SHARKE AND FISHE PRESENTS PSYCHO BABBLE

At the end of a hard days work, why don't you return home and treat yourself to a cold glass of Beetle Milk? It's gluten free and full of all the right nutrients you'd find in any comic book flavored masterpiece! Now for more information please check out the following interview I did with Sharke, of Sharke and Fishe fame, as he'd tell you himself, comics taste good when stirred in the right direction. Sharke, it's now over to you, pal.





1) What are your own origins, Sharke?   I'm actually a lifer musician who's been playing guitar since I was a teenager, and my love of comics, movies, and other art forms was always to the side of that. After I got sick of the grind and hustle of the music scene, the grind and hustle of the comic scene seems pretty easy.

2) What inspired you to create, ‘Beetle Milk’, and how did you end up working with Fishe?   Beetle Milk arose from our desire to create something bigger than a comic. I feel as though most other indie comic authors want to create the next Batman, where as we want to create Star Wars. The scope impresses us and drives our thinking.

As for Fishe, our origins are a long, sad story, but the basic idea is that we bring out the best in each other and that best is seen in our comic, Psycho Babble. Interestingly, being married, we have had more arguments about plot points than normal domestic stuff. It's perfect.

3) In your own words how would you describe this story?   I would describe it as fun. It is much closer to something like "Game of Thrones" than it is to, say, Spider-man, just due to the fact that we have an ensemble cast and their survival is never promised. Also, we have attempted to weave a living, breathing world together. The actions of characters in the past [or outside time, in the case of Gods] effect the lives of contemporary characters. It is complicated, but there is a very real payoff. Currently we are about halfway through the first series, and there are two series afterwards that deal with the fallout of Greyson and company's actions.

4) What song would you say best represents this comic and why?   If I had to pick one song to summarize the entire series, it would be "Boy With A Coin", by Iron and Wine. That song is perfect for many reasons, but my favorite part is that musically the song is pretty upbeat -- the guitar line sounds happy and normal, and the subject matter seems very pleasant. But somewhere about halfway through, the song gets sinister. So a simple story about a boy finding a coin becomes a story of a car flipping in an accident and what I think is a metaphor for a girl losing her innocence. 

My entire point is that, upon first glance, Psycho Babble looks like a happy, normal story. But it's not. It is about the relationship of creatures with their deities and each other, and it is about war. While we inject some humor and positivity into it, the overall story is very sinister. Iron and Wine did it better, I think, but we are getting there.

5) If you could get a celebrity – either living or dead – to promote your wares, who would you choose, and why would you want to choose this particular person?   This is an interesting question, because naturally we would go towards our favorite artists and celebrities. But I want to reach out and not focus on self gratification, thus, I would strike up a deal with Apple [so Steve Jobs I guess] to put it on every iDevice. Then I'd get Todd McFarlane to do a guest cover, and Kevin Eastman to write the afterward.

Although, for my own gratification, I would get a variant cover by Sam Keith, who is my absolute favorite. Fishe would probably vote for Rebecca Sugar.

6) What have you learnt about yourself through this endeavor?   That somewhere in this brain of mine, I have the capacity for compelling storytelling, and that if you work hard enough and have the right people in your corner, damn near anything is possible. I am saying this as a person who is not famous. I feel, genuinely, that with Fishe in my corner we can accomplish anything as a team. Even if all we accomplish is printing the books, it will be an achievement that dwarfs many who try.

7) During your time in this field, what is the one thing that has kept you in good stead?   One thing that carried over from my career as a musician is the idea that staying humble is key. When we meet fans, we want to know their stories as well. We have drawings on our wall from fans who are also artists. It isn't about Fishe or me, it's about everyone, the entire comic community. I also have a list of other artists, both mainstream and indie, that I admire. Anytime I start to think I'm hot stuff I go and read their stuff. The sheer amount of talent in this world is staggering.

8) If ‘Beetle Milk’ had a motto, what would it be?   Within our organization, the only motto I can think of is "Don't talk about it; Be about it". Making comics is not our full time jobs -- we both have day jobs. So, we get off of work and come home to work on this. It gets very difficult sometimes, but we aren't the kind of people that tell people we are doing something and then just never do it. We have so many stories to tell, just stacks of ideas, and we will get them out there. At the very least, when we have kids, they can see where our minds were at before they came along.

And on that note, I'd like to thank Sharke for telling us about his new comic book, Psycho Babble, before directing you towards his official Beetle Milk website, facebook, twitter, and instagram pages.