The United States Department of Nerds Podcast

Todd Black returns to the USDN Podcast to discuss Seekers of Science; a STEM-focused indie comic series that blends real-world science, educational storytelling, and creator-owned comics.

We discuss how the project uses real scientists and real-world scenarios to make science more engaging for younger readers while exploring the role comics can play in education and inspiration.

Todd also shares insights into the crowdfunding process, future science topics the series could tackle, and the growing crossover potential between comics, science, and pop culture.

Topics include:

STEM storytelling in comics
Educational indie comics
Real science in fiction
Kickstarter strategy
Hurricane science and disaster recovery
Space exploration
The future of creator-owned comics
Potential Ring of Honor comic discussions

🚀 Kickstarter:
https://seekersofscience.com/Kickstarter

🎙️ The USDN Podcast - Where Indie Comics Come to Life

What is The United States Department of Nerds Podcast?

USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.

Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.

This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.

It’s about the people creating the worlds.

Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:

• The rise of indie comics
• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling

USDN is where indie comics come to life for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.

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DFPN.

BOOM!

what is up everybody and welcome to the

united states department of nerds where we

are for the people by the people and

of the people in a world where fiction

often bends reality what happens when

comics decide to embrace it

Not superheroes born from fantasy,

but minds forged in truth.

Scientists, innovators, problem solvers.

Real people stepping into the pages of a

comic book to face real world challenges.

Tonight,

we explore a story where knowledge is

power and imagination is grounded in

reality.

And just beyond that horizon,

a different vision.

begins to take shape,

one that could bridge the worlds of

wrestling and comics and bring a new

legacy to life on the page.

He's no stranger to the council,

a returning voice in the world of indie

comics.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the Council of Nerds is now in session.

Todd, welcome back to the USDN.

Happy to be here.

Were you getting some type of like relay

as I was reading that?

I mean,

now you froze up for the first second

or so, but the sound was still going.

Okay.

No,

it was just some really weird reverb I

was getting, and I don't know why.

But either way.

All good.

Welcome back, buddy.

Thank you.

So for any of y'all who don't know,

Todd was on the podcast.

February.

I knew that.

I knew it was February.

And ever since then,

me and Todd have become close friends.

We talk weekly about wrestling me.

And if y'all just watched AEW last week,

you've seen him with a big old sign

that said, hire me, Tony Khan.

Yeah.

Which was really, really cool to see.

And then he kept getting the cool camera

views.

They got him from all angles,

like literally all angles.

I hit the back of my dude.

Why am I staring at the back of

your head right now?

It was like, yeah,

they got your good angle, but,

but for any of people joining you for

the first time today, who is Todd Black?

And go.

So like I said, I'm Todd Black.

I'm the writer,

creator of comics and novels.

I've got over fifty books published with

other stories,

but it's a balancing act for sure,

because we're trying to explain the

science as best we can.

And as accurately as we can,

while not making it, you know,

the area of a circle is pi r

squared, this, that, the other thing.

Working around the theory of relativity,

it's just like, wait,

what are all these words?

No, we don't want that.

But we also don't want to make it

like this is air and this is water.

And when you combine, like,

we're not trying to talk down to people.

We're like, this is what science is.

We're just thinking in a way that's easy

to digest.

Yeah.

So what age group do you think this

is?

You're making this for,

is it like elementary school to like,

know middle school yeah yeah it's like

it's it's early ages to honestly i still

think it'd be good for high school because

i i guarantee you i learned i would

learn science better through something

like this than through the high school

textbooks i had if we believe what they

tell us most of the kids in high

school today aren't exactly reading past

the seventh grade level anyway so so

but yeah,

we are trying to inspire the next

generation.

So usually you want to do that early,

but I feel like elementary, middle school,

high school, it's a good age range.

It's basically for anyone who, and I,

and I expand that because it's really for

anyone who just likes science or is

curious about science or is trying to

understand it in a way that they just

can't right now,

because what they're learning in school

isn't resonating with it, which again,

like that was me growing up.

And yeah,

And we talk about things that arguably you

won't learn about in high school.

I learned about formations of hurricanes,

but I never learned about what it takes

to restore a community once it got hit.

I definitely never learned about beetles

in Hawaii that destroy trees because they

make homes in them,

which gives me another reason to hate

bugs.

Ugh.

and oil spills like we've all heard about

oil spills you know ep and all um

or was lp um but all of them

and but like i if you ask me

like how did they clean that i don't

know i was never taught that but we

teach that here because it's something we

feel is important that you need to know

and as we go through future issues we're

gonna show that science truly is

everywhere even in a way that you're not

expecting

And that's the true wonder of our series

is that people like to think that science

is something you put into the box.

It's like, no,

science is the box and everything outside

the box because science is everywhere.

You just don't realize it.

Oh, yeah.

No,

it's really cool that you are making a

book like this that can have impacts to

young kids who...

just need that extra spark of motivation

to apply themselves in the sciences and

the mathematics.

But no,

I appreciate y'all doing this as a father

to a kid who's in college in a

STEM type program.

Nice.

But at the end of the day,

what kind of impact are y'all looking to

make with this book?

Well, we're trying to take over the world.

No, I'm joking.

Calm down, Pinky.

Next time.

It's like, what are we doing tomorrow?

I'm like,

write the same thing we do every night,

Pinky.

Try to take over the world with STEM.

I'd watch that show.

But no,

what we're trying to do is we're just

trying to inspire the next generation

because especially right now,

there's a lot of people who are trying

to make science seem bad or false.

And like, you know, don't trust science.

Don't trust science,

but also don't be afraid to do the

work yourself.

Yeah, right.

And there's still so much in our world

in our universe that we're learning every

single day.

And I mean,

just look at what happened with Artemis,

too.

We got new information about the dark side

of the moon and how things look and

how things work.

How cool is that?

That was so cool.

And that was something that the whole

world was watching because it was

something, A,

we hadn't done in a long time.

And B,

it was like we got that new insight

because things had changed.

And we had new technologies,

new cameras and new sensors and blah,

blah, blah.

And we're apparently going to go back to

the moon like twenty seven or twenty eight

or whatever.

I think it's twenty twenty eight.

Yeah.

Is the Nets landed on the moon?

But I think that was like eight hundred

and sixty two thousand miles traveled.

Yeah.

So the, like the, we would love,

we did a,

a faux space issue with the whole asteroid

thing I was talking about,

but we want to do something where we

send Tamra and Tracy into space and talk

about, you know,

what the construction of space shuttles

and what that new one be like the

next, that should be the,

like the next step.

So you got to ride that steam.

If we had known,

if we had known we might've done that,

but it was a little too late.

But, like, it's on the docket.

Heck,

we might just do it when the next

time we go to the moon.

We'll just say, like,

instead of whoever they're sending up

there, we send Tamara and Tracy instead.

There's time.

Hey, there you go.

So, but, like, there's... We want to...

We...

The big one for Tamara,

and that's something we were doing in the

Kickstarter is we were trying to raise

enough money to where we wouldn't just be

giving out the book,

we'd be giving out a curriculum because

that way the teachers could give them the

book and then say, okay,

read this issue about oil spills.

And then they would go right from that

to curriculum and say, okay,

now what did we learn?

Here's what else we need to learn that

we couldn't put into the book and so

on.

And that's something that we're definitely

looking into for future issues at future

volumes.

We want this to truly be an education

tool so you can see it in schools,

in libraries.

That was a big thing we did on

the Kickstarter was we had outreach packs

to where you can get like multiple copies

of volume one or two.

And that way you could distribute them to

places you think might like them.

But we would love for this to become

synonymous with various STEM programs.

We already donate to STEM.

We've donated over a million copies across

Comic-Cons and STEM camps and schools.

so like we're trying to definitely expand

our outreach even further so the the we

think that the potential is there and then

if we really if we really wanted to

say like what's our dream we we want

a tv series yeah no that that would

be kind of cool yeah you know comic

book

like uh tv series about secrets of science

uh i would do my vision would be

like more of a mix between say uh

mythbusters dirty jobs and reading rainbow

then we add the ben ten element with

that's because ben ten came out today for

new comic book day that's true i saw

that and then you mix in just a

little bit of captain planet the power is

yours

Yeah.

The sky's the limit.

We could take this in many different

directions.

It's just we just had to start somewhere,

and so that's why we did the Kickstarter

for number eight,

because

The first seven issues,

we funded everything ourselves.

We were just trying to get it made.

And then for number eight,

we're just like, we need to,

we need to change directions.

And so I'm like,

let's just do a Kickstarter.

And, uh, we finished it up last Thursday.

We did really, really, we did so well.

I was blown away.

Uh,

late pledges are still available though.

If, if anyone's interested,

this is like the perfect segue because

that's literally the next topic of

conversation is the Kickstarter is the

Kickstarter.

Yeah.

What you're talking about right now,

that was the next topic of conversation.

Okay, that's an oddly framed question.

Is the Kickstarter?

But yes, no, the Kickstarter is...

We wrapped up officially last Thursday.

Very stressful day, let me tell you.

But we still have late pledges going,

so you can still say...

get the first volume,

get the first two volumes,

physically or digitally.

You can get certain outreach packs.

You can still get certain merch,

I believe.

I have to check over all the rewards.

But for those who are interested,

there are still things available.

And then we will be coming back to

Kickstarter for number nine.

But the good news is that for this

one,

we had to fund the whole issue and

all the merch and such.

It was the highest goal I had ever

tried to get on a Kickstarter.

And then we got it.

And then a few days later,

after we made sure we didn't lose a

backer or two,

we unlocked our secret tier,

which was a backer could fund the entire

issue nine.

And someone did it in six hours.

Oh, that's really cool, man.

I get like, I get like,

why can't everything be this easy?

So,

and he's a very passionate STEM person.

Tamara knows him and he's like,

we're going to do something with in the

maker space,

which is a very popular part of the

STEM community.

And then we had someone else go like,

Oh, if I had known about this,

I would have tried to pledge to it

myself.

So we might already have someone for issue

ten.

So issue number nine,

when we put that on Kickstarter,

that'll be just be for the print run.

and then raising money for issue ten and

everything else that comes after that so

if you missed out on this one we

had some really cool rewards but if you

missed out on them we'll be offering a

majority of them for number nine which

will probably happen later this year so uh

there's still chance to pledge now if

you're interested and if not any or you

missed a cool reward we'll be we'll be

back on kickstarter eventually no that

that's actually really cool that if

somebody was just like oh cool here here's

the check

You're good to go for the next issue.

That's really cool.

And I love to see that kind of

passion for not necessarily comic books,

but for what that comic book stands for

and what that comic book represents.

And that is hopefully...

you know,

bring in some kid who may not have

any interest in this and showing them

something really cool in a comic book

format that sparks that interest for them.

Yeah.

So that to me is really cool.

And I'm probably going to say this

probably fifteen,

twenty more times throughout this whole

episode that this comic book is just

really cool, man,

because it represents so much to a

community into a community that, well,

My daughter has been out of school now

for two years, going on three years now.

But you don't hear a lot of people

talking about STEM anymore.

It used to be all over the place.

It was just available,

and it was talked about,

and it was shared.

And there was so much emphasis being put

on STEM and STEM programs.

And you don't see it anymore.

Or at least I'm not seeing it anymore.

But again,

my kid is no longer in school.

So I don't know, really.

You're not wrong,

especially with a certain administration.

They are trying to kill it in so

many ways.

And that's arguably another reason why SOS

is so important is that

We have two amazing female scientists

trying to show us.

That's another really cool thing that it

is being led by two females.

Oh yeah.

And make no mistake.

I may be the writer,

but this is their book.

Okay.

Like I, I am here to help.

I'm literally donating my services because

I believe in this book so much,

but this is their book.

This is their field.

And I am happy to be supportive of

them and help them in it in every

way.

But early on, we wanted to,

to not just make this book to appeal

to everybody,

but to show young girls and young teens

that you can be a woman in STEM.

Because there was that stigma for so long

that women weren't smart enough to be in

these fields, which is a total lie.

And you know what?

And I'm glad you brought that up because

If you look at some of the bigger

names in the STEM field right now who

are on the news constantly or who are

making new discoveries on a consistent

basis, they're all females.

And I think that's the coolest thing ever.

Well, even if you look back at history,

some of the most brilliant people were

women.

And the easiest one to name is Florence

Nightingale because she brought so many

medical practices that we still use today.

And she was...

she was a she but like oh no

this this male doctor let's screw that

florence nightingale like and that was

that's old school science like well before

we had certain technologies but she saved

she saved so many lives that she had

a little conditioning after her because

guys kept falling in love with her because

she saved their lives so yeah yeah but

but this is what how many kit starters

have you done up to this point oh

god um let's see

i can't remember your number i look it's

a lot it's a lot we got five

for home six for ten thousand miles i've

done twelve for tokyo so that'd be

eighteen take the house was nineteen of my

highest comic

so this was twenty i think yeah yeah

i could remember i could remember i knew

it was like either in the the high

teens or like early twenties yeah i just

couldn't remember exactly yeah that's

that's a milestone i didn't realize that's

a lot of lessons learned in that time

frame what have been the biggest lessons

though that you have learned with twenty

campaigns underneath your belt

The biggest one that I will say I

have learned of the most recent too,

so Seekers of Science in Tokyo,

number twelve,

is that every Kickstarter has its

stresses.

And it's going to wear on you.

With twelve,

I had the biggest launch day in my

Kickstarter career.

I had almost fifty people pledge on day

one.

And I was just like, that's amazing.

I had never done that.

But then, of course,

we hit the cliff and then it was

just like, you know,

a trickle to whatever.

Even though I said, you know,

I'm not gonna stress about this,

I'm not gonna do this, that,

or the other thing,

I was stressed because of like- No,

you were stressed, bro.

I was totally stressed, because I'm like,

can I get this a little more consistently?

Like,

how is it I'm still not- You were

on my show, stressed.

I was, I was so stressed.

Like, I was,

I got to a point where I'm like,

okay,

because-

usually with podcasts,

whether it's yours or others,

it's always a crapshoot if someone

watching will pledge.

But you take the risk because if you

don't do it,

then you know you're not going to get

any read from that.

And so I did a whole bunch of

shows just to try to get the word

out even further.

And the same thing happened with SOS.

SOS

By and large,

it was the most stressful Kickstarter I

had done in a long time,

which is saying something because a year

ago I had easily my most stressful

Kickstarter,

even though it was a huge success,

just because things didn't go the way I

thought they would.

But that's the Kickstarter, right?

Because they do this,

then you fall off the cliff,

and then you plateau,

and then you hit that cliff again,

and then you may have a couple drop

off.

You're at the finish line at that point.

It's just kind of wild how it happens,

but it's really on the creator to keep

that momentum going,

whether it's a podcast.

Yeah.

being really active on social media and

not falling off on that.

And honestly,

that's sometimes even that's not enough.

You could do everything right and you

still won't get some of it is just

dumb luck,

like with Kickstarter algorithms or

Facebook.

Facebook hates me anytime I post anything

even relatively close to a Kickstarter.

But then I do a certain wrestling post

the other day and I had like fifty

likes,

which is the most I've ever had in

years.

Which is wild because like I noticed here

recently,

like as I'm sharing like the releases of

certain podcasts,

like my videos aren't being shared to

groups.

Like I share them to groups,

but I'm not getting the notifications that

they're actually going to those groups.

So I think honestly,

Facebook has an issue right now.

Well, it's got a couple issues,

but that's another podcast topic.

Yeah, we don't do that here.

But with Kickstarter,

for the SOS Kickstarter,

I knew going in it was going to

be different because I was going from an

anime comic with a dedicated fan base,

action, adventure, fun characters,

to a STEM comic, which,

as you noted multiple times,

is not what you typically expect from a

comic book.

And sure enough, the first couple days,

We had done well enough,

but our backer count was so low.

And no joke,

the first three backers to the campaign...

No, sorry.

Three out of the first four backers to

the campaign were spam bots.

It was infuriating.

I'm surprised Kickstarter hasn't figured

out a way to kill them yet.

I know a lot of websites have that

where...

If it's even remotely looks like spam,

they just immediately,

they kill that profile.

And one of the spam bots pledged like

sixty bucks.

And then, of course,

they canceled in a few hours.

So that's just like you're hurting us.

And then we get to a certain point

and we went almost a full week without

any pledges.

Then I went on to a friend's podcast

and I got a surge and then.

We had like a one backer the next

day.

Then we had a huge search the next

day, but then we had another valley.

And even though we,

this was by and large,

my most funded Kickstarter ever by a large

margin, at least,

which was because of that fund issue nine

pledge we had.

Thank you, Abraham.

It was my lowest backer total, I think,

ever.

We had we had sixty four backers and

that included two late backers,

one of which was a friend of mine

who's a teacher, ironically enough.

Yeah.

And but like compare that to Tokyo where

for number twelve,

I had one hundred and eighteen backers.

So,

but I also got a third of the

money because my rewards are much

different.

So it's a balancing act,

but both Tamara and I went into this,

to this campaign thinking that between her

fan base, Tracy's fan base,

and anyone who just wanted to support me,

plus any random person who just wanted to

support science and STEM,

we would get well over a hundred backers.

We didn't come close.

We didn't even get two thirds of the

way there.

And so that's a lesson that was,

it was hard because

in my mind,

and I hate this about me.

I absolutely do.

I sometimes can't take the good news

without looking at the bad.

Like you,

I think we're all guilty of that though.

Especially creators.

But like,

If we brought up the page right now,

and this is not a lie,

you can see it's free sales,

ladies and gentlemen,

if you go to the campaign.

If you go to the campaign,

you'll see we had eighty two hundred

dollars raised, which is leagues above.

I thought I really thought we would get

funded like the last day if we got

funded at all.

I was that scared at multiple points of

the campaign.

But we raised eighty two hundred dollars.

But then I look at the backers.

I look at how many were like loyal

to me and how many were certain big

backers that absolutely helped get us

there quicker.

If we hadn't gotten there,

we would never gotten there at all.

And, you know,

and I worry about that because I'm like,

does that mean we won't have as many

backers next time?

Like,

what will it take to get that backer

count higher?

Like, I'm already stressed about that.

I'm already stressed about that.

But.

It was hard to correlate the great news

that we had gotten eight funded,

we got nine already paid for,

so much money raised.

And then I look at the battery count,

I'm like,

we could have gotten more because I know

there's other people out there

who would love this and yet we somehow

just didn't reach them despite me and

Tamara doing numerous podcasts including

yours right now and posting on social

media all over the place like Tamara had

a literal schedule of posts that she did

on Instagram to reach her people and like

we get dozens of likes and comments and

then maybe like one person from posted or

pledged because of the instagram videos

i'm like what did we do wrong i

was doing facebook ads which i never do

because i was following a friend's advice

about how he got a bunch of backers

for his

campaign.

Those are so hit and miss.

I know.

Instagram are like that.

And I learned that the hard way.

And I think I was the problem.

It's me.

I'm the problem.

I know Taylor Swift references,

but I tried it because a friend of

mine had some great success with that.

And yet I couldn't crack the code.

And so I didn't even run an ad

in our final week just because I had

had no success previously and I had some

other things going on.

So money was a bit tight.

But if I were to do it again,

I would have maybe Tamra and Tracy be

the focus of it because maybe they don't

want to look at my ugly mug talking

about science.

And but they'll listen to their very

lovely faces talking about science.

No, that's what I was about to say.

I'm like,

that's exactly how the world works.

So if they go on a podcast and

It's going to put more eyes on the

product just simply because it's two

ladies of science.

Yeah.

And I know it's odd to say that

you as the writer,

but they are the faces of it.

So... Yeah.

I don't know.

It's something to try next campaign,

right?

Yeah.

We learned things.

And I even did a...

Because this was the first Kickstarter,

like legit,

that I had a team that was going

to help promote alongside me.

Usually, I only have my artists.

And even then,

my artists for Tokyo and for my other

ones don't have social media.

Yeah.

That's wild to think about.

They're international artists,

so I understand it.

They have Facebook because that's how we

connect,

but

With Tamra Tracy, I was just like,

they're going to take the brunt of it.

They're going to bring their fans into the

VIX, and I will get to relax.

We can experiment on the next Seekers of

Science.

We will have both of them on and

see what the push looks like in the

first week.

And then we'll bring you on afterwards,

and we can compare the two.

We're doing science.

Science!

so but like that's it's a learning

experience kickstarter nothing else even

when you succeed it's a learning

experience because oh yeah and i told the

ladies i did i did a post-mortem which

i never had to do before because it's

usually just me and my artist and so

i was like okay here's what we did

well here's what we should be proud of

here's what we need to improve because

like we could improve especially going

forward and our hope

is that for when we do the Kickstarter

for number nine and onward,

we just keep building up the community so

that we bring in more people say like,

you know, this is helpful.

This is awesome.

This is going to educate and we can

grow this to however big we can make

it.

So even though it was incredibly

stressful,

we got funded and that was amazing.

And we have number nine.

Priority number one.

Get funded.

Exactly.

And I told them like the number one

thing is we get funded.

That's the only thing that matters.

And then we need to worry about the

other stuff.

Yeah.

And again, I know, Kid,

when I say this,

if they want to come on the podcast

to promote the next one or just to

promote

female scientist,

I can make it relate back to comic

books one way or the other because I

am a comic book podcast.

I would love to have them on because

it's for everybody, right?

Comic books are for everybody.

And that's what we're trying to show here

is that even if you're a science STEM

person,

there's a comic for you and we're trying

to be there for them.

And that's one of one as far as

I go in my head.

I mean,

there's some other really cool comic books

out there who apply...

some form of suedo science, I guess.

Pseudo science.

Suedo.

I like suedo.

Suedo.

You see where I was going with it,

see?

You knew what I was talking about.

Oh, dude.

I always love talking to you.

I'm not even bullshitting.

We're going to shift gears, man.

Because this is something that one hundred

percent caught my attention.

And honestly,

it was the coolest thing ever when you

sent me that cover with no colors,

no nothing.

It was like, hey,

what do you think of this?

And I didn't know how to take you.

I was like,

are you wanting me to critique this?

Are you just asking me if it looks

good?

I'm like, it looks great.

And then you're like, no, you know,

tell me what's wrong with it.

And I'm like.

Well, OK, then.

And it turned out like absolutely amazing.

I did not use it in the promotionals

because we're going to do this.

Okay.

Let me go over to this handy dandy

folder of mine.

I'm going to bring it up and I'm

going to present a share screen window.

We're going to do this.

Add to the stage.

Boom!

Dude, this shit with the color, man,

turned out so much better.

Like,

I was trying to envision how this was

going to look with color,

because like I said,

we were just going back and forth with

the...

with just the inks and the drawings.

And when the colors got at it,

then you're like, oh,

that's Nigel McGinnis.

That's Brian Danielson.

We got Adam Cole, the Briscoes, Athena,

and Bendito.

And I was like, yeah, that's so cool.

Yeah.

So,

for those who don't understand what's

going on here,

this is a custom art comic cover made

by my dear friend, Alex Garcia.

And last Saturday,

I was at AEW Collision in Peoria,

Illinois.

Great show.

It really was.

Really good show.

And as our dear chairman noted,

I had a sign that said, hire me,

Tony Khan.

And...

i had an arrow pointing to me but

when i there was a point where i

couldn't hold it up high for one reason

or another i had that cover under it

where the arrow would be so i could

show it off my i have been trying

for the last seven years like legit to

try to get hired by aew and i

have pitched them multiple comic ideas one

of which was called aew origins

sounds familiar i know but uh i eventually

got a no from them uh twenty twenty

four because

they have a deal with Warner Brothers

discovery.

So naturally DC, which is DC.

So there,

they had like basically a first dibs thing

where if they were made comic book,

you have to go through DC comics,

which they did eventually do.

They did a full on DC.

Just this year.

Yeah.

Just this year.

It's DC Warner, uh, AEW crossover.

And so I can't,

Unless they bring me on to specifically do

it, I can't just pitch anything to them.

So I'm like,

I still want to work for the company

on multiple levels beyond just comics,

but I need another way in.

And so I was like, well,

Ring of Honor isn't under Warner Brothers

right now.

They don't have a TV deal.

They're exclusively on

Honor Club or my AEW for international

people.

And so I'm like, that's fair game.

So I made AEW Legends,

the image that the chairman just showed.

Ring of Honor Legends.

Let's not get us copyrighted.

Huh?

It was Ring of Honor Legends.

Yeah, Ring of Honor Legends.

You said AEW.

I was still thinking of AEW.

I'm a small creator.

Let's not get me copywritten.

Yeah, it was Ring of Honor Legends.

And my vision for this is that in

AEW right now, in the overall banner,

they have...

primarily many of the Legends that helped

make that brand special in the two

thousands and beyond and including in the

modern era which is why I have Athena

and bandito in there so like they have

Adam Cole Kyle O'Reilly Roderick Strom

Ryan Danielson Nigel McInnes Samoa Joe uh

Mark Briscoe rest in peace Jay Jay lethal

and others who again made roh what it

was

And so what I would do with this

series is I would have those legends

narrate their own stories,

their rivalries,

their special moments to showcase to both,

you know, wrestling fans like us,

but also newcomers who might not

understand that the

importance of roh in the world today so

that they go like oh this is why

it's special like i will i would totally

have an issue dedicated solely to the

rivalry between brian danielson and nigel

mcginnis because you could probably do a

volume of that probably and then like i

would have an issue or two dedicated to

the legacy of the briscoes and how they

were the tag team in roh and then

even after the passing of jay mark you

know kept going

And he became world champion.

So I got to ask,

would we get a couple of issues on

El Generico?

I think that's very important that we get

El Generico.

This would have to be their call.

Because obviously there are people who

aren't in AEW ROH right now.

He's retired.

He's running an orphanage in Mexico.

Yeah, that's true.

You know, with his buddy Steen.

uh but you know i would love to

i don't know if legally we can but

we could try but i would focus at

first on all the people that are under

contract at awroh and then tell their

stories and then if we could you know

color outside the lines to get a generic

uh issue we could do it but

There's so many stories to tell from these

ROH legends that I see the appeal.

And it would be totally different for my

AEW Origins project, which, you know,

mine was better than a DC Comics version,

as stated by fans.

Hey, hey.

I'm not going to lie.

I picked it up.

I'm not a big DC guy,

but that one, I had to.

I had to, okay?

I picked up the DC-AEW crossover.

Was it great?

no but it has some really dope covers

it the covers are the best part and

that like that yeah that's what i cared

about i was like i want that cover

like that omega and monet cover and like

i was like yeah i i got i

got the monet harley quinn cover that for

sure i know some people got the kenny

cover um so if for people wondering it

may be a certain tony khan

who might be watching this,

because I'm sure our dear chairman is

going to do a clip of just this

so we could send it to Tony and

others.

The reason I'm so passionate about this is

that AEW, and by extension, Ring of Honor,

is very much one that is built upon

passion.

It is passion for the brand,

it's passion for the wrestling,

passion for the wrestlers.

And now more than ever,

we need to see that in all aspects

of these projects.

And for whatever reason...

We're not getting that in the comics.

And I'm not trying to be that guy

because I'm trying to get hired.

I'm being honest here.

We don't see it.

And others have called it out.

That's why others are doing their own

things.

Shout out to my buddy, Michael Kingston,

who did the Brody King Abolish Ice cover,

who raised money for charity.

That was legit awesome.

That cover was fire.

I missed it, but that cover was fire.

Yeah, just be on the lookout.

They might bring it back again.

But they...

The people who have worked on these

comics,

I can tell they either don't watch AEW

or they aren't a true fan of AEW

because they do things that are either

misrepresentations of the characters,

they don't look like the characters,

or they... Okay,

you picked up the AEW Origins comic.

I want you to remember the Swerve

Strickland story.

Do you remember the title that Prince Nana

had on his shoulder?

I don't off the top of my head,

no.

If you look back at it,

if you go and find it and you

look back at it,

your instinct will be to tell you that

that's an AEW belt because it's black and

gold.

That was actually the NXT North American

title.

Oh, was it?

Yeah, because he never held the...

That's the only belt he held in WWE.

Yep, and so somebody,

the artist presumably,

was given a picture of Schwer Strickland

with that NXT belt and put that in

the comic, and no one caught it.

Fans took one look at it and were

like, that's the NXT belt,

that's not an AEW belt.

You know what, though?

That's just wrong.

You just summed up the last ten years

of DC Comics anyway.

I know!

So, but like, I am...

I'm not tooting my own horn here.

This is just how my mind works.

When it comes to comics where I am

trying to recreate something,

like I did with the Thunder Rosa comic,

that you will be getting in your Tokyo

Blade of Tactics.

Yeah.

I'm excited for Tokyo Blade.

Don't get me wrong.

That Thunder Rosa comic?

Yeah.

I worked hard with Thunder Rosa and with

my artist Alex Garcia to make sure that

the story and the art was as good

as it could be to make sure that

it was her word to put onto the

page and it looked like her throughout the

comic.

And

And just as you were noting,

when we were doing the ROH cover,

we kept having issues with Athena's face.

We just kept like the perspective,

the look just came wrong.

And then I kept going back and forth

with the chairman.

I'm like, what are we missing?

And he goes,

it's the eyes and the nose.

I'm like, that's it.

And so we did like multiple tests.

And then right at the end, we're like,

what if it's the size of the eyes?

He goes, yeah, that's probably it.

And then that last version was what we

did with the color.

And it looks amazing.

That's our fallen goddess.

Once the color went on it,

I was like, yeah,

I think that's the one.

It looks good.

And, dude,

it's just a really cool concept that I

really, really want to see come to life.

Because Ring of Honor,

I know it was for the time.

And it wasn't during the time where you

had...

wasn't on tv it wasn't no it wasn't

it it was just this underground you know

it's like lucha underground you know where

so all these great phenomenal stories take

place in ring of honor that nobody knows

about what we do today because aew is

really good about tapping into that

history for multiple to the reasons not

just because toning khan owns it but those

guys are still around

and they constantly tap into that and even

this is going to leave my mouth but

wwe will play into that ring of honor

history as and as well with some of

the feuds they do with you know people

that are in the fed right now so

they do a really good job at that

but aew takes that and takes it to

another level and like the nigel mcginnis

and uh

Brian Danielson.

Brian Danielson story, man.

That alone could just be volumes of.

And I would work with them.

And Nigel,

I got to show Nigel the cover and

he thought it was really cool.

I gave him my card.

He hasn't gotten back to me.

Get back to me, Nigel.

Come on, Nigel.

Let's make it happen, man.

Remember, Brian is the clam digger,

not you.

So don't, don't, don't revert.

Don't make yourself a clam digger, man.

Yeah.

I love seeing those two together on TV

too.

Just the barbs and they get backstage and

they start laughing about all of it.

Don't go to the level of crying, brawling,

dying.

I would work with these ROH legends and

then I would show them the pages and

if they said this doesn't look right,

then we would work to fix it.

We would try and replicate key moments of

ROH history that was on

you know the various vhs tapes that

everyone got to watch it like i would

make it my mission to make it look

as amazing as possible

And the reason I know I can do

that is because of Thunder Rosa.

When we got done with issue three,

which is the final issue of her book,

she texted me and she goes,

I'm crying right now.

I'm like, what's wrong?

What did I do?

And she goes, no, no, no, no.

You've rendered this so beautifully.

It touched me.

And I was just like, well,

there you go.

That shows I did something right.

Yeah.

The woman who lived this story is crying

as she's reading it.

And so like,

that's the passion and level of detail.

And even in the final, the ROH cover,

I went to you and I'm like,

Athena's hair,

is it brown or is it black?

It's hard to tell with sometimes she goes.

It's black.

And so we changed it.

That was like the last change we did.

And I was like,

and because that's the level of detail I

wanted to have.

the lady from the graveyards of Tijuana

put a tear in her eye.

Yeah.

You know, you did something right.

And so like, I just,

why I'm trying to make,

this ROH,

now ROH Legends book happen and just to

get higher rated because I know I could

bring the passion that they are known for

to this different comic form.

And, you know,

everything that's going on with ROH right

now and in the good way with the

new tapings in Jacksonville and them

trying to like amp up the visuals on

the product, you know,

bigger and better matches.

And of course all the great pay-per-views

that they do.

I feel that this will be an instant

seller for the ROH fans because new ones

will want to learn more about history and

The veterans have been here since the

beginning.

Oh, yeah,

they're going to do the Brian Nigel saga.

This is going to be awesome.

This will sell.

We're just asking for a chance, Tony Kine,

to give me a chance to pitch this

to you, please.

When you do the Briscoe Brothers,

that final brawl with FPR, I was there.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, me and my buddy were there.

I kid you not.

The echoes of the chops that they gave

each other, I can still hear.

They hit hard.

I can still hear those chops.

Yeah, so.

And Swerve made his ROH debut that night

as well.

That's right,

because I remember that one because.

That was Dallas.

Yeah, that was the one where, like,

they had already,

there had been matches already made,

and then all of a sudden Tony Khan

goes, I never drink water.

And it was like, wait, what?

And even the wrestlers were taking it back

because they didn't know.

And then it's like, oh, okay,

let's roll with this.

And I would love to do an issue

with Ian Riccoboni and Caprice Coleman.

I don't know if you can do that

with Ian, though,

because Ian's no longer there, is he?

Yeah, he is.

Which one left that started MLW?

No, that was someone else.

I'm thinking of the dude from NWA or

TNA, whichever one that was.

Ian's still Ring of Honor.

He's proud of Ring of Honor.

He and Caprice are some of the best

announcers in the game right now.

they really are they really are but like

i would love to work with them so

we can get like the announcer's viewpoint

on things uh because because they are very

much the voices of modern ring of honor

and like there's so many stories we could

tell that'll help elevate the brand in a

special way so like this is why i

made this cover i had to hire me

tony khan sign and i even i've told

people i wouldn't just want to be a

comic writer for aw there's other places i

would want to help out

including being their Comic-Con guy.

I'd love to be the guy that travels

around the U.S.

on their dime and has an AEW Ring

of Honor table so I can reach out

to the fans and talk with them more

and get their feedback and sell lots of

merch and comics.

So I would totally love to be their

liaison for that because I think that

would be something that they could have a

lot of fun with.

You know what's wild is before the WB

deal, which included DC Comets,

Nyla Rose wrote an issue for Marvel's

X-Men with – I can't think of which

X-Men it was,

but she helped co-write a story for him.

Yeah, I remember that.

Oh, that was –

Dang it.

Hang on, let me Google this.

It wasn't Gray Crow.

That's Klonon's Lover.

But yeah, I remember that.

No, Thunderbird.

I think it was Thunderbird.

Thunderbird, yeah.

That was it.

So...

I own that cover in that story and

I'm not really read Ed Smith in a

long time.

I just simply wanted it because Nyla Rose

co wrote the story and I thought that

was the coolest thing ever.

Yeah.

It's like there's so many stories between

the past and the present.

And that's why, again,

I had Athena on the cover because she's

the forever champion,

the embodiment of what Ring of Honor is

right now in the best of ways.

She just tied Bruno Sammartino's record

for longest world championship reign,

I believe.

She may have surpassed it.

The second reign.

The first reign is still untouchable.

Nobody's touching that.

but yeah but like again she's our fallen

god spinning overlord the the the american

joshi the the hussy killer you know uh

it just goes on and on and on

well you know i would love to work

with her on our knowledge comments talk

about her reign and what it means to

her and everything so like there's so much

potential here and and i posted the cover

on both twitter and blue sky and both

times it blew up on twitter

Athena, Bandito,

and Carly Bravo from the Infantry all

shared it on Twitter,

and that was amazing.

How good is the Infantry, man?

They're so good.

Severely underutilized.

They really are.

That's why I want RBC to get a

TV show, because they have so much talent.

I want it to get showcased more.

Yeah.

One day.

Maybe the comic can help with that.

I don't know.

I'm all for this type of stuff.

this is one of those where in the

eighties used to see this kind of stuff

all the time,

all these WWF F crossovers happening

within Marvel and DC and Hulk Hogan was

on comic book covers.

And, you know, it,

i really this would just be so cool

to see happen because i'm such a big

fan of both comic books and professional

wrestling and again you could be bringing

stories to people that have never seen

them because they don't exist outside of

vhs tapes and being burned on dvds yeah

i used to get them that way on

vhs tapes and then later dvds

from like the most random people.

Yeah.

So like, I'll ask Tony Khan,

if you're watching,

all I'm asking for is a chance.

Let me pitch it to you.

See what you think.

And we'll go for that.

I already have the artist, Alex Garcia,

who did the cover.

So, and I,

and if you wanted to bring more people

on, I've got a comic crew.

I do.

That would love to do this and bring

diehard ROH fans.

So like I, there you go.

Like I've, I've, I've got this ready.

Just give me a chance, Tony Khan, please.

Yeah.

And you know,

I'm going to ask you this.

What do you think wrestling brings to

comics that maybe isn't being fully tapped

yet?

Well, wrestling,

despite what people think wrestling has a

lot of great stories and these characters

are larger than life in the best of

ways.

And there are own versions of modern day

superheroes, you know, cause like,

look at will Osprey who has his own

very inspirational story.

Now,

the least of which is just coming back

from a neck fusion surgery.

And he was, he just,

he just did an interview where Tony Khan

paid his entire medical.

I was going to say,

shout out TK for like actually taking care

of the wrestlers.

Thank you, TK.

Hey, they don't cover,

they don't have to cover transportation.

They don't cover their hotel rooms.

And he takes care of their medical.

And I'm like, dude,

I love a boss like that.

I'm just to have TK for a boss,

but like the, but like with, uh,

you know, all these wrestlers, they have,

I'll go back to Thunder Rosa.

She has a very inspirational story about

going from Tijuana,

Mexico to coming to the U S to

not starting out in wrestling.

That was by accident that she got into

the wrestling game at all.

And then she went back to school and

finished her degree too.

There you go.

And she's done so much.

She's still doing things.

And then, of course,

she had that huge surgery.

The book got done right when she got

the world title in AEW.

And then, of course,

she had the huge back issue,

which is how I ended up for over

a year.

But that's another part of her story.

And so every wrestler has a story to

tell.

And if we were to make the comic

like how I would want to,

we would be able to tell these stories

and they'll seem larger than life because

of like the great visuals that Alex and

others would do.

But then you'd have to pause and go,

wait a minute, this actually happened.

These people actually went through this

and then they overcame and then they did

these great matches and, you know,

they had these legendary rivalries

despite,

all that they've gone through,

and that will help them resonate with fans

new and old even more,

which is why I wanted to do the

original AEW Origins comics.

I want to talk about the actual origins

of the wrestlers so that people will go,

oh, that's why this person is like this,

and so on and so forth.

Yeah, I would love to see even,

you know,

after this, like, say, for instance,

this does happen,

and eventually Tony Khan goes, okay,

we can do this now for AEW,

because there's so many wrestlers there

that I would love to see their story

come to life, you know,

especially Will Ospreay,

because that dude has lived a life, man,

like, from New Japan to,

he's got his own,

what's his promotion called?

What is it?

Yes, in the UK.

Yeah.

And then him getting the partnership with

Assassin's Creed and then getting the

voice of Assassin's Creed to do his

entrance at Wembley,

which was the coolest thing.

I was like, yeah.

I got to interview Osprey once for a

side I sadly no longer work for.

But when I brought that, I was like,

bro, they were so awesome, bro.

I got to talk to Roger Craig Smith.

And Ubisoft wanted to do another voice for

the intro.

And he goes, no, bro,

we're going to do this.

It doesn't matter that he's not in

Assassin's Creed Shadows.

You have to do Roger Craig Smith, bro.

you do a great osprey impression thank you

very much you really do i was very

impressed by that but yeah he lives for

this and i would love to do an

osprey comic one day because he's got a

great story to tell but for now i

will i will be more than happy to

tell the story of roh in its many

forms and through its many many wrestlers

and then as the product continues to grow

and gain even more prominence through its

great wrestling that it has they're giving

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