D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

Thought I’d let the cat out of the bag here about “top secret project X” - I’ve had a lot of people asking what it was and what I was up to– and I’m not sure why it was kept a secret in the first place, just that I wanted to make sure it was go– and since we’re ALMOST go, here it is.

Yup. I’m doing a FLOBOTS comic. Readers here know I’ve been yammering on about the Flobots since I first discovered their music back in April… the comic won’t be launching JUST yet, but let me talk a little more about how it came together and what the goal is here, what it’ll be about, etc… this might take a moment as I ramble…

This whole entire year, I’ve felt pretty politically charged up. Back in January, I heard that Speech from Obama in Iowa, and the ones that followed… it gave me JUICE. Hearing lines. I felt like FINALLY someone is coming in and talking about real change– things I’ve thought about in my own head that I wish would be said out loud, this guy was speaking them. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for” — I was so inspired, I drew a little sketch of Obama one morning in January– I laughed to myself and said, some day I’ll meet him and he’ll sign this.– In March, that happened. I’d get to meet Senator Obama only about 20 minutes from my house. He signed the sketch and thanked me for drawing his ears smaller.

After I started openly supporting Obama in my area (southwestern Pennsylvania) I began coming face to face with closeted bigotry and racism– sometimes from people I actually care or cared about. It was sort of a wakeup call to action. That’s when I painted the Obama “vote for change” sign for my yard before the Pennsylvania primaries. - This was right around the time I discovered the Flobots online and downloaded their album, and it chimed right in with how I was feeling. When I was away at New York Comicon, my wife let me know the sign had been stolen and she had been scared that somebody might come back and do more damage to the yard— I was a little scared, but furious. –Instead of sitting down and letting someone get away with that, I painted ANOTHER sign and put it out, because I felt like no matter what, I wasn’t going to allow somebody else to smother my freedom of speech and expression on my own property or anywhere.

That same week I was fired up, I emailed the Flobots because I was thinking a lot about the social messages in their music and how well it was put together– I wanted to know if they’d be down for a webcomic of some kind or graphic novel. I never expected a reply…. but they indeed replied right away.

To my surprise, not only would they be down, but they had actually heard of my work and read Hero By Night before as well. We shared ideas through email about what we could accomplish with a webcomic or something bigger. The idea of somehow involving the community, or inspiring others to activate in their community— I shared my story about the Obama signs with Flobots member, Brer Rabbit– I kinda told him my frustration and how “I would have painted 1000 signs if you know what I mean.” — His response was…

Let’s paint those signs!
This is the time, man.

This lead to some deep phone conversations with Brer Rabbit about comics, politics– It was pretty clear that these guys had a real love and passion for comics too. My goal is to be able to do with my sequential art, what Flobots are doing with their music. Communicating ideas…. activating minds. They forsee a much bigger picture than JUST music, they see it all as art and creativity– Making people think… inspiring people to stand for change. The kind of revolution they propose isn’t one that involves violence or storming the White House, it’s about being creative and sharing stories with one another– fighting with TOOLS– they have their music, my tools will be the comics– but it’s the same ammunition we’ll be firing.

They actually have a great non-profit group being setup, Flobots.org which can be read more about here.

All along, I had no real idea just how BIG Flobots were blowing up, and are currently in the process of blowing up even more. I’m pretty humbled to even be working with them on this project, and the fact that they’re pumped up by what I’ve shown them so far. I want to launch it as soon as possible here, but there are still a few kinks to hammer out– But definitly stay tuned here on my blog, and you’ll know when it happens because I’ll be yelling it from the rooftops. Things are happening pretty rapidly all around.

All I can say is… it’s pretty amazing how this all came together. I’m pretty stoked.

To prime yourself, go checkout Flobots.com - Buy their album (7.99 at Best Buy!) and LISTEN to their lyrics and enjoy.