Thursday, January 10, 2008

Commissions

So-I'm sitting here at my drawing board-well,actually about 5 feet from it at the keyboard (geez,I'm awfully "board" today...ahem...) working on another Batman commission for a regular customer/fan (this will be his 4th Bats-some of the others were posted yesterday) and I'm realizing that i really haven't drawn a book in over a year!



This may not worry YOU,dear reader,but it concerns ME!

I absolutely ADORE telling stories on paper (a distinction slowly changing thanks to the internet and the eroding of our environment) and have since i was knee high to a knee-high. The stories I've told since becoming a comic book artist have ALL been a joy to do (not always a joy to draw-due to certain factors-but ALWAYS a joy to actually be doing it ;o) and i look forward to that challenge at the start of another project.

But-and there's usually a big but dragging around behind-I've been almost exclusively doing private commissions for quite a while now- this is not to say i don't enjoy them-heck no-i make more money of late than when i was doing my own books (not to mention i get a kick outta focusing on just one image at a time-in it's own way storytelling) but I'm a teller of stories and i miss that-so one of my resolutions this bright and shiny new year is to get back in the saddle and do what I think I do best (next to sitting in front of a TV/movie screen ;o)

I have a couple things in mind,including the long delayed-by me- horror tale,THE VOICE-written by good buddy and filmmaker, Robert Tinnell (who is gearing up to start his next film,based on his hit online strip and resulting book, FEAST OF THE 7 FISHES) as a screenplay-we decided to do it as a follow up to THE WICKED WEST 2, but one thing led to another and I'm sitting here blogging to you about drawing commissions!

That's about to change-i need to get back into laying out his story,soon as possible (laying out a story will be the subject of a future post ;o)




There-i got that off my chest-but now i have several witnesses to this personal promise-dang-I'm cornered now...;o)


7 comments:

David A. Zuzelo said...

I think we need to clone you Neil! I certainly miss your pages and storytelling-even though it has only been a year it feels like a lot longer.
z

Anonymous said...

I think drawing commissions is great ( and yes lucrative too) - but there's a danger of getting into the habit of just doing 'em - well if the demand is there - who could blame you?!

Seeing a new *book* by you though is something I'd prefer and I'll tell you why. I think the discipline of storytelling *affects* how you draw - it makes you focus on the essentials only rather than illustrations which due to their static nature can very easily be over laboured - chockful of detail - the anathema of great comic art ( in my view!).
I'm looking forward to being wowed ( and jealous) of your next strip exploits>:-)

ade

Neil D Vokes said...

And i also look forward to my next exploitive strip...er...that is...my next storytelling venture...

thanks,mate...;o)

Anonymous said...

I love seeing the commissions (especially when they're mine,) but add me to the list of people looking forward to your next book. So get hopping Neil. :o)

PS: Using my meager computer skills, I did throw a logo on the Drac commission, you can see it here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/RonZoso/DraculaLogo.jpg

PPS; I have no idea how to make a link work on this thing.

Ron Zoso

Neil D Vokes said...

The logo- it should be a bit more Gothic in nature,don't u think?
...;o)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it should, but I was limited to the fonts that came on my computer. I have a zip file of some other fonts, but I'm paranoid I'll screw something up trying to load it on my computer. Computer savy I ain't. ;o)

Ron

Douglas A. Waltz said...

I love the Daredevil pic. One of my favorite runs on Daredevil was Gene Colan. You should do a run of the comic, sir.