A Declaration of Sorts

I try to have a more Blue Collar approach to Comix-making than most of my contemporaries.  When I go to Cons and talk to my fellow Small Press Guys, most of them are flabbergasted at the amount of work I produce in a given year.  Normal People will look at all the comix I've got spread out on my table and will inevitably ask the age old question, "Are all of these comics yours?"  The implication being that you would need a whole team of people to produce the amount of comics I produce.  I reply, "Yep.  All mine.  I'm the Writer, Artist, Letterer, and (now) Colorist."

In today's comic book world, the average artist is just penciling a book and can usually only make four to six monthlies in a row before needing to be bailed out by a back-up artist.  Now, I will freely admit that a lot of those guys are WAY better artists than I am, and when it comes to their artwork you're getting Quality, not Quantity.  But having said that, it's worth noting that no artist working today is even half as good as Jack Kirby was in the 1970s, when Kirby was (supposedly) producing work that was not on par with his 50s/60s work (Ahem, this is a load of crap, by the by.  Kirby's work had simply progressed to an almost Primal Abstract state is all).  And during the 1970s Kirby was Writing AND Penciling at least 4 different Books AT THE SAME TIME.  And he wasn't some Youngbuck back then.  He was in his 50s.

Artists today though are a soft, weak bunch.  They don't have that Blue Collar work ethic that the Old Timers had.  They're White Collar guys who have been pampered and spoiled and get a page rate that ensures they don't need to pencil four books a month just so they can feed their family (okay, admittedly, that's a sign of progress, but still).  Me?  I work 45 hours a week in a sawmill.  Right now as I type this, I've got Poison Oak running up both of my arms, a bandage over the index finger of my right (drawing) hand from where a chunk of flesh got ripped off, and I got so many splinters in my right hand the other day that it took me two days to finally dig them all out.  At the Sawmill, there is no slowing down.  There are no Time Outs.  You've got to keep up the pace all day long, with the only reward being a couple of short breaks and a glass of water.  You have to work fast, efficient, and smart.

And that's the approach I take to Comix.  My philosophy is this:  If I can Work myself to death for 45 hours a week at a job I don't particularly like, then why shouldn't I put as much time and effort into my comix?  Seems obvious, if you think about it.

I've been taking it easy lately.  Being Lazy.  Part of that has to do with how hard I pushed myself last year with the whole 24 Comix in a Year Challenge (and even I will admit that I went too far with that one...), and part of it had to do with some personal problems I've been working through.  Mostly, I've just kept my two webcomix up on a weekly basis, and done a little extra work, and that's been about it.  But I'm bored with that.  I've been killing myself at work lately, and then coming home to get fat eating Cheez Puffs, and that's gonna stop.  I'm going back to being a Blue Collar Dude when it comes to my Comix.  That means 7 Pages in a Week.  Every Week.  Penciled, Inked, and if need be Colored.  7 Pages a Week.  Every Week.  Because I Love it, and Because I Can.