Hello and good morning. Hey, good morning Arrow. It's John cafierrero John.
What a creative man you are. I'm so excited to talk with you
because I got to know what your hook is in the way that everything you
touch has me singing right along with you. I don't get how you do
this all the time. Oh, thank you. That's an amazing compliment.
I really appreciate it. I'm so happy to hear that. Well. I
glad you dig my stuff. I've sat here all morning listening to the Land
of Hatchie Mulatchie, and the thing is, I keep getting these flashbacks of
when I used to buy all of these K tail albums. I go,
my god, this is exactly what I had as a kid, songs that
I could sing with. That is so cool. Yeah, I mean the
land Hatchie Malatchie. It actually is this obscure children's song from the nineteen fifties
and it's been out of print for decades. It was originally performed by Rosemary
Clooney, and I just thought it was a really surreal and bizarre song that
I felt really tied and would fit in perfectly with this Sweetie Candividualante comic book
that I'm producing and specifically covered it with a highly unique approach for the series.
I'm so glad that you're putting music with this because my last two books
that I published came with music as well, and I thought, I just
want to do a soundtrack because I'm feeling this is it the same thing for
you that when you were putting together a story. It's like, man,
there's music in my head. I gotta get it out, absolutely without a
doubt. In fact, when I first heard the original version of the Land
of Hatchie Malatchi, my wife Suzanne, who created and writes Sweety, and
I were talking and I said, are you listening to this? And I
was hearing the song on this free form radio show that had happened to play
it, and I said, this would be perfect for Sweete And I immediately
just pictured doing this unique cover of it that would be sort of what you
would hear if you were watching it as a film. To create it with
that kind of a punk sound in the background, I mean that sound is
something that really resonates, is what it does. And I remember sitting down
with Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and he goes, it's not punk,
It's blue. How do you describe your sound, Well, I would really
describe it as maybe power pop or you know, punk pop. It's really
just what I'm feeling. I mean, one of my favorite bands, really
my favorite band of all time as a kid and even to this day as
The Ramones, and I always just kind of view everything as if it was
you know, the Ramones, but through my own filter. So it's really
just kind of like my own version of the Ramones, which I think comes
out as kind of like power pop or you know, punk rock, punk
pop. It's really just derivative of my personality. You might even just call
it like cartoon punk. Yeah. Yeah. Being a part of the Doctor
Demento journey, I mean, my god, I mean what today, I
mean with the platforms that we have, but it's still not Doctor Demento.
How do you find your place in space? You know, it's I think
people find you. I think it's really a matter of you just put out
what you feel and what you believe in, and there are going to be
people that are like minded or just have similar tastes that are just going to
be drawn to it and hopefully find it. And with like you said,
there's just so many platforms out there all over the world that everything it very
easily just gets lost in the ether and hard to find. So I think
you just have to put your stuff out there, really believe in it,
and enjoy what you're doing, and maybe even do it for yourself more so
than anything else, and then just hope that other people like it too.
So when your wife is putting together the the animation and you know in the
in the comic book itself, what is that like for your creative process as
well, Because I mean you're coming from a musical side, She's coming from
an imagination that's just got to be so vivid because I do see the colors.
Oh absolutely, Yeah. She's very imaginative and really has created an incredible
series and an incredible, incredible storyline and stable of characters, and she writes
it and then from there I work with the the different illustrators to get the
book illustrated and colored and packaged. And it really is I look at it
like making a movie. It's really just like taking a great script and then
trying to make the best movie out of it that you can. And music
comes hand in hand with that. One of the things that I've always wanted
to understand is that how do you know when to stop when you're doing a
series? In other words, how do you know, okay, this is
this book, Okay stop, we're we're going to create the series. It's
going to go, Because I mean, would I would do five thousand books
pages just to get one story out. Well, you know, most comic
books actually are kind of capped at about twenty two pages. The average comic
book is about twenty two pages of original content and then the rest is just
ads and other miscellaneous stuff. So for the very first issue of Sweetie,
because it was the debut issue, we went about ten pages longer than you
normally do, and then issues two through six in volume one more twenty two
pages apiece. And we are thrilled that the reception for the first six issues
and the first volume was so good and less people wanting more that we just
kicked off a sequel series, which is now Sweetie candividual Ante Volume two,
Issue number one was just released last week, and the first six issues of
Volume one were collected as a trade paperback that just came out at the end
of January. So you in comic books, you do have some confines to
work within because there is sort of an expectation of roughly twenty two pages for
your average issue, but you can go on with as many issues as it
takes to tell your story. And we knew that this was going to be
a multiple volume thing because the storyline is so rich and there's just constantly new
things being revealed about the character in her world and the other characters that exist
within it. And the first volume really just scratched the surface. But we
were thrilled to death that people liked it to the extent that they did,
and the fact that now that volume two has launched, there's been so many
people that are saying I was so thrilled when I saw that more was coming
out, because I was kind of disappointed to see it end. Wow.
See, it's fun to go to a comic book store and just listen to
everybody's stories and when they pick up a book that they haven't seen before and
all of a sudden, they begin, you know, sharing their journeys as
well. How did you get involved with comic books? Was it a kid
thing? I mean, what was the journey? Yeah, I've always loved
comic books ever since I was a kid. And honestly, even when my
wife and I first started dating, we used to go to comic book stores
and buy comics and then go back home and read them together. So you
know, we both love comic books, and I think was just fate that
we'd wind up working on one together somewhere down the line and doing something completely
original, and that is really refreshing with this because a lot of comic books
today, there's very few original properties. Most of them are based on pre
existing properties, just like films, and that's cool because it's great to see
something that you love in another medium. But it was a challenge to take
something that was completely new and new character in a new world introduce it.
And we're really thrilled with the reception that people took to it, because that's
not very common for new properties to survive among so many other big properties.
And literally our publisher Dynamite, who from the very beginning I felt was the
right home for this, And after talking to a number of different companies and
then finally talking to Nick Perucci of Dynamite, it was evident to me that
they were the right home and Nick was immediately like, we want this,
and we ink to deal with them and with Dynamite, we're an incredible company.
But all these very well established properties. I mean they're the home of
red Sonia, Vampirella, Army of Darkness based on the famous Sam Raimi movies,
James bondub Seven, Alvira, Mistress of the Dark, Game of Thrones.
So there's so many incredible properties there Barborella, and to be among them
is just an absolute thrill for both Suzanne and I. For you guys to
collaborate like that is it? Because the way that I run my house is
that is when I go into the studio, that's my studio time. I
get to arrow. But when I get to come out, then I can
be mister husband. When when when do you guys get to need I mean,
do you separate and then come back at lunch or what do you guys
do? No, you know, it's kind of like, uh, you
know, I'm very much like a doctor sort of on call twenty four hours
a day, and my work date does not ever really end. I mean
there are little moments in between where I'll have downtime for just personal life or
whatever. But things just happen all the time, and when you're creating or
working on things. You know, for me, quite a bit of the
middle of the night is sometimes when I like to work on stuff the most.
So yeah, there's really it's kind of like our house is sort of
like this weird studio. Yeah yeah, yeah. Now I have a show
on iHeartRadio called Creativity is the addiction? Do you find yourself in that position?
It's like, I've got to keep creating. I've got to feed it,
I've got to give it more. Absolutely, yeah, without a doubt.
I mean, I'm always doing something, and I always have a million
different projects going on at once. I mean literally, right now, I'm
producing volume two of the Sweetie Candy Vigilante comic book series. I'm also in
the process of producing Doctor Demento coven in Punk Volume two, which is,
as you know from the first volume, the huge undertaking and a really rich,
diverse project. I'm working on new Osaka pop star material, Managing the
Misfits, the State of d d Ramones. There's always a lot of different
things going on, all things that I really love and feel fortunate to be
involved with. Well, I love what you do. I mean, you
really do bring us the story in so many different ways, and it's like
it doesn't catch us off guard. It catches us in a moment of oh
my god, I found my escape, and it's coming from you and your
wife. Oh thanks. I'm really glad to hear that. And the way
that the world is today with all of the chaos in the world and negativity,
I mean, having an escape really is a valued treasure in my opinion.
Even with the song Milanda Hashie Malatchie. When I hear it, I
mean, one of the reasons I wanted to do it is because I felt
that it was sort of our version. Osakopopsto's version is imagined as it's coming
from Sweeti's candy coated glasses point of view, but through her sort of unhinged
mind, And when I listen to it sometimes I think, boy, with
the state of the world right now, it'd really be great for us all
to have a land of Hatchie Malachi to go escape to. Oh my god,
you just said two of my favorite words, except you said candy coded
view. I live by this mantra, candy coded plastic bathroom mirror smile,
and we all have that great And so for you to say that, I'm
going, holy crap. Yeah, Well, I always enjoy your interviews Arrow
because you're really You've got a really imaginative mind yourself, and you're really thorough
and into the things that you talk about. So it's always a pleasure to
thought in vision the viewer and the listener, because every time I come into
this studio, it's like, Okay, they're waiting, now I need to
deliver. Do you You've seem to be that type as well. Yeah,
you know. I want to make sure that anything I do is fun and
entertaining for anybody that's going to take the time to give it a listen.
So I really do try to put my best foot forward in everything I do,
and at the same time, I really am genuinely passionate about it.
So I think the two together is just it's a combination that's worked really well
for me, and I take pride in it. Wow, where can people
go to find out more about you? This entire project? And I'm sure
that you know, if you're going to be doing any visiting of any stores
or comic book conventions, I mean you've got to be somewhere. Oh absolutely,
Yeah. Well for starters for Osaka pop stores, music and to check
out our animated music videos and learn more about the band Osaka pop Star just
visit Osaka Popstar dot com. It's just like the city in Japan O s
A k A p O P s t a r dot com. And to
learn more about the Sweetycandy Vigilante comic book series, visit our official website for
the series, which is sweety s w E E t I E Candy Vigilante
dot com. And you can order the records at Osaka Popstar dot You could
order the comics at Sweetyandyvigilante dot com. You could check out the music on
all the digital platforms Spotify, Apple Music, you know, Amazon, pretty
much all of them. And you can find SWEETYE Candy Vigilante literally in your
favorite comic book shop. So if you want to support your mom and pop
shops, stop into your local comic bookshop and ask for it. And if
you want the convenience of having it delivered to your door, check out the
website and order everything from us online because we've got rare, variant covers,
autograph copies, and pretty much everything you could you could look for in a
sweet shop online. Wow, how long did it take you to let it
roll off your tongue the way that you say sweetye candy vigilante. I mean,
come on, that's like seeing say it five times in a row and
see if you can do without shripping. Yeah, now, it's it's an
amazing title. At the point my wife first mentioned it to me, I
immediately thought, you know, this is definitely something that I think has legs
and could catch on because it's certainly entertaining me. Please come back to the
show anytime in the future. Hour is always going to be open for you.
John. Oh, thank you Arrow. It's always a pleasure and I
really appreciate all of your support and I'm so glad that you like what I
do. Will you'd be brilliant today? Okay, thank you to Arrow.
Have a great win. I'll speak with you next time.