Evan Dorkin's Blog, page 19

Two Drawings Made While Working On Other Drawings

Heroes Con Ramp-Up

Heroes Con is next week, if you're going to be at the show and are looking for us, we'll be in the Indie Island section at tables AA-516 and AA-517. 

I'll have copies of the Beasts of Burden and Milk and Cheese collections at the table, as well as various issues of Dark Horse Presents (Beasts of Burden co-creator Jill Thompson will also be at the show, btw). We're bringing what's left of our old SLG stuff, which is not actually all that much, I think I have one Hectic Planet trade left and a few single copies of this and that. We're all out of copies of the Dork trades as well as the comics, unfortunately. I wish I had those available, but it looks like that stuff won't be back on our table until we collect it in a more definitive edition. We'll have copies of Sarah's Action Girl Comics anthology available, a few issues are gone. Slowly but surely our backstock is disappearing. 

Merchandise-wise, I found a few Milk and Cheese "Merv Griffin" posters, and some uncut sheets of the trading card set (although I don't know if the latter will travel well, we'll see). We have at least one beer mug set left, maybe two if I decide to only keep one set in the house. I think we're all out of vinyl figures, card sets. We're definitely out of the lunchboxes. I might have one of the Bowen sculpted fridge magnets left. The old stuff's finally going, which is a bit of a weird feeling. I'm so used to having all those old comics and items on hand for shows over the years. At the same time, I'm glad to have it all out of the basement, and I'm happy to have a more streamlined table at shows these days -- a few books, art, whatever crafty things are in the offering.

Speaking of which, Sarah's working on some home-made House of Fun stuff to bring, and H.O.F. Junior Member Emily will have her new "Emily's Garden" line of floral hair clips for sale. All Garden profits go to Emily's Cowgirl, Ice Cream and Video Game funds, btw. A worthier cause you will not find, unless you want to get all serious and stuff.  

Hopefully we'll update before we leave regarding the crafts stuff, maybe some of the pin-ups I hope to finish before we leave town. Otherwise, we'll be getting some work done while we prep for the show.

Hope to see some of you in Charlotte next week. Over and out.

Milk & Cheese Heroes Con Pin-Up

I did this for the Heroes Con original art auction. I don't know why the image is so huge, I don't know if I care to know. And as usual, the scan is imbecile-quality. I suck at computer stuff and my brain is allergic to learning.

Failures in Freelancing: Rocketeer Crash and Burn

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but a while back I was asked to pitch a story and then an outline for the Rocketeer Adventures anthology. In a nutshell, nothing ever came of it, and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. Two mini-series have come out and I've still never actually heard back on the outline. I got a couple of e-mails about getting to it, and that's all she wrote. I'm not a top-tier comics guy and I don't carry an attitude about myself even close to thinking I'm too good to chase people down, I can always use the work, this was a very cool potential assignment, and if I spend time on something I try to see it through. But I chase people only so far. Sometimes something just goes nowhere. Sometimes your time gets wasted, and sometimes you come up with something you like and can't use.

So, what do you do? Well, you can do what many of us do, and that's cannibalize the material, use it for another project. Unfortunately, if you write something very specific for a particular character or project, you might not have a good place to toss the material into. Sure, you can salvage a bit of business, a villain, some hopefully snappy dialogue. But the story shouldn't be an easy fit for just any character out there in Work-For-Hiresville. Here's a good game to play if you're a writer or aspiring writer -- if your material can be readily swapped out from, let's say, a Batman story to a Spider-Man story, or, worse, Batman to Iron Man, then you're probably writing some pretty generic stuff that isn't character-specific (i.e., you're hacking or being lazy). It might just be "bank robbery stopped by x" or "some villain versus whoever I get a gig writing". Try not to do that sort of thing if you're concerned about being a decent writer. Everyone needs to eat but your name goes on your work and you should be proud of it every time you're up at bat, if possible. Unless you choose to be a hack, which is at least being honest about what you're doing. Anyway, life isn't perfect, sometimes you're not firing on all cylinders, but you know when you're phoning it in. And most of the readers know it, too. End of sermon.

So, what to do with the Rocketeer outline? Well, like I've done with a lot of my orphans (or should that be corpses?), I post it online so you folks can maybe get a kick out of it. Maybe aspiring artists who don't like to write their own stuff can use the outline to tool around with some thumbnails. Maybe aspiring writers can see something in the outline that speaks to them. It's not a great outline, technically-speaking, it's more like a full plot breakdown and I was working things out on the page, this is me acting crap out on paper the way Stan Lee supposedly leaped around the office during a plot session. I have a (bad) habit of diving in on outlines, things come to me and I start writing. I added some notes for myself after I sent it out, but otherwise this isn't cleaned up, you can see where I'm grasping at ideas and where I'm overloading on details and business and worrying about what needs to be shown. Most of my writing is a matter of cutting and editing, which I'm terrible at. I'm pretty good at characters and plots, I stumble when it comes to organizing everything and making decisions on what has to be killed. These days a large part of my process is working towards a better process. That's a post for another day. Or week.

Anyway, here's my Rocketeer pitch that died on the runway, something I hoped would be a nice tribute to the character and to my love for old-time radio, big bands, and all that sort of thing:

THE ROCKETEER: ON THE AIR

8 pgs

OPEN ON HOUSE, EXT, NIGHT, w/radio broadcast

ANNOUNCER: This is station WKRB, Los Angeles, bringing you the lilting sounds of (x) orchestra, live from the hotel (x)'s rooftop dance floor, in lovely downtown (place). Thirty minutes of modern music meant to, etc

ON RADIO INSIDE HOUSE, cont

WIDER, LIVING ROOM cont

FATHER, MOTHER, TEN-YR OLD SON. Reading comics section.

Boy: This is boring. Why can't we listen to Calling All Cars (ck for correct show/time/best program title).

Quiet, you. When you're old enough to buy your own radio, then you can listen to Calling All Cars.

Listen to your father, that trash strains my nerves, etc.

No one's making you listen to it.

HOTEL ROOFTOP – ANNOUNCER – orchestra behind him

WIDER, NIGHT CLUB

ON TABLE – BETTY and DATE kibbitz.

OUTSIDE HOTEL ENTRANCE

CLIFF runs into hotel and is stopped by DOORMAN. Cliff urges him to call the police, he has to get into the building and to the roof, a matter of life and death, etc. Don't ask me how I know this, I know it sounds wild.

My girl's up there and doesn't know she's in danger --

Actual Doorman is tied up and stashed nearby. Doorman hustles him off or hits him? Or there are gunsels in lobby and he knows he can't get past them to house detective?

Cliff races to car and Rocketeer gear. Pal's there? Can pick them up with car afterward? Whatever.

Cut away to party or kid, allow time for getting in gear. One panel, leading to:

Rocketeer blasting off. If space allows, and warranted, transition panel of Cliff donning helmet, then blasts off. Whatever.

Might want to quick-cut to build some tension in the sequence, nightclub, kid, whatever, if room for it. Otherwise just have him zip up top. No one hears due to band playing, maybe a bit where someone thinks a horn player hit a rum note. Space probably won't allow much business, but better to have and yank than not.

Nice shot as Rocketeer streaks past windows and some nice architectural details as he climbs toward the rooftop. Maybe startles a hotel guest, business.

Shoots up past the roof, startling the crowd. Waiter's trays upset, toss in business to pep up action/reaction solidly.

Bad landing? On their table. Whatever.

He tells her her date is head of spy ring/mobster/fifth columnist –?

Betty infuriated, believes he's just grandstanding to ruin her date.

Guy pulls gun, some evidence besides. Waiters pull guns, reveal, business ensues.

Gunfire, chaos over radio, SFX.

Boy: Wow!

Father coming into the room with tray or drink or whatever. Thinks son switched to gangster/cop shows. What is this trash? Did you put on (x)?

Aw, gee, pop, I never even went near it!

Mother: He's telling the truth, Howard – all of a sudden

BOY: Shhh! Listen! That's a machine gun! (maybe a typewriter or some hard slang kid picked up from radio/pulps, business)

Cut directly into the middle of machine gun attack on Cliff, weapon's arc following him rocketing past bandstand, the bullets chop up everything in their wake, send musicians scattering. If possible – put this on a two-pg spread, reader's eye follows the gunfire across both pages, below is a row of regular panels.

Color commentary by radio announcer as fight goes on.

ANNOUNCER DIAL, EARLIER AND THROUGHOUT: Ladies and gentlemen, this is incredible – the most amazing thing – a man, I assume it's a man, dressed in some kind of rocket suit, has just landed on the rooftop --describes scene, Rocketeer, gunfight, send police! Maybe he sneaks in a sponsor plug like on Burns and Allen, right in the middle of story. Maybe he mentions bullet hole in clothes or that sound you just heard was the microphone getting hit.

FIGHT STUFF. Maybe R flies around hotel, too “short” a space, he circles, punching into thugs, unable to turn quickly enough, maybe pulls something off hotel rooftop as weapon, map it out, look at some period photos and see what found objects might provide business.

CUT BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN ACTION, ANNOUNCER FOLLOWING ACTION, AND FAMILY LISTENING. VILLAIN'S PLANS RUINED, BUT DANGER STILL EXISTS. Doubt there's time for thugs to carry off their heist or whatever the hell they're doing. No need for too much detail, it's a given, only have 8 pgs.

If doorman character's involved, he shows up and gets thumped.

COPS arrive downstairs after announcer's call. Can also deal with arrested doorman here if necessary.

Maybe chief thug in standoff, threatens to toss kid (or midget radio performer – Walter Tetley-type/Philip Morris guy?) or lady off roof unless Rocketeer clears out, or hand over rocket pack so thug can escape. Maybe Betty?

Would he have a realistic shot at saving someone tossed? Guiding them into a swimming pool of another hotel or through a window or –? Don't think so. Probably no space for it. Something else, most likely. Work it out. Maybe involving found object/rooftop “geography”, or some trick that can be pulled off with what Cliff is equipped with, maybe Betty unbalances the scales. Blah blah blah. Cliff ends the threat, defeats the enemy, etc.

Whatever it is, announcer can mop brow while whispering the situation to audience. Family hushed, rapt.

ANNOUNCER: We will return with music by...uh...it looks like the clarinetist, Sleepy Gil Slater is still up and around...but first, this message from (sponsor).

Maybe father thinks it was a fake, like the “martian bit”.

BOY: Oh, boy! That was the best show ever! Even better than the Witch's Tale!

Mom: And since when have you been up late enough to listen to the witch's tale, young man?

Boy: Um...uhhh. Gee, whiz.

Epilogue: Week later, BULLDOG CAFE, or whatever makes sense at night -

Cliff all banged up. Betty, etc.

ANNOUNCER: And now, ladies and gentlemen, we here at WKRB have read all of your letters and cards, we've listened to your phone calls, all asking about how much you enjoyed last week's broadcast, and we're happy to announce that starting tonight KRB will be bringing you the adventures of that hero of the air– Dick Raymond, the Rocket Man!

What the –

Yes, thrill to the adventures of the startling, speeding Rocket Man, who fights the underworld and all who would oppose freedom rocket pack, helmet and rocket gun – The Rocket Man, daredevil of the skies, hero of the air WHOOSH – on the air!

Oh, for corn's sake!

Ha ha!

What's so funny?

Turn it off!

End hearkening back to the kid? Maybe the show stinks. Or the kid's enthralled. Work it out.

Head's Up: Team Cul de Sac Auctions End Today

The Team Cul de Sac original art charity auctions end in about ten hours. There's some wonderful work available and all of it's going kinda crazy-cheap, as far as these things go. Even the expensive pieces by Sergio Aragones, Bill Watterson, Patrick McDonnell, and Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson are way lower than one would expect, especially for charity.

I'm hoping folks throw in at the last minute because this is a worthy cause, there's some swell art on the block, and, well, it would be a bummer to see this not do as well as it could and should. I know Kickstarter funds are more fun to watch and participate in, and maybe we're getting charity'd out in the small world of comics, but this is a good one, in my opinion.

You can see all the listings on the Heritage site here. If nothing else, there's some cool drawings and paintings to look at. You can see the piece we contributed here. It's at a super-affordable big for a piece of my art, and original comic art in general.

Thanks for your time and attention.

French Beasts of Burden Trailer

For the french edition of Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites , publisher Delcourt has made a trailer that partially animates some of Jill Thompson's watercolor art from the series. I'm usually not a big fan of the animated comic book trailer thing, but I have to admit I was kind of knocked out to see this, and not just because it's something I worked on. It looks pretty swell, someone really spent time on this and Jill's art looks great, of course. It's like an animatic for an animated film, with music and titles, it's very professional and it honestly freaked me out when I first saw it because I figured it was going to be a french person thumbing through a printed copy of the book. Which it isn't.



Pretty crazy.

Medusa

This was a quick sketch done on a piece of scrap Bristol that I inked while waiting for the ink to dry on various commissions and a cover. I eventually added way more details to it than I had originally planned. This is me trying to do a "clean" drawing. Cripes. I blame the OCD, I blame myself. I was going to toss this but Sarah liked it, so I didn't. I'm probably going to redraw it at some point to see if I can do a cleaner version with less mistakes.

"6 by 8", brush marker/pen and ink/white correction ink in a bunch of places because I ink like a chimp.

Medusa is a Jack Kirby design, as I'm sure you folks know. And love.

Gearing Up For Heroes Con

Heroes Con is less than a month away and, for once, we're trying to get a jump on preparing the show. We had the car repaired and we're raring to go (and hopefully make the money back we shelled out for the car repairs-- ouch).

Right now we have most of our stock on hand, or on order. If all goes according to plan we'll be taking 10 copies of the Beasts of Burden collection, close to 30 copies of the now out-of-print Milk and Cheese collection, a batch of Dark Horse Presents issues, and whatever we can dig up from the old SLG days, including some Action Girl Comics and a few single copies of this and that (we're pretty much out of everything from the SLG days, no Dork or Hectic Planet trades, and we're out of Dork single issues as far as I can tell). We'll be selling the DHP copies cheaper than cover, and everyone who picks up a copy of Beasts or M&C gets a drawing in their books, probably gussied up with colored pencils. 

Also, courtesy of the folks at Oni Press we'll have a generous supply of the Yo Gabba Gabba! Free Comic Book Day giveaway, which we'll be giving away, so bring the kids by. Or pick a copy up for yourself. It's FREE. FREE!

We'll also have art for sale (not FREE), I might be bringing some Milk and Cheese originals along with a superhero pin-up or two and whatever hasn't sold out of the portfolio since last year's show. I'm hoping to bring a batch of cheaper pieces along (roughs, layouts, small drawings and the like), people seemed to like those when we had them at MOCCA a few years back, I just never have time to price that stuff before a show, and truth to tell, those pieces do a lot better for us when we put them on eBay. But setting auctions up takes time and we have a lot of paper sitting around, so, we'll see how that goes.

I'm leaning towards doing commissions at the show, depending on how my hand's doing. Been having a lot of trouble with it, lately, the Mad job and the House of Fun cover gave my tendons a workout they didn't enjoy and then I did some semi-heavy lifting that didn't help any.

I'm also hoping to bring a new piece for the Heroes art auction, if I can't manage it I'll bring something I've already done.

Other than that, we're scrounging around for extra merchandise to bring, I think we have one or two Milk and Cheese mug sets left for sale, we'll see what else turns up as we go through what's left of the ever-diminishing HOF stash.

I don't think I'm doing any panels or anything like that, which means I'll be planted at the table most of the time, hoping to have something to do. It's sure to be a terrific con, Heroes is a great show and it's their event's 30th Anniversary and the guest list is pretty damned impressive. Something for everyone, pretty much. Hope we see some of you folks there.

Predator: Bad Blood Statue

Sideshow Collectibles is selling a Predator statue that's apparently based on a character from a comic Derek Thompson and I worked on a ways back called Predator: Bad Blood, published by Dark Horse Comics. Which is pretty crazy to see, as Predator: Bad Blood isn't one of my gigs that pings back to me...ever.

I stumbled across the listing on a German site because it mentioned Derek and I and the comic series. Which I thought was pretty cool of them to do. Looking for information on the statue, Sarah dug up what appears to be a bit of a kerfuffle in Predator statue circles (!), the statue was an expensive, limited-edition, numbered  -- and unlicensed -- kit made by a guy who does that sort of thing as a hobby or side-job, whatever the case he does this for money and people cough up quite a bit to own one of his kits ($400 per, apparently). Some Predator statue enthusiasts are upset because, if we have it right, he re-issued the "limited" kit and now the built-and-painted statue is coming out, licensed, from Sideshow (and cheaper, to boot). I could care less in some ways about their problems, making and buying unlicensed resin kits and the like is dealing in bootlegged stuff, even if the bootleg is a handsome and professional-looking job. Crying that your bootleg kit is a rip-off is a weird position to be in, y'know? "Hey, my expensive pirated copy of The Avengers is grainy!". What are you gonna do, it's a crazy world, you can't trust anyone. I can understand a customer being upset, but, hey, you're dealing with a guy who's making unlicensed statues, he just might also not play kosher with how many unlicensed editions he produces. It's the murky world of bootleg kits, baby. It's Chinatown.

Anyway, my niggling little stake in this Eltingville-like tawdriness is that the original sculptor/bootlegger pushed the idea that the character concept (rogue Predator that preys on his own kind -- hardly anything super-original by my own admission, and apparently used several times after Derek and I did it according to this post) was his idea, and Sideshow isn't mentioning the comic from what I can see. A number of sites have written up our work on Predator: Bad Blood as the inspiration for the statue, perhaps that's trickling down or copied from the German site, I dunno. What's funny is that the "Bad Blood" logo was used on the original kit, which is a bit of a tip-off. Not that folks follow comics, or anyone cares. But it would have been nice to toss us a tiny credit somewhere on the box beneath the important credits.

There's no money involved or anything, I'm not yelping, this has nothing to do with me from that end of things, it's another licensed product from a licensed property based on material owned by Fox. Some acknowledgement of Derek's original design and my ideas might be nice, but I can't get worked up over it. I do think taking credit for stuff you didn't come up with is crappy, though.

Predator: Bad Blood is collected in Predator Omnibus vol. 3 from DHC, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Fun Fact: I've worked on two Predator mini-series. I've had a weird career. Think I'm gonna fire my manager someday.

Predator : Bad Blood Statue

Sideshow Collectibles is selling a Predator statue that's apparently based on a character from a comic Derek Thompson and I worked on a ways back called Predator: Bad Blood, published by Dark Horse Comics. Which is pretty crazy to see, as Predator: Bad Blood isn't one of my gigs that pings back to me...ever.

I stumbled across the listing on a German site because it mentioned Derek and I and the comic series. Which I thought was pretty cool of them to do. Looking for information on the statue, Sarah dug up what appears to be a bit of a kerfuffle in Predator statue circles (!), the statue was an expensive, limited-edition, numbered  -- and unlicensed -- kit made by a guy who does that sort of thing as a hobby or side-job, whatever the case he does this for money and people cough up quite a bit to own one of his kits ($400 per, apparently). Some Predator statue enthusiasts are upset because, if we have it right, he re-issued the "limited" kit and now the built-and-painted statue is coming out, licensed, from Sideshow (and cheaper, to boot). I could care less in some ways about their problems, making and buying unlicensed resin kits and the like is dealing in bootlegged stuff, even if the bootleg is a handsome and professional-looking job. Crying that your bootleg kit is a rip-off is a weird position to be in, y'know? "Hey, my expensive pirated copy of The Avengers is grainy!". What are you gonna do, it's a crazy world, you can't trust anyone. I can understand a customer being upset, but, hey, you're dealing with a guy who's making unlicensed statues, he just might also not play kosher with how many unlicensed editions he produces. It's the murky world of bootleg kits, baby. It's Chinatown.

Anyway, my niggling little stake in this Eltingville-like tawdriness is that the original sculptor/bootlegger pushed the idea that the character concept (rogue Predator that preys on his own kind -- hardly anything super-original by my own admission, and apparently used several times after Derek and I did it according to this post) was his idea, and Sideshow isn't mentioning the comic from what I can see. A number of sites have written up our work on Predator: Bad Blood as the inspiration for the statue, perhaps that's trickling down or copied from the German site, I dunno. What's funny is that the "Bad Blood" logo was used on the original kit, which is a bit of a tip-off. Not that folks follow comics, or anyone cares. But it would have been nice to toss us a tiny credit somewhere on the box beneath the important credits.

There's no money involved or anything, I'm not yelping, this has nothing to do with me from that end of things, it's another a licensed product from a licensed property based on material owned by Fox. Some acknowledgement of Derek's original design and my ideas might be nice, but I can't get worked up over it. I do think taking credit for stuff you didn't come up with is crappy, though.

Predator: Bad Blood is collected in Predator Omnibus vol. 3 from DHC, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Fun Fact: I've worked on two Predator mini-series. I've had a weird career. Think I'm gonna fire my manager someday.