Speaker 2:
0:00
Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it Gaming. Wait for it Anime PLUS ULTRA. Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino yeah, they've got you covered and all you gotta do is wait for it. This is the Wait For it Podcast.
Speaker 3:
0:35
Hey everyone, Welcome back to the Wait For it Podcast. I am your co-host, Phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 1:
0:40
And I'm your co-host, mr Eric Almighty, and for this special bonus episode of the Wait For it Podcast, we're bringing in a special guest to talk about his publishing company, gungnir.
Speaker 3:
0:52
Yeah, gungnir, we're super excited. Shout out to Chris Yates again, who we partnered with on the Frost Road Project, and it's really exciting to see that. Continue to flourish and proceed, continue to flourish and proceed. And that led to, like you said, eric, today's conversation with our guest, matthew Medney from Gungnir. And Matt, thank you so much for taking the time. How are you doing today? What's?
Speaker 2:
1:12
up guys. I'm excited to be here. I'm doing well.
Speaker 3:
1:15
Yeah, as are we. You just came off of Thunderbolts viewing and I told you we're going right after, so we are. It's good. It seems like Marvel's got some juice back as far as the MCU, so we're feeling good and optimistic, it felt good, yeah, it felt good.
Speaker 2:
1:31
So, so, classic MCU. I'm excited if that's just a warm up for the fleet that's coming out this year. Next year it should be, should be a good run.
Speaker 3:
1:44
Yeah, so hearing a lot of really really good things, so we're excited to get to our viewing here this evening. But yeah, like we said, we're here to talk about Gungnir, a fresh and exciting publishing endeavor blending the rebellious spirit of punk rock with the mythic power of Odin's legendary spear, creating a bold, innovative narratives with a sci-fi fantasy genre. And you guys have been, you've been making the rounds with some other shows. You have been. You guys were also featured in a deadline article with Steve Aoki, which is just so, so cool, so really excited to dive into all of that. And you know you've done a lot. Matt, your career is really an interesting journey and I think your process has been able to blend so many different experiences and backgrounds and we're really interested to see how you've gotten to where you are today. You started off in the music industry with Heavy Metal Magazine and then you used that opportunity there to move into the worlds of comics and novelization. So can you share with our audience your story and how we got here?
Speaker 2:
2:50
Yes, I actually started in the music business in production management doing pyrotechnics and confetti and cryo and all that fun stuff for DJs like Keizo and Cheat Codes and a bunch of the EDM bass community.
Speaker 2:
3:08
And then the Heavy Metal is actually not a music magazine, it's a science fiction brand from the 70s. It's started by Mobius, who was the art director on Empire Strikes Back and Jean-Paul Dionne and Droulet and had a movie in 1981 uh, it's namesake heavy metal, and it was uh um eugene levy produced by ivan reichman who did um ghostbusters, and it's uh sort of like a crucible of science fiction, uh, fantasy and horror magazine. So I was there for three years, the early 2020s, and then that's where I met Steve Orlando and then left there and started working on the Hero Quest graphic novel with Steve and that's where I met Jim Kruger and the three of us had this crazy idea to start a publisher. That was more I hate to use the term community-based because it just sounds like vanilla jargon but all three of us had this realization that people go to where the authors are, not to the publishers anymore, and that's also the same. If you're in the dancing I know you guys are in can I say where you guys live?
Speaker 3:
4:26
Yeah, of course, of course.
Speaker 2:
4:28
Yeah, I know you guys are in Jacksonville and there's a big dance music scene there and I've been to a bunch of the clubs over there and all that fun stuff and it used to be that you go to parties and then you discover DJs at them and now you go to DJ shows and same thing in publishing correlated and we were like wouldn't it be great to have a publisher again where the community trusted that publisher to find new voices and to find and to also shepherd legendary voices and be a home for both kind of what it was in the late nineties, early two thousands and all of where these parties would have great talent and these publishers had great talent.
Speaker 2:
5:08
You'd also discover authors like JK Rowling and discover Harry Potter and you would discover authors like Pierce Brown and Red Rising and you discover all of those are prose obviously Harry Potter, but Red Rising is one of my favorite prose books out there and you know you'd find graphic novelists like NK Jemisin and some of these amazing talents and now it's sort of gotten to a place where you're just going to places because they become banks for your favorite talent and we wanted to create a place where you could discover new talent again.
Speaker 3:
5:46
That makes a lot of sense. And, thinking about it now, eric and some of our past guests, like we've had an author on, we've had a DJ on, we've had musicians on, and they build up these followings where people are seeking them out. You know as far as they'll go to a venue to find DJ Awesomest Prime, you know, or to find the Limit Breakers. You know as far as they'll go to a. They'll go to a venue to find DJ Awesomest Prime, you know, or to find the Limit Breakers, you know, or anything like that. So I love that approach a lot.
Speaker 1:
6:12
Yeah, 100%. And I think the cool thing about it all is, you know, with Gungnir it has specifically like this pop culture-y vibe, which is perfect for our show. I mean, it's a publishing company with punk rock, hot pink and Norse mythology, so like yeah, I mean one of our new shirts.
Speaker 2:
6:31
One of our new shirts that we're about to release Big Nerd Energy.
Speaker 1:
6:35
Nice.
Speaker 2:
6:36
Okay so see-.
Speaker 3:
6:37
All right, well, we're gonna need-. Yeah, we're gonna need that.
Speaker 1:
6:42
Yeah, we're going to need that. And you know when we talk about, like, punk rock stories, when we're talking about that vibrant pink aesthetic, and then you know the tales from the Allfather. What are some of those early influences in pop culture from those genres that have made an impact in your life, that are so impactful that you pretty much started a whole brand about it?
Speaker 2:
7:03
I mean I would say probably the most impactful realistically is Gerard Way and MyChem, you know being one of my favorite bands and him transitioning writing Umbrella Academy was very inspirational and I definitely try to invoke a lot of vibes from MyChem in what we do. And that's the punk rock side for me. And I've just been a huge fan of Norse mythology. I mean I kind of look it too in a lot of ways. You know this beard is very Allfather-esque and, you know, obviously fan of that line in MCU, all of the Thor stuff, but really the actual Norse lore is just just fantastic. And you know, being on the road working in music, punk rock vibes, just it always just felt like the right place for me.
Speaker 2:
8:00
And books books used to be dangerous in a lot of ways, not just in the content but from a graphic novel standpoint, in the art style. And that's another thing that I think we are really aiming for is, if nothing else, every Gungner graphic novel will look obscenely different from the next, and that is really important to us. There's no quote, unquote house style. Every book deserves its own artistic, inspired look to it and that's how you know it's a Gungnir book is, you're going to see the most unique, daring, ridiculous art, and that's our style.
Speaker 3:
8:42
Yeah, and that actually perfectly leads right into our next question, because when we're looking at these covers, when you see Mutant Cats, chupacabra, none of they all are so unique and they're just really gorgeous work here on the covers and it's clear that the goals, like you mentioned, was for them to look and feel unique and for the book itself to also be somewhat of a collector's item. So if you could expand upon that, like what went into the thought process behind the presentation Was a little bit of that. To make sure you know, each one stood out when people were proud to have all of them.
Speaker 2:
9:15
There's a lot of that. I'd say, first and foremost a Tolkienite, and you know, if you're gonna, if you're gonna, destroy one of Treebeard's cousins, you might as well make it beautiful. You know, like I really I really believe that and I think I think it is that that memory right, most people read the book for like a quarter of a tenth of a percentage of the time they own the book, right? So are you going to make something that is rememberable for the shelf? Or are you going to make something that they read and then put in the closet? And you know, working in the music business, you buy tickets to shows because of the way you remember they made you feel and we wanted to try to bring that over into publishing, make an art piece for the wall. So when you're done reading and you look at the spine or you see the book, it reminds you of that feeling you had when you went on the journey with those characters, and that's always in the presentation, and that was what the driving force was for us.
Speaker 3:
10:26
Yeah, and that's very manga-coded too. Eric, right, Totally, I love that because I have a lot of manga and I'll just buy, even for the anime that I watch where I'm not reading the manga, I'll buy the first issue because I like to display it. Eric knows we're both kind of this way. We're big physical media guys. I love steelbooks, like steelbook films are a big thing for collecting. That I am, and that's it made me just think that's so true, because I've had this copy of Jurassic Park way longer than it took me to read that book. But I still look back on it and you know, and just remember the first time I read through it and I have it splayed somewhere back there. So yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense.
Speaker 1:
11:10
Yeah, and you know, the cool thing about this is that like just seeing the books and hearing about some of the presentations when people get to finally open it, like that's an experience in itself. But you've talked before about how you're creating stories for the next generation of dreamers and thinkers, and it's not just fun and adventures that's part of it. But you're trying to start a conversation, to leave the reader with a question they want to debate with a friend on like a Friday night, right?
Speaker 1:
11:35
So like yeah, you're trying to make these emotional experiences part of that collection. What was the primary inspiration for that approach to the storytelling you're trying to accomplish?
Speaker 2:
11:47
Totally, it's a great question. You know, I've always looked at literature of all forms to be a place that's the tinder for the fire that burns within everyone, everyone. And you know, a lot of times people go to tv or film or experiences because they pose a question and literature used to be the only place to do that and it's sort of moved away from that and that's not a bad thing. Sometimes, you know, it's great just to read a smut book, it's great just to like go on a fantasy adventure because you just want that mindless escape.
Speaker 2:
12:29
But for me, I grew up with literature, reading holes and reading the Giver and reading Sandman and Saga and these adventures that were wrapped in larger esoteric questions that always left me wanting to debate the way that I took the meaning with a friend or an enemy, right or family member, which might even be worse, and that was just sort of the impetus for us. Is that we wanted, you know, because we're not going to do a house style of art, we wanted our sort of house style to be that you're always going to be left with a question. You know these books are going to be fun, you're going to go on adventures, they're going to have amazing characters that you want to root for, that you want to hate, and at the end of it, that's going to be fulfilling. And you're going to have a question and it's not going to be a preachy question, you know.
Speaker 3:
13:30
I disagree. We should debate that right now. Did the topple topple In Inception?
Speaker 1:
13:38
Eric, you go first, I'm going to say no, I'll give us that.
Speaker 3:
13:45
We'll be here all night Phil.
Speaker 3:
13:48
We said we wanted to debate and it's literally Friday night so I don't know. I know we have a movie to get to, but we wanted to debate. It worked. It worked, yeah, but no, the that's so. So much of that, too is like, like you said, creating debates amongst your friends. I mean, eric, that's what we spend most of our time doing in like a group chat. When we're in in discord or on in a PlayStation party, or even at dinner, like most of it is just about like a really fun debate. So I really, really love that. You've also worked with a really impressive list of collaborators musicians, athletes. What are a few projects that really stand out the most and why were they so meaningful? What was it like to be on those projects?
Speaker 2:
14:33
Oh, these are. These are the are the tough questions early on. I love it. I would say the most meaningful one was probably the Bobby Wagner project that we did with the NFL. It was our first project with the NFL. It was Bobby the Seahawks and the NFL. It was Bobby the Seahawks and the NFL. We were promoting his foundation for stroke research and awareness and we created a comic book called FAST, which is the acronym for facial drooping. Oh, I'm on the spot here.
Speaker 3:
15:10
I'm forgetting what the A is, but basically it's an acronym for how to detect a stroke and face arm speech time, thank you.
Speaker 2:
15:21
And his mom had tragically passed away of a stroke when he was in high school and so we turned him into a superhero. Uh, very much in the vein of miles morales meets tmnt, because those were his vibes and he had to fight a space worm. Because I was excited about Dune at the time and that comic book helped raise about $500,000 for research and it was really cool to see a comic book not only make it to the 50-yard line on Monday Night Football during an interview and it being held up there and bringing the first real original comic book to the NFL. But having that comic book have impact in real world scenarios was really meaningful. And Bobby is just the fucking best. Can I curse? I should have asked for it.
Speaker 3:
16:09
No, absolutely no, you're fine, of course. Sorry.
Speaker 1:
16:13
We moved on from our child audience. This year full cursing that's great.
Speaker 3:
16:18
Bobby wagner is. We were talking about the. You know we were talking football right before we started, because we're we're jaguar fans. Bobby wagner is like he's a guy that every single team would want. Uh, you want on your roster and someone, so that's uh, I'm glad you chose that one. Yeah, bobby's, bobby's great.
Speaker 1:
16:34
So yeah and on. You know, obviously there's a lot of stress that comes in this industry. You're dealing with situations like that one, like there's just so much in life that can be really heavy. So I'm really curious to kind of lighten it up before our next question what does a day off look like for you? Like what is that wind down time? If it's not a day off, it's an hour to yourself, like what? What are you doing to kind of lighten the mood a little bit in your life?
Speaker 1:
17:05
um reading fantasy novels or doing an egregious fitness activity yeah, the two, two opposite ends of the coin there, do you?
Speaker 2:
17:17
or listening to an audiobook of a fantasy novel while doing egregious activity. There you go, I have combined them that is interesting, right?
Speaker 1:
17:26
because like, uh, when, when me and phil are doing podcasting and stuff, all we're talking about all the time is like pop culture stuff. So it's weird that our like our interest to wind down and to lighten the mood for ourselves is to go consume that content. Do you ever find it like not working that way for you? Like, oh man, I'm running a publishing company, I'm dealing with these stories, this creative mindset, and here I am diving into a book where, for us, we just did a podcast about a movie, maybe a movie we didn't like and here I am, right after the episode, watching another movie. Like, do you ever have that like issue, or is it?
Speaker 1:
18:07
just been such a passion.
Speaker 2:
18:09
No, no, no, 1000%. You know the. The age old saying, uh, when you turn your passions into work, you never work a day is very true, but the thing that people don't talk about is that when you turn your passions into work, then your passions no longer become your passions, they become work. And I struggled for years where I didn't read and didn't do anything and it stressed me out more. You know, I make the concerted effort to read, to listen to audio books, to do the things that got me compelled to want to start a company and to work in this space. Space, because if you don't continue that sort of way of thinking, then eventually you're just going to resent that you're doing it, and that is. That's never a place you want to be, especially with something that you love, and why you do these crazy things in the first place.
Speaker 3:
19:10
There's a lot easier ways to make a lot more money, right definitely definitely yeah, I think that's why we've we found it so important to you know, because, like I told you, we you know we cover video games, but we and we like to eventually turn those experiences into an episode we can talk to our audience about. But we also have to identify some of these experiences are just going to be for us, like we'll talk about it with our friend group and we'll talk about it with other people, but sometimes we just have to separate that and like or watch a show for ourselves, read a manga watch, watch an anime. Uh, that you know we'll, we'll just keep for ourselves, and I think that's super important yeah uh.
Speaker 2:
19:49
Jim kruger told me about a year ago, when we started working together, one of his rules of life and I try to live by this rule myself now and it is write something, read something, watch something every day.
Speaker 1:
20:05
Yeah, that's really good advice. And checking out some of the interviews that you did, I know sometimes you've had Jim and then Steve Orlando on as well, the best. Yeah, three-headed monster here, uh, for gungnir. And I'm curious between the three of you guys putting your brains together and making this whole thing, the whole cog in the machine go. How do you balance reaching new readers and trying to build that community while also trying to create like a prestige with a growing brand, trying to make your mark, your legacy?
Speaker 2:
20:38
Yeah, it's great. Another great question it's really, really difficult because there's always a lot of easy ways to try to go get some quick fans, quick money, quick audience. You know we've been prettybent at just staying the course. And the term if you build it, they will come from one of my favorite movies, field of Dreams is a misnomer because especially there's so much noise out today, but there is a sliver of truth in the statement. If you build it and market it and keep that community pure to what your intention was, they will come, and that is our thought process.
Speaker 2:
21:22
So it's a lot slower of a build, but I'm also a big, big believer that there's about 600,000 people that go to San Diego Comic-Con every year and there's maybe 20,000 Wednesday comic book shoppers maybe, and it's about 30 times the amount of people that actually go to comic book shops.
Speaker 2:
21:49
Love this shit, this shit. And I think that there's a huge community that is just looking to be marketed to in a way that's not just about the comic but is about the story and is about the community that they're trying to build for it. And I'm not in any way, shape or form trying to diminish the role of the comic book shop, because I mean, grew up at midtown comics, I grew up in new york city, uh, and I would, you know, walk from 23rd or 20th and first up to whatever that is, 44th and broadway-ish, or down to meltdown in um, not lincoln park, in Square, and just like, enjoy the places. But a lot of comic book shops have become collectible shops and a lot of readers are not necessarily collectors and we just want to build online community and an in-store community that's reader first, collectible second, and we think that there's a huge audience for that out there.
Speaker 3:
22:56
Yeah, that's so. The same thing happened with GameStop right. That became a collectible shop as well, Like you go in there. Now that became a crypto shop. That too, let's be real.
Speaker 1:
23:08
Don't people go in there to like trade their phones? Now I don't know what they do. I think you buy groceries.
Speaker 3:
23:23
I have sold a phone at gamestop. I'll be honest. But, uh, but I'm also, I'm also a six-year gamestop veteran employee. So, uh, you know, I I was there for far too long. Uh, we'll be, we'll be honest with with everybody. But, yeah, going into gamestop and just seeing walls of Funko and walls of Pokemon and not cards, because you can't find cards but like Pokemon collectibles, yeah, that is, um, the same thing is happening over there as well. Before I get to the next actual question we had written down, because you mentioned Field of Dreams what's the best baseball movie?
Speaker 2:
23:53
I mean, I think it's Field of dreams, right like let's be, let's be real. That is I mean do you?
Speaker 3:
23:59
want to see how mlb ranked them?
Speaker 2:
24:02
oh, how did mlb rank them?
Speaker 3:
24:04
this is from 2023.
Speaker 2:
24:06
Number one is bull durham okay, I, I can get behind that. What, what's? Number two A League of their Own.
Speaker 3:
24:15
No Number three, the Pride of the Yankees, which I haven't heard of 1942. Get the fuck out of here. And then four is Field of Dreams, okay.
Speaker 2:
24:28
I could be coerced to, one being Bill Durham and two being. Field of Dreams, I agree.
Speaker 1:
24:33
I have no real knowledge enough to have this conversation but what I'll say is I watched 42 with Chadwick Boseman. That was a really good film.
Speaker 3:
24:41
Yeah, and then you've seen Moneyball right.
Speaker 1:
24:45
I've seen.
Speaker 3:
24:45
Moneyball is great too.
Speaker 1:
24:46
I've seen a lot of Moneyball on TikTok, if that's what you're asking OK, so no, so you haven't seen. Moneyball. Maybe a late to the party episode, who knows?
Speaker 3:
24:53
Major League. Really love Major League but the answer.
Speaker 1:
24:56
The actual answer is the rookie film.
Speaker 3:
24:59
Yeah, I love the rookie unapologetically. I also lived in the Dallas area when they were filming the rookie because they filmed it like an actual Texas Rangers baseball game, like after the game happened.
Speaker 2:
25:11
The rookie.
Speaker 3:
25:12
Which one's the rookie? That's the one with dennis quaid where he's like, uh, um he's like in his 40s.
Speaker 2:
25:17
Dad comes out.
Speaker 3:
25:18
Oh yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's the more serious angels in the outfield yeah, well, I was actually just about to bring up angels in the outfield, because I love that film also I mean it's classic 90s filmmaking just didn't realize until very recently that matthew mcconaughey said that thing because I was.
Speaker 2:
25:35
I was a kid so much he's in, so much in that like late 80s, early 90s stuff that like you don't even realize, like I mean unsung role, is his role as a pastor, priest in contact yeah, he has a crazy backlog of appearances and just filmography.
Speaker 3:
25:56
So I saw a clip on Instagram and then all the comments were like I did not know, matthew McConaughey was in Angels in the Outfield, so I'm overdue for an Angels in the Outfield watch. I need to go back and check that out. Were you you said you're up in New York were you a Yankees fan, mets fan neither I'm a big Yankees fan no, no, like.
Speaker 2:
26:15
here's the thing If you grew up in New York, you have the option to be the fan of one of the most prestigious sports organizations ever to exist in any sport bar none or the Mets.
Speaker 1:
26:34
Yeah, I can speak from experience. I was born in Long Island and before I moved here to Jacksonville for the second half of my life so far, I had those same choices and luckily, luckily, I chose the Yankees, all for it. I almost made a mistake. There was a two year period where I was a Jets fan and I was like I think it's time to switch. And then, yeah, a couple.
Speaker 3:
26:58
Super Bowls later. Oh well, yeah, because you were a Giants fan first. That's right, yeah, so yeah, I was gonna say it's Jets to Jaguars though, really, but that you were. There was that period when I first met you, uh, that you were a Giants fan, so that yeah, I was a Giants fan then too.
Speaker 2:
27:10
You know, I was a big Jeremy Shockey fan.
Speaker 1:
27:13
Oh, Jeremy Shockey was so fucking good Dude so much fun.
Speaker 3:
27:17
One of your first jerseys, so much fun to watch.
Speaker 1:
27:20
The Giants have like the craziest, greatest players of all time that are like nobody talks about them. Nobody talks about Jeremy Shockey, Imani Toomer we don't talk about Tiki Barber for for several reasons, but tiki barbara was great. Brandon jacobs I'm not bradshaw so many fucking great players, especially on offense, then on defense though, like yeah I think you know I went to school with victor cruz.
Speaker 2:
27:47
um, oh, man, and and uh, he's a large human being, by the way, very, very, very large.
Speaker 3:
27:53
Victor Cruz, former teammate of our new head coach here down in Jacksonville as well.
Speaker 2:
27:58
Who's your new head coach? Liam Cohen.
Speaker 3:
28:00
They were teammates in college. Yeah, yeah, yeah At UMass.
Speaker 2:
28:04
Yep, yeah, that's where I went. Oh shit, yeah. Yeah, I went to college with Victor, not high school. Yeah, I went to college with Victor, not high school. And you know, I think the reason a lot of these great giants aren't talked about is because they weren't, they didn't really have like great teams, right, they basically stole two Super Bowls from the Death Star and that's basically. You know, that's basically their legacy.
Speaker 1:
28:32
That's 100.
Speaker 3:
28:33
Hey, listen I would take that like I would take one of those legacies as a jaguar fan, so we'll take it just once so, uh, we went off on a sports tangent there which, like I said before we started, if we talk about football or baseball, we could go. We could go a while big this is big baseball house over here. Yeah, I see that because Jacksonville is so far from Atlanta, tampa and Miami, so it's hard. We do have a double A team, we have the Jumbo Shrimp, which is a blast to go to, but we're far away from a major league baseball hub, which makes it a little bit difficult. My baseball journey is kind of like all over the place. Grew up in Michigan when the Tigers were awful and then I sorry, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean?
Speaker 2:
29:20
when they were awful.
Speaker 3:
29:21
Well, they're like the early 2000s, they were pretty solid.
Speaker 2:
29:27
I'm just playing, I'm saying they're still awful. No, they've always been awful.
Speaker 3:
29:31
But and then in my middle school to high school years sorry, I became a Red Sox fan. I apologize. I probably Did you go to school in Massachusetts. Not at all, not at all. I just didn't like the Yankees.
Speaker 1:
29:46
It's questionable, I know.
Speaker 2:
29:47
I know it's hard to deal with it, I mean that's like deciding to join Scientology without needing to get a leg up in your career.
Speaker 3:
29:58
Okay, it feels like Scientology and David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez aren't the same thing.
Speaker 1:
30:05
You heard it here.
Speaker 3:
30:06
You heard it here, guys no more, Garcia Parra is not, Tom Cruise he is. But now I find myself again because we're a little bit separated from those baseball markets following players more often.
Speaker 2:
30:21
So I still like Mookie Betts, that's how I am with football actually now A lot of people do that with basketball too.
Speaker 3:
30:28
So yeah, I get it yeah.
Speaker 2:
30:28
I'm less of. I love just watching football games. Well, I really just love watching Red Zone. I think Red Zone is like the best produced show on television 100% Until ESPN buys it and ruins it.
Speaker 3:
30:42
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
30:42
I'm very concerned about that, but it's actually made me less of an individual team fan.
Speaker 3:
30:48
Yeah, I get that. I get that for sure. We have a few friends that are just fans of players, so, yeah, I get that To bring that for sure. We have a few friends that are just fans of players, so, yeah, I get that To bring it back in. Sorry, sorry, no, no, we could keep doing this. I just don't know if the audience is going to feel like they were ready to get the fuck out of here.
Speaker 1:
31:07
They stepped away for five minutes and were like what the fuck?
Speaker 2:
31:10
Let me correlate it back Guys, let me correlate it back. Both Aaron Judge and Shohei Otani, baseball players for everyone that doesn't know have anime comics this year. Shohei with a Demon Slayer adaptation that Aaron Judge's just came out, and I'm not. I think that one's my Hero Academia based. But it's really fascinating how the anime market is crossing over into, uh, the mlb, even though for a lot of people anime and then we can go straight back into full comics. But anime actually is a rich history in sport comic, uh, sport animes. That's like a big thing in the anime community.
Speaker 3:
31:51
Okay, I'm done yeah, no, the texas r Rangers a couple years ago did a my Hero Academia collaboration. That's right, that was tight. I want that jersey so bad.
Speaker 1:
32:00
Makers did something with One Piece here this year, so yeah, there's a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 3:
32:04
But well, we are still talking to talk about kind of pop culture in general for our next question, because we just want, want to know what are some of your favorite either movies, shows, books, video games. In the last five years, so dating back to the 2020s, how did you occupy your time while we were, you know, all home. What were you up to? What were you diving into?
Speaker 2:
32:25
well, I have a ritual of watching the, the trilogy lord of the, the only trilogy that matters once a year. Extended editions in one day, so that's always at the top of the list, even though it transcends time and space. So we can always keep that within a five-year period. And then, book-wise, I'm a big fan of Rebecca Yaros' Imperium series. You know it's very sexually graphic. She writes very graphic, but the dragon hierarchy that she created in there is really dope. And I'm going to be reading the newest edition, onyx Storm, next week.
Speaker 2:
33:08
There's a company called Graphic Audio that puts out, effectively, movies for your ears, full cast, sound design, music the whole nine yards. I'm obsessed with their work. If anyone likes audiobooks, graphic Audio. I don't even work with them, I just love what they put out, highly suggest, and their rendition of it comes out next week. So I'll be listening to that. That one was excellent the Good Place I discovered during the pandemic, and that was a great, great show, extremely well written. I love Silo. I think Silo's fantastic Love Foundation, what else? There's an amazing Korean film called Space Sweepers. It is just. I think it's Space Sweepers, not Sky Sweepers. Fact, check me on it. Space or Sky Sweepers?
Speaker 1:
34:07
Yeah, we're always looking for good international films. It's fantastic.
Speaker 2:
34:12
It's so good, it's so fun. It's like can't be 1990s american sci-fi style with a great story hero's journey. I'm all in on it. Also, if anyone's not watched it yet uh, dark. The three season tv show on netflix, german original, is one of the best written shows I've ever watched. Period, yeah, I mean I could go on, but those would be my top.
Speaker 1:
34:42
Yeah, those are all great. Are there any in the last 12 months that have really caught your attention, like any type of media at all, that you've been like man, we're here in 2024, 2025, and this is what we're getting. We're eating good, Like anything like that that's crossed your eyes.
Speaker 2:
35:00
Yeah, I mean the Imperium series is the last 12 months, I believe and that is that it's the best fantasy series since Harry Potter. In my opinion it's much more adult because of all the sexual connotations and scenes in it, so it's way less family friendly like Harry Potter, but I think it's the best fantasy build out of a world since Harry Potter that I've read. I've read a fair amount of them. I would say that one shines bright for me. Upfront I would say Wednesday Classic Tim Burton Just fantastic, really, really, really great. It's the only show that I've ever run back immediately once I finished the last episode.
Speaker 1:
35:49
General Ortega was great in that as well.
Speaker 2:
35:51
Amazing.
Speaker 1:
35:52
So good. We watched that. Me and my family watched that just on a whim and watched the whole thing and was like man, that was way, way better than I thought it could be.
Speaker 2:
36:04
Yeah, same here.
Speaker 3:
36:05
I agree completely. Yeah, I need to jump back into Silo. For sure I love Apple TV. It is.
Speaker 2:
36:13
It's a sci-fi revolution, right. Yeah, it's a sci-fi revolution, right.
Speaker 3:
36:15
Yeah, there are seven or eight shows on Apple TV that I will go to bat for, like for anybody, as far as putting them up against anything else that's out right now. I love Apple TV. I did a series for a long time here in the podcast called Netflix and Phil, and I would recommend shows that you could find on streaming sites. And it was the joke was I really need to change the name because I pretty much only recommended Apple TV shows. I have a Ted Lasso tattoo, so like I really really dove into to that over there. But yeah, eric, I think Silo is one you would like for sure. Obviously you've done the Severance deep dive, but you know, I think either you guys on Foundation or Invasion, Not no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:
37:04
Foundation has definitely been on my list, but no.
Speaker 2:
37:06
I was wrong. Yeah, we should end this now and you should go watch.
Speaker 3:
37:10
No, I'm kidding, but no, we watch it together. We'll put it on.
Speaker 2:
37:13
Let's do it.
Speaker 1:
37:20
I let's do it.
Speaker 2:
37:21
I love foundation season one. Jared harris season one's like he pays. Yeah. No, this looks, this looks good. I mean, do you know the book? It's classic. So foundation for you know, whoever doesn't know isaac asimov, 1930s, 40s is effectively. I mean, there's a couple of books that come before, but that is effectively where science fiction was invented. Every single story Star Wars and so on that have come after it basically pull from foundations-inspired writing. That is the original crucible of science fiction. There's a book by Perry Crowe in 1897 called Across the Zodiac that has the first mention of the word astronaut in it and there's a book by HG Wells in 1917 called World Set Free that invented the word atomic. But outside of those, foundation is like the origination of most science fiction yeah, I gotta.
Speaker 3:
38:21
I definitely have that. I've had that in my queue. Um, I watch. I also watch a lot of the shows that just make me feel good, also cry, so like shrinking trying oh those are great mythic quest, incredible um. I'm glad that apple tv, even though it's been canceled, has allowed them to reshoot or re-air a brand new series, finale, which is great Loved Monarch Legacy of Monsters For All Mankind. I really, really love For All Mankind.
Speaker 2:
38:47
Shout out to my boy, eric Phillips, who's one of the writers on that show Fantastic show.
Speaker 3:
38:53
I love Just that every season is a new decade and we still have these characters and we get to see them grow and evolve. I'm like this is so smart. I love this.
Speaker 2:
39:04
Seasons one and two might be the best arc of any two characters ever in a show bar none, I agree, I agree. I mean minus Ron Moore's other work in Battlestar Galactica, which is the greatest show ever made.
Speaker 1:
39:21
Listen, there's a lot of great stuff that not just back then, but that's why I asked you that question, like the last 12 months, because there's so much stuff coming out now that is so amazing as well and that kind of transitions us into this next question to kind of bring it full circle from talking pop culture and then also about Gungnir as well. You've mentioned before how the opportunity there, the opportunities that are here with these types of stories that you're making making their way from the pages to the screen, and it's not just all Marvel, dc or superhero-related comics that are making that jump in stories. So what are some of the stories as a fan that you'd like to see a live-action adaptation of that we haven't gotten yet? And on the flip side, if you had to pick something from the Gungnir catalog, what would you choose first?
Speaker 2:
40:16
Love it. I'll also give you my two favorite non-Capes adaptations, which are History of Violence A lot of people don't know that was a Vertigo graphic novel Amazing and Sandman, because the book is one of my favorite books ever written. The book is one of my favorite books ever written. Then what would be my? I mean, I guess the book that hasn't been adapted yet, that like we got to adapt as a community, we got to get it going is saga like what? Where is the saga? Adaptation like what is wrong with people. That's like one of the greatest books ever written I'm a big fan of. Just like the sprawling, space, dire world that it creates. I just think it's amazing. And then you know we have a book called Chupacabra. I don't know if you guys did we send you any physicals.
Speaker 3:
41:15
No, we did not, but I looking through some of the youtube videos was the first one not in mutant cats.
Speaker 1:
41:22
I immediately was like, oh, these look cool as shit well, we'll send you a couple of copies.
Speaker 2:
41:26
We'll circle in with chris and get you guys some, some copies, hell yeah. But uh, chupacabra, you know I I have a deep love of like why a detective story? It's like what I grew up on. You know, buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Librarians, which is a really campy version of Indiana Jones for those that are unanointed, noah Wiles at his best. And you know I want to create my version of that and I'm half Brazilian. You know my mother's side and El Chupacabra is a really, really fun myth to work with and we created this high school detective who unravels a really fun mystery that involves a chupacabra and a secret society, and I think it's just tailor-made for an adaptation.
Speaker 3:
42:16
Yeah, I'm a big Cryptid fan, so that stuck out to me right away for sure. So, yeah, very much excited to check those out. To get into our last question and kind of wrap this up, I want to ask a couple of things. So you've given advice to those trying to start their own creative journey, and the term you've used is failing fast, and you guys are watching a lot of what I put out.
Speaker 2:
42:43
Jesus, I love it.
Speaker 3:
42:44
Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
42:45
We're prepared man. We're pros man, of course.
Speaker 2:
42:48
I love it.
Speaker 3:
42:51
So we want to know, like, what's the biggest lesson you've learned through all the years in this industry? And I also want to ask you this is a similar question we asked Keith Arem, the writer-creator of Frost Road, and we had a discussion about making sure and identifying opportunities that are right for you early on. So if you want to touch on those things and if you need me to repeat anything, let me know. But yeah, what's some advice that you would give? Start there.
Speaker 2:
43:18
Yeah, I mean outside of the failing fast as you alluded to, which I think is is most important for people to. You know, try a lot of things and quickly learn what works and what doesn't work right, and be okay when it doesn't work. Not everything works and not everything that costs money works right. Sometimes you're spending money on something and it doesn't work out, and the best thing that you can do for yourself in those situations is take a lesson from it. Otherwise you've really just burned those resources. But outside of that because that is something that I've talked about before, I think it's networking.
Speaker 2:
43:56
You know, there's a lot of great talent out there and unfortunately we live in a world where great talent is not the only thing that rises you to the top, and I am a staunch hater of social media.
Speaker 2:
44:12
I like doing podcasts, I like talking, I like having these conversations, but posting online is like a dagger to my soul twisting every time I have to do it, and a lot of times, people who are really great at that become more successful than just great creatives.
Speaker 2:
44:31
And so, if I had to give great advice is unless if you found yourself in a system with a machine, you have to be really aware that great talent alone will not do it anymore and you have to put in the work of awareness and you have to be your own marketer and you have to be your own cheerleader, and you're going to have to do a lot of things that make you feel uncomfortable and that make you feel as uncomfortable as the characters that you're writing. To create that tension you got to do for yourself in real life. And if you're not, and if you're not willing to do that or you don't want to do that, I get it. You got to find yourself a big publishing house. Then that'll do it for you, because otherwise, uh, it's it's price of entry. These days.
Speaker 3:
45:26
Yeah, that's one of the questions we get a lot in terms of. You know, we've been very fortunate to be able to work with a bunch of conventions here locally in Florida, throughout the state, and people ask us, you know, like, how is that happening? Well, we go to every single networking opportunity that we get, and meeting those people and building and forging those relationships has been. We would not be here without those conversations, without those relationships, and so that's, yeah, certainly very, very important. The second part, so what I had asked Chris, or, I'm sorry, what I had asked Keith is balancing early on, like you said, which opportunities are right for you. And then you also you know you kind of touched on this already but early on, are you in the position to say no, do you think, or do you take out every opportunity you can get?
Speaker 2:
46:09
You know, richard Branson has a great quote about this where he says say yes and figure out how to do it later, and that's sort of like how he lived his life and I think there's a lot of merit in that. I've definitely gotten to where I've gotten to wherever, that is by saying yes a lot. And now at this point I say maybe, and I need to get better at saying no, and I think that there's a lot of power and a lot of benefit in saying no. But I think you alluded to it just now. You need to earn that, and early in a career, I think saying yes more often, if not always, is really important. But keep that first thought that I had front of mind.
Speaker 2:
46:58
Fail fast If you say yes and you realize that it's not working out. Failure doesn't mean that you had to go to zero. Failure could just mean that it's not working out, that the choice that you made to go do this thing you've realized a month in two months, in three months in, is not the path. Fail fast, get out of that, move on to the next thing. You don't need to see things from 100 to zero every time. So I would say say yes to the opportunities but but have a really good barometer of when and how you need to eject, if needed.
Speaker 3:
47:33
There you go. Love that. Thanks for answering those. The last thing I'll bring up before we give you the opportunity to plug everything and let everybody know where you can find what you're up to. Liam Cohen was at UMass from 2005 to 2008. Did you guys cross? Were you there?
Speaker 2:
47:49
at that time. We were definitely there at the same time. All right, there you go. I need to Google a quick photo of this guy. Liam, yeah, he was a quarterback.
Speaker 3:
48:02
I think he was the starter for maybe three seasons, 06 to 08. Yeah, 07 was his best year.
Speaker 2:
48:13
I was there from 06 to 10. So we were definitely there together.
Speaker 3:
48:20
I'm pretty sure 2007, 2005, 6 to 8. He was the starter, based on his statistics. Well, there we go uh, duval, duval yeah because I remember seeing a video of victor cruz kind of facetimed him when he got the job. So the day he did his uh, his press conference, he called him, which was yeah, I mean, he was definitely the starting quarterback when I was there.
Speaker 2:
48:40
That's hilarious. There you go.
Speaker 1:
48:42
Yeah, I uh, I don't remember ever crossing paths with him, but that is uh the more you know matt the real question is uh, did you know you were going to be talking this much about Field of Dreams and UMass?
Speaker 3:
48:57
Or the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Speaker 2:
49:01
It's a welcome conversation. Those were good years.
Speaker 3:
49:05
Yeah, so if you're ever in Jacksonville during the fall, let us know and we will totally go to a game. So we will go check them out.
Speaker 2:
49:11
Yeah, I was just in Jacksonville in November, my buddy got married out there. Okay, and I don't know if you guys go out to any of the clubs, but I think Celine is the name of the club he just opened out there.
Speaker 3:
49:26
Doesn't sound familiar.
Speaker 1:
49:28
That's not our vibe, but I have heard of it.
Speaker 2:
49:32
So he's doing something right. That's my buddy Paul's club. Shout out Paul.
Speaker 3:
49:38
There you go. Well, matt, thank you so much for taking the time here. We hope to link up with you again. We're going to keep up with everything that you're doing over there as well, so please let our audience know where they can find everything Gungnir and anything else you want to let people know about.
Speaker 2:
50:00
Yeah, gungnirbookscom. At Gungnir Books on all social media, at Matthew Medney, at all social media. We have five really great titles that are in stores right now that you can go pick up, from Supercabra to Mutant Cats. To Forward as Always, which is a prose novel by my buddy, olin Rogers and Jake Sidwell. Olin created an amazing animated show called Final Space. If you've never watched Final Space, you've got to watch it. It's fan-fucking-tastic. Jake did the music for the show and they wrote this awesome book.
Speaker 2:
50:29
Stefan Petruccio wrote a book called the Stars Within. Stefan edited my first novel Beyond Kuiper, the Galactic Star Alliance, five, six years ago and then had this book that he wanted to publish and it's been an amazing journey with him. And then we're going to be putting out later this summer a book called Last Breeds that I wrote with my buddy, jonathan Ball, and GMB Scott Henderson did the art on it. It's a duo chromatic art style, so it's all reds and greens. It's fucking rad. We've been fortunate enough that Scott Snyder gave us an amazing endorsement on it and is going to help us with the promotion around it, and we're just really, really excited about that book.
Speaker 3:
51:13
Awesome, matt. Yeah, all of that will be in the show notes of this episode so you can keep up with Gungnir. And, once again, we had an absolute blast doing this with you and hope to do it again soon. So make sure you check out the Linktree link in the show notes of this and every single episode. You find everything Way4Podcast related and, like I said, everything Gungnir. But, eric, if you want to wrap us up, I think we are good to go.
Speaker 1:
51:39
Yeah, guys, you want to wrap us up. I think we are good to go.
Speaker 1:
51:41
Yeah, guys again really great episode and this opportunity came to us from shut up chris chris yeah, chris, that was on that episode with keith for frost road. So, as we continue to do more of this and spotlight really creative minds uh, like matt, and everything going on at gungnir, we really appreciate the support and for you guys checking out everything that Gungnir has to offer as far as the Wait For it podcast, we always appreciate the support. So everything from the likes, the comments, the shares, the follows to both accounts really helps out a lot. But for this episode we are wrapping up, my name is Mr Eric Almighty, that is my co-host, phil the Filipino and our guest, matt Medny. And remember, all you have to do is wait for it.
Speaker 2:
52:28
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
