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
more real interview questions for you,
but anything else that you
want to share with everybody?
Yeah, well,
we got our trailer up on the Kickstarter.
We had a guy, the name just left my head.
Two seconds ago, Dan Silver,
that edited it for us.
So if you check out that trailer,
that'll give you a lot of the comic art.
It kind of goes through the whole comic,
but it doesn't give anything away.
You just get to see all the
cool art and everything going on.
So that's number one.
You did have a really cool
trailer with it.
Thank you.
and uh you know I this is a
passion project it's been
in the works for a very long time and uh
Yes.
He's wearing pants.
He assured me he was wearing pants.
I am wearing pants.
I can prove that right now.
Look at that pink suit!
Oh,
the sharpest dressed guy that's ever
been on USDN right there.
Thank you.
Yeah, no,
I actually... I'll say this really quick,
too.
I...
got some help writing uh and
motivation from uh uh scott
snyder just because I I
joined his writing class
during the pandemic and so
I actually pitched him greg
and he really enjoyed it
and really liked it and uh
he's been kind of great
he's got a kit start going
on right now as well
Oh, nice.
Yeah, yeah.
He's amazing.
And he's a really nice guy.
And I come to him,
he's kind of like the guy I
don't want to disappoint for comics,
obviously.
And so actually,
I have to email him because
I need to talk to him about something.
But which I've been meaning to,
but I've been busy with my son.
But yeah, he I joined his writing class.
And like, I wrote my first volume,
I would send him versions of it.
And he would, you know,
it was a writing exercise.
So he'd be like,
why don't you try doing it like this?
Why don't you try doing it like this?
And, you know,
sometimes I didn't agree with, you know,
the ideas he was giving to me,
but I wanted to try and
make it seem like I'm working for a big,
you know, comic book company.
I want to try and make this
as real as possible.
So I would take his idea and
just rewrite what I was trying to do.
Sometimes it worked,
sometimes it didn't work,
but some of the stuff, you know,
that I was planning on doing
ages down the road come
back earlier in this volume
because something that
scott would be like hey you
know what try try maybe
doing this try maybe doing
that and um and yeah he
he's he he loved the the
the version that we ended on
So I'm ready.
I sent him the next volume, issue one.
He was really down.
Love that, too.
So, you know,
it's it's it's let's help
people realize who Scott
Snyder is real quick,
because I don't know if a
lot of people will know who he is.
So Scott Snyder, the Batman who laughs.
Batman, Death of the Jokers,
Absolute Batman.
Dude,
the list goes on and on and on and on.
Oh, not Batman, DC KO,
which was just announced this week.
Yep.
It's another one.
But yeah.
American Vampire, which was phenomenal.
If you read that, that was a phenomenal,
phenomenal read.
Witches,
which has its Amazon series coming
out soon as well.
You knew it.
Yep.
That's where I was going next.
Yep.
Justice League, Rebirth, you name it.
I know he's got some other
stuff going on too right
now that he's working on, but yeah,
he's not just like, oh, he's a Snyder.
No, he's Scott Snyder.
The dude is coming to his
own for quite a while now
and has done some phenomenal,
phenomenal work.
So just wanted to put that
out there when we say Scott Snyder,
we're talking about the Scott Snyder.
And I don't want to disappoint him.
So you know that I did my
best to try to impress Scott Snyder to,
you know...
like what I was doing.
That's one of those things
where if Scott Snyder has
put that stamp on it,
you need to get Greg and
give it a read because I'm
telling you from my
perspective as a collector,
as a guy who's had the
opportunity to read a lot
of indie comic books,
and that's mainly all I
read is indie comic books.
It's...
It's really, really good.
It's fun.
It's absolutely absurd.
Yes,
but that is what makes this comic so
lovable and so much fun is
that you're so handsome.
You make people's heads explode.
It's a new concept.
It's something new on the table.
Check it out.
Hell yeah.
And I will say...
I don't have scott's seal of
approval to I don't have
scott's seal of approval to
I don't have scott's seal
of approval to share that
potentially but I just
share that potentially but
I just share that
potentially but I just want
to let you guys know that I
did want to let you guys
know that I did want to let
you guys know that I did
take his writing class and
that he liked take his
writing class and that he
liked take his writing
class and that he liked it
and uh he's an awesome guy
and uh it and uh he's an
awesome guy and uh it and
uh he's an awesome guy and
uh yeah but he's he's
amazing and his yeah but
he's he's amazing and his
yeah but he's he's amazing
and his writing class has
been great and he's writing
class has been great and
he's writing class has been
great and he's helped me a
lot with this book so
helped me a lot with this
book so helped me a lot
with this book so um just
getting me motivated
keeping me um just getting
me motivated keeping me um just getting
There's expectations I need
to get this book to for
myself and as well to not
disappoint people that have
put time and energy into looking.
It's phenomenal, dude.
I love what you're doing with it.
But let's start putting the
seal of approval on this.
This was an absolute blast, man.
I had so much fun talking to
you about Greg and about
Kickstarters and about you
and learning who you are
and where you're coming from.
Let everybody know where
they can find you and where
they can find you on Kickstarter as well,
like how they can search for you.
Yeah.
So you can find me in a couple of places.
So on Instagram,
you can follow Greg at Greg
comic official.
You can also follow my
little writing company logo
place where I do all my
writing and comics and
stuff is called a nerd in the sky.
So at nerd, which I love, by the way,
I love that.
Thank you.
And then if you look up,
I'm on blue sky as Duke electric,
Duke underscore electric.
So you'll find me there.
And then also we just have, you know, our,
our website and our mailing list.
We try to do as much as we
can on the mailing list.
Cause you know,
social media is social
media and we want to try and,
keep people healthy and send
them just emails but you
know if you're a social
media person too that's
fine we got you covered but
we put some exclusive stuff
in our mailing list the
last time we sent some
actual art from our next
issue in it so you get some
you know previews of stuff
that I'm not going to put
on social media so ai and
stuff doesn't steal it so um you know
It's a cool world.
We're going to keep on rolling.
If anyone has any questions,
feel free to DM me or reach out.
If you have questions about
the Kickstarter, reach out.
The Kickstarter should be
under Nerd in the Sky.
If not,
it's just under... I think it was
under Nerd in the Sky.
At first, it was under Greg,
but I think I changed it to
Nerd in the Sky just to
keep it under that title.
It's under Greg Comic Official.
okay it's under great comic
official okay yeah so it's
under a great comic
official you just have to
type in greg issue zero
delivery room massacre or
I've also seen if it's just
typing I just typed in greg
and it brought it right
right to it yeah yeah
there's not too many comics
named greg so it's uh greg
is a pretty basic name
yeah yeah you know most
gregs love greg I've I've
shared it with a few gregs
and they they give it the
greg seal of approval so if
you know someone named greg
share this with them they
will also love it so I love
it I love it dude I really
do that's awesome so that's
all I got for everybody
tonight what's coming up for me is on
What month is this?
September the twentieth.
I will have a duo on board.
And that's I've already
announced that up on my social medias.
And then I'll quick turn on
the twenty fourth and have
been Lacey back on with
Shark of War number nine.
That's right.
He's up to number nine on that book.
And it is a phenomenal series.
If you're into that.
mutated sharks that are used for war,
then that is the comic book for you.
But tonight is all about Greg.
And this is the chairman
saying that Greg has the USDN chairman's
still of approval,
making him USDN approved.
Not only that,
that hot pink suit that Duke
Electric wore for you
tonight is also USDN approved.
And with that, ladies and gentlemen,
that is all I got for you tonight.
Duke,
I cannot thank you enough for coming on,
sharing Greg with me,
and the whole council of nerds.
With that, everybody, we are out of here.
Y'all behave yourselves.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks, everybody.
See you around.
Take care.