With Joe’s creative origins out of the way, we are allowed to dive further into the actual creative process and the Indiegogo experience. Here, we discover the reality of producing a complete book when you’re used to being the artist. We learn how easy it is to misjudge fulfillment when the process usually ends for you before editors. While he has been taken aback a little by the experience, he’s enjoying the lesson and still getting the work done.

Detailing his adventure in the decline of the retail comics industry, Joe shares with us what came next. He discovered a YouTube channel, Diversity In Comics, which was airing the frustrations of what he calls a consumer revolt. This movement went on to be called #Comicsgate and became maligned in much the same way Gamergate already had. What it really is looks to me more like the growing pains of the radical decentralization of an industry. I’d witnessed much the same thing happen to music almost twenty years earlier, leaving a space void of superstars but full of more specialized content than you could ever dream possible.

To round out this episode, Joe goes into detail about his life situation. It didn’t make sense to pour his time into a YouTube channel. He took to building relationships with the influencers by becoming a friend in the scene. Who knew being a rad dude for others could pay off so well (I would.) The one drawback to Joe’s grassroots approach is that it’s not quick. It can take years to become a trusted fixture in any group. This becomes even more challenging when we watch our fandoms splinter because corporations have made trust so hard to come by.