# The Mushy Middle Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pesto-comics-audio-edition-7033321/the-mushy-middle Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pesto-comics-audio-edition-7033321/the-mushy-middle.md Podcast: [Pesto Comics - Audio Edition](https://stenobird.com/podcast/pesto-comics-audio-edition-7033321) Published: 2026-06-18T19:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://pestocomics.substack.com/p/the-mushy-middle Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/202447622/08d11012c6206071575eef102f7170c3.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pesto-comics-audio-edition-7033321/episodes/the-mushy-middle Duration seconds: 663 ## Resource Hello and welcome to Pesto Comics . My name’s Adriano -- I’m the writer, publisher, producer, and the guy who pulls these teams together to make sure you get awesome comics on your shelves and in your mailbox as frequently as I can possibly make happen. We’re just about to launch our latest campaign with Naked Kaiju Woman #3, which will be our 13th Kickstarter campaign. Beginner vs. Intermediate: The Path Gets Murky I’m not quite a beginner, but I certainly don’t feel anything like an expert. I feel like I have so much to learn -- not just with crowdfunding and creating comics and writing and working with artists, production designers, letterers, and colorists from all over the world, but also managing all of that, the business financials, all the different plates I have to keep spinning. The more I learn about how a business works, how a comics business in particular works, and the differences between the direct market and crowdfunding -- you can imagine how all of this starts to get a little overwhelming and a little confusing. So I find myself pining for the days when I was a beginner -- just a little bit. The path was a lot easier to find. “How do I start? How do I get into this?” That seems to be the question most people have. I didn’t make it out to the East Coast this year, which I’m hoping to do next year. But since I was stuck here in Toronto, it turned out to be a little fortunate -- I was able to do the show at Gotham Central. I had a lot of fun there, and one of the questions I got more than a couple of times was, “How do I get started?” And I feel like that’s the easiest question of all to answer, and the answer is: go do it. Go try. There are so many tutorials, so many books, so much information for someone at the beginner level who has no idea where to s… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pesto-comics-audio-edition-7033321/episodes/the-mushy-middle/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/pesto-comics-audio-edition-7033321/the-mushy-middle.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.