D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

It always feels like a late start when you’ve slept in. But I guess the truth is, I pulled a late night last night. Was able to pencil 3 of the 8 pages due this week. I’m hoping to get the rest done today, and then ink the rest of the week and then I’m done for a spell and can breathe for a week and get things in order here.

I actually would have had much more than 3 pages penciled yesterday, but my wife was heading out shopping and tempted me into going with her, so I did. And I don’t regret it. It’s nice just getting out of the office sometimes and driving around with your mate. We stopped at Staples– I found a nice desk setup I want for the office… ever since we’ve moved into the new house, I’ve been using our old kitchen table as my work desk area for the computer and Cintiq– I like the larger work area and having things spread out a bit more. So the desk setup I found will work out great and would be less cluttered like my table now gets. Next pay day, I’m nabbing that for sure.

Links to check out…

Zuda Comics is now live. Some people are complaining about the flash player box, but I tell those people to not be wussies and hit the “full screen” button and enjoy the comic really big. So far, I’m digging Zuda’s scene. Check out http://www.zudacomics.com

Drunk Duck has it’s horror theme up today in honor of Halloween.

KYTE - is an interesting new video site I found through Scoble.

I’ve joked to friends before, that if they want to know what I really think, they should ask me before coffee, or really late at night. Before coffee in the morning, I’m either like a zombie, and my answer to just about any question will be “Who really gives a crap?” or “Scram.” or “Auugggh.” Or I’m opinionated and end up really speaking my mind at the times I should probably be biting my tongue.

So, for the fun of it, here’s what’s on my mind this morning, as I’m technnically before coffee…

- I decided not to go to Mid Ohio comicon this year. It’s a week after Wizard World Texas and I think I’d rather be working. The only reason I would go at this point is if friends wanted to meet up there for old time’s sake. That is a great show though. Maybe next year.

- I have… 8 pages to finish up here this week on some Hero By Night stuff. I thought up a new grassroots, secret promotion thing which we may put into effect after I get the actual book work done for this month. I was inspired by Hugh McLeod’s “social object”yammerings. That man is a genius.. it deserves it’s own bullet point here.

- If I owned a company like Platinum Studios, I’d hire Hugh McLeod to work his magic there. He’s great at making me want to buy 10 dollar wine from South Africa, remembering the name– I wonder what a man like this could do for the antiquated comic book industry?

- Speaking of bloggers… I don’t like that term anymore, I haven’t for awhile. It’s become hokey. I have a bookmark list on my iphone that I check that’s called THINKERS. Right now it includes dudes like Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Robert Scoble, Joi Ito and Hugh Mcleod among others. I prefer to call them “thinkers”. I don’t know why that is, but I like it better than blogger. Maybe because today’s “blogging” doesn’t have much thought?

- I listen to Webcomics Weekly podcast. I like those guys, and they’re thoughtful and give out great tips. I often end up feeling like a know-it-all though when listening, because nothing has been covered yet that I didn’t know, but it’s not for guys like me… I do get reminded of things though. it’s a great help for new folks I bet.

- In other Webcomics news, my old pal Joey Manley is merging his webcomic companies with Comicspace.com, to make a one stop place for webcomics hosting, community, and all sorts of other doo-dads in the works. They’ll be trying to get some monetary backing from an investment firm in New Jersey. Sort of like DrunkDuck.com has been doing I guess?

- It’s been interesting to watch the growth of Drunk Duck.com since Platinum Studios hooked up with it. I usually hate even mentioning Alexa since the stats are often screwy, but they have a nifty graph analysis– even if it only partially shows growth and value.

- Keeping with the thought flow here, It was just announced that Broken Frontier, a comics news site that was acquired by Platinum was pretty much given back. I had a chance to meet the owner, Frederik Hautain back in 2006 at Comic Book Challenge. If you look around you can find a video of him interviewing me, and all the other post and pre interviews for the challenge, come to think of it. I like that guy… I never quite understood why Platinum would want a comics news site, and they took some heat when they did acquire it, jerkoffs saying they’d just report good things about their projects all the time— but I do have to say in the short period that they owned the site, they never did any of that and usually posted disclaimers stating their affiliation with BF. — This news came of no surprise to me yesterday as I’ve known about it from Frederik for awhile now, July? It never worked out, because in the end it never made sense really. That’s what I have gathered. But alas, Frederik is the owner again, and all is well.

- Coffee is almost gone…

- Facebook tells me that it’s the birthday of WORLD RENOWNED WEBCOMICS HISTORIAN tcampbell. Happy Birthday, T.

- My wife has come into my office to visit. Tomorrow will be our anniversary of the day we met, 11 years ago.  Now I don’t feel like blogging anymore.

 Did an interview with Earthsmightiest.com about all things webcomics and Hero By Night.

“DJ Coffman’s clean artwork—reminiscent of C.C. Beck, with shades of Wally Wood—and the incredibly detailed back-story he’s created through the Hero By Night journals, make for a truly magical experience that no fan of comic books should miss.”

Zuda Comics launches tomorrow, with what looks to be a strong lineup of talented creators. Zuda took some of the same heat from the webcomic community that Platinum Studios did for the Comic Book Challenge contest. (the contest I won with Hero By Night) — Now the new heat applied is the fact that all of their new lineup of contestants have been published before.

You have people like Todd Allen devoting whole articles of speculation to it on Comic Book Resources.  Eluding that the fact that they only have “pros” there, means that the webcomic community MUST have taken a stand of some sort against Zuda and it’s contracts. He asks, where are the webcomic people?

Well, one is right here. I would have actually submitted to Zuda if I wasn’t so busy with Hero By Night. I have another idea which would have been perfect for it. The bottom line is, and I’m sure the Zuda people would tell you this too, they wanted to OPEN STRONG on their site with showing you the level of quality they’re looking for. They want to set the bar just a little higher.

But that’s not “webcomics” is it? For years now, any person who thinks he can draw comics can just jump online, publish their comics and believe they are on a level playing field with quality just because a bunch of people on the internet tell them they’re awesome. Or other cartoonists in a community they’re part of tell them they’re awesome. So called “news sites”, run by other creators, tell them they’re awesome. For the past decade in webcomics, there’s been this notion that the web is the great equalizer… that you as a cartoonist have the SAME shot at it as ANYONE. Somebody like Scott Kurtz sent his comics in and was repeatedly turned down by syndicates, but his webcomic is a success and he’s gone on to win awards– Penny Arcade ignored IT ALL and went on to make zillions… and there are a few other super success stories out there as well… If they can do it, SO CAN YOU! RIGHT??? RIGHT!

Wrong.

That’s just not reality. While it’s TRUE that with the internet, any schmuck or amateur with a pencil and scanner or wacom tablet can post their art online, even build an audience and make money selling t-shirts or trinkets… it doesn’t mean that they’re GOOD. It just means that there has never been a place that told you what was quality and what was not. A “submissions” process. There is no submissions process in webcomics until now.

If you want to be on a site like Zuda, they are going to pick what they believe is the BEST of the BEST of the submissions they get. Did they ever say it was closed to people who have been published before or were considered “pros”? I don’t think they ever did. Now, yeah, there might be an ethical thing here, but if I were Jim Lee, or some other regular working pro, you’d think they wouldn’t wake up and think… “hey, I’m gonna submit to Zuda”– but while some loud mouths online will tell you these guys in the lineup are pros, and published— it doesn’t matter… they submitted because they felt they needed Zuda. For the money? Recognition? Career? Who knows… who cares. That’s the skill level bar that’s been sent because that’s the level of quality Zuda will be looking for. If you don’t have the skill level, or feel you’re out of your league, don’t enter. Run off to your little webcomic sites and forums and pat each other on the back about how AWESOME you are, and keep trying to be the next Scott Kurtz or Penny Arcade or Dumbrella, but it won’t change a damn thing about what you’re complaining about.

OR… or you could decide to step up your game. Get better… and really strive to put out something that’s going to beat the pants off of any submission they get. Zuda IS a competition. Comic Book Challenge IS a competition. Seeing the difference in QUALITY is night and day. If someone wants to argue that, they’re lying to you.

And that’s the key problem here… in the current state of webcomics, there is a TON of quantity, but not enough quality. There is a sea of CRAP, that comic readers don’t want to read through. And there has never been a centralized place with a set level of “professional” quality, which was willing to actually pay for it. You might say what is considered as “quality” could vary from one person’s opinion to the next… but that’s a lie. You know what’s good and what’s bad. You know what’s a “style” and what’s actually a lack of skill.

These are hard lessons to learn or accept, especially to a community who’s leaders were often rejected by firm institutions  like newspaper syndicates, or publishers like Marvel and DC. They were turned down, REJECTED… because someone somewhere, in some office,  thought they weren’t good enough yet.

“Webcomics” is like the Island of Misfit Toys.

This new world has been formed by those who were rejected because they didn’t pass somebody’s smell test. And to follow that, it was the people who weren’t good enough, but never submitted to anything, because dammit, they’re rebels, and it’s fucking COOL to hangout with all the misfits. The island of misfit toys is where it’s at!

On the island of misfit toys… in “webcomics” — now you have that message that… “You don’t need them! Do it yourself! We did, so can you!” — “You can do it all yourself!” - Even though you’re not perfect, kids will STILL play with you and you can bring joy and escapism to the world!— to an extent, all of that is true… but there’s a high percentage chance that it won’t happen. If you’re in it as a career… you can almost forget about it.

I’m not saying QUALITY is the only bar being set for those who want to make a living with their cartooning skills online. It will always ONLY be the “driven” who make it. You CAN makeup for you lack of skills and storytelling with being driven to do it. Not everyone has that kind of drive.  You have to have it if you want to make it. If you limit yourself to only believing there is ONE way to make it… the way the rejected ones did… you’re going to fail. You’ll be a fool to follow them, or anyone else, you should follow yourself and your own drive. Don’t follow.

A driven webcomics artist should see ALL of these things as opportunities. Don’t limit yourself to one idea. Keep the warnings in mind and be educated about your intellectual property rights, but for god’s sake, use your skills and drive to take advantage of things like Comic Book Challenge or Zuda. - Use them just like you would use Marvel or DC, or newspaper syndicates. Submit your work… forget the fact they are calling you “contestants”– it’s just the evolution of the “submissions” department.

Isn’t that all a submissions department was? The best comes in, it “wins” a contract.

Some say “We are not contestants”, but come to think of it in life, we’re ALL contestants. When you go to a job interview and walk through that door.. that’s your ENTRY. You might “win” the job, because of your skills. It’s a job. And like most jobs, You get paid, get benefits, maybe even retire based on your performance. SURE you can always go work for yourself.

The same people will tell you, like they told me, if you’re thing was so good and picked there, you could have taken it to a publisher like Image or Dark Horse… but then again… you have to “submit”, and the BEST are picked… you win a contract with those companies. It’s ALL a contest, whether you want to see it or not. Call it something else if you want.

But pick your contests wisely if you want to actually make a living or a career out of your cartooning. With a company like Zuda or DC comics, they’re guaranteeing you are paid for a year. They share rights with you, and why shouldn’t they? They DO have connections you can’t have on your own. Take your same submission to Image and more than likely, watch it be turned down. If you are accepted, be prepared to not make a dime off your independent book. That’s just reality. They don’t pay you a page rate per your book. You’d better already have a name for yourself before heading off to Dark Horse or Image or any company based on percentages and sales.

It’s cool to hang out on the island of Misfit toys– but they don’t exclusively own the island anymore.

A new interview with me, and an 8 page preview of our upcoming Hero By Night ongoing series is now up at the PULSE COMICS NEWS.

Something that has gone off the radar a bit and not talked about much since has been Michael Chabon’s keynote speech at the Eisner awards in 2004. Read here.

It was basically aimed at the fact that comics have grown up too much. We’ve lost something, we’ve lost comics for kids. I think it’s interesting now, I remember how i read it and how it affected me on some level. I think subconsciously, without even knowing it, I’ve kept his notes in mind while I’ve been working on the Hero By Night comics here. Anyways– I suggest that creators should read that speech.

“We can’t afford to take this handcrafted, one-kid-at-a-time approach anymore. We have to sweep them up and carry them off on the vast flying carpets of story and pictures on which we ourselves, in entire generations, were borne aloft, on carpets woven by Swan and Hamilton, Kirby and Lee. They did it for us; we have to pass it on, pay it forward. It’s our duty, it’s our opportunity, and I really do believe it will be our pleasure. “

I’ve been saying for years that I believed some of these wildfires set in California were done on purpose– the FBI actually reported of knowing about plots back in 2003. See here.

While it may not have cost American lives, it sure has caused MASSIVE destruction and loss, and ultimately the economy and disruption of business and life.– I hold off every year on bringing this up, until officials, they have today, come out saying they are looking for an arsonist. And in fact, the fire official today said that either the arsonists were very lucky, or VERY informed on where to set fires at what times to cause the “most amount of destruction.” — So that HAS to make you wonder. If you think that’s just crazy conspiracy theories, I think you’d be fooling yourself not to consider these theories.

Either way, if arson is to blame– that is one evil thing to do knowing how much destruction and death it could cause. I wonder if they’ll ever catch them?

I’ve been going to bed now on a regular schedule right around midnight or so, but last night I figured i’d stay up until I achieved what I wanted to, which was 3 pages of pencils– ended up hitting the sack around 2:45am or so, but realized I could have stayed up all night probably. It seems like you can get so much more accomplished working the night shift like that, so I might make an attempt to change my sleeping patterns temporarily. In Joe Simon’s book “The Comic Book Makers”, there’s a story in there of how the kids would be going off to school and Dad would just be getting done with work, and would likely sleep all day. Now I know why.

This was a bad night to stay up, because my wife had to be up at 4am to get my oldest boy up for his school field trip to Gettysburg this morning. So it was like sleeping an hour and waking… then sleeping two more hours and waking to get the other kids up and out the door, and then I just gave in and slept until 10:45. But some days, mornings are filled with so many distractions work doesn’t get started until noonish anyway, so what the heck.

This lethargic lifestyle of sitting still while drawing for long hours always makes me wonder about health and weight too. So I’m back on another kick of eating healthy again. I fell off the wagon a bit with the impending Halloween chocolate in a big bowl on top of our fridge, and we’ve been sneaking out there and grabbing mini twix and snickers. I lie to myself telling myself that this is to give me more energy. It’s not. Twix just taste good. — but in the thought of not wanting to turn into some big bloated Jabba the Hutt looking webcomic artist, or slopping over at my desk with a stroke or a heart attack one morning, it’s back to healthy foods and some exercise.  Besides, I want to keep doing this for like, generations.

Speaking of drawing comics… I found a website called COMICSNOW.COM which is still preordering our HARDCOVER collected edition of the Hero By Night miniseries. It’s only 9 bucks there, and shipping isn’t ridiculous either. They also have our new ongoing series available or preorder or automatic subscription. So if you don’t have a comic shop near you and you’re one of the people who have asked me to find a way for you to get the preorders in– there’s your solution. Comicsnow.com. Here’s a link the Hardcover Trade, here’s a link to the new ongoing series.  YOu can also pay there with paypal or over the phone worldwide:  US TOLL FREE: 1-888-366-2844   International: 1-828-299-8811  — Thanks for your support out there!

If you hate my super awesome publisher, Platinum Studios Comics, you can now pick one employee or boss to be executed! See here. “Who to Kill At Platinum”.

Marketing genius.

I tried to relax a bit this weekend, did a little more work on the comic book wallpaper project. Ended up doing a bit of writing on top secret project X with Bob.

As I type this, I’m watching the Steelers get beaten around by the Broncos… it’s pathetic, but I’m a diehard and believe they will always make a comeback to win. However, things over on the other station are looking good as the Red  Sox are up 3-0 — Hoping they go to the series and I’ll collect my cool one dollar prize.

We have about 8 days or so left for retailers to order our new ongoing series. I’m hoping a lot of them check it out, because it is a book that sells, and best of all, something they could push to ALL AGE readers. Not just kids stuff, mind you, but just a general type of fun. I’m proud of the way we’ve written it– I really just want to keep championing books like that too, or encourage other creators and publishers to put out more books like that so we could maybe create a new generation of comic readers. If a retailer happens to be reading this, give it a chance! Or hey, anyone, ask your local retailer to carry it. They won’t regret it. We’ll have a week long preview of issue one starting Monday on herobynight.com