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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds — spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books — from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.
It’s about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
• The rise of indie comics
• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life — for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
I'm sorry.
Hello there.
This is the chairman here of the United
States Department of Nerds,
where we are for the people,
by the people, and of the people.
At USDN, we just don't talk comments.
We spotlight creators who are building
worlds, challenging the status quo,
and redefining what heroism looks like in
modern storytelling.
Tonight, we're stepping into the shadows.
Our guest is Lonnie Lowe,
and Lowe is the creator and founder of
Dark City Comics,
a universe where grit meets greatness,
and the heroes aren't born perfect,
they're forged by crisis.
We're diving into Epic.
Earth Protector in Crisis,
the philosophy behind lighting,
the shadows of heroism,
and how Dark City Comics is building more
than stories, it's building a movement.
The Council of Nerds is now in session.
Lo, welcome to the USDM, my friend.
Hey, man.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate you bringing me on.
It means a lot.
Hey, no worries, dude.
The moment you sent me the pictures of
the book requesting to come on,
I was like, yeah, we're doing it.
Thanks.
But yeah, man, let's dive into it.
Who is Lowe and what is Dark City
Comics?
So I started this, shucks,
I've been working on it for well over
a decade.
This is actually a relaunch and I've been
working on the relaunch for a couple of
years and just really started going back
hard in the past six months once I
got all my ducks in a row and
decided how I wanted the relaunch to go
and what I wanted to focus on.
So I'm just, you know,
a regular guy who loves comics, man,
and got bit by the creator's bug.
I was I'm in Arizona.
I stay in Arizona and I was going
by drawing the comics.
I shout out to them.
They were having like a curbside comic
con, which is cool.
And I just walked in and I fell
back in love with it, man.
This was years ago,
but I've been I've been back in it
ever since.
I do.
I like it.
The website.
Phenomenal, dude.
I don't know who did your website,
but that thing is amazing.
I did it.
That is some phenomenal work, man.
Appreciate it, man.
When you when you're back up against the
wall, man,
you enlist in YouTube University and
figure it out.
Hey, that's how I built this, man.
I watched a whole lot of YouTube before
launching a YouTube channel.
Yeah, and that's what it takes, man.
A lot of times you just got to
jump in and figure it out while you're
in it.
So,
how did you come up with the name
of Dark City Comics?
Initially, right,
I wanted to do it where everything was
happening at night.
Like, everything.
So, it was initially that.
Like, I wanted to do... Because, you know,
most superhero comics are all shiny.
And I was like, what if it's...
always going down at night what is only
happening at night that was initially the
idea um the idea changed but the name
stuck so initially I just wanted it to
be all just dark city like a dark
city yeah it didn't go there yeah so
the name stayed but the uh you know
as you're formulating ideas and you're
building stuff you're like eh it may not
work so yeah but but I love the
name
no i i do too and that's why
i was like it's got to be something
significant there and i'm glad there was
the name stuck and it dude i like
the name because you could use that name
for anything if you wanted to open up
a comic shop dark city comics boom there
you go the name is there it's one
of those names that you could literally
brand any kind of way you want to
so yeah we we do uh i do
freelance uh film and video so we do
have a film division um working on an
apparel uh division like a clothing line
just for just for merch and stuff like
that so yeah and it's pretty much it
i just plug and play dark city comics
multi film and multimedia the apparel
division so yeah it does it does fit
in a lot of different places no i
like you plus that that sweatshirt on the
site is pretty dope too
I appreciate it.
Let me know what your size is.
I got some t-shirts here.
I literally just got a screen printer.
A heat press, sorry.
And I got some games.
Huh?
You know what a heat press is good
for, right?
I'm making shirts for my house.
You can press comic books with them too.
Huh?
You can press comic books with a heat
press.
That's what people buy them for.
Those guys who clean and press comic
books.
It's a t-shirt press.
Dude, I never knew this.
I'm tripping right now.
Right now.
Not only can you print t-shirts,
but you can press comic books.
Ain't no way.
Dude, I wouldn't bullshit you on that.
I just ordered another one.
We got one.
Well,
my business partner just had one sitting
in the garage.
And I was trying to get some clothes,
some mock-ups done,
but nobody would get back to me.
And I don't like to keep asking people
for stuff.
So I went and bought some game sheets
from a local spot out here,
Custom Print AZ.
They were phenomenal.
And I just pressed them up.
And it was so easy,
we ordered another one.
But I didn't know you can press comics
with it.
Hop on YouTube when we're done, dude,
and look it up.
There's some really good guys out there
who would do, like,
step-by-step tutorials on how to clean
them, how to press them.
There's a certain type of paper you get
at certain weights of the paper that you
put in the front cover and the back
cover, wax paper.
They walk you through it step-by-step,
man.
And it looks super easy.
I will guarantee you it is not as
easy as it looks because you're going to
have to actually –
Get older comic books that aren't worth
fifty cents and just practice on those.
And then just until you got the system
down that works for you in your T-shirt
printer.
Do I never?
Yeah, man.
That's another.
Now my brain.
Yeah, you got my brain spinning.
I'm over here like, all right, cool.
I'm ready to get on the phone and
make a call.
Hey,
get yourself another one to get to it,
man,
because that's money because people will
pay to have comic books pressed.
Man, I did not know that.
I thought it all happened in like some
wild factory where they cut all the stuff,
line it up, staple it all,
smash it together.
I had no idea.
No.
Okay.
No.
So you know how if you send a
comic book over to CGC and you request
to have it cleaned and pressed, right?
So they're going to take their time.
They're going to clean the cover.
But how they press it to get wrinkles
out of your comic book is they use
a T-shirt press.
It's literally the same press.
All right, all right.
Because you about to have me go somewhere
else.
Hey, I'm helping you make money here, man.
You got two t-shirts pressed.
Now you can do it.
I absolutely appreciate it.
But yeah, man,
if you send me your information,
I just got two game sheets.
I'll give you one of the,
it's probably one, two, three,
about six shirts.
Yeah, just give me your size.
I'll press you one up and send it
out to you.
Yeah, I'll shoot you a message after this,
but let's keep on, man.
We then got off track because I'm like,
dude, you're sitting on a gold mine.
So let me ask,
what does lighten the shadows of heroism
mean to you?
Well, just, you know, um,
What you want to do, like I said,
a lot of things,
when we talk about lightening the shadows
of heroism,
it's just bringing light to all forms of
the hero, the whole aspect.
Shining light on all aspects of heroism.
You know,
sometimes we like to focus on one side,
just him being the good guy,
the great guy.
We don't really shine light on the other
aspects.
You know,
we're kind of just a hero in general.
What kind of human being is he?
Yeah.
What kind of dad is he?
Does he hate his job?
Like, you know,
you want to just shine some more light
on the human elements,
not just the gadgetry and the cool suits
or the cool powers and stuff like that.
No, I like it.
Like a well-rounded perspective of
heroism.
No, and I really like,
because you sent me over the teaser,
and I'm thinking, if I'm guessing right,
that teaser is kind of how he gets
his powers and stuff like that.
Yeah, right at the beginning,
how it happens.
It's such a dope concept of how they
get their powers.
I personally,
I've been reading comic books of all types
for many, many years,
and that was probably one of the coolest
things
concepts of a hero origin story we
appreciate it yeah thanks man just you
know a lot of times people go you
see these long and you gotta go through
all these that's like i was like what
if you just wake up what if somebody
tips the scale set something off and
random people just wake up there's no
danger room there's no training you wake
up and you can spit fire you wake
up in your water you wake up you
know what i mean what do you do
from here
it's happening everywhere so so that that
randomness gets the wheel spinning because
now anything can happen and so now i
have to write with the idea that anything
can happen no and it's such a perfect
you know way to start a story too
it was really cool i i
Y'all, when this Kickstarter starts,
you need to jump in.
Trust me on it.
If the teaser is as good as the
whole book, then you're golden.
That's an investment.
So what kind of heroes is Dark City
focusing on that the mainstream comics
often ignore?
I think with us,
they're not as shiny as we're accustomed
to.
And then a couple are.
So you see street level, you know,
and then you'll see people struggling.
You know, we really want to.
talk about the human side and even the
villains, you know,
we go deep with the villains.
You know,
a lot of times you just see a
guy, he's a bank robber or whatever.
How do you get there?
Not everybody's motivated by evil.
Some things just happen and you end up
in this spot.
And now that you're here, you kind of,
you got to ride it out.
Like now that I'm here, you know,
so we look at it from the street
level.
We do the cosmic level.
which are big heroes,
and then we do street level,
and then we do villains from all those
sides, too.
What are the villains at this cosmic
level?
What are the villains at the street level?
What are the villains that sit in the
middle?
What are they motivated by?
You go from ordinary to extraordinary.
You really went deep-dived the different
things, and that's really cool,
because half the time you get...
maybe something over here in a book,
then you'll get something here on the next
book, and you just kind of just said,
I ain't doing all that, and just bam.
Hell no, dude.
I love that.
Just mix it all in and call it
good.
Let it roll.
Go from there.
So... Street level justice versus comic...
Well, no,
we're not going to do that because you
just gave me that answer.
We're going to...
I love when I get ahead of, like,
the person gets ahead of what I want
to talk about and we just kind of,
everything flows nicely and it just makes
my life so much easier.
But it throws off my pacing.
But what is epic at its core?
I think it is,
it's a story about a hero who didn't
ask to be a hero.
You know,
somebody who just wanted to be normal,
who was happy with the way they were.
And they were thrust into a situation
against their will.
And now they're at the epicenter of
everything that's going on.
And they're dealing with it in real time.
And we're dealing with it with them.
You know, like I said,
there's no prep time.
The minute he's epic, he's epic.
You know, there is no...
He didn't get to live in Smallville as
a child and jump over haystacks and throw
cranes.
He didn't get to go study with assassins.
He didn't get to be...
He's a college kid.
Up until the day before,
that's all he knew.
He just wanted to graduate.
And that's where the comic book starts,
right there.
Yeah.
Up until that day,
he just wanted to get through school,
you know?
So that's how fast it changes,
and it's a real-time...
It's a real-time ride.
Like, we're riding it in real time.
Like, you get to see in real time.
You don't get to see him really take
a break and be like, all right, cool.
Everything's quiet today.
Let's focus on... No, it's all...
It's all the time.
Is it cool if we bring it up
real quick?
Yeah, we can look at some of it.
Yeah, I guess, yeah,
we can pop it up.
Um... Ooh...
I'm trying to think where it's at.
Oh, it's on the website.
So, I mean,
I know I have all this stuff saved
somewhere.
All right, you know what?
We got to do it this way.
I thought I had it already pulled up
for us, but I guess not.
But we're going to take two seconds and
pull it up here.
That's all.
We put the commercial right here.
I don't do commercials, man.
I'll just cut that part out.
All right.
We just started on the website.
We'll just bring up the website.
Oh, for the prequel?
Yeah.
All right.
Here we go.
Let me add this in.
Share screen.
Window.
Boom.
Share.
Edit.
There we go.
See if he'll let me control it from
over here.
There we go.
Yeah, so the main character is right here.
Uh-huh.
It's not going to let me click.
No.
It's all good, though.
We can at least show them what it
looks like and then show them the...
I thought she was going to pop up
the preview.
That's fine, too,
if you want to show it.
Where's the preview at on the website?
I didn't put it on there.
I only sent it out.
Oh, that's right.
It's in my email.
Hang on.
I only got it specific.
I sent it out to specific people.
I didn't want to give away too much
too soon.
I just sent it out to reviewers and
podcasters.
People who I knew who were regarded a
certain way.
I appreciate you saying that, man.
That means a lot.
Here we go.
You good with me bringing it up still?
Yeah, that's fine.
Yeah, we can show some of it.
Yeah, we'll hit them with the teaser.
There we go.
That cover is still so clean.
And you know what's funny?
I'm still up in the air about what
the final cover is going to be.
I got two more coming in,
and they are amazing.
So it's...
It's still up in the air.
It could change at any moment,
even though we're like two Tuesdays away.
It could change at any moment.
We're getting there, man.
Let's not get too far ahead on that
Kickstarter.
Let's show them some of this.
This is just so clean.
Appreciate it.
Yeah.
You know,
it took a while to grab the right
artist.
But, you know,
I was looking for somebody who could
really push emotion and
you know, and the way Rom, he draws,
he has a unique style,
so I think that'll separate us,
and then he's good with pulling emotion.
So I thought it was going to work.
And then even with Laura,
the way she colors, I got, you know,
I got a solid team,
and that's me lettering.
I'm getting better at it, but, you know.
Oh, you did the lettering on this?
Yeah, yeah.
I've been at it for a while,
just practicing on my stuff,
but
I always set it up beside the big
guys and kind of see how they formulate
the bubbles.
That's how you do it, man.
You put yourself next to the legends and
you copy what works, man.
They're never going to say, oh,
you stole my style.
They're going to be like, flattery.
Yeah, yeah.
Best form of flattery, right?
Yeah, more of a style guy than anything.
Just how, you know, how they do it.
No,
that's really dope that you're doing the
lettering yourself.
Saves you a few hundred bucks too.
Yeah, and what I do like to do,
I do real-time narrative, narrating.
So the narrative blocks,
I come up with that pretty much while
I'm lettering.
So it's still fun for me.
I still get to have some fun in
the process.
Now with you doing that though,
have you gotten to a point where you're
like,
I don't like the way this is going
right here.
I got to change these words right here
because of the way you've done something.
The cool thing about having it all at
your fingertips is you can make those
adjustments.
I don't have to email somebody.
I don't have to wait for them to
come back.
I can do it.
The art is the art.
Once that's done and that's approved,
everything else you know narrative blocks
and speech bubbles can can adjust i just
you know i don't want to get it
i had to get uh one page redone
out of these nine so far dude one
out of nine ain't bad dude
no and it came back better like i
thought it was and i love it yeah
no that that's not a bad gig at
all when you send you get nine pages
back and there's only corrections on one
one yeah i've seen editors bleed all over
all nine of them yeah you know i
was i was i was cool with because
i i uh like he gets where we're
going
And so he has the script and we
talk about it.
So I'm not just giving it to somebody
who's just looking for a check.
He's paid.
Don't get me wrong.
It's a business.
But yeah,
he also is taking care of the characters.
But he has a personal investment.
Yeah, he's taking care of them.
I think that's something we don't see
often is when you're picking an artist or
a colorist or an inker or whatever it
may be,
is don't having the same amount of
investment in the creation as you do as
the IP owner.
Yeah, and I think that,
but it comes from also being open to
their ideas and open to their advice and
just really making it a collaborative
part.
Buy-in, you gotta have buy-in.
You know,
if I just- Be open to listening.
Yeah,
if I just treat you like a tool,
like, hey, just shut up and draw,
that's the return I'm gonna get.
I don't want that.
Like,
I need to know if this is working,
if there's something that could be done
better, you know,
and he's good with that feedback.
That's awesome, dude.
I'm glad you found that.
You can tell they have the buy-in because
the art looks absolutely amazing.
Appreciate it.
We working.
Let's see.
Where are we at here?
We were on the Kickstarter.
Kickstarter comes out two weeks,
but you have a pregame on the website.
For the Kickstarter.
Tell us about that.
Because that's the first time I've seen
that.
Yeah, so what I've been offering is...
If you want to buy in early...
Submit your email.
I'm giving you a five-page prequel.
Alpha Origins.
Udemsi's story.
How this power even got to Earth in
the first place.
So you'll get the backstory...
happens thousands of years before the
issue takes place and that's just just for
supporting early just a quick little
deposit hey we'll be here as a dollar
so you get a five page you know
and it'll that's digital it'll come right
to you no that's really cool like i
said like i said
I've been doing this for about a year
now,
and that's the first time I had seen
something done like that.
When will your Kickstarter actually go
live?
We go live.
We go live Tuesday, February seventeenth.
Eight a.m.
Standard time.
Yeah.
So we're going to be there's going to
be a whole thing.
I got those next two, three days off.
I'm going to be going crazy.
And so I don't really stream or go
live much,
but I think I will that day.
So that's a lie because you do comics
in the car.
but that's not live that is and you
know why I started doing that it's funny
because I don't have nobody out here to
talk to about the comments so I just
sit in the car and just talk to
my car so I was like you know
what I'm just talking to the people you
know because I have a few friends here
and there and we may talk on they
may text me but like usually when I'm
coming off of a fight read an issue
And I'm excited about it.
I got to get this energy off.
So I just run to the car.
You know,
lately I've been at work overnight.
So I've been doing it at work.
But yeah, you know,
but I haven't gone live.
I was thinking about going live.
about the wonder wonder man series but i
think i'm in may i may do a
live probably in regards to the release
but yeah comics in my car are just
born out of necessity just being excited
about a book and needing to get that
energy out yeah no that's a really dope
thing because when i followed you and i
don't know if you've seen the way my
schedule looks for the month but i am
this is the first time i've ever packed
a month within twelve hours like i was
like
that's not a bad problem to have at
all i will say it right now march
is almost the same yeah that's a good
story you know i always like to look
through people's stuff it gives me things
to talk about and bring up on the
the podcast such as comics in the car
which is a really dope thing you do
and uh the moment i see that i
was like i'm gonna be on his page
for like the next thirty minutes just
watching comics in the car
I just started it probably about a week
or two ago because KO got me started.
And then I was reading various titles.
I just get bored and I have it
on my Amazon.
I just go through and I'm like,
all right, cool.
This is what's going on.
So, yeah.
Comixology from Amazon.
Yeah.
And then,
but also Brandon's comics is right up the
street from me.
I go to Drawing the Comics and Glendale.
So Samurai Comics is right up.
So if I'm out,
like my first issue of Absolute Superman,
I got from Samurai, I believe.
And then my first issue of KO I
got from Brandon's and everything else I
pretty much get from Drawing the Comics.
If I got time to go grab a
physical copy.
The only issue of the Holy Trinity of
the Batman, the Superman,
and the Wonder Woman I have are the
Mark Spears foil variants,
the connecting covers Mark Spears did.
That's literally the only ones I own.
And then I picked up covers from each
one here and there from a specific artist
that I really like.
the nakayama covers and there's been a few
i think kirkham covers that i've picked up
here and there but it's just yeah dennis
cohen did a uh absolute batman i want
to say it's twelve i'm not sure that
it was crazy i wish i i i
wish i could get that hard copy and
i saw that i was like oh he
killed it but the joker the joker the
intro to the joker cover with him on
the cover
I did get that one.
So with Brandon's comics,
when we went up to get KO,
it was almost like a raffle or random.
All the covers, all the bags,
you couldn't tell what you got until you
opened it.
You got the blind bag.
I did a couple of the KO blind
bags just to see what I was going
to get.
I did the Mark Spears blind bags.
And then I did the Elvira Harley Quinn
blind bag, which was really cool to see.
If you're going to gamble,
gamble on a comic book, right?
Right.
That's more fun.
I'd rather do that than go to a
casino or something.
You never know.
I pulled one of the Mark Spears covers
that I wanted on his Winter Wonderland
ones he did.
The moment I opened it and Cindy was
there, I was like,
immediately bag and board.
Simple as that.
Because I mean,
I've already read the entire series and
it's just like he'll do new covers for
him and stuff like that.
But it's just really cool to get those
and just they're fun because you don't
know.
There's like twenty five,
thirty covers that are possible and.
And you gamble, man.
Exactly, exactly.
I was thinking about doing something like
that,
a blind bag or either having an artist
or
uh putting one in the tears and just
having my artist whoever picks the blank
cover whatever he draws they get you know
that'd be really cool i've never seen them
seen that done before either i was i
was i was thinking i mean i've seen
them do blind bags but it was like
blind bags of like previous comics and
maybe some like stuff that they probably
didn't sell
on the original Kickstarter,
but they had already ordered stuff in
bulk.
They just shoved them into a blind bag,
which is kind of cool too.
But to get a custom cover from
The artist would be really dope to do.
Yeah,
I'm trying to figure out some things just
to make it a little different.
This is my first one.
You know, I'll first go around.
I did it all out of my pocket.
I sold books all out of my pocket.
But I was looking at just the community
of crowdfunding,
just the community in itself.
I was like, this is a...
Just to be in it.
Just to see who's in it.
It's amazing.
Yeah, it's a good place to be in.
So I was like,
let's do this one and see how it
goes from here.
Oh, yeah.
I'll shoot you...
It's basically like a Kickstarter how-to.
It's a two-part series done by Bruno
Caterino.
I'll shoot that over to you.
And it's just some good,
quick lessons learned.
I mean, it's really good.
Yeah, I need it, man.
Like I said, I've been YouTube Universe.
I've been reaching out, though.
The cool thing about it is I've reached
out to some people who have successful
campaigns,
and they've been real upfront with the
good and the bad,
and they've been sharing information.
So I definitely appreciate all of those
guys.
So that's one good thing I can say.
Guys who've had successful Kickstarters
don't really gatekeep.
They don't mind sharing what worked so
far.
And that's what's great about the indie
community, both on Facebook...
and basically anywhere like you just reach
out to people wait a couple of days
and nine times out of ten you don't
even have to wait a couple of days
they just hit you right back and be
like hey what you need i can help
you and eat in the groups on facebook
or some of the most helpful places ever
they don't guys there's some good guys in
those groups and they don't hold nothing
back even if they don't like it they're
gonna be like hey i don't know about
this
Yeah,
but what works for some may not work
for others.
So it's good to have all that information
right at your fingertips.
And that way you can try certain things
to see what works for your campaign.
Oh, yeah.
And the biggest thing, you know,
I've seen throughout this is just keep it
as simple as possible in the first go
out.
Yeah.
And then because you're going to pick up
your own lessons learned through that.
And then the next one,
you can go all out, you know.
Yeah.
And that was I had to scale myself
back because even though.
Yeah.
But even though this is my first
Kickstarter,
this isn't my first time releasing books.
So I had to I just had it.
This is your first Kickstarter.
This is your first Kickstarter.
You know what I mean?
So I was ready to go a thousand
miles per hour.
I said, no,
I got to do this the right way.
I got to take my baby steps so
I can learn.
That way, if somebody asks me,
I can be like, hey, you know,
this is what I learned and this worked
for me.
Give me a second.
We got it.
man hey i'm in arizona man outside dude
so i just you know it's rare many
years ago yeah the early two thousands
yeah i live down in tucson oh yeah
yeah i'm in uh i'm in i'm in
tempe probably about twenty minutes from
phoenix yeah i love it dude that's that's
one of my favorite areas
I got friends that still live there,
still own houses there and everything
else.
We barbecue on Christmas, dude.
Just to let you know.
I miss that shit sometimes.
I'm not even going to lie.
Then there's days where I see the
temperature is a hundred and twenty there
and I'm like, I'm good.
And it's midnight.
You can't run from it.
Dude, I remember, it's funny,
there was a car wash in Tucson.
They had a twenty four hour rain
guarantee.
So if it rained within twenty four hours,
you could go back with your receipt and
they would rewash your car for you.
Oh, wow.
Dude, my luck,
the only time I went there,
it rained on the way back.
You couldn't even get out of the parking
lot.
It happens, man.
The weather's so funny here.
Oh, yeah.
Especially with rain.
We don't even take rain that serious
because we know in five more minutes,
it's going to be hot again.
Yeah.
And then, you know,
what's also funny is you go an hour
northeast.
And it's freezing.
And it's snowing.
Yeah.
I've been snowboarding up there.
Yeah.
Sedona, Flagstaff, Prescott.
Coolidge.
I mean, you can get four seasons.
An hour,
hour and a half outside the city.
Yeah, that's crazy.
So have you already built the Kickstarter,
own Kickstarter?
Yes.
I'm doing some plug and play this weekend.
I'm working on the intro.
I'll be swapping my intro.
And then, like I said,
I'll be looking at these other covers.
And I may or may not change the
cover.
But it's already tiered out.
It's already ready to go.
Yeah, like I didn't want to be...
You can pre-build.
That's the best.
I've been pre-building.
Yeah,
I've been doing it probably for about a
month or so.
I've been just chipping away at it and
just learning what works and what didn't
work.
And so, yeah, I got a link.
I'll send it to you if...
I'll send you a preview so you can
kind of... Yeah,
if you want to shoot that to me,
I can include it in the...
the description of this video,
the way it's there when it, you know,
the Kickstarter actually goes live.
The link is still there.
Cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think I put in the link may
have been on the,
in the email as well.
It may have been, I'll double check it.
But when I shoot you the, um,
the other stuff that I told you I
would send you,
I will double check everything.
Okay.
But, um,
No, it was funny.
I was sitting here waiting for you to
get to your nephew's house,
and I got a notification of a Kickstarter
start, and I'm like,
let me check this out.
I've seen some good Kickstarters.
I've seen some amazing Kickstarters,
and the Kickstarter I just seen was
probably the worst thing I've ever seen.
It was not put together very well.
It just...
it looked like he last minute launched
without doing anything ahead of time and
it was just the the gift and the
curse about it it really is yeah the
story looks really fun but it was so
disorganized i couldn't even like look
through it i was just like i can't
do this i can't look at it the
the problem the problem
I don't know the creator,
but if he's on an island,
he's not really going to know what
resources.
And I don't mean a literal island,
but if he's off in a corner creating
by himself,
he may not know what's available to him.
And a lot of times we get in
our way, we won't ask.
This is his fourth book.
He had a whole slew of other books.
And they fund it?
It may work for him.
That chaos.
It was just way too chaotic for me
to look at.
I got to be neat and organized.
It's got to be laid out.
It's got to make sense.
As you go, it's got to
Yeah, it got to reveal.
Yeah.
And so I work chaotic,
but my results are usually neat.
So that's how I am.
By the time I'm done,
everything around me is going to look like
complete hell.
But in front of me is going to
be perfect.
It's going to be as excellent as I
can make it.
But yeah,
the process is going to be like, oh,
my God, what is he doing?
But yeah.
You see that because I go through just
out of being nosy and just out of
just wanting knowledge.
I'm like, okay, what looks like it works?
What doesn't look like it works?
Sometimes you see people who got too much
stuff.
Sometimes people don't have enough.
It's finding that healthy medium.
Yeah, it really is.
And I'm glad we're talking about
Kickstarter in this way.
What can backers expect from Epic when it
drops?
Yeah.
What you can expect is I'm trying to
take you on a ride through the campaign
without giving up too much,
still leaving some excitement for the
book.
So you'll get the gist of what's going
on.
You'll get to see some panels.
I'll throw in something that I probably
shouldn't share just to kind of let you
know, hey, it's real.
It's a whole universe.
And I may even share some other things
that we have going on because I'm
incorporating.
I do film.
and video.
We have a series called Catch Him,
which is a mixture of a comic book
and a live-action web series.
I do have the trailer for that.
I was thinking about popping that in
there.
We are looking at...
You'll get the whole...
idea,
you'll leave with a sample of the
universe.
You'll leave knowing, hey,
it's not just a book, it's a journey.
And if I want to be a part
of that journey,
I can be a part of it on
the apparel side.
I can be a part on the comic
side.
I can be a part of it,
you know, in a live action side.
You'll have options and avenues to come
take this journey with us.
It's not just one way in,
but this is our initial offering.
Do you have any rewards set up for
people?
I know you got the one for the
early sign-up on the website,
but are you going to have anything for
backers as they back the comic book?
Yeah, and...
Like certain stretch goals or anything
like that?
So our stretch goals,
without putting too much pressure on my
artists,
I really want to stretch to get the
issue to...
done so um and some ash cans done
of some other things that show different
aspects of the universe so i have twelve
so i have three stories side stories
written that'll go perfect and then um
epic is done up to about thirty two
issues
You've spent the time And you've already
got everything Yeah,
we got thirty-two issues I got two Two
graphic novels
that are not about Epic,
about other characters,
and then I'm working on something,
and then, like I said,
we're writing scripts as well as comics to
try to kind of mingle them.
So, yeah.
So do you plan at any point, like,
taking a pause on the,
not necessarily the books, but to do,
like,
a trade paperback or something like that
of, like, how to get books?
Um,
I'm tinkering with one in my head,
like a three book series.
And it's a massive undertaking.
So right now I'm at the concept of
book one,
but I do have one of my characters,
Lotto, his trade paperback is written in,
And it goes up until he gets into...
I think he comes in issue four.
So it follows his journey up until issue
four and then goes a little past it
and then brings him back into the book.
So most of my trades will follow the
characters as they come into the story.
It'll be whatever happened prior to them
getting there.
Gotcha, gotcha.
But you're not going to at any point
just do like...
Like, hey, here's volume one of, like,
the book, and it's, like,
issues one through five or one through six
or something like that.
Every run we do?
Yes.
Short answer, yeah.
Because the Alpha Strand will be a three
issue, and then Lotto's Home,
then Noble Intentions,
and then Earth's Shadow.
So, yeah,
it'll probably be four different ones.
Right now,
you're sitting outside enjoying the nice
weather.
I'm getting sleep, and it's, like,
thirty-two degrees.
Okay.
I won't hold the phone up and show
you the sun.
I won't do that.
I do that to my friends.
Don't do me dirty like that.
Don't do me dirty like that.
I hold the phone up and show them.
Because then I'll get to missing it.
And then I'm like,
Arizona's just gotten way too expensive,
man.
Otherwise, I'd already be living there.
It used to be,
before the housing market crashed...
You could get a nice house for a
decent amount of money.
It was when it crashed,
something like that.
Up until then, this was prime.
You might as well stay where you at.
You might as well stay where you are.
It feels good, man.
You're rubbing it in now.
You're rubbing it in now.
It feels good.
But yeah, man, each volume, like I said,
we'll probably do The Alpha Strand,
Lotto's Home, Noble Intentions,
and Earthshadow.
And then in there,
we'll probably do Lotto's Trade Paperback
Under Siege.
And then we'll do another one.
And then I have side stories that run
parallel to the book.
And then they come across in year two.
Okay,
and they actually come into the book.
Yeah, yeah.
I like that.
And see,
what I want to do is give those
away for free.
So I'll probably do like a four page
every month,
probably starting at issue three or issue
four,
and then just take you on that journey.
So that way,
when they intersect into the book,
it won't seem like these characters came
out of nowhere.
No, I like that, man,
because that's really dope.
Post it to your Instagram or your
Facebook.
It'll probably be...
I want to create a back channel or
a secret channel,
a secret page that through apparel and
other things,
you can scan QR codes and you'll get
access to it.
And it'll happen in that space.
You can create a members-only section of
your website and keep it behind that.
I don't know.
We may do that.
That's a good idea.
That would save you more money later in
the future.
See, I was thinking, though,
it may be more fun.
I got the idea watching Nipsey,
rest in peace,
where you scan the tag and this whole
thing pops up.
I was like,
what if we do that with books?
I know some guys are doing it.
So you can still do the QR code
and it would take you straight to the
behind the scenes of the website where you
don't have to log into it.
Or you can also do it as the
login as well.
Oh, OK.
Members.
OK.
Yeah, we may do that.
Yeah.
I may do that.
Yeah, but I want to,
I want to still,
and I still want to be able to
quote unquote give something away.
You know what I mean?
Because sometimes people not sold and
sometimes they got to see it.
So I'll do like four page,
like four page little jabs here and there
to keep folks engaged.
That's, that's the idea.
And it's already written and ready to go.
We just need to get the ball rolling.
I like it, man.
I love everything you got going on.
You have it together.
You probably got a whole bunch of
notebooks stacked up at the house.
It's ridiculous.
Thank God for a digital medium because I
would probably be buried in paper.
I would probably be buried under piles of
paper.
I'm a notebook guy.
I keep mine in notebooks and then I
transfer electronically later because I
could be at work and the idea hits
me and I keep my email open at
work.
and see that's what i do i keep
my emails open here so i got one
as i get ideas i just jot them
down on that email at the end of
the day i just shoot that email to
myself as well and then i copy and
paste it over into my my notes and
then you know sometimes i'm in the car
and i did his and i just write
it down and that's how i got
Text messages full of side stories and
ideas.
I'll send some to somebody just in case
I forget.
Random people will be like,
why you send me this?
I'm like, when I was texting,
your name was the first one that popped
up.
So you get the story.
You just hold on to the synopsis and
just send it back to me.
Yeah,
I have friends with story synopsis and
they don't know nothing about comics.
But when I was texting,
his name was like five sentences of stuff.
yeah it's like don't erase and i just
sent it to him just so i can
have somewhere to park it dude i like
that man so where do you see yourself
in dark city comments in three to five
years in the perfect world um i want
to create an all-inclusive experience for
Readers, I want to do fashion,
pop culture.
I want to do movies.
I want to do animation.
I want to do comics.
I want to be able, the writing,
I have the writing capabilities to do
these things.
And I have the vision to do these
things.
It's about finding the right team and
that's happening right now.
But I can do it.
I want to create a mini network for
creators.
where you can just come in and it's
an experience.
You come in for comics.
Oh, wow, I didn't know they did shorts.
You look at a short.
Oh, my goodness, this is nice.
What is he wearing?
It's apparel.
Oh,
there's a music that's going to the
soundtrack.
I want to do a whole thing without
making it too heavy.
Just a seamless transition.
If you're going to do apparel,
the perfect way to advertise apparel is
I put it on the characters in the
book.
That's it.
That was the first thing I'm like,
if he's going to rock apparel,
he's got to put apparel on the comic
characters.
You'll see some of them with the logos
and the polos and the hats and all
of that.
Those are my favorite kind of Easter eggs.
I'm not even going to lie.
My artist, a friend of mine,
My Chuck Taylor,
he's he's going to actually he's going to
do this secret sketch cover if we do
it.
And I think we're going to do it.
He's phenomenal.
What he used to do.
He did the first run with me.
He would always draw us in the book
randomly somewhere.
If you wouldn't tell me until it was
done.
So I'm watching the book and I'll see
him like, Chuck, what you doing?
And I flip and I'm like,
what am I doing?
You know what I mean?
So I always thought.
Thought it was cool,
but we had on the apparel.
That's my favorite type of Easter,
as in everybody that comes on.
Most of the people who've ever been on
this podcast are like me.
When I'm reading a comic book,
I can spend an hour,
two hours reading one comic book because
I'm not just reading it.
I'm studying it.
I'm studying the letter,
and I'm looking for those little Easter
eggs
In the book.
Right.
We need Easter eggs in it whatsoever,
but I'm still going to look for it.
Yeah.
And so many things turn into Easter eggs
down the line.
And that's the cool thing about writing.
That's the biggest thing right there is
like this little obscene mention of
something to happen on page two of issue
three of some random comic book.
Now you're on Easter.
issue ten of the same comic book and
that little thing that you've seen over
here on you know issue two is now
playing a big factor over here in issue
ten absolutely and unless you paid
attention you missed it because there's no
there's no telling how many times i've had
to go dig through a box pull out
an old issue of a comic book and
flip through it and be like i knew
it i knew it that's it
And sometimes it takes forever because
that's just like that's backfill right
there.
I got a closet down the hall that's
like short box after short box.
Yeah, I miss all of that.
I had I'm from Maryland.
And so my attic looks like a comic
book store.
I can start one right now with so
much stuff I have.
And then, you know, I got, like,
back there, that's, like, I do a small,
like,
quick series called What's in the Box,
Man?
And I still haven't got to record it.
So the pile gets bigger.
The big box is, like, storage bins for,
because I need to clean out that closet
back there.
Because it's a wreck.
Hey, man, listen.
It's the mind of a creator, dude.
Sometimes chaos.
Yeah, yeah.
People don't understand it.
You know, like, you got to
Sometimes I feel like I'm just here.
I'm just along for the ride.
My brain is doing what it's doing.
And I'm just here to keep it alive.
Because I got piles of things to get
to and stuff I'm excited about.
And I just can't wait to get to
it.
So my workspace, there's a pile of, oh,
they should see this.
Oh, we can't wait to get to it.
I definitely understand.
And then I got...
You know, this week's new comic book day.
I got last week's and the week's prior
new comic book over day.
New comic book day over there that I
need to still scan in,
get it added to my collection,
get it boxed and put away.
Yeah, dude.
But this right here has been like the
busiest I've ever been when it comes to
the podcast.
So I'm thankful for that.
And I'm like,
if stuff has to fall to the wayside
so I can continue to put spotlights on
Lowe and Ray, who was just on,
and Ray McKay, who was just on,
then I will put it off because that's
what I made this for,
and that's why you're here,
and this is why you're getting a spotlight
on you today.
Yeah, appreciate it, man.
I appreciate it because...
it's a lot going on and it's cool
to be able to talk about the process
and like what you're doing and to
reintroduce the university people and new
people.
Like we've been in comics probably the
same time and we've never even crossed
paths until now.
Yeah.
And it's so cool because like before I
was having a hard time getting some of
the Facebook groups to let me post and
Like they just wouldn't post me.
Right.
I don't know.
But then finally, you know,
it started happening and it started
happening.
And then I,
I knew I had like the first few
days of this month, like filled in.
I had you, I had Ray, Ray net.
And then I had somebody else.
I can't remember off the top of my
head because that's how busy this month is
going to be.
When I start forgetting who I just had
on like two days ago.
And, um,
So I made a post just like, hey,
you know, we're scheduling live right now.
Hit me up.
Here's my email and we'll ride it from
there, you know.
And then it was like, boom, then boom.
And it's like eleven thirty,
twelve o'clock at night and I'm scheduling
like people are hitting me up.
That's how I'm going to bed.
I can't look at this no more.
So I go to bed,
wake up and there's like ten more emails.
I'm like.
Okay.
That's a blessing.
Immediately the next day, I'm like, hey,
I got to close it.
However, if you still, you know,
if you could do March, hit me up.
We'll do March.
And now I'm like, shit, March is full.
I'm about to go to April.
Hey, listen,
being booked and busy is a blessing.
I promise you that.
Oh, dude.
Yeah, the opportunity.
exactly because i get to meet i get
i get to meet lo tonight i got
to meet ray rainett the other day and
you know many many more on the menu
for this month that i've never met these
people well
There's a couple that are repeat offenders
going to be on here this month.
But those are people I have friendships
with now, you know?
Yeah.
Like when you get ready to run it
back, dude, hit me up.
We will run this back all day.
Oh, I appreciate it.
Definitely.
Not from your car, though.
Hey, man, listen,
I was trying to make sure I keep
time.
I like being on time.
And then I wanted to just be like,
hey, listen, this is what's going on.
Give me a minute.
You're good, dude.
I was just one of those where I
hit you up.
I was like, hey,
you didn't forget about us, did you?
Because you were really excited.
You didn't forget.
There's no way you forgot.
You know what's funny?
I got this one confused.
I missed a
pod yesterday blew my mind and it broke
my heart because I wanted to do it.
I was like, I thought you were Friday.
And I'm like, no, this is Friday.
Now I need a scheduler.
It's funny how getting...
That's the best thing you will ever do
for yourself.
Get a whiteboard,
put it on the wall next to you.
And then as you fill up your electronic,
you know, the one in your email one,
I immediately walk over with my pen.
I write it on the board.
That way it's right there.
And I got a whiteboard sitting under my
bar.
I'm going to hang it up tonight.
That is the big,
especially when you're about to launch it,
you got to get that organized.
Yeah,
but I definitely need something more
tangible that I'm really actually
touching.
Yeah.
The whiteboard in the calendar email,
like the calendar on your email,
I can literally make an event from the
email, add it to the calendar,
and then go to the whiteboard and write
it in over there.
And it, cause I'm getting it.
Cause as I'm walking in the room,
it's right there in my face.
It's right in front of my face and
my phone will send me the notification.
Like, Hey, you have this coming up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The hard part is,
is when you get a bunch at one
time and you've got to get them,
you got to differentiate from everybody
and make sure you're,
you're sending the right person,
the right stuff and you're communicating
the right things to the right people.
And I'm like, I need an assistant.
I need money.
Yeah.
it's coming though man you know you get
busy before you get the bodies so so
you're busy and then oh yeah yeah the
bodies will show up man i'm hoping so
man because this has been like the the
funnest i've had like twenty twenty five
was good everything started picking up and
taking off and then i've not had like
we're in february january was pretty busy
but it's always a little slow in the
beginning because people are coming out of
the holidays
But now it's like, everybody's like, boom,
boom, let's go.
And I'm like,
I got you what you want.
Like, you need a spotlight.
The chairman's got your spotlight.
That's what's up.
Yeah, man.
I appreciate him.
I've been enjoying this for,
I appreciate you having me on.
Hey, man, and like I said,
when you're ready to do it again,
we'll do it again.
This is literally what this was made for,
is spotlighting creators.
And while we're spotlighting you tonight,
why don't you go ahead and tell everybody
where they can find Lowe,
Dark City Comics, and Epic.
So you can find darkcityhq.com.
So it's Dark City Headquarters.
It's the headquarters of everything Dark
City Comics.
You'll see heroes.
You'll see apparel.
You'll see some live action stills on some
things we're working on.
And you'll also see the link to get
to the relaunch of Epic Earth's Protector
in Crisis, issue one, the Alpha String.
All social media handles,
darkcitycomicsx.com.
dark city comics facebook forward slash
dark city comics ig and uh tiktok and
even snap and fame fan base all dark
city comics were there so if you need
to help spelling d-a-r-k-c-i-t-y
c-o-m-i-c-s and you can find me anywhere
you look in dark city comics and
multimedia and as always they will be
linked down below they're actually linked
down below right now if you click on
the uh
The post on Facebook,
you'll find them there.
And when this goes live on YouTube and
also on any podcast platform,
if you hit the description,
all those links to all his social medias
are going to be right there for you.
But make sure you like, follow,
and share because this is how indie
creators get discovered and how these
stories reach the people who need them
most.
Subscribe so you don't miss future
sessions.
Drop a comment down below and let us
know what stood out to you.
And tell us who you want to see
welcomed to the council next.
Because this is the USDN,
where indie comics come to life.
And that is the council adjourned.