INTERVIEW: Wes Eastin

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Hey, this is Scott Snyder, the writer of American Vampire, Witches, White Boat, and Batman, lots of other comics, and you are watching podcast around the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host and Aaron Norris.

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Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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I'm of course Chris Hacker.

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I'm actually here live at Downtown Comics here in downtown Indianapolis.

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It is the week of Gen Con and if you hear us sort of talking lightly it's because we're trying not to bother the entire shop.

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We're already making them turn off their music and doing all the things so we appreciate them for doing that.

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We'll try our best to sort of say very respectful in that sense.

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But I'm of course as you probably saw as you clicked on the episode I'm joined by the director the producer.

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all the cool things, the crowd funder, all the things of shopping for Superman, Wes Easton.

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Thank you so much for joining me here today, Wes.

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Absolutely.

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So you're in town this week here in Indianapolis for Gen Con.

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Right.

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Right.

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You were at San Diego the week before that.

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Yes.

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OK.

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So I guess my first question, and this is obviously total gotcha journalism.

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Are you more of a board gamer?

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Are you more of a comic reader?

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Which where's your love truly lie?

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Boy.

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If it if it meant an uptick in sales, then I'm the biggest board gamer that ever existed in reality I I have a very tangential relationship with uh board gaming my biggest I am Contrariet by nature.

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So when someone says we're gonna take out a game and it's gonna take 30 minutes for you to learn I say no I'm not I'm gonna drink and judge you for the lamest party ever but I'm very wrong because walking through the showroom I saw some Super crazy, amazing stuff that's like, just beyond what I would have expected for a board game to be.

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Sure.

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Really involved in beautiful stuff.

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Yeah, I have about 10 to 12 board games at home that I've never played because, you know, I've bought like the Marvel Heroes game.

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There's the DC deck builder.

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There's some Resident Evil crowdfunding games.

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And I just haven't found anyone in my close knit friend group that would be willing to sit down for eight and 10 hours to play that RPG.

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uh So it's nice to know that there are folks like me out there like you, who, you know, if it takes more than 12 minutes to explain a game, I'm not I lose interest and I'd rather just go take a shot of fireball or something.

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Yeah, you know, we can we could definitely it gets more interesting once like, okay, I'll try and learn this now like Catan someone said we're to play that and said I, I would rather play Civ alone sure than this I think.

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oh Let me ask you this one more board game question before we get to shopping with Superman.

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Have you ever played Splendor?

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It's a sort of a, it's it's a gym based, um, like resource game where you have to like collect a certain amount of gems.

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And then once you get to 15, you win.

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It's obviously more intricate than that.

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I'm explaining it terribly, but if you ever get a chance, definitely check out Splendor while you're there at Gen Con this weekend here in Indianapolis.

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there's two versions.

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I want to say there's the normal version.

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And then there's also a Marvel Thanos version where obviously collect the infinity stones instead of the normal gym.

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So it's my favorite board game of all time.

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It's super easy to learn.

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It's very quick.

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I would say games last no longer than 20 minutes per game.

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oh Super fun.

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So everyone listening and Wes, check out Splendor.

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Really great.

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So yeah.

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So let's talk about why you're actually here.

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You again, as we said, you were at San Diego Comic Con last week promoting Shopping for Superman, which is your documentary, sort of, I would say more of a love letter to the local comic book shop, a place that I think all of us sort of find to be a safe haven, place of community fellowship, all those good things.

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Some of us have even had the fortune of working at one like myself.

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I've worked at um the fantasy shop in St.

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Charles, Missouri.

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And believe it or not, we are sitting currently in a downtown comics.

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I once worked at a downtown comics, but it was the West side, which I think is no longer around.

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So I'm going to shift it over to you.

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I'm going to ask you just give sort of a brief overview of, your history and filmmaking.

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I know it's maybe a big question, but sort of like your history and filmmaking.

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And then also, why did you end up What was like the defining moment that made you decide to start working on shopping for Superman?

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Those are all great questions.

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uh So I started as a filmmaker actually in Atlanta, Georgia.

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I went to school at Georgia State University.

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I very much wanted to be a writer coming out of high school.

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wanted to do the thing that is uh the key to making the film, you know what mean?

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And When I graduated, I had spent a lot of time as a theater minor and took that experience over to Turner Broadcasting.

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I I joke with my wife, she's very much into sports.

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I'm not, but I would work around Shaq and the team for like NBA on TNT.

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And I would say, well, Shaquille O'Neal and I were colleagues.

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You know, were office, we were coworkers and she said, could he point you out of a crowd?

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Like, well, he wouldn't do that.

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Shaq doesn't like to point.

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He'd be pointing down anyway.

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Yeah, he's a mammoth of a man.

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He's so huge.

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But from there, the film scene in Atlanta was really taking off.

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And so I was able to work on a lot of feature films as a day player.

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But I realized I'd be doing a lot of schlepping cable around.

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And there's nothing wrong with that.

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But my back and my knees disagree.

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And I still wanted to be more involved with the creative aspects.

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And I just didn't see a faster route to that through being a grip or an electrician, more an electrician than a grip.

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So I moved to the West Coast and when I did that, all of my friends are laughing because they built Pinewood Studios in Fayetteville, Georgia down the street from Easton Road.

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My parents are saying, they're building a studio down the street from where you grew up.

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And I'm saying, well, you we don't just stand around in the studio.

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They're empty until someone rents it.

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And then they did Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy there.

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By the time I got to Los Angeles, Guardians premiered the day I moved in to my apartment.

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And all my friends worked on all of the Marvel movies and I was out there saying, I'll do whatever you want, mister, for $75.

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And to be clear, that means light or shoot whatever.

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It was so hard to start over in Los Angeles.

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But I managed to get some work as a director in a comedy space for Ray William Johnson.

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had a YouTube channel for a while.

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Equals three, right?

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Equals three, man.

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I remember those days.

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I'm old enough to remember that.

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wow, yeah.

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Well, I guess I'm the angel of death because while I was there, they decided, he said, you know, I'm kind of sick of doing it this way with all these people.

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I'm just going to shutter all of this and make quick, like easily consumed pieces.

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And he's still doing great.

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And so I moved on to marketing and worked for New Way computers.

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And while I was actually at Ray's studio, I got the idea that I wanted to make a feature about something that I really cared about.

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And comic shops have always been.

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They've always been that keystone in my life as far back as I can remember.

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found the first comic book shop in a Yellow Pages and said, wait, this is a thing.

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You I'd been reading comics from the newsstand, the pharmacy, the grocery store, wherever I could get my hands on them.

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And then Can I can really interject just for all the young listeners out there.

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The yellow pages was a section in what was called a phone book and that was usually where you put ads or job opportunities and so on.

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So sorry.

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Go ahead.

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West.

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They need the.

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like, is the book yellow?

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Yeah.

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So anyway, I lost my place there just trying to think of the yellow page is like how crucial that was to everything.

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But going into a comic book shop, saw it went from I knew about Batman, I knew about Superman, Spider-Man, everything we knew in the social conscience.

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And then I found more I saw a poster for this guy made out of rock called concrete.

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I saw this book called strangers in paradise.

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And it didn't look action packed.

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It was two ladies on the cover.

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It just made me wonder, like, people read this?

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Who's this Deadpool guy?

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Like, suddenly there were just all these possibilities in comics.

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And I was able to, I started collecting all the Wolverines that I'd ever wanted and never read.

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And it was fantastic.

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The comic shop was always the place where, as a nerdy kid who loved to read, I didn't always get along with people at school, because, you know, sports are cool, reading is lame.

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That was the notion in the 90s anyway.

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going to a comic book store, had a shorthand with anyone I encountered, mostly adults too, which was strange.

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I'm used to it being a children's medium.

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And then you see adults coming in buying some book called Gen 13 or teens uh buying books that are made for, tailor-made for their demo.

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Whereas everything I'd read was made for a kiddo.

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And the habit just kind of stuck because everywhere I've lived, I've found the comic book shop when I travel with my wife now.

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she rolls her eyes because I'll say, there's a shop if we go around this corner, and I'll try and spend a few bucks just to walk in and see it because it's one of the few comic shops are one of the few businesses that we have that are not homogenized anyway.

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When you have the your when you think of a comic book store, you're thinking of an experience that's very, for the most part, very unique to your part of town where you live.

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It's not going to necessarily be the same throughout the country.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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You're right.

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think just to sort of speak on what you mentioned there a moment ago, it feels almost like necessary.

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It feels like you're doing your part when you go into a comic shop.

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And I think listeners will tell you this.

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My partner, Olivia, will tell you this.

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I have too many books.

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I've got around 1,400 trades in total.

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So too many as is.

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But I feel compelled to buy something when I go to a comic shop just because I want to support their venture and keep places like this alive, place of community, a place where this still exist in a world that is very rapidly transitioning to a digital age.

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And that's not just including the shop itself, the brick and mortar, also comics as a whole.

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mean, there's being at San Diego last week, it feels like there's this rising tide of a digital first sort of approach with publishers, which is really scary and honestly something that I hope never truly happens.

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But it feels like it's a true it's our responsibility to participate in this thing called know, brick and mortar comic shops.

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Yeah.

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So well, the social aspect is extremely important, I think now more than ever.

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But also, when you talk about the digital side, it's interesting because from I want to say the late 80s till maybe uh less than a decade ago.

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the comics industry was synonymous with comic shops.

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know, forget movies, TV, all the other IP that's out there.

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Comic shops and comic books were one in the same.

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And now with the digital front, I mean, great for the industry as a whole, artists, writers, they need to eat too.

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But the fact that a lot of people have been keeping up with their comics digitally, I don't think there's anything entirely wrong with that.

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But it is kind of this strange, like, It's not a dangerous spot or anything.

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It's just the collector uh aspect of comics.

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I don't know if it'll ever go away.

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if are we...

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The question I've asked a number of people, are we siphoning readers with digital from the comic book shop or are we making comics more available, more ubiquitous and more of interest to people that possibly wouldn't necessarily go into a comic shop?

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Because if you think about, again, going back to the 80s and 90s, one of the things that I love is the evolution of most shops.

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the stores I went into the call it gatekeeper attitude of, you say you're a fan of comics, nine year old boy.

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Tell me what happened in issue.

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The people weren't always, you know, uh, social butterflies, but they ran the store and they always had their books on the shelf and they were supposed to.

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So it fed the beast and all of us that were in there.

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We didn't necessarily need our butts kissed when we walked through the door.

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But if you go to most shops now, people greet you when you walk in, they work to actually sort of help you refine your pull list or, what are you looking for today?

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I can actually give you some recommendations.

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Exactly.

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You don't get that through Amazon.

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You don't get that through Comixology, any of these digital applications.

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They may say, okay, you read this by Brian K.

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Vaughan.

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Here's another Brian K.

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Vaughan book.

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that's not...

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Pride is a great book, but it doesn't necessarily mean that because I liked Pride, I'm going to love Saga.

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Absolutely.

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Yeah.

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And I want to take a step back just a little bit.

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I know we're getting into this sort of conversation about the comic shop, which I absolutely love, but I do want to sort of key in on the process that you went through in order to like make this love letter to, you know, our LCS.

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So again, you, you crowdfunded this and we talked about it a little bit before the recording.

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I was, course a backer of that.

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As soon as I saw shopping for Superman, it was an immediate fund.

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You know, I think I might have backed whatever tier that gets you the actual Blu-ray.

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So I can't remember off the top of my head which one that actually is, but Very excited to eventually get that.

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I guess, let me back up a little bit here, uh going back to San Diego, because I do want to touch on this.

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You mentioned that you won an award at San Diego.

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Yeah, one best documentary at San Diego Comic Con.

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their films just overall documentary not just like comics related but like every documentary wow no it's amazing that's awesome what was that moment for you how did that feel for you in that moment to be up against those other you films and then also I guess it's got to be sort of full circle you know from the moment you started creating this to now winning awards at the comic-con What's crazy to me is 10 years ago, I was a sound recordist for a documentary called uh Animated Life or Floyd Norman, An Animated Life.

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It's about this guy.

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He's amazing.

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He was an art director for Disney.

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uh I could go into his whole career, but this is about me.

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exactly.

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I followed him around Comic Con, interviewed him with the director, Michael, and it was it was an amazing experience to be working at Comic Con.

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but I wasn't there to enjoy it.

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You know, it was a work day.

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And then 10 years later, I'm back at Comic-Con as a guest and winning an award for a movie.

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Like, I should have words for it, and I don't mean to sound schmaltzy or whatever, but it was that, it was very emotional and it hit like a ton of bricks.

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I tried to like thank everyone in the crowd and I just kept losing my words.

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My mind kept going blank.

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It it felt amazing to be recognized and appreciated by the community.

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that I really, I tried to tailor this for.

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I wanted everyone to like it, but I knew that it was definitely gonna be for a uh specific group of people more than anyone else.

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oh Sure.

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I want to transition a little bit to the actual crowdfunding part of it.

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Now you mentioned there's an intro video on the actual Kickstarter page where you sort of highlight that like you had most of if not the majority of this finished at one point and you felt like you were near the finish line and you really wanted to get this in the hands of distributors and also add some extra graphics and other things like that that you really wanted to make this movie special.

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uh Sort of go through the process of crowdfunding a film.

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And is it something that you would ever recommend to people who also maybe either want to make film or even make comics?

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I know that's really popular on Kickstarter as well.

00:16:03.638 --> 00:16:04.921
Short answer, no.

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Long answer, nope.

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Kidding.

00:16:09.168 --> 00:16:13.741
It's a whole new skill set that I never really planned for.

00:16:13.741 --> 00:16:17.381
When I started making the movie, thought very naively, like, I can do this.

00:16:17.381 --> 00:16:21.642
I don't know if that's Dunning Kruger or not, but I looked at it and said, I make movies for a living.

00:16:21.642 --> 00:16:22.981
I make TV shows for a living.

00:16:22.981 --> 00:16:24.081
This is going to be cake.

00:16:24.081 --> 00:16:30.961
And then I realized when you're doing all of it, you're kind of Dick Van Dyke and Mary Poppins where you're playing all the instruments at once.

00:16:31.042 --> 00:16:33.381
It can be maddening.

00:16:33.381 --> 00:16:36.162
And the biggest limiting factor is money.

00:16:36.162 --> 00:16:46.172
mean, until I'll give the pandemic credit, we have the ability now through Zoom and those applications to actually have video chats.

00:16:46.432 --> 00:16:50.275
I can be anywhere in the country and hire a local shooter.

00:16:50.275 --> 00:16:53.998
And he can pipe the video from his camera directly into zoom.

00:16:53.998 --> 00:16:55.288
And I can see what he's seeing.

00:16:55.288 --> 00:17:03.835
I can hear what he's hearing and say, great, I don't have to get on a plane with all my stuff trying to save as much money as possible, packing my clothes in my tripod bag.

00:17:03.835 --> 00:17:04.346
Sure.

00:17:04.346 --> 00:17:06.938
And that was the case for a lot of the time.

00:17:06.938 --> 00:17:16.526
And thankfully, Dan Garino came out with his book about comic shop while I was working on this and I just tore through that thing.

00:17:16.526 --> 00:17:18.970
it a couple of times and then I reached out to him.

00:17:18.970 --> 00:17:19.778
He was gracious.

00:17:19.778 --> 00:17:20.911
I flew out to Columbus.

00:17:20.911 --> 00:17:26.972
Strangely enough, I now live in Ohio and I interviewed him at the Laughing Over, which is now my comic book store.

00:17:26.972 --> 00:17:29.513
But it was this odd...

00:17:29.974 --> 00:17:31.125
everything fell into place.

00:17:31.125 --> 00:17:37.961
I don't believe in woo woo, whatever stuff, but everything just kind of fell into place when it needed to because I wanted this thing done.

00:17:37.961 --> 00:17:40.073
It took about 10 years to get everything together.

00:17:40.073 --> 00:17:43.224
Yeah, the film's total budget is a little over $100,000.

00:17:43.224 --> 00:17:47.307
That isn't something I had in my pocket.

00:17:47.307 --> 00:17:54.589
And thankfully, I had shot so many elements that when I pieced it together on a timeline, I could say, Okay, I have these gaps.

00:17:54.611 --> 00:18:18.936
Despite what you hear right now, listener, I do not like the word uh or And so there are so many cuts and moments where I say, Okay, I need something that goes over this footage because the person speaking would talk for a moment say, um, six times or well, you know, and as a viewer myself, when I watch or listen to anything, I'm just thinking, why didn't they take all of it?

00:18:18.936 --> 00:18:25.739
And so it became kind of a, a little more, sorry, that's a little look behind the, it's not an interesting look either.

00:18:25.739 --> 00:18:29.930
I don't think, it's one of the reasons why I just had this need for footage.

00:18:29.930 --> 00:18:34.760
And I always, when you see the film, it's a very personal story for me.

00:18:34.760 --> 00:18:37.304
I've had people ask like, why didn't you feature this?

00:18:37.304 --> 00:18:41.464
cover of this book and I'd say because that book didn't mean to me what it means to you.

00:18:41.464 --> 00:18:42.434
Sure.

00:18:42.434 --> 00:18:46.396
There's a combination of film production.

00:18:46.396 --> 00:18:58.839
There's an addition of a little theatrical elements and I tried to make something that was unique because there are other documentaries about comic book shops and how hard this industry is on retailers.

00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:03.721
But I didn't see anything that spoke to me was a movie that I wanted to make.

00:19:03.721 --> 00:19:06.422
And so that's very much what this came from.

00:19:06.569 --> 00:19:11.563
the Kickstarter part to get back to your question was it wasn't a nightmare.

00:19:11.563 --> 00:19:20.798
I've been very lucky to know certain people who have taken some of these projects on who gave me really good advice and really good counsel.

00:19:20.798 --> 00:19:30.732
Sometimes I didn't always follow it, but with the Kickstarter, I got very ambitious and the person that I spoke with was saying, you're going to want to dial this in.

00:19:30.732 --> 00:19:32.503
You're not going to want to go crazy.

00:19:32.503 --> 00:19:35.566
Maybe think $20,000 is possible.

00:19:35.566 --> 00:19:47.306
Maybe shoot for 20 and I'm 20 is nice But I I can't finish it for 20 because then I'm have to do another one of these right and the people who donated are gonna say well I already gave you my money now.

00:19:47.306 --> 00:20:01.445
You need more of my money Yeah, I don't like to waste people's time and I don't want people to ever think I'm trying to take advantage of a situation and so that's why we settled on the number that we did and I'm Blown away that we got there only because it is such a niche idea.

00:20:01.445 --> 00:20:08.935
And if someone types in Westeastern I have a decent IMDB page, but nothing that I've directed at this scale.

00:20:08.935 --> 00:20:13.018
No other documentaries that I've directed, produced, written, edited.

00:20:13.018 --> 00:20:25.403
And so it was a lot of people, think, taking on faith that I could do this and trying to convince them visually, like, trust me, I am doing everything I can to make this as good as possible.

00:20:25.403 --> 00:20:27.722
And the same is true of the Kickstarter.

00:20:27.864 --> 00:20:31.005
That's its own industry, though, actually Kickstarter campaigns.

00:20:31.005 --> 00:20:33.428
are people who you pay them.

00:20:33.428 --> 00:20:41.804
X amount of dollars up front and then a percentage of the return and they will help coordinate your whole look, feel and everything.

00:20:41.804 --> 00:20:53.251
But the biggest downside to Kickstarter, I'll say you lose so much money to Kickstarter and you end up essentially paying their tax on what you raise.

00:20:53.251 --> 00:20:54.553
So you're paying tax on it.

00:20:54.553 --> 00:20:57.375
You're paying their tax for the money you don't see.

00:20:57.375 --> 00:20:58.635
And it's a great service.

00:20:58.635 --> 00:21:02.569
But if you're aiming for say $50,000, you're not gonna see $50,000.

00:21:02.569 --> 00:21:11.795
They're gonna take a chunk and then even the shipping that everyone paid for their rewards, they take a cut of that too.

00:21:11.795 --> 00:21:26.261
So I would have to overcharge shipping, overcharge with it and it just feels, unless you have just a hole in one idea, you're going to come up short in some way unless you can raise way more than you actually need.

00:21:27.031 --> 00:21:33.116
So for the film, you obviously are traveling around, going to different comic shops, talking to folks within the industry.

00:21:33.116 --> 00:21:39.191
I'm just curious, and I know this probably could be a large question to ask on the spot.

00:21:39.191 --> 00:21:53.390
Are there a couple of shops that sort of stand out in your mind as like shops that you will not only remember because of this venture that you're going through with Shopping for Superman, but ones that when you're in town, wherever that shop may be, you're like, I'm going back to the shop and revisiting.

00:21:53.390 --> 00:21:54.269
Oh, 100%.

00:21:54.269 --> 00:21:54.869
Yeah.

00:21:54.869 --> 00:22:01.710
My favorite store from having worked on this project is one that I fell in love with my first trip to New York and that's Forbidden Planet.

00:22:01.769 --> 00:22:04.710
That was I walked in and just said, this is the vibe.

00:22:04.710 --> 00:22:07.230
This is the clubhouse that I've always wanted.

00:22:07.390 --> 00:22:16.490
Every inch of space has the coolest, newest and oldest, like most interesting array of items.

00:22:16.490 --> 00:22:19.170
And they even tailor their store that way.

00:22:19.170 --> 00:22:20.009
You'll see it.

00:22:20.009 --> 00:22:21.864
the opening shot of the movie.

00:22:21.864 --> 00:22:26.836
is at the time they had the Captain America shield where their door handle split down.

00:22:26.836 --> 00:22:27.926
Yeah, it was really solid.

00:22:27.926 --> 00:22:33.979
I think now it might be the bat symbol or I, it's been, um, it's been about a year since I was there.

00:22:33.979 --> 00:22:39.240
So I don't know, uh, what they're doing now, but anyway, and I, I don't want to butcher it.

00:22:39.240 --> 00:22:40.721
Cosmic monkey in Portland.

00:22:40.721 --> 00:22:41.301
Same idea.

00:22:41.301 --> 00:22:46.423
I walked in, I was there to interview, uh, for books with pictures.

00:22:46.483 --> 00:22:47.364
Love that store.

00:22:47.364 --> 00:22:51.256
It's designed to be an inclusive space for people who aren't traditional.

00:22:51.256 --> 00:22:52.586
comics readers.

00:22:52.746 --> 00:22:54.946
Fantastic idea, fantastic store.

00:22:54.946 --> 00:22:59.448
But then I saw Cosmic down the road and said, I'll poke my head in.

00:22:59.448 --> 00:23:01.608
And awesome.

00:23:01.608 --> 00:23:05.990
It wasn't I wouldn't say they have more or less product than any other store I've been to.

00:23:05.990 --> 00:23:08.611
But the way it was laid out was considerate.

00:23:08.611 --> 00:23:14.772
The guys working the desk were very pleasant, even though we're all still wearing our masks because COVID is happening.

00:23:14.772 --> 00:23:15.153
Sure.

00:23:15.153 --> 00:23:17.553
But it felt like the store for me.

00:23:17.553 --> 00:23:25.695
And I know for most people out there, you you get that vibe when you walk into a specific store and like, I want to shop here the rest of my life.

00:23:25.695 --> 00:23:26.086
Right.

00:23:26.086 --> 00:23:26.457
Yeah.

00:23:26.457 --> 00:23:38.676
It's like a, know for me it's sort of a mixture of like the smell of old paper and you know, sort of the grimeier the walls are, the better, you know, more long boxes I see that are half held together, the better.

00:23:38.897 --> 00:23:40.808
They usually have a lot of out of print trades.

00:23:40.808 --> 00:23:44.883
There's usually like old porcelain statues, like some Bowen statues from the nineties.

00:23:44.883 --> 00:23:52.209
uh It's got like a mixture, you know, the, there's no like direct organization in the store, especially at like the front desk.

00:23:52.209 --> 00:24:00.230
uh There are certain things that when I walk in and it's immediate green flag for me that like, okay, I've found a great local comic shop.

00:24:00.230 --> 00:24:11.551
Now I'm not saying that comic shops that don't have all that aren't great shops, but like generally those are like very obvious signs that, I'm going to have a good time in here for the next 90 to three hours, 90 minutes to three hours.

00:24:11.551 --> 00:24:16.295
And the show, sorry, the store sort of tells you what it caters to by that effect.

00:24:16.295 --> 00:24:16.744
Right.

00:24:16.744 --> 00:24:26.671
There's a shop in near Columbus that when you walk in, it's pretty bare bones in terms of decoration and uh storage layout.

00:24:26.671 --> 00:24:35.683
But it's very much a collector's paradise when you walk in, you're going to see in the glass cabinets some awesome books at a reasonable price, nothing too insane.

00:24:35.683 --> 00:24:38.506
The owner is very matter of fact, very straightforward.

00:24:38.506 --> 00:24:42.519
And then you go to other shops where I think they saw enough movies in the 80s and 90s.

00:24:42.519 --> 00:24:46.031
And they're like, I'm gonna make it like so and so's bedroom from gremlin.

00:24:46.031 --> 00:24:50.125
you saturate it with with the culture.

00:24:50.125 --> 00:24:53.608
It's going to look like the hideout from Monster Squad or something.

00:24:54.611 --> 00:24:57.084
So I don't want to take up too much of your time, Wes.

00:24:57.084 --> 00:25:02.440
I appreciate you joining me here today, again, at Downtown Comics here in Indianapolis, just to chat about shopping for Superman.

00:25:02.440 --> 00:25:10.969
I'm so excited for you and for the documentary and all the success that you got there in San Diego, but also to actually be able to watch it at some point is something that I'm really excited for.

00:25:10.969 --> 00:25:13.018
um Sorry, you are a backer.

00:25:13.018 --> 00:25:16.705
yeah, you're getting is this a long con was the plan to to get me here?

00:25:16.705 --> 00:25:17.867
Like where's my movie?

00:25:17.867 --> 00:25:19.840
I was actually going to rob you.

00:25:19.840 --> 00:25:21.917
When you walked in, you didn't have a bag or anything with you.

00:25:21.917 --> 00:25:23.525
So I was like, well, he probably doesn't have a DVD on him.

00:25:23.525 --> 00:25:25.777
uh I am waiting for the Blu-ray.

00:25:25.777 --> 00:25:28.309
I think that's what I'm mostly waiting for because I don't know.

00:25:28.371 --> 00:25:36.971
I don't mean to put you on the spot here, but for the Blu-ray backers, is there going to be special features and commentaries from yourself or whomever?

00:25:36.971 --> 00:25:38.702
That's actually what slowed me down a little bit.

00:25:38.702 --> 00:25:39.042
sure.

00:25:39.042 --> 00:25:42.173
And subtitles through the distribution process.

00:25:42.173 --> 00:25:44.305
I have a company that's making the subtitles for me.

00:25:44.305 --> 00:25:47.266
I want to make sure that's included just because I'm paying so much for it.

00:25:47.266 --> 00:25:49.287
But also the special features.

00:25:49.287 --> 00:25:54.989
I want to do a director's commentary, which will be maddening because I hate hearing my own voice.

00:25:54.989 --> 00:25:55.410
Sure.

00:25:55.410 --> 00:25:57.460
you, everyone that's listening to me talk right now.

00:25:57.460 --> 00:26:00.771
But for me, not the favorite voice out there.

00:26:01.592 --> 00:26:06.317
The special features that I've been trying to put together, I want to have something that covers Comic Con.

00:26:06.317 --> 00:26:13.461
because we shot a little video while we're doing that and just sort of a, you know, the road so far kind of take.

00:26:13.461 --> 00:26:19.855
And it doesn't need to be crazy long, but I want to include something special for the people who value physical media in that way.

00:26:19.855 --> 00:26:25.409
Because you can, if you go to our YouTube channel, I've made derivative videos.

00:26:25.409 --> 00:26:28.990
One of the people I interviewed, Joe Field, he created Free Comic Book Day.

00:26:28.990 --> 00:26:39.182
He told me, you you have some interviews with some people A, that aren't with us anymore and B, really cover a lot of bases that maybe you don't use in the movie, you should start cutting these down.

00:26:39.182 --> 00:26:42.382
And I'm thinking, you know how much work this has taken Joe?

00:26:42.382 --> 00:26:46.501
You know how much of my life, my wife will walk past my office and be like, I thought you were done with that.

00:26:46.501 --> 00:26:48.602
Like I'm never done with this.

00:26:49.403 --> 00:26:50.636
The mark of a true artist, right?

00:26:50.636 --> 00:26:51.867
Never done.

00:26:51.958 --> 00:27:02.195
In all seriousness, though, it's it's really important stuff what they're saying if and if you really care about the history of the retail industry, there's some stuff you've never heard before.

00:27:02.195 --> 00:27:08.771
Or if you have that goes into greater detail with some of the voices that have been there from the beginning that made it happen.

00:27:08.771 --> 00:27:11.923
And I am working to get more of those out there for the for everybody else.

00:27:11.923 --> 00:27:17.618
But for people who are blind, buying the Blu Ray, I want it owning my own collection of videos.

00:27:17.618 --> 00:27:21.549
I want it to be like the way I treat my movies like it this goes on the shelf.

00:27:21.549 --> 00:27:22.589
it goes on the shelf here.

00:27:22.589 --> 00:27:24.674
I always know where it is because I value it.

00:27:24.674 --> 00:27:28.801
And it's not just what you find in the Walmart 299 man or whatever.

00:27:28.801 --> 00:27:31.826
Yeah, To mean something to have that in your in your home.

00:27:32.316 --> 00:27:34.828
Wes, I knew that we were cut from the same cloth.

00:27:34.828 --> 00:27:38.852
As I was saying earlier from the trade, you know, shameless brag.

00:27:38.852 --> 00:27:42.595
I also own just about 700 movies, physical movies as well.

00:27:42.595 --> 00:27:57.567
So, you know, it is definitely one of those things that I and part of reason why I do that and we don't have to talk about this too long, but part of reason why I'm doing this is and I think probably why you're also doing the actual physical release of the film is because I think we've sort of lost our attachment to our media and to our entertainment.

00:27:57.567 --> 00:28:02.521
When everything's on streaming, we sort of just watch as whatever's in front of us or whatever we already pay for.

00:28:02.521 --> 00:28:03.384
And we own it.

00:28:03.384 --> 00:28:12.835
We can can we have it like we can go and get we can go watch super bad or we can go read Jeff John's flash run like because I have it right here.

00:28:12.835 --> 00:28:15.689
I don't have to just read it or watch it because it's convenient to me.

00:28:15.689 --> 00:28:24.372
So I love the fact that you're doing the Blu Ray and I love again this sort of I'm trying to like full circle this whole conversation back to the power of the local comic shop.

00:28:24.372 --> 00:28:28.289
um I guess maybe the last question I'll ask you because again I don't want to.

00:28:28.289 --> 00:28:31.993
take any more time for you and your Gen Con venture that you're here actually in town for.

00:28:31.993 --> 00:28:45.730
uh Is there a particular person within the documentary that you want listeners of this conversation to sort of key in on and think, wow, from your perspective, that was an incredible conversation.

00:28:45.730 --> 00:28:48.903
And it's one of the most memorable moments of making this film.

00:28:49.334 --> 00:29:00.064
well, I have to be honest, I've seen it so many times now that it would to ask a question about any part of it, I can only remember the parts that are flawed in any way.

00:29:00.064 --> 00:29:10.519
Oh, And that I don't know how that sounds, honestly, but to give you a quick Joe Ferrara, he runs Atlantis Fantasy World down in Santa Cruz.

00:29:10.519 --> 00:29:13.681
And that's famous for it was in the Lost Boys movie.

00:29:13.681 --> 00:29:15.131
That's that's the comic book shop there.

00:29:15.131 --> 00:29:18.053
And Joe is one of those voice.

00:29:18.053 --> 00:29:24.885
He has one of those voices, I should say that he whatever he says, you just want to sit and listen.

00:29:25.057 --> 00:29:29.049
And when I went to interview him, I was on my way to interview another gentleman, Bud Plant.

00:29:29.049 --> 00:29:33.083
He was part of the direct market back in the day, one of the distributors.

00:29:33.083 --> 00:29:36.285
So I'm driving up to see him and I figured I'll pop into Joe's store.

00:29:36.285 --> 00:29:38.986
And we talked for about five hours.

00:29:38.986 --> 00:29:39.425
Wow.

00:29:39.425 --> 00:29:44.128
Just rolled the camera and whatever he would say, I'd ask him to elaborate here or there.

00:29:44.128 --> 00:29:46.253
And I'd say, I'm so sorry for taking up so much of your time.

00:29:46.253 --> 00:29:46.931
He's like, that's fine.

00:29:46.931 --> 00:29:48.030
I'm here, you know.

00:29:48.030 --> 00:29:57.258
And we talked about everything from Star Trek to running the store and his experience with ordering comics back in the day and how fraught that would be.

00:29:57.258 --> 00:29:59.650
And it meant a lot to me at Comic Con.

00:29:59.650 --> 00:30:06.895
mean, a lot of the people who are in this movie, even locate like people who represent locations that are in this movie were at Comic Con.

00:30:06.895 --> 00:30:07.276
Yeah.

00:30:07.276 --> 00:30:08.507
And Joe was there too.

00:30:08.507 --> 00:30:10.970
And I got to chat with him and catch up.

00:30:10.970 --> 00:30:15.432
And he saw me come and he said, hey, Wes, I haven't seen him in six years.

00:30:15.432 --> 00:30:15.973
Wow.

00:30:15.973 --> 00:30:17.384
And he just knew me instantly.

00:30:17.384 --> 00:30:20.017
said, I've seen the videos, the one of me.

00:30:20.017 --> 00:30:21.087
Is there more?

00:30:21.087 --> 00:30:31.074
of that and i said yeah i'm gonna make a second one he's like you don't have to i just you know i'm curious what's in the movie versus what's on youtube and sure he really cares about all of this Yeah.

00:30:31.074 --> 00:30:34.346
You'd be surprised again, interviewing folks for the oblivion bar.

00:30:34.346 --> 00:30:43.779
I can tell you that like you think sometimes, I'm taking too much of, you know, Paul Pope's time, or I'm really talking off, uh, Michael Conrad's head about his book.

00:30:43.779 --> 00:30:46.740
But these folks want to talk about this stuff, you know?

00:30:46.740 --> 00:30:49.632
And of course we want to stay cognizant of like taking too much of the time.

00:30:49.632 --> 00:30:51.123
I'm trying to do that right now with you.

00:30:51.123 --> 00:30:59.928
But like at the end of the day, you agreed to do this in the same way that they agreed to do, you know, shopping for Superman because they want to get out all of these things, their experiences.

00:30:59.928 --> 00:31:04.523
their thoughts on that process, their memories, good times, bad times, all the things.

00:31:04.692 --> 00:31:39.461
I mean that that's at the core of why one of the one of the things that kept me going is This is not hard for you and I to talk about this and to talk with shop owners about their shop owners will talk your ear off about the problems with distribution and this that and the other and their experience because they love it I mean they it's not always the the best day they're having but they truly love talking about this sort of thing and that's why I'm not saying the whole process was easy, but that aspect of it it was always easy I rarely had to in one instance, I had to essentially sit there and ask a person, can you elaborate?

00:31:39.461 --> 00:31:45.486
I had to coax an answer out because they didn't love it the way every other shop owner I had met did.

00:31:45.486 --> 00:31:47.488
And it was evident just in the conversation.

00:31:47.488 --> 00:31:52.871
even I try to romanticize things because it's a it's an easy thing to romanticize, I think.

00:31:52.871 --> 00:31:58.494
And I said, so what what got you to open your own store here and to stay in business for 20 years?

00:31:58.494 --> 00:31:59.405
And he just said money.

00:31:59.405 --> 00:32:02.498
Okay, I think that's our time.

00:32:02.821 --> 00:32:04.603
And I've got lunch everybody.

00:32:04.603 --> 00:32:06.123
Let's go ahead and hit that.

00:32:07.323 --> 00:32:08.304
That's interesting.

00:32:08.304 --> 00:32:12.325
To hear anyone say that they got into comics for money is kind of like a, insane.

00:32:12.325 --> 00:32:14.694
It's like a juxtaposition to the art form.

00:32:14.694 --> 00:32:15.996
But uh okay.

00:32:15.996 --> 00:32:18.215
Well, Wes, thank you so much for joining me here today.

00:32:18.215 --> 00:32:20.626
It truly is an honor to sit here and chat with you again.

00:32:20.626 --> 00:32:23.327
As I said earlier, I'll just sort of butter you up one last time.

00:32:23.327 --> 00:32:26.118
Very, very happy with what you've done with shopping for Superman.

00:32:26.118 --> 00:32:27.788
Excited to eventually watch it.

00:32:27.788 --> 00:32:34.123
Excited for people to eventually get their hands on this and then also just continue to shout that this thing is a thing from the megaphone.

00:32:34.123 --> 00:32:40.318
That's part of the reason why I wanted to have you here today is so we could sort of put a spotlight on this for our listenership.

00:32:40.318 --> 00:32:47.086
You know, while it may not be Joe Rogan numbers, we have, I think, a pretty nice listenership of folks who love comics.

00:32:47.086 --> 00:32:51.200
And, you know, I want to make them aware of shopping for Superman.

00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:53.474
On that note, have you ever taken DMT?

00:32:54.759 --> 00:32:58.307
Sorry, I was thinking of Joe Rogan, like, these numbers up.

00:32:58.307 --> 00:33:01.523
I was going to offer you some ayahuasca at some point, but you know, it's totally up to you.

00:33:01.523 --> 00:33:02.576
It's your comfortability.

00:33:02.576 --> 00:33:03.413
So that is fine.

00:33:03.413 --> 00:33:05.507
Yeah, I'm really terrible at this.

00:33:05.507 --> 00:33:11.002
So I'm gonna just sorry push this in shopping for Superman calm Yeah, pre-order the movie the blu-ray.

00:33:11.002 --> 00:33:27.374
You can also see some of our progress so far you can follow us on the socials just search for shopping for Superman and You'll see what we're up to right now m How can people follow, if people wanna follow you specifically, is that something you wanna throw out there or do want people to just follow the shopping for Superman socials and such?

00:33:27.374 --> 00:33:29.933
You I think you can find me if you type in Westeastern.

00:33:29.933 --> 00:33:30.193
Sure.

00:33:30.193 --> 00:33:33.513
My Facebook I keep private because occasionally I drink and post.

00:33:33.513 --> 00:33:33.933
Sure.

00:33:33.933 --> 00:33:37.413
And so the next day I'm like why did I have a problem with that?

00:33:37.413 --> 00:33:38.765
You know it's like I'm going to take that.

00:33:38.765 --> 00:33:41.354
drunk typing like Doomsday Clock was a good book.

00:33:41.354 --> 00:33:45.257
Well, the other day my wife was like, why are you asking about Benghazi?

00:33:45.257 --> 00:33:46.540
I'm like, did we ever figure it out?

00:33:46.540 --> 00:33:47.549
That was my question.

00:33:47.549 --> 00:33:48.901
I just want to know did we figure it out?

00:33:48.901 --> 00:33:49.491
Yeah.

00:33:49.491 --> 00:33:50.571
Stop, man.

00:33:50.571 --> 00:33:52.240
Well, Wes, it's been great talking to you.

00:33:52.240 --> 00:33:52.933
I appreciate it.

00:33:52.933 --> 00:33:55.346
And we'll let you go back to Gen Con.

00:33:55.346 --> 00:33:56.016
Enjoy yourself.

00:33:56.016 --> 00:34:03.621
And hopefully we can talk to you full form at some point down the road, possibly on the oblivion bar when you have some time once shopping for Superman is officially out.

00:34:03.621 --> 00:34:04.111
I'd love that.

00:34:04.111 --> 00:34:04.566
All right.

00:34:04.566 --> 00:34:05.006
Cool.

00:34:05.006 --> 00:34:06.273
Thanks so much.