Comic creator Tony James joins me to talk about Moonshine, his new sci-fi western on Kickstarter. We cover lunar outlaws, alien threats, western grit, and the science behind Helium-3. Plus, Tony shares his Kickstarter tips, world-building secrets, and favorite old-school idioms.
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Ryan George (08:57)
So, yeah, so like speaking of Star Noir, that’s kind of what put you on my radar. I saw, I’d seen it posted on several, you know, Reddit and on some Facebook groups that were on. I thought, it looks great. I’m a fan of noir stories. I also love Star Wars. So right away, it was like something that drew me in.
⁓ But for you, what was the, you know, obviously, and a clever title, obviously, Star Noir. But what was the idea for you? Like, what gave you that idea to create this kind of noir detective story? ⁓ And then coming up with the title.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (09:29)
⁓ was kind of a combination of two passions that I have. ⁓ one is old Hollywood movies, from the forties. ⁓ I really liked that kind of like fast talking dialogue. ⁓ they almost like, like stage play, like nature of it, how it’s like, rather than a whole bunch of cuts, characters are just kind of moving around the space. and, ⁓ LA Noire is also, LA Noire is one of my favorite, video games.
Ryan George (09:55)
Okay, yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (09:55)
I just
really love the way they kind of show that era and all the detective work that goes in it. And the other is just like kind of a guilty pleasure of like alien conspiracies. Like all the fun ones about like crop circles and people who have been abducted and all that. Basically all the stuff that you would show on like an ancient aliens episode. ⁓ And I just thought it would be kind of a ⁓ cool idea to kind of like mesh the two. Cause I wanted to do a detective story. ⁓
Yeah, just the idea of kind of like, right, well, what if his partner’s an alien and what if it’s in the 1940s? And I just thought that was pretty, that would be interesting concept for a story. And then, you know, I was just thinking about different titles or like, you know, what would be kind of fitting for it. And Star Noir was just kind of a a fun mashup of two words and two genres. ⁓ Yeah, I just thought Star Noir was fun to say. And yeah, sure enough, other people thought it was fun as well.
Ryan George (10:54)
Yeah, how many, so you’re three issues into that story, right?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (10:57)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
there’s six books. Each one’s about 50 pages long. So they’re good sizable chapters.
Ryan George (11:04)
Yeah. And then do you have a, like, is there a set amount that you plan on for that series?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (11:10)
⁓ This one is six books. ⁓ There’s different permutations of Star Noir. There’s other precincts in Los Angeles. There’s also a New York one that I want to do as a companion piece. ⁓ Just kind of have it loosely connected. But that one has a lot of old speakeasies and old subway stations. ⁓ But it’s kind of on the same premise of this alien comes down and has to work with this human detective to
Ryan George (11:14)
Mm.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (11:40)
solve the mystery of some shapeshifter or some other alien entity that’s kind of threatening humans.
Ryan George (11:47)
Yeah, with when you’re working on several projects at the same time, do you, well, I guess the question is ⁓ having several things kind of that you’re working on, are you at any point ever working on producing multiple projects at the same time or will you stick with like, okay, we’ll work on Star Noir, now Moonshine, now like how do you manage kind of so many things and also like just, you know, the costs associated with kind of doing all that.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (12:12)
⁓ well, ⁓ the managing the different projects, ⁓ it really is kind of a hot potato back and forth. and it’s really just like, I, you know, all of the work that I have to do for all projects is on like a giant list. And then, ⁓ you really just kind of narrowing it down to like, all right, well, what’s, what’s the most pressing, you know, so there was, there was like,
you know, a week where it was just like, okay, we have to do stuff for moonshine because the Kickstarter is coming up. So there were notes for artists for Star Noir where it was like, okay, well they have to hang out for just half a second. So I can kind of get this moonshine stuff underway. And then once it was underway, I was like, all right, now it’s back to Star Noir. You know, so it was just like, like today it was like one part promoting moonshine, the other part, like prepping new Star Noir pages for color.
while I had to quickly like sign off on some sketches that the artist is gonna go then do detailed pencils on. was just, it’s just a lot of just like just moving back and forth between projects. then, know, cost wise, mean, you know, the internet, you know, is largely responsible for Star Noir’s existence. know, I can’t make the book without Kickstarter’s help. ⁓ Luckily they are very passionate readers that wanna see more books. ⁓
So yeah, cost wise, know, the internet really picks up the tab on ensuring that each new book exists. ⁓ And then I’m, yeah, and I’m just trying to like, you know, like an air traffic controller, like when one plane lands, another one’s got to go in the air. ⁓ And, you know, a lot of days it’s just coming out of a fire hose. So I just try to, so I just really just try to, you know, manage as much as I can and just, you know, enjoy the little victories that you get done. All right. Well, I got.
Ryan George (13:45)
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s a good way to put it.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (14:01)
new pages approved. All right, well, I got new colors in. All right, well, I got a few backers for the project. So it’s just trying to do as much as you can and keep your sanity in the process.
Ryan George (14:10)
Yeah.
So now with those are a couple of things that I really liked about starting one. I want to kind of get your ⁓ your take on how you’re able to manage these things. So first you brought up a little bit and we’ll also talk maybe a little bit about how you manage this with moonshine. But obviously when you’re dealing with the time, you know, a period piece and you’re trying to get somewhat historically accurate dialogue, how how are you how do you go about
you making sure that you’re using words, phrases, idioms of the time. How do you, how do you get, make sure you’re doing it correctly? And then how do you also just manage that you’re not overdoing it and that you’re still kind of trying to appeal to a modern audience that’s going to, you know, going to be consuming it.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (14:52)
I think it’s just kind of a balance. think I’ve so many ⁓ like 1940s movies from that era. ⁓ I think a lot of it is just kind of hardwired into my brain. ⁓ I think kind of the characters kind of naturally speak like that just because I’ve watched so many movies. ⁓ But a lot of ⁓ those idioms, a lot of those phrases, like we use variations of those ⁓ of today. ⁓
You know, so I think it still reads well for a modern audience. ⁓ But you you get like, ⁓ you know, you beat the devil around the horn or so, or we’re both in the soup or, you know, ⁓ these kinds of phrases that seem kind of hokey, but because of the 1940 setting, a reader would kind of expect that type of stuff. And I just make sure that I just don’t overdo it. You know, just, you know, make sure the characters always sound believable.
Ryan George (15:35)
Yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (15:51)
so that the reader can engage with them.
Ryan George (15:53)
Yeah. Now, did you find, is there a phrase, let’s say, like, we’ll get to Western later, but from the, like, that time period, that’s like your favorite phrase or something that like you wish would come back today?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (16:06)
⁓ man. ⁓ I mean, I, we don’t use, we’re, we don’t use like we’re in the, we’re in the soup. Like we’re, we’re in trouble. ⁓ that’s a, that’s a funny one. ⁓ I used, I use that in my regular life. I was a bad Kickstarter day. So it looks like we’re all in the soup. ⁓ that one’s kind of a fun one. ⁓ yeah, there’s, there’s like a whole like list of idioms that I have for the star and war, like outlines that I have.
Ryan George (16:14)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (16:34)
But probably that one. was probably the word. They were in the soup. I think actually I was at a baseball game once as a Yankee fan like at City Field and I was talking to a Mets fan and both teams are doing terribly. So I said, looks like we’re both in the soup. And he actually laughed because he got the phrasing.
Ryan George (16:49)
Okay.
good, good. Yeah, yeah, that’s even better. Right? Like if you use it, then somebody actually gets what you’re saying. ⁓ So now, now, and the other thing is, I think you also do a really good job of kind of mixing genres, right? So it has that noir aesthetic while also really being legitimately sci-fi. ⁓ How do you go about like, do or do you know, do you feel like you have to actively work on
Mixing the genres that you’re not too focused on one or the other. Did you feel like that comes naturally? Like how do you go about that?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (17:23)
I think it’s trying to make sure that one genre is leading and the other one is trying to ⁓ be baked in. Like with Star Noir, that 1940s noir aesthetic, that’s what leads. And ⁓ I try to figure out how all of the alien aspect, the sci-fi aspect ⁓ fits into it into a way where it doesn’t take over and diminish the 1940s setting. So we fully commit to that setting.
And so it’s the aliens that appear in Alan’s, in Alan, our main character, his backyard. ⁓ you know, it’s, you know, the, lounge singer that, you know, has, you know, secret eyes that lets you know that she’s, that she’s not from earth. ⁓ just trying to make it, make sure that like, yeah, the sci-fi stuff doesn’t like take over the noir setting. Like I remember there was one, one reader in the beginning when the first book was out, they were worried that at one point the detective would be like,
like on another planet at a certain point and that I would like leave the 1940s aesthetic behind. And it’s like, no, this story like fully commits. Like it brings the aliens into this world and has a specific purpose and doesn’t try to overshadow the 1940 setting.
Ryan George (18:24)
Okay. Yeah.
No, I think you do, like, I’m not just saying it, like, I think you do a brilliant job of that, both, like, thematically, but also just visually. Like, it just has, it keeps that look, but it’s so, like, wait, but there’s an alien. It’s like, it’s great, because it’s, so familiar, but then the alien looks exactly like it fits, you know, it fits on the page in a lot of it. So think you do a great job with that, with Starnor.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (18:56)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan George (19:00)
So now let’s turn over to Moonshine. So I know we talked about it a little bit. You mentioned, I was selling My Western, and you mentioned that you were working on the Sci-Fi Western. So tell me a little bit about Moonshine. And yeah, tell the listeners what’s story about, how you came up with it.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (19:17)
Okay, so the moon is rich in this element called Helium-3 and it’s created by the solar winds from the sun just basically pummeling the moon for billions of years. Because the moon has no atmosphere, a lot of that solar energy gets absorbed into the lunar dirt and the rocks ⁓ and it creates this element called Helium-3. And Helium-3…
Ryan George (19:19)
Yeah
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (19:43)
⁓ Scientists say that like 200 pounds of that stuff can power the city of Dallas for a year. So when we’re able to successfully create a mining colony on the moon, that is the energy source that will probably replace fossil fuels ⁓ because the moon is just covered in this stuff. There are small elements that we have of helium-3 on Earth, but because of our atmosphere and because of ⁓
like our magnetic poles, a lot of that stuff doesn’t penetrate Earth’s atmosphere. So I thought that was a good kind of premise to kind of fit our Western around. ⁓ know, our outlaws who are called rovers, ⁓ they got to kind of band together and ride to the far side of the moon to repair these reactors. ⁓ And there’s plenty of complications that happen on this mission. There’s ⁓ not everything is
⁓ goes according to a plan. ⁓ there’s a government called Saros, ⁓ that’s kind of hiding some secrets along the way. ⁓ and it ends up becoming like a suicide mission essentially. ⁓ and a bunch of rovers leave and, ⁓ and at a select few very come back. ⁓ and there’s a lot of dangers along the way. I mean, not only do you have rival gangs, but there are four types of moon, ⁓ of moonquakes that happen. ⁓ you know, one is called is caused by the polarity that the
the tidal way of the tidal lock between Earth and the moon kind of stretches the moon a little bit which creates creates a moonquake. ⁓ There’s one that’s caused by ⁓ asteroids just like hitting hitting the lunar surface. ⁓ There’s one that’s caused by temperature spikes because the moon when it’s in sunlight is like plus 250 degrees Fahrenheit and then at night it’s like sub 250 degrees.
So when it shifts from light to from dark to light like the it goes from a very frozen Rock to like a very hot ones big basically going to a deep freezer to an oven and they’re both trying to kill you ⁓ and there’s actually a moment in the story where they’re they’re having an argument at camp and as the light shifts and the temperature spikes it creates an Earthquake moonquake and the fourth one is ⁓ known as a shallow moonquake
Ryan George (21:51)
Hmm. Yeah.
Okay.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (22:07)
And ⁓ scientists are not really sure what causes it. ⁓ And that’s where we sort of inject our aliens. Like we have these aliens called creeps that kind of burrow out of the lunar dirt. ⁓ And when they come out, they cause their own sort of moonquake as well. So just a fun way to kind of blend some of the science ⁓ with the story.
Ryan George (22:28)
Yeah.
Well, yeah, that was my next question. So I guess ⁓ it sounds like you’ve got a good grasp on like, know, if you’ve got a good grasp on some of the science of what happens on the moon. now is, is it that you use the science in clever ways to inform the story or do you try to keep it like, I don’t think it’s hard sci-fi, but are you trying to make it like hard sci-fi and keep it as scientifically accurate as possible?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (22:53)
⁓ I, I try to keep it like there’s a ⁓ element of believability and star noir has that too, even though there are aliens and then you see, you see a spaceship and stuff. It’s a, it, yeah, it’s a practicality and believability that despite kind of the, the, you know, crazy bizarre circumstances that we’re in. And I think some of the science really kind of, kind of guides those decisions. ⁓ because it’s like, you tell, you know, we kind of map out this, this Western.
Uh, and then some of the complications that happen are a result of just the lunar environment. Um, you know, like, like the moonquake, there’s a whole scene where they’re trying to escape while a moonquake is happening. Um, and there are the, our rovers are our cowboys. They’re essentially seismologists. So they’re like experts in when the next moonquake is going to hit. And they actually like have like little seismometers that they set around a base camp to kind of detect when something’s going to happen.
Ryan George (23:52)
No, why Western? What made you decide that, you know, because it’s a great sci-fi idea and concept, ⁓ why kind of mix with the Western genre for the story?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (24:02)
⁓ Well, Western, you know, outside of the 1940s detective stuff, I also really love Westerns. Tombstone is my favorite Western, but probably my most quoted. All of the Doc Holliday lines in that movie, I quote all the time. ⁓ And then, you know, when it comes to dialogue, ⁓ something like the TV show Deadwood or even Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, ⁓ that kind of elongated way of speaking.
is really interesting to me. And figuring out a way to kind of, you know, use these expansive words, but not alienate the reader and still have it very accessible so that you don’t need like a dictionary like while you’re reading the dialogue. And in some instances, like context clues kind of help you understand essentially what the characters are after in each scene. So I really like the…
Ryan George (24:45)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (24:57)
the challenge of the dialogue kind of having this elongated style and still having the reader be able to access it. And then just, yeah, just telling like a love letter to Westerns. mean, the Red Dead Redemption is the reason I have a mustache. Like I was playing it during the pandemic. My Arthur Morgan had a look kind of like this. And I was like, could I pull that off? And we’re all locked in. So it’s just a great time to grow a mustache. ⁓
Ryan George (25:12)
Okay.
Yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (25:26)
So yeah, kind of in the way that like Star Noir, you know, lets me kind of, you know, flex my love for 1940s Hollywood movies. This moonshine allows me to flex my love for westerns and what ties them both together is also an equal passion for sci-fi.
Ryan George (25:43)
Now, do you have a favorite Western idiom or phrase ⁓ that you wish would come back?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (25:50)
⁓ dangler. That’s a, ⁓ that’s the name for a train. I it, they call it dangler. get your backup, you know, when you’re really angry about something, you know, what’s gotten your back up today. ⁓ that one, that one’s good. ⁓ yeah, I think those, those are, those are two pretty good ones that I love, that I like. Yeah.
Ryan George (25:52)
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Nice. Yeah.
I didn’t know the dangler. And there’s a train in my, in the second book, it kind of starts with a train robbery. I’m gonna see if I can incorporate that.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (26:20)
Yeah, Yeah, they call it.
Yeah. Another one is called. You can’t really use this on on on the moon, but it’s burn the breeze. You know, you want to want to ride fast. There’s just no there’s no breeze on the moon. So you can’t you can’t quite use that one. But that one’s a fun one.
Ryan George (26:28)
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you actually, yep, use that. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, that one’s in the first, my first book. Use that line. Yeah, I like that. That one’s good. Also like Above Snakes is a good one too.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (26:39)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, Above Snakes. Yeah, Above Snakes
is a good one. Yeah, I love that one. Yeah.
Ryan George (26:47)
All right, so now, are there any Easter eggs or anything connecting moonshine to the Star Wars universe or are they in their own worlds? They’re never really connected.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (26:54)
they’re there. Yeah, they’re, they’re,
they’re, they’re separate. They’re, ⁓ I haven’t decided if I’m ever going to do the Stephen King thing and then loosely, loosely connect them all. the, know, but, yeah, no, there are, there are their own separate flavors. ⁓ they’re all in their own separate worlds. ⁓ yeah, yeah. I just, I think, as time goes on and more, but I get to do more different series. ⁓
Ryan George (27:04)
Yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (27:21)
Yeah, I kind of like having these things being their own contained worlds. know, because they present their own challenges and I really kind of want to steer into figuring out how to kind of overcome those challenges and tell a great story.
Ryan George (27:25)
Yeah, no, it makes sense.
Yeah, there’s definitely this kind of a connection between the energy harvesting of the moon and frontier culture. Did you do any additional research to try to get things kind of not historically accurate, but kind of accurate to maybe how frontier times would have been? Or did you do any extra work in that way?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (27:57)
well, yeah, I mean, ⁓ kind of a, a, a big, ⁓ trope of Westerns is your Cowboys fighting against modernity. You know, like, you know, there’s, there’s the old ways that they are accustomed to and wherever they’re currently living, they’re trying to be squeezed out. Like, ⁓ you know, the, the opening of, of moonshine, ⁓ there’s like a major city called Meridian, you know, where most people live. ⁓ and our Cowboys, they live in another area.
Ryan George (28:05)
Mm.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (28:27)
called the outskirts. ⁓ And they kind of, they’ve decided that they want minimal government control and they want to kind of live off the land. ⁓ And so they kind of struggle with living off the land while they kind of have to like begrudgingly adhere to some, some government contracts and some government oversight. So they’re always kind of fighting, fighting against what I said, the modernity of, of, of not being consumed by the big cities.
Ryan George (28:58)
Like, I have question for you based on this, because in talking to you about the story, that’s a lot of world building. And I think one of the biggest challenges with comics, especially if you’re doing like single issues, is how to tell the story, but do it in a way that’s kind of efficient and succinct, because you only have, you know, so many pages. So my question for you, so question is, how do you…
work in that world building in a way that works, but that’s not taking up too much dialogue ⁓ in a story that you’re trying to tell, especially in a single issue.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (29:33)
I mean, lot of the world building stuff is just in the background. mean, you know, the plot is always the centerpiece. ⁓ And, ⁓ you know, like all the signs that I explained, you know, there’s no character that stops to explain the signs to ⁓ you. know, something will be told anecdotally, but the plot and the, you know, the character arcs, you know, this is like, this is a story about karma and, you know, is it possible to like, you know,
Trump over a bad deed with a good deed. ⁓ And a lot of the rovers in this gang, they’re struggling with different facets of that. ⁓ So a lot of the world building, you know, it really just is in the background. you know, when our scientist that goes on the mission with these rovers, when he first lands on the moon, like he rides past like the Apollo landing site. But that’s just like a panel. Like we don’t stop to explain anything. It’s just like, yeah, it’s a, you know, it’s a historic site.
⁓ And that’s just sort of like this one little thing that ⁓ a reader can go like, hey, that’s the Apollo landing site. That’s cool. But it doesn’t, it never stops the story. The plot is always the driving force.
Ryan George (30:44)
Yeah, got it. So now ⁓ when it comes to like Westerns, like I’ve always felt like Westerns, it’s a fun sandbox to play in just because like you do have, you know, can tell it in any way. can be, you know, be it straightforward. You could tell modern, you could tell it on the moon. You know, there’s all kinds of ways to really tell that and make it work. ⁓ And then outside of the kind of old versus the new, right? Like what are some other core elements that you think are really important for somebody trying to craft like a compelling Western narrative?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (31:14)
⁓ I mean, there’s always like an element of honor, ⁓ they, know, Western’s always kind of have, ⁓ you know, they’re always struggling with being good people, even though they’re bad people. ⁓ and, ⁓ I think that’s kind of like a really interesting, ⁓ kind of emotional hook. You know, you’ve got people who’ve, who’ve, who’ve done a lot of bad things and they’re trying to, you know, live a new life or, you know, a lot of that stuff that they used to do is coming back to haunt them.
And I think our main character Wade is really kind of struggling with that. I mean, there was a ⁓ rover that he knew that was like left on the far side because they were attacked by a bunch of these creeps, these aliens that come out of the dirt. And so he’s kind of like wrestling with that person still being out there and that kind of desire to want to leave this life where he’s managing a ⁓ ranch of ⁓ robotic horses that we call chargers.
He has this kind of desire to like get back out there on the lunar surface. And there are relationships that he’s built in his little small town. And he has to kind of wrestle with kind of leaving some of that stuff behind. Yeah, this has a lot, there’s a lot, I think kind of, yeah, that honor and the kind of wrestling with that is kind of like a big component for the characters.
Ryan George (32:41)
makes sense. That’s great. I think that makes a lot of sense. Now, do you have a favorite kind of character archetype when it comes to westerns? you kind of partial to the lawman or the drifter or the outlaw, like anyone that really speaks to you?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (32:55)
⁓ I like the hard nose character that becomes soft by the end. ⁓ I think, I think there’s a lot of power in that, in that, ⁓ you know, especially if when the events of the story kind of, ⁓ forced them to look inward and kind of wrestle with who they are as people. ⁓ there’s definitely a character, ⁓ that I have, her name is Oakley. ⁓ and she’s very like tough as nails, like a gun nut, ⁓ you know,
doesn’t really kind of, you know, doesn’t have any sort of breakdown moments, but because of the events of the story, they kind of force her into this, to be more introspective into who she is and kind of the mistakes that she’s made along the way. ⁓ So it’s a really interesting character arc to watch, like a really tough as nails character, you know, become more emotional and more in touch with kind of who they are internally.
Ryan George (33:53)
Yeah, okay, that’s great. So now let’s, I want to shift a little bit to Kickstarter, because obviously like ⁓ you’ve run several Kickstarters at this point successfully. And, you know, I think ⁓ it can be a challenge. So looking back on kind of your experience so far, what have you done, let’s say with Moonshine that you learned through, you know, through your first few campaigns that maybe you wouldn’t have done or you didn’t do, you know, the first time or first couple of times around?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (34:22)
Well, I mean, a lot of my lessons ⁓ for Moonshine, they’re of carryovers from new lessons that I learned for Star Noir. mean, because before that I did Reloader and Reloader, ⁓ you know, even though that was a successful campaign, I was really bad with like communicating with backers and fulfillment like took a long time and that was not good. I did not want to repeat that. ⁓ So Star Noir, it was like…
like trying to treat it like almost like, I mean, you should treat it like a business, but I was treating it even more so like a business. I was very kind of cutthroat of like, these are deadlines. This is, you know, I give my backers like bi-monthly updates. So they’re always hearing from me. They’re always seeing new pages. They always know, you know, the stage that the book is in in its production. And a lot of that brought Star Noir a lot of success and a lot of trust with backers.
And with Moonshine, it’s just trying to keep the party going, just trying to do that again, because they respond to that. Backers really like when you communicate with them, that they’re always in the loop and they’re always seeing new pages. You’re the proof of life that we’re still working on and we’re still here. ⁓ So yeah, there were a lot of mistakes I made with my very first Kickstarter that made Star Noir better. And now I’m trying to carry that over into Moonshine and just continue to have.
success with a new series.
Ryan George (35:48)
Yeah.
So with Kickstarter, always a big thing is like the different kinds of reward tiers and stretch goals and extras. And what do you find, like anything in particular that you have for this campaign that you’d like to talk about, and then also like what do you find has been successful? And then maybe things that maybe have not been successful, you know, in your
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (36:07)
Well, one of the exciting ones we did, we did an Akira poster that was kind of, you know, inspired by that classic, you know, the one that everybody does. ⁓ I joked about it on Twitter when I posted it. I was like, sometimes the only way to kind of get around a cliche is to go through it. So we were just like, just let’s get it over the way now. Let’s do the Akira print now. That way we never have to come back to it ever again. And I actually got that idea.
from Brooklyn Comic Con, there was a creator to my left and they have a lot of pop culture prints. And I was noticing that people that came to my table, they wanted to grab the book, maybe a poster, and that’s great. But like prints wise, they were kind of very iffy on that stuff. And so I was like talking to that artist and he was like, oh, why don’t you like do pop culture prints of your characters? Like you have a 1940 setting.
why don’t we create like a 1940s Batman or something so that, you know, somebody wants to get that print with the book or something. And so we decided to do that with Moonshine where it just was like, I was thinking about like, okay, he’s Cowboys, got the horse. And even though I didn’t want to do the Akira thing, I was like, no, we got to do something else. Everyone does the Akira thing. It was the one idea that was like just screaming at me as like, we should try it. We should probably do it. Cause it’s the one that most fits that people will really recognize.
Ryan George (37:22)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (37:32)
⁓ And the art team put together a really awesome print. It looks great.
Ryan George (37:32)
Yeah.
Yeah,
no, always a challenge figuring out what works and what doesn’t. then, like, yeah, it’s like, I don’t want to do it, but it’s going to make sense. And it looks good. And at end of the day, I think that’s what matters more than anything. And that is what’s going to kind of draw people in. So.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (37:51)
So, appreciate it.
Ryan George (37:53)
What advice do you have? Like, would you share for like any emerging writers who are ready to launch on Kickstarter? Are there any kind of like, you know, three best practices for anybody that’s thinking about getting, you know, getting a Kickstarter launched for their car?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (38:07)
⁓ Well, when you’re running the Kickstarter, you got to take it seriously. You got to essentially look at it as a small business. ⁓ You you’ve got to make sure you have a proper team that like meets the deadlines. ⁓ You know, I think before Reloader, I would meet kind of artists that were very like, let’s be friends and I’ll give you pages whenever I feel like it. And you’re like, well, we have deadlines and people expect stuff from us, so we can’t.
Ryan George (38:34)
Yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (38:36)
we can’t really kind of hang out and babysit pages. So you gotta find a really committed team. ⁓ I always found that any artist that’s been published and not published in like the sense that they did Marvel or Dark Horse, just published by somebody, because that kind of shows that they see projects to completion and that they’re reliable. I think that’s really helpful. ⁓ I think, ⁓ I mean, I didn’t take this advice, but you should.
probably with your goal try to start at maybe like a 5k. Like I put all the chips on on on read with start OR and it’s like, let’s just do 10. And then because that’s what you know, because that’s what it costs to make that book. I don’t really recommend that if you’re first starting out with your first campaign, probably probably a 5k goal is probably more than enough. And then every other campaign after that, just try to like, you know, raise more than that. And I.
Ryan George (39:17)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (39:33)
think with whatever story you’re trying to tell, ⁓ I think you should just go all out. I know a lot of people are like, well you’re doing your first comic, don’t do a magnum opus and don’t swing for the fence. And it’s like, all I’ve ever done is swing for the fence. I just think that from a financial standpoint, just kind of be smart about it and be kind of economic about that swing for the fence. You don’t have to get this Greg Capullo level artist.
of, you know, for your cyberpunk comic, like someone who’s pretty good, someone who’s pretty good and you’ve got that great story, like that’s going to read, like people are going to still be really into that. yeah, just may, you you know, be be smart and kind of, you know, economical with your kind of financial risks creatively. Just swing for the fence, get a great team and, you know, start out like a 5K goal, which is ⁓ more than manageable for for most projects.
Ryan George (40:32)
Yeah, and I would also say like, know, think, yeah, the art, it’s more about, you know, the artist has to have an interesting style, right? And be something that works for you. They don’t have to be the greatest artists in the world if it’s interesting. And if you’re gonna spend money, I would almost say spend it on the cover, because that’s the first thing people see, right? but yeah, no, it’s true. like, know, that, it could cost easily, you can get into like ridiculous amounts of money that like, it’s just not realistic for somebody who’s doing their first campaign. So I think that’s great advice. So, yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (40:45)
Yeah.
Yeah, mean, I know it was
always when it comes to like art styles, if you ever want to choose like something simpler, I always think about Scott Pilgrim and like how simplistic that is and how much of a great story that is anyway. So like a great story underneath like simplistic art is still going to be a great story. So you don’t have to get overly detailed artists to to tell something compelling.
Ryan George (41:12)
Yeah.
Yeah. All right. So now we also have like two kind of out there questions, ⁓ but not too crazy, I’m going to be two here. So first, if Moonshine had a theme song, or maybe it does, ⁓ what would it be?
Or even like you mentioned actually you mentioned something like sometimes the music will inspire you. Was there a song that you were thinking of while writing it? But yeah, if it had a theme song, what would it be? then yeah, was there a song that inspired
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (41:38)
if moonshine-
I don’t know the name of the artist, but it is, the song is called ⁓ Way Down We Go. It’s a very popular song. If you’ve heard it, you’d be like, I’ve definitely heard this song. But it was one of the first, ⁓ it was kind of the thing I listened to on a walk and it was like, I heard the, I saw the ending of the story and I was like, ⁓ that’s a cool, yeah, let’s try to figure out how the story builds to that.
Ryan George (42:03)
Okay.
Okay.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (42:18)
And it’s and it kind of it kind of evoked a sense of a team of of Cowboys kind of riding into hell and you know, there’s complications people die and really just kind of like Trying to push through like no matter how bad it gets ⁓ And yeah, I think that kind of really kind of created the theme song for that
Ryan George (42:41)
So now, ⁓ if there was a character from any genre, any universe, any genre that you can bring into the Moonshine universe, who would that be?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (42:53)
⁓ Probably Spike from Cowboy Bebop. I’d love to bring him. He can’t smoke any cigarettes, his kind of karate style that kind of very always chill, nothing phases him. I could definitely see characters that are like, we’ve got this specific plan and he’s like chilling in the background with his feet up. He’d be a fun character to bring him to Moonshine.
Ryan George (42:57)
Okay. ⁓
Nice. So now, before we finish, can you just let our listeners know any information on the campaign, when it’s ending, anything you’d like to share about the campaign and about you, how to follow you, your newsletter and everything, feel free.
Great, awesome. Well, Tony, it’s been awesome. Great having you to talk. I can’t wait to see the book and definitely would love to chat again at some point soon.
No problem, thank you.
Ryan George (00:00.046)
pull everything from here, just for consistency. But again, it’s not a huge deal if it seems to be an issue. But yeah, I’ll go back to that last question. So, yeah, so like speaking of Star Noir, that’s kind of what put you on my radar. I saw, I’d seen it posted on several, you know, Reddit and on some Facebook groups that were on. I thought, it looks great. I’m a fan of noir stories. I also love Star Wars. So right away, it was like something that drew me in.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (00:01.426)
okay,
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (00:05.972)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Ryan George (00:28.11)
But for you, what was the, you know, obviously, and a clever title, obviously, Star Noir. But what was the idea for you? Like, what gave you that idea to create this kind of noir detective story? And then coming up with the title.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (00:42.208)
was kind of a combination of two passions that I have. one is old Hollywood movies, from the forties. I really liked that kind of like fast talking dialogue. they almost like, like stage play, like nature of it, how it’s like, rather than a whole bunch of cuts, characters are just kind of moving around the space. and, LA Noire is also, LA Noire is one of my favorite, video games.
Ryan George (01:08.386)
Okay, yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (01:08.456)
I just really love the way they kind of show that era and all the detective work that goes in it. And the other is just like kind of a guilty pleasure of like alien conspiracies. Like all the fun ones about like crop circles and people who have been abducted and all that. Basically all the stuff that you would show on like an ancient aliens episode. And I just thought it would be kind of a cool idea to kind of like mesh the two. Cause I wanted to do a detective story.
Yeah, just the idea of kind of like, right, well, what if his partner’s an alien and what if it’s in the 1940s? And I just thought that was pretty, that would be interesting concept for a story. And then, you know, I was just thinking about different titles or like, you know, what would be kind of fitting for it. And Star Noir was just kind of a a fun mashup of two words and two genres. Yeah, I just thought Star Noir was fun to say. And yeah, sure enough, other people thought it was fun as well.
Ryan George (02:06.69)
Yeah, how many, so you’re three issues into that story, right?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (02:09.726)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there’s six books. Each one’s about 50 pages long. So they’re good sizable chapters.
Ryan George (02:17.442)
Yeah. And then do you have a, like, is there a set amount that you plan on for that series?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (02:23.488)
This one is six books. There’s different permutations of Star Noir. There’s other precincts in Los Angeles. There’s also a New York one that I want to do as a companion piece. Just kind of have it loosely connected. But that one has a lot of old speakeasies and old subway stations. But it’s kind of on the same premise of this alien comes down and has to work with this human detective to
Ryan George (02:27.17)
Mm.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (02:53.12)
solve the mystery of some shapeshifter or some other alien entity that’s kind of threatening humans.
Ryan George (03:00.194)
Yeah, with when you’re working on several projects at the same time, do you, well, I guess the question is having several things kind of that you’re working on, are you at any point ever working on producing multiple projects at the same time or will you stick with like, okay, we’ll work on Star Noir, now Moonshine, now like how do you manage kind of so many things and also like just, you know, the costs associated with kind of doing all that.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (03:24.876)
well, the managing the different projects, it really is kind of a hot potato back and forth. and it’s really just like, I, you know, all of the work that I have to do for all projects is on like a giant list. And then, you really just kind of narrowing it down to like, all right, well, what’s, what’s the most pressing, you know, so there was, there was like,
you know, a week where it was just like, okay, we have to do stuff for moonshine because the Kickstarter is coming up. So there were notes for artists for Star Noir where it was like, okay, well they have to hang out for just half a second. So I can kind of get this moonshine stuff underway. And then once it was underway, I was like, all right, now it’s back to Star Noir. You know, so it was just like, like today it was like one part promoting moonshine, the other part, like prepping new Star Noir pages for color.
while I had to quickly like sign off on some sketches that the artist is gonna go then do detailed pencils on. was just, it’s just a lot of just like just moving back and forth between projects. then, know, cost wise, mean, you know, the internet, you know, is largely responsible for Star Noir’s existence. know, I can’t make the book without Kickstarter’s help. Luckily they are very passionate readers that wanna see more books.
So yeah, cost wise, know, the internet really picks up the tab on ensuring that each new book exists. And then I’m, yeah, and I’m just trying to like, you know, like an air traffic controller, like when one plane lands, another one’s got to go in the air. And, you know, a lot of days it’s just coming out of a fire hose. So I just try to, so I just really just try to, you know, manage as much as I can and just, you know, enjoy the little victories that you get done. All right. Well, I got.
Ryan George (04:58.478)
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s a good way to put it.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (05:13.888)
new pages approved. All right, well, I got new colors in. All right, well, I got a few backers for the project. So it’s just trying to do as much as you can and keep your sanity in the process.
Ryan George (05:23.49)
Yeah. So now with those are a couple of things that I really liked about starting one. I want to kind of get your your take on how you’re able to manage these things. So first you brought up a little bit and we’ll also talk maybe a little bit about how you manage this with moonshine. But obviously when you’re dealing with the time, you know, a period piece and you’re trying to get somewhat historically accurate dialogue, how how are you how do you go about
you making sure that you’re using words, phrases, idioms of the time. How do you, how do you get, make sure you’re doing it correctly? And then how do you also just manage that you’re not overdoing it and that you’re still kind of trying to appeal to a modern audience that’s going to, you know, going to be consuming it.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (06:05.424)
I think it’s just kind of a balance. think I’ve so many like 1940s movies from that era. I think a lot of it is just kind of hardwired into my brain. I think kind of the characters kind of naturally speak like that just because I’ve watched so many movies. But a lot of those idioms, a lot of those phrases, like we use variations of those of today.
You know, so I think it still reads well for a modern audience. But you you get like, you know, you beat the devil around the horn or so, or we’re both in the soup or, you know, these kinds of phrases that seem kind of hokey, but because of the 1940 setting, a reader would kind of expect that type of stuff. And I just make sure that I just don’t overdo it. You know, just, you know, make sure the characters always sound believable.
Ryan George (06:48.493)
Yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (07:04.052)
so that the reader can engage with them.
Ryan George (07:06.338)
Yeah. Now, did you find, is there a phrase, let’s say, like, we’ll get to Western later, but from the, like, that time period, that’s like your favorite phrase or something that like you wish would come back today?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (07:18.752)
man. I mean, I, we don’t use, we’re, we don’t use like we’re in the, we’re in the soup. Like we’re, we’re in trouble. that’s a, that’s a funny one. I used, I use that in my regular life. I was a bad Kickstarter day. So it looks like we’re all in the soup. that one’s kind of a fun one. yeah, there’s, there’s like a whole like list of idioms that I have for the star and war, like outlines that I have.
Ryan George (07:27.054)
Yeah.
Ryan George (07:33.142)
Yeah.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (07:46.944)
But probably that one. was probably the word. They were in the soup. I think actually I was at a baseball game once as a Yankee fan like at City Field and I was talking to a Mets fan and both teams are doing terribly. So I said, looks like we’re both in the soup. And he actually laughed because he got the phrasing.
Ryan George (08:02.126)
Okay. good, good. Yeah, yeah, that’s even better. Right? Like if you use it, then somebody actually gets what you’re saying. So now, now, and the other thing is, I think you also do a really good job of kind of mixing genres, right? So it has that noir aesthetic while also really being legitimately sci-fi. How do you go about like, do or do you know, do you feel like you have to actively work on
Mixing the genres that you’re not too focused on one or the other. Did you feel like that comes naturally? Like how do you go about that?
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (08:36.556)
I think it’s trying to make sure that one genre is leading and the other one is trying to be baked in. Like with Star Noir, that 1940s noir aesthetic, that’s what leads. And I try to figure out how all of the alien aspect, the sci-fi aspect fits into it into a way where it doesn’t take over and diminish the 1940s setting. So we fully commit to that setting.
And so it’s the aliens that appear in Alan’s, in Alan, our main character, his backyard. you know, it’s, you know, the, lounge singer that, you know, has, you know, secret eyes that lets you know that she’s, that she’s not from earth. just trying to make it, make sure that like, yeah, the sci-fi stuff doesn’t like take over the noir setting. Like I remember there was one, one reader in the beginning when the first book was out, they were worried that at one point the detective would be like,
like on another planet at a certain point and that I would like leave the 1940s aesthetic behind. And it’s like, no, this story like fully commits. Like it brings the aliens into this world and has a specific purpose and doesn’t try to overshadow the 1940 setting.
Ryan George (09:37.12)
Okay. Yeah.
Ryan George (09:51.022)
No, I think you do, like, I’m not just saying it, like, I think you do a brilliant job of that, both, like, thematically, but also just visually. Like, it just has, it keeps that look, but it’s so, like, wait, but there’s an alien. It’s like, it’s great, because it’s, so familiar, but then the alien looks exactly like it fits, you know, it fits on the page in a lot of it. So think you do a great job with that, with Starnor.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (10:09.13)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan George (10:13.198)
So now let’s turn over to Moonshine. So I know we talked about it a little bit. You mentioned, I was selling My Western, and you mentioned that you were working on the Sci-Fi Western. So tell me a little bit about Moonshine. And yeah, tell the listeners what’s story about, how you came up with it.
Tony James – MOONSHINE On KS (10:29.928)
Yeah, it’s like Tombstone meets aliens. It’s about this retired rover that recruits his former posse to ride to the far side of the moon to repair an energy harvester that’s harvesting an element called Helium-3. Helium-3 is a real element that exists on the moon. It’s created by the solar winds that are constantly pummeling.
the moon for billions of years and it’s essentially supercharging the rocks. And scientists kind of say that like 200 pounds of some of this lunar regolith, this is the moon’s dirt, with helium-3 could power the city of Dallas for like a year. And the moon is just covered in this stuff. And so once we are able to kind of create a mining colony on the moon,
that’s probably the first resource that we’re going to, man, we were so good. We were so good. I was hoping it wasn’t.
This so good.