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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.
It’s about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
• The rise of indie comics
• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
Thanks for watching!
What is up, everybody?
And welcome to the United States
Department of Nerds,
where we are for the people,
by the people,
and of the people.
Every great legend begins with the story,
but the fantasy worlds that stay with us
long after the final page aren't built on
magic alone.
They're forged through history,
shaped by sacrifice, enriched by myth,
and carried forward by characters whose
journeys reveal that destiny is often far
greater than they ever imagined.
Within the world of The Legend of Kaiden,
ancient civilizations, forgotten truths,
and powerful forces converge to create a
fantasy universe where every discovery
opens the door to an even larger mystery.
Rather than revealing all of its secrets
at once,
the series invites readers to explore its
rich lore one chapter at a time.
rewarding those willing to venture deeper
into its ever-expanding world.
As Issue Two prepares to launch,
the journey continues with new challenges,
greater states,
and another step into a carefully crafted
epic.
For creator Jesse Wolf,
The Legend of Kaiden represents more
than an independent comic it's the
realization of a long-term vision built
through thoughtful world building original
storytelling and a commitment to creating
a fantasy saga that grows with each issue
with the Kickstarter campaign for issue
two on the horizon Jesse continues to
expand the universe designed to captivate
both long-time fantasy fans
and readers discovering Kaiden for the
very first time.
The next chapter is almost here,
bringing new challenges, deeper mysteries,
and another opportunity for readers to
journey further
into the world of Kaiden.
As independent fantasy continues to find
its audience,
stories like this remind us that some of
the most ambitious worlds in comics are
built one issue at a time.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the Council of Nerds is now in session.
Jesse, welcome to the USDN, my friend.
Thank you for having me.
That was a...
I went a little long on that one.
Got me out of breath reading the intro.
Oof.
Dude,
that was a fun intro to write and
to read, by the way.
But Jesse,
before we dive into the legend of Kaiden,
I would love for you to tell everybody
about you and the person behind the pages,
just about your journey into storytelling.
Was there a particular comic book that
kind of got you into this?
Just who is Jesse?
Well, Jesse is an avid video game player,
reader, and of course writer.
What are you playing right now?
Right now I'm playing the remaster of
Final Fantasy Tactics.
I'm playing the remaster of Black Flag.
I gotta get that stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Definitely got to get that one.
That one's amazing.
I heard the remake is very good, too.
I got a huge backlog,
so I'm trying to just get through my
backlog first, then I get your stuff.
Yeah.
I'm through mine, finally.
That's why I'm able to start playing this
one, finally.
Yeah.
But yes, I actually work in a college.
That's my day job, doing education stuff.
And on my weekends and any time I
have off, I'm doing this.
I'm writing.
So I actually started off with writing
novellas in college.
Yeah.
Nice.
I was in Baruch.
I was like,
I believe it was either my last year
or second to last year.
I was talking,
I was working the job there.
It was in the library.
I was like fixing printers and stuff.
And I was talking with my friend who
worked there too.
And I was just talking about like my
ideas and like,
I had a lot of stories in my
head.
I just never really thought to write them
down.
And then my friend said, well,
why don't you write them down?
And I was like,
why don't I write them down?
So there you go.
Started with that.
So I started making novellas,
just random stuff I thought out of my
head, just writing stories.
And then over the years,
that was like back in,
I think it was like,
And then I started publishing,
just self-publishing,
giving it to friends,
doing little small events here and there.
And people that were reading them were
saying,
you have a very visual writing style.
Why don't you do a comic book?
And I'm like, I can't draw.
How do I do that?
So then I started that journey.
I started figuring out what it takes to
really make a comic book.
I read comic books growing up,
but I wasn't, I would say,
super into them.
I did the main three stuff, Spider-Man,
Superman, Batman, that stuff.
Then I lost touch with it for a
little while.
But then I was like,
then that suggestion came to me.
And I'm like,
how would I do that for someone who
doesn't draw?
So then I figured out how do you
write in a comic book style,
like doing dialogue and putting out scene
descriptions and all the stuff you need
when you work with an artist.
Then I found an artist originally through
freelancer.com where I did my first two
stories because The Legend of Kaiden is
actually my third series.
I have two other ones from way before.
And then I found out that my cousin
wanted to be a comic artist.
And I'm like, okay,
so we're going to work on this third
one.
So that's me and my cousin are doing
Legend of Kaiden.
Oh, that's really dope.
You're able to bring in family and make
it a family thing.
So that's really cool.
And so now that I know that,
like you've had the chance to kind of
watch him grow as a artist.
How has that journey been for you getting
to watch him kind of mature and become
an artist?
Oh, it's been wonderful.
He's very good.
Even before we started doing the comic
book, I always liked his writing.
I always liked his drawings and things
like that.
And then he went to school for it.
He went to North Carolina.
He went to a...
I can't think of the name of the
school,
but he went to one of those art
schools down there.
And like...
First, he started with the prologue issue.
His style with each issue was gross.
It gets better.
He gets more confident in his style,
and it just really shows off on the
page.
Dude,
that's really cool that you're getting to
work, A,
with family and getting to watch his
journey
as an artist at the same time that's
really cool this is the first time that's
happened here on the podcast where we have
a cousins working on a book together and
you're getting to see his artistic journey
kind of like grow as the book you
know gets developed with this so that
that's really cool to to get to see
that and hear you tell that story um
so
Walk us through a little bit of the
philosophy and introduce Kaiden to the
world.
The philosophy is that I wanted to make
a fantasy story that everybody can kind of
see themselves in.
Like, media these days, like,
they have all different kinds of
characters, yes.
But a lot of the ones I see,
like, they have people that are, like,
put into a checkbox.
Like, they have the token black person,
the token gay person.
There's a token person that's just there
for just that.
Like, they don't have a whole personality.
All they are is that.
And I want to do a good job.
Like I wanted my characters to be actual
characters.
It's like, yes, maybe they're black,
maybe they're gay, maybe they're trans,
but that's a part of their character.
It's not all that they are.
So that was the philosophy I wanted to
start with.
And then I started from there and I
wanted to create an actual world around
that.
So I'm like, I like fantasy stuff.
Like what kind of world that I can
create that organically can have these
people in it?
It doesn't feel like a tag on or
an add on just to kick off a
checkbox.
Dude, that's freaking awesome, man.
I love that.
That was the best answer ever.
Like, that was... Like, oh, my God.
How do I explain this answer?
Like...
I've not heard it put it that way
before.
And it is absolutely amazing.
I love that.
Representation matters in all of comic
books.
And to hear you say,
I developed my characters and then I built
a world to put my characters in is
something I absolutely love to hear.
And right on, man.
That's great.
That's a clip right there if I've ever
seen one.
But so as the creator,
how much of Kaiden already exists beyond
what readers have seen?
I know we're coming up on issue two
in October.
Are there histories, kingdoms,
characters waiting for their moment that
they have not seen yet?
Or is it one of those where you're
kind of like you're building this world
one issue at a time as well?
Actually,
how I create stories is I start with
the characters,
then I get the beginning and the ending.
So I know how it starts,
and I know how it ends,
and then I fill in the middle.
So I already have,
I haven't written it all down yet,
but I have it all swirling in my
head, a full, first full story arc.
Okay.
So there's going to be a bunch of
characters being introduced issue to
issue.
I've already started with issue three.
I know that's going to be my main
lore dump issue.
It's also going to have the action in
there.
Because what Legend of Karin is,
it's a fantasy action comic.
So I want to make sure every issue
has a good action scene in it.
That's a big thing for me.
Mandatory, mandatory.
But also, you know,
there's going to be world building.
They're going to build a story around that
as well.
So it's going to have a big lore
dump from the beginning,
and it's going to have its action scene,
and it's going to extend out,
and it's going to keep going like that
issue by issue.
So I have up to the end of
the first story arc done in my head.
Writing it down, I still have to do,
and then making it into the document that
me and my cousin work with.
Like, I do the actual layouts,
the dialogue.
Like, I want six panels in this page,
or like three up top.
three in the middle, three, whatever.
And then I put it together,
and then I give him a little bit
of creative freedom.
Like, I let him do his thing first.
You have to let the art breathe, right?
Yeah.
But then I'm like,
if it really goes against my vision,
I'm like, okay, we got to change that.
But, like, if I see something, like,
I didn't think about it that way,
that's cool.
I let him keep it,
and I leave it.
Yeah.
So...
I've got a bunch ready.
Just, it takes a while.
It's just the two of us.
We both have jobs too.
So like we do this on our spare
time.
So it takes a long time.
We're not like a company that just does
this all like, you know,
that's all of us in this business, man.
Myself.
I have a day job.
I go to,
I wish I could get just sit at
home and edit and do these things and
put out better episodes for people,
you know, higher quality, uh,
I mean,
I already put out really good quality
stuff,
but I really want to take it to
a next level.
And yeah, I know exactly how that feels.
And all of us working in indie comics,
man,
we feel that in our bones because we
got to be able to make stuff and
we got to be able to do what
we do.
And you got to have a day job
to do it.
We got to eat and we got to
have a roof.
And also fun making the comic, you know.
Exactly.
Because I'm all about supporting the
artist.
He may be my cousin,
but I'm also paying him.
It's a job for them.
I don't care, family, friends.
If you're doing art for me,
you're going to get paid.
It's just that simple.
A hundred percent.
How do you decide when to answer a
mystery versus letting readers continue to
speculate?
Because as you write a story,
mysteries are naturally going to happen
within the story.
Do you kind of let those marinate in
your stories or do you kind of like
wait for it to get a couple of
panels over and then like kind of like
give them hints?
Or how do you typically handle that type
of, you know, events or writing,
however you want to say it?
Oh,
I tend to let them marinate for a
little bit,
but I do like sprinkle hints here and
there.
Like, because in the first issue...
This word chitin keeps being thrown around
and no one's telling our main character
what it is.
They're alluding.
They're talking about the responsibility
that comes with it,
but no one is telling him what it
actually is.
You get to learn more about that.
A little bit more in issue two,
but you still don't know exactly what it
is yet.
Issue three is where you find out what
that really is and how that goes about
and what that means for the story and
Because a lot of people sometimes,
if they're not reading carefully enough,
they'll think the main character's name is
Kaiden, and it's not.
Yeah, I mean,
anytime you see something like that,
you immediately go, oh,
he's your main character.
And this is the perfect transition point
for even the richest worlds need someone
for readers to experience through.
And for you...
dimitri serves as the introduction to this
universe what made him the right character
to carry readers into kaiden and we just
answered a couple of questions for people
out there right there yeah so basically
he's almost as new to the world you're
about to find out as you are because
he's lived this very sheltered life he's
in this like hidden forest area due to
stuff that happened way in the past with
prologue
And because of that,
he's been very sheltered.
He's had this very peaceful life,
peaceful people around him.
But he also knows he's had a bit
of a bigger, what we call it,
legacy ahead of him.
Because though he doesn't know the full
reason,
his father has been training him
since day one.
His mother has been teaching him things
since day one.
And the more important people in the
village, like the older ones,
the higher-ups,
they know what the real situation is,
and they know he has to be ready.
But there's also this thing of they don't
want to tell him exactly what it is
yet because they still also want to have
him still have a bit of a childhood.
So it's this toss-up between getting him
ready for what needs to happen and still
letting him be, you know, himself, a kid.
Yeah.
No, and that's...
To me, that's very important,
no matter who you are, where you are,
even in our real world.
Let your kids be kids,
but also prepare them for the world ahead
of them.
And I love that you're doing that with
your character.
But without spoiling issue number two,
how does this next chapter challenge him
in ways readers may not be expecting?
Well,
he's always been surrounded by the people
that loves him and around him.
Now he's by himself.
He had to leave.
He's on this part of it.
He's been to a part of the forest
he's never been to before.
He's seeing a world that he's never seen
before.
And he has to navigate that by himself.
So he has to figure out what he's
doing, who he can trust, who he can't.
And he's going to run into someone that
may or may not help him.
We'll see.
But he has to navigate that and then
also come into realization of what the
power he's been trusted with actually is.
Because in issue two,
you find out what that power can do
for him.
OK, that's really cool, man.
And you put it perfectly because.
It's one of those,
and I love these types of stories, too,
because this kid has this great, yes,
he's sheltered,
but the people around him love him.
They're preparing him for the world,
and then he's in it.
Like, he's
you know bright-eyed bushy tail gullible
you know all the words you can use
to describe a young man entering the world
after living this type of life it's him
you know he has all these vulnerabilities
so he's going to tend to be a
little bit more trusted of people in the
beginning until he kind of learns you know
like not everybody can be trusted so dude
That's great storytelling right there.
I love to see that kind of stuff.
But every new issue is an opportunity to
expand not just a story,
but your own growth as a creator.
So every creator learns something after
releasing their first issue.
What were those biggest lessons that you
took from issue one into now creating
issue two?
Well, one, I did take the feedback of,
because my original issue,
like I was doing the lettering.
And people would say like, it's okay,
but it could be better.
So I took people's, you know,
criticisms to heart.
I looked it over and I'm like,
you know what?
Right.
I could do a bit better with this.
So I fixed it.
Like,
now the issue you saw has the new
lettering, the proper lettering.
So that is, you know,
what we have going forward.
I've showed it to people.
People like it.
Like,
they say this is what they feel like
it should be like.
So I'm like,
I can take criticism so long as it's
constructive.
Like, I can look at it.
I can say it.
Like, okay, maybe we have something.
Because the other word bubbles and stuff
like that,
they were bigger than they needed to be.
Yeah.
And it's just like they were taking up
more space.
And it's hard.
Yeah.
Yeah.
when you're first getting into this and
you're learning a your own style because
you want to be your own style so
you also have to study though other
people's style and you really don't know
until you put it on paper the first
time yourself so really it's a learning
curve and a heavy learning curve and i'm
glad that you kind of took that
constructive criticism and go okay
Got it.
I am now going to apply myself and
make this better.
It's also it's not just that.
It's also like I've learned how to take
criticism and take what should what I feel
could be improved and things that are
actually my style.
I was just like, no,
like this is the style.
This is this is how I want it
to look.
Because some people don't like the fact
that the colors are a bit more vibrant
and saturated.
but I'm like,
that's the style that I want.
Like it's a fantasy book.
I want the colors to be vibrant,
to stand out.
So you may not like that.
And that's, you know, your prerogative.
I understand that, but this is my style,
my, how I want it to look.
So I'm going to keep it that way.
And that's what's amazing about fantasy.
You can have a dark fantasy where it's,
you know,
Dark colors, the dark purples, the blacks,
the dark reds, the dark oranges.
And then you can completely win at that
and have this rich,
vibrant world like Kaiden.
And it'd be that way.
There's no right or wrong way to tell
a fantasy story.
It's literally on the creators of the book
on how this is going to look.
And that's what's great.
It's an independent comic.
There's nobody telling you how...
or to do this or how not to
do this.
It's how do you want your world to
look?
What do you want to see on the
paper as the creator of this book?
Is this the book that you yourself want
to read at the end of the day?
And those are the biggest things right
there.
But when readers finish issue number two,
Like,
what do you hope they're talking about at
the end of this issue?
That's a hard one without giving things
away.
Yeah, I know.
That's always a difficult question.
Well,
it does end on a bit of a,
I guess you could call it a,
not really a cliffhanger, but like, oh,
that's interesting.
Yeah.
So I kind of want people to start
talking about that last panel.
Okay.
yeah that's the best way to put it
right there yeah and it's always the last
panels man like or the last page or
the very last panel or something like oh
like and then you if people are smart
they're going
Hey, Jesse,
when's that next volume coming out?
Exactly.
Also,
if you like when you're going through the
issue,
like you can kind of see hints of
something coming up, but you don't.
But if you're not really looking for it,
you won't really pay attention to it.
So that's why I always tell people to
pay attention when they're reading panels
and when pay attention to the art,
pay attention to what the words are
actually saying to you.
Because there's always really,
if you're a good writer or a good
artist,
you're dropping those little Easter eggs
throughout the issues.
And you just got to have that eye.
You just got to have that eye for
them.
Yeah.
It's something that's not going to pay off
for a while because it's later on.
But even something happens in issue one
that is going to come up.
And if you think about it,
you can tell that was the catalyst for
why that thing happened all the way back
in issue one.
So I'm putting hints early.
Hey, no, that's the way to do it,
man.
And I love stuff like that where I
get to issue eight of something and I'm
like, wait a minute, wait a darn minute.
And you got to run back to your
bots of comics and go, okay,
where's that one volume?
Oh, here it is.
And you pull it out and you're like,
there is right there.
And then you run back over here and
you're like,
We knew the whole time.
And that's always fun for me.
I love those types of things in books.
And I wish more people did them the
proper way.
Some people,
there's plenty out there where you can go,
oh, I bet it's this.
And it's exactly that, right?
But when you know how to drop those
seeds into the story,
and then when that finally pays off,
and not everybody's going to pick it up.
But there's going to be just enough people
pick it up to go.
Oh, wow.
He did it right right there like that.
He wanted that seat back in issue one.
And here we are on issue five sits
and it's paying off big.
And oh, my God.
Continuity is very important to me because
I'm always going back.
When I'm making my issues,
I'm going back to the old issues so
I can pull back from what I did
with the things I'm doing correctly.
You've got to have a good notebook.
You've got to have a good notebook or
a good notepad of your big continuity
things.
I have a lower document.
There you go.
The Bible of your book, as they say.
I've seen people whose graphic novels and
stuff,
they pulled out a
like a binder like one of those oversized
binders that was like this thick and that
was their bible to their three issue
graphic novel
And it was, dude, it was like,
no kidding, like this.
And then it was like this long.
And it was a hefty boy.
And I'm like, you know,
we got to the end of the episode
and we were already off the live.
I was like, hey, you know,
you can't just pull out that Bible and
at least, you know,
show me a couple of pages in it,
you know.
Sure, a little bit.
Exactly, exactly.
They did.
They were cool about it.
They're like,
you can just never say anything to
anybody.
I'm like,
this secret is mine because that was
really cool.
But...
So getting a comic into readers' hands is
only half the journey.
The other half, of course,
is building a community around it.
And you've built more than a comic here.
You've crafted JW Storytelling with a
website.
You've got YouTube, Patreon, Substack,
social media.
How important has all that been to you?
How important has it been to think beyond
simply just making the comic books?
Because a lot of people,
they just want to make the comic book.
They don't want to do the cog of
the wheel.
Because the comic book is only this much
of it.
That wheel is a whole lot bigger than
that comic book.
Yeah, because...
I would actually prefer to just be doing
the comic book as well.
But, you know,
when you're your own person,
you have to be your own marketer,
your own hype man,
your own everything at this point.
I love my cousin,
but he is just the artist.
He does not want to do the rest
of that stuff.
Yeah.
I totally understand.
I don't want to do it.
Honestly, but like, you know,
if you want to,
you have a story you want to share
with people,
you have to get it out to people.
So in person, I go to conventions.
I sell, I do tabling.
I sell it there.
Yeah.
There's like the pictures you had sent me
for the, to use on the thumbnail later.
it is you at convention so you are
out there putting the book out there for
people so that's really cool and always
like what's some what have been some of
your favorite conventions that you've had
the chance to go to to sell your
book
I love the Brooklyn Independent Comic
Show.
It's one of my favorites.
I go there every single year.
I went there just June.
Another one happened this June.
I always sell really well there.
People really like my stuff over there.
It's something I do every year over in
Swipe Plains.
What's another one I go to?
I go to all the time.
Then it's just random stuff I go.
It kind of pops up here and there.
Those two are my mainstay.
So, yeah, so does that.
There's social media, friends, family,
co-workers.
I tip my book out.
You're going to read my stuff.
Dude, I love that.
And I wish more people would do it.
That way, farmer's market.
It's a cheap and effective way to get
it out there to people.
I'm also in some local comic shops.
I know some local comic people.
That's what I was about to say.
Some of the local comic shops.
My last trip to New York, actually,
I went to a couple.
They were the big ones that do all
the celebrity events.
You hear so many
And you see it so often and you're
like,
I've got to see this one place because
I know they just had.
It was right after they did the Captain
American sign in with.
I can't remember his name now,
but the new Captain America.
And I was like, oh,
that's kind of cool.
I'm like,
I'm going to be there next week.
I might as well just swing through and
see the place.
It's on like the second floor and third
floor of a building on the corner of
a busy.
Yeah.
Midtown.
Yeah.
Midtown.
And I was just like,
this alley smells like fricking piss and
vomit.
I was like, I'm like,
they have celebrities in this place like
constantly.
And I'm like, yeah.
I'm like, no,
like this is a one-time thing for me.
And I'm like, I ain't going back.
I go to Forbidden Planet,
Silver Age Comics, Everyone Comics.
Yeah.
Those places.
Next time I'm up there,
definitely Forbidden Planet is the big one
I want to go to when I get
up there next time.
Was it Golden Apple?
I think it's the other one.
Is it Golden Apple?
Something like that.
I don't know Golden Apple.
It's the other one across from...
Like, it's close by there, but not quite.
It's like going away from it.
Sure about that one.
I can't even remember the name of it.
Somebody's like, oh,
you should really go check out this one.
And I'm like,
how long is a bus ride in this
traffic?
So, but no,
it's cool that you're getting it out there
to people.
And really,
I wish more people would do these smaller
things.
you know, the, the flea markets, the,
the farmer's markets.
I wish more people would do those because
those are huge assets for people that I
don't think get utilized enough.
Your local library is another huge one
that I wish more people would use.
And I know like there's a few libraries
around me that they do their own little
comic book thing every year.
And, um,
been invited to a couple of them.
I just hadn't like,
it's like the worst Saturday of the year
for me.
And I'm like,
why is it going to be this Saturday?
I got this thing.
I'm like, I can't.
Yeah.
The ones like I get invited to some
too,
but it seems to always be when I
have a conventions,
like I'm going to be out of town.
I can't go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like,
This year lined up really good for me
because I'm going to be able to do
small press expo in Annapolis,
Maryland this year,
come home for a few days,
circle right back up to Baltimore and do
Baltimore this year.
It's great, dude.
This is going to be my first year
where I get to take USDN as a
media company and go do the press thing
finally.
That's
three, two and a half,
three years of just me doing this and,
you know, plugging creators, plugging,
you know,
publishers and doing this at a high level
to where like burnout levels.
Yeah.
But now it's like, okay,
like I sent the email,
I walked away like, okay,
you don't hear back.
Cool.
I,
Another year down, keep cooking.
I remember one of the highlights of one
of the shows I did.
I was just sitting there selling my books
as I do.
And then someone came over to me and
said, I've seen this before.
And I'm like, where'd you see it?
I've seen it online.
I know you.
That's the first time everybody actually
didn't know me,
but knew me from my stuff online and
my books.
That was a highlight.
That means my name's getting wrapped.
The first time it happened to me was
Trunk or Treat.
Every Trunk or Treat, I pre-order.
Actually,
I need to do my pre-order for October's
free comics for Halloween for the kids.
I just order boxes of them on Halloween
at Trunk or Treat because I don't do
the candy thing at my house.
I turn my lights off.
Leave me alone.
I already did Trunk or Treat.
And I give out comic books for kids
and I give out candy for kids on
trunk or treat.
And one of the parents was like,
he's like, I've seen this before.
I'm like, so you know what?
He's like the logo.
I'm like, really?
And he pulls up his Spotify and he,
he like shows me, he's like, yeah,
I listened to this.
Like, I'm like,
what really so it was really cool to
like just a random parents like oh yeah
i listen to your podcast i'm like like
cool i'm like that is like it's the
dream right there yeah it's like finally
is this is this works you know but
um
For independent creators today,
I don't know if I asked you this
one yet,
but do you think building the community is
just as important as building the book?
I know people would be like, oh,
it's the book,
because you can't have one without the
other.
I'm like, what's your thoughts on that?
I would give the book slightly more
credence, but both are important.
It's only slightly less important.
But you need the community.
It depends on what you're trying to do.
If you're making a story just for
yourself,
then the book is all that really matters.
But if you're making a story that you
want to share with other people,
then you need to build the community.
Yes,
everybody who makes a story makes a story
partly for themselves.
It's because of the story they have in
their head and the story they want to
tell.
But unless you just want that story to
live on your head or your shelf,
no one looks at it.
You need to build a community to enjoy
it with you.
Perfect answer right there, man.
I like it.
I mean,
it's really the community that makes the
crowdfunding possible for all of us in the
game.
So issue two, launch it on Kickstarter.
in October,
what has you excited the most about
bringing readers back into Kaiden and
doing this again, once again,
through crowdfunding?
Right now,
I would say the video we're putting
together, the trailer video.
There is a little prelude on the freelance
page right now,
but we're getting the full trailer.
It's in the works right now.
Nice.
I'm looking forward to sharing that with
people and just sharing what's happening.
Are you doing it yourself?
I'm hiring someone to do the motion animes
because I can't do that.
but and i also got voice actors so
there's actually voice actors for the
speech bubbles and what they're saying so
that's going to be there yeah and then
i'm going to add like a little you
know video at the end talking about
smoking people back to the story and you
know it's going to happen what's going on
so i'm looking forward to doing that and
then just sharing when you know what's
going to happen next sharing the
characters that's going to pop up you know
the cool transformation and all that stuff
dude i i i love it dude and
i i was on your kit starter page
When you had sent it to me and
I love a very well put together
Kickstarter page.
There's nothing better where you could
just see like, cause it's in pre-launch.
It's not all there yet,
but you could just see the seeds.
Yeah.
And it's just like, you know, you're like,
Oh, as soon as this is done,
it's going to be great.
It is.
That's what it is.
I've seen some really horrible ones.
I've seen some really nice ones.
And I always say, tell people like,
if you need a set of eyes on
your Kickstarter before it goes live,
I'm a hundred percent available to do
that.
That is just one of those things.
If you have questions or you want another
set of eyes on your Kickstarter before you
launch it,
Hey, Chairman,
can you have a look at this real
quick and just shoot me the link and
I'll give you my honest thoughts.
If there's something that looks weird,
out of place, I will let you know.
I'm honest with you.
I'm not going to be like, oh, yeah,
it's the greatest shit on earth.
Like, no,
if it's not hitting where you think it
should hit,
I'm going to let you know it's not
there.
But...
For someone discovering the legend of
Kaiden for the very first time,
why is now the right time to jump
on board and support with issue number
two?
I would say it's because things are really
starting to ramp up.
So you're still going to get like every
issue gets like a little in the beginning,
a little like I guess a synopsis of
what happened in the last issue.
You don't get the full breadth of
everything,
but you'll get the main crux of what
happened.
So you can be on board for what's
going to happen with issue two.
You're not going to be completely in the
dark if you don't get the first issue
or the prologue or anything like that.
So you're going to get introduced to the
wider world.
And you're going to get introduced to the
power system.
Okay.
You're going to see that really cool
action scene.
So you're going to have a legit power
system built in for the characters.
Yes.
Like a D&D style.
But this is just the first introduction.
I wouldn't say D&D style is a little
more simplistic than that.
But it does have, it's like,
it has this basis that's easy to
understand, but then it goes deeper in.
Because it's like,
I will give a little bit away.
It is elemental based.
Okay.
Okay.
But people kind of use elements in very
certain ways.
And while there is there as well,
like there's a deeper version to elements.
Like elements are not just,
I guess you could say for a little
bit of a preview, there's fire,
like a fireball.
People can control fire.
But, you know,
a person's internal body also has heat.
True, it does.
And he doesn't just control fire.
He controls all fire.
Okay.
Oh, legit.
There we have it.
A little scoop for everybody when they're
listening later.
I like it.
No, those are always cool, man.
I love stories with that kind of stuff
built into it.
And like, don't overcome.
It's not overly complicated until you get
into the later episodes.
But by that time,
you're so used to how the system is.
So when it goes a little deeper,
you're like, oh,
there's so much cooler in it.
You know,
you start to understand deeper stuff
within it.
So you're not losing nobody in the
beginning going, oh, that's complicated.
I don't.
What's that?
You start them out up here and then
you dig the hole with them to get
more in depth with the system.
So that's really cool that you're doing it
that way.
Also,
something else I wanted to just posit is
that because for the first issue,
I ended up getting more younger readers
than I thought I was going to get.
I'm also doing,
I'm basically doing a split version.
So there's the standard version, which is
going to be my full story, unedited.
So, you know,
it's going to be stuff in that.
But I'm also doing a version that is
for, like, twelve and up.
Oh, really cool.
Yeah.
So that's also going to be selectable on
the Kickstarter.
So for those that are younger readers,
like, you know,
more harsh curse words will be censored.
Blood will be not gone, but less.
Yeah.
So stuff like that.
There won't be any nudity or, you know,
too risque subjects or anything like that.
But in the main version, well...
But it's cool that you recognize that,
that you are getting a younger audience
than you expected and you fletch to it.
And instead of going, hey, no,
this isn't for you.
You instead chose to go, oh, I have,
you know,
teens and preteens wanting to read this
book.
Let me cut a version of this book
that is specifically for them.
And then you got your eighteen plus
readers over here.
That's really cool that you did that
because I don't know of a lot of
people who are willing to go that extra
little bit to do something like that.
There are scenes that can be altered that
doesn't change the main crux of the story.
No matter which version you read,
the main story is the main story.
You may get more context on a certain
thing reading the regular story than you
would the lighter story because it's not
for them to get that deep into that
at that age.
I like that, man.
That's legit.
That's
That's good marketing as well because you
get to tap into two different audiences on
the same book.
So...
I like that.
So with the finish line coming up for
issue two,
I know you said when we were talking
earlier,
you're about eighty percent there before
the launch.
I'm curious, though,
how far ahead are you already looking?
What's the arc look like for you?
And then when you get to that arc
moment,
are you planning to do a graphic novel
of that first arc?
Like,
how are you looking at this and how
far ahead are you really looking?
So a wonderful story arc that I have
planned out already.
That's probably going to be probably
around twelve issues.
That's a lengthy arc.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But then,
you know how the trade paperbacks go.
So once I hit six,
I'm going to trade paperback.
Yeah.
And then once I hit another six,
I'll get to roll volume two.
But then once the full story arc is
ready, I'm planning on releasing, like,
you know, basically a book one,
which is just the full from the beginning
to the end of that story arc.
The full twelve.
So the first two arcs, essentially.
There's, of course,
some extras that come with that as well.
You got to.
You got to put a little something extra
in the back for people, you know?
Of course.
No, that's really cool.
And what made you decide to do a
longer arc than what would people are
standard?
You know, the standard arc is normally,
you know,
five to six issues sometimes or three to
four, depending on the book.
What made you go a little bit longer
on that?
Honestly,
it's just kind of the story took the
story guide me there.
So that's what I wanted.
That's freaking perfect.
That's just the way it turned out.
It's not my fault.
Exactly.
That's the best way to put it.
It's what the story wanted.
And I love when people say that because
it's so true.
Like you don't know you you're writing one
thing one minute in the next minute.
You're like,
but what if I went this way with
this?
And where would it go?
And it is really cool that you kind
of just let the instincts and what happens
with the story happen with the story as
you're writing it.
So that's always one of the fun things
about this is you.
It's an independent comic.
Ain't nobody telling you what you can and
can't do.
Exactly.
I am the boss here,
so you can do what you want.
There it is.
So when you think about Iden,
are you writing this one issue at a
time or have you always kind of known
where this entire journey is going to be
headed?
I know earlier you said, you know,
the beginning and you know,
the end and everything else is kind of
like leading you through the story.
So do you have that ending locked in
right now?
Yes, I do have the ending locked in.
Of course, the first story arc,
as we talked about,
that's been locked in as well.
So I'm still trying to figure out how
many arcs I want in between that and
the end.
The story's still evolving in that sense.
But I do have some major events that
kind of got toyed in my head.
I just don't know how long it's going
to take arc-wise.
It's probably going to be my magnum opus
of my life, this whole book.
This is going to be my main source.
If it's got to happen,
it's got to happen, right?
And you have your cousin there along with
you for the ride on the book.
And I'm sure by the time we get
to issue five and six of this book,
the artist is going to be you know
a full evolution of his growth of as
an artist as well you as a writer
as well so it's going to be really
cool for people to get to experience that
the further they stay for the ride the
more they get to see you and him
evolve together as this writing and art
team and you're doing the lettering so i
that's even cooler that you're
teaching yourself a new skill at the same
time as well.
I had to teach myself a lot of
things.
I had to learn lettering.
I had to learn how to put it
in Photoshop and turn it into a printable
file.
Then I had to work with a printer.
This is a whole sort of thing you
have to figure out when you're doing this
yourself.
Nobody tells you that shit when you start
writing a comic book.
That stuff, when you go to...
Oh, it's ready for the printer,
and you go to send it to the
printer,
and the printer sends it back going,
what the hell is this shit?
You've got to flatten it.
You've got to compress it.
It's got to be this size.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And then that's the part I think that
kind of is off-putting to people once they
get to that stage of this.
And they go, I got to do what?
Y'all don't do this for us?
Nope.
They don't.
Send that shit to a printer.
It better be ready to go through the
print.
Print ready isn't born.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And, you know, I mean,
if there's a printer out there who goes,
oh, no, just send it to us.
We'll take care of the rest.
Man,
that is going to be a big ass
print bill because that's a lot of extra
work.
It's a lot of extra work if you've
not done it before.
But it's still as you're teaching yourself
how to do those things.
That's a lot of work to learn and
mistakes that are going to be made along
the way in that because they're going to
send it back to you.
every single time you send it wrong.
Sometimes they charge if you have to keep
having to fix things.
Exactly, exactly.
So five years from now,
what would success for The Legend of
Kaiden look like to you?
Well, five years from now,
I would just say having people talking
about my book.
I don't care if it's two people,
one person, ten people, a thousand people,
a hundred people.
Just people engaged enough in my story to
talk about it.
To find interest in it.
It's the simple things in life, right?
The ultimate goal is, you know,
deal some sort of animation or TV deal
or whatever, but five years from now,
just people talking about it.
That's all.
I want to know that it actually connected
with somebody.
Yeah.
I think all of us, you know,
at the end of the day,
even me as a podcaster who gets to
do this for a living and gets to
talk to tons of talented people working in
this industry from all walks of life.
what we want at the end of the
day is whenever i have a good interview
for somebody to drop a comment you know
and just go hey that was a great
interview i really like this part of it
and you know his journey is amazing you
know and that's the kind of stuff i
love getting those comments on videos
Because I know I was able to take
that listener or that person watching
through this fantastic journey of you
writing and doing this with your cousin.
So for me, I'm with you.
People talk about it.
That's what I want.
It's like, oh, just talk about it.
When I hear that somebody's written and
they give me feedback, I'm like,
they actually read it?
Yeah.
Right?
Exactly.
Some people will just buy things to
support you,
but then when you find out they actually
read it too,
that's a home run right there.
Exactly.
That's your new brother and you didn't
even know it.
Let's have a little fun before we let
you go, man.
What fantasy world outside of your own,
your own cannot be the answer,
has had the biggest influence on you as
a storyteller?
I take from a lot of different things
I consume, so this isn't easy.
Let me see.
I don't know.
I would say,
if I'm going to go with a comic
fantasy world to start with,
I would say Dark Nights of Steel has
been a big inspiration for me.
That's a good one.
How about from a non-comic book?
The Wheel of Time.
Ooh.
That's a good one.
And this book, honestly,
Wheel of Time and...
the D and D movie that just come
out recently kind of got a little bit
of those vibes in it.
And, um, the magicians,
I don't know if you watched that show.
I've seen that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a little bit of that in
there for me too.
And I love stuff like that, you know,
where it's like,
I can get all these types of different
vibes, um,
from the story, and it's like, oh,
that reminds me of this one show,
or that reminds me of this one comic
book.
And then as you continue to read it,
you start getting these other vibes,
and you're like,
then he gets to talk to you and
go, hey, have you seen this show?
Because your book kind of has those types
of vibes to it.
And I had a video game,
The Legend of Dragoon.
That is my favorite video game of all
time,
and it is a big inspiration for this
book.
Nice, nice.
Of...
I just finished Ghost of Tsushima,
quick turned into Ghost of Yotei,
and then I bought the, of course,
Black Flag Remastered recently.
I just had not had a chance to,
like, it's downloaded.
It's ready to go.
I just need to turn the TV on
and do it, you know?
But it's the doing it and the time.
Yeah.
Like when I sit down and play,
I can play like, but it just,
this is starting up.
It's like,
it's hard for me to start up.
Yeah.
Exactly.
No,
when I have stuff I need to edit
still,
it's the most difficult thing to do
because I'm like,
I know I have stuff I need to
be doing.
But can I squeeze in three hours of
this game?
Exactly.
Because I know if I sit down and
start playing,
it's going to be three plus hours.
Yeah.
Or until the controller says, hey, dude,
put me down and let me charge.
Exactly.
So,
but where can everyone follow your work,
support your Kickstarter,
and stay up to date with everything
happening within the world of The Legend
of Kaiden?
Mm-hmm.
You can find me on Instagram.
You can find me on Twitter.
You can find me on Blue Sky.
You can find me on threads.
I'll handle for all that is at JW
Storytelling.
So search that.
You will find me.
I'm also, of course, on Kickstarter.
Just search Legend of Kaiden.
You'll find the current Kickstarter that's
in pre-launch and the previous ones as
well.
You can find me out in the wild,
too, if you're in New York.
But, um,
and all that's linked down in the
description below, but Jesse,
before I let you go,
I'm going to give you a couple of
minutes to kind of,
if there's anything else you want to say
about the book or anything else,
I'm going to give you a couple of
minutes to let you get that,
get that out there.
So start now.
The show is yours.
Right.
Well, now that I'm a host.
Hey, everybody.
Thank you for listening to us talk about
my book.
This is a labor of love.
This is really a story from my heart.
And I'm just hoping you all connect with
it.
And like you find something of yourself in
some of the characters, could be heroes,
even the villains, you know.
So if you like the villains,
like a lot of people have been calling
my main bad guy clips,
like the medieval Darth Vader,
that works for you.
He's there.
He's going to be, you know,
he's a central antagonist.
So he's going to be around for quite
a while.
So just, you know, check stuff out.
Give me feedback.
I take constructive feedback.
If you just, no,
no hate comments will be ignored.
Just let you know.
But if you have constructive feedback,
I will listen.
I'm open to that.
And check out the Kickstarter.
Check out the books.
You can find, actually,
the prologue issue free on Global Comics
if you want to check it out.
So, yep.
I'm here.
Write to me.
Follow me.
I'm around.
I love it.
And all those links are actually down in
the description below.
So make sure you give him a follow
and stay up to date on The Legend
of Kaiden and all the great things that
Jesse is doing at JW Storytelling.
But ladies and gentlemen,
I want to thank Jesse for joining us
today and to share the world of The
Legend of Kaiden with us and the
incredible journey behind building an
original fantasy universe from the ground
up.
If you've enjoyed today's conversation,
make sure that you support the upcoming
Kickstarter campaign,
explore the legend of Kaiden,
and follow Jesse across all his social
media platforms.
And for the Kickstarter,
if you just hit notify me,
it will notify you the moment this book
goes live,
which I believe is going to be sometime
mid-October, if I'm not mistaken.
Perfect.
So make sure y'all hit notify me so
y'all get that notification.
And again,
all those links are down in the
description of this video below.
And if you enjoyed today's interview,
don't forget to like this video,
subscribe to the channel,
and ring that notification bell so you
don't miss a single interview with all the
great creators that we get to chat with
here at the United States Department of
Nerds.
And ladies and gentlemen, this has been
the USDN podcast where Indie Comets come
to life.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the Council of Nerds is now adjourned.
Y'all be safe and happy weekend for
whoever's having a weekend already.
Good night.
Yes.