B (3:15)

Gary, I was curious about the kind of the fictional storytelling that these comics entail and that all the V friends entail. How different is that for you in terms of storytelling from what you've done in the past?

A (3:26)

One more time, Jim. I apologize that chop for me for a second.

B (3:29)

I'm just curious about writing fiction, you know, and how different it is for you telling fictional stories as opposed to, you know, kind of motivational speaker, entrepreneurial marketing. Feels like fiction is different.

A (3:40)

Let me, let me throw it back at you. And DJ. You've all been, you know, DJs been in multiple sessions with me. You've been at one. We're about to do another one. You know, what are your guys take? You know, this is a part of my life that almost no one knows about. Definitely nobody publicly. I mean, probably until we started doing these comic off sites. I would argue that my brother AJ most knows about it because when he was. When he was 5 and 6 and 7 years old and I was 16, 17 and 18, we, you know, I was a very big part of his life and he wanted me to put him to bed a lot of times. And in hindsight, my reading comprehension was such a big factor in my poor academic career, so I didn't have a whole lot of interest in reading AJ books. So I just made up stories and would really just riff, like truly riff for like 30, 40 minutes without a breath. You know, I think my gift and my curse is my brain goes quite fast. As a podcast host, it's a negative because I interrupt. But as you know, as a storyteller, as a public speaker who does improv, when I eventually host SNL one day, I think those things will come in handy. But, you know, I think fiction, make believe, pretend, you know, my sister knows there was a game I used to play. I think I've mentioned this once publicly. There was a game that me, my sister Denise Laurie, her best friend, and my best friend Robbie Turnick played in Edison, New Jersey, in 85, 86, 87. So I was 10, 11, 12, where it was Called adventure. And I was the warrior and my sister was the princess and Robbie was like the goon and you know, Denise was the fairy. And we would literally walk around town and I would narrate, make believe in real time, like, watch out, there's the pig warriors. They come from like literally narrate from the top of my head, sometimes for two, three hours. You know, my gift of gab and being able to just talk non stop is something I think everyone knows publicly. But the imagination and the creativity was a very big part of my life. So I would say it comes incredibly natural to, to me. But I'm a little bit more interested in your guys observation given that you've been around.

C (6:11)

Yeah, I mean for me it's weird because listening to here you say that, you know, my imagination when I was a kid was very similar. We would just make up stuff. I'm. I live now maybe two blocks away from the Crick where I. When I was five or six, I tried to make a craft to escape this neighborhood and go away. And ironically I live here. But I was all about comics. And then, you know, it's not the most lucrative career to do. So I got into marketing. And of course that's why I followed you and a lot of the other, you know, marketing gurus or whatever and. But I realized really early, I was like, wait, marketing is just storytelling and whoever tells the best story with their marketing and advertising really wins whether it's true or not. Right. So I was like, oh, I could be pretty good at this. So I was in marketing for 11 years, but I was itching to get back. I still did comics on the side, but itching to get back. So working with you and the comics team and just other creators like Jim, it just is natural. Like when we get together and just jam and brainstorm and like any ideas on the table, those are the fun. It's almost like role playing or you know, people that play Dungeons and Dragons or something like that. It's very similar.

A (7:23)

I agree. Yeah.

B (7:25)

You mentioned improv, Gary, and that makes total sense to me. Like I think about that a lot and whenever we had the first retreat that I attended, that's what I found. And you know, we had other, other creators were there too, so it was a lot of what felt like improv. My first successful comic, street angel was co written with the guy that I worked with at a day job and we worked the same way. It was like we're trying to get each other to pop. Right. You know, it's. You throw out these ideas, as wild as they may be, but you're looking for that reaction, especially in a collaborator where you can kind of like see in real time. Oh yeah, that hit that. That did exactly what I wanted it to. You know, keep going in that direction. You know, it's a litmus test that you're running as you're kind of riffing. And it's fun, it's very enjoyable. Like DJ said, just kind of throwing it around.

A (8:08)

I think the other thing that you guys are seeing come out in these sessions with me is I have more of a knack for an origin story. Like, I feel like I am more built if I'm being self aware and observing. I'm incredibly built for an origin story. It's why I love People's first rap album. As a, as a kid who likes hip hop and music, I am so much more into the lyrics than I am into the music. To the beat, to the composing, to the melody. And it's because I love a true rags to riches story. I like adversity, I like. I'm curious. I like to know people, I like to know where they come from and why. And I think one thing you're seeing in these sessions and obviously, you know, for the community that's watching, you know, Fearless Ferry motivated Monster. A lot of the ones that are coming up ninja. You know, some of them have a whole lot. You know, when I look at this slate, right, I would say comic number one has a lot of DJ DNA with tiny sprinkles from me. The, the, the X Men concept, I think I was involved in quite a bit. But you know, when. But I think that one has a whole lot of DJ in it. You look at Fearless Ferry, that's like me, right? Like number two is me. Like, you know, I have years to think about this. Probably one of the most exciting things for me in all of 2025, Be Friends was unveiling to our community that Bad Intentions and Fearless Ferry were brother and sister. You know, for everybody who's in here right now, let me know if that was like a fun moment for you as much as it was for me. Maybe it's a little nerdy, maybe I'm being too romantic, but like, that comic really has me in it. You go to comic three, dj, again, less me, right? More of the team, obviously. You know, comic four, Harpic, I would say again, a little bit less me. You know, you kind of look at 1, 2, 3, 4, it has less me. You know, two is all me or nothing's all, anything, but, you know, quite a bit me. Five is very much. I think I can't wait to look back at the video. That 40 minutes of me in Minnesota telling you what five is, that's very me. Six, again, a little less me. Let the team kind of cook. Seven, a lot more me. But that was, if I remember that jam, a little bit more collaborative. That was fun. I had certain pieces, two and. And two and five. I had like, you know, like everybody was kind of watching it. Like everybody's trying to get in there a little bit. And I was like, you know, and like, I think. 6. Excuse me. 7. With Ninja, I had 70 of it, 50 of it. The team, you know, was involved there a lot. Eight, I think the general concept. I can't wait to go look back at the videotape on how we came up with the concept of kind of that silent comment. We got there as a team. That was fun. Obviously, a lot of it has to do with me, and there's a lot more coming with, you know, for everybody who's watching. If you're speculating, I will say that 8 is an interesting comic to collect long term. If we can pull this off, it's going to be a meaningful comic. You'll see why then, you know, nine again, really, it was a. That was a fun one actually to put together. You know, I feel like Kate had a lot. And then we kind of got in there a lot, and that was a fun one. And I think a lot of. Correct me If I'm wrong, D.J. you probably have the best read on this. Jim, you may be deep enough now as well. But one thing, obviously, and I'm just going to use the word selfishly. Selfishly, I'm excited about 20, 26 comics because a lot of them have a lot of my DNA in it. More so than I would say in. There are less comics in 26, if any. I got to go look at the slate that don't have as much of my DNA in it. And I think, you know, that's exciting for me as a storyteller.

B (12:06)

Do you think that's because you're kind of learning how comics are made? You know, you're able to sort of.

A (12:12)

No, because I think one of the coolest things you said when you came is like, you're like, wow, these comics you guys are making them. I have a very clear. Like, to me how something one of the. You know, and you could break down what you meant by that in a minute for everyone. But, you know, for me, comics are we need to tell a story. And whether, you know, I was watching a documentary last night with my wife called Dior and I from 10 years ago about Christian Dior and how they had a new creative director come in and he didn't sketch, but he had a whole different process. And, you know, I know it's less about knowing what comics. It was more about where we were in the business. My trust in dj, my obsession. I hope you've seen this. Both of you, I think, have, with letting other creative people have their thumbprint on this product instead of me just being a dictator and everybody just servicing me. So I think it was what I was focused on. You know, you could see in the first five, six, seven, a little less. All of a sudden, it becomes a bigger priority within the company, and now you see my hands in it. I think as a captain of projects, I'm incredibly obsessed with understanding where to put my finger in which holes to not let the boat sink. Right. And this just became a higher priority hole.

C (13:36)

Yeah, absolutely. It felt like, to me, like the first off site we did in March was just kind of like the first time we did it, we were kind of figuring out that's where Monster came from, issue five. And that was like a big moment for us. And then the second off site, like you said, although all the things that are coming in 2026 pretty much from the start, here in January's issue is basically nuggets of, like, you had the top idea, like, hey, it's 555 years in the future. You know, like, whoa, what's that? You know, like. And so then the whole room kind of just, like, listens. And then you're really like, as far as the creation process goes, somebody might throw out an idea that we don't like, or we. Not that we don't like, but it's just like, no, that doesn't fit. Even with Kind Warrior. I was just remembering as you were talking about that, because Kate kind of pitched the overarching thing, but you come in and actually or to it so that it's even better. Like the floating sword. I think people have read it. Some people have read it. So the fact that he's not just holding a power sword.

A (14:39)

Well, I think. I think, you know, I think you two being similar to my age range, you know, I'm sure at some point both of you, like, talked when I wasn't there and, like, huh? Gary comes from, like, our, like, vibe, right? Like, I was affected by that 70s 80s storytelling. My general ideas feel Marvel esque feel transformer as feel GI Joe, like, feel Star wars esque. Like, I was very, very, very affected by that era of storytelling. Don't forget the other thing. DJ I have a huge advantage over all of the rest of the team. I've been thinking about these stories for five years. I invented these characters, like when I invented the kind warrior with, you know, like, I. I know what I'm thinking, you know. Now some of these things have evolved in my own mind from May of 2021 to these comic off sites that one day hopefully. You know, it's funny when I just said these comic off, like, I. Our ambitions are very high here as a team. Like, I dream about these being, like, iconic one day. Like, I hope in 20 years somebody invents their own universe and is inspired and they're sitting around a campfire and they're like, we're going to take the vee friends approach of these off sites jam sessions, you know, but yeah, I've had the luxury of like, yeah, there's a look that's such a great photo. Yeah, you know, we're in it. We're being incredibly creative. I'm always take. One thing that's interesting is I'm always taking myself out of. I can't do these at the office. I can't do these in a conference room. I got to take myself out of my Gary Vaynerchuk of it and I go into Gary V. The creative person, and I leave a lot of my. I leave most of my normal business, you know, operational self at the door. I bring my motivational and aspirational self to this, but I definitely go into a version of myself that I really believe no one gets to see. Full creative. Creative.

B (16:44)

Yeah. Yeah. That retreat, one of the. I wasn't sure what to expect. Of course, that was the first time meeting you and meeting the whole comics team and really thinking about doing this seriously. It felt like an artist retreat, you know, or a residency, which I have done. And it's. It's exactly what you describe, you know, it's the whole idea of getting out of your normal space, you know, the normal routine, and just kind of focusing on a project or working with a group of artists on something collectively. It's a beautiful experience. It's very tried and true, you know, like, this is something that's been going on for centuries in terms of the arts. And it was something that I found that retreat to be when I would describe it to people, that's how I would describe it, you know, very similar to an artist residency.

A (17:25)

It's really like I just saw. I'm reading the comments. RIP says the dinners are the best. I love when we go hard all day and then at dinner, we're kind of recapping. We're kind of cheerleading some of the stuff we're excited about. Sometimes we're killing some of the, you know, like, there's, you know, it's so funny being creative. Very much maps the way I see the world. Nothing weirdly excites me more. And we've done this two or three times. DJ I think it happened a little more in Minnesota than it did in Jersey. But nothing excites me more than spending two and a half hours down a road of like, and we're making this up for everybody's watching. And patient Panda is going to do like, two and a half hours and then sitting down for, like, dinner and being like, fuck that. We're scratching all of it dead. Dead. And I think that's a lesson that a lot of people could learn. I say this a lot about quitting a job. You know, it's obviously January 2nd, so let me do a little Gary Vee here. Like, a lot of people will not quit their job this month because they've given that job 13 years and they feel like if they quit, they've wasted that time without realizing it's the reverse. That time has enabled them to make a good decision, you know, in a much less important thing and much more frivolous thing in less time. We spend three hours. We feel the pressure in these off sites. We got one coming up. We know we got to get work done. You spend two and a half hours down a path and then you kill it. I love that about us, and I want to continue that energy.

C (18:58)

On the flip side of that, there was a memory from the last one where. So Gary will watch. I see him watching the reactions of the faces of the ten people in the. The off site. And I think Ali made a gasp when. I'm not gonna say what story it was, but Gary was like, and then this happens. And she was like, no. He was like, oh, we're doing that now. You know, because, like, that reaction really, like, tell him about that. Like, when you see that, what. What makes you think, oh, that's it, you know, that's the.

A (19:27)

That's my whole life. You know, it's so funny. I mean, you're touching on something very important. You're touching on why I'm better as a creator in a group setting. You're talking about why I'm good at improv, why my public speaking career is what it is, why I'm a big content creator, why, you know, I'm an empath. I'm a reverse engineer. Right? I'm a. I'm a. It's about you, not me. I. I don't hold any of my ideas or contemplations or hypotheses near. And dear ide, I lean so much on humility and curiosity in a way that's not obvious with my overarching energy as a human. But, yeah, I need that. I need. I'm doing it right now. I literally have the YouTube link open on the side, and when I go into listening mode, I'm listening twice to you and to the chat right now, because I just. I feed off of the response, both pro and con. You know, some. You know, when I'm giving a keynote speech and similar to when I'm riffing in these comic off sites, I'm yapping and I can feel like, oh, this isn't great. That's incredibly helpful. Yeah. And I don't go in thinking, this goes back to why we probably have to. I know we have a list brewing that you guys are building on which characters we want to most focus on in this one. I'm just going to say it right now. Like, I think Humble hedgehog and hummingbird. Like, I was just about to say, it's why humility might be the single most powerful attribute on Earth. And it's. You know, it's. It sucks because it's hard to talk about as a content creator about humility. Because if I'm like, if all my content this year was like, you got to be humble. Like, me being humble, it's almost like, counterintuitive. If you're talking about humility as a strength of yours, it's almost like, are you actually humble? People get confused. I don't see it confusing. I know the audience does. But I would argue that humility is at the center of so much of my joy. Yet it seems so foreign because my confidence and competitiveness and conviction are much more outwardly obvious. And by the way, this is one of the. Now, in the meta of this entire little rant, this is why I built Be Friends. Like, I get to use Humble hedgehog and Humble hummingbird to build up the fame of humility and get kids to be pumped about being humble and realize that being humble is much stronger than being physically strong. And that excites me in a very big way, man.

B (22:08)

I agree 100% with the humility and humbleness is not something you hear people talk about. You know, usually in the entrepreneurial space, which I consider a lot of art, to be in that space as well.

A (22:19)

You have to.

B (22:20)

You have to talk about yourself. You have to talk about the work you're doing, what you're making, what you're selling, all of that. And it's hard to. To express humility while you're sort of promoting something.

A (22:30)

Yeah. And. And what sucks is that I don't think people realize, you know, for me as a salesman, like, why I love selling befriends and have sold veefriends. You know, I went five or six years in my content selling nothing. Maybe they once every three years a book, and now I sell befriends so hard. When you sell something that you fully believe in, I think it's the purest form of good in a world that I know that people think salesmanship is bad. But, like, to me, when you're selling something you believe in, that's closer to being a pastor. Right. Like, this is almost, you know, I'm being very frank. I love being a salesman, you know, Wine. I loved selling wine because when someone came in asking for a $35 bottle of wine and I had tasted something that was $19, that was better, that got me going. I felt proud. And by the way, a lot of people would be cynical, especially when I was young and looked five years old, and I'd be like, no, no, buy this. Luckily for me, I always knew that if I was going to really recommend something, it had to be cheaper than the thing they wanted, you know, because if you came, Jim, if you came in and said, hey, visiting my relatives here, I need a nice bottle of wine. I like this wine. Do you have it? And we sell it for 35 bucks. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, we do have that gym, but you got to try this wine. And it's 52 bucks. Well, immediately you're like, yo, this fucking guy. But if I'm like, yes, we've got that. But I also want to tell you about something that I just had recently that I actually think is better. And it's 19 bucks. Now you're like, okay, you still might not believe me, but for me, selling has always been more similar to being a religious leader. Like on sun, like, tomorrow it's Friday. On Sunday, there will be hundreds of thousands of people around the world selling. And we view them as very noble, you know, people of, you know, and. And by the way, like, they're Selling something. And I just to remind everybody, like, the dish goes out and they want your money. Right. So, you know, before anyone gets. So, I don't know, like, to me, I. I wish more creative people. I find a lot of, you know, how. And this is in your world, creative people often talk about not being good at business and they hate the business world. I find that a lot of creative people are good at business, but repress their business DNA because they know the other fellow creatives are going to frown on them.

B (25:06)

Yeah, that's for sure. I've known it, noticed it in comic book conventions. You know, you're tabling next to other artists, sometimes artists that I admired greatly. And I would see people come up to their tables and ask them about their books or pay them a compliment, and they almost sheepishly will point out why the book, you know, where their shortcomings are, rather than take the compliment, you know, like, you're almost belittling this person who loves your work. As a result, it helped me. At some point I started to think, describe the work as clearly and concisely as you can. And you do a service to everybody. Because we're in a hall with a thousand books here. If you come up and ask what my book's about and I can tell you in a sentence or two clearly what it is, you can quickly decide, yes, that's for me, or no, it's not, but either way, it's sort of salesmanship. But to me, I think it's a service too, because if I'm on that side of the table, please, there are books I want to find and I have limited time. You know, I think being able to describe this stuff clearly is a huge help to everybody in the circle.

A (26:03)

I think for the artists out there, like, you know, this demonization of the black and white of it, like, if you're an artist, well, you can't be a capitalist. Has really been a detriment to the art world, you know, it really, really has. And it's, you know, it's unfortunate, I think about it, for authors like, I still believe some of the greatest books of all time are completely unknown because they didn't sell. Right. And. And I think in reverse, you know, I think. I think the creative and artistic world needs a listen very carefully. I mean, I'm going to say something very nuanced. In a world where artists who did not have commercial capabilities were yelling the loudest to not allow the artists who had commercial capabilities to feel comfortable to do both, it left a void and created A world where commercial capable people were able to sell things that had less soul. If you're an artist that's so mad about commercial and capitalism, well, then add a little commercial and capitalism to you to eat up some of the oxygen, thus rendering what people buy to be of higher quality. That is a very big part of how I see the world.

B (27:37)

This feels so far outside the normal comics conversations I've had online.

A (27:42)

It's very exciting.

B (27:43)

It's a lot to think about.

A (27:44)

Well, I'll tell you what's most exciting about this. You guys have really gotten to know me off camera. You've seen me in different settings. We had a really iconic jam session post Comic Con New York. By the way, I'm actually getting on a zoom with Rob today. Oh, sweet texting. I have a lot of heart for the comic book business to be better, to allow the comic book essence of creativity to have more room to be. I just do not have some. We. I don't understand how the world has the audacity to tell people how it should be versus understanding how it is and creating a reality from that. Meaning there's, you know, to have the audacity to say that there should be no business interest. That. That's not a. That's not human. That's not human. So understanding how to do good, proper, proper business to then build up air cover, to do great creativity is a big agenda of mine. And I think. I think we have some really good ideas and some real impact, and it goes even into where this all started. Let me talk about NFTs for a minute. I am. I've gotten some really nice comments on my Happy New Year's from people that used to be in NFT land, who've moved on, who saw me on Netflix's you know, golden show, talking about Be Friends, or saw something like dozens in this last two weeks, all said the same thing in different words. Their admiration that I'm still going at it. And I was laughing. I'm like, of course I'm still going at it. I don't think NFTs are a fad. I didn't see this as a get rich quick scheme. I think we're building the most meaningful ip and I feel the market is starting to adjust to seeing that, like, veefriends is real, we're building this. And comics is meaningful, trading cards is meaningful, NFTs are meaningful. But most of all, character development, which is why comics is so damn important. I cannot get people to want to buy a very expensive trading card or NFT unless they fall in love with these characters. That can only happen in story and comics currently and animation and movies and manga and anime. We got many, many, many other ways we're going to do it. But I'm really, I'm really grateful for you two men, the rest of the team, Ali and Katie and Chris and rest of the team. I really think we're up to something here and I can feel the market feeling it. We have to be commercially viable. Here's actually a little PSA real quick. Be friends. This is Be friends collectors for more than three years. This is very important for you to hear. Last year, between comic books, between stickers, between treasure chest, we put out a lot of stuff. I need you to hear this once and for all. I have no interest in you buying any more stuff. I am interested in making stuff to get more people to collect this product, to make the NFTs collectible and sought after, creating demand. I have no interest in, in more purchasing from the original community. You're more than welcome. But I am not making all of this stuff for you to buy more. I am making it for me to have more things for more people to buy, to take them down the yellow brick road to get to the NFTs.

B (31:34)

There's something in there, Gary, that I identify as, you know, building an audience, but specifically because comics are my life, building new readers. And it feels like that's another element of veefriends that really impressed me early on but is in line with what you're describing here, right? It's very exciting for me. I've always tried to get new readers because in my mind so few people actually read comics. You know, I've had friends who would do a book with maybe a 2000 print run and sell out and kind of go, that's it. I've reached everybody. And in my mind I'm like, what are you talking about? Do you realize what a tiny, almost non existent percentage of the population this is? So it's one of the things that I find very exciting about veefriends and the idea of you engaging with comics and the comics industry and market and fandom. Because I just think even whatever size comic books are today, it's still just a tiny, tiny little percentage of people that are even maybe aware they exist so small.

A (32:32)

And you know, we have this incredible opportunity with comics. This is a big shout out to the comics community. I hope this gets clipped and shared. This is your moment. I am very good at watching consumer trends. There is, we are in the Earliest, earliest stage of gen Alpha wanting non smartphones, you know, CD players. We are. Listen, I've understood this as well as anybody on earth and I believe in it tremendously. But I also believe in pendulum swings and I think we're at an apex of this. Okay. What's really interesting is I can feel it swinging the other ways. I literally believe that 10 years this is going to blow your guys mind because I believe this a world that the comic industry thinks has gone away. But as a counter to all of this digital, I believe that the four year olds that are walking earth right now will be the 10 year olds that want to go and buy a physical comic book and physically read it in the room for seven minutes. That is bonkers to me because that was not clear five years ago. And I believe that the comic industry as a whole has an incredible opportunity to become more contemporary to. The biggest issue with the comic industry is they want it to be bigger. And they're incredibly non welcoming. Somebody comes to Comic Con and they make a mistake and they're like oh, you know Captain America and they do something wrong. Like idiot. Like everybody hoards on them. Like you're an idiot. In episode in comic 181 he said he didn't. You idiot. Get out of here. And everyone was like what the. Like we. My number one thing with BE friends is I want this to be welcoming and getting people in. Like I get. Listen, I do the same thing with jets by the way, I'm, I don't. By the way, I want everyone to hear this. I just, I mean. Let's go. Nice and close comic friend nerds. I don't judge you because I get you. I do the same thing in Jets Land when I'm at a Jets tailgate and somebody says something wrong and they're kind of a new jets fan. Like you're an idiot. That was the number 32, not number 21. Like I, I get it when you get so passionate, you get there. But if you want it with the jets, they have to play better. If I want more fans, I can't control that. But the comic industry, if you want more comic book fans, don't shit on them when they don't know every detail of an origin story of some church or a character in your favorite comics on board them.

B (35:05)

Yeah, I mean I, I could really do hours on this subject. You know, when I was a kid I was super excited for Image Comics and I would literally be disc from buying these comics by the people that were selling them because they Were stuck in the 60s Marvel paradigm of like, that's the good stuff. The Fantastic Four by Kirby. And I agree that stuff is some of my favorite comics. But I'm excited for Spawn or Youngblood or Savage Dragon. Don't tell me it's terrible before I've even given you money for it. And stores would do this, you know, the other way that I find comic book stores to be really. Or the industry to be very insular and sort of hard to get into. You could go see one of these X Men movies or one of these Marvel movies and show up at the comic book store, myself included. And you said, I love X Men. What book do I buy? There are so many of these books I could not tell you. I could not say. This is a place to start. You know, there might be 20 new X men books in a month. There might be 40 new X men books in a month. It's very difficult for anybody to engage in that unless you are deeply rooted in it, and you have been for a long time. And I never understand that. You know, D.C. had a really good year this past year, and they started a new line, their absolute line. And I think part of what made it so good is it was like, new, new fans of Batman start here. You know, you can start at the beginning. It's easy to jump on board. And I. I think the industry as a whole is guilty of that, of just making it difficult. Of, like, how do you actually enter this? You know, I have some interest in these characters now. I don't know where to begin. And, you know, hopefully.

A (36:40)

And the reality is, what's so cool about comics? I just want to make another PSA for the comic industry. You begin wherever you begin. For example, when I read Fantastic Four in eighth grade, I just started with what? I don't know, 219. Oh, I don't remember. You know, sure, that's where I was like, that's it. Like, Like, I wasn't going to buy Fantastic4 Number one. I didn't even have a context really of, like, what that even meant at that point. And, you know, this comics back. This is now 88, 89 comics back then. Did a good job. Where. And you guys can answer me here. They would have a storyline, they would wrap it up and they would start another one. So, like, I even think that I caught my first Fantastic Four in, like, episode in, like, number three of six of this storyline. And then I was kind of like, excited that I. Because don't forget, no Internet back then. I didn't have a comic book store near me, so I wasn't able to go back and get the older ones. So I just kind of like read the third, fourth, and fifth kind of one of the thing. But what was so cool was I was able to pick up the new story that they transitioned to four months later.

B (37:52)

Yeah, same same experience.

A (37:54)

Where can you start? Like, start now? I think for everybody who's watching. You know what's really interesting about what we're doing is Vee Friends is more like detective comics or Amazing Stories. More like the 40s, 50s, 60s. Correct me if I'm wrong, guys, we're kind of using a Vee Friends title to establish these characters and, you know, just to give a little alpha to everyone here. Since you joined us this early morning, or if anyone's listening to this on a podcast or something like that, this is. It's really interesting. What we're doing is we are starting to debate the spin offs. Right? So you've got B Friends. We're up to 10, coming up in 1-11-12. We'll go through the 20s next year into the 20s, because we're trying to do two comics a month. We'll see where we get. But the idea of, you know, I know a lot of you. I saw a comment earlier in the YouTube live. You know, my son wants to keep reading the stories of the fearless ferry. Well, good news. We're starting to debate motivated monster number 1, 2, 3, 4. So we can, you know, fearless Fairy. So we're starting to debate the spin offs, you know, which I think is a big deal.

C (39:08)

Yeah, it is a big deal. I won't say any more than that, but super excited about that. That's a question that I get a lot. Maybe you can put it out there. You're thinking of comic book stores. We get it all the time. Like, we've been to New York Comic Con. Are we going to be in comic book stores?

A (39:26)

You know, this, this is, this is. This is a selfish question, because this is a question that you want answered from me all the time. I'm. I'm joking in a good way. Meaning, like, this is a big debate we have internally. And I think, you know, a thing that I think people don't get to see a lot of. Of me is how disciplined and patient I actually am. Right?

C (39:47)

Yeah.

A (39:47)

You know, I, you know, this dj, like, you know, let's just talk in plain English. If it was up to you, we'd be in comic book stores around the country right now. And I think that that's where my ability to understand supply and demand has really kept me protected and successful. You know, I think we have more work to do. But you know this. You and Jim know this. Our last meeting. I have some clever ideas that again, are different than the way people have, you know, done comic releases. But stores are in the future. Spin offs from the Friends core title are in the future. I feel comfortable telling people that Alpha, I think timing is not been set because I need to feel it. I think both of you have already seen, even Jim, in your short period of time. I'll set something, but if it doesn't feel right when we get closer to crunch time, I'm willing to move it. If it's not right, it's not right. And it won't be right. And so that's it. Everybody who's watching, top right corner, if you want the QR code above Jim's head there, if. And I think what it's Veefriends Dot comics, right? With the S. Yep. I could not recommend this more. I have a feeling I'm. I just decided right here in real time that I'm gonna make this episode a podcast episode on my main personal podcast. So a lot of you are listening right now and have no idea what the hell is going on here. Talking about the Friends, my universe of 250 plus characters. I'm talking to Jim Rugg and DJ Kaufman, my great partners in crime and our comic book adventures. Please go to be friends.com comics c o m I C S. You can actually read the comics for free. I highly recommend you read the comics to your children. There's a lot of parenting undertones. Be careful. Comic number five is definitely intended for mature audiences. There's also three minute little videos that we've made that sum up the comics on this. All for free. You don't have to buy the comics. The way we sell our comics is on live shopping. Tick tock, whatnot fanatics Live. Those kind of platforms. We sell them in packs similar to cards. So there's special rare covers. Really excited about it. It's a big part of where we're going in the future with this intellectual property that I have the ambitions to turn into a Harry Potter, a Star Wars, a Marvel. And so we're excited about it. Jim, D.J. i know you guys prepped for this and had a bunch of different questions. I think we should do some rapid fire questions or touch on anything we haven't touched on because I know we've gone very left field from where you normally go.

B (42:19)

Well, I just wanted to say one thing about comic book shots because I think they've evolved a lot since I was a kid and I actually love them. You know, I think we make a disservice when we say comic book shops this or that because they're all small businesses and I've never seen two that are the same. So that's part of my excitement for you. Engaging more with the comic book stores through Vee Friends. I think it'll be really exciting just to see what they do because I think it's a lot of very smart men and women who. In a time when brick and mortar businesses are failing, comic book stores are still doing pretty well by and large. And I think that's a testament to the kind of people that are running these shops and running them different, you know, from shop to shop. So it'll be very exciting to work with that.

A (42:57)

I thought that was a really good call out, Jim. I. I think that what you, me and DJ were touching on earlier was this desperate love affair with this industry and hoping that any of the people that are gatekeeping out. Right. Whether that is the rare comic book shop owner, more common, by the way, the comic shop employee that thinks they're doing the right thing by the owner, but they're not. By just. There's this huge, huge opportunity for physical comic books to have a golden era again in the face of. I mean, when this happens, and I think it's going to. When this happens, physical comics, kids laying on their bed and reading it in their room in 2027, 2029, it's going to stun our society because they wouldn't see it coming. We do not naturally think like we have this big boom coming of kids reading these books. But. But it's kind of happening if you pay attention carefully. It's happening in manga and anime, big time novel form. Right, Right. It's happening. It's actually happening. It's just happening in longer form and in different genres. And I think that's the huge opportunity for comic books.

B (44:18)

Okay, so I do have some questions we can hit quickly. One I wanted to ask you about is drawing. You drew the first iteration of veefriends, all of these characters. How much do you draw? Is that a regular part of your life?

A (44:31)

I doodle when I'm in important meetings or boredom, if I'm in a meeting or setting. Sometimes I'm on some boards, like boards of big companies, and sometimes we get into the boring part and sure enough I'll look down and out of nowhere there's just like a doodle. So I doodle. I drew a lot as a kid. I primarily drew wrestling characters. Me and my friend Robbie Turnick drew a lot. Robbie went to art school in Philadelphia. Like that's how big of a part of our childhood that was. I am what you see in Vee Friends is more my style. I'm more Jeanette generic. Like I can't get into the details that you gentlemen and others that have real drawing. I can't get to that level of detail drawing. The closest was when I was a kid. I used to draw wrestling characters because we used to drum on paper, cut them out, get glue, put them on cardboard and we would wrestle with them because me and him couldn't afford getting all the wrestling figures we wanted. But we wanted to wrestle like that way with our hands because that's what the LGNs did for us. So I went through a huge period of drawing wrestling. That's where I got detailed like Jake the Snake's mustache. Like I got detailed there. But what you see in V Friends is my style, you know, and in NFT Land it got made fun of a lot because obviously it's not as good of art subjectively as a lot of the stuff we saw. And obviously a lot of people had jokes of like, this is five to seven to eight year old style. But one thing that was really great for me was I never wavered. First, I'm. I do not struggle with being made fun of. Second, they're mine. They're my provenance. They're my. They're. They're real. They're like authentic, like veefriends is the most authentic NFT project in my mind because I didn't hire an outside graphic designer to make one character and then run a script to put cigars or hats or things. Like I drew every fucking. I invented every one of these gym. I decided determine Dolphin instead of determined dog. I decided Gracious Grizzly instead of Gracious Gremlin. I invent I as I was doodling already like Fearless Ferry and Bad Intentions story was in my head in Malibu in May of 2021. Do you know what it feels like to me to see it come to life?

B (47:02)

What's it feel like?

A (47:04)

You do know, because you both live this life right where something in your head becomes real. What I think is going to be crazy for me is I think I have the commercial and business acumen talents as well to have grandchildren of ours, teams and people that are collecting right now wearing fearless fairy Halloween costumes that's a big deal. Like, I. I think about this every day. The first day that I'm in an airport and a kid is wearing pajamas or has a backpack of vee friends in the next decade is going to be a day for me, you know?

B (47:39)

Of course. Yeah.

A (47:40)

That. I don't know that, like, is that I, like, walk up to and say, nice backpack. And they're like, thanks, because they have no fucking clue who I am. You know, Let me add something to your.

B (47:52)

To your drawing story, Gary, because I was teaching a comics class in Denmark a couple of years ago, and it was. I hate to say this because I've taught a lot, but it was the most talented collection of young cartoonists I'd ever seen. And it was a portfolio review. It was part of what I was doing. And every single student would preface their showing me their art with, I know this isn't what comics are supposed to look like. And I heard it literally 100%. 20 students all said the same thing. So I made them send me art of what they considered a good comic book page and a bad one. And then we all got together and I would put these up on the board and say, vote. Is this a good page or a bad page? We all have this. I've heard it so much that we all have this expectation of, like, my art doesn't look the way it's supposed to or whatever. I'm not sure anybody thinks their art looks the way it's supposed to. You know, I think people get frustrated.

A (48:41)

That has always been. I mean, Jim, do you know this? Do you know that when the canvas was invented, the artists that mattered in the world at the time said that real art could not be on a canvas. It could only be on a building.

B (48:56)

Right.

A (48:57)

Are you aware of that?

B (48:57)

Yes.

A (48:58)

I don't have anything else to say to anyone on earth besides that sentence. And I don't mean like kind of. That was like the big argument of the day that art on a canvas was not real, that it was below lesser than not true art. There's not a single person on earth right now of 8.3 billion that believes that art on a canvas is not real art. In fact, I would argue most people think that is what art is.

B (49:28)

Right.

A (49:28)

You know, I think art is.

B (49:33)

I.

A (49:33)

Think talking around a bonfire and like, captivating everyone is art, everything. Art is so encompassing. So the question becomes, does the. Do the masses accept it as such? More importantly, if you're a real artist, I don't think you give a fuck. I do not give A fuck if I'm accepted or be friends is accepted. As an artist, I do give a fuck. As a commercial businessman very much. But I believe Vee Friends will be truly understood long after I'm gone. I really believe that because I think what I'm doing is too complex for people to understand. I am using contemporary commercial influencer social media salesmanship to disguise a very true and try deep message. I think people understand that. I think this crew that's listening understands that. But I think the stories and the depths and like, like, like the comic v friends number 27 will have something very important that will only be analyzed properly like 30 years from now by some nerd on whatever the YouTube of the day is, if. Or maybe YouTube, you know what I mean? Like that's what I get excited about. I was watching the Eddie Murphy documentary last night when Eddie Murphy was doing Beverly Hills Comp. Like the depths of the impact on black actors culture, young actors, not even just black. He was so young as a leading man. Like it wasn't fully understood. It's more understood today. And I think real art is more comfortable in being misunderstood than it is in being understood. I am comfortable with being misunderstood. And I would say in the NFT land, I'm incredibly misunderstood right now because I'm not part of the short term behaviors that crypto Twitter wants me to do. And that is why I believe my NFTs, our NFTs will be so profound. And I also like that DJ is visually sharing a little preview to comic number 10 here.

C (51:44)

Speaking of the future.

A (51:46)

Wow. Break it down, Deech. This is for everybody who's listening. You're not getting the visual. But for everybody who decided to join us on this live early this morning, you're getting the big preview.

C (51:58)

So this is rare. Robot is in issue 10. I think I spoiled a little bit. But it takes place in the future. So we're. That's kind of like when Gary hit us with the big idea. There's a lot of ideas in this that are like what happens to humans in the future, what happens with AI and all that, you know. Here we've got our cover B from Todd Beats. We'll talk more about him. So make sure you're subscribed to the channel too. On ViewFriends comics, Todd beats cover. There's actually more than that, but you'll have to wait. Yeah, you have to wait a couple more weeks until we come out with it.

B (52:41)

This is really. I don't know if you want to talk creative team or not. DJ But I think it's worth mentioning if you're willing to spoil that, as to who made this issue.

C (52:53)

Oh, I drew it and wrote it, but Gary plotted it. So then we, we jam on it. That's kind of how we, how we do. So Gary will kind of guide the, the, the overarching idea and then we come back and show him some sketches, show him the script, and then he jams on it, says, no, no, this, that. But yeah. So I drew this one and wrote this one. It's a lot, there's, it's a lot of work to do on a, on a full comic book by yourself.

B (53:21)

But I think it's a real strength of V Friends that a lot of these comics are made that way. As opposed to having five or six, seven people working on it. It might be one or two, three people working on it. And you end up with my favorite part of comics is seeing an individual artist, expression and style in the way they approach storytelling. So it's exciting to have you doing one, DJ because with so many books coming out, you can't write and draw all of them. So whenever you are on one, I feel like that's an event that's exciting.

A (53:50)

To be. This is a very collectible character in our world. This is going to be a highly successful launch for everybody who's listening on my personal podcast because I know this is a left field episode. Please make sure you follow us on whatnot, make sure you're following me on all my socials. But go to befriends Dot Comics. Is there a place to sign up for information on bfriends.com they can put their email. Yeah, go to befriends.comics if you want to buy these. On release, you'll get emails and texts on how and where and what time and we do live show and it's really cool. And if you own an NFT from back in the day, you also have an advantage of buying this for less and things of that nature. You know what I love about this? This episode? All three of us were like, oh man, they have an hour allocated. About an hour ago, the three of us were talking like, oh, they have an hour. Seems like a lot like, let's just, let's just go as long as we can. We've now gone through the hour. I'm devastated that I have another meeting in four minutes because, like, I feel like we haven't even started. Which I think is going to service us quite well for future times. I jump in here and say hello 100.

C (55:04)

Absolutely. This has been a great. It's been great that we know you're busy and running around a lot, so it's been great to all be together in the chat.

A (55:13)

Yes. This will be limited to 10,000 copies as well. Just like the last three or four have been. Yeah. Thank you DJ and Jim. Thank you for allowing me to crash. Love what you guys are doing here. Everybody please check these guys out. VFriends.com Live is a place you want to be checking out just for everybody. Again, who's catching this on on the recording or is listening to it on my podcast. Vee friends.com Comics with an S C O M I C s stay up to date to what we're doing. An incredible, well intended intellectual property that has real Pokemon like collectibility. Long term strategy for me as a businessman, but then has the heart of what Gary Vee as a human and all the parenting and all this. Could not recommend more. If you have a child between 4 and 8 and are looking to collect something with them, the trading cards especially are a ton of fun. The stickers a lot of fun. But the comics, being able to read it to the kid at night and collect the comics. Buy one to read, buy two, one to read, one to keep in the original package. There's a lot coming here. You're catching us incredibly early and we'd love to have you part of the journey. And especially for all the 40 to 60 year olds, if you grew up reading, collecting comics, what an incredible opportunity to relive that magic and that nostalgia. We'd love to have you part of this journey. The best part is not even us, it's the community that's collecting and you get to be friends with each other and you should see the meetups at these conventions and hope everybody has the best. 2026. What an incredible way to start off my year. So thank you man.

B (56:57)

Thank you great. Thanks everybody for watching Happy 2026.

A (57:01)

Bye everyone. Everybody, if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.