Making it Happen

The world is changing, and a lot of that is due to small businesses and how we run those businesses.  Funding has always been an important part of growing a business, and for years that funding was up to the local bank to start with, and eventually investors if you got lucky.  Today, however, funding can be a lot more personal, and a lot more interactive.  Yes, I am asking for financial assistance; at the same time, though, I want to give something back (cool prizes!), and, just as important, bring you the reader, and me the creator, closer together.

I'm not looking for a hand out... I am looking for people who believe in me, and enjoy my work, to come together to show that support, and have some fun while doing it.  I would like it if this Kickstarter of mine can be like a virtual party, where I can talk to old friends, and be introduced to new ones, and I can share my work with you and ideas for growth.

Let me be honest here...publishing is a difficult and expensive business, even for those with a line-up of marketing professionals and a string of best selling authors.  When one person, me, is running that business, well... the business runs you... ragged! :0)  Think about this;  I am the business, which means all products come from me, and it can take about three years to create a book.  Three years in which I need to rely on my previous books to finance things.  Fortunately, for me, I was able to build up a freelance illustration career which, while keeping me away from the comics, provided me a way to make an income while doing what I love... art.

When cartoonists ( or many other people) start out, it's necessary to build up experience.  I did a lot of work for free, and then for very cheap.  Luckily, my passion for my work came through here and there, and I was able to sell some of my cartoons, which then lead to bigger work. As a creator, though, creating characters that you hope will one day become icons requires more sacrifice.  I've practically given away a lot of my stuff just to get my name out there, but that can only last so long.  To stay in business as a cartoonist, the business must grow, and become more self-reliant.  Otherwise, I need to turn to freelancing full time, just to pay the bills.

In this day and age, a lot of us must reinvent ourselves.  I've given a lot of thought to what I want to be when I grow up, and the answer is, and always was, a storyteller.  Even in my illustration work, I try to bring life to each image, and have that image tell a story, and I love that.  However, I love even more drawing a black box and looking through it as if it were a window into another world... which it is!

That comic panel to me is a portal to adventure, where all those silly things in my head come out to play, and I love that.  More than anything.  So please help me to continue that dream. If you like my work, then please get involved.

The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake can be a last hurrah, or a new beginning.  It really is up to you, because frankly, the stories are here for us to share.  As much as I love creating them, they're a heck of a lot more fun when I can share them with someone.

Thanks for reading!  I'll post the link to the kickstarter below.  Please take a peek at it, and feel free to ask questions or just chat in general.  I look forward to seeing you there!

We are live!  And here's the link:   

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/happyglyphs/the-ghost-pirate-skeletons-of-three-craters-lake

JOHN :0)

These cool postcards and fridge magnet are just the beginning of the rewards
I've come up with to thank you for your support. :0)

MId Ohio Con 2011

This year, Wizard World took over the Mid Ohio Con, so it was supposed to be a whole 'nother show.  And it was... in a way.

Last year was a nice, fun show, but I didn't do as well as expected, or as well as I had at the Baltimore Comic Con.  I came again since it promised to be a different experience, but  I could have done better...  at least sales-wise.  The thing is, you have to look at the intangibles, such as meeting nice people, and enjoying the show itself, seeing friends, and seeing who stops at your booth, what they look at, and learning a bit about your audience.  

I met some great people... some of them very nice, interesting, and talkative, but few were what I would consider my 'audience'. Future audience, perhaps, but like last year, there was very little at this show that mentioned comic strips.  Movies, toys, comic books, yes, but comic strips, no.  Tom Batuik of Funky Winkerbean was there, which was a plus, but I didn't get a chance to get over his way.  It would have been nice to talk to him about comic strips, if he were willing.

It just isn't Comic Con without Stormtroopers. :0)

And there were few people who seemed to be looking for 'something different'.  There may have been, in Artist's Alley, but I wasn't in Artist's Alley this year, and more's the pity.  I had a Small Press booth, but I wasn't in a Small Press area... a few people even asked "What are you doing in this area?". 

The people who did stop by to talk or buy something I feel stumbled upon me, which is quite possible since I was surrounded by a guy selling t-shirts, a guy selling toys, and a guy selling old comic books.  Thankfully I was able to get the attention of some great people. but I feel like some people didn't make it down my alley, or if they did, they moved down it too fast, or were captivated by the t-shirts.  I did see several people who I felt definitely would have liked my material, but they never even saw it as they went by.

So am I over analysing things?  Perhaps, but hey, if you want to sell something, especially in this economy, it pays to know a little psychology.  And yes, perhaps the economy did affect things. I mostly sold only the small money items, such as my comic books.  This was the first time ever I didn't sell several of the big books.

Don't.  Blink.

So did I have a terrible time?  No, not at all.  I did, however, spend all my earnings on Fantastic Four collections, but hey, I got some great deals.  And I did meet some wonderful people, like the kid above in the Weeping Angel costume.  Most of the people in costumes seem like nice folk, and fun, and most of the people who bought my stuff were friendly and articulate.  I had a lot of fun, at times, but those times when no one stopped by were dreadful.  All shows have slow times, but today was really slow.

If I had written this yesterday morning, it would be all praise and exclamation points. After all, I finally sold out of The Inquiring Minds #1, and The Inquiring Minds: Funny Pages #1 did very well.  In fact, most of the people who stopped by were kids with their parents. 

I'll have to think long and hard about next year.  I do have big plans for HappyGlyphs, and depending how things go, I may have to do a lot of shows to support those plans.

We'll see!    JOHN :0)



Art Imitating Life: Snowie

They say that Life imitates Art, but for a cartoonist, Art so often comes from real life. It’s the ‘write what you know’ theory. In this case, a hungry white cat showed up on our doorstep one night and turned our lives upside down. It was immediately expected, by those following the story on facebook, that this blizzard of fur had to appear in Knight and Day.

Oddly enough, I once had a cat very much like Snowie, and it was always my intention to have Snowball appear in my comic strip one day. As nice as that would have been, it just didn’t feel right when Knight and Day rolled around. However, you can see her in a few of my earliest comic strips, in my book Once Upon a Times....

Now, however, I can pay homage to both cats at the same time, and get inspiration from both real life and from happy memories.

A star is born. :0)

JOHN :0)
PS On my iPod?  Sarah Brightman, La Luna