Dead Money: A Western Horror Comic Book

Diego Q&A Dead Money Artist
16 days ago – Fri, May 22, 2026 at 10:39:00 AM

Hey folks quick update on the last week of our KS 2 campaign. Its still a little short so any support is appreciated.

Variant Cover Artist Diego Q&A 

Mishka: Welcome. The first thing I'd be interested to know is how you started making art or illustration professionally, or rather, at what point you realized you were a professional.

Diego: Let me think, I'm older now and it shows… Look, I started drawing, I became a professional in the field of animation. I was studying music at the conservatory, after having dropped out of the University of Arts the same year I started it… And the following year I started music, and five years later I had the opportunity to go learn animation at a studio here in La Plata, because going to the capital to study seemed impossible to me. And after that, from the animation workshop, some jobs started coming out and things, and I began working doing what I liked: making drawings. Before that, I did pin-ups, I drew superheroes with no background, nothing, and it wasn't work.

A few small jobs for the newspaper, but they were odd jobs, more than anything. My first real job was at an animation studio owned by the Puenzo brothers, there in Palermo, every day for about a month, going to work all the way there. And that's when I thought, well, I can be a professional at this.

And there was a small approach to a studio, we started with some friends working in the audiovisual area, but in the comics area, the first thing that came out… since I hadn't made fanzines or anything like that to mess around with my friends… Was Xira, with Mauro Mantella. Matías Timarchi proposed this to me, who at that time was the editor-in-chief at Omnipress, later it grew into Omnipress, now it's something else, but he offered me the job and I started with that. I started with Xira in 2013, and then it was only published in the United States in 2020, it came out edited, and in 2023 it was published here in Argentina, my first job. After that, it's like, well, that's it, I'm a comic artist now.

M: Great, great. Can you tell us one or two inspirations or things that inspire you that you turn to for resources? Whether it's in comics, illustration, or it could be, I don't know, series, movies, aesthetically, whatever you say.

D: Look, the one I always go back to is Katsuhiro Otomo, whether in Akira Animation or Akira Manga, I always return to that.

What else? Mostly cartoons, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, I always go back to those for inspiration. Anything that's audiovisual, animated, and if it's traditional animation, I always return to it, and I'm always paying attention to what might come out. In that sense, I always need to stay fresh on those things.

M: What do you like about the world of comics and graphic storytelling?

D: What do I like? Look, I enjoy comic work and I also suffer through it... What do I like about it? I like eliminating the blank page, I like bringing something from nothing. I like drawing, I like creating things, I like breaking that.

And the freedom you feel on the page. I think that's one of the things I like most. I haven't thought it through that much.

M: That's a good place, that's good. They're very different answers. Another artist told us he liked the people he met, and the networking, and chatting with people at conventions, and finding people who say: “oh, I love your work”.

D: I'm not that sociable. I like it all, but it's not what I enjoy most about the world of comics. I do too, I love it as well.

M: I am… That's why I produce…

D: Right, I enjoy it, but I don't know if I put it that high up. I was raised… I'm from La Plata, in the area where I live… I connected with other artists very late. I didn't take workshops, I didn't do anything. And it was only before starting my first comic that I began connecting with other artists. So the whole fanzine-making thing, or getting together with other artists, or going to fairs and such, I completely missed out on that.

And I feel like I'm missing that kind of getting together with kindred spirits. So that's it, more than anything. It's not that I'm that grumpy either.

But yes, from the act of drawing, I like being able to create something and being able to overcome my own limits.

M: Great. Since we talked a bit about inspiration, a bit about what you liked about comics, this thing of eliminating the blank page, filling the blank page. Why or how did you choose the topics for the covers or the design for the alternative covers you made? That you already made for the first issue and now you made for issue 2 and you're finishing issue 3. Where did the inspiration come from?

D: It's a weird mix. First, I had to go look at references for western movie posters. Yes, movie posters more than anything. I can't remember any specific author right now. That was it. I also tried to go with color.

I tried to look for colors that aren't used much on covers. On the first cover, I think red and green... I also didn't scan the whole world of covers, but from what I more or less see, those aren't so used… That color combination, maybe green and violet a bit more. I don't know much about color either. So I wanted to go with more atypical color combinations that I thought might turn out more striking. To see what I could do with that. 

And then the composition also came to me, I took an idea from one of those Mondo posters, those alternative movie posters, and adapted it to the western idea we were doing. 

M: Since we're talking about comics… (gets interrupted)

D: Sorry… I also took some little things that I liked, that I wanted to put in digitally. Some little things I saw Drew Struzan do, textures and things that are underneath the drawing.

M: …Within the first two issues, what scene, what moment from the comics, from the script, caught your attention? Did you like it? Is it your favorite? Did you vibe with it the most?

D: The one I've seen the most is the first one. Everything happens on the train and there's a whole dynamic of characters.

In the second one, which is after the crash, the action hasn’t started yet… Not much yet, but there's a latent tension and the characters are very different and they start rubbing each other the wrong way. From the third one, I've seen less. Should I be honest? I don't think I have the pages yet. I think I have a script. 

M: Yes, you do have the script. 

D:I have the script.

Yes… so… the scene in the second one, where they find the passengers, is nice, it's shocking. When they find, I think it's the horse’s car, which is depicted in Tomás's cover for issue 2. That's one of the most important scenes. It's good.

And the Native American also promises a lot; he's a character I have faith in. And the sheriff, the character from the cover of issue 2 as well. I'm betting on them.

M: Great. You get more excited about the characters than the situations. You like to see the characters.

D: Yes.

M: That's good. And our last question. What advice or what would you recommend to someone who wants to make art or illustration or comics today?

D: Complex. Sometimes… half-jokingly and half-seriously… it's a complicated situation. But what can I advise them? Not to worry so much about style.

To start, to do. The most important thing is to do. We tend to have many prejudices about our own art, and so, let go a bit of that, of that external gaze, or of what people will say. Bad things will come out at first, but they'll get better and you'll find your own voice. The most important thing is to do, not to wait until you're good enough to then make your masterpiece. It's the constant work of every day. And then you'll improve.

Because to find flaws in ourselves, no matter how good you are, you'll always find a flaw in your art. I don't know if you understand what I mean.

M: Yes, yes. There are always things to improve.

D: There are always things to improve. We'll always be worse than someone else. My view is that we'll always have a reference who always does things better than us. But that can't stop us from doing. So, you have to sit down, start drawing, and put out pages, and we'll learn along the way.

Maybe at first we won't be very good at anatomy. In my first job, I knew very little about perspective. And I see it, I notice it. Maybe others don't notice it, but I see it, I notice it, and I'd like to redraw all of that which I feel is wrong. But it came out, and I won an award for it, as best artist and everything, and I only see the mistakes I made. So, you have to sit down, draw, and let them come out.

And the next one will come out better.

M: Great, great. Well, Diego, thank you very much. Rest well and keep supporting the project.

D: Yes, thank you. I'm going to keep my hat on. Well, yes, I love it. I love the project. I hope the people support it and that they like the covers I make.

The covers from all the guys, who are tremendously talented. So, let's go up, let's go forward. And besides, the cowboys are going to come back, they're going to come back.

I like Western stories.

M: Thank you.

D: Thank you.

Covers by Diego
 

Q&A with Tomás Aira Main Artist for Dead Money
20 days ago – Mon, May 18, 2026 at 06:33:54 PM

[Apologies in advance if you're getting more than one copy of this; Kickstarter only lets us update each project, with no way to prevent duplicates for backers.]

Tomás Aira Interview

Mishka: Hello Tomás, to start I'd like to know how you began illustrating professionally... At what point did you realize you were a professional illustrator?

Tomás: I don't know if there was a specific moment I realized, but in 2006 I sent a portfolio to a local publisher that was putting out an anthology magazine, and they sent me a short script, that meant they liked the work I was doing… they sent me a short script to work on, everything ad honorem, very old-school, but I was doing these colorful works, kind of minor, somewhat peripheral things. But I don't know, I hit it off with the publisher, which was Gárgola Ediciones, and they sent me a long script, and that long script, on one hand, helped me understand rhythm better, how to do comic storytelling. I was 20 years old, I had ideas, I was a reader and I knew how to draw, but it was at that moment where I said, “hey, this is possible”. And the magazine's editor was gathering all the magazine's people to get people to work abroad, so while we were doing this work, which was for some money, real money, not a stipend, let's say… we started getting into the North American market, and then… well, we were there. That work was the one that, despite having drawn comics on my own, published fanzines, and many things before, was like the beginning of my career.

M: Great, great. Tell us one or two sources of inspiration for your work.

T: Well, in general, I read a lot of comics and I'm always finding new inspiration from artists I like, classic artists or ones I already know, and I buy new material I come across, or what those who are alive are doing. But I also like audiovisual media, I watch movies, series, and that also renews you and gives you tools that you later want to put into comics. I play a lot of video games, video games also awaken a certain visual thing in me, visually storytelling… and there's a back-and-forth with all the audiovisual media I consume. Obviously literature too, but I don't write, so it's harder to translationally turn what you read into drawing, inspirationally. Is that roughly what you asked me?

M: Yes, yes… Well, since we're here, what do you like about comics, about sequential storytelling?

T: There's something about it being a self-sufficient medium, with two or three people, like literature, literature needs just one person, but a comic with very few people, in a basement, in a hovel, you can produce a work and reach many readers, reach people's hearts. Not in the sense of selling many copies, but in the sense that many people get to know a finished work, not a sketch or like… like a film script. Many people can read a script, but the script isn't the movie, and making a movie takes a huge effort, a lot of work. But even making a video gam, video games usually involve manypeople. Independent games made by one person, I think of Stardew Valley by Eric Barone… that's five years of work. In half a year I can make a comic, and that's it, and the audience sees it, and then I make another, and it's a spinning wheel. There are many authors who work that way, maybe as a second-hand job… (he corrects himself) a second job, and there's more comics and more art, and that seems like a beautiful thing to me.

M: What attracted you, or how did you come to Dead Money?

T: I'm very attracted to it. All genres amuse me, but the horror and atmospheric thing… building places, characters moving through that place, creating narrative, moving people around. That, from the first not-script, before the script, from the concept, the first outlines, already seemed like something I could navigate. And I keep discovering new things, and that keeps me very entertained.

M: Alright, tell us your favorite scenes, favorite either for drawing or for what they convey, from the first two issues. Try not to spoil issue 3…

T: In issue two, there's a scene I really like, when Miles and Moses find the train with the horses. For me, that's the best part; it grabbed me… let’s say… like… there are many scenes, like when they play poker at the end of the first issue, that was very good because of the faces, the hand expressions, but there are many people, so you don't get as deeply into one character. But here there are TWO, and they go into this train car… It's two or three pages, not that long, but it's very good. I really liked it. When I read it, I SAW it immediately, and it seduced me, and I liked how it turned out.

M: Alright, how did you decide on the themes for the covers you did for all three issues?

T: I draw from a Western visual imaginary. I'm watching many movies, also, old movies, a lot of John Ford, and you start entering into ways of narrating, camera angles, and that creates an image library in my head. And when I have to think: well, what's happening, what's most important in this issue? In issue two, this scene was my favorite, so the cover referred to something similar. But for issue one and three, which feature a wider cast of characters, I went with this Western world I've been building and feeding.

M: Alright, and finally, what advice would you have for people who want to start making art today?

T: (silence)... ehh… It's hard, it’s hard. Art in any discipline is immensely rewarding, but it's kind of a martyrdom. Artists are treated very badly in all industries. So I'm not going to say I don't recommend it because it's given me so much satisfaction. I would like to share this wonderful way of life I've had for 20 years. But you have to be strong. You have to find… find… The most important thing for a young artist, for me, would be to find pleasure in doing it, to want to do it despite everything, to find it in their free time, whatever the discipline. If they get a job, I think of video games or filming, making movies… if they have their day job doing something like that and still have the desire to do the same thing in their free time, that's good, they're on the right path. It's about finding a certain passion to be able to fully immerse yourself in that world and not see it as a passionless job.

M: Great, thank you, Tom

SLEEPY HOLLOW, 1998

A great book from our friend Jay Bushman we highly recommend! Please check it out:

Dead Money - the Joy of Indie Comics
about 1 month ago – Fri, May 01, 2026 at 09:59:34 AM

Dev and I grew up with comics. I remember being given a pile of superhero comics when home sick, or going down to the corner store on an errand for my dad, and using the change to buy a few issues. I was big into Spider-man and the Teen Titans.

For Dev, he loved the artwork as a kid. Having a learning disability, reading prose was tough, and the accessibility of comics was a huge deal, allowing him to explore other worlds and experience fantastic adventures. It gave him a desire to learn how to read better.

We both read comics through high school and university (I think he mostly read my collection in those latter days), and it always seemed like a dream to make our own comic.

Working in the tabletop and video game industries exposed us to many fantastic artists, but finding the right artist partner never lined up. Until we decided to make it happen.

I met Mishka at a conference on video games in Argentia, and we stayed in touch over the next few years. When Dev and I decided to try to reify Dead Money, we pooled our resources and started exploring. A conversation with Mishka introduced us to a number of their friends who were working in the medium -- Argentina has a strong comic history, and there are many talented folks who are unknowns in the United States and Canada.

We found Tomás - he immediately "got" what we were going for, and his black and white linework captured the vibe we wanted for Dead Money. I can no longer picture any versions of Moses, Ella, or Wakini that are not Tomás' craft.

Having control of our story and deciding who we want to work with - those are the positives of indie comics writing/production.

The negative is that publishing and distribution is a tough racket, one that gets more and more expensive; inflation, tariffs, the chaos of the world. None of it is predictable, and all of it costs.

Right now, the only source for funding the continuation of Dead Money is crowdfunding. We've put a lot of time and our own money into producing issues 2 and 3, and we're really excited to share these chapters with you.

We really hope you'll back this campaign and help us tell this story.

(Dev and Jesse from NYE 2019, when we were both younger and better-looking men.)

Dead Money issues 2 &3 launch!
about 1 month ago – Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at 06:49:38 AM

Dear friends,

We hope you enjoyed issue 1 of our Western horror and that you’ll join us to continue the ride.

As you may know, the Algorithm favors early supporters, so the more traffic we can generate on launch day, the better chance we have of having the campaign spotlighted.

If you are considering backing us at any reward level, this is the best time to do it!

We’ve been hard at work since last year’s launch, putting together the next TWO issues back-to-back. This keeps our team focused and productive, with less lag and downtime. With your support, we’ll be able to keep up the pace and get you more pages of this weird western with a faster turnaround.

You’ll notice that issue 1 was 22 pages – but the next two issues are bigger and grittier, each coming in at 26 pages of story. With each issue, Tomás gets to know the characters and world better, and he keeps turning in new pages to dazzle us. It’s an absolute pleasure to open each package of art from him.

We have big plans for Dead Money for Year 2, and your signal boosting, enthusiasm, and support makes it all possible.

Please check out the campaign here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deadmoney/dead-money-a-western-horror-comic-book-2-and-3

Thanks!

- Jesse / Devinder / Mishka / Chris / Adam / Tomás

Dead Money returns with TWO fabulous issues: Pre-Launch page live!
3 months ago – Mon, Mar 09, 2026 at 08:46:51 AM

We are thrilled to announce that we are back, and are preparing the next two issues (#2 & #3) for your pleasure! Sign up for notifications on the new Kickstarter project now!

Tomás has been working hard - he's finished the artwork for issue 2, is working on the covers for 2 and 3 simultaneously, and has the completed script for 3 to dive into.

We have reached out to Diego Giribaldi to do more of his stunning variant covers in a similar style to his "Red Cowboy," showcasing two new characters.

And we are in discussions with new fabulous artists for additional variants.

Check out the Pre-Launch page here, & please sign up to be "Notified on Launch" - you'd be a daisy!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deadmoney/dead-money-a-western-horror-comic-book-2-and-3