Importance Of Empathy In The Life & Work Of An Artist.

As a boy, the episode of Star Trek; "The Empath" (pictured above,) made a deep impression on my way of thinking. It has always been one of my favorite episodes because of what it helped me to realize. Empathy is the capacity, the quality, the ability that makes us most human. With out it we are selfish beasts, capable of the most egregious and inhuman acts. The thing about empathy is that it is sadly, such a fleeting quality. I think because it costs us so much. To take the pain of another into our own heart hurts us, and since we naturally avoid pain it takes a self sacrificing, conscious effort to do so.
Artists, like everyone, need to cultivate this quality. We need to feel what our characters feel. We need to anticipate what our audiences will perceive, and we need to deepen our appreciation for those willing to take the journey with us. If we care about our audience we will make every effort to bring to them something of an emotional value.  We must be willing to give of ourselves. Just a thought I wanted  share.                         

What is a "MASTERPIECE", What is ART?

 The art that I am drawn too shows a high regard for the fundamentals. Above all draftsmanship, composition and use of color. it is evident, even in an abstract expressionist piece whether these fundamentals are in place or not. If an artists can use these "tools", and in the end result, accomplish something that also resinates emotionally with the audience, then something masterful has been achieved.
   Pablo Picaso,  at as early as 5 years of age, received specialized training in the arts at various academies in Barcelona. The painting at left, First Communion, was painted by Picaso in 1896 when he was twenty and His Girl Before a Mirror in 1932 when he was arguably nearing the peak of his artistic expression. It is unavoidable that what he achieved was built upon the firm foundation of his elementary training.   

When though, does an artists work become masterful? There is this intangible shift at some point where the audience takes over. When the underlying emotional and intellectual weight is perceived and the viewer "GETS IT," then I think a work has become masterful.      
 There are times though, when the perception of the public builds up the greatness of a work,  not necessarily out of the merits of the work itself.  The gag of Picaso doodling on a napkin in a cafe and the owner making a million from it illustrates my point. I doubt that the artist himself would feel that such a doodle would constitute a master piece, but the perception of the public makes it so.
There are some though, who are out right delusional or knowingly charlatans, that in my opinion, profane the arts.
                                                            Tracy Emin      
   Art education is indispensable. Strict and early application  of the basic disciplines inescapable.
"It's Art because I say it's Art." is a vacuous statement that disregards all of the passion, pain, and sincerity of all who have truly devoted there lives to their work.  Any one can hold a brush, make a mark, and call it art. I can hold a scalpel and say I'm a brain surgeon, but you would be ill advised to trust my hand with your life.  

Our First review is in!

Doctor Q

Doctor Quincy Erasmus Quartermain of the Steampunk Chronicle has kindly offered us his honest opinion of our first 8 A Steampunk Anthology. Such feed back is essential if we are to continue to improve our efforts. We truly wish to produce the highest quality independent work we can in whatever genera we are working in. I had suspected that a few of our stories would raise a steamers brow. All of us are neophytes to the genera and this is something that was made evident by his review, but even though his thoughts were not glowing on all entries, I feel his over all opinion was quite favorable.

And those of us with the Illopond.com are extremely grateful for his supportive remarks in regards to our efforts.       

you can read the review in its entirety here;

Doctor Qs review of 8 A Stempunk Anthology 

Thank you Doctor! you are a gentleman and a scholar.      

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!!! May 7th 2011

So what are you doing for Free Comic Book day? 
http://www.freecomicbookday.com/
There is so much buzz today about comics gaining the acceptance of Educators and Librarians as an effective introduction to reading. In school class rooms and libraries across the country,  comic books and graphic novels are gaining a foot hold in teachers curriculums. In panel discussions of the topic, over the last three years, it has become evident that Comics aimed at a younger audience are still rather few and far between. Noted examples of course are  Bone by Jeff Smith ,  Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeramy Bastion, the epic Mouseguard by David Petersen and many others, but with eager young minds, and boundless imaginations populating school rooms, there is a great need for more. Have you got a title that fits the bill? Free Comic Book Day is an excellent opportunity for you get you work into the hands of kids and teachers alike. It is also a marvelous way for creators to show their support for their local comic retailers. They are championing some treacherous waters these days as a Paradigm shift occurs in the market. It is a way to show your support for the medium as a whole by getting involved locally.

   The year, I will be offering free copies of my 8 page full color comic For The Public Good, as well as black & white copies of my kids Comic Ouwangalaymah! The "Tail" of the Names of the Tree #2  at Heros of Fresno 110 E. Shaw here in Fresno. I wont be able to join the festivities until 3:00 pm after the day job, but if you are in the area, please come by. And where ever you are, find a participating Comic Book Retailer and check it out!

Free Comic Book Day! May 7th 2011    YEA!!!!         

WonderCon 2011 Report

Well gang, Wondercon 2011 was truly an incredible step forward for me as an artist.I want to thank everyone who stopped by the table to say hey, and to everyone who bought a book, I LOVE YOU! :-)

I really hope you enjoy our Steampunk anthology and hope you will pick up Strampunk #2 once we've completed it.

What I'd like to share with everyone I think will be useful to anyone preparing for, and getting the most out of a convention like WondeCon.

1st, The mundane things to learn about tabling at a comic book convention.

1. Take a cushion! OUIe veY! the seats must have been stolen from a kindergarten, the little plastic butt bucket kind. So I stood a lot. :o)

2. It really takes two! I'm so glad to have had my son with me. He sat with me for a good portion of the day on friday & went in early to help me set up. came to my rescue for a potty break every now & then, but we really need to have two at the table, especially when it's busy.

3. Bring a table covering. Fortunately I thought of that. they provided a table cover and table drape in the small press area, but you need something to cover up the goods when the day is done so as not to load & store everything everyday.

4. Bring plenty of STUFF to sell & talk about! I was amazed at the shier lack of stuff at some of the booths. They spent $300 bucks to display a few ashcans, post cards and few cheepy magnets to sell WHA? Dude! I mean not even a finished book to sell. Be-leave me, We had PLENTY!

2nd. Presenting yourself. I am a very gregarious guy. (my family would say hyper. :o) but this is important so here is a few observations I made of where some folks went wrong.

Don't just sit there sketching all day, and DONT BARK!

People will first walk by and glance at the table. if you look at them, smile & just say hi, that puts most of them at ease and they continue looking.

if you get too forward, "HI there! come see my stuff! don't you like stuff? well this is really good stuff! Come on! Have a look at my stuff!" you will run them off.

I would often be posting to twitter, just glance up and say hi or just smile & they would keep looking. Some folks are just too shy. they do not want to be pressured to converse with you, so just try to let them know they are welcome to come up and look. You can tell when they want you to make the first move and say something by making those quick & fleeting glances at you. so I would just say "Are you enjoying the con?" and we would then have a nice conversation. if they had a portfolio in hand, "are you an artist yourself?" If a family with kids walked by, "Hey there, kind of hard to find family friendly stuff isn't it?" Then Sunday I learned a VALUABLE secret. "I'll get to that later. :o)

so don't hide from & don't bark at the people!!!

And of course all the, "Take a shower nightly, use deodorant and floss kind of thing too. :o)

3. Take the time to get to know those tabling near you.

http://www.trinarobbins.com/Trina_Robbins/Welcome.html Trina Robins was my next door neighbor across the way Dani Dixon with toumblecreekpress.com I mean you never know how a connection will help in the long run and you just might need them to watch the table for a quick potty break. :o)

Now to the last important thing I learned. "LETS MAKE A DEAL!" Sunday Archaia started selling books at buy two, get THREE FREE! FIVE BOOKS for the price of TWO!!! WoW! This got me thinking. My B&W economy comics weren't selling so taking their lead I got smart. As a family would walk by almost all would stop & try to pronounce the name. I DISCOVERED MY GIMMICK! My hook! my, "I remember that guy!" kind of thing! If the kidos would make an effort to pronounce the name I would sign & give them a free copy! ZING!!! this brought one of the key elements in the story out in the presentation and into the memory of the audience! You should have seen the smiles in those kids faces, and in their parents faces. Here in the middle of all this questionable & not so family friendly fare was someone taking an interest in their kids and having a bit of fun with them. There are now 50, maybe 60 families out there reading my work & getting there kidos involved in reading!!!

Got some amazing feedback. Here was a BIG one, Joe Ferrara Owner ofhttp://atlantisfantasyworld.com/ out of Santa Cruz stopped at the table. he has owned and run this shop since 1976, won the Eisner "Spirit of Comics" Retailer Award. He KNOWS his stuff. (I know he knows because his wife kindly told me after he left to listen to him He gave me the name of a distributor who can get our books into Diamond. He said local comic book shops are looking for this very thing. Suggested I go see Dave who owns our local shop. "I know He will want to see this." And he did! Thanks Dave Allread of HEROES 110 E. Shaw Ave. Fresno Ca. For the first time anywhere my kids comics and our Anthologies are available for purchase by the general public at a Brick & mortar store!

A Special word of Thanks to the folks at Ka-Blam! Digital printing Guys, there is no way I can thank you enough. The anthology came the day we left for San Francisco. I was so elated! I Can only say that I truly wish you guys continued success and my you GROW and expand and find you some good people to add to the crew. You guys need to get some sleep every once & awhile you know?

And to the folks at GOTPRINT.com We were loaded up, had picked up my sons friends and what do you know? The banner for the anthology arrived just in time!!! Every thing fell into place just like it was meant to be. you gotta go gotprint.com for all your promotional printing needs! WoW Sounds like a commercial. :o)

The week before

WonderCon here I come!

WonderCon is a little over one week away and I think I'm ready. One thing I wanted to share is the importance of doing a test set up to make sure the presentation will work.

Now my kitchen table isn't quite 8 ft wide, so I will have a bit more room to spread things out a bit, but I think the basic plan will work. Doing this test set up also lead to me ordering a banner for the Steampunk anthology. Another 3x4 to hang beside my one for Ouwangalaymah! I hesitated, because I don't even have my copies yet( AHHHH!) but my faith is in Ka-Blam!

and in UPS. they are Scheduled to ship out thursday from Florida. You just watch, the UPS guy will drive up just as I'm driving off! But at least I'll have this Banner for future cons too.
Now that the programming has been announced, I'm feeling a bit sad. There are some super programs that I would LOVE to attend this year. At 4:30 on Friday the topic "Indy Comics Marketing 101" is the subject. Perhaps I will be able to bribe my son to watch the table for me for that one. Plus all the other Screening and events going on this year Check it out!

http://www.comic-con.org/wc/wc_prog.php

All in all, I couldn't be more excited. Nervous and anxious, but optimistic! I will try to share as much from the show as I can via my Droid phone & such. I'll take along my HD camcorder as well. (Perhaps another bribe will encourage my son to record the stuff I gotta miss.)

Stay tuned, Check back. I hope that my sharing the experience be of use to those who are considering this insane course of action!

Con Preparation 101

The Farmer In The Dell

and other

Special Prints for WonderCon 2011

There is so much to consider when preparing for tabling at a convention. Listen to me talk, like I've done this before, but there is, and I thought I'd share with you things that I have found to be helpful.

#1. Podcasts. Especially Art & Story #124 The Big Convention Field Guide

in this episode, Jerzy Drozed & Mark Rudolph spell it out. all you need to know as well as a link to a very helpful spread sheet that details the costs you might expect.

#2 Ka-Blam.com No point in having a table if you have now wares to sell.

There is no better POD service for comics in the world. and as long as you get all your files right, your books will arrive perfect and on time if you send them early

enough. I would recommend a minimum of two months lead time on a new book. they

now have a 10 day turn around for reprints so that is good news, but on new titles, the

bigger the window the better.

#3 GotPrint.com for SWAG. Post Cards Business cards, Flyers & such

you have to invest generously in free stuff! Every one loves Free stuff. Convention Swag is a tradition and one of the best ways to get your message across to attendees with a hope for future business. Also Banners! you gotta have Banners and GorPrint.com is the BEST source for all this, and FAST!!! It is usually just a 4-5 day turn around for me. 500 post cards 3.5x5.5 run around $12.00 bucks! with full color front & Black & white Back. a 4'x5' Banner in the neighborhood of $34. Full color glossy reinforced vinyl!

#4 MORE STUFF! Buttons, Magnets, Coffee mugs, Etc.

For this I gotta sing Zazzles praises! Keep watch on their 4 hour specials. I've takes advantage of a 50% off mug sale, and a 50%off Magnet sale. Excellent quality. and making a 50% profit aint bad either. You just need to be diligent and watch for the specials.

For buttons I'm trying Busy Beaver Buttons. Reasonable prices and I've heard good quality.

It always helps to have tie ins to your books and why not take advantage of these?

#5 All the other stuff.

You will need:

❶ A cash box... with cash for change.

❷ Receipt book. I'm taking a couple with carbonized pages. Important for record keeping!

❸ Display materials. I purchased clear lucite 8x11 displayers from Office Max for $7.99 each.

this will allow you to display your wares vertically, perhaps setting on a pile of the sale copies.

❹ A folding dolly. I got a great one called a Magna cart for $21.98 at Sam's Club.

❺ A way to display your Banners. I'm experimenting with a rather inexpensive PVC pipe

system. (Working at a hardware store these things come to you.) It is lite, CHEEP! and

very portable. Hope it works.

❻ All the other stuff your bound to forget.

#6 self run prints, limited, exclusive editions, signed by you the artist.

This is something that I hope works out. Provided that you get good results from your printer.I have a wide format hp office jet K8600. I can print up to 13"x19" border-less prints. A pack of 20, 13x19 high gloss photo paper from office max ran $34@ and many prints this size go for

around $20-$40 at these cons, so if you pick a few of your BEST work to print out & personalize for potential patrons, and smaller 8x10's for $5.00 you might just have a little more revenue to make up for your expenses. Think of doing a special design that you will limit and sell only at said event. WonderCon special. Just might get some attention.

At any rate, these are just a few of the things that I have taken into consideration in my preparing for this event. If you are planning on attending WonderCon 2011 I do hope you will stop by Small Press area #14 and say hello!

See you at the show!