Set It Off!

It has been years in the making at this point, but my first foray into the comic medium is almost complete. It's a graphic novel that will be 112 pages of story plus a few extras, so probably in the 120 page range all told. This project has lead me through a gamut of emotions in trying to push this thing to the finish line. New pages equal joy. Watching someone put their care and craft into something you created is just awesome and I'm eternally grateful for my collaborators helping this become reality. Waiting huge amounts of time for new pages is very discouraging. It would have been very easy to have thrown in the towel and quit.

I've been working at a comic shop for an insanely long amount of time and I suddenly became aware how many times I had said "I could do better". So I decided to call my bluff and sat down and knocked out a comic. But what was I going to do with it? One issue of an artsy project wasn't worth spit, but what if I could add to it and make it book length? Now we've got something. Even if it doesn't hit initially, it is a bona fide property and potentially has a shelf life. Maybe its down the road when I generate some interest with a project and this one retroactively becomes commercially relevant. Everyone prefers success, but I can live with it being a failure. Birthing a piece of art, regardless of what people think of it, is a very satisfying process. Don't get me wrong though, plenty of ego is invested in these projects I have going. Yep, there are a few other comic project going and I will get into that very soon if anyone is interested.

Lettering is under way and when that is complete I can finally submit it to publishers. I feel good that someone will want to publish it because I will have a fully realized graphic novel with some top notch art. Pretty good stuff for beginners (which we all are) really. We shall see though.

The above featured art is by: Anthony Max, Jean Holmgren, Randy Valiente and Adam Shaw. I'm extremely proud to be associated with these very talented and kind people. I hope that this thing pays off for them especially as they have done the hardest part of the project or at the very least the most labor intensive. There are tons of people who define themselves as artists that say they would like to make a comic, but I think very few people realize how much work it is and and how difficult a task. You aren't just drawing pictures. You are telling a story and leading the reader's eye. Those are skills that are developed and you probably have to crank out some weak pages before you really get to cooking as a comic artist.