D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

It’s the last day of the year here. I thought I’d do one last brain dump thinking about what has gone on this year, the big things, etc. I’ve been sleeping in WAY too late, over the past week I’ve sort of given into the fact it was going to be a real fight to get anything meaningful done work wise, so instead of staying up late hunched over a board trying to get ahead, I’ve been staying up with my wife playing Super Mario Galaxy and ray surfing, which is rad. I think I learned one little lesson the last weeks of this year and it would be to give myself a break, because I don’t feel like I have this giant stick in my ass about work, and how I kickass, so therefore everyone else working around me should kickass or there will be a grumpy DJ. Hah! — read my rundown of 2007 after the jump… Read more

I got some work put in today, let me tell you! — Gave HeroByNight.com a little makeover.

Most of it is long over due. For a long time the “latest” button didn’t work properly and I could never figure out why. Nor could anyone tell me why it only didn’t work on MY drunk duck site of all places. It baffled me.– Well digging down I figured it out… more on that in a moment, but here’s the big things I worked on today which took some time to get right.

New header. By gads! We actually have a link to the STORE now where you can buy actual stuff Platinum has had for sale. They have some nice CGC graded comics for collectors and even an HBN shirt on page 2 of the store page. Basically all the old links in the nice header graphic were pointing to things that were way out of date, like our cool trailer for the miniseries– but the miniseries is long gone. Also there’s a better link to the forum, where I will be doing most of my hanging at on a daily basis in the new year.

And the BIGGIE will be “Hero By Night Universe”, there’s a big tab, the first thing on the header menu is a link to a new database I’ll be building of all the key characters, moments, etc. The direct link is HeroByNight.com/world  - Right now it’s pretty blank, but this will be the link listed inside of panels of future comic stories, so new readers who see someone like Saul Simian or Professor Nowhere and want to learn more about them, can do so at their leisure at the website. I’m looking to have “featured” character posts that might even reveal a little more about the characters that hasn’t seen print yet.

Okay— time to eat!

Day after xmas here. I’m BEAT. Not only am I beat, but I’m sick to boot. Sinus infection of some kind that’s keeping me down.

Santa brought the kids a Wii, and let me talk about that a little bit because I think some of what Nintendo has done is downright smart. First and foremost, they’ve tricked us into exercising. A few rounds of Wii Sports bowling, baseball and boxing and my arms hurt! Same with the kids too, but they loved knocking Dad out in boxing. Nintendo has also been paying attention to where our society is going, where kids play non stop, don’t get exercise, don’t go outside– they’ve added cut screens to some games where it reminds you to take a break, with a little open window and fresh air blowing in. Oddly enough, it made me feel like going out– I think it was subliminal.  Beyond the games, making the “miis” is fun too, and they pop up as your save game avatars or in some of the games as NPCs. I downloaded the internet channel on the Wii shop and it was pretty groovy seeing Elemento on the big plasma tv screen when I was visiting our latest update page on HeroByNight.com - And my oldest son, 10, has started reading newspapers when he finds them around, I might even get a subscription to the newspaper just for him– but i showed him the Wii News channel which sucks in all the AP headlines, it’s pretty neat how it bings around the globe or country showing you where news is taking place.

It was on that channel that I saw the sad stories… a little girl was struck and killed on her new bike she just got for Christmas. And the fact that a friggin Tiger escaped a San Francisco zoo and killed one person. That same tiger ripped a dude’s arm off last Christmas. I guess it’s a scrooge like cat this time of year.  The sucky  part of the tiger story is, the dude who was killed and couldn’t be identified? (digested probably!) They don’t know who he is, and well, nobody has called asking about it. But somewhere out there, someone is missing, someone is missing that person, and that person was just eaten by a goddamn tiger! Crazy.

Santa brought me a Guinness Dartboard cabinet for the office– It didn’t have darts included so I might run along and buy some.

I feel like crap though– head feels like it weighs 500lbs with this sinus infection bullshit. It makes for an irritated me– I just feel like laying my head down, and my brain won’t shut up about how I should be working right now too. UGH.

The year is closing fast…

Brother, do I wish! But at least wishing for it is something.

I’m busy on “Dad” duty with Christmas gifts. I’m feeling under the weather, but also I’m feeling on top of the world. You don’t really know the magic of Christmas until you have kids of your own…

I think Santa ate too many cookies though. UGHHhhhhhhh…

I like the name “Before Coffee”. Probably because it is the only time where I’m pretty honest and grumpy and a little truth leaks out in the grumpyness.

So here we are, day before X-mas. A holiday that has lost all of it’s meaning. Around these parts, we’re trying to build our OWN holiday traditions– at least that’s the plan. We use to go be part of everyone else’s holiday traditions, but pretty much they’ve all died off. Some of the best Christmas memories my wife and I have had as a couple were going to her Grandparent’s house, the Cope’s,  every year, eating ham loaf and homemade cookies–watching our then toddlers wrestle around. Listening to her grandfather, in a very quiet tone, tell of us of random memories he had that would come to him. He spoke so softly that sometimes you couldn’t hear him, but we still listened. It wasn’t long after those couple years of happy holidays, that the old folks were put away in a “home” away from their home. Everything they built themselves, the house, the traditions… all were sold away in order to afford their new “home”. The old man passed away not soon after. It’s pretty damned sad to think about– I remember the following Christmases weren’t as fun or jolly. They had a very small room at the home, and they looked very far away themselves. Confused?

It was around that same time that we saw the note on one of the emergency exit doors that said “Carmen, this is NOT an exit.” Apparently the old man had tried to leave that place, to go to his REAL home. His kids never told him it was all sold away– his house, his old car… he was confused afterall. But I kept thinking, for brief moments, he remembered it all, and he knew he shouldn’t be where he was… he should be home! So he’d try to leave. The nurses hung those signs on the door. I don’t know why that’s embedded in my mind in such a strong way. After he passed away in that home that wasn’t his– I believe one of those signs still hung on one of the doors— it was taken down, I think by my wife? And that makes it even sadder. Either way, the old man found a way to get out, to some place better.

I never mention it to my wife, because I don’t want it to bring rise to emotion, but one of the inspirations for having David Day an old man in a virtual pocket dimension of a nursing home was her grandfather. I imagine a note on the door there telling David that the doorway is not an exit. I guess this is how I deal with sad memories or things that don’t seem right… they are stories to me. Things that make a strong impression to me in life, somehow find a way onto paper. In a lot of ways, Carmen Cope was my wife’s “hero”, or so it seemed to me anyway. It wasn’t my intention when I sat down to draw the old David Day, that it came out resembling her grandfather in a way. But hey, probably no better inspiration there, right?

I know all these thoughts barrel into my wife’s brain every year around this time. My only solution is that we use those happy memories and make our OWN traditions here. Ones where our kids will grow to remember, and someday they’ll bring their kids home. And we learned a lesson where we’ll tell our kids every holiday to never sell away our things and lie to us… I’ll probably tell my kids to put a bullet in my brain first. That kind of talk will be tame around the holiday season in 2065 afterall.

So yeah…. We’re trying here… our own traditions. Yesterday we had ham loaf! And this is the second year in a row for the “big ass cookie tray!”–  I’ve suggested that we invite the island of misfit toys over– Bob, my Dad, etc. Our good friends Dave (way gay!) and his wife Anne are coming over this evening. We have a turkey thawing… lots of food to be made. I bought a case of Blue Moon “Full Moon” ale. It’s delicious but i think it’s giving me terrible gas! I farted in two octaves the night before last. Most impressive!

Speaking of my Dad… I spoke with him today, he’s got a mad cough so he won’t be coming over, but I invited him. Even if he was healthy, he said he didn’t want to be around anyone at Xmas. He’s still haunted by regrets in his life I think. I wish I could fix that. I can’t though. Maybe someday we’ll just force his ass to come over on Xmas morning and watch the kids open presents. He knows we love him though– and if that’s all he wants for Christmas to be left alone and not put on a fake show, I’ll grant him that. Someday I’ll get back to those ORIGIN comics, I promise.

We’re off to the inlaws for Christmas Eve dinner. My wife’s Dad, the railroader demanded a few weeks ago that we NOT get him anything for Christmas. Geezus, what is it with Dads on the holidays?? So we did buy him new loafers and stuffed them with old fashioned vanilla taffy like he use to freeze and eat when he was a kid.  I feel that “Dad” thing though now, where I hope nobody gets me anything at all. Isn’t that weird…. what’s that all about? Maybe Dad’s are the only ones who know or can feel that Christmas isn’t about receiving.

Hope everyone has a good one.

I’m not going to list them in any particular order. One of the main things on my mind creatively as far as a resolution goes is to make all the online Hero By Night stuff mesh better– the forum I made is neglected, mostly my fault, and there are no links back to the store, or easy ways for people to go to info about one character they might want to learn more about– so in my mind I’ve been figuring out a good system for fixing this. Here are some thoughts out of the top of my head…

Updating the actual Drunk Duck page is a slow process but the archive  there is solid and in place. But putting in a request to have something updated often can take a long time or not happen at all. For instance, since June, the “Latest” button on our nav doesn’t work. No one can tell me WHY exactly, but it links to the previous to the latest comic for some reason. It’s not a BIG deal, but it is in a way– I get a lot of mail and PM’s about this from new readers who get confused. There should be no confusion at all.

Right now HeroByNight.com just simply links to the main Drunk Duck page. I’d like it be it’s own landing page that I can update on the fly and control myself to do fast updates about when we’re in shops, what webcomics are running, links to press we might have, and most of all do some sort of easily editable character database of sorts. It all would end up linking to key moments in the Hero By Night archives that are currently housed at Drunk Duck– like say, Professor Nowhere’s first appearance in the comic—- or key strips like when he banished a guy through some interdimensional doorway. Or link to the first strip where David Day went to Talon’s island in the 50s….etc….

Ultimately I want the ongoing book to be the flagship, but I want to be able to link INSIDE the book to little “editor” notes that would say, “for background info on Professor Nowhere, visit HeroByNight.com/nowhere ” — These will be like interactive editor links in the book, wherein a book like Spiderman refers you to some previous issue number that you have to go seek out or might not be able to get— with HBN its all online in the HBN archives, which I think is really DAMN cool from a reader’s perspective.

Same goes for merchandise– from the books to the shirts or whatever else we put out, I want readers to be able to KNOW whatever is up and see it clearly by visiting the main HeroByNight.com page.

All ads should link to HeroByNight.com and not drunkduck.com/Hero_By_Night — for the simple purpose that its an easier URL for people to remember, and it’s a much easier url to submit to places who ask– especially in person. Just looking at the broader future of the property, it makes sense to brand HBN more than the hosting service it’s on currently.

Simple is better— I don’t want a clustermucked page that’s hard for the user to figure things out, or 15 billion ads above the fold. For old readers, it can be an easy page to come to and jump right to the comics they want to dive into… for NEW readers the page should spell out exactly what HBN is about without having to look for it. I need to definitely summarize the plot of whats going on now, with the overall plot of a new guy finding an old hero’s stuff.

So that’s my FIRST creative resolution of the new year. Look for changes soon at HeroByNight.com

The first official review is in that writer James Patrick found for our new Hero By Night series…. see here:

Kevin Powers: Silver Bullet Comics Line of Fire Reviews: http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/reviews/119827005595745.htm

“Overall, I am very excited about the return of Hero By Night. Coffman has the opportunity to bring some creative ideas to the table, as evidenced by the introduction and conclusion of this issue, and expand and introduced characters that could not be covered in the mini-series. I think this is definitely a great series to follow that has a level of realism in the writing and some fantastic artwork to really bring it all together.”

Hero By Night is published bi-monthly by Platinum Studios Comics. The webcomic can also be read online for free at HeroByNight.com

I have been informed, by some little midget man in my home who runs around demanding things,  that there are now 4 days until Christmas.

I slept until noon today! Am I slacker? Nah… I think my body was dealing with a minor flu of some kind. Last night watching the Steeler game, with the Steelers winning and 5 minutes to go, we heard our son Dillon up— he had been complaining about not feeling well since dinner time– So there was a disturbance in the force…. I yelled up to ask who was up…. “It’s me Dillon.”— “Are you okay?” — “I threw up all over my bed.”

And sure enough he had done just that. YEEHAH! That was a nice cleanup there. Without going into great detail of what he puked, He had had pizza rolls earlier in the evening, so there was a lots of stainy orange grease— NO FUN. Especially since he sort of just hurled in a big puddle next to his bed on the carpet that’s not even a year old. UGH. I end up getting the cleanup puke duty because my wife says she can’t handle it. Lucky me.

After a shower and cleanup of myself, I still felt nasty, and my stomach was a bit “off”. I figured I MUST have come into contact with whatever virus he had if this wasn’t a fluke. So I downed some nighttime Tylenol before bed to make sure I’d be out and feeling better…. and now here I am past noon!  Haven’t done that in a LONG time.

— So what’s on my mind this morning? Webcomics.

– Comixtalk (previously Comixpedia) has it’s list of top 25 people in webcomics up. See here. No, I’m not on it… I was last year I think. I don’t care either, I just thought the picks are always interesting to read. I see in the comments, the usual blur of people who say the list isn’t right. But it IS right, according to the person who wrote it and in his mind. At least that’s my opinion!

– One of the BEST things to happen to webcomics this year, is a secret. A secret club that exists where all the “big wigs” of webcomics sit around and eat virtual pizza, and discuss business things, trade tips, techniques… feelings…and secrets. I was invited into this club when it started by everyone’s favorite webcomic uncle, R. Stevens (DieselSweeties) - and at first, I didn’t think this private forum would work, because there were a LOT of people inside who didn’t necessarily agree with one another. There might have been one little dust up I was involved in there, but after that– DRAMA free. I mean, people post or debate about their opinions on a matter, and I sort of feel like if something controversial comes up, we’re all mature enough to speak our mind and leave it at that, nobody is flaming… no trolling… no drama…. it’s kinda nice. No, it is nice. It is the BEST thing that happened to Webcomics this year on my invisible “best of” list. In think in a way, for a lot of us, we’ve put the drama behind us, and we all might realize that we’d better stick together in some respect if we want to keep owning the term “webcomics”— because believe me– there are BIG companies out there who own the madeup term “Super Hero”– they could do the same with webcomics if they ever wanted to. So it’s a nice place to see a conversation about some serious things among people like Scott Kurtz, Scott McCloud, Zach Miller, R.Stevens, Jeph Jacques, Meredith Gran, Chris Crosby….. pretty much any webcomics mover and shaker seems to be in there. And again… it’s drama free.

– Speaking of no drama. I’ve been no-drama for almost an entire year! WEE! I’ve successfully avoided sites or people who post things that might upset me. I toned down on jumping to the defense of friends and colleagues as much as I use to. I got the feeling like even though I felt honorable in sticking up for people I know are honest, it made me look like an idiot sometimes.  It feels good to get down to BUSINESS and leave that crap behind. I can’t promise it will last forever… sooner or later someone is going to say something so asinine I’m sure it will draw my Yirmumah blood out of the system. And on that same noted, it feels good to get mentioned somewhere online for something other than drama.

–Gary Tyrell posts over on Fleen a nice note about Hero By Night #1 and how he liked it. That man also has the world’s toughest mustache. Even tougher than Chuck Norris.

–  Well half the day gone sleeping and kicking a sick bug… now I’m on to knuckle down and get some work done.

Peace!

I’ve been informed by my son that there are 5 days until Christmas.

I have a bunch of work to do– it seems like my feet are stuck in tar at that moment though for some reason. My output isn’t what I would have liked the past couple days, but you’ll have days like that I guess.

Pet Peeve today? Well I got ship scammed on eBay. I guess I can’t complain. It’s just the fact that it was on my own book! The copy of the hardcover I had ordered myself on Dec 5th after my comps didn’t come? Well they didn’t actually print a shipping label until the 10th of December, and then it took forever to get here, my comps came before actually. AND then I find they sent it media mail, which probably by my calculations was about 2 bucks to ship this out Media Mail– BUT they charged me 4.50. For 4.60 you can get flat rate priority mail envelops and I would have had it in 3 days. — So yeah, I got suckered, and that’s how some of these comic shops on ebay do it. I didn’t leave negative feedback– I hate doing that— plus people take it so seriously, that feedback thing. I had a guy send me a threat in the email because I left him a Neutral years ago…. sigh. —- So be careful out there on ebay.

Word is starting to trickle back about people picking up Hero By Night #1 in shops (new ongoing)– and so far, 4 people have said the same thing, that it’s better than the first issue 1 of the miniseries. That’s what I like to hear. I hope the buzz passes around— this reminds me that I need to step up the promotion next year. I honestly think anyone who digs the super hero genre will dig the hell out of this. If you’re out there reading this, and know the issue– do your part and buzz about it a little. We could use the help!

And that’s that for today— I have a lot of my mind, but much I can’t talk about here.

Today is the last page of the Hero By Night epilogue story. If you didn’t read the first page, it’s here. We’ve also been #1 over on Drunk Duck for a few days as far as most read story or whatnot on their rankings. We’re usually in the number 2 spot behind Charby. That’s cool.

Issue one of our new ongoing series is in your local comic book shop, stop by and pick it up. It would make a cool stocking stuffer for all ages. At least I think so!

Now onto the brain dump…

Every year around this time I get this urge to launch something new in January when the new year rolls around. I have resisted so far, but I must be in honest in telling you that I think I came up with an excellent niche concept for a webcomic. I don’t know if I’ll be pursuing it at all, but I HATE it when I think of something in my head that I’m confident would work. Almost like I knew the poker comic niche, if done correctly would work, I just couldn’t get into that because I’m not a poker player— but this new idea? It’s something I’ve been doing for a LONG time and I do almost everday, and I relate very well to the conversations and other people who are into it… but I’ll leave it at that.

- Did you ever pour too much water into a coffee maker, and it starts leaking out some safety hole they put in the back?– Why don’t they just make the damn pots or water holders not hold as much water as the tank can? Or vice versa– make the reservoir larger. For idiots like me, of course.

- A cool post I found on 37 Signals about Self Promotion. I think I’ve mastered all of them but the last one that Steve Martin talks about. I work on that every day though.

- The rumors are true. I’ve been sleeping with a copy of my hardcover under my pillow because it’s so sexy.

- This i the FIRST time in forever that we’ve actually been DONE and wrapped as far as Christmas presents go. The past years I remember it was usually myself up on Christmas Eve wrapping like a madman and drinking Guinness.

- I haven’t had a Guinness since Nov 16 at Wizard World. I haven’t had a Guinness at home in a LONNNNG time… ever since my wife told me my breathe stank after drinking them. I have become self conscious about it. I think the holidays coming up might change that though.

- Speaking of alcohol… I have a new theory. I know a good many people on meds for this or that, depression, schizo, super depression, panic disorders, people disorders, etc etc. I know a few people who also go to therapy, and are probably prescribed these medicines that likely mess you up even more. So I have developed what I would like to call the “Cowboy Self Medicating Therapy”— if you’re having a bad day, or getting all emo about stuff in your past, your Mom didn’t love you, the chick screwed your best friend 5 years ago, you weren’t good to your kids…etc…. I suggest two shots of Whiskey before bed. If things seem unbearable during the daytime, do one shot anytime of the day. But just ONE. I don’t condone becoming an alcoholic or anything. I’m just thinknig that back in the 1880s, where there was a good chance you might be shot dead for no reason in a town like Deadwood– people had even MORE problems back then… and they were all solved with Whiskey. There’s a reason they said “It takes the EDGE off” — because it does.

- Note: If you think whiskey TASTES like crap, you’re not drinking it right. You’re not supposed to taste it, dummy!

- Note: I don’t drink Whiskey. I don’t use alcohol or any type of drugs, prescribed or otherwise to deal with my problems. I just MAN UP. Life sucks pretty much in reality, so count that we’re lucky to live in the USA and not Darfur! What you think are problems or depression… brother, let me tell you that it’s nothing at all.

- I have work to do, so this blog is done.

- Radio…silence….