Dec. 30, 2003

   Hope everybody's had/is having a happy holiday time. In case you missed the bottom of my home page, my first Sketch Magazine article was just published, and It was a nice Christmas gift for me.

   I've added more art to some of the pages on this site, so to those of you who've popped by before, check 'em out.

   *Another contest hint: My first letter was a published in a Marvel non-mutant team book.

   You CAN have too much of a good thing. I'm a hard-core comics fan, but there are days I don't want to even look at a comic, particularly during intense deadlines. As silly as it may seem, I still occasionally like to unwind by reading comics before going to bed. I try to avoid current comics before bed, because then I get competitive (Wow, look at Jesus Merino's inks on Pacheco! I'll never be that good!) and I lose sleep. No matter how much of a lifelong fan you are, some days it does become just work. Thankfully, the enjoyment I get from inking comics overrides any anxiety I experience (are these latest pages any good? Am I sliding in quality? Why hasn't that editor returned my call?).

   So anyway...

   Dave Johnson made the offer to be his assistant. According to my first pro bio "Dave took Drew under his wing and molded him to his will using techniques outlawed by the Geneva Convention. Drew became a member of Dave's Kudzu Tech Studio and was given a Legion flight ring." Not bad for my first shot at hype, huh? Kudzu Tech came from Dave's description of the work he became known for : Lots of machinery and cables filling a page like crawling kudzu vines.

   Now had come the test of dedication: Dave had too much work for me to keep a day job, but not enough to keep me around full-time. Would I be able to quit my full-time job at the printing plant for the piecemeal work Dave was offering? Karen and I had just gotten married earlier that year, and after the honeymoon, I immediately jammed on my portfolio samples before convention season. She could see it coming, and was rightfully terrified of a future in poverty if things didn't go well. She took the leap of faith with me, so I became Elisa Doolittle to Dave's Henry Higgins.

   Derec Aucoin had just moved from Louisiana to join Kudzu Tech. Where I was shy and reserved, Derec, only 20 at the time, was bursting forth with his take-no-prisoners attitude. What struck me was that he broke into the industry only months before I did, but already had savvy to spare. I think I took the assistant role too seriously, because I was very uptight, all business. Dave tried to get me to loosen up, but getting into comics meant so much to me that I treated him more as a boss than a fellow traveller. So we spent a lot of time not talking to each other. I had this dopey "the customer is always right" mentality that I hadn't quite shaken from my corporate background. Since I wasn't "working" for Derec, I related to him better. Nonetheless, I wasn't much fun to be around back then (some might argue I'm still not, but it's all lies I tell you, lies!!), and everybody who I met working in comics seemed to have taken it in stride better than I did.

   Only in recent years have I begun embracing my choice of livelihood. The downslide of comic book sales in the mid-90's had a lot to do with my hangups, despite being steadily employed on monthly comics. I'm no more an expert on economics than anybody else, but I've been reading about some healthy sales trends in the past year or two, so hopefully, more casual readers will recognize the sheer volume of quality comics and trades that are available now. C'mon, world, you better recognize!
 
To be continued...
 
All characters & their images are property of their respective copyright holders. All original content (c) Drew Geraci. Please request permission before reprinting or reposting elsewhere.