D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

Well, might as well get started with the recap and get this out of the way. Pittsburgh Comicon, my hometown show, was a good time. It’s a mellow show and great for talking one on one with fans and other creators and publishers. I have to thank ALL the local shops for carrying Hero By Night, Eides, New Dimension, Phantom of the Attic, Joy’s Japanimation, and a few other NEW shops I’ve never heard of but I met the owners there as well. I left the show with a sense of excitment, especially after seeing the quality of our Free Comic Book Day issue that’s coming out next weekend. WOW– it’s just packed full of awesomeness and will be GREAT for new people to come on board our title. Big props to Platinum Studios and Sean O’Reilly for making that FCBD issue happen– it’s going to be awesome, I can feel it. Click the more link for a complete rundown and photos from the party friday night at my place.

Friday -

I started Friday off with a feel good story while waiting in line at Starbucks for Coffman fuel…. Lora Innes, a brilliant cartoonist I met back in Chicago last summer came up to me to say thanks for all of the advice I gave her. I pretty much tell people the old Yirmumah method of how I did preorders and mailed direct, used Comixpress, and launched a webcomic! Launching a webcomic is probably the BEST thing you can do as an independent creator because it keeps your work and your name out there for people to discover. She dropped the news that she has a deal with a BIG publisher, one that I really enjoy– and that news really just put a shot of positive energy into my bones, better than coffee! It made it feel like the hundreds of times I’ve said something, she did it! It works! My droning on and on and trying to cement this into creators brains at shows isn’t in vain! — And so I have her as a perfect example of someone uber talented who started hustling, launched the webcomic, did it herself, preorders— and what do you know? She’s got a BIG DEAL now. That is SUPER AWESOME. Go check out her comic at http://thedreamercomic.com/

Friday is always slow going at the show, but I still did pretty well at our booth. Lots of people have heard of HBN now which is good, so there was plenty of conversations about continuity, the future plans, and also people were digging the hardcovers.

Friday Night Party at Yir-Tiki Bar (my place) - A small caravan of folks followed me half an hour drive away to my house where my wife had fantastic food prepared, dessert and drinks. In attendance were my friends, the Digital Pimps, Joe, Phil and Irv- some old friends from Digital Webbing, Jamal, Deane, and Mike (fist of justice)– And we of course had the 2007 Comic Book Challenge Winners Jorge Vega and Dominic Vivona of GUNPLAY. Also, a guy named Jeff, friend of Jorge and Dom, who is a great artist, but I don’t remember his last name off the top of my head. Sorry Jeff! When we ran out of beer, Jeff had another case in his car… so props to the guy for keeping the party rolling. To ice the cake of guests, our old friend and local legend, BOB was in attendance

The pimp fellas brought along “Rock Band”, and after food, we hooked that up the big tv and fun soon followed.

The gang setup before drinks kicked in to alter the night…

Bob and Jorge jam out. Bob wanted the lamest song he could find in the program, and so it was that the two saddled up for some Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive” with Phil Chan on drums– and they rocked it out.

The Mrs. and I sat on the steps and observed while being drooled upon by our Bassett Hound, Jack Kirby.

And after a few drinks, we got her butt on the drums! Irv looks on in amusement as she Fwaps away wildly on the things.

Jorge Vega is just too damn cool at all times. I think COOL runs through the man’s veins. That or it starts out as FUNK and is converted into COOL through his soulful heart.

Yes… all was going well. People were fed and happy, jamming out and then….

Mike Imboden tried to start licking people…

I must embarrassingly admit that shortly after this I was in my kitchen, pouring shots for anyone who was on their way back from the bathroom. I think in my mind I felt like all my guests must have a shot with me, but that turned into a shot-off between JOe Dunn and myself, but I quickly realized what I thought was a shotoff was just Joe handing me more shots… but it was too late! Soon I was doing shot-offs with blurry ghosty people… I remember being shaken around, pulled, tugged…. I guess I get pretty pirate-talking-potty mouth– and then waking up the next morning feeling like total crap and declaring I’ll never do that again.

I thought for sure I must have ruined the night be getting obliterated. I haven’t been like that since I was 19. I was surprised to hear from everyone though that they all had a great fun time and they want to do it again next year. If that happens, no shots for me! — It was a good time though being around these guys I admire and like so much. I’m glad they took care of me when I was OUT. I think the last thing I remember hearing was Lynard Skynard blaring, which the thought of that the next day at comicon made my stomach turn a bit.

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Saturday - Was a busy day at the show. As soon as I got back to my table (feeling a little under the weather) I was immediately drawing for people. I had drawn Hero By Night as a Skrull, Green Arrow, Fairies, Wonder Woman, Saul Simian… on and on… — At one point my old friend Todd Shulek showed up at the table to talk– I was surprised to hear that the Marvel zombies artist Arthur Suydam, who is a very nice guy and always has a great line around his table, charged Todd 25 bucks just for his autograph on a book Todd brought. I thought surely this must be some mistake, right? Does he charge 25 for his signature?– Well I’d never do that. I remember sitting next to Ron Garney once and watching him draw free AWESOME sketches all day of ANY character, and when I asked why he doesnt charge, he said it’s a thank you to his fans for reading his work and supporting him all these years. Ever since then I never charge for sketches. I couldn’t imagine charging people for my autograph, and I’ll never do it. I still think that was some sort of mistake. I hope so. — Saturday brought more and more fans from the local shops, many compliments on Hero By Night. It really feels like we’re building a wave with this.

Turned on a lot of new people to Hero By Night as well– and pimped the Comic Book CHallenge and Webcomics HARDCORE! I told Platinum to expect some pretty fine submissions from the Pittsburgh area again this year, I met people who have their books pretty much in the can, with solid art and solid stories. This year’s Comic Book Challenge is gonna be a great one… maybe the toughest ever for them to pick a top 50 I bet.

I wanted to be at the same table, or have two tables setup so Jorge Vega and Gunplay were together with HBN as sort of a CBC table, but I think it worked out better having them a little away, because I’d send people over to his table to pickup Gunplay GNs, and he was sending folks over to our table as well, so we had good coverage of the floor. Even thought my table wall was smaller than many other of the larger setups at the show, I had countless people, including Jorge say they could see our blown up cover from across the entire floor and with Jason Embury’s coloring, it looked like it was lit up and glowing with real light.

Here I am chatting it up with Brian Babyok, a longtime fixture of the Pittsburgh indy comic scene…

People kept mentioning the bright table cover too– Quick tip, a quick stop at the dollar party store, 1.99 disposable cover makes you pop out a lot more amongst the sea of stuff at a con. I remember bringing some of these to the Drunk Duck crew which they use to use as well. Also, lots of people asking me if I had change– another con tip is to simply take your 20 dollar bill to the retailer area, look through the dollar bin or quarter bin, pick out a cool old school comic, and then buy it, and ask the retailer for ones, they usually have a roll of them that they are dying to get rid of.

Saturday Night - My wife and I went out to eat with everyone– I actually drove home because I forgot my box with more issue 3s in it and i was running out of my issue 1s. — Talked a bit with old friend Chris Yambar, who has witnessed every single step of my “career” - Just like I rave about people I know who in less than a year have big huge book deals, - Chris tells people how he remembers how hard I’ve worked from mini-comics to where I am now. And all along the way I’ve done things my way. He mentioned someone he was talking to said something snarky like “That D.J. Coffman thinks he’s a big shit now.” — And Chris broke this guy down and said “Listen man, this guy has busted his ass for years, I remember, nothing has ever been handed to this guy.” — I wanted to know who said it, but Chris declined, saying that it’s just jealous people who don’t KNOW me. I didn’t want to know to go smite the person, but just because it kind of hurt my feelings. I’ll bend over backward to help complete strangers or give anyone advice on how they can dodge some of the mistakes I made. I never will walk around like I’m a king shit… I’m very humbled by my fans and friends and I seem to make new ones at every show. So maybe I thought if this person would just come and talk to me and pick my brain, he’d know who I really was. — I know that’s not possible to do that. There will always be people who don’t like me… but like Yambar says, they don’t matter. They’ll have to get over whatever that feeling is, just like I had to learn to do that about people I use to say those things about when I was 19 or 20. And looking back, I can honestly say I WAS just jealous of certain artists who I didn’t like their style or their comics and I couldn’t believe how they’d have a line and be making money and I didn’t or I had to REALLY hustle to get people to buy our minicomics way back when… — At some point, probably after having kids, those sort of feelings of “why not ME!?” fade away and evaporate and you start thinking more along the lines of “what do I have to do next? What can I do better?” —- and then you might start asking yourself as you get wiser…. how can I be remarkable. - then the next step is, you want to encourage others to do the same. Then world domination.

We checked out the penthouse party for a little bit, but we were set on NOT drinking after the chaos that ensued on Friday night. We split out of there, got a bite to eat and went to CHILL, Coffman style– But it was nice to be away from home with my wife, no kids and just relax and laugh together. Love that woman!

Sunday - Was a slower day at the show, of course, but I still hung around until closing time instead of packing up early. I encounter a lot of people who say they are coming back, and many of them actually do come back, and i want to make sure even if I’m packed up, I’m still there with the books they said they’d be back for, and they appreciate it.

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I have to admit– the whole weekend I had other things on my mind. Thinking about the future and where the universe was taking me. Whatever the grand plan is, it’s coming together, and I couldn’t be happier.