Trudging Forward, One Step at a Time.
Uploaded something fun on Youtube
Volume Two is still coming. Volume Three is already in planning stages and early production.
A Year in Review…
Hello! Holy crap, how is it almost 2022 already. I started writing and planning HESSYST in earnest around 2018, almost 4 years ago. As hard as making an art book/comic/graphic novel like this can be, I’m happy to report that I’m still mostly on schedule. Somehow, I managed to have a kid, juggle freelance, survive, and keep this train moving through a pandemic (to be honest, being shut in most of the time actually probably helped.). I’ll talk more about volume two in another post, but it’s all written, inked, designed, and waiting for me to start the final art pass. It’s also over twice the length of volume one and full of all the fun parts I couldn’t wait to get to.
In the last month, I pivoted a bit to make some adjustments to the art and structure of volume one, as I intend to produce a hardcover book someday that will include both volumes. As I’ve gone on, the style has changed, found its proper footing, and (hopefully) improved; meaning that I want to try and keep things as consistent as I can, within reason. It’s something I’ll always be working towards. I’d like to think of the overall journey and the comic itself as something of a time capsule that spans this part of my life and my growth as an artist.
So anyways, everything was off to a good start and I was making progress to have the revised volume one ready for Lightbox Expo (an online artist convention that began this week) UNTIL our family dog, Lady, suffered a severe spinal injury. We were hopeful that we could guide her through recovery, but sadly she passed away in mid-August. She was a huge part of our lives, and quite possibly the sweetest dog I’ve ever met. My now wife, Nia, brought Lady on our first date (for protection), but having gotten to know Lady I realize how useless she would’ve been in that regard. If burglars broke into our home, she would’ve greeted them with tail-wags and a giant stuffed hippo.
I’ve missed a couple of important deadlines, but I feel like it’s important to take time to prioritize my own mental health, and the well-being of my family. Missing my deadline for Lightbox Expo this year seemed like an acceptable outcome. I’ll still have some major updates to share in short order, but not in time for Artist Alley this year.
Lady and Hippo
In more uplifting news, my son turned one recently. It’s been one hell of a fountain of inspiration for life and art to watch him grow. Seeing him discover everything for the first time, and finally meeting his whole family after the solitude of COVID has been a treat. I’ve managed to share laughs with friends, spend time with my wife, and work on my dream project throughout all the hardships. I can’t say there was ever another time in my life where I’ve felt this much gratitude.
Sharing his many months of artistic wisdom and experience with me.
If you’ve been a fan of this project, and followed it since I started sharing its progress— Thank you. I spend a lot of time thinking about you and how you might feel about this story. I will continue to put everything I have into making it the best thing it can be. I look forward to the day where I can show this to you as a tangible object; one that you and others will treasure as part of your library for years to come.
LIGHTBOX EXPO 2020
I began this year lightly joking with my wife about starting an LLC called Hindsight2020 for my comic series. Like mostly everyone else, we were looking forward to the beginning of a new chapter with the upcoming YEAR 2020! Then the year actually started, and well...you know the rest.
I had planned to have the first print of HESSYST: Volume One ready to go for my artist alley booth at Lightbox Expo in the fall. Everything was falling into place and a long time dream of mine was about to be realized. I was looking forward to sharing this project of mine with the world at last.
Well, now after an ongoing pandemic and a slew of other odious global events and tragedies, many of the things each of us had planned or were looking forward to went sideways. So yeah, no *printed* book this year. I decided against it given all that was on the horizon (no conventions, no in-person sales, likely shipping delays, etc.). On top of everything else already on my plate, I was also about to become a father. About mid way through this year it seemed to me that a 75 or so page printed first edition book, while very cool, would not really satisfy the dream I have nor be worth the hoops of fire I would have to jump through to achieve it.
So, like everyone else this year I have had to adapt to change and as a result will not have physical copies of Volume One for sale. HOWEVER, I fully expect that by the time Volume Two is complete and I can smash the two of them together into a 150-200 page book, you are going to see a paper version. As Volume Two is already well into production, I expect that it will be possible to see it at conventions by Fall 2021--assuming we’re not still shut up indoors away from everyone (we very well still could be)
Why am I telling you all of this? Well, because Lightbox is here and I still wanted to do something special. So, if you’d like you can continue waiting to read HESSYST every other week in tiny chunks online...OR, for just the weekend of Sept. 11-14, you can purchase all 75 pages of Volume one to read as an exclusive PDF e-publication.
So, if you are enjoying what you’ve currently seen of the series and want to see more, that is going to be your best shot! Plus, you’ll also be helping me feed my growing infant son who’s appetite already seems to know no bounds. So head on over the Lightbox Exclusive tab under Book 1 and check it out.
Seriously, thanks for reading this and no one wants more HESSYST to get out into the world than me--so I’m on it full speed ahead. Stay with me, see you soon.
SPRING - Volume One, Part I
Welcome to Part One of HESSYST! This volume is a work in progress and will see regular updates and refinements to the art and writing until it goes to print. In the coming weeks, you will see a major update to many of the panels, artwork, and overall structure in this volume. I am also well into finalizing the inked pages for Volume Two which spans nearly 200 pages so far and will begin sharing that soon. Please read on and enjoy, and don’t hesitate to leave a comment below—I love receiving feedback from readers on this story, so don’t be shy. Thank you! (***If you purchase a digital copy of Volume One from the store, you will automatically be sent the updated digital version once it drops.***)
HESSYST BEGINS.
HESSYST Volume 1 is live!
I can hardly believe it. I am FINALLY (after all these years talking and dreaming about it) able to share HESSYST with you. It’s been an incredibly long road made of twists, turns, full stops, and re-imaginings—but we’re actually here now. There is still so much further I want to go with it, but getting to this point means the world to me and I want to celebrate with this little write up. This is essentially a “why I think you should really consider doing that thing that you’ve always wanted to do and keep coming back to in spite of yourself” kind of post. Everyone knows a few people with ‘passion projects’, but few people know many who have succeeded in the pursuit of such things.
I have wanted to tell stories like this since I was about seven years old, and I’ve been trying to figure it all out ever since. From taking folded printer paper and drawing like a demon in middle and high school, to obsessively studying fables and world mythologies for inspiration, I have been feverishly seeking ways to tell my stories and share them with others in a way that made sense and didn’t suck.
I spent most of my early years being my own worst critic and preventing myself from starting time and time again because I always found some reason to believe “I wasn’t there yet.” or I hadn’t met “x-y-z condition”. My art wasn’t where I wanted it to be or I wasn’t a skilled-enough writer and I was sure that one day, maybe I could be. Well, ‘one day’ never really comes and if you want to make something like this, you really do just have to start. You will likely mess up a lot. Do I still hate some of the panels I make? Sure, a lot of them. Do I still have days where I completely screwed everything up? Yup. Is the dream still there regardless of how I feel on any given day? Yeah, it is. The best part is that the more ground I cover, the faster I get and the more I like what I’m making. I felt as I was about halfway through volume one that I truly, finally understood what it means to love the journey in this context, and not get hung up on making some grand piece of effortless beautiful art.
Back in the early 2010’s, I found myself in a bad situation of my own making and had to choose to abandon the dream entirely or find a way to get paid for it. Fortunately, the umbrella field of ‘concept art and illustration’ provided a branch for me to grab onto and both study and paint things related to the world I’d been creating. I kept trying to plan this monster; kept looking for a way to get closer to it. Even after years of hearing the advice, “You just have to start.” over and over again in so many ways, for one reason or another I felt that I couldn’t get there or that the road was blocked, and it was infuriating.
So what changed?
As it turns out, making a graphic novel is hard. Veteran artists with all the chops in the world will tell you that making a graphic novel or other sequential narrative is hard. It remains one of the biggest mountains in the field of entertainment art, and the rewards for attempting to, or even successfully scaling it can be meager at best; it certainly isn’t for the $$$ and other artists won’t really care about what you’re making either. However, there are still many who find themselves getting lost in a comic book now and then and long to create one; there are those who have treasured memories of reading a visual novel and recalling exactly where they were in their lives when they did so. It’s one of the oldest art forms and I think that is why it retains such a resonance for some.
For me personally, I have always found a kind of ‘resonance’ for certain picture books and graphic novels, despite not necessarily being the most avid reader of the medium in general myself. I was not the kid with stacks of comics in my collection. I was the kid who every once in a while, was charmed by a chance encounter with the right one. I believe in my case this was because it was never about making a single painting or drawing; it was about finding an idea and bringing something to life.
While I do hope that HESSYST manages to be one of those resonant stories for a young (or old) reader today, I now find that my primary inspiration to get on with it is my newborn son. I know I can’t make predictions like this, but I hope that he will find something special to connect or relate to in the struggles my characters will face as I continue to encode little bits of my life and experiences for him to uncover.
I suppose all in all, there was a time when I had to take a hard look at where I was in my life and where I still needed to go. Lamenting this once, I had a friend tell me to just wait until I was older; until I had lived more and had more things to say. I took the advice literally and spent the next three years doing just that, without drawing or painting very much at all. When a bit of good fortune finally found me and I had the sense to take it, I did what I could to pay it forward or keep whatever lessons led me to it close to heart. When you have a dream--and I mean a real dream that persists for longer than a decade or more--you have to find a way. Believe whatever you need to believe to accept that you cannot compromise, or it will continue to irritate you. Look for meaning in unusual places and strive to carve out your own path.
Anyway, thanks for reading this far. I’ll have updates for Volume 2 and the printed book eventually. Until then, see you.