I’ve always loved comics, they were my first artistic muse. i spent most of my early years imagining myself drawing them for a living. i aimed my studies towards them, i worked countless hours trying to hone those skills. comics were only growing in popularity at the time, they were starting to be “cool”. then the 90’s speculator bubble burst, and the industry was a wreck. from the outside looking in, it felt less and less like it was a viable career path. more and more people were moving on to other jobs. i had friends going into animation, why shouldn’t i give that a try too?
I went off to college in san jose, knowing a degree doesn’t determine your artistic ability. i went there with the intent to use the connections and friendships i’d make to find work. i knew working in a production environment would hone my skills. i landed a job doing flash animation and had the chance to work on one of the first motion comics released. sure i wasn’t doing actual comic illustration, but it felt good to try and use the talent i’d worked so hard to foster. then the dotcom bubble burst at about the same time 2d animation was being declared dead. now flash animators were having to fight for jobs against seasoned disney animators… i moved back home in order to figure out what to do with myself. on a whim I dropped off a portfolio at computer cafe/cafe fx. i landed a job there doing roto, based on my familiarity with vector splines. i got to work on league of extraordinary gentlemen, sin city, hellboy, and a blade film. sure i wasn’t drawing comics, but it still felt good to work on the films.
Time passed, i’ve spent 20+ years working in visual fx, but i never lost my interest in the comic medium. while i stopped being a collector, i never stopped believing in the art form, or buying books that intrigued me. the recent hollywood strikes have greatly affected my industry. like many of my peers, it’s been hard to find ways to channel my creativity, never the less it’s been integral in dealing with the stress and anxiety that comes from having your livelihood stripped from you for months on end. made all the more frustrating when it’s due to some studio executives posturing in order to facilitate more corporate greed.
Prior to our break, i’d been lucky enough to run across a crowd fund campaign for a creator owned project called ax-wielder jon. the writer/artist/creator nick pitarra had posted it to a group i belonged to. it was clear that it was a passion project for him. all the things he loved, in a book he was proud of. i’d jumped at the chance to support it, and it must’ve resonated with a lot of people because so did a boatload of others. as with a lot of crowd funded publishing, it takes quite a while to see the project you’d backed come to fruition. the art for ax-wielder jon was near finished before the campaign ended, but it still had to be colored, lettered, and sent to the printers.
nick chose to send backers a pdf of the book so they could read it while waiting for a physical copy. i enjoyed the hell out of it. the character was cool, the hook pulled me in, the punchiness of the dialogue lightened what could’ve been an incredibly bleak tale. it was a really fun read, and i set the pdf aside and waited for the book to arrive. work got really busy, then disappeared. one day i got a package. i’m old school, i love the tactile feeling of flipping the page. i don’t enjoy the floppy individual issues as much anymore, i’d rather it be hardcover and collected. it feels more significant that way, it feels more inspiring. i knew i had to draw jon, i knew how i wanted to draw him, and how i wanted it to look. i had time on my hands to do it, so i spent a few days on a piece that i usually wouldn’t have a chance to do. drawing it felt like hanging out with an old friend. sure you’ve both changed, but just being around them reminds you of all the good times you spent together. it’s special, so you do your best to create some new memories together.
That’s what i did, i threw all of me into doing something just my own enjoyment. as a lot of working production artist’s can attest, you get into art to do something you love, and before you know it, you don’t have the time, motivation, or stamina to do anything just for fun. it’s a job, and it’s hard to separate that long enough to zone out and remember what it’s like to be a kid, at a table, with a piece of paper and pencil, drawing something cool, for no other reason that it sounded like fun… and oh what fun it was…. i love how it turned out, and from his response, so did nick, but what do you think? you reading ax-wielder jon? do you plant to? feel free to message me, i’d love to hear your thoughts.
