D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

BLLLURG! My mind feels like it’s been half asleep all week. Ever have days like that? Well I’ve had a week of it. I’m not happy with my output this week at all and I aim to repair that. Some random notes and thoughts to get them out of my head.

Let’s talk comics at the top of the blog, and then I’ll note politics and you can skip that.

No Baltimore Comicon for me this weekend. Back in July I inquired about getting a spot there this year, but never heard back. I had the money in hand to pay for a table or whatever, I was told it was booked up, even after that though I saw mentions from other creators online saying they got in at the last minute, which made me scratch my head. Awh well. I had planned to go down anyway without a table and hang with some friends, but my weekends are extremely busy with the kid’s football stuff and a million things to draw here.  I would have loved to have gone and done Will Draws live, or sold some nice Sketchcards at an artist alley table. Wanted to see my old friends. Jorge Vega is debuting his self published works there under the awesome name TWO FISTED COMICS. Look for him there!

GIVE ME SHELTER!- I will be a judge again for this year’s “Webcomic Idol”, put on by Bombshelter Comics. Basically you can win free hosting and stuff for your webcomic, and some nice promotion being involved in this. Other judges include far better cartoonists than I, like Brad Guigar, and the legendary Jim Mahfood , and webcomic pundits like Xavier Xerexes. By the way, what the heck is Xerexes real name, and why doesn’t he use it. Maybe I should change my name to Drew Price? Anywho… if you’re a webcomic dude or dudette who wants to join, please do. This year I’m going to try to do thorough blogging here about the entries. Last year I just kind of coasted. 

IF DC COMICS WERE SMART… I was sad to hear that DC has canceled it’s Minx line. My old friend Jim Rugg did some excellent work on the Plain Janes series. If DC were SMART, they’d move stuff like that to the web in a tight, daily serial form, pay Cecil and Jim very handsomely, and then not only build a HUGE mega fanbase online and reach the audience they were aiming for, but they would also make a mega SHIT-TON off of collected graphic novels of said work. This plan would also work with things we had proposed ( like the Action Webcomics site) , but would work even better with stuff like the Janes. My free advice to DC… it’s worth millions if they played their cards right. They won’t though, they are a big, bloated, corporate thing who cannot act quickly on it’s feet like webcomics in general can.

WOW-WE-OWE!- I’ve been emailed a Wowio update from a publisher who informs me that Wowio is now 42 days late on paying the publishers and creators. I received a form email from Wowio a couple weeks ago saying they were going to give people like 5% or 2% on a late fee on stuff owed. But I also heard that there’s been no word to some of their past account managers who are owed money as well. Communication breakdown? Frankly, I’m not in a hurry to get my 60 bucks, and when it comes I’ll probably try to buy as much Guinness as possible for my office fridge. My advice to the other creators is to demand an explaination as to why they haven’t been paid. My guess would be that there just isn’t any money to be had. And now that Platinum Studios owns Wowio, taking a look at the sour economic market, and the fact that Platinum’s stock opened at 8 cents this morning…. none of this looks or bodes well for the companies or people who are owed money.(this reminds me I have to delete Platinum’s stock ticker thing on my iphone. It’s annoying)

A sequel to Watchmen? - They’d better never, ever, ever, ever attempt this. And I’m glad the comic community agrees in this poll on Comic Book Resources. Seriously, NEVER.

Now politics…

- If McCain doesn’t show up at tonight’s debate, I think he should just hang it up and let someone else run for president. He’s the kind of politics we need to die off and leave Washington. Tired of these stunts, and glad the majority of people know what’s up.

- No Bailout- I hope there is no bailout. I know they say things will be GREATLY mucked up. Many businesses will go under, many people will lose their stuff…. but here’s the truth. Maybe this is what the greed filled culture needs is a HARD reality check. A second great depression. Too many people have been living high on the hog, living beyond their means. It’s not fair that the people who have played by the rules have to bail out Wall Street, just because of the threat that our lives will be harder. We’ve gotten too use to things being too easy…. hungry? Go to McDonalds! There’s no need to cook at home! Slap it in the microwave! This country may just need things to get hard in the wallet. I know cartoonists could survive.

Back to the drawing board.