In this engaging conversation, Ryan interviews Ray Jamison, a comic creator and writer, about his journey into the world of comics, the influence of Dungeons & Dragons on his storytelling, and the importance of community in the comic book industry. Ray shares insights into his creative process, the challenges of writing and publishing comics, and the excitement of launching a Kickstarter campaign. The discussion also touches on the role of nostalgia in modern storytelling and the dynamics of character relationships in comics.
To follow the Pre Launch for Issue 2 follow the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/philboentertainment/the-madcaps-issue-2
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Summary
In this engaging conversation, Ryan interviews Ray Jamison, a comic creator and writer, about his journey into the world of comics, the influence of Dungeons & Dragons on his storytelling, and the importance of community in the comic book industry. Ray shares insights into his creative process, the challenges of writing and publishing comics, and the excitement of launching a Kickstarter campaign. The discussion also touches on the role of nostalgia in modern storytelling and the dynamics of character relationships in comics.
To follow the Pre Launch for Issue 2 follow the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/philboentertainment/the-madcaps-issue-2
Takeaways
- Ray’s love for superheroes began in childhood, influenced by his older brother.
- He took a comic course that laid the foundation for his comic creation.
- Dungeons & Dragons played a significant role in shaping his storytelling skills.
- Ray emphasizes the importance of surrounding oneself with talented individuals.
- He believes in showing rather than telling in storytelling.
- The Mad Caps is a comic about four friends facing an undead outbreak.
- Ray’s first Kickstarter was successful, hitting all stretch goals.
- He aims to create action figures of his characters for future campaigns.
- Ray treats writing as reporting facts, avoiding imitation of other writers.
- Nostalgia can drive creativity, but it’s important to look forward.
Sound Bites
- “I’ve always been an artist at heart.”
- “I wanted to make sure I had something worthy.”
- “The more I realized how small this community really is.”
Chapters
00:00
The Creative Journey Begins
02:47
From D&D to Comic Creation
06:12
Building a Comic Book Community
09:04
Crafting a Compelling Story
11:46
Introducing The Mad Caps
14:56
The Kickstarter Experience
17:53
The Role of D&D in Writing
21:03
Nostalgia and Modern Storytelling
24:00
Advice for Aspiring Creators
27:01
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
Ryan George (00:12)
Hey everyone, I’m here with Ray Jamieson. He’s a writer and a comic creator. Ray, thanks for being on the show.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (00:17)
I’m happy to be here, Flattered.
Ryan George (00:20)
Yeah, thanks. So, so with all new comic writers, I’m always, I always want to know, because, having been, you as somebody who’s new to this world myself over the last few years, what’s your kind of origin story, I guess, as a creative first, and then how did that bleed into comic books?
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (00:38)
yeah, so my origin story, guess that’s a fitting way of putting it. I’ve loved superheroes all of my life. I have a brother who’s five years older than me. So any little brother, they like what their big brother does as you grow up. he loved super friends. loved 1980s Hulk, Spider-Man is amazing friends. And I was born in the mid 80s and he was born in the late 70s. So getting into the late 80s, there was
lots of cool stuff to draw from. He-Man, Thundercats, Transformers, G.I. Joe, and the list goes on and on and on. And around that time, was shortly before my arrival on the planet, was comic books, cartoons, and toys, the toy industry. They decided, why are we not working together to all benefit and get more money from fans?
And so I was very lucky to even something like Ghostbusters, movie. It’s a cartoon. It’s toys. It’s cereal. If you like Ghostbusters, you can get everything Ghostbusters if you want wallpaper, bedroom, blankets, you name it. And you could aim pretty much any one thing. I remember having my brother having the 1980s cartoon theme of the Hulk on his blankets. It was a really cool time. I grew up
Ryan George (01:43)
Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (02:03)
In elementary school, I went through in the 90s, I was on a small farm school and there was, I think, less than 150 students from kindergarten to grade eight. And it was not popular to like superheroes in the early 90s. Now, over time, I could win over some friends because you would find out they liked Kevin Conroy’s Batman, the animated series in 92.
Okay, well, you grudgingly accept that because it’s not a comic book, it’s cartoon, right? So there’s a loophole there. And then although I was not a fan of Spider-Man, the animated series, it definitely gave Spider-Man a resurgence amongst the youth in that that generation. And I mean, there’s a whole list of cool things that came out at that time. And not just specifically comic superheroes, Power Rangers for what it’s worth. I mean, I still watch that a little bit and
Ryan George (02:32)
Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (02:58)
There’s like many, many cool things. I’ve always been an artist at heart. I’ve never had the opportunity to train that passion and make money off of it. But I love comic books. I’ve collected my share of comic books for sure. I’ve always wanted, when I was a kid, went to, I took this little comic course called in Dundas, Ontario. I’m up in Canada.
and it was all about making your own comic book. So it taught you about the fundamentals, penciling, inking, lettering, coloring, sequentials, panels, yada, yada, yada. And so I’ve always wanted to make a comic. I did at the time because it was part of my homework for that course, but I went to the wayside and just over a decade ago, I started playing D &D with some friends, some tabletop RPGs.
And the whole reason I started that is because I moved across country and I couldn’t see my friends on the daily or weekly like I used to. So we played D &D to just an excuse to hang out, even though it was over webcam. And this is before we used things like Rule 20 or any of the other common platforms for tabletop RPGs. So I literally had two webcams, one looking at the board, one on my face. And we were using Google Meets at the time.
Ryan George (04:09)
you
wow.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (04:24)
before it had a limited amount of meeting time. And it was really, really awesome. So when I first played, I was a dungeon master. I was very ambitious. I started off with no modules. I did my own home brew. I’m not going to say I bit off more than I can chew, but I was doing a lot of chewing, we’ll put it that way. And my friends had a good time. They appreciated the lore, all the story, the history, everything.
Ryan George (04:39)
you
Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (04:53)
that’s going to be made up by on your own merit. Fast forward the clock a decade later, I was impressed to convert it into a comic book. So I found some local talent to draw the interiors. Shout out to Evan Quiring. You can look up his stuff like Murder City Devil, Lucha Mysteries. There’s pretty cool stuff. And
The only thing I did different from the D &D Home Prue is I took my friends characters out and I made characters based off of my friends. So in regards to writing the story, it was actually kind of melted together. I knew what was happening in the world around them and I knew how they would interact with each other in their surroundings. So it was a matter of just
Ryan George (05:24)
Okay. cool.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (05:44)
letting it melt together. don’t know how else to put it. I found writing this story very easy. Now with that said, it was my first time writing a book.
I don’t know if I’m a good or bad writer. Only people that read it can tell me that. They are the actual litmus test. that part I have no control over, but what I did have control over was all of the talent that I could surround myself with. So this first issue that just was successful last May, it took two years to get to that point because I…
wanted to make sure I had something which I felt was worthy of the comic industry, regardless of whether it was the best or the worst, but something I personally felt satisfied with. There was some pretty interesting talent. Like one of the things about classic Michael Jordan’s, I believe it was Michael Jordan, he says, you miss 100 % of the shots you don’t take. Well, if you ask people to do something, the worst thing they’re going to do is say no. So I just started asking memes. I got some
Ryan George (06:42)
you know, take a year.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (06:52)
Impressive names. Dan Kemp was my colorist and he’s my colorist for issue two as well. He’s colored over 100 issues of Spawn from like basically 50 to 150. And I’ve talked with him for like hour, two hours at a time sometimes, not just about the book, just about his experience and stuff. And it’s funny because he talks about people like Capallo and McFarlane on first name basis. yeah, and then Todd told me this. I’m like, man, that’s really cool.
Ryan George (07:16)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (07:20)
Different cover artists, Harvey Salteras, who he did the first issue of Dan Ketch’s version of the Ghost Rider in the early 90s. I had him draw one of my covers for issue one, and it was really, really cool that the more I dabbled around and played in this sandbox, if you will, the more I realized how small this community really is, and they’re very, very supportive of each other.
Ryan George (07:48)
Absolutely.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (07:48)
It’s a very, very cool thing. So I’m really happy I’ve had this experience. Obviously, this issue will not take two years because I’ve got the experience and I’ve got the network down. But it’s been overall a very positive adventure, we’ll put it that way.
Ryan George (08:05)
Yeah, and I will say having read the comic, I was like, the colors are great. Like really, as somebody, what’s fun for me is as somebody who’s learning, who’s been learning how to color over the last couple years, and has kind of gotten some work now doing it, it was like, was like, okay, this is really impressive. Like I was identifying some things that I probably wouldn’t have identified if I didn’t.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (08:24)
Right on, thanks man.
Ryan George (08:29)
you know, I hadn’t been learning, I guess, you things you just know it’s good, but it was really cool. Like, Colin’s really good. And I’ll that your storytelling is very good. So, and it’s interesting hearing the, it makes sense now that you mentioned this, cause it feels, so what I would say was really impressive about the, story is, I feel like whenever you talk about writing, not that I’m saying anything about the writing, but it’s right, everybody, you know, there’s so many, everyone has their own style. So I find it very hard. I try not to, and find it hard to kind of critique.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (08:32)
I hear ya.
For sure.
Ryan George (08:55)
writing, it’s what’s the story you’re trying to tell him. This isn’t a judgment at all on the right. I’m just saying in general, it’s like, are you a good storyteller or are you not? And I felt like you did a couple of really, really good things. So, the storytelling is very good. think there is confidence in the way you tell the story because it, it’s a world that feels lived in, but you don’t feel the need to have to force exposition. And I love that. Like I love being dropped into a world and the world feels real. feels like it’s lived in. feels like nothing’s being forced on me. And I’m just, I’m in for the ride. when I
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (08:59)
All good, all good.
Yes.
Ryan George (09:24)
when I need to learn things, I learn it. And so I feel like you did a great job of that with the story. And it makes sense now that it’s based kind of, it had its kind of roots, I guess, in that D &D campaign, because it definitely felt like there was a confidence in the writing that you don’t see from first time writers. And I didn’t think that when I was reading it. So yeah, kudos to you on that.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (09:28)
Thanks man, I appreciate that.
Right on, thanks man. One thing I really wanted to do in it is, well two things. The first one is, it’s funny you mention Drop in the setting. One move I really like is The Last Judge Dread. It was literally a day in the life type of environment. And this three issue mini series in the Madcaps, it takes place all over one night. So it’s kind of a similar thing. I wanted it, it’s three issues, three acts, beginning, middle, end.
Ryan George (09:56)
Yes. Yep.
Okay, and yeah
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (10:11)
It’s kind of, as you put it, maybe not in these words, the world exists before it. There are certain things that are mentioned you don’t have full context to. One thing I really hate in stories, it’s hard not to do. I had a hard time avoiding this. It was like, sometimes you read in a panel, somebody’s explaining something to the person, even though they would have heard the person say it 1,000 times, they would have never said it.
Ryan George (10:21)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (10:39)
It’s more pandering to the reader. And sometimes you can’t get away with that. I tried really hard to avoid that. So first example is right at the start of issue one. It’s very obvious Madrakas has problems with the city, Ivywood, that they’re going into. It’s inferred. It’s talked about a little bit, but there’s no context to it. All you have to know is he doesn’t want to be there. Little things like that. I tried to just make it fleshed out without having to play it all out, if you will.
Ryan George (10:46)
Yeah.
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah, well that’s what makes it work. Because exactly, I don’t mind, I don’t need to be spoon-fed everything. And I don’t need the context, that’s clear.
And I really liked that. felt like these characters knew each other. They had a relationship that existed before the story. I didn’t need to know what the relationship was or all the details because I knew how they interacted worked. So I know I think you did a great job with storytelling in that. I think, and a big challenge I have as well, not as well, say I have a challenge and many first time writers is trying to cram too much story into that like 22 or 24 page story. don’t think anything you did a great job of not.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (11:42)
Ha ha ha.
Ryan George (11:44)
I’m not doing that. You told, you know, it’s like you tell a solid, a full story, but it’s not trying to cram everything in the world into it. think that’s always a challenge for a first time writer. So yeah, no, so, you know, I would not have known it was a, you know, your first comic because it was really, really well done. So now tell me, so guys, yeah. no, no, no, no. What were gonna say?
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (11:57)
I appreciate that man, thank you. Something else? Go ahead. all I was going to say was another thing I tried to do for sure was, like you put it, not cram too much in. All I wanted to do was just tell this little portion of a story. My original draft, I didn’t have any narration. So as you’ve seen, the narration is done through one of the characters writing a letter.
I had two reasons for that. I felt I held back a little too much. Not enough tell. I was cautious about putting in narration because I didn’t want to overly explain Sadaf just so the reader understands what’s going on. The other reason was that specific character, Chasgo. My friends who read the draft, they felt Chasgo was very sinister and I tried to give him more humanity to make him seem more realistic as opposed to
Omni-us and always in the background kind of thing.
Ryan George (12:58)
Yeah. Yeah, no, that, yeah. no. so I guess tell me, so I guess we’ve kind of touched on your story, but for, for anyone who’s listening, tell, tell our listeners about the mad caps. Give us an idea of like what’s, what’s, what’s issue one about without obviously giving things away and then kind of where things are going for issue two.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (13:00)
You were saying.
For sure.
Okay, so issue one has already been funded. I’m happy to talk about, I’m okay talking in great detail. I’ll just summarize it. So this whole book, it’s just about four friends, they’re non-human and they meet up in their home, their childhood hometown. And just before they can all start conversing, they’re caught right in middle of an undead outbreak. Three of them almost get killed during it. I’ll talk a little bit about that in a second, but.
Between the local authorities, the town guard, these four friends, and some other dynamics going on, they’re able to repel it, kill off, and stave off this outbreak. There’s a local drug going around, and the dwarf of the group, his name is Sarlacc. is, after doing a little bit of investigating on some of the fallen bodies, he finds one of the bodies has no bites on it. And there’s a
He recognized the individual as one of the junkies on this local drug problem. So as the story progresses, it’s inferred heavily that this undead outbreak has something to do with this local drug issue, which is relatively new. So by the end of it, they’re able to find a couple of individuals attached to this underground circuit.
and they’re actually able to intercept a delivery. the end of the issue is the four of them on the verge of about to, or at the beginning of interrogating a couple of these individuals and trying to find out where this stuff is coming from. The second and third issue, you can treat them individually. mean, obviously they flow together, but basically,
These fellas are, they’re given a lead and they’re going to investigate the entire issue is about one lead. And it gets to a point where they start discussing, we biting off more than we can chew? These individuals are not the most powerful or mightiest individuals in a realm. They’re there. They’ve got some cool quirks to them, of course, but it would be easy to overwhelm them. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this issue, three of them get overwhelmed by attrition. They almost die. So.
for them to sneak into a compound involving drugs. Well, obviously, as the cliche is, anybody that’s holding at large amounts of controlled substances, they’ve probably got hired goons. So here’s four individuals. Are we crazy? Like, what are we getting ourselves into? And because of that, there’s a lot of, let’s just say the stakes raise.
When do we draw back? When do we like quit while we’re ahead kind of thing? This is all a big lead up to issue three. Don’t get me wrong. Issue two is not a filler issue. Like it’s got some really cool dynamics, a couple of new things introduced about the characters. But issue three, everything leads up to issue three. it is, it’s, I don’t want to sound cliche, like it’s a wild ride, but you are.
Definitely going to be it’s it’s going to take your attention. It’s you’re not going to be giving it your attention. It will take up easily
Ryan George (16:36)
Yeah. And what’s your timeline? right now, you so I know you’ve got the like, what’s your timeline to get through the entire series?
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (16:45)
So that, I’m self-funded. I’ve got a great publisher, Phil Rester to Fillable Publishing. With that said, it depends. I’m funding it myself. So it depends how each Kickstarter does and some other variables. So this one’s coming out in the new year. The last one was funded in May. We’ll see. So there’s a couple of variables. I can’t give you a tight answer there.
Ryan George (17:14)
Yeah, no, that’s fair. So did kind of growing, did you, well, I guess as far as writing, you know, this comic, so I know you said you took a course on comic creation, but more recently, you, were there any tools or resources that you used to develop the story further specifically for comics? Or did you just kind of rely on what you were using, what you had learned previously?
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (17:37)
Okay, so I mentioned Rule 20 before, which is a D &D style platform or any tabletop RPG for that matter. I literally took all my characters and I put them in Rule 20 and I literally acted them out on the board to solidify the story in my head. I changed the character so that alters the story, of course. And I heard that was done back when Wizard Magazine was a thing and I was reading about…
Ryan George (17:52)
Okay.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (18:04)
them following some of the editors and Brian Michael Bendis, during civil war, they would literally have post-its with the names of the characters in different areas. So they wouldn’t lose track. I basically did that, but on rule 20, that was kind of my inspiration for trying that. And I found it very helpful. And, like I said before, because I knew the lore, because I knew, the history of that environment, plus these new characters.
Ryan George (18:18)
wow, okay.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (18:33)
It was, I didn’t have any writer’s block. Nothing felt like a challenge. It felt like, yeah, this would happen. yeah, this would happen next. It just, was a very natural thing. I was very fortunate there.
Ryan George (18:41)
Yeah.
Yeah, well now tell me a little bit. So I guess you’ve touched on it quite a bit with this, but what is your kind of creative process? So let’s say, okay, issue one’s finished your, know, slate’s clean or let’s even let’s say issue two, slate’s clean. I’m finished with that. How do you go about writing issue three? What are the steps that you’re taking, you know, and, you know, obviously incorporating this.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (19:02)
Okay, that’s a solid question. I haven’t heard it asked quite like that, but for me, I write the arc completely as one thing. I will divide it up, of course. I will divide up the pages and the panels, but I finished issue one, issue two, issue three, back to back. took me, in regards to converting it to a script after I acted out, took me…
about an hour a night for a week. So it’s not writing sentences to describe per se, you describe panels and then what is said. So it’s not like writing a novel, of course, but I do have to make sure I have the panels have a good sequential order to them. in regards to my process, I actually have a very mathematical approach to it. I love English, I love communication.
in any type of verbal manner, regardless of the language, I, it’s something I have you appreciate, but in regards to re breaking down a story, if I wanted to do this in three issues and I knew where it was going, I had to start. I first thing I did is I’d make an order of all the critical scenes and then, okay, that’s in book three. All of this is book two and book one. Now I have what you would call one could refer to as creative constraints. So now, okay, will this realistically fit?
in 22 pages. Yes, and then go through each. OK, now I can start flashing out accordingly. was very much, I don’t want to say plug and play, but it did come together very nicely with that style of a breakdown.
Ryan George (20:50)
Did, now in this process, did anything major have to be cut? Cause that is a major issue with writing comics is you are constrained by the number of pages and funds, right? Like, yeah, okay, it’d be great to write a 40 page issue, but it costs a lot of them. Every page, it’ll cost a bunch of money. So were there any major things that you had to cut because you just couldn’t fit it into the constraints of your script or of your page count?
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (21:04)
Right.
Well, it’s funny you mentioned that. As I was saying before, all the critical things, I divided them into the book where I thought it was weighted and balanced appropriately. I actually found it pretty easy. There was nothing I cut out. Anything I liked in there, I very much enjoyed. There’s a scene, and I’ve shared with you a link to the video where I had a voice actor, Cable Foster, act out a page and a half of my book.
And that’s the one where ChasGo uses his actual appearance as an interrogation tactic to get a guy to talk. That one, that was one of my… Yeah, I really liked that one. My friends reminded me of a scene. I forgot about the scene, but I have some friends that watch Futurama. Yep. Do you watch Futurama at all or no? There’s a scene in one of the episodes. I haven’t seen them all, but one of the episodes Fry and Bender.
Ryan George (21:46)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Which is a cool scene. That’s an issue. You’re the end of issue one, right? Yeah, that’s great. Yeah.
Okay. A little bit, but not a ton.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (22:10)
They want to play pranks on people that are cryogenically frozen for decades. So when they come out, they’ll be like, Bender’s got like a fly mask on. He’s, I’m an alien. We’ve enslaved humans and you’re going to be our food. And the guy starts panicking. He’s just kidding. I’m not a fly. Takes off his mask. I’m a wild robot. His head starts spinning. And they told, my, two of my friends told me that the scene with Chasgo, where it goes from like good cop to bad cop to worst cop.
Ryan George (22:24)
Yeah
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay, got it. Interesting.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (22:39)
was the equivalent of that scene in Futurama. Okay, this is obviously Bad Cop. he’s actually not Bad Cop. This is Bad Cop kind of thing. Did you have a favorite character?
Ryan George (22:50)
Yeah.
And that is, you know, and it might, yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (22:59)
Before you answer, I get asked that a lot and my honest answer is I treat them all as one person. So I don’t have a favorite amongst the four. I like them all because they’re of that group, if that makes sense.
Ryan George (23:13)
Yeah, I would say, forgetting the name of the, he’s Scottish, right? Or the dwarf, yes. Yeah, Sarlacc, that’s right. Yeah, it’s funny. One of the questions I was thinking is, like, Sarlacc, I keep thinking Star Wars when I think of his name. when, yeah, I love the, you did a great job writing his dialogue because I’m hearing everything in his voice, in a Scottish, with a Scottish accent.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (23:19)
The dwarf. Sarlacc.
Yes, the Sarlacc pit, yes.
Thanks, man.
It’s pretty much like somewhere between Gerard Butler and Sean Connery, somewhere in there.
Ryan George (23:43)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no, so I like it. I thought he was great. But I think what I liked, like I said, I think and I find this with my own work, whether I’m writing like comic or I’ve dabbled in writing like short stories and like I’ve been working on a novel for what feels like 20 years. for me, what’s more interesting is the dynamic between characters, you know, more than any one character. Like occasionally you’re going to get that just really cool, like badass character that you just love and identify with.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (24:04)
Okay.
Ryan George (24:11)
but often I find it’s more interesting how people engage with each other. Because it’s pretty, to me it’s kind of not easy, but it’s easy to write a good character, to some extent. But again, I like the dynamic and I think that what works more for me is just the dynamic. Like they all work well together. They seem like they have interesting and different relationships with each other.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (24:16)
That’s a good point.
Yeah, I
I’ve had questions in regards to their interactions with each other. For example, the little guy Dunin and the large guy Madrakis come into Ivywood at the start. But they split off, and then they start talking to other friends. you see, they actually have a good rapport too. Like, is there a best friends amongst them? Or they just obviously all get along that well. Going back to the interrogation scene after the information is leveraged out of the guy, you see
Ryan George (24:44)
Yeah. Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (24:59)
Chasgo and Madrakas bumping fists. they’re a little more chaotic in their tactics. Dun and Sarlak obviously come from places of good deeds and you can see they relate a lot in that respect. But then on the flip side, you can see Sarlak and Madrakas just when they get together, Madrakas is ribbing him a little bit saying, you look a little underdressed. you could see, like you mentioned, there are different
Ryan George (25:01)
Yeah. Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (25:29)
between one or more individuals, you do see the rapport. Something I tried really hard to flesh out without saying, these people are all friends kind of thing. You just show and not tell as they say. Yeah.
Ryan George (25:37)
Exactly. And that’s thing. That’s what works to me is that you get it. Exactly. Yeah. No, that’s it. And it’s a perfect example of this. think there’s, you know, especially in comics, you got to get, you got to get to it. And, you know, it’s, and you only have so much space to, to, to share dialogue. So the more you can do that with the visuals and with little, little, you know, small bits of dialogue, I think it goes a really long way. So now what any, are there any writers or artists or comics specifically that like inspire you?
or kind of that you have in mind when you’re writing or anything that really is sort of an important inspiration for writing comics for you.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (26:13)
So in regards to writing, I treat it like I’m reporting facts. So I try really hard to avoid being like somebody else. Now, I have to be careful when I word it like that, because I can come across as very pious or arrogant. It’s not, let’s say I was aspiring to be a writer on caliber of Peter David. I love Peter David. I love his stuff when he went and
fleshed out the concept of the maestro. I loved his follow-up novel of What Savage Beast of the Incredible Hulk from the 90s. There’s lots of cool stuff. But if I was trying to be Peter David, I’m always going to be second place. Because Peter David is Peter David. I’m not going to be a better Peter David than Peter David. So with that said, if I was writing a novel, I would actually find this a lot harder because there’s so many ways you can talk about
what the moon looks like in the sky. And every author says it differently, and they’re all awesome for their own reasons. For me, all I had to say was that the moon was in the sky, and the artist fleshed that out for me. So there’s a little bit of a hack there. In regards to how they interacted with each other, again, I had more of a mathematic approach to it. I don’t know how else to explain that. It was almost like an algorithm.
If this happens, this would happen. There’s no other way around this. So because of that, since it was a comic style script, I felt like I was just reporting the facts. Some a little more fleshed out than others, of course, but I give it to the artist and the artist goes to town with it.
Ryan George (27:57)
Yeah, no, that’s a fair point. like that. You’re that like I think about that and talk to people about that a lot when it comes to writing. And it definitely is harder writing prose because, it’s like you’re, you know, and sometimes you get stuck in that trap of like trying to write too flowery because everybody else does it. And sometimes you just have to kind of tell the story that you want to tell. But yeah, I think that’s thing is that, know, you be yourself, right? Tell like, you know, think I heard Kevin Smith say something on his podcast once that really resonated with me was basically tell the story that only you can tell.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (28:14)
Yeah.
Yes.
Ryan George (28:26)
And that always sticks with me. It’s like, yeah, you know, anytime I feel like imposter syndrome or any doubt, it’s like, well, no, it’s story in my head. I’m the only one who can tell it. And I’m going to tell it the way I want to tell it. And then I can tell it. And I try to avoid too much trying to be like anybody else or trying to, you know, like I have my influences, but I’m not going to try to sound like this person or try to write a comic like that.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (28:31)
Ha ha ha.
Yes.
Yes. To reflect on that a little bit, think it’s a very interesting thing of
I guess the best way to put it, my late father, once said, if you’re going to put shingles on your roof and you tell 40 people, suddenly you’re talking to 40 roofers. They’re all know-it-alls. He says the smartest thing to do is tell people you put shingles on the roof after. Don’t say during or leading because everybody’s going to pull your opinion either what way. I felt the same thing with writing the story. Again, I don’t know if I’m a good writer or not, but I did share my story with a couple of people to review and critique and
Ryan George (29:02)
Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (29:22)
I think if I shared it before it was finished, I think they would have pulled me in many different directions and would have been very difficult to find my center on it. But if I show them the end product, they see where I’m going. Instead of turning me in another direction, they might have the same endpoint but have a couple of curves in it. It seemed the editors have more of my vision in their best efforts, I guess is the best way to put it. But yeah, like you’re saying, it’s a
Ryan George (29:42)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (29:52)
There’s so many opinions out there and I personally, like you said, I don’t try to… Peter David is gonna be the best Peter David. Why would I try to out Peter David, Peter David? That’s virtually impossible. So here’s my stuff.
Ryan George (29:54)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly. Yeah, I you tell your story and yeah, like there’s a place for editing and feedback. But yeah, everybody’s got an opinion, even if it’s not valid, like you mentioned with the roofers and it can pull you in the wrong direction. So think that’s the right way go about it is like, you write your story, you share it with some people that you trust and you just put it out there.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (30:21)
Yes.
Yeah.
You mentioned imposter syndrome. If you are suffering from something like that, you would be more inclined to take confident advice that isn’t necessarily in your best interest. Hence the reason, finish it. Okay, what do you think? I’m going to get more something in my best interest out of them.
Ryan George (30:40)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly. Yeah. I think with something like this, especially, it’s like, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s relatively low stakes, right? Like it’s important for us to get these out there. And there’s a hope that, that maybe, you know, at some level people like it and maybe it takes to somewhere, but, you know, it’s not like somebody’s invested, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars into this project and it has to, you know, do whatever. there, yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (31:07)
This has got to do good, man. I better make this awesome. There’s no pressure.
Ryan George (31:10)
So there’s room to tell it the way you want to tell it and be your own kind of boss with this kind of thing that you don’t necessarily have that luxury. I you hear all the time about, you know, whether it, you know, movies where, you know, it’s like the writer wrote one thing and then the vision, you know, the studio notes and the director, and all of a sudden it is a completely different thing. think that’s a nice thing here is that we don’t have to be beholden to, you know, other masters. And if you let people get in your ear, it’s very quick, easy to completely change, you know, change things around.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (31:13)
Yes.
Yes.
That’s right.
Yes.
Ryan George (31:39)
So I wanted to talk a little bit about D &D, part selfishly, because it’s something that I’ve recently gotten into. And I’ve been playing a few campaigns. I guess tell me about your hit back, a little bit about D &D. I know you mentioned that you started, played with friends as kind of way to kind of keep together. But I guess a bit about kind of what got you into DMing and how like being creating for D &D.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (31:46)
Yes, sir.
.
Ryan George (32:06)
has helped with your writing. Because I heard an interesting theory that comics are obviously like, yeah, when we were in high school, junior high school, I’m not sure if it’s the same in Canada, like how they call it, they call it, but middle school. So if you were into comics, you were a nerd and you were kind of ostracized. And now like.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (32:18)
Depending on the city, yes, there’s junior high.
Mm-hmm.
Ryan George (32:26)
the comics and comic book movies are the biggest thing in pop culture. And the theory is kind of that because a lot of the writers that are writing the things we watch today all grew up playing D &D and that kind of got those creative juices flowing. So I’m interested to hear from your perspective, guess, you know, just your background with D &D and then how, how it’s kind of influenced your own writing and creative process.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (32:38)
I can respect that.
Okay, before we get there, I got to reflect on one thing that you mentioned there because I deaf that resonates with me a lot. Back in the day, there was this very heavy shift of not cool to cool with comic books. And that began with the first one in my opinion, that was not cartoon because people would grudgingly accept Batman the animated series or Spider-Man the animated series.
And there’s others in there, but the big one that I noticed, it started with late high schoolers a little before my time was Blade in 98, summer of 98. Okay, vampires are cool. Black leather, black leather and sunglasses, Blade, Underworld, The Matrix. Like there’s a theme in that era, right? X-Men, yes, that was, yeah, that’s the big four right there. You got the last one there.
Ryan George (33:25)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, X-Men, the original X-Men then took that same aesthetic. Yeah. Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (33:41)
But Blade did it. X-Men was the real, OK, it’s not vampires, so we can’t hide behind that. This is actually superheroes. For what it was worth when it came out, awesome. And then Spider-Man was the official, OK, comics are cool now. It just shot up from there, in my opinion. But in regards to being a dungeon master, yeah, that’s in my name there. Where is it? Can I point? There, right there. There it is.
Ryan George (33:48)
Yeah.
Yep. Yep, I’m ready. Yep.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (34:10)
That’s Dungeon Master. We didn’t have a Dungeon Master. So I suggested it. So if I’m going to suggest that, can’t sit back and let everybody just do it for me. So I just decided, you know what? I really want to hang out with my friends. I better make this work. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been a player. And I’m not complaining about that. It’s the classic forever DM, as they call it,
Ryan George (34:34)
Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (34:37)
I’m sure you heard of always a bridesmaid, never a bride. always a dungeon master, never a player kind of thing. And I currently host a campaign we’ve been playing for over two years now. And we are almost at our 45th meeting. we try to make it monthly. Sometimes there’s hiatuses here and there, but we always get it working.
Ryan George (34:40)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
wow, okay.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (35:04)
I’ve played another one that was, I think, 18 months long. I forget how many meetings, but all of it takes place in the same lore. I’ve never used modules. I find they’re too confining and there’s too much for me to memorize that I didn’t make up. It’s like imposed information as opposed to generated information. It’s more demanding. It’s harder to prep.
I think some of my favorite one shots I did one where six politicians had to gather in a dungeon. It was run by two druids. That was the king and the queen of the land and their druids are traditionally neutral. So we don’t know how to take on this oncoming threat. So you six politicians are going to decide for us. So I made all the characters up for this one. I supplied all the characters. There were three different props.
three different parties. Half of the members were part of one party had two members in one part, one other party and then the third party had one individual. And they all had to like discuss how to stave off this invasion involving one of their biggest protectors was an artifact where in the city should we put it where would be most beneficial. They all had their own political reasons for putting it in their own personal areas. But what they didn’t know is I
I put in two assassins that tried to kill a politician and the politicians after they stave off these two assassins they look through the things and they find an insignia of the one political bloc that’s half of the group. So now we have an alliance of like two different parties versus one party and the big kicker is all of them were warlocks and had different patrons so they all just start busting out eldritch blasts and
Ryan George (36:48)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (37:00)
They start summoning like elementals and it was just really wild. The funny part is, aside from making the characters obviously, and nobody knew they were, were each other were warlocks, putting them inside this confined area, they can’t leave until they all decide the Druids will let them out. And those assassins, other than those three variables, they did the rest of the story, because it was
Ryan George (37:27)
you
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (37:28)
It was pretty much just combat. the more I’ve DMed, the more I found that the less is more. The least amount of details I give them, not in descriptors or anything like that, but the less creative constraints I give them, the more I’m impressed and they give me a better result. And they’re more happy as well, which is really awesome. I love DMing.
Ryan George (37:30)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it sounds it seems like fun. Like I’ve it seems scary to me to go about it. But it definitely seems like, yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, it’s true. So it’s like, but it’s definitely been fun kind of learning how to play and I can see how it really can help with the those kind of creative. You get kind of get the creative juices flowing. Now, do you do you listen? So it’s yeah, so this so there’s there’s a couple
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (37:57)
Yes, it’s like a carnival. It’s just as exciting as it is scary.
Yes, tell me about your character. You played a character last week.
Ryan George (38:22)
There’s a couple of campaigns I’m playing in. is a good friend of mine who’s kind of starting. He heard I was playing in another game and he got it. He was like, I’m going to start one up. like the one that I’m doing right now is I am a, is like, it’s in a world that is, it’s, God, I’m trying to think. It’s kind of like the expanse. Have you ever watched the expanse?
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (38:49)
I’ve never seen the expanse though.
Ryan George (38:50)
Okay, so great, great. Actually, that was also kind of they’d started with the idea of a tabletop RPG and then turned it into like a book and then a TV show and everything. But it’s it’s you’re on a ship that travels from planet to planet. And my character is like a mechanic that was a failed chef on Venus. And we ended up with it just end up on this team of a group of the team people who yeah, just
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (39:07)
Cool.
Now is this Starfinder or is this D &D?
Ryan George (39:14)
So it’s D &D, but it’s a heavily modified apparently with the guy that actually is creating it kind of created a system and modified a bunch on it. And then the other one is we’re just kind of getting started. So kind of getting started with building, know, we played a few basically like a bunch of test games. And now actually this week we’re going to start actually a full on campaign.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (39:17)
Interesting.
That’s cool.
Awesome. That’s really cool.
Ryan George (39:36)
So it’s been fun. I did, so I did something really cool this weekend. So my wife got us tickets. It was my birthday and my wife got us tickets to, it’s called the 20 sided tavern. So it’s a, it was a off Broadway D and D thing. Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (39:48)
That’s in New York, yes, I saw an ad for that, that’s cool.
Ryan George (39:52)
It’s really, it was really cool. Like it’s really well done. So basically, you know, the way, the way it was set up is they, you know, the sets awesome. The sets basically like a tavern. There’s this really, there’s a projector screen that is really, really well done. Like this, like when I walked in, I thought that it was just the set until like the projector changed to something else, but they were really good job with that. Like in the, like part of the cast. there’s like a couple of the people are actual Broadway, you know, like Broadway actors. Like I think the DM is like an actor, but
She’s just a massive D &D fanatic and, and he was an amazing DM. And then of the cast, believe one or two were like improv actors who also like play D &D. So they’re, they’re amazing because they’re professional improv actors. like their timing, like the comic timing was amazing. They’re so quick. And then there was one of the players who was like a, I don’t know who she is, but like,
I guess, you know, she like in the DND community, she’s like really well known because there were people freaking out to have met her. Yeah. Her name was Abira Iyengar. I mean, I know she’s been on some of the popular DND podcasts and I just, there were people that were like freaking out like when they met her. And it was, was really fun. Like they, it was interactive too. So there were a lot of times like when you get in, they had you scan with the QR code.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (40:51)
Did- was there a name? Do you remember?
I don’t think I know her.
Cool. That’s cool.
Ryan George (41:14)
So there were moments where it’s like, they going to, you know, are they going to try deception or are they going to try, you know, you know, persuasion and you would get to choose as an audience, like what, what direction they go with it. And they did a cool thing too, where with the dice rolls, so they had a little bucket for the die and there was a camera pointing down at the bucket. whenever anybody rolled a die, they just had, they put projected onto the screen so you could see what they, what they rolled. So that was cool. But definitely they did a really good job with it. So it was, you know, definitely a lot of fun.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (41:22)
So the audience voted. Wow, that’s neat.
You can see it.
Awesome. That’s cool.
Ryan George (41:46)
And like, yeah, highly recommended. don’t know if you ever, ever planning coming out to New York and it’s, well, it’s, it’s done in next year, but if you’re coming in between now and like April of 2025, definitely recommend it.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (41:55)
Yeah, that might, I might. If I can get the time off, I would definitely go.
Ryan George (42:00)
Yeah.
So I guess, so let’s talk a little bit about Kickstarter. Cause obviously for a lot of people that listening to this, they’re going to kind of be in the same world that, you know, that we’ve both been in last year running, you know, running that first Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for a comic. What was your experience doing that for the first time? Like what were the kind of, what were the things that you wish you could, you could have that?
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (42:01)
Yes, sir.
Yes.
Ryan George (42:22)
and maybe things that you’re going to, know, next time around that you’re going to kind of try to correct or fix, or, maybe it all ran perfect, but yeah, kind of what was your kind of experience doing that the first time around?
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (42:27)
I was very fortunate because I hit all my stretch goals. I didn’t have big target goals. Because I paid for everything upfront, I just wanted to express the story. So I was able to put a low goal and then stretch goals, which I hit. I was very grateful for. There are a few add-ons I may have modified or removed or replaced.
but that’s minor. was very fortunate because it was actually run by my publisher, Phil Russert of Fillable Publishing. So I was very fortunate on that respect. So there’s certain things I could take my time with. And there was other things my publishers were like, make sure for X, Y, and Z, make sure you cover these certain things, stay on the update game, the works.
If I had, well, I’m doing it again with my publisher. So this time around, I’m going to try a couple of different add-ons. I’m on the fence about maybe t-shirts or maybe a hat. I think it’d be kind of funny to have a cap that says mad caps on it, but I think one thing I would really love to do, and I’m not sure how I would pull this off.
Ryan George (43:41)
Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (43:52)
but I would absolutely love to make action figures out of my characters. I think that would be fun. Go ahead.
Ryan George (43:56)
So I would give you two, yeah, so I’ll give you bit of advice. I would, might be easy enough. So I guess the question is how you would modeling it, but it’s not, you could pay somebody to 3D model it or you could do it on something like Hero Forge or something like that. You can make characters. I don’t know how close, but I would say if you have any questions on.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (44:01)
Hmm
For sure.
Ryan George (44:16)
on creating it, because then it’s a matter of either do you pay somebody to do it, or do you just get a 3D printer yourself and make them yourself, which is what I did for my campaign, is we actually made had them made, and they came out really good. I’m into 3D printing, so I kind of do that. But I was able to kind of with the right kind of printer and the right material, can actually
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (44:22)
Right. Awesome.
Mm-hmm.
Ryan George (44:33)
make that depends on what you’re doing if you’re making move, you possible or do they just is just a figure that’s just, you know, kind of a regular figure. But but you’re really get a couple like I made them like old school, like, you know, 80s like action figures. And again, they came out really good. I found somebody on Etsy to design them for me. And that was pretty, pretty easy. But I was the part for me is I was able to 3D print them. But it honestly like printers and materials are not that expensive now. So it’s something you wanted to do. You could I think the most the most challenging part would be the packaging.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (44:47)
Yeah, yeah. Right on.
That’s awesome.
Right.
Ryan George (45:02)
Like if you’re going to do really nice packaging, think that’s going to cost more and be more effort than actually like printing the action figures.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (45:05)
Great.
In regards to articulation, think there’s a couple of really, like two of the individuals have capes. One’s a hood, of course, but I would like that to be actual cloth. I mean, there’s lots nowadays that have some type of, be it a vinyl or just straight up printed cape, but I think I would want mine to be cloth. There’s so, like Dun and Inni, he’s got that modified telescope that he can blast raw magic out of. I would like that to kind of wheel out over his shoulder.
Ryan George (45:10)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. That would be cool. Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (45:38)
There’s a lot to consider there, it sounds like with today’s trend of more common manufacturing technologies, it sounds like it wouldn’t be too bad to put together.
Ryan George (45:49)
No. Yeah, I think you have to think about it and how much that’s going to cost, you know, and do you get like, for, for me, I did well, like my campaign did well, but I definitely ate it a bit on the action figures because I didn’t sell as much and definitely put some money into it, but it’s still, it’s still just cool to have it. So I wouldn’t have given, know, wouldn’t trade it.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (46:04)
Ha ha ha.
Yes.
Ryan George (46:11)
But yeah, that’s something you obviously to think about like how many of these am going to sell or, know, and the upfront cost of making it, whether you’re sending it to a manufacturer that’s going to do it for you or you’re, you know, trying to handle it in-house, it’s still a decent amount of upfront cost getting like the design done. And especially if you want some articulation and if you want like, although you again, it depends on how DIY you want to do it. You could theoretically create the cloth part yourself, but you know, it becomes like, it becomes a bit of an upfront cost, but nothing.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (46:25)
Right.
Right.
Ryan George (46:39)
Nothing too crazy. And again, it’s like, you got an action figure of your character. So regardless, it’s a really cool thing.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (46:42)
Yes. Yeah, I think that’d be really awesome. I like the height difference. The shortest guy is just under four feet. And then the largest guy, Madrakis, is six, seven. So there’s a nice little range, which I think is really cool. So I think if they were all standing together. I’ve got some arts that I can’t quite show off yet, unfortunately. I’ve got Victor Medina working on the interiors this time. And I’ve got
Ryan George (46:53)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (47:12)
four cover artists already putting art together. The main cover, I mean, they’re all looking great. The main cover that has all four individuals in it. I am, I’m a big fan. And when I see that cover, think action figures, it just, it looks the part.
Ryan George (47:27)
Yeah. that’s yeah, that’s right. And especially that you mentioned earlier, like talking about like growing up with like He-Man and G.I. Joe and you know, even the Ghostbusters, like we all had those toys. And so, yeah, just like kind of a cool nostalgic feeling to have that, you know, as well. So,
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (47:37)
Yes.
Yeah, well, one of the things about nostalgia, a lot of people like nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia, what I try to do, some people, they look back, and I’m not saying everybody does this, but you always think of like the one jock in high school that peaked in high school and is always looking back. I’ve never put the past behind me. I’ve always put it ahead of me and I use it to drive me to new things. the action figures,
Ryan George (48:08)
Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (48:11)
Well, why does it have to be just the 80s? Action figures now. It was cool then. Let’s make it cool now, regardless of nostalgia. So I really like how you mentioned that. That’s a very important thing.
Ryan George (48:15)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, no, that’s good. And that’s a good perspective to have on it. Cause you don’t want to necessarily like live in the past, but so how do you make that part of your, your current life? Yeah. Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (48:27)
Yes. Do know the late comedian Mitch Hedberg? You ever heard of him? He has a joke once he said, I just found it so funny, which he says, if I ever go to a job interview and the employer asks me, where do you see yourself in five years? And I will say to them, celebrating the five year anniversary of you asking me this question, that in my mind, that is like the extreme of bad nostalgia.
Ryan George (48:54)
Yeah, absolutely.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (48:56)
You’re looking back to look back, that kind of thing.
Ryan George (48:58)
Yeah, no, exactly. I think, but it is it’s an interesting world we’re in where we are kind of like dominated by by nostalgia, like even like some I’ve heard it referred to as like weaponized nostalgia. And it can be
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (49:09)
Yeah, yeah, it’s a very, very interesting time because you go back a century, we couldn’t relive footage from 20 years prior. That wasn’t an option. So that’s kind of a very new dynamic us as humans are going through right now. And I’m sure 50 years from now, there will be studies to show the pros and the cons of dipping into such potential that humans can never do before. Very interesting to me.
Ryan George (49:19)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So tell me a little bit about, so tell, when’s the next Kickstarter coming out? When are you gonna be running that next campaign?
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (49:46)
So that campaign, we’re shooting for the first, late in the first quarter of 2025. The only reason for that, like I said, self-funded. So there’s lots of dynamics at play. All of the names I can mention, I already mentioned Victor Medina. There’s, who can I mention here? There’s some I can, some I can’t. I actually have a list.
And I can say who. Kenny Calderon, he’s doing the main one. Jay Sloan. We have Sean Langley. He did the splash, or not the splash page. He did the poster for the first campaign. Him and Dan Kemp worked very well together. I don’t think I can mention any other names currently. man. Rod, Rod.
Ryan George (50:40)
But it’s exciting to have to even have that.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (50:44)
Rodolfo, he’s another one. They all have different styles and I like their expressions. Everything I’ve seen so far on the second issue has been fire in my opinion. Again, I want something I feel is worthy of the industry and these guys are definitely earning their money, we’ll put it that way.
Ryan George (50:59)
Yeah.
So now one other, one question before we wrap up, I always ask everybody. So if I’m creating my kind of our kind of library here of comics that have been recommended by creators. if there’s one comic that you’d say, this is the book that you’d recommend to people, what would you say? What should we add to our library of recommendations?
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (51:23)
Original Secret Wars, all 12 issues. That one, like the, there’s so many pieces of nuance. was the, if I remember correctly, that was Marvel’s first time having such a large crossover. I really liked the idea, even at the start, something like, Beyonder, what is this good and evil? Well, let’s separate the people that think they’re good versus the people that think they’re bad. So all of the…
Ryan George (51:25)
Okay, got it. Cool.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (51:48)
heroes are together and they look behind him, what’s Magneto doing here? Well, that makes sense because in his mind, he’s the hero of the story. And all of the intersections of opinions and the clashes and just watching that all play out and then just on top of all of it, Dr. be like, you know what, I want to be the Beyonder. You think the big threat is going to be Galactus trying to eat the planet and everybody’s trying to shut down his ship as it’s entering the atmosphere.
Ryan George (51:51)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
You
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (52:15)
No, well, what’s worse than something that can eat a planet? How about a guy that can steal powers and make his own planets? How about that? my goodness, it just kept escalating. that was an era where there was definitely a lot more dialogue. With that said, I appreciated the dialogue for what it was. And all of the intersecting stories all had purpose, not filler. There’s times you can see not all modern
Ryan George (52:21)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (52:44)
comics have filler issues. I’m not going to say they all do, but Secret Wars definitely does not.
Ryan George (52:48)
Yeah. Yeah. That’s a great recommendation. So now where can people find you? with social media, anywhere that people can find you if they wanna keep up with what’s going on.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (53:02)
So as I was saying DM is short for Dungeon Master. You can look up DM Ray on Facebook. You can find my Facebook page of the Madcaps on Facebook as well. You can also find me on Twitter as Raymond the DM. DM Ray was taken. And Instagram of the same moniker. I am…
I’m slowly building up what is now known as Twixtor, but I’m going to start posting more things on there. Those are the big ones right now. We’ll put it that
Ryan George (53:36)
Yeah. Awesome. Well, Ray, it was great talking to you. It’s one of my favorite conversations that I’ve had while doing this. really, thank you so much. I look forward to doing it again. Thank you.
Ray Jamison (DM Ray) (53:44)
Right on. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you.