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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds β spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books β from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving todayβs indie storytelling movement.
This isnβt about rumors or recycled news.
Itβs about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
β’ The rise of indie comics
β’ The business of crowdfunding
β’ The art of worldbuilding
β’ The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life β for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
Thanks for watching
what is up everybody and welcome to the
united states department of nerves where
we are for the people by the people
and of the people some heroes inherit
power some heroes earn it is some
discovery hidden in the attic of the
grandparents home tonight we sit down with
writer paul isa that's right um
Founder of Acorn Comets to explore the
world of the Olympian,
a modern story where Greek myth collides
with small town life.
A mysterious talisman,
the power of the gods,
and a young man who must decide what
kind of hero he's going to be.
With the Olympian issue two launching soon
on Kickstarter,
we're going behind the scenes to explore
the mythology, the creative process,
and the journey of building a new indie
comic universe.
The Council of Nerds is now in session.
Paul, welcome to the USDN.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate you having me.
Yes, sir.
You've been on the slate now for a
hot minute, I believe.
It's been a while.
We really have.
It's wild to think that I'm booked months
in advance right now,
and I'm just right in the wave of...
indie comic goodness.
You know what I'm saying?
Man,
if I could book my day job business
out as far as you're booking this show
out, then I would be set.
Without a doubt.
Without a doubt.
I am currently...
i've already got shows booked in june and
a follow-up show from that show booked in
september so it's kind of wild in that
i never thought about this you know i
i used to beg people like hey you
want to come on you want to come
on you want to come on and now
it's like i just kind of sit back
and they just kind of like hey can
i come on your podcast yes let's do
it nice so it's been great
And well-deserved.
You're obviously doing something right.
You know,
that's all you can hope for at the
end of the day, right,
is that you've built a platform, you know,
and you're good enough at what you do
to get people to either come on the
show or come back on the show because
I do get a lot of repeats as
well.
And I love the repeat customers.
So because by that time, you know,
your rapport is established.
You can just β
like you're talking to you you know your
best friend absolutely so but let's start
at the beginning paul when did comics
first enter your life uh i'd be lying
if i told you i remembered i remember
when i was little um before i could
read or at least before i could read
particularly well my dad would buy comics
and we'd sit down and he'd actually read
the comics to me
And, you know,
that was something that we kept doing long
after I was able to read at that
level.
But it was just something that we enjoyed.
It was sort of a bonding moment that
we had.
And he would, you know,
he would keep reading to me.
And I kept sitting there and sitting next
to him and listening.
So, you know, we enjoyed that.
And then...
know i fell off for for a good
bit after after that stopped um and i
didn't really get back into it mostly i
had a little bit there were a few
things i picked up when i was in
college and a little bit after college
that i would read and and enjoyed but
i didn't really get back into it seriously
until i met my wife and she knows
more about uh she knows more about comics
than
you know,
probably anyone else I've ever met.
Working in conventions since she was a
teenager.
So she knew a lot of the creators
at the time and, you know, still does,
I shouldn't say at the time.
But she knew a lot of these people
and that was sort of my reintroduction
was, oh, hey, meet my friend who was,
you know,
some massive writer or artist or something
like that.
But I got to just,
instead of meeting them as like, oh,
the people who
created the things i read as a child
just got to meet them as my wife's
friends so yeah that's kind of cool though
eventually it's like well you know i
really should read the things that that
these friends of ours are making that
would that would only be polite and you
know it kind of went from there ah
that's that's that's really cool though
how does it feel though your wife being
cooler than you oh man i
I wouldn't have married her if that was
a problem.
That's so awesome.
Oh, yeah.
Dude, that's amazing.
Speaking of amazing, your career path.
Amazing.
We're talking prosecutor, litigator,
mediator, comic writer.
Yeah.
It's certainly unique.
Don't forget, before that,
graphic artist...
glorified digital librarian.
I actually had a full career before I
went to law school.
Um, so yeah, it was, uh, you know,
law school was where,
where I went when I realized I wasn't
happy with my career path and was sort
of at a, you know,
personal crossroads in my life.
I was like, well,
if I'm going to go to school now's
the time.
And so I did.
And then the law career just sort of
followed from there.
Um,
I am obviously, you know,
still mediating full time.
That's still the,
the primary moneymaker over here.
At least, you know, on my end, not,
not from my, not counting my wife,
obviously, but, but there's, you know,
so that, that's still going.
But I'm trying to follow in that long
line of recovering attorneys who've become
successful comic book writers.
They're,
There's a few of them out there.
Charles Soule, Mark Guggenheim,
Marjorie Liu.
Charles Soule out there for everybody
writes Star Wars, by the way, y'all.
And Mark also writing some Star Wars.
He is, yep.
Like I said,
it's a proud tradition of not wanting to
be a lawyer anymore and finding something
else to do.
It tells you a lot about the career
path, right?
In fairness,
depending on what kind of lawyer you are,
obviously, but I tell people all the time,
being a lawyer,
particularly being a litigator,
you have to be able to prepare very
uninteresting facts in an interesting way.
So in some ways,
it doesn't correspond with writing
because...
you know,
while hopefully the subject matter of of
my comics is a lot more interesting than
the typical case I would handle.
You still have to figure out an
interesting way to arrange it,
to present it.
And, you know, like I say,
with more interesting source material,
you get a more interesting story.
So funny story, right?
I'm going to.
So my daughter, when she was young,
she was like,
I want to be a lawyer.
All right, cool, baby.
Just so happens I work with a lawyer
at my job.
And he offered, he owes me a favor.
So he offered to take you to lunch
and kind of just talk to you about
being a lawyer.
So we go to lunch and he's telling
her all about being a lawyer.
She's asking questions and she kind of got
quiet for a minute.
And she's thinking,
you can tell the gears are gears up
there grinding.
Right.
And I was finally, I was just like,
what's wrong.
She's like, yeah,
this is the easiest decision I ever had
to make that.
I was like, well, what's that baby.
I'm going to be a doctor.
Good choice.
She's in pre-med right now,
so kudos to her.
I say that there are a lot of
things I like about being a lawyer,
and there's a lot of people I know
who are really happy with the career.
Too many people go into it having seen
lawyers on TV and have this glorified
version of it without talking to anyone
who's actually done it.
People ask me, I'll say it's
it's achievable for almost anybody.
You don't have to be a genius to
be a lawyer.
You just have to be willing to work
at it.
And you also really need to know what
you're getting yourself into and what the
reality of it is.
And if it's not for you, that's okay.
But just be aware of what you're doing
and why you're doing it and you should
be fine.
It's the time.
I don't think people really realize
the amount of time you have to invest.
And that goes for a lot of things
too.
People think you can just jump into
something and they're going to be this
great success at it.
And I will be the first to tell
you, these are true people.
Even this,
even sitting here behind a microphone,
talking to people like Paul,
I did a lot of work leading up
to this.
Here's why we're having a discussion right
now about him being a lawyer.
you don't get that just by you know
like oh let me look up acorn comments
no you you literally you you put in
the work you find out who people are
you research them you you learn them and
then you piece everything together so
there's a lot of time you have to
invest into things no matter what it is
and being a lawyer no different people
like oh we have interns and stuff for
this
You are your intern.
Sometimes they hit lawyers have interns.
Sometimes they tell you you're going to
have interns and then you end up doing
the intern work because they don't give
you the interns.
There it is.
And sometimes the interns create more work
for you than had you just done it
yourself.
Oh, I imagine so.
So what was your point where you said,
I'm not just going to read comments
anymore.
I'm actually going to do comics now.
So comic writing, uh,
it was kind of my midlife crisis.
Um, yeah,
I have one that might as well be
that one.
As far as midlife crises go,
this is probably the best case scenario.
Um, but no, I was,
I was coming up on my fortieth birthday.
And, you know, had a very good life,
a very overall satisfying life.
But it was also, you know, very busy.
And there wasn't a lot that I did
just for me.
Right.
And I kind of felt that need to
do something just for me.
And I when I was younger,
I used to do like high school, college.
Back then,
I used to do a lot of different
types of creative writing, mostly bad,
I'm sure.
But not bad for the β I was
going to say,
I read issue one of The Olympian,
and by darn, it's really good.
I appreciate that.
I did not write that in high school,
though.
So there's been a lot of learning in
between.
And I started β and I said,
you know,
I was very much inspired by a lot
of the people that we were around from
the comms community and from conventions
who would be β
you know,
friends in a more regular part of my
life.
And I started thinking, you know,
maybe I want to give this a shot.
Maybe I want to see if I can
also do that.
And so I would get up in my
normal, you know, normal time, which is,
you know,
we didn't have a kid at the time.
So, you know,
I'd get up maybe an hour or two
before I was supposed to start work and
have my breakfast and then sit down for
an hour,
hour and a half and just
start writing and start putting this
together.
And I did it without telling literally
anybody that I was doing this.
And the reason was because I wanted to,
I wanted to prove to myself that I
could,
I wanted to prove to myself that I'd
finished the first story arc and make it
as good as I could possibly make it
on my own before I brought anybody else
into it.
Yes.
And that became heroes and zeros.
The first,
the first comic that I released.
um of course once i got to a
point where i was good with it i
started talking to artists i started
talking to um the the editor devin r
scott who was probably the first person to
see the script other than me um i've
said before i i credit devin immensely for
not only the editing help he gave me
but for the encouragement to tell me hey
this doesn't suck
because it's the first time in probably
twenty years I've shown anything I've
written to somebody, you know, creative,
creatively written.
And there's a lot of a lot of
fear of putting it out there,
because if this is the best I can
do and it sucks,
then I guess I'm not doing any more
of it, you know?
Oh, yeah.
And and so and so that came together
and eventually I showed my wife
We had the cover.
We had the first ten pages basically done
and what was going to be our pitch
copy.
I showed her that and she looks at
it and is like, oh yeah,
this is really good.
I kind of like it.
She's like,
is this one that you backed on
Kickstarter?
I was like, look at the cover again.
She saw my name on it and she's
like, what?
What?
You did this?
And so, you know,
and it's kind of gone from there.
And, you know, we've now gotten,
like I say,
two issues of Heroes and Zeros.
The second one is hopefully going to print
in a couple of weeks.
And then, you know,
since I basically had that story written
before we even started putting the art
together,
I allowed myself to go explore some of
these other ideas that I come up with.
and the next one I wanted to work
on was the Olympian,
and so we started moving forward with that
one.
So what was that spark that led to
the founding of Acorn Comics?
So as far as Acorn Comics goes,
that's just, you know,
I had put together a pitch for Heroes
and Zeros, and I wanted to,
at least put it out there and see
if we could get some, you know,
backing from a publisher because,
you know,
at least theoretically that makes the
whole finances of making these comics a
bit easier.
But I also didn't want to,
I also didn't want to wait for permission.
And so when I, you know,
send out a few pitch copies and I
wasn't holding my breath,
I didn't hear anything back within,
you know, a month or two.
like you know what let's just do this
ourselves you can do this now you can
put it on kickstarter you can get the
funding for at bare minimum to print and
ship the copies and have some left over
go to shows with and i said you
know what let's go ahead and let's do
it and so i wanted to um where
acorn comics came from is i i think
it's i always like having the little uh
logo in the corner box and i said
well what am i going to call it
and our son's nickname is he's our acorn
so that's what it was hey i like
that dude yeah that's uh like the most
wholesome thing you're gonna hear today
folks oh no you're just you're you're just
making me you know setting that bar for
me see if i can get over it
huh
Hey, that's what I try to do here.
And you know what?
I've learned to set the bar low to
begin with.
That way you always have a way to
get over.
All right.
All right.
At least that's what I do for myself,
too, because I'm like,
I set the bar here.
Set those expectations.
Exactly.
The way when you exceed your expectations,
you're like, yeah.
My expectation was two.
I did four.
There you go.
So Acorn's still relatively new.
Found it in twenty twenty four.
What like kind of what was that mission
when you first started this?
Was it just the way you can have
that that publisher stamp up there or.
That's that's how it started.
And ultimately it's, you know,
the baseline is this is where I'm going
to put out my creator owned titles.
so now ultimately yeah if if that's all
it ever is then that's great and i
love it and i'm happy to keep putting
out my my comics i mean you built
a nice team there so oh we've we've
i've i've been real fortunate uh the
people i've been able to work with over
here and uh the people who have you
know graced me with their talents to help
these books come to life
um but you know if if i was
gonna say you know if if we're gonna
grow if we're gonna have room for growth
and what it could become i kind of
want this to be where like where the
big boys look if they're looking for new
people yeah if they're like you know we
want to see something fresh we want to
see somebody new that we haven't done a
ton with and
really find the next big thing i'd love
it if eventually acorn comics is the place
where like you know those guys are all
always solid let's look at what they're
doing i bet we're going to find somebody
um yeah and that would be phenomenal yeah
if anyone from you know big publishers
watching by the way check out casey's
stuff check out d's stuff check out our
colorists and our letters and every like
every everybody involved in this is
phenomenal
Yeah,
and that link is actually in the
description right now,
and it'll be in the description as well
once it goes live again on the podcast
platforms and also the YouTube again.
I'll always include all those links.
So if people are listening and they want
to see it,
it'll be right there for them to click
and check out.
Awesome.
So your statement about respecting
creators and readers is pretty clear on
your website.
why was that something you wanted to
establish from day one see how you my
research you know this is kind of where
the the legal background meets the
creative background um or at least one of
those places and i have seen i mean
respect for the readers that's i think
that's a no-brainer but respect for the
creators is
I've seen enough contracts just from
friends who have made comics and have
gotten hooked on with one small publisher
or other,
and they'll reach out to me like, hey,
I'm not really happy with how this is
going.
Is there anything I can do about this?
to put it bluntly,
some of those contracts that these
publishers put out are incredibly
disrespectful in my mind.
Oh yeah.
But yeah.
Okay.
Look, if, if,
if DC or Marvel or even like,
you know,
talking image or boom or dynamite or
somebody who's established comes to you
and says, Hey,
we're interested in publishing your comic.
Um,
here's what we'll give you,
but we want X percentage of this, this,
and this in return.
You know,
you got to seriously consider that because
there's a much better chance of that title
and that property taking off.
If it's got the weight of one of
the big players behind it.
Right.
Oh yeah.
But if you're a publisher who I would
go into a comic convention and mention
your name and
you know,
seven out of ten people would say, who?
You shouldn't be putting those same terms
in your contract.
Yeah.
Find something that's going to be mutually
beneficial, yeah,
but not like complete control over
somebody else's IP or, you know,
ninety percent of any multimedia profits.
Stuff like that that you see in some
of these.
That's predatory.
Ninety percent?
Geez.
I can't say I'm
saying that pulling it out of my yeah
yeah we're right now i don't have the
any of these contracts in front of me
but it was something that i looked at
i was like that is absolutely shocking to
me that somebody would have the gall and
not even necessarily somebody would have
be that somebody would sign it because if
you're especially if you've only done one
or two of these and you're getting a
chance to like get put in diamond or
lunar and
you know,
maybe get into these comic shops.
And I apologize.
My nose is just really itchy tonight.
And I don't know why, but I,
I don't usually, you know,
scratch my nose that often.
You're good.
Um, but it's a new season, man,
new allergies.
So, so like,
that's kind of where I was coming from.
Like I'm never going to do like,
and you know,
I'm not necessarily going to go through
all the terms of the contracts we have,
but yeah.
Yeah.
I think the way we put,
we put our contracts in there just for
the people we're working with are very
fair.
And certainly if we ever end up,
you know, doing it,
doing something with somebody else's IP
that they want to come and publish our
banner, um, you know, I, I, yeah,
more like I do it more like,
like I would do something like what I
understand image does, which is like,
If I help with marketing,
if I help with publishing,
reimburse my costs,
maybe a small percentage so that if this
hits big, maybe I can stay in business.
If this hits big,
you're the one that's going to
reap the most benefits from it because
that's the way it would be.
I've always heard Image does right by
people when it comes to if they pick
up your book, they do right by you.
It's all creator.
I don't want to ever be in the
position where something that I co-created
even is the one in a million indie
comics that suddenly gets huge and makes a
lot of money.
And, you know, twenty years from now,
people are asking, hey,
why is the other co-creator over over here
running a GoFundMe for their medical
bills?
Where this guy's, you know,
got a yacht and, you know,
going to the Bahamas.
Like that's going to be if anything,
if any of this blows up,
the people that contributed are going to
are going to see the benefits of that.
No, I like it.
And you had brought up something just a
few seconds ago,
and I'm going to lead into it,
but many indie creators just launch one
book.
You launched a whole publishing imprint
when you launched Acorn Comics.
Was that always the plan?
Nope.
So much of this has just been trial
and error and flying by the seat of
my pants.
The reason we ended up doing
two titles right now and where we've been
going back and forth with it is partially
because Heroes and Zeros is a longer book.
It's a double size,
forty six pages of main story.
And then the Kickstarter editions have the
bonus story in them.
Yeah.
And.
For those,
it obviously takes longer to create.
And especially since issue one was my
first issue,
I didn't want people to wait two years
before they heard anything else from me.
And so in the meantime,
I was able to work with Dee and
get the Olympians started,
and that being a shorter,
traditional size,
a twenty-two page conference.
We were able to get that out in
the meantime while Casey was also working
on the art for issue two of Heroes
and Zeros.
We've been able to alternate and keep more
of a timeline going so that we're a
little bit more front of mind for people
and they don't forget about us.
That's smart.
You're still fairly new to this.
What have you learned about the indie
comic space since launching Acorn and also
now launching two different titles?
So, again, I've learned, number one,
it's an incredible, incredible community.
And with very, very few exceptions,
it's been, everybody is supportive and,
you know, and people say, like,
It's always a struggle when you're doing
things on Kickstarter.
You got to get backers.
You got to get prelaunch followers.
You got to get backers who are willing
to back you above the lowest,
usually a digital tier.
You got to do all these things.
But even if somebody can't do that,
just sharing your links and liking when
you post them on social media and trying
to help you get the word out,
that in itself is beneficial because you
never know if they're the ones that are
going to share it to somebody who's going
to share it to somebody who's going to
be your next big fan and who's going
to be able to back it at one
of the higher levels even.
So just spreading the word and shoot,
just giving words of encouragement when
you put stuff out that that's invaluable
too.
I wish I got more of those.
It's one of those where, you know,
by the time I'm done with the episode,
I've got the clips done.
I've given the clips over to the person
and then I start sharing them on my
social media.
Just interact with the shit.
I don't ask for much.
Give me that heart.
Share it with your friends.
Just show me you have some type of
appreciation for the amount of sure work
that I do for each and every person
that comes on this podcast.
Cause it is a lot from start to
finish.
Well, yeah.
And look, just from my perspective,
myself, you know, number one,
I appreciate you and everybody who's been
willing to give me the space to come
on and talk about these projects.
They're afraid of getting sued.
Who's getting sued now?
I said they're afraid of being sued.
It's a horrible, horrible joke.
Number one,
it would be rude not to help.
Spread the word if I'm coming on and
you're doing the work and, you know,
help spread the word.
No, dude,
I seen you were sharing it just before
we went live.
And I was just like, hell yeah,
I wish everybody did that because I don't
always have the time for that.
And it doesn't do me any good if
I'm coming on here and nobody in my
audience knows about it.
Like, I mean, cause look,
I don't have the biggest social media
followings.
I'm terrible at social media.
I'm not, you know,
I'm not in my twenties.
I don't know how to do this stuff,
you know, and you know,
but I try and I do my best
and you know, I've got,
but it's not like even, you know,
not even half of the backers,
the followers I have on different
platforms are
back the campaigns so let's you know if
maybe they've heard me talk for years and
for a couple of years now on doing
this maybe you know they're like yeah
maybe i will you know see see what
this is all about maybe i will come
in and watch this and and do that
i gotta share because every share is a
poss a possibility of getting a new reader
a new fan exactly i always see us
a mutually beneficial thing anytime
know people are on and like don't let
it be that one-way street where only one
person is is doing things right no because
you never know like i always see it
as my followers are potentially your
followers and in in the reverse right
exactly yeah
And I love that.
I wish I could tell all my followers,
like, hey, go follow Acorn Comets.
They're great.
I love what he's doing over there.
And I wouldn't be lying about it.
I really do like what you're doing over
there.
And having gotten to just read the
Olympian, I always try to read.
If somebody sends me the assets,
I'm going to read it the day prior.
I read Olympian number one yesterday,
and I read the part two teaser that
you sent over as well.
And I love the first one,
the freaking talking squirrel, y'all.
There is a talking squirrel.
I'm just saying,
what's not to love about a talking
squirrel?
Granted, he used to be a wolf, okay?
Right.
He used to be a wolf,
but now he's a talking squirrel, which,
in my opinion, is cuter, okay?
I'm glad you picked up on that,
because that is, like I said,
I'm no mythology expert.
I did some research for these characters,
but I am not pretending that I'm going
to be fast and true to any particular
mythology here.
But I do try.
And with Miko the squirrel,
when I looked up that particular legend,
um, it's like, yeah, it used to be,
there's this mischievous character used to
be a wolf and then got changed into
a squirrel.
And that's why, you know,
and so I kind of put that in
there as a throwaway line in that issue.
Um, and,
and it's nice to see somebody pick up
on that because it is.
It really is.
And it was so fun to see it.
He's like, but what do I know?
You know,
I used to be a wolf and I'm
like,
But also,
if that doesn't sell you on the...
If I can't sell you with the talking
squirrel, there's a damn minotaur, okay?
A frickin' minotaur.
How many comic books have a minotaur?
I can name one.
Maybe two.
Yeah, yeah, and it's... I mean,
they've been known to show up in Wonder
Woman occasionally.
And a lot of Frank Frazita's older work,
but...
That's all I can think of off the
top of my head.
But I was like, you know what?
We're dealing with Greek mythology here.
Why not?
And that's the beauty of comics.
I can think of the most ridiculous thing
to do in this particular medium.
You can do it.
Oh, yeah.
That was great, right?
Except there was one scene,
and I'm not going to reveal it because
it gives away more than the teaser time.
did and i did i did publish uh
a more limited version of the preview on
uh on comics.one um but yeah d did
kind of uh scold me for one of
the scenes because it was a little bit
more detailed than uh by by necessity it
had to be more detailed yeah and i
was like don't worry we're not going to
be doing much there
And her response was just,
my wrist thanks you.
All right.
No.
Any time your artist goes, like, hey,
I'm not getting too much of this,
am I?
Yeah, yeah.
But, I mean,
just like everything else she's done,
she absolutely nailed that scene when she
sent me the art.
It was perfect.
So,
I've been segwaying into the Olympia now.
But tell people on the Olympian,
what is your elevator pitch for it?
Because, I mean, I just did mine.
Talking squirrel, minotaur.
I don't think you really need to say
too much more.
Right.
So the way I've been pitching it,
at least at cons,
is this is a comic for fans of,
you know,
it's kind of like Percy Jackson meets Ben
Ten.
Ooh, yeah.
I like that.
With also a very heavy influence from the
show Trollhunters.
Oh, okay.
I don't know if you've ever watched that.
I'm surprised by how many people I know
haven't because usually my nerds have a
very similar watch history to me.
But if you haven't,
Troll Hunters on Netflix.
It's freaking amazing.
And it was one that I didn't realize
had influenced this story as much as it
had until I went back and watched it
after I had written The Olympian.
Yeah.
As I'm watching Troll Hunters, I'm like,
oh, yeah,
there's a very similar vibe here.
Okay, cool.
Cool.
No, so it's cool, right?
And so this story follows Vasilis Meyer,
who is just a normal dude who discovers
the talisman in his grandparents' home.
But this talisman basically chose him to
become basically the bearer of the powers
of the Greek gods.
They all duped themselves into this
talisman because they knew it would be
needed someday.
where did that concept come from?
Cause it's such a cool and unique concept.
And this thing is just chilling in his,
um,
his paw paw stuff up in the attic.
Right.
Right.
So, uh, you know,
just kind of take us my,
my creative process,
which I think is the creative process that
all people follow, um, is, uh, you know,
I have some weird idea and think of
how I can build a story around it.
Um,
and and the the real seed of an
idea for this one um came from came
from something my wife said to me years
ago when we were dating that she never
even remembered saying to me but that kind
of stuck with me um because she's her
family is is greek um or greek um
very much like vasilis's family and
And she's like, you know,
when I was a kid and we'd go
anywhere on vacation and they'd have all
those souvenirs with people's names on it,
I would never see my name on anything.
So it was always a thrill for me
to see my name on something.
And our son, Vasilis, I was like, well,
he's going to have that same issue.
I should write a comic with him,
with him as the name of the character.
So I'm like, okay, where would that be?
All right, well,
you know,
obviously it should have some kind of,
you know,
be at least a partially Greek family.
So I kind of set it up to
mirror our own family as far as mom's
Greek, dad's not Greek.
And I was like, okay,
so it's very much a free association thing
at this point.
I was like, okay, so Greek,
where's the setting?
Where's the setting going to be?
And I remember this town in New Hampshire
that I grew up in,
had a very,
a surprisingly large Greek population.
And in fact,
the pizza place we would all go to
after school was owned by a Greek family.
So that's where the pizza restaurant came
from.
That's where the town came from.
And then everything else is like, okay,
so, you know, Greek mythology,
what are we going to do for powers?
And then I kind of got to the,
you know,
the Olympian gods and wouldn't it be kind
of cool if you could kind of tap
in each of them when needed.
And everything else just kind of went from
there.
Yeah.
So Greek mythologies inspired countless
stories.
What will set this one apart from all
the others?
So the Greek mythology in this is not
the star.
Like I said,
I'm not trying to stick too closely to
any particular myth.
Just like any mythology,
I think there's probably variations of it
anyway.
So whichever version of it you do,
you're going to get something wrong in
somebody's eyes.
I'm trying to stick to the kind of
high level basics of it.
um yeah as what the gods do and
what their powers are and abilities are
and you know the the star of this
is really it's really the the dynamics
it's it's really the world and the talking
squirrel yeah i mean look he's uh miko
is really uh he really is uh
quite a big part of the story and
will be going forward.
So you and Squirrel Girl had this
conversation prior to introducing a
squirrel, right?
I don't want you getting in trouble with
her.
Oh, no.
Are you talking about actual Squirrel Girl
or my wife?
I don't know the relationship between
those two, but please continue.
I'm interested.
For years,
she's been known as the convention
squirrel.
Okay.
And actually has a
a piece of art from uh art balthazar
that he gave her at a convention years
ago with like a little squirrel wearing a
headset um oh nice so yeah and she
she's a big squirrel fan you know she
likes squirrels quite a bit so i think
i surprised her with that because i just
wanted to kind of see her reaction to
me putting a squirrel in this one when
i had not in in heroes and zeros
yeah no that's so cool though that you've
gotten to a
give your main character,
your son's name and be,
just have that cool little reference there
for your wife.
So, yeah, I mean, look,
because I'm the writer, so why not?
You know, Hey, it's indie comics, right?
You do what you want.
As long, look, as long,
as long as the story still holds up,
I don't see a problem with it.
Um, and,
and I think like to be a little
less modest than,
than what I think the story holds up.
I,
I'm actually really proud of what we're
doing with this.
And I think, like I say,
we finally get the first glimpse of the
cost.
I broke that rule in the first one.
There was no costume,
no superhero costume at all on issue one.
And we're finally getting the first
glimpse of the costume in issue two,
which is β I've teased it.
It's in some of the promotional stuff
we've put out there.
I used it.
I had to.
That cover is so clean.
Oh, Dee's cover on that, yeah,
with Ibrahim's colors on that came out
magnificent.
Just wait until we drop the variant that
we just got.
It's awesome.
so i i that's how i'd like to
do my hype videos as i i i
when i get a chance to do them
i won't always get a chance to do
them but here lately i've been spreading
stuff out a little bit more to where
i can do those types of videos and
uh there's nothing better than using the
covers for those types of videos and that
cover it just dude that covers amazing
If any shops put this in stock,
this is going to scream to you off
the shelves.
It really would.
I'm real excited for once I finally get
these in my hands and I can bring
them to conventions,
just seeing how much more attention they
can bring in.
Not to say the other covers.
I love all the covers we've gotten.
And, you know, we do... I always believe,
like, when you're doing these comics,
especially if you're doing variants,
the main cover, number one,
unless you're a series artist,
doesn't want to do it,
should be the series artist.
And number two should have a lot of,
you know,
some storytelling elements in it.
Yeah.
And I think all these covers that we've
had for both of these titles do that.
The variant covers...
More can tend more towards being pretty
pinups and that as opposed to anything
else.
You got a little bit more leeway,
I think, with those.
But I've always loved the covers that
really have a lot of little hidden
elements of the story in them that you
can keep looking at before and after you
read.
And after you read,
it means more to you than before you
did.
So that's one of those covers where I
would have out.
Like right now, I'm a mess.
I'm redoing things.
But that's definitely one of those covers
where once I have my full railing put
up around the office here to just display
books, that's one that would be up there.
Like it's that nice.
Like, definitely.
Yeah, it came out great.
Like I say,
I've been so fortunate to work with some
of these people I've gotten to work with
over the last few years.
And they've just made this whole thing so
much more fulfilling for me.
It's amazing how that works, right?
When you get to pick and choose your
coworkers.
I really love this,
the collaboration and the whole process of
getting this stuff.
There's no better feeling
then you know you suddenly get a like
notification on your email and you open it
up and here is a page that up
until that point had only been in my
imagination yeah no it's yeah that's that
covers the money so vasilis is someone who
is very reluctant to want to take on
this responsibility and the talisman has
chosen him
he's he's got miko he's got the minotaur
both like dude you're it sorry dude but
you've been chosen so he's very reluctant
to become this hero are we going to
learn in like issue two like why he
actually did kind of decide to just pick
up that mantle and be the hero
I think we're going to get more of
an inkling of that, yeah.
I don't know if it's going to be
an aha moment, per se.
But it's ultimately going to come down to
just his character and his choice of...
Because he's a small-town guy,
and he likes his life.
and if he's gonna do this how he's
gonna do it uh has the potential to
really upend his life um and and that's
a big choice to make so it's not
something that he's obviously going to
come to a decision one way or the
other um quickly um you know he he
still has you know as we
come into issue two he still has a
lot to learn about just about what the
talisman is and and what's happening
because you know at the end of issue
one we're you know we're left with he's
just sort of you know triggered a few
times by accident yeah and all he knows
is that by holding this thing that that
was uh as far as he knows a
souvenir his grandparents brought back
from their honeymoon in greece um
Suddenly,
he's doing fantastic things that he didn't
think he could do.
He's going to learn a lot more about
the Talisman, about its history,
and he's got a real tough choice to
make by the end of issue two.
It's not bad for a small-town guy who
just wants to sit at home and chill
with his ferret and hang out with his
friends on the weekend.
Yeah, I mean, that's not a bad life,
man.
You got a job, you got good friends,
you got a ferret, you know?
Now you got a talking squirrel and a
minotaur.
What could be better, right?
I don't know.
I mean, like I say,
you saw the minotaur at the end of
issue one.
That's not necessarily a friendly
relationship.
He is an intimidating figure,
I will give it that.
And he's just so well done, too.
Yeah.
And we're going to talk about like D
and everybody here in a little bit,
but let's talk about issue one of your
Kickstarter fund date,
what was that moment like for you as
a creator?
Relief.
Relief.
Oh yeah.
They are stressful.
If you want to know why so many
creators,
myself included are so passionate and
frankly passionate
annoying about getting pre-launch
followers on these campaigns it's because
it is so nerve-wracking to hit that launch
button and then a week later you're like
you're maybe twenty five percent of the
way or twenty percent of the way
And halfway into the campaign,
you're maybe coming somewhere close to
halfway.
And most of the support you get is
typically at the beginning.
And you're like, man,
now I got to keep just being out
here and being in people's faces and
drumming up as much support as I can
get.
Otherwise, we might not hit this goal.
It's wild.
know some people see it as an annoyance
i love seeing the passion that independent
creators bring to their stuff and that's
why what i see it as and i
guess it's just me being like having
worked with the industry now for a little
over a year and doing this type of
stuff but i love it man it's infectious
and it just kind of makes you want
to
Like, hey, what do you mean, man?
When I say annoying,
I think that's a projection because we all
feel like we're being annoying by posting
about stop all the time.
And I've never actually had somebody say,
this is really annoying.
Could you please stop?
Like most people react like you do.
You never know who's going to see it.
You never know who the algorithm is going
to show it to.
If you post five times a day,
each person might see one of them.
You just never know.
So it's not that annoying in reality.
You just feel like you're being annoyed.
Oh, I'm sure.
And it's what I always tell people is
like,
When the podcast ends,
my support for the project doesn't end
with the podcast.
I still like I follow you on Instagram.
So if I see it like your post
pop up on Instagram for the Kickstarter,
I'm sharing the Kickstarter.
You know,
I'm doing all those things to follow
through on your appearance around the
podcast because.
especially when you're an infectious
person,
when it comes to your passion for the
project,
it carries over to me and subsequently
carries over to other people as well.
And it's hard.
Like some people I've had some on the
podcast where I was just like,
I felt so unenthusiastic about their
project after the fact that I just didn't
care.
It's one of those where like,
if they all asked to come back and
be like,
you know and it's not that they create
bad stuff the stuff they create is good
sure but they'd like that passion and that
enthusiasm for what it is they do you
know it's there it's just they don't know
how to project it outward you know what
i'm saying i i get that too because
like
I'm not the most naturally charismatic
person.
I can gear up for something like this,
and I am excited to talk about this.
But I'm like a lot of writers.
I'm very introverted in general.
We were just talking.
I told you how introverted I am.
Yeah.
It's great to talk to people,
and I do enjoy it.
I legitimately do enjoy it.
But that doesn't mean that it doesn't take
a lot out of you on the back.
And so it's something that you really got
to gear up for.
And like I say,
a lot of people who are creative are
like.
Creativity and, you know.
Public speaking and marketing smarts are
all very different things and very
different.
That's a not a lot of people have
have all of them or even two of
them in some cases.
I mean, I'm not a public speaker.
I've had to work on this over the
last, you know, seventeen,
twenty years since I started law school.
Oh, yeah.
That's what this is.
This is me briefing and standing in front
of people talking and.
actually making all those classes I did
take in college to be useful now,
you know,
in writing this stuff and getting,
you know, the way I approach things,
the research I do,
like I'm constantly evolving,
like even the way I do my social
media,
I'm always going back out there and seeing
what other people are doing.
Although I do first,
I take it back to a certain step
where I still need to get certain points
across.
Right.
Like the show is going to be at
this time on this day, follow this person.
Boom.
Because I do as much as I can
possible to make everything I do at the
end of the day when somebody's coming on
the show about that person.
I can sit here and scream at the
top of my lungs all day and say,
hey, follow me.
Do this.
Share this.
But is that what I do, though?
Well,
what I do is people and marketing people
and spotlighting people and their stories
and their books.
So I have to kind of take that
step back and go, right,
it's about the person.
I'm going to push the person.
I'm going to market the person.
And then on the bad side of it,
I get my return when those people are
spotlighted,
their followers come over hopefully and
follow me.
Cause Hey, I like what this guy does.
I seen how he did with Paul.
I won't in on that too.
I want to see what he does for
other people as well.
And you'll notice that I do everything the
same way for everybody.
Yeah.
And that's fantastic because that's also
like partially that's how I've found,
you know,
other things,
other things to watch and listen to.
Like if I've, you know,
if I've even been on a show or
talk to people online or seen them put
up,
seen them cover somebody that I'm friends
with.
Yeah.
Oh man.
Hey, I'll go check out their show.
And you know, if I,
if I like what they're doing,
then there it is.
I'm, I'm following, I'm,
I love word of mouth.
Word of mouth is so great.
I get so many people coming over from
word of mouth.
What's his name?
He was just on the podcast,
was word of mouth from another guy who
was a word of mouth from another guy.
And now three interviews deep from word of
mouth.
And I love that kind of stuff.
Like, oh, yeah,
this one person said that you were great
at this and to come on your show
and push the book.
I was like, dude, that's so cool.
It means I ain't got to do nothing
from a advertising perspective as far as
trying to get people on the podcast
because they're just showing up now.
And it's great.
I love that.
Because that's really the hardest part
about this job is trying to get people
to come on the podcast.
And once that part of the job is
gone,
I can then focus on what really matters,
which to me is the person.
Well, that's fantastic, though,
and it's much appreciated.
Dude, I love this.
This is my wheelhouse.
I love it.
From me,
and I feel confident speaking on behalf of
literally every other indie creator out
there,
we all appreciate indie-focused media
because it's so hard to get your...
There's not a lot out there.
I've said this so many times,
there is an audience.
There is a big audience for indie comics.
The problem is for each creator,
since we're all kind of scattered all
around,
to find their audience and to be able
to have kind of a hub of
a handful of places you can go that
are consistent spotlighting this.
That's what I'm trying my best to make
this is that central hub.
That's why I have the Facebook group that
you can join and you can literally say,
hey,
my Kickstarter is launching on this day.
You can share it on that group.
That's what I'm trying to evolve this into
at the end of the day is I
want to be the media hub
for Indie Comics.
You got a Kickstarter going?
Cool.
You can come share that over here with
my group.
If you got something else going on, like,
hey, I hit this milestone today.
Dude,
I want to know about your milestone you
hit today.
And I love that kind of stuff.
And I continuously want to make the USDN
now that media hub.
Or if you just want to talk about
a movie you've just seen over the weekend,
please let's talk about it, you know?
And that's what I love about having that
group.
There is,
we call it the fan page and it's
going.
It will always be a fan page,
but I want it to be a media
hub for others to come in.
They can share their work with everybody
like, hey,
check out with the pages on my new
comic book.
And hopefully that leads to, you know,
you get more backers as well.
And then, of course, you know,
there's the podcast page,
which is where I do all my advertisements
and stuff like that for for this.
And I also share it to like.
Fifteen different groups at the end of the
day.
Yeah.
Whenever I'm all over the place,
like you don't realize I have to do
two different posts every time because
they will only let you post to nine
groups.
So I did have to go in and
recreate that same post.
Thankfully,
I I do all my posts and I
can just copy and paste it right back.
Right.
So it's not that I'm not doing a
lot of work in terms of that,
but it is remembering, OK.
Which nine did I just do to make
sure I don't overlap and piss off the
administrators of that group or the
moderators of that group?
Because I've done that more than once,
I'm sure.
I'm sure.
Yeah,
that seems like an easy mistake to make.
Yeah,
I'm pretty sure I probably do it once
a week.
Thankfully, you know,
I haven't got any nasty grams going.
Hey, what the hell are you doing?
So thankfully, I haven't got none of that.
So I must be doing something OK.
So clearly, yeah.
So let's talk about issue two, man.
I've gotten to read the little spoiler you
got in there.
What more can we expect in that second
issue?
We're going to get to see some expansion
of the Greek mythology.
I hope there's more Squirrel and more
Minotaur, personally.
So definitely going to be some more
Squirrel, some more Minotaur.
And again, more of the...
more of the dynamics with the,
with the family and friends, which is,
well,
he's got such a great dynamic there too.
And I, and I just,
another thing I loved about this story,
he's got such a fantastic friend group.
His, his grandma, his mom and dad,
they all seem like there's such a good
dynamic there,
even though he's still kind of got that
normal, like early twenties ain't like,
I don't want to go to meanwhile's house.
Come on.
Right.
Well, yeah.
Like, I mean, that's kind of,
yeah,
the family's just going to do the same
thing the family always does.
And it starts with his grandfather had
passed in issue one.
So it's like, yeah,
everyone grieves their own way.
And for him,
even though he knows his family wants him
there, it's a little much for him.
So he'd rather be around his friends and
maybe try and think about something else.
But he also knows that his yaya needs
his help and needs him to come over
and do some of this.
So that's why he ends up doing it
because he's a good kid.
He's ultimately a good kid.
And even though he's gone and Meemaw,
you don't know how much time you're going
to get with Meemaw.
Go see your Meemaw's people is what I'm
saying.
And if they need something,
you help your family,
even if it annoys you a little bit.
And so he comes through and he goes
and unwinds with his friends.
But it really is, I think,
the mixing of the family dynamics and the
friendship dynamics and the mythology and
the adventure and all that put together.
And yeah,
we're taking another step in that
direction.
He's going to have a lot more.
Like I said,
you're going to see the costume.
You're going to see the powers a little
bit more developed in this.
And you're going to see he has a
big decision to make in issue two.
And you're going to get to see what
that decision is.
Are we going to start to see some
enemies or threats start to emerge in
issue two?
Well, right.
And so you are going to see there's
going to be dealing with what's in front
of him, obviously, and then dealing with,
you know,
and then a bit more of a more,
I think,
more of a hint at what's coming in
issue three.
Okay.
As opposed to a true emergence of it.
Okay.
You know, you see.
You saw a build to it.
I think I can give this little clue,
and we've already seen it a little bit
with Miko.
So Miko, the squirrel,
comes from Native American lore.
Whereas, obviously,
the talisman comes from Greek mythology.
What does that tell us?
That tells us that multiple mythologies
and lores exist and in this world were
real.
Um, so I'll leave,
I'll leave that little teaser out there as
far as what might be coming, uh,
for issue from issue three and, and the,
and through the rest of the arc.
Yeah, I like it.
So how far out is, uh,
the Olympian planned?
We looking at like a six issue series
here,
or are we looking at like an arc
of sits?
Yeah, we're playing for an arc,
a five issue arc.
Okay.
With all these,
with both of these stories that I've done,
I kind of wanted to break it up
in a way that if a publisher with
funding came calling,
it would be very easy to put it
into an existing framework and sell it
that way.
But also, you know,
easier to break down and make this and
get it out to the fans that we
have that are supporting.
from you know from the ground floor uh
so yeah so i want to keep it
manageable five issues i'll still end up
being over a hundred pages of story um
and with room to grow and go in
many different directions after that if
the support's there for it um and uh
like i say and and that's the same
with the olympian and with with our other
stories too like i always want to leave
the door open for
for something additional in that universe.
If,
if we decide that we have stories to
tell,
but I also want to wrap up the
story that we're telling in a satisfying
way.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
So that we can, you know,
so people feel like they're not on the
hook.
You got it.
Yeah.
Like they got their whole story in that,
in that just in case, you know,
in five issues is a lot of pages
when you sit down and think about it
and,
I personally,
I like to get a full story and
then an arc within six.
You know what I'm saying?
Right.
To me, that's just,
I call it standard comic book,
but at the same time,
if you can't get a good arc out
in six issues, what are you doing?
Right, right.
I feel like with few exceptions,
at that point,
you're probably just dragging it out
Because maybe you don't know where you're
going with it.
Yeah.
And I've seen stories like that as well.
And I think Marvel's notorious for that.
Well, and if you can't look,
if you want to tell a good story,
especially, again,
especially in the indie format,
when you're doing it in this way, like,
I feel like going into it,
you've got to know
where that story's going.
The backers have to have an idea too.
They have to know going in.
If they're going to support you and become
a fan, they got to know.
They really do.
Otherwise,
that support's going to be dried up.
That's the thing.
We're going to have five issues of the
Olympian.
And like I say,
not to say we won't have more stories
after that.
Um,
but we're going with the original five and
then heroes and zeros is going to be
a three issue arc,
but it's the three double issues.
So, you know, we're,
we're working on that one and we've got
our plans.
I already had my, my,
our initial planning meetings with Casey
on that one to, uh, uh,
for timelines and everything.
But, um,
we're we've got everything ready and we're
laser focused now on these two stories
we're going to get these two arcs out
and just like every other writer out there
i've got like ten other ideas that i
could pursue yeah depending on depending
on who i get to work with me
and and
you know, what seems to be appealing and,
and like the best bet to really,
you know, put out the next one.
Oh yeah.
So let's talk about the Kickstarter coming
up.
When, when does,
when can people expect to see the next
Kickstarter for the Olympian issue too?
So we are looking to launch barring any
hiccups on April.
Okay.
So not that far away.
Less than a month.
Not too far away, yeah.
Do you have the pre-launch yet?
Yeah, pre-launch is up.
It's olympiancomic.com.
Okay, if you want to send me that,
I will include that as well in the
social media stuff.
Oh, absolutely, yeah.
And I've done that on purpose.
I try to get it so that we're
β yeah,
I try and get it so that I've
gotten easy to remember and easy to share.
Yeah.
website rather than the, you know,
kickstart.com slash.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That nobody can ever remember that,
but Olympian comic,
you can probably remember that one.
I know.
That's why I asked to send it because
I will forget.
But if you send it to me,
that's the thing.
If you send it to me,
then I can add it to what I
already have over here.
And it makes it easier for me on
the backside to when I go to make
this into a YouTube description.
It's easier just for me to pull it
over and do it.
I didn't mean you personally,
but more generally.
Yeah, no,
I like to get everything out as humanly
possible for the person,
especially if it's the Kickstarter
prelaunch.
I know how much that prelaunch means to
people.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
And I tell people all the time, look,
if you think there's anything at all
interesting about this,
please follow the prelaunch.
Because you're not locked in.
You don't even have to back it when
it launches.
If you decide later, you don't want to.
But having those higher pre-launch numbers
helps us when we launch.
And I've never...
conclusively confirm this but i am fairly
well convinced that that does play into
kickstarter it does promote and support so
you know i mean there's that and then
you know there's backer kit as well which
is a secondary thing that will do all
that stuff for you which is an additional
amount of money you have to give to
this and they push that kickstarter for
you
And there's nothing wrong with that.
I know people who have done it and
they love it and cool.
However, if I, as you know,
Snuffy can get this in front of,
you know, my social media eyes as well,
then that's one more way of pushing that.
And the more prelaunch you have in the
algorithm does in fact for Kickstarter,
because you have to look at Kickstarter as
another social media, right?
Even though that's how you're funding your
book, right?
is it will make it more readily available.
So when you go to Kickstarter,
comic books,
they're just all kind of jumbled in there
and you can see them.
But if you're doing well on your
pre-launch, then when you go to launch,
it's going to be more visibility because
it's going to be toward the front of
the pack.
Right, yeah.
And that's really it.
And that's just another way to support
indie creators that are doing the
crowdfunding is
Give them a follow on the pre-launch page.
They're free.
It does help.
And that part, at least,
is no financial commitment whatsoever.
You decide later if you really want to
back it or not.
Likes and follows are free.
Yeah, absolutely.
Crowdfunding has become one of the biggest
tools for indie comics.
What have you learned in your years or
a few short years of running Kickstarters?
Because it's no easy task.
Yeah,
it's what I've learned is just keep trying
new stuff.
because I don't think I have any kind
of magic formula.
There's not one.
Yeah.
It's I'll keep trying new stuff.
I'll keep putting out different options,
different tiers, trying some, you know,
try and get in front of different
audiences, you know, come on podcasts.
Thank you.
Yeah, no, I love having people on.
I love talking kickstarters.
I love lunch and kickstarters.
It's just so fun to do.
And with, with Kickstarter and like,
There's no,
whatever kind of tier or add on or
thing that you think people might be
interested in.
There's no harm in ever putting it out
there.
Like, yeah, no.
And that's literally the next question.
When you go to launch this, what,
what do you have anything special planned?
Are you just doing like the books?
What's the plan for Olympian number two?
So we're going to have a tier for,
um, obviously for the digital,
for the physical copy with the,
for the variant cover.
I usually do a version where you can
get all covers for people who want that.
You'll be able to get add-on issue one
if you didn't get a copy of issue
one before and you want a copy now.
But we're also going to have a couple.
So we did a coin in the first
one that was a big hit that was
a coin version of the talisman.
Oh, that'd be really dope.
And that was a really big hit.
And so we're doing another coin this time
around with a Styrian with the Minotaur on
it.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
And so hopefully that'll be a big hit
again.
We're doing t-shirts this time.
And so we've got two different designs on
the t-shirts that people can order.
You know, we have...
I think we've got a couple of spots
for advertisers in the back of the issue,
half page ads.
And one thing I put out for the
last campaign for Heroes and Zeros that I
think is going to be a mainstay is
going to be the patron tier,
which is obviously a much higher price
point.
And I don't expect that most people are
going to look at that and say,
that's for me.
But for somebody who is a repeat backer,
who backs most of our campaigns,
or who just is very generous and wants
to help us out,
it's that higher price point.
But I said, OK, for the last campaign,
you're going to get everything that we
publish between now and twenty thirty plus
any Kickstarter stretch goals.
Now, that's not a guarantee.
Honestly, that's a pretty good deal.
Now,
that's not a guarantee about what we will
publish or when we'll publish it.
We don't make any promises about that.
But I think we've got a fairly consistent
record.
And now that we're focusing only on these
two titles,
and we're committed to getting these two
story arcs out at minimum,
you can certainly count on that happening
within the next few years.
And probably more.
Most likely more,
unless things go horribly, horribly wrong.
So, again, not going to be for everybody,
but we're going to have that patron tier
for anybody who really feels like throwing
that extra support our way.
And we did get one backer at that
tier in the last campaign.
So shout out to Brian.
Thank you, Brian.
Way to go, Brian.
And part of that also,
a special thank you in the back of
that issue that you joined for that tier
and a few other cool things.
And for anybody who is a paid subscriber
to our newsletter,
you're going to have tiers available with
a discounted tier on the digital and
free shipping on several of the physical
tiers.
So if you're willing to throw a few
bucks a month our way on the newsletter,
we'll get you back on the shipping on
that.
Plus you get other extras through the
newsletter.
You get previews of the art that other
people aren't getting,
or at least before other people are
getting it.
and uh you know some other i i
again kind of by the seat of my
pants with this but we're trying to come
up with cool stuff every month to get
to our newsletter no that's really cool
and i always like having my name in
the back of the book or having that
as an option when it's affordable because
some people price it like ridiculous i'm
like dude you're just printing a page with
names in the back why is this going
to cost me twenty five or thirty bucks
that's ridiculous
And that's not a knock on anybody,
but I do like it when it's like
net twelve to fifteen dollar range.
That way I can go, hey,
let me go ahead and slap the podcast
name in the back of this book.
That way, when people get to the back,
they see that podcast name.
I can be like free advertisement.
Well, not free,
but cheap advertisement than what I would
normally pay if I was going to advertise
through like Google or something like
that.
So.
Right, right.
But let's talk about the future, man.
What does the future have for Acorn
Commons?
You've got Heroes and Zeros, The Olympian,
and I believe Intrusion?
So the Intrusion was just a short that
I did.
That was one that I had been working
on.
No real dialogue or anything.
I took some time to just put together
this little three-page script.
Okay.
And
There was one artist I've been following
for years who just has a very distinct
style,
and I couldn't really imagine it being
drawn by anybody else.
Yeah, yeah.
And that's an artist by the name of
Lane Lloyd who is out there and does,
and you'll see Lane pop up on some
projects here and there and doing a lot
of cover work.
They do, again,
very distinct and unique style.
I was like, okay,
I just got to get Lane to work
with me on this one because I think
it's come out pretty cool.
Like I say,
it's a little three-page horror short that
I think came out really cool,
black and white.
It was just a fun thing to do.
Other than that, I've got, like I say,
a few other projects.
Nothing that's...
with most of them i've got about ten
pages of script done and then an outline
an outline because that's how i proved
myself that i've got a viable idea yeah
because i start writing it and then if
it feels good and i feel like i've
got a good grasp of you know the
world and the characters and i'll take it
from there okay but i'm not going to
focus on any of those until i get
these two done and out in the world
i like you what does the next five
years look like
I say hopefully getting these two arcs
done and then debuting a few other things
and maybe some continued stories from the
Olympian and Heroes and Zeros.
I definitely really,
having read Heroes and Zeros,
that wasn't in the plans for this show,
but it's one of those where if it's
as good as the Olympian,
I definitely want to go back and hopefully
with the kit started,
that will be available.
I definitely want to read that now too
because it really is such a good series.
The Olympian is fun and I can't wait
for this to kick off and launch.
That way I can get my hands on
it.
Why don't you go ahead and let everybody
know where they can find you.
We have our website, acorncomics.com.
You can get back copies of
of anything we've done right now.
I think all I've got in stock at
the moment is the variant covers still.
But that's not really a consolation prize.
We got Heroes and Zeros won.
We got variant covers by Dee Fish and
Tom Rainey,
Salome Lucia Antoinette and Walter
Giovanni on the Olympian.
All the covers were brilliant in my mind.
Um, we've got some of the prints,
some of the other merchandise we've got,
um, you know, that we, uh,
that we put through the Kickstarter, uh,
the coins are up there on the website.
The, um, you know, we,
we're going to have some more once we
get the reward shift for heroes and zeros
too,
which we should be shipping very shortly.
Uh, well, you know,
probably by the end of April, uh,
they should all be in the mail.
And once those are out to the backers,
then they'll go up on the website as
well.
And we've got a pre-order slot for Heroes
and Zeros two up on the website as
well.
Social media.
Oh,
you can also sign up for the newsletter
there.
That's just the easiest way for people to
get on the newsletter as opposed to trying
to figure out what the actual address is.
I'm on blue sky threads, Facebook,
Instagram, um, under acorn comics.
In most cases,
the handle on blue sky is easy.
A E S Q.
Like my last name lawyer.
Um, I got the handle.
I wasn't sure if I was going to
be using it for my legal stuff or
for my comic stuff.
And it's definitely mostly towards the
comic side.
Um,
But the headline is still Acorn Comics.
So, you know, if you see me there,
that's me.
And you're on YouTube as well.
I am, although I frankly,
I don't really do much with it.
That's just a place for me to put
the trailers when I have a trailer for
the for the comics now and occasionally a
little promo video that my when my wife
dresses like an axolotl.
But which got by far the most views
of anything I've ever put on YouTube.
Oh, of course.
Of course.
But I don't want you to get in
trouble with your wife.
So, everyone,
that brings us to the end of another
episode of the USDM podcast.
Huge thank you to Paul for joining us
and giving us a behind-the-scenes look at
the Olympia and the world he's building
through Acorn Comics.
If you enjoyed this conversation,
make sure you check out the Olympian issue
two podcast.
April tenth when it launches on
Kickstarter and be sure to follow Paul and
acorn comics across social media to stay
updated on Everything that they have
coming up next and of course if you're
new here Make sure you subscribe follow
and share the show so he keep bringing
you more conversations with the creators
shaping the future of indie comics until
next time
The Council of Nerds is adjourned.
This has been the USDN Podcast,
where indie comics come to life.
Y'all be safe out there.