WEBVTT

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You are listening to the USDN on the

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DFPN.

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Thank you.

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what is up everybody and welcome to the

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united states department of nerds where we

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are for the people by the people and

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of the people in

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Oh, my God.

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Some stories are born from imaginations.

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Others are forged through survival.

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Tonight on the USDM podcast,

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we're joined by a writer and creator,

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John Holland of Die Bold Comics,

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to talk assassins, demons,

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legacy storytelling,

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and the power of building a comic catalog

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that spans decades of ideas.

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From an upcoming crowdfunder, Akimi,

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to a digital library of nearly thirty

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stories.

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That's right.

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Thirty published works.

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This is a conversation about evolution,

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endurance in indie comics without limits.

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The Council of Nerds is now in session.

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John, welcome to the podcast, my friend.

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Thank you.

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Thank you for having me.

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I have to I have to tell you

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that opening was pretty cool.

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I appreciate that.

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Shout out to Kelvin for making that happen

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for me.

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And let's dive into it, man.

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We got a lot to get into.

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So, John,

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for folks discovering you for the first

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time tonight,

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who is John Holland and what is Die

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Bold Comics?

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Die Bold...

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I've been working in comics for, you know,

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quite a while.

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I started writing back in the nineties or

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I started getting published back in the

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nineties,

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back when the direct market kind of just

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got started when you had First Comics,

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Eclipse Comics, Comico, Fantagraphics,

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when all those publishers were up and

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about.

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And at that time I was getting published

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in, like I had,

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I've worked with Fantagraphics,

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I've worked with Innovation.

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At the time, Innovation was...

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uh, adapting the quantum leap,

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the original version of quantum leap,

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the TV show.

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And I wrote the,

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I wrote the Christmas issue of quantum

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leap form, uh,

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where he jumped into Santa Claus and, uh,

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uh, so I did, you know, innovation, uh,

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Fantagraphics,

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I've worked for Kitchen Sink.

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I did short stories for their Deathrattle

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comic.

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I did Caliber, Malibu,

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pretty much a whole bunch of those smaller

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publishers at the time I've worked with.

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Hey, Malibu did print the first Spawn.

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Yeah, yeah.

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They did Image for a brief time before

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Image went off on their own.

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I did an adaptation of the Death World

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novels by Harry Harrison for them.

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And then right towards the end of the

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nineties, I self-published my first comic.

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In fact, it was Diebold,

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which is where I ended up getting the

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name from the publishing company later.

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It had such a cool name that,

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you know,

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it really didn't have anything to do with

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the comic.

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It just was more the name than anything

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that made me want to use it for

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a publishing company.

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So we did two issues of Diebold.

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And then I kind of took a break.

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You know,

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I kind of think I got burned out.

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Things just kind of didn't seem to be

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going anywhere.

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I took a break for a few years.

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And then when I decided to come back,

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I already had like this.

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collection of stories, you know,

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that I'd already did in the nineties.

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Like in with fan of graphics,

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I did a series called lizards and their

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critters anthology.

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And when I came back,

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I decided to publish them as comics,

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put them into,

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I had five issues worth of comics stories

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that I was able to do.

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So that was like five issues right there.

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And then I'm still working on just a

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six issue came out a while back.

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So hopefully that's one of those things

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that I'm going to keep, keep doing.

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Okay.

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And then that's cool.

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Yeah.

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And most of that stuff was in black

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and white.

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So when I was coming back,

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I wanted to color some of it like

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Diebold.

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We colored and I found a colorist to

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work on it at the time.

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And then while he was doing that,

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he told me, he says, well, he says,

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you know, I draw, too.

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So I was like, oh, cool.

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So we ended up doing a new story

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for issues of a speaker for the dead.

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uh with javier la barra which was that

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was really the first kind of the beginning

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at the time i wasn't publishing as diebold

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for it took me a little while to

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actually

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market myself or brand myself as a uh

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as a company i was just publishing under

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my own name you know i was just

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you know but i i got to the

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point where i i figured i needed something

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to keep bring it all together and brand

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you know have a brand not just okay

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this comic by me and there's another comic

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by me and you know people didn't know

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what you know it was all kind of

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all over the place because i write in

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so many different genres to begin with

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it's not like oh i only write science

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fiction or i only write horror you know

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i write

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I'm all over.

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I write humor, horror, science fiction,

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slice of life, you know, anything that,

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you know, gets my attention.

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All right.

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So I put it all, you know,

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I decided to put under the Diebold label

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and I've just been republishing some of my

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older stuff and then doing, you know,

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newer stuff with that too, you know,

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just to get it out,

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which like I said, I'm about to,

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I think about up to almost three titles

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right now.

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Okay.

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That puppy is having a whole lot of

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fun.

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Oh yeah.

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But so you've been writing for a long

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time across a lot of genres.

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When you look back,

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what do you think has stayed consistent in

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your storytelling?

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Oh, I don't know.

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Like I said, I try to, you know,

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to, to, I tried not to, you know,

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I try to mix things up, you know,

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and change the genres and change the way

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I write stuff too.

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You know, uh, uh, I just,

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I try to keep things fresh and, and,

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and going.

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Um,

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So I don't know if I have anything

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that has stayed the same throughout

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everything.

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Okay.

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So let's jump right on into Akimi.

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And it's going to be on Fund My

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Comics or Fund My Comic.

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Yeah.

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Where did that story begin for you?

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Was it a character, a theme,

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or just something else entirely that said

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you wanted to do that book?

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It actually started,

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we talked about this a little before,

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Ben Dunn from Antarctica Press had a title

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called Warrior Nun.

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And it came out in the nineties and

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he actually sold it to a studio and

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Netflix did two seasons of it.

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They did, you know,

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Warrior Nun was on Netflix,

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I think for two seasons.

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Yeah.

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Well, when he sold it,

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he sold all the work.

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He sold all the rights to it.

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He couldn't do the comic book version of

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it.

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They owned everything.

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I did some work with Ben.

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He's published a few things from me.

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We've done some work together.

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Ben's a really super nice guy.

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And

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I don't really know the details of

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everything,

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so a lot of this is just me

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guessing on part,

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but he started to talk about he wanted

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to bring back.

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He couldn't bring back Warrior or none,

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but he wanted to bring back something

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similar to it.

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So I'm assuming he probably had a

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non-compete clause,

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and I'm assuming that probably was running

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out.

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and uh so he posted that and it

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kind of got me thinking i now i've

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never read warrior none and i never saw

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the tv show so i really don't know

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what it's about but i like the idea

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of a fighting nun you know just something

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about that they're kind of you know i

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was like that was kind of in the

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nineties uh kamiko had put out a comic

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called evangeline that was by chuck dixon

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and judith

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Judith Hunt that was a fighting nun too.

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That was a book that I always enjoyed.

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They went from Kimiko to I think First

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and a couple other publishers.

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I kind of liked the idea.

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It interested me.

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I decided to write up a script to

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see what I could come up with.

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I came up with the character Akimi.

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I think it was good that I didn't

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know anything about Warrior Nun.

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I still haven't seen anything, so

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Unless I just happen to come across a

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subject, something that is similar to it,

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the only similarity should be that they're

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fighting none.

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It's a battling none.

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I came up with that.

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There was an artist at the time that

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was kind of connected to it.

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We actually were going to pitch it to

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Ben.

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I actually talked to Ben about it.

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I went to San Diego last year and

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talked to him at the San Diego Con.

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Ben had read it, said he liked it,

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but

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He told me, he says, well,

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just go off and kickstart it or something.

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He really didn't seem like he was wanting

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to publish it so much.

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I was like, that's cool.

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I'll go off.

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I waited for this other artist.

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San Diego was July,

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so it has to be a good six,

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seven months.

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I finally came to the conclusion that this

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wasn't going to move forward with this

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artist.

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He had a lot on his plate.

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Other things were coming up that

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You know,

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so around the end of last year,

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beginning of this year,

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I started looking for a new artist.

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I went on Facebook.

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I know to a lot of people,

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Facebook is a very toxic place.

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A lot of people don't like Facebook.

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The indie comic community on Facebook is

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some of the most top-notch people out

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there.

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Oh, yes.

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In the last probably ten years,

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all the artists that I've worked with,

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I've found on Facebook.

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You know, so Facebook is like you said,

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Facebook has a really good indie

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community.

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So I actually went on some of those

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group sites and advertised that I needed

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an artist.

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You know, I just posted, hey,

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I'm looking at it.

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And, you know,

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I was probably I probably got like close

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to a hundred people, you know.

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Easy.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

00:11:16.292 --> 00:11:18.852
And Jorge was one of the first people

00:11:18.893 --> 00:11:20.313
that had messaged me.

00:11:21.351 --> 00:11:22.991
And I looked at his work and I

00:11:23.011 --> 00:11:23.793
thought, oh, it's good.

00:11:24.153 --> 00:11:26.913
But it wasn't exactly what originally I

00:11:27.374 --> 00:11:29.953
had in mind for Akimi because the artist

00:11:29.974 --> 00:11:32.495
that originally was working on it was more

00:11:32.534 --> 00:11:33.995
of a, I guess,

00:11:34.034 --> 00:11:35.375
more of like kind of a Neil Adams

00:11:35.416 --> 00:11:36.135
type artist.

00:11:36.275 --> 00:11:38.015
So I was kind of thinking along that

00:11:38.056 --> 00:11:38.416
line.

00:11:38.535 --> 00:11:38.895
And, you know,

00:11:38.936 --> 00:11:41.076
Jorge's art's completely different.

00:11:41.677 --> 00:11:43.518
And so I kept looking for some of

00:11:43.557 --> 00:11:44.197
these other artists,

00:11:44.217 --> 00:11:46.018
but I kept going back to Jorge's art.

00:11:46.138 --> 00:11:47.719
I kept going like, this is so good.

00:11:47.859 --> 00:11:49.099
I really like his artwork.

00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:51.779
so it didn't take me long to realize

00:11:51.980 --> 00:11:54.140
this is this should who should be the

00:11:54.221 --> 00:11:58.621
artist for this book and uh so you

00:11:58.642 --> 00:11:59.902
know i got hold of him and we

00:11:59.942 --> 00:12:02.143
started working on it and one of the

00:12:02.243 --> 00:12:03.923
advantages and one of the you know i

00:12:03.964 --> 00:12:05.984
guess the the great things about it is

00:12:06.043 --> 00:12:07.264
jorge is fast

00:12:08.206 --> 00:12:08.605
Like I said,

00:12:08.666 --> 00:12:11.788
we started this in January and he's

00:12:11.807 --> 00:12:13.909
already got the first issue done.

00:12:13.929 --> 00:12:15.490
The first issue is a hundred percent done.

00:12:15.510 --> 00:12:16.291
Colored letter.

00:12:16.331 --> 00:12:17.392
And he's, he does everything.

00:12:18.172 --> 00:12:20.134
He draws, colors it and letters it.

00:12:20.153 --> 00:12:20.254
Okay.

00:12:21.914 --> 00:12:23.395
He's, he's, you know, the book,

00:12:23.495 --> 00:12:25.037
that's one of the good things about this

00:12:25.096 --> 00:12:26.738
is there's no risk involved in this

00:12:26.778 --> 00:12:28.359
campaign because the book is done.

00:12:29.058 --> 00:12:31.159
you know when it's when if when we

00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:33.642
you know reach the end we'll be able

00:12:33.662 --> 00:12:35.562
to just send it to the printer and

00:12:35.582 --> 00:12:36.884
then that's going to be the only weight

00:12:36.923 --> 00:12:38.323
is waiting for the printers to get the

00:12:38.365 --> 00:12:40.285
book back and then we'll send it to

00:12:40.306 --> 00:12:42.687
the backers and we're already starting on

00:12:42.706 --> 00:12:44.567
the second issue i've got the second issue

00:12:44.607 --> 00:12:47.450
just about finished wrote and he's going

00:12:47.470 --> 00:12:49.071
to start drawing it so we're hoping

00:12:49.630 --> 00:12:51.692
that the second issue will be done about

00:12:51.731 --> 00:12:52.993
the end of the by the end of

00:12:53.013 --> 00:12:55.073
the campaign or maybe a little after that

00:12:55.114 --> 00:12:56.734
so we can go do a campaign for

00:12:56.774 --> 00:12:58.235
that and we can get it you know

00:12:58.794 --> 00:13:01.155
so the issues will fall at least my

00:13:01.636 --> 00:13:03.397
my goal is the first four issues to

00:13:03.437 --> 00:13:07.198
kind of fall on a maybe a bi-monthly

00:13:07.239 --> 00:13:08.700
schedule because i don't think we're going

00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:10.681
to that's actually really good yeah

00:13:11.427 --> 00:13:11.707
You know,

00:13:11.769 --> 00:13:14.452
I think that will help it because,

00:13:14.653 --> 00:13:15.533
you know, the problem,

00:13:15.855 --> 00:13:17.937
and it's happened to me too, you know,

00:13:17.957 --> 00:13:19.701
with some of the stuff I've created is

00:13:19.821 --> 00:13:21.263
you do an issue and then it takes

00:13:21.342 --> 00:13:22.784
eight months to do the second issue.

00:13:23.409 --> 00:13:23.870
You know,

00:13:23.889 --> 00:13:25.850
it's like you're losing a lot of people

00:13:25.890 --> 00:13:26.931
within those eight months.

00:13:26.971 --> 00:13:28.091
You know, if I get,

00:13:28.150 --> 00:13:29.772
if we can get that out on a

00:13:29.851 --> 00:13:32.091
regular basis and then we'll do a trade

00:13:32.111 --> 00:13:32.572
for that.

00:13:32.692 --> 00:13:33.273
And then, you know,

00:13:33.592 --> 00:13:35.173
hopefully come back and do another four

00:13:35.273 --> 00:13:35.493
issues.

00:13:35.552 --> 00:13:36.514
Cause I see this as a,

00:13:37.053 --> 00:13:38.614
an ongoing project, you know,

00:13:38.653 --> 00:13:39.754
something that could, you know,

00:13:40.215 --> 00:13:41.514
last as long as the two of us

00:13:41.534 --> 00:13:43.394
want to keep doing it.

00:13:43.414 --> 00:13:43.956
That's really good.

00:13:44.015 --> 00:13:44.495
Cause I mean,

00:13:44.716 --> 00:13:48.197
I've bet some kit starters before where I

00:13:48.236 --> 00:13:51.398
think I backed it in December of twenty

00:13:51.477 --> 00:13:52.418
twenty four.

00:13:53.792 --> 00:13:56.592
And I got it in December of twenty

00:13:56.633 --> 00:13:57.712
twenty five.

00:13:58.514 --> 00:14:00.134
It just had that many setbacks with

00:14:00.274 --> 00:14:01.294
artists and.

00:14:02.294 --> 00:14:04.655
Well, it was horrible,

00:14:04.775 --> 00:14:06.596
but the book turned out amazing.

00:14:07.277 --> 00:14:08.976
And it's no fault of the person who

00:14:08.996 --> 00:14:10.738
wrote it and put it together.

00:14:11.378 --> 00:14:13.778
It's just shitty luck, I guess.

00:14:13.859 --> 00:14:14.198
You know,

00:14:14.418 --> 00:14:15.958
I'll be I'll be up front right now.

00:14:16.039 --> 00:14:18.639
I've got a Kickstarter that we did that's

00:14:18.860 --> 00:14:20.260
at least a year and a half old.

00:14:20.380 --> 00:14:21.821
We haven't been able to fulfill yet

00:14:21.860 --> 00:14:23.062
because I'm waiting for the artist.

00:14:24.275 --> 00:14:25.537
That's wild to think about.

00:14:26.158 --> 00:14:26.638
At this point,

00:14:26.697 --> 00:14:28.019
I would have done fired and found a

00:14:28.078 --> 00:14:28.458
new one.

00:14:29.159 --> 00:14:30.441
Well, the problem is...

00:14:31.413 --> 00:14:33.554
The book is more the artist's book than

00:14:33.575 --> 00:14:34.215
it was for me.

00:14:34.796 --> 00:14:37.937
He came up with the concept and I

00:14:37.976 --> 00:14:38.717
kind of used it.

00:14:38.778 --> 00:14:40.458
He wanted to use it through Diebold,

00:14:40.479 --> 00:14:41.859
which now looking at it,

00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:43.320
I probably should have said no,

00:14:43.620 --> 00:14:45.380
because now it looks like I'm the one

00:14:45.500 --> 00:14:46.061
behind.

00:14:47.442 --> 00:14:49.383
My other Kickstarter I did was Alma.

00:14:49.702 --> 00:14:50.624
And again,

00:14:50.703 --> 00:14:52.224
it was finished before I went to the

00:14:52.244 --> 00:14:52.565
Kickstarter.

00:14:52.664 --> 00:14:54.645
I will never do a Kickstarter or any

00:14:54.686 --> 00:14:55.405
crowdfunding.

00:14:56.025 --> 00:14:57.606
If it's not a hundred percent finished,

00:14:57.667 --> 00:14:59.207
it's going to be ninety percent finished.

00:15:00.808 --> 00:15:01.769
I can't deal with that.

00:15:02.610 --> 00:15:04.351
This other thing has just been driving me

00:15:04.371 --> 00:15:04.913
crazy.

00:15:07.735 --> 00:15:10.998
From now on, everything will be done.

00:15:11.057 --> 00:15:12.198
If it's got your stamp on it,

00:15:12.359 --> 00:15:15.380
you're putting your reputation at risk for

00:15:15.441 --> 00:15:16.042
somebody.

00:15:16.461 --> 00:15:17.302
That's hard to do.

00:15:19.384 --> 00:15:20.144
Lesson learned.

00:15:20.505 --> 00:15:22.067
It was a hard lesson.

00:15:23.749 --> 00:15:25.051
But hopefully I can, you know,

00:15:25.071 --> 00:15:26.412
at least with everything else,

00:15:26.451 --> 00:15:27.452
when I come out with it,

00:15:27.573 --> 00:15:28.815
when they see that it comes out on

00:15:28.855 --> 00:15:31.778
time, you know, we'll, you know,

00:15:31.798 --> 00:15:34.081
realize that I'm not going to, you know,

00:15:34.100 --> 00:15:35.562
keep that pattern up.

00:15:37.533 --> 00:15:39.374
So Akimi is a character trained from

00:15:39.433 --> 00:15:41.475
childhood to be an assassin,

00:15:42.056 --> 00:15:45.178
but the story itself is more about escape

00:15:45.259 --> 00:15:47.740
and reclaiming themselves.

00:15:48.841 --> 00:15:50.423
What made you want to kind of like,

00:15:50.823 --> 00:15:53.066
it's almost like a contradiction almost,

00:15:53.285 --> 00:15:54.506
but what made you go with that?

00:15:56.489 --> 00:15:58.551
You know, it's it's first and foremost,

00:15:58.610 --> 00:16:01.092
I think it's it's it's a it's it's

00:16:01.113 --> 00:16:02.855
an action adventure story.

00:16:02.875 --> 00:16:04.135
You know, there's a lot of fighting,

00:16:04.176 --> 00:16:05.496
a lot of, you know, adventure in it.

00:16:05.537 --> 00:16:06.597
But I don't you know,

00:16:06.677 --> 00:16:09.581
I like to put more some subtext behind

00:16:09.740 --> 00:16:10.282
the story.

00:16:10.341 --> 00:16:12.003
I don't just want to have, you know,

00:16:12.023 --> 00:16:13.544
two people fighting or whatever.

00:16:13.764 --> 00:16:14.806
Yeah.

00:16:15.005 --> 00:16:17.087
And just the idea of of her being

00:16:17.668 --> 00:16:19.590
a nun in a sense or, you know,

00:16:19.629 --> 00:16:21.831
being the whole Catholic church thing.

00:16:22.753 --> 00:16:22.952
You know,

00:16:22.972 --> 00:16:24.374
and then she's coming from Japan.

00:16:24.453 --> 00:16:25.495
So part of it is going to be

00:16:25.514 --> 00:16:27.817
that that combination of, you know, yes,

00:16:27.856 --> 00:16:30.077
she she grew up in Japan and her

00:16:30.097 --> 00:16:31.639
father was very bad to her.

00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:33.421
But she still that's you know,

00:16:33.541 --> 00:16:35.581
she was raised in the Shinto religion.

00:16:35.763 --> 00:16:38.203
That's that's her life until the age of

00:16:38.245 --> 00:16:38.644
twelve.

00:16:38.705 --> 00:16:40.525
So it's not that easy to just pick

00:16:40.566 --> 00:16:42.126
her up and put her in another religion

00:16:42.168 --> 00:16:43.808
and say, OK, this is your new God.

00:16:43.849 --> 00:16:46.431
This is who you have to, you know,

00:16:46.490 --> 00:16:47.150
worship now.

00:16:47.211 --> 00:16:48.712
So there's going to be that that tension

00:16:48.753 --> 00:16:49.393
between that.

00:16:51.982 --> 00:16:52.644
And, you know,

00:16:52.683 --> 00:16:54.544
she she started like in the book.

00:16:54.784 --> 00:16:56.206
There's a couple of pages in the book

00:16:56.725 --> 00:16:58.287
that we have when she was still living

00:16:58.326 --> 00:16:58.868
in Japan,

00:16:58.908 --> 00:17:00.828
where she was ten years old and she's

00:17:00.889 --> 00:17:02.730
out there fighting, you know,

00:17:05.324 --> 00:17:08.405
a whole group of bad guys and stuff.

00:17:08.826 --> 00:17:10.146
Actually, not bad guys,

00:17:10.166 --> 00:17:12.509
but she's fighting them and killing them

00:17:12.648 --> 00:17:13.650
at ten years old.

00:17:14.190 --> 00:17:16.171
She was trained from as soon as she

00:17:16.191 --> 00:17:19.252
could walk by her father to be this

00:17:19.292 --> 00:17:20.653
assassin ninja.

00:17:21.013 --> 00:17:23.316
Somebody on Facebook, when I was posting,

00:17:23.336 --> 00:17:24.395
somebody made a comment.

00:17:24.415 --> 00:17:26.258
They said, oh, it's a nunja.

00:17:27.577 --> 00:17:29.880
A combination of a ninja and a nun.

00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:30.279
Yeah.

00:17:33.952 --> 00:17:34.794
That's kind of wild.

00:17:36.055 --> 00:17:36.895
Cool concept, though.

00:17:37.297 --> 00:17:39.419
But the Order of Innocent Blood is such

00:17:39.479 --> 00:17:40.601
a striking concept.

00:17:40.641 --> 00:17:42.962
What role do they play in Akimi's journey?

00:17:43.483 --> 00:17:45.246
And what do they kind of represent on

00:17:45.286 --> 00:17:46.667
a thematic level?

00:17:49.111 --> 00:17:51.252
The name I've had for years,

00:17:51.313 --> 00:17:52.053
there's actually,

00:17:52.353 --> 00:17:54.114
there was an actual order of innocent

00:17:54.134 --> 00:17:56.355
blood back in like the eighteen hundreds

00:17:56.395 --> 00:17:57.375
from the Catholic Church.

00:17:57.976 --> 00:18:00.117
And some reason that name has always stuck

00:18:00.137 --> 00:18:00.518
with me.

00:18:00.557 --> 00:18:01.198
And I've,

00:18:01.778 --> 00:18:03.579
I've almost used it for other stuff and

00:18:03.619 --> 00:18:04.859
it's never quite worked out.

00:18:05.059 --> 00:18:05.580
And, uh,

00:18:06.221 --> 00:18:07.602
This was, you know,

00:18:07.622 --> 00:18:09.104
I figured this is going to be the

00:18:09.163 --> 00:18:10.183
perfect spot for it,

00:18:10.203 --> 00:18:12.486
and they're part of the Catholic Church,

00:18:12.787 --> 00:18:15.088
and they're tasked with fighting,

00:18:15.548 --> 00:18:17.590
you know, the demons and the monsters,

00:18:18.211 --> 00:18:20.413
and so they're pretty much the good guys,

00:18:20.452 --> 00:18:21.034
but they're, you know,

00:18:21.074 --> 00:18:23.055
there's still that conflict that,

00:18:23.095 --> 00:18:23.455
you know,

00:18:23.955 --> 00:18:26.397
she's having to deal with the whole new

00:18:26.438 --> 00:18:27.858
religion, and...

00:18:29.263 --> 00:18:30.765
you know, against her old religion.

00:18:30.825 --> 00:18:32.226
So, but they're more,

00:18:32.726 --> 00:18:33.866
more or less the good guys.

00:18:33.906 --> 00:18:34.787
I'm not going to say they're a hundred

00:18:34.826 --> 00:18:36.028
percent good, but, uh,

00:18:36.048 --> 00:18:36.689
cause I don't think any,

00:18:36.828 --> 00:18:38.509
once you start religion into a lot of

00:18:38.549 --> 00:18:41.351
stuff, you know, that, that hardcore,

00:18:41.791 --> 00:18:43.833
it gets the water definitely gets murky.

00:18:44.532 --> 00:18:44.792
Yes.

00:18:46.815 --> 00:18:47.174
But, uh,

00:18:47.214 --> 00:18:50.836
so the series is blended action and horror

00:18:51.637 --> 00:18:52.678
and emotional trauma.

00:18:52.698 --> 00:18:52.758
How,

00:18:53.117 --> 00:18:55.240
how did you find balancing the muster

00:18:55.259 --> 00:18:57.740
fighting with the very human cost of a

00:18:57.800 --> 00:18:58.741
Kimi's past?

00:19:01.270 --> 00:19:02.772
It just, you know, as I write,

00:19:02.813 --> 00:19:04.034
I just have to kind of, you know,

00:19:05.255 --> 00:19:06.455
I don't want to write, you know,

00:19:06.476 --> 00:19:08.297
I'll write so many pages of, OK,

00:19:08.336 --> 00:19:09.298
fighting or whatever.

00:19:09.337 --> 00:19:11.159
But then I know I've got to pull

00:19:11.179 --> 00:19:13.141
back and I want to do more than

00:19:13.181 --> 00:19:14.701
just, OK, this is a fight.

00:19:14.761 --> 00:19:16.824
I want to show how it's affecting Akeem

00:19:16.864 --> 00:19:18.765
here, you know, something from her past.

00:19:19.086 --> 00:19:21.387
And the first issue pretty much almost

00:19:21.407 --> 00:19:21.788
ends.

00:19:22.167 --> 00:19:24.349
way the book is broken down between every

00:19:24.390 --> 00:19:26.151
two and three pages it's a whole new

00:19:26.191 --> 00:19:27.852
scene it's a whole you know it's like

00:19:28.271 --> 00:19:29.972
it goes pretty fast if you look at

00:19:30.012 --> 00:19:31.755
it like that it's like you know you

00:19:31.775 --> 00:19:33.776
go from the beginning of the book she

00:19:33.816 --> 00:19:36.458
starts off coming to america then it flips

00:19:36.498 --> 00:19:38.199
back to when she was a kid and

00:19:38.338 --> 00:19:40.560
comes back to you know so it just

00:19:40.661 --> 00:19:44.143
it moves really quick there's no uh long

00:19:44.202 --> 00:19:46.344
scene i think the longest scene in one

00:19:46.384 --> 00:19:47.625
time is three pages

00:19:49.607 --> 00:19:49.728
Now,

00:19:49.748 --> 00:19:51.269
is this like a twenty eight page or

00:19:51.289 --> 00:19:52.332
a thirty two page comic?

00:19:52.873 --> 00:19:53.673
Twenty four pages.

00:19:53.693 --> 00:19:53.733
OK.

00:19:55.035 --> 00:19:55.256
OK.

00:19:55.316 --> 00:19:56.057
Twenty four pages.

00:19:56.096 --> 00:19:56.237
Now,

00:19:56.277 --> 00:19:58.460
the second issue is pretty much one

00:19:58.500 --> 00:19:59.221
storyline.

00:19:59.300 --> 00:20:01.044
It's it's it's her first, you know,

00:20:01.865 --> 00:20:03.787
once she's with the group and they're kind

00:20:03.826 --> 00:20:05.529
of having their first battle and stuff.

00:20:05.549 --> 00:20:05.809
So, OK.

00:20:09.220 --> 00:20:10.220
I like these kind of stories.

00:20:10.381 --> 00:20:12.402
This story is very much in line with

00:20:13.563 --> 00:20:15.604
something that's killing the children in

00:20:15.624 --> 00:20:17.025
the House of Slaughter and that kind of

00:20:17.065 --> 00:20:17.424
stuff.

00:20:18.184 --> 00:20:20.467
I just really like these type of stories.

00:20:21.027 --> 00:20:22.407
It's strange you brought that up.

00:20:24.229 --> 00:20:26.911
I never really read James Tyron that much

00:20:26.990 --> 00:20:28.771
with his Batman DC run.

00:20:28.951 --> 00:20:29.511
Nobody did.

00:20:29.592 --> 00:20:33.193
To be fair, I didn't either.

00:20:33.634 --> 00:20:35.455
I was in a... He's not...

00:20:36.584 --> 00:20:38.045
I will never take anything from him.

00:20:38.244 --> 00:20:40.306
The man is a genius of a writer.

00:20:40.445 --> 00:20:41.507
Just some of the stories.

00:20:42.426 --> 00:20:45.269
I probably have all his titles minus his

00:20:45.308 --> 00:20:46.769
Batman, to be fair.

00:20:47.609 --> 00:20:50.151
I highly regard him as a writer and

00:20:50.211 --> 00:20:50.912
a creator.

00:20:52.353 --> 00:20:55.594
I just didn't get behind that Batman run.

00:20:56.714 --> 00:20:59.817
His Batman run influenced me where I never

00:20:59.856 --> 00:21:01.357
really picked up any of his other work.

00:21:02.057 --> 00:21:04.719
You missed out on a lot of good

00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:05.140
stuff.

00:21:05.968 --> 00:21:06.909
I've started to.

00:21:07.088 --> 00:21:10.133
I picked up... What was it?

00:21:10.272 --> 00:21:11.554
One of the first things I picked up

00:21:11.574 --> 00:21:15.659
from it was The Deviant.

00:21:15.699 --> 00:21:16.700
That just blew me away.

00:21:16.740 --> 00:21:18.521
What did you think about it?

00:21:18.541 --> 00:21:19.823
This was so good.

00:21:21.144 --> 00:21:22.105
It made me pick up...

00:21:22.826 --> 00:21:24.007
I've read the first...

00:21:24.894 --> 00:21:27.376
or maybe the first and second storyline

00:21:27.396 --> 00:21:28.438
from something that's killing the

00:21:28.478 --> 00:21:28.938
children.

00:21:30.138 --> 00:21:31.380
I haven't finished reading it yet.

00:21:31.420 --> 00:21:32.461
Cause I'm, I'm waiting to,

00:21:32.560 --> 00:21:33.882
I want to get like the big book

00:21:33.922 --> 00:21:35.462
that, you know, the truck bus.

00:21:35.563 --> 00:21:36.002
Yeah.

00:21:36.063 --> 00:21:38.144
Yeah.

00:21:38.184 --> 00:21:40.205
So, but I just loved it.

00:21:40.465 --> 00:21:41.467
I was like, wow.

00:21:41.527 --> 00:21:43.669
I said, I just, you know, this,

00:21:43.709 --> 00:21:45.670
this was good.

00:21:45.690 --> 00:21:47.191
Check out the department of truth.

00:21:48.291 --> 00:21:49.032
Oh, see, I need to.

00:21:49.212 --> 00:21:49.972
Yeah.

00:21:50.012 --> 00:21:51.795
But so nice house by the lake.

00:21:52.796 --> 00:21:54.356
The, uh, was it corpses?

00:21:54.457 --> 00:21:54.836
I can,

00:21:54.876 --> 00:21:56.238
that list can go on and on and

00:21:56.438 --> 00:21:56.498
on.

00:21:56.518 --> 00:21:57.818
That's how big of a fan of his

00:21:57.959 --> 00:21:58.358
I am,

00:21:58.818 --> 00:22:02.080
but this Batman was not it for me.

00:22:02.421 --> 00:22:02.721
Yeah.

00:22:02.941 --> 00:22:04.481
Well, I'm going back and looking at,

00:22:04.501 --> 00:22:07.042
but somewhere I think part of something is

00:22:07.063 --> 00:22:08.023
killing the children.

00:22:08.144 --> 00:22:09.605
I don't know how or where,

00:22:09.684 --> 00:22:12.546
but I think some of that influenced this

00:22:12.586 --> 00:22:14.247
storyline, you know,

00:22:14.287 --> 00:22:16.248
because I just read it before I started

00:22:16.288 --> 00:22:17.528
doing this character, you know,

00:22:17.568 --> 00:22:18.710
and it just kinda,

00:22:18.769 --> 00:22:20.250
it just was so good, you know,

00:22:20.269 --> 00:22:21.211
and I read the, um,

00:22:22.434 --> 00:22:24.175
The one with What's-Her-Name's Brother,

00:22:24.195 --> 00:22:25.436
what is it, The House of Slaughter?

00:22:26.178 --> 00:22:27.338
So there's The House of Slaughter,

00:22:27.439 --> 00:22:30.741
and then there's other little mini stories

00:22:30.781 --> 00:22:32.563
in there too, like The Book of Cutter.

00:22:33.403 --> 00:22:35.465
And House of Slaughter finally came to a

00:22:35.506 --> 00:22:35.925
close.

00:22:36.086 --> 00:22:37.807
They closed that chapter out finally,

00:22:38.528 --> 00:22:40.890
which was just so good and so brilliant.

00:22:40.910 --> 00:22:41.750
Yeah,

00:22:42.070 --> 00:22:44.252
so I'm slowly going back and filling in

00:22:44.373 --> 00:22:45.693
the gaps because, like I said,

00:22:45.753 --> 00:22:47.194
I just kind of ignored them because of

00:22:47.234 --> 00:22:47.756
Batman.

00:22:48.596 --> 00:22:51.019
And once I once I started reading Deviant

00:22:51.038 --> 00:22:52.480
was just such a good book.

00:22:52.601 --> 00:22:53.461
I mean,

00:22:53.582 --> 00:22:54.824
that was like if you were going to

00:22:54.844 --> 00:22:57.928
pick a book to get back into his

00:22:57.988 --> 00:23:00.310
writing, the Deviant was the way to go.

00:23:02.275 --> 00:23:03.876
It looked so different from everything

00:23:03.896 --> 00:23:05.357
that I thought, okay.

00:23:05.538 --> 00:23:08.101
I'll pick up a book that I don't

00:23:08.141 --> 00:23:10.242
have any idea about if it looks different.

00:23:10.262 --> 00:23:12.224
I was like, this looks really different.

00:23:13.546 --> 00:23:14.067
It held me.

00:23:14.086 --> 00:23:14.707
I was like, all right,

00:23:14.747 --> 00:23:15.909
now I've got to start reading some of

00:23:15.929 --> 00:23:16.689
his other stuff.

00:23:17.490 --> 00:23:18.691
You're definitely cheating yourself.

00:23:19.571 --> 00:23:20.833
Now I've got a lot of books that

00:23:20.873 --> 00:23:21.874
I have to go out and buy.

00:23:21.973 --> 00:23:24.415
And to be fair,

00:23:25.537 --> 00:23:26.938
you're not going to be disappointed.

00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:29.780
One of the first ones I picked up

00:23:29.800 --> 00:23:30.661
was The Deviant,

00:23:31.102 --> 00:23:32.522
The Nice House by the Lake,

00:23:32.762 --> 00:23:34.463
and then The Nice House by the Sea.

00:23:35.384 --> 00:23:37.166
Exquisite Corpses that he's currently

00:23:37.186 --> 00:23:39.689
doing right now has been just a brilliant

00:23:39.729 --> 00:23:42.471
mastermind of writing on that one.

00:23:42.530 --> 00:23:44.051
And it just got sold as well.

00:23:44.732 --> 00:23:46.713
He sold like three series back to back

00:23:46.733 --> 00:23:47.174
to back.

00:23:48.669 --> 00:23:50.529
to become TV shows or movies.

00:23:50.710 --> 00:23:51.029
Wow.

00:23:51.130 --> 00:23:52.330
Well, you know,

00:23:52.371 --> 00:23:53.951
besides his writing so good,

00:23:54.092 --> 00:23:58.212
he's probably one of the best people in

00:23:58.272 --> 00:24:02.255
years for marketing and creating his own

00:24:02.295 --> 00:24:02.915
brand.

00:24:03.435 --> 00:24:04.135
I mean,

00:24:04.936 --> 00:24:07.478
it's amazing what he's done since he's

00:24:07.538 --> 00:24:08.917
left the mainstream.

00:24:08.938 --> 00:24:09.358
Mm-hmm.

00:24:10.410 --> 00:24:12.250
Yeah, no, I agree a hundred percent.

00:24:12.270 --> 00:24:14.153
And he has his own production company now

00:24:14.192 --> 00:24:15.133
called tiny onion.

00:24:15.653 --> 00:24:17.775
They have titles with image with boom

00:24:17.815 --> 00:24:18.715
studios.

00:24:19.615 --> 00:24:21.096
And, uh, he's got a series.

00:24:21.196 --> 00:24:22.377
I'm trying to think of what it's called.

00:24:23.198 --> 00:24:23.578
Um,

00:24:24.439 --> 00:24:26.820
let this one be the devil about the

00:24:26.840 --> 00:24:27.540
Jersey devil.

00:24:27.560 --> 00:24:27.641
Oh,

00:24:27.661 --> 00:24:30.722
it's like the birth of the Jersey devil.

00:24:31.443 --> 00:24:34.766
That one was really good, but yeah,

00:24:34.865 --> 00:24:36.527
I don't think he's put his name on

00:24:36.547 --> 00:24:37.607
a bad title since Batman.

00:24:38.696 --> 00:24:38.797
Yeah,

00:24:38.817 --> 00:24:39.817
he's who I want to be when I

00:24:39.857 --> 00:24:40.397
grow up.

00:24:40.858 --> 00:24:41.858
You know what I mean?

00:24:41.898 --> 00:24:42.759
You and me both.

00:24:43.539 --> 00:24:44.921
And I think I'm actually older than him.

00:24:44.980 --> 00:24:49.743
Yeah, I know.

00:24:49.763 --> 00:24:50.804
But, yeah, no, he's brilliant.

00:24:50.824 --> 00:24:52.305
He's got a great marketing team.

00:24:53.086 --> 00:24:54.605
They've been doing the Exquisite Corpse

00:24:54.645 --> 00:24:56.307
Tour here lately and just doing the

00:24:56.366 --> 00:24:58.348
pop-ups with that and signing the books.

00:24:58.528 --> 00:25:02.270
And the way they designed that book around

00:25:02.371 --> 00:25:03.991
a tabletop board game

00:25:05.204 --> 00:25:08.766
So whoever dies in the board game is

00:25:08.826 --> 00:25:11.826
the next killer that dies in the comic

00:25:11.846 --> 00:25:12.126
book.

00:25:12.146 --> 00:25:13.968
Oh, wow.

00:25:13.988 --> 00:25:15.867
So it's just been this really amazing,

00:25:15.907 --> 00:25:16.147
like,

00:25:16.409 --> 00:25:18.108
storytelling between him and Michael

00:25:18.148 --> 00:25:18.608
Walsh.

00:25:18.709 --> 00:25:21.029
And I think Geordie Belair is in there.

00:25:21.710 --> 00:25:23.171
So it's just been brilliant.

00:25:23.451 --> 00:25:25.510
I can't say enough nice things about him.

00:25:26.412 --> 00:25:27.771
But that Batman run was not it.

00:25:27.832 --> 00:25:28.311
I'm with you.

00:25:30.053 --> 00:25:31.813
If I ever said anything bad about him,

00:25:31.913 --> 00:25:33.614
it was that Batman run wasn't it.

00:25:35.973 --> 00:25:37.434
The only Batman that I've read in the

00:25:37.474 --> 00:25:40.596
last couple decades and a lot of people

00:25:40.655 --> 00:25:44.999
don't like him is Tom King.

00:25:45.138 --> 00:25:47.099
I'm just over the big dark and grim

00:25:47.160 --> 00:25:49.541
and never smiled.

00:25:49.582 --> 00:25:52.542
Tom King actually made him smile a few

00:25:52.583 --> 00:25:52.923
times.

00:25:52.963 --> 00:25:55.805
He gave him a little more personality.

00:25:56.224 --> 00:25:57.786
Yeah, exactly.

00:25:59.366 --> 00:26:00.788
I really enjoyed the Hush run,

00:26:01.028 --> 00:26:03.470
the Hush II, which is ongoing, I think.

00:26:05.744 --> 00:26:06.105
What is it?

00:26:06.125 --> 00:26:07.945
The Three Jokers was really good.

00:26:08.786 --> 00:26:10.826
The Longest Halloween is really good.

00:26:11.887 --> 00:26:15.009
There's a few stories in there that have

00:26:15.048 --> 00:26:15.788
been good,

00:26:16.269 --> 00:26:17.650
but am I just going to go out

00:26:17.710 --> 00:26:19.111
and grab it?

00:26:19.211 --> 00:26:20.672
No, I'm not.

00:26:20.692 --> 00:26:21.872
I am reading Matt Fractions,

00:26:22.011 --> 00:26:22.792
the new Batman,

00:26:23.633 --> 00:26:25.594
and I'm reading Absolute Batman.

00:26:25.614 --> 00:26:25.693
Okay.

00:26:26.723 --> 00:26:27.424
So I,

00:26:27.444 --> 00:26:29.105
I'm not reading any of the absolutes.

00:26:29.165 --> 00:26:30.886
I was re I did try the absolute

00:26:30.906 --> 00:26:31.387
flash.

00:26:31.968 --> 00:26:33.690
It was okay for about ten issues and

00:26:33.750 --> 00:26:34.470
I was just done.

00:26:35.191 --> 00:26:38.212
But what I've been doing is I'm a

00:26:38.272 --> 00:26:38.933
cover guy.

00:26:39.193 --> 00:26:40.954
So if there's been like certain artists

00:26:40.974 --> 00:26:42.457
who have done certain covers for them,

00:26:43.057 --> 00:26:47.540
like the, um, what's his name?

00:26:47.641 --> 00:26:47.980
Oh my God.

00:26:48.020 --> 00:26:49.102
I can't remember his name now,

00:26:49.762 --> 00:26:52.444
but he did a holy Trinity with the

00:26:52.464 --> 00:26:55.267
Batman, the Superman and the wonder woman.

00:26:57.012 --> 00:26:57.953
combination covers.

00:26:58.034 --> 00:26:58.653
Mark Spears.

00:26:58.673 --> 00:27:00.494
Okay.

00:27:00.634 --> 00:27:03.056
I got the Mark Spears connecting covers

00:27:03.096 --> 00:27:06.897
for Issues One in the foil variant because

00:27:06.938 --> 00:27:08.058
it was just so cool.

00:27:08.159 --> 00:27:09.259
I seen them sitting there and I was

00:27:09.279 --> 00:27:09.740
just like...

00:27:11.351 --> 00:27:12.592
okay, you can come home.

00:27:13.272 --> 00:27:14.513
I got you.

00:27:14.574 --> 00:27:15.534
They're just so beautiful.

00:27:15.554 --> 00:27:19.557
I'm a big fan of Mark Spears' art.

00:27:19.698 --> 00:27:21.459
For me, that was like, okay.

00:27:21.479 --> 00:27:23.319
Then I just picked up the Joker cover.

00:27:23.941 --> 00:27:26.022
The Joker cover was absolutely beautiful.

00:27:26.103 --> 00:27:27.443
I can't remember who the artist was on

00:27:27.483 --> 00:27:31.807
it, but just the spin on Joker,

00:27:32.428 --> 00:27:33.909
it was just amazing.

00:27:34.009 --> 00:27:35.849
I love that concept of the Joker in

00:27:35.869 --> 00:27:37.070
this absolute series.

00:27:37.090 --> 00:27:38.352
I like the fact that

00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:43.881
The Absolute Universe is really a lot

00:27:43.921 --> 00:27:46.560
different than the normal DC universe.

00:27:47.241 --> 00:27:49.922
They took that concept and put their spin

00:27:50.021 --> 00:27:51.682
on it.

00:27:51.962 --> 00:27:53.563
I think of all the titles,

00:27:54.044 --> 00:27:57.183
Absolute Wonder Woman is the best.

00:27:57.484 --> 00:27:59.184
I heard it was Martian Manhunter.

00:27:59.724 --> 00:28:02.605
Martian Manhunter is the best one.

00:28:03.066 --> 00:28:04.266
It's right up there with it.

00:28:04.306 --> 00:28:05.646
Martian Manhunter is very...

00:28:06.650 --> 00:28:07.490
It's very good.

00:28:07.590 --> 00:28:08.790
But Martian Manhunter,

00:28:08.810 --> 00:28:10.813
sometimes my brain just kind of like,

00:28:11.393 --> 00:28:12.634
when you read it, you just go like,

00:28:12.673 --> 00:28:14.375
boom.

00:28:14.394 --> 00:28:15.736
So the Absolute Flash,

00:28:16.175 --> 00:28:17.856
it didn't work for me because it felt

00:28:17.876 --> 00:28:19.377
like any other Flash story.

00:28:21.179 --> 00:28:22.098
And that's why it didn't work.

00:28:22.259 --> 00:28:24.480
Did it feel like the stripped down

00:28:24.500 --> 00:28:26.461
versions like the Absolute Wonder Woman

00:28:26.501 --> 00:28:27.603
and Batman and Superman?

00:28:27.623 --> 00:28:27.823
No.

00:28:27.982 --> 00:28:29.384
To me, it kind of didn't.

00:28:30.349 --> 00:28:31.711
But that's me, though.

00:28:31.971 --> 00:28:35.232
I'm not a big mainstream comic book fan.

00:28:35.814 --> 00:28:38.556
I will always prefer the indie comics over

00:28:40.037 --> 00:28:40.777
the big two.

00:28:41.116 --> 00:28:44.859
You know what I'm saying?

00:28:44.900 --> 00:28:46.760
But let's keep on going,

00:28:46.780 --> 00:28:48.142
talking about some Akimi here.

00:28:49.202 --> 00:28:51.845
So without spoiling anything,

00:28:52.565 --> 00:28:54.807
what do you want readers to take away

00:28:54.906 --> 00:28:56.788
after they read this first issue?

00:29:03.342 --> 00:29:06.605
Just I want people to, I guess,

00:29:06.724 --> 00:29:08.566
like the character of Akimi, you know,

00:29:08.967 --> 00:29:11.788
and kind of relate to her, you know,

00:29:11.828 --> 00:29:14.790
her issues that she has and to see

00:29:14.830 --> 00:29:14.931
her.

00:29:15.270 --> 00:29:16.692
I want people to see Akimi as a

00:29:16.732 --> 00:29:18.493
real person, you know, as you know,

00:29:18.534 --> 00:29:19.674
to me, you know,

00:29:20.214 --> 00:29:22.376
if I'm reading a book or, you know,

00:29:22.396 --> 00:29:24.838
a comic and I can relate to that

00:29:24.878 --> 00:29:25.298
person,

00:29:25.538 --> 00:29:27.180
even if they're completely different from

00:29:27.220 --> 00:29:27.340
me.

00:29:28.040 --> 00:29:30.142
that means I'm going to keep reading that

00:29:30.182 --> 00:29:32.604
book or that comic or whatever, you know,

00:29:32.624 --> 00:29:34.164
there's gotta be some type of connection.

00:29:34.684 --> 00:29:35.806
And I just want people to have that

00:29:35.826 --> 00:29:37.747
connection to, to the character, you know,

00:29:37.787 --> 00:29:39.087
she's going through a lot, you know,

00:29:39.127 --> 00:29:40.949
she's, she's definitely not, you know,

00:29:40.969 --> 00:29:41.729
she's only in the main storyline.

00:29:41.749 --> 00:29:42.849
She's, she's going to be,

00:29:42.869 --> 00:29:44.131
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:44.151 --> 00:29:45.152
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:45.172 --> 00:29:46.271
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:46.291 --> 00:29:47.173
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:47.212 --> 00:29:48.693
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:48.733 --> 00:29:49.814
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:49.834 --> 00:29:50.934
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:50.954 --> 00:29:51.776
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:51.796 --> 00:29:52.715
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:52.736 --> 00:29:53.436
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:53.457 --> 00:29:54.517
she's going to be, she's going to be,

00:29:54.616 --> 00:29:55.357
she's going to be,

00:29:55.397 --> 00:29:55.498
she's

00:29:59.273 --> 00:30:02.974
This book is going to be on Fund

00:30:03.134 --> 00:30:03.674
My Comic.

00:30:03.694 --> 00:30:05.255
We have not had a book on here

00:30:05.275 --> 00:30:08.455
before that is going to be funded by

00:30:08.556 --> 00:30:09.356
Fund My Comic.

00:30:09.396 --> 00:30:10.376
We've done Kickstarter.

00:30:10.396 --> 00:30:11.616
We've done Indiegogo.

00:30:12.076 --> 00:30:14.198
We've had many of just self-publishers

00:30:14.238 --> 00:30:15.637
where you can go to their website and

00:30:15.678 --> 00:30:16.598
purchase their books.

00:30:17.078 --> 00:30:18.378
But this is the first time we've had

00:30:18.419 --> 00:30:22.339
somebody doing a comic book funding

00:30:22.380 --> 00:30:23.901
through Fund My Comic.

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:26.625
I know you just kicked it off today,

00:30:26.664 --> 00:30:28.048
but can you kind of walk us through

00:30:28.088 --> 00:30:29.933
what that's been like so far?

00:30:31.521 --> 00:30:31.862
Well,

00:30:33.564 --> 00:30:35.265
I just clicked to see if anybody's backed

00:30:35.285 --> 00:30:35.904
it, but no.

00:30:36.546 --> 00:30:37.987
So far as of today,

00:30:38.346 --> 00:30:39.748
I'm kind of freaking out because,

00:30:39.788 --> 00:30:40.188
you know,

00:30:40.229 --> 00:30:42.109
today we launched today and there's no

00:30:42.150 --> 00:30:43.851
backers, but it's the first day.

00:30:43.951 --> 00:30:45.633
So I'm not, you know, I'm keeping that.

00:30:45.952 --> 00:30:49.736
But the actual setting everything up and

00:30:49.776 --> 00:30:51.616
going through was very simple.

00:30:51.757 --> 00:30:54.358
You know, it was a very easy process.

00:30:54.378 --> 00:30:56.861
You know, it's, you know, the template,

00:30:56.921 --> 00:30:57.701
you just go in and,

00:30:58.541 --> 00:31:00.787
put everything in place and then when you

00:31:00.807 --> 00:31:02.529
get it in place,

00:31:02.871 --> 00:31:03.893
they have to review it.

00:31:04.314 --> 00:31:05.175
It took them like

00:31:05.871 --> 00:31:07.330
I don't even think it took them four

00:31:07.391 --> 00:31:09.071
hours to review it and it came back.

00:31:10.491 --> 00:31:12.913
So everything has been, you know, they go,

00:31:12.932 --> 00:31:15.013
they use Stripe instead of PayPal,

00:31:15.773 --> 00:31:18.035
which I've always been more of a PayPal

00:31:18.335 --> 00:31:19.115
person, you know,

00:31:19.454 --> 00:31:20.976
so I had to go back and I

00:31:20.996 --> 00:31:21.715
had a Stripe,

00:31:21.756 --> 00:31:23.356
but I think it was so old that

00:31:23.636 --> 00:31:24.636
I had to go back and kind of,

00:31:25.237 --> 00:31:25.576
it had,

00:31:25.656 --> 00:31:27.678
it was connected to an old account that

00:31:27.718 --> 00:31:28.298
I had to update,

00:31:30.378 --> 00:31:31.838
which isn't bad because a lot of places

00:31:31.919 --> 00:31:32.459
use Stripe.

00:31:32.499 --> 00:31:33.960
So I probably need that anyway.

00:31:34.826 --> 00:31:36.587
But it's been simple now.

00:31:37.208 --> 00:31:39.048
You know, the biggest difference,

00:31:39.068 --> 00:31:39.229
you know,

00:31:39.249 --> 00:31:41.769
Kickstarter has a lot bigger reach.

00:31:41.970 --> 00:31:42.250
You know,

00:31:42.289 --> 00:31:44.830
Kickstarter has a lot more people that,

00:31:45.152 --> 00:31:46.571
you know, I look at Kickstarter.

00:31:46.832 --> 00:31:48.633
Kickstarter is like its own comic shop.

00:31:48.913 --> 00:31:50.233
There's people on Kickstarter that make

00:31:50.554 --> 00:31:50.614
it.

00:31:50.973 --> 00:31:52.974
never probably go to a comic shop they

00:31:53.015 --> 00:31:54.595
just scroll through the comics on

00:31:54.635 --> 00:31:57.135
kickstarter and pick what they like you

00:31:57.175 --> 00:31:58.997
know they probably never even you know

00:31:59.057 --> 00:32:00.478
leave their house to go to a comic

00:32:00.498 --> 00:32:02.638
shop they just buy them you know so

00:32:02.659 --> 00:32:04.538
there's a lot you know you can get

00:32:04.578 --> 00:32:06.400
people you pick up people on kickstarter

00:32:06.420 --> 00:32:08.480
that you know you that probably never seen

00:32:08.540 --> 00:32:11.122
a faith your facebook posts or your ads

00:32:11.142 --> 00:32:12.622
that you put out they just seen it

00:32:12.642 --> 00:32:13.923
by scrolling through kickstarter

00:32:15.066 --> 00:32:15.846
Fun My Comic,

00:32:15.906 --> 00:32:17.048
I don't know how big that is.

00:32:17.347 --> 00:32:18.788
I know it's not as big as Kickstarter.

00:32:19.229 --> 00:32:24.232
But then by the same token,

00:32:24.653 --> 00:32:27.434
Fun My Comic is geared just for comic

00:32:27.454 --> 00:32:27.776
books.

00:32:30.538 --> 00:32:31.417
A lot of other...

00:32:31.458 --> 00:32:33.200
Kickstarter kickstarts everything.

00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:33.900
Yeah.

00:32:35.494 --> 00:32:38.577
So, you know, I do see, you know,

00:32:38.617 --> 00:32:41.480
like people like Pat Broderick is on Fund

00:32:41.500 --> 00:32:43.843
My Comic, Mike Barron's on Fund My Comic.

00:32:44.743 --> 00:32:46.045
So I do see some, you know,

00:32:46.224 --> 00:32:48.207
some established names using it.

00:32:48.307 --> 00:32:49.327
And I've seen people, you know,

00:32:49.669 --> 00:32:51.029
and I kind of scrolled through it to

00:32:51.089 --> 00:32:51.269
see,

00:32:52.184 --> 00:32:53.806
if people were actually funding their

00:32:53.865 --> 00:32:54.586
comics, you know,

00:32:54.606 --> 00:32:55.528
if I was scrolling through it,

00:32:55.587 --> 00:32:57.288
and seeing people not funding,

00:32:57.669 --> 00:32:58.450
I would be like, Okay,

00:32:58.490 --> 00:32:59.310
this is not a good.

00:33:00.711 --> 00:33:02.732
So I have seen people do run like

00:33:03.153 --> 00:33:04.934
simultaneous, you know,

00:33:05.375 --> 00:33:08.337
programs with Indiegogo, and Kickstarter,

00:33:08.357 --> 00:33:09.638
both at the same time, I'm just like,

00:33:09.659 --> 00:33:11.039
that is a lot of work.

00:33:13.461 --> 00:33:14.181
I'd be dead.

00:33:14.621 --> 00:33:17.402
It's hard enough to run one campaign.

00:33:17.481 --> 00:33:17.843
I don't know.

00:33:18.942 --> 00:33:21.284
I'm worried now because basically I'm

00:33:21.324 --> 00:33:22.324
doing this campaign.

00:33:22.364 --> 00:33:23.365
As soon as this ends,

00:33:23.984 --> 00:33:25.625
I should be doing a Zoop campaign.

00:33:25.665 --> 00:33:26.526
As soon as that ends,

00:33:26.566 --> 00:33:28.247
I'm actually going back to Kickstarter.

00:33:28.307 --> 00:33:29.646
I have a Kickstarter coming up in a

00:33:29.686 --> 00:33:30.268
couple months.

00:33:31.147 --> 00:33:33.169
I'm glad you brought up Zoop because

00:33:33.189 --> 00:33:35.430
that's what we're talking about next.

00:33:35.549 --> 00:33:35.750
Yeah.

00:33:36.484 --> 00:33:41.008
So I'm glad you brought it up, man.

00:33:41.067 --> 00:33:44.490
So your Die Bold Comets Digital Library is

00:33:44.730 --> 00:33:45.912
on Zoom.

00:33:46.011 --> 00:33:48.894
Nearly thirty comets in one digital

00:33:48.933 --> 00:33:49.554
collection.

00:33:50.214 --> 00:33:51.895
What made you want to bring your entire

00:33:51.955 --> 00:33:54.377
body of work together like this?

00:33:58.460 --> 00:33:59.780
It gives me a chance to get it

00:33:59.820 --> 00:34:00.842
in front of everybody.

00:34:01.082 --> 00:34:03.222
And I kind of had the idea.

00:34:03.363 --> 00:34:04.703
I've had it for like about a year

00:34:04.723 --> 00:34:06.986
and a half now that, you know,

00:34:07.066 --> 00:34:08.726
Kickstarter, when you look at Kickstarter,

00:34:08.847 --> 00:34:11.409
you see more and more people backing the

00:34:11.449 --> 00:34:12.730
digital versions of stuff.

00:34:13.309 --> 00:34:14.610
I mean, it still hasn't got like,

00:34:14.630 --> 00:34:15.411
you know, over half.

00:34:15.431 --> 00:34:15.771
But, you know,

00:34:15.791 --> 00:34:17.413
there's a lot of a lot of people

00:34:17.432 --> 00:34:18.873
are going just digital now.

00:34:19.514 --> 00:34:21.735
so i thought well i wanted to try

00:34:21.815 --> 00:34:23.996
something that there is no like this this

00:34:24.036 --> 00:34:26.177
campaign from zoop when it launches there

00:34:26.237 --> 00:34:28.418
is no print versions there is no physical

00:34:28.458 --> 00:34:30.739
versions it's all going to be digital you

00:34:30.778 --> 00:34:33.039
can buy you know any of the comics

00:34:33.059 --> 00:34:35.880
you know digitally so one it's going to

00:34:35.900 --> 00:34:37.782
be cheaper because i don't have to worry

00:34:37.802 --> 00:34:41.083
about printing and shipping so all of them

00:34:41.103 --> 00:34:43.443
you know will be a lot cheaper yeah

00:34:43.485 --> 00:34:45.204
you can get and as soon as the

00:34:45.224 --> 00:34:46.106
campaign's over

00:34:47.030 --> 00:34:49.813
you'll be getting your comics within as

00:34:49.853 --> 00:34:51.717
quick as I can get everything done and

00:34:51.737 --> 00:34:52.496
shipped to people.

00:34:53.818 --> 00:34:54.860
I don't expect to make a lot of

00:34:54.900 --> 00:34:56.521
money off of it because they will be

00:34:56.561 --> 00:34:56.943
cheaper.

00:34:56.963 --> 00:35:00.025
I haven't decided on the exact price for

00:35:00.045 --> 00:35:00.407
it yet,

00:35:00.967 --> 00:35:03.030
but it's probably going to be at least

00:35:03.090 --> 00:35:04.911
half the price, if not less,

00:35:05.052 --> 00:35:06.974
than what a print version costs.

00:35:07.474 --> 00:35:08.576
But by the same token,

00:35:09.255 --> 00:35:10.436
all the money I make off of a

00:35:10.496 --> 00:35:12.177
digital library,

00:35:12.597 --> 00:35:14.478
there's nothing I'm having to spend.

00:35:14.739 --> 00:35:15.579
There's no overhead.

00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:17.121
It's money in your pocket.

00:35:17.141 --> 00:35:18.101
Yeah.

00:35:18.121 --> 00:35:20.083
Once you make good money out of it,

00:35:20.143 --> 00:35:21.103
everything is mine.

00:35:21.143 --> 00:35:23.885
So if I only make five hundred dollars

00:35:23.985 --> 00:35:24.405
off of it,

00:35:24.465 --> 00:35:26.206
that's five hundred dollars I can use to

00:35:26.226 --> 00:35:27.608
make the next comic or whatever.

00:35:28.248 --> 00:35:29.309
I just thought it would be a cool

00:35:29.369 --> 00:35:30.751
idea to give it a try.

00:35:30.811 --> 00:35:32.253
I know a few people have did it

00:35:32.614 --> 00:35:34.996
since before me,

00:35:35.496 --> 00:35:38.722
but I actually tried this about a year

00:35:38.762 --> 00:35:39.503
ago or more.

00:35:40.083 --> 00:35:44.068
There's a site in New Zealand called Comic

00:35:44.289 --> 00:35:44.869
with an X.

00:35:47.456 --> 00:35:47.735
Yeah,

00:35:48.155 --> 00:35:49.436
I was actually one of the first people

00:35:49.456 --> 00:35:51.516
that kind of joined that.

00:35:51.637 --> 00:35:54.338
And he sells digital comics.

00:35:54.657 --> 00:35:55.617
He sells them online,

00:35:55.637 --> 00:35:57.918
like Comicology or whatever.

00:35:58.018 --> 00:36:00.079
And he wanted to try and do a

00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:01.239
crowdfunding site.

00:36:01.539 --> 00:36:03.960
And I was his guinea pig.

00:36:04.521 --> 00:36:06.342
And we tried to do the digital library,

00:36:06.402 --> 00:36:08.663
and it didn't turn out too good.

00:36:08.702 --> 00:36:12.523
Mainly because nobody knew about it.

00:36:12.563 --> 00:36:13.844
It was hard to get the word out.

00:36:14.784 --> 00:36:16.885
You know, but, you know,

00:36:17.085 --> 00:36:18.806
that's that idea stayed with me.

00:36:18.846 --> 00:36:19.347
And I was like,

00:36:19.427 --> 00:36:20.686
I really still want to do this.

00:36:20.746 --> 00:36:21.806
I originally was going to do it for

00:36:21.867 --> 00:36:22.487
Kickstarter,

00:36:23.047 --> 00:36:24.527
but I've been wanting to do it.

00:36:24.748 --> 00:36:26.068
I've been wanting to try Zoop for the

00:36:26.108 --> 00:36:27.809
last year or two since I've heard about

00:36:28.110 --> 00:36:28.210
it.

00:36:28.269 --> 00:36:29.030
You know,

00:36:29.050 --> 00:36:30.570
one of the things from what I understand,

00:36:30.971 --> 00:36:31.650
Zoop right now,

00:36:31.670 --> 00:36:33.811
we're on the very just in the beginning

00:36:33.871 --> 00:36:34.411
stages.

00:36:34.512 --> 00:36:36.532
I just they just basically approved my

00:36:36.572 --> 00:36:37.193
campaign.

00:36:37.713 --> 00:36:40.853
But Zoop basically creates they do the

00:36:40.873 --> 00:36:41.554
heavy lifting.

00:36:41.813 --> 00:36:42.253
They do.

00:36:42.293 --> 00:36:43.994
You know, they create for you.

00:36:45.092 --> 00:36:47.480
So you kind of don't have to do

00:36:47.500 --> 00:36:48.302
a whole lot of work.

00:36:50.775 --> 00:36:51.615
It's really nice.

00:36:51.635 --> 00:36:51.695
Yes.

00:36:51.735 --> 00:36:52.195
Well, we'll see.

00:36:52.255 --> 00:36:52.556
Like I said,

00:36:52.596 --> 00:36:53.657
I haven't got to that point yet.

00:36:53.677 --> 00:36:54.538
We're just getting there.

00:36:54.557 --> 00:36:56.119
They just sent me an email saying, hey,

00:36:56.139 --> 00:36:57.559
we're going to get ready to start doing

00:36:57.579 --> 00:36:58.400
this soon.

00:36:58.820 --> 00:37:01.121
We'll see how it goes and how it

00:37:03.003 --> 00:37:03.903
works out.

00:37:05.144 --> 00:37:06.726
Zoop has built kind of a following.

00:37:06.746 --> 00:37:08.228
They're kind of like Fund My Comics where

00:37:08.427 --> 00:37:09.188
they're not going to have a

00:37:09.929 --> 00:37:11.230
Kickstarter-sized funding.

00:37:11.329 --> 00:37:13.871
I've seen a lot of people go through

00:37:13.911 --> 00:37:14.351
Zoop.

00:37:14.391 --> 00:37:16.753
A lot of big names went through Zoop.

00:37:17.853 --> 00:37:21.315
So your library spans A Girl and Her

00:37:21.355 --> 00:37:24.695
Dog, Alma, to Robot Sex.

00:37:24.735 --> 00:37:26.077
Is there anything that kind of like

00:37:26.177 --> 00:37:29.018
connects those books together or any of

00:37:29.038 --> 00:37:29.657
your books together?

00:37:29.677 --> 00:37:34.239
Or are they just all like – Well,

00:37:34.599 --> 00:37:35.300
it's kind of funny.

00:37:35.340 --> 00:37:41.182
Like Alma, Aayla, Robot Sex –

00:37:42.409 --> 00:37:44.929
those three for sure i've kind of dropped

00:37:44.969 --> 00:37:46.670
little hints in it that they're all in

00:37:46.690 --> 00:37:50.373
the same universe okay you know there's

00:37:50.393 --> 00:37:52.333
there's not a lot uh you know because

00:37:52.414 --> 00:37:54.675
all of those you know almost set in

00:37:54.695 --> 00:37:57.416
the in the present robot sex is set

00:37:57.516 --> 00:38:00.498
way way way in the future and uh

00:38:01.840 --> 00:38:02.860
what was the third i forgot what the

00:38:02.880 --> 00:38:05.722
third one was now oh um a girl

00:38:05.762 --> 00:38:06.101
and her dog

00:38:08.081 --> 00:38:09.461
Or a dog stand by itself.

00:38:09.541 --> 00:38:12.123
It's kind of like a slice of life

00:38:12.143 --> 00:38:13.403
said in the near future.

00:38:13.885 --> 00:38:17.246
So there's a little connections between

00:38:17.306 --> 00:38:18.567
it, but nothing major.

00:38:19.047 --> 00:38:20.867
And I just dropped it and just kind

00:38:20.907 --> 00:38:21.469
of thought, you know,

00:38:21.489 --> 00:38:23.829
I want to see if anybody notices this.

00:38:23.869 --> 00:38:26.231
And I actually had a podcast about a

00:38:26.271 --> 00:38:26.811
year ago.

00:38:26.851 --> 00:38:28.371
And the guy was like he had read

00:38:28.452 --> 00:38:28.873
all of them.

00:38:29.172 --> 00:38:29.632
And he goes,

00:38:30.032 --> 00:38:31.554
is all this connected together?

00:38:31.594 --> 00:38:33.494
And I was like, oh, you notice that.

00:38:33.534 --> 00:38:33.755
Nice.

00:38:35.655 --> 00:38:36.416
No, that's always cool.

00:38:36.436 --> 00:38:40.059
I always enjoy when you read, you know,

00:38:40.099 --> 00:38:41.398
a writer's work.

00:38:41.860 --> 00:38:43.481
And then as you read the books,

00:38:43.800 --> 00:38:45.302
you start connecting little pieces like,

00:38:45.342 --> 00:38:45.521
wait,

00:38:45.702 --> 00:38:47.822
that was mentioned over here in this book.

00:38:47.902 --> 00:38:48.202
Yeah.

00:38:48.282 --> 00:38:50.083
And then you read another book.

00:38:50.103 --> 00:38:50.525
You're like, wait,

00:38:50.545 --> 00:38:52.144
that was mentioned in the other two books.

00:38:52.186 --> 00:38:52.726
And you're like,

00:38:53.905 --> 00:38:56.148
i see what you did there yeah i

00:38:56.467 --> 00:38:59.150
enjoy easter eggs like that and i say

00:38:59.170 --> 00:39:02.494
this all the time like i just enjoy

00:39:02.574 --> 00:39:05.056
finding those little nuances to the

00:39:05.096 --> 00:39:07.018
writers and to the artists where they drop

00:39:07.057 --> 00:39:09.701
those little things in their work and

00:39:09.721 --> 00:39:11.161
you're like i look at that and then

00:39:11.181 --> 00:39:12.463
look at that over there i see what

00:39:12.483 --> 00:39:13.804
you're doing i'm on to you

00:39:14.650 --> 00:39:17.632
Those are always really fun for me.

00:39:17.731 --> 00:39:19.413
It's very subtle.

00:39:20.193 --> 00:39:22.034
I didn't want to say, oh,

00:39:22.054 --> 00:39:23.476
I'm creating this big universe or

00:39:23.496 --> 00:39:23.777
whatever.

00:39:23.836 --> 00:39:27.179
I just want to leave a little Easter

00:39:27.318 --> 00:39:28.639
eggs that you can say, oh,

00:39:28.820 --> 00:39:32.922
this connects back to that, maybe.

00:39:33.123 --> 00:39:35.244
They're really probably the only couple.

00:39:35.304 --> 00:39:37.527
Most of the stuff stands on its own.

00:39:38.567 --> 00:39:41.969
Like I said, I've got

00:39:43.188 --> 00:39:44.989
You know, horror, science fiction.

00:39:45.951 --> 00:39:47.391
The book that we're going to do in

00:39:47.411 --> 00:39:49.193
a couple months through Kickstarter is

00:39:49.233 --> 00:39:50.516
called Two Tons of Fury.

00:39:50.795 --> 00:39:52.438
And we've already got two issues of it.

00:39:52.498 --> 00:39:54.280
You've been doing a whole lot of

00:39:54.300 --> 00:39:56.222
advertising for that one.

00:39:56.322 --> 00:39:57.103
Yeah, yeah.

00:39:57.282 --> 00:39:59.605
And Ben from Antarctica actually

00:40:00.166 --> 00:40:01.967
republished the first issue for us.

00:40:02.387 --> 00:40:05.891
And then we did an issue where...

00:40:06.556 --> 00:40:09.217
the two characters meet tomorrow girl and

00:40:09.998 --> 00:40:11.619
uh okay this is a really fun book

00:40:11.639 --> 00:40:13.880
to to write because it's it takes public

00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:15.681
domain characters and the two main

00:40:15.701 --> 00:40:18.862
characters are herbie the fat fury and fat

00:40:18.882 --> 00:40:21.943
man the human flying saucer so as you

00:40:21.963 --> 00:40:24.085
can tell with those characters this the

00:40:24.125 --> 00:40:26.365
book is not very serious it's very you

00:40:26.385 --> 00:40:29.527
know and uh the the one where we

00:40:29.568 --> 00:40:31.208
have coming up that's going to be in

00:40:31.429 --> 00:40:33.210
probably march or june depending because

00:40:33.550 --> 00:40:35.090
we're working on it right it's about half

00:40:35.150 --> 00:40:35.451
done

00:40:36.521 --> 00:40:37.384
and we don't want to, you know,

00:40:37.423 --> 00:40:39.427
go to Kickstarter until it's finished.

00:40:39.867 --> 00:40:41.391
It's going to be two times the fury

00:40:41.490 --> 00:40:42.512
versus Cthulhu.

00:40:43.335 --> 00:40:45.398
So it's going to be a very weird

00:40:45.438 --> 00:40:45.659
book.

00:40:47.096 --> 00:40:48.117
You know what?

00:40:48.137 --> 00:40:49.577
Cthulhu's been getting a lot of love the

00:40:49.637 --> 00:40:51.518
last two years, so more power to him.

00:40:51.559 --> 00:40:51.679
Yeah.

00:40:52.840 --> 00:40:53.081
Well,

00:40:53.201 --> 00:40:56.402
I read somewhere that this was before most

00:40:56.443 --> 00:41:03.389
of the NSFW comics popped up.

00:41:04.108 --> 00:41:07.731
The Cthulhu was like the biggest draw in

00:41:07.851 --> 00:41:09.233
comic books on Kickstarter.

00:41:09.632 --> 00:41:10.454
Yeah, there's a lot.

00:41:11.494 --> 00:41:12.936
You can literally just type that into

00:41:12.956 --> 00:41:14.876
Kickstarter and I bet it produces fifty

00:41:14.918 --> 00:41:15.297
books.

00:41:15.938 --> 00:41:17.161
Yeah.

00:41:17.400 --> 00:41:17.940
So I was like,

00:41:18.121 --> 00:41:19.664
how can I work that into, you know,

00:41:20.905 --> 00:41:21.726
and I just, you know,

00:41:21.746 --> 00:41:24.769
this is about the most weird, you know,

00:41:27.913 --> 00:41:29.094
way that we're going to, you know,

00:41:29.235 --> 00:41:30.856
these characters are going to meet and,

00:41:30.896 --> 00:41:31.498
you know, and...

00:41:33.001 --> 00:41:34.302
You know, we're throwing in some,

00:41:34.782 --> 00:41:37.103
like we're going to throw in Buck Rogers

00:41:37.143 --> 00:41:39.164
as guest stars in it, Flash Gordon.

00:41:39.184 --> 00:41:41.367
Oh, nice.

00:41:41.927 --> 00:41:43.527
Alan Moore is going to guest star in

00:41:43.568 --> 00:41:43.668
it.

00:41:43.728 --> 00:41:45.429
There is actually a comic book character

00:41:45.449 --> 00:41:47.510
from the forties named Alan Moore.

00:41:47.530 --> 00:41:47.610
Okay.

00:41:49.452 --> 00:41:52.153
So I said, I can't not let that,

00:41:52.173 --> 00:41:52.373
you know,

00:41:52.393 --> 00:41:53.355
he's only going to probably be in a

00:41:53.394 --> 00:41:54.114
panel, but I said,

00:41:54.175 --> 00:41:55.835
I can't not put that in the comic

00:41:55.856 --> 00:41:56.056
book.

00:41:57.623 --> 00:41:59.824
The public domain the last couple of years

00:41:59.864 --> 00:42:03.827
has been a wild source of material.

00:42:04.088 --> 00:42:04.889
More power to it.

00:42:04.989 --> 00:42:07.451
I've enjoyed seeing a lot of these weird

00:42:08.311 --> 00:42:10.293
characters coming back today.

00:42:10.514 --> 00:42:12.255
You know what I'm saying?

00:42:12.275 --> 00:42:13.936
The weirder, the better.

00:42:13.956 --> 00:42:15.338
That's the way I see it.

00:42:17.498 --> 00:42:19.481
This book is very, very weird.

00:42:19.780 --> 00:42:21.742
One of my biggest influences in my writing

00:42:21.782 --> 00:42:22.663
is Steve Gerber,

00:42:22.923 --> 00:42:24.105
who created Howard the Duck.

00:42:26.902 --> 00:42:28.925
And he wrote he wrote for me the

00:42:28.965 --> 00:42:30.806
best run on the defenders ever.

00:42:31.146 --> 00:42:31.927
But, you know,

00:42:32.047 --> 00:42:33.668
Steve Gerber was always thrown.

00:42:34.250 --> 00:42:34.449
You know,

00:42:34.489 --> 00:42:36.992
his stories were so absurd and such,

00:42:37.032 --> 00:42:37.331
you know.

00:42:38.253 --> 00:42:38.693
And, you know,

00:42:39.795 --> 00:42:40.936
that's one of the things I like to

00:42:40.956 --> 00:42:41.715
do in my work.

00:42:41.755 --> 00:42:41.976
You know,

00:42:42.016 --> 00:42:43.438
it's like I got to throw something in

00:42:43.458 --> 00:42:44.338
there that, you know,

00:42:44.458 --> 00:42:46.501
just it's weird or different.

00:42:46.561 --> 00:42:47.521
I don't want to, you know,

00:42:47.541 --> 00:42:49.222
almost everything I write has some of that

00:42:49.262 --> 00:42:50.945
little in that little bit into it.

00:42:51.920 --> 00:42:53.300
You know what's great is Howard the Duck

00:42:53.320 --> 00:42:56.123
was just in the last season of Marvel's

00:42:56.143 --> 00:42:56.682
What If?

00:42:57.344 --> 00:42:59.385
And it was just so refreshing to see

00:42:59.425 --> 00:43:01.887
him, you know, in present day,

00:43:02.947 --> 00:43:04.188
a flash from the eighties,

00:43:04.648 --> 00:43:05.769
getting some more love.

00:43:06.329 --> 00:43:07.670
I was like, how cool is this?

00:43:08.271 --> 00:43:09.492
But so let's,

00:43:09.532 --> 00:43:11.373
let's jump into the indie grind because

00:43:11.414 --> 00:43:13.655
you have been doing it for some time

00:43:13.715 --> 00:43:14.036
now.

00:43:14.596 --> 00:43:16.978
So what's harder now than it used to

00:43:16.998 --> 00:43:20.760
be and what's actually like easier now?

00:43:22.300 --> 00:43:24.101
Harder is going to be just the money.

00:43:24.762 --> 00:43:28.384
It's just trying to fund everything.

00:43:28.443 --> 00:43:30.324
I've probably got five or six projects

00:43:30.344 --> 00:43:32.206
that I'm always working on more things

00:43:32.226 --> 00:43:32.865
than I can do,

00:43:33.266 --> 00:43:36.148
but I can only afford one or two

00:43:36.208 --> 00:43:37.288
at a time if I'm lucky.

00:43:38.568 --> 00:43:39.208
When I worked,

00:43:39.809 --> 00:43:41.490
I used to work in retail and I

00:43:41.510 --> 00:43:42.871
was a store manager.

00:43:42.891 --> 00:43:44.132
You're not going to make a fortune in

00:43:44.172 --> 00:43:46.753
retail, but I made decent money.

00:43:47.793 --> 00:43:49.054
I don't have a lot of vices.

00:43:49.094 --> 00:43:49.894
I don't have a lot of

00:43:50.695 --> 00:43:53.619
you know i'm single uh all my money

00:43:53.818 --> 00:43:56.422
all my my i guess my extra money

00:43:56.501 --> 00:44:01.068
went to producing comics making comics so

00:44:01.409 --> 00:44:03.672
uh you know it's it's i think the

00:44:03.692 --> 00:44:05.333
hardest part is just finding the money i

00:44:05.393 --> 00:44:07.836
think the easiest part now is you know

00:44:07.856 --> 00:44:08.277
back in the

00:44:09.996 --> 00:44:11.998
there was people doing self-publishing,

00:44:12.038 --> 00:44:14.860
you know, Dave Sim did Cerebus, you know,

00:44:14.900 --> 00:44:16.940
Terry Moore did Strangers in Paradise.

00:44:16.981 --> 00:44:17.240
You know,

00:44:17.260 --> 00:44:19.461
I did an issue of Diebold in the

00:44:19.481 --> 00:44:21.603
late nineties, but you know,

00:44:21.943 --> 00:44:23.364
it wasn't as common.

00:44:23.465 --> 00:44:26.106
And I don't think it was harder to,

00:44:26.186 --> 00:44:27.427
you know, there was no Kickstarters.

00:44:27.447 --> 00:44:28.706
There were no crowdfunders.

00:44:28.907 --> 00:44:30.228
There was no social media.

00:44:30.568 --> 00:44:31.389
There was no, you know,

00:44:31.429 --> 00:44:33.550
Facebook or Twitter.

00:44:33.750 --> 00:44:34.150
Yeah.

00:44:35.231 --> 00:44:37.152
putting a comic in an envelope and then

00:44:37.231 --> 00:44:39.693
sending it out all the producers that you

00:44:39.713 --> 00:44:41.474
knew about and hoping one of them said

00:44:42.014 --> 00:44:45.954
hell yeah let's do it yeah nowadays you

00:44:45.976 --> 00:44:47.556
know it's like you've got all the social

00:44:47.576 --> 00:44:50.237
media you've got the crowdfunding so it is

00:44:50.416 --> 00:44:51.898
i think it's a lot easier to to

00:44:51.958 --> 00:44:53.358
get the comic out there in front of

00:44:53.398 --> 00:44:55.739
people you know to you know it's it's

00:44:55.760 --> 00:44:57.199
a lot of work you know you you

00:44:57.219 --> 00:44:58.621
spend a lot of time on you know

00:44:59.862 --> 00:45:01.121
you know, going through, you know,

00:45:01.181 --> 00:45:03.702
Facebook or Twitter or blue sky or

00:45:03.742 --> 00:45:04.983
whatever, you know,

00:45:05.003 --> 00:45:07.242
I'm on every freaking social media site

00:45:07.282 --> 00:45:08.463
that, you know, you have to,

00:45:09.184 --> 00:45:09.864
you have to,

00:45:10.483 --> 00:45:11.943
if you're going to put yourself out there,

00:45:12.083 --> 00:45:13.784
you have to hit every little corner of

00:45:13.804 --> 00:45:14.304
the market.

00:45:14.324 --> 00:45:15.385
Yeah.

00:45:16.405 --> 00:45:17.764
And, uh, you know, the, the,

00:45:17.784 --> 00:45:19.425
the crowdfunding I think brings in,

00:45:19.465 --> 00:45:21.905
you know, new, new, new eyes too.

00:45:21.985 --> 00:45:24.186
But, uh, so I think that's gotten easier,

00:45:24.246 --> 00:45:25.706
you know, and, uh,

00:45:26.721 --> 00:45:28.282
compared to what it was back, you know,

00:45:28.322 --> 00:45:29.003
like in the nineties,

00:45:29.023 --> 00:45:30.623
when I first started, it was,

00:45:30.704 --> 00:45:31.543
it was hard to, you know,

00:45:31.565 --> 00:45:33.686
because unless you got in Diamond,

00:45:34.547 --> 00:45:35.807
you didn't get, you know, people,

00:45:35.887 --> 00:45:37.429
it was hard to get people to see

00:45:37.469 --> 00:45:37.829
stuff.

00:45:37.889 --> 00:45:38.309
And, you know,

00:45:38.329 --> 00:45:40.431
and Diamond always had that limit of,

00:45:40.471 --> 00:45:41.231
you know, well, you're going to,

00:45:41.251 --> 00:45:42.612
we have to think you're going to sell

00:45:42.952 --> 00:45:44.713
so many copies before we're going to take

00:45:44.733 --> 00:45:44.853
you.

00:45:46.514 --> 00:45:48.416
Yeah.

00:45:48.456 --> 00:45:50.438
So what is the one lesson you've learned

00:45:50.478 --> 00:45:53.139
the hard way that you wish new creators

00:45:53.239 --> 00:45:54.940
understood before launching their first

00:45:54.981 --> 00:45:55.621
crowd funder?

00:45:57.398 --> 00:46:00.599
Have the book finished.

00:46:00.619 --> 00:46:02.581
That's one that I hear so often.

00:46:03.481 --> 00:46:05.583
I understand both sides of that.

00:46:05.822 --> 00:46:08.244
I understand some people aren't going to

00:46:08.284 --> 00:46:09.485
be able to make the book they want

00:46:09.525 --> 00:46:12.186
to make without launching first.

00:46:13.626 --> 00:46:15.869
There's the other side that believes the

00:46:15.949 --> 00:46:17.650
book has to be finished and then you

00:46:17.670 --> 00:46:18.130
launch.

00:46:19.150 --> 00:46:21.632
I can see both sides of that line.

00:46:22.972 --> 00:46:25.713
I've supported comics on both sides of

00:46:25.733 --> 00:46:26.315
that line.

00:46:27.355 --> 00:46:28.416
And it really just depends.

00:46:28.516 --> 00:46:31.476
You can tell the person who is,

00:46:33.057 --> 00:46:33.338
you know,

00:46:33.599 --> 00:46:35.159
working on getting the book finished and

00:46:35.179 --> 00:46:36.780
the only way the book is getting finished

00:46:36.900 --> 00:46:38.561
is if they crowdfunded to get it

00:46:38.621 --> 00:46:39.081
completed.

00:46:40.293 --> 00:46:42.054
And you can tell the ones who are

00:46:42.193 --> 00:46:44.655
driven to get that done.

00:46:45.317 --> 00:46:48.139
And they go above and beyond what they

00:46:48.139 --> 00:46:50.760
– most people would even dream of to

00:46:50.820 --> 00:46:52.742
make that dream come true for themselves.

00:46:53.503 --> 00:46:55.864
And I always love seeing it because

00:46:55.905 --> 00:46:59.367
they're so passionate about the book and

00:46:59.407 --> 00:47:01.329
about the story they're trying to tell.

00:47:01.389 --> 00:47:03.050
And they're so passionate about getting it

00:47:03.190 --> 00:47:03.710
funded.

00:47:04.351 --> 00:47:06.052
And I love having people like that on

00:47:06.092 --> 00:47:08.755
the podcast because it –

00:47:08.273 --> 00:47:09.474
It makes you feel a certain kind of

00:47:09.494 --> 00:47:12.938
way, right?

00:47:12.978 --> 00:47:13.217
Oh, yeah.

00:47:13.237 --> 00:47:13.438
Definitely.

00:47:13.458 --> 00:47:15.079
I've seen the opposite of that as well,

00:47:15.139 --> 00:47:16.360
where it's like,

00:47:16.541 --> 00:47:17.922
I would never do it this way.

00:47:18.041 --> 00:47:19.282
I'm like, hey, I get that.

00:47:19.322 --> 00:47:22.525
But some people don't have the money to

00:47:22.585 --> 00:47:23.126
make that kind of money.

00:47:23.146 --> 00:47:25.007
Oh, definitely.

00:47:25.088 --> 00:47:26.628
Everybody has to do it the way that

00:47:26.668 --> 00:47:27.610
works best for them.

00:47:28.369 --> 00:47:29.650
Because like you said,

00:47:29.710 --> 00:47:32.614
some people don't have that money to pay

00:47:32.634 --> 00:47:33.815
the artist or whatever.

00:47:33.835 --> 00:47:36.277
Yeah, spendable income is hard to come by.

00:47:37.190 --> 00:47:40.012
Oh, yes, definitely.

00:47:40.512 --> 00:47:41.673
To get Akimi done,

00:47:42.114 --> 00:47:43.155
I've used a credit card,

00:47:43.195 --> 00:47:44.695
and I'm hoping I make enough money that

00:47:44.715 --> 00:47:45.637
I can pay this back.

00:47:45.717 --> 00:47:50.360
I hear you.

00:47:50.460 --> 00:47:52.543
How do you personally measure success at

00:47:52.603 --> 00:47:55.965
this stage of your creator career?

00:47:56.987 --> 00:47:57.686
You're retired.

00:47:58.588 --> 00:48:02.471
How are you measuring success these days

00:48:02.490 --> 00:48:05.534
when it comes to creating comic books?

00:48:08.782 --> 00:48:10.644
To me, it's, you know,

00:48:11.324 --> 00:48:12.606
as long as I'm enjoying it,

00:48:13.206 --> 00:48:14.367
I feel like I'm successful.

00:48:14.387 --> 00:48:16.309
As long as I keep liking what I'm

00:48:16.349 --> 00:48:19.052
doing, I would like to, you know,

00:48:19.092 --> 00:48:21.954
my goal is, you know,

00:48:21.994 --> 00:48:23.335
I would like to be able to at

00:48:23.394 --> 00:48:25.217
least pay for what I'm doing.

00:48:25.556 --> 00:48:25.998
You know,

00:48:26.137 --> 00:48:27.579
if I can make enough money to pay

00:48:27.599 --> 00:48:30.460
for my next comic, then I'll be happy.

00:48:30.501 --> 00:48:30.922
You know, yeah,

00:48:31.222 --> 00:48:32.822
I have bigger goals that I'd like to,

00:48:32.963 --> 00:48:34.445
you know, maybe, you know,

00:48:34.505 --> 00:48:36.585
be able to make it, you know,

00:48:37.458 --> 00:48:39.659
a better living through my comics,

00:48:39.780 --> 00:48:42.443
but I've been doing this long enough that

00:48:42.503 --> 00:48:44.224
I know, well, that may never happen.

00:48:44.445 --> 00:48:47.108
You know, you hear the stories of,

00:48:47.188 --> 00:48:48.349
you know, the, you know,

00:48:48.429 --> 00:48:50.490
Robert Kirkman's and the, you know,

00:48:50.692 --> 00:48:52.614
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird,

00:48:53.034 --> 00:48:56.016
but there's a hundred more people for

00:48:56.056 --> 00:48:58.259
every one of those guys that, you know,

00:48:59.565 --> 00:49:01.347
They may keep struggling to put their

00:49:01.387 --> 00:49:01.907
books out,

00:49:01.967 --> 00:49:04.208
but that's going to be their life.

00:49:05.369 --> 00:49:07.692
I keep working to put the books out.

00:49:08.072 --> 00:49:11.173
As long as I enjoy it and have

00:49:11.233 --> 00:49:13.175
fun doing it, to me,

00:49:13.195 --> 00:49:14.396
that's success right now.

00:49:14.436 --> 00:49:15.777
As long as I don't keep losing too

00:49:15.797 --> 00:49:20.059
much money doing it.

00:49:20.360 --> 00:49:20.800
Right now,

00:49:20.840 --> 00:49:22.501
conventions have probably been my best

00:49:22.702 --> 00:49:24.682
where I do most of my selling.

00:49:26.443 --> 00:49:26.965
Usually, I do

00:49:28.018 --> 00:49:28.878
Quite a few conventions.

00:49:28.918 --> 00:49:30.418
I try to do at least one convention

00:49:30.458 --> 00:49:31.438
a month, if not more.

00:49:33.360 --> 00:49:34.300
That's not bad at all.

00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:35.981
At least you're not out there trying to

00:49:36.021 --> 00:49:37.661
hit four or five in a month.

00:49:37.702 --> 00:49:39.443
It's just like, you're doing how many?

00:49:39.463 --> 00:49:44.485
I'm excited whenever I see creators

00:49:44.545 --> 00:49:47.085
dropping their con schedules.

00:49:47.106 --> 00:49:49.507
It's one of my favorite things to see

00:49:49.527 --> 00:49:50.588
if they're going to be close to me.

00:49:50.628 --> 00:49:53.668
There's a few signatures out there that I

00:49:53.708 --> 00:49:55.610
still haven't got yet that I really want.

00:49:57.248 --> 00:49:58.947
And a lot of them are from people

00:49:59.048 --> 00:49:59.728
overseas.

00:49:59.748 --> 00:50:03.650
And there's one Korean artist who I was

00:50:03.710 --> 00:50:04.750
hoping I was going to be able to

00:50:04.769 --> 00:50:07.351
get a signature from last year at a

00:50:07.391 --> 00:50:08.371
local convention.

00:50:08.911 --> 00:50:09.670
But they were like, oh,

00:50:09.710 --> 00:50:10.811
I'm not going to show up until,

00:50:11.231 --> 00:50:12.152
you know, one p.m.

00:50:12.172 --> 00:50:14.333
because I'll be in my room doing

00:50:14.373 --> 00:50:15.072
commissions.

00:50:16.172 --> 00:50:16.713
Like, dude,

00:50:17.434 --> 00:50:18.574
I'm trying to get out of here by

00:50:18.634 --> 00:50:19.353
lunchtime.

00:50:19.414 --> 00:50:20.534
Yeah.

00:50:20.574 --> 00:50:21.755
So I was able to get all the

00:50:21.894 --> 00:50:23.454
others that I had planned on.

00:50:23.554 --> 00:50:25.036
And plus one that I didn't even know

00:50:25.076 --> 00:50:25.956
was going to be there.

00:50:26.976 --> 00:50:27.518
But I was just like,

00:50:27.597 --> 00:50:29.099
I'm not sticking around that long for your

00:50:29.139 --> 00:50:30.382
signatures for you to be able to.

00:50:30.442 --> 00:50:31.143
I mean, I get it.

00:50:31.483 --> 00:50:32.724
You make most of your money off of

00:50:32.744 --> 00:50:33.365
commissions.

00:50:34.606 --> 00:50:36.190
I completely understand that.

00:50:36.789 --> 00:50:37.391
Like, dude,

00:50:37.411 --> 00:50:38.913
I just wanted a damn signature on a

00:50:38.972 --> 00:50:41.297
comic book.

00:50:41.317 --> 00:50:42.978
Something is killing the children book,

00:50:43.159 --> 00:50:43.519
actually.

00:50:44.181 --> 00:50:46.461
yeah it was just it was a virgin

00:50:46.501 --> 00:50:48.143
print of one of his covers that he

00:50:48.182 --> 00:50:50.945
did and i was just like i really

00:50:50.965 --> 00:50:54.427
wanted that sign like yeah like the whole

00:50:54.467 --> 00:50:56.188
day i was like protecting this book and

00:50:56.268 --> 00:50:58.389
hoping you know to get this thing signed

00:50:59.128 --> 00:51:00.809
and then it just didn't happen because he

00:51:00.829 --> 00:51:02.010
was like oh i'm in my room till

00:51:02.030 --> 00:51:04.172
like one or two o'clock and then i'll

00:51:04.271 --> 00:51:05.893
only be on the floor from like this

00:51:05.932 --> 00:51:07.153
time to this time i'm like

00:51:08.489 --> 00:51:09.510
David, what the hell?

00:51:10.010 --> 00:51:11.452
And I understand as well.

00:51:12.052 --> 00:51:12.554
I get it.

00:51:13.014 --> 00:51:15.356
So now I'm watching his convention

00:51:15.376 --> 00:51:16.396
schedule going, okay,

00:51:16.458 --> 00:51:18.199
where is he going to be close to

00:51:18.259 --> 00:51:20.661
me or close to a friend of mine

00:51:20.681 --> 00:51:22.282
to where I can send them the book?

00:51:22.302 --> 00:51:23.264
Like, hey,

00:51:24.744 --> 00:51:25.806
I need you to do me a favor.

00:51:25.826 --> 00:51:26.646
I will pay your way.

00:51:26.686 --> 00:51:27.487
I will do whatever.

00:51:27.907 --> 00:51:29.250
But can you go get this signed for

00:51:29.289 --> 00:51:30.471
me by this one guy?

00:51:30.490 --> 00:51:31.452
Yeah, boom.

00:51:32.641 --> 00:51:33.905
But no,

00:51:34.226 --> 00:51:35.188
it's cool that you get to do at

00:51:35.208 --> 00:51:36.170
least one a month.

00:51:36.190 --> 00:51:36.911
That's pretty good.

00:51:37.795 --> 00:51:38.976
The area I live in,

00:51:39.057 --> 00:51:40.320
that would not be possible because there's

00:51:40.340 --> 00:51:40.822
just not that

00:51:42.925 --> 00:51:44.487
Well,

00:51:44.567 --> 00:51:47.028
I'm in Louisiana and surprisingly there's

00:51:47.068 --> 00:51:48.871
a lot of local conventions,

00:51:48.931 --> 00:51:50.813
but I've kind of moved off of the

00:51:50.853 --> 00:51:54.576
local conventions because I just did so

00:51:54.615 --> 00:51:56.338
many of them and people were like,

00:51:56.577 --> 00:51:57.018
I already,

00:51:57.177 --> 00:51:58.699
anybody that was interested in my work,

00:51:58.739 --> 00:51:59.940
most of them had already bought it.

00:51:59.960 --> 00:52:01.021
Yeah.

00:52:01.061 --> 00:52:02.623
So I'm trying to move,

00:52:02.663 --> 00:52:04.844
like I'm doing in Texas, Tennessee,

00:52:04.905 --> 00:52:06.726
Florida, Georgia, anywhere.

00:52:06.766 --> 00:52:07.887
I didn't see you say that.

00:52:09.456 --> 00:52:11.938
no no further than about you know eight

00:52:11.980 --> 00:52:14.822
hours yeah usually six to eight hours now

00:52:15.402 --> 00:52:17.204
two years ago i did do heroes con

00:52:17.244 --> 00:52:18.826
and that was like a nineteen hour drive

00:52:18.865 --> 00:52:20.166
but that was a special you know that

00:52:20.186 --> 00:52:23.291
was you know heroes yeah yeah i'm not

00:52:23.311 --> 00:52:25.251
gonna do that for like you know a

00:52:25.271 --> 00:52:27.373
lot of a lot of uh just local

00:52:27.414 --> 00:52:29.677
conventions you know but uh so i've got

00:52:29.717 --> 00:52:31.097
a you know we've got a a good

00:52:31.137 --> 00:52:31.338
bit

00:52:32.818 --> 00:52:34.480
set up for, like I said, for Texas,

00:52:34.500 --> 00:52:35.181
Tennessee.

00:52:36.141 --> 00:52:37.621
I think I've got Georgia and Florida

00:52:37.661 --> 00:52:38.041
coming.

00:52:38.601 --> 00:52:40.103
We do a few local conventions.

00:52:40.382 --> 00:52:42.304
One of the best places I do conventions

00:52:42.344 --> 00:52:43.965
now are library conventions.

00:52:44.164 --> 00:52:44.985
LibraryCon?

00:52:46.626 --> 00:52:48.507
I got invited to do

00:52:49.807 --> 00:52:51.489
one of those last year.

00:52:53.289 --> 00:52:54.471
The timing wasn't there.

00:52:54.550 --> 00:52:58.152
I had an interview scheduled for that day

00:52:58.273 --> 00:52:58.733
as well.

00:52:59.612 --> 00:53:01.153
I'm not going to cancel this for this.

00:53:01.213 --> 00:53:02.514
If you let me know ahead of time

00:53:02.594 --> 00:53:03.195
next year,

00:53:03.856 --> 00:53:06.717
I will more than happily do it.

00:53:06.737 --> 00:53:09.119
I think I did better at LibraryCons than

00:53:09.278 --> 00:53:10.318
any other convention.

00:53:11.800 --> 00:53:14.260
There was a social media portion of it.

00:53:14.581 --> 00:53:16.382
I was going to come in live stream

00:53:16.402 --> 00:53:18.003
and talk to people and do that kind

00:53:18.043 --> 00:53:18.403
of stuff.

00:53:19.204 --> 00:53:20.905
But that's like an entire day.

00:53:21.585 --> 00:53:23.324
And I would still have to have somebody

00:53:23.425 --> 00:53:24.405
to do the filming.

00:53:25.106 --> 00:53:25.766
And at the time,

00:53:25.786 --> 00:53:27.246
my daughter was away at college.

00:53:27.847 --> 00:53:29.226
I had an interview scheduled for that

00:53:29.286 --> 00:53:30.367
morning with a friend of mine in the

00:53:30.487 --> 00:53:31.007
UK.

00:53:31.568 --> 00:53:32.047
And I was just like,

00:53:32.168 --> 00:53:33.728
I'm not going to do that for this.

00:53:33.788 --> 00:53:36.248
If you tell me months ahead of time,

00:53:36.688 --> 00:53:37.849
a hundred percent, I'm there.

00:53:37.929 --> 00:53:38.610
Count me in.

00:53:39.289 --> 00:53:40.971
I will bring some books for the kids.

00:53:41.010 --> 00:53:41.751
I will do all that.

00:53:43.047 --> 00:53:43.128
Yeah,

00:53:43.148 --> 00:53:45.210
I do at least there's probably about

00:53:45.349 --> 00:53:45.969
three,

00:53:46.409 --> 00:53:48.612
maybe four library cons that I'll go,

00:53:48.751 --> 00:53:50.833
you know, through the different parishes,

00:53:50.992 --> 00:53:52.594
you know, around New Orleans.

00:53:53.655 --> 00:53:55.516
So you're down in southern Louisiana.

00:53:56.317 --> 00:53:56.597
Yeah.

00:53:56.936 --> 00:53:57.237
Yeah.

00:53:57.257 --> 00:53:58.418
We're parish, not county.

00:53:58.438 --> 00:54:00.300
So people that, you know,

00:54:00.320 --> 00:54:03.280
I know I lived in northern Louisiana.

00:54:04.041 --> 00:54:04.362
OK.

00:54:04.382 --> 00:54:05.163
For a couple of years.

00:54:05.202 --> 00:54:05.483
Yeah.

00:54:08.193 --> 00:54:11.096
There's a convention in Shreveport that

00:54:11.135 --> 00:54:12.117
I've done a few years.

00:54:15.039 --> 00:54:16.201
I never went to it when I was

00:54:16.221 --> 00:54:16.400
there.

00:54:17.581 --> 00:54:20.704
Honestly, I got there, started my job,

00:54:20.744 --> 00:54:21.925
and I was like, I'm retiring.

00:54:21.945 --> 00:54:24.809
I spent the rest of my time trying

00:54:24.829 --> 00:54:26.550
to retire and do what I needed to

00:54:26.590 --> 00:54:27.231
do to move on.

00:54:28.512 --> 00:54:30.454
Nothing against it, but when it's like

00:54:31.853 --> 00:54:32.594
What year was it?

00:54:32.634 --> 00:54:33.474
Twenty twenty one.

00:54:33.815 --> 00:54:34.335
Twenty twenty.

00:54:34.394 --> 00:54:35.175
Twenty twenty one.

00:54:35.235 --> 00:54:36.096
Coming out of covid.

00:54:36.856 --> 00:54:39.157
Shreveport got hit by a hurricane.

00:54:41.197 --> 00:54:42.278
An ice storm.

00:54:43.440 --> 00:54:44.659
And then a week later,

00:54:45.521 --> 00:54:46.380
I think it was like one hundred and

00:54:46.420 --> 00:54:47.061
ten in the shade.

00:54:47.882 --> 00:54:48.822
Wow.

00:54:48.942 --> 00:54:52.043
I was like, I'm done with this shit.

00:54:52.063 --> 00:54:54.324
The convention was in downtown Shreveport.

00:54:54.405 --> 00:54:55.804
And I've been there a couple of years.

00:54:56.505 --> 00:54:58.827
And downtown Shreveport is tough.

00:55:00.438 --> 00:55:02.739
slowest i mean it's like it's almost like

00:55:02.760 --> 00:55:04.780
a ghost it's like a slow yeah it's

00:55:04.800 --> 00:55:06.161
like a ghost town down there but it's

00:55:06.181 --> 00:55:08.222
yeah it looks amazing though with all the

00:55:08.422 --> 00:55:11.262
art and stuff like that it but it

00:55:11.282 --> 00:55:13.143
does feel like the slowest ghost town in

00:55:13.163 --> 00:55:15.563
the world looking out like you know on

00:55:15.583 --> 00:55:17.724
the streets and stuff and and you know

00:55:17.784 --> 00:55:19.925
it's not seeing that many people walking

00:55:19.945 --> 00:55:22.626
around and going this is just a weird

00:55:22.686 --> 00:55:24.847
you know i mean yeah i know most

00:55:24.927 --> 00:55:26.768
of the people that live there too yeah

00:55:28.103 --> 00:55:29.583
there's a lot of people that live in

00:55:29.623 --> 00:55:30.304
that area,

00:55:30.985 --> 00:55:33.025
but it's just wild to go downtown on

00:55:33.045 --> 00:55:35.947
a Saturday and you can find parking and

00:55:35.967 --> 00:55:37.469
you can get into places and get what

00:55:37.489 --> 00:55:38.849
you need to do done.

00:55:38.889 --> 00:55:39.831
And it's just wild.

00:55:39.851 --> 00:55:42.751
Yeah.

00:55:42.791 --> 00:55:45.054
But let's hit up this lightning round

00:55:45.094 --> 00:55:46.974
before we call it a good evening.

00:55:47.514 --> 00:55:49.697
So can you give us a Kimi in

00:55:49.757 --> 00:55:53.818
three words?

00:55:54.460 --> 00:55:54.539
Um,

00:55:56.164 --> 00:55:56.925
Oh, that's tough.

00:55:57.005 --> 00:56:01.527
I'm terrible about log lines or the

00:56:01.568 --> 00:56:02.407
elevator pitch.

00:56:12.173 --> 00:56:13.375
I guess it's not much of a lightning

00:56:13.454 --> 00:56:13.896
round right now.

00:56:14.235 --> 00:56:17.637
Hey, it's all good.

00:56:17.737 --> 00:56:18.097
I mean,

00:56:18.177 --> 00:56:20.360
you gave me your elevator pitch earlier,

00:56:20.400 --> 00:56:21.159
so it's all good.

00:56:21.760 --> 00:56:23.842
What's your favorite genre to write?

00:56:25.708 --> 00:56:25.748
Oh,

00:56:27.648 --> 00:56:28.568
I really don't have one.

00:56:28.648 --> 00:56:29.088
Like I said,

00:56:29.108 --> 00:56:31.210
I write an all over the place.

00:56:31.269 --> 00:56:32.789
I write horror, science fiction.

00:56:32.889 --> 00:56:34.150
I've got slice of life.

00:56:35.030 --> 00:56:38.032
It just, it depends on the, you know,

00:56:38.092 --> 00:56:39.393
lately I've been writing a little more

00:56:39.432 --> 00:56:41.114
horror, I think, but that,

00:56:41.153 --> 00:56:41.733
that would change.

00:56:41.753 --> 00:56:42.193
Like a team.

00:56:42.213 --> 00:56:43.835
He's just got a little bit of horror

00:56:43.855 --> 00:56:45.034
in it, but not a lot.

00:56:45.155 --> 00:56:45.775
It's, you know,

00:56:46.795 --> 00:56:49.577
so I really can't pinpoint one genre.

00:56:49.597 --> 00:56:51.617
And I think some ways that might've hurt

00:56:51.657 --> 00:56:54.199
me because sometimes I think maybe I

00:56:54.239 --> 00:56:55.880
should have just stuck with one book.

00:56:58.380 --> 00:56:58.780
By now,

00:56:58.840 --> 00:57:00.382
I might have had like five hundred issues

00:57:00.442 --> 00:57:01.242
of it out.

00:57:02.163 --> 00:57:02.663
Possibly.

00:57:03.963 --> 00:57:06.644
It's one of those where you play what

00:57:06.704 --> 00:57:08.266
if in your head and you're like,

00:57:08.885 --> 00:57:09.545
what might have been.

00:57:11.427 --> 00:57:14.648
What is one Diebold comic more people

00:57:14.748 --> 00:57:15.789
should be talking about?

00:57:16.789 --> 00:57:17.650
A Girl and Her Dog.

00:57:18.811 --> 00:57:19.452
Perfect.

00:57:19.771 --> 00:57:20.351
I like it.

00:57:20.371 --> 00:57:21.233
I thought that was going to be a

00:57:21.333 --> 00:57:21.992
really big hit.

00:57:22.052 --> 00:57:22.833
Tony Isabella,

00:57:22.853 --> 00:57:24.614
I don't know if you're familiar with Tony

00:57:24.653 --> 00:57:25.074
Isabella.

00:57:26.233 --> 00:57:27.474
He created Black Lightning.

00:57:27.815 --> 00:57:30.175
He said when the year that A Girl

00:57:30.215 --> 00:57:31.096
and Her Doll came out,

00:57:31.155 --> 00:57:32.815
he called that one of the best comics

00:57:33.436 --> 00:57:34.697
of anybody of that year.

00:57:34.757 --> 00:57:35.317
Big words.

00:57:35.976 --> 00:57:37.697
Big words and hot praise right there.

00:57:38.177 --> 00:57:40.297
Yeah, and that book was always great.

00:57:40.398 --> 00:57:41.679
That would be in a frame.

00:57:42.559 --> 00:57:44.021
Right.

00:57:44.041 --> 00:57:44.121
Yeah.

00:57:44.141 --> 00:57:45.860
And that was that book just meant a

00:57:45.880 --> 00:57:46.081
lot.

00:57:46.161 --> 00:57:46.360
I mean,

00:57:46.400 --> 00:57:48.001
it's just kind of a slice of life.

00:57:48.501 --> 00:57:50.043
It's just about a girl and her dog.

00:57:50.103 --> 00:57:51.643
And it just it really, you know,

00:57:51.983 --> 00:57:52.664
when I wrote it,

00:57:52.684 --> 00:57:53.724
it meant a lot to me.

00:57:53.884 --> 00:57:55.585
And it just it's still I thought it

00:57:55.605 --> 00:57:57.605
was going to be one of those books

00:57:57.644 --> 00:57:59.565
that, you know, could cross over.

00:57:59.666 --> 00:58:01.726
And it just it never it's sale.

00:58:01.827 --> 00:58:02.266
All right.

00:58:02.327 --> 00:58:04.307
But we're taking off like I thought it

00:58:04.347 --> 00:58:06.387
was going to.

00:58:06.487 --> 00:58:06.967
Perfect.

00:58:07.208 --> 00:58:08.329
Digital or print?

00:58:10.284 --> 00:58:12.184
Personally, I like print, you know,

00:58:12.425 --> 00:58:14.005
but I think I need to get more

00:58:14.065 --> 00:58:16.626
into digital because digital, you know,

00:58:16.806 --> 00:58:17.867
I don't think it's going to take over

00:58:17.907 --> 00:58:18.226
print.

00:58:18.306 --> 00:58:18.467
You know,

00:58:18.487 --> 00:58:20.248
I don't think it's going to become because

00:58:20.288 --> 00:58:22.248
there's something about a book in your

00:58:22.288 --> 00:58:22.728
hand.

00:58:23.068 --> 00:58:23.728
Exactly.

00:58:23.788 --> 00:58:26.449
The smell as you turn the page,

00:58:26.469 --> 00:58:27.969
the noise, the page mates.

00:58:28.929 --> 00:58:29.929
It's the best thing ever.

00:58:30.090 --> 00:58:32.710
And I don't know if you've heard of

00:58:32.731 --> 00:58:34.811
a bad idea comments.

00:58:34.831 --> 00:58:37.012
They print on that like newspaper paper.

00:58:38.643 --> 00:58:41.264
It makes this amazing sound.

00:58:41.284 --> 00:58:42.887
They have a lot of really good titles

00:58:42.947 --> 00:58:43.347
right now.

00:58:45.007 --> 00:58:46.809
I noticed them late last year,

00:58:47.429 --> 00:58:49.070
and I've been picking up their titles ever

00:58:49.150 --> 00:58:49.590
since.

00:58:50.351 --> 00:58:51.373
They're doing Cul-de-sac.

00:58:51.492 --> 00:58:52.554
If there's a wind book you need to

00:58:52.594 --> 00:58:54.954
check out, check out Cul-de-sac.

00:58:55.315 --> 00:58:58.818
It has been amazing.

00:58:58.878 --> 00:59:00.458
I've heard about it.

00:59:00.539 --> 00:59:02.201
It's like that old school comic book

00:59:02.240 --> 00:59:03.382
paper, almost like newspaper.

00:59:04.177 --> 00:59:06.619
yeah it just makes that one particular

00:59:06.679 --> 00:59:09.161
sound you know it's very unique to itself

00:59:09.222 --> 00:59:11.083
and i just love it and the books

00:59:11.123 --> 00:59:12.884
have just been like i said they haven't

00:59:12.923 --> 00:59:16.106
made a bad book yet so them and

00:59:16.146 --> 00:59:17.788
mad cave and a few others have just

00:59:17.827 --> 00:59:20.130
been on fire on e-press and ec yeah

00:59:20.150 --> 00:59:23.871
he's doing amazing things over the last

00:59:23.891 --> 00:59:25.672
like eighteen months to two years

00:59:27.074 --> 00:59:28.135
I love seeing it.

00:59:29.335 --> 00:59:30.797
Last one for the lightning round.

00:59:31.297 --> 00:59:36.121
Indie comics need more fill in the blank.

00:59:38.643 --> 00:59:42.905
More exposure, more press,

00:59:45.288 --> 00:59:46.789
more getting the word out to people.

00:59:49.590 --> 00:59:50.532
A hundred percent.

00:59:50.572 --> 00:59:51.972
That's why I do what I do.

00:59:54.740 --> 00:59:55.260
Yeah, yeah.

00:59:56.240 --> 00:59:56.701
It's easy.

00:59:56.760 --> 00:59:58.442
Marvel and DC can get, you know,

00:59:58.842 --> 01:00:00.402
all they got to do is put something

01:00:00.481 --> 01:00:01.742
out and everybody's talking about it.

01:00:01.762 --> 01:00:04.742
But indie comics, it's like, you know,

01:00:04.842 --> 01:00:05.943
it's hard to get the word out.

01:00:06.003 --> 01:00:08.204
Unless you're certain people in the indie

01:00:08.224 --> 01:00:09.583
comic world, you know,

01:00:10.684 --> 01:00:11.724
it's hard to get the word out.

01:00:13.344 --> 01:00:13.684
Again,

01:00:13.804 --> 01:00:15.266
that's why I sit here and do what

01:00:15.326 --> 01:00:15.646
I do.

01:00:15.686 --> 01:00:18.547
That's why I'm willing to sacrifice a lot

01:00:18.608 --> 01:00:19.989
of my free time where I could be

01:00:20.028 --> 01:00:22.231
watching TV or doing something else.

01:00:22.650 --> 01:00:24.371
I would much rather spend that time

01:00:24.913 --> 01:00:26.373
talking to people like you, John,

01:00:27.074 --> 01:00:29.114
and just spreading the love and getting

01:00:29.135 --> 01:00:31.577
your book out to more people.

01:00:31.856 --> 01:00:33.157
This is the best job ever,

01:00:33.197 --> 01:00:35.219
in my opinion.

01:00:36.900 --> 01:00:39.242
People like you doing this is a big

01:00:39.302 --> 01:00:40.403
help because...

01:00:41.376 --> 01:00:43.443
know it gets people people will see this

01:00:43.503 --> 01:00:44.969
and you know hopefully somebody will say

01:00:45.009 --> 01:00:46.733
hey let me try out what a book

01:00:46.753 --> 01:00:46.954
or two

01:00:49.077 --> 01:00:51.518
The way I look at it, it's small.

01:00:52.219 --> 01:00:53.780
You have to win the small battles.

01:00:53.820 --> 01:00:56.121
You have to get that out of a

01:00:56.161 --> 01:00:56.822
hundred people.

01:00:56.882 --> 01:00:58.164
If I get two people to pick up

01:00:58.184 --> 01:01:00.065
the book and read it and like it

01:01:00.224 --> 01:01:02.206
and want to come back, then that's great.

01:01:03.086 --> 01:01:04.487
I'm not going to get that hundred people.

01:01:04.867 --> 01:01:07.449
The odds of a hundred people of a

01:01:07.489 --> 01:01:08.210
group saying, oh,

01:01:08.311 --> 01:01:09.452
we're going to all go to it.

01:01:09.532 --> 01:01:10.952
You just have to keep going.

01:01:10.972 --> 01:01:14.635
You're building it one small step at a

01:01:14.675 --> 01:01:15.016
time.

01:01:17.047 --> 01:01:17.688
A hundred percent.

01:01:17.867 --> 01:01:18.909
A hundred percent.

01:01:19.588 --> 01:01:20.849
And as long as I can keep doing

01:01:20.889 --> 01:01:22.451
this, John,

01:01:22.471 --> 01:01:23.831
you are more than welcome to come back

01:01:23.911 --> 01:01:24.751
anytime you want.

01:01:24.771 --> 01:01:28.532
But before we close it out, John,

01:01:28.632 --> 01:01:31.094
can you tell everybody where they can find

01:01:31.135 --> 01:01:34.635
you, Akimi, and all your other socials?

01:01:35.476 --> 01:01:37.918
I have where, let's see.

01:01:40.108 --> 01:01:43.574
on Substack is pretty much the best place

01:01:43.873 --> 01:01:46.456
because I've kind of consolidated

01:01:46.496 --> 01:01:47.237
everything there.

01:01:47.358 --> 01:01:51.123
It's jholland.substack.com.

01:01:56.556 --> 01:01:58.536
I keep that updated usually weekly.

01:01:58.976 --> 01:02:00.938
Sometimes I'll be on there every day

01:02:01.697 --> 01:02:02.478
dropping stuff.

01:02:03.398 --> 01:02:05.059
I talk about the new stuff coming out.

01:02:05.099 --> 01:02:05.998
I talk about old stuff.

01:02:06.039 --> 01:02:07.539
I talk about creating comics.

01:02:08.800 --> 01:02:11.880
I use that site for everything that I

01:02:11.900 --> 01:02:13.900
want to talk about or write about goes

01:02:13.940 --> 01:02:14.601
on that site.

01:02:16.021 --> 01:02:16.081
The

01:02:18.173 --> 01:02:18.634
Akimi,

01:02:18.673 --> 01:02:21.135
if you just go into fundmycomics.com and

01:02:21.155 --> 01:02:22.215
then just look for Akimi,

01:02:23.215 --> 01:02:23.876
you can find it.

01:02:23.916 --> 01:02:24.655
It'll pop up.

01:02:27.237 --> 01:02:28.797
I'm on every social media site,

01:02:28.858 --> 01:02:30.057
so if you type in my name on

01:02:30.137 --> 01:02:32.759
Facebook or either my name or Diebold

01:02:32.778 --> 01:02:37.001
Comics, I'm on everything.

01:02:37.661 --> 01:02:38.880
I'm pretty easy to find.

01:02:39.601 --> 01:02:40.621
For some reason, on some,

01:02:40.702 --> 01:02:41.541
I'm under my name.

01:02:41.581 --> 01:02:41.762
Some,

01:02:41.822 --> 01:02:43.922
I'm under Diebold Comics because I can't

01:02:43.963 --> 01:02:45.284
remember when I'm doing these things,

01:02:45.304 --> 01:02:46.043
when I set them up.

01:02:48.144 --> 01:02:48.525
So, you know,

01:02:48.565 --> 01:02:50.967
but I'm on Facebook all the time.

01:02:51.007 --> 01:02:52.989
Facebook is probably the site that I,

01:02:53.110 --> 01:02:53.471
you know,

01:02:53.851 --> 01:02:55.413
I've been seeing you everywhere here

01:02:55.452 --> 01:02:56.434
lately.

01:02:56.494 --> 01:02:58.695
If you follow any of the indie comic

01:02:58.755 --> 01:02:59.195
pages,

01:02:59.456 --> 01:03:01.018
I've seen you everywhere here lately.

01:03:01.038 --> 01:03:01.759
So it's been great.

01:03:02.710 --> 01:03:03.112
Yeah.

01:03:03.291 --> 01:03:04.914
Instagram, I'm getting Instagram.

01:03:04.954 --> 01:03:06.114
I've always had an account,

01:03:06.416 --> 01:03:08.338
but I've never been very big on it.

01:03:08.378 --> 01:03:09.599
But I've been doing a lot more on

01:03:09.659 --> 01:03:11.481
Instagram because I've heard Instagram is

01:03:11.621 --> 01:03:13.905
a really good site to be on.

01:03:13.985 --> 01:03:15.786
I'm finally getting Instagram to work for

01:03:15.847 --> 01:03:15.987
me.

01:03:16.047 --> 01:03:16.887
So thankfully,

01:03:17.409 --> 01:03:19.010
I finally I think I've found something

01:03:19.030 --> 01:03:20.371
that kind of works for me and.

01:03:21.032 --> 01:03:22.414
here lately i've been doing pretty good

01:03:22.454 --> 01:03:24.355
over there so shout out to all those

01:03:24.375 --> 01:03:26.815
guys who who are following me over there

01:03:27.396 --> 01:03:30.036
because it's amazing every time i log in

01:03:30.436 --> 01:03:32.458
and get online i got more followers and

01:03:33.579 --> 01:03:35.159
it feels like it's been like this long

01:03:35.780 --> 01:03:38.900
uphill journey that's finally working so

01:03:39.222 --> 01:03:41.121
it just feels really good to finally have

01:03:41.181 --> 01:03:42.083
stuff working for you

01:03:43.373 --> 01:03:43.773
Yeah.

01:03:43.813 --> 01:03:44.333
So, yeah.

01:03:44.353 --> 01:03:45.893
So, you know, so I'm on like,

01:03:45.914 --> 01:03:48.014
you know, if I post something on Facebook,

01:03:48.074 --> 01:03:49.695
especially if it's anything for like one

01:03:49.715 --> 01:03:50.735
of my books or something,

01:03:51.195 --> 01:03:52.777
I try to hit like all the sites,

01:03:53.056 --> 01:03:54.577
you know, you're going to see, you know,

01:03:54.597 --> 01:03:56.418
you're going to see it on Twitter and

01:03:56.518 --> 01:03:58.099
blue sky and threads.

01:03:58.759 --> 01:04:01.360
That's how I do it actually is I

01:04:01.380 --> 01:04:05.141
have pre-written stuff and like a new,

01:04:05.541 --> 01:04:06.123
new drop.

01:04:06.623 --> 01:04:07.882
I start, you know,

01:04:07.902 --> 01:04:10.384
right to left and I just go one

01:04:10.403 --> 01:04:11.864
by one by one by one.

01:04:14.692 --> 01:04:15.733
All at one time.

01:04:16.233 --> 01:04:17.155
And then I'm like, okay.

01:04:18.396 --> 01:04:19.898
And finally, you know, like I said,

01:04:20.177 --> 01:04:21.579
everything's starting to fall into place

01:04:21.639 --> 01:04:21.760
now.

01:04:21.780 --> 01:04:23.782
And it's been amazing interacting with a

01:04:23.822 --> 01:04:25.804
lot of people and getting to know a

01:04:25.844 --> 01:04:27.684
lot of people.

01:04:28.746 --> 01:04:31.268
The only site that I'm not on really

01:04:32.190 --> 01:04:35.333
that I've heard is that I need to

01:04:35.373 --> 01:04:35.893
be on is TikTok.

01:04:35.914 --> 01:04:36.153
TikTok.

01:04:37.405 --> 01:04:40.206
I've heard TikTok has a pretty good-sized

01:04:40.248 --> 01:04:43.789
comic community, but I'm not a video guy.

01:04:43.829 --> 01:04:45.692
I'm not going to make videos.

01:04:46.271 --> 01:04:47.813
One, I don't like myself.

01:04:47.914 --> 01:04:49.335
I don't like my voice.

01:04:49.375 --> 01:04:50.815
I don't like being on video.

01:04:51.916 --> 01:04:53.677
It took me a while even to do

01:04:53.737 --> 01:04:56.059
podcasts because I was like,

01:04:56.099 --> 01:04:57.661
I don't want to be there.

01:04:57.762 --> 01:05:00.384
It is one of those days where it

01:05:00.403 --> 01:05:02.606
takes you a few minutes to kind of

01:05:03.824 --> 01:05:05.085
like I'm looking at myself,

01:05:05.125 --> 01:05:06.445
I'm listening to myself.

01:05:06.565 --> 01:05:08.166
And it's just one of those where,

01:05:08.188 --> 01:05:09.307
I mean,

01:05:09.327 --> 01:05:11.030
I've been doing it now for a,

01:05:11.070 --> 01:05:11.929
you know, a little bit.

01:05:12.070 --> 01:05:12.510
So for me,

01:05:12.550 --> 01:05:14.012
it's just kind of like a second nature

01:05:14.052 --> 01:05:15.172
now, but in the beginning,

01:05:15.733 --> 01:05:17.693
especially when I would go back and listen

01:05:17.715 --> 01:05:19.815
to myself later, I'd be like, God,

01:05:20.496 --> 01:05:21.016
now it's like,

01:05:21.036 --> 01:05:22.318
I listened to myself and I'm like,

01:05:23.137 --> 01:05:23.559
you know what?

01:05:23.579 --> 01:05:24.478
I'm not that bad.

01:05:26.221 --> 01:05:26.780
I'm learning.

01:05:26.860 --> 01:05:28.282
I can do the podcast now,

01:05:28.342 --> 01:05:31.063
but I just, you know, I don't know.

01:05:31.083 --> 01:05:31.804
Tick tock.

01:05:34.021 --> 01:05:35.023
It's a weird site.

01:05:35.664 --> 01:05:38.146
I've heard that there's a pretty big comic

01:05:38.465 --> 01:05:39.987
book community on TikTok.

01:05:41.547 --> 01:05:43.389
It's one of those where eventually one day

01:05:43.429 --> 01:05:45.550
I'm going to create an account for the

01:05:45.570 --> 01:05:47.833
podcast and just post clips and shorts on

01:05:47.873 --> 01:05:48.112
there.

01:05:49.233 --> 01:05:53.818
Right now, I'm just literally just...

01:05:55.088 --> 01:05:56.469
I know there's a certain point I want

01:05:56.489 --> 01:05:58.634
to get myself to before I go down

01:05:58.653 --> 01:05:59.134
that road,

01:05:59.215 --> 01:06:01.878
and I'm almost to that point now.

01:06:02.039 --> 01:06:03.601
There's a number in my head that I

01:06:03.621 --> 01:06:05.405
want to reach before I do it,

01:06:06.025 --> 01:06:07.989
and I'm getting closer to that number now.

01:06:09.443 --> 01:06:11.646
Once I hit that number I'm looking for,

01:06:12.106 --> 01:06:13.427
that's when I'll probably go, okay,

01:06:14.248 --> 01:06:15.909
I've got that number where I want it

01:06:15.929 --> 01:06:17.050
across my platforms.

01:06:17.110 --> 01:06:19.893
Let me venture with this now because

01:06:20.074 --> 01:06:21.474
otherwise I feel like I'm just taking too

01:06:21.494 --> 01:06:23.257
much at one time and I don't want

01:06:23.277 --> 01:06:23.996
to do that.

01:06:24.117 --> 01:06:24.378
Yeah.

01:06:26.360 --> 01:06:26.800
But, John,

01:06:26.840 --> 01:06:28.222
I want to say thank you for joining

01:06:28.302 --> 01:06:29.762
us tonight and giving us the opportunity

01:06:29.782 --> 01:06:33.045
to talk about both Akimi and your upcoming

01:06:33.606 --> 01:06:35.327
Zoop, you know,

01:06:35.347 --> 01:06:36.668
your digital library that you're going to

01:06:36.708 --> 01:06:38.889
be selling here soon.

01:06:42.041 --> 01:06:44.643
It's been amazing hearing about the legacy

01:06:44.684 --> 01:06:47.166
of Diebold because it's truly something

01:06:47.206 --> 01:06:47.887
spectacular.

01:06:48.688 --> 01:06:51.351
And just the passion you have to keep

01:06:51.510 --> 01:06:52.751
Indie Comets alive, man.

01:06:52.992 --> 01:06:54.914
It's infectious, and I love to see it.

01:06:54.934 --> 01:06:55.494
Like I said,

01:06:56.114 --> 01:06:57.617
I've seen you everywhere here lately,

01:06:57.657 --> 01:06:58.518
so keep it going, dude.

01:06:58.538 --> 01:06:58.938
I appreciate it.

01:06:58.958 --> 01:06:59.918
Thank you for having me.

01:06:59.938 --> 01:07:02.842
I've enjoyed it.

01:07:03.789 --> 01:07:06.152
Like I said, you're welcome back anytime.

01:07:06.713 --> 01:07:08.835
But if you believe in creator-owned

01:07:08.896 --> 01:07:10.637
stories, bold ideas,

01:07:10.778 --> 01:07:12.300
and the people willing to build them,

01:07:12.740 --> 01:07:14.623
make sure you support their crowdfunders.

01:07:15.204 --> 01:07:16.385
Follow John's work.

01:07:16.806 --> 01:07:18.449
They will all be down in the description

01:07:18.489 --> 01:07:19.650
below this video.

01:07:20.311 --> 01:07:21.253
And stay connected.

01:07:22.418 --> 01:07:24.039
This has been the Chairman,

01:07:24.780 --> 01:07:27.280
and the Council of Nerds is now adjourned.

01:07:27.961 --> 01:07:30.344
This has been the USDN Podcast,

01:07:30.824 --> 01:07:33.266
where indie comics come to life.

01:07:33.746 --> 01:07:34.786
Y'all be safe out there.