In this conversation, comedian and writer Dece Casillas shares his journey into the world of comics, discussing his lifelong passion for the medium, the challenges of writing and publishing his comic ‘Kill Stan’, and the importance of maintaining artistic integrity. He reflects on the validation he received from industry professionals, the process of finding the right artist, and the financial aspects of crowdfunding through Kickstarter. Dece also delves into the themes of his comic, including loss, trauma, and dark humor, while outlining his plans for future issues. In this conversation, Deece also shares his journey as a comic creator and comedian, discussing the meticulous process of comic creation, the nuances of writing comic scripts, and the challenges of marketing indie comics.
You can back the kickstarter for Kill Stan #2 Here
Ryan George (00:01)
Hey everyone, so I’m here with Dece Casillas. Dece is a comedian and writer. Dece, did I get your name pronounced right? Okay. All right. Good, good.
Deece Casillas (00:08)
You nailed it, both of them. So yeah,
it’s a trap on both sides of what you got across.
Ryan George (00:15)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, good. I’m glad I got it. So how are you doing today? Good, good. So I’m very much interested. I’m always someone who’s kind of been in this comics and indie comics world for a few years, like the different pathways that people take and the different kind of other careers that people have that they combine and how that influences stuff. the comedian, I think, is a first for me. So I definitely have some questions on that. But I guess, so I always ask,
Deece Casillas (00:17)
Doing well, man. How you doing?
Yeah.
Yeah
Ryan George (00:43)
kind of the first question I always ask everybody is to give me a little bit on your own like origin story when it comes to comics and in that world like both how you became interested you know in comics if you were a reader or if you know not and then also how what what then directed you towards writing.
Deece Casillas (01:02)
Yeah, mean, the first part as far as a fan is I don’t know where I first discovered comics. It always just seems like it’s ubiquitous in my life always. I don’t remember a time, you know, where I wasn’t a fan of the the medium. You know, I grew up in the 80s and there was the wasn’t really as many comic book stores around like I was the kid who would go.
with my mom to the grocery store and they had a little spinner rack by the pharmacy section and I’d go sit down and just pull off books and read them while she’s shopping. The things like that. you know, like the, there was before the big X-Men cartoon of the 90s, there was a…
like a pilot episode they did called Pride of the X-Men with Kitty Pride. it was like it was in there was an arcade game that was based around it too, if anyone remembers that old arcade game from the early 90s. And that was a big thing that got me into the X-Men. But I mean, there was like Spider-Man Amazing Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends was a cartoon as I was a kid. And just as kind of a, you know, on TV and around and I was always such a
just such a enamored with the whole thing. Ninja Turtles, of course, the kid from the eighties. so it was always a love of mine. As far as writing, like I always was a writer. mean, ever since I could put pen to paper, that’s all I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a writer. wanted to write and I, know, have in a million different formats over the years. And I always wanted to write comic books. It just seemed like such an impossible feat.
I lived in LA at the time, growing up, the entire industry was in New York. That’s obviously changed a lot over the last 20 plus years. But I mean, all through the 80s and 90s, if you didn’t live in New York, well, you probably weren’t working in comic books, it seemed like. Or you started there and got to move somewhere else because you were established. So yeah, I I always wanted to write.
parlay my writing into comic books and finally, recently just took the dive and went for it.
Ryan George (03:21)
Cool. So what was that thing that pushed you over the edge? was it just that there was a story you couldn’t get out of your head? Or like, what was the reason that you were like, you know what, I’m gonna put pen to paper in and write a comic.
Deece Casillas (03:34)
You know, well, it’s funny, this isn’t the first comic book I’ve written. I say this and people think I’m kidding, but I have probably in the thousands of comic book scripts that I’ve written in my lifetime, literally thousands, whether it’s characters that are, you know, already exist or characters, you know, it started out that way and then became these characters that I was creating in these big universes in my own stories.
Ryan George (03:45)
Okay, yeah.
Deece Casillas (04:04)
But this one I published actually was a story I just started working on in the last couple of years. I had a move from Washington to Texas. And because of that move, I had a little gap in my touring schedule of what, because I left kind of a big window for moving, I left a window for remodeling this house I bought and just kind of settling into.
the new state and environment. And with that, also had, so I kind of was like, well, I’ve got this time. go, maybe I in, you know, I’m going to finally do this. I wrote this script a couple of years ago. And I also kind of had some, the story gets long. I’ll try not to make it too long, but I kind of had some validation because I ended up working for working a
Ryan George (04:55)
Yeah, no.
Deece Casillas (05:02)
convention booth in LA for Mario Nicieza, who is the brother of Fabian Nicieza, who is, you know, famously wrote Deadpool when he was created and he’s written X-Men and yada million things. Big industry name. And his brother had a booth for his comic book company and they needed volunteers. And I know Fabian and Fabian was asking people and I’m like, hey, I’m going to be in LA that weekend doing shows. Like I’ll just…
I’ll volunteer at the convention during the day, do the shows at night. It’ll be great. And I was in the midst of writing this book that became Kill Stan at the time. And I just thought, I’m like, yeah, it’ll be good to hang around industry professionals. Maybe I can glean some knowledge and, you know, that’ll be great. And I never mentioned to them that I was writing this book because I didn’t want it. I didn’t want them to feel like I was there because I wanted something from them.
I just wanted to, you know, if anything rubbed off, great, but I didn’t want to be like, hey, I’m here to help you, but also, hey, here’s my thing, help me. So I did the weekend, I left, and about a week later, Mario called me and he’s like, he goes, hey, I never got to chat with you that much, you know, thanks for doing the convention. He goes, I understand you do stand-up comedy.
Ryan George (06:13)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (06:28)
It’s great because you write all your own material and I’m like, oh yeah, of course. you know, absolutely. And he goes, have you ever written anything else? And I go, yeah, a ton of stuff. published a book years ago. I written for TV, film, sketch, web comedy websites, all kinds of stuff. And he goes, have you ever considered writing a comic book? And I said, well, actually he, it’s funny you mentioned it. I’m like, I am actually in the middle of writing a comic book as we speak. And
He goes, well, send me the script for number one and I’ll take a look at and give you some notes at least. So I sent it to him and he’s like, hey, I’m going to send this to another editor and have them take a look at it too. And I said, great, more notes are better. And then emailed me again. He said, hey, you know what? I’m going to actually have our editor in chief look at this too. And then a couple of weeks later, I get a conference call from them and they’re telling me, they’re like, hey, we want to do this book.
Ryan George (07:11)
Yeah.
Wow.
Deece Casillas (07:27)
And I was like, shit, okay. I mean, I didn’t think that was an option. I thought they were just gonna be like, you know, maybe give me some notes on the book. then I, you know, we went through some cycles and some ideas and some kind of talks with it. Eventually, I didn’t do the book with them. I decided to go out, I’ll strike out on my own. There were just some things they wanted that I was pretty staunch on not.
Ryan George (07:33)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (07:56)
changing. after conversations, I’m kind of like, I gleaned some information. like, I think I can do this on my own. I’m like, I can do this. I can make this happen. I know some guys that own some small press companies. got some advice from them and I just went for it. So that was kind of the validation of why this project was worth pursuing, because they were willing to do it. I’m like, I got to be on to something here.
Ryan George (08:18)
Yeah.
So that’s an interesting thing that you were kind of on the piece of like advocating for yourself. Was it a creative decision or was it more on the financial or logistics? what was the, you know, no need to get into detail if you don’t want to, but just I’m kind of interested in like, what was the thing that made you decide, you know, what kind of category was that thing that made you decide, you know what, I’m good, I can do it on my own. Cause think a lot of people would be terrified to make that choice if they have, you know, any kind of you know, available to help them out.
Deece Casillas (08:44)
Yeah!
You
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was a couple things. And this is I say this story and I always say, not that he’d ever listen, I’m sure. But like, no, I mean, no disrespect to Mario and Apex comics. they’re they, they absolutely helped me. They’re instrumental in making this happen. wouldn’t have happened without them taking me to confidence. And they believed in the story. And we still amicable. I still feel I could go to them now and we could do something.
And maybe we will at some point. But the first thing is they were dead set on changing the name. And I was dead set on not changing the name. And it seems small. They’re like, it can’t be Stan. It has to be, you can do Kill Sam, but it can’t be Stan. And their concern was that…
Ryan George (09:29)
Talker.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (09:48)
Stan Lee has like a publishing company under his name and they thought that they might get sued if we use the name Stan in a title. And I was like, yeah, yeah, I get his name Stan and stuff, but like you can’t trademark a name. You you can’t not use a name in a title. And I’m going be honest with you, part of the reason I named it Stan was as an homage to Stan Lee, but also
Ryan George (10:08)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (10:19)
As a comic book fan, if I saw something called Kill Stan, my first thought that it would be, Stan Lee, and it would make me think to look at it more. It was like a marketing gimmick, to be honest with you. And then there were a couple, they wanted me to use an artist that I wasn’t that interested in using. There was one of their house artists who was like a comic book name who’s been around and done a lot of stuff. did Captain America, Superman, and.
Ryan George (10:28)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (10:48)
But his style was not what I wanted on this book, but it’s one of their guys that they used on a lot of their stuff. And I’m like, now I want like a darker, grittier, I’m looking for something like, you I’d rather have like Alex Mayleave on this book than something, you know, like a traditional comic book art. So.
Yeah, just things like that, that it wasn’t gonna come out. I was just like, I’d rather this book come out smaller, but come out the way I want it, than sacrifice my artistic integrity on this book. Cause I had a vision and I knew not to sound too bold, but I knew my vision was correct. I knew I had the right vision for this book. And I also think that like,
Again, no disrespect to these guys, but they’re like kind of old heads in the game. You know what I’m saying? Like they came up in the late 80s and 90s and they kind of, those creators can sometimes still be stuck in the way you do comic books in that era. Which fine, if that’s what you want to do and there’s a place for that, but that’s not what I was trying to do. So.
Ryan George (11:54)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (12:04)
it kind of gave me the sense. Like I do stand-up comedy for a living. I’ve done a lot of independent projects. I know what it takes to bet on yourself and market yourself and find a lane. You got to create your own lane and things like that. And then I had a conversation with a buddy of mine who owns a small press indie company and kind of picked his brain about a couple of things. And then I was just like,
Ryan George (12:20)
Yeah. Yeah.
Deece Casillas (12:33)
Okay, I’m just gonna do this, you I’m just gonna go for it.
Ryan George (12:35)
Yeah. So
I want to get into the story, Kylstan, what it’s about and kind of your, story itself. But first, since we’re already talking a little bit about the process of, you know, a new crew writer, especially creating his own project, tell me a little bit about what you, you know, the process for you of finding the artist and how you were able to, as an independent creator, you know, then, because, you know, I think one of the challenges that nobody knows until you actually write a book and get it through, you know, through crowdfunding and publication.
if you’re doing it on own is that you’re really like a project manager. so maybe tell me a little bit about your experience with that and then how your experience doing it for issue one maybe has changed or what you’ve learned and changed for issue two.
Deece Casillas (13:07)
Yeah. Yep.
Yeah, so it is funny. didn’t.
just by lack of not considering it. I didn’t realize how much I would be like an art director when it came, but it makes sense. It’s not that if I would have sat and thought about it, would have realized it, but to find my creative team, there’s plenty of Facebook pages that are for independent creators. So I just went on them. I went on like 10 and I said,
Ryan George (13:29)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (13:52)
told people what I was looking for. was looking for a artist colorist letter. And I said, send me, I gave them some samples of art I like coloring. I like things. I, what I, the tone of the book and what I wanted it to look like. And I just said, email me your page rates and your portfolio and we’ll go from there. And I got a bunch. whittled it down to
the people I liked the best, hopped on a Zoom call with them to discuss the project, discuss their level of commitment to something like this, and make sure it was gonna be an amicable working dynamic and chose the people I felt were the best fit for it. So.
Ryan George (14:42)
So
how do you handle the financial aspect? Did you pay for everything up front? Yep, which I think is the way to go.
Deece Casillas (14:47)
Yep,
So yeah, I just paid for everything. Because what I wanted to do is we ran a Kickstarter for number one, but I didn’t want to be running a Kickstarter for a book that I hadn’t created yet. I didn’t want to be behind the eight ball. You most of these creators, which I understand they don’t have the they they by nature of just having no other option.
They’ll crank out a couple pages uncolored and they’ll be like, hey, this is three pages of the book. Please support it. Which I understand sometimes that’s just the nature of the beast. have to do that. And they’re like, if we get funded, we’ll create the book. goal was, because essentially I’m like, this book is going to get made either way. If I get zero dollars on my Kickstarter, I’m still going to put this book out. So.
Ryan George (15:18)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (15:39)
I wanted to, and I also wanted to have it full, so if the Kickstarter funded, we could just roll that right into number two and then we’re a book ahead on money. So I, yeah, I footed the bill for everything. I already had the book at the printer before we even launched the Kickstarter.
Ryan George (15:58)
Yeah, cool. that, yeah, I think that makes sense. I think it’s tough. It’s such an expensive, you know, process that it can be prohibitive for a lot of people, but I think it, both for you as a creator and for the confidence of the backers, I think it helps a lot to have everything finished. So, now what did you take from the first campaign, you know, on Kickstarter that maybe you’ve added or applied or adapted for this second campaign?
Deece Casillas (16:23)
Yeah, mean, it’s probably a little, yes, you got it. I’m trying to think of what we did change. The Kickstarter is honestly mostly the same. I think the only thing I really did is lower some prices on some tiers. But beyond that, mostly it’s going to be the same.
You know, the first Kickstarter fully funded in five days, we ended up about two grand over our initial goal. And which was 3500 was the goal for the book. And yeah, we ended up at about 55 total. It. It all kind of worked out, you know, I’m really kind of trying to replicate that again. I’m just, you know, marketing it the same way.
promoting it the same way. luckily this time I have an audience of people also that were that are clamoring for number two at this point. So I feel like that’s a benefit also is that there’s a group of people who are ready and following and being like when number two hits like we’re putting it on that Kickstarter. you know, for the people that
You know, there’s friends and family that’ll put in on the first one because, you know, it’s your vanity project that are going to slough off in the second or third. But I think that’ll be picked up greatly by the people who are really dedicated to this book now. I think the one thing I change, and this isn’t really, I don’t know if this is a change so much is an advantage, is I’m offering some…
Ryan George (17:47)
Yeah. Yeah.
Deece Casillas (18:12)
pre-order sales to comic book shops that are carrying it through the Kickstarter. So that can be, I found can be a good chunk of change that can dedicate directly to the Kickstarter to help, you know, they’re basically pre-ordering their books.
Ryan George (18:24)
Yeah.
Yeah. So now tell me, tell me about the book. what’s, what’s, what, you know, where is it? What inspired it? What’s the story? And I guess give me a little bit about issue one and then what’s coming up in issue two.
Deece Casillas (18:40)
Yeah, it’s basically the premise is suicide by vigilantism. The guy wants to take his own life, so he decides to do it through vigilantism. So on its surface, it’s kind of a neo-noir action thriller, but the reality is that it’s cleverly, it’s clever, it’s kind of a kind of a loss leader. really not, it really, it’s what it is is a
character piece about loss and trauma and the crazy things we do and we feel like we have nothing left to live for.
Ryan George (19:16)
Okay, that’s not interesting. Now how many pages was the first book? Okay, and what about the second?
Deece Casillas (19:20)
28 I
think 30 So that is so yeah, they float It’s a 10 issue series. I think the I think the lowest page counts 24 and the highest page count I think is 30 Well, yeah, I guess I should say 32 but 30 pages of content I mean
Ryan George (19:24)
got it.
Yeah, that was my next question. So you have it planned out for 10 issues.
Deece Casillas (19:45)
Yeah, it’s a 10 issue series and I didn’t want to restrict myself to a certain page count. I was trying to do like, typical comic book now has 22 pages, but I kept finding things going a little over and trying to edit and then I’m like, what the hell am I doing? I’m I’m paying for this. Why would I sacrifice a couple pages of legitimate content and making the story the best I can to hit just a generic page count?
Ryan George (19:50)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (20:14)
like a nebulous page count that’s industry standard.
Ryan George (20:16)
Yeah. Sorry about that. I always
forget I have a.
I’m in a room on a timer and I always forget that if I don’t move, the lights will turn off. This happens every time. Oh yeah.
Deece Casillas (20:31)
The worst is public bathrooms like that. you ever
been to a… Like you’re out here, you’re going to take your crap and then you’re like, wait a second. I’m in here trying to like crab walk around the stall, trying to figure out where the sensor is.
Ryan George (20:39)
Exactly.
Yeah, like touching like a disgusting wall.
Yeah. But no, it’s like, I remembered like the first five minutes in and then just totally forgot. But, so, so now tell me it’s like, do you, is there a lot of comedy or humor incorporated into the story or is this something that does not kind of carry that aspect?
Deece Casillas (21:04)
I mean, I wouldn’t say, I wouldn’t call it comedy. would say there might be, and this is maybe a weird like splitting hairs as the writer and then the comedian in me. I would say there’s not, it’s not comedy, but there is humor in it, if that makes sense. So it’s really like a dark humor. Stan is cynical, nihilistic, fatalistic. And that comes out in some humorous ways depending on how you view.
Ryan George (21:19)
Yeah. Yeah.
Deece Casillas (21:34)
those things. But yeah, so there is some I think some humor is in it. But I definitely wouldn’t call it comedy or lighthearted.
Ryan George (21:35)
Yeah.
Yeah. Do you have all 10 issues written out or okay. No. Do you, what’s, do you have a timeline? You know, that can be kind of tough when you’re dealing with Kickstarter, but for you, is there a timeline for when you want to get all 10 issues, you know, out there in public?
Deece Casillas (21:46)
Yes.
WAH!
Yeah, mean, it’s, really kind of the only thing that really is, we’re just gonna be holding to time to create comics, which, you know, for my artist, takes a couple months to do one issue.
they I if if things were going well things you know well not well things are going well if things go explode I would definitely be willing to try to motivate him with a higher page rate to to work faster without sacrificing quality but right now we’re probably at about every three months I think I mean the first book came out in
Ryan George (22:35)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (22:48)
late October, early November, and we’ll get the second one out in probably late February, early March. So about every three months is kind of what we’re going for. That’s the timeline I’d like to stick by. So ideally, mean, like I said, if we can make it work, I’d love to get them out faster. But that’s just by nature of workflow and how fast people can get stuff done. We might be stuck at that.
Ryan George (22:54)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Now you mentioned like being an art, like kind of becoming an art director. How has like the process helped you with the kind of visual arts when it comes to comic or has it not? have you found yourself kind of better at understanding, you know, certain aspects of arts or better at like knowing what you want out of it? Or is that still something that you kind of leave in the hands of like the people doing the, you know, the line art and the coloring and everything?
Deece Casillas (23:40)
No, so I’m very, very detailed and meticulous with what I’m asking for. Very little is left in, I mean, so my scripts are very detailed as far as, I mean, I go so far as to lay out the panels, tell them, you know, how, what size I want the panel, like what panel layout. I’ve done thumbnail sketches and layouts for my artist.
Ryan George (23:42)
Mm-hmm
Deece Casillas (24:10)
things like that. It’s very, very detailed as to how I want it to look. I’ve got a vision of how I want it to look and then he’s just, he’s a phenomenal penciler and he’s been able to just nail it. He certainly has brought some ideas to it which have been, some of them used, some of them not, but you he’s brought some great ideas that have spruced up things that I’ve given him too.
And same with the colorist, I mean I had a very specific color palette, saturation, richness, look that I wanted for this book. And once we were able to go back and forth a couple times and nail that down, he’s just absolutely killing it now.
Ryan George (25:01)
And you have the same creative team on issue one that you, or issue two that you had on issue one.
Deece Casillas (25:06)
Yep, we’re bringing them along for all 10.
Ryan George (25:08)
Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, and that’s a challenge. I guess where it’s like you’re like a project manager, yeah, art director, and, you know, it be tough. And then it’s like, yeah, it’s as a single person or single person managing it, it’s like, you’re left at, you know, how quickly or not that they can get, you know, get things out. But so, yeah.
Deece Casillas (25:27)
Yep. Yep. Yeah.
Ryan George (25:30)
Now tell me a little bit about, so about the, you, you mentioned like that you’re kind of, you’re a prolific writer. How did you learn to write comic scripts and where do you find, how do you find that? Because I think that’s another thing that a lot of people don’t understand is how much different writing a comic script is than writing almost anything, writing prose, writing a TV script, writing, whatever it is. So if you could tell, tell people a little bit about that, you know, about writing, like what got, what got you into writing comic scripts and then how is that, different?
from everything else, especially as a prolific writer.
Deece Casillas (26:00)
Yeah,
sorry, one second. I’m gonna grab something right here.
Sorry, I’ve got a, allergies are killing me right now and I’m gonna hit this so I can talk better.
Ryan George (26:16)
Yeah, no worries.
Deece Casillas (26:19)
Give me some more oxygen in my lungs so I can be more of a blowhard. yeah, I’ve always, mean, I have literally, since I could put pen to paper, I’ve been a writer. It’s all I’ve wanted to do. It’s all I’ve, you know, I’ve loved it. I’ve written in a million mediums. it’s, you know, part of it was growing up too as a writer,
Ryan George (26:20)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (26:47)
I always was challenging myself to write new things, to write in new points of view, write from points of view that weren’t, were maybe more foreign to me, that kind of pushed me to study that point of view, consider what those characters would act like, say, et cetera. You know, a new narrative approach, know, less traditional narrative approaches.
things like that to really push myself and also just overall themes and
styles and genres, because I didn’t want to be, you know, it’s like, yeah, it’s like, it’s like a James Patterson book. It’s like, if you read one, you read them all, right? You know, it’s like, it’s like, let me guess, you know, who’s the guy that wrote the Pelican brief, you know, it’s like, what’s his name? It’s like, yeah, he’s just wrote every right, every book he writes is just about lawyer stuff in courtroom stuff. It’s like, that’s fine. But also,
Ryan George (27:34)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (27:56)
Yeah, it seems like they tend to write themselves eventually, you know? But as sort of write comic books, kind of, I’ve written a lot of scripts for like film and TV and sketch and stuff. I kind of, there is some similarities there. There’s definitely differences, but there is some similarity in the format and breakdown. The nice thing is too,
Ryan George (27:59)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (28:24)
I did a lot of research and studying about comic book scripts and there’s no standard, you know, there’s no industry standard at all, which is kind of crazy considering it’s an industry that’s been around for so long. But you I mean, it’s just, you just kind of page one, panel one breakdown and you can be, like you said, you can leave more wiggle room for the artist or you can be.
Ryan George (28:34)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (28:48)
meticulously anal and detailed like I am. it’s, and there’s no wrong way to do it. It just depends on your story. It depends on your artists. It depends on the synergy and things like that. So really the transition of writing comic book scripts was not very challenging. It’s actually probably, I think the only challenging part is really
Ryan George (28:54)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (29:17)
I don’t even say challenging. think the most meticulous part is just trying to detail the panel description to the artist. And it’s just time consuming. I wouldn’t say hard. It’s just trying. you know, I’ve learned to be more concise because you don’t have to flower it up because you’re not, it’s not like writing a book where you’re trying to paint a picture for the reader’s imagination. You’re just trying to get the point across.
Ryan George (29:37)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (29:47)
succinctly to the artist in a way they would understand, you
Ryan George (29:48)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah,
no, think it’s like that’s a lot of it is just, it’s a conversation between you and an artist. And so yeah, it’s like you’re giving them instructions and what’s the best way that I can convey these instructions for what I want on the page. And yeah, you’re right. I think it’s, you’re not trying to impress or immerse anybody in your words. You’re trying to explain to an artist what I want you to do on the page. Yeah.
Deece Casillas (29:58)
Yeah.
Right, yeah, it’s very clinical sometimes.
But which is fine because, know, it really, like I said, it reminds me of writing stuff for film or, you know, that type of script, which it may be more, even more so because when I wrote this book, I wanted it to feel like a movie. And I wanted it to feel like, you know, a pulse pounding, something that grabbed you and just kept like, I wanted like,
I wanted you to feel like your heart rate was accelerating as you’re reading this book, you know? And I knew that the pacing, the panel layout, as well as color we use, in match with the dialogue, if we did it all correctly, we would get that done. So I think I brought a lot of that idea of the filmmaking in film scripts into this.
Ryan George (30:48)
Yeah.
Yeah. So tell me a little bit about the comedy. Like how did you get into that as a career? And to me, like of all the things, especially like creatively, I feel like comedy and specifically standup would be the most terrifying thing in the world to do. So yeah, tell me a little bit about that.
Deece Casillas (31:28)
Well, you you gotta have you gotta have feelings and emotions to be terrified I am a robot dead inside. So those Yeah, I mean I’ve been doing comedy for almost 17 years now, so it’s Doing a long time. It really I just got into it. I’ve Started doing open mics when I lived in Long Beach from from in like 2006 2007 probably something like that and
Ryan George (31:32)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (31:54)
just never really stopped. it kind of, the career went a lot of directions because I started in standup and then I moved to doing more writing and sketch and things like that for a while and doing some standup. But then around 2011, something like that, I went back into doing standup again real hard.
I took a couple years off where it was kind of not my main comedy form.
Ryan George (32:28)
Yeah. what’s
the life of a stand-up comic? Do you perform daily? it weekly? How do you manage that and making your career out of it?
Deece Casillas (32:41)
Well, first of all, it’s sad. A lot of Motel 6s and seeing how many dollar store muffins you can fit into your bag from the hotel lobby. it’s, yeah, mean, right now I’ve been taking a break from doing it as much, trying to focus on the comic book. My goal was to take six months at least and…
Ryan George (32:43)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (33:10)
dedicate myself to the comic book, writing, producing, doing conventions, traveling and doing conventions, going to comic book shops, promoting, et cetera. not to say that I haven’t been doing comedy at all, I still do it. I’m doing probably an average of one or two shows a week still, but that, and I shouldn’t say shows even, I’ll just go do spots at places around town.
I’ll pop in and do like a 20 minute set here, there, and then some actual shows. But I scaled back to try to really make a go at the comic book and give it its due. I didn’t want to half ass it and be like, yeah, I’m kind of doing it, kind of this. I wanted to basically be able to have almost full attention on it and not be touring all the time. I mean, God, two years ago I did
I think 189 dates on the road. That’s a lot of travel, a lot of road time. So I wanted to scale that back and work on the comic. then ideally what I’m working on is getting to booking my comedy tour with my comic book convention tour so I can be like, okay, I’m going to go to Baltimore and I’m going to do this convention.
Ryan George (34:11)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm.
Deece Casillas (34:37)
So let me put shows around it that weekend or a couple days before, go in early, do some shows, do the convention. And then I can kind of double down on weekends. So that’s kind of that synergy starting to happen where I’m lining those up more and more as I feel like the comic book is starting to become more popular and more streamlined with its workflow. And then giving me time to get back into the comedy and having those things run concurrently.
Ryan George (34:48)
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, so now you bring up, I think a really important aspect of, you know, any creator, especially Indie and going through Kickstarter, a lot of it, it’s more than just making the book, but it comes down to marketing, both, you know, marketing online and also doing conventions. So what has your kind of process been to market it both, you know, in both aspects? Like what are some of your tips for, you know, how to be successful at conventions and also like what have you done online and, you know, through marketing your own work to get people
Liking it because I there’s a lot of great work out there But just the marketing if that’s not on then doesn’t matter. No one’s gonna see yourself
Deece Casillas (35:42)
Yeah, it’s tough. mean, I think by, you know, if we’re to go by stereotypes, the average comic book creator is probably awkward and anti-social. So it’s, they’re at a disadvantage. You know, a lot of them are artists and artists can be reclusive or not people person, you know, they’re, they’re just, it’s just kind of the nature of it. Obviously not all of them, but there’s a lot of that. And
Ryan George (35:53)
Hmm.
Deece Casillas (36:11)
I see it at conventions too. I’ll go to conventions and you see the creators with their arms folded and kind of just sitting back the whole time or just drawing on their iPad the whole time. And they don’t really sell much. Me, when I do a convention, I’m up on my feet the entire day. I’m on my feet the entire day. I’m talking to everyone swinging by, hey, how you doing? Like, da, da, da, just carnival barking, right? And then…
I’ve told a lot of creators this, for me, what I feel, and not just in comic books, but I learned this in other arts, especially comedy, and also as a consumer, is like, I’m not trying to sell them my book. I’m just trying to tell you about my connection to my art and why it’s important to me. And if you can be that real and that organic and genuine with someone,
more often than not, they’re gonna feel that and they will connect with it and they’ll buy your book because they know you truly love it and you truly connect with it, you truly believe in it. And it’s something that is saying something, you know? And that’s what I think a lot of people lack is, you know, they’re like, this is my book. It’s
Ryan George (37:17)
Okay, yeah.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (37:39)
Guardians of the Galaxy meets Wild Wild West. And you’re like, okay, but why is it? You’re telling me what it’s like, but what is it? And why did you write it? And what does it mean to you? And what is it gonna mean to me? What story are you trying to tell? It’s things like that that I think people miss on their pitch.
Ryan George (37:48)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (38:04)
They’re just so desperate for someone to buy something. They’re just trying to people please. Like, no, no, just be honest and be yourself and sell yourself to them and people will support you. So I think that’s a big thing. Being proactive and going out and hitting comic book shops, showing your book to people, trying to get it in stores. I mean, I’ve been able to get into a lot of stores and I’ve
Ryan George (38:12)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (38:33)
sold a ton of books through comic book shops already. mean, I’ve got, went to one, visited one the other night that just sold out for the third time and they, they’re like, yeah, the last pack of variants you just brought in, people were buying doubles of everything that you brought in. You know, it’s like, so, but you have to go do that and you have to go talk to the owner and you have to be willing to show them your book and, you know, invest in it. Maybe you have to leave them a book that costs you money, but hey,
Ryan George (38:48)
wow.
Yeah. Yeah.
Deece Casillas (39:01)
If you leave them $3, but you might make hundreds off them for that investment. Calling comic book shops across the country. Hey, do you guys carry independent comic books? I got a new creator. I’ve got this book. It’s been doing very well. I’d love to send you a PDF for a physical copy. And then there’s a lot of Facebook groups, a lot of comic book groups for creators.
Ryan George (39:06)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (39:31)
for fans, podcasts, great podcasts like this you can get on and talk to people. I mean, all that you gotta do. I mean, I’m doing like a podcast a day right now for the next probably 45 days to promote it.
Ryan George (39:40)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. But you know, that’s what, that’s what you have to do. Right. And I think it’s a, you’re, have to be good at marketing, which I’m sure as a standup, like you, you know, like you have, you have that in you that I think a lot of people, you know, myself included, I have a hard time selling myself. and that, that’s a, you know, it’s been, that’s a big thing that I think a lot of people need in order to really, you know, get again, cause yeah, it’s like, you’d have the best thing in the world, but if you’re not.
Deece Casillas (40:00)
Yeah.
Ryan George (40:08)
Selling it then doesn’t matter. Nobody, you know, knows.
Deece Casillas (40:10)
Yeah. Yeah.
And like I said, it’s not even selling the product, it’s selling you and why you wrote it and what it’s for. I mean, you know, people ask me what the book’s about and I’m like, you know, you’re going to look at it be like, it’s an action thing. And I’m like, yeah, but it’s not that. I go, it is about this guy who feels like he has nothing left to live for and he wants to die.
Ryan George (40:16)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (40:36)
and he doesn’t have the balls to do it himself, so he puts it in someone else’s hands. it’s something I feel like we can all relate to. People are like, why? Why does he feel that way? And I’m like, well, why do you feel bad sometimes? And people are like, what do you mean? I’m like, well, you feel like, I’m not saying you want to take your own life, but you probably have felt pretty bad at times, maybe that bad. And it’s not always because…
Ryan George (40:46)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (41:00)
You went and saw Zorro and on your way out in an alley, somebody shot your parents, you know? It’s like, it could just be the general malaise of life and the grind of trying to stay afloat and medical debt and pay your rent. Like those are enough, like I wanted to make it clear. It doesn’t have to be this big catastrophic event. Like life is hard and life can make people do crazy things for a lot of reasons, you know?
Ryan George (41:05)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that’s fair. And you, I think that’s a great point you made, like, right? Like you, you pitched me the book based on life and how it feels more than actually what the book is. And, know, I think that, yeah, like that, that absolutely makes sense. Right. Um, well, it’s been great talking to you. I’d love to have you on again, uh, you know, especially like as you get closer to the end of this campaign or getting, you know, getting into, to book three, it would be, it’d be great. Cause I think you’ve offered a lot of awesome insights.
Deece Casillas (41:41)
Yeah.
Yeah, love to.
Ryan George (41:59)
Thanks so again. your book is Kill, so it’s Kill Stan issue two, or is there like a subtitle for it?
Deece Casillas (42:05)
Killsand issue number two. Yeah, just no subtitle. It’s 10 issue series. You can follow us if you would follow us on inferno.earth. That is the Instagram or inferno.earth is also our website. There’s no dot com. Those are all bought now. So I’m inferno.earth. Inferno.earth on Facebook or Inferno Comics. Give us a follow. The bigger conventions, they do look at your social media following to see
Ryan George (42:19)
Cool.
Deece Casillas (42:32)
you when you apply to get into them. So some of them do scrutinize a little bit. So the bigger we look, the better chance we have getting into them. There’s links to follow the Kickstarter for number two. Please give that a follow too. That helps a ton. When you launch it gets you higher in the algorithm and you can ideally fund faster, which helps too. And if you want to get number one right now, you can do that too. Just shoot me message and I can, we’re shipping them. got a couple.
Ryan George (42:50)
Yeah.
Deece Casillas (43:02)
I’ve got the A cover left in some variants. And yeah, hit me up.
Ryan George (43:08)
Cool.
Awesome. Well, again, thanks so much for being on the show and we’ll look forward to talking to soon.
Deece Casillas (43:13)
Yeah, thank you.