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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.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
No!
What is up, everybody?
And no, your eyes do not deceive you.
The USDN is live for the second night
in a row.
That means your fella here, the chairman,
is doing overtime,
and I couldn't be happier to do it.
Tonight, I am bringing you Apogee.
Apogee.
Apogee Comets with Nick Garber,
Matthew Yasso.
Hasso.
Hasso.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Heart stroke,
which I can pronounce pretty easily.
So this interview tonight all came about
because I was interviewing Ben Lacey with
Shark of War.
And I was complimenting the art on the
new issues.
And like no kidding,
a couple of days later, heart stroke.
sent me a screenshot of me talking about
him going, Hey, that's me.
And I thought it was awesome that he
was just like, Hey,
all I can see is like EOS guy
on WWE.
Like it's me.
So I thought that was really cool.
And then this interview was born from
that.
He's like, Hey,
I'm working on this new project.
can I bring in the whole team for
that project?
And I was like, a whole team?
Like, absolutely.
Let's do it.
And we're here tonight to do it.
And I'll let everybody here give
themselves their own little introduction
so we all know kind of what role
they play within this.
So we'll start over here with Nick.
Go for it, man.
Hey, I'm Nick Garber.
I'm the president and CFO,
Chief Financial Officer of Apogee Comics.
I'm also creator of most of the books
within that world.
I've been doing independent comics since
twenty twelve with my first title called
Phantom Hawk.
And I've worked with Starcross Comics.
I've done a lot of stuff.
So I've been around for a little bit
and it's been a real growing experience.
Matt, we'll hop over to you, man.
My name is Matthew Hasso.
I pretend to be a freelance writer.
And every so often people message me at
eleven o'clock at night and tell me I'm
writing their comic.
And I say, send me a picture.
And then we get here.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Harsh, over to you, man.
I'm Harsh Shrook.
I just draw.
I've been doing it like for three years
now.
That's it.
Just working on
shark of war and being lucky to work
with nick and matt with quick wire yeah
so that's it i like it fellas i
like it actually and to only be at
it for three years dude that is impressive
i'm not even gonna lie and i've seen
your art that's impressive as hell dude no
joke i've been drawing actually for five
years or so uh i start in at
university actually
okay never draw when i was a little
kid i just like comic books but i
was really lazy with that um when i
was doing my degree in marketing i really
didn't like it so i wanted to be
a filmmaker but it was so messy because
didn't have money for the actors and stuff
so next thing was to to draw comic
books and i start and after my degree
i start to draw um just like train
myself like an athlete um yeah just start
three years ago
No, that's really cool, dude.
I know a lot of comic book artists
who initially started out wanting to do
film and then transitioned over to the
comic book side.
And honestly,
there's some very impressive artists out
there that are like that.
So let's talk about the company itself,
guys.
So back in twenty seventeen,
this started out as two separate
companies,
Gorilla Comets and Move the World,
and then they merged together.
What was that like at the time with
it being two separate companies and then
y'all bringing it together to make one?
It was pretty seamless because it was four
dudes that were of like-minded...
like goals of what we wanted to do.
So it was me and Ray Merrick.
We were part of gorilla comics and he's
like, Hey man.
And I was going to mighty con in
St.
Louis.
Okay.
He's like, Hey,
there's this guy named Jay Sloan and this
guy named Dave Norton.
They have this book called transgenesis
and the artwork's really good.
And I think we should talk to these
guys when you're here.
So at the time I was living in
South Texas and I flew over to St.
Louis, you know, hung out with Ray,
did some drink and draw things.
And then we hit the con and he's
like, Hey man, let's go meet Jay.
Cause he'd been talking to him on like
Facebook or something like that.
I'm like, cool.
Uh, Dave wasn't there.
He was still in Texas.
He didn't go to that con.
So we go over there and I look
at Jay Sloan's work, impressive ink work.
Um,
You know, heavy blacks,
which kind of worked for the subject
matter that you're working with.
I'm like, all right, cool.
So like, Hey,
let's all go to dinner and, uh,
see what's what.
So, and that's how it started.
Went to dinner.
We had a great time.
We talked about comics.
We talked about the comic business.
We talked about any comics and kind of
what we wanted to achieve.
And we wanted to kind of have an
image style as a,
like as a business model.
Okay.
Apogee would own nothing other than the
Apogee A.
All the comics are independent and owned
by their creators.
And we're just going to come over here
and it's going to be a conglomerate.
It's going to be a group effort to
make these things work.
Okay,
it's very similar to what Image did back
in the nineties when everything's
independently owned.
Just Image does the printing part of it,
basically.
But it's all maintained ownership by the
creator.
Yeah, and so with Image,
if anybody has a falling out,
it makes the divorce part, quote unquote,
easy.
Yeah.
We had access to each other's characters
if we wanted to use Just Ask.
That was the only thing that we kind
of put in the business model.
I was like, hey,
let me know if you want to use
Phantom Hawk.
Let me know if you want to use
some of these other characters.
And then I would ask if I wanted
to use anybody from Transgenesis,
because that was kind of like the only
two books that we had.
so i think it came finalized summer later
that summer for uh we're like hey let's
let's form this company let's let's just
merge together and just kill it in indie
comics and everyone agreed i'm like all
right cool so yeah that's kind of how
the company started i like it and matthew
how did you become involved in all this
Do you want the current,
like the phase four of my life where
I'm actually doing this now?
No,
start out with where I drunkenly texted
you.
That's the perfect story right there.
That's the story we want to go with.
Ten percent truth is all we need.
So the short of it is I had
tried to do my own comic for a
long time.
And then...
Blah, blah, blah, yakety, schmackety.
Kind of when it didn't do what I
needed it to really do,
which was I did not want to Kickstarter
it.
I wanted to get somebody to pick it
up and publish it.
And it just wasn't there for multiple
different reasons.
So I just kind of was like, well...
maybe this isn't my thing maybe this isn't
what i need to be doing maybe i'll
go back to film because i've been doing
film before then so i kind of played
with that and then um there was a
different company who was like hey we're
looking for talent
I was like, OK, cool.
So I submitted some ideas for that.
And then it was like a button clicked.
The moment I said, hey,
let me see if I can be a
freelance writer.
It was just like I started getting offers
out of nowhere.
It was really weird because Nick and I
had spoken on and off for probably four
or five years.
because that's how i met nick and a
bunch of the other people was through that
one group where i found an artist for
my book and and now yeah but uh
it was funny because it was just like
Like I said,
I'd already had two at that point.
I think I had two different freelance gigs
and He and I had talked that I
think I'd like left a conversation one
time of like hey If you ever need
a writer feel free to reach out or
if you ever want to collab something like
that Nothing like I need a job,
but it was like hey, whatever and yeah,
it was literally like I'm laying down in
bed to do something and also I get
a message from Twitter and it's like hey
You're writing this
And I was like,
I don't know what that is.
What does he look like?
And he's like, here's a picture.
And I was like, can you talk tomorrow?
And he's like, yes.
I was like, let's talk tomorrow.
So then I think the next day we
had a phone conversation and it was
basically like,
What would you do?
This is what I would do.
What do I need to do?
How's this?
And I think we hashed out basically what
he would become in this two-hour
conversation that we had.
And then from there,
it was just kind of off to the
races.
It was just one of those times.
What is that called?
The time of your life.
The era of your life where like, hey,
this is what I want to do.
Lightning in the bottle.
yeah so i just was just and then
it just kind of steamed you know built
momentum from there and um i think that
some of the other stuff i had done
i was kind of like i was having
fun but it wasn't what i wanted to
do
And I was literally about to once again
go, you know what?
I'm going to do my own thing.
And then Nick was like, well,
now that you're done with this,
I have this other thing.
And it was like, you know what?
And another thing.
And another thing.
Just unpack your bags.
But I mean, honestly, what it was is,
I wanted to write stories,
not little clips, not eight pages,
ten pages, single issue.
I wanted like, hey, let's have a story.
That's four issues.
Let's tell a story.
That's four issues.
Another one that's for another one's for
like a full arc.
And yeah.
And Nick was one of the only guys
that was like, do that.
You know, I love you, baby.
I love you.
yeah so it was like literally i think
when we finally locked down what we were
gonna do with quick wire i was like
all right i'm gonna write this first
script and i think i had the first
opening that you've probably read of of
him doing the bank robbers actually no i
didn't get to read any of quick wire
I actually sent you some pages.
Oh, did you really?
Yeah, in the last email.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
That's my bad, then,
because I don't know why.
I got the press release,
and it must have been within the press
release.
So after this... Well, it's five pages.
You read harsh.
Nick and I are going to talk for
a second.
Go ahead.
So next issue.
So I know from...
you just brought up quick wire and quick
wire is what brings in harsh stroke at
this point to be the artist on it.
How did y'all find this gentleman here?
And kind of like,
how did that come about?
That's my, my, yeah, he was somebody.
So one of the other companies, uh,
I think he had either submitted for the
other company or we had seen his work
and it was like, yeah,
it was something like that.
So then he was on the, like the,
cause that guy does tons of stuff.
He's got like, he's got like,
he's got like, he's got like,
he's got like, he's got like,
he's got like, he's got like,
he's got like, he's got like,
he's got like,
He's been, he's been on the deck.
Hear me out.
Yeah.
I haven't found anything for him to do,
but, but like his, his stuff looks solid.
And I think it was literally like,
you know, I don't know if,
I think he remembers this as I was
like, all right,
let's just pay him to do the pencils
for the first five pages.
And if it works,
he gets the whole series.
Because that was the big thing for me.
I didn't want to hire an artist for
an issue.
I wanted to hire an artist to be
with me for the whole run.
So it was like, all right.
It does make collaboration easily.
Yes.
Especially because I think by the time...
We officially brought him on.
I want to say like three of the
issues were already written.
So we knew where everything was going.
So yeah, we said, hey,
just pencil these five.
Let us see what it is.
And he came back and we kind of
worked a little bit and it just was
awesome.
And I was like, all right,
this is the guy.
We don't need to test anybody else out.
You didn't actually think I was going to
get the job, actually.
I'm just terrible.
Take it.
No, I will vouch for the dude personally.
I got to read Shark of War eight
and nine.
Well, nine, he's still kind of working on,
but the stuff that he's done for Ben
Lacey over at Shark of War,
impressive as hell.
I really liked it.
I enjoyed seeing the evolution of the
artwork over there anyway.
And then to where it got to harsh,
it was like,
it become a totally different book in my
eyes with the way he was able to
show emotions on a shark of all things
it is really cool like i'm like dude
you made a shark have emotions and just
and how facial features that denoted
emotions i'm like
it takes a special type of artist to
do that kind of stuff.
And he, he nailed that dude.
So y'all got a good one on your
hands.
I can say that for sure.
Oh yeah.
He was, it was,
it's been a lot of fun work with
him.
The quick wire is a very funny book
and it's a very kind of careful, like,
this can be really dumb if the artist
doesn't understand the jokes and the
funny.
And there was a lot of the stuff
that he, in my opinion,
he made the joke better.
You know, like there, there was the, the,
the part with the,
when he whips him with his wet shirt
and it was just like, like, okay,
this could, this,
this is one of those things that,
that may not work.
And then when he drew it,
I was like, no, this is hilarious.
Yeah.
Like he didn't move the camera.
It was just straight up medium shot
profiles of quick wire responding to be
having water thrown on him.
And he's just like,
You know,
and I before we even put the letters
on it,
because I've read the script so many
times, I was like,
this is what's happening.
This is hilarious.
I like it.
And he didn't take it's not that he
didn't take chances.
He took chances a lot in the books
and how he positioned the camera.
But for some reason, a static shot,
medium frame side profile is not really
interesting.
And he was able to make it interesting
and nailed the joke.
I like it.
I'm definitely going back after and going
back to the email.
I don't know how in the hell I
missed that,
but I'm mad at myself because I missed
it.
Go ahead.
It's five pages.
We'll talk about issue two of Quickfire
while you're doing that.
Let me see if I can find it.
I'm disappointed in myself.
Do you want me to message it to
you?
No, no.
I got it right here.
And again,
I have no idea because I see he
sent me the cover.
I see the press release.
The press release is a PDF.
If you scroll through the PDF,
the pages are there.
Ah, okay.
Let me find the best Phantom Hawk.
Here we go.
Oh, shit.
You're right.
It's not my fault, Matt.
I didn't think it was.
You're still around.
You're not getting out that easy, bro.
but to go back to the art like
the hardest part about finding an artist
honestly is that especially at this level
so many of these guys are doing a
ton of work that may never be seen
or if it's seen it's like a year
later so it's like as you know some
guys in the that are you know your
bigger guys like somebody like uh
like Dan Panosian or Brett Booth,
like you could go grab their comic,
look about that issue and go,
this is the guy I want,
but like harsh stroke or even some of
the other artists I've worked with,
it's like they have their portfolio and
you just got to cross your fingers that
that portfolio is what they actually can
do.
Or is that portfolio took them six months
to do five pages.
And then when they get on the bench,
it's like, Oh man,
No, that was, that took you forever.
Now that you're,
and not that we're like on a clock,
a monthly comic, but it's like, Hey, you,
you gotta do this work.
We're trying to get, you know,
some of this stuff to a point where
we can get it together.
That's where I can.
It's funny that you brought up Dan
Penisian cause I'm a huge fan of his.
He just did the lost boy or the
last boy, the, uh,
the spin on the Neverland book.
Yeah.
Yeah.
brilliant brilliant work there solid
artwork i love what he draws conan the
barbarian anyway dude but i digress no no
right there yeah i know exactly what
you're talking about x-men run so yeah
also good yeah but you know who else
is awesome heartstroke so without a doubt
without a doubt
Wakewater is his claim to fame,
I'm telling you.
It's going to make it happen for him.
I hope so.
It's always a challenge,
especially because I have yet to work with
somebody who lives in the same city as
me.
So to try to work through Facebook,
and the thing I've,
I don't know if anybody else does this,
I try to encourage writers to do this,
is create a group in Facebook and then
just make the artist post the page.
And then this way,
when you're commenting or talking,
they stick with the page because I've had
people try and do like,
let's do it in a chat or text.
And there's no way to keep track of
who's talking about what,
what we're linking to.
So that was probably one of the biggest
things that really helped.
I mean,
I was doing that back when I was
doing my own book with that artist is
like, it just like,
I think it was a,
it's just an easy flow thing.
And you can be specific about, hey,
this is the page I'm talking about.
This panel here,
can we do this or do that?
And Heartstroke was always good about
anything that needed to be adjusted or
changed.
And then sometimes he'd be like,
I ain't doing nothing, bro.
I'm the artist.
Go write another script and leave.
No, I'm just kidding.
You know what, though?
i was just having this conversation last
night with uh with styles and lucky devil
comics is is finding an artist who will
push back and tell you like hey that
that isn't gonna work so and it's hard
to do because they don't want to make
because you put a band logo you're
breaking up your oh now we got dinner
okay i'm on hotel internet i apologize
No, I completely understand that.
He's like, hey, man.
We're like, hey, dude.
There's this logo on his shirt.
What is that?
He's like, oh,
it's this band that I listen to.
And we're like, oh,
we don't want to get sued.
He's like, don't worry.
Hold on.
And then he messages the band,
promising them a copy of the book.
And they're like,
that is so badass and punk, dude.
Like, yeah, you can use our logo.
It's totally awesome.
I'm like,
I'm going to need screen grabs of them
saying this shit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I like keeping my lawyer bored where I
don't have to do stuff.
Hey, a bored lawyer is a happy lawyer.
Yeah.
And easier on your checkbook.
Oh, absolutely.
Especially what this guy charges because
he's an entertainment lawyer.
They charge you whatever they want.
Yeah,
and they assume that everybody that hires
them is making Marvel money.
We are not making Marvel money.
One day, maybe, hopefully,
probably long after I'm dead,
when the fan kids own the company.
I think you'll be alright.
Maybe on your bed, you know, as you're,
you're laying there.
I'll die with the biggest smile.
They're like, Oh yeah,
you're making all this money.
And then all my artists are paid.
My writers are paid.
My EIC is paid, you know,
and they're all living comfortable lives
based on the products that we produce,
which is what our kind of our goal
is.
But like, so harsh hits me back up.
He's like, Hey man, we're good to go.
Here's the screen grabs.
So what do you want me to do?
I'm like,
everything that I asked you to take off
pertaining to that band,
what about so what band was it harsh
what what was it uh was after a
teenage riot because actually yeah every
change that matt or nick asked for is
like fine i will redo it or change
it when when nick asked me to delight
some stuff i was like really upset i
was like man like i really like the
personality of the main character tyler
I feel so identified with him,
like so easygoing and he doesn't care
about anything.
I think actually Matthew, I mean,
is like the brother.
I might be like him.
Yeah.
So I was like,
Jesus, what does that make me,
the old man?
You are actually me.
You're Dr. Advani.
I'm the father.
Okay.
I wasn't going to say nothing.
I was going to go grandfather,
but you were nice to yourself.
He's actually in a panel there.
I asked him for a cameo.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
When they asked me to draw Quickwire,
I was really into all this digital
hardcore stuff and listening a lot to
Atari Teenage Riot and all other stuff,
Apex doing stuff.
And I was like, this character,
if he's quick,
this is the sound of Quickwire.
So I took the opportunity to
to bring the logo for Atari Teenage Riot.
Then Nick asked me to delete it.
But I follow Nick Endo, the singer,
on Instagram.
And I sent her a message like, hey,
I use your logo,
the Atari Teenage Riot logo,
and I put it in a t-shirt of
the main character.
Can I do it?
And she was like, yeah, fine.
Go do it.
It's fine for me.
It's amazing how far you'll get when you
just ask.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I told Nick, like,
we have green light, so let's do it.
And I think sometimes people are afraid to
ask.
Technically, it's free advertising.
Why would they say no?
It doesn't cost them a single thing for
Heartstroke to draw their logo on this
guy's chest.
It's, you know,
there are a couple of these, like,
I don't want to say indie bands,
but bands are places you go and ask
them like, Hey, can we do this?
Like back when I was doing film,
you're like, go to some, not a franchise,
but some like family owned restaurant.
Like, Hey, can we film here?
If we don't bother anybody, they're like,
sure.
I think sometimes the worst they're going
to say is no and you have to
do the thing you didn't want to do.
No is easy to handle.
The hardest part is always just getting
that gumption to go, hey,
can I do this?
They're going to look at you for a
second and be like,
you know what yeah sure go ahead there's
a booth over there in the corner how
about it yeah like oh that was that
was easier than it should have been and
that's the cool thing about social media
we that you can do that kind of
stuff the fact that i've had conversations
with jim valentino and mike grell about
using their characters of them saying no
at least i could talk to them
You'll be surprised at what I was doing
on just like straight up pure comic book
shows about my weekly reads and stuff like
that.
And I would tag certain artists and
writers and stuff like that.
And the amount of like love they give
back, like it's a message like, Hey,
I really appreciate you reading the book
and taking time to read the book and
shout me out and giving me some love
on social media.
And I'm like,
thank you.
And I'm like screenshotting and sharing it
with my friends.
And they probably have no idea who I'm
talking about, but I'm like,
he said hi to me.
And they're like,
we don't know who that is.
I'm like, well, they say hi.
And they're pretty important to me in the
comic book world.
Okay.
I do a podcast and there was one
time we were reviewing all the year ones.
The Robin year one, Batgirl year one,
Nightwing year one.
I think it was after the first one
we did the Robin year one.
And we couldn't decide if it was Scott
Beatty or Scott Beatty.
And my co-host got a message from Scott
saying, it's pronounced Beatty.
And he was like, cool.
And then I was like, he's like,
what do I do?
And I'm like,
ask him if he'll come be on the
show after we redo all the comics.
What's the word she's going to say?
He's like, okay.
And he came after we did all the
reviews.
He actually came and talked.
That's dope.
He was the nicest guy.
It's like Kenny Howard.
I got to meet her.
She was an advertised for the Comic-Con I
was going to be at.
And I went,
I walked by and she was sitting there.
And I was like,
I kind of got starstruck because she
worked on Rick and Morty.
She's got other stuff.
She's got a really great series out right
now.
But I was just like, holy shit,
you're Tani Howard.
She's like, yeah, last time I checked,
I was.
Yep.
And that's Luanna Vecchio over there.
And she's like, hey.
I'm like, I'm starstruck all of a sudden.
I'm like.
I'm getting everybody's autographs,
and I got my books out of my
bag, and I'm like,
I didn't bring a Rick and Morty because
I didn't know you were going to be
here.
I would have had you sign my first
appearance of Pickle Rick,
even though I know she didn't work on
it, but still,
I would have got her to sign it.
She's like, it's okay.
I brought some.
I was like, yes.
Yeah.
So I got all the Rick and Mortys
that she worked on signed right next door
to Luanna Vecchio.
Got her to sign Lovesick.
And then right across from her was Tula
Latoy.
I think that's how you pronounce her name.
Got her to sign a bunch of books
that I've had.
Some of her covers from Distillery and
that kind of stuff.
And the whole time I'm like,
awestruck because it's that's three went
three powerhouse women in the comic book
industry that i was just like this is
awesome the best day ever i'm like this
is so cool and then i forgot to
ask tula how to pronounce her last name
and i felt bad because i always say
it wrong i'm sure right so trust me
yeah no dude
It's like Tunisian or is, how do you,
how do you say Dan's last name?
Like the notion.
I only know that because he is friends
with these two guys who I've listened to
their podcast.
Okay.
The only reason I know, cause I was,
I was like,
I don't even know how to say this
guy's name.
And then I always say Tunisian because
that, that sounds okay to me,
but Tunisian.
All right.
Now I know.
He says, Oh,
I've done all these books and I'm like,
I've never heard of you.
And then like when I, when the,
I looked at the episode name, uh,
I was like, oh, it's that guy.
Okay, that's how you say it.
X-Force.
Did some Spawn.
Did some Youngblood.
It's like if I ever had a chance
to meet Mark Spears,
I'd probably cry and shit myself and
everything else all at the same time
because I've been such a huge fan of
his for so long now that he could
just slap his name on a, you know,
a
coloring book, and I'm like,
I'm buying it because it's Mark Spears'
coloring book.
I got tattoos that were designed by Jay
Lee.
That's really dope.
What about you, Heartstroke?
Who are you dying to meet or talk
to?
I don't know.
I actually already met my hero,
Rick Capullo.
I'm a fan with that.
I met him in...
You're going to say Capullo?
Sorry?
Nice Yeah,
that was a gift from my comic book
shop my local comic book shop gifted me
that it's the nice Vinyl print too.
It's not like a poster.
That's that's the actual store window
vinyl that they use so so yeah,
I met him in two thousand thirteen while
ago and
Now I want to meet Mark Silvestri,
I think.
This guy that is drawing Absolute Batman,
Nick, no, Dragora?
I don't know how to pronounce his name.
Yeah, you're right.
He's amazing.
I think that's it.
I met Simon Beasley, another hero of mine.
Simon Beasley, Alex Sinclair.
I met him.
That's a good one.
Yeah.
And that's it.
I don't think I felt that far.
Yeah.
He's the Todd father of father.
Yeah.
Yeah, dude.
He he's since nineteen ninety three.
I've looked up to that guy.
Yeah.
I don't.
There's so many people who are like, yeah,
I'm not a fan of his.
I'm like, dude,
your comic book looks just like his.
Don't tell me you're not a fan.
But hey,
if that's what makes you sleep at night,
keep denying it.
Keep denying it.
There was a time in my artwork where
they're like, hey, man,
you're just like Rob Blackfield.
I'm like, you're such a... Yeah,
but can you draw feet?
Yeah, exactly.
There it is.
And he's only got thirty pouches,
not eighty.
I was getting fifty-five pouches, damn it.
Did you just see his recent press release
on the re-release of Youngblood?
No.
He bores me, to be honest with you.
He made fun of himself for like ten
solid minutes.
That was the best part about it.
He made fun of himself.
That's the weird thing about Rob.
He'll get hammered in the comment section
of most of the things he posts on
Twitter or social media.
He gets super offensive like, well,
last time I checked,
I've never heard of you.
I've done this.
I don't need your resume.
I know your resume, dude.
like we all know your resume and you
haven't progressed since nineteen ninety
three ninety three you know most artists
progress like even harsh here like you see
a steady progression in his artwork with
quick wire and I'm like and he now
he's only been drawn for like three years
like what the hell
And you can draw feet.
Sometimes.
Hey,
you can always hide it with a rock.
You can hide feet with a rock or
with a pouch.
It's cool.
You know what you can do?
You can just do that Tasmanian devil thing
with Quickwire's legs.
There we go.
There we go.
Yeah.
So I know y'all were kind of...
So I know y'all are kind of like
spread out all over the country here,
but how are y'all maintaining the creative
energy and the quality?
Well,
I know Matt and Harsh are in the
same area, but Nick,
I know you're kind of away from everybody
and I'm sure this isn't the only part
of the team.
You got more.
So how do y'all keep that all kind
of like meshed together and just keeping
the creative juice flowing?
I would say social media is probably the
biggest linchpin for how we're able to
constantly communicate with one another.
We have a group chat for Quickwire between
Harsh, Matthew, and myself.
And then we have the page to where,
you know,
Harsh drops his artwork in and who also
did the letters on this book.
Oh, nice.
So he wanted to kind of branch out
and was like, hey,
this is another skill I have.
I'm like, all right, cool.
Let's see what you got.
I'm like, okay, that works.
I always say lettering makes or breaks a
book.
It does.
I'm a big fan of a phone call.
Now,
Harshroke and I haven't had a phone call
because I think he's in Mexico and I'm
in Texas,
so that'd be a very expensive phone call.
But Nick and I talk on the phone
at least, what, once a week?
Maybe twice a week, depending on...
Bare minimum.
Sometimes three times.
Like I said,
you call me more than my father.
I miss him a lot.
Wait,
you get phone calls from your father?
you have a father I went out for
milk and smokes and never came back dude
what the fuck yeah but no I think
for me I think there's definitely a need
to keep that energy going and you know
I'm older than everybody so but I'm also
I said I heard that story yeah but
I think part of it too for me
is like
We could have a fifteen-minute phone
conversation or three hours of texting.
If you give me this fifteen minutes and
we have this conversation,
then I can go be productive with what
we discussed and what we figured out.
And sometimes, too...
It starts with a text.
Hey, you available for a call right now?
A quick call.
It's always a quick call,
but it's never a quick call.
It's always going to be an hour.
I'd rather have an hour phone call than
four or five hours of texting any day
of the week.
you leave me an important voicemail that
says hey can you call me and then
i might call you back yeah my wife
likes to jump in and like have a
conversation with hasso i'm like i'm on a
business call the effort you're doing yeah
like we're trying to finalize things man
yeah so i think that the at the
end of quick wire we should make sure
hey matt have you ever had green tacos
No.
Are they good?
Yeah.
Five minutes of the recipe for green
sauce.
It's, it's, it's, it's quite funny.
But no,
I think that that's a lot of it
too,
is that just have that constant
communication.
Cause I've worked with one time I did
the thing where it was like,
here's a script.
I'll draw it.
And then like four weeks later,
here's five pages.
And I'm like, these are all wrong.
That wasn't me.
It wasn't him.
We're glad it's not you.
But it's just like some of those times
where you just...
Because I think sometimes...
I it's kind of funny because there's times
where I'm like,
am I leaving these scripts to open?
Do I need to go like Alan Moore
and each panel is a full page of
writing.
But sometimes you just get to the point
where like,
I can look at sometimes an artist and
go like harsh has done it a couple
of times.
Bruno on,
on Phantom Hawk will do it as like,
I think this needs an extra panel to
show this thing.
And like, but it makes the story work.
Cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, but then sometimes...
There was one artist I worked on,
and I think he got three pages in,
and I finally told the guy,
I was like,
I ain't working with this dude.
He read the dialogue, and that's it.
And he's just making things up.
But I'm like...
like you know there's one guy yeah I
don't care I'll do it where it was
like specifically it was supposed to be a
revolver because in the next scene it
showed that the that the hero had dropped
all the bullets out of the gun well
he gave the guy an automatic and
But then in the next panel,
you see the bullets dropping out of the
gun.
And I'm like,
why would he empty the bullets out of
a clip?
And then the other guy was like, well,
maybe it's a maybe it's a magazine.
Yeah.
What's it called?
Maybe it's a language barrier.
And I'm like, bro, in Spanish,
revolver is revolver.
It's not a language barrier.
So it was like stuff like that,
where I'm like,
it sounds stupid because a gun's a gun,
but when it's a specific thing of like,
this is this way because I want this
to happen this way and this way,
and you're not doing that,
I'm not working with you.
Like at that point,
then just make up the story yourself.
Why did I write this thing?
And I think that's where sometimes when
you're not able to communicate with
somebody consistently and kind of go page
by page,
even though I know Heartstroke a couple
times have been like, stop talking to me.
No way.
Something like that actually happened with
me.
It was the third page, you wrote weapons.
And I drew off everyone with bats and
knives and stuff like that.
And he was like, no, I mean guns.
Well, yeah, I was like, yeah,
this is what it was.
That's where I think.
But I also think specifics count.
Well, I think, too,
what I think about in that and I'm
not blaming you at all,
but I also think that's a cultural thing.
Like in America, if you say weapons,
especially in Texas, that means guns.
That's true.
But in every other nation,
nobody has guns on the regular.
I can go to my friend's house and
he has three.
Only three in Texas?
That's a rookie, man.
I got four and I'm in Florida on
detail for my job.
I got four.
But I think that's also like, you know,
sometimes I have to think about like, no,
this is like, there was,
were you the one that didn't know what
an ATM machine was?
No, that was somebody else.
Where it was like an ATM machine on
the side of a building.
And I was like,
how do you not know?
And then realize like, oh,
you have no idea because he's in Central
America.
Yeah, that doesn't happen here.
We don't have ATM like outside.
They're always inside.
Yeah, they're always inside.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think sometimes when you get the
cultural differences, you know,
because the first artist I worked with,
he was in Texas.
So like there was no,
and not that it was a better relationship,
but just that there were certain things
because he's here,
he understood what this is.
But at the same time,
like another writer buddy of mine,
like he'll just insert pictures into his
script like this.
And I'm like, maybe like, no,
make the artist work.
He'll be fine.
Yeah.
you are paying him to work so that's
what we pay him for and that's what
Google is for as well help me a
little bit Matt with that yeah there you
go I'll do a mix but that was
something that I think as writers keep it
in mind of like like there are certain
things that are very commonplace here that
like it just doesn't like there was
another comic where like he had no idea
what a warehouse was
like what the inside of a warehouse would
look like, or, or it was,
it was like a boat.
It was something.
Oh, it was a boat too,
where I was like, Oh,
he has a boat.
And he just drew a pontoon,
a pontoon boat.
I was like, no, no, no.
It's a houseboat,
but just somebody who has no experience
with certain things.
And,
and then you have to get into the
specifics of like,
this is what trigger discipline is.
So, but yeah, I think that's,
that's my safety right there.
yeah to have the ability to talk to
the artist and look at it page by
page it really does help make sure like
because i know once the ink is down
i know i i don't think hard strokes
works digitally i can't remember
digitally actually everything I know the
big if someone's working on paper once
they ink it to get them to change
anything it's locked in they ain't doing
it I did it one time and I
paid the artist extra because it was so
not what I wanted and I was like
bro I'm sorry I know you said never
to do this here's an extra I don't
remember how much I've tossed him I need
you to fix this
And it was just because we had to
workshop the design of the plane.
So we could just draw on a plane.
And I was like, no.
I need to start to work traditionally with
paper.
I know people who do both.
I do both.
I do analog and digital.
So what's been the philosophy that has
drove the brand when choosing what stories
to tell or what creators to collaborate
with for y'all?
Do y'all bring in new people from time
to time or do you just have this
is us and we're it?
No, we bring in other artists.
Like Apogee prides itself on being a
stepping stone company to move on to like
bigger brands like Valiant or Dark Horse
or Image.
Marvel and even DC.
One of our early colorists, DC Alonzo,
started out with us and now he's doing
stuff for Marvel.
It's funny that you brought up Valiant.
I feel like they're criminally underrated
movies.
How do you not love X-Men or Solar?
Those are brilliant books and they're just
brilliantly executed as far as artwork and
storytelling.
And it kind of goes against the old
guard of comic books.
They tell these unique stories that are
completely indicative of their own brand,
which I find amazing.
I'm an early image head.
So when Image worked with Valiant for
Checkmate,
I thought that was the greatest thing that
had ever happened in my life.
Some people look back like, hey,
the space shuttle launching and landing on
the moon,
that was the pinnacle of my life.
I'm like, no.
Image and Valiant doing Checkmate was the
pinnacle of my life because it was the
coolest shit ever.
If it had come out the right way,
I think it would have been great.
The thing is,
it did come out the right way and
it still got overlooked.
But I think people are going back there
and that's why those issues are so...
And I guard them with my life.
There are coffins in my office.
As well they should be.
Those two companies coming together and
doing that.
Valiant is like one of my peak things
in social media is when I started doing
some fan art of Valiant.
I think I did a bloodshot and I
did a...
Exo Manowar.
Exo Manowar is probably my favorite of
that line, but I started seeing,
Valiant Comics likes this.
Valiant Comics likes this.
I'm like, holy shit.
Screen grabs,
submit to everywhere on social media,
like, hey, Valiant Comics like my shit.
It's the coolest thing ever.
Dude, I do the same thing.
Anytime a comic book artist or a writer
says, hey, thanks for the support,
I'm all like, screenshot, just in case.
You know, it's stuff like that.
This is what I love about social media
is that it's giving you access to people
that you normally wouldn't have access to.
It really has.
And I think the con culture, I think,
is starting to go back to they're
separating it more now.
Comic-Cons are becoming Comic-Cons again
about the comic books.
I know San Diego Comic-Con this year was
literally about the comics.
They still had their normal stuff,
but from everybody I've talked to that was
at San Diego,
it was definitely more about the comic
books this year.
Yeah,
it was more pushing about the comic books
and the creative aspect of comic books.
It was more focused on what's Jimmy
putting out?
What's Todd putting out?
What's Rob putting out?
What's Dan putting out?
you know, where before it's all like,
everybody's in line to go into Hall H
and see what blockbusters are going to
happen next year.
Yeah.
Which I've never cared about.
I mean, the one thing that, like,
I want to see the next con I
end up at,
the only thing I really want to concern
myself with is Tiny Onion going to be
there.
Okay.
Yeah.
The Tinian.
That's another guy that's on my list,
definitely, is Tinian.
But social media has given me access to
Chuck Dixon to build a friendship with
him, with Graham Nolan,
the guys that created Bane,
and then get him on my own podcast.
That's really dope, yeah.
Because if we said,
we're not going to talk about fucking
Bane, and I'm like, all right,
that's fair.
we're not filming,
can I ask you about Bane?
I'm like, yeah, absolutely.
We just don't want to do it on
there because we've talked about Bane for
like thirty years.
That's good.
No,
that's really cool that and that's the one
positive I can say that's come out of
social media is us getting to connect with
the guys that we look up to and
admire from a creative standpoint when it
comes to that kind of stuff.
I know I myself,
I don't have any type of
artistic skills,
but I've always been able to admire what
the other other people have done.
So let's let's keep pressing.
So let's talk a little bit about your
current lineup before I know we got quick
wire coming.
Let's get tell everybody about what you
currently have on the docket and what they
can pick up if they go over to
your website.
Okay.
First of all,
you can pick us some things from our
legacy line is what we're calling it.
Now we're kind of like rebranding.
We've pushed the artwork,
we've pushed storytelling, colors.
We've gotten a little bit more
professional polish on it.
Not saying that the previous books didn't
have that,
but we've kind of like bumped it up
a notch.
So you can get The Crimson Guardians
starring the Cardinal.
The first Phantom Hawk book we did with
Apogee.
Solarium Prime.
Bengali, issue one through three.
What am I forgetting, Matt?
There's another book.
Oh, War Drums.
You can order War Drums.
Yeah, the original War Drums.
The original War Drums,
which we're expanding into its own.
It's going to be kind of like the
Marvel Presents or the Crisis line with
DC.
It's going to be how we pull the
universe together.
for like giant events.
So you don't have to read individual
issues to understand what's going on with
the major event.
It's going to be.
OK.
We thought that was a better idea to
just kind of streamline the universe and
how we're going to move forward.
But you can always there.
I wouldn't call them one shots or
independent of each other because in the
later issues,
these things will be brought up like this
event happened and there'll be a caption
like this happened in war drums issue four
or whatever.
OK.
It's kind of like when Marvel Now
happened,
where they kind of soft rebooted the
entire Marvel Comics universe.
And then they kind of caught and picked
everything that they wanted to keep and
things they didn't want to keep.
And that's kind of, in a way,
in my opinion, what we've kind of done.
It's like the Phantom Hawk reboot has
really kind of begun this...
kind of not a restart, but like, Hey,
this is what we're doing now.
This is the standard.
And that was happening at the same time
as not the same time,
but they were being produced nearly the
same time.
And it was like,
we'd get art from him.
And then we get art from heartstroke and
just like, okay, cool.
We need a new artist for this other
title because these guys have just kicked
this up.
Where are we going to find for this?
And not that we fired anybody.
Things happened in the business before I
got involved.
So it was like, okay,
let's make sure we've taken that next
step.
The young group that has come up
underneath us is, or behind us,
I guess you say, is much more talented,
but they're raw.
We can forge these guys and help them
do what they need to do.
And it really was just kind of a
nice kind of like, hey,
now we're doing some cool stuff.
What's really cool is that we have artists
like Harsh here that really believe in the
character.
They have an investment with what they're
drawing.
I think that's important because it brings
out a certain...
next level element to it when they do
their artwork and you can see that in
harsh's work on quick wire that he did
have a relationship with this character so
he elevated it and kind of pushed himself
you know because if you see any of
his previous work it is good it's solid
but you can tell that with quick wire
there is an emotional involvement there
like you can always tell when the artist
is passionate about what they're doing it
shows in the art so
Is all the characters within Apogee all in
the same universe,
or is it separate universes,
or is everything tied together?
It's a shared universe.
Quickwire is going to work with Slayer and
Prime at some point.
He's going to work with Phantom Hawk at
some point.
He's going to work with Bengali at some
point.
He's going to work with Corvin Sparrow at
some point.
So there's a shared universe there where
we get to tie the universe together.
And we do these things in four issue
blocks,
mainly because we can't produce a monthly.
So we got to keep it as like
almost like a graphic novel-esque.
Yeah.
You know,
it's like four floppies we'll put into a
trade paperback, you know,
because people don't like trade
paperbacks.
But, you know,
we leave it open like that.
So we can fill in the voids in
between these stories of, hey,
Quickware worked with Slater Prime and
they were doing some really crazy stuff
together.
They were doing this like booster gold and
blue beetle level thing.
Bloody confident.
Ooh.
Ooh.
You know?
Ooh, classic.
I like it.
Like Spider-Man working with Batman,
you know?
It's just like...
So you really can kind of see the
influence of what we grew up reading
and how those stories kind of like convey
out to the rest of the world and
what we're producing without you we're all
big fans of like nineties level you know
ninety level image you know and that
michael bay level of just craziness like
storytelling there's no politics being
rammed down your throat we're not doing
any
of that.
We're just telling good stories.
I love it.
The important thing is that comic books
are escapism,
just like any other type of form of
media.
I read a comic book because I want
to escape my reality.
And if I bring in real too much
real world stuff and it's not allegory,
it's not subtext,
then I'm going to lose my audience because
reality.
And they're like, man,
I read this so I can escape reality.
And here I am being just having to
shove down my throat in a comic book
that I just paid three ninety nine for.
Yeah.
You know, or five bucks or whatever.
Yeah.
Shit.
Seven ninety nine.
If it's some of the newer D.C.
titles.
Yeah.
So crazy because they had that hashtag and
that that whole advertising and marketing
campaigns like no line above three ninety
nine.
You know,
the only person who's done that is Todd
McFarlane.
Yeah.
With Spawn.
But two ninety nine or one ninety nine,
something like that.
It's one ninety nine, I think,
for the OG Spawn still.
Yeah,
and you get to โ that's what happens
when you print out of China,
which is great.
I've done that.
I'll just print it out of China.
But so that's kind of like the precipice
of Apogee and what we're trying to achieve
here is we want stories that you can
connect with and enjoy some escapism for
twenty-four pages.
I like it.
So do you all have a โ
a specific shop that y'all like to print
with or do y'all just kind of like
shop it around?
We started with the online thing.
Okay.
Which has benefited us so far.
Mm-hmm.
like slur and prime was a book I
paid for at a pocket for art and
all that stuff.
And, uh,
I put it as a presale on the
website and it funded the book.
It pretty much reimbursed me everything I
spent on it.
Okay.
They'll keep getting orders for it,
especially with slur and prime because the
whole premise of the book is I want
a cool hand Luke in space.
Oh dude.
Yes.
That's what's up.
So I,
I tried to put in a...
Or she'll have to go and Google Cool
Hand Luke later.
She's just a baby.
But...
I don't know.
It's a great movie.
Yeah, I miss it much.
It really is.
The Letter of Prime was cool hand Luke
in space.
Phantom Hawk was my love letter to the
guys I served in Iraq with,
mixed in with some Batman and Punisher and
some other elements.
Like, if you read the book,
you'd be like, okay,
this is what this dude was into.
Mm-hmm.
And then Slaren Prime,
he's not a fan of the Nova Corps
or Green Lantern Corps.
But what if he doesn't have a core?
What if it's just him?
What if he's the sole survivor of his
planet?
Quickwire is like,
I always wanted a speedster,
but I wanted the speedster to be
independent of the troops.
And that's where Matthew came in and with
his brilliant storytelling,
we just ripped on every speedster trope in
that book.
That whole four issue arc is us just
ripping on the speedster arc,
the speedster tropes.
And it's so funny too when I read
it because I'm also an artist in the
company.
So when I read a script,
it plays like a movie in my head.
And so with the dialogue and the screen
description or the panel description,
you know, there's a scene in there.
He's like,
just don't put me on an airfield with
like some like motorcycle gear, you know,
so I don't hurt myself.
And then they,
that's exactly what they do.
And he calls them out on it.
It's like, see, I told you,
I told you we'd be on an abandoned
airfield one.
yeah there's that the moment where his
brother's like hey i need to take you
to my work so we can do the
test and then they walk in and he's
carrying a motorcycle helmet he's like why
do you have your helmet he's like oh
i know i'm gonna end up running and
i'm not gonna eat bugs when i do
that and then that's all he keeps saying
is i'm gonna run i wanna run i
wanna i know i'm gonna run and they're
like you're not running there's no reason
for you to run well and five minutes
later yeah
Many moments later, you know,
and he's trying to phase through a wall
and eat shit.
Because that's not a thing in this
universe.
You don't get to vibrate your molecules to
the point where you can phase through
matter like it defies physics.
Hey, come on.
Barry's only figuring it out too.
And we're just going to leave...
Barry Allen with Barry Allen.
We leave Wally West with Wally West.
You know, Tyler's his own deal.
And he has a mixture of a lot
of other character personality traits,
like fourth wall.
You know, so I'll do that.
Breaking the fourth wall is something that
that's the one thing I'll give Deadpool.
He's very good at.
And I will also say that she Hulk,
when she has done it,
she's done it very appropriately.
And when it's done appropriately,
Dude,
there's nothing that could be better than
a fourth wall break done perfectly.
When they know they're a character.
Matthew nailed it perfectly.
Like,
the fourth wall breaks are completely...
I wouldn't say they're entirely unique,
but they're definitely uniquely done.
So, Tyler's kind of like...
He's definitely a gen...
What would you say he is?
Millennial?
No, no, no.
No, I think it's Gen Z, right?
I think it's Gen Z, yeah.
Because his vernacular is based off my
second daughter.
The way that she talks.
He uses words like bussin' and no cap
and deadass.
Yeah, slave.
Yeah, that's my daughter's thing.
Yeah, I got two daughters in college.
Oh my God.
Same.
I got one in college.
That's it.
I stopped at one.
I got smart.
Yeah.
Well, my crown and achievement,
I stopped at one.
Not to be too crude,
but my pullout game was weak apparently.
So like we use that vernacular in the
way.
No judging here, buddy.
you know so Matthew's writing in that with
the fourth wall break was I was busting
up laughing one of the few times I
call him directly instead of him calling
me I'm like hey dude this shit was
hilarious I was like I laughed I got
laughed for like a good ten minutes you
know with the fourth wall break and
hopefully the audience experiences the
same thing that I did if not I'm
not giving you your money back it's mine
forever but
It's already been spent.
Tough shit.
Did the sun go down there?
Harsh stroke?
It's all going to harsh stroke.
What is the payment system we call it?
Payoneer.
Payoneer.
I laughed hysterically and then Harsh went
in there and put visuals to it and
sold the joke even more.
It's like so...
When you have that team,
that communication,
and the artist is like,
I'm in on the joke,
I know how to make the joke better,
and then I'm going to do that.
I'm not saying we're breaking the fourth
wall every issue,
but at least in the first issue,
it's like, hey, this is my story.
You're probably wondering how I got here.
Yeah.
His captions break the fourth wall.
The last page, he definitely does it.
He does an entire... In the second issue,
he does an entire two-page speech breaking
the fourth wall.
That's awesome.
But I think, too, like...
I've always had this thing about like,
it seems like every single combo
character,
like they're begrudgingly a hero or the
hero life has weighed them down.
And I'm like, what if this,
this young kid who like,
he's been dreaming that this might happen
one day,
even though he knows it never would.
And then it randomly happens.
And he's like, this is the coolest thing.
And just have him be truly excited about
not only having superpowers, but.
the idea of actually getting to be a
hero, you know, like I, I,
I like to believe that most people are
good.
Look,
if I could somehow pull off being Batman
or, well,
probably more Nightwing because he's all
over my office.
And that's,
like Nightwing or Superman.
I know everybody wants to go like, well,
you'd probably end up being a Homelander.
No.
I really would want to be that dude
who's doing things and helping people.
And look.
not to go too far into this because
i don't want to start a big debate
but like look i'm i'm going to be
the corn sweat superman i'm not going to
be dour let me let horses die freaking
cavil superman like and i think watch your
mouth sir oh we can get that argument
millions of snyder fans just rolled over
in their mom's basement
But my point more is that to have
somebody like Quickwire,
because Phantom Hawk is all the things of
like, this is my mission.
And my intent is to make sure that
I fulfill my mission.
And if you get in the way,
then I'm sorry.
That's your own bad.
And Quickwire's like, no, bro.
Like, watch this part.
You know,
and I think that's that's having that that
difference and letting and Nick.
Look,
Nick did not know what he was getting
into.
He just knew he wanted a speedster.
No, dude, I like that.
But it's one of those where I've been
around long enough and I was in the
military long enough.
I would be the Red Hood.
Sorry, but I'm packing pistols,
and I'm just going to be like, oh,
boop.
This is the weird thing,
and this is better than Captain Matthew's
writing, because he writes Phantomon,
who's the reluctant hero.
He doesn't want to be a hero.
He's mission-focused,
and he's got shit to do.
You're in my way.
One way or the other,
you get in my way.
So there's elements of Punisher and Red
Hood.
Mm-hmm.
in that story and then you go do
a complete one eighty with this fun jovial
hero that's really embracing that because
it's the coolest thing that's ever
happened in his life but then you brought
in a young artist to draw it that
helps a lot i think that was needed
because of the energy that that character
represents he needed a youthful artist
know and i and harsh is just delivered
page after page after page you're getting
i like it i like to hear it
like twenty two or twenty four pages of
awesomeness we work on so many books i
don't know how many pages there are
sometimes so so are all your books like
in that twenty four page range are you
like the twenty four to thirty two we
keep using the twenty four to thirty two
page range okay like
Any artist or writer that I hire,
and Matt can affirm this,
when they ask me questions like, well,
how many pages is it going to be?
I'm like,
as long as you need to tell the
story.
That's all I need.
I give them a lot of free range
in the sandbox of, oh,
I almost said it wrong myself.
My bad, dude.
Hey, I'll own that one.
That one's on me.
Don't mess me up, son.
So when you show up to the sandbox
of Apogee, I'm like,
as long as you need to tell the
story,
and I will let you know if you
cross a line or you're doing something the
character wouldn't do.
You know,
so you get a lot of free range
and Matthew's kind of like complimenting,
like, Hey man,
like I've never had so much fun working
on a book.
I'm like, because I'm,
I'm very little hands-on.
It's like,
I tell you what the core of the
character is.
And that's the problem with like with
Phantom Hawk is that, um,
everyone wants to write him as Batman,
either want to write him as Batman or
they want to write him as the Punisher.
I'm like, that's not who he is.
And Matthew understood that completely.
Like, okay, so correct me if I'm wrong,
is this who the character is?
I'm like,
that's absolutely who the character is.
And he went to town.
And then we come to Quickwater.
I'm like, I want this speedster,
but I don't want him to follow speedster
tropes.
You know,
the original name for the character was
Charger.
and matthew just hit me with the hard
questions like how in love are we with
this name i'm like i'm not married to
it you know so if you think of
something better let me know hey then he
could have been san diego's favorite son
no that's where bengali comes in bengali
Nice.
I created them in Texas,
even though I'm a San Diego resident.
I was like,
I never thought I was going to see
the city again in my life and work
being work.
I'm now a San Diego resident.
I'm like,
this is so much cooler now because I'm
here and I'm taking reference pictures for
my artists while I'm out on the water
in San Diego Bay.
And here's a picture of the Midway and
here's this and here's that.
You know,
so I'm able to add that element of
realism to it.
concerts like where are we going to put
this dude i'm like i don't want to
put him on the west coast with all
my other heroes we're not trying to be
west coast marvel you know he's like well
you were in texas so what about a
texas location i'm like all right cool how
about dallas and show me some pictures i'm
like i got a lot of friends that
will be happy to hear that quick wire
is in dallas because i got a lot
of friends in dallas i got a lot
of friends down in san antonio as well
Yeah,
so the majority of Apogee's Heroes are on
the West Coast,
like whatever made up city I made that
I put in the Bay Area,
like Presbyterian City,
it's essentially Modesto, California.
I just moved from Central Valley and moved
it West into like San Jose's area,
because who's gonna miss it?
And Crimson Garden, it's in Foster City.
So that's North Bay,
that's north of San Francisco.
And then I have Corvid and Sparrow who
operate just kind of like wherever the
hell they want to.
And then I have Slaren Prime,
who technically, I guess,
would be in Cape Canaveral, you know,
Florida.
Or space.
Or space.
He's in space.
I mean, the name would make sense then,
right?
Yeah.
You want a Nova Corps dude,
he's going to be in space all the
time.
I'm like, okay,
but he has to show up to Earth
every once in a while because he's got
beef with one of the other heroes.
And...
So he's like, hey, how about Dallas?
I'm like, Dallas is a cool town.
It's got a great cityscape.
Dude,
Dallas has come a long way over the
last like ten to fifteen years.
I'm like, it's better than Waco, man.
We're not trying to have like Chip and
Joe.
Hey, Waco's on the come up, okay?
Waco's on the come up.
Is it?
Have you been there?
No.
but no the the reason for a while
but i know dallas is eventually going to
grow into waco i mean yeah it's it
give it another way there well because
that was my thing is like i'm i'm
i live in a small town outside of
houston and i thought about houston but my
thing was like there isn't enough going on
here
And the advantage of going to Dallas and
Heartstroke, you may not know any of this.
I'm sorry.
The geography of Texas or America.
But like,
so you have Dallas and Fort Worth that
are within under like eighty miles of each
other.
I think they're growing into each other at
this point.
Yeah,
they're pretty much growing into each
other.
So they're called the Metroplex.
because it's two cities basically grow
into melding as one and i just thought
like putting him there you have so many
more environments and opportunities for
him to do something and given that he's
a speedster he could be anywhere else
quickly anyway so i just thought it would
be a nice place to drop it because
yeah so many people if they do texas
they do like houston or or
el paso or they don't even bother with
texas you know what's funny you're in
houston i just had chris ford on who
does the comic book dark pink also from
the houston area oh nice but his comic
book takes place in new orleans and
coincidence enough the guy i had on last
night is canadian but his comic book also
takes place in new orleans nice i got
married to new orleans so sure i'm putting
together a great
streak for october and everybody that i'm
talking to and interviewing everything
that they're doing is all kind of like
interlaid with each other in some form or
fashion and i'm just putting all that
together which is really cool no it it's
i think texas i mean i've based stuff
in the past here and i think that
that's
i don't think a lot of people quite
understand one how vast the state really
is no they really don't that's like a
day and a half drive to get across
yeah but even on top of that given
the vastness like if i drive three hours
in every any direction the environment
changes
If I go to San Antonio,
it's much more green.
It's not as humid.
It's kind of more of the feel of
getting closer to Mexico and that
influence.
I go to Austin,
I'm suddenly in hill country.
It's two and a half hours away,
and there's nothing flat.
Houston's almost completely flat.
If I go up to Dallas,
now you're talking about that standard
city vibe.
And then you go beyond all that.
My daughter, she's in Abilene.
One of my daughters in San Antonio,
the other one's in Abilene, Abilene,
and it flattens out again.
And it's like,
you can see Tuesday that way and Thursday
that way.
And you're just trying to get there as
fast as possible.
But I think there's just so many
environments here.
You know what?
Everything South of I-Ten is just desert.
I mean, yeah.
And then there's a point where you can,
there's a point where you're going down
I-Ten.
over here is Texas, over here is Mexico.
I always thought that was really cool.
I'm like, what's that over there?
You see a big sign that says,
do not cross your enter in Mexico.
I'm like, oh, that's cool.
Or you have blue skies and brown skies.
Also very true.
Sorry, Heartstroke.
Those border towns, they have no...
That's real.
I will hold Nogales and Tijuana very close
to my heart.
Yeah.
I've spent many of times in Nogales and
Tijuana, all right?
No, yeah.
Yeah.
But no,
I think it has been a lot of
fun working on Quickwire to kind of let
loose because there are so many...
I feel like, and that sounded weird,
but I'm a child at heart.
So to have fun... We all are, dude.
Otherwise,
we would not be sitting here right now.
So there's another comic company where I
had those characters that I had fun with.
And then there were these characters that
were more dark.
And I think you have to have that
gauntlet.
and because the best part is like at
some point quick wire and phantom hawk are
going to have to talk and that's going
to be mind-breaking to try and figure out
what that meeting is going to be like
well that's where i come in with the
humor of phantom hawk because he's such a
stoic character he's such a mission-driven
character and then you have tyler who is
just having the time as time of his
life being a hero
Yeah,
that's that's awesome to think about,
though,
the dynamic you're going to get the right
with those two characters eventually.
Man, you were on glass number three.
Well, technically four,
because that's a pretty big glass that
you've done filled twice.
Do I take glasses I had before the
show?
Oh, no, I didn't know you pregame.
Don't ask him.
He's like, well, I bought a new bottle.
I had to try it out.
At the end of the show,
he's just like, oh, shit.
Yeah.
DoorDash, bring me some more.
We've got some really cool characters
going here that are going to have really
interesting interactions as we start doing
these team-ups.
So we haven't really decided, like,
nailed in the first โ
apogee event because we have like three
specific uh plot points that we're trying
to work out one of them deals with
immigration on an intergalactic scale oh
nice um all because i like a good
spin like that on it because when you
first brought up immigration i was like ah
dude but you know like galactic
immigration i'm like fuck you now we're
talking well i mean
And here's where people are going to love
me or hate me.
I'm a Border Patrol agent.
That's what I do for my daytime job.
So I have a lot of experience with
immigration and things that I've
experienced out on the line on the border
have kind of like played into some of
my stories.
I'm like,
what if you had multiple planets that
could no longer inhabit their own planet,
had to come over here?
know how would that eat up resources you
know how would that eat up our heroes
function you know like how would that work
you know there's a strange little question
in my mind and i just couldn't get
i i couldn't answer it i i i
need to bring people on board i brought
matthew on board you know like how would
this how would this result and
Would that open us up to another threat,
like a dark side or a Thanos?
I like it.
Or a Plaxis or no.
Wait, did I say that wrong?
Yeah, I said it wrong.
You know,
so like it opens you up to other
threats while we're trying to be the best
of humanity to, hey, come over here.
We understand this.
You know, you guys are welcome here.
We don't know where we're going to put
you,
but we'll figure it out because I think.
Yeah.
I think humans at their core are good,
you know,
and they want to do the best for
other people.
So that story plot,
that storyline that I envisioned,
I think would be an interesting tale to
tell.
No,
I like that idea just from hearing you
talk about it.
I know that's going to be something
special when you do it.
It's going to be amazing.
I just hope I live long enough to
actually make this happen.
Because I think it's going to be a
really groundbreaking story.
I don't want to be too forward.
Maybe Eisner winning.
Ooh, now we're talking.
Which Matthew would probably win that for
actually penning it.
Maybe I'll get a cover mention, you know.
You'll get a nod.
I see the septum is Eisner.
Yeah, that's it.
That's all it really be, man.
Because like when I created Apogee...
I don't need to be the face of
it.
I'll never be the face of it.
Like I created a lot of the characters
in it,
but I don't need all the recognition.
I just,
I want the work to speak for itself.
I want to be for the work that
we do and promote the young artists and
writers and colorists and letterers that
work for us where we can be something
in their resume.
I think that'd be really cool.
I think that's more of a feather captain.
Anything else is like,
hey, I work for Apogee, and they're like,
oh, we've heard of them, they're great,
you know,
because they've worked with all these
artists, you know,
because we take a chance on a lot
of people, too.
Yeah,
and sometimes that's all a person needs is
that somebody to take that one chance on
them,
and then
That's your all-star right there,
you know?
Right.
Absolutely.
And I've had contacts in this business who
worked for this company in its early days
and their early days while they're
building their portfolio.
So anytime I contact them, I'm like, hey,
man, I need this.
I need that.
They're like, oh, absolutely, dude.
I'll put this aside even though I'm doing
this big project for DC or Marvel.
I'm like, no,
you don't have to do that.
Like, you gave me my start, man.
That's totally cool.
I'm like, okay, what are you charging me?
I'm like, not what I charge these guys.
I'm like, even better.
I like it, dude.
So I know y'all got a lot of
big projects coming up.
And I know, like,
I know I had prepared myself because in
my head, like, I do a lot of,
I work with a lot of guys running
Kickstarters and stuff like that.
Y'all are not doing the Kickstarter route.
for now are you still going to kind
of have like the same like benefits of
a kickstarter with like stretch goals um
different covers and stuff like that or
how how are y'all rocking that since
you're not going to kickstarter route for
your next projects okay so you're talking
like the tier system that's yeah yeah
known for kickstarter indiegogo things
like that fun my comic um
that we offer as tiers.
We're working on it because as a business,
we have to keep those things in-house and
have inventory of it.
So like Phantom Hawk,
we offered patches for the Phantom Warrior
project that Phantom Hawk is a part of.
Quickwire,
I've hired out three-D printing sculptors
to make his logo.
Oh, that'd be really dope.
Yeah.
And then also statues.
And then I have pretty much a print
farm going on in my house right now
because I want something that I've ever
wanted since I was eight.
And I have files for those and I
print them out and off to the mess
because I have a Wolverine mask,
I have Deadpool, I got a Wolverine cloth.
I got all the dumb shit I wanted
when I was a kid just eating up
my office space right now.
But I figured... Guilty.
Yeah.
A three-D printer is pretty much a license
to print money.
So if I can do,
and that's what I've commissioned.
I've commissioned a couple of people to do
quick wire running at speed that I can
fill with different filaments to print it
and then ship those out.
Same with Bengali and Phantom Hawk.
Those are kind of our top three right
now.
So that's kind of where we're going with
that.
So are y'all still,
do y'all have like t-shirts and stuff like
that that people can get on y'all's
website?
We have a Teespring account that has...
multiple products as far as like...
sweatshirts, t-shirts, men and women.
We had leggings for a while,
but they discontinued the leggings.
I bought them all.
I knew it.
That's why you're only filming from here
up.
You don't want no one to see your
leggings.
They bring your ass up perfectly.
That's a lot of A's.
That's all I'm saying.
It's a lot of A's.
I get it.
It's a whole deal.
So we're trying to find a way to
streamline all those products that we
offer in tiers onto the website.
Because the goal should be to get away
from crowdfunding.
Yeah, okay.
I know before we went online,
we were talking about that.
I know Brian Polito over at Coffin Comets
just did that.
He started his own internal Kickstarter,
basically.
So I like that idea a lot.
I understand that's not for everybody,
but you have the model and the plan
in place to make it happen.
But I see in any comics,
they pride themselves on how much they
brought in on crowdfunding.
And I want to get away from that.
I don't view that as a viable metric
of how successful your comic is or how...
how much your stories are revealed or how
much your characters are liked.
I think it's more indicative to be like,
hey,
I offered it on my website and it
funded the book.
Yeah.
You know,
I think that's more of a more reliable
and realistic metric for how successful
your stories are.
And it says a lot about how good
you can market your products to people.
Because I'm saying, you know,
eighty percent of that's the way you
market it and the way you advertise your
products.
No, you're absolutely right.
So if you can offer your website and
people are still going to come to you
and give it views and order stuff,
I think that's a more viable metric than,
hey,
because you see it all the time on
Kickstarter.
It's like, OK,
we funded our book and we had a
ten thousand dollar goal,
but we had one hundred sixteen backers.
So we're them.
Yeah.
Oh,
somebody's mom and dad probably chumped it
in.
Friends and family.
Or they had tits on the cover.
Yeah, and the flip side for me is...
Those tits on the cover always does it.
I mean, yeah.
It sells, you know?
But going off what Nick says,
we want a fan base.
If you have a fan base,
it should fund itself.
We're not afraid to do a Kickstarter.
We did a crowdfunding a couple months ago.
We have tentative plans to do something in
January,
but we don't want it to be every
issue is...
we're depending on the kickstarter to make
every comic it it should not it it's
a good beginning business model but after
your fifth or sixth issue if you're
kickstarting everything nobody cares about
your book like i'm not trying to be
mean about it nobody cares about your book
they care about you and they want you
to be successful
But they want you to be successful because
they're helping, they're funding you.
They're not re you know, look,
are they like, not to be weird,
the number of things I've kickstarted and
I don't think I've ever read the books.
It's pretty high because I'm funding that
person.
He's my buddy or he helped me with
this.
So we're doing,
we're going back and forth.
So that's where.
if we can get away from every single
book,
we may do like a quarterly crowdfunding or
a, a buy in like every, you know,
every six months, let's do a Kickstarter,
but it's not going to be a Kickstarter
for quick wire.
Number two, Phantom mock number two,
Bengali number five, the everything,
you know, because the other thing too,
is like, everybody's doing it.
And I think people are tired of it.
You know, it's to,
to piggyback on Matthew's point.
Like if we're going to do a Kickstarter,
it's because we're going to offer
something that's cost a little bit more.
That's going to add value to the book
and have a different reach to the
clientele.
So from Quickwire,
I've been looking at lenticular covers
based on Harsh's suggestion of, hey,
we should do a lenticular cover.
So first of all, I was like,
what the F is that?
I'm like, all right, cool.
It's a fancy way of saying foil.
Yeah.
Well, it's not.
It's the three D. Oh, okay.
You're talking about the three D. Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
And harsh has done like twenty something
drawings of quick wires mask,
making different emojis and expressions.
And I was like, oh, that's awesome.
Like even through some like conchies in
there, some Japanese conchies, you know,
and I was like, oh, man, see,
that would be awesome.
So I'm like,
I know,
because I've bought books like that.
Also, polybags.
Polybags with gift stuff in there,
like a trading card.
It just so happened I had a polybag
sitting next to me.
Just chilling on Hot Standby.
No,
this is actually the Eighteen Plus cover
for Gahanna, Naked Aggression from Image.
Really fun book,
but each cover has an adult version of
the cover.
So I did polybags for Bengali issue one
because I submitted to distribution,
but then I realized that the barcode that
I put on there was BS.
It didn't mean nothing.
So I was like, oh, shit.
Well, the market kind of needs a barcode,
like a legit one.
So I went and I bought some barcodes,
and then I โ
you know, followed the, uh,
the mandate of how barcode supposed to be.
And then I printed it on the poly
bag and it's all it is,
is a mask of Bengali.
It's his mask.
Yeah.
You know,
cause I didn't just want to put the
cover on there and be like, all right,
cool.
Here you go buy this and this really
awesome poly bag.
That's going to run you like the twelve
bucks,
but actually it's not even that much.
It was like forty five cents on the
dollar.
But, uh,
So I got all these poly bags,
you know,
and I want to do this lenticular cover
and I also want to do the poly
bag, you know.
So they get like, oh,
I got this really awesome poly bag with
this original artwork.
And then you open it up like, oh,
cool.
Now I get this lenticular cover,
which is going to run about eleven bucks
a copy to throw on a three dollar
floppy, you know.
So but I don't want to charge people
extra for that if I don't have to.
So if I can run the Kickstarter and
then I set it at like a fifteen
dollar price point and you get a poly
bag and you're going to get a trading
card and you're going to get some cool
shit along with the particular cover and
you get a really awesome poly bag.
And if you want,
I'll sign the damn thing for you.
It costs me nothing.
The banks have been getting my signature
for years.
You know,
I take this metallic pen and I just
Nick Garver right there.
Like, oh, my God,
the creator of this character.
No, it didn't.
And if we were all closer and I
had the money,
I would just send it to everybody so
they could sign it.
But, but, segue from hell,
we will be closer on November fourteenth
and fifteenth.
Oh,
you can't just say you're going to be
closer and not tell us why you're going
to be closer.
The Comic Arts Convention is going to be
there.
All three of us will be there along
with Rene who writes some of the other
titles.
He writes Bengali.
He'll be there.
We'll be signing autographs.
There may be some other special guests.
We have to wait until closer to the
time to announce that one.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
Do what?
I thought you were the special guest,
Matt.
I mean...
We're not talking about that special.
I mean, Harsh is flying in for it.
So, I mean,
he's got to be the guest of the
hour, you know.
Then it's like a gif of like, hey,
when I arrive in America,
it's like this dude like proposing to a
girl.
And I'm like,
which one of us is the girl?
but yeah it'll be it's going to be
in san antonio november fifteenth is the
convention it's called the comic arts
convention yeah and uh it's just that
saturday but we'll all be there my friends
are going to be at that so i
can have them go over to y'all
Buy some stuff from y'all and then send
it to me.
And we'll sign it for you.
And a group picture like I'll be doing.
Well, harsh.
I'm sure.
Well,
you show up with a pad and paper
and pencil and we'll do some commissions.
We'll make some money that way.
Chairman, wish you were here.
Y'all take a picture with it.
Chairman, I wish you were here.
While everyone's wearing an Apogee t-shirt
or something.
You guys make your money and I'll just
sit there like,
I could write you a story for twenty
bucks.
It's not going to be good for twenty
bucks, but I'll write you a story.
It'll be two pages.
I'll just insert your name in the same
script over and over again.
I'm about to get a retention bonus at
work and like half of it's going to
go to Hasso for all the work he's
done for me.
Nice.
Hey, no, that is a perfect segue.
We're rolling up on about actually we just
hit an hour and a half.
So let's wrap everything up in a nice
little bow for everybody.
I'll let Nick start and you can tell
everybody where they can find you.
And then we'll go to Matt and Harsh
and we'll start putting a nice big bow
on this for everybody.
All right.
So my social media marketing is pretty
simple.
I want to make sure that you can
find me on all platforms with the same
app.
so for myself personally if you're
interested in my own work or just my
crazy views on the freaking world um and
nick at nick garber art on facebook
instagram and x i still feel weird calling
it that but if you want to follow
the company that's at comics on instagram
and x and apogee by the way i
learned that today
Not Apogie, not,
what was the other one that you were
saying?
Apogie.
Apogie.
Apogee.
Got a little French flair to it.
So Apogee, A-P-O-G-E-E, comics.
Now I got him doing it.
Which means the height of a satellite at
its peak.
So that's kind of why we chose it.
So you can find us there in those
social media platforms.
You can email me at nickgarberart at
gmail.com or at indies at gmail.com.
Allow a twenty-four to seventy-two hours
to respond to you because I'm just going
to be honest with you.
You can also go onto our website at
apogeecomics.com.
There's a subscribe and contact us button
there.
We can reach out to us and I'm
usually pretty good at responding to
those.
So that's how you find us.
Matt over to you, man.
You can follow me across all social media
at TheHassoMan.
Wait, no, that's how I end our podcast.
Anyway.
I was getting really like,
I was starting to run up.
I was like, wait, that's not this thing.
That's not this thing.
But yes, across all social media.
I'm on Instagram, Threads, Twitter, X,
all that stuff at TheHassoMan.
Don't bug me on Facebook.
It's just a bunch of me cosplaying and
playing with my kids.
So it's boring.
But message me on any of that stuff.
And, yeah, we'll be there November.
November.
I'm really stoked for that.
That is when both Quick Wire and Phantom
Hawk issues will be completely printed.
This is the first time we're going to
be offering it to the public.
So come check it out.
Get signatures from Harsh... I don't know.
I keep pointing the wrong way because it's
a mirror from Harsh Stroke right there.
For me, Nick...
yeah and he would be wearing his his
special apogee tights i i already have my
i have a special hoodie it's got i'm
ready so we're gonna do it harsh tell
everybody where they can find you
instagram facebook tick tock i don't think
both of them they have tick tock i
have tick tock
I don't either.
Tell us about TikTok at Nick Garber Art
on TikTok and at Apogee Comics.
There we go.
Yeah.
All right.
Heartstroke everywhere.
You can find Heartstroke everywhere.
Yeah.
You really can.
I literally did that.
I Googled it and then just went and
followed on each one.
Here's a funny story to wrap it up.
I had no idea that was his handle
because in Facebook,
it's his name that we've connected with.
So one day I was scrolling through stuff
and saw Quickwire art or something on
there and I was like,
who is this guy stealing my boy's work?
And then I let go and I'm like,
oh, it's him.
Oh, okay.
Actually, that's our board.
Yeah, I was like,
I'm about to go find this guy.
That's why I got banned from Facebook,
I think.
Yeah.
I'm going to get banned from Facebook
because they keep doing like, hey,
this is awesome artwork from Heartstroke.
And they're like, who the fuck is that?
And I'm like,
he told me not to divulge.
Yeah, you'll know soon enough.
QuickWire number one comes out November
So it's on the cover, Harstroke.
That's the name he wanted.
That's what he gets.
And so you can look him up through
there.
Yeah.
All right.
That is going to be it for tonight.
If y'all guys want to hang out after
the show goes off air,
we can have a quick discussion and then
we'll call it a good.
As for me,
I will be back on the twenty seventh
of October.
for a halloween horror comic book
spectacular with my good friend with uh
francesco nilo's gonna be joining me he's
a comic book artist out of argentina if
any of y'all want to stop through and
give your favorite five or six whatever
horror comic books,
y'all are more than welcome to swing back
by.
I'll shoot you a link on the day
of, like I did tonight.
And y'all can just stop three for five
or ten minutes,
drop your favorite horror comic books,
and give us a loot.
And we're just going to go for about
an hour just talking about Halloween
horror comics, man.
Then I'll be back live again the very
next day on the twenty eighth,
doing another one of these interviews with
a Kickstarter that I think is ongoing,
if I'm not mistaken.
And then before or after that,
I'll be shooting another message out soon.
across the indie comic sphere to say hey
november's almost here let's start lining
up interviews for november as i have
opened up the united states department of
nerds to be the indie creators one-stop
shop come hang out with us let's talk
about your projects let's talk about the
good work that y'all are bringing to the
world and with that i'm going to say
it apogee
Nick, Matt, Harsh,
you are all USDN approved.
And welcome to the Council of Nerds.
With that,
we wish you all a good night.
Actually, you do.
Awesome.
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it.
Yes, sir.