NYCC ‘25 INTERVIEW-A-THON: Kenny Meyers

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you Hey, this is Paul Pope, comic book creator behind such award-winning books as Battling Boy, Batman Year 100, Heavy Liquid 100%.

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You are listening to the Oblivion Bar Talk.

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you Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host, Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles.

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Joining me today is the CEO of Sweet, which today we will be covering the many products that he will have over at Sweet, which includes FindYourComics.store, Sweet Shop, and Bindings.

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It is my pleasure to welcome my friend Kenny Myers back onto the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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Hell yeah, what's going on buddy?

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Kenny, welcome back to the Loving Bar.

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was actually, as we were pressing record and as I was like, as the music was playing, I was trying to look up and see when the last time I had you on the show and I haven't wasn't able to find it.

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But I want to say it was like, was it 2023 was the last time you were here?

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Probably would have been 2023.

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also think you got a new theme song.

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Did you get a new theme song?

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Yeah, yeah, it was 2023, July of 2023.

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And yes, we had our good friends over at dream dream kid basically did.

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It just like hits so hard.

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I'm like, I'm ready to talk about comic books, man.

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Let's go.

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That's right.

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Very synthy, right?

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We're going for that late 80s.

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yeah.

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I just like, I just feel like I'm about to be attacked by a xenomorph or be like accosted by androids.

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love it.

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Well, let's get into again while you're here and what I sort of loosely got into there in the intro is you are currently you've been cooking, I guess, as the kids would say these days, you you've sort of been and I know this because we're friends, but I think folks are going to be really, really excited about what you have coming up here later half of 2025 going in 2026.

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And I almost kind of want to just like pass it off to you and see what you want to talk about first, because I'm excited for all three.

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But, know, I mentioned sweet.

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There's some that you've been working on.

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have a whole entire team behind you.

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Before we actually, let me, sorry, I'm gonna back up a little bit here before we get into suite.

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Can I ask you, do we want to talk at all about Omnibus?

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Just do, should we squash it?

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I'm sure you've talked about it a ton and we don't have to talk about it at all if you don't want to and people can do their own research on the other half.

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But I want to ask you.

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research.

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When people do their own research, problems happen.

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Just as like a general thing.

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You know, I'm happy to answer any question.

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Sure.

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It's gone.

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Yeah.

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I mean, that's pretty much it.

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RIP.

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I'm sad it's gone.

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I tried to save it.

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I couldn't.

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That was it.

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That's the Omnibus story.

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Honestly, I think that that's like a really good sort of overview.

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And I know talking to friends and people within our space, Omnibus was sort of like the chosen one in a way.

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Like when we were talking about what is the alternative for comixology?

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is the, you comixology has been a true bastardization of what it once was.

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And I think a lot of us, you know, we all covet the local comic shop, the brick and mortar.

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We want that community space.

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There's also still a want and need for a digital alternative for whatever reason, traveling or just there are certain things that you want to buy digitally, what have you.

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Omnibus for a lot of us was that pillar, right?

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And as you said, things happened and it didn't work out, but here you are in 2025 with something brand new.

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again, I just wanted to sort of bring that up very loosely and sort of get your read and just, you again, let people know, because I think it sort of happened abruptly.

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And I think folks were sort of just kind of wondering what was going on there.

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I was surprised as well when it happened, when it closed.

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So that was news to me.

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I have spoken about it a bit.

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um I think it was obviously a lot of lessons learned, uh which is like the cheesy way to put it, like a lot of hard lessons learned.

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Those lessons have been hopefully brought into the next, all the stuff I'm working on right now.

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Yeah, I have no doubt.

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Honestly, I think people know this at this point is that like in the world of tech, I don't know this directly attributes to what you went through with Omnibus, but I think in the world of tech, it's usually like move fast and break things.

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sometimes those hard lessons end up happening in, you know, enclosures.

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Like I've always heard a lot of people who are successful in tech have many, I'm not even going say a failure, but just like a lesson learned other elsewhere to where it takes you to that next step.

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And this is a terrible example, but like Sam Altman, think was, I was gonna say Sam, Sam Altman.

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Oh God.

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Yeah.

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Like that.

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are you bringing him here?

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uh like, dude is like one of the richest people in the world.

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And he was like, widely known as a failure for many years.

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Right.

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But and I'm not saying that's what you are.

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not saying what any of this is, but like that happens in tech where things okay.

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The business failed.

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Right.

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ah That is a fair thing.

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And I was a part of that business and I had a role in all of it.

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So it's totally legitimate to talk about it that way.

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You know, fundamentally, the biggest problem with Anubis was uh who you had on your Travis, my co-founder and I just didn't see eye to eye.

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And that that kind of roots itself and then reveals itself even more.

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And, you know, unfortunately, a business is is so like this is so challenging that if the partnership isn't working, then it's not gonna, no matter how much success or like traction or people are using, it's just not gonna work.

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So it was unfortunate, but like I said, lessons learned um and I'm happy to talk to anyone about it anytime for any of their feelings about it, including why should I go to Sweet Shop when Omnivus happened and like my role in that and.

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I think it's a really honest question to ask and yeah, mean, it's informed, failure has informed a lot of what we're doing, what I'm doing now, which has been a complete 180 in terms of experience as well as I get to pick a different starting point for the shop itself.

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So it's been really lovely.

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I too, like I said, wish it could have kept going and I tried to and that's kind of sort of the bottom line of it is that, you know, it didn't.

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quite work out.

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So sure.

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I've had people email me with things like, like, I got my refund or something.

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So I was fine.

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And then I've had people be like, why would you trust this guy?

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He because of omnibus.

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And those are both fair fucking responses.

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like, that's the thing.

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Like, that's a legitimate thing.

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And I mean, the the goal, like the primary thing is to stay in the game.

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And that's kind of what sweets built on is really built on staying in the game.

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Well, let's get into that.

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Let's just talk about the new age of of Kenny Myers and his comic endeavors.

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So as I sort of set up there and very badly transitioned into of the three ventures that I'm here to talk to you about today, which one would you like to get into first?

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Because I'm I think folks are going to be really, really excited about all three.

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And there's one in particular that I think could completely revolutionize the way that we find comic shops.

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ah But I'm to pass it off to you.

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Where do you want to start here with your with those three comic ventures?

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First, think it's important to establish that Sweet is not just me.

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I'm the face of it.

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uh And I do have that dumb CEO title, but it is both Matt Anderson and Ben Carr, respectively, a very excellent designer by trade, but everyone does their thing.

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And then another engineer who works with me, Ben.

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And so the effort that has been put into...

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these three products is very much a team effort.

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As well as we had a designer help us at the start named Tom Carmany.

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This is me giving flowers, who was like really foundational and like setting a lot of the tone and stuff and uh just had to take another job and was lovely.

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So I want to make sure he gets credit too.

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So let's talk about bindings.

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Let's go in order.

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So bindings, I'll pitch it for you to your audience.

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Bindings is...

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I call it fancy comic link tree.

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It deals very much with what I call the Scott Snyder problem.

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It can be a bunch of people's problem actually, like Scott Snyder, Jonathan Hickman, like all these prolific creators who have signed up for a lot of things on a lot of different platforms or services or publishers where like they get pulled into exclusives because, uh you know, say for example, you can go to a comic store.

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and pick up a lot of Scott Snyder stuff, but his comicsology exclusives might not come out till a certain day.

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And you might not know that you're able to buy them.

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So fancy comic Linktree, you post your previews up, they can sign up for your newsletter.

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It sort of becomes a replacement for your Linktree, but with like actual comic previews, where to buy it, what you're doing.

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It's a marketing tool that is bindings.

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And you've already done like one thing that you've always done really well and especially I think with bindings as the UI is so user-friendly everything is very easy to use looks great all the things and I think bindings it definitely fills this gap in the comic book world that I want to say and you use Scott Snyder Jonathan Hickman a lot of these bigger creators as an example I think it I think it's like maybe even helps like the smaller creators just as much or if not more totally You know, like it gives them a place to share their like not only hold their their work, their pages or scripts or what have you.

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And I are able to distribute that to either, you know, let's say, because you can like link up your Patreon to it.

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You can share it with like, you know, potential editors, other creatives, what have you.

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I think all of that is such a, what a great idea, firstly.

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And also I'm curious.

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I guess my main question with Bindings firstly is when you're going to pitch this to creatives in the comic world, what is the first response you often get from people when you tell them like, yeah, like you said, this is like, Fancy Link Tree for your comic work.

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The thing about bindings is that it was actually inspired by conversations with creators.

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When I got the boot from Omnibus, I actually went and spoke to a bunch of creators at different levels in their careers.

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like, like people who are just crushing and like can do comic solo to people just starting out.

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And the general ideas came from those conversations.

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I'd like, I just need a spot where people can find where to get my stuff.

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And there are bridges to that.

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Like they want.

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where people can find their stuff and then buy it, obviously.

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Or just like I can quickly upload a comic.

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And so we wanted to make a place that was easy for them to do and also considerate of how a lot of creators, you know, don't, they're not flush with cash and comics is really like a uh feast or famine thing.

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So it's priced that way too, in a lot of ways, for those kinds of creators.

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Like if you do five indie comics, you can put them up and keep them there forever.

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You just pay for the pages, essentially.

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uh How do they see?

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I don't think people quite understand it.

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I think there's like one YouTube video away from uh more people understanding it, just explaining like what it is.

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The people who came up with the idea that worked with me on it, understand it completely and use it quite often, which is lovely.

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Or just yesterday, Henry Barajas, uh I hope I pronounced that correctly, who's doing an image book.

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was just talking about how he just has his one place to like sell his comics and like that kind of stuff is really fun.

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We get a lot of that feedback.

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I've had a lot of newer like image style creators.

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I have yet to get web tune people in, but I really want them to, cause they have to spread like with tapas and web tune.

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They have to spread quite a bit.

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It works with their stuff, but they generally like once people get past the what is this?

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They're like, I can use this like Junie Ba's using it, which is crazy cool.

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I mean, it's always just fun.

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to like.

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love that we're sort of cut from the same cloth.

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Sorry, not to cut you off, but like we're cut from the same cloth in the sense that we can never be cool about this kind of stuff.

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Like when we talk to someone on the show, I'm like, oh my God, it's freaking new.

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apologetically a fan of both like front of house like creators writers and also back a house people and people who do a ton of work and almost embarrassingly so I just like I worry that it comes across meaningless but generally genuinely I just love working in this space so much right that like it's it's nearly impossible for me to not like you have to be a real dick for me not to be enthusiastic about you uh and so like Yeah, so there've been creators who are just like starting out or they have their own, I don't know.

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So it has had the kind of traction we expect it to and it's really sort of growing like word of mouth and it's really quite lovely.

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You know, I think, like I said, I think we're like one or two YouTube explainers about how to use it away from it, like cracking a larger audience.

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But we've been busy, we've been too busy and that's on me.

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Well, you've also gotten like Malachi Ward in there too.

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He's done some work for you.

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buddy.

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Which looks great.

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And also like Kieran Gillen has been often someone who has been been preaching and singing its praises and such.

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And then I think there was someone else that I'm spacing right now that I've seen often is Aubrey Sidderson.

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Has he used it quite a bit as well?

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Or am I thinking?

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What a badass you meet someone who's excellent at promotion and you're just like you crush this And the fact that he's using bindings is really a compliment I mean a lot of people who use it are very good at promotion So they also understand how that works and yeah Aubrey citizens uses a lot and I love him and he sent us feedback and we're getting just we're getting to a lot of it and there's a lot of cool things coming there We just, we're idiots.

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Like, let's also build a digital comic store.

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So, but right now it's really working well and it's growing.

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And yeah, we've, we've seen a lot of cool people.

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It's always a delight, no matter the scale of what they're doing.

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When like someone signs up and they post their shelf or they post their like now coming out, like their final order cutoff, like date.

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I mean, I've been doing products for forever at a lot of places and These are so special to me.

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even like the smallest creator posting their like strip they did on mining is thrilling.

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It's really fun.

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Yeah, no, absolutely.

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And I totally agree with you too.

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I think you're just maybe like one or two people, one or two creators that need a space to just sort of house a lot of their work away from this thing spreading like wildfire.

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Because as you everything that you said, I totally want to echo just from the sentiment that I've heard from creators here on the show is that there's really not any easy way to share work.

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This alleviates all of that need like right here.

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Bindings is the perfect place, I think, for people to share their work.

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in a nice condensed way.

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And again, as I said earlier, I know I keep buttering you up here, Kenny, but like the UI is something that's been consistent across not only the three things we're going to talk about here today, but again, the previous omnibus, I think that's why people loved it is because of how it felt in your hands.

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That's so important.

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I think like here's the thing.

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I'm not even afraid to badmouth other platforms here.

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And I'm not I'm not I don't want to make it like a job of it.

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But like one of the reasons why I think and I'm just going to say it here, global comics, I think part of the reason why people aren't in love with global comics because the UI is shit.

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So people want something like this and we'll get into sweet shop and what I where I think people are gonna eventually find the real value in that too the shelf thing I think was really really cool as well You mentioned that how people can just sort of showcase their work in a really condensed organized way.

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That's really really important So since I was already kind of talking about it there Let's go right into sweet shop because there's one again I teased in the beginning but sweet shop is the one that has gotten me the most excited and The one I actually Kenny that I'm most curious about because even though we're friends and I think we talked a lot offline off the podcast here.

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Can you for just for the people for the layman for people who maybe aren't familiar with what sweet shop is.

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Can you give us a little like a short overview of like not only what sweet shop is, which I think people can kind of understand what it is just based on what we've talked about thus far, but also can you give us an update on where we're going to be at here in the near future with sweet shop.

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Yeah, so Switch Up is a digital comic store.

00:16:55.158 --> 00:17:00.460
It is focused on discovery, really just helping people find the comic book for them.

00:17:00.538 --> 00:17:05.882
A friend of mine once said they believe there's a comic for everyone in the world.

00:17:05.882 --> 00:17:08.872
And I kind of like stole that from her.

00:17:08.872 --> 00:17:13.584
And uh I don't know.

00:17:13.584 --> 00:17:15.023
I don't have that permission.

00:17:15.023 --> 00:17:18.365
So uh but they're a lovely person.

00:17:18.365 --> 00:17:21.115
And so I just was like, well, this is like this is our idea.

00:17:21.115 --> 00:17:22.625
It's to find your com.

00:17:22.625 --> 00:17:24.227
like to help everyone find their comic.

00:17:24.227 --> 00:17:27.420
That's the ambitious Silicon Valley version of it.

00:17:27.420 --> 00:17:33.315
But the reality is it's a digital comic store where you can buy an app that's going to be on Android and iOS.

00:17:33.315 --> 00:17:37.577
We are probably launching an invite only beta here in the next few weeks.

00:17:37.788 --> 00:17:38.269
here we go.

00:17:38.269 --> 00:17:40.140
people don't know.

00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:43.303
And that that beta will have quite a few publishers.

00:17:43.303 --> 00:17:46.904
uh Many, many that you know.

00:17:47.125 --> 00:17:51.766
Some that might, that's some that are coming later that just took, that are taking a little bit longer.

00:17:51.766 --> 00:18:05.397
But You know, I think a lot about the article recently on global getting Marvel and what the author there wrote about a lot of publishers aren't focused on digital exclusives anymore.

00:18:05.397 --> 00:18:09.897
So I don't think we're looking at an environment where everyone's fighting over content.

00:18:09.897 --> 00:18:11.357
It's about the quality of the experience.

00:18:11.357 --> 00:18:14.538
And we're very, very focused on the quality of the experience.

00:18:14.557 --> 00:18:21.998
The chances are you will be able to find your book that you're looking for on Sweet Shop are very high.

00:18:21.998 --> 00:18:30.409
without committing to anything, but we'll be announcing our publishers very, soon, ah probably after New York, and the blitz begins soon.

00:18:30.751 --> 00:18:31.241
Interesting.

00:18:31.241 --> 00:18:31.481
Okay.

00:18:31.481 --> 00:18:31.652
Yeah.

00:18:31.652 --> 00:18:41.707
Again, as I said earlier, this is the one that I think I'm most excited for because to this day, post omnibus, I haven't found that that sort of digital reader that I that I enjoy.

00:18:41.707 --> 00:18:45.919
And I think I've told you, you know, in private that like, I'm just holding on for sweet shop.

00:18:45.919 --> 00:18:57.654
Because when you first presented this idea, which I'm actually spacing when, when you first sort of showed us the, I guess, first concept or even like original draft of what this was going to eventually feel and look like.

00:18:57.654 --> 00:19:04.316
Yeah, I think Aaron and I were both so impressed even in that And again, this was maybe over a year ago, maybe somewhere near a year ago.

00:19:04.316 --> 00:19:06.135
It was even impressive then.

00:19:06.135 --> 00:19:17.152
So to see what you guys, what you and your team have been working on since then is really exciting for me as not only just your friend, but also a fan of the comics and someone that again is looking for that home for digital comics.

00:19:17.291 --> 00:19:18.721
I think it's really great.

00:19:18.721 --> 00:19:30.905
mean, I'm very biased, but I it's, think, you know, we're doing a simultaneous beta release on Android and iOS on devices of all sizes.

00:19:30.905 --> 00:19:33.586
So it's a pretty big release.

00:19:33.727 --> 00:19:46.561
feat, like you got to see the vision and the vision takes a little bit, but it's going to be, mean, essentially once shelves launched on bindings, we've been working on this nonstop, including meeting with publishers.

00:19:46.561 --> 00:19:48.443
There are lot of fun surprises in that lists.

00:19:48.443 --> 00:19:53.287
There are publishers that I was surprised about and so excited for.

00:19:53.307 --> 00:19:58.972
And there's a mix of sizes of those publishers, which, know, the first thing is like get the content.

00:19:58.972 --> 00:20:01.345
And then the second thing is like, well, I can get this here.

00:20:01.345 --> 00:20:02.204
What's the experience?

00:20:02.204 --> 00:20:04.537
And then we're going to open it up.

00:20:04.537 --> 00:20:06.138
I can't really say more than that.

00:20:06.138 --> 00:20:08.711
There's a lot that's going to be coming in the next few weeks.

00:20:08.711 --> 00:20:10.461
We know there's a lot of competitors.

00:20:10.461 --> 00:20:13.404
I would argue save your receipts from those competitors.

00:20:13.404 --> 00:20:19.173
uh This is my favorite thing about Kitty guys is like the very polite shade every once in a while thrown.

00:20:19.173 --> 00:20:20.693
It's my favorite because I do the same thing.

00:20:20.693 --> 00:20:25.273
like, I'm usually the the abrasive one here on the show.

00:20:25.273 --> 00:20:28.557
And, know, I love that we're sort of cut from the same cloth in that sense.

00:20:28.557 --> 00:20:35.218
Yeah, I mean, it'll probably bite me in the ass at certain points tonight, you know, and well and well deserved.

00:20:35.218 --> 00:20:35.738
Sure.

00:20:35.738 --> 00:20:37.438
But I love competition.

00:20:37.438 --> 00:20:39.238
I love comics.

00:20:39.238 --> 00:20:48.778
And, know, I never want any of the customers like the readers and our publishers to ever feel burned in any of that.

00:20:48.778 --> 00:20:54.258
Like we're we're working really hard to make sure that it's the experience.

00:20:54.306 --> 00:21:01.099
that would want and that people can find things that they're really interested in that they might not have known they would be interested in.

00:21:01.099 --> 00:21:02.541
So that's kind of our goal.

00:21:02.541 --> 00:21:11.541
Okay, there's a two-parter that I sort of have coming up on the same topic here at Sweet Shop is that number one, how do you know when it's ready?

00:21:11.541 --> 00:21:28.577
You've been working on this for so long, you and your team, because as you said, this is sort of an ever evolving thing that like many great artists, you're never really truly done with, In your head, and again, you can reveal as much as you're comfortable with, but like, how do you know when this is ready to be shown to the public?

00:21:28.577 --> 00:21:32.039
Well, am I shipping everything that I want to ship for a one point out?

00:21:32.039 --> 00:21:33.361
No, I'm not.

00:21:33.361 --> 00:21:38.694
uh A lot of what we're dealing with right now as a team is like resource constraints.

00:21:38.694 --> 00:21:46.210
Like we don't have like the VC funds that like our competitors do on intentionally.

00:21:46.210 --> 00:21:53.674
So we have to work through a lot of things and timing and scheduling with my partners to make sure that things are done well.

00:21:53.674 --> 00:22:01.059
We know it's good when people can buy and read and um search for books.

00:22:01.059 --> 00:22:03.142
Like that's V1.

00:22:03.182 --> 00:22:10.368
We think V1.1 will be even cooler and ship faster than anyone will think it will, which is lovely.

00:22:10.368 --> 00:22:15.732
You literally touched upon the question that has been haunting me for the last month and a half.

00:22:15.732 --> 00:22:19.656
Like I definitely knew like when we talked in San Diego, I was like, we can't ship this.

00:22:19.656 --> 00:22:25.902
My co-founders might argue differently, but like I know there's a bar to be met.

00:22:26.124 --> 00:22:32.517
And how quickly you can lose customers if you don't hit that bar in the digital comic space.

00:22:32.517 --> 00:22:36.657
Because I've run that gauntlet before.

00:22:37.818 --> 00:22:40.299
it's a very tough question.

00:22:40.299 --> 00:22:45.041
uh The answer is really just like now.

00:22:45.122 --> 00:22:47.742
And it should have been three months ago.

00:22:48.824 --> 00:22:49.604
That was it.

00:22:49.604 --> 00:22:50.414
That's kind of it.

00:22:50.414 --> 00:22:51.795
That's kind of where it's landing right now.

00:22:51.795 --> 00:22:52.756
We're going to get it out there.

00:22:52.756 --> 00:22:54.066
You're to be able to do.

00:22:54.420 --> 00:23:02.958
Everything you did on omnibus, at least for its iPad app, which I wasn't a part of the mobile apps and stuff like that on the mobile version of the app.

00:23:02.958 --> 00:23:06.800
Um, we do have image and IDW announced our invite.

00:23:06.800 --> 00:23:18.191
It's going to be like an invite, like blue sky was like, everyone's going to get a set of invites so we can have like, uh, people come in and test it and tell us where we fucked up who are maybe nicer to us than, you know, other people.

00:23:18.632 --> 00:23:21.685
It should roll pretty quickly when that is.

00:23:21.685 --> 00:23:26.980
And who's on it is, of course, a fun secret to keep, but we'll be showing our cards soon enough.

00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:30.292
And then we'll probably blatantly be showing our cards.

00:23:30.534 --> 00:23:38.109
I just I think we're just going to probably develop out pretty much in the open, which is a little unprecedented in the comic space for sure.

00:23:38.109 --> 00:23:39.029
Yeah.

00:23:39.029 --> 00:23:46.926
So there won't unfortunately it'll make the podcast interviews less interesting because it's just like, how's this feature coming along that you've been posting about on blue sky?

00:23:47.988 --> 00:23:48.509
it's great.

00:23:48.509 --> 00:23:49.308
Thanks for asking.

00:23:49.308 --> 00:23:50.359
We're not shipping it yet.

00:23:50.359 --> 00:23:52.193
You know, it does make.

00:23:52.193 --> 00:24:20.977
Well, sorry, it's just, one those things where like, uh, and I, and I sort of attribute this to like the restaurant industry where if you've ever been part of a restaurant opening, you never want to go to here just as like as a PSA to everybody, if a new restaurant is opening in your town, don't go for a month, you know, I'm not saying you shouldn't get sweet shop for when it, when it launches, but like, know, the kinks, the, sort of like, uh, the wares and everything that you have to go through when you first opening things, that's not what this is eventually going to become.

00:24:20.977 --> 00:24:22.367
I guess I just sort of.

00:24:22.405 --> 00:24:26.626
I want people to sort of temper what you expect in the beginning.

00:24:26.626 --> 00:24:30.688
And again, as someone who's seen what this is, it's sort of on the back end.

00:24:30.748 --> 00:24:35.930
Hopefully I'm not like jinxing you here, but I'm pretty positive people are going to be excited about this almost from the jump.

00:24:35.930 --> 00:24:38.410
The people who do get to see it from that invite only.

00:24:38.451 --> 00:24:47.053
But I guess I just, I want people to sort of be gentle in the beginning because what you guys are doing and the team that you have, which as you said, is like less than five people, there's three of you currently.

00:24:47.053 --> 00:24:48.113
Is that, is that still accurate?

00:24:48.113 --> 00:24:48.972
Three?

00:24:49.294 --> 00:24:50.193
Yeah.

00:24:50.193 --> 00:24:57.250
It's just like, Be gentle in the beginning, because I know given enough time and with enough feedback, you guys are going to fucking figure it out and it's going to be awesome.

00:24:57.250 --> 00:24:58.010
I'm excited.

00:24:58.010 --> 00:25:00.343
um guess I had a two part of there.

00:25:00.343 --> 00:25:06.297
guess that second part would be compared to these other digital platforms for comics, for reading comics.

00:25:06.438 --> 00:25:18.516
Are there any functions or any features that's going to be in that version 1.0 that you're able to reveal here today that you think are not only exciting, but just sort of separate yourself, separate sweet from the rest of the crew.

00:25:18.711 --> 00:25:21.084
Well, 1.0 is probably a smaller pool of people.

00:25:21.084 --> 00:25:23.826
So not many people will get access to it.

00:25:23.826 --> 00:25:29.951
When I think about that experience, mean, it's a lot of things.

00:25:29.951 --> 00:25:36.767
If we're comparing to Kindle, then it's probably, I mean, I can consider Kindle a bookstore now.

00:25:36.767 --> 00:25:38.178
I don't consider it a comic store.

00:25:38.178 --> 00:25:45.795
It's like just like Apple Books and uh like they also happen to have comics and they do have a better comic reader than Apple Books.

00:25:45.795 --> 00:25:47.045
But yes.

00:25:47.761 --> 00:25:51.823
But like they still are like their volume is clearly the highest still for digital spaces.

00:25:51.823 --> 00:26:01.786
I mean global em They ah You know, they're They have a lot of a lot of features on global.

00:26:01.786 --> 00:26:18.173
So if I'm doing a feature for feature thing, it's probably I mean, they just have like so many features on that app em It's hopefully going to be easier to use than that application See my previous statements about global.

00:26:18.474 --> 00:26:20.046
I'll say it so you don't have to Kenny.

00:26:20.046 --> 00:26:20.958
Yeah, it's like dry.

00:26:20.958 --> 00:26:24.119
It's like trying to like go into space basically is using that app.

00:26:24.119 --> 00:26:36.896
The thing I love that I don't see a lot of people doing with other apps is when I hand someone the app to play with, they just kind of keep tapping on things and they keep like following this web of like interesting things.

00:26:36.896 --> 00:26:42.279
Now granted, they're like just trying to play around with the app, but it's not crashing on them, which is the level.

00:26:42.980 --> 00:26:44.540
And that's sort of the goal.

00:26:44.540 --> 00:26:47.890
With global, you have like 3000 million comics.

00:26:47.890 --> 00:26:53.324
Obviously we're going to be in Android nine OS iOS, which I think Ichiban, Neon Ichiban.

00:26:53.324 --> 00:26:55.575
is not there on web only right now.

00:26:55.575 --> 00:27:04.497
Again, I catalog is a discussion of the past, uh, that no longer really merits any weight.

00:27:04.497 --> 00:27:14.279
If I take a like bullet point feature, it's that you can just go into your library and you can download the PDF straight from your iPhone to your iCloud drive or whatever.

00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:16.520
Like you can download your backups right in there.

00:27:16.520 --> 00:27:18.721
You can read offline at the start.

00:27:18.721 --> 00:27:22.114
You know, we have a lot to build and V1 is just.

00:27:22.114 --> 00:27:25.194
getting our friends in there, getting the core mechanics down.

00:27:25.496 --> 00:27:31.846
And then the next thing will be the next thing which we'll talk about, which I've been talking about for years.

00:27:31.846 --> 00:27:35.882
I talked about it on Omnibus and we're really close on it.

00:27:35.882 --> 00:27:38.082
And then we'll probably go broader with that.

00:27:38.082 --> 00:27:40.983
I'll tell you that one offline.

00:27:42.566 --> 00:27:43.786
Or be really cryptic here.

00:27:43.786 --> 00:27:44.717
I'm not quite ready.

00:27:44.717 --> 00:27:50.377
Well, yeah, because we're probably going to do some like bigger announcement stuff pretty soon here.

00:27:50.377 --> 00:27:58.724
You get all the pre-warm, the pre-warm up stuff, but I'm trying to give you the things that are new-ish that might be interesting to you.

00:27:58.724 --> 00:28:08.701
I'm really excited to be selling comic books again, and I'm really hoping we can really sell a lot more comics for a broader group of people.

00:28:08.701 --> 00:28:13.576
Like sell comics that were more obscure, maybe weren't successful.

00:28:13.576 --> 00:28:15.136
Anyway, yeah, that's Sweet Shop.

00:28:15.136 --> 00:28:16.801
We didn't even get to find your comic store.

00:28:16.801 --> 00:28:17.561
No, no, no, we are.

00:28:17.561 --> 00:28:20.144
That's the next question I have for you here because I need to know.

00:28:20.144 --> 00:28:33.741
This is the one that I've been sort of teasing because this is the one I think that what you've done really well, Kenny, I think with sweet just in general is that you're finding gaps within comics that really need either a tune up or just a whole new option, right?

00:28:33.741 --> 00:28:40.837
A digital reader as a creator, a place to store your work and also share it either privately or publicly, however you want to do it.

00:28:40.958 --> 00:28:46.741
The other venture that you've been working on that we've been again teasing throughout this conversation is the find your comic dot store.

00:28:46.741 --> 00:28:52.664
Now we've had comic shop locator for, mean, that was probably, I think that was created the same exact time www.

00:28:52.664 --> 00:28:54.365
was created, like the worldwide web.

00:28:54.365 --> 00:29:00.849
Like that, that sort of experience has been way outdated and also terrible since I think I started reading comics.

00:29:00.849 --> 00:29:02.570
Like it's just not great.

00:29:02.570 --> 00:29:04.672
And it often, gives you bad info.

00:29:04.672 --> 00:29:09.494
It shows, it shows you stores that either don't exist anymore or, or what have you.

00:29:09.494 --> 00:29:13.467
So tell me a little bit about what you guys are doing here with find your comic.store.

00:29:13.467 --> 00:29:16.349
And then also like How do you tackle something like this?

00:29:16.349 --> 00:29:22.883
Whereas like in a landscape of, know, we're not in the nineties where there's 50,000 comic stores in the U.S.

00:29:22.883 --> 00:29:26.213
but there's still well over I would say 5,000 comic stores in the U.S.

00:29:26.233 --> 00:29:36.958
What has been your guys' strategy on your team within Sweet to sort of tackle this venture which is like again, I would, I think the soft pitch is like a newer, better comic shop locator.

00:29:37.036 --> 00:29:40.327
my original pitch or what it refined to.

00:29:40.327 --> 00:29:43.359
My original pitch was I really hate this fucking website.

00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:45.289
You can probably do a better one.

00:29:45.830 --> 00:29:47.211
That's the core of it.

00:29:47.211 --> 00:29:55.375
uh That just because it comes out of like pure fandom of both like comic stores and like nice to use software.

00:29:55.375 --> 00:29:58.938
uh You know, the data is a problem.

00:29:58.938 --> 00:30:00.229
We don't have Google resources.

00:30:00.229 --> 00:30:03.760
We can't have roving street drones like tell us if a comic stores open.

00:30:03.760 --> 00:30:05.869
The costs don't really work out that way.

00:30:05.869 --> 00:30:06.289
Right.

00:30:06.289 --> 00:30:08.670
So we knew we had to build like a reporting system.

00:30:08.670 --> 00:30:16.829
The idea was I just want a place that's nice for people to figure out like where their comic stores are.

00:30:16.829 --> 00:30:25.970
So what I did was I was like, well, why don't we just like there's all these different pillars that I think we can do a little bit better for.

00:30:25.970 --> 00:30:30.069
Because sweets motto is make everything less shitty for everyone in comics.

00:30:30.109 --> 00:30:32.009
And that's everyone in comics.

00:30:32.009 --> 00:30:36.303
And even though I have a digital store, I love comic book stores.

00:30:36.303 --> 00:30:37.943
I love going to them.

00:30:38.184 --> 00:30:49.795
I am talking to them and I'm very nervous at New York City retailer day to talk about find your comic store and announcing some stuff about how that might work with Sweet Shop.

00:30:49.795 --> 00:30:58.000
Bindings uh creators use our little find your comic store button and it works worldwide, which comic shop locator does not.

00:30:58.001 --> 00:31:01.605
They just have drop downs for entire country's cities that they support.

00:31:01.605 --> 00:31:03.046
It's very weird.

00:31:03.125 --> 00:31:10.038
Like, like you're like, it's like a random ass city in Scotland and you're just like, OK, I guess this city.

00:31:10.092 --> 00:31:15.037
Yeah, as I said, like the comic shop locator, I feel like has not been updated since the day it was created.

00:31:15.037 --> 00:31:15.817
Yeah.

00:31:16.077 --> 00:31:20.521
So, uh and you know, maps exist now, so it's easy to do a map.

00:31:20.521 --> 00:31:28.048
And so we wanted a place where people could find a store and also that shops could show a little bit of their personality without too much work.

00:31:28.048 --> 00:31:33.271
And hopefully you've spoken a lot, which is lovely about how we think about user interaction.

00:31:33.271 --> 00:31:35.094
It's deeply embedded.

00:31:35.094 --> 00:31:44.421
I work with really incredible designers by force of will upon them, you know, and even like OmniBus, Travis was a very good designer.

00:31:44.421 --> 00:31:49.243
uh And I take design very seriously, even though I myself am not a good designer.

00:31:49.243 --> 00:31:59.528
so working with, you know, my team to build that site, we wanted to make sure that it was just not much work for comic shops because they have enough.

00:31:59.528 --> 00:32:01.109
deal with so much shit.

00:32:01.109 --> 00:32:04.131
They have the direct market system is crazy.

00:32:04.131 --> 00:32:07.613
They are doing such amazing work.

00:32:07.613 --> 00:32:08.292
I want them.

00:32:08.292 --> 00:32:10.693
I want there to be more comic shops.

00:32:10.869 --> 00:32:16.932
And a lot of the stuff is all of the stuff is like pipelines into, want there to be more comics in the world.

00:32:17.032 --> 00:32:20.075
And I want there to be more comic creators.

00:32:20.075 --> 00:32:24.497
I want to buy Chris Hacker's book when it's written and I want to sell it on my store.

00:32:24.517 --> 00:32:28.818
I want to, you know, have them find that store.

00:32:28.819 --> 00:32:35.022
But if they can't, if they can't find a shop near them, which is very normal, they can buy it on Sweet Shop.

00:32:35.022 --> 00:32:45.269
That is weirdly like, it's, it's kind of monopolistic, but I'm also happy to be the Apple to someone's Windows 90, like Microsoft computer, right?

00:32:45.269 --> 00:32:50.910
Like Windows 95 was the dominant operating system, but Apple was the better experience for the longest time.

00:32:50.910 --> 00:32:53.710
And that company also made money.

00:32:53.710 --> 00:33:00.150
And honestly, to get any of these places in places where we can have more of them, they all have to make money.

00:33:00.150 --> 00:33:20.760
we all, we, and so these are all designed to generate income so that we can not only ourselves have, you know, nice lives and, um, but also so that people doing all those things that I love, including running a comic store, can take a break because they get passive income or something like that.

00:33:20.881 --> 00:33:22.481
It's not a 501C.

00:33:22.481 --> 00:33:26.082
It's not altruistic because it's selfish.

00:33:26.082 --> 00:33:30.855
I really want there to be more comics and more comics, all these different things in the world.

00:33:30.855 --> 00:33:35.405
So Find Your Comic Store is sort of like our little baby that we love.

00:33:35.405 --> 00:33:39.145
I got reports from many, many places and it's been really cool.

00:33:39.145 --> 00:33:41.826
We've had shops come in, tell us this is closed.

00:33:41.826 --> 00:33:45.165
lot of, think we're at 200 clean stores in mostly the U.S.

00:33:45.165 --> 00:33:54.286
now, although we had someone fill in a store in France, which was whenever we get someone from, we had like Poland, we've had Australia.

00:33:54.506 --> 00:34:03.945
I've had no one in, no one in like Asia, Southeast Asia yet, but I think there's some translation like things there we can do too, because it is mostly English, German.

00:34:04.114 --> 00:34:17.289
And like, you know, like we're working with some of the point of sale systems that are since Diamond's gone, like we're trying to see if we can like connect with them and connect bindings with them of like retail shops.

00:34:17.289 --> 00:34:23.222
We really want to make sure that people can make money off of comics and that people can find that.

00:34:23.222 --> 00:34:24.813
And like our thing is software.

00:34:24.813 --> 00:34:26.844
So this is what we're contributing.

00:34:27.465 --> 00:34:31.155
contributing, also want to make money just like people who work in the industry.

00:34:31.402 --> 00:34:35.715
That's my rah rah speech about find your comic store.

00:34:35.715 --> 00:34:37.317
What a sack of shit.

00:34:37.317 --> 00:34:41.289
like soapbox speak about my company.

00:34:41.289 --> 00:34:43.621
It's a corporation.

00:34:43.621 --> 00:34:51.362
You know that we and I've said this, I think to you in person, we were in San Diego that like if we want the good in comics, we have to be the ones to do it.

00:34:51.362 --> 00:34:54.601
We can't expect people around us to create these things for us.

00:34:54.601 --> 00:35:00.541
So the fact that you're doing this and even though it is a I mean, even though it's it's a company like and that you're making money from it, who cares?

00:35:00.541 --> 00:35:03.422
You're creating a thing that makes comics better.

00:35:03.422 --> 00:35:05.222
And at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

00:35:05.222 --> 00:35:07.222
And I think that like the fact that that's your goal.

00:35:07.222 --> 00:35:09.442
And I think it's very obviously your goal.

00:35:09.442 --> 00:35:11.181
People will see that immediately.

00:35:11.181 --> 00:35:15.501
And I think that's kind of why not only that it's a three-parter.

00:35:15.501 --> 00:35:17.141
It's not only why we are friends.

00:35:17.141 --> 00:35:31.862
It's not only why I back you in any venture that you do in this space, but it's also why I think you're going to be successful is that I think when people see what you're doing, you and your team, I keep saying you, but I hope it's like, I hope it's sort of known that I mean like the sweet team when they see what you're doing.

00:35:31.862 --> 00:35:38.641
I want people to understand that like this, of course you like, you want this to be successful and eventually make money from it.

00:35:38.641 --> 00:35:48.447
But at the end of the day, I hope it's known that like this is the, this is going to make comics better because if it wasn't for people like yourself doing this, we would be stuck with the comixology.

00:35:48.447 --> 00:35:49.967
We would be stuck with a global comics.

00:35:49.967 --> 00:35:58.043
We would be stuck with which comic shop locator, which in my opinion, I'm on record saying right now suck.

00:35:58.724 --> 00:36:01.277
So like, this is why I'm glad that you're doing something like this.

00:36:01.277 --> 00:36:10.463
So like, if it's not more obvious than right now, I want people to listen to this right now, even though that like Kenny and myself are being a little cryptic with some of these things.

00:36:10.923 --> 00:36:16.536
buy in this is the time to buy into what I think Kenny and what you and your team are doing because it's awesome.

00:36:16.677 --> 00:36:23.539
I'm excited for what's going to be happening because we're releasing this the first day like the day that this is released is the first day of New York Comic Con.

00:36:23.559 --> 00:36:36.675
So everything that's happened we're in the past right now everything that happens at New York Comic Con I'm hoping I'm almost expecting at this point will be great for suite and everything that's going on within the suite organization and I'm just really excited for this week.

00:36:36.675 --> 00:36:44.961
I'm excited for what's happening over the next week or so with sweet and everything that you guys are working on, including again, find your comic dot store bindings and sweet shop.

00:36:44.961 --> 00:36:45.501
Well, thank you.

00:36:45.501 --> 00:36:50.606
I hope it's not like me leading Lemmings off a cliff, but that's very kind.

00:36:50.606 --> 00:36:53.949
You've always been kind and always supportive.

00:36:53.949 --> 00:36:59.775
And boy, if I fuck this up a second time, I'm definitely out of comics.

00:36:59.775 --> 00:37:00.594
So.

00:37:00.594 --> 00:37:03.717
So.

00:37:03.717 --> 00:37:04.318
Yeah, yeah.

00:37:04.318 --> 00:37:06.599
So if it's not that, then bye.

00:37:06.599 --> 00:37:13.806
But if it is that, which I think it is, I genuinely think this is going to be really fun and cool.

00:37:14.271 --> 00:37:23.820
and hopefully sell more comics uh and grow comics a little, uh then that would be my dream fulfilled.

00:37:23.820 --> 00:37:24.550
Yeah.

00:37:24.550 --> 00:37:27.690
And again, I have the utmost confidence and you have our utmost support.

00:37:27.690 --> 00:37:34.713
think I've told you many times and I know you won't let us do this, but anything you ever need from the oblivion bar is pro bono.

00:37:34.713 --> 00:37:40.655
Cause again, I believe in you and the thing that whatever you're doing, including the three things we've talked about here today.

00:37:40.655 --> 00:37:48.827
And as we sort of round out this conversation, Kenny, I need to, I need to get your read on like, just like, what are you enjoying right now in comics?

00:37:48.827 --> 00:37:58.780
Like a lot of times when we do these kinds of conversations and again, us being friends, I always have it in the back of my brain of like, I want this to just be a normal conversation, but I also want to promote the thing that you're like here to talk about.

00:37:58.780 --> 00:38:01.429
So like, this is our chance here at the very end.

00:38:01.429 --> 00:38:04.920
I want to hear about like, can you give me, they don't have to be best.

00:38:04.920 --> 00:38:07.001
They don't have to be like your favorite.

00:38:07.001 --> 00:38:11.463
What are some comic creators that are on your radar that you've really been enjoying?

00:38:11.463 --> 00:38:15.204
Someone that's either been surprising you or someone that's just been like consistently good.

00:38:15.204 --> 00:38:28.038
And then also in that same breath, are there just like any books, any series, any graphic novels, any publishers, just uh sort of a wide berth of things that you're really enjoying in comics that you want to sort of highlight here there at the end of this conversation.

00:38:28.108 --> 00:38:31.103
I've been really enjoying Kurt Pyre's Lost Fantasy.

00:38:31.384 --> 00:38:32.264
good friend of the show.

00:38:32.264 --> 00:38:32.878
Love Kurt.

00:38:32.878 --> 00:38:35.418
on Image uh and it's beautiful book.

00:38:35.418 --> 00:38:47.264
uh I've been looking, reading a lot more manga for reasons uh and very much enjoying Glacier Bay as a publisher.

00:38:47.266 --> 00:38:54.108
They're actually like a really cool indie publisher who's been doing some, just some beautiful manga books.

00:38:54.150 --> 00:39:02.333
I always read The Power Fantasy and FML because I am Kelly Sue DeConnick and Kieran loyal till I die.

00:39:02.519 --> 00:39:03.262
Can you?

00:39:03.262 --> 00:39:12.108
Can I I catch you there for a quick second because so we were supposed to talk to Kelly's sootaconic this week, but she unfortunately got covid while she was over in Europe and We had a we a post point.

00:39:12.108 --> 00:39:21.014
She will be coming on the show But point being is that I reread issue one and two and then the rest of FML Which at the time this recording is that issue six?

00:39:21.414 --> 00:39:26.150
my god like, you know, you talk about power fantasy and you talk about these other comics They're plenty.

00:39:26.150 --> 00:39:28.108
I mean a sort of crisis events Martian man.

00:39:28.108 --> 00:39:28.378
Come on.

00:39:28.378 --> 00:39:28.719
Absolutely.

00:39:28.719 --> 00:39:37.289
Like there's there's so many great comics out there but when I talk when I when I like say like FML by Kelly and David over at Dark Horse.

00:39:37.289 --> 00:39:43.512
When I say that that's like my comic, this is a comic that I feel like I can hand someone and go, my gosh, this is why comics are cool.

00:39:43.512 --> 00:39:44.353
I really mean it.

00:39:44.353 --> 00:39:45.686
FML fucking rocks.

00:39:45.686 --> 00:39:53.552
At this point, I'm too biased because I've just I've had the opportunity to talk with Kelly Sue a couple times just about what we're doing.

00:39:53.552 --> 00:40:01.456
like, just I that speaking of livings off a cliff, if she was like, we're going off this cliff, I'd be like, yeah, that seems right.

00:40:01.456 --> 00:40:06.766
Plus her the fact that her writing is exceptional and like greatly economical.

00:40:06.766 --> 00:40:10.429
I look at a I have to leave pretty soon.

00:40:10.429 --> 00:40:11.849
I have to go pick up my kids.

00:40:12.110 --> 00:40:13.590
I look at a book, I got to wrap up.

00:40:13.590 --> 00:40:22.289
I look at a book like Pretty Deadly and a book like East of West, which are both like Western, like post-apocalyptic, like kind of apocalyptic visions.

00:40:22.389 --> 00:40:25.909
like Jonathan Hickman takes, you know, 70,000 volumes.

00:40:25.909 --> 00:40:27.090
And I love it.

00:40:27.090 --> 00:40:29.230
And that is not just like it's verbose.

00:40:29.230 --> 00:40:30.690
It's like he builds a thing.

00:40:30.690 --> 00:40:32.769
And then she kind of did almost like...

00:40:32.769 --> 00:40:35.275
the similar story in like one volume.

00:40:35.275 --> 00:40:37.201
It's such a beautiful tone.

00:40:37.201 --> 00:40:38.885
Like I just love that.

00:40:38.885 --> 00:40:41.371
Yeah, like I'm a huge fan of hers.

00:40:41.371 --> 00:40:42.380
FML is great.

00:40:42.380 --> 00:40:45.231
And also not enough can be, not enough can be said about David too.

00:40:45.231 --> 00:40:49.215
And his contribution, like what he asked that story is insanely good.

00:40:49.215 --> 00:40:51.197
The visual storytelling is incredible.

00:40:51.737 --> 00:40:54.980
Kenny, I, again, we're going to have you on the show again.

00:40:54.980 --> 00:40:55.951
Like it's going to happen.

00:40:55.951 --> 00:41:00.414
Honestly, I want, I want to get you back on a lot sooner than I would normally have other guests on.

00:41:00.414 --> 00:41:06.670
I want you on for version 1.1 when that eventually hits, like let's have that come out and then you come back on the show.

00:41:06.670 --> 00:41:08.771
You can bring on, you know, your other career.

00:41:08.771 --> 00:41:09.121
I'm sorry.

00:41:09.121 --> 00:41:10.373
Was it, was it David?

00:41:10.373 --> 00:41:11.494
And I'm sorry, who was the other one?

00:41:11.494 --> 00:41:12.094
I'm sorry.

00:41:12.094 --> 00:41:12.876
a man bed.

00:41:12.876 --> 00:41:14.246
Matt and Ben, thank you, sorry.

00:41:14.246 --> 00:41:15.958
Matt and Ben, if you wanna have them on, that's cool.

00:41:15.958 --> 00:41:17.489
If you wanna just come on yourself, totally fine.

00:41:17.489 --> 00:41:19.380
We'll have Aaron on this time, all the things.

00:41:19.380 --> 00:41:28.338
But point being is that, so grateful to not only be your friend, but for you to share what you share with Aaron and I, with all the goings on with Sweet.

00:41:28.338 --> 00:41:30.639
Very excited, very proud of you and everything you've done.

00:41:30.639 --> 00:41:33.563
Excited to hang out at New York Comic Con, everybody when you're listening to this.

00:41:33.563 --> 00:41:36.264
Hopefully Kenny and I and Aaron have already hung out.

00:41:36.264 --> 00:41:38.184
If not, it will happen that week.

00:41:38.184 --> 00:41:40.166
And Kenny, just, can't wait for everything.

00:41:40.166 --> 00:41:43.719
I'm very, very excited for people to get this in their hands and get to play with it and all the things.

00:41:43.719 --> 00:41:47.422
So before I let you go, I'm going to pass it off to you one more time.

00:41:47.423 --> 00:41:50.547
You know, how can people find all things sweet?

00:41:50.547 --> 00:41:51.858
Is there anything you want to tease?

00:41:51.858 --> 00:41:57.373
Like I'm not, you don't have to, but like, is there anything you want to sort of say before I get you out of here with this conversation?

00:41:57.619 --> 00:42:01.400
You can go to if you're excited just about sweet in general or sweet shop.

00:42:01.400 --> 00:42:04.322
You can go to sweet.dev and sign up for our mailing list.

00:42:04.322 --> 00:42:05.733
That's probably the best way right now.

00:42:05.733 --> 00:42:09.054
uh I do want to tease that.

00:42:09.054 --> 00:42:13.565
And this is unannounced that FML will be on sweet shot.

00:42:13.565 --> 00:42:14.275
there you go, buddy.

00:42:14.275 --> 00:42:14.967
There's your tag.

00:42:14.967 --> 00:42:15.257
Yes.

00:42:15.257 --> 00:42:18.998
uh And so you can draw extrapolate.

00:42:19.061 --> 00:42:22.523
what that means for the whatever publisher it may be or may not be on.

00:42:22.523 --> 00:42:25.014
So I'm very excited for that.

00:42:25.014 --> 00:42:27.967
So thank you again, as always, for having me on.

00:42:28.293 --> 00:42:28.793
Absolutely Kenny.

00:42:28.793 --> 00:42:30.614
What a pleasure can't wait to see you near a comic-con.

00:42:30.614 --> 00:42:31.574
We'll talk to you here soon.

00:42:31.574 --> 00:42:31.994
Okay.

00:42:31.994 --> 00:42:33.510
All right