It's hard to make decisions sometimes. Especially ones that will encompass so much of your time and energy as the work of creating a comic can. I've spent the last three years "learning" comics all over again. When I was younger lad, I drew comics that looked like your normal news stand issue of X-Men. My goal there was to get to work on those titles. They were the reason I fell in love with comics in the first place. Then I became a fan of the now dead CrossGen universe. And what caused me to fall in love with those books was that they were telling stories with their comics. Not a battle a month style of book. This is something that may seem odd nowadays, but that wasn't very commonplace here in the states for a long time. Shortly after I met webcomics for the first time when I stumbled on Derek Kirk Kim's "Same Difference" comic.
The weight of that discovery threw me into another direction creatively for a long period in my life. I created my first online book From Death Til Now, which is now wrapping up its first volume. But what I found was that I was learning all over again. Learning how to create a comic from the very beginning and having to carry it through all of the steps to completion. I look back on so much of that early art that was done for From Death Til Now and it's hard to believe I drew that, and thought it was good. Honestly, I drew much much better than those pages showed, I just didn't know how to get it all out my head into the digital realm, using all of these tools.
Now, I sit here three years later, making another decision. I spent all of last year pitching my first graphic novel The Unknowns to publishers and ultimately that didn't pan out. It's perfectly, OK. I met my agent and other great folks and the doors are open. In fact I'm still in the process of pitching my graphic novel project (more on that in a minute), but I've made a decision about how I'm going to approach my career from here on out.
The King's Game is the title of the book I am pitching next. But rather than start working on another title or pitch next, I'm going to make this book. Whether it gets picked up or not, The King's Game is coming ( Lord willing). I had been going back and forth on this for a few months, as to if I should create another webcomic. And leading the way in that argument for making one, was my previous pitch The Unknowns. After a good talk with my wife, I made the decision that The King's Game should be the project. Because it's a simple, emotional story that can be finished in one shot and I think will be immensely fun!
What's been the reason for this decision is that, quite frankly, I just want to tell my stories. The idea of a publisher and all of that is awesome and I will keep pursuing that sort of thing, but ultimately, I don't want to spend all of my time on pitches and have nothing else to show for.
The reason I posted so much else about my development is because this is the first time, on the cusp of finishing FDTN book 1, that I think I'm really ready. It took a lot of work and time, but I want to approach this as professionally as possible. I want to create a book that you truly feel is worthy to be on the shelf next to any other book we love at the books store. So, it may be awhile, it may even get picked up, but The King's Game is coming.
See you then!
This past week I handed over my most recent portrait to my patron clients, the Trammell family. This is the second portrait I've done for the family. The first was of their oldest daughter, Emmie. I was really pleased that at that time they said they wanted me to do another portrait for them in a few years once their youngest daughter was a bit older. Well, those years are past and we finally got around to creating our portrait. It was a real pleasure to complete this. It was a challenging piece, but I was really happy with it all. Thanks again, guys for letting do this for your family. I hope we all see each other again soon!
