Still in a bit of a daze this week. Spending the afternoon coloring character designs, working on a cover for a friend, and getting to those compositional sketches for some paintings I'm doing that are due to the art director on Monday. But I've been thinking, in lue of the success my friend DJ's Hero By Night book and webcomic has been experiencing. We've talked for YEARS about doing more kid friendly comics, and it feels great to be working with him on something that is accessible to younger readers. At one point, when I was illustrating workbooks for a nationwide supplemental educational supplier, I had approached him about a concept I had and wanted to develop with him. We were tentatively calling it the League of Learning. Kind of corny I know. The premise was a 16-22 page ongoing series dealing with issues like those I outlined above. I think he even did up some character designs at one point too, which I probably have lying around the studio somewhere. One hero, or a group of heros (they don't have to all have super powers neccesarily) It would sell in the Social studies market (for issues on violence, gun control, bullying, peer pressure). It would sell in the Science and geography market (for learning about global warming, traveling to other countries and learning culture etc..) It would sell in the foreign language departments doing much the same thing, teaching beliefs, customs, and foreign language. In short, it's a product like NOTHING else that was being offered. It's something that would have instantly been original to their catalog of over 10,000 items they offer to educators. And it's something that I think would sell to a marketplace (the school system) that is drastic need of new and exciting materials to teach their kids and keep them interested in learning, taking into account their increased emphasis on literacy.
However lately, I've really been thinking more and more along those lines. Kid friendly, accessbile comics, that are easy to read and follow, incoporate familiar ideas and mythos, in the same manner that Hero By Night does. Does it have to be a hero comic? No. Kids are interested in ALL kinds of other things besides heroes. Truth, Justice and the American way used to mean something to a kid. And I say if Superman can't give the kid that type of message anymore, then maybe it's time for a change of character :D At a time when people are deciding to kill off our heroes (Captain America anyon?) I think it's imperative that younger readers have a place to turn to in order to find ideals and principles that they can get behind. Comics for a long time I've felt, have lacked that hero persona that my KIDS can look at, characters they see making the right decisions, and dealing with the decisions they make, good or bad, really a hero they can look up to. What happened to Spidey fighting crazy nutjobs in outfits bent on world domination? I think the advent of the Anti-Hero in comics had a large effect on how things have progressed. Comics are being used as an allegory for real life, when they USED to be one of the best forms of escapism available from those real life situations. Kids hear about war, poverty, death, disease, and countless other negative things every day (which is one reason we RARELY watch news on the television with the kids around) At some point, that bombardment of negativity desensitises a child to violence, immorality, and despair. The demographics in the comic industry speak to an older reader. I get that. You market to the audience you have. There are also countless reasons that younger readers aren't as into comics now, they have a plethora of other forms of media screaming for their attention that weren't available in the past. But I also firmly believe that at least PART of the reason younger readers have strayed, is because most comics are being written in such a way that they're just over the heads of an average 10-12 yr. old kid. I'm not saying that comics need to be written at a 12 year old reading level, however I think part of what I am saying is that maybe the underpinnings of the stories need not rely so much on allegorical and/or philosophical interpretations of more "grown up" situations.
I'm rambling now. So anyways, I've been telling DJ for at least a few months now, "DUDE, I'm working on something here. I don't want to show you yet, but trust me, I think it's cool!" I've taken a hard look at my own skill set in the last year, there are definitely things that I have a very strong aptitude for, and there are also elements of my work that are weak at the moment. With that in mind, I'm working mightily, yes on TOP of everything else I'm doing to make a living, to improve those weaknesses. Without much effort at all, my strengths are starting to really become polished and develop themselves to a point where I am now turning DOWN work every week because I simply can't do it all. So taking into account all of these things, and the time constraints I find myself under, with work, family life and trying to not burn myself out. I've been plugging away on this "mystery project" of mine. Lots of brainstorming, planning, etc.....it DOES get boring at times while coloring (I know that my kids often wonder how I can just sit and color stuff all day)

So I've been developing this idea for a visual story, similar I suppose to a picture book in many ways. a half page or page of text, accompanied by an illustration. It's not a TRUE comic book format I realize. Sequential work is one of my weaknesses that I pinpointed early on. However I do have a strong literary aspect to my work, both with the written word, and being able to visually capture moments with my illustrations. So without spoiling TOO much, the project I've been working on has been in development for about 2 years. I'm not quite to a point where things have progressed enough to show full blown color illustration yet, however I can share some quick 10-15 minute character design things I'm working on. The idea actually grew out of a sketchbook page one day about 2 years ago. something I started in the afternoon before dinner, finished in about 2 hours, and by the end had developed a cast of characters, background story etc.....in my head. It is going to follow the outline and writing, to some extent, of the 300 pages worth of fantasy novel I have written. I think I finally decided that the only way to do accomplish everything I wanted, was to marry the two projects into one.
So here are a few pictures to reward you for reading through the long rambling, sometimes pointless I'm SURE, mess that I've made this post. My own daughter and my son are HUGE fans of all things fantasy, partly I'm sure from my own influence on their impressionable imagination. Thus the whimsical and fantastical influenced artwork. I've become a much more accomplished digital painter recently and I really think that when I find time to start working some of these ideas into full paintings....that they're going to be something rather impressive (at least I hope my kids think so! :D ) Now I'm HOPING that I can at least start in on this project before my kids end up having THEIR own kids. I want to think that it's more than 10 years away, but my daugther will be 21 by then, and while I won't CRINGE at being a grandfather at 41 that's still some sort of incentive for me :D