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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.
Oh, my God.
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.
For years,
Tommy has been the one asking the
questions through World at War Comics.
He has built a platform dedicated to
giving comic creators a place to talk
about their work, their processes,
and the stories behind the stories.
He has sent across from industry vets,
independent creators,
and some of the biggest names in comics,
helping put their voices in front of new
audiences.
Tonight,
I'm turning that microphone around because
behind World at War Comics is a creator
with a story of his own.
Tommy is the writer and creator of
Keensville,
a superhero series built around power,
politics,
and a rare resource capable of
of turning your average humans into a
superhero.
With the current Kingsville issue number
one campaign now in its final stretch,
this is more than a conversation about a
comic.
It's a conversation about building
something from the ground up and about
learning the industry by living it.
about what happens when the person who
spends so much time supporting other
creators finally gets that chance to step
into the spotlight himself.
And full disclosure to everybody
listening,
I've already backed this book because I
also believe in this book.
So Tommy doesn't have to convince me
tonight.
He has to convince everybody else
listening tonight to hit that button and
give this book some love.
But tonight, we're talking Kingsville.
We're talking World at War comments.
We're talking about the lessons that come
from hundreds of conversations with
creators across the industry.
And we're talking about what comes next.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the Council of Nerds is now in session.
Tommy,
I am honestly proud to finally welcome you
in front of the Council.
So welcome, my friend.
really appreciate it man i'm honored to be
with you as well appreciate i think we
both have missions that are very similar
we were kind of talking before we hit
the recording it's really about the indie
comic scene that's where i started
obviously i've had some folks on from the
big two but it's really to draw more
attention to the indie scene i think indie
comics is where all the best stories are
taking place in comics
And, man,
I think we share a lot of our
passion around indie.
So I appreciate you.
Appreciate the opportunity.
I can't wait to talk about all things
comics with you.
Again, you know, before we went live,
I told you I was like you and
Lone Boss Punk were the two dudes who
I watched to learn comics.
Kind of like how you approach the
interview process and then kind of
developed my own based on that.
So it's really cool.
But let's learn a little bit more about
you.
So you're usually sitting on the other
sides of these conversations,
asking the questions after hundreds of
interviews.
What's it like being the guy on the
other side?
be honest with you it's always a little
awkward yeah yeah it just feels weird um
for sure and uh yeah there's probably i
don't know i feel like it's more pressure
being a guest than there is hosting um
an interview um mainly because i'm just
not used to it but uh yeah it's
It's a cool experience that I obviously
love talking about comic books.
I'm super passionate about my own title
that I've been working on for the last
four years.
And we've had quite a bit of success
early on, you know,
through TikTok shop and shows mainly in
California when I used to live in
California.
I lived in Utah for a while,
did some shows up there.
So a lot of my comics are out
there,
but just taking it to that next kind
of professional level is,
Yeah.
And redoing it, re-lettering,
adding a little bit more meat to the
story.
Like,
it's been a lot of fun or great
experience.
And, you know,
you and I were kind of talking,
writing your own comic book gives you such
an appreciation for those who have already
done it.
You realize, man,
there's just a lot to putting a comic
book together.
And I enjoy the process and constantly
learning, but yeah, it's, it's not easy.
That's for sure.
It's really not.
And that's been one of my favorite things
about doing these types of interviews is
just the learning aspect that I get to
do on a weekly basis,
sitting down across from creators from,
you know, lettering, coloring.
I've had a pigment cats on Frankie walk,
just brilliant, smart colorist,
It really like broke down the psychology
of how colors work in comics.
And, uh,
even last week with a transhuman in SK.
going into a twenty-two minute lesson on
how lettering works and how that
psychology works and how you can use
lettering to cheat the comic system by
adding two actions to a panel.
So it's been like this amazing learning
experience and all those get, you know,
cut out and put onto my YouTube channel
as well for people to go and watch
if they're ever curious about comic books.
So...
Definitely could have used that twenty two
minutes four years ago when I started,
man.
It's live.
I maybe I'll I think I have a
few copies left of the original Kingsville
when it first launched.
So proud of it.
I get it back in my lettering.
It's just amazing.
I'm like, oh my gosh,
this is embarrassing.
I didn't know the font.
Like one thing within a system to create
your font, it looks perfect.
But then to take that finished work and
then get it printer ready changes
everything within your file.
And then when you send it off,
just not understanding that.
And I remember getting it back going,
oh my gosh, man.
And then I obviously- The compression
right at you?
Yes.
Oh yeah, dude.
It was like a billboard in every bubble.
People could read that from across their
room.
That's awesome, though.
That's so awesome.
I got better at it.
That compression rate will get you.
That's why I don't think a lot of
people really realize that because, yeah,
it's normal pages, you know,
but then it has to be compressed.
And if things don't compress the correct
way,
then you get stuck with like oversized
lettering and that kind of stuff.
So everything has to be kind of
compressed,
put into the file and sent off to
the printer.
But yeah, that's awesome though.
I love that.
I'll send you one.
You'll laugh when you see it.
Oh, please do.
This is terrible, bro.
I love that.
I would love that.
It's not though.
It's, it's terrible, but it's that,
it's that part of the process.
Cause I know I'm going to be like,
I will probably do something like that.
But before world at war comments and
before Kingsville,
where did comments begin for you?
And when did you being a fan turn
into wanting to create something of your
own?
Yeah, I mean, growing up,
I was born in the seventies,
grew up in the early eighties,
really loving wrestling.
WWF at the time was huge for me.
So I had a group of friends in
our neighborhood.
It was wrestling, G.I.
Joe and He-Man was huge growing up.
And He-Man was, I mean, I enjoy He-Man,
love the new movie that just came out.
Never really kind of went toward the
He-Man side.
I really stayed on G.I.
Joe side.
huge fan of G.I.
Joe.
Larry Hama, I think,
is one of the greatest writers of all
the comics.
For him to have the run that he's
had for so many years through different
publishers, right?
Devil's Due, IDW, Image Comics,
obviously Skybound, obviously Marvel,
like it's bounced around and Larry Hama
was kind of,
although he did jump off for some time,
but he did jump around with publishers
because he just,
obviously being a veteran himself,
he has a
a unique insight into those characters and
how they function and then there's if if
you didn't grow up in the eighties you
might not realize it but there was a
lot of crossover between wrestling and
g.i.
joe sergeant slaughter sergeant in fact i
i don't want to take up too much
time but i know i just picked up
my sergeant slaughter let me see if i
could find it without spending too much
time looking for it
But it's over here somewhere.
But yeah,
I just picked it up at a show.
I don't know where it's at, man.
I don't want to waste time.
He's still at this.
He's still at conventions and sign-ins.
So it's always cool.
Oh, easy.
Easy.
But yeah, and he still looks the same.
I mean,
it's like the only thing he did was
lose his hair.
Yeah, yeah.
He's got those glasses,
the sunglasses that he's famous for.
The big old aviators.
Yeah.
But, I mean, that was my upbringing.
And then I remember there was a comic
book shop by my house.
Like, I could ride my bike to it.
It was that close.
And I remember riding to it for the
first time to look for G.I.
Joe.
And at the time,
there was a comic book,
I believe it was through Marvel,
called NAMM or NOMM.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, they had, I think,
eighty six issues before it ended.
That was one of my favorite comics,
probably a little more adult than I should
have been reading at ten.
It's been coming back.
They've been re-releasing issues of that.
So I love that.
Obviously, G.I.
Joe I got into and then picked up
my first Superman comic book and I was
hooked on comics.
This is probably nine, ten,
eleven years old, somewhere in there.
So I started with G.I.
Joe, got introduced to Superman and Flash.
And obviously Spider-Man collected
everything Spider-Man related.
I geared...
of more toward the dc side for some
reason so yeah most of my life it's
been mainly dc although i love marvel too
but yeah that's how it kind of all
started just you know that that bike ride
with a couple buddies to the comic book
shop for the first time looking for
garbage pill kids looking for baseball
cards and this comic shop we kind of
went into they had garbage pill kids
didn't have baseball cards but i got
introduced to gi joe and comic book form
and i was and ever since then i've
been buying comics man
So what did you think about when Skybound
got the rights to both Transformers and
G.I.
Joe all at the same time, basically?
I think the announcement was made with...
was it in the same weekend at one
of the conventions?
It was.
San Diego, right?
Or New York?
I believe it was San Diego.
Yeah.
Just because San Diego comes first in the
year.
Sometimes they'll save information for New
York because it's such a big con too.
But I remember it being in San Diego.
I remember Robert Kirkman talking about
it.
I mean, I was excited, man.
Look, I don't really do reviews.
I don't really throw shade at any
publisher.
I love them all.
But toward the end,
Transformers and G.I.
Joe was...
I stopped reading it after a while when
it was at IDW.
It kind of got rough to read toward
the end.
Just for me, again,
someone liked it to each their own,
but for me, I was like, ah,
it's just not feeling the same.
And then Skybound picked it up,
and I feel like Larry Hama got a...
like a jolt.
Yeah.
Because his writing since issue three
hundred till now is it's back to the
O.G.
Larry Hama that I love.
And then, you know,
bringing Joshua Williamson over for the
skybound version of G.I.
Joe,
where they're kind of bringing that
connected universe with Transformers.
Yeah, the whole universe.
Oh, that's why it's wrong.
G.I.
Joe.
Yeah.
Transformers,
Void Rivals and Transformers.
There's another one, right?
I think that's it.
Void Rivals, Transformers.
ROM is just a one-shot,
but I believe ROM will be in some
of the Void Rivals stuff.
Yeah, I think that's...
And then, yeah,
so I think it's those three that I
can remember.
Is Radiant Black,
Radiant Pink a part of that as well?
No, no, that's Image.
That's a completely different creator,
which is also an amazing series that
people should be reading.
It really is.
It's so good, man.
Some awesome creators with Ryan Parrott
over there.
They're just cool guys, man.
But, yeah, I love what Skybound's doing.
I will say I'm a –
Daniel Warren Johnson's Twenty Issues of
Transformers might be some of the best
Transformers I've ever read in my life.
Yeah.
And his Wolverine cover.
What was it?
Wolverine four hundred?
Yes.
That black and white.
So sick.
I got that the day it come out,
of course.
I think it was like eight ninety nine
or something like that.
It was wild.
like three dollars overpriced in my
opinion yeah but the fact that it's still
holding like a high resale to this day
i am not complaining because i could just
pull that book out and go get myself
a tank of gas yeah exactly
But so I wish he would have done
like fifty issues.
He doesn't do long runs.
In fact, the plan was only ten.
And I don't know if they just do
whatever it takes to do ten more.
I'm not sure what the conversation between
Kirkman and Daniel was,
but they got him for another ten.
But he said for sure he's done after
that.
And yeah,
he likes these short six to ten issue
runs.
And he could then go right into like
a graphic novel style.
and, uh, kill it.
And I mean,
do a power bomb might be one of
the best indie comics ever created, bro.
They just released it again in black and
white, but I was like,
I got chills right now.
I couldn't do the black and white cause
it looks so good in color.
I felt like I was going to cheat
myself looking at the black and white
version of it because that color run was
so good.
So good.
And the fact that it takes up,
you know,
a place around luchador wrestling and that
kind of stuff.
And the colors with the,
the luchador mask, I was like,
it's so beautiful.
Like it is seriously like, I, yeah,
that's how it left me.
Yeah.
I was blown away.
It was amazing.
Like you kind of could predict it a
little bit,
but at the same time you were like,
Yeah, I kind of predicted it,
but it didn't matter.
It was such a good lead up to
that ending to begin with,
like everything in between that beginning,
the middle and the end.
Yeah.
Wonderful stuff.
Wonderful.
He has such a unique like when you
talk writer, artist.
Right.
And there's a handful of them that do
it really good.
I think Daniel's got to be up there
toward the top.
yeah of having obviously being an insanely
amazing artist but his storytelling like i
haven't read rick romander does this too
really well um they're able to bring a
certain amount of emotion that just fits
so perfect in their storytelling like i
teared up and do a power ball man
it's just i know exactly what you're
talking about it's insane man yeah i know
i know what you're talking about because i
was sitting here reading it too and i
was just like
Yeah.
Anybody watching me do this is crazy.
Like, it's all right.
But The Seasons, I thought,
was really good as well.
Yeah, The Seasons.
And I don't know if you're reading Escape
right now.
I am.
It's pretty phenomenal as well.
Wicker Mender might be one of my favorite
writers.
Yeah.
And then Daniel Young's that whole
package, man.
Yeah, I got a few.
It didn't matter.
I really love Scotty Young's I Hate
Fairyland.
And he's about to hit issue fifty.
They fixed the numbering on it finally.
And I'm like, so great.
I think it actually did just hit fifty
issues.
I think it did, yeah.
But yeah, I was like,
this is so good.
His style is just so unique and...
As a writer,
I didn't know how I was going to
feel because he does amazing covers.
You immediately walk into any comic shop
and go, that's Scotty Young.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
He's probably one of the most recognized
artists when it comes to covers.
You know his cover immediately because he
has that awesome cartoonish style that is
just amazing.
Yes, so there's him.
Peach Momoko is easily recognizable.
Yeah.
shoot, what's his name, Mac.
The dude who did all the artwork on
Daredevil.
Oh, yeah.
Daniel?
Daniel.
Oh, David Mack.
David Mack.
And he did all those covers in the
first, like, what,
ten or twenty issues of something that's
killing Lynn's children as well.
But he's another one.
You see his cover and you go,
that's a Mack cover.
Although I did see somebody recently copy
one of his covers on another series.
And I was just like, yeah,
need to stop.
You know what you did.
You know who you stole from.
When you do a cover that's a year
old and someone's already doing an homage
cover of your cover,
you know you're doing something right.
That's pretty impressive.
Yeah.
But so you've asked hundreds of creators
some version of this question.
So I'm going to now ask it to
you.
All right.
Where did Keensville begin?
So Kingsville – so I will say, man,
I'm not a very political person,
so I don't do a lot of politics.
I just – I don't get into it.
It's too divisive,
and I like too many people who like
both sides of the aisle,
and I really don't care enough to get
involved.
And it sounds terrible, but, you know,
obviously we all vote,
and I just keep that to myself, man.
But with that said,
one of my favorite shows to watch on
YouTube is The Y Files.
I don't know if you've ever watched The
Y Files.
It's just – it takes some of the
craziest –
conspiracy theories out there and they do
such a good job of laying out the
story by the time you're done watching
you're like dude the aliens really came
and what's great is like the last like
fifteen minutes he'll then go back and
he'll say look this is an amazing story
but this is why this is not true
and then he'll state facts of why or
he'll say look man there's a lot of
unknowns not sure what's going on I can't
say for sure it's fake
But, man, make your decision, right?
And I love that about him, man.
So there's another one very similar to
that called Origins Explained.
Ooh, I need to see that.
I haven't seen that one yet.
I have to check that out.
Everywhere from dinosaurs to ancient
aliens to the pyramids.
They cover a whole – like underwater
cities.
Where's Atlantis?
Atlantis, yeah.
And all kinds of stuff like that.
And the lady who does it –
just so passionate about it, you know,
like her voice and the way she enunciates.
And you could tell, like,
she really gives a shit about that,
you know,
and she sells it to you from the
moment she starts talking.
And from her intro, you know,
like as she introduces herself,
you're like,
OK, what do you got?
Yeah, I love it, man.
So I mean,
that show I love and I love kind
of conspiracies.
So, you know,
there's all this talk about a one world
order and that someone's going to come in
and they're going to control the world.
So I kind of started from that premise
because I just love that kind of stuff.
Mm hmm.
So it starts off from a very ridiculous
premise.
So I have this guy.
His name is Dr. Derrickson.
And he has started this nonprofit kind of
organization to try and bring countries
together for the greater good.
And it's called the Alliance for Global
Safety.
And the way that he's getting countries to
come in is by creating these superhumans
that
And he promises that if you become a
member, a global member,
you'll get your own superhuman that will
be in your country to help with crime
and all that other stuff.
While he's building this army of
superhumans,
he's also taking this army and he's...
ending or deleting anybody who says
anything negative about what they're
trying to do because he wants to keep
everything positive.
So on the outside, they're like, look,
we're helping to feed people.
We're stopping crime.
But any crime that's taking place is
normally him just ending or deleting
people who have said bad things about AGS.
And then on the same time,
the one mineral that they need to keep
this program going is coming from this
nation,
an island nation called Kingsville.
So not to get too much into the
story,
I took kind of something from a conspiracy
standpoint and built around this one world
order.
Dr.
Derrickson is trying to create this super
powerful,
which is succeeding organization to gain
more and more power by bringing more and
more countries into this.
In the middle is a.
I hope I'm pronouncing this right.
It's Cicadone?
Cicadone, yeah.
Cicadone, okay.
So in its raw form, it's called Cicadone.
They're mining it in this small little
country called Kingsville.
And they're known for that fishing.
It's an island, man.
It's cold most of the year.
So during the summer months,
they're fishing.
They're gathering for that winter.
And then they're mining.
They do a lot of mining.
And this one mineral,
they didn't know what to do with it.
They don't have the technology to do
anything with it.
But AGS does,
and we have a couple scientists that lead
this department that's been able to take
it from its raw form and create what's
called Faradone,
which they're injecting in humans as
testing to try and create different types
of super humans.
They're mixing it with insects and animals
to try and create unique powers.
And eventually it works,
and they start to build this army,
which I was talking about earlier.
Now, as they build these people,
they're bringing in heads of state saying,
look,
become a member of Alliance for Global
Safety.
And you're going to get this person that
can help create the safety net and
everything else that you want to bring a
lot of press to your country and all
this other good stuff without them knowing
that they report to me, by the way.
And I'm utilizing them in my own way
as well.
I love it.
It's just a cool origin story of how
a conspiracy theory YouTube channel
inspired this.
Of all things out there,
everybody out there has watched these
things.
So it's cool that you took something like
that and just expanded and built this
world around it.
So...
It's a small nation of Keynesville
controlling this resource.
And of course,
AGS is this larger global organization who
desperately wants the psychodome.
How much of Keynesville is superhero
fiction?
How much of it is just really about
the power and the resources and the
sovereignty that is being offered?
Yeah.
So it's definitely leaning more toward the
sovereignty that's being offered and kind
of the politics behind the scenes of Dr.
Derrickson's desire and need to continue
to gain more and more power and those
around him ensuring that they are all
aligned with that a hundred percent.
He does not like people...
you know,
strain away from the message or the goal
that they have in this.
Um, so there's a lot of that.
And then there's also this,
this political side between Kingsville and
AGS as Kingsville starts to get worried
about the power.
that they're gaining and they're kind of
supplying the mineral that's allowing them
to have this power and they're just having
second thoughts like man i don't think we
should be doing this anymore because this
is going to bite us it's going to
bite us it's going to bite other nations
who don't want to be part of this
and so there's there's some of that going
on but it's really watching and again no
matter what side of the aisle you're on
i think we all agree there's a lot
of power
in a very small place in the United
States and every country has the same
problem.
So it's not just us.
And there's always worry that one group
would have too much power because power
has this unique hold on people.
And when you gain it,
you don't want to lose it.
Sometimes you're willing to do anything to
maintain it.
And Dr.
Derrickson definitely falls into that
category.
It's definitely blurring the line of
providing security and then using security
as a justification for the control.
Yes, exactly.
I love those types of stories where you
blur that line just enough and people can
believe and read and take that as they
want.
Yeah.
But so let's talk about Rodrigo.
Yes.
He in particular is interesting because
he's inside AGS and helped build this
system.
but in seeing what it's becoming,
is this story really about the complicity
and how long you can remain inside of
a broken system before you are a part
of that system?
Whether in your head, you're like,
I'm not a part of this,
but you know,
you helped build the entire thing.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, there, there's this,
this issue that he's having internally
with his own conscience, you know,
when they first started, um,
They loved kind of the goal and the
purpose that they were originally told
that this program would provide for other
countries.
He's kind of the only one in issue
one that starts to question things like,
yeah,
and that's a lot of power for any
human being to have.
And are we using it correctly?
And you'll see an issue one and more
so an issue two,
like things are popping up around the
world where AGS is kind of involved.
And because he's on the inside, he's,
although he's not in those meetings and
understanding what's going on,
he certainly sees people coming and going
and he's hearing things internally and
then seeing things on the outside where he
scratches his head going,
I'm not sure where the good guy's here.
And that's where issue one kind of ends
is, holy crap, man,
is this really what I signed up for?
And so you have Rodrigo and then you
have Marissa,
which maybe we'll talk about,
but they're kind of the lead scientist
that is running the science department
that has helped to develop this mineral
that can now be used as an injectable
substance.
Not a vaccine,
but a serum that gives people superhuman
powers.
It's very rare,
not super simple to put together.
So it's not like they could build an
army of fifty overnight.
It takes time.
And because it's rare, you know,
they're in a situation where they need to
make sure that Kingsville's mining
constantly to find more of this.
Mm hmm.
So with government, superhumans,
and potentially war surrounding these
characters,
how do you kind of keep Keensville
fundamentally about people rather than
allowing the entire world building to
swallow them?
Because it could very easily happen in a
world like this in this book.
Yeah, I mean, it's always difficult,
right?
Because you can get on tangents.
And I think either in conversation or in
writing,
I think that's something very easy to do
as you're trying to express your thoughts
on where a story might lead.
You know,
making sure that it's really centered
around AGS and everything that's happening
inside.
And then sometimes bringing outside
elements that show the harm or the good
that it's doing.
So as long as you're kind of concentrating
in one area of this story and you
kind of hold to that area,
it could help put guardrails around to
make sure that you're not going too far
to one area of the story and then
losing the plot of the story.
I think that's really important and it's
something I need to be reminded of myself
as I continue to write this story and
expand on it.
Because being a comic book reader,
and Marvel and DC do this a lot,
it's not enough just to have an Aquaman
story.
Now how do we tie Aquaman into a
bigger event that brings in every
character in the DC universe?
You could do that when you've been around
eighty years,
and even I think that's overdone.
Even they still don't get it right,
and it's their stuff.
So as a small indie person,
you got to be careful that you're not
trying to go to that route right away.
That's something you do when you have
forty or fifty issues out.
You've told a really good story.
People understand your characters.
And so I try to keep it very
condensed into one area.
Until we get this first arc done.
And then you just start to expand slightly
as you continue to write.
But you have to be really careful that
you're not doing too much with your
writing or you'll lose people.
And they're just like, wait,
I thought we were in this country.
And you're building your own map, right?
In your own country.
That's already confusing for people
because it's not something that they could
say, oh,
I'm from there and I know how that
is.
I'm trying to stay objective and not use
certain countries as certain things.
So I did it on purpose,
but it becomes hard.
you got to be careful man just what
is what are you trying to accomplish with
your comic book and this i'm trying to
share which i think is very relatable and
something that a lot of people worry about
is when someone has too much power do
they have the maturity do they have the
ability to exercise that power in a way
that benefits people without benefiting
themselves
and that's very difficult to do if you
look throughout history people have gained
that kind of power rarely exit out of
that power at their own will once they
taste it they want to maintain it and
continue it as much as possible and it's
insane when you get into history of some
leaders
what they're willing to do and who they're
willing to do it to in order to
maintain that power.
And so I love that whole aspect of
human nature because I personally think we
all have that element in us,
like depending on your upbringing,
depending on your education,
depending on your surroundings,
like we're, we all could fall into that.
Even if it's just,
you're at your job and you want to
become a manager.
And I've seen managers like, dude,
this is not a country that you're, you're,
ruling over, bro.
These are employees that report to you.
They're humans.
They are still humans.
They're still humans, right?
So I think we all in a small
way can relate to that or experienced it
or have seen it happen around the globe
or even in the United States, right?
Yeah.
No, a hundred percent.
And
It's a good way to put it.
And I'm glad that you didn't kind of
like superimpose like, oh,
instead of this being this country,
I'm calling it this.
You completely were like,
there's going to be no way for you
to go, oh,
he's talking about this country.
Actually, no,
you just were like taking that out of
the equation.
Here's my map.
Here's what my map looks like.
Exactly.
Yeah.
No, I wanted to be careful with that.
So hopefully that's awesome.
Exactly.
But so looking back at the earliest
version of Keensville and how different
how different is the creator didn't hear
today from the Tommy who first decided I'm
actually going to make that comment.
And you did say earlier that, you know,
the earlier version may have had a hiccup
or two.
It had more than a couple of hiccups,
man.
It was sick.
So one of the reasons why I started
my podcast about four,
four and a half years ago is I
thought, look,
I have this story I want to tell.
I love comic books.
I would love to create my own comic
book.
I would love to be a writer of
comics.
Um,
the one way I know how I could
get really good at that is by interviewing
people who already do it.
And so that's what I started doing.
I started reaching out to other creators
saying, I would love to have you on.
Let's just have a conversation and just,
I would love to listen to your process,
how you go about it.
Like that's what truly was the only,
it was very selfish, uh,
I wanted to learn from people who are
already doing it.
And I thought,
what better platform to do that than what
you and I are doing right now?
Let's just have a conversation.
I'm going to learn a lot from you
and it'll be a lot of fun.
And at the same time,
we might be helping others who want to
kind of cross that line into creator,
but don't know how.
And so I'm hoping by having these
conversations and digging into the why's,
why do you like writing?
Why do you like storytelling?
influenced you over your life what were
some of those things that happened in your
life where you went from maybe having a
job at a grocery store or a tire
shop to i'm writing comic books
professionally now like yeah what gave you
the the courage and the the comfort of
knowing that this could be a path that
i could take and i can make a
living out of it so that's
truly what I did.
And because I've done that for, you know,
almost five years now,
and I've had close to five hundred
interviews with some amazing folks,
I've learned a lot more.
So you'll see that in this comic book.
You and I were kind of talking,
you know,
when your comic books are not cheap to
make.
And now you make your money back right
away on your comic book.
Right.
Yeah.
Average comic book just for people to know
will cost you anywhere from three to five
thousand dollars a
that's printed out to people in their
hands, all that good stuff.
So creators, especially on the indie side,
don't really make money or don't cross
into kind of the positive for six months
to a year after they created their comic
book.
And that's if they start going to cons
and selling at cons,
if they open a TikTok shop,
if they have a website where they can
sell comics, like it's not easy to do.
And then keep in mind that those
conventions are still coming out of their
pocket.
a hundred percent or may not make that
table back a hundred percent.
And I'll be honest with you.
I've been to some smaller cons where you
don't make your money back.
Um, but again, it's all about marketing.
It's about getting your name out there.
It's about building relationships within
the community, um, being super respectful.
So my,
my style on like doing interviews is like
old school journalistic style, man.
I'm not here, um,
to to say whether i like it or
i hate it which most of the time
i like it um yeah but i i'm
really it's about to get to know the
person and allow the audience to say okay
that kind of story touches me and i
would love to read it i don't do
review i've done a few reviews but if
you ever notice reviews i do they're all
positive i don't talk trash about other
writers and i've even confirmed more so
lately that that's probably not for me
just because i write too and it's hard
And so even if I have a creator
on and I read their comic and it
wasn't for me,
I keep that to myself because it could
be for someone in my audience.
And so I just it's all about getting
to know the creator and allowing the
audience to choose whether that story is
for them.
And if it is awesome,
it doesn't have to be for me.
Everything doesn't.
have to be for me.
I have things on my pull list that
will probably drop because it just stopped
touching me the way that it originally
did.
That's very normal.
That's okay.
I don't need to broadcast that to everyone
and maybe influence someone to not buy it
because I don't like it.
You might like it.
It just wasn't for me.
It's not bad.
It just didn't touch me.
So anyways, I'm going on a tangent,
but that's kind of how I like it.
I'm the same, though.
I don't – like I've been debating on
whether or not I bring back reviews.
How do I do those?
Do I want to do video formats where
it's just like a – because a short
now can go up to three minutes.
I could take and do a review in
a short.
And then I'm just like, you know what?
When am I going to actually have time
to do that with all the other stuff
that I do?
And I'm like,
it's just not going to happen.
So, yeah, and I wanted to.
But with the stuff I have coming up
with the website launching in October and
looking to just make what I do into
this –
this great place for creators of all
kinds.
Even if you're not a creator and you
want to be a creator,
you're going to have a place where you
can come and get those initial like, hey,
this is how people write books.
This is how people do lettering.
This is how people do colors.
And this is like the psychology of this
stuff.
And I'm going to have,
that's what the website is going to be.
Granted,
I'm going to have an alumni section.
It's going to be like, Hey, you know,
if you're looking for a particular person
who does something,
go to the alumni section.
It tells you everything about this person.
It has their episode that you can just
click on their picture and it takes you
straight to the YouTube to, you know,
watch their episode and learn basically.
And, um,
Yeah, that's what it's become about.
In the beginning,
when I was still figuring this out,
I was like, it's about the Kickstarter.
Let's talk about the Kickstarter.
Let's talk about this.
And I'm like,
there's more to them than the Kickstarter.
Let's learn about them.
Let's take the viewer,
the listener on that journey.
do this creator to get them to this
point and how them going on their journey
through life,
got them to this comic book and how
that journey influenced that comic book.
And I love storytelling that way.
Yeah.
Cause it's more than a book.
It's more than a Kickstarter.
It's a human being behind that.
Let's get to know the human being and
really get to know that creator.
And then that,
we discovered the book.
Then we discover the Kickstarter.
And that to me is like the best
way to do this and to tell these
stories.
Yeah.
Agree.
Agree, man.
I didn't agree more, but, um,
so you've already taken the story behind,
um,
You've already taken this story beyond
issue one,
which makes this current campaign
interesting.
I know we talked a little bit about
it.
Why come back to Kingsville issue one now?
And kind of like what does this campaign
represent for the next stage of the
series?
Yeah.
So I've been blessed over the years to
get to know some amazing publishers.
And a lot of them know that I
have my own comic book and I've had
great conversations.
I've gotten a lot of help from a
lot of them.
Chris Rita has become a really good friend
over the last four or five years.
Shout out to Chris, man.
Critical entertainment.
Yeah.
He's such a great dude to talk to.
Yeah.
I mean,
he's had his own publishing company for
ten years.
He has a film background,
so he went to school for film.
He knows some pretty amazing people in the
L.A.
area.
He partners with Patriot Comics,
which Patriot is their own filmmaking
studio.
They do a lot of film.
They've done –
film with some really big names too so
he he partners with them and he takes
their films and puts them into comic book
form and then on the critical
entertainment side he has all a ton of
his own titles that he does um the
the last americans i think is one of
the best comic books
I want to read that one so bad,
and I can't wait.
October, we're getting...
So for anybody who don't know Chris Rita,
you can go back and watch my episode
with Chris Rita,
and we talk about critical entertainment
and everything they're doing over there.
And then we also discuss in depth the
Indie Comic Alliance and what that mission
is over there.
And that mission is to...
Bring indie comic books to your mom and
pop shops, to your local comic shops.
It's going to be just like getting that
Penguin Random House book at your comic
shop where they can look through the Indie
Comic Alliance book and select indie
comics to go on the shelves at their
store.
And that book that he just mentioned is
one of them.
And also, I believe, if I'm not mistaken,
Kingsville will be one of those as well.
Yeah.
So the back and forth that I've had
with Chris,
I obviously wanted to get Kingsville as
part of the Indie Comic Alliance.
And he goes, Tommy,
why don't we do this, man?
We've been good buddies.
I love your comic book.
Why don't I be your publisher for
Kingsville?
Because most of the brands that are coming
over are just publishing or just printing
through him and getting distribution
through him through the Indie Comics
Alliance.
Mine's a little bit different.
I've, you know,
kind of signed a contract with him to
be my actual publisher.
So not only is he printing,
it'll say critical entertainment on my
comic book.
And I love that because one,
he now becomes my editor.
And I've had seen Ambrose out there.
He was the owner of my comic book
shop that I went to.
He helped me with a lot of the
editing after I came out with my issue.
The first time he helped me with lettering
and setting up and then doing some of
the editing.
But he's a comic book shop owner.
And so he was pretty busy.
But shout out to him.
That's Diggers Comics.
Um, and yeah, out in Hemet,
California in the farmland out there in
Southern California.
He's amazing.
One of the best comic book shops you
could find in Southern California.
Um, but he helped me out a lot.
And, uh, but you know, Chris brings,
cause he's a publisher and,
He brings in an editorial team that's
definitely top notch.
So he helped me out a lot.
And then because I was lettering on my
own, all self-taught,
that first round of Kingsville,
God bless all those people that backed it
the first time.
Thank you so much, man.
But as you opened it, you probably like,
holy crap,
who did the lettering on this thing, man?
It was me.
It was me.
Yeah, it was me.
So I did get better at it.
But to have a professional letter in,
I mean,
lettering is as important as your artist.
And so coming to Critical Entertainment,
their letter for most of their comics is
a professional named Travis Lanham.
And Travis has worked for DC, for Marvel,
for Image.
He does everything for Critical
Entertainment.
The guy's been lettering for...
fifteen to twenty years top notch letterer
so one you know fixing the story to
make sure that flows really well making
any kind of error corrections and then
obviously re-lettering it re-formatting it
so it prints perfect like all these things
I didn't have I was doing on my
own as an indie creator and I thought
I did decent like my next issues were
much better than that first one but to
have a pro that's going through it there's
a lot of and that's the one that
you sent me right correct that's the done
one
That thing is beautiful.
Top to bottom.
I love it.
Yeah, it came out so good, man.
I mean, I'll be honest,
I'm very happy with the artist that I
have.
His name's Dan Zay.
He's a young,
twenty-five-year-old artist out of Moscow,
Russia.
That's awesome.
He just got married, man.
Just a cool cat, man.
Just a really good dude.
I think he's only on Facebook,
and you can follow him at Dan underscore
Zay,
and you can see some of the stuff
that he's posted there.
But he's not a big social media guy.
Pretty shy guy.
So you'll see on my Kickstarter,
I have a picture of him.
I'm like, Dan, give me a picture.
He gives me a picture of him taking
a picture of himself.
So he's hiding behind the camera.
So really tough to get that guy on
a picture, but I talk to him often.
He's a good dude.
But so the art I think looks great.
And then just the new lettering,
just take it to another level.
It does.
It all looks so good.
And if anybody out there is worried about
it coming out like the first time,
you have nothing to worry about.
It looks amazing.
And yeah,
You have to get this book, y'all.
It's phenomenal.
It reads good.
It flows good.
Dope covers.
What's not to love about this book?
Great story.
I absolutely love this story.
And I'm actually kind of rooting for
Rodrigo.
He pulls his head out of his ass
and realizes what's going on.
But yeah.
Yeah.
If anybody out there is on the fence
about this book,
don't be on the fence about it.
Jump in and support somebody who has
supported the indie comics for the better
part of five years now.
I appreciate that.
So, Tommy, you've spent hundreds –
of episodes sitting where i'm sitting
talking with everyone from independent
creators trying to make their first book
to some of the biggest names in comics
why have all those conversations taught
you about what separates the creators who
build something lasting from everybody
else
Yeah, I mean,
that's such a tough question, man.
You have a lot of amazing indie creators.
And really,
it's a lack of distribution and a lack
of eyes.
There is some incredible indie stuff out
there that has not been seen by the
vast majority of comic book fans.
And if they...
were able to take ten to fifteen percent
of what they're spending every wednesday
in the comic shop and go to kickstarter
and back some of these i think you'll
be blown away by the talent that is
out there um so when you when you
look at you know some of these like
we we probably set aside like the jeff
johns and the tom mcfarland that's those
are unicorns right those are unicorns in
the industry yeah especially those two
those two to be your
Yeah.
Those are as big as it gets.
Right.
I mean, yeah.
My favorite writer of all time, dude.
Everything he's doing.
Like if you go back and watch when
I was doing new comic book day and
that kind of stuff,
when he put ghost machine out,
I was that guy,
probably one of the first guys out there
go in.
If you're not on board with Ghost Machine
right now,
you're cheating yourself out of some of
the best work being done anywhere in comic
books.
Yeah.
And I'm happy to say I was one
of those first guys.
Yeah.
No, Ghost Machine is amazing.
If you're not reading Rook Exodus,
if you're not reading Geiger,
if you're not reading like there's so many
good titles.
They just released like the trillion
dollar kid.
Yeah.
Issue two just came out.
Yeah.
Yep.
It's insane, man.
And the world that they're building is top
notch.
And if you look at the team that
makes up ghost machine,
it's literally like watching an all-star
game, man.
It's the best artists and writers in the
entire industry to come together because
they wanted to own something themselves.
And one of the best letters to do
it.
Oh, honey.
Yeah.
Rob is in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, it's incredible.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was like the moment I seen who
that team was compromised of or comprised
of, I was like,
I don't care what they make.
They can do color in boats.
I'm buying every color in boat they do.
Will I color in it?
No, because they did it.
Yeah, exactly.
It's so good.
So what I would say is exposure is
probably one of the biggest things that
Sepsaray – again,
and I –
And I'm part of this.
Right.
So as an indie creator,
there's some bad stuff out there.
And I was part of that.
My first issue, I'm embarrassed, man,
to have them out there because it was
not great.
Right.
So the people that back that because they
they saw me with this passion and they
wanted to back it.
I mean, thank you so much.
You you helped kickstart a passion.
That is now where I'm at now being
picked up by a publisher.
So without you, I wouldn't be here.
And so I appreciate that.
But also, you know,
getting exposure to some of these creators
is probably what separates them from
others.
And again,
I don't know the right path for exposure.
You know, if you look at Todd McFarlane,
he has a shoebox of two or three
hundred rejection letters before he ever
got his letter or he got a job.
Malibu.
Malibu.
Yep.
So if you but he talks about this,
he kept every single rejection letter.
So it's literally a shoebox to open up
and he'll go through him.
You could go to a podcast and see
him kind of going through that.
It took a long time for him.
And this is in the seventies when he
was doing this.
Right.
Which I don't know if it was.
I mean,
we're about to get what spawned seventy
seven.
Yes,
we're getting that at the end of the
year, which is going to be insane, man.
It looks so dope.
Oh, dude, it looks so good.
I mean,
Matt Rosenberg has kind of taken over
Spawn and King Spawn.
And then Erica Schultz has taken over
Gunslinger, which is free a lot of time.
Erica Schultz is one of the reasons why
I'm going to small press that spell next
month.
Because she was at GalaxyCon here in...
I got my thoughts and opinions on that,
but we'll leave that for another time.
But the only reason I went is to
see and get both signed by Erica.
Yeah.
And I was, you know,
she was just sitting there and nobody's
walking up to her and talking to her.
So I'm like, like, this is Erica Schultz.
I'm like,
she literally just finished one of the
best daredevil runs,
red band additions that's ever been on the
shelf.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm like,
Please.
And then I bought a bunch of her
books as well,
some of her older indie stuff.
Yeah.
She's one of the nicest people that you'll
ever meet.
I talk to her once in a while.
I just talked to her about three weeks
ago.
I've had her on several times.
One of my favorite people just to talk
to.
She is one of the most pleasant people
you'll ever meet, man.
And this is what made me really just
go, she's a real one.
Yeah.
Back when I was doing New Comet,
I would post the pictures and stuff like
that, and I left off her...
I can't remember if it was her letter
or her penciler.
I forgot who it was.
I forgot them.
Not intentionally.
It just wasn't listed in...
who did the book.
So it wasn't on purpose,
but she straight called me out.
She's like, if you're going to do this,
you have to list everybody.
And you, you miss this person.
I was like, I can assure you,
I didn't do it on purpose.
They just weren't listed on the website.
I apologize.
And then I tagged them the proper way.
And I was just like,
She's a real one.
Oh yeah.
You know, that's all.
I mean,
I love to hear those kinds of things
because so much goes into putting a comic
book together.
So obviously the writers get a lot of
the shine as they should.
It's their story.
The artists obviously get a lot of shine
because that's what brings that story to
life with the panels.
But man,
you could have those two things and never
get a comic book done.
There's so much that goes into putting a
comic book together.
So I love it when you have a
creator who,
That isn't their head.
Isn't so blown up by what they've been
able to accomplish that they realize their
success depends on a team.
And that team is extremely important.
I mean, you want to hear that.
Like I knew who that person was that
I left off and I was just like,
okay, respect them.
I'm going to do redo everything I've been
doing and do it the right way.
Yeah.
She's awesome, man.
I love her.
She's amazing.
But yeah, she was amazing.
But she's the one that told me it
was like, Hey,
if you're into indie comics,
she should really check out this
convention.
I was like, I will do that.
And then I realized it's just right up
the road from me.
So I was like, this is even better.
This is a, you know,
a day trip for me.
And if I wanted to come back,
I could,
but it's only a two day event with
the Ignatz on Saturday night.
I think it's nine thirty p.m.,
which I'm like,
I'm going to stay and I'm going to
cover that.
Of course,
I'm not going to just miss that.
And so, yeah,
she's she's she's a real one, man.
And like,
Her X-Twenty-Three stuff.
Yeah.
Also, just phenomenal.
Yeah, yeah.
But did becoming the guy actually trying
to write, produce, crowdfund,
and sell his own comic change the way
you interview other creators about theirs?
I mean,
certainly you have a lot more respect.
So remember,
I went into this because I wanted to
learn.
So I felt like the premise for the
–
The podcast was,
although a little selfish because I wanted
to learn, it did, I think,
come from a decent place because I wasn't
going in trying to pick sides or to
pick apart anything.
I really just wanted to learn.
And what I found for me is it
was satisfying because you allow that
person that you have on to shine.
And so ever since then,
that's the podcast, man.
You come on.
I don't care who you are.
Come on.
You want to talk about your book.
Do you remember your first?
Oh, yes.
Tony.
Tony Cottrell.
He is the owner of Admin Comics.
Okay.
He will be at Small Press Expo,
I believe.
Or Baltimore.
He'll be at Baltimore because he lives in
Baltimore.
Baltimore, yeah.
You should go check out his stuff.
No, he's on my list.
Him?
Yeah.
Of course,
I'm going to go see Ignition Press.
Yeah, Ignition's awesome.
Those guys are amazing.
There's a few more.
I'm slowly building my list in Advents on
there, so that's really cool.
Tony is one of the – he just
retired, I think, last year,
maybe the year before.
Time is flying by,
but he was a fireman for many years.
Okay.
He's been in publishing for fifteen,
so he just celebrated his fifteenth year.
of advent comics he puts he puts out
the cosmos which is this crazy sci-fi like
mega crisis on earth style story and he
has all these smaller um characters that
he's developed he's also printed and uh
distributed other writers who have written
for advent like he's
I mean,
he's so well-respected as he should be in
the industry,
especially on the indie side.
So he was my very first one,
and you can go and watch it on
my channel.
It's pretty rough probably watching me
trying to fumble through it.
Dude, I know my first one was horrible.
Probably the first forty were horrible,
man.
And then when I had Todd on,
I was so nervous.
Dude, I can imagine.
Yeah, I don't even remember half of it,
man, because I was so excited.
He means a lot to me.
To so many of us.
So many.
I truly, between him and Jeff Johns,
but mainly Todd only because he's so
outgoing, so vocal.
With the loss of Stan Lee,
I think he's kind of the guy for
the industry.
That's just my personal opinion.
You could disagree.
For me,
he means that much to the industry.
When he talks, people listen.
Obviously,
he ruffles feathers because he's going to
tell you exactly how he feels.
But when you have forty years in comics,
you probably have some authority.
It doesn't mean you're right all the time,
but you have at least the authority to
be able to say what you really feel.
And you can take it for what you
want, but he has that right.
And for him to accomplish what he's
accomplished in comic books and to kind of
be an indie toy maker and change the
way toys are made.
Like Mattel,
Hasbro have changed the way they go,
the way they produce and distribute toys.
action figures because of what Todd did to
the industry.
He took something with zero articulation,
not a whole lot of defined elements in
the face and the arms and the muscle.
A lot of them use the very same
mold for several characters because it was
cheaper.
And at that time,
No one knew anything different.
So we were all excited about those.
And then Todd comes and it looks exactly
like the person.
He changed the entire game.
And so you look at where he's at
today and what he's accomplished.
I mean, Mayfax,
you could go through all these toy
companies that have done really well.
I don't know if those toy companies are
where they're at today without toys.
No,
they would still not have joints and
knees.
And the only articulation would be in the
arms and the hips.
yeah yeah exactly yeah so i mean i
i have a lot of respect for him
i went on a little tangent again sorry
but no no yeah but i think exposure
is probably the biggest thing that indie
people need that's that's the major thing
that i think separates from some of the
big names from some of the indie creators
because there's some good stuff out there
right now dude it is they're so good
like
Between the two of us,
anybody out there can go and find six
hundred different ones.
Well, we share some interviews in common,
but still between our two channels,
there's probably six hundred creators that
you can go right now.
And discover.
I'll tell you one that if you don't
have,
you're making a huge mistake as a comic
book fan.
Now, it leans more toward the horror,
but the creator,
his name is Newton Lalavos.
And if you go on Kickstarter and you
check him out,
he has a Kickstarter for Crescent City
Monsters.
It just started last week, I think, right?
Yes.
I'm going to look it up.
Crescent City Monsters.
And it is beyond phenomenal, man.
Beyond phenomenal.
It's insane how good this is.
The artist, and I'm losing his name,
he's from the Philippines.
When he first created the comic book,
he did it as a grayscale.
Let me see if I can find...
I don't remember how to spell his last
name.
I don't know if you can see it
on your side.
No,
I mean you can share the screen if
you want to though.
Like if you want to like bring it
up, I can share it.
Yeah, give me a second.
Here it is.
So I'm going to bring it up.
I'll share it just so you can kind
of see it.
That book is phenomenal.
I see it every day.
It's on my watch list right now.
Yeah,
so you got to get the first four
issues.
Yeah, that thing is so amazing.
The art is absolutely sick.
I mean,
it's just so insane how good this is.
Let me go down here, the team,
because I need to call out the art.
Here he is right here, man.
Yeah, Giancarlo Bernal,
one of the best artists in indies that
you will ever find.
He's from the Philippines,
one of the nicest people you'll ever find.
But just check out the art, man.
These are some of the covers that you
could get.
But look at this grayscale.
So when he first came out,
it was only grayscale,
and I think he did
sticking with gray cell with this,
but he has another, um,
title that he has added color,
like red for blood and stuff like that.
Just phenomenal, man.
I don't sit in city, you know,
that crime North.
Definitely like a crime noir.
This story takes place in like around the
new one.
He's a wise acre, man.
So why is the acre backed it?
Um, he's not, he has his own, uh,
brand that he has for his own comic
books.
But, um, yeah, I mean,
Wiseacre is another one.
Dude, that's my boy right there.
Frederick.
Here's Newton right here.
Yeah.
Follow him.
Just an amazing guy, man.
Dude,
if you're not reading Magnus from
Wiseacre.
Yes.
Oh, so good, man.
You're cheating yourself.
I just had him on, too.
I'm bringing the whole team on in October.
Good.
The international side of Wise Acres is
going to be on in October.
That's going to be a really fun show.
So good, man.
I mean, look at this.
The art from Giancarlo is next level.
One of my favorite artists in indie.
But this is someone,
like if you're an indie fan,
you need to pick this up, man.
It's just, it's insane.
Look at that cover A right there, man.
Yeah, look at that.
This is sick, man.
This is Giancarlo right here.
This is a cover B right here.
This is the Sinner's Homage.
And then I believe up here was –
That's the cover A right there.
Right there, yeah.
Dude, that is so cool.
Giancarlo as well.
Just so well – Newton is such a
good writer, man.
Such a good writer.
So, yeah,
you definitely should get this and get the
first four issues as well.
I've had Newton on several times.
One of the nicest people you'll ever meet.
But he's good.
Wiseacre.
I think Wiseacre has something too.
Or they have something coming up.
Something coming up.
It's coming up.
Yeah, nothing right now.
I think he's got another Magnus coming up
here soon.
Yep, you got that.
You have Concrete Comics,
which is another one of my favorites, man.
Who else, man?
There's just so many good ones that you
should be looking at.
I don't know if anybody out there has
read Western,
but I just had those guys on here,
Sean McBee and MJ.
That book is amazing.
I got a
A whole stack of indie comics sitting
right behind me that are yet to be
opened.
It happens, man.
It goes fast, bro.
I have so many as well.
But yeah, just really, really good stuff.
You should be checking it out.
There is another group here in Texas.
They're out of Austin.
Let me find all the information real quick
so I say everything correctly.
I met them.
So where I live,
I live in New Braunfels.
And New Braunfels is in between Austin and
San Antonio.
We have the New Braunfels Comic Con every
year.
And we get some pretty cool indie folks
there.
And they're called Homebrewed Comics.
And I had Chris and then Dan Price
is my buddy who lives in Austin.
Um, he has a, a fun, amazing,
it's pretty gruesome.
It's called, um,
Bigfoot knows karate and it's so good.
He's an artist and writer,
but they're called home brood.
Another group,
like I could go on and on.
Probably you can do creators that you
should be reading.
Um,
there's just a lot of good stuff out
there, man.
It really is, man.
And,
But that's why we do what we do,
right?
Is that we want to get these names
and this work out in front of as
many people as we humanly can.
And then the stuff that Critical
Entertainment and the Indie Comic Alliance
is doing is that kind of next evolution
of what this is.
And it's like we were discussing
beforehand.
I told Chris, like,
The day,
I think I'm pretty sure it was the
day after he announced the Indie Comic
Alliance.
I was like, dude,
whatever USDN can help push this agenda,
I will push it.
And he's like, oh, you want to come?
let me come on and like, dude, yeah,
let's do it.
Check out some of the brands,
check out some of the brands that the
Indie Comic Alliance has been able to
coalesce around to help with distribution
because of the whole debacle that happened
with Diamond, right?
A lot of independents went bankrupt or
they just can't afford to do any more
because they're sitting on their comics
and they haven't been paid and they can't
get their comics back.
It's really bad.
But anyways,
and it wasn't even only that either.
It's, it's, um,
The... Shit,
I forgot where I was going with this,
but... With Diamond?
Not Diamond,
but the distribution side of the thing.
It's like people like Coffin who do...
Was it Lady Death, I think?
Oh, Lady Death.
Yeah, Coffin Comics.
Yeah, they're awesome too.
They do their own crowdfunding campaign.
They created their own website,
everything to do their own independent
crowdfunding.
And then we lost Zen Scope.
Yeah.
It's been around for years and years and
years.
They're now on Kickstarter.
Kickstarter and they're both because of
it.
Yeah.
So there's so many.
I mean, there's Ripaverse, too.
And I mean, they got Chuck Dixon.
If you haven't watched the Nightfall
animated series,
the part one that came out that Jeremy
Adams put together,
another one of my favorite writers that's
writing for D.C.
right now with Green Lantern and Aquaman.
And he's done some one shots of the
penguin and a couple of other stories.
Jeremy is one of the nicest people in
comics and is a really good writer.
He just adapted part one of a three-part
series for Nightfall,
which was originally written with Chuck
Dixon, Graham Nolan,
and one other –
I can't remember his name.
But anyways, phenomenal, man.
And he writes – he has his own,
a bunch of different titles he does,
and then he writes for Ripperverse too.
So anyways,
there's just so many good stuff.
Check this out.
You have Red Five Comics has been around
probably for twenty years.
I just had Alex DeLuca on.
Yes.
Great comic.
He's –
Such a good conversation.
Yes.
I was like, holy hell,
I could sit here for another three, four,
five hours and just talk to Alex.
Yeah.
Cool dude, man.
Yeah.
Bentbox,
have you had a croissant for Bentbox yet?
No, no.
That's another one you need to check out.
Bentbox Comics is absolutely amazing.
We talk about Frederick over at Wise.
Yeah, Frederick Littles.
You know, me and him –
um we crossed paths multiple times
throughout our military careers and never
met each other oh that's crazy because you
just retired what last year i think yeah
yeah last year yeah
You have Distillery, which, you know,
I mean,
Scott Snyder writes for Distillery.
I mean, that's pretty insane.
A lot of people.
And they have, like,
some of the best covers out there from
Tula.
Yep.
And several other – well,
Tula mainly because I just love Tula's
work.
Yes.
Yes.
And she's a great person to talk to
if you ever see her at a convention
as well.
I have not met Tula yet,
so I need to do that.
I need to talk to her.
Her and – what's her name?
The other – I think she's French.
Luana.
I've had Luanna on.
Yeah, she's amazing.
She's another one that I would love to
have on the podcast to talk about
lovesick.
Although we would have to keep it.
I wouldn't be able to really show nothing
from that book.
But the book itself is just so damn
good.
And then when you meet her, you're like,
you are a sick young lady.
Yeah.
good stuff out there but it really is
but the book itself was amazing i love
lovesick and the second part of lovesick
hopefully there's a third you know because
in like i love her covers um there's
a lot of really really good like female
artists out there and writers out there
right now that are just absolutely killing
it and we're just talking kickstarters
right now we're not even like that's not
even a part of this conversation yeah yeah
but um it's true though
But the last couple of years,
Steph Williams, man.
Holy shit.
Stephanie Williams, absolutely killing it.
I'm happy to say I was one of
the first people to go,
if y'all aren't watching and paying
attention to Stephanie Williams,
you're wrong.
And then shortly after I had that
conversation with Jeff Carroll,
all of a sudden she's like, Eisner,
award nominee.
And I was like...
We literally just called it.
There's so much good stuff out there, man.
So much good stuff.
I'm glad we're talking about this part of
it because you are now part of Critical
Entertainment and their lineup.
What did you have to kind of learn
or unlearn to get from that first
crowdfunding campaign to now this stage of
the book?
Yeah,
I will say when you're a podcaster and
you're having people on,
you're marketing the people that you have
on quite a bit.
So when you try to market something on
your own, it's really hard to do.
Right.
Because.
It's a lot of information that you're
throwing out there into the ethers of
TikTok and Instagram and Blue Sky and X.
And it's just a lot of information you're
bombarding people with.
I will say it makes it a little
bit harder to be super successful in
crowdfunding because you're constantly
trying to support others who are
crowdfunding.
And you got to be careful in your
messaging because you certainly don't want
to just sound like a...
a two in the morning guy trying to
sell tape that stops leaks right like
that's fun one or two times but then
it just like i was trying to sell
me another book so i i would say
that makes it a little bit more difficult
just because you're constantly talking
about other people and i mean even right
now right i'm on here for my comic
i get so excited about what other people
are doing and that's okay it is what
it is man i don't care to be
quite we can't stop who we
are at the end of the day i
mean we're two dudes who literally talk
about independent comics on a daily weekly
basis and you put two dudes who do
this kind of thing on a our job
basically you know it just becomes a part
of it and it was one of those
where and i told you beforehand i
I was like,
you literally have helped so many books
get funded.
And I'm like,
if I can help him get funded,
as I've done many others throughout there,
I'm like,
I'm going to do my fucking part.
There's just no way I can just let
this not get funded.
I appreciate you, man.
That's awesome, bro.
I appreciate it, man.
But yeah.
It's one of those.
It's cool, man.
And I love the fact that you're with
Critical Entertainment and Chris Rita and
the Indie Comic Alliance.
It's like a perfect fit for you, man.
I appreciate it.
I agree, man.
I agree.
I love it.
I mean, Chris is just...
literally one of the most holy so smart
super smart but just a genuinely good guy
he's not looking to get rich he loves
comic books and he he sees an opportunity
from what took place with diamond again
massive comics came in and they helped out
a lot of indie but they they're a
little expensive so it's really hard you
want to at least break even as an
indie creator
with distribution and unfortunately right
every anytime you go into distribution
right you have the publisher if you're
working through a publisher that has to
have their cut you have the distributor
that has to have their cut it costs
money to bring in comics to ship comics
out right and then the comic shop
has to make at least fifty percent on
your comic book.
So if you're buying a comic book for
three ninety nine,
just realize the creator is probably
getting sixty cents of that because you
have a lot of people in between.
And so Chris realized that obviously he
was hurt by the diamond thing, too.
Not as bad as others.
So he is working with Thomas Chow,
who is one of the biggest comic book
printing companies in Korea.
yeah in the world i mean he does
idw he does boom he does some image
once in a while he does a bunch
of other stuff as well and then in
korea where he um is headquartered he does
a ton of manhwa which is like manga
um for the korean market and me and
uh chris went to a nice long discussion
on about that part of it with uh
k-tunes k-tune comics is the name of that
that
Critical Entertainment and Thomas are
doing together and bringing Manwa to the
States and making what is predominantly a
electronic-only e-comic into now
paper-printed
comics similar to what um dark horse has
done in the past with some of the
uh manga out there and i think mad
cave does it really well now too mad
cave knock them up knock them up press
they're doing the same thing my um my
san diego comic-con
Um, show that I did is on Patreon.
If anybody out there is interested in that
five bucks a month,
there's like seven shows on the network
that you can enjoy shows on there.
But my San Diego comic con breakdown is
on there.
And like, you kind of want to, you,
you pick,
like I tried to focus on indie comics,
right?
Um,
And I flat out said it in that
show multiple times.
It sounded like a walk and talk
advertisement for Mad Cave because I felt
Mad Cave fucking dominated San Diego Comic
Con.
They do such a good job, man.
They really do.
And they got so much great things going
on over there.
And it's not just for people like me
and you, moms and dads,
but teenagers as well.
kids like they have a whole lineup you
know of comic books in yeah maverick just
yeah maverick yeah you're just toward the
little ones and i was like dude this
is so cool they came in they've been
building you can tell they've had this
plan laid out and then they walked in
and just execute it and i was like
find somebody else who did just did what
they did over a weekend yeah
You're not going to find one that weekend.
I mean,
Mark London is the founder and also a
writer, writes amazing comics.
I've got to be careful because I've gotten
to know him really well,
and he's helped me a lot.
So I won't go into details,
but genuinely one of the nicest people in
comics.
And I got to see him when I
was in San Diego and got to talk
and give him a big hug.
He's on my list of people to talk
to at Baltimore.
Okay, yeah.
If you need help,
I know him quite well.
Him and Ignition and a few others.
Ignition books are amazing, too.
I mean, they're great.
They're doing some fantastic work, right?
They came out of nowhere, just, yeah.
Hey, I'll say this.
I was saying that years ago when I
first started,
they were having those Wednesdays and
Tuesdays pop up in comic shops.
I was like,
why is nobody paying attention to this?
This book is great.
Yeah.
And then like this year, really this year,
it was just like, boom,
look at what we're doing.
I'm just like, hold it.
So cool, man.
But you've spent years talking to creators
at every level of comics from everything
you've experienced on both sides of this
microphone.
What's still the biggest barrier between
making a great independent comic and
actually getting it in front of readers?
I mean, resources is a big one.
You know,
a lot of people want to create their
own comic book.
Resources is one of the biggest reasons
why an independent comic book fails.
If you don't have a good artist,
unfortunately,
when it comes to comic books,
it's the art that's going to attract
people first.
The story will keep them for the second
and third,
and fourth issue,
but it's going to be the art that
attracts people at the beginning.
So you got to have a pretty good
artist.
Again, lettering,
we talked about that lettering is so
important.
When lettering is bad, it kind of ruins,
even if it's a good story,
it just kind of ruins the experience.
But so I would say resources is the
biggest one.
And then we talked about it already,
exposure.
When you do have the resources,
you are able to put a lot of
really good stuff together.
Not everybody's great at marketing.
yeah that's the hardest part to be in
front of a camera and this is a
lot of uncomfortableness unfortunately you
have to do those things in order to
get out there because it's a very crowded
even though it's very small in the grand
scheme of things in our little world of
independent there's a lot of people trying
to create something and it's crowded so
how do you stand apart and there's not
a lot of us to do things like
this
No, there's not.
There's not.
So yeah,
I would say those are the things.
Resources and exposure are the two biggest
things that separate someone from creating
a comic that's successful as an indie and
getting in front of people.
And that's why when you look at,
you could read something that you're like,
how did Marvel or DC or image create
something like this?
This was not a good comic book.
Well,
they got the resources and they got the
marketing and they could afford to have
something that maybe didn't work out the
name.
Right.
So yeah,
those are really important and you have to
have resources,
understand what it's going to cost you,
um, to get into this.
If you're,
if you're spending under a thousand,
unless you're,
you're an artist already and you're going
to be able to do it like DJ
Wide Rick,
who I think you've had on too.
Um, no, I had, um,
You got to have DJ on.
Cool dude, man.
Up and coming artist.
He just had his first issue of Glitch
come out,
which I just got in the mail,
which is awesome.
So I missed out on the campaign,
but I did get the book.
Okay.
Well, issue two is about to go again.
I told him, issue two,
let me know ahead of time and –
he yeah because i think i actually have
issue one sitting over there yeah and uh
but yeah no like the moment i seen
that book in that kickstarter and i was
just like i want this guy on and
i i don't do that often i'm not
one to like i don't have to right
i get approached daily for books i have
like three emails actually waiting for me
after the show to respond back to yeah
and um and it's great it's a great
position to be in and i love being
in the position i'm in to be able
to do this and to give back to
the creators but um yeah there's certain
creators that i i just absolutely want to
have on it's just timing is everything
right so yeah yeah a hundred percent man
So we're entering the final stretch of
this campaign.
For somebody who's just discovering
Kingsville through this conversation,
what are they helping you accomplish back
in issue one?
Well, I hope, you know,
first and foremost,
I hope when they see the campaign and
they see the art and they see the
cover and they understand a little bit of
the story, that it touches them, right?
It's got to touch you or it's not
for you.
So I get that, man.
My comic might not be for everybody, so...
Check out the campaign.
Check out the storyline.
Check out the art.
Look at everything and see if it's for
you.
So I would start for there.
But by backing this,
what you're doing is allowing me to move
on to issue two, re-letter that.
Issue three, re-letter that.
And also make all the proper corrections
through Critical Entertainment so they're
prepared.
So when issue one hits the market in
January...
A month and a half later,
we could come in with issue two,
issue three.
And I'm currently working on issue four
with Dan right now,
which should finish the first arc.
And then we'll go to like a trade
and then we'll see what comes after that.
Yeah.
So you're,
you're helping me keep things moving
forward.
And,
Every indie person that's doing a
Kickstarter,
they're just trying to offset some of
their losses so that there's some funding
so they can move on to the next
issue.
So that's no different for any of us,
man.
Like I said,
three to five thousand dollars to do your
own comic book.
Unless you're a DJ Wide Rick and you
have a skill set to be able to
do interiors on your own and your own.
Yeah, his interiors were like phenomenal.
Yeah.
So I don't have that skill set.
So I need an artist, man.
So I got my artist.
Yeah, yeah.
And to be honest, I needed a letterer.
And I was doing it on my own.
I could continue to do that and continue
to get better.
But if it's going to go into a
comic book shop through a distributor,
it should be done professionally.
And, you know,
you're paying probably fifteen to twenty
five dollars a page for a good letterer.
um so just to give you an idea
man you have to negotiate on art i
don't even want to say an artist's cost
to give anybody any kind of idea of
oh i could get it for that cheap
or is that expensive um but yeah it
all adds up man you're talking three to
five thousand dollars so you're helping me
offset the next issue um by backing this
and hopefully you love it enough that
you'll want to come back and again
Kickstarter for me is my second comic book
shop.
I have my comic book shop.
I hit it every Wednesday.
And in between that I'm on Kickstarter and
that's kind of my E E comic shop.
And, uh, you know,
I've backed close to three hundred, uh,
so far.
And, uh, I love it.
I'm a super backer and you still got
me blown out of the water.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm definitely a super backer, man.
I back a lot of stuff and I
love it because I get exposed to so
many cool stories, man.
Yeah.
I'm with you.
And,
I can't always back people who come on
the podcast, and I wish I could.
I mean, again,
I make zero dollars doing this.
I am not monetized in any sort of
way, any sort of fashion.
I have some affiliate links,
so if anybody's interested in that,
they're always listed down in the
description.
But again,
unless those affiliate links are clicked
so many times,
I'm not seeing any money off of that.
So anything that I do is out of
my pocket from my day job.
So I still always try to give back
and I will always continue to try to
give back to the community that I love
to be a part of.
And I mean, you don't back three hundred,
you know,
get starters and not care about
you know,
what we do in independent comics.
So, but, um, and I've said this earlier,
I've already backed.
I appreciate it.
Um,
and I already kind of like we talked,
I'm not going to give everybody here the
discussion that we had about that here,
but I'm, I'm already in on it, dude.
A hundred percent in.
But for the person watching who has the
Kickstarter open right now,
I hope they do because that link is
down in the description below.
Convince everybody right now.
Give them that sales pitch on why they
should absolutely back Kingsville.
Yeah, absolutely, man.
I mean, so the comic itself,
it kind of drops you into this conspiracy
where the Alliance of Global Safety brands
itself as heroes while quietly really
strong-arming and holding hostage this
small island nation called Kingsville,
who has found this rare mineral that
could...
fuel super human growth,
super human development.
Now they don't have the capability to do
it their own.
They're selling it to AGS or the Alliance
for Global Safety.
And they're the ones creating these super
humans.
And right now they're building this army
What's on the outside looks like they're
helping nations by stopping crime and
every nation that joins it gets one of
these superhumans.
But internally,
what they're doing is they're creating
this superhuman team that will ensure that
they stay in power for the long term.
And you're seeing kind of the politics and
the.
The frustration that's taking place
between two scientists that started this
program and one of the scientists named
Rodrigo is starting to have second
thoughts that maybe they're not doing the
right thing.
And there's a little bit of regret.
So now he's withholding information to
A.G.S.,
which you'll start to see in further
issues.
They start to get an idea something's up
with this guy and you can see the
tension starting to build.
And then once we get to issue four,
you'll see that it kind of explodes.
Actually, in issue three,
there's there's quite a bit of.
I got to be careful on YouTube to
say this,
but a lot of people getting deleted
because more and more people are starting
to understand what's truly going on.
If you like that kind of stuff,
this is the comic book for you, man.
If you like understanding the inner
workings of someone who is a madman that
just wants more and more power.
Yeah.
And you start to see people who rise
up against this person.
This is the comic book for you.
I think it's super relatable.
No matter what your political background
is,
nobody wants to see a strong man or
a strong woman in some sort of a
position of power that starts to utilize
that power for their own benefit without
benefiting the people that they're
supposed to represent.
And this is no different, man.
It's, it's great.
It's,
It is straight chaos as you start to
get toward the ending issues of this arc.
And if you like action,
if you like amazing art,
you're going to absolutely love this comic
book.
I'm super proud of it.
We've worked really hard over the last
four years to do it.
And now that it's going to be in
distribution and comic book shops in
January,
February timeframe is when it'll hit
stores.
This Kickstarter allows those people that
get in first to have this before.
It's the same comic book that you'll get
in a comic book shop.
There's nothing different.
You're going to have it four or five
months early.
And when you do it,
there's all kinds of freebies I'm giving
with cool character stickers.
I got all kinds of awesome stickers and
character stickers.
I got the newest thing that just came
in the mail.
is collector's cards that I had developed
with each of the characters.
So if you're a card collector,
I got all kinds of really cool cards
that you'll be able to get that kind
of give a little story of each character
on the back.
Everyone's going to get at least five of
these when they back.
So that's something new that will be added
to the Kickstarter.
And...
My buddy Moose over at Wham Stand.
If you've never heard of Wham Stand,
check him out.
My buddy Moose,
this is my most popular character amongst
fans.
His name's Collapse.
His super power is one being obnoxiously
strong.
and powerful just from a strength
standpoint but you can see he's not the
lightest guy in the world he's pretty slow
but his superpower is he could collapse
into a pool of liquid allowing him to
move fast up and down walls under doors
and then he comes up with this crazy
uppercut and a lot of heads don't remain
on bodies when he does that he's quite
powerful his name is collapse by far my
most popular character just because people
call him the fat invincible i didn't even
realize that when i created the invincible
fan
So there might have been something in the
back of my mind of when I created
it.
Possibly, yeah.
But you can see on his arms,
he's done that uppercut a couple times on
a few people after this picture was taken.
But that is available on the Kickstarter.
And then just the covers alone,
I don't know if I could share my
screen.
No, please, yeah.
Because the covers are gorgeous, man.
I'm super proud of the covers, man.
I actually used the cover that you gave
me.
As the background for the thumbnail as
well.
And I included that,
that cover on there as well.
And I almost got it just right to
where it was like.
You did.
I was like, Oh, I was so close.
I just couldn't get it.
I just couldn't get it.
It's awesome, man.
So here is the,
you can see some of the interiors.
This is page one right here.
You can see Dan's art.
I mean, he does everything.
colors are everything he does.
It comes to me finished and I just
got to add the letters, um,
and the rest of the story.
So I go back and forth with him
quite a bit.
Um, like I said,
the lettering is now done by a
professional in DC and Marvel and image
Travis land him.
Um,
You can see this is when things start
to get a little dicey in issue one.
You see it just build over the next
few issues.
You see Collapse right here.
This is Snapback.
He is kind of the team lead of
these superhumans that AGS has created.
I like him because you can see these
shoulders come out.
They're pointed.
What you can't see in this picture is
it's like a serrated,
almost arrow-shaped piece on his
shoulders.
And his power is one.
He has super strength,
but his power is his arms and legs
could shoot forward like twenty,
thirty feet and snap back.
So his name is Snapback.
He takes these shoulder pads off and wears
them like a glove there.
They're serrated.
They're shaped like an arrow.
So you can imagine as he punches you,
it just kind of goes right through and
comes right back out.
There's some deletion going on.
Yes, there's some deletion going on.
And you can see right here that happens
in this one panel right here.
Here's a great picture of Marissa and
Rodrigo.
They are the ones leading this team of
scientists that are...
that developed this serum called Faradone
that gives superhuman strength to people.
And Rodrigo is the one that's asking a
lot of weird questions like, I'm not sure.
And Marissa's like, dude,
we're doing so much good around the world.
What are you talking about?
So there's a lot of back and forth.
And you'll see maybe that changes as we
get closer toward the end of this first
arc.
Or maybe Marissa takes a stand to kind
of back AGS.
You have to wait and see.
and then we get into the the covers
this is cover a i always have dan
zay my interior artist do the first cover
and you can see dr derrickson which you
see throughout the comic book loves his
cigars loves to sit in his chair behind
his desk and have people come to him
and take orders and this is one scene
of him just sitting there listening to
someone
kind of talking and he just i just
give orders i don't really care what you
have to say on your side but he's
also a pretty good salesman when it comes
to other nations and selling them on the
fact that hey join ags join our movement
i'll stick a super human in your uh
country that will help you out and all
he's doing is expanding his tentacles
around his own reach
Yeah, it's his own reach, right?
This one.
So Jordan Noir is a Canadian artist out
of Toronto.
I've worked with him a couple times.
He's already been picked up by Todd
McFarlane.
So Scorched issue number fifty one.
He did the one in fifty,
which is a cover.
It's an amazing cover.
It's an amazing cover,
and he's doing a bunch of other stuff
for Spawn.
He's done some stuff for IDW and other
things.
He's a big, big fan of Godzilla,
so he's done some of the Godzilla covers.
I think that's – is that IDW that
does Godzilla?
IDW.
Yeah,
so he's done some of those covers too.
So he did this cover.
This is a newer character at the end
of issue one that you'll see on a
billboard.
Her name is Lady Lex-
Um, and, uh, she's pretty phenomenal, man.
Um,
I'm really excited to see in later issues
how she's utilized by AGS.
Um, but she has a pretty unique, um,
she's one of the first super humans that
was actually blended with an insect and
she was blended with the bug called the
kissing bug.
And the kissing bug is a real insect,
especially in the South.
You don't want to get bit by one
of those because you get this bacterial
infection that can definitely cause you to
die, especially if you're younger.
So she's called the kissing bug.
She's very attractive.
People want to get close to her.
You don't want to kiss by this woman
because you won't make it.
So that's really kind of her big power,
almost kind of a poison ivy.
You're attracted to her.
You get too close.
You touch her.
You kiss her.
And all of a sudden,
you're done with her.
This is the cover I used on the
thumbnail because that background right
there was amazing.
So sick.
So sick.
Yeah.
I was like, yeah,
this is the cover right here.
And the green, the way it fades up,
almost like that light is shining up
underneath her.
Yes.
And then, like I said,
I almost got it perfectly lined up when
I did the background and then put the
cover on it.
yeah for sure man i gotta give a
shout out to macy which is jordan's
girlfriend um she did all the uh colors
she does a lot of colors for jordan
in his work so they are a dynamic
duo you're gonna see a lot from both
of them um because they've already been
picked up by todd he's gonna do some
stuff i'm sure for top cow probably
skybound and he's gonna be picked up by
other people so i'm just glad to top
cow they just did uh they just what
was it um yeah their art uh contest
They just chose their winner.
Out of twelve hundred people that
submitted, one person got it.
They're also now under that image umbrella
as well.
What's that comment?
They do Darkness,
which is one of my favorites.
I'm a big Spawn guy.
Witchblade.
Those are Mark Silvestri's titles that
have been around a long time.
They're amazing.
One of them just started a new number
one, I think.
Well,
The Darkness about six months ago started
with a re-new number one to introduce a
new audience.
I think they're on issue seven or eight
now.
I've been getting that on my pull box
because I grew up in the Big Todd
guy, so I'm a Spawn guy,
and I like The Darkness too.
Same, yep.
And Marcel Vestry is just amazing.
He's probably my favorite artist of all
time.
I love his art, man.
This is my DJ Wide Rick cover.
So we were just talking about DJ.
This is my Incredible Hulk,
three forty five homage cover.
If you look at Incredible Hulk three forty
five,
it's Incredible Hulk breaking through the
logo that says Incredible Hulk with pieces
laying all around.
So me and Dedrick were talking and I
was like, dude,
I'm I'm a big Todd fan.
He did this cover of Incredible Hulk for
three forty five.
Can we do a homage with my big,
giant fat guy?
I think they were perfect.
Dude, he killed it, man.
He killed it.
And then Dan and Dave Kemp are legends
in the industry.
They're amazing colorists.
They've worked with Todd for I don't know
how many years doing Spawn and stuff.
So this is Dave Kemp on color.
So it's DJ on art, Dave on color.
So super honored to have Dave on my
comic as well.
So these three covers will be in mass
distribution through Critical
Entertainment, Universal,
and Filabo in January.
So you'll be able to pick these up
at all comic book shops.
All you have to do,
I'll get the FOC as we get closer
to December.
I'll be sharing that.
And then you can pick your cover.
FOC on these are October when the book
hits.
I think it's just like two weeks after
that, I think, is FOC.
And then initial release, I think,
is like mid-January, if I'm not mistaken.
Correct.
Correct.
yes yeah like January thirteenth or
fifteenth something like that whatever
that third second or is it second or
third Wednesday of January I think it's
the second I think it's the second yeah
I think it's the second but it's really
cool because that's going to be the first
releases from the Indie Comic Alliance yes
And it's going to be so freaking cool
to be able to go to my local
comic shop and pick up these books.
I already told my local comic shop,
I'm like, dude,
if you don't get these books...
I'm going to be so damn disappointed.
And I'm like, dude,
I will buy every single one you put
in the store.
Just, you just got to get them here.
Even though I'll probably already own
them.
It's just going to be that much better
for me to walk into my comic shop
and buy those books.
Personally,
I will be buying my own comic book
from my own comic shop.
I'm hoping that I could do a signing
because I have a couple of shops by
me and I'm hoping we can do signing.
Both of them are amazing owners,
so I don't think there'll be an issue,
but I'll definitely be buying my own
comic, man.
I love it.
So then I have two covers that are
Kickstarter exclusive.
And any I have left over,
you'll have to see me at a con
in order to get these because they won't
be in distribution.
And this is by a famous tattoo artist.
He's won multiple awards for tattooing.
And his name is Mike Vanderhoof.
He also is well known for his airbrushing
on tattoos.
um old you know fifty sixty seventy cars
lowrider been a lowrider magazine he's
done a bunch of stuff and he's also
known for his horror art so he does
a lot of art on canvas of horror
characters so he's dabbling into comic
books for the first time and this is
his first cover and then i call this
my tattoo cover and it has snapback and
collapse on there and you can see it
looks like a tattoo his art and then
he designed this background which is kind
of like a bandana
so this one is a kickstart exclusive if
you want it you're gonna have to get
it here and then my other one and
i like to find new artists that i
think are gonna make it one day um
and they're really close and this is
brandon bravo um he's out of africa young
guy amazing artist i'm a big tyler kirkham
fan i collect all of the battle damage
covers
So this is my battle damage homage of
Snapback.
And you can kind of see it's that
side view of the character with blood
dripping off of them because they were
just in battle.
And this is his cover that he did
for me.
This is the battle damage cover.
And this one again is Kickstarter
exclusive.
I do have...
If you just want the Kickstarter
exclusives and you want to get the comic
in comic shops,
you could get the Kickstarter exclusives
as a package as well.
You could get them individually,
or you could get the entire package,
which comes with this wham stand of
Collapse.
With all the collector's cards that you'll
get.
You'll get the whole set of collector's
cards.
You'll get stickers, the whole shebang.
And you can get them all together as
a package for fifty bucks on the
Kickstarter.
And yeah, that's the Kickstarter, man.
I'm going to be honest to everybody out
there.
Fifty bucks and you get
Everything out the door is such an
incredible deal, man.
There's probably another like fifty
dollars worth of free goodies in there.
Oh, yeah.
You know what I usually do and I've
done for every Kickstarter is I have a
lot of doubles because I buy a lot
of comic books.
I have some signed stuff where I have
doubles of that.
Mm hmm.
People will randomly get other comics that
are signed by people as well when they
back my Kickstarter, man.
I always try to do that.
It's a nice surprise.
So I got some extra Erica Schultz stuff,
Jimmy Palmiati stuff.
I got all kinds of extra stuff.
I love Jimmy Palmiati.
His name is just so fun to fucking
say too, Jimmy Palmiati.
And he's part of this dynamic duo with
his wife who's one of the most well-known
–
artist in the world one of the top
female artists in the world and amanda
connor so they they are a kind of
a dynamic duo in comics and they both
have been doing it for forty years i
mean it's insane insane insane yes i mean
i don't know if i could ever afford
i mean it would be an honor to
have one of my female characters done by
one of the top female artists of all
time amanda connor
I don't think I could afford her,
but it would be.
And she's obviously doing bigger and
better things.
But my dream would be to have an
Amanda Connor of one of my female
characters.
Yeah,
that would be quite a few of them.
I have three daughter.
I have one son and three daughters.
And so all my characters are named after
them.
So.
My oldest daughter, who's twenty nine,
is Alexis.
And so this character was designed with
her in mind.
I obviously don't like this middle part
when I'm talking about my daughter.
Nobody was judging you, man.
Well, when I said that, I'm like,
I probably sound really weird.
But this is an artist's rendition of this
character.
And but anyways, that's.
That's it, man.
This is my Kickstarter.
A lot of really cool stuff.
I hope you'll see something that you like
and you go check it out.
I think I have seven days left.
I'm pretty damn close.
Thank you for whoever backed right now.
I appreciate you.
Less than, yeah,
a little more than three hundred bucks to
hit my goal.
And we're so close, man.
It would be amazing to hit this.
And I think you're going to really love
it.
And like I said,
I'm going to throw in some goodies and
all kinds of stuff, too.
I'm a big Todd McFarland collector.
I have over eight hundred figures and I
have extras of those.
So I'll throw in extra figures into the
boxes as well.
Just randomly just to say thank you.
So got to sweeten the deal, man.
That dude, dude.
I have talked to hundreds of people
running Kickstarters and all of the above.
And just, you're just like, Hey,
here's stuff out of my personal stash.
Thank you for helping me get this book
off the ground, which is really dope.
And I'm with you.
I have tons of McFarlane spawn figures.
duplicate star wars stuff granted he
doesn't do star wars yeah but um but
yeah i just i forget what i own
sometimes and i will come across a cell
yeah and i will just buy the figure
that i know i don't have and then
be like i don't remember if i have
that but let me go ahead and grab
one of those as well yeah and then
i'll get home and be like i guess
i had four of those like
Oh, well, my clone army grows.
Yeah, exactly.
I might even throw in this hat.
I mean,
it's kind of gross because I've worn it,
but this is by most of the team
of Ghost Machine.
So, I mean, Jeff Johns, Jason Fabok,
Metall, the Lawrence.
There's a bunch of autographs.
I might even throw this into one of
them as well.
Why not?
I mean, I have extra hats,
but this one's signed.
Yeah.
I got plenty of signatures by all these
folks.
Cause I talked to them a lot and
they're, they're awesome people.
Maybe I'll throw in this hat too.
And you can just hang it on the
wall.
That's a huge hat, man.
That's a, yeah,
that's some of my people that I look
up to.
And I know we said this earlier,
but the guy is doing ghost machine.
And I've said this before,
Probably more times than people care to
hear me say this, but Ghost Machine,
when Jeff Johns put that team together and
all of them having their own rights to
their own stuff, doing their own stories,
working with each other on their own
books.
It was just such a cool concept at
the time.
And it wasn't even that long ago.
And, um,
like two and a half years ago,
two and a half years.
Yeah.
It's insane what they've accomplished.
I can honestly say like,
I can sit down and just read any
of those books,
start to finish front to back.
Yeah.
And not only do I have the books,
I also have the trade paperbacks of all
of them as well.
That's how good they are.
That's how good they are.
A hundred percent, man.
They're, they're amazing.
In fact, somewhere around here,
and I might have to give this away
too.
I have a couple of trades that are
signed.
I have a one signed a sisterhood from
Mattal.
Maybe I'll throw that in there as well.
She come out of nowhere.
She's awesome.
So she was a writer with Jeff.
She was a writer with Jeff at the
W was it the,
when he was doing Stargirl.
She was on that team as one of
the writers.
I didn't know that.
I didn't know who she was.
All of a sudden, she dropped Sisterhood.
I was like,
who in the hell is this?
I will tell you,
I talk to her quite often.
She is one of the nicest...
I watched your episode with her.
I think your very first episode you did
with her.
I love her.
I got to hang out with her for
a while at San Diego.
I've had her on a couple times now.
I talk to her once in a while.
She's just...
Like, I just love her.
She's one of my favorite people in the
world.
But she's fairly new to comics,
but she's not new to writing.
Yeah.
And so she – and she killed it.
I mean,
she's part of that whole Hyde Street with
Sisterhood kind of falls into Hyde Street.
Hyde Street is phenomenal.
So good.
So good.
God bless.
Which I'm glad you brought up Stargirl
with Geoff Johns because I just had met
B on.
Oh, yeah.
Not that long ago.
Him and MJ.
Yeah.
And I think that book I should –
I'll be getting it this week, I think.
I think I got the update today saying,
but McBee worked on Stargirl.
He was the lore guy for Stargirl.
Which is funny.
That's Jeff's character, right?
I think Jeff developed Stargirl.
It is.
So he worked with Jeff Johns to help
Jeff Johns keep the lore of his own
character.
It is so cool.
That's like...
I love these really cool full circle
moments where you don't realize you're
about to get that full circle moment that
we just got,
which is really freaking cool.
And it's cool that she worked on Stargirl.
I did not know that.
So, but Tommy,
before we adjourn the council tonight,
where can everybody follow you?
Keep up with world at war comics.
And most importantly tonight,
get their asses over the Kickstarter and
back this book.
Yes.
So you could follow me at World at
War Comics on every platform.
It's the same name.
Thank you.
I appreciate that, Dean.
Yeah.
And that's cool, man.
So not to go on a tangent,
but my my YouTube channel got hacked.
Yeah.
I was wondering where you were, too,
because I hadn't seen you for a while.
Very stressful.
And, you know, YouTube,
there's no one to call.
So it's just bots until you finally get
an email from someone.
So I have been going back and forth.
They did restore it.
I still can't connect it to StreamYard,
but I'm back.
So I got hacked from someone from
Bangladesh.
and so they found out who it was
they removed that person they removed
whatever they were posting or i don't know
what happened but anyways i'm back i
didn't do anything wrong everybody i
promise i my channel's not like that so
i am back but if you go on
to any platform from blue sky to instagram
to x to i'm all world at war
comics everywhere i have a website called
world at warcomics.com um and then
obviously my youtube channel is world at
war comics where like you um you know
two to three times a week,
I'm bringing on people and interviewing
them and exposing people to their amazing
talents.
So yeah, World at War comics everywhere.
Keep forgetting I got a mechanical
keyboard, so every time I type,
everybody gets to hear me type.
No, you're good, bro.
You're good, you're good.
Yeah, Tommy.
Before I call out...
Anything else you want to get out there
before we start closing this down?
No, I mean,
get over to Kingsville if you like what
I shared tonight about the story,
and it seems like something that could be
interesting to you.
The best way to get involved is to
back the Kickstarter.
You'll get it before anybody else gets it
next year when it goes in the shop,
so you'll be able to hold that.
It's the exact same comic,
published by Critical Entertainment,
produced
Printed by Critical Entertainment.
You're just going to get it before
everyone else gets it.
And you got a couple opportunities to get
two amazing covers that are Kickstarter
exclusive.
So check it out, man.
I'm super proud of what we've been able
to accomplish with this title.
And all the random stuff they could
possibly get.
I'm telling you,
I'm going to throw in a bunch of
stuff.
So check it out, man.
I got autographs.
I got toys.
I'm going to hook you up, man.
So get in there.
Check it out.
I promise somebody will get something
extra, man.
I promise.
Perfect.
And all those links that he just mentioned
right now are down in the description
below.
And I have been sharing the hell out
of this Kickstarter.
So I'll see it in the description.
You can go to my page and you
can find that link just about anywhere
because we're not stopping until this book
is funded.
And, um,
With that, check the description,
hit that link.
While you're there,
hit his link tree and go give all
those other links a follow as well.
And if you're not following us,
make sure you do that too because,
you know, you're here.
You might as well give me a follow,
right?
Yeah, you're already here.
But Tommy,
thank you for joining us tonight,
for sharing the story behind Keensville
and for everything you've done to give
creators across this industry a place to
tell their stories.
And to everyone watching or listening
tonight, I'm going to leave you with this.
Independent comics don't survive.
because somebody else comes along and
decides they're worth supporting.
They survive because we decide they are
worth supporting.
I am already a backer of Kingsville issue
number one.
And if something you heard tonight
connected with you, I'm asking you,
please go have a look at this book.
And if you decide you want to be
a part of it, this book as well.
And if you've already backed it, share it.
And if backing it isn't possible right
now,
put Keensville in front of somebody who
might discover their next favorite comic
because you introduced them to it.
Tommy has spent years using his platform
to shine a light on other creators.
Tonight,
the council has had an opportunity to
shine some light
back on him.
Let's help Kingsville cross this finish
line strong.
And as always,
thank you everyone for watching.
Thank you for supporting independent
comments and thank you for being a part
of the council.
Ladies and gentlemen,
this has been the USDN podcast where indie
comments come to life.
And with that, the council is adjourned.
Y'all be safe out there.