When I originally conceived of Nerdpop in 2006 I had imagined Suicide Girls meets superheroes. I have extensive connections with Suicide Girls and a lot of the models that would later form God’s Girls with Matt Cook. Though I was not a writer and had never even tried to write comic books, I did, however, have experience as a sports/action photographer, graphic designer, promoter, and logistical lead. At the time blogs were, for the most part, relegated to Live Journal and MySpace.
Building sites wasn’t extraordinarily difficult, it just required skills that I didn't have. Using my connections and every bit of money I could borrow, and had saved, I put together a business plan and executed it. The plan didn’t work out as well as I had hoped and a combination of computer failure (resulting in a large quantity of my photos being lost) and the insane expense of shooting models at the time forced me to move away from the first incarnation of the site.
I was working on having six months worth of nudes done before I launched the site. Having six months of content was crucial because it would give me enough time to earn money with the site before I had to shoot new content. Shoots averaged $100-300 an hour and cash flow would take time to equal the expenses. The “alternative” factor that I was going for was having the same-styled models as Suicide Girls pose in super nerdy costumes that I would put together into comic book formats or just have them doing nerdy stuff. In 2006/2007 nerd culture wasn’t as easily accepted and I was laughed at by a good amount of my promoter and business friends
After using all of my money I had to figure out a way to earn more money and not go insane after a failure that was caused by lack of support. I decided to start shooting club photography during the height of the electro/dance scene. It was one of the most lucrative and insane times of my life. At times, I would make a couple grand in a week and at other times I would make a couple hundred and drinks.
I was completely swept away in a wave of intoxication and beautiful women with loose morals. My previous art name was “The Negative” and somehow during this time I was referred to as “Nerdpop”. I did manage to shoot more material during this time; and some of it is grade A. I also have a lot of material that I can never use because some of the women became professionals (teacher, law school, and med school). By the time the Club scene was changing I was changing. Justin Fox had convinced me to start writing and it worked out very well for me
So, what about the porn?
Well, up until the end of last year I had no idea what I was going to do with the twenty-plus gigabytes of nudes I had shot. I had converted the Nerdpop name into a comic book anthology and was putting together the full color mass market version. The studio was in a slow period after we lost some contracts and I was scrambling to find more capital to push us forward and keep us alive. Enter "Married to Rock" and Josie Stevens.
Back in 2007 I chose my models from an ad I placed on Model Mayhem and hot chick friends I had made while being a promoter. Josie Stevens, who at the time was referred to as "Frankie", was dating Billy Idol's guitarist, Stevie Stevenson. Before shooting her I had no idea who she dated and lived with, but afterwards I realized I had a gem. My father had given me a lot of shit about me wasting all of my money on taking naked pictures of women and nothing coming out of it. My argument was that “porn never goes bad”. Almost four years later Frankie had morphed into Josie Stevens and now stars in a reality show. So, my opportunistic brain put into motion a hustler contract and the eventual launch of a Nerdpop nude site.
As of this week I have secured partial funding for the basic launching costs and have put together my team. I have four graphic designers turning my shit photography skills into artistic gold and photographers waiting to start shooting new material. For promotional reasons we’re looking to launch in July right before Comic-Con which is a major point in this year’s schedule.
