Zombie Book Club
Welcome to Zombie Book Club! We're a Podcast that's also a book club! We talk about Zombie / Apocalyptic horror novels, TV and movies.
Zombie Book Club
MR.GUY: ZOMBIE HUNTER with Jayel and Lynsey from Oneshi Press | Zombie Book Club Podcast Ep47
Have you ever considered aspic as a survival food in a zombie apocalypse? Join us for a lively conversation with Jayel Draco and Lynsey G, the creative masterminds behind "Mr. Guy Zombie Hunter" and founders of Oneshi Press.
We discover the heartwarming and serendipitous journey of Lynsey and Jayel, whose chance meeting and shared vision led to the creation of Oneshi Press. From their first encounter at Penn Station to navigating creative collaboration and inclusivity in media, their story is one of mutual support and shared vision. We delve into the developmental stages of Oneshi Press, ask their advice for new creators, and explore the eclectic nature of Mr. Guy’s character.
This episode offers a window into their quirky, creative partnership, packed with humor, intriguing ideas, and culinary curiosities, making for an entertaining and thought-provoking listen.
MR. GUY: ZOMBIE HUNTER KICKSTARTER:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oneshipress/mr-guy-zombie-hunter-1-3-comic-anthology-trilogy-finale?ref=2v7z95
Oneshi Press Website:
https://www.oneshipress.com
MR. GUY: ZOMBIE HUNTER Website:
https://mrguycomic.com
MR. GUY song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTavXIs-Ns
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Welcome to Zombie Book Club, the only book club where the book is a Zomcom adventure, with decomposing jerks, spectral sidekicks and a hero who's just trying to avoid an eternity of snark. I'm Dan, and when I'm not dirty dancing for the big bucks, I'm writing a book about a group of people who couldn't have less in common but come together to survive a zombie apocalypse.
Speaker 2:And I'm Leah, and while I wish I was drinking some swish gear right now with Mr Guy the zombie hunter, we have the next possible best thing for you all. Today we are chatting with JL Draco and Lindsay G, the co-creators of the comic series Mr Guy zombie hunter. They are also the co-founders of Oneshi Press, an indie publishing company known for its richly illustrated fantasy and sci-fi graphic novels, comics and art books. Their mission is to explore dark corners, shatter taboos and immerse readers in progressive, fully realized worlds. And, last but not least, jl and Lindsay are also a married couple, like us. So welcome, lindsay and JL, to our very first double date on a podcast. Yay, really glad to have you here.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. We're so ready for this double date. You know, being publishers, we don't have a whole lot of downtime for dating, so this is like date night for the week.
Speaker 4:Podcasts are how we get our date night in.
Speaker 3:Yeah it's the same here.
Speaker 1:I don't think I've ever been on a double date. Really Correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 3:No, you went on a double date with Sorry, we're looking across each other because we can see each other we went on a double date with tom and sparrow. Oh, that's true. Yeah, it was a long time ago. I guess we have the pre-pandemic.
Speaker 5:We went on a double date, wow I don't think we've really done a double date since before the pandemic. I'm I have no idea that was my years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my memory is.
Speaker 3:I've barely left my house since the pandemic an alternate reality yeah, wait, you mean I can just stay home all the time and I haven't left since. It's been great.
Speaker 2:I I fully hear and understand that. All right, so to get started.
Speaker 1:Uh, we're going to give you some rapid fire questions, four of them, to be specific. Um, uh, so, since you're a couple, we're gonna do it dating game style, so you answer for each other. So this might be where your marriage ends, depending on what your answers are. So first question fast or slow zombies?
Speaker 4:So who's answering? I have to answer for Lindsay. Lindsay answers for me.
Speaker 3:Correct Answering for what the other would prefer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what is your preference?
Speaker 4:Lindsay wants slow zombies.
Speaker 3:Definitely, definitely, slow zombies. I'm going to say JL wants slow zombies, because I can't imagine why anyone would want to face fast zombies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is that correct? That's correct.
Speaker 4:I think there's a difference between Is this a preference, or how we imagine it A preference, a preference in our pop culture.
Speaker 3:I would have to face them.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, we'd both want to face slow zombies.
Speaker 1:I mean, obviously, I think most people want to face slow zombies, but then if they're watching something, might want something different.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like right. Would watching a movie with slow zombies or fast zombies Hook you more?
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right, that's a deep question.
Speaker 1:Next question Very important question, very divided among people that we've asked this question 40 hour work week or the zombie apocalypse.
Speaker 4:Zombie apocalypse all day, any day. Orindsey yeah, lindsey's already got plans on how to like make her own aspirin empire amazing aspirin empire I I have it all planned out so lindsey's thought is that you know, basically everyone's going to be all about like stockpiled weapons and they're going to be all about like stockpiled weapons and they're going to be the people that die first.
Speaker 4:Yeah, get those people that are like actually thinking about like medicine and aspirin and how to make it from like trees and know how to do it, like that kind of stuff. Those are going to be the people that everyone protects and forms of civilization around right, yeah, so, like all the people that are like yeah, kill each other, they're just gonna kill each other yeah, I feel like they have like 48 hours to live. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like yeah, my, my plan is, um, I don't know about 30, 40 miles north of us there's an area that used to be a glacial lake wow and it's now like a beautiful valley with mountains on either side and there's a lot of willow groves along, like creeks through the area and you can make aspirin out of willow bark. So my plan is to go find a nice willow grove and get a few like young you know young folks to like help me build a shelter and whatever, and I'm going to just start making aspirin, and everybody will need aspirin in the zombie apocalypse, so I'm just going to set up shop there and you just wait, like a couple days.
Speaker 4:You know, just after a couple days all the hyper aggressive people will take each other out and then you could just come out of hiding and like do your thing and like start gardening and planting and like forming civilization and you know, gonna be the old aspirin lady.
Speaker 3:This is a great plan.
Speaker 1:I am. I like growing mushrooms myself, so like yeah yeah, all right, the mushroom aspirin empire yeah we could have a trading network between vermont and montana.
Speaker 2:That's pretty far and people would die. Maybe I'm along the way, but a couple it could be good.
Speaker 4:It could be like outposts every like mile, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:So, Lindsay, what would JL say? Beacons are lit.
Speaker 5:Mushrooms call for aid. The beacons are lit, an aspirin will answer.
Speaker 3:All right, I'm definitely going to also say zombie apocalypse for JL. He is not a 40-hour workweek type of person, Just like period. End of story.
Speaker 4:He doesn't have as much of a specific zombie apocalypse plan, excuse me.
Speaker 2:Okay, that is a good plan, I was impressed with it.
Speaker 4:That's it. We're getting divorced.
Speaker 2:You still have here we're getting divorced right on your show right now will there be like uh two, two rival societies the willow grove Aspirin Lady and the Mark guy?
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually that would be really helpful. I could get access to canned beans or whatever from time to time and supply them with all the aspirin.
Speaker 4:So the canned beans all go bad. The whole point is farming on the roof vertically. You got to just use the perishables just to get by while your long-term plan is taking root.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you've got all the seeds from the vegetables and everything else there to start planting. I read that and I was like yes every time somebody leaves a grocery store I get mad. In apocalypse fiction, yeah, it's like no, just stake it down.
Speaker 4:You got to start farming immediately, because even non-perishables are actually perishable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, water is perishable. Yeah, water is perishable. I learned recently, I mean everything is.
Speaker 4:So if you're not growing, you're on your way to death.
Speaker 1:Wow, life lessons Deep yes. That's a good point In the zombie apocalypse. What is going to be your weapon of choice?
Speaker 2:Your partner's weapon of choice.
Speaker 3:Oh, we've been over this, katana.
Speaker 5:Katana.
Speaker 1:Solid choice. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And I think Lindsay is going to go with a crossbow.
Speaker 3:Nice. Yeah, I want it to be a regular bow and arrow, but I have no idea how to use a bow and arrow, so, crossbow, it is Correct.
Speaker 1:I simply feel like the regular bow might be the better option because, like, something that the walking dead never shows is how difficult it is to pull back the, the, uh, the string on a crossbow you actually need, like a thing that you step on and pull cords to, to pull it up over your head and uh but'm walking down.
Speaker 5:Daryl just pulls it back with one hand.
Speaker 4:That's true. Some have the little load bar built in If it's a small crossbow which you wouldn't really want a big crossbow anyway, because they're huge. They're heavy. You can't run with them, you can't hide with them, they'll get in the way. But one of those small crossbows for headshots, close up, like you're fine. You know, you can just pull that bar back, put in another bolt, fire it. Pull that bar back, put in another bolt, fire it. Yeah, as many bolts as you can carry.
Speaker 3:you're good, that's what I would have to use, because I'm small, I am not strong, but I am sneaky and you can fire a crossbow in near silence. So I think I'd be much more effective and able to handle myself.
Speaker 2:So the sneaky, silent aspirin assassin lady.
Speaker 1:Aspirin assassin.
Speaker 4:I like it.
Speaker 3:Aspirin assassin.
Speaker 4:No, you can't portmanteau those. I appreciate the effort, though that was a good try.
Speaker 2:We've got two more for you. Oh, do we have two? I thought we had four.
Speaker 1:Oh, I added one. That's right, I came up with one myself.
Speaker 2:I'm really excited for the last one, but you can do the other one first. Okay, I'll. Card question.
Speaker 1:If you could take only one item from your house in the zombie apocalypse, assuming, I guess you have to leave your house in this scenario, but you can take one thing. What is the one thing that you're taking?
Speaker 4:Lindsay's going to take her stuff to Dave.
Speaker 5:Her what?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I was like that.
Speaker 2:You must explain this now, Jail.
Speaker 4:Dave her stuffy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have a stuffed animal from when I was a kid that I like can't.
Speaker 5:You know what?
Speaker 3:That is the thing that I would take with me in a disaster.
Speaker 4:I would feel fine putting my stuffy in a firebox or something and just leaving it safe and being like this is your new forever home.
Speaker 3:I'm like I'm OK. I don't think that Dave is the wisest answer, but I'm pretty sure that in an actual emergency situation I would just freeze, and that would be the only thing I could think of. So that's what I would end up taking either way.
Speaker 2:Well, he's like an emotional support.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're, you're prioritizing mental and emotional health yeah.
Speaker 3:That's important. Yeah, sure, yeah, that's that's what it is.
Speaker 1:You know, when everybody's huddling in the dark, not sure if they're going to live through the next day and not sure if they want to, you're gonna. You're gonna have a little stuffed animal emotional support becomes important.
Speaker 4:You know a lot of people don't think about that, but losing your mind is probably how most people would die in the end you know yeah well, that's actually, you know, most survival scenarios.
Speaker 1:I think it was less stroud. Um in his in his survival book, would say that like the best tool, the best survival tool that you can have is keeping a positive mindset, like if you let it overcome you and you don't keep things in perspective and try to remain calm and rational, that's the thing that will kill you faster than anything.
Speaker 2:That's like what I have to do in this crumbling society right now.
Speaker 5:That's what I have to do at work.
Speaker 2:Anyway, if you were going to say what, I'll take lindsey um, I think it would still be a katana.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay I did.
Speaker 4:I think I was just gonna say you already answered it, so if you don't get this right, he's gotta protect dave exactly.
Speaker 2:Can I ask this last one, cause I am very excited about it?
Speaker 5:Yeah, before it.
Speaker 2:All right. If your partner had to eat only one type of aspect for the rest of their life, which of these three do you think they would choose? An aspect was swankies, a seafood, seafood filled aspect, or the incomprehensible aspect, that is, is Ithacua the god? Which one would your partner choose to eat for the rest of their life as their only meal?
Speaker 4:I mean definitely Lindsay would choose to eat a god If there was. The Doom Beast, destroyer of Worlds, would come out and she would be like, yes, I'm eating a god, obviously Incomprehensible like elder god like, yeah, that's the best case scenario, like I end up with god powers worst case scenario, I don't know, but the best case scenario is worth the risk, and the best case scenario is worth the worst case for lindsey yeah I think, so
Speaker 1:yeah, I had to look up what an aspic was, because I'd never heard of this oh boy, do we have so much content coming your way from this guy right here? How does, how does the aspic um join? The lexicon of your vocabulary like like how is, how is this a part of your life? How did you find out?
Speaker 4:so I've always been like since I can remember, just really weirdly fascinated with like old school fading pictures of like recipes for food stuff in jello and I was always like that is so freaking weird. And I remember one time lindsey's grandmother brought over a tomato aspect to like a thanksgiving once and I was like things suspended in the word though I was like the word aspect, like what, what is that?
Speaker 4:and so then, you know, I got the explanation that it's when you mix food stuff with with gelatin, and so that's when I was like, oh, now I know what to look up, you know. And then I just unlocked that like latent, you know, desire to know more about my horrific, like fantasy food fascination thing, like I don't know what it is, what is aspect? It could be anything, did you?
Speaker 4:want to eat it uh, no, I don't think I really want to eat it. I mean, if it was an aspic god and I could gain aspic god powers wait, you're giving it away, lindsey morbid fascination is the term for jails uh aspic so in the aspic revivalist movement, whoa, my guy, ken albala, jiggle daddy is like freaking amazing, he's like a food professor in like an article in like people magazine.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, no, he's like well known this is real.
Speaker 2:You're not. This is not something from your world really real.
Speaker 4:Wow, I thought this was like a cool creation I I'm going to tag him in this.
Speaker 1:I'm like, wow, the third book coming out is going to be wild.
Speaker 3:Jiggle Daddy. He has a new book coming out and it sounds fun. He's actually, I think, a professor of food history.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and so like he makes really beautiful aspic, like sushi aspic, that like the gelatin is like sake and like another layer of like ponzu gelatin and like just really amazing savories and like really good stuff, that's like actually beautiful.
Speaker 2:like you look at it and you're like wow, I can't eat that, that's too pretty, you know I would have to do that because honestly it was there were a lot of like really good gory things in mr guy zombie hunter, but it was the aspect that made me like actually kind of gag a little bit so there's the light side and the dark side to gelatin and it binds everything together.
Speaker 4:So it's kind of like the force. So I want to start like a religion around it.
Speaker 2:You know, I am not going to join this religion I oddly want to join this right now, hey, I'm starting.
Speaker 3:Maybe you'd be like a gelatin jedi you know, like you don't
Speaker 4:have to be a jealous you know all right.
Speaker 1:So are there any practical applications for aspic in the zombie apocalypse? Like does it, does it preserve?
Speaker 4:actually, actually so this is where aspic comes from. It's uh, in. Like the 1400s somewhere around there, people realized that when they leave their meats in the fluids that they're cooked in in their cold storage, the fluids would gelatinize and and fluid and that would actually basically make like the meat's gelatin would make a tupperware. So as long as you I'm just deep breathing it's okay, the meat will still be good. So this was like the origin of refrigeration and preservation for, like meat that isn't dried right in europe.
Speaker 3:Right we're talking about.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, so this is like a lost technology in the zombie apocalypse. If you have like your foodstuffs and you want it to stay good in cold storage, you keep it with all like the and if you don't have access to like cold, cold storage? Yeah, this is like underground, like in the basement. You know um geothermal cooling right, so like you can actually keep like your food really well preserved in its own juices if you let it gelatinize I'm really triggered by this.
Speaker 2:This is the apocalypse. I'm not gonna stick around for most people that think they're ready for the apocalypse, are not ready.
Speaker 4:I'll eat hard attack, freaking gelatin like that's like the two things that no one thinks of they're really important.
Speaker 3:What you're saying is that the Middle Ages basically was the zombie apocalypse.
Speaker 5:I mean that feels right.
Speaker 4:I mean, yeah, with the plague and all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe my visceral reaction to aspic is like there was some horrible thing that happened to an ancestor and, like my DNA is just like revolting when you're telling me about this?
Speaker 1:Totally possible, absolutely not. Those ancestors were aspic.
Speaker 4:I mean, and that's the thing, like you have like reanimated dead corpses coming at you with like chunks of flesh hanging off, and you know it's like I can handle that.
Speaker 3:Break out the aspic and people are like we're used to the one thing, like pop culture wise. We're used to the one thing, like pop culture wise. We're used to the one thing, but not the other we'll get used to the other.
Speaker 5:It's coming back if you had enough gelatin and enough slow-moving zombies.
Speaker 3:Could gelatin be an effective way to stop said zombie like? Could you preserve a zombie in gelatin?
Speaker 2:you know, I was actually asked as a our work. My work does a lot of ice breakers, which are sometimes fun and sometimes annoying, but the most recent one was would you rather swim in a pool of jello or a pool of maple syrup? And instantly I was like maple syrup, because you would just get sucked into jello. So I do think this could actually be a really good I feel like you get sucked into maple syrup that could just be sticky, oh man maple syrup.
Speaker 1:Oh yay, I've returned the ick, yeah my question is like sticky.
Speaker 4:That might just be like a little bit of my nerd emergence reaction, but like I feel like man, if my hands are even a little sticky, I'm like I gotta go wash my hands. You know, it's like the idea of just being in like a pool of sticky is just like oh God.
Speaker 3:So if you manage to get out of the pool of Jell-O, you're pretty much good to go, but if you manage to get out of the pool of maple syrup, you're going to attract like wasps. I hadn't considered that.
Speaker 2:I assumed that it wasn't the apocalypse and I could go shower and bears yeah, and bears would love you that sounds kind of fun.
Speaker 3:That's my word. This whole time I've been pondering what aspic JL would eat and I've actually cycled through each of them. So I'm gonna go with the seafood aspic. Um, originally I thought schwinky aspic because he invented schwinkies and he, you know, aspic is like his special interest. So I was like that would be, that would make him feel really good, but he doesn't actually like sweets, so he wouldn't actually eat that. Um. And then I was gonna say the god aspic. But I think he and the god were just like war against each other. There's no world in which they would probably get along, unless it's a very specific god that is trapped in the Aspek. So I'm going to go with the one that will actually provide you with sustenance that is correct
Speaker 3:so the.
Speaker 2:Aspek the seafood Aspek which god would you eat? That was an aspect that would be compatible.
Speaker 4:It'd be like a forest dragon, a nature, Ooh like that.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 2:I like that. Yeah, that'd be fun. Okay, so, because this is our double date, uh, something I would typically ask on double date in real life I'm going to'm gonna ask you, um, but again, it's sort of like a double-edged sword question. So I'd love to know how you first met and which one was a more difficult choice deciding to get married or deciding to make oneshi press together?
Speaker 4:well, that's easy um, so we met do we have to answer for each other?
Speaker 2:no, now you can just chat now.
Speaker 3:So we met, uh, when we were both living in new york city. Um and I was doing modeling work on model mayhem if anyone remembers model may do I did it was. It was like um, you know, an open source sort of platform where photographers or artists couldn't beat models and hire them to and work together. Um and jl was looking for a model for you know any one of the many artistic projects that he was working on.
Speaker 3:Um and I had this very specific photo shoot in mind that I wanted to do, like a dark forest fairy creature crawling around in an empty subway car. So we spent a while talking online about this idea and when we finally got together to do it, it was the last few days leading up to an art exhibit that I had opening downtown and I, so I had some time off work and I thought we'll get together and in the middle of the night we'll get on the subway and do the photo shoot. So we were going to meet up and do it and then the like multimedia installation I was working on for the art show went horribly wrong and I was like a complete mess. I was like the files are corrupted, I don't know what I'm going to do.
Speaker 4:And he was like, oh well mind you, I've been waiting in Penn station for like three hours and she's like I'm still running late. I'm going to be like at least another hour. You can just go home. I'm so sorry, and I was like well, I mean, I'm freaking sitting here in penn station like having drinks and tji fridays by myself, you know I was like it's last call, I'm just gonna order you something and wait with it you know, like whatever I was like, oh, a drink, perfect.
Speaker 3:So, uh, we got together, we went back to my place and we just ended up like drinking all night and didn't do the photo shoot, because I was too we didn't do the photo shoot.
Speaker 3:It just wasn't the one that we like it wasn't it was just like onesies and silly stuff and so then the next day I was still a mess and I had to try to like salvage this art show, um, and he just took the day off of work and like I called in sick and hung out with me and like kept me from having a complete nervous breakdown, basically. And so we, we got to know each other really well through that experience and we just have been together ever since. That's that's how we met that's really sweet.
Speaker 2:I love that you all met and like at a moment of real stress for you and brought you together, since that's that's how we met. That's really sweet. I love that you all met and like at a moment of real stress for you and brought you together, because that's like an immediate test of whether you're going to be compatible the first day you've met yeah, the great filter yeah, it was like literally me at my absolute breaking point and he was like, oh, it's okay so, jayle, what, uh, what inspired you to stay and help?
Speaker 2:what was it about, lindsey?
Speaker 4:um, well, I mean, you know, at this point we'd already been talking for a long time online and I'd already become a fan of her writing. Um, I'd read a lot of her short stories and journals and reviews and things like that, um, and so I was just like I don't care, it's better than work, I'm having fun. Like you need some help. Sure, like I mean, I think even if Lindsay and I ended up not dating, I probably still would have just helped, because it's the nice thing to do. Like someone needs my help and it's help I can provide. Like I know about video editing and I know about, you know, multimedia stuff. So, like you know, it was just really for me taking the day off and helping. That was just a nice thing to do. But I already knew that I liked lindsey and you know I wanted to see where that could go. So it was just like, yeah, that makes sense, yeah, it was the sensible course of action and he was cute.
Speaker 4:So oh back what, oh back in the day, how long?
Speaker 3:ago. Was this what year?
Speaker 2:12 years ago between 11 and 12 years 2012 right yeah all right, the world should have been over by then, but yeah, we're here.
Speaker 4:I'm grateful yeah, maybe it was.
Speaker 3:Maybe that was the end of the world wow, let's do the second half of the question, which was the more difficult decision yeah, unless you prepped for our hand fasting sounds like you had an opinion on that, so I'll let you take it I don't think either of them were difficult.
Speaker 4:I think they were both again, just the sensible force of action like they were just so romantic.
Speaker 3:I mean it just made sense.
Speaker 4:It was like yes, but we obviously are compatible partners for Oneshi Press. We both have aligned goals, we both have similar sensibilities, like let's do it, why not, you know? And then I think like by the time we got married we'd already been together for a decade.
Speaker 3:It was like yeah, we were really lazy about let's do it you know, so Oneshi Press came first, and then the hand fasting. Although technically I think that we were engaged before Oneshi Press. We just took our sweet time actually doing the thing. But we met to collaborate on a creative project together and we've just always been making stuff together. So also, oh sorry we had plans to publish things together comic books, um, because I'm I identify as a writer, he identifies as an artist. We both dabble in other storyteller.
Speaker 3:Um, but like we always were creating things together and wanted to publish them, and then the things that we were trying to publish we couldn't find the right publisher for and we both had the skill sets that you need to publish things. So we were like, well, let's just just do it ourselves and make a publishing company, and so, yeah, it was sort of like the logical step for us.
Speaker 4:So I had already been working on pack, a pack comic book, and lindsey had already been working on tracy queen and I had been designing and illustrating pack and kind of writing like as I drew, which is not really like ideal. You can really work yourself into a corner that way and I was like I don't really know enough about the writing process. Can you, I'll illustrate Tracy Queen if you can write back, you know? And so that was really early on. And then our idea was that we would get it illustrated elsewhere and or published elsewhere. Sorry, and um, you know that turned out to be like just not possible. Like no one's going to pick you up to publish your thing if you don't have something already out in the world. You know, like if you don't have something to show for it, who's gonna put their money on the line for you? Like why would anyone right? So we were like, oh dang, how we're gonna do this. And it was like, well, we could self-publish.
Speaker 4:And then it was like yeah, but self-publishing doesn't really feel like a. It didn't feel legitimate enough at that time.
Speaker 4:At that time, for us and b, it was also like you know what, if we're having this much of a problem getting published, probably there's a lot of people who are so like maybe we'll also publish other people as well, like let's just do publishing as part of our creation process. You know which it turned out? There's a lot more to publishing than we knew, and it was really really difficult but we did have a lot of experience going in.
Speaker 3:Like we were pretty well set up. It just turned out there were, there was more to it than we knew, but yeah.
Speaker 4:And I mean I worked in a, in a comic book studio, and Lindsay worked at Penguin and was there for the merger of Penguin Random. So we both had, like you know, very, very direct hands on experience with this and we figured, let's roll those dice, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, more than most people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, like the way you talk about it is how Dan and I do not have human children. We have our zombie baby, the zombie book club podcast, and we have two dogs and we used to have a horse who passed away.
Speaker 5:But the way.
Speaker 2:Thank you, he was my bestie. Sorry, dan, atlas was my bestie.
Speaker 1:I'm second to a horse.
Speaker 2:It's always been um, but anyways, like I think of way you describe it is sort of like becoming a parent for the first time, where you just don't fully know like you can know a lot if, anyways, you two are certainly one of the most prepared couples to go into it. But then you became this parent of this child. That's like oneshi press. Did it feel like that at any point? Did you feel like I have like an infant that I don't know quite how, like I don't want to drop it?
Speaker 4:It's amazing because that is exactly how it feels and I've talked to. I actually was just telling my sister that for the first time after like 10 years, like two days ago, I was like you know everyone in the family, they have their kids and they post their child photos and like look my baby's first step, look my baby's first poop, look my baby's first. You know laughter that sounds like a human noise and it's just like wow cool, that's awesome.
Speaker 4:I'm so excited and I also love my nieces and nephews and cousins and I love all them. But like we don't have that for us Oneshi Press having its first you know publication or its first series finale or its first time publishing another author Like for us, those are our baby pictures, those are our baby's first steps, and this is something that we have dedicated ourselves to ourselves to, and if I mean, every waking moment of our lives is spent on trying to make sure that, we raise this baby properly and don't let it die.
Speaker 1:You know, like that's like, that's like the ultimate thing with parenting right.
Speaker 4:It's like you can't let your baby die. They do say that yeah how old?
Speaker 5:is how old?
Speaker 2:is onashi now like like, not necessarily literally, but technically in their in their developmental stages. What would you liken them to be? Are they a?
Speaker 4:toddler, a teenager. Technically it's five years old, but honestly 12.
Speaker 3:It's more like seven. I think we started publishing in 2017.
Speaker 4:What's today's date? Oh shit, we're in 2024. For some reason, my brain was like yeah, that was five years ago.
Speaker 1:Right, I do that too. I'm like way back in 2005, 2017, that was five years ago no 2017 was definitely five years ago.
Speaker 3:The entire pandemics was a hoax the world is flat, it's the berenstein bears yeah uh, no, it's about seven years old as an actual entity, um, and I think actually, like the growth trajectory of a human being is, we're pretty on target. Like onishi has now like very clearly developed its personality, you know like we don't hold its hand while crossing the street.
Speaker 4:I still prefer it to like not cross the street without us, you know, like we don't have to hold its hand while crossing the street that's still prefer it to like not cross the street without us, you know right, but it can walk across the street by itself.
Speaker 2:Do you have any advice for us, like new parents? So our zom baby is um a year and a half old now so very young, 18 months, yeah, it's. I yeah, I think it's got a little behind developmentally.
Speaker 5:It's a little slow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we love it. It's adorable.
Speaker 1:but it's going to have trouble in school.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think okay, trying to think of the advice and then put it into like it's a baby sort of terminology. Difficulties that I can think of with Oneshi Press is like when the people involved don't have the exact same vision of like what the goal is. That can be really hard. But it is its own entity, like you kind of have to let it have its own personality and and let it develop its own way and like. Obviously, since it's not actually a human being that we're talking about, as the creators of this entity we do have more influence. You know we can like, we can move it in a direction without risking like horrible emotional trauma for the rest of his life, thank God. But you know, in the end, when you're making something, you're putting it out into the world for other people to interact with and consume Like it is going to take on a life of its own and people are going to see it the way that they see it and you really only have so much control over it.
Speaker 4:That's good advice For me that's been something to really grapple with and like, just let it be what it's going to be it's important, for it is yeah, I think, um, I would say, you know, and I would say this to someone who is having, who is adopting a new pet or having a kid or anything is like also, just read up, read up on how other people do it. Research you, you know advice, read blogs about it, listen to podcasts about how to take care of that baby. You know, like, but at the end of the day, temper that with your own intuition, because it's not anyone else's baby. It's not going to be the same as anyone else's baby. You're not the same as any other guardian. Like you're different, your baby is different. So you have to trust your own intuition.
Speaker 4:But, but it's always a good idea to like have those basic understandings that come from other people's experience, especially when there are teachers who have collated the best of experiences together from many different sources.
Speaker 4:And like even with publishing, like we've taken classes like tyler james's comics launch, like it's freaking awesome, and like does everything that tyler says necessarily mean we're going to do it that way? No, but tyler has done a lot of research and talked to a lot of people who have done a lot of research and gotten a lot of the statistically most valuable truths and put them together, and then we can sort them and apply them how we want, or if we want, or you know what I mean. If we're going against the grain, then at least it's an informed decision, and we know that we're going against the grain for X reason. You know what I mean. Least it's an informed decision and we know that we're going against the grain for x reason. You know what I mean? Um, so that's, that's something that I would always say when caring for anything else is like do your homework, but also trust your intuition I think that's some wise advice for us.
Speaker 2:I know dan's the studious one and I'm the like hey, I am, yeah, you're the one who's always like reading about how to do stuff with podcasts and I I mean, that was kind of the agreement. I was like, let's make this podcast, but I don't want to do anything, I just want to show up.
Speaker 4:You parse the info for me?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I kind of enjoy running our Instagram and stuff, but I'm the email person. I think you probably figured that out.
Speaker 1:Start a podcast, it'll be fun. All you got to do is edit it, upload it.
Speaker 2:yeah, do all the seo and, yeah, build a website but it's great and we appreciate your like elder parent advice for us youngins, I would say I hope that most actual parents, like with humans, could take some of your advice. I think that is truly generalizable to the human population.
Speaker 3:I think all of the human parents have like eye-rolled their way out of this conversation.
Speaker 5:These people have no idea what.
Speaker 3:I've been through.
Speaker 2:You know what We've got some parents who listen to us. They've written before. If you think that we're full of shit, please feel free to write in. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Speaker 1:Already, they're like we used to like these guys.
Speaker 2:It is dangerous. We've got a lot of things knocking against us, one of them being willfully dinks, and for those who don't know what that is, that it's double income. No children, yeah, um. But but moving into why we're here, mr guy, zombie hunter, um jl. I know that you've been drawing mr guy since you were a teen. Can you tell us, like, what inspired him and what made this the story that was important for you to tell? I know you you've told lots of stories. Both of you are very creative people, but clearly this one's been with you for a long time, so I mean I used to just doodle and go through character designs just trying to figure out.
Speaker 4:you know, just trying to get my balance. Like kids do all kinds of wacky things and you know that's how they figure out. How to like run without falling is by falling a whole lot. You know, like you flail around and you learn eventually what, what grace is Some people more than others. But you know like, hey, I was not.
Speaker 3:OK.
Speaker 4:Lindsay called herself out. But you know, I think like it was one of those just off the cuff doodles and I just really liked it. I was like what a wacky little character. And you know it looked nothing like the way I draw him now, but like I just liked him. I liked his little suit and tie and goblin half like kind of gobliny like face and it was just like what is this guy?
Speaker 3:did he have spooky in his arm at that?
Speaker 4:point no.
Speaker 2:No, this was pre-spooky was he a zombie hunter, or is he just mr guy?
Speaker 4:it was just mr guy and that was that. And then, um, I tried eventually to see if he could fit to the rudimentary world of what is now Children of Gaia with my buddy Chris, and for a little while Mr Gaia was going to be a character in that world. But then that world took on a much more serious tone and Mr Gaia felt like he needed to be slapstick, he needed to be cartoon, he needed to be like Lampoonie, and so eventually he broke off into his own world and I just kept drawing him and, you know, zombies came up, because they do yeah you know what I mean, like they just they come up sometimes.
Speaker 4:And he was already a half goblin at that point. So it was like all right, this is a zombie apocalypse on a fantasy world. And then it's like wait, why have I never seen that before, you know? And then that right there just sparked this kind of um motivation in, in exploring that idea, you know. Uh, and then it took on a life of its own. At that point he was just like all right, we're doing this now. And I was like really, okay, I guess we're doing that. You know, like he just did what he wanted to do and it was like, well, what about if it was like resident evil zombies? Or what about if it was like night of the living dead zombies? Or what about if it was like rage zombies, like you know? Like I just had to keep putting him in these different scenarios. And then I was like how could I possibly choose?
Speaker 2:You know why choose, you don't have to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know that feels very like in in the nature of Mr Guy. Mr Guy has had a lot of jobs, yeah, Like being a dirty dancer. Yeah, chicken wrestler, favorite Mac pilot. You know he's he's also been through a lot of different zombie worlds and uh didn't really know where to fit in in his, in his own story arc until he landed on zombies, sort of like.
Speaker 3:Not entirely, though. The zombies are, like the, the catalyst for the story, but they're not the whole story, like I think, mr Guy, mr, Guy is really a love letter to pop culture through the lens of the zombie apocalypse, but there's so many more monsters and foes and worlds. You know that. Yeah, I, we've been trying to figure out in like our marketing materials, how to like address the fact that this is a love letter to pop culture without just saying love letter to pop culture over and over again. So we're still kind of working.
Speaker 4:If it works, it works, you know but yeah, I think like part of it is also like as a kid and a teenager, you know, in the nineties, like a teenager in the nineties, going through watching like matrix for the first time or like you know, just so many fun things that like were just like whoa, my brain is on fire. Show all these thoughts and I'm like to be able to explore that. Um, as a, as a young person without a fully developed prefrontal cortex, you know like or a cell phone or a cell phone like this was before google was invented how many?
Speaker 2:listeners don't even realize that it's possible to have lived before google we carry paper maps, yeah, we print out maps from map quest and travel the world like pirates I never thought it is kind of badass when you think about it now.
Speaker 1:That'd be a funny idea Pirates that have to print out their treasure maps from MapQuest.
Speaker 4:I mean, that's what we did. You know, like when you need to get to the party by like 11 and you're like, oh man, I took a wrong turn. How am I going to?
Speaker 1:now I'm just in the middle of nowhere. You have six pages of map quest and you're like where did I go wrong? I mean, that was uh when I was first starting.
Speaker 2:So dan and I, I think I mentioned to you in our, our emails back and forth, but and the listeners know but, uh, we've known each other for a long time and then we finally got together, our first version of being together in 2010, which was, uh, I learned very quickly that I shouldn't have been using my cell phone because I'm Canadian and I was coming into the States and driving all the way down to Georgia.
Speaker 2:Uh and so my first bill for my cell phone was a thousand dollars. Uh, and I was young, I definitely did not have that money sitting around. But the way that I got there was I had an actual like Southeastern map and I drew on a marker like how I got there, and then every rest stop. I would like look at the map and be like, okay, this is where I am and keep going.
Speaker 4:So amazing yeah, like a pirate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I wish I'd had you in my ear, then You're a pirate.
Speaker 4:It's like navigating by stars, only instead of stars, it's like truck stops Right.
Speaker 5:And honestly I I encountered.
Speaker 2:I had some scary moments with all those road trips back and forth. So there's yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:You know, the first time that we ever met, in um 2002, uh, in new jersey, um, I printed out a whole bunch of map quests and, uh, they led, they led me astray. I found myself going up and down I-95 in New Jersey and couldn't figure out where the hell I was supposed to go. I got to where she was at like 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 4:So, long Magellan.
Speaker 3:I-95 in New Jersey is one of the worst driving experiences.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't a good time but it worked out. Just took a really long time for it to work out for us. That was a fun little sidebar. Thanks for letting us share. I do want to know why Mr Guy is a half goblin and how are half goblins made Like? Explain it to me, like I'm five.
Speaker 4:Where do half?
Speaker 2:goblins made Like explain it to me, like I'm five, where do half?
Speaker 4:goblins come from. I feel like you know there's always like room for like half orc or like half elf or you know, like just characters like that. And I feel like half goblin was just something I had never heard of anywhere and like I wanted him to be kind of little gobbledy guy, but I also wanted him to be like very like, relatable, like person man. You know, mr Guy, and his first name is M.
Speaker 1:Our Period like that's his actual on his driver's license.
Speaker 4:That's his first name is mister, his last name is guy.
Speaker 1:You know I wanted to blend in. Yeah, real, mister.
Speaker 4:So I feel like that was like such a like weird, like little, I don't know. I would call that an emergent property, like when something just kind of comes out as you go. Those are like emergent properties and I think a lot of times when you figure out how those little nuanced idiosyncrasies that almost come up by accident, when you figure out how to work them into the story, you always end up with something that feels more organic than if you put the result first, like here's what this story is going to be and what this character is going to be, and what this character is going to be, and this is going to sell because these ingredients make money. So I'm going to take the selling ingredients and put them together and now I'll figure out how to make it interesting. It's like, no, this was interesting, now I'll figure out how to make it something sellable. You know, I feel like a lot of writers put the put the horse before the cart and or the cart before the horse or whatever it is.
Speaker 5:You know which everyone's supposed to go before a chicken or the egg yeah.
Speaker 4:So, like you know, and to my mind, like that can make something that's like a flash in the pan success where it's like a big deal for about a second but if you want to make something that's like developable developable, you know, and has a legacy to it, which is what I'm always looking for with all of my characters and series is to make something that's long lasting and can be continued. You know, in that I think you have to kind of allow it to be what it wants to be and then figure out how to make it work circumstantially, and those circumstances are allowed to change, as you know. Maybe I'll relook into it when I'm 50 and it'll be a different circumstance.
Speaker 3:Jail is giving you permission to retcon.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, no, no it won't be. It'll be continued, but you know what I mean Like. So I'm not sure if I just veered completely away from the original question.
Speaker 2:That's okay, I don't remember the question.
Speaker 5:Me neither.
Speaker 2:Sorry, can you say that again, Lindsay? I missed it. I'm sorry. Oh, I thought you said something. What did you just say?
Speaker 4:Oh, I just said he's giving you permission to retcon your characters and stories. Then you said something about that being a five-year-old explanation.
Speaker 3:She asked you to explain it to her like she was five, a five-year-old.
Speaker 4:I feel like I rambled like a five-year-old I think. I took that the wrong way.
Speaker 2:Both Dan and I have ADHD so we love a flow it doesn't need to go in it. Also, I'm glad you remembered Lindsay because I already like following you where we were going um, did we go somewhere?
Speaker 2:I think we did well I know that your trilogy your third um part of this, is going to be coming out shortly and you have a kickstarter that I think will be out by the time that this is published, by about a week. So, folks, please go check out the kickstarter. It'll be a link in the uh description are we millionaires.
Speaker 4:Yet you in the future listening? I think you should, because I really enjoyed it, I think.
Speaker 2:So just a little background about me. I uh, as you, dan, and people who've been listening for a while know, I grew up basically like culturally illiterate, so like I love a lot of pop culture, like I didn't know what that was because I didn't have access to tv or really anything. Um, as a kid and I feel like I'm catching up so this is my third comic series that I've read only because of this podcast, and I really, really enjoyed it and I, like dan, I was saying, like, what are you? What are you going to do if people want more after the third? Like, do you feel like you just want to live through other people's writing? Do you feel like there's more to share past the trilogy?
Speaker 1:what if they demand it? Yeah, well, if they come to your house I know I already have the answer oh, do we get a sneak peek?
Speaker 4:or is this? A top secret I'm not sure what kind of tests I can put you through to see if you're worthy of the answer it. They should be like Herculean challenges.
Speaker 3:We're going to edit in a training montage.
Speaker 4:If you can get to Missoula Montana by Thursday with paper maps only.
Speaker 3:I will be waiting. Print out the Google Maps directions.
Speaker 2:If we can only use MapQuest if it is even still a thing, this does sound way more fun than going to work.
Speaker 4:Archives yeah, like Thursday, we can make it Googling. I don't want to, if it is even still a thing this does sound way more fun than going to work Like Thursday.
Speaker 2:we can make it like Googling.
Speaker 5:I don't want to go to work anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you have any?
Speaker 4:dogs. We have two cats. Both of them think they're dogs in different ways.
Speaker 2:We have two dogs and the one dog loves to eat cats. I think that might fail our mission right there. He won't be able to come for the trip, but I love this. This is very tempting.
Speaker 4:By thursday we'll get the answer so I mean I do have an answer, but I don't want to spoil the end of the trilogy I see, that's fair, that's fair if you want, when we're done recording, I can tell you wow, I appreciate that offer of trust.
Speaker 2:Yes, I would love to hear it, but for now, um, let's talk about what we do know from the world of mr guy zombie hunter. Uh, something we talk a lot about on this podcast is representation. And um, dude midnight, I think, at least in the things that I've read, which I just told you that I'm culturally illiterate and like working my way out of that I'm pretty sure he's the first trans character in zombie media that I have seen and I really appreciated that. So I would love to hear that's a strong possibility. Yeah, I think it is because we've been looking for trans representation in zombie media since we started this and this is it. This is the first time.
Speaker 4:So I'm'm curious, like how you think about representation in your work. Well, so I think this is something that I've kind of intuitively always believed and thought, but it was put into words with a lot of informed research and background behind it. For us was when, recently, a good friend of ours who is one of the artists in in this most recent edition of Mr Guy Tess Langston, she had suggested that we read this book, survival of the Friendliest, which I honestly think anyone who thinks they're like into survivalism should should give this book a checkout, because survival of the friendliest is a very different take on survival of the fittest than most of the like. You know more more fragile, like tough, tough guy trope types.
Speaker 3:This morning I give a listen to not the whole thing but part of your episode on toxic masculinity in zombie media, oh yeah exactly exactly the conversations we need to be having and this is in survival, the friendliness.
Speaker 4:One of the things that they talk about is for social change. You know, historically a lot of times when there are protests and riots and governments overthrown and people fighting, and even if it's fighting the good fight, most of the time that ends in fascism.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 4:But a lot of the most positive change comes from just exposure. You know, like how many times does somebody think they're a bigot against X demographic until they work with someone from X demographic and realize, wait a second, you're a person too?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how it happens.
Speaker 4:Simple normalization, like no one is not a person, dehumanization is the greatest tool of separatism and colonialism and imperialism. There is the idea that someone else isn't as much of a person as you is what allows people to do horrible things in the name of whatever institution they give their fealty to. But the second you realize other people are people like. That's when things start being like wait a second, maybe we shouldn't be dicks, you know, maybe we should just be like kind of chill, right. So for me, the idea of having characters in all of our stories that are just from different backgrounds and not necessarily making that what their story is about, like dude Midnight's story, is not at all about being trans.
Speaker 5:Exactly.
Speaker 4:It just comes up in conversation and Mr Guy's like, oh cool, congrats, you know, and like they keep going, like it doesn't even come up in conversation. It's actually kind of in subtext, it's just normal. It's just like, yep, that's a thing and it's not at all part of dude midnight story at all and that was really intentional. It's like we can just have characters of different backgrounds and it's like why, why not? You know what's? What's stopping you when you have to choose who what this character's background is going to be or that character's background is going to be. What's stopping you when you have to choose who what this character's background is going to be or that character's background is going to be? What's stopping you from just thinking, oh, I already did this, let me vary it. Yeah, what's a different variation? What's a different thing I haven't done yet, you know we need more writers like you.
Speaker 2:We really do um and uh like well, like both of you, because I saw that you had the I don't know what the exact thing was on the back, but it was like a pride sort of symbol um yeah, that's what it was, and like those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:they're small things, but they're so important for people who are, um part of the lgbtqia community, um, because it's just like an instant moment of feeling safe. And then seeing that kind of representation also just gives me a sense of, like, who the writers are too, and it makes me feel personally, like okay, like this is a world that I want to be into. Like I want to be in a world where somebody can be trans, and it's not a, it's just a passing comment, it's not a big deal. So I love that kind of world building.
Speaker 1:Thank you for doing that it's also great because there's there's certainly one person out there that's going to be like, ah, you're, you're rubbing my face in it. It's like, well, actually no, because right like it's just the person that exists.
Speaker 4:Make you feel icky, like sorry about your look right it's like if you think that that's part of some agenda to just be like, hey, other people exist, then that's okay. Like if that's an agenda that makes you angry, I think you're the bad guy, or you just need to like really take some aspirin, you know be careful though you don't want to go topirin Assassin, because if you're one of those people, you might get injured.
Speaker 5:What are you going to get? The Aspirin or the?
Speaker 1:Assassin, I don't take time to get into the types around here. So there's a few things that we noticed that really made us laugh and also made us think about the morals of the story. There's some morals in here and I'm wondering if, if you have more more behind the scenes on stuff like this and the first arc right off the bat, we, we see it, we meet a cow and the numbers on the tag says go vegan, which immediately we're like that's, that's amazing, because that is what the cow would probably say I agree um, that cracks me up because it like it's.
Speaker 3:Um, it makes me remember the good old days when chick-fil-a's uh advertising was eat more chicken, and how clever that was before they got like mean. And now they're like angrily, like this anti-woke chicken fast food company. And I'm like man, I know it used to be so much cuter I miss their waffle fries yeah, I like their waffle fries, but that was about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like the waffle fries, but that was about it Also. Something that made me laugh pretty hard was the Tofu man the human tofu that's also shaped like a human Wait.
Speaker 3:Is that in Mr?
Speaker 2:Guy, it's in the zombie adoption program.
Speaker 4:It's in the zombie adoption program, which we haven't even talked about yet.
Speaker 2:But I am curious, look, look, when I saw those things. So, first of all, out us again. Like this will be another strike against us from anybody listening. We're Dan and I happen to be vegan. I know we're rubbing your faces in it feel our judgment. I just want to know if you two are tofu fans, that's all and like would you befriend? The tofu man, or would you eat the tofu man?
Speaker 4:I mean, if it was a like legit tofu, tofu man. Like I would have a hard time being like I'm going to eat you now. Sorry, buddy, like you're chill, but I need my proteins.
Speaker 3:You know, eat you now. Sorry, buddy, like you're chill, but I need my proteins. You know um I I would eat the tofu man, because otherwise it is it's gonna get smelly yeah, real fast that's true, yeah, not gonna be pleasant to be around, unless you can hang out with your tofu man in like a walk-in refrigerator situation and tofumen is full human size tofu, right, right yeah I kind of wondered how he stood up right though, because like there's no bones in his obviously an extra firm tofumen, extra firm yeah, I mean think about like an extra firm piece.
Speaker 4:This big has some rigidity to it, so like, maybe scale that up and it's like extra, extra firm.
Speaker 3:It'll be, like you know, still wobbly or maybe it's um got one of those. Uh, what do they make it out the the fake bones that they put in, like uh?
Speaker 4:oh yeah, they use uh a lot of times they'll use sugar cane yeah, maybe it's got like sugar cane bones that sounds tasty I've had some like really good tofu when we were at that place that sounds tasty.
Speaker 2:I've had some like really good tofu. When were we at that place in Atlanta, Dan, that had the like tofu.
Speaker 5:Oh my words.
Speaker 2:Thank you, yes, and they had just like a little. It was not sugar, you know that was at the very beginning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were wooden dowels. Yeah, that was at the very beginning, like I wasn't even vegan yet.
Speaker 4:I was still on the road truck driving, so like vegan was not an option really, yeah, yeah, definitely. Can I give you a little bit of uh?
Speaker 2:zombie apocalypse survival tip.
Speaker 4:Yeah here, yes for vegans. Um, so one argument against the idea that there have been vegan humans is that humans need um b12, and b12 comes from animal sources and it's really hard to get outside of. You know things that are like fermented, like you have like hard cheeses that have b12s in them and stuff like that. So where the heck right? So where the heck could a vegan, like, actually get b12s? And um, it has been discovered that there have been many different cultures that are, you know, pride themselves in being vegan, and a great source of B12 is actually the skin on your tubers, and it has B12 from the bacteria in the soil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is where the cows get the B12 from is from eating the grass, right.
Speaker 4:So if you're going to're gonna be, you know, like eating tubers to survive, just eat the skin too.
Speaker 2:I gotta be honest some tubers this was a massive oversight because I already knew that we needed 18 lentil plants to have enough protein for dan and I, but I had not considered where I was gonna get my b12 before.
Speaker 5:I was just gonna get a lot of energy drinks oh yeah, that's where I get my, yeah, yeah that's brilliant thank you for doing that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, you know I'm getting hungry, probably things that you can eat raw are better. Um, so you might want to go like carrots and sweet and maybe enjoy just a little bit of the grit you know that earthy flavor.
Speaker 1:Right, that's gonna be like my new motto. Now eat the grit, yeah, eat. A great leah complains when I don't wash the potatoes.
Speaker 2:Well enough, but I like the yeah, but they're not grown in like good soil, unfortunately. It's like yeah, I don't, because I think most animals are supplemented for p12 now too, because the you know, I think you two, you all are nodding. You know I'm talking about for the listeners, I'll just say briefly monocultures have destroyed our soils pretty much anywhere where there's a macro farming or mono farming.
Speaker 1:Zombies will fix that though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to just get some extra like soil food for turf builder you know, Just get some extra like soil food for turf builder.
Speaker 4:You know I have taken over, like the grounds keeping of our HOA and so, like you know, I personally would prefer to take years to actually like rehabilitate our soil in a healthy and natural way. But other people are like, what are you doing? Like it still looks like, you know, like there's weeds and spots of dirt and so it's like all right, I'm gonna get some some stuff to like do it a little bit quickly, but without using herbicides and pesticides and fungicides. I went to Lowe's to get turf builder and I went through 30 different products of turf builder and only found one that didn't have herbicides, pesticides or fungicides on it. All of the others boasted they boasted that their turf builder kills dandelions and clover.
Speaker 3:And I'm like which are the things that build your turf are?
Speaker 4:like the healthiest things for your soil. Like clover is literally a nitrogen fixer. That, like it's a legume, it literally fixes your soil. You know like, and they're like ah, our turf builder kills evil clovers and it's like why? So I can keep buying more product yes, exactly yes oh right, you don't want me to have healthy soil? No, they don't, it's not in your business.
Speaker 3:They want to dig in their yard and are like what the hell, is this A worm?
Speaker 5:Worms out of my compost.
Speaker 4:I'm like hey, I don't have worms in my soil. There's something wrong, yeah.
Speaker 1:They want you to think that it's impossible without buying a product.
Speaker 2:I'm officially inviting you to join our zombie commune if you ever need to get it. Montana seems like a great homesteading kind of location, but if you want to come to Vermont I think we would. We actually have a secret plan to take over our HOA with other zombie friends what's in the?
Speaker 4:middle like everything where do we meet in the middle?
Speaker 3:the Great Lakes.
Speaker 2:Buffalo, I've heard, has got some good land. Where's?
Speaker 4:missouri missouri's way south, way south yeah, I was like they got some pretty cool cheese caves that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't want to not even if it's an entire cave of of cheese I mean, if it's the apocalypse, I mean, yeah, well, we'll find out about that in mr guy three oh interesting there's literally an underground network of caves that have just been filled with cheese by the government of the us for a fact.
Speaker 3:You can look it up.
Speaker 4:if you look up missouri cheese caves in springfield, missouri, underground there are just tons Like how many tons of cheese? I don't know it's like an obscene amount of cheese.
Speaker 2:And this is going to show up in the third act possibly yes. Mr.
Speaker 5:Guy stumbles upon them.
Speaker 4:I've actually been. So now he's in dearth, which is like not exactly earth. It's like a fantasy world version of earth was gonna ask that yeah I've actually been in those caves.
Speaker 1:I didn't see the cheese, but I was in the caves. Yeah, because I was, I was, uh can I guess I was delivering, delivering or picking up a load of cheese? Who?
Speaker 5:knows what it was. Thank you.
Speaker 1:But they have these huge, huge cave networks that, like trucks, are going in and out of at all times. Yeah, amazing. And it's like it's the exact height of a trailer. There's almost no room to turn around. It was very stressful, unforgettable.
Speaker 3:So, like I know about the cheese caves, but I don't know that much Like, are they man-made caves? Are they using cave?
Speaker 4:art they were. They were what shale mines.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:No sandstone mines Something.
Speaker 5:And why, are they?
Speaker 2:filled with cheese? Is this because of the overproduction through subsidization sort of problem?
Speaker 4:yes, exactly 100. And they were like, well, now we have all this cheese, what can we do? There's no way we can build enough refrigeration for it. And they were like, well, these empty sandstone mines are pretty cool, you know. And they were like, all right, are they cool enough that we could keep like tons and tons of cheese in there? And they were like, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like anytime you hear people talking about government cheese, that's literally it. That's wild, honestly, it's not just government cheese.
Speaker 4:Most of the products that like push cheese, like cheese powdered puffs and cheese powder cheese noms, all that stuff yeah, All of that like mass-produced milk powder that's in everything. Yeah, it all just comes from the cheese, missouri, you know yeah, it comes from missouri.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, I didn't realize growing up that I was getting, because I don't know if you all the got milk commercials and, um, you did, okay, that's so that's why we have the got when we got tv. When we got TV as a teenager, I'm like what is with this?
Speaker 5:Got Milk mustache Olympian, You're like you're going to die if you don't drink milk every second of the day. Milk, you won't even have bones if you don't drink milk.
Speaker 4:And it's like I don't think that's true, Bones are turned apart. Why are you saying that?
Speaker 1:My favorite one is um, there was, there's one where they're. These kids are looking out the window at their like elderly neighbor who's doing yard work and um, and the the mom is like you better drink your milk. And they're like yeah, well, mr jeff across the street says he never drinks milk. Look how strong he is. And he like waves and he's got like a wheelbarrow full of dirt and he's doing all kinds of work in his backyard and he goes to pick up his wheelbarrow and his arms rip right out of their sockets there's just blood shooting out and he's like uh, oh.
Speaker 1:And the kids are just like screaming and like pouring milk into their mouth. That's fear mongering for everyone.
Speaker 2:This is honestly, weirdly, the best segue to something I've been like dying to talk with you about. Okay, so there's like a very clear critique, because that's fear-mongering. There is a very clear to me anyways, this is where I took it. You tell me if this was your intention.
Speaker 2:Uh, critique of fear-mongering by white right-wing christianity, um, depicting like aggressive capitalists and right-wing Christians as the hypocrites who are actually going to be in one of the circles of hell, which I loved, because I didn't grow up in Georgia, as you know, I was Canadian, but I lived there for more than a decade and a lot of my queer community had told me stories about evangelical plays where they made them go as kids to like these plays where there are uh people who are like becoming getting stuck in the lifestyle of being gay or smoking cannabis or having sex before they get married and then they're like shown as they're, like being damned to hell and it would scare these kids, or scare them as kids.
Speaker 2:And I knew one person in particular who had had really serious religious trauma because when she came out as gay, her family decided that she was what's the word like possessed by demons and like actually went through like an exorcism with their church leader and then forced her to take medicine to try and like fix this, and so like, yeah, it's, I probably should probably have a trigger warning on this trigger trigger. Well, we'll insert that in the beginning. Um, and I'm sorry, I I just started telling you this story and I don't know your history, so if this is bringing something, up for you I know I?
Speaker 4:I just have a lot of thoughts, feelings I have a lot of disdain for that kind of institutionalized hypocrisy and you know, like, most of the time, the for that kind of institutionalized hypocrisy and you know, like most of the time, the people that are teaching that don't even know why they're teaching that. They don't even know where it comes from, they just have been told it and they believe it and so they're teaching it. But you know even, like biblically, where that comes from is breeding laws that were set out by this character, Leviticus, who conquered a neighboring empire and was teaching his people how they can finish taking over the empire Colonially. You know they're. Basically they set out breeding laws. Basically they set out breeding laws and the tenant of these breeding laws was that if the only kind of sex people can have is the kind of sex that leads to babies, there will be so many babies, we will outbreed them and that's how we'll win.
Speaker 5:So it's literally a military imperial practice, and it was in the Bible quoting a bad guy.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean. And then people are like well, it says God said in the Bible that this is how God knew it, and it's like no man, george W Bush, is saying this Whatever that was a great G-Dub.
Speaker 2:That's what Leviticus sounds like.
Speaker 4:Leviticus is played by George Bush is played by george bush, but it's literally quoting an empire trying to outread another empire and people are like, well, that's what god said and it's like that is not at no like nowhere in the gospels or anything like nowhere. Does anyone claim that this is what some man in the clouds said? This is what some man in the clouds said. This is what some dude in a fucking gold chair said you know like yeah, it's funny how often they confuse the two things.
Speaker 4:And I mean either one, is absurd Like what does your heart say? You know?
Speaker 3:like. So I would. I would bring it back a little bit to Mr Guy by saying, like I think that, um, you know, fear is the quickest way, the quickest means by which to control a population, and it is almost always being utilized by people in power to manipulate the behavior of people who are not. And I think that that's, you know, in in the mr Guy arc where he descends into heck with Dante. You know, that is what we're seeing. We're not seeing people who you know decided that they were going to marry someone of the you know, quote, unquote wrong gender or you know any of these silly little things. They're the people who are manipulating people into not marrying the person of the gender that they want to, etc. They're the people who are manipulating people into not marrying the person of the gender that they want to, etc. That's why.
Speaker 5:I loved it.
Speaker 3:It's the power dynamic and the injustice that is introduced into people's lives by people who have more power than they do, are the ones who are being punished, and I think it's actually really interesting. I never have thought about it in this way before, but now I'm on this jag, so I'm just going to keep going. Mr Guy is like, out of all of the things that we make together, out of all of our stories and all of our characters, I think that Mr Guy is the most he's like he would be the fool in the tarot deck.
Speaker 3:He is kind of just being like he's making his own decisions as he goes, but he's kind of just being moved around by like the winds of fate or, you know, whatever is driving him through this story and he's kind of making the best of it as he goes along. And he's not like his story is not super self-directed, um, and so like, in that way, he's kind of at the seams of whatever powers are leading him from arc to arc, um, and so we get to have this like little moment where he's not really personally investigating systems of power, but he is being like bearing witness to power dynamics in in his world as a mirror of our.
Speaker 5:So thank, you for coming to my TED talk. I'm here for it, you know.
Speaker 4:I think, having those things in the background is also a way of we get to vicariously examine them. Um, with just a little bit of like our own, you know, like you as the audience, you put your own critical thought onto that. I'm not telling you what to think. There's no narrator saying this is what you should take away from this. It's just like, huh, that's a thing in the background. What did you think of that? You know, and the fact that you got so much out of this little background details is it's. It's really gratifying. It's really gratifying. I can't thank you enough Because it is. There is a lot of intention and effort put into wanting to make those points without, you know, soapboxing the woke agenda. It's just like caring about the world, caring about people.
Speaker 4:And if you think that's some woke agenda, then I don't know. You know again, go back to mushrooms and aspirin like take a nap, like have some fucking like lighten up you know like use your heart a little. You know, have some aspirin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably got like a headache or something, I don't know it's being that mad all the time it is shocking how, how easily some people just completely turn off their brain when, uh, when they're confronted with something that they don't think fits what they've been told their whole lives and like they're. They're that, even even though all you're asking is yeah, just think about it, just look at it and think and use your brain and your heart, and they, they're just like nah, it's too woke for me.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of those people are. Oh, go ahead, Lindsay.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm trying to think of the language for it.
Speaker 3:I'm not remembering the correct terminology, but I was reading fairly recently about how, when your core beliefs, like the things that you were raised to believe, and are like really, really deep inside of you, when those are, uh, challenged, is your cognitive dissonance the actual like pain centers of your brain light up, and so then your brain is like, oh no, we are literally under attack and you do actually go into like fight or flight, like like defensive mode, and that is actually one reason that so many people's brains literally do turn off when the things that they've been raised to believe or that they have, you know, decided they believe deeply, are confronted.
Speaker 3:It actually is painful and causes you to be intensely fearful, and so it makes sense that people have that reaction. The sad thing is that I think so much of the messaging coming from every single side is fear-based. It's like trying to get that reaction out of people so that you can get them mad and you can get them to do whatever the thing is that you're trying to get them to do, which is like sort of goes back to what JL was saying before about that book, the Survival of the Friendliest. One of the things that the researchers in that book took away was that you can't always be exposed to an actual person who has had a different life experience from you, which is why storytelling is so powerful, being able to put other people's experiences and ideas in front of you in a way. That's not trying to directly challenge your core beliefs, but it's saying like here's an alternate idea, here's a different way of life and what it looks like, and it doesn't hurt so much when you see that. It doesn't turn your brain off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I had the privilege of being an anthropology professor in the South and that's exactly what I think happened, because I, as a while I clearly have strong political views. That's not how I approached my classroom.
Speaker 2:I just was like it was an informal subtitle of my class, which is just like people are different and it's okay, because they would learn about polyandry where one woman marries all the brothers for as long as people have existed, and they would learn about like how, uh, gender is completely up to your culture, like all of these things, and that would sort of like force people to evaluate their beliefs. But it was in a space where they weren't being challenged about their own. It was just saying like hey, look at all these other ways people do things.
Speaker 4:And that's like okay, and I got to witness, so warm in my heart, so much right now.
Speaker 2:Thank you it's I it was. It was really a good lesson for me because when I moved to the south I was pretty self-righteous and like was just like, what the fuck? Like, why are so many people here so ridiculous? And like, don't they understand? Blah, blah, blah. And then I realized like they're just people with they don't know. Um, they've had limited experience with anybody that's different and they've been told since birth a lot of the students that I had that um, if you think differently than how you've been told, you will go to hell. That's a pretty scary concept. And then you put in that basic psychology you just explained around the flight or flight mechanism and you don't give anybody emotional regulation skills to work through. That we have the world.
Speaker 4:so there's an evolutionarily advantageous survival mechanism that we have, that is, the desire to be as efficient as possible, and cognitive bias confirmation is a way that our brain rewards us for not having to do too much synaptic reprogramming. Having to do too much synaptic reprogramming because when you are relearning something that you just learned, it's no big deal, like you're just changing one little new synaptic pattern, like an outer branch on a tree, but when you have to relearn something, that's like goes way deep early on lots of things you might have to change an entire branch of branches of branches and what that does is there's so much in your brain being reconfigured that you get really tremendous synaptic fatigue.
Speaker 4:Learning something new that's like cathartically, groundbreakingly new can actually like give you executive dysfunction, because your brain is so exhausted from reconfiguring so many thoughts that were built up on those core thoughts that it's painful and that puts you in a very vulnerable state where, if you had to like, respond to zombies, you might get eaten, because you're now learning that it's okay to have two dads you know or?
Speaker 4:whatever like. So people just don't want to do that. They're like no, I have to not learn new things, I have to just learn things that prove the things I've already learned. Yeah, but there's this thing, like if you were to just be like I don't run, I've never run, I never go running, and then all of a sudden you had to run, you'd be in pain, your chest would be burning, your heart would be hurting, you'd be afraid that you're gonna die any second. Your everything hurts, right, your veins and arteries are just stretched. Everything in your body you're running from zombies.
Speaker 4:You might die any second, but yeah, if you run all the time, you get to a point where it starts to feel uncomfortable if you don't run right. So we can also think about that as learning, like that synaptic fatigue, if you're used to changing the way you think about things and looking at things differently and doing thought experiments where you're like what if I did think about it like that? Or what if this is a simulation? Or what if the earth is flat?
Speaker 4:or whatever, whatever yes, you just keep exercising that neuroplasticity and get it to be as elastic as possible, then anytime you're confronted with new information, you can adapt it and be like sick. Thanks, that's awesome, I'm evolving. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:But, like so, there's that difference between being used to learning and being used to not learning all of which is to say that, in the zombie apocalypse, it benefits you to be more open-minded exactly because you don't know what kind of zombies you're facing. You don't know if a shot to the head is going to be the thing that kills them or not. You know you like in a real world scenario. Being open-minded is almost always going to get you farther than you know.
Speaker 4:Stocking up your bunker it turns out, the only way to kill a zombie is to remove wrong with stocking up both of its pinky toes.
Speaker 3:That wasn't the right thing. I should have come up with a different but, we just talked over each other.
Speaker 4:I'm not sure. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:I was saying you shouldn't stock up your bunker, cause that won't help you, but that's not really true.
Speaker 1:Actually, I just but don't stock it up with cheese. Nothing but cheese.
Speaker 2:I was thinking. I'm like that's our little quotable one.
Speaker 1:We can like pull that clip, because I think that's a good point and a great selling feature for getting people to just be more open to learning new things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it'll help you survive the apocalypse. Yeah, you know everything that you described about synaptic overload. I feel like I get the opposite from that at the end of work when I have to deal with um idiots all day, like I get the synaptic overload of having to try to understand why they think the way that they think and then having to think of all the ways that I will have to change and adapt to what they will do because they're unwilling to change.
Speaker 4:Um the burden is on the aware yeah, apparently.
Speaker 3:But the aware shall inherit the earth, apparently according to my theories.
Speaker 2:I like that theory. Where do I read that, that theory, lindsay?
Speaker 3:I'm trying to think about my work and if I've written anything like that, I don't think I have it's coming.
Speaker 4:Sounds like you have a new.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got to get on that.
Speaker 4:New tale from existential.
Speaker 3:What I'm working on now kind of grapples with that. Yeah, okay, so uh, 2025 sometime, that's not too far away.
Speaker 2:I don't think we'll have a full-on apocalypse by then. I just need hope to keep going. So thank you, yeah, um, I do want to get a little more frivolous for a moment. This has been an excellent, deep conversation. It'll have me thinking for days. So the zombie adoption program, that handsome farmer Curtis I love that. He's always handsome, by the way.
Speaker 4:Well, handsome is his first name.
Speaker 1:That's what I was going to ask, and his farmer is his middle name and Curtis is his last name.
Speaker 4:His father, charming rancher Curtis, named him that, so it's a family tradition and we just we just met his grandmother in our discussions.
Speaker 2:Her name is darling grandma curtis, darling grandma curtis well, that is a wonderful history and, like nate, I guess, different than just calling somebody junior, a little more creative, but I did appreciate the generosity of him creating the sanctuary for the living impaired. And as I was exploring your universe because, folks, if you have not read mr guy zombie hunter yet, you need to go get it. First of all, it's super fun, yeah, uh. But there are so many different like sort of secret sideways, adventures and places you can go to, and one of them was a 360 view of the sanctuary and I noticed that there is a zombie unicorn and I'm just curious if the zombie unicorn is still available for adoption. How do we get involved in the zombie adoption program? Because I also cannot afford to keep a zombie myself.
Speaker 4:So the zombie adoption program for as little as $3.99, you can clothe, feed and shelter honorarily. You might be one of 300 people that are honorarily adopting, like Bobby, for example.
Speaker 3:When you were a kid, did you adopt a whale? Did you adopt a wolf? There are all of those programs that you get involved with, where you help sponsor.
Speaker 4:It's like a sponsorship program For reals.
Speaker 4:If you go to zombieadoptionprogramcom been involved with where you help sponsor yeah, so it's like a sponsorship programming, but, um, for reals, if you go to zombieadoptionprogramcom right now you can sign up for free and what we do is, when you sign up, you get access to all of the previous stories and every time we come up with a new update it gets emailed to you so you read the new story and then you get to vote on the next one. So we always have you know, anyone that's on that the zombie adoption program mailing list gets to vote on what handsome farmer Curtis should do. Next, on the sanctuary, because it turns out trying to run a sanctuary for the living impaired on a fantasy world is like a lot of work, and weird things come up that you might never have considered brought with danger it's brought with danger, but also like just administration, administrative, like hardships, you know, like just organizing it, figuring out, like what to feed them, how to keep them from freezing and breaking, how to keep them from overheating and rotting.
Speaker 2:You, you, know like Keeping the smell down. Yeah, yes, All that. Speed dating was my favorite one. That was a good one.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, you can sign up for the zombie adoption program for free and help us figure out what to do next.
Speaker 2:I'm already signed up. That's not obvious, but folks, please go check it out.
Speaker 3:It's very fun. Yeah, so at this time we cannot offer sponsorships for adopting the zombie unicorn because, as it turns out, zombie unicorns are real, mean, um real hard to capture and the the unicorn is not actually in residence if one decides to show up and it's like acting chill, like maybe yeah, but so far the ones that we have had contact with have been real nasty pieces of work that really.
Speaker 2:It's like you know. They say never meet your heroes, I guess, I could, just I need to like just keep the vision of a zombie unicorn in my mind and not have direct interaction, because that would be heartbreaking I have a unicorn tattoo so oh, but um see it but maybe I'll have a zombie unicorn on the side. I'll show you after.
Speaker 3:I think a zombie unicorn is like, for me, like a mountain lion. They're so majestic and so cool and I desperately want to see one, but at the same time, no, I do not want to see one, because that's not a good thing from afar you want it to be your friend, but you also don't want that friendship to go badly.
Speaker 4:I feel the same way about zombie ogres Like they're really cool in theory, but like I don't want to see one.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, you don't want to confront one in the wild.
Speaker 2:I think that's fair. I have one last question for you before we get into a little bit more about what you do beyond mr guy, zombie hunter and, uh, learn more about the kickstarter, which is how you ever been haunted by a spectral creature. How did that go and did you save the world with your specter if? You were haunted by a spectral creature this is very important and if you don't know what we're talking about, again get mr guy zombie hunter, you'll meet spooky the specter.
Speaker 4:So I mean, I feel like a little bit having an internal monologue and just having that like jiminy cricket conscience, who's like always trying to get you to do the smartest best, most responsible thing, but also being someone who just kind of has an open door policy in life, like, oh, there's an open door, I better go through it. You know, like um, so like in a little, in a little bit of a way like spooky is kind of the conscience, but he's also like it's really annoying and tiring to be the conscience. He's like the conscience doesn't always have fun and sometimes like the most fun the conscience can have is sassing you.
Speaker 5:You know, um mr guy is about right you know, mr guy is the fool.
Speaker 4:He's always having fun. He's just going for like, oh, that seems right, okay, I'll do that. You know, like that's fun, I'll do that. Um, so I think in a little bit of a way, you know, anyone that's feels led by their conscience can kind of have say that they've had that experience, you know so we should all name.
Speaker 2:Ours is, I think, what I'm getting like sure this guy has spooky, what's yours called?
Speaker 3:for me this is really stupid, but it's actually Dave, my stuffed animal.
Speaker 4:He's very judgmental, he's very sassy, he's definitely my spooky character staring at me with his little beady, little eyes.
Speaker 3:I think I like Dave. Oh really, it's 2am and you're going to bed now? Great choice, lindsay. Just shut up're going to bed now? Great choice, lindsay. Okay, dave, just shut up and go to sleep now.
Speaker 4:Ah, dave, I think mine is some kind of ancient forest dragon. That's the best I can come up with. I'm just led by the forest dragon.
Speaker 1:The same one that's in the aspic.
Speaker 5:Yeah, the same one that's in the aspic.
Speaker 4:I mean, if you think about it, forests are kind of like an aspic in a way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, no, I'm going to go ahead and go there.
Speaker 4:See, that's your cognitive bias telling you that this is not going to give you that confirmation hit of dopamine.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to accept it.
Speaker 4:It's synaptic fatigue that makes you not want to think about it.
Speaker 1:Forests are aspects. Now I'm just going to accept it because I'm open-minded, and better than all of you.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of rotting stuff in there.
Speaker 1:In the aspic.
Speaker 4:That could be preserved in the forest, oh in the forest.
Speaker 2:That's as far as I can go with it. My neuroplasticity won't go further when it comes to aspic. As far as I can go, with it.
Speaker 3:My neural plasticity won't go further. When it comes to yeah, mine has already. This is going to be.
Speaker 4:That's going to be the statement that's going to keep you up at like 3 am. You're going to be sleeping, so wait a second. What if?
Speaker 3:no, it's better than being kept up by a spectral specter.
Speaker 5:Sassing you.
Speaker 3:I actually I've never been haunted by a specter, but I've had encounters with many of them and they. There's one in particular that does keep me up at night when I'm in its space and it's real annoying so that's very rude of that specter? Yes, it just can't not. It's like it's curious and friendly. But I'm like I am, am sleeping. Please leave me alone.
Speaker 4:Are you talking about our cat?
Speaker 3:I could be though.
Speaker 2:Same basic idea. Well, I could talk to you all day and I definitely want to know more about the Spectre, but unfortunately we have come to the end of our time together. We're near the end of our chat. There's two more things I'd love to hear from you. Is there anything else our listeners should know about you, or what's going on with an eshy press and, uh, something you'd like to share? Promote a little bit more about the kickstarter oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, this kickstarter has not started yet as of the time that we're recording, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say that it is wildly successful and everyone is getting mr guy zombie Hunter right now, and you do not want to be left out listeners. So go to kickstarteroneshipresscom and get in on this awesomeness, and you will find that in the notes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they might already be gone, so they better hurry.
Speaker 3:Yeah, who knows, better get over there quick.
Speaker 1:They can't keep up with the demand. Yeah, who knows, better get over there quick. They can't keep up with the demand.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly. Also, you know, the more backers we get, the more awesome things we're unlocking. So like tell your friends to back it too and you'll get more stuff. The more people you tell to back it, the more stuff you'll get for having backed it.
Speaker 1:It's a pyramid scheme, it is.
Speaker 4:It is the pyramid of zombies. It's a pyramid scheme, it is. It is the pyramid of zombies.
Speaker 2:It's a pyramid of awesome. Maybe a zombie unicorn will get unlocked by getting enough people you know.
Speaker 5:You know, I like that.
Speaker 4:You can sell me on this pretty easy. I feel like we're already heading in that direction. It might be an emergent property, Like there might be nothing we can do to stand against it at this point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it might be an emergent property, like there might be nothing we can do to stand against it at this point yeah, yeah, what kind of aspect
Speaker 4:would a zombie unicorn eat and that's my truly, my last question for today, oh, cupcakes, cupcakes absolutely cotton brains.
Speaker 5:Yeah, cotton candy too, cotton candy flavored gelatin.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean they could gelatin can be from a situation where you may not have a lot of access to things like you know, butter and eggs and the things you normally keep.
Speaker 4:A cupcake moist with brains might do quite well yeah, also vegans have an edge because they're used to not having those things.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, they wouldn't. Even vegans still wouldn't eat the brain cupcakes, but the zombie unicorn would.
Speaker 4:That's what I'm saying yeah, I meant the cupcakes not just generally speaking eggs and milk.
Speaker 5:Yeah yeah I mean, I appreciate your thoughtfulness as a vegan as far as practical impossible.
Speaker 2:If I'm gonna have to eat an aspect of brains at some point to survive, I will yeah I go with.
Speaker 3:You know applesauce in your cupcakes before brains, probably easier to source honestly, we do have apple trees.
Speaker 5:So yes, yeah, yeah, that's a thing, and flax seeds, which we can also use for egg replacer oh, I don't want to say goodbye.
Speaker 2:This was super fun. Thank you both so much for taking time to chat with us and folks. Please check out Mr Guy Zombie Hunter and the Kickstarter. All of the links will be in the show notes and it's been really a pleasure. I hope we get to have you back on the podcast soon. Yeah, this was a blast so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Thank you Move to Vermont. No, you moved to Montana.
Speaker 4:Okay, I'll move to Missouri.
Speaker 5:You'll live in a cheese cage. Cheese in your butt. Guy Call Mr Guuuyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Holy cow peril is ruined. Danger's ahead. Will he stay alive or become undead Town full of hordes? Better watch where you drink. Sat stuck in the city with a musk and a street rat. Join in a ride. When it all goes awry, who you gonna call Ghostbusters? Mr Guy Call Mr Guy Call Mr Guy. Mr Guy. Mr Guy, mr Guy Call Mr Guy.
Speaker 1:Well, that was a whole lot of fun.
Speaker 2:I know Our first double date on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did it. They were a lot of fun to talk to.
Speaker 2:They were. I think they'd be even more fun if we all had swishki together in person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, somewhere in the cheese mines of missouri who you know.
Speaker 2:That was never on my list of places to go until just now I, I don't think you're actually missing a whole lot.
Speaker 1:They're just. They're just caves of cheese.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't actually see the key, the cheese they're, they're locked away can you imagine if that was your only food to survive on in the apocalypse?
Speaker 1:Government cheese.
Speaker 2:Government cheese. You'd be so constipated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it would not be a good time. No, yeah, so there we go. We really enjoyed Mr Guy Zombie Hunter, and I enjoy it even more after talking to them because they are lovely people they really are, enjoy it even more after talking to them because they are lovely people they really are.
Speaker 2:I was so glad uh, we talked after a little bit when we stopped recording and we're definitely gonna have them back for maybe even just like a special chat about uh ash, I'm forgetting what it's called now.
Speaker 5:Ash ketchum from pokemon. No, the evil dead one. Oh yeah, ash from evil, ash from evil dead. Yeah, that one, his name's ashley really yeah fun facts.
Speaker 1:Fun facts about evil dad.
Speaker 2:His name's ashley but that was fun. I'm working on not interrupting so much when I'm on podcast land because I get really excited in my impulse of adhd's like, oh, you don't want to talk about this me too.
Speaker 1:I I'm just like, I want to.
Speaker 2:I want to say words now but that was like a great combination of like deep and funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had a lot of fun yeah, I don't think anybody that tuned into this podcast ever expected that we were going to go down the roads, that we went down and talk about government cheese mines and I definitely didn't.
Speaker 2:That was a great intro and there was like some really deep takes from lindsay on hope and like what's possible for the future if we um, if we actually focus yeah so I will say that um, I don't know what I was gonna say, because I'm tired. What, what were you gonna say? I don't know yeah oh, just that. I wish people like uh jl and lindsey and laurie calcaterra and joshua grant and sylvester barzi uh actually lived, I don't know, in vermont, in our zombie commune I am officially brandon staraki brandon staraki.
Speaker 2:Yes, eric, so many lodus, a lot of our listeners. You all are great. Can we form a commune yet? Are you willing to move to vermont and, um, somehow convince all of our neighbors to move out, because we've got a great little area?
Speaker 1:They've got to move out so that you can move.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Maybe we can force them out, maybe zombies will happen.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they'll eat all of our neighbors.
Speaker 5:But not us.
Speaker 1:And not us no.
Speaker 2:I don't wish our neighbors ill, I just. I just think we have like a really ideal little area and actually one at least one set of our neighbors that keep around and the go away farms. People are cool too.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they're really great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so your zombie homework. It's for episode 55, which is about nine, eight episodes away. Something like that. I don't even know what episode. This is 47, 47. Do the math, because I'm not going to. We're reading the Remaining by DJ Mole. I read the whole series. I love the Remaining. I think it's great. It's an action-packed thrill ride. I love it. It's about an army officer, captain Lee Harden. An army officer, captain Lee Harden, and he's tasked with rebuilding society after a apocalypse-level extinction event, and it just so happens that zombies happen.
Speaker 2:That happens sometimes, yeah.
Speaker 1:And he's got to rebuild and it's pretty great he's got to rebuild, and it's pretty great. If you're looking for a really gritty super realism, hyper-traumatic kind of story, I would say that this is pretty great.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to read it. I'm going to listen to it while I do my little chores.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know I will say that the first book it's good, but it's not as good as all the books after book one.
Speaker 2:I know I kind of regretted, because DJ Molle actually recently posted, like here's a, different kinds of entry points to the series, and Abe, which is his new part of the remaining series but of its own, is also a valid entry point.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that either, and I feel like we have committed to the remaining and I've heard that it's excellent and it's a good entry, like you just said so we're gonna do it, yeah, but you could also read abe and tell us about it.
Speaker 1:Apparently I haven't read abe yet, so I don't know. I did read um he's got he's got two novellas that followed the series. One of them is abe, um, his perspective from inside of the story of the first series, which was great, and I learned a lot about that character because of that novella. And the other one is a, uh, a person that shows up as a, an antagonist in the series, and uh gives it a little bit more more depth to that character. Interesting, yeah, uh, yeah, but anyways, that's what we're reading, so check it out and you know you can call us if you have something that you want to say that is less than three minutes long. We got a number. It's 614-699-0006.
Speaker 2:Do the show notes because that's really fast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or you can email us at zombiebookclubpodcastgmailcom.
Speaker 2:Which I did just recently add an auto reply to, which may annoy you, but it's there, so you know that it's not that we don't care, we're just slow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are slow.
Speaker 2:I actually am typically the email writer and I do it about once a week on the weekend, so that's typically when you're getting your back from us.
Speaker 5:Yeah, unless.
Speaker 2:I'm on vacation, in which case I'll definitely be on that email Cause this is the thing I think is fun, and I'm working 14 hours a day, so I have time not even to sleep.
Speaker 1:Nope, I'm getting a race car bed so that I can sleep faster.
Speaker 2:Wouldn't that be cool.
Speaker 5:I've got five to six hours to get eight hours of sleep.
Speaker 2:So I got to do it fast Race car bed. Well, yeah, leave us. You have a little bit more time left before we record episode 50. So you've got an evil magic chicken zombie cluck.
Speaker 1:Last call. It's coming, not going to, not going to be asking about these after, I think, episode 48.
Speaker 2:The best best one gets an evil magic chicken zombie shirt. Yes, you get a an award. There's some more merch coming out that I've been working on. I just have to steal dan enough time to put it on the website and um, you can also tell us a survival story or just like ask us a burning question you have I also really would love ziggy, yeah, and what he's doing with his face right now, which is really cute, but also makes me worry about him.
Speaker 2:If we get enough random questions, we could do like an ask me anything sort of thing. Or, you know, like if you want advice from two people who are unqualified to give you advice, I'll give you all the advice.
Speaker 5:About anything. Yeah, yeah, ask me about, I want to.
Speaker 2:I want to give.
Speaker 1:Ask me for medical advice. You want medical advice. I'll give you medical advice.
Speaker 2:I was going to offer relationship advice, workplace advice, friend advice, commune advice. None of it you should follow.
Speaker 1:But if you want it, I'm here, I'll give you financial advice.
Speaker 2:That is a terrible idea. Don't listen to us. Either of us are financial advice. However, please feel free if you have not already subscribed. Rate review. It helps us spread like a virus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, through ear holes we go into the ears, right into your brain. That's how our zombies work.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening. Come check out Instagram. We haven't been so active on threads lately, but Dan at Dan the zombie writer is pretty active on threads.
Speaker 1:I've got two threads. We got a zombie book club thread and I usually just use my Dan the zombie writer thread on the daily basis.
Speaker 2:And I don't know how to do zombie book club on threads.
Speaker 1:So Instagram it is. You don't know how to log in.
Speaker 2:I don't.
Speaker 1:Give us a rating. Review Link tree is in the description. Thanks for stopping by and I hope all of you liked this book and I hope you like the next book and I hope you like the book that I'm writing that will be published in 10 years.
Speaker 2:Just got to keep them listening until then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, keep listening until I publish that book.
Speaker 2:Have a very, very lovely evening, morning, afternoon, wherever you are, and don't get bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and take your vitamins.
Speaker 2:Yes. Or eat tuber vegetables eat tuber vegetables with the dirt on them for your b12 dog, it's good, that's also good advice all right, goodbye everybody.
