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USDN podcast is run by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds. We strive to bring you the all the latest news and rumors from the World of Nerds and consolidate it right here at USDN. USDN is for the people, by the people and of the people.
You are listening to the USDN on the
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Thanks for watching!
Hello there,
and welcome to the United States
Department of Nerds,
where we are for the people,
by the people, and of the people.
And tonight,
we are stepping into the twenty-eighth
century in a world rebuilt on competition,
spectacle, and survival.
Civilization cleans to existence under the
domes of franchise cities,
where the most powerful currency isn't
money or politics.
it's victory our guest tonight donald
thomas capello brings us into the world
with powerscape a science fiction saga two
decades in the making exploring what
happens when humanity turns itself into a
game donald welcome to the council of
nerds how you doing tonight man
I'm great, man.
That was a great intro.
Can I hire you a junior writer?
It's what I do, man.
If I'm going to be known for anything,
it's going to be known for nailing intros.
Nail intros and a fire intro theme, man.
I forgot.
I was like, oh, man,
I'm bouncing to that.
That is good.
Oh, yeah, dude.
You got to have the good musical intro
followed by the spoken word intro.
And that's what I've perfected over time
is that good intro.
Everybody deserves a good intro.
I like it.
Here's what I perfected product promo
placement here.
If you look,
I'm just going to turn naturally.
There's the logo.
There's PowerSkates right over there.
That's at the end of the show.
You're jumping the gun, man.
You're jumping the gun.
But hey,
let's do jump in and start right at
the heart of it.
This story is set in twenty seven ninety
eight A.D.
where Powerball isn't just a game.
It's the glue holding civilization
together.
What was the original spark for this
concept?
Was it sports culture,
social commentary or something else that
evolved into this world of franchise
cities and its alien energy sources?
That's a good question.
I think it's a little of everything you
just kind of mentioned.
This idea started, I think,
twenty years ago.
I was traveling.
I was studying abroad, actually,
at the Globe Theatre in London.
I was studying playwriting.
Shout out to all my friends in the
UK.
Yeah, shout out to the Irish.
Who are probably asleep right now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I yeah,
I basically shout out to my man, Andy,
by the way, who's watching.
Yeah, I left that up for you, Andy.
Welcome to the council, man.
It's a good man.
Good man.
So, yeah,
I I was I was there basically kind
of in between, you know,
the events of nine eleven and black.
And, uh, I was very aware of, um,
you know, I mean, there, there were these,
there was these sports narratives that
were, we always had sports narratives,
right?
I mean,
in the UK is a whole nother level
when it comes to soccer though.
For sure.
Well, it wasn't, you know,
what's interesting.
It wasn't UK sport.
I mean, definitely UK sports.
I got to, I actually went to a,
a hurling game, uh, in,
in Kilkenny and I got to see like
this, this, you know, which is,
I don't know if you've ever seen hurling.
It is a, it is a whole other,
you know, yeah.
It's really intense.
It's pretty interesting.
But it was that combined with kind of
being outside of America and kind of
seeing everything from the outside in and
seeing how like we were there was so
much of our our mental energy and
everything we're aware of of what defines
our culture and society was based on
these, you know,
this rhythm of like weekly contests,
you know, the NFL for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And and
you know,
the gladiator kind of arena is kind of
does hold things together when we are on
unstable ground,
when we're on shaky ground.
And I was sort of kind of playing
around with the idea of like, wow,
you know,
what is it to be system conscious?
You know,
when you talk to people and you ask
them,
what is the thing that's really holding
together a society?
Like,
you know sometimes you have to bring up
like what's more important like this this
you know this um this major cultural event
we all take part in or like the
sewage system and everyone's like well
yeah the sewage system obviously that's
like a really important thing in our lives
but but it's very um it it it
it's secondary right it is not yeah it's
not really we're not conscious of it we're
not aware of it and until it stops
working
Yeah.
Yeah.
Until it's not there anymore.
Exactly.
And so I I started, you know,
that and also just just sort of seeing
where we're going,
like ecologically and that we're on,
how sustainable is our is everything.
I kind of was like, well,
what if we just play this to the
to its most extreme?
Like, what if what if we really,
you know,
we we we're not able to stop ecological
change?
you know, collapse and everything.
And but we we kind of because what
I think you are seeing with humanity is
the capacity to build technology that ten
years before is like not even imagined.
And so what if our capacity to build
technology keeps going the way it's going,
but we don't learn the lessons of how
to stay, you know,
in a livable
planet.
No, absolutely.
And I think why PowerScape did was kind
of really showcase that to the very
extreme,
which from a social commentary standpoint,
it's kind of like as a person just
reading it for the first time and going,
damn,
I hope that's not the route we're going
down.
Yeah.
It's a very scary thought when the
government or your
your your city is like hey if we
don't win powerball yeah your asses ain't
eating yeah yeah and essentially the idea
it's scary to think about and then you
like you kind of look at stuff going
on currently
And you're like, wait a damn minute.
You know,
that's funny you said that because the I
think the cherry on top, like I said,
I held off on this story for twenty
something years.
A lot of it was I was not
in the comic book industry.
I didn't I didn't know enough people to.
And it's one of those industries to this.
Yeah.
Unless, you know, you know.
yeah unless you know somebody who knows
yeah yeah it's very hard to get into
and to really want to roll the dice
and try to play in because it's scary
it's scary and it's i mean it's it's
just like just like film it's it's
expensive right it's like if you're going
to commit to something you've got to oh
yeah your capital your life your you know
your energy and uh and
the people who do it i mean i
have a huge amount of respect for people
who have been doing it you know for
longer than i have i grew up with
comics comics were kind of like my first
the first thing that i really sort of
as the first medium that i really sort
of started exploring storytelling and i
think that's why i came back to it
now is um i'm in a place where
I, you know,
we're all seeing the world's just changing
in so many ways.
It's really such a great medium to use
as a storytelling front.
Because really nothing is off limits when
it comes to comic books.
Yeah.
You can literally tell whatever story you
want.
Yeah.
And there's going to be an audience for
it.
yeah and and and there are there are
layers to stories like i go back and
i read things now and i'm like oh
i like oh this was meant to like
be enjoyed on a short term like one
one read or oh no this is like
just in case you want to go back
yeah tie these together to a greater yep
and that's what i love about like some
of the one-shot comic books that you do
get is
Yep.
We get it in a one shot right
now.
And then five years from now,
they're going to push another one shot
based off that same first story.
But it's kind of like the next piece
of it.
That's just a single one shot as well.
You can read them together or not.
It does not matter because technically it
is two different stories.
But if you put both together because it's
the same characters, right?
Yeah,
it's almost it's not necessarily a
continuation of the story.
but it can be,
and it can flow that way.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And there's a lot of really good comments.
Yeah.
It's flexible in the mind and the
experience of the audience.
Right.
Like for sure.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So let's, well,
I just wanted to say real quick, you,
you put the cherry on top of,
I think what got this,
cause it got to a point where like
for the last few years,
I just couldn't stop thinking of the
story.
That's why I'm doing it is I'm like,
I literally was like,
I'm going to go insane because every time
I go to bed, right.
It's riding itself.
And, you know, those are the ideas,
you know, my mentors have told me,
those are the ones you pursue.
Go after those ideas no matter where they
are.
But I will never forget being in Los
Angeles.
I think it was like, I was there,
you know,
I lived there for over a decade.
And I want to say it was like,
and the Lakers, as usual,
are in the playoffs.
And, you know, or no,
I think it's something like that.
I think it was the one they went
to.
Okay, yeah.
With Shaq and Kobe was there.
Yeah.
Not Shaq.
I think it wasn't.
I think it was.
It was the Orlando, Orlando finals.
I think.
Okay.
Whatever.
I'm getting into,
I'm getting into the sports side,
but anyway, the, I was, I was,
I was,
I'm there at a bar with a couple
of friends and we're eating and this guy
comes up and he's selling,
he's selling these jerseys,
Lakers jerseys, Laker paraphernalia.
Right.
And he's got this whole apparatus.
He looks like a peacock.
Like it's sticky.
I've seen those before.
yeah horrible but like this is just a
guy walking into a random bar and he
this is what he does he goes and
and like i'm like looking at his stuff
i'm like wow dude this is like an
operation here and he's like yeah and he
looks at me he's like yeah man this
has been feeding my family for like ten
years like and i'm like yeah yeah and
then like we look i'm watching the game
and he's like yeah you know if they
don't go to the finals i don't i
don't know how i'm gonna support my kids
And then he's like,
you want to buy a jersey?
I was like, wait,
is he pulling those on me?
But I don't think it was Lyon, right?
Then he goes outside and gets in his
Lamborghini and drives off.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Laker fan, you know, you never know.
But like, no, I... And it's LA, so...
It is.
But but L.A.
is a great example of like there are
so many cultural there are so many
franchises that the Dodgers.
I mean,
look at the Dodgers and what they just
did recently.
Right.
Like,
like how much economic stimulation did
that did that the downtown need from that?
You know,
like how much they got to be counted
on sometimes.
And so it's weird.
So they won it this year.
But that economic growth that's going to
come into that area is going to last
the next twenty years.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it doesn't take much.
I mean,
Atlanta went through the same thing with
the Braves.
Absolutely.
And then it's like, oh, yeah.
Yeah.
We're keeping the suburbs,
keeping the suburbs with something to do,
I guess, on the weekends.
Right.
So especially as much as they charge for
parking.
Last time I was down there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So if you combine that pattern with
literally like energy, right?
You know,
what if our oil and gas sector,
essentially,
the way we had to distribute what we
have to live is based on that model
because it becomes the only model.
And that's basically what happens in
power.
You know,
that's a good segue of energy when we
talk about the core energy from your book
and arbiters.
How did those ideas come about?
I know you just hinted at it a
little bit.
Yeah.
Tell us about the core energy and the
arbitrage.
Yeah.
Well, the in the story, essentially,
all anyone knows is that at some point
a few hundred years ago,
You know, humanity was underground.
The surface of the Earth is unlivable.
And it kind of looks like it's sort
of game over for us.
And there was some kind of an alien
contact.
There was some kind of extraterrestrial
contact made.
And this technology was gifted to where we
could make breathable atmospheres,
but hold them in like a pocket in
the dome.
And that saves many cities on the
continent.
um the stipulation is that there's some
kind of a diplomatic accord that happens
we know that we know there's some kind
of like a diplomatic sort of convention or
some kind where there's an agreement that
in order to distribute this energy in
order to show that we're worthy of
continuing having this energy we're going
to uh distribute it in the way that
khan feel it appropriate that it's
appropriate and that is through some kind
of combat or some kind of competition
Yeah.
So that kind of reminds me of,
did you ever watch,
you watch the Simpsons, right?
Everybody watches the Simpsons.
Oh my gosh.
I grew up on them.
Yeah.
So the aliens that are always stopping by
earth and then kind of watching through
the lens.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
And they're just like,
why don't we always watch this for?
That's kind of what it gave me like
a little bit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they're just kind of like watching and
they're like, yeah.
why don't we just blow them up?
Yeah.
Yeah.
But they're entertaining.
Well, and the, the thing that's fun is,
well, you know, fun to, to, to,
to make as a story devices.
They, they haven't been, no one's seen a,
a, a con alien person,
a member of the con alien species.
That's the name of the species that in
the story,
no one's seen one in a long,
long time.
And in fact,
they went out of their way to sort
of, they're legendary more than anything.
And every time you think they're not
there,
something happens that kind of reminds
them, we are here, we are watching.
Like, don't stray from the game.
And that's it.
That's the only role they play.
I put that in there because I feel
like that is most of our societies now
because we all have a camera watching us
somewhere, somehow,
and you do just behave differently.
the internet is forever right yeah yes yes
it is unfortunately yeah yeah yeah but um
can you walk us through kind of like
the mechanics of um the powerball and kind
of give us a little bit of more
information about that just like an idea
of what the game is i know a
lot of people who may not be familiar
with it but
Kind of like give us what Powerball is
in this comic book.
Yeah, so the game that humanity is,
that the humans have come up with to
essentially save themselves is this game
that sort of borrows a lot from rugby,
from football, right,
from all these different sports before it.
And every city,
every franchise city has an arena where
teams meet, right?
uh there is a there are two goals
in the end of the fields uh one
goal is but what they really are are
module pipelines they're they're energy
they are they lead to like uh different
places if if uh if this the ball
itself is a piece of the core power
which is okay yeah yeah for chained
orbital reaction energy
That's sort of the name that we have
for whatever it is the aliens gave us.
And if the home team scores a goal,
the ball goes down into a reactor for
the city and essentially keeps feeding the
city.
If the away team scores the goal,
it goes into a shuttle that goes into
this underground.
Basically,
humans essentially travel through
underground systems because you cannot
travel outside of the domes.
You can't travel.
There's no free roaming on Earth anymore.
Yeah, you're in your city.
Yeah,
and you can go underground and you can
take rails,
but most cities prohibit travel unless
you're players, unless you're teams.
And so now it's been over about three
hundred years of this game sort of being
played to distribute the energy.
And there are kind of two major
developments, which is one,
we've lost a few cities along the way,
so that everyone's kind of aware that
there needs to be sort of some politics
played here.
So it's very rare that you lose all
three.
I'm sorry,
there's three core balls in each game,
essentially, right?
If you get two out of three,
you win.
If you win, you go to the playoffs.
If you go to the playoffs and you
win that,
you get a huge amount of core to
sustain yourself.
Essentially, if you lose,
you have to get something to keep yourself
going, to keep yourself surviving.
If you lose too much, your city collapses,
which has happened to a few cities
already.
Yeah,
and issue one that you sent over to
me,
it mentions – I think there had been
– at that point there had been two
or three cities that had collapsed.
There's more.
Yeah, there's a few.
Well, it was more hinted at,
but – Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think there was only like two or
three actually – That were mentioned,
I think.
That were mentioned, yeah, yeah.
Yeah,
and anyone who can purchase the issue,
by the way, on our Patreon directly,
or you can purchase as part of our
Kickstarter launch,
there's a map on the back of the
issue that sort of shows... Yeah,
the very last page of issue one had
it on there,
and I thought that was really cool to
see, just like... Thanks, yeah.
The collapse of everything,
and it was pretty cool,
because you see it from South America up,
I believe is what it was, and then...
Just the little pocket cities, you know,
and there were like few and far between,
really.
Yeah,
because there if you look at the map,
the the middle of the continent,
basically everything like south,
the southeast up to like almost the
Midwest of America is like desert now.
uh down and then into like the middle
of mexico and then and then uh up
on up north of british columbia and over
around like alberta it's it's like acid so
so a lot of the of the of
the lands are just kind of uninhabitable
so a lot of this story is really
rooted in some of the twenty first century
trends like climate collapse corporate
control and even media addiction you know
a year a lot of this is played
out
within that very first issue,
you see a little bit of all of
that.
Oh, thank you.
I'm glad.
Yeah, it's definitely, I mean,
all of that is certainly driving the
story.
The story is, I have, it's a very,
you know,
I have a lot planned with it.
As my wonderful artist, Stefan Toscheff,
reminded me, he's like, you know,
you have a great long version,
get a short version.
And I do have a short version.
That's literally, like,
I've never met a comic book writer who
said that, you know, like,
the hardest thing is cutting.
There's always a good artist behind a good
writer saying, dude,
this is gonna be sixty pages, cut it.
Oh, Stefan's great, because he's like,
I just want you to know I hate
words.
I'm like, yeah, no, I get it.
But that's what I love,
is that it's unlocking so much of what
I learned in film.
uh uh of the show and and and
how you know my whole journey as an
artist is like you know words are great
and they're effective but you can overuse
them right and like anything and uh you
got to treat them just like you would
treat you know the a a shot
in cinematography or like a specific kind
of lighting.
It's got to be hard selling and it's
got to keep the reader enticed as well.
And it's a visual medium.
Exactly.
And you literally let the visuals tell the
story and the words just guide it.
totally totally which has been and that's
been so fun because you know i i
i don't think i'm that good of a
visual storyteller like in terms of
authoring it so you know i it's been
a great sort of lesson of like letting
go of certain things like no it's you
know you have to let somebody come in
and take this so does uh your artists
also do your lettering
Uh, uh, uh, for this issue.
Yes.
Uh, uh, sure.
Yep.
Uh, uh, and, and that was good.
I mean, that's,
I definitely got a lesson in how that
explains why he told you he didn't like
words.
It was lettering.
I mean, he's, I mean, Stefan's very,
very good at, I mean,
I thought you were going to bring him
on.
Could he not join you tonight?
Uh, no, he couldn't,
he couldn't make it to, uh,
he had to,
I think he had a family matter, but,
uh, that would always come first.
oh yeah for sure for sure but he
sends his best and uh you know he's
he's he's uh he he's really he loves
he loved the project and specifically he
had this great moment there i think in
issue one where he he uh he has
characters he has a character that keeps
interrupting uh everybody about you know
about their brand deal like oh you know
yeah that's where i was we're about to
go to oh great yeah continue where you're
going and i will pick up my question
after
Well, what I loved was when I didn't,
you know, in my head,
I thought it is kind of an interruption,
but I didn't really format it that way.
And then when I'm looking at it,
Stefan kind of had the lettering in a
way that this guy is kind of being
interrupted.
He's overlapping and he's getting in
between this really important sort of a
little mini monologue of another
character.
And I was like, oh my God,
that's brilliant.
Like he did such great character
development just with that thought,
you know?
And so I'm glad we're here because-
Love the fact that you let us, like,
believe that he was going to be the
actual...
One of the actual main characters of the
story.
Oh, spoilers, right?
We're doing non-spoilers?
Non-spoilers.
I'm okay, I'm okay.
Yeah, it's okay.
Because I want people to go back and
read it, right?
Yeah, for sure.
It's all good.
And it actually, you know...
He turns out he may not be the
actual main character that we're dealing
with.
Your actual main protagonist is a refugee
entering this brutal system.
She can't figure out why she's there.
She has no real significance in her mind
for her to be where she's at.
She's not that good.
She's brand new to the field.
She hasn't really been in training that
long for the Powerball.
So for her, it's like,
why am I actually here?
And she's about,
as the first issue is ending,
she's
She's about to step into it.
Yeah.
You're about to find out real soon.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I really appreciate you keying in on
that is that that is definitely a,
but it was done really good.
So props to you and props to the
artists because it,
the misdirection is like beautifully done.
It's well done because you got this guy's
like, Hey,
who do I talk about my brand deals
with?
All right.
And like fucking five minutes later,
it's like a whole nother story.
And you're like,
Damn, that's where it was good.
Yeah, I'm glad you like that.
That was, loved it.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
That is, it is, I'm really trying.
So he is not,
he's not going away anytime soon.
But definitely,
I think this whole story is kind of,
one plot thread is about being young and
kind of, okay, it's your time to shine.
And when you realize so much of what
you thought was a merit-based piece,
a competitive sort of system is actually
so much politics and so many things that
you might not,
before you're even out of the gate,
your fate is decided for you.
And, you know,
that Kai's character kind of represents
sort of this, you know,
you're, you're,
you're told so much about what your life
is going to be.
And it was very,
very millennial experience.
Right.
Of like, exactly.
And it was one of those where I
was like, man, this dude's overconfidence.
I'm like, I don't really see this.
Like,
like you kind of get that feeling like
something like he's a,
he feels like at the center point of
the story coming in.
But then it's like,
you have this other quiet character and
you're like,
Yeah.
Maybe we're being swerved,
but you really don't get it.
You know,
it's literally the very last page,
I think,
of the actual story story that you finally
get the swerve.
And you're like,
I like where we're going with this because
like she like but she gives that energy
like she she's somebody knows she's meant
for better and she's going to be better
than what she thinks she is.
Yeah.
Or she's going to be offered to be
better, for sure.
Yeah.
Exactly.
It feels like something else is pulling
some strings there for her to get her
to where she needs to be to unlock
who she will be.
Yeah.
Gela is – so this is Gela Gale.
Yeah, Gela Gale, yes.
Yeah, Gela is –
Gala's a very important character.
And for sure, there's, she, you know,
we're kind of,
I kind of realized as I was planning
this out, like, you know what?
I'm new to this too.
And we're all going to be new to
it.
The audience is new to it.
Um, you know,
I have this story world set,
but I'm also like, you know what we,
I want this to have moving parts.
I want to kind of, you know,
just sort of figure it out as we
go along.
I mean, I, I know, I, you know,
I've got,
I know what franchise cities we're dealing
with.
I know,
I know where we're going to the playoffs
and things like that.
But I was like, all of us,
including myself,
we need a character whose perspective is
going to be just as new as ours.
And I was like, you know what?
A rookie.
Like, let's put a rookie in.
And we're really going to kind of learn
as she learns, really, like,
what is this world?
No, I really like that direction.
Because she's such a fit and main
protagonist for the story.
Because she's very...
She don't know why she's there.
And those characters to me always end up
just telling a good story.
Like, you could feel like, like, okay,
we got to swerve.
And you're secretly you're rooting for
this other character anyway,
because she's very quiet.
She's very well put together,
even though she doesn't know why she's
there.
And you can always see they're all kind
of playing politics against her even just
in those – Yeah, yeah.
But I'm like somebody at a higher level
pulled strings and played politics to get
her there.
Yeah, yeah.
So I'm hoping there's another something
coming that's going to tell us like –
Oh, there is.
Oh, good.
Yeah.
I've been reading like comic books,
especially these types of comic books long
enough to where I can kind of feel
like I'm pretty sure I know where this
is going.
But if there's another good swerve,
I'm not going to be mad at it.
Yeah, well,
I mean there are definitely swerves.
I'm a big – I don't want to
give things away,
but I guess what I – No,
let's not spoil anything because I do want
people to come out and support book two,
pick up book one because book one –
If you can't tell,
I was very excited for book one.
I thought it was really good.
Thank you, brother.
Thank you.
Yeah,
issue two is we're in the middle of
making it right now.
We've got the Kickstarter.
We definitely need some resources just to
get it out there, ASAP.
I would love everybody's support if you
can.
I was going to say, though,
I was going to use it to segue
it into I think the comics that kind
of inspired me along the way to make
this,
and for sure –
You know, as I'm writing this,
I'm definitely Brian Azzarello's One
Hundred Bullets absolutely kind of had
that effect on me that you were talking
about.
Yeah.
It was like, you know,
you get a swerve and you're like, oh,
that's really interesting.
And then you kind of get another one
and you're like, oh,
Oh, okay.
So it's going to be this kind of
a story.
And then you get another one and you're
like, whoa, what is going on?
But he's so good at making the pieces
fit.
And he's so good at like showing you,
if you look back, like we were saying,
you give it a second or third read
back.
You're like, oh,
he had this plan from the jump.
This is not, you know what?
We're getting to a question just like that
here in a few minutes.
There's a question coming.
That's going to,
that's very similar to what you just,
the road you were going down,
but let's get there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're going to say, right,
was I definitely that that story certainly
inspired me.
And I think what for real totally inspired
me for this is when I was fourteen
at a ranch camp in in New Jersey,
I think around Freehold,
I I somebody gave me a stack of
strike force moratorium.
But I think it's Brian.
Brian Gillis, I think, wrote it.
I can't remember his name.
Oh my gosh.
It was incredible for me.
I, that series is definitely is directly,
directly impacted me here.
Like doing this project.
It's funny how like just those random
books can have a lasting impact.
And it's like,
it was something that you would pick up
yourself.
Like you would never buy it yourself,
but because somebody gave it to you and
you're like, yeah, I'll read it.
And then you're like,
It's like people giving you a mixtape.
This is so good!
I would have never read this on my
own.
And that's what I love about indie comics.
Nothing against DC,
nothing against Marvel,
but there's just something about
storytelling in indie comics and watching
that artist's or that writer's dreams come
true on pages and, you know...
yeah that to me is yeah i am
really heartened to see how it feels like
because the big dogs went off to play
in in movies uh there's kind of a
vacuum that i can see people look like
their eyes are lighting up and we're all
kind of like oh we might be able
to fill this with so it's it's been
a really fun year for comic books when
it comes to that because there's been a
lot of
Small players hit big this year.
Um, yeah,
the key is the key is can we,
can we get funding systems that keep it
consistent so we can tell long stories,
right?
So that it's not like we burn out
after a few issues.
Cause we just ran out of money.
I I'm really into, um,
the cloud scape comics collective up here
in Vancouver.
a really great group of people,
and they're really good at supporting
artists, you know,
and that's sort of their goal of like,
we're trying to create communities where
it's like,
you're not just making one fun thing.
I mean, you know, it's definitely,
there's a pro-amateur,
pro-am sort of aspect.
Yeah, I know what you mean, yeah.
There's a professional, you know,
for professional objectives,
like those are the kind of efforts of
like,
like where we're trying to find ways
where, you know, we're not,
it's not just like I do two or
three pieces of this thing and we're done.
Like,
how can we make sustaining continual?
Yeah.
And that's really kind of what has
inspired me over the last few months of
doing this type of stuff is it only
took one person asking,
because I had the idea of like, Hey,
I'm just going to put a post up.
and see if any indie creator,
or any creator really,
I didn't care if it was an indie
guy or...
you know, somebody from Marvel or DC,
just like, hey,
I'm just going to post like, hey,
if anybody wants to come on the podcast
and promote their work,
I will provide the platform for that.
You can come on.
We can talk about your work.
We can talk about your story.
But I just want to do that.
You know,
I wanted to talk to comic creators.
Good on you for it.
Yeah, for sure.
And then it kind of like for me,
it kind of blew up from there with
like people were contacting me like, hey,
Can I come on with my Kickstarter?
I'm like, yes.
And now it's like a few times a
month I throw up my thing like, hey,
I provide this service.
I want you to come on.
I want you to talk about your Kickstarter.
I will do what I can to help
you meet your goal at the end of
the day.
I will provide you this stuff and this
is all I need from you basically.
And it's great because then maybe we all
find each other and we start to be
able to pull together those funding
models, right?
Exactly.
Yeah.
And that's a huge service for that, right?
It gives me content.
It helps you start preparing for your
Kickstarter that's about to go live.
And I just love talking to you guys
who care and are so passionate about your
projects.
What's better than that?
Getting to talk to somebody who – it's
about the money because you want to get
your project funded.
But you care so much about the project
anyway that you'll find a way no matter
what to get the project funded.
You know what I'm saying?
You actually give a shit about what you're
trying to put out there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And the passion is there for sure.
And I think Mark Millar said it best
a while back at a convention where he
was like, hey,
Marvel and DC are like nine percent of
the market.
Right.
He was like, it's there.
It's all there.
It's up for grabs right now.
Right.
He would know he's done work for both.
Yeah.
No, just about.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sure.
I think he just so he just rushed
through a book, actually,
which kind of upset me.
He rushed through Vatican City.
It should have been a five or six.
Just my opinion.
I love him.
He's a fantastic comic book writer.
He uses some really fun stories.
I feel like the big publications...
I'm sorry, we're just in Alabama.
But he kind of rushed through it.
It only ended up being like a four
book series.
And was it under Marvel or DC or
was it?
No, no.
It was under Dark Horse, I believe.
Oh, okay.
It was Dark Horse.
Okay.
Yeah.
And it was called Vatican City.
It's about vampires and Vatican City.
And vampires want something hidden
underneath Vatican City.
So basically the world's ended.
The only thing alive right now is
vampires.
They have taken over the world.
And the thing they need is in Vatican
City.
And the only survivors of this apocalypse
is inside Vatican City.
So they're trying to basically convince
humans to retrieve it for them for
immortality.
Oh, wow.
So it was, like I said,
premise on fire.
Perfect Mark Miller story.
I was going to say,
it's one of those ideas where you're like,
I wish I came up with that.
God damn.
Dude, it's Mark Miller.
The dude is like.
You're just so mad.
But he kind of rushed it because he
wanted to go off and work on this.
I think it's a DC project he's working
on.
And it's going to be like a TV
series or something.
So he had other reasons to kind of
rush through stuff because bigger fish
were coming in and he wanted to wrap
up what he was doing.
But it was one of those where I
was like,
if you could have gave us at least
one, maybe two more issues of this book,
it would have been like top notch,
like some of the top tier Mark Miller
stuff.
But he didn't give that to us.
So therefore, I loved it.
Sorry, Mark Miller, but
You hit, but you didn't hit.
You rushed it.
At least that's how I felt about it.
I have no problem with it, Mr. Miller.
I have no problem with it.
No, I'm just kidding.
I would tell him,
and I think he would understand.
He seems like he would be very open
to go.
You're right.
I, for one, welcome our overlords.
Yeah, I –
I, well, I feel like, well,
even he is pinched by- Timelines and
money.
Timelines and absolutely timelines,
money and budget.
And so it should make us all feel,
I mean, it's very,
it's been a very liberating kind of few
years for me as an artist because-
you know i used to just beat myself
up for never being able to get certain
things done and then at some point a
few years ago i was like oh that's
why i couldn't get it done i couldn't
get the money you know and you just
kind of realize how big of a role
that plays in everything oh yeah
everything oh yeah yeah well i mean i
mean again it kind of speaks to a
lot of what's in this story the idea
of the you know the illusion of
merit-based of a merit-based society and
and how much of it actually is actually
dictated of things happening off the field
even though like you said on the field
like if they don't get this energy they're
going to die but you literally and they're
already critically low
going into issue two they are critically
low yeah they're on a losing streak yeah
exactly let's let's let's explore that
some more so let's talk about the the
team that you have on this book a
little bit so the visual and world design
of powerscape is massive we got energy
domes engineered athletes alien
technologies
how did you and i'm sorry if i'm
i'm going to keep forgetting the name of
your artist and i apologize to him stefan
tochev stefan tochev phenomenal artist i
really like what he's doing on the book
yeah just finished how did y'all because
it's just the two of you right
Well, no, there's also Rashid Banda,
who has been instrumental in a lot of
the environmental art concept designs.
Much of the story world sort of
aesthetics.
Stefan has been creating the characters
and their looks and their feel.
He's been creating a lot of logo designs
and just doing like, you know, I mean,
he gets,
a lot of this story was preserved in
my notes through character profiles.
Yeah, I have a notebook over here.
like yeah yeah yeah right yeah yeah yeah
that really is your story i'm working on
something behind the scenes and it's just
like very nice i i write it all
down and eventually i need to transfer it
over to an excel spreadsheet or something
and just yeah oh yeah get it all
organized i'm a scrivener fan just so you
know i'm i'm a big fan okay shout
out to scrivener
sponsor this guy please uh yeah and i
i uh i uh i definitely um yeah
i i uh so stefan really came up
with a lot of their their their looks
their profiles their a lot of their
characterization like you know visually
and i like because everybody is very very
different like from the coach to i guess
the one guy is like i don't know
what he is um almost like the manager
he looked like
It's sort of an assistant coach.
Mel C. Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was, that was the funds, uh, uh,
uh, idea that,
that he's kind of greasy looking,
you know,
you almost look like a politician a little
bit.
My original sketches from like two
thousand one, two thousand two.
I had him basing him off Malik Sealy.
And then I was like, I was like,
and then, and then I, you know,
it was, it was,
it was a little outdated.
It wasn't working for who the character
was.
And, and,
And I mean, you know, rest in peace,
Malik Sealy.
Like, amazing.
But anyway, yeah.
But then Stefan kind of took him and
made him this character.
And I was like, oh, that's, yeah,
that works a lot better for what we're
doing.
So if you're a WWE guy,
he almost reminds me of Paul Heyman.
Yes, I can see that.
Absolutely.
He is a lot like Paul Heyman.
He actually is.
No,
and that was the vibes I got from
him.
I'm like, dude, this almost feels like,
Paul Heyman a little bit.
I like him because he was shooting it
straight with the rookie.
When he realized,
what are you doing with this book?
He's like, I'm not snitching,
but he's like,
I can see you're a cultured person who
is willing to expand not only her mind,
but I can appreciate him for not
snitching.
Yeah, yeah, no, well,
it's like you were saying, right?
What's the reason she's here?
You know, Mel plays a big role,
and he's trying to look for something
different.
Not just for them to win, but,
you know, as we'll see,
Mel is very – Mel's ahead of the
curve usually on everything.
Yeah,
he seems like he's – I don't want
to say he's playing both sides of the
ball,
but he may be playing both sides of
the ball.
And I got a feeling like –
There are characters like that.
There are characters out here playing both
sides of the ball.
I mean,
you can kind of feel that from the
athlete to some perspective.
The coach is kind of like.
Yeah.
I don't really think she's one track,
it feels like.
She's very one track.
Yeah, Kana is.
Rich,
I really think she's very Chun-Li in
appearance, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But she feels like she's very one track
mind, and that's the game.
Yeah, she's so, uh, yeah, I mean, uh,
uh, the, the executive, the, the,
the power structure as we're going to see
is kind of,
there's a public private partnership
happening.
That's running the city.
Uh, the franchise is run by Kena,
who's the executive coach.
And she's a former player,
and she's kind of worked her way up
the ranks.
And she's probably done all this cutthroat
sacrificing for – You can tell because of
the way her character is portrayed.
She's very one-track mind on the game for
a reason.
Yeah, and she's jaded.
She's really jaded.
I can't imagine in this society what it
took for a female –
to get to the position she is in
i don't know how the you know the
infrastructure right no yeah yeah but it's
just one of those i know for a
female coach in general in what seems like
a male dominated sport i'm like it would
almost be impossible
Yeah, I mean, this is definitely,
in this story, it's all genders.
I mean, everybody's on the field.
There are, I mean, you know,
I'm a big, I'm a big, like,
I was a Tisha Penichero fan when I
was, like, from WNBA.
And I used to get my ass kicked
by girls playing basketball, like,
in Venice Beach.
So, like, I'm a big proponent of, like,
you know, it's closer than we think,
you know.
And I think that especially for this,
because, you know,
these are metapowered people.
And they've been genetically engineered
not just to win games,
but to market themselves.
Because in this, this is, you know,
seven hundred years later,
the superhero is a mythical archetype.
And so they're all inhabiting the sort of
look of a superhero archetype.
Yeah, everybody very much has that,
look at me, I'm a superhero.
And it also explains why the rookie was
asking about his endorsement deals.
He's like, look at this.
It's all to keep the butts in the
seats.
It's to keep people engaged.
But then it's really cool because then you
have your main protagonist or who will be
the main protagonist, I think,
in the next issue.
She just looks like us.
Yes.
It doesn't look like anything special,
but I got a feeling she's going to
be very special.
Well,
there's certain people who just have a
feel for a game.
They understand.
They know that it's not about what they're
doing right here.
It's about if they have to figure out
what's the game behind the game.
I'm tracking that.
I'm tracking.
That's what I was thinking too.
I'm like,
I got a feeling she's going to be
this brilliant mind for the game.
Yeah, I don't want to give away much,
but you're- I don't want you to give
it away, but- I mean, maybe I'm just,
I also could just be bad at serving.
This is the chairman's thoughts, okay?
They're not Donald's thoughts.
I also have one that I want to
give a shout out to, to Cindy Long,
who's also working on the book.
She's our graphic designer.
And Cindy kind of,
the press releases in the beginning,
the playoff lineup, you know, that's all,
that's Cindy's work.
That was really cool too.
I really liked that added touch of that.
Yeah, totally.
That was really cool.
Yeah.
And then I'm sorry.
No, no.
Go ahead.
Go ahead about the roster.
Well,
I was going to say the roster is
a collection of literally I have these
guys drawn out in a notebook from two
thousand two.
And I have you know,
they don't look exactly the same.
They've been definitely we kind of put his
input.
We have been changing them.
And then there's a couple of new ones
that I've introduced chemically enhanced.
Yeah, they've all, they've all, yes,
there's, yeah, the, the shiver tank,
right?
The culmination of your training, uh,
is you go into this genetic tank and
you, you,
you get a power unlocked and you kind
of can't plan what it is.
You,
nobody really knows what it's going to be.
It might be something really good for the
field.
It might be useless.
It might be awful.
It might disfigure you, but, and if you,
and if it doesn't work,
you're kind of like, they're like, ah,
you know,
best luck out there kid and so it's
soon in the story we're going to meet
somebody who went through that direction
where it actually just didn't work for
them and they're and they're they're kind
of you know they're one of us now
you know and what that's like and stuff
and uh yeah i'm i i don't want
people thinking it's just kind of like
sports sports sports right yeah no no
there's a lot of real deep stuff happening
in just even the first part of the
story yeah thank you
And but how do you balance the spectacle
of this sci fi action with the
philosophical,
emotional core of this story?
Because it's a lie.
I mean, you get the sci fi elements,
you get a little cyberpunk element,
but you're telling a story,
a deep story in this book.
what you mean it's not deep as yet
but you can tell it's about to go
to a deep place as you're getting more
toward the end of issue one that there's
going to be some deeper elements come into
play in it so how did you kind
of balance all that out because you could
have went just pure sci-fi and said we're
going sci-fi and we're not going to give
you anything else yeah i mean
So I I definitely there is a there
is a big vision and a message.
I think I kind of want to I
don't want to say I want to give
a message here so much as ask a
question,
ask a question and take a few hundred
issues, you know,
maybe to answer it and or to see
if we can answer it right and just
see where it goes.
And I think first and foremost,
it's really about keeping it,
keeping it about the characters.
and knowing that characters are people and
that there isn't anyone here who's like,
you know.
That's what you really nailed in issue one
is letting it be known that they are
still people.
Yeah,
there are people who do awful evil things.
There are people who do evil things.
Yeah,
we meet one of those in the story
very early on, one of the players.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Yeah,
I think that's Troy you're mentioning.
Troy, yeah, yeah.
Troy is messed up.
Troy is a messed up guy, yeah.
I had to stare at that scene for
a couple of minutes to figure out what
was going on.
What was happening, yeah.
That's Troy's fan tribe.
I was like, what the hell?
hell is going on here?
I was like, oh,
that's what's going on here.
All the K-pop guys have their own little
fan tribes.
I was like, yeah, okay.
I'm so glad you said K-pop.
That's immediately having lived in Korea
for many, many years.
There are some characters in the story.
There's some that are hardcore.
They will kill for their idol.
There are some characters in the story who
will.
That is going that that that's that's in
there that we got.
We got things planned like that for sure.
I mean, yeah, I mean, you're doing it.
You're doing it.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Celebrity worship is called like it is.
You know, it is.
It's very real and it can be very
scary.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And it can be it can be very
economically productive.
too right it can be very it can
be that as well yeah and and and
so i uh i i really want um
no matter what my rule is um i
don't think of anyone as pure evil i
think of definitely there are going to be
conflicting interests there's going to be
antagonists protagonists but you know
everybody has a side of them that is
you know you know there is something good
and pure but but the world's kind of
done this to us and put us in
this this uh this system where we i
mean we we put ourselves
literally they put themselves in the
situation they're in in this world whether
it may not have been the current
generation living there but their previous
generations are the reason why we're at
this point we're at in the comic book
Yeah,
and that brings the other side I wanted
to say.
So, you know, Kena is the coach,
like I was saying, and that's sort of...
Ironically,
it's kind of the private sector side is
the franchise,
but then the Benton family runs the public
side.
They run the city.
They're part of the city commission,
and the city commission is technically
under the franchise team, but Benton,
Alroy Benton, who is the...
He's the mayor magistrate.
We'll meet him in the next issue.
He is sort of...
he's so well he was the one that
was making announcements in the beginning
in it toward the end of the story
in the press release he made he yeah
he was the one that wrote the press
release and troyle is is uh is his
son and uh uh so troyle's a you
know that's why he's called necro baby
right is he's yes and uh the the
the benton family is kind of like this
the opposite of kena where they did not
have to work to earn anything and they've
sort of they've inherited the bones of
of what is left of British Columbia and
Washington State, essentially.
And they sort of, you know,
they've been very good at keeping
themselves sort of leveraged in a power
system where even though they don't
technically have anything to do with
playing the game,
they control enough of the things you need
for your society.
including the power structure and the
power network and the power grid,
that they have to be invited in the
room on the decision making.
And so that's sort of the background
tension that's happening throughout the
story is Benton and Kena are kind of,
you know,
they have to play this outward dance to
everybody where they're working together
for the city.
Yeah.
But very clearly they're trying to screw
each other.
At odds.
Yeah.
Someone's trying to become the big dog.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So earlier I cut you off a little
bit because you're getting towards some
Easter eggs.
And I wanted to stop you because I
had a question about that.
And now we're at that point where are
there any hidden Easter eggs or lore
details that you're particularly proud of
that fans should be on the lookout for
when they back this on Kickstarter later?
Oh, boy.
Yeah.
Okay.
Look for... Watch for background stuff.
So the next couple issues is going to
be the game itself.
We're going to watch the game happen.
I mean,
we get just enough sampling in issue one,
which is like...
fucking brutal part of my language but oh
that was brutal yeah yeah but it was
like poetic justice as well because you're
like I'm not so I'm not gonna give
it away but yeah I'm not someone who
wants to sell it on on on violence
right but I did kind of want to
immediately be like
You know, stakes.
So here's what was great about it.
The story,
there's nothing that leads you to the
point to believe that Powerball is
violent.
I mean, there's hints about it,
but there's nothing that you can't see
nothing until the game actually kicks off.
And then it's almost immediate in your
life.
I mean,
it's it's twenty eighth century medical
technology.
So, like, you can repair almost anything.
But I think about what's as much.
But it's just that pure I figured,
you know, with alien technology and stuff,
we're at that point where.
Things can be regenerated and people can
be repaired.
In theory, it could be.
But A, it's not an exact science.
So that's an Easter egg.
It's not an exact science.
And B,
what does that do to you psychologically
as a person?
Yeah.
you're being, you know,
that the whole city's kind of going to
throw you out there and you might just
get chopped up and then they patch you
up and they do throw you out again.
And, you know,
I'm really interested in the effect.
Cause I've seen that,
I think up close with, with athletes,
with myself, you know,
my own injuries and things of like how,
um,
The body keeps score, right?
And the body absorbs what happens.
And yeah,
how that really changes who you are and
your personality.
That was actually a major reason why I
loved Strike Force Moratory.
Sorry,
I don't want to go throw you off
from your question.
No, no.
I mean,
this is why I influenced you to write
this book.
Yeah.
Well, we got to reference back to it.
Please reference back.
Everybody should go should go read it.
I mean, I mean, Strike Force Moratory.
What's so cool about it is they you
know,
it's an alien invasion and their people
get turned into superheroes to fight the
aliens.
But that they're with the process of it.
It you're only you are now only going
to be alive for up to a year.
And then by the end of your year,
you burn up and you spontaneously combust
in this awful death.
So you can see how when the clock
is ticking,
when people are approaching the year being
up, the characters are like...
the trauma is there, you know,
and they can't really execute things as a
team all the time because of it.
And I'm really interested in that because
I think in every, you know, everything,
so many efforts of every aspect of society
I've seen of people trying to, you know,
get together and organize and do things.
um uh it is so hard for us
all we you know we really if we
don't confront the self first we kind of
useless in a collective effort and uh uh
i think that that's you know something i
kind of want to explore in that and
yeah i guess that would segue to a
couple i would pay attention to ad boards
add background yeah perhaps i would say so
i always tell people when i'm reading a
comic book i pay attention to the
background art
Because there's always stuff hidden,
not everywhere,
but you never know where you're going to
find a little piece of something.
Yeah, that's like a little Easter egg.
That's why it's like, oh,
I read that comic book in five minutes.
I'm like, that's cool.
It took me thirty because I was literally
studying backgrounds.
Yeah, I'm that person, too.
That's how I feel like a page.
A page should tell like an entire story
in and of itself.
And Stefan and I are on a really
good page with that, pun unintended,
where it's its own three-act structure in
the page.
And each one ends on a cliffhanger in
a way.
And I really enjoyed that as I read
volume or the first issue was that it
felt like multiple stories playing out all
at the same time,
but they all made sense and all
corresponded and all led to the same
place.
So you nailed that.
You nailed it.
I mean, we'll see how it goes.
I mean, it might be bumpy,
but the major Easter egg is the map
for sure.
The other franchises,
I've thrown some characters on the
Instagram that are from other teams.
I haven't announced what the teams are
yet.
But we got the teams.
We know who we are.
We got a lot of the roster lineups.
We got almost all of them.
And I am leaving some room for the
Kickstarter if anyone has any idea for a
character that they think would be a
player.
I'm open to a cameo character as well.
I'm glad you just led us there because
we're going to talk about the Kickstarter
now.
Oh, cool.
Thanks.
So issue one is complete.
Getting ready to start the campaign for
issue two.
Yeah, stores are in BC right now.
I'm hoping to get some some hard copy.
I'm sorry,
hard copies are in stores in BC right
now.
It's available on the Patreon for digital
download as well.
I'm sorry to cut you off there.
And then yeah,
So are we playing in like a six
issue arc here?
Are we playing in a light?
Hey,
we're going to go until the good Lord
says we ain't going no more.
My original plan.
Well, on terms, I,
I got to think in stepping stones.
Um, I've, I've got, um, I've got, uh,
six issues planned out right now for a
graphic.
Not what I'm trying to do is try
to get to a six issue graphic novel,
uh, copy done.
I think that's always a good place right
there.
You get six issues,
you do a hard copy or a trade
paperback, an omnibus,
whatever you want to call those.
I'm sorry.
I was just going to say,
I always appreciate when that's done
because you get to do it all five
at once.
Absolutely.
There's something satisfying about reading
a five to six issue trade paperback.
It's very satisfying.
yeah and my hope is people are you
know are into it enough that they'll
they'll they'll they'll uh they'll
definitely want to um help help us get
that and and achieve that um i am
a big fan of floppies for the sake
of i i just love the days of
i can't you know i feel like netflix
really ruined the anticipation aspect
storytelling where it's like
i can't binge this i gotta wait for
them to make it and i yeah i
i sort of i i i want to
do that with this one as well um
i on terms of my long-term story i
mean yeah there's i mean i there's ten
volumes planned really
I don't know if we're going to I
don't want to be the obnoxious writer
that's like, oh,
but I could write a hundred of these
because there's I think I'm going to
always check in with my with my with
my audience.
Yeah.
And like, well, in the audience as well.
And, you know,
how are we feeling about this?
Should I get to the end?
I know what my ending is.
I know where I want to go with
it.
seeing that's the signs of a good writer
is you have you know your beginning you
know your middle you know you're in i
don't think you should really execute a
story until you actually see the ending in
your head not that you not that you
know exactly how you're going to get there
but i mean but to have that idea
you know where you want to go
You know where you want to be at
this point,
and you know how you want to start
it.
Sometimes along the way,
things will fluctuate and change.
Your ending may even change,
but you know how to get there.
Yeah, and I should have meant that.
I'm not somebody who has the right to
lecture anybody about how they want to do
storytelling.
In my experience,
when I was able to see the ending
is when I was like,
I can step on the gas,
and I can get this done.
And it would come out,
and it would write it.
I'm a big fan of Elizabeth Gilbert.
he pray love i think and her yeah
mantra of wanting to go back to the
to the greeks who believes that the
thought is sort of you know is using
us as a vessel and that you know
when you remove yourself from it and you
just kind of let it do its thing
it really does you know magic can happen
and uh i'm doing that with this story
i think in in my own process in
a way it's teaching me a lot about
my own you know what how much should
i get so much anxiety goes down when
you realize like
Just trust whatever the hell is coming out
of your fingertips right now.
Just trust whatever is happening.
Without spoilers,
why can people expect from issue two?
So, yeah, as I said,
issue one ended with Lone Twin City,
what's left of St.
Paul and Minneapolis essentially becoming
–
uh uh the beacons they're called uh they
are they're about to start uh over the
first uh core ball and issue two is
definitely uh the game and we get uh
it is a it's a straight up almost
non-stop action issue uh we will learn
more about uh about our main characters
and where she comes from uh what's
happened in the past um uh and then
our you know our issue after that is
the conclusion of the game and then after
that's the aftermath
uh uh and we kind of learned how
how uh you know how how the behind
the scenes political system of this city
sort of handles a game and how do
you react to a game and what are
all the decisions that are made afterwards
and and then how do you prepare yourself
to do it again as a team especially
when you all kind of hate each other
which you definitely got those vibes in
issue one then they were just there to
do what they got to do
yeah for sure yeah I mean I mean
most professional situations devolve into
that it's like I just all right let's
just do it with the thing we need
to do together here I need about forty
million this year and then I don't care
yeah I've been I'm fascinated like that
with pro athletes because you know when
they're in the moment playing you'll see
them like you know they're fist bumping
they're not in each other and then like
later on they'll be like oh yeah I
hate that guy I never liked him here
It's like, wow,
like like the the the ability to
compartmentalize to that extent is I think
it does.
I mean,
if you look at it from the big
umbrella perspective, right, these guys,
they play together, they win together,
they eat together.
They necessarily got to like each other.
But at the end of the season,
if they did well enough,
independent of how their contract is
structured, they have built in bonuses.
So it behooves all of them to play
well together and to try to go out
and meet these objectives that are going
to get them their big player bonuses at
the end of the year.
So it makes sense to that perspective.
Yeah, for sure.
And that's valid, right?
And it's justified because that's the
system they're in.
And that's what a lot of this is,
is like, you know,
I see no difference a lot between the
professional sports system and, you know,
oil and gas.
Like, I'm kind of like, yeah, this is,
I feel like everyone's incentivized to
sort of get certain things for their
region, for their constituents,
for their
for their corner of the world.
And it's all sort of bumping along.
And everyone kind of has a moment
sometimes where you're like,
why are we doing this?
And someone maybe tries to change it.
And then that whole thing collapses on
them.
And then you have to make a choice.
Like, it seems impossible to change this.
So then what do we do?
And we're definitely, hopefully,
that's the sort of themes we're going to
explore in the future.
No,
I'm excited to see what's coming up next.
But coming up next with you is I
want you to walk me through your
Kickstarter rewards.
I know you've already I stopped you
earlier.
You're getting a little ahead of ourselves
here.
You're trying to show off your cool
T-shirt.
You already brought up the cameo.
What else can people expect when they back
yeah so for sure um um my what
i'd like to do is pair the uh
uh the first issue with the second issue
uh definitely you know digital downloads
uh uh with with discounts right so that
it's cheaper to purchase so there people
will be able to catch up and get
issue one as well as issue two
absolutely absolutely um i'm also uh
definitely uh i got it got a bunch
of a batch of uh issue one to
mail to everybody those they're not going
to come at the same time because issue
two will be done later but uh i'm
happy to you know unless we might be
it might be cheaper to have to do
it as as i say with everything going
on in
with the Canadian post right now,
it's probably going to be easy.
Yeah.
Well, the tariffs too,
that the tariffs are kind of, uh, yeah,
that too.
I forgot about those.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, but, but for sure, I mean, uh,
uh, within the next few months,
I'll definitely, uh, we'll make,
we'll make two issues for sure.
Throw in a t-shirt.
Uh,
we have a sneak preview splash page from
issue two at that.
I'm that I'm, uh, uh,
working on making as a poster that, uh,
I didn't see that.
I seen you had posted that.
yeah yeah yeah and that will be colorized
that'll be that'll be finished and set to
go uh that's where it's at right now
and uh be happy to we will we'll
definitely send that as part of bundles as
well uh uh the t-shirts as well we've
got we've got a white version we've got
a black version and we have uh
Uh, uh, uh, what else do I have?
Oh, we've got a credit lists for sure.
Right.
If you want to be, uh, on, on,
uh, on the credit list of issues, please,
by all means, we would love that.
We would appreciate that.
We want to want to reserve a space
of a page to thank our, our, uh,
not always think that's really cool.
Yeah.
But our Kickstarter.
Oh yeah.
I mean, I, you know,
all of this stuff is a labor of,
I can't do any of this alone,
you know, and if it's,
I'm happy to say there's a few kit
starters out there that are getting mailed
to people to say the chairman in the
back.
Oh, nice.
That's how I do all of them.
Yeah,
I don't I don't ever use my real
name.
I just like Yeah, chairman.
Nice.
Okay.
And the stretch some of the stretch goals
we have is variant covers for sure.
But also we I already have about I've
got a playing card game for this for
that's based on Powerball itself.
yeah i've seen that was mentioned in the
um in the kit starter home page was
like you had a card game yeah um
i i debated kind of i mean because
i've i've got a whole bunch of it
right now but i want to keep play
testing it uh it went through one play
test and it did pretty well uh i
want to do another one uh and maybe
probably another one after that too just
really rock solid it yeah to turn that
into a verb to rock solid
But once that is there, yeah,
if we can get the Kickstarter to that
stretch goal,
I would give definitely pledges that went
over a certain amount.
yeah I definitely want to give the cards
to people as well and that is something
I I think will be really fun because
we already have so many characters and and
and it's essentially it's not about it's
it's essentially three to three six to six
actually I think and and you know or
seven to seven just like the game of
the comic book itself but sort of three
to three lined up in college the play
Powerball
I guess.
Yeah.
Basically get more number points.
Right.
But every card has a variation that is
based on the character's power.
Oh, that's really cool.
Yeah.
What they can do, what they can't do.
And yeah.
And you, and you do it three times.
And if you win two out of three,
right?
You win the whole thing.
Arbiter bots are kind of these, like,
joker cards almost, that, like,
if you get all three of them,
the game is over,
you win no matter what.
That's really cool.
Yeah, it's been fun.
Shout out to Runtime Data,
which is the group that helped me develop
the game.
Sorry.
That's really cool.
No, no, I was just saying, I'm like,
that's some really cool, like,
stretch goals.
The Kickstarter as a whole, I mean...
Thank you.
I'm keeping it.
I'm trying to keep it simple.
Simple,
but there's a lot going on as well.
Yeah.
But it's not overkill.
I know some campaigns are just like
overkill the hell, you know?
yeah i mean i i i love i
love doing the merch i love i love
kind of like making things that are
building around the story but i also i
want to i want to keep it to
the story and i also don't want to
overextend myself right to where it's
crashing down a little um uh but it's
been i mean it's been it's been i've
loved and everybody's response has been
wonderful so far i'm really i'm really
grateful that uh people are responding the
way they are with it and uh i
am um
Yeah,
we're just looking for a few thousand to
essentially get us over the hump for issue
two,
and then that'll set us up nicely for
issue three.
I really want two and three to be
like boom, boom, right?
One after the other.
That's always really cool.
I really enjoy when I see a Kickstarter
seed its goal,
and they kept it simple from the stretch
goal perspective.
That way they have capital going into the
very next issue,
and they can just start it right away.
I always enjoy
seeing it done that way especially when it
more than exceeds expectations and just
being able to go all right thanks to
everybody i have this much capital and i
can now just immediately start issue two
or three in this case yeah and i
mean even if even if it you know
falls short it is my first time trying
all of this so i'm i'm expecting a
bit of an uphill so did you not
kick starter for issue one
No, no.
Issue one is, is all me.
I, I just, I, um, I, I,
I funded it.
I, uh, I wanted to,
I didn't want to start all this on
a Kickstarter because I kind of wanted to
earn the currency and just earn, earn,
earn.
I wanted people to see that I'm serious
about making a natural following for it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it was great.
You know, I, um, I just,
I just don't look at my, my,
my bank account too much.
Uh,
but you know what we were talking about
this before we went live is, yeah,
there's a lot of really good print places
in and around you.
Yeah, no, I mean, well, the, the,
the print shops are,
everything's going up quite a lot.
And so it's tough to get it all
out.
Uh, but I'm learning a lot of,
I've been talking to a lot of, uh,
vets out here.
Uh, uh, you know, I, uh,
Jeffrey Ellis is one that comes to mind
right now.
Uh, John Anderson.
Um,
guys who have been doing comic publishing
for a while.
And they're really good at like, you know,
it's like,
I've already had a couple of moments where
like, come here, come here, look,
look at this page.
Like,
do you really need the page to look
like this?
You know, like just realizing how,
you know,
without just cause I wanted higher
quality,
I stumbled into like my first batch was
like, you know,
the shit looked like a travel catalogs,
you know?
And I was like, Oh wait, yeah, no,
I don't like that as a reader.
I don't know.
Very high gloss page.
Yeah, and I'm just like, oh,
what am I doing?
Here's what I'm realizing, guys.
Don't get me wrong.
Those look absolutely beautiful.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely stunning.
But it increases the price of the book
to like ten to twelve dollars a pop.
It sure does.
And so I'm just sort of realizing how
much I have to – I'm not good
at being budget conscious when it comes to
–
So, I mean, if you look at what,
like, Marvel, DC, Image,
and all those guys do,
they do a very high-quality cover and back
page with a nice press board,
and then the inside is your standard page.
Yeah, which I like.
Texture-wise, I like that, actually.
I do, too.
I like to feel like a page.
Like,
combined with the cardstock covers and the
pages on the inside,
it has a very distinct smell, and it's...
refreshing to me.
It's something about opening it up and
reading a brand new comic book,
which especially once you get to like the
center page is, yeah, dude, it's,
if you read comic books,
you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Yeah, no,
I know exactly what you're talking about.
I mean, you know, old,
old eighties copies of Captain America or
something, you know, and, and,
and it just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
it's getting that,
that memory print from newspaper.
Yeah, exactly.
I do like that.
I do.
I do.
I do.
I try to leave room for, you know,
there are I'm of a generation that like
that.
And there's maybe a lot of people that
don't.
And and I'm also kind of, you know,
I've been out of the party for a
while, you know,
and I'm just coming back in like, hey,
you know,
and everything is I really love where all
the different directions.
A lot of the storytelling is gone and
a lot of like traditional characters
getting caught up.
kind of reconceptualized in ways that are
really cool.
I love that stuff.
I love like the variations and everything.
I don't want to be like, yeah,
I'm hip and cool too, you know,
and do what I'm not, you know,
and overextend what I'm not.
So that's another rule for my storytelling
with all of this is I'm really just
going to tell the story
from like a place of what I know
is real and true.
And I'm going to stress that it's,
you know, it's understandable.
At the end of the day,
that's really all you can do.
You don't want to overcomplicate it.
I always go back to keeping it simple.
Yeah.
And I think keeping it simple tells the
best stories.
Yes, absolutely.
Because once you start convoluting stories
and characters and that kind of stuff,
it just becomes one of those where you're
like,
they tried way too hard on this and
it's almost unreadable.
I read a book like that not that
long ago.
The premise was amazing.
And the art, amazing.
but they,
some characters weren't fleshed out
enough.
Some were,
you might as well had just flushed down
the toilet because they got really fleshed
out.
And then you're just kind of looking at
it.
Like they tried too hard and it shows.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And,
and they usually self-correct on issue
two.
Thankfully in this case,
issue two was very fleshed out,
very well done.
You're like, Oh God,
somebody finally pulled them to the side
and said, Hey,
this ain't it.
You need to fix this, this, and this.
And then you got something.
And thankfully the person listened.
And when they rolled out issue two,
you're like, that's what they should.
That's what issue one should have been.
Yeah, well,
and it's so hard when you first start
executing it, right?
Because so much of story is like,
I'll write a whole setup and I'm like,
what am I even doing with this setup?
This setup is just for me to understand
who these people are.
And now I'm going to cut this thing
off and I'm going to start it here.
Yeah,
that's one of those where you flush out
off screen and then you bring the story
back over.
You storyboard it,
then bring the story over.
Yep.
So much, so much of story structure is,
is,
is cut and paste and puzzle making and,
and it's, and it's fun in theory,
but when you're doing it,
it's so nerve wracking because it's like,
you know, ah,
you don't want to leave anything out.
You know, there's always a key thing.
Like I can't forget this key thing.
It has to go in this book somewhere.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
And I've seen some people leave that key
out and you're like, Ooh, I'm like,
I'm pretty sure there's a point in here
somewhere that they were trying to make.
They just never did it.
Yeah.
And it's, it's tough, man.
I mean, you know, Hey, I, you know,
I might, I might, I might join them.
You never, you never know.
I think if you continue down the path
you're on right now with issue one flowing
directly into issue two and picking up
right where it left off,
I think you're going to be golden, dude.
I really do.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
But with this book being a lifelong
project evolving over two decades,
what do you want your readers to walk
away from after finishing the next issue?
Oh, the next issue.
Just the first two issues in general.
Yeah.
I think I want them to walk away
with a feeling that, yeah,
this is about systemic change.
This is about systemic competition.
This is about us.
It's about everything around us.
It's about everything that came before us.
And it's about, you know, and that,
you know,
I'm not trying to provide an answer for
that or a solution for that.
But my hope is it gets them to
think about solutions for themselves and
for their, you know, their own backyards.
And, you know,
if we all feel like something's like
the...
if we all feel like the roots have
been rotten for a long time in the
world we live in uh uh you know
we gotta trust that we have to uh
accept that it's been like that for all
of humanity like twenty thousand years ago
seven hundred years ago seven hundred
years into the future and uh
what does that you know what is it
that we're all missing because i refuse to
believe that that's just an endless cycle
and we're just going to keep doing it
right uh i do believe that there is
you know an evolution that happens in us
i do believe we have the ability to
coexist with you know our planet our
surroundings with each other uh and uh and
i i have a my my mother always
calls it um
pessimistic optimism.
I have this pessimistic optimism about us
as a society.
I'm pretty sure those things go together.
No, it's oxymoronic for a reason.
But it won't make you think about it.
It is something.
It is this idea of like, yeah,
we go through hurt and we go through
pain and we learn in the worst way
imaginable, but we learn.
And
I guess I kind of want them to
just sort of like be in that mind
state for this story.
Like, yeah, I'm with you.
Let's see what it is.
And I will try to deliver that as
best I can.
And I'm really looking forward to it.
I'm excited,
chomping out the bit about like kind of
where to go with it.
I do not want people to think I'm
telling them what to do with it,
you know?
I'm just going to sort of present.
This is like a reflection, so to speak,
right?
We'll see where it goes.
I like it, dude.
And, you know, sports.
No, dude,
I absolutely love where this is going.
Gotten to read the first book.
I'm absolutely in love and just absolutely
ecstatic for the Kickstarter to officially
kick off.
Now that's where we're at.
Let everybody know where they can find you
and when your Kickstarter is kicking off.
All right.
Kickstarter is due to kick off in about
three more days.
So we're probably going to kick off on
the sixth.
Are we going to have a lunchtime launch
or an afternoon launch?
Most likely,
I guess it depends on where we are
on the coast.
I mean, for me, Pacific Standard Time,
I'm setting it up to be a lunchtime
launch,
which might be an afternoon launch.
It'll be an afternoon launch for me, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I'll try to do something like that.
I might make it the fifth.
if we, you know, maybe to catch Wednesday.
Stay tuned.
I'll definitely, you know,
definitely no matter what,
get on the link now.
Sign up for notifications.
You can find me on Instagram.
My name, Donald Tom Scapello.
You can find me,
you can find Powerscape itself on
Instagram, powerscape underscore comics.
Same thing on Blue Sky.
uh powerscape universe i think uh
powerscape underscore universe but if you
find me on blue sky you can you
can click to the powerscape uh social
media as well we also have a patreon
uh which hopefully is here in the link
too yeah so i went through and updated
all all the links to thank you
this story with uh his uh blue sky
instagram and patreon as well as the kit
starter so if you hit the links below
the video you will find it or on
the updated ad that i did for this
conversation everything is down there in
the in the the links so yeah
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you so much.
Yeah, and that's, you know,
you can join as a free member if
you want.
You give what you can, of course,
to the Kickstarter within, you know,
whatever you're comfortable with.
And I would just definitely encourage if
everybody could just share it.
Just share the Kickstarter as far and wide
to anyone you think is into sci-fi,
into sports, into superheroes, metahumans,
plus sports, right?
This is really a fun combination of all
of the above.
yeah yeah for sure for sure it's that
is that's my life that's what i so
i grew up i like it yeah yeah
all right so civilization may fall but the
game always goes on donald thank you so
much for coming on and joining the council
tonight and for sharing the vision behind
powerscape man it's a story about power
performance and the fragile line between
spectacle
and survival everybody head over give him
a like give him some follows go over
to kickstarter sign in hit that notify me
bell that way you will be notified when
this kickstarter launches and as always
support independent comments and support
the usdn heck yeah yeah yeah donald
I want to be the guy to welcome
you officially to the Council of Nerds and
let you know that PowerScape is USDN
approved.
Wow.
Thank you very much, Chairman.
This was a pleasure.
First order of business at the council.
I guess, where's the washroom?
I think I got to go.
I told you to go before we started.
This is a pleasure, man.
Chairman, this was awesome.
Thank you so much for your support,
for what you're doing for everybody.
Absolutely, dude.
Heck yeah, man.
I'm honored to be a part of the
council, for sure.
Just hang out for a few minutes.
I'm going to end this and we'll come
back.
All right.
Thank you.
Peace.
Everybody enjoy.