Tyler Kirkham talks Final Boss on IndieGoGo now!

Tyler Kirkman – VIDEO INTERVIEW

Jeff: [00:00:00] Hello. Today on the show. We had the fantastic Tyler, Mr. Tyler Kirkham. How’s it going, sir?

Tyler Kirkman: Hey guys. I’m doing really good. Thanks for having me on here. Yeah. As I,

Jeff: as I mentioned off air I’m a big fan of yours.

You you’ve done. You’ve penciled some of my favorite kind of books. Growing up over the last, I guess, since a new 52 and earlier,

Tyler Kirkman: so.

Jeff: Oh, I’m a huge fan. I literally have every grill lantern title going back to the original silver age, green lantern, including the showcase. Wow. Yeah,

Tyler Kirkman: go ahead. Do you remember when Greenland was just the rave?

I mean, it was like you would go to a convention. Yeah. One out of every five people have a green lantern shirt on. Yeah. I mean, it, it, it, it had a golden

Jeff: age right around the two thousands when I, I guess probably when Jeff Johns jumped over and he did the whole black side, it was a great moment for green lantern.

Tyler Kirkman: Exactly. Then it just blew up, you know, and it was just like, It was like [00:01:00] the most popular comic. I feel like running, you know, and, and it was, that’s why I was like, holy crap. They’re asking me to do a green lantern book. You know, it was like my first DC work was green lantern and it was just, it was amazing, you know?

And I just, yeah, I loved working on those characters. It,

Jeff: it really tells you, you know, no matter what the character is, if you put on the right team, The character is going to sell and you know, it doesn’t matter the character, if the good writers good. If the artist is good, the series is going to be a hit, you know?

And the one, the series that you wrote that I really loved was Greenland with the new guardians. When you had each member of the club on, on, on, they basically it was of like a green lantern super team. It was

Tyler Kirkman: Tony Bernard was the writer he had. We had kind of both shifted over from Greenland lantern core, which I started on and moved over to new guardians when they when they did the new 52.

So they basically kept the same team. It was me, Tony, the same color, same anchors and you know, they [00:02:00] just shifted us over and it was Kyle Rayner who was kind of the main. Green lantern Corps. My intern anyway, so he was kind of the main character in in new guardians as well. But you got all those different lanterns from the other color spectrums, which was such, like you said, an amazing concept for a book, which it really was.

Jeff: Yeah. And I mean, I’m, I’ve been a comic book fan of Greenland, but that’s, I’ve been collecting for about 30 years or so, maybe a little over 30 years. And Kyle Rayner was my favorite green lantern. And how you guys handled him. I felt like not only did you have the, did you honor the power Rainer from the nineties version of him, but you gave him a great leadership role on that team and the new guardians that just made it just feel like you respected the character so much.

And like I said, artistically, you did a great job

Tyler Kirkman: with it. Yeah. And with Kyle, like him being an artist and stuff, I tried to. Almost put myself in his shoes a little bit, you know, like he’s the one, the one land. And I feel like most artists could probably relate to. And I just got to have fun with like his relationship [00:03:00] with like, you know, glomerulus and, and our kilo and all the, it was just fun.

Like in large fleas, you know, I got to draw a lot of our fleas, which I always liked him as a character. And I got to create my own villains and stuff too. Like in that, in that look with the designs and stuff. That Invictus character. So that was awesome for me. I mean, he had a pretty big role in that.

And he was really powerful, you know, so,

Jeff: well, w what, when you’re doing the, the constructs for the characters, especially Kyle rhino, because not all of the Greenlandic court had their own concert because of their particular powers. Did 20, Bedard tell you, I want to see this contract or did you get to draw whatever you wanted as a construct for him?

No.

Tyler Kirkman: I mean, they, he would, okay. If he had something specific in mind, he would, he wouldn’t mention it obviously in the, in the script. Like I think in the first issue. I think it was issue one. Yeah. As you one where Kyle makes these like giant construction workers constructs, I think only had a different vision than I did.

I think he actually was picturing modern construction workers with [00:04:00] hard hats and stuff like that. But I actually went old school, like, like, you know, iron steel building construction. So that was fun. I mean he said, Hey, construction workers. And I just put my. My spin on it really, you know, I, I think it was different than he envisioned, but he ended up liking it anyways.

So, yeah. And then other, other lanterns and other characters had their own, like, for example, like Sinestro Astro, like he’s gonna have his own look for his constructs and our kilo. And like, you know, you just gotta, you gotta try like, Reflect the character, I guess like how Jordan’s going to have something different than John Stewart.

And then Kyle can have, like, with Kyle, we did some fun stuff like that. A couple of like animate, mech type constructs and like, you know, I remember he made a little manga freaking little blue guy. What’s his name? Forgot the guardians, the guardians. He made a little like anime version of that

ant is his name. So he, he had more of an artsy feel for his, his constructs as [00:05:00] opposed to, you know, John Stewart who would have like a military type look where guns and armor type of stuff. So, yeah, I was looking

Jeff: into some, some of the history and I couldn’t believe that the new 52 is now 10 years old.

Doesn’t feel like it’s been that long ago. Oh,

Tyler Kirkman: man. I know. So big, you know, it’s such a big deal, which was so fun to be a part of

Jeff: it. Must’ve been one exciting time. I mean, was there a lot of collaboration among the team, especially within the green lantern teams

Tyler Kirkman: working together. Yeah. DC would have these summits, you know, where you would go out of town or you’d meet at a hotel and like you’d have, you know, take over all the conference rooms and you would sit down and then, and, you know, hash out the different.

Interlocking, you know, stories like at, with all the green lantern books or the Superman books or the Batman books. So whatever team, you’re, whatever book you’re working on, you would kind of separate and go sit with that crew and come up with like the plan for the next year or so. And it was really cool.

It’s a really, really good way to like, keep everyone in sync, you [00:06:00] know, like, Hey, here’s what we’re going to do. Here are the here’s the over overall plan for, you know, the, the green lantern universe. Well,

Jeff: you know, I really just thought it was incredible. And one thing I didn’t know, going solely off the subject is that your first work was actually for a top cow and you were an Mark’s

Tyler Kirkman: investor, is that correct?

Yeah. So my very, very first work was like an indie book called the gift and it was, it was for a writer named Reverend Gregory who ended up it ended up getting picked up by image anyways, but I actually got the gig from an editor who worked at top cow, who I had kind of been messaging and stuff online.

I met with her one time and in LA and I would see her at conventions and stuff. And she saw some potential in me, but I wasn’t good enough to work like on mainstream stuff. So she, she was editing the gift on the side. And so she hooked me up with that gig and I did that. You know, nine issues or something.

But as I was working on the gift, I ended up getting an [00:07:00] internship at top Cal. So I moved to LA. I was working in the studio like with semester and stuff, but I was working on the gift. So it was like, he was kind of grew up, you know, like helping me teaching me stuff, but I wasn’t even working on a telecom, but so it was really cool of him to do that because, you know, he, it wasn’t even, he didn’t need to be doing it because it wasn’t like one of their properties.

But finally he was like, man, you know, This guy’s getting good. And like, I did some samples stuff for other books, like strike force, and they loved one of them so much that they gave me the book. And so.

Yeah. I mean,

Jeff: top cow is noted for how great the artwork is in their books. I mean, the wish play calm books, the darkness combo a lot, all the image titles, especially listen, specifically talk Topco or beautiful artwork. So what was it like to be, you know, that you’ve made it on a book with that kind of

Tyler Kirkman: Christy as a, you know, as an artist growing up in the nineties [00:08:00] or a comic fan.

It was either top Cal wild storm or one of these studios, like extreme studios or whatever those are. Those were like the goals for me. If you talk to other guys that are my age, like my generation, they say the same thing. That, that was just like, that’s where, that’s where they had all the best artists coming out of, you know, top count WildStorm and stuff like that.

So it was just like the goal. So for me to. You know, to actually be working in a studio with like other guys, you know, like, Michael Turner had just left for Aspen to create Aspen when I got there. But you still had guys coming in like day Finch and, and jump. Anita is Billy tan and gosh numerous other guys.

I mean, you know, Eric Bass to do it was there Mike choy, David Nakiyama. So, you know, Matt vanish. Just a lot of creators were coming in and out of that studio. And of course you had Sylvester you’re working in the same room. So as a young comic artist, [00:09:00] like it was intimidating, but also like extremely exciting.

Yeah. And

Jeff: I must say, it’s funny that you mentioned the extreme suits. I was a huge fan of Topco and extreme studios. I mean, but it was the image of the nineties was an early two thousands. They were, it was amazing time to be a combo fan of indie work.

Tyler Kirkman: I think so mean I miss that stuff, honestly, because, you know, that’s what I.

That’s what I kind of grew up on. You know, that was, that was when I got really into comics. I mean, I liked more like X-Men and stuff like that. But when you started seeing all these new characters and stuff coming out, you know, with the art just looks so much better than coloring. Obviously it was better.

The printing quality was way better. It just changed the game. I mean, there’s a reason why, like I, you know, I blew up, I think.

Jeff: Yeah. And, and, and the big comic book nerd of extreme that I am actually having extreme studios Facebook group that, that I, that I started. So I can just, just, just keep talking about extreme because they said that [00:10:00] it was, it was a great stuff.

And wait, when you guys were all working together, did you guys make each other better as artists and our writing

Tyler Kirkman: team? Absolutely, man. I mean, There’s something about working around other creators that brings out the best in you. I think it kind of makes you grow faster than you would if you were just on your own, honestly, because not only are you trying to impress like all the other people that are there but you’re learning little techniques and, you know, you got people like pointing things out to you that you would have missed on your own, you know?

So that bullpen like, setup is so. It’s so awesome for, for like a creative team or creative people. I think one, it was fun too, because it wasn’t just all about drawing all the time. I mean, we would come in at night and we would draw for bit hanging out. We’d go get coffee and donuts. We’d come back and play some halo.

It was just awesome. I mean, it was such a good time. Then I would go home and sleep for like two hours, two, three hours and [00:11:00] come back. In the morning trying to impress the editors, actually the ones that were giving me the jobs. So it didn’t help if I just came in at night and worked with vestry and stuff, because the editors wouldn’t see that I was a hard worker, you know?

So you had to do.

Yeah. So, so

Jeff: you’re, you’re a very strategically round nosing. The editors.

Tyler Kirkman: I would go home. I was sleep for a couple of hours. I’d take my wife to work. And then I would drive to the studio where the editors would see me in the day. I’d work for a few hours there. I’d go pick up the wife, get dinner, go back to the house for a couple hours.

Come back to the studio, work with Sylvester and the other guys for another couple hours, a few hours, and then do it all over. I mean, for like a, you know, a year I was there for two years, but. It was, it was fun, but tiring at the same time.

Jeff: I bet. Now, now one thing that image was became known for is that a lot of the [00:12:00] artists also started writing their own books as well.

Was that an inspiration for you for now?

Tyler Kirkman: Yeah, for now, like, I, I never thought about writing my own stuff back then, you know? In fact, if I had written a couple of children’s books, like as I was kind of doing that stuff, you know, with my wife and I ended up writing a graphic novel that Zenescope published called screwed project Frankenstein.

And it’s basically like a modern, mature take on the Frankenstein legend, but it’s a female monster. So I co-wrote that with Keith Thomas who has passed away actually. But and that was like, gosh, man. And that was maybe, I don’t know, eight years ago or something, seven, eight years ago. I don’t know. I’ll have to look, but I plotted the whole thing out in me and Keith worked together to script it out.

And, but that was my, you know what I mean? It was my creation and, you know, I came to Keith to help me flesh it out, but it was so rewarding. To like, have people read it and talk about it and like review it and stuff [00:13:00] that I wanted to do it again. Like, so I’d been after that, I had been you know, kind of fleshing out ideas that I’ve had in my head for a long time.

And I knew I wanted to do it again. I wanted to work with Keith again, when of course I could study, he passed away sadly. But so I was like, I’m just gonna, I think I can do this. You know what I have to working so much. And, and, and so. I had the story already, obviously final boss, but I started fleshing it out and I was like, I think I can actually write this, you know, like I, so I was kind of building up the confidence to actually write it as I was, as I was going, you know, as I was creating it, but I had never really done it yet to this, to this point.

But I, I wrote it in like the old Marvel file where it’s basically. A script or, I mean, a plot. I was writing it for myself, obviously. So I was like, okay, I’m going to plot this out. I’m going to come and do the pages. Or you know, I’m going to come up with the breakdowns for the panels and everything, and then I’m going to put the dialogue.

I’m going to roughly know what people are saying. And then put the dialogue in, which is actually what a lot of writers do now. Like they use this style, [00:14:00] but they don’t actually put the final dialogue of the characters until they actually see the pages. That is a style of writing. That’s done a lot right now, actually.

So I thought I could work with that and I do it worked out pretty good for me.

Jeff: So when you decided to. Now was the time to have your own creator owned book. Was it that you felt as a writer, you could, you’re now advanced enough to do it, or as an artist or you felt it was ready to put your own stamp and make it your own fully, you know, your own title

Tyler Kirkman: completely kind of both man.

And it’s not only that it’s more like I was getting a little bit, like, I wouldn’t say tired, but. So I’ve been doing a lot of cover work the last like five years. Right. Mainly cover it. That’s what I mainly do now. And I would occasionally pick away at something, you know, like, or a fill-in issue or, you know, 10 to 12 pages here or there for DC.

And I’ve turned down a couple of projects too, that I just couldn’t get excited about. I mean, [00:15:00] I tried, you know, like I was like, okay, I got it ready on the tea table. And I just couldn’t find the drives actually like move forward. So I knew at that point that like, I want to do my own thing. There are books.

Like I am doing a book coming up with DC. I can’t talk about right now, but then I’m going to be starting in the next couple of months. So there are things that I, that still excite me a lot about certain things, certain characters and stuff like that. I just, I kept going back to that feeling of when I put out I’m screwed of how rewarding it was, it was just really fun.

I mean, going to conventions and selling, pitching your own story to people, you know, selling it to just trying to sell your own thing. It’s kind of fun for me. Like I had a really good time doing that with, with my last project. And like I said, it’s just fun. It’s, it’s, it’s more rewarding seeing someone talk about a book that you actually.

Andrew is just someone reviewing like a granny [00:16:00] monitor initiative or something, because you know that you created that, you know,

Jeff: I will a hundred percent agree. I actually I I’m, I do very new press con books on my own as a writer, I can’t draw I’m, I’m a writer and it does feel good when someone picks up your comic book and, you know, and they ask when’s when’s winter.

Next issue. When they see the next time, you’re like, holy crap, there’s a fan. Good to meet you.

Tyler Kirkman: That’s exciting. You know, and just, and I’ve always wanted to. Build, you know, a world or whatever, a full like, I, I, we were going to do, we had a whole, a whole plot and everything for volume two for screwed actually.

But it just didn’t happen because like I said, didn’t feel right continuing that without Keith, but so I was like, I’m just going to come up with something else on my own. And you know, this has been final bosses basically. Everything that I, I love and I’ve loved growing up. So it’s like, I was like, I’m just going to do what I want to do, have fun with it.

And hopefully people will enjoy it. Honestly, that was like my main thing as I was like, you know, just thinking to [00:17:00] myself, this is what I want to draw, this the story I want to tell, like, I love this, I love this and this and this. I’m going to put it together and I’m going to make a really cool plot out of it.

And. And just, hopefully people will enjoy it and come along for the ride. And then it started to actually really come together as I was, you know, laying out the whole synopsis. And I was like, this is actually can be really, really cool. I think people will like it. So, so, so can you give

Jeff: our listeners your pitch for final

Tyler Kirkman: boss?

Yeah. So final boss is, is, is basically, you know, if comic books and video games collided, like it’s, it’s got a very, you know, red retro. Beat them up gamer kind of feel to it. It was very inspired by games like double dragons streets of rage street fighter classic fighting game, beat them up games along with nineties action movies slash you know, nineties comics flare, I guess.

And, and just, I, I’m a huge like MMA fan. I love the UFC and stuff, so I wanted to have something [00:18:00] that would have a lot of fighting in it. And so it’s not really like a cage fighting comic. It’s more of like a Tommy brazen. Who’s the main protagonist, you know, he discovers that he has supernatural abilities and he knows that his grandfather has told them all these grandiose stories about when he was, you know, During world war II, world war II, he was stranded on an island and he was, you know, Tommy never believed these stories as a kid because his grandfather would tell him about, you know, this, this ancient God that he fought and, you know, listen that this temple that was lost and as, you know, cool stories and stuff.

But when Tommy started showing signs of the stuff that his grandfather had told him about, he was like, wait a minute. There’s actually something to this. And his grant, you know, his father goes missing, his grandfather gets, he gets killed and he’s, Tommy’s got to find out the truth about these, these powers that he’s discovering among us are from, you know, cause in herself and, and find his, you know, missing dad and stuff on [00:19:00] the way.

So, it’s, it’s really an action adventure with a twist of, you know, cage fighting, I guess you could say, but. And I’m calling it a final loss because obviously it has got that very gamer feel and each issue, he fights another boss character. So he levels up whenever he defeats someone, he gets stronger.

And it’s, it’s got a tier system like, you know, mortal combat, like where in the end of each issue. You’ll see him moving up the, the ladder basically. And he levels up like it’s very gamer, like vibe to that. I mean, he, he earns, you know, hip or extra point, extra stamina, strength, speed, special abilities, and you can track it, you know, in the back of the book.

Cause I’m always. Those all like Marvel cards and stuff where they had like all those statistics and stuff. So like I said, I’m taking elements, everything that I love. Right, right. Yeah. And it’s just a no holds barred, like fun [00:20:00] action book. I mean, it’s got a story. It’s got a family drama to it. It’s going to be a fun ride too, you know?

Jeff: Yeah. The summary that you have on your crowdfunding your campaign and it describes Tommy brazen as special forces operative, but a disgraced one. So are you going to go into why brazen was disgraced and is he then more of a hero or antihero or as he says,

Tyler Kirkman: yeah, I go into it in the story. I’m not going to go into it too much here, but.

It’s basically something happens on his watch. You know, he, he gets a burst of power that ends up getting someone killed, you know, and, and basically hassled asked to leave, you know what I mean? He’s just like he gets court martial or whatever. And, and and he’s still, you know, he’s, he’s disgraced in the sense that he didn’t want to go out like that, you know?

And he’s got to find other, other ways to make a living now. And he’s he’s, you know, he’s a, he’s a really good warrior basically. So he takes on odd jobs, like [00:21:00] Craigslist jobs and stuff. That’s his thing. I mean, he takes on odd enforcement gigs, right. So he’ll be the muscle, or he’ll be the, you know, a brew or something, but he’ll also, you know, do this cage fighting and stuff at night because he is so good at it.

And he’s like, wow. You know, Really skilled at this. And I don’t know why I am, you know, but yeah, so that, you know, like I said, he gets by the end, by the end of the series, he’s going to be like Superman strong. I mean, he’s going to be like Goku, you know what I mean? That’s awesome. I mean, that’s the whole point of this is he’s, he’s got to get strong enough to beat the current, you know, find a loss.

Jeff: And so as, as, as he gets stronger Does, are there any costs of the powers or anything like that? I mean, does he, how, how much likes to, or man is he going to be

Tyler Kirkman: like, well, I mean, it’s not going to be flying and stuff like that case, so there’s, you know, there’s certain, there’s certain things that he’ll be able to do about what he’s going to do is he’s going to absorb.

Certain elements of the [00:22:00] care or the enemy that he just defeated. Right? Like the enemy that he just defeated as a master swordsman, he’s gonna absorb a little bit of that up special ability. And it’s going to go into his special abilities, you know, chart or whatever, stat statistics. And you know, if someone’s, if someone’s got another super power or whatever last way, you’ll sometimes see them in certain images, like fiery hands or whatever, right.

Because there isn’t really a limit to what he can do as long as he is absorbed that, that ability or that power. So, So, yeah, I mean, he wouldn’t really be like Superman, Superman, but he’d be, he’d, he’d be limited to like, he’s not gonna be shooting lasers out of his eyes. And if he did, if he did, it would be very, it’d be very minimally use.

You know what I mean? Like he would absorb that energy, but he wouldn’t really be able to like freaking blind. You know what I mean? It wouldn’t be something so, but he can also, he’ll also have these bursts of energy too, which can, you know, [00:23:00] Get people hurt or kill them. So,

Jeff: so these final bosses are they?

Cause he mentioned he like his his, he said grandfather, I think it was fought gods. So these final bosses, all types of gods, are they? And are they gods that you pull from the theology of the guys that you created your own mythology

Tyler Kirkman: for the picture of this? Okay. So this there’s this hidden island with a, with an ancient temple, you know, devoted to a war God or war deity.

That’s. Thousands and thousands of years old, we don’t know. Just, just picture, you know, before let’s just picture Atlanta’s time or something. Right. So mythical temple that his, his grandfather gets shipwrecked on with a couple of other guys cause their ship gets blown up or sunk. And and so they, they stumble upon this ancient temple devoted to this God and they go in and there’s all these traps and all this stuff that they have to get to.

When he does get to this, this God, you know, he awakens it and [00:24:00] this God is basically picture like an ancient Greek God or something that was devoted to war battle. You know, like he was he was a, he was a war God or God, God of war, I guess. And, and that was his whole purpose. Like people would tell him, you know, take couple more pilgrimage to this temple and they might get a blessing.

And so when they awakened this, this God

Jeff: oh, I think I lost your sound.

Tyler Kirkman: Yeah. You hear me now? Yeah, no worries. When they awaken this, God, it does the same thing. And if you, if you best this God in battle, or you spill the blood of their God or whatever, you’ll, you’ll get that blessing. You’ll get, you’ll get a blessing of God, like power. And it could depend on your personality.

It’s not all the same, but if you get defeated, you could get cursed or killed. So, so on this, this island is now like a, you know, a modern an island that’s, you know, you know, there’s buildings and cities and villages and it’s, you know, modernized [00:25:00] now. And anyway, so yeah, so, so Tommy on this island has all these characters that are.

They have special abilities and it’s kind of turned into like a war zone in a way, like you got crime bosses, warlords, and like, you know, all these people that have, that have traveled there to try to earn their, like, see if they’re gifted enough to earn a blessing or, or a special power. And a lot of people have, right.

But they’re not using it for good. I mean, they, you might be a warlord or something, right. And so this picture, like this island, like a metropolis, not metropolis, but just picture a, you know, a made up, create an island. Sure. And, and it’s, it’s got all sorts of different people on it. And like some, some, you know, if you get cursed, it could turn you in, you might look different, you know, you might look a little bit more like a creature or something.

So you’ve got this island, this is full of all these like strange looking humanoids and people with special powers. [00:26:00] And, you know, that’s where this tournament takes place. So it’s not, so Tommy has to travel there because that’s where his father went to try to gain his powers, which we, you know, he might be dead.

We don’t know.

Jeff: So what is Brayden’s goal? Does he, is it once the guy is a serve himself or does he have, is he trying to do it for some sort of

Tyler Kirkman: greater purpose? He’s trying to find his father. His father is missing on this island somewhere. And his grandfather who was like his, his idol got assassinated not too long ago.

So he’s, you know, he’s not only trying to find out why are these powers coming out? And, and is he going to get stronger, but he’s also on a mission to find his missing home. So when he gets invited to join this tournament stuff, he he’s like, oh, this is my ticket. You know, this is my ticket to get to to I’m calling a farcical though, the island this is my ticket to get there.

And maybe I’ll, you know, find some answers while I’m doing this [00:27:00] on the side, you know? So I’m going to play along. I’m going to play along, but I’m going to, I’m going to do my own stuff on the side. Right? So, I

Jeff: mean, it sounds like a fantastic concept and I, and I really liked the comic elements of it as well, because as a kid, honestly, I loved the fighting games, especially mortal combat.

Those were just those games. So many hours of that game has been spent and unfortunately losing, but it was a lot of fun. What I always wonder as, as the crater and as the artist and the writer on this book. Okay. Are there ever. Conflicts within yourself. Like you were you, right? You, you have a draw, you drew out a Pedro plot, a page.

You go as going back as a writer. Now, what do I do with it? Do you ever have an idea as a writer? Think how the hell am I going to be the artist of this? You know, I don’t know how to, that’s a lot of details I got to put in. I mean, does, do you get your own personal conflicts that way? Yeah.

Tyler Kirkman: Yeah. I mean, this P this book started off way smaller, but I was like, okay, this scene needs to be longer.

I need to. You know, four more pages. I need to add another double page spread. So it’s grown and it’s [00:28:00] and it’s content. Honestly, it’s continuing to grow. Like one of the, one of the stretch goals on the campaign right now is if we get to the next, this next mark is going to unlock. An additional, I’m calling a brutality scene, fade palette, and it’s, it’s, it’s a really brutal, nasty kill scene.

Right. So, finale really of the first issue. And and I really, you know, I’ve already, I want to draw it because awesome. And but like I said, the book’s continuing to grow. So it’s really going to be probably like 64 pages when it’s done. But yeah, it started much smaller. I mean, it was only supposed to be like a regular issue, you know, but there’s a lot of extra cool content in there.

Like, you know, this, some sketchbook stuff character bios, which goes into all of the first, you know, six main characters that are introduced and like a cover gallery and stuff like that because I have amazing covers from some awesome artists. So,

Jeff: I mean, looking at your campaign, which is on Indiegogo, [00:29:00] the final boss is killing it.

I think you’re at like 900% a goal or something insane like that. I mean, I mean, is it blowing up bigger than you thought it would? Or did you kind of expect, yeah, I’m going to kill it with this. This is going to be here.

Tyler Kirkman: I mean, I really didn’t know what to expect to me cause I’ve never done a crowd fund for a.

My own personal book and I’ve done, I’ve done a crowdfund for an art book, like a 300, some odd page art book years ago. But I didn’t know. I mean, you see crowd funds like to hundreds of thousands of dollars, but then you’ll see some that do 20. So I really didn’t know what to expect from this one. And I’ve never used Indiegogo.

I I’ve used Kickstarter a couple of times, but I wanted to try it because I see a lot, you know, a lot of other creators on there and I just, I liked their The interface especially the mobile interface where you can scroll that. You can see all the rewards, like a lot easier, I feel. But I don’t know if there’s a better platform.

I just wanted to try it. And I, it has like the in demand feature, which when the campaign ends, it’s still available, like on [00:30:00] basically like store, which I think is pretty cool. I don’t think Kickstarter has that, but

Jeff: no, once it’s over, it’s over some people, what people, some people, I think, figured out how to do it.

I haven’t figured this out. I’ve had a couple of kids, sorry, campaigns. I had one just recently. Apparently it’s a way of getting Kickstarter and move it to an ego. Go to keep it running. But Kickstarter itself kills the campaign. Once it’s done. You can’t add anything more to it. You can’t, obviously you’re getting more money

Tyler Kirkman: to it.

Interesting man. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I’ll, I have an idea that even do like a, I don’t know if I want to do this or not, but like an alternate ending slash like a DLC version. That’s cool. Which would be on Kickstarter and it would have brand new covers alternate ending and just like, kind of like a fresh, like, Hey, do you want to collect all this?

If you want to be a collector and you want all the covers. You know, you could, even, if you backed Indiegogo, you could still back a brand new, you know, fresh [00:31:00] kind of take on the, on the whole thing. But that’s an idea I’m playing around with, because I see people doing both now, you know, Indiegogo and Kickstarter I’ve seen, but Either that, or I’ll just, you know, maybe doing oversized one for issue one and two or something.

I’m not sure yet, but,

Jeff: so, so I, I assume that you’re, you’re, you’re now the guy to ask how, how do you put together a successful Kickstarter campaign? I mean, I’ll start any Google campaign. Cause I mean, you’ve done it. You’re, you’re destroying, I think like the 90% I think of your goal or whatever it was.

So what’s the key to that. How do you make

Tyler Kirkman: sure it’s successful? Okay. For me my first thing was make sure that the book. Done right. My, the book’s done. I just haven’t drawn the additional pages if we get to that mark and I, and that was my goal. Like, I didn’t want to even launch this on crowd funding until I had the butcher on and then, you know, written because I’ve backed books before and never got them.

I wanted to make sure for myself that the book was going to be done. And then I was very confident that people would be getting it, [00:32:00] you know, in the next couple of months. And then also I hired. Don’t try to do everything on your own because that’s, it’s like it’s impossible. I mean, I hired a guy to create a team to create the video trailer.

You know, I hire, I have a full-time designer, that’s doing all the graphics and stuff for me that also design the whole issue and is doing all the, you know, all the graphic design for the, for the whole series and the, the, or the Indiegogo campaign. So just have a team of people that can help you put together a really nice professional campaign.

And instead of just trying to make a quick little video, you know what I mean?

Jeff: Well, I mean, it’s so impressive. So can you tell some of our our listeners, what are some of the more interesting rewards you have on your campaign? Yeah, absolutely.

Tyler Kirkman: To me, the absolute best thing is, is the deluxe box.

Because you get everything. I mean, you get a custom box that we designed as kind of got like a, an old school classic, like video game, like superintendent type of vibe to [00:33:00] it, right where it looks like a cartridge box. And then inside that you get, you know, all the covers, you get my cover, a Brian Ali cover the boss logic, cover a Brent booth cover.

Remark sketch cover for me, blank cover and an exclusive cover. That’s just for the blocks by the artist Jimbo. And then you get the S the trading card set of all six cards. You get a, t-shirt like with the file boss logo on it’s going to kind of have a retro vibe to it, and you get accustomed necklace that we got made.

Just for the campaign like Sterling silver, it’s called the tree of power. And, you know, he would get that too. So, and you get everything else that we’re adding on and we’ve, we’ve added on the David Finch all a foil print the final boss, Tommy Verizon 16 bit sticker a bookmark. So really anything that we add on you’re going to get in that box.

I mean, it’s the ultimate package to get really, you know, I mean, it comes with everything it’s by far the best value, I think so. [00:34:00] So

Jeff: as you’re crushing stretch goals, one after another, what is the one stretch that you are most excited about seeing hit? And when you can go, I can finally release this or do

Tyler Kirkman: this.

So right now the next one is really, really close, which is the kill scene, right? That’s that’s like a couple grand away from that. So that’s that 50, 50 K stretch. And that’s going to be those additional pages that are going to be like a brutality scene. No, but the one that I really want to get to it’s at 70.

So there’s another one in between though. It’s the rest of the 16th of stickers is I think it’s 60, but the one I really, really want to get to is a 75 K. And that’s my last stretch goal that I even have available, but unless we got past it, I create something else, but that is the whole book. Everyone would get a whole, like an entirely new book.

Basically like the artist edition, black and white and no texts, no dialogue, just the art. So it’d be, you’d get a whole nother book with it, but you could just get, you know, cause a lot of people like to look at the black and white art, including, you know, me, [00:35:00] I’m always love that. You know, I love seeing other people’s So you would get that the artist edition, you know, black and white issue.

And I could maybe do something where like you have my writing in, you know, text format or whatever, like how Scott Snyder and Tony Daniel did that. Knock Tara. They did like a cool special edition like that. So I really liked that. It was like they had the script and then they had the art and I just thought that was really cool.

So I would love to get to that one because you know, you’d be getting a whole nother book.

Jeff: Yeah. I think I’ve seen a few of those. I think they did they call them director’s cuts. I think they did one to four forever evil. One of the ones I always go back cause I, I write. I started as a side gig, but there’s one that you know, Gaiman did on the, by the salmon absolute volumes.

It has one issue in the back, which is done as the text with the art on the side. And I must say, as someone who’s trying to write more and more and get better at it, that’s an extremely valuable too. I really love the director because of these things.

Tyler Kirkman: I think so, man. [00:36:00] It’s something that I think just adds to the collectability of, of the whole thing, you know, because these crowd funds, they’re not like what you would typically find in a store and that’s what makes them special is you get all this extra stuff that you, you know, the really only the backers of the campaigns get typically especially stuff like that, you know, like I’m going to have final boss available, like the actual.

I’ll probably have, you know, maybe a couple of different covers available later on like on my website or something, but there are certain things that are only, you’re only getting, if you, if you back. Well,

Jeff: th well, once, as you said, the, the series is complete final boss. You haven’t written how many issues

Tyler Kirkman: is it total?

I want, I have 10 issues planned out and that’s like 10 bosses.

Jeff: Are you planning on making other volumes of this later on as well? Or is this going to become like your spawn? This is going to be final bosses. Tyler. you’re going to be

Tyler Kirkman: working on. Yeah. I mean, if it’s doing well, you know, well then yes.

Because I [00:37:00] also want to tell some of the, like Tommy’s backstory you know, like some of his military days as special updates, like I have some cool stuff I want to do with that. And, and I also want to flesh out some of the other boss characters and stuff too. So I think it be really cool to be able to dive into that stuff a little bit more.

But that’s just like, like I said, if it’s doing really well and people are really loving it. You know, continually continuing to buy it and stuff, then it’ll obviously there’s a, there’s a drive for it. I’m definitely gonna do it.

Jeff: So, so final boss is on Indiegogo. When does the campaign end

Tyler Kirkman: ends in 12 days.

I think it was last time I checked today, but so 12 days and, and, you know, like I said, we’re really close to the next stretch goal. There’s the, there’s the box I was telling you about. And then. A cover bundle, which has got all like, you know, four or five covers in there. And then I have I have ad-ons too, which are like, you know, you can add on the mic list if you just want the necklace with the cards or whatever.

And then you can also add, like, let’s say you want to [00:38:00] buy my cover, but you also want Ryan Ali’s covered. You can buy my cover and add his own. And then I have. Let’s see what else? Oh, and I also have a couple of retailer packages too. Like if you want to have 10 or 20 copies or whatever in your store, you can do that.

And I have a, a retailer exclusive package, which I think about 14 retailers have signed up for this so far where they get their own cover. You know, like, like you see these variant covers like retailer exclusively. So a retailer or an artist does a couple of artists that are backing it on their own. Where they are going to get their own final boss exclusive cover.

And it’s going to have the whole interior done, obviously by man stuff. It’ll all the issues will be signed. They’ll be getting a hundred copies of their cover, their art that they can sell for as much as they want to, to their, to their, you know, to their buyers. So it’s kinda, it’s, it’s like the retailer.

Tier, [00:39:00] and that’s been pretty popular. There’s a, and it’s amazing seeing the art come into all these amazing artists drunk, you know, my heritage is, is just so awesome.

Jeff: It’s a nice ego boost

Tyler Kirkman: and it’s like, that’s probably the best part about this whole thing is seeing artists that I love and I’ve been trading some certain, like some artists and stuff too.

But seeing their rendition of the characters is just so awesome.

Jeff: So just to clarify, so when this campaign is over, there’s still ways to access the campaign and keep purchasing.

Tyler Kirkman: Yeah. I’m going to do the in demand feature. I’ll keep that up, you know, I don’t know how long, but I’ll keep that up, but I’m also gonna release probably a special edition or something on Tyler, Kirk, mark.com.

Which you’ll, you know, maybe maybe a new cover or something that wasn’t available via Kickstarter Indiegogo. Yeah, so it will be available, but I do, you know, like I said, the way to get all the different stuff right now on the ad-ons and the free, the free David Finch, you know, let the graph the [00:40:00] free bookmark the free sticker, like that’s now, you know, Because all those are stretch goals that we’ve, that we’ve accomplished and, and that you’re getting free stuff.

You’re not going to get that if you buy it later, you know?

Jeff: Yeah. And like I said, it, your campaign looks awesome. I’m very envious of how cool it all looks. I want to congratulate you on kicking ass on Indiegogo as well. And it’s a great pleasure to talk with you. Like I said, I’ve been a fan of yours going back quite a time, especially I said the Greenland to the new guardians and I hope you kill that 75,000

Tyler Kirkman: K Tara as well.

I appreciate it, man. Yeah. And thank you for being a fan. It’s always awesome to hear honestly, some

Jeff: whereas stuff in my pleasure. And like I say, if you ever had bat enter the Northeast for either Boston. Or Rhode Island. I definitely want to come come this, when the convention is

Tyler Kirkman: there, what are you doing on New York comic con

Jeff: I’ve actually have not done New York comic I’ve actually I have not done New York comic con yet.

I’m a Rhode Islander. So anything after about an hour is considered a [00:41:00] vacation,

Tyler Kirkman: but this year, but just honestly, like I, I did Orlando Well last weekend, a couple weekends ago. And that was kinda my only show for this year, because I just know I’m going to be so slammed with fulfilling final boss rewards.

And then I don’t know if you, I mean, I don’t know if you follow my social media pages or not, but I had another Kickstarter going that wasn’t comic book related at all. Did you see that? It’s called the smoky school.

Jeff: I mean, you’re, you’re friends with me on Facebook. I follow you on Twitter and on Instagram, but I think with algorithm algorithms, I think I only see people like once a week,

Tyler Kirkman: I try not to bombard my comic book fans with it, but it was, it’s like a, it’s a cocktail smoker.

And then I’ll be, you know, that, that ended a couple of weeks ago actually. And that did really well too, but so I just know I’m going to be like so busy, fulfilling that and, and final boss like to do any more shows.

Jeff: Yeah, well, but as I said, when you are, I’m definitely, I’m going to get an autograph. I do, like I say, I have one photograph of yours on the new guardians comic [00:42:00] book I bought on eBay and I’m not sure it’s real.

So I definitely need to go

Tyler Kirkman: get, get either way, man. I’ll have to at least get you a copy of a final boss, because I would love to hit I’d love to get your opinion

Jeff: on it. So that that’d be absolutely awesome, sir. I agree. Really appreciate you talking with me and I’ll let you know when the moment it goes live.

And there’s a good, I luck get that. 75. K.

Tyler Kirkman: Thank you so much, man. It’s been a pleasure. Have a great day. Yeah, you too.