Interview with Indie Comic Book Creator Duo Joe Kazmer & Jarrod Burris (Collision Force)

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[00:00:59] Welcome to yet another indie comic book creator spotlight. We got Joe Kazmer. How are ya? Splendid. We got partner in crime with them as well, Jarrod Burris. I'm feeling fantastic. Thank you, Kim. And they reached out. I accepted the invite as like, holy cannoli. They got collision force.

[00:01:23] And so I try not to ever put the words in the guest's eyes is like that this was like the 80s had a baby with just all kinds of ultra cool over the top. Dirty dozen personas, but let's let's start at the beginning. When did you guys decide? You know, we're gonna do our own writing and illustration publishing of our comic book creations. I'll let Joe take this one because he's always put all this madness.

[00:01:52] Sweet. Yeah, what happened is, it was during COVID, and a little bit of extra dough. Sweet. And Jarrod and I have known each other since college. We met at the University of Pittsburgh in a writing program. We became buddies over comic books, pro wrestling and action movies. That's a good combo, man. I mean, and metal to the best combo. Preferably Megadeth.

[00:02:22] Maybe. Yeah, that's cool. And so, you know, I contacted Jarrod and said, let's do something. And we decided on collision force, which was an idea we had cooked up back in college as well. And, you know, Jarrod came up with this idea for Lars Bowman, this kind of super soldier, born on a mysterious island in the in the Pacific.

[00:02:51] And then we fleshed out the rest of the team, kind of like a, you know, G.I. Joe, the boys deal. Oh, sweet. Where, you know, you got a team of varied backgrounds. And, you know, we thought it was going to be like, hey, this is real simple. Let's just write the script, find an artist, you have a comic book. Well, by far, it's the most expensive comic book that I ever bought. Oh, yeah, because you're, you're building it.

[00:03:18] And I bought a lot of comic books over the years, but this was the most expensive and but it's so fun. You know, it's awesome. We did issue one in the summer of 2025. Now we're doing issue two in the summer of 2026. And we're excited to launch it on Kickstarter, you know, get it out to the world. I love it. It's a summer blockbuster season. So every summer we got to come out with a new blockbuster. We got number two coming out.

[00:03:47] Well, hopefully it's just good and it's not a number two. I kid, I kid. Anyway, but no, that I'm glad you said the boys. I did kind of feel like it had some of that same in your face, just kind of, you know, macho energy and then mixing it in with. Well, still being the narrator is clearly in on the joke, you know, knowing that they're all a bunch of, you know, disgruntled individuals all on a similar path. And I kind of took it as kind of DC Comics.

[00:04:15] The Losers kind of meets Suicide Squad with a little bit of Dirty Dozen. But that's a good way of looking at it. I got to ask you, was the African-American guy with glasses who does all the exposition dump? Was he inspired by like Lucius Fox from Batman? I just know. No, no, it's fine. This is what I got from it. And this is inspired by a friend that I had in college. Oh, hey, even better. So it felt very personal. Like he was giving a good pep talk.

[00:04:44] It wasn't boring to read at all. I was like, perfect. So he's like zippity zuda. He's zipping through it like a professor. He's not a know it all, but he is. But he's not bragging. He's just cool. And he looks good wearing the glasses. Your Tenera Hawk gal, man, she looked like a mixed Adriana Palicki with a Maximus from Gladiator type swordsmanship. Like she's all armored up and. Yeah, she's our Wolverine.

[00:05:14] OK, this is it. I love it. And the letter of Bowman hero. He's like Kurt Russell from Big Trouble in Little China with Ash Williams from Evil Dead type chainsaw hand. I mean, I can't beat that. That's. Take it, man. But so. So you pace yourself. COVID, you know, smart, a lot of creativity. That's actually kind of funny. That's how I got. I was into podcasting and then COVID hit. I was like, oh, I'm sticking with it. Definitely now. You know, friends were doing audio drama.

[00:05:43] So do you feel like it really helped your creativity otherwise? Or had it was already something you had wanted to do a lot prior to the pandemic? It's kind of one of those moments of. You're getting a little older and you don't have any. You know, I've never written a comic book. You're never written a comic book. Jared is has written a plethora of screenplays.

[00:06:09] And, you know, he'll mention that, you know, he was able to get one produced came out last year. Pig Hill, you know, awesome indie horror movie. And but, you know, for the for the comic book situation, something that we both loved. And yeah, COVID just kind of spurred that on. And as I mentioned, yeah, costs, costs added up.

[00:06:33] So it took, you know, it took a while, you know, get to get the money together, get the artists figure out what we're doing. And then once the book was done, we had on the shelf for a bit because it was just a matter of, well, great. Now the book's done. How do you put it out? Yeah. And Kickstarter was the solution. And ultimately, you know, we ran a campaign in twenty five and it was successful. We were very pleased with how it went.

[00:07:01] And we did well enough on the campaign that was able to fund most of issue two. And that's that's where we're at now. I love it. And. So, yeah, it would you say you're always kind of. Aware of just kind of just multimedia kind of crossover, like you respect the process in so many different capacities and so many different industries.

[00:07:25] And so at this point, when you land here, you're just like, I already know and just you're already just kind of got the mindset. You're like, I'm here's how much I'm willing to spend time money wise and everything else. Here's how long I think it's going to take. Here's when I think we're ready to launch. Like you gave yourself the kind of enough time for outlining your journey. I wouldn't say that. OK, no, I. I wish we had a better plan than we did.

[00:07:55] It was kind of like, hey, let's do this. Figure it out later. You would never believe how Joe raised the money for a collision force. Number one. Well, part of it was doing well on some on sports gambling. And, you know, back when this. I wish I was gambling. Yeah. DraftKings was just throwing money away. Right. In like 2020, 21. You know that that will since dried up, but it was also once. Once.

[00:08:25] Once that. When it happened. Yeah. But once that was done, it was. Well. I got old video games. I got old. You know, action figures, things like that. And that's when eBay was was cooking because. I love eBay. COVID money. Love eBay. And so I turned. You know. Things like that, you know, old video games, old wrestling shirts. That became. Collision force. Sweet.

[00:08:54] I also got to ask about the bandana warriors. He liked Billy from predator made Rambo or. The image was in the poster behind Joe. Yes. Yes. That particular character. Yeah, that is. That's like every eighties movie. Yeah. No. So that is a flashback to Lars in what he. All he's always in his prime, but when he was probably 18 or 19, ripping it up in the early nineties, destroying some Soviets. Yes. Right.

[00:09:24] I just was wondering about the design and everything. Cause it was very eighties ask. Yeah. Intended, but I just. Sometimes people aren't inspired by the same thing. So I just. Oh yeah. So our artist and for issue one, who is amazing. Chris Johnson. He. Went wild and did a lot of design work for us for the first issue. And that was one of the things he. Cranked out. It was just like. We'd sent him all these posters from every sort of eighties movie you can imagine. He was like, all right, give me a couple of days.

[00:09:53] And he cranked that. Yeah, maybe. How would you describe your process creatively? Like you just go back and forth on email or do you just do a. Conference call and then leave everyone to their devices. How did you describe. The question. I, Joe and I have like a second hand because we're so close with each other. Um, so we can do it in messenger text. Speaking on the phone every once in a while. Uh, but we kind of read each other's thoughts. Uh, we know what we're doing.

[00:10:22] And for, but for dealing with. So we, you know, developed a script for it and for issue one. And then. When we found the artist for issue one, we were blessed that my local comic book store. One of the guys who shopped there was a fellow named Chris Johnson. And Chris since doing collision force one has absolutely blown up. He had a, has a book at image called rifters. And, uh, he's, he's actually a world famous, uh, teenage mutant ninja turtles. Mm.

[00:10:51] Like if you love turtles, uh, no one quite does it like Chris. So we were blessed that he said he would, he would do issue one for us. And we gave him the script and he really helped us out. Cause we didn't know what the heck we were doing. And so he made a lot of shortcuts for us in visual storytelling. And he really helped us out. And we were, we're all ears. Cause when we hear someone, we hear from someone who has a lot more, uh, knowledge in us, we're going to listen. That's lovely.

[00:11:19] And you had other pals who already knew him from image comics. Uh, I knew Chris from this, our old, uh, comic book store called Earth Two in Sherman Oaks, California, which is no longer there, unfortunately, but I, God bless him. I met him there and we, we became buddies. And then whenever this came up, I was like, Oh God, I wonder if Chris would be okay. If we approached him for it, we approached him for it. He liked the idea. He loves eighties movies. Like I can do this one.

[00:11:48] Um, so he popped on there and just like blew our minds, man. That was a great process too, is we met Chris, you know, Jared had met Chris. Chris referred us to colorist, uh, or Hey Sutil out of Spain. Uh, I met a letterer on Facebook. He's in Chicago. And then our alternative color or our variant cover artist for issue one. I found him on Facebook.

[00:12:16] He's in El Salvador. And then found a, we, we did a backup story for issue one and issue two. Found our artists and our colorists in Brazil. So it's, it's collision forces worldwide. Totally. Yeah. It's, it's, it's fun, you know, that you're able to just find a team from around the world, around the country and create a comic book. So it's a blast. Uh, that's lovely.

[00:12:46] Uh, are you guys thinking of even just meeting up one day in person, just like, congratulating each other on your efforts and just saying like, face to face. With like, with the other artists from around the world. Yeah. We'll take a world trip. Yeah. Like I would love to meet, meet our guys. They're all, they all work with us.

[00:13:07] This is so amazingly like every, every artist, every colorist, uh, letterer, like they've all been so kind and amazing and helpful and really helpful on social media too. It's like, they're all a plus. Yeah. The indie comic scene, people were really friendly. They're helpful.

[00:13:29] I had talked to a couple of, um, uh, writers who did some books and, and really kind of gave me guidance for how to run a Kickstarter. I'm not sure if you've ever done the Kickstarter thing. I've experimented with it a bit and it's definitely all about having a video and, you know, outlining, having the goal sets. Mm hmm. I mean, it's a grind and. Yeah.

[00:13:55] But it, but it's an awesome way that anybody with a creative project can get out there. Yeah. Like everything. Yeah. If you put in the work and you have a good product, you can succeed. And it's, it's awesome. And it's something that wasn't available. No. 15 years ago. And especially with eBooks now being a thing, everyone could self publish.

[00:14:18] So had you always kind of had the mindset I'd review to where it's like the fun will happen after the fact. But right now this is an investment, you know, all of our resources, we just got to focus and do our best. And then, you know, we'll be happy when we actually see, you know, the drawings, the dailies. And when we finally launch. That's definitely the entertainment industry in a nutshell, whether it's comics or film or.

[00:14:47] I've been on indie films and I had others at long story short, never work with a husband. And well, not a husband, a boyfriend and girlfriend team who doesn't take this seriously because it will never be released. They will break up midway shift when they realize, oh, it isn't actually any fun. It's like, yeah, because you're. You got it. You got it. So you got to take the knife out and carve out a little piece of flesh and throw it on the table because that's what, you know, anything you do artistically worth a damn for a leg.

[00:15:16] Yeah, it's going to it's going to take a little bit out of you. Lovely. And so did you experiment with any artwork or I mean, you did say you experiment with some writing in college, but did you do any other artwork in there? So you kind of saw it face to face like pottery or. I think, Joe, you're a pretty good artist, right? You were like, I do stick people. I can't do anything with figures. I kind of legit like, too, because it can still have a Mickey Mouse hand.

[00:15:43] I mean, I actually drew comic books when I was boy. I love it. I just love comic books. So I would. I did. Draw my own cartoon characters. I mean, they weren't great, but, you know, it was fun. And I still use storyboards or script notes that, you know, it's and I see so many people say, I can't draw. I'm like, yeah, but just draw something. So everyone get is in your head, you know, just in a good way, knowing what you want.

[00:16:14] And now I have a four year old who just loves me drawing him cars and trucks. So that's what I do now. Hey, I love it. I love it. And so why did you decide on a group of misfits other than it being just very appealing? You know, a story that lasts. OK, no, I just. Yeah, everyone's done it.

[00:16:40] Seven Samurai, you know, it's another thing about another thing about Joe that you got to know is that he's the biggest GI Joe fan, the comic book, Larry Hama that there is. And so, of course, when we're when we're leaning into a comic book, we got to tap into that because Joe is a action team machine. I love it. And something that we that's unique about Collision Force that honestly, in all of the research that I've done on Kickstarter.

[00:17:10] We're unique in that it's an action team comic with with no superheroes, with, you know, no sci fi. I mean, maybe we're talking fast and furious level sci fi. Not even that much. Not going to be like we're talking fast, fast five level of craziness before we got up to like fast ten. So we're kind of keeping it grounded. And that's unique that, you know, Kickstarter is a lot of genre stuff.

[00:17:39] It has a lot of superheroes. But it doesn't have just like, hey, here's a straight up action movie made into a comic book. Perfect. In a way, have you thought of if all goes well, even selling the rights for X amount for a movie adaptation? I mean, totally. We live in we live in the movie universe, you know, so if someone were to have that sort of interest, we're here. We're here to listen.

[00:18:05] Oh, and people are more likely to respect a comic book artist because, again, it you you guys have it worse than all the other entertainers. You know, it's like singers always get accused of stealing from each other. You know, artists, it's even worse having to explain to geezers or just people who are just complaining. They're like, what's that? That's just words and pictures. I'm like, no, no. And no, it's more than that. It's an actual narrative.

[00:18:33] And then you have to be creative with how you do that comic style and have the words flow over into the next chart. And then, you know, sometimes you're going to have half and half. You're going to have you're not always going to have the artwork that you prefer, but the script's going to be good or vice versa. You know, you never know. And so. If anything, many people respect comic book artists because. They're very cultured and they have to justify all kinds of stuff, illustrations and tone and mood.

[00:19:03] We've we have. Joe and I have been blessed with some very, very nice artists on our on the two books so far. Our issue two is really fun as well. We've got a guy named JC Grinde. He's you can't get a better name than that. Right. Yeah. He is all energy. I would think that you would if you like 90s image comic books.

[00:19:26] I don't remember that era, but JC is of that ethos and he just is totally wild. And we and I would just all of our Felipe. We have our our backup artist. He's if he is so cool. We have a backup stories in each issue that show moments in history of collision force. And Felipe has been delivering the goods every issue.

[00:19:55] And he's he's really new to it. But I am so impressed with his skills and the whole team on the colorists. And, you know, our letterer is actually like what did he. What was it? You the Ringo award he was nominated for. Yeah, pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. And he's great, too. He kind of led us along the way. Here we are naive and say, like, hey, you know, just go ahead and letter these pages. And.

[00:20:26] And we're like, OK, we're good. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, you need to. You know, they also need to be formatted for print. You need to have your your bleeds on your page and all this other stuff you got to worry about. We're like, oh. And then he really helped us out there. And like for the image you see behind us, that was actually a panel on a page and issue one.

[00:20:50] And then he goes, hey, by the way, you know, how would you like this for your interior cover? Like, you know, design. Let's go. Again. You know, it must be like the vein of Rambu. We're doing a lot of Leroy Jenkins. Let's do this. Yeah. He's great. So we were we were so happy to have some such creative, talented people on the project. And also just, you know, kind of going back to what we were talking about earlier.

[00:21:19] Creating a comic book is so fun. It's the only work for me. That's the magic word. It's the magic part. Because sometimes like Jared and I are, you know, talking about, you know, with with a very serious. Tone of like, man, I think this explosion is big enough or is the kablam, you know, sound effect on this page big enough? Yeah. Should we have more brains come out of the guy's eyeball or? Right.

[00:21:50] Is it how graphic is graphic on this page? Oh, no, that's lovely. And I'm glad you guys talked about showing the behind the scenes illustration because that's the equivalent in comic book world where that's the equivalent of a Blu-ray, you know, DVD special feature is like showing how the sausage is made. And I like how that is funny is like you're having to wait on is like giving me the work I need. Now I need the sketches, you know, to be faxed or scanned in.

[00:22:19] Well, and thankfully now it's all digital. I mean, but back in the day they did have to fax it overnight. And some people still prefer to fax it. So I'm glad it's still an option because it still works. It's kind of all we have if communications and phones go down. It is wild that faxes still exist. You know, it's not broke. No need to fix it. If you have a crazy comic book fan holding your development building hostage, you can fax in a message saying, hey, put out the word. It was nice knowing you.

[00:22:48] I kid, I kid. It's a terrible idea here. Still that idea and put in the next issue. They go after a post. Here we come. Number three. So. When coming up with creative ideas, either of you can bounce back and forth on this. You are the dynamic duo. You really are electric. You're actually respecting and letting each other talk. There hasn't been a single interruption so far, which is cool. That's how in tone you guys are.

[00:23:16] But so when brainstorming, how many days and even years does it often take for you? It's just like, do you pace it out? It's like, OK, this month I'm going to design the characters next. Next, you know, next month I'm going to outline the story and what I want in this issue versus that. The next one. How do you lay the ground? How do you put the bricks on the concrete?

[00:23:39] Well, I would say a lot of this is we want to respect the single issue idea where everything is self-contained. Hmm. So it's a balancing act where, yes, there is in collision force a huge arc planned. But the real challenge is making every issue very approachable, which is an old school type of way of handling comics. Because now. Old school, man. Old school.

[00:24:07] And because now it's very I think they call it decompressed. Yes. Which it's like a, you know, so there's no it's not self-contained. We want to try to go back to self-contained. Maybe we'll have a three parter in the future. But, you know, we want to make sure everything is self-contained and even a three parter. You want that one issue to feel like you just watched a movie. All the next Dragon Ball Z. No, I love it. I did feel like you guys formatted.

[00:24:35] And yet I also knew is like, OK, but they're keeping it open. And this is not a one off. Have you thought of creating a separate universe and then you bring some of the other characters in as like a supporting or like a cameo or no crossovers yet? Yeah, there's ideas for if we got if, you know, if we were able to get hooked in with a publisher or something like that, then we could definitely do a prequel series side series that we do a whole series on the rip on the dog ripper on his little sidekick. OK.

[00:25:06] So who's the rest? There's a lot of room. Who's the right? Yeah, it's all open. So who's the wrestler of the squad would say? Hmm. Professional or amateur? In this case, anything that could qualify as any kind of wrestling that would make a fodder proud. I would say pro wrestler would probably be AJ. OK. The guy is more and then Joe, who would you say would be the amateur wrestler, the grappler?

[00:25:37] I picture it as Guillermo. Yeah. See, and this is what I like. You guys can define your characters. You have an answer for everything. That's great. Yeah, Guillermo. Writer to writer. This is good. There's nothing worse than someone who doesn't know how to define their character. You got your I love how you guys also aren't reactionary. You're like, I see so many are like, that's not what I intended for that character. He's like, I'll dig it. But I was actually thinking this guy is like, OK, perfect. You know, you're right. You're right.

[00:26:07] You're right. You're right. A lot of these characters. You know, I kind of picked out little elements of people I know. So Guillermo is a fashionista. He's also a junior player. He's dressed like a man. So he's the Bruce Wayne of the team. Yeah. I mean. Yeah, he's pulled out of retirement and he's he's running a successful clothing line, but

[00:26:35] now he has to come back to collision force to, you know, fight off terrorism and save American freedom. That's what we're talking about here, guys. Oh, man. American dream is mess with anything that friends democracy. Um, no politics. Just simple. Hey, bad guys were black. You know, we just kick ass, man. We don't we don't worry about everything else. Yeah. Um, who would you say is the Schwarzenegger or Jason Bourne of the team? Sorry, it's a question I can't resist. That's good.

[00:27:05] I mean, that's that's Bowman. It's Bowman. Yeah. Because he got the carousel ahead and yeah, Bruce Campbell are, but he's also kind of everything. It's Bowman. It's Bowman. How would you say he started his workout routine in your mind? Not sure if you want to dedicate a chapter issue to that. But I mean, he does it out, but he looks so natural. He does.

[00:27:28] We have crunches off of cliff hanging from chains with his his boots chain to a cliff that he's pretty intense. Yeah, that's iconic, man. Totally. Have you guys thought of messing around with like zombies, prison riots, even freaking time travel and dinosaurs? No sci fi. Yeah, we could we could do a prison riot.

[00:27:55] I would imagine eventually there's gonna be a prison right because Joe and I are very big fans of the television show Oz. If you are. I am too. It's my number one. I always joke when we're doing TV show rankings. I'm always joking is like this is not an order except for those first five because yeah, it's poetic. It's wonderful. You feel sorry for these bad guys and then some of them get redemption and they die and then you want to rewatch to see where the dominors fell. It's so amazing.

[00:28:24] I just did a rewatch with my wife. It's so draining and there's so much like every sort of plot element that you could do in a confined space. It does. And I haven't looked out. I had an HBO family, even though I wasn't allowed like my father and uncle would catch part of like something like a Sopranos or Dream On type show. But yeah, my mom was in the Oz and Larry Sanders camp is like, see, that's witty. That's really dramatic and ground.

[00:28:50] And so it's so wild how when you see these actors on a network or another streaming show is like, yeah, but never forget their origins. And that was a healthy run set. That was a person that was an example of critics got it. I'm just got it. Crater's got it. And the performers didn't take those roles home. They actually went to mental counseling so they could flush that filth from their system, not bring and then restart all over. So it's like perfect.

[00:29:17] You get the character and it's grounded every time without saying, hey, man, I don't want to. You never heard anyone say I went to my contract up. I don't want to be here anymore. Yeah, it's so wild because, you know, with like Dean Winters playing O'Reilly and now may have Mr. Mayhem. And it's like, that's so bizarre. That's where he's at right now. But God bless him. I always joke. I always joke that Sarah's brother and Keller became undercover narcs.

[00:29:46] Cassidy and Stabler in prison. Yeah. Not really. I kid. I kid. But there are times where he'll some of those guys will be on another comedy or a show and they'll mention prison and they kind of look in that way. It's like prison. I'm like, yeah, that's an inside joke. Yeah. Are you guys fans? I love Christopher Maloney. Yeah. Yeah. Great actor. Very versatile. And just damn funny. Just like, did he really just say that? He's his humor works in everything. Put him in anything. It works.

[00:30:16] Or is a good guy, bad guy, serious, dramatic. Um, are you guys also fans of prison break? That's kind of the 18 version of being in prison. Yeah. I haven't really gotten into prison break. It was. I mean, Oz is honestly, you know, no, it's obviously it's better. Obviously it's better. But, uh, it's, it's funny how prison break became, uh, legends of tomorrow. Those two actors just copied and pasted to that DC comic show.

[00:30:44] But yeah, no prison has always been a fascinating thing. And it's so rare to even see it done. The best it, it is kind of like some of the other sub genres, like home invasions or. Even a psycho, uh, sexy thriller is like usually. People always watch it, but usually it's not always done the best. And then when it is, you're like, well, it didn't feel like a bad B movie with a good acting. It didn't feel like an exploitation movie. It was actually legit.

[00:31:12] So, um, why do you think people are so snobby about today's world? Where they're like, I don't want to read or watch bad content. You know, I only want good stuff. It's like, well, you don't know until you, you know, make time for it. Yeah. I think part of the problem is with the modern creative landscape is too many people are ironic. Yes. And you're, you're protecting yourself and you're not helping the story. You're babying yourself. Yeah. This is like.

[00:31:41] I want to take a bad movies idea and do it better. Yeah. You have to surrender to the, to the art and just say, I'm going to do this genre piece. And I believe in it. I believe in the characters. And if you want to judge me because you think it's silly, that's you judging. And that's your problem. Oh, we have a Samaritan in the house. Thank you for that. Hey, no, that's great.

[00:32:10] I would do a script writing session and without fail, like I, I came up with a pretentious, like terrorism idea. It was the typical kind of blaming a neighbor and realizing this guy's responsible for his family's deaths. He never knew because he and his sister lived in a foster home, blah, blah, blah. I needed better outlining and long story short, spring break wasn't kind to me. I don't even drink. I just was running out of ideas. And I had the nerve to go into script writing class.

[00:32:36] And this jerk said, yeah, you're still from the season three of the breaking bad. I'm like, I haven't even seen that show. It's not. But I know without even seeing I've since seen it. It's great. But I know without even having seen it, it's not the first one of a plane collision. It can't be. No, you can't take control of the that's not proprietary. You can't. Everything's going to happen in a story. What's most important is the characters.

[00:33:03] And if you have the characters are in your mind and they're in a genre situation, it's going to be interesting. It's going to be unique. And everything else is just the situational stuff. It doesn't matter. Dolly. And it's also just kind of it's unintentionally snobby, but it's also just downright just like gatekeeping. You're like, OK, and who made these rules? Well, there's no, we don't believe in rules. No, no rules.

[00:33:33] No, no rules. And that's just it. It's like when there's rules, it's just for like better, like concept or build up to the backstory of something is like there's a difference between not following it versus breaking it. And at the same time, yes, you made your own rules on the style and what you will or will not do in your thing from the ground up. So. You know, but comics, you get a little more leeway, you can say, hey, we're not doing that this issue.

[00:34:04] It's kind of lives for rule breaking in many ways. So, you know, definitely. I mean, just with the the connection with the artist like that is really like for every issue is the most important thing. I mean, you can have an explosion 8000 different ways and every artist is going to show it a different way. And it's part of his spirit coming out. So, yes, no, it's cool. I love it.

[00:34:31] And Joe, who were your icons growing up? I'll go. I get to you, Jared. But who are your personal like just people who was like inspired you? You know, it could be poets, could be. Social figures, be anything just like if you had to name free that just kind of develop your style and who you are as a person. Well, I think there's one that Jared and I both have a mutual admiration for. It's Hulk Hogan. Yes. Oh, hey. OK.

[00:35:01] That that's one. And then I mean, a lot of the 80s action heroes like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Schwarzenegger, you know, comic book wise writer G.I. Joe Larry Hama also did Wolverine. Well, those are just a few that come to mind for me. And I like that because no one else, a could have predicted your answer.

[00:35:27] B, I can tell his peer because he actually you said it without even thinking twice. So that's cool. That's how about you, Jared? You've already mentioned you already got the Hulkster in your corner. But who are you? I'll give the murderer's row. My number one writer is row. Lock me up, baby. My number one writer of all time is James Elroy, the demon dog. All right. Obsessed with him. He's my love this. Yeah. He's my hero.

[00:35:54] And then I would say in movie world, John Milius, Oliver Stone for writers. And then for comic books, man, I got a Garth Ennis. It's just he is. He's the man. Garth Ennis is like one of the few who figures out over the top nature and people have attempted to misinterpret his stuff for whatever their causes. And no, no. If you know him, you know, he's a jokester. He's a prankster. Yeah. Why is this interesting to him?

[00:36:23] Because he just you can't even define his politics. It's a simple deal. And they are all at the end of the day. He just wants a silly excuse for over the top. Yeah. He looks at the world very cynically, which is smart. And you kind of have to after a while, especially when you're from Nam era. If you so, if you look at his stuff like with, you know, the Max Punisher that arc the slavers. It's one of the darkest stories I've ever read.

[00:36:53] And it's so dark. It's so twisted. I mean, I don't think they're ever going to be able to adapt that one. But then there's, you know, when you flip it over and you do the the first Max, which, you know, welcome back, Frank, which is just totally wild and unorthodox and bizarre. The Russian and all that crazy stuff. So he can do he he masters every form. And he's so rewarding. Anytime you pick up a book of his, he always engages the artist very well. And you can tell he's writing for the artist. I love it.

[00:37:22] Yeah, I I've never gotten any sense of hostility from him. And he just seems definitely like a godsend. And he's just very smart in every interview I've seen him in. Have you guys by any chance you mentioned Elroy Jared? Have you by any chance been able to read the adaptation of Elroy's the black to Hila like David Fincher adapted it into? Oh, yeah, yeah, I have it. I thought it was fun. I mean, it was it was it was strange that that was released.

[00:37:52] But the Black Dahlia is my favorite book. And so the movie version was a very. That sucked. Let's just be honest. Yeah. I say that as a De Palma fan, it sucked. Yeah. I mean, I thought I will tell you he thought it's. Yeah, I thought that was the perfect pick for a director because one of my favorite movies is Body Double. And if you get that the energy that De Palma used to have, it's almost perfect for what the Black Dahlia is. But the movie was just so it didn't connect at all. And I read the Black Dahlia when I was.

[00:38:23] 16, I think, or 17, and it was right after L.A. Confidential came out, I started reading all his books. And there's a moment in that book, the Black Dahlia, where the friendship between the two guys starts falling apart. Yes. And it culminates in the moment it culminates and it's set in Mexico when he goes down to look for him and he finds him. And how he finds him was so shocking that I took the paper back in my hand and I flung it across the room. I just laid in bed. My little 16 year old ass. Scarred for life. I know.

[00:38:53] Just thinking about reality and what it means. And that's the power of the demon dog. Shit, yeah. Speaking of reality versus fiction, do you guys have any music artists who you listen to, let alone will put on when you're studying or writing or even just doing chores and work? And for me, it's it's Rammstein, Metallica. Okay. But also, you know, Deep Purple, Queen's Clearwater Revival. Hey.

[00:39:21] Yeah, I go all over the place. Judas Priest. We have a fun little kind of Easter egg in every issue of Collision Forest where the every every title is a Judas Priest song. Yeah. Every name of a story is Judas Priest song. So those are some. And then I know Jared, Jared's into it, too. But we also listen. I listen to a lot of synth wave when I'm writing. Yeah. Which is which is just fun.

[00:39:51] We'll return after these messages. We'll be right back. All right, folks. How's that here? We got a 90 minute weekly shack stop. It's growing all over the world. Find it at 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern time on Mondays. Then, 3 p.m. on Wednesdays. Then, 7 p.m. on Thursdays. You can catch it on many more radio stations. 99.9 KERB. 1 p.m. Central Time. 2 p.m. Eastern on Mondays.

[00:40:21] Then, catch the Encore on Thursdays at 5 p.m. Central Time. 6 p.m. Eastern. Then, catch it Wednesday mornings at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. 10 a.m. Central on 1077 K-Twins. Then, hang out with us Wednesday afternoons on MXTR and Howshack Radio, 3 p.m. Eastern Time.

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[00:41:11] Do you ever find yourself thinking about who would win in a fight between Goku and Superman? Hi, I'm James Gavsey and on the Who Would Win Show, me and my co-host Ray ignore anything important happening in the outside world and debate fictional battles between characters from comics, movies, and video games. We got a new show every week and almost always am I the winner. Yeah, not true, Ray. In the past, we've discussed such matches as Captain America vs. Darth Vader, Solid Snake vs. The Iron Giant,

[00:41:38] classic matchups like Robocop vs. Terminator, and even The Muppets vs. Sesame Street. That one was crazy. So if you're a fan of geek culture and love a spirited debate, check out the Who Would Win Show wherever you get your podcasts, or check us out at WhoWouldWinShow.com. Oh man, there's this one guy who does synthwave-inspired stuff. Which one? The Sun Kid? The Sun Kid? Well, not so good.

[00:42:07] This Atlanta guy who is based in Portland with this other Danish singer called The Midnight. Oh, bro, that's one of my favorite bands. I've been to see The Midnight. I've seen The Midnight. You listen to it and it's just like, Jesus. No, yeah. I'm seeing neon Miami Vice gloves. I've seen all kinds of other William Freakin' serial killer movies. Yeah. Bro, the saxophone player in that?

[00:42:37] If you go to a concert, one of the gimmicks of the show is he pops out of the crowd and just starts blasting the saxophone. He is so talented. I was just at a Dodgers game randomly. The first time I've lived in LA for 20 years, this first time going to a Dodgers game. He did the Star Spangled Banner. I was just like, I so glad the fates were connected. But yeah, The Midnight. The Midnight is one of my favorite bands of all time. And same with Gunship for synthwave.

[00:43:06] You can't go wrong, man. And FM 84. Yeah. Love it. I mean, and I also like Blue Oyster Cult and. Oh, yeah. Holy Groove. Shit. Yeah. All the chill groups. All the face groups. I mentioned I have a four year old and he started watching the show on Netflix called The Creature Cases. He's a little, this couple creatures solve these mysteries.

[00:43:36] But the cool part about the show is that Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo and the Rugrats and all these other theme songs. They do a synthwave theme for the show. And then there's two characters in the show that make synthwave music. And it makes it so enjoyable to me because the first time I heard it, I was like, what is this? This is awesome. So, so. Yeah, you're like all the other.

[00:44:06] My boys watch this show like a hundred times. So you get to hear that awesome theme every day. So I don't get tired of it because the theme is so good. And you're geeking out. This is like when parents are watching their, their teens favorite. Sitcom or crime show. And they're like, hey. Yeah. Crystal Method. Hey, uh, uh, that's someone from they would be giants in the back acoustics. Hey, that's Danny Olfman. Oh, that's something for us. Yeah. Well, we're entertained by the okay show. He's like, yeah.

[00:44:36] Uh, do you ever. What was your playlist? Like, no, like how do you start it when you're playing it during the day or at work or whatever? I'll set it like I'll create a playlist for any script I'm working on or collision force, which is mostly metal. Um, and then I just, I'll, I'll just tap into it. Sometimes I'll try. I do the Amazon, uh, music premium thing. And then, uh, they have the soundtrack option and it was cool for, for whatever reason.

[00:45:06] They were, they were just playing queen for two weeks straight. I don't understand why, but I love it. You know, Highlander. Yes. Highlander, man. Uh, it's a kind of magic is one of my favorite albums because of Highlander. I am Duncan McCloud. Yeah. It's a secret. So yeah, just make, you know, make playlists and, uh, depending on the mood, a lot of like for the horror stuff, it'd be a lot of tangerine dream and gobble.

[00:45:33] Oh, so your dreams consist of Reggie from Phantasm being hunted by Romero war criminals. And we're from Romero world, man. We're, we're from Pittsburgh. So. Nice. Big dog. Blue collar, baby. Um, no, that's cool. Um, are there any concepts, other concepts you would like to visit? Like World War five through 10, you know, just like. Yeah.

[00:46:02] That'll probably be a collision force arcs. Sweet. Uh, well, any concepts you thought of kind of doing a amusing or campy like parody of like serial killer movies or. Comedies or college or. I don't know if like I'm really the. Into the parody thing. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:28] Like, cause the parody thing, I think for me and if it's work, it does work for, for satirists and all that stuff, but I'm not that. And I'm. Joe's the same way. We're. Uh, that's definitely so irony, you know, irony free, no irony in our, in our work. And we just tell a straight up story. Yeah. Just cover the page in blood. Okay. I love it. I can't argue with that. Yeah. And. So.

[00:46:57] You know how to pace yourself. You know how to get it done. You got an valuable crew who. You know, you're going to keep ringing them up when you need their services. Just describe to other indie creators. Uh, how would you go about just like what are the. Top five. Do's. Top five. Don'ts. Uh, creating your own comic book, you know, like from the crowdfunding to the writing to. Communicating what you need. Number one is finishing it. Yeah.

[00:47:27] That's the key is. Yeah. I'm. I love it. I guess. I know you have answers. I know you have answers. You did not hesitate again. Yeah. You know what you need. You know what you want. You know how to be a team player, but no. Okay. I'll let you. Yeah. I'm on Facebook groups to try to, you know, always keep an eye out for new artists because. It's what we should use it for. Right. I can't tell you how many social or networking groups I've had to leave because the admin decided to be a jerk or decline a post.

[00:47:57] You're spamming the group. I'm like, no, I'm not. I just accidentally reposted. You could have just said. Removed it and said, don't do that. But now I don't want to be in this group because you're an urchin. Yeah. Use social media for what you need it. Not. All the overdone trends that are just to engage in combat. I've blocked. Who knows how many Twitter groups that just want endless arguments is like, you know, no, if it's short, this never ends well when you say.

[00:48:26] Pick seven movies. One of them's got to go. I'm like, no. No. This always ends with a bloodshot. Oh, could you get rid of that? And then you got all these bots which are just automated to start an argument over something. You're just like, I'm. I'm here to talk to someone and get a future guest, not. Burn a bridge. So crazy. Talk to an idiot who's on drugs and. Hates everything. Yeah. We try to keep things positive. And.

[00:48:56] I mean, in terms of looking for new talent, we have to is. Yeah. I'll brag a little bit and say, you know, we've spotted some really great talent and then they get picked up by. You know, image comics or whomever. And it was just a minute ago, a millisecond. You're like, I just talked to him the other day. He just got signed. That's great. I hope he still gets my number. I mean, and then they're out of our price range. So. Yeah. Yeah. It's like. I'll buy you lunch. Until.

[00:49:25] It's going to be a minute before we can afford you. You know, I'll see a lot of stuff on there. People say like, oh, you know, I have this. I've mapped out a universe. You know, I have this whole thing I've plotted out. But guess what? They've never written. They haven't actually written an issue. Yeah. So that's one. Finish your issue. Get it, Tom. That's my issue. You need to finish your issue. Yeah. Exactly. And so. You have to.

[00:49:52] And the other pieces, if you once you finish it, you know, the best comic book there is. If you don't know how to market it. And we're just going to read it. That you have to market your stuff. Yes. It's not fun. It's a grind. You guys had a good newsletter and you gave a sample. You didn't give it all away. It's like, OK, yeah, I know what I'm in for. There's no surprises here when these guys aren't full of themselves. I'm not getting anything tacky. They said yes or no, sir.

[00:50:20] It's like, OK, I try to be as detailed as I can. Not going to flake. And you were just very calm and just how you worded it. And I was like, yeah, I owe them a minute of my time. I don't know why they reached out to me, but I'm flattered. So I should. We're honored that you let us on, man. And that's that's another thing is is be gracious. Yes.

[00:50:47] And cooperative because that's going to get you places and you have to be willing to give without getting. And then. So much when it'll come back so much when you what can you please repeat that? Just so I can immortalize that with epic music. You got to be willing to give without getting and eventually without get see that's so come back to you at some point.

[00:51:13] Everyone remembers the selfless guy, the guy who mows your lawn for free and you're like, you know, please come inside this Thanksgiving. Yeah, you've been a big help, you know, so those are all the ground beef, all the turkey. You get that. Yeah, those are my baseline dues. Everyone remembers just the do good or instead of, you know, everyone remembers the watchdog of your neighborhood who. Has nothing in mind, he's not doing this for six o'clock news program, he's doing it because he cares.

[00:51:43] Everyone remembers the school bus driver who actually brakes properly, you know, and, you know, saved a dog's life. You know, everyone loves that underdog, that person who just gave it their all is like there was zero. It was not done for a reward. It was done by the goodness of their heart. And so often we get distracted by needless noise.

[00:52:07] People who are Neanderthals who like to be the jerk in the room is like, you know, no one's going to remember this. And if they do, they'll take a portion of your advice and claim it as their own and not cite you because, you know, it's you. Yeah, I'm not saying you have to be necessarily liked, but you should definitely not be a horse's rump at the same time. Don't be a dick. Yeah. My father taught me so many things.

[00:52:35] So I my mother was a journalist, got burnt out in Star Telegram. My I come from a family of teachers and my father worked in website design and marketing. He still does it. And recently, the job have not been so kind in this cutthroat day and age. And I had to tell him you are not a failure in any way, shape or form. People remember, you know, you like you. Don't don't sweat it. It might be a tough grind this month, but we're all going to help each other out.

[00:53:04] And he had a great story. And I just say this to all creators because it's a good reminder where he was minding his business at the business college he was at. And he always had this one. You know what? Who would just come up to him and be like, you will never be successful at marketing a damn thing. He meets this guy 10 years later at a marketing event. And he just goes up to him. He recognizes him out of the blue. He's like, I don't expect you to remember me. You're angered. Who knows how many people?

[00:53:34] I'm just letting you know, you're goddamn wrong about everything you've ever said in your life. I know. And he just left it there. I was like, I'm not here to start a war. I'm just letting you know you're full of it. And. You know, that's just it. It's like it's it's tough to be the bigger man. And then at the same time, you kind of have to let the venomous people and peers, you know, just let them know, hey, nothing you say has any impact on anyone.

[00:54:02] You can keep you're a bee without a stinger, you know, it's just and you have to also kind of just let them know. You didn't actually you weren't successful at hurting anyone. No, if that's where you were going with that. So. Yeah, I mean, and comic books can be crazy. We we've seen, unfortunately, some chaotic stuff. We've seen comic skates start wars with people. We've seen. Authors and designers accuse each other of stealing from one another.

[00:54:33] And, you know, at least the Deadpool creator just said straight up. Yeah, I was inspired by, you know, what's his name? Deadshot. Yeah. Or was the other way around? I can never remember. Deadpool or Deadshot. I thought he. Admitted an interview. I was inspired by Deadshot. Well, I saw Rob. Yeah, he's one of my he's he's like my my favorite artist.

[00:54:59] So while but yeah, he was I think with Deadpool, he his thing is that it was. Spider-Man he was going. Yeah. Yeah. And like for me, like for I love. I love Rob like more like for cable. Yeah. And then the image stuff with Youngblood profit. The character profit is probably my favorite. Comic book character. I would imagine just see like you just so left a mark on me as a kid.

[00:55:29] It's just like this. This entity that like and it was so wild and like it was like all those storylines were just so so intense to process. Why do you think so many people want to bash on him now? I don't see anything jerky about how he said speaks. He's a he's a lovely person. I've met him a few times. He's always nice to me on social media. And he's it was he's like one of those guys where it says never meet your heroes.

[00:55:56] But with Rob, you can meet your hero and he's just who you thought he was. I think a lot of people are don't like jealous. It's a hundred percent that and it's it's weird because. Growing up, I would always have at the gatekeepers at the comic book store, they would always. Don't imagine. Yeah. Yeah. And like I would come up with the young bloods and I'd ask about the can I can I get an old X-Force? And they'd always give me attitude.

[00:56:25] Yeah, you should be reading Vertigo or something. I'm like, man, I want to read young blood. I want to read profit. I want to read X-Force. I don't care. And so there was like kind of like, you know, they would act like they didn't respect me more, which I didn't care. But when you were more isolated in the 90s, I had that happen at video stores a few times. Like, why do you want to check out that movie? I'm like, that'll be by five dollars. Take it. Shut up. There's a reason why the comic book guy from The Simpsons exists.

[00:56:54] He used to be real. Not so much anymore, but I'm sure they're still out there. Right. Gatekeepers used to have so much more power whenever it was before the Internet, which is a different form of gatekeeping now. But you used to feel so alone. Like, you know, if I'm this kid and I'm bringing up an issue of young blood in the guy behind the counter gives me a bunch of like attitude about it. I'm thinking, wow, I'm this outcast. No one else is down with it.

[00:57:21] But then you get to know Rob and you go on social media and it's you don't see any artists get these sort of likes like everyone. He has such a fan base. Like there was this like a tribe of outcasts who love his work and they can't be pushed around. And I think a lot of like the resurgence of Rob, I'd like to give respect to our man who is now in heaven. I think Ed Piscor from cartoonist Kayfabe.

[00:57:45] And he really helped refurbish Rob to a and gave it looked through a artistic lens and showed how he was so important. And I think that was the checkmate that has just made Rob invincible. I like how you it's you mentioned in invincible because like you mentioned some other stuff. It's kind of critic proof in many ways, especially. Rappers and wrestlers, people can say, oh, they're great actor in that other medium. Like it doesn't matter.

[00:58:14] They're going to do what they're going to do. If it inspires people, that's what matters. And if like Rob's work inspires me, like, like, you know, if you're saying like a rapper act like DMX, I love DMX and DMX. I miss that motherfucker. Miss him greatly, man. And it's about who inspires you. And I feel like a lot of the gatekeepers are just like they're that ironic type of thing that we were talking about earlier. What do I know? I love plenty of bands. I see people say, oh, you can't like any new metal.

[00:58:44] And I stopped them dead in a track. These are lovely friends of mine. I was like, oh, OK, so you're going to say all new metal sucks. That includes system of a down. Oh, no, we can't. They're if they're labeled that. You just said none of them absolutely have any worth whatsoever. And you can't rule this out. You can't just throw away every single genre that just because one thing you don't like is like there's always an exception to the role. And it's amazing.

[00:59:12] Follow people's inspirations. If people are getting inspired by something, let them be inspired by it. Let them enjoy it. Oh, they have the right to enjoy it, even though they're wrong. I'm like, what does that mean? What is wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong is saying I can't enjoy it or that it's bad inherently. Art is subjective. If you try to make it objective, you're a totalitarian. It's disgusting. Yeah. Don't want to talk to any of those people. No.

[00:59:42] Hey, so also, what are your fun hobbies that you do outside of day job and creating your comics? I don't know if you guys wanted to say what your day job was, but. My day job now is like since screenwriting. I think I've got to the, you know, my movie came out and doing doing OK.

[01:00:09] And now can dedicate my time full time to that, but definitely had a lot of, you know, struggle before then, like suffering and earning your, you know, paying your dues and all that fun stuff out here in L.A. But I'm now, you know, at least full time being, you know, comfortable. What was your movie, if you don't mind me asking? It was a movie called Pig Hill. Oh, that's what Joe mentioned at first. OK.

[01:00:36] A crazy horror movie came out via bloody disgusting and Cineverse. The guys who did terrifier. Really, it's about based on an urban legend in northwestern Pennsylvania about these crazy pig people. And it's. Very dark and twisted. We have a lot of great actors in it, and I'm super proud of it. Kind of has a.

[01:01:03] 70s Italian feel to it and all but also melded with a little bit of like backwoods terror. So we've got. It's got a good reaction. We want it one of the best feature at Nightmares Film Festival, which is like one of the preeminent horror film festivals in the world. And then we also went. I went to London to premiere it last year and we have a great director, Kevin Lewis, who directed Willy's Wonderland. I don't know if you've seen that one.

[01:01:29] I've seen that I've seen the third nail surprisingly dark. Oh, wow. And downward angel. I'm a B movie guy. So I was like, I'm going to check out anything on streaming or at a video store. Well, Kevin's a great dude and we were blessed to have him direct pig hill. And so, yeah, that's my my, you know, thankfully now my day job is what I've been hunting for, you know, for so long.

[01:01:54] But before that, it was a lot of like being assistant, you know, being humble again, you're giving people coffee, you know, all that sort of fun stuff. Love it. Love it. Love it. And good. I was going to say my day job. I do sales and data analytics, but, you know, comics. You know, I read as many comics as I can. It's just so fun. And yeah, swing kettlebells.

[01:02:23] That's my deal. He does swing kettlebells. Love it. What do you think really keeps you going? Like just all the highs, all the lows. What keeps you just grounded? For me, it's my wife and she's the thing that keeps me going. And also, you know, a believer in God and all that stuff. So. Okay.

[01:02:51] For me, it's my wife and my son and. I'm influencing my son, you know, basically since he was like two and just read him as many comic books as I can. And, you know, read like Transformers and Spider-Man. And I just read through all the bone issues I had, you know, the old black and white from the 90s. And it's just fun, you know, going, going through and reading comic books.

[01:03:22] That it's that keeps me going. Love it. I got it. I'm not going to be able to show him collision force for at least another 10 years. And then we'll have him writing some backups. Hopefully. Hey, you know. It'll happen when it happens. So I must ask Jared. What was it like acting in Sleigh Bells? I kid you not.

[01:03:49] I had 300 podcasters tell me about that movie that I finally saw it hit streaming. My wife wrote it. So, yeah. It was a fun Christmas dark comedy. Oh, my God. Definitely. If it's the Christmas season, watch Sleigh Bells. Yeah, that was a blast. You know, they needed this pickup shot and they needed a criminal named Cookie Baby to come in there who greedily eats up cookies. And that was definitely me, man.

[01:04:18] So I did my wife the solid, of course, and became Cookie Baby. And I'm still waiting for the sequel where the bakery boys come at and go after the go after Krampus. So I love it. It was definitely a fun film, like just reasonably shot. Everybody's in on it and just has the right. It's so fun. It's so fun. I love Sleigh Bells. I'm so proud of my wife.

[01:04:47] Her and her partner, Spooky Dan Walker, were able to pull off. The camaraderie is obvious between the three leads and Santa's great and Krampus's suit's great. It's really funny. Totally. Pretty solid. I mean, it's exactly what the doctor ordered. Yes. Get the eggnog out. Yeah.

[01:05:12] So what are some fun recreational activities you recommend others do to, you know, keep life from becoming stale? You know, are you bowlers? Are you ping pong? Are you? I like to travel around. Go to unique places. California is loaded up with things. Me and my wife, like an example of we would go to a town near San Diego called El Cajon.

[01:05:40] And we'd travel down there and we'd visit a UFO cult named Unarius. Oh, wow. And it's one of the wildest. Like, these guys are really cool. Like, they're not like Heaven's Gate or anything like that. They're very kitschy 70s. They have a Cadillac of a UFO and they're very kind. They don't ask anything. And then you go down there and there's a pizza shop right next door. Me and my wife get pizza. Go see Unarius. And then there was a documentary made on Unarius that we just went to the premiere of.

[01:06:10] And funny enough, at the very end of it, when they're showing modern Unarius, there's a close up of me and my wife holding hands in the in the audience. And that was one of the coolest things that has happened to me recently. We also do the crime tours in L.A. So, hmm. So Toric is a I would recommend that anyone in L.A. Great tours on bizarre history in Los Angeles. See, that's also kind of the fun stuff, too.

[01:06:38] That kind of reminds me of how someone this one guy on YouTube was showing underground city in Vegas and is like half the bizarre stuff in the world is like is all noteworthy. It's like people should know about how some of the weirdest stuff created some of the day to day life. Yeah. Yeah. But. Yeah, I mean.

[01:07:04] I couldn't have said that better because I need to make that be a thing. So that's man, dude, you got a special kind of just like no one expects to hear what you have to say. And yet then it's like, I need to know more about this. This is anyone ever complimented you and said your personas are magnetic. Definitely, Joe. I don't get that. But Joe gets it all the time. All right. It's not required.

[01:07:34] Yeah, I don't know about that. Unless it comes to my love of donuts donuts donuts. You're going around looking for a good donut shop and you know, Cam, you mentioned you're from Dallas and the lack of donut quality donut shops in the Metroplex is caused me infinite sadness. And if you've come across one, please let me know because sure.

[01:08:02] We will that we'll hook up after this. We'll exchange numbers. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I want to be jealous world. You're welcome to good donuts. Well, and kind of like anything of good meatball, a good egg salad. It's a hell of a hard time to find the right kind. And I had there was this company that was making just some delicious.

[01:08:28] Ramen noodles made all out of spinach, and then they stopped selling at every racetrack or food market I was at as like, did I imagine this? No, I didn't. I brought it home 20 times. And so when you find some of these industries, some of these food distributors and then they go bye bye, you're like, ah, but who was the brains behind it? Who was that guy who came up with the recipe? Yeah, chances are it just wasn't selling enough. That's actually my business.

[01:08:57] I can tell you where where things are. You can tell how the pendulum is swinging and if they're going to have to forfeit fall chapter 11 or they got to do this to avoid said pleasure. No, I don't know about that, that's that's you know, I can tell you what practice. Okay, perfect. So you just determine net worth and value probably. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and so that's cool.

[01:09:26] You had a sales background, so you knew. Your limit your personal amount of time and then bouncing that out with day job and then making sure you had all the right answers to all your questions and make sure those were met. That's that's that's pretty cool, you know, because it is a balancing act. It totally is. You know, you can't just copy and paste. Can't just, you know, but one person handle it and take credit for is like everybody's got to all weigh in and contribute.

[01:09:55] So that's pretty cool. So that's pretty cool. Um, anything else you guys would like to promote for that's upcoming in the future in some capacity. And collision force.net will take you to our Kickstarter page. Right. And that that's really the focus for right now. You know, our aim will be successfully run the campaign for issue two.

[01:10:20] And with ideally, you know, we find we find extra and anything extra goes towards the production to issue three. Love it. Yeah. Well, a lot of really cool tears in the Kickstarter. The last one we had some really wild ones. We had a tear that we never thought was going to get picked up called be the president of the collision force universe. Yeah.

[01:10:48] And then my boy, my buddy, Zephy Daniel, he wrote society. I don't know if you ever saw society. I love Brian. You're just now. Oh, my God, dude. You speak my language. I know. So his name used to be Woody Keith. Now it's Zephy Daniel. And he's one of the most amazing guys I've ever met. And he swooped in. He's like, I'm the president of the collision force universe. Now, buddy, you know, the manics universe. And so he is president drill and he will make his debut. And collision force to electric boogaloo.

[01:11:18] Oh, sorry. Yeah. And then he will. I can't. I like you guys. I'm not. I don't think it's crap at all. It's good. And so and then we have other tears where get killed in collision force. Get killed. Yeah. So we have that was my dream with every action movie. I want to be at my face punched in by Dolph Lundgren or blown up by Arnie.

[01:11:43] That was the the most popular tear we had in the last. I don't think we can. I don't think we can offer as many slots as we did last time, because actually kills was difficult. And they were like, we have seven guys and they all have to memorable. One of them was Joe's sister. And so. And so we had to make sure they all got memorably. Yeah.

[01:12:10] And so for collision force to our Kickstarter, there'll be interesting. Different ones, because now we have like, you know, DVDs of pig hill and we have another idea for another character that someone could be that would be in issue three. And then there'll be some henchmen that you could be if you wanted. You want to be immortalized in the world of collision force. But odds are you ain't surviving.

[01:12:37] And then we're also going to have a couple of tears where if there's an aspiring screw writer, you can pledge and Gerald give you a script review. I'll do, you know, with my writing, editing background, do a short story or comic script review. So we have some other, you know, kind of fun things in there as well. If you want to get in on the phone and do your own thing. Love it. Love it.

[01:13:07] Love it. Love it. See. And see, this is a committed team. This is neat that you guys are actually you've thought this through. We committed you. You've loved your work. You going to get some attention. You're utilizing the Kickstarter format and. You met some serious faces. So like that's free marketing in of self, you can say worked with so and so who did these famous issues or comic book runs.

[01:13:35] I mean, everyone's going to find you eventually. We have this is very important to Joe and I. We love the characters and we think if you give us a shot here and you like action movies, you like 80s, you like intense action, like G.I. Joe, any of that sort of stuff. I think you're going to love collision for us. And if we can get this puppy role on it's going to be we have a lot of. It's an adult dog now, baby. Yeah. Yeah. Tech dogs out. Yes. So hopefully you dig it. I will.

[01:14:05] If you could follow us on our social media is that'd be great. You know, we're on collision force as an I G and a. Twitter and a Facebook and Joe and I both have I G's for our personal stuff professional and. Definitely are if you if check out our Kickstarter page. Bingo. Yeah, I have it bookmarked and I'll make sure other people know about him.

[01:14:35] I'll tell the Carly owns this since you. Yeah. Yes. Appreciate it. Thank you, Cam, so much, man. Thank you, man. This is I'm learning from people who make this. Be their deal, make this be their side investment and put the love where it matters. Yeah, we we love Lars Bowman. We love collision force. We want this thing to go on until the whole story, which is huge, is told.

[01:15:05] For sure. For sure. So, yeah, the story is bigger than Lars Bowman's bicep when that's saying something. I appreciate him. How's Lerman? I'm sorry. I'm just trying to picture what that looks like. You're very visual. With those statements. Is there anything before I let you go that you'll draw on?

[01:15:32] Like, just automatically someone gives you a pitch kind of like an improv comedy game and you do that. You're like, as long as you don't treat me like a monkey, I'll do it. I don't know. I mean, what's what do you mean? I'd like draw something on a whim. Oh, my God. No one. No one wants to see me draw anything. I would. I would have to pay someone to draw a stick figure. Oh, it's normally like pyramids. And nowadays I'll draw like a Ford Bronco all the time for my for my son.

[01:16:04] Love it. I can only think of what I'll draw on a whim is like, I'll draw anything. It's not going to be a penis. I'm going to keep it PG here. I'll have a famous gangster flipping someone off. That's my limit. I'll draw an explosion, but I'll probably spend too much time ironing it, making it look awesome. I love writing something and then seeing someone who's amazing at drawing make it real.

[01:16:33] And we have some amazing artists like Chris Johnson and JC Grinde and Felipe Gomez, our guys. Yeah, they make the magic happen. So it's always wonderful when you say, hey, you know, draw this. So on this page, there's going to be somebody getting gutted. And then you get to see what they come up with and you go, you know, this is great, but could you put a little more blood? And then they come back and they do put a lot more blood.

[01:17:03] You're like. Yes, yes, we're on the same wavelength. Love it. I love it. And just so you know, they're blessed to have you. They might not always say it because they're working for many clients, but everyone's happy to have just some description that they have to put a visual to. And they justify it's so much fun. It's great collaboration. Not every guy knows how to show the warmth in their heart, but it's like, hey, you know.

[01:17:34] When you when you get a great handshake saying thank you for all you've done, like. Everyone's validated, everyone's happy at the outcome and. Some stuff you can't even put into words is like this is a special kind of positive energy. That's rare. That's definite. Every one of our artists has blown us away and humbled us. So we're extremely grateful, you know. Right. Well, keep firing those darts at the dashboard.

[01:18:04] We will. Thank you, Cam. Thank you, guys. Explosive duo. Check out Jared and Joe's work. And I'll link to the Kickstarter once again. But man. Delightful time, gang. Really delightful. Thank you, Cam. Thanks, Cam. Thank you. Good night. Follow us on the web on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

[01:18:31] The podcast is available on Podbean, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Anchor, Apple and anywhere else. Podcasts are available. Feel free to review our show and leave comments on any of those sites. Thanks a million for listening. It's a jacked up review show.