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USDN podcast is run by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds. We strive to bring you the all the latest news and rumors from the World of Nerds and consolidate it right here at USDN. USDN is for the people, by the people and of the people.
What is up, everybody?
It's the chairman of the
United States Department of Nerds,
where we are for the people,
by the people, and of the people.
You are listening to the USDN on the DFPN.
Oh, my God!
What is up, everybody?
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
children of all ages.
I have Bruno back with us
today to discuss his new Kickstarter.
I'm hoping I'm pronouncing this right.
Cinematic Figments.
Is that correct?
It works, yes.
I've been racking my brain
on how you presented that
because I love the name,
but I know it's like sci-fi
and cinematic put together,
which is a really dope
title for this book and very fitting,
I might add.
So for me, it was like, damn,
is he trying to say
skin-o-matic or side-o-matic?
So how are you saying it?
Yeah, I would say cinematic because,
you know, it's still the word cinematic.
It just has an S in front of it.
But it's the whole thing
that I did not realize is
that this works really well
if you're looking at the
title and you're reading it.
But if you're just hearing it,
it does not work at all.
Maybe if you would have put
a dash between the sci and the nematic,
then maybe it would have
been a little less confusing.
But I still love the name of it, man.
It draws you in by the name
because it's like, okay,
we got some sci-fi.
And the art itself is very
cinematic in a way that
it's almost like the
opening sequence of a Space
Odyssey anime or something like that.
Was that what you were going
for with that?
uh yeah so a lot of these
stories they were basically
I mean I probably mentioned
that last time that I was
here that I started doing
films and stuff like that
so a lot of the the stories
in this book are stories
that I could not make as uh
you know as films because
they were expensive for
example parasites is one of
those I had this very uh clear idea about
telling this story as a short film.
And then I thought, well,
I'm never going to be able
to do this as a short film.
And I thought, okay,
let's put it into comics.
And yeah, that's how the name was born,
was like this cinematic stories.
Okay.
No, that makes a lot of sense.
Yeah.
No, it really works that way too,
at least.
So I don't know how many
other people haven't had
the honor of reading these yet,
but I have read all four.
Well, technically, I think it's three,
right?
But there's two stories in issue one,
Finite.
And then in issue two of the anthology,
there's two stories,
Parasites and Infinite.
Because I didn't see a
second title in issue one.
I know there's two stories,
but I don't recall seeing
the second title.
Oh.
It was the work in progress
one is the one I got to read.
yeah yeah basically what I
sent was like uh you know a
review uh copy uh yeah not
a lot of people have read
it yet I think so yeah but
um class because I'm happy
I've got to read it because
I am it dude I was blown
away it was another one of
those where I'm on the edge
of my seat and I wanted
more from it like I'm like
god he's gonna leave me
like this again on another like
Come on, Bruno.
Give me more, man.
Yeah, I just write things without endings.
That's the... No, I'm kidding.
The second story,
it's called My Time Has Come.
Okay.
Which is kind of a shitty title.
It's really not.
If it's the story I'm thinking of,
it was perfect.
That's a perfect title for it.
Okay, yeah,
but I debated a lot the title
of that story.
I kind of... It had a lot of titles,
that story.
Let's put it like that.
Because that's the one I
think you were talking about.
Like, hey, it may be a little political.
Yeah, well, it was not intended like that.
I just think that's a lot
of... It wasn't really
anything... I didn't feel
it as political.
I mean...
let's just,
we'll dive into the story just
a little bit because this,
that was probably one of my favorites,
the way it ended.
Cause it was like the
perfect ending for this guy.
Like this guy is a complete
chauvinistic douche.
No other way to put it.
And he got his just deserves
at the end of that story,
which to me was so fitting
for him and his, his,
I'm guessing Demise because
we don't know if he perished,
but I'm guessing he perished.
But it was the perfect
ending for this guy.
I'm like, oh,
this guy got what he deserved.
That's really good to hear, yeah.
I mean,
you never know when you're telling
a story without having a
very obvious ending.
They're always like,
are people going to get it?
Are people going to like it?
Yeah, it's good to hear that.
No, that story was of the four,
and I liked all four.
That was probably my
favorite because the whole
time I'm reading the story, I'm like,
damn, this dude's an asshole.
He's everything that society doesn't need.
You know what I'm saying?
And for him to get his
comeuppance was like, hell yeah.
Like, he got what he deserved at the end.
Yeah.
And I think when I said it's
a little bit more political,
it's really because of the whole,
you know, the way he behaves.
Yeah.
He's politicizing things that,
in my opinion, are really not politics.
No, you're absolutely right.
And to me,
it was just the typical alpha
male mentality that you
still see out there on a daily basis.
I mean, the news is full of them.
But the way – yeah.
All I can say is people will need to buy –
This Kickstarter,
whether it's the you just
get the electric support,
the pledge or pledge to
just support and get the
electric copy of it through
PDF or if you actually buy
the paper copy of it.
That's a story I think needs
to be read because it to me
was that good.
Thank you.
Yeah, it's very good to hear.
Yeah, it's,
it's probably the more traditional one,
to be honest, from the from the four.
Yeah, I think it's probably a risky.
It's probably a risky book,
because a lot of the
stories are very much
I don't know, they're different.
They're not the typical storytelling,
I guess.
Not, but to me,
that's what makes it good to me.
I've been an indie comic guy
since I got back into the game.
There's a few mainstream stories.
Well, I won't even say stories,
characters that I enjoy reading.
Like I'm currently reading
Daredevil Unleashed Hell by
Erica Schultz.
but I'm a fan of Erica
Schultz because she was the
first female writer to
write a Spawn title with Rat City.
And she's also doing a
really good job of
Edge-XXIII and that stuff
and a few other books.
But she's a phenomenal writer.
And that's why I picked up
Daredevil Unleashed Hell.
It's just simply because she
is a good writer.
But me following Indie Comics,
basically from the beginning,
from James Tinian and those guys,
I've always appreciated
their stories more because
they're different.
They're not the mainstream superheroes.
that we're used to.
So that's kind of what's
always drawn me to titles
like this is that they're
not the mainstream stuff.
It's a different type of
storytelling that not
everybody is going to enjoy.
But for me, with this one in you,
I think there's something
there for everybody.
Yeah, you were talking about Tinian.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean,
Department of Truth is such a good book.
So the Department of Truth, World Tree,
House of Slaughter,
Something is Killing the Children,
his new one that's all
about the cryptids and stuff like that.
Phenomenal storyteller.
And he's got a laundry list
of titles right now that
there's something there for everybody.
And that's what I've always
appreciated about him is
that he writes for everybody.
Like you can pick up one of
his books and go, oh, I don't like this.
Pick up a different book, start reading it,
and realize, oh, damn, this is Tinian.
Maybe I should go back and
read this other book that I
said I didn't like because
this one's so good.
But I think my very first
title of his that I ever
read was Something is
Killing the Children.
And the – Do not spoil it.
in the nice house by the lake.
Yeah, that's really good.
Do not spoil it.
It's here, but I still haven't read it.
Bro.
You're going to love it.
House of Slaughter just
finished with issue thirty.
And dude, that the way it finished,
it set up the next arc of
something is killing the
children that comes out
next month in April.
So I'm super excited about
that because I've been such
a huge fan from the very beginning.
Like I went out and found
like because I got into it late and
So I had to go back and like
hunt down individual books.
And I know some people who
have collected every cover,
which some of these books
have ten to fifteen covers
and they get them all.
I just wanted one cover, you know,
and it was so hard to find.
But I finally got it.
You know,
I finally pieced the entire
individual issues together
so I could read it.
And granted,
I still buy the trade
paperback or the hardbound.
Just I want to have it
because I'm such a big fan
of him and why he just
started his own company with Tiny Onion.
So and Tiny Onion is working with Image,
Boom and Dynamite.
They're working with
everybody to write these really cool,
unique stories.
And by him having his own
umbrella of Tiny Onion,
it's allowing him to make
more money off of it.
And they're basically publishing his book.
are doing the production of
the book while he's making
the most money off of it,
which is the way it should be.
Yeah,
and he gets to tell the stories he
wants to tell,
not what the big publishers would want.
But that's what's great about Kickstarter.
It allows people like
yourself to do the same thing.
Yeah, it's true.
I mean,
you'll always find the other day I
was I can't remember who it
was with saying, you know,
just write what you want to read.
And I guess that's true,
because if you like to read it,
chances are that somebody
else out there is going to like it.
So if you write that,
you will you will find your audience.
And I started doing conventions, you know,
more recently.
I've seen that.
Yeah.
How is that going?
uh I only done a couple of
them but it's it's it's
really fun I'm really
enjoying them and uh the
main thing is that you do
get to talk with people who
really enjoy comics who are
looking for new things and
I guess it it's that thing
that yeah you you are
meeting people and slowly
you are kind of building a
list of people that
actually start following
your work and enjoy what you
do I guess and um yeah it's
not going to be overnight
but you if you write
something you enjoy uh yeah
you will eventually find
people will enjoy it as
well I guess yeah so let me
ask you this like in the
u.s comic-con stuff slowly
became more about
everything else than the
comic is it the same way
there in the uk as well yeah
It's terrible here.
I would say that I actually
wrote an article on Medium
about the conventions that
I think are worth it from
the point of view of readers and traders.
But yeah, I mean, you have Thought Bubble,
which is like, you know,
It's a haven for comic book creators.
Last year, we had Tinian.
We had Chip Starsky.
We had a lot of... That's good.
There's still some out there
that's about the comic book.
I know there's one here
somewhere they have every year,
but it's not very...
It's briefly advertised,
and then it's over.
By the time it's over, I'm like, oh,
this is, oh, wait, it's already passed.
And I'm disappointed because
that one is truly about the
comic books versus, you know,
I have no issues with anime.
I watch a ton of anime.
But most of these conventions,
now you go there,
it's just people selling art prints,
cartoons.
costume accessories and
there's not a whole lot of
comic book to it anymore,
which there's nothing wrong with that.
They're meant to expand and
have something there for everybody.
But we have to stop calling
that a comic con because
it's no longer a comic con.
A comic con to me is about the comic book.
It's about the creators, the writers,
the production side of it.
I know San Diego Comic Con
is a little bit better and
some of the bigger ones are
a little bit better where
they have a ton of creators.
Publishers have their own
booths and stuff like that.
But some of these smaller ones,
they try to have something for everybody.
It's one of those where they
say pick your struggle and
they're picking all the
struggles but still calling
it a Comic Con.
It's no longer a Comic Con.
yeah yeah I mean the one
that I did more recently I
kind of if I just
considered the table I
would have broken even I
don't because I traveled
and all of that but but
yeah it's I think at small
comic cons near you you
might actually you might actually
do all right if you live
nearby uh but uh but yeah
but only because there
isn't much choice right so
if someone goes there
looking for comics they're
like oh there's you and two
other guys so you know
they'll eventually buy from
you and it's like yeah and
what's cool about that is
is with you they're getting
something different and
they're getting something unique
So, you know,
they're going to sit down and
read it versus it's just
going to go in my box over here.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But still, but I feel like you,
I feel like the whole, you know,
I was in a... I'm not going to name names,
but I was in a convention
last year that...
I basically asked for a refund.
They didn't give me one,
but I asked for a refund
because I got there.
I traveled.
It was two days.
I got a two day ticket.
It was a really big event.
And I got there and there
was like two comic book traders,
two in an event called Comic-Con.
And the, and it costs people don't,
I don't think people
realize is like people like
creators get invites to these things,
but they're still paying
for the table space.
whether it's a hundred, two hundred,
three hundred bucks,
I've seen it go for even
more for table space.
And I'm like,
they may not even break even
on the day because their
people aren't going there
for the comic books anymore.
Yeah.
And that's been the thing
that I've been kind of
trying to incentivize, you know,
I criticize conventions a lot.
For example,
MCM is a big one in the UK and
they are still one of the best,
at least in London, Birmingham,
not so much, but yeah, but London,
they are still one of the best.
And I did not get in, unfortunately.
uh I'm not salty but uh you
know um but even when I
could decide just like
terrible buddy you're a
little salty yeah no but um
yeah I mean I think I'm
more worried about the fact
that you know it used to be
a really good convention
for comics and it's getting
worse and worse like you
say there's a lot of people
selling look there's room
for everybody but
When you have an artist
alley where you have more people selling,
you know, prints of Baldur's Gate or,
you know, or something like that.
I mean, it's where is the original work,
right?
Whereas, you know,
we have the whole thing now with AI.
Oh, man, I should not say this.
People are going to just
kill me for saying this.
But no, I mean,
AI has its place in the world.
Comic book art isn't one of them.
no no no absolutely but what
I'm saying is that artists
complain a lot about you
know ai stealing their work
yeah and then we have you
know artistally full of
artists basically selling
things that they do not own
the rights to and it's like
I mean fine I'm okay with
that but maybe have more
original material as well
you know yeah yeah yeah no I I yeah
off topic a little bit but
that's fine because some of
these are important to say
but let's get to cinematic
figments uh give us an
overview of the anthology
and kind of what makes it
unique and why people
should support it on
kickstarter uh yeah I mean um
I'm a massive fan of Twilight Zone and,
you know,
Black Mirror as well to an extent.
So good.
So good.
Twilight Zone especially.
And it's because, you know,
we often say that, oh, keep, you know,
keep the message out of my entertainment.
I don't agree with that.
I think that, you know,
entertainment should have,
it doesn't have to be political,
it doesn't have to be, you know,
it can be just, you know,
something to make you think,
it can be a philosophical question,
it can be anything, right?
It definitely doesn't have
to always be political.
And I think stories most of
the times it's not.
but yeah it's that having a
story that you're telling a
story and you're you know
talking about something
that isn't the thing I I
don't know if if that makes
sense but uh and I I think
cinematic fitness is very
much that kind of like
twilight zone in the sense
that um the story there's
there is a story and there
is a story to follow but
it's it's more about uh
raising a question making
you think for example you
know the message at the end
of the first story for
night is I I think it's
kind of obvious yeah uh
without giving spoilers uh
I mean it just kind of goes
full circle you know the
way that it starts and the
way it ends but it kind of
puts everything in a
different perspective and
In his real world in that one, very much.
Because that guy is dealing with a real...
problem you know what I'm
saying that and I think
everybody has a story
similar to that or knows
somebody with a similar
story as that one yeah and
I I mean that part you can
say yeah it's uh it's
basically um uh a
researcher that's at the
edge of the solar system
and finds out that he has
you know uh an incurable
cancer which you know uh
this is in the future and
he says it right at the
beginning you know we can
travel faster than the speed
of light we can you know do
all these amazing things
but we still can cure you
know cancer uh and it's you
know it's about coming to
terms with his own
mortality and there's all
these questions kind of
just uh yeah there's the
journey of the character
but I always try to I don't
know I try to tell a story
to make you think about
okay in this situation you
know I I don't know how do
you interpret it how would you
To bring your own experience to it,
to bring your own ideas to it.
I think that's, for me,
good storytelling is that.
It's bringing your own thing into,
to interpret it, if that makes sense.
Yeah, no, no.
That defines what a story is.
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I mean, why cinematic things?
Yeah, I mean, if you like stuff like,
you know, Twilight Zone,
like my previous book, Bereavement,
you know, Black Mirror,
even Star Trek and that sort of thing.
So you brought up, like,
you pose a question within
the story to make you think.
if I remember right at the
beginning of every episode
of tells from the crypt the
crypt keeper would pose a
question then go into the
story yeah there you go no
fair enough yeah I do not
know that I need to check
it out oh tell us from the
crew man was yeah that was
my jam back in the day that
was my story time just before bed
As a horror fan,
Tales from the Crypt and
The Crypt Keeper were, yeah, that was,
because he would start it out,
he would open a book and he would like,
you know,
pose the question from the book
and then go into the story.
And by the end of the story,
the question that he posed
would be answered.
Okay.
Yeah, I mean,
I think in this case it's
like more I try not to, I don't know,
answer it obviously.
And I guess that's, you know,
where you say that, oh,
you're going to leave me hanging and,
you know, that sort of thing is that,
you know,
I try not to always give like
that answer.
Yeah.
Why don't you leave it open
for people to derive their
own answers from the story?
And the only one that I
think that I've seen that was like,
A real finish where it poses a question,
but you kind of know was
that second story from book one.
And to me, like I said earlier,
that had the perfect ending.
It didn't need to be said.
You just kind of knew.
yeah and I guess that's why
that's the more traditional
story I think from the four
is because yeah I think
it's a more it has a more
of a conclusion uh yeah the
other ones are very much
like you know your twilight
zone sort of thing so if
you do like that I mean you
probably are going to like
that I mean uh yeah like I
said there's four different
stories uh they range from
different teams like you know
life and death, mortality, from, you know,
struggling with your own inner,
I don't know, demons, addictions,
that sort of thing.
There's a lot of... Yeah,
there's a lot of... So the last one,
Infinite,
which is a perfect title for this,
for that story, it was very...
I don't want to spoil nothing,
but it took me probably
three pages into the story
before I realized that the
main character was a AI, was a robot.
And I was like, oh damn, that's a, okay,
cool.
I'm like,
I didn't see that coming because
he keeps talking about his father.
And then it's like, okay, his father.
But damn,
the name of the story is infinite,
and what he's doing is
potentially an infinite thing.
So I was like,
how is this guy still going
for this long?
Then it's like, oh, wait, this is a robot.
This is an AI.
So that was a cool story, too.
yeah I I really like that I
mean that one was something
that I just woke up with
like the um you know the
the voice over that uh the
captions of that story this
just kept coming to my mind
that I kind of just put it
in my notes and then I just
created a story around it
it was like a really
different process for that
um so that was a really fun
one it it makes you
made me think like dang this
dude's literally on a
never-ending mission like a
never-ending journey you
know as far as we the
reader can tell so that one
to me was really unique in
that he's just out there it's just him
And with it being an AI and
supposedly machine learning
and everything,
he's very human characteristically.
And as far as he's going,
that's got to be lonely as hell.
Like his own inter-turmoil
that he faces day in and
day out just alone with nobody there.
Dude,
that to me in and of itself would
drive me mad.
yeah yeah that yeah I mean
the funny thing about that
story was that so this book
this whole book was written
I don't know four or five
years ago so before ai was
a thing and there's
actually a part in that
story where he's making art
so you have an ai making art yeah yeah
And yeah, I find it really,
I don't want to say funny
because there's nothing funny about it,
but it's the whole thing of, you know,
that was written like four
or five years ago.
And it was right on the kind
of right on the cusp of
when AI was becoming or
starting to become like a
mainstream everyday talked about thing.
It was like that.
Twenty, twenty, twenty,
twenty one right around
COVID is when I really
started feeling like it was
getting like pushed more mainstream.
Yeah, but it wasn't still, I mean,
we still didn't have like, you know,
Will Smith eating spaghetti, right?
We still, there was still that,
it was still not being used to create,
you know, images or videos like that.
And it's really weird now to
read that story and to see, oh,
this is kind of a self-fulfilling story.
I don't know.
This thing is happening now.
It's like,
what are people going to think
about that?
We don't know.
Five, ten years from now, shit,
that may be an actual thing going on.
We don't know.
How fast that will go.
You know?
Because, I mean,
we're still in the
beginning stages of this.
I just hope it doesn't go
the route of Skynet from the Terminator.
You know, that would be, like,
the worst thing ever.
So...
Yeah, no, I hope not.
I mean,
I hope they are more like this AI
that's like, you know,
you have your own thing.
You can't do anything about it.
You're suffering a lot.
He's literally,
the way he's programmed is
there is literally jack
shit he can do about it.
Yeah, yeah.
His only thing is the mission.
He can't self-abort it.
He can't do none of that stuff.
Like, even if he wanted to,
and that's his inner struggle,
is that he knows he's on
this never-ending mission
and there's not a darn
thing he can do about it.
Well, he doesn't necessarily know, right?
I mean,
it's the whole thing of... I guess
that's the question.
I mean, not wanting to give much away,
but I think I see finite and infinite as,
like, I don't know,
opposite sister stories
because they are kind of...
They're kind of the same story,
but a different aspect.
One is, you know... Yeah,
I was going to ask you about that.
If you meant them to be like
the opposites of each other.
Not originally when I wrote them,
but then I realized that, oh yeah,
they are kind of opposites
because one is like, you know,
what if there's a finite
nature to the universe and the other is,
what if the universe is
infinite and there's no end
and there was no beginning, no end,
you know, it's like...
we're just human,
we cannot understand the
idea of something being infinite.
So it's kind of those two,
don't know opposites I guess
uh so yeah infinite was
meant as as that what if
there is no end to it or
beginning or so yeah um I
lost myself I don't know
what I was saying no no
you're spot on so we've
talked about three of the
four stories let's take a
second to talk about probably the most
horrifying thing possible
which is kind of like area
I'm trying to remember the
name area nine or whatever
it was the movie oh okay
yeah with the shrimp like
aliens district nine
district nine district nine
yes yeah I love that movie
I love that movie and I've
heard there's going to be a
new one of those but this
is kind of like that meets
a vampire's type of story almost
Where aliens have come to Earth,
but there's only a certain
type of human that they can feed off of.
And dude, that shit was like, holy hell.
Yeah, I mean, it makes a lot more sense.
The alien itself is creepy as shit.
It's like something out of a horror story.
yeah yeah I mean I I
absolutely love the design
of the aliens samuel did a
fantastic job so yeah if
you read portrait of a
solid did that book as well
but this was the first time
that we worked together
again like four or five
years ago um and yeah it
just hasn't come out until
now and yeah that story
that one was definitely one
that I had planned to do as a short film
uh yeah never happened
because you know budget
reasons and you know
imagine a short film having
aliens that look like that
or spaceship eating off
people yeah feeding off
people um yeah that would
have been cheap so yeah I
mean I'm I'm kind of happy
that I was able to tell
that story in the comic
format I know that one
So the second story and this
story were probably my two
favorites from this anthology.
Just because I love the
horror aspect of this one.
And who knows that we don't
know what's out there.
I just hope it ain't those.
Hopefully when they come,
they're a little bit more
friendlier than what those guys were.
Even then, they didn't hurt anybody else.
It was just a particular
type of human with a
particular type of blood.
That they are interested in, yeah.
That they are interested in.
You didn't say what kind of
blood or anything like that
or what type of, you know, blood,
whatever it was that these
people had in them.
But geez,
like just imagine a horrifying
looking alien sticking a
straw in you and sipping it from the tap.
That is scary as hell.
That's it.
That's nightmare stuff.
Uh, yeah.
And, and again, it's not, you know,
like all the other stories, it's not,
it's not really about the aliens.
It's about that last,
that last panel that kind of just, oh, um,
yeah, it's, uh, I, I feel like, you know,
if I had written that now,
I probably would have made
it a little bit different.
I would have made it a
little bit more obvious.
uh because that last panel
might kind of get lost in
the page uh but you know it
completely changes the
meaning of the story and
but yeah but until then
it's like this horror thing
of I know these creepy
creatures kind of just
drinking straight from your
veins sort of and yeah and
you know taking you to like
this weird facilities with
yeah yeah just the thing
that nightmares are for
with all these devices just
made to kind of just get
into your body it's it's
yeah it's it's really cool
and um yeah and I'm really
happy that uh you know I
got to do this with um uh
with sam as well because he
he has this style let's
take a few minutes and tell
us who else you worked with
on this because we haven't
gave the shout out to them
properly yet so who are
your artists on this one
and who did like the the
pencil and the color and
and all that stuff the covers
oh man there was so much so
much really but yeah the
first story was uh uh I'm
going to butcher his name
but uh also as yago uh so
he's a nigerian artist he
is amazing I mean if you
look if you look at the
first story coloring on
that one in the like the
views from the um the ship itself
amazing use of colors and
realness behind it.
You know what I'm saying?
Like he did a fantastic job
on that story and all of
them really are really good.
But that first one is so
vibrant and like the views beyond,
you know,
the windows is what sold that
story and made it so much
more to be such a sad story.
It's such a beautiful book, you know,
from the terms of the art
and the color and stuff like that.
Yeah, and if you see,
I've seen him actually,
I've seen his process and it's really,
it doesn't really do line art.
It just starts with the
colors and at the end you
just have that thing and it's like,
it's amazing.
That's really dope, yeah.
It's really, it looks like, you know,
like those classic painters who just,
you know, pick up a brush and start,
you know,
putting things and in the end
you have a painting.
Yeah.
that's kind of what it does
so it's it's amazing to to
see a full comic with that
art style so that's why
really like the art on that
one phenomenal
Yeah, so yeah,
also did the art and the colors.
Ferran Delgado did the letters.
He worked a lot for Marvel and DC.
He's great.
I mean,
I loved what he did with the
lettering towards the end of the story,
not wanting to give anything away,
but just it's like, it's just so good.
I know exactly what you're talking about,
yeah.
yeah it's just so good um
yeah second story uh was um
uh so uh refund has a
studio uh so basically it
was one of his artists he
did the coloring okay and
so yeah so it looks just
fantastic uh it was
lettered by uh rob jones
which I had worked with
before in another book in prey
and it's also a fantastic
letterer um who else uh
yeah samuel vargas on uh
parasites uh and it was
lettered by matthew zanetti
um and he also lettered uh
infinite okay and uh our
that would have really good
lettering in it too like
those two stories it's like
the placements of it and
Because to me,
people don't think about it this way.
Lettering and placement of
the lettering within the
story can make or break a book.
If done properly, it's amazing.
But you see some out there sometimes,
even in mainstream stuff,
where it feels like the
lettering takes away from
the story that's being told
because of the placement.
yeah are they trying to put
too much in one panel or
one page the pacing is the
lettering is essential for
pacing really yeah I think
pacing is a I don't know I
feel like unfortunately in
comics you don't see a lot of
mean I'm not claiming to do
it better than anyone uh
probably a lot of people
are going to disagree with
me on this but a lot of
comics seem to have lost
the you know art of pacing
of pacing properly a book
and you know there are some
amazing you know writers
letters artists out there
who are really really good
with it but there's also a lot of
know books that is just like
oh just dump you know a
million words into a panel
and I'd rather they they
give two or three more
pages inside the book than
just splurge a whole bunch
of words on paper you know
what I'm saying yeah yeah
is it cost effective to
dump it on one page yes but
it it takes away from the
story that's trying to be
told by the artist or the writer
Or by...
I'll go further away,
and I'll say that in some cases,
that's actually the right decision,
right?
In some cases,
you do want to... So in one
of the books that I'm working on,
Flame Vault,
I have a page that's
literally a black page with a ton of text,
like a ton of text.
But for that story,
it makes sense in that
panel to have all of that.
I think it really is about the pacing.
It's, you know...
yeah I think that in some
cases it makes sense most
times probably it should be
two or three pages yeah
like you say yeah yeah and
and like I said it it all
depends on the story being
told and the art that's
accompanying it so but I
thought those were done
brilliantly just because of
the way they were done
It's not too much.
It's not too little.
The wording is in the right
spot for the panel.
It was done great.
And a great letter is they know.
They know how to do that.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm really happy that all
the letters that I worked with,
they are fantastic.
And those guys don't get
enough love that they deserve.
No.
And I'm guilty of this.
I am guilty of it a hundred
percent when I'm,
when I'm posting up my
comments of the week and my
recommendations,
I give props to the artist
and the writer.
I give props to the interior,
but I never give props to
the letter or the penciler.
And I don't do that intentionally.
It's just,
there's not a lot of room on
social media.
Like you have to pick and
choose your battles.
So for me, like what I've decided is,
I keep it basic now.
I give you the publisher, the writer,
the issue, the artist.
I'm seeing a lot more of the
cover artists and the
interior artists are
usually wanting the same
with some companies.
I'm not leaving out the
letter or the penciler and
stuff like that on purpose.
I'm just trying to keep it
as simple as possible for myself because
I only get twenty-four hours a day,
and I would like to get
eight hours of sleep within
those twenty-four hours.
Imagine that, wanting to rest.
So, sorry, just to complete,
because I didn't give... Yeah, go ahead,
sorry.
There's always Erwin,
and I'm probably butchering his name,
Erwin J. Rose in The Art of
the Last Story.
which I haven't mentioned either.
And, yeah, I mean, it's what you see.
He's amazing.
His art style is fantastic.
Yeah, he also did one of the covers.
And, yeah, then the covers, yeah.
So those two covers that you
sent me were absolutely phenomenal.
I used both of them when I
was doing the advertising for this show.
And even the thumbnail that
you'll see for –
The thumbnail that I used to
advertise this show today
before we went live,
I just did the top portion
with the cinematic figments.
But the use of the colors
with it and the way the
title is and everything,
I thought were phenomenal.
I don't know if you can, on the one cover,
are you going to leave it
that way with no title on it,
like a virgin copy?
Or are you going to have the
cinematic figments on there?
Going to have it.
So I already asked.
So the first cover was
Lyndon White who did it and
he did the logo.
And I just asked him to kind
of just place the logo and
adjust for the other covers.
Because I thought on the
second cover that you sent me,
that one was pristine.
If you just had that as a
Virgin exclusive would be...
an absolute banger because I
absolutely love that cover
without the title on it but
that's just my opinion and
I love virgin covers like
that where you just have
the art of the cover that's
probably not a bad idea
actually I get one every
now and then I I just
really enjoyed that cover it was
Everybody has seen it.
It's a beautifully done cover.
Shout out to the artists on that one.
You could have both,
but that one without that
title on it and just that
art and the colors,
I thought was phenomenal.
Yeah, so the artist was Max Bertolini.
Yeah, it's fantastic.
That cover is... Yeah, I mean...
Working in an anthology is
really messed up to give
credits to everyone or to
talk about everyone because
there's so many people.
But, yeah, I mean,
it's really hard not to because, yeah,
everybody did.
I mean, the covers, they are all gorgeous.
I mean, Lyndon's cover is gorgeous.
You know, Max's cover is gorgeous.
And they're very fitting for
each book that they represent.
but yeah I'm a fan of virgin
comic books like that and I
was like wow if he's doing
this as a virgin right on
because that's freaking
perfect I might yeah that's
kind of a good idea I might
do that like I said I get
one every now and then thank you um
So we know your creative process.
You're kind of like all over
the place with it.
You just get ideas and
inspirations from everywhere.
So we're not going to dive
into that again.
Let's see.
Okay.
This is a must.
So we're talking about your
new Kickstarter.
What rewards are you going
to have this time with this Kickstarter?
Right.
So I'm trying something new
here and going really simple,
which is you can get books.
Imagine that.
Kickstarter about comic
books where you can get books.
Hey, yeah.
I mean, I see somewhere so much
stuff and they have so
they've they've gone out
they've already spent ten
fifteen twenty grand have
artists do multiple covers
or here's the cover here's
the virgin cover here's the
cover here's a virgin cover
and they'll have like fifty
covers ready to go and it's like jesus
pick up like you're overdoing it.
And like their Kickstarter to support it.
Like if you want it, all their covers,
it's like a grand, like,
there's just no way.
I'm like,
there's some poor soul out there
that is in love with all
these covers and he wants some,
and he's going to find a
way to get that five grand to get them.
And I'm like,
you got to pick and choose here.
Like when I, like when your last one,
you had two other stories
that you could get along
with it and I really
enjoyed those two stories
like I really wanted to
read them and so I'm like
and it was reasonably
priced it's not a forty
dollar cover or a fifty
dollar cover which there's
kit starters out there with
hundred dollar covers two
hundred dollar covers and
I'm like you're you are on something
like you are really reaching
for the stars with that
kind of stuff but you are
not like that you you do
keep it minimalist which I
appreciate and you're not
trying to rob people well
to be fair I mean a lot of
people doing those you know
hundred dollar covers
people to go for them
because they end up kind of
making a lot of, you know, five,
six figures sometimes.
So who am I to criticize that?
Because it's clearly working for them.
There's no creditization there.
It's just one of those where I get it.
I get what you're trying to do from it.
But twenty to thirty covers is... Yeah,
it's too much.
It was an overkill at ten.
You know?
Yeah, with this one,
so I've been doing three
covers for every book.
So for this campaign,
what I decided was because, you know,
a lot of people, yourself included,
kind of just went, and thank you,
by the way, went for the bundle.
Yep.
Like I said,
you're getting a deal within a bundle.
And, you know, we talked about it.
We kind of like.
peaked it right in
underneath the uh the
maximum there so good for
us it was so close to the
maximum so close but yeah
but uh I think because uh
it worked out really well
on the previous one that uh
oh did you freeze no no no
okay I'm sorry I was
checking out my daughter
message no worries do your
thing if you have to no no
no you're good keep going
uh I apologize no no don't
worry don't worry I touched
something and uh so yeah uh
because uh people went for
deals quite a lot on the
previous campaign I said
you know what I'm gonna do
the same so because I um
because I had pretty much
enough stories for two
books I'm going to release
issues one and two at the
same time which basically
allows people to get two books
for the shipping of it's not
really the shipping of one
but it gets cheaper than
you know yeah I mean both
separately so yeah people
can get issue one they can
get issue two they can get
a bundle with both of them
each of them has a variant
cover so you have the main
cover and the variant so in
total you have four covers
for two books if you want
You can get them all.
Basically,
the rewards are combinations of
those four covers.
To me,
simple is always better when it
comes to that kind of stuff.
You're getting your bang for
your buck at that point.
Yeah,
and I noticed that I was overdoing it
because with my previous campaign,
Bereavement,
I was planning to take maybe
a full day for me to create
the graphics for the rewards.
Took me like a week.
Took me a week to set it up.
And most people don't seem
to actually care about, you know,
bookmarks and stuff like
that you know yeah I do
like a good bookmark but
most people don't care
about bookmarks you know
prints and stuff like that
and I was like you know
what I'm just gonna go
simple try something really
simple just the books uh so
yeah that's what I'm doing
with this campaign uh you
have that's my favorite
bookmark right there it was
a freebie from vanessa lily
And her new book that just come out,
Blood Sisters.
So cool.
I like it.
It's got the little beads on it.
She is a Native American writer.
So this was really cool.
And she sent this to me when
I won a book from her live
stream a few months back.
where she had a sit down
with Alex Segura in his new book,
Alter Ego.
So I ended up winning Alter Ego.
And then she hits me up.
It's like, hey,
I have a copy of his other
book that goes with this
one if you want it.
She's like, you know what?
It don't matter.
You're getting it anyway.
So she sent me both his
books and the bookmark,
which was really dope.
Both books were phenomenal,
and I was already reading
some of Alex Segura's comic book work,
because he also does comic books,
where I knew him from the beginning.
I didn't realize he wrote books as well.
So that's kind of like how I
ended up with those books.
Both of them phenomenal reads.
I do plan on picking up that book,
Blood Sisters Call Us.
I just dropped another one, too.
that's inspired by her
heritage and Native American.
So, but I just,
that's a really cool bookmark to me.
it's her bookmark it's got
her own little personal
touch on it that she does
so that's that's special to
me I do like a good
bookmark especially when it
means something from the
person that gave it to you
you know what I'm saying
yeah yeah no no I I totally
do yeah and that's the
thing I mean I do like to
have some things you know I
don't want to call it
merchandise but it's kind
of what it is but it's you
know something that people actually use
uh but yeah I think this
time is like I have so much
crap you know I have a
tower of piles of boxes of
uh stuff that I'm like you
know what I'm just gonna go
simple just the books yeah
let's see let's see what
happens because I mean you
do get to a point where
you're taking this stuff to
cons and just giving it to
people yeah I've seen
people do that you know where
A friend of mine who does comic books,
Drew Moss,
they get stats of books that
they do from the publisher.
And he's just like, hey,
you have this book?
Hey, you have this book?
Like, no, dude.
I wasn't collecting when
that book come out.
He's like, well, here's the hardback.
And he signs it for me.
He's like, here you go.
It was like his very first
book that he did.
But he's just trying to get
stuff out of his house.
So I was thankful for it.
I thought it was really cool.
but it was like all of a
sudden now I'm like,
I got a handful of stuff
that I have to carry around
the rest of this, this con.
Yeah.
Which I appreciate.
I will never take that for
granted because it was
really cool of him to give me.
And, um, but yeah,
that was one of those
things where he's just like, here, dude,
I'm like, you could have gave us,
cause he just lives up the road from me.
Like you could, like,
we could have just like,
whatever this works,
I'll carry it around.
I don't care.
I got free stuff.
Can't complain about free stuff.
exactly um but yeah uh
that's it I I don't want to
be in that position to you
know uh be you know dumping
stuff on people yeah
because I want to free
space on my house and um
but yeah that's the thing I
mean people seem to care
more about the books that's
what I love with
Kickstarters and you know
that's what I like to do
anyway I'm not in I'm not
in the business of making
bookmarks I'm in the
business of you know telling stories
Will you be offering signed
copies on this one?
Yeah, all the books are signed.
That's by default.
That's free.
I'm not going to charge an
extra two pounds for a
signature just sometimes.
Dude,
a lot of Comic-Cons that I've been
going to, some of these signatures,
granted,
they do it because there's
resellers out there trying
to make a buck off a signature.
So I've seen people where
it's like fifty bucks after
the first one because they
know you're trying to resell.
Yeah.
Which I appreciate on doing
that because that makes
their signature more valuable.
mean if you're if you're
someone who's you know who
has a name that people
actually might want to you
know buy the signature fair
I mean but yeah I'm not
there yet I mean never get
there so you know you get
it for free yeah so you
know it's funny because we
got this comic con coming
up here that me and my
daughter will be going to
and I was looking at the
guest so originally alyssa
wong was going to be there
who's writing psylocke
right now and I was and she
cancelled which was fine
But then I was like, okay, well,
she's not going to be there anymore.
Who else is going to be
there that I'm interested in?
And Vanessa Del Rey is going to be there.
And Tula Latoy is going to be there,
which is two other female
comic book artists and
writers that are going to
be there that I'm like, dope.
I'm getting those signatures
for my personal collection for me.
Because even the cons now
force the artist to charge.
And they take the bulk of
that money that they would make,
which I think is completely fucked up.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, first signature free,
anything after that.
So if their signature is
five bucks or ten bucks,
the convention has taken a cut of that.
And oh, by the way,
they've already had to pay
to have a booth.
well it depends I guess I
think some would be invited
and the big names well I
mean these these they were
probably invited so they
were probably given a table
but at the same time I
think it's not right for
the anybody to take
cut of their profit from
their name you know what
I'm saying yeah yeah it's
it's it's a it's really
messed up yeah but yeah you
don't get any of that with
with me you get like free
signatures um books for
fairly cheap prices I think
they are priced like five
or six pounds each
something like that and
then you have like bundles
all combinations because
you have like you know two
variants for each you have
like four combinations of
Whichever you want,
you can get all of them.
And you can get one with the
previous books that I've done as well.
So you can get like five books in one go.
So, you know, just books.
And then you have the
digital things as well in
case you want it.
But, yeah,
it's really going for simple this time.
So let everybody know when
this Kickstarter will kick off.
Yes.
So we are on the twenty third.
So another forty eight hours.
Well, a little bit more.
So on the twenty fifth.
Yeah,
because I think I originally said the
twenty eight.
So it's now the twenty fifth.
If I said twenty eight,
then you're kind of on the
fence between the twenty
fifth and the twenty eight,
I believe is what you sent me both.
But you weren't sure.
Eighteen, maybe.
okay might have been yeah
because I was either this
tuesday or the tuesday
before so it was probably
that uh but but yeah I mean
yeah twenty fifth will be
the the day that it's
coming out uh and uh yeah
just uh if you like sci-fi if you like
you know you can read the
the log lines if you know
just talking through them
uh is not like you know
it's not very well um uh if
it wasn't enticing enough
just talking about it you
know you can read the log
lines in the yeah page and
I'll be staring at across
all my social media
platforms as well um yeah
so as soon as it's live I
will literally take your post
Repost it on Blue Sky and
then repost it across all
my other social media platforms,
as I always do for you and
anybody else who comes on
and wants to talk about
their Kickstarter.
I'm not a one-person show here.
Well, I am a one-person show,
but I'm not just here to support Bruno.
I am supporting Bruno,
but I support everybody.
if they want to come on the
podcast and talk about their work.
I'm here for it.
That's literally why I
created this podcast.
And it was one of those
directions that I wanted to
go in eventually that I'm
finally getting to go in
and support and giving
artists like yourself a
platform to come on and
talk about their work.
And that was like,
it was a small goal that I
didn't know would be
achievable that I'm now achieving.
so I'm really I'm here for
it I'm all about it more
power to everybody who
wants to come on and do
this so definitely come on
because it's it's great fun
yeah it's you get to talk
about your thing with a guy
who's actually a proper
comics nerd yeah I I comic
books are my thing I mean I
got stacks over here look
at this yeah that's my
current reading pile oh wow
It looks like a lot,
but there's duplicates in here.
It's really not that much.
Boom Studios released The Last Boy,
which is a Peter Pan retelling.
So I got like four covers
from it because I couldn't
decide what I wanted.
So I got four different ones.
Dan Panijian, who wrote it,
is a phenomenal writer.
He had a cover in a virgin
variant of that cover.
I picked up both those covers.
There was a cover with
Captain Hook being chased
by the crocodile.
Could not pass that up.
So I couldn't decide.
So I went with the group, you know,
because I was like, oh, that's so cool.
And there's a one with Wendy on it.
Yeah, it was just awesome.
Awesome.
And Absolute Flash came out
this week as well.
So I picked up a David
Nakayama cover from there
and a Clayton Crane cover
from Absolute Flash,
which Absolute Flash had
like fifteen covers for number one.
Wow.
Yeah.
So you are the target audience of,
you know,
those people who actually release a book.
And I love talking comic books.
So I love for people to want to come on.
I want to make this a place
where comic book artists
and writers can come talk
about their work,
share their work with others.
And to me,
that's like my ultimate dream goal.
is just having this place
where a comic book artist,
a comic book writer, can say, hey, USDN,
can I come on and talk
about my new project?
And I love it because I try
to make this as easy and as
simple as possible.
You have to do very little except show up.
I do all the advertising.
I do all the setup.
You literally just get a
link in your bot saying,
click here and join.
I can't confirm.
I make it simple.
I mean, I don't know what else to do.
I'm here for you artists and
you writers out there who
want to get your projects
in front of people.
I'm here for that.
Yeah,
I definitely go from it's just that
simple.
Just show up and everything
is set up for you.
It's mutually beneficial.
It helps me grow.
It helps you grow.
And I'm really hoping that
this becomes kind of like my only thing,
you know,
is sitting down with artists a
few days a week and just
talking about their work
and comic books and
whatever else they want to
come on and talk about, you know, because
it's fun for me it's not
like this isn't doesn't
feel like work I'm talking
to my friend bruno it's as
simple as that for me I'm
talking to my friend bruno
and my cat back there is
about to get her butt
busted because she's on a
shelf she shouldn't be on
she acts like I can't steer
she likes to jump up there
and lick my legos that's
all she does she will lick the legos
I don't know why,
but that's what she does.
That's what cats do.
Bruno, let's close this out.
Remind the people when
cinematic figments is
coming out and tell
everybody where they can find you.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, yeah, on the twenty fifth,
maybe around what time is it there?
Three p.m.
Right.
It's eleven a.m.
Eleven a.m.
Three p.m.
is here.
I'm I don't know what I
don't know what I'm doing anymore.
But yeah, around six, seven p.m.
GMT.
So that should be.
two three pm for you I was
right when I said two pm
yeah somehow this is how I
turned around by making
something that didn't make
sense um so yeah
twenty-fifth uh it will
come off on kickstarter
you'll have issues one and
two they are independent
you can just get one you
can get both it's cheaper
if you get both but um and
we didn't mention this yet
how long will this kickstarter go for
Just a month, like going very simple,
very standard, you know,
changing one thing, just having books.
That's it.
And yeah,
and you can find me on blue sky
at Bruno Caterino dot BS guy, whatever.
Yeah.
And that's it.
Really?
This can't a swear, dude.
She probably saw a shadow
from the light coming from the outside in,
and now she's trying to get it.
That's my daughter's cat, y'all, not mine.
My cat is probably on the
cat tower in the other room.
Also doing cat stuff.
Also doing cat stuff,
staring at the window,
watching the birds and the squirrels.
But that's it.
Bruno, you got anything else for us?
um no that's really it I I
will just double you know
on saying you know come
come on because yeah it's a
really good time you really
have to do nothing else and
uh it's it's really good
for everyone because you
know people who follow me
start following you people
start following you follow
start following me and you
know we all gain and
yeah and you get a good time
uh talking with the
chairman I won't say your
name if you don't want to
yeah yeah I'm the chairman
I'm the chairman here just
that I lead the council of
nerds but that's all we
have for everybody today uh
what's coming up for me is
I have bob campbell coming
on friday I think at
sits sturdy to talk about
his new Kickstarter,
which is an issue two of
Tales of the Illuminatus,
which if you don't know, is an anthology.
Well, no, it's a trilogy book series.
um it's it's kind of weird I
won't lie to nobody but
it's really cool the book
I've read issue one it
starts out like what the
hell am I looking at and
then it gets into the story
and then the story makes
sense so thankfully but
it's just how the book is written
I mean,
it deals with the Illuminati and
that kind of stuff.
So it's meant to be a little off weird,
but in a good way.
You know what I'm saying?
So I'll be sitting down with Bob Campbell,
who is doing the art and
the writing for this book.
on Friday.
It's going to be a good time.
It's going to be my first
time talking to Bob and meeting Bob,
so I'm really excited for that.
My new episode of New Comic
Book Day will come out a
little later today.
I'm very late on it.
I do apologize,
but I've been catching up
on TV shows lately, so...
I'm simple.
I got to get my TV in when I can.
And I've been catching up on anime.
Reacher is on Amazon right now.
So I'm busy.
And then coming up April.
We're getting Andor season two,
which I've been waiting for forever.
So we'll be doing something
big here on the podcast for Andor.
I'll probably have my
friends on from the pop
break and maybe from some
of my other podcasts here
on the channel with us at DFPN as well.
So a lot of good things,
a lot of big things coming out.
for USDN.
I will be continuing my interview series.
So if you or somebody you
know has a Kickstarter
ready to go live or is
already live and they would
like to come on,
we are here to support them as well.
But on behalf of myself and
the Council of Nerds, this interview,
as well as Bruno Caterino, y'all,
is USDN approved.
Check out his Kickstarter,
March when it goes live.
That is it from us here.
Everybody enjoy their Sunday.