January 31, 2006
Re-entering Earth's Blogosphere

   I promised you I'd be back this month, and dragged it out as long as I could, until I've plumb run out of January.

   Why the hesitation? Because I'm a little embarrased, as I was sure last Autumn I was done with the whole blogging scene. Four months is not a long time to be 'away', although, come to think of it, in this accelerated information age, maybe it is! After all, a month equals 18 Zoom Suit press releases, as we currently measure time...

   On a serious note, 2005 was possibly one of the the worst years of my life, both personally and professionally.
I endured a substantial crisis of faith: In myself, my talents and my judgement to the point that my relationships and even my health suffered. After eleven years in an industry that I love perhaps TOO much, I came close to quitting it entirely. Other commercial art options were opening up and I tormented myself with the prospect of closing the door on the comics field entirely, saying goodbye to what I had considered a 'dream job' for as long as I can remember. When you close the door to comics, you lose a lot of common ground with people still in the business.

   Conversations I've had with artists who've left the field have a similar pattern:

   "I dunno, man, I'm so out of the loop. I can't remember the last time I paid attention to comics".

   The problem is that I'm still hooked on reading comics, so I would be eating my heart out watching the comics world pass me by.

   As longtime readers might remember, I've long toyed with doing a creator-owned series, and last year I continued working towards that goal, between comic-inking and commercial art gigs. It's a slow process, made slower by the unlikely prospects of getting a return for months of payless work you have to cobble before shopping one's comic around to publishers. One day, while visiting a comic store, I was struck by just how many high-quality creator-owned books are on the racks. Many indie books have great art and promising premises, so much so that it's quite intimidating to attempt venturing out in that uncertain realm. What, I thought, would make MY comic book stand out in the sea of colorful covers and snappy logos? As many fiction writers feel they have the 'Great American Novel' in them, I've always felt I have the "Great Superhero Comic" in me. But what did I have to offer that wasn't already available? With that mindset, I'd paint myself into a corner.

   When I flew out to Chicago for the WizardWorld Con last July, my only convention of '05, I couldn't work up the energy to shmooze with the usual enthusiasm. If anything, I came home exhausted and several hundred dollars poorer between hotel, food and airfare costs. My self-proclaimed "Type A" personality was being whittled down to a Type D-, barely a passing grade.

   For a while, I even began shying away from the fellow comic pros that I consider friends, because I didn't want to be the Bad-luck Shleprock who'd suck the fun out of the room. But I'm grateful for when they'd keep a sympathetic ear available through this blue period of mine. I won't embarrass them by turning this week's blog into a celebrity-telathon type speech. I've never been above name-dropping, but they know who they are.

   My parents had also done their best to buoy my spirits in the past year, while dealing with a multitude of crises of their own. That's parental multi-tasking for you! Mostly, I thank my wife Karen, who's put up with the mania of living with a spouse who has crazy work hours. I've tried the daytime, weekday thing, but when an editor calls you after 5:00 pm on a Thursday, offering you immediate work, you're assured a working weekend. The freelancer's life is a treadmill where you must maintain stamina to keep getting work.

   That said, I find myself entering '06 on a much higher note than '05. I've rededicated myself to my craft, and turned out some of my best work yet. Despite not having a regular series to hang my hat on, I've been kept very busy by DC, Marvel and Top Cow. Especially DC. I'm embracing the variety of pencillers I've gotten to ink recently, such as a George Perez page from Infinite Crisis #4 (page 25), and several Dale Eaglesham pages for Adventures of Superman #249.

   Don't worry overmuch about this blog turning routinely maudlin. I'm still going to be a snarky-yet-self-effacing wiseass that you've either come to love or, at the very least, find habit-forming!

   One last piece of business: The Blog has gone Bi. Biweekly, that is. I've decided that a weekly blog is too big a distraction from my commitments. This also means no more guest blogs. Otherwise, I'll have to resort to reviewing Paul McCartney's solo discography! Now you don't want me to do that again, do you? A bi-weekly blog may be less-than ideal, but if you want, I can notify you by email when the new ones are posted. Just write me at drewg1@mindspring.com
 
 
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