D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

So all I’ve been doing is Hero By Night pretty much since 2006, and I love it. I love playing in the universe we’ve built. I just got done writing some “how it came about” type intros for something else, and it reminded me that Hero By Night was that project in 2003 that was sitting on a back burner until 2006 when I entered it into Comic Challenge and it all took off. And it’s been nice ONLY doing Hero By Night work and not working like a complete madman like I use to on 3 or 4 projects at a time to make ends meet. I count myself very lucky.

But in thinking about the “back burner” ideas, ideas just like HBN that I KNOW are solid and can sell and entertain, it gets me energized to develop other things on the side. Anyone remember Zombieopolis? — that sort of stuff, and I have about seven others sitting on those burners that I know are solid concept.  So anyways– I talk myself out of it all the time. Why kill yourself? Why work harder? And the years go by. What am I actually waiting for? More time? Waiting to be broke? So I might have to start manning up on the side and quietly developing some things, and see where the chips fall. Maybe we can do it independently, maybe we can get represented or optioned— but before worrying about any of that the STORY has to be fun and entertaining and EXIST.

It’s not that I’m LAZY either. Hell, there are days I put 16 hours in here. Days I wake up, grab coffee and work nonstop until night. But I know I can work smarter– I know all of those hours aren’t pencil to paper moments. I do a lot of research for stories, and learning things– and the internet can suck you in with endless information. Then I spend quite a few hours a week thinking about BUSINESS and new marketing and nerdy things– how to use new services and technologies to deliver comics, and how to keep the old comics alive.

So yeah– it might be time to man the efh up here soon. Let the chips fall where they may.

Oh, snap— the Nerdcast guys are calling me at 1pm to do an interview– gotta go run and do some stuff before they call.