While searching for an artist for my maxi-series, THE BRASS KNUCKLE RITUALS, I came across an artist online who'e style I thought would be perfect for the new NEOtrash ComiX title--Adam Cline. I contacted him, told him the script I was working on & he agreed to look at it.
Although he liked it, he asked if I had anything else & my brain raced as to figure out what else I could show him. I mean, I already had a crew drawing my other titles & I wasn't going to just come up with an original story just to save face--what to do? And then I thought of an old screenplay I had sitting in the bottom of a drawer gathering dust. It was from my film school days--circa 1990--& was meant to be my feature film class production. Unfortunately, the university cancelled the feature film class due to budget cuts & the script wallowed screenwriting workship oblivion. I thought, "Why not a graphic novel?"
Adam said he liked "personal" stories in comics--something different from ones filled with mindless action for just action sake--& I knew my script from film school would be right up his alley. I sent it to him to read & he wrote me a raving e-mail--telling me he must draw this story I wrote, CONCERNED (cpyrght 2007).
I was surprised to hear this because it would be a daunting task adapting a screenplay into a graphic novel. It would definately be over 100+ pages & when Adam said this wouldn't be a problem, I gave him the green light to transform my screenplay into sequential art.
CONCERNED took a little more than a year to complete & when it was finished, I printed 27 copies to be sold at Stumptown Comics Fest '07. Adam came out from Ft. Collins, Colorado to be here for the event & it was to be the first time we ever met face-to-face for we did the entire collaberation via e-mails & text messaging. While we situated ourselves at our display table, I told him not to expect to sell many copies--guessing we would sell maybe four books--& to just have a good time being part of the event. Little did I know how well our book would be recieved.
By the time the event was over, we sold 20 copies of the 27 we printed--more than we ever thought we would sell. The success filled us with the confidence to forge on with a possible sequel or "spin-off".
After considerable thought, we nixed the idea of a sequel but wanted to use a character from CONCERNED & tell their story. When we asked the readers of CONCERNED which character was their favorite, we were surprised to hear them say, "Ursula", the goth-chick grrrlfriend of one of the main characters, Dashiell. She was a secondary character who made more of an impact than we expected--she took on a life of her own--& we realized we now had our "spin-off". Ursula's story had to be told!
Adam is now anticipating the completion of the script to what will be the spin-off from CONCERNED, starring wild goth-chick, Ursula, as she goes crazy in her story: BOO-JEE GRRRL!: THE URSULA SCHLABOTNIK PROJECT (cpyrght 2008). So far, I've written over 30 pages & it is moving quite nicely now that freelance NEOtrash artist, Dan DePaolo, has told me he has enough scripts for THE BRASS KNUCKLE RITUALS to keep him occupied. This will allow me to take a break from the maxi-series to concentrate on Ursula's story. From what I've already written, Adam is going to provide a 10-page "teaser"--to be passed out with every sold copy of the second edition of CONCERNED--to announce its inception at Stumptown Comics Fest '08.
The second edition of CONCERNED will look far more professional than the first--complete with a perfect binding instead of the spiral bound first edition we had at Stumptown Comics Fest '07.
Furthermore, Adam has been kind enough to design our new NEOtrash ComiX logo & has placed it on our book, CONCERNED; making it part of the NEOtrash ComiX family. He didn't have to do this & I would have gladly shared the production credit with whatever studio Adam has conceptualized as his own. Instead, he has unselfishly placed the name of my company on it & for that I am very grateful. Adam will always be part of the NEOtrash ComiX family & I hope to keep writing graphic novels for him to illustrate. I have never had this much fun with another artist creating a book... so far. It'll be hard to beat.
"keep pen to paper"
Jason Zachary Pott
CEO/Writer/Creator/Publisher
NEOtrash ComiX
Portland, OR.
2008