Comics to Cocktails: Nerding Out with Cory De La Guardia

Comic book writer, podcaster, and lifelong nerd Cory De La Guardia joins me for a wide-ranging conversation about creativity, confidence, and carving your own lane. Cory takes us through his journey from growing up unapologetically nerdy in a time when it wasn’t cool, to walking away from a full-ride aerospace engineering path to chase storytelling instead. We talk about how comic books shaped his childhood, how podcasting opened doors he never expected, and why sometimes the smartest move is betting on yourself when it doesn’t make sense on paper. Cory also breaks down how he got into writing comics, the hard lessons of self-publishing, and the inspiration behind his series Another Day at the Office and Department of Metahuman Affairs.

You can find his podcast Nerd Thug Radio Here.

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Transcript

Intro Song

Rob Valincius: Boom. We are live on a beautiful, thirsty Thursday. I am your sexy host, Rob Valincius, and I have the pleasure of having with me another sexy podcast while he's a podcaster, but also a comic book writer, Corey De La Guardia. Welcome to the show, brother.

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah. Thanks for having me, man. I'm excited to be here. When you said sexy, I got nervous that there was another guest, but No, you may not.

You may not. I'm excited. 

Rob Valincius: around. Oh shit. All right. cool, cool.

Cory de la Guardia: Okay. Alright.

I 

Rob Valincius: Uh, I gotta tell you, that might be the, the longest time I've had a pre-discussion into a podcast. 'cause typically it's like we go in. But if that was any guess on the fact that we could riff for 12 minutes about nothing, we're great Podcasters is how I look 

Cory de la Guardia: if you listen to my show, shameless Plugged Nerd Thug Radio, we do 30 minutes about nothing all the time. That's, we, we literally, I, I start, almost every episode is me, my little brother, and I start almost every episode with, Hey, what's going on this week? And he'll tell me something he's done and then it'll be 40 minutes into the show before we even do topic.

Rob Valincius: I had another show, uh, we're on a hiatus, but we're actually rebranding, uh, with a buddy of mine who I interviewed and we became really good friends and, uh, he asked me to be a cohost on a show, and it was kind of my way of letting my hair down. So, so like, my show's fun. I talk about a lot of weird stuff, and we get into it and it's fun, but it's more formal, you know, whereas with that show, it was just me.

It was like two guys talking about whatever the fuck they want, and there'd be a random dick somewhere. Like, he would just be like, oh, uh, have you seen this? And I'm seeing what, and he'd just bring a dick up. I'm like, what the fuck is this? He goes, have you ever heard of docking? And I'm like, why are we talking about this right now?

Like, yes, I heard a docking, but why? You know, like, and then he would explain it. Sh Shout out. Shout out Burley. I know you're probably listening to this, but I found him for the Reddit group and, uh, he, he became good friends and we actually had another podcast. It was a whole thing. We, we, we had a, a whole group podcast of people.

Uh, that was fun too. And yeah, the podcasting is weird, right? I mean, it's such a networking thing. And I 

Cory de la Guardia: It's, it really is. 

Rob Valincius: all the time that you never know who you're gonna run into and just click with.

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah. The, um, for a long time I had a really solid relationship and it kind of came outta nowhere. So when we started, it was me, my cousin, and my little brother. Um, and my cousin was just this, he would just network all the time, just anybody. He'd be like, well, I gotta show you should come on it. And he would do that all the time. And it got to the point, like, people would offer us stuff where he would, he would text me and I would be like, do they know that we're nobody? Like, like, why are they off? We, we went to. For like the first year we existed, we had only been doing like maybe we'd only 15, 20 shows in and we were getting invited to like do conventions as like their local media and stuff. And I was like, they're gonna give us a hotel room to go to Louisiana. Do they know that? Like we're nobody. And he's like, I just asked. Oh, okay. Yeah. Podcasting will take you in some weird places if you're just going to, if you just ask. But I've also been that guy who's like, I tell my brother, my little brother all the time, if you just walk confidently and act like you're supposed to be there, almost nobody will ever question what you're doing in life. And I think that podcasting is sort of like the digital equivalent of that. Like how

you carry yourself is how far they're gonna let you go. There's, there's people all over the, like, there's people now who are talkers, who now are like correspondents on news networks now. And you're like, I think I just watched a 32nd video of that guy eating an apple pie.

Like what are we, like what are we doing here?

Uh, and. 

Rob Valincius: that one guy that does, is it daily? Daily something, uh, with the, like blonde hair. Have you seen him on TikTok? 

Cory de la Guardia: yeah, yeah, yeah, 

Rob Valincius: his name? He's like, he was at the, the White House. 

Cory de la Guardia: yeah, 

Rob Valincius: a TikTok. He's literally a toker.

Cory de la Guardia: that's, I mean, these guys like, it's, they're popping up everywhere because like if you just act like you're supposed to be there, I guess no one's checking credentials anywhere anymore. And so podcasting

Rob Valincius: Especially, probably not the White House 

Cory de la Guardia: these days. 

Rob Valincius: Probably not the White House.

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah. Okay, cool. No problem.

Rob Valincius: Uh,

Cory de la Guardia: You're gonna

see there 

Rob Valincius: like, like me. All right, cool. Um, it's, it's kind of wild. It's fun though. It's fun because, you know, you get to talk to people from all over the world and all over the country and you get to see some, some interesting 

Cory de la Guardia: yeah, like, okay, so where I was going with that was we, we became friends with Booker T's wrestling school. And like when I say

friends 

Rob Valincius: nice.

Cory de la Guardia: like, like several of the wrestlers were on the shows. You go back to the very early episodes, Probably Probably like 10 different times. There's one of the wrestlers is on there, a couple of 'em came on twice and now some of them are kind of rising the ranks.

Two of the guys are on a EW and they're doing great. Um, one of them was a, her name on the WWE was Ember Moon. When we went to meet with Booker t WWE had given her to him to like, to train up. So like when we met her, she already knew she was gonna be back in the WWE e at some point, but she was like learning the wrestling ropes. Like there's a lot of people like that. But so it was so crazy because we're just these local guys here in Houston doing our thing and Booker t's like, yeah, come on down, come check us out. And so we go, by the way, that guy, I didn't know you could do this, but like from all the WWE e events, that guy has kept every poster with his face on it that he can find. And the arena, he's got a, he bought some space or he is renting it maybe

in a gym, uh, towards Galveston. I think it's. Channel view. And he's got this whole place set up for like his wrestling group now. But he's hanging, he's got giant banners that were hanging. They had to have been like on the side of the wall, outside of the stadium, 20 foot tall banners of him that are now just hanging inside his wrestling group. So like,

Rob Valincius: I mean, that's pretty cool. Look, if I had the money, I mean, I don't know if I'd be putting myself up there, but if I was in wrestling, I'd probably be in a much better shape than I am now. 

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah. So like it's one of the events where he was king of the ring or something. So he is sitting on a throne and he is got the crown. So it's this 20 foot picture of him sitting on a throne wearing a crown with like hot chicks all around him. And then now that's just hanging up in like the middle of his wrestling group. And uh, when we,

the first time we went, I was like, it's both so egotistical but also such a bold move that you have to love it. Like I was sitting there staring at it probably halfway through the event and I was like, I know I'm three beers in, but I'm still not mad that he is doing that.

Rob Valincius: You, you gotta respect it. You gotta respect it.

Cory de la Guardia: foot banner with you on it. Put it everywhere you go. Turn

Rob Valincius: I'm gonna buy 

Cory de la Guardia: Slap it, on 

Rob Valincius: buy my own fucking arena. And that. There it is. You know, this is, Dick's probably bigger than fucking just a regular 

Cory de la Guardia: Dude. He was, he's he's a trip if you ever talked to him. He's a, he's a cool guy. Uh, I will say that our relationship ended when he stood us up for a meeting, though. So

now I tell everyone that I have a, I'm scheduled to have a dual with him at some point in the future. I'm waiting for him

Rob Valincius: Be like, uh, the family guy and the chicken, you know?

Cory de la Guardia: it's just on site. But I have to wait for him to not see me coming 'cause he will kill me.

Rob Valincius: Yeah. He's gotta be a big dude. He's gotta 

Cory de la Guardia: Booker t is not a small guy and he's, I mean he's probably gonna be 60, 65 at this point and he still looks like he would murder me with one hand.

Rob Valincius: Jesus Christ. I, but that's, that's cool, man. That's a cool story. Whether your podcast works out or not. It is gotta be a pretty cool story to tell people like, Hey, I met fucking Booker. Booker T stood me up, you know?

Cory de la Guardia: There's so many funny, like there are, there are a ton of those. And, and I say that just to say to anybody watching, like, if you're gonna do a podcast, just do it. We've gotten to speak at so many places. Like we've, we speak, comic Palooza is the biggest comic show in, uh, and at least for sure, Texas. We, we've spoken at that now, like six years in a row. Uh, they invite us every year to host panels on that. Um, uh, it's probably more familiarity now. We're like the first guy on their list. But it definitely

started, because again, my cousin was just, he's a crazy person and was like, oh, we're a podcast. You should have us. And they were like, okay,

Rob Valincius: Yeah. Okay. No one else asked. Sure.

Cory de la Guardia: And at the time when he told me that, I was like, why do you keep doing this?

Like, but we keep going places, so yeah, it worked. It worked great.

Rob Valincius: I mean it, you're right though. It's like the same, it's like the same concept in life, right? Like think of, um, think of the 21-year-old that goes into the liquor store. Right now I'm, I'm from Philadelphia, so we still have liquor stores. I forget if Texas has 

Cory de la Guardia: They're not.

open on Sunday because of Jesus. But, uh, we

got 'em. 

Rob Valincius: Okay. Okay. Uh, we, we actually, ours are open on Sunday, which is weird 'cause we're a Quaker state and they have the weirdest fucking rules for 

Cory de la Guardia: That is weird. 

Rob Valincius: dude, we just got, maybe within the past 10 years is when our grocery stores were allowed to sell like beer and wine

Cory de la Guardia: Really. So, wait,

where did y'all go? 

Rob Valincius: the past 10 years.

Cory de la Guardia: Where did y'all go to? So could you get like, six packs of beer at a gas station?

Rob Valincius: Nope. You had to go to either a beer distributor 

Cory de la Guardia: So did, like, 

Rob Valincius: you wanted wine, you'd have to go to the liquor, the fine Wine and Good 

Cory de la Guardia: so wait, so like a beard stripper? Do you mean like, did Bud Light have like pop-up stores in Philadelphia?

Rob Valincius: No, there'd just be these stores that all they did was sell beer. That's all. That was just their primary. And they're still, that's, they still have plenty of beer distributors. That's all they do is sell beer like stacks upon 

Cory de la Guardia: like I would totally have that store in Texas, but we don't need it 'cause we could buy beer anywhere. Like

we, 

Rob Valincius: We still can't buy beer at fucking grocery stores. I mean, uh, uh, uh, that's, that's not necessarily true. Wawa, which is, I don't, have you heard of 

Cory de la Guardia: it's, I'm familiar. It's a chain. I know that.

Rob Valincius: Wawa is like big on the east coast. It started in Wawa, Pennsylvania. That's our sheets. If, if I forget what's big you, you're, uh, not, what's the one with the chipmunk?

Cory de la Guardia: oh, uh, that's Bucky's. Bucky's?

is a gas station though.

Rob Valincius: Well, Wawa is either, most Wawas now are gas stations. They're ginormous, they, there is some small, that's more convenient style, but for the most part, any new Wawa is a gas station. So they're pretty big. Uh, but that's like our Bucky's or 

Cory de la Guardia: See, and then right next door in Louisiana to us, they could sell liquor anywhere. So our gas stations can sell beer and wine, but they can't sell liquor. And then you can't sell beer, wine, or liquor before, like noon on Sunday. And then you can't sell liquor at all on Sunday. And then if you cross right over into Louisiana, there's a gas station right on the other side of the border and behind the counter is a million dollars worth of liquor. Like they're just like, yeah, you wanna buy some in this. We got it.

Tiny bottles, big bottles, jugs that, and they could, you could buy it right from the Chevron, whereas, or Exxon or whoever, like whatever the gas station is. Whereas on our side of the border, liquor is only in liquor stores. And then beer and wine is everywhere ish.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, I, I tell this, I think I've told this story on this podcast before you kinda lose track, but, uh, I travel sometimes for work and, uh, I'll never forget, this was 6, 7, 8 years ago. I went to, I was down in, uh, Mississippi, uh, and we did two meetings, Jackson, Mississippi, and I was in Shreveport, Louisiana, which is Ooh.

Uh, but anyway, I hate Jackson, Mississippi. It was not fun. Um, not a lot there, but so, so it was me and, and, uh, two other coworkers. And we go into this restaurant, uh, and it was weird to begin with 'cause they were like obsessed with peanuts and there was just like peanuts like 

Cory de la Guardia: Yes. I know exactly where you were at. Well, actually, there's a bunch of restaurants to do it. But it was a steakhouse, wasn't it?

Rob Valincius: I think it was a 

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah. Yeah.

I know exactly where it was. Were the rolls particularly delicious? Yeah,

Rob Valincius: Yes.

Cory de la Guardia: I know exactly where you were.

Rob Valincius: Okay. So we go in, there's peanuts fucking all over the floor and shit. You're 

Cory de la Guardia: them on the ground. 

Rob Valincius: yeah. I'm like, what the fuck is this? So we eat and I, I like to, especially when I have a hotel room to myself, I like to get a six pack, bring it back to the room. I'm a gamer, so I have a gaming laptop with me. It's al It's always when I get to the room, I hang my stuff, set up my laptop and it's ready to go.

So I just wanted to get a six pack to, when we go back to the room, I could have a couple beers, play some games. So

Cory de la Guardia: I don't know if they do beer and gas stations though.

Rob Valincius: they do apparently, because these people, one, were dumb as shit, but they were also very confused. When I asked them, I said, I went up to the bartender and said, Hey, I'm looking for, uh, like a six pack to go. You know, I see six packs back there in your fridge. Can I buy one of those? And she's like, no, no honey, you want it to go cup?

And I'm like, no, no, no, no. Those six packs back there. I wanna, 

Cory de la Guardia: yeah,

they're not gonna sell you that? No. Yeah.

Rob Valincius: I wanna buy a six pack of that. And she's like, oh no honey, hold on, lemme talk to the manager. She goes back, she goes, no, we can't do that. And I'm like, okay. I guess I'm just weirded out. 'cause like here, a lot of times, especially some bars, you could just buy a six pack.

It depends on if they have it. So I'm, I'm walking out to finish the store. I'm walking out, she comes sprinting outside like, like the building was on fire that I forgot to pay or something. And she's like, honey, honey, if you wanna get the beer, you gotta go to the gas station and you could buy beer there.

And I'm like, how the fuck does that make sense to buy beer while I'm driving at a gas station? But I can't buy it at the restaurant? You know?

Cory de la Guardia: What about while you're driving? In Texas, we have daiquiri drive-through stores, so they make frozen daiquiris and they tape the straw down so that way you don't drink it. And then they sell you the frozen daiquiri. Not making that up. There's three within 20 minutes of my house.

Rob Valincius: I mean, probably delicious. 

Cory de la Guardia: Oh, they're great. They're best, well, thriving. Um,

Rob Valincius: uh, hey, look, we've all had road sodas, okay? We've all had it. People listening. I'm sure you've had a fucking road soda. You can 

Cory de la Guardia: so, so I will defend, uh, said steakhouse and let you know that in the south, the alcohol prohibition, police, they're called different things in different states, but they have very particular rules about who can sell what. And the restaurants and bars are not allowed, are not allowed to sell drinks that you would consume off-premises. Because in the South we hold the bartenders legally responsible for the outcome of your drinking.

Rob Valincius: Interesting.

Cory de la Guardia: I, I was TABC certified Texas Alcohol Beverage Control. I was TABC certified to work at a bar when I was in college. And you gotta, you gotta keep track of people and so like, it's the bartender's job to cut you off and all that. So yeah, they're not gonna sell you the six pack to go because if you slam it in the car and then kill someone, they're gonna come back to, to the steakhouse and ask some questions.

Rob Valincius: Wow. I did not, I mean, I feel like that's like that here. Maybe the person, the bartender isn't liable. Maybe it's the bar itself. 

Cory de la Guardia: So here, it's, it's both the bar, the bar will

get a fine, but the bartender will lose their license and potentially, depending on how awful it is, and if the DA is trying to get some, some cred, they, they they might put that person in jail.

Rob Valincius: So what you're telling me is, is you guys don't have a ton of bartenders waiting around to get jobs. I would not be a 

Cory de la Guardia: No, it's still, it's still a great gig because the bar, listen, bartenders in the south are royalty as far as service industry because once they cut you off, your night is ruined. And then they'll also, they'll have the bouncers toss you and most not below chain bars, so like dive bars and down Texas. Uh, the idea of like the roadhouse type bar where the bouncer's there to beat the crap out of you when you cause problems.

a very real thing in like the south, they'll hire, like, they'll hire guys who look like trouble to be the door guy and they don't run their background on purpose. And they're just like, yeah, when we call you over here and we point at this guy, he leaves or you make him. And they're like, okay. And so you learn very quickly in the south when the bartender says you're done. You don't cause any problems. You pay your tab and you chill out or trouble. And the bar I worked at was

known for this. It was so bad that the owner started hiring the police to work the bar on like Tuesday nights, like not weekends. When there's 200 people in the bar, it's hard to control Tuesday when there's 40 people in the bar.

The cops were

there arrest the people before the bouncers would get ahold of them.

Rob Valincius: I mean that's, that had to be fun to, 

Cory de la Guardia: Oh, it was, it was, it was one of the, I wound up living with two of the bartenders. The three of us were roommates for like a year and a half. The stories are incredible. The debauchery was insane. Uh, the liver like physically hurt when I moved out of that house.

Rob Valincius: I mean, at least it kind of repairs itself.

Cory de la Guardia: Oh yeah.

It stopped hurting very soon after I moved out and I stopped just slamming beer nonstop, like it was going outta style. But, uh,

there was definitely a year and a half where we partied, like I was, we parted like rock stars and there was no business for it, except that again, bartenders are kind of known everywhere.

So like when you go to a bar, you meet the bartender and you get their name, you make sure you know 'em 'cause they're going to, when it's busy, they're gonna get you your drinks faster.

And then when they go out to the other bars, the bartenders reciprocate. So we would go places and just like be taken care of because both of my buddies were bartenders.

Rob Valincius: We would do that too when we were younger. Like, I didn't, I didn't learn at like 21 or 22, like I, you know, a dollar tip or what, like, I didn't learn, but like as I age, so when I hit like 25, 26 when I was going out to, to drink you, your first tip is 10, 15 bucks. And then no matter what, they're always, they're, they're always gonna serve you first and you're always gonna get a fucking, and they're gonna know you.

Like we've beca we became friends with sub bartenders just because we, we, we weren't douche bags, you know, we weren't assholes to 'em. We were nice and we tipped well and we always got hooked up.

Cory de la Guardia: for me, what got me in was the first time I went there was some kind of dust up and I, I, I helped out. And so as we're all standing back outside, it's the cops, the guy, the people who work at the bar and me, and we just gotten rid of these guys and they're looking at me and they're like, what are you, like, do you work here?

And I was like, nah, I was trying to order Bud Light and that guy was being a dick. They were like, you're cool with us.

Rob Valincius: We like you.

That's awesome. I learned something new today about the south that I, that I didn't know, which is, which is fun. Um, but look, this podcast is about you, brother. So, um, let's, let's start with, talk to me a little bit about growing up. Were you always a nerd? Was there a point? Like, I feel like us nerds, I've been a nerd my whole life.

I hit it. I hit it when it, because it wasn't cool when, when we were in high school. When I was in high school. How old are you?

Cory de la Guardia: I, I am 42. It, it

Rob Valincius: All right, so I'm We're, we're the same. We're the same. I, I'm, I'll be 40, I'm 39. So when we were in high school, it wasn't cool really to be a nerd.

Cory de la Guardia: No, there was a weird thing about me. I, I've just always had this, I don't know, I don't know a, a better way to explain it than to sound like an, an egotistical person. I just, I've always had a vibe about me where like, I didn't really give a fuck. Like you weren't gonna bother me. So I always just did what I liked and did what I enjoyed.

So I probably had like a hundred comic book shirts by the time I was a senior in high school. There was no doubt that Corey was the comic book guy,

but at the same time, I didn't deal with any, like I. I went, I, I, you know, in the last 20 years I've bumped into all kinds of people I've gone to high school with and, you know, there's a good third of 'em who are like, I'm so glad high school's over.

I never, you know, I, I hated it and blah, blah, blah. And there's the

other third who's like, oh yeah, it was the best time ever. I neither hated it, nor loved it. It was just, we were just there doing the time. Right. Almost, almost like a happy prison. Like we were just there until we didn't have to be there anymore.

Um, but it didn't affect me in a negative way. People were never crappy about it. But like, yeah, I was a nerd and it wasn't cool. Like, I don't think anybody else could have pulled it off because I don't remember anyone else doing it. But like, dude, I would do my projects on comic book shit, but I would bring, I would bring it like, oh, we're gonna talk about comic books.

I'm gonna get a bunch of Jim Lee art, put it up on the board. Like, I'm gonna show you why comic books are cool. Not, I'm not, I'm not gonna just show you like, oh, I love these, these are the best 'cause I say so,

Rob Valincius: Batman's 

Cory de la Guardia: yeah, great. He always kill

Superman and like, so like, I would just show cool shit that would happen in comic books and sometimes people would be like. That's not so bad. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. And then other times people will be like, I'm gonna get a Spiderman tattoo later. And I was like, you don't have to tell me like you tell everyone else. 'cause I don't care, like

Rob Valincius: some guy was like, you know what, I'm gonna kick Corey's as after class. And then he saw your presentation. He's like. I'm not gonna kick his ass 

Cory de la Guardia: you said, so bad. do

remember there was 

Rob Valincius: actually kind of cool.

Cory de la Guardia: was one guy who hated me, but he dropped out after our junior year of high school for like personal stuff. And I, and I, what I remember learning from that at the time was like, it was such like a, like a back to school special after school special.

Like it was such like a, where I was like,

oh, turns out he had problems. Like

Rob Valincius: It wasn't 

Cory de la Guardia: yeah, he had problems. Oh, okay. Uh, but yeah, like he was always like, anytime I would see that he was the one person, I would see that dude in the hallway and he'd be like, I'm gonna kill you after lunch. And I was like, I don't even have

class with you.

Like, are you gonna find me? Like, I don't understand how this logistically, how are we gonna get this murdered? Yeah.

Rob Valincius: does this work? 

Cory de la Guardia: And it would never happen. We never fought. We never even, like, we were never even in the same place at the same time. He just knew in his head that he hated me for no reason. And then one day he was just gone and I started asking around, I was like, Hey, whatever happened to so-and-so?

'cause he was supposed to murder me like a year ago. And they were like,

yeah, he, 

Rob Valincius: still 

Cory de la Guardia: he dropped out. And I was like, oh, okay.

Rob Valincius: Win-win.

Cory de la Guardia: So like, no, I don't know. Like I never had the problem, but it wasn't cool. But I definitely like the X-Men cartoon came out when I was like nine. Uh, here's, so here's how I got into comic books originally was my old, I had an older cousin who had leukemia and he couldn't leukemia.

When you go through the process, the chemo and all that, uh, sometimes you develop dyslexia and things like that. So he had a

really hard time catching up academically after he got better, um, because he had all these reading disabilities and all these. Now that, well actually there are other stuff wrong with him later in life, but he had, he had brain issues.

And originally because of the chemo stuff, they talk, they call it chemo brain and things like that, there's a process you have to go through to, it takes time to get over all that. Um,

and so they got him to start reading and learning to read and getting into reading with comic books. And so as I grew up, comic books were everywhere around.

Like my grandma's house, my aunt's house, he started bringing 'em everywhere. So then they're at my house and you, we couldn't have known it at the time, but it was like the golden era of comic books too. So these comic books he's bringing around it, uh, without getting too far into the weeds of it, image Comics gets founded by guys like Jim Lee and Rob Feld. Um, and it's a huge deal. These are the best artists in comic books. Well, before they founded Image comic books. They were working for Marvel in DC The comic books they were making were X-Men, Spider-Man, and they were working on some stuff in dc. Those were the books that my, my cousin was getting. And so the house was littered with like these instant classics that catapulted these artists into stardom. And so like, we didn't know it at the time, but these were the best comic books that you could ever be reading. And these were our, like our first comic books ever. So growing

up, I'm reading just masterpieces in the comic book world and being like, comic looks are great. Like this is the best thing that's ever happened. And um, I never got out of it. Now as I got older, I started to realize that like, and it's always a dark thought to have this so careful kids, like that was the best moment ever. Like when you're in your high, like when you're in your, your heyday when you're in like, this will be the happiest i'll ever be kind of moments. It's scary to think about that later and be like, oh, that was the best I'll ever have it. As far as comic books go, it was right then it was that little 88 to 93 kind of moment when those guys were doing the X-Men and they were doing all these other big books, the Avengers and Spider-Man and all that other stuff.

Then they'd go do their own stuff and then there's kind of this big reset in comic books. But yeah, for. for. like what was, what's now kind of looked at as this big moment. I was happy to be right there at it, nerding out and so yeah, comic books are the thing for me. Dude.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, I mean, dude, I gotta tell you, um, I didn't get into comic books, 

Cory de la Guardia: Interview over 

Rob Valincius: I, well, I, I did, but I'm right. I, I'm not, I'm out of it now with, but I, I'd love to be back in it. Uh, but here, here's my story. So, um, I was, uh, an assistant manager for GameStop at the time I worked in, uh, king of pr. This was back in the day, so this was when GameStop was like annoying 'cause it was like all about sales, but it was like vintage.

Like it was, it's not like it is now where it's, you walk in 

Cory de la Guardia: They sell everything now? 

Rob Valincius: t-shirts and, and trading cards and, and Funko pops and all like, it's not like that. It was just games and game accessories. That's, that's, that's where it was. And I worked in King Impression Mall, which is the second largest mall in America.

So it's, it's like, you know, I grew up in that area and, uh, my manager at the time was really into comic books, like super into it. And uh, also into like. Computer gaming. And, and I've dabbled, 'cause I was, I got into World of Warcraft when it first came out. Um, fucking so good. You know, the original right.

But it was also like the hardest fucking thing on the planet, you 

Cory de la Guardia: It's funny you have to say the original.

because I know that they like Nerf it later and then it's no longer the cool thing, but like the original first like six years of World of Warcraft is what all world

of Warcraft gamers like swear by.

Rob Valincius: So good. Um, but let me ask you something. Can you hear my fan in the background? All right. 'cause my, my, my mic is doing this and I'm like, you know what? I swear to fucking God if my fan's been going this whole time. Um, but listen, so I, my manager at the time was huge into comics and I, I'm already a nerd.

I'm working at a video game store, which was a lot of fun back then. And I told, he says to me, you know, do you read comics? I'm like, Nope. And he goes, alright, I'm gonna give you a personal, I don't know if he loaned it to me or there was actually a comic book store in the mall, which was 

Cory de la Guardia: Also dope. I mean, that was the best time for malls.

Rob Valincius: it would, dude, it was, it was prime time mall, prime time. Like this was back when I would literally just go to the mall to just hang out like I would, me and some buddies would go to the mall. We would hang out, we'd get drunk at the mall and we'd stare at girls. That's what we did. And then we tried to talk to girls thinking we were cool and we weren't.

Cory de la Guardia: they had the gaming, they had the bookstore, they

had the comic bookstore, they had the pet store. They had the fake

Chinese food. They had all of it, bro.

Rob Valincius: It was, it was beautiful. Tusa to me, 4 95. That was my, that was my, that was my favorite meal. But, uh, so he told me, he said, listen, I'm gonna give you a series and I want you to read it, and I bet you you get hooked. So the first real comic book series that I read was Why The Last Man?

Cory de la Guardia: Beautiful, beautiful comic book. I love it.

Rob Valincius: I, I don't know if I necessarily agreed with the end. I think looking back, I, I agree more with it now than I did when I first read it, but I'm very, I'm one of those people, it's hard to. Um, appease me to end a series, especially one that I liked. So, um, but I started there and I really, I really got into it.

It was very enjoyable. And obviously Walking Dead was another one. He, he told me to read. And the Walking Dead comics were really, really good. 'cause you never knew Kirkman. I mean, you would just be turning a page and then the main character's dead. You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And you go back two pages and then, you know, and, uh, but that's what I started with.

And that started to branch me out. And the comic book store, those guys knew me, right? So I would go in, they would save me the newest issues of series that I wanted. And then also I'm like, Hey, anything new come out. Like this was internet was there, but like, I, I couldn't just like go read the whole thing online or whatever, and I'd say, Hey man, any new series come out.

Wolfman Kirkman. Kirkman did it. He did Walking Dead was actually really good. And there was like certain, certain ones, and I would just really get heavily into those. I'm a big Star Wars fan. Um. So I got 

Cory de la Guardia: that was when Star Wars came back to comic books, dark Horse Comics. Did really cool Star Wars stuff back then.

Rob Valincius: Now I will say this, my favorite era in Star Wars was Night Deal Republic. So 

Cory de la Guardia: when, 

Rob Valincius: they had a 

Cory de la Guardia: all the jet air are doing cool shit. Uh, is Night of the Old Republic because. By the time you get to all the movies, there's no Jedi left in every, like, they're like, well, there's 12 of us and we never talk, and you're never gonna see the other 11, so fuck you. And you're like,

Rob Valincius: and, and the Mandalorians are really cool, and they're like a century point into ni in Knightsville, old Republic. And, uh, I think the story was just really, really good. And they could do whatever they 

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah. it didn't have, it didn't have any impact. Yeah. 

Rob Valincius: Yeah. Um, but that's kind of where I started. And I, I, dude, I have three giant boxes of comics in my closet that, you know, I, I collected throughout the years.

I was big into Marvel Zombies. I 

Cory de la Guardia: That was a fun one. I, I loved that one because the the character still had some sort of weird element of themselves, and it's the first time the

zombies are walking around talking and, and like, it's weird to see Mr. Fantastic be like, that lady was delicious. Bring me three more of her. And you're like, what's going on?

Rob Valincius: Yeah.

Cory de la Guardia: why,

why is he 

Rob Valincius: When Dr. Doom is, is is the fucking hero, you know, it's gonna be 

Cory de la Guardia: Dr. Doman Magneto was walking around saving humans 'cause he was keeping 'em at bay

for like one of the whole series. And I was like, of all the people Magneto. Yeah, just it's, there's certain moments that kind of really capture this stuff. Kirkman's great because he's sort of comic books were, man, so here's my, here's the one problem with comic books is they live in a bubble called the Direct Market. There was a time when I was a kid where you could get comic books anywhere, target the corner store, the any they put, they would print the little barcodes on the front of the comic book and you, they would sell 'em everywhere.

They stopped doing that around 97, 98 for bankruptcy stuff and all kinds of things.

Marvel bought a distributor and then Marvel ran outta money. So they had to use themselves as a distributor and then they weren't shipping everywhere. And then that distribute distribution company kind of took over distributing everybody, uh, and broke away from Marvel ownership and like, so now that there's. For the last 30 plus years, 30 ish years, there's just been this thing called the direct market where literally comic book stores are basically the only people who stock comic books. And so because of that, it's kind of a really small little community of people who read comic books now.

Um, because you gotta find somebody who has that passport and invites you in because people don't know where to find 'em anymore.

'cause they're not everywhere, which drives me bad. Shit crazy because I can't imagine any other product on the planet that you would make and then by design, not want to sell to everybody. Um,

Rob Valincius: Yeah. Walmart, you know, like the big guy, like everywhere. There should be like a comic book aisle in 

Cory de la Guardia: there used, there used to be that little aisle at Targets right before all the registers where the, now it's all Pokemon cards that used to be comic

books and baseball cards. Then one day it was just baseball cards. And it's not because Target quit on comic books, it's because comic books quit on Target and that is crazy. And the direct market is basically just ship the printer, print the publisher orders just enough comic books to sell to the stores and that's it. So where Jim Lee and Chris Claremont, X-Men number one in 1999 or two? Yeah, 1999, maybe 98. That comic book did I think five or 10 million copies.

Rob Valincius: Wow.

Cory de la Guardia: Now a number one comic book might do 120,000. And that's because now they're just shipping to the 300 comic book stores that are in America. They're no longer shipping to the spinner racks at a Dollar Tree or where like, and you might sometimes see comic books in the wild. Now I say in the wild, like actually. In Noncom book places, but it's an

accent. It's an, it's not on purpose. Um, it just blows my mind that this is where the industry fell in hard times because of terrible money management. There's an interesting book, I forget the title of it, that talks about how Marvel, basically they went public, they got all this cash, then they took out all these loans and they bought a bunch of other companies.

They bought like KB Toys and Mattel and this distributor and all this other stuff. And they thought acquisitions was the way to grow a company instead of just making comic books. So they literally ran outta money buying shit that they didn't need, and then they couldn't make enough comic books anymore to get out of it. And then that was it. They were, they were done basically. And now we just have the direct market.

Rob Valincius: It is kind of, I mean, that's kind of what they were doing the. The VC model or the model that it happened today? I mean, you have a lot. I mean, it doesn't have to deal with comic books, but you have like, um, you know, red Lobster and shit like that where they're purchased by these large companies that have a portfolio of companies and then they ruin the business.

Cory de la Guardia: a whole episode about how VCs destroyed Red Lobster because it's two

different VC companies that did it. The first one bought Red Lobster and sold itself the land that all the red Lobsters were sitting on and then started having

Red Lobster pay rent. Then the second one, uh, when they put Red Lobster back on the market, 'cause now they just own the land and they didn't give a shit.

What happened? The second one was a seafood distributor who had an overabundance of shrimp. They bought Red Lobster and they made Red Lobster stop competitive bidding all of their seafood product. Only buy it from them. And then they made them sell the, uh, unlimited shrimp year round and it became a loss leader for them. Uh, but not a good one. Like loss leaders typically are supposed to lead to more sales. It was a bad one for them because it just led to people coming in and buying it. 'cause hey, 15 bucks for all the shrimp I could fucking eat. I need a shit ton of shrimp. And next thing you know, red Lobster couldn't afford to sustain itself because he was paying rent and never had to pay before.

And now it was buying expensive shrimp it didn't really wanna buy.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, it's, and it's happening. Uh, I think the most recent one that I saw that people are complaining about is Jimmy John's.

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah, I saw the post the other day where the guy was like, he compared the two posts from a year before and then now,

and he was like, it's still delicious, but it is obviously much less meat.

Rob Valincius: And there's like no meat. It's like, it's, there's nothing there, which is wild to, and, and I always tell people like, I love Chipotle. I, I, it's, it's a, it's a guilty pleasure of mine, but

Cory de la Guardia: problem. In the South we have Hispanic people. We don't have to do that, but Okay. Okay. Go on.

Rob Valincius: now in Chipotle it's, you know, it's like the, the style where you go up and then they ask you what you want and then you watch them dish it in. Right. Well, when I get a, a burrito bowl, which you tend to get more in a burrito bowl than if you just get a standard burrito and if you order, I, I'm a, I hate doing it.

I've spent probably thousands of dollars doing it. I order DoorDash and Uber Eats because I, it'll be a Friday, we get drunk. I can't drive.

Cory de la Guardia: yeah. Let's

make it happen. 

Rob Valincius: of me calling, right? I, I just pull out my app, it's double the price I can pay for, I pay all this other service fees, whatever. And I paid $20 for that burrito bowl and it was, what I got was like $4, you know, uh, like some guy gave me just two spoonfuls of rice, three pieces of chicken and a little bit of cheese.

When I asked for a double chicken, which I paid for extra cheese, I don't get any of it. And then that's when I obviously get fucking pissed, especially 'cause I'm drinking. But Chipotle is one of those ones where, um, you have to go in, like, I have to go into the store because you, as they're making, I'd be like, oh, I, I need more of that.

Oh, I, and, and, and if you, if you ever come up to the, to the Northeast or you ever go to a Chipotle and you want double meat, you have to wait. Okay. So this is, this is the secret that I learned 

Cory de la Guardia: Oh 

Rob Valincius: probably TikTok. But they put the meat on and then you say to 'em, you know what, gimme double. And then they have to go back.

'cause if you ask for double right off the bat, 

Cory de la Guardia: make you a giant scoop. 

Rob Valincius: it's, yeah. It's, it's either like normal plus a little bit, or it's, it's just one. So I always say, yeah, I'll take chicken. I wait for them to scoop it on. I'm like, you know what? Make a double. And that's when you get the max amount of meat when you're, when you're, when you're at Chipotle.

Cory de la Guardia: I thought you were gonna do the old Chipotle DoorDash hack. I don't know if you ever, it went viral where basically if you order everything on the side, they would fill those containers and Chipotle figured out that they were like, the container held triple with the spoon would dish out. So they were like losing money on everything on the side orders.

Rob Valincius: Oh, 

Cory de la Guardia: took them like two years to figure it out because they were like, what's going on on our numbers? It took it, it took them a long time and now it's extra to put everything on the side.

Rob Valincius: See, dude, that's just crazy to me. I mean, the, the fact that I already have to spend, I mean, I think a burrito bowl going into the store is still like $13. The fact that I have to spend $13 for a burrito bowl is fucking absurd to begin with, let alone

Cory de la Guardia: it home, like getting the DoorDash version where it's 28. Yeah. I don't even,

Rob Valincius: the world we live in today is just, it's not sustainable, you know, 

Cory de la Guardia: it's gonna hit, we're hitting, we're hitting some sort of like inflection point. I feel like without being, I'm not a doomsday, but we are hitting some sort of

weird inflection point where things are going to, they're gonna have to change. I will say though, innovation does have this weird way of making things different. Uh, DoorDash and Uber Eats and all those guys, they completely devastated pizza delivery market. Uh,

because forever there were only really like three true delivery options. It was pizza, Italian or Chinese, and basically no one else delivered.

They would Togo you, but they wouldn't deliver. And it was DoorDash and Uber eat and all that. That created the idea that like you no longer just have to settle for one of these three things. And the result of that was like the pizza chain places. If you look at like their stock price, if you look at like their costs, their costs have now gone way up. Their stock prices have taken massive hits and it's because they were no longer the only option and they had to then deliver quality to keep customers. And that's a hard thing to do in chains when they've spent like three decades just not giving a fuck and having worked as a delivery driver at all those different places, at different times in my life, most of them didn't give a fuck.

I will say. Papa John's impressed me with actually their district managers would actually come through and like kind of push people. But still it's a bunch of stoner 20 year olds working the store at the end of the day. And like,

like the end result is you're gonna get whatever you get. And sometimes you got really good quality but sometimes you didn't. And every time you didn't get it, you were less likely to come back. And the second that it was even option to pay 15 extra dollars to get Chipotle, it was a better option than being like, yeah, but I don't wanna pay $20 to get that shitty fucking pizza again. And that's

really what drove all of it.

That's what drove all of it. And it changed all of this. So I do, we're at some sort of weird inflection point with all this, like eating out. I know we've gone on some weird tangents here, but it is coming. There's gonna be something that changes all of it again, where then we go, oh, this is the new way to do it and it is more affordable.

Again, something has to change. 'cause you're right, we're not gonna keep spending $4 on Chipotle bowls, especially 'cause they're terrible.

Rob Valincius: It. Yeah, it's, it's crazy. And to begin with, uh, you know, to make this back to the nerd side of things, I did recently, uh, last December, I'm almost at a year, I got back into Pokemon.

Cory de la Guardia: Congratulations. I don't know very much about Pokemon, but I do know it is highly addictive.

Uh, 

Rob Valincius: is, I'm a degenerate gambler and Pokemon is basically taking your childhood and gambling and just crush. I didn't realize how much of a gamble opening a pack of Pokemon 

Cory de la Guardia: all of the card buying is, is gambling. Uh, I worked at a card shop for a while, a sports card store, and I mean, if you, there are some packs of cards. Packs, six cards in a pack, four cards in a pack. The pack is $300, $400.

But if you get one of those, one of ones or of five or of 10, suddenly you're holding a thousand dollars card, a $2,000 card. Then you send it off to PSA and it comes back at 10 and now it's $20,000 for no reason. And you're like. It's crazy, dude. The card. The card game. There's a lot of money that comes and goes in the card game.

Rob Valincius: Well, one thing's for sure. Pokemon is not gonna be hurting for money anytime soon, uh, because anything they sell sells instantly. But I will tell you, it's infectious. So I started in December, um, and especially when you're pushing 40, I feel like there's something in us that wants to still go back and unlock our inner child.

I'm always still gonna act. How I act, and I feel like I'm always gonna be a little kid at heart. Right. I still game, I still, you know, I collect Pokemon, I still do nerdy things. Um, but it started with my brother. I, you know, I went to, I think it was Easter, you know, or no, maybe it was, maybe it was Christmas time.

And I just started collecting and my brother was like, you know, we were talking, I'm like, yeah, I started collecting Pokemon. Oh dude, I've been thinking about that. What's that like? And then before you know it, he's actually heavily into sports cards now. Like that's, he, he is like, he's really deep into the 

Cory de la Guardia: It's such a, it's such a, like a rush gamble. So we were doing, at that sports car, we, we had a, we had a trading, we had a, it was some sort of national sports car day or whatever. We're giving away packs. My brother-in-law, uh, I've got two nephews and a niece that are right at, at, you know, six to 12-year-old range.

So they're loving it. He, they, my brother-in-law brings the kids up, they're having a blast. He wins a drawing where he gets a little box of cards. And so there's like four packs in the box. He opens one of 'em, it's baseball, he gets Aho. Hey, Tani, that's numbered to, it's like numbered to 80 or something like that.

And it's, the color is blue matching his Dodgers uniform.

And so 

Rob Valincius: it's a color 

Cory de la Guardia: color match.

is a big deal.

He, he's looking at it and it's random how they come outta the pack. Sometimes they just come outta the packs damaged. This one comes

out smooth, clean corner's. Perfect. Um, I, the guy that I have at the store who would like. Tell us if cards were good enough to grade or not. He's looking at it and he's like, this is a 10 all day. 10 all day. Send it off. Comes back at 10 out of a free box of cards. He wound up getting like a $700 card. I don't know if he sold it yet or not, but like,

Rob Valincius: Wow. And it's probably worth more now.

Cory de la Guardia: probably, but like it ex like that exploded.

Then all now all three of 'em are like, him and his two sons are like, Hey, what, what's going on in the card game? What's happening these days? And now they, they don't buy all the time. They, they're, they're working some self-control, but they're always peeking over the fence. 'cause they're like, Hey, what's, what's going on over there?

Rob Valincius: Once you start, dude, it's hard to stop. I mean, I, I got, I got into Pokemon at the wrong time 'cause it was like the hardest time. Like, it was just impossible then to get cards. And I was just get buying whatever I could. Now I have a pretty hefty collection, but I, I, I also bought it because I wanted to start selling.

So I wanted to like, sell and also buy. 'cause I like the, the rush of opening and things like that. So I wanted to kind of do both, right. Where I, I I'm not gonna, I, I do have an unopened collection that I'm, that I'm 

Cory de la Guardia: Investing. That's what people say. They're investing.

Rob Valincius: It is deism is what it is, if that's a word. Um, but I have, it's, it's just Pokemon Center, uh, elite trainer boxes, which have a special stamped promotional card in the box.

Right? So I, I keep those because those. Just skyrocket value. I bought, you know, every single one at Market Value or ev every single one at, um, you know, for 60 bucks, right? I didn't pay anymore. Like the one, two of them are worth over 400 right now. So you tell me any investment you're gonna make where you spend 60 and it's going to eight x in three months, you know, it's, that doesn't 

Cory de la Guardia: That's, that's sort of the, that's sort of the problem, right? Is the cards are so addictive because of that. Like when you hit on those things and they explode like that, yeah. You're gonna do it forever now, like,

Rob Valincius: oh, yeah, yeah. You, you can't. And then like, of course, you know, I got my brother into it. And then, um, a guy at work who was, he used to work at GameStop with me. They recruited him and I, I told him I started doing it. He's like, oh, well I'm gonna start doing it. Oh, he's, he's worse than me and my brother. Like, he's like way in.

Like he's, he's trying to do master sets where he collects every card of, of a set. And then he got some of our, uh, like, you know, we have, um, insurance agents that work with us. He got some of the people that he knew really well and, and some of his friends into it. So it was like, all I did was start collecting Pokemon and I basically ruined like 20 other people's lives without even realizing it, you know, just, just for, just from telling people.

Yeah. I started opening Pokemon and it is cool and I feel bad. I feel bad, but it's also hilarious because at least I know other people are in my, my misery. When, when you open a pack and you get fucking dog shit, you 

Cory de la Guardia: Do, I mean, it's just, it's, it's all random, but it is, it's, it's gambling with like fun. It's better odds than the lottery. Um,

Rob Valincius: Plus you have something like, you know, if a lot of times, right, if you're gambling on roulette, you're, you could walk away with zero, you know, yo put Pokemon, you, you, you have something tangible that you could theoretically 

Cory de la Guardia: That's a good way to 

Rob Valincius: gonna buy it, maybe, you know, um, maybe in a couple 

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah. That's. 

Rob Valincius: Um, but let's, let's, let's talk about, um, you know, Jesus Christ, there's 46 minutes. I don't even know where I went. Um, how did you get started as a writer and like what drove you specifically towards comics?

Cory de la Guardia: Um, this will make no sense out loud. Um, outta high school, I was a national Hispanic Merit scholar and I thought I wanted to build rocket ships, so I was going to go to college for aerospace engineering. Um,

Rob Valincius: It's cool.

Cory de la Guardia: the top two programs in the country were Ohio State and Alabama. University of Alabama was number two. Um, because I was a national Hispanic Merit Scholar, not just a National Merit scholar, uh, Alabama called after I declined the initial scholarship and and said, Hey, are you sure you don't want to go here? Um, and I told 'em that I was about to accept an offer to go to Ohio State, and they said, I, I said, I, you know, you guys both offer me basically the same thing, full ride housing, food, whole bit.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, 

Cory de la Guardia: I'm gonna go to the number one program. I said the number two program, it just makes sense, right? If you're gonna do something, do it all the way.

And Alabama said, let me see if we can sweeten this. And they came back and they said, we have a technology grant that, uh, that we can apply to your program and we'll give you a laptop if you come. So I said, okay. So I went to Alabama instead. So I

get to Yeah, yeah. Free laptop. So I get to Alabama, you get the laptop. I'm in the, uh, aerospace engineering stuff. And the head of the department teaches the intro class. And basically the first day he tells you, two of you are gonna work in aerospace engineering.

The rest of you're gonna work for Toyota designing aerodynamic cars. And I said, well, shit, it's not a good start. Okay?

Uh, then he started, they, you, as you learn about it and you learn about the industry, at this time, only NASA is building these things. This is 2002. There are no private industries on the, on the horizon. There is no

other option. You're gonna go work for

NASA if you do aerospace engineering, or I guess Russia. I don't, I guess. Um, and, um, then you start finding out that like, it's a team of 60 people who designed the cockpit in the, in the in the handle and the joystick. And like nothing is just done by a guy.

Like, there's not like a Cory design.

There's, so then I was like, so I gotta work with engineers and I gotta like, be part of a team. And started looking around my class and realizing that these would be the people that I would be working with forever. I hated every one of them. I hated every one. I'm not ashamed to say it.

They were terrible people. All of them. Um, they were just, they took it so serious that there was no joy in them. Um. They were people on a mission. I was somebody on a journey and like, I would

show up. I was a freshman in college, like I partied. I had a good time. I would do stuff, I'd show up and one, and I'd be like, Hey, who did anybody do the reading?

And they were all like, yeah, of course we did the reading. And I was like, what was it over? And they were like, I'm not gonna tell you there might be a test. And they're thinking that like, if they graduate ahead of me, that they're gonna get the, the job where, and I was like, I don't wanna work with people who are like this.

Like these are just

awful people. The idea that there was, yeah, there was no access to the industry. There was no good people. Like, it was just like, this isn't what I want to do. So then I was like, this isn't what I wanna do. What do I wanna do? And the thing that I was doing at the time was writing just ideas and stories and stuff outta boredom. Like I just, I, I would have these big ideas or something and I would start taking notes about my idea. Sometimes in the middle of class, I'd write like two pages of an idea down. And so about a third of the ways in freshman year, I was like, I think I'm gonna be a writer. And I was like, well that's, that's a pretty shitty profession.

Um.

Rob Valincius: Definitely not gonna make a lot of money there.

Cory de la Guardia: So like, I call home, I tell my mom that and she's like, nah, not gonna happen, bro. And I was like, no, seriously, that's what I wanna do. And she's like, don't come home. Don't do it. You're not gonna, don't do it. And I'm like, I'm like, seriously, I'm thinking about doing it. And she's like, here's the deal. Finish your freshman year.

Let's talk about it over the summer. All right, cool. Uh, we get towards the end of that semester and I know at that point that I'm not gonna stay in aerospace engineering. It doesn't affect my scholarship at all. I'm just gonna move around. Maybe I'll look for another major. So I go tell the head of the department, 'cause he is my teacher and I need him to sign off 'cause I'm gonna change my schedule between semesters. And, um, he's like, so what do you wanna do? And I told him, I said, I think I wanna be a writer. And he goes, I've never had someone stand in this room and say that to me. And I was like, well, like ta-da. You know, like, I don't know. He,

yeah. 

Rob Valincius: Jazz hands, you know.

Cory de la Guardia: he, and he was like, he goes, he goes, listen, if that's what you wanna do, then just do it.

Don't quit. Don't like. Go do that, you said, because you're giving up on something that a lot of people wanna spot for. And if you don't want it, that's fine. It doesn't affect anything if you don't want it. But if you don't want it, make sure you do this other thing. I was like, all right. Yeah, that's fair. Um, and so that's, that's sort of the impetus of it all. Um, I gave up a lucrative career working for the government. That's not true. Like I probably would've worked for Toyota designing headlights. Uh, but it does mean that like that was, from there I took whatever kind of jobs I could have where there was like stability so that I could do the other stuff. And over time, that just got me to the point. And then, like I realized about eight years ago that like, man, I think I, I think it would be really cool to write comic books. I've been trying to write books and novels and I always kind of struggled to get it there. And then I'm going through the process trying to find agents and all kinds of stuff. It's like once you write a book, there's like 50 more steps to get it published. And I was like, this sucks. Um, and so then, but then if you just wanna make comic books, you could just make 'em. Uh, and I was like, well, that's what I'm gonna do. So about eight years ago, I kind of got into it, started learning the process, and it is a brutal process to learn 'cause there's so much technical to it. Uh, file sizes and all sorts of, you know, getting the saturations and colors. And you are working with different people from different countries. There's language barriers and then they don't use the same formatting you use and then you've gotta, there's a million things that go wrong as you make a comic book. Um, and you learn it all by making comic books, uh, because there's no university, there's no notes, there's no help. Especially eight years ago. Now there's kind of groups everywhere and all that, and I'm in a lot of creator groups where we do help each other out. But at the beginning you're just learning on your own, figuring this shit out. And it was, it was its own hard knocks university kind of thing where you gotta figure it out and learn it. And it got me way into it. And then when COVID hit is when I started selling my first comic book,

Rob Valincius: So, yeah. So you have the department, uh, 

Cory de la Guardia: Department of Metahuman Affairs.

Rob Valincius: Right. And then another day in the 

Cory de la Guardia: That's right. Another day at the Office is the one that came first. And it's a comedy about a cop and a city full of superheroes. Uh, and it came outta the idea of like, when you feel useless and you feel like you don't know what you're doing and you have no concept of how things like how to make it work the way you wanna make it work. That's this guy's whole life. He is a cop in a city where literally people could fly and shoot laser beams and control insects and build rocket ships and do all kinds of crazy shit with their mind. And he's like, you're under arrest. Uh, and that's it. That's his gig. He's a cop. He's a real cop in a city full of superheroes.

And so it's a comedy that kind of, it spawned outta that feeling of uselessness, about like, how the hell do you make this work? Like how do I do this? And that really, there were two challenges that were before me learning how to make comic books. And then there was a guy who offered me an opportunity, he would buy one of my scripts from me, but only if it was a one issue story. And in comic books, if when you create, you always have this idea that you're gonna make these like a hundred issue epics, like Walking Dead. Like, oh,

I'm gonna introduce these cool badass things. It's gonna go forever and they're gonna go to space. They're gonna do this, they're gonna do that. And he's like, no, no, I just want one issue.

'cause if it sucks, we're never gonna come back to it. And then it's like, well, you can't do anything in one issue. So it came back to that feeling of like, what the fuck do you do with one issue? And so the first issue of another day at the Office is born where this cop just goes through one day and is city full of superheroes.

And you get kind of a glimpse at how much it sucks to be a cop at a city full of superheroes. And that sort of comedy in a comic book is sort of the unique space. And it's so, it, it's found a little bit of love for that. And that's, that's that first one. And that spawned, it's in the same universe that spawned DMA Department of Metahuman Affairs is this action adventure book that takes itself much more seriously than another day at the office does. Uh, but in that same world of superheroes and all that.

Rob Valincius: That's cool though. 'cause that's like a different spin. It's like a different view. 'cause like when you think of superheroes, you don't really think of the cops. You don't really think about what, what they're doing and the fact that they're basically useless to a certain degree. And that's a cool spin. I mean it's almost like like the boys, right?

Where the boys had a different spin. It's like, what if superheroes heroes were inertly bad 

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah, because wouldn't you, I always think about that too. Like if you had all this power, wouldn't there be some element of you who would be like, the fuck would I do that? Like I would rob a bank. I always say if I had powers, I would be a bad guy. I would be a villain. Now, I don't think I'm a bad person even,

but if I was bulletproof and could fly and could do all these other crazy things, why the fuck would I just be like, yeah, you're right.

You're right. I'm not gonna rob that bank. No, that's, you're right. It would be completely easy for me to do it, and none of you could stop me and there'd be nothing you could do about it. But I'm totally not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. You're right.

Rob Valincius: I mean, look, one of my, my favorite archetype of a lot of books and, and comics and things is the, um, the anti-hero. I feel like there's just this special thing about someone that's flawed or like, like, like I read, um, back in the day, um, I, I told you I was in the World of Warcraft. There's a book about a right, the Lich King and how he becomes the Lich king.

And, and he wasn't a bad guy to start, but at the end, what he did, he was a bad guy. And it's the same thing with, uh, there's another anti-hero book about, uh, Darth Bain, um, you know, and that, that was a three book series fucking amazing 

Cory de la Guardia: an expert on Star Wars, but I'm pretty sure all the darts are kind of the same anti-hero concept where like they start trying to do good and then they find it's easier to do some bad, and then by the end of it they're just like, yeah, kill the young Lings. That's fine. It's not a big deal.

Rob Valincius: Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's, we, you know, Darth Bain was a, he, he was a minor on a mining planet, and then some, he, he was 

Cory de la Guardia: Epstein there and oh, 

Rob Valincius: had an Epstein issue and then 

Cory de la Guardia: oh minor with an E, not an O. Oh,

Rob Valincius: but, but he created the rule of one, there can only be one. He slaughtered every sth. And, 

Cory de la Guardia: that's just job security. That's not evil. That's just job security.

Rob Valincius: he was smart, right? You have one person with the power and one that craves it. That's, he created that, um, which, you know, they eventually went away from, but, um, and he was also looking for eternal life.

And then you, you talk about Darth plagues a lot in that, and that Darth Plagues has a book that was really good. That gives you like an, an insight if you re, you know, um, if you're not a Star Wars fan, one, you should, you should watch the Star Wars movies, 3, 4, 1 2, 3 6, because that le like the credence of the movies just makes so much more sense.

Um, 

Cory de la Guardia: Honestly, you just not watch 1, 2, 3. Um,

Rob Valincius: one, two, and three are actually very good in this context. If you watch them this way. 

Cory de la Guardia: do they, they exchange all the terrible out of them when you play them in that context?

Rob Valincius: uh, no, they don't take out Jar Jar Banks, which is, uh, you know, quite unfortunate. But the storyline itself is much better. When you do it that way. And, and also doth plagues, if you read that book, it's a one shotter really good 'cause it gives you a background of the Senate and, and all the things that he was orchestrating, uh, behind the scenes, 

Cory de la Guardia: yeah, because he was really like, they kind of touch it in the movies, but by the end you're just like, oh, he is emperor palpatine now like.

Rob Valincius: yeah. Yeah. But he was searching for eternal life. And if you like the book's really good. It gives you like a really good view. And that's what I like. I like, 'cause like a hero's always gonna be a hero. They're always trying to save people and save the world and blah, blah, blah. You don't always know what the anti-hero is.

They're, they're, they're like a, a wild card, right? Because

Cory de la Guardia: Uh, there's like Punisher is meant to be, he's, he's like the ultimate anti-hero and he is meant to be a fable of like, when you take it too far, like everything

about him is justified to an extent. And then it's like, okay, well maybe, maybe don't put a grenade in that guy's mouth just 'cause he deals drugs on the corner.

Like, like maybe just shoot him in the knee and tell him to stop. Like, you don't have to be the punisher to everybody. Um, but he is. But then also some, some of that sometimes gets lost in the pop culture and the zeist. And now people are just like, it's cool when you shotgun that guy and you're like, ah, um, then you see cops wearing the Punisher logo on stuff and you're like, no, that is. That is like the opposite of what they wanted you to get from that story.

But 

Rob Valincius: Yeah. Like you should not be doing that.

Cory de la Guardia: yeah, that's not, that's not ideal once you really get into what Punisher is and what he's doing. But it is like, that's sort of the anti-hero thing. And pop culture has a, has a, a, long, deep, dark love affair with the anti-hero.

Wolverine's a great one. Wolverine's a perfect anti-hero in that regard.

Rob Valincius: Wolverine is awesome. Uh, Logan was a really good adaptation. Like, you know, the movies are always, I'm sure we could have a whole fucking two hour long conversation on that, but, uh, let's end with a couple things which I didn't get to, like 95% of the shit I wanted to talk to you about, especially your comics 'cause you have some cool spins on stuff.

Uh, I have to ask the, a couple of the just standard 

Cory de la Guardia: Let's do it. 

Rob Valincius: book guy. Top three comics of all time hit me.

Cory de la Guardia: Oh, shit. Uh, so one of

Rob Valincius: Or it could be your top 

Cory de la Guardia: yeah, I'm gonna do mine because fuck everybody else. Uh, my number one of all time. Is, it's not gonna be anyone else's. It probably is not even gonna be on anybody else's list. It's Justice League of America, obsidian Age. It's this

crazy time travel story. Um, it involves multiple versions of the Justice League.

The first Justice League goes back in time to find Atlantis. They see on the television as they're going back in time that they reappear back in the present dead. And Batman's like this doesn't seem right. So he builds a whole second team on the fly as he's going back in time. And now there's two Justice leagues, time travel capers.

It's like the ultimate comic book ish story. And it's just a lot of fun. But it's just full of like this crazy stuff. There's a league of like champions back in time that the Justice League fights to and loses to because they're just more badass. Like, because

the idea of like ancient times were just tougher. So these

hero characters are just tougher than like the Modern Justice League. It's just cool. It's got a lot of cool moments in it. Um, another, another awesome storyline. Let's see. I think the first, the whole run of Chris Claremont, uh, like that eighties X-Men, it's, it's a, it's about nine years where he just kind of builds them up.

When he took that book over, X-Men used to make just enough money that they would reprint the old stories, number it more they were not making new X-Men. They started making new X-Men for like a year before he came on, and it sucked. People weren't buying it. He takes over. It's not even a momentous thing, it's not a big deal.

He just starts writing it on one issue and next thing you know, over the next, over the next three years, he turns it into the number one comic book in the country. He builds it into this thing and it's all about their interpersonal relationships. Yeah. They're who superheroes and Yeah, they do crazy stuff, but what he changes. In superhero comic books is he makes them real people. You suddenly learn about their personal lives and their interactions and stuff like that. Uh, and he creates a lot of just weird characters, long shot and dazzler, uh, kitty pride, like just a lot of interesting people that he creates and is sort of the father of. Uh,

and then the third one is All Star Superman. It is the coolest adaptation of Superman.

Superman 

Rob Valincius: I have that.

Cory de la Guardia: impossible. Character people either say he's the lamest character ever and they never wanna write him, or they say like, oh, like there's one perfect Superman story. Superman All Star. Superman just does this thing where it shows you Superman could go anywhere and be anything. And when you read that book, you're gonna care about Superman by the end of it, even if you don't want to. And you're gonna, you're gonna be like amazed at what he does in the book. And then you're gonna realize you can do anything with Superman. Like Superman can be anything. And so the I, when people say that, that he's impossible to write, you have them read that and then you go, okay, now just think bigger.

Rob Valincius: I would agree with you there. Super Superman is my favorite superhero. Uh, and his, that adaptation was really, really good. I have that, the hardback copy in one of my three boxes over there. And let's, let's, uh, let's end with this, uh, favorite hero or villain.

Cory de la Guardia: Oh man. Um, I've got a special place in my heart for the X-Men age of Apocalypse. So that little lineup, the design of those characters, the way they all look. And then from that group, I would say Blink or Saber tooth or my, would be my favorite from that lineup. But that's my little, those are my, that's my guilty pleasure of comic books. Uh, of the X-Men. My version of the X-Men is Age of Apocalypse.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, I think my favorite, uh, comic era or comic show era was X-Men the original. And it was that story arc with Mr. Sinister and, uh, um, morph and how he turned them, like hands down. And I know that, that, you know, it's, it's not necessarily, it's like an early, early adaptation, but it was so good. 

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah. It's so it's, 

Rob Valincius: I remember it as a kid. I, I haven't seen it since I was a kid and I still remember it. So he had an 

Cory de la Guardia: 97 stuff? 

Rob Valincius: I didn't get to that yet. It's on the list. I definitely 

Cory de la Guardia: It's so good. It's, it's so good. Manto gives a speech in like the third or fourth episode where you're like, this is, this is what X-Men should always be.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, they did. I mean, comic, comic shows just, they're not like, they were in the, the mid nineties, early two thousands. It's just Batman forever. Uh, and I'm sorry, Batman Beyond 

Cory de la Guardia: and beyond 

Rob Valincius: some of those 

Cory de la Guardia: so dope. I just rewatched

Dylan the other day where he's in like that modern, that that futuristic justice league. It's like, it's just so cool. It just is.

Rob Valincius: Nothing like it today, man. Nothing like it. But look, uh, it was awesome dude. I'm sure we could probably go three hours. Uh, hit me with all of your, where can everyone find all of your content?

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, I've got a Kofi store up, uh, kofi.com, nerd Thug Radio, and right there they can buy t-shirts for the show or they could buy trades of another day at the office. All four issues that have ever been made for it are all collected in one book. And then issues one through three of DMA are collected in one book, and that's the first complete story.

And DMA, one thing we didn't say is I, I'm an old school comic guy, so I love the old backup stories. So every issue of DMA has a 22 page story and then an eight page backup, and the trade includes those backup stories as well. So

there's a, 

Rob Valincius: awesome, awesome. Yeah, I always love the side stories. Always love 

Cory de la Guardia: yeah, you gotta do fun stuff. Like it's not enough just to save the world.

You gotta also have this weird thing that happens on the other, the other day.

Rob Valincius: Uh, plus it helps the background. You know, it always adds layering to the story. I, I agree. Uh, but look, man, it was a pleasure having you on my podcast. You can find anywhere you listen to podcasts. It's freaking everywhere. Uh, if you wanna watch it on YouTube, the episode will be up on YouTube as well. Uh, drink clock pot on all socials pretty much everywhere.

And, uh, you know, we'll have this up. We'll have this up probably next week.

Cory de la Guardia: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me, man. This is awesome. Congratulations on your success, man.

Rob Valincius: YouTube brother. I, I, it was a pleasure having you on and, uh, let's do this again soon.

Cory de la Guardia: Absolutely.

Rob Valincius: Alright, man. 

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