WEBVTT

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You are listening to the USDN on the

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DFPN.

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Thanks for watching!

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What is up everybody and welcome to the

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United States Department of Nerds where we

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are for the people, by the people,

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and of the people.

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Every creator's journey starts somewhere.

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Sometimes it begins with a comic book in

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your hands,

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sometimes with a character you can't stop

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thinking about,

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and sometimes it starts with a simple

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question,

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what if I built something of my own?

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Across the indie comic landscape,

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more creators are stepping forward to

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build their own worlds.

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their own characters, their own stories,

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and their own publishing paths.

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Tonight, we sit down with Dees Kaseem,

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So close.

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You're almost there.

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Believe in yourself.

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Casillas?

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Casillas.

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Casillas.

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That's all right.

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That's all right.

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My pronunciation is always going to be

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bad.

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And he is the creator behind Inferno

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Comics.

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From his creative background in comedy to

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launching a new indie comic label to the

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stories and characters he's bringing into

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the world.

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This is a conversation about creativity,

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risk,

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and building something from the ground up.

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So settle in because the Council of Nerds

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is now in session.

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Deese, welcome to the USDM, my friend.

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Thanks for having me, man.

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And honestly,

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in today's climate in America,

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the less Hispanic you can make my last

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name sound about.

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I wasn't trying to do that at all.

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No, no, no.

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Honestly, it's good for me, really.

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I mean, you know,

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when they start shooting white women,

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it's over for the brown folks.

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Wrap it up.

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Game over.

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You know, that's when, you know, we lost.

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So I always tell people like, no, no,

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it was Casillas Berg when we came across

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Ellis Island.

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We dropped the Berg.

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Yeah, definitely not.

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We definitely didn't come across the

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southern border.

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Don't look behind the curtain, you know.

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Dude,

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I don't know what is going on with

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this today,

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but all of a sudden it is not

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working on Facebook or Twitch,

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but we'll be live on YouTube tonight only

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so.

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All right.

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Yeah, sometimes you got to...

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It happens from time to time.

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You got to go back and like reconnect

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the destinations and it just...

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That's already... Yeah,

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I double checked everything and I think

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what had happened is I had accidentally

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had two like...

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projects in the stream yard.

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And for some reason,

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one was giving me issues.

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So I started the other one,

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got everything built in there and

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When I went to go live and I

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went over to Facebook to actually share it

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out,

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it was playing like last week's or two

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days ago show.

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I'm like,

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I have no idea what's going on right

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now.

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I ain't got time to mess with it.

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I'm like, I will figure this out later.

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StreamYard is not always the most user

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friendly, in my opinion.

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They've made so many updates and upgrades

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to it over the last month.

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And it's like every time I go in

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there, which is very often,

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like every other day or two,

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I'm building a new show.

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Yeah.

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And it's something different and something

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new and something's changed.

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And I'm just like.

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Put it back to the way it was.

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I like Dan.

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It worked so well, you know.

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You're just fucking with everything now,

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StreamYard.

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Come on.

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Yeah,

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there's just some bored engineer trying to

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keep his job before AI takes it.

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And he's like, no, no, no,

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I'm updating it.

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Look, it's better.

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It's better.

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AI can't do that.

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And they're like, eh.

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Give it another year or two,

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and that guy's gone too because I swear

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every time.

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It's like it's okay if they make changes

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to StreamYard,

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but make the program better and

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user-friendly for me.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Because it even does like an advertisement

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thing.

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Like you can advertise your show within

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the room you built.

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I'm like I don't want to do that

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because otherwise why am I building all

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this other stuff?

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Like I literally built you a hype video

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for this show.

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I'm like –

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You're going to do my advertising?

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No, thank you.

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I will do it my old-fashioned way with

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Canva in three minutes.

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It's already pre-built.

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All I do is drop the new images

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in, change out the song,

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and put new words in it.

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Because that's when you have something

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built that works.

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Yeah.

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Stick with it.

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Plug and play.

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Exactly.

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But let's dive into this and let everybody

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know who you are and kind of how

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did your journey into comics and

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storytelling begin?

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yeah well i am a uh internationally

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touring stand-up comedian by profession

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that's what i do for a living been

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doing that in some form of fashion for

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about twenty years uh been a writer all

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my life i've written in a bunch of

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formats i mean literally from a small

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child all i ever wanted to do was

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write um and i loved comic books i

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always wanted to write comic books but i

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didn't really know how to get there but

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i wanted to write everything i've

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And I've been fortunate enough to publish

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books, do some TV, film, sketch stuff,

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worked in radio, comedy, obviously,

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written for a bunch of doing comedy and

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things.

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So been able to parlay it into a

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living of doing what I love.

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Dude, that's the dream right there.

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It's just doing something that you love to

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do.

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That way it doesn't feel like you're going

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to work every day.

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It is nice.

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I will say it sounds great now,

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but I mean,

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there was years of like driving five hours

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to do three minutes on a show and

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get paid in a hot dog and sleep

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in my car.

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So like, I definitely, you know,

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it wasn't, it wasn't like I just said,

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well,

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I'm going to do comedy and now I

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get to pay my mortgage that way.

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I mean, there was a lot of in-between,

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you know,

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But, yeah, man,

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it that's that's part of the journey,

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I think,

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is just that delayed gratification thing,

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which I think we too many people are

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missing these days.

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But the ability to kind of have long

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term vision of how you want your life

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to look and slowly chipping away at it

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day by day.

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A hundred percent.

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A hundred percent on that one.

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Everybody wants the instant gratification

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of the now.

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Yeah.

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And I've literally been building what

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we're doing right now for over a year

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in this format that we're currently in.

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And it gets better each time I do

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this.

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Well, today, StreamYard just said,

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fuck it.

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You'll also appreciate it better,

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you know, because like... You really do.

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If you...

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work a shitty job for like a year

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to save up to buy like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know, like a, you know, like a,

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you know,

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like

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Within three weeks,

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you're going to be eating McDonald's

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french fries,

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driving with your knee while you're on

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your cell phone taxi.

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You just don't give a shit because there

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was no investment into making that thing

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happen, right?

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Oh, a hundred percent.

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A hundred percent.

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And if somebody gave me a Ferrari,

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I'd be like, this is cool and all,

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but I can go sell this and get

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my money out of it and go reinvest

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that into something I actually want.

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There you go.

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But so what were some particular comments

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or characters or maybe some other creators

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that kind of inspired you growing up to

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lead you to where we are today?

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Oh, well, this is fun.

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I can do this.

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This is actually the first comic book I

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ever owned in my life.

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Oh, nice.

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It's Guardians of the Galaxy number twenty

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one from, I think, nineteen ninety.

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And I read comic books before,

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but this was the first one that was

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like mine.

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And for you kids listening,

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this is not your newfangled Guardians of

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the Galaxy.

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No, it's not.

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There's no tree.

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There's no raccoon.

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None of that shit.

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This is the thirty first century Guardians

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of the Galaxy with a bunch of characters.

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I guarantee most of you have never heard

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of.

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But Jim Valentino,

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who's a really great guy,

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I've got to meet him,

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got to hang out with him and talk

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to me.

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He's been generous with his time with me

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over the years.

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you got it in a good top loader

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too look at you oh yeah this is

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like uh i had to protect this one

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because this is you know this is the

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uh again this is the uh the one

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that started the journey for me um that

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was where i you know the first comic

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book that was mine you know i had

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a bunch of older cousins who had comic

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books you know i was aware of them

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and you know watched

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like had action figures and watch the

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Batman sixty six live action show,

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you know, you know,

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group knowing about Superman, Batman,

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things like that.

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But like that was where my entry point

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of really get like falling in love with

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it.

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And from there it was just on, man.

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Yeah.

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I was a big X-Men fan.

00:10:22.326 --> 00:10:23.346
That's my main thing.

00:10:23.687 --> 00:10:24.788
Yeah.

00:10:24.808 --> 00:10:27.351
But I really like weird C-list,

00:10:27.412 --> 00:10:28.212
D-list stuff.

00:10:28.273 --> 00:10:30.316
I think Guardians of the Galaxy was part

00:10:30.336 --> 00:10:32.839
of that journey.

00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:34.321
After Guardians of the Galaxy,

00:10:34.380 --> 00:10:36.563
I got really into Avengers West Coast.

00:10:37.125 --> 00:10:39.385
uh i got really that's an odd one

00:10:39.405 --> 00:10:41.407
yeah it's an odd one uh i got

00:10:41.447 --> 00:10:44.427
really into x factor uh okay but that

00:10:44.447 --> 00:10:46.729
was like during peter david's run which is

00:10:46.749 --> 00:10:52.331
phenomenal um you know that was the stuff

00:10:52.351 --> 00:10:54.972
that i kind of cut my teeth on

00:10:55.013 --> 00:10:57.073
and then started going back and you know

00:10:57.094 --> 00:10:59.394
reading more of the earlier x-men stuff

00:10:59.595 --> 00:11:01.855
earlier and then all the claremont stuff

00:11:01.956 --> 00:11:03.057
and oh yeah

00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:05.081
That's what I grew up with in the

00:11:05.140 --> 00:11:05.721
nineties there.

00:11:05.741 --> 00:11:08.666
And then Image came around and Spawn

00:11:08.686 --> 00:11:10.427
released and I kind of became a Spawn

00:11:10.467 --> 00:11:10.707
guy.

00:11:11.883 --> 00:11:14.585
And then all the stuff that started coming

00:11:14.625 --> 00:11:15.644
from Image was just,

00:11:15.765 --> 00:11:16.826
I just ate that up.

00:11:17.125 --> 00:11:17.466
Yeah.

00:11:17.947 --> 00:11:18.086
Yeah.

00:11:18.147 --> 00:11:18.267
I mean,

00:11:18.326 --> 00:11:19.927
I was definitely in that same wheelhouse.

00:11:20.688 --> 00:11:21.109
I've got a,

00:11:21.749 --> 00:11:23.110
right next to my Guardians of the Galaxy,

00:11:23.129 --> 00:11:24.770
I have a Shadowhawk number one also,

00:11:24.791 --> 00:11:25.951
because that was my first,

00:11:26.572 --> 00:11:28.173
also Jim Valentino, coincidentally,

00:11:28.234 --> 00:11:29.594
my first Image comic book.

00:11:29.693 --> 00:11:31.836
I just, I just remember going to,

00:11:31.875 --> 00:11:33.596
it was one of the first times I

00:11:33.636 --> 00:11:35.778
got to actually go to a comic book

00:11:35.878 --> 00:11:37.980
store because, you know,

00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:40.081
I don't know about you, your experience,

00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:40.600
but for me,

00:11:41.581 --> 00:11:43.062
you know i just grew up going to

00:11:43.101 --> 00:11:45.863
the local seven eleven and whatever they

00:11:45.903 --> 00:11:48.462
had yeah this little rack on the floor

00:11:48.802 --> 00:11:50.423
was about you know four feet wide and

00:11:50.504 --> 00:11:52.683
you know they'd get in ten books every

00:11:52.903 --> 00:11:55.125
week and it was just whatever they had

00:11:55.225 --> 00:11:57.264
you know is what i would get into

00:11:57.985 --> 00:11:59.625
um but the first time i got to

00:11:59.664 --> 00:12:02.645
go to a comic book shop actually shadow

00:12:02.666 --> 00:12:04.166
walk number one had just released and i

00:12:04.225 --> 00:12:06.506
picked it up and again just enamored with

00:12:06.586 --> 00:12:07.147
it um

00:12:08.167 --> 00:12:10.331
And got into Image.

00:12:10.471 --> 00:12:11.553
I was never a – you know,

00:12:11.614 --> 00:12:14.360
I didn't even read Spawn until number one,

00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:17.654
until probably –

00:12:18.111 --> 00:12:20.653
almost the year two thousand i bet oh

00:12:20.673 --> 00:12:24.174
wow like i i i was into shadowhawk

00:12:24.274 --> 00:12:26.076
i was into wildcats because i was a

00:12:26.115 --> 00:12:27.596
jim you know x-men jim lee guy yeah

00:12:27.616 --> 00:12:31.158
um and those were the main things from

00:12:31.239 --> 00:12:32.678
image then i kind of went back and

00:12:32.698 --> 00:12:34.080
started reading some of the other stuff

00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:37.140
like i got into the max which to

00:12:37.181 --> 00:12:39.523
me one of the best comic book runs

00:12:39.562 --> 00:12:41.464
yes um

00:12:42.403 --> 00:12:43.605
So, yeah,

00:12:43.625 --> 00:12:45.967
that's kind of the stuff I cut my

00:12:46.028 --> 00:12:47.830
teeth with as far as comic books.

00:12:47.889 --> 00:12:53.496
But I think things really changed for me

00:12:54.557 --> 00:12:58.523
in the early two thousands with the

00:13:01.015 --> 00:13:03.317
when it became more writer driven and more

00:13:03.376 --> 00:13:06.018
character driven stories you had people

00:13:06.077 --> 00:13:10.259
like uh um you know brian michael bendis

00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:14.380
ed brubaker greg rucka uh joe casey um

00:13:14.942 --> 00:13:17.623
you know some grant morrison and uh uh

00:13:17.663 --> 00:13:20.224
warren ellis mark millar guys like that

00:13:20.244 --> 00:13:23.565
mixed in there um and that was

00:13:25.602 --> 00:13:26.624
I don't want to say it shaped the

00:13:26.644 --> 00:13:27.144
way I write,

00:13:27.184 --> 00:13:29.047
but it validated the way I wrote.

00:13:29.148 --> 00:13:29.727
Cause I wrote,

00:13:30.568 --> 00:13:32.051
I always wrote in a way that was,

00:13:33.072 --> 00:13:35.796
I didn't feel was a traditional like style

00:13:35.816 --> 00:13:37.138
of writing for comic books.

00:13:37.217 --> 00:13:39.379
And then when I started reading,

00:13:41.010 --> 00:13:42.591
these guys, I'm like, oh, this is,

00:13:42.631 --> 00:13:45.173
you can do these other things, you know?

00:13:45.812 --> 00:13:48.553
Um, and, uh,

00:13:48.594 --> 00:13:50.855
that along with how much film is

00:13:50.934 --> 00:13:54.515
influential in my creative journey kind of

00:13:54.615 --> 00:13:56.917
shaped the way I create and write and

00:13:57.177 --> 00:14:00.638
build my stories.

00:14:00.677 --> 00:14:06.139
So was there, um, I lost myself.

00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:06.301
I was

00:14:11.467 --> 00:14:14.909
so okay so your background is in comedy

00:14:15.929 --> 00:14:17.811
and how did that world kind of influence

00:14:17.831 --> 00:14:20.873
the way you think about storytelling calls

00:14:21.033 --> 00:14:24.313
kill stan which is freaking phenomenal by

00:14:24.333 --> 00:14:28.475
the way thank you it it like this

00:14:28.515 --> 00:14:32.317
guy just has a walking death wish but

00:14:32.357 --> 00:14:35.679
he also has like comedic timing with it

00:14:35.740 --> 00:14:37.520
you know yeah yeah

00:14:39.234 --> 00:14:39.933
Yeah, it's funny.

00:14:39.974 --> 00:14:41.554
People always ask me when they find out

00:14:41.615 --> 00:14:43.057
I use stand-up comedy, like, oh,

00:14:43.096 --> 00:14:43.937
is your book funny?

00:14:43.956 --> 00:14:44.357
And I'm like,

00:14:44.857 --> 00:14:46.578
I wouldn't call it a laugh riot.

00:14:46.599 --> 00:14:49.381
No, not at all.

00:14:49.461 --> 00:14:51.182
I go, there are comedic moments,

00:14:51.222 --> 00:14:53.424
but it's mostly dark humor, gallows humor.

00:14:53.485 --> 00:14:53.945
Yes.

00:14:54.865 --> 00:14:56.927
But, you know, the nice thing is with...

00:14:57.687 --> 00:14:58.067
you know,

00:14:58.528 --> 00:15:00.250
having a background in writing and then

00:15:00.289 --> 00:15:01.250
having, you know,

00:15:01.291 --> 00:15:03.972
such a breadth of background in comedy,

00:15:04.514 --> 00:15:06.315
there's ways to intertwine them to make

00:15:06.355 --> 00:15:07.456
them, you know,

00:15:07.495 --> 00:15:10.259
this synergistically work together and not

00:15:10.318 --> 00:15:11.840
feel jarring, you know,

00:15:13.260 --> 00:15:15.182
you just got to find the right tone.

00:15:16.744 --> 00:15:18.686
So I kind of have like a,

00:15:20.534 --> 00:15:21.816
in almost anything I write,

00:15:21.855 --> 00:15:23.917
there is like a dark cynicism,

00:15:23.976 --> 00:15:27.698
a little bit of fatalism woven into that,

00:15:27.759 --> 00:15:30.539
probably because, you know, that's me.

00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:31.600
So, you know,

00:15:31.620 --> 00:15:35.581
that part of me leaks in to the

00:15:35.621 --> 00:15:36.663
story a little bit.

00:15:38.403 --> 00:15:38.984
But yeah, I mean,

00:15:39.043 --> 00:15:40.024
I wanted it to be

00:15:41.327 --> 00:15:43.990
to feel like approachable and feel read,

00:15:44.049 --> 00:15:46.951
like, you know, like, like it's like,

00:15:46.971 --> 00:15:47.592
it's in your head,

00:15:47.613 --> 00:15:48.573
like you're in his head,

00:15:48.614 --> 00:15:49.293
he's in your head.

00:15:49.333 --> 00:15:49.594
You're,

00:15:49.673 --> 00:15:52.416
you're just like on this journey and feels

00:15:52.475 --> 00:15:54.138
very organic.

00:15:54.158 --> 00:15:55.359
Oh,

00:15:55.839 --> 00:15:58.760
it was absolutely just such a fantastic

00:15:58.821 --> 00:16:00.722
read and all the dark humor and just

00:16:00.763 --> 00:16:03.504
kind of like walking into certain

00:16:03.544 --> 00:16:04.885
situations, just being like,

00:16:07.003 --> 00:16:09.144
You know, I was like,

00:16:09.163 --> 00:16:11.264
I relate to this guy minus the death

00:16:11.303 --> 00:16:11.604
wish.

00:16:11.903 --> 00:16:12.183
Sure.

00:16:12.303 --> 00:16:12.504
Yeah.

00:16:12.543 --> 00:16:12.823
Yeah.

00:16:13.364 --> 00:16:13.625
Yeah.

00:16:13.745 --> 00:16:15.985
And that that was really the idea is

00:16:16.065 --> 00:16:19.385
I wanted people to feel very comfortable

00:16:19.505 --> 00:16:21.466
and like, you know, it's very raw.

00:16:21.485 --> 00:16:23.846
It's very open and allows people to kind

00:16:23.907 --> 00:16:26.047
of slide into the character pretty easily

00:16:26.106 --> 00:16:27.988
was was the goal.

00:16:29.349 --> 00:16:32.110
And even the death wish part is,

00:16:33.913 --> 00:16:35.835
to give quick elevator pitch for

00:16:35.875 --> 00:16:36.316
listeners,

00:16:36.436 --> 00:16:38.857
the elevator pitch is suicide by

00:16:38.878 --> 00:16:39.839
vigilantism.

00:16:39.918 --> 00:16:41.260
It's a story about a guy who wants

00:16:41.280 --> 00:16:42.221
to end his own life,

00:16:42.241 --> 00:16:43.263
so he decides to do it through

00:16:43.283 --> 00:16:44.024
vigilantism.

00:16:45.384 --> 00:16:47.346
Kind of a neo-noir crime thriller on the

00:16:47.386 --> 00:16:47.807
surface.

00:16:48.945 --> 00:16:49.965
But really,

00:16:50.004 --> 00:16:51.605
it's a character piece about one man's

00:16:51.625 --> 00:16:52.806
journey of loss, trauma,

00:16:52.885 --> 00:16:54.846
and the crazy things we do when we

00:16:54.866 --> 00:16:56.626
feel as if we have nothing left to

00:16:56.667 --> 00:16:58.768
live for.

00:16:58.807 --> 00:16:59.807
Yo, what up, man?

00:16:59.827 --> 00:17:00.448
What's up, Kath?

00:17:00.769 --> 00:17:01.389
My boy, Kevin.

00:17:01.629 --> 00:17:02.428
My dude.

00:17:03.328 --> 00:17:04.369
Yeah, he's going to be on soon.

00:17:05.029 --> 00:17:05.930
Okay, yeah.

00:17:06.049 --> 00:17:07.270
I just did his show the other day,

00:17:07.290 --> 00:17:07.411
too.

00:17:07.431 --> 00:17:08.590
I've known him for a long time.

00:17:09.530 --> 00:17:14.353
So, you know...

00:17:15.654 --> 00:17:18.037
that kind of idea of wanting to end

00:17:18.076 --> 00:17:18.698
your own life.

00:17:18.758 --> 00:17:18.998
I mean,

00:17:19.858 --> 00:17:22.721
I feel like everyone has that thought in

00:17:22.800 --> 00:17:26.284
some capacity and in some level,

00:17:26.364 --> 00:17:27.545
some people it's a ten,

00:17:27.605 --> 00:17:29.246
some people it's a it's a one,

00:17:29.306 --> 00:17:29.626
you know,

00:17:29.707 --> 00:17:30.707
but there is that like

00:17:31.688 --> 00:17:33.669
Is this worth it moment we people have,

00:17:33.709 --> 00:17:35.088
you know, at some point,

00:17:35.568 --> 00:17:38.430
some people have it once briefly,

00:17:38.490 --> 00:17:41.070
some people have it as a cloud over

00:17:41.090 --> 00:17:42.131
their head every single day.

00:17:43.891 --> 00:17:47.071
So I wanted that to be another feeling

00:17:47.092 --> 00:17:48.451
that people could be like, oh,

00:17:48.531 --> 00:17:50.073
this could be me, you know,

00:17:50.252 --> 00:17:53.534
with the right under the right

00:17:53.554 --> 00:17:54.233
circumstances.

00:18:00.294 --> 00:18:01.174
The problem, though,

00:18:01.234 --> 00:18:04.056
with Stan is Stan happens to be good

00:18:04.096 --> 00:18:04.135
at...

00:18:04.155 --> 00:18:06.817
I don't know if he's just good at

00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:12.961
what he does or accidentally good at what

00:18:13.021 --> 00:18:13.823
he does.

00:18:14.002 --> 00:18:15.084
Yeah, he's kind of...

00:18:16.144 --> 00:18:18.086
He's like failing upwards, you know?

00:18:18.685 --> 00:18:20.106
Yeah, yeah.

00:18:20.287 --> 00:18:21.167
I mean, if you're going to fail,

00:18:21.188 --> 00:18:22.428
that's the way to do it.

00:18:22.528 --> 00:18:24.369
Yeah, yeah, I suppose it's better.

00:18:24.390 --> 00:18:24.450
So...

00:18:27.454 --> 00:18:28.434
But now, guys,

00:18:28.454 --> 00:18:30.215
and I'm going to be a hundred percent

00:18:30.256 --> 00:18:30.715
serious.

00:18:32.497 --> 00:18:34.758
I got to read book one and thank

00:18:34.778 --> 00:18:35.638
you for sending book one.

00:18:35.679 --> 00:18:36.878
It's always a pleasure when somebody

00:18:36.939 --> 00:18:39.700
actually gives me something to read before

00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:41.280
I walk into one of these.

00:18:41.300 --> 00:18:42.441
I mean, I could build an interview.

00:18:42.500 --> 00:18:43.082
Yeah, sure.

00:18:43.561 --> 00:18:45.103
But when I actually get to read it

00:18:45.682 --> 00:18:47.943
and enjoy it and get to know Stan.

00:18:49.130 --> 00:18:50.790
it makes it so much better for me

00:18:50.810 --> 00:18:53.713
because my damn, I like Stan.

00:18:53.794 --> 00:18:54.773
Yeah.

00:18:54.814 --> 00:18:55.375
Well, that's one.

00:18:55.835 --> 00:18:56.015
Yeah.

00:18:56.055 --> 00:18:57.316
You, he, he doesn't.

00:18:57.375 --> 00:18:59.057
So you're one vote for him at least.

00:18:59.077 --> 00:19:00.679
I mean, he's,

00:19:00.719 --> 00:19:02.440
he's got some relatable moments in that

00:19:02.500 --> 00:19:05.163
first book where it was just like,

00:19:05.182 --> 00:19:06.364
we've all just want to kind of wanted

00:19:06.403 --> 00:19:09.546
to go in and just start throwing hands.

00:19:09.865 --> 00:19:10.125
Yeah.

00:19:11.227 --> 00:19:12.367
You know, lose yourself.

00:19:12.828 --> 00:19:14.150
Yeah, exactly.

00:19:14.170 --> 00:19:14.250
Yeah.

00:19:15.470 --> 00:19:18.250
But let's jump on to Inferno Comics.

00:19:19.231 --> 00:19:20.833
What was this moment where you decided you

00:19:20.853 --> 00:19:22.713
wanted to launch your own publishing label

00:19:23.394 --> 00:19:25.595
rather than the repeated, like,

00:19:25.615 --> 00:19:26.736
let me send this to Dark Horse,

00:19:26.756 --> 00:19:27.836
let me send this to Image,

00:19:27.855 --> 00:19:29.497
let me send it here and there?

00:19:31.238 --> 00:19:35.140
Yeah, I mean, so don't get me wrong.

00:19:35.380 --> 00:19:36.800
I did those things,

00:19:37.300 --> 00:19:39.402
but I also did those things knowing full

00:19:39.442 --> 00:19:45.245
well I would never get a –

00:19:43.753 --> 00:19:46.276
get picked up um not because i don't

00:19:46.296 --> 00:19:47.936
believe in this project not because i

00:19:47.957 --> 00:19:50.597
don't think it's good enough um but

00:19:50.637 --> 00:19:53.799
because i i mean i just understand the

00:19:53.859 --> 00:19:56.221
business at a side of comic books where

00:19:56.561 --> 00:19:58.803
yeah you know i'm not they're not reading

00:19:58.903 --> 00:20:01.125
my book in a vacuum they're reading my

00:20:01.164 --> 00:20:04.926
book against the you know james tinian's

00:20:05.247 --> 00:20:06.847
eight new pitches he gave them and

00:20:07.307 --> 00:20:08.449
hickman's latest pitch

00:20:08.828 --> 00:20:10.730
And Rick Remender's latest pitch and the

00:20:10.750 --> 00:20:12.431
three things Kirkman wants to do.

00:20:12.911 --> 00:20:14.991
So like they're they're looking at their

00:20:15.011 --> 00:20:16.653
schedule going, well, we have room for,

00:20:17.133 --> 00:20:19.374
you know, I don't know how many,

00:20:19.433 --> 00:20:21.515
fifty new books, fifty books in a year.

00:20:21.674 --> 00:20:23.295
Everything we're publishing plus room for

00:20:23.315 --> 00:20:23.855
new stuff.

00:20:24.596 --> 00:20:26.336
And like, do we want to pick up?

00:20:27.252 --> 00:20:29.116
Hickman's eighth book?

00:20:29.317 --> 00:20:31.500
Or do we want to do fucking Dick

00:20:31.520 --> 00:20:33.625
Beg Casillas from Texas's book who we've

00:20:33.644 --> 00:20:34.205
never heard of?

00:20:35.288 --> 00:20:39.075
I get why no one's... I did it

00:20:41.316 --> 00:20:42.856
I did it knowing it wouldn't get picked

00:20:42.916 --> 00:20:43.037
up,

00:20:43.196 --> 00:20:45.278
but I did it to kind of craft

00:20:45.818 --> 00:20:48.140
the pitch, craft, you know,

00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:50.701
hone me talking about the book, hone,

00:20:51.080 --> 00:20:51.300
you know,

00:20:51.320 --> 00:20:53.162
to help me know what the book's about,

00:20:53.623 --> 00:20:55.403
to force me to think about what the

00:20:55.423 --> 00:20:57.785
book's about and what is important about

00:20:57.805 --> 00:20:59.766
it and how to present it.

00:21:01.626 --> 00:21:04.407
So, you know, what I mean, honestly,

00:21:04.667 --> 00:21:07.430
the funny thing is the way this book

00:21:07.529 --> 00:21:09.530
actually ended up getting made

00:21:10.768 --> 00:21:15.772
is i actually had an offer from a

00:21:15.833 --> 00:21:18.035
company named apex comics that wanted to

00:21:18.075 --> 00:21:21.117
do the book yeah um which is it's

00:21:21.137 --> 00:21:25.521
a small small small uh label but fabian

00:21:25.561 --> 00:21:29.545
nicieza's brother is uh involved in the

00:21:29.585 --> 00:21:32.708
company and i kind of know fabian

00:21:34.950 --> 00:21:35.490
a little bit.

00:21:36.270 --> 00:21:39.332
And he posted something about his brother

00:21:39.372 --> 00:21:43.095
needed someone to volunteer at the LA

00:21:43.115 --> 00:21:46.477
Comic Con a couple years ago to help

00:21:46.696 --> 00:21:48.637
run their booth for this company he has.

00:21:49.198 --> 00:21:50.519
And I was going to be in LA

00:21:50.699 --> 00:21:53.000
that weekend doing comedy anyway,

00:21:53.059 --> 00:21:53.641
stand-up comedy.

00:21:53.681 --> 00:21:55.501
So I'm like, oh, cool.

00:21:55.582 --> 00:21:57.502
I'll go hang out during the day,

00:21:57.682 --> 00:21:59.104
convention, comedy at night.

00:21:59.144 --> 00:21:59.624
Sounds great.

00:22:00.125 --> 00:22:00.565
So I did.

00:22:02.195 --> 00:22:04.199
didn't i never mentioned the book the

00:22:04.219 --> 00:22:05.579
whole time i was there that i'd written

00:22:05.599 --> 00:22:08.423
this project but i just wanted to like

00:22:08.463 --> 00:22:10.486
maybe i'll glean some knowledge maybe i'll

00:22:10.506 --> 00:22:14.029
meet who knows and whatever but weekend

00:22:14.069 --> 00:22:18.655
came and went and uh after the weekend

00:22:20.919 --> 00:22:21.960
Fabian's brother, Mario,

00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:23.201
the guy who helps run the company,

00:22:23.221 --> 00:22:25.943
is part of the company, Apex, called me.

00:22:25.983 --> 00:22:26.565
And he's like, hey,

00:22:26.605 --> 00:22:28.067
I just wanted to thank you for helping

00:22:28.207 --> 00:22:28.366
out.

00:22:28.406 --> 00:22:28.907
And, you know,

00:22:29.428 --> 00:22:30.509
kind of didn't get to talk to you

00:22:30.528 --> 00:22:30.730
much.

00:22:30.750 --> 00:22:31.770
Maybe get to know you a little more.

00:22:31.830 --> 00:22:33.112
I know you do stand-up comedy.

00:22:34.053 --> 00:22:34.273
He's like,

00:22:34.294 --> 00:22:35.575
do you write all your own material?

00:22:35.595 --> 00:22:35.954
I'm like, yeah,

00:22:35.974 --> 00:22:37.537
of course I write all my own material.

00:22:37.557 --> 00:22:37.817
You know,

00:22:38.157 --> 00:22:39.179
I've written for a bunch of different

00:22:39.199 --> 00:22:40.019
things and blah, blah, blah.

00:22:40.039 --> 00:22:40.339
And he goes,

00:22:41.040 --> 00:22:42.020
Do you write anything else?

00:22:42.060 --> 00:22:42.540
I'm like, yeah,

00:22:42.580 --> 00:22:43.961
I've written for a TV film.

00:22:44.021 --> 00:22:45.301
I've published books.

00:22:46.521 --> 00:22:47.242
And he goes,

00:22:47.262 --> 00:22:49.262
you ever think about writing a comic book?

00:22:49.722 --> 00:22:53.804
And I go, well, actually, I have.

00:22:53.943 --> 00:22:55.724
I have this book I've been working on.

00:22:56.644 --> 00:22:58.045
It's kind of I just kind of had

00:22:58.065 --> 00:22:59.786
wrapped it up at the time.

00:23:00.625 --> 00:23:01.326
And he goes, well,

00:23:01.605 --> 00:23:03.807
send over the script to number one,

00:23:04.487 --> 00:23:06.488
and I'll take a look at it and

00:23:06.508 --> 00:23:07.188
give you some notes.

00:23:07.208 --> 00:23:11.489
And I'm like, that's fine.

00:23:12.088 --> 00:23:12.328
Sure.

00:23:12.489 --> 00:23:13.369
And he's like,

00:23:13.390 --> 00:23:14.470
I'll email you back in a couple days.

00:23:15.450 --> 00:23:16.790
And he emails back a couple days later,

00:23:16.810 --> 00:23:17.391
and he's like, hey,

00:23:17.451 --> 00:23:18.810
I'm going to send this up to our

00:23:20.192 --> 00:23:21.672
editor-in-chief and have him take a look

00:23:21.711 --> 00:23:22.271
at it too.

00:23:23.373 --> 00:23:24.232
And I'm like, great.

00:23:24.772 --> 00:23:26.173
Someone else to give me notes.

00:23:26.252 --> 00:23:26.534
Great.

00:23:26.834 --> 00:23:27.193
And then...

00:23:28.354 --> 00:23:29.634
Emails me back and goes, hey,

00:23:29.933 --> 00:23:30.855
do you have time to get on a

00:23:30.894 --> 00:23:31.255
call?

00:23:31.714 --> 00:23:32.875
And I go, sure.

00:23:33.015 --> 00:23:35.195
So he scheduled this call in the editor

00:23:35.256 --> 00:23:36.336
in chief was like, hey,

00:23:36.996 --> 00:23:38.257
we want to do this book.

00:23:39.317 --> 00:23:41.097
And I was like, oh, shit.

00:23:41.198 --> 00:23:41.498
OK.

00:23:43.718 --> 00:23:45.439
So we kind of started that.

00:23:45.578 --> 00:23:46.999
That's where the ball rolling of me

00:23:47.038 --> 00:23:48.118
feeling like, oh,

00:23:48.159 --> 00:23:49.599
this book is actually really doable.

00:23:49.740 --> 00:23:55.441
And then for reasons, no, no animosity.

00:23:55.580 --> 00:23:57.142
I just kind of felt like it wasn't.

00:23:58.373 --> 00:24:00.973
gonna work the way the book wasn't going

00:24:00.993 --> 00:24:02.815
to be exactly what i wanted it to

00:24:02.835 --> 00:24:05.056
be in the end going through them like

00:24:05.076 --> 00:24:06.576
they had a house artist they wanted me

00:24:06.596 --> 00:24:08.836
to use who was like a really great

00:24:08.936 --> 00:24:10.238
artist i won't name him but it's a

00:24:10.298 --> 00:24:11.939
guy who's like an industry artist he's

00:24:11.979 --> 00:24:13.759
worked on thor superman captain america

00:24:13.778 --> 00:24:15.539
yeah like you guys can do the math

00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:18.141
if you want but uh i'm like this

00:24:18.181 --> 00:24:19.662
isn't the look i want on the book

00:24:19.942 --> 00:24:23.303
and they were really firm on the changing

00:24:23.343 --> 00:24:24.763
the name and they wanted i

00:24:25.523 --> 00:24:26.424
to do a four issue,

00:24:26.444 --> 00:24:27.665
they wanted me to condense it to like

00:24:27.685 --> 00:24:29.606
a four issue thing instead of ten issues.

00:24:29.646 --> 00:24:31.288
And then if it goes well,

00:24:31.548 --> 00:24:32.390
write a follow up.

00:24:32.410 --> 00:24:34.530
And I'm like, I don't know, man,

00:24:34.592 --> 00:24:35.972
it just isn't going the way I want.

00:24:35.992 --> 00:24:36.992
So I just kind of like I'm like,

00:24:37.013 --> 00:24:37.273
you know what,

00:24:37.294 --> 00:24:38.474
I'm going to back up for a minute.

00:24:39.536 --> 00:24:41.477
And then I started looking at the

00:24:41.517 --> 00:24:42.298
logistics of it.

00:24:42.337 --> 00:24:42.657
I'm like,

00:24:43.057 --> 00:24:44.380
I think I can do this myself.

00:24:45.156 --> 00:24:48.599
You know, and then I just I did,

00:24:48.819 --> 00:24:53.384
you know, there we I I mean,

00:24:53.523 --> 00:24:56.207
I since I was a little kid,

00:24:56.287 --> 00:24:58.429
I wanted to name my my label Inferno

00:24:58.469 --> 00:24:58.909
Comics.

00:24:58.949 --> 00:25:01.270
I've got old, you know,

00:25:01.310 --> 00:25:02.913
pretend comic book covers.

00:25:02.972 --> 00:25:04.913
I drew up eight, nine years old.

00:25:04.953 --> 00:25:07.056
They have Inferno logo in the corner and

00:25:07.115 --> 00:25:08.897
I just kept it going.

00:25:08.917 --> 00:25:10.019
And here we are.

00:25:11.707 --> 00:25:13.107
Dude, I like it.

00:25:13.248 --> 00:25:15.249
And I love to hear stories like that.

00:25:15.449 --> 00:25:17.351
And it's not necessarily like,

00:25:17.391 --> 00:25:19.412
that was my almost success.

00:25:19.471 --> 00:25:19.951
Like, no,

00:25:19.991 --> 00:25:21.992
that was your one that led you to

00:25:22.113 --> 00:25:23.713
success with the book now because I think

00:25:23.733 --> 00:25:25.015
you're on what number four now?

00:25:25.414 --> 00:25:25.655
Yeah,

00:25:25.695 --> 00:25:28.217
we're number four is coming out soon.

00:25:28.237 --> 00:25:29.417
We're working on that right now.

00:25:29.597 --> 00:25:32.440
Like Kickstarter is launching in a couple

00:25:32.460 --> 00:25:32.779
weeks.

00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:35.982
awesome i love getting to talk to people

00:25:36.042 --> 00:25:37.844
about a kickstarter getting ready to

00:25:37.903 --> 00:25:39.905
launch it is like one of our favorite

00:25:39.925 --> 00:25:45.872
things to do um so the name inferno

00:25:45.912 --> 00:25:48.413
comics can you give us kind of the

00:25:48.453 --> 00:25:50.576
story behind that name and why you landed

00:25:50.635 --> 00:25:51.037
on that

00:25:51.848 --> 00:25:52.430
Yes.

00:25:52.690 --> 00:25:56.272
So a lot of a lot of people

00:25:56.393 --> 00:25:58.375
have more than one person has asked me

00:25:58.755 --> 00:26:01.978
if it's related to the Inferno X-Men

00:26:01.998 --> 00:26:04.440
crossover, because, you know, classic,

00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:05.800
arguably one of the best,

00:26:05.901 --> 00:26:08.983
if not the best crossover of all time.

00:26:11.005 --> 00:26:13.446
And no, it's not.

00:26:13.626 --> 00:26:15.228
Although I love that crossover.

00:26:16.449 --> 00:26:16.909
And, you know,

00:26:16.989 --> 00:26:19.171
anything that has Havok dressed like a,

00:26:19.451 --> 00:26:19.750
you know,

00:26:20.392 --> 00:26:22.313
gimp sex slave has got to be good,

00:26:22.373 --> 00:26:22.593
right?

00:26:22.973 --> 00:26:24.094
We're on to some weird shit here.

00:26:24.114 --> 00:26:26.576
We're on to some weird shit, Alex Summers.

00:26:26.596 --> 00:26:29.238
What are you doing with your brother's

00:26:29.278 --> 00:26:29.557
wife?

00:26:29.577 --> 00:26:31.539
I won't touch that one, but no,

00:26:31.619 --> 00:26:33.520
you're right.

00:26:34.711 --> 00:26:37.114
So, you know, honestly,

00:26:37.734 --> 00:26:40.817
it's it's named after I was obsessed with

00:26:43.500 --> 00:26:46.281
Dante's Inferno with the book,

00:26:46.481 --> 00:26:48.304
like the divine or yeah,

00:26:48.344 --> 00:26:50.285
the divine comedy.

00:26:51.846 --> 00:26:52.067
Yeah.

00:26:52.186 --> 00:26:52.326
Yeah.

00:26:52.366 --> 00:26:55.308
Dante Alighieri's Inferno.

00:26:56.891 --> 00:26:57.971
Read it a million times.

00:26:58.031 --> 00:26:59.313
I was obsessed with it at a very

00:26:59.353 --> 00:27:00.693
young age and still am.

00:27:00.814 --> 00:27:03.215
And that's why I named it after that.

00:27:03.737 --> 00:27:05.478
So that was my first thought, too,

00:27:05.597 --> 00:27:06.138
as well.

00:27:06.739 --> 00:27:08.759
But I like to get the story behind

00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:11.422
it first because there's nothing better

00:27:11.442 --> 00:27:12.663
than hearing the stories.

00:27:13.222 --> 00:27:14.284
And I'm a story person.

00:27:14.483 --> 00:27:14.904
Obviously,

00:27:14.924 --> 00:27:16.506
that's why I kind of do what I

00:27:16.546 --> 00:27:16.786
do.

00:27:17.645 --> 00:27:19.228
And like I told you before we started,

00:27:19.347 --> 00:27:22.369
I do enjoy taking the audience through the

00:27:22.430 --> 00:27:23.971
journey of the creator.

00:27:24.010 --> 00:27:26.613
So but now I'm a huge fan of

00:27:26.653 --> 00:27:27.373
the same thing.

00:27:27.893 --> 00:27:29.795
So I'm hearing that that's why you named

00:27:29.855 --> 00:27:29.954
it.

00:27:29.994 --> 00:27:32.076
That is like top notch for me.

00:27:32.316 --> 00:27:32.557
So yeah.

00:27:34.126 --> 00:27:35.748
So when you first started building

00:27:35.887 --> 00:27:38.930
Inferno, was kill Stan,

00:27:38.950 --> 00:27:41.250
like always the plan to go on with

00:27:41.290 --> 00:27:41.631
that?

00:27:41.872 --> 00:27:43.893
Or do you have some other titles maybe

00:27:43.932 --> 00:27:45.874
that you're going to eventually introduce

00:27:46.213 --> 00:27:47.194
on Inferno comics?

00:27:47.875 --> 00:27:52.377
So, I mean, I have got, this is,

00:27:52.397 --> 00:27:54.358
this sounds crazy when I say it,

00:27:54.499 --> 00:27:56.019
but it's true.

00:27:56.720 --> 00:27:58.602
I have hundreds,

00:27:58.662 --> 00:28:00.563
if not thousands of comic book scripts

00:28:00.623 --> 00:28:01.563
I've written in my life.

00:28:02.403 --> 00:28:02.604
Um,

00:28:03.762 --> 00:28:06.403
summer, many, many are ideas,

00:28:06.584 --> 00:28:07.463
original ideas.

00:28:07.584 --> 00:28:11.046
I've, I've got, you know, my Batman story.

00:28:11.066 --> 00:28:12.526
I've got my X-Men story.

00:28:12.605 --> 00:28:14.186
I've got my Ninja Turtles story.

00:28:14.247 --> 00:28:16.327
I want to do, you know, you know,

00:28:16.347 --> 00:28:17.847
I like a twenty issue arc here.

00:28:18.189 --> 00:28:19.509
I've got those things, but I've,

00:28:20.328 --> 00:28:22.569
I've had a million original ideas that I,

00:28:23.069 --> 00:28:26.010
I've wanted to do, uh, scripted out,

00:28:26.050 --> 00:28:27.211
fleshed out, um,

00:28:28.932 --> 00:28:31.594
And but Kill Stan is actually one of

00:28:31.614 --> 00:28:33.174
the newer ideas I had.

00:28:34.517 --> 00:28:38.278
So I've tried to do comic book indie

00:28:38.318 --> 00:28:39.240
comics in the past,

00:28:39.279 --> 00:28:40.560
and it just never worked out,

00:28:41.021 --> 00:28:42.403
which looking back now,

00:28:42.442 --> 00:28:43.903
I'm glad it didn't because I probably

00:28:43.963 --> 00:28:46.586
wasn't ready or prepared to do what I

00:28:46.625 --> 00:28:47.326
needed to do.

00:28:48.207 --> 00:28:51.009
And this just wouldn't have told the story

00:28:51.028 --> 00:28:51.609
I wanted to tell.

00:28:53.250 --> 00:28:54.632
So I worked on a couple of projects

00:28:54.672 --> 00:28:55.951
that I that I do want to tell

00:28:56.031 --> 00:28:57.373
eventually that will come out,

00:28:57.413 --> 00:28:59.773
but not right away.

00:29:00.294 --> 00:29:01.894
This this story,

00:29:03.036 --> 00:29:06.096
I actually wrote this story in twenty

00:29:06.176 --> 00:29:06.616
twenty.

00:29:06.676 --> 00:29:10.499
So what happened is my best friend,

00:29:10.538 --> 00:29:11.538
another comedian,

00:29:12.440 --> 00:29:14.221
actually took his life in January of

00:29:14.260 --> 00:29:15.020
twenty twenty.

00:29:16.781 --> 00:29:18.303
And it was

00:29:20.719 --> 00:29:21.798
Yeah, it was a tough experience.

00:29:21.818 --> 00:29:24.520
The guy was best friend for years.

00:29:24.561 --> 00:29:25.842
We toured together for years.

00:29:26.042 --> 00:29:29.244
He was the closest thing I ever had

00:29:29.265 --> 00:29:29.825
to a brother,

00:29:29.865 --> 00:29:32.406
and I say that having an actual brother.

00:29:36.951 --> 00:29:38.352
It was a challenging,

00:29:39.692 --> 00:29:40.874
tough experience because

00:29:43.201 --> 00:29:43.501
I mean,

00:29:44.182 --> 00:29:45.643
I grew up in South Central LA in

00:29:45.682 --> 00:29:46.163
the eighties.

00:29:46.242 --> 00:29:47.542
I mean, it's not the first time I've,

00:29:47.963 --> 00:29:48.983
you know,

00:29:49.044 --> 00:29:50.763
I've seen plenty of people killed in front

00:29:50.784 --> 00:29:51.984
of me from a very young age.

00:29:52.345 --> 00:29:54.285
I've experienced a lot of that loss over

00:29:54.305 --> 00:29:54.664
the years.

00:29:54.704 --> 00:29:55.246
So it wasn't,

00:29:55.326 --> 00:29:57.685
it wasn't just that it was, you know,

00:29:57.846 --> 00:29:57.865
I,

00:30:01.008 --> 00:30:02.169
I was the one who had to do

00:30:02.209 --> 00:30:04.330
the wellness check with the police because

00:30:05.172 --> 00:30:06.354
he wasn't responding to anything.

00:30:06.453 --> 00:30:07.996
So getting into the house,

00:30:08.296 --> 00:30:10.117
identifying him, calling his parents,

00:30:10.137 --> 00:30:11.519
letting his parents know what happened.

00:30:12.200 --> 00:30:14.061
It was just a lot, you know,

00:30:14.082 --> 00:30:14.343
a lot.

00:30:14.423 --> 00:30:16.965
Anyway, so that occurred.

00:30:17.958 --> 00:30:18.979
And then, you know,

00:30:19.038 --> 00:30:20.760
March of twenty twenty rolls around and

00:30:20.800 --> 00:30:21.721
COVID happens.

00:30:22.282 --> 00:30:23.403
And then, you know,

00:30:23.644 --> 00:30:25.606
I was living in Washington state at the

00:30:25.626 --> 00:30:25.886
time,

00:30:25.926 --> 00:30:27.848
which was one of the most locked down

00:30:27.909 --> 00:30:30.172
states next to probably California.

00:30:32.213 --> 00:30:33.295
And the.

00:30:35.396 --> 00:30:36.657
I was just kind of stuck in my

00:30:36.718 --> 00:30:38.140
house, you know, um,

00:30:38.519 --> 00:30:41.481
watching people's lives crumble

00:30:41.582 --> 00:30:43.183
physically, mentally, spiritually,

00:30:43.223 --> 00:30:45.065
financially, you know, people were just,

00:30:45.365 --> 00:30:48.228
just losing it in so many different ways.

00:30:49.148 --> 00:30:50.890
And, you know,

00:30:51.009 --> 00:30:52.631
watching things crumble in a way that was

00:30:52.711 --> 00:30:53.952
unprecedented for us.

00:30:54.053 --> 00:30:55.493
And then, um,

00:30:57.201 --> 00:30:57.701
You know,

00:30:57.721 --> 00:31:00.604
there were civil unrest and all kinds of

00:31:00.663 --> 00:31:01.085
stuff.

00:31:01.144 --> 00:31:05.867
And I was watching some news article and

00:31:06.669 --> 00:31:08.289
I heard that I had already kind of

00:31:08.309 --> 00:31:10.330
started working on this idea of a guy

00:31:10.351 --> 00:31:12.472
with nothing to lose and nothing to live

00:31:12.512 --> 00:31:12.813
for.

00:31:14.233 --> 00:31:16.455
I heard this phrase suicide by cop.

00:31:17.236 --> 00:31:19.117
And then the phrase suicide by vigilantism

00:31:19.157 --> 00:31:20.898
popped into my head and I go, oh,

00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:21.640
that's interesting.

00:31:22.040 --> 00:31:23.642
And I kind of married that idea up

00:31:23.682 --> 00:31:25.443
with what I was already was percolating.

00:31:25.983 --> 00:31:27.265
And then I was off to the races

00:31:27.665 --> 00:31:29.146
and I just wrote this story.

00:31:30.208 --> 00:31:32.029
It's all I wrote the whole thing in

00:31:32.289 --> 00:31:32.950
a couple of months.

00:31:33.631 --> 00:31:36.032
And then I'm like, well.

00:31:36.993 --> 00:31:38.015
Then soon after that,

00:31:38.375 --> 00:31:41.278
I did the convention with Mario and they

00:31:41.317 --> 00:31:42.478
read it and they liked it.

00:31:43.098 --> 00:31:44.279
And after they wanted to do it,

00:31:44.299 --> 00:31:45.641
and then after we split ways,

00:31:45.740 --> 00:31:46.701
I was like, you know,

00:31:47.182 --> 00:31:48.123
I think I can do this.

00:31:48.163 --> 00:31:48.963
So I, and I'm like,

00:31:49.003 --> 00:31:50.444
this is the story I need to tell

00:31:50.484 --> 00:31:52.205
out of all the ones I have, like,

00:31:52.226 --> 00:31:53.227
this is the one that needs to be

00:31:53.267 --> 00:31:54.428
told right, right now.

00:31:56.516 --> 00:31:56.875
Oh, yeah.

00:31:56.935 --> 00:31:59.359
And that story very much resonates still

00:31:59.380 --> 00:32:00.661
because we still see that.

00:32:01.402 --> 00:32:06.288
And I hate saying it, but fuck,

00:32:06.348 --> 00:32:07.471
it's horrible.

00:32:08.491 --> 00:32:08.571
Yeah.

00:32:08.612 --> 00:32:11.496
Just the way shit's been the last five

00:32:11.557 --> 00:32:12.798
or six years, man.

00:32:12.817 --> 00:32:13.098
It's just...

00:32:15.355 --> 00:32:16.497
It's one of those where it's like,

00:32:16.517 --> 00:32:18.597
I had already brought it, you know,

00:32:18.738 --> 00:32:20.057
my daughter had already been born and I'm

00:32:20.097 --> 00:32:20.259
like,

00:32:20.598 --> 00:32:22.440
this isn't the place that I wanted this

00:32:22.460 --> 00:32:22.619
for her.

00:32:22.680 --> 00:32:22.920
Yeah.

00:32:25.780 --> 00:32:26.981
Hoping this would be different.

00:32:27.001 --> 00:32:27.682
This is, yeah.

00:32:27.721 --> 00:32:28.542
Yeah, definitely.

00:32:29.002 --> 00:32:30.443
I didn't want to bring my daughter into

00:32:30.483 --> 00:32:31.723
the Terminator future.

00:32:32.825 --> 00:32:33.505
Exactly.

00:32:33.525 --> 00:32:34.425
You know,

00:32:34.445 --> 00:32:36.227
and John Connor's knocking on my door.

00:32:36.247 --> 00:32:36.346
Yeah.

00:32:36.446 --> 00:32:38.728
But yeah.

00:32:39.929 --> 00:32:40.628
That's a good reference.

00:32:40.650 --> 00:32:42.009
I like it.

00:32:44.511 --> 00:32:47.273
Are you the only sole proprietor of

00:32:47.334 --> 00:32:47.673
Inferno,

00:32:47.693 --> 00:32:49.434
or is there other people behind the scenes

00:32:49.474 --> 00:32:49.816
with you?

00:32:50.692 --> 00:32:53.433
It's pretty much just a one-man operation

00:32:53.493 --> 00:32:54.375
right now, yeah.

00:32:54.414 --> 00:32:56.516
I feel you.

00:32:57.297 --> 00:32:59.538
So, you know, when I say we,

00:32:59.557 --> 00:33:00.798
when I refer to Inferno,

00:33:00.858 --> 00:33:02.240
it's like the royal we, you know.

00:33:03.121 --> 00:33:04.301
We as in me.

00:33:04.402 --> 00:33:04.721
Yeah.

00:33:06.782 --> 00:33:08.263
We and we.

00:33:08.443 --> 00:33:09.125
Yeah, yeah.

00:33:10.726 --> 00:33:13.788
But I am working on...

00:33:16.092 --> 00:33:18.054
trying to bring on some other creators and

00:33:18.094 --> 00:33:20.336
help them help publish their works too

00:33:20.655 --> 00:33:24.419
yeah it's it's just been a little slow

00:33:24.459 --> 00:33:28.323
going because i'm i'm busy but uh that

00:33:28.383 --> 00:33:29.743
is part of the place it means you're

00:33:29.763 --> 00:33:31.464
working and you're making money that is

00:33:31.505 --> 00:33:34.127
true yeah yeah um it just

00:33:35.261 --> 00:33:37.042
But it is part of the plan is

00:33:37.103 --> 00:33:38.884
to bring on some other creators.

00:33:39.345 --> 00:33:44.948
I just am very laser specific about what

00:33:45.028 --> 00:33:46.669
I want to publish under the label.

00:33:49.371 --> 00:33:51.192
And I don't mean a specific genre.

00:33:51.632 --> 00:33:53.573
I don't mean a specific style.

00:33:54.753 --> 00:33:56.375
I mean the content.

00:33:56.434 --> 00:33:57.316
I really want like...

00:33:58.430 --> 00:34:03.114
character-driven stories with a purpose.

00:34:03.233 --> 00:34:05.875
If it's a cool superhero ditty,

00:34:06.336 --> 00:34:07.977
I'm not saying don't do it.

00:34:07.997 --> 00:34:10.039
That just doesn't fit what we want to

00:34:11.179 --> 00:34:11.420
do.

00:34:11.840 --> 00:34:12.521
It makes sense.

00:34:12.981 --> 00:34:15.402
It's one of those where we're probably

00:34:15.422 --> 00:34:17.364
both in our forties and we've earned that

00:34:17.423 --> 00:34:18.925
right at this point to be like,

00:34:20.266 --> 00:34:22.027
that ain't really our thing.

00:34:22.208 --> 00:34:23.409
We wish you luck.

00:34:23.429 --> 00:34:24.829
There is space for that out there.

00:34:24.869 --> 00:34:25.929
Plenty of space for that.

00:34:26.771 --> 00:34:27.231
I talked to

00:34:29.396 --> 00:34:31.318
I think I've got like eighteen creators on

00:34:31.358 --> 00:34:31.798
this month.

00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:33.900
And, you know,

00:34:34.061 --> 00:34:36.422
most of them are superhero related and

00:34:36.443 --> 00:34:37.222
there's nothing wrong with that.

00:34:37.302 --> 00:34:38.603
I love superhero stuff,

00:34:39.143 --> 00:34:40.565
but it's when I get the project like

00:34:40.585 --> 00:34:43.668
the kill stands that I'm just like,

00:34:43.708 --> 00:34:45.588
that's what I want to talk about is

00:34:45.628 --> 00:34:47.469
that kind of stuff because it's fun.

00:34:48.471 --> 00:34:50.932
and i don't mean fun in a like

00:34:51.253 --> 00:34:53.054
damn this is a dark i think that's

00:34:53.094 --> 00:34:56.436
funny but it's a very character driven

00:34:57.097 --> 00:34:58.998
outside of your normal comic book

00:34:59.059 --> 00:35:03.063
superhero this guy just wants to die right

00:35:03.103 --> 00:35:06.304
but he he can't even do that right

00:35:06.324 --> 00:35:08.146
he keeps that up yeah you know

00:35:09.474 --> 00:35:10.853
so for me the i love those

00:35:10.934 --> 00:35:13.034
character-driven unique stories like that

00:35:13.494 --> 00:35:15.356
and that's why i'm also such a big

00:35:15.416 --> 00:35:17.996
fan of the independent comic scene yeah is

00:35:18.016 --> 00:35:20.396
because you get so much of that kind

00:35:20.436 --> 00:35:23.117
of stuff whether it's in the horror genre

00:35:23.137 --> 00:35:26.938
the thriller genre you know the james

00:35:27.159 --> 00:35:30.639
tinian genre because he's his own genre

00:35:30.679 --> 00:35:32.880
now i believe yeah well he's and i

00:35:32.920 --> 00:35:35.081
love the guy i absolutely love his work

00:35:35.201 --> 00:35:37.442
i could read the dude all day and

00:35:37.461 --> 00:35:38.521
there's some days where i do

00:35:39.800 --> 00:35:42.163
And but yeah,

00:35:42.222 --> 00:35:43.523
that's the stuff I really love.

00:35:43.623 --> 00:35:45.085
And I love talking to the superheroes,

00:35:45.105 --> 00:35:45.364
too.

00:35:45.965 --> 00:35:47.346
I love talking to those creators.

00:35:47.385 --> 00:35:49.068
I'm doing that in like two days,

00:35:49.128 --> 00:35:51.188
actually talking to a guy building a new

00:35:51.409 --> 00:35:52.349
superhero world.

00:35:52.869 --> 00:35:54.251
And I love when people are building their

00:35:54.291 --> 00:35:56.373
own worlds, their own superheroes.

00:35:57.853 --> 00:36:01.157
It's fun, but I like these darker, greedy,

00:36:02.057 --> 00:36:04.139
Neo-Nor type of stories.

00:36:04.159 --> 00:36:05.661
That's why I was such a huge fan

00:36:05.721 --> 00:36:08.543
of Sin City when Martin Millard released

00:36:08.563 --> 00:36:08.902
that.

00:36:09.664 --> 00:36:09.963
Actually,

00:36:09.983 --> 00:36:12.545
to a point where my own comic book

00:36:12.626 --> 00:36:15.909
is very much a Sin City-esque type of

00:36:15.949 --> 00:36:16.349
story.

00:36:18.126 --> 00:36:21.248
and um so that's what i really like

00:36:21.389 --> 00:36:23.090
anytime something like that comes across

00:36:23.130 --> 00:36:24.771
the desk i'm like yep when do you

00:36:24.811 --> 00:36:26.552
want to do this you know and i

00:36:26.572 --> 00:36:27.552
think i did that's what i did to

00:36:27.592 --> 00:36:29.313
you it was like yeah hell yeah when

00:36:29.333 --> 00:36:31.835
do you want to do it well i

00:36:31.855 --> 00:36:34.137
appreciate it man yeah and it's uh you

00:36:34.157 --> 00:36:36.077
know in into people out there writing

00:36:36.097 --> 00:36:37.798
other stuff it's like you know you can

00:36:37.838 --> 00:36:38.219
write

00:36:38.842 --> 00:36:41.606
a character driven purpose driven

00:36:42.226 --> 00:36:44.367
superhero story you know you can you can

00:36:44.427 --> 00:36:48.331
make that happen um and you know or

00:36:48.371 --> 00:36:50.793
you can write a light and fluffy superhero

00:36:50.833 --> 00:36:53.155
ditty um again there's room for both

00:36:53.175 --> 00:36:54.737
there's room for all you know do what

00:36:54.777 --> 00:36:57.940
you want to do um just i know

00:36:57.980 --> 00:36:58.300
for me

00:36:59.221 --> 00:37:00.141
I know what I love.

00:37:00.581 --> 00:37:01.782
I know what I want to read.

00:37:02.884 --> 00:37:05.005
And if I feel like I'm just reading,

00:37:05.045 --> 00:37:07.586
like, just kind of stuff happening,

00:37:08.108 --> 00:37:09.268
I'm not that interested.

00:37:09.369 --> 00:37:10.469
If there's subtext,

00:37:10.528 --> 00:37:12.670
if it's meaty to chew on, there's things,

00:37:12.710 --> 00:37:15.472
there's characters with complex nuances

00:37:15.492 --> 00:37:16.494
that I'm trying to figure out.

00:37:16.534 --> 00:37:18.715
Like, that's the thing where I'm like, oh,

00:37:18.815 --> 00:37:21.257
okay, this is interesting, you know?

00:37:21.617 --> 00:37:21.797
Mm-hmm.

00:37:22.458 --> 00:37:24.079
No, I'm with you on that.

00:37:24.219 --> 00:37:28.003
And that will always and you'll as the

00:37:28.123 --> 00:37:29.565
USD and it evolves, I will.

00:37:30.085 --> 00:37:30.545
Oh, actually,

00:37:30.565 --> 00:37:32.827
it's already done this in later months

00:37:32.867 --> 00:37:33.349
coming up.

00:37:33.389 --> 00:37:35.811
It's kind of I'm not saying I'm being

00:37:36.190 --> 00:37:37.231
I'm picking and choosing.

00:37:37.813 --> 00:37:38.893
But what I am saying,

00:37:39.014 --> 00:37:40.556
I'm not doing everything.

00:37:42.197 --> 00:37:43.641
I've set myself a schedule.

00:37:43.701 --> 00:37:46.445
It's going to be one interview every three

00:37:46.465 --> 00:37:48.389
to four days because what I'm doing

00:37:48.429 --> 00:37:51.474
currently isn't sustainable from my

00:37:51.554 --> 00:37:52.056
well-being.

00:37:53.695 --> 00:37:55.277
And when I say my well-being is I

00:37:56.077 --> 00:37:57.239
actually want to watch some of the new

00:37:57.278 --> 00:37:58.420
TV shows that are out.

00:37:58.480 --> 00:38:00.360
And if I'm always writing and I'm always

00:38:00.400 --> 00:38:01.922
working and I'm always editing,

00:38:01.942 --> 00:38:04.704
I don't get I really want to watch

00:38:04.724 --> 00:38:05.543
the new one piece.

00:38:05.945 --> 00:38:06.144
Yeah.

00:38:06.164 --> 00:38:07.786
You know, season two just dropped.

00:38:07.945 --> 00:38:09.007
I really want to watch it.

00:38:09.847 --> 00:38:10.208
However,

00:38:10.347 --> 00:38:13.150
I can't watch it because until probably,

00:38:13.329 --> 00:38:13.610
you know,

00:38:13.690 --> 00:38:15.251
a couple of months from now when I

00:38:15.311 --> 00:38:17.373
actually do get the chance to slow down.

00:38:18.547 --> 00:38:19.447
I will be able to watch it in

00:38:19.467 --> 00:38:20.307
probably June.

00:38:20.788 --> 00:38:22.168
Yeah.

00:38:22.268 --> 00:38:24.429
It's a conscious thing that I had to

00:38:24.469 --> 00:38:25.110
do is like,

00:38:26.271 --> 00:38:28.411
I'm going one interview every three to

00:38:28.452 --> 00:38:30.373
four days because it gives me a lot

00:38:30.413 --> 00:38:31.994
of time in between things to

00:38:33.731 --> 00:38:35.313
Watch TV, relax.

00:38:35.532 --> 00:38:37.373
Maybe go to the beach and go for

00:38:37.414 --> 00:38:38.054
a drive.

00:38:38.974 --> 00:38:40.375
Yeah, you got to live a little,

00:38:40.394 --> 00:38:40.775
you know.

00:38:41.335 --> 00:38:43.376
That's how you get the creative juices to

00:38:43.396 --> 00:38:45.817
flow is actually living, you know.

00:38:46.637 --> 00:38:47.898
I would like to take the doors off

00:38:47.938 --> 00:38:49.039
my Bronco for once.

00:38:49.059 --> 00:38:50.798
There you go.

00:38:50.818 --> 00:38:51.860
I've had it for a year and I

00:38:51.900 --> 00:38:53.179
haven't even had the chance.

00:38:53.280 --> 00:38:54.101
Yeah.

00:38:55.614 --> 00:38:58.235
So independent comics currently are

00:38:58.295 --> 00:38:59.675
growing rapidly.

00:38:59.755 --> 00:39:00.956
Like, I mean,

00:39:01.137 --> 00:39:02.737
you look at my schedule and I think

00:39:02.777 --> 00:39:04.898
I have like eighteen or nineteen creators

00:39:04.958 --> 00:39:05.918
on this month alone.

00:39:06.478 --> 00:39:07.818
But from your perspective,

00:39:07.838 --> 00:39:10.280
what's making this such an exciting time

00:39:10.659 --> 00:39:12.561
for creator owned comics?

00:39:14.344 --> 00:39:14.445
Um,

00:39:15.166 --> 00:39:17.027
I think that we have been on a

00:39:17.266 --> 00:39:19.327
swing, you know, I mean,

00:39:19.469 --> 00:39:20.969
you've been around long enough to know,

00:39:21.130 --> 00:39:24.092
and not even just comic books, but, um,

00:39:24.132 --> 00:39:25.231
the world in general.

00:39:25.331 --> 00:39:27.853
I mean, any, whether it's, uh,

00:39:27.873 --> 00:39:29.855
entertainment, politics, et cetera,

00:39:30.416 --> 00:39:32.536
things swing really hard one way,

00:39:32.577 --> 00:39:34.617
and then they swing back the other way,

00:39:35.059 --> 00:39:36.619
even harder, this pendulum, you know?

00:39:38.141 --> 00:39:40.802
And we've been in a world of garbage

00:39:41.161 --> 00:39:43.402
media and entertainment for so long,

00:39:43.724 --> 00:39:44.443
for so long.

00:39:44.503 --> 00:39:44.764
Yeah.

00:39:44.824 --> 00:39:48.306
Where it's just, you know, it's like this.

00:39:49.106 --> 00:39:52.248
Thirty second clickbait reels,

00:39:53.148 --> 00:39:54.929
no actual depth, no content.

00:39:55.028 --> 00:39:55.829
I mean, you know,

00:39:55.929 --> 00:39:58.510
even like Netflix literally put out a memo

00:39:59.012 --> 00:39:59.192
that.

00:40:00.052 --> 00:40:01.932
the Netflix movies that they're making,

00:40:01.952 --> 00:40:02.853
they tell the creators,

00:40:03.213 --> 00:40:04.775
you have to explain the plot at least

00:40:04.835 --> 00:40:06.856
four times in the movie because people are

00:40:06.896 --> 00:40:08.538
dumb and they're on their phones while

00:40:08.557 --> 00:40:09.197
they're watching.

00:40:09.717 --> 00:40:12.000
So it's like, I mean, that's real.

00:40:12.039 --> 00:40:12.940
That sounds like a joke.

00:40:12.960 --> 00:40:13.860
That's real like that.

00:40:13.900 --> 00:40:15.541
No, that's spot on.

00:40:15.581 --> 00:40:15.742
So

00:40:16.922 --> 00:40:19.704
you know it's just been i think people

00:40:19.744 --> 00:40:22.585
are tired of that and whether they realize

00:40:22.626 --> 00:40:26.487
it or not people are starved for real

00:40:27.228 --> 00:40:30.230
art um real content something that matters

00:40:30.329 --> 00:40:34.472
everything is so all this like ai digital

00:40:34.793 --> 00:40:37.134
thirty second dopamine it's just not

00:40:37.173 --> 00:40:39.835
tangible it's not sustainable yeah and

00:40:39.875 --> 00:40:42.376
people are starting to crave

00:40:43.336 --> 00:40:46.561
real art again um and i think that's

00:40:46.581 --> 00:40:50.264
what's helping the the indie scene a lot

00:40:50.666 --> 00:40:53.648
um i mean not even just the super

00:40:53.708 --> 00:40:56.172
indie scene but like you see oh as

00:40:56.192 --> 00:40:58.494
a whole a hundred percent as a whole

00:40:58.795 --> 00:41:00.456
yeah well i mean even even like

00:41:01.869 --> 00:41:04.889
image in in vault in mad cave like

00:41:04.929 --> 00:41:06.630
these books are starting and they're

00:41:06.650 --> 00:41:08.510
starting to get uh really crank up right

00:41:08.570 --> 00:41:11.170
now um because people are just going away

00:41:11.210 --> 00:41:14.411
from this like machine cranked just

00:41:14.451 --> 00:41:17.692
formulaic marvel bullshit um you know just

00:41:17.831 --> 00:41:20.132
we're just an ip house we're just selling

00:41:20.152 --> 00:41:22.652
you these comics so we can sell you

00:41:23.012 --> 00:41:25.313
fucking the movie later action figures and

00:41:25.353 --> 00:41:28.074
movies is all you know the stuff we

00:41:28.153 --> 00:41:29.693
actually care about so

00:41:31.320 --> 00:41:31.500
Yeah,

00:41:31.519 --> 00:41:33.342
people are looking for something a little

00:41:33.382 --> 00:41:33.943
more real.

00:41:35.063 --> 00:41:36.364
I mean, I do a lot of conventions.

00:41:36.445 --> 00:41:38.586
I think I did like thirty six conventions

00:41:38.626 --> 00:41:39.688
in twenty twenty five.

00:41:39.708 --> 00:41:43.190
Wow, dude, that's like a lot.

00:41:43.291 --> 00:41:44.251
It was too much.

00:41:44.492 --> 00:41:46.954
It was stupid.

00:41:47.034 --> 00:41:48.516
I did it.

00:41:49.137 --> 00:41:51.239
And, you know,

00:41:51.659 --> 00:41:54.081
what I was surprised me a lot.

00:41:55.583 --> 00:41:58.525
is how many younger people I was getting

00:41:58.565 --> 00:41:59.166
to my booth.

00:42:00.547 --> 00:42:02.507
How many people who I would, you know,

00:42:02.688 --> 00:42:05.969
I would assume most you're in, you know,

00:42:06.730 --> 00:42:08.791
your average comic book reader probably

00:42:08.831 --> 00:42:10.132
does look like us, you know,

00:42:10.172 --> 00:42:13.413
kind of late thirties, early forties,

00:42:14.333 --> 00:42:14.773
you know,

00:42:14.914 --> 00:42:17.394
straight male is kind of you're probably,

00:42:17.916 --> 00:42:19.536
I don't know, I would say,

00:42:20.237 --> 00:42:21.858
sixty plus percent of the market,

00:42:21.898 --> 00:42:22.958
if not seventy percent,

00:42:22.978 --> 00:42:23.998
you know what I mean, easily.

00:42:24.838 --> 00:42:25.179
So,

00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:27.420
but I was getting kids who were like,

00:42:28.402 --> 00:42:32.025
you know, in their early teens, thirteen,

00:42:32.045 --> 00:42:34.106
fourteen, and, you know,

00:42:34.407 --> 00:42:35.748
coming up and buying the book.

00:42:35.789 --> 00:42:36.550
And then I would read.

00:42:38.014 --> 00:42:41.177
Like I was doing this one convention in

00:42:41.177 --> 00:42:44.239
– it's a small convention in Del Rio,

00:42:44.260 --> 00:42:45.820
Texas, but they're very nice people.

00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:48.382
They brought me in as a featured guest.

00:42:49.304 --> 00:42:50.465
They're very, very kind.

00:42:50.965 --> 00:42:52.826
Those are some of my favorite ones though.

00:42:53.347 --> 00:42:54.867
Because you have time to connect with

00:42:54.887 --> 00:42:56.188
people and the people are there really

00:42:56.228 --> 00:42:58.090
like trying to connect with you.

00:42:58.150 --> 00:43:01.672
But this guy who is probably my age,

00:43:02.114 --> 00:43:02.713
maybe younger,

00:43:03.875 --> 00:43:05.396
came up with his young daughter who was

00:43:05.456 --> 00:43:07.438
probably – I don't know.

00:43:09.974 --> 00:43:11.954
And he's like, what's your book?

00:43:12.096 --> 00:43:13.896
You know, she was like, he's like, oh,

00:43:13.916 --> 00:43:14.938
she was looking at your book.

00:43:14.998 --> 00:43:16.679
And, you know, she liked how it looked.

00:43:16.719 --> 00:43:17.378
I'm like, oh, cool.

00:43:17.418 --> 00:43:19.099
And she goes, what's it about?

00:43:19.201 --> 00:43:19.581
I go, well,

00:43:19.601 --> 00:43:21.802
it's kind of I kind of look at

00:43:21.822 --> 00:43:23.063
him like it's kind of a little adult.

00:43:23.103 --> 00:43:26.326
It's got some themes of self-harm and some

00:43:26.365 --> 00:43:27.766
violence and language and stuff.

00:43:27.786 --> 00:43:29.807
And he's like, that's OK.

00:43:30.228 --> 00:43:31.809
And she goes and she looks through it

00:43:31.969 --> 00:43:33.731
and she she's like, can I get one?

00:43:33.771 --> 00:43:34.291
He goes, yeah.

00:43:34.530 --> 00:43:35.271
And he buys her one.

00:43:36.572 --> 00:43:38.574
And he bought her, she number one.

00:43:38.934 --> 00:43:39.795
And then he came back,

00:43:40.376 --> 00:43:41.896
or they came back the next day to

00:43:41.916 --> 00:43:42.476
the convention.

00:43:42.496 --> 00:43:42.797
They go,

00:43:42.836 --> 00:43:45.278
we came back just to get number two.

00:43:45.338 --> 00:43:46.760
She loved number one so much.

00:43:47.219 --> 00:43:48.360
That's really cool.

00:43:48.380 --> 00:43:50.081
But the kids these days are exposed to

00:43:50.101 --> 00:43:51.123
that so soon.

00:43:51.672 --> 00:43:52.233
Right, right.

00:43:52.293 --> 00:43:53.052
You go, yeah, yeah.

00:43:53.132 --> 00:43:54.813
I mean, that is so true.

00:43:55.074 --> 00:43:56.813
It just is like, you know,

00:43:56.934 --> 00:43:58.375
it's this twelve year old girl.

00:43:58.394 --> 00:44:00.255
And I'm like, oh, this like this,

00:44:00.375 --> 00:44:02.496
this girl already gets it.

00:44:02.755 --> 00:44:03.155
You know,

00:44:03.255 --> 00:44:06.137
like she's already she's already on board

00:44:06.177 --> 00:44:08.536
with like wanting to get this real art

00:44:08.556 --> 00:44:09.097
in her hands.

00:44:09.117 --> 00:44:11.057
And I'm like, this is great.

00:44:11.097 --> 00:44:11.338
You know,

00:44:12.097 --> 00:44:13.197
she's a kid we don't have to worry

00:44:13.217 --> 00:44:13.418
about.

00:44:13.458 --> 00:44:15.159
She's on the right path.

00:44:15.219 --> 00:44:16.759
That's the way I see it every single

00:44:16.798 --> 00:44:17.199
time.

00:44:17.920 --> 00:44:18.699
And it's awesome.

00:44:20.541 --> 00:44:23.445
I love seeing like I've interviewed and I

00:44:23.465 --> 00:44:25.309
say kids and I'm using the term loosely.

00:44:25.329 --> 00:44:27.351
I'm thinking like if I'm old enough to

00:44:27.371 --> 00:44:29.554
be your father, you're a kid to me.

00:44:31.157 --> 00:44:33.057
So like the guy who was just on

00:44:33.097 --> 00:44:35.199
with the manga studio in the Philippines,

00:44:35.239 --> 00:44:36.539
he's twenty two years old, right?

00:44:37.059 --> 00:44:37.219
Mm hmm.

00:44:37.539 --> 00:44:39.300
Clearly old enough to be his father,

00:44:39.860 --> 00:44:42.340
but he's doing his own thing outside of

00:44:42.360 --> 00:44:45.942
the big system within the manga community.

00:44:46.021 --> 00:44:47.902
It's like unless you're coming out of

00:44:47.942 --> 00:44:48.402
Japan,

00:44:48.481 --> 00:44:49.902
nobody's really going to concern

00:44:49.922 --> 00:44:50.543
themselves with you.

00:44:50.583 --> 00:44:52.902
So he's got this huge uphill battle.

00:44:53.003 --> 00:44:53.802
Right, right, right.

00:44:54.103 --> 00:44:57.083
But he's so determined and so driven that

00:44:57.563 --> 00:44:58.945
like, dude, good luck, man.

00:44:59.224 --> 00:45:00.445
I really hope you make it.

00:45:00.864 --> 00:45:02.905
yeah then a lot of the guys who

00:45:02.945 --> 00:45:04.905
are like my interview in a couple of

00:45:04.945 --> 00:45:06.987
days i'm not sure how old he is

00:45:07.027 --> 00:45:09.947
but he he's like probably again young

00:45:09.967 --> 00:45:12.108
enough to be you know a child of

00:45:12.168 --> 00:45:15.449
mine and uh but he's building his own

00:45:15.530 --> 00:45:17.871
universe he's created his own superhero

00:45:18.610 --> 00:45:20.130
and i love that and i love to

00:45:20.172 --> 00:45:24.172
see parents nurturing that right yeah yeah

00:45:24.713 --> 00:45:26.213
Well, I mean, especially, you know,

00:45:26.233 --> 00:45:28.293
at these conventions, a lot of times,

00:45:28.773 --> 00:45:29.833
not not all the time.

00:45:29.853 --> 00:45:31.315
There are parents who are you can tell

00:45:31.335 --> 00:45:32.255
are just dragged there.

00:45:32.275 --> 00:45:33.735
But sometimes there's parents who are like

00:45:33.855 --> 00:45:36.896
also fans and their kids who are becoming

00:45:36.956 --> 00:45:39.217
fans, which is like, yeah, such a great,

00:45:39.396 --> 00:45:40.516
you know, it's like I mean,

00:45:40.556 --> 00:45:43.097
it's so heartwarming to see what I would

00:45:43.117 --> 00:45:45.057
have given to have one of my parents

00:45:45.077 --> 00:45:46.478
give a shit about comic books when I

00:45:46.498 --> 00:45:46.898
was a kid.

00:45:46.918 --> 00:45:47.579
Yeah.

00:45:50.146 --> 00:45:53.786
So it was like, yeah,

00:45:53.927 --> 00:45:58.007
I just think that, you know,

00:45:58.047 --> 00:46:00.989
we're in this weird moment in history

00:46:01.048 --> 00:46:03.750
where, I mean,

00:46:04.110 --> 00:46:05.969
it sounds cliche because we hear it every

00:46:06.010 --> 00:46:06.969
time we turn on the news,

00:46:07.030 --> 00:46:09.090
but we're more divided than ever, right?

00:46:09.510 --> 00:46:11.771
And I mean that on almost every front.

00:46:12.952 --> 00:46:13.771
You know,

00:46:13.831 --> 00:46:15.952
they've done a great job of dividing us

00:46:15.972 --> 00:46:16.112
between,

00:46:17.132 --> 00:46:19.275
politically, religious, religiously,

00:46:19.355 --> 00:46:21.916
sexually, racially, they've, they've,

00:46:22.056 --> 00:46:23.697
they've, they've masterfully done it.

00:46:24.038 --> 00:46:24.958
They've,

00:46:24.978 --> 00:46:26.639
they've damn near accomplished their goal.

00:46:26.659 --> 00:46:27.239
A hundred percent.

00:46:27.260 --> 00:46:30.802
Um, but like, so I think we're,

00:46:31.023 --> 00:46:33.605
we're in this weird moment where I think

00:46:35.123 --> 00:46:37.385
a lot of society is going to start

00:46:37.405 --> 00:46:39.405
to split where we're going to have the,

00:46:39.827 --> 00:46:42.409
like the people who are going to absorb

00:46:42.588 --> 00:46:44.090
into their fucking Peter,

00:46:44.130 --> 00:46:49.934
a teal fucking matrix cocoons,

00:46:50.215 --> 00:46:51.195
like the Luddites.

00:46:51.987 --> 00:46:55.231
who like go into the woods and build

00:46:55.251 --> 00:46:57.813
their own little house and build a little

00:46:57.873 --> 00:47:00.855
homestead and have a little cow and a

00:47:00.894 --> 00:47:01.635
couple dogs.

00:47:02.195 --> 00:47:03.237
And I think that's going to be the

00:47:03.257 --> 00:47:07.000
next real divide we see in our country.

00:47:08.282 --> 00:47:10.963
But I think those people who are in

00:47:11.003 --> 00:47:12.605
the Luddite group are the ones that are

00:47:12.644 --> 00:47:15.527
going –

00:47:13.706 --> 00:47:15.347
We need something real, you know,

00:47:15.646 --> 00:47:17.788
we need something real to spend our time

00:47:17.867 --> 00:47:18.688
on in this art,

00:47:18.748 --> 00:47:21.650
something that has some real soul to it,

00:47:21.730 --> 00:47:22.010
you know,

00:47:22.070 --> 00:47:24.751
because like everything that's pushed

00:47:24.771 --> 00:47:26.753
through the algorithm is so soulless.

00:47:26.813 --> 00:47:27.393
It's dead.

00:47:27.432 --> 00:47:28.753
It's yeah, there's nothing.

00:47:28.773 --> 00:47:31.434
There's no, you know, it's, you know,

00:47:31.695 --> 00:47:33.315
it's like you're that drunk friend when

00:47:33.335 --> 00:47:34.356
they're so blacked out,

00:47:34.376 --> 00:47:35.918
they're still like soldiering on.

00:47:35.958 --> 00:47:37.778
But there's like nothing behind the eyes

00:47:37.818 --> 00:47:38.199
anymore.

00:47:38.798 --> 00:47:38.998
Yeah,

00:47:39.259 --> 00:47:40.380
I might have been that friend once or

00:47:40.400 --> 00:47:40.559
twice.

00:47:40.579 --> 00:47:41.119
Yeah,

00:47:41.380 --> 00:47:43.240
it's like that scene out of Jaws when

00:47:43.300 --> 00:47:44.940
Quint is describing the sharks.

00:47:44.960 --> 00:47:48.063
It's like black eyes, like a doll's eyes,

00:47:48.103 --> 00:47:48.362
you know?

00:47:48.643 --> 00:47:50.402
It's like that look where it's like, yeah,

00:47:50.422 --> 00:47:52.043
there's eyes there, but there's nothing.

00:47:52.463 --> 00:47:54.644
They're just fucking glazed.

00:47:54.905 --> 00:47:55.864
Yeah.

00:47:57.739 --> 00:47:59.639
oh yeah i think we've all been there

00:47:59.739 --> 00:48:01.800
once or twice yeah yeah maybe more that's

00:48:01.820 --> 00:48:03.302
how you know you're living that's how you

00:48:03.342 --> 00:48:05.543
know you're living yeah i know i'm living

00:48:05.563 --> 00:48:07.065
because i don't remember and i was told

00:48:07.105 --> 00:48:11.507
how much fun i had exactly exactly so

00:48:11.947 --> 00:48:13.668
why were some of your biggest challenges

00:48:13.708 --> 00:48:15.110
you ran into when you're starting to put

00:48:15.130 --> 00:48:17.251
the pieces together whether it was finding

00:48:17.271 --> 00:48:19.632
people to collaborate with produce the

00:48:19.672 --> 00:48:21.612
bullets or building the actual brand

00:48:21.672 --> 00:48:22.213
itself

00:48:25.199 --> 00:48:27.581
Yeah, you know, I was pretty fortunate.

00:48:28.242 --> 00:48:31.186
Getting the creative team together was a

00:48:31.226 --> 00:48:32.606
really easy process for me.

00:48:34.409 --> 00:48:36.672
Probably for a couple reasons.

00:48:36.851 --> 00:48:38.873
I have a background in business.

00:48:38.954 --> 00:48:40.835
I did, you know, marketing,

00:48:40.876 --> 00:48:41.677
business development,

00:48:41.717 --> 00:48:43.278
consulting for a long time.

00:48:44.981 --> 00:48:46.181
So I'm pretty discerning.

00:48:46.623 --> 00:48:47.583
I knew what I wanted.

00:48:49.465 --> 00:48:49.786
You know,

00:48:49.826 --> 00:48:52.148
the business aspect of it was fairly

00:48:52.467 --> 00:48:56.132
simple to kind of figure out.

00:48:56.192 --> 00:48:56.592
You know,

00:48:57.353 --> 00:49:00.755
it was the marketing is the hardest thing.

00:49:01.056 --> 00:49:02.338
Always.

00:49:02.518 --> 00:49:03.137
Always.

00:49:03.539 --> 00:49:03.778
Yeah.

00:49:03.818 --> 00:49:04.679
That's just it's like,

00:49:04.719 --> 00:49:05.760
how do you you know,

00:49:05.900 --> 00:49:07.762
you can create someone can create.

00:49:09.096 --> 00:49:10.876
The goddamn Mona Lisa.

00:49:11.257 --> 00:49:13.398
But if if they post it on Instagram

00:49:13.418 --> 00:49:14.760
and only eight people see it,

00:49:14.800 --> 00:49:16.121
then who gives a shit?

00:49:16.181 --> 00:49:16.481
You know,

00:49:17.181 --> 00:49:22.164
so it's like it's it's getting everything

00:49:22.405 --> 00:49:24.286
out there, which was the tricky part.

00:49:24.327 --> 00:49:24.827
And that is.

00:49:26.447 --> 00:49:26.668
uh,

00:49:26.748 --> 00:49:30.949
so challenging in today's ever changing in

00:49:31.009 --> 00:49:34.469
very fickle market and algorithm driven,

00:49:34.489 --> 00:49:36.351
uh, you know, uh,

00:49:37.090 --> 00:49:38.152
entertainment consumption.

00:49:38.172 --> 00:49:41.552
Um, you know, I, I still say,

00:49:41.612 --> 00:49:41.813
I mean,

00:49:41.853 --> 00:49:43.373
I certainly haven't mastered it yet.

00:49:43.932 --> 00:49:46.233
I can definitely see how getting,

00:49:46.434 --> 00:49:48.074
it's definitely way better than it was.

00:49:48.134 --> 00:49:49.735
I found out a couple of things,

00:49:49.775 --> 00:49:50.875
done a couple of things that seemed to

00:49:51.094 --> 00:49:52.094
work better, but, um,

00:49:55.536 --> 00:49:55.856
You know,

00:49:55.896 --> 00:49:57.797
getting the team together was fairly easy.

00:49:59.157 --> 00:50:01.820
I did some research on some printers in

00:50:01.920 --> 00:50:03.219
kind of, you know,

00:50:06.652 --> 00:50:08.474
customer service was a big issue who I

00:50:08.494 --> 00:50:10.715
could get a hold of uh what they

00:50:10.755 --> 00:50:12.516
were willing to give me for paper samples

00:50:12.597 --> 00:50:14.217
like because I had a specific I wanted

00:50:14.237 --> 00:50:15.639
it to have a specific weight to it

00:50:15.659 --> 00:50:19.981
yeah um price obviously is a factor uh

00:50:20.001 --> 00:50:21.802
but you know I was willing to pay

00:50:22.003 --> 00:50:23.664
a little more if I was getting a

00:50:23.704 --> 00:50:25.186
better product with better customer

00:50:25.226 --> 00:50:28.768
service um but yeah I think really the

00:50:28.807 --> 00:50:31.130
biggest hurdle was uh figuring out the

00:50:31.170 --> 00:50:32.570
marketing because you know you make it

00:50:32.590 --> 00:50:33.050
then you're like

00:50:34.869 --> 00:50:36.871
now what do i do with it um

00:50:38.193 --> 00:50:40.614
but i just i i put a ton

00:50:40.635 --> 00:50:42.818
of conventions on the calendar and just

00:50:42.858 --> 00:50:43.858
i'm like i'm gonna get in front of

00:50:43.878 --> 00:50:46.280
people i'm gonna you know when i'm on

00:50:46.360 --> 00:50:48.483
tour for comedy i'm gonna walk into comic

00:50:48.503 --> 00:50:51.706
book shops in town and drop off copies

00:50:51.746 --> 00:50:53.047
of the book um

00:50:54.327 --> 00:50:55.548
I'm going to, you know,

00:50:56.911 --> 00:50:58.331
get into a lot of Facebook groups,

00:50:58.411 --> 00:50:59.112
Reddit groups,

00:50:59.413 --> 00:51:01.534
create Instagram groups of comic book

00:51:01.554 --> 00:51:03.317
creators and, you know,

00:51:04.237 --> 00:51:05.057
just things like that.

00:51:05.418 --> 00:51:09.483
And it's, it's slowly built and it's,

00:51:09.603 --> 00:51:11.063
it's, yeah, I can feel it slowly,

00:51:11.083 --> 00:51:12.905
but surely it's, it's definitely working.

00:51:12.925 --> 00:51:13.786
We've, you know, I've,

00:51:15.728 --> 00:51:21.210
in about twenty retailers now uh you know

00:51:21.231 --> 00:51:24.172
uh we've got a shop on our website

00:51:24.231 --> 00:51:26.431
we you know selling books every week we

00:51:26.452 --> 00:51:30.333
got purchases coming off the website um i

00:51:30.353 --> 00:51:33.054
mean i probably i mean number one came

00:51:33.114 --> 00:51:36.454
out october twenty twenty four so a little

00:51:36.514 --> 00:51:40.157
over a year ago and i've probably i

00:51:40.177 --> 00:51:41.976
mean it doesn't it doesn't sound like that

00:51:42.016 --> 00:51:44.297
much in in grand terms but i probably

00:51:45.655 --> 00:51:48.536
sold thirty five hundred copies of that

00:51:48.577 --> 00:51:52.280
book in a little over that's huge numbers

00:51:52.320 --> 00:51:55.202
though so and you know number two is

00:51:55.262 --> 00:51:59.164
probably twenty five hundred closing on

00:51:59.204 --> 00:52:01.726
three three thousand and then number

00:52:01.887 --> 00:52:05.048
number three um has only been out about

00:52:05.509 --> 00:52:08.911
six weeks and we're uh we're probably

00:52:12.128 --> 00:52:14.409
probably we just did another order that'll

00:52:14.568 --> 00:52:16.389
that that order will put us at like

00:52:16.989 --> 00:52:20.371
um you know like fourteen hundred books or

00:52:20.411 --> 00:52:22.032
something like that for number three those

00:52:22.052 --> 00:52:25.092
are actually big numbers from a pure indie

00:52:25.132 --> 00:52:27.293
standpoint without a major machine behind

00:52:27.353 --> 00:52:29.494
it yeah i mean i have no distribution

00:52:29.635 --> 00:52:32.175
i have no marketing besides me just you

00:52:32.195 --> 00:52:34.077
know you know and no yeah i'm not

00:52:34.117 --> 00:52:34.336
like

00:52:35.813 --> 00:52:38.096
Not in the previews catalog or anything

00:52:38.135 --> 00:52:38.635
like that.

00:52:38.655 --> 00:52:40.697
So you brought up paper.

00:52:40.717 --> 00:52:42.057
What kind of paper are you using?

00:52:43.099 --> 00:52:45.800
I use a seven.

00:52:45.880 --> 00:52:47.282
Is it seventy or eighty weight?

00:52:48.643 --> 00:52:49.702
It's a heavier duty paper.

00:52:49.922 --> 00:52:51.063
Yeah, I think we do.

00:52:51.123 --> 00:52:52.224
I think we do an eighty weight.

00:52:52.784 --> 00:52:53.005
Yes.

00:52:53.106 --> 00:52:59.130
Eighty weight matte finish paper.

00:52:59.670 --> 00:53:01.670
Red and white would look so good on

00:53:01.690 --> 00:53:02.851
that matte finish paper.

00:53:03.440 --> 00:53:04.081
Oh, thank you.

00:53:04.141 --> 00:53:06.748
Yeah, yeah.

00:53:07.509 --> 00:53:10.496
The color you see on the book,

00:53:10.556 --> 00:53:12.260
I was very specific about the way it

00:53:12.280 --> 00:53:13.181
was colored also.

00:53:15.208 --> 00:53:17.048
You know, the saturation, the depth,

00:53:17.068 --> 00:53:18.769
the structure, the texture.

00:53:19.851 --> 00:53:20.050
Yeah.

00:53:20.070 --> 00:53:22.112
The heavy blues and reds for that noir

00:53:22.132 --> 00:53:27.255
feel using black gutters on the book.

00:53:27.655 --> 00:53:29.635
It it took a little back and forth

00:53:29.655 --> 00:53:32.557
with my colorist through the first issue

00:53:32.577 --> 00:53:34.498
to get for him to understand what I

00:53:34.559 --> 00:53:34.918
wanted.

00:53:34.958 --> 00:53:36.860
But once we got it now,

00:53:36.900 --> 00:53:38.541
like I'll give him I just kind of

00:53:38.581 --> 00:53:40.402
give him basic color notes and he just

00:53:41.222 --> 00:53:41.782
he's got it.

00:53:41.822 --> 00:53:42.422
He just cranks.

00:53:42.443 --> 00:53:42.742
Yeah.

00:53:42.922 --> 00:53:43.943
Very little revisions.

00:53:44.744 --> 00:53:46.184
And I brought up the thing about paper

00:53:46.224 --> 00:53:46.786
book calls.

00:53:46.806 --> 00:53:48.047
I don't know if you've heard of bad

00:53:48.166 --> 00:53:50.047
idea comics.

00:53:50.507 --> 00:53:53.170
They do murder podcasts, cul-de-sac.

00:53:53.230 --> 00:53:54.590
They got a few other titles that are

00:53:54.610 --> 00:53:55.811
just really good.

00:53:55.911 --> 00:53:58.213
I think they, they're,

00:53:58.594 --> 00:54:01.675
they're very up and coming and they,

00:54:01.715 --> 00:54:02.137
to me,

00:54:02.217 --> 00:54:03.538
like some of their stories are just

00:54:03.557 --> 00:54:04.057
phenomenal,

00:54:04.097 --> 00:54:06.519
but they print on almost like a newspaper.

00:54:07.500 --> 00:54:08.061
Okay.

00:54:08.121 --> 00:54:10.842
It's a very unique, like paper, like,

00:54:11.775 --> 00:54:12.775
it feels heavy,

00:54:12.855 --> 00:54:13.994
but as you turn the page,

00:54:14.034 --> 00:54:15.956
it gives you that old Sunday morning feel

00:54:15.996 --> 00:54:18.255
of turning the newspaper, you know?

00:54:18.576 --> 00:54:18.856
Yeah.

00:54:19.476 --> 00:54:19.737
Yeah.

00:54:19.916 --> 00:54:20.697
I know there's some,

00:54:21.237 --> 00:54:24.498
some printers you can get that like news

00:54:24.978 --> 00:54:26.297
strip paper still.

00:54:28.217 --> 00:54:29.179
I really just wanted it.

00:54:29.219 --> 00:54:30.278
I mean, it's one of the,

00:54:30.338 --> 00:54:31.998
it's one of the first things people say

00:54:32.039 --> 00:54:33.619
when they pick up a physical book is

00:54:33.639 --> 00:54:35.940
they go, Oh, this is like hefty.

00:54:35.960 --> 00:54:36.460
It's hardy.

00:54:37.420 --> 00:54:38.000
You know, we use a,

00:54:38.161 --> 00:54:39.760
we use a heavier duty card stock.

00:54:40.460 --> 00:54:40.920
cover.

00:54:41.581 --> 00:54:44.282
Um, and because again,

00:54:44.342 --> 00:54:46.983
I wanted the book to feel substantial.

00:54:47.043 --> 00:54:49.246
I wanted it, you know, if you put,

00:54:50.045 --> 00:54:51.726
when you put my book on the shelf

00:54:51.786 --> 00:54:54.568
next to other retailers at like an LCS.

00:54:54.608 --> 00:54:54.688
Yeah.

00:54:54.708 --> 00:54:56.728
You want it to feel premium.

00:54:57.130 --> 00:54:57.329
Right.

00:54:57.409 --> 00:54:58.610
And people look at it and they're like,

00:54:58.791 --> 00:54:59.851
Oh, it's got a, got a good,

00:54:59.871 --> 00:55:00.972
the cover looks nice.

00:55:01.132 --> 00:55:02.291
Uh, they pick it up.

00:55:02.331 --> 00:55:03.193
It's got a good, you know,

00:55:03.233 --> 00:55:03.992
good weight to it.

00:55:04.273 --> 00:55:04.873
You know,

00:55:04.893 --> 00:55:06.454
you think most comic books and they're

00:55:06.474 --> 00:55:06.894
just like,

00:55:07.514 --> 00:55:10.936
even marble is flimsy yeah just terrible i

00:55:10.956 --> 00:55:13.119
mean they're probably using like their

00:55:13.139 --> 00:55:15.139
paper stock is probably like honestly

00:55:15.179 --> 00:55:17.541
probably like a fifty weight maybe less i

00:55:17.581 --> 00:55:19.003
mean it's probably less because it's a

00:55:19.063 --> 00:55:21.925
true floppy issue here recently it's cheap

00:55:21.945 --> 00:55:23.646
unless it's like something big cover

00:55:23.686 --> 00:55:25.686
coming out like the uh the daniel warren

00:55:25.706 --> 00:55:26.887
johnson wolverine cover

00:55:27.275 --> 00:55:28.958
right right they'll use a little bit on

00:55:28.978 --> 00:55:32.242
the cover yeah um and but i it

00:55:32.282 --> 00:55:33.983
feels like i'm not sure but yeah a

00:55:34.023 --> 00:55:36.706
lot of them are like self-covered now

00:55:36.746 --> 00:55:38.469
where the book and the the cover have

00:55:38.509 --> 00:55:41.333
the same yeah weight yeah yeah that's what

00:55:41.393 --> 00:55:42.233
bad idea does

00:55:45.393 --> 00:55:45.713
Really?

00:55:45.853 --> 00:55:46.153
Yeah.

00:55:46.494 --> 00:55:47.295
Well, some of their stuff,

00:55:47.315 --> 00:55:48.215
like Murder Podcast,

00:55:48.235 --> 00:55:49.936
I think had a little bit thicker of

00:55:49.956 --> 00:55:50.737
a cover on it.

00:55:51.137 --> 00:55:51.677
But still,

00:55:51.717 --> 00:55:53.778
the actual paper itself felt like

00:55:53.818 --> 00:55:54.360
newspaper.

00:55:54.559 --> 00:55:55.400
And I love that.

00:55:55.760 --> 00:55:57.902
It's such a unique thing to them.

00:55:59.523 --> 00:56:04.567
It's a vibe and it creates an ambiance

00:56:04.626 --> 00:56:05.306
with the book.

00:56:05.507 --> 00:56:08.710
It also allows them to produce more story

00:56:09.090 --> 00:56:12.052
per issue because they're not printing on

00:56:12.112 --> 00:56:13.072
expensive paper.

00:56:13.132 --> 00:56:15.114
They're giving you the story,

00:56:16.335 --> 00:56:19.916
not necessarily the paper experience like

00:56:19.956 --> 00:56:21.697
an image would do.

00:56:22.478 --> 00:56:23.259
Even image though,

00:56:23.278 --> 00:56:25.099
like Free Planet is printing on just

00:56:25.139 --> 00:56:25.820
normal paper.

00:56:26.081 --> 00:56:27.900
know the the fifty mil or sixty mil

00:56:27.940 --> 00:56:30.422
whatever it is which i'm a huge fan

00:56:30.461 --> 00:56:34.222
of free planet aubrey sitterson my dude

00:56:34.342 --> 00:56:37.983
and um yeah i i love that that

00:56:38.043 --> 00:56:39.244
is the smell of the paper for me

00:56:39.284 --> 00:56:42.344
too like each company has its own unique

00:56:42.403 --> 00:56:44.585
smell and i know that's where we're

00:56:44.605 --> 00:56:46.085
talking about the smell of paper and a

00:56:46.144 --> 00:56:48.804
smell of a book but it's true man

00:56:48.925 --> 00:56:52.065
it makes a difference yeah yeah oh

00:56:53.123 --> 00:56:54.983
So what do you think independent

00:56:55.023 --> 00:56:56.905
publishers can do today that the

00:56:56.945 --> 00:56:59.025
traditional comic industry sometimes just

00:56:59.106 --> 00:57:02.088
struggles with other than putting out a

00:57:02.108 --> 00:57:02.608
good story?

00:57:02.967 --> 00:57:03.429
Yeah.

00:57:06.291 --> 00:57:06.771
I mean,

00:57:07.273 --> 00:57:08.974
when you say traditional comic book

00:57:09.034 --> 00:57:10.894
industry, do you mean like, are you,

00:57:11.715 --> 00:57:13.918
do you mean like Image, Dark Horse,

00:57:13.938 --> 00:57:15.159
the other big, big guys?

00:57:16.159 --> 00:57:17.380
Or are we more talking about the

00:57:17.420 --> 00:57:18.940
institution of like Marvel?

00:57:18.981 --> 00:57:20.601
I'm talking about the institutional ones,

00:57:20.742 --> 00:57:21.382
you know?

00:57:21.422 --> 00:57:22.983
And you can even throw Image now into

00:57:23.003 --> 00:57:24.065
the institutional ones,

00:57:24.085 --> 00:57:25.005
but they still treat,

00:57:25.916 --> 00:57:27.655
they're still very much indie because they

00:57:27.695 --> 00:57:29.077
still, you know,

00:57:29.217 --> 00:57:31.157
print other people's stories.

00:57:31.336 --> 00:57:31.556
Right.

00:57:31.617 --> 00:57:31.797
Yeah.

00:57:31.817 --> 00:57:32.856
I mean, they don't own anything.

00:57:32.876 --> 00:57:34.838
They're just printing what people, I mean,

00:57:34.858 --> 00:57:36.077
they're basically just a printer

00:57:36.478 --> 00:57:38.557
essentially.

00:57:38.617 --> 00:57:40.219
A distributor, printer and distributor.

00:57:40.239 --> 00:57:41.858
Yeah.

00:57:41.878 --> 00:57:42.358
Which I love.

00:57:42.398 --> 00:57:43.239
It's such a great business.

00:57:43.259 --> 00:57:43.838
I mean, they really,

00:57:44.380 --> 00:57:45.559
they nailed that business model.

00:57:45.579 --> 00:57:48.860
That was the best business decision Todd

00:57:48.900 --> 00:57:49.621
probably ever made.

00:57:49.900 --> 00:57:50.201
Yeah.

00:57:51.780 --> 00:57:53.123
So what?

00:57:53.503 --> 00:57:54.344
Sorry, the question was,

00:57:54.403 --> 00:57:56.387
what do I think their biggest mistake is?

00:57:56.407 --> 00:57:57.108
Or what can they like?

00:57:57.148 --> 00:57:59.871
Let me find it again.

00:58:03.396 --> 00:58:04.336
I'm losing myself.

00:58:04.356 --> 00:58:04.737
That's okay.

00:58:04.777 --> 00:58:05.838
I just want to make sure I'm answering

00:58:05.858 --> 00:58:07.239
the question you actually asked me.

00:58:08.960 --> 00:58:09.840
Instead of just going.

00:58:10.101 --> 00:58:12.121
What do you think independent publishers

00:58:12.181 --> 00:58:14.623
can do today that the traditional comic

00:58:14.724 --> 00:58:16.965
industry sometimes struggles with?

00:58:17.485 --> 00:58:17.766
Okay.

00:58:17.846 --> 00:58:18.065
Yeah.

00:58:18.126 --> 00:58:18.367
Yeah.

00:58:18.387 --> 00:58:20.487
I, I will say this.

00:58:20.708 --> 00:58:22.909
I think so beyond just like you said,

00:58:22.949 --> 00:58:25.150
beyond just creating a good story.

00:58:26.492 --> 00:58:27.873
I think a lot of it is like.

00:58:30.375 --> 00:58:31.056
When I am.

00:58:32.394 --> 00:58:35.275
at a convention and people ask me about

00:58:35.335 --> 00:58:37.717
my book or I'm there talking about my

00:58:37.757 --> 00:58:39.898
book, I'm really not trying to,

00:58:40.378 --> 00:58:41.559
I really do this,

00:58:41.918 --> 00:58:43.400
and I didn't even realize this until

00:58:43.440 --> 00:58:43.780
later,

00:58:43.840 --> 00:58:46.661
but I don't even so much try to

00:58:46.740 --> 00:58:47.760
sell them on the book.

00:58:48.681 --> 00:58:50.402
I realize that I'm telling them why I

00:58:50.463 --> 00:58:52.903
love the book and why I wrote the

00:58:52.923 --> 00:58:53.143
book,

00:58:53.204 --> 00:58:55.143
what the purpose of it is more than

00:58:55.204 --> 00:58:55.644
anything.

00:58:57.246 --> 00:58:58.766
And that is like, I'm building,

00:58:58.827 --> 00:58:59.786
and I realized like, oh,

00:58:59.806 --> 00:59:01.367
I'm building like a connection with this

00:59:01.427 --> 00:59:03.929
person about why this thing is important

00:59:03.969 --> 00:59:04.409
to me,

00:59:04.429 --> 00:59:07.990
which gives them a trust in why it

00:59:08.030 --> 00:59:10.251
could be important to them instead of me

00:59:10.271 --> 00:59:12.132
just going, hey, here's the thing I wrote.

00:59:12.152 --> 00:59:12.952
Do you want to buy it?

00:59:12.992 --> 00:59:14.054
You know, I'm like,

00:59:14.353 --> 00:59:17.175
I'm like telling them about why I love

00:59:17.215 --> 00:59:17.635
this thing.

00:59:17.655 --> 00:59:18.376
Yeah.

00:59:20.148 --> 00:59:22.650
The passion of the creator sells the book.

00:59:22.771 --> 00:59:24.313
And if you're passionate about what you're

00:59:24.353 --> 00:59:25.094
producing,

00:59:26.356 --> 00:59:27.619
they're going to pick up on that and

00:59:27.639 --> 00:59:28.760
they're going to want to be a part

00:59:28.800 --> 00:59:29.101
of that.

00:59:29.471 --> 00:59:29.731
Right.

00:59:29.831 --> 00:59:30.431
Yeah, it does.

00:59:30.811 --> 00:59:31.052
You know,

00:59:31.092 --> 00:59:32.954
whether consciously or subconsciously,

00:59:32.994 --> 00:59:34.376
that attraction of like, oh,

00:59:34.436 --> 00:59:36.577
this is like a thing that there's like

00:59:36.597 --> 00:59:37.759
there's a magnetism there.

00:59:39.360 --> 00:59:43.065
And I think that coupled with like

00:59:43.105 --> 00:59:46.788
basically just being truly passionate

00:59:46.867 --> 00:59:49.952
about the medium, you know, like I am.

00:59:51.693 --> 00:59:53.876
On my Instagram, inferno.earth,

00:59:53.936 --> 00:59:55.077
the Instagram page,

00:59:55.898 --> 00:59:58.239
I obviously promote the book a lot,

00:59:58.278 --> 00:59:59.300
talk a lot about the book,

00:59:59.340 --> 01:00:01.501
have promotional artwork and upcoming

01:00:01.541 --> 01:00:01.902
stuff.

01:00:02.101 --> 01:00:04.905
But I also do a lot of other

01:00:04.945 --> 01:00:07.786
comic book related things that have

01:00:08.206 --> 01:00:10.449
nothing to do with Kill Stan.

01:00:11.650 --> 01:00:12.670
Like every Monday...

01:00:13.846 --> 01:00:15.646
I post my pick of the week for

01:00:15.887 --> 01:00:17.228
new comic book day that week.

01:00:17.748 --> 01:00:18.469
So I'll be like, Oh,

01:00:18.489 --> 01:00:20.010
this is the book I'm looking forward to

01:00:20.030 --> 01:00:20.831
the most this week.

01:00:20.871 --> 01:00:21.471
Because I want,

01:00:21.590 --> 01:00:22.972
I want the people who follow me to

01:00:22.992 --> 01:00:24.152
be like, Oh,

01:00:24.713 --> 01:00:26.173
this guy just loves comic books.

01:00:26.514 --> 01:00:27.695
Like he's still, he's still,

01:00:27.954 --> 01:00:29.416
he's still a Wednesday warrior.

01:00:29.697 --> 01:00:31.297
Like he's still going to the comic book

01:00:31.318 --> 01:00:32.338
shop and be like, you know,

01:00:32.358 --> 01:00:34.079
whether I'm going or, or I pre-ordered,

01:00:34.099 --> 01:00:34.920
I'll pick them up later.

01:00:35.199 --> 01:00:36.641
Like I have a local comic book shop.

01:00:36.760 --> 01:00:37.402
I get books.

01:00:38.141 --> 01:00:38.842
I read them.

01:00:39.063 --> 01:00:39.402
I, I,

01:00:39.422 --> 01:00:41.003
there's things I'm looking forward to,

01:00:42.344 --> 01:00:43.126
you know, and,

01:00:44.545 --> 01:00:47.487
Or like on Wednesdays on in my Instagram,

01:00:47.648 --> 01:00:50.048
I will do something called, you know,

01:00:50.068 --> 01:00:51.929
because Wednesday is new comic book day.

01:00:52.289 --> 01:00:54.190
So I do a thing called old comic

01:00:54.210 --> 01:00:55.891
book day where I will pull an old

01:00:55.931 --> 01:00:59.771
comic book out of my collection that I

01:00:59.813 --> 01:01:00.132
love.

01:01:00.193 --> 01:01:02.132
That's important to me and has like a

01:01:02.193 --> 01:01:03.054
significance.

01:01:03.594 --> 01:01:06.275
And I will make a little reel and

01:01:06.315 --> 01:01:07.795
talk about it and talk about why I

01:01:07.835 --> 01:01:08.155
love it.

01:01:08.655 --> 01:01:09.195
And, you know,

01:01:09.235 --> 01:01:10.876
things like that where I'm like,

01:01:11.438 --> 01:01:12.478
I want people to know that, like,

01:01:12.677 --> 01:01:13.579
I love this medium.

01:01:13.759 --> 01:01:15.219
I love I'm a fan before I'm a

01:01:15.260 --> 01:01:15.739
creator.

01:01:17.641 --> 01:01:19.541
And like, you know,

01:01:20.242 --> 01:01:21.143
come along the journey.

01:01:21.302 --> 01:01:22.163
Love comic books.

01:01:22.262 --> 01:01:23.123
Even if you don't read mine,

01:01:23.244 --> 01:01:24.003
love comic books.

01:01:24.023 --> 01:01:25.565
There's so much out there for for

01:01:25.605 --> 01:01:26.105
everyone.

01:01:26.164 --> 01:01:26.505
You know,

01:01:26.885 --> 01:01:28.226
I always say there's something for

01:01:28.266 --> 01:01:28.726
everybody.

01:01:29.206 --> 01:01:31.929
yeah so i i think just being organic

01:01:31.969 --> 01:01:34.911
and like letting you know not just it

01:01:34.952 --> 01:01:38.454
not just be about you know uh sales

01:01:38.494 --> 01:01:41.177
figures but be about we really love this

01:01:41.197 --> 01:01:43.639
you're a fan right you're a fan just

01:01:43.659 --> 01:01:47.762
like everybody else yeah yeah no i i

01:01:47.802 --> 01:01:49.623
like it and i used to do just

01:01:49.664 --> 01:01:51.465
straight up new comic book days before i

01:01:51.505 --> 01:01:54.987
transitioned into like this and i gotta

01:01:55.007 --> 01:01:57.349
tell you making new comic book content was

01:01:57.949 --> 01:01:58.731
tiresome

01:01:59.833 --> 01:02:01.456
It was never ending.

01:02:02.018 --> 01:02:02.179
Yeah.

01:02:02.199 --> 01:02:03.161
But I enjoyed it.

01:02:03.641 --> 01:02:03.943
Yeah.

01:02:04.043 --> 01:02:06.307
I just didn't feel satisfied from that,

01:02:06.347 --> 01:02:06.628
you know?

01:02:06.648 --> 01:02:06.728
Sure.

01:02:07.010 --> 01:02:07.711
Yeah.

01:02:08.918 --> 01:02:10.199
But, no, I still enjoy it.

01:02:10.239 --> 01:02:11.820
Like, I forgot who it was.

01:02:11.981 --> 01:02:14.461
I think it's Lo over at Dark City

01:02:14.481 --> 01:02:17.563
Comics does comic, like,

01:02:17.724 --> 01:02:19.625
comic talks in his car.

01:02:20.144 --> 01:02:21.146
And it's just a fun, like,

01:02:21.226 --> 01:02:23.626
thirty seconds or a minute long of, like,

01:02:23.646 --> 01:02:25.168
what he picked up for New Comic Book

01:02:25.188 --> 01:02:25.347
Day.

01:02:25.407 --> 01:02:27.188
And it's just enjoyable for me to see

01:02:27.550 --> 01:02:28.610
people doing it.

01:02:28.889 --> 01:02:29.371
Yeah, yeah.

01:02:29.391 --> 01:02:29.911
And I'm just like,

01:02:29.951 --> 01:02:31.251
that's so fun to see.

01:02:31.311 --> 01:02:33.092
Like, I'm like, oh, I'm reading that one.

01:02:33.112 --> 01:02:33.773
All right.

01:02:33.853 --> 01:02:34.773
I'll have to look at that one.

01:02:35.398 --> 01:02:36.280
You know,

01:02:36.300 --> 01:02:39.442
the the biggest one in this is I'm

01:02:39.461 --> 01:02:41.083
not trying to throw shade at anyone,

01:02:41.422 --> 01:02:43.844
but one of the biggest like internal gut

01:02:43.864 --> 01:02:46.947
punches for me is when I meet an

01:02:47.067 --> 01:02:51.429
indie creator and they tell me how much

01:02:51.469 --> 01:02:52.590
they don't like.

01:02:53.271 --> 01:02:54.130
not in these words,

01:02:54.150 --> 01:02:55.351
but basically they tell me they don't care

01:02:55.391 --> 01:02:56.652
about comics or like they don't read

01:02:56.692 --> 01:02:58.231
comics or they never read comics.

01:02:58.251 --> 01:02:58.851
They're not a comic,

01:02:58.952 --> 01:03:00.132
like they're not a comic book fan.

01:03:00.152 --> 01:03:02.313
And I'm like, ah, you fucking poser.

01:03:02.672 --> 01:03:04.112
Like, yeah, exactly.

01:03:04.132 --> 01:03:06.452
That'd be my first thought too.

01:03:06.472 --> 01:03:07.833
What a fucking poser.

01:03:07.934 --> 01:03:08.233
Well,

01:03:08.373 --> 01:03:09.793
I try to be understanding and be like,

01:03:09.853 --> 01:03:10.934
yeah, it's a medium.

01:03:10.974 --> 01:03:12.114
You can tell stories in,

01:03:12.153 --> 01:03:13.894
you don't have to, but also I'm like,

01:03:14.275 --> 01:03:15.195
come on.

01:03:16.175 --> 01:03:17.454
Yeah.

01:03:17.514 --> 01:03:19.396
Where's that little kid inside you at,

01:03:19.416 --> 01:03:19.615
you know?

01:03:19.635 --> 01:03:19.996
Yeah.

01:03:20.016 --> 01:03:21.856
Like what?

01:03:23.043 --> 01:03:24.688
Yeah, it just kind of blows my mind,

01:03:24.768 --> 01:03:25.891
and I'm just like,

01:03:27.195 --> 01:03:28.237
I don't know if I can trust a

01:03:28.257 --> 01:03:29.460
man who doesn't read comics.

01:03:29.952 --> 01:03:30.231
Right.

01:03:30.251 --> 01:03:30.411
Right.

01:03:30.452 --> 01:03:32.873
Especially if you're trying to, you know,

01:03:32.914 --> 01:03:34.554
it's like, if you're, I don't know,

01:03:34.594 --> 01:03:35.835
I feel like if you're trying to get

01:03:35.916 --> 01:03:38.197
in that industry, you should have some,

01:03:38.297 --> 01:03:40.358
like some knowledge, knowledge,

01:03:40.559 --> 01:03:42.940
kind of this background in it, you know?

01:03:42.960 --> 01:03:43.141
Yeah.

01:03:43.601 --> 01:03:44.422
If you don't have a,

01:03:44.442 --> 01:03:47.003
at least one comic book that you've read

01:03:47.204 --> 01:03:48.105
multiple times,

01:03:48.405 --> 01:03:51.007
many times to a point where it has

01:03:51.027 --> 01:03:53.389
your fingerprints engraved into the page.

01:03:53.989 --> 01:03:55.429
And then you love that comic book so

01:03:55.469 --> 01:03:55.610
much.

01:03:55.630 --> 01:03:57.050
You've gone back to the LCS and,

01:03:58.132 --> 01:03:59.532
We found that same common,

01:03:59.552 --> 01:04:01.755
but when it minty condition,

01:04:03.175 --> 01:04:04.356
I have a few like that.

01:04:04.376 --> 01:04:06.159
I have actually a few series like that,

01:04:06.179 --> 01:04:08.920
that I have at least two runs of

01:04:08.940 --> 01:04:11.282
that series because I like that series so

01:04:11.342 --> 01:04:11.643
much.

01:04:12.202 --> 01:04:13.925
I can go to the boxes stored in,

01:04:13.985 --> 01:04:15.346
pull out that series,

01:04:15.405 --> 01:04:16.887
go back to my office space,

01:04:16.947 --> 01:04:17.668
put it down.

01:04:17.688 --> 01:04:19.369
All right.

01:04:19.429 --> 01:04:20.190
Let's go.

01:04:20.710 --> 01:04:22.010
Yeah.

01:04:22.090 --> 01:04:22.472
You know,

01:04:23.481 --> 01:04:25.202
And then it's like it's worn that there's,

01:04:25.722 --> 01:04:27.244
you know, dog ears on it.

01:04:27.284 --> 01:04:29.224
There's like a page folded in half because

01:04:29.264 --> 01:04:31.344
I really like that splash page.

01:04:31.364 --> 01:04:32.346
Yeah.

01:04:32.385 --> 01:04:32.846
You know,

01:04:34.806 --> 01:04:36.766
but it's like you're careful when you open

01:04:36.806 --> 01:04:38.827
that splash page up because it's to that

01:04:38.847 --> 01:04:41.329
point where you've read it so many times.

01:04:41.369 --> 01:04:42.989
Like if you blow on it wrong,

01:04:43.650 --> 01:04:45.090
that whole page is going to rip in

01:04:45.150 --> 01:04:45.371
half.

01:04:45.391 --> 01:04:45.490
Right.

01:04:46.451 --> 01:04:47.512
That's a true story.

01:04:47.632 --> 01:04:49.733
I do have a comic book like that

01:04:49.773 --> 01:04:51.052
because it was that good.

01:04:51.092 --> 01:04:52.893
And I really enjoy the run of it.

01:04:53.898 --> 01:04:55.518
So,

01:04:55.559 --> 01:04:57.460
but so you're working on kill stand right

01:04:57.500 --> 01:05:00.340
now and future is to hopefully bring in

01:05:00.380 --> 01:05:02.742
some other guys to help publish them as

01:05:02.802 --> 01:05:03.121
well.

01:05:03.581 --> 01:05:06.242
So the future for Inferno is looking

01:05:06.302 --> 01:05:06.922
really good.

01:05:06.983 --> 01:05:08.202
What else do you think,

01:05:09.043 --> 01:05:10.583
or where else do you see you taking

01:05:10.664 --> 01:05:11.884
Inferno in the future?

01:05:13.005 --> 01:05:15.304
Well, um, yeah, I mean,

01:05:15.925 --> 01:05:18.045
the next thing that come down the pipeline

01:05:18.106 --> 01:05:21.427
is very likely an anthology book.

01:05:22.851 --> 01:05:24.172
I love a good anthology.

01:05:24.193 --> 01:05:26.014
Talk about bang for your buck.

01:05:26.313 --> 01:05:26.574
Yeah,

01:05:26.673 --> 01:05:28.476
I really like – and I don't know

01:05:28.516 --> 01:05:31.358
how good it's – there's pros and cons

01:05:31.378 --> 01:05:31.577
to it,

01:05:31.597 --> 01:05:32.518
but I'm going to do it because I

01:05:32.559 --> 01:05:33.518
love the idea of it.

01:05:33.539 --> 01:05:36.621
But I want to do like a heavy

01:05:36.661 --> 01:05:39.262
metal type anthology.

01:05:39.583 --> 01:05:41.065
And I don't mean necessarily like that.

01:05:41.085 --> 01:05:41.425
Yeah,

01:05:41.485 --> 01:05:43.065
because I was going to say heavy metal

01:05:43.085 --> 01:05:43.887
is back on shelves.

01:05:43.947 --> 01:05:46.509
So you can't exactly – But I mean

01:05:46.568 --> 01:05:48.290
like where it's like –

01:05:49.266 --> 01:05:51.806
wildly different stories with wildly

01:05:51.847 --> 01:05:54.248
different art styles you know like you

01:05:54.268 --> 01:05:55.769
have an eight page of this you get

01:05:55.829 --> 01:05:57.791
ten pages of this you get four pages

01:05:57.891 --> 01:06:00.211
in like yeah um part of it is

01:06:00.251 --> 01:06:01.972
because i like that style part of it

01:06:02.012 --> 01:06:04.494
is because i've got a lot of shorter

01:06:04.534 --> 01:06:06.135
stories i want to tell that i can

01:06:06.215 --> 01:06:10.717
compartmentalize into anthologies that i

01:06:10.737 --> 01:06:12.478
don't necessarily feel like i need to do

01:06:12.498 --> 01:06:14.099
a whole series for but if i do

01:06:14.159 --> 01:06:15.820
an anthology um

01:06:16.701 --> 01:06:18.001
partly i want to do it as a

01:06:18.061 --> 01:06:20.382
testing ground i want to throw pepper in

01:06:20.402 --> 01:06:23.081
a couple uh stories and see if one

01:06:23.121 --> 01:06:25.503
of them more than others really connects

01:06:25.523 --> 01:06:27.083
and be like okay maybe that one is

01:06:27.523 --> 01:06:29.264
the one i do need to bring into

01:06:29.304 --> 01:06:31.583
its own yeah like like and you know

01:06:31.603 --> 01:06:32.744
that's a smart way to do it i

01:06:32.764 --> 01:06:34.764
mean marvel does it dc does it they

01:06:34.844 --> 01:06:37.385
all have their hey here's what's coming up

01:06:37.525 --> 01:06:39.266
and they watched the

01:06:39.485 --> 01:06:40.086
social media.

01:06:40.106 --> 01:06:41.750
They pay people to watch social media to

01:06:41.789 --> 01:06:43.172
see if it's being talked about.

01:06:43.853 --> 01:06:45.115
And if it's not being talked about,

01:06:45.135 --> 01:06:46.599
I mean, it may still get made,

01:06:46.639 --> 01:06:48.061
but it's probably only going to get like

01:06:48.081 --> 01:06:49.362
a four to six issue run.

01:06:49.934 --> 01:06:50.195
Right.

01:06:50.255 --> 01:06:50.516
Right.

01:06:50.795 --> 01:06:51.076
Yeah.

01:06:51.096 --> 01:06:52.518
So, I mean, that's, that's kind of,

01:06:53.139 --> 01:06:54.280
that's the main next thing.

01:06:54.320 --> 01:06:54.740
And I'm, I mean,

01:06:54.780 --> 01:06:55.981
I'll probably have some other creators

01:06:56.021 --> 01:06:56.862
involved in that.

01:06:57.083 --> 01:07:00.266
And then I've got, I mean,

01:07:00.306 --> 01:07:01.889
I have a ton of series that I'm,

01:07:02.128 --> 01:07:03.230
I'm ready to launch.

01:07:03.271 --> 01:07:05.333
It's just kind of time and money to

01:07:05.373 --> 01:07:07.856
get up, to get up, to get up.

01:07:07.876 --> 01:07:09.597
The roots of all evil time and money.

01:07:09.777 --> 01:07:10.038
Yeah.

01:07:10.759 --> 01:07:11.818
I mean, they're like written,

01:07:11.878 --> 01:07:13.420
but I have to, you know,

01:07:13.699 --> 01:07:15.360
do the Kickstarter and get the finances,

01:07:15.400 --> 01:07:17.461
you know, find the artist for it.

01:07:17.722 --> 01:07:18.623
So, you know,

01:07:18.663 --> 01:07:20.543
those are sitting there waiting and then,

01:07:20.903 --> 01:07:21.123
yeah,

01:07:21.164 --> 01:07:22.684
working on getting some other people out

01:07:22.704 --> 01:07:23.344
there also.

01:07:24.085 --> 01:07:28.047
Um, and then hopefully, you know,

01:07:28.168 --> 01:07:30.188
just kind of keep it growing.

01:07:30.228 --> 01:07:32.090
I'd like to grow the label,

01:07:32.150 --> 01:07:35.172
grow the roster, grow the, um,

01:07:36.496 --> 01:07:40.972
titles and I mean ultimately I'd love to

01:07:41.012 --> 01:07:41.755
be able to see

01:07:43.068 --> 01:07:45.909
kill Stan being made into like a, uh,

01:07:46.590 --> 01:07:48.150
I see it as like an adult animation,

01:07:48.210 --> 01:07:49.411
kind of like the HBO series.

01:07:49.911 --> 01:07:50.132
Yeah.

01:07:50.592 --> 01:07:52.172
Yeah.

01:07:52.193 --> 01:07:53.434
Dude, that would be so dope.

01:07:53.494 --> 01:07:54.213
And it honestly,

01:07:54.233 --> 01:07:56.574
that would be one of those where, yeah,

01:07:56.675 --> 01:07:57.795
actually, yeah.

01:07:58.155 --> 01:07:58.916
HBO hit him up.

01:07:58.936 --> 01:08:00.177
Cause I want to kind of,

01:08:00.197 --> 01:08:01.056
I kind of want to see that one

01:08:01.077 --> 01:08:02.958
happen myself because it's such a fun

01:08:02.998 --> 01:08:03.478
series.

01:08:04.159 --> 01:08:05.039
Like issue one,

01:08:05.878 --> 01:08:07.800
like people like to slow roll their issue

01:08:08.000 --> 01:08:09.201
ones, uh,

01:08:09.460 --> 01:08:11.503
Like you may get to how this person

01:08:11.543 --> 01:08:13.403
became who they are.

01:08:13.483 --> 01:08:13.824
Right.

01:08:14.483 --> 01:08:16.445
Now kill Stan just gets in that door.

01:08:16.506 --> 01:08:18.447
He's already wearing the mask and he's

01:08:19.047 --> 01:08:20.588
fucking guns blazing.

01:08:20.788 --> 01:08:22.350
And again,

01:08:22.470 --> 01:08:24.451
felon upwards in the most outstanding

01:08:24.490 --> 01:08:24.871
ways.

01:08:24.992 --> 01:08:25.311
Right.

01:08:25.431 --> 01:08:25.692
Yeah.

01:08:25.731 --> 01:08:26.912
We throw you right in the deep end

01:08:26.932 --> 01:08:27.412
right away.

01:08:27.453 --> 01:08:28.554
That's that, you know,

01:08:28.573 --> 01:08:29.293
you gotta have that hook.

01:08:29.354 --> 01:08:30.715
It's so easy to lose people.

01:08:30.795 --> 01:08:31.775
Cause like we talked earlier,

01:08:31.796 --> 01:08:32.877
there's so much content.

01:08:33.317 --> 01:08:34.597
So like if you can hook them right

01:08:34.637 --> 01:08:35.618
away and grab them,

01:08:36.479 --> 01:08:37.840
I didn't want to give anyone a chance

01:08:37.859 --> 01:08:38.881
to slip away, you know?

01:08:39.621 --> 01:08:40.181
Oh, no,

01:08:40.301 --> 01:08:41.743
it's one of those where you flip that

01:08:41.762 --> 01:08:42.222
cover.

01:08:42.382 --> 01:08:44.145
Well, in my case, I scrolled down.

01:08:44.444 --> 01:08:45.945
Yeah.

01:08:45.966 --> 01:08:49.208
And it was like, oh, oh, yeah.

01:08:49.248 --> 01:08:52.832
And it just like, I'm like, dude,

01:08:52.851 --> 01:08:55.132
I think I probably emailed you like right

01:08:55.273 --> 01:08:56.134
after I read it.

01:08:56.994 --> 01:08:58.775
And I was just like, yeah,

01:08:58.796 --> 01:09:00.457
let's let's let's let's get you on the

01:09:00.797 --> 01:09:01.618
get you on the books.

01:09:01.637 --> 01:09:01.738
Yeah.

01:09:01.757 --> 01:09:03.579
Thank you.

01:09:04.829 --> 01:09:06.295
If you're going to give advice to any

01:09:06.335 --> 01:09:09.444
of these new guys coming up into this,

01:09:10.368 --> 01:09:11.390
what would you tell to them?

01:09:16.465 --> 01:09:18.145
Well, like I mentioned a second ago,

01:09:19.146 --> 01:09:20.528
make sure you have lots of time and

01:09:20.568 --> 01:09:20.847
money.

01:09:22.149 --> 01:09:23.210
That's the first thing.

01:09:24.270 --> 01:09:25.332
If you have time and money,

01:09:25.351 --> 01:09:26.252
you can make it work.

01:09:26.292 --> 01:09:27.533
The more time and the more money you

01:09:27.573 --> 01:09:27.833
have,

01:09:28.234 --> 01:09:30.376
the more likely you can make it work.

01:09:30.435 --> 01:09:31.556
And the better it's going to be.

01:09:31.957 --> 01:09:32.917
The better it's going to be.

01:09:33.078 --> 01:09:34.378
But I will say this,

01:09:35.119 --> 01:09:36.680
and I said this on another show the

01:09:36.720 --> 01:09:37.141
other day,

01:09:37.202 --> 01:09:43.049
but I would say don't –

01:09:42.841 --> 01:09:43.049
don't

01:09:44.025 --> 01:09:45.927
So the advice I would give,

01:09:47.008 --> 01:09:48.410
this is kind of a two-pronged piece of

01:09:48.430 --> 01:09:50.392
advice, but I think they go together.

01:09:54.382 --> 01:09:57.084
The first thing I'd say is don't write

01:09:57.104 --> 01:09:58.024
for the algorithm.

01:09:59.685 --> 01:10:02.186
And what I mean by that is don't

01:10:02.226 --> 01:10:03.947
write something you think that people are

01:10:03.967 --> 01:10:04.508
going to love.

01:10:04.608 --> 01:10:06.409
Don't write something you think that is

01:10:06.429 --> 01:10:10.351
going to game the system and like, oh,

01:10:10.391 --> 01:10:12.532
this genre is really popular.

01:10:12.632 --> 01:10:14.373
You're not going to game the system and

01:10:14.413 --> 01:10:15.994
that algorithm is just going to change

01:10:16.014 --> 01:10:17.414
before you ever hit it on the shelf.

01:10:17.514 --> 01:10:19.275
Well, yeah, that too.

01:10:19.295 --> 01:10:20.076
But also, I mean...

01:10:21.389 --> 01:10:24.633
My main point with that is it's never

01:10:24.653 --> 01:10:25.814
going to connect with people because

01:10:25.834 --> 01:10:26.975
you're not connected to it.

01:10:27.756 --> 01:10:32.741
So write what you love for a reason,

01:10:33.382 --> 01:10:35.785
something with purpose that's truly like

01:10:36.265 --> 01:10:37.046
on your heart.

01:10:37.106 --> 01:10:39.068
And that sounds cheesy,

01:10:39.108 --> 01:10:41.190
but however you want to feel it on

01:10:41.230 --> 01:10:43.313
your mind, something you believe in.

01:10:44.564 --> 01:10:47.625
And people are more likely to gravitate to

01:10:47.705 --> 01:10:49.346
it because it's going to be real.

01:10:49.406 --> 01:10:50.787
It's going to be how you really feel

01:10:50.847 --> 01:10:52.267
and something you really believe in and

01:10:52.348 --> 01:10:52.708
love,

01:10:53.468 --> 01:10:55.249
not just a thing you wrote because you

01:10:55.289 --> 01:10:57.670
thought it would catch on, you know.

01:10:59.731 --> 01:11:00.071
And.

01:11:02.248 --> 01:11:03.729
Take this in the spirit it's intended,

01:11:03.769 --> 01:11:04.110
guys.

01:11:05.431 --> 01:11:08.433
If you're not ready to fully commit the

01:11:08.473 --> 01:11:10.074
time and effort it's going to take to

01:11:10.214 --> 01:11:13.036
do this thing, don't start.

01:11:14.757 --> 01:11:16.998
And I don't mean that in a negative

01:11:17.018 --> 01:11:17.259
way.

01:11:17.319 --> 01:11:18.880
I'm not telling you to not start.

01:11:18.960 --> 01:11:20.741
I think you absolutely should if you have

01:11:20.781 --> 01:11:23.223
something you love doing.

01:11:23.263 --> 01:11:23.803
Just start.

01:11:25.269 --> 01:11:28.471
be ready to sacrifice a lot of time

01:11:28.491 --> 01:11:31.073
and effort and you're gonna have a lot

01:11:31.093 --> 01:11:32.714
of ups and downs and a lot of

01:11:32.754 --> 01:11:35.956
pitfalls and things are gonna go wrong and

01:11:35.976 --> 01:11:37.837
you have to be prepared for that and

01:11:38.258 --> 01:11:39.658
you know you're gonna have bad days where

01:11:39.678 --> 01:11:41.320
you feel like giving up or maybe for

01:11:41.360 --> 01:11:44.021
you know you you take you give up

01:11:44.041 --> 01:11:45.662
for a couple days and circle back or

01:11:45.682 --> 01:11:49.145
whatever just know that like

01:11:49.925 --> 01:11:53.046
it's gonna take all that so if you're

01:11:53.066 --> 01:11:55.527
not prepared for all that you're not ready

01:11:55.567 --> 01:11:58.388
to start the journey don't do it

01:11:58.448 --> 01:12:00.589
half-assed make sure you're ready to give

01:12:00.629 --> 01:12:04.610
it your all yeah a hundred percent what's

01:12:04.650 --> 01:12:07.031
next for inferno man i know we we

01:12:07.051 --> 01:12:08.472
were talking a little bit about it before

01:12:08.512 --> 01:12:09.132
but what's next

01:12:10.589 --> 01:12:11.870
And when can we expect it?

01:12:12.210 --> 01:12:13.870
Killstand number four is next.

01:12:13.890 --> 01:12:16.151
That's the next thing we got right now.

01:12:16.831 --> 01:12:22.093
That'll be out hopefully... Timeline-wise,

01:12:22.133 --> 01:12:22.833
what's today?

01:12:22.893 --> 01:12:24.953
Mid-March, early April.

01:12:25.053 --> 01:12:26.574
Probably, hopefully in...

01:12:27.871 --> 01:12:29.393
I think we should see it in June,

01:12:29.473 --> 01:12:30.193
hopefully.

01:12:30.834 --> 01:12:32.415
It's kind of the timeline we're shooting

01:12:32.435 --> 01:12:33.176
for right now.

01:12:33.636 --> 01:12:36.659
That's the big next thing.

01:12:38.121 --> 01:12:38.541
Also,

01:12:38.661 --> 01:12:40.663
I guess this is kind of a thing

01:12:40.723 --> 01:12:41.844
I haven't really talked about yet.

01:12:44.145 --> 01:12:46.686
we are also going to with this next

01:12:46.726 --> 01:12:49.167
kickstarter for number four we are going

01:12:49.187 --> 01:12:52.048
to be offering uh a trade paperback we're

01:12:52.068 --> 01:12:53.248
going to do a collected edition of the

01:12:53.268 --> 01:12:56.009
first four issues so for people who want

01:12:56.029 --> 01:12:58.290
to like to you know kind of binge

01:12:58.310 --> 01:13:00.870
read we're going to have that option i'm

01:13:00.890 --> 01:13:02.211
going to be i'm him

01:13:03.011 --> 01:13:05.252
yeah there you go so i yeah it's

01:13:05.433 --> 01:13:06.974
good to throw in a backpack and travel

01:13:06.994 --> 01:13:08.955
with so we're gonna do that with the

01:13:08.975 --> 01:13:13.277
kickstarter for number four um and uh then

01:13:13.738 --> 01:13:17.000
yeah then uh hopefully i think after that

01:13:17.100 --> 01:13:21.122
the next thing will be um the anthology

01:13:21.202 --> 01:13:23.183
i have some some really cool stories i

01:13:23.203 --> 01:13:24.084
want to tell that are

01:13:25.596 --> 01:13:29.042
smaller summer one-off things uh and i i

01:13:29.142 --> 01:13:31.065
i kind of want to make that make

01:13:31.085 --> 01:13:33.209
that happen i think that's the next thing

01:13:34.190 --> 01:13:35.632
dude i like it and whatever the

01:13:35.673 --> 01:13:37.275
kickstarter is ready man if you just

01:13:38.465 --> 01:13:39.806
shoot me a message,

01:13:39.826 --> 01:13:41.427
whether it's on Instagram or whatever,

01:13:41.487 --> 01:13:42.927
I'll be sure I share that around as

01:13:42.987 --> 01:13:43.247
well.

01:13:43.528 --> 01:13:43.748
Yeah.

01:13:43.808 --> 01:13:44.188
The, uh,

01:13:44.748 --> 01:13:46.969
the pre-launch page for number four is up

01:13:47.029 --> 01:13:47.390
now.

01:13:47.490 --> 01:13:49.931
So if you don't think,

01:13:50.251 --> 01:13:52.212
did you send that to me when I

01:13:52.232 --> 01:13:53.493
don't think so, let me get it.

01:13:53.653 --> 01:13:54.793
If you shoot that to me,

01:13:55.214 --> 01:13:56.674
I'll make sure it's in the description

01:13:56.694 --> 01:13:57.815
when this goes live.

01:13:58.184 --> 01:13:58.684
Yeah,

01:13:58.704 --> 01:14:03.488
because the more followers we have on the

01:14:05.129 --> 01:14:06.870
pre-launch page when we launch,

01:14:06.910 --> 01:14:09.492
the better odds of funding faster,

01:14:09.512 --> 01:14:11.073
the higher up in the algorithm you go,

01:14:12.094 --> 01:14:13.035
and more people see it.

01:14:13.075 --> 01:14:14.896
So we're trying to get as many as

01:14:14.936 --> 01:14:15.416
we can.

01:14:16.237 --> 01:14:16.998
Let's see.

01:14:17.018 --> 01:14:18.939
Let me give it to you right now.

01:14:18.979 --> 01:14:20.160
One second.

01:14:20.320 --> 01:14:20.600
Yeah.

01:14:20.620 --> 01:14:20.700
Dude,

01:14:21.881 --> 01:14:24.183
I don't know if you've ever read a

01:14:24.203 --> 01:14:25.644
description of one of my videos,

01:14:25.684 --> 01:14:26.665
but I make sure...

01:14:27.485 --> 01:14:29.847
It's all in there.

01:14:30.048 --> 01:14:31.329
I just sent it to you there.

01:14:31.349 --> 01:14:32.890
Perfect.

01:14:33.010 --> 01:14:36.353
Okay, I see it.

01:14:36.393 --> 01:14:37.194
So, yeah,

01:14:37.214 --> 01:14:40.137
you can follow the link in the show

01:14:40.257 --> 01:14:42.419
or just type in Killstand number four in

01:14:42.439 --> 01:14:44.621
the search box on Kickstarter and it'll

01:14:44.941 --> 01:14:46.923
take you to it.

01:14:47.023 --> 01:14:49.445
Yeah, we'll get this added into...

01:14:51.187 --> 01:14:52.608
see for people out there who do this

01:14:52.648 --> 01:14:54.650
for a living like i do when you

01:14:54.690 --> 01:14:55.971
when you have your notes and your

01:14:56.171 --> 01:14:59.053
questions over here make sure you can

01:14:59.073 --> 01:15:01.135
still edit it that way if they do

01:15:01.175 --> 01:15:02.936
send you something else yeah you can

01:15:02.956 --> 01:15:06.399
control v it right in that way when

01:15:06.439 --> 01:15:09.481
you go to make this here into your

01:15:09.541 --> 01:15:10.622
youtube description

01:15:12.018 --> 01:15:13.260
You have everything right in front of you

01:15:13.280 --> 01:15:14.041
and you don't have to do a whole

01:15:14.061 --> 01:15:14.761
bunch of extra work.

01:15:15.002 --> 01:15:15.743
A little easier.

01:15:16.343 --> 01:15:18.105
Because if you're like me and you're lazy,

01:15:18.686 --> 01:15:20.028
the easier you can make things,

01:15:20.388 --> 01:15:20.929
the better.

01:15:21.069 --> 01:15:21.770
Yeah, yeah.

01:15:22.571 --> 01:15:23.612
And I am that lazy.

01:15:25.314 --> 01:15:28.257
But tell everybody now where they can find

01:15:28.297 --> 01:15:28.458
you.

01:15:30.402 --> 01:15:32.283
Yeah, so for the comic book,

01:15:32.323 --> 01:15:34.944
go to inferno.earth on Instagram.

01:15:34.964 --> 01:15:36.044
That's our Instagram page.

01:15:36.084 --> 01:15:37.384
That's where I'm most active.

01:15:38.005 --> 01:15:38.925
We do have a Facebook.

01:15:38.985 --> 01:15:40.285
I don't use it as often.

01:15:41.506 --> 01:15:43.046
We get a lot of engagement on Instagram,

01:15:43.086 --> 01:15:44.507
so I've just tried to focus on that.

01:15:46.620 --> 01:15:47.381
And yeah,

01:15:47.501 --> 01:15:49.282
I post new content pretty much every day.

01:15:49.342 --> 01:15:49.863
Like I said,

01:15:49.903 --> 01:15:51.964
some stuff is it's not all about kill

01:15:51.984 --> 01:15:52.285
Stan.

01:15:52.325 --> 01:15:53.285
It's all kinds of stuff.

01:15:55.227 --> 01:15:56.728
I'm probably going to start doing like a

01:15:56.788 --> 01:15:59.190
fun thing right where I do some comic

01:15:59.230 --> 01:16:00.571
book trivia with my mom.

01:16:02.313 --> 01:16:03.974
So I think that just a little fun

01:16:04.014 --> 01:16:05.876
game where you see how much she actually

01:16:05.896 --> 01:16:07.317
knows, which is very little to nothing.

01:16:10.078 --> 01:16:12.399
Or you go to our website, inferno.earth.

01:16:13.480 --> 01:16:14.520
There's no .com.

01:16:14.960 --> 01:16:16.181
.earth is the domain.

01:16:17.422 --> 01:16:18.542
We have a shop up there.

01:16:18.602 --> 01:16:20.283
You can order all the back issues.

01:16:20.363 --> 01:16:23.104
We've got multiple covers, foil editions,

01:16:23.204 --> 01:16:24.525
variants, all kinds of stuff.

01:16:24.565 --> 01:16:25.365
It's all right there.

01:16:25.405 --> 01:16:26.826
You can even order digital copies.

01:16:26.866 --> 01:16:28.887
We'll email them to you.

01:16:30.616 --> 01:16:34.338
and uh also i do stand-up comedy for

01:16:34.358 --> 01:16:36.138
a living so go to you can follow

01:16:36.158 --> 01:16:37.739
me thank you that was my next one

01:16:37.859 --> 01:16:40.180
yeah uh follow me at dees.comedy on

01:16:40.260 --> 01:16:42.461
instagram or dees comedy is my website

01:16:43.001 --> 01:16:44.762
i've got tour dates all across the country

01:16:45.362 --> 01:16:46.763
uh in the next few months i'll be

01:16:46.823 --> 01:16:50.044
in texas oklahoma arizona california

01:16:50.484 --> 01:16:52.385
oregon washington idaho montana

01:16:53.626 --> 01:16:56.510
uh and a couple other places um so

01:16:56.610 --> 01:16:58.232
i'll i'll be doing comedy somewhere near

01:16:58.252 --> 01:17:00.134
your face if you want me to come

01:17:00.174 --> 01:17:02.397
to you uh shoot me a message those

01:17:02.437 --> 01:17:03.779
hooks to some of them i'll come out

01:17:03.979 --> 01:17:06.503
come anywhere if you pay me um and

01:17:06.743 --> 01:17:09.186
uh uh if you like comedy

01:17:10.147 --> 01:17:11.968
I've got a comedy special.

01:17:13.869 --> 01:17:15.490
We're doing a deal on my website right

01:17:15.530 --> 01:17:17.111
now where if you go to the Not

01:17:17.131 --> 01:17:19.212
Your Cup of Tea link on my website,

01:17:19.232 --> 01:17:21.073
Deez Comedy, click that,

01:17:21.733 --> 01:17:24.054
and it's all pay whatever you want,

01:17:24.114 --> 01:17:24.855
donation only,

01:17:24.895 --> 01:17:26.556
and we'll send you the full one-hour

01:17:26.596 --> 01:17:28.337
download, four-K special.

01:17:29.517 --> 01:17:31.378
You can pay five bucks, ten bucks,

01:17:31.498 --> 01:17:32.159
doesn't matter.

01:17:32.599 --> 01:17:33.759
You can even pay a dollar.

01:17:33.799 --> 01:17:34.520
It's a dick move,

01:17:34.560 --> 01:17:35.360
but you'll still get it.

01:17:37.101 --> 01:17:38.883
We will send it to you.

01:17:38.903 --> 01:17:40.945
I get like like thirty seven cents after

01:17:41.826 --> 01:17:42.166
PayPal.

01:17:42.206 --> 01:17:44.048
Yeah, I'll get it to you.

01:17:44.068 --> 01:17:49.653
The and then I also host a weekly

01:17:49.673 --> 01:17:51.214
podcast called The Social Hour.

01:17:51.895 --> 01:17:54.237
New episodes almost every Wednesday.

01:17:54.257 --> 01:17:55.878
I take a couple Wednesdays off for travel,

01:17:55.978 --> 01:17:58.841
but pretty much every Wednesday.

01:18:00.362 --> 01:18:02.144
It's a comedy talk show.

01:18:02.184 --> 01:18:03.425
I've been doing it for weeks.

01:18:05.409 --> 01:18:08.711
uh for twelve years now you know we're

01:18:09.172 --> 01:18:11.714
it's it's fun we i kind of talked

01:18:11.754 --> 01:18:14.777
to everyone i've talked to everyone from

01:18:14.837 --> 01:18:18.119
presidential candidates to kevin eastman

01:18:18.139 --> 01:18:20.501
of the ninja turtles so uh you know

01:18:20.562 --> 01:18:23.024
we we talked all all sorts of different

01:18:23.044 --> 01:18:25.386
people it's a fun show uh check that

01:18:25.446 --> 01:18:28.728
out too i like it man appreciate you

01:18:30.715 --> 01:18:32.456
these thank you for joining us tonight man

01:18:32.916 --> 01:18:35.157
ton of fun yeah thanks for having me

01:18:35.177 --> 01:18:37.538
on i appreciate it uh thank you for

01:18:37.558 --> 01:18:39.099
sharing the story behind it for no

01:18:39.139 --> 01:18:41.401
comments and the creative journey that you

01:18:41.561 --> 01:18:44.542
are building independent creators continue

01:18:44.562 --> 01:18:46.603
to push the boundaries of storytelling and

01:18:46.643 --> 01:18:49.465
comedy and it's always exciting to see new

01:18:49.525 --> 01:18:51.826
publishers and new voices stepping forward

01:18:52.006 --> 01:18:54.328
into the indie comic spear

01:18:55.692 --> 01:18:57.455
If you want to follow these and see

01:18:57.495 --> 01:18:59.077
why Inferno Comics is building nets,

01:18:59.137 --> 01:19:00.880
make sure you check out the links down

01:19:00.920 --> 01:19:02.703
in the description when this video goes

01:19:02.763 --> 01:19:04.626
live, I think Friday.

01:19:05.126 --> 01:19:05.447
All right.

01:19:05.467 --> 01:19:06.669
I'm pretty sure it will be Friday.

01:19:08.457 --> 01:19:10.358
And to everyone watching and listening,

01:19:10.818 --> 01:19:12.979
thank you all for your support of

01:19:13.079 --> 01:19:15.321
Independent Comics and the stories they

01:19:15.381 --> 01:19:16.641
bring to life.

01:19:17.102 --> 01:19:18.322
But until next time,

01:19:18.402 --> 01:19:21.244
the Council of Nerds is adjourned.

01:19:21.664 --> 01:19:23.725
This has been the USDM Podcast,

01:19:23.825 --> 01:19:27.047
where indie comics come to life.

01:19:28.047 --> 01:19:29.048
Y'all be safe out there.

01:20:08.881 --> 01:20:09.514
Peace, man.

01:20:09.535 --> 01:20:09.882
Appreciate you.