Another Text Interview & Our First Podcast

[Adam Dravian]

Read the blog post here.

[Michigander1911]

This is a great podcast.  I totally expected that this would be a shorter interview.  I think you guy's really told your story well, and I think this kind of thing could really bring more people in for you. 

I love the idea of the Satan Ninja rap.  those PSAs are horrible, I can't wait to see yours.
Here is one of the more cringe worthy ones that I come across a few weeks ago.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfCYZ3pks48

[Adam Dravian]

This is a great podcast.  I totally expected that this would be a shorter interview.  I think you guy's really told your story well, and I think this kind of thing could really bring more people in for you.

Thanks for giving it a listen, dude. Hopefully the next podcast we're on isn't so strict about being family friendly, so we can relax and not have to worry about carefully phrasing everything.

I love the idea of the Satan Ninja rap.  those PSAs are horrible, I can't wait to see yours.
Here is one of the more cringe worthy ones that I come across a few weeks ago.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfCYZ3pks48

That's actually a parody of an '80s rap PSA, apparently done by the guy who created Moonbeam City. Here are some genuine shitty '80s raps:

Recycling Rap PSA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVtMGyj9QTc
Atari 2600 Commercial: https://youtu.be/913xrM9FYpI
The Legend of Zelda Commercial: https://youtu.be/uI3rO3PbYOo
And my favorite 80s rap video, Denny Blazin Hazen - Average Homeboy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA_iMuZ3ZDw

[Rijst]

I'm going to listen to this at work tomorrow. I especially can't wait for this:

you can hear me constantly struggle not to swear

[Adam Dravian]

I'm going to listen to this at work tomorrow. I especially can't wait for this:

you can hear me constantly struggle not to swear

Awesome. You'll have to let us know what you think. I have no idea how many people have actually listened to it, as that podcast doesn't seem to have an active community at all. So there's no feedback on their end. But hopefully at least someone discovered our comic by listening to it. But even if it doesn't bring us much exposure, it was at least a learning experience. We definitely took some lessons away from it so we'll be better prepared for future podcast appearances.

[Rijst]

I'm going to listen to this at work tomorrow. I especially can't wait for this:

you can hear me constantly struggle not to swear

Awesome. You'll have to let us know what you think. I have no idea how many people have actually listened to it, as that podcast doesn't seem to have an active community at all. So there's no feedback on their end. But hopefully at least someone discovered our comic by listening to it. But even if it doesn't bring us much exposure, it was at least a learning experience. We definitely took some lessons away from it so we'll be better prepared for future podcast appearances.

I only got round to listening to this tonight but I'm glad that I did, haha thanks for the shout out guys!

I didn't notice the struggling not to swear so much, or maybe I just stopped looking for it after a while. That was a good interview I'd say, I never manage to talk about anything for an hour myself..

[Adam Dravian]

I didn't notice the struggling not to swear so much, or maybe I just stopped looking for it after a while.

I spoke in a rather guarded way, doing little pauses to re-route sentences as I was speaking them, in order to stay in the family friendly zone (the lamest of zones). It stands out to me when I listen to it, but might not be so obvious to others.

That was a good interview I'd say, I never manage to talk about anything for an hour myself..

Thanks. After it was done, there were all sorts of things that occurred to me that I wish I'd said, but that's pretty typical when it comes to these things. We were nervous to listen to it (especially Jessica), but it turned out better than we'd anticipated.

[Rijst]

I think what this interview does better than a written one is show that you guys are really passionate about SN8X.

[Matty2310]

I have to say that I agree with Jessica, in that it should only have references from 1980-1989, after all it's Satan Ninja 198X (which I think is the perfect name for the comic, encapsulates everything that it is) for a reason. Although it must be pretty painful to not be able to reference Total Recall.
Also, I've been reading and hearing about how you's want to expand the comics readership, which I have some ideas for.
First of all, on the New Retro Wave Youtube channel, whenever they upload a new video, there's always an 80s-esque picture to accompany it, quite a few in this comics style. I think your illustrations would be perfect for it. The channel has about 100,000 subscribers with around 10,000 views per video, and the kind of people who'd watch those videos are the EXACT kind of people who'd read your comic, so the comic could be advertised in the comments or video description.
Secondly, io9 has a thing where they're looking for artwork to be submitted, so you's could probably submit something to them. In fact, they could probably just run a story on your comic in general without a picture, since it has a lot of fantastical elements in it. Plus I think it has high readership figures.
So there's my ideas, do or not do what you want with them.

[Rijst]

Hi Matty, totally off-topic but it's funny to see you use "you's" there. I've only heard that in Glasgow so far but apparently this is a thing in parts of Australia as well?

[Adam Dravian]

I have to say that I agree with Jessica, in that it should only have references from 1980-1989, after all it's Satan Ninja 198X (which I think is the perfect name for the comic, encapsulates everything that it is) for a reason. Although it must be pretty painful to not be able to reference Total Recall.

Right. It's just that there are so many awesome things from '90 and '91 that I think would fit so well with the theme of Satan Ninja. Meanwhile, there's not a lot from 1980 or '81 that we draw influence from. If you look at the list of influential media we list on our FAQ, you can see we skew heavily toward the mid-to-late '80s. Although I think pop music in general took a turn for the worse in the late '80s, once Janet Jackson made new jack swing mega-popular. I just can't get into NJS or hip hop, and those genres exploded in popularity around that time. Though I can't deny thinking "Ice Ice Baby" was rad when I was in 6th grade.

Also, I've been reading and hearing about how you's want to expand the comics readership, which I have some ideas for.
First of all, on the New Retro Wave Youtube channel, whenever they upload a new video, there's always an 80s-esque picture to accompany it, quite a few in this comics style. I think your illustrations would be perfect for it. The channel has about 100,000 subscribers with around 10,000 views per video, and the kind of people who'd watch those videos are the EXACT kind of people who'd read your comic, so the comic could be advertised in the comments or video description.
Secondly, io9 has a thing where they're looking for artwork to be submitted, so you's could probably submit something to them. In fact, they could probably just run a story on your comic in general without a picture, since it has a lot of fantastical elements in it. Plus I think it has high readership figures.
So there's my ideas, do or not do what you want with them.

We really appreciate the advice. I'll shoot a message to the New Retro Wave dudes and see how receptive they are to SN8X. Jessica said she'd submit something to i09. I know they tend to skew toward sci-fi and super hero stuff, but maybe someone there would see how fuckin' radical Satan Ninja is. Doesn't hurt to try, anyway.

[Matty2310]

Hi Matty, totally off-topic but it's funny to see you use "you's" there. I've only heard that in Glasgow so far but apparently this is a thing in parts of Australia as well?

We sure do (or at least I do). As much as spellcheck wants to discourage me from using it, I use it anyway.

The comic definitely fits the criteria for being featured, it's very premice is fantasy and sci-fi.

[Adam Dravian]

The comic definitely fits the criteria for being featured, it's very premice is fantasy and sci-fi.

When I was adding our comic to several different webcomic hosting sites, I would often have to choose a single genre to file it under, and I had a hell of a time trying to figure out what genre would best fit.

[Rijst]

Genre: Rad

[80sReboot]

I have been trolling this forum for a little bit. I have tried a few times to join but the whole activation to email thing wasn't working so I gave up for a bit and today decided to try again and it worked! So, I am the guy that forced Adam and Jessica to talk "family friendly" on their first podcast. I love the feedback on the interview that you have given to both of them. I am curious as the host, how did I do? FYI, media group I belong to has the family friendly policy I just have to play by the rules and basically try to avoid the infamous "explicit" warning.

I come in and check for new pages every couple of weeks and love what I see. I took a screen cap of Shade from one of the most recent pages and tweeted about loving how she looked. Jessica quickly called me out on twitter based on my comment of liking "girl next door" type. 

Nice to be in the forum officially now.