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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.
And tonight, the lights are flickering,
the subway tracks are trembling,
and somewhere in the storm-soaked streets
of the city, a single donor heart...
may decide the fate of everything.
Join us.
Inside the Council of Nerds tonight is
Steve, who is an educator, a writer,
editorial director of Comics Asylum,
and co-creator of the new action suspense
thriller, Atrium,
which is the first official creator-owned
comic from Comics Asylum.
Steve, welcome to the show.
It's a pleasure to be here.
That's awesome.
And you know what?
I could have kept jamming to your intro
music.
That's awesome.
Peak.
Unbelievable.
Love it.
Shout out to black over at the smoke
pit for creating that for me.
And the voice of Vader in that is
done by our friend,
Frank D of the no gimmicks podcast.
Nice.
Nice.
We have a special podcast with him and
another one of our council members
launching in January that everybody's
going to want to stay tuned for.
I'm not going to give that away yet.
Cause that one is a big surprise.
So Steve,
Everybody meeting Atrium for the first
time.
That was the elevator pitch.
All right.
So Atrium is about two paramedics who are
tasked with delivering a donor heart to a
mysterious patient.
But on route,
they and their security detail are
intercepted by a group of deadly assassins
who happen to be vampires.
That's the curve right there.
That's the one that got me about.
I think it happens about halfway through.
on the subway is when we, well,
just before the subway,
I think we kind of get the first
hint that there are vampires.
And I was just like,
I was not expecting it.
So when the vampire like first did his
little red eyes and the fangs come out,
I was like, well, damn,
I wasn't expecting that.
I was expecting like, you know,
just assassins.
But instead we got, you know,
Nosferatu meets the transporter a little
bit there.
Yeah, a little bit.
You know,
the crew here at Comics Asylum Publishing,
we totally love those kind of movies.
Oh, yeah.
One, two, three.
We grew up in the eighties.
So stuff like, you know,
Predator and Die Hard, The Lethal Weapons.
And then obviously vampires and monsters
are a big part of our, I guess,
you know, early tutelage in nerddom.
So we love that stuff along with comic
books.
And we decided, why not make something?
that would kind of combine some of the
best elements of the things that we grew
up either reading or watching it
definitely hits all our favorite elements
from the eighties and nineties of you know
action we had some it was a couple
of moments that feel almost like blade a
little bit in there and i was like
it was like for those out there if
you need something to read this holiday
break
Grab Atrium.
It won't let you down because it was
full of action from start to finish.
There's not a dull moment in it.
And it's just a phenomenal,
phenomenal book.
And Comics Asylum come out swinging out
the gate on their very first creator-owned
comic.
Thanks for the kind words.
Really appreciate that.
This has been a long time.
kind of like getting Atrium to where it
is now.
We just finished the Kickstarter for the
graphic novel.
And that combines the first five issues,
which are what we had as our first,
I guess, three Kickstarters.
And we were trying to figure out like,
do we do it as a graphic novel?
And then do we do it as like
single issues?
And it was one of those things where
the single issues work well because of
like serialized.
Like if you think like those old radio
shows or even like the cartoons we grew
up watching.
Yeah.
Tune in next week because.
And our goal was to end every issue
on a cliffhanger.
and that's some of my favorite comic books
right there yeah absolutely because like i
remember as a kid i don't know spider-man
would be falling off a building or
something like that or hoax what a hoax
villains would show up or iron man would
do something and be in a in peril
and it's like i gotta wait three weeks
for the next one hey here we are
in our forties and i still like like
Thank God this one's every two weeks
because now I'm like,
I'll be the first in line.
And as soon as I'm out at the
comic book shop and I'm sitting back at
work, I'm like.
Exactly.
I got time to squeeze this one in.
I got to get to it.
So let's jump and talk about a little
bit about Comic Asylum.
Y'all been in the industry since twenty
fourteen.
What made y'all want to leap into
publishing comics?
it was one of those things where,
you know, my partner Vaughn and I,
we started comics asylum and it was like
a digital interactive magazine that you
would want,
like you could read it on the,
on the iPad.
And so we would embed movie trailers and
we would do articles on upcoming movies as
well as it was kind of like wizard
magazine, two point.
Oh, um,
more of a digitized version of that.
And then we always wanted to make our
own books.
And I had worked in a comic book
studio here in Toronto.
And before I actually got to do my
own book, the studio kind of disbanded.
But that desire had been there from since
I was a kid.
So I remember as a kid when I
was like, you know, maybe grade two,
three, four,
I'd always either be doodling in class.
And then when I got, you know,
proficient enough,
I would make my own comics after school.
Wouldn't do any homework,
piss off my parents.
And, you know,
and so I would just make my own
books.
And my buddy, Vaughn, he's Vaughn Joseph,
who's the editorial director along with
myself.
And he also does all the great design
work that you see all over Atrium as
well as our websites.
We were like,
let's see if we can make our own.
And so we had this idea percolating and
we decided we'll go with this one because
the story was complete.
And we felt that it was kind of
one of those things where we love
superheroes,
but this story we just had to tell.
No, y'all know,
I want to take a second real quick.
Shout out to Toronto,
who is a sleeper city for talented comic
writers and artists.
I think you're my third person from
Toronto this year.
As far from an indie creator standpoint,
and there's not been a single bad one
from PowerScape, The Plague.
I think they're all based in Toronto.
Greg,
I don't know if you're familiar with Greg,
the most handsome man in the world who's
so handsome you take one look and your
head will explode.
Shout out to Nerd in the Sky.
I love that guy.
He is so fun.
Y'all are killing it, man.
Y'all are phenomenal up there.
I don't know if it's something in the
water or what y'all got going on,
but y'all are producing some amazing
comics up there.
Yeah, from indie to mainstream,
there's a lot of talent in Toronto,
southern Ontario especially,
because if you cast a wide net,
you can have people like Dave Finch,
who's like a longtime stalwart in the
industry.
We've got Jason Liu,
who's doing stuff for Marvel.
Francis Manipal,
who's doing stuff for Ghost Machine.
And I really like his current book right
now.
That book's a lot of fun to read.
The Rockefellers?
Yeah, Rocketfellas is one of my faves.
Yeah, same.
Jason Fabok is in the reach as well
too.
Rookets it is.
Absolutely,
and that's another banger book.
Dude,
I shout Ghost Machine from the top of
my lungs every chance I get the
opportunity.
The smartest thing Image ever did was nail
those guys down and allow them to have
Ghost Machine under their print for Image.
Yeah,
and I think – I'm not sure if
I'm mistaken,
but I think Red Coat –
just got a movie deal just got a
movie deal it was it is announced last
week which simon pure god bless that
handsome rugged idiot of a red coat that's
gonna be a fun movie because there's so
much they can do with him and he
is the luckiest idiot to grace a comic
book
Yeah, totally.
And so it's almost like having that much
talent in one area,
It almost feeds the energy for other
creators that are like maybe on the
outside thinking that, can I do it?
Can I not do it?
But also when you go to the shows
like Fan Expo or Toronto Comic Con or
Niagara Falls or even like traveling up
the four one to to Montreal and you
go to their cons as well, too,
you you're able to run into a wide
range of creators, both as well as pros.
Yeah, it's amazing.
And this has been a year of discovery
and growth for me on a personal
perspective when it comes to comic books
and stuff like that.
Because I've learned about a whole lot of
Italian comic book writers and artists
this year.
Canadians, South Americans,
my good friend Francisco Nilo down in
Argentina, who's always doing his part.
That's a reference to what's the movie
with the space buds?
Mars Attacks?
No, that's not Mars Attacks.
Starship Troopers.
Starship Troopers.
So that's the running joke down there.
Anytime they see their friends, it's like,
hey, we're doing our part.
And it's always funny to me.
It's always funny to him.
That's how we greet each other whenever I
have him on the podcast now.
So it's been a great year of discovery
and growth for me from a comic book
perspective.
And I think having the podcast really
helps me when I dig in a little
deeper and a little bit more.
So that's been really amazing.
So did the Comics Asylum audience help
shape this project in any kind of way?
Or was this just a love child of
y'all?
This actually predates Comics Asylum.
This idea was kicking around probably
like.
Fifteen years ago.
where our letterer greg parkin shout out
to him and the great work he did
on the on the title uh he was
in contact with some people and they were
thinking of maybe doing a short film
And so we decided, well,
maybe we can take this idea that we
have and, you know,
because it's got very few locations,
we can do it for a small budget.
And that's where it kind of started.
And then basically it was like being
outside of the industry,
how do we get this thing made?
And it was kind of like before things
like KDP and self-publishing,
this was back in the days where like
Ashcans were the big kind of indie way
to get books out.
yeah before you know you can go to
big printers that we have nowadays and get
full color runs of your stuff uh and
from there we reworked the story a few
times um had some stops and starts looking
for artists and then um we were lucky
enough believe it or not to find lucas
falapi who is the superstar artist on our
uh book we're so fortunate to have him
Yeah, I love the art on this.
Yeah, he totally, totally killed it.
And we found him on Twitter because
someone else had a shout-out looking for
an artist,
and he had his stuff in the thread.
I was in the middle of trying to
figure out what we were going to do
next because we had just lost our artist.
and saw him ask the guys they said
yup then contacted lucas and as they say
the rest is history so much so that
in a few days i'm going to be
heading to brazil into uh to sao paulo
where lucas lives and we're going to be
doing an in-store signing down there and
lucas that's amazing
Yeah, it's been a crazy ride.
Would you be okay with showing them some
of the art?
Absolutely.
And Lucas actually translated it into
Portuguese.
So it's going to be a lot of
fun.
Yeah, that's what you were telling me.
That's really, really awesome.
This always gets me.
I'm going to do a share screen.
And then...
Let me bring it.
You know what?
I have to bring it up first.
I got to be smarter than it.
It didn't scroll up.
Now I can do it.
Here we go.
Share.
Now I can add it.
There we go.
That wasn't difficult.
So this was a really,
really awesome cover.
And it does a really good job of
selling what the story is about.
It was interesting because,
and thank you for that.
That's all Lucas.
We,
I think it was Gail Simone was on
Twitter,
either Twitter or Instagram or something.
And she just had like a random,
you know, show me what you're working on.
And so we shared the cover and she's
like, I'd buy that.
That's when we kind of knew.
She's another one that's criminally
underrated and I hate that.
Agreed.
She's hilarious on social media and likes
to needle us.
Anyone who's reading her tweets and stuff.
She's on point.
I enjoyed her X-Men run.
The one that she's currently on.
It's been fun.
The artist whose name slips my mind is
phenomenal on that run.
Look at this art.
I love this style of art.
it it's it's just so good like the
focus is on the actual characters and not
necessarily the background until you get
to something like this and then they go
all out on the background yeah
Lucas, Lucas was fantastic on this.
He did an amazing job.
And one of the reasons why we liked
his work is because of how gritty it
is.
Yes.
I say this all the time.
And if anyone's seen me online talking
about HM or comics in general,
the art is just like, you know,
being a casting director.
And so if you're telling a certain type
of story,
you want a certain type of artwork,
just like you would want a certain type
of actor or even a cinematographer for
whatever your movie is going to be.
And Lucas kind of was able to capture
like the grittiness and the dark shadows
of the not only the city and the
situation, but also the subway tunnels.
And I just loved how he had a
personal touch to every single character.
They had their own individual look.
Yeah,
that was really amazing to see because
it's not like a lot of the times
with a comic like this, they can just,
you know, what's the word I'm looking for?
I don't want to say call it in.
They'll just call it in where everybody
kind of looks the same.
But each individual face,
each individual character had their own
personality.
It's always amazing to see that in an
indie comic.
And it's just that's one of those things,
even in Marvel and DC,
sometimes you can tell when the artist is
kind of tired of doing it and they
just are calling it in at that point.
You can tell where they've reused panels
and reused art from other, you know,
previous, you know, issues.
We notice that people,
we notice that artists, writers out there,
we notice when you call it in.
yeah you can you can kind of tell
and also to you know to be fair
deadlines can be kind of crazy in this
industry so it's kind of one of those
things like what's what's my shorthand and
can you use the shorthand to help you
reach your deadline but the beauty you
there steve right the beauty of the beauty
of indie okay you're back now we lost
you for about a half a second there
Okay, great.
Good to know that I'm back.
As I was saying,
the beauty of indie is that you don't
have to worry about deadlines, right?
It's one of those things where it's like,
if you need four weeks to do the
artwork,
you have four weeks to do the artwork.
And it was also great going back and
forth with Lucas because he would draw
something that we wouldn't necessarily
have written or wouldn't have seen it the
way that he represented it.
And we're like, yo,
he nailed it better than we wrote it.
So it's all good.
yeah so when you storyboarded this thing
like did you tell him like how to
face the people and like emotions did you
give him all that in advance or did
you just give him the story and be
like hey here you go
Yeah, no, gave him the script,
told him to, you know,
just kind of represent it the best way
that he thought.
If he if I wrote like my writing
partner, Peter Van Horn and I,
if we'd given him a five panel page
and he thought it would be better with
a four panel layout or six panel layout
to just go ahead and do that.
That's awesome.
I know there's some artists out there.
I know last,
I think a week and a half ago,
I had Sabe on who's Italian.
He does a shock hit at Peter,
which is another phenomenal,
phenomenal book by Ethan and Jess.
And he,
I know he likes very detailed notes in
the story.
Like, like, Hey, let's try this angle.
And like,
he's big about getting the emotions of the
characters.
Like what do you want them to display?
Yeah.
Is it at a nighttime scene or a
daytime scene?
He likes to get that in the notes
of the story.
But that's him.
He's very good at what he does, obviously.
I don't know if you've had a chance
to check out Shockhead at Peter,
but it's some phenomenal,
phenomenal artwork in there.
And there's a lot of Italian influence,
small city Italy influences in it.
Very beautiful book.
But
What has been your most surprising part of
this transition into doing this comic book
now that you've done it versus what you
were doing just on a daily basis for
Comics Asylum?
I think the biggest part of it is
just realizing how much of a machine
making a comic book is and how much
like I knew how much work has gone
into it because like I said,
I think we were talking about it before
we came on air that I was part
of a comic book studio with Ken Lashley.
Right.
I didn't mention this part,
but it was with Ken Lashley here in
Toronto.
And so we were working on like rising
stars and ghost and a couple of Marvel
books and DC books way as well as
doing toy design.
And so like, you knew how,
like how pressure packed it could be.
Yeah.
But it wasn't until we were doing this
and then you're finding out like, okay,
almost creating it's the easiest part,
like writing it easy.
Drawing, difficult,
way more heavy lifting than the writing.
But again, easy.
It's then putting it together,
doing the crowdfunding,
doing the fulfillment,
doing the social media,
coming on amazing podcasts such as this,
running our own podcast.
Thank you.
Yeah, you're a busy man.
Because I was going to say,
you have your own podcast as well that
you're doing in between all of this.
Yeah.
And part of it's promotion.
And part of it is also- That's where
a lot of Kickstarters and stuff like that
fell is they don't- I don't want to
say they don't have the funds to promote.
It's that they just don't promote.
Promotions are free.
Coming on a podcast like this is free.
Yeah.
I mean, it is one of those where,
like when I'm advertising for interviews
on Facebook and Instagram and Blue Sky
where you contacted me, I make it easy.
I tell you like, hey,
all you have to do is send me
an email or shoot me a message and
we will make something work because I
believe every independent comic deserves
this chance in the spotlight and have its
voice heard.
You're doing great work.
You're doing great work.
No lie.
I appreciate it.
And ever since I made this transition over
to doing this,
it's been completely a hundred percent
amazing.
I've got had some of the best people
in the world on,
and I've gotten to read a lot of
great comments that I may not have had
the opportunity to read or would have
never read because they would have never
seen the light of day.
And every time I see a successful
Kickstarter from somebody who was on the
podcast, I'm like,
little wins, I stack them up.
Yeah.
You know what?
We're all part of the same community.
Um,
even though we're separated by borders and
oceans and whatnot, we're all, you know,
we all love the medium.
And so any little bit that can help
totally goes a long way.
And like,
I even think about when we were starting
and reaching out to call Kershaw,
who does death, uh,
death transit Tanager up in Montreal.
I called him and reached out to him
and I said, hey,
what is it about shipping that you can
help us with?
He gave us some options.
Right now,
shipping is horrible out of Canada.
It's not cheap.
It's not cheap.
With just the current economic climate,
getting it printed and then getting it
shipped.
If you're not in the same country also
has its challenges.
So it's all these little things like,
you know,
when I'm doing interviews for comics
asylum and I'm at a con and you're
talking to an indie, um, creator, um,
or even a professional creator who's
working for Marvel or DC or,
or boom or something like that,
the questions that you ask give you
insight into then how you can help
yourself or even other creators, you know,
kind of get over some of the hurdles
that you would experience that you
wouldn't even think about.
Right.
When you're creating.
Yeah.
No, we recently, we,
as in the network and we went to,
Cape con in, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri,
shout out to Cape con and that team
over there.
They,
they put together a phenomenal con twice a
year.
They have a Cape con and then they
have an anime con as well.
And we were there for Cape con.
We got to go in, set up,
do our podcast live from there.
Great experience,
great learning experience.
It was my first time doing a panel
at a con.
Nice.
And I can't wait to do many,
many more because those are such a good
time.
Not only that,
it puts you on the ground with your
audience.
And so like you get direct feedback on
not only like how enthusiastic people are
about a given comic or a given con,
but sometimes even what you're doing.
So like when we would table at a
show for HROM,
the feedback you get either from the
elevator pitch or the very fact that
someone is willing to give you their
hard-earned money and they don't know
anything about you,
is the greatest validation you can ask for
as absolutely right we don't have the
machine of like dc or or disney with
marvel behind you to kind of like you
know get your word out there and so
having
having that kind of a response is great.
And even better is when you go to
do a show the next year and they're
like, Hey, do you got issue two?
That's even better.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's a few local people here that I'm
waiting for the,
like their next issue of their comic books
to come out.
But every time I see them,
they're in the same hurdle.
I'm like, dude, come on the podcast.
Let's get you a Kickstarter going.
Let's get issue two made man.
And you know, here,
I can only lead that horse to water
so many times.
Like I've even told him like, Hey,
I've never done a Kickstarter personally
yet,
but I'm more than willing to sit down
and together and we can figure this out.
So yeah,
Yeah, no, no, no.
That's a great offer.
And there are people that you could reach
out to.
Like when we were trying to figure out
some of the ins and outs,
we had outreach.
And for the most part,
the thing about comics is there's not too
much gatekeeping.
It's really not.
And that's what's great about it.
And I have a good friend who actually
was the very first creator that came on
the USDN in Bruno Caterino.
He's Portuguese, lives in the UK.
He was a very perverse person who reached
out to me when I first decided I
want to interview indie creators.
He was the very first one,
and he's been on the podcast multiple
times now.
Bruno's great.
He really is.
We've had him on the pod as well,
too, on the stream, and he's great.
He really is.
It's super smart and very,
very humble about what he does.
He has created a kind of like a
Kickstarter lessons learned or just
lessons learned in general about
Kickstarters and indie comics and that
kind of stuff.
He's got two volumes now.
of that and i'm like anytime i have
a new creator on who's never done it
before i'm like hey i have some good
resources i'm going to send those to you
because bruno's just like he sent it to
me he's like hey anybody who comes to
you with any type of questions that you
don't have answers to maybe this will help
them and he gave it to me to
pass to other creators and stuff like that
so like anytime i have somebody i'm like
hey is this your first time i have
some really good lessons learned from my
good friend bruno let me send that over
to you
And then they were like, oh, yeah,
we'll take that.
We'll take it and we'll, you know,
use it.
So it's been really awesome.
And I'm so glad he gets around.
He's such a good guy.
Yeah,
his last campaign was a lot of fun.
And then I think on our on our
the Crimson Bay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was a lot.
I actually just got it not that long
ago.
He's in a box already.
But yeah, Crimson Bay was really good.
Yeah, no, he's great.
And that's the thing too, right?
Like there's so many people who are in
the same space.
You might be a few steps ahead or
a few steps behind and everyone's just
willing to kind of push everyone along
because the goal is to have everyone's
stuff out there because the public needs
great stories.
And it's not just-
And I hate seeing like people treat it
like a competition.
I don't like seeing it as a competition.
I don't see it as a competition.
The more people we can get out there
and fund it in their stories with eyes
on them and read and enjoyed the better.
So those gatekeeping cut the shit out.
You're a hundred and ten percent correct
on that one.
Like, I just think that.
you know,
even if it's something you may not read,
the fact that another creator has put a
book out there means that there's another
type of reader who comes into the
industry, right?
And it becomes aware of it.
And sometimes, and this is, you know,
thank my daughter for this one.
you're not ready for,
for everything all at the same time.
Right.
So, you know,
when I was watching anime with her,
like I have my old school anime,
you know,
she would have liked other stuff,
fairy tale and stuff like that.
But then I got to appreciate the ones
that she liked.
And now that opens up another kind of
avenue of stuff for me to either watch
or read.
No, my,
my daughter has been a big anime head
manga fan for years.
And at first I didn't know what manga
was.
I knew what anime was and I knew
she watched it.
And then when she was getting into manga,
I'm like, I don't know what that is.
What is that?
And she's like, well,
it's like a comic book, but from Japan.
I was like, okay, where,
where do we get it from?
She's like any bookstore.
I'm like, okay,
well go get in the car and let's
go.
And I take her and she pissed out
what she wants.
And I'm like,
The price isn't bad on them.
Some of them are a little pricey depending
on who it is and how rare they
are.
Some of hers I still have on auto
just because I set it up on Amazon.
The new issue drops.
Amazon gets it.
Amazon sends it to my house.
I open it up,
stick it on her shelf.
I had a friend of mine recently.
He's like, hey,
does your daughter read manga?
I was like, yeah, she does.
She's very into it.
And he's like, oh, well,
my daughter was wanting to get into it.
I'm like, okay, let her.
He's like, well, you know, I'm like, dude,
your daughter is asking you to read.
Like, it's a comic book.
Let her read.
She wants to read.
He's like, well,
when you put it like that, I'm like,
dude, she's asking you to read.
Don't be mad because your kid is reading.
I don't care what it is.
They're reading.
He's like, you know what?
That's a good point.
No, yeah, that's a great point.
I remember like I'm a former teacher.
And so I taught K to six when
I was when I was working.
And they are they are an absolute joy.
They'll make you laugh and cry at the
same time.
But I remember when I was a kid,
like I had tons of comic books,
like tons of comic books.
I would always kind of like this is
back in the days.
Yes, I'm an old head, everyone.
You can get them for twenty five cents
and then you were outraged when they were
thirty five cents.
Right.
But we would go down,
ride our bikes to the variety store,
pick up like seven or eight comics and
you can get, you know,
from DC and Marvel or Archie or whatever.
Oh, Archie.
I still love Archie to this day.
I think they have some of the best
horror out there.
Anytime Halloween rolls around,
I know there's going to be fresh Archie
horror on the shelf.
And Dynamite just announced we're getting
Archie Army of Darkness.
Oh, wow.
That'll be good.
Yeah, that's going to be phenomenal.
And I was just like, man,
that's going to be amazing.
But Archie always has great Halloween
specials.
And so I don't get it on a
normal –
week in week out basis but Archie
Halloween specials guarantee I just tell
my comic shop that he knows by now
I've been seeing him for five years and
he's just like hey new Archie horror I'm
like dude don't even ask just put it
on my box dude I got it
Yeah, Archie does the best crossovers.
They really do.
Yeah, for sure.
And getting back to the books,
I remember as a kid,
the first time I ever heard the word
nanosecond was in a Superman comic.
And reading certain Fantastic Four and
Iron Man books because they're
science-based,
you get a vocab that you wouldn't normally
get if you weren't reading those kind of
things.
And so it's one of those things where
like, yes,
obviously comics have a certain kind of a
stigma or had a certain stigma and yes
they're not novels but the the vocabulary
in them it can be quite technical and
as long as you're reading and especially
in today's um environment where
everything's very visual being able to
have that visual literacy as well as the
words as well too just goes a long
way so no matter how it really does
just keep reading
like i say the same thing about music
and people are like well my kid wants
to do this in music okay do it
don't stop them my daughter's been playing
piano since she was three nice and she
still plays she she learned how to play
flute she learned how to play oboe then
she's like dad i want to learn how
to play guitar so i was like okay
well let's go find you a used guitar
and we got her a used guitar
Then we got her a used ukulele.
Nice.
She has two rooms in my house.
One room is music instruments and manga
and books.
Then she sleeps and does homework in the
other one.
She has her own little library in the
house.
That's amazing.
Except for the closet.
I took over the closet because I have
like thirty short boxes in there.
You know what?
As much as I love digital,
I still have to have the real deal.
It is something about it.
It's the smell, the feel of the page.
It's just so hard to...
And I try to explain it to people.
It's like going into that old bookstore.
Yes.
That old book smell,
but there's something about a freshly
printed single floppy issue of a comic
book.
It just feels so right in your hands.
Yes.
Yeah,
and I don't think it can be duplicated,
really.
It can't.
It really can't.
I love getting digital words.
I love reading digital words.
That's how I get most of my indie
books when people come on the podcast.
And I love reading those because I can
make the screen bigger and then I can
start finding little Easter eggs hidden.
But it's still just something about having
that page right in front of you that
is unbeatable.
Yeah, definitely.
And I think also, too –
There's something...
I'm not sure how to put it,
but when you're actually not looking at it
on the screen, the art pops differently.
Yes.
No, a hundred percent.
It's... I don't know how to put that,
but you get so many more details on
the page than you do with the computer
screen.
And...
you can you notice the little lines of
stuff you know the shading looks different
it's it's more defined on a actual printed
page it's yeah yeah it's that it's that
that ah yeah yeah that's it that feeling
it's that feeling right there let's talk
about your team steve
So Peter Van Horn has a background in
film.
You always have a background in film.
Talk to us about him and kind of
like what it was like working with him,
being a friend and knowing him for as
long as you have.
How was that like with y'all both hitting
this comic, you know, dead on together?
Well,
Peter and I have known each other for
years and I couldn't think of anyone else
to bring on board for the project.
And we've also, you know,
worked on films together.
We've done, you know,
some work as assistant directors for a
couple of films.
Peter writes screenplays and, you know,
we've worked together in terms of like
writing think tanks and stuff.
We've got some other ideas that are
cooking.
And so working with him is a joy
because it's kind of like
not quite Unimind,
but we kind of think the same way.
We kind of like the same shows,
group around the same time.
So, you know,
whether it's cartoons of the seventies or
police shows of the seventies and
eighties, you know,
mentioned some of the films earlier.
We kind of have that same sort of
DNA, creative DNA.
And so it's just great.
So if we have an idea,
if he has an idea and wants to
take the script in one way,
or I see it as a different way,
it's pretty easy to kind of,
find a spot that works,
even if you don't necessarily always
agree.
But that's perfect, though,
that you have somebody there.
Yeah, you're friends.
Yeah, you have very similar taste,
but they're also not afraid to say no
or hey, maybe yes instead.
And that to me is like the perfect
partnership to write, you know?
Yeah, it's absolutely necessary.
Like I was talking to
okay, I'll just put it out there.
The chairman is working on something.
I've already got my artist picked out with
Francisco.
Me and him are very similar taste when
it comes to horror comic books.
And he was just going to be the
perfect bet for me for this project.
But we were shooting ideas back and forth
and he hit me with something I didn't
even think about and a character I didn't
even think about for it.
I was like,
dude, no, that's perfect.
He's like, we're missing a third.
Because there's stories within stories
within stories.
And I had the first two down.
I knew what I was doing.
And he hit me one day randomly for
the third, the background story.
And I was just like, dude, that's amazing.
I'm like,
he hadn't even crossed my mind yet,
this character.
But he fits perfect into what we're trying
to do with this story.
So I was just like, yep,
save that email.
We went over to this one where we're
having our discussion because we're just
back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth.
You know, it's how you do it.
You know, when you're brainstorming,
he's my co-writer, he's my artist.
And yeah.
I'll probably reach out to some of the
other people who's been on the podcast
from an art perspective.
Like, hey,
would you be willing to do me a
cover for this book?
And it's going to be a fun book.
If you're big into universal monsters like
we are, it's going to be something fun.
Nice.
Nice.
Looking forward to that.
but so, and then you have your artists,
Lucas, the lobby.
Yeah, you got it.
You got it.
Right.
And you, we, we touched about,
were we live when we were talking about
him?
Are we still offline when we were talking
about it?
I think we might've been live, but, um,
okay.
But still Brazil,
you're heading down there soon to do a
in-store signing with him,
which is in a million years,
would you have thought you'd be flying to
Brazil?
to meet up with Lucas and sign Atrium
live in the store?
No, no.
Say Apollo of all places.
Yeah, no,
I it's kind of like it's wild,
like even even thinking back that this was
even a possibility when we started or even
going to the different cons across Canada
and in the US wouldn't have thought that
this was a possibility.
And actually finally being able to meet
Lucas is great because like
Countless Zoom meetings and catching up
with each other.
Not only what are you working on,
how far, what issue you're on,
how's the translation going,
that kind of stuff.
But also talking about each other's
families and just checking in to see how
each other are doing.
that's made this book even more special
because it's a team.
It's an international team.
You built a friendship with it, you know?
Yeah, absolutely.
And I'm just fortunate to be able to
have found Lucas and that working with him
has been such a tight fit,
but also he knocked it out of the
park.
Between Lucas.
He really did.
Oh, yeah.
And then the awesome colors by Nikos and
Mike Horst.
Yep.
That was next on the list.
Absolutely.
It's just absolutely, you know,
like when you like found gold kind of.
Oh, yeah.
And Nikos and I have been friends for
a long time.
I've done some artwork and he's done some
of the colors for it.
And he was a no brainer for us
to do this book.
and you know he helped us out a
lot in terms of like he's worked on
savage dragon with eric larson for years
severely severely underrated comic book
especially the earlier stuff from the
nineties because what i love about it is
like the nineties had this weird boom
where image just printed well not just
image but marvel dc everybody was printing
like it was going out of style yeah
like
Death of Superman isn't worth five bucks.
You know what I'm saying?
Because there were so many copies of that
printed.
I'm so happy that when they did this
thirtieth anniversary edition,
they just did earlier this year.
It didn't get a massive run.
So what we're having right now is the
thirtieth anniversary of the death of
Superman is worth more.
then the original death of superman
because the run was so ridiculous yes yeah
savage dragon from the nineties didn't get
uh just ridiculous runs like that and
neither did spawn i think young blood may
have had a kind of uh over you
know populated run but that was a rob
lightfield thing yeah
but yeah savage dragon's just always been
he's a fun character you know he's like
lobo and deadpool ugly baby yeah
definitely and and um you know working
with with nikos like we'd have
conversations as well too he's based out
of greece he and mike are out of
greece
Oh, nice.
Beautiful, beautiful area.
Oh, absolutely.
And, you know,
just with his talent and his eye and
just like both of them are just great,
great guys.
It also then helps when, you know,
you're working professionally and it's
like, hey, Steve,
you might want to tweak this with his
professional opinion on stuff.
And one of the things that, you know,
it's kind of like,
I don't know how else to put this,
but it's like, you know,
like when you have really talented people
in positions,
whether it's sports or whatever.
Oh, yeah.
Don't overmanage them.
Yeah, they know what they're doing.
Just let them run, right?
That's why you always surround yourself
with people smarter than you.
Absolutely.
All great leaders do it,
and it applies across the board.
Whether you're writing a comic book or
running a company,
surround yourself with people smarter than
you are.
Oh, definitely.
And, and we, we all kind of like,
we're like,
this is the way we're going to go
because we felt that we're going to get
more out of,
out of everyone on the team.
If you kind of let them kind of
like have loose shoulders,
if you know what I mean.
We're not going to leave out your letter,
Gregory Parkin,
who's worked on some iconic brands.
Yes, exactly.
I always say,
and I will say it to the day
I die,
lettering can make or break a comic book.
It could be the most beautiful book out
there.
It could have beautiful characters,
beautiful colors, beautiful line work,
a beautiful story.
But if those letterings are not where they
should be or they're covering up an
important piece of a story or...
just not where you want it to be,
it makes or break your comic book.
And also it could be over, you know,
convoluted with words on a page.
You don't want it to look like somebody
regurgitated the alphabet on a single page
of a comic book.
Unless the page is a splash page and
it's like, you know, like, hey, you know,
it's telling you kind of like,
Like, hey, in this CD,
it's twenty seventy eight.
And it's kind of giving you a little
background information.
That's the only time words should look
like they've been regurgitated on a page.
Right.
Right.
So the crazy thing about lettering is it's
it's it's akin to sound design in a
film.
Like you don't really notice it until it's
not great.
You know what I mean?
But great sound design makes for a great
film and great lettering makes for a great
comic book.
And, you know, it's like Voltron, right?
All the lions come together to form the
mech.
It's the same thing with a comic book.
That entire team has to come together,
whether it's your editor,
whether it's the person who's doing the
design, your writers, your artists.
Like, don't get me wrong.
The artist is kind of like the lead
singer in a comic book.
And then maybe the writer is the lead
guitarist.
Colorist might be the drummer.
Letterer might do bass.
But for the most part,
everyone has to be on point for the
final product to slap.
And we were really lucky.
And I don't want to go too above
and beyond saying that we hit all of
our marks.
But the reaction that we're getting from
people who have read the book and have
reviewed it or have come back to us
at cons,
We did all right.
You hit your mark.
You hit your mark.
I'll go ahead and say you hit your
mark.
Thank you.
If you were a quartet,
you sound beautiful.
Well, thank you.
No.
And here's the thing, right?
There's a lot of stuff out there in
the marketplace.
So whether it's manga,
whether it's comic books,
whether it's indie,
there's way more stuff out there than ever
before.
Like you were mentioning Italian artists,
there's French artists.
South America is booming.
South America is booming, right?
The Philippines.
So you have art everywhere.
Philippines is a sleeper, man.
Absolute sleeper.
Singapore as well.
Mm-hmm.
that's where our germ is from is he's
singapore right i think so i think so
right so yeah and and so when you
think about like how much works out there
like when we were kids i'm a little
bit older than you but like when we
were kids you were lucky to get stuff
out of japan right oh yeah and like
you may have kira was the really the
first thing i can remember from japan
For me,
it would have been Gatchaman or Battle of
the Planets, as it was called back then.
OK.
And then we had Robotech.
So those are kind of cool.
Yeah.
Right.
And so if you think back then,
you didn't have like and to get and
to get proper anime,
you had to go to like some like
out of the way video store that had
bootlegs.
You couldn't just stumble across this
stuff.
So if it wasn't for something like Heavy
Metal,
where you would get some European art,
right?
Oh, yeah.
It was basically just one type of,
if it was a mainstream comic book,
it was it.
Unless you like something like Tintin or
something like that, right?
So I will say I will forever be
grateful to Heavy Metal because it
introduced me to Frank Frazita.
Oh, yeah.
And I've loved his work ever since the
first time I saw it.
Definitely.
And even today,
I'm so happy that his kids are running
the Frank Frazita Museum.
So his art is still out there.
It's still being, you know,
reproduced and like you always know.
a Frank Frazito work.
Like the style, the tones,
just everything.
You see it, you immediately know.
And that's what draws me still to comics
today.
I will see something and it will look...
I'm trying to think.
Ani Press is doing their new sci-fi book
they're doing.
But it's very reminiscent of Frank Frazito
art in certain aspects.
So I'm just like...
And I love a good anthology comic to
begin with,
but anything that resembles Frank
Frazita's artwork,
or you could tell when the artist has
been heavily influenced by him.
I'm like, the story doesn't really matter.
I just want to look at the art.
If I get a good story, cool.
But if the art is reminiscent of Frank
Frazita, I'm on it.
Like I'll take that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Can't, can't go wrong with that for sure.
And like, I remember as a kid, um,
I think it was the artist who did
Druna.
I'd love.
Okay.
I can't remember the name at this moment,
but it was almost like a pencil crayon
kind of rendering with lots of attaching,
just great stuff.
And then John Buscema,
who's doing like the Conan books,
like the sort of with Ernie doing the
inks, like it's stuff like that.
And then getting back to the original
point with all the stuff out there,
when someone can still look at your work
or a book that you're a part of,
go hey we like that that that says
something like it's a good feeling it just
means like okay we're in we're in the
right direction and you know in this
little tiny corner of readerdom some
people actually like what we're doing so
that's that's rewarding you know it's
always really cool and i always like i
know your kickstarter has already closed
but i always enjoy
like watching the Kickstarters, you know,
of people who have been on the podcast
and just watching it climb and climb.
And then when it finally hits its goal,
I'm like, yeah, people love the project.
So people are going to back it.
You, you put yourself out there and it's,
you know, you're,
you're literally just putting a piece of
your soul out there for somebody to look
at and to critique and to say, Hey,
is this good or not?
And, um,
it takes a lot of gumption to do
that yeah it it does but i think
that no matter like where you are on
the on the journey you just put it
out there because it might be your first
one like if you look at james cameron
everyone might think t-two avatar yeah but
they don't necessarily remember piranha
right
I do because I love that movie.
Right.
Great.
I love B-Horror.
I love that kind of stuff.
It's great stuff.
Right.
But you got to start somewhere basically.
And don't let kind of like the end
product of someone who's at like their
twentieth year of their journey hold you
back.
Put it out there and then keep going.
You think of Eastman and Laird and their
first TMNT books.
Right.
Yeah.
The art is not as polished as it
would have been later on because like
they're figuring stuff out.
From literally the living room of their
apartment in New York City.
Absolutely.
Right.
So, I mean, and it doesn't like young,
old, put it out there.
And with web comics and different ways of
getting it out there,
you don't have to necessarily be like,
you know, have the stomach.
Shout out to like Gumroad and Kofi doing
great things for artists like that.
and it's crazy because now marvel and dc
are doing the webcomic thing like they
realize these are spaces that you can't
ignore anymore or think that it's outside
of their purview you got to get in
there oh absolutely let's talk about the
heart of the story a little bit atrium
is a thriller but it's very deeply i
want to say it's human even though there's
vampires involved but the theme of it
is very much rooted in human um emotion
i guess is the word i'm looking for
kind of like what do you want the
people who are reading this comic to take
away from it because it very much the
the story is the word i'm looking for
it's
brain farting so bad right now it's
embarrassing but um like literally life
and death in the way humans and vampires
live together or at a standstill basically
for this one heart that could either unite
us or you know completely divide us away
from each other
Yeah,
I think what we were kind of going
for is that we wanted to tell a
story that had some stakes that mattered,
right?
It sounds corny saying it,
but it has to have heart.
I remember working with a director once
who said,
as long as your story has heart,
Literally in this case.
Literally has one in a box.
But it's one of those things where like,
you know,
like how the villain is the hero of
his own story, their own story, or,
and the hero has their journey.
We want to tell a story where like,
we all have our paths and we all
have choices,
but the main thing that we all want
to do is just kind of want to
live and survive and to thrive.
And where things get lost is like,
Maybe someone's a little bit more greedy.
Maybe someone's a little bit more fearful.
Someone is a little bit more passive.
And so then you get these kind of
ebbs and flows with things.
And so we did see some prejudice in
this story.
Oh, absolutely.
And so and, you know,
the old classic thing of what you don't
understand, you tend to hate.
Yeah.
and and and you know getting back to
like kind of like the artists and
musicians and stuff sometimes the artist
wants to be a musician and sometimes the
musician doesn't want to play in a band
they would much rather be an artist or
a writer or play sports or something so
does your destiny or does your path in
life tell you exactly what you are does
that make you what you are or is
it
how you how you go about life how
you you you do things and so whether
you know there's some vampires in the
story just because you're a vampire
doesn't necessarily mean that you act and
behave or think in a certain way yeah
no the vampires in the story were very
human and that's what i think i was
trying to say earlier is they are very
much human with human emotions and the
care for society that you feel like you
don't really know
from the way they act that they're any
different from a human,
but they are vampire.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's one of the things that,
that Peter and I,
when we had our discussions early on,
it was like, as well as Vaughn,
when we were, who's our, our editor,
we were trying to figure out like,
how do we make it so that it's
not every other vampire story you've ever
heard or watched or seen,
but also how does it then connect to
someone that is
Might be reading it for the first time
or isn't a fan of vampires,
but yet can get kind of hooked in.
And basically it was one of those things
where it's kind of like there's an old
Dr.
Seuss book that I remember reading with my
kids in class one day.
And it was where they had a piece
of bread and one person buttered one way
and then the other.
It's not as ridiculous.
You got to butter it on the bottom,
right?
they went to world kind of like the
half fields and the mccoys and so you've
got vampires and humans in this struggle
basically for survival and existence and
the humans don't really realize that that
struggle is happening else i think that
was also one of the things i was
trying to allude to earlier is some humans
know are the humans know vampires exist
In the story, to some degree.
There are some humans that know.
The general population does not.
Yes.
And it's one of those things where it's
like,
how do you coexist without causing mass
hysteria?
Yes.
When your food source basically would be
threatened by knowing that you exist.
Mm-hmm.
And so the, like,
there's two factions of vampires,
one that wants to live in, in,
in harmony.
And then one that are like,
you know what, why are we doing this?
And like one of the characters,
one of the brothers in the story,
not giving it away,
his family's ravaged by cancer.
He's a former vet, right?
He's a former, he's former military.
And he's seen cancer ravage,
his family and he's like if i have
the ability to not see someone go through
that pain and i think he was either
he's terminal or or he has his brother
his brother yeah right so his brother
turned that so he wouldn't die of cancer
and he decided to do it as well
too and that motivates them where it's
like we have the answer to all of
your ills but then that goes counter to
what is life where like
I know that one of the characters is
like, why would you want to live forever?
Like, that's a great question.
What would you do?
You outlive all of your loved ones, right?
So before we went live,
I had mentioned Mark Miller's Vatican
City.
In Vatican City,
the last remnants of the human race are
trapped inside the Vatican.
Nice.
And the one thing the vampires need to
become the ultimate...
you know species of earth is trapped
within the walls of the vatican and
they're basically trying to sales pitch to
humans bring this to us we'll make you
one of us but we need this right
so quite the opposite of what you're the
story you're telling but also within the
same
of the same thing, I guess,
is what I'm trying to say.
Yeah, totally.
It's in a weird way.
it's an environmental story, right?
It's like conservation versus, you know,
not like,
do we use all the resources that the
earth has or do we find a way
to kind of balance our need for it
versus sustainability?
And, and one of the things is like,
what's the sustainability going to be if
vampires overrun humans, right?
Blade three, they have human farms.
Remember?
Yep.
But then when you have something like
that,
What then do you do about free will
and all that?
So those are all those kind of dynamics
that are at play.
It's a lot of elements in a story
and going into it,
like I had mentioned earlier,
I had no idea that it was a
vampire story until I hit that one part
where the guy first, you know, transforms.
So the moment I realized it was a
vampire story, I was like,
I reread it before we went live,
to be fair.
I mean,
I read it when you sent it to
me and I read it again before we
went live.
So it's fresh in my head.
And I love a good vampire story.
Vampire stories to me have always,
they stick with you for so long for
so many different reasons because you can
play both sides of this coin however you
want to.
But it's just something about a really
good vampire story that it sticks with you
and
this is one of those where I know
you're,
you pitched this for a TV series or
a movie.
And it's like, now that I've read it,
I was like,
this would be an awesome TV series.
Well, thank you.
That's me.
Thank you.
Uh,
anyone out there who's listening and wants
to make it the chairman, the chairman is,
you know, he's,
he's spitting facts now and really
appreciate the kind words.
And we actually kind of wrote it that
way.
Um,
Peter and I,
where there's a lot of panels and pages
where there's not a lot of dialogue.
It feels very episodic.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, we're going for that cinematic feel.
And Lucas was able to capture that.
One of the shows that Peter and I
grew up watching when we were kids was
Miami Vice.
Oh, I love Miami Vice.
Miami Vice is peak TV.
So good.
Peak TV before peak TV.
And those rides in the car,
especially when they're in the car,
in the Daytona in the first two seasons,
where Crocs just kind of look at each
other.
In the pit alligator, dude.
Absolutely, right?
And it's just like a lot of silence,
but either the song that was playing in
the background...
or the moment in the,
in the narrative that spoke volumes.
Right.
It's amazing how the music, the mood, the,
the surrounded area can tell a story
without words needing to be spoken.
Absolutely.
Right.
And so we try to like convey a
little bit of that where speak when
necessary, but then,
and then let the action take over it
sometimes,
but also not to clutter it too much.
Yep.
Again,
that goes back to what we were talking
about earlier with lettering being so
important in a book.
No, definitely.
Y'all definitely knocked this out of the
park.
So why can fans expect coming up from
Atrium?
Well, we've got a whole world built up.
Uh,
and we're currently throwing around ideas
of where to take it next.
Cause without giving away too much,
don't fall in love with any characters in
this book.
I got that.
I got that vibe from it.
Like,
like Naomi and Darnell are kind of cool.
And there's some other characters in there
that are, that we had fun from, um,
you know, creating.
And I know Lucas was upset when one
of the characters didn't make it.
Cause I think he enjoyed drawing them.
But we want,
there's a bigger world to tell, right?
And we want to tell it.
Especially now that the heart has been
delivered.
Yes.
So now I feel like this is where
the story really picks up,
where it should really pick up with how
the next chapters go.
I got a feeling deep down inside of
me that the story is really going to
pick up right here.
Yeah,
the stakes obviously because of how things
end up are kind of shifted a little
bit and raised.
And also there's a lot more world building
that we have.
We've got some great ideas and little kind
of like neat twists on things that are
–
Not necessarily part of vampire lore
because we're going to bend those a little
bit.
Oh, yeah.
You have to.
You have to sit it apart from the
standard vampire.
Yeah.
So we've got some ideas and just how
we would then have them come out.
is part of like the beauty of what's
going to come next but there will be
a second um set of of atrium books
uh it might be a little bit because
we're currently working on some other
things and i'm working on uh another
project uh which will be a five issue
mini series as well too which i'll that's
that's awesome because that was literally
the next question is
Has Atrium opened that door for more
creator-owned titles from Comic Asylum
from you and your team there?
Yeah,
we have about four that we have in
various stages of development.
But the next one coming up is called
Chronicari Alpha.
And it's about two kids that are born
at exactly the same time.
But when they collide in gym class,
they unlock their ability to control time.
And so I thank you.
Yeah, they did that.
I did.
This is a novella about ten years ago.
And so I've actually drawn probably about
ninety percent of it.
I got about fifteen more pages to draw.
Are you doing the art on this one?
I'm doing the art on this one.
And then I'll send it off for colors
and letters.
I think it was a TV show or
a movie that had something similar to
that.
where they could control time.
I know there was a British show called,
Oh, I can't remember the name of it,
but there was a dude who could reel
back time.
And then I know heroes had a guy
who could control the flow of time.
Yeah.
It might be Heroes I'm thinking about.
The British one,
was it The Rejects or something like that?
I'm not sure.
I know it's the show they based Heroes
off of.
It's possible.
It might be The Rejects.
I'm going to check it up right now.
Yeah, because that show was so good.
The UK will surprise you with some shows,
and then there's some shows where people
are raving about it, and you're like,
yeah, no, I didn't feel that.
No.
Oh yeah, The Misfits.
The Misfits, that's it.
That one is, for anybody out there,
if you've never watched The Misfits,
it is a UK,
it's basically UK's version of Heroes,
only it never derailed with a writer's
strike.
It's perfect start to finish.
So true.
Perfect start to finish, and it's so fun,
and it's just an amazing, amazing watch.
So give that a watch if y'all haven't
before, because it is really good.
And watch Heroes up until, I think, what,
season three?
something like that yeah yeah heroes has a
great win uh it had so much potential
and the graphic novel thankfully is done
the correct way however the show went off
the rails when the directors and everybody
was like we can just write it ourselves
screw them writers no never ever do that
again for anything writer strikes let them
strike play some reruns until it's over
It's true.
You notice that anytime there's a writer's
strike,
whatever is being made during that time
just doesn't,
it just doesn't like come off as well
as it can.
Oh, absolutely.
Thankfully, you know, we're getting,
they're making shows like a lot.
Some shows go like season one's done.
They'll roll straight into season two,
but they're separating them out by year.
That way there's that.
And I'm okay with that.
what I'm not been okay with here lately
is the way Netflix has been doing,
but we're going to give you five episodes.
We're going to make you wait six more
months.
We're going to give you the second five
episodes or however long it is in between.
That shit kills me.
Yeah.
The show's done.
And Cobra kite was the first one I
can remember.
They did that with.
And, um,
I think it was like two weeks in
between or something like that.
The seasons.
It's done.
It's finished.
Just give it to us.
That's when the business kicks in, right?
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
It's maximizing the money they get off ads
and all that other stuff.
I get it, but at the same time,
I'm like,
making the same amount of money whether i
get it all right now or if i
gotta wait two weeks right exactly like in
in a way it's almost like depending on
how fully formed the show is or it
it comes to series or whatever because
like sometimes the first season they're
just trying to figure stuff out and then
it gets rolling by two and three the
more money or whatever
And then there's some shows where like
it's been in – it's been percolating for
like five, six, seven years.
Are we talking about season five of
Stranger Things?
Because that's how long it feels like
we've been waiting for that.
Yeah, kind of like that, right?
Those kids are grown up, married,
out of college and everything else now.
They're like thirty-five years old,
all of them, right?
But then you feel like after that banger
first season and then they get a second
one ordered –
you don't have the amount of time to
actually cultivate a proper second season.
And then the show dips after the first,
right?
So it's, you know,
six and one half dozen other,
depending on.
It's one of those.
I'm OK waiting a year in between seasons.
But it's when you get into that eighteen
and eighteen month mark,
that two year mark, and they're like, oh,
we're working on the new season.
I'm like, I don't even care anymore.
It's been two years.
They have all interest in this.
The only time that worked for me was
Sopranos where I was like, you know what?
Okay.
Yeah.
I'm going to wait.
I'm going to wait.
Yeah.
I can.
No, you're right about that one.
But that final season.
Yeah.
Cause it was a peak show.
Right.
But if you're not,
if you don't have the David Chase type
style of storytelling and whatnot,
Then, you know,
as long as they don't try to like
bring it something back, like they did.
Twenty four.
Remember when twenty four came back and it
was just horrid.
Like, why did y'all do this?
You ended it perfectly.
And then you do this.
No, come on.
Yeah, totally.
And because I'm a big fan of Stranger
Things.
Oh, I am, too.
Yeah.
Really interesting to see how they end it,
because.
I,
it didn't click to me how young they
were until I saw them a couple of
days ago, like some clip.
And then I think of like, you know,
how old they are in like the Ghostbuster
movies or even Millie Bobby Brown in the
Godzilla flicks.
She's literally married and they just
adopted a child.
Yeah.
Which is like, I'm like, wow.
Seven has a kid now.
Yeah.
She's twenty one or twenty two or
something like that.
And I'm like, she got married, what,
last year or the year prior?
Yeah, something like that.
I forgot who she's married to.
Jon Bon Jovi's kid.
Yeah, Jon Bon Jovi's kid.
And they're like, hey,
we're just going to go adopt a kid.
I'm like, okay, I guess.
That's cool.
Yeah, no.
Cool.
Go for it.
you have the means to do it,
then more power to you.
Yeah.
That just shows you how time flies.
Cause I remember,
I can still remember watching season one,
like it was yesterday.
Me and my daughter sitting on the couch,
watching season one together.
And I feel like my daughter was like
the same age as them.
How am I?
Well,
technically she kind of is because she's
nineteen.
So she is kind of around that same
time frame as them.
Same age.
Yeah.
But it is definitely one of those where
time flew and all of a sudden we
have adults now trying to play teenage
selves,
which they're all really young and,
you know,
they they still look really young.
So props to them.
Yeah.
It's just, you know, they're mad tall.
Some of them are mad tall now.
Oh, yeah.
Like,
we're going to have to shoot this camera
angle like this to make him look shorter.
Yeah.
I think it's like Finn.
That dude's like seven feet tall or
something.
Like, he's a tall dude.
Yeah.
Like,
he hit that growth spurt at the wrong
time for him.
Yeah, you know.
But, you know,
I'm sure they'll find a way.
Who are the brothers again?
who are doing it,
they're the Duffy's Duffy's Duffy's.
I'm sure they'll figure out a way to
make it to make it work.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, they're brilliant.
I think from a from the sibling
perspective of directors and writers,
I think there's some of the since the
Wachowski's, you know, came in left.
Right.
I think they're probably some of the
better sibling pairs of directors and
writers that are just really, really good.
no agreed yeah and and it's kind of
funny because we had this conversation on
our podcast not too long ago about like
what's wrong with comics right but there's
a lot of great stuff being made it
really is it may not be like the
mainstream titles like you may not be
totally happy with you know green lantern
as an example but you know for every
comic that you're not happy with there's
something coming out of there's ten more
just that are perfect or void rivals right
or something like that right like just
absolute bangers and so as a matter of
I was telling you earlier Aubrey
Sitterson's Free Planet has like I live
week to week to when the next issue
of that book will come out and he's
so good with interacting with his fans
about the book on his Instagram and stuff
like that nice
and you cheer for him because he's
literally like hey this next issue i'm
throwing you something that you're not
expecting and like he's really good and i
wish more comic book writers and artists
were like that i know a lot of
them really are really good about selling
themselves you know and like putting
themselves out there on social media to to
really build the hype for themselves and
their product and i wish more did that
It's funny you mention that because it was
one of the things that we kind of
learned with Atrium.
And I would pass along this advice to
anyone that's thinking of getting into it.
Because you're not creating Spider-Man,
whatever you're creating may become the
next Spider-Man or the next Wonder Woman
or the next Ms.
Marvel.
When someone is going to part with their
hard-earned money for your creation,
they're buying you.
Right.
So making yourself accessible, you know,
not taking your audience for granted and
appreciating the fact that they're taking
the time to either stop at your table
and say hi,
even if they don't buy anything.
That goes a long way in, you know,
kind of endearing yourself to your
audience, because if they don't like you,
they're not buying your stuff.
Oh, absolutely.
And I'm not saying don't be genuine.
I'm just saying don't be a dick.
Yeah, no,
and what I've discovered is it's been both
ways, right?
Like, take, for instance, my last comic,
not Cape Con,
but the last actual Comic-Con I went to,
like, they never advertised Tinny Howard.
Oh, wow.
And she was there,
so I had to get some Rick and
Morty signed by her.
And she's working on Marian Heretic right
now, which is probably one of the...
more popular books that's been out in a
while from a from a female writer and
also just boom studios consistent just
puts out bangers yeah but it's a
phenomenal book if you're into witchcraft
and nuns that hunt witches by all means
they need you need to check that out
um luanna vecchio was there with lovesick
wow which
She's French, I think.
And another amazing story, amazing artist.
Who else was there?
Tula Latoy.
Okay, cool.
That's a pretty good lineup.
phenomenal lineup and like I said they
don't really do a good job of advertising
these people are going to be there and
I pay attention to their website so
whenever like hey this is who's going to
be an artist alley I immediately go to
my boxes and I start like I gotta
get that signed I gotta get that signed
you know
But it really is.
I wish more people who are in comic
books would put themselves out more.
I know Tiny Onion and Tinian,
they're really good about hosting fan
events and that kind of stuff with comic
shops.
They're doing a world tour right now.
Nice.
I'm using that term loosely.
They're doing a tour right now for
Exquisite Corpses.
Nice.
and they're doing sign-ins all around the
united states and i think they've been
into canada a few times and it's really
cool to see how that book has because
they're literally playing a card game to
determine the next character that dies in
it like a tabletop game which is so
unique and so cool so they sit around
with mike michael wash who is the artist
on it and also the co-writer with tinian
they developed a card game to determine
who dies next of the main characters.
And it's a phenomenal, cool thing to do.
And I think there's like,
this is going to be thirteen issues.
And I'm like, yeah,
I got to run that back, I think,
you know,
because this is such a cool concept.
I've not seen it done that way.
It's a brilliant concept.
So, and I've been getting like the,
my favorite is the Michael Walsh polybag
because it comes with the card.
Ah, got it.
So you're collecting the cards,
and they've released, I think,
I can't remember if they released it yet
or not,
but they're getting ready to release the
board game version of it.
That way you can play the game when
you have all your cards.
Sweet.
That's brilliant.
Dude, marketing one-on-one, like,
that is genius level.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
That's, you know what?
Right?
Yeah.
And I say all that to say,
market yourselves.
Put yourselves out there on your social
media.
Yeah.
Whether you have to make a whole bunch
of social media at once and then schedule
it a little at a time because you're
busy.
But put yourself out there.
Do those little Instagram Lives.
Artists, writers, it's all there for you.
You just have to make some time to
do it.
Yeah.
And it's, you know...
scheduling it you're totally correct but
you can't not to do it um it's
it's the biggest thing right there it's a
necessary part of it and everyone likes to
get a little bit of a peek behind
the scenes of what's happening and it's a
little bit sometimes a little bit easier
if you're an artist because it's like
right in your face whatever you're doing
to process stuff
writers it's a little bit more ethereal
smoke and mirrors type stuff and it can
be a little bit kind of you know
not as entertaining but if you with all
the stuff that's out there you can
definitely make it entertaining no a
hundred percent a hundred percent but
before we get out of here steve what's
coming up next for comics asylum not a
comic book standpoint but what's just
coming up next for comics asylum
Uh,
we've got some videos that we still have
to process from the Montreal comic-con.
I think we have a Joe Rubenstein, um,
interview.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We just finished.
I just put one up a couple of
weeks ago with, uh, Jim Starlin of, uh,
Thanos fame.
And then I just had, um, uh,
the writer and editor from Pug W.
They're doing a behind the scenes kind of
like an art book.
It's called Marvel Panels Behind the
Scenes for Secret Wars.
So they take Jonathan Hickman's and Esad
Rubik's
version of the Secret Wars,
and they go behind the scenes.
They interview all the creators,
all the stories,
and they have a Kickstarter for it.
I've seen that recently on Kickstarter.
I was wondering if that was the one
you were talking about.
Yeah, so we had a chance.
Just released something like that, too.
Yeah, I'm not sure.
Is this for Walking Dead, or is it
I don't remember which one it's for.
I think it's for a couple of them.
Like just some of the,
like it might be like a tabletop book,
you know, like a coffee table book.
But I know he had something like that.
Yeah, it's like this.
This one's the artist edition size.
And so I had a chance to talk
with.
So it's like, you know, this stick.
Yes.
Monster of a book.
And Mason Rabinowitz.
And so they went through all of the
backstory on some of the stuff that's
available, not only with the Kickstarter,
but also some of the behind the scenes
stuff.
So we got that really cool.
And then, as I mentioned,
heading over to heading down to Brazil for
the in-store signing for.
That's going to be amazing.
And we're currently getting the book.
It's already translated into Portuguese
and we have that edition ready.
And then we're going to have a French
version as well, too.
So we're in the process of getting that
one done.
How's that been?
How's that process been like?
I know.
Is it?
Because it's Lucas doing the translation
for you, all right?
Yes.
For the French and the Portuguese?
He's doing the Portuguese.
And then we have Marc Roy,
who's up here in Quebec.
He's doing the French.
French-Canadian.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
Absolutely.
He's a comic creator as well, too.
So he translated it.
And then we're going to have Jerome
Gagnon,
who does a lot of work for Orange
Cone Comics out of the States.
He's going to be lettering the French
graphic novel.
it's so cool to see that you're you're
marketing it to the right people and
getting it translated into multiple
different languages to fit your creators
because i mean i don't want people to
forget that there is a french speaking
portion of canada and that's all they
speak up there is french i mean their
english is good but it's mainly french up
there and um it's really cool and the
only reason i know that is because i'll
watch letter kenny
Awesome.
Letter Candy rocks, man.
I'm a huge fan.
Ever since I discovered it,
I was just like...
And then the spinoff with Shorzy has been
phenomenal.
So I'm glad you can relate to that
because that's such a fun show.
Yeah, it's a fun show.
And then I like hockey as well, too.
I've never been a big hockey guy, but...
Watching Shorzy makes me love hockey even
more because it's AAA beer league.
Yeah.
It's fighting in beer.
How awesome is that?
Can't go wrong.
It's a little hockey thrown in.
A tiny bit.
But Steve,
let everybody know where they can find
yourself and Comics Asylum.
We'll wrap it up.
Don't worry.
So you can find us on YouTube.
We're Comics Asylum.
And then we're also on Instagram at Comics
Asylum as well, too.
And www.comicsasylum.com,
which is our regular site,
which we post all the news and stuff
from the industry.
And then if you want to pick up
copies of Atrium,
you can find us at comicsasylum.pub.
Awesome.
I like it.
So council members,
that brings us to the end of another
deep dive into the stories shaping our
corner of the universe.
A huge thank you to Steve and Comets
Asylum for stopping by tonight to share
Atrium with us.
And whether you join this live or you're
going to catch this later on our replay,
make sure you support the creators.
Check out the book.
Continue filling the community that makes
Indie Comets thrive.
And remember,
this is the USDN podcast where Indie
Comets come to life.
Steve, Atrium, Comets Asylum,
y'all are all hereby USDN approved.
It was a pleasure being here.
And with that,
this is the chairman and the council is
adjourned.
the,