October 17 2010
While I Was Away...

   Before I start my usual mental meanderings, I have a confession to make: The last blog I wrote, the theme being "Spring cleaning", was secretly about packing and moving back to Georgia. We'd been planning this for months but waited until Karen was gainfully employed in the Atlanta area. So while I could keep busy packing, donating books and tossing stuff out, I couldn't give an actual date when we would move. Not wanting to put the cart before the horse, and all that.

   Karen's sister Sheri, her husband Gary and other extended family helped tremendously by driving down with two trailers (that are usually used for classic Citroens, a collecting hobby of Gary's) which saved us a small fortune in moving costs. Thanks to all!

   Lots of news lately that I'd like to offer my inside-baseball analysis to:

   *Wildstorm shutting down. The last extended run I did was on WS's Wildcats last year with editor Ben Abernathy. He's an editor who I really enjoyed working with (also on Gen13 the previous year). I hope he finds a new gig soon, as he is good people in my book. Maybe he'll be one of the personnel moving to Burbank for DC's digital persuits, I don't know, but he deserves to land something great. Best of luck, Ben!

   *Marvel's plans to publish some Crossgen properties. I find it strangely ironic that I'm now back at our old house, pre-Crossgen Comics, while reading this recent announcement. It's staggering to think that it's been almost a decade since we moved to Florida so I could join Crossgen's in-house staff. After Crossgen closed it's doors, a lot of the creative staff quickly moved back to their respective home states (or countries), but some, like me, stayed and maintained some sense of comicbook community. I'd meet up with Mike Perkins, Butch Guice and others more talented than I on Wednesdays at the comics shop and do lunch and share some laughs. But over time the group splintered as someone else would move away. There are still some comics creators around the outskirts of Tampa , preferring to stay in the warm climate. And, as much as I've publicly shared concerns about how Crossgen was run (y'know, the "not getting paid" part), time has healed a lot of wounds. If I hadn't met Scot Eaton at the CG compound, I might not've had the pleasure of inking him on Thor and Captain America. On the flip side, I might've still been inking Greg Land if we remained freelancers, separated by states. By that, I mean that Greg and I would've probably kept a better creative relationship long-distance . But working day-to-day next to each other in cubicles caused lots of friction between our personalities. Although we tried, we never really clicked, and eventually respectfully parted ways. I went from Sojourn to perrenial "fill-in" inker for a while, which gave me a great variety of pencillers and books to ply my trade. This wasn't the only case of in-house talent match-ups that didn't gel, so there were reshuffling of inkers and colorists on other books as well. I'm asked at conventions if I'd work with Greg again and I say yes, why not? What's past is past. In the end, I'm grateful that Crossgen gave me the experience of befriending lots of talented folks I'd admired from afar.

   *Remember the mystery project I hinted at last time? Well, it's JLA/The 99, a DC six-issue miniseries which begins October 27! I think you'll be impressed by soon-to-be-fan-favorite penciller Tom Derenick, who's been working his way around the DCU for some time now. We worked together before briefly on Superman several years ago and are putting a lot of energy into the artwork. The results are exciting, as Tom and I get to work on classic JLA members as the Trinity, Green Lantern John Stewart and even the Atom & Hawkman! The script by Stuart Moore and Fabian Nicieza is pretty durn good too! Oh, and did I mention it's 24 pages of story each issue?

   *Well how about the announcement that DC is rolling back the prices of their comics from $3.99 to $2.99 in January? Some fans and some retailers may scoff, but this is an undreamt-of move that gives the fans what they want: Going home with a thicker stack of comics for their money! Being a glass-half-full guy, I can see readers not just buying, but spending more on comics that they'd wanted to try but were put off by the sticker shock of $3.99. Marvel Zombies may also scoff at this move (believe me I grew up a Marvel Zombie so I know the 'tude), but readers' tastes change over time, and fan fave writers and artists switch companies, so I think DC will make a jump saleswise and dollar-wise. Gutsy move!

   As for losing two pages of story, I, as a veteran freelancer, am not worried about losing income. DC has lots of formats that can plug any holes, Secret Files pinups, short stories for 80-page Giants and more. Those two pages make a bigger difference, deadline-wise than you'd expect. I've been more-or-less a monthly inker and although working on 22 pages per month doesn't sound terribly impressive, think of the amount of detail that modern artists include in each issue to steal your attention away from a competing comic book. There are spectacular splash pages that need extra attention, not to mention double-page spreads that sometimes take an extra day to complete just right. If you want to sell a comic in 2010, your book has to grab readers by the throat through exceptional execution of compelling storytelling. Some freelancers will welcome the two pages/days off to spend some time with family or just unwind (comics is work, although fun, it's a demanding mistress). I don't believe the writers' contributions will suffer, as the shorter page count will sharpen the focus of "decompressed storytelling". Decompressed storytelling will still exist, but the good writers will adapt and continue to flourish.

   Well, I've dug a deep enough hole for myself this time. I'll leave you with this thought: If we hadn't moved to Florida, I would never had met Webmaster Chris and his lovely wife Sky, and this groovy site would not exist! Everybody wins!
 
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