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USDN podcast is run by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds. We strive to bring you the all the latest news and rumors from the World of Nerds and consolidate it right here at USDN. USDN is for the people, by the people and of the people.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
Thank you.
what is up everybody it's the chairman of
the united states department of nerves
where we are for the people by the
people and of the people and tonight we're
taking one more trip to new orleans the
year is the city breathes but it's shallow
breath heavy with sin and smoke the dead
don't rest here and sometimes they don't
rest at all
Tonight,
the United States Department of Nerds is
happy to have Stiles and his lovely wife,
Nicole,
from Lucky Devil Comets on to talk about
the plague.
Issue number one.
Stiles, Nicole, welcome to the show.
How the hell you doing?
Oh, great.
Doing good, man.
Thanks for having us.
Excited to jump into it.
Oh, welcome aboard, man.
I'm happy to have y'all here.
It's a lot of hype.
find the plague and i'm happy to be
a part of it now then let's start
where the curse begins at the moment of
creation how what was your influence for
the plague like what made you go i'm
gonna write a comic book the plague yeah
so i've always wanted to do a comic
um
It's just that, you know, life,
you get busy, your hobbies drop off,
you're trying to make money, you know,
that whole thing.
I've been doing that one for forty three
years.
Yes.
Yeah.
Well aware of that one.
I'm thirty five and I mean,
it's taken me this long,
but finally I got everything together.
I got the idea, the script.
So, like I said,
I've always wanted to do it and I'm
finally kind of in a position where I
can do it.
I love it, dude.
I love to hear.
So what were some of your,
like what comic book kind of influenced
this book and kind of gave you the
idea?
Like,
was there a particular comic book out
there that just heavily influenced you for
this?
yeah um i've had a few people reach
out and say oh cool comic it gives
me like spawn vibes or ghost rider yeah
that's that was my uh my initial vibe
was spawn and being a long time spawn
fan since the nineties i was just like
comics amazing yeah oh yeah most
definitely i matter of fact that's
probably ninety percent of the comic books
i read today are all from image comics
so
There's a lot of interesting stuff going
on over there in the whole indie scene.
They're part of the top three now.
I know they're still heavily indie
influenced,
but they're probably the number three
comic book creator out there right now.
Followed by Boom and Dynamite.
All three absolutely killing it.
We still refer to them as indies, but
Image is easily putting up Marvel money,
maybe DC money, you know?
Yeah, that's true.
And they're still going strong.
I mean,
Spawn is like on its fifth hundredth issue
now.
I don't even know.
No, no.
Three hundred and seventy-something,
I believe, is my last count.
I can tell you the exact number,
but I don't want to look.
I like Spawn.
That's why I know.
I've been collecting Spawn since,
like I said, the nineties.
So...
What inspired this story?
Was it more of a comic influence or
something climatic?
Not quite.
Like the Crow or the Punisher?
Yeah, those are great characters.
I love all those characters.
But like I said,
people have reached out and said it's very
like Spawn, very Ghost Rider.
But actually,
I think the direct influences would be
like Swamp Thing.
Oh, I like that.
Yeah,
hence like the New Orleans swamp setting.
Oh, yeah.
And outside of comics,
I'd say George Orwell's Nineteen
Eighty-Four.
Ooh, good one.
Yeah.
I feel like I've got a lot of
different influences.
Actually, I know.
From what you sent me on the book
over,
it does have some of that Nineteen
Eighty-Four vibes to it.
No, I like that.
Oh, that's a good one.
Yeah, yeah.
I like that one a lot.
So what was the very first image or
idea that stuck in your mind when you
knew you had to make this comic?
Well, when I first got started,
it really just all started with a concept.
I didn't really know what I was doing
or what I was setting out.
I just wanted to create something cool.
And so the original idea for the plague
was completely different.
It was not a supernatural story.
It was more like experiment gone wrong
kind of thing.
And with this one, sorry,
that would have been a really cool concept
to follow as well with this one,
with how you got the lab set in
in the very beginning.
Yeah, well,
that's where it all comes from.
I mean, that was the original idea.
And so I created the original concept for
the character.
And my wife took one look and said,
that looks like Deadpool.
And it was actually,
it's kind of like a cross between the
Toxic Avenger and Deadpool.
Oh, classic.
Jersey's favorite son.
I have an image of the,
this is the original artwork for what the
play was meant to be.
I don't know if you can see that.
It almost looks like the mask with Jim
Carrey a little bit.
And then the Toxic Avenger in the mask
had a baby.
Yeah.
It was very slapstick,
very comedy-oriented.
Story-wise,
I would almost say it's like Ghostbusters
meets Buffy.
It was meant to be very slapstick,
off-the-wall.
Yeah,
that would have definitely been a strange
one to... But it would have worked,
though, I feel.
Sometimes it's those odd combinations that
work.
So that could have worked too.
But I'm glad you're going in the direction
you're going in.
Nicole,
I appreciate you pushing that one along.
Well, she has a great eye for art.
She's a great artist herself.
Whenever she gives me critique,
I take it seriously.
Yeah, she's a fantastic artist.
She actually created the wallpapers,
which will be on our Kickstarter.
Those will be completely for free.
uh but yeah so like i said she's
my critique expert so after i originally
created the plague she told me that you
know i need some tweaks need some changes
so i went back to the drawing board
and i just started playing around seeing
what i could create and then finally i
just kind of slapped the cape on them
which initially i wasn't going in that
direction i wasn't thinking spawn
supernatural yeah but for some reason i
slapped that cape on and just
stood out it was like okay i got
something here no it looks really freaking
good not just because it's like it's the
way this the cape is done the way
it like comes like completely around to
like where it hides some of his face
too yeah that to me is really cool
the way you did the cape so kudos
on that man it's a really
really cool character like you can kind of
see where the influences come from with
him even though he's a very different
character but you can you can see the
subtle influences in him from the other
characters you may have drawn from and i
really really like that about the plague
it's it's a really cool concept and a
really cool character
But got to ask, though,
why New Orleans in twenty thirty?
And what does that set in bring to
the tone of this story?
Yeah, well,
New Orleans was my first choice when it
came to deciding the setting.
And the reason why, like I mentioned,
Swamp Thing, that was one of my biggest.
Yeah, I love New Orleans.
I've never been there,
but it's such an interesting place.
When you can.
Yeah.
make it make your way down there.
It is absolutely beautiful.
Like I would say the fall timeframe when
the leaves start falling down there.
And then do the the carriage ride at
night.
Amazing.
Especially if you like the macabre and
like the ghost story type stuff.
So really fun trip.
Yeah, I'd love to go.
I mean,
I used to be like a cross-border truck
driver.
So I've seen almost every state.
I've just been to Florida recently,
which is where my wife is from.
Okay.
But yeah,
New Orleans is definitely on the bucket
list.
And I figured it'd be good for
inspiration, you know,
to see things up close.
That way I can add it into the
comic.
But in terms of why I chose it,
I thought there's so much you can do
with it.
know it's almost like the environment is
actually like a character itself it is it
can set the mood um it can change
everything like it's this is a very
interesting place you know it's almost
like magical especially that swamp setting
it's like very isolated it's like
primordial uh so yeah that was the reason
why i chose new orleans and the reason
i went with is because well initially i
wanted to do
And that was where I was going with
it.
But it felt so far into the future
that it was not relatable.
Yeah, no, I get that too, yeah.
Either one of those could have worked.
You know what I'm saying?
I mean, if you went far enough out,
because we don't really know,
but twenty thirty is like this nice five
years down the road.
We kind of can see where the world
is going.
And, you know, it almost to be
When you sent it over and I read
it initially, I was like, damn,
this is twenty twenty one all over again.
Yeah, that was part of the inspiration.
I mean,
how quickly things can change and how.
People can change so quickly, it's like.
You might think, you know,
somebody and then when things get real,
it's like their whole attitude,
the whole persona, everything changes.
So no, absolutely.
That was one aspect about like human
psychology I want to add into the story.
which I know you haven't seen the complete
version yet.
You only got the sample version.
Yeah,
I think it's the first twelve pages or
something like that.
And it's really, really, really nice.
Like the art is fantastic.
I don't know who's doing your art on
it, but they are doing a fantastic job.
It looks really good.
And my boy Kelvin here,
he's he's a New Orleans guy, too.
He's from down there.
He's from Louisiana.
So
Shout out to Kelvin.
Speaking of shout outs,
I want to say a quick shout out
to Duke Electric, a fellow Canadian.
That's my fella right there.
I love some Duke Electric, man.
He's such a fun character.
He is a character.
He's got the pink suit.
He's got the new comic Greg coming out,
which seems like a wild ride.
Dude, I've read Greg.
I own Greg.
Greg is a fantastic read.
It's a fantastic ride.
To be fair,
what I've got to read of The Plague,
that is going to be a fantastic ride
as well because it cuts off right when
I know it was about to get really
freaking good.
I'm not even mad because I got to
see the first twelve pages.
Nobody else has got to do that except
for maybe Nicole here.
I was like,
I'm like, well,
I thought I was going to get to
scroll down one more and see what was
about to happen.
I was like, that's it.
I'm like, I'm not even mad, but damn,
I want more.
So I'm not going to lie to anybody.
If you're on the fence about backing this
comic book, don't be.
The art's fantastic.
The story is great.
It feels like you're in a very bad,
in the beginning of it.
And then you get to this beautiful,
swamp of New Orleans and it dude it
I love it I really do um so
tell us how the plague himself evolves
from concept to like this cursed Avenger
that we're going to get I know he
was a security guard and then I know
at some point he's going to become the
plague yeah so Diego
Diaz is his real name.
And in my mind, he's a well-meaning,
simple guy.
I'm just trying to make his way in
the world.
But he's caught up in some nefarious
things.
And he kind of turns a blind eye
to it.
And in the end,
he's going to pay for it.
And there's supernatural elements,
but I'm keeping them kind of... No,
please keep them secret until the book
comes out.
Yeah, I'm keeping them kind of secret.
In fact, in the comic,
there's going to be little...
of easter eggs where you know you don't
see it right up front but when that
moment where he becomes the plague finally
does happen yeah you're going to be able
to see that oh this was kind of
there in the background the whole time see
i always tell people i read i don't
just read a comic book i study the
comic book so as i'm reading it it
will take me five to ten minutes to
read a page even though there's only
twenty words on the page because i'm
looking at the art and i'm looking for
those easter eggs
and i'm telling y'all more more comic
books have easter eggs than you realize
and they are always fun when you find
them so that's really cool you just
straight up like hey there's going to be
easter eggs that give you hints along the
way i like that a lot i think
that is one of the most underutilized
thing in comic books is those little
subtle easter eggs so yeah totally agree
yeah sometimes you can't pick up on on
it until you like learn more like maybe
a few issues in you're like oh wait
a second
You know what I mean?
Then you'll be able to connect the dots,
you know?
Yeah, no, that's very true.
And I think like Tinian,
James Tinian does a really good job at
doing that where you have to go pick
up like three issues prior and pick it
back up and go, it was right there.
That's a little subtle art of storytelling
that can be phenomenal to be used.
And I'm glad you're using that.
Yeah,
I like when things always come like full
circle.
That's why with the play,
I'm actually kind of writing the whole
story in its entirety first.
So I've got like an overview of about
a hundred issues.
And that way when it's done,
I can kind of look at...
the story in totality and know where it's
going and where to add those Easter eggs.
And that way it's consistent, too.
Because if you try to make something later
on,
then you might look back and- Contradict
yourself.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's like, oh,
I thought he was the only one or
whatever.
You know what I mean?
Honestly,
that's a really good way to do this.
It's just to have the entire thing laid
out.
And then as you're building an issue for
the next Kickstarter or whatnot,
it's like, OK,
This part, I like this.
I like this.
I'm not a big fan of that part,
so let me make that part.
I'm going to take that out,
and then we're going to do this part,
this part, and this part.
I like that concept,
and I like that you're doing that.
That will put together a fantastic run for
you, hopefully, here very soon,
because I know we're getting ready to kick
it off here really soon.
Yeah.
I mean,
I'm talking about a hundred issues,
and we're not even on the first issue
yet, but I'm just so excited for it.
There you go.
I love the enthusiasm of it, man.
That's killer.
I love to see that enthusiasm.
And even my boy Kelvin here is well
thought out and planned.
This has me excited to see what you
did.
And I've got to see half.
And I'm telling you,
I'm very impressed with the half that I've
gotten to see.
No.
So we're describing his power as...
cursed like what all does that curse kind
of entail and how is that affecting him
physically and mentally i know i mean we
can look at the character himself we know
it affected him physically and that in
itself would have a mental toll on him
but it kind of give us a little
background on what this curse is and what
it means to our you know our main
character here well when diego finally
goes through that transformation
the power that he's getting,
it's not coming from a good place.
So it's kind of like he's making a
trade off.
He's kind of paying a price for taking
on this power.
And that actually hearkens back to the
name of the brand,
which is Lucky Devil Comics.
Because originally I was gonna call the
company Devil's Luck Comics.
It's kind of ominous.
I like it both ways that both of
them would have been cool.
Yeah.
It's, it's kind of like a warning, right?
I mean,
you gotta be careful what you wish for
with the devil's luck.
It's like, um,
you might get what you want,
but it's coming out of price.
Like for instance,
let's say you wish for a million dollars.
One day you might wake up and realize
you have a million dollars,
but it's because somebody loved died and
left you the insurance money or something
terrible.
No, no.
I like it.
So the idea is there's always a price
to be paid and you have to be
careful with what you wish for.
I like it a lot.
I always like...
It's like the evil genies that you read
stories about.
You're getting your three wishes,
but all three of those wishes are going
to have a twist to them.
I always enjoy stories like that because
it just makes for good storytelling.
So the story kind of promises a war
on both earthly corruption and hell
itself.
How do those two forces intertwine within
the plague?
I know I'm getting into a little bit
more of the psychology portion of the
book,
but give us a little background on that.
Yeah, so with Diego Diaz,
the world he's living in,
he's kind of like in between two worlds.
And he comes from one world,
which is that dystopian kind of bleak
future and He kind of gets entangled in
a conspiracy Yeah,
and you find later on that conspiracy is
not just dealing with like worldly powers
The deeper down the rabbit hole he goes
the more he's gonna realize that it's
connected to something a lot more dark and
sinister and there's all these isolated
events happening that he's trying to you
know fight with and
but they're not isolated at all.
He's going to find that it's all kind
of interconnected to something a lot
bigger.
I like it.
I like deep storytelling like that,
where the Alice in Wonderland theory,
right?
The deeper you go, the rabbit hole,
the crazier it gets.
I like that.
I like that a lot.
Um,
So is this a revenge story or something
deeper?
Maybe we're gonna get some redemption
wrapped up in damnation with it.
Yeah, to me,
that's the whole idea of the plague is
on the surface,
it seems like a very spawn type of
story of revenge, all these dark forces,
but those are just layers
on top of what's really going on,
which is about Diego's faith.
As a man,
he's a good man that has faith.
And after it becomes a plague,
his psyche and his faith is kind of
just shattered.
And his whole kind of adventure or journey
is about him reconnecting with his
humanity and his faith.
So it starts off as kind of like
a revenge story.
again the more he battles these forces the
more he realizes everything is kind of
connected and he can't just fight for
himself or revenge oh dude i like that
deepness to it i like it so kelvin
again he said it has a spawn meets
skeletor vibe and i can see that too
i like that that's a good way to
put it
Yeah,
those are two characters with awesome
designs.
Dude, yeah.
Nothing as classic as Skeletor when it
comes to a villain.
So what kind of message or emotion are
you trying to channel through the Pledge
Crusade with this one?
I think you kind of hinted on it
a little bit, but... Yeah,
there's a lot of themes going on.
I mean,
there's a lot of things I want to
say through the story.
personal views that i have no no if
you feel like you're going to give too
much away just like hey let's let's save
that part for the comic book and i'm
perfectly cool with that because honestly
at the end of the day we're here
to sell the plague to people and i
don't want you to give away too much
so yeah for sure but um in terms
of like themes or like messages that i'm
trying to get across um diego's uh he's
a complicated character
But all that complexity actually stems
from him being a simple person.
He's a simple man in this overcomplicated
world and there's all these things going
on and there's all these reasons to kind
of challenge his faith.
But in the end,
that's what it's all about.
It's about him going back to his faith
and having something to believe in.
I like that.
So...
How do you think the plague sees himself
as a savior or as a weapon that
is a instrument to being a savior?
Yeah, well,
that's going to be part of his journey
is when he first becomes the plague,
he doesn't necessarily know what he is or
how he became that.
He has a general idea,
but he doesn't know what's really going
on.
And so...
Yeah.
I mean,
I don't want to give too much away,
but.
That's perfectly fine.
No, that's an acceptable answer, man.
Like I said, I don't like that.
I'm fleshing out for myself as well.
Cause like I said,
this is the first issue I've got a
lot written,
but I'm toying with a lot of different
themes and ideas.
Dude, that's perfectly fine, man.
I like to hear that, you know,
We're hearing it firsthand that the
character and everything is still
evolving.
And yes,
I've gotten to read the first twelve
pages.
And even that may still evolve more as
you probably go back to edits or redraws
or something like that.
So, dude, that's cool by me, man.
Like I said,
I enjoyed what you sent over tremendously,
and I've enjoyed seeing all the support
that you have gotten for this comic book
so far.
To me,
that's telling on behalf of what you've
created here and your friends and family
and those who are excited for the comic
book as well.
Yeah,
I can't believe how much bigger this has
become than I thought it would be.
I mean,
there was a moment where before I launched
or before I even started on Instagram,
I was kind of looking at it,
ready to hit the button and thinking,
am I really doing this?
I'm really putting myself out there to be
judged or people could hate this or people
could not give two shits about it.
Yeah, no,
I think it's been the exact opposite of
that.
Yeah, it's been amazing.
And like I said,
it's been an outpour of support.
Every time I post something from you or
I reblog it, like, hey, don't forget,
tonight at seven o'clock, we're going in,
and people are like, yeah!
Which immediately hypes me up because I'm
like, damn,
I like the support he's got for this
book,
and you haven't even started the
Kickstarter yet.
So I enjoy...
really seeing that and yeah the story is
deep it's intriguing and probably what the
fourth person who's really seen the comic
book from a in work in progress i
will a hundred percent say yes the story
is very deep it is very intriguing and
it's very relatable to the current times
that we live in which is really cool
to me
You can take that real world and then
spin it into this fictional world that
you've created for the plague.
Exactly.
That was one of the main things that
I wanted to do was create something that
was on one hand kind of timeless where
you could go back like thirty years from
now,
read the story and it still means
something.
Still resonates because it really does.
Like I said,
when I read those first two or three
pages, I was like, shit,
this is twenty twenty one.
And we're all masked up.
We're all six feet away from each other.
And I was like, holy hell.
Yeah.
Sorry.
My husband is also like a big Resident
Evil fan as well.
So I also get this Resident Evil vibe,
you know, like, you know, evil.
No, no.
No, I like that.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
And I think we're all hyped up for
some new Resident Evil here pretty soon.
Yeah, I think we're on Resident Evil nine.
I think it's going to be nine.
Yeah.
So the art and the tone of this
book is striking, man.
It's like even the city itself is like.
gritty and it's kind of get this like
it's in this new Orleans.
So you got that like Neo nor type
of feel to it.
And so walk us through the visual identity
of the plague.
Yeah,
so that's another reason why I chose New
Orleans is because you could create such a
contrast with what's going on at that
point of time.
I mean, it is dystopian.
It is all these things.
But New Orleans is such a colorful,
vibrant, strange place.
Oh, no.
It still feels like it's a dystopian
future or a dystopian past,
however you want to look at it,
no matter when you go down there.
It's an amazing city.
But honestly,
you can walk from one side of it
and it feels like, you know,
this dystopian future where it's a ghost
town.
Then go to the very opposite end of
the same street and it's this bustling
metropolis.
It's a really cool place to be in.
Really cool to see.
It's got, you know,
parts that are just absolutely amazing.
And then there's parts of it that are
just like really depressing.
So you nailed the vibe of that a
hundred percent.
So...
So I know we spoke on this a
little bit earlier.
How did you approach the design of the
plague himself, his armor, scars,
this spawn, Skeletor-looking character?
And I know we touched on it a
little bit.
You showed us what the original one looked
like.
But what was the approach?
Did you work with the artist to do
it,
or did your wife help you come up
with it?
How was the original approach to that?
well i came up with the designs that's
one of my biggest hobbies is just
designing characters in fact i got a
binder right here which is about three
hundred pages full of characters
storyboards designs so storyboarding is so
important in comic books it was a much
bigger challenge than i thought it would
be because initially i had written this
massive like over bloated story
not thinking about the fact that it has
to be formatted in comic, you know,
format.
And so the story, I mean,
when it came time to storyboarding it,
it came out to like almost a hundred
pages.
And I was like,
That's five comic books right there,
depending on how many pages you want to
do.
That's like four books.
Yeah,
and I didn't really want to do a
graphic novel kind of approach.
I wanted to do single issue.
Because I'm a collector too,
and that's part of the excitement is
getting through a story,
waiting for the next one.
I'm a huge fan of floppies.
The smell of them, the paper texture,
seeing who...
This is what I love about image
is they still use that top-notch cardstock
covers.
And then, I don't know,
it's something about a single freshly
printed comic book,
the way it smells and feels in your
hands.
It's one of those...
great things in life that we get to
experience so no i'm the exact same way
even for like things like cds music i
used to love going and checking out
different like cds you don't even know
what the band is you just buy it
because of the album art you flip through
the album art and it's just interesting
Yeah,
even if you don't like the band or
music,
you listen to it enough until you do
like it.
And then you start to appreciate the
little things.
I also really admire this thing about my
husband.
He likes to look at...
You know when you watch a movie and
you can get the commentary?
like you know like like look up trivia
and find out like you know oh this
was actually supposed to be you know
filmed over here but we ended up doing
this or this part was yeah no i
know exactly what you're talking about he
does all that like research he likes to
know so in other words i'm just a
massive nerd yeah there's no such thing
here you're on the united states
department of nerds
that's just how it is here that's that's
normal that's like you can't throw a rock
in the united states department of nerds
and not hit somebody else like that yeah
i think we're in the right place in
the house he's saying what's up guys
that's another guy who was super excited
about this book i don't know if he's
relations to y'all or friends with y'all
but he definitely let it
be known that he was all about it.
Jiminy Crickets is actually my conscious,
so he's making an appearance tonight.
Thanks for being my conscious.
Well, shit, glad he can make it, man,
because you're killing it so far, so...
Oh yeah, nerds are cool.
Hell yeah,
it's about time people realized it too,
man.
So the eighties and nineties revenge
action is definitely strong here.
What references or influences guided that
style of art and story for you?
I know we dropped on it in a
little bit,
but I like to hear you say it.
I think like the late eighties to mid
nineties was some of the best times in
comics.
I feel like those were the,
that was the time period where all those
characters were really fleshed out and you
know, those people,
they were willing to take risks and tell
strange stories and you know,
it was just such a great time and
they weren't afraid to get really like
dark or go to like dark gritty places,
especially with like the Punisher.
I mean,
I have such an appreciation for that era
of those comics.
No, absolutely.
It was definitely a direct inspiration for
what I wanted to do,
especially aesthetically.
But I do wanna explore a lot of
other themes.
There's gonna be some issues where it's a
little lighthearted or a little bit more
quiet.
yeah those those those issues are
important to storytelling though because
that's where you're flushing out
characters you're you're flushing out
little intricacies about characters so
those are definitely important to the
overall big action storytelling that will
come in between those types of things and
always kind of like seeing as you're
reading you know for instance house of
slaughter has a few issues in there where
it's just they're flushing out characters
there's no killing of monsters they're
just flushing out characters
then they come out with like the next
big character and it's like boom right
back into the action swinging hard and
heavy monster killing galore and um i like
that about storytelling where you get a
chance to kind of take a step back
from the heavy action and just flesh out
characters and you get to know the
character so now i mean that's i feel
like that's part of comic book
storytelling you're not going to have
every not every part of a comic book
is going to be
Wham, bam, and you know what I'm saying?
You got to have some time to flesh
characters.
And comics are the perfect medium to do
it because, I mean, there's so many.
To me, that's one of the best ways.
Yeah,
there's so many like films coming out
based on comics and series.
But for me,
I'm a comics first kind of guy because
there's so much that gets lost.
You're trying to cram in all these issues
or all this backstory into a three minute
episode or an hour long film.
So with comics, you can do so much.
You can imagine whatever you want to
imagine.
It's the perfect medium for this kind of
storytelling.
No, you're absolutely right.
I mean,
I use the reference of we know we're
about to get, what is it,
Secret War from Marvel?
Well,
while the Secret War was being fought,
there was like two other worlds in the
Marvel,
two other wars in the Marvel Universe
being fought at the same as that time
that had more impact on the Marvel
Universe than the Secret Wars.
So I think it's really cool.
So... Yeah, for sure.
All right, now...
We leave the political type stuff
someplace else.
We don't do that kind of stuff here.
We focus on the comic book and the
storytelling of the comic book and the man
telling the story of the comic book.
So if you're in the comments or if
you're listening at home,
we at the United States Department of
Nerds do not do politics and do not
speak of politics.
We focus on the content and the creators.
That's fair enough.
We live in a really polarized world,
so it's really hard to navigate.
It really is.
One of the things I try to do
here is if there's something that is
posted or something like that politically
leaning,
I typically remove it and just don't
acknowledge it because I don't like that.
I try to keep everything about the content
about the plague tonight.
And that's what we're going to do.
So there's a cinematic quality,
almost like old VHS horror turned comic
book was this intentional with the way you
did this?
Cause you kind of get that,
that eighties and nineties vibe in the
story that I've seen so far.
So it was that intentionally done that
way, or I think that just kind of,
developed organically.
It wasn't really something I had in mind.
Because like I said,
everything is becoming so like,
they're making the jump from like comics
right into films.
I know a lot of people are,
that's their end goal is to make films
or series.
But for me, like I said,
I'm a comics first person.
I honestly don't even care if the plague
ever becomes like some film or I don't
care.
Yeah.
I'm all about the comics.
So I like that.
Yeah.
So how important was the color in building
this dystopian, supernatural mood?
I know you yourself have never been to
New Orleans, but in that swamp scene,
in this book,
you're nailing the essence of that.
So I don't know who your artist is
doing it,
but they nailed that essence of the swamps
in New Orleans in that.
The artist, his name is Miguel Ayuso.
He's a great artist.
And in terms of like the color and
stuff,
what I wanted to kind of express was
that as the moment gets closer to Diego's
demise, things become more bleak.
And it's kind of like foreshadowing that
things are starting to get darker and
making that transition from that dystopian
world into that supernatural kind of
element of the story.
Yeah,
it would kind of be cool to see
it as an animated film or a series.
Just from what I've seen of it,
it would be kind of dope.
Not going to lie.
Maybe one day we'll see.
All right.
Let's talk about the Kickstarter now.
So this is an indie self-published project
that is definitely make or break for
y'all.
How has that journey been like so far?
And I know you've gotten partial completed
book right now.
Like how has this journey been for y'all?
It's been tough.
I mean,
I had never made a legitimate comic
before.
I mean, as a kid,
I just make like little doodles and
sketches and stuff,
but nothing ever like this.
So I didn't really know what to
anticipate.
And I found the biggest issue I had
was actually my own ambition.
I didn't know that I had to take
this huge story with all this background
and shove it into this three page comic.
And I had to really whittle down so
much of the story, cut huge chunks out,
go back and forth to the drawing board,
rework things.
It was a real challenge.
But I learned a lot.
I learned what not to do.
And I'm still learning.
You're going to be evolving.
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
I think by the time issue two comes
around,
I'm going to be pretty much knowing what
I'm
doing.
And also like, like me,
I've drawn a bit in the past, like,
I'm never really like,
I usually just like, draw a bit,
give up years later, try again, like,
you know.
And when I would draw a draw,
I'd like to draw with like a reference
and do like more like just humans.
yeah like photorealistic so seeing like
the comic world and how like how important
the line work is and the coloring all
this stuff like i feel like there's you
know a lot of it is tracing right
a lot of the comic book art that
you see covers and that kind of stuff
that's mostly tracing if you go watch some
of the big artists do their covers a
lot of it is tracing
Oh, I feel like you can tell.
Like,
I feel like you can tell the difference
when something is just sketched
organically.
And personally, I prefer that.
Like, I mean,
they do a lot of sketching and then
like they put it on the light board.
And then that's when they start working on
their final like cuts of their covers and
stuff like that.
But yeah,
they have these a lot of this tracing.
And it's just they're really damn good at
it.
Yeah, but it's also crazy how there's,
like, a person who does the color,
the person who does the inks,
the person who does the letters, like, so,
like, us trying to, like,
get into the comic world, it's like, oh,
okay, well, we have to be, like,
basically, like,
twenty different people each, you know?
And it's just, like, it's kind of, like,
lonely, but it's kind of interesting to...
Are you finding one person that can do
it all?
Yeah, we're trying, but...
So we got Taylor here who can't wait
to get their t-shirt from the Kickstarter.
And the Kickstarter hasn't even launched
yet.
But you've got to admit,
that shirt is super clean.
Look at that lucky devil comet shirt as
well.
I'm guessing these are both going to be
a part of the Kickstarter, right?
yeah definitely yeah for sure these are
these are like the prototypes the early
designs but it's pretty much what you see
here is what's going to be on the
kickstarter and we've got a lot of ones
right there it's the one of ones i
know how you feel that's a one of
one too
Got to represent.
Exactly.
You have to.
I like that you were both like,
you know what,
we're going to do this together.
We're going to rock our one-on-one
t-shirts.
I like that a lot.
This is the only t-shirt I own.
I'm kind of strapped for cash.
Hungry artist.
You're a hungry artist.
Of course you're strapped for cash,
my man.
We all are.
I have bad habits.
They're called comic books.
And Legos.
And Star Wars action figures.
Oh,
we got a whole family waiting on their
merch.
Star Wars little action figures.
Little Darth Vader action.
He should have came out with the intro,
but he's making his appearance now.
Okay.
When you get the clips of this,
you're going to hear Darth Vader's voice
saying you are listening to the DFPN on
the or the USDN on the DFPN.
And that is actually my good friend,
Frank D, who does the voice.
And he does it as Darth Vader.
He's also a Darth Vader cosplayer.
Oh, nice.
Recognized by the five of First Legion.
So shout out to Frank D and happy
belated birthday, buddy,
because I know you just had a birthday,
too.
so he killed it now that's a hell
of an intro very cool he just does
the voice like the darth vader voice you
hear in the intro that's him so yeah
really cool stuff there he needs an
original early design tee as well your
conscience is wanting a t-shirt dude we'll
see we'll see you need to talk to
your conscience and get him putting the
check or at least get him back inside
Well, he makes very rare appearances,
but with the T-shirt, like I said,
what you see is pretty much what you
get.
I traded my conscious for a ten-speed bike
after my other ten-speed bike got stolen.
The one I traded with my soul.
We've all been there, friend.
So how did you put this team together?
I mean, obviously,
you married half your team,
but like your artist.
Who else do you have on your team?
so yeah lucky devil is just myself and
my wife and uh for the art originally
we wanted to do it ourselves but yeah
okay so we didn't anticipate what a major
task that would be yeah it's going to
take a while to get there but uh
yeah so we decided to outsource so the
interior work is done by miguel ayuso like
i said great artist uh the cover art
was done by
Daniel Gimeno.
I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.
Another fantastic artist.
The cover is really cool.
I like the cover.
And the background art for the cover was
done by Nicole.
So the character that you see is Daniel
Gimeno.
The background, that's all Nicole.
I see.
Okay.
She's earning her keep, man.
Yeah.
She's keeping that wife title.
Yeah, we just got like a tablet,
you know, like somewhat recently though,
you know,
like not only not being into that kind
of art, but switching to digital art too.
It's like, there's a lot to learn.
There's a lot to learn for sure.
Mine is literally right here.
I'm trying my hand at it as well.
And it's not going as good as what
you're doing.
But I am trying my hand at it.
Yeah.
So far,
what has been your biggest challenge in
getting this off the ground outside of the
money that it does go to put into
this book to make it happen?
Yeah,
the finances was definitely a struggle,
but I think the biggest issue is just
time.
I mean, I work six days a week.
I'm always on the road.
It's really just hard to find time to
do all the things I have to do.
And there's a lot of stuff to do.
So it's just really time is like the
biggest factor.
Oh, time is everybody's enemy.
Yeah, I think that like,
like we already mentioned before,
like kind of condensing it.
into like the thirty pages or whatever
amount of pages you need.
Like it's hard to like think about what
can be cut and what, you know,
because you don't want to take... Yeah,
what's vital to the story?
What's important?
Yeah, that's...
So I don't know how many of my
episodes you had watched.
The Vitrillium or Vitilirium series that I
interviewed Nicholas on.
So his comic book is based off his
sci-fi book of the same name, Vitilirium.
And he will tell you straight up in
that interview,
the hardest thing he did was taking the
book and trying now to convert it over
into a comic book as well and finding
what works and doesn't work.
And that's what is good about having a
good team behind you with your artist and
your wife there to go,
Hey, this is a critical point right here.
We definitely want to keep this in and
this one.
And we could probably take that out.
It's not so vital.
But if it comes back later, it's like,
oh, maybe we should have kept that.
But you can always do a flashback to
it in another issue.
So, I mean,
there's ways to fit things later,
but you definitely don't want to cut out
stuff that's very vital to the story.
And that's something I do not envy you
on at all.
I can't imagine how hard that is.
I'm happy when we can at least bounce
things off each other.
Cause I feel like sometimes, you know,
you can feel so like attached to certain
ideas or you might like,
you might have so much bias that you
won't, you're not able to like, you know,
you don't want to compromise.
You don't want to change something,
but like at least we're able to like.
Yeah.
See,
I wanted to add a huge ginormous tits
on the plague and she kept telling me
it was such a bad idea.
I still think it's a good idea.
think maybe you know what i can see
it though i can see it but i
don't i don't i don't really know how
the character himself i don't know how the
character himself is going to feel about
that and maybe it was his girlfriend who
was being you know becoming the plague
then it could have worked that way but
I really do.
I see a lot of Kickstarters and those
seem to be the most successful.
Oh, yeah, that's true.
I contemplated it.
Yeah.
You have no idea like that.
Yeah.
But my boy Kelvin has a question here.
How rewarding is it to see your work
so appreciated and anticipated as a result
of the hard work that you've put in?
And we were discussing this.
You're definitely getting that.
Honestly, I still can't believe it.
I mean,
I expected to get like a fraction of
what I got in terms of people being
interested,
but people are reaching out to me,
asking me when's it coming out.
Like, it's just like, I can't believe it.
You know, it's, it's definitely rewarding,
but I also see it as a big
responsibility, you know,
because once you take on a big project.
It's going to be up to all those
people to make it happen.
So as people are asking you these
questions, I mean,
that's literally the answer.
Is this up to y'all who keep,
you know,
coming and asking questions and showing
support and, you know,
really showing interest in this that's
going to make this book happen?
So you give them that answer.
That's the answer.
And Jiminy Cricket is back.
He said that's issue number two, the SAG.
Come on, man.
you gotta get your conscious in check he
was still a young man please let the
man make it into his thirties late
thirties at that i think i like it
good protagonist there we go there we go
uh
So talk to us about the upcoming campaign
and what backers can expect in terms of
some of the rewards and exclusives.
I mean, we're,
we're seeing two of them right now with
the t-shirts,
which are really dope looking,
but kind of break it down to everybody.
Like we know you're going to have the
book, a digital book,
but what else can people can expect from
it?
Yeah.
I wanted to keep the, uh,
the rewards simple, but exciting,
you know, so,
I try to think in terms of what
I would want.
And yeah, the t-shirts for sure.
We got the digital, the physical copy.
We got a hoodie that's coming.
I'm also offering a cameo for people that
want to be in the comic, which is,
that's going to be fun.
What else do we got?
Be careful with that.
You'll end up like my boy Christopher Ford
with Dark Pink where he had to create
three extra mini stories to get all the
characters in.
I'm not shitting you.
He was like, dude,
I had to create three mini stories to
get all the people in who wanted to
make cameos in the comic book.
Which is insane to think about,
but I would love to see that happen
for you because I think that would be
really, really cool to see.
Well,
we're thinking more so like you show up
in a panel, not like a full-on character,
you know?
Yeah, I mean,
that's the way it was in his, too.
Oh, yeah?
I did limit it to ten.
Okay, there you go.
You got to limit that.
Yeah.
Because I don't think – I'm not sure
what happened with him.
I think he just kind of left it
open,
and then it just kind of –
ran away okay people are like oh i
won't hit something right no he killed it
with that kickstarter dude his marketing
was insane his marketing was insane i was
talking to him about that and even today
i'm still seeing pop-up ads for dark pink
which is insane to me because i mean
every
can still buy in on the kickstarter for
those who wonder kickstarters when they
close yes they're closed but you can still
buy in on them depending on the settings
of the kickstarter so it is still possible
but it's still crazy to see like the
marketing on his book is absolutely insane
so if you have a budget for marketing
put some money into marketing because that
will ultimately at the end of the day
be one of your best friends um
So what does fan support mean to you
personally,
knowing that every pledge will help make
this world of the plague happen?
This is basically your love to the fans.
Give it now.
Yeah, I mean,
their support means everything because
without them, it's not getting made.
I mean, that's just the reality of it.
And, I mean,
I'm also not just doing this for myself.
Obviously,
I want to tell a story and do
this comic,
but I want to create something that's
going to last, you know?
I have a hundred issues in mind.
I want to create something that people are
going to love, you know?
And, yeah, I mean,
their support means everything.
Dude, you're well on your way, dude.
I'm telling you.
I've...
I was telling you earlier when y'all asked
me like how many of these I've done
this year.
And I told you,
I think I was like close to twenty,
I think.
And hopefully I get twenty more before the
end of the year.
That would be the goal at the end
of the day for me from a creator
standpoint and supporting the guys like
y'all who are passionate about what y'all
do and giving y'all a platform to come
and
You know,
tell your story and hopefully get this
story made for y'all.
So I mean, absolutely.
I can understand how important that is.
And if I can do twenty more this
year, I'll do twenty.
I'll do thirty.
So I know exactly how it feels.
But when I was marketing and advertising
for you and I remember I hit you
up, I was like, hey,
do you think you could send me over
the lucky devil logo?
And you're like,
I'll have my wife do it.
and like i felt like i felt like
i put the sentence together i hit put
the period hit send and you replied badge
like my wife is sending it now and
then i pulled up my email and it
was like right there i was like damn
i was like that's impressive i'm like all
right cool now i got everything i need
to market this and to advertise it in
the moment i'm putting them up people are
like outpouring just like
Lights piling in like, hey,
I'm going to be there.
I'm going to be there.
So y'all definitely have a great fan base
built around y'all, whether it's friends,
family,
just people want to see something new and
different that doesn't have TNA in it,
which is really cool.
Well, there's still room for TNA.
You can...
You can squeeze in some TNA, I'm sure,
but let's not let TNA be what all
Kickstarters are about.
It's going to be an Easter egg.
You're going to have to look for it,
but it's going to be in there.
There's going to be a tree in the
swamp that looks like a niggie lady.
I like it.
I like it.
Oh, I'm not even mad at it,
to be fair.
I've seen crazier cameos in books, so...
But so I know you're on the road
six days a week.
And so how has that been like balancing
the creative and the business sides of
this?
Because I mean,
essentially you made Lucky Devil Comets to
be the brand pushing out the plague.
I know that's not an easy thing to
do to be on the road six days
a week.
And also taking care of the side hustle
as well.
So how has that been?
Like,
how are you managing that from a time
perspective?
It's definitely got its pros and cons.
I mean,
some days are just frustrating because I
just want to park the truck, go home,
write the story because I've just got all
these ideas.
I got to make sure that I don't
forget them.
But at the same time,
being on the road,
it gives me a lot of time to
think about the story.
Do you have a recorder for the road?
no what i do really is i'll just
play like a movie in my head like
i'll just picture the plague and just play
out the whole scenario of what i want
to happen and then it just kind of
sticks in my mind yes i mean you're
like you got a phone right you got
a cell phone you just hit the record
you start talking into it with ideas yeah
i feel like uh my husband he he's
like he's got like a vision and he's
like very like he's really good at like
imagining and stuff like that so i think
that like because he's watching like a
movie it kind of ingrains in his like
memory
I'm a very visual learner.
I'm like the opposite.
I have no imagination.
That's why I used to like to draw
with references because it's just so hard
for me to come up with things,
which is why I'm kind of struggling.
You drew the background for this t-shirt,
so I don't want to hear you say
it.
You're good, girl.
You're good.
I don't know what you're talking about.
yeah i find that if you tell me
something i'll never remember it but if i
see it and i have it in my
mind for some reason i can just remember
it yeah seeing it and then doing i
i will never forget i don't know why
it's always been that way but but if
i read something or if you tell me
your name like that's why when you told
me your name earlier when i asked i
was like shit i'm horrible with names i
hope i remember that i know you look
pretty bad too
so thankfully i remembered but your
conscious is back and he's saying he sees
your huge potential here and he says
you're talented and i'm not going to
disagree with that statement so and kelvin
says proportionate to the body please and
things i don't know where we went wrong
but it's all about tna tonight i guess
and why not right it's still the weekend
uh
All right.
So how far ahead?
I know you've said in your head you
have this, you know,
hundred issue comic book planned out.
But realistically,
how far do you think you are in
that story from like if you could print
it all today,
how many issues do you think creatively
you have ready to go?
So in total, I have a hundred.
I felt like a hundred was just a
nice clean number.
So I wrote it in such a way
where it's kind of open-ended where a
hundred is kind of where the story ends,
but there's room for the plague to kind
of return.
If I did want to go past a
hundred issues.
Well, I think with the name,
like the plague,
it's kind of like a never,
you can't ever really get rid of it.
It could go dormant, but it comes back.
Yeah.
That's a good point.
And I mean,
I've got plans for spinoff characters and
side titles and,
Yeah.
Maybe.
Do you mean like how many issues maybe
are like storyboarded?
Like if we.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How many do you.
I'll give you a percentage.
I'd say it's about forty five percent
complete.
OK.
No, that's a great number.
I mean,
we're looking at almost forty five plus
issues right there.
So that's that's a good number.
Yeah, I mean,
I've got a pretty detailed in terms of
like mapping out the story of what I
want to do.
But I felt like writing it in totality
would give me that opportunity to go back
and tweak things and refine things and
allow things to kind of come full circle.
No, absolutely.
Yeah.
I like that.
When we look at it from a realistic
standpoint,
if you are with Image or a DC
or a Marvel, a Boom Studios, a Dynamite,
the best you would probably get is six
to twelve issues.
Maybe.
That's just how they operate.
So anything that really goes over that is
really just phenomenal because you don't
see it often and the fact that you
have
Right now,
you could drop forty-five issues.
It is absolutely amazing.
So, I amend that.
I applaud it.
I love to hear it.
And you answered my next question,
which is, will this, like,
with the storylines you have planned,
will it expand the plague and maybe into
some other supernatural corners?
You got room for ghosts and goblins,
and you got room for all that?
Or do you already have that planned out?
I don't want to give away too much,
but there's a lot going on.
And there's one for spinoff characters and
different types of stories that I want to
tell.
No, that's cool, dude.
So in the process of doing the plague,
do you think you'll pause the plague at
any point and go, hey,
I want to give you a story about
a side character?
Or do you think you'll just go the
plague straight through and then maybe
spinoffs?
I was thinking more in terms of using
the plague as kind of like a launching
pad where, you know,
like those old Marvel stories,
they kind of use a popular title like
the Fantastic Four or something to
introduce another character.
No, absolutely.
Yeah.
You always see that first appearance in
somebody else's title.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
So that's kind of the idea I wanted
to run with was try to do like
a very classic comic book kind of
aesthetic.
I mean, even with the play's real name,
it's Diego Diaz, you know,
running with that theme of like Peter
Parker, Matt Murdock.
Yeah, but I like that.
I'm not gonna lie.
Yeah.
I love that classic comic book kind of
vibe.
It's one of the coolest tropes in comic
book that kind of really isn't talked
about very often.
And even when you talk Daredevil,
I mean...
It's there.
It's got a ring to it.
It's got a charm to it.
So I wanted to really lean into that
classic eighties, nineties kind of,
even if it veered off into cheesy
territory, you know, I'm okay with that.
I love cheesy.
I was going to say,
that's the point really.
I mean, I think a lot of,
a lot of comic books take themselves too
seriously and they don't give you kind of
that.
They've done away with the cheesy and,
But I still say there's plenty of room
for cheesy in comic books.
Some of my favorite things are the
one-liners from whether it's a villain or
a hero.
Just when they give that one-liner,
that quick quip that you're not expecting
from them,
that's some of my favorite parts of comic
books.
It's just those fun little quirky
one-liners that you have to sit there and
stare at for a minute and go...
Man, that was good.
I like that.
You'll find yourself saying it too.
I can't get enough of those one-liners.
I always think about Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
He's got like a million one-liners.
Oh, dude,
that dude's a library of one-liners.
yeah i mean i i love that kind
of like cheesy campy yeah almost puns and
like yeah or witty humor too sometimes
like sometimes you could say something
like that i think that's that's something
spider-man is really good at it's that
witty like fun humor where he's not trying
to insult you but he's insulting you but
the way he says it it's like i
don't know if i want to be insulted
right now or just be like this dude's
whipping my butt and he's also like
backhand complimenting me with uh and
making fun of me at the same time
so so i like that kind of stuff
man so gotta ask though if you your
character the plague could collab with any
other comic book character right now what
would you like to explore it could be
any character i don't care what branch or
what comic it is just any character
I got to say Swamp Thing.
I mean,
I think it already takes place in the
swamp.
They're both very kind of like solitary,
isolated characters.
I think that'd be a really interesting
dynamic between them.
I don't know how much I love the
Swamp Thing.
And your conscience won't spawn.
spawn would be cool so i would be
cool but there's something about swamp
thing that i absolutely since i was a
child when i would watch the swamp thing
on tv at night with my granny when
i should have been sleeping but i'm
sitting there watching swamp thing and
then when i found the comic book reading
the comic book some garth dennis and that
kind of stuff
and now i know um something is killing
the children is doing a one-shot crossover
with swamp thing called swamp thing is
killing the children and i just absolutely
cannot wait for that anytime there's new
swamp thing i'm all about it yeah i
think they're doing a continuation of uh
the swamp thing from the eighties i think
that that storyline they're gonna do a
one-off or continuation so i'm looking
forward to that too i am too i
like i said
he like he's reached god status within the
dc world and i'm absolutely here for the
guy can literally travel between worlds
through the world so i mean how freaking
cool is that so i'm all about swamp
thing and plus swamp thing gave me my
other one of my other favorite characters
with john constantine so i'm not mad
In case you didn't wonder,
the only real DC stuff I like is
like the darker, greedier stuff.
Anything with the magic Justice League
Dark and that kind of stuff within DC
are like my favorite things.
The DC Vertigo days from the eighties and
nineties.
That's my jams.
Yeah.
Love it.
You can have Batman.
You can have Superman.
I like Wonder Woman because she led
Justice League Dark for a little while.
So she can stay on my cool book.
But I could care less for it otherwise,
unless it's a Justice League Dark.
So what do you want your legacy to
be as an indie creator for when people
look back at this series?
Ooh, it's a hard one.
Yeah, I think about this one.
You know,
I think just creating something that's
timeless.
that people can kind of look back on
and say, you know,
I can relate to this or I can
relate to this character.
There's similar things going on in my life
or, you know,
I think for me growing up,
comics were not just about like the flashy
action and the spandex and all that
colorful stuff.
I hope it wasn't about the spandex there,
buddy.
But yeah, for me, there was always like,
kind of like a deeper message with the
characters.
I mean,
we have Spider-Man where they kind of
instill that idea that with great power
comes great responsibility.
And you have Captain America and Superman
and what they stand for.
And for me,
I'm a sucker for those messages, you know?
And with the plague,
I know he kind of comes off as
an anti-hero, but at his core,
I kind of see him as more of
a traditional hero that stands for
something.
I like it, dude.
I like it a lot, man.
Before we start winding down,
give me your last three comic books that
you've bought and read.
Well,
recently I actually got the Swamp Thing
Compendium from my cousin.
Yeah, some Alan Moore.
Yeah, I love this thing.
Dude, I got the same one.
I absolutely love it.
The artwork, the storytelling, the pacing,
it's just such a great story.
And Alan Moore just released a book, too,
that I think you would like as well.
You should check it out.
Yeah,
I think his run of Swamp Thing was
awesome.
It was incredible.
To me,
I don't think another creator on him can
light the candle the way he did on
that one.
So I'm right there with you.
Come on, two more.
What was the other one?
You know,
the problem with me is I'll just buy
them and just put them on the shelf.
It's okay.
What were the last ones you bought?
What were the last ones you bought?
Let's see.
I got them around here somewhere.
Oh, there we go.
So besides for Swamp King, these two.
Okay.
Okay.
And I actually got these from Valley
Village.
Do you guys have value village in the
States?
I don't even know.
So we don't.
We have a place called Sackett and Charles
that does,
they do current runs of comic books,
but they do a lot of back issue
stuff where you can go and buy,
like I like to go there sometimes and
buy like a mystery box of indie comics
just to see what's in there.
I mean, I've gotten some fifty,
sixty dollar books out of those and I've
only paid twenty five dollars for the box.
So those are fun to do sometimes.
um yeah your conscious said goodwill does
as well sometimes uh me personally um i'm
great friends with my local comic shop i
love buying local and supporting small
business um so and he gives a me
my old man retiree discount for the
military
so and i read like a lot of
comic books um i really enjoyed aubrey
sitterson's free planet
Something is Killing the Children.
Anything that has James Tynion,
the fourth name on it, World Tree,
Something is Killing the Children,
House of Slaughter.
I know Grimm is getting ready to end
at Boom Studios.
Issue Twenty-Five is getting ready to come
out here soon,
which will close out that series.
I'm a huge fan of that.
I'm a huge fan of indie comics,
in case you didn't notice.
I did try reading Absolute Flash just
because it's Wally West and I wanted to
give Wally some love.
But after about eight issues,
I was just like,
kind of done with this absolute universe.
It's cool, but kind of done with it.
Yeah.
I mean, me personally,
I'm all about the classics.
I mean, like I said,
I feel like in the eighties and nineties,
those characters were just perfected.
You know, they were just fleshed out.
I mean,
those characters they've been around for
so long that everything has been explored
with them.
So, I mean,
they just constantly get retconned and,
But for me,
I never get sick of going back and
reading those old back issues.
And that's why I have the trade paperbacks
and the compendiums of Swamp Thing and
Hillblazer and that kind of stuff.
But for the most part, man,
I'm such a huge indie comic guy.
And that's what I love about doing these
types of interviews tonight is I get to
talk to indie creators everywhere.
the sole source.
You know what I'm saying?
You're not a part of Image.
You're not a part of Boom or Dynamite.
You're simply Lucky Devil Comets.
You're Stiles.
You're Nicole.
And you're trying to put something out for
the people.
But before we close it out tonight,
tell everybody where they can follow Lucky
Devil Comets and when the Kickstarter will
be dropping.
Kickstarter is October twenty first.
And that's two days, people.
Two days.
Go to Kickstarter right now.
Type in the plague.
Hit remind me or notify me and it
will notify you on launch.
That way you can be one of the
first ones to get in on the plague.
I know I got my notify me button
pushed.
Continue on.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, please check out the Kickstarter.
We've got a lot of cool stuff on
there.
We've got some stretch goals.
So excited for this.
We've got various covers lot of cool stuff
going on over there.
And you can find us on our social
media.
I don't know if you can see that.
Oh no, they can see that.
Okay.
oh and they're on tick tock which is
something i'm not i can't do tick tock
i tried i tried i'm not super active
on anything other than instagram but yeah
that's just because i just have no time
but i would like to start you know
phasing out of the trucking industry and
hopefully into comics full time because i
got a lot of goals i want to
accomplish a lot of stories i want to
tell i like to hear it man i
like to hear it so as they said
go to the kickstarter
Click notify me on the plague.
That way you can be one of the
first people notified when the plague
drops October twenty first.
I'm guessing around lunchtime.
It'll probably be earlier in the morning.
I'm thinking maybe ten AM.
There we go.
Just before lunch.
And then when you go to lunch,
you can simply pop on Kickstarter and go
out and support Lucky Devil comments and
the plague.
Go over to Instagram.
Just type in Lucky Devil comments.
I swear to God they're going to be
the first ones to pop up and same
over on Facebook.
Trust me, they're easy to find.
I even found them.
Now, with that, I will be back here
Tomorrow night with Apogee Comets.
And I'm sitting down with the whole team
from Apogee Comets tomorrow night.
It's going to be a blast.
Which, I mean,
tonight we got the surprise of Nicole
joining us.
She tried to get out of it.
I'm not going to lie to y'all.
She tried to get out of it.
And I was like, no, no, no, no.
Come on back.
Come on back.
You're part of the team.
Let's make it happen with both of them.
And both of y'all were a delight.
Albon,
I am wishing you all the best of
luck on this Kickstarter.
Remember, guys,
this is a make or break Kickstarter for
them.
So you need to show up.
You need to support.
That way the plague can get made because
without your support,
this comic book will not get made.
So please understand that as you're going
to the voting booths tomorrow.
No, I'm just playing.
You're not going to the voting booths.
You're going to Kickstarter in two days.
Bro, without a doubt, Lucky Devil Comets,
The Plague, Styles P, and Nicole,
and Jiminy fucking Cricket,
for God's sakes, are all USDN approved.
And with that, ladies and gentlemen,
I want to wish you all a good
night.
And don't forget, Kickstarter in two days.
or Batman will come and find you.
We are out, y'all.
Enjoy your nights.
Safe travels tomorrow night.