Opus Exposed

Welcome to my personal inner sanctum. Well, at least the vestibule. I don't allow anyone full access, as I am sure most of you don't either. If you look to your left, you will see examples of my comic strip art that I've drawn over the years. Mostly sketches, but also a few strips. (I may just publish the strips privately on this site. It might take a while, I can't find most any of my reduxes. I'll have to make more.)

On your right is a list of some of the things I am into, each item listed is also a link to (usually) an official site. (Why just tell you what I like when you can see for yourself?)

As for me, it's taken a while to figure out where I fit in and who I am. But I think I have it figured out now. Years ago, because I was able to draw, and others found my brand of humor, well . . . humorous, I at first thought I wanted to be a cartoonist. A "Stripper," if you will.

Because I liked the writing part of it, and was proficient at the art, I thought, "I like comic books, writing, and I can draw. I'll write and lay out comics for an artist to draw." Alas, I could never find an artist willing to commit.I was still doing my strip work though.

Then one day, someone very close to me, while "looking out for my best interests," completely tore my confidence to shreds. I've never been the most assured person in the world, but they cut me to the bone that day. It took me almost two years to pick up a pencil and draw again. Even now, the emotional scars dampen the level of enjoyment I recieve from drawing.

About a year after I stopped drawing, I started writing again. However, I ran into a problem. Comic books and comic strips are all about compression. Tell the most story in the least amount of time and space. Novels are all about exploring the nuances that I was trained to squeeze down or skip entirely. This is a big hinderance when trying to produce your average novel. I also missed the vissual aspect of my creativity.

So I again picked up a pencil and decided I'd turn my book into a graphic novel. (otherwise known as a really long comic book.) Unfortunately, after being almost two years out of practice, I had actually gotten worse. I even had to re-learn how to draw my comic strip characters.

This got me sidetracked from the G.N., as I again tried my hand at cartooning. In fact, I practiced so much, that the art turned out better than before. Also, my writing was light years better. The storys of my second attempt blew most of the old ones away.

The strip was coming along fine until the day I met Ted, a damn good artist. He is as good as the superstars of comic book art. At that point, I concentrated on the "not quite a novel," turning it into a viable narrative for a graphic novel. But do you know what really sucks? Having to rely on other people who have different career goals than you really sucks. This is truely a shame becase Ted could have been a comic-world icon.

He was so good that, back at the begining, when he told me he'd rather do fantasy work than sci-fi, I shelved my then current project and dusted off a fantasy epic which I had previously set aside. Both stories were good, so I didn't care which one I did first.