Hey there sports fans, Al here with the latest:
Y'know after last week's column "What about Comics are fun to work on" I started thinking that this topic in a much more in-depth and introspective way as to look at the "why".
Yes, I talked about the people who have influenced me, those many other artists who have a truly unique style that I love. But that was only part of why I love working on comics.
As this new week started out (before Easter - which it is as of this writing) I started thinking as I was working on my latest piece of scratchboard work for the Corpse Cop #4 Cover for the bookend piece "Death Walks the Stars".
Now here I am secured in the new home space watching whatever I want on the internet or read whatever I want and eat whatever I want which is a beer for breakfast and homemade burger of sorts before Noon, the only thing that drives me is "what can I create today?"
Easter, let me think.
It's not about claiming eggs out in a yard or eating candy that was placed in a small basket by my mom. No, it was can I make this latest story of Corpse Cop fun to look at and read?
Funny, I would be talking about a walking talking corpse when Jesus rose from the dead this day. In DnD terms is he a lich? Maybe Corpse Cop is? Is there a correlation here? Maybe subconsciously it has that meaning. I don't know, I'm not a clinical psychologist but it sure the hell it feels like I'm one from time to time. Though with Corna Virus of the last year and today I took a break, not self-imposed either mind you. But I had to step back and look at what made me happy for the longest time in my life - comics.
I think that a lot of people might think that seems weird for a 50 something guy but really in honesty is it really? With so many things of social unrest, civil disobedience, and just plain canceling people and their livelihood an escape was needed.
I looked back as a child escaping from the reality of a home where a doting, loving mother was a closet alcoholic and a father that didn't understand you or bother to care, comics were that escape, and when you could glean what you could from those stories you began making your own.
Corpse Cop, it just what the doctor ordered. A silly premiss with an equally silly character. But that is what makes fun and if I make that artwork just good enough to hook your attention, I might just take you out of the whole world predicament and someplace you have never been before. That's the goal and if I did just for a little bit, I've done my job.
In recent times I had questioned myself why am I doing this work?
As an old friend of mine said to me (we'll call him Jeff - a Babalyon 5 reference) where do you make the most money? How many pages of comic book work make you cash VS a single piece of artwork? It's apples to oranges, my friends. And he was right. I did make a lot more money on my single pieces of work but there was something missing though.
Context.
You can be moved and inspired by a single image on a painting, poster whatever like looking at a Frazetta. It's moody and powerful but there isn't any surrounding context to that piece, the history. That's the lure of a single piece but the creator has so much more built-up background that the viewing audience just doesn't have. Successful illustrators have been doing this for years and maybe that's why they stay in the public eye with the surrounding mystery of a single illustration but for me, my style of artwork doesn't encompass that.
I think it is for that reason that I constantly keep being drawn back into comics. There is a surrounding story behind that cover that serves as a teaser for you to pick up that book. Peer inside if you dare?
There isn't any hype for a major feature to be made from this I.P., there isn't a slap on the back for a good job being done, there isn't any money to be made from these stories but if I got ya just for a bit I think I might have just made my point.