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DFPN.
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Oh.
I had two versions of the song playing
in my ear when I was trying to
share it.
Apologies to everybody.
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.
So what happens when competition becomes
civilization,
when entertainment becomes survival,
and when fates of entire CDs depend on
the outcomes of a game?
Tonight we step into the year twenty seven
ninety eight,
a future where humanity survives beneath
vast domes known as franchise cities.
And the greatest force shaping society
isn't politics or wealth.
it's victory our guest tonight is donald
thoms capello creator of the sci-fi epic
powerscape a universe more than twenty
years in the making blending futuristic
sport political intrigue and big scale
science fiction world building the council
of nerds is now in session donald my
friend welcome back to the usdn
hey thank you for having me always a
pleasure to be here uh i like what
you've done to the place hey thanks man
i spruced it up as i'm redecorating
everything behind me yeah yeah same here
same here on my end yeah yeah yeah
but um hey before we dive in to
powerscape itself why don't you take a few
minutes and tell everybody about how you
kind of got into this uh the comic
book well
i back in i uh was uh a
an actor performing and uh training out in
london and uh it was right you know
post-nine eleven sort of uh reality
setting in and um i just you know
i was reading a lot of philosophy i
was i was uh uh working on a
lot of art i i was uh
attending a lot of different sports games.
I grew up loving basketball,
but I also was very keenly aware of
all these other sports like football and
European football, soccer,
playing such a role in culture,
playing such a role in how...
Our public square more and more turns into
sports forums and entertainment arenas.
And the idea of the arena itself becoming
more and more kind of what is our
society in general.
Where we mingle, where we mix.
And that with the...
decades of just seeing sort of every
everything playing out with environmental
issues and climate change and also energy
resources and finite energy and how
everything that we are and everything that
is our society rests on a lot of
finite energy and battle for it.
And what if you put these two things
together and how inevitably, you know,
the idea of bread and circus is more
and more people look at that as kind
of like the end stage of when the
Roman Empire collapsed.
but i see it as almost sort of
the inevitability of what happens when you
when you make empire and also when you
have to when when you have to hold
things together as long as possible uh and
taking bread what does it look like to
extend that even further when bread and
circus becomes like the government itself
Because the right and so so Powerscape is
sort of this culmination of of years of
really weight weaving a story in my head
about this idea of if sports franchise,
the sports franchise essentially becomes
the governing model of these remaining
cities after, you know,
centuries of the planets been destroyed by
by.
by climate issues and nuclear winter and
all this stuff,
and what happens if we recreate
everything,
but we only have this much really left
to survive, and how do we distribute it?
Well, distribute it through a game,
distribute it through competition,
and what does that look like, right?
So that's kind of what the story is
exploring, for sure.
still wild to hear it i i i
know i've heard the explanation before but
it's still it's still wild it's such a
still a very fun concept to explore now
where did uh the love for storytelling
begin um yeah i
Gosh, like I think I always,
I feel like growing up in the American
suburbs, story is kind of just there,
right?
It's there as soon as you turn on
the TV.
And I really got in,
my background's theater.
I really,
really appreciated a lot of theater.
I was a major,
I think one of the first storytellers that
really spoke to me was Arthur Miller,
who is a playwright, Death of a Salesman,
right?
Like when you say Arthur Miller, yeah.
Yeah, that's where I went.
Yeah?
So you're familiar with him, right?
I'm familiar with him, yes.
Am I a stage kid?
Absolutely not.
But I appreciate it, you know?
Yeah,
you don't want to be a stage kid.
You'll get your butt kicked in the
American suburbs, speaking of which.
Which is why you live in Canada now.
Yep.
I'm up here now.
I can't do nothing about it.
Oh, man, it's country of drama kids.
But I...
But I also, like,
I got shoved in the locker all the
time until I finally,
I remember I did the Who's Tommy.
I played Tommy.
And everybody, I remember, like, groan,
like, you know,
our star linebacker of our high school
football team was like, bro,
you're so beautiful up there.
It was so amazing.
I was like, really?
But even before that, yeah,
I was a major fan of Arthur Miller
because I really enjoyed how he was
clearly talking about something like these
underlying patterns that pop up in our
culture.
that are there that no one really ever,
no one else was talking about.
And theater,
and I feel like theater and comics are
the two mediums, media,
that they are always there before
everybody else and they're always talking
about deeper stuff.
that uh uh tv and film it takes
them takes way longer for those for those
uh uh sources those platforms to discuss
those things so i got a lot of
that from from arthur miller and then over
the years you know i just started really
it was when i started studying writing up
here in british columbia i went to ubc
and i started writing i only came up
here really to sharpen my tools for
screenwriting
But they had this rule where you had
to study different genres.
And so I was studying everything I could,
poetry, four-act structure.
I started really falling in love with
story structure.
There's that one again,
the four-eye structure.
Four-act structure, yeah.
Oh, did you say four-act?
That one I haven't heard of, actually.
No, the one you said.
I'm sorry.
It sounded like... Oh, four-act, yeah.
Yeah, four-act structure,
four-act structure, five-act, right?
Yeah.
You know,
the common novel really lends itself well
to comic book writing.
And that was something... So,
me and Braston Cosby just had a very
good conversation on that exact topic,
actually.
Really?
Yeah.
That's how he writes his comics,
using that same concept.
Oh,
where he thinks of it as one long
novel, right?
Yeah.
There is – there's some really great –
there's another fantastic writer who,
of course,
his name is escaping me right now,
and I'll look him up.
He wrote Little Bird.
Okay.
And that – he definitely – I could
see that his –
His storytelling structure for that tale
absolutely does that.
I'm trying to get his name now so
I don't lose it.
Darcy Van Paulgates.
uh he's brilliant brilliant writer it's a
really great story and he definitely it
reads like a a a novel uh in
structure but you know it doesn't feel
like that while you're reading it uh and
and that's so that so i started realizing
that a lot of a lot of narrative
structure i started like studying a lot of
you know thinking about non-linear
structure thinking about this and that i i
i learned how
I went back to comic books,
which is really the first thing I was
reading before theater, right?
And I realized how so much of what
I was, what I naturally wanted,
was inclined to make story-wise really fit
comic writing.
And so then it just got to a
point where the idea just kept, you know,
chewing and chewing in my brain.
And I was like, dude, you got it.
You got to write this thing already.
Just to at least stay sane.
I just have to write it.
What were some of those comments that kind
of influenced that?
Oh, man.
One hundred bullets, without a doubt.
Uh, uh,
one hundred bullets as well as one hundred
bullets run.
What I love about it is the layering.
He you think it starts with a very
small, hard boiled fiction,
crime fiction kind of setting.
And then it it unveils that it's part
of this bigger story.
And then that's part of an even bigger
story.
You know, reverse what is it?
Reverse Russian egg or whatever.
Yeah.
I loved that feeling.
And I loved how it was earned.
Never felt like it was imposed.
And it was a nifty way of story
story world building.
without starting the story, right?
Which I think is a challenge.
I see so many people who they,
you know, I'm guilty of it too sometimes,
right?
Of you're worrying so much about the
details of your story world instead of
just people and characters and
relationships.
And I think, I mean,
that story series for sure is great.
And then of course, you know,
Watchmen obviously played a huge role.
Yeah, scalped.
A lot of the Vertigo series,
I was a kid.
They're back on the shelf, man.
Say it again?
They're back on the shelf.
The back of the shelf.
Yeah.
I was a kid.
I was very lucky.
And I was a kid who was allowed
to go to the adult section of the
comic book shop.
And the owner was just like, yeah,
I don't care.
It would be like Vertigo.
This is for adults.
This is graphic violence.
Preacher.
Oh, my gosh.
The amount of stuff coming out of that.
Come on.
Everybody loves ass face.
i think my i think my father called
me that a few times and uh that
was how we bonded and so i would
i would show it i would i would
show him that the the preacher comic like
like you know me trying to be like
a teenage rebel to my dad you know
like so i'm gonna get this what are
you gonna do about it you know my
dad's just like all right looks it looks
looks interesting you know so
So, like, you know, as a young kid,
I was lucky in that I very quickly
was able to see past a lot of
the bells and whistles of, like, yeah,
graphic violence and, you know,
incredible, beautiful art.
But then at the end of the day,
is it a story I'm going to come
back to?
Is it something I'm going to come back
to?
Dude,
that's one of those stories where you can
go back and read it.
yeah yeah the tv series itself wasn't that
bad they they did change a little much
in my opinion they changed a lot yeah
but at the end of the day it
was such a good watch though yeah there
are certain things that you absolutely
positively cannot put on tv no not at
all it can be applied like ass face
become an ass face was a plot implied
It was implied.
That's true.
I mean,
you hear the gunshot and then you see
the aftermath and how everybody treats
him.
And then nobody really ever gets that real
story of what that was and how that
happened.
Yeah.
And I think I really liked the part
of the story where,
at least in the graphic novel,
I liked that you didn't really see how
it happened.
I think later they show how it happened.
Yeah, they do.
It's in a flashback sequence later on.
Yeah.
I liked – I loved that you didn't
have to see it.
I think it's mentioned very briefly when
his dad leaves the police officer – the
police headquarters.
And then he comes – the sheriff's
headquarters.
And then the sheriff comes home,
and he's just staring at the kitchen while
his son's like, yeah,
I'm going to make you this.
I'm going to make you that.
And then he leaves,
and then he just puts his head down
and –
Yeah, that's an Arthur Miller play moment,
for sure.
Oh, yeah.
Like, that moment where it's like,
you can feel the history in the
relationship in the room, you know?
And later on, when I studied acting,
you just sort of realize that's what makes
a really potent character scene worth
watching, is, you know,
there's something that we didn't see as an
audience, but we know it's there,
and you're watching two people navigate
it, right?
He was such a great character in the
series itself.
Oh, yeah.
Like,
how many times did he save Preacher's ass,
you know?
Yes, that's right.
I forgot about that.
That's right.
He wasn't, like,
the most prolific character,
but he was a very prolific character
throughout the entirety of the series.
Isn't he essentially a response to people
loving him so much, right?
To fan mail and stuff like that, right?
I want to say yes.
Yeah, that he starts getting more of a...
or at least I thought he did.
I don't, I don't know.
I can't remember how that,
how that went down.
And I just remember him being just like,
he was a fricking done.
Right.
Or at least that's how he,
but it felt like he also had like
mental issues before everything happened
to begin with.
And she just kind of played him along.
Yes.
And, um,
so it's kind of like you feel bad
for the character.
And then it's like, he becomes such a,
A lovable character.
Yeah.
Well, he sacrifices himself, doesn't he?
Yeah.
Now I'm forgetting everything.
Yeah.
I want to say he did.
Yeah.
I mean, Vertigo,
there was a moment in the mid to
late nineties where the stories were
really very clearly not geared towards my
teenage self.
And I could tell they weren't, you know,
and I think there's a I always trust,
you know, when I teach at a,
you know,
I'm a college teacher and I teach students
that I know are very hyper aware of
there's not there's not a lot of things
they haven't been told everything.
about the ways of the world in ways
to protect them,
but they're ready to handle that, right?
They're ready to,
and I think comic books were for a
long time, like the one place where,
you know,
you're an angry young man and you're not
understanding like, you know,
so many things about yourself and the
world and you go and you read a
comic book and there's some, you know,
Neil Adams talking to me somehow,
you know, from beyond the grave.
It's that five to ten minutes of being
just immersed.
in that story it yeah there's not a
lot of well i want to say there's
not a lot of stories but there are
a lot of stories out there currently that
really just like pull you into them now
yeah and you you just feel like god
bless i feel like i'm there man yeah
like i really right now i really love
um aubrey sitterson's um free planet
That's a good story.
And it's one of those where I know
when it ends, I'm going to be like,
yeah, you know,
like that one's going to suck when it
ends.
There's been a few like that.
I'm super intimidated by the the the
variation of storytelling I'm seeing now
in comics, the superiority of like,
you know,
clearly like the the the generations that
grew up watching film are going back to
comic and applying a lot of those
principles
with paneling and it's really interesting
to see how it's happening.
And I'm kind of realizing I'm a bit
of a dinosaur on terms of my preferred
format and everything,
but I'm also okay with that because I
think, first of all,
you gotta be who you are, right?
You have to tell the story you are.
I don't think there's a right or wrong
way.
I know a lot of people say, oh,
that's the wrong way to tell it.
Is it?
Look at it now.
People use the gutters.
People are all in the gutters now.
People are using the whole page to tell
the story now, whereas before,
you better have that half-inch white all
the way around the page.
Now it's like the pages are blue,
the pages are black, the pages are red,
and
Yeah.
There's no such thing as a –
Yeah, everyone younger than me,
and in fact,
a lot of my peers are trying to
re-engineer story for verticals,
for vertical story format.
Every student I know,
like there was a young student I worked
with recently and she was like, oh,
I'm into comics.
I'm like, you are?
Oh, here's mine.
And she's like, oh, I read these.
And they're meant to be scrolled, right?
And I'm like, wow, this is, oh shoot.
Like this is how everyone who's younger is
thinking.
They're also talking about – yeah,
they're not talking about an actual comic.
They're talking about reading – I forgot
what they're called off the top of my
head.
But a lot of this stuff is online
now.
You can literally just go buy digital
copies of all the comic books.
I mean you offer digital prints of yours.
Yeah, mine's on Global Comics now as well.
One's on Global Comics.
But it's also available.
Global Comics goes out of its way to
keep it traditionally horizontal.
Um,
I'm just saying that I can see that.
Yeah.
It's like you said, there's, there's,
there's different,
there's different ways of presenting the
story.
I'm a, I'm a big,
I think I said this last time in
our, in our last interview,
I'm into Marshall McLuhan because McLuhan
always believed in the medium is the
message, right?
The medium is the massage.
You would call it where you're,
you're being,
It's not necessarily the story content,
it's how it's being presented to you
that's really sticking in your mind.
And I think that's changing a lot now,
for sure.
But I also see that people are going
to comics because it's a really immediate
way to deal with the stories and the
themes that I don't think we're getting in
other places.
There's no rules, right?
yeah yeah yeah and it's the most immediate
way to experiment without certain rules
right yeah yeah yeah if you want to
show blood and guts it's one of those
where you know you can show the blood
you show the guts you can show intestines
being ripped out of this person's body
their brains splattered on the wall if you
want to go the opposite way
If there's a graphic scene between two
adult consenting human beings,
you can show it.
You got to label it,
but at the same time,
you can still show all that stuff.
There's an audience for it.
Yeah.
yeah and i think also you you you're
i'm seeing how like the text bubble is
changing like people have different ways
of delivering it now the test bubble is
all over the place now yeah it's not
art text bubble being used as transition
i'm noticing a lot which is which is
pretty good and that's the belief right
the the art will tell the story the
words will progress it hmm
And then there's the idea of people who
use the gutters to do self-inflection into
the story from the characters,
which is a cool concept too.
I've read a few stories like that now
where I'm like, none of that makes sense.
And then you get a few pages over,
and then you're like, oh,
that's inner monologue the character is
having with themselves while they're
having the conversation with this other
character on the page.
Yeah.
So it's kind of odd seeing that,
and I'm seeing more of it.
But it's still cool.
I like that it's an evolving form of
media now.
yeah and there's really no right or wrong
way to do it anymore now before you
you had to have the gutters you had
to have that that white page and
everything had to be confined to those
boxes and you know image was really the
first one that kind of came along and
said yeah we ain't doing none of that
and then doing like the whole inner page
is just a giant splash page you know
yeah
i i'm i'm i'm in the middle of
reading for the first time i haven't
finished it uh powers i don't know why
it took me this long to read it
it's been on my my list forever yeah
and i'm just noticing i guess when retro
girl is murdered they they're and they're
they are... Not a spoiler, by the way.
It's in the beginning of the...
They are giving background for what...
I guess how the city thinks of her.
And it's... Yeah, the bottom of the page,
just these panels that are...
These little mini panels scrunched
underneath the actual panels of the page.
And I'm like, wow, that is so...
it's like on one hand i'm like this
is this looks a little clunky but on
the other hand it's like oh i don't
even need it i could take or leave
it and that's kind of the connotation of
it and i thought that was really
interesting it's like oh yeah like that's
the whole point of it it's like i
could i could read this or i don't
have to and that's the page is telling
me that
which is pretty cool.
Yeah.
So it's just things like, yeah,
I appreciated that from like image as
usual really did like set the whole, like,
what if we do this instead, you know,
or understand.
They kind of just said, okay,
here's the traditional rules and here's
the shredder.
And yeah,
we're going to do what we want.
We're going to experiment.
We're going to find what works and what
doesn't work.
Yeah.
If it doesn't work,
they're going to tell us.
Yeah.
Yeah, food for thought.
Food for thought.
Yeah.
I mean,
we just had this conversation before we
went live.
Mm-hmm.
About?
About your book.
Yes.
About, well, yeah, I mean,
it's definitely...
I mean,
I'm probably the only person who's
actually read it right now,
and I'm not going to give any spoilers.
But, you know,
it was one of those where... Yeah,
let's talk about it.
We should talk about it.
You want to talk about it?
Let's talk about the actual comic book.
That was literally my segue into it,
actually.
I appreciate that.
Yeah.
So let's step inside the world itself,
man.
PowerScape has taken place in twenty seven
ninety eight.
Civilization is surviving within these
franchise city and they're powered by
Korra.
energy which was given to them by aliens
yeah that's right aliens finally visited
earth to help us on frick ourselves that's
what it took yeah but let's not get
for those in the real world let's not
do that okay let's let's not get to
that point where aliens have to visit us
to help us survive but again society is
revolving around this massive competitive
event known as powerball
Now, Donald,
can you let everybody know exactly what
Powerball is?
So it's a game that is played on
a variety of different fields depending on
which city you're in.
The one that we open on is New
Caledonia,
which is essentially Seattle and Vancouver
and everything in between.
and parts of Portland just kind of like
put together in a region as a mega
city that is under a dome of, yeah,
of manufactured atmosphere that this core
energy keeps sustaining.
Their field is called Omega Field because
it's essentially almost like a gravity
loop,
except it stops at the top where there's,
right where the hooves of the horseshoe
basically,
you have a goal here and a goal
there.
There are seven players on the field for
each team,
so there's four team players all together.
These Arbiter bots,
who are sort of the reps,
drop down out of the ship.
There's three of them,
and each one of them have a ball
of core called Core Ball.
More and more as I'm writing it,
the slang of it is a seaball or
a sea, which I'm like...
Could be a drug, but hey, you know.
And so the core ball- Give it a
leak, it'll be a drug.
Yeah, probably.
So the core ball is dropped out of
one of the refs,
drops onto the field like a jump ball
almost, right?
And the players have to get it,
and the job is to get it across
the field to either,
if you're the home team,
it goes into a module pipeline that leads
to the city grid that powers it
immediately,
or if you're the away team it goes
into a module pipeline that leads into the
your shuttle that you came in uh and
then you bring it back to your city
uh if anyone breaks any rules if anyone
does any of infractions or they violate
the game in any way like this like
you try to keep one of them for
yourselves the arbiter bots uh basically
uh sanction you uh and which can be
anyways you know you know usually
including death
So it's pretty...
And that's literally one of the only rules
because... Yeah.
I mean,
there's a scene where he opens up and
the new star player gets his whole knee
locked off.
Yeah, yeah.
He learns very... Yeah,
right out of the gates,
there's an accident on New Caledonia's
side because these are all players who
haven't played with each other yet.
And yes, and they're players,
but they're also... Their archetype...
The characters are... They look very...
They're superpowered.
You're given a genetic therapy as part of
your player training,
and it does something and changes your
body in a way that gives you some
kind of a superpower, unlocks it,
but nobody really ever knows what it is.
It's an unpredictable power.
So the players themselves have to kind of
train and then also know what their power
is, but also...
be good enough at whatever this power is
that they're able to work within the team
system.
And as we see in the beginning of
the series right now, the Stargazers,
who is our New Caledonia team,
they're not good playing with each other.
And yeah,
they basically friendly fire one of their
guys here.
And then they're scrambling and they have
to play.
And then the substitute of the substitute
don't even know what her powers are yet.
Like they haven't manifested.
Yeah, not yet.
Not yet.
They will.
This was one that, yeah,
you were saying that the cliffhanger
frustrated you.
And I get it because I had to
make a tough call to split the game
up into two issues.
Because I try as I did,
I could not end this game in one
issue.
Part of me wanted to because I figured
it would be an easier, a better showcase.
But I wanted to establish, again,
I wanted to think character more so than
story world, I guess.
And so I'm really trying to get us
to establish who this main character is.
And so, yeah,
you're basically getting the game.
You don't necessarily get the end of this
game yet.
You will in the next issue.
Yeah.
But it's yeah,
it's it's essentially we don't quite know
yet, you know, what her power is.
We do see her being resourceful enough.
She knows what to do on the field.
This is Gala, right?
Yep.
Yeah.
And you can kind of tell,
like when she is introduced that,
you know,
there's something special about her and
people are feeling like.
There is something there and there's
something special about this person.
It's just not yet.
Like you're not seeing yet.
And my fresh, like,
I know we were talking about my
frustrations with the book is like, it's,
I love the story and I'm not taking
anything away from the story.
Like that issue is with the goal being
scored.
And I'm just like,
let there be one more page.
And it's right there, so I'm just like,
come on, man.
Oh, wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Did you read up to twenty-four?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did, yeah.
There was a few pages that wouldn't work.
Like, I couldn't get them to open.
So there was a few pages that did
get skipped.
There are more pages.
Oh, okay.
So that's what it was.
But no,
there was a few pages within the...
the Microsoft, you know, that went open.
I know what happened.
That might have been one of them.
Because I uploaded them late.
I uploaded them late.
That's right.
The lettering wasn't done yet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'll have to go back.
Yeah, keep reading.
Yeah, let me know.
Yeah.
My bad.
Yeah, no, all good.
All good.
Oh, yeah.
No, I wouldn't end it.
I know what you're talking about.
I wouldn't end it just there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Because I was like,
you've got to be shitting me, Donald.
You were talking about some dirty tactics.
Yeah, no, I was going to say,
I was like, cause you were like,
oh yeah, I don't.
And I'm like, well,
there's definitely a very specific sort of
revelation, you know, but yeah, yeah,
yeah.
It's all good.
Cause I mean,
we see Gala get like KTFO'd basically.
And then the goal is scored,
and then for me,
because I didn't have those other pages
yet,
and I didn't put two and two together
to go to the other folder that you
had sent me to finish reading it.
Yeah, when you said PTFO,
do you mean you saw what happens, right?
Yeah, when he gets into her head.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That keeps going.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, that keeps going.
So I'll have to go back and reread
it because there's a few pages,
like I said.
I feel like a dumbass.
I feel like I just ruined your story
experience of the thing because now you're
going to be like, okay, all right now.
It's one of those where I'm so invested
in it right now that I'm just like,
I have to read it no matter what
now.
Yeah.
That would honestly, if I ended it there,
I probably,
I wouldn't blame you if you were like,
dude, don't, don't do this anymore.
Do go do, go do more theater.
Yeah.
I'll just call it your name, buddy.
Always is.
The casting Ottoman as well.
Uh, yes, I, uh,
I know everybody were joking about that,
but he's in a play right now,
so that's why I keep making the joke.
Yeah,
I'm in the middle of trying to finish
this series.
And right in the middle of it,
I decided to go do Henry IV.
And I don't know what I'm thinking.
I don't know what I'm...
But Henry IV in Langley,
Bard in the Valley.
I play Falstaff.
It's going to be great fun.
If anybody sees this and you're in the
area, please come on by.
That would be great.
But that's...
So for everybody listening or watching
from...
From, yes, I'm sorry, Langley,
British Columbia.
There we go.
British Columbia.
Which is why the team is the team.
But essentially,
to get into what you read so far,
yeah, as you can see,
it's a brutal sport.
It's a brutal game.
Oh, it's so brutal and it's so lovely.
Yeah.
It's one of those where if we could
see hits like that in modern day
football...
Again,
not to the point where the leg is
being like ripped off,
but like just that brutality.
Yeah.
Well,
you see what happens with with some of
the other players, too, right?
I mean,
it's and a lot of it is the
connotation is as as you're going to learn
later,
the medical science is heavily invested
in.
So these players are it's it's a lot
easier to repair them than twenty first
century medical science now.
You just reattach that shit now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But but the first of all,
it doesn't always go the way they
predicted.
And secondly, as you're going to see,
I mean, you know, as we know, right,
when you get injured and this is I
think this is what I'm writing a lot
in this story as well,
because I've had multiple injuries and
technically on paper, they're OK.
But psychologically, that's still there.
And and and you can only do this
so much as a person.
before it starts to wear on you right
yeah and uh and and that's that's kind
of a hidden little i don't want to
say a subplot but it's a it's it's
a piece of the development for sure it's
especially going to be a development for
kai because um kai first came out the
gate man he's he's done it's awful it's
awful isn't it knee count
There's a lot of, you know,
I'm somebody who, yeah,
I was rubbing elbows with a lot of
people who turned into like professional
celebrities, whatever.
And I think in the entertainment world,
and there's that feeling where you...
You kind of look back and you realize
like, man,
there's certain things that like, damn,
like,
I didn't even get the chance to this.
I didn't even know that that that right
there kind of sealed my fate with some
with something, you know,
and I don't want to get into it
too much.
But I got into like,
I remember a board meeting for
representation when I was young out of
college and
I didn't realize,
but I was I was kind of on
a handshake contract with a manager who
did not like the head of this agency
I was interviewing for.
And the two of them hated each other.
And so, yeah,
so I got I got double rejected as
a nephew.
I got rejected by one as a nephew
to one of them.
And then I got drunk.
Yeah.
And it was all, like,
just playing games with each other over,
like, eight titles.
But I was the collateral.
And they don't care.
They don't give a shit, yeah.
And so, like,
a lot of that is in, like,
Kai's narrative is a lot of what I
see with, like,
a lot of younger people who are so
talented and incredible at things.
They have, like,
you can see he's ambitious, right?
And he's very, he's a little,
he's kind of bought into the narrative,
right?
And so when his life is the narrative
of, like, what you do as a, oh,
yeah, I'm going to be a player celebrity.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to get that.
have this lined up for me and then
when all of a sudden doors shut
immediately snap dude yeah yeah yeah you
know what's crazy is over the last like
month and a half two months i've
interviewed a lot of guys like under the
age of thirty building these fantastic
comic book universes
And it's one of those where I'm like,
I hope they're still here next year,
this time.
And I'm not knocking them.
They are extremely talented writers or
artists.
They are really good with big ideas.
And it's one of those where I hope
they have the,
what's the word I'm looking for?
The mentality to make it through
what they are about to put themselves
through.
And there's a few who they've got a
few titles under their belt.
I'm not worried about those per se,
but it's the ones who are just coming
up and they're like,
I'm going to do this on my own.
I'm going to do it this way.
I'm going to do it that way.
And that's great.
I want you to do that.
That's the way to do it.
You need that too.
You need that.
You have to establish.
Yeah.
You have to establish yourself.
Yep.
But at the same time,
those are the ones I also worry about
because I,
They're at it by themselves,
and I don't know who's mentoring them.
I don't know who's guiding them along this
journey.
Who are you talking to?
As we discover,
we're in a world and an industry,
especially the entertainment and the
content industry.
It's a world where it is very easy
for a big fish to take advantage of,
to play with their food with little fish
before they gobble them up.
And you know what I think is really
funny?
I think of like,
I've been really thinking about this a lot
lately of all of the cultural icons that
their lives were so clearly not belonging
to them and that there were so many
things in them that actually if they got
the chance to do what they wanted to
do,
we might've remembered them for something
completely different.
Elvis comes to mind like Elvis manager
being like the most and we don't think
of that with Elvis you know we're like
oh yeah he got addicted to drugs you
know whatever died on the toilet blah blah
blah but it's like no he he he
was actually his whole career was being
steered by this other guy who was taking
his money like
He had no say so whatsoever.
His tour in Vegas, the whole nine,
none of it was his.
And to be fair,
he would have probably been done at a
much younger age,
just living his happy life in Memphis.
You're right.
Might have actually started making
different music.
Music that's maybe something that he
connected to more or something.
And yet,
I remember I watched his last concert
before he passed.
It wasn't good.
Not only not good,
but it was like a...
The hundreds of towels that he's passing
out,
and that it's like this is a caricature
of this one thing you do that's like
your signature cultural moniker,
the thing everyone recognizes you.
And there's a guy behind him who's just,
every time he's unloading the scarf to an
audience member, he's like,
I got Elvis's scarf.
I'm sorry, I'm just doing the...
Just doing the reaction,
what the lady looks like, I guess.
There's a guy behind him who's putting
another scarf on.
And it was so metaphorical of like it's
just never ending.
And it's a literal burden on his neck
that's not getting lighter because someone
else keeps putting it on top of him.
Oh, my God.
I found that so interesting.
Have you ever seen the president sign a
document or sign a bill?
Wait, you mean Nixon?
Like any president whatsoever signed
bills.
I think I meant Nixon making Elvis the
secret agent.
He's like,
I want to be a secret agent.
No,
I'm just talking about like each president
as they sign a bill into law,
they go P. Yeah.
R.
yeah because those pins are significant
and they give them to other members of
the cabinet they give them to whoever you
know that is exhausting right dude imagine
having to do that over and over and
over again yeah or just being like a
say a comic book creator for instance at
a sign-in yeah and just be like uh
you know p yeah
Oh,
that would be just so exhausting just to
keep swapping pins.
And there's a lot of creators who do
that.
Yeah,
I got a lot of respect for people
at conventions who do that.
And they want to do that for the
fans, right?
They want to do it.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I appreciate it wholeheartedly.
absolutely but then yeah there's the
there's the if they're you know with elvis
it's the guy behind him that's like very
subtly like you know it's the money it's
the money around him that's that's moving
him in this direction and it's now it's
been it became such an like just uh
and not to not to excuse personal choice
right dude you can cut out anytime you
want perhaps right but like that that's
clearly i think more of the um
the rule rather than the exception.
And with pro sports, absolutely.
Right.
Well,
those contracts at that time were ironclad
and it said,
you will owe me this much.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's true.
And I think that
uh you know it's interesting i there was
another thing i was thinking of uh there's
this famous story of marilyn monroe
blowing like i think she goes through
fifty five takes to say this line where's
that where's that damn bourbon in a movie
yeah she couldn't you know she was so
oh high on medication and stuff she
couldn't say it whatever um
and it's actually not true she she could
she said the take she did and and
my my brain was like that's as from
my experience with film you could find so
many ways to just have that take and
move on right yeah so what were they
really doing they were breaking her
because of her contract position because
she was getting paid a certain rate that
a lot of the other other actors weren't
at that point and she
You could say a lot of things about
Marilyn Monroe and her state of mind,
but she was a damn good negotiator.
She actually understood how to get her
money.
And they hated her for that.
So they were punishing her because it was
in the contract that she couldn't... Yeah,
if she walked off set,
she would forfeit her money, basically.
So it was a game of...
Just ratting on her, yeah.
Just like, fifty-five takes,
just getting in her brain to try to
break her, basically, right?
And her doing it was probably her, like,
okay, I know what you're trying to do,
but I'm gonna do it.
It's just like,
I'm not gonna let you break my,
you know, happy life off the set, right?
Which is...
just that i'm really fascinated with those
games that people play in industries
golden boy is probably a major symbol of
that of somebody who's been with so much
that he now is doing it back and
he knows how to do it he knows
how to use the crowds how to use
the people right yeah
Oh, I'm sure.
And there is so many,
like so much out there and it's all
predatory, right?
Like, yeah, they're not for you.
They're not trying to help you.
There's unfortunately a lot of predatory
interests.
Yeah.
And there's, you know,
there's spaces of people who support each
other in communities, but, um, it's,
it's tough.
You have to really be able to trust
people and you, you know, yeah.
If you're young out there,
I would just say be, just be,
do just do your homework,
do your homework.
Right.
Yeah.
But so powerscape and no,
you can just sit here and just jibber
jabber all night about comic books and
everything else in between.
But um,
so who are some of these artists and
your collaborators out there that help
bring powerscape to life because it is
such a visual piece of work?
yeah i mean the the the the main
artist is uh stefan tochev and uh stefan
is a local guy whose comic book daybreak
he or he did he did art for
a comic book called daybreak and i saw
it when i first got here when i
first moved here from los angeles and i
really i just had it i just bought
it because i was like i am really
fascinated by this style of art because it
was at once
Definitely like a guy who grew up watching
cartoons,
like the X-Men cartoon run or something
like that, the way I did.
But with just enough realism in it that
the characters were really grounded.
I felt like I was still watching people
who lived by the physics of my earth
in the story,
even though it's very sci-fi.
And he kept things so clean and simple.
but also sleek and detailed.
I was like,
this is a very unique style.
This guy's got something really,
really unique.
So in my head, I just was like,
well, that's a really great artist.
And then as I was racking my brain
trying to reach out to artists for
Powerscape,
I was working with a group of consultants
who were helping me organize.
In an industry I never had been in
before.
And I asked them, I was like,
you know,
what if we just contact, I said,
can we get someone who looks like this?
And then as, as I'm looking at it,
I'm like, wait, he lives here.
And I'm like, can I just,
can we just contact him?
And so they did.
And I had coffee with him and Stefan's
really just like, you know, tell me what,
what's the story I did.
He's like, all right.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Cool.
And then he like goes home and then
he just fires away.
Like just gives me like, like, Holy shit.
And he's like, yeah, I guess this,
maybe this, I don't know, whatever.
And you know, for him, it's like,
I can see he enjoys working the chops.
I told him to use the comic as
a platform to just experiment and just do
try stuff.
I really enjoy our working relationship.
We're very like, we're very,
we're two different people, but he is,
he like, you know,
my whole thing is like,
I don't care how it looks.
Like I have what I think it looks
like and I'll write notes,
but I don't like to do panel like
direction.
um yeah i just i tell him like
whatever you think makes sense let's try
it and um like sometimes i don't want
something a certain color you know he has
a good way of being like uh yeah
i think it's fine you know
you know it's wild right because the book
is very it's neon centric and what do
i mean by neon centric i mean it's
we're talking what what year is it twenty
seven ninety eight things are very
cyberpunk feeling yeah it's very the
lights are very neon they're the goals are
like neon lit you know it's
And it's done purposely,
but even the outfits that the players
wear, they're very cyberpunk feeling,
very neon.
It's the same team,
but everybody's like an individual.
Yeah,
Stefan was funny because he based a lot
of the aesthetics on football.
Yeah, football gear, right?
And then he would be like,
know i'd be like oh this is great
dude were you were you thinking of like
this guy right here like this way he
looks and it's so it looks so much
like like um you know like uh uh
like watching growing up and watching like
larry fitzgerald like did you do that on
purpose and he's like dude i don't really
like i don't really watch sports and i'm
like oh okay
It's one of those where he probably
Googled and be like, oh, OK, cool,
I can, yeah, yeah, let's, yeah.
Possibly.
I mean,
I gave him a library with a lot
of different looks,
like a lot of different, like,
iconic sports stuff.
Like, there's this one,
I think the shot on our social media
of Gelo with the ball,
it's kind of low-key a throwback to an
Allen Iverson pick.
and um you know and so he's really
good at just like like adopting that and
he gets it but i like that he's
kind of separated from it like he doesn't
i feel like people who are like sports
fanatics will be like super detailed on
certain things yeah or trying to overdo it
when it doesn't need to be overdone yes
Yes.
And that's the good thing about it though.
Right.
In my eyes, I'm looking at it,
you know, a sport is being played,
but it's a lot more about the character
interaction because they never played the
ball together.
This is their first time really playing
together.
Yeah.
They haven't had time to practice.
None of that.
Yeah.
And, um,
And as you can see,
it's a bit of a shit show, right?
Definitely a shit show.
But it's still fun in that aspect of
it's really cool to see how the game
is being played by both teams.
And just the interaction between the
teams.
They all know each other.
They've been playing this game for years
with each other.
So they're like shit talking and they're
doing all that stuff.
So it's like real sports, but
Sit in the year.
Twenty seven.
Ninety eight.
Yeah.
Right.
We're still talking.
We're still.
doing that, you know?
Absolutely.
And the captain of the other team, right,
when he debuts,
you can kind of see how it's –
yeah,
a lot of this is very matter-of-fact.
That team specifically,
there's a background with them where
they're in a lot of trouble because they
don't win a lot of games.
Yeah, you can tell.
It almost feels like there's – I don't
want to say self-sabotaging,
but it feels like they're kind of being
pulled from the –
inside out you know somebody is like
trying to deliberately yeah i'm not saying
that's the plot i don't know but yeah
i feel
Yeah, well,
that team's from Lone Twin City,
which is definitely,
it's supposed to be what's left of
Minneapolis and St.
Paul,
kind of holding on as a little collective.
And it's because they've faced years of,
which is very topical,
they've faced years of a lot of
instability.
And so there are some cities that are
doing really, really well,
and they win a lot.
And then there are some cities that, that,
that are, you know, yeah,
it's not going great.
And, uh, and as you'll see, there's,
there's some cities and yeah,
I don't want to say anymore.
Just, just read.
Oh, I don't know what I did wrong.
Like I said.
No, I did it wrong.
It was my fault.
I updated it too late.
I should have told you that.
I should have said that.
No, you're good, dude.
I emailed you like a day ago.
I'm right in the middle.
It's one of those two where I may
not get to the email till like the
day after anyway.
Yeah, man.
Just because.
Yeah.
You're busy.
Yeah.
What do you think?
You're doing like back to back interviews,
right?
Back to back.
So I got you tonight.
Yeah.
guy lenovo innovations press tomorrow and
then i'm kicking off i think it's going
to be a six part mini series with
uh chris the long box punk hey yeah
i'll tell chris i say what's up yeah
i i interviewed with him too he's awesome
He's awesome.
I've known about him for quite a while
now.
And, um,
I know he does similar to what I
do.
I just don't know what he does it
at because I think it's weird if I,
I mean,
I will check out my competition and so
to speak, I don't really like.
I don't view you guys as competition.
I view you as two completely different
interviewers.
Yeah,
and it's one of those where I root
for people versus trying to poo-poo on
people.
You know what I'm saying?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
What's the point in wishing bad for
people?
Yeah.
But it's also one of those where I
wish I had more time to watch those
who, when I first started,
they were some of the people I looked
at to go,
I like what he does with this and
this.
Maybe I want to adopt that,
but I want to do this differently.
And he was one of those guys for
me where I was just like,
I like what he does,
but I want to change it up and
do it my own way.
But I definitely pulled elements from a
lot of different guys who kind of do
what I do.
but not necessarily because I completely
switched it up.
Like I literally, when I started this,
I'm like,
and then it slowly evolved to where I'm
like,
I'm going to walk people through the
journey of my guests,
like how they got here,
where they're going and that kind of
stuff.
Basically when I take people on a journey
to get to know who Donald is,
why PowerScape is and that kind of stuff,
you know what I'm saying?
And that's where I'm at.
But let's talk about some of these themes
beneath the spectacle, man,
especially right now.
Do you kind of see this story as
commentary on our current present-day
stuff or a warning about our future?
Because, I mean,
especially when you mention Minneapolis
and then places like that,
it's kind of like that's been a shit
show.
Yeah, it definitely – I mean,
this is –
I don't wanna say this is political.
It's political in the sense that
everything is political.
I would call it sociopolitical.
And I think what,
at the end of the day,
what this story is,
I can't help but be a manifestation of
all the events in the history that,
you know, you and I, we've lived through.
I mean, you know, your background, right?
I'm sure we've lived through twenty five
years of like the nineties.
We watched this place change drastically.
Right.
We see the invention of the smartphone,
the invention of the personal computer.
Mm hmm.
Liquid natural gas is basically doing to
oil what oil is doing to coal, right?
Yeah.
Everything is like – Electric vehicles.
Yeah.
Oh, gosh.
Geopolitical alliances that we thought
were just reality changing.
Yeah.
And that kind of stuff is –
what I've always sort of been really,
what my brain's,
my brain is permanently stuck on big
picture to my detriment.
Like my partner, you know,
I love her a lot when we get
along because she's so good at just the
small details.
Cause I am blind.
I am blind with that stuff.
but so that's like me with like like
the political realm that we currently live
in i choose not to watch it listen
to it have anything to do with it
because i live in my own little bubble
because i am just that busy that where
i like my idea of watching something is
literally going to be watching this back
as i make clips out of it
Yeah, I think that's good because I think,
like I said,
like we were saying before with younger
artists,
we are all having this realization that we
live in systems that are not necessarily
there for our health.
They're not there for...
They used to be at least there for
our productivity and they may not even be
there anymore, right?
And so this story is...
kind of what happens when you know that
system's not working.
And that's the main thrust of this game
is that it's a couple centuries now of
this thing kind of working and humming
along,
but the main character is going to go
through an arc of sort of discovering it's
really not though.
And that there is another way to do
this that when we discover that,
The system itself is actively going to try
to kill our means of doing that,
of changing it.
And because that's what a system does in
order to survive, for it to perpetuate,
it needs to kill anything that is in
competition with it.
And that's the notion of competition
versus collaboration.
How do we get there?
We are, as humans,
we're both of these things all the time.
There's a system that's destroying
something right now in a part of the
world,
but while it's also creating the means for
somebody else to enrich themselves or get
better.
How are we going to rectify that?
What happens when it doesn't work anymore?
I'm really interested in how do we
transition to that next leap of our human
evolution?
It's very easy to say we won't.
But I think it's very difficult for
something to end.
I think society and history has been
saying that forever.
That, oh, well, that's it.
This is the last manifestation of
humanity.
Say it again.
I don't see it that way.
Yeah, I don't either.
I don't either.
I think each generation is meant to be
better than the previous one, right?
And even if they're not better,
they're different.
They're different in a way that it changes
our understanding of better.
And we're not talking about physical
evolution here.
We're talking...
Yeah, no.
All that kind of stuff.
I mean how society organizes itself.
Yes.
Which is definitely the arc of this story
is this is a society that needs to
reorganize itself.
And it's a lot of people saying in
denial.
And that really the spectacle of the game
is a collective denial.
Right.
Oh, we're fine.
Everything's fine.
This is it's a planet that's uninhabitable
now because the air is toxic.
There's temperatures that are too hot.
Right.
There are, you know,
there are fire tornadoes I have at one
point happening.
You know, it gets pretty rough.
But there are these little sanctuary
cities of, I don't want to hot charge,
supercharge with that term,
but a sanctuary of these little places
left where they figured out a pocket to
breathe and everyone is acting as if
that's fine.
We're good.
We're good, right?
And it's going to become evident.
No, it's not.
It's not going to work.
It's actually worse than you actually
think it is.
Absolutely, yeah.
It might even be like a grave you're
digging for yourself,
or a collective grave we're digging.
And so what do we do when we
have to face that?
The people who do face that,
what do they have to do to get
us to know?
I'm not quite sure I know what the
answer is.
I think the story is me asking,
you know?
Yeah.
And I don't know how people are going
to respond to that, you know?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, we'll find out.
Yeah.
So this, sir, has already ended.
Mm-hmm.
Everything's moving forward.
It's in production.
There's a few pages left to be lettered.
No, the lettering's done now.
Two's done.
Issue two is finished.
And then we're moving forward.
Three is next, of course.
Then I'll have a mini,
and then I'll have an issue four,
and then all four of those will be
slated as a volume one graphic novel.
This is only supposed to be a six-part
series, right?
This is...
I know when we originally started our
series, has it evolved, Donald?
uh yeah no this is i mean you
know i i don't want to say this
because i feel like people roll their eyes
when they hear writers say this especially
old old dogs like me but i mean
i have like this is you know there's
this can be you know a hundred issues
this can be a lot i i've got
i've got i've got the really long version
i've got the
And then I've got the middle version,
which would be at least three volumes.
I mean, that's not bad.
There's still twelve bullets.
Yeah, yeah.
So I've got four that are planned for
this first one.
I'm almost done with issue eight,
and that would be five through eight would
be the second volume.
The playoffs, basically.
And then sort of a third volume where
things change.
Things change quite a lot for the main
character, yeah.
Because I know the first one,
the first interview when we talked,
it was a cis issue arc.
That was it.
That's what we were going for.
No, it was not.
No,
I think even then I said it's that's
what I that's what I for sure have
flushed out is.
Yeah.
That might have been what it was.
Yeah.
But I mean, no,
if I'm going to be honest,
I have I didn't want to be someone
that like was like, oh, you know,
this could be like this could go on
for ten years because I feel like you're
not taking seriously.
You're going to lose everybody.
Yeah, that's what everybody tells me.
Like, you know, no,
you don't want to be the guy that
has all these lungs.
But I will say,
it has been a story I've been weaving
for twenty years.
So, yeah, it's twenty years worth of...
You know,
I've got a file that's pretty long, right?
But I...
But I have no problem killing babies.
Babies meaning writing ideas.
And I got no problem trimming it down.
And I have a shape for it now
where it could be three to four volumes
worth of a story.
See, I think that's a good story,
especially with something like this.
Yes.
Because if you just say, oh,
we're going to go through the playoffs,
I'm like, no,
I want to see – let me get
the championships.
Let me see what follows after that.
Let me get that – not a prequel,
but the postgame on this.
What happens now after this season?
Not necessarily an entire volume on what
happened after that season because I don't
know how long these seasons are per se.
We're definitely going to,
we're going to flash forward a little for
sure.
Okay.
Yeah.
We're going to,
we're going to get out of this season.
This is, you know,
this is really about Gela Gale, Gela,
the main character.
And this is about ten years of her
life.
Okay.
And I know when we got taught the
first time, I was like,
I can tell this character just feels
special.
And you never really alluded to a whole
lot.
And even in volume two, you really don't,
elude to it that much still.
But even then,
you can kind of see like with some
of the things she does when she gets
into the game, you're like, oh,
Like, she does, she's special.
Like, there's something there.
It's not came out yet.
And I'm glad to know that.
She has an ability to see what's going
on,
what is everybody's motivations underneath
for everything, like on the field at once.
And as we're going to see,
that's going to help her out off the
field.
For sure.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I'm like,
I'm very excited to really,
really hope I get to to tell the
story quicker.
We're figuring out our process a lot
better.
Kickstarter, the next kick.
The last Kickstarter was successful and
I'm really, really thankful for it.
The next one is coming up soon.
That was that was the next question where
I was about to lead you to is.
Thank you.
What are we looking like on the next
one?
Yeah, so issue,
probably partial funding of issue three,
just like we did with this last one.
It was a partial funding of two.
We'll be doing a partial funding of three.
We will have more to give out for
sure.
And like I said, my hope is that...
I am in talks with a local writer
and artist team about a possible side
story that's kind of a prequel that will
involve a Canadian city that becomes a
sports franchise.
My ultimate, what I would love is for,
talking about younger artists,
I would love some younger artists to get
more involved in
in painting the story world itself,
which is sort of why I was,
you know,
I had to accept that I shouldn't make
a hundred issues,
a hundred fifty issues worth of a story,
but I was tempted to because I really
loved the world itself and the
possibilities of the world.
And I think the answer for that is
to have more people who are interested in
filling the gaps for other regions,
for other cities.
Yeah, that would be really cool.
Yeah,
I'm working on so I so I have
one.
There's one team right now that I'm
talking with them and they, you know,
we're thinking of maybe a twelve issue
sort of mini issue that sort of sets
up a couple a couple of narratives that
will come later in that in that third
volume.
Yeah.
And so so that's what we have on
the on the plate right now.
When can people who backed issue two
expect to get their books?
That's a good question to ask.
Yes, I appreciate that.
Thank you.
We just finished issue two.
We've got posters already.
One's ready.
So if you ordered a physical issue of
one, t-shirts are ready as well.
It's just a matter of...
I've got to go...
We'll have to print out the posters too,
but I just wanted to send them all
at once.
I didn't want to send a few things
and then issue two after the fact.
So now that two is done,
that's the final piece of all the things.
We're also going to send a couple little
tiny goody things as a thank you to
everybody as well for supporting.
Timbits.
I won't say what they are.
Little Timbits, yeah.
But they're coming.
They're coming.
A little bit of just patience because I'm
sending them all from Canada.
Yeah.
No, trust me, dude.
That's it.
Yeah.
I get stuff from the UK.
Yeah.
I know it got shipped in like February
and I get it in March.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
Like as you've learned firsthand,
two finished two days ago.
So now it's just a matter of putting
it together, printing it out,
sending it to everybody.
T-shirts look great, though.
We have an alternative logo that we will
probably save for the next Kickstarter.
alternative logo t-shirts and I'm going to
do what I can to see if I
can get bigger sizes for people because
only because you know I know that there
wasn't a lot of options with the medium
t-shirt so I'll do what I can yeah
I think I got a t-shirt that's going
to end up like going to like my
daughter
Cause I'm a tall guy.
So for me, it's like,
we have to get into the tall sizes,
like the two XLTs in order for a
shirt to like,
not look like a belly shirt on me,
basically.
Totally.
I'm tall too,
but I'm tall the other way.
You know, it's suspension, right?
It's the gravity of the earth pushing me
down and expanding me width wise.
Yeah.
We're like the little, we're like,
we're like the little vase on the,
on the,
on the wheel that Demi Moore's making in
Ghost.
That's what I look like.
That's what I'm.
So, yeah.
I, yeah.
So I understand.
I understand the issue is what I'm saying.
Yeah, I will.
I, uh, and I'll, I'll be happy to,
uh, we'll,
we'll probably feature more possibilities
for that.
But Donald,
I know I got to get you out
to the casting couch, man.
So before I let you go,
let once you let everybody know where they
can find you.
Okay.
You can find me on, uh, uh, Instagram,
Donald Thomas Capello, my full name.
The comic book is also on Instagram,
powerscape underscore comic.
We are also on Patreon,
patreon.com backslash powerscape
underscore comic, same ID.
And please go ahead and find us on
Global Comics as well and give us a
reader and a support there.
We'd really appreciate it.
One is up there now.
Two will be up there very, very shortly.
So thank you so much for supporting us.
And yeah, more to come.
More to come.
And all those links will be included in
the description of this when it goes live
again.
Thank you.
Saturday.
Probably.
Saturday is good for me.
I will be grading.
It's fine.
So you'll get everything probably on
Saturday, probably around lunchtime.
Yeah.
For everybody listening out there,
I have one more show.
Well, two more shows.
I have Lenovation Press tomorrow.
And then I have I'm introducing the part
one of a six part miniseries that I'm
doing with the long,
long boss punk Chris and Chris.
Starting on Friday and that will cover
five days.
The second part of that will be like
thirty one March and then the other four
parts will be in April.
And that's going to be a lot of
fun as we discuss their heart anthology
that they are doing.
We'll get into some details on the actual
stories themselves and kind of like what
was Chris and Chris's story.
Thoughts in making this project.
And that will be Friday.
So I highly recommend everybody tune in on
Friday.
And tomorrow too.
But Friday definitely.
Because we are definitely going to kick
off.
A six part mini series featuring.
AHA.
That stands for.
a horror anthology, which is really dope,
which is just a really cool concept.
We're going to get into all that Friday
night.
Donald can't thank you again for coming on
and giving us an update on power scape
and kind of where you're at with it
and just coming on and just blowing the
breeze, man.
Now let me get you out of here.
Cause I know you got to get to
the casting couch.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you.
Best of luck on the seventh try on
that joke.
Best of luck on that one.
Hey, you know it sticks every time.
But civilizations rise, empires fall,
but the game never ends.
A huge thank you to Donald once again.
for being awesome being a friend and
always just you know he hits me with
messages here and there just uh checking
in and i appreciate that so much for
joining us tonight though and taking us
inside the world of powerscape one more
time if you'd like to support the series
and bring well you can't bring issue two
to life because it's already been brought
to life but give him a follow and
stay tuned for issue three where i'm sure
you'll be able to get issues two
and one later on.
Absolutely.
And I will, of course,
once that is announced,
I will announce it here and we'll probably
bring Donald back one more time just for
that.
And a big thank you to everyone watching
and listening to at home.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the council of nerds is adjourned.
This has been the USDM podcast where indie
comments come to life.
Y'all be safe out there.