The United States Department of Nerds Podcast

📺 When Good Looks Kill: The Origin of Greg | Duke Electric Interview | United States Department of Nerds (USDN)

Hello There, it's The Chairman of the United States Department of Nerds (USDN)—where we are for the people, by the people, and of the people!

In this episode, we’re joined by the multi-talented Duke Electric—creator, writer, and artist behind the outrageous new independent comic series GREG Issue #0: The Delivery Room (now live on Kickstarter)!

GREG tells the story of a man so good looking… that if you see his face, your head will literally explode. In this in-depth interview, Duke shares the wild origins of GREG, his journey from animation and live music to comics, and why he chose Kickstarter to bring this explosive debut to life.

🧠 What You’ll Hear in This Episode

Duke’s creative journey through Warner Bros., Netflix, PBS, Nickelodeon, and DreamWorks

How his experience in animation and music shaped his comic-making process

The origin story of GREG and the tone, style, and inspirations behind it

A peek at the rewards, perks, and stretch goals in the GREG Kickstarter campaign

Duke’s long-term vision for the GREG series

📢 Support Independent Comics!
Back GREG Issue #0: The Delivery Room on Kickstarter and help bring this over-the-top, hilarious, and action-packed story to life.

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gregcomicofficial/greg-issue-0-the-delivery-room-massacre?ref=discovery&term=greg&total_hits=1252&category_id=250

🎨 Follow Duke Electric on social media for updates, art drops, and appearances during the campaign.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregcomicofficial/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/dukeelectric.bsky.social

📲 Follow USDN for More Creator Interviews & Comic Book Content

YouTube: Subscribe to USDN

💥 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more interviews with the minds behind the most creative indie comics on the planet.

#USDN #DukeElectric #GregComic #IndieComics #KickstarterComics #ComicBookInterview #SupportIndieComics #USDNPodcast #CreatorInterview #ComicBookCommunity

What is The United States Department of Nerds Podcast?

USDN podcast is run by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds. We strive to bring you the all the latest news and rumors from the World of Nerds and consolidate it right here at USDN. USDN is for the people, by the people and of the people.

You are listening to the USDN on the DFPN.

Thanks for watching!

what is up everybody it's

the chairman of the united

states department of nerds

where we are for the people

by the people and of the

people and this

good-looking fella next to

me is duke electric and

tonight we're going to talk

about his brand new kickstarter greg

Duke, welcome to the show.

Hey, Chairman.

Nice to be here with you.

And I'm sorry,

I'm still feeling that intro.

It hyped me up so much to get into this.

It does.

I love my intro.

It's one of my favorite

things about the podcast here.

I can't thank my good friend, Kelvin.

black mac over on the smoke

pit for hooking that up for

me and giving me that it is

an awesome thing but you

have an awesome thing going

on right now and we're

going to dive into that

tonight so so right now you

are working in the

entertainment industry you

do live music yeah

animation with some pretty

big names like Warner Bros, Netflix, PBS,

Nickelodeon, and DreamWorks.

Now,

how has that influenced what you're

doing right now with your

very first comic book?

I think with a lot of that, you know,

working in animation industry,

I've learned a lot of just, you know,

how to structure a project

and structure how to go

about each stage of a

project and work your way from, you know,

from nothing to having something.

And I kind of treated this

like an animation process,

almost like a storyboard.

And yeah, I just,

one of my main focuses in

animation when I'm working,

I usually coordinate and manage and PA.

So I work a lot with different departments,

but my main departments are

post-production and storyboards.

I've learned a lot with

storyboards over time, how to, you know,

how to make a good storyboard, how to,

you know, lay out a story, how to,

you know, make things look good.

It's a pretty common theme, actually,

amongst some of the other

comic book artists that

I've interviewed in the

past is they work with

storyboards for different projects.

know television companies

whether it be netflix or

hulu or whoever that's kind

of like a big thing and a

good like with their

starting points like yes I

do this for money but it's

to fund me doing my comic

book you know and it's a

good exercise like I I

don't do storyboards myself

but I know a lot of people

and work with a lot of

people like you said that

are in comics and they do storyboards

And, you know, it's just good exercise.

It keeps their craft up, you know,

gives them practice during

the week and gets them paid.

And then, you know,

they take that skill and

then they put it towards, you know,

their projects, right?

Oh, yeah, definitely.

So what kind of challenges

have you faced kind of from like,

not necessarily,

you're not transitioning

into comic books.

Comic books is kind of like

your side project that you're, say,

a hobby for you.

Yes.

Like,

have you faced many challenges and like,

kind of like,

for in getting into that

part of the world or yeah I

would say you know I I've

always admired comics I

always read comics and um

you know I usually like to

learn how to do things that

I like just so I can get a

better understanding of it

comics has been interesting

because you know

I just have never fully done it.

I did one comic a long time ago,

which was actually the

first version of Greg before it was Greg.

And it was in high school.

And I really had a good

experience doing it.

And it was very interesting.

learning the process of

going from your sketches to

your inks and then adding

your color and your text

boxes and all that stuff.

And so my biggest challenge

on Greg was just getting my

art to a level that I could

find acceptable to

put out there for people to

buy because I have really

high standards when it

comes to you know art and

music and stuff and I just

want to make sure people

are getting the best that I

can deliver and if you know

if it's not there I'm not

going to put it out right

so I think that passion

shows man right down to the

the bright pink suit thanks

man thank you you know you

got to look good you got

you're selling a product

and also you look good you feel good

you know your work is good

and I'm on the usdn podcast

so I gotta look good for

you man I'm here I'm here

you're one up in me the

best I can do is a a

chairman t-shirt hey that's

something right shout out

to colin who makes my

t-shirts for me she's amazing um

So do you work in both

digital and traditional media?

How do you decide what tools

you were going to use when

you were drawing Greg?

Because you're the man.

You do it all.

You wrote it.

You inked it.

You colored it.

You did the lettering.

You did the whole nine.

So the only thing I did some

of the lettering,

I didn't do a hundred

percent of the lettering.

I did use some typeface for

some of the stuff just to save time,

but a lot of the effects

and other things I,

I did the lettering for, um,

just to put it out there.

But, um,

The overall though, yeah,

I didn't know actually where to start.

I started this project, you know,

I used to draw a lot when I

was in high school and when

I was younger and I got

more into music and other

things throughout my life

and I kept putting my art

on the back burner.

You know,

you have a bad art teacher or bad

art experience a couple

times and you're like, you know what?

I think we all experience that.

Just like that one art teacher,

just teacher in general who

like the moment you walked

into their classroom, you're like,

you're my pariah this semester.

Yeah.

And you know, it's,

it's hard to find a good

teacher that will like, you know, kind of,

you know,

make that fire turn into a

bigger flame to get you

into that you know passion

in that zone and you know

it took me working in

animation to you know kind

of watch people do art to

be like oh like because I

sometimes would just draw

things because I'd be like

okay I'm going to draw this

and and then I would draw

it and I'd be like oh it

doesn't look good or

there's a mistake and I

would just be like okay

that's just going in the

garbage like I'm going to

do another thing I'm going

to try it again

And, you know, when you watch people,

you know, in animation or any art,

you know,

they kind of just do things in

layers and as painting.

So it's just kind of like, well,

here's my starting part.

And I'm just going to erase that part now.

And I'm just going to redo that part.

And I'm just going to keep

doing it until I get it.

And so there's a lot of that.

My art skill wasn't where I

wanted to be at the beginning of Greg.

I wish I had the picture.

I have a funny picture of

just like where it was.

And I remember drawing it.

I was like,

I don't think I should be

doing this like this is

going to be awful and I

just you know I just kind

of you know I work is busy

music's busy life's busy

and so I had to find a way

to fit this in so I would

basically just do like if I

had ten minutes I'd do

writing or if I had thirty

minutes I'd sit and watch

tv and draw and then a lot

of the time I usually just

try and do my sketches I'll

do my drawing and then

I'll take a picture of it on

my phone or a device, move it digitally.

I'll do another pass digitally.

And then if I like what I see digitally,

but it's too digital and

it's not like the details I want,

I'll then take it back to sketching.

I'll just print it off.

Like I'll print a black and

white thing of it.

I'll just redraw it and then

I'll do ink and then I'll put it in.

And if I don't like any parts of that,

then I'll just redo those

sections digitally.

And then usually I'll color it.

digitally and yeah from

there I think that's uh

when I talked to fran he

like I was telling you

before we got started the

artist over on for

vidalirium that's how he

does it as well he he does

paper takes a picture of it

works on it digitally

sometimes he'll reprint it

and then when he finally is

done coloring is a blessing

because it can cover up

some of like a part maybe

where you're not quite

satisfied with like something you're like

adding color and depth will,

will fit that in the final

process of the page.

So, but that seems to kind of,

I like that technique and

that's a lot of technique

that I see a lot of the

bigger artists out there doing it.

Like the, you know, the DC guys,

the Marvel guys,

like a lot of them have

YouTube pages that are

phenomenal where they show

you their process.

Oh yeah.

And they're just like,

they make it look so easy.

Just I'm like, they're like, Oh,

it's easy.

And you know,

As they do the whole.

Page from a comic book.

And you're like no that's not easy.

And some of those guys too.

They'll like really.

Get into Photoshop and stuff.

And you see that with some of like.

Some of the issues of Batman and stuff.

Where the lighting and everything.

And you're just like whoa.

There's something about this

that's really crazy.

And really cool.

And really detailed.

But yeah like.

people that master Photoshop

and are good artists,

like they take things to the next level.

Oh yeah.

And they're, they're phenomenal.

I'll praise to a man.

Cause I know that that is

not an easy thing to do.

So let me ask you this.

I know you're a fan of comic books.

Was there a one particular

comic book for you that said,

I think I want to do

something like this one day.

Maybe, um,

I, you know, obviously,

when I got back into comics,

because I got really into comics as a kid,

and animation got me into comics.

My cousins got me into

comics because they

collected X-Men when they

were older than me and stuff.

I think Todd McFarlane's

work really inspired me

into wanting to do stuff

like his Spider-Man.

Okay,

I was going to ask you if it was his

Spider-Man or his Spawn

when he went indie.

Yeah, yeah.

Todd McFarlane's Canadian,

so Canadian heritage all the way.

I think he still lives up there,

if I'm not mistaken.

He might.

He moves around.

I've seen different... I

think he might have a place somewhere.

I don't want to say... It might be Nevada.

I'm not sure.

Possibly.

I think he goes back and

forth a lot from Alberta to the States.

But his story is just really influential.

Just a guy who lived in a trailer,

grew up playing baseball, got an injury,

became Todd McFarlane,

the comic book creator.

Dude, that's a... Like...

Yeah, no, he honestly,

when a few years back when

I got back into comic books,

like my daughter wanted to

stop by our local comic

shop and just have a look around.

And as I was browsing the shelves,

I was like, what the hell,

Spawn is still in production?

Yeah.

I was just like dude I love

spawn I remember getting to

like the first you know

fifteen or twenty of the

the books when they first

came out and still having

those somewhere I mean I

know where they are now I

know what bots they're in

but um but back you know a

couple of years ago they

were still at my mom's

house and then like just

falling back in love with

his stuff like because at

first I was just like I'm

just gonna do spawn again

yeah and then I discovered um

What's his name?

Tinian.

And once you discover Tinian,

you kind of go into a cave

of Tinian's work.

And you realize how much work he has.

And you're like, oh my god,

I'm going to get lost in this.

And you do.

It consumes you.

Because his work,

to me... I don't really

have a Mount Rushmore, but...

Mike Farland and Tinian are

like up there with me with

like Capullo and Jim Lee and those guys.

So, but no,

I a hundred percent get where

you're coming from with

Todd because they don't

call him the Todd father for nothing.

yeah definitely and you know

just and just him having

his own project that he's

like this is my thing I've

been working like he worked

on his since high school

and like he just kicked ass

and you know persevered and

pushed and just got his way

into you know comics and

you know just work and look

at image today yeah image is probably

From a publisher standpoint,

they publish more books per year, I think,

than any other publishers out there.

Oh, yeah.

And they're the home to the

most indie creators out there.

Yep.

Well,

and some of the biggest flagship

comics now, like, you know, Walking Dead,

like, you know.

Invincible, Transformers now, G.I.

Joe, Spawn, that list just keeps going.

Battle Beast.

Right.

So, I mean...

Yeah, he knew what he was doing,

and he brought his friends with him.

Because now, I mean, you look,

you got spinoffs under Image.

You have what was Skybound.

You have, I don't know if Tiny,

I think Tiny Onion is just

independent because they do Boom Studios,

and they also work with Image,

and they also work with Dynamite as well.

But then you have Ghost

Machine that I'm absolutely

infatuated with right now.

I think those guys are doing

some of the best work out

there right now with their works,

with Rookettes,

and it's just finally

hitting the shelf again.

So, yeah, dude.

Shout-outs to Todd McFarlane.

We love you, dude.

Absolutely.

So...

We're going to talk about the pink suit.

You're known for rocking

this hot pink suit at conventions.

Can the fans expect to see

you at upcoming conventions

during the Kickstarter

campaign or after with your

promotion of Greg?

So I think at the moment,

my next thing I'm doing,

I'm doing a Guelph Comic

Con out in Ontario, Canada.

It's the Comic Book Jam,

at the Dragon Bookstore in Guelph.

And they have a lot of

They have a lot of creators

coming to do tables and stuff,

and it's free, which is awesome.

So just come in, meet people, hang out,

buy books, get them signed.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

That's the only one I'm

doing that is during the

Kickstarter campaign,

but I will be doing a Kitchener

Halloween market at the

museum in Kitchener, Ontario.

And then I'm doing a punk

rock flea market in Kitchener.

I see you were talking about

that on your Instagram.

Yeah.

So that will be later in November.

That would be a lot of fun.

I'm not going to lie.

As soon as I seen it was

like a punk rock festival, I was like,

damn, I kind of want to go to that.

Because there's nothing like

that around here.

That would be amazing.

Yeah,

and I figured... Punk rock in comic

books?

Come on.

Yeah, well,

I think I might be the only

comic book person there, but... Oh,

really?

That's even better for you.

Yeah, I was just like, you know what?

I'm going to go sell my

comic at this punk rock

event because there's

nothing more punk rock than

having a comic that's pink

with a guy in a pink suit

and selling comics about

people's heads exploding from good looks.

So, you know, it's, you know...

that's the perfect segue

dude because we're about to

talk about greg nice so for

listeners who are brand new

what exactly is greg and

how did you get the idea

for such a while over to

the top premiere you know comic book

Yeah, so Greg is a man with a condition,

and his condition is that

he's so good-looking that

if you see his face,

your head will explode.

And so he has to wear a hood and...

to protect himself he wears

like a full like body suit

and you know he has like

under under layers and

everything just because you

know any person that sees

his face or his skin or

anything that light that

shines from his good looks

will just kill you basically

So this is his origin story for Greg,

Greg issue zero.

We're all safe because you

promised me that this is

not an autobiography.

So we are all safe tonight.

Yes, yes.

You're all good.

My good looks do not match Greg,

but they can be powerful at times,

I've heard.

We've got CJ in the house

from Nightmares and Nerdscapes.

What's up?

How you doing, man?

You're into horror and horror movies.

He has the podcast and the

YouTube channel for you.

He does some phenomenal work

in breaking down your horror movies.

Nice.

I'll have to check that out.

So this is right up his alley.

Yeah.

You've got heads exploding.

Yeah.

Message me.

I'll send you a digital copy of Greg.

But, yeah,

so this issue is basically his birth.

He's being birthed.

It's his birthday.

His sweet mama, Angie.

Yep, his sweet mama, Angie,

is giving birth to him.

It's been, you know,

twenty-four hours of labor,

and everyone's tired.

Everyone's getting to the point of,

you know, we've got to push this boy out.

And she does that final push,

and out comes Greg.

And it causes some issues

for other people because

they're looking at the movie.

That page.

of this comic book.

Phenomenal.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's just Yeah, my,

my wife got me to do that panel.

I didn't want to do it.

And she was like, No,

you need to have this panel.

Good for him pushing him to do that page.

Because that page was amazing.

Yeah, yeah,

I was when I when I had I was like,

I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

and uh yeah it was it was

crazy and so I did it I put

it in ever since I printed

it the first time I was

like I don't know if this I

don't know that that single

page right there is worth

the asking price in my

opinion just that bright

light then what you see of

his face melting I was like oh I'm like

that's how you start issue

zero comic book for a

character like Greg.

I was just like, this is perfect.

Like he knew what he was doing.

And now when you tell me like, Oh no,

my wife made me do that page.

I was like, yeah, yeah.

She, she knows her stuff.

She's very good at film.

And, uh, she, uh, she, yeah, I, cause I,

I had, she was like,

you need to have something in between.

I was like, I don't know.

I feel the, like it works fine, whatever.

And she's like, don't you need something?

So I, I,

One night I just did one and I was like,

is this good?

Like, I don't know.

And I put it in and I was like,

I guess that works.

And,

and then I was still kind of like

hesitating.

I was like, and I almost didn't put it in,

but.

She pushed me, and I agree with her now,

a hundred percent,

because everyone likes it.

That's a good call.

Definitely a good call.

And that's the foil print on

the Kickstarter.

I haven't posted it yet,

but that's going to be what

I'm hoping to have as the

Kickstarter print.

So if you don't want to buy

the comic and you want the print,

it's going to be eight and

a half by eleven print of that.

That's foil of that shot.

Oh, that would be awesome.

That just...

framed on the wall I don't

know if you can see that

but let me we're talking

about todd mcfarland the

capullo spawn cover for

batman spawn to the one

they just did last year

that's so good I had to

pick that one up I have the

original one and I remember

reading it yeah I I

remember the scene from

that book that like opened

my like head to horror was like when um

I forget who the character was,

but he just, like,

stabs that guy in the eyes, and, like,

blood's just everywhere.

And I was just like, holy shit,

I'm reading that.

My favorite thing from that book,

and I know we're all based on this, but,

you know, us both being, you know,

Capullo and MacFarlane fans,

when Batman hits Spawn in

the face with the Batarang,

and it splits his face open.

And he wrought that for

years with just the sewn up face,

the stitched together face.

And it became canon.

And I was just like, Todd, you sweet man.

You knew what we wanted and

you gave it to us for years

after until he finally, you know,

he healed himself in a new arc.

But yeah, that book was phenomenal.

War Dog was an amazing book.

If people can get it,

I got two copies myself

because one's a reader and

one's a collector and yeah

that's awesome but yeah but

um yeah and then for the

rest of greg it just turns

into uh just a bloodbath of

people's heads exploding

and people having amazing

it was just like you're

like when are people going

to stop coming in and it's

like another nurse and then

it's a janitor you're like

what the hell people stop

going in and what are you doing

I was going to have one more

person originally come in, and I was like,

I think there's just too

many people coming at this point.

One more would have never heard.

Just like someone obscure walking by,

you know, and just being like, ah!

Somebody, you know, another dad walking by,

and then all of a sudden just, boom!

Well,

there's more to that later and later

issues of that event.

I like the segue because

that was the next question.

So you blended the humor,

the absurdity of Greg,

and you got some classic

comic energy in there in

the later part of the book.

What...

Like,

where are you going with this series?

I kind of feel like...

Because you kind of... You know,

when we got to the later

pages of Greg Zero,

you kind of get to see

where Greg is later in life,

which is really cool.

Very non-traditional...

Role as an adult, Greg, because I mean,

really,

how do you find a normal job when

you have to wear a hood on your head?

Yeah.

So but where do you see this

going for you and Greg as a whole?

So, yeah.

So right now.

So in the in-betweens

between that section and

the birth of Greg,

we see some like newspaper

articles of like where he's been,

where he's going, what happened.

So basically,

I'm kind of doing it in a style where.

We have his beginning,

and then we have his end.

Well, yeah, definitely.

You can't wear customer

service wearing a hood as well.

I don't know.

Some of the kids today might try.

True, true.

But yeah, for this,

I'm just basically taking

it to almost his end of his career.

So the next issue catches up

where we leave off in this.

So he's in his career as a great fighter,

wrestler guy basically he's

he fights in this thing

called the fighter g

tournament and uh do y'all

have a spinsters up there

you know we do we do we

have those yeah yeah we

have the spirit halloweens

too we got we got that it

took a while we took a

while but we got them

All right, good, good.

You got to have at least

thirty Spirit of Halloweens.

Definitely, definitely.

But, yeah, we catch up with him.

He's in a fighting league

called the Fighter G Tournament.

Fantastic scenes, too.

Thank you.

The raw greediness of that fight.

It was like wrestling meets MMA.

I loved it.

That's the goal.

It's kind of like a death

ring thing where it's just

kind of like you can bring weapons in,

you can do whatever,

but he's the champion of this realm.

He's spent his life fighting,

trying to survive,

trying to avoid killing

people and also just having

his condition.

and so we catch up with him

in that issue and we kind

of go through his downfall

and then we find out where

he is kind of at the end of

his career so it's kind of

like I don't want to say a

dark knight returns at that

point but it's kind of like

we catch up to him after

this critical huge event

that happens that causes

issues I don't want to

spoil it too much but it's

an it's an event that happens that

his good looks do something

bad and so and so basically

he then has to kind of face

the music of what happened

and there's a mystery of

why that happened and

basically from there we

follow his story of him and

his manager slash foster

brother um trying to find

purpose in his life and

trying to redeem himself

from being so good looking

and killing people but also trying to be

the man he wants to be and

go out on a good note.

And so he didn't ask to be born that,

that good looking.

No, it's just a condition.

And, you know, you know, it's, it's,

it's not his fault, like you said, but,

you know,

unfortunately when you have a

condition like that,

there's going to be accidents,

there's going to be fuck ups and,

you know,

and his life's full of them with that.

And so we kind of learn

about his life throughout the,

the series.

Right now,

I have kind of seven volumes mapped out.

I have the first volume done,

which is basically the

Legendary Knights volume,

which is the first issue is the next one.

And then I have the next volume,

Occupational Hazards.

Actually, Greg does get a job in that.

He does get an actual real job.

He tries to get a real job

because he has to pay the rent.

So, you know, it's it's

It's going to be good.

There's a lot of craziness

and his good looks end up

having an issue.

And from that critical event

I mentioned earlier,

as Greg tries to redeem himself,

people from his past

affected by that event and

other events from his good

looks start coming out of

the woodwork to fight him

or challenge him or find ways to

try and uh discourage him

from uh completing his goal

of redemption basically

okay so no I like it dude I

like that you got it mapped

out that way and that that

I think is a golden

standard to have when

you're mapping out like

just a comic book in

general it's just like I

have my start and I have my

finish I'm working on

everything in between yeah I know um

Nick,

who actually writes the Videlirium

book and comic book, he's like, yep,

I know how it started.

I know how I'm going to end it.

He's like,

I've got a semi-roadmap on how

to get there.

It's like, as we go, that's how we do it.

Exactly.

That's cool to have.

Let's dive into the...

actual Kickstarter itself?

What made you decide to do crowdfunding,

such as Kickstarter to launch Greg?

So it's kind of an easy question.

I'm kind of tossing you went

up there because

Kickstarter is phenomenal.

I love Kickstarter.

So yeah,

I first I printed some copies of

Greg the Ash Canada.

I've seen you were selling

them in your local comic shop.

Yeah, I wanted to see how they would do.

And they've been doing pretty well.

I just got word that one of

the stores needs a restock,

which is great.

Which is the second store

that's done that now.

So I'm kind of just seeing how it's doing.

It's doing good.

And I was kind of like, you know what?

I have...

I want to get this out to a

bigger audience,

but I don't want to be a

distribution one man

distribution company where

I'm just trying to mail everything out,

especially during this awkward mail time.

So I figured I would just do

a Kickstarter and see what

the response is.

And I was like,

if I get the response that

I that people enjoying this

and that they want stuff, then great.

Let's let's let's do it.

And if not, then.

then at least, okay,

I know I can just do a

different thing with Greg

and I don't have to keep doing a comic.

Maybe I can do a radio play or just,

just write what I need to

and put it out there as right.

Yeah, no,

I think this is one of those where it,

I know you want to see it

to the end and it deserves

to be seen to the end

because it is such a phenomenal,

phenomenal kickoff to what

I feel like will be a great

series of storytelling for you.

Um,

So I know you just launched

it on the twenty eighth, correct?

Yeah, I believe so.

Yeah.

And for those who were on

the Facebook group and on the Instagram,

I did include a link to the

Kickstarter for y'all.

If you want to go check that out.

What I want to do real quick

is let me do a share screen

and I want to share that.

And I'll add that to the stage real quick.

So this is what the front

page of the Kickstarter

looks like for Duke here.

It's very easy to navigate.

So I've never shown it from

this perspective before.

Normally, I will ask you if I can do a,

like, hey,

can we show a sneak peek real

quick of the comic?

For sure.

But...

I just wanted to show you

what that looked like.

You can kind of see where he

is in the pledge and what

the goal is he's trying to

reach and how many days are

left for this.

But if you click back the project,

it'll take you straight in to the

That's where you can make a pledge.

You can do just a donation to it.

You can request to get the book.

I do know there are some

shipping issues currently

happening between the

United States and the world.

So it's something to keep in

mind too that especially

right now that there are

those issues happening.

So keep that in mind when

you are back in the book.

But

that's what it looks like.

I wanted to show that for

everybody because I've

never done this before.

I've never shown kind of

what it looks like.

And yeah.

And the thing is too, with the shipping,

like I know us and Canada

having some issues with the

shipping and stuff, but I,

I we're finding ways around

it as best we can.

And, uh, you know, Oh, thanks man.

Appreciate it.

It's really fun.

It's such a great read CJ.

Um,

yeah I'll send me a message

I'll send you a digital

copy of it to check out um

but with your permission

dude yeah can I show them

like just a little preview

of the book oh yeah of

course of course please so

I don't want to give too

much away because so this

is what the ash can version

of the book is I believe

and uh it was really cool

really dope cover the foil

I love foil covers that's me

oil covers have always done

it for me but um and then a

little something from uh

you know I'm guessing this

is for your son that was

just recently born no

relations to greg yeah no

we want to put that out

there he was writing the

comic book before his son was born yeah

now now my son did blow my

mind in my heart but he did

uh not uh did not pull a

greg and you know destroy

my my face and I know I

wasn't sharing the comments

cj I'm sharing the comic

right now oh I'm not

sharing the comic right now

yeah I don't think I

thought maybe it was just

me but oh no that's my bad um

I do have a copy of it right

here while you do that.

The foil, just so you can see it.

Looks nice.

Our local printer slash

comic book shop and

Kitchener's Comic Studio Press did it.

And they did a really good

job with the foil and everything.

So it's pretty sick.

So this one's the ash can.

And then it comes with the

print backboard.

Oh, here we go.

And we also have...

this on the inside it's just

a newspaper and stuff yeah

I thought that was really

cool how you added the

newspapers in the middle of

the comic but here we go

let me so this is the comic

book my bad thanks cj for

pointing that out for me

but like I was saying this

is the ash can cover what

would have been the ash can

cover which ash cans are

cool for those of you not

familiar with it that's

what an ash can would look like

And then this is what I was talking about.

The letter to his baby boy from,

is that your, or is this from, like,

is this meant to be from

Angie is the mom's name to Greg?

So is this meant to be from mom to Greg?

yeah yeah so basically it

was okay it was written if

you were doing like a

little uh what are they

called uh I thank you to my

son for inspiring me type

of deal so yeah that's one

of the questions I wanted

to ask you to ask you about

like hey is this a

no this was just a so

basically it's supposed to

be a photo album and uh

this was supposed to be

written on the inside of it

which is just greg's mom

angie just writing this

message before she goes

into labor basically okay

and um I got my wife to do

this this is my wife's

handwriting I knew it was a

very feminine handwriting

that's why I was wondering

if it was like if she wrote like a little

A little something for your

son that was just born.

Yeah.

I think she put some feeling

into it with that for sure.

So, and yeah.

It's very emotional.

It's very heartfelt.

It's really, I was like, oh man,

that's such a great doc.

Guy right there.

Look at that.

But I don't, like I said,

we're not going to scroll too far.

We'll give a couple of pages

and I love the art on this

and just every way everything is done.

And that's, you know,

here we are with Angie in

the delivery room getting

ready to deliver the most

handsome baby in the world.

And that's all you're getting.

You'll have to get the book

to see the rest.

I promise you, it does not disappoint.

Yeah, it's a fun book for sure.

I know I'm saying that

because I wrote it and

made it but it really is

like I it has a lot of

crazy influences it's been

getting good reviews as

well from some other indie

reviewers and um it's just

been an awesome time making

it and you know the the

main influence for that

scene too is uh if you

remember sam raimi's

spider-man two with doc is

like getting dark I use

that a lot of for the

reference to just try and

get you know that vibe

The hardest part of Greg is

that when he makes people's heads explode,

they, they also like orgasm.

They have like an org,

like an orgasmic violence thing.

So I was trying to find a

way to draw that without

making it stupid or like too distracting.

I don't know if you guys

remember those herbal

essence commercials from

the nineties where like

women are like washing their hand, like,

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

And then like, yeah, I wanted, I want,

I wonder what I want.

She, what she's having.

But that also inspired Greg's powers.

So basically there's a panel.

You've probably seen it, Jeff, but it's a,

it's when the lady sees

Greg and then she has the

herbal essence moment.

Yeah.

And then her head explodes.

Basically the nurse.

Yeah.

Oh no.

Yeah.

That's yeah.

Yeah.

It is really,

it's worth the investment in the book.

It was a phenomenal,

phenomenal read absurd as it may seem.

It is just amazing.

And it's just a fun read.

If you're into like,

I love being horror movies

and that's the vibe I got.

And I was just like,

this is right up my alley.

I love like the B blend horror movies.

And I know CJ does too.

So nice.

So staying in the Kickstarter campaign,

what kind of rewards can

backers look forward to?

Do you have any stretch goals planned,

exclusive perks that you

yourself are excited about?

Or with this being your first one,

you're like, we're doing the book.

Yeah, right now.

That's cool too.

I like when people just go, hey,

you're getting the book.

So I've been talking to our

print shop out here about that.

They do a lot of Kickstarter

stuff and I wanted to get

some ideas on what we could

do or like what,

we can throw in right now a

lot of the the tiers I have like

just throwing in like

everything in those tiers

up front so like if you get

the ash can or the first

edition press like you're

getting the foil print

you're getting the

backboard print you're

getting you know the the

in-ad um artwork you're

getting it signed

everything's signed hand

numbered um you're getting

a letter from me that's

personalized you're getting

uh I don't even know

there's like tons of stuff

you're getting a digital version of it

You're getting stickers.

You're getting a bunch of stuff.

There's a lot in those.

I have to pull it up

actually on my end just to

make sure I'm getting everything.

Did I close it already?

No, I didn't close it.

Oh,

you also get your name included in the

standard print edition.

Oh, that's really dope.

You get a social media shout out.

You get a version of your

name in the PDF version

that we'll be sending out.

And then you get a letter from me.

And yeah,

you get a lot of awesome perks with it,

which, you know,

I was trying to compare it

to other Kickstarters and

stuff that I've backed in the past.

And a lot of the time, you know,

they'll charge like so much

more for like a signature

and other things like that.

And like, I understand the value of,

you know,

doing that and stuff.

I seen you had, you have a comic shop tier,

which is cool.

Cause I don't see a lot of

kit starters doing that.

And that's something that I

really think is dope to see

is that you're,

you're given an opportunity

for a comic book shop to

order multiple prints in order to sell.

Yeah.

That's really cool.

And yeah, with those two, like we're,

we're putting out, um,

so there's a few additions.

So obviously there's the Ashkin,

which is only, there's only one left.

I only have twenty one

issues of that left and

they're all on the Kickstarter right now.

So,

First twenty one people.

Yeah.

And then our first edition prints,

we still have only put to twenty five.

Like there's only two

hundred twenty five of

those I'm putting on

Kickstarter because I

realized I need twenty five

because I have to go to some conventions.

So, yeah,

the twenty five I'll be selling there.

But Kickstarter people get

the first dibs at the number order of.

being signed, hand numbered to, you know,

one, two, three, four, five.

So it's first come first serve on that.

We have our standard edition, which,

you know, I'll sign.

I'll do similar stuff with that.

And then we have an edition

called the Bad Economy Edition.

So that is just basically a

shrunken version of the

regular Greg Delivery Room Massacre.

Here we go.

I'll bring it back up for you.

Yeah,

it's just half the size for the Bad

Economy Edition.

And it's just cheaper.

You know, it was...

I've seen other comic book

companies starting to do that as well.

I know Marvel and DC just

did a lineup of the miniatures,

like the eight and a half

by four and a half or whatever it is,

which I thought was kind of cool.

I mean, it's not my thing,

but I thought it was really

cool that people are doing that.

yeah I I still have to do a

uh a print test of those I

have that already on my

computer I just have to get

to the shop actually I'm

going to the shop tomorrow

to print the the uh the

foil um artwork that we

discussed okay and uh and

doing the bad economy print

so I'll have those pictures right there

so yeah but overall the um

bad economy edition I just

wanted to have something

you know that people could

just buy because it is it

is a bit expensive and I

want to try to keep things

as accessible as possible

and easy yeah a good deal

and some people just want

to buy the comic they don't

want to have the foil or

have a collector's thing

they're just like I just

want to buy the comic and I

was like well if I can do

one that's you know half

the size half the price and

still you know sign it or

give a digital download

code like give some extras

with it then let's do it and

So that's what we're doing,

and then we're giving that

option to comic book stores

as well for retail.

That's really dope, man.

Like I said,

you don't see a lot of

Kickstarter's doing that,

and I wish more would.

Yeah.

Because that's really cool to include.

Yeah.

I don't know what stores

would want to carry.

I'm sure a lot would,

but I just... Honestly, that's not bad.

It's about US dollars,

and you get twenty...

uh copies of it well looks

like sixty you get twenty

digital twenty signed and

then twenty of the economy

edition that's really dope

yeah and then I'll sign

them all too for the store

so you know they'll get

that thrown in as well as

the incentive to sell them

you know um no that's

that's really cool that's

like I said that's you're

the first person I've seen

to really do something like

that and I think that's

really cool to to offer

that to comic book shops yeah

And, you know, it gets the comic out there,

it gets, you know,

it gets people interested

and it also brings people

to the shops and, you know, I'm, you know,

I'm trying to push this as much as I can,

you know,

it's a passion project and it's

a hundred percent indie,

a hundred percent organic and, you know,

it's a hundred percent just, you know,

punk rock trying to get it out there,

you know, so.

I like it, man.

I...

Yes,

I'm impressed that you thought of that

because that to me is a big

one for not only you to do that,

but also to give that

option to comic book shops to do.

Because like I said,

it's not something you see often.

And if you do see it,

it's a whole hell of a lot

more than a hundred Canadian.

Yeah, yeah.

and you know I have a I have

a good relationship with

our printers out here and

you know basically I was

just like how can we do

this like how can we get

you know and things a lot

of a lot of comic books are

printed in canada and

shipped to the states so we

we you know these the our

comic studio press that

does all my stuff um

they're an awesome company

they have tons they have a

website we can order indie

comics and stuff and um

But they're a comic book shop,

family business, you know,

and they just operate a

print shop as well as a comic book shop.

And they help people with

Kickstarters and comics and everything.

That's really cool.

That's how Image got its big thing started,

too, is they bought a print shop.

Yeah.

And yeah,

these guys are just doing the

best they can trying to get stuff out.

And their goal right now is to try and,

you know,

with everything being as crazy

as it has been with, you know,

with Diamond shutting down

and all these other things,

they're trying to be like, hey,

you know what?

I still don't think they've

shut down all the way.

No, but I do.

I do know that a lot of

people have jumped ship

already and moved over to Penguin.

Yeah.

And so are these guys out here like, hey,

we got indie comics, the Canadian,

you know,

they're they're ready to export.

So that's really cool.

Yeah.

And good for them being

still a family family run shop like that.

That's that's really dope.

Yeah.

You don't see a lot of that

at all anymore.

Yeah, I remember when I moved out this way,

and I went to this mall, and I saw it.

I was like,

that's such an interesting comic shop.

And then I went in, and I was like, oh,

this is also a print shop.

Like, this is a pretty good combo here.

That's really cool, yeah.

So people who are new to indie comics,

why is supporting Greg on Kickstarter,

and really just any comic

book on Kickstarter, so important to...

both the artist and what it

is that you're trying to give to people,

in your opinion.

I think the number one thing

is it helps give, you know,

it shows people that

there's value in the

product and in the story, in the art,

in the overall, you know,

need for new stories and

new creative things.

And, you know,

a lot of these companies and

stuff look for that.

And if they see it, oh,

it didn't make its quota or

didn't make the pledge

number or whatever.

That's seen as like a negative, right?

So that's the number one thing.

If you can do anything for

anyone's Kickstarter, you know,

send a couple bucks,

do just a regular pledge.

You don't have to order things,

but just showing that

there's interest in it goes

a long way to helping an

artist or writer or

whatever the project is.

And we've also seen a lot of...

bigger names do kickstarters

to get their like passion

projects funded we've just

seen it recently with mark

spears and his monsters

which you know muster

started out as a card game

that he then adopted into a

comic book and I think the

first volume was actually

issue one was done a

hundred percent on

kickstarter before it got

picked up by um the keen

spot is who picked it up

And I think they're on issue six now,

and that's a phenomenal read.

Wow.

Dude, Smart Spears is phenomenal.

That's great.

Smart Spears has some very unique,

very good art, and his storytelling has,

like,

being a pure artist at first and

then going into the storytelling portion,

he's absolutely killing it.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

It just goes to show what

Kickstarter means to the

independent artists out there,

even for the big name

artists out there who are

trying to get their passion

projects funded and what it

could possibly do for them,

such as we've just seen Mark Spears.

Granted, it is Mark Spears.

getting his book picked up

by an actual publishing

company and getting it

published by them versus

him trying to crowdfund it

each and every issue.

So it does go a really long

ways and it helps artists get discovered.

Who knows?

We may see Duke electric's

name on a big comic book

one day when we walk into

our local comic shop.

Maybe, maybe that'd be cool.

exactly yeah that yes

exactly and I know

everybody learns something

new each and every time

they do this and I know

you're you're learning as

you go and I just told you

about my friend bruno's you

know kickstarter how to

that I'll shoot me a

message after this and I'll

shoot that over to you sure

because I I really do think

that he's done a phenomenal

job of putting together a

really good lessons learned thing so

do want to say too it does

help build community as

well because you're getting

people coming together from

different angles of the

comic book world you know

people that are just

interested in just backing

things you know so far on

the kickstarter we were

almost a quarter way to our

goal and there's people I

don't even know that are

you know into it and I'm

just like oh that's cool

and it also helps motivate

the artist to be like hey

you know what you brought

something completely new to

the table too because i

A lot of people,

they release like one or

two issues and then they're like, oh,

you know what?

Let me give a little bit

more backstory and give

them an issue zero.

I'm starting with the issue

zero and we're going with it from there,

which I think is really cool to do.

Thank you.

Well,

my goal is for Greg is that every

issue takes it from zero to

ten in craziness and then leaves.

I love it.

I'm telling you right now,

you started out at a ten.

Thank you.

So to get it to a ten by

issue ten is going to be

that's going to be some work, man,

because you really started it cranked up.

So thanks, man.

I appreciate that.

So my last question I had

for you is what did you see

kind of continuing beyond issue zero?

But we've already talked about that.

So at this point,

I really don't have any

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