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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.
Thanks for watching!
Man, had I known,
I would have had my Darth Vader mask
on ready for that.
That was very rad.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate it.
But 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.
Some stories are meant to entertain.
Some are meant to disturb.
And some...
Well,
they are meant to stay with you long
after the lights go out.
And tonight we open up the first chapter
of a six part descent,
now seven part actually,
descent into horror.
An anthology built by creators who don't
just love comics, they live them.
From punk rock roots to printed pages,
this is where AHA begins.
Tonight we kick off something special.
a six-part anthology spotlight series
centered around AHA.
Simply put, a horror anthology.
Currently on Kickstarter here very soon,
actually.
And joining us to launch it all,
Chris Dahl, Chris Mendoza of CHK Comics.
You may know him as the Lone Box
Punk and Punk Rock Chris.
That's how I know them.
That's how I followed them for probably
almost two years now.
So, ladies and gentlemen,
the Council of Nerds is now in session.
Chris and Chris,
welcome to the USDN finally.
Here we are.
Thank you.
We made it, man.
Thanks for having us.
Yeah.
This is awesome for me.
As I told you before the show, man,
y'all were two of the guys I looked
at when I went down the indie comic
route to see how y'all were doing it,
how y'all were conducting business as,
like,
That's who I want to be like right
there when it comes to this.
And then maybe just crank it up to
just a little bit more.
Just a little bit more.
And that's how we find ourselves here
today.
Our mutual friend with Duke Electric.
You may know him as the man with
the pink suit known as the most handsome
man in the world.
If you ever looked upon his face,
your head would explode.
And he says it's not a true story
about him, but we all know.
We all know.
We all know.
That's why I only look at him through
a screen.
You have to be safe.
Safety first, really.
But let's start at the beginning, fellas.
So every project like this has a moment
where it stops being an idea and it
becomes real.
Where did AHA come from?
so it kind of started as a throwaway
comment being a hundred percent honest i
so i do almost weekly live streams on
my sub stack at long box punk there
um and i we had k and i
had submitted to a handful of different
anthologies
And I had submitted to a couple on
my own and it was just not working
out.
And I was like, man, we're DIY.
Like, am I clear to cuss?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just don't string a whole bunch of it
together to where I can potentially make
money off of this.
Perfect.
I was like, dude, fuck it.
Like, let's just do our own.
Like, we should just do our own anthology.
And I just kept going and kept talking
about whatever I was talking about at the
time.
And I ended my live stream and I
looked at my phone and I had a
text from Kay and it said...
uh bro we should absolutely do our own
anthology i was actually going to talk to
you about that um what are we waiting
for let's go and i was like sure
yeah okay uh i guess we're doing it
it's not your first time making your own
comic you've had one other before this
right yes yeah yeah
Yeah,
we successfully kick-started the ash can
of our comic called Barricade Brigade last
year, which he's going to show off.
I like it.
It's got that Rick and Morty feel to
it.
I like it.
So we like we're familiar with creating
together.
We've been creating now for almost two
years, almost two years.
So I'm glad he remembers dates.
I'm the typical guy.
I don't remember anything.
He's the lovely last that remembers all
the dates for me.
I'm just good with numbers.
What's up, dude?
Thanks for tuning in.
Do y'all know Kev?
I don't.
Kev will be on the show, I think,
in May.
Okay.
I think it's May.
Yes.
Either April or May.
I can't remember which,
but great dude over there doing his own
thing with his own comics.
He's got a podcast himself.
As we all do.
But yeah,
we were familiar with like making comics
and creating stories together.
And so it was just a matter of,
well, what do we, like,
where do we go from here now that
we have the idea?
I have it in my face.
Apologies, Kev,
because we're already connected though,
because I just like to support as many
indie creators as I can.
Same.
so that's kind of where aha came from
uh i'm gonna tag you in you need
to talk more how could i do more
when you took the floor like instantly
that's okay i'll let y'all find it out
later we love our squirrels man love our
squirrels exactly so the the the the great
thing here is april there we go he
made he made uh
that comment, I had already started like,
I need to take all these short horror
stories and put them together in an
anthology,
and it's just mine with a storyteller.
So I already had a storyteller.
So we've got this fucked up marionette
that looks like Mr.
Rogers that carries around giant scissors.
And he is your storyteller.
He is introducing these people.
And...
I was like,
I'm never going to have time to do
this and all these other stories I want
to do.
So let's just use them.
And that was literally where I was at
the same day he made that comment.
Yeah.
I like it.
Puppet master vibes.
Yeah.
Which if we believe rumors,
we may potentially get a new puppet
master.
I mean, tis the year of nostalgia.
So it really is.
I mean, shit.
If we're getting a Sonic four.
Yep.
We're getting Street Fighter.
Mortal Kombat II.
Give me Puppet Master, man.
Why not?
Might as well.
And we appreciate you, Kev.
Thanks for following along.
We're trying.
We're shooting for a hundred pre-follows.
How's it looking right now?
We're at ninety the last I looked.
That was the last I saw you.
We're going to hit a hundred this weekend.
We're hitting a hundred this weekend.
So...
Hitting one hundred.
I like the optimism you guys have.
You're bringing me up.
You got to.
You got to.
And I'm a huge horror anthology guy.
There's nothing better than a good
anthology.
You're getting the most bang for your
buck.
And if it's horror related, cool.
That's one of my favorite seasons is
October, September, October,
when all the good horror anthologies come
out from everybody at the local comic
shop.
Yeah.
I'm like, here's my money.
Just take it.
My LCS knows this.
They're like, hey, this new horror.
I'm like, okay, cool.
I haven't even told you what it is
yet.
I'm like, yeah, I know.
It's horror though.
Just put it in my box.
You had me at horror.
I don't care who it's from,
who's publishing, who's writing.
Exactly.
It's one of those where
me and Francisco,
we did our big horror book thing last
year during Halloween.
And we were, we were both,
we were both like,
we really connected over the deviant.
And it's just such a good story.
And then the followup with hall,
what was it?
Hall three.
Yeah.
Or late last year.
Yeah.
It was just so good.
The one shot they did.
Yeah.
It was like a pre meant to be
a prequel, I think to the deviant,
but it was just so good.
yeah the whole story the whole story is
so good on its own is just like
holy crap i can't believe that a um
a story this like deep and twisted and
layered exists at in a comic book
Like, yeah,
like on the shelf next to next to
Daredevil TV.
It's like it really does, because I mean,
most LCS has put them out in alphabetical
order on, you know, new comic book day.
I know what he's doing.
Yep.
But, like, to be fair,
Tinian makes incredible horror.
He's cashing big checks right now,
that's for sure.
Something is killing the children,
just getting picked up for live action.
Exquisite Corpses, I think,
got picked up for an animated series.
And he's got one more, I think,
that just got picked up as well.
So I'm like,
this dude's cashing all kinds of checks
right now.
Yeah.
And since he got away from writing
superheroes and he went more independent
with working with, you know,
boom studios and dark,
dark horse and image,
like his storytelling has just been
elevated.
If you just tell him to write what
he wants to write,
you're going to get a magnificent piece of
work every single time.
Yeah.
And with the, um,
I think it was last year that he
announced, uh,
that uh his tiny here we go i
told you we're getting to a hundred yeah
love it um i feel like it was
last year that he said tiny onion studios
was expanding into tv and into movies and
into
other alternative media so like who knows
what the dude's planning outside of just
and the dude's our age like he's still
he's still a younger dude I think actually
me actually he might be a little the
same age as us because I'm in my
mid-forties so
They're kick-starting the card game,
Exquisite Corpses, next.
Well,
how they're actually writing the comic
book is through the card game.
They're literally playing the card game to
determine which killer dies next.
Yes.
That's literally how they've been writing
this story.
That's how it started.
What?
But now we can play.
But yeah,
I just seen that he was getting ready
to kick that off.
Think about this, though.
Mark Spears...
His Monster series started off as a card
game on Kickstarter.
He kickstarted issue one of Mark Spears'
Monsters.
Kickstarted it.
Dude, it's insane.
Then the Keen Spot picked it up.
They were like, this dude made how much?
And they were like...
Hey, Mark, we made a mistake, man.
Can we get in on that?
We'll produce it.
We'll take care of everything, man.
And ever since then,
that book has been blowing up.
The winter bads, the poly bads,
the Halloween poly bads.
I'm a huge fan of Mark Spears' work,
especially his villains.
He doesn't do heroes well.
You can tell what he likes.
Heroes aren't one of them.
Although his Holy Trinity he did for
Absolute Batman, Wonder Woman,
and Superman.
Beautiful connecting covers.
Beautiful.
I feel like he is the Alex Ross
for monsters.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm here for it.
Give me all of it, please.
I probably have two short bosses of just
his monster stuff.
His villains.
Just his work.
Just Mark Spears.
It's so good, man.
It really is.
So we've established that this was
something that y'all had kind of wanted to
do for a while.
Now,
was it always going to be horror or
was there a possibility of maybe like,
hey, let me sprinkle in some sci-fi or...
just like we're straight horror villains
and that's what we're doing.
And I love that.
At least for our first go.
Yeah.
That, that's,
that's honestly part of what brought us
together.
So it had, it had to.
yeah when we after that initial like bro
we should do an anthology text it very
quickly was like so we're doing horror
right like that's that's what we're gonna
do and yeah duh and so yeah
but instead of there's some anthologies
that are very specific right like that
they follow a theme yeah like i just
saw one on kickstarter that's all about
teeth which i think is fascinating um and
that reminds me too much of that one
movie with the girl and the teeth oh
my god
great movie great movie it's a fun watch
but one time damn yeah i don't need
to watch that twice um especially high
school me doesn't need to watch that but
it's like fumbled enough at the time right
as we all did
yeah i don't need to be worried about
that as well exactly it it we were
like why don't we just do horror and
instead of doing like let's do horror of
this specific subject like just do body
horror just do schlock gore fest whatever
like
we were we it very quickly became
prevalent of let's feature new creators
and instead of limiting them let's shine a
light on whatever story they want to tell
in the horror genre so it can be
like we ended up with
eight stories that are all sorts of
different genres of horror.
Yeah.
They're all horror, but we like,
as the editors were very much,
we're not like telling anybody to rein it
in instead.
We're more so telling them like,
what if you push it this, like,
give me five percent more.
Like, yes,
it's cool that you're doing this thing,
but like, what if you did it?
Just a little bit more.
There's an adequate amount of blood in
that panel,
but maybe we can do the whole panel
as blood.
I could take a couple extra gallons of
blood, like just really lean into it.
Don't hold back.
And so that's what like editing the
anthology has been.
been like for us is it's very much
just us encouraging the creators to lean
in as hard as possible yeah to just
get as weird as dark as like ominous
as just messed up and twisted and like
that's what we're doing yeah so instead of
c-seventeen and comic book
That's right.
TV, MA, parental advisory stickers,
all the things.
Gotta polybag it.
Yeah.
Cover the cover of it with just like
a giant warning label.
The covers are so cool.
They really are.
And then the stickers themselves are
really cool.
I was like,
when you said the cover is over,
I was like.
Dude, those were all the artists.
We literally were just like, have fun.
Yes.
Go, go, go.
Also do a corner box.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Make a corner box and also make a
cover that is just horror.
When you open up this anthology,
will it be like the cover for that
story, and then you read the story,
and then there'll be a cover for the
next story?
Not like a traditional cover,
but like a cover for the story.
Yeah, like a title page.
There are some stories where people have
put a title block into that first page,
but really our storyteller, Roger,
I got super creative with that name.
He is the type...
That storyteller portion is introducing
the creators and the story name.
Tells from the cryptish,
the cryptkeeper type of...
I always love those types.
Those types are just so fun.
And the fact that he's a marionette is
just...
They're fucking creepy to begin with,
you know?
I'm still working on his panels,
and I'm literally about to draw him,
and I've thought about this.
You're going to love this,
so this is breaking news exclusive.
There we go.
So he's cut his strings.
That's where he got the scissors.
He's cutting his strings.
He, at one point,
ends up fed up with the partygoers,
and we were going to say he digs
out his hair.
I told Chris, but his hair's wood.
But he can pull those strings out and
take out giant chunks of wood while he
pulls those.
So that's what that panel is going to
end up being.
I like it.
I like just weird shit like that.
It shouldn't make sense,
but it's a comic book.
It makes perfect sense.
That's what's great about it, right?
Yep.
Let's talk about y'all real quick.
You both describe yourself as agent punks
making comics because you love comics.
Dude.
I love it.
Like I said,
I've been following both of you for some
time now and
I always enjoy it when I can catch
the shows or I come across it in
my feed or something.
I'm like, hey,
let me see what he was up to.
For me, it's fun.
I've enjoyed doing it.
Like I said,
you were one of those guys where I
was like,
who all is doing this that I'm looking
down this road?
You were the main one.
I'm like, oh,
we could have a niche all to ourselves,
basically.
When you look at it, I'm like,
we do have a niche almost to ourselves.
Yeah.
And we have pop-ups sometimes, you know,
the guys like,
and I love to see them.
I really do.
Yeah.
Cause it's the guys that pop up like,
Hey, I'm starting a podcast.
You're going to come on, you know,
all indie creators, man, y'all come on.
I'm like, hey man, cool.
The niche definitely could use one or two
more bodies to spread the love around
because your boys are tired over here.
Love it.
Love it.
There's so much we can do.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I mean,
if I could do this every single day,
I would do it every single day,
but man, it's hard.
I've already lost all the color in my
hair.
Yeah.
I have this one.
Yeah.
I remember when this was actually black
too.
Mine was red at one time.
Mine was red.
So I used to have this glorious red
beard.
I never got to enjoy it,
but I had it.
Yeah.
We get the pop-ups, man.
I always enjoy seeing them pop up and
then they're gone.
I'm like, what happened to that one guy?
Dude, it takes so much...
dogheadedness stubbornness stubborn
stubborn I'm I'm for punishment that part
that well that's indie comics in general
yes and everything we're all type A's you
know we're all just like yeah
I like that, but hey,
what if you did it like that?
If I was doing that,
I wouldn't tell you how to do it,
but if I was doing that...
Two days ago when I was talking to
Donald, I was like, dude,
I don't like the way this comic book
ended.
He's like, where did you get to it?
I was like, I got it right here.
He's like, oh, dude,
there's two more pages.
He's like, the folder just didn't update.
You got to go back and finish reading
it.
I was like, oh, thank God.
I was like,
I was so mad at you, dude,
for the way you were ending that book.
He's like, no, that's on me, dude.
He's like, that's on me.
The folder didn't update with all the
panels in.
I was like, oh, thank God.
He's like, I appreciate you telling me.
I was like,
I was going to tell you, dude,
because I wasn't happy.
You're going to hear about it.
I needed at least two more panels or
at least two more pages of panels there.
He's like, I don't know.
They're there, man.
He's like, the folder just didn't update.
I was like, okay, cool.
That's outstanding.
Yeah.
I don't know.
The aging punks making comics,
that's definitely a mindset, man.
How are you taking that mindset of the
punk rock culture and the DIY mentalities
and just applying that to now a whole
anthology series?
And really,
you brought in all kinds of creators from
different walks of life.
You got some Canadians,
you got Australians, you got...
Some Americans sprinkled in there.
I mean,
you really went out and got a fantastic
cast of characters to work on this book
with y'all.
Walk us through that, man.
How did y'all pick and choose who y'all
were going to bring in on this?
Do you want that?
Do you want me to take that?
I'll start.
We had a super secret grading method that
was extremely mathematical and logical.
I need details.
It had zero.
It was arbitrary.
Imaginary numbers involved.
Yes.
Don't give away the goat, man.
We had sixty eight people submit to this
year as artists or as writers.
And not one of them was bad.
Yeah.
That's the thing that kind of blew our
minds.
Did you advertise it in like the Facebook
groups?
uh we did oh good ish we definitely
hit we hit threads um okay i replied
to one uh reddit post which that's never
a place to because i'm gonna normally go
you're a fucking brave man i know dude
listen he was in reddit i was like
got a dick picture in your in your
inbox um
I was posting it in like different discord
channels that I'm in with a bunch of
comic creators.
And someone in one of those was like,
Hey,
do you mind if I post this in
Reddit?
I was like, Oh, thank God.
Please do.
Cause I'm not going there.
Like, yes.
Yeah.
Post.
And we actually,
I think two of our people came from
Reddit.
Yeah.
Which is rad.
Yeah.
No, that's really cool.
And I, I, yeah, dude.
Reddit is one of those where.
If I have a very weird question about
something,
I go to Reddit first because it's going
to be there guaranteed.
It's just getting out of there without a
dick pic is the problem, you know,
because you're walking away with at least
one.
Yep.
You didn't ask for it,
but you're getting it.
I just wanted to know how to unclog
my drain and now I have a dick
pic.
Yeah.
That's not going to work.
I'm not going to use my wiener to
unclog the drain.
No, exactly.
Exactly.
Thanks Reddit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We,
it was basically just canvassing social
media.
We were posting in discords and stuff.
And then I did the amazing thing of,
I take December's off like completely and
I,
I unplug and disconnect from everything.
That's the last two weeks of December for
me.
So like the first week of January.
okay yeah so like that two weeks in
when we were like hey let's do submissions
from like mid-november through the end of
the year and then we posted everything and
i sent k a message i was like
oh by the way i don't do anything
on social media on december remember that
and he was like shit that's on me
isn't it yes it is and it was
and he did a great job yeah
But yeah,
we had sixty eight people submit.
It's a lot of people, man.
There's a lot of people.
It's insane.
We we golly, I can't remember.
We weeded through artists because I had
gone through the artists on my own while
he was still on sabbatical and had a
few ideas on who I would really like
to see in there and where I would
like to see them.
And then basically we
Once we went through the people that
submitted pitches for stories,
we had set up the artists for sequentials
as a,
what type of things do you like to
draw?
And between what the pitch was and what
the artists like to draw,
we were able to marry the teams together
very easily.
We had one switch with Minaj and,
oh golly,
I can't remember who the other...
Ryder was.
Yes.
That was the one switch we had to
make artists on.
And that was honestly for the better,
I'm sure.
But it was so minor because both artists
were great.
It just was a slightly better fit.
So let's walk through this real quick,
man, because we got you two together.
We got Duke and Miguel, Chaz and Tony.
Yep.
travis and i'm not sure who he has
with him he's one of the cover artists
yeah that's right he's one of the cover
artists then we got menage and lucas then
evan i think is doing his own right
yes yep and was there any i will
we just added one more which will be
i think we went to
After this,
shoot me an email so I don't forget
him.
I get somebody shooting me a message
randomly going, hey, I'm the guy.
Can I get the code to the show?
What?
Who are you?
I just don't want to forget.
Definitely shoot that to me.
That way I can get him in there.
I got the memory of it.
Like what?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then, so Chris, uh,
Kay is actually doing a story written by
Vaughn Fox, um, for Glass Comics.
And then I wrote a story and Alex
Clark is doing the artwork on my story.
Um, so, and like,
I met Alex at a convention last year,
um, and,
and we immediately were like,
we should be making comics together.
And he was like, we absolutely should.
And he's a one man show on his
own story.
And so like it,
it made sense to work him in here.
Cause he just had the lost in or
his solo story.
Yeah.
that he had done and so we were
like yeah like we it people kept asking
what does new mean like i'm a new
creator i'm like bro you've got a
bibliography you are not new like you are
on imdb sir
There were some that we would have loved
to work with,
but because we were so adamant about,
nope, it's new creators.
So if you've got a single series that
you've written or done the art for and
maybe an anthology appearance...
Cool.
Yeah.
Anything more than that?
Like, you're not new.
You've got the experience.
And so we were looking really for, like,
our own peers.
Yeah.
And we were very clear.
We did two, like,
Zoom calls with all the creators and,
you know,
half on one call and half on the
other.
And we were like, listen,
we're figuring this shit out, too.
Like, we're not...
We don't know how to make an anthology.
To be clear, we're figuring it out.
And yeah, you know,
we just want to be transparent.
And they were like, cool.
Okay, great.
We're all learning together then.
Yeah,
like it's it's not a we know how
to do this.
And we will impart our knowledge to you
younglings.
It was nothing like we're all doing this
thing together.
Because we just want to make rad comics.
and so like that's what we're doing
together in life man that's everybody's
all in it's been like it i couldn't
ask for any better or different experience
other than uh not having life get insane
for one of our creators shout out to
pj um yeah pj had to drop out
because they had a ton of just life
shit explode all at the same time it
happens and so it was like yo
Take care of life.
Like this is comics are going to be
comics regardless of what you have going
on.
So just take care of your shits and
volume two.
We'll be here before you know it.
We'll be here, man.
Like this isn't the only time we're going
to do an anthology.
Yeah.
So like that's the only thing that I'm
like, yeah,
I wish life wasn't crazy for PJ because
their story would have been freaking
awesome.
Yeah, it was a really good story.
But there's always later.
But also, yeah, like life.
And honestly, kind of thinking about this,
you know,
we were talking about how a lot of
anthologies have a theme or something like
that.
Realistically,
our theme is that they're all new.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's probably my favorite part about
this is, I mean, and I know Duke.
I know him personally.
I talk to him pretty often, actually.
We were just talking about Spider-Man the
other day,
and we've both seen Peter falling out of
the web.
And I was like, hey, dude,
this could be a setup for the other.
And he was just like, oh, dude,
I just he's like,
I just pulled that comic book out the
other day and gave it a read.
I was like, yeah,
that would be a sick horror feature.
You know, we just did Marvel zombies.
So, you know,
why can't you give us the other
Spider-Man,
which would just be absolutely sick,
in my opinion.
Yeah.
So, yeah,
we had a whole conversation about that.
And then we were like talking about
something else like Comic-Con is a thing.
Because I think Toronto Comic Con is this
weekend as well.
He's like,
I'm not even going to get to go.
I'm like, eh,
you're not missing nothing most likely,
man.
But no, so I like it.
First time creators.
Was that somebody's cat?
That's my cat, yeah.
Your cat has a boom to him.
Oh, it's precious.
I'm a cat guy.
I got three of them.
Anytime somebody,
I hear a cat and I'm like,
kitties can i pet it exactly he's so
pretty too yeah i got a long hair
that's a he's a main coon mitts i
got um that's what he is yeah beautiful
cast man i love it and my daughter
just found some calicos the other day and
she's like can i bring it home i'm
like no yeah i got three of them
it's
No, you absolutely can't do that.
I want to make sure you hear I'm
saying no.
Don't bring it home.
Exactly.
If that was me, then yes.
We got a nineteen pounder over here.
That was the last one she brought home.
He's not fat either.
He's just a solid boy.
Just big.
Just a big old cat, man.
Then we got Evie, who is our baby.
My little princess who comes in and
She's like, hey, Dad, give me my massage.
And I sit there,
and you get her ears.
You get her face.
And she's just, like, purring, just, like,
drooling on herself.
And I'm just like, wipe your lips.
There we go.
Yeah, she drools on herself.
She snores like she's, you know,
cutting trees.
That's awesome.
That is fantastic.
What's this here?
Ooh.
Ooh.
Oh, bro, no.
We're not... I'm sorry, dude.
No.
They're trying to sell you a consultant.
Oh, sweet.
Yeah,
I would love for you to fuck off,
actually.
Um...
That's why they're getting blocked.
And I'm pretty sure this is the same
person who just sent Paul Eza an email
the other day saying, hey,
I've seen your appearance on this podcast.
I can do this,
this and this for you.
And when they're coming back to me going,
hey,
do you know who this person is and
why they're emailing me to my personal
accounts?
Which means they had to go find him.
Find his personal email through his social
media and then email him.
And then it comes back to me.
I'm like, I am.
I do not work for any type of
consultations.
Matter of fact,
if you want a consultation with me,
I will give you a consultation all day
because that is kind of what we do
here.
Yep.
In the spirit of DIY,
we're doing everything ourselves.
That's kind of what DIY means.
It completely undercuts what I do here.
They can take that bullshit someplace
else.
No offense to you.
You're probably a great person.
You're trying to earn your money,
but don't bring that bullshit on my
channel, on my page, to my...
I don't want to call you clients for
my new friends with that kind of shit.
We don't do that here.
It's like,
you're trying to undercut me and I'm not
charging.
So what are you doing?
Right.
Yeah.
I'm trying to promote indie comics.
You're trying to take money from people
who make indie comics.
Yeah.
Like we're, we're not making any money.
We just want to produce our book, man.
And print a book.
Like, come on, dude.
I love when I get those emails anytime
I set up a pre-launch page.
And I suddenly start getting like flooded
with emails of, hey,
I work for this consulting firm and I
would love to talk to you about your
pre-launch.
So there's some good ones out there.
There really is.
Like Backerkit, they are good people.
They work with Kickstarter directly.
And that's what they do is Kickstarter
promotions.
And they're fantastic people.
I've never heard anything bad about them.
But this kind of shit,
because I'm pretty sure that's the person
right there who emailed Paul.
And it makes me look bad.
And I don't want to look bad.
If I'm going to look bad,
I'm going to do it on my own
accord.
That's right.
I'm perfectly capable of making myself
look bad.
Give me five minutes.
I've been making myself look bad for forty
years.
Fucking forty-four years, man.
I think I can do this on my
own, okay?
yep oh dude it just fires me up
man because it's like the most
disrespectful thing ever you want to pitch
your client pitch yourself in the middle
of my show yeah well we're trying to
talk about aha all right and i love
that name dude where the hell did that
name come from first of all that's another
question i gotta get that one out there
where did it come from
So we're simple people.
And like wordplay.
Yeah.
And we were talking about, you know,
so we're going to do this horror anthology
and it's going to be CHK presents a
horror anthology.
And I was like, well,
hang on a second.
A horror anthology.
What if we just call it AHA?
Yeah.
and then it's literally an acronym and it
stands for our anthology freaking
brilliant man that's marketing one-on-one
right there there it is it's so easy
to find too on kickstarter like oh yeah
so easy three letters that's what i like
too like if you don't like when people
go like hey i'm doing this kickstarter and
they don't i'm asking like hey can you
send me your links can you do this
i need your social media i need that
And they're like nickel and diming me on
stuff.
Right.
I'm like, you know,
let me go to Kickstarter and try to
find it myself.
And I can't find it for shit.
Yeah.
I'm like, what is going on here?
Yeah.
How many other comic books can be named
this?
And there's like, yep.
I'm like, okay, but which one are you?
I'm like trying to double cross-checking
names.
Yeah.
That's the one that emailed me.
Okay.
It's this one.
It's this one.
Let me get that.
And I'm copying all their links.
I'm like, oh, blue sky.
I'm like, are you on blue sky?
So she don't want to tell me nothing.
Okay.
Oh, Hey, there he is.
copy and paste that and like be
forthcoming with details that's all i'm
asking yeah every time i search
kickstarter for aha uh we most recently
enough if you include the exclamation mark
we're the third project that comes up if
you don't we're the fourth kind of crazy
there's four of them
Yeah, but that's the thing.
None of them are named AHA.
They just have A-H-A in another word in
the title.
I think there is one novel that's got
AHA in it.
I'll save my Dr.
Doofy Schmertz reference for later then.
What?
I only have two nickels,
but it would be a very strange
coincidence.
That's the one.
Oh, shit.
Chris McKay knew where I was going.
Yeah, you lost me there.
Come on, man.
Dr. T. Fishmertz.
Absolutely.
Phineas and Ferb, my guy.
Yeah, man.
Okay.
Come on,
we got to get you up on some
Phineas and Ferb, man.
If you haven't watched a hundred and one
days of summer vacation,
then you're missing out on your life.
That's a great one.
Apparently I'm missing out on my life.
You are.
We got to fix that.
We definitely got to fix that.
They're the triangle headed one.
Yes.
One of them.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
Great.
Don't ask me which one,
but I can never remember.
They're simply like children,
Jay and Silent Bob with an annoying
sister.
Got it.
Yes.
Yes.
Got it.
They don't have Rosario Dawson.
Classic.
But they had me now in,
I think at one time doing a character
voice.
Really?
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Who does their theme song?
Oh, God.
Bowling for Soup.
Yeah.
I've heard the theme song at least because
I've heard them do it.
Yeah.
Which, to side this in, yeah, they do.
So Bowling for Soup had a comic book,
very briefly,
and it was written by Von Fox,
who's writing the comic that Chris is
illustrating in AHA.
Yes, dude.
I love it.
I do.
perfect full circle moment i like it bring
it in you know back to the sales
pitch of we have really good people
creating dude that's awesome
Bullet for Soup is Alexa Bliss' favorite
band.
Yeah.
Where's she from?
Columbus.
There you go.
It's always fucking Ohio, man.
I swear.
Yeah, man.
Yeah, man.
Everything comes back to Ohio.
I don't know if this is...
It's like the nine degrees of separation
for Kevin Bacon or whatever.
Only we can pick out the Kevin Bacon
and put Ohio.
What's your degree of Kevin Bacon?
Because I'm guaranteeing you I'm going to
make it even lower right now.
Why do you know it?
Yeah, I'm going to change your life.
So I have a degree.
I have a kid in college in pre-med,
okay?
Okay.
That's my life-changing event.
I have a daughter in nursing in college.
Hey, there you go.
So we're basically the same.
Exactly.
So my degree of Kevin Bacon is two.
So now your degree of Kevin Bacon is
three because you know me.
So when I worked at my local theme
park in the character department,
I was Scooby-Doo.
And one of my cohorts...
worked in movies and costuming and he
worked with Seth,
like he was Seth Green's personal dresser
in the movie Airborne,
which was shot in Cincinnati,
like inline skating.
Cause we're the city of seven Hills,
literally the city is surrounded by Hills.
And so Airborne was shot here.
And so he worked on that film and
he,
Seth Green was in a movie with Kevin
Bacon.
I don't remember which one it was,
but I remember this because I remember
that that made my degree of Kevin Bacon
too,
because I'm two degrees away from him.
So now you're three degrees because you
know me and I know Donnie and Donnie
knows Seth Green and Seth Green works with
Kevin Bacon.
So you're welcome.
Now you can put that on your resume.
Okay.
That's good.
Dude.
First line.
Well, maybe the second one.
The chairman is kind of important.
But now... Jeff, the chairman,
three degrees from Kevin Bacon.
Exactly, exactly.
Priorities right there.
You could make it sound like a martial
arts belt and be third degree Kevin Bacon.
I have a Kevin Bacon...
Everybody has to start doing that now.
Everybody has to start doing it that way
now.
I like that.
So...
Does that mean your third degree of Kevin
Bacon is more impressive than my second
degree of Kevin Bacon?
Ooh.
Because doesn't karate go up?
Karate goes up.
I know that because I had to go
all the way to second degree black belt.
I'm playing golf over here, my guy.
You're playing golf.
But you can still say second degree Kevin
Bacon.
I have a degree of bacon of two.
Boom.
There you go.
There you go.
You could be bacon squared.
Bacon squared and you're bacon cubed.
Yep, there it is.
Part two.
Part two.
Part two with an X. Exactly.
sorry that's a weird tangent to go on
that i don't need no dude that's perfect
man i love that kind of stuff like
nothing's getting cut from this episode i
love it yeah just let it all ride
man oh dude nine times out of ten
i do it that way anyway because of
the way i structure everything but this
one is kind of off the rails and
i love it
Welcome to our world.
I can't help it.
You have to.
To some degree,
we all have something like that.
Otherwise,
we would not be doing this to ourselves
every week.
Multiple times.
When you were putting this together and
you were deciding the order of the
stories,
did y'all try to make it cohesive or
was it just like...
We're going to make this as random as
humanly possible.
And it's just going to be like, hey,
this story is kind of mild.
And then the one in the middle is
kind of like,
what the hell did I just read?
And then it's like, oh,
here's a soft version for you.
And then it's like.
That would have been the smart thing to
do.
So take a cue from Nirvana and loud,
quiet, loud.
But we did not do that.
We didn't do that.
No.
We just kind of put them in order.
Yeah, we kind of were like,
it was super secret,
mathematically logical.
You were rolling a d-twenty to determine
where they went in the book.
Listen,
just because I have a d-twenty right here
doesn't mean anything.
I knew it.
I called it.
Let me reach into my driller.
Let me just stretch to my over desk
shelf.
That's right out of view.
Shout out to Sean Sunday for having a
custom D twenty with his brain beast
studios logo.
Anyway.
Yeah.
No, we, we,
the only like order wise,
the only thing that I was very intentional
with was like,
I don't want either of our stories that
we're involved with being first or last.
Like, I don't want that.
Cause it's not,
the anthology is not about us.
We're taking part in it because we're also
new creators.
But like, yeah.
we don't want,
this isn't like a self-service hand job.
Like that's not what we're doing.
So that was the only intentional thing
that we did.
And then from there it was like, okay,
so for like middle-ish people,
There was a little bit of conversation,
but really it was like,
I feel like this one needs to be
last.
I feel like this is a good first
story.
And then if we fill us in in
the middle, then we can... Cool,
they're third.
And...
So it was very much that there was
a highly scientific method to how we put
the order together.
You rolled a D twenty.
We rolled a D twenty.
That sounds cooler.
That sounds cooler.
Yeah.
Especially in the environment we work in.
If you're rolling a D twenty to determine
the order, you're doing it right.
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah,
besides our placement in the anthology,
the rest of it, we were like, whatever,
we can write the Roger pages to make
whatever makes sense.
How many pages is the book going to
be?
Last count was,
we don't have a hard number.
I've actually taken the time.
Yeah, you have.
Without a thank you page,
we're looking at seventy nine pages of
print.
Dope.
Nice.
So you're definitely going to get the bang
for your buck on this one.
Yes.
Square bound digest size because
everything the CHK does is digest size.
So you can easily fit it in your
back pocket and take it with you on
the bus, on your commute,
on your bike ride, whatever.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's something about the digest size
that's just the perfect.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You want to scare a mammal while you're
flying from Atlanta to L.A.?
You open that fucking thing.
That's how you do it.
Yeah.
That's what's up.
And I think Duke did one of those
as well.
He did an ash can of Greg.
Because it's got the imposed USDN approved
logo hidden in it.
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah.
So everybody gets it.
It's like, Hey,
use it how you want to use it.
But this, you know,
you're USDN approved and I got the whole
stamp.
I send it to you.
It's a thing.
Hell yeah.
That's rad.
That's going to go in.
Uh-huh.
So we'll make sure.
It's definitely a thing.
It's out there.
People get it.
It's real.
I'll show it to you.
I like that a lot.
I might steal that.
It's how I close out.
It's how I close out every single clip
I do.
It's every single show I do.
You watch to the very end and the
stamp comes down and stamps it USDN
approved.
That's really cool.
That's right, man.
I like that a lot.
So this thing has gothic horror,
some psychological thrillers, sci-fi,
and just some straight up nightmare feel
like...
there's some stuff in there that I've seen
that I cannot unsee.
And I never want to unsee it because
it was just like, Ooh,
I've never thought about that one before,
which is wrong to think, but it's like,
that's really cool.
You know, I've never seen that.
And I've seen, if it's a horror movie,
I've probably seen it.
That was a new one on me.
And it's, you know,
which I'm talking about too,
the cover where he's like slicing through
and there's some spine showing.
I was just like, Ooh, yeah.
Like, like I like that one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's the cool thing about having
three separate cover artists is like,
we told each,
we picked each of those artists based on
their pitch submission.
And it was like,
Just go.
Just have fun.
Something horror is all we require.
The medium, the subject matter,
the perspective, the look, whatever.
Totally up to you.
Just get fucking weird and dark and scary
and creepy and eerie and
that's what we got with all three covers
and so like there's no primary cover
there's no like oh this is the standard
cover and then this is the very it's
like no we we have three letters so
we have a cover a we have a
cover h and we have a cover a
exclamation mark
Oh, dude, I like that, man.
Again,
you go back to marketing one-on-one.
That's marketing right there.
That's right.
I know a thing or two because I've
worked a job or two.
Or thirteen.
It doesn't matter.
It's just a matter of whichever one calls
to you, do it.
And if multiple do,
we have prints of just the artwork of
the covers.
And
if I can get ahold of Yosefa and
say, Hey,
can I get the original artwork for your
cover?
I would love that.
Cause she like hand painted that.
It's so good.
And I just like, I just, I'm a,
I'm a glutton for paying a ton of
money for shipping from Israel.
But like, I want that cover art.
And so if she sees this before I
have a chance to actually connect with her
directly, can I just buy that from you?
Because I want it.
I want her like, it's so fucking good.
And all three of them are excellent and
they're way beyond anything I could have
possibly imagined to come up with to give
direction for.
But like, man,
there's something about a hand painted
watercolor,
like sea monster with a cult doing
sacrifices to this.
Oh, it's so good, man.
It's like every time,
like when Peach Momoko drops something new
like that,
it's all watercolor and traditional.
And I'm like, yep.
In an age of AI and computers,
give me analog, give me painted,
especially water.
I will always love watercolor.
And if Peach Momoko's name is on the
front, just take my money.
Yeah, man.
I don't even read that book,
but it's Peach Momoko.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
It's like you see a Scotty Young cover
and you're like,
i think there's a david nakayama covering
this too damn yeah like scotty i remember
that time you were in northern kentucky
and i was the volunteer that was working
your con table and someone mistook me for
you because you were working a panel and
this guy came up to me and like
poured his heart out to me thinking i
was scotty young oh yeah scotty's just
sitting there coloring
Dude, Scotty was in a panel.
So I was just standing next to the
table and it broke me to be like,
man, I love what you just said.
I'm not Scotty.
Scotty would love it too.
For a half a second,
I considered just rolling with it.
Thanks, man.
That means so much to me.
That's cool as shit.
But I could see him talking to his
other table, maybe he's another vendor.
i could see him talking and like looking
over and like getting up and just being
anxious and all the things yeah and so
i let him do the whole spiel and
i was like now that you've practiced it
when scotty's done with his panel and
comes back please come back you can tell
him and it'll be so much better like
yeah it's gonna land with him man like
please i mean scotty's a good dude so
yeah he is he like he gave me
a couple prints just for standing at his
table and i was like dude yeah
I just was randomly assigned to your
table.
Did you read Lovesick?
Yeah.
From Luanna Vecchio?
Yeah.
So she was at the Comic-Con I'm going
to tomorrow last year.
And I kind of knew who she was.
I've read Lovesick.
Great book.
I have it in floppies and I have
the hardbacks in both.
Oh, nice.
And both doll parts and Lovesick,
a doll part.
Sorry.
or doll parts.
I love sick story.
Yeah.
And you meet her and she's like the
sweetest little,
I think she's Italian or French.
I can't remember which.
I think she's Italian.
Yeah.
But she's,
she's like this super tiny little human
being.
And she's just like,
you wrote something very sick,
very twisted in such a delightfully
amusing way.
Yep.
Like,
what's really wrong with you though?
Really?
Because it's such, it's like,
because when you see her and you,
you see the book and you read the
book and you're like two and two is
an equal at five right here.
Yep.
But it's like so good.
I had to get them all signed and
I got the poster.
I got the whole nine.
And because how often are you going to
get the chance to like actually meet her?
Right.
Yeah.
It's like Tula was there as well.
Tula Latoy.
She's, of course, from the UK.
Yeah.
And she had her like she does a
limited print of art books every single
year.
And they're only about.
yay big, but it's all her original work.
And like, I really wanted that.
And I have like,
so she had just released a couple of
covers for a couple of books from image.
And I think one from boom studios,
I think it was her cover for kind
of rose me story.
Yeah.
uh, ester system at six hundred pen.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
And, um,
I was getting that signed and she had,
it was another one on dark horse that
had come out around the same time.
So I had these books to get signed
and I look over and there's her,
her art book.
I was like,
is that what I think it is?
She's like,
were you looking for an art book?
I was like, yep.
She's like, then that's it.
Is that the new one or the old
one?
She's like, it's the new one.
She's like,
and then she pulls out the old one
as well.
I was like, just give me both.
Um,
You know,
just send me with a good time, Tula.
And Tinny Howard was there.
Tinny Howard was there unadvertised.
She's like,
I've been advertised the whole time.
She's like,
you're not the first person to say that.
They didn't advertise me on the website,
but I've been booked the entire time.
I'm like, well,
they did a really poor job of advertising
it.
I'm like, do you know who you are?
You're freaking Tinny Howard.
I don't know who you are.
I'm like,
you literally wrote some of the best Rick
and Morty issues out.
Yeah.
She's like, yeah, I know.
I'm like,
I didn't bring any Rick and Morty with
me.
And she's like, like this.
I was like, give me that.
I was like, yep.
Take it.
I had to literally buy that off of
her, but I was like,
I would rather buy it than not take
this opportunity to talk to her and get
her autograph.
I think J. Scott Campbell was there,
so I got some Ninja Turtles stuff signed
as well.
He's got to get his Ninja Turtles signed.
When I see Ninja Turtles now,
I immediately go to him and some of
his covers he did for The Last Ronin.
Sorry,
I got I got slab blast run ins
over there.
That's why I was just like,
I don't want to bring this.
I know a box it's in.
It's not even in a box.
It's literally just sitting on the shelf
over there.
Nice.
Yeah.
And well,
that was not what his covers but that's
the purple rain cover.
Which I think,
I forgot what the limit was on that
one,
but it was a lot of those produced.
So when I got the chance to get
that one, I was like, yes.
Jumping.
Exactly.
So what would y'all think was the biggest
challenge in building this anthology?
I mean,
I know you weeded out sixty-eight people
to make this book,
but this had to be something else in
there that just was like
How are we going to do that part?
I mean.
It.
It just feels like making our comic.
Yeah.
Yes,
there's way more of us than just the
two of us.
Yeah.
But it's all the same stuff.
We still have deadlines that we created
that we are following and everybody else's
too.
And like...
we're still communicating with each other
and the rest of the creators at like,
we're still creating a Kickstarter page
for all of these tiers with images and
all the things.
And like, it just, it's, it's the same.
It's just more.
But it also doesn't feel like it's crazy.
Like I haven't felt like it's a ton
of extra because I'm putting in the same
amount of work.
doing it.
Cause I like,
I treat creating comics like it's its own
job so that I can flip into business
mode and be like, okay, so marketing wise,
we need to come up with social posts.
We need to make sure we're posting the
campaign link and pre follow up prelaunch
and getting on podcasts that are gracious
and excellent enough to host us.
And we need to get the word out
there.
And how do we talk about it with
in real life people and,
And how do I encourage the creators to
talk about it as much?
That's been the part, if anything,
because we're working with brand new
creators.
Some of them,
this is their first story ever to be
published.
And so it's a lot of like,
I can't expect them to have the same
understanding that I do,
having done my show for three years,
talking to Kickstarter comic creators
regularly.
You learn a thing or two, right?
Yeah.
Like,
I can't not think about indie comics
without also thinking about all of the
other stuff that goes in.
Like, you can't just write the script,
send it off and be done.
Like, yeah, I made a comic.
You did the easy part by writing it.
Now you have to market and promote and
produce and talk about and get it in
front of people and convince people that
they need to buy it.
Find a printer.
All the things.
For me,
it's a lot like I'm in a very
unique position where I have a very large
network of indie comic creators.
And so...
There were some people that I was like,
hey, you've done anthologies.
What do I need to be thinking about?
How do I approach... How do I temper?
How do I have realistic expectations?
How do I manage all of this stuff?
And then...
when it came to printing, it was like,
well,
I know a guy that works for this
place.
And so like,
we can talk to him and maybe he
can hook us up.
And he did.
And so like, cool.
Now we've got a printer and hey,
we want to do this piece of swag.
How the hell do we do that?
I don't know.
Let's just Google it.
That's like to your point earlier about
like,
how do we bring DIY into making comics?
Yeah.
It's not being scared to ask questions.
If we need a vendor for making something,
let's just figure that out.
If I can have access to making buttons
at my library, how does that work?
I don't know.
Let me just email the library and they'll
figure it out.
And now here I am about to go
tomorrow for my third session to make more
buttons.
Yeah.
You just learn by doing.
And I talk about it a lot on
my show with other creators of like,
the only way to make comics is to
start making comics.
Like you're never going to know all this
stuff before.
There's no perfect time.
Just like kids.
There's no perfect time to have kids
because it's always a cluster cost.
It's always something new.
Like you,
there's no book that can prepare you for
a battery up the nose or
Yeah.
Like you can't,
there's no way to prepare for it.
So just do it and figure it out
as you go.
And part of that is being humble enough
to be like, I don't know everything.
Can I ask you a question?
You know?
Yeah.
That's why I always tell people,
if you have questions along the way,
I've learned a thing or two along my
way as well.
You don't talk to as many creators as
I've talked to and not help.
learned a thing or two.
And I know Bruno,
we were talking about Bruno before we went
live.
Yeah.
He has some really great stuff out there
on his, um, that's not a sub stack.
It might be a sub stack,
but he's got like lessons learned that I
will send to people.
They're like, hey, I got these questions.
I'm like,
I got the perfect thing for those answers.
I will send it to you as soon
as we're done.
I just send them those links from Bruno's
website or his sub stack of just like,
hey,
here's my lessons learned from doing so
many Kickstarters.
It's brilliant stuff.
It's simple, but yet
You probably haven't thought about it.
He's learned a lot of stuff.
He does a new article almost every time.
He has some more lessons learned.
He builds off of it.
They're constantly being updated.
I think he's up to part three,
I think.
Yes.
It's like, that's what I said to people.
You can't know what you don't know.
Right.
Right.
So like the only way to figure out
what even the right questions are to be
asking, like,
does page weight matter when you're
printing?
Like, do I need sixty pounds?
Do I need eighty pound?
Do I need thirty pounds?
Like, I don't fucking know.
So like, why does page weight matter?
And then suddenly you know the question to
then start asking people like, hey,
what is page weight?
Like a single page doesn't weigh sixty
pounds.
What the hell are we talking about right
now?
And then you learn by talking about it.
And it's not until you start getting into
the weeds of like, oh,
I need to make sure that for print,
my color profile is CMYK instead of RGB
for digital.
And those things matter.
And I didn't understand why until we
started doing this.
Because then I had like...
the creators were giving us those
questions like, Hey,
when I export my image files,
does that need to be a TIFF or
a GIF or a ping or a,
and I'm like, I don't fucking know.
And he was like, got it.
Yes.
Give me this, give me this file format,
give me this color profile, give me the,
and I was just like, yeah,
what he said.
What the hell does that mean?
It's wild because when people jump into
this,
they don't take that into calculations.
They're like, oh,
I'm going to have to make this decision
and I don't know what it should be.
This is one of those cases where I
wouldn't go to Reddit for it because
you're going to get like fifty million
answers and they're all right.
Yes.
It's like,
how do I write a comic script?
Oh,
there's seventy four thousand different
ways to write a script.
Exactly.
The right way to write it is, however,
it makes sense to you and your
collaborator.
Correct.
Yes.
That's the right way.
The right way is to start.
Every artist is going to be different.
Some artists, you can just say, hey,
here's my story.
And they're going to go, OK, cool.
And they're just going to start working.
And some are going to come back and
go, hey, in this one scene here,
you say this.
Yeah.
what way are they looking?
Are they facing the East?
Are they facing the West?
I got to know because I need to
look up where the sun's going to be.
Yep.
And you're like,
you're weeds and seeds in.
Do you have visual references?
Yeah.
Are we talking like marble countertop,
steel countertop, like,
just regular wood like what kind of
countertop is it because it could matter
later when they're chopping body parts on
it if the wood is warping or not
warping because is it water soluble like
what are we talking about here and you're
just like oh my god I don't know
man they're just chopping legs on counters
like I don't know and what would that
seem to the bathroom and use the bathtub
instead yeah you haven't y'all haven't
even brought up the fact that how that's
laid out
you're also affecting the speed at which
that page gets played out.
Not just for the artist,
so like how many panels need to describe
how this thing is going,
how big do the panels need to be,
but also how fast is the reader going
to read this page?
I mean, there's so much.
some artists really need a lot some
especially once you get comfortable with
each other you can really yeah really they
know do these things and that's kind of
how we are at this point yeah yeah
some artists i was gonna say some by
some artists he means he means him yeah
and some writers he means me yeah because
i'm like okay so picture it right you've
been to a music festival that's what i
want yes
Two-page spread.
Go.
Yes.
And that's my direction.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Sure.
Yeah.
Got it.
Fine.
Not a problem.
And then that's what's really cool.
It's like you could tell people who have
worked, like you look at Tinian,
Weather Deladera,
they've been writing together for years
and years and years now.
And he probably just says, hey,
here's the script.
And Weather goes, cool.
He goes to work.
I love looking at Lemire and Serentino.
Because they did...
like old man logan they did green arrow
they did all the bone orchard mythos
together did they did primordial together
such a good series like so underrated all
that gideon falls which is incredible and
like sorrentino's layouts are so just like
batshit crazy that i can't help but be
like how in the hell like what does
that script look like that sorrentino goes
Oh yeah, okay.
Seventy-four pixels of squares to show one
picture,
but behind those is something completely
different because subtext.
And I'm just reading it and I'm like,
what?
No.
How?
How did?
What?
And it's because... Dude,
I'm still waiting for Starseed.
They were supposed to release Starseed.
This is my current gripe.
Ha ha ha!
I am because I went back and I
was like, they had another book public,
like planned after ten thousand feathers
and the passageway and it and tenement and
it never came out.
And so I went back to like the
original Lemire's like first sub stack
posts, tales from the farm or whatever.
And I found the graphic that had all
the planned titles.
And I was like, yeah, Starseed,
which was supposed to take horror into
space,
which is my favorite subsection of horror.
It was supposed to come out, I think,
August of last year.
And it just never did.
But they slow rolled that entire series.
So Ten Thousand Feathers was a very slow
roll.
But God bless,
it was worth every single weight I had
to do for every single issue.
That's one that like I picked up the
floppies and then I bought the hardcover
because holy shit.
And I have all the floppies of Gideon
Falls.
But when I eventually get money somehow,
I want to get the two deluxe hardcovers
of Gideon Falls to just have like,
it's so, oh my God, it's so good.
And I just like,
I look at books like that.
of like modern horror that are just doing
it right.
And I'm like, why does that work?
And I'm constantly,
cause my background is in broadcasting.
And so I'm constantly like analyzing why
things work and why they get an emotional
rise out of me.
And when I'm looking at movies, it's like,
oh, well they're like,
if you use effective sound scapes,
like really well,
then it's going to get me every time.
And it's like,
it's not that I get scared.
It just raises the hair on my arm.
It does.
And that's what it's meant to do, right?
It's meant to just kind of like give
me that,
the goosebumps and you feel the hair on
the back of your neck,
stand up the proper way.
And even comic books can do it too,
man.
Yeah.
Dude,
I have made it my personal mission to
read as many classic horror comics as I
can.
From Vault of Horror to The Phantom
Stranger,
I have found I freaking love those.
The old Ani Press stuff.
Well,
Ani Press is doing it right right now.
When they came back out,
they were just like,
we're coming out and we're going balls to
the wall.
We're not just doing one.
Buckle up, Buttercup.
Their sci-fi stuff is on point.
They had their first spinoff with...
That was vampire.
Yeah,
that was Sorrentino's something blood,
taste of blood, steeped in blood,
bloodbath.
No, it was as a female writer.
It was her story from the Catacombs of
Torment.
It was like a solo running story within
it.
And then it ended and then they started
the Catacombs of Torment actually is the
second one.
And then they're like, hey,
for the first time ever,
We're going to yank this character out of
this anthology and we're going to give her
her own story written by Corrine is her
name.
See,
I know they did that because Google blood
type is the blood type.
Yeah.
Yes.
So Sorrentino is doing the artwork for
that one.
Yeah.
And it's written by Corrine something.
Well, let me Google this real quick.
It starts with a B, I think.
Of course.
It's giving me actual blood types.
Oh, negative.
You're going to have to get very specific
on that.
Honey Press is blood type.
Fuck.
Creative team.
Corinna...
Betchco?
Yeah.
She's so good.
Yeah,
I got the free comic book day issue
that came out last year.
And I was just like, oh,
this is so good.
And then I got the first issue and
I was like, you know what?
I'm just going to trade weight it.
Trade weight it.
No, I couldn't.
I could not.
I got every single issue of Blood Type
the moment it was rolling out.
The same with Tini Howard's...
Was it Tini Howard that did... Oh God,
what's the name of that book now?
I'm not going to look it up because
it'll take too long,
but her solo series that she had done,
The Female from Hell.
Oh God.
Marion Heretic?
No, she's doing that one right now.
That's the current one.
That one's so good, too.
God bless.
That's so good.
Oh, my God.
This is going to drive me crazy.
I'm sorry.
No, you're good.
Where is my...
And I may be off on the name,
too.
No, that's DC.
Sirens.
No.
Power Rangers.
Harley Quinn.
Trades and Hardcovers.
Punchline?
No.
Oh, Punchline's good, but no.
It might not be her series.
I might be completely off on my...
my writers too.
And I don't know why I keep opening
up the same out like five times in
a row when I'm trying to go to
Instagram.
That's great.
Why does my finger keep clicking the wrong
thing?
This segment brought to you by Horror
Comics and Indie Comics.
If you like fresh new voices,
check out Aha!
It's an anthology full of nothing but
fresh new voices in the Indie Comics
community.
We're just killing time as the chairman
finds the thing that he's trying to find.
This is what we call show business, folks.
It's all about smoke and mirrors.
Remember,
did you watch the Netflix series,
the Archie spinoff, Sabrina?
Yeah.
One of the main bad guys.
What was her name?
Oh, God.
Oh, shit.
It's related to hell.
She was like... Yeah, yeah.
I can't remember her name to save my
life.
Lucifer Morningstar?
Lilith.
Lilith.
The girl who did Lilith.
The comic book Lilith.
Lilith comic book.
Corinne Howell.
There you go.
Her.
Corinne.
Yes.
Now I can't even remember what we were
talking about in relations to her.
I don't either, but that was from Vault.
All those covers are red, black,
and white.
I like those covers a lot.
This series almost didn't get made.
It got messed up.
It had to go back to reprint.
And I was so scared that they were
just going to cancel it because they
messed up so many issues.
But they finally got it figured out.
They got it reprinted and back on the
shelves.
But it was like,
thank God it's back because it was just
such a good book.
It's like she's trying to get back this
book from hell in order to help herself
get back to hell.
Oh, that sounds cool.
But she can't actually take the book
herself.
You know what I'm saying?
That's awesome.
Very cool.
And the person who has the book,
she is also helping to learn the book.
So it's been such a good story.
And I was just like, oh,
thank God it got made.
And as soon as the final issue come
out and then when they announced the
hardback was coming out, I was just like,
wait.
There it is.
Mine.
Yeah.
Indubitably, sir.
Yeah,
it's like Geiger and all the stuff from
Ghost Machine.
Geiger's so good.
The moment it hits trade paperback and the
moment it hits hardback, I'm just like,
mine, mine, mine, mine.
Just skipping through the comic book
aisles.
Dude, yeah.
Oh, Geoff Johns has something new.
What's he got?
Yep.
He's put together like some,
he pulled a tinny in on the other
side, right?
Yeah.
So it's been great just watching those
guys like put all their stuff together.
And it's all one big collective world of
storytelling.
Like they own their own work.
They're imaging within image.
Yeah.
They're doing OG image on the image
imprint.
Exactly.
It's insane.
Yeah.
But let's talk about some of these
stories.
You got the hang woman.
Hits the Moon, Pete's Meat, which is,
I love that title, and then Artifacts.
And Pete's Meat is the comic cover we
were talking about earlier.
That's the cover for that one, I believe.
Pete's Meat's the story I drew, actually.
Oh, is it?
Okay.
Travis did throw in inks on that,
and when I was showing the art after
I got it colored,
him and Vaughn both were like,
on the page where it starts to really
punch.
It's only a four page story.
They're like, that's fucking gross.
Dude.
It's awesome though.
When he's looking at that can,
it says Steve on the front of it.
I remember what names on the front of
it, but it's just like Pete's meats.
And it's like, Tom.
Yeah.
Let's just say Tom.
Yeah.
Just enjoy your food, son.
Don't think about it.
Just, yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So I had a question on here about
what ties all these together.
And the only thing that's tying these
together is it's still new creators.
Yep.
Yep.
New creators.
And then in the book itself, Roger.
Yes.
What we're doing is Roger is throwing a
death party and all of the creators are
have contributed to the death party in
some way, shape or fashion.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so it's,
it's something top secret that Kay and I
are doing.
Is it going to be similar to the,
the American horror story season where
they're at the hotel?
He's bringing in all the world's greatest
serial killers together.
for a meal that's pretty dope somewhat
somewhat like yeah yeah because i don't
know why even he said he's bringing them
all together my head went american horror
story to what i think the name of
the season was actually hotel it was when
the first season with lady gaga who was
brilliant in that by the way yeah yeah
that was a great season yeah and then
he's like bringing in all the world's most
famous serial killers to one spot and it's
just like
Yeah.
So there's,
there's a price that everybody has to pay
to join the death party.
And that's what slowly is unraveling.
Yeah.
As the anthology goes on.
So Roger has his own story.
He's not just a nebulous,
like terrifying mannequin.
Yeah.
He's got his own story that those with
a keen eye will pick up on as
the store, as aha progresses.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dude, I like it.
And I'm glad you're both here because I
know you're both working on it.
Let's spotlight the proposal.
Let's.
Because I know it's yours.
Yeah.
So a camping trip,
a relationship milestone,
a moment that is supposed to be
meaningful, and then it feels off.
What sparked this?
So I, I,
it'd be crystal late type of feel,
but in a better way.
It, yeah, it, so I,
I've been really into like folklore and
just like reading.
So I'm like a tribal card member carrying
of the Abenaki tribe, um,
indigenous peoples,
part of the Miss Aquav,
like larger umbrella.
Yeah.
Um,
And so as part of like my journey
of discovery, I'm calling it,
it's like reading into the Abnaki beliefs
and the mythology that the tribe had and
all of these things.
And then that led me into a path
of reading just like there's some weird
shit that they believe.
That's how we got skinwalkers.
Yeah.
Like, yeah, like,
Skinwalkers are the Western, like,
the Apache and the Blackfeet.
Like, it's all from their folklore.
And so it's like, well, what other...
what other weird shit is there in other
cultures folklore?
And so I was,
I've been reading a ton into that anyway.
And I had called Alex and I was
like, listen, man,
like we got to figure out, like,
I want to write a story that tailors
to what you want to draw.
Cause I want you to have as much
fun drawing as I am going to have
writing.
So like, what do you want to do?
And he was like, I don't know, man,
like monsters and,
and just like blood baths and, um,
crazy, just weird gore shit everywhere.
And I was like, okay, well,
I'm not into gore for gore's sake,
but if we...
I think if we can figure something out,
we can include some monsters and like,
I'll look into some of the mythology that
I've been reading and the folk tales and
stuff.
And I'll,
I'll figure out something that we can tie
into with the story.
And so I just kind of like chewed
on that for a couple of days and
I was like, okay,
I think I figured it out.
How do you feel about this?
And I don't want to give it away.
Cause like we're subverting.
Yeah.
I'm actually suppressing a lot of the
stuff I have over here about it.
Yeah.
Because I have the synopsis.
You sent me the synopsis of all the
stories.
Yeah.
And I've just been kind of like dropping
like.
Some crumbs, you know,
something Gretel in,
I don't want to give too much.
We're,
we're very much a smoke and mirrors street
magic.
Like look over here as I'm doing something
over here.
And so there's something over here is what
I'm really excited to dig into with him.
And as soon as I sent him the
idea, he was like, Oh yeah, dude.
And so I just,
I hadn't written anything until my wife
and I were driving to Florida for like
a very quick beginning of the year.
vacation and so we drove down to Florida
in January and as we were driving through
the Appalachian Mountains,
she had taken over because I was just
exhausted and I slept for a little bit
and then I woke up and I was
like,
oh my God, I have it.
And I like wrote in,
I brought my sketchbook with me and I
wrote the main bones of the story as
we were driving through the Appalachian
mountains.
And that was just the inspiration setting
that I needed.
And it just like,
everything just came dumping out.
And I literally like took pictures of each
page synopsis and I sent them to Alex
and I was like,
here's what I just came up with.
And he was like, oh my God, yes.
And so like it,
I know that doesn't give any details for
anything, but it, it really was like,
how do we tie in?
Like I'm, I'm a big,
I think it's been established.
I love horror and I, you know,
read all the classic horror comics and a
lot of them are quick hits and they
set you up thinking one thing's going to
happen.
And then something completely different
happens.
And I wanted that.
Whose house?
And so I wanted to give them a
serve.
And so I was writing something and it
was like, oh, it's a cutesy love story.
And then this thing happens and you're
like, oh, that's weird.
I'm uncomfortable with that.
And then something else happens and it's
like, oh my God, what the hell?
And then the final panel happens and it's
like, oh, you...
mother father.
And that's like,
that's what I wanted to capture.
And I'm like, I'm real excited about it.
I,
I love this story that I came up
with in the eight pages and seeing the
preview work from Alex already.
I'm just like, yes, dude.
Like every time he sends me a page
of pencils, I'm like, yes, dude.
Like, yes.
Keep pushing that further.
Like keep going.
Like,
I'm not going to ever tell you that's
too much.
Maybe draw.
If anything, not enough.
Like, give me more.
Give me more.
Give me more.
You're at eight.
I'm thinking of eleven here.
Yeah, I would really.
But ours go to eleven, man.
Yeah.
And so it's that's where as much as
I'm willing to give away.
That's where it all came from.
No, that's perfect, dude.
Because like I said,
I got the synopsis of it.
I'm just like.
I can't wait for this one.
And it's one of those where it's one
of those where the guy's driving down the
road and he picks up a hitchhiker and
he's like, you're not a serial killer,
are you?
What are the odds of it being two
of us on the same road traveling at
the same place?
You know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
But let's bring this start bringing this
home.
So for those watching right now into
horror,
maybe they're just into indie comics and
they're discovering this one for the first
time.
Why should they back AHA?
They should back it because they're making
brand new creators have a place to be
seen and read and they are literally
giving people a dream come true.
Those creators,
you're putting their book in their hand
and that is something that cannot be
duplicated.
as far as experience.
You know what goes hand in hand with
that?
The United States Department of Nerds.
It's like two peas in a pod.
Two peas in a very dried out, wrinkly,
decrepit, slightly blackened pod.
Yep.
Isn't it adorable?
I am middle-aged now,
as my daughter likes to tell me.
We got some white around the edges.
We're slightly moldy because we've
overstayed our shelf life.
Quite possibly, yes.
Exactly.
That's what I love about this as well.
It's indie creators and
Everybody who's tapping in with us tonight
and stuck around and has been watching
this,
there's six more of these episodes coming.
That's what I love about it.
I'm getting to take everybody on a ride
one at a time through this anthology.
Thank you so much for doing that for
us.
You sent the right person to seek my
help.
Yeah, shout out to Duke Electric,
the best looking man in indie comics.
Just never look him in the eyes.
Holy shit.
Save your family an open casket.
Just never look him in the eyes.
To add to what Kay said about making
dreams come true,
the tagline that we've developed for CHK
is that we're fun, we're fresh,
and we're borderline ridiculous.
And we are doing everything intentionally
to make a fun...
Comic that is a horror anthology full of
fresh voices that are taking big fucking
swings.
We didn't say no to anybody's idea.
None of them were like,
maybe not do that.
We didn't say no to anybody.
It's purely been an encouragement from us.
And yeah,
The fun that so Kay and I are
the two that are doing all of the
Roger pages and like we're doing stuff
with Roger that is like the tagline came
from Roger because it was like, dude,
this is borderline ridiculous.
And we both were like, oh my God,
that's perfect.
Like that's what we're doing.
Like we are fully aware that we are
indie comics.
Think about it though.
The group keeper himself was just that
absolutely ridiculous character that got
over so well.
yes it's the commitment to the bit and
we're committing a hundred all of our
chips are on the table with roger and
like we're going imagine if a vira quit
you know before that character like took
off the way it did yeah and now
she's a cultural icon cassandra peterson
is just like a phenomenal phenomenal human
being in real life and it's like
If she wouldn't have stuck to the bit
to this day,
there would be so much stuff that we
didn't get to experience growing up in the
eighties and nineties that we wouldn't
just never guy.
I mean,
the toxic Avenger would probably have not
been around and many,
many more that possibly like her stuff
with pinhead.
Just all that.
We would never have gotten that.
That's just to me classic cinema at this
point.
Which is weird that I just called it
classic cinema.
That was my childhood.
Exactly.
Let's be serious.
We're all classic people now.
That's right.
We are vintage.
We are the vintage variety.
Yeah.
it was a good year yes yeah yeah
all that to say uh aha is the
culmination of two crusty diy punks that
just love are making comics for the sake
of comics like we're we're not what other
way is there right we're not in this
to make a ton of money because we're
not going to make any money
we're not in this to like do the
attention grabbing whatever.
Cause who cares?
Like we're genuinely.
And I know that it's easy to be
like, man, what's the catch.
We don't have a catch.
There is no subtext.
It is where we started this with the
intention of how do we raise and bring
other new creators into a scene and into
the fold and give them something that when
they table their first convention,
they have a book that they can say,
yeah, I have a story in this book.
Do you want to buy it?
Like, that's why we're doing this.
And so anybody that backs it there,
it sounds cheesy as shit,
which is easy for, Oh, red flag.
They're like,
they're backing someone's dream.
Like you're supporting these creators,
making a thing that for the first time
they can go, Oh,
this is mine like i'm in this this
came out of my brain pages twelve to
fourteen are me i created that and that's
something that no amount of drugs can
match and like the the endorphins that get
released when you get to hold the thing
for the very first time and be like
holy shit, I made that.
Like I created that.
There's no better feeling.
And so we are very intentionally chasing
after making as much space as possible for
as many creators as possible to experience
that feeling so that they continue
creating and they continue to just pour
into making comics, making art,
telling stories, writing, doing whatever.
And it like,
that's how it starts is one person says,
yeah, I'll take a chance.
Let's let's come on.
I got you.
You don't know how to make it.
It's fine.
We do.
Let's go.
Yeah.
But, um,
so tell everybody where they can find the
two Chris's.
I'm easy.
I'm at long box punk everywhere,
except for Tik TOK.
I don't,
I don't take talk and I don't Snapchat,
but I sub stack frequently.
And I,
as much as I would love to get
away from meta,
I'm on Instagram regularly and threads.
I have a blue sky, but I don't,
it's there.
I don't know.
We just had a conversation there last
night.
What are you talking about?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And yeah,
YouTube is where you find my show.
If you want to hear from other creators
similar to like you would hear here on
the United States Department of Nerds.
I talk process.
I'm a process junkie.
I love to understand how things work.
And it's part of why I started making
my own comics.
Which is cool because you do the process
side and I literally just try to take
people on the journey of that creator to
how they got to the book and how
the book was made.
And then like,
I'm a journey guy and you're a process
guy, which is so cool.
Yeah.
Like, dude,
there's a space for everybody in indie
comics.
There really is.
That's what's beautiful about it.
Mm-hmm.
chris with a k yes where can they
find you i am punk rock chris two
k's together never three there's three in
there but there's only two together
pointing that out very clearly very
clearly just um instagram threads blue sky
tiktok you can find it in my link
tree um facebook is pretty worthless for
me i i'm rarely there
So if you're finding me there,
we better be real friends.
But yeah, all the things.
Go to my TikTok.
You'll find me talking about what books I
picked up.
You'll find me talking about books that
we're making, like Aha,
currently on Kickstarter,
waiting to launch next week.
Live on Longbox Punk?
There you go.
Yeah.
You'll find me making process videos of me
doing drawings with usually punk rock in
the background.
As well it should be.
Yeah.
Because you can't have a name like Punk
Rock Chris or Lone Box Punk and not
have punk rock play in.
Yep.
Like it would be sacrilege.
It would be.
Turn it in here.
One Direction plays...
The greatest hits at this point.
Listen, unashamedly,
there are some One Direction songs that I
will get down to.
You can't with the secrets.
No, that's how I am, man.
I can't help it.
I have two moods.
I have very punk rock and angsty and
just like in your face.
And then I have like bubblegum pop and
One Direction and Betty Who and Harry
Styles.
Same.
i don't even care man give it all
to me i'll take it i'm literally listening
like you know spirit bosses soft spine one
minute and then the next minute you know
i'm shaking it off with taylor swift yep
yep uh some new backstreet boys as much
as i hate to admit this my wife
would be proud of me
they've got some really good stuff.
Like some of their newer stuff is like
really fucking good.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Are you saying Backstreet's back?
All right.
Shit.
Yeah.
I knew by new,
I mean like whatever CD came out when
they re got back together like five years
ago now.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I thought you,
I thought you meant the song on the
Verizon commercial.
I don't even know what song that is.
I don't watch TV, man.
Like, you get to watch TV?
Yeah, that's adorable.
What's that like?
Well,
usually I'm exhausted and I'm watching
something on Tubi.
Ah, dude, Tubi's got a...
Speaking of Tubi, if you like horror and,
like, weird horror...
Exactly.
That's what I was about to say.
If you're bringing up Tubi,
you better be talking about their horror
selection because it's fantastic.
It's so good.
I'm just waiting for Tubi to reach out
and be like, hey,
can we be your sponsor?
You talk about us all the time.
To be hit me up long box,
punk at gmail.com.
That's taking a hold of me.
Let's work something out.
There you go.
Shameless.
Speaking of plugging,
it's time to plug this up.
Yeah.
We don't want everybody bleeding out all
over this episode.
Cause this is just the beginning.
The first step into the world of aha.
Our anthology that's built on patching
creativity and the kind of storytelling
that doesn't play it safe.
And over these next few episodes,
the next one up will be the end
of the month with Duke.
My dude, Duke, bring your sunglasses.
Don't make eye contact.
We're going deeper.
More creators, more stories,
more nightmares.
Make sure you're subscribed so you get
these notifications.
There will be a long-form...
video dropping here soon with the rest of
the creators that are going to be on
the podcast.
Hopefully Sunday I'll drop that.
If not,
it'll be the day before Duke comes on.
But make sure you're subscribed so you
don't miss that because this is a series
you're going to want to follow all the
way through.
And let's get this to a hundred this
weekend.
Pre-follows.
Go hit the link.
It's down in the description.
Hit notify me on launch.
That way you know when this book drops
next week because I, for one,
have the notifications on already.
I had it on before anybody else,
to be fair,
because I got that one months ago.
But until next time, everybody,
the Council of Nerds is adjourned.
This has been the USDN Podcast where indie
comics come to life.
Y'all be safe out there.