TV’s Mr. Neil on Comics Reading and Creating Decian

Archie. Alright? Archie and the Riverdale gang

were a pure and fun loving bunch. You can't find

dysfunction in those comics. They were just flat

out wholesome. Archie and Jughead were lovers.

Shut the fuck up! It's true. Archie was the bitch

and Jughead was the bush. That's why Jughead

wears that crown looking hat all the time. He

the king of Queen Archie's world. I don't feel

a hate crime coming on. Oh, you know, he does

have a point. Archie never did quite settle on

Betty or Veronica. Because he wanted them both

at the same time, you assholes. He didn't choose

one because he was trying to get them both into

a three -way. Yeah. What? I want you to go down

to the corner store and buy yourself a clue.

Go on. Eat it, Urkel. I done told you to watch

it with that Urkel shit. Face it, girl. Aren't

you a sister? That's it. You. Mom. Yeah, you.

You are marching back across the street with

me, and we're gonna pick up a shitload of Archie

books. And I'm going to prove to you beyond the

shadow of a doubt that Archie is all about pussy.

Come on. This boy is conflicted! I shall pay

Mother Therapist for him. You two sit tight.

We shall return promptly. You shut up. You're

insane. Archie is not fucking Mr. Weatherby.

Deny, deny, deny. Where's Alyssa? Uh, she left.

She said she'd call you later. Look, he's just

offering to help Archie with his fucking homework.

Read between the lines, bitch. Fuck this. Let's

go. Traffic. It's Decian, the superhero webcomic.

Decian has superhero antics and sexy girls. Catch

updates weekly at Decian .com and NoSuperPants

.com. how they got into reading comic books oh

yes but think of the fun hello and welcome to

the pull bag this is an origins episode i am

your host tfg on mike and doing something a little

bit different here on the pull bag with one of

the origins episodes because not only do we have

a comic reader with us today we also have a comic

artist with us today now I have been trying and

trying and trying and trying and trying to get

Mike Laidman and Laura Thomas on here for now

titled Mike and Laura Project, but no, we have

something slightly better. TV's Mr. Neil! Yes,

yes, I am here, and I don't have a funny quip

for once. I am the artist of Decian, the superhero

webcomic, on NoSuperPants .com. And also Decian

.com, but you don't really learn how to spell

that until you actually go there, so. Yeah. It's

the fatal flaw of my website. Also the fatal

flaw of his website is he killed all his character

pages! Yeah, well the thing is I had a completely

different layout for my website at one time and

I went to the character pages and I just read

every single profile I had for each character.

I'm like, oh these are awful! They were like

several paragraphs long. I need to make more

concise ones. Some of it was like kind of decanonized

anyway. I changed my mind on certain characters

so I took stuff out and You know, I was like,

well, I brought the comic back in March of this

year, and that's when I took the character pages

out, because I'm like, this is all going to be

totally confusing and out of context of what's

going on now. So that's why those are all gone.

All right, so for those of you who don't know,

those of you who haven't listened to an Origins

episode before, basically what this is is...

I basically asked the hard questions to the guest

of the week or the guest of the episode, et cetera,

et cetera. And they answer them, and we have

a discussion of comics and how they get into

comics. So, Neil, was there a certain age? Was

there a certain relative, father, grandfather,

uncle? Who got you into reading comics? That's

probably going to fall on my grandmother, but

it wasn't really an intentional thing. It was...

When I was a very young kid, she'd watch me a

lot. One day we were going through the checkout

line at the grocery store and she sees an Archie

comic, she just hands it to me and says, here

you go. I flip through it and of course there's

Betty and Veronica at the beach and Cheryl Blossom

and all these hot girls in there. I'm like, wow,

thanks, Graham. It's kind of funny because even

though I do a superhero webcomic, Not really

a superhero reader. I you know, I read a lot

of like other comics I read I was really big

into Calvin and Hobbes and I liked Let's see.

Yeah, I like the Archie's I liked Do you remember

in the old Nintendo power? you used to have like

Howard and Nestor and yeah, yeah, that was good

and There was one for the for Super Mario Brothers.

That was really good. That's kind of That comic

was kind of my epiphany because I'd always kind

of want to do like an action comic. And I'd always

like the cute comics too. And I was like, well,

these are kind of two different worlds. I didn't

really think you could put them together. And

then I read this comic, I'm like, oh, wait, you

can't. It totally works. And then it kind of

got exacerbated even further when I discovered

Adam Warren, who did the Dirty Pear comics. And

oh, my God, those are those are like the perfect

mix of like cute, sexy girls and tons of explosions

and blood flying everywhere it is i think that

more than anything kinda like set me on my way

interesting interesting uh... what were you okay

are you okay so archie and what else what else

were you reading as a kid tell us your your your

comic history as far as reading the stuff and

you say you're not really into the superheroes

so you know you're not a marvel or a dc guy at

all well There's going to be a lot of crossover

with animation here, because while I wasn't reading

them, I was definitely watching them on TV. Like

anyone, I was watching the Batman cartoon. I

watched Super Friends, but I didn't really like

it. Batman didn't really catch on to me until

the Bruce Timm series. As far as comics go, I

was mainly just kind of like a newspaper comic

guy, although I was really kind of eclectic in

my taste. Like I said, I like Calvin and Hobbes.

I like kind of the weird ones like... Dillbert?

Yeah, Dillbert was funny, but I like the ones

that like there's this there's this comic called

non sequitur, which is kind of sometimes a political

cartoon, sometimes, you know, just random thoughts.

See, there was Mr. Bopho I thought was pretty

funny. I liked Peanuts, but for the most part,

I stayed away from the comics. that had too many

talking heads. That's the one thing that really

drew me to Calvin and Hobbes is Calvin and Hobbes

had this way of doing it where he would put the

proverbial, talking about artist Bill Watterson,

he put the proverbial camera anywhere. You could

have an overhead shot, you could have a low shot

pointing up, you could have aerial shots with

a dinosaur flying a jet plane. He just did all

this crazy stuff and I'm like, wow, this is nowhere

else in the newspaper. So that that was that

was a big thing for me comic books. Let's see.

I don't have a lot of comic books, but I Read

some of the Transformers, obviously Yeah, obviously,

yes Let's see Is that the old stuff or the news

the old Marvel stuff like okay the old Marvel?

Yeah, when they that one issue where they crossed

over the spider -man Let's see. No. Yeah, I'm

kind of drawing a blank on really old comics

because, like I said, most of it was in the newspaper

stuff. My comic collection is largely stuff within

the last 10 to 20 years. I got a lot of books

based on webcomics, actually. One I have to really

plug here is The Gods of Archelon, which is kind

of hard to find now. It's kind of tucked away

on a website. It's like rmcomics .com slash archive.

Anyone listening to this, if you read web comics,

you should read that one, so go there. That's

my firmest recommendation. Let's see, let's see.

I have some of Josh Lesnick's books. He did Wendy

the Comic and Girlie the Comic, and I think both

of those have ended. Yeah, I have I have weird

taste so it's all over the place a lot of my

a lot of my tastes are come from cartoons the

old Sun bow stuff That's where a lot of my humor

comes from Yeah, it's so shows. Yes. It definitely

does there. I do have a Starscream character

in my comic. Oh my god All right, so okay Are

you picking up anything nowadays? You seem to

be more on the artist side now than actually

the reader side. I'm not really picking anything

up nowadays. I would like to pick up Empowered,

but I just haven't. I haven't had a chance to

read it at all. Even though I'm the biggest Adam

Warren fan, his newest big comic is one that

I've not read ever. That might shock some people

who know me. I was really big into reading webcomics,

but nowadays I don't even have time for that.

I've been meaning to get back into a couple of

them, just because some of the old ones that

I used to read are still going. Newer comics,

just... I'm just not reading them nowadays. I'm

either editing podcasts or doing my own comics.

It's just a matter of time. You gotta find a

storyline you're gonna like. I would say that

because you come from watching the cartoons,

I would suggest... Death of the family from DC,

which is the Batman storyline where Joker comes

back after a year that was it was interesting

It was all right. It was it wasn't as epic as

I thought it was gonna be I guess I don't know

Transformers stuff now Our buddy Ender that's

also on the show sometimes he'll say oh well

you got to read The crappy cost might cost a

stuff before you can read the new stuff to see

how bad it was to see how now how good it is

But I think For you, I'm trying to think where

I don't know. It's it's so weird what they're

it's not weird what they're doing in the Transformers

comics now, but it For you as someone who is

a Sunbow guy might be weird because there's two

books There's robots in disguise, which is set

on Cybertron and more than meets the eye Which

is based off the crew of the lost light who go

out to find the nights of the mythical Knights

of Cybertron, right? Robots in disguise has bumblebee

Starscream All these other characters and it's

basically It's a political book. Oh god because

the With IDW continuity is their moniker is the

war is over So it's it it's very political heavy

at least from what I've read the first I've read

the first three trades It's a good book. There's

some really cool stuff in there I'm just not

sure if it would be up your alley the lost light

is or the the other book the mother meets the

eye book is basically rodimus and a bunch of

ragtag uh... autobots uh... and cyclonus will

explain that later he'd be basically isn't that

is the time he still has the insignia but he's

not something happened i don't remember off time

and basically rodimus a ragtag crew of autobots

jump in the lost light and go try to find and

that the they basically leave cybertron they

basically don't have to worry about the fact

the war is over anymore they probably will future

uh... it's it's a funny book and it's i was really

skeptical about it at first because i have the

same almost the same mindset is you'll maybe

where oh if it's not sunbow oh if it's not do

you want to know if it's not this i'm not going

to care about it but you know With me because

I know you're not but at least I am a Rodimus

fanboy I was like, okay I'll give it a shot and

I came to find as I was as I'm reading more than

meets the eye they introduce us to new characters

and new concepts that just For me blew my mind

and I was like, oh wow and the characters all

really likable characters you would know that

are there are Rodimus and Cyclonus obviously,

Ratchet and Ultra Magnus. There's also Chromedome

and Rewind, but that's... it's very strange.

They basically write them as if they were humans.

so it's not the it's not just giant robots talking

it's giant robots yours you know supposed to

be having some sort of human emotion or some

sort of it's it's a good book it really is i'm

probably not explaining it correctly if anyone

says so probably hitting his head on his desk

uh... but uh... it's it's interesting and i think

you might like it uh... it's possibly i know

i know ron ron was kinda got a kinda got a raw

deal in the in the cartoon just because uh...

i said this on on animation fish not as that

the original final episode of season three was

uh... the burden harris the bearer he's like

he's like yes i i am the leader and from now

on i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna be every bit the leader

of this prime was and then the very next episode

so it's like that Are you good? It was awesome

the prime came back, but you know what what a

way to screw over a character. Oh, yeah well

that and Sunbow was Probably running out of money

at that point. I'm like hey, let's let's bring

him back, and let's let's do this five -par oh

wait No, it's a three -par or sorry David wise

you have to now crunch in a hundred and twenty

characters in the three parts of the five parts

uh... but yeah all right so when did you first

start getting into the whole artistry of comics

how did how did that come about uh... what was

again this is going to be kind of like backwards

for most people it was kind of uh... is kind

of uh... uh... a last resort kind of thing it's

like well i'm just this guy out in the midwest

so uh... probably not ever going to be in the

animation industry and probably not ever going

to be doing any of the stuff that you do on TV.

So I have paper, I have a pencil, I can probably

just do a comic. And I had a bunch of early ideas.

I mean, this goes way back into the 90s. I started

drawing stuff. And in fact, I've been drawing

like even earlier than that. But the first inkling

of me doing a comic was the 90s. And then, it

was kind of off and on where I'd try to write

something and I didn't like it and I'd throw

it away. And I'd come back to it later and...

And then one day, you know, I'm on the internet,

I'm like, oh, there are comics on here. And I'm

like, oh, there are really good comics on here.

And I'm thinking, I think I could do this. And

so I drew up like maybe 20, 30 pages with a ballpoint

pen and a set of colored pencils, because I hate

painting, but I had a set of colored pencils.

And the only page that has colored pencils is

the first one. everything after that is all digital

paint. But yeah, that was a nightmare because

ballpoint pen is not really, it's not really

good. No. It doesn't scan very well and I'd have

to like spend like an hour or two cleaning up

the ballpoint pen before I even start coloring.

And nowadays I just do everything digitally because

I got Photoshop in the meantime and what I can

do now is I could just sketch on the tablet.

And then when I get a really good thumbnail going

for a page, then I can put hard lines on top

of it and erase the bottom layer and then put

the colors in. And it's a much faster process

now than even when I was starting. So you prefer

the digital paint versus the old style. Oh, God,

yes. I mean, it is so forgivable. I mean, Ben

does a comic, too, and he was really hardcore

into the ink. he would talk about how he loves

the smell of ink, and he loves working with the

brushes and everything, and then he finally got

a tablet. So that's what's wrong with him, he

keeps sniffing ink. Yeah, and then he finally

got a tablet that had a really good program on

it, and he's like, oh, oh, this is good. And

then, yeah, he's finally seen the light. But,

yeah, digital is, I don't know what I'd do without

it, just because I'm so prone to error and...

you know you can only erase stuff so many times

on paper but in digital you know not only can

I erase but you know if I draw something crooked

which you know every artist is prone to doing

I can flip it over I can flip the whole drawing

over and see it backwards and I'm like oh for

some reason there's some goofy thing where when

stuff is flipped over then suddenly you can see

all your errors so I can I can I can draw like

a like a like a a little selection I don't know

what you would call it but a little uh Like a

like a halo around it and then I can and then

for that little part in the on the page I can

kind of like pull it straight or Do whatever

I need to to make it not crooked. It's yeah,

it's like all the all them is all the Little

things that I was prone to doing is are so easy

to correct now. I'm like I cannot imagine doing

this on paper Now do you prefer As far as reading

stuff, do you prefer the old style or do you

prefer, like, have you picked up any, like, I

know you said you're not into comics currently

now, but I mean, do you even pick up or do you

even look at stuff online of new comics? Do you

prefer the old, you know, traditional style of

drawing and all that for reading comics or do

you prefer the digital? Um, I don't... I don't

really have a preference either way. It's just

a matter of what's easier for me. If something

looks good, it depends on who the artist is and

how well they work with their tools. Some artists

are really good at working with ink still. Why

stop them? If they're good at it and they can

produce good work, then... You know those old

Disney cartoons? There are cartoons made by Disney

in like the 60s and 70s that kind of have like

a Xerox look. Yeah, I love those and those are

made with a specific technology that they were

using at the time. And even though those are

like archaic and kind of dirty looking, I still

love them. So it's not... that I prefer the tools

necessarily, it's like how the artists work with

the tools. I thought Disney did a great job with

those. So that's basically the same view I have

of comics. It depends on who the artist is and

how he works with it. For me, I look at old comics.

In the past month or so, I've read several comics

from the nineties, and I know the nineties wasn't

the best era for comics, but I look at that and

I'm like, ow, this hurts, ow, please give me

something from the current day, and I get it,

it's a style, and even the homaging of the old,

because there's part of the robots in disguise

volume three trade is a flashback. And it flashes

back to a time where it's digital, but they're

homaging the old Marvel style of the drawing

and how it was done back then. And it transposes

itself. It goes page to page, like where you're

in the present and when you're in the past. And

it's like, you know, I'm looking at a page that's

in the past on this page. I flip the page and

it's in the present. I'm like, oh, this is so

much better. And maybe it's because I didn't

grow up on comics. I mean, I knew of comics like

in the 90s. Oh, boy. But you know what else?

I think I was also kind of compartmentalizing

the line art with the coloring. The coloring

nowadays is way better. Yeah, the old days where

it was just like the flat coloring and you could

actually see... Underneath the ink you could

actually see like the blobs of color Yeah, yeah,

that was kind of crappy. But yeah Today's coloring

I prefer much more Yeah, cuz it's all nice and

shiny and glossy. Yeah, although sometimes it

gets a little gaudy but you know Yeah, it depends

on what you're reading. But yeah but yeah the

Just I don't know what I was thinking in the

90s because I was watching I was watching Batman,

but I wasn't Wasn't watching it all the time

because at one point or another I think when

I was living my dad my stepmother said oh This

is too violent you can't it's like 1993 I'm 13

14 years old too violent for a 13 or 14 you kidding

me It's an explosion. Oh, okay explosions are

violent. I'm not saying they're not but it's

like seriously Like, I can tell the difference

between make -believe and real life. But, you

know, in the 90s I was watching, you know, stuff

like the Spider -Man cartoon and the X -Men cartoon

and it, you know, watching those made me want

to go out and get the comics at that time and

I remember reading several Spider -Man comics

that really looked like they, you know, were

the animation style except in, you know, in 2D

form, and I liked them and everything else, but

now, going, you know, since starting in October

of last year, uh, holy crap, it's been a year

that I've been into comics, so, you know, starting

October of 2011 with Death of the Family, which

is all Steve Megatron's fault, um, I can't, I

find myself liking the current stuff more and

Maybe it is because I didn't grow up on it or

maybe it is because I just didn't know any better

I don't know. I just I like the new stuff more

than I do The old like, you know, I read Punisher

born and then I read Punisher year one and I'm

like How this year one's a great story don't

get me wrong it is And we'll we'll be reviewing

that here in the pull bag this coming November

for Punisher Month, but born was so great But

born again is born is one of those ones where

it was done later It wasn't you know it was I

think it was 2000 or I forget. It's over there

on the outside of the desk You know so it's it's

that kind of new style plus. It's the it's the

max comics so it's like well this comic is not

for children this is explicit content you know

which is fine but yeah I don't know what it is

I think I'm right there with you I prefer the

digital art versus the old style you know I I

get in respect the old style because we wouldn't

have what we currently have if that wasn't already

there but All right, so walk us through your

more creation of the comic that you do. What

is, how do you actually spell the damn name of

the comic? This is the other problem is that

nobody knows how to say it. It's Decian. And

she started out, God, this is kind of embarrassing,

but she, I drew, I first came up with her on

the same day that Michael Landon died. And I

looked that up today. I'm like, oh, that was...

July 1st of 1991. So she's that old. And it kind

of started out as, you know, I was really into,

you know, the half -naked super girls at the

time. So I'm like, well, I really like the She

-Hulk and I like Wonder Woman and I like all

those. I power girl. So I'm going to make a character

like that. And so I did. And she... See, I had

a bunch of other comic ideas at the time. She

actually, she actually kind of like, she was

supposed to be like the sister of a different

character that I had. And then I ended up liking

this one better. So I just, you know, spent all

my time working on this idea. And early on, it

was just kind of like a generic superhero thing,

like, you know, a bunch of corny villains show

up and ha ha ha, you know, you'll rue the day

and she comes and beats them up. And it was nothing

really spectacular. And Like I said like sometime

in the 90s I just kind of like put this stuff

away and I'm like Nothing's ever gonna come with

it gonna come of it. I should say and then the

internet came along I'm like, oh I can come back

to this. So that's when I started coming up with

other characters like my villains are called

the Crimson Gestalt which Transformers fans will

recognize that word and maybe Gestalt isn't quite

the right term, but it's it sounded cool. So

I kept it and These are like five supervillains.

They're supervillain hunters, and I'm going to

get around to what that's all about at some point

in the future. They have a secret origin of their

own. That's another conceit I have, which is

I don't really like secret origins, so I kind

of skipped that for now. The secret origin of

these supervillains. Yeah, it really is a secret

origin because no one knows what it is yet. I

kind of built them around the theme of colors.

A lot of my characters have color themes, actually.

They're all named after shades of red. There's

the big burly guy. His name is red. And then

there's Ruby, who's the gay one. I was watching

Hollywood Squares at the time. I'm like, wow,

this Paul Dinn guy is really funny. So I'm going

to make a character like that. And then there's

the Starscream character, Maroon, who's a...

Who's kind of like the the scheming character

the mustache twirling, you know, he's he's plotting

to take over and and One of the readers pointed

out something and I I never intended but it's

kind of a kind of note anyway It's like maroon

is the farthest color from red. It's actually

like almost purple So he's kind of he's kind

of already distance from the other characters

plus maroon means to be separated So I'm like,

oh, that's that's an interesting point And the

last two characters are like the two lovey -dovey

ones, like Lord Crimson, who's the main bad guy.

And then there's Rouge, who's the girl who's

constantly fawning over him and has aspirations

to not be a villain anymore. And that's a subplot

in the story is that the villains are kind of,

see, they're kind of under the control of a mastermind

and they're starting to break free. and she's

the one who's kind of broken the most free and

she's like you know let's get out of here let's

do other stuff and Crimson's just kind of absorbed

with his own uh with his own motives and uh then

we have uh going back to the good guy side we

have uh Parker Lynn Bailey who's a fan favorite

because she's the uh she's kind of the snarky

character but maybe snarky's not crazy because

i kind of hate snarky characters but she's the

one who's got the most biting with i should say

of the comic she's she's um... so she's like

peter parker with uh... the alien cost a little

bit she's uh... she's that she probably doesn't

dance yes she's she's feminine and uh... and

confident at the same time i think that's i think

that's what contributes her popularity she she

doesn't she doesn't take shit from anybody and

that she's still very much girly. And God, I

didn't really describe to see in herself. She

was kind of, she's kind of the Dudley Do -Right

of the series, which means that admittedly, she's

not the most developed character, but she, I

do just try to make her as lovable and as funny

as possible. She's kind of got this 80s sense

to her. She's got the big hair and she's into

like, she's into like old cheesy classic heavy

metal rock, you know, like, I don't like you.

Yeah, a little worse than me because she actually

likes poison and all those butt rock bands. She's

definitely changed since day one. Yeah, she's

changed. Because I'm on here. I went back to

the very first page and I looked through the

first part of the very first comic and I'm like...

Okay, that's okay. That was the style from the

beginning and now I'm looking at like the pre

like the last time I got four pictures where

she and Parker are talking and yeah, it's uh

Fair here art style has definitely changed over

the years Yeah, um about that. We were talking

about coloring earlier and my coloring has changed

quite a bit. It's uh Originally I was I kind

of I was kind of thinking, I didn't really have

a color theory per se, but I was just like, okay,

how was Superman colored? Superman is the brightest

colors on the page. He's red, yellow, and blue.

So I'm like, okay, I'm going to, well, she already

had a red costume. So I'm like, okay, she's blonde,

give her yellow hair. Her eyes are like, when

I say she's got blue eyes, I mean, we're talking

Crayola blue, and these colors are right out

of the grand box. And if you look at her today,

she does not have yellow hair. She really...

Literally has platinum blonde hair and the costumes

toned down and the eyes are way toned down and

the overall color theory of the comic is just

It has a lot more restraint to it and a lot more

respect for natural colors And You're talking

about characters. Let me see if there's any The

thing is I've over the years. I had a lot of

characters in the comic early on and I'm slowly

Slucking the ones out, but I don't like anymore

So there are a lot of characters that I don't

care for but there's still a couple in there

that I'm gonna keep that are really funny like

there's this one guy named Dave and Dave's thing

is that he He's not in the comic a whole lot,

but he shows up He shows up for brief brief scenes

and the joke is that you know whenever somebody

talks to him They're like, oh, hey, who's this

guy? And he goes I'm Dave and then the scene

ends and that's all he ever says And so, that's

one of my favorite jokes. It's hard to even explain

why that's funny, but at the same time, I just

thought it was so hysterical that there was a

character in the comic that that's all he does.

And let's see. Yeah, there's another character

called The Gooch, where he's like a crime boss.

kind of developing my story writing skills. I

kind of look back at that. I'm like, no, I really

didn't need him because the only reason he exists

is to introduce the Gasalt. I'm like, well, there's

so many ways I could have streamlined that. I

really don't need character. He's going to be

around for a little while, but I'm probably not

going to use him a whole heck of a lot. So he's

become deemphasized. There's like a government

guy that's in there that I'm kind of I'm kind

of like running down my own comic and really

it's I'm the thing about my About my artwork

is that I'm really only ever satisfied with like

the last three chapters because I'm constantly

I'm constantly refining and and changing the

way I do things and making it better and better

and You know, of course when you when you're

constantly improving you look back at your old

stuff. Oh man like the first chapters The first

chapter is pretty rough. I have a tough time

reading it but it gets I'd say it gets really

good around Chapter 4, and then about Chapter

6 or 7, it hits a pretty good stride, and now

it's doing pretty well. I really like the newest

pages. I'm trying not to make my comic sound

bad. No, I'm not actually reading it, but I'm

just looking through the... the back the most

recent going back to the panels and uh... i was

a panel now where hey look it's spiked in spark

plug yes yes you so totally ripped that off i

did and that's even though like he says even

a quote from the first episode of transformers

it is and very few people got it i was so i was

like oh how do you not recognize that Yeah, that's

way too recognizable But that's why he's turned

away from the camera so it could be it could

be anyone with an 80s perm Yeah, that's that's

well. I basically noticed it just for the fact

of you know Construction guy with yellow hat

giant yellow boots blue pants and gray shirt

and yellow construction that that's why Yeah,

it's so it's so easy to pick spike out of anything

Yeah That page I was that's one of those pages

where I was just kind of like Biting my knuckle

because I couldn't wait for it to go up, but

I didn't want to spoil the joke Yeah, no, I mean

I'm looking at the chapter 8 covering comparing

that to the very first The number the the issue

one cover that you did it's the style is definitely

It's definitely improved. I mean, I'm not saying

that the number one cover is bad. It's okay to

say that. Yeah, but it's definitely interesting

to see how far the comic has come. Well, if you've

ever heard me critique cartoons and stuff, it

always sounds like I'm kind of running stuff

down. I hope this gives some context because

I do this to my own stuff. I look at old stuff

and I'm like, ugh. man, that's terrible. Oh man,

I didn't have any style back then. It's kind

of taking what I've learned and moving forward.

I try not to look back so much, but sometimes

I do and I'm like, oh. For the most part, the

early chapters are readable. I'd say the first

one is the biggest speed bump, just because there's

no structure to it whatsoever. Notice in the

first one as I was flipping through it the I

say flipping through it like I actually have

a print copy of it in my hand I don't As I was

clicking through the pages. I noticed I think

it was in a club or something. There was a character

Look like a look I could be I don't know which

sex it is. Honestly, I couldn't tell it the character

has a bow cut and it's all in purple the entire

panel is in the background is purple and it's

someone saying where's my number one star my

number one reporter or something or other and

i'm like oh is that a lois lane joke it's because

it kind of is parker is uh... sort of that was

parker back then all of us who differs if it's

character that has glasses yes that's her she

is kind of lois lane ish but she's also See,

all my characters are homages to something. So,

Lois, Parker is kind of Lois, but she's also,

if you ever see the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati,

she's also a Bailey Quarters. And of course,

people would assume that Deceit is there for

Jennifer. No, she's not because I hate Jennifer.

Yeah But no there was one more recently I think

they think it was in chapter 8 Where she she

barges into Decian's apartment window now? So

Peter Parker It just sent you the link for what

the the image I'm I know I know the one that

that is there is Parker I'm talking about the

one up in the upper right hand corner And I'll

link this in the show notes so people can see

right what I'm talking about But the guy with

the but looks like a bow cut. It's all in purple

Inside the century building apparently Oh, that

guy. Oh, that's a parker. That's uh, you know,

I know this parker. Oh my god. Yeah that guy

see I completely forgot about him. He's he's

uh Decian's alter ego michelle night. That's

her boss and you never okay. You never see him.

I I I was like Wow, that's a lot of different

purples. Yeah, I'm like She's got to have a job.

So I kind of came up with that and then I never

went back to it ever so I don't know what I'm

going to do with that guy. He was just there

to cover a plot point that I probably didn't

need to cover. See, this is part of my streamlining

thing is that I tried to explain a lot of things

early on that I probably didn't need to. In fact,

I could have just consolidated it and said that

instead of her working for a magazine, she could

have just worked in the same building with Parker.

Why didn't I just do that? I don't know why I

didn't. That's interesting. I am really surprised.

You said you started this in the early 90s. When

did Decian actually start? See, that's kind of

got multiple answers. Well, the character came

about in the 90s, but there was never a real

comic until the early 2000s. And then here's

the thing that... a lot of people have forgotten

is that there actually was a comic that started

in 2002 and it ran until 2005 I think and it

was it was actually so wretched that I just threw

the whole thing out and started over and a lot

of a lot of the early pages are just recolored

versions of the original but I've also redrawn

a lot of stuff and so it is as screwed up as

this is now at these early chapters it's actually

better than what it was So in a strange way,

I'm happier with the first chapter, but there's

still a couple pages where I'm like, God, I should

maybe take these out. The two pages in chapter

one that I'm the least proud of is I had this

thing about characters having shades of gray.

And I'm like, people having positive qualities

and negative qualities. You know, it's something

that all characters have anyway, so I didn't

really need to, I really didn't need to say it.

But anyway, early on, there's this one page where

they're talking about the police commissioner

and they say something about, oh, he cheats on

his wife. And the other character says, oh, but

he's a good cop. And I'm like, and I read that

like a couple of days ago, I'm like, God, why

did I do that? But then there's another page

that's like immediately before or immediately

after where there's a character that Parker doesn't

like. And and she's vilified for, I don't know,

sleeping her way to the top. And I'm like, okay,

so the police chief is a good guy even though

he cheats on his wife, but this other person

is terrible because she's a slut person. It didn't

even occur to me at the time how terrible that

message was. And I just cringe whenever I see

it. I may actually go back and take it out just

because of how bad it is. So if any... uh...

feminists have read that and are shaking their

fists at me i know i'll probably do something

especially if this ever goes to to print all

that we take those out now that's you know that's

interesting how would you get this to print like

would you approach one of the the mainstream

companies or would you go with someone that's

you know mainstream, but not as in the limelight.

How would you go about doing that? Well, there

are print -on -demand services. I can't think

of any off the top of my head. I think Wowio

had one, or probably still has one. I could probably

use. But yeah, I've been thinking about putting

it in print, but I don't really know if there's

much of a market for that anymore. Like I said,

my readership is relatively low. So who's going

to be even buying this? If the interest ever

comes up, then yeah, I'll do it. But I've not

really seen a reason to do it, so that's why.

I had planned to do it at one time, and then

I kind of backed off of it. I'm like, no one's

going to buy this. But it is all formatted in

such a way. All the pages are exactly the same

size, and that's kind of the thing that other

webcomics artists don't do it. They kind of like,

oh, infinite canvas, duh -duh -duh. And then

they'll make all the pages any size they want.

And then if they want to print it, then they're

kind of screwed. Whereas I have uniform pages.

And if I want to, I could just make a book out

of it any day if I want to. Very awesome. Very

awesome. Yeah, there's a lot of, you know, so

I know for actual, saying you're not an author,

but actual written book authors. uh... there's

a lot of self -publishing stuff out there so

i assume for webcomics or for comics in general

there would be a lot of self -publishing but

uh... on and why why the entire episode of this

i'm flashing and flashed it chasing me twice

holy crap first with archie and juggied and now

uh... uh... the end of the thing all the limited

run i'd did myself in this uh... uh... Was there

anything else you want to discuss about comics

on this? Well, I did want to bring up the crossover

lore, which was the other comic project that

I worked on. And what that was, it was a crossover

between a bunch of webcomic characters, so Decians

in it, mind mistresses in it. There were a couple

characters that maybe people aren't too familiar

with, like Dead Debbie from a comic called Indefensible

Physicians. There was, here's a character's name

that I've never been able to pronounce. It's

Mechagical Girl Lisa Ant. And she's kind of like

a Sailor Moon parody, but she's also kind of

a mech. She's in this mech suit that looks like

an ant. And then there's Lightbringer, which

was Linkara's comic book character. And the funny

thing about this is that Linkara is the one who...

came up with this idea and at the time he was

no one knew who he was so I get this email one

day and and he's like hey I'm gonna be I'm gonna

do a big crossover and I'm like yeah okay and

I look at his comic and I was like and you know

Lewis will even tell you that early pages the

light bring like just the same way I'm kind of

I'm kind of really critical of my old pages he's

also critical of his old pages so he'll he'll

tell you that old like your pages are kind of

and not too well drawn. So I'm like, I don't

know. And then I heard that Mindmasters was in

it, which was Al Schroeder's character. And Al

Schroeder and I had known each other for years.

Well, as long as I've been doing the comic anyway.

So I was like, well, I'll hop on board for that.

And we brought a couple other people in as the

comic went on. And it was like a two year project.

And it was a lot of fun. It went on much longer

than what Linkara was hoping. He thought it was

just going to be like a 30 page crossover. And

by then, I had learned enough about writing where

I was just like, there's no way we could do this

in 30 pages. Because I had gotten so much more

involved in character writing that I couldn't

imagine just doing a simple crossover and having

it at the end of 30 pages. I'm like, no, we got

to do this. We got to do that. We got to do.

all these funny scenes between Mind Mistress

and Decian. And yeah, you should link to this

too. I'll throw you the link when we're done

recording. Yeah, I will. Yeah, and it's just

really, the way these two characters work, it's

better than anything in my comic, really, where

Mind Mistress is this really, she's like the

most intelligent character in her own universe.

And she meets Decian, who's kind of this go -getter

who who is like really bubbly and and fun and

and They just it's kind of like Batman Superman

Just you know butting heads and not really getting

along and we built up this love -hate creation

Relationship over the course of the comic and

then we paid it off with this with this scene

where they finally Get to understand each other

and it's really this really heartwarming scene

And I'm not even gonna spoil it because people

should read it. It's it's really yeah It's really

something I'm proud of because it was such a

big project that we worked on and it's where

I really got to understand how to write. I really

enjoyed bouncing ideas off of other people and

it's really fun. I even did a documentary about

it and that's actually on the website that I'm

going to link as well. Let's see, what else is

there to say about the crossover? Oh yeah, the

character, the main villain was kind of born

out of the Lightbringer comic, but we expanded

upon him greatly. Some of the shortcomings that

Linkara had as an early writer, we kind of boosted

that character up for him and he became kind

of a... Not I want to say not so much a Joker

type character because that's kind of what he

was early on he was just kind of this smiling

Kind of grinning character and we turned him

in kind of like a we turned him into more like

The guy from clockwork orange and kind of made

him kind of a really menacing psychotic character

I should I should say less less like 66 Batman

Joker and more like more like killing joke Joker

Wow, that's a huge leap. It's like, you know,

you're making him leap from the lion's head.

Yeah, but I was talking to Al Schroeder about

this and we basically confiscated the whole project

from Linkara. It's like somehow I ended up writing

half of it and Al wrote half of it. Yeah, it

was quite a thing to work on. Awesome. Awesome.

All right. Well, we're going to take a quick

break, and we'll come back to close the show

afterwards. So let's say you're looking for a

podcast of your favorite 80s comic books, G .I.

Joe, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, He -Man, etc.

Where are you going to go to find this? Welcome

to Star Joe's Podcast. I'm your host Ryan. And

I'm Chuck. That's right everybody, we're the

Star Joe's. We host a podcast called Star Joe's

Podcast. where we talk about your favorite comic

books, your favorite toys of all the 80s properties.

Star Wars, G .I. Joe, Transformers, M .A .S .K.,

Thundercats, Voltron, you name it, we cover it.

If it's in the 80s, we will cover it at some

point. Yes, so what you want to do to find us,

you can go to iTunes, you can go to www .starjoes

.com. And remember, the Force will be with you

because knowing us is half the battle. So we

are back here in the pull bag and... So have

I convinced you to give the new transformer,

the current transformer stuff a try? I'll have

to find it. I don't know when I'm going to be

able to do it. I mean I can loan you the trades.

It's not that hard. Because we've already reviewed

all of them here in the pull bag so far, the

trades that have been released. but uh... you

know i i i i think this isn't you know very interesting

i think people are really like this because normally

origins of the so that's what are people reading

and it's pretty much people that have either

been reading since they were a kid or are currently

reading now and you're just not that type of

person here and as i said you're more in the

the the artist the the the creator style and

i think i think you were really like this uh...

even some of those that might already know your

comic you know and it's kind of interesting to

see the insights and you know going back and

forth and and all that stuff so right where can

the people find your stuff online okay you go

to the scene dot com or no superpants dot com

because it's easier to spell there's also a cross

over lord dot comic genesis dot com My deviant

art page is Neil Sama. See, I have a Decian page

on Facebook that you can go to. I post a lot

of teasers on there, so if you want to see what's

coming up in the future, you can see rough sketches

of stuff I have. Usually spoiler -free. And that

would be facebook .com slash Decian Comic. Awesome.

very cool very cool all right well that's going

to do it for us here in the pull bag coming up

next JT and I are going to be discussing the

superior spider -man versus spider -man 2099

and also in that episode we're also going to

see the return of the black cat make your great

escape into comics and we will catch you next

time you just heard The latest episode of the

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