KC's Planet Comicon

KC’s Planet Comicon has already come and gone. It was held this past weekend in Overland Park. Anthony, Chris, and I were in attendance along with Johnny Bananas. You don’t know Johnny Bananas, he is not a member of the antidote family, but has become somewhat of a mascot (much to his dismay).
The convention was a lot of fun despite the shitty weather. There was a blizzard on Saturday, but it didn’t stop the flow of Con-goers as there was a lot of traffic. Not a lot of sales, but a lot of traffic. Sunday had better weather and less traffic, but far better sales. As for Sunday, we more than tripled Saturday’s sales, but trust me that was no difficult feat.I spent most of my spending money on Saturday because I am impulsive and cannot help myself. I was left with a meager $10.00 to spend on Sunday, which made for a very long day. I mostly picked up some trades, which is what I typically go for, and found some great deals on them as well. I did pick up some cheap action figures – as in $.33 cheap – because, again, I am impulsive.
Along with spending all my dough on Saturday, I also sat in on a writer’s panel held by some of my favorite writers such as Jason Aaron, and Matt Fraction. The panel was very informative, and really challenged me to rethink my own battle plans as a writer. Based on what I learned at the panel as of yesterday I have created a new set of goals which involve writing at least four pages a day. By writing four pages a day I am able to write a full issue in a week. Now if I write more than four pages in a day, I can bank those pages and write less the next day. If I work on more than one series at a time, which I fully intend to do, I would need to write eight or twelve pages a day. Regardless of how many titles I work on, the key however is to write every single day. So far so good, I wrote four pages last night and plan on writing another four this evening.
Following the Panel I stopped by Jason Aaron’s table to follow up on an e-mail I had sent earlier that week. I asked Jason if he would be willing to look at a sample proposal and script for feedback on ways I can improve as a writer. The proposal is one I had created for Black Jack, and since I am self publishing it anyway, I figure that would be safe for another writer to peruse and give me some pointers. I am not looking to magically break into the business as a professional writer, but rather want to hone my craft so the breaking in comes naturally. Hopefully he has an opportunity to review it provide some feedback. If not, I won’t let it deter me and will keep chugging along, doing what I am doing.
I’ve uploaded a bunch of photos to my Facebook account, and have provided some samples here.

Though there isn’t a Con this weekend, I am still really excited for it. The wife and I have set up a spa day complete with a couples massage and pedicure…for her, not me. I would not want anyone to touch my nasty-ass feet. We will probably grab some lunch after that. Should be a great time!

Con-Spiracy Theories

CON-spiracy theories

The KC Planet Comicon is about a month away, and I am totally stoked. Last year was my first time at Kanas City’s premier comic convention and it was an absolute blast. I had the opportunity to meet some of my favorite creators such as Jason Aaron, Dave Finch, Javier Saltares, and Mark Texeira. I also had the opportunity to hang out at dinner with Tyler Walpole and Ron Wagner. The folks that run the con are as nice as can be, and do a great job organizing the floor and even the panel events. Plus they fed us lunch to!
So I am definitely looking forward to the Con this year. I won’t have a lot of money to spend as I am focusing on paying off my credit card debt by June, but there isn’t anything I am really hurting for right now anyway. I am looking forward to meeting Jason Aaron again, have him sign a bunch of Ghost Rider comics, and hopefully pick his brain a little. With the baby due in June, this may be my only convention this year other than the local I-Con, which unfortunately has always been lacking.
One of the things I look forward to most about each convention and something that was in abundance at last years Planet Comicon was the opportunity to meet and chat with the local con goers. The people I met in KC last year were incredibly nice and very supportive of our endeavor. I really look forward to seeing some familiar faces as well as meet tons of cool new folks. There are a couple of guidelines I would like to suggest for those that plan on stopping by our table, or any other table for that matter.

UNLESS YOU’RE A MUTE, PLEASE TALK TO ME: There are so many times at every con where I say hello to someone passing by only to be completely ignored. There are times when someone will approach the table and peruse the books; when I try to strike a conversation with them they look at me as if I am speaking a foreign language. It’s just rude people! You are amongst your kin, your friends. No one is going to ridicule you for your love of Aquaman, or if you think Dr. Fate could be Dr. Strange in a battle of magical prowess, or if you still beat off to the old Marvel swimsuit specials (maybe that’s just me!).
Tell me what you like, what you don’t like. Tell me what books you read, and what inspires you. Don’t be afraid to talk. I promise not to judge you even if you are dressed as an Imperial Storm Trooper; I always preferred the scout troopers personally!

LEARN WHEN TO SHUT-UP: At the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the people above are the people that do not know when to stop talking and move on. These people are rare, but they exist. Case-in-point: At last years Planet Comicon, Curt Peterson met a young man on Saturday and the two discovered they shared a love for the same type of music. On Sunday that same young man stopped over with his I-pod where he stood in front of the table listening to and discussing his favorite songs with Curt for about an hour. A fucking hour! I am trying to discuss the books and generate some sales, which is proven difficult with someone standing in front of the table drumming on it with a pencil. I may not have been nearly as miffed if they were discussing something relative to the company or comics in general…or if he would have purchased something, which brings me to my next point.

SUPPORT THY NEIGHBOR: I know that what we publish is not everyone’s cup of tea. There are a surprising number of people the frequent the artist alley looking for self-published books because of their disdain for the super-hero genre, and they are shocked and dismayed when the find a self-publisher actually publishing super-hero books. I also know that when we were selling out limited number of Black Jack issues for 5.00 a pop that may have been outside some peoples price range. What I absolutely cannot stand are the people that stop by the table telling us how good the book looks, how they so badly want to start publishing their own books, and then they just walk away. A rule of thumb I always followed is that if you want to self-publish books you should support other self-publishers. In this industry there are not too many people looking out for the little guys, so we have to look out for and support one another.

DON’T PITCH THIS STORY TO ANYONE: A lot of people stop by the table to tell me about their own story idea, which to them is the best thing since Babylon 5. The truth is that most of the story ideas I hear about are more like Alien Vs. Hunter (check your local listings for time and channel if you dare). I’ve heard this particular idea more than once:

“So it’s a story about a woman who’s this half-human and half-vampire, and she goes around killing other vampires. She can like walk around in the Daylight, and can only be killed the way you would kill a regular vampire. And She’s like really hot. She looks like Angelina Jolie from Tomb Raider, but carries a sword made out of a special metal that kills vampires, and wooden stakes. She ends up falling in love with the king of the vampires who declares war on humankind forcing her to choose a side, and we don’t know which side that’ll be, cause it’s like an internal struggle she goes through. And later on she also teams up with a group of humans who hunt vampires, and they don’t know that she is half vampire, so it’ll totally change the status quo when they find out.
This story is like Tomb Raider meets Watchmen”

Tomb Raider meets Watchmen? Is that even possible? Like those of you who just read that, I was also dumber after listening to this drivel. If I had a dollar for every story involving half-human half-vampire that hunts vampires and closely resembles Angelina Jolie I could quit my day job.
And don’t ever compare your story to Watchmen, because no one will take you seriously beyond that point though they may have you strapped and sedated for being severely delusional.

I’LL TAKE YOUR ART, BUT NOT YOUR IDEAS: I am a writer, not an editor. Though Antidote Comics LLC is technically a publishing company, we are currently not in a position to bring on new creative talent and publish their work. That may change in the future, but for right now if you are someone looking to break into the biz by submitting your story proposal to me you are wasting your time and energy. I guess I should specify that I am an aspiring writer and am still trying to “break into the biz” just as you are. I am all for networking and may be able to direct you to someone else, or another company to take your submission, but as of right now we are not that company.
Now since about three people read this column I will undoubtedly receive some story proposals, and God’s honest truth is that I won’t even read them, and I will tell them that.
Now if you are an artist looking for work, you can certainly submit to me your art samples. Those I do look at, and keep for my records. With the number of stories I want to tell, I am always going to keep my eyes on potential artists. Hopefully I will someday be in a position to hire on a freelance artist, and I will delve into those samples first.
So the bottom line is aspiring artists can submit your samples to me though I can’t hire you at this moment it will be held for future reference, and writers save those story proposals for Dark Horse, or Top Cow editors.


Other Bits and Pieces:

Heath Ledger won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the Joker in the Dark Knight. Based on that stunning portrayal I feel this was very well deserved, and congratulate the Academy for recognizing his masterful performance. It’s about time they get something right for once.
The rest of the awards seemed like a big yawn fest as usual.

We are going to be printing about 500 more copies of Black Jack to sell during the con season as well as get some copies into local shops. These will be ready to go in time for Planet Comicon. I am also going to be sending out samples along with a letter introducing our company to some other retailers around the region and hopefully expand our distribution. A KC based publishing company has expressed interest in a cross-distribution plan to hopefully get our book into some stores there in the Kansas City area, and vice versa. I will be looking into this more closely and will hopefully have some more details in the near future.

Also in regards to Black Jack: The rest of the Antidote crew and myself are looking at some ways of bringing in new artists to assist with getting books out. One idea is to have the company retain a certain percentage of ownership, while the creator retains a percentage of ownership. That creator can then allocate portions of their ownership to other individuals for work on the book.
As an example: the company owns 50% of Black Jack, I own 50% of Black Jack. I can give 25% of the ownership I own to an artist to pencil the book. There is no money out of pocket, but that also means the artist is not paid until the book would begin to actually churn a profit. The goal would be to get more books out in a more timely fashion. If the book becomes successful and actually makes money, they the artist is paid based on their percentage of ownership.
It is a good concept in helping new, aspiring artists get work published and get them some exposure, but at the same time I do not know too many (good) artists willing to work for free, but if you do send them my way!
I will be back with more details to follow as we iron them out.

For anyone interested in learning more about the KC Planet Comicon, or if you are in the area and want to attend check out this HYPERLINK "http://www.planetcomicon.com/" site for details.

The Spotlight interview with Jonah Hardenbrook

The Quarterly Cure is an online newsletter providing the fans with frequent company updates, the Quarterly Cure also wants give you the opportunity to get to know the creative forces behind the titles through candid interviews. In celebration of the release of their second title, Black Jack, we sat down with creator/writer Jonah Hardenbrook to get to find out how his journey began what he’s learned along the way.

Before getting into the details of Black Jack, let’s talk about the beginning. How did you become involved with Antidote Comics?

Chris, Curt and Anthony all know each other from college. Chris is my brother-in-law…our wives are sisters, and I met Anthony on a road trip to a Star Wars convention…because we are that cool (Laughs)!
Well, Anthony and Chris had gotten together to start work on Bloods Own, they laid out the story and completed the thumbnails, but were having trouble putting words with the pictures. Knowing I have always aspired to be a writer, especially a comic book writer, Chris approached me asking if I’d write the script. I basically said that they could either pay me up front for the script, which I knew they could not afford to do, or make me a partner! It also made sense because there are a lot of stories I personally want to tell, and this is a great opportunity to tell those stories.

Of all the stories you want to tell, why choose Black Jack as your first?

Just as Bloods Own is Anthony’s “baby”, and is something he has been planning since he was in college forty years ago, Black Jack is my “baby”. The idea is nearly a decade old, stemming back to my days when I wanted to write and direct movies. The initial idea was for a horror/western called Cursed World in which a posse of gunfighters and lawmen hunted down a werewolf. As I grew older I gave up on those less-than-realistic aspirations, but never abandoned the concept. Over the years it slowly evolved into it’s current incarnation.

The first issue of Black Jack is a self-contained story, however there is quite a bit of setup for possible future stories. Is Black Jack planned as a mini series, or an ongoing?

I wanted to kick off the series with a self-contained issue because in all honesty I do not know when a second or even a third issue will be completed. That being said, Black Jack is definitely planned as an ongoing series. I have the scripts for issues two through five completed and have the first thirty-five or so issues outlined. As I said before, there are a lot of stories I want to tell!

It has been over a year since the inception of Antidote Comics, what have you learned throughout the creative process?

It’s not necessarily what I’ve learned, but what I am still learning. And the answer is…everything! Bloods Own was the first script I’d written, and even that was based on thumbnails that had already been laid out. Black Jack was the first time I had to create a script from scratch including panels and descriptive images, so the entire process from script to layouts to lettering has all been a learning experience. The most important thing I’ve learned is that praise is good, but criticism is even better. I’ve never improved by receiving praise, and am looking forward to as much constructive criticism as necessary to better hone my craft.

Any advice you can give other aspiring creators looking to self publish or break into the business?

I don’t know about the breaking into the biz part since I’m still working on that myself. I guess the best advice I can give anyone that wants to be a writer is advice actually given to me a few years back: If you want to be a writer you need to stop talking about wanting to be a writer and actually start writing.