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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds — spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books — from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.
It’s about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
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• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life — for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
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DFPN.
Thank you for watching.
what is up everybody and welcome to the
united states department of nerds where we
are for the people by the people and
of the people and tonight we return to
the darkness but this time it's not
folklore it's not myth it is something far
more unsettling because what happens when
the person you trust the most isn't who
they seem they are
When instinct tells you something is
wrong,
but your reality refuses to confirm it.
Tonight, we dive into a story of paranoia,
identity,
and the terrifying cost of truth.
This is Aha!
A Horror Anthology, Episode Two.
The Council of Nerds is now in session.
Duke, welcome back to the podcast.
And Mids, welcome back for the first time.
How do you do?
Thanks, man.
Fellas,
I'm going to let y'all take a minute.
We'll start with you, Miguel,
since this is your first time here,
and let you introduce yourself to
everybody.
Okay.
Howdy.
I'm Miguel, Canadian comics artist.
I'm working on this, and I'm on Webtoon,
but not in a long while because they
don't pay me.
My upload schedule has been not very good
over there.
Duke, over to you, man.
Hey, guys.
Yeah, I'm Duke Electric.
I'm also Canadian comic book artist and
writer, and I've worked on the comic Greg,
which I've brought onto the show before,
and we're now here to talk about the
AHA Horror Anthology from the CHK Comics
book company, publisher.
So as we all know,
Greg is not a true story.
Nobody's head will explode tonight.
We confirmed this last time when he was
on the last time.
So everybody is safe to look at him.
You look at the suit too long, though,
we make no promises.
It might burn your eyes.
It very well may.
It very well may.
I'm going to have to start wearing
sunglasses when you're on, my friend.
So how did y'all two connect for this
story and kind of like why has made
this collaboration work so far?
uh do you want me to do it
answer mix uh that's actually for both of
y'all so y'all can talk about how y'all
met over coffee over tea tinder however
you know what it was tinder we we
matched and then we were like yeah we
should really get on this comic book
anthology together because this is sick
and then we separately put in our
application and then we both got it we're
like this is true love this is true
love right now
And, uh, yeah.
And, uh, no, we, uh,
we didn't know each other beforehand.
Uh, we,
we both just signed up for this thing
and Chris and Chris just matched everybody
up depending on like the style, I guess,
of people's work or what people wanted to
work on potentially.
And, um, and yeah, they,
they partnered me and makes together and,
uh, it's been great so far and yeah,
it's been going along.
Yeah, I didn't know Duke going in.
And when we were introduced, I was like,
oh, we're in the same province.
You're less than two hour drive away.
I was like, okay.
See, that could have happened then.
Y'all could have totally met up for coffee
or tea.
Yeah.
We could have seen each other at a
con and not even know him.
We probably have been to the same shows.
You could have got some Tim bits together.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, the Tim bits.
Oh,
you didn't know I knew about Tim Horton?
Come on now.
Some Americans don't.
I guess that's... Well,
half and half and some Tim bits?
Come on!
I'm going to say this, though.
This is going to be controversial,
but Tim Hortons is now technically
American.
So you guys own Tim Hortons now.
I heard that.
I also heard it was making its way
south, which I really hope it is.
It's coming.
It's going to take over all the West.
But if anybody is actually wondering how
everybody got paired up,
you can go watch issue episode one of
this with Crystal, Chris Mendoza,
and they explain how this all actually
came together.
which is a really cool story how they
did everything.
So go watch that episode.
It is a great episode with those guys.
They are great.
They're hilarious together.
And then make sure you subscribe to Chris
and Chris as well and CHK Comets because
they've been posting tons about this book.
I cannot recommend it enough to y'all.
But make sure you watch episode one after
this episode.
Episode one.
It was good.
I appreciate that.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Me and those guys talked forever.
It felt like even after the fact.
So this concept hits immediately.
A father who knows something is wrong with
his son.
And Duke,
I'm going to start with you on this.
I know your son just turned one.
I told him happy birthday.
Don't say I didn't because I did.
Where did the idea for this story come
from?
it was kind of uh it was just
like a nugget of an idea that I
had floating around because like you know
what's the scariest thing to like a parent
and it's always going to be their kid
going missing and back potentially so um
that was kind of you know if you're
going to write a horror story you'd want
to write the thing you're most afraid of
and that's obviously something as being a
father for the first time and with my
child you know that's the number one thing
I'd be
we're worried about and afraid of so um
so that kind of inspired it from the
nugget of the idea and then the past
year things have just been crazy online
like there's so much stuff with ai and
just like human trafficking and so many
different things and obviously the epstein
list all that stuff
We don't have to get into it, but,
but, but the,
but I was reading a lot of stuff,
you know, people,
there's so many like AI experiments,
people just like creating brains in a jar,
basically that can run programs and that
are just like,
just really weird biotech stuff going on
and so I just kind of been keeping
my eye on that and just the idea
you know corporations are always trying to
find the fastest way to make money and
the cheapest solutions to make money
because that's what they do because
they're capitalists so you know uh I kind
of started thinking more of like okay so
like
it's going to be very smart ai would
be very like meticulous for whatever it's
being told to do and what better way
you know after you know the first wave
of you know people are experimented on or
whatever it would obviously start working
its way taking people from the world and
stuff so yeah we touch upon that in
in the story a bit but uh spoiler
alert but um
yeah uh i just been i was really
into that i was really into like the
thing the thing john covering the things
so good yeah it's the best like i
always always reference that for any
horror what's great about the thing is we
still don't know
No, you don't know who is who.
There's the video game.
I don't know if you guys played the
thing video game.
It was pretty sick back then.
I think they tried to allude to who
was who or whatever and made more of
a mystery,
but it's better just as a mystery.
It really is.
I heard a cool conspiracy theory about it
the other day that there were the aliens
that land that end up being in the
movie.
They were saying...
the aliens weren't the thing the thing was
on the alien ship taking over so the
same thing was happening on an alien ship
which then crashed into earth and then
that outbreak then came out from like the
carcass of the aliens which was kind of
cool if you think about it like that
just like as its own
prequel story of that hitting us.
No,
so why center this story around something
as simple but powerful as a secret phrase
only known between a father and his son?
uh so when i was growing up i
had a secret code with my parents so
we'd always have like a code being like
hey like if someone comes to pick you
up at school and it's not us or
not your grandparents and someone weird
we've got to have a code because we
don't want you like getting in a car
with some random or something happening so
we always had a code in my family
so um my mom had a certain code
my dad had a certain code
um and it kind of just kept for
a really long time like whenever there's
been like now it's like really smart to
have a code with ai because people like
yeah scamming people and it's like oh god
okay i got to figure this out you
know so now it's i kind of played
on that with this ai thing being like
well there has to be a code and
you know it's a father and son trying
to stay safe but yeah that safety measure
is the point that's awesome your parents
loved you like that man that's that's
really really awesome
yeah get your ass home before the light
turns on yeah yeah my parents were
divorced it was one of those things where
it was like they both had to have
their because sometimes it would be
someone else picking me up so they had
to have that like in place for that
um but yeah it was cool it was
cool having that and obviously helped with
the story so so mids over to you
man when you first read this script what
stood out to you immediately
other than duke is just a weirdo man
it got weirder as i read it i
was like oh yeah page by page it's
getting weirder um from the artist side of
things i immediately locked onto the
action that that is it it's in short
verse i think we were just looking at
the uh brutal violence page but that
that is something i enjoy drawing so just
from the artist's side my mind immediately
locked onto there because it's like a
little puzzle how do i make that action
work on the page i like it what
was the first visual that kind of like
really like hits you like as you were
reading this like what was it just say
like oh damn
So there's this scene where he walks into
that one facility that he begged.
And then that was the first thing I
drew in concept art stages,
I'm pretty sure.
so for anybody wondering i even haven't
read this yet like all i got was
kind of like a meat and potatoes of
uh like a summary of this so i
do understand what he's talking about
right now and yeah so if you've ever
seen blade three which is where my mind
immediately went when i read that nugget
in there and i was like oh this
is like in blade three when they had
the farm or whatever
yeah it's like that yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah so just a little teaser for you
out there yeah yeah and i was like
dude that's yeah all right i'm gonna yeah
just
It's messed up.
The story doesn't hold back on that end
of things.
No, as it should.
I can't wait to read.
What I'm really excited to read from this
is Pete's Meat,
but it's neither here nor there.
The title is so funny.
It really is,
and the page from it is just hilarious.
I've been using that in the thumbnails
too.
Yeah, I had to.
I had to do it.
I'm going to go after Pete's meat in
the book order,
however they figure that out.
I even made a good joke today,
and I'm surprised you didn't see it yet,
Duke.
I'm kind of disappointed.
I'm sorry.
Sorry, I was busy today.
It was a good one on social media,
too, because they were like, oh,
episode two.
I was like, hey, yeah, and who knows?
I was like, oh,
Duke is up next on the chopping block.
Wait,
let's not hope he gets confused with that
and Pete's meat.
It was a good one.
Nice.
I'll check it out.
I'll check it out later.
Check it out later.
Actually, no, you're not on Threads,
are you?
No, I'm not.
I'm not.
Okay, never mind.
I wasted a good one.
Sorry.
Sorry.
If there's a screenshot, I'll repost it.
I'll shoot you a screenshot.
I'll shoot you a screenshot.
Perfect.
So this story really doesn't jump into the
horror aspect of it right away.
It kind of creeps into it.
For Duke,
how did you pace the suspicion and the
point of when does the father know, like,
really, like, this may not be my son?
It wasn't just a phrase, but there was,
like, other little things, right?
yeah i think um like the main thing
i've been saying to people as like a
synopsis or like this quick elevator pitch
it's you know it's he's so protective
overprotective and also just like really
trying to keep it together in his family
and keep everybody safe and stuff it's
really when
that ping goes off on his phone and
his son didn't because he basically drops
his son off at school he goes to
pick him up and his son has like
air tags in his bag and like his
jacket and stuff because kids always lose
stuff and nowadays people just do that to
you know find missing
i don't know i don't know i don't
know items and whatever and um items and
whatever and um items and whatever and um
and all of a sudden you know his
kids and all of a sudden you know
his kids and all of a sudden you
know his kids in his car and the
kids like not in his car and the
kids like not in his car and the
kids like not responding very well to like
anything responding very well to like
anything responding very well to like
anything he's saying and something
something's he's saying and something
something's he's saying and something
something's weird about his son and he's
kind of weird about his son and he's
kind of weird about his son and he's
kind of like a kill maybe he's had
a bad day like a kill maybe he's
had a bad day like a kill maybe
he's had a bad day maybe there's something
weird who knows maybe there's something
weird who knows maybe there's something
weird who knows kids sometimes kids
sometimes kids sometimes can be a bit you
know odd and then you can be a
bit you know odd and then you can
be a
is in a different part of town even
though he just picked up his son and
he's at home now and then he starts
kind of trying to figure out well where's
the air tags and then he checks the
jacket and he's like there's no air tags
on this jacket and then he's like oh
shit like i gotta go i gotta see
what's going on here and then that's where
the the chaos begins so to speak so
how important was it for you to kind
of hold back a little bit in this
story before the big reveal
I felt, you know,
just like any horror story,
you really have to like make things safe
and have like a sense of security.
So we kind of had that with like
the breakfast at the beginning and just
the guys just getting an idea of like
the, the ideal family life in this,
this home that we're like visiting very
briefly.
And it's kind of like,
we get a sense of the world.
We get a sense of, you know,
the dynamic and the family and everyone's
kind of happy and getting along and,
whatever and you know there's a little a
little jump scare at the beginning to kind
of be like oh you know and you're
like okay but everything's safe it's just
a silly little thing and um and then
as we get to that point you know
when the horror starts happening it kind
of like gives you a lot of feeling
i find just like a lot of um
makes you actually care about the
characters and be like you know what i'm
really i really want these like
people to get through this and i want
things to be awesome and uh you know
it really helps give that vibe and i
always find like best horror always has
security at the beginning and then just
terrifying at the end there's that false
sense of security that lulls you in yeah
so miguel how do you visually communicate
that something is off before anything is
actually confirmed in the story
So I got sent a lovely reference sheet
from Duke.
And there's specifically one kid from like
the evil looking kid that's in my red
board.
I think that's from Insidious, I think.
Yeah, maybe.
I think it was from Insidious.
Yeah,
so I tried to breach into uncanny valley
territory where it looks mostly right,
but something is clearly fucked up here.
So what techniques did you use to create
unease in some of the earlier panels
before the action really started to pick
up?
So is that for me or for Duke?
It's for you.
Yeah, yeah.
I take my handy-dandy tablet pen,
and I physically get erratic with the line
work when it needs to be in small
doses.
I think I'll intend to cut loose a
little more and have some more dynamic
line work in the later pages where things
get more intense.
For the small teases at the beginning,
yeah,
just a little bit more like panicked
movements in my own line work is the
idea.
I like it.
Just that the little subtle things like
that within a panel can kind of alert
you on to like something's, you know,
something's bothering the character as it
should be, you know,
and I like the little
little drops in the hat of like why
is this person like acting this way and
like it didn't of course you know you
get the two pages over three pages over
you're like oh yeah he had every right
to feel that way so
we have been um i mean nigs have
been going over some stuff and we are
including like some little like psych like
psych psychological things for the reader
while they're reading it to make them
uneasy they won't notice fully until like
maybe they do like a two or three
rereads but there's little things we're
like okay we're gonna put something here
that's just gonna be off a little bit
and just it's just such a small detail
that like yeah we're hoping that it really
helps with uh setting the tone of some
of these
scenes and stuff.
That's some of that Tinian type of little
drops in the hat there that he likes
to do in his work.
Yeah.
Lots of Kubrick stuff.
Oh, yeah.
That's the best stuff, man.
I love that type of stuff in comic
books especially because it could be
nothing, but it could be everything,
right?
And sometimes it's the most simple thing
that you just wouldn't even pick up on
until...
you know someone mentions it or you reread
and be like wait a second why is
what's what's this like change something
changed here that i didn't realize and now
it's made me uneasy this whole way and
now i figured it out finally or you
don't figure it out and just makes you
uneasy right so so this next chapter i
don't know if we how much we can
get into this
Because we've already kind of described
the facility, right?
And it's at that point really where the
dad realizes like kind of everything has
changed in his life.
Yeah.
Where did that idea of the biocomputers
come from?
We'll talk around it.
Yeah.
Without saying everybody knows what a
biocomputer is, I hope,
or has watched enough sci-fi to have an
idea of what a biocomputer is.
Yeah, there's there's been a lot of well,
obviously, AI uses a lot of energy.
That's like number one.
And they've been trying to figure out ways
of doing this,
either like using like lab made brains to
basically
conduct electricity or use the electricity
from those to help power things locally or
just add any way to put stuff to
generate power any like we're going like
the world's going any way it can water
solar whatever ai can generate power with
so um when i started reading about that
in the newspaper and different things
going on in the world with with biotech
and different
you know dark web stuff there's i think
you know dark web stuff there's i think
you know dark web stuff there's i think
there was a website where it's there was
a website where it's there was a website
where it's powered it's these butterflies
powered it's these butterflies powered
it's these butterflies that fly on the
screen but they're that fly on the screen
but they're that fly on the screen but
they're powered by powered by powered by
bio like little brains in a petri dish
bio like little brains in a petri dish
bio like little brains in a petri dish
and and and they basically can calculate
and do they basically can calculate and do
they basically can calculate and do stuff
and they just fly around and they stuff
and they just fly around and they stuff
and they just fly around and they think
they're a butterfly in a web space think
they're a butterfly in a web space
but it's literally a brain in a jar,
but they have,
they have like a sense of like knowing
that they're a butterfly in this digital.
It's really weird.
It's really weird.
It's I'm probably not even explaining it.
Right.
But it's, it's,
it's still just a weird concept.
It's totally, you know,
who else also used humans as batteries
for,
the machines in the matrix that's true
yeah that's true you know what we had
you had that look in your eye like
you knew where i was going with that
the matrix yeah that's where my brain went
first with the when duke was describing
the biofarm concept to me yeah yeah
And that's how they do it in the
Matrix, right?
They just power off the people, right?
They power off their electrical brain
energy and whatever.
The electrical currents that your body
produces because you produce electrical
currents.
Yeah, yeah.
So this is for Miguel.
When you were coming up with the design
of this facility,
kind of like where did your mind go
for that?
Like when you were starting to sit down
and create this facility?
First, The Matrix.
I knew it!
I knew it!
And B,
the end of The Last of Us,
where Joel's...
I'm going to spoil the last...
It's an old game.
I'm spoiling The Last of Us.
I'm sorry.
he's trying to get ellie back from the
doctors it's dark yeah it's a gritty scene
that's that's the artistic direction and
tone that i want to pursue and then
we talked early on with duke and myself
with the collecting all their references
on how he wanted this to look and
there were some dudes from the last of
us that popped up as like character
weapons for the dad
for Joel for Joel fair enough it doesn't
matter if it's live action or if it's
the video game version of that I don't
care which one you're watching or it will
put a tear in your eye because that
is heartbreaking after playing the first
game and then you fall in love with
the dude right because he's such a great
father figure it comes off you know well
Maybe not in some parts, but you're like,
oh, he's a good...
There's some scenes where not so much,
especially in, I think, number two,
before his death.
But yeah, that's neither here nor there.
We won't talk about that.
But so mids,
what was the hardest element kind of to
bring to life,
whether it was the machines,
the atmosphere that was portrayed in this,
or...
the children's,
like what was the hardest part for you
to kind of like bring to life?
If you can even say it.
I think I can say it.
Still a work in progress.
I'll talk around it,
but still a work in progress on my
end.
Like I'm just breaking through some,
I think I got to page five's thumbnails
and I gotta finish that up.
But just viewing the script and planning
this out in my head,
The final pages concept,
like I got some thumbnails from Duke to
work on this animator background.
uh conceptually challenging like i i love
it like like everything that's happening
on the page but pull it executing it
is is gonna be it's going to be
challenging i know it so those are those
are gonna take care there's a mind of
a page that i gave him to do
and it's gonna suck for him i was
like it's gonna suck i looked at the
thumbnails like okay let's do this i'm not
gonna lie i'm so excited for this book
like
it's one of those where i had to
go today and like i went ahead and
did my pledge for it because i didn't
want to forget this one you know but
i was just sitting there looking at the
covers and just looking at everything i'm
just like god i can't wait to get
this you know it's awesome and there's a
lot of books like that and i wish
i could back everybody i just man dude
i my money tree isn't growing like that
I wish it was, but it's really not.
It's a great book, though, because it's,
like, seventy pages.
Seventy pages.
A lot of pages, a lot of stories.
The price point is, like, so good.
Yeah, me and Migs,
I think there's a tier on the Kickstarter
where it also includes, like,
everybody's digital, like, comics as well,
like, outside of the thing.
And so, like, Greg's in it,
Migs' comic's in it.
That's a bit of there, yeah.
Yeah, there's, like, everyone that has,
like, an additional comic or something.
So you're getting, like,
crazy amount of material.
That's the one I wanted to do,
but I was just like,
there's a few other Kickstarters I got to
throw some dollars at.
So...
That was the one I wanted.
By the end of this,
I will know almost everybody as a part
of this book.
Hopefully, later,
they'll want to come back.
That's an open invite, Mids,
when you want to come back.
Duke,
you've got to come back for Greg and
for Hetz, which is your new one.
We'll talk about that one later.
I've got to get everybody back on solo
later on down the road because...
I like all you guys.
And I've not had a bad guest ever.
Because they would be immediately thrown
off the show.
That's how you know I've never had a
bad guest.
Because I'm that type of host.
If you get on here and you're just
a complete asshole, you're gone.
So... But...
So this is for both of you.
Did you want this to feel like grounded
or just, or slightly unreal?
Like, cause when I'm reading the,
the synopsis of the story kind of comes,
it starts out like it is a very
like real day-to-day family just living
their life.
And then it all explodes.
Yeah.
Like I think,
I, I wanted to be grounded.
I like me and Meg trying to like
talk through about like,
is this like in the future is like,
is this like a weird,
like the world's in a terrible state or
is it kind of like a soon to
be future?
So we kind of went with like,
you know,
maybe something in the next like twenty,
thirty years or something.
But like, we wanted to keep it grounded.
We wanted to make it so that it's
still the functional world.
But, you know, just like, uh,
invasion of the body snatchers or just
stuff like that and obviously the thing
there was another one that was gonna
reference like Soylent Green like things
like that where it's like well Soylent
Green is a bit different because it wasn't
like grounded in a reality yet hopefully
not ever but but more of like invasion
of the body snatchers where it's like
everything's normal and
But is it normal?
And has it been normal?
There's another movie.
It's not similar to this,
but the guy created an AI synthetic...
And like the skin,
like everything about her would like look,
felt real, her hair, everything.
But she was a full synthetic human being
with a, you know,
with AI driven mind where she could just
learn whatever.
and she escapes at the end but it
was just a really cool concept story you
know similar well that's similar but kind
of x x marketing was that excellent yeah
it's marketing yeah yeah okay yeah
it was like it when i watched it
the first time i couldn't watch it it
was just it was like what the hell
this is so horrible and then i went
back a few years later after the fact
and i'll actually sit down and just like
i'm going to finish this because like it
has such a cult following like i have
to make myself watch it and once you
get probably the halfway point is when it
like oh okay this actually does get better
so
but it's still i i wasn't i i
crossed out like yes i i tried to
watch that with my wife and i i
i think i was so tired i fell
asleep because we were just watching it so
late and then i think i woke up
at the end and then i was like
okay well now i know that so i
haven't had a chance to see it again
but i've heard good things so and i
didn't fall asleep because it was bad i
just fell asleep because sometimes you
just fall asleep you know that's one of
those where
I'm not afraid to admit that this chair
is pretty comfortable,
and I may have fallen asleep in it
more than my fair share.
It just happens.
Sometimes you're sitting here,
and you're editing, and it's just like,
and you close your eyes for half a
second,
and it's one o'clock in the morning.
It happens.
The temperature's right,
and you're tired enough.
It's going to get you.
Oh, yeah.
So this isn't just horror.
This does feel like a warning of the
night, not so distant future.
So Duke, for you, man,
is this story about AI or a loss
of control?
I think it's more of...
It's hard to say.
It's, you know, AI, I find...
AI can be good.
There's a good use for AI.
It could be a tool.
It could be a great tool.
It could be an excellent tool for
humanity.
The problem is AI is a reflection of
its user.
And if a user is a corporation that
just wants to make money and doesn't care
about the environment and doesn't care
about people and doesn't care about the
rest of the world and people,
it's going to reflect that, right?
And I feel that...
you know,
I feel technology unchecked and
unregulated like AI is an issue.
And I feel like, you know,
it's not good.
It's not good for us in an environment.
And it's not good for people if you
have a bad reflection reflecting on us as
like as a society and, you know,
civilization.
And I think that
you know, it's bad for the environment,
it's bad for people.
And the fact that, you know,
AI is not good for everybody.
Like, it's good as a tool,
but if the person that's using that tool
is getting a reflection because, you know,
they have mental health issues or they
have whatever, that's going back on them,
right?
So I feel, you know, you need regulation.
You need to have things in check.
You have to have safety measures in place
for this stuff.
And this story is kind of like...
if you don't have those regulations and if
you don't have those things in check and
you just have reflections of bad people
using this technology for not good stuff
and then the technology says hey you know
what we can we can just reflect back
what they're doing and become take
basically take them out and become people
right so yeah yeah so
So what's the real fear here?
Is it the technology or the deception by
the people overseeing this technology?
I don't know.
I would say deception more,
but I don't know.
Migs, what do you think?
I want to say the deception.
You mentioned just now that it's a tool.
The technology can be used by different
people for different reasons.
It's not being used well here.
Yeah.
youtube sickos hey you know what they say
right the art tells the story the words
advance it i'm fully complicit yeah i saw
the script and i was like yeah i'm
in sure i love it
In my submission form on Google Forms,
I was like,
if you have a writer that has something
fucked up psychologically,
that's my favorite genre of horror,
so please pair me with them.
And then they put me Duke.
Great.
If you know me,
my stories are usually fucked up.
You notice I said three P's and a
five because we're talking about Duke.
Because Duke's just an alter ego.
so there's a whole another person in there
that's true that's true it's like I always
tell people though like well what do you
go by the chairman I'm like it's a
character you got it you got to have
you know you got to have your separation
right exactly exactly it's my gimmick it's
my gimmick man
Hey, Batman does it, right?
Hey, exactly.
If it's good enough for Bruce,
it's good enough for Jeff.
That's all I'm saying.
He's got personas.
I'm just a guy.
Okay.
Well, I took that,
so we should get one of those.
So, Mids, this is for you, man.
How do you visually represent something as
abstract as loss of humanity?
Oof.
So I took a crack at that with
the sticker design.
I was like,
you are showing the bare minimum of human
structure here.
I just showed the eye.
I was like, OK,
Duke seems to like this.
I'll see what I can use.
this strategy onto the script later on
down in the pages.
With the sun specifically,
there's good ref, like we mentioned.
And so I heard a mortician talk about
how you can
there is a signature tell on human life
by the light reflecting in people's eyes
and like that someone has to go in
and post and scrub people's the light out
of people's eyes and movie scenes where
they're dead so that's something i want to
try and use in the comic pages i
did on the road hey that's actually really
cool yeah
I mean, because, I mean, if they're,
you know, a bio-computer,
would they have that reflection?
Because the eyes are the reflection of the
soul, and if there's no reflection,
there's no soul, right?
Good question.
And I think not, as the artist,
but it's up to Deke.
yeah dake is down there nodding like oh
hell yeah dude they did that in the
thing right that was like one of the
secret that was one of the signs yeah
yeah yeah that they had light in their
eyes that that was uh or in their
pupil that they were the thing or not
yeah okay ms we're staying with you on
this one man were there specific moments
where you wanted readers just to feel flat
out uncomfortable rather than scared
ooh page page five there are some people
that are involved in this shady
organization that are they're just people
like you're not fighting a monster yeah
people doing monstrous things but
Once again,
back to the fucking Last of Us peak
fiction.
That finale did not,
that did not feel heroic or good.
Joel killed some doctors.
Spoilers for The Last of Us.
And similar pacing in tone happening on
this page.
When you're fighting monsters, sure.
Sure, let's fair game.
Bust out the flamethrower.
But the script specifically said,
dash his head and with a bolt cutter
i was like oh okay that's like that's
not very heroic at all but i'm gonna
try it
He's got to do it quick and dirty.
You know, he's got to just swing it.
Yeah.
That's like, yeah, they're hefty, man.
So so this is for both of you.
What do you want readers thinking about
after the end of this story?
I mean,
I know this is anthology their own to
the next story,
but when they get to the end of
your story,
what do you want readers thinking?
I want them to be like,
what the fuck?
Like, what?
Like, oh shit.
Like, oh man.
You know, just like,
I don't want to spoil it,
but I want it to just,
I want them to just feel,
I want them just to have a feeling,
just a feeling.
And I don't know what feeling that will
give them, but a feeling of like,
you know, like,
shit like yeah they that was that was
that that was the horror story okay cool
that's one of those where you want them
to put the book down and think about
it yeah just like you know if i
could reflect on watching game of thrones
when the mountain versus the viper episode
and i watched that i i worked really
late one night and i came the viper
and joel
something in common yeah yeah yeah it's
this is the last of us night man
that's crazy but uh yeah it's kind of
weird we can reflect coming back to pedro
man yeah but here's the thing like
I watched that at like two thirty in
the morning after work one day and I
didn't know what I was getting into.
I was like, OK,
I'm going to Game of Thrones.
Like, let's do it.
I'll just watch this and then go to
bed.
And then he has a spoiler alert.
His head explodes because the guy crushes
his head in.
And then that's the end of the episode.
You're just kind of like, oh, fuck.
Like, what the fuck?
I can't go to sleep.
What?
So, you know, I kind of want to.
And it was in graphic detail, too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's bad.
You actually see the mountain on his
Instagram interacting with his wife and
his family.
He's like this big giant teddy bear.
It's the nicest guys that do the craziest
stuff.
It really is.
He's like six-ten or something.
Like four hundred pounds.
He also competes in Strongman.
Those competitions are wild.
What do you think, Mids?
Ooh, final notes on reading.
Yeah, what do you want them to feel?
So AI has me feeling with the deep
existential dread on the daily.
If the reader can pick up on that,
then I think that'll be mission
accomplished for me.
Sure.
Dread.
So our father here, he saves his son.
but realizes his family is already gone.
Duke,
why was it important that he was already
too late?
I don't know.
I just, it's messed up.
I don't know.
To be honest,
I got thrown off when you were like,
our father.
I was like,
is he doing some prayer here?
Our father.
I'll be the name.
Our father in the story, man.
Not the one in the Bible.
I just got thrown off.
I was like, I don't know.
it's been a long day uh but um
sorry can you just say that question
repeat the question one time sorry yeah
yeah yeah yeah why was it important that
he was already too late in this story
i just i think gives you a sense
of defeat you know it's it's it's it's
just one of those things that you're just
like oh no i mean he had this
false sense of security where he felt like
he won
yeah yeah but um but yeah it's just
really just getting that last um pull of
the heartstrings i guess at the end of
that yeah so when you wrote this did
you like do two versions of this story
one where oh he actually you know does
win or was it just always like dread
did three versions uh okay one is the
one that we have now and then one
was um uh an accidental thing where um
his son like
accidentally kills the dad accidentally
kills the dad accidentally kills the dad
in the moment like because he thinks in
the moment like because he thinks in the
moment like because he thinks he's like he
thinks the dad's taken he's like he thinks
the dad's taken he's like he thinks the
dad's taken over by the the over by
the the over by the the the thing
that happens um so the thing that happens
um so the thing that happens um so
uh that was uh that was uh that
was um the ending um the ending
version two which then we all agreed we
didn't want to do and then the other
ending um i had to cut because we
just only had we only had eight pages
and it involved like a highway speed chase
with like the robots and like all this
crazy stuff and then them crawling into
the forest and then a similar outcome to
what we have in this one but it
was a bit more yeah um it was
basically just them out of fire retelling
the story and then we catch up to
that and then something bad happens and
that's the end but
we couldn't fit all that in the story
so we just go back it would have
been three two or three more pages oh
yeah it was too it was it was
too much and i i like how it
ended it now because i didn't really have
like i like i was telling you guys
before the call like i just winged the
story like it was a very like winged
thing where i had the idea and i
was like i gotta write this and then
i did the big long one that i
just mentioned and then i just scaled it
back to the the two ones and then
we just chopped the one and kept the
other so but yeah so miguel over to
you man how do you visually land a
twist like this without over complicating
it or over explaining it
Oh,
so the short answer is I haven't yet.
I haven't got to that page.
Then this is the page I talked about.
They're going to be conceptually
challenging because the ending
i suppose gotta do with patience and gotta
i suppose gotta do with patience and gotta
i suppose gotta do with patience and gotta
do with a lot of collaboration with do
with a lot of collaboration with do with
a lot of collaboration with the the the
duke over here i feel like i'll duke
over here i feel like i'll duke over
here i feel like i'll probably draw it
in front of you so we can probably
draw it in front of you so we
can probably draw it in front of you
so we can work out work out work
out yes sounds good how to tackle that
yes sounds good how to tackle that yes
sounds good how to tackle that there's a
lot of just like graphic design there's a
lot of just like graphic design there's a
lot of just like graphic design stuff
stuff stuff and just kind of like because
i think and just kind of like because
i think and just kind of like because
i think i think i think i think
i think if i recall it's like a
two-page if i recall it's like a two-page
if i recall it's like a two-page
happening around this one thing and then
we're kind of doing something weird
because we want to like not to spoil
anything but we're trying to show computer
processing in the middle of the story
while things are happening and um it's
gonna be cool it's gonna be awesome it's
just it's it's hard it's one of those
weird things where like
when I was writing it, I was like,
this is going to be weird to show,
but if we do it in a way
that makes sense and we can kind of
have it following something, it will,
it'll work.
So yeah,
almost following like a program code.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I dropped out of comp size,
so maybe that'll be useful.
I have some knowledge that can help in
this facility.
Yeah.
Nice.
Oh, that's hilarious.
So, um,
mids what's the final image mids what's
the final image mids what's the final
image that you won't burned into this
reader's that you won't burned into this
reader's that you won't burned into this
reader's mind hmm you can just say a
page number you can just say a page
number you can just say a page number
it's got to be those last two pages
it's got to be those last two pages
it's got to be those last two pages
okay like i i it's okay like i
i it's okay like i i it's in
the physical format i want people to in
the physical format i want people to in
the physical format i want people to crack
this book open crack this book open crack
this book open and take the time to
and take the time to and take the
time to pause and really take in these
final two pause and really take in these
final two pause and really take in these
final two pages because that's going to be
a lot of pages because that's going to
be a lot of pages because that's going
to be a lot of work work work
work on webtoon a lot where people will
scroll through ahead just to get to the
end and we'll just go through it's like
if it happens so hopefully it'll stick in
when it's in people's hands and therefore
still get it so this is for both
of you what emotion do you want readers
to walk away from in this story is
it fear dread or just something else
entirely dread for me
Dread's good.
I'll go with dread.
I'll take dread.
I'll take dread.
Dread's all right.
You know,
as long as they feel something and they're
entertained and they got their money's
worth,
that's all that really matters at the end
of the day.
Dude, seventy pages.
I forgot how much the book was.
I mean,
you're definitely getting your money's
worth on this one.
So...
So let's talk a little bit more about
the creative process behind this.
And we'll start with you, dude.
How detailed was your script for something
this complex of a story?
Not detailed enough.
Not detailed enough.
Vince,
did you have to go back and be
like, dude, what the hell is this?
I ask some questions every once in a
while.
Why is it written in crayon?
yeah it was more polite it was more
more polite but it was it was just
kind of like dude you need to like
because i usually when i do my scripts
i do i use it in a different
like uh processor and i kind of like
it's it's made for comics so the scripts
will pop out almost like a movie script
and have like the c number and all
this stuff but with this like
I didn't see,
I don't think I saw Chris's thing until
like,
it was like the day of that it
was due.
And I was messaging Chris stalls.
Like, yeah, man,
I might try and do something.
Like I got an idea,
but I don't know.
And he was like, just do it, man.
Like, cool.
Don't worry about it.
I was like, all right, let's do it.
And then, um,
I just like,
it was like the eleventh hour.
I sent something in and I was like,
I hope this is cool.
And then they were like, yeah, it's great.
And then they needed to team people up
and they were like, we need a script.
And I was like, I don't have one,
but I will do one right now.
And then I just kind of winged what
we have now.
And then I've been just,
I've been so busy with my son and
work and everything that it was just like,
I didn't even realize I didn't put enough,
some details in there.
And like, Migs was like,
Yeah, you didn't write...
This is all in your head.
You didn't write this in the script.
And I was like, oh, yeah, right, sorry.
I should have put that in.
There's certain things, like actions,
where I was like,
I could see it in my head,
but I didn't fully explain it on the
page.
So I had to go back and do
some of that and whatever.
That's what makes it good, man.
Yeah.
So this is kind of for both of
y'all.
Did anything change, really,
during the collaboration on the project?
Like...
whether it was like Duke,
you're going back to mids or mids,
you're going back to Duke and going,
what are you doing here?
I don't think so.
Like maybe, maybe for Migs, I don't know.
I, most of the stuff we,
the only thing we've had is like just
minor,
like minor notes or revisions where it's
just like, oh,
like maybe we can do this or instead
of this, like,
let's try this and maybe let's flip this
or flop that or whatever.
Yeah.
And let's maybe scale this frame up bigger
or panel bigger than this one stuff.
I think there was only maybe like one
or two things I was being picky on,
maybe.
But I think for the most part,
it was pretty good.
I think we're sticking to like the like
the script itself is not particularly
changing all that much in the process.
But I do get some artistic direction from
Duke.
So which is a good segue,
because that was my next question for you,
Mids,
is like how much freedom did were you
allowed when interpreting this script?
Ooh, so my answer is a satisfying amount.
The script,
it's got the instructions on the action
and what the characters are thinking.
So Duke's over here, like,
you were talking about your script as if
like it wasn't detailed enough some
artists that's okay like i'll ask a
clarifying question when i need to but um
getting a blueprint for uh the building
and then being told to go have fun
is is a treat in my books yeah
yeah
and i've talked to artists where i went
both ways some people want yeah every
single detail on the page like where the
hell's the sun in the sky so i
know if you say they're facing this way
i know where the sun is in conjunction
to them so i know how the shadows
fall on their bodies yeah and i know
people who are the exact opposite who just
go gonna have to read a freedom to
interpret your script the way i want
You know,
and they just go ham after that, right?
I feel like I'm definitely on that side
of the spectrum because like page one is
an example.
When I was drawing the character's house
where their family lives,
I was just thinking about what the notes
Duke gave me.
It was like, he's a doomsday prepper.
He's a little paranoid.
Okay,
so we're going to stock his house up
with canned food and MREs and put a
security lock on his window.
and he seemed to like those pages dude
that's kind of wild that we're talking
about you know this type of story and
the father is like a doomsday and then
it happens to him
Everybody laughs at the doomsday pepper
until he's right.
Exactly.
To just jump on that,
there was a guy in my old neighborhood
and he like literally not maybe like six
months ago.
He just started filling.
He had all these like gas cans and
he just started filling all of them with
gas.
And then people were getting concerned
because he just kept filling like it was
like twenty cans.
like canisters of gasoline like filled and
wait they were they were just like they're
like what are you going to do with
that he's like i'm i'm storing it because
like the gas is going to go and
then it was like everyone's like oh that's
a tuesday and then now we're like oh
yeah it's like two dollars a liter of
for gas and it's like yeah keep going
up
Meanwhile,
this guy probably has a basement full of
gasoline.
I hope he doesn't have a basement of
gasoline.
And if he does, I hope it's ventilated,
right?
I hope so too.
And hopefully he doesn't have natural gas
in his house.
That way when it kicks on to either
warm his house or to turn on to
warm his shower,
because that's just like...
boom and you got a crater in the
middle of your subdivision there that's
the problem with some doomsday preppers
they prep too hard they over prep and
then that backfires I find in a lot
of these stories or someone just comes and
takes all their shit they're like okay I
know I watched you fill up your truck
for like six months I'm going to come
to your house and steal your gas right
so can I ask a question oh go
ahead
yeah go for it do you do you
consider yourselves preppers in these
current times are you are you preparing
out here for the tumultuous world
situation like the closest that i would
come to doing that is like buying like
a solar power battery like just plugging
my phone and stuff um and maybe buying
like a couple life straws that's like the
furthest i would go for like doomsday
prepping on my end at least
Actually, no, that's a lie.
I did,
when I lived in the east end of
Toronto,
because it's not far from the nuclear
power plant in Ajax, I did,
during the pandemic, order key pills,
because they'll send them to you for free
if you mail or request them.
So I have some key pills,
because we had a random...
During one of their guys their text
testing the alarm system But one day they
were just like it sent out a text
being like the nuclear power plant is like
like failed or something last year It was
a couple years ago.
It was like during the I think it
was okay.
I didn't care Those it was almost it
was a similar things like what happened
like Hawaii were like they were like the
word their bombs are being dropped on us
we're all gonna die and then like
everyone's like
so after that i was kind of like
you know what i'll just get some key
pills so i have them for my family
just in case there's like ever any like
radiation that's spilling out i'm i was
outside of the blast radius or anything if
anything did happen but you just want to
have you know a little bit of extra
precautions just in case but that's that's
the most for me at least i don't
know about you guys i mean i'll put
it like this you you've you know daryl
ditzen right
Are you Daryl Dixon?
You got a crossbow?
And a bow.
And a small arsenal.
I may be good to go.
I grew up that way,
so for me that's just normal stuff.
I don't know.
I think we're in Canada,
so we don't have access to a lot
of stuff.
We can probably get a bow and arrow
and stuff, or maybe pepper spray.
And we can, I guess,
if we have a gun license,
we can get a couple different variations
of guns, depending on the license.
But for doomsday prepping,
you've got to be in the country.
Like the...
like in alberta or like you know outside
of like the toronto radius yeah up there
where uh rock lesnar lives because i know
he's a big hunter up there nice yeah
yeah no let's just see i'm always ready
you got a bazooka in there it's right
there hey you gotta have one in each
room man come on
got the stash all right awesome so and
mids this is for you man so was
there anything that you kind of added
visually that wasn't like originally
written by duke like was there a scene
where you're like you know what if i
add this it's just gonna amplify this
scene up hmm
I think I tried to stay true to
the script for what I've done so far.
Nothing too crazy on my end.
It's subtle details that when I got asked
to draw urban environments,
my mind just went to Toronto because it's
the urban environment that I'm most
familiar with.
What do y'all call yourselves in Toronto?
Are you Torotians?
No, no, it's Torontonians.
Torontonians?
Yeah, yeah.
I like my version better.
What was yours?
Torotians.
It's like an alien.
Exactly, exactly, exactly.
I like Torontonians.
I'm good with Torontonians.
Trontonians and the Six.
There's T-Dot.
Different names for the Six.
It's always wild because I know how Canada
is laid out on the map.
But unless I see the map and where
the cities are,
like my brain can't function to a point
where I can go, oh, yeah,
that's over there.
Toronto's like right here.
I have to see the map with all
the cities and provinces laid out on it.
Otherwise, I'm just like,
I don't know where the hell anything y'all
are talking about is.
So for me, it's like...
because it's like boom boom and then boom
over here and then everything else in
between it's just kind of like wild in
my head well it's it's just wild in
general because like everything's so
spread out and like there's only so many
places that are like habitable like in
canada because it's just like you know
marshes and prairies and like stuff like
yeah yeah it's i only know where some
states are so you're doing better than i
am i think it's all right i live
here i don't know i
like I couldn't like I would do really
good up until we got into the northeast
and then I would just be like nobody
cares that place has good crab that house
place has good lobster outside of that I
don't know you know but um so this
is going to be kind of for both
you as we start wrapping this up what
makes aha different from other horror
anthologies
Y'all can just take turns answering
however y'all want.
You got one in the chamber, Duke?
Sure, yeah.
He's always got one in the chamber.
I'm ready.
You can't rock a pink suit and not
have one in the chamber.
Always got one ready.
First of all, Chris and Chris are amazing.
They're doing a great thing.
Not a lot of people...
go the other way and be like,
you know what,
we're just going to do an anthology and
support all these indie artists that we
think are awesome and cool.
Not just indie artists,
but new to the game indie artists.
That was what I really liked about it.
And as Canadians as well,
it's sometimes difficult for us to, well,
not difficult,
but there's a lot of competition to get.
What's up, dude?
I love it.
I love it.
I'm not editing that for shit.
That's just going to be there forever.
that's my younger brother louis sorry to
interrupt no worries um yeah i was i
was just saying it there's a lot of
it being able to do something uh that's
going to be published in america is is
cool especially for a new a new artist
and writer and you know yeah for people
that are in our position it's always great
to try to get as many credits as
we can because yeah a gives us you
know
experience.
Toronto has a really nice comic book
scene.
It's a huge growing scene up there.
It was already good,
but it's continuously growing up there,
especially in the indie sphere of things
because there's so many great people up
there right now working in comic books and
doing comic books.
I consider Toronto to be one of the
hotbeds right now of indie comic books.
it's just like one day being like i'm
gonna do comics this is my thing and
i one day being like i'm gonna do
comics this is my thing and i one
day being like i'm gonna do comics this
is my thing and i want to like
try and do stuff like you're want to
like try and do stuff like you're want
to like try and do stuff like you're
gonna have so much like uphill gonna have
so much like uphill
like yeah battling to do to get seen
and like yeah battling to do to get
seen and like yeah battling to do to
get seen and trying to get stuff so
trying to get stuff so trying to get
stuff so you know it's it's it's great
when you know it's it's it's great when
you know it's it's it's great when people
want to help you out and bring people
want to help you out and bring people
want to help you out and bring you
along the way or give you an you
along the way or give you an you
along the way or give you an opportunity
to you know show your work opportunity to
you know show your work opportunity to you
know show your work and get your work
out there and chris and and get your
work out there and chris and and get
your work out there and chris and chris
chk comics are doing that for us chris
chk comics are doing that for us
And the other amazing thing, too, is that,
you know, it's a Kickstarter,
so it benefits everyone on this because if
it gets greenlit and it's very close to
getting fully funded, you know,
that's just another.
As of this recording,
I think it's at seventy five percent
funded right now.
yeah and it's only been like a week
right i i think it's only been yeah
a little over a week yeah which is
wild awesome yeah i think we got like
halfway funded like within the first day
or two yeah within the first forty eight
hours i think and that's the and this
is what i like one of the trends
is it it hits fast
And then it may like slow down just
a little bit and then it'll peak back
up again.
Yeah.
And I'm hoping when it peaks this time,
it just like continues to peak.
And if I get my way,
it will happen.
Yeah.
Well, and the thing too is like, um,
we still have like twenty five more days
left to go like i think today i
think today is the last day or yesterday's
last day to get in for the yesterday
i think yeah yeah no i think that
was only for forty eight hours oh okay
okay yeah yeah it makes sense um but
yeah but we still have like almost a
month to go and like it's only going
to be awesome from there so
It's going to be dope.
And everyone's stories look great.
The covers look sick.
Miguel's sticker looks great.
Thanks.
Yeah, it's going to be cool.
I don't think I've seen all the stickers
yet, but the covers are great.
I've seen just about all of them.
They all look really good.
I purchased the one, I forget the name,
so this is going to suck,
but the one with the serpent on the
cover.
I really like that one.
The painted cover?
Yeah.
I got all three covers.
I did do all three covers.
They were so cool.
I was like,
I got to get all three.
so yeah they're all amazing they're all
amazing the night one was cool too and
the one at the back ripping open was
amazing oh yeah that was that that one's
my favorite hands down it's just so
disgusting what's not to like but uh any
thoughts on that that question mids oh uh
yeah chris and chris that's like uh
as a management team i've never heard a
management team in any job say hey we're
learning as we go yeah and that yeah
it was it was great to hear yeah
i was like oh okay dude dude he
said that with so much pride when he
said that on the podcast last week he's
like he's like i was honest with everybody
we're just going to learn and wing it
as we go i was like hell yeah
dude that's what's up that was appreciated
that's certainly yeah because other
management teams i'm not going to name
drop any jobs but
Sometimes they're like, hey,
we know everything.
And they don't.
Oh, yeah.
No one ever does.
Well, doing it the way they do it.
That's one of those right now where I'm
trying to get, like,
like production teams to come on and
companies who work in production,
you know,
like small indie presses and that kind of
stuff.
Like I want to talk to them.
I want to,
I really want to explore all sides of
the indie comic book industry.
And I've been inviting them and trying to
make stuff work for them.
So yeah,
see i'm hoping soon i'll be able to
get a couple on and just i want
to be able to share all sides of
this not just from the artist the color
is the anchor the writer the but the
guys who publish these books the guys who
go out and find stories to publish for
people and kind of like what do y'all
look for as a indie publisher
for these types of things, you know,
cause it's honestly one of those questions
where, I mean,
I speak to tons of indie publishers or
indie artists and writers every year and
every month.
So it's one of those where I'm like,
what do y'all look for?
That way that knowledge can be departed
down to people,
to other indie artists and writers and
creators who watch the podcast and
just a share of knowledge and the wealth
of knowledge that is out there so yeah
soon y'all stay tuned for that one but
why is now the right time to support
this kind of story well horror is
horror is becoming more and more
acceptable in the mainstream you know we
have things like sinners that just won you
know oscars and that movie was so good
though so so good oh yeah and he's
rebooting uh the s files too so yeah
i'm excited for that yeah it's gonna be
dope it's like a pickup where the original
s files ended so it's like going to
be a whole new series but that's files
man x files are wild i'm just gonna
say dude i love this files i'll watch
that from start to finish yeah it's a
lot though if you're gonna do it it's
so much to take in it's so much
but it's so good so for when uh
t-two comes in i didn't like that series
when t-two came in i can't remember his
name oh yeah yeah i know what you're
talking about yeah yeah this character
just didn't work for me so
That was like season six.
Late season five, season six.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's wild.
But yeah, no,
I just think right now is a great
time for horror.
I think right now it's a good time
to get these types of stories out.
People are hungry for it.
People want it.
People, you know...
want to be scared.
People want to, you know,
have that comfort of other scary things
happening that aren't just the things that
are happening in the world.
So, you know, I mean,
when you think about it,
you have atomic monster,
a twenty four bloom house,
they're streaming services dedicated
straight to like horror movies,
indie horror and that kind of stuff like
shutter.
So within the last couple of years or
two to three years,
That scene has boomed unlike we've ever
seen it before where we may get a
Freddy Krueger or a Jason or a Michael
Myers once every ten, fifteen years.
The new Hellraiser series I thought was
brilliant.
What is it?
Return to Derry?
Yeah.
Welcome to Derry,
which is going to be a lot of
five part series where it goes back to
each instance when it made his appearance
or Pennywise made his appearance.
Yeah.
So I think that's just a really dope
concept to explore.
And each one kind of answers questions
from the previous ones.
So.
Nice.
yeah so i think yeah i think it's
a good time for it and you know
supporting indie comics supporting indie
stories is always great too because you
know with with this anthology anyone was
allowed to do anything they wanted to it
was just like just do what it go
wild everything's cool that was that's a
direct quote by the way from chris and
chris go wild yeah yeah and good results
come of it right so yeah no a
hundred percent looks you'll you'll you'll
get some awesome stories so
what's your thoughts mids i am in
agreement especially on that last part of
creative freedom can create great work a
hundred percent a hundred percent and
that's why i love about indie comics yeah
and you know you just put it out
there and it's out there right and you
know
Unless you're working for a really big
company that has standards and stuff like
that that are like,
you can't say a swear word,
you can't do this.
Editorial stuff.
But if you're allowed to just do what
you need to do, it's nice.
Speak to the devil with your ears burning,
man.
Come on.
Catch it right at the end, man.
Come on.
Oh, I love that guy.
So great.
So what kind of experience are readers
getting when they pick up this anthology
or when they go to Kickstarter and support
this anthology?
I think they're going to get an amazing
deal.
I think they're going to get an amazing,
uh, hell yeah.
I think you're just going to get an
amazing book at the end of the day.
And, you know, like we discussed,
seventy pages for, you know, with,
I think it was eight different writers,
eight different artists, you know,
amazing different variant covers.
You get the bonus,
I think the add-on bonus if you wanted
to get even more.
I think there's nine, really,
if you include the stuff with Roger in
between.
yeah yeah there's just so many stories and
so many people working on this it's just
a really cool uh collaboration of just
people all over the world random people
like i wouldn't have never met migs if
it wasn't for this and yeah no and
i'm getting to meet everybody which is
great i'm pretty vibrant but like i would
have remembered you don't forget the pink
suit
But no, it's really dope too.
Like for me, like, and it was like,
and we were talking before we went live,
just how excited I was that when you
shot me the email, like, hey,
would I be interested in doing this?
Like there was like zero hesitation.
And I actually think I emailed you right
away,
which is like something I don't typically
do.
I normally wait to the end of my
duty day.
I get off work, I come home,
and then I go into business mode.
But I think on this one,
I was just like, hey, yep, I'm in.
And I thought it'd be cool because I
know you like covering indie stuff and
having all these different teams of people
coming together.
For me,
it's like a dream come true because it's
not often you get to speak to both
the writer and the artist and also the
guys who are producing the book are also
writing and drawing for the book as well.
It doesn't happen often.
So for me, it was really cool to...
be able to bring all that together and
like this really cool seven part mini
series that I'm doing with this.
So for me, it was just like,
like no brainer, you know, and it's hard.
I'm a huge fan of horror.
I mean, that's no secret.
So for me, it was like easy, like,
yep, let's do it.
So.
Yeah.
Well, thank you for having us.
No, a hundred percent.
A hundred percent, dude.
But yeah, I definitely recommend it,
picking it up.
Hell yeah.
Yeah,
you need to send me one of those
AHA hats, bro.
You're holding out on me with that AHA
hat.
The whole time he's in the camera like...
like doing this wait are you just rubbing
it in that you got a really cool
aha hat and i don't i'm like i
see how you're gonna do me he's flexing
on you exactly it was like a strong
flex too ah it's a one-on-one i see
nice okay that's cool
i like it though this is a really
dope hat but let's laugh let's let's bring
it home fellas what we say let's bring
it home yeah so for everybody at home
mids tell everybody where they can find
you sure i'm mostly on blue sky and
instagram uh at migs underscore inc i'm
also on webtoon which can be found via
those accounts blue sky and instagram
don't expect a webtoon update anytime soon
i gotta lock in i got eight pages
to do guys what about you duke you
can find me uh on blue skies duke
electric you can find me under nerd in
the sky you can find me under greg
comic official um yeah you can find me
and migs at branford comic-con coming up
soon um because we'll be there promoting
this horror anthology and some of our work
um outside of it and yeah it'll be
a good time so definitely check us out
check everybody out check out the chk
comics check out the kickstarter buy book
on the kickstarter support the kickstarter
uh support horror and indie comics and
rock and roll you know and um yeah
i like it and ms make sure i
get your blue sky i didn't have your
blue sky originally so when i when i
built this uh
StreamYard description.
I didn't include that.
So if you want to make sure I
get that, I'll include that as well.
Thanks.
But horror doesn't always come from
monsters.
Sometimes it comes from the moment you
realize the people you love aren't who
they used to be.
Tonight's story wasn't just about fear.
It was about instinct, truth,
and what happens when you uncover
something you were never expecting.
meant to see.
Make sure you support Duke Electric,
Miguel Santiago, follow the work,
and experience AHA for yourself because
stories like this,
they just don't stay in your head.
They make you question everything.
Ladies and gentlemen,
this has been the Chairman and the United
States Department of Nerds and the Council
of Nerds is adjourned.
Y'all stay safe out there.
And did I mention this has been the
USDM podcast where any comments come to
life?
You did now.
Make sure.