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Gabe Valentin
182 Plays4 years ago
“My name is Gabriel Valentin and when it comes to comics and video games, I am a hopeless romantic. I’m talking rose petals on the bed, champagne in the ice bucket and of course a little bit of mood lighting before I stock up on potions and head into the next dungeon. My deepest passions have forever been music and storytelling. I’ve spent over a decade touring, working with writers and assisting music producers in their recording sessions. In 2014 I decided to unite my loves of music and storytelling together, to create the live art show known as Digital Lizards Of Doom. It has and always will be a love letter to the sci-fi/fantasy genre. At every D.L.O.D. performance I feature silly songs that build upon the world of the two main characters, a heroic lizard named Dizzy Doom and an evil robot named Commander E.K.O.
Within the first year of D.L.O.D.’s conception, I had completed three national tours, was showcased on six different cable networks, secured a record deal with Noize Cartel Records and was asked to create a pop culture YouTube series for Meltdown Comics and Collectibles, a noted Hollywood comic store. Having the chance to work with Meltdown only added fuel to my passion for the arts and gave me the ingredients needed to feed my hunger for all things nerdy. I have helped develop entertainment for channels like Nerdist, SYFY, SPIKE TV, Warner Bros and Nintendo. With all of the relationships that I have made in the entertainment industry, I sincerely believe I have the ability to work in any environment of the entertainment world, so lets get together and write another sappy love letter to all things wonderful and exciting.”
https://dlodworld.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Something Rather than Nothing'
00:00:00
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host Ken Volante. Editor and producer Peter Bauer.
Introduction to Gabriel Valentin and 'Digital Lizards of Doom'
00:00:28
Speaker
My name is Gabriel Valentin and I am the creator of Digital Lizards of Doom and the founder of the brand new publishing company Dizzy Doom Media. Today, I wanted to give you all a little tour of DDM and show you all of the rad stuff we have coming out. First, let's start with level one Dizzy Doom, the first book in the Digital Lizards of Doom series. In this book, we meet Pineapple Pete,
00:00:54
Speaker
an ancient pineapple demon who has trapped an entire universe of characters inside a video game simulation. Unaware, the characters play out their roles as heroes and villains, bringing the famed wizard Dizzy Doom face to face with an evil robot known as Commander Echo.
00:01:12
Speaker
In the next book, Level 2, the story opens up just weeks after the ending of Book 1, with Commander Echo healing from a pretty severe battle run. We get to learn more about Echo's relationship with his sidekick Spider-nose, and the truth behind why Spider-nose is so loyal to Commander Echo in the first place.
The Universe of 'Digital Lizards of Doom'
00:01:32
Speaker
Meanwhile, on a far off-distance planet, our heroes find themselves in a compromising situation where Dizzy Doo must harness the power of the atomic pineapple so he can fight a giant mech gorilla in an epic kaiju showdown that will determine the fate of an entire planet of moth creatures. These two books are only the first in an eight-book series which will each take place in a different level of this video game world that this ancient pineapple demon has created.
00:02:02
Speaker
Everything we do here at Dizzy Doo Media is made for fans by fans and includes all of the things we love from video games, tabletop gaming, comics, movies, and of course music.
Multimedia Projects and Collaboration
00:02:15
Speaker
Right now I am currently working on several different multimedia projects including a 21 song soundtrack
00:02:22
Speaker
with animation and a full orchestra. I'm also working with voice actors and puppeteers for the future adventures that will expand the digital lizards of Doom universe. I absolutely love putting these worlds together and making a place where everyone is encouraged to push their creativity to its max. So thank you so much for your support on this project. I look forward to seeing you all very soon. Be well.
00:02:54
Speaker
We got Gabe Valentin here. You just heard his voice, Dizzy Doom Media, Digital Lizards of Doom. Gabe, super excited after that lead-in to introduce you to something rather than nothing podcast. What's up, brother? How's it going? Glad to be here. It's great. So I listened to that promo.
Creative Inspirations and Artistic Universe
00:03:21
Speaker
And in doing a podcast about creators, you know, there's a sound universe there. There's this whole visual universe. It's colorful. There's so much creativity going on in this. And I thought it'd be a good way to start to hear about to hear about you and putting together this this media. There's so much there. Tell us about tell us about what you're up to.
00:03:50
Speaker
Well, first of all, thank you, man. As an artist, I know I speak for a lot of artists, if not most artists, maybe even all of artists, but it's such a slog to get this stuff out there and to
00:04:13
Speaker
dig deep in yourself and pull these things out and to first of all be comfortable or maybe not even comfortable but be willing to put them out on page and so when people respond to it like you have and it just means the world to myself and I know many other people as well so thank you so much man first of all because yeah it's gnarly this stuff comes from real places and yeah man I mean speaking on the art I just
00:04:42
Speaker
I just want to make cool stuff. That's just something I really, really want to do. I want to make cool art that makes me proud, that are made from stories that I'm just not getting right now. D-Lod is the manifestation of years of hanging out with my friends.
00:05:04
Speaker
campfires and by the pool and by the beach and just talking about how come no one's made a story like this yet? How come no one's done this yet? Like, oh, I really wish it'd be so cool if Zack Schneider would make something like this or it'd be so cool if Kevin Smith would write something like this. It'd be so cool if blah, blah, blah. And so after years and years and years of that, I just finally said, I'm gonna do it myself and I'm gonna do it for myself.
The Birth of 'D-Lod'
00:05:32
Speaker
Just because I was really missing this story. I love Star Wars. I love high fantasy. I love space adventure. Final Fantasy is one of my favorite video game series of all time. I just wasn't really getting that from a lot of the graphic novels I was reading and looking for. We have Saga, which is amazing. Don't get me wrong.
00:06:01
Speaker
It's amazing in a different way. I really wanted this. I wanted something that made me feel like a kid again. I wanted something that made me feel excited to wake up on Friday morning or get home by Friday afternoon so I could watch Batman Beyond or Static Shock or whatever. Ninja Turtles.
00:06:26
Speaker
so i really wanted something that made me feel like that again and i had an experience or spending spending the night at your friend's house on friday nights you know after a long school a long school week and then just playing video games all day saturday and sunday man i just like i just miss that so so i was trying to make basically like a bite-sized pill of that and giving that to the world
00:06:53
Speaker
and anyone who would listen or read. So through that came all these different art forms. The story came first, which a lot of people still don't know about, but the story came first. I was writing this story, Digital Lizards of Doom, and I didn't have the finances or anything in place to produce a graphic novel the way I wanted to, so I knew a lot about music and I had been in bands.
00:07:21
Speaker
So I started just writing songs about the characters and creating a world for them, and kind of like an ecosystem for them to exist in, with the hopes that when it came time to expose the world to the book, I would kind of already have this built-in fan base. So I did that for years. I ended up getting picked up by Noise Cartel Records. The music kind of took on a life of its own, which was just totally blew my mind.
00:07:49
Speaker
And we started touring regularly, playing with so many different musicians. Our first album had, I think, seven or eight different features on it for musicians all over the world. It was just totally wild. And then, you know, that kept going on. And then I was like, wait, like, this is awesome, but people still don't know the story.
Publishing Journey and Creative Freedom
00:08:12
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And I'm in a better place financially, and I have a little bit more connections now.
00:08:17
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I bookled down and I finalized the first four books. We're on book two right now. That's about to come out. But all eight books are written, which is awesome. I'm really stoked about that. And so I finalized the story. I had it finite. I made the maps. I made the technology.
00:08:45
Speaker
the ships and everything that I wanted to include, made the Bible, I guess, basically, of the universe. And then we started getting to work. I got hired artists and editors and everybody to help me make the first book. I pitched the first book to Clover Press, which was, they're founded by Ted Adams and Robbie Robbins, the founders of IDW.
00:09:14
Speaker
and uh... they picked it up and we sold a couple thousand copies in one month and then uh... now we're doing the second book and it's just and i'm i'm not i'm no longer with clover press role role friends everything but uh... i went out on my own and start my own polishing company and i just what needed a little bit more freedom to make the music to make uh... the animation that i want to do to make the
00:09:43
Speaker
the spin-off series that I want to do. So I just kind of took it back and, or like I said, we're getting ready to release book two and it's just an accumulation of music, visual art. We're working on video games and apps, animation. It's just a universe where everyone's welcome and people who enjoy
00:10:10
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all of these different things that make us nerds can come and have a safe place to enjoy and have fun. Thank you for all of that. It's really inspiring and exciting. One of the things I mentioned to you was all the different components that brings that universe to life.
00:10:30
Speaker
Thinking about like on this podcast, obviously, I talked a lot of different type of creators, but this conversation is a bit unique in the sense of like the integration of these different forms into the universe.
Technology's Impact on Storytelling and Gaming
00:10:45
Speaker
I heard a lot about what you're saying, Gabe, you know, as far as like, you know, being able to be a kid, right, to enjoy yourself. You know, as an adult, we forget that. We've gotten up to, you know.
00:10:59
Speaker
We get we get busy one of the things I wanted to mention to you Because I was thinking about all the different components of what you do. I was talking to my son Who's a who's a gamer? He loves fantasy loves games and of course games are so advanced right now I was telling him about
00:11:18
Speaker
When I'm 48, so my first computer was a Texas instrument computer. My favorite game was Tunnels of Doom, which was a very simple dungeon crawler of 10 levels and
00:11:34
Speaker
You loaded the game with cassette data into the computer, and it was a total of 32K, both the game and going into it. But it was a full universe. And I was talking to my kiddo, and I'm trying to explain this. I'm like, this is of such a different time. It's difficult to explain data.
00:11:55
Speaker
loading in through cassette tape. So obviously so much more at your disposal now, but I want to, Gabe, I wanted to go to the kind of like seminal question I asked at the beginning of a formal interview.
Artistic Realization and Childhood Inspiration
00:12:14
Speaker
When you were born, talking about you when you were a kid, when you were born, were you an artist when you were born? So,
00:12:25
Speaker
You know, I used to say no to these types of questions, but like, or when people would ask like, oh, when did you start? When did you know you wanted to be an artist? And I don't really know when I knew. I think I knew when I was about, I want to say when I was about 13 or 14 is when I think I knew, knew, but before then,
00:12:54
Speaker
And again, I used to say no to this question, but I think from birth I was I've always been a storyteller So not an artist like I wasn't really writing anything down or drawing. I can't draw for crap Everyone needs to know that I can't draw to save my life, but I can't either Gabe we shared that of drawing So bad
00:13:24
Speaker
I mean, you should see I wish I had something you should see my storyboards because I do I do all the storyboards for the for the book. And I am just constantly apologizing to my artists like no, that's commander echoes head. That's not a that's not another planet. Draw things like it's like inside, but there's stars. No, those aren't stars. They're supposed to be torches. Like, oh,
00:13:50
Speaker
So yeah, so I do all the storyboards for the graphic novel, but it's like stick fingers and bubbles. But no, I think at a very young age, we, I grew up, my family and I weren't very financially well off. And we weren't like poor, like starving or anything like that. You know, my dad had a,
00:14:17
Speaker
He worked for the city of San Diego and it wasn't like we were scrounging for food or anything like that, so I don't want people to get that impression. But we had enough to get by. That's basically what we had. And we lived on the land a little bit, like we had chickens and goats and we had our own vegetables and things like that.
00:14:46
Speaker
and so growing up was very interesting because we didn't have a TV for a long time and once we even got a TV it was VHS tapes they wouldn't even buy a DVD player they only bought whatever the cheapest thing was because they didn't really watch TV so they just bought a VHS player so I actually got to grow up with VHS which is pretty cool because I know a lot of people my age didn't so
00:15:14
Speaker
So that was pretty cool and then through that and kind of running out of content because we have a very limited amount of what we could watch on TV unless I went to my friend's
Creativity Influenced by Limited Access
00:15:27
Speaker
house.
00:15:27
Speaker
Um, or my cousin's house or grandma's house. When I went to grandma's house, it was just cable. She had cable. So it was just like, we watched everything. Like I was just glued to the TV, but, uh, it was like, it was almost like I was hibernating, you know, or getting ready for hibernation. Just like, like a, like a squirrel just cramming as much TV as I could. Um, but no, because of that, I never, um, I just kind of told my own stories.
00:15:53
Speaker
to myself, to my family, I just would make things up. I'd be like, oh yeah, I saw a dragon today. He was in the sky, and I tried to follow him, but I lost him around here. I'm pretty sure there's a cave in my yard somewhere.
00:16:15
Speaker
in our yard where this dragon lives. They were so outlandish that I hope people thought or people knew I was being silly, but I think there's probably some times when my parents worried about me. But I would tell these stories and I would tell stories for other people. I would try to make people laugh and I would try to distract myself too with these stories and just
00:16:43
Speaker
try to create this universe that I wanted to live in instead of the current one that I was in so I again I used to say I wasn't or know that I wasn't a creator when I was born but now I've really changed the way I look at that because I think I've always just been a storyteller just naturally even when it came to getting out of trouble the ridiculous stories that I would come up with to
00:17:12
Speaker
try to lie and get out of punishment was just, I mean, no one in their right mind would ever believe the things I said. So yeah, it was just, it was fun. It was like fantastic and it was an escape. And since I didn't have, I always wonder if I would have had access to these things, like if I would have been able to watch more TV or if I would have been able to play more video games or anything like that.
00:17:41
Speaker
if things would have changed so I really don't know. My first console, like my first TV console, this is no joke, was PlayStation 4. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I grew up, because my parents were like, no video games, you know, all that stuff. So I grew up playing portable handhelds, because they wouldn't let me have a TV in my room. And
00:18:07
Speaker
They wouldn't let, like a friend could spend the night and we could hook up a console to the RTV that night, but when he went home, it went home with him. So for me, my uncle got me a Game Boy Pocket, like late 90s, I think, maybe early 2000s. And that just changed my life. And it was Game Boy. It was just Game Boy.
00:18:32
Speaker
PlayStation portable whatever portable system I could get my hands on so most of my video game memories are From portable handhelds because I wasn't allowed to play you know console games So so yeah, I always wonder if like these things influenced me in such a strong way I mean I fell in love with Final Fantasy because you couldn't really play shooters on a Gameboy that didn't work and
00:18:54
Speaker
I played Legend of Zelda and that's the stuff I played. It's bizarre how much that stuff had an influence on me. You bring up so many fascinating questions, like you said.
Defining and Experiencing Art
00:19:10
Speaker
If you define yourself as a storyteller and seeing yourself having that attribute, sometimes, like right now, there's so many stories that are being told to us and we can adopt those mythologies and those type of stories.
00:19:22
Speaker
Maybe if we're not exposed to them or we want to create our own, you know, there's this whole other space over here where you're like, this is the universe I'm creating, not one that's going to be set for me. So I think how I could see that and how you develop digital lizards of doom is going to be very particular to your history, like in your life.
00:19:46
Speaker
One of the you know, I asked some some big questions in this show and the one I like a lot about art I like to apply it to to one of my Passions which is you know graphic novels comic books when you talk about the universe that's created When I was a kid that was the universe that I went into and I adored and I got that from my dad, you know who loved comics and
00:20:14
Speaker
When we start talking about art, and I do it in the show, everybody kind of gets, which is art? Is this art? Is that art? Or is this high art or low art or defining yourself as an artist? I don't paint or all that type of thing. The big question as I'm just mumbling along here is, what is art? What is art?
00:20:45
Speaker
my brain my brain goes to this very simple just kinda quantifying explanation I feel like I feel like art is anything that somebody creates that
00:21:14
Speaker
is inspired by an emotion, an event, a memory, a person, inspired by anything basically. Even if I don't appreciate the art, I remember one of the wackiest things I think I've ever seen was in New York. There was this museum.
00:21:38
Speaker
Like high fashion art, or I don't know if it's like I don't think high fashion is the right word But just as you know high quality next level art, and it was a bed. It was a bed frame with a mattress on it covered in baloney and like the whole thing was covered in baloney and It may have been a statement like a animal rights statement. I'm not sure I
00:22:07
Speaker
I got that vibe. I didn't spend too much time on it. Yeah, but you know people were kind of like then I heard about it later in the news and people were like kind of dogging on it and You know, I'm kind of like I Don't know man, like I I don't I don't get it Maybe if the artist explained it to me I would But that's still art to me I
00:22:36
Speaker
Um, because that person, something happened to that artist that caused him to go out and make these things. He spent time on it. You know, he, he designed this thing. I don't know if you heard recently, there was a guy who sold a, um, he sold an invisible statue and invisible sculpture. Did you hear about that? I did. And I have friend, my friend, you know, cause we've actually had this conversation a couple of times.
00:23:06
Speaker
And he's like, oh wait, so even you, even you have to admit that this is an art. This is, this is something invisible that the guy had created. Like you can't even like bullshit your way through this, right? Like, and I'm like, uh, and he's like, no, like what come on, man? Like there's no way this is considered art. And I said, dude, here's the thing though that people keep missing. I'm not even saying.
00:23:35
Speaker
I'm not even saying I like what that guy did. I'm not even saying I think it's a cool thing. But what I am saying is that he provided an experience for this individual, whoever purchased that item, that invisible item. He is now creating an experience for how many other people
00:24:04
Speaker
who are going to walk into that guy's home and leave that guy's home saying, we got to experience the invisible sculpture. He just created a talking point. He just created an experience. That's art. And I'm not even saying that I think everyone should do that or that I would have bought it because I wouldn't have, but that's not even something I would want to do.
00:24:32
Speaker
But you have to give credit where credit's due. And I think we're in a weird time right now where like, people just, everything is so black and white. I think people have really forgotten how to communicate with each other and understand each other. That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. This guy has an invisible sculpture.
00:24:55
Speaker
I thought it was dumb. I'll be honest. When I first saw it, I thought it was kind of silly. They're not dumb. I thought it was silly. But the more I thought about it, and who knows? Who knows the point behind him doing this? The more I thought about it, I was like, it's kind of an interesting idea. He made something, and here I am. I'm affected by it because we're talking about it. So I got to experience that art form on a small level.
00:25:21
Speaker
So I think art is just anything that causes you to create. Now some might argue that because it's invisible he didn't create anything, but he created an experience. So he still created something.
Philosophical Exploration of Art
00:25:37
Speaker
You know, the only reason books are selling is because you buy a book and the words are written down.
00:25:47
Speaker
But when we were in the caveman days, we just shared these stories with each other and drew pictures on the wall. So that's not real. That's not something tangible. Besides the drawing, of course, you can't just tell a story to somebody. Jokes are free. But that's art. That's an art form.
00:26:08
Speaker
So yeah, I think anything that just inspires you to create is, and then the form of doing so, creating the thing would be art. And I think it's cool. I think it's interesting that stuff like that exists, but I'm trying to do it a little bit
00:26:33
Speaker
in a different way, but make it make it make it make it a little bit easier than in no in the invisible graphic novel, you know, the invisible graphic novel. I like you, Gabe, but I'm definitely looking for the digitalism to do.
00:26:48
Speaker
Because then on the invisible sculpture, I really share a lot of your thoughts because I think what it does, for me, that's philosophy right there, right? Because we're talking about a thought, we're talking about a thing. And I would say, let's say you and I and eight other people were standing around the table and that artist said,
00:27:08
Speaker
Well, here's the invisible sculpture and would you like to talk about it, right? And you're looking at it and you're being like, oh, that one's holding and it's a sword, it's holding a mighty sword and look over at me. I'm saying, no, that's a beautiful goddess from, you know, and there's a conversation going on and it's like the idea of the artist is trickster, which...
00:27:30
Speaker
You know, that's always fun. It's always fun. And so, yeah, we'll maybe I'll plop in the invisible sculpture as a question in future episodes, Gabe. And you and I, through that, we'll explore what an invisible sculpture is for us. I'm fascinated. You are fascinated. We'll talk about it some more. All right. So I appreciate your comments around
00:27:57
Speaker
What are what art is and it's definitely a lot of questions that come out of that What about or say now you have an art piece? Doesn't matter what it is, but I want to ask you Gabe What is the role of art like what is art supposed to be doing for us as humans? Do you think it has a proper role or? Role in society Man that is a really good question I don't
00:28:30
Speaker
I feel like something similar to how I feel about God is I don't think something like that should be put into a box. And I think there's people out there who would probably definitely disagree with me on that.
The Role of Art in Healing and Inspiration
00:28:59
Speaker
i don't know i don't think i don't think it has a specific purpose uh... i think it's it can be applied to so many different things that's what makes it so beautiful so i think that when it comes to it can be used it can be used for evil it can be used to tear people down you know it can someone can make
00:29:28
Speaker
something that describes a group of people or gets other people to hate a certain group of people. It can be used to lift people up. It can be used as an escape. It can be used as satire, you know, very, which is a very popular form of art right now is satire and twisting
00:29:57
Speaker
twisting the fabric of reality just enough to where you laugh at it but it's still sad because it's something that exists or whatever so I don't know I don't know if there's like a proper use but I think that's why it's it's kind of the it's kind of a last frontier kind of thing because you know we we actually just kind of talked about it is like what even is art
00:30:27
Speaker
And I think it's something that hopefully stays wild that's never really tamed. I don't even know how that that could happen. But I don't know. I mean, for me personally, what I use it for is to help calm my mind. My mind is constantly racing with a lot of different things and struggling with a lot of different things and aren't really
00:30:58
Speaker
The art forms that I enjoy the most, I should say, because obviously not all art, but the art forms that I enjoy and I spend time on really help ease my mind and calm my spirit. And I think of the story of David and David and Saul from the Bible. And Saul's just, he has all these, he's like,
00:31:24
Speaker
crazy and he's killing these people and these doctors and these wizards. He's like, I need help. Someone help me with, it sounds like he has an anxiety. Nothing is soothing him. Then here comes along this guy with the harp, David, and he just plays this beautiful music and it soothes his soul's mind.
00:31:54
Speaker
And so, yeah, I just think about that and I feel like that's what the purpose is for me.
00:32:08
Speaker
to calm me down. It's soothing. It's comedic. It takes me to a different world. It inspires me. It makes me feel like I can go out and be powerful and do these things and accomplish wonders. And then for other people, it could be a reminder of
00:32:32
Speaker
of how crappy things are. It could be a negative thing. Or again, it could lift people up too. It could remind us that we can do better. I'm going to have to think about that some more because that's a really awesome question. I've never really thought about what the purpose of art is.
00:32:56
Speaker
One of the things that I found and thank you for your comments, Gabe, one of the things I found in the podcast, you know, so there's over 100 episodes right now. And of course, prior to doing it, you don't know what it is. You don't know what conversations you can have and you don't know what journey you're going to go on. But
00:33:16
Speaker
One of the things that quickly developed, and I've talked about this before, is that really just got into psychology, healing, personal expression, like an authentic life. And it wasn't just like, what's the art thing that you made? And what about that? It was like,
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah, that came out as a decisive moment in my life when I left this, created this and I created a whole new persona like after that. It's like, whoa, OK, like it isn't it isn't just a painting I put up on the wall. It is a representation of a transformation and and not wanting to describe that, but just recognizing and honoring the power of that is something that I quickly learned
00:34:04
Speaker
to do. And it really connected the personal, you know, the personal to the to the what what you create. Awesome, man. So Gabe, I know I've been hitting you with the big questions. I love this. I know. I know you do. And we're speaking with Gabe Valentin, creator of Digital Lizards of Doom, Dizzy Doom Media.
Influence of Fictional Characters
00:34:32
Speaker
And the question I have, you can refer to objects or people. What or who made you who you are? Actually, I kind of know the answer to this question. There's a lot of people around me, and I could list the people all day long.
00:35:01
Speaker
But there's so many, I was so fortunate to have good people in my life that helped guide me down certain paths and steered me away from other ones. And there's just way too many to name. But, cornifyingly, I would probably say,
00:35:30
Speaker
Samurai Jack, Superman, Batman, Indiana Jones, these were like my role models growing up. Jesus actually, you know, there's not the surfer dude, white Jesus that, you know, we've
00:36:01
Speaker
or like Bad Religion puts it the best, the American Jesus. I freaking love that song. I've been to all times Bad Religion. But not that, the biblical personification of Jesus, the man who opened his heart up to poor, rich prostitutes,
00:36:29
Speaker
Liars murderers thieves and just showed Religious nudge ops to even you know even even talked to them even talked to the religious people and and tried to get them to Change their ways like you guys got it all wrong and like no no no no no you know though God isn't God isn't expensive, you know, you don't have to pay for
00:36:56
Speaker
He doesn't like you or love you less if you give him money. It's not how it works. So growing up with these and reading these stories, Greek mythology, I love Greek mythology. Hercules was, I got into Hercules because of Superman. I had heard all of these, I had read all these Superman comics. And I was like, what a cool story. And so I was like, you know, Superman is based off like Hercules.
00:37:26
Speaker
to know that and I'm not so sure if that's totally entirely true now but I went back and that's how I first heard about Hercules and I read the Hercules stories and there's definitely a lot of similarities there and so yeah man I just these heroes that they did not always have it easy but they made the right decisions and they struggled and they fell and they rose again and
00:37:56
Speaker
They continued to fight and fight for people, fight for good. And these are the things that made me who I am. I want to fight for good. I want to fight for people. I want to love on people like the people that the person that nobody else wants because I've been there. I've been there so many times. I've been the person that nobody else wants.
00:38:20
Speaker
And it hurts. It's a very hard feeling. It's a very dark and empty feeling. And if I'm around somebody, if I know them or not, I don't want that person to feel that way. If I'm there and I'm within arm's reach, I just want to love on that person. I want them to know that they have someone they can count on and they can
Themes of Mental Health and Empathy
00:38:46
Speaker
they can share that experience with and someone that is happy that they exist, someone that believes in them and is happy that they are alive and alive on this earth and present on this earth. And a lot of these themes too are sprinkled throughout the Digital Lizards of Doom series. I touch on a lot of different mental health issues, not so much
00:39:18
Speaker
I don't try to keep it heavy-handed because I still want it to be light and fun and silly, but I feel like for the people who have gone through the things that get mentioned in the book, I feel like they'll know when they read it. These are the things that made me who I am and I hope other people just
00:39:46
Speaker
We want to start loving on each other, man. It's time. It's really time, man. Aren't you guys tired of it? I just try to tell people that. Aren't you tired of just hating this side because they voted for this guy or that side because they voted for that guy? And all this stuff just trips me out how, I've said this a couple times before, if you really think about it, we all want the same thing. Like everybody, everybody in the world, for the most part, wants the same thing.
00:40:16
Speaker
We want the government to stay out of our business. We don't want the government or somebody else to tell us what we can and can't do with our bodies. We don't want anyone telling us who we can and can't marry. We want to have a nice house. We don't want to be starving. We're not having a nice house. We want to be able to eat food and provide for our families.
00:40:37
Speaker
and our friends and have friends over and enjoy and laugh and sing songs together, whatever you want to do, watch TV together. And we want to feel safe. We don't want to feel like if we go outside, we're going to get shot or we don't want to feel like, you know, we can't go enjoy nice things because we're not rich enough or whatever it is. How is it that pretty much if you ask if you if you for the rest of your life, ask that question around the world, I guarantee you,
00:41:05
Speaker
Like 99.9% of the people are going to say that that's how they feel. And yet, we are so divided right now. This person's mad at that person, that person's mad at this person, and it's amazing the confusion that, I mean, the powers that be, because I don't know who they are. I don't know who's pulling the strings or whatever.
00:41:30
Speaker
But yeah, it's just, it trips me out, man. It trips me out that like we all pretty much want the same thing and yet we're so divided. And so that's, those are the types of questions and stuff I try to put in my books and in my art is like, how can we remove these lies and stuff from what we've been told our whole lives and get back to the basics of humanity and being there for each other and being united
00:42:00
Speaker
So we're off on a little bit of a rant there. No, man, I would. And I'm just, you know, honestly, you know, listening and engaging with that. I mean, I think of a lot of what you had to say there of like the potential for art to bring empathy, right? Like the art to like
00:42:19
Speaker
Connect people I heard a lot about that there and you know, honestly to about even you know saying the word saying the word love I deal with that, you know, I work as a union rep in my My day job and I've been involved in collective endeavors For a long time and those collective endeavors are based on love, right? the working person is somebody that I love and respect I want them to have a good working experience and
00:42:49
Speaker
And when you mentioned the word in that concept, it in that context, a lot of times, particularly as a male, it's like, all right, fruity. All right. You know what I mean? But for me, it's the fundamental basis of doing things, because if I didn't love and I didn't give a shit, I don't. It's something else that I'm doing. And it's not what I'm doing. And it's connected to art as well, because
00:43:15
Speaker
I think a lot like with you creating a universe Gabe and you inviting folks into it and the color and the music or the permission to be a child that isn't, you know, I think it's pointed towards, you know, compassion and love and just invitation.
00:43:31
Speaker
You know, permission to be a child. Wow. You just do. That is an epic sentence right there. Oh, you can take that 10 seconds. It's yours. You can. That's amazing permission to be a child. That's that's amazing, man. Wow.
00:43:46
Speaker
I've, through recent conversations I've had with people who are experts in childhood development, who are artists, who are teachers, they see everything that kids have, that adults still have, that adults still remember. And there's a whole lot there. I really appreciated your comments.
00:44:12
Speaker
I think one of the things the way you spoke about is something that I like of speaking about things and maybe in an idiosyncratic way of taking Jesus Christ and not saying, okay, here's a pre-described, pre-digested version.
Existential Musings and Life's Lessons
00:44:30
Speaker
You're going to say, no, this is a personal thing. This is what it means to me. This is what I got. And that's really powerful.
00:44:39
Speaker
and I really appreciate that. Gabe, we're on a roll right now, so I'm gonna go for the titular question of the entire show, and it could be a short answer, it could be a long answer, but I don't know the answer to the question of why is there something rather than nothing? Wow. Why is there something rather than nothing?
00:45:09
Speaker
The first thing that comes to my head is because the reason that there's something rather than nothing is so I could be sitting here right now having this experience and this conversation with you. And I would apply that to, I would try to, because I will definitely fail, but I would try to apply that to and encourage others to apply this to.
00:45:39
Speaker
every aspect of life. The reason there is something rather than nothing is because you are experiencing something right there in that moment. And that's reason enough. And if you look closely, you'll be able to find a reason for that lesson you're being taught, for that love that you're receiving, for that pain,
00:46:08
Speaker
If you're experiencing pain and you're going through a hard time, you've been going through a hard time. And I'm preaching to the choir here. Everybody is listening. Preaching to the choir, kids. It's hard. It's really hard. It's extremely difficult to understand why we're going through painful situations. But what I have realized, I've met a lot of people all over the world
00:46:39
Speaker
from all different parts of the world, been to a few different parts of the world myself, and you might be going through something, and based on how you come out of it, something painful, based on how you come out of it, you might be able to bless somebody else with knowledge on how to get through it. They might not have the same tools or resources you did, but because you went through the same thing and you're the person that you are,
00:47:08
Speaker
you might be able to save somebody's life. You know, you might be a more resilient person that this thing might not, it still hurts, but it's not the end all for you, but it might be the end all for somebody else. And if you come in contact with that person and you say, hey, this is how I got through it. Have you ever heard of, this book really helped me. This teacher really, these words really meant a lot to me. And that, you might save a life in something like that.
00:47:38
Speaker
And it's not always that, you know, dramatic, but, um, but I would say, yeah, that's, that's the answer. That's it's because you, something exists rather than nothing because you needed to be here in this moment, experiencing this thing. Yeah. Uh, whoo. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, um, uh,
00:48:04
Speaker
Gabe, I want you to spend a little bit time now unwinding and unpacking how the audience, how listeners can connect with your art, Dizzy Doom Media, Digital Lizards of Doom.
Connecting with Dizzy Doom Media
00:48:25
Speaker
I want folks to know and have in their hands or in their ears how to interact with your art.
00:48:36
Speaker
Yeah, so I I think so I've been saying this a lot lately I I've been telling people just to Google digital lizards of doom I've it's I don't know what it is, but I think it's a little bit more entertaining People kind of get to click on what they want to click on so if you just Google digital lizards of doom, you know our our main
00:49:00
Speaker
Website will come up at the top, but and there's other things too. There's articles about us. There's there's articles about the world. There's links to music But if you want to get in touch with me directly and and quickly I would say either email me at Gabe at dolodworld.com or Message me on Instagram
00:49:26
Speaker
I'm on Instagram the most out of all of the social media platforms so it would just be Dizzy Doom Media and I'll be on there and you know send me a message say hey I want to I want to talk or I am going through a rough time or I I want to hear some music it doesn't have to be something serious either it's like I want to know more about what the story is about and
00:49:56
Speaker
let me know i'll send you like a digital copy or something you can check it out if you want to purchase it later uh... i would be honored that would be really cool but yeah and then if you're on twitter uh... it's just at dlod world and uh... facebook is just digital lizards of doom and then our website is dlodworld.com so that's pretty much it thanks
00:50:24
Speaker
Normally, don't ask a question after that, Gabe, but I do have a question because of the way that you describe the universe. And if I don't ask it, it probably ain't going to be asked.
00:50:36
Speaker
I'm interested in the fact that you described of creating the digital lizards of Doom with music. So it had this life and started to create characters of its own and sounds of its own that way. When you started to depict or start depict in visual form, all of that was, did it look different from like how things had kind of developed
00:51:02
Speaker
As far as sounds or the characters or voices do you end up with? There's a universe here that's been created with the sound and now it looks this way is that was there a collision there? There's there's definitely a couple changes but for the most part It hasn't changed much which is which is kind of freaky I've had the concept I've had the
00:51:32
Speaker
at the soul of it i've had the concept for digital is to do since i think i was in high school uh... this the idea and again in the in its simplest form not really character names yet i've always been fascinated with this idea that if there was uh... will for what i love trickster mythology like from from greek pathology i love tricksters how they can just manipulate time space reality and it and uh...
00:52:02
Speaker
the effects it can have on the universe and the opposite. Sometimes it doesn't have any effect. So I've always been obsessed with the idea that this trickster, in this case, this ancient pineapple demon, could basically capture an entire universe and put it inside a video game
00:52:32
Speaker
and sell it to other universes. Like I've just always kind of had this idea in my head. And it used to be planets. I actually wrote a song when I was 18 years old called Pirating Planets. And it's the first ever manifestation of this thought that I put out into the world. And it was with an old punk rock band I played in. And I don't know, I've just always been fascinated with that idea. And so at the core of it,
00:53:02
Speaker
Not a lot of stuff in DLOT has changed. The heroes and their motives haven't changed. What's changed has been the vehicles that get them there a little bit and the things that they might say. But for the most part, who they are hasn't changed. And mainly, I've been a little bit more open about this lately, but mainly it's because
00:53:31
Speaker
The main characters in the book are basically what I go through on a day-to-day basis in my head. It's all of the different people and emotions that I want to be and that I struggle with. Pineapple Peat represents this controlling
00:53:56
Speaker
personality. I feel lost and I feel out of control sometimes and I want to control everything in my world. And even though it might hurt other people, I want control. I seek control and I have to fight that. And Dizzy Doom, who just always wants to do the right thing, he's the Superman, the Samurai Jack. He always wants to do the right thing. He wants to be the hero. That's what I want to be.
00:54:24
Speaker
uh... but dana deathly she represents pain and she she's a she wants to be a hero but she she's not sure she's willing or has what it takes to be here because she's been screwed over so many times she's been hurt by so many people uh... and warty morta uh... she's the witch and she she represents
00:54:50
Speaker
pain. She represents all, she represents the, she's the opposite of Dana Deathly. Dana Deathly is the one who's been through the shit, but is deciding to do the right thing anyways. Wardy Morta is the one who's been through the shit, but she's letting it change her into more evil. And it's this constant struggle I have myself. It's like someone hurts you, someone lies to you, someone
00:55:16
Speaker
someone lies to your face, screws you over, you want to like, you know, you want to get back at them. You want to like screw them over and you got to fight that because that's just, that's just going to lead you down a dark path, you know? And so yeah, it's like these revenge fantasies almost. So because of that, the characters haven't changed that much because they're very real. They're very real conversations I have with myself and this book in a way,
00:55:47
Speaker
is basically therapy for myself and hopefully other people as well. Oh, definitely. That's the component that holds so much power as we tell stories and see things or music, whatever way it reaches us. Why you're doing what you're doing and why I'm doing what I'm doing, I think.
00:56:15
Speaker
Everybody, we've been talking to Gabe Valentine, and I really appreciate your time, Gabe. I appreciate being introduced to your work in art.
00:56:32
Speaker
you'll recognize the position I'm in right now of wanting to grab at everything and everything that's in that universe. So I just get to be patient, take some time, grab this. That's the way that I am. I like to go all in on it. And thank you for, you know, kind of helping me and the listeners kind of take a little, you know, take a peek in about how art's created and why you're doing it.
00:56:56
Speaker
Super please Gabe For you to for you to peer on on the podcast Oh man, it's been an honor, dude We got to do we got to do this more often man We got so much stuff to talk about so we'll have to we'll have to have like a part two or something like that I would very much very much like to and heck There's so many levels of the lot of digital legends of doing there's so many levels and you just keep going
00:57:22
Speaker
each each we'll keep doing each game level and see where we get brother okay sounds good man thanks so much gave we'll talk soon we'll talk soon man thank you so much have a great day you too this is something rather than nothing