The United States Department of Nerds Podcast

🎙️ USDN PODCAST — Indie Comic Spotlight: Grinding Against The Marrow w/ Snake | USDN Podcast Interview

Creator of Grinding Against The Marrow

“In every town, there’s a darkness people pretend not to see. A walkway they don’t walk down. A story they’re too afraid to hear. But sometimes… a storyteller shows up who’s willing to drag that story into the light.”

This episode of the USDN Podcast features Snake — the UK indie comic creator behind Grinding Against The Marrow, a raw, poetic, street-level character drama published by Markosia.

The story follows Soma, a homeless ex-junkie Muslim woman navigating the violence, prejudice, and claustrophobic hostility of her hometown. Blending parkour-driven action, poetry-infused narration, and brutal realism, Grinding Against The Marrow is quickly earning attention for its honesty, movement, and emotional weight.

In this conversation, we explore:

• The origins of Grinding Against The Marrow
• Creating Soma and writing survival with authenticity
• Using poetry as narrative muscle, not decoration
• Building the oppressive world of Marrow
• Working with Markosia and Webtoon Canvas
• Audience feedback and creator growth
• What’s next for Soma — and for Snake

This is a story born from fractures — and shaped by resilience.

The USDN Podcast — Where Indie Comics Come to Life.

This is The Chairman, and the Council of Nerds is adjourned.

🔗 GUEST LINKS
📖 Grinding Against The Marrow (Webtoon):
https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/grinding-against-the-marrow/list?title_no=1025007

📸 Scott Matthew Watson (Snake) — Instagram:
 https://www.instagram.com/snake87smw/

🛒 Publisher (Markosia):
 https://markosia.com/2025/10/17/grinding-against-the-marrow-1-on-drivethrucomics-and-comixology/

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.

Go, go, go!

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 in every

town there's a dangerous darkness people

pretend not to see a walkway they don't

walk down a story they're too afraid to

hear but sometimes a storyteller shows up

who's willing to drag that story into the

light

kicking, screaming,

and free-running off every wall in sight.

Tonight, that storyteller is Snake,

the UK writer behind Grinding Against the

Marrow, a brutal, poetic,

street-level character drama published by

Marcosia and praised for its raw honesty

and kinetic narrative energy.

The council is in session, and Snake,

welcome to the United States Department of

Nerds.

Thanks.

Thanks dude.

Cool.

Awesome.

Good to be here.

So for the people at home,

who is snake and where did your creative

journey begin?

Yeah, so I'm from the UK.

I've always written.

I worked in the film industry for a

bit of time, went to film school,

stuff like that.

I worked for the BBC for a bit

of time as a PA.

Also then as a prop man on Kick-Ass

and Black Mirror Season Two.

But, you know,

I wanted to tell my own stories.

They couldn't get you on Doctor Who?

But I wanted to tell my own stories

and like I was a script reader for

a bit of time as well.

But then that was really good because it

was breaking down stories.

So, you know,

if you want to be a storyteller,

it's a really great landscape to explore

story.

But then during and so I've always been

a story caller.

And then during lockdown,

I just I'd always read.

I read I'd read comics since I was

a kid and I was like,

I'm going to start making them.

Why not?

And fell in love with the medium,

stopped wanting to be a playwright,

stopped wanting to be a screenwriter,

stopped wanting to work in the film

industry and was just like,

I want to make comics because the

collaboration is so pure and brilliant and

the medium is so good.

And I enjoy the process of writing a

little bit more.

Each storytelling medium is slightly

different and I enjoy the way you tell

comics with an artist.

So, yeah,

I've just been trying to make comics,

and this one managed to get published.

And so, yeah, that's me at the minute,

and I'm just trying to get more things

published while I'm doing a day job.

Did you invite somebody to the show?

No, I don't think so.

Does somebody else have access to your

account?

Don't think so, no.

Somebody just popped into my stream,

a jock.

No, I don't know.

No idea who it was.

It was really weird.

Nobody has access to this link unless it

was shared.

That was just weird.

I'm thinking it might have been somebody

on the network who accidentally clicked

into my podcast while it was live,

which is wild.

But okay.

Let's keep going.

Did you invite your artists or something?

No.

I did ask him.

I did a couple of other interviews and

I asked him and he was like, no,

no, no, that's not me.

It's crazy because a lot of artists are

that way.

It took me months of coordinating

with the writers of Shock-Headed Peter to

convince Sabe from Italy to come on the

podcast to talk about his artwork on

Shock-Headed Peter.

And it was like, once he was on,

it was an amazing show.

It was so fun.

And he was like, oh, my English.

I'm like, dude,

your English is literally perfect.

I don't know what you're complaining

about.

Yeah, you have the thick Italian accent,

but I'm like, dude, you're good, man.

And his work is freaking brilliant as

well.

But

So what was that spark for grinding

against the marrow?

Was it a character, a theme,

or maybe a moment in your own life

that kind of sparked this idea?

Well, it was more a kind of,

it was less of a kind of creative

input.

The idea was that I didn't feel like

I had a big enough fan base and

I wanted to kind of get my name

more out there.

I'd made a few short comics,

a few like issue long comics.

I was going to get them published.

Problem with the publishers,

things happened.

I wanted to get myself more out there.

So my initial idea was to make a

monthly ongoing series.

web series web comic a vertical web series

and grinding against the marrow is

released every month on tapas webtoons and

uh um global comics

So for anybody wondering,

I did link the Webtoons link to the

description of this video.

It will also be linked to the video

when I re-release it on all the streaming

networks and as well when I re-release on

YouTube Live or YouTube again.

So the link is there if you want

to read the weekly or monthly comic that

he does about grinding with the marrow or

grinding –

Oh,

or where am I grinding against the mirror?

I'll get it out there.

It's grinding on just sounds like a

skateboard thing,

but this is about parkour.

I apologize for that.

And I,

at first I wanted to release it in

black and white.

And so it's, you know, it's free,

it's black and white.

And then I got picked up by my

publisher.

And I also, you know,

you can buy it on Amazon or comicology

and also drive through comics in color.

So, you know,

you can have a little taster,

see if you like it.

And then if you really like it,

you can get it.

And it's going to be published like in

print next year as a graphic novel.

But, you know,

it's just to kind of drum up that

kind of...

It was just trying to get a buzz

going, really.

And then sort of the ideas for it.

Well,

I want to do something kind of gritty

and street drama-y and social realist kind

of like... I mean...

I'm not specific to any set genre,

but for this one,

I wanted to do that.

I also wanted to marry two things that

I'm very interested by, which is A,

parkour, and B, homelessness.

Sometimes at Christmas, I will...

commit my time to helping people who are

homeless on the street at christmas things

like that i think it's you know terrible

thing anyone can have it happen to them

you're only like six degrees of separation

from being homeless if you know something

bad happens so i want to do that

and then the character i just you know

i'm not muslim and i don't really have

any friends almost yeah

That's actually where we're going next,

is your character of Soma.

Am I saying that right, Soma?

Yeah.

She is a homeless, ex-junkie,

Muslim woman who is trying to survive the

hostility of her hometown.

But she's very resilient,

and she's dangerous in a way that people

do not expect her to be.

So what inspired her?

Was it just like you were saying?

you know,

it's always interesting to go for

underdogs, you know,

instead of like having like a soldier or

something like that to have an underdog.

So like a homeless person,

I'm always very interested by that.

So I'm interested by that struggle to,

you know, just,

just she's trying to get out of her

hometown and she's having all these

obstacles stopping her from, you know,

corrupt cops,

street hooligans on the street dressed in

Halloween.

It's Halloween.

And so, yeah.

So, and then,

it's not about a character being Muslim.

She just so happens to be Muslim as

well.

I just think it would be kind of

interesting to – I always find the kind

of whole scarf and the hijab scarf really

interesting.

So I wanted to change and kind of

make the Muslim look look cool.

So she kind of looks like a ninja.

I would have never realized that she was

Muslim unless you had told me in –

When you sent me the email requesting to

come on the show,

I just would have thought it was just

a really cool, like it's cold in October,

you know,

and she's just got a face covering to

keep herself warm.

That's what I would have thought.

Because the way you designed it,

it doesn't look like a hijab, you know,

per se.

So it's very unique in that case.

I just wanted to kind of, you know,

try something new with the association of

a Muslim and put her in that kind

of... So she, you know, in my way,

in my understanding,

she's kind of like a...

silent type Clint Eastwood type very few

words and it was also so a big

inspiration for this comic I read Rick

Remender's A Righteous Thirst for

Vengeance which is so good he's so good

so good and so minimal with dialogue and

it's just panel to panel action and it

it just forced you to look at the

panels more so and i wanted that i

took that i wanted to kind of use

that and like some caption i was like

i'm not putting any captions in it and

i'm and it's gonna be kind of minimalist

dialogue and it's good i'm gonna i need

to find an artist that really kind of

is able to portray the actions I'm doing,

that panel-to-panel kinetic energy.

But then also I found,

because I'm a spoken word artist,

I do a lot of open mics and

things like that,

and I write lots of poetry,

I also kind of am interested in blending

mediums together.

And I thought it was a really good

opportunity to maybe have her voice

be a poet and use my other,

this other talent,

this other interest I have in writing and

put it into the comic.

So, you know, at the same time,

you don't,

you have this window into the character.

So, so she's running around, she's,

she's jumping off walls, things like that.

But then you have these quiet somber

moments where she's just writing in a

journal about her thoughts about,

and you get clues to the backstory and

being as a person.

I thought that would work and sort of

balance out that sort of,

yeah no it was really cool i i

enjoyed that blend that you did within

this comic because again there's not a lot

of words outside of the poetry being

spoken but with you and your artist the

way y'all collaborated on this the action

in the book you really don't need a

lot of words to understand what is going

on in the story so that was executed

brilliantly on the comic so

Big props to both of y'all on that

because it's really cool.

There's like one page, I think,

where it's just poetry and her writing her

poetry.

And I thought that was really cool that

that was just like, you know,

she had a second to catch her breath.

And the one thing she thought to do

was pull out her notebook and write down

her thoughts.

And it progresses as well.

What I really quite like to do is,

as well as the story progressing,

you have her writing this poem.

Yes, yes.

But later on,

she continues trying to write it.

And then during, like, you know,

the dark night of the soul, you know,

the bad moment,

the bit when everything's pushing down on

her in the late second act,

then you've got her just getting mad

and...

crunching up the poem and then finally at

the end you'll have sort of like finishing

the poem and you'll see that i don't

want to ruin it but i'm not doing

it but you know so it progresses with

her mental state and the story as well

i i like that and the way it's

done so this town of morrow or marrow

it feels very much alive was this place

is it based on a real place or

maybe a blend of experiences that you've

had in certain places

Yeah.

So me and my mates growing up were

from a small town in the middle of

England.

And, you know, people born there,

they die there.

Racist, small minded.

You know, me and my mates,

we would just get drunk every weekend and

just mess around and whatever.

And we're always like waiting to leave

there.

So a lot of that kind of that

resentment towards the town is is sort of.

Yeah, that's where that comes from.

I used to get that out a little

bit.

i i've i grew up in a place

similar to that and i drove through many

places like that here in the us so

i know exactly what you're talking about

and i felt a little bit of what

she was going through just from my own

experiences and growing up in places i've

traveled throughout the years so i was

kind of like man there's a marrow

everywhere there's one in every county or

parish or what have you you know

But as you keep reading the comic,

you'll kind of see... And I'll send you,

like... As the issues come out,

I'll send you the issues just so you

can keep up to date.

But, you know, it's also, like,

it's not really the town stopping her.

It's actually herself, potentially.

And it gets heavier into that as the

story progresses.

We see that she's got...

Because I base this on myself quite a

bit.

I used to have a really bad temper,

and I'm sort of dealing with that quite...

differently now,

but a temper towards myself, if anything,

a self-deprecating temper.

So I use that element in Soma's character.

She's just got this fiery,

absolute disdain for the town.

She almost wants to punish it,

if anything.

Oh, yeah.

You do get a sense that she has

some anger toward the town.

So it is...

she did it in more ways like she

didn't really have to say it it was

her actions and her absolutely the way she

did everything so you could definitely

tell um so one of the big things

that stands out in this comic book is

the choreography the parkour run in the

movement the way action flows do you have

a background in that type of stuff or

is this just a storytelling choice for

soma

It's just a storytelling choice.

I've never really done it.

I've just been interested in it.

I used to watch it a lot.

Me and my friends,

we'd put some parkour on,

put some drum and bass on and just

watch it for hours and just chill and

hang out and drink and whatever.

And it's props, to be honest,

to my artist, Mauro De Falco.

It was really important when I started

this project to find an artist that was

going to be able to execute

the action and the movement.

Cause I just, cause you're telling,

you know,

I'm not telling my story with my words

because I'm using minimal dialogue.

It really needed to work.

He nailed it.

He definitely nailed it.

Cause it does look like,

I'm trying to think there was a,

I think there was a,

you're familiar with the misfits, right?

Yeah.

The TV series.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

I want to say there's a few episodes

of the misfits where you see one of

the characters doing parkour style run

into the city.

And, uh,

that was a little bit of what I

kind of like.

I just go back to that show a

lot because it's one of my favorite shows

to come out of the UK.

And I thought it deserved more love,

but Hey,

that's just my opinion of a guy looking

in from the outside.

But, um,

It was one of my favorite things about,

you know, that anytime I see,

because you don't see parkour often.

No.

At least not where I live.

It's just not something that we see.

So it was really cool to see it

in a comic book and being executed so

well.

And that's hard to do.

Movement is hard to do in a comic

book.

Yeah.

And to make it look realistic and look

cool.

So shout out to your artists for making

that look cool and making it look

realistic.

Like it was like you,

you were kind of like, you know,

get your heart beating a little bit faster

because you're like, oh man,

she's going to,

she's going to hit this jump or so.

It was definitely one of those cool

things.

I think sort of because, you know,

obviously when you're making something,

making any kind of comic,

you look to references and things like

that.

And I was like, oh, man,

I can't think.

I thought of Mark Miller's Zero Miles Per

Hour, that comic.

But then I couldn't think of anything.

And then someone was like, well,

I was chatting to someone online and they

were like, daredevil, man.

I was like, oh, yeah, of course.

That's like the pencil.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Look a lot of like, you know,

Alex Maliv's drawings for the Brian,

which I, you know,

I love because that's just a shout out

to Mark Miller, man.

You brought him up.

We're big fans here of Mark Miller's work.

I know he's currently off doing some

bigger projects right now.

Hopefully he'll come back to the indie

scene here before long.

Yeah.

I mean, there's this stuff that I find,

I found that him trying to make his

own universe was a bit contrived.

I don't, I didn't particularly like that,

but I do think like he's made some

incredible comics.

Like, you know, wanted is amazing.

Star star.

I can't remember what it's called.

Star something or other.

I think I know which one you're talking

about.

And then I know he had magic water,

which was really amazing.

I mean, even Kick-Ass is phenomenal.

I like the comic more than the film,

to be honest.

You and me both.

Yeah, I'm with you with that one.

And then he recently did Vatican City,

which I think he cut short to go

work on the DC project that he's working

on.

And I was just like, dude,

this had so much potential.

And I don't know if it was him,

Dark Horse, or like, hey,

I need to wrap up what I'm doing

so I can go do this over here.

This requires my hundred percent

attention.

So a really interesting interview between

him and Garth Ennis.

And they're just chatting, you know,

they're just because they kind of grown.

They come up together at the same kind

of time.

Yeah.

Really nice chat between them going

through.

I think Garth Ennis was a few years

before him,

like a lot of years before him.

I think there's like a fifteen or twenty

year age difference there.

Okay.

But, but, but you know what I mean?

Like, but their heights,

they were kind of, no,

you're absolutely right.

Yeah.

You're probably right.

I think he was, I think he was,

he was on the scene way before like

doing hit man and stuff like that.

Yeah.

And Garth Ennis is another one.

Like,

Shout out to him.

He's phenomenal.

Well, he's the reason I make comics.

Yeah, dude.

I won't believe this as well.

What was the one Garth Ennis that was

like, this is my dude?

Publisher.

I'm sorry, Preacher.

Preacher is my favorite thing of all time.

Perfect answer.

Did you watch the TV series?

No, because the thing is, right?

You can't make a TV series and I'm

going to be happy because it's my favorite

thing.

I will be honest with you right now.

It follows the comic book as closely as

TV would allow it to.

Yeah, exactly.

But it was,

you still got the entire story.

And, you know,

for those who don't know in preacher,

God is a dick.

All right.

Yeah.

In the book, he is just a pure,

unadulterated asshole of a human.

Well, not human being, but entity.

And throughout the Preacher series,

different entities have been God.

Because God just says, you know what?

I'm just going to go chill on earth

and do whatever the hell I want.

Leave heaven and hell to do as they

will.

Mm-hmm.

Which is kind of like one of those...

It's not the primary story.

The primary story, of course,

is about Preacher.

But it's just such a good series.

If you can get the Omnibuses or the

Trade Paperbats or what have you,

do yourselves a favor.

Get up to date on Preacher.

It was a phenomenal series by Garth Ennis.

And don't let ass face fool you because

the dude is...

he he does okay for himself despite

everything that's happened to him but it

was also i i went and to a

comic convention thought bubble which is

like the biggest kind of comic convention

i had uh our friend bruno catarina was

there so i see he wrote a really

nice write-up on uh thought bubble so

But yeah,

I was selling this year for the first

time.

I was selling my comics there.

And Garth Ennis was there.

And so I went up to him and

I brought, you know,

I would have loved to have brought all

my Punisher Max comics.

But instead, I couldn't do that.

So, you know,

I brought Punisher Born because I wanted

that sign.

I brought a lot of Preacher comics.

And I come up to him and I

perform a spoken word piece to him about

how much Preacher means to me.

And then I give him some of my

comics.

I say goodbye to him, whatever, and stuff.

And he seemed pretty impressed by my

spoken word.

You got it signed, though, right?

I got it signed.

But then two days later,

he emails me back and says,

I really liked your comics.

They're amazing.

You're a really good writer.

And I was like... It's just amazing.

So, yeah, I got his email.

I would have it printed out in a

frame.

And any time I come on another podcast,

I'd be like...

Garth Dennis said my shit was cool,

and I would just point to it,

be like, Garth Dennis liked my stuff.

Now I've got his email.

Every time I publish something,

I'm just going to send it over to

him, just let him have a read.

It was just really nice.

He was just a really nice guy as

well.

He was really open and chilled.

It's one of those where people always say

don't meet your heroes,

but sometimes you do meet your hero,

and your hero ends up just being a

really cool, legit dude.

because that's the way he always came off

to me.

Anytime I've seen him in interviews and

stuff like that, he's just a dude,

you know, he got lucky and,

but really tall.

Yeah.

He's a really tall dude.

Yeah.

I, you don't, you know,

when you look at someone and sitting down

with, you don't think it,

but I was like, wow, he's,

he's pretty big, tall guy, man.

I was surprised.

I know we're completely off topic right

now, but Garth Dennis is that dude.

To me,

there's very little stuff that he's done

where people can go, I didn't like that.

Did you read it?

I'm like,

it's Garth Dennis we're talking about.

Did you actually read that?

Well, I had a really interesting thing.

So I bought the first boys comic when

I went to university at twenty one.

And then it was with me for seven

years later because I was picking up each

one.

So, yeah.

that,

that to me says comics are such an

interesting thing,

especially if you can pick up singles that

they can be with you through your life

for such a long period in time.

Yeah.

It's just kind of interesting.

Seven years later at finished.

And I was like, wow,

what'd you think about the ending?

We're not going to give it away because

they're about to enter the final season of

the boys.

But what'd you think about the ending?

I really like it.

I think it... I reread The Boys recently.

And when I first read it,

I thought it was amazing, incredible.

And then I reread it and I was

like, eh,

it lulls a little bit in the middle

with the comics.

But I do like...

I like the relationship and the ending

between Huey and Butcher.

I think that's really strong.

I think that's one of the best things

about it.

I don't know what they're going to do

in a TV show because obviously they'll

probably switch it up.

I'm hoping they don't because I love the

ending.

Yeah, exactly.

There's only two people left alive.

Two.

And that's the way it should be.

It's one of those endings to me in

comic book form that

Don't fuck with it.

That one is perfect.

But I heard they already have.

I've heard the same thing,

and I'm hoping that's not the case.

I'm hoping it's one of those where...

feed you a line of yeah we're gonna

actually get the ending from the comic

book yeah because the ending from the

comic book to me is just so good

yeah yeah and going into it when it

come out and the it started and i'm

like i know how this ends i'm like

And I know they changed a lot of

stuff around.

There's characters that were men in the

comic book that are women on the show

and vice versa.

None of that bothered me because the story

was still pretty much there and intact.

The character is the character,

no matter who played the character.

They still match what they were in the

comic book for the most part.

So it didn't really bother me as much.

But.

the ending would probably bother me a lot

more if it doesn't match the comic book.

Yeah.

So,

but let's talk a little bit about

Marcosia.

Yeah.

This was your first published book.

It happened to be Marcosia,

who we're familiar with here because Ice

Grace and Zip has been on the show

before,

and they do his publishing for him on

Zip, which, oh, by the way,

is a black and gray comic book.

There's no color in it.

Beautiful, bright colors on the covers.

But the actual book itself is done in

black and gray scale,

which looks phenomenal because it takes a

phenomenal artist to make black and gray

line work look good.

And his artist for that book does a

phenomenal job.

So we're very familiar with Marcosia here.

So how did that project find its home

with them?

Sure.

The usual thing, you know, I was,

me and Murrow were releasing the comic

monthly and then it got to a certain

point where I'd done about,

got to about episode four, five.

So the first issue,

because basically you can break,

the comic is a four issue miniseries.

I mean,

it's broken up online with vertical

scrolling comics.

Each episode is about five pages.

But collected,

each comic is sort of four issues,

twenty four pages.

Yeah.

And so I sent, you know,

sent stuff out.

I sent it out to all the publishing

companies, Image, this, that, whatever.

I'd sent to Marcosia before.

And this time, you know,

Harry was interested.

He was.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Just sort of.

And he was like,

if you're looking to get any make any

money from this,

this is not going to be.

I was like, dude,

I just want my I want my story

out.

I just want people to read my stuff.

I'm not looking for that.

And they've been good.

They've been good.

I mean,

I've had mixed things from publishers.

I've had a quite rough run with

publishers,

like the most unprofessional publishers

you've ever heard.

I've heard rumors of that.

from many a people and there's some you

know when they send you the rejection

they're like they're very polite and very

nice about it i've heard there's some that

are just out there that are just

flat-out dickheads about it.

Like, Ian, know yourself as shit.

Bye.

I mean,

this is literally us signing a contract,

me working through them,

and then literally them telling me that we

need the comic in two months before,

two months before the deadline.

So I'm working towards that.

And then suddenly, out of the blue,

four months before, they go,

we need the cover now.

I'm like, you didn't tell me that.

Yeah, but we need the cover now.

I did tell you that.

I checked my emails.

they did not tell me that so i

had to just quickly rummage for and get

a cover and by the end of it

i i i had to i just i

just became a petulant child because i was

so angry they were they kept doing making

me jump yeah i just uh we we

we separated i had enough you know i

mean it's just that's horrible man you

can't do that to people yeah

And then another publisher became

bankrupt.

He was a smaller publisher.

So it's been a bit of a rocky

road,

but there's a security there and they're

good.

They have a very nice lineup.

So for anybody interested in seeing what

else they have out there beside grinding

and against the marrow from snake here in

zeal from Mike's grace,

go over and check them out on Instagram.

They do have a very nice lineup.

And I think they have a little bit

of everything over there that could be

if you're interested in comics and want to

read something,

they may have what you're looking for

because they do have a very nice lineup.

It was also the case where as soon

as I got published,

Morrow just sent me a page.

It was going to just be in black

and white.

The whole comic was just going to be

in black and white.

The first page in color.

I kind of looked at it and just

went... This is one of those books,

though,

where

color looks so good on it yeah especially

because the town and the way how gritty

it is you want that grittiness to show

through and you could have missed that if

it was in black and white

And then also his partner,

who's also like a comic book artist.

She was taking interest reading the comic

online quite a bit.

And she just messaged us one time and

said, like,

I'd love to do a cover for you

just because I just want to do a

free cover for you because I'm really

enjoying reading the series.

Is that what we're talking about?

Yeah, that was actually like.

part of the next question so i'll throw

that name out there just to get it

out there now so yeah so yeah and

then she did it and i looked at

it and was just like oh i'm so

i'm gonna have to pay you to do

all the covers to be honest and yeah

i was fine with that to be honest

because you know he's trying to focus on

the interior artwork so it took a little

bit of pressure off yeah and that's that's

uh mario doyle defalco right who's doing

the interiors yeah

And our relationship,

our work relationship has been great.

It's the best one I've ever had with

an artist.

It was interesting how he came about

because originally I had a different

artist and his style was a bit more

stylized.

So it would have been a different comic

book.

It would have been a different just like

different look to the comic.

Well, I paid him for the pages.

And I'd given him a deadline and then

two weeks passed by.

I messaged him, heard nothing back.

And then like two weeks later,

he was like, oh, here you go,

here you go, I've done this.

And I was like, dude,

I don't wish you any negativity,

but I cannot work this way because I

knew this project was going to be an

ongoing project.

Yeah.

and it's also one of those where if

they show who they are up front like

that it makes you less willing and it

makes it also makes it easier just to

to cut it right there on the spot

because you're on a deadline so therefore

you have to put him on the deadline

and those two things have to match up

and if he's just like lapsed a days

ago about his deadlines then it's just not

good business

No, I mean,

when you're doing a webcomic as well,

you've got readers who are waiting for it

on that specific day.

How often does the webtoon drop?

Every month on the seventh.

This month was the first time we were

a little bit late by a couple of

days,

so I did have to apologize to people.

Laura was trying something a bit more

extensive, a lot more detail.

Also, in that episode, more pages.

We had a few more pages this time.

Oh, nice.

So it was worth the wait, you know?

Yeah.

You know,

and I was messing with lettering as well.

So it was just, but, you know,

sent a little message out at the bottom

of the webtoon just saying, sorry,

apologies for this.

But I think it's a pretty good episode

because Soma kicks the shit.

Sorry, I lied to her.

No, no, no.

You can say shit.

I mean,

I've been saying dick for like a couple

episodes.

Soma kicks the shit out of the town,

put it that way.

Her rage bubbles up and it's pretty good.

nice i like it man she she deserves

to get that out there um are there

any moments within the art of morrow or

even the covers of valentina that

surprised you and like like that you

received the page or something i know you

just gave us your reaction to the cover

that valentina done for you but was there

a page that morrow done that where you

got it and you're like holy dude i

didn't expect you to go this hard on

this

That is the best thing in the world.

That's the reason why I make comics.

Because when you give someone a script and

they come back to you with pages,

and it's always the best part of my

day.

I bet for any comic creator,

the best part of the day is when

an artist comes back to you with pages.

And it's better than what you thought it

would be.

Like, oh yeah.

I mean,

there's been multiple occasions when

that's happened.

So this, this new one,

there's a bit when Soma just,

I don't want to ruin it, but like,

yeah,

there's like a hero shot of Soma with

fire behind her.

And I was just, I was like,

I was trying to show her like,

I was trying to show him some reference

pictures of the crow with the fire behind.

And he totally kind of did it.

He totally made it his own thing.

Yeah.

I always enjoy when artists do that.

Anytime I have a lot of writers on

here, I always open the door.

It's for creatives, for comic books.

Whether you're a writer, an artist,

lettering, colors,

we want you to come on the show

and tell us about your work and show

us your work and that kind of stuff.

So

it's one of those where I've talked to

Sabe Francisco Nilo is also very close to

me.

And, um, he,

he works on the bit of literium series

and it's always fun talking to them and

how much they appreciate when the writer

just says, Hey,

this is what I'm looking for.

Do you, you know,

especially for like Francisco, who's, um,

He's working with Nick to take the book,

Videlirium, and make it into a comic book.

So they're breaking it out like chapters

by chapters and turning it into a comic

book.

So he's had a lot of character to

design and that kind of stuff.

So it's been really cool seeing his work

in that format and how much creative

freedom that when writers give an artist

creative freedom to make something their

own,

you're going to get better products at the

end of the day.

And every single one of them always

appreciate that about writers when they

go, hey,

this is kind of what I'm looking for.

Here you go.

Make it yours from the art perspective.

so i mean at the top of my

scripts always i put a little um

disclosure

obviously like if you feel,

if at any point when reading the script,

you feel that you can do something better

and make the panels flow better,

make the story work better, then do it.

Tell me about it, do it,

try it out, whatever.

All that matters to me, ignore ego,

all that matters to me is telling the

story the best way possible.

Because, you know, you just have to.

It's putting your trust in the artist to

do what is best for the product that

you're working on.

And I know some,

like for Shockhead at Peter,

the writing team over there,

they literally made a Bible for Sabe.

It was literally everything they're

looking for for the book.

Like, hey,

we want to see the sun from this

direction, hitting the character this way.

And Sabe is one of those artists where

just give him the details and he makes

it work.

Or if it doesn't work after he's done

it, he goes back and says, hey,

this doesn't work.

How about this?

I think this looks better than what you

had in there.

And they were like, dude, yeah, no,

you were right on that one.

Let's go with that.

So they give him creative freedom,

but they also gave him like this nice,

beautiful book of like, hey,

here's here's what we're doing, you know.

which is really cool.

I think the same thing happened with Scott

Snyder when he was working with Greg

Capullo.

Greg was just like, no,

you need to calm down and relax a

little bit more.

I mean, don't get me wrong.

Scott Snyder is a great teacher and he's

a really good writer.

Absolute Batman, man.

It's probably the number one comic book in

the country right now.

But he had to alter his way,

his workflow,

because that's just the way Greg needs a

little bit more freedom.

Dude, I love Capullo, and I'll show you.

That is the Batman spawn from Capullo and

Matt Farland.

That's the vinyl poster that all the comic

shops got.

Oh, wow.

I was able to get my hands on

that because I love Capullo.

Well, I love McFarlane as well, obviously,

but Capullo's Batman is probably my

favorite Batman.

Especially because it gave us like Devil

Dog or War Dog,

whatever the first Batman vs.

Spawn was where he split Spawn down the

middle with the Batarang.

And then McFarlane liked that look so much

that he just stitched Spawn's face up and

that was in the comic book for like

years.

I remember, like,

the Batarang in Spawn's face.

I remember reading that as a kid.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's cool.

And that's the second run of Batman Spawn,

which was really phenomenal.

But, yeah, I'm a huge fan of Capullo.

And if you're not a fan of Capullo,

I don't know what y'all are doing out

there.

He does phenomenal, phenomenal work.

Yeah.

So grinding against the marrow isn't

afraid to talk about homelessness,

addiction, prejudice, and survival.

What do you help readers walk away from

after getting to know SOMA?

I hope they're having,

they have a fun journey with it.

I mean, I hope that, you know,

I hope it's a fun journey.

It's an entertaining,

entertaining journey.

I hope, you know,

it takes you places you didn't think the

story was going to go.

I think, you know,

there's an escalation value.

I was very much when I was writing

it, thinking about the escalation value,

she gets deeper into the darker seedy side

of the city as it goes on.

And then also, you know,

getting something different out of comics,

you know,

having this poetry element to it,

just seeing things that are different and

seeing that actually the medium can also

work with all these other things.

You know,

I like being surprised by comics.

I'm currently reading like Michael

Stravinsky's bullet.

It's called bullet.

I actually love Michael Stravinsky as

well.

I just think he's so, um,

what's it called?

Um, bullet points.

It's like a world,

even though it's not because of,

it's like an elseworld thing on like

Marvel where the,

where like the person who, um,

created the serum for captain Rogers,

Steve Rogers.

So Superman, uh,

captain America doesn't exist.

So the timeline changes.

Yeah.

You know,

it's just when you're reading something

and you're just like, oh, this is good.

So if you want a good read,

Aubrey Sitterson's Free Planet.

Okay.

Yeah.

The first trade paperback just came out

for it.

I've been collecting the floppy.

So I'm just going to roll with the

floppies until they do a big Omnibus or

something.

But that book is phenomenal.

Like,

especially given everything going on in

the world currently from all viewpoints,

it fits like the mold perfectly.

And it's like,

you're reading this book and you're like,

dude, is he?

this is very familiar like this sounds

familiar and then you you flip on the

news and you're like fuck like there it

is that's why it's so familiar because

it's something actually happening right

now and you're like what the hell but

it's a phenomenal book aubrey sitterson is

absolutely nailing free planning right now

if you're not reading that everybody

Read Free Planet by Aubrey Sitterson.

The trade paperback is out.

You will not be disappointed in that book.

Sorry about that, Snake.

Now continue.

No, it's great.

It's actually great to hear because it's

on my list of things to get it

next when it was kind of coming out

because I saw it.

I thought this looks pretty good.

It was like being its image and stuff.

And I love image and stuff.

So I was like it was on my

list,

but it's great to hear a recommendation.

It was so good.

I think they're on issue seven right now.

And it has just been one of those

books where I'm excited when I go to

the comic book shop and it's the new

releases there for it.

And there's not a whole lot of books

I could say that about, you know,

but well, there is, but there isn't.

No, this is this week's polls.

Yeah.

Well, I Hate Fairylands,

another one from Scotty Young.

Yeah.

Just a fun story.

It doesn't take itself serious.

It's just really, really fun.

There's Free Planet right there.

It came out this week,

and it was issue seven.

And then the absolute Batman,

the one-shot Joker come out.

There was something else in here that kind

of stood out.

That's why I'm looking.

I'm sorry.

No, it's cool.

um oh ani press ec comments with their

shiver suspense stories if you like

anthologies phenomenal stuff geiger

anything from ghost machine i don't know

if that's on your list yet okay ah

that's it crownsville rodney barnes is

based on a real hospital and the horror

stories that came from that hospital

That's really cool.

Yeah.

Rodney Barnes, for those not familiar,

he's done Star Wars.

He's done some Marvel.

But his stuff with horror,

some of the best horror comic books you'll

read.

Like it's true events.

At least Crownsville is based on true

events and phenomenal stuff.

What's that called again?

I'm going to have a look myself, actually.

It's called Crownsville by Rodney Barnes.

Cool.

i think it's on bad idea is the

publisher on that one let me check i

don't want to i don't want to give

you bad gouge uh ordained that just come

out i read this already this met all

the hype by the way i think it's

so you know what i'm trying to do

with a lot of my comics honey press

did it

So, you know,

what I'm trying to read from writers and

what I try and do is I want

to read something that's fun and

enjoyable,

but also has meaning and some kind of

emotional connection to a reader.

You know, there's a couple of readers,

writers that I read now,

and sometimes the comics are a little,

I'm not going to mention things,

but sometimes it's a bit too cerebral and

there's just nothing involved.

I love how Garth Ennis does that balance

of it's both fun, enjoyable,

lots of violence, lots of blah, blah,

blah.

Also, it's got meaning to it.

It's not just violence to have violence.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, outside of Preacher,

Preacher was kind of like an exception to

the rule.

There was some violence in there that was

just... Especially in the earlier,

like the first five or six books from

the series, it was just like...

violence just to have violence but it was

character building for the characters who

were committing the violent acts so i

guess there was some meaning there but

again it was just violence to have

violence to build a character i mean so

i always go back to like um sin

city it's really violent but it's so well

told and it yeah kind of dropped into

this world and it's a violent horrible

stylized world and it just works and it's

you know before frank miller went nuts and

like he did do that yeah

But, you know, like, so for me,

you know, as a, as a, as a,

as a, as a, as a, as a,

as a, as a, as a, as a,

as a, as a, as a, as a,

as a, as a, as a, as a,

as a, as a, as a, as a,

as a, as a, as a,

one scene in the movie if i'm not

mistaken like it was like a a fifteen

minute slot that you could technically cut

out of the movie and the movie would

still work yeah yeah but tarantino did it

for free for robert rodriguez yeah and i

think he's also a big fan of uh

frank as well so that's kind of cool

that they were like hey quentin we'll let

you have like fifteen minutes of our movie

do whatever you want as long as it's

based on this so it's really cool

so what are some of your big influence

when you're getting the creative engines

going like what's what do you feel that

creative machine with like music i know

you do poetry and you do uh that

kind of stuff you do stand up uh

poetry and that kind of stuff let's go

what do you got what's the big influence

to get that creative juice flowing

You know, I mean,

I'm an open – I'm an empty vessel,

you know, like a jarhead.

You know, films, books.

I'm always reading comics as well,

so comics art as well, you know,

because it is the medium you're making,

so it is good to – but then

plays as well.

So I don't discriminate.

I like every medium for what it does

and what it gives you.

And, you know, they're all stories,

so it's interesting.

And then, you know,

when you come up with an idea and

stuff,

it's good to kind of dig deep and

kind of see –

what works,

what else works in that same vein.

If you've got a scene that feels similar

to a scene in a film,

watch that film and just see how it

works, why it's good,

why it resonated with you and why you're

thinking about it now.

Um, yeah, I mean, you know,

I make a lot on mood boards and

yeah, music, music.

I mean, I can't, I can't, um,

play instruments and save my life,

but I've always got headphones on,

you know?

Yeah.

That when I'm, um,

because I'm working on a secret project

right now.

So anytime I'm writing in my notebook,

I have music in the background,

just writing stuff out.

Just like an idea pops in,

got to write it down.

Idea pops in at work.

I keep an email to myself open throughout

the day.

That way when the idea hits,

I just type it up into this email.

And then at the end of the day,

I send that email to myself and then

I put it on my document.

You know,

this is a little trick that I do

at work as well because we all got

day jobs in it.

But I do the exact same thing.

It's one of the best things you can

do to yourself because you don't want to

lose it.

no absolutely not yeah so it email it

to yourself though the way it's there even

if you forget to annotate it later and

like move it over to your your document

that you're working on or to your uh

your board that you're working on because

i've done that before and i was like

like sitting here like typing stuff out

and just putting the idea down and i'm

like i'm missing something hop over to my

email like there it is that's what i'm

missing and pop it over

But yeah,

that's the best way to do it for

any creative out there.

Keep an email.

Like if you're at your nine to five

and you're into podcasting it from home or

your artist who has,

or a writer who has a day job,

keep an email open to yourself.

And then if something hits you during the

day, jot it out real quick.

At the end of the day,

just hit send.

Make sure you hit send at the end

of the day.

You don't want your computer restarting

randomly in the middle of the night and

lose everything.

I've had that happen more than once.

But I, as well,

cause you know what you're saying about

music as well.

I also think it's a cheat code.

You know, it get,

if you have the right music and obviously

it's going to put you in a certain

mood.

And so, you know,

you can just get in there quicker when

you've got a bit of music playing in

the background, the right piece, you know?

Oh, definitely.

And I've been listening to songs before

where I,

when I was working on project and I

was like, we were going there real quick.

I actually kind of like that.

I'm like, that was good.

Cool.

Got it.

So,

but what's next for Soma and for yourself?

So we're releasing the second issue of the

comic on December eighteenth.

Oh, nice.

Just in time for Christmas, man.

I like it.

Yeah.

It's going to be like one seventy nine.

So why not?

Why not?

Yeah.

Is that the digital version or is that

the paperback?

Yeah, it's just the digital.

So with the single issues,

they're only being released on DriveThru

Comics and Comicology or Amazon,

whatever you want to say.

But then, as I said,

once we've finished all the issues and

released all the issues digitally and

released the episodes all on vertical

scrolling comic platforms,

around about June time,

we'll release a graphic novel of the whole

colour thing in print.

Fulls, hundred and twenty pages,

however many...

That's cool.

I know there's Lords of the Cosmos,

John Linitz.

Is it John Linitz?

I want to say it's John Linitz.

Give me just a second.

I don't want to... Jason Linitz.

I had a John on just before him.

But it's Lords of the Cosmos.

that's their plan as well once the whole

series is done they're going to split it

into like basically two like omnibuses i

think is what he said but i always

think that's really cool is and even image

is doing it now and dark horse and

a bunch of others like once the run

finishes or if like once five or six

comic books are done they take all those

comic books and roll them up into a

trade paperback so i always enjoy that

because it's

That's what I've been doing with Geiger.

I get the singles and I read the

singles,

but once they release a hardback or a

trade paperback, I like to have that.

That way I can just grab the whole

thing and read an entire arc of a

story.

Yeah,

because you're sort of drip fed and it's

kind of nice to get the monthly,

but it's really nice to experience the

whole story together.

It really is.

And it gives a whole nother vibe to

the story because I can guarantee you

there's something you missed or something

that didn't make sense at some point in

one of those floppy issues that when you

go back and you read the trade paperback

or you read the omnibus,

that's when like the two plus two equals

five for you.

So, which is why I feel like,

you know, the comic medium is so similar,

actually not to films,

but actually similar to TV in that sense,

because it is, you know,

so the same thing happens, you know,

when you do, when you binge a show,

I remember re-binging Breaking Bad and it

was so much better watching it all

together.

I did the same thing.

Yeah.

I tried so hard to do that for

The Walking Dead.

Okay.

But once Carl was killed off the show,

because my favorite run,

my favorite arc of The Walking Dead and

comic book is old man Carl.

It's Carl as the old man telling his

grandchildren about The Walking Dead.

Yeah.

And that's how the TV series started,

essentially, is this old man Carl arc.

And then when they killed him, to me,

this is the chairman's opinion,

they killed The Walking Dead when they

killed Carl.

Because the story was literally Carl

telling his grandchildren about the events

of The Walking Dead.

Yeah, this is what I kept telling people.

So I love The Walking Dead series,

the comic series.

It took me so long to finish reading

it because it broke my heart.

There's so many arcs.

When Laurie gets killed, I was like,

I'm out.

I was like,

I put it down for like a year.

And then I went back when I was

in Australia and read it.

And yeah, I keep telling people,

I don't understand how they could have

done that because kill Carl,

because it's his story in the comic.

It's not Rick's.

It's actually his because he's the final

character telling his kids the story who,

you know?

Yeah.

So I agree.

It's wild.

And it was like, once he was gone,

To me, it was gone.

I'm like, I won't make this up.

I mean, I love Daryl.

Daryl is a phenomenal character on the

show.

Yeah, because he's not even in the comic,

is he?

No, he was made for the show,

I believe.

Yeah, because I don't remember him,

you know?

Yeah.

And it's one of those where I'm like,

and one of my favorite lines he says

is,

everybody hates rednecks until you need a

redneck.

But that's neither here nor there.

But yeah, old man Carl.

best thing the walking dead had going and

then the only thing they could have done

better during that is if he would have

been narrating the story which would have

been i think dope as hell because you

get narrations from old man carl in the

comic book so but neither here nor there

um

So... Oh, sorry,

I'll finish off the thing.

No, go ahead.

At the minute as well,

what I'm doing as well is I'm writing...

Well, I've written, actually.

So this is like...

I've had this story for like ten years.

So I've just...

gone back to it occasionally every so

often and cleaned it back up.

And it's just a,

just a two pager or it's,

it might be a full,

it might be a elongated one shot.

It's about, it's about, it's about,

it's about, it's about, it's about,

it's about, it's about, it's about,

it's about, it's about, it's about,

it's about,

hp lovecraft demons overhead and it's

about fairy tales and knights yeah um and

i've got a really good artist that i'm

enjoying and he's doing pages at the

minute so that's going to be the next

thing i'm going to release okay cool but

i think that's going to be it's more

graphic novel light level once you get

past you know the pages you know i

think we get into graphic novel territory

and that's cool i know um uh what's

his name i think it's

I think his name is – what is

his name?

That's his book.

It's just – I just – Reading pile.

Well, kind of.

I got a reading box actually.

Okay.

bobby campbell he he's turning tells of

the illuminatus into it's a trilogy book

but he's making it into a comic book

it's very fun very quirky but he's also

working on a graphic novel right now so

i know like he's taking a break from

tells of the illuminatus because he was

already working on a graphic novel that he

wants to finish so graphic novels are

big and i know he's working on one

right now and he'll be back on the

show eventually once that is ready to go

but um no sorry that was you mentioned

a graphic novel and that stuff popped into

my head yeah i just i'm someone working

um i work for a private healthcare company

at the minute so i'm earning quite a

bit of good money at the minute so

i was just like

I might as well pick up this extra

comic and start making that as well since

I can afford it at the minute.

And I've been off this project for ages.

So, you know, it just makes me happy.

Making comics makes me happy.

It's great.

And that's the big thing right there is

doing what makes you happy.

And this kind of stuff right here is

getting to talk to writers and artists and

bring in their work to people who may

not ever get to see their work,

especially people like you,

because you're in the UK.

Yeah.

So bringing you over to the U S

audience and introducing you to this,

this side of the pond, so to speak,

it's one of my favorite things to do,

like Sabe being from Italy and an artist

and be bringing his stuff and being like,

Hey,

here's this wonderful artist from Italy.

Who's

work is just like absolutely stunning you

know his character work the way he he

brings details to towns and just little

things like that he does so well it's

one of my favorite parts about getting to

do this is introducing you know people to

new artists new writers who they will

probably would have never seen or heard of

so cool but

You got any more conventions this year?

Or was Thought Bubble the last one for

you for the year?

Last one, really, yeah.

But next year,

I'm going to plan to – I went

to Lakes Festival,

which is like an art festival,

but it's – I mean,

Sean Phillips was there.

Yeah.

um but no no no now next year

but i'm probably going to try and go

to like three next year i'm going to

try and you know like even comic-con maybe

which is you know it's not really a

comic comic-con yeah i know the same way

in the us man yeah they've gone to

like anime and like knickknacks and yeah

it's not about comics anymore that's for

sure

But I was really – Thought Bubble I

thought was really cool.

And seeing the stuff that Bruno was

posting I thought was really cool.

You should totally go, man.

Yeah, I think you'd love it.

That's a trip across the pond.

I mean, I would love to.

I would love to.

But, yeah,

that's like eight hours on an airplane.

But, hey,

the guy on the stall next to me,

we became friends and stuff, hanging out.

He was a cool dude.

He was from your lot.

He was an American.

And he'd come all the way across to,

you know, sell his comic.

He had a graphic.

And, yeah, so it is possible.

You know,

I didn't realize Thought Bubble was such a

big event over there for artists and

writers in the comic world.

But there was huge celebrities and stuff

like that there.

I was very impressed with that.

I don't know if that's the biggest one

y'all do in the UK.

It basically is, yeah.

Okay.

It's basically... But it was very,

very impressive.

It was like...

The only thing I could think of is

New York Comic Con or San Diego Comic

Con or something like that.

That was the level it looked to me.

So... I think, though,

I think San Diego is just...

You can't beat that.

Do you know what I mean?

That's what all of us UK people are

like dreaming of.

We're like, Oh,

I'm going to get up at some point.

But that, that one is just like,

it's like absurd.

It's like four days now and it costs

you, you know, a mortgage payment to go.

Have you been?

no no because it costs a mortgage payment

to go that's on the other side of

the country so yeah no i mean i

would love to one day yeah but right

now is not that day maybe you know

in three or four years i will hopefully

be able to go but right now that

i can find better ways to spend that

money yeah fair enough cool

So let's look ahead and watch this.

I know you got the graphic novel coming

or poetry or maybe something a little

unexpected from you.

You know,

I'm always sort of trying to spit some

rhymes at open mics around Manchester.

I live in Manchester, so I do that.

But I have been working quite heavily on

comics.

I've got another comic I'm sort of writing

at the minute,

and I've got my artist prepped,

and I know,

and he's going to cost me a fortune,

but his work looks so good.

And it's kind of an interesting tale about

addiction, but black magic, and, yeah,

so that should be great.

So I've got all these things queued up.

I mean, the thing is, right,

me as a creator,

I don't know about other artists,

but you know, I mean,

lettering and publishing comics online.

It's good.

It's fun.

It's nice.

Yeah.

But I'm a writer.

I just want to be in a room

writing.

And the more you get into it,

the more you're having to do lots of

administration or the stuff you're having

to, you know,

post yourself on social media.

So when you can get just some time

to write, it's amazing.

You know, it's a godsend, you know?

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

Have you ever thought about doing like,

um,

like bunching your poetry into like,

into like a, not necessarily a book,

but like a, a web series with art.

Like taking your,

like your poetry and sending it to an

artist and be like, hey,

can you put art with this?

And then put in a like webtoons or

something like that.

To me, that would be kind of cool.

I was just thinking about that for some

reason.

That would be cool.

I know.

So my friend did something similar.

He was a photographer and he got writers

to write a story set behind his

photography.

Oh, that's really cool, too.

Yeah.

So, yeah,

maybe I might maybe I'll do that.

That's actually a really good idea.

It's just, you know,

not enough time in the day, unfortunately.

Yeah.

And we got to get at least eight

hours of sleep.

I know you're just a few years younger

than me, but yeah,

that eight hours of sleep means a lot.

So people who can just sleep on no

sleep, just get on with their day,

no sleep.

I'm like, I'm useless otherwise.

Yeah, dude,

I just had two cups of coffee and

I'm still wanting to go back to bed.

So for anybody now just hearing about

grinding against the marrow for the first

time and you have to sell them the

book,

give us your your sales pitch for grinding

against the marrow.

It's Halloween.

All the ghouls are out.

All the ghouls and goblins,

the horrible little kids who are causing

chaos.

And they're lighting homeless people on

fire.

And there's also Soma stuck on the street.

And she wants to escape this town.

But, however...

She can't allow another person to be lit

on fire, one of her homeless brethren.

So she steps in and read the comics,

see what happens from that.

All the pitfalls, all the obstacles.

Yeah.

But she has one skill that helps her

through this.

She's really good at parkour and running

and free running.

So that's the comic.

I like it, dude,

before I let you go tell everybody where

they can find snake and where they can

find your work.

yeah so i'm on instagram snake eight seven

smw um also facebook on my normal name

which is scott matthew watson um and yeah

you can find the work on uh on

amazon on comicology or and also um uh

drive through comics but then i've also

got work on uh webtoons um uh global

comics and tapas as well

Love to hear it, dude.

So what's coming up next for the USD?

And I will be back here Monday again.

That will go up later today or tomorrow

to announce who is going to be on

the podcast.

But stories like this don't come from

comfort.

They come from the fractures,

and sometimes it takes a creator like

Snake to show us there's beauty inside the

break.

Snake, welcome to the Council of Nerds,

and you, sir,

and Grindin' Against the Marrow are USDN

approved.

This has been the USDN Podcast,

and the Council of Nerds is adjourned.