Fangs For The Memories

Published Sun, 16 Jun 2013 10:00:19 -0500

Last updated Sun, 16 Jun 2013 14:56:21 -0500

Gus Vasquez writes;

"Be yourself". That's the advice I got in Kickstarter school for what I need to do when I make my video. From my friends and peers who want me to succeed in my campaign. Of course that's the right approach. So, I set up my camera, figured out what I was going to say, and hit "record". What resulted was a mediocre attempt at portraying who I really am to a lifeless object in a room.

I've started and stopped this journey several times in the last ten years. "Fang" is a project I've been working on for at least a decade. That project I wanted to do right, or not at all. It's something I've picked up and put down more times than I can recollect. It's gained steam from time to time, but something always came up. Money, usually, or an unexpected bill. You know how it is. You get moving on something, something else gets in the way, you want to make the right decision. You make what you think IS that decision, and end up regretting the choice you made, to leave the thing you love, so you can do the safe thing. Time and time again, I've done the safe thing, and realized I was no closer to finishing this book than I was ten years ago.

Two years ago, things changed for me, drastically. I was waiting on a phone call from my Mom with news about my Stepdad, who had gone in for some tests. The phone rang. It was 8:30am on a Saturday morning. May 28, 2011. I looked at the phone. My Mom. I answered with my usual, "Hey, lady." My Mom wasn't on the other end. It was her neighbor. My Mom had been taken away in an ambulance to the hospital and it didn't look good. "You mean, my Dad?" No. My mom had collapsed in the bathroom and was on her way to the hospital. Within forty five minutes, I got the news. My life had changed forever. My Mom was gone.

I was 38 years old and not nearly prepared for something like this. She wasn't even sick. I was working for Marvel at that point on their Marvel Universe Update books. It had been almost three years. The longest I'd been on any "title", and it was a niche audience. Then, just a couple weeks after my Mom had passed, I got an email from my editor. They canceled the book due to poor sales. I looked for more work, but there wasn't much available.

I lost myself for months, not knowing what I was going to do. Where I was going to go? What was I to do with myself? I did some work here and there, nothing for the comic industry. Pretty much behind the scenes work, storyboards, designs, things of that nature. I was done. Lost and confused, tired of the runaround game this industry puts you through sometimes. After twenty plus years and the loss of will to try anymore, I was ready to hang it up. I was tired of drawing, I told everyone. I don't have the passion for it, anymore. I didn't always make the best decisions in this industry, and it felt like it was too late to open anyone's eyes to my work. After twenty years of being noticed by no one but my peers, I had had enough. Or so I thought.

I had sold a lot of my art equipment and bought a camera. Started looking into doing something else. Then, one day, I was going through some boxes and I came across some designs for Fang. Looking through some other boxes I found a sketchbook, then the script, and some more designs. Some breakdowns and more drawings, and I found myself looking for everything I had that was associated with this old project of mine.

I found myself sitting down and drawing designs again. Reworking some old drawings and breaking down the script.

I read the script again. I want to do this. But, why DID I want to do this? What was my interest in finishing this project? For one, part of it is the idea that I have in my head to always finish what I started, no matter how long it takes. Second, I realized there was a lot of me in the character, the story.

Fang is a reluctant villain. He used to fight the good fight against evil, and was really good at what he did, but eventually the very thing he is fighting consumes him and makes him a part of everything he fought against.

He gets sent on a mission to destroy the one thing that could save him from his misery, and he has no power to resist. His will has been taken away from him, and he must obey the powers that control him. Only, when he gets to his destination, he finds out that the very thing that he must destroy to continue this existence could actually save him from misery and save his soul. Man, this sounded a lot like my life at this point. My will was gone, but I felt alive again when I realized i still had the passion to do this book. I could still fight the good fight.

"I want to draw Fang."

I made up my mind. It was time to do this book I had so long forgotten about that had sat in a box. Now, how to get it to an audience? I first looked for a few investors. I got close, a few times, but in the end, comic properties aren't enough of an investment because there's little chance of a return on your money. A friend once told me, "The best way to make a million dollars in comics is to start with ten million."

So, I turned to Kickstarter. A few of my friends have done it. Some failed, some succeeded. I talked to most of them to see what they'd done, took their advice into consideration, and made my campaign. It took me over a month and a half to put it all together. I got all kinds of advice, both good and bad, in my opinion, and I realized, like most things, that what works for one person, doesn't necessarily work for another. A lot of people I know, and don't know, are turning to crowd funding because it gives them the chance to tell their story how they want to tell it.

There's a lot of politicking going on in the comic book industry, and unless you're willing got listen to someone else tell you how to do your job for a page rate much less than you've earned over the years, you've got to do it yourself. A lot of things are going that way. Film, tv, apps, games. You name it. I tried this crowd funding thing a few years ago when it first started. I made about $750 in pledges, mostly from friends and family. You're supposed to make most of your money in the first week or so, and rally in the end. That's the trend, so they tell me. So far, I'm way behind it. According to Kicktraq.com, I'll make about 25% of my goal in the end. Not bad, but Kickstarter doesn't give you anything unless you make your goal or more.

I looked at a lot of campaigns, watched a lot of videos, searched a lot of websites, and ended up with what I have. It may not be perfect, but it's the best I felt I could do. The rest is up to the fans, and the audience it gets to, to decide if it will succeed or not. El Diablo, my spokesman, is a character I made up, because I felt I wasn't coming across as sincere enough in my video. So I tried to at least make my video entertaining while getting the message across. It's not easy asking people for money to do something you love, and asking them to trust you and wait while you do it. But all I've got is my word. In the end, I've got nothing left but that.

I've had a long road to get where I am in this industry, and I'm grateful for it. I don't have a flock of fans, or the following I'd hoped for when I first got in this business, but the ones who know me really enjoy what I do. There is not much else I want to draw, though, truthfully. I'm kind of tired of what feels like begging for work from the big two. If my campaign doesn't succeed, I'll figure something out. I'll either continue searching for a job in comics, or I'll go another route and be happy I got my shot in the first place. Either way, I'll know I gave it my best shot, for better or for worse.

One thing I do know, is, I'm passionate, I'm hard working, and I want to do this book. It's up to people like you to become part of that dream. I play a character in my video, but this, right here, this is me, "being myself."

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