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Diary of a Struggling Comics Artist » 2008» February

Archive for February, 2008

130. Empire Comics Grand Opening and Signing, September 16th, 2006

Monday, February 25th, 2008

When Ben, the owner of Empire, emailed that he wanted me to sign for him at his grand-reopening sale, I was happy to do it.  He said Timothy Green II and Ron Lim had agreed to be there, and he asked if I knew any other local talent who might be willing to come in as well.  I ended up emailing Ryan Sook, JH Williams III, Mick Gray, Sam Kieth, and Mario Hernandez, because they were the only guys who didn’t live horribly far away, who I didn’t feel uncomfortable asking.  None of them were able to make it (and it turns out Ron Lim didn’t make it either, at least not while I was there), but JH (Jim) said he would have liked to have come out, because he wanted to meet Timothy Green II. 

I thought that was nice, because I’d been getting to know Timothy, and hanging out with him a little at some of the conventions.  I’d done a signing at this very store some time ago.  Timothy told me of his Moebius influences, and how he enjoyed trying to draw machines that looked functional.  He said he studied pictures of machines or engines or whatever, just to understand them visually, for his crazy futuristic cars and machines.  That stuck with me.

He’d just done “Aeon Flux” for Darkhorse, and issues of “Rush City” were starting to come out.  I guess Pontiac wanted to have a comic of their car, so that kids would think it’s cool and want to buy their cars when they got older or something.  Of all things, I was watching the Daily Show, and Lewis Black did a sequence about advertising on his “Back in Black” segment, and sure enough, he made fun of this car comic, and there was Timothy’s artwork, prominently displayed on the Daily Show.

So on the day of the signing, I was excited to tell Timothy about Jim wanting to meet him, as well as seeing his comic on tv.  He said that the editor on the comic was ecstatic, had contacted Timothy, and emailed him a link to the “Back in Black” segment.  But although Timothy thought it was cool and all, he’d never seen the Daily Show before, so I guess it wasn’t as special to him as it was to his editor and me.

He wasn’t familiar with JH Williams’ artwork, so I poked around through the store, perusing the racks for awhile, and I found the first trade paperback of “Seven Soldiers of Victory.”  Timothy really took his time flipping through, and was really impressed with Jim’s work.  He picked up right away on the Moebius “Blueberry” influence/homage of the Western scenes.  I get the feeling Timothy could be on his way up in the comics industry.  He’s been landing work pretty steadily, and seems to be getting quite well-paying, high profile gigs.

He said that the sales of his car book haven’t been particularly good, but that he’s still happy, because they paid him a lot to do them.  He said DC Comics, who published the book, is happy, because they were paid a lot by Pontiac for the licensing. And the greatest part is, even though sales haven’t been great, Pontiac has been excited to see their Solstice GXM prominently in action in comics!  Talk about a win-win.  Supposedly the car company is even talking about doing a sequel!

Timothy said the challenge with this comic is that so much of it is a drawing of a person sitting in a car, talking on a cell phone.  So Timothy has to keep coming up with new angles and ways of showing this exact same image, panel after panel, and somehow keeping it interesting.  He said he needs pictures of more different kinds of cell phones too, because he has one, and his girlfriend has one, and he doesn’t want everyone in the comic to have those same two cell phones.  Funny to listen to the kinds of dilemmas different people have on their different projects.

For this signing, no one bought any of my comics, and I think I talked to two people, but one of them was a guy I had just seen over at the A-1 signing a couple months before.  He was at both signings because both stores had had sales on their back issues. 

That’s exactly how I was, about ten years ago, where getting a good deal on back-issues was all that really mattered.

Still had a nice time, and I’d be happy to do it again, any time.

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129. A-1 Comics Small Press Day Signing, June 24th, 2006

Monday, February 18th, 2008

In my limited experience, I’ve found that when I do local store signings, I’m just an unknown and no one excitedly rushes out to meet me.  Maybe a few friends pop in to say hello, and that’s about it.  So I’ve stopped asking shops if it would be all right if I come out special and do a signing.  But on the other hand, if a shop invites me, then I’m happy to oblige.  I think it’s important to support businesses that are so supportive of me, and it builds good relations.  Plus, I have a good time.  I got a couple of these recently.

June  24th, 2006 A-1 Comics Small Press Day Signing

Every year, A-1 Comics invites local artists to spend a few hours in their shop for “small press day,” which has been on “Free Comic Book Day” the last few years.  I assumed it would be the same this year, and I would miss it, because I had scheduled a trip out of town, but they picked a different day, partially to celebrate the opening of their new location.  When I found out, I wound up contacting a number of my local self-publishing friends (local being Northern California) to see if they might like to join in the fun.  I wrote to some slightly bigger names in the industry as well, but none of them ended up coming.  Of all the people I wrote, three people said they were coming, another seriously considered it, and only Matt Silady, who shared our table at San Diego, came up.

Brian, the owner, however, convinced Ron Lim and Thomas Yeates to hang out for awhile.

Also appearing were “The Nice Guy” creators Michael O’Connell and Tim Watts, Leigh Dragoon (“Spidric”), Dan Cooney (“Valentine”), Mike Hampton (Captain A*hole), and Zac Henderson (“Project i.O”). 

I got to the shop, and I was sitting by Ron, who is just about the friendliest guy around.  I see him at all the local cons, either at a table, or just wandering around.  He’s always smiling and friendly, and real positive about my work.  We got him talking about his art style, and how he’s made a conscious decision to simplify his backgrounds, because he was tired of seeing all his detail flattened out by a one-color-wash from his colorist.  So he’s started having to think in color as he’s drawing.

I found this interesting.  It reminded me of some of my monster pages Dick Ayers inked.  When I studied them, I realized that some color could easily add some depth to the linework, but in black and white they felt a little flatter.  It made me aware that I was beginning to visualize my work in black and white.  If my work began getting colored, I would have to re-imagine my line quality.  You don’t think of this stuff…until you have to think about it.

Ron was only there maybe an hour, and I was sad to see him go, but soon after, Thomas Yeates appeared, so he just took Ron’s seat right by me.

We were talking a little about my comics, and I mentioned how I’m a big fan of film noir and EC-style horror, and Thomas said, “Really.  I would have thought your stuff comes more from the pages of Mad Magazine.”  Somehow, the thought that people would have this kind of view of my work surprised me.  I don’t know why.  I should take it as a compliment, because I try to be funny with my work, and I do a fair amount of parodies, so maybe Mad Magazine is where I belong.  I just never really realized that’s what I was doing, I guess.  It can be sobering when people tell you their perceptions of you, if it doesn’t match with your perceptions of yourself.

I had brought some copies of the Ojo trade paperback to sell, and that caught Thomas’s eye, and I began showing him, page by page, what I had done, and what Sam had done.  I’d turn to one page, and he’d say, “Oh, wow, Did you draw that?  Look at how well you’ve drawn water there.  You can really feel the fluidity!  That’s amazing!” and I’d have to say, “No, Sam drew that one.  You’re right; it is a great page.”  And then he’d say, “What a great image that is!” and I’d say, “Uh.  Yeah.  That’s Sam’s page too.”  I know I’m no Sam Kieth, but here I was hoping my pages held up okay, and Thomas, with his artist’s eye, could really nail it.  I felt just as transparent as can be. 

He was really impressed with Sam as an artist, and was asking what Sam used to get his thin white lines.  I told him it was Pentel “Presto!” correction markers, but Thomas said he’d tried using them, and couldn’t get such a thin line.  I later emailed Sam on Thomas’s behalf.  Sam confirmed that he was using Prestos with medium tips, but then he recommended something new he’d found that he liked even better, called Gelly Roll fine and medium point pens.  Sam said they’re the he’s found, although they dry up and clog with india ink.  On the other hand, they’re cheap, so I passed the info back to Thomas.

Thomas said he’d recently been drawing on HUGE paper.  I think it must be like 22”x28” or something crazy.  This is, of course, how the old, OLD pros used to do their work.  Flash Gordons and Prince Valiants and such.  Thomas found he really enjoyed the look of the work, once it got shrinked down to comic-sized pages.  The drawback was that no comics company has scanners that can scan these images at this size, and it’s an absolute pain-in-the-ass to scan each half and then try to splice them together.  It more than doubles your work.  Probably quadruples it, I’m guessing, and I know, because I tried scanning pages on a smaller scanner, before I bought an ultra-expensive 12”X17” scanner.  He said what he has to do is take his pages to Kinkos, and have them make a reduced-size copy, which I think he said costs two bucks (maybe one) a page.  He finds this extra cost and work worth it, for the product he’s able to produce as a result.  Interesting process.  I was really fascinated.

I knew he was interested in things like Zorro and Tarzan, and so I told him I had recently been reading a lot of these books.  I don’t think I told him, but I’ve never been particularly interested in the adventure genre, and I realized how little I’d read when I was trying to figure out who all the characters were in Alan Moore’s Extraordinary Gentlemen.  So that led me to read 20,000 Leagues, Dracula, King Solomon’s Mines, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Invisible Man (or at least listen to them on audio book).  From there, I just continued reading stacks of other books by H.Rider Haggard, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jules Verne.  I enjoyed it enough to continue onto the adventure/sci-fi line with stacks of H.G. Welles, Tarzan and “Princess of Mars” and “Land Before Time,” Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson, Moby Dick, Three Muskateers and Count of Monte Cristo, and anything else I could think of.  So we spent some time talking about good adventure books, and he mentioned that he was surprised how much he had enjoyed “The Adventures of Robin Hood” recently.  It was one I had enjoyed too.

At this signing, I think one guy bought one of my comics, and maybe two other guys came over and talked to me for a while, and that was as much as I expected.  But I still had a really nice time, got some professional tips, and visited with everybody and hung out.

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128. PUBLISHER REJECTIONS, POST SAN DIEGO 2006

Monday, February 11th, 2008

AUG 18, 2006

I had felt good at the San Diego Con, speaking with AIT/Planet LAR about publishing my Limbo Café story.  I checked in periodically to see if they’d had a chance to look over the story, but of course, the post-San Diego pile of submissions takes time to flip through.  I sent an email about how the Skeptics Society gave me a big push for my Dr. DeBunko book, and said that I think it might be good timing to either do a full Dr. DeBunko limited series or to proceed with my Christian Fundamentalist-critical “Limbo Café,” both of which are very skeptical in nature, and could get this completely new, skeptical, non-comics audience interested in reading comic books.  I found out today that AIT/Planet LAR isn’t interested in my Limbo Café proposal.  They said it’s a bit too out there for them.  They gave me a suggestion for someone to pitch Dr. DeBunko to.  I really appreciate their honesty, and willingness to help out.  I would enjoy doing a book for them, if they ever gave me the opportunity.

I’ve sent occasional letters out to Image to check in as well, regarding my Doris Danger stories.  I immediately wrote, after hearing from Stan Lee and Shag.  I’m hoping it will be a feather in my cap, and a potential marketing opportunity for them, that the next issue will have a Shag cover and a Stan Lee blurb, but who knows.  Erik Larsen already told me at San Diego he’s concerned with my sales numbers.  I suspect Image will also think my stories are a bit too out there.

And of course, I got a rejection from Fantagraphics a few months ago, regarding my Doris Danger stories, which they said were way out there, but in a good way.  But whether it was in a good way or not, they weren’t interested in publishing them.  Just the same, I thought it was a very kind letter, that they acknowledged me and my work, and didn’t just send out a form rejection.  And that they replied at all, instead of not even bothering.

Today, despite all the actually quite stunning good fortune I’ve had, and despite numerous huge signs that I’m making progress in the industry, I’m in a bad mood about my comics, and I insecurely wonder if nothing will pan out.  I negatively fantasize how the movie options won’t pan out.  Maybe the first guy has decided he isn’t interested, and decided with such finality that he isn’t even going to bother to write me.  And maybe the second guy isn’t actually in tv at all.  He’s just trying to get his foot in tv, the same way I’m just trying to get into comics, so he won’t have any power to try and get a Tabloia tv show, even if he still likes it.  Or the letter I sent him with all my ideas for a tv series made him realize that I’m insane, and would not be a good person to work with.

A theme I’m beginning to realize with my work is that people seem to think it’s “out there.”  I guess I didn’t realize, or want to admit, my stuff is so out there, but if everyone says so, then I guess it must be.  Or if everyone says it is, then it doesn’t matter if it really is or not; what matters is that’s how it’s perceived.

Am I going to spend my life doing all these stories I enjoy, but everyone feeling I’m that guy whose stuff is just too weird?  Will I be one of those pretentious lunatics who’s always bellowing that I’m a genius, and complaining that no one else realizes or respects my brilliance, when in actuality, my stuff just isn’t that good?

I guess all I can really do at this point is keep plugging away, and hopefully getting better all the time, and hopefully an audience who appreciates what I do will eventually find me.

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127. POST SAN DIEGO BLUES, AUG 18, 2006

Monday, February 4th, 2008

So I feel like all these things are going my way. But of course things crop up now and then that get me all sad about my position in the industry all over again. So I’m alternating, as usual, between feeling like a superstar and a complete pudd-whacking loser.

THE BABY

When we had Oscar, I sent out a mailer to everyone on the Tabloia Mailing List saying I was a dad. Then I sent out pictures to all our friends, including all our comics professional friends – artists, distributors, editors, reviewers; everyone. It was great to get all these fun emails from all my comics celebrity artists, and I’m tempted to post them up at the website somewhere. We’ll see…

So that’s the positive part. The bad fall-out was, this mailer caused people, for the first time in the eight mailers I’ve sent since November 2005, to ask to be removed from the mailer. And since it’s the first time, I second guess myself and wonder if I’m not partially responsible, and I feel guilty as hell. Will this be the mailer that goes down in history as “that” inappropriate mailer.

The previous mailer, I had mentioned how Elizabeth was dilated three centimeters and her cervix was thinned out eighty-five percent. Then, down in San Diego, I was telling everyone the same figures. Finally, Elizabeth pointed out to me all the disgusted faces with which so many people replied to my figures, that it may be a little too much information for a lot of people. So then we joked, Okay, I’ll have to send out a follow-up email that there is a change in policy, and beginning now I won’t mention your cervix, vagina, or other body parts. But then I sent out that very email, and all of a sudden, it didn’t seem so funny any more, and I had insecure misgivings about it.

I like to think this is the reason we had our highest (and only) requests yet to be removed from the mailer. The reason I feel especially sick about it is that one of the requests came from a major player in the industry and distributor of my books. Yow!

DISTRIBUTION PROBLEMS

When I submitted my Dr. DeBunko story for distribution, I also informed them I wanted to send out flyers with Dr. DeBunko sneak peeks to all the stores who sell indie comics. I’d done this when my first issue of Tabloia came out, and I thought I would try it again, now that I was publishing a comic that began with issue #1 – the ultimate marketing strategy, as opposed to my previous “issue number 572” as a first issue – which turned out not to be such a good marketing strategy.

I was just recently switched to a new representative, because my original one got a promotion. My new one admitted he wasn’t sure how to do this promotion, but that he would check with the original rep to get me set up.

So for the last two months I’ve been emailing or calling him and asking him what he needs from me so that we can make sure these flyers get sent out. A month ago I finally printed out and sent him 600 flyers, which cost me over a hundred dollars to print and send. Still no word, so finally today I called my original rep to see if he could enlighten me on the progress of this effort. I learned that I shouldn’t have sent them to the rep, I should have sent them to the warehouse, but only after getting a Purchase Order, which of course I’d never gotten. All this being the case, he informed me that there was no way these flyers would get out to stores before stores ordered the books. So in other words, not only am I out all the time and money of designing and printing these flyers, but also I will not be getting any promotion for this comic that I wanted to really push.

I was pretty pissed, but what can you do. Except fume about all the other stuff that’s gone wrong, which I will continue in next week’s thrilling blog installment!

As I say, rock star, loser, super stud, failure…What a roller coaster this industry can be.

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