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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.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
Thank you.
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 some stories begin with
kings others begin with monsters but every
great fantasy world begins with one person
willing to ask
What if?
Tonight's guest didn't just create another
comic.
He set out to build an entirely new
world,
a world filled with ancient history,
forgotten legends, dangerous mysteries,
and stories that stretch far beyond a
single hero.
Through Asheville Comics,
Frank Goody is laying the foundation for
something much bigger than one Kickstarter
or one issue.
He's building the universe from the ground
up, one page, one character,
in one venture adventure at a time tonight
we step into there'll be jack seas of
ruin explore the challenge of creating
original fantasy in today's comic industry
and discover what it takes to turn an
idea into an expanding world readers can
immerse themselves into ladies and
gentlemen the council of nerds is now in
session frank welcome to the usdm my
friend hi it's great to be here i'm
so excited
The build-up and the anticipation,
I know we've been waiting on this
interview for a hot minute now,
and I'm glad to finally have you here
and have you on.
This is only your second podcast
experience,
but we're going to make sure that we
make it the damn best one ever for
you.
So with that,
before we dive into Thelby Jack...
I'd love to hear the story behind
Asheville Comets and kind of like why made
you decide that now was the time to
build your own publishing label instead of
trying to just simply make a comic you
decided to build a company and a comic
all at the same time.
So I am terrified of change of getting
my comic out there and having someone
above me saying you know I don't really
like this let's change this out.
Um, I mean,
I'm open to the suggestions and stuff like
that,
but the thought of having like executives
who could like break the story,
it just terrifying to me.
So I thought, you know,
I'm going to go my own way and
then build it from the ground up and
hopefully gain some traction.
I'm going to be honest.
You've got some traction, man.
Just the interactions I've seen on your
social media surrounding your appearance
on tonight's show has been amazing to see
and amazing to watch.
But did you always envision Asheville
becoming a universe with multiple books,
or did that ambition grow as you started
doing it?
I feel like the stories that I have
to tell kind of forced me to build
Asheville, uh, instead of vice versa.
Um,
I've always had been like a storyteller
and to be able to combine these off
and have an output for them is really
something that I've always dreamed of.
When I was younger,
I really thought I was going to the
movie industry in high school.
I toured LA film school.
I was like, man,
I'm going to be the director.
I'm going to, you know,
I have a picture of me in a
director chair,
but
That didn't quite pan out.
Directors don't really direct massive
cinematic universes.
And then you see those who try,
they often end up not coming out
completely.
The Snyderverse,
they're saying the Gunverse might not come
out.
And that's just terrifying as well.
Same thing.
I don't want to dedicate energy in
something that's never going to play out.
So how am I going to do this?
Dolby Jack actually started as a book.
I wrote a hundred thousand words and I
was sending them to one of my friends
and he was like,
I'll read it when I have a chance.
You know,
I'll read it when I have a chance.
I, uh,
learned how to train it into like a
little audio book.
Um, send it to him that way,
chapter by chapter.
He was like, man, this is really good.
But I'm like, man,
I'm missing so much of an audience.
Who's not going to sit down and read
an entire book.
Um,
And so I thought, man,
how can I write this story and then
express it in a way that people can
visually bring it in?
And I was like, I landed on comics.
So I thought I'd try it out.
Dolby Jack is actually my first comic.
It translated well into a comic book for
it to have started its life as a
almost novel story.
what's great about it starting its life as
a novel and then being broke out into
twenty-two page basically chapters is that
you can then visually tell the story as
well.
And the words don't,
they're going to help advance that story.
But the, you know, the comic book,
the art itself is what's going to tell
that story to advance that story with the
words.
So it works, you know what I'm saying?
Not every book can become a comic book
because it just doesn't translate well.
Yeah.
So you were lucky in that it was
able to be translated well over onto the
other side.
And I'm sure that took a lot of
rewrites, a lot of edits,
and a lot of man hours put into
taking this from novel to comic book.
But the great thing about it is the
hard work was done.
The writing was done.
Now you can easily like, okay,
issue two is going to be pages you
know this to this you know and then
you got to use the brain to then
translate it to comic book format for your
artist but again hard work is done right
yeah most definitely um and it's very a
lot of work to kind of transfer that
um probably heard the sentiment that the
book is a lot better than the movie
uh yeah
because it's true that you've got to fit
a chapter in twenty two pages.
You've got to really kind of pick and
choose what's important to the story,
what you can show visually and what's
going to be cut left on the table.
I think that was a hard part.
I definitely did cut a lot from that
first issue of his origins,
but ultimately,
I think it turned out really well and
I'm really happy moving forward.
No, it did,
and you had sent it to me before
we got started,
and I had some time to read it
over.
I think the way you did the origin
was perfect.
Two to three pages, quick and dirty,
right?
Heck yeah.
Get your attention real quick.
Get the attention real quick,
and then you see him as an adult,
and it's like, oh.
But it also leaves you room to go
back to give more of that story later.
So it was done smartly and you can
always say you can fit anything with a
flashback, right?
So if you ever wanted to go back
and tell more of that origin story,
you can just do a flashback
But why fantasy?
What made you go with the fantasy realm
versus horror or action superhero?
Why have you?
Why fantasy?
I've always believed that superheroes are
just too good.
I've always wanted to explore the line of
between dark and evil or good and evil
and how thin and how a lot of
the times it gets twisted up.
lot of times heroes do things for the
wrong reasons and villains do good things
for the wrong reasons as well or whatever
um vice versa but that's always been like
a big theme for me so i like
to kind of explore that and i can't
explore it i guess i could explore that
in like a superhero kind of terms but
the the heroes i've always created have
always been sort of
had a mythic feel to it had a
had a legendary kind of fantastic feel to
it um another big influence and they'll be
jack um is dnd i'm a dungeon master
yeah and i uh started dungeon mastering
for my friends and i based it in
a world of another character that i have
named xander
And Thelby Jack was just a throwaway
character to get him out of the prison.
But my players saved him.
They deemed him important.
And I had to write a whole little
story for him.
And that kind of where Thelby Jack came
from.
Dude, that's a dope-ass origin story.
That's the real-life origin story right
there.
And that's cool as hell.
And literally,
I was about to interrupt you with how
did this character come about,
and you hit me with it as I
was going to ask you that question.
So that's really cool.
Outside of D&D,
were there any other books, games, films,
or creators that kind of influenced the
tone?
Without Become is something you wanted to
imitate.
Oh, absolutely.
So I feel like there's,
you'll probably see it if you know it,
but there's a lot of Sin City vibes.
I always really enjoyed the film.
I got the book,
Frank Miller and everything like that.
But I really loved that the red was
the only color that really popped.
And it really draws your attention to it.
So I really wanted to do that with
its first issue,
with its first kind of story.
Um,
other kind of big role models for me
are, uh, Cody.
I hope I said that right,
but metal gear solid.
Yep.
Yep.
Played all of those games.
Um, all of the God of war games.
Um,
Gaming has always been really big for me.
I've always enjoyed the first-person kind
of gaming and the storytelling of it.
See, I'm the same way.
I'm a huge fan of the Ghost series,
Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yotei.
I haven't had a chance to play it
yet because,
as I was telling you before we went
live, I had a busy weekend,
redesigned the office.
But at some point over the weekend,
the new remastered Black Flag just
downloaded for Assassin's Creed.
So that's ready and waiting for me over
there whenever I have a chance to hop
on and do some more play.
But right now I'm like super busy and
super immersed and just getting edited and
stuff like that done, you know.
but um with you mentioning freight miller
as i was i told you before like
i had time to read the story just
before we went live and i was like
i was like this gives me freight miller
vibes but this would have been so cool
colored like yeah it's just one of those
stories where you see it and you're like
you get the frank miller vibes i was
like if this was in color though oh
dude just it would have been amazing in
color as well so you could always that's
one of those days where like
someday you can always go back and throw
it in in color you know and but
it works in black and gray too so
i don't want to just you know take
away from what it is it's a beautiful
book the art is great and shout out
to the artist but definitely one of those
where it works both ways it would have
looked fantastic in color but the black
and gray scale does it justice as well
so let's talk about definitely
go ahead definitely in the playbook it's
definitely in the options um i plan on
well as you know i did a hundred
thousand words i actually had twenty two
chapters uh planned out and i'm kind of
just adapting each chapter into its own
comic so i'm gonna do volumes um trade
backs i'm a big fan of trade back
to collect all the issues together and i'm
gonna do colored options in that so yeah
definitely and then all the hard work is
done the art and the coloring and
everything like our art and writing
everything done so just have a color scope
back through it you know it'd be i
don't think too hard but
It'd be my first time with all of
that, so.
Yeah,
I'm a huge fan of trade paper best
as well, dude.
Like there's just certain books where I
wasn't collecting at the time and I was
like, well,
I'm not going to buy single issues for
those that I want to read.
I'll just get the trade paper bats or
the hard bats or the army buses and
stuff like that.
Like Department of Truth is one of my
favorite books.
And I wasn't around when it came out
in singles.
So I just did hardback on those.
And it's just, they're fun.
They're absolutely amazing reads.
All the bonus content you get in the
trade paper bats is always cool.
So, you know, I get that.
I'm like, like I said,
big fan of trade paper bats,
even though floppies are my, my,
my go-to certain books,
definitely trade paper bats all day.
So, but, um,
We'll talk about the book.
Let's talk about Thelby Jack,
Seeds of Ruin here.
For someone discovering this comic today,
what is Thelby Jack?
If you're at a Comic-Con,
give us that two-minute,
you have to pitch this book to us.
So the way I've kind of been introducing
Thelby Jack to people at any of the
events I do is he's kind of my
mix between an Iron Man and a Batman.
He has a tragic bat story,
and instead of technology,
he uses cursed objects to navigate this
new world skip.
It's gonna be a land of forgotten gods,
mystic creatures,
and a war that's gonna grab this reluctant
hero into something that could change the
whole world and change the whole shape of
the world.
I get a lot of inspiration from Witcher.
You're gonna get that Witcher feel in this
world.
And I'm really excited to bring it to
life and introduce new characters.
and spin-offs inside of this world.
That's worse, dude.
I like that.
If you're going to try to imitate
something or try to have a theme based
around something,
The Witcher is such a good one to
do.
Walk us through Thelby Jack.
Who is Thelby Jack in the book?
I know he's your main character.
Will he stay the main character?
Who is Thelby Jack?
So Belby Jack is,
I don't want to say a hero,
and he would really be upset if I
did call him a hero.
He's just someone trying to survive.
He's going to try to do the right
thing.
He's looking for peace.
But ultimately,
he's going to do what's best for him
and the people he's caring about.
And he often finds himself in predicaments
where he has to make those choices,
make those hard calls.
He was done wrong by the Sun Kingdom,
as you saw in the first issue.
And he still holds that grudge.
And that's going to be a big thing
as the Sun Kingdom kind of goes after
him for the stuff that he stole.
He's a master thief.
He picked up a lot of skills in
between his past and where we pick up
his story.
And if you are familiar with D&D,
he was trained by a master artificer.
And so that's kind of how he works
with all of these curse items.
He's very familiar with the curses,
with the runic magic and how it works.
And he just brings all of that kind
of energy with a dark tinted screen over
it.
He's very moody.
Yeah, and his beginnings were,
they were not easy.
And Argo, what's up?
How you doing, man?
Good to see you joining us today.
But it is definitely one of those.
And so I don't want to give away
too much on it,
but the Sun Kingdom doesn't know who he
is.
They think in all actuality that that
person is dead.
And to them, he is dead.
Correct.
It's cool beginnings.
Y'all, pick up the book.
It's a phenomenal beginning of the book.
And great character story right off the
cuff of who this kid is, or well,
now adult is.
But definitely a fun, fun story.
And it's right out of the cuff, like,
boom, action.
Go ahead, go ahead.
You also get a glimpse of another
character in Itchy One.
The king and his son.
And we're going to also take a journey
into their story within the Thelby Jack
universe,
as well as with all the other spinoffs.
Toby.
But, um, sorry, Mark Katz.
He's up to, he's,
he's up to some mischief, but, uh,
it was just right before we went live.
Yeah, I did.
It sounded like a Chihuahua was raising
hell back there.
Was it a chihuahua?
Guard dog, yeah.
I was like,
because my grandma used to have
chihuahuas,
and she loved those little dogs.
So I was like,
it sounds like a chihuahua just grazing
hell back there.
But one thing that stood out to me
is that this isn't just one story.
It sounds like you're definitely building
this big world that can support numerous
characters and adventures.
when did you kind of realize that this
universe was going to become bigger than
just the book just the comic so i
honestly i'm working backwards i feel like
i i have this big event planned and
i've created so many different characters
let me give you a little bit of
background on the characters real quick
because um i kind of i grew up
in foster care and it was kind of
a hard
house you know i wasn't allowed to go
to the library um i had action figures
i could play with outside you know i
had a very strict time to get picked
up from school and stuff like that so
i didn't leave a lot of time to
um do much except get lost in my
own head and my own creativity and so
i kind of created different characters to
handle different kind of emotions i was
going through um as i was growing up
and uh
They kind of take on a life their
own,
but they each kind of hold that essence
for me.
And so I've built stories to kind of
go with the characters.
And I found a way to kind of
weave them all back to the single kind
of origins.
So it all starts from the world that
Filby Jack is in, which I call Ozark.
That's a great segue into this question
that I'm about to ask you, Ashley.
Are there places, races, kingdoms,
or historical events that you've created
that I know we haven't seen yet because
there's only one issue out,
but in the coming issues of They'll Be
Jack, what are we looking at?
How big is this world going to get?
so ozark is a pangea so it's a
super land mass um it's one giant island
surrounded by water split down a half by
a dark kind of forest um so one
half is the sun kingdom and they're uh
chosen by their sun god um i won't
spoil any of that but and they think
that they're
better that they have a right to
everything they're yeah they come off like
some arrogant pricks in the book like that
king is like yeah even their uh their
their military or their soldiers like
they're just they ooze arrogance exactly
and then on the other side i'm going
to introduce another faction um the iron
empire and a little bit more technically
advanced they've come to accept um
living amongst other races and they use
that to their advantage uh still not a
great place to live there's no good
choices here um and then the dark forest
in between the two is really more of
a safe haven for all of the races
who are trying to escape um and that's
the the
bread and butter of the Ozark,
but expect a lot of factions.
I have the Templars, uh,
historically the Templars were like
crusaders and stuff like that,
a secret organization.
Um, same kind of concept in this one.
Uh, I have a guide plan, Alexander,
the Templar.
Um,
he's going to kind of be a brutal
captain America kind of figure who has to
kind of challenge his faith.
Um, I have,
I don't remember what they're called in
D&D, but no, Warforged.
I have a Warforged storyline with some
mechanical-like creatures who embody the
seasons.
So I have a lot of big events
planned for Ozark, and honestly,
trying to work my way up to them
is so exciting,
but it's frustrating because I can't wait,
you know what I mean?
yeah the story is so hard yeah i
mean without like a big name or a
big publisher behind you pushing these
stories at a rate that
that can meet your demand your internal
demand is really difficult because you do
have to take this one issue one story
at a time and because you don't want
to flood you know kickstarter or the the
indie system with like too much of a
good thing at one time because people are
gonna be like
dude, you need to pump the brains.
We can only do this so much with
you.
It's one of those,
how much can I do at once versus
what I want to do?
It's hard to meet those demands sometimes.
Well, your own demands, I should say,
is where I'm going with that.
A lot of creators watching this are
balancing comics with careers and family.
You're building Nashville while also
working full-time
as well how difficult though is the being
like the full-time guy and i'm right there
with you on this one i'm a full-time
guy and i do this on the side
and it's demanding how is that like how
difficult has that been for you especially
in california i can't imagine like god
bless you man never enough time never
enough time i feel like um
Every time I get ahead,
there's something that happens that is
taking me a little bit back.
You know what I mean?
Like there's this comic cover I wanted to
get, um,
commissioned and I still am going to get
commissioned, but you know,
you gotta step it back when things start
coming at you, but it's rough.
It's rough.
I set a little certain amount that I
want to put towards the comic every week.
And I just try to stick to that.
Um,
And then working on the comic,
that can be a lot too,
because you'll see me,
I'll be receiving a grocery load.
I work at a grocery store.
So, you know,
it all comes in through the back.
I have to be back there to make
sure everything goes right.
And I'm writing down on a piece of
paper, panel one, page one, you know,
set the scene.
Every chance I get, man, like a little,
I have a little notebook that I carry
around with me.
Yeah.
It takes some dedication.
Any and all creatives, I think,
should have a notebook big enough to fit
into their back pocket.
Yeah.
That way you can make notes or write
down thoughts.
I know people who use their phone.
I know people who send text messages to
themselves just to like, hey,
I had this idea.
And they send it to themselves.
I personally, I'm a notebook guy like you.
Yeah.
Nothing beats pen and paper.
It's the feeling to it.
Exactly.
It's your hand writing those notes down.
I definitely am with you on that one.
Balancing.
I don't know if balancing is a great
word because I feel like some weeks work
needs me more than Asheville.
Other weeks I need Asheville more than I
need to put any interviews into work.
It's all about not giving up because
you're already going to
see some times where it's like things have
to slow down kind of come to a
grind when there's nothing else you can do
there's been weeks where i'm waiting for
my pages to come in i'm just like
every time my phone dings i'm on it
is it isn't my pages can i make
a new video dude trust me i uh
i commissioned um
the show's getting all new logos.
I'm going away from the Star Wars stuff
into,
it's going to be more comic book filled,
comic book related for all my logos,
banners, all that is going to go to,
it's going to feel more comic book,
more indie.
So definitely feel more like the channel
and what we actually do here at USDN.
And, um, my guy, he had like one,
this pastor right after the other.
And today he hit me up.
It was like, Hey, um,
I'm trying to get started on this stuff,
but I can't find our conversation.
No worries, dude.
Hang on.
Our entire conversation,
I'm talking probably.
Forty five minutes to an hour worth of
conversation we had back and forth through
text messages just gone like they were
gone.
thankfully I had took a segment of that
conversation out and I was with because I
was talking to somebody else at the same
time and I had cut and pasted it
into that conversation just like to show
them what I was working on and it
was there in that conversation so I was
able to go back into that other
conversation grab that stuff and sit and
you know paste it back over into our
conversation I was having with my artist
i was just like oh thank god that
part of the conversation was there still
there because that was the actual like
work that i commissioned you know yeah and
um but yeah dude i i get it
i get that part a hundred percent and
now i'm just kind of sitting here waiting
like he sent me some samples earlier and
i was just like yeah you know you're
cooking it's even even more like
nerve-wracking oh yeah and dude he's
Like, I wanted to redo everything,
you know?
Everything that I had was, like,
it felt pop culture.
It was related to Star Wars.
And now that I'm making this transition to
the comic book stuff and making it, like,
the comic sill of approval, you know,
the old school, you know, comic sill,
I have something coming very similar to
that,
only it's going to have the USDN feel
to it.
And, yeah, dude, it's...
Yeah, just that small sample,
I was just like, yeah,
that's going to be it right there.
That's going to look so good.
Epic.
but what advice would you give someone who
keeps saying they'll start someday?
What if, you know, somebody told you,
you know,
years ago or however long ago it was
when you started Asheville and started
writing Selby Jack, you know,
if somebody would have said, Hey,
don't do that.
You can't do that.
Or, you know, somebody saying, Hey, yeah,
I had this one idea one time.
What would you tell them?
You know, just,
Just do it.
It is so scary.
It's a mountain that looks like it's so
hard to climb,
but it's really a competition of steps.
You know what I mean?
Taking one,
putting one foot in front of the other.
Um, and the comic industry,
like the story industry,
everyone's super inviting.
Um,
I've met so many amazing people who will
offer advice or help if you want them.
I'm part of some group chats and you
know,
there's so many people looking for work,
amazing artists looking for work too.
So there's plenty of people to work with.
Just don't be afraid.
You know, that's the biggest thing.
That's something I had to overcome.
it's being afraid of jumping of taking the
risk but if you believe in it yeah
i'm right there with you on that one
it's it's definitely one of those that's
like the when i went solo on this
i kind of had that like i didn't
i was lost like i didn't know what
i wanted to do i was doing pop
culture i was doing um new comic book
day i was just kind of all over
the place and um
only took one person you know to give
me an opportunity to interview them and
talk to them to get me to go
this is where i want to be this
is what i want to do and here
i am now close to if not around
a hundred interviews with indie creators
so yeah dude sometimes it's just the only
thing to do is to do
And you won't know until you do it
because you'll know.
It feels so good to grow into something
that you know is for you.
I feel like this is what I want
to do.
This is my calling.
I've always wanted to be a storyteller.
And if you want to be a storyteller
too, don't be afraid.
Don't quit your day job,
but don't be afraid.
Yeah, definitely don't quit your day job.
Like,
I've heard horror stories of people
quitting their day job to start writing
comic books or to start writing books.
And it's like you see them months later
going, hey, yeah,
I'm back at the store working.
I'm like, oh,
how'd that author stuff work out for you?
And he's like, yeah,
I may have quit too soon.
I was like, yeah, I know you did.
But hey,
good on him for taking the shot and
just jumping head in, head first into it.
Just make sure that swimming pool you're
jumping in has water in it as well.
Exactly.
Have a big old nest egg,
win the lottery, and then yeah,
absolutely.
You've got a Kickstarter under your belt
now.
What's something your first campaign has
taught you that completely changed how you
will approach future Kickstarters?
Start promoting it early.
I believe you kind of plan when you
want to drop it.
Um,
I'm planning my next one for around
October and give yourself some time to
kind of promote it, you know,
schedule some interviews,
schedule some podcasts.
Um,
I found out a lot of podcasts are
booked up, you know,
they didn't put duck click.
There's a lot of people out there trying
to talk about their stuff and it happened.
And speaking of anybody wants a spot in
August,
I have one spot left in August and
September is going to be even less slots
available because it will only be one a
week starting in September.
but I mean, it's blessed.
It's great that you're,
you're booked up too.
So that's awesome.
Yeah.
I love it.
And I wish I could do more,
but also at the end of the day,
I have to give time back to myself
as well,
because I've been going hard at this for
months and months on it.
And,
I don't want to feel burned out because
this is what I'm passionate about.
This is what I love to do.
I don't want to be burned out.
That's how I feel right now.
I think taking a few steps back and
doing less and making that less better is
the right direction to go at this point.
Thank you.
I'm excited for your journey.
I am excited for yours, dude.
What do you think...
Obviously, with your first,
you're going to make mistakes.
We all do.
My first interview, I felt,
was a disaster.
What's one mistake you think nearly every
first-time creator makes,
whether it was Kickstarter,
getting an artist or an editor or whatever
it may be?
What do you think are some of those
mistakes that people make?
Definitely invest in an editor.
My issue, too, has...
greatly benefited from my editor um
definitely be vocal about what you want
especially if you're going and looking for
an artist kind of make sure you get
sample pages make sure you're happy with
the work before you dive in um there's
nothing worse than like changing artists
midway or doing anything like that that
would definitely kill a story
I can't tell you the number of times
I've heard that horror story coming from
creators and writers where midway through
or halfway through,
I've known people who have gone through
two, three,
four artists just to get a single issue
made before they get the one that works
for them.
Thankfully, that's the one for them.
I hear that story all the time.
Way too often, I feel like
But yeah,
to me that goes back to don't be
afraid to tell somebody no.
When you go, hey,
this is the timeline I need the things
in, if they say I can't do that,
then they're not the artist for you.
Don't be afraid to tell them no,
that that does not work.
I think that's the hardest thing for
anybody to do is just say no.
That does not work.
And if they can't meet your timelines,
then, again, they're not your artist.
Keep looking.
Like, yes,
I know you want to go fast.
I know you want to go hard.
And you want this done yesterday.
But take your time.
Yeah.
Be realistic, too.
Make sure you know you set good deadlines.
Yeah.
Don't be like, hey, whenever.
Because you tell me whenever,
I'm not going to do it.
Like, you obviously don't care.
Yeah.
If you're telling me whenever.
One thing I learned.
with my covers for Itchy One was to
kind of have a deadline for that.
I asked around trying to try to be
in my first issue.
I didn't know what a good deadline would
be.
But I asked around, you know,
I got a good status on about a
month.
So that's what I've kind of been running
on.
And also,
if you're on the other side of that,
if you're an artist, be vocal too.
If something happens,
I'd rather hear about it.
That's a two-way street.
That's a two-way street.
know if your ipad breaks or whatever and
you need a week to get you know
get set back up please let me know
i'd rather be supporting supportive of
that than you know wondering where you are
i mean my guy literally just had one
disaster after another and i was just and
that's what i'm saying i'm like hey dude
i'm in no rush i i have designs
right now mine might work just fine but
the new stuff is for a new rollout
in a new chapter of the podcast i'm
in no rush for that stuff you know
it's whenever you can and finally you know
here we are a few months later after
all of that craziness that he had happened
now he just sent me a bunch of
samples which fire like every single one
like is fire like i want to pick
them all but i know i can't
So I'm going to have to be very
delicate as I pick and choose which one
because they all look so damn good.
But let's talk about issue two.
We're going to do this without spoilers,
hopefully.
Why can readers expect from Seeds of Ruin
that raises the stakes from issue one?
You're going to get introduced to a new
character.
There's definitely going to be some blood,
some more action in this issue.
and it's the issue wood opens up with
blood so i mean come on yeah yeah
definitely i i
One of my rules with writing when I
started writing the book was there's gotta
be something exciting that happens at
least once every issue or every chapter.
So it's gonna be like, oh,
to really get you to stay into it.
And then you get to introduce to a
bit more of the team of the war
effort that they'll be gonna be brought
into.
So I'm really excited about that.
Dude, I like it.
The first issue was so good.
And the character you're talking about,
I think,
is the one that we get slightly introduced
to at the end of chapter one or
end of issue one.
He gave me a strong... What's his name?
From the D&D show on Amazon.
I've watched all of it, but I can't
quite remember what it's called.
I am legit brain farting.
That's going to drive me crazy.
It's based off a real D&D game and
everything.
Right?
I'm not sure.
Oh, Boss Machina.
Yep.
Yeah.
He reminded me of one of the characters
from that show.
Like the ears,
the way he dressed and everything.
It was like a combination of two different
characters from The Legend of Boss
Machina.
I believe I know what two characters are
missing in there.
Yeah.
One carries a big gun and a trench
coat and the other one's got pointy ears
and a sister.
Yeah.
That's the vibes I immediately got as soon
as I see him.
I was like, ooh.
I'm like...
I mean,
I hadn't talked to you at that point,
but I was like, oh,
that's kind of like some D&D vibes on
this.
And that was before I knew it actually
had some D&D influence.
So good Easter egging, man.
I like it.
I like it.
I'm hoping people can definitely pick out
classes and subclasses as they start
coming out the issues.
I'm sure as the story goes,
that will become easier to do.
Like right now, yep, got it.
We got a thief.
And then we just had the guy show
up at the very end of the issue.
So I was just like,
and I can't remember what he's called off
the top of my head because I'm just
like out of it.
like coming out of a four day week
and you're still kind of like,
I don't think you officially woken up to
the new week that it's not a,
you know, a holiday anymore.
So, but definitely, definitely it,
I'm sure by issue four and five,
people would be like, oh,
that's a paladin.
Oh, that's a barbarian.
And, you know,
you'll be able to point that out easier
and better.
So,
and that's something to look forward to
actually is, you know,
the new characters as they get introduced
and like kind of encourage people and get
a piece of paper and write,
write it down.
Like, oh, that'll be Jack.
He's a thief, you know, or this character,
he's a barbarian.
It just,
you read along heck yeah um bullpen on
the back of my um all of my
comments like a bullpen like a editorial
and an email where people who read it
can definitely email me and i want to
eventually start featuring some of those
emails in the comic but uh that's really
i definitely encourage yeah yeah i would
love to take care of your fans people
that's that's a that's a good one take
care of your fans
My emails on my social media for creators
to always be able to contact me and
to try to schedule shows and that kind
of stuff.
I get a lot of emails that way.
It leads to great shows like the one
we're having today.
I'm a big email guy.
I would rather you email me.
Message me, yes,
and then I'll give you the email.
I will, of course,
correct you to email because
emails, it feels official, right?
If a fan emails you, it feels official.
And it's very,
from that kind of perspective,
it's rewarding because you know they
enjoyed
what they read and they want to reach
out and contact you to go hey i
enjoyed this character i noticed these
things about him is he this you know
it and it creates you know friendships and
it creates uh you know it's working
basically you know what you have done what
you have produced is working so i really
like that concept of you even being
possibly they they're
make it to the back of the comic
book right that's something really cool to
possibly happen for somebody a lucky fan
so but what kind of challenged you most
the most creatively this time around on
the next book what kind of challenge um
i feel like i'm perfecting well
nothing's ever perfect but i'm getting a
real groove of how i'm producing these
comics uh the company that i'm printing
comic wellsprings trying to get on to them
to include like a badge to partner with
them that's gonna be really cool but i
feel like the hardest part is actually
selling the comic finding places to go and
uh just show people my comic i think
that's actually the biggest um stumbling
point that i'm finding
There's no real distribution either.
You can't just go to a distribution center
and be like, hey, this is my book.
I'd like to get into comic book stores.
Have you talked to Philbo?
Talk to Philbo.
Tell him my message.
H-I-L-B-O.
Philbo Distribution.
That'd be interesting.
I've done some book signings.
I did a book signing at Digger's comic
book shop in Hemet.
And I met Mike.
I'm probably going to butcher his last
name.
It's Kuntel.
And he does Hero Bear.
And that was super incredible to meet
somebody that was actually in the line of
what you want to do.
And he said, you know,
you're doing really good, you know,
making your own choices,
making your own kind of business.
Because then you learn, you know,
any mistakes you make are your own and
no one's going to come for you.
You have the onus on it, right?
Yeah.
At the end of the day,
you're going to eat your own failures no
matter what.
Even if you have a company,
your failures are your failures.
You write them down.
You plan them.
Not plan them.
You write them down.
You ask yourself the whys.
Why did this fail?
What could I have done differently?
And you own them.
And that's everything.
Own your mistakes.
You know?
But let's look ahead.
We're going to look ahead.
Issue three will be the next one, right?
Yes.
And I...
like all creatives,
we think ahead of ourselves, right?
I try to stay one to two interviews
ahead.
I've not been doing a good job with
that lately, and I will own that.
That's on me.
But what has you the most excited about,
you know, issue three?
No spoilers, of course, but...
really excited for issue three um because
it's the issue that i've added in between
the manifest or the the manuscript so it's
not something that i've previously written
um going okay so this is new new
stuff added to your hundred thousand word
story that you had previously written
format
was really incredible because i did first
person from thelby jack's point of view
and opening it up to comic book and
to the visuals i can jump around um
yeah so it's kind of going to focus
a little bit on the crown and you're
going to get a little bit more of
their storyline i've had quite a few
people mention to me that they really like
adonis and they want to see more of
adonis which is like the big muscular guy
training um in issue one and
You're going to get more of that backstory
and you're going to be introduced to some
of those characters,
which I think is a big part of
Dolby Jack.
It's his enemies.
You're only as great as your villains.
I'm super excited to show off my bad
guys.
Dude, everybody is.
I think everybody should be.
Bad guys in my world honestly make or
break stories.
How unique are they?
You know,
how deep do you go into them?
And I know there's a lot of villains
that are just throwaway villains,
and they have their time and their place,
right?
But a good, in-depth,
well-thought-out villain, to me,
just goes so much further than a throwaway
villain.
Like I said, though,
you need those throwaway villains,
but that's why you have an army.
You have an army as the villain.
Those are your throwaways.
But somebody like Adonis, who is like...
We see a little bit of him in
issue one.
Those guys, like those are good, strong,
hard villains.
They should have a fleshed out story.
Exactly.
And you'll kind of get a glimpse on
how they run their kingdom and how they
run their military too.
You'll get introduced to the four horsemen
kind of system that they got going on.
Nice.
Is it going to be based off the
four horsemen of the apocalypse?
Is that the feel it's going to have?
It's going in that direction, yeah.
Nice.
I love that.
cool little you know things like that
tossed into stories where you can almost
pick out the story or the thought behind
it to me those are the coolest things
ever but and i know this is already
a well fleshed out hundred thousand word
novel originally that is now being picked
apart into pieces to made into a comic
book and as you just said issue three
isn't even a part of the original novel
that you had written
With that being said,
do you already know where the larger story
is headed,
or has that also changed since you
originally wrote it as the novel?
I still believe that I have an idea
of where the story's going.
Stories definitely have an idea of
grabbing you and telling you where they
want to go,
but
for the most part,
I believe that I have a really good
idea where this first chapter is going to
end.
Um,
they'll be Jack seeds of ruin leads into
something more, uh, roots of wrath.
And they're just,
I think we call it in D and
D, um, a cataclysmic event.
So I kind of, I based my,
my plot points about that.
So whenever something happens,
that shake of the world, we're gonna,
we're gonna split that up.
But,
I have quite a few of those mapped
out, and I'm really excited to get there.
Dude, those are always the funnest thing.
And those are the ones you can go
a little bit further on in the comic
book.
Instead of twenty-two pages,
you can do twenty-eight pages, right?
And that's what's great about comic books.
You can do that.
A novel is a novel,
and it's done when it's done, right?
But comic book, you can play with.
You can give a little more.
You can give a little less.
And I like that about comic books.
But you ready for a lightning round?
Yeah.
Let's do it.
Favorite fantasy world?
Definitely D&D.
If I have to go into something that's
more pinned down, God of War.
I definitely love how their gods are like
in that station.
God of War has D&D elements to it.
So, I mean, everything can roll back.
Definitely.
with a nat twenty and have some type
of dnd feel to it so there we
go your favorite fantasy sword oh oh
there's so many um so here's hot cake
the the word of god is uh technically
a sword in the bible a flaming
double-edged sword yeah and
I think that's my favorite concept.
It is a dope concept.
Yeah.
That is a really dope concept.
If I had to pick one,
and I've not really thought about it,
but off the cuff,
in The Legend of Vos Machina,
the barbarian gets a sword that feeds on
blood.
That was such a dope concept.
That one is a good one.
So I would probably go with that one
right now.
That's sick.
And I would ask you coffee or energy
drink,
but you've been nursing on a C-floor for
a hot minute.
You know, I'm not sponsored,
but this new pink lemonade flavor,
I keep seeing videos of content creators
pouring that out.
Definitely targeted to me.
But yeah, energy drink.
I'm a coffee guy.
I'm fueled on coffee and hate, man.
Are you a physical comic guy or do
you prefer digital?
physical definitely a physical i have a
subscription to global comics but
something about filling those pages in
your fingers is just it so much better
dude i'm with you the smell the fill
of the different types of paper and
everybody's doing something a little
different now with their paper and nothing
will ever be physical copies to me but
um what do you think is um
one comic everyone should read at least
once i think all-time superman really
messed me up um i think everyone should
read all-time superman it's fair enough
yeah um i wasn't really even a superman
fan until i read all-time superman
here's a hot take um i don't like
smallville you know what funny story about
smallville when i when smallville come out
i never it took me a while to
put two and two together to get smallville
was the story of superman when he was
growing up i didn't realize it for quite
a while that that's what that was don't
ask me why don't ask me how it
just took me out a little bit longer
okay
my aunt loved Smallville.
So, you know,
and it will come on late or early
or whatever.
And so she'd be sleeping on the couch
or laying on the couch and I'll be
playing with something young and
Smallville will come on.
And I just remember almost every fight
scene I can remember,
it was Clark grabbing him and throwing
him.
And then the fight was like done.
Obviously I didn't have that so much time
in the Smallville,
but that just always kind of,
I don't like it.
So I'm not a big Superman fan,
but from a Superman perspective,
the death of Superman is by far my
favorite.
And I, to this day,
will swear it should have ended that day.
When Superman was killed,
he should have stayed dead.
It'd be done.
That way there was a finality to it
instead of us getting...
Muddy water from it.
You know.
Because that's all we got out of it.
Was a bunch of muddy water.
So.
But that's just my hot take.
And again.
I'm not a.
I'm not a big DC guy.
Even though I got a Batman slab sitting
back there.
But.
And that's just me though.
I've never been that big into DC.
There's certain Batman stories I do enjoy.
But the death of Superman was one where.
I felt should have been a finality.
Like he should be dead.
But.
It's not on me.
There's still billions of dollars to be
made.
So of course he's not going to stay
dead.
But before we start closing this out,
I want to give you an opportunity to,
if there's anything that we did not get
to discuss or something that you wanted to
discuss that I may have missed,
I want to give you a few minutes
to kind of touch on anything that you
would want to touch on before we start
closing this out.
All right.
I'm really excited to, you know,
tell this story to everybody watching,
everybody seeing this.
You know, check out Asheville Comics.
Keep watching.
Share, man.
You know,
thank you so much for letting me be
a part of this podcast.
It's definitely been amazing.
You're part of the best podcast
experience.
Heck yeah.
I was happy to, you know,
join the groups and everything like that.
But don't give up.
You know, keep going.
Whatever you're dreaming,
whatever you want to accomplish,
it's within your drafts as long as you
don't give up.
And that's what I'm learning, you know.
There it is.
You covered everything I want to cover.
Perfect.
Where can we pick up Delby Jack?
So if you are a digital person,
I have Delby Jack on Global Comics,
free to read with a Global Comics
subscription.
That's not how I make my
bread and butter but i want to make
sure it's accessible to everybody who can
read it if you are a physical person
check out comics.one c-o-m-i-x dot one
they print indie comics on demand you can
definitely get them there and then um if
you want to buy your own digital i
have it on my website actualcomic.com
Shout out to Saul Robb.
That's my dude.
That's the only way I can remember how
to say his name is Saul Robb.
Heck yeah.
I just added him on Discord.
I follow their comic well-screened
Discord.
He was on there.
I started following him.
He was on not that long ago.
He's super smart,
and I love what they're doing over at
Comet Stop One,
and I will always give them a shout-out.
So shout-out to Saw Rob.
That's my dude.
Stay with me now.
Dude, so when he was on,
I was trying to – I was like,
hey,
what's the best way to say your name,
or how do you tell people to say
your name?
And he was like, oh,
he's like Saw Rob.
rob i was like oh so like and
what the image when he did that was
like uh macho man randy savage in the
first spider-man movie with the bone saw
you know he was all like so that's
where that that's how i remember it in
my head is i associated with that and
that's how i'm able to to pronounce his
name but um what's your website let people
know where they can find the website
ashvillecomics.com um a-s-h-v-e-i-l dot
com no a-s-h-v-e-i-l comics.com uh you can
find me there you can find me on
all of my socials instagram tiktok
facebook under the same ashville comics
it's also on the screen there heck yeah
uh
Yeah, reach out and say hi.
I'm always looking for new followers.
I'm responsive and I hope to be coming
out with all sorts of new materials.
Oh,
one thing I didn't mention for the new
Kickstarter.
I don't know if you got to see
it.
I made stickers.
There you go.
So I'm going to be taking stickers with
me to all of my conventions,
all of my events.
Once I learn how to sell those online,
I'll be learning how to do that.
But yeah, say hi.
Say hi.
There we go.
One last thing.
Anything you would like to say directly to
everyone watching before I hit the outro?
Support Indie Comics.
Oh, yeah.
Perfect.
I love that.
Keep it simple,
and that's the way to do it.
But Frank,
thank you for joining us and sharing your
journey with the Council.
Building an original fantasy universe is
never easy,
but conversations like this remind us of
why independent comics continue to thrive.
we appreciate you spending some time with
us tonight frank um and to everyone
watching if you enjoyed this conversation
be sure to like this video subscribe to
the channel and let us know in the
comments why fantasy world has stayed with
you the longest
Support independent creators wherever you
can.
We'll see you on the next one.
Until next time,
the Council of Nerds is adjourned.
This has been the USDN Podcast,
where indie comics come to life.
Y'all stay safe out there.