D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

First, forgive me if I forget to mention or thank any particular person here, because I have so much on my mind, and had so much on my mind the entire trip. Especially the FUTURE of comics.

Thursday- The trip was great, no air troubles… but it was a whirlwind of activity once I landed at LAX, we were picked up by Platinum’s mighty story editor, DAVE COLLINS, and whisked to Dave’s apartment complex where he had graciously put up his pad for the Comic Book Challenge Commercial shoot, set one. I literally walked in the door and there were those giant heat lamps setup and the film crew waiting on us– so I put my bags down, and jumped into bed to film the opening scenes. I guess that worked because I was a bit jetlaggy and tired and hungry from the flight– METHOD ACTING!!! Hooray! — the day took us to all sorts of strange places, from a quiet street in Santa Monica, where Jason got to be “CROSSING JUSTICE!” — a crossing guard super hero, but the ironic thing was, people thought he was a REAL crossing guard, so the guy was directing REAL traffic. It was hilarious! — Also Ty, from Platinum, served up some HILARIOUS lines in the car scenes. TUPACALYPTUS NOW! — We ended up at Platinum’s swanky offices in West Hollywood to finish up filming in their lobby, and an elevator scene.– I don’t remember all the film crew’s names, but I gotta say, they were AWESOME! Very thorough, and I really wish them luck for big things in their future directing careers out there. Thank god I just draw and write comics! that’s all I’ll say about that!

One thing I noticed off the bat, was a the big difference from last year– last year in March, I had to go out and be introduced to all of the folks I didn’t know but who knew me… and it was overwhelming coming from my little hermit cave here south of Pittsburgh. But in working with everyone there since 2006 now, it was awesome to show up and KNOW people and be greeted warmly by usually unseen folks like Hank, Daniella, Kihn, Jason, Dylan, Michael– the list goes on and on, and I’m not going to name everyone…. but it felt cool that it was like seeing a bunch of friends who I only see briefly in person, so catching up with some folk there felt great.

I considered this Jorge and Dom’s weekend, so I tried to lay back and let them enjoy this… this was their GUNPLAY debut! They are now the MEN! The torch has been passed! Heh. — I actually felt a little teary eyed watching how happy those guys were and being there the moment for the first time they held their printed comic in their hands… photos of that I took over on Gunplay’s Blog…

I also got to hang out with a lot of what I call the Yirmumah Crew— because well, most of them have been brought in by me in some way from the Yirmumah friends into Platinum– Adam Black draws KISS, Brandon Carr draws Weird Adventures, Wiz Rollins tags along and pees on things… Got to meet Adam’s wife Phaedra (she’s awesome) and we talked some Yirm business… there are gears ticking around there…

Friday– We did the Comic Book Challenge panel– the audience was light around the con in general, but it’s awesome to drop some knowledge on aspiring creators who were in the audience who were REALLY interested in this opportunity. I mean, it goes without saying that it’s an AMAZING OPPORTUNITY. — I joked that, who knows, in 5 years, the first few challenge winners could actually be running the comics line for Platinum– wouldn’t that be an AMAZING story? From obscurity to developing or managing their Macroverse of over 3800 characters— ahem…. my ambitions aside, that’s a thought for another day.

Talked with big boss Brian Altounian, who I’m always happy to see– I had heard he was going on vacation to Hawaii from someone, but no, he said Palm Springs! I use to live there, and we got into a conversation about how the Coachella Valley has grown to the point where you wouldn’t recognize it. Still, if I ever move out west again, I’d be taking my family to the Coachella Valley because I know it, and it’s not as bustling as the LA area…. plus I’d only be 2 hours away from the hustle and bustle of all things comics, San Diego one way, Hollywood the other… I gotta figure out a way to make more money first!

I think I’m so use to having an actual table I have to man, that I felt sort of useless or naked, if that makes sense? I had set signing times of an hour or so, and then I was free to roam— but in my head, I really enjoy meeting the fans, pitching the story to them… I’ve probably literally told the pitch over 10,000 times now over the past year or so… and I never get sick of it– I LOVE bringing on new readers, or hearing from folks that they sat down online and started reading, couldn’t stop, and now I have a fan for life! HOW GREAT IS THAT!? — Dan mentioned to me, it was great seeing people coming up and taking HBN out of the backboards, they brought it to the show specifically for me to sign. We’ve been seeing that for awhile at the Wizard shows over the past year, and it always makes us feel great. Readers care! And I care about them too. — I also helped the Cintiq sales guys out, with setting their settings and showing them how comics are actually MADE on them. Actually Hero By Night is almost 100% done on a Cintiq— which put some more instant opportunity thoughts into my head….. so I did a lot of thinking, plotting and planning while I had he free time…… it’s dangerous to give me free time, because my brain doesn’t stop trying to think innovative. Not a bad thing, but I’m sure some people are SICK of hearing me ramble on and on about business stuff.

Saturday– Much of the same of me signing and then having time to think about taking over the comic industry. This was the day I had a lot of people asking me “so, what’s next!” — and if I’d ever consider doing stuff for Marvel or DC– and I answer, well, yes, but nobody has ever offered. So I answer “what’s next?” I say— I’m doing an ongoing series right now! Issue 4 is next! Not only that, we have this great universe and audience building with Hero By Night, and now some opportunities to develop things within that universe too, like Doctor Nowhere, Saul Simian, Elementress, The American– it goes on and on. That’s sort of where my mind is next– that and WEBCOMICS. Of course.

Saturday we also had the Comic Book Challenge Ceremony with Donald Faison in attendance to do a “passing of the torch” thing. A huge crowd gathered and cameras and all that jazz– I was brought up first as the 2006 winner, and Scott Rosenberg (THE BOSS!) presented me with a custom “H” ring that is AWESOME! And in my ring size– they had gotten my ring size from my wife– SNEAKY AWESOME! — And then they brought in my pal Jorge Vega and they also gave him an “H” ring– and I was confused at first– and they dropped the knowledge on me that this H ring would be like the new “Super Bowl” ring for the Challenge– THE symbol of the Comic Challenge winner… that blew my mind a little.

I’m honored by that… deep down, the IDEA of this ring was about a characters CHOICE. Not only with great power coming great responsibility and all that jazz or what do you do with it…. but doing what’s right, for the right reasons. That might be a message to comic book companies in general too… it’s EASY to sell a comic with boobs on it, heck, I’m not opposed to that— it’s easier and easier to sell to a “mature” audience— but the tougher thing might be staying true to the roots and keeping all age books alive, and that’s definitely what Platinum has done with Hero By Night. People ask me sometimes, how can Platinum launch it ongoing, and if it’s not selling like Marvel or DC books– it’s because it’s better. Scott Rosenberg had told me in private and now in public on that panel that he was surprised by it, because Platinum has a lot of super hero genre ideas in their library, but this came along and it was “better”. And now they believe in it too, and it’s all because of Comic Book Challenge, and taking that chance. Hearing all of these things is VERY humbling to me. I mean, this is the guy who believed in Men In Black, after it was turned down 70 times… he stuck with it, because he believed in it. — Hey, no pressure or anything on me! HAH!

I was also chatting with Zach Pennington, the master of design there– telling him I hope he gets some awards for his layout and design in comics. I think he’s already won for DVD and film type stuff he’s designed (forgive me zap!) But he reminded me… we’ve only been putting out books for a year! — So here’s to good things to come, and I think somewhere along the way here soon, we’re going to fix the distribution system for comics too, because it’s a bit backward and wonky. Again, see, lots of me standing around and thinking about the future of comics. We can fix it!

Saturday night Scott Rosenberg got us into the VIP cocktail party at the convention, which takes place upstairs and hidden away. I never knew about this, I thought the “Wizard Party” was just the one over at the hotel each year with the invites– This might have been a little GEEK highlight for me for a few reasons– So I’m in this room looking around to all the “BIG” names in the industry, thinking they’re probably looking at me like “Who’s this dude?” — and I scan the room for anyone I might KNOW to say hi to– and I see Dan Wickline, thank god, so I go to say hey to him since I missed him on the con floor. I drew a caricature for him ages ago which he still uses, of him crushing hollywood like Godzilla— I go up for “last call” and look over my shoulder and see Darwyn Cooke, and I geek out inside, but keep it tame– I don’t want to turn around and tell him how much I love New Frontier… I feel like I’d be bugging him, and he’d say “WHO LET THIS FANBOY INTO THE VIP PARTY! GET HIM!”— hahhaha…. so I got my little drink there and was walking back and who do I see moving through…

Danny Miki! — I stop him to say hello, knowing he won’t recognize me. It was 1993 or so at Extreme Studios the last time I saw him. He had invited us up to the Image building back then when I was 16 or so, to show us around– (long story) and he of course didn’t remember– I told him I didn’t expect him to remember ME, after all, I was 16 back then and physically fit, and now I’m an out of shape 32 year old. Danny laughed saying, HOLY CRAP has it been that long? — But I told him the day that Rob Liefeld was freaking out and kicked everyone out of the office because of Wizard having photoshoot for the top secret Badrock costume, which nobody else was supposed to see or something— and Danny remembered that day well— but I thanked him, because that was a very eye opening experience to me as a 16 year old know-nothing back then. That the smiling faces in magazines can actually be real douchebags behind the scenes—– 5 years later in 1998, I was producing Yirmumah all about those experiences, and it was Yirmumah that brought me to Jack Kirby…. and BACK into comics… and Yirmumah which then brought me to Comic Challenge and helped me win that….. and here I am now… weird circle of life, huh?

After the cocktail party Scott took the Comic Challenge winners out to dinner– Jorge, Dom, Myself and Jason. We talked about the movie industry and he enlightened us about how complicated it can be, meetings, pitches, deals made, how one little tiny thing can put the brakes on something big happening… but all along it’s apparent that Scott just LOVES comics. He loves entertainment… he knows it in and out, and it’s great to pick his brain. I also learned he absolutely LOVES TO WORK ON SAILBOATS!!! Psyche! He doesn’t. (inside joke!) — And I’m glad that now other folks like Jorge and Dom have met him and spent time with him, and know he is NOT the guy Penny Arcade drew about, which makes that all the more funnier. He’s not some diabolical CEO in a boardroom. He’s an immaculate dreamer. — Also, somehow the Badrock costume came up at dinner– and Scott mentioned they have the HEAD of it in the office, which I’ve seen there and wondered…. but I thought how ironic that was when mixed with the story I told Danny Miki. Fate is odd, huh?

The rest of Saturday was spent next door at the Figueroa hotel and the official Wizard Party shindig. I gotta thank Wizard too, they put on some great shows, and I’ve met Gareb Shamus before, but only in passing– this time I got to at least talk with him a little on Friday at the Platinum offices and we talked a little about IFL and mixed martial arts stuff. His eyes light up when you bring that up– sidenote: you can often see him in the front row of those events, if you’re an MMA fan. — Anywho, Wizard is very generous and I’m glad to be included. –

Sunday was goodbye time— I had thank Dan Forcey and Dave Collins once more for taking such good care of us all over the place. Seriously– If the grid ever falls, and it’s like that one movie where the Russians invaded America, Red Dawn– I’d want them in my group!

Now, I have a wife and family to attend to for the rest of the day— then tomorrow– it’s back to work! Lots of comics to draw!