FREELANCERS‘ final chapter hits shelves this Wednesday. I’m sad to say goodbye to the girls (for a while…), proud of Team Freelancers for the work we did (shout outs to Chris Rosa, Bryce Carlson, Matt Gagnon, Felipe Smith, Joshua Covey, Popov Vladimir, Patrick Brosseau, Ian Brill), and still floored that I landed the gig in the first place.
Freelancers #6, available 6/12/13
This book literally changed my life. I’d never worked on a multi-issue arc before FREELANCERS, never worked a convention outside of Arizona, never flown on an airplane, never left the country, never had the support of a dedicated marketing team. Hell, I still had a day job.
Five issues later I’m a better writer, in a better place emotionally, and about three weeks away from achieving my over-a-decade-long goal of getting the Hell out of Tucson and starting my life as a multi-platform pencil-for-hire.
Freelancers #6, available 6/12/13
Cass has a line in this week’s FREELANCERS #6, “Get outta here and go surprise yourselves with what you’re capable of. Go become who you were always meant to become”.
“We let you know earlier about Big Dog Ink’s appearance this weekend at Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con, you ready to see the exclusive we’re bringing along? To celebrate the release of the much anticipated Critter spin-off The In Crowd, we’ve got a gorgeous cover for issue #1 by artist Sebastian Cichon! Lasso Lass is ready for her moment in the spotlight in the neon lights of the strip!” – Big Dog Ink
That’s why I like Star Trek so much–the core premise of the thing is that eventually, in the not-so-distant future, humanity gets its collective shit together…we figure things out, unite under a common flag, and with a common goal: to be better. To try harder.
There’s a scene in the 2009 Star Trek, written by Roberto Ocri and Alex Kurtzman and directed by J.J. Abrams, that just kills me:
That line, “You can settle for less, an ordinary life, or do you feel like you were meant for something different, something special?…I dare you to do better”, I can’t shake it.
I’m fully aware of how pretentious, how unabashedly arrogant this sounds, but: I believe that I was meant for “something different, something special”.
There was a time when I believed this without reason. I have no formal education, I am “the son and the heir of nothing in particular“, and–I’m not gonna lie to you guys–I’m extremely insecure about both of those facts (you can tell, because I say that I’m not all of the time. PRO TIP: Alcoholics are the only people who talk about sobriety, and the insecure are the only people who manage their own Facebook Fan Pages)…but as I get older, and as I accumulate more and more accomplishments, the more I feel like maybe that gut feeling comes from somewhere real. Every time I push my life in the direction of becoming who I feel I was meant to be, every time I take a risk (I sold everything I owned to finance the first print run of BLACKEST TERROR, I broke off a two year relationship with a great girl because our domesticity made me less productive, I quit my day gig so that I could be more accommodating to my editors at BOOM!), I’m rewarded for it.
So, with that in mind, I’m taking the biggest risk of my life: I’m moving to Los Angeles in less than a month.
There’s a good–let’s be honest, here…spectacular–chance that I’ll fail.
But what if I don’t? What if BOOM! keeps giving me work? What if one of the other L.A.-based publishing companies I’ve pitched to green lights one of the pitches I’ve sent their way? What if I finally land representation at Circle of Confusion? What if one of the friends I have who’ve already made the L.A. pilgrimage–someone like Jack Cusamano, Bryan Rountree, Jackson Stewart, Jim Mahfood, Jane Dope, Vince Frederick, Natasha Allegri, and so on–invites me to participate in one of their personal endeavors? What if I succeed, and that success emboldens a younger version of me out there somewhere to not give up on his/her dreams? What if I have the potential to be someone else’s Grant Morrison, Dan Harmon, or Gene Roddenberry?
I’ll take that chance. I’m on my second life anyway–I might as well make it worthwhile.
It goes without saying, but: I’ll miss Arizona. There are people in Tucson and in Phoenix who I’d do just about anything for. I don’t want to call anyone out individually, because I’m sure I’d accidentally omit someone important–but you folks know who you are.
The saddest part of this whole decision is that I won’t be moving in with my San Diegan sister, Kim Niemietz, my favorite human being in the entire world/the only member of my family who I’d be friends with if we weren’t related, with whom I shared a common dream of maybe, someday, actually living in the same city. Kim, if you’re reading this, I love you to pieces.
Everybody else: wish me luck. I’m going to need it. If I’m going to make it in L.A. I’m going to have to be better at what I do than I am today. I’m going to have to try harder than I ever have before. I can’t wait.
“And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time ‘til touch down brings me round again to find I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh no, no, no, I’m a rocket man”
So, here’s a thing: I’ve got two books in the Diamond Previews Catalog this month!
First off is THE IN CROWD #3, the third installment, and penultimate chapter in my teenage superhero book from BDI—featuring characters from Tom Hutchison’s CRITTER, and my very own creation, BARNACLE, The Teenage Tidalwave!
The second is Avatar’s BLEEDING COOL MAGAZINE #6, in which Steven Grant (2 Guns, Punisher, Avengers, Robocop) and I interview each other about our recent work at BOOM! Studios.
The In Crowd solicitation is on page 264, and the Bleeding Cool Magazine solicitation is on page 266. Show your local comic shop, and tell ‘em to order copies of each!
See? Totally not making that up. Swing on by and pick up some copies of Freelancers.
- I have my own booth, too. It’s #2222, and it’ll be run by Hannah Nance Partlow, the illustrator/letterer of Smell Ya Later. That’s where you can snag copies of my non-BOOM! work–stuff like The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West #6-#8, the American History Z graphic novel, Zombies Vs. Cheerleaders, Blackest Terror, Thor: Unkillable Thunder Christ, Electric Youth, Girl Scouts in Space, original pages, stickers, buttons, t-shirts, etc.
Feel free to bring anything you pick up here over to BOOM! at #559, and ask me to sign it. I’m super into that. No additional charge, obviously.
Shit to buy:
- Big Dog Ink is going to have a limited edition variant cover of The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West #8 available at Booth #640/642. Art by Mike Debalfo and Nei Ruffino. It’s gorgeous. Pick one up, swing by BOOM! (#559), and I’ll sign it.
- I’ll have copies of American History Z on-hand at #2222, as well as new Blackest Terror stickers by Danny Martin, and “retailer incentive” variant covers of Freelancers and Zombies vs. Cheerleaders.
Freelancers #6, available 6/12/13
Freelancers #6, available 6/12/13
