I had a stack of Ojo pages that I wanted to deliver to Sam Kieth, and was doing errands in Sacramento one day, so Sam invited me over to his house. He was heavy into the Ojo film at this point.
He took me inside, and first he played me some music he’d written, and sound-effects mixed in. He brought up how, unlike him, I don’t just dabble in music, I make a living at it. (My day job is teaching private guitar lessons.) I didn’t realize it, but he was asking my opinions on different tracks and trying to find out which ones I liked better. I don’t know if Sam’s way of asking me opinions is too passive, or if I just don’t listen well, and can’t tell that’s what he’s always asking me. I tried to give my advice and personal tastes the best I could. When I listen to that kind of stuff I just enjoy experiencing something new, and enjoy knowing it’s made by my friends. I’m not usually in a judgemental, critical, “which is best” frame of mind.
He showed me some experimental clips they’d taken of the Ojo baby monster, for the scene when Ojo is running through the office, up along the tops of the wall separations between desks. Sam was concerned that it wasn’t scary at all, and that it just looked like little rubbery toys on puppet strings.
I suggested that maybe the best way to make something scary would be to show as little of it as possible. Lots of shadows, and only the quickest cuts of the actual monster. Have you ever noticed that often in films, especially older films before CGI, that the movie would take its time revealing a monster? It would maybe just let you hear it for a while, and then you’d see just a clawed hand every now and then, or a foot and some drool, or even just shadows. And then you’d see a person reacting in fear to whatever he/she sees, and then the camera would pan away as you hear a jarring yucky sound, with roaring and screaming, and maybe some skin-slashing or whatever. And those scenes are always pretty scary, but then later in the movie, when you finally see the monster, it’s not nearly as scary, and you wonder why they had to try and show the monster. So we discussed trying to use techniques like this, especially since he has such a small budget.
Sam confided to me that he’s basically self-financing this whole movie project, and he just can’t afford to do all the things he’d like to do. And he had to tell all the actors, I’m sorry I can’t pay you much, but this gives you something for your resume at least. It makes me realize what a struggle it is to try and put a movie together.
He took me down to his garage, and showed me the Ojo Mamma monster. Sam’s built this giant eye, with a blinking eyelid. And he talked about building the molding around this eye, and his plans for constructing a jaw, and all this stuff. Talk about a basement construction. It was fun to see all these things he’s been up to, and watch how they work, so early in the process, before they’re finished.
I had sent him an email a day or so before, because I had just gotten the numbers on my third Tabloia book, and they were just continuing to drop in sales, and I was feeling pretty discouraged and upset.
As I was leaving, Sam just kind of mentioned that he was sorry I didn’t get the sales numbers I was looking for, and said that ultimately what I have to do is make a name for myself and find my fans, and it just takes time. He pointed out that Daniel Clowes was doing Lloyd Llewellyn for years, and the sales were really low, and everyone would see him at conventions and go, “Oh, it’s that guy,” but no one really cared particularly for the book or work, and it didn’t make much of a scene. But for some reason, when Eightball came out, it just hit people right, and it really caught on, and the “Ghost World” movie was a success, and now Daniel Clowes is the shit.
Sam said that he has a core audience of about five thousand, that he knows will always buy anything he puts out. When he does a superhero book the numbers go up, but he’s always got his core audience. He recommended I just keep putting out my own stuff and trying to find out who my audience is, and not worry so much about depending on my pin-up artists, and trying to drum up their fans. It’s a matter of finding my own fans.
So how does a struggling self-publisher get out there and find fans, if he can’t find a way for people to look at his own stuff, even if he uses the pin-ups of other artists to try and get people to at least open up his book? There’s the trick of getting into this industry, and a trick I haven’t learned yet.