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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:
• The rise of indie comics
• 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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Thanks for watching!
what is up everyone and welcome to the
united states department of nerds where we
are for the people by the people and
of the people and i scroll down too
far let me hop in here so some
warriors inherit swords some inherit
kingdoms but some forged their legacy
across galaxies tonight we step beyond
medieval walls and into something far
larger a universe where knighthood isn't
bound to a kingdom it's bound to destiny
for fifteen years one creator has been
building that universe piece by piece
chapter by chapter outside the mainstream
and outside of the machine self published
independent and unapologetically epic this
is the story of a knight's title the
council of nerds is now in session russell
welcome to the usdn i'm glad to be
here it's good to be here
We are happy to have you here.
We've had you on the books for quite
a while now and glad that we're here
now tonight to get this going and to
get A Knight's Title out here to the
Council and to everybody else who may be
listening later on.
So before A Knight's Title was a saga
and before readers and before episodes,
where did this original spark come from?
Oh, well,
I've been I've been writing since I was
probably in elementary school.
They used to at least when I was
in school, which is a while now.
They used to always push creative writing.
And that was something that I always
excelled in.
And that's kind of where it all kind
of started from.
And then, you know,
I was writing a couple of books and
this idea kind of always surface there and
For a long time,
I just couldn't encapsulate it into a
single book,
and I didn't know what to do,
and I didn't know what to do.
And then finally,
it originally originated on Amazon's
Kindle Vela,
but they went out of business,
essentially, so I had to move it.
But that's ultimately where it came from.
I started in elementary school writing,
and grew and became...
Your last bit of audio almost completely
cut out on us.
Yeah, no,
I was saying how it really just originated
from elementary school, from just,
you know, constantly, you know,
writing from elementary school.
And, I mean, whether it was,
whether you're watching, you know,
anime or cartoons or what it is,
you know,
that stuff feeds into you as a creator.
And that really all just,
you can see it in the work itself,
how it's been influenced by...
It's been influenced by King Arthur,
by different animes,
like you could say One Piece,
you could say Yu Yu Hakusho,
but then you also get into all of
these different comics,
whether it's Guardians of the Galaxy or,
hell, Green Lantern,
which now they have the Lantern show
that's going to be coming out.
So there's tons of different influences.
They dropped the first teaser today.
Yeah.
So...
You've been writing for fifteen years.
So what has kept you committed to the
craft for this long?
You know,
I've gotten that question before.
And to be honest, it really just is.
I put in way too much work,
way too much, you know, the old cliche,
blood, sweat, and tears into it.
And I've come this far.
And I've been too much to turn back
now.
So I'm going to just stick into it
for the long haul.
And fingers are crossed that one day,
you know, I get some big movie deal.
We'll see.
We'll see.
Jury's still out.
no dude and that's the best way to
go about it man so was self-publishing
always the plan or was this kind of
born out of necessity like all all of
us necessity uh it really really is
necessity i mean you you can't get into
big publishers without agents and it's
almost impossible to get an agent because
they're very, basically they're all,
they want to work with, you know,
the preexisting authors or whatever you
have.
They just kind of want to stick with
that.
So it's just impossible.
So it really has become a necessity.
I just have, I have no choice.
I,
and I'm going to still keep pushing to
try and get into the, to that world.
But if I don't, I don't,
I'm just going to stay.
There's been tons of, you know,
tons of self-published stuff that has,
essentially gotten bigger than any big
publisher could ever get it so no i
mean you're spot on on that so so
a knight's title isn't traditional
medieval fantasy a blend sci-fi and
integer stellar scope when did you decide
to kind of expand this beyond the classic
sword and shield territory and into the
sci more sci-fi realm with you know
knights
So I am a big Highlander fan.
That movie played a huge factor with me.
And so I always loved swords.
And when I was making up this original
idea, it was like,
I need something that kind of separates it
from a lot of other stuff where
sci-fi-wise, you know, use just swords.
So that played into it.
And then...
a huge star wars thing you can kind
of see star wars just held it together
and that's where where it all really came
from okay no i mean if you i
i love both of them i'm a huge
star wars fan obviously i love highlander
before we go to the next question though
how do you feel about this new highlander
movie
I'm very excited for it.
I like Henry Cable.
And I think he's going to try and
stay true to the originals while kind of
also expanding on it.
So from what I've seen, I mean,
they've only released a couple of pictures
from it, but I have faith in it.
Yeah, and knowing the way Henry is,
he will stay as true as he possibly
can to the source material.
Yeah, agreed.
So in a knight's title,
what does knighthood mean in your
universe?
Is it symbolic?
Is it a literal or is it philosophical
within your universe?
So Knights in a Knight's title is more
so a kind of like how you have
soldiers.
It is a kind of a because there
is ultimately what I call a blood ability
which would be super power in the comic
book.
You're completely breaking up right now.
Yeah.
All right.
Hear me?
Yes.
Now you're good.
Whatever you just did, you're good.
Okay.
Knights is like soldiers.
It's kind of like just a position.
I wouldn't say that it's a knighthood like
we think of it,
although to some degree knights were
soldiers.
But the knights specifically are a certain
group because in here we have the blood
ability,
which in comic world would be superpowers.
And in order to be a quote-unquote knight,
that is ultimately someone would have to
have a blood ability in order to be
a knight.
There are other rankings and
classifications across the Knights title
universe, which I call the armory.
But, you know, for Knight specifically,
it was a specific, like,
soldier type role.
Okay.
But, um,
So you've built this as an episodic saga.
Why serialize it instead of like
traditional volume release?
so originally it was just solely the fact
that i did not have enough of a
fleshed out story for start to finish and
the best way that i could could explain
the reason for episode was the fact that
uh i had published some stuff through
amazon kindle and then kindle uh launched
kindle vela which was a short
And they kept kind of hounding me.
I guess they did to everybody who was
publishing through Amazon Kindle.
And, you know, in the beginning,
I was like, I have nothing for this.
I have nothing.
And then after they kind of did like
a third round of trying to get people
to do it...
I was kind of working with the story
again, trying to build it more,
trying to flesh it out more.
And it clicked with me that, well,
this would be more better off as an
episodic thing where I don't need an end
goal in mind.
I can just start writing it what I
have and just go forward with it that
way.
So that's really how the episodic style
came about.
Dude,
that makes plenty of sense when you put
it like that.
I mean,
I wish there were more stories like that
done on a grander scale like yours.
You know what I'm saying?
It is something that you don't really see
much maybe outside of the manga world.
Yeah.
That they're more so the episodic.
you don't see the end goal in mind.
So I guess that's the closest thing you
get to it.
I also have this thing of where every
episode kind of,
it doesn't always follow the same
character as every episode.
They'll branch out into different groups
of characters, episodes.
You'll get themes in different episodes,
like different genres.
You might go from straight-up adventure in
one episode to horror in the next episode.
So it kind of does have this variety
that you could go through.
No, I like that,
and you actually answered the very next
question by doing that.
So without a major publisher behind you,
how do you manage to approach world
building without limits?
Oh, that's a good question.
That is actually something that I'm
always, yeah.
Yeah,
that's actually something that I always
worry about is the OP level stuff where
it's like,
this is kind of getting out of control.
So, yeah,
the only way I could say the way
that I approach it is that I just
go based off of if I was reading
this from someone else,
would I get turned off by thinking, oh,
this is too ridiculous for me?
And that's kind of the way that I've
approached just writing in general,
was would I want to read this from
someone else?
So, yeah.
That's kind of how I...
i i also try and get you know
feedback from friends and that i'll shoot
them some stuff and see see what they
think of it and i i have a
couple of friends that will be honest with
me and be like you know it's just
so hard to fight they'll tell me that
i'm on the right path
Yeah,
it is really hard because sometimes people
will just tell you, oh, it's wonderful.
It's wonderful.
And when it's too much like that,
when someone's too much like that,
I'm like, something's not right here.
Something's fishy.
But especially because as a creator,
you're usually your own biggest critic.
So you do need someone who's got these
kind of...
No, and it's hard to find,
and I try to be, like,
when I'm asked to review stuff, like,
I try to be as honest about it
as possible while also, like, not,
you know, pissing on it as well.
So for me,
I know exactly what you mean.
I love the criticism.
I love the feedback.
So sometimes I like when someone's a
little more harsher than normal.
So that would not be something that
necessarily bothered me.
no that's good because you got to have
a thick skin when you're doing anything
comic books short stories podcasting it
doesn't matter man people can say some
mean stuff and all you can do is
be like okay cool yeah are like you
know everybody has one yeah and everybody
can see it everybody can comment so if
you're going to be thin-skinned about it
you're not in the right industry
A hundred percent,
a hundred percent on that one.
So as an independent creator,
what has been your,
what do you think is the biggest
misconception about self publishing?
I would say the biggest misconception
about self-publishing would probably be
the fact that most people kind of enjoy
what you're in and you're going to have
an audience.
And it is the first from the truth.
You have to grind and work and annoy
people to get an audience.
But having the, you know,
the advertisement arm of the publishers.
So if you're not willing to put in
kind of get social media savvy and try
and figure out the algorithms to,
you know,
get into those specific lanes where you're
going to find an audience,
you're not going to really make it.
It's so hard.
Just finding what works.
I don't even want to say it works
a hundred percent because it doesn't.
For me,
when I do the hype videos or I
go to share the shorts and the reels,
I always try to tag the person.
who who's been on the podcast already,
who's real it is.
And hopefully it attracts some of their
audience and that they're also into the
Indies and that kind of stuff.
Or if they're just a fan of that
person,
which is a lot of what I get
is like,
I know I will notice like I'll have
a flux of followers,
whether it's Instagram or Instagram is one
of them.
And then the YouTube is the worst one
where I'll get like a good three to
maybe ten people.
know they will start following the podcast
on youtube or instagram and they'll only
be on there while the system is about
third person you know what i'm saying and
then they're gone yeah i will have a
list of unfollows i'll notice i've dropped
like five followers on face or not
facebook but on youtube and i'm like okay
That's a trend you have to recognize and
just not let it hurt your feelings.
It's not you.
It's them because they're just there to
get that notification that, hey,
the guy they like is on the podcast,
whether it's their cousin, brother,
sister, whoever.
And then once they've seen it,
they're gone.
So I take into account those now.
So when I see those onesies and twosies
or those three to five people bounce after
a certain episode automatically now I'm
like, oh, okay.
They're just,
they were there for this one person and
now they're gone.
yeah it really does you kind of especially
if when you're writing and you're trying
you're writing a certain genre and that's
not the you know the same constant thing
that's going on yeah you'll pick up some
readers and then you'll lose them just as
fast yep if they're not into what what
comes next so yeah i i definitely
understand that and and again that goes
back to having the thick skin and just
understanding like that's part of the
territory
So yeah.
So what has been some of the hardest
lessons you've learned early on when you
started all this?
It would be the fact that it wasn't
easy.
I kind of did go into this thinking
that, you know,
because I kind of came into it when,
you know,
all the self-publishing stuff really
started to kick off.
So I kind of came into it thinking
that, oh, this means that, you know,
I can self-publish because I can't seem to
get into big publishers and I can get
just as big right out the gate.
And it was kind of, you know,
a rude awakening finding that, oh, no,
this is not easy.
It is going to be hard.
It is going to have to be something
that you're going to fail at.
You're going to fail at it quite a
bit.
And you just got to learn from that.
And that's kind of been the biggest thing.
My favorite quote is from Samuel Beckett,
you know, ever tried, ever failed,
no matter, try again, fail again,
feel better.
So I just kind of live by that.
Nailed it, man.
Spot on it.
The amount of podcasts I see pop up
within like the indie comic book groups on
Facebook and they're gone.
They're like a flash in the pan because
they really don't realize a it's hard.
B it costs money and you're probably not
making any off the podcast.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
It is something you have to be dedicated
to.
A hundred percent.
You're either all in or you might as
well just pack up your bags and go
ahead and go.
I completely agree with that.
You've developed a dedicated readership
over time.
How did you build loyalty without the
mainstream exposure?
And I know you answered a little bit
of that earlier with marketing on social
media,
but it's really hard to find that specific
niche of people, though.
Oh, still is.
I mean, I also kind of thought because,
you know, a knight's title kind of,
it's kind of in that superhero genre to
some degree.
I kind of thought that I would pull,
you know, a good chunk of, you know,
readers from that.
And it's not easy no matter what,
no matter what you're kind of telling,
what kind of story you're doing,
what you got going on.
It really is just that you've got to
be constant.
You've got to constantly put stuff out.
I've made it where I'm putting out
basically two seasons a year or I'm
putting out a season and then I'm putting
out some extra episodes, you know,
like specialty stuff, you know,
like I had mentioned.
Yeah.
uh you know intermission shorts or annuals
just so that I can kind of um
just keep it out there because it needs
to stay relevant uh Jeremy Hahn uh he's
a comic book writer artist he for the
beauty um he had told me once uh
that you just you've got to constantly
have stuff out there constantly put stuff
out that's the only way to keep keep
an audience uh you know there with you
oh yeah
No, and that's spot on.
I hadn't posted shorts in a while,
and I noticed the moment you're not
posting them, your viewership just paints.
So literally today,
I was scheduling shorts to start coming
back out.
It's tiring.
It's a lot of work,
but ain't nobody doing the work but you.
It has to be you.
No one else will do it for you.
Unless you got the money to pay.
And if the podcast or the book ain't
making money, you're self-employed.
Yeah, that is for sure.
And, you know,
my grandmother always used to say, like,
if you want something done right,
do it yourself.
And I found that that that is really
the only way to do it really anyways,
is just make sure it's done right.
Yep.
So what role does consistency play in your
long form storytelling?
It's probably the biggest thing.
It's also the hardest thing,
is to tell a consistent, long story,
especially when you don't...
Because I don't know when the story is
ending.
That's a question I get constantly is,
do you know when it's ending?
Do you know how it's ending?
I don't.
The characters kind of speak to me as
I'm writing them,
and the story unfolds as it goes.
There'll be serendipitous things that
occur later on in an episode that somehow
perfectly tie into something from earlier
on.
And so consistency,
the story has to remain consistent.
I do a lot of note-taking.
and i plot things out and i will
constantly go back to that stuff to try
and make sure that you know i don't
i don't make an error where the story
no longer is consistent where something
happens that contradicts something else
that alone is a ton of work and
that alone i think is why there are
a lot of people that you know will
love to love storytelling but yet they
can't seem to really make anything out of
it because they
Don't want to work into the consistent and
make sure everything works out.
Oh, yeah.
And it's funny that you mentioned taking
notes like I use notepad for all my
interviews.
That's how I write everything down.
You know,
and it's just it's the free program that
comes with your PC.
Right.
But I have a single notepad,
one page of notepad.
saved within every file folder for my
interviews that I do.
And it's just like my catchphrases at the
bottom and at the top.
That way, when I'm writing,
they're always there.
That way, I always have them.
And they're always there.
And I can, ever since I've made them,
I'm like,
this will go into a notepad and each
notepad will then
paste it and then renamed with the name
of the person.
And it's just so it's consistency, right?
And it's remembering, you know,
to have that one key part that meets
what is yours, yours.
So a hundred percent take notes in your
own right.
Consistency.
Yeah.
And it's the biggest thing I've seen it
in mainstream comic books, just like,
like this dude's been writing comic books
for twenty five years for marvel and his
shit still ain't consistent like he
forgets his own stuff because otherwise
why is this in this story when this
thing died in that you know issue so
yeah huge footnote out there for people
consistency it is the the sword that
storytelling lives or dies by so
A hundred percent.
So if a creator listening right now is
building their own universe,
what's the first thing they need to
understand?
Oh, I,
I would say that the first thing that
a creator needs to understand when making
their own universe is that it's your
universe.
Sure,
you need to be able to essentially be
open enough where you can attract an
audience, but it is yours.
So you need to make it yours.
Sometimes, you know,
take influence from stuff that you love.
take what you got but ultimately you got
to put your own twist on stuff you
have to kind of give this brand new
story for people to read for people to
enjoy and ultimately i think that is one
of the issues with you know whether it's
hollywood or comic books or books in
general nowadays is that most people are
too bent and focused on you know kind
of retelling the same stories
So if you're making your own universe,
sure,
I've taken tons of influences from stuff,
but you have to be able to put
your own twist on it.
You have to be able to make it
your own.
It has to be you in order for
something to really just kind of,
you know, for somebody to remember it.
You need them to remember it.
And you don't want the copyright strikes.
lawsuits are a big, big no-no.
So, yes.
Change some stuff up.
Well, the copyright strikes.
Change some stuff up.
And then the lawsuits come if you don't
follow up on those copyright strikes.
Yeah.
Yeah, we don't want, you know,
paperwork to fill out.
The only stuff we want to fill out
is stories, so.
A hundred percent.
So, you are active online.
You are King Dark Heart.
Brandon has personality.
Where did that name come from?
Please tell me it was D&D.
We don't hate.
We love D&D.
It was not D&D,
but you could say it was as close
to that as possible.
Just growing up with friends,
we used to make our own games that
we would play.
We would create kind of characters,
sort of like you would in D&D,
but we would play,
we would kind of LARP them,
and that was something that I made for
myself, and that was something that stuck,
and then it got to the point where
social media came around.
And they said, oh, make a username, and
I was like, oh, well,
this is what I usually use when I'm
doing stuff.
So I'm going to use this.
And then it became, well,
I kind of want to use this constantly,
consistently.
And so I just every single every single
platform that popped up, I used it.
And that's where it came from.
So.
So and that's actually amazing because
people have to realize and understand that
identity is important in storytelling and
in branding.
Yeah.
Especially in the indie world,
you have to have something that when they
see it,
they know it is you and they know
what you represent.
Yep.
so yeah that's what i was kind of
saying with the with you know someone
wanting to make their own universe make it
you and part of that is is you
know identity brand like you have to make
that you and i mean it's worked for
me and so it can work for pretty
much anybody that's how the chairman was
born yeah can't nobody wants to stay here
and listen to jeff i'll tell you that
but you can start calling yourself the
chairman of something and people pay
attention
Hey, when it works, it works.
Dude, it is working.
I'm not going to complain about it.
That's for sure.
So what is Nets for a Knights title?
So I am actually, you had asked about,
you know, physical stuff.
Yeah, before we went live.
Yep,
there's an omnibus one that contains
season one through season six.
Right now,
season nine will come out later this year.
So we're working on our way towards the
omnibus two.
But I will also be releasing a physical
hard version of the spin-off series,
Drake Cage, The Golden Armed Knight.
The physical version will be called The
Golden Knight Saga.
That'll be coming out later this year,
probably in November is when I'm looking
to kind of shoot that out.
But it'll be a physical book.
This way, again, people,
they love the internet,
but they don't always like to consume
their stuff through the internet.
So I'm starting to release certain things.
That physical for the spinoff will...
actually contain a exclusive episode that
you can't read anywhere else.
So making your own,
putting your own twist on it,
you need something to get people to buy
that or to read that.
And I figured I'm going to put in
a story in there that's exclusive to that.
And that story will actually end up
connecting with a couple of other short
stories that are going to be exclusive to
certain things going forward.
Oh, I like it.
You make it yours.
You make it something special and it makes
it more marketable.
Smart marketing one-on-one right there.
You drop an exclusive with an exclusive
story on it that you can only get
in the physical copy.
It's genius.
So let's jump into some rapid fire
questions.
Ross, you ready?
Absolutely.
Favorite fantasy universe.
My favorite fantasy movie,
I'm going to say Star Wars.
See, that would have been the sci-fi one.
That was next.
But I will take Star Wars as an
answer for both.
See, Star Trek is sci-fi.
Star Wars is fantasy.
Okay.
Hey, hey.
Potatoes and potatoes.
Star Wars was an acceptable answer for
both, in my opinion,
because I am a Star Wars guy,
not a Star Trek guy.
So what was a book that influenced you
to become a writer?
Oh, so there's been a couple of books.
Growing up, I always pronounce it wrong.
Aragon, the dragon book.
Yes, that was one.
I know what you're talking about.
Now, granted,
I've been to many book fairs,
and that was one book that I absolutely
wanted,
and that was a book that I bought.
That book had influenced me greatly going
through.
I don't know if people consider comic
books books,
but there were a couple comic books books.
true very true you read you read them
so but yeah i mean uh zero hour
from from dc okay with uh hal jordan
you know being the big bad that influenced
me greatly it odd little fact that also
made hal jordan my favorite character in
my books kind of a weird twist hot
take if you will hey um i mean
you're the one person i would say that
roots for hal jordan
I love Hal Jordan.
Absolutely not too psyched about his suit.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we have found that one person.
Hey,
let's leave Ryan Reynolds out of this.
But yes,
I would say that whether it was Aragon
or with comic books,
that's kind of what really pushed me into
it.
So if a Knight's title became a film
or a series,
would you want live action or animation?
That's a good question.
And I actually have,
I've made it kind of,
I've said it to many people that the
goal with it is an animated series.
I'm looking for longevity-wise and just
knowing actors' age.
And I'm all now with AI, who knows?
But animated-wise,
I think it would definitely pertain better
to the overall long story format.
I think that voice acting,
they can voice act for a long time.
I think the longevity of animated is what
I want.
I think it also fits it much better
than live action.
Yeah.
But I would not be opposed to live
action.
Okay.
One word that describes your world
building style.
Brand.
I like it.
I'm a brand world builder.
So everything's kind of big.
Go big or go home is kind of
the idea that popped in my head when
I started all this.
Yeah.
So coffee, tea,
or energy drinks while you're working?
Oh, coffee.
I drink so much coffee,
it's not even funny.
I always make the joke that when I
die,
I'll probably still keep going for three
weeks because of all the coffee I've
consumed.
So yeah, it's coffee.
Coffee without a doubt.
Your favorite character you've written?
Oh, my favorite character I've written.
That would actually end up being for
something that has not come out yet.
It's kind of a medieval,
just pure medieval style story.
It's...
more so philosophical than a lot of stuff
that i yeah i kind of write more
so you know the sci-fi fantasy stuff but
the character in that is kind of been
a character i've ever written it's kind of
really deep kind of really makes you think
about stuff it really makes you think
about life okay um the most rewarding part
of being an indie author
It's just you're kind of more connected to
people who read it,
who consume your content.
The downside to kind of being in the
bigger side of it, you know,
the big publisher or Hollywood or
whatever,
you kind of get separated from the people
that consume it.
And I think it can kind of,
when that happens,
you can kind of lose track of what
you're doing and why you do it.
Yeah.
Oh, that's interesting.
Yeah.
One piece of advice for creators trying to
build their own universe.
I never give up.
I just never give up.
Keep going.
I mean, you know,
unless you truly come to the conclusion
that, you know, this is not for you,
just keep going.
I mean, you could literally be, you know,
one story away from going viral and,
you know,
getting all this attention that you've
been looking for and for your stuff to
reach a much larger and grander audience.
and if you end up getting up on
it that'll never happen so that's kind of
been what i've stuck to is just not
giving up just keep going yeah all right
ross i'm gonna give you two minutes i
don't think you need two minutes sell a
knight's title to everyone
All right, let's let's do this.
So it's a new world that sucks you
in.
It introduces you to characters that make
you question who you are as a person
and makes you realize that the overall
world that you live in is.
kind of just grander than what you think
it is every day.
It makes you realize that the person next
to you is just as grand as you
are,
and the story will reflect a lot of
moments in your life.
Whether it's happy moments or the sad,
as I've been known to write tragedy a
lot.
And A Knight's Title just,
it kind of washes away all the concerns
that you have about life.
Sucks you in.
It makes you just feel like you're on
a ride of your life.
And you never want to put it down.
You just want the next episode.
That's my biggest problem is I don't have
the next episode soon enough for you guys.
So that is what A Knight's Title is
for.
absolutely you can never not have the next
episode fast enough especially i mean
we're not we're in this world where
everybody wants the things right now and
i'm not fast enough yet i think we
all run into that problem so russell tell
everybody where they can find you in the
night's title
You can find it and check it out
at anightstitle.com.
That'll take you right to it.
There is the omnibus,
which is available on Amazon.
But in general,
if you want to find it,
it's at anightstitle.com.
There you have it, folks.
Russ,
I want to thank you for coming on
tonight,
sharing a night's title with everybody.
I know we've had a little bit of
microphone issues.
Hopefully it doesn't bleed through.
We'll see.
I'm hoping that isn't the case.
I'm hoping when I go to listen back
later,
everything sounds perfect and it's just my
headset, which it very well could be.
So I will let you know either way
on that.
But
Every universe begins with a single
decision to write, to build,
to keep going,
even when no one is watching.
Russell didn't wait for permission.
He didn't wait for a gatekeeper.
He built his own galaxy.
And that is the Andy spirit.
And here at USDN,
that's what we spotlight.
Russell, again,
thank you for stepping into the council
tonight.
And to everyone watching,
if you believe in creator-owned worlds,
if you believe in building something from
nothing, support Indie Storytellers.
Subscribe, follow Russell,
dive into a Knight's title,
because the future of storytelling,
it isn't inherited, it's forged.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the Council of Nerds is adjourned,
and this has been the USDN Podcast,
where indie comics come to life.
Y'all stay safe out there.
It was good seeing you.
Hey, Russ.