Project History & Status
As of July 29, 1999:
Pencils - Issue #1, #2, #3 are 100% complete #4 18%
Inks - Issue #1 100%, Issue #2 64% complete
Cover - Issue #1 100% complete
I pretty much stopped putting updates here because work stalled out for about 8 months.
I would say the ball started to roll in the Fall of 1996; the business was fully established and I was still refining many of the ideas I wanted to share. The first official meeting consisted of myself, Chuck, Zak, and Jeff. We all discussed fair page rates and everybody was psyched to go. Zak immediately started on the scripts and I primarily met with him for the first couple of months. The scripts to all four issues were done around May of '97. I thought they were fairly entertaining and Chuck felt they were do-able. We both agreed, however, that the plot was strong enough for storyboards.
The project definitely stalled out during the Summer of '97, because everybody was waiting for Jeff's samples. He eventually turned in layouts and tried to pass them off as pencils. I knew Chuck could do a better job at penciling so Jeff was let go. Chuck contacted Jason who eventually became the main penciller for the series. I loved his Curse of the Spawn sample and the rest was history. The project really didn't start rolling until November of '97. There were some preliminary steps, such as, character design and storyboarding that took place in the mean time. Everybody started penciling around late November. Zak turned in page #1 of issue #1 and we were all pretty psyched. Although Zak was going back to school and seemed to rush things a bit when he needed to pay for tuition and supplies. Jason on the other hand finally quit his day job and was really concentrating on the project full bore. It soon became apparent that Jason could handle this project on his own. Chuck also took the bull by the horns and went freelance.
Shopping For Color
In July of '98 thought I'd start shopping around for colorists or possibly a publisher who'd market the project since I'm already covering all the other costs. I figured I'd start at the top. Top Cow. I sent some e-mail to their productions department and then was shunted to some other department who finally told me I needed to submit my artwork through the normal channels. Yeah right. I'm going to send my ideas to some other publisher so they can steal them and publish them as their own. I don't think so. I figured I would be able to talk with somebody important over there. It's not like the other creators at Top Cow have the capital to start their own book. I was just looking for some advertising and promotion and maybe a little color. Don't get me wrong, I'll still buy their stuff. But we might see who gets the last laugh. Maybe them. Maybe me. We'll see.
I then tried Jack who I knew from one of his Chaos! tours through Denver. Turns out he was working for a big graphic design studio here in Denver and Monte gave me the contact. I talked with Jack one night and he seemed to be pretty gung ho about the project. When we last talked I was supposed to see a sample of his stuff. I didn't see it. So I moved on.
Now I was ready to actually pay for some serious color. Who better to color this book? You guessed it. LIQUID! I searched the internet for some way to contact them and finally somebody over at Top Cow actually gave me an e-mail address for Christian Lichtner. You know who you are at Top Cow and I thank you. Christian never did quote me a price for color, because he probably knew I'd pay it and he'd have to round up some people to work on the project. He was definitely way too busy to pick this up, but I'm not ruling him out for later issues or perhaps a pin-up or two. Christian? Is that a deal? You out there? Well anyway I had to pass on LIQUID! Actually they passed on me.
I sent about 10 different e-mail messages to Avalon Studios, but they never sent me a reply. I liked what they did with Daredevil. I didn't realize they were contracting their coloring talents to Marvel. I thought they were strictly their own shop, but once I saw the Daredevil issue I thought I'd give them a "call". My guess is that they didn't take me seriously and just blew me off, or that everybody's e-mail goes into the bit bucket.
I finally found somebody to do the color around October '98. Digital Chameleon. As of 2/2/99 they quoted me a price and everything.