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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.
It’s about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
• The rise of indie comics
• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
Thank you.
what is up everybody and welcome to the
united states department of nerds where we
are for the people by the people and
of the people and for weeks now we've
explored the depths of fear through aha
the horror anthology that's pushed
boundaries across genre cultures and
imagination we begin
with creators redefining what horror is.
We stepped into stories where silence
spoke louder than screams,
and we witnessed body horror that
challenged science, identity, and belief.
We've uncovered folklore, mythology,
and deeply personal storytelling rooted in
truth.
We saw creators bend horror into something
human,
Something real.
Each episode, each creator,
each story built toward this moment.
Because horror, at its core,
isn't just about monsters.
It's about choices, consequences,
survival.
And tonight,
we close the anthology with a story that
blends cosmic, isolation, sci-fi dread,
and psychological horror into one final
descent into the unknown.
on a remote sand planet where greed
outweighs morality,
where survival is never guaranteed,
and where some discoveries should never be
on Earth.
This is Artifacts.
It's night.
We bring that aha anthology to its
exciting conclusion with creator Evan
Johnston diving into his sci-fi horror
story Artifacts,
a brutal high-stakes exploration of
survival, desperation,
and the unknown ladies and gentlemen the
council of nerds is now in session evan
welcome to the council
Thank you, Chairman.
It's been so nice to listen to this
journey and learn more about the team at
CHK.
We have a Discord and we had that
call when things started,
but I feel like people,
if you really want to learn about this
anthology,
re-listen to the interviews that the
Chairman's already done because
I think they're a lot of fun,
particularly Crystal and Chris Mendoza.
They're the editors and publishers for
this, and they're a lot of fun.
And I'm glad you brought that up because
as this is the finale of AHA,
there will be a AHA.
What's the word I'm looking for?
playlist added to the USDM YouTube
channel.
It's going to say aha that everybody can
go to and check it out.
I'm going to put it in chronological order
for everybody and you'll be able to check
it out all in one spot and watch
it all in one spot.
I will include the long form and the
short forms from that entire series within
that playlist.
So with that being said, Evan,
who are you and what got you into
comic books?
Oh, wow.
So I've always drawn kind of on and
off throughout my life.
And
Basically, after college,
I was looking for a job,
and there were a lot of opportunities in
publishing,
and I started work as a typesetter for
a small publisher in New York City,
strangely called M. Evans, no relation.
And I would typeset books,
and then pretty soon I started working on
covers, and...
you know,
later I started illustrating book covers
and that's kind of what I do off
and on again now is I like to,
I like to draw a book cover.
I like to,
I like to add visual elements to things.
So for all those ladies out there who
are picking up covers of Werewolf Erotic
Nights, that cover was done by Evan.
I would not turn that assignment down,
I'll tell you.
But in terms of comics,
I got into comics through my dad,
who is still a collector.
He's in his eighties,
but he's never been the kind of Simpsons
comic shop owner person.
Like he always talks about the art,
the stories, the themes,
But he's never been like Batman could beat
up Green Lantern or anything like that.
And I've always really appreciated that
about him.
And he got into comics while he was
in the Navy.
He'd be on shore leave.
And he just said he was impressed that
you could buy all these stories so cheaply
with such amazing art.
And especially in that time,
he's getting Kirby.
He's getting the greats.
Oh, yeah.
Hey, Chris.
What's up, Chris?
Chris Mendoza, everybody.
Great Chris Mendoza.
He puts the K in CHK.
Yeah.
And, you know, I know comics, you know,
seem to be more expensive now,
but I do think for all the work
that goes into them,
they're still comparatively, you know,
kind of cheap.
It's also a different, like, process now.
Like,
I think the laser printing and everything
has...
That and the paper quality is playing a
lot into the prices.
So much better.
And during COVID,
the scarcity of the paper as well.
Chairman, let's talk about that.
Because during lockdown,
my favorite comics store,
Galaxy Comics in Brooklyn,
basically you couldn't go inside.
They just had the door open and a
table.
And you would just like pick a comic
off the table.
And, you know,
I didn't read any of my favorites that
year.
Oh, sure.
I wasn't collecting then.
I didn't get back into it until late
twenty twenty one,
early twenty twenty two, I believe,
when my daughter got into it again.
And then I just so happened to walk
in and realize they're still making Spawn.
And I kind of just like went with
it from there, you know.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know.
The title I'm into now is Hulk Smash
Everything by Ryan North.
And that's a lot of fun.
It feels like an indie comic in spirit,
even though it's like this, you know,
it's a Marvel publication.
Anyway, like with my dad,
I never had to buy my own comics
because he had the best ones.
He had like the Frank Miller.
He had a lot of the Denny O'Neill
Batman and the Alan Moore Swamp thing.
I remember that vividly.
But the one that like really got to
me was the Eastman and Laird Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Oh, yeah.
And I would read those and I would
try to draw them.
And like it was it was so inspiring
to see like an indie comic.
You know,
I didn't have a concept of that.
I knew it was like a black and
white comic.
And it felt like that you could see
there's just like two guys in the credits.
So yeah.
you know dude they were drawing that and
i think it was eastman's was eastman or
laird's apartment building like in in his
apartment that's where they were drawing
it and it's really cool because back then
there were no identifying well they had
names but they didn't have their
identifying colors yet it was just the red
yeah they were both huge fans of the
daredevil
I think we only knew the headbands were
red from the later covers because early
on,
those covers were still pretty
monochromatic.
We got the foot in Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles because the Daredevil had the
hand.
So we got the foot in TMNT.
So I love that story of Eastman and
Larry, and they both seem like really,
really cool,
very down-to-earth dudes every time I've
seen them on a panel or anything like
that.
They're on my bucket list.
They're both on my bucket list of people
I would love to meet as well as
Alan Moore because his Swamp Thing is
still some of the best Swamp Thing ever
done.
So I was part of a comic club
with people who worked in publishing,
and Swamp Thing came up.
And people were shook.
Those stories are still very unnerving.
They're not like anything else.
And I was trying to explain to my
youngest kid what Swamp Thing is,
because he was like, what does he do?
And I'm like, well,
he's the spirit of nature.
I started to show him the Alan Moore
comic, and then I was like,
what am I doing?
Oh,
that kid would have been having nightmares
to this day.
I mean... No, I love it.
To me,
I always interpreted it as he was Mother
Nature's Avenger character.
I know people didn't like the fact that
he had ascended to this God-level status
within the DC world.
But to me, I was like,
he was meant for that.
Where else was he supposed to go other
than through this God-like level of power?
Like he can be reborn from a flower,
from a plant, from a blade of grass.
As long as nature is there,
he can revive himself.
And that to me to this day is
like one of the coolest concepts ever of
like the way someone or something is
reborn within the DC universe.
And the fact that we're talking about this
character this way is just such a
testament to the power of comics.
Exactly.
it's something that,
that pulls you in and makes you think
about the world differently.
Um, yeah, I mean, it's one thing.
Hey, literally that's all you need.
And what I love about it is he
gave me one of my, my second,
one of my,
probably one of my top five favorite
characters.
I know he character has a tumultuous
writing past, but, um,
Hellblazer still John Constantine still
one of my favorite characters I know a
lot of people didn't like the way he
was done within the Sandman series with
him being made into a female character and
I'm just like but it makes sense that
she's a descendant of John
for me it made sense and it didn't
bother me that they kind of gender swapped
them instead of having a John you had
a Joanne I think is what they went
with I'm like it didn't bother me it
worked for me
Yeah, I mean, I think those gender swap,
I mean, we call it that now.
Who knows what we'll be calling it, like,
ten years from now.
But, like,
it is an opportunity to change the kinds
of stories.
And, you know,
I do think that kind of representation
does matter and, like,
encourages different people to read
comics.
And I want to talk about comics with
everybody.
So, you know...
I'm right there with you.
And it's kind of wild because the series
was so good that you can literally pick
up volume one of The Sandman and just
follow the comic book with the story that
they were given to us on Netflix.
And I hate that things happened within
that world or within the real world that
prevented it from going further than it
could have.
Yeah.
Because I think there is still so much
story on that to tell that could have
been absolutely amazing.
I love the character at death in that
series.
The guy who played the actual Sandman were
just phenomenal.
And I really hate that we didn't get
that to the right conclusion that it
deserved.
Yeah, you know, I wasn't...
I didn't think we'd be talking about this,
but, like,
I was a big Neil Gaiman fan, and,
you know, not, like... He's right.
Phenomenal.
Not, like, tattoo level of fandom, but,
like, I...
I would read, you know,
whatever of his that I could.
And I did read that New York Magazine
article about him because I just felt
like, you know, for once I just,
you know,
there's a lot that I'm sort of happy
for the web to summarize.
But for that one,
I picked up the article.
Yeah.
Like, it's horrifying.
And, like,
I would urge people to read that article
just so that we don't kind of turn
a blind eye to, like, what happened there.
Because I do think it's important.
Yeah.
But I also feel, you know, that is...
that's what we're,
we're losing because someone can't treat
people respectfully is like a great story.
And that's what everybody,
one of the greatest comic book writer
minds around for his generation and bad
decisions, you know,
but that's neither here nor there.
We're talking about artifacts and what
meets artifact different from other sci-fi
horror stories, right?
Wow.
I don't know exactly because I was sort
of pulled into writing Artifacts.
It was very sudden.
I basically saw the submission info from
CHK and Artifacts just kind of...
Started, I just, that first panel,
which I think you'll put on the stream
for like the teaser of Val walking through
the winds.
That was the first thing I thought of
when I knew that there was going to
be an anthology.
And then from there,
I thought about sci-fi movies.
works that i a lot of that i
like a lot i'm very caught up with
this nineteen sixties movie called
forbidden planet and in in london there's
a lot of comic shops named after forbidden
planet and i shop at a forbidden planet
in new york uh so it's it's kind
of always like in my mind but like
if you've seen it um it's a it's
a sci-fi retelling of the tempest
and the atmosphere is just really eerie
and the soundtrack is eerie and the the
matte paintings are they make you really
uncomfortable and
It's always just been in the back of
my mind.
And I was like,
after I created that image,
I was just like,
this could be my kind of version of
that.
And then other elements started slipping
in.
I also like this movie that was an
influence on Alien called Planet of the
Vampires.
Have you seen that?
yeah it's uh i mean i don't know
that it's it's great but like it has
a lot of energy and and that same
feeling of of you guys shouldn't be here
and like you're stuck on a planet where
nothing is going to go right for you
and i actually read a short story not
that long ago that was based on that
And it was really good.
I wish I could remember the name of
it.
I can't even remember where I read the
story.
It was just a guy crash lands on
this planet.
And thankfully,
like a ousted member of the royal family
on that planet of vampires helped him
scavenge enough loose parts to get him
back off the planet.
But it was a whole ordeal and it
was really good.
Oh, that sounds great.
I'd read that.
Yeah, and when I really think about it,
like,
I do like a lot of sci-fi horror.
And I loved when, you know,
you'd find a sci-fi story in your EC
Comics collection.
The reprints would sometimes have a little
bit of a little variety.
They're back.
They got a current sci-fi comic book on
the shelf right now.
Really?
Yep.
I got to check that out.
Um, yeah.
And, and, you know, like,
I feel like in the nineties we had
a little bit of sci-fi horror.
There was like,
it was mainly just TV shows, you know,
or movies, but there was event horizon,
uh, which was, yeah.
Yeah.
The new one, read the new one.
It takes place after the events of event
horizon, uh,
There we go, Chris chiming in.
Cruel Universe, that's the one, man.
Well, Cruel Universe,
is that the sci-fi one or is that
the horror one?
Because they have two.
Well, they actually have three because...
One of the characters from, I think,
Cruel Universe,
was it Cruel Universe or their horror
anthology when they were doing,
got her own book, her own solo run,
which was the first time in EC history,
I believe,
that a character from one of their
anthologies got its own comic book outside
of the anthology.
That's rad.
off i love some ec comments and some
ani press like they're absolutely vault as
well ignition bad idea so many of them
there it is catacombs of torment yeah
that's the one hey thanks chris was the
other one thanks chris because my brain
was farting on that one but blood type
was really good i think it was written
by uh kareem that's how you say your
name i think
If you remember how you say her last
name and I don't want to butcher it,
but shout out to her fantastic story.
Yeah.
I feel like there's something to an entire
planet that is haunted.
That is just so unnerving because like,
you know, a haunted house,
like maybe you're able to get out of
there and get to the next town,
but like a planet,
Yeah,
and the situation that the crew members
are in where it's like there's no water
on the planet.
The air is breathable,
but there's lots of sand.
I don't really get into that stuff a
whole lot.
I kind of let the reader imagine that.
It's one of those, do you have to?
I think there's enough context clues
within the story to where you don't have
to say those things.
And that's where the art comes into play,
right?
You let the art of the story and
the words amplify that art.
But yeah, this one, I don't think you,
if you go into too much detail,
then it kind of ruins the air of
mystery around the story.
Yeah, I think that's very apt.
I mean, just once though,
I kind of want to do,
have you been reading the Matt Fraction
Batman where they get into like all the
gadgets that he has?
I don't do a whole lot of DC
or Marvel.
I will read certain Batman stories like
the re-release and I think the Frank
Miller stuff right now.
Oh, hey.
So I've been reading that because I wasn't
collecting at the time.
So I've been picking that up.
And I did The Hush when it re-released.
And then I did the, what was it,
Gotham by Gaslight.
I can't remember what series that belongs
to.
I've been meaning to read that for the
longest time.
And that one was really good.
But for the most part,
I don't do a whole lot of DC
unless it's Vertigo type stuff.
or marvel certain characters from marvel i
will read or certain events from marvel i
will read but i avoid them for the
most part i am i can almost say
i'm pure indie that's beautiful that's uh
that's what i aspire to but uh it's
one of those where i didn't grow up
with marvel and dc as much as other
people i grew up with like the
Like I grew up on the, you know,
the nineties, that's meant for sure.
Like the S factors spawn when it came
out, I fell in love with the character.
And then when image come out as a
whole,
something that kind of disrupted the
entire game,
I really fell in love with that because
it was non-standard.
It is big splash pages,
the whole nine that just kind of was
like, it broke a mold.
And I was like,
I like things that break the mold.
It's very hard to explain to people who
weren't there how radical Image Comics
was.
It goes back to what we were talking
about earlier,
like the quality of the paper and the
spectrum of colors and the fact that
you're not seeing those dot patterns.
It was really huge and the industry
followed them, which is also wild.
It's still crazy to open up
a marvel comic but today and see them
take advantage of the whole page right
because i grew up when they had white
borders yeah and it was like and then
when image came out where was the white
border they didn't have it they were like
we're using the entire page oh my god
what's a gutter we don't use those you
know the whole just like it was amazing
And like they, they mostly,
if you saw an ad in there,
I feel like it was mostly promoting their
own artists.
And, and, you know, this is, yeah.
I mean,
this is why it's good to be indie
is like,
you don't have to read a lot of
like acne cream advertisements.
Exactly.
In your book.
Or Rolex commercials, you know,
like I can't afford a fucking Rolex.
Why do I want to see that in
my comic book that I'm barely affording
right now?
Because they're all of a sudden eight
ninety nine.
Oh, my God.
I don't want to see it.
You've seen it?
Yeah,
they have roulette ads and it's kind of
wild.
We're trying to attract a different kind
of comic book collector.
Thanks.
Yeah.
You're about to price out the normal man.
Who are you, TKO Group,
trying to sell tickets to WrestleMania?
Come on, man.
Yeah.
Neither here nor there,
but so what's a moment in your story
that makes people or that may make people
uncomfortable?
Oh, well, I mean,
I know what it was for me.
I feel like I should follow the advice
of my fellow AHA members and not try
to define that.
But for me,
like one of the things I picked up
on EC Comics was a lot of the
stories are
men and women with an incredible amount of
tension.
Usually they're married.
And I listen to a lot of old
suspense and horror radio shows.
And like that is the formula, too.
Yeah, they knew what they were doing, man.
Oh, my God.
And it I do think there is just
something societally that they were
trying.
They were trying to address usually with
blood and guts.
Yeah.
But there is like the little kid in
me,
like when I look at like page two
or whatever, I'm like,
I don't want them to fight.
Like, I don't,
I don't want to see like these two,
you know, they're not,
they're not romantically involved,
but they are colleagues.
And it is, it is uncomfortable for me.
What about you?
Oh, the indent for me was just like,
wow.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, I was like, holy shit.
Are you talking about making a decision?
Like, that's a decision right there.
i was so proud that i could get
you the full story like i i no
i appreciated it and i'm not gonna that's
one of those where anytime somebody sends
me something that isn't out yet it stays
like locked down like literally you have
to have the password to get to it
anyway and that's that's i'm not talking
about i think a log onto the computer
i'm talking about to get into those actual
files where i keep my my database of
you know comic books and like
my interviews and all that stuff's under
password.
So,
and it's not the same password every time
because it's a key.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
Like literally I,
that hard drive is locked down.
So if anything was ever happened to it,
nobody could ever access it.
Wow.
But, um,
Do you tend to get digital over physical
or do you do?
No, absolutely not.
I am not a fan of digital at
all,
but it's a part of the business now.
So I, of course, you know,
people send me their work to read.
People just send me stuff like out of
the blue, like, hey,
can you do a review of this?
I'm like, I no longer do reviews.
If you want to come on the podcast,
we can talk about it.
That's more of my world now.
But before I started doing this on a
full time basis, basically, yeah,
absolutely.
I would write reviews here and there on
people's work, but not no more.
I would rather talk to the person and
allow that person to take the counsel on
the journey of their life and their career
and kind of like what got them to
the moment right now.
So for me, that's a lot more fun.
Well,
I just really want to thank you for
it because it is very tough for
independent artists to get a voice in this
current climate.
And I struggle to get my work shown
through the various algorithms.
Dude, if you ever figure that one out,
let me know.
That's hard.
That's a weekly thing for me right there
is to try to figure out what's working.
yeah you post something original and and
like the algo is just like i don't
like this it's like well yeah it's what
i do or you get told you're posting
too much and you're like yeah i'm not
telling my story i'm telling their story i
want it to be seen so how else
do i get their work seen but
Speaking of stories,
the story of how this anthology came
together,
I'm just glad that people can hear about
it from you.
If they don't participate in the
Kickstarter, guys, you got five days left.
Don't waste time.
We spaced these interviews out so good.
This interview will be out probably
Wednesday,
which is two days before this ends.
It's just...
like really really dope and then like some
of the shorts will continue to play a
little after i don't know if chris and
chris are planning to do like a you
know after the kickstarter type of deal
where you can still kind of uh support
it if you want to i'm not sure
if they're planning on doing that or not
but um
We'll see.
I don't know what their plan is.
I'm the last one to know in this
party.
I'm just a guy who has had the
pleasure of talking to almost everybody
that's been a part of this.
You talked to the Inker, man.
That was cool.
Dude.
That was a great interview.
Travis was such a fun interview,
and I was so happy that I could
introduce the world to what an Inker
actually is.
Travis James, Inker Supreme.
That was a really cool interview.
He was sending me the Superman he was
working on, the Jim Lee Superman,
Spider-Man cover.
Mm-hmm.
he's been working on like he's still he
like he's sending me like updates to it
i'm just like oh i wish i could
just buy this
but he is really, really good.
I really liked the interview with the,
with Jasmine too.
Like I, you know,
I haven't so well spoken and so very
like every answer.
So very well thought out.
And I will say this in advance.
I do not give my interviews to the
person I am interviewing like other
platforms do.
I don't do that.
I am a proper journalist.
I believe I'm journalistic integrity at
the end of the day.
Um,
But I will never attack anybody on the
podcast.
I will never throw a curveball at them.
So when you come on this podcast,
you're literally getting a journey through
your work.
So the way she answered everything was
just so very elegant and well thought out.
And she gave me some really great quotes
on things.
And I was just like...
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah, and I thought, yeah,
don't expect that from me.
Like, I can't.
Dude,
we were just talking about Alan Moore and
freaking.
I've got ADHD.
We're going to be,
our journey is going to be.
Our hour is going to get busted.
We're just saying.
Two ADHD people talking about comic books.
We're going to be all over the place.
But I really, like, and, you know,
Minaj talking about his story.
That's a fucking great story.
Like,
I cannot wait to read that entire story.
i've seen it and like i think i'm
gonna say what squids does with the
lighting is like very panels that he sent
me and the way he did the lighting
on the panels and the way he did
that the what he has sent to me
which i used when i did the shorts
for his story and i was just like
dude i cannot wait to read that story
because it he they put
hours and hours of research on like just
asexual reproduction in order to tell a
story that's eight pages long yeah and I
love that kind of dedication to the craft
that they are pursuing so for me it's
like amazing when I when I learn those
types of details
He's doing something interesting on his
Instagram with,
with some other project too.
And it's just very unique to like, I,
you know, I,
I want to read more of his comics.
I think he's, he's yeah.
I can't wait for those two to get
back together to write another one and to
do another one.
Cause I know that's, they're going to,
they got something planned for the future
and it's going to be absolutely amazing.
But is artifacts more about survival or
consequences for,
Well, that's a great question.
Oh, I know.
What I mostly thought about when I was
working on Artifacts was I work as a
freelancer sometimes.
And with book covers,
I know the job fairly well.
But there's always a lot that I don't
know.
I'm not an intergalactic bounty hunter
like Val,
but I can see in this fictitious
perspective,
there's a lot that she doesn't know
whenever she gets into an assignment and
she wants out.
That's why she's searching for these
vessels on Threlka.
um but there's always that thing you don't
know and and you it really is just
the the the thing about creative work um
and you were kind of talking about this
when we were talking about your comic uh
like you you don't always know what shape
it's going to take and like what's going
to be involved and that to me is
is kind of the the story of artifacts
is
is what they they didn't know just changed
their lives forever so so that's kind of
where it and and i think you know
to your actual question like it is a
lot about survival and how how scary that
can be yeah i think especially in that
type of environment because you're going
into the unknown every time you go out
And you're going to a world that,
you know,
has no way of surviving on it without
the supplies that you bring.
So that alone to me is just scary.
And the planet itself is a monument to
the failures of other planets and people
who have tried to collect these vessels.
It's seven pages,
so I didn't get into the full ship
graveyard of it.
But there is a wreck that's encountered.
And you get the feeling that people have
tried this before and no one's been
successful.
Yeah.
I like that whole concept.
The whole concept of this story was...
Absolutely amazing.
But if you had to pitch artifacts in
just one sentence that put somebody in
instantly, what would that pitch be?
Oh, wow.
One sentence?
One sentence.
It could be a run-on.
I'll give you a run-on sentence.
Man, I don't know if I could...
I think you stumped me, Chairman.
That's partially why I sent the two pages
of artwork with my pitch is that I
don't know that I'm the best at pitching.
I like to show kind of a nearly
finished idea.
I don't want to say it's funny because
it's not funny,
but I've talked to probably fifty plus
creators at this point.
And they always say the hardest thing they
ever do or can do is pitch their
story to somebody in one sentence or less,
unless you've been doing it for thirty
five, forty years.
It's a really difficult thing to do.
Yeah,
there was one sentence that kept coming
back to me when I was working on
it.
And it was,
I live in New York City.
I like it a lot.
There was one day when I decided I
was just going to go to the Met
Museum like really early and just walk
around and see what I could see without
the crowd.
And I ended up in this funny wing
above the Hellenistic wing.
It was like a Cappadocian...
And I know nothing about Cappadocia.
It was referenced like once on The
Simpsons.
But I was looking at the relics and
I had this creepy thought that was like,
what if they're looking back at you?
Like,
what if these things want to be here?
And that was a driving leitmotif while I
was working on it.
was just this feeling that you don't
always know why you're looking at what
you're looking.
Which is a good segue into what's scarier
in your story,
the planet or what's on it?
I think the reasons they're on the planet
are the scariest because it's frivolous.
It is this valuable,
rare thing that people on Earth want and
are willing to pay a lot for,
and they don't care about the
consequences.
And that's, you know,
something that we see every day.
You know,
we don't see it with our eyes necessarily,
but like there's a lot of things that
are a little frivolous that we just want
and we don't think about what's really
involved in.
Which segues me to the next one.
Why do humans always chase things they
probably shouldn't find?
Oh my God, if we knew.
We sure the hell wouldn't keep doing it.
If, yeah,
so I get the sense that we're both
collectors on some level.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
No,
I couldn't tell you why I like half
the stuff I like and collect.
Like, it's very, I do,
I'm working on the second issue.
I do a zine about old toys.
I read the first one.
The Halloween zine.
Oh, no, no.
That's a different thing.
Oh, okay.
But no,
I've been doing this zine about old toys
and there's only like one issue out.
And I'm always like, why am I,
why am I interested in like old stuff
that like,
like no one remembers the first issues
about these,
these robot toys called the Starriers that
I think were in stores for like one
year.
And I thought were the,
I thought they were the coolest.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
Cause back when Kmart was still a thing,
like I used to love going in there.
Like when certain runs of like figures
would like be like getting ready to go
off the shelf.
Kmart would drop like figures down to a
dollar, three dollars, five dollars.
And then I could afford them.
And then I could afford them.
And that's how I got like the initial
run of the original McFarland spawn toys
was because Kmart marked them down to like
three and five bucks a piece.
So I remember when those were on sale,
finally,
like I waited those things out for what
felt like forever.
And I missed a bunch of them because
people were like, oh,
they're down to eight dollars.
Let me grab that.
And I'm like, no, hold on.
It's like steady.
And then finally, you know,
they hit that three dollar mark.
I was like, let's go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I had my first crisp ten dollar bill
from mowing the lawn and got me two
of them.
Oh, my God.
Yeah,
I do think it's just mysterious why we
like the stuff we like.
And I've got kids and they enjoy
collecting stuff too.
And I think the beauty of being a
kid is that you don't have to think
about the reasons why you want.
a Superman figure at this scale, you know,
in this outfit, like it's just, you know,
but as an adult,
you kind of interrogate it a bit more.
And I do,
I do find it a little creepy.
Like I,
I really don't always know the reason, uh,
why I like the stuff I like.
Oh, when I go,
when I'm out and about and I see
like,
like I'm obvious I'm a star Wars
collector.
And, um,
like when I find a black series that
I don't have, Oh my God.
I scrutinize the shit.
I don't want a flawed boss because I'm
an inbox collector.
So obviously I want the crispy bots.
I want the figure to be, you know,
as close to perfect as possible.
And sometimes you'll be looking at them
and you'll see like the,
I print just like slightly off centered.
So like Anakin looks fricking cross-eyed.
I don't want that.
So it's like,
I moved out when I'm like, Oh shit.
It's the only one is a flawed one.
Like put it back on the shelf and,
and,
Now I don't have that Anakin because it
was a messed up misprint,
which I probably should have just grabbed
the misprint because it would probably be
worth something later.
But in my head,
I just couldn't justify spending twenty
nine ninety nine or whatever it is now
for a misprinted action figure.
Yeah, I just couldn't do it.
Like,
even though I know it would have probably
been worse something later.
But that initial thirty dollar upfront
calls for something that isn't perfect
made zero sense to me.
Yeah,
it's just like there's so many different
things where we just don't totally
understand why we like them.
But, you know,
I don't think we need to interrogate it
too much.
But in this particular story,
that's what's going to get you.
In the story, though,
is this artifact actually valuable?
Or is that just a lie that rich
are telling these people to get them to
go get it?
Oh,
I think you I think you gave it
a new layer.
I do want to do a follow up
to this because I think there's a lot
of a lot of these stories like deserve
a follow up.
And I and afterwards I was talking to
Jasmine.
I'm hoping Jasmine takes me up on.
Oh, yeah, I did.
I gave her because it was gold.
But I'm not going to go too much
into that one.
I'll just say I gave her some gold
nuggets and I hope she follows up with
them.
Well,
that's the other cool thing about this
collection is that after it publishes,
the creators, you know,
we have the rights to our work after
a year.
And so, you know,
that's opportunity for growth.
And that's a big part of what is
so exciting about what Chris and Chris
have done is they didn't just like make
a cool anthology.
They introduced everybody to each other so
that we all know people
who are doing stuff that we,
we know we like, and you know,
we also are going to own our stuff
a year from a year from now.
I think it's, I think it's like February,
uh, twenty, twenty seven.
So I might have that wrong, but yeah.
Whoa.
Yeah.
No,
Chris is going to create chairman bucks.
They're not going to be worth shit to
anybody but me.
Yeah.
They're good for a good pat on the
back.
Yeah,
I tend to think that the artifacts are
valuable in that people,
they discover this form that they're kind
of interested in.
And there's a little bit of variety of
the fragmental ornaments in the story.
But I don't know.
Yeah, you asked the tough questions.
I appreciate that.
I always come correct.
The hard-hitting podcast journalistic
questions about an indie comic book.
Because indie comic books are gold,
people.
The sooner people realize it, the better.
So let's talk about a little bit of
the intrigue of this book.
And who is more dangerous,
Val herself or the world that she's in?
Oh, my God.
Val is a menace.
Yeah, no shit.
Val...
evolved from this character that I was
writing for another,
it was just going to be a zine
and I was just literally going to give
it out for free.
And it was, you know,
I feel like the space bounty hunters are
always out there in science fiction,
like not, not even just in star Wars,
but like I was watching here's an eighties
horror movie for you.
Critters has some.
Yeah.
We, we better.
Yeah.
Like it had no business going as hard
as it did for a nineteen eighties critter
flick.
Yeah,
and I feel like there's more of them
than we think.
It's kind of a great way to explore
the solar system because this character
has a reason for going somewhere where
they're not welcome.
I think Val's very dangerous and the
planet's also very dangerous.
But the character she's based on,
I do want to come back to that
story because...
they're different i i realized that i
didn't just uh you know move one character
to another i kind of took the same
same general idea and just amplified
everything because it was a horror story
and because you need like extremes and
horror like it doesn't it doesn't i i
really do feel like horror doesn't really
work if everyone's just kind of uh very
thoughtful and considerate for each other
i mean
What is this,
a slice of life comic book?
Come on, man.
That actually could be a very scary horror
story,
but that's not the kind that we're trying
to tell.
So does desperation make people reckless
or honest in this case?
Oh my God.
I think there is a lot of
honesty on that final page where um man
i don't want to give too much away
like i have this big secret now because
i've got it had the chance to uh
read it you know and it's like i
want to ask other questions too but i'm
just like i you know val gets some
information that uh
that helps her come to, to, uh,
a final decision that I'm not sure she
would have made otherwise.
Like I would,
I would leave it at that.
Yeah.
Um, so there's also Bree in this.
So do you think they're trying to save
their sister or are they risking
everything for false hope in this?
Um,
I'm not sure the sister I'm not sure.
I think I I think I'm not following
totally.
Did I accidentally get to I may have
gotten two things messed up there.
So we'll skip that because I bet that's
what happened.
Sorry,
I was writing really late last night.
No, no, no.
Stuff probably bled together in my eyes as
I started going cross-eyed about midnight.
No,
I wish I had that level of siblings
and more stuff.
You don't want that.
You don't want to be up when I'm
up still working on stuff.
I will promise you that because I pulled
some late nights on this one.
I can imagine.
You got a full schedule.
And yeah,
thank you for doing all you do.
So now Val, the protagonist.
There's Cyrus, the archaeologist.
And then the ship's scientist and mechanic
Bree,
who is trying to get credits for medical
treatment for his sister.
Oh, my God.
I think we might have found a typo
because that's supposed to be Val.
Oh, my gosh.
Okay.
So, yeah,
that was in the synopsis of the story
that I had got from the team.
Oh, I see.
That's the synopsis versus the final work.
Okay, that's probably it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I think there was some shifting.
Yeah.
I waited till after I was done writing
before I actually read your story.
That way,
I didn't want to have a whole lot
of influences.
in the store or in the interview versus
after i had actually had the chance to
read the story so again i was up
really late last night reading and working
so yeah okay so no i knew i
knew i had kind of branched off from
the synopsis so like that's my bad no
you're perfectly good because literally
like my intent was just to take the
synopsis of what i had and make this
anyway
And then when I actually got the chance
to read it, I was like, well,
I don't want to go back and start
messing with things because I don't want
this to influence this.
But we will look past that since we
know that now.
And yeah,
I wanted to keep it pretty tight with
like two characters.
And then there's you know,
there's other presences, certainly.
But like it's it's Val and Cyrus.
Okay.
Okay, no, we're good there.
We can go to some horror, man.
Let's talk about the horror in this.
What's the most disturbing idea you think
in this story?
I do think becoming obsessed with
something to the point where you don't see
what it's doing to you.
I think we actually see that quite a
lot.
A lot.
And it, I mean,
it's on the news almost on a daily
basis.
Right.
Yeah.
That to me is very scary.
Like what,
what they're both going through,
like what, what Val is doing by,
by just being like, you know, Oh,
you know, you're, she tells the Cyrus,
like, you're not,
you're not finding where we should look.
So I'm just going to start looking like
that's not actually a healthy,
like she's not necessarily in the right
there.
But, you know, in those frames,
you just see him staring and staring at
this thing and trying to figure out what
it is.
And that is what creeps me out the
most.
It's because I know I've done that.
I know that there's been a topic that
I have.
Again,
that was a perfect segue into what does
that exactly represent there?
Because he knows it's something,
but what is that something and what does
that represent?
Yeah.
I mean,
we all just go through trying to figure
out,
we will get hung up on something and
we feel like it's achievable to understand
what that thing is or where it's from
or what a motive is.
And it's just not necessarily true.
Like some things are going to be obscure
now.
In the case of this story,
we do find out why this is such
a blind spot for everybody.
And it's probably healthier that that was
a blind spot, to be fair.
Yeah.
But yeah, you know,
I will get hung up on some fact
and just try to try to figure out
or like that Google rabbit hole, man.
Hours later, you're like, wait,
what was I talking about again or thinking
about again?
And you're you're way off base where you
originally started to where you're at.
When I was preparing for this interview,
there was a quote that I remembered seeing
online from Peter Cushing,
who we Star Wars fans know as Grand
Moff Tarkin and horror fans know as
multiple Dr. Frankenstein scenarios.
But he talked about how he felt that
the movies he was in,
that horror wasn't really the right name
for it.
He felt like, you know,
they represented like dreams or, you know,
fantastical situations and that the scary
movies are something like The Godfather,
something that shows like corruption and
like stuff that people have to deal with
on a daily basis.
Anyway,
I became obsessed with finding the source
for that quote.
Like...
That was my obsession.
Here's what I love about Peter Cushion.
He, no kidding,
went to George Lucas and said, dude,
these boots are killing my feet.
He wore his slippers and that's why he
is only filmed from knee high because he's
legit wearing slippers on set of the
movie.
I'm wearing slippers right now.
He had the right idea.
And so what's great is he,
him and what's his name?
What is one of the other like great
actors from his period?
They got thrown out of a midnight showing
of the Looney Tunes because they couldn't
stop laughing because they were racking
up.
And I'm like,
When you're that caliber of an actor and
decorate it as he was and you and
your buddy is drunk watching Bud's Bunny
on the big screen and you are asked
to leave, gold.
That's what you aspire to when you get
to that age where you and your old
buddy next to you can go drunk to
the movies to watch Bud's Bunny and the
Looney Tunes and get asked to leave
because you're being too loud.
When they were probably the only ones in
there, to be fair.
Yeah, but I really...
I really admire that because I think...
A hundred percent.
I think, like,
not just laughing at the Looney Tunes.
We should all do that.
A hundred percent.
But the idea that horror isn't necessarily
just to gross you out or, like,
horrify you or whatever.
Like, in some ways,
it is a misnomer because what horror lets
us do is explore, you know,
dreamlike situations or...
you know, just aspects that we would,
we usually don't like to think about at
all.
I don't know.
I thought it was cool.
And I did find it on the BBC
site after like searching for it for,
you know, he's a Brit.
So yeah.
So does greed always lead to destruction
in stories like this?
I feel like that's probably about a ninety
to ninety-five percent yes there.
I was going to say there was a...
Oh man, I didn't prepare for this.
Who was the author who wrote Congo?
Michael Crichton.
Michael Crichton, yeah.
He wrote a couple of novels under a
different name about...
I don't know.
This particular novel was about a guy who
raided the pyramids and the the greed is
palpable.
Lots of people die in it from his
crew.
But, you know, ultimately,
our hero is our antihero is successful.
Now,
whether that's just going to cause further
ruination of his inner spirit,
that's not explored because it's not that
kind of book.
I do think greed for oneself is usually
always bad.
I think if it was possible to be
greedy for others,
to want things for others so desperately,
we just don't see that that much.
And I sort of wonder if that's even
possible.
Yeah.
That, I think, comes back to, like,
I always find a lot of happiness and
joy when I see those around me succeeding
at what they have chosen to do.
But it drives me crazy when you see
the exact opposite of that,
when you see two friends who have fallen
apart because one is doing a little better
than the other.
Oh, my God, yeah.
So it goes back to that greed factor.
I'm like, okay,
you're in this greedy stage of life,
which is understandable.
I think to a certain degree,
you have to be greedy to a certain
degree.
It's human nature.
We all have that in us,
but it's also what you do at the
end of the day, you know, but,
but yeah.
I don't think Val is going to go
out and wreck somebody's life if she
accomplishes her mission.
I don't think Cyrus is either.
If it was a different kind of story,
I would probably just settle down.
That is true.
So in sci-fi, especially sci-fi horror,
who do you think are usually the real
villains of those stories?
I mean, greed is a huge element there.
We see that in Dune with the Harkonnen
who can't play by the rules.
The very strange rules of that particular
galaxy.
Yeah, yeah.
I've read those books and I still don't
know all the rules.
Yeah.
And we see that with the Empire and
Star Wars,
like they're so obsessed with control.
And, you know, that's, and, you know,
in the comics, and of course,
the Mandalorian and stuff,
we see that they, you know,
they need that Mandalorian armor for
themselves to make into things.
currency because they just think it's cool
and stuff like that so like greed is
definitely the big bad in sci-fi and you
know if we think about other stuff like
Star Trek which is a very you know
the amazing thing about the Starfleet is
that they're not greedy they're just there
to explore like for some reason like
star trek never resonated with me the same
way star wars did yeah and i think
that's the main reason why is because
there was no real conflict i mean there
was conflict with the boards there was
conflict along the way but not to the
degree we see in star wars then maybe
that's just me being you know i i
don't know like maybe like growing up with
the violent movies or what have you but
But Star Trek never resonated with me
because I don't think there was like
enough like real conflict in it.
It was more about the journey and the
learning of the galaxy,
which I take a step back to say
I do really enjoy the new Star Trek
series.
Mm hmm.
Yeah, I mean,
I've kind of come back to Star Trek
off and on,
and I like it a lot more than
I did as a kid.
Like it was a little harder for me
to understand for the reasons that you're
describing.
And I think now if I went back
and watched like the older stuff,
I would probably enjoy it a lot more
because at the stage of life I'm in.
But who has time for that?
Well,
but it's valid at any age to be
like,
I don't totally understand the motives of
Starfleet.
Like,
how many planets are they going to go
to?
I was definitely more Star Wars than Star
Trek.
And, you know,
I haven't read all of the Newton books.
I want to.
Hey, shout out Lucille Ball,
because without Lucille Ball,
we don't get it.
Is that true?
Oh, right, right.
Desilu.
Yeah.
She put up the money to have the
pilot done.
So without her, we don't get sci-fi.
That's really cool.
And without Dolly Parton,
we don't get the original Buffy.
Is that true?
Yeah.
I mean, I believe it.
When you check the credits, you'll see it.
You know,
I think the other big bad in sci-fi
has to be conformity because that is kind
of what you see in almost all sci-fi
is like,
uh you know if you're on a utopia
planet and everyone's just doing the same
thing because they agree on it is that
a good thing uh you know why does
the empire in star wars want to impose
their will on everything uh you know this
idea of conformity um and i would even
say something like i robot where all of
the robots have those those ten rules is
it yeah ten rules yeah
but those rules are going to get
interpreted in different ways throughout
that book.
And what I enjoyed about that is like
the creator knew,
so he had to create one outside of
the system.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know a lot of people didn't really
like that, that movie.
Yeah.
I enjoyed it.
Plus it had that really sweet audio.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I read the book when I was a
kid and it just made a huge impression
on me.
I was reading another sci-fi novel
recently called The Chrysalids by John
Wyndham.
And the threat of conformity in there is
just so potent.
Like,
I'm almost certain this was an influence
on the X-Men.
Mm-hmm.
It's about like a post-nuclear disaster
where, you know,
mutants and humans are at each other's
throats.
And it just, it's very, I don't know.
I think sci-fi is really good for
exploring a lot of the things we're
dealing with as a society now,
which is people's greed and people's
desire to impose conformity on everybody
else.
And again, thank you for-
Again,
thank you for spotlighting indie creators
because I do feel like that is something
that is more important than ever,
particularly as publishing continues to
consolidate.
Kickstarter is great,
but it's not a publisher.
All these different artists are on their
own.
May first.
May first?
May first.
I'm going to have a...
Personal and I haven't announced it yet it
he was not originally part of my main
lineup But it was kind of one where
I kind of wanted to bump it up
Seeing and heard because I do really
appreciate what this individual is doing
for indie comics So I'm going to make
that announcement here soon as the day
gets closer.
I'm gonna push an update to the schedule
and
because he was somebody that I really
wanted to talk to because I do really
like what they are doing for the community
outside of, you know, what I do,
what he is doing is like a next
level.
So I,
I really appreciate what it is that he
is actually doing for the community,
even though others may not see it that
way, but yeah,
We will let everybody be the judge of
that on May first.
So be on the lookout.
That's an announcement that will be coming
later.
I'll tune in.
That sounds interesting.
It's going to be really fun.
And like I said,
I can get behind what this person is
doing.
And I am a very staunch believer.
And I like my floppy comics.
I like my printed comics.
I appreciate what Kickstarter does.
Kickstarter, you still need to get at me.
Let's make something happen.
But this is also something along the lines
of Kickstarter that I can get behind
because of what they're doing for the
community.
We'll leave it at that.
All right.
I'm intrigued.
So let's talk about some of the creator
tastes.
Yeah.
Why do most creators get wrong about the
genre of sci-fi,
and specifically sci-fi horror that you
have created?
I think sometimes...
there are so many disparate elements in a
sci-fi story that it's hard for the reader
to know what to focus on.
That's kind of what I've noticed in the
work that I haven't gravitated towards,
where it's just,
know we we have like the spacesuits and
we have the robots but it's not and
we have like some interesting facts here
and there but it's not like coming
together in a cohesive villain uh vision
too much with not like they try to
have too many things going on or to
really be a cohesive story is one of
the ones i think
I feel that way about like lost in
space a little bit.
Like I don't totally get it.
Like I understand, I understand it's,
it's, you know,
sort of a Robinson Crusoe story with his
family, but it doesn't.
It's literally their story in outer space.
Maybe it's supposed to be Swiss family
Robinson.
Swiss family Robinson.
Yes.
You know, I think,
I think that's something that,
I tend to not feel like sci-fi is
done wrong.
I know what I like and that tends
to be what I gravitate towards.
I went to see The Martian.
I enjoyed it a lot.
I don't think I would read the book.
I thought it was...
I didn't enjoy the book or the movie.
I loved the concept of it.
I just thought it had poor execution.
Even in the book.
You know,
I honestly talk about that movie all the
time because of the math involved and all
that stuff.
Like, I thought it was very interesting.
But I would just say, like,
science fiction...
can be more about ideas than concepts and
futuristic ideas.
That's what I liked about three body
problem on Netflix.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It kind of like you got the math
element to it.
You got the science element to it.
It really combines a lot of good elements,
the correct way into a cohesive story,
even though I will say like the first
few episodes, I was kind of like,
the name of this don't make sense.
Why call it?
And then, you know,
once you're finally in, I mean,
the story is still good.
It's still intriguing,
but until you figure out what exactly a
three body problem was,
that's when you're like, Oh,
and I think that's why a lot of
people messed up is they didn't wait for
that kind of reveal to know what it
was.
And it's hard to sit through if you
don't know what something is or why the
title is done a certain way when it
doesn't make sense within the first
episode or two.
You know what, Chairman?
You know what I would say about...
There is something like not every sci-fi
movie has to be long.
That is what I,
if there's one thing that I want to
like get across is like,
I think short can be really effective and
we don't have to expand everything.
Think about it.
The nineties, early two thousands,
the average movie was ninety minutes.
Yeah.
Ninety to an hour forty five.
yeah and you know that's also what i
like about comics is like it it is
uh a lot of time spent um drawing
something so that someone can read it and
understand it very quickly like it's just
such a beautiful uh distillation of uh and
you know writing is like that too like
that's for sure poetry's like that music's
like that
But, you know,
comics can be read so quickly and still
understood that I just think it's a really
beautiful format.
You know,
it's sort of like painting on the cave
walls to tell your story.
Like, it's one of those...
When I was a lit manager,
I was reading a lot of Salman Rushdie's
work,
and I was shocked by all the allusions
to comics that he had,
which I thought were really cool.
And in Satanic Verses, at some point,
he just talks about how storytellers from
the past would have illustrations so that
they could talk about
what they're doing and i i um i
haven't read rusty in a long time but
it definitely even movies uh commercials
storyboards to accompany them i know a guy
who does storyboards for netflix so i know
for a fact that they do that for
their movies their tv shows they do
storyboards for everything yeah and a
storyboard is literally just an artist
drawing the story
Yeah.
Which is really cool to me.
I love storyboards.
I love to see storyboards.
And I get to see storyboards pretty often
because I follow my buddy on Instagram and
he shares those.
What's his handle?
What's his handle?
His name's Francisco Nilo.
He's the artist on Vidalirium's comic
book,
which is a great book and comic book,
by the way.
But what is his handle?
Oh.
Sorry, give me just a second.
Sorry, I didn't mean to derail us,
but I did want to get his info
out there.
F F A H underscore draws.
And he puts together like really cool
storyboards.
Yeah, I think storyboarding is amazing.
I think I was reading that Alfred
Hitchcock, I could be messing this up.
I know he was involved in typesetting
dialogue for silent movies,
but I think he did storyboarding as well.
And that's why his movies have that,
just those delicious visuals that like you
can just instantly.
So good.
His silent work that he did on the
Twilight Zone as well,
Like some of the, yeah,
there's a few episodes that are silent and
I didn't, I didn't know that.
I love a good silent,
like anything like a silent movie,
like especially the horror genre.
Like you look at stuff like, um,
what was it?
Uh, shit.
the base motel.
Like there was parts of that where it
was just the music that kind of the
music and the acting on the screen that
kind of like built that suspense and that
grand reveal.
There was no words.
There's very few words in that movie.
Oh my God.
You're right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's what makes it so good is
that the music and the suspense of how
things are recorded and shot is what
builds that suspense and the horror in
that TV.
The TV show is a little bit more
wordy,
but I still enjoyed the TV series because
the actor who plays Norman is really good.
But the movie itself is very like...
suspenseful and the music just it's like
jaws you know you can't shark don't talk
it just the music builds the suspense of
it and then when nothing happens like they
built all that suspense up and then it's
nothing yeah and then it comes right back
and gets you and that that's where you
get that jump scare of the shark coming
out of the water and eating you
Yeah, to me,
it's just brilliant storytelling where you
can take the music and the soundtrack of
something.
Jason walking through the woods at a slow
pace and then eventually catching you
while you're running,
you're pulling your lap.
The kids may be yelling amongst each
other, hey, get away from me,
leave me alone,
but Jason never says a word.
It's the music and his actions that build
that.
So like, you know,
I can't we can't put music in a
comic book,
but I listen to music a lot when
I'm when I'm drawing and I put together
a playlist for Aha that I shared in
the discord just because I felt like,
you know,
let's just get this stuff out there so
we can set a mood.
And it is like exactly what you're
describing.
You know,
I think like the equivalent of a
soundtrack in a comic.
in a comic is probably like the color
palette because it just makes you feel a
certain way.
And I remember, you know,
staring at the colors and EC Comics and
there was this classics illustrated
version of Crime and Punishment that I
think I probably stole a lot from to
create some of the of artifacts.
You know,
the word they used to describe that
palette is usually lurid,
like the lurid color.
And I don't know if I feel that
way.
Like it always just feels kind of
nightmarish and like, you know,
otherworldly to me,
like almost ethereal when you see like a
purple sky or a green cloud,
something like that.
no i get you and like i love
how music colors sounds all can come
together and scare the out of you more
than words that can be spoken take us
take a long stroll at night on a
trail or just out in your neighborhood at
night
Oh, yeah.
You live in Brooklyn.
I wouldn't do that if I was you.
No, no, no.
That's why I'm here.
It's a community.
You're rarely alone when you're walking
around.
That's why it's great, though.
You go for that walk,
but in your head,
there's always that lingering aspect of,
I'm going for a walk at night.
The sky has this weird purple tone to
it.
It's
I grew up in the country and some
of those drives home at night where it's
just nothing for as far as you can
see.
There's no street lights.
There's none of that.
It's just like cornfields and cotton
fields and cows and chicken coops as far
as you can see.
And then the big, beautiful starry sky.
But to be honest to you,
that is like some of the creepiest fucking
drives because as you're driving along,
you're like,
Did anybody else?
No, nobody else seen that, okay.
That sky,
I know exactly what you're talking about.
I went to Purchase College,
and there was a lot of wilderness.
And you would just be struck by the
fact that there's a lot of sky above
you.
And if you were to see something in
that sky,
and I think that brings us back to
science fiction,
you don't know what you'd do.
Where are you going to run?
No,
I enjoy my evening walks in Brooklyn very
much.
It's...
Brooklyn's a big place,
but people get to know you really fast.
I like city living a lot.
One of the cool things is that I
bump into comic artists just randomly.
It's a good town for that.
I was drawing on the train.
I was working on my friend's
Cthulhu Mythos magazine that I have to
plug here, Beit Al-Azif.
I have a comic in it and it's
a great resource for people who are into
role playing.
But I was drawing something for that and
this guy gets up to leave and he's
like, you got to fix the shoulders.
Like everything...
everything rests on the shoulders and i
looked at it and i was like oh
my god like i was drawing this person
with like a dislocated like you know i
hadn't noticed it because i was just in
the i love drawing in public like it's
it's a it's a rush you get a
encouragement you get discouragement it's
uh it's a lot of fun but getting
back a little bit of back on topic
here so do you think indie creators are
pushing are further than the mainstream
right now
I think they've always done it,
but I'm curious to what your opinion is.
Yeah, I do.
You know,
I don't think we see the kind of
horror offerings from the mainstream.
Like when, you know,
when DC or Marvel do their like Marvel
zombies or, you know, the,
the DC Halloween issue,
like those are fun, but it's,
it's not going to be like,
I forgot who's who used to publish flinch.
Like I, I would,
I picked up a few issues of that.
That was like an interesting kind of
anthology and,
That's like, you know,
I was on the train today on our
way to this meeting and thinking about how
many great horror movie anthologies there
used to be.
We had Creepshow.
We had Dead of Night.
That always gets referenced.
It's really old.
It's really good.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Um,
there's a lot of good stuff and you
know,
the mainstream publishers aren't going to
do that.
So get yourself an aha.
Like that's exactly,
exactly what speaking of aha,
what made aha different from other
anthologies that you've had the
opportunity to work on?
Um,
just i i really think the vibe that
chris and chris uh just carry kind of
naturally that that is a much different
tone than um because they're just they're
very friendly and like the fact that they
were like no just make a comic like
make a full color that's huge like i
i do that i do that uh halazine
every year and last year was black and
white um
I like that, by the way.
I love a good black and white.
Thank you.
And it was like that because I wasn't
sure what the costs of paper or whatever
were going to be that year.
And it's also fun.
But the fact that they're just like,
just do it.
Just make the thing that you want to
do and don't worry about it.
There's no theme.
There's no restrictions.
That is a much different tone than we
usually see.
You usually get like...
can you write it about this topic?
And it's like, of course you can,
but yeah, the opportunity, it's not,
you know,
like you're not going to give a shit
as much.
Well, you gave me the topic.
I don't really, you know, it's always you,
but, but, uh,
it is cool to just do something that
you,
you never thought you'd get the chance to
do.
And it,
it's crazy to me that it doesn't happen
that often.
So, um,
I mean, to be fair,
if it wasn't for Chris and Chris being
who they are,
I don't think we'd get a team like
Squids and Minaj telling the story they
got to tell.
I don't think we'd get that.
Or Duke Electric and Migs.
Yeah, Jasmine, Matt.
I don't think we get these creators put
together to write or draw whatever the
hell they wanted.
No restrictions.
That's the other crazy thing is that they
built a team.
That is wild to me.
Again, I do halazine.inc, but like...
I basically get someone to do a drawing
and someone to do a story.
I wouldn't assemble a team to do that
because I don't know how they did it.
They just did it.
It's incredible what they have put
together with this anthology.
I am absolutely thankful for them giving
me the opportunity to get a chance to
talk to all of you because this is
not something that happens
ever and it's really not normally you talk
to the guy who created the anthology who
brought it together but to be given an
opportunity and access to talk to
everybody involved from an anchor to a
writer to a artist to a writer artist
you just don't get it often and it's
such a cool thing to get to do
And I'm forever thankful for the
opportunity and for Duke emailing me like,
hey,
would you be interested in doing this?
And at first I didn't know to what
extent this would be,
but I'm so happy and so thankful that
it was to the extent.
that it was and to have access and
to get to know all of you who
worked on this that would come on the
podcast.
And I think I've gotten to talk to
the majority of everybody.
There's been a few who had to,
you know,
whether they were sick or had family stuff
come up that I didn't get to talk
to, which an open invitation, you know,
please,
if y'all want to come back and talk
about any of your other work,
y'all know how to get a hold on
me, right?
But
It's just not something I,
as a podcaster who works in indie comic
books, gets to do often,
if ever at all.
And to have this opportunity from Chris
and Chris was absolutely an awesome thing
to get to do with all of you.
I hope, you know,
I can say I've made, you know,
eight good friends, ten good friends,
fifteen good friends out of this who
just brilliant creators who I honestly
can't wait to see what each and every
one of you does next, especially Jasmine,
because I gave her some really good notes.
Not to toot my own horn, but damn,
I gave her some good ones.
that just fit well within that realm of
the story that she wrote,
which Gothic horror is just phenomenal
stuff.
But yeah, but I would,
I would just say like, if, if,
if you're listening and you like the sound
of this, like, please,
please pack this book, like encourage.
Five more days.
Yeah.
You got five more days.
Encourage Chris and Chris to,
to do work like this because I, I,
I really do think it's important.
And I think it's great that we,
we all had this experience of, of,
what's really cool about it is not like
not everybody involved in this has wrote
for comic books before some for some
people this is their first time writing as
part of a comic book or a first
time drawing as part of a comic book
or first time inking or whatever it may
be like you've done it but like to
done it to the extent that you've been
able to for this
like I knew that was one of the
biggest requirements is you can't,
you basically are rookie to this genre of
storytelling,
which I think is so cool that they
did it that way.
So, but let's, let's bring this home, man.
Yeah,
I'm sorry we went a little long there.
No, no.
Dude,
you have to come back and we just
have to have a rambling conversation.
Two ADHD guys talking comic books about...
Hey, I would love that.
Yeah, we'll do it, man.
Yeah.
It'll be one of those shows where since
I'm going to a lighter schedule starting
next month,
we can just have a random Tuesday where
we could do this.
You guys missed our conversation about
black cats and how they tend to chat
a lot.
Yeah, they're chatty little creatures.
We just like fresh meat.
I can run many different directions with
that one there, buddy.
But we're not going to do that.
That is not this type of show.
But Evan, tell everybody,
where's a good place for them to start
if they want to discover more of your
work?
Oh, thank you so much.
So my website for the last,
I don't know,
twenty years has been Evan Johnston design
dot com.
That's Johnston with a T.
And that's because I originally built the
site to show my my book design work.
And that's still there.
But now there's a lot more illustration on
Instagram.
I'm at Evan Johnston art.
And there is a new social network for
artists that I wanted to tell your
listeners about.
It's called Cara.
It's really cool.
It's got links.
It's got a lot of great artwork.
And I'm just at Evan Johnston on Cara,
that's C-A-R-A.
and i think that i think that's going
to be an important place for creators at
least i hope it will because a lot
of the limitations you have with um the
meta properties are just not a factor um
but yeah man thank you so much like
i really appreciate it um dude this is
what i live for this is what i
absolutely love to get to do but
we're gonna bring this home evan first off
thank you for coming on and closing out
aha with this man it was a blast
to talk to you and like i said
i i think we need to do like
one big show many people as we can
and just really wrap this up that would
be really fun to do but
Over the past several episodes,
we've explored what horror truly can be.
Not just monsters, not just fear,
but stories really rooted in the human
experience.
We've seen horror through silence,
through science, through folklore,
through the body, and through belief.
And now,
we've seen it through the unknown.
AHA wasn't just an anthology.
It was a showcase of what indie creators
are truly capable of when they are given
the freedom to tell stories that matter,
stories that challenge,
stories that disturb,
and stories that stay with you long after
the final page.
And that's what we do here at USDN.
We shine a light on the creators pushing
boundaries and building worlds and
redefining what Indie Comics truly can be.
So to every creator who is a part
of AHA, to everyone watching, listening,
and supporting Indie Comics,
this is just the beginning.
Make sure you like, follow,
and share this with all your friends.
Be on the lookout for the playlist that
will have all these phenomenal episodes
within it with all these creators who are
just absolutely amazing.
Shout out to Chris and Chris one more
time.
That's Chris with a K for that last
one.
for allowing me to do this and for
bringing all these great artists and
writers together to write AHA and to draw
AHA and be a part of what has
to be an experience.
So there's still five days left on the
Kickstarter.
The link is down in the description for
the book.
Go give it some love.
I promise you will not be disappointed.
There's eight stories.
There's got to be one that will appeal
to you.
if not many, but ladies and gentlemen,
this has been the USDN podcast where indie
comments come to life.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the council is adjourned.
Y'all be safe and happy Monday.