D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

My youngest son, Dakota, leaped out of bed to get dressed for school while exclaiming “6 more days until Christmas!” — That put a smile on my face.

The smile was straightened with the realization that these may be the last years that my boys believe in Santa Claus. The older two are already pretty much non-believers, but still say they do believe for fear of not getting anything under the tree. Kinda like how people say they believe in God, just because they don’t want to burn in hell if there is one? And how ironic is that, that this conversation is actually about Christ’s birthday party. Sometimes I feel guilty that my other two sons, I never taught them much about Christianity like i was raised in. My dear ol’ Dad use to make me dress in a suit. But just like believing in Santa Claus, the older I got, the more the stories I heard in church didn’t sound true to me. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in God or a higher power– but something in me saw what was really going on as the collection plate was passed around.

Oh geez– where did this train of thought come from? This blog isn’t going to be all about religiousy stuff, UGH!!!

NOW– my oldest son knows all about the bible because his grandmother took him to Sunday school… he’s often surprised his old Dad here knows so much about the bible as well, but I don’t talk about it. I’ll all of a sudden drop a bible story bomb on him and he’ll be shocked that I know it. And the kids are way too young for me to tell them what I believe— There’s this weird cult like thing about churches that I don’t like… I know it’s probably just people being NICE, but it seems like in a way to recruit new young kids, families invite the kids into church functions, tell them how fun Sunday School is, etc etc…. one time a cousin of ours invited the kids to the same Wednesday night “Youth Group” I had attended when I was a kid. But for some reason I didn’t want my kids to go. It just seems ODD to me… people you barely know, sending your kids off with them. A family friend saying it’s “Movie night!” and all the kids come over to watch Evan Almighty, and then they pray or teach the kids a bible lesson.

So what do I do as a parent here? It’s a balance. I just flat out teach my kids about right and wrong. Good and evil. One thing I REALLY didn’t like about the churches I had been associated with in the past (Protestant & Methodist) and not just them, mostly ALL churches, is that they sort of scoff at other beliefs in private. They make fun of catholics– they in turn think other religions are idol worship, Buddhism, etc… and in today’s climate, they think Islam is PURE SATAN or something– It’s crazy. I don’t want my kids to be a part of that in anyway. So I teach my kids that there are many religions and you should respect a person’s personal beliefs, no matter if they worship mother nature, the stars, a holy trinity, etc… The important thing, and that a lot of people miss, is that mostly all of these religions teach the same thing, but they barely ever practice what they teach. I just teach my kids right and wrong.

I mean, it’s common sense that these old scriptures are pretty much allegorical, and teaching you by telling stories, because that’s how they did it in the beginning times. The told stories about right and wrong… about where sins would get you. If you steal, murder….. some beliefs taught KARMA, some taught heaven and hell… but all of them taught right and wrong. I hope when my kids are older they will just educate themselves thoroughly and they can believe whatever they like to. I’d like to tell them that if there is a God, he surely wouldn’t let humans figure it ALL out– so these religions, beliefs.. are all pieces to a big puzzle, that if you put it together, maybe you’d have a friggin utopia or something.

Hell, they’d probably think their old man here was CRAZY if I spilled some what I believe on them….

I’m not going to tell my kids that sometimes I think spirits guide me. Sometimes you can ALMOST feel something, like someone you knew once is giving you a mystical high five from beyond. But other times…. that seems like fanciful imaginative bullshit. But the older you get— the more you believe the first part. ; )

I saw on one of Jason’s blogs that we’ve done the equivalant of 400 comic pages in 12 & 1/2 months. That’s my definition of “Juggernaut” if anyone was ever wondering.

The funny thing is, to this day, I never really look back and just sit or break, I just keep thinking there’s more to do. More stories to tell… more lines to be drawn.

One of my friends asked me, since Jack Kirby is one of my heroes, why don’t I draw more like him in style, or like Tom Scioli has done with his style– and the answer is, while I am a fan of Jack Kirby’s actual artwork, I think he’s listed as one of my inspirations moreso for the man’s work ethic. That’s what inspires me. The sheer amount of stories the man drew, the amount he could get done in a day. Jack Kirby was the original Juggernaut of comics.– And I think I aspire to be like him in that regard. I can’t imagine a day where he woke up and wasn’t thinking about pages… story… or one of the thousands of universes or hundred thousand characters in his mind that he needed to get out on paper and tell the world in such a manner. I’m not a big fan of apeing other people’s styles, even to honor them or tip o the hat sort of thing. I think if Jack were around today, he’d tell you NOT to try to draw like someone else, draw it your way. The most important thing is to tell the story to the people. — That’s why Jack’s work wasn’t “perfect” to many critics out there… but it is by that very definition.

Anyways… 400? Jeez. Maybe we should shoot for 500 next year Jason? Hahhahaha….

Did I ever mention I love the Strokes? Listening while I ink here–  Love the main chorus to Reptilia:

Yeah, the night’s not over
You’re not trying hard enough,
Our lives are changing lanes
You ran me off the road,
The wait is over
I’m now taking over,
You’re no longer laughing
I’m not drowning fast enough.

Another of my favorite lyrics from them comes from the song “Red Light”

Two can be complete without the rest of the world.
Oh you know I said it just to get you to laugh.
Do it for the people that have died for your sake.
An entire generation of entertainers to blame.

The light is red.
The camera’s on…… Get yourself a lawyer and a gun……
Hate your friend’s new friends like everyone.
Childhood’s end can be so competitive
Oh the sky’s not the limit
and you’re never gonna guess what is…

Indeed. 

I wish for Christmas and the holiday season that all of our troops could come home and be with their families. I wish there was no more war.

Anyway, I was just sitting here inking and thinking about that… how lonely it must be in the desert for a lot of troops. How many fathers won’t get to be with their kids this Christmas? How many men and  women won’t be able to kiss their signifigant other under the mistletoe. I guess all I can say to those people is THANK YOU… and I wish you all were home.

So today has been a great day. First the new issue ones that come out next week arrived, and then I was surprised that the hardcover collections of volume 1 arrived today as well. Man, the rumors and whisperings are true, this thing is awesome.

I have to give big shout outs to Zach at Platinum, he’s the graphic design guru there and he did a wonderful job on the packaging. There are two versions, one with the Gold foil logo and blue foil flames, and one with the Gold Foil logo and silver flames (Scott’s Vault edition limited to 1000) –  Anyway, I could go on and on about how happy I am right now, but I won’t. Today has been a great day….

Oh and it’s December 13th as well.  13. Go figure.

It’s also been one year since we’ve moved into the house here. One year of having a real office. Life is good.

I was in the shower this morning when my wife opened the door and ran in with something. FedEx had came and she held up a copy of the new Hero By Night #1 ongoing series– it’ll be in shops next week.

Upon inspecting it and giving it the thrice over for quality control and an uneccesary creator approval– I gotta say, this book just looks FUN. When you turn open the cover and the first scene with Elemento fighting HBN deep within some sort of lava world (a geo-forge actually)– it really POPS and hits you in the face. We kind of designed it that way, and I’m glad it looks even better in print. From there we go into the meat of the new stories with Jack figuring out his new life…

I thumbed through it three times this morning just to look at it with fresh eyes– and I say this without gloating or being big headed, but I think anyone who LOVES comic books will dig this. It’s fun… it’s vibrant… I said it before that Hero By Night was my “love letter” to the genre, and I think this new series really cements that even further.

I have writer James Patrick to thank a lot for that as well. He takes my plots and wonderfully adds life to them– it makes the process so much more enjoyable than it already was for me. Just yesterday I read his first rough draft of issue 4 and WOW, that is a hell of a fun issue too. These issues are nice because while there’s this ongoing story developing, it seems like these individual issues stand alone. A new person can pick up issue 4 and jump right in with no fuss or worry. You can get caught up fast.

All that on top of the fact we have this huge backlog of recourse material for the universe at the webcomic site. So people who REALLY love it when they discover it can dig even deeper, and discover things that other fans may have missed that were hidden away in nooks and crannies of the book. We’ve been working our tails off here since August and to finally see the final product, that’s something.

But the real fruits or our labor haven’t been tasted yet. It won’t be until I see some reviews of what real readers out there think of the new series that I can rest a little. Until then, I’m back to the drawing board to work harder and to continue to make this better and better.

HeroByNight.com

Yesterday was a very productive day working on the Hero By Night ongoing series. I heard that the new issue one will be out in shops next Wednesday as well, so I’m happy about that. We’re running the epilogue to the mini series right now on the webcomic site. I’ve also been posting some sneak peeks of the upcoming series inside the Hero Cast utterz I record here and there. Check them out here. And Platinum Studios has popped up the Hero emblem shirt for sale, only 10 bucks, it has silver screenprinting on the blue shirt. Snag one of those over here. If they don’t have your size, email them and demand they stock more sizes. Heh.

Onward to mid-coffee blabbering…

I didn’t want to wake up today and I’m still feeling groggy like I’d love to go back to sleep. I might be under the weather and not realizing it yet… wait, I just did! Stomach felt kinda wonky last night before bed. I couldn’t sleep in this morning after the kids went off to school because we had an impending home heating oil delivery coming.

For 250 gallons it cost us almost 800 bucks. Merry Christmas! — here’s the thing though, we’ve been in the new house for about a year (a year tomorrow) and it sure feels like we saved money with oil heat. Our gas bills use to be outrageous at times in the old little house. Here’s another thing, we have 2 tanks in our basement, which our oil guy says are “cute”– most of his deliveries are tanks buried in people’s backyards or outside of trailers. But I guess these inside tanks will practically last forever, so it was smart whoever hooked it up this way. The thing is, we THINK they are two 225 gallon tanks, or we got confused here and thought, wait did they say 250? 275? I can’t fucking remember. The old oil meter cap is long dead, we keep meaning to go buy a new one, but there’s this trusty STICK down there that reads “Oil Measuring Stick” — so I’ve been measuring the oil with that instead for the past year in the winter and it works fine… but here’s the other thing, I’ve just been guestimating when we need to order by how low on the stick it goes, I had never figured it out mathematically on the stick how much oil we’re using so we know how low on the stick is too low, or maybe low on the stick isn’t as low as we thunk…

So 20 inches on the stick equals about 250 gallons in the tank. I’m still not sure that is correct though, because there are two tanks side by side, and I don’t know if I’ll wait until they level out each other and measure again, or what. But we might have more oil than we had thought. Pretty much, people seem to use the stick method though.

It’s weird to think that I have 2 tanks in my basement that are pretty much old Dinosaur juices. Don’t tell me otherwise please, I’m fine with that though. Maybe someday we’ll all be oil heating some spaceship?

- Speaking of Archaeological finds… did you hear the spoilers about Indiana Jones new movie? I won’t post them here, but I think it’s an interesting idea. Unless it’s a big prank by Spielberg in this day in age, which it totally could be. But I hope not… i think it might be pretty cool.

- Is your URL good or BAD? I found a nifty blog all about the art of URLs. Yes… the art of URLS. Just little things to think about that I’ve thought about in the past too. Like, can you see the difference between advertising these two urls:  herobynight.com  or HeroByNight.com — Which looked better to you? Just those little things like capitalizing the letters of each word can really make a url standout when you’re advertising it around. I know I’m going to put that to good use on my next pimping cycle.  That URL thing also mentions bad names.. like there’s a website called Speed of Art, but their url is speedofart.com — hahahahha. Speedo Fart! Hilarious. This also came up when my buddy Nate’s webcomic Atland got it’s own URL, Realm Of Atland it was supposed to be, but it looked like realmofatland.com– Realm o fatland! - But if he advertised it as RealmofAtland.com it makes a little difference there. Now that I’ve pointed these things out to you, you will see them everywhere in design and marketing campaigns and the bad ones will stick out like sore thumbs. Check out: goodurlbadurl.com

- And that’s it for me today. I want to get cracking again on art for the ongoing series. I’d love to be done by December 21 on my current run so I can take the holidays off from drawing — or be able to just sketch and design for a couple weeks. It never happens though.

So I signed up for Marvel.com’s digital comics. Thought I’d leave my initial thoughts on it since I dabble in both of these realms. (Webcomics and Comic Books)

- I signed up mostly because I have kids, ages 10, 9 and 6, who have no comic shop around here for me to buy them comics. And thank god, because the few times I have taken them to shops it cost me an arm and a leg because comics are so pricey. But for 4.99 a month, it’s a bargain and my kids will eat it up being able to read some titles on there.

- There also seems to be a lot of old Kirby comics on there that I’ve never had the pleasure to look at or absorb, so I definitely wanted to check that out. I hope Marvel has found a way to compensate creators with some sort of royalty for showing these works online. I think Jack would only think that was fair, and it’s the least the house of ideas could do for these fine creators who helped build the foundations of what they are today.

- The Flash interface works well and it’s not annoying, the lettering stays really legible at different sizes, and it’s not as clumsy as the DC comics zuda player. In fact, this player reminds me A LOT of something I think Clay Yount showed me that he was designing for a big comics company (I almost wonder if this is it?) — but the navigation is nice, and when you’re done with the issue, it gives you choices to what to do next, you can read the next issue in that series if available, or you can use a little pop up that’s like “similar titles” or that are along the same taste of characters, creators, etc.

- The selection menu is pretty awesome, because forget about the fact that you can pick title o character favorites, you can also choose the creators and it lists all titles available so far from each creator. It’s like a history lesson in favorite comic artists. Beyond that, what makes that even better is, you can subcribe to individual RSS feeds for each category, so when something you like updates, you’re alerted. I’ve bookmarked the Ron Garney category, I’d like to see more of his Captain America work on there.

- The only downside so far… all the old ads from the golden an silver age aren’t in there anymore! Dammit, those are fun to look at and read. Xray Specs, hand buzzers… — I also wish I was able to download the Flash files to my computer for later use if I should not be online or something. C’mon Marvel!

Marvel is also very smart, that they have a pop up on back issues that says if you want to buy it in print, where you can find that story and more, and the Comic Shop Locater service pops up. This should make retailers a bit happy, because Marvel REALLY didn’t need to add that in there. I have to click it off each time, and from a marketing standpoint, its a reminder to me the reader each time that i X it off, that comic shops still exist.

I’m digging the Tim Sale category right now. Love his watercolor looking work on Hulk Grey. It’s also fun to go back and see some of the early work of some of today’s hot artists like Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, etc.