(Originally posted on DA on Sept. 1, 2008)

Hope everyone's having a great and safe Labor Day weekend!

A bunch of stuff's been going on here-- well, to MY mind, at least. To anybody else, it may seem like nothing new's happening at all in my life.

First, my wife and I recently came back from two weeks vacation down south. For those interested, we went to: Louisville, KY, for a few days, then Nashville, TN, for a few more days, then finally, Pigeon Forge, TN, for about a week, with one night in Clarksburg, WV, at the mid-point of our two-day road trip back home to Western New York. Oh! For those who WEREN'T interested… um… I guess THAT'S a couple minutes you won't get back..!
Anyways, in anticipation to some obvious questions:
No, while we were in these cities we did NOT see (respectively speaking):
1. The Louisville Slugger Factory
2. Opryland
3. Dollywood
4. (I don't even know what Clarksburg, WV is most famous for… it was simply a convenient mid-point travel stop).
But, what we DID see:
1. Churchill Downs (site of the Kentucky Derby) – far more interesting than I expected. A definite highlight of the trip. Also saw the Louisville Zoo. And the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's plantation.
2. The Carnton Plantation, located near Franklin, TN. Likewise, the Carter House in Franklin. Featured in a recent novel by Robert Hicks, Widow of the South, Carnton was a fascinating, sobering historical site with a knowledgeable and empathetically guided tour of the interior. The mansion of the McGavock family was appropriated by the Confederate army during the bloody Battle of Franklin (Nov. 30, 1864)([link]) to be used as a field hospital during the fighting. The battle exacted a heavy toll on the rebels, particularly the Tennessee Volunteer Army, and the dead included four generals and over 50 officers during the 5 hour battle. The Carter House still bears the scars of hundreds of bullet holes and at least one cannon ball.
3. Hiked in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park a couple times, including a brief, exciting encounter with a bear.
4. Ate at a Chinese Buffet and then had ice cream! Yes!
Most importantly, though, I was able to check out a comic book store at each of our three main stops. Whee!

Oh, right.
Comic books.
That's what I was going to "think out loud" about.
I'm so easily distracted.

It seems that every time I go on vacation, and this year was no different, I'm always thinking/planning/dreaming about not having to work at my regular job on the web press anymore and instead, be able to focus my attention on more creative endeavors, namely: comics, film and writing.
Oh. Oh yeah. I want it ALL!
Of course, can I do it all?
Heck! Can I friggin' do ONE of those disciplines?
Well, that's the real, pertinent question, ain't it?

Unfortunately, I'm not independently wealthy and neither is my wife. She does make significantly more money than I do (thank goodness!), but still, I'm primarily responsible for paying our mortgage. So, whatever I do, I have to be able to cover that monthly expense for the next several years.
But, the other unfortunate thing is, all my ideas/aspirations for producing something creatively is all from an independent bent. Like, I'D have to produce it. I'm not really interested in working for Marvel or DC on their characters.
I'D have to self-publish my comics.
I'D have to produce and distribute whatever film(s) I make.
Uh, writing… I don't envision self-publishing so much. With writing I'd attempt to try and write and then submit it to various publishers to see if they'd be interested in buying my stories. In other words, the old school rejection letter route. And right now, I guess I'm talking short stories, because that's about my speed ability-wise (rather than a novel, let's say). And we're still talking with a lot of writing to be done on my part in order to fashion a story worth reading. Although, I'm definitely eyeing (mega-optimistically) the possibility of a novel of some sort; in fact, I'm considering short stories as a foot in the door (creatively) towards creating a novel.

Meanwhile, I'm also 48.
So, time is sort of an issue here, at least, if I'm expecting to have some sort of actual creative "career." I need to get my friggin' dreaming ass in motherfreaking gear.

So, I'm trying to get myself organized, try to set up a practical infrastructure for myself to produce work on a regular basis, and come up with some plan to follow through on these screwy aspirations that I have.

I had been recently thinking of setting the wheels into motion of producing a horror anthology. There were two other artists I wanted to work with and I was envisioning producing/publishing the whole thing myself.
I have some ideas with regard to various aspects of the project: story-wise and promotion-wise.
But as I was debating a workable yet low-budget strategy to accomplish this, it occurred to me that the biggest stumbling block is not lack of talent (art or writing, I have some solid candidates in mind) but the fact that I'm intending to be a part of this endeavor as well.
Me.
The guy who never finishes anything.
Yeah. That's problematic.

So, my very first step is to try and get MY shit together first.

Therefore, I've been trying to come up with a workable game plan to try and achieve this.

I've been thinking in terms of "self-schooling" or "self-training." I originally went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh WAY long ago, ca. 1979-80 (kee-ripes). I never finished, being the distracted dope I was.
Although NOW I look with envy upon high school students attending college, and that wistfulness originates from two emotional sources. First, the idea of learning something new AND also meeting like-minded peers. Second, the reminder of my (past) youth is very strong and bittersweetly seductive.
But I can't go back—at least not in time.
However, if I choose to go forward, that opportunity is always there, it just depends on how serious and determined I am.

The "self-taught" concept is also a reflection of me to trying to save money. I can't really afford enrolling in another college.
But I'll still figure out ways to spend money, oh, don't you worry!
There's equipment I need to get, like software such as Photo Shop or some such similar thing, when I try to learn how to use a computer creatively.
Yeah, I've outlined the "target areas" of my self-education as OLD SCHOOL LEARNING, NEW SCHOOL LEARNING, and PRODUCTION.
OLD SCHOOL encompasses gaining more artistic experience and trying to develop skills utilizing more basic art techniques, like drawing, inking, painting, anatomical studies, layout, composition, color theory, etc.
NEW SCHOOL addresses primarily the technology that's developed since the 80s, and continues to evolve. In other words, pretty much everything that kids coming out of high school today are familiar with, things that are like another, daunting language to me.
PRODUCTION is pretty much attempting to increase my abilities to: 1) actually finish something I start and 2) to do so in a quick, practical way so that the idea of my self-producing a comic book to the extent of my wanting to write, pencil and ink is not the most delusional thing anyone's ever heard.

Interestingly, one of the numerous purchases I made at the aforementioned southern comic stores was a book on the formation of the Image comic book company. It's called Image Comics: The road to independence ([link]), and it's written by George Khoury. I had heard about this thing through the pages of a recent Savage Dragon comic (an Image product, natch!) and I thought that would be fascinating reading.
Although I've been a comic book reader and collector over several years of my life, starting back, (way back) in the 60s, my interests jumped around (beginning with Marvel comics, then including and focusing on: Warren horror comics; Heavy Metal sci-fi adult fantasy; Love and Rockets, Yummy Fur and independent comics; Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run and some of the interesting titles from DC's Vertigo line). The huge superhero boom of the early 90s was something that didn't interest me. So when I found out about all this, the whole band of superstar artists jumping ship from Marvel at the height of their popularity and forming a brand new comic book company named Image was something I discovered several years after the fact.
The original comic book club I was in (uh, the Crabapple Club), that I occasionally speak about here (which spawned the current splinter group of the Apple Corps with sole members superpower-pnut (aka Lady Tanya) and myself) had as part of its membership three fanboys well familiar with that now long-gone era. Original Crabapplers Josh, Dan and Will knew of these hotshot upstart creators who bucked the work-for-hire system of Marvel (and the rest of the industry at that time). In particular, Dan and Will were huge fans Marvel (and Will was a HUGE fan of Rob Liefeld, and as far as I know, still is). So, I'd hear stories and was intrigued by all this missing current history in a pop subject I thought I was familiar with.
And so, I was very excited to hear about this book on the history of Image.
I've been reading the various interviews with the original seven founders and their Image characters: Todd (Spawn) MacFarlane, Erik (Savage Dragon) Larsen, Jim (WildCATS) Lee, Marc (Cyber Force) Silvestri, Rob (Youngblood) Liefeld, Jim (ShadowHawk) Valentino and artist Whilce Portacio.
Also mind-boggling to me were the sales numbers they were throwing around, how different the comics industry was back then.
When they were still at Marvel, MacFarlane, Liefeld, and Lee were responsible for the art for record breaking number one issues that sold in the millions of copies.
MILLIONS. OF. COPIES.
I think Lee's book set the last record, selling 5,000,000 books.
Today, I think the top selling comic book title sells about 250,000 copies and the very next title, the second best selling title, sells like half that amount.
Man, talk about a totally different cultural landscape!

So, as history I find this fascinating and the few excerpts I've been reading is just tremendously interesting as character studies of the various founders and also a vicarious consideration of what to learn from their whole experience, and also the consequent meltdown in the industry as speculation sunk its cold teeth into the business (among other issues).
But it's thought-provoking to hear how artists (the superstars) were convinced they could do it all (in terms of producing and selling a successful comic book) and the hard realities of actually trying to do it.
There are other stories of other, smaller comic book companies that are touched on, too, like Valiant and Caliber, names I had read on the covers of some book (usually in the back issue boxes) but had no knowledge of where they fit in terms of creative and historical context.

Coincidentally, and perhaps fittingly, I've been slowly acquiring more issues of Savage Dragon in the last year or so. Most recently, I've been picking up the first issues of the series and reading them in order. I think I've been particularly attracted to the book simply because I'm finding Erik Larsen, as comic book creator, to be an interesting character. Savage Dragon, the actual book, is not exactly my cup of tea. In fact, jumping onto the bandwagon now at issue 135 is a real challenge for new audiences because there's a bewilderingly dense cast and history of convoluted plots and developments in its long run (including dark twins and alternative universes), that it's almost off-putting. But oddly, I find this strangely compelling. So, I finally decided to see how the hell this whole thing came to be where it is today by starting at its beginning. So far, I have the first 13 issues plus the three issues of the original mini-series that preceded it, I believe.
And reading these old issues PLUS the Image book as it talks about the period when these issues first came into existence is a fun, informative and potentially instructive exercise. But, mostly, it's wild, weird and cool!

But, anyway…
Thinking about all this has been re-igniting a fire under my butt to proceed in earnest towards achieving my cartooning aspirations.
I figure I need to invest five solid years of learning, drawing and acquiring experience in comics creation and self-publishing etc., before I'm in any position to leave my job.
Ugh. Five more years?
Hell, maybe it'll even take… LONGER.

KEE-RAP.

Well, the sooner I start, the better, huh?

Anyways, that's what I've been thinking about.
And, sorry, you'll never get the time back you spent reading this WHOLE thing, either.
(But I appreciate that you DID take the time! Thanks!)

Later!
And good luck and a "keep on trucking" to anyone who has similar aspirations themselves!