D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

I just got done reading Mark Evanier’s “KIRBY: KING OF COMICS” - and of course, it was great. I can’t wait for the TOME he’s planning on writing. Get to it Mark!

Every now and again, I get asked about, what’s the deal with Jack Kirby’s ghost and Yirmumah and all that? And it’s not really a complicated story, but one I didn’t like to talk about publicly until recently, for fear of it making me sound crazy. Maybe it still will… But it’s odd, how everything comes together. Here’s a timeline of events…

1993 - I’m now embarrassed to admit, but when I was 17, my whole goal was to come right out of high school and be the next hot artist during the 90s boom. You had tons of young “hot” artists breaking in, some featured in Wizard and I’d just eat that up. It’s really what I wanted to be. I’d ditch school and go hang out at Extreme Studios and be the guest of Danny Miki there, it’s where I learned first hand that Rob Liefeld was a jerkoff, but also where Todd McFarlane said something nice to me in the elevator about a spawn print I had had made and happened to have on me. Marc Silvestri, McFarlane, Capullo, Larsen, these guys were my comic gods back then. I was completely ignorant of comics history—– When I’d even come near Silver Age or Golden Age comics, they just looked lame to me at that age.  They weren’t as exciting as McFarlane’s Hulk bashing through a brick wall and like 5000 bricks going all over the place. — I’m really ashamed of this now, but hey, I was a real know nothing kid.

San Diego Comicon 1993 - I went with what I thought were solid samples of my work, looking back now they were terrible. But I still managed to get portfolio reviews with any small companies I could. I remember a portfolio review with Chaos Comics, but my work wasn’t horror, and I remember them saying I needed to draw bigger boobs on the women! No kidding… Even though I was being shot down left and right, those cons made it seem like you were absorbing some magical energy you could take back with you to the drawing board at home. I remember it was almost time for me to catch my ride back home to the desert, and I was waiting out in an out of the way place. Over to the side I saw a small group of people gather around some older guy, some trying to get autographs and one guy trying to show his portfolio– I heard it was Jack Kirby, who all I knew then was the rumors that this guy created just about everything at Marvel and Stan Lee had taken all the credit and he didn’t make a dime. I walked up in he middle of a conversation, someone had asked him about Stan Lee, and he said “If Marvel Comics is hell, then Stan Lee must be satan!” and the 5 guys around all chuckled– a couple artists, including myself stood with little pieces out for him to look at, and I mean, it did look like he was looking at work and giving a critique—- knowing what I know now, I would have never bothered him, just thanked him– but he did look at whatever mish-mash I had there and I could tell he wasn’t really looking at it– I don’t recall what he said exactly, but it was just a standard encouragement to keep drawing and drawing. He told another artist “well why are you here? you should be drawing!” — and the group moved along.

For years after that I guess you could say I tried to “break in” to comics. I did the normal routines of sending in samples and getting rejection letters, and then I stopped doing that and just began working for independent writers and small companies that didn’t pay. My work was still pretty bad, but was getting better just from the sheer amount of volume I’d produce.  I think in this period though, I became more and more jaded as I saw a lot of crooked things by small companies, people being stiffed, work being stolen. Suddenly those dreams of being that hit artist, you know they dry up. I was really cynical and jaded. I still had offers from so called companies, but they all just seemed like people who needed artists so they could make a dime and not pay you anything. Mark Evanier would later call those types “Unfinanced Entrepreneurs” — Yeah, I worked for a lot of those! — I gave up on the idea of comic books, and started doing comic strips for newspapers, etc.

It was around 1997 I was producing different samples for newspapers, while i worked shitty day jobs. Just married and with a kid on the way, I took a long hard look at my dreams of drawing comics. I think I may have been about to hang it all up, I had definitly hung up the idea of producing mainstream anything in comic books. Then I had that weird dream.

The dream… well, Jack Kirby was in it. Sort of, verbally slapping me around. Asking why I was slacking, wasting time on other things. There was a weird Mexican Radio playing in the background– I was very confused in the dream — but this Jack wasn’t the kind old man from 1993, this one was energetic, drinking and smoking, tough talking. Basically in that dream he told me I couldn’t wait around for someone to come hand me work, I had to just start putting out my own books, and that ghosty Jack encouraged me to tell the truth, if I knew someone was treating someone unfairly in comics, bring it to light, so that other creators wouldn’t get bamboozled by some of those douchebag small publishers who were just feeding off young talents. That dream was so weird and vivid, I drew the first Yirmumah minicomic about it. I did what the Jack in my dream told me to, I took it to shops myself.— the response to it was fun, and got me interested in self publishing for the first time. Even mini comics, hand stapled…. even sometimes it was costing ME money to put them out or drive them into shops.

Yirmumah was like therapy to me… I spilled out all that cynical rage onto paper– very bitter and jaded stuff, but hilarious. Much of it is misguided, but still hilarious in a raw way. I made my good friend Bob into a character of sorts, and we said, to heck with this, we’re going to take it to conventions! So we booked Mid-Ohio Comicon first, Pittsburgh second….. at the first Mid-Ohio con we took Yirmumah to, I remember Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones were having a Jack Kirby tribut panel, and Bob encouraged me to go to it, so we did. Bob had joked he was going to embarrass me with the story about the Kirby dream, and he actually raised his hand to ask a question and I was sweating… he asked instead whether there were any creations Jack thought were bad or disliked, and I think I remember Mark Evanier laughing and saying Red Raven???— but the one thing that freaked us both out…. they had said that for background noise, Jack would listen to radio, often on a mexican radio station…. so here we were a year later, and that one weird detail of my dream had come out. Bob and I looked at each other with a Twilight zone’d freaked out look. — When I tell that story to anyone who asks, they usually ask me, are you sure you didn’t read that somewhere earlier and knew it before the dream? — No. Honestly, and it’s shameful for me to say, but up until that point, I had no desire to learn anything about the forefathers of comics at all. I’d SKIP those articles if I ever saw them. –

but after these strange events, THAT is when curiosity took over. I found myself not buying any NEW comics. It was around that time I read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud— if you’ve read that book, there’s a character in there, that was almost who I exactly was, and it resonated with me. The guy who thought he’d be the next big thing, but it all fell apart, and he realized he was all about surface, and then had to start learning about MORE than just the shiny surface of the apple. Looking back now, I think that was a turning point for me– it was as if that chapter was written specifically to put me on a BETTER path. And do I did– my buddy Jim Rugg leant me his Will Eisner books (he probably remembers) — Comics and Sequential Art, etc…. I devoured those and bought my own copies. I had no interest whatsoever in the late 1990s comic market mainstream stuff– I found myself buying collections of old stuff and just DIGGING it now. Really learning about the craft of comics– and becoming VERY inspired learning about the work ethic of the comics forefathers. This period actually made me LOVE comics. — You can ask my wife how passionate I can talk about these subjects.

Yirmumah, without me knowing it, had brought me back into comics. And thinking back on it now, it was as if Jack had delivered to me in a dream something I’d need if I’d ever make a go of comics as a lifelong career… Yirmumah was some sort of attitude. Some sort of unstoppable DRIVE– a tough talking old school sort of mettle. And it did make me feel like I could do it again… but on my own terms with my own rules.

A strange series of domino like effects lead me from project to project, and ultimately to WEBCOMICS, and the enlightenment that they were the future of the medium. I always kept in my mind, as I talked with other creators or groups– what would those guys from the 40s have done with all the tools we have today? Why, I don’t think they would have persued books at all if there was a way to magically beam your comics right into kid’s bedrooms and families living rooms every day! — that’s what got me so hyped on Webcomics, even during the days when publishers at shows would just see anything on the web as not fit for print. — in just a few years how things have changed!

Back to Kirby and Yirmumah— I Had old fans of Yirmumah ask me why I never put Jack in the webcomics– and I think it was after I had learned so much about the past, I just didn’t want anyone to think poorly of me for portraying Jack in this REAL tough guy, no nonsense way. I just didn’t feel right about it. — But I get to the end of this KIRBY: KING of COMICS book, and Mark Evanier tells this story about a rough time he was having when he was 18– and Kirby just kinda sensed it and got him to spill the beans about what was up. See Mark was being harassed by an ex-employer, threatening legal action all while other things were weighing on him, and Kirby went to the phone and all Mark heard of the conversation as Jack called his harrasser was “If you ever bother Mark again, I’ll come down there and punch your goddamn face in,” -

I’d buy this book just to read that story, because now I know that my depictions of Jack weren’t so far off. Which makes the dream even freakier to me.

In a weird way, I see Jack Kirby now like the grandfather I never had or knew when he was alive. I don’t wish to ever draw like him, in his style– only to be inspired by the sheer amount of energy, work ethic, and love for his family and friends that he had. Even total strangers. I think one of my goals is to just inspire others like he did. Maybe telling this story will do that.

So what now!? My studio is 85% wallpapered with Kirby’s Mister Miracle work. Those black and white collections make a mean wallpaper, I’m tellin yah! I just like being surrounded with that crackling energy. When I’m feeling lazy or uninspired, all I need to do is look up somewhere, and he’s slapping me in the head telling me to get back to work. And not just Jack anymore, I think about all of those guys, and how hard they worked. I’m grateful because, well, I feel like if not for them, I might not have the opportunities I have now. They are the greatest generation of comic creators, and a huge inspiration to me.

Back to the drawing board. 

I think I forgot to blog yesterday. I’ve been throwing myself into work and avoiding things on the internet that distract me. Sometimes I can be dicsiplined enough to muscle through tough times, but some stress lately has just weakened me to the point where I find myself drifting along reading blogs or doing research or learning more about business. It’s easy to procrastinate online, I guess at least while i’m doing it, I’m learning and absorbing stuff.

Our pal Jorge has a cool little “bonus” thing up on his site for Gunplay, they are old timey spoken stories, I guess written by “Priest” (Christopher Priest) that is. And it says it’s read by our old pal, Wiz Rollins, although that doesn’t sound like the Wiz I know! But I digress… this is a very cool concept, so pop it on and listen in to tales from Vega’s old west… http://www.gunplaythecomic.com/blog/?p=26

If i were an EIC or Publisher at a company, I’d want to handle my business like our old friend Chris Ryall does over on his blog: http://ryalltime.blogspot.com/ - You can tell he’s passionate about projects they’re putting out, and he enjoys showing off sample work and talking up the creative teams. Even though I don’t know the inter-workings there personally, it sure seems from my outside view that he brings good, reliable creators together, and they are a good working team there.

I can seriously see myself just taking over a company in that regard and being the number one cheerleader for it’s products. I’d love to do that, while keeping my own title going, and sort of using the way Jason and I work as a model to show to other creators. I don’t think you can just say “hey, do it like those guys do it” — I think it has to be me or Jason talking to creators and being there for encouragement. And we also have the skills to go in and actually FIX or edit things with color, inks, whatever might be off or missed. Any companies out there who want someone serious and passionate about comic books, who knows the history, past, present and future… look me up and make me an offer. I could be your huckleberry.

Hey, there’s a WAY awesome page of Hero By Night up today, featuring Doc Nowhere and another dimension. I want to do a whole spinoff sometime of Doc Nowhere adventures… see here.

So I did the gym thing this morning. I didn’t puss out. Actually, with the time to think about it over the weekend it became like “why not?”– I’d give it a shot and see if I could maintain a schedule. The system they have there is pretty damn easy, but I’m gym-tarded so I had to have this meeting with the physical trainer to show me all the machines and how to adjust them. I’m sure it’s in my head, but I can swear she gave me a look sometimes like “Is this guy from another planet?”– I told her a few times I was “gym-tarded”— this 9am stuff isn’t gonna fly though, I can see why people get into the gyms super early now to get their workout done and not have to rush to get to work. So, my wife will be glad to hear that even though I feel gym-tarded, it wasn’t bad, and I’m sure I’ll come up with my own system.

Right now my arms kinda feel like jello, which I totally expected. My upper body strength is PUNY.  I have REALLY STRONG fingers though! So watch out for my 1 inch finger punch, fools! — but yeah, after my arms feel like that, it’s really hard for me to draw, but i gotta muscle through it. Wow, a clever unexpected pun there.

Okay– workwise…. Free Comic Book Day stuff for HBN is almost done. I’m really happy with it– it’s sort of a mini recap of Jack’s story so far, with him narrating it in his own journal and his own thoughts. I thought it would be a great time for Jack to launch his own journal, like David Day had his own journals. And the contrast of how the two think, it’s just so much fun to write out. David Day was that old, strategic thinker– battle hardened, military trained, everything for a reason… and Jack is introspective, inspired, and complains a lot, but it’s about things we ALL deal with today. Even though I know the character in and out, it was really fun watching his own inner dialogue come out on the page. I can’t say much more without ruining the end of issue 3. This FCBD story takes place between issue 3 and 4. Issue 4 is a nice jumping on point for new readers too, so having the FCBD version out around that time will be perfect I think.

That’s that… today I have to do a little cleanup work on some FCBD pages, and a couple commissions I’ve been promising people, one is Freedom Fighter for the Trivia winner, and the other is TOP SECRET for a fella I know and love.

- We were nominated for a GEEKIE webcomic award by webcomicgeek blog. They had previously written a nice review of of the Hero By Night Journals. I know this ain’t no Eisner, but hey, why the heck shouldn’t it be!? We’re in good company on the list there.

Wishlist… I see that “The Artist Within” book on amazon— featuring photos of various artists in their studios, including my hero.  That’s gonna be a must have when I have some funny money. Right now the well is pretty damn dry.

So here’s 2008. Like my Dad just told me though, every day is the same. We only put these constraints of time in our own minds. Like in October, you know after eating a bunch of Halloween candy that you should probably go on a diet, so you tell yourself you’ll wait until after the coming holidays because it will be too hard to lose weight with all the holiday cookies and foodstuffs. It’s no wonder that losing weight is always the #1 resolution over and over again, because not that many people accomplish it. That’s funny.

That being said, here are some of my personal and professional goals of 2008.

Personal: Lose some friggin weight. Actually, one further that I’ve wanted to do for a long time was become a vegetarian. Not a CRAZY vegan or anything, I’ll still eat dairy products and maybe some eggs and stuff. This is so hard for some reason. I mean, I have a giant pot of sauerkraut  and kielbasa in there calling my name right now. Eating meat is in my german/irish blood! Especially meat that’s been soaked in beer and kraut. Come on! — But alas, I want to ween myself into this. I’ve been on the edge for awhile. And I get massively jealous of my friends like Nate Piekos who went from Guinness slugging meat hound, to marathon running vegetarian. BOO! BOO, I say! Also my good friend Dave (yes, from Yirmumah) he and his wife are vegetarians— but the one thing my wife and I notice about them is they always seem to be hungry. Set a veggie tray in front of them and watch em go to town. It’s like feeding rabbits, so cute. So yeah…. lose some weight… eat less meat…  oh, and cut down on the soda there. I went without soda for 6 months and did indeed lose some weight, but then my wife brought home cases of soda that were on sale and I slowly fell back in the habit. I’ve gotta get more disciplined with this stuff. I’m a wuss.

I also need to stop cursing so much. I’ve got a potty mouth. A pirate mouth. But a lot of four letter words express how I feel. I will instead try like mad to make up my own curse words for such occasions.  I’m finding myself in more and more social situations where an f-bomb is on the tip of my tongue and the little voice in my head catches it. I know it won’t effect the way my own kids will grow up to speak, the outside world is going to dictate that and we’re pretty much screwed in that regard. But this is just for me, and to at least emulate my own heroes in the way I speak to the world.

Professionally: I have some goals I’m afraid to mention because I’m afraid it might jinx them. I don’t even want them to drop from my lips to anyone. But I can say one of my main goals is to keep Hero By Night going strong. While I plan on doing more promotion to get it into more hands, that’s not enough– it’s been quite awhile since I just sat and drew to make myself better. So I’m planning a little sketch time each day to loosen up, or work on things I know I’m sucking at. You might not even notice these things when you read the comics, but I do. I also need to draw more women. I’ve had a few friends bug me for years to do pinup style art, but I always felt whoreish just doing it to do it because I could or because they knew it would sell or be collected. one reason is I draw a lot of female faces looking like how I draw my wife’s face, or how I’ve drawn it in the past. My friends have pointed that out as well and call me on it. I can’t help it! When I close my eyes and think of a woman, I only see my wife’s face. Hahahahhaha— it’s because of the years of abuse and psychological subliminal manipulation on her part I bet. Hahahaha. I’m also going to brush up on action poses and some drawing from life stuffage. Basically, just things to keep me sharp. I don’t want to become a hack that just goes through the motions, I want my work to continually get better. I’ll be 32 this month. When I’m 44 I want my work to be masterful, or at least have all the kinks worked out. That’s the magic number. I’ve accomplished a lot in the past 10 years, so I’m sure if I apply myself I’ll learn a lot more in the next 12. How’s that for thinking ahead?

I’d also like to start posting more sketches on here as I do them. We’ll see. I have really neglected just sketching for fun or practice over the years. Usually anytime my pencil hits the paper it’s for a comic that’s due.

Speaking of professional goals… I have a comic to go and draw now. So do  your part in making some of my resolutions come true, and link to or tell people about HeroByNight.com , gosh darnit!

I saw on one of Jason’s blogs that we’ve done the equivalant of 400 comic pages in 12 & 1/2 months. That’s my definition of “Juggernaut” if anyone was ever wondering.

The funny thing is, to this day, I never really look back and just sit or break, I just keep thinking there’s more to do. More stories to tell… more lines to be drawn.

One of my friends asked me, since Jack Kirby is one of my heroes, why don’t I draw more like him in style, or like Tom Scioli has done with his style– and the answer is, while I am a fan of Jack Kirby’s actual artwork, I think he’s listed as one of my inspirations moreso for the man’s work ethic. That’s what inspires me. The sheer amount of stories the man drew, the amount he could get done in a day. Jack Kirby was the original Juggernaut of comics.– And I think I aspire to be like him in that regard. I can’t imagine a day where he woke up and wasn’t thinking about pages… story… or one of the thousands of universes or hundred thousand characters in his mind that he needed to get out on paper and tell the world in such a manner. I’m not a big fan of apeing other people’s styles, even to honor them or tip o the hat sort of thing. I think if Jack were around today, he’d tell you NOT to try to draw like someone else, draw it your way. The most important thing is to tell the story to the people. — That’s why Jack’s work wasn’t “perfect” to many critics out there… but it is by that very definition.

Anyways… 400? Jeez. Maybe we should shoot for 500 next year Jason? Hahhahaha….

So I signed up for Marvel.com’s digital comics. Thought I’d leave my initial thoughts on it since I dabble in both of these realms. (Webcomics and Comic Books)

- I signed up mostly because I have kids, ages 10, 9 and 6, who have no comic shop around here for me to buy them comics. And thank god, because the few times I have taken them to shops it cost me an arm and a leg because comics are so pricey. But for 4.99 a month, it’s a bargain and my kids will eat it up being able to read some titles on there.

- There also seems to be a lot of old Kirby comics on there that I’ve never had the pleasure to look at or absorb, so I definitely wanted to check that out. I hope Marvel has found a way to compensate creators with some sort of royalty for showing these works online. I think Jack would only think that was fair, and it’s the least the house of ideas could do for these fine creators who helped build the foundations of what they are today.

- The Flash interface works well and it’s not annoying, the lettering stays really legible at different sizes, and it’s not as clumsy as the DC comics zuda player. In fact, this player reminds me A LOT of something I think Clay Yount showed me that he was designing for a big comics company (I almost wonder if this is it?) — but the navigation is nice, and when you’re done with the issue, it gives you choices to what to do next, you can read the next issue in that series if available, or you can use a little pop up that’s like “similar titles” or that are along the same taste of characters, creators, etc.

- The selection menu is pretty awesome, because forget about the fact that you can pick title o character favorites, you can also choose the creators and it lists all titles available so far from each creator. It’s like a history lesson in favorite comic artists. Beyond that, what makes that even better is, you can subcribe to individual RSS feeds for each category, so when something you like updates, you’re alerted. I’ve bookmarked the Ron Garney category, I’d like to see more of his Captain America work on there.

- The only downside so far… all the old ads from the golden an silver age aren’t in there anymore! Dammit, those are fun to look at and read. Xray Specs, hand buzzers… — I also wish I was able to download the Flash files to my computer for later use if I should not be online or something. C’mon Marvel!

Marvel is also very smart, that they have a pop up on back issues that says if you want to buy it in print, where you can find that story and more, and the Comic Shop Locater service pops up. This should make retailers a bit happy, because Marvel REALLY didn’t need to add that in there. I have to click it off each time, and from a marketing standpoint, its a reminder to me the reader each time that i X it off, that comic shops still exist.

I’m digging the Tim Sale category right now. Love his watercolor looking work on Hulk Grey. It’s also fun to go back and see some of the early work of some of today’s hot artists like Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, etc.

I ran out of glue stick, so I had to stop… but here’s a look at the second wall section in the office. I decided on Jack Kirby’s “Mister Miracle” because it’s the wall where my Harry Houdini poster hangs. Both were masters of escapism!

Also, I had the idea for bigger splash images to somehow be casually leaping out of the wall for a 3D like effect. My wife suggested making an accordion shaped attachment so if you pushed it in, it would bounce around. So here we have “Bouncing Big Barda”

All in all, this is working out great. It’s giving the room a sort of antique look now too.

I’m all out of gluestick…. and I’ve got TONS of work to draw, but this is going to be really cool environment to work in. It’s intimidating / challenging knowing this greatness is staring me down.

So I have these big thick Marvel Essential collections of like HULK and Silver Surfer, and they’re in black and white. I like to look through the old Kirby and Ditko art in there to inspire or infuse the composition into my head… but then I thought one day, man, I wish I could walk into a room and have this stuff all around me for creative inspiration or a sense of comic history all around me as I work. So I got the idea to cut out the pages and make them into wallpaper.

First I needed a way to quickly stick em up and something that wouldn’t be a pain in the ass to take off if it looked bad. I found a Jumbo GlueStick which belonged to the kids and tried that and it worked perfectly. Decided to do the one wall section to see what it looks like…

You can see below that this particular section is made up of HULK work from the first run. Most of the art is Jack Kirby, but with some Steve Ditko sprinkled in since he was the artist who took over Hulk after Kirby’s run.

I’m lacking the time right now, but it might be interesting to do the entire room, maybe with different sections being different characters. I have some Mr. Miracle trades here in black and white with grayscale, and I also have a Marvel Essential Spiderman Vol 1 on the way which is chock full of Steve Ditko art. The majority of stuff I put up will likely be Kirby pages If I can.