You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
Thanks for watching!
What is up everybody and welcome to the
United States Department of Nerds where we
are for the people, by the people,
and of the people.
Every creator's journey starts somewhere.
Sometimes it begins with a comic book in
your hands,
sometimes with a character you can't stop
thinking about,
and sometimes it starts with a simple
question,
what if I built something of my own?
Across the indie comic landscape,
more creators are stepping forward to
build their own worlds.
their own characters, their own stories,
and their own publishing paths.
Tonight, we sit down with Dees Kaseem,
So close.
You're almost there.
Believe in yourself.
Casillas?
Casillas.
That's all right.
My pronunciation is always going to be
bad.
And he is the creator behind Inferno
Comics.
From his creative background in comedy to
launching a new indie comic label to the
stories and characters he's bringing into
the world.
This is a conversation about creativity,
risk,
and building something from the ground up.
So settle in because the Council of Nerds
is now in session.
Deese, welcome to the USDM, my friend.
Thanks for having me, man.
And honestly,
in today's climate in America,
the less Hispanic you can make my last
name sound about.
I wasn't trying to do that at all.
No, no, no.
Honestly, it's good for me, really.
I mean, you know,
when they start shooting white women,
it's over for the brown folks.
Wrap it up.
Game over.
You know, that's when, you know, we lost.
So I always tell people like, no, no,
it was Casillas Berg when we came across
Ellis Island.
We dropped the Berg.
Yeah, definitely not.
We definitely didn't come across the
southern border.
Don't look behind the curtain, you know.
Dude,
I don't know what is going on with
this today,
but all of a sudden it is not
working on Facebook or Twitch,
but we'll be live on YouTube tonight only
so.
All right.
Yeah, sometimes you got to...
It happens from time to time.
You got to go back and like reconnect
the destinations and it just...
That's already... Yeah,
I double checked everything and I think
what had happened is I had accidentally
had two like...
projects in the stream yard.
And for some reason,
one was giving me issues.
So I started the other one,
got everything built in there and
When I went to go live and I
went over to Facebook to actually share it
out,
it was playing like last week's or two
days ago show.
I'm like,
I have no idea what's going on right
now.
I ain't got time to mess with it.
I'm like, I will figure this out later.
StreamYard is not always the most user
friendly, in my opinion.
They've made so many updates and upgrades
to it over the last month.
And it's like every time I go in
there, which is very often,
like every other day or two,
I'm building a new show.
Yeah.
And it's something different and something
new and something's changed.
And I'm just like.
Put it back to the way it was.
I like Dan.
It worked so well, you know.
You're just fucking with everything now,
StreamYard.
Come on.
Yeah,
there's just some bored engineer trying to
keep his job before AI takes it.
And he's like, no, no, no,
I'm updating it.
Look, it's better.
It's better.
AI can't do that.
And they're like, eh.
Give it another year or two,
and that guy's gone too because I swear
every time.
It's like it's okay if they make changes
to StreamYard,
but make the program better and
user-friendly for me.
Yeah, yeah.
Because it even does like an advertisement
thing.
Like you can advertise your show within
the room you built.
I'm like I don't want to do that
because otherwise why am I building all
this other stuff?
Like I literally built you a hype video
for this show.
I'm like –
You're going to do my advertising?
No, thank you.
I will do it my old-fashioned way with
Canva in three minutes.
It's already pre-built.
All I do is drop the new images
in, change out the song,
and put new words in it.
Because that's when you have something
built that works.
Yeah.
Stick with it.
Plug and play.
Exactly.
But let's dive into this and let everybody
know who you are and kind of how
did your journey into comics and
storytelling begin?
yeah well i am a uh internationally
touring stand-up comedian by profession
that's what i do for a living been
doing that in some form of fashion for
about twenty years uh been a writer all
my life i've written in a bunch of
formats i mean literally from a small
child all i ever wanted to do was
write um and i loved comic books i
always wanted to write comic books but i
didn't really know how to get there but
i wanted to write everything i've
And I've been fortunate enough to publish
books, do some TV, film, sketch stuff,
worked in radio, comedy, obviously,
written for a bunch of doing comedy and
things.
So been able to parlay it into a
living of doing what I love.
Dude, that's the dream right there.
It's just doing something that you love to
do.
That way it doesn't feel like you're going
to work every day.
It is nice.
I will say it sounds great now,
but I mean,
there was years of like driving five hours
to do three minutes on a show and
get paid in a hot dog and sleep
in my car.
So like, I definitely, you know,
it wasn't, it wasn't like I just said,
well,
I'm going to do comedy and now I
get to pay my mortgage that way.
I mean, there was a lot of in-between,
you know,
But, yeah, man,
it that's that's part of the journey,
I think,
is just that delayed gratification thing,
which I think we too many people are
missing these days.
But the ability to kind of have long
term vision of how you want your life
to look and slowly chipping away at it
day by day.
A hundred percent.
A hundred percent on that one.
Everybody wants the instant gratification
of the now.
Yeah.
And I've literally been building what
we're doing right now for over a year
in this format that we're currently in.
And it gets better each time I do
this.
Well, today, StreamYard just said,
fuck it.
You'll also appreciate it better,
you know, because like... You really do.
If you...
work a shitty job for like a year
to save up to buy like a,
you know, like a, you know, like a,
you know,
like
Within three weeks,
you're going to be eating McDonald's
french fries,
driving with your knee while you're on
your cell phone taxi.
You just don't give a shit because there
was no investment into making that thing
happen, right?
Oh, a hundred percent.
A hundred percent.
And if somebody gave me a Ferrari,
I'd be like, this is cool and all,
but I can go sell this and get
my money out of it and go reinvest
that into something I actually want.
There you go.
But so what were some particular comments
or characters or maybe some other creators
that kind of inspired you growing up to
lead you to where we are today?
Oh, well, this is fun.
I can do this.
This is actually the first comic book I
ever owned in my life.
Oh, nice.
It's Guardians of the Galaxy number twenty
one from, I think, nineteen ninety.
And I read comic books before,
but this was the first one that was
like mine.
And for you kids listening,
this is not your newfangled Guardians of
the Galaxy.
No, it's not.
There's no tree.
There's no raccoon.
None of that shit.
This is the thirty first century Guardians
of the Galaxy with a bunch of characters.
I guarantee most of you have never heard
of.
But Jim Valentino,
who's a really great guy,
I've got to meet him,
got to hang out with him and talk
to me.
He's been generous with his time with me
over the years.
you got it in a good top loader
too look at you oh yeah this is
like uh i had to protect this one
because this is you know this is the
uh again this is the uh the one
that started the journey for me um that
was where i you know the first comic
book that was mine you know i had
a bunch of older cousins who had comic
books you know i was aware of them
and you know watched
like had action figures and watch the
Batman sixty six live action show,
you know, you know,
group knowing about Superman, Batman,
things like that.
But like that was where my entry point
of really get like falling in love with
it.
And from there it was just on, man.
Yeah.
I was a big X-Men fan.
That's my main thing.
Yeah.
But I really like weird C-list,
D-list stuff.
I think Guardians of the Galaxy was part
of that journey.
After Guardians of the Galaxy,
I got really into Avengers West Coast.
uh i got really that's an odd one
yeah it's an odd one uh i got
really into x factor uh okay but that
was like during peter david's run which is
phenomenal um you know that was the stuff
that i kind of cut my teeth on
and then started going back and you know
reading more of the earlier x-men stuff
earlier and then all the claremont stuff
and oh yeah
That's what I grew up with in the
nineties there.
And then Image came around and Spawn
released and I kind of became a Spawn
guy.
And then all the stuff that started coming
from Image was just,
I just ate that up.
Yeah.
I mean,
I was definitely in that same wheelhouse.
I've got a,
right next to my Guardians of the Galaxy,
I have a Shadowhawk number one also,
because that was my first,
also Jim Valentino, coincidentally,
my first Image comic book.
I just, I just remember going to,
it was one of the first times I
got to actually go to a comic book
store because, you know,
I don't know about you, your experience,
but for me,
you know i just grew up going to
the local seven eleven and whatever they
had yeah this little rack on the floor
was about you know four feet wide and
you know they'd get in ten books every
week and it was just whatever they had
you know is what i would get into
um but the first time i got to
go to a comic book shop actually shadow
walk number one had just released and i
picked it up and again just enamored with
it um
And got into Image.
I was never a – you know,
I didn't even read Spawn until number one,
until probably –
almost the year two thousand i bet oh
wow like i i i was into shadowhawk
i was into wildcats because i was a
jim you know x-men jim lee guy yeah
um and those were the main things from
image then i kind of went back and
started reading some of the other stuff
like i got into the max which to
me one of the best comic book runs
yes um
So, yeah,
that's kind of the stuff I cut my
teeth with as far as comic books.
But I think things really changed for me
in the early two thousands with the
when it became more writer driven and more
character driven stories you had people
like uh um you know brian michael bendis
ed brubaker greg rucka uh joe casey um
you know some grant morrison and uh uh
warren ellis mark millar guys like that
mixed in there um and that was
I don't want to say it shaped the
way I write,
but it validated the way I wrote.
Cause I wrote,
I always wrote in a way that was,
I didn't feel was a traditional like style
of writing for comic books.
And then when I started reading,
these guys, I'm like, oh, this is,
you can do these other things, you know?
Um, and, uh,
that along with how much film is
influential in my creative journey kind of
shaped the way I create and write and
build my stories.
So was there, um, I lost myself.
I was
so okay so your background is in comedy
and how did that world kind of influence
the way you think about storytelling calls
kill stan which is freaking phenomenal by
the way thank you it it like this
guy just has a walking death wish but
he also has like comedic timing with it
you know yeah yeah
Yeah, it's funny.
People always ask me when they find out
I use stand-up comedy, like, oh,
is your book funny?
And I'm like,
I wouldn't call it a laugh riot.
No, not at all.
I go, there are comedic moments,
but it's mostly dark humor, gallows humor.
Yes.
But, you know, the nice thing is with...
you know,
having a background in writing and then
having, you know,
such a breadth of background in comedy,
there's ways to intertwine them to make
them, you know,
this synergistically work together and not
feel jarring, you know,
you just got to find the right tone.
So I kind of have like a,
in almost anything I write,
there is like a dark cynicism,
a little bit of fatalism woven into that,
probably because, you know, that's me.
So, you know,
that part of me leaks in to the
story a little bit.
But yeah, I mean,
I wanted it to be
to feel like approachable and feel read,
like, you know, like, like it's like,
it's in your head,
like you're in his head,
he's in your head.
You're,
you're just like on this journey and feels
very organic.
Oh,
it was absolutely just such a fantastic
read and all the dark humor and just
kind of like walking into certain
situations, just being like,
You know, I was like,
I relate to this guy minus the death
wish.
Sure.
Yeah.
And that that was really the idea is
I wanted people to feel very comfortable
and like, you know, it's very raw.
It's very open and allows people to kind
of slide into the character pretty easily
was was the goal.
And even the death wish part is,
to give quick elevator pitch for
listeners,
the elevator pitch is suicide by
vigilantism.
It's a story about a guy who wants
to end his own life,
so he decides to do it through
vigilantism.
Kind of a neo-noir crime thriller on the
surface.
But really,
it's a character piece about one man's
journey of loss, trauma,
and the crazy things we do when we
feel as if we have nothing left to
live for.
Yo, what up, man?
What's up, Kath?
My boy, Kevin.
My dude.
Yeah, he's going to be on soon.
Okay, yeah.
I just did his show the other day,
too.
I've known him for a long time.
So, you know...
that kind of idea of wanting to end
your own life.
I mean,
I feel like everyone has that thought in
some capacity and in some level,
some people it's a ten,
some people it's a it's a one,
you know,
but there is that like
Is this worth it moment we people have,
you know, at some point,
some people have it once briefly,
some people have it as a cloud over
their head every single day.
So I wanted that to be another feeling
that people could be like, oh,
this could be me, you know,
with the right under the right
circumstances.
The problem, though,
with Stan is Stan happens to be good
at...
I don't know if he's just good at
what he does or accidentally good at what
he does.
Yeah, he's kind of...
He's like failing upwards, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, if you're going to fail,
that's the way to do it.
Yeah, yeah, I suppose it's better.
So...
But now, guys,
and I'm going to be a hundred percent
serious.
I got to read book one and thank
you for sending book one.
It's always a pleasure when somebody
actually gives me something to read before
I walk into one of these.
I mean, I could build an interview.
Yeah, sure.
But when I actually get to read it
and enjoy it and get to know Stan.
it makes it so much better for me
because my damn, I like Stan.
Yeah.
Well, that's one.
Yeah.
You, he, he doesn't.
So you're one vote for him at least.
I mean, he's,
he's got some relatable moments in that
first book where it was just like,
we've all just want to kind of wanted
to go in and just start throwing hands.
Yeah.
You know, lose yourself.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
But let's jump on to Inferno Comics.
What was this moment where you decided you
wanted to launch your own publishing label
rather than the repeated, like,
let me send this to Dark Horse,
let me send this to Image,
let me send it here and there?
Yeah, I mean, so don't get me wrong.
I did those things,
but I also did those things knowing full
well I would never get a –
get picked up um not because i don't
believe in this project not because i
don't think it's good enough um but
because i i mean i just understand the
business at a side of comic books where
yeah you know i'm not they're not reading
my book in a vacuum they're reading my
book against the you know james tinian's
eight new pitches he gave them and
hickman's latest pitch
And Rick Remender's latest pitch and the
three things Kirkman wants to do.
So like they're they're looking at their
schedule going, well, we have room for,
you know, I don't know how many,
fifty new books, fifty books in a year.
Everything we're publishing plus room for
new stuff.
And like, do we want to pick up?
Hickman's eighth book?
Or do we want to do fucking Dick
Beg Casillas from Texas's book who we've
never heard of?
I get why no one's... I did it
I did it knowing it wouldn't get picked
up,
but I did it to kind of craft
the pitch, craft, you know,
hone me talking about the book, hone,
you know,
to help me know what the book's about,
to force me to think about what the
book's about and what is important about
it and how to present it.
So, you know, what I mean, honestly,
the funny thing is the way this book
actually ended up getting made
is i actually had an offer from a
company named apex comics that wanted to
do the book yeah um which is it's
a small small small uh label but fabian
nicieza's brother is uh involved in the
company and i kind of know fabian
a little bit.
And he posted something about his brother
needed someone to volunteer at the LA
Comic Con a couple years ago to help
run their booth for this company he has.
And I was going to be in LA
that weekend doing comedy anyway,
stand-up comedy.
So I'm like, oh, cool.
I'll go hang out during the day,
convention, comedy at night.
Sounds great.
So I did.
didn't i never mentioned the book the
whole time i was there that i'd written
this project but i just wanted to like
maybe i'll glean some knowledge maybe i'll
meet who knows and whatever but weekend
came and went and uh after the weekend
Fabian's brother, Mario,
the guy who helps run the company,
is part of the company, Apex, called me.
And he's like, hey,
I just wanted to thank you for helping
out.
And, you know,
kind of didn't get to talk to you
much.
Maybe get to know you a little more.
I know you do stand-up comedy.
He's like,
do you write all your own material?
I'm like, yeah,
of course I write all my own material.
You know,
I've written for a bunch of different
things and blah, blah, blah.
And he goes,
Do you write anything else?
I'm like, yeah,
I've written for a TV film.
I've published books.
And he goes,
you ever think about writing a comic book?
And I go, well, actually, I have.
I have this book I've been working on.
It's kind of I just kind of had
wrapped it up at the time.
And he goes, well,
send over the script to number one,
and I'll take a look at it and
give you some notes.
And I'm like, that's fine.
Sure.
And he's like,
I'll email you back in a couple days.
And he emails back a couple days later,
and he's like, hey,
I'm going to send this up to our
editor-in-chief and have him take a look
at it too.
And I'm like, great.
Someone else to give me notes.
Great.
And then...
Emails me back and goes, hey,
do you have time to get on a
call?
And I go, sure.
So he scheduled this call in the editor
in chief was like, hey,
we want to do this book.
And I was like, oh, shit.
OK.
So we kind of started that.
That's where the ball rolling of me
feeling like, oh,
this book is actually really doable.
And then for reasons, no, no animosity.
I just kind of felt like it wasn't.
gonna work the way the book wasn't going
to be exactly what i wanted it to
be in the end going through them like
they had a house artist they wanted me
to use who was like a really great
artist i won't name him but it's a
guy who's like an industry artist he's
worked on thor superman captain america
yeah like you guys can do the math
if you want but uh i'm like this
isn't the look i want on the book
and they were really firm on the changing
the name and they wanted i
to do a four issue,
they wanted me to condense it to like
a four issue thing instead of ten issues.
And then if it goes well,
write a follow up.
And I'm like, I don't know, man,
it just isn't going the way I want.
So I just kind of like I'm like,
you know what,
I'm going to back up for a minute.
And then I started looking at the
logistics of it.
I'm like,
I think I can do this myself.
You know, and then I just I did,
you know, there we I I mean,
I since I was a little kid,
I wanted to name my my label Inferno
Comics.
I've got old, you know,
pretend comic book covers.
I drew up eight, nine years old.
They have Inferno logo in the corner and
I just kept it going.
And here we are.
Dude, I like it.
And I love to hear stories like that.
And it's not necessarily like,
that was my almost success.
Like, no,
that was your one that led you to
success with the book now because I think
you're on what number four now?
Yeah,
we're number four is coming out soon.
We're working on that right now.
Like Kickstarter is launching in a couple
weeks.
awesome i love getting to talk to people
about a kickstarter getting ready to
launch it is like one of our favorite
things to do um so the name inferno
comics can you give us kind of the
story behind that name and why you landed
on that
Yes.
So a lot of a lot of people
have more than one person has asked me
if it's related to the Inferno X-Men
crossover, because, you know, classic,
arguably one of the best,
if not the best crossover of all time.
And no, it's not.
Although I love that crossover.
And, you know,
anything that has Havok dressed like a,
you know,
gimp sex slave has got to be good,
right?
We're on to some weird shit here.
We're on to some weird shit, Alex Summers.
What are you doing with your brother's
wife?
I won't touch that one, but no,
you're right.
So, you know, honestly,
it's it's named after I was obsessed with
Dante's Inferno with the book,
like the divine or yeah,
the divine comedy.
Yeah.
Dante Alighieri's Inferno.
Read it a million times.
I was obsessed with it at a very
young age and still am.
And that's why I named it after that.
So that was my first thought, too,
as well.
But I like to get the story behind
it first because there's nothing better
than hearing the stories.
And I'm a story person.
Obviously,
that's why I kind of do what I
do.
And like I told you before we started,
I do enjoy taking the audience through the
journey of the creator.
So but now I'm a huge fan of
the same thing.
So I'm hearing that that's why you named
it.
That is like top notch for me.
So yeah.
So when you first started building
Inferno, was kill Stan,
like always the plan to go on with
that?
Or do you have some other titles maybe
that you're going to eventually introduce
on Inferno comics?
So, I mean, I have got, this is,
this sounds crazy when I say it,
but it's true.
I have hundreds,
if not thousands of comic book scripts
I've written in my life.
Um,
summer, many, many are ideas,
original ideas.
I've, I've got, you know, my Batman story.
I've got my X-Men story.
I've got my Ninja Turtles story.
I want to do, you know, you know,
I like a twenty issue arc here.
I've got those things, but I've,
I've had a million original ideas that I,
I've wanted to do, uh, scripted out,
fleshed out, um,
And but Kill Stan is actually one of
the newer ideas I had.
So I've tried to do comic book indie
comics in the past,
and it just never worked out,
which looking back now,
I'm glad it didn't because I probably
wasn't ready or prepared to do what I
needed to do.
And this just wouldn't have told the story
I wanted to tell.
So I worked on a couple of projects
that I that I do want to tell
eventually that will come out,
but not right away.
This this story,
I actually wrote this story in twenty
twenty.
So what happened is my best friend,
another comedian,
actually took his life in January of
twenty twenty.
And it was
Yeah, it was a tough experience.
The guy was best friend for years.
We toured together for years.
He was the closest thing I ever had
to a brother,
and I say that having an actual brother.
It was a challenging,
tough experience because
I mean,
I grew up in South Central LA in
the eighties.
I mean, it's not the first time I've,
you know,
I've seen plenty of people killed in front
of me from a very young age.
I've experienced a lot of that loss over
the years.
So it wasn't,
it wasn't just that it was, you know,
I,
I was the one who had to do
the wellness check with the police because
he wasn't responding to anything.
So getting into the house,
identifying him, calling his parents,
letting his parents know what happened.
It was just a lot, you know,
a lot.
Anyway, so that occurred.
And then, you know,
March of twenty twenty rolls around and
COVID happens.
And then, you know,
I was living in Washington state at the
time,
which was one of the most locked down
states next to probably California.
And the.
I was just kind of stuck in my
house, you know, um,
watching people's lives crumble
physically, mentally, spiritually,
financially, you know, people were just,
just losing it in so many different ways.
And, you know,
watching things crumble in a way that was
unprecedented for us.
And then, um,
You know,
there were civil unrest and all kinds of
stuff.
And I was watching some news article and
I heard that I had already kind of
started working on this idea of a guy
with nothing to lose and nothing to live
for.
I heard this phrase suicide by cop.
And then the phrase suicide by vigilantism
popped into my head and I go, oh,
that's interesting.
And I kind of married that idea up
with what I was already was percolating.
And then I was off to the races
and I just wrote this story.
It's all I wrote the whole thing in
a couple of months.
And then I'm like, well.
Then soon after that,
I did the convention with Mario and they
read it and they liked it.
And after they wanted to do it,
and then after we split ways,
I was like, you know,
I think I can do this.
So I, and I'm like,
this is the story I need to tell
out of all the ones I have, like,
this is the one that needs to be
told right, right now.
Oh, yeah.
And that story very much resonates still
because we still see that.
And I hate saying it, but fuck,
it's horrible.
Yeah.
Just the way shit's been the last five
or six years, man.
It's just...
It's one of those where it's like,
I had already brought it, you know,
my daughter had already been born and I'm
like,
this isn't the place that I wanted this
for her.
Yeah.
Hoping this would be different.
This is, yeah.
Yeah, definitely.
I didn't want to bring my daughter into
the Terminator future.
Exactly.
You know,
and John Connor's knocking on my door.
Yeah.
But yeah.
That's a good reference.
I like it.
Are you the only sole proprietor of
Inferno,
or is there other people behind the scenes
with you?
It's pretty much just a one-man operation
right now, yeah.
I feel you.
So, you know, when I say we,
when I refer to Inferno,
it's like the royal we, you know.
We as in me.
Yeah.
We and we.
Yeah, yeah.
But I am working on...
trying to bring on some other creators and
help them help publish their works too
yeah it's it's just been a little slow
going because i'm i'm busy but uh that
is part of the place it means you're
working and you're making money that is
true yeah yeah um it just
But it is part of the plan is
to bring on some other creators.
I just am very laser specific about what
I want to publish under the label.
And I don't mean a specific genre.
I don't mean a specific style.
I mean the content.
I really want like...
character-driven stories with a purpose.
If it's a cool superhero ditty,
I'm not saying don't do it.
That just doesn't fit what we want to
do.
It makes sense.
It's one of those where we're probably
both in our forties and we've earned that
right at this point to be like,
that ain't really our thing.
We wish you luck.
There is space for that out there.
Plenty of space for that.
I talked to
I think I've got like eighteen creators on
this month.
And, you know,
most of them are superhero related and
there's nothing wrong with that.
I love superhero stuff,
but it's when I get the project like
the kill stands that I'm just like,
that's what I want to talk about is
that kind of stuff because it's fun.
and i don't mean fun in a like
damn this is a dark i think that's
funny but it's a very character driven
outside of your normal comic book
superhero this guy just wants to die right
but he he can't even do that right
he keeps that up yeah you know
so for me the i love those
character-driven unique stories like that
and that's why i'm also such a big
fan of the independent comic scene yeah is
because you get so much of that kind
of stuff whether it's in the horror genre
the thriller genre you know the james
tinian genre because he's his own genre
now i believe yeah well he's and i
love the guy i absolutely love his work
i could read the dude all day and
there's some days where i do
And but yeah,
that's the stuff I really love.
And I love talking to the superheroes,
too.
I love talking to those creators.
I'm doing that in like two days,
actually talking to a guy building a new
superhero world.
And I love when people are building their
own worlds, their own superheroes.
It's fun, but I like these darker, greedy,
Neo-Nor type of stories.
That's why I was such a huge fan
of Sin City when Martin Millard released
that.
Actually,
to a point where my own comic book
is very much a Sin City-esque type of
story.
and um so that's what i really like
anytime something like that comes across
the desk i'm like yep when do you
want to do this you know and i
think i did that's what i did to
you it was like yeah hell yeah when
do you want to do it well i
appreciate it man yeah and it's uh you
know in into people out there writing
other stuff it's like you know you can
write
a character driven purpose driven
superhero story you know you can you can
make that happen um and you know or
you can write a light and fluffy superhero
ditty um again there's room for both
there's room for all you know do what
you want to do um just i know
for me
I know what I love.
I know what I want to read.
And if I feel like I'm just reading,
like, just kind of stuff happening,
I'm not that interested.
If there's subtext,
if it's meaty to chew on, there's things,
there's characters with complex nuances
that I'm trying to figure out.
Like, that's the thing where I'm like, oh,
okay, this is interesting, you know?
Mm-hmm.
No, I'm with you on that.
And that will always and you'll as the
USD and it evolves, I will.
Oh, actually,
it's already done this in later months
coming up.
It's kind of I'm not saying I'm being
I'm picking and choosing.
But what I am saying,
I'm not doing everything.
I've set myself a schedule.
It's going to be one interview every three
to four days because what I'm doing
currently isn't sustainable from my
well-being.
And when I say my well-being is I
actually want to watch some of the new
TV shows that are out.
And if I'm always writing and I'm always
working and I'm always editing,
I don't get I really want to watch
the new one piece.
Yeah.
You know, season two just dropped.
I really want to watch it.
However,
I can't watch it because until probably,
you know,
a couple of months from now when I
actually do get the chance to slow down.
I will be able to watch it in
probably June.
Yeah.
It's a conscious thing that I had to
do is like,
I'm going one interview every three to
four days because it gives me a lot
of time in between things to
Watch TV, relax.
Maybe go to the beach and go for
a drive.
Yeah, you got to live a little,
you know.
That's how you get the creative juices to
flow is actually living, you know.
I would like to take the doors off
my Bronco for once.
There you go.
I've had it for a year and I
haven't even had the chance.
Yeah.
So independent comics currently are
growing rapidly.
Like, I mean,
you look at my schedule and I think
I have like eighteen or nineteen creators
on this month alone.
But from your perspective,
what's making this such an exciting time
for creator owned comics?
Um,
I think that we have been on a
swing, you know, I mean,
you've been around long enough to know,
and not even just comic books, but, um,
the world in general.
I mean, any, whether it's, uh,
entertainment, politics, et cetera,
things swing really hard one way,
and then they swing back the other way,
even harder, this pendulum, you know?
And we've been in a world of garbage
media and entertainment for so long,
for so long.
Yeah.
Where it's just, you know, it's like this.
Thirty second clickbait reels,
no actual depth, no content.
I mean, you know,
even like Netflix literally put out a memo
that.
the Netflix movies that they're making,
they tell the creators,
you have to explain the plot at least
four times in the movie because people are
dumb and they're on their phones while
they're watching.
So it's like, I mean, that's real.
That sounds like a joke.
That's real like that.
No, that's spot on.
So
you know it's just been i think people
are tired of that and whether they realize
it or not people are starved for real
art um real content something that matters
everything is so all this like ai digital
thirty second dopamine it's just not
tangible it's not sustainable yeah and
people are starting to crave
real art again um and i think that's
what's helping the the indie scene a lot
um i mean not even just the super
indie scene but like you see oh as
a whole a hundred percent as a whole
yeah well i mean even even like
image in in vault in mad cave like
these books are starting and they're
starting to get uh really crank up right
now um because people are just going away
from this like machine cranked just
formulaic marvel bullshit um you know just
we're just an ip house we're just selling
you these comics so we can sell you
fucking the movie later action figures and
movies is all you know the stuff we
actually care about so
Yeah,
people are looking for something a little
more real.
I mean, I do a lot of conventions.
I think I did like thirty six conventions
in twenty twenty five.
Wow, dude, that's like a lot.
It was too much.
It was stupid.
I did it.
And, you know,
what I was surprised me a lot.
is how many younger people I was getting
to my booth.
How many people who I would, you know,
I would assume most you're in, you know,
your average comic book reader probably
does look like us, you know,
kind of late thirties, early forties,
you know,
straight male is kind of you're probably,
I don't know, I would say,
sixty plus percent of the market,
if not seventy percent,
you know what I mean, easily.
So,
but I was getting kids who were like,
you know, in their early teens, thirteen,
fourteen, and, you know,
coming up and buying the book.
And then I would read.
Like I was doing this one convention in
– it's a small convention in Del Rio,
Texas, but they're very nice people.
They brought me in as a featured guest.
They're very, very kind.
Those are some of my favorite ones though.
Because you have time to connect with
people and the people are there really
like trying to connect with you.
But this guy who is probably my age,
maybe younger,
came up with his young daughter who was
probably – I don't know.
And he's like, what's your book?
You know, she was like, he's like, oh,
she was looking at your book.
And, you know, she liked how it looked.
I'm like, oh, cool.
And she goes, what's it about?
I go, well,
it's kind of I kind of look at
him like it's kind of a little adult.
It's got some themes of self-harm and some
violence and language and stuff.
And he's like, that's OK.
And she goes and she looks through it
and she she's like, can I get one?
He goes, yeah.
And he buys her one.
And he bought her, she number one.
And then he came back,
or they came back the next day to
the convention.
They go,
we came back just to get number two.
She loved number one so much.
That's really cool.
But the kids these days are exposed to
that so soon.
Right, right.
You go, yeah, yeah.
I mean, that is so true.
It just is like, you know,
it's this twelve year old girl.
And I'm like, oh, this like this,
this girl already gets it.
You know,
like she's already she's already on board
with like wanting to get this real art
in her hands.
And I'm like, this is great.
You know,
she's a kid we don't have to worry
about.
She's on the right path.
That's the way I see it every single
time.
And it's awesome.
I love seeing like I've interviewed and I
say kids and I'm using the term loosely.
I'm thinking like if I'm old enough to
be your father, you're a kid to me.
So like the guy who was just on
with the manga studio in the Philippines,
he's twenty two years old, right?
Mm hmm.
Clearly old enough to be his father,
but he's doing his own thing outside of
the big system within the manga community.
It's like unless you're coming out of
Japan,
nobody's really going to concern
themselves with you.
So he's got this huge uphill battle.
Right, right, right.
But he's so determined and so driven that
like, dude, good luck, man.
I really hope you make it.
yeah then a lot of the guys who
are like my interview in a couple of
days i'm not sure how old he is
but he he's like probably again young
enough to be you know a child of
mine and uh but he's building his own
universe he's created his own superhero
and i love that and i love to
see parents nurturing that right yeah yeah
Well, I mean, especially, you know,
at these conventions, a lot of times,
not not all the time.
There are parents who are you can tell
are just dragged there.
But sometimes there's parents who are like
also fans and their kids who are becoming
fans, which is like, yeah, such a great,
you know, it's like I mean,
it's so heartwarming to see what I would
have given to have one of my parents
give a shit about comic books when I
was a kid.
Yeah.
So it was like, yeah,
I just think that, you know,
we're in this weird moment in history
where, I mean,
it sounds cliche because we hear it every
time we turn on the news,
but we're more divided than ever, right?
And I mean that on almost every front.
You know,
they've done a great job of dividing us
between,
politically, religious, religiously,
sexually, racially, they've, they've,
they've, they've masterfully done it.
They've,
they've damn near accomplished their goal.
A hundred percent.
Um, but like, so I think we're,
we're in this weird moment where I think
a lot of society is going to start
to split where we're going to have the,
like the people who are going to absorb
into their fucking Peter,
a teal fucking matrix cocoons,
like the Luddites.
who like go into the woods and build
their own little house and build a little
homestead and have a little cow and a
couple dogs.
And I think that's going to be the
next real divide we see in our country.
But I think those people who are in
the Luddite group are the ones that are
going –
We need something real, you know,
we need something real to spend our time
on in this art,
something that has some real soul to it,
you know,
because like everything that's pushed
through the algorithm is so soulless.
It's dead.
It's yeah, there's nothing.
There's no, you know, it's, you know,
it's like you're that drunk friend when
they're so blacked out,
they're still like soldiering on.
But there's like nothing behind the eyes
anymore.
Yeah,
I might have been that friend once or
twice.
Yeah,
it's like that scene out of Jaws when
Quint is describing the sharks.
It's like black eyes, like a doll's eyes,
you know?
It's like that look where it's like, yeah,
there's eyes there, but there's nothing.
They're just fucking glazed.
Yeah.
oh yeah i think we've all been there
once or twice yeah yeah maybe more that's
how you know you're living that's how you
know you're living yeah i know i'm living
because i don't remember and i was told
how much fun i had exactly exactly so
why were some of your biggest challenges
you ran into when you're starting to put
the pieces together whether it was finding
people to collaborate with produce the
bullets or building the actual brand
itself
Yeah, you know, I was pretty fortunate.
Getting the creative team together was a
really easy process for me.
Probably for a couple reasons.
I have a background in business.
I did, you know, marketing,
business development,
consulting for a long time.
So I'm pretty discerning.
I knew what I wanted.
You know,
the business aspect of it was fairly
simple to kind of figure out.
You know,
it was the marketing is the hardest thing.
Always.
Yeah.
That's just it's like,
how do you you know,
you can create someone can create.
The goddamn Mona Lisa.
But if if they post it on Instagram
and only eight people see it,
then who gives a shit?
You know,
so it's like it's it's getting everything
out there, which was the tricky part.
And that is.
uh,
so challenging in today's ever changing in
very fickle market and algorithm driven,
uh, you know, uh,
entertainment consumption.
Um, you know, I, I still say,
I mean,
I certainly haven't mastered it yet.
I can definitely see how getting,
it's definitely way better than it was.
I found out a couple of things,
done a couple of things that seemed to
work better, but, um,
You know,
getting the team together was fairly easy.
I did some research on some printers in
kind of, you know,
customer service was a big issue who I
could get a hold of uh what they
were willing to give me for paper samples
like because I had a specific I wanted
it to have a specific weight to it
yeah um price obviously is a factor uh
but you know I was willing to pay
a little more if I was getting a
better product with better customer
service um but yeah I think really the
biggest hurdle was uh figuring out the
marketing because you know you make it
then you're like
now what do i do with it um
but i just i i put a ton
of conventions on the calendar and just
i'm like i'm gonna get in front of
people i'm gonna you know when i'm on
tour for comedy i'm gonna walk into comic
book shops in town and drop off copies
of the book um
I'm going to, you know,
get into a lot of Facebook groups,
Reddit groups,
create Instagram groups of comic book
creators and, you know,
just things like that.
And it's, it's slowly built and it's,
it's, yeah, I can feel it slowly,
but surely it's, it's definitely working.
We've, you know, I've,
in about twenty retailers now uh you know
uh we've got a shop on our website
we you know selling books every week we
got purchases coming off the website um i
mean i probably i mean number one came
out october twenty twenty four so a little
over a year ago and i've probably i
mean it doesn't it doesn't sound like that
much in in grand terms but i probably
sold thirty five hundred copies of that
book in a little over that's huge numbers
though so and you know number two is
probably twenty five hundred closing on
three three thousand and then number
number three um has only been out about
six weeks and we're uh we're probably
probably we just did another order that'll
that that order will put us at like
um you know like fourteen hundred books or
something like that for number three those
are actually big numbers from a pure indie
standpoint without a major machine behind
it yeah i mean i have no distribution
i have no marketing besides me just you
know you know and no yeah i'm not
like
Not in the previews catalog or anything
like that.
So you brought up paper.
What kind of paper are you using?
I use a seven.
Is it seventy or eighty weight?
It's a heavier duty paper.
Yeah, I think we do.
I think we do an eighty weight.
Yes.
Eighty weight matte finish paper.
Red and white would look so good on
that matte finish paper.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, yeah.
The color you see on the book,
I was very specific about the way it
was colored also.
You know, the saturation, the depth,
the structure, the texture.
Yeah.
The heavy blues and reds for that noir
feel using black gutters on the book.
It it took a little back and forth
with my colorist through the first issue
to get for him to understand what I
wanted.
But once we got it now,
like I'll give him I just kind of
give him basic color notes and he just
he's got it.
He just cranks.
Yeah.
Very little revisions.
And I brought up the thing about paper
book calls.
I don't know if you've heard of bad
idea comics.
They do murder podcasts, cul-de-sac.
They got a few other titles that are
just really good.
I think they, they're,
they're very up and coming and they,
to me,
like some of their stories are just
phenomenal,
but they print on almost like a newspaper.
Okay.
It's a very unique, like paper, like,
it feels heavy,
but as you turn the page,
it gives you that old Sunday morning feel
of turning the newspaper, you know?
Yeah.
I know there's some,
some printers you can get that like news
strip paper still.
I really just wanted it.
I mean, it's one of the,
it's one of the first things people say
when they pick up a physical book is
they go, Oh, this is like hefty.
It's hardy.
You know, we use a,
we use a heavier duty card stock.
cover.
Um, and because again,
I wanted the book to feel substantial.
I wanted it, you know, if you put,
when you put my book on the shelf
next to other retailers at like an LCS.
Yeah.
You want it to feel premium.
Right.
And people look at it and they're like,
Oh, it's got a, got a good,
the cover looks nice.
Uh, they pick it up.
It's got a good, you know,
good weight to it.
You know,
you think most comic books and they're
just like,
even marble is flimsy yeah just terrible i
mean they're probably using like their
paper stock is probably like honestly
probably like a fifty weight maybe less i
mean it's probably less because it's a
true floppy issue here recently it's cheap
unless it's like something big cover
coming out like the uh the daniel warren
johnson wolverine cover
right right they'll use a little bit on
the cover yeah um and but i it
feels like i'm not sure but yeah a
lot of them are like self-covered now
where the book and the the cover have
the same yeah weight yeah yeah that's what
bad idea does
Really?
Yeah.
Well, some of their stuff,
like Murder Podcast,
I think had a little bit thicker of
a cover on it.
But still,
the actual paper itself felt like
newspaper.
And I love that.
It's such a unique thing to them.
It's a vibe and it creates an ambiance
with the book.
It also allows them to produce more story
per issue because they're not printing on
expensive paper.
They're giving you the story,
not necessarily the paper experience like
an image would do.
Even image though,
like Free Planet is printing on just
normal paper.
know the the fifty mil or sixty mil
whatever it is which i'm a huge fan
of free planet aubrey sitterson my dude
and um yeah i i love that that
is the smell of the paper for me
too like each company has its own unique
smell and i know that's where we're
talking about the smell of paper and a
smell of a book but it's true man
it makes a difference yeah yeah oh
So what do you think independent
publishers can do today that the
traditional comic industry sometimes just
struggles with other than putting out a
good story?
Yeah.
I mean,
when you say traditional comic book
industry, do you mean like, are you,
do you mean like Image, Dark Horse,
the other big, big guys?
Or are we more talking about the
institution of like Marvel?
I'm talking about the institutional ones,
you know?
And you can even throw Image now into
the institutional ones,
but they still treat,
they're still very much indie because they
still, you know,
print other people's stories.
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, they don't own anything.
They're just printing what people, I mean,
they're basically just a printer
essentially.
A distributor, printer and distributor.
Yeah.
Which I love.
It's such a great business.
I mean, they really,
they nailed that business model.
That was the best business decision Todd
probably ever made.
Yeah.
So what?
Sorry, the question was,
what do I think their biggest mistake is?
Or what can they like?
Let me find it again.
I'm losing myself.
That's okay.
I just want to make sure I'm answering
the question you actually asked me.
Instead of just going.
What do you think independent publishers
can do today that the traditional comic
industry sometimes struggles with?
Okay.
Yeah.
I, I will say this.
I think so beyond just like you said,
beyond just creating a good story.
I think a lot of it is like.
When I am.
at a convention and people ask me about
my book or I'm there talking about my
book, I'm really not trying to,
I really do this,
and I didn't even realize this until
later,
but I don't even so much try to
sell them on the book.
I realize that I'm telling them why I
love the book and why I wrote the
book,
what the purpose of it is more than
anything.
And that is like, I'm building,
and I realized like, oh,
I'm building like a connection with this
person about why this thing is important
to me,
which gives them a trust in why it
could be important to them instead of me
just going, hey, here's the thing I wrote.
Do you want to buy it?
You know, I'm like,
I'm like telling them about why I love
this thing.
Yeah.
The passion of the creator sells the book.
And if you're passionate about what you're
producing,
they're going to pick up on that and
they're going to want to be a part
of that.
Right.
Yeah, it does.
You know,
whether consciously or subconsciously,
that attraction of like, oh,
this is like a thing that there's like
there's a magnetism there.
And I think that coupled with like
basically just being truly passionate
about the medium, you know, like I am.
On my Instagram, inferno.earth,
the Instagram page,
I obviously promote the book a lot,
talk a lot about the book,
have promotional artwork and upcoming
stuff.
But I also do a lot of other
comic book related things that have
nothing to do with Kill Stan.
Like every Monday...
I post my pick of the week for
new comic book day that week.
So I'll be like, Oh,
this is the book I'm looking forward to
the most this week.
Because I want,
I want the people who follow me to
be like, Oh,
this guy just loves comic books.
Like he's still, he's still,
he's still a Wednesday warrior.
Like he's still going to the comic book
shop and be like, you know,
whether I'm going or, or I pre-ordered,
I'll pick them up later.
Like I have a local comic book shop.
I get books.
I read them.
I, I,
there's things I'm looking forward to,
you know, and,
Or like on Wednesdays on in my Instagram,
I will do something called, you know,
because Wednesday is new comic book day.
So I do a thing called old comic
book day where I will pull an old
comic book out of my collection that I
love.
That's important to me and has like a
significance.
And I will make a little reel and
talk about it and talk about why I
love it.
And, you know,
things like that where I'm like,
I want people to know that, like,
I love this medium.
I love I'm a fan before I'm a
creator.
And like, you know,
come along the journey.
Love comic books.
Even if you don't read mine,
love comic books.
There's so much out there for for
everyone.
You know,
I always say there's something for
everybody.
yeah so i i think just being organic
and like letting you know not just it
not just be about you know uh sales
figures but be about we really love this
you're a fan right you're a fan just
like everybody else yeah yeah no i i
like it and i used to do just
straight up new comic book days before i
transitioned into like this and i gotta
tell you making new comic book content was
tiresome
It was never ending.
Yeah.
But I enjoyed it.
Yeah.
I just didn't feel satisfied from that,
you know?
Sure.
Yeah.
But, no, I still enjoy it.
Like, I forgot who it was.
I think it's Lo over at Dark City
Comics does comic, like,
comic talks in his car.
And it's just a fun, like,
thirty seconds or a minute long of, like,
what he picked up for New Comic Book
Day.
And it's just enjoyable for me to see
people doing it.
Yeah, yeah.
And I'm just like,
that's so fun to see.
Like, I'm like, oh, I'm reading that one.
All right.
I'll have to look at that one.
You know,
the the biggest one in this is I'm
not trying to throw shade at anyone,
but one of the biggest like internal gut
punches for me is when I meet an
indie creator and they tell me how much
they don't like.
not in these words,
but basically they tell me they don't care
about comics or like they don't read
comics or they never read comics.
They're not a comic,
like they're not a comic book fan.
And I'm like, ah, you fucking poser.
Like, yeah, exactly.
That'd be my first thought too.
What a fucking poser.
Well,
I try to be understanding and be like,
yeah, it's a medium.
You can tell stories in,
you don't have to, but also I'm like,
come on.
Yeah.
Where's that little kid inside you at,
you know?
Yeah.
Like what?
Yeah, it just kind of blows my mind,
and I'm just like,
I don't know if I can trust a
man who doesn't read comics.
Right.
Especially if you're trying to, you know,
it's like, if you're, I don't know,
I feel like if you're trying to get
in that industry, you should have some,
like some knowledge, knowledge,
kind of this background in it, you know?
Yeah.
If you don't have a,
at least one comic book that you've read
multiple times,
many times to a point where it has
your fingerprints engraved into the page.
And then you love that comic book so
much.
You've gone back to the LCS and,
We found that same common,
but when it minty condition,
I have a few like that.
I have actually a few series like that,
that I have at least two runs of
that series because I like that series so
much.
I can go to the boxes stored in,
pull out that series,
go back to my office space,
put it down.
All right.
Let's go.
Yeah.
You know,
And then it's like it's worn that there's,
you know, dog ears on it.
There's like a page folded in half because
I really like that splash page.
Yeah.
You know,
but it's like you're careful when you open
that splash page up because it's to that
point where you've read it so many times.
Like if you blow on it wrong,
that whole page is going to rip in
half.
Right.
That's a true story.
I do have a comic book like that
because it was that good.
And I really enjoy the run of it.
So,
but so you're working on kill stand right
now and future is to hopefully bring in
some other guys to help publish them as
well.
So the future for Inferno is looking
really good.
What else do you think,
or where else do you see you taking
Inferno in the future?
Well, um, yeah, I mean,
the next thing that come down the pipeline
is very likely an anthology book.
I love a good anthology.
Talk about bang for your buck.
Yeah,
I really like – and I don't know
how good it's – there's pros and cons
to it,
but I'm going to do it because I
love the idea of it.
But I want to do like a heavy
metal type anthology.
And I don't mean necessarily like that.
Yeah,
because I was going to say heavy metal
is back on shelves.
So you can't exactly – But I mean
like where it's like –
wildly different stories with wildly
different art styles you know like you
have an eight page of this you get
ten pages of this you get four pages
in like yeah um part of it is
because i like that style part of it
is because i've got a lot of shorter
stories i want to tell that i can
compartmentalize into anthologies that i
don't necessarily feel like i need to do
a whole series for but if i do
an anthology um
partly i want to do it as a
testing ground i want to throw pepper in
a couple uh stories and see if one
of them more than others really connects
and be like okay maybe that one is
the one i do need to bring into
its own yeah like like and you know
that's a smart way to do it i
mean marvel does it dc does it they
all have their hey here's what's coming up
and they watched the
social media.
They pay people to watch social media to
see if it's being talked about.
And if it's not being talked about,
I mean, it may still get made,
but it's probably only going to get like
a four to six issue run.
Right.
Yeah.
So, I mean, that's, that's kind of,
that's the main next thing.
And I'm, I mean,
I'll probably have some other creators
involved in that.
And then I've got, I mean,
I have a ton of series that I'm,
I'm ready to launch.
It's just kind of time and money to
get up, to get up, to get up.
The roots of all evil time and money.
Yeah.
I mean, they're like written,
but I have to, you know,
do the Kickstarter and get the finances,
you know, find the artist for it.
So, you know,
those are sitting there waiting and then,
yeah,
working on getting some other people out
there also.
Um, and then hopefully, you know,
just kind of keep it growing.
I'd like to grow the label,
grow the roster, grow the, um,
titles and I mean ultimately I'd love to
be able to see
kill Stan being made into like a, uh,
I see it as like an adult animation,
kind of like the HBO series.
Yeah.
Dude, that would be so dope.
And it honestly,
that would be one of those where, yeah,
actually, yeah.
HBO hit him up.
Cause I want to kind of,
I kind of want to see that one
happen myself because it's such a fun
series.
Like issue one,
like people like to slow roll their issue
ones, uh,
Like you may get to how this person
became who they are.
Right.
Now kill Stan just gets in that door.
He's already wearing the mask and he's
fucking guns blazing.
And again,
felon upwards in the most outstanding
ways.
Right.
Yeah.
We throw you right in the deep end
right away.
That's that, you know,
you gotta have that hook.
It's so easy to lose people.
Cause like we talked earlier,
there's so much content.
So like if you can hook them right
away and grab them,
I didn't want to give anyone a chance
to slip away, you know?
Oh, no,
it's one of those where you flip that
cover.
Well, in my case, I scrolled down.
Yeah.
And it was like, oh, oh, yeah.
And it just like, I'm like, dude,
I think I probably emailed you like right
after I read it.
And I was just like, yeah,
let's let's let's let's get you on the
get you on the books.
Yeah.
Thank you.
If you're going to give advice to any
of these new guys coming up into this,
what would you tell to them?
Well, like I mentioned a second ago,
make sure you have lots of time and
money.
That's the first thing.
If you have time and money,
you can make it work.
The more time and the more money you
have,
the more likely you can make it work.
And the better it's going to be.
The better it's going to be.
But I will say this,
and I said this on another show the
other day,
but I would say don't –
don't
So the advice I would give,
this is kind of a two-pronged piece of
advice, but I think they go together.
The first thing I'd say is don't write
for the algorithm.
And what I mean by that is don't
write something you think that people are
going to love.
Don't write something you think that is
going to game the system and like, oh,
this genre is really popular.
You're not going to game the system and
that algorithm is just going to change
before you ever hit it on the shelf.
Well, yeah, that too.
But also, I mean...
My main point with that is it's never
going to connect with people because
you're not connected to it.
So write what you love for a reason,
something with purpose that's truly like
on your heart.
And that sounds cheesy,
but however you want to feel it on
your mind, something you believe in.
And people are more likely to gravitate to
it because it's going to be real.
It's going to be how you really feel
and something you really believe in and
love,
not just a thing you wrote because you
thought it would catch on, you know.
And.
Take this in the spirit it's intended,
guys.
If you're not ready to fully commit the
time and effort it's going to take to
do this thing, don't start.
And I don't mean that in a negative
way.
I'm not telling you to not start.
I think you absolutely should if you have
something you love doing.
Just start.
be ready to sacrifice a lot of time
and effort and you're gonna have a lot
of ups and downs and a lot of
pitfalls and things are gonna go wrong and
you have to be prepared for that and
you know you're gonna have bad days where
you feel like giving up or maybe for
you know you you take you give up
for a couple days and circle back or
whatever just know that like
it's gonna take all that so if you're
not prepared for all that you're not ready
to start the journey don't do it
half-assed make sure you're ready to give
it your all yeah a hundred percent what's
next for inferno man i know we we
were talking a little bit about it before
but what's next
And when can we expect it?
Killstand number four is next.
That's the next thing we got right now.
That'll be out hopefully... Timeline-wise,
what's today?
Mid-March, early April.
Probably, hopefully in...
I think we should see it in June,
hopefully.
It's kind of the timeline we're shooting
for right now.
That's the big next thing.
Also,
I guess this is kind of a thing
I haven't really talked about yet.
we are also going to with this next
kickstarter for number four we are going
to be offering uh a trade paperback we're
going to do a collected edition of the
first four issues so for people who want
to like to you know kind of binge
read we're going to have that option i'm
going to be i'm him
yeah there you go so i yeah it's
good to throw in a backpack and travel
with so we're gonna do that with the
kickstarter for number four um and uh then
yeah then uh hopefully i think after that
the next thing will be um the anthology
i have some some really cool stories i
want to tell that are
smaller summer one-off things uh and i i
i kind of want to make that make
that happen i think that's the next thing
dude i like it and whatever the
kickstarter is ready man if you just
shoot me a message,
whether it's on Instagram or whatever,
I'll be sure I share that around as
well.
Yeah.
The, uh,
the pre-launch page for number four is up
now.
So if you don't think,
did you send that to me when I
don't think so, let me get it.
If you shoot that to me,
I'll make sure it's in the description
when this goes live.
Yeah,
because the more followers we have on the
pre-launch page when we launch,
the better odds of funding faster,
the higher up in the algorithm you go,
and more people see it.
So we're trying to get as many as
we can.
Let's see.
Let me give it to you right now.
One second.
Yeah.
Dude,
I don't know if you've ever read a
description of one of my videos,
but I make sure...
It's all in there.
I just sent it to you there.
Perfect.
Okay, I see it.
So, yeah,
you can follow the link in the show
or just type in Killstand number four in
the search box on Kickstarter and it'll
take you to it.
Yeah, we'll get this added into...
see for people out there who do this
for a living like i do when you
when you have your notes and your
questions over here make sure you can
still edit it that way if they do
send you something else yeah you can
control v it right in that way when
you go to make this here into your
youtube description
You have everything right in front of you
and you don't have to do a whole
bunch of extra work.
A little easier.
Because if you're like me and you're lazy,
the easier you can make things,
the better.
Yeah, yeah.
And I am that lazy.
But tell everybody now where they can find
you.
Yeah, so for the comic book,
go to inferno.earth on Instagram.
That's our Instagram page.
That's where I'm most active.
We do have a Facebook.
I don't use it as often.
We get a lot of engagement on Instagram,
so I've just tried to focus on that.
And yeah,
I post new content pretty much every day.
Like I said,
some stuff is it's not all about kill
Stan.
It's all kinds of stuff.
I'm probably going to start doing like a
fun thing right where I do some comic
book trivia with my mom.
So I think that just a little fun
game where you see how much she actually
knows, which is very little to nothing.
Or you go to our website, inferno.earth.
There's no .com.
.earth is the domain.
We have a shop up there.
You can order all the back issues.
We've got multiple covers, foil editions,
variants, all kinds of stuff.
It's all right there.
You can even order digital copies.
We'll email them to you.
and uh also i do stand-up comedy for
a living so go to you can follow
me thank you that was my next one
yeah uh follow me at dees.comedy on
instagram or dees comedy is my website
i've got tour dates all across the country
uh in the next few months i'll be
in texas oklahoma arizona california
oregon washington idaho montana
uh and a couple other places um so
i'll i'll be doing comedy somewhere near
your face if you want me to come
to you uh shoot me a message those
hooks to some of them i'll come out
come anywhere if you pay me um and
uh uh if you like comedy
I've got a comedy special.
We're doing a deal on my website right
now where if you go to the Not
Your Cup of Tea link on my website,
Deez Comedy, click that,
and it's all pay whatever you want,
donation only,
and we'll send you the full one-hour
download, four-K special.
You can pay five bucks, ten bucks,
doesn't matter.
You can even pay a dollar.
It's a dick move,
but you'll still get it.
We will send it to you.
I get like like thirty seven cents after
PayPal.
Yeah, I'll get it to you.
The and then I also host a weekly
podcast called The Social Hour.
New episodes almost every Wednesday.
I take a couple Wednesdays off for travel,
but pretty much every Wednesday.
It's a comedy talk show.
I've been doing it for weeks.
uh for twelve years now you know we're
it's it's fun we i kind of talked
to everyone i've talked to everyone from
presidential candidates to kevin eastman
of the ninja turtles so uh you know
we we talked all all sorts of different
people it's a fun show uh check that
out too i like it man appreciate you
these thank you for joining us tonight man
ton of fun yeah thanks for having me
on i appreciate it uh thank you for
sharing the story behind it for no
comments and the creative journey that you
are building independent creators continue
to push the boundaries of storytelling and
comedy and it's always exciting to see new
publishers and new voices stepping forward
into the indie comic spear
If you want to follow these and see
why Inferno Comics is building nets,
make sure you check out the links down
in the description when this video goes
live, I think Friday.
All right.
I'm pretty sure it will be Friday.
And to everyone watching and listening,
thank you all for your support of
Independent Comics and the stories they
bring to life.
But until next time,
the Council of Nerds is adjourned.
This has been the USDM Podcast,
where indie comics come to life.
Y'all be safe out there.
Peace, man.
Appreciate you.