First Post
‘That meme of a person dying in bed after trying to do everything themselves is very relatable.
But, this is still something I wake up and do and keep doing, every day.’
Hi, if you’re reading this, thanks for checking out my work. It’s tough to create an audience in indie comics, so I’m very grateful you are here. There’s so much competition in comic books, so many great artists and writers. It’s a daunting task to compete! Just trying to gain traction (hits, likes, followers), and to keep momentum (creating new art, books, updating social media and website) can be a never ending dark tunnel of mayhem, while somehow navigating a course to greater things... That meme of a person dying in bed after trying to do everything themselves is very relatable. But, this is still something I wake up and do and keep doing, every day. And, I’m not sure how to stop (even if I wanted to). My wife thinks its my ‘mania’ or ADHD that pushes me to stay up late every night making comics. It’s probably true, because it’s certainly not the money.
I recently finished book 3 of my current series DOMO Police and the Kickstarter went well, it was encouraging because there were a lot of familiar names coming back who had supported my work previously. It’s nice to know they must have liked something in the previous books to support me again. Book 3 is the start of a new chapter in the series, the first 2 books were a complete story featuring Ben Dunn’s (Antarctic Press) character Penguina. I wanted to start book 3 with just my own characters and to build on my own IP, so Penguina got replaced by Steller-J real name Juno Kaneko. I wanted a crime-fighting vigilante much in the way of Batman - rich, orphaned, with high-tech gear. I also took inspiration from Battle of the Planets / G-force which was a childhood cartoon I loved. And, while writing the first story (there are 2 in book 3) I ended up making Morgan March (who is the main-protagonist in the series) and Juno a couple. Not to push any agenda really, it just felt obvious they would be together, and opened up so many ideas for future stories. Their relationship was easy to write, and being a gay couple shouldn’t be a big-deal anymore.
I have recently made a small investment in two film companies: Robert Rodriguez's Brass Knuckle Films and Eli Roth's The Horror Section. Both have fantastic creative drive and it’s inspiring to be involved (in fact writing this ‘journal’ entry today was triggered by an interview with Robert). Plus Brass Knuckle films has given investors an opportunity to pitch an action movie idea to them, so I have gone back and reworked a pitch for DOMO Police as a supernatural action movie. The movie name I came up with is ‘Witch. Cop. Rebel.’ (DOMO Police and Morgan are still in it) and of course I’m excited to see how far my idea gets, or doesn’t. But, at the end of the day it’s fun to have a little stake (horror movie pun intended) in both film studios and I look forward to seeing how they both work out.
DOMO Police Book 4 is in the works, I have some ideas, and I have made some random drawings which will help me write the script. The kids are off for the summer so not much will get done until they start school again, but that is kind of perfect for me, as I have been feeling burnt out ‘on my death bed’ recently. So I will regenerate over the summer and get back to creating more seriously in August.
Check out my new TikTok social media channel @Vild.comics (thankfully it’s not me dancing just comic book pics and videos).
Chat soon, Jon.