Joining us today is one of the artists of 2016's Alien Defiance with writer Brian Wood and more recently one creative part of the prequel comic series to Paul W.S.

Anderson's 1997 cult classic Event Horizon Dark Descent with writer and good friend of the show Christian Ward.

It is our pleasure to welcome Tristan Jones onto the Oblivion Bar podcast.

That was ex- it's my pleasure, thank you.

Tristan, last time we saw each other, we were at New York Comic Con at the IDW party.

I know, so I wasn't fully anticipating being able to see you at all while we were in New York.

I sort of like, I accepted that internally.

I dealt with it.

I emotionally stabilized for that.

And then Aaron and I are just sitting there hanging out with some of our podcasting friends there at the IDW party.

I turn around and there you are.

And I think you might've been talking to Greg or someone.

I can't remember exactly who it was.

It was Greg.

Yeah.

And we all, we took a quick photo together.

It was just, it was a cool moment.

So it's so great to have you here on the show.

No, I appreciate it.

was really like walking into that after party thing was kind of surreal.

I've been out of for a long time, but I still like, know, obviously staying in touch with things through like what you guys do and just how the podcast and things.

So sort of walking back into that space and, you know, seeing you guys there and immediately, it's the Boombab guys.

Yeah, it was rad.

It's kind of just a cool space to be back into and being welcomed in by you guys the way you did.

was really, really nice.

Thank you.

got the full you got the full brunt of Aaron eyes personality, right?

Like, oh my God, we were like two drinks.

That's right, that's right.

I think we referred to you as a the Australian Dracula.

Yes.

uh uh Yeah, yeah, yeah, my partner, yeah, she had, she was like, you're taking these outfits because they look great on you.

I got a lot of comments on the, just on the nature of it.

And it's not the first time I've sort of given like a similar nickname.

Like we went, obviously Halloween's sort of just gone by.

I had a similar outfit on and one of my...

I do work in a, I do repertory programming for a cinema, a little independent cinema here in Melbourne.

One of my staff was like, are you even dressed up?

Like, this is just what you wear casually out anyway.

yeah, I'm not, not like unfamiliar with, with similar such sort of comments.

So yeah.

you know, being well dressed in the comic book world is a rarity.

A lot of us just own like graphic tees and jeans.

So you are you are you are a rarity again, like in this space to be like to wear like big boy shoes as like we had Kelly Sue DeConnick on the show a couple of weeks ago.

And she said like there it's always rare when like you see art, you see like a creator where like grown up, you know, they're not wearing like a Superman tee.

They're wearing like actual like adult clothing.

So, Tristan, you're among those.

also just, you know, can we just pay attention to the elephant in the room for a moment?

And the fact is like, for some reason in this era of comic creation, there are just some gorgeous people.

the comic industry, Tristan being absolutely one.

There are some, there are some people that keep walking to a party.

like, this is a comic book creator party.

Like no fucking way.

Like these are all like sexy model type people.

And you're just like, why am I here?

I comics got set.

I don't know.

like I think it went through that phase where it was all about like superheroes and wearing your like colors, right?

I don't think everyone kind of grew past that that kind of peak of like the superhero paradigm, right?

Like we've had what 15 to 20 years of Marvel movies.

I think everyone's like, all right, let's just.

chill a bit.

Everyone now loves the Marvel stuff and I think kind of maybe there's an element of maybe comics going mainstream in a sense that everybody is now kind of wearing your favorite shit and it's a bit like, oh, it's kind of not as special anymore.

It's not like my little thing anymore.

Which I can't complain about.

I more people should be reading comics full stop.

I don't care who's reading it.

Just read them.

Support the damn industry.

We've talked about that many times here on the show about how like comics totally are a more broad It's not really even nerd culture anymore.

It's more pop culture, right?

Which is really awesome and I do want to I want to noodle on this idea more But I do have to ask you really quickly Tristan This is something obviously the main sort of pillar of this conversation will be dark descent But and you sort of already touched on this idea I wasn't aware that you were you actually worked for a a movie theater.

Yeah, like company in cinema, you uncultured swine.

I know you're a huge movie buff.

I've seen, you know, you're not very shy about that on your social media.

So I just have to ask you, and I know it's sort of almost correct me if I'm wrong here, but I feel like it sort of deviates towards horror.

Is that true?

I guess the first question being, and then it is true.

What does that love of horror really come from?

Do you know where that originates from in your life?

It's kind of like if there's a thrill to it.

I know when I was a kid, Like, you know, grew up with Ghostbusters.

It's one of the first thing I really remember watching and like religiously what I'd be up every Saturday morning at 6.30 to watch the real Ghostbusters every single week right up to the point that it ended.

And I think that kind of, it's like a great kind of softer entry into horror.

And when I like I distinctly remember distinctly remember when my brother was being born, I would have been like two and a half.

Right.

And I've been sent to stay with my uncle and his family.

And this is while mom was in and out hospital.

And he my uncle and my cousins were horror like horror guys.

um And I distinctly remember watching...

There's a vampire movie that I've never been able to find the title of it.

Every time I describe it to people, kind of...

The one scene I remember watching is like...

It's like some kind...

In my memory, it's this detective type character.

Very 80s New York.

And I think he goes into like a sauna or a gym or something like that.

And there's a guy in like the shower.

And he kind of turns around and he's got real like that kind of 80s vampire face with like the really long fangs and kind of piercing yellow eyes.

Like the Michael Jackson thriller kind of look.

And I've never been able to figure out what this movie is.

I know a bunch of people who are like, fuck that, rings a bell.

But the one that really locked it in was They Live.

I was there watching that and it just burned into my memory.

The bit where he's first put the glasses on and goes into the supermarket and the old lady's on the things.

She goes, got one that can see.

And you know, he starts backing out of the thing.

I just remember seeing like when you see all their faces and suddenly you got this haggard old lady with the alien face.

You know, I think it kind of instilled this odd fascination with like skeletons and that whole kind of aesthetic.

And obviously that's such an integral part of like gothic horror.

And I think kind of once you cross that boundary, it's kind of interesting playing with what's scary and what's not.

Not that I'm consciously aware of that as a kid, but even watching the return of Godzilla, which to me at the time was Godzilla 1985, on constant rental from the video shop.

Like they just kept giving it back to me because I knew it was a low watch.

And even that has this really kind of terrifying opening.

I don't know if too many people remember this, the first kind of sign of Godzilla is on this boat.

This little kind of fishing vessel and it's been completely overtaken by like mutated sea parasites.

And there's this great kind of, you know, cheesy kind of sting where these guys are checking out what's on the coast guard, checking what's on the boat.

And there's a guy sitting in a chair and they spin him around.

It's this desiccated corpse.

And I hated it and loved it at the same time.

And it then becomes this whole kind of alien-esque sequence where these parasites kind of attack them out of the darkness of this boat.

And yeah, I just kind of really loved all of that and just gravitate towards it every time we go into the video shop.

kind of venture further and further away from the kids section into the science fiction section and then into the horror section.

And it just became this kind of fixation, but I think as I got older, it became more and more about monsters, creature design, just cool kind of aesthetics and seeing these monsters being brought to life.

then, you know, I think as I've gotten older, horror is just this really fertile ground for social commentary and seeing how people respond to horror is always the most fascinating thing to So I think, hopefully that answers the question.

But yeah, like the point of like where it all began would have to been seeing they live at like two and a half.

It's gonna be my personal challenge now to find this 80s, 90s vampire movie with the shower sauna.

It has to be an early 80s film.

Yeah, it has to be before like 1985.

Sorry, it has to before 1987.

Because would have been VHS in June of 1987, which is when my brother was born.

I think my favorite sort of sub genre of human is someone who has shown horror way too earlier in their life.

And it sort of morphed into someone that like Aaron and I are both of this, we're of this uh type of person where we, lot of our personality and the things that we love as adults was mainly because we like watched Tales from the Crypt too early in our lives and it like damaged us in this really interesting way.

And I think that's maybe something very similar to Tristan, what you're talking about.

where like you saw that mysterious vampire movie, right?

This is the thing, that may well have been an episode of Tales from the Crypt.

Again, when I was a kid, Freddy Krueger was a pop culture icon.

We'd go into video stores and Freddy Krueger would be selling Pepsi.

It would be this kind of crazy thing.

I would be going in, there would be a standee where he would be advertising the newest releases that week.

Not just whatever Nightmare on Elm Street movie would come out at the time.

But you had Freddy Krueger as a pop culture icon.

You had the Crypt Keeper.

Yeah, I was aware of Tales from the Crypt, both the comic books and the TV show.

But you would see the characters similarly on television, just advertising things, on previews on VHS tapes, all that kind of stuff.

So.

horror had sort of transcended into this mainstream and things like Ghostbusters and Tales from the Crypt and you know it was being taken a little more seriously back then ah because of the hype that it had reached in terms of popularity and in terms of just spitting money for the studios right like there's no way they would have got to as many sequels for Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th and stuff like that even before the 90s had rolled around.

The 80s was just this beautiful time for all of that.

you see Stranger Things kind of tapping back into that and all this nostalgia point stuff that we've got now leans so hard into all of that.

Black Phone 2 is like, you I don't mean this in like a derogatory way, but it is a Nightmare on Elm Street film.

Yeah.

You know, it's doing all the same things and leaning into the same things that Stranger Things is.

And, you know, it's all because so many creators now came up through that period.

um And they're calling back on the things that they loved.

So yeah, exactly what you're saying.

It's this great kind of time of being exposed to that like peak at a very young age, you know, it changes people.

Yeah.

It's definitely, we're definitely, you're right.

We're definitely in this season of, like you said, nostalgia porn.

We're definitely reminiscing.

We're definitely going back and kind of recreating, if not remastering, rebooting these things that we love.

But kind of leaning into that and kind of bouncing off what you've said with, you know, where you kind of came from.

Are there a couple of franchises or even cult favorites for you that really, that you could say really define your love of horror?

I mean, Alien was a game changer.

And I can see your shirt, Chris.

I was going to comment on it earlier when we talking about t-shirts.

yeah, Alien was a real, real game changer.

And I'm trying to think of what other ones.

Like I was kind of neither here nor there on all the slasher sequels in Not Very Long Street and stuff like that.

Just because they were so kind of omnipresent.

Seeing something like Alien.

really kind of turned everything on its head.

Especially as like a sci-fi kid, like every kid in the 80s was growing up on like Star Trek or Star Wars.

um Even things like The Last Starfighter and all the kind of, you know, the lower tier science fiction films, like below that.

Everything was trying to, you know, that was trying to cash in on E.T.

and Star Wars and, you know, the big ones at the time.

But like even something like, like the Indiana Jones films, right?

not immediately identifiable as horror, ah but I think they kind of really instilled a fascination with the occult and that whole kind of angle of tying occult fiction into like historical fact and kind of finding a key point in time and telling this kind of wild story that has a really kind of loose reality to it.

You know, that really kind of set off like a ton of uh a ton of interest for me.

The other big, big one for me was discovering all the Hammer films, like all the Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing run of British horror films.

uh The Universal monsters were always there.

know, we toys and posters and everything.

um And those films were kind of always accessible.

But I think there was something a little...

It's a little more dangerous about the Hammer stuff that I really, that really kind of resonated.

Like I felt like I shouldn't be watching some of these things, even though you kind of look at them now, especially with a lot of them sort of getting their anniversaries and being re uh remastered and stuff now.

You know, a lot of the Hammer stuff at the time had more violence.

ah You know, the Frankenstein films in particular were always that little bit extra kind of more shocking.

than the Karloff stuff.

Like Curse of Frankenstein is something I just constantly go back to.

know, had like every Bond girl has been through those films as well.

So I think, you know, there's a real love and I mean, the other thing is too, like I was a Nintendo kid.

like, you know, if anything like smelled like Castlevania to me, like it was immediately something I wanted to watch.

So I would attribute a lot of what I'm into to like Castlevania and that kind of original rather things back in the day.

Yeah, it's interesting.

think horror is such a great reflection of a lot of our greatest fears at that time.

know, like the stranger.

I think like the 80s is a great example of this, of course, because of like the stranger danger of it all.

Like a lot of the horror films were a girl or a child alone somewhere.

Right.

Like that was the majority of the setup for like slasher films at that time and sort of the greater unknown of it all.

So I think that's one of the great, greatest benefits of horror.

And also I think as someone as like someone who can like take care of himself as like a I guess a decently well put together guy.

I don't feel fear super often.

And I think horror a lot of times gives you I'm not like I'm not some big strong man or anything, but like I don't feel that kind of fear very often.

And horror can sometimes trick you in that way that it sort of gives you that endorphin hit that you I don't know how you guys feel about this, but like when I watch a horror film and I'm fully aware that this isn't real, I still get that feeling of fear.

Like it could be real.

You know what mean?

Yeah.

The anxiety and the feeling behind it.

Well, I think, I think one thing that I just wanted to touch on was the, you know, you mentioned the horror elements of like Indiana Jones, which again, I love.

And I think watching through those, even my very first time, I remember my first time watching through Indiana Jones, the arc of the covenant, you know, when they crack open the covenant and everybody's face just starts fucking melting, like that's your horror.

And that's like great effects, the practical effects.

And I think that's one thing that really formed as well.

And I think it's such a difference and a definition to each of these generations of horror films is when you have a practical element to like a face melting or a uh chest burst, you're breaking through the ribs and making that like crunching sound.

It's so different than the CGI effects that we see these days.

You actually have to kind of like see and witness the research that the practical effects, know, magicians had to go through.

and the appreciation that it takes when it comes to creating these scenes.

And honestly, to be honest, I don't know why this comes in my brain, but I can see how there is a correlation between your art and like the layers that go into like gore and body and horror and pain and it just kind of reflects there in a very practical way.

says, it speaks to me to like the level of research and detail, but I kind of want to, I mean, saying that.

I kind of want to switch gears and get a little bit more into your career.

After coming onto the scene, really strong with Alien Defiance and correct us if we're wrong here, but it seems like you took a little bit of time away from comics until your return with Detective Comics 1039 in 2021.

You also came back with your story Gang Wars and TMNT's 40th anniversary.

Can you share as much as you're comfortable with what was life like for you in between those years like in Alien Defiance?

Rough.

Look, no, look, was, it's interesting because like I came into comics really early.

I was really, really fortunate.

I was writing the, you know, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Mirage, like directly to Peter Laird before I was even 21.

Oh no, I would have just been, I would have just turned 21, sorry.

So yeah, I hadn't even finished film school at that point.

Like I was in my third year of film school.

and suddenly I'm riding the Ninja Turtles and you know I haven't experienced anything at this point.

I've been through high school, I've taken a couple of years out and then gone to film school and it's like I'm a fucking kid.

A very very fortunate one but you know I'm still getting to places on a skateboard so it's like again very very fortunate coming into it at that point.

extremely green on life and business and everything else and you know had this kind of trajectory as a writer then when that moved across to when Peter sold the turtles to Viacom uh when he decided to retire yeah well in 2009 rolls around um someone at IDW figured out I could draw uh and they sort of hired me there and suddenly I'm kind of like shifting gears and I'm doing this other thing now Young, naive me always thought it was going to be a sure thing, but still have another little backup thing to keep my parents happy.

Never really properly thought about the future of it all.

At the time, I just was coasting along, expecting a trajectory that I was seeing with lot of my peers.

Because Tom Taylor and I came up at the same time.

we started doing conventions and stuff and he just lives up the road from me.

So, know, he was kind of kicking along and his career obviously has gone the way it's gone.

You know, I had like Nicholas Scott mentoring me because I just sort of come into art and I've met her and she's obviously just, you know, up in the next state.

And a really like one of my best friends, uh Doug Holgate, he's the illustrator behind Last Kids on Earth, which is a thing on Netflix now, but it's a series of...

young adult books that are now they're doing a series of graphic novels as well.

So I had all these these great kind of guys around me who all had these really great careers but like I still hadn't really properly had any kind of relationships or uh anything like that and I just wasn't sort of equipped to sort of juggle both at the time and as such kind of found it increasingly difficult to sort of stay on top of things and juggle work and life balances.

You know, it kind of got to a point where once I got put on Aliens Defiance that was a real kind of trial by fire because I was saying...

posted earlier this morning, which by the time this podcast hits, we'll probably be out a month ago.

I posted a thing earlier today, which is November, the last day of November.

It's Thanksgiving for you guys, isn't it?

So it's the day after Thanksgiving for you guys.

So I posted a thing earlier today and it was like, I'm really, really grateful to Spencer Cushing over at Dark Horse for putting me on that book.

because I was technically an untested illustrator.

I'd done a ton of cover stuff and there'd been a lot of alien work that I'd sort of done just as fan art that had been sort of picking up traction on Instagram and at the time on Deviantart and early days Twitter.

And he gave me a shot.

ah It was the first time I was really confident about how...

my work looked as a sequential illustrator, but it was just intense and I was, you know, first time kind of doing interior art properly on a book.

They give me a couple of filling things or they give me an issue of rebels which Brian would wrote and I think the previous artists had to pull out at the last minute and They were still kind of waiting for approval on a bunch of things on the alien scripts So they put me on an issue of rebels last minute which one issue fine um Manage that pretty okay, but then doing multiple issues of a book and trying to juggle a new relationship and everything else.

I just couldn't make it work properly.

And that was kind of like the first big kind of learning thing.

then, found sort of increasingly because of the Marvel scene and the movies were picking up, I was getting asked a lot to do things that I considered IP farming.

And I think it became a real problem at this period for the comic book industry in general, where A lot of people were seeing films being made out of graphic novels.

Because not only did you have that first wave of Iron Man, I think at this point, Doctor Strange had just come out.

So we're talking the second wave of Marvel films, just post Avengers.

Yeah, yeah, probably phase two or three.

Yeah, so you're looking at this time where you've also had Road to Perdition do quite well critically.

You've had a history of violence come out and people are suddenly realizing that you can make really, really great films out of obscure comics as well.

Sin City had just kind of hit pretty big as well, like not long earlier.

So that sort of proved to people that you could...

take kind of risks with these things and suddenly everyone is considering a graphic novel and you know the terminology came around then as well suddenly everyone was calling just a trade paperback fucking graphic novel and everyone was making a graphic novel it's like you're not you're selling a mini series that you're selling as like a pitch as an easy pitch to a hollywood back door and you know the problem was it was being exacerbated by middling producers, you know, they wanted an easy in, they wanted to do a quick kind of hit and something they could just throw in front of someone was an easy pitch.

And I saw a ton of creators doing this.

And it created this paradigm where I was being hit up constantly.

Yeah, like IP books.

I didn't feel like there was any kind of genuine intent.

ah behind hiring me there was like a long list of dudes that they were just kind of working through and I was just one of the names on that list and I got kind of sick of it and I never really considered myself a like a Marvel or a DC artist I never really saw myself doing superhero stuff um you know maybe Batman maybe something like Ghost Rider or Doctor Strange but never any of the mainstream stuff and was just becoming it was becoming increasingly hard to pay bills and keep that sort of dream of working on a lot of these books at the time alive because a lot of the books I did want to work on they had you know pretty solid locks in terms of their creative teams um And editorial on those books were happy to just kind of keep letting those teams tell stories because the book sold and the doors that I sort of thought I might have had open to me at the time became increasingly ah I became increasingly aware of the fact that I could stand there knocking forever and they'll just pretend they can't hear the knock.

So I you know, kind of decided, well, I can't keep doing this.

It's not fair on my partner at the time.

It's not fair on me.

So yeah, I went and decided, well, I'm going to learn the other side of the industry.

And I got a job just in a bookshop.

And I sold comic books and everything else and very quickly ended up managing that place.

So I learned.

quite a bit on that side of things with the intention of um just putting together a creator-owned book for myself, seeing if anyone would take it, because now I've done the alien stuff and was confident enough in my storytelling abilities um that I could do both sort of things.

And in that time, I kind of would get freelance jobs here and there doing box art for toys or toy design or video game concept stuff.

A lot of those jobs trying to get money out of people was like getting blood from a stone.

And even getting samples of the work was hard.

So a big part of me was like, why the fuck am I doing this?

Like it just, felt like such a Sisyphean thing.

um And then pandemic happened.

So I live in a state that I think up until a certain point ah was holding the record for the most consecutive days locked down.

We had really, really stringent lockdowns.

I look, I was all for it.

You know, I saw a lot of people waving those rules away and getting sick and doing stupid things.

uh American.

Yep, that's us.

I was literally about to say I'm like, you know when they're digging mass graves in like Coney Island and You you're having ice cream trucks being held on standby as emergency morgues Like what the fuck are you guys doing?

So, you know We have no and we we reelected the dude like I don't know what the fuck happened.

Somehow we got through that craziness We're like, you know, we should bring back the dude that was behind like mostly in charge while all the bad shit was happening Remember that guy?

A and a...

the same mate, Doug, we, for a long, long time, were very kind of politically tuned here in Australia, very kind of globally politically tuned.

um And, you know, we were sitting there going, it's going to get weirder before it gets better.

And that was like in reference to just like the world in general, but also the fact that suddenly, you know, Donald Trump was president.

And...

Not that I think everyone who voted for Donald Trump is necessarily a bad person or they're doing it in any kind of under some kind of fit of stupidity.

I think a lot of people.

your race and I to be fair before you go on.

kind of think that they are, but continue on, please.

No, I've heard so I've actually like particularly now that we've sort of got to the second term like I've heard some people Talk about the first term and why they voted for it and then they you know They went and voted for Biden afterwards, right?

or they voted for Biden and looking at what's happening with the Democrats for you guys is Even more frustrating even for me who has no I don't have a you know a dog in that fight at all And but seeing how the other side of politics has kind of swung on your side of the world is even more infuriating to me than the politics that got Donald Trump in power in the first place and even the second place.

Because when I look at how the Democrats have been handling things, it doesn't shock me at all that Donald Trump got in again.

um And I'll be honest with the state of things now.

I won't be surprised if he gets in for a third term, if that's even a possibility.

Don't do not put that in.

Don't make that real.

It's it's it's legislation.

It is it is not supposed to be allowed, but I feel like we need to.

This is.

look, the way things have been going, mean, like him telling this journalist today that she's just stupid, point blank, and calling another one piggy.

It's like, why is nobody calling him on this?

Why is no one mouthing back?

And it's because of this state of, this kind of state that he's managed to create.

uh And that's unfortunately why exactly like you were saying, there'll be something that comes along that'll enable him to do that.

um And that's just, it's, you know, it's just the state of things politically across the board.

And look, I'm saying this as a guy that, you know, at the time leading into the pandemic and all through the pandemic, we had 10 years of like ultra conservative government.

Right?

have the labor, it's essentially a two party system despite how many independents we actually have in the Senate.

Ultimately, it still comes down to a two party vote.

We have labor who are generally considered progressive, but still very central.

You still get left leaning people complaining constantly that labor don't do enough in terms of progressive movement.

And then you've got the liberal party.

And the liberal party...

It's capital L liberal.

They're nothing like the liberals on your side of the world.

They fucking hate, yeah, the liberals on your side of the world.

And they literally only exist like their whole party came about to be in opposition to the Labour government back in like the current when when when Gough Whitlam was our Prime Minister back here.

But This whole party only exists to be purely in opposition.

That's all they've really ever been in.

And you just get conservatives who don't like any kind of idea of socialism or any sort of thing that reeks of socialism in any way, shape or form.

ah So they immediately gravitate towards the conservative side of things.

And we had that for 10 years.

um And we've kind of swung in the opposite direction to you guys with our last uh federal election.

in that Australia swung so violently against the kinds of politics that are so prevalent in the United States right now, and that we had here for such a long time, that we've essentially iced out um the Liberal Party from ever being able to govern for at least the next election and probably the election after that.

So we've got kind of the opposite of that whole thing there.

um Yeah, during during pandemic coming back round with all uh Doug and I were really kind of politically astute about things.

And when Trump came in and it all got a bit weird and then our ah there was like our government at the time coming into the last kind of final round of pandemic lost an unlosable election.

And I was kind of like, what the fuck just happened?

We both were.

I think the whole country.

Any kind of progressive voter was like, what the fuck happened?

And I just kind of realized that, you know, I hated the way things were looking socially here in Australia in terms of me being able to make a proper living creatively.

And the job that I was in, like it sucked.

And, you know, I was sort of looking at what my other options were.

My mate and I were both sitting there going, We used to go to gigs like every week, like little kind of punk gigs here and there.

We would see who was coming up in the Australian music scene.

And we both had big fuck off record collections.

And so we kind of decided, well, let's open a record store.

And I did, because I had nothing better to do.

And he had Last Kids on Earth suddenly dropped on his plate.

So.

I was basically siphoning all of my wage and all my overtime from working in this this bookstore, comic book store, to building an inventory of records.

And then, you know, I was kind of going along that way.

Met my partner, who I'm now been with for four years, we kind of met at the end of the pandemic.

And She would always, she would always really like, she's creative as well.

She always really liked that I had all this kind of illustration stuff behind me and was constantly like, why don't you go back to doing that?

And I just kind of said, I don't like how the industry looks.

The industry at the time, you know, I did the Batman thing during pandemic in 2021.

And like, that was great.

and then.

You know, I did a shitty thing.

know, admittedly I was so disillusioned with the comic industry at the time.

I was given another job, doing another backup in detective comics.

But it was this swing from like, you're gonna introduce this horror character to...

Here's this little six page thing where you introduce Chase Meridian to the Batman universe.

And...

I was becoming incredibly cynical.

We were talking about nostalgia porn earlier on.

I was becoming increasingly cynical of this kind of swing that comics was taking following this little boom or this little bubble of IP farming stuff to suddenly kind of dipping back into um the nostalgia of things.

remember this character, we're bringing them back.

We're doing this.

And I'm like, why?

of all the things that I could be doing, why am I doing this?

And at the time, that was the thought process.

And I was really burnt out because I'd done a lot of jobs that I just hadn't been paid for.

And I would have to pay colorists out of my own pocket um to work on those things.

And this is like toy gigs and stuff like that.

a bunch of things that I would do work on that would never see print.

something would get cancelled or whatever, just generally kind of dissolutioned.

And I just kind of dropped pens a couple pages into this thing and just completely ghosted the industry for a while.

em And that was kind of riding on the back of uh having some of my alien work traced for a Marvel theme.

Greg land saga.

I remember seeing that.

Yeah, I got, got, I got landed.

uh Damn it.

You hate when that happens.

Yeah, um, and sorry, no, so that was the real Nexus point.

All right, so that happened I had a ton of people come forward on Twitter and really back me up on that like it really kind of came forward and had my back on it But I also had a ton of people who I thought might that didn't And it became really really obvious to me that the comics industry was not like safe in a lot of ways.

um In the people I thought I could trust, I could not.

um And if the house was on fire, they wouldn't even, they just pretend they didn't hear me screaming.

That was the kind of mentality that was creeping in.

um So I left the industry ah and built this little record shop.

My partner came along and helped me sort of set the record thing up.

She has her own business, which was she was sort of starting at the same time.

So it was sort of focusing in on building these two little businesses alongside each other.

And then I got asked to build this cinema that I do the programming for, which was a great little exit point from managing a bookstore and really kind of hands-on stuff.

Kind of out of nowhere.

I got this email from um The the guy that is basically the head of the TMNT over at some paramount and At the same time I got an email from Jamie rich Who was the I think he was the editor-in-chief over IDW at the time?

Mm-hmm.

Was it was a distillery at the time or uh possibly ignition one of the two he eventually left One of those companies, yeah.

And I know IDW had gone through all kinds of ownership turmoil and come out the other side trying to rebuild its identity.

But Jamie and this guy, Jeff, both emailed me on the same night.

and I woke up to these emails.

One from Jamie being very professional and polite, saying, look, um I'm editing the Turtles books, we're doing this 40th anniversary retrospective thing, would you be interested in perhaps revisiting your own work and telling a little short thing for this compilation thing?

And the email from Jeff was...

really really interesting too because I was very much actually this is exactly how it went so I got the email from Jamie before I went to bed told my partner about it and was very much like I don't know I'm not sure and then I'll sleep on it and I'll answer it in the morning and then overnight I got this email from this other guy and he was like hey we've never met before I manage the brand for Paramount.

The whole reason I'm here is because I grew up reading your turtles books.

um You know the Mirage stuff was was such an integral part of me kind of being where I am now in my whole career uh and the the story that I wrote the the gang wars stuff or it started writing for us it was was like the thing that kind of kept him hooked right um So I kind of was like, I can't say no.

Like I can't say no to that at all.

And so I wrote this thing and then suddenly everyone was kind of like, oh shit, Tristan's back.

And I kind of wasn't, was kind of just like, maybe, like I guess, like this would be fun to do again.

But then, yeah, like kind of I had these friends who do another podcast, it's a horror film podcast called The Shotcast.

and you know sort of circled a couple of projects with them um one of which was going to be this this trick-or-treat book um which I agreed to do just kind of for fun and uh then I got this email from Christian Ward you know we've been sort of online friends for a long time and he was like hey look I'm sort of I've got the impression that you're sort of back and would you be interested in doing a thing together?

We were initially talking about creator and stuff because he was starting to lean heavier into his writing than his art.

And I was like, yeah, it could be fun.

And then a little bit of time passed and he was like, actually, these other things just kind of come up.

It's a bit of a time bomb situation.

So I need an answer pretty quickly.

um And it turned out to be Event Horizon.

I was kind of, my partner was like, just say yes, like, just agree to it, do it.

um And I, know, already I was kind of like, yeah, this could be fun.

Like it'll be rough.

Cause it was very, very like, it was, I was coming into it last minute um and I needed to start really soon.

I still haven't got scripts for the trick or treat stuff yet.

And I've been in this situation before where I've agreed to a job and not got a script.

And I've passed up other jobs because I've been waiting for overdue scripts.

And it became this vicious cycle.

I didn't want to be in that again.

So I just said, sure, yeah, let's do it.

Let's rock.

And then suddenly I had two jobs happening at the same time.

was like, this is not going to work.

And unfortunately, I had to leave.

I had to part ways with Trick or Treat because I just couldn't balance it.

Event Horizon, it's just an intense book to draw.

That's the whole story.

yeah, it's been a roundabout kind of journey.

m so much for sharing it.

Yeah, I gonna say, I'm so happy to hear all that because you know, very similar to what you're saying here.

It kind of feels like you were doing the comic thing for a bit and then like, bam, Tristan is gone for a while.

I just, I wasn't really sure what was going on.

We hadn't heard anything.

I never really heard the backstory from Christian and obviously, you know, this is our first time talking really in depth.

just first of all, really grateful for you to share all of that, you know, and I feel like you also, you sort of perfectly set us up for the next question here, which Let's get into Event Horizon.

We've been in this conversation for 50 minutes now.

We haven't talked about Event Horizon up to now.

So let's get into it.

We mentioned it before.

uh And I think it's important that we note that we are diehard Christian fanatics.

He's one of our favorite people in comic books.

uh I think it's also really important to mention that this book, Dark Descent, it just got announced, I think maybe yesterday or the day before.

Again, we're recording this on November 28th.

that issue four has already sold out.

It's going to a second printing and you've guys have done that with every single issue.

know, that first issue has even gone to three reprints, which is almost, I feel has almost, it's almost unheard of and you know, sort of the smaller press publisher, you know, world.

So I guess Tristan, my first question for you as we get into the event horizon chat is, you know, what is your relationship with that 1997 film, that original event horizon, Paul W.S.

Anderson film.

And then I guess, uh If you can sort of noodle on this idea how you and Christian have morphed this idea in Dark Descent.

Uh...

I remember...

So Event Horizon was one of those things that was just advertised in the back of comic books, you know, in the mid-90s.

um You know, same with like Species and all these other kind of time cop and shit like that.

um And at that point, like I would have just been...

Yeah, first year of high school.

So, you know, I had some level of autonomy.

And...

This...

this film event horizon's kinda come around, I'm pretty deep into my weekly cycle of renting horror movies um without really having to ask my parents if I can watch it.

oh Not that I, like that kinda cleared when I was like fucking seven.

So like, but I could go to the video shop and not get like checked by the guy behind the counter because he knew that I was in there so much with like my mom or dad and they were fine with me watching virtually anything.

So at this point, I'm routinely renting at least like seven horror films every week.

um And this film rolls around and it's kind of the first one I can go and see on my own.

So me and a bunch of mates go with my dad because he wants to go and see it as well.

And uh it fucked us up.

You get to the transmission sequence.

I've seen Alien and everything else.

It's pretty alieny.

And then the transmission bit happens and it's like, oh, it's like hell, right?

It's bad.

And I'm like, all of us just came out.

mean, what the fuck was that?

Yeah.

But it was just that moment, right?

And that's what everyone kind of remembers.

And I think because that moment hits in your nostalgia brain for the rest of the film, like it sets the tone for the rest of the film.

If that...

bit didn't happen in the movie if you didn't see the transmission the rest of the movies just got humdrum Ghost ship movie right nothing that happens after that sequence is remotely shocking Terrifying or even really that far from anything else that's been seen before um It's just the transmission that suddenly like shifts the film is this whole other stratosphere for you know a hot minute and then You're you're suddenly at the same level.

It's at watching the rest of the film wondering if you're gonna get that again.

um Which kinda don't.

uh But in hindsight, your brain is just kind of like that, right?

So I think, like Christian said, I think anyone will say the same thing.

Like, Event Horizon, objectively, is not a great film.

um But it has a lot of great ideas.

There's a lot of great stuff in it.

And it has a lot of like, I think this is why people keep going back to it.

Is because you sort of sit there and you're like, I don't remember it being that bad.

I'm going to put it on again.

And you sort of watch it, you're like, it's not great, but yeah, there's good stuff in here.

And this is why your brain keeps saying, it's good, watch it again.

But I think kind of going into comics, that was what was interesting because there was such a great visual language to it.

And for me, it just kind of felt like a natural kind of jumping on point.

as a comic and something I could sort of handle visually in terms of the language of it all.

But what Christian brought to it as a writer and his angle of the visual of it all and his interpretation of the horror of it all that he puts across in the story, that was kind of an interesting sort of thing for me as well because it was like, okay, that's different to what I would have thought to do with it.

Now there's the challenge of how do I bring that to life, honouring both the film and honouring what Christian's setting up as well.

So...

um I think that answers all your questions, I can't remember the last part of it though.

No, you you definitely answered it.

And I think what's really interesting, it's not only again, as I said, it's been so prolific as I think one of the true hits in terms of small press this year, you know, outside of the big two Marvel, DC.

I think when we look back here in just under a month now at the end of 2025, we think like what were some of the defining sort of smaller press books?

It's undeniable that Dark Descent will be among those that people will look back and go, wow.

mean, for a prequel series to a movie that isn't Tristan, Christian, Aaron and myself and people like us really remember fondly.

I don't think that people that just sort of had this weird affection for Event Horizon liked Dark Descent.

I think that you guys are capturing an audience of people who maybe weren't fully aware of what Event Horizon was and now are sort of rediscovering this Paul W.S.

Anderson film, pre-Alien versus Predator, pre-Resident Evil, pre- uh name another Paul W.S.

Anderson film.

Like Event Horizon is, as you said, this very perfect nugget of good ideas that just wasn't fully realized for a multitude of reasons that, you know, we did a watch along with Christian prior to the release of issue one.

And there are just a laundry list of things that went wrong with the pre-production and the eventual production of that film that sort of led to its eventual demise.

But like you said, it's undeniably uh just a, and Aaron loves to use this word, cornucopia of great ideas that you guys are fully realizing with Dark Descent.

Well, I mean, that's that I would say that's the thing about a lot of the movies that came from this and, you know, I'd say the 80s and the 90s, like I kind of look at it like Tony Stark's dad.

He's like he had the vision, but he just didn't have the technology to make it like great or have like really the the the audience necessarily.

uh But I mean, because that's I mean, that's kind of very prevalent.

know, he mentioned, you know, Tristan, you mentioned Timecop.

Timecop is such a cool movie, but it's just it's not a great movie.

That is incredible.

Yeah, virtuosity with Denzel.

I think it was Denzel Washington and and God, what's the guy from?

Just you'll have to remind me.

But if you ever seen a lot of people have never seen virtuosity, it's the guy from Beautiful Mind and Gladiator.

Crow.

Russell Crowe.

Yeah, if you've never heard of Virtuosity, you're missing out.

It's such a cool freaking movie, but it's one that had great ideas and never will be like really understood.

But I love the fact that a lot of these movies is kind of like what you say.

It's not about what they were or weren't.

but it's about what they can be and just adding the lore, adding the story that Christian and you are bringing to this along with the entire creative team.

It's bringing this universe back to life and really flushing it out more.

And that's what the cult fans wanted.

That's what people who will go back and rewatch it will want.

I love how we're just like, maybe years later, but we're getting what we want.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well, look, I would hope so.

And that's kind of been the daunting thing about it is like, you know, I think the way the thing that Event Horizon does really well is it evokes a certain idea of what is beyond the ship, like what has come into the ship and why.

And Christian's take on it is really, really interesting.

And at this point, I know we can sort of talk about it, but I know that where my story ends, where my involvement in this book ends, this thing will pick up elsewhere.

So Event Horizon's not quite done with comics once I leave it.

um And knowing that what Christians kind of set up not only feeds into the film, but feeds beyond that into this other thing.

kind of made me sit back and go, okay, cool, all right.

So we're not just talking about like, you know, a classic kind of tie-in comic here, we're going beyond this and this is gonna be a comic thing as well as like a tie-in.

And what I love about that is this is kind of the stuff that I grew up with.

This is what Dark Horse was doing in the late 80s and early 90s.

And they're the kinds of comics that I cut my teeth on.

So being able to contribute to that has been really, really cool.

And going back to what you were saying before about how it's resonated, like, If you had told me when I started this job that issue one would be going to, I want four printings um and like issue two, three printings, issue three is gonna get a second printing.

um like, know, issue four hasn't even come out yet and it's getting a second printing.

You know, I literally not, like I'm coming up on the end of issue five now.

And, you know, they're sort of preemptively preparing for the same thing to happen now.

And I was joking with Nick Nino, our editor, that like, just purely based on the numbers, when I got to New York, it would mathematically kind of add up that issue three might sell out as well.

And we were hopeful and then suddenly it's like, yeah, man, it's absolutely happened and we're going back to print on all the others.

If you had told me this had happened, I would have...

I did scoff.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

It was just...

I was completely gobsmacked.

I find it kind of hilarious that I'll see all this news on various comic feeds and everything else.

We're like, yeah, Batman...

issue one's going to be Decker & Bridget.

Of course it fucking has, it's Batman.

know, absolutely Batman is always going to go into another printing because it's fucking Snyder back on it with Dragata.

Like it's a book that everyone wants.

You're telling me Event Horizon's fucking gone to these number of printings?

you know, where are people going?

What?

When did that happen?

It's like, yeah, right under your noses.

Like, it's crazy.

So I'm just kind of hoping that we can carry that on and the next thing that I do has that kind of sway as well.

But it's crazy and it does speak volumes of the kind of crowd that stepped up to read it and buy it and the shops as well.

Like it's great.

I cannot be thankful enough that kind of support.

Well, Tristan, as you just said, your run on Event Horizon with Christian ends after this first arc and then rumor has it that Christian will continue on with Event Horizon and you'll be working on something new at IDW.

Again, feel free to share as much as you are comfortable with.

But what can you tell us about this mystery project over there?

ah Big is like the key word in all of it there.

And it's a drastic, it's a drastic departure from ah everything that I've kind of been like known to do.

ah I may have already had something out there that it is connected to, indirectly or directly.

um But...

by the time this podcast rolls around, will be announced in a few weeks.

uh But it's another horror book which I'm excited about.

actually really excited about it because horror, like a hard horror book hasn't been associated with this um project yet.

And uh it's also a period piece which I'm really, really excited about because it's a period of time um and a location with a very sort of specific uh aesthetic at that time um that I'm really really excited to dig into because it's so far removed from anything that I've done before without being rude from all the things that I really love drawing and things that I love personally a lot so like Alien was always like and always will be right up there in terms of like things that I would drop anything to do.

But this is probably the one thing shy of creator and stuff that is above that.

ah we'll make sure you say, you know, make sure you're ready.

Yeah, well, you already know Chris and I are fully signed up for that already.

Regardless.

mean, you said big.

I'm imagining Tom Hanks, you know, dancing on a keyboard like a horror version of Tom Hanks going big like like a Zoltan machine.

should probably be really transparent to that.

We were talking to Tristan a little bit and he he sort of told us a couple of things that we won't ever reveal until it's out there.

But I will just say that like this is really exciting.

And I guess I have to ask you just to sort of quickly build in again.

Don't share if you can't.

But this is part of the IDW dark stuff is that is this new thing going to be under that that banner?

ah That's a good question.

I don't quite know yet.

might, it may well be, but it may not be because it's kind of intrinsically connected to something else that hasn't been associated with that yet.

But because this is a hard horror book, it's probably not a bad shout for it to be under that label.

uh Especially with how I know they've been treating And how the editor and I've been talking about this particular project um So yeah, it could well be but I can't say for certain yet Yeah, well, I guess we'll find out here I mean by the time that we release this episode which we plan on releasing this episode the week that issue four of an horizon comes out We may have more info.

So you guys are hearing this.

You're probably like you idiots It's it's definitely under this banner, but I guess we'll find out mean look, it's the unique things about podcasting is like you can always go in later and add a retraction or a correction or something like that.

But I think people always kind of like, I always kind of love hearing this kind of stuff too.

It's like, oh, there it is like a key moment of its development that they haven't quite figured these kinds of things out yet.

so that's right.

Look, it could be funny.

like kind of like Christian Ward and and and City of Madness.

You know, we talked to him years before and he teased it and we got that on the, know, on the show.

First time, first time we ever had Christian on the show.

Yeah.

He and I sort of chatted about this image that he kept posting on Twitter of like a sort of Gothic horror, Cthulhu type of Batman.

he, he never really had any concrete plans about it.

And then eventually it became city of madness.

And uh I think I may have been the very first person to ask him about city of madness on a podcast before it eventually became, you know, that black label series.

So it is sort of fun and, very serendipitous that when that kind of thing happens.

Well, I can tell you something similar because um interestingly enough, have been other conversations that have sort of happened ah since New York.

beyond the next thing, um we're already talking about the thing after that, ah which I may have already done something similar with in that I had an idea years ago and posted a photo of a character and like the description was like this is such and such a person died this particular year in this particular way last seen and then the date is like 30 years later.

So similar like I've got a similar kind of thing in the works uh over at IDW as well, which I'm pretty excited about too, which I think I can sort of talk about now.

But uh that'll come into sort of shape a little little sort of way after the next thing.

But it'll be yeah, it'll be as drastic a departure from everything that I've kind of been known for up to this point as you can get.

um Even the next thing, which is still a drastic departure from all that sort of stuff, it'll be another drastic departure from that.

But still, I'm like, what if it's, I want to do this, but I want to do this.

It's like a hard horror book.

And the editor was like, fuck yeah.

Yeah, let's, let's, let's figure this one out.

So I think next year is going to be really, really great.

And like, you know, the beautiful thing about me, like going to New York Comic Con, coming back to New York.

for the first time in like 10 years and coming back to the comic industry in that way.

Not only did I get to meet you guys face to face and all these wonderful new people and see how much the comic industry has changed for the better.

I've kind of, despite how rough Event Horizon's been, it's been a real rush of a book.

Like not in any kind of bad way, but like just with my artwork and everything else and my work style, it's been a lot of hours.

Um, they've been very gracious with, with how the book is looking and how my work is in that book.

they've, they've been very, very gracious about sort of, would love you to do more.

Um, we would love to work with you again on something else.

Um, we just, let's, let's figure out timelines a little better going into the next thing.

So, um, yeah, I think that the coming years are going to be really, really exciting for me personally.

Uh, and, uh, I really can't wait to obviously show what's next, but then also show where that's going and everything beyond that as well.

Mm.

Well, as we run out this conversation, we usually like to ask our guests about what they've been enjoying recently.

So this is kind of your chance, Tristan, to highlight a comic movie, TV series, podcast book, album, whatever you think that our listeners should check out that you recommend.

Okay, so whenever I work, because I've been drawing almost every day, all day for the last six to seven months, I haven't seen a lot of films, unfortunately.

I wish I had time to watch movies.

But I have been listening to a lot of podcasts.

I have to have something going, it's music or something like that going at the same time.

Two podcasts beyond your own obviously that sort of are in regular rotation and a very drastic departure from comics.

So these are both non-comic podcasts.

I've been very diplomatic here.

Two non-comic podcasts that I'd recommend to anyone.

ah One is the Shutcast, which is a group of dudes who just get together every couple of weeks and talk about horror movies.

But they all work in and around the film industry over in Los Angeles.

ah And they're just it's just I've it's it's rare that I laugh out loud as much as I do and consistently at a podcast And it's just it's just four really really good friends just talking about things that they love and it's completely infectious and I love it to death and they're all really insightful about things that they're talking about So if you want a good horror movie podcast Hands down the shot cast is my favorite one out there um The other really great podcast that I've been, I've had going constantly while I've been working is this one called, What Was It Like?

And it's hosted by a now very good friend of mine named Julian Morgans.

He used to be an editor and a journalist for Vice when that was a thing here for the offices here.

And he basically just, He and his team find people who have lived through something extraordinary and ask, what was it like?

And that could be anything from like finding out your dad is a serial killer um to surviving, you know, 9-11 to having sex with 101 men in a day, you know, all kinds of things.

um There you go, right?

um So it's such a uh really greatly varied podcast a lot of really great stories about just people and the world and Julian is an exceptional interviewer and there's a lot of stories in there where people can't continue like they have um you know, it gets pretty emotional on a lot of levels and he handles that really, really well.

um So, you know, if anyone's looking for just hearing really, really great stories, um that is 100 % the podcast to seek out.

um But they would be my two things that I'm kind of leaning on the most now.

a big stack of books that I wish I could sit down and read.

But once event horizon's done, I'll be able to kind of catch up on.

movies and things and I got a ton of records that I bought while was in New York that I need to start really kind of paying proper attention to.

All I'm doing at the moment is just fitting Soundgarden because it's what I'm comfortable with.

But yeah, I'm looking forward to consuming new media and really kind of dig it into things properly.

If I were to tell you what I have been reading and really enjoying it would probably tip my hand too much as to what the next thing is.

So maybe if I speak to you again when that one's done and I can sort of talk about that a little more.

for now, those two podcasts are absolutely things I think everyone should be checking out.

Yeah, those are great.

love both those recommendations.

As someone who listens to way too many podcasts, I will tell you that I'm definitely going be adding both of those to my list because I love the idea behind both of those.

Big horror fan.

And also I love, I think...

uh I'm just I feel like I'm a decently inquisitive person who loves to hear the perspective of folks that have gone through as you said, very wild and crazy things.

So both of those are very interesting.

And there's also someone who has recently started collecting vinyls.

uh If you ever get your hands on an original pressing of the Boogie Night soundtrack, Tristan, I really need you to be my my key in on that one because I cannot find it.

If I spot it, I'll let you know.

Okay.

yeah, that's the problem with...

Actually, it's not a bad thing.

There's so many repressings now of things where original pressings are becoming less and less important and people just want the one with the pretty colors or the hardest one to get.

you keep an ear to...

I'll keep my ear to the ground.

If I spot anything, I'll let you know.

And it doesn't even have to be a real pressing.

Like I think the Boogie Night soundtrack only has two pressings and both of them are insanely expensive or I get not insanely expensive, but they're out of my price range.

I think like the second pressing, which is the least expensive one is like one eighty dollars.

And I just I'm not quite there to get that.

will check through, because most of it, I took a lot of my inventory down and put it in storage while I was doing the comic thing, my partner and I have been rebuilding the website.

I have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inventory that I need to go through.

So I am, I don't want to get your hopes up, but I'm fairly certain I've got a boogie nights in there somewhere, because I would have grabbed that years ago when I was setting things up.

and being like, yeah, of course, it's a great soundtrack.

Why would you not have that as a guy that sells soundtracks?

Right.

Exclusively.

So if I have it, I'll let you know.

Yeah, thank you so much.

appreciate that.

It's like a big Mondo guy too.

Like I recently picked up the Halloween Mondo vinyl ah I just picked up the Nightmare Before Christmas Vinyl as well and then this isn't Mondo but what I'm really proud of is I picked up the Final Fantasy 9 soundtrack that they read it was all limited pressing that I just picked up.

um are expensive.

I'll have to look at it when we get off this this call because and I'll show you what it is because I'm it's cool Like it's just it's just the soundtrack.

I don't I don't know what the picture does.

is honestly, but um If you ever want to like that I set the whole business up as it completely is the thing because most of those records behind me is soundtracks like most of my collection is soundtracks so the whole thing about what I was going to do with my business was it would be books and soundtracks and which would be like video games television films as something.

We just it to you.

We ask you if you got it.

because Okay, cool.

Yeah, if I don't have it, then I can at least point you in the right direction.

Yeah.

I finally picked up an original Shogun Assassin, because I do soundtracks also.

Shogun Assassin pressing.

uh So good.

That's one of my favorite, I say movies, but also movie series, like show.

It's a mix.

Like the manga as well.

So like I'm a huge Shogun Assassin lone wolf and cub since I was a kid.

But I finally found an original of that and it's in beautiful condition.

I'm so jealous.

That's rad.

I love that.

Well, know, Tristan, as we said earlier, mean, gosh, what an absolute honor it was to get you here on the show to talk about, know, not only your, I, again, I said at the beginning of the conversation that the event horizon was going to be like the main pillar of the conversation.

And I feel like sort of like your career arc sort of accidentally became the main player, which is honestly better.

Like we clearly love the horizon and we, love both your work, Christian's work, PIP's work.

Like everybody is great on it.

I'm sorry, I apologize.

Yeah, we didn't get to talk about PIP Martin.

It's just crushed it.

No, like she's like she's a newcomer to the industry, right?

and I'm not used to that kind of like I either draw black and white and Like I you know, that's the mirage eighties comic book kid in me ah But I'm used to guys who really kind of going on the render um Pips color star was just it's out of this world and seeing what she does with event horizon has just been like It's so rad seeing her interpretation of what I do visually.

I can't give her notes.

I'm just like, this is so sick.

I can't give you notes because what you're doing is just such your own thing that I have nothing to say.

It looks rad.

And it's clearly resonating with everyone else too, which is exactly what we want to have happening.

Totally.

It seems like every time we've talked to Christian about Event Horizon, which I think has been twice here on the show, he has also been very quick to not only compliment you, but also Pip as well, because as you said, sort of a newcomer and You wouldn't know that honestly, you'd have no idea had you know, someone hadn't said it here on the show or what have you.

So, um you know, as I said, what a pleasure that fourth issue of Event Horizon comes out on Christmas Eve on December 24th.

So this episode should be releasing this episode should be releasing the week that that issue releases.

And, you know, I'm not just saying this again, Tristan, because we've met in person, but also because we've had you on the show any time you want to come back on the show to talk about either a project.

Or I feel like we have already gone almost 90 minutes here on the show.

I feel like we could just talk about physical media and vinyl and movies and horror and all the other things.

You know, we could just sit here and talk about that all night.

You know, if we could.

If you ever want to do that, just absolutely hit me up.

Yeah, absolutely.

So we have two things here.

would say uh our Halloween horror special, we do uh every October, we highlight like a uh kind of either a fan voted or voted between us, like a uh Halloween horror gore, like a schlocky horror film.

uh And then also, since you are, I'm.

I'm just gonna say, because I see the Neon Genesis record behind you.

I'm gonna say you're an anime fan also.

I'm just gonna assume and say I appreciate that.

We also do a midnight rewind every so often where we don't review but we celebrate an anime film and we haven't done one in a while.

it might be a good idea to get you on for one of those as well.

host, so in May I do a month of repertory anime screenings at the cinema.

Next year's one's gonna be insane.

So yeah, I'm always down to talk about that sort of stuff as well.

Thank you.

sensing a trip to Australia Chris to where we can be guests on this at this.

You know, we didn't talk about it we don't have to talk about it.

But part of the reason why we have the Oblivion Bar was because my love of the Weekly Planet and they're from Melbourne too.

My love of the Weekly Planet is that's why we have the Oblivion Bar.

It's a couple different things.

It's like off panel and comic pop.

You talked to Sal over at New York Comic Con.

are a couple people who grew up listening to.

The Weekly Planet, would argue is like this central pillar of the reason why the Oblivion Bar exists today.

So if nothing else, you can come out and visit you in Melbourne and you know, uh maybe you get to meet Mason and Mr.

Sunday movies or stuff.

I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah far out.

I'm gonna have to go back and revisit all of that now.

That's a god I haven't thought about the weird planet like ages Small world.

Tristan, before we let you go, um is there anything that we missed?

uh How can the people listening to this conversation follow you and your career?

ah What have you?

We'll pass it to you one last time.

Look, if people just, you can find me pretty much anywhere.

It's just Tristan's Bones at pretty much anything.

Instagram is probably your best bet because obviously I'm a visual guy.

It's a visual medium.

You know, my Twitter account is still up and everything feeds through to that.

I'm on Blue Sky and it's all just linked through.

Just go through the Instagram, it's all linked to everything else.

If you're on one of the other platforms, you can follow me there.

ah But it's just Tristan's Underscore Bones.

And that's where you'll find me.

Easy.

Nice.

Well, once again, Tristan, what a pleasure.

Cannot wait to get you back on the show.

But until then, take care and we'll talk to you very soon.

Thank you so much guys, it's been an absolute pleasure.