DORIS DANGER!

My best friend, GENE COLAN

This photo is from San Francisco’s Wondercon 2007.

My experience with Gene Colan was a perfect lesson in what NOT to do, when trying to get a pin-up from one of your idols, or what TO do, if you want to annoy the hell out of them and feel ashamed of yourself, and make them hate you.

Early on, during my hours of obsessing and searching and fantasizing to find artists to draw pin-ups of giant monsters for my book, I found Gene Colan’s website online. He was one of the first artists I looked for. I sent him a letter about how much I loved his art, and how great I thought it was that he was accessible online. He sent a very brief thank-you-very-much type of note.

At this stage (this was the early 2000’s), I was new at the whole email thing. In fact, I was new at the whole computer thing. I had had an eighties model, which I used just as a word processor. But when I met (my wife) Elizabeth, she introduced me to the internet, and to emails.

But as I say, I was new to email etiquette. I would write pages and pages. I suspect most people would read a sentence or so, and then get bored or irritated and delete the letter without finishing it. At least, that’s what I would have done. But I didn’t know this at the time, because I hadn’t gotten any emails yet, so I just kept writing. I also didn’t have any experience trying to get pin-ups from artists. So my strategy was this. I’d write a long, annoying introductory letter, and I wouldn’t ask about the pin-up. I would just say hello and I love you so much. Then I would wait and see if I got a response before bothering to put myself on the line and ask for a pin-up. I guess I thought this technique would strengthen their bond to me somehow, and make them like me so much, that when I wrote a second time, they’d not only remember me, but also see what a nice and polite guy I was, and then we’d be best friends, and they’d WANT to do the pin-up. As if they wouldn’t have done it if I just asked the first time. So after receiving the very brief and appreciative thank-you from Gene, I wrote again, telling him about the book I was doing, sending some samples of the monster pages Dick Ayers inked, and asked if he would do a pin-up I could publish.

I told him if he wasn’t really interested in drawing a monster, he could just include a hint of one. I thought maybe he could do a deserted spooky street, with a monster peeking into an alley, or a giant shadow falling over someone, or a graveyard, with a giant foot stomping down. But something moody, since he’s so good with that gothic horror atmosphere.

This email got another brief reply. This time it was from his wife. She named a price which (in my naivete) I found high, but which in retrospect was a fair price for his work, considering what he had planned to do for that money.

I wrote another way-too-long letter, saying I assumed the price was for an 11″x17″, the standard size for a comics page. I asked if he might be able to do something smaller, or less detailed, for cheaper. I went on and on about possibilities.

Another brief reply from his wife. As for “detail,” she said that Gene works very hard, and if he skimped on “quality”, neither of us would be happy with the result. But she also said that he had planned to do a “22×28″ piece (Holy Christ! That would have been HUGE!) He would do an 11″x 17″ for half the original price. At the time, I thought it was still expensive (although I now realize it was a fair price for his work), but closer to a ballpark that I could afford.

We wrote back and forth – from here on out, all correspondences with with his wife and not with Gene – she wrote their concerns, and I responded with naive, annoying, relentless, way-too-long correspondences. I think we both got exhausted. Finally, I received a letter that was so funny and so simple, it made me ashamed. It said, Fine, he’ll do the pin-up. Don’t send any more emails. And then it said, “Seriously.” How embarrassing. How humiliating.

Shortly after I sent Gene a payment, I found a message on my answering machine from Gene in New York! He just wanted to check on the composition he had in mind for my pin-up. I was so excited, I didn’t delete the message, so I could play it for my wife. This was back when answering phones were on your home phone, because not many people had cell phones yet.  I was trying to figure out a way I could record a copy and save it for my personal records. At this time, I was also saving the envelopes artists sent me their pin-ups in, because it had their names in their handwriting, and it was really cool to me to have these little pieces of their everyday lives as mementos.

I called him back, and it was a rush to speak with him on the phone. He was so polite and friendly. He made no mention of what a pain in his ass I had been. He said he planned to draw a graveyard with a kid in it, who’s jumping back in shock, right as a giant foot stomps down at him. Sounds great, I said. Do whatever you like.

That day, when I got home from work to share the phone message with my wife, I went to the answering machine to play it for her, and the machine said there were no messages. I literally howled with anguish, and she came running out. I said, “There was a message on the machine I wanted to share with you!” I was crushed. She had seen a bunch of old messages on the machine and assumed they were all ones she had heard, so she deleted them without listening to them first. I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock. I was devastated.

The pin-up came, and it was gorgeous. And it was still huge. Even though we agreed on 11″x17″, it ended up being 14″x22!”

I decided to publish it in the first comic I ever published.

Gene Colan was unique in the comics industry, trying to emulate the feel of films in his artwork with his moody atmospheric style.  His pencils were so complex, nuanced, detailed, and “painterly,” inkers couldn’t adequately convey what Gene was depicting, and in his later career, he opted to have the work produced directly from his pencils.

He was a mainstay of 1960’s Marvel work on Captain America (where he co-created Falcon), Daredevil, and Sub-Mariner.  He may be best known for his ground-breaking run on Tomb of Dracula in the 1970’s.  And he had a fantastic run on Batman in the 1980’s.  He passed away in 2011.  I hope you’ll check out his exquisite work at your local comics shop!

This pin-up was published in Tabloia #572, Doris Danger Seeks Where Giant Monsters Creep and Stomp, and Doris Danger Giant Monster Adventures!

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DIARY OF A STRUGGLING COMICS ARTIST:
Bill Sienkiewicz interviews

My best friend, Bill Sienkiewicz, makes gorgeous comics!  Bill pushes the boundaries of story-telling and uses totally unconventional techniques with his frenzied and energetic, but spot-on artwork!  Pick up Elektra: Assassin  and Stray Toasters at your local comics shop ! This pin-up was published in Tabloia #573, Doris Danger Seeks Where Giant Monsters Creep and Stomp, and Doris Danger Giant Monster Adventures!

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My best friend, BILL SIENKIEWICZ

“i thoroughly enjoyed reading your book. it felt more like kirby than kirby in some ways. it made reading comics really *fun* again. it brought me back to when i was just a little scribbler and already an avowed comics fanatic- a lover and fellow traveller in the world of monsters and make believe. great luck and success with the book.” – Bill Sienkiewicz

(This photo is of Bill and me at Wondercon 2011 in San Francisco.)

Bill is a character.  He “feels” like a true artist.  He’s always buzzing around trying to get a bunch of things done all at once, coming and going, and not always easy to find. Piles of art and art supplies spread out everywhere.

I met and spent a little time with him, for the first time, at San Diego Comic-Con 2003, and he agreed to contribute a giant monster pin-up. I was at his booth for a fair amount of time, and watched him draw sketches for a few people. He would use pictures he drew in his own book as reference for sketches he would draw in the books. He had ink, brushes, pens, and weird dental tools that he dipped in the ink. He had a pinwheel-type device that he would roll over the art to leave scratchy lines. Really fascinating working style, how he gets all his textures and line qualities.  How he just experiments and goes for it.

When I asked about a pin-up, he said he was doing commissions right then, at that very moment. I went to a bank teller and got some cash. By then, it was getting later in the day, and he said he might not be able to get to it today, but to check back in with him later. We checked later in the day, and he was gone. We went the next day, and never managed to find him at his table again.

Over the next few months, I emailed Bill, and finally called him. I was honestly beginning to feel a little nervous, knowing I’d given him a sizeable wad of cash. While leaving a message on his answering machine like this, “Bill, I’m beginning to get a little concerned, because I haven’t heard from you,” he picked up, and assured me he would have it to me within a week or two. Maybe a month later he contacted me to say it was finished, and he’d send it to me priority, and I’d get it in a few days. Maybe a few weeks after that it actually, finally did come in the mail. I liked it so much, I commissioned him for a second pin-up at Wizard World L.A. in 2007, which is where the photo at right was taken, with him and my first son (age 1).  And for Monstrosis (Doris Danger’s second volume), he inked a short Doris Danger story!

(Left: Bill, my wife and oldest son, at Chicago’s Wizard World 2007.)

Bill has been so sweet and kind to me about my monster comics, and truly has come to be a best friend of mine!  I believe he does genuinely enjoy my work.  Bill gave me a kind quote of endorsement for promotion, which was actually just something he wrote me in an email, and I asked for permission to use it in print.

We tried to collaborate on a project in 2014, first with him as cover artist, and then as inker for the eight issue series, but we were unable to find a publisher to take the project on.  Most recently, he inked my story in the Where We Live: Las Vegas Shooting Benefit Anthology (2018).

MY BEST FRIEND, MIKE MIGNOLA

“The penultimate Kirby-style giant monster comic.” – Mike Mignola

(“I don’t believe I’ve ever actually used the word “penultimate” but it makes for a good quote.”) – Mike Mignola

 This photo is of Mike and I sitting at side-by-side tables, at San Francisco’s Wondercon 2008.  Doesn’t Mike look like he’s thinking, “Great, they sat me next to THIS guy.”  And I’M thinking, “Wow, it’s great to be best friends with Mike!”

For a few years, I thought Mike Mignola was of a celebrity stature that he would have hours-long lines and be very difficult to hunt down. When I saw him at Comic-Con, at Darkhorse’s booth signing, that’s what it always looked like. THEN I realized he just went there for an hour, then he went back to his own booth, where he sat the rest of the day. So he’d always been approachable – he had just been approachable in SECRET. 

When I learned this (in 2003), I headed straight to his table showed him the photocopies of my Doris Danger stuff, and he took a copy, but didn’t really look over it.

In 2004, I had just published my first issue of Tabloia (containing the first Doris Danger story), and I had a stack of photo-copies of not-yet-published Dick Ayers inked Doris Danger pages and pin-ups of giant monsters that I had so far commissioned from other artists. At Comic Con in San Diego again, he was basically my first stop. I waited in a moderate line, then quickly showed him a binder with the copies of all my Ayers-inked monster stories, followed by all the pin-ups I’d amassed by then. As he flipped through, I could tell he was impressed with my roll call. Mike Allred, Thomas Yeates, Gene Colan, Bill Sienkiewicz, Sam Kieth, Irwin Hasen, the Hernandez Brothers (but I hadn’t received Jaime’s yet), Ryan Sook (who I’d asked to please butter me up when he spoke with Mike, since I knew Ryan had drawn some of Mike’s books at that time), Steve Rude and Russ Heath (whose pin-ups I also hadn’t yet received), and JH Williams III (whose pin-up was completed and I would be picking up at this con). Mike flipped through and suddenly said, “How can I be a part of this?”

Wow. I almost fell over. I was speechless. I couldn’t believe it.

He gave me his business card, and I continued to bluster and finally said I’d taken up too much of his time, and he said he agreed that I had.

This happened back in the days when artists were still sending artwork in the mail, and then publishers had to return it.  A package came in the mail and it contained Mike’s pin-up.  He would not charge me for it, but he also said he liked the piece too much and wouldn’t let me buy the original.  So I took a scan of it, and returned it in the mail to him.

Here’s Mike kindly standing behind my table with me, at Wondercon San Francisco 2006.  If you look at my table, all five issues of Tabloia had been released, as well as the first Doris Danger treasury, Where Giant Monsters Creep and Stomp.

Mike later gave me a kind quote of endorsement for promotion, which I wrote about on page 000a Back Cover – Commentary:

“Who doesn’t love big monsters?! Well, I do, and if you do too you need to crack open this book and take in all the monster love.” – Mike Allred

WANTING TO GET PIN-UPS FROM OTHER COMICS ARTISTS

Planning to self-publish a comic book series (which would soon become “Tabloia”), I went to San Diego’s Comic-Con in 2002, (two years before I published “Tabloia’s” first issue, which included the first appearance of Doris Danger). This was the year I thought it might be a nice feature of my book if I could convince some artists to draw pin-ups of my characters and let me publish them in my books. And this was the con I began trying to meet artists and ask about this possibility. I thought it would give potential readers a reason to flip through the book of an unknown creator and maybe give it a try, but also I wanted to show a connection with comics and creators who had influenced my work, and a sort of respect for comics history. Many books have done this. Frank Miller’s Sin City. Old issues of Wolverine. Neil Gaiman did about three issues of JUST pin-ups of Sandman, and his character Death, or whoever. But it was Mike Allred’s Madman book that was a key inspiration of this for me. All his comics just bulge with his love of the medium, in my opinion, and I wanted to emulate THAT.

MIKE ALLRED

(Below, with my best friends, Mike and Laura Allred, Seattle’s Emerald City Comic-Con 2010)

After I’d met Mike Allred at the San Diego Comic-Con of 2001 (my first San Diego Con – He was sitting at a Marvel booth signing for X-Force, and I got a quick minute with him after waiting in line), I sent him a letter printed on paper and sent in the mail c/o Marvel Comics, and told him what a great artist I thought he was. At that time, Joe Quesada had brought all these great indie artists onto Marvel’s mainstream books, and Mike was now on an X-book, shaking things up in the industry. I wrote about how impressive I thought it was, that he could use such simple, thick lines, and convey so much. I never heard back.  It turns out, Marvel was forwarding any emails but not physical letters.

I looked for other ways to try getting in touch, and finally put together a package and physically sent it to the PO Box that Mike had listed inside his Atomics comics, which he self-published. I sent him copies of my not-yet-published comics, and gushed what a fan I was, and inquired about commissioning a pin-up from him. This package got me a personal email from Mike.

He wrote that he really loved the monsters, but that his schedule was just too busy to do commissions. I wasn’t too disappointed, because I had just gotten a personal email from one of my very favorite comics artists.

And eventually, with some additional pestering and negotiating, we were able to make the first of two pin-ups happen.

The next time I saw him was San Diego Comic-Con 2009 – Here we are!

Since then, we’ve become best friends!

Mike truly has been supportive of my comics work, and in 2017 he and Ryan Sook and I tried to pitch a creator-owned comics project together, but we were unable to find a publisher.