Evan Dorkin's Blog, page 23
March 16, 2012
Upcoming Cartooniness
Sarah and I have an illustration of various chocolate-themed advertising spokescharacters in the latest issue of Mad.
Dark Horse Presents #10 is scheduled to ship next Wednesday to those comic shops that ordered it. Contributors include Brian Wood, Steve Niles, Carla Speed McNeil and others. My House of Fun run begins in this issue with a two-page Milk and Cheese comic and a six-page Murder Family story, both colored by Sarah.
You can see the Murder Family title page in color along with a batch of other preview pages from DHP #10 here.
The piece below isn't from #10, it's going to be in DHP #12.
Just thought I'd share.
Dark Horse Presents #10 is scheduled to ship next Wednesday to those comic shops that ordered it. Contributors include Brian Wood, Steve Niles, Carla Speed McNeil and others. My House of Fun run begins in this issue with a two-page Milk and Cheese comic and a six-page Murder Family story, both colored by Sarah.
You can see the Murder Family title page in color along with a batch of other preview pages from DHP #10 here.
The piece below isn't from #10, it's going to be in DHP #12.
Just thought I'd share.
March 14, 2012
What Are The Box Office Bombs of Comics?
Okay, I'm gonna be thinking out loud here, which means, babbling idiot typing time. Feel free to click away now.
I was washing the dishes and zoning out and for a change my thoughts didn't start racing about how I was screwing up the latest project I'm currently working on. For some reason my head got wrapped around the gum-flapping over the John Carter movie that you can't seem to avoid the same way I know there's a thing called The Bachelor and that a guy made a poster of his face and taunted basketball players with it (does that guy have a movie deal yet?).
Anyway, everyone's an expert on the internet, but other than saying that, this isn't about everybody on the internet being an expert. And it isn't about why John Carter failed or didn't fail or why people should wait to declare a film a failure until it's actually failed -- because I don't care, and I don't know, and you don't know, and the folks reading that Rotten Tomatoes site only think they know, and even Hollywood probably doesn't really, truly know. If Hollywood was so god-damned genius about Hollywood then producers wouldn't hire forty-three people to work on a script about people shooting each other and every movie would be a hit and blah blah blah.
Anyway, that's a lot of typing for someone who doesn't care, but really, I don't, because I think about comics, for good or bad, happy or sad, far more than movies. I read comics and make comics and worry over comics, I don't make movies and haven't paid to see a movie in eight or nine years and am probably never going to get all Iron Eyes Cody over poor Hollywood's revenue problems. I mostly watch movies made by and starring dead people who fooled you into thinking smoking was cool, because it looked cool when they did it, not like when the putz on the phone outside Panara Bread lights up. I like comics and jibber-jabbing about comics but, really, folks, the John Carter flick really doesn't have a hell of a lot to do with comics, despite everyone discussing it on comic book sites. You want to argue that John Carter is related to comics because everyone's dusting off the old John Carter funnybooks and pushing them, and that there's some Disney lawsuit against Dynamite, well, okay, whatever. But when you get down to it that's like animation sites discussing Fruit Roll-Ups and baby diapers for a week because of the Spongebob cartoon licenses. It's a geek thing, sure, but it really isn't a comic book thing. Anyway, does it matter? No, not really, but I haven't gone off into Tangentsville here for a while and longtime readers, those that are left, know this is how it goes.
Anyway, to finally maybe get to the friggin' point, you always hear mention of Ishtar and Heaven's Gate and Pluto Nash or whatever when it comes to box-office bombs in the movies. You hear about Broadway fiascos (I'm pretty sure Carrie was a huge money-loser, I'm thinking maybe Starlight Express might have been a bomb, I know everyone mentions Moose Murders but I dunno if it lost a ton or was just a huge stinkjob before it eventually got the Ed Wood rub). Even though theatrical disasters tend to be discussed in terms of how badly a play was received you can find discussions and general allowance of what lost money like crazy (Which reminds me, is that Spider-Man thing still going?). I don't know much about the record industry but you hear about bands that get monster contracts and the albums flop or you hear about an album that goes into production hell and can't recoup the losses. But in comics...I kind of realized I have no idea what the industry's costliest bombs have been. I mean, there are failed initiatives like Impact and publishing efforts like Crossgen or Tundra, or shelved projects or pulped comics like the Elseworld's annual and whatever. They ain't bombs.
Where are the bombs? See, I can't rattle off a string of titles, of projects, that were just financial sinkholes the way Raise the Titanic or Battlefield Earth or Mars Needs Moms were. Relatively speaking, of course. But they have to be out there, failure is part and parcel of the entertainment industry, even our little wee bairn comics. But I'm scratching me wee bairn head over this one. Am I just not seeing the white elephants in the longbox? We're likely to be talking about stuff from the Big 2, or possibly the Big 2 and the Little Four or whatever it is at the front end of Previews right now. And some dead companies that did zany things with their money, whose fanboy or mercenary eyes were much bigger than the reader's stomachs. I'm not privy to the Big-2 scuttlebutt that goes on at convention bars or private chat rooms, I don't have friends in high places anymore in the business. I mean, sure, shit trickles down, you hear about a LEGENDARY CREATOR who never turned in the work and got away with it, money and rep-intact, because they're a LEGENDARY CREATOR (and no, I'm not talking about Big Numbers -- or any project you probably ever heard of -- because, ha ha, the creators never turned in the work, ha ha!).
So, here's the question -- what are the "holy shit, we spent a lot of money and published this comic book and no one bit" titles out there? We all know most comics make nothing, most comics fail or fail to return. Some do make money, some excellent money. But which ones lost buckets? None? That's crazy talk. This is comics, the entire industry should have a Kickstarter.
We all know many comics are critical bombs or receive a harsh reception from the fan base. That doesn't mean anything, really -- Batman: Odyssey, for all I know, made money. Ditto Rise of Arsenal. They might have made super good coin, even. Superhero comics are like B-Movies, there's a built-in audience and the publishers generally know what they're gonna get when they put something out. And by and large, they don't fork over a ton of dough to the creators or spend a wad on pre-production figuring out what they're doing. In the real grown-up world, a comic doesn't cost that much to make, even a Big-2 comic. Sure, I couldn't back one, but I'm not a member of the real, grown-up world, so there. Comics don't have the marketing budgets movies have, and while comic artists can make a relatively nice paycheck up front they don't take home multi-millions writing or penciling a comic or mini-series pre-release. I know, maybe you've heard talk about a Batman project with a scary-big payout, but it made money, didn't it? Unless it didn't. I dunno! Unlike movie-stars, film directors, rock bands and divas, comic creator's paychecks and page rates are not publicly discussed or even really hinted at, at least not that I know of. Actual numbers? Costs? Overprinting? Screw-ups? Maybe there are websites where people guess and crunch the numbers, but I've never come across a list of the top 10 money-losers released in comics.
I remember talk of Howard the Duck #1 and Shazam #1 being hyped and over-ordered back in the day. At that time, there would still have been newsstand returns. But I can't recall if a lot of those orders were to burgeoning direct market outlets or not, I'm 46, and that's a little before my time of becoming way-too-into this stuff. Some folks would certainly know the story on those titles better than me. Still, it makes me wonder if the bigger bombs would have to be found in ye olde days of returns from retail outlets. Like, someone must be able to recall what EC titles got hit hard during the meltdown. I know an issue of Panic was boycotted or something because of a Christmas strip Elder drew pissing some folks off. Did that make it a disaster? I dunno. They printed a lot more books back then. A modern flop, they print based on an initial order, and if the thing doesn't sell through, well, who cares, really? Worked in the short term, didn't cost millions to produce. People laugh about Liefeld's golden era and all the unsold copies of early Image and Image-era polybagged Marvel and DC books, but they moved a lot of them. They made the publishers money. When you think of comic book disasters you think of books that got ripped for being lousy and stunk up the dollar bins. But everyone bought them to find out if they were lousy. John Carter -- people just aren't buying.
So. This was my long-winded, ridiculous way of asking -- what are our bombs? Are there any? There must be, right? But even our worst critical disasters seem to sell, and costs aren't anything near major film and record releases. Did Crumb earn his reputed big advance for The Book of Genesis? I have no idea, I think it sold well, didn't it? Not that I know squat about actual book publishing. Maybe there are some fiascos in that arena, with the book publishers, who smelled Graphic Novel success and struck out a few times. Wouldn't be surprised, at that, there was a bit of a feeding frenzy and a few decent advances could have been frittered away on books that performed far less-than-Persepolis.
I'm not digging for dirt, don't want to hear speculation on page rates, I'm just wondering aloud. Are comics too "cheap" to fail that big? Publishers go down over a mess o' problems, I dunno of a decently-funded publisher that was brought down by one comic or series. Are there known comic book Cleopatras out there or are comics relatively cheap enough to make that no one title can be considered a huge disaster? I've been involved with disappointments, but no one at DC ever admitted that World's Funnest made the accountants smack their heads into walls over the losses. And there was some expensive talent on that. Do filmmakers and "real" writers get stupid money to join the comic book parade? Enough to sink anything? I dunno.
Maybe the equivalent of a bomb in mainstream comics isn't a single issue or mini-series but a major series or event that peters out over time?
I DUNNO!
Feel free to chime in.
I was washing the dishes and zoning out and for a change my thoughts didn't start racing about how I was screwing up the latest project I'm currently working on. For some reason my head got wrapped around the gum-flapping over the John Carter movie that you can't seem to avoid the same way I know there's a thing called The Bachelor and that a guy made a poster of his face and taunted basketball players with it (does that guy have a movie deal yet?).
Anyway, everyone's an expert on the internet, but other than saying that, this isn't about everybody on the internet being an expert. And it isn't about why John Carter failed or didn't fail or why people should wait to declare a film a failure until it's actually failed -- because I don't care, and I don't know, and you don't know, and the folks reading that Rotten Tomatoes site only think they know, and even Hollywood probably doesn't really, truly know. If Hollywood was so god-damned genius about Hollywood then producers wouldn't hire forty-three people to work on a script about people shooting each other and every movie would be a hit and blah blah blah.
Anyway, that's a lot of typing for someone who doesn't care, but really, I don't, because I think about comics, for good or bad, happy or sad, far more than movies. I read comics and make comics and worry over comics, I don't make movies and haven't paid to see a movie in eight or nine years and am probably never going to get all Iron Eyes Cody over poor Hollywood's revenue problems. I mostly watch movies made by and starring dead people who fooled you into thinking smoking was cool, because it looked cool when they did it, not like when the putz on the phone outside Panara Bread lights up. I like comics and jibber-jabbing about comics but, really, folks, the John Carter flick really doesn't have a hell of a lot to do with comics, despite everyone discussing it on comic book sites. You want to argue that John Carter is related to comics because everyone's dusting off the old John Carter funnybooks and pushing them, and that there's some Disney lawsuit against Dynamite, well, okay, whatever. But when you get down to it that's like animation sites discussing Fruit Roll-Ups and baby diapers for a week because of the Spongebob cartoon licenses. It's a geek thing, sure, but it really isn't a comic book thing. Anyway, does it matter? No, not really, but I haven't gone off into Tangentsville here for a while and longtime readers, those that are left, know this is how it goes.
Anyway, to finally maybe get to the friggin' point, you always hear mention of Ishtar and Heaven's Gate and Pluto Nash or whatever when it comes to box-office bombs in the movies. You hear about Broadway fiascos (I'm pretty sure Carrie was a huge money-loser, I'm thinking maybe Starlight Express might have been a bomb, I know everyone mentions Moose Murders but I dunno if it lost a ton or was just a huge stinkjob before it eventually got the Ed Wood rub). Even though theatrical disasters tend to be discussed in terms of how badly a play was received you can find discussions and general allowance of what lost money like crazy (Which reminds me, is that Spider-Man thing still going?). I don't know much about the record industry but you hear about bands that get monster contracts and the albums flop or you hear about an album that goes into production hell and can't recoup the losses. But in comics...I kind of realized I have no idea what the industry's costliest bombs have been. I mean, there are failed initiatives like Impact and publishing efforts like Crossgen or Tundra, or shelved projects or pulped comics like the Elseworld's annual and whatever. They ain't bombs.
Where are the bombs? See, I can't rattle off a string of titles, of projects, that were just financial sinkholes the way Raise the Titanic or Battlefield Earth or Mars Needs Moms were. Relatively speaking, of course. But they have to be out there, failure is part and parcel of the entertainment industry, even our little wee bairn comics. But I'm scratching me wee bairn head over this one. Am I just not seeing the white elephants in the longbox? We're likely to be talking about stuff from the Big 2, or possibly the Big 2 and the Little Four or whatever it is at the front end of Previews right now. And some dead companies that did zany things with their money, whose fanboy or mercenary eyes were much bigger than the reader's stomachs. I'm not privy to the Big-2 scuttlebutt that goes on at convention bars or private chat rooms, I don't have friends in high places anymore in the business. I mean, sure, shit trickles down, you hear about a LEGENDARY CREATOR who never turned in the work and got away with it, money and rep-intact, because they're a LEGENDARY CREATOR (and no, I'm not talking about Big Numbers -- or any project you probably ever heard of -- because, ha ha, the creators never turned in the work, ha ha!).
So, here's the question -- what are the "holy shit, we spent a lot of money and published this comic book and no one bit" titles out there? We all know most comics make nothing, most comics fail or fail to return. Some do make money, some excellent money. But which ones lost buckets? None? That's crazy talk. This is comics, the entire industry should have a Kickstarter.
We all know many comics are critical bombs or receive a harsh reception from the fan base. That doesn't mean anything, really -- Batman: Odyssey, for all I know, made money. Ditto Rise of Arsenal. They might have made super good coin, even. Superhero comics are like B-Movies, there's a built-in audience and the publishers generally know what they're gonna get when they put something out. And by and large, they don't fork over a ton of dough to the creators or spend a wad on pre-production figuring out what they're doing. In the real grown-up world, a comic doesn't cost that much to make, even a Big-2 comic. Sure, I couldn't back one, but I'm not a member of the real, grown-up world, so there. Comics don't have the marketing budgets movies have, and while comic artists can make a relatively nice paycheck up front they don't take home multi-millions writing or penciling a comic or mini-series pre-release. I know, maybe you've heard talk about a Batman project with a scary-big payout, but it made money, didn't it? Unless it didn't. I dunno! Unlike movie-stars, film directors, rock bands and divas, comic creator's paychecks and page rates are not publicly discussed or even really hinted at, at least not that I know of. Actual numbers? Costs? Overprinting? Screw-ups? Maybe there are websites where people guess and crunch the numbers, but I've never come across a list of the top 10 money-losers released in comics.
I remember talk of Howard the Duck #1 and Shazam #1 being hyped and over-ordered back in the day. At that time, there would still have been newsstand returns. But I can't recall if a lot of those orders were to burgeoning direct market outlets or not, I'm 46, and that's a little before my time of becoming way-too-into this stuff. Some folks would certainly know the story on those titles better than me. Still, it makes me wonder if the bigger bombs would have to be found in ye olde days of returns from retail outlets. Like, someone must be able to recall what EC titles got hit hard during the meltdown. I know an issue of Panic was boycotted or something because of a Christmas strip Elder drew pissing some folks off. Did that make it a disaster? I dunno. They printed a lot more books back then. A modern flop, they print based on an initial order, and if the thing doesn't sell through, well, who cares, really? Worked in the short term, didn't cost millions to produce. People laugh about Liefeld's golden era and all the unsold copies of early Image and Image-era polybagged Marvel and DC books, but they moved a lot of them. They made the publishers money. When you think of comic book disasters you think of books that got ripped for being lousy and stunk up the dollar bins. But everyone bought them to find out if they were lousy. John Carter -- people just aren't buying.
So. This was my long-winded, ridiculous way of asking -- what are our bombs? Are there any? There must be, right? But even our worst critical disasters seem to sell, and costs aren't anything near major film and record releases. Did Crumb earn his reputed big advance for The Book of Genesis? I have no idea, I think it sold well, didn't it? Not that I know squat about actual book publishing. Maybe there are some fiascos in that arena, with the book publishers, who smelled Graphic Novel success and struck out a few times. Wouldn't be surprised, at that, there was a bit of a feeding frenzy and a few decent advances could have been frittered away on books that performed far less-than-Persepolis.
I'm not digging for dirt, don't want to hear speculation on page rates, I'm just wondering aloud. Are comics too "cheap" to fail that big? Publishers go down over a mess o' problems, I dunno of a decently-funded publisher that was brought down by one comic or series. Are there known comic book Cleopatras out there or are comics relatively cheap enough to make that no one title can be considered a huge disaster? I've been involved with disappointments, but no one at DC ever admitted that World's Funnest made the accountants smack their heads into walls over the losses. And there was some expensive talent on that. Do filmmakers and "real" writers get stupid money to join the comic book parade? Enough to sink anything? I dunno.
Maybe the equivalent of a bomb in mainstream comics isn't a single issue or mini-series but a major series or event that peters out over time?
I DUNNO!
Feel free to chime in.
March 6, 2012
Dark Horse Presents #10-12: What To Expect
Appreciate the comments regarding our dreaded deadline doom. We came in late but with enough time so that DHP #12 wasn't knocked off schedule. February was a rough month, I barely left the house, and my back and drawing hand are still pretty upset with me.
Anyway, the rotten fruit of our labor will be spilling out onto shelves staring later this month with Dark Horse Presents #10. That issue will feature a two-page Milk and Cheese strip and a six-page Murder Family story. I think the last time I did a Murder Family story was...wow, I honestly have no idea. Let me look it up...hold on...shit, where is that issue of Dork #9 --? Holy crap, 2001. Oy.
Dark Horse Presents #11 will have two one-page Milk and Cheese strips and six pages of Fun strips, five per page, down from the original seven per page owing to failing eyesight and malfunctioning fingers. The last extended burst of Fun strips was in the last issue of Dork, that being #11. Published in 2006.
Dark Horse Presents #12 will have a one-page Milk and Cheese strip and a seven-page Eltingville Club story. Eltingville last reared it's ugly head in Dork #10 in...2002. Gevalt.
Sarah colored everything and was nice enough not to poison me after dealing with a lot of detail and late pages.
Speaking of The Eltingville Club, several readers pointed out to me that March 3rd marked the ten-year anniversary of the debut of the failed Welcome to Eltingville pilot, which aired on the Adult Swim in 2002. Cripes. The pilot can be viewed here, where you can also read comments from folks kicking its corpse around, while others lament. Sorta fascinating.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have gone with a different storyline and punched the script up with more jokes. Also would've treated it less like a comic project and let other people handle more of the heavy lifting. Probably redesign the characters some, or let someone else work on the designs for animation, and I'd more than likely change a few other things made obvious by hindsight if I could stand to watch it again. I shouldn't be so hard on it, but I can't help it. I'm still glad for the opportunity and sometimes wonder what would've happened if it got picked up. Anyway, we made a cartoon, we did our best, it didn't work out.
Did I mention Eltingville returns in DHP #12? It's about a zombie crawl. I think it came out pretty okay. Thanks in advance to those of you planning on giving the DHP stuff a spin, hope you enjoy it.
Oh, before I forget -- R.I.P. Shelly Moldoff. I met the man at the Pittsburgh Con one year before World's Funnest was going to be published, which I guess makes that sometime in 2000. He had no idea I wrote the book he had just drawn two pages for, apparently his first work for DC Comics in thirty years. I didn't tell him because I saw no point in it and I was enjoying him giving me advice on how to negotiate the comics business even though at the time I was doing pretty well. he thought I was just breaking in, I mean, obviously he'd never heard of me, and I didn't expect him to have been aware of my stuff, but I was in my 30's and had been working steadily for over fifteen years, so it was funny to have him sit me down and give me a pep talk on the comics industry. He wished me luck, which I thought was adorable, and which I regret to say I could use these days. Anyway, thanks, Shelly. A sweet guy who made a lot of comics I enjoyed.
And he designed and co-created Bat-Mite -- how can I not love Shelly Moldoff? I hope he steps on Bob Kane's face on his way up to trade war stories with Jerry Robinson.
Anyway, the rotten fruit of our labor will be spilling out onto shelves staring later this month with Dark Horse Presents #10. That issue will feature a two-page Milk and Cheese strip and a six-page Murder Family story. I think the last time I did a Murder Family story was...wow, I honestly have no idea. Let me look it up...hold on...shit, where is that issue of Dork #9 --? Holy crap, 2001. Oy.
Dark Horse Presents #11 will have two one-page Milk and Cheese strips and six pages of Fun strips, five per page, down from the original seven per page owing to failing eyesight and malfunctioning fingers. The last extended burst of Fun strips was in the last issue of Dork, that being #11. Published in 2006.
Dark Horse Presents #12 will have a one-page Milk and Cheese strip and a seven-page Eltingville Club story. Eltingville last reared it's ugly head in Dork #10 in...2002. Gevalt.
Sarah colored everything and was nice enough not to poison me after dealing with a lot of detail and late pages.
Speaking of The Eltingville Club, several readers pointed out to me that March 3rd marked the ten-year anniversary of the debut of the failed Welcome to Eltingville pilot, which aired on the Adult Swim in 2002. Cripes. The pilot can be viewed here, where you can also read comments from folks kicking its corpse around, while others lament. Sorta fascinating.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have gone with a different storyline and punched the script up with more jokes. Also would've treated it less like a comic project and let other people handle more of the heavy lifting. Probably redesign the characters some, or let someone else work on the designs for animation, and I'd more than likely change a few other things made obvious by hindsight if I could stand to watch it again. I shouldn't be so hard on it, but I can't help it. I'm still glad for the opportunity and sometimes wonder what would've happened if it got picked up. Anyway, we made a cartoon, we did our best, it didn't work out.
Did I mention Eltingville returns in DHP #12? It's about a zombie crawl. I think it came out pretty okay. Thanks in advance to those of you planning on giving the DHP stuff a spin, hope you enjoy it.
Oh, before I forget -- R.I.P. Shelly Moldoff. I met the man at the Pittsburgh Con one year before World's Funnest was going to be published, which I guess makes that sometime in 2000. He had no idea I wrote the book he had just drawn two pages for, apparently his first work for DC Comics in thirty years. I didn't tell him because I saw no point in it and I was enjoying him giving me advice on how to negotiate the comics business even though at the time I was doing pretty well. he thought I was just breaking in, I mean, obviously he'd never heard of me, and I didn't expect him to have been aware of my stuff, but I was in my 30's and had been working steadily for over fifteen years, so it was funny to have him sit me down and give me a pep talk on the comics industry. He wished me luck, which I thought was adorable, and which I regret to say I could use these days. Anyway, thanks, Shelly. A sweet guy who made a lot of comics I enjoyed.
And he designed and co-created Bat-Mite -- how can I not love Shelly Moldoff? I hope he steps on Bob Kane's face on his way up to trade war stories with Jerry Robinson.
February 26, 2012
Milk and Cheese Goon #35 illo on eBay
Forgot to mention we added this piece to our recent auctions. It's up sometime in the next day.
Things have been very crazy lately, which is why the posts/tweets are largely on hold. Been desperately trying to finish some work by Wednesday for DHP #12 or suffer the consequences. Isn't looking great, to be honest, my OCD keeps stretching the amount of work and time spent on every page despite knowing I'm in over my head. I haven't worked without first writing a proper script in ages and it's been a schizophrenic affair, finishing pages and panels out of order, leaving sections of dialogue bare and working it out afterward, hoping everything comes together and comes together in time. So far it has, but the seven page Eltingville strip is, as usual, stuffed. It wouldn't have been so bad if this was a black and white gig. I don't know how people are able to simply lay in necessary art and line work and just get the job done, I can't shake the compulsion to add more characters, more dialogue, more clutter. Like someone once told me, you're not getting paid by the line. I still don't know how to draw for reproduction, after doing this for 20 years. And I don't know how to draw for color, and I've been stressed out trying to close all the lines and worried about how much work I'm saddling Sarah with a on of last-minute work with the hourglass running out. I've been on crazy hours for a couple of weeks now, just woke up tonight at about 3 a.m. to start another shift. I have to finish an Eltingville page and a M&C page so Sarah can finish all the coloring by Wednesday. I've been working every day this month except for one 24 hr period where I just crashed and I'm honestly shot, back's out, arm's dead, I'm on heat pads and ice packs and passing out at the end of every shift. Left the house maybe five times this month, for groceries and a therapy appointment. Rough month. Most of the world has it worse, I know, believe me, but a rough month as far as it goes.
Things have been very crazy lately, which is why the posts/tweets are largely on hold. Been desperately trying to finish some work by Wednesday for DHP #12 or suffer the consequences. Isn't looking great, to be honest, my OCD keeps stretching the amount of work and time spent on every page despite knowing I'm in over my head. I haven't worked without first writing a proper script in ages and it's been a schizophrenic affair, finishing pages and panels out of order, leaving sections of dialogue bare and working it out afterward, hoping everything comes together and comes together in time. So far it has, but the seven page Eltingville strip is, as usual, stuffed. It wouldn't have been so bad if this was a black and white gig. I don't know how people are able to simply lay in necessary art and line work and just get the job done, I can't shake the compulsion to add more characters, more dialogue, more clutter. Like someone once told me, you're not getting paid by the line. I still don't know how to draw for reproduction, after doing this for 20 years. And I don't know how to draw for color, and I've been stressed out trying to close all the lines and worried about how much work I'm saddling Sarah with a on of last-minute work with the hourglass running out. I've been on crazy hours for a couple of weeks now, just woke up tonight at about 3 a.m. to start another shift. I have to finish an Eltingville page and a M&C page so Sarah can finish all the coloring by Wednesday. I've been working every day this month except for one 24 hr period where I just crashed and I'm honestly shot, back's out, arm's dead, I'm on heat pads and ice packs and passing out at the end of every shift. Left the house maybe five times this month, for groceries and a therapy appointment. Rough month. Most of the world has it worse, I know, believe me, but a rough month as far as it goes.
February 21, 2012
New H.O.F. Auctions
Some new stuff on the eBay block including some sketch cards, books and collectibles.
More auctions coming, we plan on listing the Milk and Cheese (as The Goon and Frankie) piece from The Goon #35, a color M&C pin-up, some Pirate Corp$!/Hectic Planet pages, some Spy vs Spy prelim roughs from the Mad Spy Special, and some other art when time allows. Probably listing the Guild: Zaboo cover art when I can figure out how to package it (it's slightly oversized). Also some odds and ends. We're on a killer deadline right now for DHP #12's Eltingville strip which is why updates have been light, but once that's done we'll likely be listing stuff fairly regularly.
More auctions coming, we plan on listing the Milk and Cheese (as The Goon and Frankie) piece from The Goon #35, a color M&C pin-up, some Pirate Corp$!/Hectic Planet pages, some Spy vs Spy prelim roughs from the Mad Spy Special, and some other art when time allows. Probably listing the Guild: Zaboo cover art when I can figure out how to package it (it's slightly oversized). Also some odds and ends. We're on a killer deadline right now for DHP #12's Eltingville strip which is why updates have been light, but once that's done we'll likely be listing stuff fairly regularly.
February 11, 2012
Please Help Gary Friedrich Out If You Can
There's been a spate of depressing news coming out of Comic Book Land recently, the Watchmen prequels (and its attendant entitled fan riot), the artist Al Rio's suicide, the Walking Dead lawsuit, the war of words between various creators on several editorially-mandated comics, Sergio Aragones' health issues, several indy creators on the skids, and, last but hardly least, Gary Friedrich needing to come up with $17,000 as Marvel makes an example of him for bringing a lawsuit against them regarding the Ghost Rider copyright. Obviously folks will make up their own mind on the matter, some of them to my utter bewilderment for the vociferousness of their position and the near-glee in The Man (and no, I don't mean Stan) sticking it to the little guy above and beyond call, me, I'm in agreement with Tom Spurgeon on the situation. As Tom notes, Marvel is within its legal rights. As any decent human being might note, that doesn't mean it has to go down this way. Sarah and I donated some money to the benefit Steve Niles has set up for him today. Even a small amount can do a lot to help Friedrich and his wife out during a tough time in a tough economy dealing with a very, very tough corporation.
Just another revoltin' development in the weird wonderful world of comics.
Just another revoltin' development in the weird wonderful world of comics.
February 9, 2012
February 8, 2012
Work In Progress: DHP #12
They're All Messed Up.
February 2, 2012
February 1, 2012
Dark Horse Presents #8 Out Today
With an 8-page Beasts of Burden story by me and Jill Thompson.
If you pick it up, I hope you enjoy it.
If you pick it up, I hope you enjoy it.
Evan Dorkin's Blog
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