D.J. Coffman – Sequential Artist, Thinker

Long time no speak! – As always if you’re looking for regular updates on my life, follow me on twitter. http://twitter.com/djcoffman

I have a lot going on and a lot on my mind. Here we go!….

CROSSROADS: This year feels like a giant crossroads in my life, both personal and professional. On the professional side, I’ve sort of divorced myself from the comic book industry a bit. Maybe we will remarry some day, or get together for lunch, but the events of last year leading into a really bad winter for me left me kinda disillusioned about the whole process. Sure, there are the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” crowd who email me (and thanks for your words), but I guess the truth is, I spent a good amount of time pouring my soul and LOVE of comics into a thing (Hero By Night) which is now pretty much locked away in corporate land. Over time, that feeling has really taken the wind out of my sails and I’ve felt a bit defeated and depressed.- But yes, that whole ordeal really took my “love” of comics away. For a long time, this made me sad, but I’m over it.

I nearly lost EVERYTHING.

I still have the desire and love to draw comics. I just don’t want to play “the game” right now.

My work for the Flobots has been… well, amazing. If I laid out the sheer amount of work I’ve done (web design, graphics, layout, new media planning, etc) I can’t believe it’s just ME doing it. And in the time I’m doing it in as well! I don’t stop to think about it often, but it is pretty darn amazing. And I can’t say enough how REFRESHING it is for my soul to know such GOOD people who want to change the world… and are doing so in the process. I think just knowing them and learning from their messages and purpose, I’ve actually transformed myself for the better. Little by little, whatever had poisoned my soul, has been sucked out.

FAMILY. Last but definitely not least… my family! Watching kids grow is amazing. It can be sad too sometimes.  This past six months has been a real transforming era for my inner circle, my wife and children. My wife has had her own crazy awesome transformation with Roller Derby, and watching that and supporting that has been lots of fun. I’m always a bit shocked to hear that other spouses don’t support the other gals as well. I’m fascinated by the things that I hear come out of my children’s mouths, or how fast they can pick up on things and learn. My one son watches youtube and crafts crazy origami and even has learned to play a little guitar. He’s a natural talent engine. My oldest boy is a walking history almanac, AND a walking Star Wars almanac as well.  The youngest son is CRAZY. Not sure where he’s going to land yet, but I have a feeling he’s going to be a real ladies man and charmer. He’s also a real spitfire of temper…. flaming red hair. But don’t call it “red” , he will exclaim “IT’S NOT RED, IT’S ORANGE!!!!” – I think all of my authority problems entered into him, so that’s going to be fun to deal with as he grows. At least he has ME to guide him.

VACATION! – From July 12th-July19th I’ll be on my first REAL adult vacation with the family. We’re headed down to Myrtle Beach. Gonna soak up some sun, meaning my pale cartoonist/hermit skin will likely be baked to a crisp! – But I’m REALLY looking forward to recharging my batteries and figuring out HOW to relax for a week. My wife assures me that she will show me how. I know a big part of it consists of NO WORK, and no internet. But I will be twittering from the iphone and sending photos to my Facebook profile. — This is not only the first REAL family vacation, but it’s nice that it was actually planned well in advance when there was still snow on the ground… we decided to pinch our pennies and make this happen. It’s been fun watching the boys save their money as well. My youngest son can’t believe he has 61 dollars in cash, not to mention the “credit” line they’ve been building. We’re also going to stop on the way back to spend time with some family in Raleigh, NC too. I’m looking forward to the road trip. It’s about a 10.5 hour drive. Never looked forward to one of those before. A good start!

I’m still alive! As you probably know if you frequent this blog, I don’t post here as much as I used to. I did the daily blogging thing for almost 10 years! Crazy. Now I spend a lot of my social media time at my twitter.com/djcoffman account and over on facebook, so if you’re ever looking to see what I’m up to or thinking at a moment’s notice, that’s probably the best bet. Every now and then though I like to pop on here and unload some thoughts that can’t possibly fit into micro status updates. Here goes the MIND DUMP!

LIFE: Life is pretty awesome. I’m just letting the universe guide me wherever at this point. There have been so many weird things in my life this year that I can’t explain. So much unexpected, some good, some bad… but in the end it’s lead to a much more awesome life for me.

Wow! Conan O’Brien hosting the Tonight Show. I had chills. I remember watching him when he had a night to night contract (as the legend goes)- Hearing Andy Richter introduce the Tonight Show, and the first musical guest is my all time favorite band Pearl Jam, and they debuted a new song there. Did I experience a bit of ShangRa-La? Seriously, it feels like my generation has finally stepped up to take the reigns of our whole society for the next 20-30 years and that feels awesome! – And to think in a round about way, I’m sort of connected to COnan O’Brien history with that shirt I created for AndyRok, which he then gave to Conan off his back. Sweet! — Anyways, watching Conan step up, was like watching an old friend you knew get the greatest job on the planet and know they deserve it. I actually want to watch TV at 11:30 now!

Work- I’ve been doing a ton of stuff behind the scenes. Most of it is writing and designing stuff for the Flobots, both the band and working on some upcoming New Media stuff, and with their non-profit Flobots.org. We’re doing a bit of a relaunch on the FightWithTools.org site in July, and I’ll also be flying out to Denver around June 18th to spend some days working on some things in person. All of that is pretty vague, I know, but it will become much clearer in the fall.

Comics! - Yeah, I know you haven’t seen much of that from me in the past couple months. But I’m still working on the Flobots comic slowly but surely and my main goal is to have a nice little Graphic Novel out at some point. I have two other projects I want to be working on more, one is a fantasy type (sword and sorcery)  story for Jason Embury, and the other one has been slowly forming in my head since January and I think it’s finally come together as something I’d like to put some time into. I don’t want to jinx it though, so mums the word on what it’s about for now.

Yirmumah- I launched the new Yirmumah site “anti-social network” at http://yirmumah.ning.com a bit ago. I planned on doing more live drawing and exploring my darker humor side there, but I really haven’t had as much time to work on it as I’d like. I’ve been terrible at budgeting schedules lately, but I haven’t given up on this. I think it’s a matter of coming up with some form that pleases me the most. Possibly short stories like the original Yirm were, instead of just throw away gags. Although the throw away pop-culture gags always call to me as well.

More COMIC thoughts – & Pittsburgh Comic and COllectible Show: Was at a one day comic show this past Sunday, put on by Todd McDevitt of New Dimension Comics. I have to say it was busier and bigger than I thought it would be. Some Pittsburgh Steelers were also signing next door so that brought some traffic to the mall that day as well. I was sandwiched between two legends, Joe Jusko and Ron Frenz – huge talents. They of course have TRIPLE if not quadruple the experience and skills I have. I usually don’t feel this way, but I was feeling a little inferior looking at my “cartoony” work and kinda feeling DOWN about the whole “comic book industry” experience. Honestly I’ve really lost some bit of passion I once had. Maybe it’s because I’ve not only looked behind the curtain, but I’ve roamed around behind that curtain and what I’ve seen and witnessed wasn’t what I thought it would be. Most of it is just bullshit and smoke and mirrors. — But I was pleased that Joe Jusko stopped to say thanks for the copy of the Hero By Night hardcover I had sent to him a while back. I had forgot I even sent it! – He had kind words about the story and the feeling and vibe it brought back to comics for him. It was a sincere comment That reminded me that my work isn’t done… which is a whole other nut to crack.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I used to have a real sex drive for producing comics. I’d pride myself on how much I could accomplish or do in short periods of time, and keep it quality and entertaining. I wanted to be like Jack Kirby– those stories of how many pages he could draw per day always inspired me (still do!) — but I think I’ve come to the realization that I’m not that. All those years of pumping out daily comics while also drawing monthly comics and side projects, it felt good when friends and colleagues would be amazed, but I look myself at where it’s gotten me and I’m not so sure if it’s the right path. I was explaining this to another friend of mine who didn’t quite understand what I was saying. I was a bit frustrated that ALL THAT WORK I did, and people only mostly remember the drama that ensued and my “character”. All that work. All those hours. And barely anyone talks about the actual COMICS. And to think that I could have, I almost WAS, one of THOSE GUYS… the guys who ruin their lives around them because of this obsession to produce. Where the only time a comic news site will report on you is when someone owes you money or there’s dirt to be dug up. The only emails I’d get would be “what’s the latest dirt!?” — I just don’t want that kind of career.

So I’ve been flying under the radar. Thinking about, and taking action on reinventing myself. Transforming into something better. And when I’m done, hopefully the work will shine and that is what I’d like people to talk about and remember.

I have a TO DO LIST post it note hanging on my desk. It only has one thing on it.

#1 – BE AWESOME.

LIFE: Life is going amazingly well. I feel healthy and happy, even though I’ve had too much fried food this past week I think. I’ve cut most sugar out of my diet as much as I can, and successfully replaced coffee with tea to drop some more weight. Some days the weight loss stuff feels like a waste of time, especially on dreary and cold days. But good weather is coming and that means excercise and walking and breathing fresh clean air. Can’t wait! –

Roller Derby Adventures: Our adventures in Derby continue. This past weekend the Steel City Derby Demons demolished the Dutchland Roller girls, like 230-82 I think. WOWZA! The afterparty was groovy as well. I shot pool, my wife danced with her girlfriends. Our social life is no longer boring and mundane. My wife has official practices on Tuesday and Thursday night which is like “HER” time, and I’m bored at home those nights thinking about her having fun, so I decided to dedicate that back to “ME” time and work on some personal projects again, or do something mindless like play a video game with the kids. I think my wife has the perfect Derby name now, but it’s HUSH HUSH.

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WORK: I’m done sleeping and reorganizing my world. Here are things that are going down that I will be working on immediately.

Flobots - Yeah, the Flobots comic has been hit and miss update wise. I have to take full responsibility for that, but fear not, new pages are coming soon on a timely basis. I’m still doing a ton of stuff behind the scenes I can’t talk about, and there are only so many hours in a day, so sadly the Flobot comic gets pushed to last in the immediacy line of things that need done. We have some REALLY interesting things happening this year though…. can’t wait!

Will Draws - Yes, thanks to that old Seth Godin effect, I’m still backlogged with Will Draws to do. I’m putting these back on the priority list and I’m including them with a new project (see next) — but the backlog of $2 drawings will be done and featured, and a whole new addition will be put into place.

YIRMUMAH – The cat’s out of the bag to some of the diehard supporters, but YIRMUMAH will be returning with a new format and new delivery method and it’s very own social network for friends and fans. You can get a sneak peek at the new pad at this link. Sign up and make your own profile and join the ANTI-SOCIAL NETWORK. – The network will also house my future columns as well as content from other diehard Yirmumah originals– look also for WIZ ROLLINS to be bringing back his old comic BAD SHAPE there. Also, I’ve gone ahead and released PDF files there of the 3 original Yirmumah Minicomics from 1998 that started all the trouble. They are crudely drawn and very rude humor, but I hope you enjoy them. My bitter and jaded roots.

And forget the last part… edited it out as I was typing this email… but it looks like crap is hitting the fan elsewhere regarding something else. Awh well!

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

Looking back on 2008….

The scariest thing that happened to me in 2008 was that I nearly lost everything I had built since 2006. My job, my work, my house…. there was a big season of “not fun times.” But I found out who my true friends were during the tough times, and I’m lucky to have a great wife and family here that really helped to push me through some tough times. The full 4000 word blog is beyond the MORE tag…

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So, yeah, I woke up this morning to the iphone alarm sometime in the 6am hour like every school day, I then click the mail icon to see if anything important came across while I was in slumberland. I had about 45 emails coming in and I was sure it was Wordpress spam or something.. but nope, it was people saying:

“Hey, did you know about this!?” – and then a link or paste in of the Press Release “DJ Coffman’s “Hero By Night” Headed to Television”

No, I was not informed. I can’t say that I’m surprised because Platinum Studios probably were afraid I’d blab about it on my blog, which has been known to kill deals and stuff I’m told. And I can’t say I’m surprised at all as how things have gone down this year, which is probably no secret at all to anyone who knows anything about this stuff in the slightest.

I’m going to bite my tongue a little here, but only for the sake of having OTHER things going on that NOBODY in the outside world knows about, so having my name and creation in the Hollywood Reporter and out in the BUZZ isn’t a bad thing. (although sometimes I feel like I do need to shower afterward)

I can say this about Hero By Night. It is without a doubt the BEST thing Platinum Studios has in it’s entire library. The best universe for sure. And that’s not meant to slam anything else, and it’s not meant as just cocky-creator speak… it’s truth culled from a thousand destinations.

How do I feel about the news? Well, it’s a press release, and that doesn’t mean a whole lot about actually getting something made, as you can learn from the plethora of press releases that fire out of Hollywood daily. It’s buzz, I guess. I’ve never heard of IM Global before. You’d hope they would consult the creator, and I’d be happy to talk to them. Hero By Night could be a big success for anyone who goes about it properly.

As for Platinum… well, I’ll bite my tongue and see if they even contact me at all about this now after the fact. I know they don’t HAVE to but…. (I’ve been down that road before) -  Ironically, just yesterday I was thinking about sending them communication about what they owe me from my other contract regarding the so far 12 installments of the animated comic online and I noticed that Hero By Night is the #4 downloaded thing on Wowio, so I’m owed something from the downloads there too. Yeah, I keep tabs, I kinda have to. I just figured there was “no money” there. Maybe that’s changed? Hurm. Maybe IM Global or the new advisory board at Platinum will tell em “Hey, just let this guy go and make the comics!”

I also have a sort of “Be careful what you wish for” feeling again this morning. Wherein my hero is Jack Kirby. I sit in an office surrounded by homemade Jack Kirby Mr. Miracle wallpaper.. there is a nice framed photo of Jack by my office door, strangers even think it might be a relative or something. And believe me… being the GIANT Jack Kirby nerd that I am, don’t believe for one second that I don’t see very clearly the complete irony of the whole situation I’ve been in this year. And that’s only a tiny TASTE of what that poor guy went through.  I know that. I also know I don’t even have the talent that that guy had in his pinky finger. You know, the finger that stablized the pencil?

None of this (the bad business side) sours the fact that Hero By Night is awesome. Sometimes I can’t even believe I did it at all.

As Rorschach  would say… HURM.

Platinum Studios continues it’ shenanigans with not paying creators, even a year past due now… emails and quotes inside, and about 2400 more words if you’re interested…

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Working much, talking little.

Still have a lot of work going on, which is good, paying bills, keeping the family fed. Feels good to be doing that with my pencil and not my back. I consider myself very very lucky.

I’ve had these moments lately where I’d like to rant on and on about how things should work in comics, or how to approach the work, or share my visions, but then I’m quieted by a voice in my head that says “talk is cheap”. I’ll have to show them by DOING it, not by talking about how it’s done. I can see the paths clearly in my mind, but the hardest part is the execution of the work itself.

Micro-Local-Celebrity: On a trip to pick up my tuxedo (hate suits! Arg!) we stopped in the Uniontown Mall, which I haven’t been to in ages it seems. There was a small sports collectors place and I saw the yellow Steeler helmets in there that my son had wanted so I decided to stop in and check it out, this one was signed by Jerome Bettis and a little out of my price range for a gift, about $350 bucks, but it was authentic. To my surprise I saw some comics WAY in the back of the store so I went to scope them out and picked up a Previews magazine to see if anyone I knew was in it or was putting books out. The store owner, nice enough guy, told me to take the Previews, which other shops would have charged me 5 bucks for, and gave me the standard ordering pitch for Previews… he asked if I was looking for anything specific when I was thumbing through it, and I said not really, at that moment I was in the “P” sectioin and curious of Platinum Studios had any listings or were putting out any books at all right now (they weren’t in there) — but I mentioned Platinum and the owner immediately said “Oh, Hero By Night!” — if my wife hadn’t of been with me, I would have likely played dumb and said , yeah!- but she motioned toward me and said proudly, “Yeah, that’s his baby!”— The owner: “You’re D.J. Coffman!”– and the conversation went on from there, asking me to maybe do a signing in the shop later this month to bring some customers in on the weekends.

It’s an ackward position to be in, and as much as I can pretend that none of it bothers me, it does. Especially when I have to explain when people ask me “what happened?” — The owner told me he didn’t order anything else from Platinum because Hero By Night was the best thing and had some real buzz around the industry and they wanted more, of course. So I had to as politely as possible (with much cursing in my head) explain the situation. But also I wanted to point out… we put out 7 single issues with Platinum Studios and one hardcover, and we were paid to produce the entire thing AND the webcomics, that’s very rare, if not totally unheard of for an indy book to even go past 3 issues. In my mind it wasn’t a failure at all, it just petered out because there was no money to produce it. And by even slightly blogging about the fact it was on hiatus because we hadn’t been paid, Platinum Studios (Brian Altounian) changed it’s mind about giving me the rights to the webcomic and print book. And that was that. In my mind, and in many others, it was like they had taken any of the good will generated in the comic book industry and thrown it away. The only reason I Bring this up again, is because it STILL doesn’t make any damn good sense at all.

So, Hero By Night was a success on a lot of fronts. I’m really proud of it. I’m taken aback when someone still wants me to come and sign, because somewhere I do feel like a failure, but the work speaks for itself regardless of how the business ended. At least we didn’t leave it hanging in the middle of an arc, that would have REALLY bugged me more.

I’m asked a lot, so what are you working on now?

1. I’m almost at 500 random drawings with the “Will Draw Anything” experiment. I think I will collect a book and sell it on my own, unless there is a publisher out there who wants to give me a very sweet deal. But I REALLY like the idea of publishing and shipping myself with maybe even a little box on the cover or inside cover for a custom “Will Draw” premium edition. I think this would be a FUN book for anyone to own, and it’s also a peek into the human mind and psychological condition. It’s fascinating for me to go back and see the requests and how I interpreted them.

2. RISE OF THE FLOBOTS will be a graphic novel at some point in the future. There’s still a lot for me to do on that end (about 80 pages, I reckon) And I’m going to be scouting for a colorist soon. The coloring is really slowing me down. I have the total vison for this book, and the message, figured out that will melt minds. The sky will be the limit once this thing is finished. Also, the band is pretty darn busy embarking on their fall tour (they’re always running!) but I’m going to try to get Stephen or Jamie to write their own mini stories that will be included in the book or tied in. I can’t get into the plot right now (it will spoil it!) but it’s formulated in such a way that we could show alternate futures or dimensions, or something a simple as a love story or slice of life issues. It’s ambitious to say the least.

3. Top Secret -After the first Flobots Graphic novel, I will embark on something else–  My top secret project has not left my mind yet, it’s stewing in there and I want to sketch things and work on this for the next year or so before even attempting it. I’ll just say it’s a way to build my own universe, and it blows everything else I’ve done out of the water. At least in my mind… but shhhhhhh….. not there yet.

Back to the drawing board.

Did an interview with ComicMix, you can read it here: “D.J. Coffman on politics and webcomics”

This might sound weird, but I often forget that I have “fans”. I never really ever think about it, honestly. Somewhere in my mind I guess I just consider people who talk to me, or email or call, as sort of friends or “friendlies.” I always try to respond to every email or letter, and answer any questions as best as I can. It’s just weird to hear that I have fans. But I appreciate the fact they are there, and more over that they CARE!

I got an email this past week from a HUGE Hero By Night fan asking me if I’m ever going to do it again. Telling me that whatever bad blood there was between myself and Platinum, that I should do my best to keep it going and they listed off all of the great things that were going on in Hero By Night. It served as a reminder to me, and half a bummer that I had many many plans and many stories I wanted to tell. I think the thing that set me off the most wasn’t the money issues, it was the ethics issues. I was left with no other choice but to tell the fans and retailers the truth, that HBN was on hold because we hadn’t been paid. Behind the scenes I was told I’d be able to continue it on my own (meaning they wouldn’t be paying me) which was fine, I’d take the reigns and self publish online and in trades, and Platinum would have still had their bread and butter being able to pitch offshoots of the continuing universe as I kept it going. It would have been a win-win for everyone involved, especially them. But getting that email that they had changed their mind because I had blogged about not being paid… that’s what really sent me over the edge. As many readers here and the press have also reported, I bent over backward to tell the truth, and to be fair to Platinum as well.

I’ve been involved in other businesses in the past (screenprinting, advertising, marketing) where they tank miserably or become PR nightmares because the people in charge at companies aren’t willing to admit publicly when they were wrong, or when they fucked up. Instead they only want to paint a rosy picture to the public, and make excuses and point fingers elsewhere when things go bad. The companies that make it and are respected are the ones that step up to the plate, admit when they were wrong, apologize and then do their best to make things right. It’s probably way too late for that to happen for Platinum Studios. The only positive thing there is that they are left as an example of what not to do and how not to go about your business. Make promises? keep them. Make mistakes? own up.

So to all the Hero By Night fans out there who often email me, I don’t want to say it will never happen, but at this point, the only way I’d do it would be to have the FULL webcomic rights back to me, and that would include the ability to print collections of the webcomics as well, and merchanidising based on the webcomic continuity as well. , No ties to Platinum other than the fact they could still represent it in film or tv and be connected in that regard, with no amendments to that contract that still exists. If fans of Hero By Night wanted that to happen, they could write emails to Platinum or contact them. That’s the only way the series will be continued. Now, I didn’t say NEVER… but that’s a near impossibility at this point. Stranger things have happened though… hell, Rob Liefeld is back publishing with Image and having dinner with guys who said some pretty bad things about each other. But… that’s business!

Well, this post was supposed to be about the ComicMix interview, so make sure you exit here to read it.

Been up and working here, bright and early. The 300th Will Draw Anything turned into a link from the buyer on Reddit.com, which brought a huge spike in traffic, and about 100 more orders while I slept and counting. It’s an insanely viral happy accident. I just hope, like the buyer of the 300th drawing, folks are patient in waiting and knowing that there are currently hundreds of drawings ahead of them, so it might take a while for their drawing to show up.

Not only that, I have the FLobots comic to work on as well.

I got a google alert this morning directing me to this thread on some financial board that brought up my name and Wowio… and whadaya know, it’s Platinum Studios Chief Operating Officer, Brian Altounian spouting off about the bad press from Wowio not paying their creators on time, and bringing up my name and situation, the “D.J. Coffman fiasco”- A couple of the quotes there, done pissed me off reading before coffee.

Because he complained that we were 3 weeks late on the final payment to him??? That’s hardly good business sense. And yet somehow Platinum is painted as the evil corporate bad guy (DJ has called us much worse, despite the fact that we paid him almost $100,000 in fees and paid his way to numerous comic conventions – one should ask DJ how many conventions he has attended since his gravy train left town…)

First.. he says I was only “3 weeks late on my last payment” this is TOTALLY FALSE. I have paperwork and contracts to prove otherwise. So you’ve got this guy, running this company who doesn’t even KNOW (or he’s flat out lying) about a situation. The TRUTH is, and I never brought this up out of kindness and understanding, but 90% of the entire time I was paid, it was NEVER ON TIME. My contract stated when I was to be paid after I invoiced, (7-10 business days) and because of a bunch of mismanaged “pass the buck” crap inside the company, it was always more like 30 days after invoicing, which I was fine with and let go. But the 3 weeks late quote is bullshit. If they want me to, I’d be more than happy to break down the dates and go into vivid fucking detail of when I should have been paid what and just how late they actually were… but I don’t have time this morning, and I have an important point to make here….

He uses the “only 3 weeks late” to insinuate I don’t have good business sense??? Brother, please. I was one of the only people behind the scenes there questioning their marketing and PR within the comic book industry, which was pretty much ZERO. Not to mention the bad press and bad blood which I had always tried to get to the bottom of, and in my experiences and speaking, I was able to get the press and other creators to give them a second look. That maybe they had changed.

The “gravy train” comment really burns my ass. For one, Platinum wasn’t a GRAVY TRAIN to me. I questioned openly the 500 dollar dinners they’d do at Chicago Comicon, where THAT didn’t make any business sense at all to me… we had a dinky artist alley table and could have been taken more seriously with a publishers size booth for the price of FUCKING DINNER. People behind the scenes knew I was frustrated about this, and I even had phone conversations with Scott Rosenberg about it. He knew I was so frugal with my own money and budgets that back in January he even proposed giving ME control of the entire HBN budget for the year (which would have been a godsend) — It always seemed very backward to me, flying creators in for artist alley spots, when they could have done so much more with what they spent on FOOD. Ridiculous. I had sort of shrugged it off like, well, these guys must have a bunch of money to just burn. But now if Brian Altounian wants to represent like he’s the great white father of corporations in sending creators to shows…. so be it.

You want to REALLY know why I haven’t been to any shows since JUNE? Well, for one, there have only been like 2 shows I missed, so he can take that gravy train comment and shove it right up his smarmy ass– two, I’m kind of embarrased to show up with Hero By Night work when I know it’s not finished. Three, I am pretty poor at the moment, and I’m working hard to pay my bills and do good work with other companies that really have no ties to having to go to comic book shows. But how insulting is it, insinuating that now that I’m not with Platinum, I can’t afford to go to shows.. FUCK THAT. Platinum Studios can’t afford to go to shows now! There’s a BIG FUCKING REASON they didn’t have Comic Book Challenge 3 in San Diego this year and it was only over the website…. Platinum is BROKE AS SHIT. Check their financial records. Hell, i think they are broker than I am at this point… and they surely have more debt than I do too. The only difference is, I won’t be filing for bankruptcy by the end of the year and I pay my bills on time. A novel idea?

Let’s talk about what i DID at those shows too, and the shows I did on my own on the east coast! I represented Platinum very well, spoke one on one to retailers and creators. I was doing the job of someone who’s salary would have been 60-80k a year just as a marketing executive, let alone the creation aspect… Brian likes to mention a lot how much they paid me (100k?) but he doesn’t GET IT. Flip that around with how much quality I brought to the table with the creation of the Hero By Night Universe, which was THE ONLY comic they put out that was praised by critics who had burned them before, suddenly they were fans of HBN and anytime a new issue came out, they had glowing reviews and would think “wow, maybe Platinum Studios isn’t half bad after all” — Of the 3000-5000 properties they often tout as having in their library, not one EVER broke into the mainstream comic book press, and along came Hero By Night. They kissed my ass up and down, and if you look at what I was actually making… it was a DROP IN THE BUCKET compared to what HBN can (and likely will) become for Platinum.

You know, part of that makes me sad, because I had several long conversations with CEO Scott Rosenberg, who I considered a friend. He seemed to “GET IT”, everything I’d ramble on about. Brian Altounian would kind of agree in an enthusiatic way, but now I see that he never really DID get it. My first clue to that was when I was asking him about when I could expect my pay to come, and he said he wasn’t sure… and showing no concern for my OWN situation, thinking of the company and how it would look, I asked him “Well, I’m cool right now, but what happens when other creators start coming out saying they’re owed” — I figured it would make the company look like a joke…. and Brian replied:

“D.J., it doesn’t matter. There will always be new creators lined up to work with us because of the Hollywood deals.”

That’s when I definitely knew things were in trouble, and my heart pretty much sank, and i knew it was time to start planning on jumping ship. I talking to other past employees, things were a lot worse behind the scenes. I can understand that they don’t like the bad press or blog posts. And now, a repeat, with Wowio creators not being paid, only 6 weeks after Platinum “acquires” them. I’ve been quiet about Wowio for the most part. I knew other creators were pissed about not being paid on time, and emailing ME about it, but I ignored it and put it off. Last week the steam built, and I started getting emails from interviewers where I spelled out exactly how I now feel about the situation and how unethical it is. Platinum Studios has learned absolutely nothing from the “D.J. Coffman fiasco” -

They pretty much squandered a great thing with what HBN had built for them, the invisible thing they couldn’t see or grasp or GET. In a Hollywood environment where many independent super hero genre things were being bought and produced, (Hancock, INvincible, etc) I’d cringe when I’d see statements or PR, or someone on video saying “Well, we’re more than just super heroes” and not even mention that they actually had the #1 Super Hero Comic on the WEB! Read by more people than Spider-Man, Batman and numerous iconic classics… never mentioned it, but it was fact. And I built that myself by knowing how to utilize the web and webcomics, when the big companies did not. It might STiLL be the #1 read super hero comic online today. If that’s not a talking point in a pitch.. I don’t know what is. Who was pitching? Did they mention that? and if not… why the hell didn’t they?! That is poor planning and management. I joked with Rosenberg one time, but I was serious… put ME in the room pitching Hero By Night and we’d have a damn BEN 10 type franchise on our hands… even BETTER! I still believe that.

They have no HUMAN voice for their company, only poorly written and ill-timed press releases. As one ex-editor told me, they are simply playing the bullshit game, hoping ONE thing hits big to make up for all the other losses. They’re wearing the fancy clothes they can’t really afford, to try to look like big players… but instead, they look like hucksters. They might be able to blend in well out in Hollywood, or feel good about themselves patting each other on the back, but the stark reality is, nobody in COMICS really trusts them at all.

They can no longer get covered by Newsarama, Comic Book Resources, The Pulse (who they owed advertising money to last time I checked)– all of the A+ comic news places, won’t give them the time of day. They won’t even run press releases now, barely at all. The only time they do get mentioned is for the negative. And their lack of HONEST communication with creators and the press, makes them look even worse. Comic Book Challenge 3 has been going on and not ONE of those sites has covered it, because they know this year it’s bullshit. Instead of a HUMAN voice out there making friends and changing hearts and minds about your company, you have their CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER out stirring up bad blood on a financial forum, and making excuses as to why creators shouldn’t be complaining about WOwio.– AND SPAWNING POSTS LIKE THIS ONE FROM ME! – Good job, retard.

I hesitate to say “this company doesn’t care about creators”, because there are some really good people in the company and that have been associated with the company, but their leadership is abysmal. The core of the issue is, creators need to be paid in a timely manner. Especially when the work they are doing is the ONLY thing you have going for you. Their dreams are your “fuel”. Last time I checked, you have to pay for fuel first before you drive off and burn it.

How to fix Platinum? I’m not going to give them a full on business plan (which I have/had) I think it might actually be too late for them in the comic book field to be taken seriously, no amount of movie deals or putting out an actual movie will do that) , but if I were the CEO, I’d fire the COO, or just have him sit behind a fucking desk and try to raise money. I’d then spend that money more wisely. I’d pay creators on time, all the time, on the dates agreed to on their contracts. Unhappy creators=bad business. And we’re not talking much here to keep them happy… pay them on time so they don’t have to worry about their bills! One of the Wowio guys who is owed told me he was counting on that check to come so he could fix his car.  I’d hire a limber blogger as my marketing and PR… and, I’d probably at this point, change the name of my company. I guess they can do that after Platinum goes into bankruptcy protection?

Curiously, I noticed they deleted the first entry from their “new” blog, which was all about their FULL INTERVIEW with Publishers Weekly about Platinum Studios not paying creators. The one where Brian Altounian accused me of possible insider trading or some shit, and actually disclosed things publicly that HE shouldn’t have said. I hope the SEC actually DOES investigate the levels of bullshit going on there. And maybe they can ask themselves… are they nervous about that? And if so…. why??? Have you done something wrong? Wait.. now that I’m thinking about it… Brian Altounian, the CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER at Platinum Studios is lying directly to investors on an investor board, trying to paint things as cheery, and poo-poo any of the actual truth.

Sigh. I don’t think they ever WILL learn, and frankly I don’t care. In the end, I’m still doing what I love to do. Two decades from now, three, four, maybe five or even six, if I’m super lucky seven,  I’ll still be creating comics and other things…

UPDATE: - Brian Altounian has deleted the part of his message that I linked and quoted referencing me. You know, that makes it look even guiltier of saying something wrong there. Dumb, dumb, dumb…