CROSS-POST: News from Lousiana

Crossposted from the Creators On Demand blog--Just got an email from Leroy Douresseaux, reviewer for COMIC BOOK BIN and his own NEGROMANCER site. He lives in Louisiana, not far from New Orleans. Here's what he had to say:

"I'm OK, but please pray or think Galactus-sized happy thoughts for the people in N.O. and the rest of the Gulf coast affected by Katrina."

Let's all do so. Just talked to Carter and he's giving to Red Cross. If there's something you can do, this is a good time.

--John

Katrina News From Leroy Douresseaux

Just got an email from Leroy Douresseaux, reviewer for COMIC BOOK BIN and his own NEGROMANCER site. He lives in Louisiana, not far from New Orleans. Here's what he had to say:

"I'm OK, but please pray or think Galactus-sized happy thoughts for the people in N.O. and the rest of the Gulf coast affected by Katrina."

Let's all do so. Just talked to Carter and he's giving to Red Cross. If there's something you can do, this is a good time.

EXCERPT: The Fairer Sex Vol 2

Script completed: book to come out October 2005.THE FAIRER SEX: A Tale of Shades and Angels script copyright 1998, John Ira Thomas. All rights reserved.

The date above is correct. I wrote TFS in 97-98 in a big swirl. The idea was to cross what we were doing with a Dario Argento-style swirl of interconnected events. It was written episodically as an experiment; after the big slug of a story that is NUMBERS, it seemed the next thing to try. The idea was to introduce what I ended up calling "Oh sh-t"s every little bit. Lots of it was written in the 620, a bar that Jeremy bartended at at the time. I was the guy in the corner drinking sodas writing like he was in a library. For some reason, getting my eardrums kicked around was like monastic prayer when writing this.

The night I finished the entire story, it was a holiday weekend so everyone was off visiting family. So I went to the area's only strip club--it seemed the thing to do. I'd just written a giant meditation of capital W woman and the screwed up ideas guys can get about it. It was a weeknight, so it was pretty dead. So I bought a string of table dances (very cheap in Iowa) and talked to a very bored college student about nothing, mostly. We ended up talking about the book, since she asked what I was celebrating.

She was a Women's Studies major. Yes, it's cliche. True or no, it plays to a meme, and strippers are very good at memes. I discussed women's issues with a woman with glow in the dark tape on her nipples until my fives ran out and I went home. It was more a coda than a celebration, but you can't buy experiences like that. Well, okay, you can.

I told my mom this story and she said "Ohhh, your books are just like what you used to write as a kid." She didn't buy the idea that I was writing on some other plane just because I went and told a stripper about it. Mom's always about the story. We watched more movies together when I was growing up than you can imagine. She would watch anything as long as there was a story there. She disapproved of BOLERO because the story went nowhere, but loved SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY because she wanted to know how those girls were gonna get out of that mess. She likes TFS vol 1, by the way. I've got Mom on the hook. Wait till she reads Vol 2.

--John

ART: The Fairer Sex Vol 2

Here's an unfinished panel from THE FAIRER SEX: A Tale of Shades and Angels v2 drawn by Jeremy Smith.Image copyright Jeremy Smith 2005.

HISTORY: ED #1

Oh my goodness, it's ED #1. This was not a Candle Light Press production, but it is the first appearance of ZOO FORCE. This one dates back to early 1997, and was the first professionally printed book we'd worked on. Back then we were 3CG. I wrote ZOO FORCE, DAN CALLAHAN AND THE SAND PIRATES, and MAJOR DANJER AND HIS PLATOON OF DOOM. Carter wrote and drew NIKKI HARRIS, CYBERMATION WITCH, and drew MAJOR DANJER. Jer drew ZOO FORCE, and a fellow named Will Beard drew DAN CALLAHAN. Will makes his living doing professional cariacatures on the state fair/shopping mall circuit now, so we seem him infrequently.We were all set to go monthly with this 48-page anthology, but a fellow named Marcos Guerra changed all that. He'd picked up a printing business from a friend and found himself spending more time cashing checks for front money than actually printing. ED #1 was printed by an outfit named Domino Printing, but scheduling didn't work out for issue #2. We went with Marcos and it all went blooey. Want a reason we're quite happy with print-on-demand? Try never having to deal with people like Guerra again.

The ED book was to be a rotating set of four story slots, sometimes filled with regular cliffhangers, sometimes with one shots. We had three issues in the can and half of the fourth when we saw that we couldn't continue with it. We still have a box of these around, and have found them in the occasional quarter bin. Mile High Comics claims it's worth 6 bucks in mint.

The name for the book came from a stash of shirts that my friend Brian inherited at work. Apparently there was a guy named Ed there who ordered a bunch of new workshirts and then quit or retired before taking delivery. They were standard light blue workshirts with a patch that said Ed in cursive. Each of us wore one over whatever else we were wearing at the con. It had a nice effect.

What we learned on ED:
1) Monthly anthologies are a bear.
2) Police can be very helpful with printers who won't pick up the phone after they're paid.
3) We can come up with more ED puns than you could possible believe.

--John

HISTORY: Shades and Angels #1

1997 was a busy year. Shortly before we put out CANDLE LIGHT PRESENTS there was SHADES AND ANGELS #1. This was printed through an outfit called Defcon-something or other. It was a company that was comprised of workers at a large web-press printer that allowed them to use off-time to print comics. They were great right up until the time to send our art back. That took some doing. I have no idea why some printers think you don't want your art back. Crazy.The story is the first 48 pages of what is now NUMBERS. This version was hand-lettered by Jeremy with the Ames lettering guide and everything. You still see copies pop up occasionally. Jer and I signed random ones and for fun we numbered them suggesting that this copy was only number 4 of 23, or 1345 of 2200, or some such silliness. Instead of a glossy cover, we opted for a heavy non-gloss paper to make the black cover really eat up the light of its surroundings.

Things we learned with this book:
1) Lettering slowed Jer's output considerably. (Solution: I started doing the lettering electronically)
2) There had to be a better way than allowing printers to shoot directly from the art. (Solution: beef up the computer and learn at that time CorelDraw, later it became Freehand.)
3) Estimating the Diamond order for a book by two unknowns in the pre-Blogosphere days is actually pretty easy. (Now it's probably even easier.)

We always seem to do a book in close enough proximity to a convention to make our hearts race a bit. This one was no exception. We had a small press booth at the Chicago Comicon in 1997 to promote 3CG's ED (a book which had already been hamstrung by Marcos Guerra, which you can read about on our sister blog here.), and we saw a chance to have both books there. Well, we got the books the day before the convention; the art wasn't included with them, which started a whole round robin of odd conversations between myself and, eventually, the head of DefCon's girlfriend (the man himself became very very unavailable) about why they weren't included. Whatever was going on, either sloth and avarice, was in the end easily solved by explaining 1) keeping the art is theft and reportable to authorities, and 2) his bosses at the major printing company would not care to be made parties to this. Boom, FedEx next day. He'd "sent" the art (or promised same) more than five times, only to say "Oh, it came back for some reason" or "Shipping didn't do it". That's well past the end of patience. In situations like that, I frankly don't care if it's an honest mistake or not.

So we'd run through one more short-run printer. We'd found Harold Bucholz, but he was an all-ages printer, and NUMBERS ain't exactly that. So we plowed on ahead and looked for a way to publish numbers. For fun we made a gigantic minicomic of NUMBERS with covers made from the backing board of Strathmore pads and really large three-ring binder rings. But it wasn't until we met the folks from Unbound Comics that it all started to happen. So there was a fairly long period of time in which we were working on NUMBERS without any idea what published form it would take. We just knew we wanted to do this story, and we knew that quitting wasn't an option. We believed in the book, and what you do in this world is act on your beliefs.

I'll talk more about the eBook versions of NUMBERS another time. That's a whole story unto itself.

--John

HISTORY: Zoo Force #1

Here's another one from 1997. Harold Bucholz printed this one too. He has a print service that still going; he specializes in all-ages works. We laid this out in Corel Draw, so when we put out the current ZOO FORCE: Dear Eniko, we had to recan and re-lay out the whole sucker. If I told you how many times and formats we've laid NUMBERS out in, your hair would stand up. You'll recognize the cover, but the back of this edition is a swell Rocketdog ad by Carter. We love love love our ads around here. They add a nice texture to the reading experience. We're also guilty of making t-shirts with ads for Freedom City stuff...I'm wearing the Grap shirt as I write this.
Anyways, the book has a laminated cover, like a placemat, so it's stood up well over the years. Someone has actually slabbed one of these at 9.4 grade ($35 dollars?!?!). That was a disturbing discovery. Still, if Zoo Force takes off, that guy's gonna make out. There were 50-75 of these made, and they sold pretty well.

--John

HISTORY: Candle Light Presents #1

Back in October of 1997, Candle Light Press put out CANDLE LIGHT PRESENTS. It was a convention special for that year's MID-OHIO CON. We printed it using Harold Bucholz's short-run printing service. There's no cover price, but I recall it went for three or so dollars. It had a flip cover, alternating images from NIGHTCRAWLERS by Michael Ayers and Will Grant and NIGHT ANGEL by myself and Jeremy Smith. We made fifty of them and sold most of them off since. Each flip cover had an intro essay, one by Michael Ayers, the other mine. Reading them is a pretty interesting trip back to the early days of our efforts making comics. Here's Mike:

A Writer In A Sea of Artists.
I have a confession to make. I'm a closet artist. I occasionally act on the primitive impulse to create visual art. Boy, I thought that was going to be so much harder than it was. But I feel so much better now. Free. Why do I bring this up? Because I, like John, am...a writer. A comic book writer.
John and I have come to the realization that comic conventions are not created as a haven for writers, but for artists. They're the ones walking around with their little black portfolios spread out on tables talking about anatomy and proportion. Nobody gives a rat's ass about writers. It's a helluva lot harder to put a script into a publisher's hand and not get a look like "Say, I'm too busy to read it right now, but until I get to it I'll put it in this garbage can for safekeeping. Okay?" And can you blame them? Comic book writers tend to be like mufflers: sure, they're nice to have if you have the money, but we'll just turn the radio up otherwise. Hey, I'll bet the artist could write the story! Now it worked beautifully for Miller and even more so for Spiegelman, by McFarlane? Let's not get silly. It's a dilemma for unknown comic writers to be so ignored, when people like Steven Seagle are hidden somewhere over in "artists' alley".

It's even tougher to get respect from other writers when you write comics, especially in a college town renowned for its creative writing program. Everybody's sitting around, sipping cappuccino, sporting goatees and discussing oh, I don't know, Doctor Faustus as if it were better than something Marlowe crapped onto a piece of paper one day, which I have yet to be convinced of. You write...comics? Oh. You mean...like Garfield? You mean like Superman?

No. Not like Garfield. Not like Superman.

Artists and writers should gravitate toward one another more often, as they do in comics. We aren't doctors or something. We aren't saving lives, or teaching children, or splitting the atom. We create because we have something inside us that wants to make life worth living. It sounds trite, but it takes the edge off working and going to school all damn week if I can go see L.A. Confidential at the end of the week, or watch The X-Files. Or read a little Raymond Carver. Or, yes, stop by the comic shop and grab a copy of Shades and Angels.

Oh yes. Shades and Angels. The contribution from John and Jeremy is as much about making the world a better place as it is anything else. I try not to pick my comics apart, but hey, this is an introduction. Yes, the Night Angel chooses to pick up a sword and walk around and whap people into doing the right thing. The story "Absence" is a good example. What's he trying to do? Save a kid. I can't see the Shade doing that. The Shade is more interested in breaking them so they can't do the wrong thing again. And who's to say that one is right? The writer, I suppose, though I suspect John has less control over what they do than one might think. Every character in Shades and Angels has a strong will. From the vigilantes to the police detectives, to the greasy criminal minds, they make their decisions and they stand by them. Each with a different philosophy, they all get into the big boxing ring of life at the same time, slugging it out with one another while we wait to see who'll be left standing at the end. Place your bets.

And here's mine:

I hate self-publishing. I hate being the bearer of bad news ("late again"). I hate having to deal with loose cannons. I hate counting the leftover issues like strands of saffron, careful lest no wind blow. I hate dealing with oily "entrepreneurs" who promise one thing and deliver another. I hate "late".

"Late" means telling everyone you're sorry, nothing to worry about, it's the printer/shipper/malevolent eye of God slowing us up. Next week. Really. You duck your head a bit in your local comics store, that no-one catch your eye and ask "Hey, what's up with that project you were working on?" Last week they knew the day it was coming out; you're in development hell in a matter of a week.

The printer who sat on your finished books for a week before you called and raised holy hell to get them sent out calls to solemnly let you know that it's too late for them to print your next issue, blissfully unaware that you wouldn't trust them with your good wishes and fond hopes, much less anything tangible you needed back in two or three weeks time. I hate that feeling.

This is, of course, exactly what's so great about self-publishing.

Learning is never easy, and there are no guides to business for such an arcane and deliberately murky thing as comics publishing. There are books, but they point the easier way, toward work-for-hire. Day by day, that's a much easier thing. Some of the comics creators from two decades ago are astonished that anybody could be so stupid or so suicidal as to bankroll their own comic. In their time, it was. Now? Ehhhh.

You have to go out and do the thing; get the money, make your comic, and do it. Don't wait to be asked. Not famous yet? Keep drawing and writing. Don't let up. Like Sisyphus, we push our rocks up the hill of virtue, exerting until...until...well, you don't stop. You can stop; you're not trapped. If you do become famous enough, you can stop pushing and draw tiny heads and ankles, punch your clock and live your creative life in some other way; some have.

But before you start picking accessories for your action-figure line, you have to write, draw, publish and distribute this damn thing.

Mike and Will did it. I know them; yesterday they were these guys I knew, and today, they have a book, an actual comic book. It does change things. Even the person at the remotest possible point from the idea of comics perks up at the sight of the real deal in your hand. Suddenly, it is an accomplishment.

About a day later you flip through PREVIEWS and see how many other people did it this month, too. With ten dollar nude covers, yet. That'll depress you fast. You'll start looking for places to draw tits if you don't start taking the long view.

A life well-lived has stages, its joys and difficulties; comic creating is like that as well. Mainstream comics on the whole do not bear the imprimatur of the creators' souls; independent comics can be fascinatingly personal, utterly unique in their execution. Like the films not showing at your local mall, they give something more, something that isn't guaranteed to sell 200K a month ["No, no, here's the idea. He's strong, he's polite, he flies and he dies and he has a wardrobe change occasionally." "You REBEL!"]. Hey, we'd all like to get famous, rich and pretty at this; and you do this either by going for the tastes that are out there, or you do it by cultivating a smaller audience and helping it grow. A personal statement makes this so. Every person is a collection of stories, and as we grow to know a person, we learn more about a life utterly separate from our own. We grow as a result. The tits-on-the-cover audience will get no bigger, I assure you.

But I bet the audience for NIGHTCRAWLERS gets bigger. There's fireworks in here. Mike was probably expecting me to do an analysis of the story or the characters or something, but when it all comes down to it, literary theories, reader/response theory, all of that is just people trying to tell you how to enjoy a book. I don't have to tell you how to enjoy NIGHTCRAWLERS. Get started.

Included were NIGHTCRAWLERS #1, NIGHT ANGEL #1, the first ZOO FORCE story ("Enforcers" from ED #1), and the original VOX POPULI text and illo story from NIGHT ANGEL #1. It's a beefy book, and it darn near vibrates with the effort it took to produce.

--John

The WorldCat and Where We Are

The WorldCat is a fun tool; it's the closest thing around to a world library catalog. It hits a lot of places, and while it's not complete, it can offer up some interesting data.

Entering "Man Is Vox: Barracudae" gets:

IA UNIV OF IOWA LIBR--Several of us qualify as "Iowa Authors" as it turns out: Jeremy, Carter, Will and Ian. I haven't lived here long enough to count yet. Still, pretty much everything we have put out is in the Iowa Authors Collection here.

IA AMES PUB LIBR

IA IOWA CITY PUB LIBR--We're local boys; no surprise there.

AR HENDERSON STATE UNIV (Arkadelphia, Arkansas)--Turns out they have 566 graphic novels in their library collection. Neato.

DE NEW CASTLE CNTY PUB LIBR SYST

FL JACKSONVILLE PUB LIBR--Listed as on display (as opposed to other copies, which are listed as available for checkout) at the Regency Square Branch Library.

FL PUTNAM CNTY LIBR SYST--Interestingly, we're listed under Non-Fiction.

FL VOLUSIA CNTY PUB LIBR

IL GLENSIDE PUB LIBR DIST

IL NAPERVILLE PUB LIBR--Doesn't appear in their catalog, actually.

IN INDIANAPOLIS-MARION CNTY PUB LIBR--Also non-fiction. Hmm...

IN MONROE CNTY PUB LIBR--Looks like some desperado has it..."DUE 10-04-04BILLED"

IN TIPPECANOE CNTY PUB LIBR

KY BOONE CNTY PUB LIBR

MA MINUTEMAN LIBR NETWORK--The Arlington and Bedford copies are in, but the Newton one's out.

MN INVER HILLS COMMUN COL--Checked out, due 9-15

MN ROCHESTER PUB LIBR--Another one "On display"

MO SAINT LOUIS CNTY LIBR--Cross-referenced under "Serial killers -- Comic books, strips, etc."

MO SPRINGFIELD GREENE CNTY LIBR

NC UNIV OF N CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL

NM HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE LIBR--You know, over near Area 51? I think Nellis AFB is closer, though.

NM THOMAS BRANIGAN MEM LIBR, LAS CRUCES

NV LAS VEGAS-CLARK CNTY LIBR DIST

NY BUFFALO & ERIE CNTY PUB LIBR

NY CLINTON ESSEX FRANKLIN LIBR SYST

NY NEW YORK PUB LIBR, BR LIBR

NY SUFFOLK COOP LIBR SYST

OH CLEVELAND PUB LIBR

OR MULTNOMAH CNTY LIBR--One copy lost.

OR WASHINGTON CNTY COOP LIBR--Out--Due 9/6

SC RICHLAND CNTY PUB LIBR--One checked out, due 9/9

WI EAU CLAIRE AREA SCH DIST

WI L E PHILLIPS MEM PUB LIBR

After two years in the libraries, the book still gets play. Cool. When you're a small publisher, it's interesting to see who ends up with your books, especially the libraries. MIV: Barracudae got a great write-up in the American Library Association's BOOKLIST; that's what got the ball rolling with libraries. We've sold many more books than this to library supply companies and such, so there are more who have it. WorldCat only gives us a taste.

But it's a fun game to play when, say, bored to tears during a lull at the dayjob.

--John

INTRODUCTION: Jeremy Smith (pt 2)

Did you figure out the riddle from last time?

If you guessed "a disillusioned cartoonist toiling in obscurity", you're only partially correct.

That answer is the one at which my Hyde-side would love for you to arrive.

Flip the coin over and you get The Mighty JDog, light-hearted goof-ass.

JDog rips across town on his bike, bright orange backpack glowing in the sun.

JDog laughs with his friends at a late show of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin".

JDog talks in a silly-ass baby voice to Noodles, his cat, about life on other planets.

JDog (and his partner of 11 years, David) put on fake mullets and go downtown in trailer drag.

JDog sometimes LETS that other, nastier side have his day in court (if he feels like it). But then it's "Oh, get over it already!" and back to work.

JDog is the true spirit of the artist behind the Shades & Angels series, AND our other series ZOO FORCE.

Now, if you don't mind, I have to get back to work! JDog out!

--Jeremy

ART: Man Is Vox 3: The Other Way

Here's the first page from MIV3: The Other Way, drawn by Carter Allen. No lettering yet.

The Prairie Lights Reading

Here's the audio from the 7/23/05 Candle Light Press reading at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City. I recorded it with the built-in mike on my Archos Jukebox Recorder, which is so good that it seems to record its own internal workings. The occasional mmbleepclick is that. Next time I'll use a proper mike, promise.

It's broken into 9 files:
Part 1 - Introduction by Jim Harris (2mb)
Part 2 - Reading from DUB TRUB: Our World Is In Danger Now! by Carter Allen (5.5 mb)
Part 3 - Reading from NUMBERS: A Tale of Shades and Angels by John Ira Thomas and Jeremy Smith (4.5 mb)
Part 4 - Reading from THE SCROUNGE WUZ HERE by Will Grant (5.5 mb)
Part 5 - Reading from ZOO FORCE: Bean and Nothingness by John Ira Thomas (6.1 mb)
Part 6 - Reading from MAN IS VOX: Paingels by John Ira Thomas (2.9 mb)
Part 7 - Reading from THE FAIRER SEX: A Tale of Shades and Angels by John Ira Thomas and Jeremy Smith (6.2 mb)
Part 8 - Q & A part one (16.7 mb)
Part 9 - Q & A part two (12.3 mb)
Part 10 - Q & A part three and thanks (9.7 mb)

Content is copyright individual creators and the performances copyright the same way. Feel free to download for your own enjoyment, but do not sell it or do anything untoward. Remixing is fine because I do that a lot, actually. Enjoy!

--John

Our Mailing List

We maintain a monthly mailing list here at Candle Light Press, made much larger by the good people who stopped by our table at Wizard World Chicago. It takes the form of an epistle (bullet points aren't my thing) and lets you know where things are, how the individual Candle Lighters are doing, what they're working on that moment, etc. You can sign up for it by clicking here. We don't sell, rent or otherwise share our list, so if you address falls into the hands of people who think your genitals should be bigger, it wasn't us. Swear.

Just to give you an idea, here's August's Newsletter:

Iowa City's acting on a memory of Autumn and is percolating at a nice 80 degrees as I write this. Students are pouring back into town and yet it seems like only yesterday that the curbs were full of couches and IKEA lamps. Here at the CLP studios on the scenic East Side, ideas, sketches and plans are being made for the next wave (which for you means the books after the next books).

Carter's finished principal model work on ATLANTA, his next stand-alone sf graphic novel. He's been working with Lindsey Husak on that. That's Lindsey in the promo picture posted on our new blog, candlelightpress.net. More on the blog in a bit.

Carter's also been laying out the third DUB TRUB; we meet more agents, more foes, more more more! This jumped ahead of MAN IS VOX 3 art because of model scheduling, but things are still on course. Look for Lindsey on the cover of that as well, along with actress Rachel Grant.

Jeremy's inking the Basement Club scene from THE FAIRER SEX: A Tale of Shades and Angels v2 and it's going to knock you right over. That puts him within striking distance of wrapping up in Sept/Oct, so you'll be able to get your hands on it as soon as we letter it. Jer and I have also been talking ZOO FORCE 3 treats and extras; that's for after TFS v2.

Will's begun the final art for LOST IN THE WASH, and I guess I can talk a little more about it now that it's being drawn. Sometimes things can change drastically from a script stand point before the art gets rolling with any book, so I try to shut up about these things until I'm sure. LITW is the story of Darin, a suddenly ex-grad student who ends up working at a coin-op laundry in the mountains of Colorado, chasing a 15 year old memory of a beautiful girl and a dream of innocence. Call it a Gothic Horror/Adventure story, Lovecraft filtered through PICKET FENCES.

Ian's back at school, working on his strip MONSTER UNIVERSITY, and dreaming up his follow-up to LEAP YEARS. He's quiet about it now, and so shall I be.

I'm working on three sets of napkins these days. Those who've seen me write books know I'm a giant fan of writing on napkins; I still dream of those TWA napkins that fold out like a roadmap with two ply goodness to write on. I wrote a giant scene from NUMBERS on the front and back of both plies on one such beauty. First napkin is a Not Zoo Force story for ZOO FORCE 3. Second napkin is a new story idea set in Freedom City about friends, pot and running. Third one is a DUB TRUB story. Carter asked if I'd do a little something and I was happy for the opportunity. This one's waaaayyyy off in the publishing future, but I like staying ahead of the curve. I fill the napkins with dialogue bits, let the characters have their random say on things, then collect them.

Now, about that blog. We've started an "official" CLP blog at candlelightpress.net -- we're still posting to creatorsondemand.com, but the new one will be strictly about the books, the business and the people behind it. COD will be more wide-ranging, but the candlelightpress.net will have the news.

Wizard World Chicago was, as always, a fun and exhausting experience. We met some nice folks, sold some books, talked to our readers, and had a fine time. I got some Neutro sketches, bought my first page of original art (from INTIMATE LOVE, one of those "Girls, how can you get a man?" one-pagers), and did not manage to avoid the Italian giallo DVDs again (HOUSE OF CLOCKS and BUIO OMEGA this year). Carter got to talk to Walt Simonson a bit and watch him work, which Carter enjoyed very much. Jer missed Gene Colan, but fell in love with the TwoMorrows catalog (birthdays and Christmas for him are going to be terrifically easy for a while). Ian, fresh off the plane from China and the Phillippines, was so jetlagged he looked to be time-traveling; he turned up on Saturday and Sunday.

We still have some of the button sets and shirts left from the con. I'll post images on the .net blog in the next few days so you can see how cool they are. If you want one, drop us a line at ding@candlelightpress.com -- I think they're going for $12 plus shipping. I have to ask Carter. Button sets are $2 plus shipping.

I'm working on either streaming or making available on CD-R the audio from the Prairie Lights Reading from July. Jer, Carter, Will and I read from our works, answer questions, and have a fine time of it. As an mp3 download, it's kinda sizable, but that's an option too.

Hope this email finds you all well and happy. As usual, if you want off the list, just send an email to clpupdate@candlelightpress.com or use the links at the bottom of the email.

Best,

John

--John

The Secret

The commitment required to write and draw even a mini on your own daunts plenty of otherwise talented folks. I write, I don't draw; that's the biggest behind-the-8-ball place to start in comics. Lots of people get stopped right there. If you can afford to pay an artist from the word go, it's no problem; there are plenty of artists ready to get paid. Beyond that, well, it's not easy. If there's no money, all you have to offer is a commitment, a creative commitment. I've seen my share of people "hire" an artist (or try) for back-end "pay" and then proceed to treat the artist like an employee (ie like dirt). My favorite story was one would-be writer who tried to get artists to sign a three page contract that included clauses like: if any deadline is not met by the artist, then all copyrights, characters, character designs, and all the artist's output would become the property of the writer. He said he wanted to make sure no-one was wasting his time. These are the people you smile at, back away from and avoid later.

I've been accused of everything from sorcery to sexual favors when it comes to getting artists to work with me. I always tell these people how I do it, and they just snort and go off to revise their no-pay contracts. Here it is: Work with the artist; ask them what they want to do and write something that interests both of you. If you can't do that, find some money and pay the artist. If you have this perfect vision, this inalterable vision of glory, get a bank loan and pay somebody to draw it. Team comics are often derided because they are the products of separate visions; I say true team comics are a full collaboration from beginning to end. There are many many team comics that are indeed an explosion at the idea factory. But the way for a writer with few resources to get the ball rolling is to use your writing skills to engross your first and most important reader: the artist.

--John

I was gonna make a point about commitment, comics & metal bands

...but it got lost, so I cut the metal band part. But, waste not want not, so here you go:

One of the greatest record stores in the Midwest was Sal's Record Emporium here in Iowa City, especially if you're into alt-country. Sal's the only real casualty of file-sharing that I know of, as Madonna has yet to starve to death. Anyways, Sal's observation about metal bands has always stuck with me: metal bands never ever give up. Every now and then I'll skim the metal stacks and be startled to find that Savatage is still at it (I still have my "Hall of the Mountain King" disc, but alas, no extant pics of my 80s mullet), or Testament, or hell almost all of them. Some are pretty dodgy at this point (Warrant with a haircut is still Warrant. Sorry.), but if you like Savatage, there's more Savatage for ya.

There are plenty of folks toiling in obscurity looking for validation. Validation automatically elevates you past some dutch hair metal band trying to pass for System of a Down, right? Maybe they get validated too, though; maybe there's a stadium full of Japanese on pins and needles waiting for them to return, or a Belgian DJ making room in his schedule for a chat with them, or a rural Classic Rock station desperate to figure out how to get them to shout "We're Hammerhand, and you're listening to 94.1 KRNA, Home of der Rock! Ja!" into the phone for them.

But is it true that all metal bands have this ethic? Nope. For every Savatage there's a Realm, a Scarlett O'Hara, a Warrant (you didn't hear?), and many many more that did give up. But we don't remember the vast majority of metal bands who were on and off the radar. For every band that got a minute (:53 seconds actually) of attention for their speed-metal ELEANOR RIGBY cover, there's plenty who got less. It's just that the ones that got our attention are keepin' on keepin' on. They got their dose of validation, and they're aching to reclaim it. Some stay for the "art" of metal, but metal is a strictly technical genre of music. It's a lot more complicated than it sounds or looks to do well, but it's a very narrow genre.

So this has something to do with comics? Sorta.
The rest I wrote after "sorta" is tomorrow's candlelightpress.net entry. The point ended up in my mind being more about metal than comics, so snip!

INTRODUCTION: Jeremy Smith

Here's a riddle:

I really used to like the feeling of escapism, the thrill of make-believe.
I used to love watching a good movie, or devouring a really cool comic book and floating away from the experience inspired and ready to try it myself.
I used to wear knickers and bow ties and pin-striped suit jackets and prance around town with a croquet mallet on my shoulder.
I used to have all the time in the world, so why not have fun, right?

But there are things that have to get done.

Now all those fun things always feel like a waste of precious time.
Now I still stubbornly love bright colors, but almost all my art is black-n-white.
Now I work all night, AND most of the day.
Now I try to get the dishes done and the kitty litter changed and the trash taken out.
Now I am a janitor.

But I constantly wear a pencil behind my right ear to remind me I am not.

What am I?

(I'll have the answer next time...stay tuned.)

--Jeremy

The New Hard Drive

Tonight I get to reinstall everything on my computer after a harrowing incident last week. One of those fun key Windows file corruptions happened and flooey. Fortunately, that was the extent of the damage, but these are the time when my mind turns to fatter hardrives. Using a 20 and a 40 gig non-RAID hard drive setup may have ultimately led to the problem, so I've ordered a 160 gig to cover that one. We back things up like madmen here at CLP, so nothing comics-related was lost.

Other than that, we've started up an "official" CLP blog over at candlelightpress.net -- this blog will still be around, and it will still cover a wide range of stuff, but the .net blog will be about the comics. Have a peep.

INTRODUCTION: John Ira Thomas

I get a lot of strange looks when I introduce myself to folks who've read my work. I guess they weren't expecting me. So here's who I am, at least some details.

I was born in Eastern Colorado at the end of the 60s, a town too small to worry about. Spent most of my childhood in a town called Lamar in SE Colorado. The first book I remember reading (Mom says I started reading at 18 mos--Dad has a story about a coworker thinking I was the AntiChrist) was FREDDIE THE PIGEON, a book I recently reacquired and reread. That's one psychedelic book. I jumped from there to Ian Fleming novels; mostly because that's what was around and FREDDIE had inspired an interest in spies. Somewhere in there I was asked not to return to my Baptist Sunday School because of a picture I drew. (I still have it--nobody can figure out why that happened)

Moved to West Texas in 1985, finished high school there in a town called Perryton. Fled there as soon as I could to Lubbock, Texas, to attend Texas Tech University. Got a B.A. in Philosophy (Logic and Ancient Phil mostly) and an M.A. in Classical Humanities (Greek language and culture) there. Went on to the University of Iowa for a Ph.D., but settled for another M.A., this one in Latin. I just got burned out on the whole grad school to professorhood path.

Not long after I left school, I visited a friend finishing a Ph.D. in Archaeology at UCLA. I was working a 3rd shift job at the time, and my internal clock had been inverted for about a year or so, working 11pm-8am with one other person tops at any given time. My social skills were vanishing; I actually hadn't written a word since I started the job, I was so disoriented. I had a bundle of vacation time, so I went for a week to stay with my friend there.

I had never seen an ocean. I had not seen much daylight at all for a year. I almost panicked when I saw California. The size, the light, the ocean, the whole deal.

We went to a party one night, a gathering of the other Archaeology Ph.D. candidates. After a few drinks, talk turned to the future--job prospects, what conferences they were interviewing at. Then after my friend revealed that I wrote comics, talk turned to hopes for the future. One talked of "making the first classical comic"--he could totally do that. I brought up Frank Miller's 300, Shanower's AGE OF BRONZE. Oh well.

Another said that when he gets tenure (after he gets a job), he would write detective novels. Cool, I say; how long have you been doing that? Well, not at all yet, he says. He says he's always wanted to write detective novels, and when he gets tenure (after he gets a job) he will start.

I had no idea what to say to this. This guy is not your average "as soon as someone pays me I'll make art" do-nothing, he's getting a Ph.D. at UCLA. He knows how to accomplish things. He perked up to a level unseen in the conversation when he talked about writing detective novels; Archaeology, not so much. But had he even written a single word? Nope. Frightening.

I came back to Iowa and put my notice in on my 3rd shift job. No more toiling in darkness. I took a job as a frontline counter guy in a pretty contentious environment. The words came back; the sun shone again; and I decided I wouldn't wait for anything when it came to making comics.

So there ya go. Nice to meet ya.

--John

ART: Atlanta

Here's an image from Carter Allen; it's from the preliminary work on ATLANTA, his new SF one-shot coming 2006.

Image copyright 2005, Carter Allen.

Saturdays

We are a clerk, a graphic designer, a janitor, a college student and a print shop guy/touch-up artist. We are Candle Light Press.

A few years ago, in the midst of worrying where the time goes with dayjobs and such, we instituted a comics workday, Saturday. On Saturday, all else takes a backseat. Obviously, we work on comics more often than that, but the psychological effect was far-reaching at the time. We were all despairing that books would never be finished, that the death-of-a-thousand-cuts day-to-day existence would swamp our efforts.

By declaring Saturday a haven from the quotidian, we suddenly had a time when everything else needed an excuse to interrupt comics-making, not the other way around. So much time and optimism was being burned up in justifying the little snatches of time that maybe, yeah, I could be writing that new thing, or Jer could be inking, or Carter could be clicking. Declaring Saturday the comics workday cleared all that out. Once there was Comics Time, making more time turned out to be a snap.

If you want to make time to make books, you have to change everything: your habits, your sense of idle time, your environment, the whole thing. Then all you have to bump up against is the day job. For me, it's easy enough; it starts early, so it's out of bed and off before I come to my senses. Jer and Carter are up well before they go to work, so there's that countdown mentality...one more page before I go to work...maybe fix this panel up too? Ian is still in school, so his schedule is just crazy; Will works a couple gigs on top of his art. We all have something that demands a wedge of our day so that we can do (and pay for) the rest.

And even though we work on our books pretty much all the time now, Saturday is still the best day of the week.

--John

EXCERPT: Lost In The Wash

In progress: script complete, pencilling begun. Look for this in 2006. From the script by John Ira Thomas:LOST IN THE WASH script copyright 2005, John Ira Thomas. All rights reserved.

Welcome to Candlelightpress.net

Candlelightpress.net will be the official news outlet for Candle Light Press. There will be previews, announcements, all manner of things. Enjoy!

THERE GOES NEUTRO REDUX

Okay, here's another go at posting the Neutros I got at Wizard World Chicago.

Walt Simonson

Sarah Becan
Jason Robards
Katherine Wirick

Katie CookI keep some old scans up at There Goes Neutro, a site sadly in need of upgrade. Even personal obsessions can get set aside in the flow of days.

There Goes Neutro!

...right down the drain after I had the post all laid out nice. Fooey. Will attempt this again later.

More thoughts on the place of print-on-demand in comics? Sure.

Currently, we have no relationship with Diamond Comic Distributors. Back in the mid 90s, we put out an issue of SHADES AND ANGELS (essentially the first chapeter of NUMBERS) through them, and before that there was ED #1 (first appearance of ZOO FORCE) as 3CG. Now that we're distributed by a book distributor (Ingram) and a reorder distributor (Cold Cut), Diamond is more of a nice but not necessary deal. Ingram has a much greater reach (we are better represented in our local bookstores than in our local comics shop), and with Diamond you're in the catalog for a month, then poof! Diamond's desire for exclusivity precludes any other arrangements.

Still, those who know a bit about comics distribution look confused when I explain that no, we're not carried by Diamond, we're carried by a much larger book distributor--silence. What could be bigger than Diamond in comics? Diamond has done a good job of convincing folks that being in PREVIEWS is a stamp of approval, a mark of quality, proof positive that your work stands tall with Certified Cool books like LIBERALITY FOR ALL. I tell these folks there's a bigger arena out there for comics, and that there are multiple paths to the palace of wisdom here.

Print-on-demand is still like magic to me, even. In a poster we did for THE CHANGING BOOK, Fred Haygood tells Tom Hobbes that the process may involve "fairy dust and taco sauce for all I know, but at the end you get a real book." Still seems that way to me too, Fred. Instead of landing books at all the US comics shops, we can now hit any store on the map, worldwide. It means entering the arena of the book industry itself; and when folks there are still calling graphic novels a "genre", it can seem like a much better idea to scuttle back to the home crowd.

So here we are, making longform comics, skipping the monthlies and making exactly what we intended in the first place. We made a book with Matchbox cars and handpuppets; we made a multi-part original graphic novel series with cliffhangers; we have coloring and puzzles; we are doing more as I type this. I have a figure from a printer that I got a few years ago when (pre-POD) I was looking into an offset-printed version of NUMBERS. Eleven volumes of print-on-demand books later, I find we could do thirty more volumes before we exceed that cost. Where the off-set NUMBERS could have been, at best, in a couple issues of PREVIEWS, these eleven books are perpetually orderable through any outlet that uses Books In Print. That's the killer figure.

But, then the problem goes back to, who's buying? A thought for another post...

Ah the Experience, Ah The Innocence

What to say about Wizard World Chicago? Hmm. It's really really big, and it acts as a harrowing for people not interested in the big boys. Think of the room as a filter...If you make it through Marvel, DC, Tokyopop, etc, then you must pass through the second tier of blue-curtained booths...then through the dealer area...and then at last artists alley, the end of the road (unless the loading dock is of interest). Anyone who makes it that far is looking for something different (or the toilets).

I met some great folks, nabbed a few interesting comics (three made me laugh out loud--Ouija comics are too cool), and we sold our share. Talked with another reviewer for the ALA Booklist (Hi Tina!), got some Neutro sketches (I will scan these for you in the coming days), got a fantastic piece of original art from an old romance comic, and satisfied my geek urge. We even vastly expanded our mailing list, thanks to a giant pen (think comedy big) from Walgreen's.

The best part was talking to people who'd read our books from last year and came back wanting more. That was a gas. Still, even with the filter in place, it's a tough room. This is still a con for people who want their existing tastes validated more than anything else. Its size and lack of comparably-sized midwest competitors draw in some folks interested in something different, but it ain't SPX, APE, MOCCA or the like.

We can be a tough sell. LJ Douresseaux told me once that once he learned how to read our comics, he really enjoyed them. I read a random quick review of THE FAIRER SEX that said it sucked because there wasn't one of those "And here's exactly who everyone is" pages. You need a page like that if you need to know that this guy is the rebel and this gal is the abused one to explain the action; but if you write motivations into the action, then you find out for yourself who these people are...they ain't the X-Men.

An interesting occurrence was explaining to folks that we were the artists and writers, as well as the publishers. There was a lot of surprise there; many folks thought we were merely salesmen. Okay, we're not kids, and several of us have dayjobs in frontline public contact; so we don't present ourselves as your average DIY types. That picture in the middle of the page here, that's us. Well, that's us having on the Sears Portrait Studio people, but there you go. I know whenever I get introduced as the writer of MAN IS VOX, people tend to disbelieve it at first, then get a little more creeped out, because I look basically normal. It's almost scarier, right? He seemed like such a nice man...

Still, it's easy to overdissect these things, resecting a liver until we find that it's just all liver. Cons always feel like Schwab's Drug Store, the place where you suddenly break out. There's a fever that can take hold. For some reason, each day you spend working, writing, drawing, publishing, none of those feel quite the same as the con daze. And that's strange, because those are the moments that matter. At a con, you're a raw nerve jammed in a river of sense data; no wonder most con stories involve drinking.

In the end, WWChicago was fun, but I can't help but feel there are greener pastures awaiting.