Entry 56: Blast From The Past- Part 5

(continued from entry 49)
 In 1997 I had gone to my first comic con, the San Diego comic con, and I had had my first portfolio review and it had gone well. I had an editor for Wildstorm's business card  and things seemed promising. So I started to draw.

 I thought I would work on one of my own ideas not related to any comic book properties and, as I went along, use my pages to submit to editors, particularly the editors at Wildstorm. The idea I worked on was a surreal futuristic espionage story called Hiro. It was a mix of Aeon Flux, Brazil, Batman, and Blade Runner (I know every futuristic sci-fi is compared to Blade Runner, but I don't care, it was like Blade Runner)

 I started sending the pages to the editor at Wildstorm in 98 thinking that he'd see them and within a few months I'd be called upon to move down to La Jolla and working at the studio. Instead I was told that my stuff was to dark, not superhero-ie enough and more suited for some of the independent publishers of the time like Caliber and some other companies I can't remember now. He said that he thought I was a good artist, but what I was doing now wasn't like what he saw in my portfolio review. Well of course it wasn't, I thought. This was very different subject matter, and was it really so different? And, if I can draw, what difference does it make that what I'm currently drawing doesn't look exactly like what they were publishing?

  Maybe I'm kidding myself though. I know that I've gotten a lot better since these pages but I still think they're pretty good. Maybe they aren't as good as I think they are and they were right to not have hired me. Also, what I didn't know then was that the industry was crashing hard after the huge sales of the early nineties. It would be less than a year later that Wildstorm would be bought by DC comics. I guess in hindsight there could have been some reluctance to take chances on someone new, but I also know that around this time Wildstorm took on several new interns... so, I don't know.

 At any rate, I decided to try something different. I decided to do something "lighter" and more superhero-ie. I remembered an idea that my buddy DJ had once told me about. Apparently when he was little he had come up with a superhero called MorphMan who could transform into a motorcycle. I really liked the idea so a stole it. It was just for the purposes of a 5 page submission, so why not.

 I submitted the pages and got nothing. I realized that I was barking up the wrong tree and that I needed to expand my horizons. My goal of getting hired by Wildstorm right out of the gate was not going to happen. They were just not interested.