Nov. 27, 2025

Camazotz ft. Rafael Flores

Camazotz ft. Rafael Flores
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For Susto's final episode of 2025, we have a monster of an episode for you! In this episode, Ayden tells the tale of the Mayan Bat diety known as the Camazotz. Then, he interviews comic-creator Rafael Flores all about his comic, the Return of Camazotz!



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WEBVTT

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A cool friend. It's me Adrian or Aiden. Either way,

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I am still your host and you are still listening

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to Sustill, the Podcast of Paranormal folk or from Latin

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American cultures. Welcome back, Thank you for being here, and

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if this is your first time, welcome to the circle,

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the circle of light where we protect each other from

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all the scary evil things out there. Even though I

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am here just kidding, I hope everyone is having a

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wonderful week. We are in a time right now where

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many people are gathering with their loved ones, family, friends,

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chosen family at the moment. So whether you are listening

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to this while you are maybe cooking a feast in

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the kitchen, you're traveling, you're working, whatever you happen to

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be doing. Thank you for sharing this moment with me

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and letting me haunt you. Quick updates, As you may

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have seen, Strange and Extraordinary Fest was postponed. Bit of

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a bummer there, but the organizers are working on securing

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a new date, so please stay tuned for that. I'm

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still locked in for that event, of course, pending the date.

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Hopefully it'll work out with the new scheduled thing. But

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this is why it's important to follow at Sustal podcast

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on every social media platform because that is how you

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get the most up to date information on what I'm doing,

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on what's going on, you know, aside from the fun

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content and all that, you know, you get that breaking

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news so to speak. But either way, stay tuned for

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that more information to come. We have prepared for you

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today a monster of an episode because it's the last

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episode of Sustal for the year. So next month in December,

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as I have been doing for the last couple of years,

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is the Sustal Swapathon. I cannot wait to bring you

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some shows that I think that you will enjoy that

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I have been enjoying. If this is your first Sustal swapethon, essentially,

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what I do is I swap episodes with shows that

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I have been enjoying that I think that you all

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would like and kind of introduce you to some more

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content that is out there some other really cool creators.

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We have of course, another banger of a lineup this year,

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so make sure that you tune in throughout the month

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of December. Although there will not be any new Sustal episodes,

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there will be something in the feed for you, so

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you'll still get your notification and you can check out

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something new while I am kind of on a bit

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of a break. But like I said, this is a

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monster of an episode because we actually worked in an

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interview with comic creator at Florides into this episode. So

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this is going to be like, you know, the full

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Sustle episode with story. We'll have sources of course, but

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we're also going to have an interview during the episode,

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which I'm really excited about, and you will hear all

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about that, of course once you get into it. After

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the story. Before we do take Flight into the Darkness

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that is today's episode, we are going to read a

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comment from Spotify. Again. You all heard me talk about

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Spotify last episode. We are not giving them our money,

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we are not giving them our paid memberships, but people

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do listen on Spotify and I do not want to

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ignore them, and they're leaving comments, So this is gonna

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be an interesting one. This is from quote the girl

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who left a comment on the ELSIL one episode, and

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they said, will the name of Jesus save you from

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elsil one? My family is very Catholic, and my family

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is from Latin America as well, and the name of

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Jesus is more powerful than anyone and anything. I claim

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no negative energy and may God protect you all. Okay,

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miss girl. So actually, in order to protect yourself from

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elsil one, you can rely on dogs and chili peppers

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or a whip, because he is afraid of those things.

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If you listen to the episode, I hope that you

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got to that part of it, you would know that

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aside from shore try Jesus, you can try these nifty

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little tricks that will protect you from him. This is

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kind of just a silly comment to me. I'm sure

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this person was not being silly, but I think it's funny,

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and I actually that's funny. I made a TikTok kind

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of about that the other day because I get that

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comment a lot, and not that I mock my audience, listeners,

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my wolfriend, but it's just this thing. I don't know

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what it is, and I'm sure you all have seen

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it online where people on a scary video they will

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leave the comment I claim no negative energy, and I

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think I said something like, well, what if the energy

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claims you? But what then? Diva? You gotta be prepared.

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You cannot just say I want nothing to do with it,

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because it might want something to do with you, So

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mss girl, sure you have Jesus. Let me also suggest

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for your arsenal of protection some chili and dogs and

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a whip if you have one lying around by any chance.

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I just got to be fun to read that comment.

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And of course the link to the episode of one

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if you have not heard the episode, will be in

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the description below. Anyway, we are going to jump into

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today's episode, which is all about the Gama SATs. The

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hills outside Guaban were the kind of beautiful that felt

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almost unreal. Rolling slopes coated in coffee plants shimmered in

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the morning light. Narrow terraces cut into the mountain sides

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glowed green and gold. Clouds drifted low and soft, snagging

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lazily on the ridge lines like wool pulled across combs.

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Birds traced arcs over the canopy, Scarlet macaws, emerald tucans,

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flickers of neon life in the trees. Two brothers, Nico

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and Jonah, had hiked through these hills dozens of times.

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They knew the smell of the rich, damp earth. They

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knew how the stones warmed under the sun. They knew

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how the wind wandered through the leaves like fingers playing

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harp strings. This place was alive, vibrantly, beautifully alive, which

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made what came next feel impossible. Nico and Jonah had

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only intended to follow the trail of missing tourists into

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the hills of Alta Verapaz, nothing more than a search

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and rescue attempt. They had packed plenty of food and

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water to provide to the group of hikers who had

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gotten lost. It wasn't a long trip back to town,

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but the lost group had been out here for days

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and probably needed sustenance. As the brothers hiked somewhere between

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two limestone gorges, the ground crumbled beneath them. The world

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flipped into blackness. They woke inside a cavern that wasn't

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on any map. It smelled of damp stone and something older,

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like mud mixed with blood. The walls were carved with

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symbols that looked more like wounds than art, slashes in

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the rock that pulsed faintly, as if they remembered pain.

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Jonah whispered, where are we? Nico didn't know. The tunnel

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they landed and smell damp and stale. Their flashlights flickered

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across rough stone walls etched with a chaotic mix of

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old and new markings. Some were ancient Maya glyphs carved

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with deliberate skill, others were jagged, rushed scratches. No siegan, nobasin,

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get out, death ahead, ayuda. One word they had only

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heard of in legends stood out among them, Shivalba. Nico

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called Jonah over to point out the word. Isn't this

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the underworld myth? Nico asked, yeah, Jonah replied, Some of

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the Kicha people believe the entrance to Shibalba was in

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this area. I wonder if they think this is it.

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Jonah continued reading through various messages scrawled on the walls,

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some in languages he did not recognize. Finally, he ran

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his finger over one message written in charcoal. The only

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way out is through. The brothers looked at each other

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and thought about this message that some one else had

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left for them. Do we try to make our way

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through the caves? Jonah asked. Nico responded with hesitation, I

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don't think I can climb about of here, so I

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guess we have to try the caves. They looked forward

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into the cave system and started their journey Something dripped

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in the darkness, something breathed. They kept moving and entered

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a large cavern. At first, Nico thought it was just

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the absence of light, but then his cell phone's flashlight dimmed,

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the beam shrinking, shrinking, as if the darkness ate it.

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Jonah tried his phone. It flared for a moment before

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being snuffed out again. The dark wasn't empty. It was crowded,

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breathing barely, but enough that they could hear something in

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held behind them and ex held in front of them.

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They pressed themselves against the wall, hands sliding over carvings

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that felt warm and sticky, like coagulated blood. Every time

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they moved, the darkness moved with them, squeezing tighter, brushing

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their clothes like unseen fingers. Jonah whispered, don't stop, don't let.

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It catch you.

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In the black, Nico could hear clicking, not from machinery

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or animals, but from hollow throats, the sound of teeth

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counting their steps. They didn't run. Running felt like what

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Schibalba wanted. They inched forward until a distant, sickly gray

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glow appeared a threshold. They crossed it, trembling and breathless,

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and The glow behind them folded up like a mouth closing.

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Nico tried to catch his breath as he asked, what

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was that? Nothing about that felt natural. I don't know,

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Jonah replied, but I'm glad we're out of there. That

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darkness felt never ending. I hope we don't have to

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go through anything like that again. Nico gasped as he

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pointed towards the walls. Just like before, they were covered

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in writing. The tunnel walls were slick with moisture, and

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the writing on the walls were denser. Here some glyphs

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they couldn't read, but scratched on top of them were

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more warnings guccillos, gayendo, don't stir the air, stay low.

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A set of footprints, small and bare, stopped abruptly beneath

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a warning that simply said, perdonemeh. The two brothers continued forward.

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The next chamber yawned open. Nico swept his flashlight across

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the room. At first, the ceiling appeared solid and black.

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It took a moment for their eyes to adjust and

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to realize it was back at them Like thousands of mirrors.

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Obsidian blades filled the ceiling. Sheet after sheet of razor

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stone packed into natural shelves of brittle rock. The blades

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were not moving, just waiting. Jonah let out a deep breath,

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and the obsidian blades shook loosely, holding onto the ceiling

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of the cavern. The brothers looked down and saw the

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floor was gravel and loose stone. If a breath was

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enough to shake the blades, One wrong step on the

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loose gravel threatened to rattle the cavern. Go slow, Nico whispered.

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They placed each step with surgical precision, but when Nico

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slipped on a patch of pebbles, crunch. The sound echoed

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like a gunshot. A dozen obsidian shards cracked free and

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plunged down, spearing the ground between them. The blades sliced

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past Jonah's sleeve, opening a thin line of blood. Then

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another cascade began run. Jonah yelled. They sprinted, the ceiling,

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cracking open behind them. As obsidian shards fell like black hailstones,

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fragments flew at their heels. One sliced Nko's shoulder deeply,

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but he didn't stop. Only when they dove into the

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next corridor did the deadly rain quiet. The brothers stopped

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and tended to Nko's shoulder. The cut wasn't serious, but

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it made it harder for him to move his arm around.

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As they wrapped the wound, they felt a gust of

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cold air. The upcoming walkway was coated and frost, but

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the brothers continued on. Their breath froze in the air.

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Their boots crunched over a thick layer of ice and snow,

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which should be impossible for this deep underground. More carvings

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appeared on the walls, scratched with shaking hands. Cold is alive,

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no nor mirror. Don't stop moving. One frozen handprint smeared

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across the wall, ended in deep drag marks. Nico swallowed

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and Jonah shivered. They kept going and stepped into the

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next chamber. The temperature dropped so fast Nico's ears popped.

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A wind moved through the cavern. It was not a

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natural breeze, but a steady, rhythmic gust, like something enormous inside.

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The ice was slowly inhaling and exhaling. Frost coated the walls.

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Frozen footprints, dozens of them littered the floor, Some trailed

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off into nothing, Others ended in sudden sideways drags. Icicles

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hung from the ceiling like rows of transparent fangs. A

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pale blue light glowed from all the ice, just enough

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for the brothers to see where they are, but not

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enough to make it easy to navigate. The wind grew stronger.

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Something howled through the stalactites. A shriek formed from air

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ripping past ice. Jonah's lips went blue. Nico forced him forward,

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keep moving, keep talking. Their voices shook violently as they

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spoke nonsense, just to stay conscious. Every time they slowed,

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the freezing wind tightened around their legs like hands made

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of ice. Only when they reached the next corridor did

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the temperature ease, like the room had reluctantly released them.

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Their skin was stinging from the cold. They sat together

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until they got the feelings back in their limbs. I

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don't want to stay here any longer. I want to

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get out of these horrible caves, Nko decided. The brothers

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looked around this new passage they found themselves in the

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floors and walls were littered with not like any animal

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markings they had seen, but also not human. Deep gashes

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gouged into the rock, some fresh, some ancient. Blood stained

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the floor in hand print smears more warnings covered the

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walls nos on animales, don't run, demroon. A larger message

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read they eat you slowly. Jonah swallowed hard. The air

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changed again. In the next chamber, it reeked with musk

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and rot. Then came the growls. Deep rolling, hungry eyes

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opened in the darkness ahead, dozens of them, glinting like

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polished gold, with slit pupils that narrowed as they approached.

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These were not the jaguars you see in documentaries. Their

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bodies were gaunt yet powerful, ribs sharp under pale fur.

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Their tail were short, as if worn down by scraping

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against stone. Their mouths were stained black and red. The

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brothers froze. The jaguars didn't attack immediately. They circled, hurting

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Nico and Jonah. Deciding how to divide the meal. Nico

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slowly reached into his bag, remembering the food they had

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packed for the missing hikers. Every jaguar tensed ready to spring.

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He unwrapped some protein bars and tossed them onto the floor.

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The beasts lunged, not at the brothers, but at the food.

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They fought each other with snapping jaws and tearing claws.

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The sound was wet, and frantic. Go Nico whispered. They

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skirted the wall, keeping their eyes down, moving as silently

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as possible. One jaguar lifted its blood slicked head and

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watched them its growl low and questioning, but it did

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not attack. As they crossed into the next passage, the

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jaguar's feast developed into snarling chaos. Behind them, the air

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grew sulfurous. The walls glowed faintly red beneath soot. Every

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step they took down this passage, the air grew warmer

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and warmer. Scrawled warnings covered every surface, eruptions below La

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tierra rispira. Don't stop, don't ever stop, one message read

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in English. I can hear the Earth's heartbeat. The heat

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pressed against them like a warning to not continue to

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the next chamber. With no other choice, they went ahead anyway.

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The cavern pulsed red like a living wound. Rivers of

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molten magma bled through cracks in the stone floor. Superheated

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steam vented in great violent wishes. Ambers floated in the

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air like malignant fireflies. The ground trembled in short, sharp quakes.

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Jonah crouched near a vent it's breathing, he whispered, the mountain.

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It's alive. They moved between eruptions, timing their steps. When

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the ground inhaled, steam died down. When it exhaled, a

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geyser of scalding vapor blasted upward. A near mists burned

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Jonah's forearm. Instantly he bit down a scream. The cavern

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shuddered harder. A glowing chunk of rock cracked loose from

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the ceiling and burst against the floor behind them. They

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sprinted across the last stretch as the magma rivers brightened,

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the floor cracking open. They dove out just before a

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wave of molten stone surged across where they'd stood. The

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next passage felt normal. No heat followed them. The air

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was stale and damp. The brothers sat and drank as

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much of their water as they could. The heat from

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the previous chamber had left them tired and dehydrated. I

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don't know how much more I can do, Nico said softly.

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I'm just too tired. Jonah paused for a moment. We

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have to keep going. I don't want to die down here.

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Every chamber is trying to kill us, but I won't

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let it. We can rest, but we aren't going to

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give up. Nico nodded at his brother and looked around

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this space. This passage was more narrow than the others before.

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It made the brothers feel claustrophobic. The walls were once

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again packed with scratches. Don't look up, weavette and cilentcio.

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The big one picks who dies. The air stank of

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ammonia and decay. The sound came softly whispers, hungry whispers.

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The brothers stepped into the next chamber during how many

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more of these they would have to get through to

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escape this otherworldly cave system. Their flashlights barely penetrated the darkness.

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The beams seemed to recoil, bending away, as if afraid

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of what lay ahead. The cavern looked like it had

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been built. There were limestone pillars around the sides of it,

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some of which had fallen with time. There was also

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a raised platform in the middle with the pedestal for offerings.

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As the brothers surveyed the space, the sounds grew louder,

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the sound of claws scraping stone, not small claws. Jonah whispered,

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Ko look as he pointed his phone's flashlight up. The

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ceiling wasn't just textured rock. It was covered completely in bodies, pale,

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skinless wings pressed together like layers of raw meat. Bats

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hung in clusters, thousands of them, but each was odd,

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their limbs too long, their rib cages visible, their snouts

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elongated into jagged bone. Some were missing eyes, some had

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too many, and some twitched in feverish dreams. As Nico's

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flashlight swept across them, every single bat froze, and then

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they opened their eyes. A wave of gleaming red pinpricks

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stared down at the brothers. The room exhaled a wet,

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rattling sound that made Jonah's knees buckle. Something large dropped

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from the ceiling behind them. Nico turned the light and

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wished he hadn't. The creature towering over them had the

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posture of a man, but the anatomy of a nightmare.

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Elongated limbs folded at wrong angles, leathery wings dragging across

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the floor, a chest that rose and fell in ragged,

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deliberate breaths. Its head was a grotesque bat skull with

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obsidian fangs protruding like knives. Its nose ended in a sharp,

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spear like point. Its eyes were pits of black honey, reflective, wet,

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hungry Gamazots the death bat, the god of decapitation. The

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creature leaned towards them and inhaled, deeply, sniffing the air

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around their throats. Ego grabbed Jonah's jacket and pulled him

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behind a limestone pillar. The bats on the ceiling began

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to shudder, the beginnings of a frenzy. Gamazots stalked step

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by slow step, its talents tapping the floor like fingernails

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on a coffin. Tap tap tap. It wasn't chasing, it

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was testing. Jonah whispered too loudly, Eko, what do we do?

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A shriek erupted from the feature, a metallic bone scraping

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sound that vibrated their ribs. The bats overhead exploded into flight,

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a cyclone of bodies and teeth, filling the cavern in

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a living storm. Nico shoved Jonah toward a fallen slab

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of stone. They dove behind it as the swarm battered

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the barrier, wings slapping like wet towels, claws scraping at

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the edges. Gamasots approached the slab slowly with intention, Tap tap.

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It leaned close, sniffing its breath was hot and damp

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and smelled like rusty knives. Then impossibly fast, it slammed

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the slab, the stone cracking like an egg. Nico and

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Jonah ran. The bats descended behind them in a screeching tide.

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Something heavy hit the ground, gamasots leaping into pursuit, its

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claws gouging trenches in the floor. The exit tunnel narrowed,

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too narrow for their monster, barely wide enough for a

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human Jonah go. Jonah squeezed through the crack. Nko followed

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until a talon wrapped around his ankle and dragged him back.

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He screamed, clawing at the ground. Jonah grabbed his arms,

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pulling with all his strength. Nico felt the claws digging

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into his skin, the cold obsidian no spike, grazing his throat.

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Commissants paused. It wanted him to look to understand. Then

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it made its mark, a single precise slice, shallow but

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bleeding across Nico's throat, not killing him, claiming him. Jonah

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pulled with everything he had, and the crack in the

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stone finally widened enough for Nico to slip through. They

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collapsed into a side tunnel behind them, the bats shrieked

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in fury, and Gamasots roared a sound that shook.

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The wall of the chamber.

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The passage collapsed, severing the chamber from them. The caves

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returned to normal stone walls. With the faint light right ahead.

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They ran until they reached the daylight. They survived Shibalba,

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but Nico's scar never healed. Sometimes it pulses like a

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heartbeat that isn't his. Jonah avoids nightfall like a phobia,

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and Niko wakes to the sound of tap tap tap

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at his window. Not always just on the darkest nights,

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the nights when shadows move in ways they shouldn't, the

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nights when the air tastes like blood. Because Gamasots doesn't

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hunt just for food, He hunts for what escapes him.

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And now he knows Niko's name. Welcome back, well friends.

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As I mentioned earlier before the story, we are joined

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now by Rafael Flores, who is the writer and creator

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of the comic The Return of Kama Sorts and a

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co owner of Grim Corps Studios. Rafael, Welcome to Susto.

369
00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:38.640
Thank you so much for being here today.

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00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:42.559
Hey, thanks for having me man. I've been you know,

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following you for like, you know, since like maybe it's

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like a year now last the Next Americon.

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Yeah, first met mex American.

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00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:51.799
Yeah yeah, yeah, and dude, I've been so excited to

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00:26:51.799 --> 00:26:54.279
be on the podcast though. I love your your vibe

376
00:26:54.359 --> 00:26:58.160
and the headphone everything, man, everything my porns.

377
00:26:58.839 --> 00:27:02.039
Thank you. Well, I also love your vibe. And yeah,

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00:27:02.079 --> 00:27:04.200
I remember we met a year ago. We just did

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mex American again this year November first, and that was

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my second year there, I think too, okay perfect, Yeah,

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and our first year. We also we did that panel together,

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which is really great. So yeah, this has been basically

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year in the making because as my listeners, if they

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know me at all, they know that I have these

385
00:27:26.359 --> 00:27:28.759
ideas and I'm like, it's going to happen, and then

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who knows, you know, life gets in the way. So

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I'm glad that we were finally here and I'm excited

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00:27:34.799 --> 00:27:37.160
to talk to you about your work and speaking of

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00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:40.240
can you just share a bit about your background as

390
00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:44.000
a comic creator and how you got into writing comics.

391
00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:46.839
So I was always a fan of comics growing up

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like a very young age. They were what taught me

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to read, that what got me interested in reading, even

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though my teachers wouldn't, like, don't consider it real reading,

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you know what I mean. Like, but I knew I

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was reading. And it's interesting because the comics in the nineties,

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you know, the reading level is like it's for men,

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you know what I mean. It was for grown adults.

399
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But you were a kid reading these books. Yeah, so

400
00:28:09.599 --> 00:28:11.720
like you were learning. I was learning vocabulary and all

401
00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:14.759
that kind of stuff. But and also it was just cool.

402
00:28:14.839 --> 00:28:16.960
I love the art work. I loved reading like X Men,

403
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spider Man, Batman. Batman was one of my favorites. I

404
00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:24.720
would get him very reagularly. I remember when I was young,

405
00:28:24.839 --> 00:28:26.720
like maybe like six, I got like my first like

406
00:28:26.920 --> 00:28:29.039
shoe box of comics from one of my older cousins,

407
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and it was just a bunch of random nineties comics.

408
00:28:31.960 --> 00:28:35.559
And I've read those and like loved them so much,

409
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like that, you know, the pages would fall out. I

410
00:28:38.759 --> 00:28:40.880
would pin them on my wall because, like, you know,

411
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I love the artwork. I was just such a big

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fan at a very young age, and so that just

413
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kind of continued as I got older. I started reading

414
00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:52.799
more like of the classic graphic novels, things like Watchmen,

415
00:28:53.559 --> 00:28:56.319
like Batman, along Halloween and I started getting more into

416
00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:00.039
like Vertigo and Image comics as I got older and

417
00:29:00.519 --> 00:29:02.480
worked at a comic shop for a couple of years,

418
00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:07.799
collected comics and games here in Holkin City. I always

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00:29:07.799 --> 00:29:09.599
always knew I wanted to write comics. I always I

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wanted to make comic books. I didn't think I could

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be an artist, but I knew I could write a

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good story. I was. I've always been a good storyteller.

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I felt, you know, my essays and stuff in college.

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I aceed to do filmmaking. In college, I wrote a

425
00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:26.119
lot of scripts, screenplays, I studied that kind of stuff.

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So I kind of applied all that stuff to writing

427
00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:32.599
comic books just because there's no like real comic book

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school over here in Texas, you know what I mean,

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Like they don't teach that. I think it should be

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00:29:36.279 --> 00:29:39.920
something that they teach, But like, at least where I'm

431
00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:43.160
from in Dallas for work area, there's like nothing you

432
00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:45.000
can't So I had to basically teach myself how to

433
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.039
write comic books from like going online, listening to interviews

434
00:29:49.079 --> 00:29:51.480
with other comic creators. One of my favorite thing what

435
00:29:51.559 --> 00:29:54.440
I would do is I would watch those recordings of

436
00:29:54.519 --> 00:29:57.200
like Comic Con panels at like San Diego Comic Con

437
00:29:57.319 --> 00:29:59.960
or something, and I would listen to the writers how

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00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:02.519
about their process, or the artists talk about their process.

439
00:30:02.519 --> 00:30:04.400
And that's kind of how I taught myself.

440
00:30:04.519 --> 00:30:08.880
I was like my school, yeah.

441
00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:09.960
And I would like I would check out comic books

442
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from the library, and a lot of times in the

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back of the graphic novel they'll have like a look

444
00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:16.039
behind the scenes section where they they'll show you like

445
00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:18.079
a piece of script or they'll show you like smart

446
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work and stuff. Advanced a couple of years, I became

447
00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:25.480
a librarian working at a library, and that was all

448
00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:28.640
just because like I wanted to be around all the

449
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inspiration movies, books, you know, comic books, so that I

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00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:36.000
could continue achieving my dream or reaching for my dream

451
00:30:36.039 --> 00:30:38.680
of writing comic books and so, but I knew I

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00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:40.440
needed a job so I could like pay the bills

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and afford to make comic books and stuff, because making

454
00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:46.519
comics is expensive. It's actually very if you're the writer,

455
00:30:46.680 --> 00:30:48.799
you're paying for everything. You're the producer of the comic.

456
00:30:49.359 --> 00:30:51.680
So a lot of times els if it's independent, when

457
00:30:51.720 --> 00:30:54.640
you're working with DC or Marvel, they'll pay you. But

458
00:30:54.920 --> 00:30:57.799
when you're getting started. You really have to kind of

459
00:30:57.839 --> 00:30:59.000
get your own work out there.

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00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:02.519
I said that you were a librarian. I had no

461
00:31:02.599 --> 00:31:05.680
idea about that, and I think that is so so cool.

462
00:31:05.839 --> 00:31:08.440
I'm interested in hearing a bit more about your time

463
00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:10.519
as a librarian, Like what was that like for you?

464
00:31:10.599 --> 00:31:14.000
I think I'm like, I guess like a fan is

465
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:15.559
I think it's a weird say the weird thing to say,

466
00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:19.519
but how I feel, Yeah about libraries and librarians. I

467
00:31:19.559 --> 00:31:22.799
do events at the Austin Public Library. I've been very

468
00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:24.880
fortunate to have them invite me out for certain things,

469
00:31:24.920 --> 00:31:28.079
and every time I'm like, everybody get a library card, Like,

470
00:31:28.119 --> 00:31:31.680
please use your libraries. They're amazing resources, not just for

471
00:31:31.720 --> 00:31:35.920
books but as community centers and so so one. Thank

472
00:31:35.960 --> 00:31:37.599
you for that. I think that's amazing that you were

473
00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:41.920
a librarian. And I don't know, like what was like

474
00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:44.799
maybe like the most interesting thing that you saw as

475
00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:45.480
a librarian.

476
00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:49.319
Okay, I'll say this as a release to me, The

477
00:31:49.359 --> 00:31:52.359
most interesting thing I've seen and noticed is that kids

478
00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:54.640
today they love comic books, and parents are little bit

479
00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:57.160
more You're right, people are more becoming more accepting. Teachers

480
00:31:57.200 --> 00:32:00.240
are more accepting now, and I think it's because maybe

481
00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:02.079
because of the Marvel movies that came out, you know,

482
00:32:02.359 --> 00:32:04.240
after that, it was like nothing they could do about it. Right, kids,

483
00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:07.880
they're gonna be comic books. But also we got things

484
00:32:07.880 --> 00:32:10.880
like dog Man, which is like literally the king of

485
00:32:10.880 --> 00:32:13.759
comic books right now. He makes more money than anything.

486
00:32:14.920 --> 00:32:18.240
So you know, you got these really good kid comics

487
00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:20.279
going on right now. It's like a it's like a

488
00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:24.400
golden age of kid comics. Ya. And so I'm noticing

489
00:32:24.519 --> 00:32:28.319
the shift of the of the acceptance, but also just

490
00:32:29.079 --> 00:32:31.200
there's more of it. There's more comics being made now

491
00:32:31.240 --> 00:32:34.680
than ever. You're seeing it now for you know, all

492
00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:38.920
the way from children to adults, and and you're seeing

493
00:32:38.920 --> 00:32:42.720
more money put into like Scholastic, you know, everything they

494
00:32:42.720 --> 00:32:47.680
make nowadays. It's really cool. And they're on these lists

495
00:32:47.720 --> 00:32:50.000
of like awards or winning awards now, you know what

496
00:32:50.039 --> 00:32:52.240
I mean. So, like it's been really cool to see

497
00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:56.799
that shift happen. Because when I was in college going

498
00:32:56.839 --> 00:32:59.720
to the library school, like there it's I would I

499
00:32:59.720 --> 00:33:03.240
would talk to people, Well, the librarian school was actually

500
00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:05.480
really cool, Like those classes were cool, and I'll be

501
00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:08.160
like a history class or something, and my teacher would

502
00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:10.640
say like I didn't at all read a book, you know,

503
00:33:10.680 --> 00:33:12.960
based off that was made into the movie. And I've

504
00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:15.039
raised my hand and I was like Watchman. I read Watchmen.

505
00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:17.240
And he was like, what's that And I was like,

506
00:33:17.400 --> 00:33:19.599
it's a comic book, it's a graphic novel. He goes,

507
00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:22.559
I'm talking about a real book, and he like on

508
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:24.359
my face. He just goes like he laughs on my face,

509
00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:25.960
and he just walks away, like you're an idiot.

510
00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:29.480
And I was just like, what the that's terrible, what

511
00:33:29.559 --> 00:33:31.279
the hell? Oh my god?

512
00:33:31.640 --> 00:33:35.079
And so like I'm dealing with that in college and stuff,

513
00:33:35.079 --> 00:33:37.000
and I'm like, nothing's changed, you know, people are still

514
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:39.400
the same. I was thinking, you know, but if you

515
00:33:39.400 --> 00:33:41.599
go when you go into libraries, I think librarians are

516
00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:44.160
on the edge of everything. So they know what's popular,

517
00:33:44.240 --> 00:33:47.160
they know what's the trends are, and they can see

518
00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:50.839
comic books are growing and more people are enjoying reading

519
00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:53.519
them and they're being more accepted. Librarians are going to

520
00:33:53.559 --> 00:33:56.000
accept them because it's reading. They understand that comic books

521
00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:01.000
are reading. Yeah. So yeah, And how I got into it,

522
00:34:01.559 --> 00:34:05.000
I was working. I don't know. Honestly, my college was

523
00:34:05.079 --> 00:34:08.000
terrible because, like I started as like I wanted to

524
00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:10.719
be an animator because I love cartoons. I loved comic books,

525
00:34:10.760 --> 00:34:14.119
and I wanted to make cartoons, right. And then I

526
00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:15.960
was like, well, I can't really draw good, so I'm

527
00:34:15.960 --> 00:34:17.760
going to be a writer. I'll write the cartoons, right.

528
00:34:18.199 --> 00:34:21.039
And so I was taking like filmmaking, journalism, any writing

529
00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:23.800
class I could find, and I taught myself a lot

530
00:34:23.800 --> 00:34:26.800
about writing, did a bunch of short stories and screenplays

531
00:34:26.800 --> 00:34:30.000
and stuff like that. But I kept I would make

532
00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:32.119
short films, right, and I would enter them to like

533
00:34:32.199 --> 00:34:34.800
the school competition, right, and I'd win, and then I

534
00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:37.639
would talk to the you know, the people, the judges

535
00:34:37.679 --> 00:34:39.679
and whatever get my prize money. And I'd be like,

536
00:34:40.159 --> 00:34:42.079
so like what should I do next? And They're like,

537
00:34:42.280 --> 00:34:46.599
you should just drop out because like like like basically

538
00:34:46.639 --> 00:34:48.280
like there's like if you want to make movies, just

539
00:34:48.360 --> 00:34:50.760
you're doing it already, like like just keep making them

540
00:34:50.800 --> 00:34:52.199
and like you don't need school for that. And I

541
00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:55.960
was just like, well, I still need a job. Yeah.

542
00:34:56.000 --> 00:34:59.119
So my sister, my oldest sister, was taking library courses

543
00:34:59.639 --> 00:35:02.239
and and I was like, well, this is this looks

544
00:35:02.239 --> 00:35:05.440
like a pretty cool chill job. You know, I make

545
00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:10.800
some money obviously, So I took the I changed my

546
00:35:11.199 --> 00:35:15.440
major or whatever again and did library courses. And it

547
00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:17.239
was like a thing where it was like if I

548
00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:19.239
just take these library courses and like like one or

549
00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:21.000
two other classes, I'll get my degree like right away.

550
00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:23.760
And so I did that. I can get the hell

551
00:35:23.800 --> 00:35:24.320
out of court.

552
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:27.760
Yeah. And I mean they told you were wasting your

553
00:35:27.800 --> 00:35:28.920
time there, so yeah.

554
00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:32.119
Yeah. So and it was funny because like I was

555
00:35:32.119 --> 00:35:33.800
taking all these writing courses and they're like they're saying

556
00:35:33.840 --> 00:35:35.119
the same thing, you know what I mean, Like they're

557
00:35:35.159 --> 00:35:37.559
just like, what is a writing degree gonna do for you?

558
00:35:37.719 --> 00:35:42.079
Just go make books? You know? Yeah? Yeah, And so I,

559
00:35:42.119 --> 00:35:44.480
you know, I took the library courses and I got

560
00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:46.199
my library degree, and I just after that, I just

561
00:35:46.199 --> 00:35:50.119
started working at a library. And at first I didn't

562
00:35:50.119 --> 00:35:52.320
really care too much about it. But as I've gotten

563
00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:54.400
through it, like i've been almost for ten years now,

564
00:35:55.039 --> 00:35:58.800
I really do love the profession. I love being a librarian.

565
00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:03.559
I love giving people like it's a very it's a

566
00:36:03.639 --> 00:36:05.480
very I don't even know how to explain it. Good karma.

567
00:36:05.519 --> 00:36:07.639
I don't know what it's saying, but like like I

568
00:36:07.679 --> 00:36:10.320
feel like I'm helping people and and uh and just

569
00:36:10.360 --> 00:36:12.480
to giving them a book, checking a book out to them,

570
00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:14.400
Like I can change someone's life just by doing that.

571
00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:15.559
Absolutely.

572
00:36:15.679 --> 00:36:18.760
Yeah. And so as I've gotten more into it, I've

573
00:36:19.079 --> 00:36:21.360
I've got started to do things like programming and like

574
00:36:21.400 --> 00:36:24.880
teaching kids art, teaching kids comic books, and so now

575
00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:28.400
I'm trying to do that more and uh. But also

576
00:36:28.480 --> 00:36:30.360
I love writing comic books and I want to do

577
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:32.400
like you said, I want to do like local events

578
00:36:32.440 --> 00:36:35.800
at libraries and like go around and he well, yeah, I.

579
00:36:35.719 --> 00:36:38.280
Have a sister who lives in the DFW area, So

580
00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:41.079
if I need to go crash at her plates for

581
00:36:41.119 --> 00:36:43.039
a weekend and do an event at your library, I

582
00:36:43.039 --> 00:36:46.000
would be more than happy to do.

583
00:36:46.960 --> 00:36:50.440
So yeah, like yeah, and I love it. I'm not

584
00:36:50.519 --> 00:36:52.960
I'm not an actual librarian yet. I'm still getting my

585
00:36:53.000 --> 00:36:56.519
degrees my at least my master's degree, so I'm a

586
00:36:56.519 --> 00:36:58.280
my libry assistant right now. But I do everything that

587
00:36:58.280 --> 00:37:01.719
a librarian does. I managed the building whenever the manager

588
00:37:01.719 --> 00:37:04.920
isn't there, you know, that kind of stuff. So yeah,

589
00:37:04.920 --> 00:37:07.119
and it's a it's a great job. And honestly, I

590
00:37:07.440 --> 00:37:11.920
think I think libraries are needing more now than ever, honestly,

591
00:37:13.039 --> 00:37:15.760
but I think the awareness of libraries is probably lower

592
00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:18.239
than it's been in a while. At least I hear

593
00:37:18.400 --> 00:37:20.119
all the time like people are like, I didn't know

594
00:37:20.159 --> 00:37:23.719
people go to libraries anymore, and I'm like, they still come,

595
00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:24.559
they do?

596
00:37:25.320 --> 00:37:27.639
They do? Oh man, well, I'm glad that we brought

597
00:37:27.639 --> 00:37:30.159
it up today because yeah, like I said earlier, I'm

598
00:37:30.159 --> 00:37:34.000
a big proponent and big fan of libraries. I love

599
00:37:34.039 --> 00:37:37.679
them as like just I think just I don't know,

600
00:37:37.880 --> 00:37:40.360
like just like a fun thing to do in the

601
00:37:40.360 --> 00:37:42.039
middle of the day. You're like, well, let's go see

602
00:37:42.079 --> 00:37:44.480
what's going on the library. Usually something going on.

603
00:37:44.559 --> 00:37:47.079
And they got programs, they got free resources, they got

604
00:37:47.079 --> 00:37:49.239
comic books, they got movies. But when I work at

605
00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:52.840
they have video games. Now they have they sometimes they'll

606
00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:54.639
have like passes you can get into like you know,

607
00:37:54.679 --> 00:37:57.480
your nature center or your Tangil garden or whatever. Yeah,

608
00:37:57.920 --> 00:38:00.400
so they got e books so you can just you

609
00:38:00.639 --> 00:38:03.119
just get your card and leave and just use your

610
00:38:03.159 --> 00:38:04.920
phone for the rest of your life, you know, and

611
00:38:05.159 --> 00:38:08.679
check out things on your phone. So it's great. It's

612
00:38:08.719 --> 00:38:10.639
a great resource, and it's a free resource. You're paying

613
00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:12.039
for it ready with your tax money.

614
00:38:12.199 --> 00:38:14.280
Might as we use it. So everybody get a library

615
00:38:14.320 --> 00:38:16.519
card to day and go to the library. Please.

616
00:38:16.760 --> 00:38:22.440
Yes.

617
00:38:30.800 --> 00:38:33.760
After high school, I was trying like all that whole time,

618
00:38:33.800 --> 00:38:38.440
I was studying screenplay and writing structure and all that stuff.

619
00:38:39.320 --> 00:38:41.400
And so that was kind of like my school. And then,

620
00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:45.039
like I want to say, in twenty twenty two, around

621
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:46.639
that time, I was working at the comic book store.

622
00:38:48.480 --> 00:38:51.480
My owner was he used to be a former publisher

623
00:38:51.559 --> 00:38:53.840
comic book writer as well. He gave me a lot

624
00:38:53.880 --> 00:38:56.840
of his scripts and like his like bibles that he

625
00:38:56.880 --> 00:39:00.159
would use for new comics, and so I studied that

626
00:39:00.199 --> 00:39:04.719
stuff he asked me to. There was like the Joe

627
00:39:04.760 --> 00:39:08.719
Cubert School. They have an online portion where you can

628
00:39:08.719 --> 00:39:10.960
sign up for an online class. It's like a six

629
00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:14.280
week class. I did one of those for writing. It

630
00:39:14.320 --> 00:39:17.199
was taught by Blake Northcott, who worked on Catwoman and

631
00:39:17.320 --> 00:39:20.480
Heavy Metal Magazine. She's actually or I don't know if

632
00:39:20.519 --> 00:39:23.039
she is still, but she was working as the Massive

633
00:39:23.599 --> 00:39:26.280
Massive Publishing, which is like a Thankful the what not

634
00:39:26.440 --> 00:39:31.880
app but like that she's like their CEO or I

635
00:39:31.880 --> 00:39:35.119
don't know if she is still, but I think she is. Anyways,

636
00:39:35.679 --> 00:39:37.800
So during all this time I was like trying to

637
00:39:37.840 --> 00:39:40.119
get my feet wet. I was first, I was trying

638
00:39:40.119 --> 00:39:43.000
to do like long, these big stories that I had

639
00:39:43.039 --> 00:39:44.960
been wanting to do, right. I have one called Mother

640
00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:47.519
Wolfing Cubs that's like who knows how long that's going

641
00:39:47.599 --> 00:39:49.880
to be. But I was doing I was, I was

642
00:39:49.880 --> 00:39:52.280
trying to get these series off the ground, right. But

643
00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:55.360
I kept on realizing like if I even like just

644
00:39:55.440 --> 00:39:57.119
try to do this, I might be getting like one

645
00:39:57.119 --> 00:39:59.760
book a year, like one little comic a year, and

646
00:39:59.800 --> 00:40:02.719
if it's like a thirty years like thirty issue thing,

647
00:40:02.800 --> 00:40:04.440
like it's gonna take me thirty years, you know to

648
00:40:04.480 --> 00:40:06.719
finish this. I'm just not at the level yet to

649
00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:09.639
where I can tell this long of a story that

650
00:40:09.679 --> 00:40:13.039
I want to tell, right. So what I kept hearing

651
00:40:13.199 --> 00:40:16.000
was start with short comics. And so I finally took

652
00:40:16.039 --> 00:40:18.679
that advice because I just I was just tired of

653
00:40:18.760 --> 00:40:20.559
not having anything, and I just like, I just need something.

654
00:40:20.559 --> 00:40:22.920
I want a comic book that's like mine. And so

655
00:40:23.039 --> 00:40:25.679
I did this short comic called the Return of Commaizots

656
00:40:25.880 --> 00:40:27.880
and it was just a two page because I knew it.

657
00:40:27.920 --> 00:40:30.119
I was like, anyone can do a two page commic, surely, right,

658
00:40:31.159 --> 00:40:33.199
So it was just two pages. I worked with artists

659
00:40:33.400 --> 00:40:40.159
Azrael a gi Are or Maximum actually good bye that now. Yeah.

660
00:40:40.159 --> 00:40:41.920
He was just this guy looking for work, you know,

661
00:40:42.079 --> 00:40:45.440
on these Facebook groups and stuff, and so I reached

662
00:40:45.440 --> 00:40:47.519
out to him. He had this really cool gothic like

663
00:40:47.679 --> 00:40:51.800
mikela esque style, and so I was really gravitated to

664
00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:54.519
that also, Azrael Raphael. I felt like that was a

665
00:40:54.559 --> 00:40:58.840
good match and like names, yeah, yeah, yeah, So I

666
00:40:58.880 --> 00:41:00.880
was like, and I'm a big fan of like, you know,

667
00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:03.039
I've read comics, so there's a lot of like good

668
00:41:03.039 --> 00:41:07.880
pairings of artists and writers throughout comic books, like Jeff

669
00:41:07.880 --> 00:41:10.840
Lob and Tim Sale or you know, like a lot

670
00:41:11.000 --> 00:41:13.639
lots of people out there, Scott Snyder, Gregor Pulo. You know,

671
00:41:13.960 --> 00:41:16.159
you associate a lot of times a writer with an

672
00:41:16.239 --> 00:41:18.760
artist because they work so well together, right yeah, And

673
00:41:18.840 --> 00:41:20.719
so that was something that I just kind of felt

674
00:41:20.960 --> 00:41:23.920
like right away, and so I sent them that two

675
00:41:23.960 --> 00:41:27.320
page just the script. You know, we've worked on it together.

676
00:41:27.519 --> 00:41:31.159
I developed it myself with the I got a letterer,

677
00:41:31.239 --> 00:41:33.880
a colorist, you know. I taught myself how to make

678
00:41:33.920 --> 00:41:35.599
a comic book, you know, and see it through completion.

679
00:41:36.239 --> 00:41:38.159
And that was really what I needed to do to

680
00:41:38.239 --> 00:41:41.280
kind of really light that fire under me, because before

681
00:41:41.320 --> 00:41:43.440
that I was just kind of thinking of ideas or

682
00:41:43.480 --> 00:41:45.159
I was pitching. I was trying to send you know,

683
00:41:45.199 --> 00:41:48.679
submissions to like you know, comic book companies, trying to

684
00:41:48.679 --> 00:41:50.800
get their attention, but like obviously I didn't have anything

685
00:41:50.880 --> 00:41:53.599
under my belt, right, so there I was getting nothing back.

686
00:41:54.400 --> 00:41:56.199
So once I had that one little this that one

687
00:41:56.239 --> 00:41:58.639
little two page short, and it kind of blew up

688
00:41:58.639 --> 00:42:01.800
a little bit on Instagram. It was on I entered

689
00:42:01.800 --> 00:42:05.719
it into like a Negative Space competition and it was

690
00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:09.559
a finalist in that, and along with my other short

691
00:42:09.559 --> 00:42:11.719
comic Mother Wolfing Cubs, which was like a five page

692
00:42:11.800 --> 00:42:14.960
like short that I made based off that series that

693
00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:18.440
I was wanting to do, So they were both finalists

694
00:42:18.480 --> 00:42:20.440
and that helped me get a little bit more traction.

695
00:42:22.480 --> 00:42:25.000
That's from Grim Court Studios. I was already talking with

696
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:31.519
their editor, the publisher. His name is Daniel Grimm. I

697
00:42:31.559 --> 00:42:33.800
was already talking to him about like maybe having him

698
00:42:33.880 --> 00:42:36.079
edit some of my ideas, you know, And then once

699
00:42:36.320 --> 00:42:38.599
that short comic came out of the China comicizots, he

700
00:42:38.719 --> 00:42:40.320
was like, dude, this is what you need to focus on.

701
00:42:40.360 --> 00:42:43.159
This is what we need and like, like he basically

702
00:42:43.199 --> 00:42:45.119
was like, oh, edit it for you, we'll publish it.

703
00:42:45.239 --> 00:42:47.039
Like we're going to get this out and that's what

704
00:42:47.199 --> 00:42:49.119
That was another thing I really needed. I really needed

705
00:42:49.119 --> 00:42:52.119
an editor to like help me because I didn't know

706
00:42:52.159 --> 00:42:53.920
what I was doing, you know what I mean. Yeah,

707
00:42:54.079 --> 00:42:56.360
So he really did. He held my hand throughout the

708
00:42:56.360 --> 00:42:58.800
whole process. He helped me write the script. He gave

709
00:42:58.840 --> 00:43:00.480
me a lot of great feedback throughout while I was

710
00:43:00.480 --> 00:43:04.119
writing it, a lot of advice. One thing he said

711
00:43:04.239 --> 00:43:06.119
was like, just get a page done a day, right,

712
00:43:06.400 --> 00:43:08.719
And I was like, wow, I didn't even think about that, Like,

713
00:43:08.719 --> 00:43:12.159
like it makes it so that writing isn't hard, you know,

714
00:43:12.239 --> 00:43:15.239
it's it's you just just get one page done and

715
00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:17.440
then you can go to sleep or you can you

716
00:43:17.480 --> 00:43:20.920
can be happy with that. And I also build momentum

717
00:43:20.960 --> 00:43:22.760
while you're doing that, so like like the first week,

718
00:43:22.760 --> 00:43:25.039
you'll do like one page, one page, and then the

719
00:43:25.079 --> 00:43:27.119
third day you'll be like, oh, I did like three pages,

720
00:43:27.159 --> 00:43:28.599
and then the fourth day you'll do like, oh I

721
00:43:28.599 --> 00:43:30.719
did ten pages, you know what I mean. Like it

722
00:43:30.719 --> 00:43:34.079
builds a momentum and builds consistency as a writer. So

723
00:43:34.239 --> 00:43:36.320
when I always say, like when you're doing a when

724
00:43:36.320 --> 00:43:38.639
you're starting to write a script for a project, at

725
00:43:38.719 --> 00:43:40.360
least try to aim for like one page a day.

726
00:43:40.599 --> 00:43:42.320
Yeah, and that's like exercising a muscle.

727
00:43:42.360 --> 00:43:47.239
Yeah, it is, it is, it is. And after that,

728
00:43:47.280 --> 00:43:49.880
you know, we we wrote the comic book. I wrote it.

729
00:43:49.880 --> 00:43:52.800
It was a graphic novel. We decided to split it

730
00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:54.599
up into three parts so that we could release it,

731
00:43:54.679 --> 00:43:58.559
you know, issue by issue on Kickstarter, And right now

732
00:43:58.599 --> 00:44:01.239
we have the all three issues and the graphic novel

733
00:44:01.280 --> 00:44:04.559
and kicks outer and yeah, and it's been a three

734
00:44:04.639 --> 00:44:08.400
year work in progress. We're finally happy to have it,

735
00:44:08.719 --> 00:44:11.480
you know, done, and and the reception has been really

736
00:44:11.480 --> 00:44:14.559
cool for it and like great, yeah, and uh, you know,

737
00:44:14.719 --> 00:44:16.559
I'm just so proud of it, and for that to

738
00:44:16.559 --> 00:44:20.159
be my first comic book, like, it's just amazing to me.

739
00:44:20.239 --> 00:44:22.440
Honestly, Yeah, as you should be proud of it. It's

740
00:44:22.760 --> 00:44:25.039
it's amazing. I have read the first issue. I need

741
00:44:25.079 --> 00:44:28.000
to get the next ones. But I loved it. I

742
00:44:28.039 --> 00:44:30.400
was such a fan, and like, you know, and kudos

743
00:44:30.440 --> 00:44:33.840
to your artists and you know, the whole team, because visually,

744
00:44:34.119 --> 00:44:36.639
visually it really stands out when I saw your booth

745
00:44:36.760 --> 00:44:39.000
last year or a year ago. I was like, okay, I

746
00:44:39.039 --> 00:44:40.920
need to make sure to step away from my table

747
00:44:41.039 --> 00:44:42.719
and go check that out because that looks really cool.

748
00:44:42.760 --> 00:44:44.920
And then learning about what the story it was, and

749
00:44:44.960 --> 00:44:46.159
then you know, I was like, well, I'm going to

750
00:44:46.199 --> 00:44:47.719
buy this of course, and then read it and it

751
00:44:47.760 --> 00:44:49.480
was it was great. But there was a couple of

752
00:44:49.519 --> 00:44:51.280
things that you said that really stuck out to me

753
00:44:51.320 --> 00:44:53.039
that I thought were interesting right now, and I think

754
00:44:53.079 --> 00:44:56.920
things that I've spoken about before, but I think it's interesting.

755
00:44:56.920 --> 00:44:59.599
You know, you mentioned about how you you basically learn

756
00:44:59.679 --> 00:45:04.000
to read basically with comics, and but you have this

757
00:45:04.079 --> 00:45:08.079
sort of negative response from teachers at the time, and

758
00:45:08.280 --> 00:45:10.280
I'm I think, or at least I hope that that

759
00:45:10.400 --> 00:45:13.760
is shifting, that's changing, because you know, you you think

760
00:45:13.800 --> 00:45:17.039
about things like you know, game theory for example, you

761
00:45:17.079 --> 00:45:20.920
know games are being used or there's like the study

762
00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:24.760
of games as like a learning model for for for

763
00:45:24.840 --> 00:45:27.679
kids and for students, and so I, yeah, I think

764
00:45:27.679 --> 00:45:29.840
it's really interesting. And they think that comics do you

765
00:45:29.960 --> 00:45:32.639
deserve more respect in that sense, like you're you're, like

766
00:45:32.679 --> 00:45:36.079
you said, you're reading at this advanced level and a

767
00:45:36.079 --> 00:45:41.280
lot of time. There are like really deep lessons or

768
00:45:42.320 --> 00:45:45.639
critical or like important conversations that are happening in comics

769
00:45:46.239 --> 00:45:48.119
that people may not realize because they just you know,

770
00:45:48.119 --> 00:45:53.519
they see the arts and the pictures. Yeah, yeah, they

771
00:45:53.559 --> 00:45:56.599
make yeah, and it's like there's a real conversation happening

772
00:45:56.639 --> 00:45:58.559
in here, and it can teach a person a lot.

773
00:45:58.599 --> 00:46:02.079
So that's really amazing to hear that. And then you know,

774
00:46:02.119 --> 00:46:05.239
you mentioned you're like how you said you didn't think

775
00:46:05.239 --> 00:46:06.679
you could be an artist, but you could be a writer,

776
00:46:06.719 --> 00:46:08.440
and you are a great writer. But I think in

777
00:46:08.760 --> 00:46:13.360
a sense with something like comics, the writing in itself,

778
00:46:13.400 --> 00:46:15.480
it's its own kind of art form too. You know,

779
00:46:15.559 --> 00:46:20.280
your your world building, and your artists who are making

780
00:46:20.280 --> 00:46:23.800
these illustrations, they're taking cues from your work. And so

781
00:46:24.480 --> 00:46:26.199
I want to make sure that you give yourself that

782
00:46:26.239 --> 00:46:28.440
credit that you are an artist in a sense, because

783
00:46:28.639 --> 00:46:32.559
like I said, it's it's really great writing. And I

784
00:46:35.159 --> 00:46:39.400
really like this because it is a comic. I haven't

785
00:46:39.400 --> 00:46:42.559
in a while, but I used to be a really big,

786
00:46:42.639 --> 00:46:45.559
like comic person like I was. I have I have

787
00:46:45.639 --> 00:46:49.199
my collection somewhere here in my office, but at one

788
00:46:49.280 --> 00:46:52.440
point my one of my friends and my boyfriend myself

789
00:46:52.519 --> 00:46:57.079
we started back home a queer Comic book club and

790
00:46:57.119 --> 00:46:59.760
we called it Brunch to the Comic book Club because

791
00:46:59.840 --> 00:47:03.880
we would meet over a brunch with people in the

792
00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:06.519
Grande Valley and so cool. We would get together and

793
00:47:06.519 --> 00:47:10.320
we would discuss comics that were typically they were centered

794
00:47:10.360 --> 00:47:14.639
around like queer stories and so. Like I mentioned earlier,

795
00:47:14.639 --> 00:47:17.840
you know, there are really important stories being told in

796
00:47:18.239 --> 00:47:19.880
these comics and so, and.

797
00:47:19.840 --> 00:47:22.559
The really good thing I want to like mention about

798
00:47:22.559 --> 00:47:26.760
that is that those stories are just being told like like,

799
00:47:26.760 --> 00:47:30.199
like the evolution of comics is kind of crazy if

800
00:47:30.199 --> 00:47:32.760
you think about it in an American sense, because you know,

801
00:47:33.079 --> 00:47:36.679
in the fifties, whenever comics were being censored, they were

802
00:47:36.719 --> 00:47:40.039
like new, like they were Comics were basically neutered in

803
00:47:40.119 --> 00:47:42.840
the fifties and sixties and like, and it continued basically

804
00:47:42.880 --> 00:47:44.559
until today. I mean, it's still kind of going on.

805
00:47:44.719 --> 00:47:47.199
We're still kind of facing a little bit of the

806
00:47:47.280 --> 00:47:50.440
ramifications of all that, because you know, people think about

807
00:47:50.880 --> 00:47:53.679
like manga versus American comics. There is the reason why

808
00:47:53.760 --> 00:47:56.960
manga was able to flourish and advance so well that

809
00:47:56.960 --> 00:47:59.559
it that it has. It's because they didn't have that

810
00:47:59.599 --> 00:48:04.000
Comics Code Authority saying you cannot tell these kind of stories. Yeah,

811
00:48:04.039 --> 00:48:07.719
and that's what happened in America and because of that,

812
00:48:07.760 --> 00:48:10.239
we're still dealing with the just every when people think

813
00:48:10.280 --> 00:48:12.119
of comics, they just think of superos because I was

814
00:48:12.119 --> 00:48:14.480
basically don't need these stories they could tell. They couldn't

815
00:48:14.480 --> 00:48:17.000
tell whar they couldn't tell stories about gay people, they

816
00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:19.280
couldn't tell anything, you know what I mean, Like you

817
00:48:19.320 --> 00:48:21.519
couldn't have a lot of there's a lot of crazy

818
00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:25.639
rules in that Comics co authority. And so I think

819
00:48:25.679 --> 00:48:28.000
that the stories that we are telling today, like in

820
00:48:28.039 --> 00:48:31.199
the modern time, like it's it's revolutionary and because we

821
00:48:31.239 --> 00:48:32.800
don't have the code and Moore telling us what we

822
00:48:32.840 --> 00:48:36.239
can and can't do. So that's why I love comics

823
00:48:36.239 --> 00:48:38.039
and I think in America like it's it really is

824
00:48:38.039 --> 00:48:42.079
a flourishing uh genre that people really need to tap into.

825
00:48:42.239 --> 00:48:46.960
So yeah, absolutely, So speaking of these stories and your work,

826
00:48:47.360 --> 00:48:49.599
can you just because I think we haven't done it yet,

827
00:48:49.639 --> 00:48:53.559
but you give like a description about what the Return

828
00:48:53.599 --> 00:48:55.280
of Commas is, about what it's about.

829
00:48:55.920 --> 00:48:58.840
Yes, So the Return of Commizots is a Mayan Gothic

830
00:48:58.880 --> 00:49:02.199
horror story It's about these twin brothers, Victor and Vincent,

831
00:49:02.280 --> 00:49:05.079
who go to Mexico to honor their mother, who passed

832
00:49:05.079 --> 00:49:09.320
away through tragic means along their way there. There they

833
00:49:09.800 --> 00:49:12.639
they go to Mayan ball court. They call some noise

834
00:49:12.719 --> 00:49:16.599
and this awakens the god of death uh uh, Commaizots,

835
00:49:16.760 --> 00:49:21.119
and it awakens him. He attacks the brothers. One dies,

836
00:49:21.360 --> 00:49:24.000
the other one is now infected and cursed to become

837
00:49:24.039 --> 00:49:27.559
the next Commisants. After that, you know, he starts seeing

838
00:49:27.599 --> 00:49:32.639
his brother as a ghost. There's love, there's death, there's bats,

839
00:49:32.880 --> 00:49:36.840
there's gothic characters, there's blood and gore at you know

840
00:49:36.960 --> 00:49:39.039
that's going to be coming in the third issue. So

841
00:49:39.760 --> 00:49:42.440
it's been a really cool ride. I took a lot

842
00:49:42.440 --> 00:49:44.920
of inspiration from just movies I love like America Warner

843
00:49:44.920 --> 00:49:49.199
from London, The Crow and Just and also the mythology

844
00:49:49.199 --> 00:49:52.039
of Commaizants, the mind hero twins, and I kind of

845
00:49:52.079 --> 00:49:54.039
just you know, jumbled it all together. And I knew

846
00:49:54.079 --> 00:49:56.039
that this would be a cruel but a really cool

847
00:49:56.079 --> 00:49:59.280
story that people would be able to instantly like, oh

848
00:49:59.320 --> 00:50:01.239
this is this is cool and I understand it like

849
00:50:01.360 --> 00:50:04.119
right away, you know what I mean? Yeah, that was

850
00:50:04.159 --> 00:50:06.840
a big point of of writing it the way I

851
00:50:06.880 --> 00:50:09.400
did was because, like I knew, I wanted to use

852
00:50:09.440 --> 00:50:12.400
like a werewolf type you know story with the Mayan

853
00:50:12.480 --> 00:50:14.760
mythology because I know people understand what were wolves. I

854
00:50:14.800 --> 00:50:19.119
know people understand you know, werewolf cinema, right, So if

855
00:50:19.119 --> 00:50:21.960
you if you add that with the Mayan mythology, they'll

856
00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:24.000
be able to understand the my mythology better, like cause,

857
00:50:24.119 --> 00:50:26.119
and they won't be so that a lot of people

858
00:50:26.320 --> 00:50:28.159
they say, it's you know, it's about my mythology, they

859
00:50:28.239 --> 00:50:30.760
just you know, they give up. Oh, it's history, it's born,

860
00:50:30.840 --> 00:50:33.199
you know what I mean, Like, no, no, this is cool,

861
00:50:33.280 --> 00:50:36.000
Like this is I'm reinventing it and I'm making it

862
00:50:36.039 --> 00:50:36.760
cool again, you know.

863
00:50:36.880 --> 00:50:39.440
So yeah, and history it can be really cool too,

864
00:50:39.760 --> 00:50:40.320
Yeah it is.

865
00:50:40.400 --> 00:50:53.840
Yeah.

866
00:50:54.280 --> 00:50:56.400
I'm glad that you brought up that inspiration or those

867
00:50:56.440 --> 00:51:01.159
those few points of inspiration, because I remember, shortly before

868
00:51:01.599 --> 00:51:06.280
I read your comic, I had actually just seen American

869
00:51:06.280 --> 00:51:08.639
were Wolf in London for the first time, like a

870
00:51:08.679 --> 00:51:11.719
couple months before that, so a little over a year ago,

871
00:51:12.239 --> 00:51:15.199
and I got to see it in a movie theater

872
00:51:15.719 --> 00:51:17.800
and so, I mean it was great. I loved it.

873
00:51:17.840 --> 00:51:19.599
And then I read your comic and I was like, wow,

874
00:51:19.599 --> 00:51:21.400
I was like, these parallels are really cool, and like,

875
00:51:22.039 --> 00:51:24.440
so I'm glad that you brought that up, and but

876
00:51:24.480 --> 00:51:26.760
I think it is interesting, you know, you that you

877
00:51:26.840 --> 00:51:32.039
apply this sort of like the storytelling of the werewolf

878
00:51:32.079 --> 00:51:35.599
to this creature who I think is when we look

879
00:51:35.599 --> 00:51:37.039
at the lore of it and in the research that

880
00:51:37.039 --> 00:51:40.920
we've done for the for this episode, it's it's it's

881
00:51:40.920 --> 00:51:42.800
more similar to or it's a type of vampire.

882
00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:43.159
Yeah.

883
00:51:43.159 --> 00:51:45.679
I think it's really cool to merge that, like this

884
00:51:46.920 --> 00:51:50.360
vampiric creature, but with this sort of like story structure

885
00:51:50.480 --> 00:51:54.480
of werewolf stories. So yeah, I just I think it's

886
00:51:54.519 --> 00:51:58.079
really great. And I wanted to ask you why, and

887
00:51:58.239 --> 00:52:00.280
I feel like I know the answer already to this,

888
00:52:00.320 --> 00:52:02.400
but I want you to kind of like explain more

889
00:52:02.519 --> 00:52:06.800
to us. Why why the the commisots, Like why how

890
00:52:06.800 --> 00:52:11.159
did you discover that legend specifically? Because when I looked

891
00:52:11.159 --> 00:52:14.119
online there are of course, I mean it's the Internet, right,

892
00:52:14.119 --> 00:52:17.840
there's tons of stuff everywhere, but there's not as many

893
00:52:18.199 --> 00:52:22.639
resources about this specific creature versus other ones, you know,

894
00:52:22.719 --> 00:52:27.280
like werewolves for sure, or just the regular you know egyptire. Yeah. Right,

895
00:52:27.599 --> 00:52:30.159
So how did you come across this legend and why

896
00:52:30.159 --> 00:52:31.079
did you choose this one?

897
00:52:31.840 --> 00:52:36.079
So I can't honestly remember when I first heard about commissants,

898
00:52:36.800 --> 00:52:41.320
but I do remember seeing that Batman Mayan statue that

899
00:52:41.639 --> 00:52:45.039
I think his name is Kimball. He created that, and

900
00:52:45.079 --> 00:52:47.039
it kind of went viral. People were like, oh, look,

901
00:52:47.079 --> 00:52:49.480
you know Batman existed in Mayan culture like a long

902
00:52:49.519 --> 00:52:52.119
time ago, and you know they people can say it

903
00:52:52.119 --> 00:52:54.480
was comizots, you know, that's what it was, right, So

904
00:52:54.840 --> 00:52:58.199
I think that was what really first might have like

905
00:52:58.280 --> 00:53:00.280
piqued my Anxians about it, you know, and I maybe

906
00:53:00.280 --> 00:53:02.360
i'd read a little bit about the Wikipedia page of

907
00:53:02.400 --> 00:53:05.159
commaisants or whatever, you know what I mean, learned a

908
00:53:05.199 --> 00:53:08.599
little bit about him through that. But then I kind of,

909
00:53:08.719 --> 00:53:11.039
you know, I study. I'm a librarian, right, so I

910
00:53:11.400 --> 00:53:13.880
do like to look at and read a lot of

911
00:53:13.880 --> 00:53:16.880
the Mayan and Aztec books. That there's very few of them,

912
00:53:17.000 --> 00:53:18.840
but I do like to look at them and read them,

913
00:53:18.840 --> 00:53:22.360
and I get some information about the gods at cheltle Quatda,

914
00:53:22.480 --> 00:53:24.119
like all of them, like you know, the Aztec gods

915
00:53:24.119 --> 00:53:27.119
and the Mayan gods, because a lot of times they

916
00:53:27.119 --> 00:53:30.519
have a lot of spiritual meanings between the behind them

917
00:53:30.719 --> 00:53:32.519
that is not just like they're not just like an

918
00:53:32.559 --> 00:53:35.599
Egyptian god that comes and kills people or whatever. But there,

919
00:53:35.760 --> 00:53:37.840
I don't know, they have a lot of cool spiritual meanings.

920
00:53:38.599 --> 00:53:42.039
So I do like learning about that stuff. One book

921
00:53:42.199 --> 00:53:45.960
I'll shout out David Bowles Feathered Serpent Dark Heart of Sky.

922
00:53:47.119 --> 00:53:49.280
If you've read that, it's basically like a retelling of

923
00:53:49.320 --> 00:53:53.079
the Mayan and Aztec codexes in a very laid out

924
00:53:53.239 --> 00:53:55.159
like this is the beginning and this is you know

925
00:53:55.199 --> 00:53:58.159
where we are now. And in that book there's a

926
00:53:58.199 --> 00:54:00.679
story you know of commaizants in the mind hero twins

927
00:54:00.719 --> 00:54:06.159
and then encountered with Kamisants and so uh oh. And

928
00:54:06.159 --> 00:54:08.440
and also I was working at a comic book store, right,

929
00:54:08.480 --> 00:54:10.599
and I remember it was during COVID, Right, this is

930
00:54:10.599 --> 00:54:14.679
whenever I really came up with the short comic. I

931
00:54:14.719 --> 00:54:17.320
it was during COVID, and I just remember hearing about

932
00:54:17.360 --> 00:54:20.400
how the whole COVID started because of a bat, right,

933
00:54:20.440 --> 00:54:22.639
somebody ate a bat or something, and so I was like,

934
00:54:23.199 --> 00:54:25.800
so something just clicked in my head and I was like, wait,

935
00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:28.960
if a bat started this whole epidemic and people are dying,

936
00:54:29.400 --> 00:54:31.239
Like is this like some kind of force of comazants

937
00:54:31.239 --> 00:54:32.320
like commazots, It is a kind.

938
00:54:32.239 --> 00:54:34.440
Of like controlling this, you.

939
00:54:34.400 --> 00:54:36.840
Know, And that's what I don't know. My mind works

940
00:54:36.840 --> 00:54:40.679
that way, you know what I mean. And so and

941
00:54:40.719 --> 00:54:43.159
I remember like I started seeing like bats and like

942
00:54:43.320 --> 00:54:46.159
everywhere I was, like it was like it was like signs,

943
00:54:46.239 --> 00:54:49.159
you know. So I made that short comic and then

944
00:54:49.360 --> 00:54:51.079
you know, it blew up and then you know, now

945
00:54:51.119 --> 00:54:54.920
I'm doing this, and so I don't know, there was

946
00:54:55.039 --> 00:54:57.000
something about it. I love Batman, I love bats, I

947
00:54:57.000 --> 00:54:59.000
love Gothic culture. It was something that was like just

948
00:54:59.039 --> 00:55:04.000
kind of telling me to tell the story. And I

949
00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:05.920
don't know, like, I you're right, like there, when I

950
00:55:05.960 --> 00:55:08.719
was doing the research for this, there isn't a lot

951
00:55:08.719 --> 00:55:11.920
of real good resources that you can use, Like you know,

952
00:55:11.920 --> 00:55:14.440
you can use Wikipedia, but that's how accurate is that.

953
00:55:14.920 --> 00:55:16.880
You know, There's there's tons of articles you can read

954
00:55:16.880 --> 00:55:19.239
about him, but who knows how accurate those are. And

955
00:55:19.280 --> 00:55:21.199
so I kind of just read everything. I read everything,

956
00:55:21.239 --> 00:55:23.599
and I try to figure out what he meant to me.

957
00:55:24.679 --> 00:55:26.480
Like there was like this one there was a lot

958
00:55:26.519 --> 00:55:29.719
of people saying Commazots is like you know, a singular

959
00:55:29.800 --> 00:55:33.679
deity God and like he's like, you know, he's commizants

960
00:55:33.719 --> 00:55:36.079
and he's like one guy. There's other people saying that

961
00:55:36.280 --> 00:55:39.239
commaisants is like a group of bats that live in

962
00:55:39.280 --> 00:55:41.599
shabal but and they're all collectively known as commizants and

963
00:55:41.639 --> 00:55:44.719
there isn't just one like you know God. So I

964
00:55:44.800 --> 00:55:47.679
was hearing this two different you know, sides, and I

965
00:55:47.719 --> 00:55:50.320
was like, well, maybe it's both, Like maybe there is

966
00:55:50.360 --> 00:55:53.079
a commaizants and maybe there is a race of commizants

967
00:55:53.079 --> 00:55:55.360
you know what I mean, and they're just collectively called commisarts.

968
00:55:55.559 --> 00:55:57.159
And that's how that's what it made sense to me.

969
00:55:58.239 --> 00:55:59.599
And that was just because I was taking in all

970
00:55:59.639 --> 00:56:02.760
the in from right. Yeah. And I even talked to

971
00:56:02.840 --> 00:56:05.079
David Bowles like and a couple like a podcast or

972
00:56:05.159 --> 00:56:09.199
not podcast, but like Latin's Visions. I asked him. I

973
00:56:09.199 --> 00:56:11.199
asked him. I was like, hey, like what is it?

974
00:56:11.239 --> 00:56:13.280
Is it? Is it one or is it the other?

975
00:56:13.320 --> 00:56:15.719
And he was like it's both And I was like

976
00:56:15.760 --> 00:56:17.440
I knew it. I was like I knew that, man,

977
00:56:17.559 --> 00:56:20.880
Like why are people fighting about it? Yeah? And so

978
00:56:21.599 --> 00:56:24.039
I didn't like whenever I was writing it, I didn't

979
00:56:24.039 --> 00:56:26.360
really know which one it was, right, So but I

980
00:56:26.400 --> 00:56:29.159
was like, well, people think it's he's a singular god,

981
00:56:29.199 --> 00:56:32.000
so I'll make him the singular god. But then while

982
00:56:32.119 --> 00:56:34.199
you're writing the story, while I'm working on the story,

983
00:56:34.320 --> 00:56:37.559
it's like it's both, like it I really make it both.

984
00:56:37.679 --> 00:56:40.800
So I don't know, like I felt like that was

985
00:56:40.800 --> 00:56:43.079
another part of writing the story, or like the meaning

986
00:56:43.079 --> 00:56:45.360
of writing it. Like I wanted it to be like

987
00:56:46.519 --> 00:56:49.800
it's all the mythology, like there's no one true mythology,

988
00:56:49.840 --> 00:56:52.119
it's all of it. All of it has has has

989
00:56:52.280 --> 00:56:55.840
created the mythology of commizonts, right, because we're mythology doesn't end,

990
00:56:55.880 --> 00:56:58.400
it doesn't have the like a you know ending. You know,

991
00:56:58.480 --> 00:57:01.679
we're constantly retelling the story. We're adding new mythology to it.

992
00:57:01.920 --> 00:57:03.480
And this is what we're trying to comazots is it's

993
00:57:03.519 --> 00:57:07.400
like another layer of the mythology. So that's what I

994
00:57:07.400 --> 00:57:10.519
wanted to really explain to people. And it's like, yeah, yeah,

995
00:57:10.599 --> 00:57:11.559
that's just what we'd see.

996
00:57:12.159 --> 00:57:15.239
I like this idea of it being like a cluster

997
00:57:15.360 --> 00:57:19.480
or a group of them, and then also being like

998
00:57:19.559 --> 00:57:21.599
this one singular thing, right.

999
00:57:21.519 --> 00:57:23.719
Yeah, Yeah, he's the leader of the commaizants, you know,

1000
00:57:24.119 --> 00:57:26.440
like that's what I That's how I pictured it.

1001
00:57:26.719 --> 00:57:30.800
Yeah, was there ever an option for it to be

1002
00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:35.400
a different like monster or entity or deity? Like was

1003
00:57:35.440 --> 00:57:38.760
that ever on the table? Has it? Just it's always been.

1004
00:57:39.599 --> 00:57:42.119
Once once the publisher came in, it was like it's

1005
00:57:42.119 --> 00:57:44.960
common duds, Like I wanted to be about commisants. And

1006
00:57:45.039 --> 00:57:49.079
so whenever I was first developing an idea that that

1007
00:57:49.159 --> 00:57:51.079
wasn't going to be. It was a separate idea that

1008
00:57:51.159 --> 00:57:53.119
I was trying to work on my own right, and

1009
00:57:53.159 --> 00:57:54.519
I was trying to do this idea of the mind

1010
00:57:54.559 --> 00:57:57.559
hero twins and their journey through Shobablah and all this

1011
00:57:57.599 --> 00:57:59.760
stuff right, and it was gonna be like a modern

1012
00:58:00.039 --> 00:58:02.800
telling him that. That's when the publisher reached out to me.

1013
00:58:02.800 --> 00:58:03.639
He was like, hey, I want you to do this

1014
00:58:03.679 --> 00:58:05.800
commizance book. And I was like, okay, well I can.

1015
00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:07.840
I can try to make I can push this and

1016
00:58:07.880 --> 00:58:09.519
I can like you know, add it, apply it, you

1017
00:58:09.599 --> 00:58:12.119
know what I mean, I've done all this work and

1018
00:58:12.840 --> 00:58:15.119
I don't know. That's how I feel writing really is,

1019
00:58:15.199 --> 00:58:17.800
or coming up with ideas, is that like whenever you

1020
00:58:17.800 --> 00:58:19.840
come up with ideas or you're writing. It's good to

1021
00:58:19.920 --> 00:58:22.320
do it, and even if you don't make it, don't

1022
00:58:22.320 --> 00:58:25.039
worry because you can always apply it to something else

1023
00:58:25.119 --> 00:58:28.119
that does get made, and that way it's not not

1024
00:58:28.159 --> 00:58:30.840
wasting your time doing what you did right right.

1025
00:58:30.920 --> 00:58:34.199
Yeah, yeah, I think as like any creator can relate

1026
00:58:34.320 --> 00:58:35.639
to that. It's like you get to a point with

1027
00:58:35.760 --> 00:58:38.639
something we were like, Okay, I need a pivot because

1028
00:58:38.639 --> 00:58:41.880
the demand is over here. So yes, But I mean

1029
00:58:41.920 --> 00:58:43.880
and and that's such a good skill though. That is

1030
00:58:43.880 --> 00:58:47.400
a real skill to skill to have because I've i

1031
00:58:47.440 --> 00:58:49.960
think early on in the days if this show, I

1032
00:58:49.960 --> 00:58:52.119
wouldn't have been able to do that, But now I've

1033
00:58:52.119 --> 00:58:54.039
gotten really good at it where I'm like, all right,

1034
00:58:54.079 --> 00:58:56.280
we're just we're going with it now, we're taking the direction.

1035
00:58:56.480 --> 00:58:59.000
So yeah, yeah, I think that's a real testament to

1036
00:58:59.039 --> 00:58:59.840
your skill as well.

1037
00:59:00.199 --> 00:59:03.159
Yeah. Also, and uh yeah, I think was the rest

1038
00:59:03.159 --> 00:59:03.880
of the question was.

1039
00:59:04.199 --> 00:59:05.639
No, I was just asking me if there was ever

1040
00:59:05.679 --> 00:59:06.719
any sort of other options.

1041
00:59:06.760 --> 00:59:09.320
Oh so yeah, basically not like once the publisher got

1042
00:59:09.360 --> 00:59:11.039
there and it was like, no, this is about commazots.

1043
00:59:11.039 --> 00:59:13.599
I got to really focus in on commizants. So nice.

1044
00:59:14.079 --> 00:59:16.159
And were there any I know that you mentioned the

1045
00:59:16.159 --> 00:59:19.920
movies earlier American role in London, The Crow, the Batman maybe,

1046
00:59:19.920 --> 00:59:22.199
But were there ever any other or are there any

1047
00:59:22.239 --> 00:59:27.039
other inspirations for for this story and for this.

1048
00:59:27.519 --> 00:59:30.559
Yeah, I'll say for the artist, he's very inspired by

1049
00:59:30.599 --> 00:59:34.000
like hell Boy, but also I mean Helboy has his

1050
00:59:34.039 --> 00:59:36.800
own encounter with commazots and you know in hell Boy goes.

1051
00:59:36.719 --> 00:59:40.000
To Mexico, I think it's called all Right, So right, Yeah.

1052
00:59:39.880 --> 00:59:42.119
I remember I studied that book because I wanted because

1053
00:59:42.119 --> 00:59:44.880
I knew that's what a kind of looked like, so

1054
00:59:44.920 --> 00:59:46.920
I wanted to kind of like read that and then

1055
00:59:47.000 --> 00:59:48.599
like write my book so I can kind of like

1056
00:59:48.679 --> 00:59:52.920
just have that in my mind. Yeah, the colors of

1057
00:59:53.840 --> 00:59:56.679
I think it's Dave Stewart who does the colors on

1058
00:59:56.679 --> 01:00:00.400
that book, as well as just movies like s Area

1059
01:00:01.000 --> 01:00:05.000
the colors in that movie, and you know Dajario Argento,

1060
01:00:05.039 --> 01:00:09.239
I forget how to say that. Yeah, yea, yeah, his

1061
01:00:09.239 --> 01:00:14.719
his style was very influential. And yeah, I think I

1062
01:00:14.760 --> 01:00:17.119
think that's about it, just like horror movies in general,

1063
01:00:17.280 --> 01:00:20.039
but also that Batman too, I mean Baman Man that

1064
01:00:22.360 --> 01:00:25.719
like the even science fiction movies like The Fly or

1065
01:00:26.960 --> 01:00:29.480
like I know, I don't call it a science fiction book,

1066
01:00:29.719 --> 01:00:31.320
but there's a little bit of science fiction in the

1067
01:00:31.360 --> 01:00:34.840
story too, and which I like. I like that it's

1068
01:00:34.840 --> 01:00:37.880
all of it, you know what I mean? Yeah, And yeah,

1069
01:00:37.920 --> 01:00:40.800
the fly was another one. So just this idea of

1070
01:00:40.800 --> 01:00:42.800
a man turning into it and being gross about it,

1071
01:00:42.840 --> 01:00:45.079
you know. Yeah, I love that.

1072
01:00:45.480 --> 01:00:48.159
Yeah. I want to ask just because I think people

1073
01:00:48.320 --> 01:00:50.760
make a lot of assumptions when we do this sort

1074
01:00:50.800 --> 01:00:54.519
of work, for people who work in like horror or

1075
01:00:54.679 --> 01:00:58.039
paranormal stuff or anything related to it. But I'm curious,

1076
01:00:58.159 --> 01:01:00.960
as we approach the end of our time today, do

1077
01:01:01.119 --> 01:01:05.760
you believe in or have you ever experienced anything paranormal?

1078
01:01:06.559 --> 01:01:08.880
Yes, like every day or like all the time. And yeah,

1079
01:01:08.880 --> 01:01:10.199
I just I just live in it, you know what

1080
01:01:10.239 --> 01:01:12.599
I mean. That's why I do my That's why I

1081
01:01:12.639 --> 01:01:16.519
study Aztec mind calendar, and I like I learned about

1082
01:01:17.119 --> 01:01:20.320
ways to kind of like honor my ancestors and you know,

1083
01:01:20.480 --> 01:01:23.840
and just be respectful to Mother Earth and all the

1084
01:01:23.880 --> 01:01:27.199
deities and entities that exist around us. So I do

1085
01:01:27.280 --> 01:01:29.440
believe in the spiritual. I think it's always around us.

1086
01:01:29.519 --> 01:01:31.760
I think I think things move all the time, where

1087
01:01:31.800 --> 01:01:33.920
things get lost all the time, and it's because these

1088
01:01:33.960 --> 01:01:36.159
things are trying to hide things from me or whatever,

1089
01:01:35.880 --> 01:01:38.000
or maybe get this thing off my mind for a

1090
01:01:38.039 --> 01:01:40.320
little bit so I can focus on something else. I

1091
01:01:40.360 --> 01:01:42.119
don't know. I think I live in the spiritual so

1092
01:01:43.559 --> 01:01:47.119
ghost Yes, I've experienced ghosts. I remember when I've moved

1093
01:01:47.159 --> 01:01:51.079
into my first department, the first couple of weeks, I

1094
01:01:51.119 --> 01:01:53.039
would have this encounter where like I would see a

1095
01:01:53.119 --> 01:01:55.199
spirit kind of like go like past me or something

1096
01:01:55.320 --> 01:01:57.800
like to and it was like a light almost a

1097
01:01:57.800 --> 01:02:00.320
little bit when it got really close to you see

1098
01:02:00.360 --> 01:02:02.639
kind of like a like a like a light around him.

1099
01:02:02.719 --> 01:02:04.880
And uh, did you feel that as it was Yeah,

1100
01:02:05.039 --> 01:02:06.280
I could feel like.

1101
01:02:06.400 --> 01:02:08.800
It feels like a wind almost, or it feels like

1102
01:02:09.000 --> 01:02:12.360
a little bit of like light like touching you or something. Yeah.

1103
01:02:13.119 --> 01:02:17.000
And that I've later learned that the person that lived

1104
01:02:17.000 --> 01:02:20.480
there previously had died there, So I was like, holy shit,

1105
01:02:21.159 --> 01:02:23.559
that was his spirit maybe trying to like I'm in

1106
01:02:23.599 --> 01:02:25.559
here now right and I'm doing this sage and stuff.

1107
01:02:25.599 --> 01:02:27.800
You know what I mean, Yeah, because that's just that's

1108
01:02:27.880 --> 01:02:30.599
how I am. But like, uh, and so yeah, I

1109
01:02:30.599 --> 01:02:32.960
think he maybe he vanished or maybe he's still living there.

1110
01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:34.559
I don't know. I didn't he didn't really bother me

1111
01:02:34.599 --> 01:02:40.519
too much. I have like this this uh toy Halloween dog,

1112
01:02:41.119 --> 01:02:43.639
and and I swear it's my one of my dogs

1113
01:02:43.760 --> 01:02:48.280
is possessed and to that that toy because like sometimes

1114
01:02:48.280 --> 01:02:50.079
that thing will like turn on for no reason, and

1115
01:02:50.239 --> 01:02:52.000
I swear there was no batteries that at one time

1116
01:02:52.400 --> 01:02:55.880
it was turning on. I used to leave it outside

1117
01:02:55.880 --> 01:02:58.039
my door, you know, my apartment, so like, you know,

1118
01:02:58.519 --> 01:03:01.119
just so I can stay out there. Sometimes just turn

1119
01:03:01.159 --> 01:03:02.599
on on its own and I've had to get run

1120
01:03:02.639 --> 01:03:05.360
out there and like turn it off and mess with it.

1121
01:03:05.440 --> 01:03:09.039
And yeah, so I don't know, I believe in that

1122
01:03:09.079 --> 01:03:11.400
kind of stuff. So that's just how it is for me.

1123
01:03:11.719 --> 01:03:13.880
Yeah, I love that answer to that you said, I

1124
01:03:13.920 --> 01:03:16.719
live in the spiritual like because I think and like

1125
01:03:16.719 --> 01:03:19.199
like we all do. Yeah, I think it's one of

1126
01:03:19.199 --> 01:03:21.079
those things where and I'm sure you know there are

1127
01:03:21.079 --> 01:03:23.760
some people who would say, like, well, no, like that's

1128
01:03:23.800 --> 01:03:26.400
not for me, but I don't know. I feel like

1129
01:03:26.559 --> 01:03:29.800
there's there's no option. Yeah, we just it just is

1130
01:03:29.840 --> 01:03:30.400
what it is.

1131
01:03:30.519 --> 01:03:32.679
I used to be super like when I was younger.

1132
01:03:32.719 --> 01:03:34.360
I used to like, no, I don't believe in all

1133
01:03:34.360 --> 01:03:37.079
this stuff, Like I like, I was very trying to

1134
01:03:37.360 --> 01:03:40.320
scientific and agnostic in a way, but it was because

1135
01:03:40.320 --> 01:03:42.320
the experience kept happening to me and you can't stop it.

1136
01:03:42.360 --> 01:03:43.840
You know. It's just something that you either had to

1137
01:03:44.360 --> 01:03:48.639
learn to like understand and and just accept, you know

1138
01:03:48.639 --> 01:03:49.039
what I mean?

1139
01:03:49.400 --> 01:03:52.239
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, because it's one of those things

1140
01:03:52.280 --> 01:03:55.960
where it's and some would argue like, well, there is

1141
01:03:56.000 --> 01:03:58.079
a science to it, but yeah, I feel like we

1142
01:03:58.239 --> 01:04:00.199
don't understand it yet, you know, yeah yeah, And I

1143
01:04:00.239 --> 01:04:02.159
was like, and that's kind of what science is. Science

1144
01:04:02.199 --> 01:04:04.280
is just a bunch of questions, you know, It's it's

1145
01:04:04.280 --> 01:04:06.719
we don't it's things that we don't understand that we

1146
01:04:07.039 --> 01:04:09.079
try to figure out. And so I think that is

1147
01:04:09.159 --> 01:04:10.159
definitely part of it.

1148
01:04:10.400 --> 01:04:12.400
And the Indigenous people they kind of do understand it

1149
01:04:12.400 --> 01:04:14.119
and they can't explain it better and they do have

1150
01:04:14.159 --> 01:04:16.920
a science almost for it. And so that's what I

1151
01:04:17.079 --> 01:04:19.840
like to study. That's the like indigenous understanding of life

1152
01:04:19.880 --> 01:04:24.440
and everything. So it's it's all there, man, And yeah, yeah, So.

1153
01:04:24.679 --> 01:04:28.239
Do you have any other like Indigenous legends that you

1154
01:04:28.360 --> 01:04:30.159
know of that that you really like or that come

1155
01:04:30.199 --> 01:04:30.639
to mind?

1156
01:04:31.480 --> 01:04:34.559
I don't allow you don't know, I mean, I would

1157
01:04:34.559 --> 01:04:35.840
love to do a story. I mean I had an

1158
01:04:35.880 --> 01:04:38.119
idea of doing a story with her and mother Wolf

1159
01:04:38.119 --> 01:04:41.519
and cubs. So and the mother Wolf and Cubs is

1160
01:04:41.559 --> 01:04:45.199
like this samurai werewolf story about this this mother and

1161
01:04:45.239 --> 01:04:48.320
her two kids, and you know, she turns into a werewolf,

1162
01:04:48.320 --> 01:04:49.840
but she's also a samurai or she was trying to

1163
01:04:49.840 --> 01:04:52.760
be a samurai. Whoa, And it takes place. It takes

1164
01:04:52.800 --> 01:04:56.320
place in like, uh in Texas. But during the whole

1165
01:04:57.119 --> 01:04:59.480
like is this Texas or is this America? Or is

1166
01:04:59.480 --> 01:05:04.199
this Mexico? And during that whole, during that whole terrible time,

1167
01:05:05.039 --> 01:05:07.280
well it was tough to be a Mexican during that time.

1168
01:05:07.400 --> 01:05:09.840
Oh yeah, So I wanted to set it in that

1169
01:05:10.280 --> 01:05:12.960
have to tell a little bit about her and have

1170
01:05:13.000 --> 01:05:14.440
her fight you know, mother wolfings.

1171
01:05:15.960 --> 01:05:20.920
I don't know, I feel like a comic around like

1172
01:05:20.920 --> 01:05:23.800
like lio On and like maybe like the Curse of

1173
01:05:23.880 --> 01:05:26.280
Liodon are like surviving her. I think that would be

1174
01:05:27.079 --> 01:05:29.599
a great story and I would love to see that happens.

1175
01:05:30.360 --> 01:05:32.599
I will be patiently waiting, I'm sure with many other

1176
01:05:32.639 --> 01:05:35.119
people for that to come out of Grim Coore and

1177
01:05:35.679 --> 01:05:40.559
from you. It would be amazing. So we are nearing

1178
01:05:40.639 --> 01:05:42.119
or we are at the end of our time today,

1179
01:05:42.159 --> 01:05:44.559
I just wanted to say thank you again, so so much.

1180
01:05:44.559 --> 01:05:48.559
And if people wanted to follow your work, if they

1181
01:05:48.599 --> 01:05:50.960
wanted to support your work, how can they do that.

1182
01:05:52.000 --> 01:05:55.199
They can follow me at common Zarts comics on almost

1183
01:05:55.199 --> 01:05:57.119
every social media because we got to have them all,

1184
01:05:58.159 --> 01:06:00.960
And you can find the publisher at grim Coore Studios

1185
01:06:01.199 --> 01:06:03.719
or grimcore Core, depending on the social media app. You

1186
01:06:03.719 --> 01:06:06.800
can always follow them on the website and check out

1187
01:06:06.840 --> 01:06:10.400
all our stuff that we have at grimcore Studios dot com.

1188
01:06:10.440 --> 01:06:13.239
And yeah, I live in the DFW area. I'm at

1189
01:06:13.239 --> 01:06:15.400
local conventions over here all the time. I try to

1190
01:06:15.440 --> 01:06:18.039
do things in Austin or you know, in Texas mostly

1191
01:06:18.639 --> 01:06:21.440
uh and so yeah, come visit me at a convention.

1192
01:06:21.519 --> 01:06:23.920
I'll sign your comics and you know, I'll have chat

1193
01:06:24.119 --> 01:06:25.199
so nice.

1194
01:06:25.320 --> 01:06:27.800
And is the Kickstarter? How is that still running? How

1195
01:06:27.840 --> 01:06:28.480
long is that running?

1196
01:06:28.679 --> 01:06:31.360
Yes, it's running till the end of November, so you

1197
01:06:31.360 --> 01:06:32.880
still got a couple of weeks to pick it up.

1198
01:06:33.280 --> 01:06:35.039
Get it check it out. We have a lot of

1199
01:06:35.079 --> 01:06:37.000
comics for sale, a lot of variant covers. For the

1200
01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:40.000
third issue, we got the graphic novel. We have a

1201
01:06:40.039 --> 01:06:42.480
limited cover for the graphic novel, which will be very limited,

1202
01:06:42.800 --> 01:06:46.599
so that's a cool one to get. And yeah, support

1203
01:06:46.639 --> 01:06:48.920
it until you can. And then after this, you know,

1204
01:06:49.079 --> 01:06:50.440
the only way you'll be able to get it for

1205
01:06:50.480 --> 01:06:53.960
a little while is be through me personally, So so

1206
01:06:54.000 --> 01:06:57.480
get it now while you can donate it to your library.

1207
01:06:57.840 --> 01:07:00.599
And yeah, off again, Thank you so much for your

1208
01:07:00.639 --> 01:07:02.320
time today. This has meant a lot to me, and

1209
01:07:02.320 --> 01:07:06.519
I'm so excited to share the Return of Commisants with everybody.

1210
01:07:06.559 --> 01:07:08.280
If they have not read it, please please please go

1211
01:07:08.360 --> 01:07:10.400
check it out. Do yourself a favor. It is a

1212
01:07:10.400 --> 01:07:12.760
great comic and I'm excited to see what else you do.

1213
01:07:13.960 --> 01:07:15.599
And yeah, thank you again for your time today.

1214
01:07:15.880 --> 01:07:17.840
Thank you man, Thank you Aiden for having me. It's

1215
01:07:17.840 --> 01:07:20.400
always a pleasure of talking to you and getting to

1216
01:07:20.400 --> 01:07:23.360
hang out. So just love what you do and just

1217
01:07:23.400 --> 01:07:25.159
keep doing what you're doing, man, because you're doing great.

1218
01:07:25.440 --> 01:07:43.159
Thank you and you too, vi aall welcome back. Wel friends.

1219
01:07:43.199 --> 01:07:47.480
Thank you so much for listening to that story and

1220
01:07:47.519 --> 01:07:51.079
then the interview with Rafael. I hope that you enjoyed

1221
01:07:51.119 --> 01:07:53.199
it as much as I did. Again, I'm gonna I

1222
01:07:53.400 --> 01:07:54.679
know that I said it before, but I'm going to

1223
01:07:54.719 --> 01:07:55.960
say it again, and the links will be in the

1224
01:07:55.960 --> 01:07:58.800
description notes below. But by the time this episode comes out,

1225
01:07:58.880 --> 01:08:02.440
we will be reaching the last few days of the kickstarter,

1226
01:08:02.559 --> 01:08:04.760
so you will have time to back it. If there's

1227
01:08:04.760 --> 01:08:06.880
still slots open, make sure that you go do that.

1228
01:08:07.039 --> 01:08:09.400
If you ran out of slots for whatever reason, Like

1229
01:08:09.639 --> 01:08:11.760
off I said in the interview, you can reach out

1230
01:08:11.800 --> 01:08:14.199
to him directly to get your copy of the Return

1231
01:08:14.280 --> 01:08:17.840
of Gamasots. It's such a good comic, a good graphic novel,

1232
01:08:17.880 --> 01:08:20.920
and I'm so excited to see what else they do.

1233
01:08:20.920 --> 01:08:22.600
Do yourself a favor and check it out. We're gonna

1234
01:08:22.600 --> 01:08:25.960
go ahead and get into some sources that we have here.

1235
01:08:26.119 --> 01:08:29.319
This first one is of course from good old Wikipedia.

1236
01:08:29.359 --> 01:08:32.239
We're getting just like a general kind of background of

1237
01:08:32.359 --> 01:08:35.359
Gama SATs. This says in the late post classic Maya

1238
01:08:35.439 --> 01:08:38.720
Mythology of the which is kind of like it's a

1239
01:08:38.800 --> 01:08:43.000
text from the people of Guatemala, the indigenous people. It's

1240
01:08:43.079 --> 01:08:47.000
kind of like their creation story or stories. That's what

1241
01:08:47.039 --> 01:08:52.600
this text is. The vu or va, it's vuh, but

1242
01:08:52.720 --> 01:08:56.000
Kamasots is reference in that. This says that Kamasots is

1243
01:08:56.079 --> 01:08:58.239
a bat spirit at the service of the lords of

1244
01:08:58.279 --> 01:09:02.079
the underworld. Gamasots means death bat in the Kicha language

1245
01:09:02.119 --> 01:09:05.079
and in meso America generally, the bat is often associated

1246
01:09:05.119 --> 01:09:08.279
with knight, death and sacrifice. And there's a quick section

1247
01:09:08.359 --> 01:09:10.800
here about the etymology of the word, and it says

1248
01:09:10.880 --> 01:09:15.039
gamasots is formed from the Kicha words game kame e

1249
01:09:15.319 --> 01:09:19.000
meaning death and sots so ot z meaning bat. So

1250
01:09:19.239 --> 01:09:22.079
game sots death bat. And then about the mythology that

1251
01:09:22.119 --> 01:09:26.399
says in the Popovu again that creation story text says

1252
01:09:26.520 --> 01:09:30.079
gamasots are the bat like spirits encountered in the Maya

1253
01:09:30.119 --> 01:09:34.840
hero twins Hanapu and Shibalanka. During their trials in the

1254
01:09:34.880 --> 01:09:37.319
outer world of Shibadabah, which is what, of course the

1255
01:09:37.359 --> 01:09:39.600
story was based around, the twins had to spend the

1256
01:09:39.680 --> 01:09:42.520
night in the house of bats, where they squeezed themselves

1257
01:09:42.520 --> 01:09:45.720
into their own blowguns in order to defend themselves from

1258
01:09:45.760 --> 01:09:49.000
the circling bats. Hanapu stuck his head out of his

1259
01:09:49.119 --> 01:09:51.880
blowgun to see if the sun had risen, and kamasots

1260
01:09:51.960 --> 01:09:54.560
immediately snatched off his head and carried it to the

1261
01:09:54.600 --> 01:09:56.800
ball court to be hung up as the ball to

1262
01:09:56.840 --> 01:09:59.600
be used by the gods in their next ballgame. So

1263
01:09:59.640 --> 01:10:03.640
there's that kind of god of decapitation thing. The bat said, yoink,

1264
01:10:03.720 --> 01:10:05.720
here's the ball for this game. Have fun. So that

1265
01:10:05.840 --> 01:10:08.640
is broadly what the Kamasots is, right, Moving on to

1266
01:10:08.680 --> 01:10:12.359
this next source. This is from Historical Mexico and its

1267
01:10:12.600 --> 01:10:16.960
HISTORICALMX dot org. Again, all direct links to these sources

1268
01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:19.239
will be in these Sustal Google docs on Patreon dot com,

1269
01:10:19.239 --> 01:10:22.600
slash Sustal podcast. But this was written by an Eli Adams,

1270
01:10:22.600 --> 01:10:25.000
and this does a bit more of like a full

1271
01:10:25.039 --> 01:10:29.279
explanation of what the Mayan bat Good Gamasots is. It

1272
01:10:29.319 --> 01:10:32.920
says Templo Mayor, located in downtown Mexico City, has an

1273
01:10:32.960 --> 01:10:37.359
adjacent museum that proudly displays artifacts and renditions of items

1274
01:10:37.359 --> 01:10:40.600
from the Mesoamerican civilizations. The top floor of this museum

1275
01:10:40.640 --> 01:10:44.600
contains a recreated statue of the Mayan bat Good Gamasots,

1276
01:10:44.720 --> 01:10:48.800
also known as Zotzilaha Chamaghan. The name Kamasots translates to

1277
01:10:48.880 --> 01:10:52.000
either death bat like we said earlier, or snatch bat.

1278
01:10:52.079 --> 01:10:55.039
This deity appears in the and is still a very

1279
01:10:55.079 --> 01:10:58.479
prominent figure in the continuing Maya religion. So this is

1280
01:10:58.520 --> 01:11:02.479
still a deity or an entity that is recognized to

1281
01:11:02.479 --> 01:11:05.039
this day right, This says Gamasots is described as an

1282
01:11:05.079 --> 01:11:09.199
anthropomorphized leaf nosed bat, which you all, if you know me,

1283
01:11:09.399 --> 01:11:11.520
if you're new here, you know that I or maybe

1284
01:11:11.520 --> 01:11:12.880
you don't. Actually I don't know if I talk about

1285
01:11:12.880 --> 01:11:14.800
this lot, but I love bats. I follow the Austin

1286
01:11:14.840 --> 01:11:17.960
Bat Sanctuary, which if anybody out there in the Austin

1287
01:11:18.039 --> 01:11:22.279
Bat Sanctuary is listening, hey hi, I first of all,

1288
01:11:22.279 --> 01:11:25.000
I want to go volunteer. And number two, I feel

1289
01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:26.640
like I should have turned this into an episode that

1290
01:11:26.720 --> 01:11:28.680
was that would have been like the triple threat feature

1291
01:11:28.720 --> 01:11:30.760
of this episode is doing something there. But hey, you

1292
01:11:30.760 --> 01:11:32.640
know what, there's still time. Maybe in the new year

1293
01:11:32.680 --> 01:11:34.960
I will make a visit there. And also, you may

1294
01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:37.239
have seen in one of my most recent episodes at

1295
01:11:37.279 --> 01:11:39.279
Lost Edge Tattoo that I got a tattoo of a

1296
01:11:39.279 --> 01:11:41.479
bat on my knee because I just think bats are cool.

1297
01:11:41.520 --> 01:11:44.479
And then learning all of this lore, I was like, wow, yeah,

1298
01:11:44.520 --> 01:11:47.079
hell yeah, I was right. Bats are cool and fun. Fact,

1299
01:11:47.199 --> 01:11:51.520
they are one of Texas's natural pollinators. So protect bats,

1300
01:11:51.680 --> 01:11:53.600
and you can protect them by staying away from them.

1301
01:11:53.640 --> 01:11:55.319
Do not handle them if you're not a professional. I

1302
01:11:55.359 --> 01:11:58.880
would just say that even though they can be really

1303
01:11:58.920 --> 01:12:01.199
cute a lot of the times. So anyway, Gamasots is

1304
01:12:01.399 --> 01:12:04.960
described as a bat in anthropomorphized leaf nosed bats, so

1305
01:12:05.079 --> 01:12:07.840
kind of like humanoid bat figure. This, though, has led

1306
01:12:07.880 --> 01:12:10.640
to conjecture about the source of the myth. Some believe

1307
01:12:10.720 --> 01:12:14.039
that the ancient peoples based him on the common vampire

1308
01:12:14.119 --> 01:12:18.279
bat or on Dismota's draculae, a much larger species, but

1309
01:12:18.359 --> 01:12:21.159
both are leaf nosed bats as well. Because there's there's

1310
01:12:21.520 --> 01:12:24.279
I think well over one hundred species of bat, that

1311
01:12:24.359 --> 01:12:27.359
word I always have trouble with it species. Both of

1312
01:12:27.359 --> 01:12:30.800
these species inhabited the area of Wajaca, Mexico in one

1313
01:12:30.880 --> 01:12:33.760
hundred a d when a bat deity was first mentioned

1314
01:12:33.800 --> 01:12:36.840
in a cult of the Sapothec tribe. The Sapotheks believed

1315
01:12:36.880 --> 01:12:41.159
bats represented knight, death and sacrifice. This was likely due

1316
01:12:41.159 --> 01:12:43.560
to the fact that the bats would inhabit the caves

1317
01:12:43.560 --> 01:12:46.920
around the sacred Senotes, which the meso Americans believed were

1318
01:12:46.960 --> 01:12:50.079
portals to the underworld or Shibabawa. Right being one of

1319
01:12:50.079 --> 01:12:52.479
those places, it would be a very chilling site at

1320
01:12:52.560 --> 01:12:54.920
dusk when the bats would swarm out of these portals

1321
01:12:54.960 --> 01:12:57.680
and begin drinking the blood of the other animals. The

1322
01:12:57.720 --> 01:13:01.079
god is also commonly depicted holding a sacrificial knife in

1323
01:13:01.119 --> 01:13:04.079
one hand and a human head or sacrificial victim in

1324
01:13:04.119 --> 01:13:06.680
the other. Maybe that should be on my other knee.

1325
01:13:06.680 --> 01:13:08.399
That should be with my other tattoo, right, is like

1326
01:13:08.479 --> 01:13:10.840
a hand with the dagger and a head. I don't know,

1327
01:13:11.319 --> 01:13:13.680
We'll see, I don't know. But also this reminds me

1328
01:13:13.800 --> 01:13:16.000
of you know, you all know I live in Austin,

1329
01:13:16.159 --> 01:13:18.600
and I don't think I've ever been to see the

1330
01:13:18.680 --> 01:13:21.399
bats to the Bat Bridge, which is like a super

1331
01:13:21.439 --> 01:13:25.000
touristy popular thing to do here in Austin. Austin is

1332
01:13:25.039 --> 01:13:27.319
like a bat city because of that bridge. But yeah,

1333
01:13:27.319 --> 01:13:29.399
it's like people will go to the bridge to watch

1334
01:13:29.479 --> 01:13:31.560
the bats fly out. That makes me think, is that

1335
01:13:31.600 --> 01:13:33.760
place a portal? I need to reach out to some

1336
01:13:33.800 --> 01:13:37.640
paranormal investigators and say, let's go do some investigation under

1337
01:13:37.640 --> 01:13:40.720
the bat bridge and see, because the bats are these

1338
01:13:41.039 --> 01:13:44.800
communicators with the underworld, Like, is that a portal? Is

1339
01:13:44.800 --> 01:13:46.520
there a portal to the underworld there? Now I'm getting

1340
01:13:46.600 --> 01:13:49.840
really conspiracy theory, but anyway, this continues. Kamasats was eventually

1341
01:13:49.920 --> 01:13:54.439
adopted into the mythology of the che or Maya in Guatemala,

1342
01:13:54.479 --> 01:13:56.800
though they merged him with their god of fire, Sotsi

1343
01:13:56.880 --> 01:14:01.239
la Chamrkhan Sosilaha was the name of the house of

1344
01:14:01.279 --> 01:14:03.880
bats in the underworld where the hero twins were forced

1345
01:14:03.880 --> 01:14:06.079
to spend the night by the lords of Shibalba. And

1346
01:14:06.119 --> 01:14:08.000
then this talks more about that and kind of what

1347
01:14:08.039 --> 01:14:09.880
we base the story on. This says the legend is

1348
01:14:09.880 --> 01:14:12.600
that the hero twins slept inside their blowguns. Again what

1349
01:14:12.640 --> 01:14:15.640
we ran a wikipedia to protect themselves from the bats. However,

1350
01:14:15.720 --> 01:14:19.399
when the bats went silent, that's when Balanque asked Hunapu

1351
01:14:19.560 --> 01:14:22.760
to check if Don had come, and when he did,

1352
01:14:22.880 --> 01:14:24.840
he poked his head out of the tube, but in

1353
01:14:24.880 --> 01:14:26.720
fact it was not yet Don, and one of the

1354
01:14:26.760 --> 01:14:29.479
bats took the opportunity to swoop down and rip away

1355
01:14:29.640 --> 01:14:33.760
Hanapu's head, leaving him decapitated. The other brother, sch Balanque,

1356
01:14:34.000 --> 01:14:36.520
was left inside the tube, questioning what his brother was

1357
01:14:36.520 --> 01:14:38.920
seeing and why he had gone so still without receiving

1358
01:14:38.920 --> 01:14:41.199
any answers. That actually would make for like a terrifying

1359
01:14:41.399 --> 01:14:44.199
scary movie kind of scene, right, this continues. The bat

1360
01:14:44.239 --> 01:14:47.279
then took the head of Hanapu to the ball court

1361
01:14:47.439 --> 01:14:50.760
of the Shivahdabah lords to be gruesomely displayed and used

1362
01:14:50.800 --> 01:14:54.239
as a ball, while the lords rejoiced in their assumed victory.

1363
01:14:54.319 --> 01:14:54.640
This says.

1364
01:14:54.680 --> 01:14:57.800
Later in the VU, a messenger from the underworld in

1365
01:14:57.840 --> 01:15:00.760
the form of a humanoid bat, again believed be Kamasots,

1366
01:15:00.800 --> 01:15:04.159
appeared to broker a deal between humanity and Lord Dohil,

1367
01:15:04.279 --> 01:15:06.800
the patron god of the Geeche. In this deal, mankind

1368
01:15:06.840 --> 01:15:10.760
promised their armpits and their wists in exchange for fire,

1369
01:15:10.840 --> 01:15:14.359
which is how the ritual of cutting open a person's

1370
01:15:14.399 --> 01:15:17.399
breast and sacrifice came to be. Some myths claim that

1371
01:15:17.560 --> 01:15:20.880
during the day, gamasots would turn into a stone statue

1372
01:15:20.920 --> 01:15:23.840
and therefore could only move at night, but this has

1373
01:15:23.880 --> 01:15:27.319
not been confirmed. This is interesting, this wording of promising

1374
01:15:27.359 --> 01:15:30.399
their armpits and their waists. I guess I did that

1375
01:15:30.520 --> 01:15:34.600
because my waist is missing. Can you find I'm kidding?

1376
01:15:34.720 --> 01:15:38.119
That's interesting again, wording. I would be curious to see

1377
01:15:38.119 --> 01:15:41.119
this in like a more full context, right, But we're

1378
01:15:41.119 --> 01:15:42.840
going to move on to the next source. This is

1379
01:15:42.880 --> 01:15:46.920
from all That's Interesting dot com. This is titled Gamasots

1380
01:15:46.960 --> 01:15:49.760
the Maya deathbat that served the lords of the underworld.

1381
01:15:49.880 --> 01:15:52.720
This says a fearsome spirit of the Maya underworld, whose

1382
01:15:52.800 --> 01:15:55.960
name means death bat in the Guiche language. Gamasots was

1383
01:15:55.960 --> 01:15:59.600
associated with night, death and again human sacrifice. This was

1384
01:15:59.640 --> 01:16:02.760
the same specifically with human sacrifice, not just I was

1385
01:16:02.760 --> 01:16:06.279
thinking initially general, like you know, you have to sacrifice things,

1386
01:16:06.359 --> 01:16:08.760
and it's like more inspirational that way. But no, this

1387
01:16:08.840 --> 01:16:12.760
is specifically about human sacrifice. And this says the ancient

1388
01:16:12.920 --> 01:16:16.359
Maya had hundreds of deities that they believed watched over humanity,

1389
01:16:16.520 --> 01:16:19.279
established order, and controlled the realm of the dead. Many

1390
01:16:19.319 --> 01:16:21.800
of these gods and spirits were downright terrifying, but one

1391
01:16:21.800 --> 01:16:24.399
of the scariest of them all was Kama SATs portrayed

1392
01:16:24.399 --> 01:16:27.079
it is an athromomorphic leaf knows bat. Again, as we

1393
01:16:27.119 --> 01:16:29.079
heard in the previous source, Gama SATs was the spirit

1394
01:16:29.119 --> 01:16:31.960
of death, night, and sacrifice. He supposedly fed on blood,

1395
01:16:32.039 --> 01:16:34.000
and legend says he even played a role in the

1396
01:16:34.039 --> 01:16:36.880
origin of the sacrificial rituals the Maya were known for.

1397
01:16:37.079 --> 01:16:39.079
See we always see I think a lot about and

1398
01:16:39.119 --> 01:16:42.039
we talked about this in the last episode about the Ubchantru.

1399
01:16:42.159 --> 01:16:44.159
Right we're like on a vampire kick right now, but

1400
01:16:44.520 --> 01:16:47.680
we spoke a lot about the different kinds of vampires

1401
01:16:47.680 --> 01:16:50.119
around the world and how there is a very large

1402
01:16:50.159 --> 01:16:54.760
and strong European influence on vampire stories or vampire lore

1403
01:16:54.920 --> 01:16:57.520
in general. Right, but this is an ancient thing, right,

1404
01:16:57.560 --> 01:17:00.560
And they're saying that this anthropomorphic bass, So this kind

1405
01:17:00.560 --> 01:17:04.119
of like humanoid bat fed on blood, so that like,

1406
01:17:04.279 --> 01:17:05.960
is that a vampire then?

1407
01:17:06.359 --> 01:17:06.560
Right?

1408
01:17:06.760 --> 01:17:09.760
Like I would assume that's that's vampire. Anyway, this continues.

1409
01:17:09.840 --> 01:17:13.279
Experts believe gamasots was inspired by the giant vampire bats

1410
01:17:13.279 --> 01:17:15.800
that used to swarm the skies over Central America. One

1411
01:17:15.840 --> 01:17:19.560
of these species of bats, Dismodius draculate, is now extinct,

1412
01:17:19.640 --> 01:17:22.560
but it's nearly two foot wingspan and tendency to prey

1413
01:17:22.560 --> 01:17:25.359
on animals as large as deer likely contributed to the

1414
01:17:25.359 --> 01:17:27.880
idea of a vicious bat like spirit. So there was

1415
01:17:27.920 --> 01:17:30.760
this giant bat that would prey on larger animals, right

1416
01:17:30.800 --> 01:17:32.399
Because normally when you think of bat, I think of

1417
01:17:32.479 --> 01:17:35.319
like palm size, something small, right, or at least their bodies.

1418
01:17:35.319 --> 01:17:37.840
Their bodies always like palm size. But if there's a

1419
01:17:37.840 --> 01:17:39.880
bat with the two foot wingspan, I would assume that

1420
01:17:39.880 --> 01:17:41.720
would be bigger than the hand and I'm sure there

1421
01:17:41.760 --> 01:17:44.039
are bats that are bigger than a hand. Now, I'm

1422
01:17:44.119 --> 01:17:45.520
just like when I think of a bat, I think

1423
01:17:45.520 --> 01:17:48.159
of something small and cute. This continues while the Maya

1424
01:17:48.199 --> 01:17:52.119
civilization rapidly declined by the eleventh century CE, the mythology

1425
01:17:52.159 --> 01:17:55.600
surrounding gamasots carries onto this day and it's just as

1426
01:17:55.600 --> 01:17:58.680
horrifying now as it was nearly two thousand years ago.

1427
01:17:58.840 --> 01:18:01.319
This talks about the origins of kamasots and a bat

1428
01:18:01.359 --> 01:18:03.960
like deity, was first mentioned by the indigenous Tepple dec

1429
01:18:04.039 --> 01:18:06.880
people of Mexico around one hundred to CE. The sepple

1430
01:18:06.960 --> 01:18:10.119
Decks believed that bats represented death because they often saw

1431
01:18:10.159 --> 01:18:13.000
them flying out of the sacred sinatas or caves that

1432
01:18:13.000 --> 01:18:15.520
they believed report or caves that they believed were portals

1433
01:18:15.560 --> 01:18:17.319
to the underworld. Again, I'm going to go back to

1434
01:18:17.359 --> 01:18:21.119
the Austin batbridge idea, because that is a bridge over water.

1435
01:18:21.359 --> 01:18:24.239
So there's like there's there's this combination of things, right

1436
01:18:24.399 --> 01:18:27.000
is the caves in the Senotis, which we know are

1437
01:18:27.239 --> 01:18:29.880
like the there are bodies of water, and the Austin

1438
01:18:29.920 --> 01:18:33.119
Bat bridge they're under the bridge, which could serve its

1439
01:18:33.199 --> 01:18:35.800
kind of it's cavernous, so to speak, and it's over

1440
01:18:35.880 --> 01:18:37.880
a body of water. There may be a portal to

1441
01:18:37.920 --> 01:18:40.560
the underworld under Austin, y'all, we need to look into

1442
01:18:40.960 --> 01:18:44.119
the I'm trying to remember what were the indigenous people

1443
01:18:44.159 --> 01:18:47.800
that were in Austin. I think is the Tonka. Let

1444
01:18:47.800 --> 01:18:50.000
me look it up and not be wrong. Tonkawa. That's

1445
01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:52.560
what I knew it. So I know the guawe Decon

1446
01:18:52.640 --> 01:18:56.239
people were inhabitants of like many parts of Texas. But

1447
01:18:56.319 --> 01:18:59.119
I think even guawe Decon is like a more broad

1448
01:18:59.239 --> 01:19:02.800
way to categoriz indigenous groups of people's. But I think

1449
01:19:03.039 --> 01:19:06.199
the Tankawa we're also specifically here in Austin. So anyway,

1450
01:19:06.920 --> 01:19:08.720
I'm going off the deep end here. Sorry, We're going

1451
01:19:08.800 --> 01:19:25.760
to continue here. The Giecha Maya of modern day Guatemala

1452
01:19:26.000 --> 01:19:28.520
likely adopted this bat deity and combined it with their

1453
01:19:28.600 --> 01:19:31.439
own fire god to create the horror that is Gamma SATs.

1454
01:19:31.560 --> 01:19:34.880
So I wonder, like where more of this the features

1455
01:19:34.880 --> 01:19:38.680
of fire come into Gama SATs like kamasots control fire,

1456
01:19:38.880 --> 01:19:43.199
create fire, like is there any influence on Gama Sots itself?

1457
01:19:43.319 --> 01:19:46.159
This continues even Kamasots his name is frightening. Again, this

1458
01:19:46.239 --> 01:19:50.159
explains the gummet and sorts death bat etymology there says

1459
01:19:50.159 --> 01:19:52.439
that he was a large leaf nosed bat with a

1460
01:19:52.520 --> 01:19:55.359
human like form. He was usually depicted with a sacrificial

1461
01:19:55.439 --> 01:19:57.359
knife in one hand again and a human heart in

1462
01:19:57.399 --> 01:19:59.680
the other. See I think that is a badass image

1463
01:19:59.720 --> 01:20:01.680
for its to the bat and the heart or the

1464
01:20:01.760 --> 01:20:03.199
knife and the heart. I think I got my next

1465
01:20:03.239 --> 01:20:06.520
one set up already. Sorry, mom. This says according to

1466
01:20:06.600 --> 01:20:09.359
ancient origins, Gamasots was said to fly out of caves,

1467
01:20:09.439 --> 01:20:13.000
grab victims by the neck, and decapitate them before soaring away.

1468
01:20:13.119 --> 01:20:15.479
This idea likely came from one of the most well

1469
01:20:15.520 --> 01:20:17.920
known myths about the death bat, or that could easily

1470
01:20:17.920 --> 01:20:20.840
be mistaken for a nightmare. Again, this question comes has

1471
01:20:20.880 --> 01:20:22.960
come up before, or this conversation has come up in

1472
01:20:23.000 --> 01:20:26.039
live events that I've done where we talk about Latina

1473
01:20:26.119 --> 01:20:29.600
people and being afraid of birds or things that fly,

1474
01:20:29.960 --> 01:20:33.359
because you have you know, like the flowerpucci, which is

1475
01:20:33.359 --> 01:20:36.000
like turkey vulture kind of thing. We have the latusas

1476
01:20:36.039 --> 01:20:38.560
which is the owl, and there's been other ones that

1477
01:20:38.600 --> 01:20:40.600
have come up and people are like, why why is

1478
01:20:40.600 --> 01:20:42.439
it always birds? Why is it things that can fly?

1479
01:20:42.560 --> 01:20:46.399
The Latina people are afraid of. And again there's ties

1480
01:20:46.479 --> 01:20:49.880
to like indigenous beliefs and how certain things were what

1481
01:20:50.279 --> 01:20:53.159
would work for or were part of the underworld or

1482
01:20:53.199 --> 01:20:56.279
could go between the underworld and our world. And so

1483
01:20:56.319 --> 01:20:58.640
it was like omens of death and that listen, you

1484
01:20:58.680 --> 01:21:01.359
can listen to just throw a dart to any Susto

1485
01:21:01.399 --> 01:21:03.960
episode and we've had this conversation before, but again this

1486
01:21:04.079 --> 01:21:06.479
is just reinforcing that conversation, or it's bringing it up

1487
01:21:06.479 --> 01:21:09.279
again for me. But this continues the blood soaked depictions

1488
01:21:09.319 --> 01:21:12.760
of Gamasots in Maya mythology. The gruesome story of Kamasots

1489
01:21:12.840 --> 01:21:17.319
and the hero twins Hanapou and Balankie can be found

1490
01:21:17.319 --> 01:21:20.720
in the Popova again, a sacred narrative of the Gieche

1491
01:21:20.800 --> 01:21:24.039
Maya that contains all the indigenous mythology of the civilization,

1492
01:21:24.239 --> 01:21:26.960
including the Maya creation myth and a chronicle of the

1493
01:21:26.960 --> 01:21:29.960
Gicha people according to the World History Encyclopedia. And then

1494
01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:32.119
this talks about the Popovu and it says it translates

1495
01:21:32.159 --> 01:21:34.760
literally to Book of the mat because so many Maya

1496
01:21:34.800 --> 01:21:37.800
people heard its stories while sitting on mats and listening

1497
01:21:37.800 --> 01:21:40.600
to their elders, passed them down However, it's essentially a

1498
01:21:40.680 --> 01:21:43.199
record of the community as it preserves the history and

1499
01:21:43.239 --> 01:21:46.640
culture of the Gicha civilization. The stories have existed for millennia,

1500
01:21:46.720 --> 01:21:49.960
but they weren't committed to paper until the sixteenth century.

1501
01:21:50.079 --> 01:21:54.319
Within the Popovu are numerous stories about Hanapou and Sperlanke,

1502
01:21:54.640 --> 01:21:56.760
the demi god hero twins who played a large role

1503
01:21:56.800 --> 01:21:59.079
in Maya mythology. In one of the tales, the twins

1504
01:21:59.119 --> 01:22:02.359
were challenged again to spend the night in Sosilaja, or

1505
01:22:02.439 --> 01:22:04.520
the house of bats. And then again this talks about

1506
01:22:04.520 --> 01:22:06.479
the blowguns, how they hid in it, and then how

1507
01:22:06.479 --> 01:22:08.720
they tried to peak out, but they were Ultimately they

1508
01:22:08.760 --> 01:22:11.239
met their their demise right and there were or one

1509
01:22:11.239 --> 01:22:13.479
of them was decapitated. And then I'm going to skip

1510
01:22:13.520 --> 01:22:15.079
down to the last part of this source, and this

1511
01:22:15.159 --> 01:22:17.720
talks about how the legend of the nightmarish Maya death

1512
01:22:17.800 --> 01:22:21.439
bat persists to this day. This says vampire bats still

1513
01:22:21.479 --> 01:22:24.600
fly the skies above Mexico and Central America today, but

1514
01:22:24.760 --> 01:22:27.359
the common vampire bat has nothing on the species that

1515
01:22:27.439 --> 01:22:31.439
existed alongside the Maya Dosmodius draculae went extinct in the

1516
01:22:31.439 --> 01:22:34.039
eighteen hundreds, but while it lived, it would have been

1517
01:22:34.079 --> 01:22:37.159
a sight to behold. With the wingspan of twenty inches,

1518
01:22:37.239 --> 01:22:39.800
the creature was larger than a computer keyboard, and it

1519
01:22:39.880 --> 01:22:43.000
sucked the blood of animals like deer and lamas. While

1520
01:22:43.000 --> 01:22:45.640
these giant bats died out hundreds of years ago, strange

1521
01:22:45.640 --> 01:22:48.319
sightings of huge bat like creatures continued well into the

1522
01:22:48.359 --> 01:22:51.720
twentieth century. According to Blue Roadrunner, in the nineteen fifties,

1523
01:22:51.720 --> 01:22:55.199
a couple walking in Perota's Brazil reported seeing two large

1524
01:22:55.279 --> 01:22:58.359
humanoids in a tree one night. Authorities wrote them off,

1525
01:22:58.439 --> 01:23:02.159
insisting they'd simply spotted large birds, but the sidings continued.

1526
01:23:02.239 --> 01:23:05.119
In nineteen seventy six, two girls spite a large bird

1527
01:23:05.279 --> 01:23:08.199
like figure they described as having a gorilla like face.

1528
01:23:08.359 --> 01:23:10.359
The next day, it was discovered that the creature had

1529
01:23:10.399 --> 01:23:13.880
left behind several three toed tracks. Sidings of this bird

1530
01:23:13.960 --> 01:23:16.159
or bat with a gorilla face have occurred as far

1531
01:23:16.239 --> 01:23:18.479
north as Texas. I was going to bring that up

1532
01:23:18.479 --> 01:23:20.960
where several farmers claim to have encountered it in their field.

1533
01:23:21.119 --> 01:23:23.439
With so many sightings on record, it's difficult to write

1534
01:23:23.479 --> 01:23:26.039
off the existence of some sort of humanoid back creature

1535
01:23:26.039 --> 01:23:30.399
that flies around consuming livestock. Perhaps it's even gama SATs himself.

1536
01:23:30.600 --> 01:23:32.960
So I'm seeing there needs to be a team up

1537
01:23:33.000 --> 01:23:35.520
of like Gamasots and the Chupak gabaa. Right. But also

1538
01:23:35.600 --> 01:23:38.600
this thing about Texas, this is interesting because I've heard

1539
01:23:38.680 --> 01:23:40.840
stories and we need to cover it. We'll probably do

1540
01:23:40.880 --> 01:23:43.760
that in this next year. Is there's the stories of

1541
01:23:43.840 --> 01:23:46.000
like the thunderbird I think is what they called it.

1542
01:23:46.159 --> 01:23:48.319
There may be other names for it, but I've heard

1543
01:23:48.359 --> 01:23:53.359
these stories about like these large anomalous birds in Texas,

1544
01:23:53.479 --> 01:23:56.600
especially in agricultural areas. Of course in South Texas where

1545
01:23:56.640 --> 01:23:59.960
I'm front, there's stories about sidings of these giant birds.

1546
01:24:00.560 --> 01:24:02.319
Keep your ears open for that one. I'm going to

1547
01:24:02.359 --> 01:24:04.000
look into that. We're going to move on to the

1548
01:24:04.039 --> 01:24:07.960
next source. This is Mythical Creatures and Beasts dot com.

1549
01:24:08.000 --> 01:24:10.239
So this one says a lot of well I've already

1550
01:24:10.279 --> 01:24:12.880
spoken about in these other sources, but there's something interesting here.

1551
01:24:12.880 --> 01:24:15.399
And this is something that mentioned in his interview as well.

1552
01:24:15.560 --> 01:24:18.359
Is this says that Kamasats was not just one creature,

1553
01:24:18.600 --> 01:24:21.359
but in some stories, an entire race of bat like

1554
01:24:21.479 --> 01:24:25.439
death gods or demons. Ancient Maya mythology is rich with

1555
01:24:25.520 --> 01:24:29.600
tales of God's monsters and cosmic punishments, and Totilaja Chamakhan

1556
01:24:29.720 --> 01:24:32.560
remains one of the most feared beings within those narratives.

1557
01:24:32.600 --> 01:24:35.199
He emerged as a symbol of divine retribution and the

1558
01:24:35.239 --> 01:24:38.279
price of disobedience to the gods. He was a punisher.

1559
01:24:38.399 --> 01:24:40.720
Something also really interesting in this sources, they talk about

1560
01:24:40.760 --> 01:24:43.880
the abilities that Kamasats has. It says blood drinking, much

1561
01:24:43.920 --> 01:24:46.479
like a vampire. He fed on the blood of humans

1562
01:24:46.479 --> 01:24:51.000
and animals, often leaving entire villages drained. Then there's nocaternal flight.

1563
01:24:51.159 --> 01:24:53.680
He would only appear at night, flying in total silence

1564
01:24:53.680 --> 01:24:56.079
and attacking without warning. This could also be not only

1565
01:24:56.119 --> 01:24:58.680
an ability, but maybe kind of like a curse or

1566
01:24:58.760 --> 01:25:01.960
like a detriment to the because in the other source earlier,

1567
01:25:02.000 --> 01:25:05.319
they said that during the day, Gamasots turns into a

1568
01:25:05.359 --> 01:25:08.239
statue and they can only so That means that they're

1569
01:25:08.279 --> 01:25:10.279
stuck for twelve hours out of each day, right and

1570
01:25:10.319 --> 01:25:12.880
they can only fly in the night they can that's

1571
01:25:12.880 --> 01:25:15.039
when they come to life, which this moves on says

1572
01:25:15.119 --> 01:25:18.479
daytime concealments. Some legends say that he turns to stone

1573
01:25:18.479 --> 01:25:21.159
by day, hiding in temples or cliffs to avoid detection.

1574
01:25:21.399 --> 01:25:23.479
So I mean that could be a good cover, right, like, oh,

1575
01:25:23.520 --> 01:25:25.960
it's just a statue, but then when night falls they

1576
01:25:26.000 --> 01:25:28.760
come out of that disguise, right. And then lastly, this

1577
01:25:28.880 --> 01:25:33.000
says commanding infernal armies. In some stories he led death

1578
01:25:33.039 --> 01:25:36.439
spirits and bat demons in battle against rebellious humans or

1579
01:25:36.560 --> 01:25:40.359
rival gods. And then this talks about some symbols with

1580
01:25:40.720 --> 01:25:43.000
the gamasots and it says there's a course, a symbol

1581
01:25:43.039 --> 01:25:45.760
of the cave, which symbolized entrances to the underworld. As

1582
01:25:45.880 --> 01:25:48.640
we've said repeatedly, there is the blood and death, which

1583
01:25:48.680 --> 01:25:51.800
is due to their nocturnal nature and their association with decay.

1584
01:25:52.000 --> 01:25:55.680
And then sacrifice, which is a central theme in Mayan spirituality,

1585
01:25:55.760 --> 01:25:57.800
is what it says here, and it says Soti Laha

1586
01:25:57.840 --> 01:26:00.680
Chamakhan was the embodiment of these ideas. He was not

1587
01:26:00.720 --> 01:26:03.039
only feared for his appearance and power, but for what

1588
01:26:03.119 --> 01:26:06.039
he represented, the absolute dominance of the gods and the

1589
01:26:06.079 --> 01:26:09.840
ever present threat of annihilation for disobedience. In certain regions,

1590
01:26:09.920 --> 01:26:12.720
rituals and offerings were made to bat deities or spirits

1591
01:26:12.760 --> 01:26:16.520
to avoid disease, disaster, or invasion. This suggests a deeper

1592
01:26:16.520 --> 01:26:19.119
cultural reverence wrapped in dread see. Now this is interesting

1593
01:26:19.159 --> 01:26:22.239
because this says absolute dominance of the gods, where I

1594
01:26:22.239 --> 01:26:25.359
think in other sources the wording is that gamasots basically

1595
01:26:25.399 --> 01:26:28.479
like works for the gods or the lords of the underworld.

1596
01:26:28.520 --> 01:26:31.039
Who knows like what kind of like what the hierarchy,

1597
01:26:31.119 --> 01:26:33.279
so to speak, is with this relationship, and maybe there

1598
01:26:33.359 --> 01:26:35.840
is no hierarchy, and it's like a vertical or a

1599
01:26:35.920 --> 01:26:38.720
lateral sort of relationship. The next source that we have here,

1600
01:26:38.880 --> 01:26:42.159
this is from j Store. This is an academic one,

1601
01:26:42.239 --> 01:26:45.560
and this is from an article, a journal article, and

1602
01:26:45.600 --> 01:26:48.840
this says Bats and the Gamasots correcting a century of

1603
01:26:48.880 --> 01:26:51.279
mistaken identity. And this one, I'm going to be very

1604
01:26:51.319 --> 01:26:55.000
honest with you all. I did not read through these articles.

1605
01:26:55.039 --> 01:26:57.479
But this is all about the Gamasats. This is going

1606
01:26:57.520 --> 01:26:59.600
to make a really interesting read if you do have

1607
01:26:59.680 --> 01:27:02.560
access us to this article, and I'm sure there are

1608
01:27:02.560 --> 01:27:04.800
other places to find it that are outside of Jstore

1609
01:27:04.800 --> 01:27:07.720
and not behind a like a loggin wall or something.

1610
01:27:07.800 --> 01:27:10.239
But this is again Bats and the Kammasots correcting a

1611
01:27:10.279 --> 01:27:13.920
century of mistaken identity. And this is by I believe

1612
01:27:14.119 --> 01:27:18.159
James E. Brady and Jeremy D. Coltman in Latin American Antiquity,

1613
01:27:18.239 --> 01:27:21.399
Volume twenty seven. However, I will say, just like grazing

1614
01:27:21.439 --> 01:27:24.319
over this, there is a ton of imagery and it's

1615
01:27:24.399 --> 01:27:26.399
really really cool to see this. I'll see what I

1616
01:27:26.399 --> 01:27:29.560
can post on social media that is in here. There's

1617
01:27:29.640 --> 01:27:33.560
like a firemouthed cave bat with crossbones on its wings,

1618
01:27:33.600 --> 01:27:36.560
which just looks cool as hell. And then the last

1619
01:27:36.600 --> 01:27:39.920
rest that we have here, this is actually a chapter

1620
01:27:40.399 --> 01:27:42.640
or part of a chapter at least from the Popova

1621
01:27:42.800 --> 01:27:47.479
It says Popova Book to chapter ten, Creations Sacred Myths

1622
01:27:47.479 --> 01:27:49.399
of Gicha people. I'm going to read this and it

1623
01:27:49.399 --> 01:27:52.359
says chapter ten. Afterward, they entered the House of Cold,

1624
01:27:52.560 --> 01:27:55.199
which I believe is this is part of the brothers

1625
01:27:55.279 --> 01:27:57.760
stories and again part of what we base our story

1626
01:27:57.800 --> 01:27:59.640
off of. They entered the House of Cold. It is

1627
01:27:59.640 --> 01:28:02.520
impot possible to describe how cold it was. The house

1628
01:28:02.640 --> 01:28:06.479
was full of hail. It was the mansion of cold. Soon, however,

1629
01:28:06.560 --> 01:28:09.800
the cold was ended because with a fire of old logs,

1630
01:28:09.800 --> 01:28:12.600
the boys made the cold disappear. That is why they

1631
01:28:12.600 --> 01:28:14.840
did not die. They were still alive when it donned.

1632
01:28:14.920 --> 01:28:17.640
Surely what the lords of Shibahdebah wanted was that they

1633
01:28:17.680 --> 01:28:20.439
would die, but it was not thus, and when it donned,

1634
01:28:20.520 --> 01:28:22.439
they were still full of health, and they went out

1635
01:28:22.479 --> 01:28:25.079
again when the messengers came to get them. How is this?

1636
01:28:25.279 --> 01:28:27.479
They are not dead yet, said the lords of Shibadabah.

1637
01:28:27.520 --> 01:28:30.319
They were amazed to see the deeds of Hanapu and Shblnakieh.

1638
01:28:30.439 --> 01:28:33.279
Presently the boys entered the house of jaguars. The house

1639
01:28:33.359 --> 01:28:35.560
was full of jaguars. Do not bite us, here's what

1640
01:28:35.640 --> 01:28:37.840
belongs to you, the boys said to the jaguars, And

1641
01:28:37.920 --> 01:28:40.560
quickly they threw them some bones to the animals, which

1642
01:28:40.600 --> 01:28:43.640
pounced upon the bones. Now surely they are finished. Now

1643
01:28:43.680 --> 01:28:46.239
already they have eaten their own entrails. At least they

1644
01:28:46.279 --> 01:28:48.760
have given themselves up. Now their bones have been broken,

1645
01:28:48.880 --> 01:28:51.479
so said the guards, all happy because of this. So

1646
01:28:51.520 --> 01:28:54.279
you can see we did just like a modern adaptation

1647
01:28:54.439 --> 01:28:56.600
in our modern retelling of these stories. So they're in

1648
01:28:56.600 --> 01:28:59.279
the house of jaguars, and instead of throwing the animal bones,

1649
01:28:59.279 --> 01:29:01.279
they threw them protein bars that they had packed with

1650
01:29:01.319 --> 01:29:03.800
them right in our story. Again, as always, kudos and

1651
01:29:04.119 --> 01:29:06.640
random applause for Jeffrey taking the lead on this story

1652
01:29:06.680 --> 01:29:08.600
and writing it, I'm gonna skip a little bit ahead,

1653
01:29:08.640 --> 01:29:10.560
and this talks about how they then go into the

1654
01:29:10.600 --> 01:29:12.800
house of the bats. That says they then put them

1655
01:29:12.840 --> 01:29:14.640
in the house of bats. There was nothing but bats

1656
01:29:14.640 --> 01:29:17.359
inside this house, the house of Gamasots, a large animal

1657
01:29:17.359 --> 01:29:19.720
whose weapons for killing were like a dry point, and

1658
01:29:19.880 --> 01:29:23.000
instantly those who came into their presence perished. They were

1659
01:29:23.039 --> 01:29:26.000
in there then, but they slept inside their blowguns, and

1660
01:29:26.039 --> 01:29:29.039
they were not bitten by those who were in the house. Nevertheless,

1661
01:29:29.159 --> 01:29:31.039
one of them had to give up because of another

1662
01:29:31.119 --> 01:29:33.680
Gamasots that came from the sky and made him come

1663
01:29:33.760 --> 01:29:36.960
into sight. The bats were assembled in council all night

1664
01:29:37.079 --> 01:29:39.600
and flew about. There was a word here that we

1665
01:29:40.479 --> 01:29:42.640
tried to use as a sound que in the script,

1666
01:29:42.680 --> 01:29:44.479
and I'd never seen this word here, and it's here now.

1667
01:29:44.479 --> 01:29:47.640
It says quilits quillits. They said, so they were saying

1668
01:29:47.680 --> 01:29:50.159
all night, which I believe is the sound that the

1669
01:29:50.279 --> 01:29:53.640
bats are making. That is how they on a monopeed

1670
01:29:53.800 --> 01:29:57.399
that noise qwilits quilits, which could be could sound like

1671
01:29:57.439 --> 01:29:59.720
a chirping maybe of the bats, even though I know

1672
01:29:59.720 --> 01:30:01.479
bats don't sure, but they make these like kind of

1673
01:30:01.520 --> 01:30:04.920
chittering sounds. This continues. They stopped for a little while, however,

1674
01:30:04.960 --> 01:30:07.119
and they did not move and were pressed against the

1675
01:30:07.239 --> 01:30:10.680
end of one of the blowguns. Then Sbaankie said to Hanapoo,

1676
01:30:10.880 --> 01:30:13.439
look you, has it begun already to get light? Maybe?

1677
01:30:13.439 --> 01:30:16.159
So I am going to see. Hanapu answered, and as

1678
01:30:16.199 --> 01:30:18.640
he wished very much to look out the mouth of

1679
01:30:18.680 --> 01:30:21.720
the blowgun and wished to see if it had donned. Instantly,

1680
01:30:21.800 --> 01:30:24.079
Gama Sotz cut off his head and the body of

1681
01:30:24.119 --> 01:30:28.560
Hanapoo is decapitated. Sparalankie asked again, has it not yet donned?

1682
01:30:28.600 --> 01:30:31.439
But Hanapu did not move. Where have you gone, Hanapoo?

1683
01:30:31.560 --> 01:30:33.479
What have you done? But he did not move and

1684
01:30:33.560 --> 01:30:38.039
remained silent. That's actually so sad. Then Sparlankie felt concerned

1685
01:30:38.039 --> 01:30:42.000
and exclaimed, unfortunate are we we are completely undone. They

1686
01:30:42.039 --> 01:30:44.760
went immediately to hang the head of Hanapu in the

1687
01:30:44.800 --> 01:30:47.760
ball court, and by special order of hant Kameh and

1688
01:30:48.079 --> 01:30:51.800
vukub Game, all the people rejoiced for what had happened

1689
01:30:51.880 --> 01:30:54.960
to the head of Hanapu. That that's intense. This is

1690
01:30:54.960 --> 01:30:57.199
an intense story. This quote is so I don't know

1691
01:30:57.239 --> 01:30:59.279
why This quote just stuck out to me. Unfortunate are

1692
01:30:59.319 --> 01:31:02.760
we We are completely undone. It's so just like filled

1693
01:31:02.800 --> 01:31:06.960
with gloom and doom. Just god, what it's like this

1694
01:31:07.079 --> 01:31:11.319
admission of we're defeated and it's sad. Really and those

1695
01:31:11.439 --> 01:31:27.520
were all these sources that we have for you. Welcome back,

1696
01:31:27.520 --> 01:31:31.000
well friends, Thank you so much for listening to this episode,

1697
01:31:31.000 --> 01:31:34.439
the last episode of Sustal for the year of twenty

1698
01:31:34.560 --> 01:31:37.439
twenty five. Again, make sure you stick around through December

1699
01:31:37.439 --> 01:31:40.680
for the Sustal swap thon, and also remember to hear

1700
01:31:40.800 --> 01:31:43.159
your story on Sustal. You can visit my website or

1701
01:31:43.199 --> 01:31:45.000
my link tree and send your story in. It doesn't

1702
01:31:45.039 --> 01:31:47.279
have to be just a written story, although we love those,

1703
01:31:47.319 --> 01:31:49.439
I love giving them the Sustal treatment, but you can

1704
01:31:49.479 --> 01:31:52.720
also send in a photo, a video, an audio recording,

1705
01:31:52.800 --> 01:31:55.520
anything that you think is paranormal. Please send it in

1706
01:31:55.520 --> 01:31:57.800
and I will share it either on Sustal or on

1707
01:31:57.880 --> 01:32:00.640
sustal social media's which you can follow at at Soustal

1708
01:32:00.680 --> 01:32:03.680
podcast on every platform for all things spooky and updates

1709
01:32:03.720 --> 01:32:05.800
on the show. And if you'd like to support the show.

1710
01:32:05.840 --> 01:32:08.279
As always, the easiest way is by engaging with the

1711
01:32:08.279 --> 01:32:10.600
show wherever you are listening to it, sharing it with

1712
01:32:10.800 --> 01:32:14.439
your girl friends, and leaving positive ratings and reviews, reviews

1713
01:32:14.680 --> 01:32:18.399
like this one from Anita Sanchez, and Anita said, definitely

1714
01:32:18.479 --> 01:32:21.680
love all the stories, listening to them all one by one.

1715
01:32:21.840 --> 01:32:24.039
Definitely love it and I hope to hear more soon.

1716
01:32:24.159 --> 01:32:27.079
Hearts emojis. Anita, thank you so so much. I'm not

1717
01:32:27.119 --> 01:32:29.920
sure where you are on your listening journey. This review

1718
01:32:30.000 --> 01:32:32.520
was left a while ago, and so maybe you're caught up.

1719
01:32:32.600 --> 01:32:34.720
Maybe you haven't. If you are, I hope you get

1720
01:32:34.760 --> 01:32:36.520
to this point and you hear this, and I want

1721
01:32:36.520 --> 01:32:38.159
to say thank you so much for listening and for

1722
01:32:38.279 --> 01:32:41.239
leaving that lovely review. If you have already left a

1723
01:32:41.279 --> 01:32:44.039
positive rating or review, or you're looking for another way

1724
01:32:44.039 --> 01:32:46.520
to support, you can also support Sustal for three dollars

1725
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or more a month by signing up on patreon dot

1726
01:32:48.840 --> 01:32:51.840
com slash Sustal Podcast and you can choose your tier

1727
01:32:51.920 --> 01:32:55.039
decide what works for you. It is winter holiday season

1728
01:32:55.359 --> 01:32:58.239
coming up, so if you want to gift someone a subscription,

1729
01:32:58.319 --> 01:33:00.880
you can maybe look into that seaking of I want

1730
01:33:00.880 --> 01:33:04.880
to say thank you to this episode's patrons. As always,

1731
01:33:04.920 --> 01:33:08.680
you mean the underworld the Shivaba Underworld to me and

1732
01:33:08.960 --> 01:33:16.119
you are Liza Rachel, Alejandra Luth, April d Josette, Sam Mandy, Laurie, Genie,

1733
01:33:16.279 --> 01:33:25.000
desire c Ashes, Nedessa, rachel A, Asusena, Marlene Laney, Desiree A, Ricardo, Vanessa, Mariza, Nievis,

1734
01:33:25.039 --> 01:33:29.880
manermal Iris, mad Floor, Selena Nightingville, Clint, Rachel w and

1735
01:33:30.119 --> 01:33:33.439
ARMANI thank you so so much for your support on Patreon.

1736
01:33:33.560 --> 01:33:35.199
It means so much to me. It helps me to

1737
01:33:35.279 --> 01:33:37.199
keep on going. It's helped me throughout the year, and

1738
01:33:37.199 --> 01:33:40.840
I'm so excited to continue keep bringing you content both

1739
01:33:40.840 --> 01:33:44.399
publicly and on Patreon. But again, I'm just super grateful

1740
01:33:44.439 --> 01:33:46.680
for the year of twenty twenty five. I am looking

1741
01:33:46.720 --> 01:33:49.640
forward to twenty twenty six. Listen just because there are

1742
01:33:49.680 --> 01:33:52.960
no new Susto episodes. I will definitely be online, so

1743
01:33:53.119 --> 01:33:56.439
please hit me up all over the socials, email me,

1744
01:33:56.439 --> 01:33:59.520
message me whatever. I'm still going to be online. I'm

1745
01:33:59.560 --> 01:34:02.800
not like going anywhere, just you know, taking a little

1746
01:34:02.800 --> 01:34:05.680
break from the production cycle. So either way, just really

1747
01:34:05.680 --> 01:34:07.239
grateful for this year. I hope that you all have

1748
01:34:07.279 --> 01:34:10.840
a wonderful holiday season until next year, not just this

1749
01:34:11.359 --> 01:35:09.560
bye