First off all, anything "Platinum' about a Sesame Street soundtrack is 100% win. 👍🏾
I LIKE the way I do things. I LIKE that my saga is a mess. I LIKE that some people hate it. Hell, I LOVE that last bit.
And this is why I value your work. These days many people, including published authors, still think there are standards that every writer must abide by to be "successful". Well, pardon my French, but... who the hell has the right to make that judgement call? That's like saying the famous painters of old -- like Rembrandt, Da Vinci, van Gogh, and Michaelangelo-- got famous because they followed trends. Well, reality check for those ignorants: they DIDN'T. Michaelangelo didn't care what he painted, he just loved the act of painting. And van Gogh took his own life because he wouldn't conform to standards and he painted stuff that nobody valued except himself. Yet both painters are now household names in museums.
It's par for the course that a published author would take the time to leave such a stuck-up, conceited note on your front page. Lest anyone forget, I was a published author/artist once, and I found out personally just how not-grand such status can be. Don't get me wrong; I'm immensely grateful for the time I had with Alterna Comics, but in hindsight I can tell that if I stayed with them Lil' Hero Artists likely wouldn't have survived beyond the first issue (and Nick Vollmer would certainly have had a hard time keeping up with deadlines, since at the time he was managing a martial arts studios AND a position as a swim coach/lifeguard -- and we were around the same age at the time, in our mid 20s). But my biggest beef with this published dude who acted a prick on your site? That he DAMN sure isn't a creative soul.
The moment you sign a contract to work with a publisher (or if you self-publish with the sole intention of running your stuff like a business and making profits), I don't wanna be blunt here, but... you're a sellout. You're a sellout to trends, and to the idea of publishing for business. The comic book industry is in the shitter right now because it's mainly desperate hopefuls selling their souls to grease the corrupt machine that is "The Market". Statistics prove that working in this biz is a crapshoot; so many hopefuls walk into this biz hoping to strike it rich and "live their dream job", but the sad fact is that for its entire ninety-plus years of existence, the comics industry has mostly been contracts signed in blood and souls sold. So many creators (except for the rare indie creators who have more say in how their intellectual properties are used) get into the biz to write a comic / novel for an established publisher only to find that they get only lunch money in profits while their publisher pockets the lion's share form sales and basically ALL profits from licensing deals for merch, films, video games, and other media. It's nothing to brag about, especially when it's your main source of income (a mentality that even the pros suggest any hopefuls drop right away to save themselves a TON of heartbreak). And to your point about living Gilda And Meek and the Un-Iverse as it is because it's YOUR creation, YOUR baby, I'll just paraphrase a line from Captain James Kirk at the end of Star Trek Beyond:
"Comic book artists who sign up for this industry biz don't get to really tell THEIR stories and be happy with them, do they?"
*No. They don't.*
"Well, with all due respect... where the hell's the fun in that?"
I rest my case.
Keep it up with what you do with Gilda And Meek, Matt. At least you're staying true to yourself and are truly happy with how the story flows. And personally, it exemplifies the authenticity to your vision, which basically nobody in "the biz" can ever truly claim for themselves. 👍🏾
no subject
First off all, anything "Platinum' about a Sesame Street soundtrack is 100% win. 👍🏾
And this is why I value your work. These days many people, including published authors, still think there are standards that every writer must abide by to be "successful". Well, pardon my French, but... who the hell has the right to make that judgement call? That's like saying the famous painters of old -- like Rembrandt, Da Vinci, van Gogh, and Michaelangelo-- got famous because they followed trends. Well, reality check for those ignorants: they DIDN'T. Michaelangelo didn't care what he painted, he just loved the act of painting. And van Gogh took his own life because he wouldn't conform to standards and he painted stuff that nobody valued except himself. Yet both painters are now household names in museums.
It's par for the course that a published author would take the time to leave such a stuck-up, conceited note on your front page. Lest anyone forget, I was a published author/artist once, and I found out personally just how not-grand such status can be. Don't get me wrong; I'm immensely grateful for the time I had with Alterna Comics, but in hindsight I can tell that if I stayed with them Lil' Hero Artists likely wouldn't have survived beyond the first issue (and Nick Vollmer would certainly have had a hard time keeping up with deadlines, since at the time he was managing a martial arts studios AND a position as a swim coach/lifeguard -- and we were around the same age at the time, in our mid 20s). But my biggest beef with this published dude who acted a prick on your site? That he DAMN sure isn't a creative soul.
The moment you sign a contract to work with a publisher (or if you self-publish with the sole intention of running your stuff like a business and making profits), I don't wanna be blunt here, but... you're a sellout. You're a sellout to trends, and to the idea of publishing for business. The comic book industry is in the shitter right now because it's mainly desperate hopefuls selling their souls to grease the corrupt machine that is "The Market". Statistics prove that working in this biz is a crapshoot; so many hopefuls walk into this biz hoping to strike it rich and "live their dream job", but the sad fact is that for its entire ninety-plus years of existence, the comics industry has mostly been contracts signed in blood and souls sold. So many creators (except for the rare indie creators who have more say in how their intellectual properties are used) get into the biz to write a comic / novel for an established publisher only to find that they get only lunch money in profits while their publisher pockets the lion's share form sales and basically ALL profits from licensing deals for merch, films, video games, and other media. It's nothing to brag about, especially when it's your main source of income (a mentality that even the pros suggest any hopefuls drop right away to save themselves a TON of heartbreak). And to your point about living Gilda And Meek and the Un-Iverse as it is because it's YOUR creation, YOUR baby, I'll just paraphrase a line from Captain James Kirk at the end of Star Trek Beyond:
"Comic book artists who sign up for this industry biz don't get to really tell THEIR stories and be happy with them, do they?"
*No. They don't.*
"Well, with all due respect... where the hell's the fun in that?"
I rest my case.
Keep it up with what you do with Gilda And Meek, Matt. At least you're staying true to yourself and are truly happy with how the story flows. And personally, it exemplifies the authenticity to your vision, which basically nobody in "the biz" can ever truly claim for themselves. 👍🏾