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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds — spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books — from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.
It’s about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
• The rise of indie comics
• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life — for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
No!
what is up everybody and welcome to the
united states department of nerds where we
are for the people by the people and
of the people and if you're noticing this
lovely couple with me tonight we have
ethan coogan or kogan yeah kogan i was
i was that close and jessica silvetti you
got it yeah nailed it
And they're here to talk with us about
Shock-Headed Peter, book number two,
which I can tell you from personal
experience,
I just finished reading it about an hour
ago.
Well, the preview in both volume book one,
book two, Chef's Kiss.
I love everything about it.
Thank you all so much for coming on
and joining us here and the rest of
my council members watching from wherever
they're watching from tonight.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Can I first just applaud your intro?
Yes, it's amazing.
Because I was like, one,
I felt like I was about to go
on a ride at Disneyland,
which was awesome.
And two, I'm like,
I want to explore this world more right
now.
I know there was a lot of Star
Wars references and whatnot, but still,
I was like,
can we go into this more?
Did you notice that we're also in an
X-Wing flying through the galaxy far,
far away?
Yeah.
Love it.
and the voice at the very beginning that
says you were listening to the usdn on
the dfpn that is actually our good friend
and frank d who's a part of the
no gimmicks podcast here at the dfpn
network oh wow very awesome practice is
very hard to get the voice right he
can do darth vader and he can do
sidious so brilliant guy really great
cosplayer as well so awesome
Yeah, we know how hard it is.
We actually just went through this.
We were cutting a trailer for a book,
and we just happen to know a lot
of professional voiceover actors who lent
their voices to the trailer.
But just going through that process,
I know how difficult it can be to
dial in the right voice.
But it makes a world of a difference
to have that good voice.
He has it perfect.
He's got that natural bassy voice anyway.
So I think I listened to probably a
hundred plus clips of him practicing over
and over again.
He would do one that he really liked,
send it to me and I would listen
to it and be like, dude, that's perfect.
That's spot on.
Where are you doing?
It's like, yeah, it's almost there.
And he would just keep going.
And he had, he got,
he dialed it in perfectly.
And I was just like, dude, I got,
can you do me a commercial like that?
He was like,
Easy.
He did me that one.
He did me another one with Darth Vader's
voice.
Awesome.
Yeah, that's really cool.
Nice.
But enough about my friends.
Let's talk about y'all.
Yes.
Well, first of all,
thank you so much for your very kind
words.
It's very exciting to hear that you
enjoyed reading it.
And you got a sneak peek of part
two.
So it's great to hear your response to
it.
Yeah.
Really enjoyable.
uh your artist's name is giuseppe yeah we
we call him after a couple years we
just call him joe well he asked us
to call him joe okay is he italian
or yeah he's he's roman to be specific
i believe okay he lives in rome okay
so this has been my year of Discovery
for comic books yeah and uh I've learned
of a lot of really really good French
or I guess they're French and Italian
comic book artists and comic book writers
this year and to see his name I
was like he's either French or he's
Italian and like these guys anytime I see
their name on a book here lately I'm
like
flipping it open, like I knew it.
Yeah.
He's we, we just like,
it's a great match.
Um, and we've been so lucky like that.
It just all worked out with him.
And like, how did that link up happen?
I know that's a question for later,
but since we're already talking about him,
we can dive into it.
Cause like, yeah.
So we kind of hail from the film
and TV world.
That's how we kind of came up through
things.
And this was our first foray into the
comics and art world.
And we have a lot of friends in
indie comics who kind of helped us along
the way,
and we wanted to do it right.
And so when we were searching for artists,
with the tone of our book.
We wanted something kind of dark,
but also playful.
And we didn't want to lean too heavy,
because there were some amazing artists
that we worked with.
Like,
we did a variant cover of our first
book where Shotgun to Peter was just
completely goth and dark and awesome
looking.
That would be kind of cool to see,
actually.
Well, we can show you that.
And he did the variant cover for part
two, that same artist.
But if we went too much into that
for the whole book,
it would have taken on a different tone.
He wouldn't have gotten some of the tongue
in cheek humor that we try to put
into this.
And when we came across Joe's art on
randomly on a Facebook group that he said
he posted for the first time.
And we saw he did this one character.
I think it was like a Napoleon type
character on a steampunk horse that was
like rearing up.
And it was just all.
I love steampunk art.
So that's one of those where anytime I
see it,
you got to admire it because they go
into such great detail.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And he did the pencils, the inks,
and the color,
and his lighting brought so much emotion.
And we're like, okay, this is the guy.
Let's do some test pages and see if
we can work together.
And it's been three years?
Yeah, from book one to now, book two.
But exactly that, like the color,
you know, as Ethan said,
coming from
more of like the film world.
Like just,
we were used to working behind a camera.
It's different,
but just seeing the color that he has
in his art,
we were like that light he uses.
It was really beautiful.
It is very different from what you can
see with your eye and what you can
put down on paper and the way it
can be blended and the way it's
you can texture color on paper versus how
you see it with your eye behind a
camera.
Yeah.
So I really,
that was one of the big things when
I was reading through Shock Headed Peter
was the tones and the colors and how
it could be bright, but dark.
And with Peter himself in the book, like,
yeah, he's this dark, you know,
horrified looking person.
But just that perfect pop of color with
the eyes and the teeth and that kind
of stuff.
I don't want to be scared of him,
but he's kind of scary.
But at the same time, it's...
You want to kind of cheer for the
guy a little bit too,
I want to say,
because you see what he's trying to do.
He's just got a really weird way of
going about doing what he does.
Totally.
We've always pitched this as it's kind of
like Willy Wonka meets Freddy Krueger.
Yes.
Or, you know,
fucked up fairy godmother type of
character.
And that was kind of, you know,
our intention yeah like this deranged
fairy godmother comes to town and helps
out this uh you know young teenage girl
who's kind of going through a really rough
time so um so that's absolutely in the
whole town not just her i mean she's
getting it like from both sides from home
with everything going on but then that
town is just freaking horrible like that
that's like some
Halloween Town in A Nightmare Before
Christmas.
Yes.
I was like, geez,
these people are just cruel.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that was kind of the point.
And then the girl Ruby,
the girl with the literal broken heart,
is in the midst of it,
just getting trashed on left and right.
Yeah, and that's our other protagonists.
They're shock-headed Peter and Ruby.
Yeah.
So let's dive into y'all a little bit
because we got really carried away there.
Let's touch on y'all a little bit.
Let's introduce y'all to everybody.
Y'all are the names behind this wonderful
book that I hope everybody will support.
So Ethan, you done Empire?
Yes,
I was an editor on the show for
Fox.
Ordinary Joe.
I did the pilot, yes.
And you've done feature films like Every
Day and Aristotle.
And Dante Discovered the Secrets of the
Universe.
Aristotle and Dante Discovered.
Yeah,
that was an indie film that came out
a year and a half ago,
two years ago.
I was in the capacity as film editor
on all of those.
We write and direct a lot of our
stuff, smaller stuff,
shorts or web series.
Indie, more indie.
Indie stuff that we can do.
Yeah,
I had been or have been a union
film editor for about ten plus years,
working all those things.
And most recently,
I just helped to produce a horror feature
film,
which is going to be coming out later
this year called In Our Blood.
That was my next one.
Yeah.
I beat you to it.
I love it.
Keep going.
So, yeah, I'm excited about that as well.
So will that be a theatrical release on
that or –
yeah i can't talk too much about it
let's not dig in too deep i've seen
it on there i'm like i've not heard
of this and i gotta we have another
podcast here on the dfpn called cj loves
horror i think is what he calls it
and he does he focuses on a one
hundred percent horror so don't be
surprised if he sees your movie and writes
a review on it
Oh, no.
We premiered at Fantasia Film Festival
last year, and it's been doing the rounds.
It got picked up by Utopia Distribution,
and they're going to be releasing it
supposedly a trailer is going to drop
really soon and then i could probably talk
more about it okay um i can say
it's uh you know a really great director
on board um and uh yeah i mean
there's information about it online um but
until things start pouring out from utah
absolutely i don't want you to get in
trouble and jessica you're also a
screenwriter and creator
And I'm going to try to pronounce this.
Wago de los Yaves.
Pretty good, pretty good, yeah.
Yeah,
so I'm- High school Spanish paid off.
Yeah, it totally did.
Yeah, as Ethan was saying, we collaborate,
we write and direct together,
but we've also worked on other projects,
like I work for hires,
and I worked on two seasons.
I'm fully bilingual.
I was born in Mexico City,
was raised in the States,
um and yeah i've worked on a few
uh series like tv scripted narratives uh
for mexican productions
So you have worked with a writer that
I just discovered,
I think it was either late last year
or early this year,
named Clay McLeod Chapman.
Oh, yes.
Yes.
He wrote a comic book earlier this year
or late last year called Seance in the
Asylum.
That was absolutely brilliant.
Brilliant.
And that's how I discovered him.
And since I've read a few of his
books, his horror books,
I know one of his books is currently
right now being made into a movie as
well.
Yeah.
But how is that working with him?
He seems like he's just like an off
the wall, fun type of guy.
Well, so the way we worked with him,
we actually had permission to adapt a
short story of his from Rest Area,
from his collection of short stories
called Rest Area, into a short film.
So we...
did not get to meet in person but
we you know exchanged info we communicated
but very very nice cool person so
extremely talented and his work is amazing
and rest area was just amazing and a
friend of ours was building this um it
was kind of a festival based around um
he did like a kind of like a
multi um media media yeah festival
centered around
And a lot of Clay's work was involved.
So there were theater pieces and art.
And our contribution was the short film of
The Pornhub Mermaid.
And Clay was very hands off,
very supportive if we had any questions.
I'm not sure if he read the script
beforehand.
I think maybe we shared it.
I think we shared the script with him.
But he didn't really stand in the way.
He's like, no, no,
you guys just have at it.
And he saw it afterwards.
He was complimentary.
You know, no, I think we did.
We did finally meet him in person at
a film screening.
We ran into him randomly.
OK, years ago,
because this was when we did Poor Man's
Mermaid.
That was like twenty sixteen or something.
It was a while.
He was amazing.
And his work is really, really.
I just seen it was like a little
blurb about it.
And I was just like because I had
just discovered him.
So I was just like,
that's really cool that she got to.
Not necessarily work with him,
but she got to adapt one of his
stories into a piece of film.
I thought that was probably the coolest
thing ever,
only because I follow him on Instagram,
and the guy just seems like...
He's from my area.
He's from here on the East Coast.
Oh, wow.
So it was one of those where I
kept trying to get up.
Like he does book signings locally in
Richmond.
And I was just like, hey,
do I take off work to go up
there?
One of these days I'm going to take
off work next time he does a signing
and just have to go and meet him
and get his autograph.
He writes really cool horror films,
and I know he's in a lot of
horror books,
and he's in a lot of the comic
circles.
He did have one movie adapted by Elijah
Wood's company called The Sun, I think.
Okay, I didn't know that.
I'll shut that one out, too.
Yeah, I think the book.
but yeah you should check out poor man's
mermaid is on our site yeah you can
stream it and won uh an award at
houston international okay yeah i seen it
on there i didn't i didn't watch it
as i was preparing for all this because
you were my fourth interview this month oh
wow this has been my busiest craziest
month i've ever had and it's been so
cool
So I've been like on top of everything
and just was like,
this is this is how it always should
be.
This is this is what I want to
do.
Nice.
Well, I see this from Kelvin down here.
You said you'll have his attention.
Kelvin's actually the guy who made my
intro, who made my swing.
I see the graphic behind us.
And he's been my brother for like twenty
years.
So tip of the hat.
Yeah.
Nice to see you.
But let's keep going.
So how did your Hollywood background
influence the way you structured and paced
Shock Headed Peter into like three books
instead of just one giant like, you know,
I'm going to throw you, you know,
three hundred pages of graphic novels.
You split it into three.
So how did all that like you take
one side of it and bring it over
to the other side?
When we started,
we first intended to make a TV series.
And then the world,
because it's a fantasy horror,
was so large, people were like, maybe.
And then the pandemic hit, too.
So people were saying,
maybe we should make this into a graphic
novel.
So that was kind of the idea.
Which we resisted a lot,
because we didn't have the knowledge for
the process.
And it was just seemed overwhelming.
And it was just, you know,
we resisted a bit.
Yeah.
Cause we have a lot of respect for
it too.
You know, we, we weren't like, Oh,
we'll just come in and do this.
We were like, okay,
we're going to have to study up and
like figure it out and,
and really see because it's, it's a,
it's a lot, you know, to take on.
I will say though,
it would have been an amazing,
amazing animated film.
It still could be, you know,
we have plans for the property.
So, I mean,
well not to delve into that right now,
but the process,
So we actually had,
you have to kind of fight against that
sort of idea of cinematic storytelling a
little bit.
The pacing that you would put into a
script or as a director is not,
it doesn't translate in the same way.
You have to get the same result that
you're thinking,
maybe when someone's watching a movie
versus reading a comic book,
you have to I feel or we feel
you have to do different techniques to get
to it.
And it was a lot of trial and
error.
A lot of we were cautioned to think
about, you know,
your page turns with panels.
And the more we started talking about it,
the more we actually realized there's a
lot of similarities with film editing and
paneling out the script of comic book.
And so we kind of leaned into that
strength a little bit.
And also just like really focusing, right?
Because you're, you know, on a script,
you have these large dialogue scenes and
all these descriptions.
And so obviously the description could be
there for our artists to have that
communication to really set up that world.
But, you know,
you don't have these long dialogue scenes.
So it was very much about just like,
What is the very important meat of it
that we need that's also still compelling,
that drives the story forward?
You hit emotional moments.
So in that way, too,
it kind of helps you become a better
storyteller because you're like, OK,
I really have to think what's what's the
grain of it that I really need and
make it good.
Yeah.
And another thing that we have to kind
of deal with is if you notice,
so I think as filmmakers,
for us personally,
we're not big voiceover people.
We're not big narration people.
And there is a lot of that in
comics and graphic novels,
and it works very, very well.
But if you notice,
we don't do a lot of that in
this book.
We're very focused on the action more of
the characters and leading the scene.
you'll have to catch up,
find out as they do.
That was another thing that we struggled
with at first,
whether or not we should put that in
and write some narration or not.
No, the way y'all did it,
I really like because a lot of what
Joe did helps move your words along the
page.
Yeah.
So that really helped y'all in not having
to put in those thought bubbles or those
like explanation cells that you often see
sometimes.
And did he also do y'all's lettering as
well?
He did.
Yeah, he did everything.
That's awesome.
Perfect,
because the way the bubbles and everything
are laid out together,
he did such a phenomenal job.
And I can't imagine, like being, you know,
you have scripts in Hollywood.
You know, you probably want,
did y'all write a short story on this
first and then start chopping it up?
Like, or did y'all just go in like,
like kind of storyboarding it?
um yeah they're very detailed scripts very
very um are you talking about before the
script for the graphic novel yes yeah i
didn't know if y'all had like wrote out
like kind of the story then we were
like this is really long let us split
it into three parts and then you know
where you start lining through you're like
okay this is going to be too much
for the story so let me cross it
out
It actually started out as a TV pilot.
Oh, cool.
And we were trying to pitch it around.
This was like our Bible for the show.
Oh, nice.
Look at that.
So we kind of delved into the graphic
novel world before we even realized it.
Look at that.
Who did that right there?
I do a lot of graphic design collage
works.
That's really cool.
That's almost like...
new movie the movie with kevin bacon phone
booth oh okay like the way the eyes
are and you know how in the new
the new um trailer that just come out
where you just get the eyes in the
face the mask comes out in the dark
that's what i immediately thought i was
like oh that is so cool so yeah
we kind of we started out with that
um and then it kind of you know
we kind of took that as our basis
and transitioned that into
We re-paneled the whole thing and wrote,
essentially,
we took our pilot for part one and
tried to translate it
into uh part one sixty pages of part
one yeah because that sets up the whole
world and introduces all the characters so
so it's it's a lot of you know
world building yeah i do have one question
for y'all you know i may have missed
it or it may be in this you
know in the entire thing of um book
two i think it might have been in
the beginning of book one as well the
the young boy
Where he's like, oh, that's him.
And he starts following him.
Is that Ruby's dad?
Or is that somebody completely different?
Because we don't see that boy no more.
He just kind of like...
I don't know if that was just used
to tell a quick thing of him.
He's at the beginning of part two.
Yes.
As well.
And he will come in in flashbacks
throughout part two.
And you will eventually see the tie-in.
Yeah, exactly.
Perfect.
In a different time.
That's a little bit different.
you know dropping it here and there and
it'll eventually merge in with the main
perfect yeah perfect because i was reading
part two the preview and i was just
like i hope this is tying into something
later on because like this it feels like
it's in the world but it feels like
it's not in the present time yeah it
feels like it's from before so all right
cool yeah yeah yeah no it definitely will
have a payoff for sure uh but we're
kind of like stringing it along for now
yeah
So y'all being a married couple,
how does that the collaborative process
with y'all go work for this?
Are y'all pretty much like same page when
it comes to this kind of stuff?
Or were there like competing ideas on
certain things?
Because it's really I'm not you're the
first couple I've had on the podcast that
actually, you know, read comic books.
And that's really cool.
I think any team is gonna, you know,
we'll vibe on certain things and then
we'll have differing views on other
things.
And I think that's kind of,
what then you get the best of eventually.
So, you know, naturally,
we're going to like disagree on certain
plot points or the way certain things are
written or the way certain things come
off.
And we each bring a different point of
view.
And then sometimes it's just kind of like,
OK,
I'm going to state my case why I
think this works.
And she can have to state her case
why she thinks this works.
And then at one point,
one of us is going to be like,
oh, yeah, you're right.
That's that.
Yeah, that's better.
That's awesome.
Always building.
But yeah, obviously,
I feel like we are on the same
wavelength because to be able to create
something,
you have to
you know be on the same um on
the same like page with it uh but
exactly that I think that when we do
challenge something that the other one
comes comes up with it's only to to
make it better or to really make sure
it fits exactly and and like it's just
purposeful and and yeah so it's always to
to improve but i think most of the
time um with this project i feel that
it's been pretty pretty smooth there's
just points that that were you know we're
like oh wait hold on maybe we can
go deeper with this or we can go
scarier with this or once we set up
the premise i think we were pretty much
in agreement on how everything was going
we knew a b and c
but then sometimes little things pop in
here and there,
little side characters pop in.
There's a really cool chapter coming up
that's all another side character,
which I'm really excited about.
Stuff like that pops up,
and we discovered that along the way.
But ultimately,
I think we're pretty much in agreement.
Ruby, Peter, we know what's happening.
Go.
but anything like there's always sorry
just there's always a purpose for it
that's the thing like if if something like
a cool idea it's like well okay how
does that fit and is it a purse
a purpose for it instead of just like
oh this is cool yeah yeah so i
did notice in the preview for book two
is y'all did start going a little bit
more into uh ruby's tormentors the other
children in the town
so i thought that was really cool when
you see ruby going to visit the one
shopkeeper and that's actually the girl
tormentor's dad yeah her dad kind of puts
ruby's family in this very high light
whereas his own daughter he's just like
this kid's a lost cause over here she's
you know causing all kinds of hell yeah
yeah yeah i mean yeah we get we
we're very much uh character driven in all
of our stuff even though we
built this world and we feel is some
pretty immersive we always have to go back
to it's always character first emotion
first because without that nothing's gonna
matter yeah the layers and the complexity
you know we want the characters to be
three-dimensional you know even though it
does give the reader the buy-in to the
book into the characters because i i know
for me i'm i'm cheering for for ruby
over here but i'm also like
peter has like a hundred percent of my
attention and why his real intentions are
with ruby and this town and what what
he actually is you know what i'm saying
yeah kind of we know what he he
is per se but you know y'all are
y'all understand i mean it's y'all's yeah
y'all staying
No, but it's great.
It's great that that's what you're
experiencing with it.
And it's great to hear because that's
obviously like our intention with it.
So it's cool that, you know,
it comes across and it's like compelling
to you.
No, it's spot on.
I think anybody who enjoys like the older
like...
like a Charlie Brown's Christmas or
Charlie Brown Halloween or any of the
Miyazaki stuff.
The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Anybody who enjoys that nineties early two
thousand ish like animated stuff.
I think they will really love.
what y'all are doing with this book so
yeah we kind of pitched this as we
say labyrinth meets a nightmare on elm
street street by way of hayami azaki so
it's like yeah if studio ghibli did kind
of like a horror type i mean i
guess you could argue that maybe spirited
away is a horror let's just say spirit
in the way yeah definitely yeah it has
a dark you know theme throughout it he's
got a little bit of a dark theme
throughout his his books but they don't
really
they're not,
what's the word I'm looking for?
Um,
you have to be really paying attention to
it.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
The pickup, the darker,
subtle undertones that he carries with his
stories.
Totally.
So yeah.
And, um,
I do think we will get a little
darker as we move forward.
There is some pretty distraught things
that happen.
I mean, in the preview for part two,
there's some pretty graphic stuff in the
preview for it.
So if that's the direction it's going and
what Peter's plans are, I'm like, perfect.
This town deserves everything they're
getting.
Yeah,
that's the direction things are going.
It's a lot of like, you know, we...
took inspiration from the source material,
this German book called Der Struwelpeter,
a nineteenth century German children's
book,
like one or two page cautionary tales
about behavior, children's behavior.
Don't suck your thumb,
otherwise someone's going to come and chop
it off.
Don't hit the dog,
otherwise your body parts are going to
fall off.
Brilliant.
These punishments to so to teach.
Right.
And there is a character called Shockhead
Peter in one of those stories about,
you know,
a boy who doesn't take care of himself.
And we kind of plucked that out,
created a mythology around that character
and put him into this other universe.
Yeah.
But with the whole theme of the
cautionary, you know, behavior,
punishment
And then we gave him a code and
then we let him loose.
So there's a whole mythology that we put
around this thing.
It's brilliant.
I mean,
just being able to pull like an obscure
character from German folklore from the
nineteenth century and put him into this
beautiful,
brilliant animated world that y'all have
created for him and just, hey,
go do your thing, dude.
And then you give him a town where
every kid in this town needs a belt
across their butt.
If you're from the eighties and nineties,
you'd get that reference.
I know that's not allowed today,
but my day,
we may have got a switch or a
chancla or something like that.
Yeah.
And, and I mean, but yeah,
they're pretty horrible people.
And it is about the nature of the
consequences of your actions, right?
What, what,
you know,
and how do you live with the consequences
of those actions?
That's a lot of what we're writing about
in the case of Ruby then becomes an
idea of morality and where is your
morality taking you?
Yeah, I mean, exactly.
It's all of those things and just making
it also fun,
but the whole theme of like the
punishments and consequences, yeah.
Consequences for your actions.
I like it.
So I got to ask,
how are y'all balancing everything that
y'all have going on right now with also
having Shockhead at Peter book two on the
cuffs of luncheon?
I mean,
y'all have your hands on a lot of
stuff, it seems.
And oh, by the way,
we're about to start a Kickstarter,
which is Thirty Days of Madness.
Yeah.
It's already started.
Yeah.
And like building up to it is,
you know,
just trying to get the word out.
So thanks for having us on.
Thank you.
Yeah.
And it's just about getting it out there.
So, yeah, I guess less sleep, you know,
being just busy and trying,
but trying just to
get it out there and get things done
it yeah there's a lot of marketing
self-promoting yeah reaching out to people
such as yourself y'all have done a really
really good job of this oh thank you
like i've let me give me just two
seconds yeah i've done like almost twenty
interviews this year
and um y'all for the most part i
will say for the actually no let me
take that back almost every single person
i've interviewed has got that part of the
the kickstarter thing nailed down to a t
the marketing in yourself getting the book
out there for people coming on podcasts
and doing that kind of stuff
y'all are doing a phenomenal phenomenal
job of doing that pre-game stuff that
y'all should be doing as a you know
as a creator getting ready to kick off
a kickstarter thank you so kudos to y'all
and i gotta literally like ben lacy this
year twice uh had bobby campbell on here
with his tales of the illuminatis bruno
catarino
He's another guy.
He does a lot of really good sci-fi
horror anthology type of things.
I've had him on here three times.
I got to interview the CEO of VV
Collectibles, Dan Carruthers,
who's in New Zealand, by the way.
Oh, wow.
Crazy time frame on that interview.
Yeah, right?
Duke Electric, who's a Canadian.
He has a Kickstarter called Greg that's
out right now.
There's y'all.
I interviewed Nicholas Keaton-Casborough,
who does Vidalirium.
It's a book that he turned into a
comic book.
And I also interviewed his artist,
Francisco Nilo, and then Mike Scrace,
who is a blind comic creator from the
UK.
Oh, wow.
So these people have all been successful
in their kit starters,
and they've been successful because of the
way they market themselves,
the way y'all are doing right now.
So...
and yeah Lord this you're not Ricky's at
this anymore this is your second time
doing a Kickstarter so that's actually
what I've I've I'm most nervous about and
actually some people have warned they're
like you know the first time
people come out and they're like okay
we'll we'll support you the second time a
good chunk of those people that might be
like family or friends might be like again
yeah really yeah we we hear the second
one's the the hardest one so we're and
and we didn't do ourselves any favors by
deciding to make the second book a hundred
and eight pages you know that's probably
true but at the same time
you could have just released one book with
three hundred plus pages and it not have
got off the ground at all you know
what i'm saying so y'all are doing it
the correct way because i know comic book
series right now that were marketed as
both a comic book and a like a
full-up you know graphic novel at the same
time where you could just buy the graphic
novel and be done yeah um but the
graphic novel itself was like a hundred
something dollars
yeah yeah for the full story but i
could get the comic book for i think
it's going to be five or six issues
for five ninety nine at each yeah and
coming way under the uh you know so
i mean you think you gotta think you're
printing it on glossy pages hardback what
have you and the more stuff you add
in there the higher that price gets plus
whatever your publisher is going to take
off the top for printing it for you
So, yeah, it's time to keep that,
you know,
under consideration when we offer the
book.
They're all going to be really nice,
perfect bound books.
And we really, we're actually doing,
we revised part one with a new cover
and made some additions, revisions inside.
Yeah,
the revisions inside are not drastic.
It's just some things that we thought
would improve it slightly.
Some dialogue in a panel or two.
Um,
but we really want to take that in
consideration,
like the pricing and trying to keeping it
as, you know, as low as we can,
uh,
so people can enjoy it and get it.
And we're also offering like, you know,
some, some pretty cool rewards.
We have, uh,
we actually made some awesome pins, um,
that are coming with a lot of the
additions,
like Ruby's two inch hard enamel pins.
Yeah.
And she's kind of like in an action
pose, which is cool for Ruby.
I love it.
I love it because you're answering
questions that I had for later when we
got down there.
So that's awesome.
I love a good pin.
Yeah.
I haven't added this one yet,
but that's my Luanna Vecchio lovesick pin
from her character Domino from her comic
book.
Nice.
Speaking of which, she's also from France.
Nice.
They've got some good artists over there
in Europe.
They really, really do.
Like I said, I
so impressed with this work coming from
over there to over here like i i
never like i haven't i've been back in
the comic books for like four and a
half years i guess and this has kind
of been my year of discovery for those
for european artists and south american
artists as well so just brilliant
brilliant talented people
I mean, San, who did the variant,
he's from South America.
Argentinian.
He's Chilean, lives in Argentina,
but Chilean, yeah.
Santiago Espina, yeah.
Or the other way, yeah.
My friend who does the artwork for
Videlirium, Francisco Nilo,
he's Argentinian.
Oh, wow.
And he's doing his part.
Yeah.
And I'll tell you,
the art- You got my reference right.
His part?
Yeah.
tell me what it meant starship trippers oh
my god that's yes that's where the
meteoroid hit was argentina you wouldn't
get okay that's a yep that's a deep
cut yeah we're doing our part which
according to fran that's like a thing down
there they'll pass by their friends and
they'll be like hey we're doing our part
which I thought was hilarious.
That's funny.
You know the actor Casper Van Damme?
He's Argentinian in Starship.
Oh, okay, okay, got it.
Brilliant piece of cinema, by the way.
It is.
Yeah, that, Total Recall, RoboCop.
nothing better great time but to collect
eighties and nineties yeah yeah keep going
please i'm sorry no but to get back
to the art i was telling you that
joe uh like in part two he really
upped his game with the detail
um and how you know a lot of
the stuff that we're getting into and some
of the images you'll be seeing um we
were very impressed and pleased um with
the way that he's been progressing i mean
he's amazing already but you know between
the first book and the second there was
some time and he had worked on a
couple things and then when we met up
again to talk about book two we talked
about that you know there is not a
lot of time happens chronologically from
book one to two but there is this
change like in our in our protagonist
right so we were talking about like
maturing a bit and like darkening a bit
of the art so it's still the same
it's the same but it's like there's this
like level of like
darkness that kind of like creeps in a
little bit more.
And so he took that there.
And that's also why we decided to do
like a new color way for the,
the first book.
And also he redesigned a couple of things.
It's still the same cover,
but he just like gave it that tweak.
That's more of the style, that word.
doing now yeah no the the art that
y'all sent me over with the uh the
press pack was absolutely amazing i don't
who did that cover that y'all sent me
the uh white cover with the um the
face with the half face uh no the
one with i think it's ruby with ruby
oh that's son yeah uh santiago speed
that's okay he did the goth cover
variant.
I love that cover.
So he's great.
If we went with him to do the
whole interiors,
the vibe would have
gone very differently.
Yeah, yeah.
I think the way that the script was
and the story was,
we had to lean more, you know,
into Joe's art.
Yeah, it just aligned for this project.
But that cover by San is beautiful.
And it's all amazing.
It's all, you know, I mean,
they're both obviously doing everything by
hand, but like,
um the line work well yeah exactly so
no son basically sent us you could see
like he does all that by hand he
let he he sent a picture and you
could see was just done in a spiral
notebook um
and uh I've actually like I hired him
to work on a pitch deck for a
movie I'm developing and he did a bunch
of the artwork to help with that so
his uh that variant cover is excellent
with Ruby we're very uh very bad yeah
yeah I I absolutely love that cover that's
one of those where
It'd be really cool just to, you know,
the big poster, slap it on the wall.
I love that style of art.
And then that goth, you know,
feel to it.
It's a brilliant, brilliant.
It's gorgeous.
It's gorgeous in the color and everything.
And to be honest.
It's so simple.
It's just red and blue.
Sure, if you want to.
He's going to grab the foil based on
the Gothic cover that San did.
That would be amazing.
Yeah, he's just going to show it.
And for that,
we did that with the first Kickstarter,
just a limited edition of the foil.
So obviously,
we promised we're never going to reprint
that, so it's like a metal...
um very very cool but one thing is
we haven't revealed the cover yet for the
standard of book two which we're not going
to do until we launch so uh yeah
yeah here's the the foil that we did
as a variant um yeah so yo yeah
you also have those on your site
yeah there's only five or six of these
left yeah okay but yeah i was just
saying how yeah that is to reprint this
no this is look at that limited but
see that's his shock headed peter and it's
a totally that is rabbit oh yeah yeah
the back sounded yeah the back no but
the back is also metal you know we
just did um the foil that i'm a
sucker for a good looking gothic horror
themed foil
yeah it's just something about them the
way the foil and the the metallic off
the foil just makes certain elements pop
on yeah printed really well this is just
the regular uh still very beautiful but
the way the yellow foil makes those the
yellows and stuff pop is another level of
artistry
yeah and it was really really fun and
again just for those people who are
listening who don't know that is for a
book one the the variant cover that we
did but we had a blast that was
only the the first kickstarter printing
yeah yeah those are yeah that's why you
do that's how
And I wish comic book companies of the
nineties would have done this and just
kept those to a limited print.
Because if you go back and if you
can,
I don't know if y'all were into comic
books in the nineties,
but everything had foil covers back then.
Like literally everything.
Yeah.
And they overprinted the hell out of them.
And now they're worth pennies.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like I collected baseball cards and
cards of the eighties and nineties were
like junk.
So yeah.
Yes.
I get it.
Yeah.
But yeah, we committed to that.
Like being like, this is only with our,
you know, first Kickstarter printing,
like we're not going to reprint these so
that that way that there's that, I guess,
you know, the limited.
You hold something special for me.
Yeah.
yeah i think i think son was kind
of tapping into our you know our hbo
version of this book uh and we're like
you know if it is if we do
uh go down a road eventually like this
is these are good comps there's a um
anime that that just reminded me of
it was in my head now it's gone
beside the point now i guess because i
can't even remember the name but him
walking down the stairs and then the foil
the very goth look it was like a
vampire anime that i had watched and it's
just my head immediately went there email
us if you remember yeah yeah i will
yeah absolutely um i'll shoot you a
message on um yeah instagram so
Shockhead and Peter is such a unique blend
of horror, fantasy, and folklore.
And you balance the gruesome punishments
and strangely whimsical energy.
How did you kind of strike that tone
without tipping too far into pure horror
or pure fantasy?
Because that could have been very easily
done if you weren't careful.
Yeah,
I think that's two things come to mind.
One is definitely relying on our
characters being very...
layered and grounding them and like our
protagonist Ruby having a lot of heart.
And also the art like what we're talking
about with Joe just like having that
balance so that that way we don't fall
too far into into that dark and,
you know,
horrible horrible world that uh that we
very easily have been done and that could
be something really cool to go back to
later and re-explore make it into a darker
more adult toned book if you ever wanted
to so that's a door that's open for
y'all later down the road if you want
it to i think well one i think
uh maybe we're just a little deranged and
uh we laugh at all the punishments and
maybe that we all are we all are
but but i think as far as it
going dark or
I think if we eventually down the line
develop this into a show or a movie,
that's where we could probably delve into
the more adult version of Ruby and Peter
and the ramifications of their actions and
human nature even more.
But right now, we just...
The way that we wrote the pilot and
the inspiration from the source material
and then seeing those work.
And we were just like, you know,
this has got to take on the life
kind of like a Tim Burton kind of
work or something like that.
And, you know,
it'd be a really cool stop motion as
well.
It really, we've actually,
that we know people in that world as
well.
And we thought of that as well.
Yeah, but even if we do,
which would be amazing to do a series
or a film,
we would still keep that magical aspect of
it, even if we go darker,
because I think that balance is really
important to still have.
You know, it is a fantasy horror.
And I think that these moments that do
balance it just make it feel like
well-rounded and people can connect.
two better than if it was just like
leaning way much more than one yeah and
the way y'all done it you have this
perfect balance where it could a kid could
sit down and read it and not be
scared but it's also still fun for us
as adults to read as well
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's one thing we were like, oh,
OK,
what what are people going to think this
is?
Because it's not.
Yes.
Because of the images,
like the illustrations, you might think,
oh, this is for kids.
But but we always say it's like,
you know,
like at least PG-XIII because like the
things that are seen.
Bob's in there.
yeah exactly i think every good comic book
should have at least one yeah yeah yeah
so i mean it is it's solid pg-thirteen
yeah solid for sure yeah you know i
think pg-thirteens allows allowed what one
or two elf bombs i don't know now
but something like that so and uh we
yeah we don't there's no new to well
no no there's like a half and later
on
But there's also some tongue-in-cheek,
like, kind of funny moments that,
you know,
we also like that just to have.
I think anything that's good might find
some humor in it.
I think it's just good to have,
you know, those different colors.
I mean,
you take it back to you mentioned it
had that feel of Nightmare on Elm Street,
and Freddy Krueger was funny to himself.
But he had some zingers and some one
lines in the movies that were absolutely
brilliant.
So...
Yeah.
No, you're right.
You're right.
Yeah.
He cracked himself up like the original.
Yeah.
That's, you know, I mean,
we did kind of grow up in that
era.
So maybe it's that just kind of like
been seeped into our being.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah.
Not gonna lie,
it scared the shit out of me as
a kid.
Oh, Freddy Krueger?
Yeah, of course.
Out of all of them, Jason, Michael Myers,
they didn't...
I thought those were the coolest
characters ever.
But Freddy Krueger, legit,
the fact that he could evade my dreams
scared the shit out of me.
Actually, didn't he just...
I think I just saw something that he
got...
He's gonna be Jiminy Cricket
Oh, wow.
In the new Pinocchio from Blumhouse,
I think it is,
or whoever's doing the poo-verse.
The poo-verse?
He's playing Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio.
Oh, wow.
Robert Englund,
who finally got a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame, finally.
He did?
Well-deserved.
I think I just read that Freddy Krueger
was voted scariest character of the
past...
like something just popped up today.
Yeah.
I got to look back at that.
Yeah.
That's really cool.
Yeah.
Actually.
Oh, sorry.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Uh, for book one,
we also did a pop culture variant and
it was a nightmare on Elm street.
Um, so that was something that we, yeah.
Yeah.
The poster, like Ruby's in,
in bed and then Peter's reaching over her
hand, like a Freddy Krueger hand.
That would be so cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
wish i would have discovered it then
because i would have definitely i'm
definitely going back and getting that
foil if it's still available but so ruby
your teenage heroine in this is described
as a girl with an actual broken heart
can you tell us about her journey in
this second volume and how she evolves in
the story because we we're seeing that
she's starting to she stepped up she's
trying to do more for her family given
the state that her father is in and
just her family's history to begin with
it's just
probably out of all the chaos and tragedy
going on in that town,
her family probably has it the worst.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They do.
It's sad.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, without giving too much away,
it's exactly what you said.
She definitely steps up and she's,
you know,
when we say the girl with a broken
heart,
like she actually has a broken heart
because she has this condition that she
wears her monitor, which her father- Yeah,
I was going to ask y'all what that,
like,
what was y'all trying to refer that heart
to?
Because I know she's got the real cool
monitor that her dad made for her.
Yeah.
And then but I was just wondering, like,
what was like,
did y'all come up with a heart condition
just for the story?
Or was it like, well,
did you base it off of something?
It is not.
I mean, it is also kind of like,
you know, a metaphor for society,
you know, kind of like.
the people who want to do good or
who are naturally good centered around all
this monstrousness,
all this horrible behavior, you know, you,
you are essentially a person with,
you know, you're, you,
you've got a broken heart.
You can't compete with it.
You can't fight against it or to no
avail because it is just overpowering.
Um,
I think it kind of emerged out of
that.
Yeah.
So for the character, it is metaphorical,
but also physical,
a physical condition that she does.
Yeah, she does have this limitation.
So she has to figure out ways to
get through life with this.
Because originally, I'm not going to lie,
I thought it was like her Hulk monitor.
Like when it got to a certain degree,
she would Hulk out and just whoop
everybody's ass.
I mean, if I Hulk out.
There's a few times I was kind of
hoping she was going to do that.
I mean, you know, book two is interesting.
Yeah, book two is interesting.
Two avenues.
Yes.
Yeah.
But yeah,
she's definitely going to take on a lot
more and also grow, you know, grow.
She is bullied.
Yeah, she's a teenager,
but she's like an awkward teenager.
And she's in a town where there's a
lot of like, really, as we said before,
very vile people.
Vile people.
Yeah.
It's also dealing with the nature of if
you are a good person at heart,
you know,
but
you're surrounded by all these horrible
people and people who really don't
necessarily deserve your kindness or
goodness.
How do you deal with that?
How do you defend against it?
And then someone shows up that gives you
an opportunity to take action or revenge.
How do you balance the morality of that?
Yeah.
So even though she's a good person,
it doesn't mean she's not without her
flaws or she doesn't act like it's human
nature.
It's not like,
She's just a wilted flower.
That's not going to take like her own
actions and be, you know.
Yeah.
If this doesn't give anything away.
But if you notice in the book,
Peter speaks with black balloon bubbles.
He speaks in riddle as well.
He does.
That was really cool.
He's very lyrical.
Yeah.
But if you notice a couple of times
earlier on when Ruby, you know,
gets a certain type of demeanor,
her her bubble darkens just a little bit.
Oh,
I have to go back and look at
that again.
Yeah.
So, I mean, you know, it's,
it's definitely like, I think book two,
we do have a hundred and eight pages.
So you're,
it's going to expand a lot of what's
going to happen.
It's going to reveal a lot of things.
And obviously like we do have a third
part, so it won't,
it won't be wrapped up with two,
but it's going to leave you.
There is an arc for part two.
Yeah,
and we've always known the arc from the
beginning.
We've always had the full story.
And we never structured this like your
traditional twenty-two pagers,
traditional floppies.
We always want to make sure everything has
a beginning, middle, and end,
but with a little bit of a hanger.
sorry that's our dog if you're here I
was like what yeah he's been pretty quiet
but then he just had to shift so
what kind of dog is it he's a
boxer oh okay yeah I got three cats
they're all yeah they're all downstairs
apparently normally there's one sleeping
right back there normally there's one
sleeping like right here on my desk and
the other one he's he's new to the
to the house my daughter just adopted him
but he stays downstairs until my
daughter's home.
And then he's like, wherever she is.
He's very much my daughter's cat.
He's a hundred percent attached to her.
Unlike the other two who were basically a
hundred percent mine at this point.
That's another thing we kind of have like
in the book,
like for lack of a better term,
spirit animals at the beginning,
Ruby has Toby, the mechanical bird.
I thought that was really cool.
Cause that's my oldest cat's name is Toby
only with an I.
And if you notice,
Peter has a little salamander.
Oh, yeah.
It's in there.
But you'll learn more about
the the meanings of these things they were
mechanical her parrot or her bird is
mechanical which i thought was really cool
yeah the idea was that her father built
it yeah the master clocksmith he fashioned
i not to get too much in the
detail because we don't go into this in
the story but the idea was that toby
was a real bird and he was getting
sicker and sicker and they kept on
patching him up and then he eventually
just became a full mechanical bird
That was our own backstory.
That's cool as hell.
I love that.
Those are some things that sometimes
you're like,
what can you keep in the story and
what can you have to make more concise?
But that's the origin of Toby.
We have a little compendium of all these
backstories.
They're there.
And y'all get ready someday to release the
full artist edition, as they call them.
You'll have to include all those little
things like that because that's really
cool.
Yeah.
but i was just saying toby is you
know is there there's a connection there
with people and their animals yeah so i
know the one family had the pig as
well but yeah that's pretty serving for
yeah yeah i'm pretty sure he his name
was bacon yeah yeah all right um dang
we've been hitting this just right so
Was this always planned as a three-part
series?
And did you always have a beginning,
a middle, and an end already planned out?
Or was it just something where you started
working and realized like, oh,
this is going to have to be three
parts,
but we know the beginning and we know
the end.
The second question, we already, we knew.
Yeah, we knew.
Where it was going.
And that was like the Bible that Ethan
showed you at the beginning.
We had like all the main points in
the entire arc.
Yeah.
we actually have four or three,
I think it's three.
So like, there's three, no,
but there's three full books.
If this three is a full book.
We have stories mapped out for two more.
Yeah.
Oh, dope.
I like that.
Because it builds out the mythology.
Yeah.
And we needed to do that to actually
built to write this.
So we kind of thought all that through.
But the second part of your question,
the three parts,
I don't think we knew it was three
parts.
I think that came organically.
For this first book.
Yeah,
we wrote the chapters and then it was
trying to find.
Yeah,
I guess it came as we were making
it like the first one.
Then we would it be two or three
and then.
Well, I think we did.
We did the first one because we were
like,
this is how we're going to test the
waters.
And we have an arc for like the
intro.
And we did that.
And then when we went to write,
it took us a bit to write parts
two and three because of work and other
things we were doing.
Yeah, I imagine.
And so when we sat down and we
wrote it and we did, we're like,
we were thinking about the arcs.
And like I said,
one hundred and eight pages.
But that was like the right arc that
hit the right points.
And it got the right ending where we're
like, we can end here.
And then we're like, what's left?
That's.
just one more part we can't stretch it
out or shrink it anymore so I think
when we were kind of organically figuring
that out it just kind of the pieces
fell like that yeah if we went back
right now to rewrite it it might only
be two parts I don't know um I
don't know yeah no that's really cool I
I I like the fact that y'all you
had the beginning you had the end it
was just
figuring out how to, okay, arc one,
arc two, arc three.
I've seen stories that were arced really
badly.
Like they just kind of like abruptly
stopped and then arc two picked up and
you're like, this is just the first arc.
When are you gonna start the second arc?
Like you're continuing the first.
Yeah.
It's kind of like how Netflix is doing
their TV series right now.
You know, they give you the part one,
part two, part three of season five.
Yeah.
And you're, you're,
you're spreading it out so far,
like stranger things.
I can't even get into anymore.
It's been spread out so far.
like years between seasons i'm like i
don't even care no more like these kids
are having kids now you know their
grandkids you know and i'm just like it
ruined it because the first like two
seasons i think were like boom boom and
then it was like oh it's gonna be
eighteen months and i'm like
I'm not even going to cure any team
lines.
Yeah.
Well, mentioning that,
that was a worry with us,
like having so much time in between the
first book and the second,
but that's another reason that we're going
to be forging right ahead.
Like book three is already written.
We just finished.
Yeah.
So our plan is to,
as soon as like this campaign is done
and, you know,
hopefully everything goes really well,
then like dive into the next one.
Yeah.
I like it.
I like you, Ines.
We're in it.
Ideally,
we would love to put out part three
end of next summer and just have the
whole everything done.
But yeah, we'll see.
That's awesome.
So we'll start rolling this up a little
bit.
Let's talk a little bit more about the
Kickstarter campaign starting October the
eighth.
Yes.
And it will go, I'm guessing,
at thirty days like a normal Kickstarter.
Do you have it planned for a little
longer?
November fourth is when we're ending.
Yeah.
Okay.
So just shy of a month.
Twenty eight days.
Twenty eight days.
We got a national holiday in there with
Halloween.
Exactly.
Yeah, so we'll be running that.
In the first four to eight hours,
we got two early bird tiers,
which would be really good to jump on.
One will just be for a print version
of the book,
and the other one will be a catch
up,
where you'll get the new revised part one
and part two together with a whole slew
of a hard enamel and a soft enamel
pin.
One thing we're going to be doing if
you're in the L.A.
area,
we have a bunch of signings coming up
at four shops.
And this is only in person, unfortunately,
but we printed out little mini ink only
ash cans of Chapter two preview.
Oh, that's really cool.
And they're about half the size.
They're floppies.
And we're giving those out at our tables
with the purchase of anything.
It could be a book, a pin, cards.
That's really cool.
We only made fifty of those.
Yeah.
So for people who don't know at home,
this is what essentially an ash can is.
Only this is a foil ash can.
Oh, cool.
duke electric who was just on doing greg
which is it's a greg it's greg issue
zero he wanted to start off with a
prequel then jump into the main story of
his book so this is basically the birth
of greg but it's an ash can and
it's a foil with just the highlights it's
really cool
Now, ours will be smaller, but yeah,
we'll be doing that, which, I mean,
it's chapter two,
which you got a sneak peek.
So then anyone who comes by will be
able to get this.
So you're doing miniature size, right?
Which I noticed here lately has become
kind of popular again.
I've noticed Marvel and DC and Dynamite
and those guys jumping on that bandwagon
and producing little miniature comic
books.
Yeah, that's what it is.
It just felt right for the convention of
it.
And it's really cool just to see the
artwork with the inks only.
And also, you know,
no dialogue bubbles and no sound effects.
Just, you know, Joe's, you know,
his ink line work.
Yeah.
It's pretty awesome.
We were pretty, you know,
it's something we would want.
So I think that's why we made it.
Yeah.
um and again a lot of this at
the end of the day is we secretly
do it for ourselves yeah i hope everybody
else enjoys it too
Yeah, and again, the idea of just limited.
We're like, okay,
we're only doing fifty and that's as many
as we'll have.
I will say we are adding a digital
version of those inks only in one specific
tier of our rewards tier on the
Kickstarter.
So there's that as well,
but we won't offer it in print on
the Kickstarter.
Okay.
I like it.
And I know you said you had some
special awards for the Kickstarter as
well.
You have the pins.
You're doing the tiny comic books for the
in-person meet and greet.
I'm guessing you're going to be at four
LA comic shops.
Are you going to do a bookstore in
there?
We're doing... Well,
Golden Apple is one of the bigger ones.
There's two comic bugs.
And Pulp Fiction.
And Pulp Fiction Comics in Culver City,
if anybody knows any of these stores.
I know Pulp Fiction.
I think...
Everybody in comic books has heard of that
one.
Yeah,
so I think we're going to that one
on the eighth.
Yeah, I think that's on our launch day.
The day we launch,
we're going to be at Pulp Fiction Comics.
So it'll be fun.
All the good stuff happens in LA or
north of me or south of me.
Nothing ever really good comes here.
And I don't really blame them because it's
kind of, you know, but.
You should start with something.
Yeah.
I mean, you started this,
which is amazing.
So, you know.
the idea has crossed my mind because i
i and a friend of mine they he
they own one in missouri they have their
own uh they do anime anime con up
there and something else i think it's like
it's a regular like con i don't know
if they got comic books or not but
he he's done he's killing it out there
you know here we have a local comic
shop our local comic-con but
i don't do you ever go to comic
cons or anything like that or like so
here i don't i don't know how it
is anywhere else but they advertise it as
a comic con but it's an everything else
con comic book like they first off they
charge us way too much to go in
and sit up and have a booth and
stuff like that but um
there's just not a lot of comic books
in there anymore.
It's more geared toward the other stuff
here lately.
At least the last few years it's been
that way.
San Diego, the big one, has kind of...
Yes.
It has gone there.
Although I was there this past year,
and a lot of people were remarking how
there was less of a film and TV
presence and more just kind of like...
So SDCC is the first one that announced
that they were going to try to go
back to the roots of what made a
Comic-Con a Comic-Con.
And I love that.
I think that is phenomenal.
And it was one of those where...
We were talking about that on this podcast
not that long ago, how we wished,
you know,
if you're going to say it's a Comic-Con,
go back to it being about the comic
books.
Yeah,
a lot of people felt that from talking.
That's really cool.
Yeah, they felt that this year.
And I think NYCC announced something.
Hopefully they do the same thing.
Cool.
LA Comic Con is this weekend,
so I don't know how we'll see how
that goes.
WonderCon and Anaheim.
We've been there.
Then you've got DragonCon up there, too.
We haven't been to DragonCon.
There's some good ones up there.
Yeah, there's a lot.
You have to travel the five, though.
Yeah.
Honestly,
driving anywhere in LA just takes like
four years.
I imagine.
Regardless.
So, well, actually, you answered that one.
I was going to ask you if there's
a way for people to catch up on
the first book.
And you said there's going to be an
early bird special within the first four
to eight hours.
So let me ask this.
How important is community support for
indie projects like y'alls?
And what does it mean for you when
fans back your vision?
I mean,
I know this is not your first one.
This is your second rodeo on this.
But how is this for y'all?
I mean, I think it's,
it's everything when they, when they bag,
it's, it's the only thing it's like, it's,
um, I mean,
obviously it's so needed for the success
of the campaign,
but also it's just everything also for,
uh, you know,
getting the book out there and,
and just validating that people love the
story and the characters and,
and it getting out into people's hands.
It's everything.
For,
for any indie stuff like this community is
make or break.
It really is.
Um,
you know,
engaging with people and hearing their
reactions.
And that's why we focus so much on
like when we write to make sure these
characters have, they emote, you know,
and you see their journey so that maybe
someone can connect with that aspect of
this one character or that character.
You know, and I'll tell you what,
in part two,
you start to see that a lot of
different characters start to have
emotional arcs.
So it's not, you know,
not just the main two.
So there's a lot of things for people
to latch on to in this universe.
And we hope that brings them in into
our community and we can talk about it.
And yeah, and the community support is,
is really everything.
So if, you know, if you,
if you can,
whoever like is listening to this,
watching this,
like check it out or also like share,
you know, and if you like it,
please share.
What was amazing after our first campaign
is, you know,
obviously like friends and people,
you know, saying that they enjoy it,
but when you hear from someone who you
actually
you don't know and they send you a
message um you know complimenting it or
saying what it meant to them or how
much they enjoyed it like what yeah when
you said at the beginning like that's
that's everything too that's like a great
amazing book one we did a a very
limited versions of draw me in where you
know we would draw yeah or two and
someone reached out to us and was
delighted with it because we like
We didn't just draw them in.
We printed out on really nice paper,
like art paper,
so they could frame that as well.
And we sent it to them.
And they were very happy.
And that kind of made, you know,
it was a big deal for us.
And we're going to do that again.
It's a limited amount, of course,
but that's another tier as well.
Draw yourself in.
Or we had someone, you know,
draw in a business last time.
That's cool too, yeah.
we say if you can buy real estate
in the metaverse why can't you buy real
estate within shockhead peter it's a true
story i just seen somebody who does ai
music get a three million dollar record
deal today which i thought was complete
bullshit yeah but at the same time but
there's a market i mean if the market
is there and there's somebody who's going
to capitalize on it well capitalism right
No AI was used in the making of
Shotgun Peter.
No, I don't hear what anybody says.
AI don't create the lines that your artist
created on the cover of that book.
Joe takes a lot of care to give
the handmade feel of his art,
and you can see it.
He even does paint splatter throughout
pages.
He makes it feel very raw,
like you weren't supposed to read these
pages, but you found them.
It's awesome.
He's brilliant.
Yeah.
I'm so happy y'all found him to do
this book because he fits this book
perfectly.
We need to get him on to some
of these podcasts.
You brought that up.
I think his name is,
he goes by Heatstroke.
the artist who does uh ben lacy's shark
of war okay like i was complimenting the
artist because to ben i was like hey
you know he he made a shark have
emotions a creature that is not known to
protrude emotions but he was able to keep
it a menacing as a shark but portray
its emotions
and i sent that clip to ben for
him and um when we were talking about
it and um like the very next day
the guy he's like hey it's me i'm
the artist i was like oh cool dude
i'm like you want to come on and
talk about it
I love to have artists on.
That's how I met Fran,
who does the Videlirium comic book.
He's going to be back next month,
and we're going to be having a big...
Just talking about horror comic books.
We're just going to talk about horror
comic books because that's what we both
really love is horror comic books.
There's a lot of good stuff out there.
If he wants to come on,
I'd love to have him on.
That's awesome.
We'll tell him.
He's
Eight hours, nine hours ahead of us.
From us, nine hours.
Maybe only six.
I made it work for New Zealand.
I can make it work for Italy.
Right, right.
Yeah.
I do interviews in the UK all the
time.
So, I mean,
it's like four or five hours ahead of
me,
whereas y'all are four hours behind me.
So it's just now getting dinner time where
y'all are at.
So.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
I mean,
we could totally reach out to him.
Yeah.
If he wants, if he's interested in,
he wants to do it,
then I would love to have him on.
Oh, awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's,
and obviously like our book is one of
the books that,
but he's done a couple other things since
like he,
just he sent us this uh italian graphic
novel he just did called malerva yeah and
it looks amazing yeah it's some sort of
like dante's inferno horror oh that's
really cool yeah do you want to check
out another really good one check out
don't run with scissors it's done by the
king spy and it's brilliant it's done by
an italian artist as well cool don't run
with scissors i wonder if he knows but
we'll check that out that sounds cool yeah
it's got to be a small community there
so i imagine
Like Luanna, I know she's from there.
Like Tula the Toy, I think she's British.
So there's a lot of really,
really good European artists that have
literally, in my eyes,
burst onto the scene recently.
I don't know if that was just me
being stuck like this for a while and
then expanding out, but...
twenty twenty five has been a year of
discovery for me in terms of like comic
books and then getting to meet people like
you,
like Ethan and Jessica and everybody else.
I've got the pleasure to interview this
year.
It's been very awesome.
It's been very awesome having y'all on
before I let you go.
Why don't you tell everybody where they
can find y'all and also when they can,
you know, your Kickstarter will drop.
You can find me on social media anywhere.
My handle is EBK from LA,
pretty much on any social media.
yeah for me uh i'm i'm mostly on
instagram um so or i guess um you
could find me at jess underscore silvetti
so it's just like my name spelled like
my name and as far as the book
goes uh we would say just go to
shock headed to the number two dot com
that'll take you straight to the
kickstarter um and in the kickstarter
preview there's a bunch of links if you
want to go back and find part one
or just wait until october eighth and grab
all the goodies yeah that's when it
launches on the eighth and we'll wrap up
on november fourth awesome guys i want to
thank both of y'all for coming on this
has meant the world to me have y'all
on and to talk about shock edit peter
book two um spread the word we're i'm
here to celebrate kickstarters and
independent comic books all over the world
um
Yeah.
So October eight, shock headed.
Peter drops,
go give Ethan and Jess a follow.
They are awesome people with an awesome
book coming out.
And it's this point in time where I
want to welcome y'all both to the council
of nerds and let you know that shock
headed.
Peter is USDN approved.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So with that, everybody,
I want to send everybody out with a
good night and appreciate y'all.
If y'all came on and watch this live
tonight,
this video will drop next week on all
podcasts and platforms and on YouTube.
And with that, everybody,
we are out of here.
Thank you.