<\/p>\n
Got a reply letter from Frank Frazetta\u2019s son, right before we left for APE. He said, before he forwarded my email to his father, he wanted to know how much I expected to spend. He also said his father would keep the art.<\/p>\n
I explained as best I could that I\u2019m a starving self-publisher, and keeping the art is one of my only benefits, in losing so much money, every issue I put out. I made an offer to publish and keep the art. It was the best offer I could afford. I told him, if it\u2019s not enough for his time and talents, I certainly understand. I asked, if that\u2019s the case, for them to tell me what his going rate is to buy rights to publish a piece, and then I\u2019ll have to decide if that price is worth it to me, to not have anything in hand afterward, except the knowledge and the ego that I was able to print a Frazetta in one of my books. How much money is that ego worth to me? I don\u2019t yet know\u2026<\/p>\n
After replying to him, I felt a sudden wild hair itching, and sent an email out to Steranko, once again offering a payment for a pin-up, but asking, the same way I asked the Frazettas, if there\u2019s a way I could keep the artwork.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s now been a few days, and we\u2019re back from APE-Con, and I haven\u2019t yet heard from either of these two legends. I don\u2019t expect to hear from Steranko, and I only vaguely hope to hear back from the Frazettas. I fear if I hear from either of them, I\u2019ll just have to find out I can\u2019t afford to get anything from them.<\/p>\n
Today, Monday after the con, was a day of unpacking and emailing.This is the way it is after every convention.I have to reorganize and put away all the books I brought and didn\u2019t sell.I have to go through all the business cards I came home with, and try and remember who all of them are, because I took poor notes during the frantic, crazy con.Usually they’re all people who came up to my table, and they want me to use their printing services, or their button-making services, or pay them to let them design a toy from my characters, or use some other service they offer, or spend money to be advertised in their book or magazine or fanzine, or check out their website.I have to go through all the comics that other people gave me.I flip through them all but usually throw them all away. I make a special effort, if I befriended someone, to really read through their work.There just isn\u2019t the time to go through all this stuff, and there are so many things I actually WANT to read, that I bought with my own money, and that I haven\u2019t had time to get to.It\u2019s frustrating, and it\u2019s sad, and I do the same thing and give my stuff to everyone and hope everyone will look at it and fall in love, and most likely everyone just does what I do and if I’m lucky flips through it, but still throws it out too.<\/p>\n
I always try to send out emails to everyone I see at the con, and make sure they know what a nice time I had with them. I emailed JH Williams III, Mario Hernandez, and James from Isotope Comics.<\/p>\n
Then I realized I had better call John Severin, if I\u2019m going to put out a War monster book. His wife answered, and was quite sweet. For the previous pin-up, I had always only spoken with her. I said I was such a fan, and enjoyed his first pin-up so much, I just thought I\u2019d see if he might be willing to do a second one for me, this time with a war theme. I told her about the other war pin-ups artists I had so far: Dick Ayers, Sam Glanzman, and Russ Heath. She said he was just mailing off a project today, so he would have time to do something new. What timing! Then she said, hold on a minute, John just came home, she\u2019ll put him on the line. She did.<\/p>\n
I said, wow, it\u2019s such an honor to talk to you on the phone, Mr. Severin. And he laughed. He said the only problem is that he has no idea what kind of uniforms the military is wearing right now. I explained that he didn\u2019t have to do a current military piece. That he could do any kind of war scene he wanted. He perked up and said, oh, how about a cavalry piece. Wow! That would be great! Then he asked about the monster. I explained that was up to him, and he could do any kind of monster he wanted, or if he preferred, just draw a hand reaching down, or a foot stomping, or a shadow. He said, I see, and you know how sometimes you just think you can hear people thinking it over? So Severin completes my collection of war pin-ups for this new issue, since I\u2019ve repeatedly bugged Joe Kubert, and he\u2019s consistently said that he\u2019s not interested.<\/p>\n
John put his wife back on the phone to discuss what he would charge. He said she\u2019s in charge of determining that. I was building up in my head a way to tell her I lost money on all my issues, and is there any way he might be able to work a little less expensively on this new project. I reminded her what I\u2019d paid them the first time, and before I said anything else, she said, right, so maybe this time we could go more expensive. I think I literally gasped out loud, and then made my same explanation just to try to get his original price again. I can\u2019t wait to see a civil war piece by John Severin with a giant monster in it!<\/p>\n
I tried calling George Tuska for the second time, and again no answer.Then, since I was in the pin-up getting mode, I sent emails out to Gilbert Hernandez and Tony Millionaire, to see if they might let me commission another pin-up from them.Felt like a pretty productive day, even though I didn\u2019t get any drawing done.<\/p>\n
I received in the mail an envelope from the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award. When you get an envelope like that, you\u2019re ready to call your parents and friends and tell them you\u2019re an award winner. The letter inside was an application to apply. After getting over my rush that I was this year\u2019s Promising Newcomer, and then realizing I wasn\u2019t, I was flattered that they would send me a letter. It made me wonder if someone asked them that I be made aware. More likely, they got the vendor list from APE or last year\u2019s San Diego Con, and sent bulk mailings. But I can dream, can\u2019t I, that maybe someone tipped them off that I do decent comics. I put a package together and sent it to them with hope in my heart.<\/p>\n
While trying to find the email of Joe at Flying Colors Comics, I found on his website a links page to \u201cFriends of Lulu.\u201d Of all the links listed, it was maybe the only organization I wasn\u2019t familiar with, so I looked it up, and immediately donated to them. Its goal is to get female readers into comics, and to support women who create them. Now I can boldly claim that I\u2019m a Friend of Lulu, as well as a card-carrying Skeptic. Supposedly, Lulu will send me a card too, and then I can boldly claim I\u2019m a card-carrying Friend of Lulu.<\/p>\n
I sat down with a pen and piece of paper. I wrote down the numbers one to sixteen in a column, and then I wrote Cover, Inside Cover, Back Cover, Inside Back Cover below the numbers. And then I began charting out how many pages I need to put together before I\u2019m done with \u201cDoris Danger\u2019s Greatest All-Out War Battles.\u201d I\u2019ve got a four page story done, and now, a complete roster, five pages, worth of pin-ups. Dick Ayers, a two-page Russ Heath spread, Sam Glanzman, and John Severin. I really wish I could have convinced Joe Kubert, but he was clearly not interested from the start. I\u2019ve come to accept it now, at least.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s nine pages out of twenty (sixteen pages plus covers) completed. One page will be letters, and one page will be introductions. I\u2019m quickly realizing I won\u2019t be able to fit nearly as much as I thought in. But on the other hand, I barely have any pages left to draw! This is going to be great!<\/p>\n
I called George Tuska again this evening, and Dorothy, his wife, informed me George was working on the piece. She asked, Now how much was I paying? I told her I was calling to see what he was charging! She said there were some great pictures in the book (I\u2019d sent them a copy), and George loved projects like this. That\u2019s really rewarding to hear from one of the industry\u2019s legends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Got a reply letter from Frank Frazetta\u2019s son, right before we left for APE. He said, before he forwarded my email to his father, he wanted to know how much I expected to spend. He also said his father would keep the art. I explained as best I could that I\u2019m a starving self-publisher, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary-of-a-struggling-comics-artist"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"cwisnia","author_link":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/archives\/author\/cwisnia"},"uagb_comment_info":9728,"uagb_excerpt":"Got a reply letter from Frank Frazetta\u2019s son, right before we left for APE. He said, before he forwarded my email to his father, he wanted to know how much I expected to spend. He also said his father would keep the art. I explained as best I could that I\u2019m a starving self-publisher, and…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7967,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/7967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}