[music] I atop the Rock of Infinity comes the comic book showdown of alternate destiny! Every week, three Kickstarter are chosen by the spin of fate. Your dedicated stewards of Destiny are Mr. Matt Cumbull and Smurf! Now prepare yourself for there can be only one victor! The comic book showdown of alternate destiny! [music] Welcome! There are a lot of comics in the world, but some of the best gems you have to dig a little deeper for. Indie comics are rich with unique stories and breathtaking art and that is why they're being used for Netflix and Prime. Today, Destiny will choose three indie comics, campaigns for us to look at and review. Stay with the silly and to see which one of these gems is chosen by Destiny! Stay tuned! [music] Guess what, bitches are back! Smurf is back! We welcome, make sure you guys share this out. I don't know where everyone is. Make sure that everything is working. Everything is cool when you're part of the team. That song has been stuck in my head for 500 miles! And I don't know why. 500 miles. Well, before we get into what this show is all about, quickly tell us about what kept you from being here last week. Well, we go out and share this campaign or the show with all the other peaceful places. Destiny, I was at Rollercon, which is like the worldwide roller derby con in Las Vegas. So it is weird that I go to an event that I don't really have any skin in the game. So I just show up, I get to be cool, boots on the ground, do what I want, and just enjoy myself. It's weird! But I do some announcing, I do some stuff. But, uh, derby is just such a cool culture. I absolutely love it. It's brutal, it's amazing. Everyone like works together, but it's like at each other's throats when they're competing. It brings up like, okay, I know everyone thinks of me as a geek and a nerd, but I am actually an athlete. I was a sports guy. I was one of those footballers and baseballers and dive team. I was one of the athletes in school. So this was like a closet thing. Who knew which was going to pay off better, right? So go to derby is like, so I played hockey for a lot of years. So there's a lot of similarities for like, you know, skating and all of that. And it just, it just feels so good to do it. So this is my second year and it was fun. Right on, right on. I'm just trying to make sure everything's working because it doesn't seem like it is. It's not showing on Facebook. I tried to refresh. That's what I'm doing now is refreshing. Don't mind me while I just kind of manhandled my camera. There it is, pound it. Just didn't show up in the event like it's supposed to. Okay, that was weird. I swear, I got to tell you, as much as I love being here on the platform of where all the fans are at, where the comic community is at, I get so a flustered, frustrated, whatever you want to say with the platform sometimes. This morning, I went on a walk as I've been, I've been doing lately. And what is going on over there, Smurf? So I go out and I, you know, it was about seven o'clock, some third this morning, and I decide, hey, this is a good spot to do live. I can tell people about the live we're going to do later on today. So I go on Instagram, which is obviously connected to Facebook, open it up, hit the live button, and it says, you're now live. And I start talking and I like give my entire thing about what a great morning it is. And now I look down five minutes later and it's still going, hold on, wait, we're still trying to reach people. And I'm like, dude, I'm done. The moment's passed. Get your shit together. Like, what the hell is up with these, this platform sometimes, I swear. Oh, and then of course, you know, not too long ago you could recall. I also got suspended for no apparent reason, but it is what it is. But that is why we're slowly transitioning over to YouTube. So some of you guys probably got a link to YouTube. And we're also making edited versions of the videos on YouTube that are kind of, you know, cut out some of the fluff, but also add some extra graphics, make them more interesting. So be sure and check those out at Matt Campbell art on YouTube. Also, if you're a pod, listen to podcast, be sure and look for it's 5280 geek on all your podcast places. I got lots to talk about. I finally went the fuckies. So I didn't hear you, your mouth was full. Yogurt, um, I finally went to fuckies. That was the weirdest freaking experience I've ever had. So I got its own weird Walmart culture. I don't. Strange. I've managed. Well, I don't know what Buckies is. Buckies is this like station across the country that people go to fill up in. It's like, you know, like a loves or something like that. And it's just so, so weird. And then I got to say about Gordon Ramsay's burger joint. That's also going to be on that podcast. So there's lots to talk about. Well, there you go, guys. Be sure and tune in to the podcast. I knew the channel is called 5280 geek, but is there a name particularly for the podcast? You'll be talking about that. It is called weekend geek update. The weekend geek update. There you go. I'm going to go ahead and put that in the ticker here. And I missed you. I, you know, nothing but love, baby. I know you do so much and we got our super producer that's running behind the scenes. Yep. Yep. Thank you. Thank you, Ray. Running behind the scenes, switching cameras. Super producer, Ray. So yep. I unfortunately today's test pattern focus. Focus here. This is referring to Buckies, I assume. Yeah, that place. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that place right on. So weird. They have fudge. I don't know fudge at a gas station. You know, that you're going across the country with is a good idea. There are things you don't eat on road trips, Mexican food, sushi, ice cream, things that are going to wreck your gut while you're browsing thousands of miles. There are rules people. Follow them. Right. Okay, I got that on. Right on. Well, welcome everyone. Welcome, John. Welcome, Ruth. Welcome, Chris. Again, Chris, an old friend from high school, which is going on a long time ago. We're not going to say how long, though. But let's get into it. Like I said, the world of any comics, it's rich. It's got a lot of cool stuff, and there are some hidden gems out there. And that's what this show is all about. Last week, we had a winner, Project Monsters. Couple of guys from across the pond that put together a book. And I gave some critique on it. And again, I struggled by myself. I missed you. But I was really excited to hear some feedback from one of their friends, saying that these guys took it to heart. They went back. They edited their video. They made some changes to try and improve their campaign. And that warmed my heart. To me, that's what this show is all about. We want to help people do the best they can with their campaigns. And we look at these campaigns from the point of view of a consumer. What's this telling us? Is it giving us the information that I need to know in order to invest? Because as we've said, there's a lot of comics out there to choose from. Some people will follow your comic just because they follow you, your fans. If you have a fan base already, that's one thing. You know, but ideally, especially when you're new, you want to pitch to an audience that you don't have yet. And indie comics are usually small. So that's generally what you're shooting for. So that's what we're working on in the show. This is our-- Everything we do, we do for a place of love. indie comics is becoming a new love for me. Like some of my favorite indie comics on the image side right now. True love on the road to hell. Amazing artwork, spectacular story. Gunfighter meets samurai on the road to hell. It's love and Scotty Young is doing ain't no great. Issue three came out last week. I love the components that Scotty puts together of like family and these complex stories. And Jorge Corona is doing the art. Much love to go for, hey, you know, local and a good friend. So to see these guys succeed is just big heart. Yeah, and a lot of people don't realize when you say comics, a lot of people immediately think of Marvel or DC or the big names. But right now, Netflix, Prime, you know, all the other places, Peacock, they are looking heavily at indie comics to get new content. And some of the best stories out there, some of the big things that people are talking about on these shows are derived from indie comics. And so that's why indie comics are just exploding right now. Yeah, Ruth is commenting on our awesome coffee mugs. I'm going to be putting this one back up on my shop soon. I got to make some adjustments to it, but all right. So this week, we're going to look at three different things, but this is our 14th episode, if you can believe it or not. And each week, we're bringing you some new indie comics and introducing you to some of these great stories that are being told. So be sure and hit like, hit subscribe, hit follow, hit all the buttons that you have to hit in order to help us spread the word about the indie comics. But destiny is going to narrow down all the entries that we've had down to three that we will then look at and review on this show and give some feedback. And then we will choose one to support and back. There can be only one. So are we ready to get dive into it? Spin that wheel. Spin that wheel. Okay, let's go ahead and jump over to the wheel and take a look at our entries this week. I'm going to go ahead and open up the the list so I can read it easier. We've got LCS number one, which I believe actually is referring to what we in the comic community are familiar with, which is local comic shop. So it's a comic called local comic shop number one, looking forward to seeing what that's about. We also have zombie kid, penguinos revenge divinity one through four, charms one through four, pendragon, BD 14 anthology from Big Dog Inc, mega maiden, vermin, xanthus, and decenter. Nice selection this week. So let's roll the wheel of destiny. Spin, baby, spin. Let's see who the first one is. This time this week, I'm going to remember to write these down because I forgot last week. That does complicate things. Yes it does. All right, our first selection is decenter. And we'll remove that one. Next up, spin, baby, spin. We've got looks like mega maiden. Congratulations. And one more to go. I need a drumroll sound effect for the end of our show when we pick our final winner. We're going to upload that. Oh, you got one. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And vermin. E-R-M-Y-N, okay. So while we're pulling up those tabs, if you're watching this show, and you know who those creators are, be sure and go reach out to them tagged and let them know that they are on the show right now. And we're going to be taking a look at their campaign. So let me go ahead and remove all the ones that we're not going to be using today. We need. I don't know why that song got stuck in my head all of a sudden. It's like when you go to the Avalanche game and they start playing songs and then you continue singing with it. You can't help it. You know, I was a little bummed out because I don't think I heard all the small things all season last season. I heard it a few times. And there was one that I think we almost went through the entire song singing. So that was kind of cool. I forgot what I think it was. I thought it was maybe against Dallas. I don't remember. And then they play. Do you want to build a snowman because the app scored eight goals. And everyone started singing with that. Like, yes. All right. I can see some likes on the on the video. So let's I want to see a couple more likes before I open this next video up. Two Gargos comics says that's my go-to hum. That and the Jeopardy theme. I was I often will bring that one up in class. I mean, we could go with the smart song. No, no, no, no, no, no. All right. Go back to the Lego song that plagued my mind for 500 miles. All right. Let's take a look at. The next the first one, the center number two. There we go. Perfect. I like it. Our first our first selection of days, the center number two undead. The island of Hokkaido is under attack after ancient Eldridge terror is unleashed as released. A 28 page full color survival horror. All right. So look, an ancient evils released and they are trying to survive the horror in full color. I mean, that checks a lot of boxes. Why, why, I mean, that's halfway there. What do we got? We are halfway there, right? They've got a thousand dollar goal with 12 days to go. That seems pretty promising. We've got some interesting art here. I don't see a video up here yet, but you know, one of the things that I'm seeing here is we've got on the left, we've got some nice art of this. I forget what you call that outfit. That agent. G is that what it's called? But it looks nice. It's beautiful. It's very pretty. And then we have this middle one with that. From a distance almost looks like sci-fi or something. And then, but I think it's more of a monster. But I see some people in here with modern guns and weapons. And then we have this one. So they kind of throw me off a little bit as far as their vibe. Like the one on the left feels like it exists in a different time period. So maybe there's something like that going on. And maybe it is a kimono. I don't know. All right. So there is no video. Which is not detrimental, but when here is in the video. You've got to come out guns blazing. Give us something to look at. And this is good. But like you said, I'm a little torn. It's like, okay, what time period are we at? Because, you know, traditional dress like that hasn't been, you know, normal place since, well, the 1800s. Great. Feudal joking. Well, statistics show that having a video, even if they only watch part of the video, they don't watch the whole video. But having any kind of video will increase the success of your Kickstarter by like 50% or something like that. It's a pretty high number because it allows people to absorb a lot of information quickly, especially if you do it right. So because what you're asking people to do, if you don't have a video, is to scroll down and read. And unfortunately, people don't want to read anymore. Nope. Especially when they're on their phone or on the internet. But we're going to read it for you and tell you what it's all about. So this says, welcome to the world of dissenter. Dissenter, a verb to dig up or to unbury. Dissenter is a survival horror intended for mature readers. Fans of Lovecraftian horror genre will enjoy this gripping narrative of an unleashed ancient evil. Fans of the Mummy, Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones, and The Walking Dead will also enjoy this limited series. You know, right there, that's good. If you would have just done like a like a Star Wars stroll and even did like a Samurai Jack style, many moons of coal, ancient evil game. I mean, that would have been a very cool just effect to get people because you have the text. And the voice over reading it in kind of like, you know, ancient many moons. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Again, smart was available for voice acting if you need it. Many moons of course came and talked a lot. What didn't shut up? Right. Well, it says over here, interestingly enough, it's kind of hidden underneath of of Smurf right there. But right here's the creator says Joel Thurman has a PhD in media studies. If you have a PhD in media studies, you probably know that video is king on the internet. Video is kind of taking over everything. So be sure and use that to your biggest advantage, especially on Kickstarter. Let's see a little bit more though. I really want to know more about this book because the book hits on the points of things that I like. It's got Eldred's terror, survival, horror, but before I scroll down and look, the thing that I'm looking for right now, I'll tell you, is like the characters. Because when you look at, for instance, Godzilla, when you look at all the Godzilla movies, most of them tended to be more about the monster and it was just people running around scared. All of a sudden, Godzilla minus one comes out and it's actually about people. And it turns out to be the best Godzilla movie ever made. So you could argue with me that if you want. But when there's an emotional connection, there's real characters that we can attach ourselves to in a survival situation like Walking Dead. That's what we're going to be getting attached to because otherwise all the monsters or the undead or whatever, that'll wear off after a while if we don't have characters. So as I'm swirling down here, I'm going to be looking for that. Who are these characters and why is it going to be interesting? Why is it going to be something I'm going to want to be invested in? Okay, so right away below, or I should say after this, it says in this issue, archaeologist James Kaiser, let's see if I can zoom in on that a little bit. Oops, got to be on the right tab. Is that zoom in at all? Oh, it does. Hot damn. Archaeologist James Kaiser has come face to face with the demigod Camaris and is now fighting for his life. But will he live to tell the tale? So John Patista, Interpol agent, is on a mission to apprehend a notorious and antiquities thief. He's already joined forces with the local Yakuza and meets a new ally in this issue. I don't think you can use that name. Well, I think it's a combination of names. You know, it's like Dave Patista and it's a wrestling fan, obviously. John Cena, Dave Patista, we're just cramming together. I mean, it's good for familiarity. I applaud you on that one. I like that. That's a great mashup. And then it says Hollis de Rosa, jet lagged and exhausted, finds that returning home from college is not homecoming, she expected. So based on what I've just told you, where's your head at right now? I mean, it sounds cool. It's just I would have stopped reading. And why is that? There's not a big enough hook. I mean, you're getting down to the characters, but I mean, I don't care. I have no buy-in. The characters sound cool. So what would make you care? I think if it was honestly told to me, I would be hanging on every word. Right. Having to read it, you pause, you look away, you get distracted, your mind starts to wander to other places. Like right there, Dave Patista, after hearing that or reading it, my mind went five different directions. And that's just how my brain works. Maybe other people would stay more focused, but I think the key of reading is creating your own environment when you do so. And you can't control that environment. When you're telling someone a story, they're listening. They're tense, they're focused on your words. Reading, it's an entirely different landscape. My landscape, I'm like, okay, cool. Next. I'll wait to see when it shows up. Yeah, so for me, the hook would be to give me something that's going to make us connect to something. If you can make people feel something, whether it's laugh, excitement, worry, whatever, then people are going to be a lot more intrigued. So like when I read these, I read that each character had completely different stories. So what I'm assuming is that this story starts off with like three different characters in their lives and eventually they come together maybe because of this disaster, but they're just telling me the setup for these characters, like this person's on a plane and this person's trying to do this. Does that actually have anything to do with the actual overall story of fighting the monsters surviving? Are these people going to end up together? And if they are, that would make more intriguing type of thing where you've got a young girl, it's just says she's in college. So a college girl coming home, if she suddenly is stuck next to an interpol agent who is joining forces with the Akusa, then I can see where there's going to be some conflict there, some weird things happening. And if they have to work together to survive, to try and save somebody, that means that this young college girl is going to have to work with this interpol agent, that's intriguing, that's something happening, that's something I can understand and wrap my head around. And so that's I think what you could add to this to really get people more intrigued is to put in there like what they're doing and what they're trying to achieve, what their goal is so that we know what's going to be the big problem here. Yeah. Does destiny take over? I mean is it a case of happenstance? Is there a higher power? I mean, like I said, a better hook would be helping. Two Gargos, I saw this pop up earlier, but I can catch it, says I found that each character bios didn't intrigue. I did agree they need a hook for each character. So yeah, I mean, we don't necessarily need to know their whole backstory. All we need to know is like, if if this personality is completely different than this personality and they have to work together to do something, then that's going to be intriguing if you set it up, right? Yeah, I'm just I mean, it's cool premise. Great idea. Just not enough to keep my attention. Right. It does have a lot of cool art. I mean, the art looks great. It looks to make that any bigger. Yeah, I mean, I mean, it's not on a lack of skill or or design or anything else. I mean, the background is that to have backgrounds. I mean, any color, I and they only want a thousand bucks. Yeah, I do think, oh, we got boobies. That was actually something I was going to go to mention. Of course, we got to mention boobies, but I didn't get any impression that this book, it did say mature audiences at one point. So I'll give it credit for that. But other than that, I didn't get any impression that this book was like a sexy book. And so this right here seems like capitalizing on one of the things that most people in, you know, the online community, especially Kickstarter community, no sales well on Kickstarter. And that's the sexy covers. So and I get it, you know, I'm I have sexy covers on my Mythica books, but I also have that come up in the book occasionally. So it kind of ties in. I feel like, you know, it it could work. It could end up bringing you a few more people in, we'll see. But it also could backfire and people be like, you know, oh, I was intrigued until I saw as a booby book, you know. So it's a different, you know, clientele, if you make a book that's just about, you know, sexy stuff, that's the clients are going to show up and see that they know that's that's what they're getting and that's what they're therefore so. But all in all, I think this has potential. I think there's some good stuff here. And I think that just a little bit of arrangement could make this campaign really, really pop. I think so. Like I said, there's there's there's a lot of missed opportunity. Yeah. And I hate to say it that way, but it is what it is. Well, hey, you know what? You never know. The other two campaigns might have even less stuff to show. So this one still might be our winner. We don't know. Let's find out, though. So next to mega maiden on to mega maiden. Let's switch over to that tab. There we go. Okay. All right. Mega maiden. Welcome home. Number one. Why do I feel like I've read this before? I don't know, but it has a lot of similarities to Ben Dunn's art style. Yeah, it does. I don't know. I feel like I read this like two weeks ago, but you guys can let me know. Everyone's favorite punk girl supers mega and choppy are back in full color ready for 24 pages of super powered beatdowns. Okay. So punk girl supers. Let's take a look at the video. Hey there. You remember this? I'm Andy Pinker. And let me tell you about my comic mega maiden. So mega maiden is about the. I'm 100% sure that we saw this like a week or two ago. Yes. Because we were talking about how it was being delivered kind of slow. Yeah. And you put us to sleep. So although, you know, you guys are welcome to. Resubmit. Yeah, I was sorry. I was reading a comment that popped up. You guys are always welcome to resubmit if you don't make it into the top three. But if you've already made it in the top three, then you hit it goes. So we're going to spin again. Go back to the wheel of destiny here. All right, we're ready. We're going to get a new new submission here. I'm going on my thinking. Let's see what we get. Penny dragons. Super cheese. All right. And if you could pull up that link for me because I already closed all those tabs. And I'm going to jump over to vermin. Let's see vermin. Vermin. All right. So he's for the vermin. Okay, we got that one up. So I'm replacing Mega Man with pen dragon on my notes. So I don't forget that either. All right. Vermin. Vermin Incorporated number one. Blue Shack Comics, a 24 page color issue. Story by Zach Ledins, pencils by Pencils and Inc by Demetrius Chekova colors by Ross Campbell and letters and layout by Desi Siente. Okay. So you used your hook space to tell us who was on it. It was really big names. I would be all over that. But maybe, maybe, maybe it's something. I mean, he's acknowledging the creative team. I'm kind of like, okay, I mean, there is people may have a decent following. And if you're building on your fan base, I don't disagree with that choice. Okay. Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. Yeah. They're like, Hey, we love these guys. And it's going to help. Well, let's see what the video tells us about vermin. 18 seconds in now. Yeah. Yeah. That was it. That was it. That's all we got. So Smurf, I'll let you go first at this one. Okay. Okay. Wow. I mean, I would have hoped for a better payout for as long as that intro was. I mean, speed that shit up. Come on. Three seconds. I mean, maybe five, but 18. Well, I was going to bring this up when it was my turn. But when something beyond the titles finally started, it was at like 27 seconds. Okay, too long. I like the music and met me feel like kind of like classic 80s horror and, you know, bad cheesy 80s films. I don't know anything about this is the rat. The guy is a teenage human into turtles out. We get splinter. There are too many like other weird similarities and we're no close to knowing anything. The art looks intriguing, but again, didn't see enough saw silhouette. I like the use of color. But really, I'm going to pass. I have no interest in finding out more like, okay, that was too long. Doesn't even have interest in finding out more. No, I don't because all I saw was a rat covered in goop. And does he mutate? Does he turn into this vermin person? And what like to your point? And I know you're going to say it. Why do I care? I mean, EPA, are they going to be down there? You know, I mean, Walter Peck shows up from the Ghostbusters and, you know, I'm going to close you down. I don't, I don't, I have no buy in. I don't know enough. And there was nothing, nothing. Right. I agree. I agree with everything you're saying. But we want to give people a way to improve. So I agree it was all intro. It was slow. 30 seconds to show, you know, the name and all that stuff. People are going to already have closed this video and moved on before you get to anything. So that's, that's thing number one. If you're going to have a video, just, you know, get to the, to the something that's visually exciting or audibly interesting or talking as quickly as you can because people have short attention spans, right? Get to the meat. Get to the potatoes. Hell, even give me an appetizer. You know, give me something other than this. I mean, cryptic music. Great job. I think one of the things that I see happened a lot, and I actually did this for my very first video campaign on Kickstarter. And I've learned since then that a lot of people treat their video on Kickstarter or whatever their, their platform is as if it's a movie trailer. And they just, they start with this opening credit, which by the way, if you watch movie trailers, most of them don't show the opening company credits until you actually sit and watch the movie and you're locked into the theater because they also know they don't have but like two minutes. But, you know, they try to, to do all this sort of cinematic stuff with their, their comic, but they don't include the parts that are in a trailer that are important, which is the voice over the people in a, in a movie that are speaking, that are giving you like little crumbs, about what this story is about along the way. And so, when you're doing a campaign that's based on a comic that's, you know, just 24 or 48 pages, and maybe it's not the whole story. Obviously, you don't have enough content to make a trailer the way they do in a movie. So, you got to use your voice or use a voice, use someone's voice over, you know, to explain a few things. Just, just to even, it's just a little bit, a little spark is sprinkling in there. You know, even though we're the music bed, just give some, some quick bullet points, you know, tournament, he's coming to me. I mean, just, just something to just shake me out of the, the intro coma that I got thrown into. I just like, Well, like I said, I'm trying to find ways that, that we can offer, says Zach Lynch is the, the creator here, that we can offer some constructive feedback because it is, it is missing a lot. And I want people to walk away with like a way to make this better. And so, just saying, I'm not interested in this, right? So again, on the video, you know, get right to it. Show us again, what this is about right now, what we know so far is that there's this like, evil vermin that's rising up from, from the sewers, but like, again, almost in, in comparison to like, the last one where we had this like big thing that was coming up out of the earth, like, how is that different? What's the story about? And also, if it's a rat, like, I don't, I don't know what extent its powers are. Like, can I just run over it with a garbage truck and be done? You know, like, what's going on? Are we cheering for vermin? Is it, or are we rooting against vermin? I mean, is it everybody versus, or, or, you know, what we feel sorry, he is like the TMNT, where he was, you know, mutilated or, or experimented upon or whatever it could be. So, what side of the point am I on? Are I cheering or like, oh, get him. Wow. Give us some direction. I got to say, this is the smallest, smallest, shortest campaign I've ever seen. First, we have this video that is mostly introduction or stuff. Then here, we have a thing that says story. We got one sentence, then we have a picture. And then we have these three sentences. And that's it, pretty much. And then this, that's it. And this says, this is the newest book from Blue Shack. This starts talking about all the artists again, and what we're raising the money for. And then this is all here talking about the creator. So, two Gargos says, one thing intrigues me if the comic is about this vermin, how does the incorporated fit in? Does he form a company that pays us really a guru? That is a valid question. I agree. I agree. So, what's, we're being incorporated company or, you know, rooting on? I don't know. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. That was a great comment. There is more. I mean, I guess, I don't know, this is very interesting to me. And I don't know if it was well thought out as far as what their objectives were. Well, this, I would always have like a punch list, your card. Here's, here's what we're trying to achieve. Here's our objectives. Outline your Kickstarter. Right. It's that, that's my biggest gift for this. Well, and, you know, we've talked about how like, there's different things that intrigue people. For some people, it's violence. For some people, it's comedy. For some people, it's, you know, relationships. And when you leave it this vague, none of those things are being resonated with. I don't know if this is going to be a funny comic or a serious comic. I don't know, I don't have any indication that there's any relationships or, but not, I don't even know if it's going to be violent. Like, nothing is being told to me yet. So the more that you can give people those little crumbs of like, what kind of book this is going to be, what the challenge is going to be, the better off it's going to be. Now, I want to add something that may be up for debate. So I'm open to people, you know, commenting on what they, what they think. But when I want to show this campaign for a second here, and I'm going to zoom in. When I see this, I feel like it, it can hurt. Why isn't it zooming in? Oh, hit the wrong button. That's why. There you go. And now there we go. All right, I don't know if you can see that over there or not, but it says that six were created and zero have been backed. That's understandable in my mind when you're making your first one, that you're right out of the gate. You're unfamiliar with Kickstarter. You didn't realize, you know, the community and you go through it on there. When you start getting two, three, four campaigns you've made, and you still haven't backed anyone else, that gives the impression that to me anyway, and you guys can tell me what you think gives me the impression that it's all about you. You don't really care about the other rest of the community or supporting the rest of the community. And that may not be true, but that's what the impression I get when I see zero, right? So it's really helpful to go out and get involved in the community and support them as well, so that they know that you're not just here to make a quick buck. That's my two cents on that. What do you guys think? Do you think that matters? Let me know in the comments. And what do you guys think, or what do you think, Smurf? I'm with you on that topic, and in addition to, I get the feeling that they don't care. This does feel to me like a cash cap, where they're not going to take time to cultivate and grow this cult Kickstarter for the fans to be interested, and it reflects in the people that are funding there. There's not enough, and I just... We're not here to bash, and you know what, I apologize, but I kind of like... There's not enough for me. Two Gargolas says, "It's absolutely matters to support the community one is in. A rising tide rises all boats exactly. Support and in turn will be supported." And I agree with that. I feel like it can also go the other direction where some people are like, "Hey, I am an indie creator, so I support every indie comic I see. I go throw money at it on Kickstarter." Not everybody can afford to do that. I want to support them by sharing their links and promoting them and saying, "Hey, go check this out." But I'm still going to purchase and buy and invest in the ones that intrigue me first. So I see that go the other direction sometimes too, where we've talked about it on the show, where people will have a campaign, and they're like very involved in the community. They're on the chat groups with the comics, and they're like, "Hey, here's my comic." And they just had this expectation that says, "Hey, since I supported you during your comic making, now come support mine." And I get that. There's truth to that. You want some reciprocation. But at the same time, you should just be treating it like, "Here's why you should come support my comic. Here's what it's all about." The karma can only go so far, and yes, all of us are working with limited budgets, and I completely agree with you on that. So sometimes you have to be a little bit selective, and just don't do it on the grounds of you're expecting something back. It's a pay-it-for type of scenario still involved in the community. Well, we've dragged onto this one a little bit, so let's go on to the next one. Thank you guys for getting me the link on that one and pulling that up. We'll jump over to it right away. We've got Pendragon, the legend foretold book one, a 78. I think there's supposed to be the word "page" right there. A 78 oversized prelude to an interdimensional fantasy series featuring King Arthur and Celtic mythology. Obviously, my ears are parking when I hear Celtic mythology. I like that they've told us a little bit. I know it's a fantasy series, Celtic mythology, King Arthur. So we've got some interesting stuff already. They've already hit goal. They've only got 34 hours to go. I don't see the video here, but they've done this without a video as well. But they've hit goal, and they're still trucked along with 34 hours. So far though, the entry has told me some interesting stuff. Let's scroll down and see what else it tells us. I can't believe how a few videos we've got today. All right, Pendragon, the legend foretold. Let me see if I can zoom in a little bit more. There we go. Pendragon, the legend foretold book one is the beginning to a four-part Arthurian saga showcasing legacy, honor, and the will to protect. Book one is oversized and eight and a half by 11 inch comic format containing 78 pages of breathtaking action. Cool, so it's not only bigger, but it's also a nice, thick book, 78 pages. Look at this real quick. Five created, 129 backed. Story, born into nothing, David Gracie never thought his life would go anywhere until he was visited by the druid, Mirden. Given a chance at greatness, he becomes the new wielder of long dead King Arthur's sword. I don't know how to say that. I'm just going to move on. But in return, he must fight to preserve the barrier of the mortal plane and prevent his realm from merging with the land of the fairies. So we've got the what, we've got what he's going after. So the setup is there. I mean, I like it. It explains. There's a fine. And I like the art. Yeah, we got some nice action sequence going on right here. I mean, that's that's more than we got out of the center. Yeah, so here's another quick tip when it comes to those of you that are trying to build a kick starter and you've only got enough money to maybe pay an artist to do a couple pages so that you can make a kick starter. You can't afford to pay them to do the whole book because that's why you're raising the money to get the kick starter, right? That makes sense. So you've got this entire book focus on the pages that are going to be the most visually interesting to have your artists work on first. They don't necessarily need to start working on page one in order of the book all the time and I'll say, Hey, draw this badass splash page first so that I can show it on kick starter as the most intriguing thing and then go back, you know, because then you have some interesting stuff to look at, right? It doesn't always work out that way, but it's possible, right? I'm going to read this this message real quick from actually there's a couple of them. So we'll just read this one. Ivan Nitt picky says it should be mortal plane. I mentioned it only because it makes me think if you don't proofread your work on kick starter, you did you make any effort on your book? That's a good point. I did catch something like that in the first title. It's at a 78, you know, little fantasy. It didn't say 78 page. So that's a good point. Yeah, because it says mortal plane. P L A I N instead of P L A N E, right? And that's an, you know, a fair thought when you see something in this still here, you're like, are there going to be misspellings in the book as well? All right, so during to a separate dimension filled with God's fairies and monsters from Celtic mythology, Pendragon also features various favorites from Arthurian mythology. The team has completed all of the ink pages. We still need your help to paying for the finalization of the remaining pages, right? That's good to know. Right? So all in all, I feel, oh, here we got one that says meet David Gracie. So there's even some information about the character, Pendragon's protagonist and newly declared wielder of Excalibur. So telling us a little bit about the character and then some more art. So I think that's a really comprehensive package. It's got all the stuff that we need. And you know, I think that's been the best presentation I've seen so far. I think this week might be an easy pick, but yeah, but is there anything that you could see that that could be, you know, improved or constructive feedback we can give this period, other than the type of editing. Always let someone else read it. I know spelling demons are always out there. I always spell her. I get it. Give me two things slipped through. You fat bink or something, but still let's get a second pair of ours. Other than that, I mean, the video, I'm sure could have added a little bit more, but they've already funded. So I mean, either that's a decent fan base enough about it. I do like the art. I mean, I you can't argue with with the success. Yeah. So well, and I attribute to the success to the clarity. There's there's all the information that I need to know to make a decision on here. Could it be more excitingly presented? Could there be a video? Sure, but it is all there. And that's the thing. Like in the end, you got to have all the main components. Well, and it didn't bury the lead. They came out strong and they got our attention. And yeah, I mean, I do agree with Ray. He says, I feel like there could be such a cool video. You're right. The amount of cool shots that are down below, just with that content alone. And then you've got all this great content, you know, word-wise that you could have voiceovers for. I think you could easily put together a pretty amazing video with this. Just even towards clashing against each other. Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't be it wouldn't be a lot. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, you get all the other big sound effects are there, the client, the clang, the swoosh is and the whoosh is and there's so many sound effects that you could pour into a video like this. I can see it. Two words, just sound effects. That would have been great. Just a video of sound effects. I could see it. Why you read it. It's like Kevin Conroy's voice for Batman. Every time I read a comic, it's his voice. So why you're reading, you hear the claim. Yeah, that would have been great. That would have been my that's what there is. There it is. That's my that's my suggestion. All right, it's time to announce our final choice, the book that that we're going to go back. It might be obvious, but we're going to go through the drum roll process anyway. For those of you that are still with us, be sure and leave your comments down below about who you would pick. And are you ready, Smurf? Ready. All right, drum roll, please. And yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that was an obvious pick, but I had to do it anyway. All right. Now, what would you say was the big takeaway of this show before we wrap up? That you don't necessarily need a video to get funded, but it does help keep an attention. And have an outline. I agree. Tell us what this story is about, not just that you have made a story or that you've made a comic. What is your comic about? Why is your comment special? Why is it different? That's what we're trying to help people do. And if you'd like to have more help with that, like to have someone take a look at your campaign, feel free to message me on Facebook or Instagram or even on YouTube. Any of the platforms that I'm on, I'm happy to take a look. I'm sure Smurf is as well. Yeah, we want to help. And we love comics. We love indie comics. And we want to see these comics succeed. And some of these comics might have some real potential, but we don't really get an idea of what potential they have because it's not being delivered to us. And that's what we want to help. All right. All right. If you want to help support this show, the best thing you can do is go to either 5,280 gate lists into their podcast, support their podcast so they can get advertising through their show. You guys are advertising? I don't know. I don't know. And then on for my side, you can go to actionlinestudios.com, buy my mythic of books, buy shirts, buy all the things. That stuff helps us be able to continue this show, continue to make comics, continue to do all the things. So please help keep us going. We enjoy what we're doing and we want to keep doing it. So with that, I think we say goodbye. This is time for me to give us our out on that phone show. We shall say goodbye. Run fast. Not hard. It'll always be kind. Good night. [Music]
