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Here’s page 1 of Dry Seasons “Fences.”
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Team work? OR “I love it when a plan comes together.”
I didn’t realize how much I’d lean on old and new friends for the process of making comics. Creative content production can be isolated, which I enjoy. Being in a room of people collaborating and trying to elevate the idea is one of my favorite parts of my job.
I’m lucky enough to have a friend in Bryan who has thought a lot about comics and worked with teams to produce his own series. And I’ve known him from when I was kid (talk about somebody who knows where the bodies are buried, Bryan knows where they were reanimated). Having close friends with more experience in some fields who can also give you constructive criticism is invaluable.
In addition to meeting or talking online with members from the Comics Experience workshop in various stages of their careers like Rob, Paul, Janine, Ken, Josh, Amy, James, Joe, Amber, Rich, Brandon, Don, Dan and more, I’ve gotten to meet working professionals Andy Schmidt, Chris Sotomayer, and Robert Atkins. All open to talking shop, process, and goals.
And recently I’ve been able to collaborate with Gannon, a local illustrator and designer developing his storytelling and art skills in comics. Being able to meet regularly with Gannon and talk process, theory and workflow has been a key part in keeping motivated and moving forward.
The work blog is not updating as real-time as I’m hitting milestones. I’m putting together the pages for an 8-page printer version of Dry Seasons “Fences” and realized how many people I need to include in my thank yous. If I continue on making comics, I hope I can keep bugging people for advice and criticism…
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Artist Wanted
I doodle. I doodle a lot. In meetings, on the phone, clearing my head. I love to doodle.
I can’t really draw. Comics have, you know, drawings. So I needed at least a penciler, if not penciler and inker, and maybe colorist thrown in for good measure. I posted a pretty basic want ad to Pencil Jack and Digital Webbing, and almost immediatley got responses. I got about 70, in total. Including artists whose work I’d seen reviewed and on the rack. Suddenly the harsh realities of the comic market were forefront: really talented artists were hustling.
Of those 70, there were about 20, 25 artists I liked and could see doing some project with, but not necessarily Dry Seasons. I contacted a few of the front runners to get more information on their rates or ask some questions.
The Saturday I was deciding on who to offer the work to, I was about to go for a run. I checked e-mail on my phone and saw another artist response. I clicked, and immediately dug the work. I wrote a quick response asking about rates and timelines, and did something I rarely do: I kept checking my e-mail while running.
Over the course of the next few days the artist, Matias Balsa, and I worked out a schedule and details for production.
I was going to get pages.
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Here is the first colored version of the Dry Seasons cover I saw from Iuma.
That’s Iuma on DeviantArt, and his personal site is iuma-iuma.blogspot.comI cannot properly convey my excitement opening up this image. If you sign him to an exclusive, leave in some kind of clause that I can get a cover a year…
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Here’s the first pencil sketch from Iuma!
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Once I sent Iuma the five page story, he sent six (!!!) thumbnail cover sketches at once (and then a seventh later). We went back and forth on the sketches in a couple e-mails. We narrowed down the choices to two. The cover that was Iuma’s favorite really did its job well in terms of setting up the story, setting up the world, giving a lot of visual cues, and looking generally badass.
Unfortunately, that cover design had some resemblance to some other highly-visible covers. Fortunately, Iuma is the kind of guy who immediately says “I don’t want to even look like I may have copied someone. Let’s go with the other one.”
We had the starting point.
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I should just throw “The West Wing” into the log line too
Cutting out the first twenty minutes of exposition, the “Mowers” story got bounced around in my head on runs, mowing the lawn, and long car trips. The thing that came out the other side is still “farmers after the apocalypse,” but now has some West Wing thrown in.
In a nutshell, the story of two starcrossed lovers under an atomic sky having to play nice for the survival of their cities was something I liked more, seemed to have more conflict, story, stakes.
And it takes a little bit of setup. I was concerned that laying the pipe for a couple of issues in 5 pages would make for a boring read and be detrimental to the overall story (I’m already caring about the characters, that’s good right?). I decided to go with a series of five-page stories on the advice from Andy Schmidt and the Comics Experience Workshop members, and writer-artist-designer Jonathan Hickman.
I had six ideas I kept and liked, that seemed to beat out okay into five-page stories. Nothing spoke like it was the “Here, this is the first one.” Thinking about conflict, I tried to strip away all the set-up and planning and putting together of “more for down the line” and get a bare bones “story.” I thought “You have a cow. I will take your cow,” and started writing “Fences.”
There was the five pages. Shows the world, shows some conflict, has some action, has some character. Now to find people who can draw…
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You’re a wonder, Wonder Woman.
Comics Alliance has a weekly feature called Best Art Ever (This Week) that collects a variety of art from domestic and foreign artists, working professionals and talented amateurs, “all awesome.” I love the feature, it’s a great way to get exposure to new artists.And one week was that Wonder Woman by someone named “Iuma” on DeviantArt. Digitally thumbing through Iuma’s work, i was pretty hooked quickly. The line work, the coloring, the overall style. The variety, the cartoony and feminine quality, sketchiness but with weight.
http://iumazark.deviantart.com/art/Fem-Tripcap-177564393?q=gallery%3Aiumazark%2F21511752&qo=54
and http://iumazark.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=72#/d2rfgtt
just sold me.
Whatever happened with “Mowers,” I wanted this guy to draw something.Now all I needed was a story. That could be an issue one. Or a story that wasn’t involving setting up a world, a large cast of characters in multiple locations…
So I needed a story. Which took a little longer. But once I had the 5 pages that would become my pitch, I sent him an e-mail. He responded. He was in.
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Mowers
Like most ideas that have some staying power, I thought of the image of a farm tractor framed against an mushroom cloud while I was running. It was called “Mowers” and it was about farming after the apocalypse. Or something.
That was about 4 years ago.…I’m a slow mover sometimes.
Over the last few years, the idea has gone through changes. My pitchline has been “It’s Mad Max meets Romeo and Juliet.” It’s starcrossed lovers whose families have literally tried to kill each other in the past. And if they can’t get along, everyone starves.
So this is me putting together a comic with a lot of advice, help and inspiration from family, friends, and working professionals. This is how the comic got here.
