Thoughts and comments on the world of graphic novel creation and publishing
My wife and I just had our fourth child - Pryce Owen Sampson. Weighing in at 10 pounds, 11 ounces, he took about 22 hours to deliver. Mom and Baby are both doing great and sleeping. OK, Mom’s sleeping and Baby is sitting here looking around, but he looks sleepy.
Rhys
It’s been a little over a year since we changed our home page. If you’ve been checking regularly, thank you! You deserve an update. Here’s what’s happened and what’s going on now.
We’re waiting.
We’ve been waiting.
I’m sure we’ll continue to wait.
We’re waiting to hear from DIamond about distribution. If you don’t know, DIamond is the U.S.’s largest distributor, and, arguably, the last one you can use if you don’t want to spend more time on distribution than publishing.
We’re looking at our options if Diamond decides to pass. We can change the book to make it more “marketable” in the hopes they go for the new format. We can work with a network of smaller distributors in an effort to get an established base in the market. We could self distribute.The best scenario would be to not have to worry about it at all.
We haven’t been idle while we’re waiting. We have the prequel to “The Purged” issue 1 almost set and it will be available in an e-format on this site soon
It’s been a bit slow going because Justin has been busy doing book/concept illustration for Veil of Eden, a new book by Frank KNight. I’m not sure their site (www.veilofeden.com) has any of the art set up yet or not, but it’s worth taking a look at.
I’ve got enough art done to throw some images out from another title we’re working on, “Zoned.” I can’t tell you when it will come out, cause, let’s face it, I don’t know when our first title will be released.
I’ve got enough of the script done of “The Collective” to throw a sampling out there of this one too. It will be a little longer time coming than the rest, however, because it will require an artist and I’m not in the mood to shop around.
We’re also going to put up a page of ads and links too. The ads are pretty funny. It also is the least we can do for sponsors who have been so loyal for so long.
I think that’s it for now. When will it happen, you ask? Some time after Memorial Day. Until then, thanks again for all the support.
Rhys
What’s dribbler, you ask? It is a school program for little kids (all under 5th grade, I think). They work on basic basketball ball handling skills and make a little routine out of it to show between periods of high school basketball games. My son thought it sounded fun and signed up. This was the first one I have been to and they only perform twice. Two things struck me about it. First and foremost was the sheer number of kids who were in this. The woman who was in charge of this should be sainted. She works with these kids, and I’m talking about between 80-100, and they LISTEN to her! I was stunned.
The second point was how well my son did. For those few of you who know me, you know I’m a hockey fan. I grew up playing back yard pond hockey. I loved it, and continue to love the sport. The school my son attends has no ice, much less a hockey program. Now, the even fewer of you who can say that they’ve played basketball with me, will recognize this statement, paraphrased by Josh (sorry, I forget your last name) while playing in college; “There’s no body checking in basketball!” Yes, I tended to turn basketball into some form of iceless hockey and would push my way around the court. I had no ball handling skills at all, but I could easily knock you hard enough to jar the ball loose. I’m awful at basketball.
My son, from tonight’s performance, isn’t.
He’d sit there and do his dribbling skills and LOOK AROUND! If I take my eyes off of the ball for a second, it’s gone! He really enjoyed himself while doing it too.
It makes me stop and ask big questions, like, what else is he going to be good at? What do I do that he might stink at when he’s my age (if anything)? What do I absolutely slaughter when I try to do it that he will be brilliant?
It just reminds me that while he may look like me, he’s not me. He’s his own little guy and always will be…
Rhys
PS. Merry Christmas all!
I’ve always been, what I consider, a fairly musical guy. I come from a musical family. I play a few instruments, some well, and others not well. When I was in college, I listened to a fairly wide musical group; classic rock, blues, jazz, classical, old-school punk, etc. What I couldn’t stand though was the music that was current at the time. I hated the whole Nirvana thing, and the same goes for most other trends that have come and gone since the early 90’s. That really didn’t change until a couple of years ago.
I was working with Justin. He listens to everything. I mean everything. He would bring in music I had never heard of and didn’t really care to. A lot of times what he brought in to listen to would just piss me off. Especially the stuff from more recent times. The music was either over-worked or composed to hide a tremendous lack of talent. And it seems that no one can sing anymore. Did you ever notice that? Everyone just yells. I’ve always like the Lou Reed and Neil Youngs of the world, but their music is more about the poetry of the lyrics than the deliverance, in my opinion.
One day, Justin brings in some music and I decided to give a good try. Much to my dismay, I liked it. Over the course of the next few years, Justin would bring in album after album of music by bands I had never heard before. A lot of it I didn’t like, but some of it I fell in love with. One of those bands, much to Justin’s shock, was Blink-182. The music is up tempo, the vocals are well done, the musical complexity of the music is just right; not too stiff and not too relaxed. Justin’s surprise came due to the fact that their lyrics tended to be a bit immature, but, if you look at their target audience, the lyrics make sense (remember back to when you were 16).
OK. The stage is set. I can get to my point.
Last weekend, my family and I went to a teachers’ union meeting that my wife had been invited to. The meetings are almost always in Columbus, so when she’s at the meetings, I take the kids to the zoo (free plug for the Columbus Zoo: It’s awesome!), COSI, or one of the little parks or amusements around the area. This meeting was a little different, because my wife, the intelligent, devoted woman she is, was appointed to be on this committee out of everyone in the northeastern Ohio area (right, Honey? Correct me if you have to). This was a big deal. She’s in there with the movers and the shakers of the OEA, a reasonably powerful union in the state, and she was on a board to study policy guidelines for negotiations (or some such thing). I was there with the kids for a trip to COSI.
Now, let’s look at this, shall we?
She’s there because she’s a talented professional, her peers recognize this, and they want her input on matters of importance to them.
I’m not working right now and I’m trying to get a comic book published and I don’t even know yet if we will have national distribution yet or not.
She’s educating the youth of tomorrow.
I’m drawing pictures in the basement.
She’s contributing to the (hopefully) welfare of an entire group of professionals.
I make up stories that I don’t even know for sure if anyone wants to hear.
As I pondered this situation, it reminded me of a few lyrics from the oh so clever guys in Blink-182. I think the song is “Green Apple Shampoo” and it is off of the “Dude Ranch” album. The lyrics, not necessarily in order, or overly accurate for that matter, go like this:
“She’s so important; I’m so retarded…
I know just where I stand, a boy, trapped in the body of a man and
I’ll take what you’re willing to give, and I’ll teach myself to live
with a walk on part in a background shot from a movie I’m not in…”
It really summed up my feelings at the end of the trip. I’m not advocating for my wife to step down or anything like that. I guess what I’m advocating is that I need to step up. Your partner should never have to lower their place in life to suit you. You should always strive to elevate yourself to that higher status. I just have to wonder if I even have the ability. I’m always getting myself into situations where I don’t know as much as I should to tackle a project. If you’ve ever been in that situation, you know how it can make you feel like you’re ten years old again. Courage, I guess. Courage is what you need to get past those spots in life and soar to your potential, how ever high that might be.
I gotta go try and soar.
Until next time,
Rhys
Where did the time go?
The blogs, as you all know, are slow coming. I apologize. I’d have to say, however, no one is really commenting much, so I don’t feel too much drive to post daily. No, don’t start commenting on everything and filling my evenings with moderating.
Talk about time going fast, my son and daughter just had their 7th and 5th birthday parties, respectively. It doesn’t seem that long ago that they were just little noisy bundles of joy, but it must have been. It’s cool to see them grow up, form their own opinions, become their own people, but it’s sad a little, too. You have such pure innocent people living with you and slowly but surely they turn into young adults. It becomes even more bittersweet when you look at the relationship you have with your own parents. How often do you call home? How many times do you take the time to talk to your folks? Some day, that seeming lack of interest we call everyday life will affect your children, too. You’ll end up being the guy waiting for a call, or the girl hoping to see you child for a few minutes that week. Eventually, every child leaves their parents behind to become parents themselves. Your family becomes a new one and you become “extended.”
A child is only young once. Enjoy it while it’s here.
Mostly because I don’t have too much time, but a blog entry is long overdue.
Summer is winding down. It’s been quite a summer. I’ve been away from home more this summer than any in recent memory. Mostly, it’s been spending time with the kids: museums, visiting friends, zoos, amusement parks, etc. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed myself while doing all of this, but I’m very much a homebody.
We just came back from a short trip to Idlewild Park. I have to say, of all the trips we’ve had this summer, this has been the most enjoyable. The park is an amusement park, with lots of the sections being geared to kids. Everyone working there was fantastic, and, the best part, most of the guests attending the park while we were there were nice as well. The park is an older park, so the roller coasters are all rickety (which I think just makes them that much more thrilling), the kiddy rides are older than those on them, and the overall tone is laid back.
We are now just a week away from school starting. This is especially noticeable in our house, since my wife teaches. It’s a time for reflection on the summer, now past, and sorry at the thought of not seeing Mom everyday. My job changes this year as well, as my son enters first grade and I need to get him ready for school everyday (kindergarten was every other day last year). Then, amidst all of the lost summer nostalgia, there’s an electric twinge as autumn approaches. Fall is, by far, my favorite time of the year. The colors change, the air acquires a nip, and the scent of wood fires caresses the breeze. You feel as though everything in the past is ending (both good and bad, which makes it delightfully bittersweet), and the future stretches out before you with unlimited potential. This electric time of year only lasts until winter, which I also enjoy, but the sense of the past being soundly deceased is inescapable.
So raise your glass to another summer past, and drink it down with the promise of an endless future until the snow flies.
We’ve got everything together. Hopefully by the end of next week we will have the solicitation packets out. Then it’s just a matter of waiting. It’s one thing to be waiting on yourself or on your partner, but it’s something else entirely when you are waiting on someone you don’t even know to tell you whether you will get a chance to put your stuff out there or not.
I suppose that’s not fair. We could put our stuff out there without a distributor. If it comes down to that, maybe we will. We were set to move about 500 copies of issue #1 when it came out in March. How many of those will we lose since we had to delay our release? I don’t know. Hopefully not many.
You know what the worst part is? We came THIS close in March. It’s the best part too, I guess. If FM had been around a month later we would have had an issue printed and they would have gone under before we could get paid for it. Then I’d be left with a printing bill and no money coming in for the issues that did sell, not to mention the ones that may or may not have made it to stores that ordered them.
I read all the time about people in the industry saying stuff like “Why would you want to get into this business? It’s awful! Save yourself the grief! Get another job!” Those people need to either get a real job and then come back to the rest of us and tell us how enjoyable that is, or remember what it was like when the DID have a regular 9-5, or just get out of the industry, because they are so obviously jaded they aren’t enjoying themselves.
You’re going to spend about 1/3 of your life working at your job. You should at least TRY to do something for that 1/3 of your life that you will enjoy.
I was driving home tonight, listening to NPR, and they ran a story about the FBI and CIA asking Google and the like to keep track of the sites you and I search for a period of two years. No one is saying how this will be paid for (translation, tax hike), and as of right now, Google is being pretty quiet about it. Of course, Microsoft will roll over for them right away, if they haven’t already.
Privacy groups are crying out claiming that this is a violation of the 4th amendment. The powers that be are claiming this is being done in the interest of anti-terrorist, national security. It seems to me that the Bill of Rights is being thrown out the window, one amendment at a time. It also seems to be OK with the majority of Americans, as long as it’s done with the “anti-terrorist” or “national security” label.
I don’t know. Maybe it isn’t OK with Americans. Maybe most of them have no idea that it’s happening at all. Or maybe they know it is, but they figure they have no way to stop it. Or maybe everyone is against it and is actively writing their congressmen who are all just choosing to ignore it.
It’s not like I’m going to sites that are controversial or anything. Hell, I don’t even have an internet connection in my house. I’m either checking this site, the NHL’s, or various comic book news sites whenever I am on line. I’m not concerned about what I’m looking at.
If you have a computer on-line, and you have a teenaged son, however, I can almost guarantee that porn has been dialed in on your machine. Probably some sites about violence, weapons, or explosives too.
Is your child a terrorist? Is he going to commit mass-homicide at his high school. Probably not. He’s just a guy under the age of 18. These things interest boys his age. At least they did when I was a kid. We’d catch stuff on fire, blow stuff up. Just because your kid drives fast, you don’t expect him to show up at the track in Daytona. Most of the time, guys grow out of their bad behavior.
But that’s not even the real danger. Surely the Feds can figure out which kid is really a threat and which one is just young and stupid. Or maybe they can’t. Here’s the part you should really worry about…
Do your children have their own personal internet account? I’m betting not. Let’s say you have one of those young, impish boys (or worse, two or three). Let’s say he’s interested in all of the things boys normally are. Let’s say he searches the web under one or two of these “dangerous” subjects. Now, when the local constabulary knocks on your door with your Google record in one hand and a subpoena in the other, whose name is on the bill?
And if you think you can control your kids enough to prevent them from doing this, think again…
I don’t post nearly as often as I did at the start of this thing. Sometimes I wonder if I have anything to say at all. Then, at times like these, I think, “Who cares?” It’s my blog. I can say whatever I want, so, I’m going to.
I was checking out my most recent copy of Popular Science. They were showing the best of what’s to come; all the projects in the works that will make all of our lives soooo much better. One of the items listed was an e-newspaper. I’m hoping that’s not going to happen. You can already get on line and get your news as it is. I’ve spoken to several people who gladly envision the day that there are no more books, periodicals, or newspapers. Just put everything in a digital format and download it to your pda, cellphone, computer, whatever.
Maybe I’m a little bit too much of a luddite, but I enjoy my printed works. I enjoy actually holding some bound pages in my hands. I enjoy the qualities of the various papers, the slight imperfections in the printing, the glossy sheen of covers. I have a hard time separating the quality of the writing from the quality of the printing. I’ve read numerous titles that were poor at best, just because they were put together so nicely. Printing is an art form, and it serves a purpose. Art doesn’t need to serve a purpose, but when it does it should be revered, not scorned as some archaic device to be discarded at the first opportunity technology gives us.
Yes, the digital age gives us the power to discard an ancient, important art form. It doesn’t mean we have to though. After all; in the eighties we had the ability to destroy the world several times over.
Aren’t you glad we didn’t?
Fact of the matter is it’s looking more like mid-June. I know, I know. Trust me, it drives me crazier than it does you (if you even really care at all). By then we should not only have all of the Solicitations sent, but the first “e-book” on the site for you to preview. Why should you believe me this time? Because forces far greater than mine are now at play. I’m really starting to wonder if any forces of mine were ever at play in any of this. Let me come up with a pseudo-analogy if I can:
You could spend twenty years of your life designing an amazing new form of yacht. You may have a revolutionary keel shape. Your rudder hardware may be the most incredibly designed in an era. Your rigging may be a wonder to all who understand sailing and awe inspiring to those who don’t. Now, suppose you have finished this amazing craft and you move it from your private workshop. You’ve placed this fantastic synthesis of man-made craft and natural phenomenon in the water. Please, I don’t want tons of mail from meteorologists for this next part, but suppose you have absolutely no wind; none at all for months. You’ve even gone so far as living in your craft so you don’t miss your chance. Nothing.
Is your ship a failure? It’s just sitting there. For all the astounding innovations you’ve compiled, the boat doesn’t move. As a side note, if it is a failure, is it your failure, or is it a matter of falling prey to the whims of fate that have left you stranded due to some freak of nature?
I’m sitting in the boat, ready to sail the seas of self-published comics, and there’s no damn wind! I’ve already changed the color of the cabin walls three times, but until the winds of fate start to blow, I won’t know if this works or not.
See how it can drive you nuts?