#chadwickginther

Howdy All and Happy Friday!

Last week I mentioned that I would have some surprises in this week’s blog entry. 

Those surprises mostly relate to the events of the past weekend.  You see, in addition to driving 1300 kilometres to surprise my mother on her birthday, I was able to attend my first comic convention where there were products that I created available for sale!

Of Commissions and Conventions

I have mentioned in past blog entries that my buddy, Chadwick Ginther, had commissioned me to do the art for an illustrated version of his short story, A Simple Twist of Fate. Well, this weekend I was able to see the final, finished product, which Chad had for sale as a convention exclusive.  Below is a photo of me and Chad with the finished version of A Simple Twist of Fate. 

Another cool experience I had this weekend was doing my first “signing” for a fan.  I am a bit ashamed to say that I do not recall her name, but here is a photo of Chad with the first person I have met who has paid money for something with my art in it.  

It was extraordinarily cool to have someone ask me to sign something that had my art in it and, to be honest, it was pretty damned cool to hear that people were actually willing to pay for something I had a hand in creating.

Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Chad had printed promotional postcards that featured some of the pieces I had done as part of my Thunder Road Trip live-blogging of my read through of his first two novels, Thunder Road and Tombstone Blues.  

Setting aside how cool it was to see my work printed in a professional format, it was a treat and joy to hear from Chad which ones were the most popular (which were, incidentally, my portrait of Ted and my painting of Ted, Tilda, and the dragon, Nidhogg, in the top right and the top centre of the photo below, respectively).

Overall, the experience of attending the comic convention was overwhelmingly positive, with my only regret being that I did not have something of my own to hawk!

Prospective Plans and Co-Conspirators

The thirteen hour drive home on Sunday gave me plenty of time to think about my experience at the Con and what lessons I could draw from it. 

The first lesson I drew from attending the Con is that I need to start attending conventions as a vendor/artist. I have talked about doing this, in passing, over the last few months, but being in the crush of people and art this past weekend has convinced me that I want to be there, meeting folks who may be interested in my work and other artists and writers. 

I have written before about how attending my regular Drink and Draw group, and getting to know a bunch of other artists, has helped with my creative output (both in terms of quality and quantity).  I believe that, by attending conventions (particularly those out of town) will allow me to expand that circle of artist I know, which should have a corresponding positive influence on my creative output.

The second lesson I took away from attending the Con this weekend came from seeing what other artists were selling and from seeing my own work out for sale at Chad’s table. 

While it was particularly cool to see samples of my own work in print (I rarely print off my own work), all of those drawing were derivative works of someone else’s creations, and not my own.  Even the illustrated version of A Simple Twist of Fate, which was a total joy to work on and a complete delight to see in the finished format, was still work for hire that was based on someone else’s characters, settings, and situations.

This led me to realize that, when I start attending Cons next year, I want to have a product of my own to share.  In particular, I would like to have something that tells a story and not just a series of prints or posters to sell. 

However, if I want to make it to that goal by the time of the first convention in 2015 (which will likely be in April, so only five months away), I need to focus my efforts on one project, rather than drawing whatever I feel like drawing on any given day.

To that end, I am taking a week-long “staycation” next week to get as much design work done as I can on my Justitia Divum project. I am hoping that, by the end of that week, I will have a “series bible” together for Justitia Divum, complete with a rough history of that world, parameters and rules for the “super” part of that superhuman setting, designs for the major characters of the setting, and, with luck, one or two completed pages of the Justitia Divum strip.

The third and final lesson I took away from the Con is that I deeply enjoy working with other creative folks.  I have mentioned in the past few months how much I have enjoyed working with Chad on the illustrations for A Simple Twist of Fate and I would like try and repeat that experience. 

However, bearing in mind that I want to have some of my own product for next year’s cons, I think that, on my next go around, I will make sure that I have ownership (both creatively and legally) of the finished product. 

Now, to be clear, this is not to say that I want to have sole ownership of that product, only that I want all the parties involved to have “a dog in the fight,” as it were. 

To that end, I have read that Warren Ellis structures his collaborations such that he co-owns the finished products with the artist, and I would like to do the same for mycollaborations (fortunately, I know just the lawyer to draft such an agreement…). 

Now, this might seem like a thinly veiled attempt to get other artists to work with me for free, or on strict commission, but I assure you that is not my intent and this will not be the case. 

Instead, I will be taking a page from my music law background, and use the mechanism of “advances” to ensure that my collaborators will be paid for their work, regardless of how successful or unsuccessful the final product ends up being.  This is the mechanism that most recording labels use to pay musicians (pay the artists up front, then claw back those advances from the sales of the final product) and I think it will work well to ensure that I am not wasting the time of my creative partners, while still giving them a stake in the success of the final work.

So, that’s a quick survey of the lessons I drew from my experience at this weekend’s Con and my plans for the near future! 

I hope the Fall is off to a great start for you all, thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings, and I hope to see you back in seven days!

Until then, I have some drawing to do.

Kevin B. Madison