**The Power of Inspiration: A Conversation with Comic-Con Guests**

We're sitting down with three guests at New York Comic Con, chatting about everything from their experiences working on comic book projects to the inspiration they draw from attending conventions like this one. Our conversation is a candid and humorous look into the world of comics and the people who bring them to life.

**The Art of Being Inspired**

For many of us, comic books are more than just a hobby or a form of entertainment - they're a way of life. And when it comes to creating those all-important characters and stories, inspiration can be a powerful and elusive thing. "I think that's one of the things I love about coming to Comic-Con," says one of our guests. "It's a chance to see everything that's out there and get inspired by all the other people who are working on their own projects." That sense of community and inspiration is something that many creators strive for, but can be hard to find.

**The Pressure to Perform**

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility - and for comic book creators, that means putting in a lot of hard work to get everything just right. Our guests are no exception, with all three of them having a lot on their plates as they prepare for the convention. "We're always juggling multiple projects at once," says one of our guests. "It can be overwhelming, but it's also what makes it so rewarding when we finally see something come together." That sense of pressure and responsibility is something that many creators feel, but our guests are good sports about it.

**The Moment of Connection**

One of the most powerful moments in any creative project is when a fan connects with the work that someone else has done. For our guests, that moment of connection is something they strive for every time they meet their fans at Comic-Con. "It's amazing how much impact one person can have on another," says one of our guests. "I remember someone coming up to me and saying 'your character changed my life' - it's moments like those that make all the hard work worth it." That sense of connection is something that many creators feel deeply, but it's also something they often strive for in their work.

**The Wisdom of Experience**

As we chat with our guests, it becomes clear that experience is a powerful teacher. Many of them have been working in the industry for years, and have learned valuable lessons along the way. "I've found that the more I do this, the more I realize how much I don't know," says one of our guests. "It's humbling, but it's also what makes me want to keep doing it." That sense of humility and willingness to learn is something that many creators strive for, and it's something that our guests embody in their own work.

**The Importance of Mortality**

Finally, as we wrap up our conversation with our guests, one theme emerges again and again: the importance of mortality. In a world where comic books are often seen as a form of escapism, our guests remind us that death is always just around the corner - even for those who create them. "It's funny," says one of our guests, "but I think that's what makes it all so real. We're all going to end up in the same place, and when we do, it's not about the comic books or the characters - it's about the moments we shared with each other." That sense of mortality is something that many creators feel deeply, but our guests remind us that even in the face of death, there's always beauty to be found.

**Thanks to Our Guests and Sponsors**

We want to thank all three of our guests for taking the time to chat with us today. It's been a pleasure talking to you, and we're excited to see what you'll all do next. We'd also like to thank Videoblocks for sponsoring this episode of The Untitled Podcast. Videoblocks offers great value with unlimited downloads from their library of 115,000 HD video clips, After Effects templates, motion backgrounds, and cinemagraphs - at a price that's less than $10 a month. That's right - just $99 a year for access to all of this amazing content. Check out Videoblocks.com for more information, and use the code "UNTITLED" at checkout to get your discount.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: entoday's episode of still entitled is brought to you by video blocks they offer great value with an unlimited download model choose from a library of over 115,000 HD video clips After Effects templates motion backgrounds and cinemagraphs on average subscribers pay less than a dollar per download over the course of a year and they have a great variety of time lapses Aerials us International locations slow motion nature shots and More Everything is 100% % a royaltyfree even if a subscription is cancelled video blocks is also offering listeners of this podcast a year subscription for only $99 this is $50 off the usual price tag for our listeners only less than $10 a month get your subscription today at for only $99 at videoblocks.com still Untitled that's videoblocks Vio B cs.com still entitled for this exclusive offer now on with the show Welcome to still entitled the Adam Savage project I'm Norm I'm Adam and I'm John we have a special guest we are well first of all we are on the floor at Jacob jabit Center on the west side of New York City at New York's ComicCon 2016 it's on location I don't think we've ever done a podcast on location in the crowd before well we are right in the middle of one of the major intersections of of the main floor of Javits it is really busy it's an absolute mad house hundreds of thousands of people wandering 150,000 people here this weekend yeah we're here on the Friday which is already at around 1:00 p.m. we started early we shooting videos here all morning and you can get feel it getting more and more pack I did my costume walk first thing this morning and thank goodness I did cuz I wouldn't make it two feet now um I was yeah well we can say what absolutely yeah but now we oh wow and so I was a 7t tall too it's really you not you had not been able to move and I couldn't see except from a camera hidden under my leaf hat that I had a monitor inside and I had so actually when I asked you to stand in front of me upstairs yeah what I was doing was I was using a Sharpie cuz I had both my heads free inside the cost sure I was using a Sharpie to Mark the center line of the camera's Vision so that when I looked at you my eyes were positioned to look at right yeah it's all about performance we should give credit because this costume uh one we had to bring a costume in New York right we're based in the west coast right and this summer Adam was the bear from the Revenant at San Diego Comic I remember that and that was not an easy that wouldn't have been an easy customer ship we had to drive it to La at an expense to get it to New York City in a box that would have to be 4T on the side and 6 ft tall no but in your build of the bear costume you had done many revisions was you could people how to it it wouldn't be and we talked about that the last video and some posted in our comments oh I wonder if you could use this the same technique that you would use to build a bear costume to build a tooro and this I read this in the comments and I was like Norm you have to reach out to them and ask them if it's okay if I take that idea and run with it because it's a great idea I love too I love all of M aaki Stone the idea that I could be a big hugable furry for sprite yeah and I had lots of people hugging me today and we recorded my camera feed so when people hugged me their face is literally buried in the fur at the bottom of the frame right and it's and they come back and they're just a hug to awesome no if my if my daughter had been here you would have gotten a hug from her cuz she absolutely loves every mizaki film and that one particularly of course well if you bring her to San Francisco come out the cave to as a costume I am not going to store Flat right he packs flat sure but I'm going to store him up because he's yeah it's like a Happiness Machine how would you ever be sad if toad standing in your house waiting for you to get home this is a very very good question is that if it was another creature that wouldd be terrifying that size that furry but no tooro is like a happy surprise right exactly I may I may someday try and make him smile but I don't I want him just to I want it to happen I want the animatronic of this right this smile that would be on that fur that would be a whole new head it might be well he's the thing is I built him like a Chinese lantern right right so the concentric circles of wood literally wood taped together and then covered in fur so he actually shipped in a television box wow wow I did have somebody ask me if you were going to cosplay as me on the floor and I was like no I don't think that one's going to work very well you'd have to you'd have to shave a tonsure up here for one thing it's true yeah I'm not going to do that no I don't think so but I actually have a wig of my hair that you could wear you can cosplay as me that's a thought got to get some darker glasses yeah a little bit darker glasses so John what is your convention life like how do you experience cons well for me as author oh wow I mean the the thing for me is that uh it's slightly different as a than as a fan uh because you're part of the show right I mean you know how that is you you you show up uh you go do a uh people are there to see you perform if you walk on the floor uh there always going to be some people are going to recognize you you will see people that you know and so that you will have that discussion so for me it's a combination of getting to be a nerd and nerding out and doing business right right right yeah and and and you can't really you can't really separate the two of those you know without effort because even if if you have any sort of notability at all whether you're an author or a comic book artist or an actor especially actors or TV performers uh anybody that that people uh recognize as a Creator um the experience is is going to shift so you can't ever just be purely a fan there's always going to be that sort of performance aspect whether you want it to be there or not that said um one of the nice things about being an author is generally speaking the fame acrs to your books not to your face so the number of people who actually can recognize me as being me as opposed to random middle-aged white dude with a goatee and beard you know it's fairly you know it's a fairly low percentage so I can actually walk and enjoy it to you know some extent speaking of recognizing you I think you popped up in a thread on one of my favorite internet forums the other day to comment on somebody being a jerk uhoh you you you posted I would say the Forum but you posted bless his heart was that you that was me that was you is me and now you know his in handle bless his heart his heart is how you say go to hell right right exactly that's it's it's the most polite way to say screw you that you you can possibly that you can possibly do the other thing that happens at these cons and I'm sure this happens for you too is like it's this one place you get to see a lot of friends of yours yes but for a really concentrated amount of time like it's not just like we're in we're out like a Vegas thing it's literally like 3 days everyone's hanging out and there's lots of dinners and there's lots of right well and that's the funny thing is is that I tell people where I live cuz I live in rule Ohio and a town that has one you know 100th of the population of the PE number of people who are going to be here this weekend right I mean is literally you know a traffic jam is three cars behind an Amish buggy sort of town right and people are like don't you ever feel isolated or you know and I like no I go to conventions and I will see I will see will weaton more often than I will see my literal next door neighbor y I'll be like hi Will are we going to do dinner it's like can't do it okay I'll see you I'll see you in three weeks right Arizona in Seattle City and and it's it's kind of a great thing because um you do get the thing where you get to see the friends that you know you do get to meet uh people that you admire I mean I met you for the first time at at San Diego at wot you know and that was the way that we got to uh get introduced to each other uh and so you do get that kind of cool thing because not only and this is the where it really is not only are you a Creator but you're also a fan so like when you meet the people who you've admired you know their work in one way or another and and you go and you're like oh hey it's great to meet you yeah no we're cool together and that but you still have that part of your brain that's like don't freak out don't freak out don't freak out I'm going to freak out now mutual appreciation society you really does and it's great when that that happens I just um met for the first time Chase Masterson do you know who she is she's double girl P9 yes and uh and we met and uh and it was just so great to meet her and she knew my stuff and I knew her stuff and we were like okay for the first 20 minutes at each other and then we could like calm down and be like normal human beings but you do you have that you know you have that thing where you know someone someone you admire like I had a I had someone who was on Serenity you know come up and ask me to sign my book for them and I was just like Oh serious okay yeah that's fabulous yeah so it's always cool when that happens speaking of your books we we did a spoiler cast of your book I think it's the only one we've done a few books before but we discussed red shirts on our podcast we loved it uh I feel like that book ties into this environment very well yes it does well I mean because you know it it does it does a couple of things it is the book is explicitly about you know the science fiction culture and how it permeates in ways that you don't expect you really don't expect I mean it does have shout outs to ComiCon it does have shout outs to you know Wikipedia nerd culture is all over it but it is also the sort of thing that somebody who comes here they're going to pick up that book and they're immediately going to get it you know just knowing the title of the book I wrote a book what is book did you write red shirts oh and there's no you know they get it and here's actually the thing that I said on the podcast and I love say pointing this out to people is like red shirts is an exp into what it's like for the ense of the Star Trek Enterprise to go down to the planet and die right um but then that's just like the very beginning it's the surface that is the surface you go so many layers deep that's what made that the relationship between the writers of the episodes and the characters create the actors and the characters they portray what they bring to the characters how yeah well and that was and that was why for me uh it was fun to write I mean the thing about red shirts and I think one of the reasons why no one actually wrote a novel about it before is because the surface is really easy the Expendable person dies and is Expendable and we all get that that's a five minute joke but you know the thing about it is and I think this is the Testament to my nerdom um is you want to go deeper than that it's like well why has it been this way why uh you know how would this affect people if they found out you know how would they try to solve that problem because everybody has been that person who whether or not it's been like you're in a group of friends and you are the last friend picked almost sort of thing it's like all right you can come along too right all of my grade school experience exactly I mean and anybody who's been a nerd has kind of had that feeling we've all been metaphorically a red shirt in one way or another right and we know that there there's more to it than just being the Expendable one the one that can be left behind the one who like ah it's okay if Bob's not here you know we got the people that we need sort of thing um and I think that's one of the things that resonated with people and for me you know as a writer it was just fun to to take what is really a one note joke and see how many changes you can play on you know you and I think that's the thing that surprised people people knew going in that they were going to get the Richard joke but they didn't know what else they were going to get and they I'm almost certain they didn't know that they were going to get the kodas at the end yeah which I found to be the most affecting exactly um have you seen any costumes here this weekend that have blown you away so far I have seen well I saw a big uh I I saw a Big Hero 6 costume which I I just at Baymax and and it was and it was just super large and I there's two things that hit me was one authenticity just looked perfect second of all that person walking around here somebody's got to be holding their hand so I saw that were they inflatable they were inflatable so and of course some see the gears turning your head I want I want an inflatable betamax Baymax betamaxx I want an inflatable Baymax costume I bought one it's kind of translucent it doesn't quite work it was going to be one of the things I wore and they are giant um but also I know Scott Adent who did the voice of Baymax who had record some maybe custom things for me right well that would be the way you do it and then I saw as I was walking around it's got a Mecca of some sort or another that's like 12T tall a jagger the Hodgman was telling me yeah and it was just like I'm like damn that is a commitment you know because that's not that's not easy to do well you you're a maker you know how it is I so and you're wearing a shirt inspired by stranger things and we just saw before we started this we saw great stranger things cosplay I like the more inventive ones this was a guy wearing the wall whenona Rider wall right with letter Christmas lights on it and there's I do know I I did see a wiona writer around here with a phone right you know that's so good and that's you know and that's one of the really cool things is that uh you know just the fact that people whether it is they're wearing just a simple red shirt or they're building a jagger in their house and bringing it to the javet center in the middle of New York which is not a simple thing to do but look even look over here right we don't have footage of it but this couple they just grabbed some paper they needed to do something and that need when it's even when it's just crayons and construction paper even especially when it's crayons and construction paper inspires me when I see people doing right it says that I am part of this too you know this is what I identify with where right now somebody is walking around with a with a Walking Dead bat you know uh and also even if you're not wearing the costume on the other end the appreciation of it I find that ahead of big cons I want to binge shows or watch new shows so I can spot the things appreciate it cu it's a reciprocal relationship right someone's going to wear something obscure if they get recognized once that one time is going to make it all worth it well wait sorry go ahead oh say and also the matchups right where you have uh something from Minecraft plus something from stranger things and you you put it all together and you're like I would not have thought about that but damn it that does not work and there's a deep celebration here of exactly that kind of esoterica I'm going to be the guy you never recog I mean I one of the first times I saw that was uh ice cream guy from Empire Strikes Back yeah so there's a guy carrying when they just for people don't know in The Empire Strikes Back when they're evacuating Cloud City people running all over the place and there's a a African-American guy running around with his thing under his arm a computer core what's that it's labeled in the toy as a computer core a computer Corp and it turns out fans figured out that it was an ice cream maker and there's this whole contingent of people every con who put on the right coveralls and they're that guy and they run everywhere and like not only did they choose most what at that point was a super esoteric custum not esoteric anymore but they found a group of people and they do it together right exactly yeah the ice cream races it became a thing like just like in retro it's when the script was written when that scene was filmed that was just an extra but when they made the toy then someone who had kener who made the toy had the write a name the WR back they were like propmaster he has to carry something he was like assistant run to the nearest Sainsbury's and get me something that's white and this big and then so writing novelization had the right okay I guess that was must have been the computer core right right exactly I have a t i have a t-shirt uh that I that I made specific which says I am here to usurp your narrative and the reason that I have that t-shirt is it is a tribute to the minor characters that once you start writing them they take over and have a life of their own because when I'm writing my books I will find characters that I I just need somebody there right just need someone for exposition right and I write them and they say something interesting and I'm like all right well you've earned another line and then the next thing I know they've become a major character that they moved the plot you read the ghost brigades right yeah the the alien character Kanan Kanan sun and soon yeah right yeah the moral heart of that book and it started off I just needed him for the first chapter because I wanted to have that James Bond opening right amazing but then later on I was like I need a character explain things I'm going to bring him back and then as the more he talked the more I realized that he was actually literally the heart of that story that term that you reveal through him where the audience where the reader gets to experience a sort of 180 degree shift in their clarity about a situation it's one of those lovely yeah it's like chills it's it's a hard trick to pull right you paint yourself into a corner and then suddenly out that that's great but that's but that's the whole thing is and and the the fan appreciation of the guy running around with an ice cream maker maker is exactly that the fact that Star Wars Rebels exists and has wedge in it right right you know and he was literally just a guy going red three you know or red two whatever which red was it I don't that's not that's deeper than my knowledge said deeper than my knowledge said but the fact that you know he continues on right you know and and he does that because you know that the fans were like I want to know more about he's the only guy besides the main characters who is in all three I want know I want to know more about him I want to know more about wed and as people interested in esoterica and collecting information and stuff we're I think all three of us completists right we we get to start to learn something and we tease out a bit of that thread and we start to pull and we just want to keep on pulling that it and that's what this is all about this is all about that like I'm going to need to read everything ever about the books and the TVs are just tiny Windows into Worlds that exist in there and in here and right well that's the whole thing about there was a it's almost 10 years now but there was a real argument in science fiction uh circles about fanit and whether it was gross appropriation or if it was positive uh and my feeling was has was and always has been if you have people making fanfic of your world go ahead and buy that Mercedes because they are so invested in what you're doing that they literally can't wait for you they're going to go on ahead and they're going to build out and you may not necessarily follow where they go but the point is they are thinking about the worlds that you built that they are completest there as they're thinking about it while you're not thinking about it exactly GL you're about doing whatever it is you're doing they are staying up night writing about the things that you've created and so for me it has always been a thing of I think you're right this is all part of the completest thing of we want I want to know everything and now that I know everything I want to know more and if you're not there yet I'll go well how about this and so it's all part of the it's all part of the same uh nerd Spectrum so to speak and it just Thrills me when someone says I wrote I wrote a story in the old man's world please don't be angry with me I'm like no write it don't sell it but write it and and I'm okay with you even sharing it you know but as far as it goes that means that you you are thinking about me when I'm not and back to your original point you know we come here to ComicCon all three of us come here for work we have a lot to do while we're here but that's by Design we like working hard yeah we like coming and seeing our friends and coming to this but also I I think people might not realize how inspiring we find it to come here and see that kind of scr that itch getting scratched in every possible way sure well I mean it is it is easy especially if you do a lot of conventions as as I think we all do um to begin to feel a little bit blé about it you know um because it is it's a it's a another Convention Center another floor another set of people doing all that sort of stuff and so you can get a little bit jaded about it um and so it is actually worth it to make the effort to realize that um actually will will weaton said something very smart to me once at sort of the beginning of when when I started doing that thing where I got lines right right and he' had lines for a long time and he said to me you will see 100 200 300 people and you will not remember them all but they are all coming to see you and they will remember that moment you owe them that moment and every time that I feel myself becoming oh god I've got to be here I remember what he said it's like this is their moment and you have to make sure that their moment with you even if it is like waving at you and passing that that moment is a good moment for them and when you make it a good moment for them it becomes a good moment for you yeah mortality that's how it happens it's totally true in the memories of others I think that's a great place to wrap this podcast up um it's still a crazy amazing scene here right in the main one of the main intersections of New York Comic Con John scaly than you for being our guest thank you um and we're going to have to get you back on we we were going to have you on the podcast in San Francisco a few months ago but we couldn't make the schedule we'll have to do that again maybe we sort a convention and send then come we'll bring the lines no no I will definitely be in San Francisco again and when I'm in the Bay Area I will totally totally do it now Norm we're still traveling a bit when this air is what's up on tested this week uh a lot of our covers videos that we've shot at Comic-Con I was at a convention right before flying here for virtual reality so have some videos from that coming up as well excellent some project you going to get any time to do a photo photo uh I got to fly back you're on a red eye in 4 hours Jesus Christ that's crazy I will I will pray for you all right thanks a lot bye guys see next time thanks again to videoblocks for sponsoring us today videoblocks offers great value with unlimited downloads from a library of 115,000 HD video clips After Effects templates motion backgrounds and cinemagraphs on average subscribers pay less than a dollar per download over the course of year with access to a variety of time lapses Aerials us International location slow motion and nature shots and more and they're continuously adding new content to their Library so it stays fresh everything is 100% royaltyfree even if if a subscription is canceled and you have unrestricted usage rights for personal or commercial projects keep what you download and maintain usage rights forever now video blocks is offering our listeners a year subscription for $99 that's $50 off their usual price tag for our listeners only less than $10 a month get your yearly subscription today for only $99 at videoblocks.com still Untitled that's videoblocks v d o b l c ks.com still Untitled and we'll see you next weektoday's episode of still entitled is brought to you by video blocks they offer great value with an unlimited download model choose from a library of over 115,000 HD video clips After Effects templates motion backgrounds and cinemagraphs on average subscribers pay less than a dollar per download over the course of a year and they have a great variety of time lapses Aerials us International locations slow motion nature shots and More Everything is 100% % a royaltyfree even if a subscription is cancelled video blocks is also offering listeners of this podcast a year subscription for only $99 this is $50 off the usual price tag for our listeners only less than $10 a month get your subscription today at for only $99 at videoblocks.com still Untitled that's videoblocks Vio B cs.com still entitled for this exclusive offer now on with the show Welcome to still entitled the Adam Savage project I'm Norm I'm Adam and I'm John we have a special guest we are well first of all we are on the floor at Jacob jabit Center on the west side of New York City at New York's ComicCon 2016 it's on location I don't think we've ever done a podcast on location in the crowd before well we are right in the middle of one of the major intersections of of the main floor of Javits it is really busy it's an absolute mad house hundreds of thousands of people wandering 150,000 people here this weekend yeah we're here on the Friday which is already at around 1:00 p.m. we started early we shooting videos here all morning and you can get feel it getting more and more pack I did my costume walk first thing this morning and thank goodness I did cuz I wouldn't make it two feet now um I was yeah well we can say what absolutely yeah but now we oh wow and so I was a 7t tall too it's really you not you had not been able to move and I couldn't see except from a camera hidden under my leaf hat that I had a monitor inside and I had so actually when I asked you to stand in front of me upstairs yeah what I was doing was I was using a Sharpie cuz I had both my heads free inside the cost sure I was using a Sharpie to Mark the center line of the camera's Vision so that when I looked at you my eyes were positioned to look at right yeah it's all about performance we should give credit because this costume uh one we had to bring a costume in New York right we're based in the west coast right and this summer Adam was the bear from the Revenant at San Diego Comic I remember that and that was not an easy that wouldn't have been an easy customer ship we had to drive it to La at an expense to get it to New York City in a box that would have to be 4T on the side and 6 ft tall no but in your build of the bear costume you had done many revisions was you could people how to it it wouldn't be and we talked about that the last video and some posted in our comments oh I wonder if you could use this the same technique that you would use to build a bear costume to build a tooro and this I read this in the comments and I was like Norm you have to reach out to them and ask them if it's okay if I take that idea and run with it because it's a great idea I love too I love all of M aaki Stone the idea that I could be a big hugable furry for sprite yeah and I had lots of people hugging me today and we recorded my camera feed so when people hugged me their face is literally buried in the fur at the bottom of the frame right and it's and they come back and they're just a hug to awesome no if my if my daughter had been here you would have gotten a hug from her cuz she absolutely loves every mizaki film and that one particularly of course well if you bring her to San Francisco come out the cave to as a costume I am not going to store Flat right he packs flat sure but I'm going to store him up because he's yeah it's like a Happiness Machine how would you ever be sad if toad standing in your house waiting for you to get home this is a very very good question is that if it was another creature that wouldd be terrifying that size that furry but no tooro is like a happy surprise right exactly I may I may someday try and make him smile but I don't I want him just to I want it to happen I want the animatronic of this right this smile that would be on that fur that would be a whole new head it might be well he's the thing is I built him like a Chinese lantern right right so the concentric circles of wood literally wood taped together and then covered in fur so he actually shipped in a television box wow wow I did have somebody ask me if you were going to cosplay as me on the floor and I was like no I don't think that one's going to work very well you'd have to you'd have to shave a tonsure up here for one thing it's true yeah I'm not going to do that no I don't think so but I actually have a wig of my hair that you could wear you can cosplay as me that's a thought got to get some darker glasses yeah a little bit darker glasses so John what is your convention life like how do you experience cons well for me as author oh wow I mean the the thing for me is that uh it's slightly different as a than as a fan uh because you're part of the show right I mean you know how that is you you you show up uh you go do a uh people are there to see you perform if you walk on the floor uh there always going to be some people are going to recognize you you will see people that you know and so that you will have that discussion so for me it's a combination of getting to be a nerd and nerding out and doing business right right right yeah and and and you can't really you can't really separate the two of those you know without effort because even if if you have any sort of notability at all whether you're an author or a comic book artist or an actor especially actors or TV performers uh anybody that that people uh recognize as a Creator um the experience is is going to shift so you can't ever just be purely a fan there's always going to be that sort of performance aspect whether you want it to be there or not that said um one of the nice things about being an author is generally speaking the fame acrs to your books not to your face so the number of people who actually can recognize me as being me as opposed to random middle-aged white dude with a goatee and beard you know it's fairly you know it's a fairly low percentage so I can actually walk and enjoy it to you know some extent speaking of recognizing you I think you popped up in a thread on one of my favorite internet forums the other day to comment on somebody being a jerk uhoh you you you posted I would say the Forum but you posted bless his heart was that you that was me that was you is me and now you know his in handle bless his heart his heart is how you say go to hell right right exactly that's it's it's the most polite way to say screw you that you you can possibly that you can possibly do the other thing that happens at these cons and I'm sure this happens for you too is like it's this one place you get to see a lot of friends of yours yes but for a really concentrated amount of time like it's not just like we're in we're out like a Vegas thing it's literally like 3 days everyone's hanging out and there's lots of dinners and there's lots of right well and that's the funny thing is is that I tell people where I live cuz I live in rule Ohio and a town that has one you know 100th of the population of the PE number of people who are going to be here this weekend right I mean is literally you know a traffic jam is three cars behind an Amish buggy sort of town right and people are like don't you ever feel isolated or you know and I like no I go to conventions and I will see I will see will weaton more often than I will see my literal next door neighbor y I'll be like hi Will are we going to do dinner it's like can't do it okay I'll see you I'll see you in three weeks right Arizona in Seattle City and and it's it's kind of a great thing because um you do get the thing where you get to see the friends that you know you do get to meet uh people that you admire I mean I met you for the first time at at San Diego at wot you know and that was the way that we got to uh get introduced to each other uh and so you do get that kind of cool thing because not only and this is the where it really is not only are you a Creator but you're also a fan so like when you meet the people who you've admired you know their work in one way or another and and you go and you're like oh hey it's great to meet you yeah no we're cool together and that but you still have that part of your brain that's like don't freak out don't freak out don't freak out I'm going to freak out now mutual appreciation society you really does and it's great when that that happens I just um met for the first time Chase Masterson do you know who she is she's double girl P9 yes and uh and we met and uh and it was just so great to meet her and she knew my stuff and I knew her stuff and we were like okay for the first 20 minutes at each other and then we could like calm down and be like normal human beings but you do you have that you know you have that thing where you know someone someone you admire like I had a I had someone who was on Serenity you know come up and ask me to sign my book for them and I was just like Oh serious okay yeah that's fabulous yeah so it's always cool when that happens speaking of your books we we did a spoiler cast of your book I think it's the only one we've done a few books before but we discussed red shirts on our podcast we loved it uh I feel like that book ties into this environment very well yes it does well I mean because you know it it does it does a couple of things it is the book is explicitly about you know the science fiction culture and how it permeates in ways that you don't expect you really don't expect I mean it does have shout outs to ComiCon it does have shout outs to you know Wikipedia nerd culture is all over it but it is also the sort of thing that somebody who comes here they're going to pick up that book and they're immediately going to get it you know just knowing the title of the book I wrote a book what is book did you write red shirts oh and there's no you know they get it and here's actually the thing that I said on the podcast and I love say pointing this out to people is like red shirts is an exp into what it's like for the ense of the Star Trek Enterprise to go down to the planet and die right um but then that's just like the very beginning it's the surface that is the surface you go so many layers deep that's what made that the relationship between the writers of the episodes and the characters create the actors and the characters they portray what they bring to the characters how yeah well and that was and that was why for me uh it was fun to write I mean the thing about red shirts and I think one of the reasons why no one actually wrote a novel about it before is because the surface is really easy the Expendable person dies and is Expendable and we all get that that's a five minute joke but you know the thing about it is and I think this is the Testament to my nerdom um is you want to go deeper than that it's like well why has it been this way why uh you know how would this affect people if they found out you know how would they try to solve that problem because everybody has been that person who whether or not it's been like you're in a group of friends and you are the last friend picked almost sort of thing it's like all right you can come along too right all of my grade school experience exactly I mean and anybody who's been a nerd has kind of had that feeling we've all been metaphorically a red shirt in one way or another right and we know that there there's more to it than just being the Expendable one the one that can be left behind the one who like ah it's okay if Bob's not here you know we got the people that we need sort of thing um and I think that's one of the things that resonated with people and for me you know as a writer it was just fun to to take what is really a one note joke and see how many changes you can play on you know you and I think that's the thing that surprised people people knew going in that they were going to get the Richard joke but they didn't know what else they were going to get and they I'm almost certain they didn't know that they were going to get the kodas at the end yeah which I found to be the most affecting exactly um have you seen any costumes here this weekend that have blown you away so far I have seen well I saw a big uh I I saw a Big Hero 6 costume which I I just at Baymax and and it was and it was just super large and I there's two things that hit me was one authenticity just looked perfect second of all that person walking around here somebody's got to be holding their hand so I saw that were they inflatable they were inflatable so and of course some see the gears turning your head I want I want an inflatable betamax Baymax betamaxx I want an inflatable Baymax costume I bought one it's kind of translucent it doesn't quite work it was going to be one of the things I wore and they are giant um but also I know Scott Adent who did the voice of Baymax who had record some maybe custom things for me right well that would be the way you do it and then I saw as I was walking around it's got a Mecca of some sort or another that's like 12T tall a jagger the Hodgman was telling me yeah and it was just like I'm like damn that is a commitment you know because that's not that's not easy to do well you you're a maker you know how it is I so and you're wearing a shirt inspired by stranger things and we just saw before we started this we saw great stranger things cosplay I like the more inventive ones this was a guy wearing the wall whenona Rider wall right with letter Christmas lights on it and there's I do know I I did see a wiona writer around here with a phone right you know that's so good and that's you know and that's one of the really cool things is that uh you know just the fact that people whether it is they're wearing just a simple red shirt or they're building a jagger in their house and bringing it to the javet center in the middle of New York which is not a simple thing to do but look even look over here right we don't have footage of it but this couple they just grabbed some paper they needed to do something and that need when it's even when it's just crayons and construction paper even especially when it's crayons and construction paper inspires me when I see people doing right it says that I am part of this too you know this is what I identify with where right now somebody is walking around with a with a Walking Dead bat you know uh and also even if you're not wearing the costume on the other end the appreciation of it I find that ahead of big cons I want to binge shows or watch new shows so I can spot the things appreciate it cu it's a reciprocal relationship right someone's going to wear something obscure if they get recognized once that one time is going to make it all worth it well wait sorry go ahead oh say and also the matchups right where you have uh something from Minecraft plus something from stranger things and you you put it all together and you're like I would not have thought about that but damn it that does not work and there's a deep celebration here of exactly that kind of esoterica I'm going to be the guy you never recog I mean I one of the first times I saw that was uh ice cream guy from Empire Strikes Back yeah so there's a guy carrying when they just for people don't know in The Empire Strikes Back when they're evacuating Cloud City people running all over the place and there's a a African-American guy running around with his thing under his arm a computer core what's that it's labeled in the toy as a computer core a computer Corp and it turns out fans figured out that it was an ice cream maker and there's this whole contingent of people every con who put on the right coveralls and they're that guy and they run everywhere and like not only did they choose most what at that point was a super esoteric custum not esoteric anymore but they found a group of people and they do it together right exactly yeah the ice cream races it became a thing like just like in retro it's when the script was written when that scene was filmed that was just an extra but when they made the toy then someone who had kener who made the toy had the write a name the WR back they were like propmaster he has to carry something he was like assistant run to the nearest Sainsbury's and get me something that's white and this big and then so writing novelization had the right okay I guess that was must have been the computer core right right exactly I have a t i have a t-shirt uh that I that I made specific which says I am here to usurp your narrative and the reason that I have that t-shirt is it is a tribute to the minor characters that once you start writing them they take over and have a life of their own because when I'm writing my books I will find characters that I I just need somebody there right just need someone for exposition right and I write them and they say something interesting and I'm like all right well you've earned another line and then the next thing I know they've become a major character that they moved the plot you read the ghost brigades right yeah the the alien character Kanan Kanan sun and soon yeah right yeah the moral heart of that book and it started off I just needed him for the first chapter because I wanted to have that James Bond opening right amazing but then later on I was like I need a character explain things I'm going to bring him back and then as the more he talked the more I realized that he was actually literally the heart of that story that term that you reveal through him where the audience where the reader gets to experience a sort of 180 degree shift in their clarity about a situation it's one of those lovely yeah it's like chills it's it's a hard trick to pull right you paint yourself into a corner and then suddenly out that that's great but that's but that's the whole thing is and and the the fan appreciation of the guy running around with an ice cream maker maker is exactly that the fact that Star Wars Rebels exists and has wedge in it right right you know and he was literally just a guy going red three you know or red two whatever which red was it I don't that's not that's deeper than my knowledge said deeper than my knowledge said but the fact that you know he continues on right you know and and he does that because you know that the fans were like I want to know more about he's the only guy besides the main characters who is in all three I want know I want to know more about him I want to know more about wed and as people interested in esoterica and collecting information and stuff we're I think all three of us completists right we we get to start to learn something and we tease out a bit of that thread and we start to pull and we just want to keep on pulling that it and that's what this is all about this is all about that like I'm going to need to read everything ever about the books and the TVs are just tiny Windows into Worlds that exist in there and in here and right well that's the whole thing about there was a it's almost 10 years now but there was a real argument in science fiction uh circles about fanit and whether it was gross appropriation or if it was positive uh and my feeling was has was and always has been if you have people making fanfic of your world go ahead and buy that Mercedes because they are so invested in what you're doing that they literally can't wait for you they're going to go on ahead and they're going to build out and you may not necessarily follow where they go but the point is they are thinking about the worlds that you built that they are completest there as they're thinking about it while you're not thinking about it exactly GL you're about doing whatever it is you're doing they are staying up night writing about the things that you've created and so for me it has always been a thing of I think you're right this is all part of the completest thing of we want I want to know everything and now that I know everything I want to know more and if you're not there yet I'll go well how about this and so it's all part of the it's all part of the same uh nerd Spectrum so to speak and it just Thrills me when someone says I wrote I wrote a story in the old man's world please don't be angry with me I'm like no write it don't sell it but write it and and I'm okay with you even sharing it you know but as far as it goes that means that you you are thinking about me when I'm not and back to your original point you know we come here to ComicCon all three of us come here for work we have a lot to do while we're here but that's by Design we like working hard yeah we like coming and seeing our friends and coming to this but also I I think people might not realize how inspiring we find it to come here and see that kind of scr that itch getting scratched in every possible way sure well I mean it is it is easy especially if you do a lot of conventions as as I think we all do um to begin to feel a little bit blé about it you know um because it is it's a it's a another Convention Center another floor another set of people doing all that sort of stuff and so you can get a little bit jaded about it um and so it is actually worth it to make the effort to realize that um actually will will weaton said something very smart to me once at sort of the beginning of when when I started doing that thing where I got lines right right and he' had lines for a long time and he said to me you will see 100 200 300 people and you will not remember them all but they are all coming to see you and they will remember that moment you owe them that moment and every time that I feel myself becoming oh god I've got to be here I remember what he said it's like this is their moment and you have to make sure that their moment with you even if it is like waving at you and passing that that moment is a good moment for them and when you make it a good moment for them it becomes a good moment for you yeah mortality that's how it happens it's totally true in the memories of others I think that's a great place to wrap this podcast up um it's still a crazy amazing scene here right in the main one of the main intersections of New York Comic Con John scaly than you for being our guest thank you um and we're going to have to get you back on we we were going to have you on the podcast in San Francisco a few months ago but we couldn't make the schedule we'll have to do that again maybe we sort a convention and send then come we'll bring the lines no no I will definitely be in San Francisco again and when I'm in the Bay Area I will totally totally do it now Norm we're still traveling a bit when this air is what's up on tested this week uh a lot of our covers videos that we've shot at Comic-Con I was at a convention right before flying here for virtual reality so have some videos from that coming up as well excellent some project you going to get any time to do a photo photo uh I got to fly back you're on a red eye in 4 hours Jesus Christ that's crazy I will I will pray for you all right thanks a lot bye guys see next time thanks again to videoblocks for sponsoring us today videoblocks offers great value with unlimited downloads from a library of 115,000 HD video clips After Effects templates motion 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