2/11/06
For the last three months, I haven’t been able to jump into comics work, because I’ve either been putting together the Doris Danger trade, trying to get my taxes together for the IRS, putting together the Lump trade, or writing my memoirs in preparation of my “Diary” blog. This weekend, Elizabeth is out of town, so I made a personal goal to finish the Lump trade, and that meant drawing the four-page Epilogue.
I go in streaks like this, for some reason. I’ll be really productive, and get a ton of artwork done, and then all of a sudden (probably because I get burned out or feel uninspired) I can’t get any work done. And that’s when I do other stuff (like the above-mentioned projects), until I’m just itching to draw again, and then I pound out a ton of work again. And it just goes in cycles like this. It felt GREAT to be drawing again today.
I can’t wait to have the Lump trade behind me, so I can jump into some Doris Danger pages. I’m looking forward to drawing some giant monster splashes.
I mentioned last entry contacting Mike Allred and Mike Mignola. I want to give an idea of the kind of non-drawing work I find myself doing. Here’s a list of emails I sent out this week.
First of all, there are a few guys I try to write every month or so, because I’d love to get pin-ups from them, and at one point or another they’ve said they might be interested. These are the guys who sometimes write back, and sometimes don’t. This is my list of really-wants. Brian Bolland, Michael Kaluta, Tim Bradstreet, Mike Ploog. Tim has written me regularly, Michael has written on occasion, Brian has written me once saying he’d get back to me about his schedule, and Mike has never written me back. Other really-wants I periodically bother, but who have either said they’re too busy, or they aren’t interested, are John Romita Sr., Seth, Mike Zeck, and Joe Kubert.
Next, I wrote Mart Nodell’s son, who’d said at the Orlando MegaCon that he’d see if he couldn’t dig me up a monster drawing Mart has done in the past that he would let me publish.
I wrote Al Feldstein and Howard Chaykin, and sent them the photo we took together at Orlando. I sent Al copies of his pin-ups too, although it took me four tries to find a format that didn’t get bounced back, that he could see on his computer.
I emailed Adam Hughes and Mick Gray, just to say hi after seeing them at the last cons, and letting them know how much fun I had with them. I just realized I forgot to email Ryan Sook. Whenever we get back from cons, I try and send a quick hello to artists.
I emailed MegaCon to see if they could help me get in touch with George Tuska, who I really, really would have liked to have met in Orlando this year. They were so helpful, and said they forwarded my info on to him. That’s all I can do, I guess. I hope he’s doing all right.
And I emailed Simon Bisley, who I’ve been emailing since San Diego this year, and have yet to hear back from him. At San Diego, I paid him for a pin-up that I have yet to receive, and I’ve been writing pretty regularly to check the status. This time, I wrote, “Simon, I can’t believe I wrote you and told you Elizabeth and I are having a baby, and you haven’t written to congratulate us. I hoped for sure THAT at least would get a reply.” But it didn’t, and my pointing out that it didn’t hasn’t gotten a reply either.
Lastly, I emailed Dove McHargue, who sat across from us at MegaCon, and who said he’s found a publisher who is working on a revival of Twilight Zone, that will take a bunch of the original television scripts, and a number of the original scripts that were never made into shows, and make comics of them. God, I’d love to be a part of that project.
I hoped to use my usual method, and get the editor’s email, and send them a list of my accolades (co-artist of Sam Kieth’s Ojo, books going for $15 at Mile High, etc). But I didn’t get the chance. I heard back from Dove today, and he told me he spoke to the editor, and they have all their artists for the first batch of books. I knew I would have to act fast, and that there was a good possibility there wouldn’t be any opportunities. Even if there were opportunities, you never know if you’ll land the work. What a disappointment. I would have LOVED to have been on board a project like that. You win some, you lose some.