Miners Mutiny, the first full-length comic book of the forthcoming trilogy, is the story of a man looking for trouble in a small gold mining town where no one has anything better to do. 

Loaded with TNT, wild women, and plenty of whiskey to keep your whistle whetted!  

Yeeeeeee HAW!

Related posts:

1. Feb. 27- Mar. 1 2009
2. Reviews Should Be Good!
3. Book Recommendation: Naomi Wolf’s “The Treehouse”

Last WonderCon, NPR Producer Stephanie Foo had one question on her mind:  What was the first superhero that you created?  She asked this question to many comic book artists and Stephenny Godfrey and I were included in her project (I found it rather serendipitous that she wanted to know about the heroes I created as a kid as I am drawing them now as an adult for my self-published memoir fantasy comic Princess Witch Boy). A week later, Stephanie wrote us, asking for images from our childhood to be used in a slideshow to compliment the interviews!

I found Stephanie’s project to be quite extraordinary and I was excited that the pop culture zeitgeist of comics had reached National Public Radio in such a way as to warrant its own segment, but I had no idea about the level of comic brilliance in which Stephenny and I would be included!   I have been a fan of David Mack ever since my first issue of Kabuki and the art of Paul Maybury is super inspirational (I’ve even blogged about him)! I adore Miriam Libicki and have much love for my fellow compatriot in Writers Old Fashioned Stephenny Godfrey!  In fact, all of the creators involved are amazing and everyone shares some great stories!   Listen to the interviews and watch the artist slideshow which compares the artists’ childhood drawings with their adult work.  Episode 107 of Snap Judgment has more stories tied to the theme of Superheroes: Origin Stories.

Check out my blog for images of my childhood drawings paired with their modern counterparts.

Related posts:

1. Book Recommendation: Naomi Wolf’s “The Treehouse”
2. Holiday Meeting; Old Fashioned Style
3. It’s a Miracle Anything Ever Gets Done

But they’re certainly something.

Hi Ho! Just sweating over a panel and feeling extremely unproductive tonight.  I finished a whopping 2 panels today! That’s one more than one and one less than NOT ENOUGH!

Anywho, I’m sitting here staring at what little work I did do, and I start blaming my lack of productivity on my pencils, of all things. This got me thinking about the importance of  “tools” and “workspace”.

These two things can make or break you.  Without the proper tools your work will suffer.  Same goes for your workspace; If you don’t feel comfortable, you won’t get anything done.  Your art space is sacred.  Your tools are the lightening rods of your imagination.  Or something?

With all that being said, here’s another thought: These tools do not define your work.  In other words, a true artist can create with the bare necessities, in the worst conditions.  Meaning, it’s no excuse when all your pencils have become little nubs that can not tolerate another sharpening (as you can tell in the above picture, I have an electric sharpener = OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE SHARPENING).

Before I start a project, I make sure to give my space a looksee.  Here are the 3 most important aspects of a workspace, for me:

-Functionality

-Ease

-Comfort

My space is all about accessibility.  Glass of water within reach, CHECK. Tools, paper, references, are all at my disposable.  I know myself and thus know that if I have to get up from my desk; I may never come back.  The goal is to have everything there for me.

Now I’ve shown you mine, let’s see yours.

Related posts:

1. It’s a Miracle Anything Ever Gets Done
2. In the Trenches 04.06.2009
3. Good Luck, Mindy!

I am having a particularly hard time starting a new project (and instead of working on said project, here I am writing a blog post, see?)

I won’t use the term writer’s block, or artist’s block or whatever verbiage is used to describe this happenstance.  We all know what it is, and we’ve all been plagued by it at some point or another.  To me, I don’t see it as a block; some kind of proverbial dam holding back the metaphorical river of creative juices.  That implies that it’s out of your hands.  It’s too easy to say, “I can’t write now, I’m blocked!”.  You may not be able to write now, true, but it’s more likely that you plain “don’t want to” then that you’re blocked.  Creative power is YOUR creative power.  Any dam, block, handicap, lack of motivation, mental disorder, addictive behavior, fear, or just plain laziness holding you back is YOURS and yours alone.  Facing this fact, or what I see as fact, actually makes it easier to deal with.  You can’t change most things outside of yourself after all.

You with me?

Yet here I am, knowing and believing what I just expressed, unable to focus on a project that means the world to me.  This is because no matter how you define it or how well prepared you are to deal with it, it happens to us all.  And then there’s the physical world of distractions.  How does one stay-in on a Friday night to draw?  How is one capable of mentally focusing on drawing knowing that there is fun to be had right outside their door?

As I sit here, frustratedly staring at a blank sheet of paper, I can’t stop the thought going through my mind: ‘It’s a miracle anything ever gets done.’  I think about all the movies, books, shows, and artwork that I love; it’s truly miraculous that creators are able to grapple this thing and CREATE! (and thank heavens they do!)

My point in writing this post is this: If you are a creator, just know that none of us are alone with this feeling.  I say that more to comfort myself than anyone else.  However, more important than commiserating is celebrating.  For it is our duty as creators to overcome this thing and get shit done.

Related posts:

1. NPR’s Snap Judgment Features Stephenny Godfrey & STORM
2. I Still Believe in Comics.
3. Dating advice from an idiot.

Ben Costa wins a Xeric.
Bex Freund lands her work in a literary magazine.
And KOAK takes her character sketches to a whole new level.

Art from Sick Bed Blues by Koak

Related posts:

1. Wonder Con 09: The 24 Hours that almost killed me
2. In the Trenches 04.06.2009

At first it was all laughs. Comics and I would chill under the tree at the playground We’d go for long bike rides looking for a good place to spend some quality time together. When I was sad, or scared, Comics would always be there for me to take me away from it all. Comics showed me the world could be a better place and I loved them for it. I was determined to give something back to the medium I loved so much, so I made a commitment: I would create comics.

In the Year of Our Lord 2005, I got my first gig in the industry as a color flatter for Image. I’d get the black and white line art and seperate out all the indiviual areas that needed to be colored in Photoshop. Grunt work that earned me the equivalent of $1.87 an hour and a credit in a real life comic book. Briming with enthusiasm, I was encoraged by my pals at Isotope Comics to start an article on being an up-and-comer in the industry. There are interviews all the time with writers and artists, but when do you hear from the print production guy? The letterer? The guys and gals on the front lines of the comic industry, sweating away because their passion won’t let them do anything else. And so “In the Trenches” was born on Millarworld.

Every week I’d do a new post my experiences as a newborn in the comics industry, which would eventually catch the eye of AiT/Planet Lar publisher Larry Young, and land me a job as his “creative executive” in early 2006. It was here that I learned how to complete many facests of comic creation and where I met many of my friends from Writer’s Old Fashioned (including lettering Jason McNamara’s Continuity). I’d sweat and I’d work, and when a book would come in from the printers that I had helped make a reality, I would glow inside and know that I was doing right by comics.

Then I thought I could write one. And that’s where everything fell apart.

To be fair, none of it is Comics’ fault. In 2006 I took a job with SEGA as a QA Tester, and the hours were long. As my day slowly began to be eaten up more and more by my day job, I began to neglect comics. I wasn’t taking on as many jobs for AiT, my graphic novel script Brawler had sat untouched for months, and stacks of books I once couldn’t wait to devour would sit unread for weeks. Once I got a job working for LucasArts and I began consistently working 70-80 hours a week, comics and I had drifted far enough apart that we decided it probably be best if we spent some time away from one another. We kept in touch, hung out on the rare opportunity, and I would always talk well of Comics whenever the subject came up.

Fast forward a few years and few major video game projects later, and I’m now working at a small and highly creative video game developer in San Francisco. I still work insane hours occassionaly, but over the last couple of years  I’ve started to learn a bit more about who I am creatively, and I’m starting to feel that old itch come back. The sirens call of comics has once again ensnared me in her grasp.

This time though, I want to create something that is 100% mine. From the art, to the lettering, to the stapling of the pages, I’m setting out to create my first mini-comic. And I want to show you how I do it. I’ll tell you right off the bat that I am no expert. This effort will be fraught with mistakes, false-starts, and lofty goals. But for the foreseeable future, every other Monday I will present a look into how I’m putting together my first mini-comic, with a deadline of APE 2009. Holy crap, that’s in October!

Looks like it’s time to gear up, buckle down, and prepare to head back “In the Trenches!”

Related posts:

1. Get in those trenches!
2. It’s a Miracle Anything Ever Gets Done
3. Feb. 27- Mar. 1 2009