Mid 1990s, I joined a local Amateur Press Association called Comicopia. We were a membership that produced bi-monthly material and commentary. I proudly debuted a 20 page comic story called 'Perry's Trip'.
I look on it now as simply awful. As a matter of fact, much of the artwork I produced for that APA shows an artist needing alot more practice and growth. That being said, I used the APA as an opportunity to flex my creative muscles, and debuted several characters, including Perry and Slam McCracken (more on him later).
The late 1990s, I began working at a local animation studio as clean-up artist on a Teletoon series called Bad Dog. Over time, I handled many different tasks on various productions, ultimately becoming a freelance storyboard artist.
During free time, I sketched random ideas. One of them blossomed into a few comic pages featuring a girl from the future, named KT and her entourage. Although I found KT alot of fun, one of her side-kicks really appealled to me:
I thought the idea of a fish needing a robot suit was cool (of course, the concept has been used in Jimmy Neutron and Megamind, but I'd like to think I was first). After alot of redesigns (many of which I'll showcase in a future blog), I decided that Pike Armstrong (as I came to call him) was strong enough to deserve a strip of his own. The concept is basically my love-letter to the super-hero comics I was exposed to as a youngster, with an unflappable hero sent from a doomed world, choosing to protect his new home from crazy menaces (sounds a bit familiar, I grant you).Pike wasn't the only idea I'd been refining over the last decade or so. A sketch inspired by the Far Side lead to another character I'm fond of: Slam Mc Cracken, hard bolied detective.
I worked up a pitch involving Slam, and was chosen as a finalist in Platinum Studios Comic Book Challenge. Afterwards, I took the time to produce an 8 page webcomic and was selected for DC Comics Zuda competition (I didn't win, unfortunately).
Much more on Slam when I devote a blog entry just for him.
In the meantime, I've filled scraps of paper with sketches and scribbled ideas, and stuffed them all in a drawer next to my art table. I'm excited about all of them to different degrees, and look forward to tinkering with them.
Which brings us to the present: I've decided to try fundraising to be able to produce finished material for several of my concepts. This blog is the first step, hopefully a tool that may pay dividends long term.
I'm honestly looking forward to the future of my fledgling publishing venture!
No comments:
Post a Comment