Let's go back to plan A

I think it may have felt like something of a wake-up call. Maybe it comes with age? Some sort of urgency to get things done?

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

This blog started out just as a little digression from my website. It was supposed to be a little supplement of Freesuperheroes.com that addressed the comic book geek in me. It kinda did for the first few posts, but it has grown into something more.

I've always had a passion for comic books, for art being told in a sequential format, especially when the sequences can exist side by side of each other. I've been drawing comic books since I've been a kid; and there's just something very special about the medium to me, that film, books or video games just cannot capture. I've been dreaming of having my own book published for a very long time.

But reality loves to slap me awake from the warm and toasty comfort of my dreams! In order to feed myself, have a roof over my head or maintain a visa to stay in America (oh yeah, I'm not from this country by the way), money's gotta be made! And comics can't really provide that! So I got myself a job in the video game industry. Not a bad thing to be sure! And everyday I am definitely thankful to God for blessing me with that! And hey, video games are fun!

There's always going to be that itch though... my need to tell stories through comic books, even though it's definitely not as lucrative as the film or animation industries. I've been very hard on myself for not drawing a comic book, or I'd always think about doing a comic book series, but I never motivated myself enough to do so. I'd always get depressed seeing all these creators on the comic book shelves, consistently pumping out their own books, believing in their ideas and sticking through a number of issues.

I finally got tired of my own whining and at the beginning of 2006, I made myself sit down and draw comic book pages, no matter how tired I was, after work. My goal was to get myself to finish a comic book within a year (roughly 22-24 pages). And the overall plan was to make a 5 issue story arc for the comic. Once all 5 are done, then I'll worry about pushing it on a publisher, or even publishing it myself.

Fast forward to now: towards the latter half of the year. I've chosen to do a simpler style thinking I'd be able to handle the drawing chores easier this way. I've gotten side-tracked here and there, got lazy every few weekends, but I've actually got 17 pages to show for it! Unfortunately, not lettered or colored, but I'm getting there. But how am I really doing?

I'm short by 5 pages, I have no idea how I'll end this issue, I face the prospect of adding pages, I have to fight the urge to want to go back and change things, I have such a hard time drawing in this style, work drains so much out of me all the time, everybody else is better and faster than me and the ever present feeling that I might be drawing the world's suckiest comic of all time hits me everytime I touch pen(cil) to paper!

Yeesh. Cry me a river.

I'm going to get this book done even if it kills me! And I just might hit my deadline with some of the latest news at work! My company felt like rewarding our team for all the long hours we worked on the project (It's called Death Jr. 2, for the psp, go buy it kids!). So I get 13 days of comp time!

13 days! Whoohoo! But instead of sitting around doing nothing, throwing pity parties, the plan is this: I maintain my regular work schedule but instead work on my comic book! I've always wanted to see what I could do if I had a regular job doing comic books, now I get to put my money where my mouth is!

So, what does this mean for this blog? Well, instead of me solely gearing it for comic book talk, I'll be adding in more stuff like the previous "step by step" posts into it. I'm making it into a broader blog, something that can still have me geeking out about comics but it can also include other things such as the process of me creating my comic book. So, me ranting will still exist (as you can tell by this crazy long winded post), but so will the warts and all (okay maybe not all) things that happen to me as I create my comic book. Heck I'll probably post stuff about the video games I play that distract me from getting this book done!

Or at least that's the idea! To kick it off, starting next week I'm going to try to post something up everyday, like a journal, no matter what I have, no matter how little it is and no matter how crappy it looks. So for 13 work days (hey I gotta have a weekend for crying out loud!), I'll have a little compilation of the stuff I went through to get my comic book closer to getting done!

So, say goodbye to "Comic Book Rantings of a Spotful mind" and Hello to "The Neverending Battle"! Since Superman has always been my favorite hero (That's right! Take that dark and brooding superhero lovers!), I'm stealing his little caption, to describe (not to mention melodramatic-ize) my goal to get myself making comic books! I sprinkled a small amount of sketches and pages from the comic book I'm making around this post: makes it a lot less of a yawn fest! And with that, I'm off! Come back on Monday to see how much I've slacked off! God Bless and Good night!