It's been a crazy past couple of days; work's been kicking my ass, covering shifts and hitting doubles consecutively, it'd gotten to the point where I was struggling to make time to work on Issue Two. But thankfully, I've got the day off tomorrow, and I plan to fully utilize that day being productive and catching up on what I need to.
Be that as it may, having pushed myself to such extremes at work has most certainly aided in accomplishing the second most important thing that's supposed to happen this year:
Issue One has been purchased; prints are on the way!!
Fuckin A right I gotta tell you, it feels damn good, but what'll obliterate that particular feeling is just holding on to that first print...
Salivating; I am.
The details regarding where to pick up a copy, who gets one mailed to them, or where to grab it online will all come about when they get to me door step.
That was really all I wanted to talk about, but then this happened lol (you don't have to read all of that shit below, but I'd appreciate it no doubt):
Small tangent, if I may...
I was speaking with a friend of mine the other night, kinda wanted to put some thoughts I've had rummaging in my brain out on the table and get her insight on some..well, most of those topics. Nothing crazy really, just some fears I've had about where I am in life, where I'm going; shit I've done, shit I'm doing, my family, myself; what's the outcome gonna be? What am I to make of it all, such and so on.
A small part of me has a foreboding fear that choosing comics as the mainstay representation of my 80 thousand dollar receipt for drawing well was a bad idea, another part of me fears that in the nearing four years since graduation, my inability to land a field related job and the ever growing time frame of not having enough experience has set me back considerably compared to those that have. Needless to say, I'm 25, and I'm actually scared that I've fucked up some how.
Now before I get a swarm of "oh grow up" or "stop being such a pessimist", or "fuck you black man" from anyone, I'd like to point out that I know 25 is still young, I've plenty of time still to make something good happen, and work that much harder to get what I want out of life. The biggest... how to put this eloquently... lie? I think I've come to realize is that the emergence of adulthood can be represented as, let's say, an oar. This oar is handed to you by a faceless individual, let's call it society. Once you're handed this oar, you're pointed in the direction of a raft that has been "shaped" by the person you are, and ultimately your decision to accept or decline college. If you chose to go to college, your raft gets the works, a full shine job, sturdier frame and such. However, if you don't go to college, said raft may not be as strong, or just dingy looking.
You're confronted, immediately, by two choices that will, or ought to "define" what your outcome in life will/may be. So of course, naive little 17 year old kid accepts that "hey, obviously I don't want to get caught with my pants down in a shitty raft, better go to college". And so it begins, into the raft you go, and on your way, perhaps not deliberately but most certainly ignorantly oblivious to two of the most important questions that should've been asked prior to boarding your chosen raft: what type of waters should I expect, and can this oar actually steer me without breaking?
But how are you to know this? Who's there to warn you? Your parents? Your teachers?
Is it one's own fault for not applying themselves hard enough? Can society and its economical stand point really be blamed? Should it? Perhaps one's skill just really isn't up to par to what the industry demands of you, and then what? Work harder while doubly earning your independence badges? Two jobs, maybe three just to take the edge off? Fight to win, fight to live? Be better, be smarter, be more adventurous? Take on everything, compromise nothing? Live at home, if you're so fortunate to have one to go back to? Live on your own? Do you put your whims aside and see to another's dream coming true? Create or be apart of a collective and build something together? Fight on your own terms and see to your own success? Push your limits? Break them if need be? What are they? What breaks them? Become susceptible to influences or create your own path? How do you win? How can you win? Do you even bother wining? Is survival enough? Is survival the only thing that matters? Is survival overrated? Are you capable? What defines your capabilities? What are your standards? Are you driven to uphold them? Can they be sacrificed? Who the fuck are you? Why are you doing this? What possible, overwhelmingly self absorbed purpose could you ever bring forth to us all? To everything? To everyone? And for fuck sakes... you actually intend to father children?
I'll stop for the sake of losing my point.
I want to do something with my life that not only provides a means of inspiration to others, but gives me a chance to bring... I don't know, something to the proverbial table. But can I really expect to provide "the" life for my offspring if I can't even control my own? Coming here from another country has proved, time and again, to be extremely daunting, and no, I don't mean overcoming fears, stereotypes (pertinent though they may be), or even adjusting to new cultures. No, it's the life support that so many of my US natives have that I severely lack: I have no cushion. My failure, here and now, outlines my own doomed future, and with what little family I have and cherish, there is no net to fall back on, and that scares me.
I go to work, and come home and draw; rinse and repeat. Pretty easy for a single male with no responsibilities beyond personal amenities, but for how long? I don't want to be 29 and still have this conversation, fuck I didn't want to be 25 and still have this conversation but I figured, fuck I just graduated, time to pay some dues, kick down a few doors and whatever. Shit got real, and I know it gets worse, I just don't know when or how.
I've chosen to create a comic series on my own because finding help is hard without paying someone, and having to rely on others often leads to failure, first hand witnessed accounts mind you. Why does it have to be that way? As much as I wish it didn't, it does, and well, Issue One is all I have to say about that. But there's a lot of this I can't handle alone, and fooey on me for not being smarter with the time I had with someone beside me.
After I blabbed her ear off, my friend wrapped up with really only one possible next step that ought to alleviate, or even substantially fix everything; start over, move to a place that can better your chances and start over.
I've lived in Florida since I came to this country in 97, 16 bloody years ago.
It is perhaps indeed time that notion becomes a higher priority than I realize.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Thursday, March 7, 2013
What Dreams May Come?
So my friend, Juan Fernandez, the talented SOB that he is, gave my friends and I some extremely insightful knowledge regarding submitting books to Image. As most of you may know, Juan is a certified DC colorist, I mean this guy is the fucking bees knees. And too, Image is pretty much among the biggest independent distributors outside of Marvel and DC, but they're among the smallest minority houses that still, I guess, features an "open door" policy when it comes to submitting books. They're all about artists maintaining creator rights and what not, which is all well and good, so suffice it to say, I had the intent on submitting Periphery once I was done with it.
"Couple things to keep in mind", he said:
"Before you even approach them, make sure to have at least the first three issues ready to go!"
That wasn't all too surprising; matter of fact, just after I graduated from AI, I had put together a newspaper comic strip that I wanted to get syndicated for daily printing. It was a pretty decent story, but they all required 3 months MINIMUM amount of strips before it gets sent to print (yo that's like 90 3 to 4 panel strips I got 4 in and I was like, aight this can wait), so it's only natural that a comic book publishing company would want the same kind of security blanket from their artists. But here's where he caught me:
"Second thing to keep in mind, you're going to need to acquire roughly 25 to 28 hundred dollars to cover the cost of print, advertising, and distribution."
Well holy shit Sammy I do believe we've got an issue!
Where the fuck am I gonna get that type of money? So as I stood there in the cold night surround by my three home dawgies, I pontificated as to where I could establish such a high amount of fundage, but then, classic Juan, threw in the clincher at the very end:
"That's 25 to 28 hundred...EACH".
Go ahead and calculate that on your own time.
So the way I saw my life unfurling before me was damn near tragic; why in God's name did I think this was a feasible endevour? Allow me to spit some logic at you: Let's say, that somehow, you're able to procure 10 grand to pay Image, AND you've got three books ready to roll right? Pros: That ten grand has covered distribution costs, guaranteed rack sales at hundreds if not thousands of comic book shops across the US, and maybe even the world! Advertising on imagecomics.com (you're welcome), and a whole slue of other shit! Guess what; Cons: even with all of that, there is absolutely no guarantee that you'd see ANY profit from those books (for the benefit of the doubt, let's say initially), that means that in the three months that each of the three issues are released, you may not even break even, considering that you've got to use the earnings from that book to pay for the remaining issues.
Gamble? Too subtle a word I think.
So his advice was to just promote the book on my own; pay for the printing myself, chat up comic shops across the book on my own, and submit it to them all on my own terms and income. Of course it made sense, and for but a fleeting moment, all hope didn't seem lost.
What's funny though, it's like 6 a.m. right, and today is the first day off after my 21 consecutive days of work at my job, and I took it upon myself to digitally submit Periphery to Image Comics lol.
Why the fuck not right?
Fuck it if they don't like it, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and have a blast doing it...
But maybe....just maybe... lol come on obviously they're not gonna pick it up but a nigga can dream right?!
Cheers!
"Couple things to keep in mind", he said:
"Before you even approach them, make sure to have at least the first three issues ready to go!"
That wasn't all too surprising; matter of fact, just after I graduated from AI, I had put together a newspaper comic strip that I wanted to get syndicated for daily printing. It was a pretty decent story, but they all required 3 months MINIMUM amount of strips before it gets sent to print (yo that's like 90 3 to 4 panel strips I got 4 in and I was like, aight this can wait), so it's only natural that a comic book publishing company would want the same kind of security blanket from their artists. But here's where he caught me:
"Second thing to keep in mind, you're going to need to acquire roughly 25 to 28 hundred dollars to cover the cost of print, advertising, and distribution."
Well holy shit Sammy I do believe we've got an issue!
Where the fuck am I gonna get that type of money? So as I stood there in the cold night surround by my three home dawgies, I pontificated as to where I could establish such a high amount of fundage, but then, classic Juan, threw in the clincher at the very end:
"That's 25 to 28 hundred...EACH".
Go ahead and calculate that on your own time.
So the way I saw my life unfurling before me was damn near tragic; why in God's name did I think this was a feasible endevour? Allow me to spit some logic at you: Let's say, that somehow, you're able to procure 10 grand to pay Image, AND you've got three books ready to roll right? Pros: That ten grand has covered distribution costs, guaranteed rack sales at hundreds if not thousands of comic book shops across the US, and maybe even the world! Advertising on imagecomics.com (you're welcome), and a whole slue of other shit! Guess what; Cons: even with all of that, there is absolutely no guarantee that you'd see ANY profit from those books (for the benefit of the doubt, let's say initially), that means that in the three months that each of the three issues are released, you may not even break even, considering that you've got to use the earnings from that book to pay for the remaining issues.
Gamble? Too subtle a word I think.
So his advice was to just promote the book on my own; pay for the printing myself, chat up comic shops across the book on my own, and submit it to them all on my own terms and income. Of course it made sense, and for but a fleeting moment, all hope didn't seem lost.
What's funny though, it's like 6 a.m. right, and today is the first day off after my 21 consecutive days of work at my job, and I took it upon myself to digitally submit Periphery to Image Comics lol.
Why the fuck not right?
Fuck it if they don't like it, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and have a blast doing it...
But maybe....just maybe... lol come on obviously they're not gonna pick it up but a nigga can dream right?!
Cheers!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Here Comes The Sun
Forced to pull in another all nighter, here I am at what... 5:20 in the a.m. and only halfway done with this client's comic page; fooey on me thinking digitally illustrating would be faster, it's almost like an hour and a half per panel.
But whatever, it's gotta get done.
Came across this painter from the late 20th, courtesy of 4chan (she strikes again). Dudes name is Zdzisław Beksiński, a Polish fellow with an eye for unimaginably grim surrealism. I'd always been fond of a particular painting of his (unbeknownst to me of course, and pictured below). It's this fellow walking through a crevasse, or canyon or something, and along the walls, towering over this little guy, are menacingly ominous figures just standing there in a row. Some of which look as though they materialize from crows, others holding some kind of object or device entailing God only knows. Such a fantastic piece it is!
(I'm kinda hesitant about uploading works of others on here, but for disclaimers sake, this work of art is property of Zdzisław Beksiński; copyright whenever he painted it)
I kinda think the extended black section was done digitally, I'm not entirely sure the original piece looks this way.
After Googling the majority of his work, that painting sparked some serious creative embers in my brain. I would absolutely love to create a story in and around his paintings, I may one day take a stab at recreating imagery such as this and see if this could turn into something I could get into
Absolutely can not wait to get his book, ought to be a treat!
Issue Two of Periphery is running along fine, I've got my first day off in three weeks this Thursday! I plan on doing nothing! Maybe play Mirrors Edge some more; love me some parkour! Beyond that, nothing of great importance is happening.
Cheers to you all! And thanks for humoring me!
Seriously, I do appreciate you all.
But whatever, it's gotta get done.
Came across this painter from the late 20th, courtesy of 4chan (she strikes again). Dudes name is Zdzisław Beksiński, a Polish fellow with an eye for unimaginably grim surrealism. I'd always been fond of a particular painting of his (unbeknownst to me of course, and pictured below). It's this fellow walking through a crevasse, or canyon or something, and along the walls, towering over this little guy, are menacingly ominous figures just standing there in a row. Some of which look as though they materialize from crows, others holding some kind of object or device entailing God only knows. Such a fantastic piece it is!
(I'm kinda hesitant about uploading works of others on here, but for disclaimers sake, this work of art is property of Zdzisław Beksiński; copyright whenever he painted it)
I kinda think the extended black section was done digitally, I'm not entirely sure the original piece looks this way.
After Googling the majority of his work, that painting sparked some serious creative embers in my brain. I would absolutely love to create a story in and around his paintings, I may one day take a stab at recreating imagery such as this and see if this could turn into something I could get into
Absolutely can not wait to get his book, ought to be a treat!
Issue Two of Periphery is running along fine, I've got my first day off in three weeks this Thursday! I plan on doing nothing! Maybe play Mirrors Edge some more; love me some parkour! Beyond that, nothing of great importance is happening.
Cheers to you all! And thanks for humoring me!
Seriously, I do appreciate you all.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Welcoming The Ides
It's March 1st!
Fuckin A this year is flying.
I've dropped the newest teaser cover on the Bookface, featuring a sneak (well not so sneaky) preview of the cover my friend Adam did for the book. I've had a good long while to look at it, and every time it's still a pretty solid piece, while putting the book together however, I came to the point where I didn't know how to layout those last few pages that were left.
I've got the cover, inside cover, the 24 pages, the ad for the printing company (so you guys will at least know where to go to buy it online) for the inside rear, and then, bam, what do I do with the back of the book?
So I opted to put together a collage of faux cover concepts that didn't make it to the final drawing board, option one seen here:
Nonetheless, it's been a fun process. Issue Two is a third of the way drawn, and that issue may just fall short of 24 pages this time around, depending on how much of the story I want to extrapolate in it. But I'm good on time to reach my projected August 2013 launch date; how fucking cool would it be if I could get a colorist lol.
Anywho!
Cheers folks!!
Fuckin A this year is flying.
I've dropped the newest teaser cover on the Bookface, featuring a sneak (well not so sneaky) preview of the cover my friend Adam did for the book. I've had a good long while to look at it, and every time it's still a pretty solid piece, while putting the book together however, I came to the point where I didn't know how to layout those last few pages that were left.
I've got the cover, inside cover, the 24 pages, the ad for the printing company (so you guys will at least know where to go to buy it online) for the inside rear, and then, bam, what do I do with the back of the book?
So I opted to put together a collage of faux cover concepts that didn't make it to the final drawing board, option one seen here:
Nonetheless, it's been a fun process. Issue Two is a third of the way drawn, and that issue may just fall short of 24 pages this time around, depending on how much of the story I want to extrapolate in it. But I'm good on time to reach my projected August 2013 launch date; how fucking cool would it be if I could get a colorist lol.
Anywho!
Cheers folks!!
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