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02.10.06

Blog #3

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:49 am by rhys

My daughter asked me this morning why I wasn’t working on art.

My computer was on and I was contemplating what to write about. She was sitting next to me wearing my sweater (custom altered to fit a 4-year-old girl who’s cold). I was going to tell her because I was working on other things at the time. Then I noticed she was looking at an old text book from my Italian Renaissance Art book. Now, she wasn’t commenting on the quality of work we do here. She was wondering why I wasn’t working on pictures on the computer. I was typing this instead. But, of course, that made me think about traditional art, as opposed to what is done in comic books.

The dictionary tells me that art is - an expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. That’s a decent definition, I suppose. It was the first listed definition. It was a little lacking in mentioning the arts as related to music or writing, but that’s OK. When you mention art to people, their thoughts usually turn to painting - Da Vinci’s Last Supper, Warhol’s Soup Cans, Van Eyck’s The Wedding Portrait … OK, maybe most people don’t know Van Eyck, but they should.

What’s my point? I suppose it’s this: when you go to an art school, lots of students there don’t really consider anything art unless it shows up in some small gallery with wine and cheese at the opening. Everything else is “designerly.” They pronounce it with a look on their faces like you just fed them a dog turd sandwich. Of all the fine arts, I enjoyed sculpting the best, making seemingly impossible three dimensional spaces a reality. Could I have made a living at sculpting? I doubt it. Does that make what we’re doing here any less artistic? No. Do I think I can make a living making comic books? I’d like to think so, but it’s pretty dicey.

Are comic books art? Sure. Lots of them are bad. They’re bad comic books. They’re bad art. But look at the good ones. The works by such artists as Kojima, Gerhard, Maleev, Garney, Bennett, Mack; they all deserve at least a successful opening (complete with wine and cheese), if not a frame in a museum somewhere. Do you think Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel out of his driving creative need? Nope.

He got paid.

Here’s hoping we do too…

02.08.06

Man. This is tougher than I thought it would be. So many topics. So much time. How do I pick just one…

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:35 pm by rhys

Here’s a story for you.

This guy quits his job and starts a publishing company. He’s down to his last few weeks before the book comes out, so he starts trying to come up with additional ways to promote the comic. One of the ideas he has revolves around the fact that he went to school for a while with some incredibly smart and talented people. His closest friends. He loved them all dearly, but, as happens so often in life, you get busy. Life overtakes you and you lose contact with all of these people.

That’s what happened to me.

It dawned on me that many of these people I knew, being smart and talented, had moved around and worked in many diverse, exciting places. Many of those places are far far away from here. If I could contact all of these people and tell them that the book was coming out, I could possibly get them to buy an issue or two, tell all of their friends about it, spread my market a bit.

It also dawned on me, and excited me to no end, that I would be able to tell them what’s been going on with me for the past 10 years or more. I would also have the chance to read short novellas starring some of my favorite people of all time. The prospect of hearing from them thrilled me about as much as the idea that I will have a comic book in stores in a month.

So, I get on line and head for Google. “Man, you should Google your name some time. You’ll be amazed at what turns up!” I’ve heard this wisdom for years. You know what? It turns up a lot of people who aren’t who you are looking for. One of my friends, I’ll refer to him as Captain, has tons of hits when you type in his name. Most of them are for a collegiate running back who shares the Captain’s name. The Captain is probably 35 now. He’s not running for any Ivy League schools.

Of the thirty or so names on the list, I found one with good information. Taking an end-around way that didn’t involve the internet at all, I came up with another.

Joyfully I sent emails to these two. “Are you who I think you are?” “Do you remember a Rhys Sampson?” They both replied and in both cases were slim on personal details, but glad to hear from me and wondered what was going on with me. I carefully crafted responses, listing what had befallen me in the ten plus years of my absence in their lives, and what I was doing now. I asked them to check out the book if they got a chance to and let people know about it. I also asked them about what was going on in their lives now. You’re a dance instructor? Where are you living now?

It’s been a couple of weeks now. No reply.

Part of me says, “Rhys, these are busy people. You know how life demands a lot of time from talented, smart individuals. They probably just haven’t gotten around to it. You aren’t every one’s top priority.”

Then the dark, nasty, vile side says, “You ASS! After all of these years, you finally contact them only to ask them to support you! You might as well be selling them life insurance! Man, do they hate you…”

So, fact of the matter is, I didn’t just contact them to ask them to support me. If their shadows never darken a comic shop door, that’s fine with me. It really is just about missing them. Life comes at you fast, like a crowd or a river, and easily strips away the things you don’t cling to for dear life. Now I’m at a point where the river, momentarily has slowed down, shallowed up. I’d just like to hear from my friends once in a while. That’s all.

So, if you are one of those few people I DID get a hold of, I hope you weren’t offended. The fact that you were on the list in the first place shows how much I miss you. If you were offended, I’m sorry. Maybe it was a little tactless of me, but the fact remains, you are all a part of my past, and I’d like to have you as a part of my future.

02.02.06

Blogs

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:29 pm by rhys

I just read a letter in Popular Science where someone was complaining that blogs were SO 2005. I’m not too sure just what he meant by that, but of course, it figures. By the time I get involved in anything, you can bet it’s already out of date. I don’t own a car that was made past 1994.

It’s not that I’m some luddite who thrives on living in the past. It’s more that I’m very VERY cheap. While all of my vehicles are older, they are in descent shape (OK, the van has a little body damage), and I haven’t had a car payment to make in fourteen years.

Oh yeah. Back to the blogging.

Running a comic book company is a little tougher than it looks, and our first issue isn’t even out yet. I write “The Purged.” Justin illustrates it. I am also writing and illustrating a second title that will come out as soon as I have the cash to do it. For the past three weeks I haven’t written or illustrated anything. I’ve been checking copy, editing story, laying out pages, burning CD’s. All the stuff that goes into making the things has consumed so much of my time that I haven’t had time to MAKE any more. You know what I mean?

I mean look at my mileage record from the past two weeks. I’ve gone somewhere everyday to get this thing done. I’ve spent more time in front of this screen than I have in the studio. I’m sure it will all be worth it in the long run. I love doing the writing and illustrating, and I’m sure you’ll love our brands of adventure tales. I’m also sure I’ll get better at what I’m doing, business wise, and run things more efficiently by issue 2.

So, there you have it. My first blog entry. Justin will be posting, as well as a few others from time to time. So, passé as it might be, welcome to the blog…