We caught up with the Las Vegas resident for an update on his new project with fellow System of a Down-er Daron Malakian ... and more.

How are things going with your North Las Vegas-based comic-book website Torpedocomics.com?

I’m at my warehouse right now, actually. It’s going cool, man. We’re getting ready for Comic-Con in San Diego—it’s pretty much the biggest convention in the country, probably in the world. They get about 125,000-150,000 people attending. Dude, I can’t wait. I’ll have eight booths set up, but I also enjoy it a lot. If you’re a big fan of comics and toys like I am, it’s like Christmas. There’s so much to see and check out.

How did you hook up with veteran Vegas musician Franky Perez and ultimately bring him into the Scars on Broadway lineup?

When we were looking for somebody to round out the band about a year ago, Franky’s name came up. I had never met him before; my manager made the suggestion. Franky was out in New Jersey playing in some cover bands, making ends meet and stuff, and we brought him out to try out, and he was such a great guy. He’s very important to us; he’s a really talented musician and has been a great songwriter and singer in the past. It’s nice to have him involved with Scars.

And he’s earned it, man—he’s worked very hard. When you’re passionate about music, you don’t give up on it. It’s just a matter of getting with the right group of people and playing the right music. He’s got a lot of talent, and I’m happy that he’s getting the opportunity to showcase some of that talent with us. We’re lucky to have him in the band.

With Scars’ self-titled debut album set to be released on Tuesday, how do you feel about the band’s future?

I think this music has the opportunity to reach, potentially, more people than System did, because it’s more straightforward, more rock-derivative and not quite so schizophrenic in the writing style. I think Daron is in the mode of writing some of the best songs of his career. So I guess we’ll see how it’s received and how people like it. I can tell you I’m really proud of what we accomplished. Everybody I’ve played it for seems to dig it, and I have some brutally honest friends that would tell me otherwise. But you never know, man. We live in a bubble. We still don’t really know how System got as big as it got.