've just love the

story with her i i love it when i had my favorite

parts you you guys really i don't know if it

would be you and lou you and jeff somebody you

guys need to get together you guys need to do

a robin and red series like seriously robin and

red robin and britney together are great Well,

I'll tell you this. Jeff Massey and I tried.

We wrote an outline. We pitched it. And it didn't

even get a response, like not even an email back.

Wow. And that was years ago. That was when I

was still writing Robin Hood. Yeah. That was

supposed to be the summer of the end of Robin

Hood. It was going to be Robin versus Red Volume

2. We mentioned it in conversation, wrote the

outline, and then nothing. So I have no idea

what happened there. I like it. That would be

awesome. Thanks, man. Because, well, like I said,

I just read the first trade, the first volume

of the ongoing, and it's the one, it's where,

you know, Red comes back, and they're friends,

and they have, you know, they're not enemies

anymore, so a team -up series would just be awesome,

I think. I think so, too, you know, because it

felt, it felt that of all the cast of Robin Hood,

Red wasn't really in that cast, but she was sort

of adjacent to it. I brought in Van Helsing as

a main character, but Red sort of just guessed

it. So it would be fun to have her actually have

a longer media series with Robin Hood. Absolutely.

Alright folks, we're going to get out of here.

You've been listening to the pull bag second

interview with Mr. Pat Shand. As I said, Batman

TMNT episode is kind of delayed, but next week

we've got JT and myself coming back to talk about

what we call part two. But it's essentially issues

three through five of the Escaping the Grave

Batman Beyond 2016 arc, because we're wrapping

up Batman Month, heading into Robin Hood Month

here inside the pull bag. You can find us on

Twitter at the pull bag. I am at TF2 and Mike.

He is at Pat Chan. You can also follow at GeekCast

Radio for all the other network updates. Make

your great escape into comics, and we will catch

you next time. Oh my god. Angel, you're cute.

Fred, don't. Hey, you're fired. Hi, this is Pat

Shan, writer of Robin Hood, and you have jumped

inside the pull bag