D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

So here’s 2008. Like my Dad just told me though, every day is the same. We only put these constraints of time in our own minds. Like in October, you know after eating a bunch of Halloween candy that you should probably go on a diet, so you tell yourself you’ll wait until after the coming holidays because it will be too hard to lose weight with all the holiday cookies and foodstuffs. It’s no wonder that losing weight is always the #1 resolution over and over again, because not that many people accomplish it. That’s funny.

That being said, here are some of my personal and professional goals of 2008.

Personal: Lose some friggin weight. Actually, one further that I’ve wanted to do for a long time was become a vegetarian. Not a CRAZY vegan or anything, I’ll still eat dairy products and maybe some eggs and stuff. This is so hard for some reason. I mean, I have a giant pot of sauerkraut  and kielbasa in there calling my name right now. Eating meat is in my german/irish blood! Especially meat that’s been soaked in beer and kraut. Come on! — But alas, I want to ween myself into this. I’ve been on the edge for awhile. And I get massively jealous of my friends like Nate Piekos who went from Guinness slugging meat hound, to marathon running vegetarian. BOO! BOO, I say! Also my good friend Dave (yes, from Yirmumah) he and his wife are vegetarians— but the one thing my wife and I notice about them is they always seem to be hungry. Set a veggie tray in front of them and watch em go to town. It’s like feeding rabbits, so cute. So yeah…. lose some weight… eat less meat…  oh, and cut down on the soda there. I went without soda for 6 months and did indeed lose some weight, but then my wife brought home cases of soda that were on sale and I slowly fell back in the habit. I’ve gotta get more disciplined with this stuff. I’m a wuss.

I also need to stop cursing so much. I’ve got a potty mouth. A pirate mouth. But a lot of four letter words express how I feel. I will instead try like mad to make up my own curse words for such occasions.  I’m finding myself in more and more social situations where an f-bomb is on the tip of my tongue and the little voice in my head catches it. I know it won’t effect the way my own kids will grow up to speak, the outside world is going to dictate that and we’re pretty much screwed in that regard. But this is just for me, and to at least emulate my own heroes in the way I speak to the world.

Professionally: I have some goals I’m afraid to mention because I’m afraid it might jinx them. I don’t even want them to drop from my lips to anyone. But I can say one of my main goals is to keep Hero By Night going strong. While I plan on doing more promotion to get it into more hands, that’s not enough– it’s been quite awhile since I just sat and drew to make myself better. So I’m planning a little sketch time each day to loosen up, or work on things I know I’m sucking at. You might not even notice these things when you read the comics, but I do. I also need to draw more women. I’ve had a few friends bug me for years to do pinup style art, but I always felt whoreish just doing it to do it because I could or because they knew it would sell or be collected. one reason is I draw a lot of female faces looking like how I draw my wife’s face, or how I’ve drawn it in the past. My friends have pointed that out as well and call me on it. I can’t help it! When I close my eyes and think of a woman, I only see my wife’s face. Hahahahhaha— it’s because of the years of abuse and psychological subliminal manipulation on her part I bet. Hahahaha. I’m also going to brush up on action poses and some drawing from life stuffage. Basically, just things to keep me sharp. I don’t want to become a hack that just goes through the motions, I want my work to continually get better. I’ll be 32 this month. When I’m 44 I want my work to be masterful, or at least have all the kinks worked out. That’s the magic number. I’ve accomplished a lot in the past 10 years, so I’m sure if I apply myself I’ll learn a lot more in the next 12. How’s that for thinking ahead?

I’d also like to start posting more sketches on here as I do them. We’ll see. I have really neglected just sketching for fun or practice over the years. Usually anytime my pencil hits the paper it’s for a comic that’s due.

Speaking of professional goals… I have a comic to go and draw now. So do  your part in making some of my resolutions come true, and link to or tell people about HeroByNight.com , gosh darnit!