Retrospective

Well, I promised a retrospective year in review, but, ironically, in retrospect I must recant that promise, at least in part. See, to review the year in whole would mean to once again rehash all the negative stuff as well as the positive stuff, and that's just not how I wish to end this year or start the next one. So I am simply going to list the positives instead and build upon those this coming year.

Near the beginning of this year I closed a chapter in my life and budding comics career that was due and opened another one. Though that chapter would be a short one, I was fortunate enough to meet friends I still converse with to this day, and I wouldn't trade either experience for anything. The change taught me a lot and it prepared me for the future, and it also revealed to me where my focus should be as far as comics are concerned.

I also was made Business Manager of Scryptic Studios, which has been quite an experience in and of itself. It's a great community and one I wish I had more time to devote to.

I landed my column at comicavalanche.com, and that has been a huge success and I have gotten a lot of feedback about it. I am thrilled and honored by the success of it and everyone who has supported it.

The biggest happening in comics for me was getting my gig with Platinum, which I take as a sign of great things to come. That's one thing I will definitely be building upon in '06.

There are several other high points in comic related stuff for me this year that I could take an hour or more to relate here, including a couple of projects that finally have legs. But I've commented on all of them in this very blog (which would be another plus for me as it opened many doors and friendships as well), so I don't feel the need to rehash.

In my personal life, I have gotten closer with my family, both immediate and extended, and both of those accomplishments were no small feats, believe you me. I also had to face some decisions and situations, and I truly believe that from them I have learned a great deal about myself, my convictions and many other things that will help me to become what I want to become from this point on in all facets of my life.

So, even though the negatives, which have been well documented, may have been in abundance, I've also had my fair share of positives to balance everything out. I had a wonderful Christmas despite so many things trying to ruin it. I am positive going into the new year, which is something I couldn't imagine being a few short months or even weeks ago. And while everything may not be worked out right now, I have high hopes for the coming year and beyond.

In closing, I'm looking forward to 2006 more than I ever thought I'd be. I turn 29 this coming year and that alone is a wake up call for me. I don't feel like 30 is old at all, but it is still somewhat of a milestone, or a marker at the least. And there are goals I had set for myself to accomplish by the age of 30. Some of them won't be possible, but others will, and I intend to get as close as possible to the ones that aren't possible. Every messageboard I have gone to people are asking what our New Years resolutions are. Mine are simple, and pretty much the same as every year. Improve on the things that need improving, get closer with friends and family, make steps towards my passions, whether that be in career or otherwise, get closer to God, and just try to better myself as much as I can. For me there are no better resolutions, and these aren't yearly, but daily. If there's one thing I could specify as a goal for this year it would be to find the youthful exhuberance, determination and passion that used to drive me in the face of adversity instead of being overcome with obstacles in my path. That would be my single resolution if I were to choose one.

With all that said, I wish you all a safe and happy new year, and as they say, may this one be better than the one before, and regardless of your religious preference, may God bless you all in the new year. Here's to good things to come! Happy New Year!

Holiday Cheer

I forgot to mention in my last post how I was able after all to spend Christmas with my family, and it couldn't have gone better. We didn't exchange gifts this year like we normally do by drawing names, but we had good food (Subway!) and sang songs and just enjoyed each others' company. So it was a great day for me.

We did get small gifts via the Dollar Game, which we have been doing for a couple of years now. It's really fun if you get into it and it takes the edge off not being able to get everyone gifts.

What you do is everyone buys one gift for one dollar. If your family has four people in it you bring four gifts, all for a dollar, no more. None of the gifts are addressed, but all are wrapped.

Then one person starts by grabbing a random gift out of a bag or whatever. They then open the gift.

The next person in line then has a choice to make. They can either draw a random gift from the bag or they can take the other person's gift. If they pick one from the bag they are stuck with it unless someone else wants it later.

This continues until everyone has a gift. The ideal person goes last so they could take a gift from anyone they choose.

When a person's gift is taken they have to wait until everyone has gone then they get the choice whether to take one from the bag or take someone elses.

One VERY important rule is you go into it knowing you may not get to keep your gift, so warn the kiddies.

The first year we did this was really great because everyone was taking everyone else's gifts. This year wasn't quite as fun because only a couple of people (out of 17) took someone else's

So there you have it, a new, fun, inexpensive game to play at the holidays. And you can actually get decent gifts for a dollar if you look hard enough. Someone this year got a laser pointer, and one year I got a Coca Cola bear (I LOVE coke memorobilia!).


My mom and my aunt think of all kinds of neat little games like this on various holidays. Halloween 2004 my aunt thought of this game I can't remember all of, but it had something to do with a gift being wrapped like twenty times with a portion of a story written on each level of wrapping. I'll have to ask her about that.


This New Year's Eve we are all getting together at my cousins to play board games, a family tradition of ours. Some favorites are Scattergories, Guesstures, Hollywood Planet, Rook, Jenga and various other cool games. We always thought of bringing in the New Year surrounded by loved ones as a very symbolic thing. And our extended family is one of the closest ones I know of. There aren't many families out there that regularly see and spend time with aunts, uncles, nephews, neices and cousins, so I guess I'm lucky in that respect. The downside is everyone knowing your business, which has made me into some sort of private recluse the majority of the time. But even though we have our many differences we always are there for each other, and that's what matters most.


I promised you guys Christmas songs and I didn't deliver. But fear not! I have ONE for you today. I'm not crazy about the result as my voice for some reason lately is really raspy and just doesn't come off as polished as it used to be (maybe because it's been about 3 months since I sang in the choir!), but it's decent, and after re-recording it over a dozen times, I'm sick of singing the song. :) So here you go:

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Be kind with any comments! :( (J/K)


Looks like I'm not going to make the Dark Horse New Recruits program after all. One artist told me last week he couldn't make it, but would have them early in January. The other artist I haven't heard from, but I assume he got caught up in the holidays, which is totally cool. Like Cary said on his blog, it was a longshot anyway, and there are plenty of other avenues. So we'll just hit the virtual pavement and get the things in the mail to publishers. And now thanks to the artists' efforts I'll have more pages to show anyway, so that's a good thing.


I have tons of lettering to keep me busy this week as well as revisions and research on my Platinum project if I can tear myself away from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. What I want to know is how in the world you sneak stealthily across a wooden hanging bridge without engaging the enemy when they are constantly walking across the thing?! Not that it matters since I got tired of trying and just ran through them swinging (I didn't have a gun).


Sometime today or Friday my brother and I are going to watch Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which he got for Christmas. We didn't get to go see it in the theaters.

Yesterday I watched Four Brothers. It was actually a pretty good movie. I enjoy Mark Wahlberg as an actor, but I was pleasantly surprised how well Tyrese and Andre (from Outkast) did in it. I haven't liked Tyrese's acting in any of the three movies I've seen him in, and I had never seen Andre. So I'm glad they did well.

One of the previews on that DVD was for Hustle and Flow, which I now really want to see. I think Terrance Howard is a tremendous actor with a lot of range, and I look forward to seeing him portray the leading role.


I read X-Men Deadly Genesis 2 last night also, and I am so anxious to find out who the villain is. I have this X-Men 30 year anniversary special from Wizard from several years ago that I am tempted to dig out to try to figure it out. It's driving me crazy!

What gets me though is in the back of both issues one and two they had backup stories featuring new mutants (Petra in issue one, and Darwin in issue two) I had never heard of. I wouldn't have a problem with this under normal circumstances, but it bothers me that seeing as how House of M was Marvel's way of cleaning up and basically getting rid of the majority of mutants, why on earth are they now, only a month or two later, creating NEW ones??? It irks me they get rid of Iceman to give me Petra, a girl who can move rock, or Darwin, a guy whose body adapts to ANY trauma. Well, the Darwin character I can live with (though I hate the name because I don't believe in evolution of man), but Petra? She moves rock. Wow.


Anyway, all in all this has been a great close to an ok year. Look for my retrospect prior to New Years Eve. I'm not sure what I'm going to say, but hopefully it will be worthwhile. Until then...

B-Out

Christmas Miracles

Okay, so they aren't really your blown out miracles like the one I would really like (a healing), but even small miracles are miracles. So what am I talking about? Read on.

As you all know we are having some financial problems as of late. Well the miracle is that somehow we managed to have a decent Christmas, and possibly the best Christmas in many years because we all got almost everything we really wanted this year. It was awesome. I was not expecting what I got in the least.

First off I got a couple of movies I had been wanting, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Four Brothers. And they weren't cheap. Then I got Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which was still pretty high, so I really wasn't expecting that. Then I got something I thought there was no way I would get.

On my list as I always do I put a LOT of things because I like to get surprised. If I only put a few then I know what I'm getting and I don't like that. So at the bottom of my list I put some comics I wanted. I knew there was no way I would get these because the shop closed before everyone got off work. What I didn't know, however, was that my Mother got off work 5 hours early! So I racked in Infinite Crisis 1-3, X-Men: Deadly Genesis 1-2 and the latest issue of Wizard Magazine with a sweet Jessica Alba cover! So I am thrilled.

I also got one of the newest Dragonlance novels, Amber and Ashes, which I really wanted.

But the last gift was the one that floored me. It was this huge box that served as the bottom of a wrapped box snowman that was as tall as me. The head was an empty box with a note in it, the middle was a 5 disc cd changer for my brother, and then the bottom was this huge box. Turns out it was a 27" TV for me!!!

Now you have to understand first off that I have never had any TV bigger than a 19" in my life. So a 27" is a big upgrade for me! Secondly, you have to know that my TV died about 5 months ago, and for 6 months before that it was so dark you could hardly see anything. So I had gotten in a habit of taping everything and watching it days later on my brother's TV, which is annoying at times. Not to mention I couldn't play any games at all because my brother, who never had his own TV or his own room until this past year, is always using it. So it was a great gift.

I don't know how in the world we had enough money for all that, because two weeks ago...heck a week ago we were flat broke with no food in the house. Somehow it stretched.


The second miracle is that somehow a couple of people all of a sudden got in tune with my thoughts I had not shared with anyone and said personal things to me that meant a lot and that I desperately needed to hear. It was wild because there's no possible way they could have known to say those specific things.


So all in all God has richly blessed me this year beyond my comprehension, and I have hope restored. May He bless all of you as much or more this season and into the New Year!

B-Out

Catwomen

My latest drawing done for a draw off on the DW forums. I intend to "attempt" to ink this later on or at least add more detail.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

For those of you who didn't get the email for whatever reason, this is a card I sent out to all my supporters, friends and colleagues in the comics world. I thank you all and wish you a very happy holiday season! God Bless!

1 Wallpaper to Christmas

Here it is, the final wallpaper. Actually two versions of the final wallpaper, but the first one is the one I used. I liked the ornaments. :)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. Thank you all so much for reading and posting here.

2 Wallpapers to Christmas

From my favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life"



And here's a runner up for the spot:

Chipmunks

While you guys are waiting to hear some real singing from me I thought it would be fun to do some chipmunk stuff in honor of my boys, Alvin, Simon and Theodore. Their Christmas special was always one of my favorites.

These songs are really me singing, but with the speed increased to give the chipmunk illusion. I hope these bring a smile to your faces this Holiday Season!

The Christmas Song
Jingle Bells
White Christmas
Silver Bells
Away in a Manger
Let it Snow
Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Holiday Images

I just thought I'd post some cute holiday images I found during my search for wallpapers. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

3 Wallpapers to Christmas

I'm putting this one up a little early and will probably put the next up a little early too so I can put the final up before Christmas Day so you all can see it as I doubt you'll be checking my blog on Christmas. So here's a classic Christmas movie wallpaper:

Blessings and Curses

Blessing

So I go to the mail the other day and lo and behold, a check! It's not a huge check, but it's more than I had, and given my current situation it helped a lot!

What happened was my uncle decided to pay me a couple hundred for his website I designed. At the time I made it I didn't really care about getting anything for it. He was family and I was building my portfolio. No biggy. But in light of the current financial mishaps I was hoping for something like this.

Now my uncle is hurting a little in his own right, but he wouldn't admit it. Unfortunately for him my family are a bunch of blabber mouths, so everybody knows everything about everyone. My uncle has always had a lot of side cash coming in. In addition to working a steady job for over 20 years he would buy and sell cars, buy and rent property, and anything else he could do to get more money in. He wanted to give his immediate family what he never had growing up.

A couple of years ago, fed up with continually getting screwed at the job he had given a big chunk of his life to, and had made quite a name for himself at, he quit to start his own business. It was risky, but he had the clout to do it and the start up capital. Fast forward a year and he buys a gas station because it was supposedly a good deal. His business was going slow, so he figured this would bring in extra cash.

Presently he owns five houses, including his own, two of which he rents (one to us), and one he is getting ready to sell. He also owns the gas station and his business, both of which are doing poorly right now. It's a tough time for him and the fact that he blessed me with this means a lot. I tried not to accept it, but he wouldn't hear of it. So God bless you, Bill.

Curse

My 13 year old brother has sort of a Christmas party tonight. Basically he's going to spend the night with some friends. Problem is he has no way to get there and it's like 3 miles away. He rode his bike over there the other day, but got a ride home and left the bike. Our car is broke down (could either be the battery, the starter or both, but we don't have the cash to fix it until after Christmas). He had it out with his Grandmother last night, who accused his friends of being drug dealers, which is so totally not the case. We've met the kids and they are good kids. So because he got mad at her for that she got offended and refused to take him anywhere for who knows how long. She holds grudges like that and is totally judgemental.

So my brother asks our aunt. She says she's going to Lexington (20 minutes away) two hours before he has to leave and won't be coming back until four hours after he's supposed to be there. He tells her that's fine, he guesses he'll have to walk. She simply says, "Well, dress warm".


Blessing

A girl by the name of Emily over on the Dabel Brothers forums hired me to design a logo for her, which was very cool given the fact she's a little strapped for cash. I told her I didn't want much for it, and she was totally cool about it. I've gone through a couple of revisions, and we're getting closer to the end product.


Curse

Problem is even if I finish it today I wouldn't get the cash before Christmas since I don't have the ability to get money over the net at present. So I may not even charge her. Sigh.


Blessing

Finally heard back about some lettering jobs I was waiting on, all backend pay as far as I know unfortunately. But they build my resume, and some of them I know for fact will be published, so that's a major plus.


Curse

Unfortunately, three different ones came in at the same time, so I now have nearly thirty pages sitting in front of me needing to be lettered ASAP! Not to mention the two projects of my own I will have to letter before years end, giving me another 15 pages to complete!


Blessing

My artists on Wanabez and Eliminator, Scott D. M. Simmons and Jon Davis respectively, are awesome. Not just because of their work, but because they are both working hard on the two projects and racing against time to get done to meet the Dark Horse New Recruits deadline.

Jon emailed me today basically apologizing to me. To me! I should be apologizing to him. I threw the DH thing on him at the last minute, sent him two more pages of script to convert to art, and he is apologizing to me! Jon has worked hard on this project in the midst of moving and some personal problems, and he deserves a lot of credit. I'm just glad I found him and I hope he has a wonderful holiday.

Scott has also gone above and beyond. He's the one that tipped me off about the DH thing, and he totally started cranking out pages. The thing is Scott has been struggling to, having to work part time jobs just to stay afloat, and dealing with his own problems. I also wish him a very happy holiday.


Curse

This isn't a big one really, but we may not get the projects done in time. It's a bummer, but I'm totally cool with it. Family time is much more important at this time of year especially. If nothing else we can submit like crazy in the new year.


Blessing

I got a lot of feedback from artists on the Digital Webbing boards about some questions I had about artists' rates and what not for future reference. I still think most artists ask way too much, and think for some reason they deserve to be given gifts to rival those reserved for world leaders and movie stars, but I digress. The feedback they gave was worthwhile and it gave me a good barometer to know what I'm up against when the time comes. Did I say how much I appreciated Jon and Scott?!


Curse

The bad thing is these artists tend to derail threads and go into rants, which effectively get my threads closed through no fault of my own. It's ridiculous the level of animosity and immaturity these people resort to just to make a point. And most of the time their points are juvenile and imbecilic anyway.Sigh.


Blessing

I've gotten to spend some time with my brother this week, which is something we haven't gotten to do in a long time. We used to be inseparable, but now that he's a teenager he usually has other things he'd rather do. We had a breakthrough after an argument, and it really helped us understand where each other are at.


Curse

My brother is the only one I've spent time with in a while. I've had some health problems that have kept me tied up and what few friends I have left near me are usually otherwise engaged. My lot in life seems to have been to lose more friends to betrayal, backstabbing and neglect than anyone on the face of the planet. lol. Seriously, the people I have called "best friend" have all turned their backs on me, and mostly through no fault of my own. I say that knowing that there will be doubters. But the truth is I am a great friend. Not to brag, but I'm one of those lay down your life kind of guys, seriously. I've had so many problems with people leaving me, starting with my Dad, that I have serious trust issues. When I find someone I feel I can trust to a degree and can confide in and know they'll be there for me it's a big thing. They then get my complete friendship. I've always been a good listener, even to people I'm not particularly close to. And people have always been drawn to me to cry on my shoulder or run things by me, get my advice, etc. I go out of my way for my friends though, and I put others above myself at every turn, no matter how unrealistic that may sound. I have offered to give my car to my friends before. I have gone hungry for them and for my family. Heck, I'm still a couple of thousand dollars in debt because of helping family that just left me high and dry afterwards.

So when it comes to friends I really feel cursed. The only thing I could possibly be accused of is smothering to a degree, but not overbearingly. It is hard to get to know me as I am very guarded, but once they do I'm not at their house every night, or calling them all the time. I may try to interact with them once or twice a week, if that. And it's always something they enjoy doing. But for some reason after a while they just lose my number, stop taking my calls, disappear off the face of the planet, talk about me behind my back, give me dirty looks and ignore me for no apparent reason. I am dead serious, you can ask a couple of people close to me and they will vouch for this. It's really uncanny. You know, except for three occasions I can think of my friends have never gotten me one gift for any holiday, some of them in 20 years! Nor have they even acknowledged said holidays or birthdays. Heck, my whole church has only remembered my birthday three times in 20 years, and we're a very small church. But every year I go to their houses and buy them gifts and bake them cakes or cookies, not to get anything in return, but just because I love them. It just hurts is all, and this time of year just compounds that hurt a little more.


Blessing

...But I saved money on my car insurance with that lizard dude...wait, no they are actually higher than my current insurance...I guess it's a blessing I found that out then.

Seriously, I want to end this on a good note. Not trying to be negative here today, just spouting off on some feelings. There's actually a lot more to be said in the last curse that goes a lot deeper, but I figure I'll save that for future novels and movies and make a killer through royalties, then at least I'll be able to pay off debts, hire more artists, and get things together so when I do meet some genuine people, and hopefully a genuine wife to be, I'll be able to do for them and myself so we can all be happy together.

Money's not everything, but it sure does help! But for me the most important thing is the relationships we have. Mine are lacking at the moment, but I know I'm a decent guy, and someday somebody's gonna realize that. Until then I still have my brother, and I still have my internet pals that I can at least talk to about common interests. And I have so much to look forward to in life if things can just get straightened out.

I have a lot of goals set for myself, and part of my negativity in recent months is because I am fastly approaching a marker I had set for myself several years ago and I am nowhere near where I wanted to be. Not to mention all the problems I've faced and all the relationship (friendships) failures. So all that and some things I began to question and see in a different light had all added together and crashed down on me at once. It was more than I could handle, and I reacted by lashing out and being negative, which, if you know me at all, is not even in my character. But fortunately, the worst part of all that is over, things are beginning to straighten out, I am once again encouraged in my goals and dreams and am seeing different ways of achieving them, and my faith, to a point, has been restored.

There are still some things I have issues with, but I know they will work out. So before I get too cheesy and any more sentimental, let me close by saying that though this has been a rough year for me, it has brought me to a better place in the long run. I haven't quite reached that place yet, but I'm getting there, and I am convinced that soon I will be able to put this year behind me and move on to bigger and better things.

Man, so now what am I going to talk about in my retrospect next week? I'm sure I'll think of something. ;)

4 Wallpapers to Christmas

This one deserves an honorable mention for all its He-Man goodness, but it just wasn't good enough to make it to my desktop:

5 Wallpapers to Christmas

This is a Black Cat piece I manipulated by an artist at Deviant Art by the name of diablo2003.

6 Wallpapers to Christmas

This was created from a piece Andie Tong posted up on Digital Webbing. Andie is an artist for Marvel UK, and a darn good one at that. Check out his work at www.deemonproductions.com!

Lettering in Song and Freedom

I was telling a few friends over at the Creatorfuze forums that I hope to record some acapella Christmas songs by yours truly and post them here for all of you to enjoy. It's just something I feel like doing, and I hope it brings a little more Holiday spirit to everyone. So look for those to pop up throughout the week.

I just received 10 or so pages to letter, so it looks like I'm going to be busy tonight and tomorrow. I also have some revisions to do on a logo. So that's all good news for me and I'm excited about it.

I made up this Christmas card for a loved one last night. It's not great, but it's decent enough:

I think I've managed to miss most of the Christmas programming in recent days due to falling asleep or forgetting about them. I hope to at least catch a couple of good ones on this week.

Over at the Creatorfuze forums we've been discussing our favorite Christmas shows and movies. My favorite movie of all time is It's a Wonderful Life, but as far as Christmas movies go I also enjoy The Santa Clause movies, A Christmas Carol (Cary and I agree that the remake with Patrick Stewart is the best of the remakes), Family Man, Elf, and yeah, I even liked that Ben Affleck/Christina Applegate Christmas movie a while back, Surviving Christmas.

There are also several specials I enjoy, from the Charlie Brown Christmas to all the music specials that tend to come on. It's just a wonderful time of year with a lot of good, heartfelt programming on. It's the one time of year when it's okay to be sappy and corny and just enjoy the good stuff.

Finally got a committed colorist for DLS: White, so it looks like early 2006 I'll have another submission ready. We also settled on a new logo for MSC, and Paul DeBerry and I (mainly him) are working together to really redefine the MSC website and give it an MSC feel.


Tonight is the special tribute to our troops episode of WWE Raw that they do every year. The wrestlers go over there to entertain and lift up spirits in this time of year when it's very hard for our troops to be away from their families. God Bless our troops, you are all in my prayers!

President Bush spoke earlier today about a number of topics, but one thing kept getting emphasized. One, he wanted the American people to understand that the reasons details of certain monitoring strategies aren't divulged to the American people is because that knowledge then falls into the wrong hands. He used the example of a leak prior to 9-11 informing us that Osama Bin Laden was using a certain type of phone to contact his people within the states. As a result of that he changed his strategy. Therefore it's vitally important for some things not to be known at this time.

I thought our president showed great resolve and complete candor in today's speech. After the speech part, and as he was answering questions you could feel his passion for the decisions and points he was making. It's sad that the media and certain members of Senate keep twisting what he says into something else.

I have a great deal of respect and admiration for our President, however unpopular that makes me in the creative industry. I fully support the decisions he's made, and I feel today he addressed those and gave plausible reasons why he made the decisions he made.


Anyway, that's all I have right now. I'm off to eat a little supper, watch some wrestling, then get my butt to lettering and logo designing. I bid you all good night. :)

7 Wallpapers to Christmas

Indy-Pendant Closes 2005

Today the last edition of my column in the year 2005 goes live. I could have had one on or around Christmas Day, but I decided to give myself and everyone else a break. I may have one on New Years, or I may wait another week. It Depends on how I feel. Regardless, today's edition will be the last one of this year.

In this week's column I covered several titles in a quick hit sort of fashion. I also do something I rarely get the chance to do within the column, and that's highlight my friends' work. I wanted to end the year with a bang, so I started with a bunch of thank you's and shout outs, then I highlighted several individuals and several studios, books and creators.

I know there will be some of you I missed, and I'm sorry for that. Some of you I didn't mention by name, but I mentioned what you did for me and how thankful I was. All in all I think it turned out pretty good.

I honestly had no clue what I was going to do in this week's column. I didn't plan it out, and to be completely candid, I forgot about it until 8 pm last night. So as I started to write the intro it dawned on me that this would be the last column of the year. What resulted beyond that thought was a very spontaneous and heart-filled column that just poured out. So know and understand, while I didn't get really mushy, everything I said in that column came straight from the heart.

I intend to take a page from Cary's playbook and write a year's end retrospective within this blog before New Years. I just haven't had the time, peace or energy to do so just yet. It will more than likely be long knowing how long-winded I can be when I write. But it will be filled with a lot of emotion, honesty and reflection. I hope you enjoy it when I get around to it.

I don't know how many of you that read my column pay attention to the Points of Interest box at the top left, but this week I extended it beyond the typical ten links to include several columns, sites and blogs of my friends and people I hope to gain attention for, as such is the purpose of my column in the first place. Heck, it's the purpose of the Comic Avalanche.

In case you are not aware, Comic Avalanche does not and will not ever charge for ad space on the site. We house ads, logos, links, etc. for many indy creators and sites because the entire purpose of the site is to put more attention and publicity on those creators and their works. We do it for the love of comics and the love of the indy creators that will be tomorrow's pros.

So thank you for enjoying the site, and thank you for reading my column. If I have inspired you to even try one of these titles, and I know I have, then I have done what I set out to do.

In closing, I hope you all get something out of today's column. I tried my best to address each and every one of you in some way throughout the piece. If you think I missed you read it again and again, and I'm sure you will find some way that I reffered to all of you who have supported me. From the bottom of my heart I sincerely thank you. God Bless.

B-Out

8 Wallpapers to Christmas

It's Sunday, so I figured I'd go all cutsie. Lol

9 Wallpapers to Christmas

Totally Random

It's 5:45 a.m. and I am totally bored. I'm exhausted having had very little sleep, I have a ton to do, though I'm not getting paid for any of it, and I have no idea why I'm posting at all. lol. Seriously, I've been wanting to make a meaningful post for two days now but I haven't had anything meaningful to say. Sad, I know.

So anyway, I thought I'd take advantage of the popular word this year, and make this "random"!


WWE

First off, for you wrestling fans out there, I watched the latest episode of Byte This on wwe.com and Tazz and Michael Cole were hosting. Turns out the regular host, Todd Grisham, was MIA and they couldn't get anyone else to do the show. So 20 minutes late they finally find Cole and Tazz and throw them on the show. It is THE MOST HILARIOUS THING I HAVE SEEN IN A LONG TIME. The two of them pretty much shoot on everything from the announcers on Raw, to management, to Vince McMahon's hair, to the stale revolving storylines in WWE. It's ridiculous and totally, well, random. You have Tazz throwing his mic away, Cole hanging up on people, both of them just tripping out. It's really fun to watch if you can. I think it would even be funny for non-wrestling fans. It was that good in my humble opinion.


IMAGE

Recently the Image boards have been policing any topics that discuss books outside of Image within the Image Central forum unless it's Image creators discussing thier books at other places. It's understandable to a point that they want the topics to focus on Image. It's a little sad, though, that they don't have a designated area on the forums where people can post thier artwork or story ideas for discussion anymore. But ya learn to live with it.


TV

Watched the hour long episode of Joey last night and it was one of the funniest episodes I've seen. I personally think the show is hilarious, and I hate to see it cancelled. Problem is it's up against The O.C. and Smallville, which is not a great slot to be in. But last night Joey and Zach thought they had gotten married in Tijuana. It was hilarious because at first you thought Michael and a girl who spoke no English got married, then it turns out the other way.

But that was only part of the fun. There were plenty more antics, like Howard, who idolizes and pretty much stalks Joey, finding out about the marriage then proclaiming he would be gay too! Later on he tells Joey he went to one of those bars and just couldn't do it. Joey tells him he was never gay, and Howard says, "I wish I knew that 6 hours ago". You'd have to see it in context. It was really funny.


Smallville, of course, was a rerun, which gave me the opportunity to watch Joey, which I usually miss. So for this once I'm kind of glad.


Does anyone watch Reunion? I think the idea for this show was pure genius, but I hear it's gonna be cancelled also. For those unitiated, one of 6 high school friends is murdered 20 years later, and to solve the murder mystery a detective digs into the 6 friends' past, covering one year each week, working up to present day. It jumps back and forth, but the main content hits highlights in the crew's past. It's an intricately woven plot with bunches of twists here and there. Each week you think you know who killed the friend, but then something in the past is revealed to remove suspicion, or to add suspicion to another person. It's a really great show, but it's heavy on drama, which is cool with me, but may not appeal to everyone. But the concept is pure genius. Wish I'd thought of it!


CHRISTMAS "TIME"

I can't believe it's almost Christmas. I've lived in this house for over a year now and it seems like I just moved in weeks ago. It's a crazy feeling the way time goes by so much faster the older you get. I used to think it was because the older you get usually the busier you get, so that would be a reason time would seem to fly. But seeing as how for the better part of the year, sadly, I wasn't all that busy I don't think that's it. Maybe it's stress related or something, I don't know. Maybe I'll never know.


COMICS

I wish I had more comic book stuff to talk about, but nothing really comes to mind. I've read very few books the past couple of weeks, and not too much is happening with my projects. I do have two artists scrambling to get art ready in time to enter the Dark Horse New Recruits program, so that's cool. And if that doesn't go through I'll have submissions ready for other publishers, so things are looking up in that respect.

I am finishing up a lettering assignment today, a 5 page submission for someone, then I have a writing gig coming up soon. Sadly none of these are paying, but it's work in comics, so I'm cool with it.

I also have a logo to design for small pay, which I'm very grateful for. It's for a cool little one-person operation making lego accessories, like helmets and stuff, and they look pretty good. I'll get a link up here soon.

I'm thinking about selling some of my comics, if I figure I have any anyone would want to buy. I unfortunately don't get into the high collector's stuff, never have. And I only have one book signed and none graded. But maybe I'll have some back issues people would want, I don't know. I'm also considering using a print on demand to make some t-shirts and stuff. I have some neat little phrases and stuff. And I may even put some art on there if I can find anything of mine I do good enough. We'll see.

I'm having second thoughts about debuting Wanabez as a web comic. That's all I'll say about it because I haven't talked to the guys at the hosting site about it yet, but I'm just not sure at this point.


BLOGS

My boy Jason (Berek-Lewis - his link is to the right under blogs) scored an interview with Rob Liefeld in the near future. Major props to him.

Crazz (The Comic Book Observatory) is a new news writer for Scryptic Studios, so congrats Crazz, times 2 (inside reference there).

And Cary (In Other Words) is looking forward to the new year in his retrospective. He's also writing stories about himself dying underwater. Lol. Just kidding...sort of. :)


CLOSING

Not much else to say at this point. That's all the random craziness I can think of for now. Soon I'll post my thoughts on the different variations of each G.I. Joe action figure, the over opinonated forum posters, and hot models that lived in my state that are now famous, how I never met them, and how sad that makes me! :) Until then...

B-Out

10 Wallpapers to Christmas

Here's another fan-art Fem Four one:

11 Wallpapers to Christmas

What's Christmas without Tim Allen anymore?

Scryptic Studios Wants You!

Here's the copy I put together for our ad looking for new meat for the Scryptic Studio "Offices":



Scryptic Studios is once again on the lookout for a News Editor and News Writers to provide news content for www.scrypticstudios.com

All news content is writing related with the main focus predominately being comic writing news. This is a non-paying position, but all members of Scryptic Studios are respected parts of the team with a voice. And remember, several writers got their start in comics by writing comic news articles.

Duties for the News Editor and News Writers include, but are not limited to:

News Editor

*Make sure the news area stays full and active, and keep News Writers moving.

*Hire and, if need be, fire new writers.

*Provide news stories in cases the News Writers are unable to.

* Ensure that 3 to 4 news stories are posted each day (mon-fri) and we're
trying to move into ORIGINAL FEATURES ONLY.

* News is posted using HTML coding. You'll need to know at least basic
coding, which we can help you with, but the more you know the better
you'lldo. As long as you know the basics, you'll do fine and you can pick up
the rest as you go.

* As a senior member, you'll have a vote in all major decisions regarding
the site. Your opinion matters and we'll look to you to help us grow the brand.

News Writers

*Find and write news stories daily. Remember, we are trying to move to ORIGINAL FEATURES ONLY. Some leads may be provided.

*Post the news stories for approval using basic html coding (we can help you with that if needed).

*Be in constant contact with the news editor.


Scryptic Studios is also looking for a good, reliable Webmaster. There is no pay at this time, but the webmaster chosen will be in charge of helping implement new facets of the site that could open doors for future payment possibilities.

And finally, we are also looking for an Ad Manager. This person would be in charge of ad placements, sales, and possible creation throughout the site.


All inquiries should be sent to brant@scrypticstudios.com

For more information on what Scryptic Studios, the #1 comic writer's resource website is all about, check out the rest of the site here at www.scrypticstudios.com.

Good Luck,

Brant W. Fowler
Site Business Manager
Scryptic Studios

12 Wallpapers to Christmas

Here's another one for you, Cary (I have it without the hat too.):

And just for the heck of it, here are some non-Christmas Flash wallpapers I found over on the CBR forums. Somebody was making all kinds of cool DC wallpapers, and I just had to grab and nab. :)

13 Wallpapers to Christmas

You've been very naughty!

Rejection #...forget it, I lost count...

I just received an email from Erik Larsen himself rejecting Wanabez. He was very nice about it though. He just said it wasn't strong enough to make it in the market. Obviously he didn't have time to go into specific detail, but at least he didn't bag on it, which gives me hope that with work or the right publisher it could be strong enough. I don't know, but it's something.

It's still in the piles at Platinum and Alias, so who knows? But man, two rejections in three days less than two weeks before Christmas...

Okay, Big Guy Upstairs, what's up? :)

Here's a glimpse at the mock cover for Wanabez:

[EDIT] - Okay, so I'm a glutton for punishment, so I asked Erik if with work it had a shot, and he says if it were close he would have suggested tweaks, which he didn't. So Wanabez has no future at Image now or ever it would seem. Sigh. I hope somebody out there likes this story.

14 Wallpapers to Christmas

A Happy Holidays from the GLA:

Sinister Six Revisited

This is my entry in a draw-off on Digital Webbing. The assignment was the Sinister Six (comprised of any villains we desire from any company) attacking Spidey. This is my second revision of the piece (the first is on the Artist Showcase on the DW boards) and it still isn't that good. It's okay, but I'm leaps and bounds from being where I want to be with my art. But I figured you guys would like to look at it anyway, so here it is:

15 Wallpapers to Christmas

Here's a Mrs. Clause I could get used to!

Rejections

Well, I heard back from Marvel today. They declined allowing me to send in writing samples. That's the third rejection letter I've gotten from Marvel all together. I kind of figured as much, me being a virtually unproven writer and all, but it still hurts. I wish they had waited until after Christmas. :)

Seriously though I just wish I had the opportunity to at least show them my work rather than being turned away before even seeing what I'm capable of. I know of other writers that have my level of experience that have gotten to pitch, so I don't know what I did wrong that they did right.

Anyway, I'll get over it and look at the positives. I didn't expect to be picked up by Marvel with nothing published anyway, I just wanted to make them aware of me, but I didn't even get that chance. Oh well.

So I'll add that one to the stack and once I'm successful I'll look back on them with a sense of pride knowing I overcame the obstacles and the naysayers; knowing I proved them wrong, and hopefully got them to take a chance on me finally.

So here's to rejection letters! They are yet another factor that drives me to succeed!

Comments & Links

If you have pop-ups blocked, take note. I set the comments to pop up in a separate mini window, so it doesn't take you away from the blog. I saw this on a few others and I prefer it, so there we go. Let me know if you have problems with it.

I also added a couple more blogs to the links on the right.

16 Wallpapers to Christmas

Nothing like Warner Bros.' Taz ripping through your presents on Christmas!

Erik Larsen's Submission Answers

I've been working on this for a little bit and finally got it somewhat workable, so I thought I'd let you all in on it: http://www.brantfowler.com/ImageComics/larsensubmissionanswers.html

That is a compilation of all of Erik's posts from the submissions thread on the Image forums without all the sidetracking and derailing. :)

17 Wallpapers to Christmas

Here's a cool Savage Dragon Christmas:

Some Minor Happenings

[EDIT] - Turns out this is my 50th post! After reading Cary's 100th post I got curious. So here we are at 50 with a somewhat apt title to the post, and some minor announcements, so that's cool. Here's to the next 50 and beyond!

I won't be able to purchase any comics for a while, so my column will probably be a lot more experimental in the coming weeks after the ones I do have run out.

I've only been buying very few comics as it is the past couple of months. Luckily I was able to read a lot of the Infinite Crisis lead-ins via some friends, but I have yet to get ahold of the actual Infinite Crisis issues, so I've been avoiding news articles like crazy. lol.

See, I'm a Marvel guy, and so House of M and its followers took precedence.

I made some headway on my website today. I've almost got the look down I wanted. I've only been able to work on it sporadically, and I wasn't in any hurry anyway. I promised myself I would have new and better art to post on it before it went live again, and I'm just now getting back into drawing. Of course I still may not have a lot of sequentials on there for a while, but I intend to branch out into more non-comic pieces as well.


Still looking for a collaborator. I'm waiting to hear back from one guy, but I don't know if he'll go for it. He's really good and he should be getting a page rate. I just wish I could give him one.


Tonight's Smallville episode is entitled "Lexmas". I haven't really paid attention to the commercials and such for it, but I understand he (Lex) has some sort of dream where he and Lana are married. That oughta be interesting.


The Image Comics Messageboards no longer allow any posts displaying art or discussion of comic properties not belonging to Image for the general posters. Pros who have books at Image, however, are allowed to talk about their own projects elsewhere.

This issue caused a great deal of grief, but all in all I can kind of understand it. What I didn't like was that I got lampooned for asking if my signature was okay by one of the posters who was tired of hearing people whine about the new rule. I just wanted to make sure it was okay, I wasn't fighting it.

I can understand his frustration though as there are a couple of posters that were just totally flamatory about the whole thing.

In an odd twist of irony, Marvel features ads on their website promoting Dark Horse and DC comics. Ah, the power of the mighty investor dollars.


And that's about it for now. I'll keep you all posted with further happenings.

B-Out

18 Wallpapers to Christmas

Here's todays wallpaper, a fan art Fem Four treat:

Society's Plague

Just thought I'd post a couple of pics of my 17 year old cousin, who's band is linked down in the cool stuff section. But for those opposed to the scrolls, here you goes: www.societysplague.com

A couple of the songs (under Recordings in Multimedia - the opening drums on the first song aren't that great to be honest) have vocals. The others are instrumentals. My cousin also plays guitar and drums, both self taught. Musical talent runs in our family. I hope someday he gets a break somewhere and you all buy his cds! They have a long way to go, but they're willing to work at it.

19 Wallpapers to Christmas

Here's one for you DC Comics lovers:



I know Scooby isn't really DC, but they publish him, and it fit with the others, so get over it. :)

Miscellaneous

I have rearranged all my links on the right by categories and added quite a few. I figured as they were they were kind of hard to navigate. Thanks Cary and Jason for the idea after looking at your blogs. I like the way they look now I think. As I find other cool links I'll add those to the list.

If anyone can check to see that my column is in fact up and running (link on the sidebar under My Works) I'd appreciate it. I haven't heard from Mr. Avalanche for days and I want to make sure he got my files and posted them up.

And as you might guess from that last paragraph, I still can't access comicavalanche.com. As I stated before, we finally ruled out any problems on my PC that may cause the problem. We also ruled out my ISP and at first it seemed we had ruled out godaddy, the host of comicavalanche.com. However, once they realized I was unable to access several of their sites within a certain range of IP addresses rather than just that site through ftp (why they got that idea in the first place is a mystery to me) they finally had to knock it up to the next level of support. I'm still waiting to hear back from them. Sucks not being able to access a site I am the webmaster of!


I don't know if I ever actually stated here, but I did send Wanabez out to Image. It's been in at Platinum forever (they recently informed me they are behind, which is understandable with the holidays, so no worries there) and for a few weeks with Alias. I finally got it off to Image (had to wait until I had access to a printer that actually had ink in it!) and now the waiting game begins.


I finally heard back about a couple of lettering jobs (I can't remember if either of them are paying, but I'm thinking they're backend) and one writing gig (also backend). So hopefully those will pan out.


I forget if I mentioned it, but I did a 10 second voice acting thing for $2 last week. lol. It was fun though.

I've only gotten two small bites on my search for a collaborator to split rights with. One sent me samples, and the other I approached and is at least thinking about it. The other guy's art was decent, but it's not the style I envision for the book, so I'll have to pass on him.

If you are an artist and you're, by chance, reading this, then you can view the ads at Digital Webbing in either the Talent Search section or in the Help Wanted forum, or at Comic Foundry in the Match Ups section. [EDIT] I figured I'd just place the ad here as well:

SPLIT RIGHTS. First off, this is a non-paying job. I am looking for a collaborator to split rights and profits with on a new idea I'm working on. The split would be fair and contracts would be signed. If I am able to pay anything upfront after Christmas I'll consider that also, but the percentage of rights ownership may change in that event. Please send your samples to submittogonzo@yahoo.com with the subject "Control Submission". Links are preferred. More details will be provided to the chosen artist. Thanks.


Saw the X-Men 3 trailer finally after realizing I had to upgrade to Quicktime version 7. It looks decent. Jean Grey blasting the doors open looked cool. I'm a little disappointed with Beast, Angel and Juggernaut though. I thought they could have done a lot better with them than they did. But all in all it seems pretty cool. I'll reserve judgment until May 26, 2006 or after, when I've actually seen the movie. The coolest thing about it as of now is that it seems like there are going to be a LOT of mutants making cameos in it, which is always cool.


I came up with an idea for a Christmas movie recently. Guess it's all the Christmas spirit going around. I'm not going to go into details about it or anything, but it's a feel-good comedy. I'm not sure if I will format it as a comic and try to submit it to Platinum or if I'll take a stab at writing the screenplay myself, getting an agent or whatever and shopping it around. Right now it's a loose thought that needs to be expounded upon.

For those not aware, Platinum Studios takes on comic projects they feel have merit to translate into other forms of media, be it movies, television or animation. They are behind Showtime's hit series, Jeremiah and several movies currently in the works.


I recently read an article on Grant Morrison in Wizard Magazine. It was an enlightening piece. I'm not the biggest Grant Morrison fan, but I found a new respect for him after reading about his start and where it has brought him. He currently lives in Scotland in a 20 room home, and according to the article if he wanted, the 45 year old writer could retire and live off royalties from his successful comic runs for the rest of his life! That's quite a financial accomplishment, let alone the literary one.

It's an interesting article, and it prompted me to research a little more. So I looked up his Wikipedia entry and his bio on his site (which is now in my Writers links section to the right). Some great stuff there.

If you guys haven't noticed, I've finally got the art bug again, I just hope it stays around this time. As I was talking to my mother we determined what I honestly think is the reason I have a tremendous lack of patience for art now is. I think it's related to stress and pressure. It's no secret I'm struggling a bit financially right now, and to be honest we've never really been well to do, but we've somehow managed to barely scrape by (or at least mastered avoiding bill collectors!). When I was younger, before all the responsibilities, I could draw for hours at a time. And I would notice improvement in my art every day. There were no other options for me. I was going to be an artist, specifically a comic artist. Then a couple of things got in the way, I gave myself some bad advice based on some misconceptions (long story) and voila. Now, years later I wish every day that I had that passion I used to carry for drawing, but every time I sit down to draw I just can't relax enough or focus enough to do anything.

I think the reason is that because of finances everything I do is geared towards making money, which is stressful and it removes the creative force that fuels the passion from it all together. And for that reason I get stressed out if I can't do it as well as I would like to do it, meaning I'm nowhere near pro level at this point. With writing it's different. There's still that pressure to a point, but I'm so passionate about writing that it's somehow easier to do. I can just let things pour out in words, and it's almost effortless because it's just there. With art I try to pour it out and it doesn't translate as well because my skill isn't at the level where it could. That's frustrating.

Anyway, the past few days have been great being able to sit down and draw, even if the results are less than stellar. Maybe it's the season, I don't know, because the stress is there more than ever at the moment. But something has allowed me to enjoy it again and I just hope it lasts.


We put up the Christmas tree finally last night, and it's the tallest one we've had in a long time. A little on the skinny side, but still cool. I love the holidays and the warm feeling of it. I just enjoy this time of year so much.

Here's another Liberty Meadows Christmasy pic:

This is from Image's holiday special I believe.

Anyone that has my pager number, that number is no longer active. It was a church pager and due to financial considerations they had to disconnect them all.


And that about does it for now. I can't really think of anything else at the moment, but I'm sure I will later. Til then...

B-Out

20 Wallpapers to Christmas

How about a little Harry Potter for your Tuesday?

I don't know if you can see the text at the bottom left, but Santa is Dumbledore, and the reindeer is Harry's stag Patronas. A kind of clever fan art depiction I thought. I hope you enjoy.

Some Art

I've recently (the past couple of days precisely) been getting back into drawing trying to hone my skills. Here are a couple of sketches I have done since. I used photo reference for these. Let me know what you honestly think.

21 Wallpapers to Christmas

How about something to start your Mondays off right? How about a little Liberty Meadows:

22 Wallpapers to Christmas

This one is kind of shabby, but I thought it was funny enough to use. I wish I could find more like this that were really put together well. Oh well, it's still fun:

Connections

(NOTE - I found some Christmas animations and pics and will just be randomly posting them throughout the holidays for the fun of it)

As I was determining how much time to spend writing each week in an effort to manage my time better (I also allotted out time for drawing, lettering, praying and a bunch of other stuff I should be doing and intend on making myself do in increments) I started thinking of how much of that writing time should be spent on the internet, specifically on blogs, columns, interviews and forums. Well the blog issue was solved rather quickly as I generally spend the same amount of time here everyday. Also, right now I'm only doing a couple of interviews a month, so that's no big deal. And the column's weekly, so that doesn't take a huge chunk of time either. So then came the issue of forums.

Now there are several forums I frequent, a couple I used to frequent, then several I hit occasionally. Image is one I used to be frequent at, but here recently it's been every few days I'll read a couple of threads. But in this era of comics everyone has a message board, or they have a board hosted on someone else's forum, which means there's a lot more interaction with pros and aspiring pros than there ever was before the rise of the internet. Before that the only schmoozing one could do was at conventions.

Now I've never been one to schmooze, but I do understand the value of speaking with professionals in your field of choice. So all this determining how much time I should spend on forums got me to thinking about which forums to spend time at. And that leads me to the topic of this post. How important are connections to our careers in comics?

I'm sure everyone would like to think that their talent alone would merit them success or opportunities in the business. However, as we see more and more Hollywood writers and novelists hitting it big with Marvel and DC, is this really true? Then there are the indy writers and artists that work their way up and finally get noticed by Marvel or DC (all of this assuming that working for the big two is one of your goals of course) I'm sure because of their talent, but also because they've been at cons, talked to some editors, and made contacts. So what does that mean for the little man?

Now I'm not saying that just because of who they know these creators are getting work. The majority of them are really talented and deserve what they've gotten. And the ones that came specifically from indy or small(er) press publishers really worked long and hard to get noticed. And the Hollywood and novel writers have proven themselves capable of appealing to massive audiences and entertaining with their written words. So I'm not knocking anyone.

What I am saying, however, is if I were working on a hit television show would I stand more of a chance at getting a big gig as I would had I only published a small press book, or even self-published? Or would I stand more of a chance at getting a shot if I hit all the cons and schmoozed it up with the big boys? Forget the fact that I'm not published in comics yet and assume for a moment that I am, then ask yourself those questions. It's one thing to be unproven, but take, for instance, if I sent some killer script to Marvel after being greenlit to pitch, and it was a really good story with excellent characterization, and was well paced, unique and exciting. Would it matter that all I had on my resume was a 16 page story I self-published and sold 100 copies of if I had never made any connections within Marvel? I'd like to think it wouldn't, but I'm honestly not sure.

Now I'm not making any bold proclamation that I'm the next Stan Lee, Stephen King or any other great writer. I'm just saying for instance, and I'm using myself in place of any one of us aspiring creators, in this case writers.

So how important are connections to getting a real shot in the industry? And given someone in my position who can't go to a lot of cons, and when I do I don't go to the bars where all the creators supposedly go, and which is rumored to be the best spot for meeting creators and making connections, because I don't drink and don't like the atmosphere, how important is it to me to make connections, and how do I do it? Which brings us back to the forums issue.

When determining which forums to go to and how much time to spend on them I really got to thinking about which ones would be in my best interest to visit. Sad, I know. Firstly, regardless of any connections I may or may not make, there are several boards I just really enjoy going to for the conversation and interaction. Among those are the Image boards, the DBPro boards, and most recently Jason Berek-Lewis' creatorfuze forum, which I thoroughly enjoy. Then there are others I'm required to frequent, but also enjoy, which include Scryptic Studios, MSC, and Comic Avalanche. But aside from those, there are plenty of other company, studio and creator forums I could be visiting to make connections, or, as I generally prefer, just engaging in conversations with people who have similar interests.

But if connections are truly vital to success in addition to having the talent to back yourself up, and when it comes to writing I truly feel I do (the other stuff needs some work, but I'm getting there), is it necessary for someone like me who is limited on convention exposure to frequent these message boards, make a name for myself, and speak with pros? Or can I just go there when I feel like conversing or reading, and just let things fall where they may and still make connections without even trying?

There's a lot to consider here, and I hate the thought of going to forums just to get noticed and make friendly with creators. I've never been a suck-up, and I generally steered clear of the popular crowds others would flock around, whether in high school, in church (young preachers), work places or whatever. It just all always seemed so fake to me. So it's not in me to just throw myself out there and say, "Hey, look at me!". But I do understand that in any field you have to be assertive and show what you can offer. But for one such as me, or you, should we limit that to pitches and submissions and let our work speak for itself, or what?

I was told not too long ago by an editor who's worked on several popular books published by one of the larger publishers aside from the big two that being constantly visible on the message boards of that publisher was vital in their success and involvement in those books. I've been told similar things by others as well.

Me? I have been fortunate enough to make connections, or as I like to call them, acquaintances and friends, through just posting for the fun of it, or through my column, or through this blog. So I'm of two minds here. One the one hand I see how important it is to be known, and more importantly for my work to be known. And in order for that to happen, I have to make myself visible to the right people. But on the other hand, I don't want to become one of those people who goes out of their way to get noticed by certain pros to get a foot in the door.

So it's a tough call how important connections are, and at what cost you should go to to make them. For me personally I can't be any way but the way I am. I will continue to go to the message boards I enjoy going to, and I'll post my work here and there, or converse with pros and peers as it happens, but I won't pinpoint forums to go to just to make connections. I've made some very cool connections simply by being myself thus far, so why change a winning formula? Sure, I'm not working on any major property at the moment, but that's more my fault than anything the way I look at it. And while I feel knowing people that can help you get where you want to go will never hurt (as long as you don't take advantage of those relationships), for me the more important thing is producing good work that speaks for itself, which in turn speaks of me.

So in conclusion, I think having connections is overrated. Making friends and acquaintances, and having people notice your talent, well that's a different story. And that's the route I'd prefer to take.

B-Out

23 Wallpapers to Christmas

Here's one for you, Cary:

24 Wallpapers to Christmas

Today I went with a classic character recently modernized, in The Grinch:

Collaborating

I'm stepping into new territory in collaborations. I just put ads out on comicfoundry.com and digitalwebbing.com looking for an artist to split rights and profits with. I even set up a new email address for submissions, submittogonzo@yahoo.com. This is new for me because I have never given up rights to any creator owned properties I have in the works. I've given share of profits, of course. I've even worked with a co-writer/editor of sorts before, and I listen to my artists if they have ideas not only about scenes and stuff, but also about direction of the characters, etc. But never have I attempted to go into a full co-owned venture with my stories or characters. So that would beg the question, "Why now?"

Well, I have thought about going this route for some time. One of the chief reasons is right now I can't afford to pay an artist of the caliber I want the price they charge. The thing that jumpstarted me on this was coming across an outstanding artist who obviously spends a LOT of time on details. He hasn't done any pro work, so I thought maybe I'd get lucky by approaching him. Unfortunately his rates were way too high for me and there's no way. And usually I would complain about this sort of thing with non-pro artists, but this guy is really good. Cary Nord gave him compliments!

So as this revelation hit me, that it was going to be a while before I could pay an artist up front for anything, the idea of the rights issue came back to me. I stewed over it for two days and even talked to my mother about it. My mother read the concept of the story I'm considering doing this on and really liked it. Now you have to understand and know my Mother. She won't tell me whatever I do is good. As a matter of fact, she's my hardest critic, especially on my art and singing. She is blunt and to the point and will tell me like it is, whether I like it or not. So I trust her opinion with this stuff.

Anyway, after we talked I came to a couple of conclusions. First off, the realization that I'm not published yet cemented in my brain. Granted, I do have a Platinum gig, but it's not my story. And it's not published yet either. So that was the first thing, which I'll elaborate on in a sec.

Secondly, my story is a really good concept, but we came to the conclusion that in today's market while it has the potential to be a moderate success, it's probably not going to be the next Men In Black or anything.

Now both of these factors tie back into the reason I've hesitated for so long on this type of arrangement. See, I am very guarded with my work for a number of reasons, as any writer should be. But I've always had this idea in my head that if I gave up rights to some property I really believed in I would potentially have obstacles in doing what I want with the property, and I wouldn't get the majority of profits from the property. Both are huge things to consider. But with the two factors stated above realized, with this story it's a gamble I'm willing to take if it helps me get my name and work out there, which would in turn open doors for me to do the more viable properties I believe I have developed.

Now of course all of this assumes I'm good enough to actually have greater than moderate success, which I believe I am, again, as any writer should. So it's all subjective, and yes, I am a little paranoid and possibly overprotective of my work, but I don't really see that changing.

But I wanted to get a really good artist on this project, and I wanted to be able to give something back aside from a percent of profits. I wanted them to feel like it is as much their project as it is mine. I also wanted to expand my horizons a bit and collaborate on the characters. Not only their looks, but their personalities, and the direction of the story. I wanted it to be a true collaboration in all senses of the word. So I'm going to be picky about who I work with of course.

Normally I design at least the rough sketches of my characters being an artist as well. This is just something I enjoy doing. But in the past year I've had a few unique takes on my characters from some really great artists, and this totally inspired me to give up a little of the control in that area.

At any rate, that's what I'm doing with this project, which is the same project I mentioned a few posts earlier. That's all I can really say about it at this point, but it's a cool concept. It's not totally original, then again nothing really is. But it takes things in a different direction and casts them in a different light than I've personally seen done. So hopefully it will appeal to people. And to Artists! We shall see.

B-Out

25 Wallpapers to Christmas

For some odd reason I have decided to use a different Christmas themed wallpaper everyday on my PC until Christmas. All of these are comic, cartoon or movie themed ranging from Charlie Brown to The Santa Clause to Superman. It's just a fun little way to celebrate the holiday season I guess.

So every day I'll post up a new Wallpaper. Some of these I found on the internet, others I cropped and pasted together from images found on the internet. So enjoy and feel free to use them yourselves. And if you have any recommendations of similar wallpapers let me know as I am still looking for a few to finish my 25 days.

So for today's, being December 1st and all, I/m going back old school with Mickey Mouse and crew:

Blocked

Alright, so listen how messed up this is. As you all know comicavalanche.com is a site I maintain. And you also know that about a week or so ago I could no longer access the site. Well after talking to so many tech support agents I feel all teched out every day over the past week I finally discovered the problem. It turns out that comicavalanche's hosting server, which is godaddy, has blocked a range of IP addresses because of some spam precaution. And wouldn't you know that my IP address is within that range? But that's not even the kicker. The kicker is they can't or won't unblock it! And furthermore, the idiots at Adelphia (my ISP) brushed me off, said it wasn't their problem and that there was nothing they could do.

So here I am unable to access a site I designed, maintain and update on a daily basis with no one willing to help me resolve the issue. Can it get more ridiculous than that?

Sorry, had to vent. My frustration knows no limits at this time!