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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.
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Thanks for watching!
What is up, everybody?
It's the chairman of the United States
Department of Nerds,
where we are for the people,
by the people, and of the people.
And tonight,
we are taking a trip down the nineteen
eighties New Orleans in a city soaked with
secrets, jazz and supernatural shadows.
And our guide tonight is the talented
mr christopher ford chris welcome to the
show man oh thank you so much for
having me i'm really excited to get into
uh talking about the comic we're excited
to have you on and to have a
chat about dark pink now tell us what
inspired that name dark pink um well it's
uh
When I came up with the idea for
the project,
I was in a comic book shop in
two thousand and six and I saw a
cover for Daughters of the Dragon number
two,
the Marvel comic with Missy Knight and
Colleen Wing.
And
I it just hit me when I saw
like the cover I saw her.
I had never seen Misty or call it
out.
I wasn't really big into you know those
two characters and it just something hit
me like I gotta.
I have to do a comic book about
a detective with a robotic arm.
And so the first thing that came was
doing that.
And then the second thing was Dark Pink.
It just had to be the name because
I wanted her to have pink braids.
And then I just kind of figure out
everything else from there.
And so, you know, I thought it's catchy.
It kind of describes the way the character
looks.
It's also a play on her name,
Dara Pinkerton.
So you got...
a lot of the letters and and everything
kind of working together so i thought it
was clever you know trying to be i
know it works dude i like it yeah
yeah yeah i thought it would be something
kind of catchy and um something someone
would see and at least be somewhat
intrigued that and the way you advertise
this comment because i swear to god every
time i got on facebook instagram your
advertisement dude was so well on point
man
Like,
it was literally everywhere I looked,
I was seeing advertisements for Dark Pink.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah, I, like, made it a point.
I figured, you know, like I said,
I basically had this idea in my head
since two thousand and six,
nearly twenty years.
And finally.
you know figured out how i could actually
create it and launch it and all of
that um and i figured you know i'm
gonna put in all this blood sweat and
tears i want to make sure i push
it um as best as i can and
um basically like one of the things i
did is like i i saved the money
for years to uh
Create the comic book.
So I was going to use the money
I saved to pay the artist and everything.
And then I decided pretty late in the
process to use that money that I was
going to use to create the comic book
to market it to create a Kickstarter and
market it on Kickstarter.
That way I could make the money back.
but also already have a built-in fan base
instead of just spending all the money
creating the comic book and it not
happening i think you secured a nice
little bag and i think you got a
budget set for the rest of the series
uh yeah yeah it went pretty well um
yeah pretty well it's just done okay you
know relatively speaking i mean we are
like in the top
One percent.
Yeah.
Of comic book Kickstarters ever,
which like blows my mind because if you
see you go on my Kickstarter, you know,
my goal is just to get like six
thousand dollars.
Yeah.
I think that's about the average anybody
can really shoot for is that six thousand.
And then like when I clicked it,
you know,
when I had started following the project,
I kept seeing it go up.
I'm like, dang.
Yeah,
I am like blown away by how well
it's been received.
I mean, you know, of course,
I think it's a really good idea.
You know,
I created it and I'm super biased,
but to actually...
You earned it.
Thank you.
Yeah, this response,
I'm humbled and I really appreciate it.
And it just gives me that reassurance that
I've created something that people are
interested in.
I'm on the right path.
And it just encourages me just to keep
going.
And we're in the home stretch of creating.
This first one, I already have ideas.
A script for the second one,
I got an outline for like eight
issues i'm here for it i'm here for
all eight yeah and i'm just kind of
you know learning the process like
actually of how much time and effort and
you know all the things you have to
do to actually like produce a comic book
um you know but this wasn't your first
first foray into writing you also have
three children's books underneath your
belt so
Yeah, yeah, I'm a lifelong writer.
I've always enjoyed writing and creating
my own worlds.
I mean, I'm a huge comic book nerd.
So, you know, just reading them,
watching the X-Men on Saturday mornings
back in the night.
i'm right there with you yeah i always
wanted to you know create something it
would be like you know for me like
eighties was gi joe and transformers oh
yeah nineties was like power rangers and
the x-men and i always wanted to you
know create something that could
you know fit in those universes um you
know because it's the things that i was
interested in and you know uh like i
always wanted to do a comic book but
i i can't draw so no one i
don't think anybody wanted to see my stick
figure story of uh dark pink um so
i kind of just sat on it for
like a long time and i decided i
knew i could write a book
you know, because there's no art required.
So I went into writing like my children's
books, you know,
like about me and my dad and trying
to put like positive imagery out there for
young people.
And now, yeah, you know,
now that things have like kind of
progressed, like in two thousand six,
like there was no way for me to
even consider like creating a
But now, you know, with social media,
you can actually like reach out to
artists.
You can promote and get your stuff out
there a lot easier.
And, you know,
the stars just kind of aligned finally.
Good work and got some good traction,
like writing my books and everything.
And then the time came and I was
able to kind of put this whole thing
together.
And here we are.
I like it, man.
The comic book itself was...
I think you immediately sent me the PDF
version of it.
It was really enjoyable.
I like where the story is going from
the roots in England to New Orleans.
I think they went to where...
It was England to New York to New
York and then New Orleans.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I thought that was really cool how
it wasn't what I was expecting for a
story that was set in New Orleans.
So how did you end up in the
city of New Orleans for the comic book?
Well, I live in Houston, Texas.
And New Orleans is our sister city.
My dad is from Louisiana.
I've been to New Orleans dozens of times
in my life.
Guilty.
Guilty.
It's literally like a four and a half,
five hour drive in a forty five minute
flight from where I live.
So it's been a part of life.
me like my entire life like i have
all kind of crazy memories from being on
bourbon street when i was too young to
probably be on bourbon street and seeing
all kinds of weird things and stuff and
your old kids shouldn't be saying but yeah
You know, so like, I also know that,
you know,
a lot of combos are like set in
New York or fictional cities and things
like that.
And since I wanted to tell a story
with like mysticism and monsters and
things of that nature.
New Orleans is perfect for it.
Yeah, then New Orleans,
if you want a place.
I think there's more haunted tours in New
Orleans than there is anywhere else in the
United States.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's, you know,
the city is just like steeped in history
and lore.
And, you know, it's a very,
very fascinating place.
And I think it's just like the perfect
place to tell like this kind of story.
No, dude, I like it.
I think it's the perfect setting for this
type of story.
And having been to New Orleans myself more
times than I'm willing to admit to,
the vibe,
even when you're there during the day,
it just everything feels unsettling.
yeah yeah yeah it's a it's a very
very unique place it's like um like no
other place that you know you can really
like that's considered like a
quote-unquote like touristy place like
it's uh it's got some some up to
it so that's one way to put it
yeah so
You've combined this idea of like the noir
of the eighties, the supernatural horror,
but you took it a step further and
you combined that nineteen eighties New
Orleans jazz feel directly into the story
where you can listen to the music and
read the comic book together.
How did you come up with that?
Because that is brilliant.
Well, I love music.
You know,
growing up in the eighties and the
nineties,
I would consider the best era for a
lot of, a lot of musical genres.
Without a doubt, without a doubt.
yeah so like i just wanted to incorporate
like the things that i love the things
that i find interesting the things that i
enjoy like that's the fun thing of like
you know being a creative and you know
coming up with something you can just
throw in all the stuff that you like
yeah um i'm a big music person you
know um and like that was one of
the early things that i came up with
you know once i kind of started to
piece like the project together was i
wanted to figure out a way to incorporate
music like i i knew um i wanted
to do a purple rain cover like
Fifteen years ago.
There's something about a Purple Rain
tribute cover.
I know we were talking before we went
live,
but it's one of those things where...
If I'm in the comic book store and
I'm just so happen to be flipping through
the dollar bin or something,
if I see a Purple Range review cover,
it's coming home with me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No.
Instant buy.
Yeah.
You know,
it just it's so iconic and it's just
cool.
It just looks good.
You know what I'm saying?
Like only Prince could take a purple
velvet suit and a purple Harley Davidson
in the rain and make that shit cool.
Yeah, with frills.
If it had been anybody else on that
motorcycle,
it would not have been that cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, no.
You know, Prince is the man.
So it's like my personal favorite musical
artist, you know, of all time.
It's like him and Sade.
And so, like,
I knew I had to put the Sade
cover.
When I seen that,
when I seen that one.
And I think you included the music in
there, too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was like,
this is my dude right here.
Like, this is my dude.
The intro features like Smooth Operator.
That's the name of the issue.
Number one is Smooth Operator.
And yeah, you know,
I just wanted to do something,
like one that I enjoyed,
that I would find interesting.
But also, you know,
do something that was unique.
Like,
I don't see a lot of music integrated
into, like, comics.
Of course, you know, like Marvel and DC,
like, they can't do it because...
I think I've seen one other.
And I don't remember what it was.
And I want to say it was from.
It was actually another Kickstarter.
It was called the Cryos.
But it was a nineteen eighties punk.
But the soundtrack was amazing for it,
too.
And it was something about that eighties
and nineties, man, whether it was R&B,
hip hop.
know pop or punk just the music vibe
completely different so just such a man
such a great generation of music yeah yeah
you know i i i think that it's
um you know something that
is also kind of underrepresented,
you know, in popular culture now.
It's like, we, now the,
I guess because we're old,
but the nostalgia now is like early two
thousands.
It still blows my mind, dude.
Every single time.
Yeah.
And I'm just like, no,
we got to go back to the other
stuff, you know, get to the good stuff,
the stuff that inspired the early two
thousand.
So.
So, yeah, I mean, you know,
when I hear people say the mid two
thousands,
I sit there and stare at them like,
what the hell are you talking about?
Mid two thousands.
yeah i'm like oh it's twenty twenty five
i guess that does make sense yeah i
know like i said i i was looking
at um like my copy of dollars of
the dragon is like two thousand and six
on there i was like i've been working
on this for nineteen years um yeah like
time flies but you know it's it was
such a
like the eighties were such an influential
time, like in pop culture at, you know,
it's, it's,
it's always a good time to go back
to that time, you know, when you're,
Oh yeah.
Without a doubt.
Without a doubt.
It's, I still watch, um, the Goonies and,
um,
Back to the Future, the Ghostbusters.
I'll still watch the old school Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby-Doo.
I go back and I still watch all
that stuff.
Yeah, yeah, no, Back to the Future.
I mean,
action movies to me were like born in
that time frame with Rambo and Terminator.
Yeah, yeah, no, I...
I had a Robocop homage piece of art
made.
I'm definitely one hundred percent going
to Back to the Future.
uh homage cover for for one of the
the future issues that's one hundred
percent i had to got to um you
know terminator the the terminator one uh
movie poster i want to do something with
that i want to do like the the
eighties horror movies i want to do like
a friday the thirteenth homage and like
home street like it's is this don't create
my wallet i would just give you my
wallet now
yeah i this is i'm trying to create
stuff like i would want to see and
i know other people would want to see
and you know it's also funny that um
younger people they weren't so much
exposed to it but they'll still see it
and it'll draw them in because it was
you know all the art and the music
it was so creative and so well done
that you know all you have to do
is show somebody
If you play a Michael Myers theme song,
people immediately know what that is.
All that stuff,
they call classes for a reason.
For those people not familiar with Dark
Pink...
and your main character Dora Pinkerton
tell everybody who Dora Pinkerton is and
kind of give us the background on her
character because she's a fantastic
character and then the Fresh Prince thing
you did with her chef's kiss dude uh
thank you thank you yeah I I was
pretty like for like kind of the prequel
story of her being younger in her teenage
years like the
French intro.
So that was brilliant.
I'm not even going to lie to you.
That was as soon as I seen that's
where it was going with the story.
I was like,
is he going to do it?
And then it went to it.
I was like, I like it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I really, you know, just again,
like just incorporating the things that
influenced me, the things I grew up with,
the things that I find interesting,
I wanted to just include.
And so like, yeah, Dara is
Pinkerton.
I like to describe her as Misty Knight
meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets
Whitley Gilbert from a different world
with a little bit of like Miles Morales
kind of wisecrack-y with a little bit of
like Monie Love,
the eighties female rapper from the UK.
She's a young woman.
She grew up in the UK.
Through a mishap that we'll get into in
a future issue,
she lost her arm and her father created
the cybernetic golden arm for her because
he's a tech whiz and a genius.
And she's just having kind of her regular
teenage life and everything.
She has a little issue at her boarding
school and they have to move,
her and her family, they moved to America.
So she goes to America,
she goes to college in America, graduates,
and then her parents go to New Orleans
on a vacation and they disappear.
And she decides to move to New Orleans
to try and find out what happened.
She's not a seasoned veteran.
She's not an expert detective or anything
like that.
She's literally the first time we see her
in the comic book, in the main version,
she's literally on her first case and
messing it up.
So... She's just Dora.
Just Dora.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
She is, you know...
Definitely green behind the ears and...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just a young person just trying to...
She's just trying to figure out what
happened to her parents.
And then she gets into...
gets involved into you know deeper and
more sinister things you know that's when
the the new orleans lore and uh you
know monsters and uh conspiracies and all
of that good stuff kind of comes you
know a bigger thing is at play um
but she's like you said she's very green
she's not seeing any of that yet she
just was literally
trying to figure out this case that she's
working on because she needs to make some
money and also kind of like learn the
skills like on the fly so she can
start investigating what happened to her
parents.
So, you know, she's she's smart,
she's brave,
but she's also just a person and she's
just trying her best and she doesn't have
all the answers.
She's not going to be, you know,
out here just
you know solving things instantly and
kicking you know all the button went in
all the fights you know she's just like
oh this thing is happening let me deal
with it and you know just do it
doing the best that she can i think
that you know i'll try to create her
as a very relatable character um she is
like everything about her like her story
could be your story you know what i'm
saying
Yeah.
Yeah.
I want,
I want people to be able to connect
with her.
I didn't want her to be like,
you know, like a Superman or a Batman,
you know, someone that, you know,
you can look up to because they're,
you know, they have their stuff together.
Like I want her to be someone you
are looking over at like, oh,
I know her.
And, you know,
if I was in that situation,
I'd probably do the same thing.
And that's one of the keys like to
her character is like her relatability and
that she is, like I said,
far from an expert.
She's just a person just trying to do
her best and trying to go on.
Now, I like her as a character, dude,
and she's probably one of the more unique
characters I have come across in
my years back in the comic books and
that's why the moment i had seen her
and i had read the kickstarter and all
that that's why i was just like
immediately put it in my favorites and
just like follow it you know and see
where we're going with it and i was
like oh damn let me you know back
this before i forget because i do want
to get in on this and thankfully i
was able to get in on it
Looking forward to getting my dark pink
shirt because, you know,
I got to get my Prince Amai shirt.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
We got them printed up,
like ready to go.
Just waiting, like I said,
waiting on the art to be finished.
All the...
It's gonna be a very thorough package.
Like it's gonna be over pages worth of
art and story.
The main story alone is fifty-four pages.
That's brilliant.
Yeah,
I didn't want to leave it on a
cliffhanger.
I wanted to tell a complete issue, story.
It sets the things to be continued,
but you'll get a resolution.
Yeah, but so many comics,
especially in the Kickstarter world,
it'll take four issues to tell the first
story.
And by going ahead and spending those...
extra money and fifty four pages or fifty
two pages is a lot of pages for
a single issue comic book.
Normally we're looking at twenty eight to
thirty two.
And let's say on average,
if you go with a.
A not well known, but decent.
Artists, we're talking like seventy,
eighty bucks a page.
So you put the commitment in.
for it and that's appreciated i can
guarantee that yeah yeah yeah i mean
that's one of the reasons why um it's
kind of kind of taking so long because
like i didn't want like you know i've
been working on it and i had it
in my my head for such a long
time i wanted it to be like amazing
i wanted to be incredible at least to
at least blow my own mind yeah um
So, like, I hired, like,
the best artists that I could get.
You know, like, for the covers, we have,
like,
people that have done stuff for Marvel.
Yeah.
It's funny.
Some of those artists I have covers of.
I have some of their covers.
Yeah, yeah.
So, I mean, you know, we have,
you know,
like Karan Grant did the Purple Rain
cover.
Robin Smith did the Sade cover.
Kari Evans,
who did the cover of that Daughters of
the Dragon number two that I saw that
inspired this whole thing.
Um, he did the, uh, the Malcolm X,
uh, homage cover, and he's doing a,
one of the short stories.
Um, as well, and for.
The interior, um, we have, uh,
this artist, he's, um, like, worked for.
Like, DC, he's done, like,
he did the Assassin's Creed comic book for
Ubisoft.
Super, super talented guy.
You know, he's doing, like, a great job.
He literally sent me a page today that
featured, like,
some of the people that did the tier
to be featured in the comic.
Yeah.
And everybody looks great.
I'm like, okay, perfect.
So, yeah, you know, it's...
The support has been so overwhelming that
it's allowed me to put more into the
project.
Yeah.
You know, because, yeah,
PJ is a little bit more than eighty
dollars a page, I wish.
And that was like if you're going you're
starting at like you're you're.
upper-lower to mid-lower tier,
we're setting the eighties of page.
And I know there's some artists who are
like, you know,
they're not even gonna roll over in their
bed for that much.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A lot, a lot of, a lot of,
a lot of people won't like,
they won't even put ink on the page
or do your lettering for that much.
Yeah, yeah, and hey, like, I understand.
Like, I'm, you know,
we're spending money on the project,
but the quality is because we're creating,
like, a really high-quality project.
Like,
the colorist we have is a guy named
Marco Lesko.
He just won the Eisner, which is, like,
you know,
the Oscars of comic book stuff for
coloring for...
For Godzilla.
For IDW.
And that's his second Eisner.
So we have like a two time.
Eisner winning artist.
A colorist doing the colors.
And the stuff looks great.
You know again I'm biased.
But I think it's one of the best
looking.
Like indie comics.
Um.
that you can find.
I think it's right on par with Marvel
and DC and all that stuff.
I really do.
I think it looks really good.
From what I've seen,
just from what you have sent me,
and I love how colors can be blended
and layered and textured to really give
you an environment that feels like you can
immerse yourself into.
I always say this,
those are your make and breaks.
The people who do your colors,
who do your line work.
Even the guy who does your lettering can
make and break a good comic book.
To me, that's where
you know, money should be spent,
that and advertising and marketing the
book.
And I think you've done all those
absolutely brilliantly.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah, I appreciate it.
I do.
I'm very,
very proud of how it looks and the
work that, you know,
PJ and Marco and Kari and Karan and
Robin and Danny Perez,
who did the Fresh Prince story.
I still love it.
he did uh danny did the the lines
the coloring and lettering okay for that
whole story like he's one of the few
people that can actually do the whole
thing and like i think it came out
great and carly is working on one of
the short stories and um we have tyler
lenas who's working for marvel he did uh
the other short story okay you know i
know you got that one where the vampire
looks like blade
From the comic book.
Yeah, Francisco Tomaselli,
who's doing Hulk right now from Marvel.
I've got quite a few of his covers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was just in the shop,
and he did the cover for, you know,
he's doing the King Spawn stuff,
and I just saw it.
I got a bunch of it, I know.
Yeah, he's super, super talented.
And he's really, really nice, too.
No, he's a very, very nice guy.
He actually hit, he saw the ad,
And he DM'd me on Instagram.
He was like,
please let me know if you need something.
And he turned out at a really good
rate.
And I was like, absolutely.
So...
I've had conversations with him on
Instagram because I would...
Back when I was doing a heavy comic
book and before I transitioned over to
like doing these types of interviews,
I would just do the weekly comic book
drops and that kind of stuff.
And it seemed like he was in my
stack of comic books like two or three
times.
And I was always tagging in a minute.
He's like, dude,
you don't have to always tag me.
I'm like, yeah,
but I'm putting out there what I'm reading
to people.
I want them to know the talent doing
what I'm reading.
And I'm like,
I'm sorry that you come up two and
three times.
And that's a tribute to you because I
know your work now.
And anytime I can notice your work,
I'm going to pick it up.
Yeah, yeah.
Hey, little bit,
I'll give you a little bit of breaking
news.
I haven't told anybody this before.
Oh, shit.
Okay, let's go.
Francisco is actually working on a short
story for Dark Pink number two.
Oh, snap.
That's what's up.
Yeah, yeah.
See,
that's where I think a lot of people
don't realize is a lot of these guys
who do covers and stuff like that,
are uber talented and are also very good
writers as well yeah yeah he um he
had posted like some interior stuff he was
just like messing around because he's
trying to get marvel to like let him
do some interiors and stuff um and i
was like this looks amazing and after we
did the um um the blade cover um
i was like would you like so it
was right it is a blade cover
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Because I was like, dude,
it looks just like Blade from the comic
book.
Yeah, yeah,
that story is actually going to be an
homage.
That short story is like six pages.
It's going to be an homage to the
intro to Blade I. Oh, dude, yes.
Yeah, Kari Evans is doing the interior.
She's got one page left.
It looks crazy.
Dude, I can't wait to see that, man.
Yeah, Kari's going to do it.
Yeah, that's kind of like the...
got kind of like the dream team working
on that one.
Cause like the coloring Francisco's did
the cover and car is going to do
like the inks.
Um,
it's going to be the most action packed
part of the pack.
Cause this is like five pages of Dara
fighting vampires with a sword and a gun.
Um, you know, doing so.
Yeah.
I can love it, dude.
Yeah.
I can't wait for people to see that.
You have no idea.
Like,
I'm pumped.
I could get the little hair standing up.
It's going to be really, really good.
I've already seen the inks and stuff.
He's only got one more page to go.
It looks good.
He's doing some crazy stuff.
As a
you know, Blade fan.
I still put Blade being responsible for
creating what we have now as the MCU.
Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Like, heck, he might have saved...
That movie might have saved Marvel
altogether.
Period.
It did.
It did.
That's been said.
Yeah, it was so, like,
well done and then well-received and made
a bunch of money.
And it saved Wesley Snipes' ass, too.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was, like...
Yeah,
that project needs to be studied and
someone needs to do a documentary just on
what Blade did for like everybody
involved.
Exactly.
The project.
And yeah, so, you know,
that's one of my favorite movies.
So I was like,
I got to do a Blade thing.
I will sit down on a Saturday morning
and watch Blade one,
two and three back to back to back.
Yeah, I actually like Blade III.
I know people don't like it.
People hate it.
I don't know why.
I thought it was pretty good.
I like Triple H in there.
I like Ryan Reynolds in there.
I like Jessica Biel in there.
Well, I know you're a big WWE guy,
so I knew you were going to like
the Triple H part.
Yeah.
Don't think I didn't Instagram look at
you, too, because when I do these things,
I like to see and get into people's
stuff and see what they're following,
what they're doing.
I know you got one of the...
probably nicest shoe collections I've ever
seen in my life.
Oh, thank you.
I appreciate that.
And I'm not a shoe guy.
Like I've tried before in the past,
but I'm one of those guys where the
moment I get home, shoes are off.
I'm like, I'd rather be barefoot.
Oh yeah.
If I could go out barefooted,
I would probably just go out barefooted.
It's a terrible hobby because I barely
wear the shoes.
It's such a weird thing.
But yeah, I mean, you know,
it's like the things I like,
I like comic books, I like sneakers,
I like eighties pop culture, anything,
nineties pop culture thing and music and
wrestling.
And, you know, that's kind of just me.
So are you WWE or AEW?
Which one do you...
I mean, I'm both.
I don't mind both.
I went to WrestleMania this year,
and I went to All In.
Okay.
Well, All In was in Dallas, right?
Yeah, I just wrote.
My boy was there.
Oh, okay.
He was in the press box, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
My boy Black,
he did the press on that one for
us.
Oh, nice, nice.
Yeah, that was a great show.
I mean, it was a long show.
We were in there.
It was like four, four and a half,
five hours.
I don't know how it was for the
live audience, but...
Like, I think, like, it was, like,
starting at two or three,
and we got to get it out there
to, like, nine.
So, yeah, we were going hard.
But I enjoy both.
They're two different, you know, products.
So, you know,
if you're in the mood for, you know,
however you want your professional
wrestling, you can get them,
just watch either one.
But, yeah, I like them.
My week is basically I start Monday with
Raw.
Tuesday, NXT.
Wednesday, AEW.
Thursday is, like,
my catch-up day in case I miss something.
Friday, I do SmackDown right afterwards,
Collision.
So, I mean.
Yeah, yeah, no,
I have pretty much the same schedule.
Like, the thing I like about wrestling,
being able to,
I just write while I'm watching wrestling.
So, you know,
it gives me something to kind of have.
like on in the background to look at.
And, you know, they're very, you know,
like action-based and stuff like that.
I'm trying to figure out a way.
It's hard because it's comic books.
But I want to have like Dara,
like pedigree somebody or kill somebody or
something.
Dude, it could be done.
I just got to figure out how to
translate that into an actual still
picture.
That's a page with three panels as she
runs up from behind somebody and then the
next panel she's grabbing them and that
third panel that's just them eating it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's what's perfect about comic books,
and you can break it down into three
panels of her arcane somebody out of
nowhere.
Yeah, yeah.
She's going to be into all kinds of
wrestling moves,
and we're definitely going to have
eighties wrestler references, you know,
I'm trying to.
I had a Macho Man reference in this
issue,
but I had to cut it because the
original script was like, seventy pages,
and I was like, I can't do,
for the main thing, seventy pages.
But, yeah,
we had a nice Macho Man reference in
there.
Give her a Macho Man jacket at some
point, just randomly,
as one day she just pops on a
Macho Man jacket.
With the frills, hell yeah, dude.
Glasses, yeah,
that's actually a pretty good idea.
yeah i have some sometimes man but let's
keep it up how um so you're doing
this classic nor detective thing how did
you kind of make that still feel modern
and unique at the same time instead of
like it feels like the comic book you
know but it still feels very modern at
the same time
i mean we have dora who is she
has a cyborg arm you know what i'm
saying yeah yeah yeah i wanted to throw
like a little bit of you know alternate
timeline a little uh steampunk a little
futurism just like a little bit so your
arm is unique who come up with the
arm and the design of the arm um
that was me um like that was the
first
I love characters that have robotic arms.
Just the design of those characters always
look cool.
I love Cable.
Witchblade, man.
Yeah, Witchblade, Cable, Bucky, Misty.
A good Iron Man suit can't be beat
as far as just looking cool.
So that was one of the...
First things, too, that I wanted to have,
because I always wanted a cool-looking
character with a robotic arm.
I wanted to make it gold so it
could stand out a little more.
And then, yeah,
just kind of have it look futuristic,
but have it set in the eighties.
That way,
we could kind of play around with
perceptions of that time.
She can kind of have...
Dara can kind of have things...
that don't really exist in that time um
but we just talk it up to like
her dad invented this or that and her
her partner um that she's working with in
new orleans trey like he's like a tech
wiz so he can kind of like earpieces
like shortwave radios like stuff that why
is that there but you know it works
it works and that's what i love about
comic books man
Because you can take something that
shouldn't be where it is,
but you can explain it away over here
and make it work and make it fit.
yeah and there's no other genre where you
can really do that outside of tv and
it makes sense right yeah yeah that's uh
something i was like uh i was like
i don't really have to worry about like
why that's there because i can easily you
know i can just explain like hey it
was invented you know my this person's
really smart and then they
created it,
and she's the only person that has it.
You know, that type of stuff.
And, you know, comic book readers,
they get it.
They know.
So, you know, it's not like, you know,
you got to get a bunch of people
like, oh,
why does her arm look like it's from
twenty twenty five and it's nineteen
eighty five?
You know, we don't you know,
we all know from reading comic books that
we look at comic books as comic books
and for entertainment.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We know
like it's not supposed to make a hundred
percent sense.
Right.
Right.
And we don't read it because of that.
We read it because we want to be
entertained and feel like we're a part of
that world.
Right.
Yeah.
And that's another one of the reasons why,
like I said,
it in the eighties was to kind of
like allow like kind of things to happen
in the comic book that if it was
set today, wouldn't necessarily work.
It wouldn't be as mysterious because if
you have like,
if someone saw like a vampire like down
the street in the middle of the night
in twenty twenty five there,
I just break out their cell phone and
record.
And then it would just it wouldn't be
a thing.
But in the people are like,
I heard this, you know,
I heard this rumor or, you know,
this person did this like it's it's.
uh it creates that sense of mystery that
uh helps attention and you know allows us
to kind of you know have a little
bit more fun without someone saying oh and
someone just recorded on their camera why
didn't someone use their cell phone to
call the cops it's like because we didn't
have that shit back then yeah yeah it's
like let us like you know enjoy the
the mystery and i like it the road
of it all
so i know we're getting vampires what else
are we going to get from a creature
monster perspective either in the first
issue or in later issues are we going
to just stick it to the uh the
vampire world no no we're going to take
the whole ride down the universal monster
uh my dude that's what's up fine yeah
yeah like oh you know we're gonna have
werewolves
We're going to have zombies, you know,
we're going to have spirits.
I got something for you after the show
that I'm going to discuss with you,
but I don't want to do it on
the air, but.
Okay, yeah, no,
my whole goal with the project is, yeah,
I just want to do, like, you know,
the Universal movie monsters.
So are you reading the current run of
the Universal monsters from Image in
Skybound?
Yeah, yeah, I'm taking a lot.
Dude, what's been your favorite so far?
That's a good question.
Dude, they've all been good.
you know i'm a sucker for a good
uh vampire you know i can't dracula was
really good and then um the mummy i
thought was like spectacular the way that
it did it yeah like how it was
the curse carried through the family i
thought was like amazing
Yeah, you know what?
When I saw the mummy one, actually,
because the mummy kind of wasn't on my
radar for the comic, for Dark Pink,
but yeah, they did it in a way.
I was like, oh, that's really inventive.
I felt the same way, dude.
I didn't know how well I was going
to like it.
And then once I read that issue one,
I was like,
Damn,
I like how they're doing this because
they're linking the mummy to a bloodline
into a curse.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was like, I can get with this.
Yeah, you can, you know.
A good story, someone being creative,
thinking out the box.
She's brilliant.
The lady who wrote The Mummy for Skybound
and Image is really brilliant.
That took some imagination and I'm happy
she did it the way she did it.
I don't really feel like a regular Mummy
story would have worked for what they were
doing.
Yeah,
that's why I was a little wary of
it.
As much as I love...
The Mummy movies with Brendan Fraser,
they're amazing,
and no one can tell me anything different.
But also,
that was a curse that was still linked
to the bloodline to some degree with his
wife.
Right.
But yeah,
they took it to another level in the
comic in a very inventive way,
and I just love seeing creative people
being super creative.
Because no new ideas really are
But you can tweak things.
You can put your own twist on it.
You can think outside the box on something
that's been stuck inside of a box for
such a long time and really create
something that people can get behind.
That's what I love about writing and being
creative.
Staying along the lines of Universal
Monsters,
do you read anything from Dark Horse?
Yeah.
Did you read Los Monstros?
No, I didn't read that, though.
So Los Monstros is about a werewolf
private eye.
Okay.
And his first mission that takes place
during the first five issues of the comic
book is him finding a vampire princess.
Because the entire world is like monsters.
Like Los Monstros is a monster city.
Okay.
Run by monsters.
Everybody's a monster.
It was such a dope read.
I think it's out right now on trade
paperback if you can find it,
but I think it would be one of
those where with what you're doing with
your story,
you could pick it up and go, oh,
this is legit.
It's kind of in that same world of
dark pink.
You know what I'm saying?
I think you would really enjoy it.
Yeah.
I like the Monster City idea because I'm
trying to kind of
create something like here with dark pink
where there are you know we're gonna run
through like different monsters like there
are you know they're normal people and
everything else but
You know,
another one of the reasons why I said
it in New Orleans is because if someone
did tell you in New Orleans, like, hey,
I think I saw a werewolf over there.
It wouldn't be like the craziest thing
that you know.
They didn't see the person on Bourbon
Street doing something completely the
same.
Exactly.
You know, I want it to be,
you know, kind of a mix of reality,
but also fantasy,
like dark fantasy and having a world
where, you know, people are.
like, open to the idea of, like,
monsters actually existing and, like,
what that would mean to be stuck in
a place where, you know,
werewolves exist and, you know,
zombies might pop up.
But, you know, no one's, like,
the police aren't, like,
super excited about, like,
going to help you out.
Yeah.
And then you have, like,
a young woman who...
You know,
kind of doesn't know any better and just
takes the cases that are kind of given
to her.
And, you know, he's just like, oh, well,
this sounds weird,
but I'll go check it out and then
gets caught into the stuff.
And then she reacts like how you and
I would react in the situation and just
trying to get out while solving the case.
No, I do.
I like it.
I really do.
It's such a unique concept from start to
finish.
And I can't wait to see what's coming
next for it.
But so you have like this touch of
fear.
You have some mystery.
You have Dara really coming up now.
She's trying to find her parents.
She's really trying to discover who she
herself is and find her identity.
So what kind of messages or emotions do
you hope readers will kind of take away
from Dara's story and like the whole story
in general?
um that is a good question uh as
cheesy as it might sound i want there's
no such thing as a cheesy answer when
it comes to this i want people to
feel like hope um like i want people
to like see dara like see like the
good that she does but also like the
struggles um that she has um and feel
like hopeful because she's a hopeful
person like she's going there to find her
parents she truly believes like in her
heart that she can find them she can
figure out what can happen like what
happened to them and even though she
doesn't she has no idea how she's gonna
do it
She's literally learning on the fly.
But I want people to go on that
ride with her to see her succeed,
to see her fail,
to see her keep going,
to see her scared,
to see her unsure at certain points.
There's literally going to be a scene in
the first issue where she does something.
She makes a decision and she knows it's
a bad decision.
But she literally, she's like,
I don't know what else to do.
So I'm just going to try this.
And, you know, Trey is like,
I don't think this is a good idea.
And she's like, I know,
but I don't have a better idea.
Because this is like her second case.
She doesn't know what she's doing.
She's just like, I think this will...
This may work.
Maybe it won't.
And we're just going to do that.
And it's going to be a lot of
that, like,
a lot of trial and error for her.
Like, I didn't want her, like I said,
I didn't want her to be, like,
misty as far as, like, you know,
in the comments, misty, like,
knows exactly what she's doing.
She's a bad woman.
and you know she knows how to get
things done like I wanted Dara to not
to be basically the complete opposite of
that I mean we think about it she's
a twenty four year old kid fresh out
of college and really she's not had a
chance to really start living a life yeah
before her parents disappear and she packs
up everything and just I'm going to go
find my parents and figure it out you
know as I go along
Yeah.
Yeah.
She literally was like, you know, grew up,
you know, affluent.
She was kind of privileged, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
She went to like a really nice boarding
school when she went to New York.
She went to a really nice college.
She was Clarence from eight mile.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She goes into like the darker side of
things.
But, you know,
she still has that like like a little
bit of naivete, you know, but, you know,
she has a good heart and her intentions
like she's.
genuinely wants to do the right thing even
though it's most of the time half the
time she's not sure what the right thing
is to do she's just gonna just try
and you know i i think that people
you know will be able to relate to
her and i think people feel like i
want people to cheer for her because i
think she's like she's definitely one of
those those characters especially because
i mean right now we don't know how
she lost her arm but we know it's
there we know she has it we know
her dad wants her to keep it a
secret
So we know she has this,
I don't want to say it's a disability
because it's not in her case,
but she's not this, you know, normal,
perfect child.
She's kind of broken,
but we want to cheer for that person.
You know,
you find yourself wanting to cheer for
that person.
Yeah, yeah.
And a lot of this first issue,
like in the prequel that you read,
you know, yeah, her parents tell her like,
hey, do not show people this.
So she literally walks around with long
sleeves and gloves on all the time.
And
Even in the first issue,
in the main issue, in the story, like,
she covers her arm for a lot of
it because she's still, like, living,
like, what her parents told her to do.
And she's not sure, like,
how people will react to it or if
people will accept her, like, for...
having a golden robotic arm randomly.
She's trying to fit in even though she's
meant for more.
She's young.
She doesn't know that quite yet.
She hasn't come into that part of herself
yet.
right yeah exactly so you know this is
the whole story is to kind of carry
us to that point like eventually i want
her to be a lot like missy knight
you know like yeah my long-term goal would
be like you know starting the eighties
with her in her twenties and then get
into like the nineties with her in her
thirties and she you really see that
evolution of her um to being like a
like a legit hero
instead of just a person like a private
detective trying to figure some stuff out
nah dude i like that man i like
that so much so new orleans has this
powerful connection to both folklore and
monsters and ghosts and goblins but also
faith
Did you pull from like legends or local
myths from the area?
Because I mean,
you can't walk around New Orleans without
somebody handing you a pamphlet for a
ghost tour or a haunted mansion or
something like that.
How much of that kind of stuff?
And I know you've spent some time in
New Orleans as well.
How much of that kind of like real
life stuff did you kind of pull into
this book?
A lot, a lot.
There will be a scene in a very
famous New Orleans cemetery in issue
number one.
The floating graves?
Yeah, with names and everything.
I don't want to spoil it,
but there is one of the famous ones.
There will be a scene at that cemetery.
The first...
the second case,
the person that comes and gives her the
new case is a very
You know, like she thinks that her sister,
who she hired a daughter to find,
was abducted by the devil,
like the devil himself.
Yeah.
So, you know, she, you know,
a woman of faith and they have like
their talk and, you know,
talk about that a little bit.
You know,
there's a lot of multiple references to,
you know, New Orleans being a place where,
you know,
weird, mystical things happen.
People will make comments on, hey,
we're in New Orleans.
This is either not strange at all or
where have you been?
There's literally a guy dressed as the
devil on one of the corners of Bourbon
Street every time you go there.
yeah yeah yeah so i think it's been
the same guy since i was a kid
going there probably probably are honestly
um yeah you know so all of that
you know like the faith the the lore
the uh superstition the voodoo um we have
a character lady lavo she's like basically
you gotta have a you gotta have a
voodoo priest
Yeah,
she's a real person who is a New
Orleans native who people literally
thought was a witch.
And people aren't sure if she's, like,
dead.
And, you know, she should... So, you know,
like,
she's a character that's going to be
introduced.
And, you know,
she's going to kind of help guide Dara
through those kind of those mystical
elements of New Orleans, like,
in future issues.
So, yeah, I mean,
New Orleans is a character, like,
in this story.
Like, you will read...
dark pink,
and you will know that this is happening
in New Orleans, and this is, you know,
an important aspect of the story.
You know, like I said,
I wanted it to be set there.
I love that, dude.
Yeah,
that's why I wanted it to be set
there, because I think, like I said,
you know, such an interesting city,
has so much stuff going on that...
So much history.
I mean, it's like,
when you walk down the cobblestones
downtown there, I mean,
it
it's hard to describe like unless you've
actually walked the streets down there and
got some beignets of course yeah i mean
you can't go there without getting
beignets but just walking around like we
we took our daughter there admittedly what
she's probably too young but we went
during the day i do want to put
that out there it was during the day
she brought her flute with her because she
wanted to play street music
with the jazz artists down there.
And we found this one little place that
had a piano sitting outside of it.
And there was nobody that said you
couldn't play.
So my daughter sat down and started
playing piano as well.
And the guy stuck his head out of
the bar and was like,
how old is she?
I think at the time she was ten,
twelve.
I'm like, oh, she's ten, eleven, twelve.
They were like,
Oh, damn.
Did she play like that?
Yeah,
she's been doing it since she was five.
So I see she's holding a flute.
Does she play flute, too?
We're like, yeah, she plays that, too.
They're like, OK, anything else?
We're like, yeah, oboe.
And the guy was like, hang on.
He goes in,
he comes out with his guitar and they
sit there and played music together.
And that's the whole reason we went to
New Orleans was for her to have that
one little experience to play music on the
street.
you know,
in new Orleans and we accomplished that.
So.
No, awesome.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Like, um, yeah.
One of, um, like, uh,
this is my guy right here.
That's the guy at the comment on the
screen right now.
That's Mac.
AKA your boy.
He was the one that was kind of
like, Hey,
you think you can get him on?
I'm like, he's been on my radar.
You've been on my radar for a while.
So let me reach out.
Well, yeah, yeah, man,
I appreciate you suggesting this.
Like, I had a great time.
Yeah, and I was going to say, yeah,
one of Dara's home bases, like, you know,
she'll have her detective office.
Mm-hmm.
But another place she'll spend a lot of
time at is a jazz club.
And yeah, you know,
and she's going to befriend the bartender
and, you know,
he'll be kind of like helping her like
get word on the street and stuff like
that.
So, yeah, you know,
the music and the mystical side of New
Orleans is going to be like on full
display.
it's such a draw dude it's like i
said it's really hard to explain unless
you've been there and you've walked like i
love jazz i love live jazz and to
watch my daughter play it granted there
was only probably about ten people walking
through the street but they seen a little
girl playing the piano so naturally
they're like what's this little girl
playing a piano
And then he's like, you know,
can you play anything like that on your
flute?
And she's like, eh.
And she's like, let me try.
And she held her own.
So it was really cool to watch her
attempt to do that.
And it kind of was like a little
checkmark for her.
So I was happy to have her do
that.
Yeah.
So...
Let's talk a little bit more.
I know the Kickstarter has ended.
You still?
Okay.
I think even I got in on it
after it hit...
technically ended, but people can still,
and I want to really hit this home,
just because a Kickstarter has ended does
not mean you can't still pledge to the
Kickstarter.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A lot of, you can enable...
It's misconceptions, I think.
People don't do it,
which is weird to me.
You might as well keep it going.
There's basically pre-orders.
So, yeah, it's still up
You know,
you just go to Kickstarter and type in
dark pink comics and it'll be the only
thing that shows up.
And yeah, you know,
it's like a full breakdown,
like the story and the characters and got
a couple of pages from the comic in
there, like a bunch of the additional art.
Yeah,
it's just something that is like been a
very,
a passion project of mine,
something near and dear to my heart.
And I put a lot of effort and
time into it.
And I think it shows in the project.
It does.
When you land on a Kickstarter's homepage
and you can tell
like the amount of passion and the amount
of work and the amount of thought that's
gone into it just simply from that first
page when you the loading page you know
what i'm saying yeah yeah yeah yeah i
put a lot of time and i try
to flex my little writing muscles to try
to create like a nice little narrative and
like explain everything because yeah like
it's something that is um important
uh to me and you know i want
to you know give a good impression you
know of the project um because i do
you know i do think that it's a
it's a really good project that if people
check out like they'll they'll like it's
um like has a little bit of everything
you know some some it does
some music.
I think, you know,
we got a few jokes in there,
like Dara will crack a joke, you know,
to kind of diffuse, you know,
more tense situations.
So, you know,
we got a few Easter eggs, you know,
homages to all kinds of stuff from the
eighties, like for anybody.
That was like my favorite,
one of my favorite things when I was
going through.
And then when you sent me like the
prequel,
it's just the references to like the
eighties and early nineties.
And I was just like, like this,
this thing speaks to me so much.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I, you, like I said,
it was like a song to our generation.
You know what I'm saying?
It was like that perfect love song for
us.
Yeah, I think anybody can enjoy it,
but it's a deeper level of enjoyment for
people that grew up in that era or
are fans of just stuff in that era.
I know we talked about it briefly with
you being in the top one percent of
Kickstarter basically all time,
which is absolutely insane to think about.
Were you surprised by the scale of the
support that you received?
Because, I mean, you think about it,
a typical kit starter runs about thirty
days.
Twenty eight to thirty two days, I think,
is what the average is on those.
So were you surprised with how fast that
thing went like that?
Yeah, I was shocked.
I was hoping,
I put in a lot of time before
I pre-planned it.
I'd been working on the project for about
nine months before I actually launched it
on Kickstarter, prepping everything.
I wanted it to go as well as
possible, but you never know.
I was just hoping to get enough money
to make it.
I think you set your goal and you
want your goal.
For some reason,
if it goes over that goal, then hey,
cool.
I now have equity.
I can
I can use for other stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It did so well.
It allowed me to hire, you know, the,
like Francisco,
like I could hire him cause you know,
we did so well.
I could hire the, uh, the, uh,
Marco to do the coloring.
Cause I made enough money.
Like I could afford his rate and these
extra side stories and,
and also like as proof of concept that
I, you know,
I can do a dark pink number two
because create enough interest.
But yeah, I mean, I was,
Like, hopeful, but, you know, like I said,
you never know.
But super appreciative.
I'm so glad.
Like, for example, like,
we had a tier where you could become,
like, a recurring character.
And I remember, like, I was like, okay,
I know personally three people that will
do this.
Like, my friends.
Like, and my brother.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like three people.
If I can get three other people to
do it, that'd be awesome.
Be super amazing.
And that covers almost half the initial
fee of the book.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It would just be a nice huge time.
Because I know that that type of tier
is usually between eight hundred and
twelve hundred bucks, depending on.
You know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If I would have got six people,
I would have made twelve hundred bucks.
That would have been like literally like a
third,
like almost a third of what Conor raised.
But we ended up getting almost thirty
people.
That's insane, dude.
Yeah.
Insane.
That made your proof of concept cemented
in stone that this was absolutely going to
work.
Yeah, yeah.
I was like, these people, like,
this is like a new IP that,
you know, like,
completely random out of the blue.
People,
thirty people want to be in this comic
book.
And then we had a cameo thing and
another, like, forty people, like,
agreed to do that.
I literally,
one of the reasons why I had to
do the additional short stories was
because I needed places to put everybody.
To put the characters, yeah.
Yeah.
Because I was like,
if I get these six people,
I have it in the script, like,
it'll be fine.
And I had to just kind of really
expand my thoughts because people are so
excited about it, which, you know,
makes me even more excited and, like,
drives me to do it, you know,
make the project that much better and,
you know,
deliver something that people will like.
And I think people will.
Like I said, it's a nice
It'll be a nice debrief,
like the main fifty four pages and then
you get three side stories.
I got to have a series of like
five.
Yeah,
I have five like Saturday morning PSAs
like, you know, like the.
Yeah,
I've seen the single one on the
Kickstarter main page.
I was it was in the prequel.
Yeah, yeah.
I was like, this is so cool.
I used to love those little G.I.
Joe PSAs.
Yeah, me too.
Criminally underrated.
So, yeah, we have four more of those.
It's like, you know, we got one about,
like, adopting pets.
We got one about not blowing up your
college lab during science projects.
I did like the adopted pets.
I got three adopted cats.
Yeah, no, like, I have, like,
my pets and a couple of my pets
that have passed away.
I got to put them in there as
well.
know i got one she goes to a
comic con and and uh she gets she
dresses up as misty knight um like her
eyes still yeah hopefully it's about for
people putting on deodorant when they go
to comic cons um yeah it actually is
kind of in that vein i'm not even
you know so yeah it's a lot of
content like people yeah um like i know
it's taking a long time um but it's
one of those things where
This is your passion project.
It's already been cemented by being in the
top one percent of Kickstarter.
So I think you've earned that amongst the
following for the book to let it play
itself out and take the time needed to
put out what people are expecting of the
project.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't think you're really you might have
one or two who are like, oh,
this book is taking six or seven more
months.
You're going to have one or two of
those people.
But I think for the most part,
those who understand the process itself
know and they can tell by what you've
you're not hiding anything.
You've literally posted three updates or
something like that in the last three
days.
Yeah.
I mean,
you stay on top of everything the way
a, it should be done.
So, I mean, but again,
there's always going to be one or two.
Yeah.
I try to post the, you know,
the arts that you see,
like stuff is being created, you know,
like it's not just like in the ether
somewhere.
Um,
You know, it's something, yeah,
like people have been very understanding,
you know, like,
I'll probably give them maybe one person a
week that'll be like, hey, where's the ad?
But it'll literally be because they didn't
like check their email or like look at
the updates.
And then I just tell them, they're like,
oh, okay, well, cool.
Yes, I mean,
and that's what's really cool, I think,
about if,
You're not just doing this to try to
rush something through the process.
And you're being open, upfront,
and honest.
Then Kickstarter, I think, is probably...
one of the greatest things to happen to
the comic book industry.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree a hundred percent.
Like this would not have been a,
I wouldn't have been able to do it
without Kickstarter.
Even though I plan to do it,
that plan would not have gone as well
as doing it the way that I ended
up doing it.
I have an interview coming up.
can't remember if it's the one on Sunday
or Monday off the top of my head
because I like October to be a busy
month because everything I've tried to do
this month revolves around Halloween and
giving you that feel.
I don't know if it's my headset or
something.
I keep getting a pop.
But his comic book will also take place
in the swamps of New Orleans.
And
Again,
it's going to be Kickstarter will be the
make or break or whether or not the
comic book actually gets made.
Yeah, I know a lot of people say,
like,
don't go into a Kickstarter without having
a finished product.
But a lot of times,
a lot of projects won't get made and
a lot of good projects won't get made
without Kickstarter being there to fund
it.
Yeah, no, it's true.
Like, it's a difficult balancing act.
Like,
because when I started the Kickstarter,
I didn't have any interior art.
I didn't even have PJ hired yet.
Because I got someone else that was going
to do it,
but that he couldn't do it.
So all I had was like the covers.
Because I did, I was like,
I got to have something, of course,
to show the people.
I had the covers and I had the
story.
That part and stuff was done so I
could express what it would look like.
It goes back to your writing and being
able to portray your thoughts and your
words in a way to make people buy
into it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a testament to your writing.
You know what I'm saying?
Thank you.
I did like I tried and I worked
a lot on that Kickstarter page.
I think, you know,
it looks I think it looks like I
put a lot of work in,
but I really put a lot of work
in.
And this is what I like about it,
though.
You don't necessarily have to launch your
Kickstarter right away for you to work on
the page.
You can literally start building the
Kickstarter from the ground up,
your Kickstarter landing page for your
project without launching it.
Yeah.
And I don't think enough people really
realize that, that you can do that.
yeah yeah now mine was set up like
months before it actually launched i had
all the stuff that you saw like was
on the back end like i was just
like getting stuff ready and i tweak it
and i change even to to this day
like i'll like throw in a new page
that has been completed yeah i've seen the
one today and i was just like dude
come on man i like that though i
love getting those like once or twice a
week where a page just get gets done
and you toss it up and you're like
Like, all right.
I'm like, keep it going.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just that right amount.
Like,
it keeps that excitement going for it.
Because you know it's going to come.
And when it comes,
it's going to be freaking amazing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm going to start dropping more of the
short story stuff.
Because the one that Tyler Linaz did.
It's done.
It's colored.
It's lettered.
Yeah.
It's all good.
It's kind of hard on that one because
that one basically will tell the story
from the main antagonist of this issue,
the vampire.
It'll tell the story of issue one from
his perspective.
Okay, dope.
Yeah.
So like half of the story is like
spoilers.
Yeah.
You know what?
You bring that up.
That's one of those things where you don't
see a lot of where the protagonist is
how the story is being told from their
perspective.
Yeah.
It's just not something you see a lot
of.
Yeah, you know, again,
because it was so successful,
I was able to be able to expand,
like, you know, my storytelling.
Because I want him, like, even though,
like we discussed earlier,
we'll be going through kind of, like,
the different monsters and stuff.
But he will still be a constant.
throughout the story.
He's one of the main characters,
even though he's a villain.
Every story has to have a character like
that.
That reoccurring
Yeah.
You know,
it doesn't have to be a villain,
but it's just got to have,
you got to have a constant there.
Whether they're a good guy or a bad
guy,
it's just something that kind of opposes
your main character.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Their relationship will get complicated
and evolve.
And, you know, like he, like, man,
I wish I could say it.
No, no, no, don't do that.
In his story,
it'll be kind of explained like his kind
of fascination with her.
And that he might know a bit more
about her.
Now we're getting to that Buffy territory.
yeah well you know you can't go buffy
was another huge influence like you know
what i'm looking forward to the new buffy
series as well yeah yeah me too me
too um i'm not one of those people
like i love the original classic dude but
i mean it was based on a comic
book so it's not like we don't have
buffy like different the comic book kept
going where the tv series stopped the
comic book picked it up yeah and it
was a fantastic ride i don't care what
anybody says
Because it maintained the same writer from
the TV series to the comic book.
What was his name?
Mack?
Something Mack.
Yeah, I forget.
But the comic book was fantastic.
What was her name?
The Vampire Slayer.
What was her name in the series?
The actress?
Yeah, not the actress.
I know that was Sarah Michelle Giller in
the TV series.
But her character name.
Buffy.
She had another name besides Buffy.
Oh, yeah.
What was her name?
Because I don't even think about it
anymore.
But there's a story of...
And it's really cool because where this
new TV series is going to pick up
is Buffy is the new person to bring
up the next Vampire Slayer.
Yeah.
And the last comic book run was
basically...
the middle aged Buffy in the wind down
of her career, getting ready.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I'm like, dude,
I'm so excited for this TV series to
pick up that comic book,
bring it to real life.
And then the actress, they got to play,
um, you know,
the younger Buffy coming up from, um,
Wednesday, the werewolf.
Yeah.
I was like, yeah,
she was perfect for that role.
Um,
Yeah,
Wednesday is also a really good show.
It really is.
And Jenna Ortega as Wednesday has
absolutely bodied that role.
Nothing against Christina Ricci.
I love her version of Wednesday,
but this more serious Wednesday that we
get with Jenna.
Yeah,
she gets to stick her teeth into the
character a lot.
She does.
And she's not held to what...
The movie was right.
She's gotten, you know,
now two seasons to develop this character
in her.
She wants to bring her to the screen,
which I think is really cool.
And it's a burden.
He's basically he's like,
here's your character.
Do it, you know,
figure it out how you want to do
it.
Bring your own intricacies to the
character and roll with it.
yeah yeah she's done a great job it's
like right like the whole cast like this
is just a good dude the casting perfection
for me yeah like i was like they
couldn't have done better no i agree i
agree yeah i just was i was been
late on season uh two but i just
i was a little late to it get
into it as well i just finished it
like a week or two ago
Yeah,
I still have like one or two more
episodes.
I have to probably watch them this
weekend, to be honest with you.
So get it knocked out.
But yeah,
it's like I watched the first season,
loved it.
And then I've been so busy working on
this comic book.
I just got to stop watching.
The only thing I would watch would be
wrestling because I don't have to pay
attention.
while i was working so dude i i
literally do ninety percent of the stuff i
do which is pulling all my jumbled
questions and things i want to explore
with people coming on the podcast and like
annotating it down and then at the end
of the day i have to take all
my brain jumble put it into chat gpt
and tell chat gpt to organize my thoughts
into a something that makes sense right
and that's what i get you know
I know the ADD is real for me.
So I just kind of work through it
and do the best I can.
It's weird how that comes out as we
get older.
And now that we know what it is,
we can go, oh, yeah,
that makes sense for me.
Yeah.
Because back in the day,
it's just because you didn't get your ass
whooped enough.
yeah yeah right so i'm like yeah that
was one of the downfalls from the eighties
and nineties and like lack of uh standing
of that but uh you know the eighties
and nineties were amazing that's why we
you know doing the story set in that
time and it's going to be yep something
i gotta what what's coming next man this
one's been so successful
When can everybody expect you to start
flirting with issue number two for us?
Because I haven't even got issue one and
I'm ready for number two.
um well issue one will come out this
year like uh next month november or
december where like pj is like winding
down like the the mayor that's literally
all we have left is the uh few
pay well not a few pages but uh
like the third act yeah of the main
story so it needs to be drawn you
gotta bring it home like
Third act, springing it home.
Yeah.
And then we, you know,
then we'll get it printed up and shipped
out.
So that's definitely one percent this
year.
And then like I already have the intro
for number two,
like written because each issue is going
to have a musical intro.
Okay.
Like the first issue has like kind of
like the setup.
And it was set to some Sade.
And then the second one, you know,
will have a similar like three-page setup
kind of showing like the case will be
set to some music.
You already know what the music is?
Yes, I do know what it is.
Okay.
I don't want to give it up yet,
but... No, don't do it.
Don't do it.
Have the cover in mind, and the cover...
The main cover will be what that is.
But it's another...
Are we still staying with the eighties R&B
with it?
Yes.
It will be...
maybe considered the greatest eighties R
and B album of all time might be
the cover.
That's debatable on so many fronts.
It is, but you know,
so there's enough hints there that where
people can start.
yeah the one that might lend itself to
something about monsters so okay oh and
look at those and you might be able
to figure it out so yeah go get
your vinyl out the shed and yeah yeah
and just start dust them off and start
getting yourself ready so have that done
like i um told you earlier uh francisco's
working on the short one of the short
stories that'll be part of that so
Probably might launch a Kickstarter in the
spring.
I'll be ready to rock it.
I'm personally following you now on
Kickstarter, so I know when you'll launch.
I'm immediately going to get my email
saying,
Chris Ford dropped a new Kickstarter.
Yeah, yeah.
We're going to have it ready,
have a lot of good stuff,
have some really good ideas for some fun
tier rewards,
very eighties themed stuff to go along
with it.
And so, yeah.
As long as you don't bring out the
full windbreaker track suits.
um nothing wrong with that i don't know
i think those are okay oh you know
the ones i'm talking about too yeah i'm
not talking about the swishy ones yeah
yeah yeah the ones that look wrinkled uh
all the time no matter what you did
to them
No, you can't be Harry Smash.
Even the bad stuff is good.
That's true,
because I remember I had about five of
those that I could rock one a day
if I wanted to.
Yeah, me too.
And I live in Texas.
It's hot all the time,
and I still was doing it.
So yeah, we will ship this year,
number one.
Number two in the spring, I have...
um my goal is actually to release two
and three next year okay okay um you're
picking up a lot of good experience in
yeah in this one so i mean i
know my friend bruno out in the uk
i think he he right now i feel
like he's on his third or fourth
kickstarter
just this year alone.
Once you get an idea of how to
structure it,
I think you can run it pretty smoothly.
The way he plans it, when it ends,
the next one begins a week or two
later.
He does fulfillment, out the door,
next one starts.
I'm going to give myself a month or
something just to depress.
We're going to be working on
literally every day from here on out.
I love it, dude.
As soon as one ends,
I'm going to contract PJ to start working
on two.
Like I said,
Francisco is already working on his part.
That's awesome, dude.
Like I said, that dude is so good.
Criminally underrated.
His style is very unique.
Like I want, he's got that old school,
like a seventies and eighties,
like no matter what he draws,
it feels like there's a horror feel to
it.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just like, it looks like a vintage,
like a,
like either like a foreign film or a
horror film from us from the seventies.
I know.
And that's why I love his work.
Yeah.
Like I followed him for a year,
two years now.
I literally just talked to him yesterday
and he was like,
I'm going to send the layouts for the
story by the end of the week.
I'm hoping we can expand things.
I would like to do a prequel story,
like a series,
like a
maybe like a three series,
three series of like Dara in England,
in the boarding school,
like her like little adventures that we
talk about as her kicked out.
But, you know,
I want to talk about other things that
she was doing over there.
Like how she lost her arm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, like a limited series for that.
I would also like to do something with
Francisco actually with Dara's parents.
That should be a full up.
I don't know what the plan is with
her parents,
but if you're going to do Francesco,
it's got to be like a full horror
issue where it's just like talking about
like maybe a series.
Oh, OK.
Yeah.
OK.
Because we once we kind of get deeper
into like what's going on with
why her parents disappeared.
It's a little more than meets the eye.
It's not simply...
It wasn't by happenstance.
I'll put it that way.
I was kind of in the back of
my head was thinking that,
but I didn't want to bring that to
the forefront because I didn't want you to
give anything away that you didn't want to
give away yet.
Yeah.
But I'm glad that my thought is what
your thought is when it comes to her
parents.
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I figure people would think that.
So I mean,
people would probably get two together.
But yeah.
Yeah.
Because it's the driving force for the
series.
So it is.
It's not something that we will just like
gloss over.
You know, it's a very important thing.
It's literally the reason why she's there.
yeah oh it can't you know i didn't
want this to be a simple like oh
they just disappeared randomly like
there's yeah no there's not there's got to
be a deeper meaning there yeah yeah so
i would like it or like a series
like set in like the sixties or seventies
with his art style would be like beautiful
um you know like set in the uk
it could be you know like a uh
like a very like
I don't want to say like Austin Powers,
but like a James Bond, Austin Powers,
like sixties.
Yeah.
Okay.
You know, throw in some, you know,
like the versioning,
like UK punk rock scene in the seventies.
Dude,
that it was literally born in the UK
in the late sixties into the seventies.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cause you know,
like everything is going to be revolved
around me.
Music is a very important part of the,
of the, I like it, dude.
No, that's, that's,
You never know.
Francisco is very cool to work with.
I think he would be down with it.
Something we kind of discussed is
something that...
like once I kind of get the ball
rolling with things,
like I would really love to expand like
the universe,
like twenty twenty five is just kind of
we're setting setting the tables.
And then here we're going to have at
least two projects, maybe three,
maybe four.
You know,
I just want to continue because I have
the ideas.
I just have to now that I know
how to execute them now from this,
I can just continue on with them.
Dude,
you literally just answered the last of my
questions in the last fifteen minutes of
what I was going to talk to you
about.
We talked about it just in the natural
flow of things.
But before we sign off for the night,
let everybody know where they can find
you, where they can find your Kickstarter,
and what else you're offering with your
Kickstarter right now that they can still
get in on, by the way.
Yeah, yeah.
On Kickstarter,
just type in the search bar,
Dark Pink Comics.
It'll come up.
You'll see a young lady with pink braids
and an Adidas tracksuit straight from the
movie.
Looking you right in your face and you'll
know that you're in the right place.
We have really,
really great rewards and stuff.
We have this t-shirt.
I got mine.
we have a different we have a second
design t-shirt as well um we got
autographed copies we have art prints we
have um you know you can have a
zoom meeting with me if you want to
learn like all this money somehow um you
know all kind of really just cool stuff
and of course we have the comic book
and you can find the comic book we're
actually working on the site the official
website it'll launch like
maybe next week okay kind of putting the
final touches on it that'll be
darkpinkcomics.com but you can find us
online uh on social media we're on
instagram at dark pink comics um on
facebook at dark pink comics on x and
twitter at dark pink comics but we don't
really do stuff over there but yeah
message me and then i'll go over there
and talk to you if
you want so and um you can find
me at talented mr ford mr ford on
instagram i've been dropping hints of what
your instagram was since we came i thought
you were just gonna straight up say i
was like i was like okay okay i
plant the seeds and then i'll let you
hit it home
he's working like a well-oiled machine
already so yeah on Instagram and Twitter
whatever and on Facebook as well but yeah
you know I the pages run by me
so if you message Dark Pink Comics on
Instagram you'll literally be talking to
me I know I did that yeah that's
how I got him here
yeah so you know you know it was
cool too because i didn't know because
like i said you were the first person
i have ever like really messaged to see
if they wanted to come on the podcast
and when you were like yeah sure i
was like i wanted to be like wait
you for real yeah i was i love
to talk about the product dude i love
to talk about this kind of stuff man
you have no idea
Yeah,
I love to talk to people who are
passionate about the same stuff that I'm
passionate about.
And that's really what's led to where I'm
at right now is that kind of stuff.
I was like, because Bruno, who got me,
he was the very first person to contact
me to go, hey,
can I come on your podcast and talk
about
my comic book.
I was like, hell yes, dude.
And then it's just became this,
this thing now that I'm like,
if I can give these guys a home
to come and talk about their comic book
and share their passion with everybody,
the way I like to talk about their
passion, I'm like, I want to do that.
And that's where I've been going with my
podcast ever since,
because that to me is a lot of
fun.
I get to talk to people like you
and,
who enjoy putting comic books out there
for people with new and unique characters.
And to me,
this may be my direction going forward,
period.
It's just this kind of stuff.
Now, this was great.
Like,
really talking to people that are doing
Kickstarter.
Like,
no one's mentioned my Kickstarter to me,
like, so talk to me about it.
So I was like, wow, like,
I really appreciate the opportunity.
And yeah, you know, helping people,
you know,
like kickstarter is there to help people
like achieve their goals their creative
you know goals and dreams and but they
don't really promote it like you know i
promote top to bottom dude i don't know
if you you've noticed that yet but yeah
yeah no no i had to do it
myself like i was on the front page
you'll be on the front page your first
day and then you'll disappear into the
ether
So you have to do it yourself or
have people like you that know the
Kickstarter grind and what it is to help
get the word out there.
So whenever somebody contacts me about
coming on the podcast, I immediately, hey,
I don't just say yes right away.
I take five, ten,
fifteen minutes and I actually look up the
individual.
I want.
Okay, I'm sure he'll be right back.
He said he was having some internet
connection issues,
so we'll give him a couple of seconds
to see if he pops back in.
In the meantime,
Hit over to Kickstarter right now.
Go to the search bar.
Type in Dark Pink.
It will be the very first comic book
that comes up.
Make sure you give him himself a follow.
That way, when future issues do come out,
you'll get a notification saying that he
has launched his next Kickstarter for the
next issue of the comic book.
Also,
his Instagram was at talentedmrford on
Instagram.
Hey, bro,
I can't thank you enough for reminding me
that he has been on my radar for
the longest time and me being able to
get in, purchase the comic book,
give him some support, and get him back.
on the podcast.
There he is.
Hey, hey, sorry.
Nah,
I was just telling everybody you were
having some internet problems before we
launched and...
I know Mac said he's going over to
Kickstarter now to do his thing.
We were actually, we were closing it up.
I was telling everybody they can go over
to Kickstarter, search Dark Pink.
It's gonna be the very first thing that
comes up.
Your Instagram is Talented Mr. Ford.
Make sure you give him a follow.
When you go over to Instagram,
search dark pink comments he's going to be
the first person that pops up in the
bio of dark pink comments on instagram
you're going to find all his artists and
everybody working with the comic book as
well go ahead and give those guys a
follow too because they are some of the
talented artists out there right now and
they are putting out some great things
from marvel dc image dark horse you name
it they're working on it as well as
working on dark pink four
Chris here.
With that, everybody,
I want to send a special thank you
to Chris once more time for joining us.
I hope we can have you back on
again, dude.
It was a pleasure to have you on.
I cannot wait to see what's coming up
next for Dark Pink.
You're literally hitting on my
generation's
love.
Everything about this comic book is
perfect for my generation of people,
and I'm hoping the generations that are
after me will discover it as well and
pick it up and go, damn,
our parents were actually cool.
But with that in mind...
We were actually way cooler than them,
but that's a whole other story.
That's what's up.
You know what?
We know what's up.
But with that, everybody,
I want to say thank you again, Chris,
for coming on and hanging out with us
for a little bit.
Don't go anywhere.
I'm going to close this out.
We'll go back and we'll carry on a
little bit, and then we'll do our thing,
all right?
All right.
Thank you so much for having me.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, this was great.
Appreciate you, man.
We'll hit the outro.
Don't go nowhere.