Sunday, November 11, 2012

Mirror


Place a brick on the river,
To show them what we built -
To show them what was lost -
To free us of our guilt -
To build back to a meaning...
Before it all got lost,
It hurts to be alone,
It hurts to be alone.

Place a brick on the river,
To give their lives a scale -
To fill their hopes with meaning -
To show them how we failed -
To untangle their past...
And give them drops of ego,
It hurts to be alone,
It hurts to be alone

Place a brick on the river,
To give our thoughts a platform -
To outperform the wind -
To bring us what we asked for -
To give our pain the merits...
Of art made on a whim,
it hurts to be alone,
it hurts to be alone.


R.I.P.  To all those who died this week.  

Monday, November 5, 2012

Coming full circle - a tale about our new Angel of Death series and more

One of the few perks of working in comics is having the opportunity to revisit one of your childhood creations. Unfortunately for me I was a stupid little kid and not very creative. Actually, most of my early two page "creator-owned comics" consisted of recycled plots featuring the same bank robbers, policemen, and damsels in distress. 



I'd like to think my storytelling skills have evolved a bit since the age of four, but the truth is that I didn't seriously consider comics as a career until 2006. Even then my writing background consisted more of unpublished editorials, and an unfinished Star Wars book that may never see the light of day. Fast forward a year later, I find myself attending my second Intro to Comic Book Writing course with the Comics Experience guru himself, Andy Schmidt. His challenge to me was formidable: write a self-contained five page comic script in a manner that may hint at the creation of a larger series. What I came up with was an angel of death story that reflected my pain at the time of not having any control over any of the horrible things that had happened to me that year. I also tacked on a seemingly obvious title, The Lonely Man, to further demonstrate my need to never directly write about myself. The script was well received, but I knew it did not hold a candle to the script I delivered in my first writing class with Andy. 

Fast forward another two years to 2009, I'm hell bent on finding an artist for what is now an eight page rewrite of the original Lonely Man script. This time I am a few years removed from my pain and two years into my freelance comic book writing career (which is pretty much going nowhere). So although the script's story is more appropriately paced than the first, the dialogue still sucks. Luckily, I meet future Inkbot Film's CEO, Robert Vicente at an AIDS public service announcement campaign.  Despite having the sexiest voice in the film industry, Rob manages to look past my amateur writing and agrees to tackle the art duties on my angel of death story. 

Rob's first attempt at bringing The Lonely Man series to life was quite ambitious. Unfortunately, his inexperience with sequential art led to missed deadlines and our decision to shelf my angel of death story for the foreseeable future. Still, he did manage to push out this cool piece of promotional artwork within a ONE YEAR time frame :)



The year is now 2011. It is our second year exhibiting at The New York Comic Con as Inkbot.net. We've created quite a buzz for ourselves as one of the few returning web comic companies that can afford (barely) to be on the main floor at the convention. As a result, we attract a few submissions from artists looking to join our company. Out of a pile of fifteen submissions, two stood out: one of a naked chick that was horribly drawn but still passable enough to give most of our overworked crew a boner and the other a beautifully drawn crime short from an amazingly talented artist named Edward Taub.  

Ed not only stole our hearts with his amazing artwork, but also managed to leave us breathless with his stunning Connor Kent-like good looks: 




Ed had the privilege of NOT reading my previous two Lonely Man scripts. Fortunately, he did manage to get through my new 14 page revision without throwing up his six pack. Even more incredible, he actually liked it!





So here we are November 5, 2012, we are three weeks away from debuting our baby. Rob has been assigned to colors and Ed to artwork, because the two bastards have no choice I'm the writer. So, I'd love to continue talking about how my journey as a comic book writer has somewhat come full circle, but I figured I'd just show you instead.




See you guys on the 28th! I hope you enjoy our thrilling ongoing tale of the Angel of Death!

Cheers,

Christian Rubiano
CEO of Inkbot.net