Creating art as a profession teaches you things.  There’s a big difference between drawing for yourself, for fun, for art’s sake… and drawing to pay the rent, to feed yourself, and to keep the lights on.  It’s a job.  And while this distinction is clear to a precious few whom I love and respect immensely, I figured it’d be peachy to lay down a grocery list of the most common misconceptions that most people have about artists.

#1 Artists are proud of everything they create. Nope.  More often that not, we are painfully aware of how a piece could have been better, even when our peers compliment us or at least gently bend us over.  We know we can be better.  And while most of us can take constructive criticism like normal people, also keep in mind that no one sits at a desk, whips out his art equipment, and intentionally tries to suck.

#2 Artists are insulted by reference material. No way.  There may be a handful of artists who scoff at drawing from reference, but the majority appreciate it and tend to consider it a genuine effort to make our job easier, may you be a collaborating writer or even just a fan commissioning a piece.  Nah.  Whatever helps us make the finished piece better is usually appreciated.

#3 We like flowery scripts. This is a weird one.  Some writers tend to fashion scripts thinking of their collaborators as the audience.  Though there may be a bit of merit to that, nine times out of ten, an artist will prefer that you just say an alley is dark rather than “oppressed by the shadows of the adjacent concrete monoliths.”  While yes, it serves to help the imagery, keep in mind that you don’t need to sell us on the story.  We are already working with you.

#4 We don’t need praise. We do.  Admit it, artists.  The biggest reason you’re still on Deviant Art is the ego stroking.  Take me for example, after a day’s work, I’d like to hear more than “ooh, that’s nice.”  What’s the matter?  Am I a puppy?  Did you pass out because my page is so awesome and that’s why you can’t say anything more?  All I’m saying is… If you’re a writer receiving pages and you like them, tell your artist you do.  Don’t just ask for the next one.  Show the love.

#5 We’re always in the mood to draw. This is probably the most common misconception, and understandably so.  When comic fans see us at cons, it’s at artist alley.  When writers hit us up, it’s within the context that you are a collaborator whose job it is to illustrate a story.  But of course, just like every OB-GYN gets sick of staring at vaginas every now and then, sometimes we just want to sit at our desk and NOT be holding a pencil.

So that’s it.  Five common misconceptions about artists.  I’m pretty sure I’m wrong about a couple of them and very right about others, but this is all from experience, so bear with me.  Now back to work…

Not until illness renders you physically unable to work do you truly appreciate the work that you have in front of you.  It’s June in the Philippines, and with the change of season comes a drastic change in my constitution. I’ve been stuck in bed for the better part of this past week, sucking on air while my wife took care of me and made sure our home didn’t go to shit.  I’ve been stricken by a bad case of the flu, which has been threatening to wake my asthma up something fierce.  We’ve missed X-Men: First Class and Green Lantern, but I might be at 100% just in time for us to catch one of them.

Been toying with the idea of aiming for two pages a day lately, but Jad says I should ease it into five pages a week while I’m still recuperating.  She knows my limits a lot better than I do these days.

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The Tres Komikeros podcast has been on hold for half of June, no small thanks to me being a sorry pile of ache… but we’ll probably be back in full swing this coming Friday.  Alex has been itching for comic conversation, which is hard to come across in his all-work-oriented Singaporean Surroundings.

I’ve been catching up on some random things on my own though, while stuck in bed:

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights

A much better anthology than Gotham Knight was, mainly due to the strong through-line anchoring the little tales.  Art direction was very Dragonball in a lot of the fights, but that actually made it work a lot better than Jad and I expected.  A great primer for the film, even though it isn’t Hal centric.

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The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

For some bizarre reason I’d really rather not think about, my buddy Migs procured an entire season of this show and promptly recommended it to me.  Granted, I wasn’t under heavy medication when he did, but seeing this now makes me think this is probably how Charlie Sheen feels… all the time.

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Warlord of Mars (Dynamite)

I loved the original Burroughs books.  I love the Frazetta paintings.  This series is respectful to both, and though the text can be cumbersome at times, I feel there is a very real effort to capture the soul of Barsoom, making this a sometimes-steep read that is well worth the climb.  This could use a PG tag on the cover though.  No sex is depicted, but thinly veiled nudity (though tasteful) should still be filtered.

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So yeah.  Space Cop.  Weird Cabin Boy.  And Barbaric Nudists.

Never let it be said my tastes don’t vary.

A fresh page scanned, a new podcast posted.  I am sitting here at my desk on a cold Thursday morning, staring at the teaser image for Johns’ and Lee’s new Justice League, which is to debut in three months.  The day was filled with the internet din of rumor mongering and shocking confirmations of DC resetting their entire universe and launching fifty-two first issues from September onward.

They’re starting from scratch.

Will this stick?  Or is this yet another Heroes Reborn event Jim Lee is involved with?  I don’t know.  But this all reminds me of something Skottie Young said on a podcast, during one of his more lucid moments:  “Ten years, pussies.  That’s it.  And you’re done.”  He was referring to the number of “good” years one comic fan can really call his own.  A decade.  After that, it becomes clear how cyclical the industry is, and how convoluted histories need to be reset in order for new readers to jump on board.  And then you make a subconscious choice between continuing or ending your fandom, knowing this nature of comics.

Having been exposed to comics by my older brother, I’ve been in love with the art form since I was four years old.  Comics taught me how to read.  Comics taught me how to draw.  And probably most importantly, comics taught me how to be passionate about telling stories.  And in spite of being held at the mercy of retcons and reboots for almost thirty years now, with Skottie’s logic in mind, I have enjoyed comics enough for three fans’ lives.

And here we are again.  Another jumping-on point for some, a potential jumping-off point for others.

But you know what?  Just because heroes and characters we’ve loved for so long need to start from scratch, doesn’t mean the adventures we enjoyed as children are undone.  No one’s taking them away.  What this means is that it’s time for new children to enjoy these stories, and for these characters to be someone else’s toys.  And if that means comics can be enjoyed for more decades to come, then I’m all for it.

I know you’re out there.  I know you exist.  I know, because I used to be just like you.  It used to be hard not to bitch about costume usage and character appearances not making sense, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.

When you were kids, sure it was great knowing the events of Final Invasion led to the key chapters in Siege of Night.  But the operative phrase in that context is “you were kids.”

Continuity isn’t intrinsically a bad thing, especially when it’s observed within the bounds of one writer’s story.  Continuity in that regard is akin to Consistency.  But when continuity becomes a thorn that hinders new stories from happening because it clashes with the events of past storylines, then it just becomes a pain.

You can’t condemn a new storyline just because it conflicts with minor details in another writer’s story from 15-20 years ago.  At that point, how would it be possible to not run out of new tales?

How can you expect a writer to read every single issue just so he can write his story?  At that point, someone who might be the best new writer ever would be held hostage by the worst writer ever.  At that point, you’re blindly bound to dates and events.  And then all of a sudden you’ve become the Harold Camping of comics.  And much the same way, what you’re worried about doesn’t matter.

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A good story outweighs continuity.  The information you retain shouldn’t matter more than how much you enjoyed the narrative.

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Learn to let it go, nerds.  Not all of it matters.  Take each story in and of itself.  Or better yet, take each writer’s run as its own thing.  Every new creative team brings with it a soft reboot anyway.  Stop caring and just enjoy the fiction.

Be cool like me.

This tends to happen when I take my coffee a little too late, hoping to squeeze a twenty-fifth… twenty-sixth hour out of a day.  My head is racing from the brew, but my eyeballs haven’t drunketh of the same cup.  This is either a flaw of strategy or of design.

Note: Invent eyeball coffee.  Market as “Coffee for Your Eyeballs” to avoid confusion.

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The logo for Element shoes looks, to me anyway, like the Red Horse logo.

Yesterday, I burnt my left hand a bit, cooking smoked milkflish.  Worth it.

My wife is enjoying REM sleep. Why can’t I have nice things?

She asked me what my five favorite words were yesterday:  Geosynchronicity.  Anachronistic.  Ersatz.  Pastiche.  Zeitgeist.

Watching Fast 5 (if that’s the title) with her and a coupla friends this Wednesday.  I forget how that happened.

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Eyeball coffee should come in five blends:  Cinnamon.  Oak.  Mint tea.  Denim.  And teal.