I can tell you, the germ of the idea for this documentary began because a friend of mine, Mike Hampton, had a so-so day job, and he decided he’d had enough, and he was going to quit, and go all in to make the comics thing happen. His friend at his day job, Kevin Koerber, had a passion for film, so they committed to going to comics conventions – or some kind of signing event – every week, for a year, and the friend would film the experience.
The documentary was made, and Mike gave me a copy. At this stage in my life, my sons were super young (four and one!) and I was super busy being a dad with a day job and a passion to make comics, but my wife and I finally found time to watch it in October 2010.
I knew that Mike had gone through incredible hardships, including getting a divorce, in making this decision “to be an artist.” I found this aspect of his story utterly intense, brilliant, and fascinating, but I was disappointed that the documentary hinted at but didn’t REALLY GET IN and explore all these amazing personal experiences he’d had STRUGGLING.
My wife and I immediately began talking about all the struggles that we had been through as a family, and that I’d suffered, for the lifestyle of me trying to make comics. The fights. The sacrifices. The costs. The rejections. And we began discussing interesting topics that we would cover if we were to make a documentary.
I had a friend from college, Dan Hart, who’d made a full-length feature film, and who had recently saved enough money that he decided to quit his job and move back to Davis (where I live), because he decided to take a year off and work on some artistic projects he’d wanted to do but never found time to do. So I asked if he might enjoy going to some conventions with me, bringing his camera, and helping me film this documentary that was shaping up in my head.
We started asking other friends if they’d like to join us and help out, and that’s how the crew came together. It was whoever I could find, preferably if they’d held a camera or microphone in the past.
And then we started going out to comics conventions, and filming whoever was willing to talk to us. By this time, I knew a fair amount of comics creators, and so a lot of these “best friends” of mine were willing to spend a little time talking with us, but we asked creators I didn’t know as well, and a bunch of them agreed to speak with us as well, and share their stories.
So this is the background info for how we went about and just started filming, hoping it would turn into something.
If you care to directly support my artistic endeavors at my www.Patreon.com/ChrisWisnia site, then YOU can read HERE a bunch of my earliest emails sent out to all these friends about how we decided to make this documentary, what I wrote to them, trying to convince them to help me, or to brainstorm directions I thought I might like to try and steer the documentary toward. It’s a fun “behind the scenes look” at how this documentary got started, and also at how the vision of it changed as we worked through it. Enjoy!
Chris