Notes from the Field: 30 Days of Night

A little over a month away and the veil of darkness will reveal all. If I wasn't so head down in my work, I'd be waiting with great anticipation and hope, but as it is, I'm running the last leg of this journey and surprisingly my pace is good.

In the past 3 days I managed to pencil 15 pages, and I still might be able to knock out two more tonight. It feels like I've been doing this all my life, and it's really become second nature. There's not too much I fear to draw at this point. Though I'm sure if I thought about it, jumping on a book with a lot of animals might raise the hackles on my neck. What's a hackle anyway?

Speaking of animals it reminds me about two years ago, early on in this process I met Bill Willingham, writer of Fables and Jack of Fables, at the Emerald City Comicon. He was coerced by an artist who knew him to take a look at my work. You could tell he was dreading it as he walked up to the table. He was pleasantly surprised and suggested I contact his editor to do a fill-in issue or something. I thanked him and he was gone.

Two things, 1) I really wasn't looking for work, and 2) he likes to write them pesky animals into his scripts. On my first pro book I didn't really want to fall flat on my face anyway. Soooo...I'll probably slowly start writing animals into my scripts. Actually I've got a yak and llama in an upcoming book, but that's another story. Regardless, I never contacted the editor. I figured if they liked my work then, there's a good chance they may like it later.

The reason I bring this up is that I've reached a point where professionals look at me as potentially capable. I never thought I'd get to that point, not like this anyway. I mean, I remember vividly when I started inking my stuff thinking, "I'll never be able to do this good enough." Eight years later...and I could see a semblance of consistency. I loved the learning, but it took dedication. So much in fact that I'm determined to keep doing things my way, and not "take a job" in the field as it were. I really do love this medium and I think with each effort, and added experience I get to grow in unpredictable ways. I just hope there's a publisher who thinks so too. Well here's the cover of the next BOOK. It seems soooo long ago...but really I remember how this starts solidifying the dangers that lurk for every one of our characters. I think out of all the covers this is one of my favorites...but there's on other that I like just as well coming up.

These are two sketches that I gave away...yeah for free! We're holding a contest for this here book each month we pick a winner and I send out the work...real simple. Go here to find out more.

Otherwise, that's it for now, sorry for the absence, Scott's been holding his own it seems. It's freaky seeing all these scripts that I remember reading sooo long ago.

=s=