Air-Rider Pilot Issue #0 is now up on Globalcomix.
Here’s an ad I made for AIR-RIDER using my favorite song from FLCL,Last dinosaur by The Pillows. Spent an afternoon in iMovie editing this little clip. Very fun!
In other news, it’s back to the salt mines with me.
Warehouse work sucks.
BALLS.
Warehouse Purgatory at 3:30am
But at least in a week or two I get to start my stunning new career as…
…a dishwasher!
But hey, at least there’s free food involved.
I think the song goes… “Started from the bottom now we…”
“…still at the bottom.”
At least, my version of the song. -_-
My passion for comics is also very realistic:
It’s either make comics or it’s manual labor for life!
That’s the reality as it stands. But even a glimpse of my dreams gives me the boost I need to move forward creatively.
A thought crossed my mind this week. If I follow the directions exactly, I could probably start making money from my comics TODAY.
I’d have to go from vague, meandering thoughts to direct, specific action with specific results. If I’m really serious, I can find a way out of my day jobsooner rather than later. This quiet time away from Youtube has given me some time to clear my mind and think.
What I really want to do is:
Draw my work
Post it
???
PROFIT.
I’d post to Twitter, my main platform, build out my Patreon before I launch it, set up a Kickstarter in advance and tweak before launch in a year.
Observe other Twitter artists and see how often they post and how often they advertise their Newsletter, get newsletter subscribers. Set a payment processor to get paid.
All it takes is $1. That’s it. Then I’ll know for sure, I have enough value that someone is willing to trade their hard-earned money for. I’ll know for sure that I can make money online.
I’d be creating my art the way that I want to. Not from freelance, not from commissions, just by making my comics and posting them.
The important thing for now is to not rush into making a quick dollar. The goal is to just create an infrastructure where I can post my art and lead towards making money eventually. After that, I only need to focus on writing and drawing Air-Rider, advertising on twitter and getting newsletter subscribers while posting.
The idea is only to get out of my day job sooner rather than later. Then to focus as much of my time creating Air-Rider and gathering an audience as possible.
I’m just going to do what the other successful artists say to do. There’s so many resources online teaching creators how to make money from their work, there’s no excuse for me not to be able get similar results in a shorter amount of time.
Who has the kind of sustained success I want in my position?
I want to focus on creating and earning, not for likes, but for $$$.
My website’s already decent, but I can tweak it. I’ll just do one thing after another learn to market and focus on making & releasing Air-Rider #2 then #3 ASAP.
I prefer to post monthly or every couple months instead of a webcomic schedule. I’ll post to twitter as if it was my webcomic. I want to keep my work fresh in people’s minds and the easiest way I can think of is Twitter.
Who creates like I intend to? How do they make money and how can I do it like them?
Y’know, I’ve always wanted to quit my job and get rich.
To make so much money that finances wouldn’t be an issue anymore.
To make so much, I’d never have to work again.
To achieve financial freedom and draw whatever I want, whenever I want.
And this summer I got a taste of exactly that kind of life. The demo version, if you will.
After high school, I’d read all about making money and attracting the life you want.
I thought all I needed to do was start some big unique business or strike it rich with a new app and let the cash roll in. I had no idea what I was doing or why it would work. I thought I’d learn to code and develop a website that would make me all the money I’d want.
But my approach was all wrong. And I had no idea what was valuable to people.
I still have little clue.
I always thought I’d build some bullshit business, sell it off for millions, then live in prosperity.
I’d read HUNDREDS of stories like that.
In fact, as soon as I’d heard about manga artists making millions, I immediately set my sights on that goal.
For the longest time, I studied art and writing to get on the level of my favorite creators.
But the comic book industry looked so bleak in terms of wealth creation that I thought Japan might be a better option. I wanted nothing more than to create a great manga, get an anime, retire rich and go on adventures with my friends & family, drawing whenever I felt like it…
…until I took a look behind their curtain.
Medical issues, mental health issues, lack of sleep, loss of time, decades spent sacrificing for the art, only to lose the ability to enjoy the fruit of one’s labor in their older age.
That’s what the manga/anime industry looked like behind all the shiny, pretty colors of their products.
Not ideal.
So I was trapped between a rock and a hard place for years.
Unable to decide between two paths which I believe were my ONLY options.
I could roll the dice by creating some comic book that would fetch a few sales here and there. The majority of the revenue of which would go to the publisher. OR I could work my ASS off the bone with a low possibility of ever seeing my own anime in Japan.
But over the years, a third option became clear to me which is now becoming ever more viable as I continue to create.
First, I had to figure out what mattered to me as a creator.
I like writing and I like drawing.
Do I care about being super famous and everyone knowing me? Not really.
Do I care about making millions? Not millions, per se.
But enough money to achieve financial freedom. Which is when your passive income pays for your living expenses and then some.
Do I really want to make an anime out of my work? One day for sure!
But over time, I’ve noticed a sort of destabilization in the major companies (even in Japan!) caused by the rise of the internet.
Creators were self-publishing their own work with no middle man.
Comics creators like Dave Sim or Kevin Eastman were self-publishing long before Kickstarter.
My friends, Nick Pitarra, and Ngozi Ukazu raking in huge numbers on their crowdfunded projects.
Animators like Arin Hanson (Egoraptor) solo-animating shorts.
Vivienne Medrano (Vivziepop) creating animations with her own crowdfunded studio.
So I began to understand.
I didn’t need to rely on the hope strategy. I didn’t need to create a comic for any company. To follow their guidelines and hope for an anime deal, Hollywood movie, or Netflix show. Some reimagining where they’d change my main character and still call it Air-Rider.
I learned I can create my own comics and even develop a studio for future animations! My main goal in all this is to proliferate the world with beauty. I know I can, so I will.
But it’s a climb, for sure. I can’t instantly go from beginning to end.
And what fun would that be, anyway?
I’m no longer building some big company to sell off one day, I’m building a studio to entertain the shit out of people.
My goal is to develop my storytelling style in comics, then to expand my vision into animation.
Creating great stories you can escape into, but drive you back to your own life with vigor and enthusiasm. Stories you can get lost in forever and enjoy. Stories that inspire you to live like your favorite characters. It’s possible if you work for it.
I’ve been studying storytelling for well over a decade and I’m just now getting started. I have hundreds–HUNDREDS of pages of useful theories and notes, and I’m here to share it ALL. A good writer creates good stories.
Not to mention $4000+ in credit card debt. On top of school loans. Aaand back taxes now that I think about it.
Life can be a kick in the balls sometimes.
But I spent the entire summer blowing through all my savings (and retirement fund) like a madman! As soon as I moved out of my parent’s place, I GAVE UP ART, chased women, bought a motorcycle, and took up boxing!
Now I know I can:
Live well on my own
Get laid
Ride clutch
Take a hit (and give one too!)
I had planned to chill out and do odd jobs for the next couple of years until I had my fill of fooling around. But now in the Wintertime, I’m like the grasshopper who spent all his time fucking people and boozing instead of stacking bread like the ant.
Oh well.
Am I worried? Nah.
Should I be? I wish I was! It’d make more sense.
But I’ve seen rock bottom, and this ain’t even close. Next to that, this is a minor inconvenience.
Broke-ness is really just a state of mind.
I tend to put myself in extreme circumstances which teach me the most.
My last desperate cash grab idea before going fully broke was a personal loan.
The thought of that idea in my back pocket filled me with relief for weeks as I barreled towards poverty. It’s such a quick and easy process, too! I didn’t even need to leave my home. The money would just come to my account in hours. Problem solved. Right?
But that’s how they get ya.
My credit didn’t even have to be that good. So borrowing $6000 would’ve been no big deal right? I’d just pay it back as soon as I made money from my art.
But here’s the catch.
The loan repayment would begin 45 days after disbursement, then I’d be paying $250 per month for three years until I paid back all $9000 I borrowed.
Wait, $9000?!
And that’s when I understood what APRmeant. -_-
That, and the little APR Nen beast from Hunter x Hunter.
So my back-pocket idea was a no-go.
And now I had 2 problems.
I had grown accustomed to the life of pure freedom I was living.
I was roommates with my best friend playing videogames all day
Chasing girls around, getting laid.
Buying a motorcycle on a whim and joyriding.
Life truly felt like some kind of early 2000s college movie.
I refused to go back to a day job forever. And I still do.
I wandered around day after day, my retirement savings dwindling to nothing, unable to stop the impending ZERO and unwilling to get a “regular job”. I was praying, meditating, and waiting for an answer. Either that, or wishing for something to come and save me!
Then one day, the answer hit me! I could DRAW for a living.
Yeah. Surprised me too.
It had been sitting right in front of my face the whole time.
I went to school for it, I’d been drawing for decades, so the answer should’ve been obvious right?
So I decided to create a Zine to get back into it. A mini-book of drawings using my Air-Rider characters and centered around the 90s & Y2k theme.
An illustration every day in December, until January when I’d sell the whole thing online, and make $30,000, have rent paid and continue my life of complete debauchery.
But so far, the idea is more of a catalyst than anything. It’s galvanized all the resources within me towards creating things again. I gave myself no choice and backed myself into a corner, just to see what I would do. And now I’ve come back to my life’s greatest obsession.
To MASTER STORYTELLING.
I must now bring forth the ideas that flash into my mind on the edge of my consciousness. And I don’t really see a better use of my time than attempting this goal with my wholeass.
I tend not to half-ass most things.
I don’t see comics as “COMICS, or FUNNY BOOKS” I see them as portals into other worlds which can pull you in and engage you. Storytellers are merely your guides to these other realms, picking which characters to focus on, which ones are doing the most interesting things, and the ones with the deepest personal lives. We’re really just telling you what we saw in the best way we can translate it.
My soul has been reignited. I’ve always wanted to make money creating, and I believe that money is just a reflection of how much I’ve entertained you. That’s always how I’ve bought my favorite books.
I’m paraphrasing, but as genius businessman and writer of The Millionaire Fastlane, MJ Demarco put it:
To make money, you must create more than you consume.
Out of everything I read in that book, that ONE idea has stuck with me until now.
Create more than you consume.
Now that I’m in a position where my only choices are debt slavery, or creating my own job,
I magically get it all of a sudden!
I wouldn’t have understood it earlier when I had money and bitches. But now I can focus. Had I jumped into some job to catch myself before landing at $0.00, I’d be more miserable than ever, and my creativity would remain dulled, and locked in a schedule between 8hr shifts, Youtube, and video games for distraction.
Now my senses are sharpened to a pinpoint. Focused on creating enough value someone would actually pay for.
As much as I want to galavant around the world with my riches, now is not the time. But I can’t think of a better way to get there, than by enriching the lives of others with my art.
I getto start from ZERO. I get to begin anew. I getto learn how money actually works, and make more of it than I ever thought possible.
I was originally just going to draw a zine, post some sketches everyday, run a quick kickstarter, sell some books, then bounce.
But instead, I’m following marketers on Twitter, Indie comics creators, Russell Brunson, engaging with artists daily, got my email list up and running, and I’m currently creating more issues of my comic Air-Rider. I’ve got Youtube ideas, post ideas, and all of them are gathering at an accelerated rate. All I had to remember is that I am a Creator.
And so are YOU.
I spent decades developing my skills to the level they’re at now, only to realize I’ve finally made it to the BASE of the mountain.
This was originally done as a mood board assignment for Business class at the Kubert school. I put together the most late 90s early 2000s influences on my art as I could fit on one board and named the aesthetic Y2K Redux.
Matt Laskowski: fox-orian or https://www.plasticshards.studio/ (meme originator) Probably has the best feel for that 2000s vibe I’ve ever seen. Takes heavy inspiration from Mirror’s Edge yet makes it his own. Not to mention he’s one of THE most helpful artists I’ve seen on this DeviantArt I’ve read through his perspective tutorials numerous times. www.deviantart.com/fox-orian/a…. His work drives me to master light and color!
Tobias Zeising: ssilence Has an excellent eye for mood and atmosphere beyond words.
Asteroid: twitter.com/asteroid_ill Does some sick Pokemon art in lovely, moody, atmospheric backgrounds inspired by Tsutomu Nihei as well.
Sam Kieth/THE MAXX: The Maxx is an awesome animated series from 90s MTV. There was so much style to it it made up for some of the limited animation. His comic, Epicurus the Sage has some of the best cartooning I’ve ever seen in comics. Sam Kieth’s style says “to HELL with conventional rules, people should FEEL my art!”.
FLCL: Do I need to say anything? 6 episodes of this show blows some entire anime series out of the water. It feels like an extended music video with some of the most memorable tracks you’ll ever hear in anime. Not only is it cool and stylish and exceedingly expressive on the surface, it also has an emotional throughline underneath which ties the whole package together. Nothing screams 2000s as loud as this anime!
Darick Robertson: TRANSMETROPOLITAN is a masterclass in grounding fantastical sci-fi elements in reality. The key is his characters’ human expressions and body language. Working with writer Warren Ellis, the co-creators came up with a whacked-out sci-fi world with a true emotional core.
Archie Comics: I rarely ever read the comics themselves, but I have a massive Pinterest board (www.pinterest.com/TheCOMIKEN/a…) loaded with wonderful cover art. The characters are wonderfully expressive and flirty. If someone ain’t getting cucked on an Archie cover, it’s not an Archie comic! (as a general rule, of course!).
Jaime Hernandez: His art was also very much inspired by Archie comics, but he took the expressiveness of his characters to the next level. They live on the page. I can flip to any page in his comics and lose myself in his characters’ lives without realizing it. I have to yank myself away every time. It’s witchcraft I tell you!
Artist of the comics series, Invincible with writer, Robert Kirkman (Now animated on AMAZON PRIME!) If it weren’t for his art on that book and the amazing inkers and colorists, I probably wouldn’t have bought the whole series. It’s insane the amount of impact and boldness there is in his art. Not only that but the expressiveness of his characters adds even more of an emotional component to the intense, gory action.
His Capcom/Udon work is FULL of that lovely 2000s vibe.
Koji Morimoto:https://twitter.com/PhyKojiMorimoto This animation director is a clear channel conducting the flow of otherworldly experiences from the universe to present humanity something fresh and new. You have to see it to believe. He also pulls inspiration from Andrej Tarkovsky. Check out his music videos on youtube and what I consider his magnum opus: Dimension Bomb.
Tsutomu Nihei If you ever want to see what bleak, dense nihilism with no hope of escape looks like read BLAME! and take a walk through a true Dyson Sphere. The “story” is just an excuse to draw whatever awesome shit he could conceive of. This guy is pulling artistic rules from another dimension. He’s one artist who’s shown me that your work doesn’t need to look perfect or have the best anatomy or perspective to sell. Nihei operates on the rule of cool (especially in his work, BIOMEGA). If it looks badass, draw it. His work is a near unfiltered look into his mind. The kind of stuff I’d never see in American comics.
George Morikawa Some the most VISCERAL action you will see in comics and manga PERIODT. The anime does an amazing job of conveying the impact of each blow, but when I finally took a look at the manga, I saw the source of power they were working from. So many creative and distinctive ways to show the devastation of a single punch. Weilin Zhang Xenophoss Epic animator I found on twitter! My favorite animation by him: twitter.com/Xenophoss/status/9…
A story about at delinquent boy who attends the same high school where his father was a school SHOOTER.
Now he has to fight the demons his father indirectly spawned!
AIR-RIDER is a mix of all your favorite Saturday morning cartoons.
…with a dash of horror.
Think The Maxx, FLCL, Teen Titans, Danny Phantom, and Codename: KND all rolled into one! If you miss those lazy days watching your favorite Saturday Morning Cartoons, AIR-RIDER’s got you covered!
And don’t forget to sign up for our NEWSLETTER! Get notified of physical book releases, Storytelling Tips, & 90s/Y2K goodness below!
*Note* Contents of the kit may be subject to minor changes over the years depending on teachers and curriculum!
Here are the computer and tablet requirements for 2018-2019.
*May be subject to changes/upgrades!
I also forgot to mention the animation paper included in the kit! We use “Canson acme 12 frame animation paper 10.5×12.5 100pk” for class in the first semester, but you can switch to digital in the second semester.
Rather than thinking about my career in terms of job description, I’ve recently shifted perspectives.
I’ve realized that the job position shouldn’t matter to me.
For so long I’ve tried to fit myself inside a box with the label of “comic artist”, or “penciler”, or “inker” to arbitrarily place myself in an industry role and decide which marketable skills to develop. But as I experiment with and learn different skills relevant to the art I want to create, using a label feels increasingly limiting.
The only thing that concerns me is that I use whatever means or medium necessary to realize my artistic vision.
It doesn’t mean becoming just a comics penciler, inker, colorist, animator, or illustrator, and yet it could mean doing all those things exactly.
As time passes, more career potentials seem to drop from my sight. The thing I’ve realized is that life is too short to be one kind of artist to pay the bills for 20 years before I can hope to do any of my own stuff. Yet having an experience base is incredibly important, so working for publishers or studios is not out of the question. For me to be paid for what only I can do, freelance may be the best option. Time and time again, I’ve seen that those who’ve struck out on their own at the right time were rewarded greatly both creatively and financially, (if they handled the business side well.)
To me, it would be like an artist trying to pencil Batman comics, when he/she is wired to create something like Homestuck. These wildly differing works require different kinds of creativity. If I try to stifle the creativity that could create an awesome webcomic or animation in favor of doing Batman comics for a living, I will lose on both fronts.
I won’t be as skilled nor as appreciative of drawing Batman as someone who’d been training for the position for years, and I’d gradually lose my connection to kind of creativity that would create a unique work like Homestuck.
That is not to say I can’t choose to play with one road just to see what it is like, or that the two creativities can’t be combined in some way; it just means that as time goes on, I will have to start letting go of improbable career paths in order to focus on what I really want to accomplish in my artwork.
For the most part, yeah, I’d say it has. Employing grit is almost a lost art in anime. And not in the sense you may think. What I mean is, what happened to the stories where characters got into real trouble with real stakes and consequences?
Situations in which characters actually fuck up and have to pay the price for it?
And I don’t mean they fuck up in the nice way that everyone understands and pities them for. I mean making an actual mistake in which they are in the wrong, don’t get pity points, and even end up hurting someone else (whether intentional or not).
That kind of grit.
What do I mean by “grit”, exactly?
I feel that it’s a more intangible human element that can be hard to put into words. But as best as I can describe it:
GRIT pertains to the element in a story that connects you to a character because they have human flaws. GRIT doesn’t always feel good and is usually hard to swallow. But if done right, it can be immensely cathartic.
GRIT can make your blood boil with anger towards a character; make you uncomfortable with tension and turn your stomach upside-down with unease at an irreversible consequence. GRIT can make you cringe with embarrassment for a character, sigh with relief at a moment of reprieve, cheer and fist pump at a moment of triumph and make you actively addicted to the story and its characters.
In other words, grit takes a perfunctory unfolding of events and turns them into a glimpse at the human experience.
It grounds the characters in reality, no matter how fanciful the setting, and makes them relatable to YOU the viewer.
This only works if you can actually see the characters as a human beings, not just anime characters. This is a combined effort between the storyteller’s skill and your own experiences. You actually have to empathize with or at least understand a character in order for the “grit” effect to take place.
So back to the question. What happened to that grit: Actual stakes and consequences that mean something to you and the characters?
To me, it feels like this human element has been taken out of most stories. Nowadays it seems like most of the story consists of flashy events taking place on a screen with no emotional connection to the viewer. The events all feel couched in the comfortable conventions of anime. It’s as if writers today are all too eager to let the main characters off the hook. The expectation is that all or most of the characters will come out okay. Nobody will really get hurt. Nobody will really have any valid feelings you can relate with. And even if every main character died, it wouldn’t really matter. It might blow your mind, but it won’t break your heart.
Because none of them feel like people.
It feels like even the emotional gut punches have been padded with pillows to ensure that nobody actually feels anything.
I know you can think of a myriad of anime in which this is the case.
In the Context of Anime Shows…
…you’ll generally get a good time with some ups and downs, but nothing too heartbreaking or core-shattering. No one you really like is going to die. And why would they? They’ve been meticulously designed in the creation process so that you’ll dress as them, buy their merchandise, and fantasize about ’em.
But if all of sudden one of these characters did something morally questionable you didn’t like, or god forbid, died, what would you have to wank off to then?
And that’s why the appealing, totally earnest and flawless creatures of anime stories no longer have real grit.
It’s really hard to pull off within the conventions and context of anime.
And upon a cursory look at fandom creations, most people seem fine with it. You can see it in their own stories of inconsequential fluff, where nothing really that bad happens to their characters and everything’s mostly good at the end of the day.
And you know what? That’s probably the way it should be. Not everyone wants to dive headlong into a deep, emotional torrent every time they sit down to be entertained. Not even me!
I feel like gritty stories are the kind that I happen upon or get sucked into, not the kind I seek out. Everyone wants some sort of soothing from their difficult day; to escape into some good, fun entertainment is the way most people do it.
If you’re gonna have your life changed by an anime with an amazing story, it’s most likely going to be an accident or the result of a strong recommendation.
The anime that can pull this off either start from the gate with heavy tones, OR lull you into a false sense of security in which you think you know how things will play out, and just when you think you’re on firm ground…
*SWIP!*
The rug gets pulled right up from under you.
Like I said, I find most of these kinds of stories either by accident or by passing recommendation.
That all being said I have a list of anime I’ve experienced with the element I call GRIT:
Anime and manga with GRIT:
Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO): A great teacher with huge flaws teaches a class with even bigger flaws
Onani Master Kurosawa: Go read it.
Hunter x Hunter: lulls you into a false sense of security with shounen tropes while sprinkling in some grit for flavor…until it dumps the whole bag
Boys on the Run: Where the main character is an actual underdog loser, but when he wins it feels like a WIN.
Death Note: Where the main character is an evil dickhead and kills off a fan favorite character
NANA: Where the main characters are truly likable and logically empathetic. Good drama abounds.
Outlaw Star: Where the main character is a badass with emotional flaws.
Gurren Lagann: Where one of the main characters dies to spur the actual main character’s development into a MAN
Koe no Katachi (the GODDAMN manga): Couldn’t make it through that soft-ass movie, but the manga was INTENSE with some characters you’ll actually despise. If you’ve read it, you know who I’m talking about.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Classic grit.
Hajime no Ippo: Grit epitomized. Characters lose just when they seem most likely to win.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Just when you’re about to fall asleep you get a bag of grit to the face.
In these stories, you’ll find RELATABLE stakes and consequences.
These are the kind of stories I want to see! The kind I want to create!
But it’s so rare to find in the mainstream these days!
It seems most of us are too busy suckling the teat of anime or Disney, to make anything with actual bite any more.
I feel like I always have to seek out to lesser-known works or hidden gems to get my fix.
What GRIT feels like
Sometimes I’ve found that fictional characters have taught me more about life than the people around me.
When you can RELATE to the characters and/or the story events, their lives now mean something to you. You’re no longer just a passive viewer, you’re now engaged in the story as it unfolds. You experience what happens to a character because you can understand them. You get angry at a bully character because you’ve met that person in real life. When your stomach churns with dread, the character you like is in deep trouble, either socially or mortally. You don’t want anything bad to happen to your favorite! And the emotional tension just ramps up until you can’t take it anymore…
Then BOOM!
Your character’s in the clear…
…Or so you thought. Now the very LAST thing you wanted is happening, and you feel every last agonizing bit of it. So much so that you can’t go on, but you must! You MUST see this through because this character isn’t just experiencing some random set of circumstances, but a deep, emotional and logical event in their lives that connects directly back to YOU.
Yes, you’re the one going through the ringer, you’re the one in danger! And no matter what this character’s solution is, it WILL teach you something about your own life. Whether it’s an example of what to do or what NOT to do. You’ve unmistakably come away from this story with a shift in perspective. Because you didn’t just find some mindless entertainment, but a roadmap for your own journey.
Now THAT’S engagement.
That’s GRIT.
It’s those kinds of stories that stick with me long after the ending because GRIT is hard to remove.
Now I just have to go out and write in kind!
Easier said than done…
P.S.
Grit is not to be confused with unnecessary gorefests, edgy shows that pretend to be deep or fucking hentai.
