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…

This year I celebrated 10 years of being married to my awesome wife. The life we’ve built together here– sometimes the odds were stacked against us, but we did it. And life is pretty awesome, in my opinion. My kids are growing rapidly– suddenly they are in sports and playing clarinet. I’m not surprised by this, I have a good imagination. And I imagine that soon they will be graduating, or asking for the car… or a bailout of a bad situation… but watching them grow is a trip. There was a lot of that this year.

Year of the HERO. So, it goes without saying pretty much that last year at this time my goals and thoughts for 2007 were all about Hero By Night. I was hard at work on the miniseries and the book wasn’t coming out until March. While I was pretty confident about the project and thinking it rocked, along with some trusted friends, there was still that little jaded piece of me that was worried, knowing that the comic fanbase out there can be HARSH! You’re throwing them raw meat, messing with genres and archetypes that have long been set in stone, and usually they want it served straight up with no REAL surprises. This is why you see outrage about things like Spider-Man “One New Day” where Marvel and Joe Quesada pretty much wiped a bunch of continuity off the map like it didn’t happen. Go read the Newsarama comments and poll here! — Well, my whole core idea was, that a NEW icon could be crafted somehow. Not that it would be taking on Spider-Man or Batman in the sales charts or hearts and minds of American popculture— but it was possible to create something with that “ORIGIN” type feel, and idea or plot that seemed familiar and easy to remember. It was easy to tell your friends that Peter Parker got bitten by a radioactive spider and got awesome powers, and it was easy to tell the story about a young guy named Jack King who stumbled upon this stuff that belonged to golden age hero long forgotten in a city called STEEL.

Plus there was the weight of feeling on my shoulders like, all the hype, all the newspaper articles declaring I had won this contest with this great idea, all the online interviews and, well, HYPE– all that was done… it was time to deliver it. That’s where I was about a year ago today. Confident, but nervous.

After the book did come out and get in the right hands on its own, it was a great feeling to see it pop up for reviews on its own, and ALL of the reviews were good ones. All of em. Some of the reviews were downright great. I readers out there GOT IT. They could see what I was trying to do, they nailed some of the key points without me even trying to say it. And the greatest feeling of all were the people saying this is a book for ALL AGES. The book that reminds you why you loved comics or started reading comics. That felt special….

But the GREATEST feeling was putting on a podcast, by these BITTER, JADED harsh fellas– they rip apart some of the biggest names– pull no punches and tear them new holes…. the N3RDCAST! -basically these guys reminded me of me and my old friends, sitting around ripping on retarded things we found in comics and elswhere…. I was worried when I saw they were reviewing Hero By NIght. I was prepared for them to call me a ripoff, say my art sucked, say I was cliche super hero crap…. but they loved it. Of all the great reviews Hero By Night has gotten, THAT was the review highlight of my year.

When I knew the book was a hit, I wanted to push for an ongoing series. Our sales weren’t bad on the series, they weren’t stellar in the direct market either, but the buzz and reviews, and all the overall energy of HBN as some sort of flagship book– Platinum Studios got behind it and invested in it for the longer haul. So one of the big highlights of my year was hearing them say they’d be more than happy to have more HBN, and that HBN would be their FIRST ongoing book. Now, even though I had won that Comic Book Challenge in July 2006, it wasn’t until I heard there would be an ongoing series that it really felt like I won. I had put the work in and proven myself to the comic readers out there.

Another mini-highlight of 2007, San Diego Comicon, Comic Book Challenge 2 party, on the roof of the Marriott in some ritzy looking night club up there, surrounded by not only a bunch of Hollywood high rollers, and up and coming comic book writing legends like Fred Van Lente and about 50 other aspiring or independent artists and creators— the party stopped and I was toasted to by the big boss, Brian Altounian, it was weird to literally be the center of attention for a moment. I’m just glad I didn’t accidently fall back into the fire pit, because secretly I was a bit tipsy and trying hard to keep my composure. I would have literally been toasted while being toasted. From humble hermit to some sort of Entourage like scene. It was surreal.

I could go on and on about how great Platinum Studios have treated me. I know it would seem like cheerleading, or that I got some special treatment. But the real reason is, I kick ass. Wow, that sounds big headed, huh? But I think it’s true. I’m not just a creator who’s looking to phone in a script or pencil pages, collect my check and never mention the project again. I PUSHED, I PULLED, i pushed and pulled again. I consulted… When I saw something that was a bit odd in the workflow at Platinum, I brought it up. They fixed it. I fought online for them because of some of these facts… then I was told by some other creators that they felt they got a raw deal… so I went to Platinum with that too… and low and behold they fixed some of those things as well. While being accused of hording people’s Intellectual Property rights away, Platinum has actually given a few projects back to the creators, and some of them are happy about that. They can’t do that with everything– they can’t do it with projects that they actually have things in the works for or have invested tens of thousands of dollars in– but they’re flexible. So to any creators out there who think they got a raw deal or something, I tell you…. learn to kickass. Diplomacy!!! Debate– be fair. I want to see more creators kicking some ass, not just phoning it in and collecting a check. I’ve seen some creators with blogs– their books came out, they didn’t even mention it! — To them, I say BOO… TO Platinum, I say work with better people.

Speaking of better people… I have to shout out one last time to my old friend Jason Embury, who also colors Hero By Night. No other colorist out there can do what he’s done right behind me as I’m on some sort of comic crusade here. I seriously would have needed two solid colorists to do the amount of work we’ve produced TOGETHER the past year and a half. Equal to almost 400 pages of comic content! INSANE!!! I’ve had some people ask me… “Why is the colorist name on the cover of the book??” - I say, that’s how we do it. Or why is Jason listed in “Creator Biographies” — and while he’s not technically a creator of HBN, he does as much for the series with vibrant colors and mood, and giving it a look and feel. Coloring is much more than just slapping some colors in… he is creating too. And he’s creating some wonderful visuals and effects to look at. So I’m glad to have him as a longtime friend, and I’m glad that the crazy amount of work i put on him this past year didn’t ruin his marriage or family life.

And lastly… leaving Yirmumah behind.

It was hard to do. I still feel these mini urges to slap down some spiteful laughs on paper. But in leaving Yirmumah behind, I also left the drama behind. While it’s a great dog and pony show for the crowd out there, and there’s a lot of laughs to be had and just clowning around, it just wasn’t very productive when I needed to be MOST productive. In January of 2007, within one week, I had doucehbags on the internet call me a homophobe, a racist, a chauvinist and I even had an old ex-friend of mine call me a plagiarist. For the first time in a long long time of being called names, they actually didn’t bounce, they hurt a little, because none of them are true. And all of them hurt. Especially the plagiarism charge. We’re talking someone I considered a friend here. And I usually don’t toot my own horn, but I love helping my old friends, or going to my “friend” pool when I hear of jobs in comics that need filled. I’ve hooked up a bunch of friends this year just because I thought they’d like to make some money with their skills…. so if their skill sets match something I hear about– boom, I refer them and I don’t ask for anything in return but a high five or maybe a beer at a convention or something! heh….. This was the type of guy I thought that maybe one day something would come along and I’d refer him to it– but out came this weird plagiarism charge.

It’s not fair to anyone if I don’t at least vaguely explain the situation. Back in like 1996 or 97 I worked with this guy on some sci-fi type comics. We had taken our own created characters and put them in a book together. I had my own set of characters that included this guy named Stitch, and a Druid character– and my friend had all these wild magician type characters— We jammed out the stories together and he’d do these layout pages and I do final art– it was a crazy acid trip of a comic and that’s all I’ll say about that because I might use the Stitch character in his own series in the future, since that is definitely MY character that I’ve had for years before I met this guy.

But the plagiarism charge came because way back then, he had a character that was a time traveling pirate, based on his brother from some RPG game they played. But basically, it was a time traveling, dimension hopping pirate character… so when he saw my one bad guy in Hero By Night, Artemus Claye, the River Pirate– I had drawn him like a stereotypical pirate, eye patch, bandanna, pirate gear, vest, etc.– but his story was that he was just a crazy guy who believed he was a REAL modern day pirate— and like Hero By Night is based on Pittsburgh, I have gangs called “Pirates” because of… well PITTSBURGH PIRATES. The rivers? So this was “The river pirate”. It was also my ode to someone like Batman having a rougues gallery of characters like the Penguin, the Joker, Riddler, they were just regular guys who were CRAZY. But the thing was, back when I drew his brother’s character, the time travelling pirate, I drew him very stereotypical as well, so they looked similar— so I actually went back in and drew a BIG stereotypical pirate captains hat on my character. But instead of using common sense, this guy just picked through my work looking for anything he thought was similar to his stuff. Suddenly this douchebag thinks he has claim to any pirates, time travel, dimension jumping or multiverse type stories!?? UGH! Then he said something about Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and for me to remember that “Jack Kirby wore the lipstick.” which he knew would enrage me, because he was familiar with Yirmumah. And it did– the plagiarism charge hurt, and then the slam on Kirby?? Or to even assume that this guy was any sort of creator on their level– it just made me want to go into an oldschool YIrmumah like diatribe against this old friend, now douche bag.

Anyways, that was THE drama moment for me in early early 2007, that taught me it’s best to leave all that behind. All that fight… for what? It would accomplish nothing. And so that’s what Yirmumah taught me in January 2007. The week of my birthday even! I was on the phone with the legal bar association of Pennsylvania, discussing with certain lawyers actually being able to sue some idiots out there who had slandered/libeled me online that same week… but I stopped. I got some great advice from my friend Scott Rosenberg, who is no stranger to controversy like that. He gave me the mindset to let it roll off my back, that what they say doesn’t matter in the GRAND scheme of things, and he was right. Always look at the bigger picture.  I know what the truth is, and the FACTS actually show what the truth is.. and that’s that. So, this dude might still be going around my local area here and there, probably telling his family or friends that he was ripped off, man! That all of my success and hard work were hid ideas. That’s ridiculous. And I won’t have that sort of shit in my life. And guess what? I didn’t for the rest of 2007– so thanks to that guy/douchebag! I actually saw this guy and his family at a local restaurant recently and it was this weird uncomfortable vibe in the air. Ironically, his brother, who his pirate character was based on? He seemed oblivious to the whole mess and came up and talked to me like we were old FRIENDS, and that felt nice. — While most of the year I held the original situation in anger and spite, looking back on it now and writing about… I just think the whole thing is a shame. That I lost a friend over that? I hope he can look back on it and see it was pretty petty in the grand scheme of things as well.

To end this on an upbeat note– I don’t think Yirmumah is DEAD. I’ve left it behind for now, and in my mind, its evolving into something else. There will be more Yirmumah when the time is right. And if you KNOW yirmumah, you know what it was really about. It was about the ghost of Jack Kirby showing up and kicking a young kid in the can. A kid who never believed he could actually make something worthwhile or make a difference. The ghost wanted this 19 year old kid to come and save comics for a new generation and to be the new king of comics– yeah, that’s all pretty wildly absurd, I know. It was meant to be…. but I never ever thought I’d be drawing a NEW super hero comic years later. You think there’s something to all of that? It probably sounds completely crazy to say that the spirit of Kirby is in my office pushing me to do those things. It wakes me up in the middle of the night and calls me to the board. When I lay in bed and ignore it, it sings to me. Loudly. Sometimes it almost sounds a bit like fate, or destiny.

Tomorrow, on the first day of the new year, I’ll be posting my thoughts about looking forward. You know, like personal resolutions that I probably won’t be able to achieve but will write about anyway? hah.

Goodbye 2007. You were a GREAT year.