Episode 270 – East Coast Comic Expo 2026 – Part 1

0:00Previously ustedes�� of the day. Andrew Clark, how are you, sir? I'm doing very well. Thank you. How are you? I'm very well. Thank you. And I am very excited to say congratulations. Here it is. Adam, issue 10. I have it in my hands. I didn't think I was going to get it, but I was able to get it. And how does that feel? It feels a little surreal to be honest with you. Now that I'm out selling it, and I know that's the last Adam, probably, that's going to be sold. Then, yeah, it feels a little, little weird. You put a lot of time

1:02into this. I mean, you did the whole Kickstarter campaign for it. How was that build up to it? And you did a lot on social media as well, pushing, pushing the Kickstarter campaign. Yeah, every day. I'm sure I was annoying everybody. But that's what you got to do. Honestly, you have to get it out there. And I know it's because of algorithms and reminding people because I know like, there's kicksters that I have supported. And you just think, I'll do that tomorrow. And then you forget about it. And you forget it. And then you said, so I'm just, you know, every day, I'm just going to throw it a post. And so I throw a note in that. I notice, yeah, I use my dog a lot. Yeah. But he gets extra treats for it. Okay, he's fine with it. And he cost me a lot in vet bills. So it's the least you can do. He's got to earn his key. But yeah, no, I'm glad I couldn't be any happier with that. Yeah. I mean, you, the whole process was it was it nerve wracking wondering if you were going to hit that? Number kick kick starters are an annoying nerve wracking

2:04things. So I've done three or four of them now, I think four, and not this one, but the one before that actually made my goal in two days within 48 hours, they did it. And that was weird, because then you still had like 20 to 28 days to promote a thing you've already made the money on. But you want to make extra so you can print more issues or do more things. So that in itself is almost more annoying to make it that quickly, because then I had to think and I do not like thinking. And then and this one came down to the last, I think there was three or four days before actually finally got fun, like it was almost there for like two weeks. And then finally, it started coming in. And so it can be nerve wracking because you're like, I don't want to be that close and then not hit it. Right. If I'm off, if I'm off by $10, I'm going to be angry. I mean, now it's here. It's on the table downstairs. The reception for it. How's it been so far? It's been fantastic,

3:06actually. I did another another combo two weeks ago. And historically, not a big comic book show, but I sold so many comics at that, that it was crazy. I blew my mind and people were coming up and they wanted it. Same thing yesterday, last night. Oh, you had issue, Tano. Now, so it's been fantastic. So, so what, what is that? Does that give you the, the, the, the, the sort of the drive to say, maybe I'll do Adam 11 now or is this it? Is this it for Adam? I know they say never say never. They do say never say never. They made a movie about that. They did. It was just thunderball. Don't give me start on James Bond stuff. Anyways, let's take I'm going to say it's the end of it, but never say never because there are stories. This ends his story, this issue. But there was always a bit of a gap between issue five and six as far as how five ended and were six picked up. So I always thought if I did like a one off story or two off stories, I could

4:10fit them in there nicely. But he's not really going to add anything to the story per se. So I'll ask, I'll use a pro wrestling term then that you're familiar with in certain people in the audience are familiar with. Yeah, has Adam retired? Yes, yes, let's put it that way. Yes, Adam's retired. Will you do a companion? Maybe, maybe I have some inventory to sell through first. And then maybe next year volume two will come out. And that'll be issues six through 10. Okay. And then and then maybe, maybe I have some, I mean, I kind of want to just let it go and but there's also this part of me thinks maybe I'll start because the first issues one through eight were black and white. So I've had this thought of a coloring issues one through eight, getting them relettered and then doing something with that. Because I don't want to just, I don't want to milk it, right? I don't want to put it all in as just exactly the same thing because then

5:11you're just trying to sell it off to people that may already have it already. So maybe to do something special with it. But there's two problems that one I'm incredibly cheap and I don't like to pay colors who do a much better job than I do. And I hate coloring. So Adam and Evelyn created illustrated written and colored by Andrew Clark. Yeah, yeah, the coloring took a while. So what's next for you then? Because I mean, how long have you been doing Adam for now? Adam started 2015? Yeah, that makes sense, 2015 because the original 10 was so issue one came out and it was just because I had done ECC a couple of times at that point. And I didn't have an actual comic. I had a web comic that had finished. And I remember the second one I released a slice of fate issue one, which was just the collection of the first story from the web comic, but I wanted

6:11something new. So I released that. I didn't know that there was going to be an issue too. It was just sort of like I dusted off Adam was a character from that web comic. And I sort of cleaned him up, I'll clean them up by I cleaned him up. And then I was like, I'll just do this story. It was going to be a one off story in many ways. But I did leave a little bit of a cliffhanger at the end of it. And there was a good reception to it. I was like, OK, all right, I'll do an issue too. And that just snow bald from there. And it was time to end it though, like I felt around issue seven, six or seven, I knew it was time to sort of start wrapping things up. Well, that's good. So what's your cons schedule like then after ECCO's comic expo? Actually, I've not doing a lot of shows this year. I've done like eight shows to ten shows the last few years. Yeah. This year, it's down to four. I do, and I did one in Dartmouth a few months ago. And then

7:16the show last a couple weeks ago. And then this one, and then I have one later on in the year, I think in August, also in Dartmouth. So nice. So I like we like to ask on this show with our guests, you know, out there. Is there a bucket list of Zura character out there? You've never had a chance to work on it? You would like to write or illustrate or create? Well, being here and doing this now, we've had some very interesting answers from a variety of artists writers. Yeah. Yeah. I would say bucket list I'd like to do something with Daredevil. So I love he's my favorite character hands down. I've also had this like fantasy about doing a James Bond series. You are the second person at East Coast Comic Expo that has said they wanted to do James Bond. Really? Yes. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. I just feel like you could like I've had some James Bond

8:18comics and some of them are great and stuff. But I just feel like there's enough material and history there that you could just do an ongoing series that where you can dabble into the novels or the movies, whichever one you prefer, that come into it, but then have new stories in between. They almost make the summer blockbuster of that series like Moon Raker and then Doctor No. So are you saying you'd base your bond off Sean Connry then? Is there any other James Bond or? Yes. Daniel Craig. Daniel Craig. Yeah. No. I would have based guys. Probably. I think I'd lean a little more heavier into the novelization of him with a sprinkle of Daniel and a sprinkle of Sean. Well, listen, Andrew, we'll get you out of here on this last question. We asked this last year when it was when the big events were happening. There are two big events happening this summer. Supergirl or Spider-Man, which is the one you're more excited to see and will you go see both?

9:21I would say probably. Oh, that's a tough one. I don't go to movies anymore. I guess a supergirl, but just to see Lobo, I think that's okay. I think that's my final answer. All right, your final answer and we'll let you out on that. Andrew, thank you very much again. Congratulations. Adam number 10. I'm so happy to see it here in my hands and enjoy the rest of East Coast Connry. It's great to see you. This is my favorite show by far. I shouldn't say that on camera, but it is my favorite show by far. You're locked in here. We're not editing that out. Okay, awesome. Andrew, thanks a lot, man. We're enjoying the rest of your show. Thank you guys. This is Summer Glow, River Tam from Firefly, and you are listening to the Recap Sequence with Jamie and Ryan. Hey guys, it's Ryan here at East Coast Comic Expo, 2026, and I couldn't be happier to welcome our next guest, Mr. Hal Hilden. How are you, sir?

10:23I am doing great. Thanks for having me, guys. This is kind of a surprise. You guys approached me and then all of a sudden a fellow from ECC said, you're doing an interview soon. I said, I already know. Well, when we saw that you were an invited guest to this, we're like, we have to talk to Hal. We haven't talked to you in a couple of years. I mean, you've been busy. You were writing for Lucky Comics, GY6 and Red Leaf Comics. Excuse me, Red Leaf Comics, yeah. So what are you doing these days? Not a whole lot. The last year, I sold a Drabble 100 Word story. I did some editing for Slam Press, Martin Slam Dunk. Can I think you guys might remember him a couple of years ago? Yeah. He does those, those Grim Wars and stuff. Yes. The Dracula, the Frankenstein. I edited one for Grim Sterry Tales. Oh, really? So that's coming up sometime this year. I'm not sure why. And that's about it. Comic-wise, I'm just in carrying on GY6. I'm just kind of taking a break.

11:24My health was a little bit bad, so I wanted to kind of focus on myself first. I'm just getting back to where I want to feel comfortable out, I guess. Nice. So one of the other reasons I wanted to talk to you, and I just, I couldn't, you know, the timing for this is just apropos, if you will. I know where you're going. It was a wonderful book that I picked up from you a couple of years ago. Signed by you, Political Power, Stephen Colbert. I mean, how appropriate. I saw you posted it on social media right after the last show of the light show. I mean, this. His last episode brought back so much memories, too. When I first wrote that, I was doing a script for Blue Water, and that's when the Boston massacre happened. Right. So I wanted to include that, so I actually had to, it's editing. I put a page into dimension that, but just the memories, like him finishing his show now, and I'm like, I wonder if he's ever even read the comic. I don't know if he's ever read the comic. So you don't know if he's ever not. Oh my gosh. If you guys can find out, for me, that would be great. Does that ever, do you ever get a chance to do something like this ever again? But like, I

12:28get off from another, another thing through that, those fulurs, but I kind of didn't want to go with it because it's been 13 years now. I saw this. Yeah, so I haven't, I haven't received any royalties or any payment whatsoever. But I got my 15 minutes of fame, I guess, you know, and I mean, this, you are synonymous now with this book, and it just, I was like, well, we've got to talk to him about this because with the ending of the late show, right? So I mean, this was, this was, and that was super, it's a really good book as well, because I really enjoyed it when I picked it up. And it was one of the last ones you had at your table when I'd seen you a couple of years ago, if I was like, can't pass on this. So I appreciate that. I'm curious as well with this. What, you know, when you have people come up to your table to talk to you and stuff like that, you get people to come up and say, well, how do I get into the industry? What are you telling? Just do some research. See what other people do for, like, for me, I wanted to become a, I wanted to become an artist, and that just, I bombed as being an artist. So I thought I'd switched a writing and that was easier. It kind of is. I just went online and just, and I looked up, and I

13:30looked up books. There's books by certain authors and stuff. I came to think names right off. You guys are catching me off guard here. Who are your influences? To get you in there. If you want to become a writer, if they're comic, comic writers out there, you got, you got me, Stephen King, of course, love Stephen King. Anything by Stephen King. But my two favorite writers, Marv Wolfman, anything Marv ever did. I followed that to a tee. And Frank Miller's, he's a, he's a pretty accomplished writer. I kind of like his stuff. You ever get a chance to meet other than? No, no. I, some day, Marv Wolfman, I have as a friend, I guess, on Facebook. And once in a while, he'll, you'll come in and something like that. That's kind of cool. But that's the closest I think I'll ever get to Marv. But yeah, he's my idol. So what do you tell people who can't change? So how do I get into the writing stuff? Do I just write? Just literally just write. And like I said, there's, there's tons of books out there on how to buy all kinds of different comic book writers and stuff. Another good book, Michael Strzinski, I think his name, he did Babylon 5. Yeah. He's got a really good book on writing. And that was my first big Bible, I guess. And from there, I picked up on

14:34comic writing, scripting for animation and stuff like that. Just write. So how was it for writing this, I did my own research that I had to go, I had to go and do a research. I watched Oprah Winfrey interviewed Colbert on a special episode. And I got so much information off that one episode. Really? Yeah. Because other people that were doing writing for that company, they were going on Wikipedia and just taking stuff off that. And some people don't know, but not everything on Wikipedia is accurate. So I heard. Yeah. So I did a ton of research on that too. And I learned a lot about the man. It was pretty cool. So all that stuff I read on wiki about you, you're not really an Oscar winner? I'm not an Oscar winner yet, but I still am an exotic dancer though. Okay, good to know. We should have been a question I asked earlier, I guess Andrew Clark, if that was if he could confirm that. I'll give you my only fans pass right after. How's Mountain treating you to this weekend? Oh, good. It's all good. Yeah.

15:38I mean, it's you you have been to a lot of the ECC ones. Yeah. You've been a featured guest here and everything. I mean, you enjoy coming back to mountain. It come in the convention I can invite you. This is the only one this year and that's that's fine. It's all good. It's like seeing old friends again, like meet up with you guys. I see Nick. I remember I was sitting beside Nick back at Halcon back in 2013, I think. And Danica was just starting out. Danica decided she wanted to be an artist and she was like practicing her feathering with her inking. And that was 2013. And now look at look at her now. Yeah. She said her birthday yesterday by the way too. And now here she is doing work for the big companies. Tom Grumman all in the grommets. Oh my goodness, the grommets. I talked to Tom a bit, but I talked more to Nancy. Nancy's got so many stories. You guys we talked to Tom way back in November show that was in Frederickton. Gotcha. Yeah. And we talked to him, but it was Nancy that ended up being so hilarious

16:38with the stories that she was sharing that it ended up becoming an interview with Nancy. That's the one to go to. Yeah, absolutely. She's fantastic. I mean, these are fun events to go to because it gives you a chance for us to see you and to see Andrew and all the others that we we talked to on the other end via zoom, but we don't see you all the time because we East Coast comic I expose pretty is our thing. We come here every year because we enjoy being able to to do what we do here, but also see you guys. And just yeah, just seeing everyone that you see over the years, it's like it's like a like a reunion every year. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. So I'll ask is there a bucket list of characters or anybody out there that you would love to write? There's a comic called Alien Legion. I can't think of who created it. Sammy Francis would know because she's friends with the creator. That's my I would love to work on it. It basically gets French foreign Legion in space. Aliens Alien Legion. Check it out. It was done by Epic. Marvel did it back in the I think 80s. Okay. For Marvel, it would be Nightcrawler and for DC, it would be

17:41Ted Corde Blue Beetle. Oh wow. Ted, a blue beetle, that Ted Corde. Yep. That's my bucket list, buddy. That's and that's what we like to ask these questions because the passion to want to write these guys comes flying out of us. So last question for you, Helen. We'll get you out on this one here. Two big events coming this summer. Supergirl or Spider-Man, which you looking forward to more. What? I'm a little I'm a little more Marvel, but that's supergirl. I'm going with Marvel. I'm going with Marvel's fighting. Okay. Will you still see both? You 100% are going to see both. Might see both twice actually. Yeah. Howl, man, this it's been awesome talking to you. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us again. Folks, if you can find this out there, it is a hell of a read. Political power Stephen Colbert written by Mr. Howl Hilden. How thanks a lot, man, for doing it. I really appreciate it. Jamie, you're the best. I appreciate this guys. Really. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of the show, man. The recap sequence will return after these messages.

18:49Hey, this is Jamie. This is Ryan. And we're the recap sequence. Be sure to tune into us every Wednesday night on CHSR 97.9 FM. We're online at CHSRFM.ca to 7pm Atlantic 6pm Eastern. And if you don't catch us live, you can catch our podcast on Spotify, on Amazon, anywhere you get your favorite podcast. And we also have a YouTube channel. You may have been watching. And if not, you should be catches on YouTube at recap sequence. So subscribe. Subscribe. Yeah, please. We now return to the recap sequence. Hey guys, it's Ryan here at East Coast Comic Expo 2026. And I'm with Amelia Strill Chuck. Welcome. Hi, thank you for having me. Thank you for joining us. How's the how's Monkton treating you so far? It's really nice. It was really busy yesterday. I was surprised. I heard Friday was very busy, which is good. The last couple of years, Fridays is actually surprised a lot of people and been busy. And of course, the today, the weather's not the nicest. So hopefully that means more and more people will come in here and hang out indoors. Yes, exactly. So how was the Friday night for you then?

19:53Yeah, it was really nice. I got some commissions to do. I met some people that I was here last year as well. So there's some returning people that remember my art. So that's always really nice. That's really cool. Now, how long have you been an artist? How long have you been doing this now? I've been doing art like on and off my whole life sort of. During the pandemic, it kind of picked up digital art and like following tutorials and artists on Patreon. And but comics specifically two or three years, not very long. When you're due panels here or panels at cons and stuff like that, you speak of like difficult topics in comics, like including mental health disabilities, that kind of thing. Is that something you like to you get out there when you're when you're doing because a lot of your books focus on that. Yeah, the like for context, my graphic novel is about me growing up and diagnosed autistic. So I think that made people understand, I think, conventions are like,

20:56oh, this could be a conversation. There's a lot of people who do like out of a graphical stories about different. So the conversations are always very interesting. And I try to like raise of awareness less than the stigma where possible. Tell people a bit more and educate because my book is like is a good peak into the life so that people can see it a different perspective. So the more I can talk about it when I can, the better it is, I think for. I like also the fact that it's you're talking about this and people go, wow, that could be me. I could be an artist like that. I have been diagnosed with this. I applaud you for doing that because that's fantastic. You're getting the word out for this. Thank you. You've been nominated for Zelda Award for Best Graphic. What is it? Graphic novel nonfiction. What's it like when you're doing all of these and you're not expecting the nominations for the accolades? It's got to be exciting. The first one that I got nominated for was Doug Wright actually in Canada, like the cartoonist awards. For that one, you kind of have to submit yourself. So it was very

21:56like, is it good enough for that? But also looking at like history of like who was nominated, who won? I think so. So you have to think that yourself. But I think I submitted it. I didn't expect it, but it was really nice. And then Zelda Awards. It's the cartoonist women in comics specifically. So that one also, you kind of have to put yourself. I'm like, I have this one. Maybe they'll like it. It's like a fine line. You have to appreciate and love yourself enough and your work to be to think that you're good enough. But also, yeah. So it's safe to say you're your own worst critic then as well. Yeah, because you never really think you're good enough. You kind of hope you're always learning something more. But it's nice to see that more people can recognize it. And it's not that anyone really needs a validation like that. But it's definitely really nice. And I think it helps like spread the message. So who were your influences then that, you know, they said, I can do

22:57this. Looking at these people, I can do what they're doing. In terms of comics and books, I read and D. Stevenson's The Fire Never Goes Out. It's an autobiographical story about their gender journey and their bipolar. So reading that was like, oh, this is very raw. And like, I think my perception on comics changed because I didn't grow up on comics. I grew up in Ukraine. We have a lot of manga, but we don't really have like, you know, DC Marvel. So my perception of it was like big boys fighting always. That's what comics were. So I think reading personal stories was very nice. And then Swini Boo drew, eat and love yourself. And it was about an eating disorder. I don't know if you're familiar with her art. But she's, it's, she does a lot of work for like big publishers. And but her personal art and like personal stories, they're very, it's so beautiful. And like such cute art style to show topics like that. I think that's what pushed me more because her art is my inspiration

24:01visually. But then also how she shows these moments in such like a, I don't want to say like cuter, but like more accessible style for like younger audiences. So I thought, yeah, I could probably do that. And then you were off and running. What, what do you recommend to people who come to you at the table and show you their work or say, I want to get into this? How do I, what's your recommendations to them? I like two or three years ago didn't know what to ask even to people. So I would always suggest go to panels, listen, go to sketch battles, listen, because they ask questions. And I think me going to that sparked a lot of questions for myself. And then, oh, like, I can come up to this creator and actually talk to them. And I think a lot of people are scared and they don't know that we're actually willing to talk. And most of us will share information if we're, you know, some people not having a good day sometimes, but it depends. But we're like, I'm personally more than okay if someone comes up to me and asks, but I think my biggest advice is

25:02just to make the comic. Don't get hung up on how you go into print or distribute it or, you know, do you want to publish or like just make it so that you have something to show people. You can even put it up on your website or on your social media. You can do a crowd funder. You can, you know, eventually like pitch something if you'd like. But I think the thing is just you have to make it. Yeah. And you have to show people that you can finish something. That was like the biggest advice that was given to me. And I think this is a really great advice. That's awesome. So it must be kind of neat to be on the other side of that. Now where you're sitting at the table and someone coming up and you can give them that advice now. Yeah. I really, I really like that and I want to pay that forward because I got a lot of advice from really really good people. That's how do you still go to panels and sketch battles to you? Yeah. Yeah. I like to watch. Like when I can, there's a lot of conventions that I travel to with my partner. So my partner will stay at my table for a bit and then I'll go watch. So are you doing a lot of conventions in this year? I think this will be, I'm doing one sort of local in Ontario in Hamilton next week.

26:05And then word on the street, a book festival in Toronto in September and then potentially a saw bubble in the UK. Oh wow. So maybe a couple more. But this has been intense in the spring. Do you enjoy coming to these events though? Yeah. It breaks up the month. It is tiring, yes. The travel. No question about that. A couple quick questions here and we'll get you back to your table downstairs. Do you have out there a bucket list of anybody in the comic book world that you would love to take a crack at sometimes someone from DC or Marvel or image or boom came to you and said we want you to do this or like a character to draw. I love Harley and Ivy. I love the sirens. Like the recent one I read was by Babs and Teenie Howard. They did the sirens. That's so that was really cool. Like I love them as characters. I think anything that's probably queer and a little bit out of the ordinary, that would be

27:08what I would love to do. Okay. And I'll get you out of here on this last question. We're asking every all of our guests this year. This says this last question here. There's two big events coming up this summer. One shortly. Another one at the end of July. Supergirl or Spider-Man. Supergirl. Okay. I will tell you this right now. It has all four have said supergirl. Really? Yep. Supergirl is crushing at this time. So Amelia, thank you so much for doing this. Really appreciate it. I hope you enjoy the rest of Monkton, the rest of the ECCE and don't be stranger. Come back anytime. Thank you. This is James Marister. You were listening to the recap sequence of Jamie and Ryan. Hey guys. Ryan back here on the in the podcast room for ECCE's Comic Expo 2026. Super excited to talk to Mr. Jeff Isherwood. How are you? Oh, raring to go. Had the coffee and I'm raring to go. I know you just came off a sketch battle. So I'm

28:10curious. What was your job? What did you have to do? Somebody said I went Dr. Strange holding a kitty. So instead I drew a giant cat swatting at a little tiny Dr. Strange. That was, oh, that's awesome. That's really cool. That's fun. How have you been? Oh, very good. I've been quite busy as usual. I've always have stuff on the drawing table. But this year I have another story for the Conan, the Savage Sort of Conan book with heroic and titan. So I'm working on that. When I get home I go back to Inking It. It's a 24 page story and it's a daughter of Conan, like one of the many I think. You're shocking. Yeah. Well, the original was a Christie Marks story from 1974 with Ernie Chan. One of his best art jobs. And at the end of the story, this young woman, the daughter of the queen that this, this

29:12a sorceress queen that Conan has this dalliance with, of course. And of course he takes off and then she's pregnant and has a kid. How many times does that happen? Right. But anyway, in this case, the young woman, I guess she's like 18 or something, she rides off with some young warrior guy, and that's the end. So then we pick up the story, what happened to her? So we pick up 15 years later where she comes back to see the mother and then tell the mother says, well, what happened, right? And so she gives the whole story of what's happened with her in the last 15 years. So it's fascinating to draw a sequel 50 years after the original story. That's really cool. It's been some kind of record. That's really cool. So anyway, it's a lot of fun working with her. And so that's pretty much it. Savage sword issue 17 is where you'll all find it. Do you know when it's stewed out? Not exactly, but probably more September. I'm guessing. How's the convention

30:21treating you here today? And yesterday. Oh, it's super. It's funny. Friday evening isn't, you know, an evening first day isn't always the attendance isn't always great, but it was very, it was great in that sense that a lot of people hadn't seen me for a while. A lot, I signed a lot of things and my drawing list, which I had to keep simplified this weekend because it's only ends today, right? I had to close the list already. I had to close it like an hour into the show yesterday. And anything further, I can mail to people, but I tried it, you know, finished a drawing during a show and not have to mail it, but I'll do that, you know, with people one more. But anyway, it's been a lot of fun and it's going really well. One of the things this is a cheap plug for you here as well. I picked up this book a couple of years ago, actually. It's right here. Ah, the Dracula. This is actually Jeff's, Jeff's drawing here. So it's one of these things I'm actually going to come down later and see you to, because I'm trying to get everyone who's

31:24done their hand in this to sign the sign their art. So is it fun doing these kind of, yeah, one-offs? Well, well, Martin, Slime Duncan had put a list of quotations from the book and we would pick one and draw it. And I found, I picked the one with Lucy coming out of the tomb after she's dead and now she's a vampire. I come after her husband, who is whatever's name is. Throck Morton or something. Anyway, I wanted him, he's lying there and she's coming towards him and she's at once totally desirable and totally horrifying. I wanted him to have that duel. What is this? You know, because, you know, if you've ever lost somebody in life really close, you kind of dream about meeting them again, but when you do, they're your worst nightmare. It's that kind of the idea of the horror. So I picked it for that psychological thing. Nice. Your career, you've worked in the art world, the film industry, when you're at these

32:26conventions and people come up to you with their work or they say, you know, how do I break into this? What do you tell them? What's your advice to? Well, a lot of people are big into networking and all that sort of thing, which is great. However, I still stress you have to have your own personal skill set and abilities. You know, you have to, you have to build them up as much as you can. You have to be really, really good. I taught at college also for eight years at Elgonquin in Ottawa and told the kids, you have to have elite level ability and it's not just drawing, it's the thought process, it's creating imagery, cooking up ideas and designs and composition. There's a whole range of things, but this is a base foundation of drawing that you can take from one type of job to another.

33:28You can go from comics to animation to film to video games. You can go across all kinds of creative work with the same skill set because, you know, they, each one has, has rec, requirements for all of that. So, and you never know what kind of job you're going to get next. Now, unfortunately, I've heard reason in the last sketch tool about AI being used much more in animation and video games and people have lost their jobs left right in the center and they're now going somewhere else. But something like comics is good for us pure artists and types because AI cannot understand how to tell a story and cannot compose pictures that make any sense that way in terms of, you know, visuals. Things can be rendered very realistically, but there are logic errors left right in the center because it doesn't know what anything really is. It can't construct anything

34:29from the base up. We have that ability. So, I think it's still a matter of time or just a matter of time till people running these companies start to realize, yeah, it doesn't work as well as we thought. It can be a tool for certain things, but it shouldn't be used as a purely creative device, you know, we still need people for that. You essentially have to go through the whole thing, rig and roll with it to realize that it's not going to work in the end. Yeah. I mean, I even did some examples in class where I said, okay, I have a golfer standing on a tee aiming to hit his ball at the green while he's pointing at the woods. The ball's behind him. He's got the club up pointing up and then it's coming out the sideways out of his head because it's behind his head. You know, the program didn't understand that the shaft of a golf club is continuous. Like, it's so many mistakes. It looks like a realistic photo, but it makes no sense. Right. So, this is the kind of thing that, you know, higher up people

35:32have to realize, like, we really need people who can think to do this work. And yes, computers control so much else in our lives or we rely on them so much, you know, for finance and banking and all that kind of stuff. Our phones, do we understand how to create and program an even make a smartphone, not at all? It's all done by, you know, a handful of people elsewhere, but we can use them, but it's not there to make decisions for us, you know, and to hide the ideas, we still should be able to do that. So, hopefully, for those trying to get into the art world and the business that way, you know, that side will understood better and better and they'll have that chance. But everybody still has to have a love for drawing. They have to have a desire to learn. There's always that and they have to and they have to want to get better. And that's

36:34the same as it's always been and people who want to draw their drawing every day. And they're just curious and want to do more. So, people that have it kind of into their DNA will eventually get somewhere with it. Nice. I'm going to let you, we've got two quick questions, actually three quick questions for you and we'll get you back to your table there. First of all, where can people find you if they're looking for you and they want to see your work and follow you? Well, generally, I'm still on Facebook. I have a fan of Jeffrey Isherwood Facebook page and I have a website, which is my name, Jeffrey Isherwood.ca, which I should update more often, but some basics. The other place to find art of comics is comicartfans.com. I mean, that's a fantastic resource for anybody looking up comic book art in general from hundreds of artists. It's got to be the by far the best place to look up artwork. And I know from people getting commissions or pages from

37:37me, there are like 1200 pieces that I've or pages I've done that other other people have uploaded to that site. So, comicartfans.com is a terrific resource. Okay. You have worked on a lot of characters out there in the world. Is there a character that you have yet to touch that you're like, that's my bucket list? That's my white whale. Well, it's funny because I went to Marvel because I wanted to draw Conan, which I have done for like eight years total. When Dr. Strange came available, I hadn't thought about it so much, but yeah, can I draw that? And the editor on the spot said, well, our last artist is leaving, was butch guy's at the time. Yeah, you can draw it. That was an easy answer. Usually it's like, we want you to draw this. Right. And I just take the job because once you're working at Marveler DC, it's like you've been drafted by an NHL team or something and doesn't matter what team.

38:37You're in the league. You're in the show. You play for Anaheim or you play for Chicago or you play for the Leafs. And I said, I know that because you're from Ottawa. So I'm a Canadian's fan. Oh, thank God. There's two of us right here. Yeah, yeah. No, I lived in Montreal for 42 years. A long time Habs fan. Yeah, I don't dislike the Senators. I just don't really pay much attention to them. And the Leafs are, well, it's kind of Boston is the team that you have to hate. Absolutely. That's true. So well, last question we'll get you out of here. The big summer event. Which are you leaning forward to more Supergirl or Spider-Man? That's a good one. We've seen a whole bunch of Spideys already. The Supergirl. Now that's the, she's the same one that was in the movie, right? Super. And I think that was a whole different take. It was fun. Crypto was very different. And so I think that would be a blast because it's something nobody's expecting so much. You know, we know Spider-Man already.

39:40And I know there's always, those are always very good movies. But I think the Supergirl is going to be very intriguing. It's, it's like the first Doctor Strange movie. I was invited to the premiere of that. They had taken stuff from a comic I'd drawn issue 45 of our series where we retold this origin and all that. And they put that in the movie. Scott Derrickson had taken some scenes and put it in there. So then we got invited to the premiere. That's incredible. But going to that movie, I was thinking this movie is going to be amazing or a complete disaster. And there's no middle ground. They're either going to get it right or they won't. And they got it right, which was really fun to see. And it's probably like that with Supergirl. And I suspect there's going to be a mixed reaction because some people probably went the, you know, like an old traditional kind of Supergirl. And a lot of people are going to want the new Wild Brat Supergirl, which I thought was a fun take. We just got a piece of. So yeah, that's true. Let's go with that one. Awesome.

40:44Jeff, man, this has been incredible. Thank you very much for doing this. Enjoy the rest of the convention. Yeah. And don't be a stranger. Come back anytime. Well, you know, as long as you all have me, I'll be back. We make a nice trip over to visit some family, my wife's family. So in Nova Scotia, we were going over there after this. So, you know, we're making it all one big trip. So, and this is a great stopping off point to start with. That's awesome. Well, thank you very much again for doing this. Okay, thanks for having. Appreciate it. Be sure to tune into our next episode for even more East Coast Comic Expo 2026 interviews right here on the Recap sequence.