D.J. Coffman – Sequential Artist, Thinker

So, I’m without my main computer (it’s in the shop with a virus) and I have a bunch of time to do actual drawing commissions this week. For this week only (through Dec 18th) I’ve decided to do full color art cards of ANY comic book or pop culture character (Star Wars, etc). $10 includes shipping in the US, and $20 will cover worldwide.

(NEW: See samples of some completed cards in this offer)

Each card will be on trading card sized bristol board, colored with Prismacolor markers. I will ship all cards on Saturday morning December 19th, so get your orders in now. Use the paypal checkout below. Send any questions to djcoffman@gmail.com.

ArtCard includes shipping to:

USA $10.00 WorldWide $20.00

Comic Character You Want:

Here’s a funny story for you. So as most of my friends and fans know I’ve been kind of busy doing OTHER things besides actual comic work.  One day I saw some hub-bub about a new contest Amazon and Universal had created called “Comic Strip Superstar” - There was the usual clamoring of people saying it was a BAD idea. And quite frankly, it probably IS a bad idea, and I’m not even sure WHY I was tempted to enter it… I guess part of me wanted to see if I could pull it off under a pen name or just jam out that many strips in such a limited time like back in the day… As I began thinking about it, a FLOOD of about 100 strip /joke ideas flowed out of me onto paper or notebooks. I was jotting down scenarios and whatnot and…. god forbid… it was kind of fun!

Daily comic strips are no stranger to me… back in 1999 we self syndicated a strip called GRAVITY that we got into 50 papers… when we (McDeavitt and I) realized it was too much work for too little money at the time, we shit-canned the Gravity strip and moved on to do freelance comic book illustration stuff and TONS OF WEBCOMICS!

But something about producing a daily comic strip never leaves you. Your mind is always looking at the world in a certain way that I can’t quite describe. I’ve had this idea for a comic strip up on the shelve, The premise was very simple… it was Generation X parents all grown up, raising a new generation of kids.  Something we know a good bit about here in the Coffman household—-

Here was my master plan.  I’d enter under a pen name, which YIRMUMAH fans might recognize. I’d be silent and just see how far I could on the strip alone. Best case scenario, I’d be picked in the top ten, rip off my rubber mask and yell SURPRISE, IT’S ME AGAIN! when public voting time came. Pretty much ALL for shits and giggles and shenanigans like in the old days, because frankly, the pay wasn’t all that great. I could MAYBE get a foot in the door at syndicates and save their friggin hydes with my genius plans! I wasn’t even sure if I’d be willing to sign an actual contract this time. Maybe I’d just bow out gracefully if the deal sucked and kickstart the feature as webcomic on my own. I was basically figuring “what the hell.”

The strips came out pretty well for only having one week (from the time I decided) to get 10 daily comics done and 2 full color sunday strips. I am pretty proud of myself for accomplishing that workload especially with other “pay the bills” things going on at the time. It was sort of one of those moments in life where you step back and say… “I still got it!” I can still do this.

WORSE case scenario, it wouldn’t cut the mustard and I’d have something interesting to write about (failed attempt at shenanigans!) and a whole bunch of comics to post all at once for friends and fans. Who knows, maybe they totally suck? I know I enjoyed creating them and could totally produce a strip like that with my eyes closed thanks to the wealth of material I have in my real life.

What happened… I entered the contest and forgot that I had even entered. I was reminded a few weeks ago when I got an email saying I had progressed to the top 250 strips of 5000 submissions.  Holy crap… it just might work! BUT ALAS… this week the new top 50 list was put out and XYZs wasn’t on it. For whatever reason , the editors at Universal passed on it.

Now I can show the strips to YOU. I don’t know if I’ll pursue this project further unless there was huge support for the concept or maybe a better offer sent my way. Maybe it’s complete garbage? I do know I had a lot of fun kicking the “daily” machine tires again though. It fueled the desire to possibly do SOMETHING daily again.

(You will need to click these thumbnails to open them up full size to read)

CLICK TO OPEN SAMPLE SHEET 2 BELOW

Click to enlarge strips below

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Taking a break from this blog.. I’ll be over hanging out on the new Yirmumah site at http://yirmumah.ning.com – Stop by. You can also follow me on Twitter. http://twitter.com/djcoffman

It is Monday, March 23, 2009. My wife turns THIRTY today. I remember when I did that. No big deal really, but some people freak out. Frankly, I enjoy being older and wiser and now people cannot refer to me as “kid” or you feel like an official “ADULT” when there’s a “3″ at the beginning of your age. You are not old, you are not young. You are grown up. ANYWHO… I’m looking forward to spending the day with my woman. She’s an OFFICIAL WOMAN now! Hooray.

All your Webcomics belong to NEWW: I had been planning to head to the New England Webcomics Weekend this past weekend, but found out pretty early on this year that we’d be at a Steel City Derby Demons Bout on the Saturday night of the show. It sounds from reports coming in, photos, twitters and blogs like it was a grand old time. If they do it again next year, I am there. And hopefully by then I’ll have something new to show and talk about, and the dreaded stink of the Platinum affair will be washed away from me. I’ve been bathing in tomato juice since last May now.

DERBY TALK! Saturday Night was pretty awesome. The Steel City Derby Demons won both bouts. And it seemed like the other teams came to play hard, but our ladies seem to have much more endurance over time as the visiting teams seem to wear down. The B-Unit got knocked around a bit, but the visitors wore down and racked up shit-tons of penalities. And WOW, The Steel Hurtin’ team broke 200 points for the first time ever, in a complete BLOW OUT against the Long Island Roller Girls. In case you didn’t know, the Steel City Derby Demons are now ranked 25th WorldWide, and they are moving up the ranks quickly. No doubt they will move up again after this huge victory. I could tell they’ve really focused on that mission. And it seems like there were less penalties on our side of the game for sure. Very little. — I still don’t know how the rankings work or what they’re based on, but GEE WHIZ, the score was like 200 something to 70 something I think? Surely that’s gotta put some points on the scoreboard.

And in case you haven’t been keeping up with my slow blog, you may not know that my wife made the Steel City Derby Demon team. She’s “Fresh Meat”, meaning she has to go through a course of training for a spell, tests, then be put on a draft team, etc, etc… but I can tell everytime she’s there she wants to put skates on and head out on the track. She is a patient woman though, and I know she’s in this for the long haul.

We headed to the afterparty at Belvedere’s which was filled with people we really don’t know all that well yet, but in a very Pittsburgh way, everyone is friendly and easy to get along with. A good crowd. I wasn’t expecting dancing and such, but I’d better get use to it! My wife likes to “dance it out!” — And from the looks of things, she doesn’t mind dancing with complete dorks, (sorry Bob!)  so I should be a-okay!

You can stalk me on Twitter. http://twitter.com/djcoffman – or find me on Facebook. Fuck Myspace!

So, as many of you know, Hero By Night went on extended hiatus (cancelled) due to the financial reasons, but I had a whole 4th issue drawn and ready to roll that was never published or paid for. I was excited about this issue for a long time becaue it would have been the first creator owned characters I was introducing to the HBN Universe, and thought about doing a spinoff title all their own. The upside to this? Platinum Studios can’t lay claim to this story that was never published or paid for, including the characters within. So here’s a look at just the Roller Girl scenes from that issue. Props to James Patrick for the wonderful dialogue and capturing just how I imagined these girls to act and sound with each other. Click the image to go to the full link of scroll down pages. I find this awesome now looking back. They were called the “Steel City Rollers” — and now I’m actually a fan of the REAL Steel City team for obvious reasons. Enjoy!

Steel City Rollers

Just felt like sketching up a Derby Gal this morning. My wife has two weeks until her official try out for the Steel City Derby Demons, and she’s been busting her ass putting in as much time as humanly possible with our schedule. I’m super proud of her. Can’t really put it into words just HOW much so, but trust me. A lot.  She’s cute when she’s nervous, pushing herself , and pushing more. On the rides home from the rink, she tilts her head back into the air and says “Please God…” — Please God what? I ask. She’s hoping and praying that she makes it. And I kinda chuckle and say, are you serious?! Of course she’s going to make it. In my opinion, and I know absolutely nothing about this stuff, she looks very natural doing all the things she needs to do to pass tryouts. She’s got her stops down, stance, and dear lord does she have endurance!

Watching her finally nail a t-stop and realizing “AH-HA, that’s how it’s done!” — those are the little tiny moments I see the spark of what’s to come. A weaker guy would be totally afraid of what’s coming. Shedding away the shy and timid, the doe-like eyes caught in headlights about to run her over…. now she’ll be the one doing the running over of things. I think it’s true, the phrase “Roller Derby saved my Soul” , and I can see why. She’s taking the wheel. I guess all I can say is, God help any chump that ever gets in her way again, or the next douche who tries to push her over in life. I see it opening up, and I’m proud she’s my partner.

As for my skating career, BLEHCH!!! I suck. I don’t even aspire to do it well. I can’t skate on quad skates, but rollerblades are much easier to balance on. And i hate rollerblades, I always have. Never used them and always thought they were DUMB on other people skating along on sidewalks. To me, they always seemed like the DISCO of rollerskating and I wished they would go away. It figures that they would be the only thing I could skate on, huh? Well, I’m not looking to impress anyone, I’d just like to be able to couple skate with my wife to cheesy love songs on open skate nights. Or have her pull me around. I’m not ashamed! (maybe throw me into a wall?)

This is HER thing. And I’m intent on allowing it to be HER thing and stay seperate from it.  I’ve had people ask me if I’ll draw roller derby comics or posters–  And ironically enough, the first “creator owned” characters I was going to have in HBN were the “Roller Girls”, these cool badgirls who were working against the system.  I didn’t know ANYTHING about Roller Derby or the rules, what the stripes or stars on the helmet meant– and that issue was never published or paid for, and Platinum can’t lay claim to the characters either, thank god. But I can’t help myself from thinking that these girls are like super heroes in a way. They fit a lot of the double-life characteristics of many comic stories. Most of them have professional day jobs, therapists, doctors, nurses, lawyers, etc… and then they dawn these costumes and go out at night to kick ass.  So yeah, my wife and I had talked about how it would be pretty darn easy for me to make a comic about the Derby Girls, take it to shows, have girls skating around or doing demonstrations—- BUT…. I won’t do it. This is HER thing and I don’t want to ever accidently overshadow it in any way, shape or form.  Not unless that’s what she wants, and it helps her or the team and they ask me to do it.  I just would like to be A FAN or something.

If you’re in the Pittsburgh area, or even within an hour or two drive, there is a big bout this weekend at Bladerunners in Harmarville, PA. Check out http://steelcityderbydemons.com to buy tickets and such. It’s only 10 bucks and there are two bouts that night. Also, I believe Buddy Nutt will be playing the National Anthem on his musical saw. PS, Buddy Nutt’s album “Self Checkout” is an awesome independent jewel of music to behold. Snag that at buddynutt.com — Seriously, you should check out a Derby bout, it’s fun times.

I’m helping out some new friends with their comic project and I was asked to critique and give feedback, or pointers on using the Cintiq screen and Photoshop to draw comics. Instead of typing up a tutorial, I sat down this morning and filmed this 25 minute video which includes tips, techniques and a look at how I approach a comic book page. There is no guidebook on how to use this new tool, so over the past three years of creating comics on it, I’ve sort of come up with my own approach, and I hope it inspires others. The Wacom Cintiq people should pay me a commission for the amount of these things I’ve sold for them and they have no idea! That or send me some free swag, Wacom! hah! (call me!)

Drawing Comics with Cintiq from D.J. Coffman on Vimeo.

Random thoughts for a Monday… MIND DUMP!!!!

- I had a dream last night that the opposite happened… the Steelers had lost during the final 30 seconds of the Superbowl. I woke up with the old dreaded Steeler fan feeling of being underdogs and blowing it at the last minute like they had done for years. But then in my sleepy dilerium I realized, they really had won like they won. And that’s how a LOT of Steelers games go through the years, and this is why we stay loyal fans, even through the BAD years. No better place to be a football fan then Southwestern PA. They take this shit WAY too seriously here and I love it.  My Steelers are now the greatest football franchise in NFL history— but can our team outdo the 70s Steel Curtain– We’ll see if they are on that path to #7 this fall…  For now though, SIXBURGH!

- My wife called about 15 minutes after she left for work telling me she needed help and sounding distressed. She had driven up this narrow alley to her workplace, but it was nothing but ice, she slid sideways and wedged herself between a tree bank and gas line to the car’s rear, and a very steep dropoff about 2 feet in front of the car. Completely sideways. I sprang to her rescue and took the danger seat and figured…. well, shit, if I slide back down the hill out into traffic and I live, it will be an awesome tale to tell. And if I died in some mangled mess down over the hillside or out into traffic, I’ve lived a pretty awesome life thus far and I’d die a happy dude. In my head I was surprised at how non-fearful I was at just doing it, it looked a little… dangerous. All was well though as I navigated it back down the icy slope masterfully.

- My wife got her rollerskates (for her upcoming Roller Derby adventures) delivered today. They are quite possibly the nicest rollerskates I have ever seen or held. HEAVY! They are Riedell “Wicked”s, with Mojo wheels, in neon green. My wife had chosen the name “Punky Bruiser” which is awesome. But after this morning’s danger session, I suggested she may want to change her name to “Danger Girl” or “Crash Bandi-Cute” — She is a very happy camper today, and I am glad. Everyone should have some sort of passion, and i’m glad she’s taking hers by the horns.

- Multitasking like a mofo. I have this weird TO-DO list that extracts and expands here. Actually, I have multiple to do lists on post-its and weird letter size papers that I take notes on when on the phone but then I have to decode them because my notes are often visual scibbles and weird shapes and numbers that I don’t remember drawing, but then they totally make sense to me when I read them over. It’s like some coded shorthand for scribblers and doodlers.

- New Flobots comic chapter launched today. I am also JUST about ready to get the art card ordering thing up, just a couple snags in my way here. But I am super stoked about this story. Everytime I get a chance to sit down and write new things, I blow myself away. It’s like someone else is working through me because I can’t believe I have a speck of talent to come up with things that are so layered and creative. Tune into that at http://flobots.net/tales on Mon-Wed-Fri.

- I see that Ka-BLAM has launched an indy distribution service to comic stores, ComicsMonkey.com, – KaBlam is a Print-On-Demand comic printer– I’ve known Barry Gregory, the owner, since before he started it, but always preferred Comixpress.com due to my allegience with the owner over there (Logan DeAngeles) — I’m not sure if this would be the type of thing for me, but it will help many indy artists get into shops perhaps. In fact, now that I’m thinking about it more, I had thought about self printing the Flobots comics and doing direct distribution to fans, but now it might be cool to talk about having this option open for stores to order direct through us and skip Diamond all together. It’s a pretty big name to bring to the comic publishing arena, and I’d probably have to negotiate a better deal of some sort, but it would be awesome to put the Flobots comic in the lead at sort of revolutionizing the process for the comic book industry and doing some innovative things…. you follow me? We’ll see if they call me back to gab. I lost Barry’s email so I just put in a message through the website. Or maybe he has a google alert set for his name “Barry Gregory” – Call me.

Back to the drawing board for me!

I made this 4 minute video showing the different steps of how a custom card gets made, and also showing you the band member’s cards which were given to them last summer. You can also check out a gallery of finished bot cards which have some not seen in this video.

I’ll be producing these original art cards over at http://flobots.net/tales – They will be available for order to the public on Monday-ish in two levels. Regular, and Custom. Regular cards are randomly assigned numbers and designs and will cost $50. Custom cards you can choose your own Flobot number (above 102 and up if available) and also choose your own characteristics to go with your bot character, perhaps your Flobot is a busdriver in the future, a soldier, or likes snowboarding or riding a bike with no handlebars? If you know the “model” type you’d like as well, you can select what model style you’d want.  The custom cards will run $100. Proceeds will go toward supporting the comic AND raising money for the non-profit FightWithTools.org which is building up street teams around the country committed to making change in their communities- I like to think of them as little bands of heroes doing good all over the place, finding a need and meeting it. – These also are not just regular old sketchcards, your Flobot Number will be important in the future for neat things the band or I dream up–trust me, there are tons of ideas floating around.  –

If you’d like to pre-order cards from now until it launches to the public, you can paypal me your order along with any details at djcoffman@gmail.com- For custom cards, please input 3 of your your favorite numbers starting at 102 and up in the order you’d like it assigned if the number is not available. Thanks.

You can also check out a gallery of finished bot cards which have some not seen in this video.

I’d be remiss not to post a blog this morning. Today the people of the United States of America will Inaugurate Barack Obama as the next President.

It was about a year ago, in January that I sketched that card and dreamed about what an Obama presidency could do for this country and the world. Change minds and hearts, change the energy and INSPIRE US.  To some, this idea seemed wishy washy, politics as usual, two-party nonsense…. but I kept seeing the forest through the trees. I guess being a storyteller, just like I can take observe good plots and figure out how a story is going to end or what twists are coming up… I could see the Obama story making sense and THAT being the America I wanted to believe in, to live in.

It’s a very big deal to be electing him because of his character alone and the things he stands for. He never ran as “the black candidate” , he ran as the “people’s candidate”, but it doesn’t erase the HUGE historical fact that we are electing our first African American President… and the wave of emotion that’s going to rush all over this country. I can’t even imagine, well I can imagine pretty well, but the reality of living as a minority in this country has not been easy. That there are hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people who can remember a day when they couldn’t drink from a certain water fountain, or as Colin Powell said this morning there would only be ONE hotel in a town you were allowed to stay at. To think about Martin Luther King, Jr and his vision of America, and we’ll be seeing it in the crowds today. And in all places, Washington DC. Ask anyone from DC and they’ll tell you that it’s always been a pretty segregated town, but suddenly everyone is coming together there and the energy is different. We just might… after these 8 years of nonsense behaviour… we’re getting something good. We might be able to leave race and inequality behind in our minds. — I wonder what the people who are still filled with hate in their hearts are thinking today? My  hope is that a big reality check will set in and they’ll realize that they can replace that hate with love and unity for mankind. That’s my HOPE. That we’re all people. We’re all stories living in the same book of life.

It will be a poweful moment for any American paying attention today, to the crowd, to the speech. I know it will be a bigger moment to some, and that feeling of happiness I have that some souls will feel redeemed… well, I’m sure I’ll have tears at some point today watching this go down. It feels like this great depression we’ve been under, this great negative cloud hanging over us— is being lifted. Not by one man alone…. by a sea of change. People are tired of that feeling of dread. People are tired of BAD NEWS.

The generations have no aligned properly. From the older generations we learn stories of struggle and hardship, of victory over hardships, of determination. And from the young generations we see they are ready to take charge. For the generations in between, a bridge connecting both, a constant reminder, a national conscious…. past, present- future.

Today it FINALLY feels good to be an American to me. To tell people that I’m for THIS. See the images on your computer screens, tvs– soak in the language of the day. This is what America Will Be…it starts today.