D.J. Coffman – Sequential Artist, Thinker

So, I’m without my main computer (it’s in the shop with a virus) and I have a bunch of time to do actual drawing commissions this week. For this week only (through Dec 18th) I’ve decided to do full color art cards of ANY comic book or pop culture character (Star Wars, etc). $10 includes shipping in the US, and $20 will cover worldwide.

(NEW: See samples of some completed cards in this offer)

Each card will be on trading card sized bristol board, colored with Prismacolor markers. I will ship all cards on Saturday morning December 19th, so get your orders in now. Use the paypal checkout below. Send any questions to djcoffman@gmail.com.

ArtCard includes shipping to:

USA $10.00 WorldWide $20.00

Comic Character You Want:

Here’s a funny story for you. So as most of my friends and fans know I’ve been kind of busy doing OTHER things besides actual comic work.  One day I saw some hub-bub about a new contest Amazon and Universal had created called “Comic Strip Superstar” - There was the usual clamoring of people saying it was a BAD idea. And quite frankly, it probably IS a bad idea, and I’m not even sure WHY I was tempted to enter it… I guess part of me wanted to see if I could pull it off under a pen name or just jam out that many strips in such a limited time like back in the day… As I began thinking about it, a FLOOD of about 100 strip /joke ideas flowed out of me onto paper or notebooks. I was jotting down scenarios and whatnot and…. god forbid… it was kind of fun!

Daily comic strips are no stranger to me… back in 1999 we self syndicated a strip called GRAVITY that we got into 50 papers… when we (McDeavitt and I) realized it was too much work for too little money at the time, we shit-canned the Gravity strip and moved on to do freelance comic book illustration stuff and TONS OF WEBCOMICS!

But something about producing a daily comic strip never leaves you. Your mind is always looking at the world in a certain way that I can’t quite describe. I’ve had this idea for a comic strip up on the shelve, The premise was very simple… it was Generation X parents all grown up, raising a new generation of kids.  Something we know a good bit about here in the Coffman household—-

Here was my master plan.  I’d enter under a pen name, which YIRMUMAH fans might recognize. I’d be silent and just see how far I could on the strip alone. Best case scenario, I’d be picked in the top ten, rip off my rubber mask and yell SURPRISE, IT’S ME AGAIN! when public voting time came. Pretty much ALL for shits and giggles and shenanigans like in the old days, because frankly, the pay wasn’t all that great. I could MAYBE get a foot in the door at syndicates and save their friggin hydes with my genius plans! I wasn’t even sure if I’d be willing to sign an actual contract this time. Maybe I’d just bow out gracefully if the deal sucked and kickstart the feature as webcomic on my own. I was basically figuring “what the hell.”

The strips came out pretty well for only having one week (from the time I decided) to get 10 daily comics done and 2 full color sunday strips. I am pretty proud of myself for accomplishing that workload especially with other “pay the bills” things going on at the time. It was sort of one of those moments in life where you step back and say… “I still got it!” I can still do this.

WORSE case scenario, it wouldn’t cut the mustard and I’d have something interesting to write about (failed attempt at shenanigans!) and a whole bunch of comics to post all at once for friends and fans. Who knows, maybe they totally suck? I know I enjoyed creating them and could totally produce a strip like that with my eyes closed thanks to the wealth of material I have in my real life.

What happened… I entered the contest and forgot that I had even entered. I was reminded a few weeks ago when I got an email saying I had progressed to the top 250 strips of 5000 submissions.  Holy crap… it just might work! BUT ALAS… this week the new top 50 list was put out and XYZs wasn’t on it. For whatever reason , the editors at Universal passed on it.

Now I can show the strips to YOU. I don’t know if I’ll pursue this project further unless there was huge support for the concept or maybe a better offer sent my way. Maybe it’s complete garbage? I do know I had a lot of fun kicking the “daily” machine tires again though. It fueled the desire to possibly do SOMETHING daily again.

(You will need to click these thumbnails to open them up full size to read)

CLICK TO OPEN SAMPLE SHEET 2 BELOW

Click to enlarge strips below

CLICK TO ENLARGE

I’ve spoken with several comic book creators and webcomic creators in the past few months who think it’s near impossible to host their own webcomics and feel they are “computer illiterate” or don’t know design. Some are afraid that places like DrunkDuck.com might go belly-up overnight and they’ll lose all their comics/data and the audience they’ve built there. I decided to write this step by step guide to show you how easy and affordable it is to leave your “free hosting” behind and take the next step to becoming master of your own domain! Keep in mind, this is just my opinion and advice on what to use to take the next step to getting serious about your online webcomics.

1.  Sign up at Dreamhost- Don’t ask questions, just sign up. I’m on the 9.99 a month plan, and i pay once a year, $119 bucks. This gives you MORE than you’ll need for hosting your comics. I host SEVERAL sites on my one account, including the Yirmumah comics, and a bunch of sites for the Flobots! — 9.99 a month is only about $2.50 a friggin week, anyone should be able to afford that, especially someone serious about publishing comics in any regard. So sign the heck up. — And if that’s not enough if you type in the coupon code DRAMA when you’re signing up, you’ll get 50 bucks off compliments OF ME.

2. Once you’re signed up with Dreamhost, you login to your control panel, and notice a section called GOODIES, and then ONE CLICK INSTALLS: (click image for larger image)

From there you can install a BUNCH of things with one click, including forums, shopping carts, but for this step-by-step, you want to select WORDPRESS blog and guide it through where to host it on your account. IMPORTANT NOTE! – Don’t click the “easy” method of  auto install, it won’t allow you to upload themes to your folder. Do the advanced complete install option and you should be good to go!

3. You’ll need FTP program (basically that means file transfering protocal, you’ll be uploading files to your space on the web from your computer) which will allow you to transfer files by dragging them and dropping them from your desktop onto your webspace. I use SmartFtp, but you can also use free FTP like Filezilla. You will use the password and username that Dreamhost emails to you after signing up for “FTP ACCESS” to your site. ANOTHER GREAT FREE FTP tip, if you’re using the Firefox Internet Browser, there is a free extenstion called FireFTP that once installed turns your browser into a FTP program where you can drag and drop files from. I’m currently using FireFtp for all my transfering needs! Download it here.

4. Go download the free COMICPRESS theme for wordpress it’s a powerful wordpress theme by cartoonist Tyler Martin which is being used by many of the top webcomics around (including PVP) – You’ll unzip the download so its a folder that will say “comicpress”– While you are on that download page, also download the PLUGIN called “Comicpress Manager” and unzip that file as well.

5. Open your FTP program and login to your site. Look for the folder called “wp-content”, open it and inside you will see a folder called “themes” – you want to drag and drop the “comicpress” theme folder into that “themes” folder and let it upload. — Also, go back to the “wp-content” folder and put the Comicpress Manager plugin you downloaded into the “plugins” folder. Here’s a look at what my FTP folder looks like when open. Notice the folders I’m talking about… (click for larger image)

6. Login to to your Wordpress admin page, and go to the DESIGN tab. Switch on the “Comicpress theme” there. Also, go over to th PLUGINS tab and swith on the “comicpress manager” plugin as well.

7. Using the Comicpress manager, which will say COMICPRESS in your main Wordpress menu (see above image)  if you have the plugin turned on, you can now upload comic pages or strips right from your desktop. It’s a BREEZE. All you do is name them by date like “2009-09-12-title-of-comic.jpg”, you can even upload them in Zipped file batches all at once too. Here’s what a general screenshot of that Comicpress tab opened looks like…

There are detailed tutorials and tweeks for Comicpress and how to enhance your site’s look and feel over on the Comicpress forum.

8. Kick the tires of everything and look around in your Dreamhost account, and in your installed Wordpress dashboard. There are several awesome plugins out there for wordpress that you simply drag and drop into the plugins folder, and turn on. And you can edit the entire website through the Design panel in wordpress without much fuss.

This is by no means a thorough tutorial on running a webcomic or totally tweeking out your themes in wordpress, and you don’t have to use dreamhost if you can install wordpress on your other hosting you might already have. I mention them because that’s what I use, and they have that nifty one-click install stuff which is great for people just starting out who want to get away from freehosting. Wordpress is just a very powerful tool for getting the word out there too, with tagging and keywords that are going to instantly beam your comics and topics out into the blogosphere and send good search engine traffic your way.

Here are some of the sites I’m running right now on Dreamhost or with Wordpress engines:

• yirmumah.com
• americawillbe.org
• flobots.org
• flobots.net
• djcoffman.com (this very blog!)

And there are many more too. Another sample I’d point to is the quick ACTIONWEBCOMICS.COM website that Jason Embury and myself put up in ONE DAY, as a submission for DC Comic’s editors. Jason is hosting that I do believe on Dreamhost and that’s a very simple Wordpress with Comicpress template there that we only added the header graphic to and changed background colors in the CSS stylesheet.

Hope that helps put some of my friends on the right path. Don’t feel intimidated by the software or technical sounding terms (like CSS STYLSHEET) if you can point and click and type, you can do all this. I often tell friends, it’s sort of like trial and error or flying the Millenium Falcon. Sometimes the hyperdrive goes bad, you just have to get in and tweek it around or hit with a wrench and you’re good to go. Take it slowly and learn just a little bit each day, it’s totally worth it!

I think I’ve decided to go “radio silent” for a spell and rebuild myself stronger. Of course if you work with me, I’ll still be available via email and phone and all of that. I just find myself longing for a bit of privacy and less transparency in my own life.

Funny how that is. For years I built and built, using every tool imaginable to push and push. Worked hard to be connected and ON line. But now I have an appetite to be OFF line. Maybe I’m a little overwhelmed by all the Facebooking and Twittering and social media madness. I can’t really tweet anything without it being picked apart by strangers who follow me as “friends” … and that’s another thing… nowadays, more than ever, you don’t know who your “friends” are. It’s not just a LIST. And I’ve found that I only have a FEW authentic, honest to goodness, old fashioned FRIENDS.

There may be no harder thing for a man to do than to watch dreams die or fade away. Let alone admit that. I kind of feel like that about my career in the comics. I’ve made good money at times, had a lot of fun, but peeked behind the curtain maybe a bit too long and found myself burned and jaded again. I still love to draw comics, of course, but I’m feeling tired and a bit underwhelmed. I look around and I don’t see anyone changing anything. An industry dying out, barely breathing, and Hollywood vampires living off the lifeblood of what’s left. Ironically, feels like that’s the only thing keeping it alive.

I can’t afford therapy, so there will be a lot of drawing and writing and self reflection. I guess if I had to envision how I’d like to come back to public life, I’d say I’ll return a little thinner and fitter, and a better artist and human being.

Looking forward to my next chapter…

I’m back from vacation. Rested and rejuvenated and ready to step up my game on several fronts, (mostly comic drawing!)

Myrtle Beach was fun and relaxing. We stayed at the Sandy Beach Resort and pretty much just chilled every day. Visited the Ripley’s Aquarium, and then the Ripley’s Museum too. Visiting the Ripley’s museum made me wish I had submitted for that cartoonist job they had for the “Believe it or Not” feature years ago when i had a chance.  That would have been really fun stuff to draw! Most people don’t even know that Ripley was a cartoonist, and he sort of accidently stumbled on the “Believe it or not” as a happy accident when he hurridly renamed a one shot comic he was doing… and it took off from there. I visited the Ripley’s museum in Florida when I was 12 and left if an impression on me that the world was full of crazy and mysterious and creepy things. Which is very cool when you’re 12.

But I digress…. Vacation was fun to chill with the family. We stopped in Raleigh on the way home to visit my wife’s Aunt, Unlce and cousins there. All good people to the core. My wife has been saying she wants to move to North Carolina now, and I can’t blame her… heck I’d do it if the circumstances are right. Something about a fresh start in a  new location is appealing to me. This area has really grown on my nerves for some reason.

While in Raleigh, we stopped by a tattoo place in Wake Forest called Eternal Ink, my wife got another one… her “Atomic Bombino” symbol for Derby, which consists of  a skate wheel with the atomic symbol around it. Pretty sweet. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks what I want my next tattoo to be, all I can say is that it will be big, probably like an entire sleeve of my arm, and it will be Wally Wood related.

An update on the OLD HOUSE situation which I was hoping to sell. The days before we went on vacation and I was over cleaning it out and some of the neighbors came over and convinced my wife to do a rent-to-own with their daughter. This time we’re doing a full on contract– but these folks were gungho to get in there– they cleaned up the yard, painted some inside while we were away, it was like a whole different place outside when we showed up Monday to check things out. However… the old tenants… the people who were supposed to be our “family” left TONS of fleas inside. We’d bombed the place twice, and then the new people bombed it… and then they called an exterminator as well, and there are STILL fleas. There are no carpets in the place, just hard wood floors, but the old flea eggs keep the baby fleas protected, so they’ll keep hatching for weeks. I feel bad about this, so I may go over and shopvac… there is also some weird problem with the electric in the kitchen– Im starting to believe they really did a number on screwing with the place, maybe clipped a wire to be dicks? I can’t believe they lived there with all those fleas either… it’s RIDICULOUS! That makes me wonder if there isn’t a way to sabotage a house with flea eggs or something??? Sigh. The new tenants are young– but I think it may work out this time. They seem to see the opportunity we are giving them and i offered a deal of a lifetime to them i they can come up with a certain amount by December, they can own the entire place now. I really want it off of my hands.

I’m also loving what I call “conspiracy rap” lately. Some of it seems a bit far-fetched, but the messages of expanding your mind being the only way to really be free is important.

“CHILDREN OF DA MATRIX”

Long time no speak! – As always if you’re looking for regular updates on my life, follow me on twitter. http://twitter.com/djcoffman

I have a lot going on and a lot on my mind. Here we go!….

CROSSROADS: This year feels like a giant crossroads in my life, both personal and professional. On the professional side, I’ve sort of divorced myself from the comic book industry a bit. Maybe we will remarry some day, or get together for lunch, but the events of last year leading into a really bad winter for me left me kinda disillusioned about the whole process. Sure, there are the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” crowd who email me (and thanks for your words), but I guess the truth is, I spent a good amount of time pouring my soul and LOVE of comics into a thing (Hero By Night) which is now pretty much locked away in corporate land. Over time, that feeling has really taken the wind out of my sails and I’ve felt a bit defeated and depressed.- But yes, that whole ordeal really took my “love” of comics away. For a long time, this made me sad, but I’m over it.

I nearly lost EVERYTHING.

I still have the desire and love to draw comics. I just don’t want to play “the game” right now.

My work for the Flobots has been… well, amazing. If I laid out the sheer amount of work I’ve done (web design, graphics, layout, new media planning, etc) I can’t believe it’s just ME doing it. And in the time I’m doing it in as well! I don’t stop to think about it often, but it is pretty darn amazing. And I can’t say enough how REFRESHING it is for my soul to know such GOOD people who want to change the world… and are doing so in the process. I think just knowing them and learning from their messages and purpose, I’ve actually transformed myself for the better. Little by little, whatever had poisoned my soul, has been sucked out.

FAMILY. Last but definitely not least… my family! Watching kids grow is amazing. It can be sad too sometimes.  This past six months has been a real transforming era for my inner circle, my wife and children. My wife has had her own crazy awesome transformation with Roller Derby, and watching that and supporting that has been lots of fun. I’m always a bit shocked to hear that other spouses don’t support the other gals as well. I’m fascinated by the things that I hear come out of my children’s mouths, or how fast they can pick up on things and learn. My one son watches youtube and crafts crazy origami and even has learned to play a little guitar. He’s a natural talent engine. My oldest boy is a walking history almanac, AND a walking Star Wars almanac as well.  The youngest son is CRAZY. Not sure where he’s going to land yet, but I have a feeling he’s going to be a real ladies man and charmer. He’s also a real spitfire of temper…. flaming red hair. But don’t call it “red” , he will exclaim “IT’S NOT RED, IT’S ORANGE!!!!” – I think all of my authority problems entered into him, so that’s going to be fun to deal with as he grows. At least he has ME to guide him.

VACATION! – From July 12th-July19th I’ll be on my first REAL adult vacation with the family. We’re headed down to Myrtle Beach. Gonna soak up some sun, meaning my pale cartoonist/hermit skin will likely be baked to a crisp! – But I’m REALLY looking forward to recharging my batteries and figuring out HOW to relax for a week. My wife assures me that she will show me how. I know a big part of it consists of NO WORK, and no internet. But I will be twittering from the iphone and sending photos to my Facebook profile. — This is not only the first REAL family vacation, but it’s nice that it was actually planned well in advance when there was still snow on the ground… we decided to pinch our pennies and make this happen. It’s been fun watching the boys save their money as well. My youngest son can’t believe he has 61 dollars in cash, not to mention the “credit” line they’ve been building. We’re also going to stop on the way back to spend time with some family in Raleigh, NC too. I’m looking forward to the road trip. It’s about a 10.5 hour drive. Never looked forward to one of those before. A good start!

Landlords=DRAMA. It’s true what they say… never rent to friends or family. Here’s a pretty unbelievable/remarkable story. I’ll let the public be the judge of just how crazy this is. For the past while we’ve been kind of renting to own our original small home to my sister-inlaw and her husband. We originally got this house and the 4 lots of land for $17,000! A Steal for a young couple. We ended up putting new roof on the house and doing some upkeep to it, a few new windows,reinsulation , and even hooked up central air while we were living there. – Nothing was ever on paper in agreement, but the general thing was that they’d rent-t0-own and we’d sell it to them for 30k.  I had said that we were keeping the back two lots “just in case” – Keep in mind, the property is nowworth 50k by the local assessment.

The rent was ONLY 450 a month. Everything went smoothly until Christmas of last year, when I was informed that the rent would be late because the hubby was surprising the wife with aDisneyLand vacation. “Huh?” I thought. We let it slide. — And so to we let slide from January-May, we’d be paid in installments of 200 and 250 split up from the time they got their pays. Now, this started to effect us a little because we used to wait until the rent from them came to pay our car payment, so we found ourselves “off” a couple of months. This was beginning to get annoying. Also there was the fact they had to hook up to the new public sewage system. They had agreed (again, none of it on paper) to pay the taxes and upkeep on the house, basically to pretend and train them into being REAL homeowners…. but they never hooked up to the new sewage system- we had paid the tap in fees, etc. All they had to do was pay around 500 to get someone to connect the lines. I was told when asked for updates “Oh, we’re doing it next month” — then next month turned into “June”–

This coupled with the fact that they never cut the grass until it was a foot high! And they had agreed to mow the back two lots for us as well, which they never did. My fatherinlaw who lives across the way would end up going over and cutting it, because he’s pretty anal and can’t stand to see grass get high. I found out later he had actually offered his tractor to the husband, making the deal that you can use it whenever you want, just fill up the tankwith the gas you used. He used the tractor 4 times, and never filled it up according to my father in law. So he said, screw that, you’re on your own. But STILL my father in law would go and cut the back two lots because he’s old school. He’d call me to tell me how high the grass was getting, etc… I got sick of being told. It was clear the couple living there were being highly irresponsiblewith their time and money. On Easter while visiting my father in law, I noticed the lot and their front grass was CRAZY high… and with my father in law bitching at me about it, I decided to go cut the grass myself with a push mower…. ON EASTER. This was kind of the last straw for me… I needed to get rid of these lots…

We had asked the tenants to make sure they pay the full rent on time, to which they said they couldn’t afford it. “This is the best we can do” — Keep in mind, both of them were working. Now I know better, because my wife and I at one point in our life had shitty jobs that paid less then they were making and we were still able to afford our rent AND to feed and take care of kids. We had our own small debts and responsibilities to worry about, so I decided to sell the back two lots to the neighbor who had inquired about it. When our tenants found out about this, they immediately were pissed, thinking that belonged to them. Word on the street was they immediately painted us as bad guys to their friends and their side of the family, like we were selling it from under them. Suddenly they had stories about how they dreamed of putting a double wide trailer on the lot…. you know, the lot that they never cut?? I had never heard these stories before.

Communication pretty much went mum. They seemed to avoid our phone calls, and when we’d leave a message saying we’d be at my father inlaws, they would conveniently not be around. We wanted to talk to them to work out what was going on. If they were seriously having money problems, we’d be down to helping them budget something out even. Plus we had heard a warning that if they didn’t get the sewage hooked up soon, it could mean a fine (that would be on US) and the water would be shut off. — I finally caught them at home, ironically on the day we weretransferring the land to the neighbors, — the rent was late and they never answered my message about the sewage and I wanted to warn them what was coming… The husband answered the doorwith an awkward look on his face, as if there was about to be confrontation…. I politely gave him the news and asked what was up with the rent and the sewage….

“Oh, about the sewage hookup… we just don’t have the money.”

My jaw kinda dropped a bit. I had heard the stories that they had had a guy ready to go and hook up everything… but nope. I asked about that too.. what about you guys having it all ready to go?

“No. I just had the phone number for a guy.”

UGH… Then he dropped the bomb on us..

“And… well… we might be moving. It’s actually been in the works for awhile…”

This was a bit shocking. When had they planned on telling us this? I asked to no answer. I was flabbergasted by this really.. why? Was it the selling of the lots they didn’t take care of? He just said they “couldn’t afford it” -

I reached out and grabbed his shoulder and said… dude. You should have told us! I mean, ultimately we LOVE them and don’t want to see them hurting. It sounded like their plans for moving had been in the works for a while. Something about a house that was rent-free. But I stopped him from hisexplaination to say.. you guys really need to think about this. I think you’re making a big mistake. They only had 16 more months to go until they would have “paid off” the property. Then it could have been THEM selling it for a profit. All they had to do was pay 450 amonth and keep up on the grass cutting, etc…. UGH…. I hate seeing people I care about making very poor decisions. Especially based on emotions. No communication of that either. We had no idea what was up… it just seemed like they were avoiding us because they didn’t want to pay rent or the responsibilities they agreed to.

But nope– they said they’d be out by the fourth of july.

In between this time, the place they were moving had changed from a “rent free” family place, to another rented place where they said the owner didn’t care about money. It was becoming clear they were painting a picture of us as greedy and only caring about money, as my wife got some weird messages from a relative on that side of the family to that regard which could have only come from the couple living there. I had basically had enough of the drama and had been ignoring it all… What was a bad decision for them to make, would end up being money in the bank for us as we’re just going to sell the place for 30k “as is” — this was not what we wanted though, but we could put the money to good use. Still I couldn’t help but think they were making a big mistake.

On the fourth of July we went over to check the place out and see what would need cleaned out. They still aren’t completely out of the house with probably a truckload of miscellaneous things. But we noticed the sink as missing in he kitchen! WHA!?? You see they had taken the old sink andcountertops out, and replaced them. So I guess they were thinking that since they paid for it they were taking it??? I called and left a message to ask what gives.. they did call back and let me know some weird story about changing faucets and having to take the sink with them to do it because they were in a hurry….??? — Do they think I’m that silly-stupid? Seriously!C’mon now! — well, the hubby promised everything would be cool and the sink would be put back, etc. — BUT last night on the phone with her mother, my wife found out that her mother actually knew they took the sink last week because “they paid for it” – Keep in mind, mom-inlaw knew this and didn’t warn us. Wow, thanks a lot!

Now, they SHOULD be out of there by now for all intents and purposes. If when I show up there is no sink there, then they’ve totally crossed my line from irresponsibility and laziness to personal disrespect to me. I don’t let this bother me, but I’ll have no choice but to have to pay someone to put a new sink and counter in and then to take them to the local magistrate for the damages. When you rent a place, you’re not allowed to take anything that has been nailed down. Even if it was installed by you as a home improvement. Ugh. A nightmare that they totally do not want coming down on their heads.

So, it’s true what they say… don’t rent to friends and family! Something you often have to learn the hard way. Still, it honestly bothers me a lot to see a young couple making a BIG mistake. They could have been the ones paying off the house and selling it for a profit to help build their future family. I wonder if one day they will look back and realize they made a mistake, or if they will be stubborn and make the story that they were screwed out of money by us in some way. To us, it’s not about the money at all! If it was, we surely wouldn’t be selling a property for WAY under it’s market value, or letting someone rent it for 450 a month. The facts always point to the truth of stories.

I sincerely hope this couple gets their crap together. They now have a baby on the way, and that usually does the trick! Especially with finances!And I’ve learned the hard way that being so transparent when it comes to family matters doesn’t always help a situation. If they should find this blog, they’ll likely be embarrassed by reading the truth of the matter and seeing it so plainly dissected from my point of view. The plain truth is that they have been a bit lazy and irresposible, and they are dealing with people who are highly responsible who have worked very hard for everything we have.It’s a damn shame all around. But it is what it is.

I’m in Denver on Flobots business. Accidently spent Father’s Day here… long story! – It’s the day after Father’s day and I’m sitting in a cafe called Snooze enjoying coffee and breakfast before getting down to business at the non-profit office…

Anyways, yesterday I called my Dad for Fathers Day. No answer. He called me back later in the day drunk and crying and upset and I couldn’t really understand what was up. He’d try to tell me and then break down in drunken tears. Finally he told me that an old acquintance of his confronted him at a public bar in front of all his friends, saying his son, ME, wanted nothing to do with him and I wrote him off. Say Wha!??? — I couldnt make heads or tails of this story. Then my Dad conveyed to me that this fellow, let’s call him TONY, had told my Dad that I had published this all over the internet and published things that made them both look like asses…. SAY WHAT!?? — And that my half sister had conveyed this to Tony, who also happens to be her father…. LONG STORY… don’t ask.

Then it hit me…. this guy must have been talking about ORIGIN. The two chapters I wrote called DAD and MOM. Now, the DAD story, is a romanticized adventure of my Dad’s biker days and actually makes him into a sort of urban legend hero! If my Dad only knew how many people think he’s AWESOME, he’d of never thought I’d do anything like write him off or embarrass him. If anything, I did show the regret he feels and conveys for his first marriage and two daughters he didn’t get to know, and his deep religious views he holds inside.

Quite simply, EVERYTHING that is good in me, was instilled by my Dad. Period. Now, I don’t hide the fact with anyone, or anyone who has seen my Dad lately that he has sort of fallen off the rails, or fell off the wagon. He thinks he’s a failure in a lot of things, but really everything he sees good in how I’ve grown, and become a good father, it’s all because of him. Every single aspect of having my head on straight… him. As a father myself, that thought about my sons… that if whatever I instill in them will make them grow to be good fathers and husbands and human beings. Maybe they will do grand things… if I see that happen, no matter where I am in my life in my 60s or 70s, I know that my life was worth it, just in passing that torch.

My mother is a different story. She took her own life in 1999, died by the bottle. Downed Anti-Freeze I was told by one honest person, my sister’s husband. I didn’t know my mother that well, I’ve lived with my Dad since I was 5… but I was saddened and shocked to learn of her demise. I wondered… do I have that in me? Depression…. could I one day die by the bottlle… be so depressed I would take my own life? — Never. That chapter of ORIGIN had to be told, and I think it was romanticized as well…  only bits and pieces of stories I had heard, and I used my imagination to make it entertaining to readers too. But I that is how I dealt with my pain inside. That was my therapy. At first i was a bit embarrassed by that story… but I grew to know it was important to tell. It is a tragic tale people can learn from. I’ve learned from.

Now… on my Mothers side of the family, I have sisters and brother who don’t talk. I’ve never understood it. I’m not suprised to learn that my sister has come across that story and was greatly offended by it. Her father is in it, and it’s insinuated, as it was fact, that my mother fooled around with her father while she was a bartender in town before and during my Father’s marriage to my mother. An off again on again fling. The way I look at it now, that side of the family is just embarrassed and wants to sugar coat my mom’s death… probably because they are ashamed and embarassed by it. They tried to cover it up and not tell me the truth about it, but I ordered the death certificate that confirmed how my mother passed. Never once did that side of the family reach out to me for anything, to give me childhood photos or memories… nothing. Not that I really wanted anything at all. I have one fond memory of my mother… her playing the guitar. She seemed happy then, singing… talent shining through. She is tragic figure in my history. my origin story.

Back to my Dad…. his story has turned into a bummer as well. A man filled with regrets. But I want to reach out to him to tell him that he’s done good. I love him and I won’t judge him. And I’d surely never write him off. He is an unknowing hero in my origin story. I’d like to see him ride off into the sunset as a happy old man. He is deserving of a good end.

Everything that’s good in me, came from my father. Thanks Dad.

To my other family members who I don’t communicate with who may be offended by the origin comics… I am truly sorry. Please don’t take it personally. It is a dramatized fantasy/therapy for me. The general public does not care…. we are ALL just stories… we choose how they are written and how they will ultimately end. I hold no ill will toward any of my family on that side. It makes me sad I have sons who will likely never know their aunts or uncles… but at least they will know why some day. It’s more than I ever had given to me.

Peace from the streets of Denver!

I’m still alive! As you probably know if you frequent this blog, I don’t post here as much as I used to. I did the daily blogging thing for almost 10 years! Crazy. Now I spend a lot of my social media time at my twitter.com/djcoffman account and over on facebook, so if you’re ever looking to see what I’m up to or thinking at a moment’s notice, that’s probably the best bet. Every now and then though I like to pop on here and unload some thoughts that can’t possibly fit into micro status updates. Here goes the MIND DUMP!

LIFE: Life is pretty awesome. I’m just letting the universe guide me wherever at this point. There have been so many weird things in my life this year that I can’t explain. So much unexpected, some good, some bad… but in the end it’s lead to a much more awesome life for me.

Wow! Conan O’Brien hosting the Tonight Show. I had chills. I remember watching him when he had a night to night contract (as the legend goes)- Hearing Andy Richter introduce the Tonight Show, and the first musical guest is my all time favorite band Pearl Jam, and they debuted a new song there. Did I experience a bit of ShangRa-La? Seriously, it feels like my generation has finally stepped up to take the reigns of our whole society for the next 20-30 years and that feels awesome! – And to think in a round about way, I’m sort of connected to COnan O’Brien history with that shirt I created for AndyRok, which he then gave to Conan off his back. Sweet! — Anyways, watching Conan step up, was like watching an old friend you knew get the greatest job on the planet and know they deserve it. I actually want to watch TV at 11:30 now!

Work- I’ve been doing a ton of stuff behind the scenes. Most of it is writing and designing stuff for the Flobots, both the band and working on some upcoming New Media stuff, and with their non-profit Flobots.org. We’re doing a bit of a relaunch on the FightWithTools.org site in July, and I’ll also be flying out to Denver around June 18th to spend some days working on some things in person. All of that is pretty vague, I know, but it will become much clearer in the fall.

Comics! - Yeah, I know you haven’t seen much of that from me in the past couple months. But I’m still working on the Flobots comic slowly but surely and my main goal is to have a nice little Graphic Novel out at some point. I have two other projects I want to be working on more, one is a fantasy type (sword and sorcery)  story for Jason Embury, and the other one has been slowly forming in my head since January and I think it’s finally come together as something I’d like to put some time into. I don’t want to jinx it though, so mums the word on what it’s about for now.

Yirmumah- I launched the new Yirmumah site “anti-social network” at http://yirmumah.ning.com a bit ago. I planned on doing more live drawing and exploring my darker humor side there, but I really haven’t had as much time to work on it as I’d like. I’ve been terrible at budgeting schedules lately, but I haven’t given up on this. I think it’s a matter of coming up with some form that pleases me the most. Possibly short stories like the original Yirm were, instead of just throw away gags. Although the throw away pop-culture gags always call to me as well.

More COMIC thoughts – & Pittsburgh Comic and COllectible Show: Was at a one day comic show this past Sunday, put on by Todd McDevitt of New Dimension Comics. I have to say it was busier and bigger than I thought it would be. Some Pittsburgh Steelers were also signing next door so that brought some traffic to the mall that day as well. I was sandwiched between two legends, Joe Jusko and Ron Frenz – huge talents. They of course have TRIPLE if not quadruple the experience and skills I have. I usually don’t feel this way, but I was feeling a little inferior looking at my “cartoony” work and kinda feeling DOWN about the whole “comic book industry” experience. Honestly I’ve really lost some bit of passion I once had. Maybe it’s because I’ve not only looked behind the curtain, but I’ve roamed around behind that curtain and what I’ve seen and witnessed wasn’t what I thought it would be. Most of it is just bullshit and smoke and mirrors. — But I was pleased that Joe Jusko stopped to say thanks for the copy of the Hero By Night hardcover I had sent to him a while back. I had forgot I even sent it! – He had kind words about the story and the feeling and vibe it brought back to comics for him. It was a sincere comment That reminded me that my work isn’t done… which is a whole other nut to crack.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I used to have a real sex drive for producing comics. I’d pride myself on how much I could accomplish or do in short periods of time, and keep it quality and entertaining. I wanted to be like Jack Kirby– those stories of how many pages he could draw per day always inspired me (still do!) — but I think I’ve come to the realization that I’m not that. All those years of pumping out daily comics while also drawing monthly comics and side projects, it felt good when friends and colleagues would be amazed, but I look myself at where it’s gotten me and I’m not so sure if it’s the right path. I was explaining this to another friend of mine who didn’t quite understand what I was saying. I was a bit frustrated that ALL THAT WORK I did, and people only mostly remember the drama that ensued and my “character”. All that work. All those hours. And barely anyone talks about the actual COMICS. And to think that I could have, I almost WAS, one of THOSE GUYS… the guys who ruin their lives around them because of this obsession to produce. Where the only time a comic news site will report on you is when someone owes you money or there’s dirt to be dug up. The only emails I’d get would be “what’s the latest dirt!?” — I just don’t want that kind of career.

So I’ve been flying under the radar. Thinking about, and taking action on reinventing myself. Transforming into something better. And when I’m done, hopefully the work will shine and that is what I’d like people to talk about and remember.

I have a TO DO LIST post it note hanging on my desk. It only has one thing on it.

#1 – BE AWESOME.