S9 EP 10: 2 Vatos Peter Murrieta & Professor Latin X

[00:00:00] What's the name of the Primos, Primas, and Primas? Welcome to My Primos, My Primos, My Primo Podcast. Welcome to the My Primos Podcast. My name is Freddy. My name is Kevin Garcia. My name is Elia Maria Matiz. My name is John Abina. This is Chikumi. Whenever I can make it. My Primos Podcast discusses all things fandom and pop culture. From comic books, movies, to whatever obsession we have this week. But with a Latine, Latine, Latine perspective. Remember, we're all Primos. We're all Primas. Primas. Primos. No matter what the world is.

[00:00:30] Part of the world we're from. Welcome to My Primos Podcast. Currently, minus our fearless leader, Freddy, but with our most successful comic creator in the group so far, though, so far, John Abina. Johnny, say hello to the gang. Hello, gang. How are you?

[00:00:56] Oh, man. It's good to have you back, man. You know, I say most successful because you've done so many comics, but I mean, we've got Elia Maria right now who's got her Kickstarter just going through the roof. Yes. So, and then I know Freddy's got some stuff he's working on, too. So, you know, comics are in the blood. We do it. Yeah. So, Johnny, comics aside, what other projects you got going on right now?

[00:01:18] We are wrapping up production on a new travel show that I'm pretty excited about. So I'll have details for you guys soon. But that's really exciting. And then I do have like a book I'm working on right now. So that's, it's like a Stephen King, like horror story thing. But I'm really excited for it. So.

[00:01:35] One thing I always say is every time I ask you anything, I learn more of Enio lore. There's like more coming out. But we are just a couple of vatos here. But we've got two supremely qualified vatos here to talk to us about pop culture and all of that stuff. So welcoming back to the show, Professor Latinx, Frederick Aldama. Freddy. Fethi, sorry.

[00:01:57] Welcome back. I feel like, I know we've had you on a couple of times, but every time I have you on the show, I keep thinking about when I was ranting about Wakanda forever for a while. But, but I, as your award winning Professor Latinx, welcome back to the show. We're obviously gonna talk to you about your new book, but what all you got going on right now? Because I know you always have a bunch of fires burning. Well, just out of the gate, I want to celebrate Peter's drop, which is about to happen at New York Comic Con, right?

[00:02:21] Where I'm gonna be next week. So that's pretty cool. If you're not going, Peter, I can go and like double celebrate for you. If you let me know. You, you should go. I've put in the mail my signature fake goatee that you can just put on and then turn that hat around and get up there and say you're me. I'm ready. And let's go. Oh yeah.

[00:02:45] And of course that other voice leading into it with our, our big guest, Peter Murrieta, you know, creator of creator and writer for many TV shows, you know, greetings from Tucson, Wizards of Waverly Place, which, you know, when I saw it on, I was like, okay, cool. Another kid's show. But then they would have like actually showing bits of like Latino heritage there. And I really, really love that. But, but Peter, I asked Professor Latinx what's going on. And he said, you've got something new coming out. What is, what is dropping soon?

[00:03:12] You know, in a strange confluence of events that the universe has handed me, this book that I wrote with Professor Latinx is dropping two weeks before my Raphael Garcia Henchman graphic novel collection from Titan drops. And then also we're announcing at New York Comic Con what he brought up. My, my new book for ignition press is going to be announced. It's coming out a couple of months after that.

[00:03:43] It makes it seem like I'm working a lot, but. That's the thing. True or not, you have to give that perception. So everybody believes it. Well, okay. So that book that's coming out soon is exactly what we're talking about. Two Vatos. We have both of you here, Professor. How did, how did this come out? So this is a book, this is the book that is the two of you guys talking about Latinos and pop culture, which I can see now right in front of us. So cool.

[00:04:09] How, how did this pop culture talk come to be? Like, it feels like it would have just been like a podcast, but you got a whole book out of it. That is. It is. It was a podcast. No, no, I know. I know. But I mean, like, it feels like it's something that would stay there and it went beyond. So that's what I'm saying. How did it become a book?

[00:04:23] Basically, when Peter and I were doing our podcast, it was not just like jumping on and recording. We like assigned ourselves tasks and homework for a couple of weeks. We watched a bunch of shows. We thought about them deeply. We took notes. And then we jumped on our mighty Peter Professor Latinx podcast. So by the end of all that, all that material, I mean, we're talking COVID meeting, like what, every two, three weeks, something like that. Yeah. And then something like that.

[00:04:51] A lot of that was deep, like breakthrough stuff. We would leave those, those recordings like, oh my God, I like the man never thought about Pedro Pascal this way or whatever. Right. And so we kind of talked about, well, this needs to be a book. It's just one of those things where it took a while for our schedules to align and for us to have the time.

[00:05:12] The biggest challenge I'll just say out of the gate is, like you said, Kevin, you know, taking the podcast material, distilling it, reconstructing it and in a we voice, a collective voice. But at the same time where we can both, where we both break away at moments to remind our readers that like I'm an academic and a creative and Peter is a creative. And also, by the way, the director of the Sydney Poitier Film School. So, or this is deputy director.

[00:05:42] Deputy director. Yeah. So anyway, just wanted to say, like maybe the biggest work was actually trying to figure out how to turn all this, these, what we thought of as like little gold. And I'll get into something that you and Johnny and others could come to and get something out. It was funny is when you said we, my first gut reaction was, oh, the royal we. And then I was like, no, this is still accurate because you guys are both Latino pop culture royalty.

[00:06:09] So like, yeah, the royal we applies to the we of you, too. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. I accept. I accept. Kevin, you get the A in the class and we're not even close to midterms and you've already got the A in the class. Thank you. Well, I'm getting close to the midterms for my class. There's that. But so Johnny and I got to see a little bit of a preview of the book. And I think I was expecting it to be like some of the other academic books where there's like separate writers for different little papers.

[00:06:39] But this is the two of you together on the different topics kind of flowing back and forth. I kind of wanted to test based on some of that. I know a chunk of it was about superheroes, for example. And I know where my mind always goes first. And I wanted to ask you guys, you know what? Pop culture is a lot of things. And obviously, we a lot of us think about how Latino culture is shown and represented in pop culture. But what brought you to these specific topics like, you know, superheroes?

[00:07:06] You know, we didn't have a we didn't have a Blue Beetle movie when the pandemic was happening. I don't think not yet. No. And I mean, I think we did technically have a Ghost Rider on the Shield TV show, but, you know, briefly. And then we had a friend of mine. I mean, I don't want to tip into the world where we shouldn't.

[00:07:25] But a real close friend of mine who was a student, studied improv with me and has been in many, many movies, was, you know, signed to be the Ghost Rider and then was unsigned to be the Ghost Rider. But, you know. Yeah, we still had plenty. We had a lot of stuff going on on platform TV. And, you know, we had Doom Patrol. You know, we had a bunch.

[00:07:50] Remember, we had a bunch that was like going on, which actually, I mean, in a weird way. So superheroes, narco, neo-Western, sci-fi, apocalypse teen shows. Right. So that's kind of. And going back to what Professor said. Part of the flow was we would do our homework. Think about it. Take notes. Get together. Do an episode.

[00:08:17] But as he said, like things would kind of blow our minds that we would discover during the record. And then it would give us our next homework. You know, it would sort of reintegrate and reiterate itself for us. It was a kind of a nice freedom in that way. And you're right. We didn't have Blue Beetle then. And I think we also had an eye on timelessness. Like we are talking about pop culture and we want to talk about what's going on and we want to put it in time and place and context.

[00:08:47] But we also want to make sure that we're able to describe something and talk about something in a way that we're reaching forward and looking back and being present, which is the hardest thing to do. And also as a TV writer, that is what I've just described, the difficulty of writing a pilot. You have to write the now, make sure everybody's got the back. And then what are they looking at in the future in one hour? So that's kind of what our charge was.

[00:09:14] I don't want to get too much into the weeds of that, but that makes me think about how a lot of things are now made for streaming, where they'll put the whole season out at once. And instead of necessarily drawing you into all the details for that one first episode, it's like, we're going to draw this out over like three or four episodes. Then you'll see what we're really about. And I'm like, I like it. But I do kind of miss that whole, you know, water cooler mentality of being able to work. Well, yes. And I think when I, because I've had the pleasure of doing a Netflix show, Dumped Out Once.

[00:09:43] I'm doing, you know, other shows on other streamers, Primo that came out. And here's what I would say, what's interesting. And it's kind of a meme that's made it around. I don't want to take credit for it in the writing world, which is, you know, a network or cable show about, I don't know, a pirate who surfs. It would start off with, hey, how are we going to have this pirate surf every week? It's pretty cool. It's a pirate that surfs.

[00:10:13] But a streaming show, like you said, that would come out like all eight episodes right away. It starts off with, man, I don't know if that pirate's ever going to surf again. And then nine or ten episodes later, he got up and surfed. And in between, you have all this other stuff. And it's just a very different way to tell stories. Have you ever seen the show 9-1-1? Yeah. It's like, yeah, the procedural.

[00:10:40] I remember about two seasons ago, I made the joke to my wife, like, I think from here, all they have left is space. Because the main character, Athena, has driven just about every vehicle under the sun. I was like, she's got to go to space. And then when they did like their promo for it, I was like, there we go. We've made it. Well, I don't know if you've seen the new promo that just came out. But now that they've gone to space, where is the other way to go? Journey to the center of the Earth. Yeah. Dinosaurs.

[00:11:07] But I was going to also say, I think we talked on a podcast that made it into the book. When you talk about that, I do think during the pandemic, we had already had the Fast and Furious where they went to space in a car, I think. Or if not, it came out right after that. And that's wild. It's like once the joke always was for them, like, where else are they going to race? In space? And they did. So you know what? I am welcome to this level of cheese that we have. I think it's great.

[00:11:37] I love that kind of stuff. Well, the big topic, of course, is the idea of, well, representation in the shows, but also behind the scenes, both. You guys were looking at a lot of, I want to say current pop culture, but like, have you seen a progression one way or another in terms of like, does it get better? Does it get worse? Does it fluctuate? Well, I want you to answer first. Yeah.

[00:12:05] I mean, that's one of the posts that I did recently on social media was, you know, basically, has it stalled? And some of the responses were, I thought, really insightful. One response was, yes, and it's pretty deliberate. Like, it's hard not to think of it that way. And I know that Peter has better insight because he's on that side of the table all the time. But yeah, I mean, it's weird.

[00:12:34] Like, there was a moment when I think all of us were feeling pretty excited about, even if it was like bad stuff, but like, even like, you know, Doom Patrol. We had Diana Guerrero, right? And it's like castings all over the place in places we didn't expect. And, you know, yeah, we had the Salamanca brother problem in Breaking Bad. But then we got some really interesting stuff with the Mayans MC.

[00:13:02] And we got like Queen of the South, which was doing all sorts of really interesting stuff, too. So, and then the Westworld, that was just like insane, right? This high production story world building where we were, Latinos were integrated, pivotal hinges in like plot turns and world crushing events, right?

[00:13:26] So, yeah, there was a moment I think we can all say, wow, we were like, yeah, there's some bad stuff. But we were talking about it like we took it for granted. And now there's no. No. And I would say historically, as the creator who's done a lot of different things, this is reminiscent of another time.

[00:13:49] Because this was also during the streaming wars, which is what everybody talks about, where every company had a streaming service trying to compete to be Netflix. And so there was this plethora of opportunity. There was a similar time like that when you had the WB and UPN and the other four networks. You had six networks on in the late 90s, early 2000s. And that also gave rise to lots of different variety for exactly this community.

[00:14:16] And you look back on that era and that's like, you know, it goes beyond just the weblets and other things. There was Ugly Betty, George Lopez, Greetings from Tucson, Resurrection Boulevard. Jackie Getter, first time out. Like all that was happening in a relatively short span of time. And like you said, whether it's good or bad, it was a lot. And so I think we're back into a contracted, not taking any chances, going very slowly forward on all fronts.

[00:14:46] You know, you see the pickups are spinoffs, the fourth spinoff of Big Bang Theory. They're things that they think are, hey, we know how this works. We know how to get that audience. And I guess I would say this to wrap that piece up. Like one of my dad's favorite shows was The Rockford Files. And my dad loved that show. We watched it and I didn't quite get it. I was a little too young.

[00:15:12] But he loved it because that guy was a detective and he got beat up all the time and he quit cases. He lived in a crappy trailer, but it was a great view of the beach. And, you know, I grew up kind of thinking about it. And then there's a new Rockford Files on coming on soon and stars Angel, David Boreanaz. And I read the script and it seems great, you know.

[00:15:38] But in my mind, what that inspired me to do, and I don't know what will happen with it. I don't usually write on spec, but I wrote a show for myself called East of Virgil that I give to my agents. That's all about L.A. East of Virgil Avenue, which is kind of a part of East Hollywood and beyond downtown Boyle Heights, all of it. About a guy who used to be a bail bondsman.

[00:16:03] And now L.A.'s a no bail zone because of class and race problems. And he's got to figure it out. And it was a love letter to Rockford Files for me. So I've got two characters, original characters, brother and sister. And, you know, we'll see where it goes. But in years past, we would have had, based on things I've done and not done, like a lot of people wanted to talk about it. But now it just sits there and we hope. I mean, to be blunt, you said, you know, it feels almost deliberate.

[00:16:32] And it's like a lot of companies and sometimes, sometimes explicitly, sometimes just implicitly seem to be avoiding putting not just Latino, but just POC, LGBT leads. You know, whether it's like, you know, what goes on with HBO to being, you know, more direct with or not more indirect rather with. I don't know what's happening with Blade movie and that kind of stuff at Marvel. But regardless, that's the point of these conversations. That's why we talk about these things.

[00:16:59] And there's a deep, there's a deep irony that is so visible, even more visible today. Right. Which is that bad, the bad bunny Super Bowl performance. Yeah, exactly. Yep. So we know, we know that the numbers are, are out there in extreme for wanting and for viewing. We've known, we know it like that, you know, we kept the movie industry alive.

[00:17:26] Latinos literally during the pandemic, because we were still like going out with our families. We're a huge, huge purchasing power in this country, right? Trillions of dollars. And so, yeah, I think we can say it's deliberate. You know, something I want to ask you, if I could, both you guys. So, you know, we talked, I'd mentioned already like, like, well, I kind of hinted at the idea of like black films, black creators. And there's a lot of times a push within the community.

[00:17:56] LGBT, the same thing. Obviously, there's that growing push for Latinos. But I've recently been trying to research comics from the 40s looking for Latino creators. And it's been really hard because while there's been early on attempts to have like, well, here's black representation. We're going to try to do it. A lot of the Latino community didn't seem to, that didn't seem to be a priority of like, hey, we need visibility. It was just like, we're just here somewhere.

[00:18:21] And do you think that, hey, is that just anecdotal perception of mine accurate in that there was less of a push from within the community as opposed to say other groups looking for representation? And is there a bigger push now from within the community asking for, we want to be out there? In the comic world? I'm going to start. Yeah, I'm going to start with that. And hopefully my more smart colleague will fill in my gaps.

[00:18:50] But I would say what you said prompted me to think of a few things. And they're not, I'm not saying yay or nay to them. They're just things. I'm not trying to be positive or negative about it. But for instance, for many years, I thought Horatio Sands and myself were maybe two of the first Latino people to be at the Second City. I really thought that.

[00:19:18] I've recently been interviewed for a documentary. And there's something going on that, you know, I can't talk about yet, but it's a Latino comedy documentary. And through it and through the researchers, one of them said, hey, do you know Paul Sand? And I was like, Paul Sand? He was like in the original Compass Players. And I mean, he's a legend. Is he still alive? And they go, yeah, he's in his 90s. He's a playwright. He's still acting. And I said, cool. And they go, do you know that he's Latino? And I was like, what?

[00:19:47] And they said, yeah, he changed his name to have an acting career. So did he do that under duress? Or did he do it under shame? Or did he do it? Because just like Danny and just like Emilio, you got to pay the bills and you want to play a bad guy. I'm going to play a bad guy. Or if Paul Sand needs to play Paul Sand, I'm going to do that. And so transferring that to comics in my childhood, I mean, I didn't think about, I loved New Teen Titans.

[00:20:16] I didn't think about George Perez as, oh my gosh, as representation. He's just George Perez. I didn't really even think about it. And you just bought it and you went. And then as you become aware of the cultures and the competing landscapes, you start to gravitate, is my feeling. I want to give you a couple of really quick examples from the 40s area.

[00:20:40] The most prominent, one of the most prominent cover artists of that time period, especially at Marvel, was Alejandro Schoenberg y Rosas. But his full name was Alejandro Schoenberg y Rosas. And then one of the most prominent inkers all the way up from the late 40s all the way to the 80s. I think he was still doing some stuff in the early 2000s before he passed away. Was Alfonso Williamson. Alfonso Williamson. I had no idea for either of these two, you know?

[00:21:06] So something cool that I noticed when I was reading your book was, sorry. When I started doing comics and stuff, I always wrote things that I thought my uncles would like. Because there was nothing that they told me about that was Latino from their childhood. And they lived in Mexico, came here, but there was nothing really nerdy that they were into. But growing up, I thought Speed Racer was Mexican because of how much they loved him and how they kind of pivoted to that.

[00:21:31] But one of the original people that brought Speed Racer here was a Latino, one of the creators for it in the U.S. So your book is something that as soon as it comes out, I'm going to be giving to my family. Because I'm going to be like, everything you guys ever thought about or were looking for is in here. And speaking about your improv, I am an IO graduate from here in Chicago. But I did stand-up at Second City. So I have that same background.

[00:21:58] But the notes you kind of got, depending on the instructor, were like, hey, can you do a voice? And right away, I'm just like, yeah. Yeah, I got in my back pocket. But I didn't want to, but I can do it. I was at IO before I was at Second City. I used to take with Dell. I was one of the last people that took with Dell. And fantastic. And what was so great was there's nobody else in the building, so nobody told me to do a voice.

[00:22:27] It's just me doing my thing. And that was the end of it. But, you know, we just had a meeting today about how come this character in this one project, we keep getting questions like, well, where are they from? And you're like, I don't know. They're a social influencer. They're the second lead. It's a female. She's got a million followers on Instagram. It's a character I'm making.

[00:22:51] And she shows up and they're like, well, is where her parents from? And, you know, they're not saying the word. They're trying to lead you to water, you know. And we actually wrote an episode in Primo, one of the early episodes where he's talking about my college counselor wants me to write an essay. And his friend is like, what do you mean? And he goes, essay for college. And he goes, he keeps asking me stuff like, you know, how are things at home? And your mom's a single mom.

[00:23:21] And I keep saying, like, she's a single mom, but I got five uncles that are there all the time. Like, it's great. And his friend, who's not in the, you know, college class, goes, oh, man, they want you to write trauma porn. And he goes, what? And he goes, yeah, they're looking for, like, stuff that's going to make people feel bad for you. And then to go, my gosh, this kid's smart. Let's get him where he's going. And they all talk about, well, how do you know about this?

[00:23:48] And he goes, oh, I was looking up regular porn and I stumbled into this. And so, like, you know, we're pushing it out there as, like, people, come on. You know, you didn't ask. The thing I said in the meeting today is I go, nobody asked, like, Michael Scott, where did he come from? He just has arrived. He's a bad boss. And that's, he's got qualities and characteristics. But we didn't need to know where it came from. Well, Professor, I want to run back to you then.

[00:24:15] Do you feel like that there's been that call for representation? Or has that increased? Was it not there before? What do you think? I think it's really important, Kevin, and I know you're doing this in your work, but we have to historicize to really understand what's going on. So, you know, we need to know that there was pre-civil rights. There was post-civil rights. There was demographic, massive demographic shifts, right? Pre-civil rights, post-civil rights.

[00:24:43] And with demographic shifts, not only are we going to get more Latinx, Latine creatives finally going through pipelines, access to education, access to whatever those resources are in education to be able to be in positions like me and Peter. But we are now with a grown, sizable demographic shift. We can write to our audiences.

[00:25:12] We can, at least in theory and in practice in some cases, write and create with an ideal audience that is not the universal audience, which is code for white middle class monolingual suburban. We can write for the complex diversity of the Latino demographic. So people, you know, that's a big shift.

[00:25:38] We're talking historical, social, demographic, you know, civil, post-civil rights. It means that we start having people like Peter and others who are demanding narrative agency versus presence. It's not just good enough for us now to make our money to pay the bills as the Latino writer or inker. We actually are demanding narrative presence.

[00:26:07] That's awesome. And the perfect, perfect narrative presence. You also gave me narrative plenitude many years ago. Narrative presence is great. And I would say to that end, you know, when we did Primo and it was based on Shea's life. And we're talking about it at the beginning of the writing room. Somebody said innocently, how much Spanish does the family speak?

[00:26:35] And Shea said, not a lick, not a lick of Spanish. And they said, well, like a little bit. And he was like, no, because my family's been in Texas for a long time and they're Texan and that's who they are. And they're going to do it this way. And that's what I believe, among other things, includes presence. You know, and we didn't we didn't write things that were specific or reach back for exposition to help everybody.

[00:27:05] We just wrote that show. And the fact that we chose English wasn't about just any sort of capitulation other than like this was this specific family. And I think it really helped me in ways that I had not kind of thought about it. I wrote a pilot for NBC during the second season writing staff of Primo.

[00:27:26] And I remember just as an experiment, I went back before I turned it in and I found anywhere that I had a character come in and it said, you know, Mexican-American or Mexican. And I just took it out. And then I went and I took all the characters and there weren't many that were like Sheriff John. And I was like, Sheriff John, a white guy. So the only people I called out in the script were, you know, that person is a white guy.

[00:27:56] She's a white lady. Everyone else was just like, Joaquin Enners, Tres Cedos is here. And like, I didn't hear anything from anybody. Like, I just did it. And it wasn't like a big moment. It was just like, yeah, we're here. We're going to do this this way. And it was awesome. I wish they made it, but it was awesome. I got notes back. So me and my writing partner, we submitted a pilot based on a comic that I wrote to like the Austin Film Festival.

[00:28:22] And part of it was if you reach like a certain tier, they'll give you notes and they'll fly you out. Jake's going on my behalf. But when me and Jake were writing it, I wrote Americana for the main character is a Mexican boy named Chewy. But he doesn't speak Spanish. It's just his name is Chewy because my uncle's name is Chewy. And I just wrote it about him. And the only person that he could speak Spanish to is dead. And it's like the ghost of his mom that's haunting him throughout the story. So he doesn't speak any Spanish.

[00:28:50] And the notes I kept getting back from Jake and like the readers he would send it out to were just like, you know, there's a real emphasis on like the house and like all these Latin things like the beat him and all these other stuff that you talk about. But he's not talking in Spanish. Is that deliberate for some reason? And I was like, when I'm at home, my wife is here and we only speak to each other in English. But like when I go to my dad's house, my dad only speaks Spanish. That's when I speak in Spanish. And I work at a torteria. So like there I'll speak a lot of Spanish.

[00:29:19] But the moment I walk out or to the delivery guy, it's English. We speak whatever we're comfortable in. I was like, and so does this boy because that's life. And that was the note we got back was just like, is this for like a more like what audience would you feel would most understand the representation? I was like, all right. I know where that's going to go. And we've talked about this, Professor and I have talked about this.

[00:29:40] You know, when you look at Italian-Americans, they are not judged on whether they are really Italian-Americans or not. But the fact that they speak Italian, it never even comes up. And so, you know, this is just another litmus test that that they give us that's ridiculous. And I love when I go, when I've been happy enough to be a guest at the festival, the Pop Lab.

[00:30:09] Is it Pop Lab, the festival you put up? I want to get the right name. The BIPOC. Yeah, BIPOC. And, you know, when you sit in there and you have lunch, when you go to, you know, the writing room of my writing rooms, you get to see people that are really more comfortable with English than Spanish and all kinds of folks. And you know what? It's all great.

[00:30:34] And I remember as a wound, like a deep wound in my life, to be real, I got in college in the 80s and I got invited to go to a Latino organization, La Mecha. And I went to the sign-up table at Knives, freshman, nervous freshman. It was the 80s. I had a knit tie. I remember I had a knit tie, square knit tie. Remember those?

[00:30:58] And these two people signing me in made fun of me because I didn't speak fluent Spanish. So I left. So it was interesting. I left. I never went back. And then, you know, some 20, 30 years later, I have a child, Joaquin Marietta, and he goes to school in Ohio. And he goes, hey, guess what? I went to La Mecha and it was awesome. And I go, really? And he goes, yeah.

[00:31:24] And there's been a change in our community of how you get judged. And now that's just like an extra tale that they give us from years past. You know, it was funny. I was thinking about, as you guys were talking, I'm realizing that there's more Spanish at home right now with my fiancee, who is not Latina, than there ever was growing up with the Garcia family on the border.

[00:31:49] And one thing I've talked about on this podcast before is that, you know, growing up on the border, I was always treated as an outsider. I mean, very white looking, all that kind of stuff. I don't know. And the language issue, obviously. But then when I moved to Austin, suddenly I was able to connect with Latino community here. And I suddenly felt like I had community and it really felt like I belonged. Yeah.

[00:32:14] Like you just described my child, Joaquin, who's a baseball coach for the Pirates. And his college essay, Kevin, was, hey, I play on this elite travel team in West Covina where I'm the least Mexican kid on the team. But I go to high school in Maravista on the west side of L.A. And I'm the most exotic person on the team. Like that's my day.

[00:32:42] My day starts there with practice and it ends there with practice. And that is my life, you know. And I think that's also a reason I believe it's our secret superpower. Rather than a wound anymore, I think our secret superpower is you can put us anywhere, man. And we will survive and we will thrive and just just try us, dare us. When when I. What's going on with ice and when I see all that stuff going on, I think to myself, oh, you've been trying to kick us out.

[00:33:10] For the whole time we've ever existed, we're still here. Guess what? We've got it. We'll deal with it. We'll deal with you. We're all right. I wrote. I wrote a book called American Juan, and it's like a Don Quixote thing about a guy who's seeing the world, but it's through immigration's lens. So like the cover, it's all about ice, but it's through that. And somebody asked me once, they're like, are you Latino enough to write it? And I just kind of laughed because I was like, I guess I was like, I don't know what the bar is. I was like, but a Mexican.

[00:33:40] I was like, my family has a torteria. I was like, but mom was a mariachi singer. She opened for like Vicente in the 90s. I was like, it's going to be right here every time. Yeah. And you know what you shouldn't do? You should never have to tell them anything. You should never have to tell them any of that. And like, you know, I would say what we should do right now with this podcast and this four of us. And then Freddie, who's not here, we'll make a five. We should call ourselves something like the official federation. And if anybody ever asks anybody, oh yeah, the official federation gave me a stamp.

[00:34:10] I can show it to you if you want. There you go. Make them go, wait a minute, wait a minute. There's a federation. You know, oh yeah, yeah. We're official. We said it right here. We heard it. Professor, the book actually addresses this a bit as well, where you talk about that permission to be able to have language without justifying it or without translating it, or in this case, without having to include it to justify it.

[00:34:33] How, like from the broader academic lens that you look through, how important is that language permission, I guess? Yeah, I mean, we talk about it in the book and it comes out of our podcast, but languages has been, there's a couple of things of ways that I want to answer that, but English, standard English and Spanish and then code switching. Yeah.

[00:34:58] Spanish and code switching are the, either the, the language of violence, literally like in the narco stuff, right? Yep. They're the, they're the language of violence, whereas the English has been codified as the language of civility or where we need to get to. We're talking about in pop culture. Yeah. In pop culture in general. And so then, so it is a very charged area.

[00:35:28] So the, what we're talking about now in terms of this kind of narrative sovereignty, narrative presence is, you know, we are going to write our characters and dialogues in the way that we see it mirrored. We're going to invite you into that space, but you are not, you, the mainstream aren't necessarily our ideal first audience. And we're not going to apologize about how like Johnny's characters speak, right? The language that they speak.

[00:35:57] Because if we, if we can one way or the other, if we follow the formula that's being asked of us, which is, well, why isn't there Spanish? They're Latino. Then what we're doing is we're following a formula that's actually entrenched in a very like deeper ideological, right? Splits that have happened. The other thing I want to say is that going back to the comment that was made about needing to have some kind of Brown suffering.

[00:36:25] And we also talk about that with the white regenerative narrative concept, but that it's not for nothing that, that the writers insist that we need. It's not just trauma porn. It's the Brown suffering because it's in and through Brown suffering that the white character, protagonist or not, can be reborn.

[00:36:49] That can go through some kind of existential crisis and then come to themselves in a new way. And so these are the kinds of things that whether it's through language or tied to the Brown suffering, right? Or Brown, the language tied to Brown violence by insisting on narrative sovereignty in the way that Peter does in the writing of his shows, in the way that we all do in this space,

[00:37:16] in the making of our comics and other stories, then we are pushing hard against those deep embedded ideological structures. And until we can actually change those structures, we'll continue to have to assert our narrative sovereignty. That's a great narrative. Can I just come on that? One thing I just want to say, this book that's going to get announced in New York,

[00:37:42] I don't want to say what it's about, but what can announce it here? I know. I know. I can't announce it on my sub stack. I keep dancing around it every week. Nope. But I get how that works. But what you just said is so right on because in my conversations with people who love this book idea that I work with, that want this thing to succeed, you know, but what's good is I'm the boss.

[00:38:09] So they say to me, like, do you want to put a phrase on the front by the logo? And, you know, maybe you could put some, you know, and they throw out a couple of ideas. And then I go, and this is a little bit of a tease to the book. I go, oh, well, see, this book is in a world where the Spanish never won. So if there's a phrase, it's going to be Nahuatl. And that's going to be trouble.

[00:38:36] So we're good and we can do it, you know. And I also have a device that I did that I hope makes it all the way through is when you plug for number 1000. When you open the book, my book, inside is going to be something that says you have in your hands a piece of Aztec technology. As soon as you start holding it, it will be in the language that is easiest for you.

[00:39:06] And it's just a cheat. But it lets you say this is this and this is where it comes from. And that's by design. So that's how we're dealing with language. I have a similar cheat for a book I'm working on right now that kind of came from a conversation I had online years ago. And I always bring it up a lot because it's kind of stuck with me. We're talking about Mesoamerica and I'm talking in English, chatting with somebody online. The guy's chatting with me in Spanish. And we're going back and forth. And then eventually he says, why are you talking in English?

[00:39:36] We're talking about Mexican history. And I said, we're talking about people who didn't speak Spanish or English. Do you really want to change one colonizer language for another? You know, and I've just stuck with that. All right. Well, look, we've been here a long time. I know that we're all around the States, I guess, right now. But in a bit, I think Johnny Vigna and I are going to talk a little bit more about Pop Cultura ourselves. But I want to thank you both for coming. When is this book coming out? The Tu Vatos.

[00:40:02] It's the sixth is the official drop date, but you could go on and buy it now. And buy it now. All right. So that means this is probably going to air right after it comes out. I'm imagining so. So in that case, it is already out. Go get it now at bookstories everywhere. Yes. Already out. Tell them to order it. All right. And by the way, by the way, it is gorgeous. Miguel Hernandez, the comic book illustrator that I work with, did this awesome cover.

[00:40:29] And my nephew did all of the like insanely awesome color, like reproductions, reprints in it. So, and there are a lot of them. I was also lucky that I used some of my research funds to subvent. And so I think this book, Peter, I think it's like 20 bucks or something. It's like, it is great. It's a real great buy.

[00:40:54] And I got some copies that I'm going to be giving away at Golden Apple Comics in LA. And we want this to get out. We want to get it out and get it wide. And I'm very happy about it and very proud of it. Yeah. You know, I know that Miguel guy, he's working on a comic book written by me called Night Axe and Golden Girl about a couple Latino Texans that are kind of distant from their own ancestry, learning more about their culture. So that's.

[00:41:23] And somehow I think Kevin, he, you may have met at BIPOC Pop. Yes, that's correct. By the way, by the way, BIPOC Pop, Jay Gonzo and I met there and Jay's doing a cover for my ignition book. So like, you know, it's happening and it's all good. It's all good. All right. Where can people find you guys online? Professor Latinx. I know that I literally before, right before we start recording, I mentioned how I could just type in your name and the search results give me you every time. I wish I could do that.

[00:41:53] Professor Latinx, other than just using a search, how can people find you online? That's it. At Professor Latinx. That's it. And I'm Mighty Peter on all socials. And but I'm a sub stack is where I really am able to communicate with you because I've got other people helping me with the socials. But get on my sub stack. It's movie American. That's pretty easy. The primos love having the latos coming on. Please. Let's make this a habit. But thank you guys both for coming in.

[00:42:23] We're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, me and Johnny are just gonna talk pop. Let's do it. Thank you guys. Thank you. All right. Well, guys. Good night. We're gonna pause it there. Let me do this. But thank you guys both for being here. And it really was a pleasure. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you both. Bye. And I'll see you soon, Peter. All right. I'll see you soon. Bye.

[00:43:44] All right, primos. We are back. That was a really awesome conversation. I was trying really hard not to like nerd out with them too much because I was like, be professional. But like he was mentioning IO and like Second City. And I was like, oh, it's these Chicago staples that I never get to talk about. I didn't know you did stuff with that. Honestly. Oh, yeah. It's like, again, new Avenia lore every time. I'm a big improv junkie. Like I still do it. And I think that's from like my comics.

[00:44:11] When people talk to me at tables, like you're so confident. And I was like, oh, that comes from doing improv for years. Because if you're not at least like, okay, in a conversation that's going to pivot. You're not going to make it an improv. So I was like that IO and that kind of stuff really like grinded me into like the person that could do these. Well, on that note of like becoming part of pop culture and getting involved in acting and stuff. What you watching lately? I've been watching a lot of Lanterns.

[00:44:41] And every time I bring it up with Freddie, he's like, I'm catching up. I'm catching up. But I want to talk Lanterns. Right. How about you, man? Have you seen it? Lanterns has been like, Reacher ended. And I was like, I need something because Reacher is like my guilty pleasure show. Like it's not a bad show, but it's like a guilty pleasure show. But Lanterns, I like Damon Lindonoff. But sometimes I'm just like, this is Damon Lindon. Like because he did Lost. And sometimes you're like. Is this the guy that did Watchmen? Watchmen, Lost. He's gotten. I've never liked Lost.

[00:45:10] I couldn't get into any of it. Not even. And I like Weird. Yeah. But Watchmen, I could not believe how much I loved that because. And I cannot stress this enough. It is a sequel to the comic book. Yeah. Not a sequel to the movie. And I could not believe that when I first saw the squids, I was like, wait, what? I fell in love with him as a writer because he did a one shot Batman thing. Remember when DC was doing like digital first and then they would do like a little print copy after.

[00:45:36] So they did one and he did a one shot and it was Batman coming in cocky. So it's like after like year two of him being Batman and he's telling Alfred, like, I'm untouchable. I've done all this stuff. Like I've arrested everybody. And Alfred's telling Bruce, like, hey, man, be careful because that attitude, it's going to destroy you. And Bruce is just like, bring it on.

[00:46:00] And it's Bruce going out the next night and he follows a boy walking into an alley chasing after his parents because they just got robbed. And the scene plays out. Bruce goes down. He's getting ready to beat the guy. But the guy pulls off his mask and it's the Joker. And this big fight thing. Never, never. Like kind of breaks out and happens. But it is like all the Batman rogues galleries there to like team up on them.

[00:46:25] And it turns out that they're not, they're actors that Alfred hired to teach Bruce a lesson. So like this really cool thing. Well, see, even that by itself, that's literally what goes on with Hal. Yeah. I mean, you got Hal getting way too confident in himself. Wait, I got to backtrack. I mentioned this previously with Freddie, but I'm going to sell it with you too.

[00:46:46] When they first announced this series, I was very upset because when I was a little kid, my favorite superhero before I really got deep into Marvel was Green Lantern. But I quickly realized it wasn't Hal, who was the main Green Lantern at the time, that I was a fan of. It was the idea of the best of every culture and every planet coming together to help out everyone. That's what I loved about it. And over the years, I've come to realize Hal is the worst.

[00:47:16] And I've had people tell me, oh no, it's because of one writer. No, it isn't. Like it isn't. Like it's baked in. Like he was racist to his best friend, calling him a slur every day. One time he had a nightmare, turned his best friend into a bird for a day. That happens. Let's see. When they hired Jon Stewart to be a Green Lantern in the comics, literally Hal tells the Guardian, well, not him and the Guardian, whom I remind you is omniscient and telepathic, says, we don't need your Earth bigotries here.

[00:47:45] When the omniscient telepath tells you you're a bigot, you're a bigot. Right. He lied about having a threesome with two other superheroes. He dated a 12-year-old. I say dated. They lived together for a while because she had a grown-up body. Oh my Lord. There is so much about Hal if you unpack. And it's like, oh, it's not just one writer. And every time they kill him off and then bring him back, I'm like, don't bring him back. Just let him be a statue. So when they announced this, I was like, why is it Hal and Jon? Jon's the best Green Lantern.

[00:48:14] It could be Guy and Jon. That'd be hilarious to have those two together. Good cop. And then I saw the show. And after the first episode, I said, they did what I wanted. They showed Hal the way Hal is. And people have been complaining, but I'm like, that's Hal. This is who he is in the comics. And I think it's like the Jeff Johns reinvention of Hal Jordan was a lot of people's first Hal Jordan. Yeah, which is why they think of him as being perfect. But even since then, he's done horrible stuff. Yeah.

[00:48:42] And that's like his legacy is like the bad guy. And I like the show for it because it's like so unapologetic. Like he's moving regardless if like John is behind him, right? And he doesn't really care about him in a sense. But like he's just moving because he's trying to get this done and trying to move on. And if he has just asked for help, this all could have gotten a lot smoother. 100%.

[00:49:11] Like even when they said you could deputize. Yeah. He is just like, why would I do that? Yep. Yep. Exactly. And then actually I had forgot about that. Yeah. Because then John does that later with the sheriff and says, you could deputize me. And she does. Yeah. You know, talk about you said the bad guy. Guy is a horrible person too. Yeah. But he knows it. Yeah. Hal thinks he's the best person and people keep telling him he's the best person. That's the problem. It's not that you can have a bad character. That's great.

[00:49:39] But it's that he thinks he's good and everyone else does too. It's like, wait. Like John's wife died because Hal was a bad boyfriend. That's literally why John's wife died. And like on this show, seeing Guy show up, he feels like a comic book character. So like all the people that watch the show that are just like, oh, I don't, I don't like the show because they're not doing enough Green Lantern stuff. I was like, like, like they're not making big suits, but they are doing Green Lantern things. And Green Lantern is weird in sci-fi.

[00:50:09] And we're getting so much of that there. But it's just in the same tone that the show shot. And I think is what's throwing people off. I also love, well, obviously there's differences between comics and adaptations all the time. So like the origin of the Manhunters feels very different in the show than it is in the comics. But there's some new lore that when I saw it, I first was like, oh, do they just not understand how it works? The whole bird thing, right? The bird that just stays there.

[00:50:36] And then, and then I told that to, to my, my partner and she's like, why? It's just like, no, no, you don't understand. That does not work for Green Lanterns. I'm guessing in this universe, they're not even worrying about that. But no, literally everybody comments on it later. That shouldn't be possible. And I'm like, see, that's, that's fun. The idea, like they're not explaining it yet. If they ever explained it, even, I just, I love that little bit of just like, there's something there. Yeah. When I can tell you what it is, but we saw it too. And I'm like, damn.

[00:51:03] You notice like in the comics, the limitations for the ring on the battery thing, it's always the same big fight. And you see like hundred, 75, 60, 40. And it goes down. Incremental. Yeah. And on here, whenever they talk about it, I'm in a state of panic. Cause I know how fast my phone dies. So someone, when they tell you like, oh, you're at 10%. I was like, get to the lantern now.

[00:51:28] And just like how cumbersome the lantern really is like in the comic, I feel like they just kind of have it. Right. And, and here it's like, I got to pull it out of a bag. It's a thing that exists and I got to hide it when I'm done. I was like, dad, you got to say the thing. Yeah. And the loaf is long when you're in a hurry. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Literally. Literally. When he said the 5%, my partner's like, so does the hologram not like, look, I'm assuming

[00:51:57] summoning it once is just like the little, and they just going to stay there. We're not going to worry about it. But yeah. All right. Well, anyway, my point is I didn't, I came in here ready to hate, not hate, but really not be interested in the show. I came here ready to not care. And I care. Yeah. It's taking the kinds of swings I was hoping a lot of these DC movies would like Superman. I love it. I really liked that Superman movie. Supergirl kind of missed it for me. I like Supergirl better than Superman.

[00:52:27] Do you? I love Superman. Don't get me wrong. Yeah. I think it's overall a better movie. Okay. But I like the story of Supergirl being more of a cohesive story and the character arc being more of a direct character arc, whereas Superman was just like, this is how he acts. And here's some stuff that happens. He felt like Ted Lasso, like the unbreakable man. Which I'm okay with. That's to be Superman to me. But I wish there was a story arc that didn't involve A, an evil twin, and B, Lex Luthor.

[00:52:54] I would just love there to be a superhero movie that either of those two things shows up. Yeah. The closest we got is Superman 3, and that one had a guy that was basically Lex, except for the name. Yeah. But yeah. So I'm with you. But this show? It was very good. And spoilery stuff, so if you're not caught up, pause it and come back in. Skip ahead a minute should do, probably. Yeah. The funeral speech. Mm-hmm.

[00:53:26] That broke me. A friend sent it to me, and she was like, watch this when you're ready. So I instantly hit play. I was like, I'm ready. I was not ready. But it was so perfect. Especially like the, I'm not fearless, or like, I'm not fearless because I'm cautious or whatever. He's like, I'm fearless because I'm broken. Like that. Yeah. It was like, that's the summary of this version of hell.

[00:53:53] And like, even him asking about his funeral and him being like, did Oa show up? Or what's the name of the planet? Mogo. And he's like, oh, we were standing. We were standing right here, right together. It was so done. It's a fan art show. It showed John at the funeral, putting his hand on like a dog-sized Mogo. Yeah. At the funeral. And I was like, yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, that's what I loved about it. Yeah. You mentioned right now, are you ready for this?

[00:54:22] We talked earlier, you are a funeral director, but it's one thing when it's a job, but it's another thing when it's more personal. I know I had a big loss in my family last year. And how are you doing, man? It's rough. Like early on, I was telling you, I told that story about like the Ramones, the girl that did the interview for us. Yeah. She passed away. Yeah. And I found out through an ad on TikTok or on Instagram.

[00:54:47] So a company, a company shared her photo and it said, we are mourning the loss of PJ, our like former bartender. You might remember her, like all this stuff. And it was a link for her GoFundMe. And I remember seeing it and it didn't click. And I was just like, dude, that's so weird. I got to send this to her. So I screenshotted it and I texted it to her. I was like, PJ, like your old boss is doing something weird. And I kept scrolling and then I saw it again and again.

[00:55:16] And then that's when that funeral director sense kind of kicked in. Yeah. And I sent her a text. I was like, if you see this call. And then I came out of the room and I started talking to Emily about it, my wife. And I was like, my friend PJ's dead. And she was just like, what do you mean? Like you were just talking to her the other day. And I was like, yeah, I was. And this is what I know so far. And then I reached out to like her sister because all these other people were sharing posts. So I was able to track it.

[00:55:43] And I found out that was last Saturday. No, the Saturday before last. So I've been in it now for almost like two weeks. But like in the funeral director me protected me from it and just kept it very clean. Like they got to get a funeral together. I'm going to help. The reason why I was posting so much was people were directing those questions at me because I know how to answer them. I know how early you should get to a funeral. I know what you should bring. I know what the family's expectations are.

[00:56:13] I was answering all those in DMs for the family. So they didn't have to. To the point where the family was then asking me questions. And it happened to be at a funeral home that I had worked for in the past. So I knew way more information for them on like the ins and outs of it. But I never lived in the grief of it. And one of my comfort shows is Ted Lasso because it's a show that deals with grief and loss and life and all that stuff. Yeah. But like she committed suicide.

[00:56:42] And talking about that almost is like bringing up Voldemort where people like, oh, you shouldn't say the how of it. But if you don't. Like my biggest thing was, could I have done more? And like the funeral director will kick in and be like, there's nothing. But the person in me will always dig for. We'll dig a hole for myself basically for that. Yeah. And it's like a plot point in a lot of shows.

[00:57:06] And then in the Green Lantern thing, when Hal talks about his dad and like that curse and that lineage. It's not the first time this has happened to me. And I don't know like how that'll like it. If it happens again, it happens again. You can't prepare. But I think I finally had a breakdown moment the other day where I finally got to grieve out loud because I'm really good at just like internalizing it. And it was to a Scrubs edit for that episode where Dr. Cox loses the patience.

[00:57:36] And like I heard that and it broke me in a way where I was finally comfortable in it. But I feel like everyone around me was too afraid to talk about it. Like they knew her. They knew our relationship. They knew the friendship. But now people are learning like, oh, she was one of the first readers I had on the Ramon book because she knew Richie. So I was like, hey, before I give this to him, can you read it to see if it sounds like him? And she gave me notes and I put her in it. We added her to this wedding band that shows up in the comic.

[00:58:05] So she's not done with me yet. Like I still have her in all these creative projects. And it's lanterns helped me kind of realize like to talk about it, to deal with it, to look at it is better. It's Hal's projection, right? Like John's getting to say all the stuff he wished he could have said. Now he gets to say it to him. And I think by putting myself into the work, I'll get to do that. But it's hard.

[00:58:34] And whenever grief hits you, like you kind of swim towards the people that you know are going through it. And that's why when I found out it was you and me today, I was just like, even if me and Kevin get to have this conversation off camera, I think it'll be good for... Yeah, I was like, because other people can only empathize, but you could really understand it. So I don't really get into it publicly.

[00:59:02] My fiancé and I had a very, very big loss that was over the course of several, several months that I feel like I can't talk about because we live in Texas. And there's that. And you talk about, you know, that breaking you, that there. My adventure was Superman, you know? Just a little cartoon about Superman meeting his future possible kid. And I just started bawling. Yeah. I started crying. Yeah.

[00:59:32] Now, that was a year ago, a year and several months. But a couple weeks before the school year started this year, we had an extended family member, a teenager, also committed suicide. So literally a week before school, we were traveling out of state to go to a funeral of somebody we should not be losing. And, you know, we talk about it's important to talk about it. It's important to know that other people feel the things you feel. So I very much, I'm going to take an aside for a second and get back to the important thing.

[00:59:59] I don't show my emotions a lot. I laugh. I'm goofy a lot. I will look very serious a lot. A lot of people, a lot of kids at school think that I'm a scary guy that's going to like, it's like, what are you doing in that chair? My homework? Good. And then I keep walking. But like, trying to explain it to people when you have that inside that it doesn't show? Read Richards in the comics. Very autistic coded. They never explicitly stated it.

[01:00:25] But there's one comic published a year or two ago that perfectly, perfectly shows what I'm talking about. And that is, Reed, through the sci-fi shenanigans, had to shunt their children off to another time for a year. So for a year, his kids were away from him. And then the Thing's kids were away from him. And the kids aren't going to notice it. They're going to come back like nothing happened. But to them, that's a whole year away from their children.

[01:00:55] And because of that, you know, Ben and his wife weren't talking to Reed and his wife. And when they get back together, there's another time travel shenanigan that causes them to keep reliving that moment over and over again. And when it first happens, it's exactly how everybody remembers it, which is Reed saying, I'm sorry, I had to send them a year into the future. And they're upset and yelling, and he's just sitting there like nothing happened. But as they keep going through the cycle, everybody's emotions get amplified each time they relive it. So by the time you're in the third or fourth one, Ben's wife, who's a very, very nice person, is screaming at him.

[01:01:24] How dare you do this to our children? And Ben, who's again, super, he's like the heart of the Marvel Universe, is screaming. And then we get to like version like, I don't know, 10, 20, 30. And Ben's going to his wife like, hold on, look at Reed. Reed. And it's not till like they get that far into the versions that Reed's face is melting. He's crying. He can't hold his face together. That's what's inside of him the whole time. He just, he didn't have the ability to show it. And that helped them reconnect.

[01:01:54] And that, that little comic there, which by the way, Ryan North, oh my God, best thing ever happened to Fantastic Four in a long time. And his Squirrel Girl is still one of my favorite comics. But, but that, that really did a good job of showing that. But back to the more important topic. You know, people need to hear that there's other people that feel things. They also need to know there's other people that are out there. And one thing I've talked to a lot of people about over the past couple months is that 988 exists. You know?

[01:02:23] So, but people don't know it. There's not a lot of, in fact, administration cut a lot of their funding for promotions, but they exist. So nationwide, you know, 911, everybody knows you call that for emergencies. Most cities, most areas have a 311 where you can call for non-emergencies. I don't even know if 411 still exists anymore in the sense that Google exists now. But it's there technically. But for, for a while now, I think more than, I can't remember when it started, but for a while now they've had 988.

[01:02:52] Which is basically if you feel like, like there is nothing that can help. If you feel like there is no one that can understand you. If you feel like there's really only one solution that pops in your head. They're not going to cure anything. But they are there to hear you and there to help you. So 988 exists. It's a phone number to call if you find yourself in that situation. And again, it's not a cure-all. It's not magic. But it's important to know that you are not alone.

[01:03:21] It's important to know that that is out there. Yeah. And I think for a lot of people, if you're feeling a certain way, things are bleak. I was a funeral director for my first year during COVID. I was doing 10 funerals. No, I was doing, we counted it. I was doing a funeral a day for at least five months. And I was going to the stores lockers and picking them up out in front of hospitals. And through all that, I lost it.

[01:03:50] You know, I was having like weird ideations. I was, my son was going to be born, but I was nervous because something bad happened to me. And I'm like before that. But, and it's a high emotional time. It was, it was bad. And through that, I came up with Lockjaw. The guy that could sing through scary things. Through that, I came up with the palatero because I would see the old man walking and there was no one to sell to. And all these ideas came from like, just, I gave myself another day.

[01:04:20] And I gave myself another day. And I just kept giving myself grace. And I made stuff. And I didn't think I was going to. It took a random post from like Scott Snyder saying, I'm going to teach a class. If you think you have an idea for a comic, let's do it. And me being like, I hate school, man. I'm not a good student. I was like, I'll just throw my idea on there and see what sticks. And enough people responded to it that I'm here. I made it through that to here.

[01:04:49] So if you're going through it, go through it and see what you come out with. Like, that's the best advice I could give you. You know, what's really funny to me as you say that, I realize. So I have comic book stories that I've been one level or another building for years. And I've published several and I'm still working on others. But Night Axe and Golden Girl literally came together over the past year. And I just, I mean, it was there. I have said before, there's three separate stories that weren't really working for me. And I combined them into one story and it worked.

[01:05:18] But the main thing for me was to have a couple that is there to support each other no matter what. This is not one of those romantic stories where it's like, oh, will they, won't they? Is there a third? Is there a triangle happening? Oh no, a mistaken identity thing. They think the other person's cheating when they're not. No, these are two people that support each other no matter what. I feel like, I love romance comics. I love, you know, but we don't need every romance comic to be about the drama.

[01:05:47] I wanted there to be just two people that love each other and support each other no matter how weird the world gets, you know? And that's why, that's I think the linchpin that helped make Night Axe and Golden Girl work for me. Now I've got that first issue. It's been delayed a bit, but it's been worked on. We already mentioned Miguel doing the art. And he's doing the main story for 22 pages. I've got another friend of mine doing a story about just Night Axe, another friend of mine doing a story about just Golden Girl.

[01:06:16] So I got three stories and then I've got several more scripts. I was working on one yesterday. I just finished one yesterday. I'm like, you know, I'd love to do more, but it's like, but you're right. I mean, even though you weren't telling me that it came from that place, just like you're saying, you know? Yeah. But it's, you know, it's tough. And things will always, tough times will hit you when you don't expect it.

[01:06:40] But if you can start building yourself a foundation of like, like if you've already gone through a bad time, if you've already gone through like a hard time, hold it. Because I think a lot of people try to get rid of grief. They try to like leave it somewhere. But I treat it kind of like, I'm always wearing like, if you watch these videos, I'm in a flannel, I'm in a hoodie. They sit on this chair for a long time. And that's kind of what grief is to me. Like it's something that I've carried around.

[01:07:09] I lost my first friend in high school. It was a car accident. Two minutes from my house. They were on their way here. I was making food. He passed. So since then, I've learned to just kind of like walk with this monster thing. And I'm like, not a JK Rowling fan at all. But like, there's the nice thing in Harry Potter where he's like, oh, I walked with death, like a companion. And then they go together in the Death of the Hallows. And that was kind of like my experience with it. It's like, oh, it's this sweater. It's going to stay with me.

[01:07:39] And I know when to put it on. Because sometimes you're more comfortable in it. And like, if you need to have that, have that. Because I do. But know that things get easier. Not better. But they get easier. And that there is hope. And art is the best way to help you through that. Right? I got the Simpsons guys there. Anything creative. Anything creative that you do, that helps pull that out. Yeah. Or that you have to consume to do. Like if you've got to watch something, watch it. Watch it over and over.

[01:08:08] You don't owe anyone explanation. Just know that things will get easier. Just give yourself grace. And I think Lancers kind of help with that too. Well, again, my adventure Superman helped for me. And the thing is, is that, you know, as I think about it, I agree with what you're saying about the, you know, things get hard. You get through it and you use it. For me, it's also understanding that not everybody grieves the same way. You know, I was in the room with my grandfather. I was the only one in the room with him when he died.

[01:08:38] My mother and I had a very complicated relationship when she died. I lost a brother to COVID. I lost another brother to himself, you know, and throughout that all, I don't, I don't tend to show those emotions. And strangers are just like, why? I, but like people who know me, know me and everybody is going to, to grieve in their own way. And everybody's going to deal in their own way. But I love that idea of, and again, maybe, maybe you're like, well, art's not for me, but there's something you do that you love.

[01:09:06] And that thing that you love, that is what can pull you through. You can become stronger through it. You can become greater through it. If you push yourself, if nothing else, you can become a fine community through it, you know, and, and work with, show other people what you've done. Right. Even if it's, even if it's playing video games, you know, that's still something people will do with you, you know? Yeah. And I think build, build a community if you can, or listen to us, talk to us. Like, I mean, that's pretty much what I do for most people.

[01:09:34] So let yourself come into a community, you know? All right. This has been, for one reason or another, one of the deepest episodes of my Premo's podcast we've had in a while. And again, I'm not saying it's like the deepest ever, because we've had, we have some goofy episodes. We should get back to Dungeons and Dragons at some point. At some point. Got my dice. But it's important. Yeah. I have a whole jar of dice. But, but the point is, yeah, this is why I love this show.

[01:10:01] This is why, you know, when Freddie invited me to be regular, I was like, yes, I want to be there every time. So thank you for a show, Johnny. And thank you to our guests out there in the ether now. Professor Aldama, Professor Latinx, and Peter Movietta. But we need to wrap. It is time to say our until next time. Until next time. So, Johnny, where can people find you online? Yeah. I'm on all socials at Avena Comics.

[01:10:28] I've been doing a lot more on Instagram, and I've made my Patreon free. So I'm going to attempt to do videos on how-tos and just how to distract yourself, mostly. And that's what it's going to be. So I'm going to do a hard push for that. So if you guys are interested in anything to do with comics or writing or filmmaking, and you've got questions, just ask away. At Avena Comics. At Avena Comics. Yeah. You know, I created a Patreon at the recommendation of several of my followers.

[01:10:59] But I never really announced it because I always felt like, excuse me, if I was an artist, then I'd be like, I'm drawing things. You can watch me do it. But as a writer, I'm like, watch me research. Like, I didn't really know what to do. And this is from a guy who is an actual teacher. And here you are. Like, let me show you how to do stuff. Well, for myself, I am on most socials at KevinGarcia underscore com, as Freddie likes to point out several times. Except on Blue Sky, which I haven't posted on in a bit. I got to make sure I'm on it. There I'm just Kevin Garcia. But Night Axe, which I've mentioned a couple times now, name drop again.

[01:11:27] It can be found at NightAxe.com, which honestly takes you to the Kickstarter page, which I am leaving open for late orders only because the book got delayed. So if people want to still order, they can. But I am posting periodically on the little updates thing behind the scenes. I'm posting. Like, I don't lock it behind. Like, only backers can see this. Anybody can go see the behind the scenes. I want you to see it. You know, there's, you know, the sketches from the artists.

[01:11:53] There's my own designs because I physically drew them myself to get designs and everything. So NightAxe.com, KevinGarcia underscore com. Also, KevinGarcia.com, actually, is why I have that. But more important than either of us or anything that we've ever discussed today is My Primo's Podcast, which you can learn about by listening to us on the podcast you are currently listening to.

[01:12:17] But also by going to at My Primo's Podcast or at My Primo's Productions on most of the socials where we'll post old videos, new content, and really, really, really support everybody else in our community because we're all Primos. So thank you again. That is a show. Just remember, wherever you are, you are a primo, you are family, and you are loved. Thank you and good night. Bye. Bye.