Crystal Clear
"It was two artists who definitely had no business writing." Dave outlines the beginning stages. "At least me, not Jay, he's writing now. And Troy being a writer knew how to use words well and had a knowledge of wrestling with a background of wrestling. I hope you're okay with that Troy, mentioning that. So the three of us came up to print a comic.
"Before now we didn't know how to make a comic and get it out there but we decided to take it in a little different direction so we could make it a little more acceptable and now we're on the 2nd issue going into the third. Not to brag but I think we've got a pretty solid comic book in comparison. Sort of a struggling artist trying to break into and make things happen so that's it."
Bamn, a comic book published by three artists from the DC Metro area, has surprised readers as the atypical wrestling story. As an independent comic, Bamn has made a stamp on comic readers at the Small Press Expo for two consecutive years. Now their focus is on the upcoming Baltimore Comic-con.
Continuing from Part 1, creators Dave, Troy, and Jay have learned the business side to comics. For any aspiring illustrator or writer in grapic fiction, there's the siren to break in by self-publishing. As with any artistic endeavor, there's the romanticized goal and then there's the work. The Bamn creators had already dealt with the former.
"Then take a different turn on storytelling with
a superheroine who's not a role model at all
but trying to control herself."
Jay addressed the business side over the dream initially. "Comic books are kind of tricky.But I worked as a manager in a comic book store so I spent time schmoozing Diamond Distributors and I got a good idea what the industry is like on a retail level. So it wasn't that rude of an awakening to me.
"I had already worked it out in my first two years in managing. It really didn't come as a big surprise. I had that kind of cushion for five years as a comic book store manager. I was the one going on the internet to look stuff up and talking to people. I was greedy to learn more about the business."
Dave adds, "I've been part of the comic book world long enough that I'm bracing myself
for the bad."
Braced for these economic times? The economy has directly affected markets nationally to where even locally the comic book industry has felt the monetary lightning strikes. Big Monkey Comics, a Washington DC based store, recently closed. For independent comics, the question is how has the economy effected comics production. The trio had their own experiences to elaborate.
"Well I know finishing issue two had a lot with me getting laid off." Troy delivers with a late night comedic monologue. "One of the reasons we were able to turn the book around so fast is that I had a lot of time. I think the first issue took us about a year. The second one about five months. Less than that probably. So that's one way the economy effected us.
"On a retailer distribution side we're all fortunate we have a lot of comic book stores like Alliance Comics supporting us. And ComiXpress as well. So we really haven't felt that hit yet, We're all struggling ahead, none of us are independently wealthy so it has to come out our pockets. But if we can't get the book out anywhere else we can get the book out there.We've almost worked there for almost over half a decade so we've been reall fortunate the economy hasn't effected us too badly.
"I was surprised because I expected the turnout at the SPX to be smaller. But we actually did a lot
better than I anticipated. And I think the comic industry... if memory serves me correct the comics
industry is usually one of the few businesses that does well when there's economic turmoil in this
country. Comics came about during the depression era. The idea of an economy sapping an
independent book, I'm not too worried about that. Things will be turning around very soon for us."
Locked on their titles Bamn and Crystal Clear, working full time and producing a comic book
can be demanding While ideas are apt to surface at any point of the day, putting the ideas through
the creative process and into print can be taxing on another level. There are the dreaded creative
blocks. As well, when all these active ideas collide between the three the collaboration can
become a jam session. Troy, Jay, and Dave have been at this a while and a work atmosphere
formed from the first days to present.
"It gets easier than harder." Jay confides. "It's definitely a learning process. I'd like to think that we're all fast learners. Whenever there's a mistake or we find ourselves trailing back we always do our best to be there for each other. Pick up the slack for each other. If I'm trailing to bring it to conclusion. I've been very, very lucky to be able to work with these guys. Yeah, we've done pretty well being able to sort out our thought processes in any of the stories as far as that concern."
Dave readily adds, "After that, I just have to say about the creative process, I think we stepped up
our game tenfold from issue to issue. From Bamn #1 to Bamn #2 to Crystal Clear. It was pretty rough through Bamn #1 because we're all very new at this. We took that into issue two and being able to complete that a lot faster. It was gratifying. I want to say the idea of Crystal Clear came about 3 or 4 months ago. I'd say as far as Crystal Clear is concerned the product came out very nice with as much time was spent. As far as process is concerned it's definitely getting better and better as things move along. The communication is definitely on point between the three of us."
Troy explains further, "Actually there's a fourth member who's not here right now that I want to mention. His name is Ron. He's a pretty big wrestling fan. He's in Texas right now.. doing his residency. But Ron came on board shortly after issue one. We were scrambling, well I should say I was scrambling for an editor. And we kind of work with a majority rules. So a lot of times I get voted on or voted down. And Ron's been a very big part of that. Ron is the guy that if Dave's drawing and Jay's writing there can come this insane bias on how we want to present something. Ron comes in and 'well guys, I don't know if necessarily this should happen'.
"I wanted to have a character make a crack about a [sexual act]. Ron didn't know what [it] was and it took us a good hour trying to explain we weren't making this up as we laughed about it. But that's how we work. We egg each other on and say this is why this makes sense. Most of us try to bring 'this is why this makes sense'. We do everything at first by outlining in Microsoft Word then have a series from beginning to end. We would spend our evenings just editing and editing it down so it was smoothe as we could possibly get.
"In between that we have a mirror that's covered in cue cards. I'm looking at it right now. It's covered
in card scene to scene from issue three. It's sort of our process, that's how we work. I'm a firm believer
that the most natural idea needs to be the one that comes out. If we find ourselves going around in
circles chasing our tails on a certain point then we'll just sit on it all week and then come back to it
to see what else we have. I think our process is pretty meticulous."
In between their busy creative hours, each member carves a bit of time to keep up on other titles being
published.
Troy leads off. "I'm reading DMZ. Batman and Robin. [books by] Grant Morrisson. I picked up an indie book called The Alchoholic. It's actually from Vertigo. From the DC imprint. And I just finished a book called Johnny Hero I got at the Small Press Expo. That was really a fun book to read. It was nice seeing characters of color being depicted. That was really nice."
Jay admits, "I re-read Watchmen. I got my hands on All-Star Superman, I read Vol.I, and I look forward to reading Vol. 2. And also currently reading Power Girl. That's about it."
"Currently I'm reading a book called Chew from Image." Dave announces. "Pretty much about this cop who has this weird ability to see origins, like if he takes a bite out of a burger he can actually see the cow getting slaughtered. It's a bit of a comedy book. He realizes his ability can help him solve crime so he finds himself eating victims to solve some crimes that happened. That's a really good book. Also reading a book called Locke and Key from IDW written by Joe Hill. Right now, nothing concrete about the story so far. All that's happened so far is about a house with strange powers. It's kind of a fantasy horror."
The creators share their gratitude to the DC Conspiracy, "a collective of local artist and writers helping
each other". Involved with DC Conspiracy's war themed anthology The Horrors of War and crime themed The Spoils of Crime, the Bamn group then introduced a second title Crystal Clear. The title about a personality that has everything that a person could want comes down to Earth taking on the burden of being an looked up to icon to millions. The title is the brainchild of Jay's, which he discusses.
"Well, I'm really into work, and like doing work on my own. I just went on this roll, this brainstorm
of a short story. It really started to develop when I started off with 8 pages for a comic. And I thought it
would be good to have two different mediums to work with. Like one being a little more grounded
about a wrestler who's out of work and trying to find inspiration again. Then take a different turn on
storytelling with a superheroine who's not a role model at all but trying to control herself. Really trying
to understand what it means to be an icon to people. A symbol of hope.
"I've always been a fan of Superman; been into the DC Universe. I actually got into DC [Comics] probably as I was entering college. It's the way I tell Troy, I grew up with Marvel Comics and I could relate to the Marvel superheroes, definitely through high school for me as well. After graduating I didn't relate to it as often until DC came along just embracing their superheroes as protectors of the world. I really admired that. And with Crystal Clear as a female I'll take on that feel of being a protector of our planet.
"It's taking for granted just people extending the message the idea of why it's important for us to be here. Some kind of degree about that. Whether it being a love comedy a lot of women do enjoy romance tales. And with Bamn ending up having a bit of testosterone it could be geared towards a more female audience. And that's a plus. In the same [comics] universe, it could help both. So the response to Crystal Clear was very nice. I hope I can continue the tale of Crystal Clear later on in the future."
The creators make a point of defending her costume. At the SPX, they state, they marketed their titles to potential customers as based around wrestling. The wrestling world has these costumes, but the book involves more story. Feedback has been positive by way of email and customer's personal praise.
Now they'll do the same at the Baltimore Comic-con this Oct. 10 and 11.
"Well it's our first time going to Baltimore Comic-con." Jay states. "We did SPX two years in a row and the Counter Culture Festival back in March. We got our spiel down but I never been to Baltimore before so I don't know quite what to expect. But this is the busiest two weeks we've encountered. We're just pushing ahead like crazy."
For more info on Bamn, see their site here.
Comments