Finally, Tracey. Sort of.

Early Tracey from Strugglers

When I first moved from my obsession/homage hero series Arche-Lady, I took a stab at slice-of-life--very loosely inspired by some reality. I wrote, drew, and made copies of Strugglers and Cavalcade of Boys as one-shots (I think they were both ~ 64 pages?) to sell at conventions. It became clear pretty quickly that Strugglers needed a bit more work, while Cavalcade was snapped up with a demand for "more."

 

From there, Cavalcade morphed into a series, and much later, I completed and published Strugglers as the OGN you can buy today. In Strugglers, three recent college graduates, Tighe, Midge, and Tracy, grapple with finding their respective paths. My original intention was to follow it with spin-off stories featuring each of the three roommates in their own graphic novels.

 

If you take the Cavalcade one-shot, plus issue zero, plus the flashback sequence of issue six, you pretty much have Tighe's OGN, though it was never packaged that way. Together, it forms a post-Strugglers look as the character comes into his own personhood, into his late 20s.

 

In fits and starts I wrote and drew Midge's solo story in Baby Makes Three. Here, Midge is in her mid-30s having a baby with her husband, as they try to balance adult responsibility and life's passions. This project took so much longer than I hoped... but finally up on ComiXology as an OGN for you!

Tracey's Love is the Reason cameo

 

At the conclusion of Strugglers, Tracey wins a song contest, which kicks off her career as a singer/songwriter. That kind of made her a natural to work into other works in cameos. She appears briefly in Love is the Reason and Baby Makes Three. And there's a name drop in "Things Don't Always Suck."

In the back of my head, I knew what Tracey's story was going to be, but it was pushed back--I wasn't ready to write about her, or write the story I knew I'd write.

 

Until now!

 

As Tighe aged up with me when I wrote Cavalcade, and Midge aged up with me when I wrote Baby, Tracey too ages up with me now as I write Tracey in the 16th Minute as my grad school thesis project.

 

I'm advised not to talk about my project too much, so I'll avoid particulars for now! But I'm happy to tell you about the format: to start, I am writing the story as a screenplay for my thesis project. Why screenplay? Have I raised my sights to film? No. But I do have some solid reasons for this decision:

 

1. Knowing of my comics career, my professors thought I'd lean into it for my thesis project and write and draw an OGN as my thesis project. Indeed, that was my intention when I first applied. I like to defy expectations, sometime.
2. Perhaps most importantly, writing comics, I write to my strengths and weaknesses as an artist. So, my art would be guiding me... and I wanted to break free from that, and truly focus on writing the story.
3. My thesis advisor has lots of Hollywood screenplays to his credit (I mean, actually turned into movies) and writing this under his tutelage won't hurt!

4. 

   Tracey's Baby Makes Three appearance.
   

   Dartmouth catalogues thesis projects in their library. So I'll be on record with a screenplay having gone through an academic review. This will formally speak to my ability to write for the screen. Many years ago, when Cavalcade was under consideration to become a TV show, I wasn't considered at all for writing duties, without any screenwriting to my credit. Not that Tracey will ever get filmed, but it's something.
5. I can always re-write the story as an OGN and draw it. And, in some format, fulfill my original idea of the quartet of short graphic novels.

That's not much of a preview... but all you're getting for now. I've just finished my first draft, and it'll take a few more before I'm ready to talk details.

Someday, maybe you can download it via Dartmouth. Or you might read it as OGN. 

Let's see how it plays out!

Inspiration is for amateurs...

I've had a love/hate relationship with Chuck Close's quote. If you're unfamiliar,

"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightening to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.” 

It's how I've lived and breathed my work in comics. Just keep working. Page after page. Almost nothing scrapped or revisited. Learn by doing. Though there have been some embarrassing results when I look back at early work, for the most part, I think my diligence and perseverance paid off. Each project better than the last.

In comics, I've focused more on my draftsmanship, and I can easily operate by showing up and getting to work. Inking, no problem to shut my mind off, listen to music or British comedy panel shows while I get the page done. Penciling for me requires silence, but still, I usually have no difficulty sitting down and visualizing a panel, page, or spread layout, compose in my mind, and draw. Though it never looks as good on paper as it does in my imagination, my best is my best.

Looking back at the quote, I might want to differentiate between inspiration and being inspired to work on a project. The latter is always more fun!--not being able to fall asleep because you're thinking of a project. springing out of bed in the morning to work on it, eager for the day job day to end to get back to the project. 

Writing had been where I probably had been letting inspiration strike. And, given how long it takes to draw a story, I could afford to wait. Entering graduate school, inspiration wasn't an option, and good or bad, I've kept writing.

Lately, I've been worried that I've still needed inspiration, with a few challenging writing projects at my door I've been delaying, postponing, and also procrastinating. But, huzzah, a breakthrough! Though I'd been ignoring the two projects, it was always due to a higher priority, often with deadlines in the latter half of 2021: thesis proposal, grant application, my final graduate course work, a short story for Image.

Turns out I didn't need inspiration, or to be inspired, I simply needed time! Without other work and projects with deadlines looming, I was able to produce respectable drafts of two projects that had taken the position of dead weight. Though my lack of progress had been nagging at me, creating an unsavory appeal for them, once it was their turn, I could simply get to work. 

The first was writing the pilot episode of Baby Makes Three as a radio/podcast play (you can read the OGN via comiXology). I'd had a few false starts... it was difficult to divorce myself from visual writing. The plan so far has been that my singer/songwriter friend Thom will write the music and songs. 

The second was the third vignette of my Sandwich Shop at 9th and Pine series. The first vignette was published in the peer review journal Clamantis (I'll blog about it soon), the second vignette has been penciled, inked, lettered, awaiting colors, and the third vignette was spinning wheels in the mud. But here, too, I was able to produce a good first draft.

Progress on these two projects has been a huge weight off my shoulders--knowing that now for writng too, I don't need inspiration, or to be inspired. Still lots of room for improvement, of course... so please excuse me while I get back to work.

 

 

Baby OGN update

Believe it or not, there is something of an update about this OGN I can't ever finish.

But first, let me share that this week has been awful! I awoke Monday feeling sick and by that night, I had a fever of 101+ that persisted most of Tuesday. I was somewhat function Wednesday-Thursday but the fever came back Thursday night, and Friday I pretty much lost my voice. It has barely come back.

But eesh, after so much couch time after hurting my back, and this past week due to the unexplained by my doctor illness, I am really tired of television.

Ok, back to the Baby book. You'll recall from past posts that I had written and drawn 6 chapters as vignettes back in 2005. I got distracted with my first Marvel assignment that Fall, and all kinds of projects in 2006. But I published the first 3 chapters in Something Fishy... in late 2006.

From there I got distracted with many things, year by year, until I picked it back up in 2011. I re-outlined the second half, attempting to give it more structure rather than the collection of vignettes it started as. I also wrote chapter 7 and drew 1.5 pages of it.

Then it sat again until earlier this year.

I had shared the original 6 chapters with Greg and the outline. He encouraged me to finish it...that it was cute and relevant. Accepting, too, that it would be far easily to finish this book than start one from scratch, I moved forward, and re-outlined the second half again. And re-wrote chapter 7. I've also drawn 3 more pages and drafted the cover. Wheee!

But something was nagging me about my outline. It was too much for what it was. So I condensed it from a 12 chapter outline to 10 chapters. Meaning, if and when I ever finish chapter 7, I'll only have 3 more to go.

Pretty awful for a book I hoped to have at New York Comic Con in a month from now. Booooo procrastination and sloth! 

Anyway, you should be following me on Instagram to see little snippets of drawings from this book and other stuff.

Will I ever finish?

Over the summer, I began plotting and writing the second half of my half-finished OGN working-titled “Baby Makes Three.” I was happy with the new direction I was taking, and inspired to keep going. I convinced a number of comic artist pals to draw pin-ups for the intro. I was asked for character model sheets, and here is what I supplied. Two of six artists have sent me their pin-ups. I myself have not gotten very far in book production. More soon.

Publishing

You may have seen my announcement on my site and Facebook about my latest book being dropped from DCD. This is bad news, as it represents a solid third of my sales.

While my business model allows me to print a new book from the profit of the last book, this is not a crisis for me. However, it does call in to question my future as a publisher.

DCD has encouraged me to solicit future projects (perhaps when the economy is better). However, without profit from the current book (likely if I can't sell it) to pay for the next, it's not encouraging to toil on a project for 18 months just "for me" (I'm not in this for the money, but I can't be losing thousands of dollars either).

So, what does this mean? The future is unclear. If I stay viable, I will proceed with "Baby Makes Three." I was gearing up to finish the OGN I started in 2005—I hate unfinished business!

If I don't sell enough copies of "Trust/Truth", I will likely just do a mini here or there, and work on pitch proposals. It seems like so many of the self publishers that were influencial in getting me started (Carla Speed McNeil, Randy Reynaldo, Paige Braddock) have scaled back dramatically or are on the verge of giving up. Feels like the end of self publishing!