Bios are normally pretty boring and this one is not going to be any different.
There isn't much to tell about myself that you won't see in my stories and drawings. There has been some drama in my life, I will admit but not so much that it has hindered me from doing anything. The only one that has stopped me from anything is myself. Now, the following statement is made a lot by online artists but it holds true for myself as well. I don't practice enough. I don't spend enough time making the drawings that I plan in my mind. I will have spurts of creativity during which I will produce a lot of work but they're never enough. I went to junior college and didn't transfer to my college of choice mainly because of money but also because of laziness. Had I worked harder at finding a way to pay for it, I'm sure I would've done it. But I didn't want to get myself into the debt that student loans brings you into and I also didn't want to devote my entire being to a program in a school.
I've always loved drawing, mind you, and when I finally took formal classes in junior college it was great to find out that I was good in other mediums as well. However, I've never wanted to be a fine artist and graphic design just doesn't turn me on. By the time I was seventeen I wanted to be an animator but that hasn't happened as of yet. I've come to realize that I have aspirations but no plan. The only thing I know for sure is that I WILL publish a comic book on my own. Germ Warfare is the story I chose to stick with because it was the most elaborate and complete one I have come up with to date. I have other "shelved stories" that I will definitely bring to light but those may turn out to be collaborations.
Thanks to online friends like Don Lew and Weakcut, I now have an excuse to draw even when I don't feel creative. The JAMs are great because a lot of the time, they're ideas that I would never come up with myself (I would've never thought about writing a story about pirates and now I have a pretty detailed one in the works) and I get to experiment.
Last year, I went to the San Diego Con and realized that there are a million pencillers, inkers, colorists, writers, etc out there who want to be a part of this business. "The comic book industry is dying" has been the cry for quite some time but I don't think that will happen as long as fresh ideas hit the stands. I've seen superhero comics change drastically just in the last ten years. I can remember when Valiant was the edgy company that had great storylines and actually killed off main characters. Now you have yourself a shitload of independents: each with different levels of maturity and each following a different genre. There are independent sci fi, fantasy, drama, comedy and even good adult comics nowadays. "It is no longer a children's market" is also something you hear a lot. The truth is that it never trully was. All of us "fan boys" know that the best comics have always been geared toward "mature" audiences. In the golden age it was the gritty war comics and the gory horror comics. There were comics for everyone from little boys AND girls to perverted old men. The industry hasn't forgotten about the perverts (thank goodness because I am one of them) but everyone else seems to be struggling to be included. I'm not going to make some "bring back the good ol' days" speech. These are the good ol' days. Like I said before, there is plenty of variety out there. Some things are definitely missing though. Like respectable female characters. Anyone that knows me knows that I was never really into the scantily clad, model-type females fighting their bodybuilder male counterparts. That never made sense to me. Like in real life, I always found a girl who hardly ever uses make up and is extremely smart sexy. Which is evident in my stories. The women in my stories never take a backseat. They are usually the kick-ass take no shit from anyone types that made my pants shrink while growing up. I haven't really created that many female charaters but those I have are like that. One of my female characters is the head of her own corporation while I also have a team of sisters who only fight others because they have to help defend each other. The one thing that all my female characters have in common is that they're smart.
Movies (and now television) have been introducing female characters like this for quite some time in the U.S. and even longer in other countries but, ulitmately, they have always needed rescuing. For whatever reason, creators seem to think that no matter how smart and resourceful a girl is, she'll always be weak as soon as a man is introduced. So why do I, a porn watching, beer guzzling, heterosexual male care so much about this? Simple, I have a little sister whom I've always been very protective of and whom I've never wanted to get the message that she's weak simply because she holds a member's card to the "fairer sex" club. Not to mention that I come from a very close-nit family full of independent women who pretty much hold everything together (on my mother's side at least) starting with my grandmother. My parents, in particular, have always been partners in their endeavours. Growing up, they never showed us that either person's opinion was more important. True, my father is the disciplinarian but all decisions are a concensus between he and my mother. My stister is actually proving to be smarter than her two predecesors (I have a brother as well) by doing much better in school than either of us and aiming for college at a much younger age. The paranoya caused by the countless molestation and rape stories I've heard from female friends has caused me to be totally open with her about topics like sex, alcoholism and drugs. I've also taught her a few self defense moves so I pity any guy who tries any unwelcomed advances towards her. Lately, she's actually been the inspiration for my sketches of the female form. She's become quite statuesque and the bone structure of her face is very unique.
Most of my characters are based on people that I've seen or known as well. I created most of them in high school as a way to get myself to make at least one drawing a day and the people on the bus were great for inspiration. Hell, I even created a team of crime fighting bus drivers as a gag back then. There was a time when I would make charicatures of my friends but one of them got offended by how I depicted him and that was the end of that. Every once in a while I get someone to pose for me but that hardly ever happens. If you ask a woman to pose, she automaticaly thinks you're asking her to sleep with you and guys usually give you an awkward stare. Everyone seems to assume that posing means posing naked when I prefer to draw clothed figures anyway (the light and shadows created by folds in fabric are a lot more fun to draw than those created on the naked human figure).
Well, I think that's more than enough rambling for a bio but, if you're still not satisfied, click on the icon below for some stats.
