Interview with Ryan Ferrier on Writing Dave, Hot Damn, and Kennel Block Blues

Hey, this is Ryan Ferrier, writer of IDW's Dave

2 and the upcoming Hot Damn. You're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Come with me if

you want to live. Hello, and welcome to the Pullbag's

first interview in 2016. I am your jobs damn

host, DFJ and Mike, and oh, for the love of was,

joining me is Beatles Diva. Hello. Aloha. No

one's gonna know what that means, folks, unless

you've listened to episode 126 and 127, which

was our Dave and Dave 2 reviews. Today we have

the pleasure of welcoming Dave writer Ryan Ferrier.

Hello Ryan. How are you? Good. How are you? Pretty

good pretty good Before we get started. Can you

give us the scoop on what is going on in the

world of Ryan Ferrier? Any upcoming hot button

comic news you care to reveal? Yeah, actually

next week February 3rd is the release date of

kennel block blues number one, which is my new

Critter on series Coming from boom and that's

with Daniel Bayless on art at a Metcalf on colors

and Colin Bell doing lettering and that's Something

that's been in the works for a long time. They're

really jazzed about it. So it's what is that

series about? It's kind of unlike anything I've

ever done before it's it's a prison book, but

it's all starring animals And so it kind of follows

this New inmate as he goes into prison and as

such he has a difficult time coping with his

new environment and and and just his life in

general he Ends up hallucinating these kind of

cartoon musical Oh my gosh, I am sold. It sounds

like it's right up your alley, Nicole. It blends

a bunch of different styles and it gets really,

really crazy and it's super fun and it's really

emotional and there's lots of heart and excitement

and it's kind of difficult to explain but I mean

it's just like Daniel's artwork is just alone,

it's just beautiful and that's exciting and then

we've got Hot damn, starting up at IDW. It's

a five -issue mini that's done solely by me and

Valentin Ramon, the artist for Dave. I'm excited

for this. Yeah, it's gonna be really crazy, actually.

I just got final pages in this morning for the

first issue, and it's going to be absolutely

bonkers. I can't believe they're letting us actually

publish this. That starts, I believe, early April.

And that's five issues. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I'm

so excited for this. This is going to be so much

fun. The cover alone, the little promo cover

of the ghost. I love it. I was super jazzed that

like so far it's been really interesting with

IDW and that everything I've been I've sent over

like in terms of like promo because for the most

part I get to kind of do the design work for

the promos and announcements and stuff like that

and I kind of like Aim way too high like and

I'll send something I'm gonna be like can we

do this kind of assuming that they're gonna be

like nah but they're always like super excited

about it and and I can't believe like when they

announced Dave to I sent over the ad that just

said like something something something but fart

sound like it was just really big and I left

it in there as placeholder text and I just sent

it over I was like look this is what I'm thinking

for the design and I'll put some copy in afterwards

and they were like no let's do this it's hilarious

and it was the same with with hot damn i was

like i don't know i'm kind of maybe there's a

chance they won't let me put this satanic goat's

head as like the lead announcement teaser uh

but now they're cool with it which is fun i mean

uh i'm lucky you know when i when i first saw

that the first thing i thought of and i don't

know why is the adam sandler the goat skit that's

the first thing i saw when i saw that that announcement

image as old school Oh, yeah With the football

you're gonna throw it it's a little too big football

if you guys had a Tennis ball I could see but

I gotta catch it with my mouth, you know, I don't

got no fingers So a football I could cause some

damage, but what else I remember I think it was

like The day after or the night Oh, I don't know

when the announcement was first made whenever

comics Alliance first put up the article about

hot damn Instantly messaged Nicole and I said,

oh my god, we might have to do this issue by

issue Because it looks really really cool We're

gonna ask you about some info on that later,

so we'll save that Going back to the beginning

Where did you grow up and had you always wanted

to get into writing and writing for comics specifically?

I grew up here in Calgary Alberta. It's in Canada

and I've always been here for this part. And

I didn't always want to do comics. I've always

read comics. Like, I was reading comics before

I could even read. But I very distinctly remember

my mom used to buy me those, like, grab bags

that you used to get at, like, the gas stations

or, like, Circle K. Like, it was just a bag with,

like, random, like, Marvel, DC and, like... So

other weird stuff, you know that I can't really

remember right now, but we have always been reading

comics but I mean fast forward to You know a

few decades later I I always know I wanted to

do something creative. So I mean I trained in

animation at one point and I wanted to be an

animator and then I went To I got trained in

graphic design. I did that for like 12 years.

So But there was some overlap with with with

that in that I really took to when I was going

to animation school I I took more to the script

portion of the Of the program and and so I started

writing then and and I kind of haven't really

stopped writing for For a fleeting few years.

I even did film reviews and stuff like that.

Like like I was Tried my hand at like film blogging,

you know, which is the thing but yeah, but I

gave that all up and Comics became my focus in

like 2007 And then yeah, I've been working I've

been I've been pouring most of my time into comics

since then Dave started off with monkey brains

and went on to IDW. What was the transition like

and who approached you? Did you approach IDW

or did they approach you? Well, when Valentin

and I first did it, I mean we pitched it around

for a while. We pitched it for, I mean from the

time we... Started working on it to the time

it actually started coming out through monkey

brain. It was almost two years. I think oh wow

Yeah, so it was kind of and that's the thing

with pitching like it can take forever sometimes

and and no one really You know wanted to give

it a chance I don't think or there's so many

different reasons that go into a pitch getting

accepted or rejected beyond just, oh, we don't

like it. So I mean, there was a lot of different

factors that kind of took it towards Monkey Brain.

And at the time I was, I'm a comic letterer too.

I do a whole bunch of lettering still. It's something

I really enjoy. But I was lettering a couple

Monkey Brain books at the time. I was doing like,

there I'm in with Kurt Pierce and Dalton and

Well skybreaker was one anyways So like I just

happened to bring it up to Chris Roberson and

I'll some Baker who run monkey brain and I just

said look I've got this book and and I want Want

to see if you guys are interested in it because

we want to find a home for it and and they immediately

took to it I said, yeah, we love it and then

we'll do it. So we did it through monkey brain

and That took I mean it was a four knows five

issues and it was about Five to six weeks in

between issues. So it's a slightly different

schedule than like, you know the the monthly

comics game, but but Yeah, it's a great so when

the time came to put out the trade the collection

We kind of pitched it around a little bit to

a couple other places but we really like IDW

was really supportive and and they really wanted

it and we knew that it would it would be taken

care of and and it actually went from Just jumping

right from monkey brain to the trade to the point

where IDW is like no we want to rerelease this

like in singles monthly in print and then do

the trade. Yeah, so it actually did. Yeah, it

did a five month singles run too. So I mean,

that was like, that was amazing. Like I don't,

I can't imagine any other publisher that would,

would want to do that. You know, most would probably

just be like, Oh, put the trade out, you know,

at best. So IDW just loved it and they, and they

supported it. And, and we got a whole new audience

just from that monthly print run and then a whole

new audience from the trades. So that's been

that was awesome. Like it's the most literally

the most ideal situation That you can imagine

with with uh, you know Getting picked up somewhere.

It sounds like idw treats their independent Creators

very well, and I like to hear that Yeah, I mean

it's it's um, it's interesting because idw, you

know, they're most well known for their license

stuff which is great and It's been nothing but

awesome, you know, for me. And they don't put

out a lot of crater on, but I think they're changing

that. I think the whole landscape of comics is

changing. So it's cool to see a company that's,

you know, really, really branching out and trying

to do really awesome things. And I mean, if only

just for me, you know, my livelihood and stuff

like that, I mean, it's been great. kudos to

them for letting us put out Dave which which

although like people seem to really dig it like

I understand if people if it's a hard thing for

a company to want to sell you know because it's

kind of it's kind of weird and you can't really

just say it's a robot book and an alien book

like it's got all this weird kind of I picked

up Dave expecting this, you know, this like sci

-fi robot alien fight book and it's and it's

completely the opposite. It almost doesn't feel

like a robot book, which is kind of what we were

aiming for. But but yeah, that's kind of the

road of Dave. Yeah. Yeah, we used to I tried

an experiment last year with the podcast where

I would take various people, Nicole included.

Nicole and I did the IDW solicits, but I would

take myself and two or three or four other people

and we would each have four or five different

sections of the show and we would read off what's

being released in that month and we called it

profiling previews and I forget which month it

was last year, but when IDW had the solicits

for Dave, I was like... Oh my god, we need to

read this now. We need to cover this now. I think

I'm the one that recommended it. I think I actually

said the same thing. It's robots and aliens.

Yeah. Well, when I read the solicit, I'm like,

oh my god, what if robots were actually human?

Or what if robots, you know, it was just, oh

my god, it was just so great. And last year,

a whole bunch of stuff happened and we just couldn't

get to it. And I'm like, We need to get to this

before the end of 2016. We need to charge through

this, read it, get the shows up, and get it done.

And man, it is probably the best nine issues

of comics I've ever read. Wow. It's good stuff.

Thank you so much. That's incredibly kind of

you. Thank you. We're going to get into some

more Dave stuff here in a bit. When it comes

to reading comics, because everybody wants to

know this usually, DC, Marvel, neither or another

comic company? I tend to lean more towards creator

-owned stuff. So image. Yeah, I like everything

that Dark Horse is putting out. Great stuff.

Black Mask is putting out really great stuff.

Image, obviously, is putting out great stuff.

So I mean, I do dabble in a little bit of everything.

I read some Marvel. I read some DC. So I'm kind

of, if the story's good, then I'll read it. I

don't have, there seems to be sometimes there's

like, no, I only read Craterow or I only read

the big two, but I'll just read anything. I like

everything. I mean, I... I've done most of my

work as crater own and and I'm really That's

what makes me passionate about what other people

are doing right now, but at the same time I grew

up reading Marvel DC I love it, you know, so

it's it's I'm all over the place Let's see that

was going into my next question. So which comics

did you actually read growing up? Do you remember

and which ones what specific titles do you enjoy

today? I read You know what while I'm answering

that I'm gonna pull up my comics ology account

I'm really behind too, and I'm also super broke

right now, so I haven't been able to catch up

on on the books, but What I read as a kid the

very first comic I got and I still have it it's

framed right next to my desk is Crisis on infinite

Earth's number seven And that was in that grab

bag that my mom gave me. And that's the first

thing I pulled out. It was the first comic book

I ever owned. I opened up the bag, and it had

like a thing so you couldn't see what's on the

front. And there's, you know, five comics in

there. And I pulled this one issue out from the

middle, and it was, it's that cover, right, with

Superman holding the dead Supergirl. And I was

just like, what? Because I knew what Superman

was, but I never read Superman comics. So I was

just like, what? Supergirl's dead? And they're

showing it on the cover. Like, it just... Blew

my mind and I was hooked. I still got it right

here Yeah, it's one of the best ever yeah, it's

also one of the most like like Yeah, and like

people have like Have redone that kind of cover

like I got a gift a few years ago from a great

friend And it's I got an x -men issue and it's

like Cyclops holding Jean Grey in the exact same

position like obviously It's like the ripping

on on that cover But I read I also started reading

a lot of like cartoon strips when I was a kid

All my family Scottish, so they used to send

me like all these weird British cartoons and

like comic books So that was kind of before I

really dove into like American or North American

comics It was it was like a lot of British cartoon

and stuff And then I read like spider -man. I

love spider -man. I loved Superman loved X -Men

X -Men kind of scared me as a kid like when I

was a little kid like the first X -Men book I

got was one of the executioner song issues and

like I remember just reading it like Archangel

like chops a dude's head off with his wings and

like there's blood everywhere and I was just

like what like hide it under the bed kind of

thing. I also liked Punisher a lot which is weird.

I was a kid that really liked horror movies and

like things that I maybe you know like oh it's

bad if I if I read this something kind of thing.

But Punisher didn't scare you? No it was violent

comic. Yeah yeah and I read like you know I read

like like uh Ninja Turtles and and stuff like

kid stuff. Stuff they grown -up story today Turtles

were not kids stuff That's true, that's true

as what I'm reading right now I'm just skimming

through here cuz I'm like I'm gonna forget everything

and I might be a couple months behind I really

like limbo from from image. That's fantastic

Prez is probably my favorite book of last year

That DC book these you guys ever read prez Oh

my god, I heard good things about it though.

Oh if you like Dave you will love Prez. It's

amazing It's so good and it's not like it's not

like DC continuity like there's no superhero

stuff in it Which is kind of weird like it almost

feels like a like an image book. It's amazing

fantastic Yeah, like I'm not I'll read I'll read

pretty much anything like like nothing's really

I feel terrible because I always blank when people

ask me, so I'm just kind of like... It's all

good. I'm like, too. People ask me, well, what

do you recommend? It's like, okay, I got so many

good comics. You know? I know, I know. Where

do you start? With deadlines and all that they

entail, how much time do you actually have to

read comics? Now, you said you're a few months

behind, so obviously you don't get much time

to read. Yeah, it's... Typically, I'll go to

bed. like I'll actually like get up from my office

and go to bed at like one or two in the morning

and then I'll usually like chill out until four

and most of the time I'm too like I'm too I'm

too beat to like read because like reading I

don't just I can't just read like I like to actually

read and you know like study the artwork and

like I have to be more alert to do it. So I usually

just put something like really stupid on Netflix

or something like that. So that's why it's partly

my own fault. I do love, I use reading. I always

catch up on my comics on airplanes. That's like

the best. So yeah, that's awesome. And I'm broke.

I can't afford comics right now. The irony of

that being that I can't afford comics. When it

comes to writing, you've shown you can write

your own creation. What would be the established

comic you would like to write for? Oh my gosh.

Hmm. I think Darkwing Duck's filing cabinet just

opened up in the middle of the bridge of St.

Canard. Holy crap. You know what the thing is

that I really like because I've done some license

work before and I love it. It's super fun. and

I did I did some story from Marvel last summer

and that was awesome I think if I could do anything

I would want to do Superman book or Superman

story or oh geez I mean that's tough I think

like me and me and Brian level could really do

a kick -ass Lobo book or like a ghostwriter kind

of book That would be fun. Yeah, I remember when

I when I did the Marvel story for battle world

last summer and and they were like Yeah, do you

want to do this this Marvel story? And I was

like, let me think about it. No, I was like,

yeah, of course I do like And so they're like

cool, well, you know come back with some ideas

of what you want to do and like that alone was

almost Over like too overwhelming like I almost

wanted him to be like no do this like Do this

Punisher story or do this Hulk story do this

something like just Because when you when you

when you give the free rein like that to someone

like me It's like well, I want to do them all

all of them Yes, all of them. So well and that

included so many different characters is the

thing Yeah, totally. You can do whatever you

want and like put them against each other like

it was just it was just wild and so that was

super fun and really overwhelming and exciting

and scary, but super cool. Yeah, it was a blast.

So you're saying that you worked for Marvel's

The Secret War. What was the biggest difference

writing for Marvel and then writing independently?

You know what? The thing that I've noticed, and

maybe it's just that I've been fortunate enough

to work with the people I've worked on the projects

that I've done. But I've never really had a case

of not being able to approach licensed work in

the same way that I approach creator and work.

Sons of Anarchy is a great example that I always

go to when I'm talking about stuff like this.

And I did two volumes of Sons of Anarchy. And

not once did I ever feel like it wasn't my story,

if that makes sense. It still felt as... Organic

and driven and passionate Then then something

like Dave or kennel block or hot damn so, I mean

maybe I've just been fortunate enough to have

those experiences, but But I've never felt stifled

Or I've never felt that I wasn't you know a key

ingredient in in making The story what it was

so pretty good pretty good place to be I guess

Well, you read my mind because my next question

could be about sins of anarchy Because I'm sorry.

I'm just barely started to I'm a little late.

I'm just barely started to watch the show Right.

Yeah. Oh, you're right. Did you meet any of the

cast or crew? From the show and what creative

license did you did you have with it? I have

not met any of the cast or crew. I did a con

My local con a couple years ago or maybe was

a year ago last year and that I know like three

or four of them were in town and I just never

got a chance to like You know to meet them. I

was super jazz too. Like I was gonna get him

to sign one of my issues or something So yeah,

I have not met anywhere from the show Although

Ron Perlman who plays one of the main characters

on the show. He put he put the comic up on On

his Facebook, which is pretty pretty neat because

for a while there You know, I'm going to stop

because that's spoilers. But he was not in the

comics for a little while. For one reason or

another. And then I made one of the issues focus

on him. And he got jazzed about it. So he put

it on his Facebook, and it was pretty cool. As

far as creative license? Yeah. It was wild. It

was like, I mean, the editors I work with are

so great. Daphne and Mary. the best editors you

editors you could you could want to work with

and they were just super like uh like go wild

like what's the story you want to tell um i was

actually surprised at first because when they

asked me to pitch on it um and i pitched in a

few ideas there was no like this has to happen

and this has to happen or you can't do this can't

do this it was very much like no just go think

of the stories and then come tell us the stories

so i mean obviously to taking it consideration,

you know, like continuity and you have to be

true to the characters and true to the, you know,

the mythos that the show's established. But I

mean, it was really that kind of open sandbox

thing. And if anything, we had, I was kind of

playing it safe at first. I mean, it... And I

don't mean the finished product. I mean like

when I first started working I was playing a

little bit safe to the point where you know the

The people that work on the show were like no,

dude You can you can keep pushing this like you

can go way harder like on this aspect or you

know, so it it it was really It was like a dream

it was like it was like being able to play in

this like really bizarre crazy violent heartfelt

sandbox that I could do whatever I want. And

I'm super proud of both the story arcs I did.

I got to create characters that were super fun,

and it was just awesome. So you were a fan of

the show, I take it. Yeah, yeah. I watched the

show since it started. And I started working

on it when the last season of the show just started

airing. And that's when I started working on

the book. And so for that, you know, for that

however many weeks and months, it was just like,

my head was just, you know, I might as well have

gone out and bought a motorcycle or something

like that. Because I watched the Stephen King

episode and I was hooked. I'm like, I gotta go

back and watch this. So who was your favorite

and least favorite character to write about?

On Sons? Yeah. Oh, geez. I didn't have any least

favorites. Most favorite, I really liked Writing

Chibs. Oh, of course. You didn't show up a lot,

but I liked Writing Chibs because my family's

Scottish, and so I felt kind of a connection

to it. I also really loved our second story arc.

which kind of had a B plot that was all Opie.

And he was like, you know, he's a huge fan of

it, stuff like that. I think Lee's favorite character

is also my most favorite character in the one

I came up with, who is Bobby's nephew. His name

is Dylan. And that's in the first arc I write.

And he's just like, he's just the worst. Because

he's the worst kid like you could imagine so

so he was the worst in that sense But I also

loved it because it was super fun That's awesome.

Well, I want to talk about Well, you did you

said you've done lettering and you did it for

Loki the Ragnarok and roll, which is awesome.

I love that book So, um, you know if you've done

writing so any chances of doing art for a comic

because you just said you you've done some art

in the past so No, I am the worst artist I cannot

draw at all. My visually creative skills are

limited to lettering and graphic design. I can't

do, I cannot draw. I can barely draw a stick

man. So yeah, it's. That's nice. Oh, so you're

the one making all those Bill memes on Facebook.

Yeah, man. That's keeps my power going at night.

You know, I'm getting paid to do those memes

now. Yeah, no one wants to see a comic. I don't

think anyone could even read a comic if I drew

it in just feet. Oh, come on now. Terrible. Alright,

let's talk about Dave one and two when did the

when did the idea for the series first for both

arcs? Did you come up with that? I when I was

young I I got out of animation school and I couldn't

find a job in animation because This city doesn't

really have a more at the time. At least it didn't

have a very booming animation presence So I took

a corporate job Um, that was terrible. And it

was, I was the only graphic designer in this,

in this job, uh, in this head office for this

big company. And, and I was the youngest one

by like 20 years. Oh my God. Yeah. I was like

21 at the time. Did you feel like you were being

babysat? Oh, it was terrible. Yeah, it was horrible.

So, I mean, it paid really well, but, and it

was like white shirt and tie kind of thing. If

you ever see me in person, you'll immediately

understand that I'm not a white shirt and tie

kind of person. But so I did that for a year

and it it totally broke me. It ruined me. And

like and like it was it was soul sucking. It

was it was miserable. I used to cry in the parking

lot every morning. It was horrible. You are Dave.

Yeah, that's I was Dave for for that for that

year. And and I actually quit that job and went

back to school. But But it was horrible and and

so fast forward to many years later When I was

at my design job now that job was very different

It wasn't soul -sucking and it wasn't terrible

at all and it was it was totally fine job It

was a good job. It was a great job But that got

me I started one summer thinking about it. I

started thinking about you know that that previous

job that really just Messed me up and broke me

and it was a horrible quarter -life crisis If

that's even a thing, but so I started thinking

about that and it just kind of fell into place

I just I just felt like I there was a story,

you know in there about you know Coming to terms

with who you're becoming and who you are and

and who you want to be and so It just kind of

organically fell into place that that that it

became this thing about robots I'm actually not

really sure what what sparked that jump from

that concept of a quarter -life crisis into this

robot kind of civilization, maybe, I don't know.

But yeah, they just happened from there. And

yeah, Valentine joined me and we did it. What

about the second arc because I mean I like I

said in if anyone has or has not listened episode

127 yet when we were reviewing the second arc

I Kept saying I wasn't sure where like after

the first article first arc is essentially a

setup of without spoiling it for anybody It's

a alien invasion story for the most part and

you know on its face outside of the corporate

hell that Dave goes through But I wasn't sure

where you were gonna take it for the second arc.

So the second arc story is more of a life after

being invaded and having you know, basically

having your Past actions come back on you because

humans come back right to come back to the future

So where did the second arc story really come

from? How did you come up with that? Yeah. Well,

we haven't really planned to do a second uh volume

at all like we we'd always maintain it's like

yeah it's it's a finite story and it ended how

we wanted it to end and i mean but at the same

time we always wanted to do it right like like

we just didn't think we could do it uh so idw

was it was when we were putting the uh the fourth

or fifth issue uh of the print run to press and

it and it It came up IDW asked if if if it's

something we wanted to do and we were like, oh

hell Yeah, like absolutely so and I kind of made

kind of like, oh, where do we go? What do we

do? And we've got to think of something fast

like I had always kind of kept this kind of like

little Secret file on my computer where I typed

down notes on like well if we ever do day two,

like here's what it could be So I had a good

idea in my head of where we wanted to go. I knew

that the first volume was kind of this exploration

of figuring out who he is and that in Dave's

case, it's not a good thing. I think that you,

a lot of these similar stories, they always kind

of, they come out of it feeling good and feeling.

You know like hey, I'm all right. I came out

of this all right. That's who I am I know who

I really am but I'm like what if you what if

you're an asshole because let's face it Dave's

Dave's not a He's a jerk like and he comes to

terms with that and I think it's it's interesting

too when when people Always say like Dave's got

this nagging wife And I always have to correct

them. I'm like no He doesn't Dave's a jerk. Dave's

a bad husband, right? So Dave if Dave one's about

him kind of figuring out who he is and and trying

to make that work in the world Dave two is kind

of like It's how do you atone for that because

I mean, it's not enough to just acknowledge that

you were a jerk You have to kind of atone for

that. You have to make things better make things.

Okay, so Dave two's really It takes that literally

where you know because you get this if this is

his history his past is coming back He's got

to face the music for for the things that he's

done in the same breath I wanted to branch out

and and really explore the concept of one of

the concept but the actuality of toxic masculinity

Dave to is very much. It's just as much a story

of kind of deconstructing Toxic masculinity as

it is about Dave and you see that in in in Scottie's

big arc in Dave 2 and you see that in in You

know Sally's new boyfriend and you even see that

Dave himself and just how this world operates

It's really it was really interesting. It's something

I kind of wanted to touch on Especially since

the book is so rife with like pop culture Things

you know, and I think that's a huge part of our

pop culture right now is this toxicity and And

I think we did a really good job, you know with

that and and I've even got a love Story out of

it too, which is which is something that that

I wanted to include this time So yeah, that's

kind of where there's a lot more going on in

Dave to then then I think at the surface of reads

But I think there's a lot of heart in it. And

I think people, you know, if they check it out,

I think they'll dig it if they look for it. People,

if you're not reading either one of these series,

there's something wrong with you. Yeah, shame

on you. Because you suck. How did you... Nicole's

going to ask you about... The book becoming famous

here in a second, but I wanted to bring up the

The language there was I think it's in and I

don't mean the foul language people I mean just

the whole language of the story, but There's

I think isn't it's in two right Nicole does the

Tarbuck scene Okay, so we're reading this thing

as we're going through reviewing it and You managed

to basically Break down every piece of what any

you know Seattle yuppie orders at a Starbucks

into the language of the book. Yeah, how did

you do that? Yeah, I gotta be honest A huge amount

of that is Valentin Ramon, the artist. A huge

amount of that is his. Like, Tarbox, that's all

him. That was not in the script. A lot of the

background, like, you know, references and just

the details, all that stuff, all that world -building

stuff, and the humor, a lot of that is Valentin.

He's just amazing. And that's something that

I'm really jazzed about for Hot Damn, is that

we're gonna see that in, like... It's very different

than Dave, but we're gonna see that same kind

of detail and like world -building that he put

into Dave But yeah, I was a bit worried at first

that like sometimes like especially the earth

power Which is the company and Dave like their

logo is the shell logo, but it's got like Yeah,

I got super worried too that we were gonna Maybe

they just haven't seen it. Maybe they will still

sue me uh but is shell even still around like

i even heard of shell in a long year yeah they're

still around yeah um but yeah yeah no the barista

scene as soon as i read then i'm like yeah i

can see it i can see that there was a lot of

background genius valentine did a Great job.

Oh my gosh. Just brilliant. He's absolutely brilliant.

Like, don't lose your screw. So you know that

little, little sides of the back. Oh, yeah. I

think my other favorite one, I think it's in,

is it issue three or four? I think it's in four.

It might be in three. Oh, it's in the very beginning

of three when the, when the reporter comes on.

You guys basically nail how journalistic integrity

is these days. Yeah, I mean, I think that the

visual language of the book, like those examples

that you've said, and also, but also the way

that these robots think and communicate. I tried

to imagine, okay, well, the robots take over

at around 2015. And so they have access to almost

every single piece of information that exists

outside of human consciousness. So where does

that information come from in 2015, 2014? It

comes from the internet. So this is a culture

who all they know, all they understand about

how we as humans communicate with each other.

is from the internet. So 99 % of the internet

is absolute garbage, and it's YouTube comments,

and it's 4chan, and it's Twitter tweets and Tumblr

junk. So I mean, that informs the way that they

think and the way they communicate. So that's

why a fair amount of the robots in the world

at Dave are just like, they're crazy. They're

real life trolls, internet trolls basically.

It's basically YouTube comments come to life,

you know. And I love that they have no patience

for traffic either. Oh yeah, they get the same,

it doesn't matter what species, it's the worst.

I'm not able to literally pick up my car, but

that would be awesome. Yeah, and I really have

and I've tried to stop myself, but I just can't

I've really started using jobs damning for the

love of laws Everywhere it rolls off the phone,

right? Next question so Well Dave was honored

as one of the best comics in 2015 when you were

writing it. Did you think it would be that big?

Oh, no never I'm I think the thing with being

a writer is and I think it's very common is that

we are we all have this imposter syndrome where

Not only do we hate our own work and we think

that we're the worst but we we feel like at any

moment the the the The figurative rug is going

to be pulled out and we're gonna be exposed as

a fraud like they don't know what they're doing

They can't actually write comics, you know This

is their next bomb any minute now a comics gonna

come out and it's gonna totally bomb and I'm

never gonna make a comic again. That's the fear

that goes into being a writer. I think that's

actually part of the fuel that goes into being

a writer. But, you know, I'm proud of Dave, and

I knew it was good, and I think it's good. But

at the same time, there's so much of me in there.

Like, there's really a lot of personal, almost

biographical stuff in Dave. And a lot of emotion,

a lot of my guts going under the scripts. So...

You know, there's less focus on on on Wondering

about what people think, you know as as it's

more you know Thinking about Just just the process

that went into it so yeah, I don't ever think

anyone's gonna ever like my work so But it's

been cool people seem to dig it in I think Dave's

a really interesting book in that it if sometimes

I see people don't dig it And I see the reasons

they're crazy. Well, I see the reasons why they

they they don't dig it and I'm kind of like,

okay I understand that you know, it's it's it's

not for you and it's it's a little bit different

and I think that there's a There's certain eyes

that kind of don't understand or don't relate

to it You know, I think that's something that

we wanted to do the most is is make a really

relatable human story that comes from you know

someone who wildly has anxiety and depression

and and and you know self -deprecating thoughts

and you know all that kind of wonderful stuff

that you think you grow out of during adolescence

but you don't. So it's really interesting. I

would love to be someone who has an awesome happy

life and hates Dave. You know must be nice in

your ivory tower where you don't cry in the shower.

Hey that rhyme, too You've kind of already answered

this but out of all the characters in Dave, which

do you say you relate to the most obviously?

Honestly, it's split between Dave and Scottie.

I think there's very strong elements of Dave

and me. I think outwardly and obviously it's

Dave, but there is some major Scottie in me or

major me and Scottie. Take that from that whatever

you. Whatever you want. It's maybe not the best

thing to say on a podcast, but Yeah, yeah, he's

great. Yeah. Talk about a double entendre. So

can we expect a Dave 3 anytime soon? I can't.

I'm not working on Dave 3 right now. It's something

that we've talked about. And I think that's,

I think that's a wait and see. Like I would love

to do it. I'm fairly sure Val wants to do it.

And I think we're just kind of focusing on hot

damn first. But it's come up before, yeah. So

I mean, and I've got a story in my head. Because

we've been talking about that like really gonna

go from here, you know, that's the coolest thing

about this comic series people like I've already

said if you haven't read it go out and get it

and read it because This isn't like, you know

a predictable James Cameron movie where you can

guess every next step of the way or this isn't

like a predictable Explosion Michael Bay movie

where you can pretty much predict where the next

explosion is gonna happen I never knew where

this story was going to take me. I could never

see five pages ahead. I just couldn't. So at

the end of episode 127, we're like, what could

they possibly do now? We can't even speculate

because we don't even, it's not even, you know.

Well, thank you. Thank you. I had, I will tell

you, I had a draft, an earlier draft, and I don't

know if Dave 3 ever comes out. I don't know if

it'll actually. be in there. Maybe I've just

spoiled it. If Dave 3 ever comes out, maybe it

won't be in there at all. But I have this idea

of making a literal butthorn, like some like

holy grail, like it goes on like a like a the

robot equivalent of like a spirit Indiana Jones.

now he just wants to find the meaning of robot

life and he finds this like crazy butthorn that's

like that's like this the the spear of destiny

or something like that and like then he started

a religion of like butthorn followers i don't

know why am i envisioning dave and sir mix -a

-lot in a team up oh my god yeah oh boy Well,

you and Valentin are a great working team. You

have Hot Damn coming out. Do you guys plan on

working together again after Hot Damn? I would

love to, yeah. I mean, we've very loosely talked

about Dave 3 after Hot Damn. And I mean, it would

be up to Val, because I would work with him on

every single book I ever made for the rest until

I die. So he's just that good. And I think he

and I, we... It's like we just think the exact

same and and and you know He he's just amazing.

Like he's a genius and And like yeah, he just

sent me hot damn pages this morning. It's just

like these are mind -blowing. They're perfect

I think I think we both work to each other's

you know sensibilities and the things we want

to do and the way we want to tell stories and

and Yeah, he's amazing and I'm I'm surprised

he's not like the most famous artist in the planet

right now. He's just he's just so great. His

art is great. How did you two meet, by the way?

Oh, we met on the Internet. Yeah, it was a it

was. Yeah, it was a Craigslist. Tinder, huh?

No. Oh, my God. That was a Craigslist ad. And

no, I'm just kidding. It was it was at the time

when I was I was years ago. And this was probably

2012, maybe late 2011. And I just put a message

out onto the internet. And I was just like, hey,

I'm looking for an artist for this thing. And

he was one of the first cats that emailed me

back. And I was just like, cool, man, do you

like this? And he was like, yeah, that sounds

good. And then he actually did a sketch, a character

sketch, which actually became the cover of the

first. The character it's just the isolated character

on the first issue with Dave with his cup of

coffee with a cup of coffee that's literally

his first character sketch of the care of Dave

and Yeah, yeah, it's insane. And so I knew from

that moment. I was like, oh boy. Yeah, here we

go He puts so much expression into Dave being

like a one -eyed creature it's so bizarre like

he just gets these like performances out of them

and like for a book that has you know like well

i mean the first volume has no humans and i mean

well it shows humans but it has no humans in

the story it shows how the robots rose up and

defeated the humans but yeah but yeah he's just

incredible And I love his sense of design. Like

all the characters, Dave himself and all the

characters, there was never a part in the script

where I was like, and this guy's got, you know,

four eyeballs and this gal's got, you know, an

extra arm or something. That's all Val. Like

that's all him. All the design stuff is right

from his brain. So I mean, he's just amazing.

In the second arc, I think it's again the third

or the fourth issue, I can't remember. I actually

pointed this out in episode 127, where I said,

hey, Brad's glasses, Brad 3's glasses have screwed

up. I was wondering if that was an error or not,

because when he's looking at Dave and Scotty,

he's got... Dave in the red eye and Scotty in

the blue. And then the panel changes to actually

look at Brad and it's switched where the red

is the right and the blue is the left. And I

was like, wait, is that a mistake or was that

intentional? I don't even know. And I'm not complaining

about it at all. I was just kind of wondering

about that. But no, I mean, Dave is great people.

You really need to read this. Thank you. Thank

you very much. So cool. Alright, so thank you

for all the Terminator references. Oh, hey, that's

I remember go with go with them if you want to

live. Yeah, I remember when I was In elementary

school I was probably the third grade Actually,

maybe fourth or fifth grade when Terminator 2

came out and I had this neighbor whose family

just moved Next door from China and they had

all these they had a kick -ass laser disc collection

and Yeah, and like I went over to the little

homeboys house, you know and and I looked through

his laser discs and he had t2 and I was like,

oh my god This is insane. Like my I don't know

if my parents at that point. Let me watch t2

and literally every day for After school for

like a month. I finished school I go to his house

and we walked T2 on laser disc and it was the

best It was awesome Cool. Yeah, so yeah a big

Terminator fan. I like Terminator Yeah, I this

is gonna shock everyone But I've remedied the

problem here. Coming up, probably after this

releases, next week we're going to be releasing

our Terminator episode on movie we can review

and this is the first time. Because I was a little

too young. I was four years old when the first

film came out. So I have managed in my 35 years

to never have seen the first film. I saw T2.

Oh, wow. Really? Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. So I saw

T2. And I know all the references from the first

movie because it's pop culture. It's, you know.

It's everywhere. They basically do all of them

in the T2 as well. Yeah. Yeah. And... Well, hold

on to your butt, dude. It's going to get wild.

No, I saw the I Saw the first one and I absolutely

yeah I did finally see it this week and I absolutely

loved it And I know the second and the third

movie like the back of my hand. I had never seen

the fourth movie salvation I wish I had never

seen the fourth. Oh my god that movie is just

Oh, wrong. Salvation is way better than the new

one, Genesis. No, Genesis is so much better than

Salvation. Oh, are you serious? Oof. Yeah, Genesis

is an alternate timeline of the first movie.

It brings depth. But it's got Jay Courtney, and

he's the worst human to ever live. But Genesis

also has Nets. So what you're saying, Ryan, is

if Dave ever gets a film, Jay Courtney will play

Dave. You can quote me on that. Let's get to

Hot Damn. For those that did not read the comics,

I think it's Comics Alliance. I think that was

who first had it. Give us the rundown on what

Hot Damn is going to be and how you guys came

up with that idea. Hot Damn focuses on a young

gentleman, not unlike myself. That's where it

ends in age. His name is Teddy Graham, like the

crackers. and uh yeah he is a very spoiled kid

he had a big inheritance and he lived very fast

and he died young uh and he was out of control

so you know partying and being generally rotten

to a lot of people and so as such he goes to

hell so the book takes place entirely in hell

And we realize that hell is this fully realized

city. It's not unlike Las Vegas. It's full of

dead people and monsters and demons and all sorts

of stuff. But what is the real differences with

Hot Damn is that everyone who goes to hell has

to go to these daily therapy sessions. And while

you're at these therapy sessions, you start talking

about all the bad things you've done in your

life and you realize them. So you feel them.

You start to feel. Remorse and guilt and shame

and regret and all these things and the kicker

is it makes it hell because you can never do

anything about it You just have to endure feeling

like garbage for this stuff you've done for the

rest of your life. So this character Teddy Teddy

Graham, he kind of can't really cope with this

and he wants to do what he can to make it right

so he's trying to figure out a way to atone for

his for his sins. It sounds a lot like Dave,

but it's actually not. It's ridiculous. I can't

believe that we're getting to publish this. It's

insane. I might be forcibly castrated after they

put this book out. I don't think so. Maybe. I

don't know. This is one that I'm not going to

let my mom read, that's for sure. Yeah, but there

we really explore we it's it's one thing that

I'm trying to make clear to like readers and

and Stuff like that is that it's it's not we're

not taking the piss out of religion and we're

not we're not satirizing it we're just kind of

deconstructing it in in in the you know from

the vantage point of of how we work as a culture

and how we behave as a culture and And we're

kind of deconstructing the ideas behind a very

basic semblance of what religion is. So we're

seeing how heaven operates, in a relative way

speaking. We're seeing how hell operates. And

we're having a super blast with it. They're both

really realized societies in their own. I mean,

almost the lines blur between... you know, our

plane of existence and heaven and hell and angels

and demons and the afterlife and all sorts of

this stuff that goes in there is just, oh, it's

crazy. It's insane. There's some stuff like Val

sent me the pages this morning for the first

issue and like there's stuff I forgot I wrote

and I was like, oh man, that's gonna be a problem.

But no, it's super fun and beyond that, it's

not a book that we're doing like shock value

or or it's not like a you know a lot of the promo

stuff's had like party imagery and stuff like

that it's it's got a lot of heart in it and and

it's it's got some really important meaningful

themes that we're kind of touching on and it's

yeah it's just really exciting i'm super fun

with it i think the second issue is one of my

favorite scripts that i've ever written and and

it's just It's really interesting, and I'm learning

a lot, you know, diving in and working on it,

and Valentine's having a blast, so yeah, we're

pretty jazzed about it. Awesome. All right, well,

I think that's gonna do it. Would you like to

inform the people where they can interact with

you online? Yeah, the best place to get at me

is Twitter. My Twitter handle is Ryan Rider,

one word, R -Y -A -N -W -R -I -T -E -R, is that

right? Yes, the irony of that being that I'm

a writer and I just had to Spell the word writer.

That's probably the the best place to get hold

of me. That's where I'm positive I don't I don't

do like Facebook and stuff like that All right,

we would like to thank mr. Freer for taking time

to chat with us in this latest interview here

inside the full bag on the caster network Well

asking all the wine and we'll be back after this.

Hey, this is Ryan Ferrier writer of IDW's day

two and the upcoming hot damn You are listening

to The Pullback. All right, folks, that's going

to do it. That's the interview with Ryan Ferrier.

Oh, my God. He is so awesome. Can I just say

that? He is so much fun. I'm so glad that we

got to talk to him. So, yeah, it's. Well, between

the time you guys have heard the interview and

the time we're recording this closing here, it's

been a few days since we actually talked to him

and. The book he mentioned, Kennel Block Blues,

has actually come out, and oh my god, it's awesome.

I haven't got a chance to read it yet. Oh my

god, it is so cool. Have you ever watched that

Fox show Prison Break? I watched the first season.

But you know what the show is generally, right?

Oh, well, yeah. Imagine that. except it's all

animals it is really fun it's super fun so alright

folks like I said that's gonna do it for this

interview coming up next we got turtles and and

all that stuff and then Nicole will be back for

fiend ship is friendship February where we're

doing Was it four or five six? I don't even know

at this point six different shows About the my

little pony comics. Yeah, you're gonna love it.

Don't put up with don't act like you don't like

it. You know you do Such a girl's thing No, it's

not And you know that Crap all right folks. We're

gonna get out of here make your greatest game

in the comics. We won't catch you next time aloha

You've just heard the latest episode of The Pullback,

the GCRN's comic review and discussion podcast.

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