Crozonia on WOWIO!

The first issue of Crozonia is now available on WOWIO. The coolest thing, for me, about it is that my name is up in lights along with Jim Su and Peter Kostka. Jim has been a true pleasure to work with thus far, and he’s an extremely talented guy to boot. Anybody interested in reading the full, edited (by yours truly) first issue of Crozonia need only follow the link provided below.

CROZONIA #1

War Beneath the Waves! Yarr!

I have now completely finished my editing and co-writing duties for the first issue of Beach Creative Studios’ Crozonia title. I didn’t notice it before, but there’s actually a brief news post announcing that I’m the copy editor for the title on the Crozonia blog. So that’s kind of cool. Jim Su, creator o’ Crozonia, was really pleased with the grammar corrections and suggestions for dialogue changes I made throughout the first issue. There’s a whopping 17-page(!) preview of the first issue available HERE. If you find any misplaced punctuation, misspelled words or dialogue that just isn’t working for you it’s all my fault. So try to ignore it. I had a lot of fun working on the issue. The next step for Crozonia #1 is for Jim to get it showcased on WOWIO. Once that happens I’ll probably be returning to pimp it a little more.

The state of things…

I’ve written the first few pages of BANANA GANG. The idea is to make it funny, and I think I’m doing an… okay job. Unfortunately for me, pretty much anything will make me laugh, so I’m probably not the best judge. I’m waiting to hear from Dario about a title logo for the webcomic. He said he knew a guy that was cheap and could get it done quick, but so far there have been no updates. I’ve sent three scripts to Fernando, but he hasn’t sent me back anything yet either. I’m trying to finish all the scripts for the first week and start on the next by Friday before I start harassing anybody. I’ll probably give it ’til Monday.

I sent a script I wrote for a concept called UNDEAD WAR a while back to an artist pal of mine named Claudio (link to the right)… and he loved it. He’s done some designs for a few of the characters that I really like, but I’m not going to show them off yet. We’re probably going to do a pitch together, but I want to read through the script a few more times to make sure it’s where I’d like it to be. I wrote it quite a while ago.

More to come…

Speaking of Gorillas… continued

Before I say anything else, I’d first like to say… VOTE!

Okay, so with that out of the way I can tell you a bit more about Banana Gang. Talking about the story that I wrote for the Comics for a Cause anthology got me thinking more and more about the the potential of the series. Kongo and Bud were a lot of fun to write, and I’d developed quite a few enemies and supporting characters that I hated to see go to waste.

Well, I recently received an email message from an artist named Fernando Sosa asking if I had anything available for him to work on. It’s always pleasant to receive emails like this because it validates your ability as a writer when an artist wants to work with you. I passed Fernando a few notes about Banana Gang including the promotional art Dario Carrasco had done, and he agreed to take up the reins. So now Banana Gang is back!

My tentative plan is to introduce it as a webcomic using the model D.J. Coffman introduced not too long ago in a blog post titled Host your own Friggin Webcomic! I think updating the webcomic with a page a week would be the best idea for now. I’ve already started working on the first storyline, and Fernando has done quite a few character sketches. I’m showing a few of them off below. Enjoy!

Speaking of Gorillas…

Oops! Sorry about that, folks. I didn’t realize I hadn’t posted on this bad boy in a while. But I’m back now, so no worries.

Yes, I realize that I never get comments on this blog so I’m probably only writing this for an audience of one. But that won’t stop me from talking to, uh… myself!

Anyway, speaking of gorillas… I wrote a story quite a while ago featuring a gorilla named Kongo and his miniature (seriously… the dude is tiny) human sidekick Bud. Kongo and Bud are the protectors of a metropolis called Jungle City. An artist, and pretty good pal of mine, named Dario Carrasco designed the duo and asked me to write a story about them that we could potentially turn into a webcomic called Banana Gang. Unfortunately, Dario wasn’t able to do the art for the concept, and the artist we did find for it eventually had to pull out for a variety of complicated reasons. Another half-finished project that is pretty much the story of my comics career.

Not that I’m bitter about that or anything…

Heh.

So ANYWAY… here’s the original design Dario did:

Pretty cool, no? Kongo and Bud are basically like Batman and Robin. They swing around Jungle City righting wrongs and battling the forces of evil. Kongo is the muscle and Bud is the brains of this particular outfit. The series was designed to have elements of fantastic action and comedy. Jungle City was created as a place where humans and animals with human-level intelligence live and work together in harmony.

I wrote a few strips featuring the cast of Banana Gang. I planned to start off the webcomic by having Kongo interview for his sidekick position, so I went with that. Hilarity and tomfoolery ensued. Again, the webcomic never went anywhere due to lack of artist, but Dario did ask me to write a 6-page preview story of Banana Gang to potentially entice artists and perhaps bring new life to Kongo and Bud. This was back in the early half of 2006 so, as you can imagine, it never amounted to much. However, Dario did find an artist to bring the 6-page preview story to life and I’ve been told that it will see print in an upcoming anthology put out by Dario Carrasco called Comics for a Cause.

It will most likely be released at some point in 2009. The announcement featuring my name in lights is HERE. Yeah, I know it says 2008, but due to the challenges inherent with independent publishing, I’d say 2009 was a much safer bet.

It’s an honor to have my story included in Comics for a Cause. The proceeds from this latest edition are being donated to a Children’s Hospital in Calgary. When the book is actually made available I’ll be pimping the living heck out of it. Expect to hear more about this as soon as I have anything else to share.

El Gorgo!

El Gorgo! is a comic inspired by the wonderful comics produced during the Silver Age. The story is about a super-intelligent gorilla luchador that also plays in the world’s greatest surf rock band “Gorgo-A-Go-Go” when he’s not battling the forces of evil and going on sweeping cosmic adventures.

This is a comic created by friends of mine named Mike McGee and Tamas (Tom) Jakab. They’ve created a magnificent character that is a true homage to the types of comics Jack “King” Kirby developed throughout his amazing career. Mike and Tom are a real inspiration to me because they’re doing this book for the sheer, simple love of it. They’re providing it for free on their website along with making it available in printed form. And the best part of all is that they’re finding an audience.

Mike and Tom both imagined there would be minimal interest in the book. Not because it deserved minimal interest (because it doesn’t… it’s amazing), but just because comics is a tough business, and printing a full-color comic book is so expensive that the price of purchasing El Gorgo! (for potential readers) seemed to indicate they’d have a hard time unloading the copies they did print. But that has NOT been the case. They’re nearly sold out of their first issue, and it’s happened at such a rapid pace that they’re strongly considering a re-print. It’s hard to convey how impressive something like that is, but Mike and Tom have been going about El Gorgo! in the perfect way. They’ve provided it for free on a very entertaining, user-friendly website to build a strong buzz for the comic, and now that it is available to order they’re reaping the benefits. I really couldn’t be happier for these guys.

You can find out more about El Gorgo! (and read the first issue of the comic for free!!!) here: El Gorgo!

Please take a look and lend your support to this fantastic creation.

From the website:

El Gorgo is the world’s greatest Luchador. He is a gorilla. He also is the world’s greatest surf-guitarist. And he writes historical fiction. And he’s a scientist. And he fights crime. And he goes on adventures. Sometimes he sleeps for a few seconds.

Working hard or hardly working?

In the past I’d usually answer with the second option. Even though I’m pretty much a nobody when it comes to the world of comic books (or fiction writing in general) I’d still find excuses not to write on a daily basis. I think I’ve always realized that the only way to make yourself a successful writer is to, y’know… write stuff. Even if it isn’t anything particularly great, at least you’re practicing your craft. And if you have the opportunity to showcase that work, even if it’s rejected, you’re still getting (hopefully) valuable feedback that you can use to improve.

But as I said, I’d still find excuses to put it off.

But that is not the case now. I am now officially in the “working hard” camp. It’s not that I’m doing anything all that groundbreaking either. I’m just actively pursuing my goals now. I think in the not-so-recent past I was always looking for something to distract me from what I wanted. But I’ve recently discovered that that’s no way to live your life. If I want something I have to go for it and I have to be relentless in my pursuit.

I’ve made some small progress towards my goal of writing comics over the years. I’ve been published, I’ve established relationships with proven creators, I’ve worked hand-in-hand with upcoming talent with goals similar to mine. I haven’t broken through the glass ceiling yet, but I’m chipping away at it. I think I was content for a long time with rapping gently on the glass with my knuckles in the hopes that somebody would be a pal and offer to let me in. But now I know I have to throw myself at the ceiling as hard as I can. I have to sacrifice my body to break the glass. It hurts throwing everything you have into something that has no guarantee of working out the way you’d like it to. It hurts like hell. I’ve experienced my fair share of disappointments while I struggle to make my mark on the comics industry.

But this year will be a banner year for me. I’m slated to be published three times this year. I’m sure some of you (if anybody reads this) are thinking that’s not very impressive. And you could very well be right about that, but the simple fact is that I’ve never been published more than once in any calendar year. So it is a big deal to me, and I think that’s the whole point. I’m making progress a little bit at a time and I’m starting to see the results. My goal is to progress a little more each year until I’m finally able to do what I’ve always wanted. I want to write for a living, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to accomplish that goal.

Snatch the pebble

No, it’s not the name of some new story I’m writing…

Remember the television show “Kung Fu”? Okay, you probably don’t, but there was a scene where the main character Caine (played by David Carradine) tried to take this pebble out of the palm of his master’s hand. The master was called Master Kan, and he basically told Caine that when he could take the pebble he’d be ready for the outside world. Caine had to prove he was skilled enough to take it. He had to earn it.

I feel like Caine, and comics is my Master Kan. And I’m still too slow.

I talked a while back about getting the amazing opportunity to pitch ideas to Jim Valentino and Kris Simon at Image Comics’ Shadowline. I’ve put together quite a few pitches in the past with full art that cost me an arm and a leg, so the opportunity was the most welcome one of my fledgling career. It gave me the prospect of getting an idea at least partially approved before hiring any artists to develop it. This is a big deal because, trust me, approaching an artist (whether penciller, inker, colorist or otherwise) with a guarantee to get something published is a lot better incentive than approaching an artist with the hope of getting something published. It also means being published at Image Comics. And getting published at Image Comics is my dream. It’s why I do what I do.

I pitched five ideas, Jim had a basic interest in two of them. I worked on them for a couple months. I re-pitched them…

And Jim didn’t like either of them.

Yeah, so that’s a little more lighthearted than I felt at the time. Instead of snatching the pebble from Jim’s hand, he snatched the heart right out of my body. I felt really discouraged when I heard back from Jim about the pitches. I think it’s only natural to feel that way. You put a lot of time and effort into creating something that you think has merit, and when it doesn’t work out you feel… drained.

And at first all I could really see was my disappointment. It flooded my senses so that everything I looked at had an aura of dullness around it. Everything I touched had less substance and every smell was tinged with it. I’m not writing this because I’m expecting pity, but because it’s the truth behind how I felt. Failure is a powerful thing. It can make you feel like you’re not good enough. Not just unable to do what you attempted, but not good enough to do anything.

But after a while that sense of failure started to fade. And when I looked at the email Jim sent in response I started to understand the advice he was giving me. So much so that it’s given me new insight into my writing and what I hope to accomplish with it. I think I’ve always regarded my comics writing as important to me, but when I tried to think of the best stories to submit to comic book publishers like Image I was always looking for the flashiest, most action-packed story I could find by default. There was no real substance behind it. Instead of writing something that was important to me, instead of using my voice and my individual intelligence and personality to bring life to my characters, I simply tried to write what I thought might make the most impact on a reader, editor, publisher, etc. And that’s not the right way to go about it.

So I’m learning. A bit at a time, I’m learning. Breaking into the world of comics isn’t easy, but it truly is what I want to do with my life. If I can continue to grow and improve, I’ll snatch that pebble yet.

What I’m reading…

Hellboy.

I have to be honest, I’d never read much Hellboy at all up until a few months ago. I’d certainly heard of the character, and I’d heard how fantastic the comic was from a variety of sources. And I knew full well what a genius Mike Mignola was because all I ever heard about was how unique his art style was and how it complimented his story of noir/horror (noirorr?) so brilliantly. I’d heard all that and more… but I still wasn’t really that interested.

And I don’t know why. I’ve watched the movies. I really liked the first one, and thought the second one was… okay. I’ve seen two of the animated features after they were released on DVD a while back. They were both fantastic. But for some reason I’d never picked up a Hellboy or BPRD comic book, neither in single issue format nor trade paperback (graphic novel for those that insist). I knew quite a bit about the character, and thought the concept was absolutely killer. For those that aren’t aware (from Wikipedia):

“Hellboy is a creature summoned or perhaps made in the final months of World War II by the historical figure Grigori Rasputin on Tarmagant Island, off the coast of Scotland, having been commissioned by the Nazis to change the tide of war (“Project Ragna Rok”). He appears in a fireball in a ruined church in East Bromwich, England, on December 23, 1944. Proving not to be a devil, in the traditional sense, but a young, devil-like creature with red skin, horns, a tail, and an abnormally disproportionate right hand made of red stone, he is dubbed “Hellboy” by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm.

Taken by the United States armed forces to an Air Force base in New Mexico, Hellboy is raised by the United States Army and by the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD), a federal agency dedicated to combating occult threats.”

Um, that’s awesome. So I really have no good excuse for why I wasn’t reading it before now. I suppose the root of the problem (and yes, I consider it a problem) is that I was always an exclusive reader of Marvel Comics. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I got started reading comics with Spider-Man (Spectacular, Amazing, Web of…) when I was younger and stayed extremely faithful for a number of years. I have longboxes full of ASM with no issues missing. It’s very cool to look at, but it also resulted in me missing out on a number of excellent titles along the way. I was a devoted fan of Spider-Man (a Spider-Fan, if you will), and took immense pride in it. The fact that Sal Buscema, Erik Larsen and Alex Saviuk stayed on the titles for a lengthy run after I started reading them helped keep me in one place, I think.

I do remember following Erik Larsen to Image when he started Savage Dragon, and by extension I was exposed to a number of early Image titles like Valentino’s Shadowhawk and McFarlane’s Spawn. I think Larsen actually started my slow (ever so slow) evolution as a comic book reader because he was the first artist I followed from one title to another. Mark Bagley took over duties on Amazing Spider-Man, and I became such a fan of his work that I went back and read his New Warriors work as well and followed him everywhere he went.

And as I continued to grow up I started following any artist that caught my eye. And then as I grew up even more I started becoming more interested in the story complimenting the art and started following writers as well. I was still in love with the characters and the art that brought them to life, but my appreciation for the role of the writer in the medium swiftly matched that love. Comics is a collaborative process, and I think my enjoyment is collaborative as well. Instead of admiring one aspect of the creative process I can now touch on numerous aspects that appeal to me. From the writing to the pencil lines to the inks, colors, lettering and beyond.

So I guess it was only natural that once I started reading Hellboy that I would immediately be drawn to it. Mike Mignola started by letting John Byrne script his artwork, but he soon began tackling the written word as flawlessly as he mastered the images captured on the page. And the images he captures on the page are, quite frankly, an incredible sight to behold. I’ve heard people state that Mignola’s art can be simplistic in one breath, and then gasp away that breath in the very same instant. What he’s capable of with the barest notions of form and shadow consistently amazes me.

So why did it take me so long again? I guess the only legitimate reason is that I’m a lazy bastard. There was just so much content to devour that by the time I got around to thinking about trying I had let even more content amass. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing either, because now I’ve just finished reading The Conqueror Worm, the fifth trade paperback, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the sixth. And the fantastic thing is that I only have to wait as long as it takes me to get to the comic shop because the work is all right there to be had. I actually feel a little sad for the folks that have read it all and have to wait for the next issue to be released. You poor souls, you.

So was Hellboy worth the wait? Absolutely. I have a greater appreciation for comics after reading each and every trade, and I don’t think I could muster a better compliment for a funnybook than that. It inspires me to become better at my craft, and it sets a goal that, though it might seem unattainable, will make me a better creator…

Kill Mike Mignola.

Kidding! Only kidding!

How about… Make something as amazing as Hellboy.

Yeah… I can give that a shot.

29th year

So I’m 29 years old today. I don’t plan on doing anything special, but you never know what family or friends might have in store for you. Family and friends if you read this, please send money.

The birthday makes me realize even more that I need to really focus on making my comics dream into reality. I think I’m trying to do what I can as best I can, but I feel almost certain there’s always something more I could be doing. I write for at least an hour every day. If I’m not actively writing a script , I’m revising one, or I’m hashing out details on a new idea, or I’m emailing artists, editors or fellow writers to get work done, advice, opinions and anything else I can think of. I do have some friends in the industry. Most of them started in the same sort of place that I did. They decided that this is what they wanted to do and they strode purposefully towards that goal with as little deviation as they could manage.

At least, that’s what I envision they did in my head. To be truthfully honest, I’m not sure how one person makes it when another doesn’t. I know part of it is talent, and part of it is luck, but sometimes I wonder if there’s more to it than that. I’m not talking about anything as overbearing as destiny–but maybe karma? Sure. Do onto others as you’d like them to do to you and perhaps you will see a little bit of positive change in your life. There’s also the fact that real life has a way of interfering with what you want. I have an eleven month-old son. I love him more than I love pretty much anything in this world. But writing can be a bit difficult at times when you have a responsibility to something far more important in your life.

Okay, enough ruminating (big word of the day) out of me. I saw Iron Man this weekend, so I can’t be that swamped with work and family, right? The movie made it necessary to set aside the laptop for a second or two though. It was fantastic. Tons of action and the actors seemed to really enjoy and embrace the characters they were playing. It’s nice to get away for a while and lose yourself in a good film, and when the actors give themselves to the roles they’re playing and really let their personalities shine through it just makes it that much easier to escape. There was a very welcome highlight at the end of the credits, so I highly recommend that anyone who goes to see the movie stick around for that. I’m going to seriously consider going to see it again, and I haven’t done that since the second Spider-Man movie came out. Iron Man was that good.