The Block and the Anti-Block and Pan-Gea

I don’t know why it is, but I’m such a caveman these days. I rarely update any of my web stuff, rarely contact people (email, phone, or otherwise), and I don’t seem to be very concerned about it all.

That’s probably one of the reasons I’ve never quite “made it” as an artist. Of course this implies there is a gold standard to “making it”, which there isn’t.

So the past few days I’ve been fully immersed in late nights with Pan-Gea. I’m feverishly (well…maybe that’s a strong word) working on a short story called Echoes, written by my associate in crime Cyd Clark-Praxis. Naturally I’ve ran right up on the deadline – or past it – and I’m in the crunch zone. But the thing is…I like it here.

From the get-go Pan-Gea was an idea born of fire. I can spin descriptions of lost races in the ancient world battling the forces of evil but when it cuts right down to the bone we’re talking about warrior chicks fighting ugly monsters. I find that I enjoy the work best when I attack the page and don’t think too much about it. The kinetics are heated up and I burn through the pages more rapidly. I hope those who read Pan-Gea appreciate this element to the art. I don’t mean to create “rushed” art. I mean to let the art live.

Of course my biggest flaw is in not doing enough. I can (and have) created multiple page stories in a matter of a couple of days. Yet my output is pathetic. Seven Arrows is a 48 page story and it took me something like a year-and-a-half to complete it. Sure, we had a baby in that timeframe, but come on. There’s no excuse for pitiful output like that. I’m young(ish), I have time to work, and I have the ability to make good comics. Obviously there is some kind of block there and I’m not seeing it clearly enough to move it out of the way.

Ah, but that’s the journey ain’t it? We muck our way through life hacking at the creepers with dull machetes and occasionally we’ll see a brightly lit glade or a city of gold. Sometimes we just find quagmires. But its all so goddam electrifyingly fun I can’t find a reason to complain.

Now…about that silly block-thingie…