The United States Department of Nerds Podcast

Todd Black — Tokyo Blade Detectives #1–12 & The Future of Indie Sci-Fi Comics

In this episode of The USDN Podcast, we sit down with comic creator Todd Black to discuss his cyberpunk detective series Tokyo Blade Detectives and the Kickstarter campaign collecting issues #1–12.

Set 200 years in the future where guns are outlawed but violence still thrives, the series explores faction warfare, advanced technology, and the emotional consequences of conflict through the eyes of teenage detective Miko.

We talk about:

Building a long-running indie comic universe
Crowdfunding strategy and Kickstarter lessons
Collaboration with international comic artists
Expanding creator-owned stories beyond comics
Writing the Thunder Rosa comic biography
Advice for indie creators navigating today’s industry

If you’re passionate about indie comics, sci-fi storytelling, and creator-driven publishing, this conversation is for you.

Support the Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blackmagicwolf/tokyo-blade-detectives-1-12

Follow Todd Black:
X: https://x.com/Guardians_Comic
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/toddblack.bsky.social

The USDN Podcast — Where Indie Comics Come to Life.

What is The United States Department of Nerds Podcast?

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.

Thanks for watching!

what is up everybody it's the chairman of

the united states department of nerds

where we are for the people by the

people and of the people and i'm a

little out of breath because i was rushing

to get this shared out across all the

beautiful platforms that we are located on

But some futures don't arrive quietly.

They rebuild themselves from the ashes

stronger, faster, and more advanced.

But progress always comes with a price.

And tonight,

we step two hundred years into the future,

a rebuilt Japan where guns are outlawed

and technology has reshaped society,

but yet violence.

still finds a way.

Laserblades, rising factions,

a city under constant pressure,

and in the middle of it all,

a detective named Miko.

Please tell me I said that right.

Yeah, you said that right.

Trying to survive long enough to uncover

the truth.

Our guest tonight is writer Todd Black,

a creator with over a decade in comics,

more than fifty published stories,

and the architect behind the Cyberpunk

Detective Saga,

tokyo blade detectives and volume three is

reaching its climax with issue number

twelve on kickstarter an interlude story

about consequences legacy and what happens

after the dust settles ladies and

gentlemen the council of nerds is now in

session todd welcome to the united states

department of nerds my friend honored to

be here

Now let's get into this because it is

a really cool story.

It's like Japanese Star Wars in my eyes

is how I look at it.

But Todd,

for everybody meeting you for the first

time, who I think is everybody here today,

who is Todd Black as a creator?

Like I said, my name is Todd.

Nice to meet you.

I'm a writer of comics and novels.

I've been doing this for a decade now.

I...

I'm a guy who just loves to tell

stories,

and if you ever were to come to

one of my Comic-Con tables,

you'd see I had not only a widespread,

but a wide array of genres that I

have tapped into,

with anime being the latest one,

comics-wise, with Tokyo Blade Detectives.

For me, it's very much,

it's about the story,

it's about the characters,

about trying to get the most out of

it so that you, the reader,

will enjoy what you read every single

time.

I endeavor to put my best foot forward

and my best, well not pen, I don't,

I type,

but I try to do my best with

my writing and I appreciate everyone who

reads any of my books.

So was there a particular comic book in

your life that kind of pulled you toward

writing comics yourself?

Actually, not a comic book.

I grew up in the nineties in the

golden age of superhero television.

So Batman TAS, Superman TAS,

Justice League, Batman Beyond, X-Men,

Spider-Man, all of them.

And I was enamored with all of it.

I didn't read my first official comic book

until I was eighteen years old because I

didn't realize that there was a comic

store near me.

And even if I learned sooner,

I guarantee my parents wouldn't have

bought any for me.

It's like, Todd,

you need to buy it yourself,

but they're so expensive.

Uh,

but eventually I went to a C two

E two in Chicago comic-con.

Okay.

And I went to a panel called making

comics, the Marvel way.

And on the panel wasn't was Matt fraction

of legendary comics name.

And I said, Hey,

I have had this idea for a comic

in my head for awhile.

What do I do to make it real?

And he goes, look,

if you're a writer and you want to

make comics,

go find an artist and go make comics.

Like almost word for word,

that's what he said.

And so fast forward, oh, I don't know,

two years,

because apparently you need money to make

comics.

I finally got the funding to make it.

And I found an artist named Alex Garcia.

And we made my very first comic series

called Guardians,

which is my superhero story.

And then I just started working one issue

at a time, one book at a time,

then started jumping genres.

Then I went from comics to prose for

a bit.

I've got a bunch of prose novels out

across a couple of series.

And now it's just about trying to get

the next story out,

trying to get the next adventure out and

seeing where everything goes.

You're up to fifty stories.

What keeps you... Schematics on that one.

What keeps you creating, man?

Like I said, I love stories.

My biggest problem.

Okay.

I got a lot of problems.

Okay.

I mean, that's the thing.

That's the big one is that I think

some people underestimate how much it

takes to make a comic.

And especially when you look at certain

Kickstarters where they're making,

you know,

thousands and thousands of dollars,

everyone thinks, well, they're rich.

No,

a lot of that goes into the comic

and production and then making the next

thing.

And then paying people on top of it.

Yeah, not not not.

And it does include doing things like

comic cons,

which I try to do a lot in

my area.

You know,

those cost money just to get the table,

get the comics to sell at the table.

And then you have to sell enough to

try and make a profit.

It takes a lot.

And I've been lucky in that I've had

jobs that have supported me enough so I

can do all of this.

but it does cost a lot of money

to make a single book.

Even with novel writing,

it costs a lot because you might think,

well, you're only just typing the words,

right?

Well, that's true,

but you're also paying for the cover.

So depending on your artist,

that could cost a lot.

And then if you have an editor,

which you absolutely should,

they could cost you as much as like

ten comic pages because they're going

through hundreds of pages and

helping you with story flow and grammar

and all that.

So it all adds up in the end.

But my other problem is that I just

have way too many ideas in my head.

Like I already know what my,

what I want my next comic series to

be multiple comic series.

And then I,

I just finished one prose novel,

which is off to editing and I'm already

starting my next novel adventure in a

completely different genre.

So I still don't have the time for

it all.

And then I have side jobs.

I have my main job.

I have comic cons.

It'll be starting for me in two weeks.

And,

much to do but i love it and

i love that i have something to hold

on to is like even if everything else

is going bad i've got my comics i

got my novels and i got these other

stories i want to bring to the world

let's break that down real quick because i

don't think people really understand so if

you get a table yeah at a comic-con

right just a local comic-con a table is

going to be anywhere from twenty five to

seventy five dollars at a small one and

we're talking a small convention

They may not even provide you the table.

So now you're on the hook for the

cheers and the table.

You just don't want to show up with

a table.

So therefore now you need a banner with

your name or logo on it.

So quick estimate,

thirty five to fifty bucks for that.

Then it's the display stands.

You just don't want to have your stuff

just laying on the table.

You want to make it look nice for

the people come to see you and learning

who you are.

let's say,

fifty to a hundred bucks for comic book

stands or something like that to for a

proper way to make your comments

presentable to the masses of people.

Then on top of that,

you throw in the cost of actually

producing books.

Say he's out of a book.

He goes back to his printer and says,

hey,

can you print me twenty five copies of

this book at what?

Three ninety nine.

Four dollars a pop depends on the printer.

But that's a good estimate for now.

So we're talking about that one day trip

to a Comic-Con local to his house.

We're looking at five to six hundred

bucks.

One day's worth of working.

We now have to make that money back

somehow,

which gets unfortunately given out to the

customers in the price of the book.

So that's how that breaks down for anybody

who's ever wondered how that works.

And just to be clear,

that was for a small con.

All right.

Yes.

For like next month.

One of my my biggest show of the

year right now, at least,

is I'm doing a show called Planet Comic

Con Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri.

one of my best show I do every

year by far in terms of sales.

But even then,

that's a four hundred dollar table just to

get there.

And then I drive six hours to get

there.

And then I have about four hundred dollars

for the hotel.

Yeah,

they got four hundred dollars for the

hotel, plus food,

plus whatever other expenditures hit my

way.

So right there,

I need to make about nine hundred dollars

to technically cover costs.

And technically,

I'm not because of comic orders and

everything.

That's an entirely different thing.

So things can add up very,

very quickly if you're not careful.

So.

There you have it, folks.

You love to see when your favorite comic

creator shows up at Comic-Cons.

The small guys,

like Todd and all the other indie creators

who you see on this podcast when they

appear at a Comic-Con,

it's out of their pocket.

And it's not cheap.

So that's what we're saying,

and that's why we push so hard to

support indie creators on the podcast is

because...

why not they they deserve as much love

as the big guy because a lot of

these guys are producing stuff better than

what marvel and dc are putting out right

now and i'll i will die on that

hill i won't deny the certain ones but

no sorry that was a tangent every now

and then something like every now and then

something comes up and it's very dear and

near to me because i do love comic

cons and i think it's important for people

to understand

what actually goes into those.

And that was just a good opportunity.

Thank you.

Trust me.

Comic-Cons are a huge part of what I

do just because due to the nature of

my, my existence, I'm a hermit.

Like I work from home and everything.

So Comic-Cons are my way to expand my

reach.

And there are plenty of people at

Comic-Cons that I'll never meet online.

So this is my chance to reach out

to them to say like, hey,

there's this book that they might like.

And I've met lifelong friends at these

shows.

So my life would be so much more

boring without these Comic-Cons.

Now, are they stressful?

Absolutely.

Can they take a drain on me?

Absolutely.

And next month, I got three of them.

But I'm doing it because I love it.

And I get to see people I care

about.

I get to sell my books.

And if they go well,

then I'm above and beyond.

So it matters.

I love that, dude.

But let's talk about Tokyo Blade

Detectives.

We're going to dive into this.

So what sparked this idea for Tokyo Blade

Detectives?

Because it looks like such a fun series.

The hype video on the Kickstarter looks so

much fun.

Thank you.

What really brought this about?

Okay.

So if I were to tell you that

I grew up on the age of Toonami.

with Dragon Ball and Outlaw Star and

Sailor Moon,

and that I've been a Pokemon fan since

Gen One,

and I was there for the original Yu-Gi-Oh

franchise all the way up to Five Ds.

I don't wanna talk about Zexal.

And I tell you about all the anime

franchises I have, you might think, well,

Todd,

this clearly has been something in your

mind for years that you wanted to do.

Now,

I came up with this idea because of

a Facebook meme

That's even funnier.

I know, right?

What meme was it?

So,

you know when you sometimes are scrolling,

you know, doom scrolling,

Facebook or Twitter,

and you come across those memes like,

what are your, insert blank here,

and it's where you have to take your

first letter, your first name,

your birth month, whatever, right?

So, mine was, this is like,

twenty-seventeen, something like that?

Mine was, what is your anime title?

I'm like, okay.

So it was first letter of your first

name, T. First letter of your last name,

B. Then last letter of your first name,

D. T, B, D. Tokyo Blade Detectives.

Now,

about this time was when the first

Deadpool movie came out.

And one of the key lines from that

movie was,

Deadpool smells like a franchise.

So I had that stuck in my head.

And I was like,

Tokyo Blade Detectives sounds like a

franchise.

Enter.

left the comment, left the page,

completely forgot about it.

Didn't even register.

Get back onto Facebook a few hours later.

And I have a reply from an account

name that I don't recognize.

And I usually know who's always replying

to me and whatever.

And I'm like, who's this guy?

So I click and it's from the Facebook

meme.

And he goes, you know,

that actually does sound like a franchise.

You should do something with it.

I'm like,

Okay, so I looked at the title.

I'm like, what does this tell me?

Tokyo, obviously set in Japan.

Detectives, modern day.

But Blade was sticking out to me.

Why would there be blades in the

detectives' hands?

And then that's when the tagline happened.

In a land where guns are outlawed,

only the Blade can rule.

And right when I said that,

the floodgates of my mind opened up and

I just got swarmed with so many ideas

of what I wanted to do with this.

thing to the point where I did something

I had never done at that point,

which was I opened up Microsoft Word and

I typed up everything I was thinking

because I did not want to forget.

Yeah.

Now,

the problem was that I was doing another

project at the time.

I didn't have the funds or the artists

to do this idea.

So I just saved the document,

put it away.

And then once I got those projects done,

it took me about six,

seven months to find the right artist to

do it.

because I wanted a very anime style visual

palette and visual style to make it work.

And I was going through numerous artists,

including my go-to guy, Alex Garcia,

who I didn't wanna use because I had

relied on him heavily up to this point.

I wanted to get more artists,

more opportunities and all that.

love you Alex but I finally found a

guy named Lam Vu Van and once I

saw that first page I'm like this is

the guy and we've been working each other

for now twelve issues across four or five

years so it's been quite the rush and

now we're finishing up volume three which

is far far more than I thought we'd

get and even Lam kind of cheekily said

to me when I gave him the script

for number twelve he goes you know Todd

I actually didn't think this would go this

long

Thanks, law.

Thanks for the pay.

That is awesome.

And what a great way to have something

land in your lap.

And then you've ran with it for twelve

issues,

which I think the only comic book I

could think.

Well,

I can think of two off the top

of my head that have gone about as

long.

And one of them is Ben Lacey's Shark

of War.

Oh, I know Ben.

He's great.

Ben's amazing, amazing person.

And then Jason Linnet's Lords of the

Cosmos.

Lords of the Cosmos is a fantastic story,

but, um,

just off the top of my head,

those are only two where I can think

where they've had that kind of longevity

over that long of a, you know, of,

of titles.

So it's kind of cool.

And seeing that this one is no shit

issue number twelve and still going

strong.

But, um,

And I already know what's going to happen

next volume.

That's how my mind works.

I'm already planned up to twenty-five.

Dude.

Keep it going.

I'm doing my best.

Why a future Japan with strict

no-guns-allowed law?

Well,

one of the things that the floodgates

opened up was that I wanted to do

a different kind of story from most other

animes because usually it's either...

like say like My Hero Academia was

superpowers or then you have like Outlaw

Star and Cowboy Bebop with all the future

tech weaponry,

like super high powered rifles and all

that.

And I just felt it would be so

much more fun to make it just about

the swords.

There's other technology that is used in

Japan as you'll find out when you read

the comics,

but it's all about the swords and sword

play I feel is more intimate.

because you know there's different sword

styles there's different sword types as i

show in the book and

I get to play on the history of

Japan, which is, of course, the samurai.

So I got to have fun with that.

And then it's just a different kind of

visual to where it's like, you know,

it's the future,

but we're also going back into the past

with swordplay and samurai and ronin and

yokai.

And that was really intriguing to me.

I felt like it was something that hadn't

been done before.

I don't feel like there's been an anime

or like this before,

and I'm saying it anime loosely because I

know it's a comic,

but still like this really inspired me to

say like, you know,

everyone else is going this direction,

I wanna go this direction.

No,

it's really cool at the core of what

it is.

Let's turn our focus over to who Miko

is at the core.

Yeah.

Miko, you being your main character there.

Miko is my sixteen-year-old main

character, one of them.

And she is the most angsty teenager you

have ever met,

which was one of the most important things

for me.

Because one of the things I do with

my books is that I'll look at certain

characters and I go, OK,

I've written this kind of character

before.

Now I need to do this kind of

character.

And a previous female led story I did

was called A Home,

which is available on Kickstarter.

And the main character is named Alicia.

And I wrote her as being the kindest

person,

most relatable person you've ever met.

It's just that she has blue hair.

And I wrote in that style,

but with Miko, I'm like, okay,

I had the pure kid.

I want the angsty teenager.

Like I need the one that is just

gonna bite your head off all the time.

So rarely admit you're right,

but she backs up her crap,

which I also thought was important.

And that's why in the very first word,

her very first line of dialogue is die.

And I was like, that's perfect.

When I was structuring it, like,

cause she gets just a small spoiler.

She gets confronted by some thugs and

they're making fun of her.

And she just pulls out her laser sword

and goes die.

And then she does just that.

So they're not around anymore.

that's one way to solve your problems,

right?

Oh yeah.

And, uh, violence isn't always the answer,

but this time it helps the answer.

Yeah.

And she, and she was just like,

and she didn't even bat an eye when

her, uh, her partner, her, uh,

Not really a father figure,

but let's say business partner Michio

asked her what happened.

She goes, oh, yeah,

I had to deal with some thugs.

They're gone now.

And she just went on to chug a

soda.

She doesn't care.

She knows this is a child that's

absolutely been scarred by all that's

happened in her world and just Japan in

general.

And she's got a lot of pent up

frustration.

And for me,

one of the things that I like to

do in each arc is show that even

though she's hotheaded,

even though she's loud and sometimes

obnoxious,

she has feelings that she lets come out

in certain moments so that it's clear that

she's fragile.

She's broken in some ways and she's got

to heal even though she doesn't really

want to.

And that interests me as a writer,

because I love character stories.

And for me,

this very much is about Miko and how

Tokyo reflected upon her and impacted her.

And then Michio is the same way.

He's got a very long history,

as I tease in the book,

and we're slowly getting the layers peeled

off on that.

And then they have connections with

everything that's going on in Japan from

the factions,

the emperor who we meet in volume three.

In fact,

we meet him finally in this issue.

So the issue is on Kickstarter right now.

So everything is connected,

which is a reference actually to Full

Metal Alchemist Brotherhood,

which was one of the anime that heavily

inspired this series because I loved how

everything from episode one to the series

finale was connected.

So if you watch the whole series,

you got so much out of it.

As long as you paid attention,

I'm going to be doing the same thing

where every arc feeds into the next one.

So issue one was our starter.

Welcome to Tokyo.

Issue two was about meeting one of the

key factions and how their antics are

affecting things on a grander scale.

Number three is we have a wild card

entered into Tokyo and the Emperor wants

him dealt with.

Volume four, I won't spoil that.

Yeah,

you got to save some for self-support.

It will be revealed in the final page.

It will be revealed in the final page

of this issue.

So it's going to be...

How have you evolved Miko as a character

throughout these twelve issues?

That actually ties perfectly into the

current volume and issue where Miko,

because of her experiences with her

family, with factions,

with Japan in general,

she views things in black and white,

as most kids and teens would do,

because she has seen things and she has

experienced things that are like,

they're evil, end of story.

Volume three is about a serial killer

acting very atypically of the factions.

They're not associated with the factions,

and they're killing people in a way that

no one expected.

And she's just like,

let's kill the freak and be done with

this.

And Michio cautions and goes, no,

we have to not only find him,

we have to understand why he's doing it.

And she's like,

I don't need to understand another

psycho's mindset.

That's what the factions are for.

know she's she's over she doesn't we don't

need another monster in tokyo that's all

she views in her mind but then as

things go on she learns a certain key

truth and she doesn't know how to

comprehend it she's like this is wrong

But, and she explains,

I don't want to spoil too much for

those that haven't read volume three,

but like there's a key like mic drop

moment and it's just like,

I didn't expect this.

I don't know how to feel about this.

And then that's going to play into the

next arc where she's going to have another

key character moment with someone who was

once very close to her.

And I look forward to expanding upon that.

So each of your arcs are four issues.

What made you choose that format?

First of all, just easier.

It's a good even number.

Yeah, it's the eighty pages.

Each issue is twenty pages.

So a full volume is eighty,

which is perfect for trade paperback,

which is what I saw in my comic

cons.

It's very easy that way.

And then it allows me to think about

how I'm going to block out each story.

So how I do it is there's a

three main issues of each arc.

And then the fourth issue is what I

call the epilogue series.

Sorry, the interlude saga.

And in it, we have basically an epilogue,

an interlude,

and a prologue to what comes next.

So we're tying up the loose ends.

We're explaining what's going on in the

aftermath.

And then here's the tease for the next

arc.

And it gives me a lot of freedom

with storyline to where I don't drag

things out endlessly like some comic

series do.

I make it click.

I make it concise.

I make it fun.

And then I show like, hey,

I focus on the aftermath and how

everyone's reacting to this.

And then here's the tease for what comes

next.

So yeah.

It was also a very unique kind of

storytelling for me because with past

series,

I've either just gone as long as I

felt the arc is needed,

like I did that with Guardians,

or with things like Home,

I did just a five-issue miniseries just so

I could write out everything.

That was a hundred pages,

so that was one of my longer stories.

And then for certain graphic novels,

I just went for as long as the

page count told me to,

like with the Thunder Rosa or six men

or take the house.

It just depends on how long the story

goes with this one.

It gives me that structure to say, OK,

here's where I need to put the main

content.

Here's where I can do the payoffs and

everything and then tease what's coming

next.

I like it and I like the fact

that you are answering questions that I

don't have to ask no more.

So I do have to ask this one,

though,

because what do you want readers to feel

when they close this last volume here with

issue twelve?

No, I'm kidding.

What do I want them to feel?

I want them to... That's a good question.

I want them to see the layers that

Tokyo has imparted upon these characters.

One of the themes of the entire book

is that it's not just people that affect

you.

It's not even just experiences that affect

you, it's where you live.

And you can see this with certain people

in our world where people in Chicago act

one way,

people in New York act one way,

people in Los Angeles act one way.

And it's not just because of the people

where they're living,

it's because of the place itself.

Our setting affects us in certain ways.

And for Tokyo,

as I am slowly peeling the layers, Bob,

behind with each arc,

it's not a great place to live.

It's technologically advanced.

They technically want for nothing,

but they're in such chaos and confusion

and turmoil that it's,

a lot of people are like lying to

themselves.

You know,

they're just trying to get through the

day.

You know,

like as long as I don't get killed

by one of the five factions,

it's a good day.

You know, that's,

and Miko rails against that in this new

issue.

She's like, I hate it here,

but I can't leave.

And I'm teasing multiple things with this

blowout.

And she sees that in how the factions

have.

Because the factions wouldn't have been

here if certain things in Tokyo hadn't

have gone down.

And there are certain influences that the

city has in general that affect the

people.

They're almost resigned to their fate.

And Miko hates that as well.

And Michio has seen a lot of...

he understands that there is beauty in

just trying to help one person at a

time whereas miko sees it as just a

job she she doesn't care about the people

more or less she's very much i need

to get paid so i can at least

try and make a meaningful existence here

yeah so we all relate to that yeah

and so like and so with this new

issue i'm really harping on the fact that

Tokyo as a whole is affecting people in

ways that no one was expecting,

even this long after all these wars and

reconstructions have happened.

To quote the Joker, of all people,

all it takes is one bad day to

send you over the edge.

That was really good, actually.

Why, thank you.

Do you want to know how I got

these scars?

No.

That's actually really good.

So let's jump into the Kickstarter grind,

man.

Yeah.

This campaign includes all twelve issues.

Correct.

Do you do this type of thing as

you conclude an arc?

Do you include all volumes with each one?

Or is this just something special you're

doing this time to catch up?

I do it with every campaign.

So no matter when you find out about

Tokyo and find out about me,

every campaign I do, for Tokyo at least,

gives you the option of catching up.

Because I don't know when you're going to

find out about me.

Mm-hmm.

I am not the greatest marketer in the

world.

I have a lot of people who will

happily tell me that.

And even just with,

even with Kickstarter helping,

you never know who's gonna be on the

right day or see your post or who

is sworn off the internet or who all

made it at Comic Con.

But if they do find Tokyo,

i want to give them the option to

catch up so i have reward tiers to

where you can get everything digitally you

can get everything physically for the

physical ones you can get all single

issues or you can get our trade paperbacks

and because this is the end of volume

three we're unveiling our uh the the main

third the new cover for volume three which

is really cool done by alex garcia and

And then for those who have gotten like

volume one,

but haven't gotten volume two and three,

I have catch up reward tiers for that

digital and physical.

And it just makes it so that no

matter when you find out,

so like any of the viewers here who

only just hearing about this and like, oh,

I really want to jump into this.

You have the option.

It's right there for you.

And I try to make it fairly priced.

no that that's always a good thing and

i for one i've i am probably going

to end up doing the catch up especially

that you have trade paper bats that i

can just read the first you know you

know twelve volumes now so when you do

your next kickstarter campaign are you

gonna have the the fourth trade paperback

ready with no what what i'll do is

i'll be giving out the issue but then

i'll have like you can get thirteen issues

Be the catch up here versus just twelve.

So gotcha.

Yeah.

OK.

So what are some of your.

What's the word I'm looking for?

Rewards.

Yes.

Cameos, custom art, collector tiers.

So what do you bring into the table

for everybody?

Well,

the biggest one that I like to brag

about is we do have the cameo tier,

which is you will get you pledging at

home will get to be drawn into the

comic book.

uh and in fact for this arc i've

been pushing to make the cameos even more

special because of certain uh arrivals

that we've had and for a select group

of people who pledge before the

kickstarter gets done you will actually

have a talking part in the comic so

there you go yeah that's really cool we

have about i think six people have pledged

the cameos here so we only have four

slots left i do believe

So we gotta get on it,

because we end on Saturday the

twenty-eighth at eight p.m.

Then for those who, thank you.

If you want smaller tiers,

but still meaningful tiers,

you can get the comic physically,

you can get the comic digitally,

including the catch-up tiers I mentioned

before.

We have stickers,

which actually I can show you.

There you go.

So like, here's a good nice,

pick a sticker of Michio,

one of our main characters,

and then let me grab one of the

Miko stickers.

I buy these in like a hundred and

then just like stick them in all the

Kickstarter packaging.

I just want to meet go right there.

So we have that.

We also have the thank you page,

which has been very popular over my tenure

where you,

that's always one of my favorite things

right there.

Yeah.

And basically if you pledge to our fifteen

dollar tier or higher.

So if you get like the ketchup tears,

you will be included in this or not.

The actually can show you that, too.

This is issue eleven right here.

And then we have on our inside front

cover a thank you page honoring everyone

who has pledged to the Kickstarter,

regardless of what tier they were,

as long as they are fifteen or above.

And a lot of people love that.

I even had one person.

OK, you'll love the story.

I plug the podcast into Kickstarters that

I bet is if there's that option,

I will choose that option and then plug

the podcast instead of my name.

Yeah, if you pledge to my Kickstarter,

I'll make sure that you'll see a thing

saying, like,

what name do you want in the thank

you section, and it'll be that one.

So put whatever you want.

That's the thing.

You can put whatever you want.

A favorite story of mine happened last

issue.

A friend of mine named Joe Myers,

who actually runs a Comic-Con that I go

to,

he pledged to have his son put into

the thank you section,

which is a very sweet gesture.

So I put the name in there.

He gets the book.

And he goes, Todd, we have a problem.

Like, what?

What's wrong?

And he goes, well,

my daughter found out about this.

Now she's complaining that she wasn't

putting the book.

so when he pledged this time he said

i've got to make sure that the daughter

now gets her name into this i'm like

whatever makes them happy and gets me a

pledge so exactly yeah um thank you for

your service thank you for your service uh

i also have tears that will let you

get every single book i have made

digitally

uh both comics and novels and then there

are add-ons that you can get where you

i i guess i've made a lot of

books i made superhero stories made crime

wars i made wrestling stuff which we'll be

talking about soon i've made i've made

sci-fi novels i made sherlock holmes

novels so if you get tokyo then you

go to the add-on section you can get

any of my books that might intrigue you

and i've got plenty so feel free to

look through and see what catches your

less titles there's got to be something

that catches somebody

I would hope I've done most genres and

the ones that I haven't done are for

a very good reason.

I don't know.

You have done at least twelve Kickstarters

in your time.

What has been your most important lesson

learned running Kickstarter campaigns?

Yeah.

Well,

one of the most recent lessons that I

gotta give up some shout outs for Matt

Knowles and Carissa Grant.

You have to be fair to yourself when

you're pricing things.

I like to think that I'm a nice

guy, I do.

And because of that certain pricing that I

had for like the ketchup tiers,

were incredibly low like they were

basically at cost instead of like thinking

cost plus packaging plus shipping and

everything because i was trying to cut

people a break but i but i realized

that my funding was low you know i

was making my goals i was never i

never really feared that but when i showed

it to my friends chris and matt they

were like top it

You gotta bump the price up.

You're not gonna,

you can't make money like to make the

comics, just to be clear,

if you're losing money by doing unfair

pricing.

And so with this third volume of Tokyo,

I did a whole new price tiers for

everything.

And it has helped tremendously.

It's taken burden off of me versus just-

So how do you normally ship your books?

I don't have,

I usually get the mailing envelopes.

Um, but then for the bigger orders,

like for example, the physical, uh,

ketchup tears,

I've mailed those straight from the

printer because those are numerous books

and I don't want to risk spending.

Uh, but for like the single issues,

I do standard, um,

envelopes that you can get like off of,

uh, Amazon and whatnot.

And then if you use like the, uh,

I can't remember what the content of

bosses they are,

but that you use for to actually mail

comic books that are not, uh,

Yeah,

there's the brown boxes are called

Gemini's.

Gemini's, that's the ones.

Yeah,

I would use those for like thicker books,

like the trade paperbacks.

But for the single issues,

like the standard, there's a standard,

there's a name for them, I can't remember.

I was going to say,

Gemini boxes are not cheap.

They're not,

and there are paints it puts together.

They're not that bad.

The instructions are literally printed on

them.

But yeah,

I would use those for bigger books because

you always worry about damage.

And I always have at least one person

get back to me and say, hey, Todd,

I know it's not your fault,

but the male people screwed up.

Even though I put the Do Not Bend

stamp on it.

It doesn't matter.

It does not matter.

Yeah.

I've had one come in where I watched

the mailman on my camera when he delivered

it.

He had it folded and then folded it

more and shoved it into my mailbox.

I literally just was like,

I notified the person.

He's like, well, where's the book now?

I'm like, in the damn trash.

Where else would it be?

I can't.

What am I going to do with it?

It had been folded for so long.

The crease was permanent and there was

words that were missing because it

literally had tore the page also where it

was bent.

I was just like...

i'm like i wasn't going to keep that

no you shouldn't and then when that

happens i i have a rapport with my

uh my backers to where i'm like hey

this happens message me i'll send you

another copy at no cost to you i

don't care yeah i just want you to

get it i'll tell you a story that

could top that

I was doing one of my Tokyo Kickstarters

and I was doing the mail day,

which we all love going to the mail

place with like a stack of things.

And I got a good relationship by mail

people.

But one, I'll never forget this.

I had two packages in particular that I

sent out.

One was to Indiana,

which is literally the next state over.

I'm in Illinois.

It was the next state over.

And one was to California.

So I mailed them out at the same

time, right?

I wait a few days.

And the California person messages me and

goes, hey, Todd, got the comic.

Good condition.

Thank you so much.

Hey, glad I got to you, buddy.

I message on instinct my Indiana friend.

He goes, no, I haven't gotten it.

I'm like, wait, really?

How have you not gotten it yet?

He goes, I don't know.

So I'm like, oh, I sent it.

Just keep me posted.

Fast forward a few weeks.

finally gets to him.

He takes a picture of it.

It looked like the truck had run over

it in the rain.

Oh, it probably did.

Well, that's the thing.

It looked like a waterlogged run over and

I'm like, how did this happen?

And he goes, I have no idea.

And I'm like, dude, don't worry about it.

I will send you a new one.

He got it within a week from the

printer.

I'm just like, ugh.

Dude, I did an Amazon return through UPS

You just take it to the UPS,

they slap a box and a label on

it, and away it goes, right?

Right.

So I did that.

A box comes in the mail about a

week later,

and it's the same exact thing I returned.

When UPS printed the label,

they printed the return label back to me.

Okay.

I was like, you scanned it.

How did you mess it up?

Wow, that's a new one to me.

I had to return the same thing twice.

It happens.

It's not fun.

What do you think is the biggest mistake

new crowd funders make?

Outside of pricing yourself too low.

That was one of the big lessons.

One of the biggest ones,

I can't speak for everyone.

That's almost the biggest thing right

here.

Never,

ever compare yourself to another

Kickstarter.

And I'll give you the best example.

Me.

When I did my very first Kickstarter a

long time ago, I was an idiot.

I did the dumbest possible campaign.

I won't even explain it because it's so

embarrassing.

But I didn't get a single pledge.

Then I learned from my mistakes and I

did well, but I didn't make my funding.

Then when I made Home, issue one, I...

did everything I could to make it work,

get the funding.

I had a high funding goal and I

made it.

I barely made it,

but I made it and I couldn't believe

it.

And then I built off that with every

issue.

But if I had looked at all these

other Kickstarters that are making,

you know,

thousands upon thousands of dollars,

it would have depressed me to high heaven

that I only made my goal.

Never think that way.

You need to base it on yourself.

And even Tokyo is a great example of

that because I went from a sci-fi fantasy

miniseries with home to a Disney Pixar

style Kickstarter one shot with Take Ten

Thousand Miles.

And then I did Tokyo.

So that's three very different genres.

The fan base didn't jump from one to

the other.

No, they never did.

Some of them did because they eventually

became fans of Todd and at that point

they're supporting Todd but not the actual

work.

And I have people who are like that

and then in the middle of my Tokyo

run I made another book called Take the

House which is a heist comic and I

had a whole new crop of backers because

the anime people weren't interested in the

heist comic but a whole new group of

people were interested in the heist comic

but not the anime.

So you need to focus just on your

book

what you're selling,

and then do your best to advertise it

to the people reading,

whether it be doing podcasts like this,

using social media,

doing interviews for comic sites,

and then just for the Kickstarter page,

advertising what you are.

Because I have seen so many Kickstarters

that rely on, let's just be honest,

they rely on covers.

And I think you know what I'm talking

about there, Chairman.

But they rely on covers.

And then you look for the interior art,

you'll get like a panel.

I have never done that.

I will never do that.

One of my first things,

and I've had to restructure things over

the years, obviously.

But one of the first things I always

try to show is the five preview pages.

Like that's something that I'm proud of

that I do from home to now is

I always show at least five finished pages

with dialogue.

so that they can get a glimpse of

the art,

they can get a glimpse of the story,

and they know at least a little more

about what they're getting into.

you know that that's important to me

because i'm showing them my commitment i'm

just saying i'm not saying hey i'm gonna

make this comic and it's gonna be so

cool no making this comic and here's your

preview i do that with tokyo did that

would take the house ten thousand miles

home and any one i do in the

future like i might be doing one in

april that's still open here but obviously

like hey here's the pages for that here's

the examples of what we do and what

we have here you know this is why

you should like it and blah blah blah

so my biggest thing is that for new

creators

You absolutely should show your finished

work.

You have to put your own money on

the line and show that, hey,

I've already finished some of this.

You're helping me finish the rest.

Because that preview could be the

difference between saying, you know,

this is an interesting idea,

but I might not like it.

I don't back comics unless I at least

have that preview.

what he said so because because a lot

of people especially comics people we're

visual people we don't want to read the

wall of text there are people who love

the wall of text and god bless them

but some people like i want to see

the pages and i'm like well here you

go and there's even tabs now on the

kickstarter page where you can go where

you select say preview pages and you can

click right on that and get sent right

to the art so this is actually a

great opportunity for this

so when i go to i don't back

all the comics of people who come on

here some of them that i get priced

out of the shipping because they're

overseas and it sucks because i really

want the book however when the shipping

costs more than the book i cannot

I cannot do it.

It's as simple as right now until the

mail system as a whole is fixed,

I'm just not willing to bank on a

product coming from overseas where the

shipping is more than the actual book and

there's no guarantee it comes to me safely

and soundly.

So it's nothing against the persons or the

individuals.

It's just a lot of risk that I

am not willing to take.

But when I go to a Kickstarter page,

I am looking for I would I like

to see videos because I'm very I'm a

comic book guy, right?

I'm very visual.

So I love to see when they've spent

that extra money to have those first six

pages animated.

And it just looks really cool.

And then I want to see it laid

out in a way that makes me want

to keep scrolling down.

You're telling me what this is about.

And then you're giving me samples of the

pages.

And let me see some of the covers.

And it walked me on the journey of

this comic book Kickstarter through the

page.

And a lot of...

I've just seen one recently.

It was... God, it was a dumpster fire.

And dumpster fire is putting it nicely

because I really wanted to support the

project.

This person has not been on the podcast

at all.

I don't know who they are.

It was just one of those where the

cover looked really, really cool.

I was like,

let me click that because I like the

concept of the story.

It was like a horror,

sci-fi type of deal.

And...

dumpster fire, hardcore dumpster fire.

So take people through the journey of your

book on your Kickstarter landing page.

It will do you justice to do that

and have those samples up there.

Have, you know,

let people know who you're working with

and which is my great segue into you

worked with Lam Vu Van.

Lam Vu Van.

Yep.

Yes.

he did the uh the art yeah see

matt shore yeah he did edit it and

alex garcia did some covering art and the

lettering on this book which you've said

that alex garcia is kind of like your

go-to for everything when it comes to your

books he's been with me since the first

comic

And I love to see when people are

consistently working together like that

because it's cohesion and you know what

you're going to get every single time.

But tell us about your team that worked

on Tokyo Blade Detectives.

Yeah, so like I said,

Alex has been with me since the very

first comic.

And the only reason he's not doing Tokyo

is just because I knew I'd need him

for other projects and I wanted a new

artist to just give some work to,

share the love, as it were.

Like I'm trying to build up a repertoire,

an arsenal of artists.

So I'm like, here, you do this project,

you do this project, do this project.

But he's great.

He's done every single cover for Tokyo.

He's also done some special art for Tokyo

that we had as a stretch goal one

time, came out really well.

He's amazing.

I can always count on him.

Matt Shore is actually a fellow comic

creator.

He specializes a lot in horror comics.

He loves that stuff.

He's a Halloween all the time kind of

dude.

I love horror books.

We're working on a project together that

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