It’s hard to make decisions sometimes. Especially ones that will encompass so much of your time and energy as the work of creating a comic can. I’ve spent the last three years “learning” comics all over again. When I was younger lad, I drew comics that looked like your normal news stand issue of X-Men. My goal there was to get to work on those titles. They were the reason I fell in love with comics in the first place. Then I became a fan of the now dead CrossGen universe. And what caused me to fall in love with those books was that they were telling stories with their comics. Not a battle a month style of book. This is something that may seem odd nowadays, but that wasn’t very commonplace here in the states for a long time. Shortly after I met webcomics for the first time when I stumbled on Derek Kirk Kim’s “Same Difference” comic.
The weight of that discovery threw me into another direction creatively for a long period in my life. I created my first online book From Death Til Now, which is now wrapping up its first volume. But what I found was that I was learning all over again. Learning how to create a comic from the very beginning and having to carry it through all of the steps to completion. I look back on so much of that early art that was done for From Death Til Now and it’s hard to believe I drew that, and thought it was good. Honestly, I drew much much better than those pages showed, I just didn’t know how to get it all out my head into the digital realm, using all of these tools.
Now, I sit here three years later, making another decision. I spent all of last year pitching my first graphic novel The Unknowns to publishers and ultimately that didn’t pan out. It’s perfectly, OK. I met my agent and other great folks and the doors are open. In fact I’m still in the process of pitching my graphic novel project (more on that in a minute), but I’ve made a decision about how I’m going to approach my career from here on out.
The King’s Game is the title of the book I am pitching next. But rather than start working on another title or pitch next, I’m going to make this book. Whether it gets picked up or not, The King’s Game is coming ( Lord willing). I had been going back and forth on this for a few months, as to if I should create another webcomic. And leading the way in that argument for making one, was my previous pitch The Unknowns. After a good talk with my wife, I made the decision that The King’s Game should be the project. Because it’s a simple, emotional story that can be finished in one shot and I think will be immensely fun!
What’s been the reason for this decision is that, quite frankly, I just want to tell my stories. The idea of a publisher and all of that is awesome and I will keep pursuing that sort of thing, but ultimately, I don’t want to spend all of my time on pitches and have nothing else to show for.
The reason I posted so much else about my development is because this is the first time, on the cusp of finishing FDTN book 1, that I think I’m really ready. It took a lot of work and time, but I want to approach this as professionally as possible. I want to create a book that you truly feel is worthy to be on the shelf next to any other book we love at the books store. So, it may be awhile, it may even get picked up, but The King’s Game is coming.
See you then!
Extremely excited to hear about this, as well as seeing your art for the cover of FDTN Book One. Btw, any idea when you'll be putting FDTN in print assuming that is the plan at this point)? I for one would buy it without hesitation.
I got into comics at a similar time and for similar reasons, I think. Back when Image was king and Jim Lee was seen as some sort of demi god. Fun stuff. I'm glad comics have progressed in the last 5-10 years to allow room for more mainstream stories. Nothing wrong with superheroes, but a wider audience and acceptance means greater exposure for the medium as a whole.
It sounds like you have a solid plan for your book, I'm excited to see it progress. It seems right to me that we tell our stories we're most passionate about. I feel (and hope) that it'll show in the work and people will feel it when they read the story. If you're having fun telling it, the audience can usually tell. And in the end, that's what it's all about. We got into this to have fun, right? With all of the hard work and discipline, sometimes it's easy to forget that. Seems like you haven't though. Good luck!
I plan to put the book into print sometime in June. My plan at this point is to have the book available for purchase before I've finished updating it online. We'll see though.
Glad you're excited about The King's Game. I'm stoke man. Just feels good to have made a decision. My indecisiveness was killing me!