QUESTION EVERYTHING!

How often do you take the time to question your reality?

Think about it:  Often our Politics are our families’ instead of our own as gleaned from significant research. Our understanding of religion may only be what we heard in church or Sunday school rather than by studying history. Our adherence to social norms came from what we’d been taught by parents, teachers, police, and clergy.  And so on.

For the longest time, I believed that Frank Zappa and Leon Redbone were the same person, much like Stephen King and Richard Bachman.

Why? Because a very smart someone I was around for many years told me so, and I had no reason to question it. I think a lot of us live our lives like that.

Now, I think it’s good to question everything, because many of the foundations on which we build our beliefs turn out to be faulty — from small things like word pronunciations to big things like what’s real and what’s apocryphal in various versions of the BIble.

It starts when we’re kids. At one point, we KNEW Santa Claus was real. We KNEW the Tooth Fairy took the tooth from beneath our pillow and left money for it.

We were even told to look up things in a book if we wanted to know more, but we were fooled into believing things that weren’t true because of someone else’s beliefs or interpretations around it, not our own.

Here’s a simple proof, right here in this meme….

DEADLINE DAY. IT’S ABOUT TIME.

Once upon a time in the ’90s comics book,  I discovered and worked with an artist that If gotten into the top companies on top books.  Hanging out with the wrong crowd, he got a big attitude, missed deadlines, got fired.  His fire dwindled.

Years later, he came back to GHG.  I had to break him of the bad habits he’d developed, so  I gave him a small hob and said you must, must, must meet this deadline:  Friday, before the Memorial Day weekend.  Then I charted his daily progress and communication.

So….that Friday deadline  came.  And went.  Around 5 minutes to midnight, he started uploading the high-resolution pages to the FTP, neglecting to send the .jpgs to the editor and me by Email for review.

When the weekend was over, he caught me online and boasted how he met the deadline.

“Nope, you missed it by four days!” I said.

“You’re crazy!” he told me.

“O.K., let me explain.”  And I did.  “The editor left his desk, at latest, at 5 pm on Friday — probably earlier, given it was the holiday weekend.  He needed to see your pages before then.  You should have sent .jpgs early enough in the day, maybe by lunchtime his time, so he could review the pages and approve them before you uploaded them.  So he didn’t see them Friday.  Or Saturday.  Or Sunday.  Monday was Memorial Day, so his office was closed.  That means the first he got to see your pages was today, Tuesday, first day of business this week.  To his mind, you’re four days late because you didn’t deliver the pages on Friday.  In fact, if I hadn’t alerted him to check his FTP, he still wouldn’t know your pages are up there rather than in his Email for review.”

“But it’s not fair to blame me that the editor didn’t check till Tuesday.”

“Seriously?  Even if he’d checked his Email every day from home during the holiday weekend rather than, you know, have a life, he would not have known you’d turned in pages unless he also checked the FTP.  Every other artist submits Emailed .jpgs for approval first, but you ignored that step — which IS your fault.  And please explain to me HOW you loading pages at 5 minutes to midnight IS fair to your editor.  How would that have allowed time, on deadline day, to download them, review them, approve them or get corrections made, and get them to the next person on the team for lettering?”

“Uhhhh….”

He soon kicked such bad habits — and we put him back on top, I’m happy to say.

…so an artist IM’s me

…So an artist IM’d me:  “Hey david as you know the biz, i just had a question as im new to this ( it took me 20 years to break in )  i know longer will charge publishers for my work. As i only do cover and pinup work. My thing is just send me the art boards and cover s&h of the art to client and im good. When money/page rate came into the show i began to DISPISE drawing, so ive found that just drawing for the experiance and fun has changed that.  I just dont know if small-indi press would cover the art boards and sending the art out.  Whats your thoughts ?  Im not a good artist though i enjoy it.”

I typed back:  Here’s the real thought — if you are “not a good artist,” why do you think ANY publisher would put you on a COVER, which needs to have his BEST artist because it’s a selling feature?”

“I understand,    i just am hard on myself  lol !”  He went on to say someone was already using him as a cover artist. and then typed, “He must see somthing i dont”

Ignoring all his typos, I responded, “Well, you said you were in the biz after trying for so long, and yet you disqualified yourself in your very first contact with me.  I cannot understand WHY an artist would sabotage himself that way.  I post a lot on Facebook and on my blog about artists who shoot themselves in the foot that way.  You could do the logical thing and actually Email me some of your best, most dynamic and compelling pieces to review to David@glasshousegraphics.com.”

I’m still waiting.

JOE BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND

Artists don’t get jobs when they simply DON’T LISTEN and DON’T PAY ATTENTION to either submission guidelines or common-sense details.

Here’s yet another artist — whose work I liked enough to warrant some attention — out of the dozens upon dozens of submissions I received this week. The pinup is called “WWNamor.jpg” and the page is entitled “sample1.jpg” — precisely what I said NOT to do.

As a result, I have NO IDEA who drew these. I suppose, since he decided it’s not important enough for him to tell me who he is, then I shouldn’t worry about it.

Had he bothered to put his name in the file name, such as “JoeBlowSpreadSample1of5.jpg,” I would know to look for Joe Blow in the Emails I received recently.  I guarantee I’m not going to look through hundreds upon hundreds of Emails to find this submission.

Don’t make it hard for someone who wants to give you a chance actually to give it to you.

A Meeting in Portland

So at a Convention in Portland, I met a fine fellow named Fernando who, after an in-person portfolio review with me, followed up with a six-page sample drawn from one of our test plots.  Here’s what he sent, page by page, with my review:



Hello, Fernando —

You know, I do like these.  I have a few thoughts/comments, and let’s see where that takes us:

*  Your pages all looked too LIGHT to see all the pencilled details clearly.  I also considered that many publishers today print from dark pencils, so for a quick review I pulled them all into Photoshop and bumped up the contrast to 40.  That helped a lot.  They look better that way.

*  COVER — Terrific layout, solid drawing.  It makes a great cover design.  You forgot to sign it!

*  PAGE 1 — Good layout.  Is the horse perhaps not reacting enough to being pulled by reins to a stop?  The guy on reader’s left walking by seems to be leaning/falling over, and where is he looking?  He seems kind of oblivious to what’s going on.  I understand the empty ground is meant to be dust/dirt, though a few indications of that would be good clues for the colorist of how you want it handled.

*  PAGE 2 — In panel 1, is the horse now farther away than it was in panel 1?  What happened to the guy who was walking past?  For a sense of visual continuity, would it have been better to have the kids near a hitching post, so after Johnny gets off the horse, by panel 4 he could have been tying up the reins to it as the girl points out the FF symbol in the sky?  Figuring out stuff for characters to do always seems to add authenticity to their movements.  Panel 2 might be a bit stronger if Johnny had his hand on one kid’s shoulder and tipping back his hat with the other hand — again, movement and things to do.  Panel 3, the angle was confusing…it looked as though the girl was
pointing to an FF symbol down in the dirt, not up in the sky.  (There might also be a problem putting word balloons into panels 2 and 3.)  Panel four, I’m surprised the horse does not react at all to the flames.

*  PAGE 3 — At first glance the layout seems OK, but then I realized you left NO ROOM for any of the word balloons!  An editor would need to have the page re-drawn, unless the writer specifically had asked for this to be a wordless page.  You’ve also got so much panel/figure overlapping going on, the storytelling wasn’t as clear/easy to follow as it should have been.

*  PAGE 4 — Decent layout.

*  PAGE 5 — I got a little lost on what was happening at the bottom part of the page, partly because you drew bullets flying in at his feet in panel 7 that are actually meant to be in panel 10. Clear panel borders/gutters separating panels would make that clearer.

So, most of your layouts are pretty solid, though your fanciness in overlapping figures and dropping panel borders sometimes makes things confusing.  You tend to forget a writer has to add dialogue to your pages, so you haven’t thought about balloons and placement, so too often your art fills up panels to the point where no balloons will fit.  Those things you can learn pretty easily.

I’m more concerned with you refining your STYLE.  You are in this “Twilight Zone” of having a style that’s already good enough for little companies, maybe even a mid-range publisher — if they find the right book at the right time.  That being said, you might be wrestling with making faces good enough, prettying up the females, and making sure heads aren’t too big for the bodies.

I think refining your style will come with both more steady practice AND with some conscious decision-making about where you want to be.  Remember that the styles of the best artists, everyone’s favorites, are immediately recognizable as their own.  They stand out in a crowd, and your stuff isn’t quite there yet.  I’d love to see where you end up as you continue to grow.

GHG’S 20th ANNIVERSARY!

WOW!  Today marks the 20th Anniversary of my Glass House Graphics agency/studio, which launched on March 11, 1993.  That was the day I left Innovation Publishing, the company I’d started in late ‘88 and rose to #4 in market share by ‘91 with Lost in Space, Dark Shadows, Quantum Leap, Anne Rice titles and a host of other books.  It was a scary first month, deciding to be an agent and talent manager.  But the first job came in within three days — a Green Hornet series for Joe Bennett — and we just kept going.  From a relative handful of artists, many of whom are still with me today, to a worldwide network of more than 125 talents working through offices in several countries.

The years!  I can’t believe twenty of them have passed.  So many trips, so many adventures meeting and greeting and teaching people from all walks of life, molding and making careers for talents in the Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, Spain, and the USA.

The comics!  That’s thousands of comic books, and tens of thousands of pages.  Writing, drawing, inking, lettering, coloring, designing.

The projects!  That’s hundreds of web designs, advertising jobs, brochures, catalogs, magazine and book designs, storyboards, package art, video game designs, toy designs, print brokering, animation jobs, and much more.

The characters!  Oh, my gosh, the characters — Angel, Batman, Big Bird, Buffy, Bugs Bunny, Captain Kirk, Captain Mal Reynolds, Conan, Darth Vader, Doctor Doom, Flash, Green Hornet, Hulk, Indiana Jones, Iron Man, Lara Croft, Red Sonja, Richie Rich, Scooby-Doo, Spider-Man, Superman, Uncle Scrooge, Vampirella, Wolverine, Wonder Woman, Zorro, and so many more.  A rich, inviting cross-section of popular culture. 

The clients!  So many great opportunities and great people.  Art Studio, Disney, DreamWorks, Harcourt Achieve, HarperCollins, Hasbro, Mattel, MStyle Marketing, New Line Cinema, Playboy, Penthouse, POW! Entertainment, Random House, Red Giant Entertainment, Rittenhouse Archives, St. Martin’s Press, Sony, Toyota, Universal,  the U.S. Postal Service.   Ape, Arcana, Continuity, Dark Horse, DC, Dynamite, First, IDW, Image, Marvel, Now, Radical, TokyoPop…and so many others over the years.

The managers!  Richard Boom, Juan Calle, Julia Laud, Michelle Principe`, Andre` Siregar, Paulo Teles, Grace Dimaranan, Jason Perkins, and my wife Meryl work tirelessly to coordinate graphics (and paperwork!) from every corner of our far-flung world into the hands of our clients, and I couldn’t be more proud to have each of them at the helm of our various divisions.

The artists!  We’d be nowhere without great artists.  I’ve had the singular pleasure of working with Mike Deodato, Joe Pimentel, and Luke Ross since the Innovation days, over two decades ago before Glass House even launched, and today all three are with me.  Will Conrad, Fabio Laguna, and Cliff Richards have been a part of GHG nearly as long.  Wilson Tortosa, Bong Dazo, Anthony Tan, and many others have been with us for well over a decade.  We trust and are loyal to all of them, and they trust and share their loyalty in return.  It is much appreciated.

And to all of you reading this:  Thank you.  You know why.

THE SHORTCUT “SECRET”

Week after week,  would-be artists ask me for the magic spell, the trick, the solution a super-star like Mike Deodato, Jr. uses to achieve —and remain — the level of a top artist.  The real answer is “Work hard, and never stop learning and growing,” but that isn’t the answer they wanna hear.  They want shortcuts.

So:  With that in mind, I now share with you this behind-the-scenes look at some of the work Deodato does to get his fantastic results. 

Those seeking shortcuts will squeal, “Aha!  Photo reference!”  But look carefully.  These are NOT shortcuts. 

These involve creating a strong layout; staging and shooting dynamic NEW photo reference in the correct clothing (yup, that’s Deodato posing as both characters in the extreme poses the layout requires); altering the photo reference to emphasize the action (flowing clothing and ties, moving hair, foreshortening, etc.), and then some damn fine drawing.  All while working quickly to meet a monthly deadline.

CBG - No More :(

Dear CBG —

Today I learned that Comics Buyer’s Guide #1699 was its last; for that, the comics industry is the poorer.  There will be no #1700.

My first issue as a reader was #27 (the second-ever paid subscription issue), in the ’70s, back in its bi-weekly tabloid newspaper days under Alan Light, where it was called TBG for The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom.

I enjoyed it as a child, and I haven’t missed reading an issue since.

I’ve appreciated being a part of it.  In the ’80s I wrote two different columns for it — Curiouser & Curiouser (a column on fantasy), and another a series of essays on breaking in to the comics biz.  Decades later I’m teaching Creating Comics Seminars and workshops all over the world and writing such how-to books as STAN LEE’S HOW TO DRAW COMICS, so my desire to teach others about comics was first evident in those early TBG columns.

I’ve also much appreciated not only being a contributor to special events issues (the 75th and 90th Stan Lee birthday issues come to mind) but being the subject of more than a few features, as well.

Providing covers for dozens of its issues was pretty cool, too.

I’ve already long missed Robert M. Ingersoll and Mark Evanier’s wonderful columns, but I’ve certainly enjoyed Peter David, Tony Isabella, and the others for their fine features every month.

Thank you, Brent.   Thank you, CBG staff.

But especially:  Thank you, Maggie.  And thank you Don, looking down upon the whole thing.  Wherever you may be, may there always be Beautiful Balloons.

Submitting Art

I seem to be receiving quite a bit of mail from artists who aren’t sending any samples, asking any questions or seeking any advice, yet they expect me to respond to them.  Here’s one of several that came in my Email over the weekend:

««Dear David,

I once attended your Comics Creation Seminar held at SM Megamall year
2006 or 2007, I think. At that time my characters and storyline aren’t
that well developed. To think by the time I attended your seminar I’ve
been working with my characters for over than two years.
Unfortunately, not on a regular basis.

 Since that time I continue working on my characters and storyline
after learning a lot from you, David and other speakers from that
seminar held at SM Megamall and I can only hope I’m on the right
track.

 I planned to submit my portfolio sometime this month and hope to find
hope for me and my characters. They’re Manga-inspired and I hope to
hear from you soon, David. Thanks.»»


Wouldn’t it be far better actually to send the portfolio?  The artist wasted his first impression! — and people only get one chance at a first impression.

I did write back to him:

Hello —

You wrote to me, “I hope to hear from you soon, David.”

But you didn’t actually submit anything, nor did you ask me any questions! 

Well, now you’ve heard from me!  :)

— David

Maybe drawing is such a solitary profession that he just wanted acknowledgement that he’s alive?

Clueless Revisited

Today I received this Email:  ««Hi, Here’s a sample of my very first work.  I rushed them so they truly don’t show how good my artistry is.I really had nothing in mind when I
drew them cause I need motivation above anything else to inspire me.  I would add so much more details in so many different ways so I’d like
the whole picture and not just parts of them.  But now I’m going to
start designing what I want to start my own company. But if I join you
I’ll give you the artistry your looking for.»»

I hope this was a joke, from someone who’d read my many blogs about excuses.

By the way, no art was actually attached.