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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds — spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books — from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.
It’s about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
• The rise of indie comics
• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life — for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
Thank you.
What is up, everybody?
It's the chairman of the United States
Department of Nerds,
where we are for the people,
by the people, and of the people.
Some legends are written in history.
Others are forged in myth.
And sometimes the truth lives somewhere in
between.
Tonight,
we step into sixteenth-century Japan,
a world of warlords, honor, and betrayal,
and a warrior whose story still echoes
through time.
An African samurai,
a man who rose from slavery to stand
beside one of the most powerful figures in
Japanese history.
But this isn't just history.
It's transformation.
It's mythology.
It's destiny rewritten in steel and
sacrifice in something far darker waiting
beyond the battlefield.
Our guest tonight is Braston Cosby, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
number one amazon best-selling author
award-winning storyteller and the creator
behind the ambitious yasuki duology a
sweeping saga blended historical truth
fantasy horror and redemption the council
of nerds is now in session bradston
welcome to usdm my friend thank you so
much for having me on i appreciate it
man
Oh, absolutely.
I know we've been waiting a hot minute
for this one.
I feel like you've been on the schedule
for like a month now and to finally
have you here and having read your work
and to welcome you here is truly an
honor.
But for everybody who is just now meeting
you,
who is Braston Cosby and how did you
become a writer?
All right.
So I'm Braston Cosby.
I'm the CEO of
Cosby Media Productions,
we're a small press publisher down here in
Atlanta, Georgia.
We've published over thirty authors with
sixty different titles in e-books,
audio books, and paperbacks,
myself included.
We have our own comic imprint called Star
Child Comics,
and we've published over eighteen titles
now, a mix of graphic novels and comics.
We consider ourselves a hybrid publisher
in that we actually publish all of our
stories in both novels and comics,
at least a vast majority of them.
A reader may come along and decide to
partake in one of our stories and they
may start off in a novel and it
will transition you into a comic or a
graphic novel or you may start in a
comic and it transitions you to a novel
or a graphic novel and vice versa.
We feel that allows us to cast a
wider net for people who just like comics
or who like novels or who like a
blend with graphic novels.
And it's been successful for us in doing
that.
We took that venture on probably right
around two thousand twenty when COVID hit.
OK.
And people were like, man, you know,
I say, what do you like to read?
That's like our line.
Just kind of get you to come by
the table.
And they're like, you know,
we only had novels at the time.
They're like, oh, man, you know,
do these have pictures?
And I'm like, no, you know, oh,
it's not a graphic novel.
Yeah,
I just usually read comics or graphic
novels.
So I kind of.
At the time,
I think we were around maybe like fifteen
novels in our superhero fiction universe
that we built, called the CMPDSU,
the Cosmere Media Productions Dedicated
Superhero Universe.
I like that.
Yes.
Me and five other authors, Daniel Payton,
Lawrence St.
John, Keyshawn Dodd, Coyote Champion,
myself and Genevieve Vickers.
We actually have all of our superhero
old fiction and novel.
And I was like, man, you know,
you guys never thought about doing like a
comic and thereby, you know,
that majority of guys were like, yeah,
okay, we could do something like that.
They were like, oh,
so I'm going to just retell book one
of the series.
I'm like, no, no, no.
This is a continuation.
Let's build out, you know?
So like, for instance,
Daniel Payton has the Bark series.
It's a three book series.
Book four is his comic.
your story you know and so we did
that we wrote them up we teamed up
with some fantastic talent do the artwork
and then we basically ran a Kickstarter to
get all four first issues put together and
finished and we did and so we got
those out and then since then we haven't
looked back my personal story is I've done
I've been writing since two thousand
eleven
I feel like I had like a call-in
in church one day to actually get into
writing because me,
I never got into writing before.
I rarely read for pleasure because I was
always in school.
You know, I went to high school,
went to college, got bachelor's, master's,
and doctorate.
So I was always reading because I had
to,
not because I actually wanted to have any
pleasure in it.
Yeah.
Got a call to it one day in
church.
I was like, man,
what would I write on if God's kind
of calling me to write?
And it was like I heard this voice
like,
all that cool stuff that you like when
you look at movies and shows.
And I don't know about you,
but sometimes I look at movies and I'll
be like, man, it was really, really cool,
but I wish they had kind of gone
this way with it or gone that way
with it.
Yes.
And I was like, take all that stuff,
all that cool stuff,
and then write your own story and put
it in yours.
I was like, oh, I could do that,
you know?
And so I just sketched out this little
story for the Starcross Saga,
which was a trilogy.
which I do not recommend anybody do that
on their first go around.
Start with a novella.
Maybe a one-off book,
but don't start with series.
I was just crazy enough to do it.
And so I got that going.
I got picked up by,
I researched everything you need to know
about how to get published back then.
Yeah.
What's the process like?
What's the story like?
And then
Um, I just kind of started going,
just kind of putting things together.
I was fortunate enough to get my book
picked up by, um,
a small publisher here in Atlanta called
Firefly Publishing.
Always give shout out to Diane and her
work and, um, ended up winning an award,
like off the bat,
but like readers favorite, you know,
sci-fi book of the year.
And I was like, oh man,
I'm very grateful, you know?
And so a year later she decided to
get out of the business and they gave
me the rights back and I've shopped them
around, got a literary agent,
got picked up by another publisher.
Things weren't just going in the right
direction I thought with book two coming
out.
So I basically got out of the contract,
got the books back.
And I said, you know what?
For what I feel a publisher can do
for me, I feel like at this point,
I think I can just do it on
my own.
And so I started up Cosmetic Productions,
just started meeting some fantastic
authors who had some wonderful ideas for
stories and started just partnering with
them.
And that's what we've always done as a
publisher.
We feel like we partner with authors
their story out.
We had a partnership with a larger
publisher a while ago.
And so we always have to turn the
files over to them to get them ready
to publish.
And so they gave us like the template
of what, you know,
the formatting was and everything.
So we had a blueprint.
So I was like, oh man.
So when we stopped working with them,
I felt like we gave all of our
authors the opportunity to have what I
call the industry standards.
So
wanted to give people fantastic book
covers we wanted to give them good
formatting we wanted to get them editing
and so we're partnering with people to get
their dreams out into the world and so
we feel good about that and in return
they've given us some fantastic stories
that we can brag upon that have become
amazon bestsellers that have become um you
know award-winning titles and it's just
kind of poured into
so many series that people can get into
whether you like fantasy science fiction
young adult uh even if you like um
poetry or if you like inspirational
fiction or biography we have a whole bunch
of stuff okay you're a real hardcore
reader you can come over to cognitive
productions and find something that we
think you'll like and uh our mantra for
our um
one comic to the next in their stories
and there's a lot of crossover so once
you get started you'll be able to like
branch out and see the ripple effect of
all this great storytelling in other books
so you know we want our own little
community of storytelling that people
don't have to go anywhere else they can
just kind of stay right here and play
with us for a while now that that's
really cool so
You've written twenty novels and comics
and you said it grabbed you while you
were at church.
So at what point do you think your
path towards comics and that like kind of
genre fiction like come from or did that
just kind of it was just an evolution
of how everything was going for you?
I've always been a huge fan of fiction.
If I was going to read,
I read fiction.
And so I would do like,
even when I remember back my earliest,
the earliest book that I remember that I
really enjoyed that was fiction back in
like elementary school was Fahrenheit four
fifty one.
It was just because they were burning
books and I didn't want to read them.
So that was interesting.
But that's what grabbed me, you know,
dark kind of gritty fiction.
I was like, oh,
this is kind of like my thing,
you know.
And then so I've always just had this
desire,
and I've always loved science fiction.
I always thought the characters were just,
there were always bigger fish to fry
rather than ethnicity.
People weren't caring if you were black,
white, and all that.
They weren't caught up in the nonsense
that we do on this planet.
They are just like,
there's something bigger Earth, you know,
that's going to just kind of destroy all
of us.
So there was always unification,
and it really didn't matter what color you
were, where ethnic background.
I just got wrapped up in fiction.
And so when I finally got the chance
to really explore this writing thing,
I was like, man,
I could actually write characters that I
really like,
that kind of reflect my way of thinking,
that kind of reflect the characters in the
world that I live in.
And so, you know, they say,
if you ever want to write something,
write something that you're an expert in.
And so I feel like, hey,
I'm an expert in my own life,
my own world.
So I'm just basically taking those people
who I know
i'm transposing these characters and
stories on top of them and making them
live and breathe so it's really cool um
i i've dedicated some books to you know
family members and close friends like my
broken series where i'm telling the story
of first-person narrator from a young girl
named kisa who's in a dystopian land i
dedicated that to my three girls because i
wanted to put
all three of their personalities in this
one character.
Yeah.
I dedicated Yasuki, Dead Man Walking,
to my father who passed away last year.
So I just kind of find a place
to speak from my heart in my stories
with these characters.
And I've been really,
it's a great expression,
a form of expression for me.
It gets my thoughts out.
And I just love stories.
You know,
I became a student of the game.
I've read
uh snyder's book on save the cat because
i do write screenplays as well and i
also read uh robert mackie's um story
which if you ever want to get into
story guys i suggest you read that book
if you're already interested also being a
student i'm always interested in writing
the next best story that i can put
together with yeah structure and i'm also
unfortunately because when you when you
get into this realm and you're really
always reading story and writing stories i
even see
Films now and TV shows.
I see story.
I see scripts as it first comes on
and I'm holding up this like, okay,
you're on the clock.
You better get these beats a couple of
ways in the beginning,
or you're going to lose my interest and
I'm done.
So did you watch the Sandman series on
Netflix?
I'll be, I'll be straight on it.
We can be honest on this website, right?
Oh, a hundred percent.
A hundred percent.
I was going to, I was like really,
really.
And then all of a sudden I heard
this stuff about Neil Gaiman.
All stuff aside about Neil Gaiman,
You go get the first book of The
Sandman.
You open up page one.
You turn on episode one and just turn
the page as it plays.
It is very beautifully done despite all of
the bad associated with his name.
Netflix did amazing at this series because
it is the comic book.
What you just said there had reminded me
of that.
I was just like,
It was such a beautiful thing because I'm
such a huge fan of the Sandman comic
book.
Again,
this was before anything had ever come out
about him.
I do believe he was just acquitted of
everything and all charges were dropped or
cleared.
However, it's still a stand on his legacy.
Right.
But that book and the way Netflix told
that story,
because I do know Noah was a part
of the production team or a producer on
that set.
So it was so beautiful that you could
just turn the page and watch it.
And it just told the same story.
Beautiful.
Yeah.
That's what happens when you get the.
the creator behind it.
You know what I mean?
And I was going to say, honestly,
it wasn't just about that.
He set the accusations.
It was about,
I like to get involved with series that
I think is going to be around.
And I was like, Ooh,
they're working on season two and all that
came out.
And they were like, Oh yeah,
they're probably not going to finish at
the season two because of this.
And I'm like,
I don't want to start something.
They did rush it.
You know, but I don't want to,
I don't want to tell.
So I'm hoping with the acquittal,
they actually keep going.
Cause then I could jump back into it.
You know what I mean?
I think,
I think the legacy is too tarnished for
them to want to do that.
Unfortunately,
because they were telling such a,
amazing story and the actors behind
everybody like they were just so good for
their characters but
That's a little off topic.
I do apologize for that.
What you had just said there just reminded
me of just how great that was just
to be able to sit there and do
that.
I know you started out writing novels.
Were you able to take those lessons
learned from writing prose like that and
bring that into comic books?
I know it can be a hard transition
for some people because they want to shove
a lot of stuff
into a word box and it just doesn't
work that way i tell you it was
it was a great you know how you
like on the job training oh yeah um
so i had written up to this point
i had written like so many novels so
i was you know pretty good at keeping
react structure but you know in a novel
you got you can freeze freelance you can
go for as long as you want go
down another path come back down that road
and land back on that story of the
hero's journey um in screenwriting you
know we say that there's no because every
Every page is a minute,
every minute a page, you know?
So if it's a five minute film,
you got ninety pages to get this done.
And there's no throwaway scenes.
If you're really writing scripts
correctly, there's no throwaway scenes.
It's not just the time to just, oh,
I think it's really cool.
It's got to have intensity behind it or
else you lose the viewers.
Same thing with comics.
There's no throwaway panel.
So those panels, to me, really, really,
really, really matter, you know,
and the transition of those panels.
and then thus the transition of those
pages.
I'm constantly sitting here,
when I script out a comic,
I'm thinking about three-act structure
again,
even though it may be a continuum of
story.
I feel like if you're in a series
of writing comics,
then kind of map it out in your
head.
I'm going to go for a six-book series.
You need to have three-act structure
comprised of that entire six issues,
but in each one of those,
what are you trying to accomplish?
It has its own
three act structure for that,
even though it's an open ending that's
gonna get you into the next one.
And so yes, to your point,
when you go from writing a hundred and
nine thousand word novel to a, you know,
a three hundred and fifty some page novel,
and now you're trying to jam that whole
idea,
that whole outline into a twenty four page
comic, man, it's intense, you know?
Oh yeah.
But the challenge though, I will tell you,
it's just so amazing uh to take that
on and like say man am i gonna
get this i gotta figure out how i'm
gonna transition from this page to the
next am i gonna have like the last
panel be somebody reaching for a doorknob
and the next panel the next page when
they turn over this is a big splash
page with all this chaos going on or
how am i going to continue to keep
flipping the pages that challenge has to
be there and i take on that challenge
with still being um grounded by the
structure
to make sure that there's a complete story
told in every comic strip I write,
every comic that I do,
so that when a reader reads it,
they feel fulfilled,
and then they're like, man,
now let me see what else I'm going
to move on to.
I like it.
I always kind of explain it as you
write a story when you're doing a cis
issue work.
You know it in your head.
You know the beginning.
You know the end.
how do you get there and in your
head you know you're going to have extra
bits in there and it's like that extra
bit is really good but why do you
go on a sacrifice to the story to
get that extra bit in there that you
want and it is so difficult and i
know um nick casparo who does the
vitalyrium series did a phenomenal job
when he did it too and you have
done that same thing you've done a
phenomenal job of translating over which
Hard to do.
And it's good to see people are doing
it because there's certain...
I always say I've read books that I
wish would have been a graphic novel
because the story would have been so much
better to be with the pictures of.
Right.
Because there's such a descriptive writer.
Like when you read the page,
you can take yourself into it.
Right.
And you see what they see.
You see the colors, you know, the smells.
And a lot of...
fictional writers don't know that to me
like a comic book does right like a
comic book has that visual you can
physically see it you know if they're
standing at alley it's probably going to
smell like piss and trash you know what
i'm saying but there's certain like
fictional writers who are just so good at
building a scene and a description of that
that you feel like you are there
absolutely
so anybody who can do it man more
more power to y'all we need more people
who are willing to take that on and
make their story or take that risk of
making their story into a graphic novel or
comic book absolutely so let's dive into
yasuki yeah why first drew you to such
a historical figure who many still believe
is not really it was made up right
Um, it was,
it was interesting cause I was just on
the internet one day,
just kind of scrolling.
And I saw this image of this black
man and samurai armor.
I'm like, Oh, what is this?
And I clicked on, I was like, Oh,
it's probably just some made up picture,
whatever, you know,
I kept it going and I just,
you know, another day, another day,
another day,
I get back on the internet again.
And then all of a sudden another image
pops up cause I'm in the algorithm,
you know?
Oh yeah.
Oh, what is this?
You know?
And then,
so one of the pictures that caught me
was the image that was another version of
him.
and he was standing with an Asian woman
and then they had a mixed child and
I was like okay hold on where are
they going with this you know what's the
story behind it so I started doing some
research on everything as much as I could
about Yasuki and as much as I found
that was historical relevance with him and
Lord Nobunaga and the wars and all that
stuff the more questions I had well
How did he get from here then?
And why would he elevate this slave to
the rank of a samurai?
And how come there's nobody else who's
ever done that before?
I had all these questions.
So I was like, you know,
this really has the makings of a fantastic
story.
Now mind you,
when I was working on this last year
with the outline,
and I started thinking in my mind,
I knew it was a duology because the
way that the story of Yusuke ends,
we don't know his ending.
We don't know if he dies.
We don't know what happens to him.
historically, and I said,
this will really give me an amazing
opportunity to put a graphic novel with
this.
Still a hybrid publishing mentality,
and I can go a little wild with
some fantasy here because I want to do
that.
And so I had gotten through looking at
the story Shogun.
I don't know if you watch Shogun.
Do you remember how that nice, slow burn,
peaky moment,
and then it comes back down again?
you just felt like you were transformed
you were taken into judo japan and the
world that was going on and everything
just felt real and authentic and genuine
and i was like this is the patient
that i want with uh yusuki dead man
walking this is this is how i want
to do this i'm so happy this came
out because i want to be grounded and
i wanted to just dive into the world
that i knew of and write a fictional
prose
So I did all the research.
I knew the geography of the land.
I knew the seasons of the land.
I knew how long the winters were.
I knew the religion.
I knew the factions,
the different warring factions that were
fighting against Lord Nobunaga,
his mission to unify Japan.
I knew all that stuff.
I knew about the ninjas,
the Buddhist monks, all of that.
And so it was a matter of, honestly,
just as I'm writing my fictional story,
I'm just basically coming in,
I'm sprinkling in all these facts.
Yeah.
So I always challenge people.
Hey,
if you read your Suki Dead Man Walking,
I challenge you to tell me what's real
and what's fake because I wanted it to
just flow.
So that's what I really enjoyed about it
is you can't tell where it's real.
Well, you can in the beginning.
But after like the like the dream
sequence,
I guess I just want to want to
call it.
Yeah.
You it really was the picture clears your
life.
Yeah.
I don't know what's real and what's not
real.
I'm okay with that because it's such a
good journey.
And I was telling you before we went
live is this how I do these things
is how I conduct interviews is I take
you on a journey through the person's
life.
And you did that with Yasuki and it
was a phenomenal,
phenomenal job at it because you really,
because you can sit there,
you mentioned places,
you Google it and you're like, oh shit,
that's a real place, you know?
Because I'm the type of guy who will
like, yeah, it's a ten minute read,
but I'm going to take thirty minutes to
read it because I'm stopping to Google
stuff along the way.
I mean, it's not a ten minute read.
You want to take your time and read
it and savor it.
Right.
It's marinating it because it's really
good.
But it's always fun.
I've always said I love fiction with a
little bit of the real sprinkled in.
I see a fictional town in a book
and I Google that town and it's a
real town in a real place.
And it's the same one they're talking
about in the book because he's describing
the gas station.
The story is a hundred percent fictional,
but the place is real.
It kind of adds that depth to the
fiction that you're looking for.
And it's still fun to read fiction.
with that sprinkling of a real world in
it.
So it's such an impeccable job at doing
that, dude.
So mad props on that.
And I was going to ask you about
your research rabbit hole,
but you answered that one.
And it's amazing.
I love finding little things like that to
just, you just keep on going.
That's it.
You know,
it's like the next day and you're like,
Yeah, I went down that rabbit hole.
I guess I did that.
So I got to ask you, though,
what was what were you most surprised
about with his real history?
The journey from the Sudan over to Japan,
just really just honestly,
I have a whole fascination for Japanese
culture anyway, really in general.
And so.
As I went and I found these things
out, Lord Nobunaga became a really,
really interesting character to me,
which is why if you remember reading,
the first three chapters are really about
him.
Yeah.
Because I didn't want to,
even though it's Yasuki's book,
I knew that there were a bunch of
tropes that I was playing with in this
book.
I had the fish out of water,
with Yasuki being on the coast and
everything.
I had the odd couple with him pairing
with Lord Nobunaga,
because who would put them together?
I had the father and son dynamic going
on, all those things.
So there was a lot of family enrichment
in here too.
And so I didn't want to just talk
about Yusuke and then, oh yeah,
he meets Lord Nobunaga and then this
happens.
I wanted people to understand the
complexity of Lord Nobunaga,
how he started out,
how he became who he was.
And then when they meet,
because you're getting the history of
Yusuke, I don't have to catch you up.
And everything just plays off very
naturally,
how they play off of each other and
how they're kind of both,
of waiting and checking each other for a
little bit just to see if this is
even worth you know investing in you know
uh this relationship and so when all that
when they do start to click and things
happen people have this nice wealth of
information on both characters and and
their you their unification uh feels very
organic at that point because you can you
have a good understanding of both of them
so i want to make sure so i
think laura noble nova's research is what
really kind of caught me the most because
there was a lot of that
versus Yusuke,
where I just had to kind of make
the assumption that I go, well,
this is how I'm going to tie this
in,
this is how I'm going to tie this
in.
As you talk about historical fiction, yes,
those real things are fascinating,
but I had such a good time in
creating this fictional narrative that
pushed through all that.
I mean,
that's why it's written like with the
dates and the real time,
so there's time stamps in there to kind
of show you, hey, this is this war,
this is what happened here,
and
I was just playing around with the pencil,
just kind of drawing it all up, man.
It was a fantastic experience.
I'm so blessed to be able to do
something like that with a book that has
been so well received, like from you.
And Kirk's Review gave us the Get It
Accolade,
and they said it's an epic historical
fiction read.
Literary Titan gave it five stars,
and Book of the Month from Black History
Month, which is just an honor for me.
And also Rita's Favorite gave it five
stars.
So people are enjoying it.
And I feel like the intentionality and the
effort behind it,
which was a huge effort to get it
all done before the end of the year
and have it released in February,
it paid off.
So I'm grateful.
Yeah.
No, it's really cool.
So what did you think about him showing
up in a video game recently?
It was crazy because, again,
I'm working on this stuff,
and all of a sudden I hear Eddie
Pops up in a video game.
And before I had even written it,
I knew there were some things out there.
There was an anime.
There was some biographical novels out
there,
but nothing really historical fiction.
And I said, well, let me, oh,
this is cool.
We got anime,
and I sat down with anime,
and I was not happy with it.
Because, again, I'm a person of story.
Where you could have gotten me years ago
with just
explosions cool stuff fighting and all
that that used to be my jam but
now i'm so story driven i'm like no
i need a story i need a backstory
i need to know about these guys it's
not just enough so for me i just
wasn't satisfied with it and so when the
when the video game came out i was
like oh that's there let me finish what
i'm doing first because i don't want to
be tainted anything outside of what i was
doing and i definitely don't want to be
drawn because i'm creating the story going
to some respect so uh now that i'm
done with it
and everything settles down with this
whole press junket that I'm on,
I'll get a chance to probably finally play
it.
My friend plays it,
but he said that he uses the female
character in Assassin's Creed,
and he loves it.
He hasn't even touched the Yusufi side of
it yet.
Yeah,
and Assassin's Creed is one of those games
where I'll...
I'm cheap, all right?
I'll wait for it to go on sale,
and then I'll download it.
Or I'll catch it when it's free,
and then I'll download it.
But that's all I'm waiting for is, like,
I want to play it,
but I also didn't want to drop
seventy-five bucks on it at the same time.
That's so ridiculous now with prices of
games, man.
I'm always on the, when is it dropping?
Okay, cool, boom, let me get it.
Because I'm not in a rush.
I've got a ton of games to play.
Trust me, I don't.
I don't have a shortage of things to
do with a video game and that I
have to go pay seventy dollars now for
a brand new game.
I'm the type of person also,
if I do day one,
I'm getting that day one drop.
I'm not just going to drop the sixty
bucks.
I'm going to get the one hundred and
twenty dollars with all the fancy stuff.
So I just try to avoid it.
Yeah.
I'll get you when it goes on sale.
Like I want it, but I'll wait.
I can wait a little bit.
Yeah.
But yeah.
So I know we started off in the
beginning.
We talked about it a little bit.
You started with prose,
moved to graphic novels,
and you kind of gave the background on
why y'all expanded on that.
And was that like,
I don't want to say a shock to
you or like, how did like,
cause you're at a convention,
I'm guessing when that happened, like,
how did that,
like what went through your mind when
you're like, oh,
I'd rather read a graphic novel than a
book.
Like what, how that hits you?
Like.
Well, it wasn't odd to me because, again,
you know,
you always when you're trying to sell
books, you need to know your audience.
You need to know where you are.
You know what I mean?
And so obviously, you know,
like I can go to like Barnes and
Noble and do a book signing and I
can sell like ten books in fifteen
minutes.
You know what I mean?
Because I'm around readers.
At a convention,
I'm there with people who are just like
fans.
You know, they're fans of genres.
They're fanboys of whatever they like.
And so if you get some people who
like superhero stuff,
they might come over and pick up issues
of the table.
They like science fiction.
They'll pick up my other stuff, you know?
And so it doesn't shock me that they're
like, hey, you know,
I really don't have time to read.
So I usually read like a comic or
graphic novel.
And some people are just like,
they're hardcore readers of novels.
I haven't read a comic since I was
a kid.
But when people come by...
you have to talk to everybody because you
never know who will do what.
I've had older women come by and I
say, hey, what do you like to read?
Oh, I don't read anything like that,
honey.
But what is it that you have?
My grandson may like it.
And you tell them a story and they
pick it up.
So you have to know your audience and
what they like and what they're going to
read.
So I respected the fact that there are
people out there who really just want to
read comics and graphic novels.
I was like, hey,
if it's no big effort other than having
the money to pay the artist to do
a great job,
let's have fun and it keeps me energized
about being a writer so I can have
different ways of I'm writing,
I'm bouncing back and forth.
I'm writing, you know,
I'll do five pages of a script in
one evening when I might do a whole
chapter in a novel one evening.
My brain's always jumping.
It's never fed.
It's never full.
It's always good.
And that's the way it should be.
You keep yourself fresh like that.
And that's what I love about what I
do is I get somebody new every other
couple of days.
I'm learning about somebody new.
I'm reading something new from them.
And, you know, I've made, you know,
lifelong friends, I hope, from doing this.
And it's always fun to just have something
fresh and new and different and have a
different personality, a different person,
a different view on the show and get
all these different perspectives about
multiple business.
Like you have a media production company,
which is really freaking cool.
Yeah.
and um so it's really cool to get
different flavors of different things
every week and i it's one of my
big things i push too is like i
get all these great people on the podcast
who walk different lines all within the
same thing but different touches of it and
it's so cool to be able to do
this yeah so
I think the guy, I think the actor,
Eric Dane, I think he just- Yeah,
he just passed away.
And he had this last word thing on
Netflix.
And I love what he said when he
said, he told his girls,
he wants his girls to fall in love.
Not necessarily with a person,
but with something.
Yeah.
Because when you really fall in love with
it, and I know for me,
I am in love with story.
I just, story, man, story is my thing.
Every time I write,
I tell people all the time, I said,
My next book that I write has to
be my next favorite book.
You know what I mean?
And I'll go back through,
after I write a book,
I'll go back to my outline.
If I look at my outline, I'm like,
oh my God,
I forgot to put that in there, man.
That was really dope, you know?
And so I was grateful that the entire
duology of Yusuke became my next favorite
project that I worked on because, heck,
I'm not done with Broken.
I'm gonna have to start writing on
Broken's next book soon.
I'm not done with Still Rain.
We're putting out his next issue, too,
of his comic that's already completed
later on this year.
And then next year, it's gonna expand
back into the Star-Cross saga with more
books.
So I'm never fully out of them.
And of course,
there's always going to be something else
that I'm releasing for the Kate series.
So I move back and forth.
But my challenge is, Braxton,
don't be done until this is the dopest
version of what you want to put forward.
So when I speak,
I speak out of passion.
I speak out of confidence that I'm giving
somebody something that I think they're
going to fall in love with, too.
And I know they're going to walk away.
I'll be like, oh,
you're going to love that.
I just tell them, when he passes, oh,
you quit until you get into that.
You're in this.
You're in this.
You're going to love it.
I'm not even worried about it.
I feel good about it.
How did you manage to balance the
historical authenticity of Yasuki with
that mythic fantasy that this book gives
you?
It's a tough line.
It can either flow either way,
but you managed to balance both of those
within each other.
It just happened naturally, man.
Like I said,
I came up with my own solo outline
of
how I wanted to take this hero story,
what is his, what's his theme,
what's his desire,
what's the inciting incident that takes
him on the journey,
what is the decision that he determines to
go on the journey, and then I move.
And then so the key to what I
did was I wanted to make Fudo Japan
in that time another character.
When you come out world building,
it wasn't just a world that they lived
in,
it was a character in and of itself,
so it had
like that and then the land had to
produce certain types of food and and and
uh that they use for commerce and i
wanted to make sure all those things spoke
on their own uh and so as these
as this world around them is just growing
it actually has its own personality and
its own life and so that just it
was an easy balance then because i was
just literally just sprinkling stuff in
talking about where we were sending this
character to go do something while another
one watched over this and then these other
people were uh constantly there's always
conflict uh with this story with with
yusuke it's either internal or external
it's either one but it's constant and so
those are the challenges that make people
hopefully connect to the character and
root for him as he goes through this
but i felt like it was almost like
a a dnd board you know oh yeah
And the character,
you just move in your character.
And then when you get to a certain
point, it's like, boom, this is happening.
What are you going to do?
Oh,
let me roll the dice and see if
it works.
You know, I felt, you know.
So let's let's jump over to do a
little bit about the sequel.
So the sequel introduces the realm of
Elsewhere.
What inspired that shift?
I wanted, you know,
I grew up in a time when I
was a kid.
There was a show called Samurai Sunday,
man.
Every Sunday, seven o'clock.
Down in Miami,
we would look at this show called Samurai
Sunday, and it was all Asian film.
You know,
they would just have these films,
and you know how the guys would be
running off the walls,
fighting each other.
They'd get punched like thirty times in
the chest,
and then some little bullets of blood
would come out, and so they'd get stabbed,
and they would take like five stabs before
they'd truly be dead.
So I was like, man,
I want to do that.
I want to have this realm,
but I just came from real historical
fiction, so it couldn't happen here.
You know what I mean?
But I wanted...
Yuzuki to have some kind of inherited
talent and power now to be able to
do those types of things.
Make it really,
really cool with some ninjas in there and
some fantastical creatures to fight and
all that.
And so I had to drop him in
another realm,
which is what I did with Elsewhere.
And I also wanted to create some new
characters that would actually help push
him through this journey as well.
So in the seventy-five page graphic novel,
I had an opportunity to create this new
world with these new rules because in
writing, you have to have rules.
I had to establish those rules early.
And that way,
when the character plays around in them,
the audience can follow.
And who doesn't like a big ass sword?
I'll do it.
I think a big ass sword makes everything
better.
So I wanted to get that in there.
We call it the Basag.
It's a big ass sword and gun.
So it's a gun sword.
That was actually one of my next
questions.
So I'm so glad you went there.
Yes, I did.
I did.
And so that was what Yusuke had to
wield.
And so, you know,
shout out to Samurai Sunday.
Shout out to Final Fantasy VII with the
big swords.
You know, shout out to Black Manga with,
you know, with Afro Samurai.
So I wanted to do the things that
I love and bring them into stories.
And that's what I did.
That was the most perfect segue.
But I got to jump back up a
question and talk about characters like
Tengu.
and yeah nira uh-huh like what do these
characters represent in this yeah uh of
all emotions kind of like the guide little
devil character he's like a guide and you
know has the kind of he's he's basically
the side exposition of kind of telling
yeah and answering the questions that you
think he has you know uh and then
yanira is somebody who he meets and then
they connect in a certain way to kind
of again
I'm gonna go along with you.
Not sure where this is going, but hey,
I have no other options.
And then of course, down the road,
there's some other characters that are
mentioned as well.
And so, like I said,
when you're writing a script,
you have your lead and you have the
support characters,
so you introduce them as early as
possible.
And then you play around with them as
they move and as everybody is being a
part of resisting the conflict,
how do they respond?
You have to kind of come up with
their character relation really quick so
people can have an expectation of how
they'll respond.
And then when they respond differently,
you got to start scratching your head.
You know,
I introduced those characters in there.
Yeah,
he did feel very much like a guy
through like a D&D game board or something
like that, you know,
and it was just so cool.
the simplicity of the character was really
cool too.
And it was just like,
how fun is it to have a little
devil take you on a little adventure
through else world, you know,
or elsewhere.
Yeah.
Like just so cool.
So this darker fantasy layer changes.
Yes.
Suki's emotional journey.
Like how was that?
Like,
Were you trying to reshape him as a
character,
or were you just trying to build more
layers into the amazing character that he
already is?
You said it exactly right.
It was about making him more layers,
obviously,
because there's a huge thing that happens
to him in this story itself.
He's got a couple of big events that
happen to him, obviously,
in the historical fiction,
but then here there's another thing that
takes place.
And I think that the more these...
things happen to him, these events,
the more Yasuki grows, he keeps restating,
he keeps turning into something or
somebody that is necessary to get him to
the next level.
And so all those layers I think just
continue to build on him.
And he's receptive
even it.
That's the difference.
A lot of people don't want to change.
I don't want anything different.
I want to just be who I am.
It took him a couple of pages to
get there, though.
That's what was great about it.
He was very... He's like, no,
you got the wrong dude.
Then you see him slowly like, okay,
let me let this guy take me on
this journey because it has to be taking
me somewhere.
It was really cool to see.
It was really fun to read.
It's
what were those books back in the day
where it was like a pick your journey,
you know?
Yeah.
And it almost felt a little bit like
that.
And I was just like,
I would turn the page and I'd be
like, I don't get to pick it,
but it's still kind of cool.
You know?
Cause that was the vibe I was getting
there in the beginning of it.
I was like, I was,
as I was turning, I was like,
maybe it's going to tell me, I like,
I can pick my,
which way I want to go.
Right, right, right.
So that was really fun.
And if I know there's going to be
adults listening later.
So if you really like those,
this is just like a perfect book for
you.
If you like your pick your own adventure
stories from when you were a kid,
but for an adult,
you don't get to really pick your own
adventure,
but it feels like it's about to give
you that opportunity to pick your
adventure because the way the story is
written is,
And it's spaced so good.
It's almost like you're inviting the
reader into it.
It's kind of like,
I wonder if this is where they're going
to go with this part.
Because you have a panel with no words.
You're like, I kind of want to just...
Maybe do something right here.
It's just really fine.
Don't draw on your books, people.
It's very bad.
Or draw on your own books.
It's your book,
but that just gives me the eebie-jeebies.
Especially,
I've had comic books being signed and
whether it was the writer or the artist
just do a bad signature and they feel
really bad.
I'm like,
As long as it looks like your signature.
And when I say it off to be
graded, they recognize it as yours.
I don't care how bad it looks.
You don't have to like, don't do that,
please.
But.
But yeah, this is such a fun,
fun book.
But I want to talk a little bit
more about the comic industry and
publishing.
So you've worked across novels, comics,
media.
What have you seen this kind of you've
been doing this since two thousand twenty,
right?
Well, comic books, yes.
Comic books, yes.
Publishing novels and stuff.
Okay.
But what to you has changed the most
in that timeframe?
To me,
I think it's fantastic to see the indie
scene explode, right?
Dude, I'm literally,
I'm making it into a living, you know,
and I love it.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, someday it'll be a living, you know,
until then I got a day job.
Your passion.
Yeah, absolutely.
The day your passion can become a living,
man.
It's amazing.
It is amazing.
Cause it's,
I'll sit here some days and I'm like,
it kind of feels like a job.
But then I'll have Bratston on or I'll
have Todd Black on the other day.
And I'm like,
this is why I do this.
Because it no longer feels that way.
Once you're in the conversation and you're
just talking to dudes or whatever,
and it's like, this isn't a job.
This is fun.
Getting to talk about the industry,
about the projects, the work.
this is fun i would have never dreamed
to be doing what i was doing today
i mean it was never in my radar
i mean i was in the fifth grade
i remember a friend of mine we were
into comics and he uh he came to
school one day with like a ten page
comment like what is that he's like oh
man i drew my own comic i'm like
what and i'm like looking at him like
oh man this is super cool because i
want to do that so i remember i
think i did like a five page thing
and i just kind of walked away from
it and those characters i'm still going to
bring out actually they're going to
matriculate right back into the cake
because it was a superhero for me.
It's funny you mention that because Zing,
who was just on the podcast not that
long ago, his character, Prince Adonis,
is the same character he drew and wrote
thirty-two years ago,
and it's the same guy persevering today.
So, those characters,
those stick figures you drew as a kid.
Oh, they're going to come back, you know.
So I think that's just what it is.
To me, I've learned
that is really about when you're selling
comics, you know, there's a big two,
you know, DC and Marvel.
Most people love they got seven thousand
fourteen thousand characters.
So most people have already chosen people
who they.
Oh, yeah.
But when you're trying to sell,
if you find that niche,
you find that hole where you do something
that's totally different,
that people have not that really doesn't
exist that they can't connect to.
That's when they're like, oh,
what's this about?
man i want to get this this is
great and and that's when people come on
like sometimes when you're kind of selling
the superheroes like well i kind of this
guy kind of looks like green lantern or
he kind of looks like captain america so
they kind of already have their mind i
think so comments have been around since
like the like the twenties or the thirties
or something yeah you're gonna get some
repeats to some degree right i don't i
don't wanna there's no way absolutely
there's
It can still be original IP and still
look like somebody else's IP because
that's just where we're at at this time
in this world.
And it sucks to say it that way.
Yeah.
But there's no more truly original IPs
depending on who you ask.
But I still see every character as its
own character.
Yes, it looks like Green Lantern.
I'm sorry,
but this is what I dreamed of and
this is what I wrote.
Well, me and you understand that, right?
But we're talking about consumers.
And so consumers are like,
that looks like Green Lantern.
I'm not interested.
And you're like,
story is so different,
you know what I mean?
So we get it.
And so I think the story is to
make or break, right?
It's the story,
but you gotta give me an opportunity to
do an elevator speech.
So you can know I have a different
story.
So sometimes people just look and they
just walk by.
I'm like, well,
that's what I can do about that.
You know, that's another,
that goes back to one of those big
lessons learned,
be able to sell yourself in thirty seconds
or less.
Some people at conventions are going to
give you thirty seconds or less.
Sell me your stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you have to know your story inside
and out front to back for it to
work.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And see, so.
So here's the graphic novel, right?
Now you see, let's see here.
Yeah, Yanira's here.
So when we talk about connected universes,
I'll throw you a pitch real quick.
A-N-V-K.
What's A-N-V-K?
Thank you.
African Ninja Vampire Killers.
You're interested?
Fucking in.
And so that's one of our comic series
that was,
it has no novel associated with it.
Arthur Coyote Champion,
who's done our majesty's appeal.
No, for real, I won't end.
Send him my way.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
He basically came up with AMVK,
African Ninja Vampire Killers,
and so issue one came out,
and that was like people walk by the
table, and you say, hey,
you ever heard of AMVK?
They're like, no.
And you tell them that, and they go,
what is that about?
And they come back, you know?
And so when we talk about this continuum
of characters,
Yanira in here is going to be in
issue two of AMVK, and you say, how?
Okay.
Well,
you just got to read the graphic novel
to find out how we get there.
You know,
but I'm going to be co-writing that with
Coyote Champion.
So, man,
it's just going to be some dynamic
storytelling going on.
I won't end on that one.
Bottom floor.
Hit me up.
All right.
All right.
So, yeah.
So, yeah, that's what I've seen.
I've seen.
Indie explode.
I've seen some indie that needs a lot
of work, too.
You know what I mean?
I see both sides on a weekly basis.
That hurts sometimes because you see it
and it's like,
I don't want everybody to think I'm
like... I still promote them, though.
You know what I'm saying?
I will still promote them because I feel
like every indie comic deserves that
chance to be in the spotlight.
For them to sell their story is the
art where it should be.
Not yet, but...
five years from now,
that art's gonna be on point, right?
Right, absolutely.
That story is missing a few elements.
give it two to three years,
that story's going to be on point.
And they're going to circle back and
retell those older stories because they've
grown.
So I believe every indie comic deserves a
spotlight.
And I try to give every indie comic
that spotlight within reason because I
ain't but one person.
But that's been my belief and that will
be my belief always is that
You may be writing something,
and it may not be to that person's
standard,
but somebody out there is going to see
that and go, I freaking love that.
That is so cool that this person not
only is putting this out there for people,
but they're brave enough to put themselves
out there, to be vulnerable,
to put themselves out there that way.
Why would I not give that person a
chance or that story a chance?
For sure.
And that's what I love about indie comics.
There's something out there for everybody
at every level of the game.
For sure.
Absolutely.
One hundred percent.
Which is how we do it here.
What advantages do you think indie
creators have right now?
Because there's a lot and we see it
every day.
This industry is flourishing from an indie
perspective.
It's the freedom.
You don't have any restraint.
And I can say that from being published
to going into doing it by myself.
Just, oh,
I want to do this kind of cover.
No, I don't think you should do that.
Well, I was thinking about this character.
No, probably not.
You probably need to write this kind of
character.
I mean,
you basically can go and do anything you
want.
They can represent anything about you.
I tell people all the time,
the character I would create,
like my whole Mount Rushmore of characters
and stories that I have,
I have placed
a part of myself and all those characters
for a reason, you know?
And so it becomes expression to me.
I used to do some acting and stuff
like that before.
And so I think all of it is
art.
If you're an actor,
you see a character on a script,
you embody that character, you are now,
that you're creating art.
You know,
same way you write these stories,
you're creating art in what you write.
If you write a comic strip and you're
working with an illustrator,
you're creating, you know,
visual artwork medium to tell a story.
I'm all about just people expressing
themselves no matter how they want to.
And I think it's dope when I see-
I owe you an apology.
I forgot to update my scroll wheel at
the bottom.
So it's been rolling the scroll this
entire time.
I do apologize.
That's fine.
That's fine.
And I think I do talk with kids
all the time at schools and things like
that.
We'll offer visits.
And I tell them, I say,
who here writes anything?
Nobody said anything.
I said, well, who writes rap?
Some people write rap.
Some people write poetry.
I said,
you are an artist and you are just
expressing what's in here and you're
putting it out of paper or a pen
or you're typing it or however you're
doing it, you're singing it,
you're using your voice,
whatever you're doing,
you're just expressing yourself.
And as a human being,
there's nothing better than being able to
express what is in that small little voice
inside your head.
And people like it.
It's even, you know,
you just feel so grateful that they
actually dig with what you're thinking
about.
No, a hundred percent.
And,
so i i went today was new comic
book day went to new comic book day
went to and you know i have a
bots obviously um comic books is kind of
like what my i do i don't just
do them i read them and collect them
and uh as i'm going through my stuff
today because he'll put some extra stuff
in there like hey this just come out
or this or that okay
And I'm just like,
I'll kind of weed out the ones I
don't want.
And I'm like, oh,
I'll give that one a try.
And I was like,
he's always giving me like crap about it,
but I don't read it.
Like there's a couple of Marvel characters
I'm really interested in,
but they're very obscure.
so whenever they do get a new release
i pick them up because it's such an
obscure character they might get a six
issue run or they may get a ten
issue run and then they disappear again
for five to ten years and i'm okay
with that because i know that five to
ten issue run is going to be amazing
right and it's the same thing with dc
and uh there's just not a whole lot
i'm really into it so for vertigo
vertigo's back out now and now they're
producing those darker grittier comics
that i really enjoy reading which is why
i love indie comics so much it's it
can be darker it can be grittier it
can be bloodier it could be whatever and
they're not restricted or held back right
by some guy in an office going hey
we can't sell that
can on the indies right so in the
accessibility now to indie comics is at
the best it's ever been it only getting
better on the daily so it's really cool
to see yeah where they are going
But what mistakes do you think some of
the newer creators are making currently?
And there can be a laundry list of
those.
But what do you think has been the
biggest one that you have seen?
I mean, as a media company,
I'm sure you've seen some.
Yeah, I think this, you know,
being sloppy, you know,
you got to realize that you're
representing not just yourself,
but you're actually representing the
family and the community of indie
publishing.
You know, so one of us looks bad.
lot of us look bad so people go
oh yeah that's that indie stuff they might
not even take it seriously you know yeah
just be clean with it i've seen people
who like publish comics and they'll go to
a printer who printed their comic and like
you know like some of this stuff is
not cut all the way to the edge
of the page or even some of their
stuff is cut off so they didn't really
pay attention when they dialogue and
things written so it got cut off and
you know and they go oh yeah you
know i didn't have a chance to do
this and that and you're selling it you
know be patient be patient
Make sure that when it's done,
it is worthy to be read and be
scrutinized.
It is going to get scrutinized.
I don't have a problem with any criticism
as long as it's justifiable.
Like, you didn't like my story.
Tell me why you didn't like it.
Did you even read the story?
Oh,
so you looked at the cover and then
looked at this and then just said,
this ain't my thing and I don't like
it.
I hate it.
Come on.
Right.
I've started many of comic book series
where issue one was hot trash.
Issue two was one of the best things
I ever read.
Very cool.
So don't just as they say,
don't judge the book by the cover.
Yeah.
Because number two might be fire.
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
But so how how and.
you actually have a whole team of
collaborators, which is really cool.
So how important has those collaborations
been with your company and your artists
and your writers and all just kind of
like, hey,
let me get that character over there for
this one issue to do something cool with?
How is that there in-house for you?
Yeah, we put this, like I said,
it just kind of all happened.
It was great.
All these characters kind of came
together.
And they all made sense.
And we had a lot of authors who
had already created these characters
before,
like Keyshawn Dodd had already done two
issues of Manzua when he came to us
to publish them.
And he said,
I'm going to republish them myself.
So he had his own breathing world.
He knew about it.
I learned from him as I was writing
and creating my superhero characters,
Coyote Champion,
I already created Majesties of Canaan.
I was like, oh, what's that about?
And I started getting,
so I kind of fed off of these
guys.
And then as we just started getting
together,
when we wrote like Infinity Seven,
books one and two,
which is like our Avengers Assemble.
And we had those characters crossed over
with, you know,
Gods Among Men and War of Gods.
We were able to kind of read each
other's works.
Okay, you take this chapter,
I'll take this one.
And we could ask each other,
I was thinking about writing Paladin like
this.
How would he respond to this situation?
Well, I don't know,
Bless might be like that.
Or what about Menzuo or Demrose?
So we would kind of pull from one
another.
So it was-
And then what we do with our artist
teams,
you got like five or six artist teams.
I look at their style and I go,
hmm,
I think this might match what you're doing
over here, Lawrence,
with kind of like Marcelo,
his style to work with what you want
to do with the comic books for Metatron.
What do you think?
And they kind of collab and it's like,
okay, cool.
And so we match those styles with the
art forms.
or the vision of the story.
Okay.
It's just one of us.
Magic, man.
It's like Christmas.
You wake up.
When they send you the email in the
next few pages, you get a message out,
and you're like, oh, man,
this is going to be great.
And when that thing finally comes in the
mail... Oh, yeah.
That's the feeling I get every time I
get a new package from a creator.
I'm like a kid in a candy store.
That's why I started doing...
As I was telling you,
from what's in the box,
it's one of those where...
the reaction you are seeing is me
genuinely opening up that package at that
time.
Yes, do I know what it is?
Nine times out of ten, yes.
But it's that genuine excitement and
feeling of having that new piece of comic
book or trade paperback
or that new whatever from this creator in
my own hands to where I can actually
enjoy it.
The smells, the feels.
I say this all the time.
I love the smell of a new comic
book.
Because every production company or every
printing company has its own unique smell.
It's weird.
I know.
I cannot identify which book came from
which one yet,
but I will be there someday.
But it's one of those where it's just
that genuine excitement of what it is that
you're passionate about.
So the passion you see from my Watson
the Boss series is genuine because it's
I'm really excited.
I'm like that twelve year old kid still
to this day.
Thirty and some change years later,
you know, and it's great.
It's fun for me to be able to
do that and share that excitement with
other people as well, you know.
But what role does visual storytelling
play compared to.
prose,
especially within that collaborative
effort.
I don't know if y'all do collaborative
novels that way or if it's just your
comic book side of the house that does
things that way.
I think the visual, like I said,
it's like when you're writing a prose,
you've got all these ideas in your head.
You try to describe it as best as
possible,
but you've got to remember that somebody's
brain works differently than yours.
It's mapped differently.
They're going to see those words in that
environment and they're going to come up
with something totally different.
as opposed to when you finally get the
chance to tell the story visually,
you know, there's such, for me,
there's a responsibility to really,
I like expression.
I like character spaces.
You know, when I did Broken,
Broken was such a passion project for me
that it was a very painful novel to
write.
When I got to the graphic novel and
the comic, I told the artist, Ron Silva,
I said, look,
I wanna,
we're gonna be close to these characters.
I wanna see their eyes.
I wanna see the passion, the fear,
the anger,
all that expression to come out.
So when people read these pages,
they know these characters are really
passionate about what they're doing.
And so for me,
I think there's such a responsibility that
in your art,
that you're showing more than you have to
tell.
And that way people can pick up on
those cues of kind of just watching.
Cause that's what we do is we walk
into a room,
We need to know people's faces,
express them.
We kinda know, like,
you gotta read the room.
We want you to read the comics and
then get to the dialogue and the story.
And that's such a hard thing for,
to translate right is expressions on
characters faces in a novel or not a
novel but a comic book or a graphic
novel and when it's done right it's done
it's such a perfect thing to see when
you can read a person's face and just
tell oh that person's pissed off and
you're looking at their eyes and see what
direction it's looking in you know
somebody's about to take themselves one
Right, for sure.
The eyes are the pathway to the soul,
and that can be said about the same
characters in comic books.
When done right...
It isn't a beautiful thing to see.
Yeah.
So, but let's see what's what's next.
So over twenty books, multiple awards,
what is keeping you motivated and pressing
forward?
I mean, you have the passion, dude.
There is no doubt about that.
And I guarantee that's what it is.
Yeah.
That's what it is.
I, you, we all grew up with toys,
right?
We're nerds, we're geeks,
whatever name when you want to label fun.
So I just always.
I was so excited.
I wanted to play video games.
Video games,
they're like toys without the strings.
Oh, yeah.
And so you make your character,
you create them,
and you get in this world,
and you play around with it,
and you try to accomplish some goal.
That's what I do with these characters
now.
I just write them.
And then I try to say, okay, well,
what's the rules for writing these
stories?
What are the rules that if I do
this, that it's going to be successful?
So using three-act structure as my bread
and butter to continue to keep me
grounded,
and to keep me within the realm of
storytelling that I feel is going to make
a success and coming out with something
fresh every time is really what drives me,
you know?
Um, and so that's how I, I just,
that's how I stay fresh in the industry.
And I just feel like there's no book
or, um,
Or a story that I'm not willing to
try to tell.
So it'll be my Mount Rushmore guys now.
I'm sure there'll be another story that'll
pop up in my head one day and
make me go, oh, man,
I got to check out that one too,
man.
I want to see what we do with
that one.
So what's next?
What future plans does Bratston have for
us?
Well, uh, I can say this year, um,
we will be on our convention trail.
Um,
next month we'll be in Alabama at
Huntsville Comic-Con in April.
Roll Tide.
Huh?
Yeah.
Roll Tide.
I had to get it out there, man.
I was born there.
All right.
All right.
Uh, we'll be in, um, Greenville,
South Carolina.
Okay.
Uh, South Carolina Comic-Con.
We'll be back down in, um,
atlanta area with uh liberty books they'll
be hosting us for first comic saturday
okay all my universal stuff there novels
and comics and graphic novels uh in june
we'll be going back to charlotte north
carolina for heroes con love heroes con in
july such a such a great convention i'm
going to try to make it down for
this one this year oh fantastic will you
come on by and get a chance to
check us out um and then also um
making our way back to tennessee
We haven't been on a couple of years,
but we always get love from Tennessee.
We always love the vibe there.
Going to Knoxville for Fanboy once again.
Knoxville is such a great place, man.
It's small, but it feels so big.
And it's growing.
Like Nashville and like Knoxville and I
forgot that little town over there.
I know it's the Nashville effect of Nash
Vegas growing into everything,
but it's been such a positive influence in
that Knoxville area because Knoxville used
to be a hole in the wall.
Right.
Right.
But it's been really cool watching
Knoxville kind of like fill itself in.
And now before long,
it's going to be a Nashville metropolitan
area that's surrounding it.
Yeah.
A ton of film and TV.
I found out about Knoxville.
I was like doing some stuff,
some film back in the day.
And it just popped up, and I'm like,
wait a minute,
why are we filming in Knoxville of all
places?
I mean,
you look at the outskirts of Atlanta now,
that's where The Walking Dead was filmed.
Absolutely.
The whole town and village is out there,
and it's been used in so many more,
like a lot of your favorite TV shows
and movies and stuff have all been filmed
on that Walking Dead set that was built
in Georgia back in white.
two thousand and eight or whatever it was.
Well, whatever.
But yeah, it's a pretty cool place, too.
I don't know if you've had a chance
to be like to go out there and
see it.
It's really cool.
I've been around it.
So, yeah.
So we're going to get back to Knoxville
fanboy.
And then we're going to try to get
back into Nashville this year.
Later on,
open up the applications for the Southern
Festival of Books.
So, yeah,
we always always get mad love from
Tennessee.
So we want to get back over there.
That's really cool, man.
It's con season.
I'm always happy to hear when my guests
are getting out to cons and really getting
their exposure in that way because I think
that's really the best way to grow your
fan base.
Social media is great.
But that one-on-one that you get with the
clients or the customers is a whole other
thing.
It's an exhilarating feeling as well.
And you could ride that adrenaline all day
until it's time to pack up and go
home.
And then it's just like, oh.
Yeah.
Hopefully the box is lighter though
because you sold a lot of stuff.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Hopefully the pockets are a little
heavier.
That's for sure.
So what legacy do you want your work
to leave?
I mean, you're building a great legacy.
What is it that you want to be
left?
If I could just be remembered as a
guy who grew up in the ghetto of
Liberty City in Miami,
who
basically uh worked his tail off to get
through school get his degrees and
education and actually uh still had enough
room to uh squeeze all of his passion
and uh love of fiction and um and
telling stories into creating his own
stuff that actually got packaged and sold
and i had opportunity to go around and
tell people about it and and inspire other
people to do the same
That would be great for me.
Best feeling ever, dude.
I love to hear that, too.
What better, you know,
than ten years from now,
somebody to be on a podcast like this.
I've seen this one graphic novel from
Braston,
and that's what really was my inspiration
to do my next step.
And it's such a great feeling.
And I hope someday there's a podcaster out
there who would say the same thing about
me, only do it better.
That's right.
That's right.
but um let's jump into a little bit
of the advice you know create some creator
advice here what is your best advice for
indie creators right now whether it's
comic book books graphic novels somebody
just now getting into it and diving into
it what's the best advice you can give
them stick to story whatever book you have
to pick up whatever uh resource whatever
intensive that you can take i took an
eight-week intensive on writing story when
i came out of scripting and i i
have not i cannot tell you how grateful
i am for that um master your craft
don't just put stuff out there because you
think that you got a great idea that
that goes along that goes only so far
people will remember your story if they
really really like what you did and um
and you have to have an outline but
when you if you don't have an outline
you don't have a story
And so make sure that you understand how
to create an outline.
And that way,
that's going to be your pathway that's
going to give you direction and focus.
And you'll be able to put out something
that people will really enjoy.
And there's rules to writing.
And if you use the rules, you know,
people have this great experience and not
even know how you just kind of manipulated
them into loving your story.
But if you get those rules together,
you really set yourself up for being
successful as a writer.
and what's great about yes there's rules
to it but everybody is different so you
may read one way of doing it you
may read two or three ways of doing
it you're always going to adopt your own
methodology that you that you find that
works for you yeah and it's going to
be a mixture of multiple different
theories of writing, you know?
So again,
just if that's what you're interested in,
like he just said,
just read about writing,
which is crazy to say,
but you have to read about writing.
Yeah.
And whenever you write, you need to read,
you need to see what successful people
have done with that genre.
So there's just a copycat lead.
Oh man, they wrote it this way.
They, they felt this character this way.
I had a way,
I'm going to set my character up too.
I'm just going to follow their format,
you know?
But then you get that,
that's great until you realize you just
wrote the same as that character they did.
Right.
And it feels the same.
There's tone shifts, you know what I mean?
Like in Hollywood, they have a saying,
it's like, give me the same but different.
You know what I mean?
Because there's only so many ways you can
tell a story.
But okay,
how many orphan stories have we seen that
have been successful?
And you think that we'd be done with
orphan stories,
but there's an orphan story.
Oh,
there's always a new murdering orphan out
there, man.
Because people understand that, you know?
So you've got to still stay in that
realm of what people understand by giving
them something with a different wrinkle in
it, you know?
Oh, yeah.
So what do you think is the biggest
misconception about publishing?
That you're going to be an overnight
success.
If I put this out,
everybody's going to go buy it.
Oh,
I can't wait to sell a million copies.
Okay.
Okay.
I always like to say,
nobody thinks you're special except
yourself and your mom.
I about to say, yo mama.
That's a good one.
So what do you think separates creators
who succeed versus those who fail?
Those who don't give up.
I mean,
you got to realize that this is a
marathon.
This is not a sprint.
And if you have passion for your project
and you have ideas,
you know, get out there,
share it to the world and speak on
it because people will get along.
They'll come alongside you if they see
that you're really, really interested.
I cannot tell you how many times I
start a dialogue about something and they
say, well,
and then people start to like you and
they say, well, tell me about your book.
And you tell them and they go, well,
yeah, I want to support.
I want to pick it up.
That sounds interesting.
So you've got to know it.
You've got to love it.
And if you love your story,
then other people will love it as well.
I always like to think, too,
The successful creators,
they have a longer list of failures behind
them.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, all right.
I told you we were going to do
a quick fire round.
Are you ready?
I'm ready.
All right.
Favorite samurai film.
If we talk about live action film.
Your choice.
The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise.
Oh, that.
that one that was good and it shouldn't
have been because it's tom cruise not a
tom cruise fan but uh i would go
forty seven road in myself with uh but
hey both got that same feel to them
your favorite historical figure beside
yosuke he cannot be an answer historical
figure malcolm x oh damn good women all
right writing soundtrack
Oh, my writing soundtrack?
I'll be honest, I always use audiobooks.
I just put on my favorite list of
audiobooks.
I'm like, ooh,
tonight I'm listening to this.
Whatever I'm writing, I'm listening to.
So it's funny, when I'm writing these,
I'm listening to music.
But on road trips,
I'm listening to podcasts or audiobooks.
But I'm also like, you're from Atlanta,
man.
You could have gave me OutKast and I
would have been like,
that's my people right there.
Migos are my people.
I love OutKast.
I grew up on OutKast.
But now, man, if I'm bumping,
I got the Migos in there.
That was one of the first times I
felt like I legit drove to Atlanta just
to see OutKast at some music festival in
Atlanta.
I did not fit in.
I'll say it like that.
But I was very welcomed.
It was really cool.
And I went to the barbecue.
Always.
You don't have to fit in,
but we will always welcome you for sure.
It's just, oh, man, I love Atlanta.
I can't say enough great things about it.
So I don't know how much you read
Indy comments,
but Indy comments you recommend.
And this time you can say Yasuki.
I can say Yasuki,
but I'll be quite honest with you.
The Menzuo Saga is fantastic.
I love,
we have another author named Chris
McCauley.
He's actually written on the Babylon Five
comic series.
He's actually written on the IDW, right?
IDW does the Babylon Five.
And he's also done the Bram Stoker
universe of comic.
But he gifted us with Nexus Ashton,
which is our
one is a comic,
one is a graphic novel.
I'm not a graphic novel.
One is a manga novel,
one is a comic.
And so they kind of run side by
side,
even though they're different timelines.
It's like the novel is thirty years in
the past, or present,
if you think about future times.
Either way,
they're separated by thirty years.
So you have a whole bunch of big
fighting robots.
So there's mecha that look more like the
mech warrior, kind of slower things.
And then you've got the ones in the
future, like thirty years forward,
that look more like Gundams.
and nexus asthma is a fantastic series i'm
i'm actually finishing up the uh novel uh
now on kindle okay um i like my
my boy um dan price with a big
foot uh nose karate okay okay yes so
coffee tea or what are you using for
late night fuel to keep you going tea
tea all day chai okay okay i i
will
I am very much a coffee guy from
the time I wake up until a few
hours before bed.
Like I just,
I just finished a cup after dinner.
I got to have it, you know,
living in Asia.
That's what they do after dinner.
They have a cup of coffee and I
just kind of picked it up.
So, but Braston plug away, man,
where can people find you at in your
work?
Yeah.
If you guys want to come by, um,
www.cosmimediaproductions.com.
There you'll be able to subscribe to our
newsletter,
get all the updates on new stuff we
got coming out.
You'll be able to scroll right down the
center by genre and find anything in those
genres you like, young adult, fantasy,
science fiction, poetry, inspirational,
you name it, we got it.
On the side,
you'll be able to see our links that
take you to our social media for X,
for Instagram, and for Facebook.
On Instagram,
we are Star Child underscore comics.
On Cosmetic Productions,
we are Cosmetic Productions.
And if you just want to follow me,
it's Braxton A.
Cosby on Instagram and on Facebook.
Awesome.
And also,
all those links will be listed down below
this in the description when this gets
re-released onto YouTube.
And also,
it will be underneath the description of
this.
the actual podcast itself when it goes
live on podcasting platform.
So you will be able to see that
no matter where you listen to the USDN
app,
you will be able to find those links
for sure.
But Braston, dude, awesome to have you on.
Such a fun time.
A good way to close out a Wednesday
evening.
No, it was my pleasure, man.
Thank you so much.
I'm honored to be a part of
with you guys a building and it was
fantastic now i i appreciate that so
history remembers warriors stories
remember legends and sometimes the most
powerful journeys are ones that bridge
both worlds bradston again thank you for
bringing yosuke's legacy to new audiences
and for reminding us that the strongest
heroes aren't defined by where they start
but but by what they choose to become
Make sure you check out the Yasuki
duology, support the creators,
follow the journey and keep champion indie
storytelling.
This has been the USDN podcast where indie
comments come to life.
The council is now adjourned.
Y'all be safe out there.