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USDN podcast is run by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds. We strive to bring you the all the latest news and rumors from the World of Nerds and consolidate it right here at USDN. USDN is for the people, by the people and of the people.
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 today is
a very special day as we are live
from our first ever con
with the DFPN live here in Cape Girardeau,
Missouri as a part of Cape Con.
A big day for us and the council
members.
It is awesome to be here to answer
some questions and to just talk about some
general pop culture and what it tastes
really.
If you have questions about making indie
comic books,
I'm pretty darn good and knowledgeable on
indie comic books.
So with that,
I want to introduce my fellow council
members on the table.
Let you go first.
Oh, what up, everybody?
It's your homie Mack, a.k.a.
your boy.
If you've been rocking with my man,
the chairman over on DFPN,
you've probably seen me on a couple of
shows,
Eat the Cake Anime and The Smoke Pit.
I am what you would call a Padawan
when it comes to a lot of the
comic stuff that the Jedi Master,
the chairman is, right?
But I'm always here.
It's cool being around these guys,
teaching me a little bit more,
because all I do is just pretty much
follow
everything tmnt when it comes to comics so
they're uh kind of bringing me into the
loop on a lot of the other things
so uh good to be here good to
support my guy here and um like he
said big day for us here at dfpn
first actual live show at a con for
uh usd and i'm just uh happy to
be a part of it bro
same same and uh i will echo that
it's it's an honor to be a council
member at the first live usdn show i
am bred like a king made his coven
kaylee otherwise known as black mac and uh
i really really nerd out about wrestling
that is my that's my specialty i am
a stone cold
nerd if you if you pick up pick
that up but um but i like to
equate wrestling with a lot of things and
and one of the things that got me
into comics was wrestling i was a big
uh hurricane helms fan
And Hurricane Helms was a big fan of
DC Comics.
Green Lantern was where he based his
gimmick off of.
Right.
And just following him got me into comics
and it led me down this crazy path
that I've been on for a while.
But
Yeah,
so it's an honor and a pleasure to
be on.
I'm very proud to be here this weekend.
This is a very dope, incredible weekend.
And I'm glad that this is the show
that is bringing us home because it's time
to have some fun.
Let's start out and have some fun.
Let's get after it, man.
So it's been a lot nicer to have
a whole lot more people in here.
But, sir, in the back,
you got any questions about indie comics
or comics in general?
I don't know.
What is that?
What's your guys' favorite series?
Favorite series?
That's a good one.
For me,
it's going to be some James Tinian in
Boom Studios,
Something is Killing the Children.
I can't recommend that book enough,
especially since it was just announced
that they're going to be getting a TV
movie, or just a movie in general.
I think they're getting an animated
series,
and I think that's huge for the comic
book world as a whole,
as an independent comic is getting a TV
series.
So that's my answer.
Yeah.
And like I said, you know,
I'm a big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
comic fan.
And that's more from being a kid watching
the cartoon growing up and then figuring
out, oh, there was,
it's based on a comic series and not
just a random thing.
So I will say it was eye-opening learning
about the turtles in the eighties on the
cartoon and then reading the comics.
You're like, oh, this is way different,
right?
This is some real stuff.
But as I got older,
you start to appreciate that more, right?
I will say it's kind of,
you get to a point where you just
have to accept, you know,
I don't know if you've seen the newest
Turtle movie, the Mutant Mayhem.
My youngest liked it.
I was looking at it like, you know,
it's not for me getting a new generation
of Turtle fans.
But I'm excited.
Obviously,
Lash Ronan did real well for them.
They packaged that up.
movie in the making from all the reports
I'm seeing.
So R-rated should be a good time for
me.
Not sure if I'm going to take my
eight-year-old to see it,
but that's my favorite series.
If it comes out while we're around.
For me,
I am a big Infinity Gauntlet saga person.
Just the rise of Thanos and the story
they told with him and how he became
the Mad Titan and everything that came
from him getting the gems and what that
led to.
It's one of those things.
I was okay with the Infinity Saga and
the MCU,
but they missed out on a lot of
great stuff that they could have drawn
from.
One being how Thanos' relationship with
death
could have played out that I feel like
they could have definitely a big missed.
Yeah,
it was definitely it still presented
itself and they never really pulled the
trigger on it.
But I feel like they could have made
that a very, very great story,
not matter what they told,
because it's one of the it's one of
the best things that they've done,
obviously.
But
that whole that whole saga like when they
first announced thanos was coming i was
like first in line take my money i
can camp out here we don't have to
go anywhere i love it but that that
would be my answer is the infinity series
so
So we got a couple of questions here
in the chat.
And Caitlin wants to know,
what comic would you recommend for a new
Red Hood fan?
Caitlin,
I can't speak a whole lot about Red
Hood.
I do know that the current run of
the Red Hood was cut short by something
that was said by the author of that
comic book.
So DC did put a stop to it,
which was a shame because there is a
lot of potential there for that book.
But as a fan who I focus a
lot more on indie comics and not
necessarily DC or Marvel,
it's hard for me to put a recommendation
out there for you on that.
And I wish I could give you a
better answer than that.
And then we got some casting the spotlight
fellas in here.
And they want to know how we would
rank the four turtles from favorite to
least.
I'll let you go with that one first.
That's a tough one.
It's not, but it's kind of corny.
So, and I'll tell you why.
Me and my brothers would watch it growing
up.
And we would always act like the TV
would piss my parents off, right?
So...
I would be Leonardo.
My older brother would be Michelangelo.
And then the younger brother,
like he would just like,
these are the two turtles you got to
pick from, right?
Like you're either.
raf or donatello most of the time he
was donatello um but as i got older
like you're looking at it leo was still
my favorite i don't care what anybody says
i know it's the corny answer because he's
all normal the splinter's favorite and
everything i will say that as a kid
raf was kind of towards the end because
i didn't really like his weapon but as
i got older and you read the comics
and you see uh the relationship between
him and leo like
There are some days it's like one A,
one B.
Like I can understand Raph's point at that
point in life.
Mikey has moved up as well since,
is it spoiler alert?
Nah.
Nah, nah.
You know, if I talk Lash Ronin,
if you have it like by now,
by now.
We're giving spoilers.
Lash Ronin,
all the other turtles are dead.
There's one left.
Everybody's like, who could it be?
It's Michelangelo.
And seeing him evolve from the party,
you know, as he was portrayed in cartoons,
like most people would still like see him
in any kind of media on TV.
They never really get into how serious the
Turtles get.
So even the Michael Bay movies,
they still kind of have Mikey being the
youngest, obviously, fourteen, fifteen,
being a kid,
seeing him as the last Ronin and seeing
that he's about that action.
I'm like, OK, Mikey, you know,
and then Donnie.
You know, no love lost.
Like, I had to put somebody at four,
Donnie.
So I got Leo, Raph, Mike,
and Donnie as my lineup.
Best to worst?
Best to worst.
Oh, okay.
Ralph,
because Ralph was about that action at all
times.
About them hands.
Ralph.
And I feel like,
so me and my brother kind of have
that relationship to where, like,
I'm younger than he is.
But, you know, I kind of see myself,
like, in that leadership role sometimes.
And you'd be like, man, hey, listen,
I'm the big brother.
Chill out.
you know what i mean like i'm not
bro i got it i i got it
i've been out here i've been grinding i
can get it so ralph i always kind
of related to yeah because of me and
my older brother um so ralph leo is
obviously second um because of that he he
is the leader in the leadership role but
he does give the turtles a lot of
grace at times
you know what i mean like he let
he lets them do their thing and tries
not to overstep his bounds as a leader
which i think is an underrated quality it
really is um without without the last
ronin i have to put donatello in third
place just because just because his brains
His brains is the glue that keeps
everybody together.
True.
True.
He's constantly thinking of ways to get
them better or make them better.
But I think that's a very underappreciated
quality.
Yes.
And then Mikey,
not because he is the least, but yeah.
There's a lot more depth to the other
people for me without going into the last
runner.
But the last runner,
he actually was like...
Mikey might be that dude.
Oh, yeah.
Mikey might just be that dude.
He's that guy.
Shout out to our bro Rob in the
chat who said, Raph, Leo, Mike,
and Donnie.
Oh, great.
I don't think there's a wrong answer to
this,
but I'm going to go Raph just simply
because the dude was a complete underrated
badass in the comic book.
Then I'll go Mikey because last run is
probably my favorite Ninja Turtles of all
time.
Then I'm going to go Leo and Donnie.
And that's not a knock on any of
the Ninja Turtles because I'm a huge fan
of the Ninja Turtles.
So...
I will give Donatello his respects if
you're playing the NES Ninja Turtle game.
Save Donnie for last because his bo staff
lays a cheat code out there.
If we're picking him in the NES,
Donnie is my guy, right?
Yes.
You want that standoff.
Yes.
Great questions.
Keep the questions coming in the chat,
but we'll turn a little bit more of
attention toward
a little bit of indie comics.
I'm kind of what I've been doing here
lately within the world of indie comics
until we get more questions.
So many, many months ago,
I was kind of like at a loss
in direction of what I wanted to do
with the United States department of
nerds.
And I got an email and it was
like, Hey,
could I come on your podcast and discuss
my new comic book?
I was like,
hell yeah, I need something to do,
let's do that.
So we get that set up and then
it kind of become a snowball effect after
that where I was getting emails or just
DMs left and right basically going, hey,
can I come on the podcast?
Can I come on the podcast and talk
about my work?
So it's really been like literally not
even thirty minutes ago,
I was answering an email for another indie
creator wanting to come on the United
States Department of Nerds and discuss
their upcoming comic book that they're
going to be kicking off on Kickstarter.
Well, it's already live on Kickstarter,
but they want to come on and talk
about it to see if we can't get
them pushed over the line and get them
funded,
which is a really cool thing that I
get to do is
help creators get their comic book to the
next level and get it promoted and funded.
That way they can bring that comic book
to the masses of people at cons just
like this one.
So I've been really,
really thankful in that aspect to be able
to get to do that and to bring
something different to the world of comic
books where
Those creators,
those indie creators aren't getting the
love that the big name creators do get
at Marvel and DC and Image.
So that has been a really fun thing
that I've gotten to do.
I've also gotten to, just what,
two weeks ago,
I interviewed the creator and writer and
director of ZombieCon, the volume one,
which is a indie movie that is really,
really fun.
I got to watch that movie.
I got to interview, um, what's his name?
No, it's Aaron Anya,
who also is his wife.
And then, um,
can't remember his first name,
but his last name is Valley.
This is going to bother me,
so give me a second.
Let me look up his name because I
don't want to give you all bad gouge.
They deserve all the love they can get.
That's all good.
They have a comment come through a
question.
Have you read Once and Future from looks
like Carrie and Gillen?
I have to look into it.
That sounds like if you can give us
a premise of what that is.
Kyle Valli.
Kyle Valley is his name.
Okay.
He wrote, directed,
did everything related to ZombieCon Volume
One with his wife, Erin Anya.
Great, great movie.
Cannot recommend it enough to y'all to
check that movie out.
I think you can rent it for ninety
nine cents on Amazon.
Nice.
I got a question for you.
When did you get into comics?
And if there's a fan out there,
a younger fan out there that has never
experienced the joy of comics,
what direction would you point them in to
say,
this is the way we should go to
get you into comics and become a comic
fan?
So it would really,
at the end of the day,
I think I'd want to know what exactly
they are interested in
Are they interested in like action or are
they interested in more of a, um,
like a journey comic, like saga or, um,
Something like that.
But it's really going to depend what their
interest is.
There's always an indie comic out there
for everybody,
whether it's from Image Comics or Boom
Studios or Dark Horse Studios.
One of those guys,
there's literally something out there for
every interest.
And that's what's so cool about the indie
comics.
It's not just focused on the superhero
aspect of comic book stories like DC and
Marvel might be.
Right.
I guess that kind of answers the question
for me because I was thinking,
how did I really...
I kind of introduced it earlier.
I got into it because of wrestling.
But for a long time,
I didn't know what I actually liked about
comics.
Maybe it was the darkness of some of
them.
Maybe it was the triumph.
For a long time,
until I got really into Marvel and dove
down Marvel, I was just like...
it's a comic i'm gonna read it you
know what i mean like i had stacks
and stacks and then like didn't know how
to really sort them out because i was
just reading comics i and then once i
got fixated on it that's why like if
there's a new fan like how do you
do you just let the fan determine what
they like i would say
You just got to know the person.
It's almost the same thing with anime,
right?
People think anime.
And one,
they're either thinking it's just,
you know,
Dragon Ball Z stuff or big robot mechs.
Or for those that know about the kind
with tentacles and all that,
they'd be like, you know, you're weird.
You know what I'm saying?
The hentai and stuff.
But there's an anime for everything.
You know, you got sport themes anime,
right?
You got your horror animes.
You got your historical ones like your
Vinland sagas and things like that.
So
It just depends like if you talk to
a person and get to know their interests
like guarantee you I can point them to
an anime and be like Check this out
right give this a shot and then they
could just follow that trail like you
don't have to be I don't want to
say like
the people that are now.
I love anime fans.
I love that anime is bringing people in,
but a lot of people are just jumping
on now saying,
Demon Slayer is the greatest anime ever.
And I'm just like, that's cool.
It's an amazing anime,
but let's expand your horizons a bit.
Comics are the same way.
You look at it, like Jeff said,
I'm not really into X-Men and all that
stuff.
Can I get into comics?
Hey, check this out.
Here's some horror comic books.
Here's some more realistic type things
like Walking Dead,
graphic novel type stuff.
There's other things.
People look at that and think it's just
a show.
No, it's based on this.
It's based off a comic book.
The comic book is amazing.
Back to the question from DrawGuy,
I guess.
I have not read
once and future from Kieran Gillen.
And that's because it was before I got
back into reading comic books.
So I didn't get back into reading comic
books till pretty much twenty, twenty two,
I think.
And then it's just been
uphill for me since then getting back into
them and it all started because my
daughter wanted to stop by the comic book
shop and see what's there and then as
we were walking around i started seeing
titles from when i was a kid that
brought back good memories for me and i
was like i want to fill that again
so i started reading spawn again and it
just i've been back in the saddle so
to speak once again so it's been really
cool
But I will check out once the future
because that's really up my alley from
boom studios And it was a shame to
see that the owner recently sold boom
studios but I think it's a positive
direction for those guys because the owner
is looking to do new different things and
He's a great guy who brought us a
lot of great comic books during his time
at boom studio So I'm wishing him the
best of luck.
I Got a question real quick
a lot of people have gravitated or would
you think that more people have gravitated
towards checking out comics and stuff with
the popularity of mcu a lot of things
like that like people go watch the movie
and probably want to know more uh because
i will say i noticed the boom of
like youtube channels that sit down and
break down
you know like movies are coming up and
they're just like here's a backstory it
wasn't just the MCU coming on board it
did see a big push but what really
gave comic books another big push was when
uh kovit hit because we were going to
comic book shops for board games and that
kind of stuff yeah
just something to entertain since they
have to be stuck in the house and
really can't go anywhere.
Right.
So really those two days,
the birth of the MCU really pushed people
in.
But again,
they were just buying the stuff related to
the more popular titles out there related
to whatever that MCU movie was focusing
on, which is cool.
There's nothing against that.
It's just a whole lot more world out
there to discover when it comes to comic
books.
So.
Anybody else in the chat?
Y'all keep those questions coming.
Yes, sir.
You were talking about indie comics and
all that.
Of course,
one of the big things with indies is
it gets difficult to find some of that
stuff because it gets buried under a bunch
of stuff.
What do you guys think?
How do you all go about finding new
series and all that to
That's a great question.
So for me, it's New Comment Book Day.
I hit my LCS on Wednesday,
and I scroll,
and if I see something that catches my
interest, I give it a shot.
Some of my favorite comment books out
there were just something that I found on
the shelf randomly and was just like,
this looks interesting.
Let me read this and...
fell in love with it and so that's
how i did it dollar bins are a
great place to start if you know you're
strapped for cash just hit the dollar bin
almost every local comic shop in your area
has a dollar bin i mean what just
walking around the con here every booth
with comic books has a dollar bin and
those are always a great place to start
and for a bargain at that a buck
for a comic book that's granted the price
is now
I think the only place that really hasn't
changed the price that much is the
original Spawn series from Image.
I think they're still two ninety nine.
But everybody else,
I know some of the DC books are
like seven ninety nine now or six ninety
nine.
So it's absolutely ridiculous how
expensive they're getting.
But again,
they're still telling good stories.
So people are still going to buy it
because it is from DC or it is
from Marvel.
But for a lot, the Image Comics,
Boom Studios,
their prices are remaining the same and
they're remaining steady.
So those are still attainable and
affordable.
Yeah, that's a great question.
Shout out to Cape Con too because this
is one of the rare cons that I
see where comic books are still a big
focus.
Normally when you go to Comic Cons,
it's different stuff and the comic book
isn't really as prevalent.
but here i've seen them i've seen them
all over all over the space so shout
out to them for that because that is
that is a great look to the comics
and shout out to jeff too because you
do some some some very underrated work man
working with the with the indie comics
working on the kickstarter
I've found a couple of comics just
watching his show.
So if you do, man,
subscribe to United States Department of
Nerds, it is very much,
you will find some great comics that come
through there and have great stories.
And their Kickstarter campaigns offer a
lot.
So that's great work too.
So we got CJ in the chat with
a question.
Do you have a starter recommendation for
the major genres, action, superhero,
drama, romance, comedy?
Um, let's see.
Man.
First of all, let me just say, CJ,
I know you're driving home, bro.
You better not be.
We love the support.
That's too much time for my guy.
Unless you got a voice translator,
you know what I'm saying?
Bro, get where you need to get to,
my guy.
So this is going to be,
I can give a list of books that
I'm currently reading.
Let me pull up my list because it's
a list.
While you look for one,
I'm going to rattle off one off the
top of my head.
Go for it.
I like the superhero genre.
Because there's a little bit of everything
integrated into it, right?
Especially if you're starting- You better
be safe, CJ.
I would recommend going to start with
Marvel if you're into the big stuff,
because there's a lot of love triangles in
there that are high key funny.
yeah they're high key funny and there's a
lot of pairings in there that are that
are very interesting beyond what you see
on the movie screen there's a lot of
parents that that happen in the comics if
i had to point anywhere i'd start with
the uncanny x-men because that just
branches off into a lot of different soap
opera with superpowers yes so
We'll get this started.
I'll start with Thirty Days of Night,
Fallen Sun,
which is the follow-up to the movie Thirty
Days of Night.
It was a great read,
and it's just a bloody mess,
just like the movie was.
For the kiddos,
Adventure Time has a comic book.
fantastic read really fun also rick and
morty for the teenagers who are into rick
and morty my son reads those although i
will say i would get in on rick
and morty now because in december the
comic book is coming to an end i
don't know if a new studio will pick
it up yet but i do know for
a fact that adventure time on on e-press
will be coming to an end in december
let's see here
find another good one ah be not afraid
is another horror book it's a similar to
the omen or children of the corn and
just another really really good book uh
blood and thunder is really fun so if
you're into uh sci-fi about a girl who
a bounty hunter with a gun that talks
and she's trying to recapture escaped
convicts from a uh
A planet that is a prison.
That's a really fun one.
And the gun in that book is hilarious.
Catacombs of Torment,
which is from Ani Press and EC Comets.
It's basically an anthology of different
horror stories from different authors and
artists.
That's a fun one.
Creepshow is still going around if you're
a fan of the Creepshow.
Cul-de-sac.
Man, this book is...
So all those people living in the burbs,
that's something for you.
That's a horror book.
I do read a lot of horror.
But from DC,
I will say the new DC KO has
been good.
DC's Zatanna has a new run right now
going on.
There's all the spawns are still going on.
So you can literally,
if you're into spawn,
they have something for everybody right
now.
Escape is a really good one.
It's about a war,
but the people are animals.
So it's literally like an animal trying to
escape during the Vietnam War.
So that one's kind of cool.
As you talk about them, I'm adding them.
This one's really good.
Everything dead and dying.
So it's basically the Oregon Trail with
zombies.
And it's absolutely awesome.
I like that premise.
You had me at zombies.
And then Exquisite Corpses again by James
Tinian.
Basically this,
so how this story is going,
James Tenney and the creators of the comic
book are literally playing a board game to
determine which of their main characters
will die in the next issue of the
comic book.
It's really dope.
James Tenney and Michael Walsh,
fantastic on that book.
Let's see.
I just did a big backlog of comic
books here recently,
so I got a lot of stuff going
on right here.
Hello, Darkness,
which is an anthology horror series from
Boom Studios.
It's also a lot of stuff in there
by R.L.
Stine.
It's really based off his work,
and it's really, really good.
Anything from Ghost Machine,
talking like Rook Exodus.
What else is in there?
Geiger.
Hornsby and Halo, Junkyard Joe, anything.
And I do mean anything from Ghost Machine.
Jeff Johns,
who's a brilliant writer who worked on
Batman back in the day,
is the main writer over there.
It's his...
His promotion, basically,
with Ghost Machine.
Phenomenal stuff coming from those guys
over there.
If you're a big fan of Invincible,
although the comic book may not still be
going,
you can still get the compendiums for
that.
But currently, Battle Beast,
who's one of everybody's favorite
characters from that series,
has his own comic book run going on
right now.
Nice.
And that one has been really good and
really fun.
Another one from Boom Studios,
if you're into witch hunting and monster
hunting and stuff like that,
it's by Teenie Howard.
It's called A Marian Heretic.
And it's basically about a nun who hunts
witches and monsters.
And it's been a very fun series.
And it's only one issue out right now,
so you can literally go pick up issue
one and get ready for issue two.
And that's just an absolutely fun one.
I think that's a good roundup.
What's up, Rob?
What up, Rob?
His question,
how do you handle it when you find
a comic you find interesting,
but a few mags in,
you find out that it's been discontinued?
Do you finish the run,
or do you just let it go?
If I can find it,
I will buy it.
And that's just me.
I can't just leave it incomplete.
I don't think I've run into a situation
like that recently where I was just like,
you got to be kidding me because you
nine times out of ten,
you can go to the publisher's website and
get the rest of the series or you
just do what I like to do.
And that's just drive around and go to
different comic book shops and hunt it the
old fashioned way,
which is always a lot of fun because
you may discover something you've never
seen before.
I would just say,
and this is just me,
if you pick up a magazine, a comic,
and it's good,
and you see online that they stopped it,
I wouldn't stop buying it because you're
still supporting the creator.
You're still supporting those people that
did that work.
Nowadays, you get enough people on board.
You make enough noise.
People will pick it back up.
They'll find another publisher or somebody
to support them and get it out there.
I've been seeing a lot of that lately.
yeah i mean it's it's the same thing
with with anything out there man like if
you get enough fans on board um you
know people passionate about it and me i'm
a sucker for supporting man somebody took
this chance to draw this and and put
their their idea put it out there for
the masses and um
It's been discontinued,
but if there's still issues out there,
I combine support and promote things like
that.
I'm ten toes down for it.
There's no different than in anime.
You have manga that gets discontinued,
and you're just like,
why finish watching it?
Why finish reading it?
Because...
the author wants to complete his story,
her story.
So go give them that respect to finish
that story.
I'm still looking for a few issues of
Banana Fish myself for my daughter.
But if I can give one more recommendation,
it's a book by Aubrey Sitterson.
It's called Free Planet.
And it's basically about a planet that
goes to war to get its freedom.
They win their freedom.
But this is more about what it takes
to maintain and keep that freedom now that
you have it.
And I think it's like seven or eight
issues deep right now.
But it has been a phenomenal,
phenomenal read.
And I cannot recommend that one enough.
But if you want to talk about some
real indie type of comic books...
Let me pull up my YouTube studio real
quick,
and we can go through some of the
interviews that I have done.
The most recent one I did was Monday,
literally just before we left here.
I did Powerscape with a guy named Donald
Thomas Capello, or Donald Toms Capello.
Very fun comic book sitting there.
out what century it is set in but
basically the world has come to an end
as we know it in every well not
every major city but a lot of the
bigger major cities now live in these
bubbles and it is those cities are run
by an alien power source that we now
must compete in a game of powerscape to
earn the energy cores to power our planet
and
So it is something really, really cool,
something different and unique that's out
there for you.
If you just Google PowerScape comic book,
I'm sure you'll find it or you can
go to Kickstarter and find it that way.
That one was really fun.
Let's see what else.
Ah.
Memoirs of the Morbid, Orange Edition.
So basically this is like an anthology,
very similar to Creepshow or something
like that.
And it's got a little bit of something
for everybody.
So I think it's three or four stories
in there.
And before each story,
there's a segment with a guy similar to
the creep from Creepshow who kind of gives
you a funny like lead into the comic
book.
And it's really fun.
And let's see here.
Quick Wire number one is about to come
out from Apogee Comets.
That was another really good one.
It won't be on a Kickstarter.
You'll be able to go to Apogee's website
and just order it straight from their
website.
They have a bunch of indie superheroes.
That one's a lot of fun as well.
The Plague,
which I know you fell in love with.
It takes place in New Orleans after
basically something similar to COVID
happens.
And the big farm is trying to clean
up a mess.
And one of their security guards basically
got in their way.
So they basically take him out into the
woods and they plan to kill him.
However,
the swamp gives him another chance to
basically correct the wrong.
So that one's really cool.
And that one's still active on Kickstarter
right now.
So you can still get in on that
one and support it.
Then I know one of your favorites,
Dark Pink.
It's not what you guys think.
It's really not.
He pointed at me.
Your favorite, Dark Pink.
It is not that, Dark Pink.
I will promise you.
Basically,
it's about a rich kid from the UK
who basically gets into a little bit of
trouble.
And then her parents move them to New
York.
And then she finishes school there.
And then her parents are like, okay,
you're through college.
We're going to take you this vacation.
And they go down to New Orleans.
Something happens to her parents in New
Orleans.
And now she basically sells what she has,
pass everything up.
And she goes to New Orleans and tries
to, she basically starts a business.
a private investigation firm to basically
find her parents.
It's a really fun one.
It's done by Christopher Ford and it's got
some amazing,
amazing artists on that book.
You can still get in on Kickstarter on
that one and do a late pledge,
but they have all been just like really
phenomenal books.
Let's see in our dreams awake.
Issue number three is basically about a
guy who goes to sleep in one world
and wakes up in another world.
It is written by two different writers and
drawn by two different artists.
So one world's a futuristic cyberpunk era
type,
and the other one is like the Renaissance
age.
So he'll literally go to sleep in one,
wake up in the other one,
Both of them are both very different.
Oh, like Moon Knight.
No, it's the same guy.
No different personalities.
His personality is still kind of the same.
He looks a little different in each world,
but he's still the same dude.
Okay.
And another one of my favorites was
Shock-Headed Peter by E.B.
Coogan and Jessica Silvetti.
That one is a volume two of a...
It's not a comic book.
It's a graphic novel.
Graphic novel.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Brain fart there.
Apologies.
But that one's a lot of fun.
It's basically old German.
What are those called?
Oh.
Folktale, thank you.
My man in the back.
And they basically modernized it and
brought it into a new and different
setting.
It's a lot of fun.
And I can't recommend that one enough,
too.
I think it just funded as well.
And I think I've done, this year alone,
I have done twenty Kickstarters
interviews.
And I just got emailed today for one
more.
So the business is booming and I'm here
to support it in whatever way I can.
And giving them a spotlight is basically
what the United States department of nurse
has become.
And I will hopefully continue to do it
until.
I can't because it's a lot of fun
helping those guys out and putting a
spotlight on them.
Shades of Beyond, The Wall of Sleep.
Can I shout out an indie creator real
quick?
Yes.
Which I found them at a Comic Con
about –
ten years back almost.
And it's Sigma Comics.
And all of their comics that they write
are about animal,
like superheroes who save animals.
Not humans, just animals.
But a hundred percent of their,
not a hundred percent.
about eighty percent of their proceeds
that they get from their kickstarter
campaigns they donate it to charities that
help out uh animals oh no that's a
good shout out right there i like that
yes they're really dope um and they they
work with people like mike baron if you
know he's he's behind the flash and
punisher yeah so they they work with a
couple of a couple of big name uh
writers but
I want to make sure I give them
that spotlight because I've been following
them for a while.
I've been following them for a while.
They are a very dope comic studio and
what a great cause.
I got another question here.
Sigma Comics.
How did you find,
learn about these indie comics and how do
you recommend others find,
learn of indie comics?
For me, it was...
basically through Instagram, Blue Sky,
Facebook,
and just do a quick search on those
platforms for indie comics.
And for me, like I said earlier,
I was kind of having an identity crisis
at USDN where I really didn't know what
I wanted to do,
but I kind of knew I wanted to
do,
I was doing a lot of like weekly
comic books, like, hey,
this is what I'm reading and stuff like
that.
And one day I was like, you know,
I want to get into interviewing comic
creators with no intent to really focus in
on indie comics specifically.
It just kind of happened that way.
And it all started with one guy who
gave me a chance to interview him and
work with him.
give him ideas as well on his comic
and it's really cool because one of the
ideas i gave him was one of his
biggest sellers for that campaign so i'm
kind of it's one of my prouder moments
of of doing this is giving him that
idea and him running with it and it
becoming one of his bigger sellers so
that's how i learn about them and like
i was saying earlier i do promote monthly
like a few times a month
I have a calendar and I post my
calendar to a bunch of indie Facebook
groups on Instagram, on Blue Sky.
And I follow a lot of indie creators
and I follow a lot of mainstream creators
as well.
And I get emails from them.
Like I said, DMs.
They literally come into me and go, hey,
can we come on your podcast and talk
about our new project?
And I've not had one where I was
just like, no, that was not my style.
I always try to give everyone a shot
and a chance.
So that's how I did it.
Before USDM,
mine was the old-fashioned way, right?
Going to a comic shop, seeing it,
looking very interested in it,
or going around a con and seeing somebody
pushing something I didn't know,
asking them what it was about,
and finding it.
So...
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Just like anything else,
just visit your comic shop.
And then the people who work in there
are knowledgeable.
And like we were talking about earlier,
you'll be looking around browsing.
They'll come up.
Hey, what are you into?
You let them know.
And they'll be like, Hey,
I got just a thing and point you
in that direction.
So yeah,
I do have a question and I know
he was talking about identity crisis and
stuff like that I love that he picked
up the comics and stuff like when somebody
finds their passion and goes after it is
cool yes don't but I don't know if
you've seen the logo for my man's podcast
Star Wars guy yeah I got a question
for you you see the landscape you see
where Star Wars is that yes as a
property
A lot of ups and downs,
more downs than ups recently.
Oh, yeah.
Here we go.
Now we're about to have fun.
What do you think, or what direction?
We give you, hey, Disney hits you up.
Jeff, we're fumbling the ball here.
Yeah, they are.
How do we get?
It ain't a we fumbling.
You already fumbled the ball.
Fourth quarter, two-minute warning.
We need a touchdown,
two-point conversion to win.
How do we get back in the game,
Jeff?
What's the move we make?
You pull your heads out of your asses.
You go to the books.
Yes, I said the books.
And or the comic books.
And you go to the Old Republic.
Or you go to the New Republic.
Because both of them,
both comic book and written book,
are some of the best reads you will
ever, ever read.
And they are some of the best Star
Wars stories out there.
The War of Nihil is one of the
best stories you will read from the Old
Republic.
So that is what you do.
Disney, if you're listening,
that's how you unfuck Star Wars.
So...
Like, I agree, you know,
knowing some of the Old Republic stuff,
obviously playing Knights of the Old
Republic, you start seeing, oh,
there's Revan, there's Malak,
and all this other stuff.
You're like, I would love to see this,
right?
Yeah.
But, like,
these new generations who's just stuck on
the Skywalker stuff.
Like, Skywalker's a big name,
and now you're introducing people who
aren't Skywalker and stuff.
You're like, hey, who are these guys?
How do you promote that to a new
audience?
If you want to continue the Skywalker
stuff, you literally just go to the books.
Luke did.
So they never tapped into Luke's full
power potential.
This guy controlled a whole armada while
sitting at his house.
Didn't even leave his house.
He just entered into his deep state and
literally controlled a whole war,
a whole armada,
a fleet of starships using his psychic
abilities.
Yeah.
Untapped.
The dude was not to be reckoned with
in the books and in the comic books.
Not the hermit that was living on some
planet drinking blue milk from a walrus.
That is not Luke Skywalker.
Follow on.
Everybody sees Luke, right?
And they'd see Mark Hamill.
Obviously,
he don't look like Luke anymore.
are you okay obviously i don't know if
you're a fan of this absolutely i think
okay cool recast him yes mark hamill
himself says if you want to continue the
star wars saga with the the skywalker
family he's like recast me it's okay the
dude has made millions and again right
you're not wrong bucky looks just like a
young mark hamill
And again, Mark Hamill has said,
if you need to recast Luke,
recast Luke as a younger actor.
He's on board.
And CJ hit it on the head.
Dark Empire was really good.
If they resurrect Palpatine one more time,
I will lose my shit.
Super clones, right?
And there's nothing wrong with Grogu.
I love that it's a new and fresh
story with the Mandalorian and Grogu.
I'm looking forward to seeing what they do
with it after fumbling season three with
the movie.
So I'm actually excited about that.
And that one may actually get me out
of my house and into a movie theater.
Good Star Wars movie.
That's all it takes.
Well, that ain't it.
Rise of Skywalker didn't get you.
I'm playing.
Let's not do that.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
i'm sorry um but yeah outside of book
all right so what are your thoughts on
when they try to do something new aka
acolyte uh i don't want to say so
much book of boba fett but they start
trying to do these these kind of side
stories what do you feel about those
there's a lot of really good stories out
there books and comic book wise about boba
fett that they could have used um the
acolyte was a could have been the perfect
start for an old republic series
And I don't think the ball was fumbled.
I think there were certain aspects of pop
culture or culture in general that was
kind of shoved down our throat on that
one that people didn't want.
It's one of those if you stick to,
like if they wanted to create an old
Republic story,
they could have easily went to just before
Palpatine came to power and him killing,
what's his name?
Shit.
brain farting his master.
They could have went back before that and
showed us kind of like the rise of
the Sith and how we became with the
rule of two and that kind of stuff.
I think that would have been great.
And, and Rob just hit it too.
The way to bring it back into focus
as of right now is to restart the
Jedi Academy.
Start with the new Jedi order,
bring in Mara Jade as Luke's hidden wife
and his child.
That is a perfect way to do it.
I think if you're going to do that,
when you recast Mark Hamill,
Yeah, Plagueis.
Plagueis.
Thank you, Rob.
I was brain farting on that one too.
But no,
Rob hit it right on the head.
And yeah,
and Palpatine's been resurrected more than
once, which is...
But it's cool how the resurrection of him
took place and all started with Luke's
hand.
So that was pretty cool for when it
got cut off in Cloud City.
Crazy they found it.
I thought it would have fell down that
hatch.
yeah so i think that's really cool but
there's a lot of really great skywalker
stories out there that could be told by
disney if they would read the damn source
material here's the issue with that right
they don't know how to read no not
not not necessarily there's comic books so
not necessarily they don't know how to
read is disney is still stuck in
We have to tailor this for the kids.
And in order to really truly bring out
the nature that is in the old Republic,
you got to go dark, bro.
And I know you're absolutely right.
You got it.
You got it.
You got to step outside the boundaries.
And I know that you're willing to do
it for Marvel.
You got to be willing to do it
for Star Wars.
See,
and they didn't really have to do it
for Marvel.
They could have kept it at Sunshine.
Oh, no,
you needed to do it for Marvel.
But when you break that barrier and give
us something like a Deadpool and Wolverine
to where things...
You've shown us that you can go outside
the boundaries.
Yeah, I mean, they could do that.
I mean,
they proved it with Marvel with Deadpool,
Wolverine,
and then just the regular Marvel movies.
There's a way to do it.
that you can meet the sides of both
audiences the people with teenagers and
kids who want to take their kids to
see these movies and still appeal to the
adults there's a fine line there that they
can do yeah I mean yeah you can
do that but I agree with anything from
the Old Republic here would have to be
pretty dark yeah it's got to be dark
but it does it can still be done
in a way to where you can take
your kid there if you wanted to slap
a TVMA-XIV on that bad boy
And let these parents exercise parental
control and give us what we want.
It's not that hard.
Again,
that's part of the problem right there.
I would say I prefer like if they
go.
with the TV series for these things but
they got to do them right like yeah
the way they try to cram stuff in
a hour forty two hour thing you can't
do that right you do a sixteen episode
um animated series right or you do a
eight episode or a ten episode live action
where every episode is an hour hour and
a half long yeah
And I think that's what they need.
They need to understand who these
characters are.
Because shout out to Rob.
Yeah, you start doing New Jedi Academy,
Mara Jade, all of this stuff.
Disney will be like, OK, we'll do it.
And then they'll try to introduce Mara
Jade so fast.
People will be like, wait, Luke, wait,
wait, what's going on here?
Well, the fans are going to know.
Real fans of Star Wars will know.
The people Disney want to come watch.
They know they have real fans by the
balls with Star Wars,
but they want to expand it and bring
new fans in.
That's another problem.
Disney is looking at Star Wars like it's
Disney.
It's not.
They have an established fan base already.
You got to cater to them.
That fan base is literally the most toxic
fan base in fan base history.
I'll say this.
People have been coming to Disney World to
see princesses and all that stuff.
The minute you brought that Star Wars
stuff over there,
new people were coming to see you.
Yes.
Just like you did when you made Avengers
Campus.
New people were coming.
They're bypassing the magical kingdom and
going straight to the stuff they want to
see.
And if you're fumbling what they're
holding precious...
You're going to start seeing the decline
and stuff.
People not going to watch your stuff when
you put it out.
Shout out to Andor.
Great stuff.
Dude,
Andor is probably the biggest win in
Disney Star Wars history.
And what sucks about it is,
as great as that TV show is,
we knew what was coming after it.
Yeah.
But...
And that was Rogue One.
No, but that's what I'm saying.
I like that, though.
If you can already establish characters,
kind of what you're talking about,
just going back, getting some things.
Now,
I don't know how you guys felt about
Solo, as far as like, let's introduce...
It was a ball.
I'm one of the rare people that actually
liked it.
I liked it,
but I thought it was fumbled.
It could have been better.
What did you like about it?
I didn't like that I don't remember
anything that happened.
Wow.
I can understand that.
I can understand that.
In the grand scheme of things,
what happened in that movie don't really
matter.
But not to say I like the movie.
No, no, no,
because they introduced characters in that
movie
who are a part of the Crimson Rain
comic book storyline.
And those characters and that storyline
from Crimson Rain is some of the best
storyline that you can read in the comic
book.
Without a doubt.
From the audience,
he said he didn't like the fact that
he really didn't take anything away from
it.
It was more like a movie that was
just a movie,
like nothing really mattered in that
sense.
And Rob's got another good one in here
is they fumbled.
They fumbled.
They had was they wanted to distance
themselves from the old trappings, i.e.
the Skywalkers,
the distinction between Jedi and Sith,
the powers that be wanted their own
characters.
Yeah.
But here's the thing about that.
The characters are already established
within the Star Wars world.
You could create new characters within it
for stuff that happened completely after
the Skywalkers.
You could create new stuff for that.
I get that.
There's a way to do it and there's
a way to not do it.
And Disney chose the path of the way
to not do it properly.
And it's not that people don't like a
strong, powerful female lead.
We love it.
And shit, Princess Leia is one of the...
So she... She finished her Jedi training.
She was an established Jedi who just so
happened to carry the name Princess.
But her leadership qualities...
It was her leading the rebellion.
That's really where her setting and her
strengths were.
So it's not that we're afraid of a
strong female lead.
It's don't shove the female lead down our
throat the way you did.
And also,
we were led to believe in the impression
that, what's his name?
The Stormtrooper.
Finn?
Finn.
Finn was going to be the lead and
who was going to be this powerful Jedi.
You know,
because it was something we've never seen
before.
Psych your balls.
But that never happened, right?
Right.
So that was another reason for everybody
to be upset.
Because everybody was like, oh,
this is going to be about Finn.
Because that's what was given to us in
the previews and stuff like that.
I'm like, oh, Finn,
I can get behind Finn.
This is really, really dope.
Nah, nah.
Psyche.
And it's a shame that they did it
that way to us.
They messed up when J.J.
Abrams left,
and then they brought in the new guy.
Yes, absolutely right, Rob.
Me and Rob.
So for y'all who don't know Rob.
Save us.
He's our brother.
He comes on the podcast when I talk
anything Star Wars.
Official member of the council?
He is an official member of the council.
He's an OG member of the council.
Once a year,
I do a giant Star Wars show.
I didn't do it this year because I
was so busy with interviews that I hadn't
had a real time to sit down and
put anything together.
But I know the new Star Wars Visions
just finished,
so this may be a chance for me
to...
during this holiday break that's coming up
to sit down and write out my annual
Star Wars show and just do it later
than I normally would have.
Normally, I do it every May.
But yeah, if I do that,
I'll have Rob.
I will have Bill, Frank D.,
Amanda comes through, right?
Amanda, yep.
All the Star Wars.
All my Star Wars friends.
So I like to think I'm smart on
Star Wars until I met Rob and Amanda
and Frank D's come a long way.
You know what's funny about Frank D is
I'm the one that took him to see
his first Star Wars movie.
And then he just blasted off.
You know, it's funny.
Again,
that is like he would sit there and
talk so much shit about Star Wars and
how much he hated it.
And then finally,
when they like he sent me a message,
he's like, hey, I changed my mind.
I'm actually in love with Star Wars now.
I was like, welcome to the club.
Welcome to the club, buddy.
All right.
We got time for one more question in
here.
Or it's a statement, rather.
I feel like Disney is afraid of the
pushback and a little too willing to
change direction mid-trilogy,
and the story kind of falls apart in
a lot of the newer stuff.
Well,
that goes back to the director changes,
right?
Yes.
That had a bigger effect on it than
people realized.
Right.
and the vision getting messed up yes and
it's just you ended up with what you
have bro and it's like who green lit
this like what who this is the movie
y'all decided to give us like i know
y'all there's source material that y'all
could have drawn on and and not gone
with your own gut on this bro like
like so i know this is uh controversial
but i actually enjoyed the alkali because
i thought the the positive direction that
it was going in but you're gonna say
i like the last gen
Because you're like,
this is controversial.
The direction they were trying to go with
the Alkalite,
I was thoroughly ready to enjoy.
It led to Plagueis.
That was something I was excited to
happen.
It got a lot of...
People just shot it to shit for some
reason.
It really wasn't that bad at the end
of the day.
People just wanted to shit on it because
it was different.
didn't include the skywalkers with some of
these things you don't need the skywalkers
to tell a story in star wars but
that's it that's the thing though like i
think we're in this age we're we're the
elders now right because when the sequels
came out like some of the younger people
like oh this is cool this is great
this is star wars and all the older
people at that time are the prequels
episodes one through three when they came
out
A lot of people crapped on those.
You know what I mean?
I blame Jar Jar Beans for me shitting
on Star Wars.
These suck.
But over time, they went and granted,
they had to go and plug some of
these holes with the Clone Wars and some
of these animated series.
But over time,
the story made sense to where you go
back and look at them now like, oh,
I have backstory.
And oh,
I have stuff that I can draw and
now it makes more sense.
You know what I mean?
That's true.
So breaking news,
our tech director here at Cape Con is
a huge fan,
like huge fan of The Last Jedi.
Oh, my God.
He says it's rough,
but it had a lot of fun and
a lot of good ideas,
so much so that he got The Last
Jedi tattooed on his upper left butt
cheek.
I need to see it.
I don't need to see it if it's
on his buttcheek.
I'll take his word for it.
I can only quote what was given to
me,
and that's what was given to me here.
You really have that on your buttcheek?
It's a whole new movie.
It's a whole new movie.
it's one of those that like i know
we're short on time but you know just
watch that movie i understand it's like
sci-fi it's fictional none of its base but
like some of the things they were doing
like you're breaking you're breaking
whatever limits that you already created
like
I'm assuming Jedi power, the Force,
everything's cool, but when Princess, or,
you know,
General Leia gets blown out into space
after Kylo Ren blows that up,
I'm just like... And here's me.
I'm like, Carrie Fisher, you know,
God rest her soul,
passed away in real life.
I'm like, this is how...
this is how they they write her out
of the thing right and then all of
a sudden she's like bibbidi-bobbidi-boo
and flies back into the ship I'm like
what are we doing she was a Jedi
and not to be with like that so
is that out of the reason for her
as a Jedi to do that absolutely not
yeah yeah exactly but I can at least
explain it away
Yeah, exactly.
If people would have known that she was
trained in the force because Luke
completed her training.
Like literally she gave her lightsaber to
Rey.
That was her lightsaber.
That was Leia's lightsaber that she gave
to Rey.
So.
But I don't want to I don't want
to I don't want to crash too much.
She is not a Skywalker.
She is a Palpatine because she is the
daughter of one of Palpatine's clones.
At the end of the day,
how do you think she was able to
shoot force lightning with never training
in force lightning?
But with that being said,
we're going to wrap it up here.
I'm going to pass it over to my
boy, Mack.
Let y'all know where you can find him.
So, like I said, the homie Mac, a.k.a.
your boy.
First of all,
you want anything that we do here,
the Daffodil and Podcast Network Facebook
page is where it'll be at.
If you're looking for us over on YouTube,
it's at DFPN Studios.
And then Instagram as well.
I think it's Daffodil and Podcast Network.
Yep.
as well.
But we do host the Smoke Pit.
We're over there.
We do have the website as well,
thedfpn.com.
You can see all our stuff over there
as well.
We link to the YouTube channels,
everything like that.
So if you want a one-stop shop,
thedfpn.com,
and you'll see where we're all at.
But that's me.
same uh thedfpn.com uh you can follow us
there uh we do the smoke pit together
fridays uh tuesdays and i'm sorry
thursdays and saturdays we do no gimmicks
on on the network and we have so
much weekly content cutting edge heroes uh
confessions of fell family man
Eat the cake anime.
I'm tired,
so I don't want to make sure.
We also have a TTRPG.
Shout out to Awesome Zone.
Rob, who I'll do that over there.
Fantastic stuff with that.
It's a very unique tabletop game.
If you're into tabletop games or just
watching people hanging out,
in different locations around the United
States and just shooting the shit and
playing a TTRPG.
It's such a great story.
Something to check out.
And as always,
I am the chairman of the United States
department of nerds.
You can find me on Facebook or this
USDN podcast.
My main page on Facebook is the United
States Department of Nerds.
I'm on YouTube as USDN Podcast.
Instagram is USDN Podcast.
Blue Sky,
I'm on there as the USDN Chairman.
Go give us all a follow.
If I was y'all,
I would go to the ddfpn.com,
bookmark that shit,
and stay tuned because we have a lot
of big things coming.
And with that, y'all,
We're out of here, Cape Con.
Thank y'all so much, Cape Girardeau.
You're beautiful.
We'll see you in April for AnimeCon.
It's cold here, too.
Yes, it's cold.
Thank y'all.
Peace.
If you're coming out.