D.J. Coffman – Sequential Artist, Thinker

Once a year, for the past 8 years or so since I’ve been “blogging”, I post a little list of thoughts of things I’m thankful for. In no particular numbered order, but #1 is always….

#1 – My family! - I woke up this morning to a couple of cool drawings from my kids. One was a pilgrim monkey with a banana saying “Happy Thanksgiving Dad!” – and the other was Bob and Drew from Yirmumah dressed as Pilgrims saying “Why are we dressed like Pilgrims?” – Yes, my one son has taken up drawing Bob and Drew. This give me mixed feelings of awesomeness and dread, of course. (if he only KNEW Yirmumah) — It’s been an up and down year financially here, and there were times I thought I had really blown it, we came very close to foreclosing on our house thanks to my bungled business dealings (not my fault) but still. But through and through, my wife and I  stick together and do what needs to be done as a team here to keep things afloat and I’m very happy to report that things are actually BETTER financially this season then last. I do know when the chips are down though, if the world should crumble around us, we’ll still be here smiling.

#2 Flobots. – There was this brief moment of time this year, sometime in April and May where I thought the world just really didn’t give a shit and was out for itself. People in my life who I really thought were GOOD people, just ended up being out for themselves or a dollar.  By a strange fate, the universe (or God or whatever you believe) somehow had things align and connected me with the Flobots. It was first their music and message that had me fired up, but then meeting and talking with the actual band members, something really clicked. I was thinking about this last night, what was the thing that really made me passionate about working with them? — Well, I guess deep down I’m a GOOD person. When I was doing the HERO BY NIGHT comic, one idea I had from the outset was, instead of just drawing a comic about a HERO doing good things, how could we somehow make it so that when people are reading or buying the comic they too are serving a good cause of some kind? Maybe a portion of all book sales would go towards Children’ Hospital, or I even suggested CHILDS PLAY. My friends around me and those I work for can vouge for all of that I think…. my only problem was, I wanted to make sure it never came off like  a gimmick or a scam, that we could REALLY be helping people or a bigger picture, and I think that also tied into the overall message of the comic itself. It also made you FEEL GOOD thinking about these sort of things….. So, i guess something clicked when I met a band of musicians and lyricists who were thinking the same way and had been acting on that for YEARS before making it big on their own. The idea of using your SKILLS to help some bigger purpose than your wallet or your ego…. it was refreshing. — So i threw myself in head first and never looked back. Now I’m the webmaster for the band, design merchandise, draw comics and a bunch of other things we have planned. All of that I never even expected…. but the biggest thing is, I feel like I’ve made 6 new friends this year who are completely BAD ASS WARRIORS who are changing the world. Here… watch this video…

In one of their songs from Platypus called “One Love”, the lyrics I think sum up what the Flobots are all about…

In fact you might find yourself
In a room full of strangers trying to help
In a flashback to the last time you felt
The presence of something divine well, this is
Hip-hop its not just for profit anymore never was
Its too easy to live your life waiting for change to arrive if it ever does
It will come from a source thats infinite, not from a middle man
You cant measure its force but youve got a sense of it, and its bigger than
Hip-hop, its larger than life/death.much greater than us/them..

It might sound cheesy, but in a lot of ways they’ve reminded me about things I was taught and had forgotten or cast aside because of my own apathy, or loss of hope or selfishness. In late December my wife and I will literally be in a room full of strangers trying to help.

#3- HOPE – This year, like many other frustrated Americans, I got caught up in the politcal climate. And HOPE really did win out. And I’m thankful for this feeling i have inside, that things CAN change when the people standup and toss apathy out on it’s ass. A much younger me use to believe your vote didn’t count, I use to believe it was all predetermined, and that Illuminati ran the world and that the Freemasons were controlling eveything… the kind of conspiracy nut who would have believed in all this NWO “911 Truth” BS you see now online… But over the years, I’ve went looking and asking questions about things, and while all of those conpsiracies seem like GREAT stories, they end up being just that…. fiction. The truth is, apathy is instilled by bigger powers that have nothing to do with secret societies. They are corporations, medical, credit…. and all you are is a number. Ted Dibiasi was right… “everyone has a price.”

But this time…. HOPE won! Hope of course isn’t enough. I know this! But HOPE is the fuel that was needed to energize a new generation. I watched SICKO last night for the first time with my wife, and I was really disgusted that America has been living under this spell, cast by these big insurance companies. We literally ARE the laughing stock of the world. Had I watched this when I came out, I would have felt hopeless, but now in the new age here, I sort of have this HOPE that Obama WILL get in and put a Universal Healthcare system in place. I think he’s going to surprise a LOT of people this Spring, and I can’t friggin wait. Hope wins.

#4- Work and FANS – I’m thankful every time I sit down to draw or create a website or graphics… I’m working at home! Often in my underwear! – I’m thankful that when the chips were down for me I can post something online as an art service and I have people lined up to work with me. I’m humbled, and I know how friggin RARE this is.It’s been a combination of timing, luck and skill, I suppose… and a dash of stupidity and obsession. I don’t suggest this career path to ANYONE who’s not a little crazy or obsessed about comics. If you’re getting into this sort of work just to make money or be famous, you’ll never likely make it. You have to really love this and sacrifice other things in your life and be disciplined. There are times I’d really love to sit and play video games for hours instead of drawing, or go catch a movie with friends, or just SLACK… but then something else in my mind kicks in. I’m sometimes boggled by other successful creators who kind of treat their fans like their not important, slack on getting orders out while they’re playing video games, or shut down communities in the middle of the night that have congregated around their work, without even a whisper of warning? – That’s lame. I appreciate my fans like each of them are friends, and I try my best to extend courtesy and be polite to them, even when they are being DICKS. — Just a week or so ago, a guy from the UK out of the blue just notified me that he says he never got his HBN ring I was shipping out in May– I offered to send him a new one out or refund his money, and he chose the new one,– it cost me 24 bucks to ship it out with confirmation to the UK! UGH! I mean, I totally lost money there, but I didn’t really care for some reason because I wanted to make sure this guy got what he ordered. He could have been lying for all i knew too— and I noticed he had de-followed me on twitter (not a big deal to me!) but he left a snarky comment on his twitter about unfollowing me. Not even a THANK YOU reply for me sending the item out to him and losing money.– Even so, I want fans past and present to be happy and I want to do right by whatever business I’m dealing with and I take a lot of pride in that sense too. I know you can’t please everyone, but you can set a tone for how you conduct yourself and not be a douchebag to your own fans with snarky comments or passive agressive tone or mockery.

#5 – Friends - Sorry you are number 5, guys, but remember that this is no particular order. I have a select number of what I consider REAL friends, who give me good advice or support me when the chips are down. Or people I can just really laugh WITH about really shitty situations. People who will go to bat for me if I ever needed it. I even have a few who are willing to REALLY go to bat for me, along with cans of gasoline and duct tape… yeah, they can be EXTREME!, but I appreciate their passion in our friendship, but no, I don’t need you to burn someone’s office or damage someone’s car or put horse heads into anyones beds! Ha! – In a lot of ways, my FRIENDS are more like my extended family then my actual extended family.

#6 – Muse - I’m thankful that my head never seems to lack these crazy ideas or universes that are playing out inside.