Since I have The Strider’s latest installment The Hunt & The Flame dropping on Kickstarter next week I figured I’d pop in and talk about world building.

The Strider - The Hunt & Flame on Kickstarter

Gonna kick this off by saying I’m not giving advice or instruction with this. It’s simply how I approach The Strider and why because it’s different than I would tackle other projects.

My approach and why.

I’m going to tell you my approach to The Strider and then a story for why I do it this way because there is intention behind. Every issue of The Strider the number one driving factor is to have fun and enjoy the comic making process and to make something super entertaining for the ready. That means if I think it would be cool to turn three moments into a splash page, a double splash page then another splash I’m absolutely gonna do it.

Those pages from issue two make me happy. I had so such a blast drawing them. Did it add more time and increase the page count and make printing more expensive? Yes, but it was so worth it.

The Why

Ok now let’s get in the why which is admittedly way less fun. I’ve been published on the direct market one time. It was the worst experience of my professional life. It was so collectively terrible my plan after turning in the last issue and putting in over one thousand plus hours of labor and love was to quit comics. I was sitting on the couch doing some very tiny composition studies from a pen and ink drawing book. After one of them I added a very tiny man walking through the scene. I gave him a cowboy hat, cloak and little circle on a stick attached to his back so he had a good asymetrical silhouette. I did a little mixed media piece of him just for fun that was 9x12.

I gave him a mask because I like mystery characters and sci-fi western vibes. I decided to do a single issue. I would draw a book just for fun, throw it online somewhere and then peace out as the saying goes.

The only plan I would draw him kind of walking into the book towards the reader and at the end of the issue walking away. In between that my plan was to have fun. Write and draw whatever popped in to my head that sounded awesome. Make a book I would personally love.

My writing and layout stage go hand in hand. That way I can keep it visual and make sure the comic is fundamentally executed. Things like page turns and talking order are important to me.

So he’s walking. Where is he walking? On a desolate road. Where is this road? Earth? Heh no. I wanted to get weird without Earthly constraints. Ok I need an enemy for my faceless wander to fight. Robots are cool. Star Wars is a deep love and some murder droids sound like a good time.

One? No six robot marauders attacking The Strider trying to rob him of his belongings on the road sounds fun. What do they look like? What if these robots were wearing patches of skin, hair and clothes almost like they are trying to be more human? Also is the hair and skin real or synthetic? That question matters more than the actual answer. All of these things were designed straight on the page as I was drawing it. If I thought of something and it sparked for me I did it.

Issue 2, The Town, is in a crumbling city. What do the non robot inhabitants of this world look like? How about humans but everyone has robot part enhancements. So the people are trying to be more robotic and the robots are trying to be more human. And some of the characters you look at you can’t tell if they are human or robot

.

Issue 3, The Hunt & The Flame, takes place in two locations. The Hunt shows a Warlord’s mountain top stronghold. The planet is ruled by Warlords and each one is after The Strider’s shapeshifting weapon.

The Hunt is a bit of an origin tale that takes place in small village that has rural Japan vibes.

So is this the best most organized way to make a comic? Heh no definitely not. Would I ever tell anyone to make a book this way? No, but Im also not big into telling creatives what to do. I will say that my plan was to make one issue and move on to something else. After getting done with the first issue I decided to throw it on Kickstarter and see what happens. The first issue funded in around 12 hours. I did issue two and it funded in about an hour and half. I don’t remember the exact times. Just know The Strider #3 hits Kickstarter June 2 and I’m enjoying this book more than anything I’ve ever worked on.

That hits me differently now than when I wrote it.

The Strider - The Hunt & Flame on Kickstarter

Thanks for reading! Please hit that link and give the campaign a follow.

Best,

Jeremy

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Imagine what you’ll see.

Hey Peeps!

I wrote those lines for The Strider issue 3. They kind of sum up how I feel about sci-fi but as I was working on this book I realized it applied to how I approach art. I am a voracious student and explorer of my craft. Over the last year or so I’ve been working on adding a higher level of polish to my art. I’ve historically been good at conveying information and energy but I wanted to up the ante on the finished quality. My plan was to focus on composition and my drawing execution.

I am a firm believer in the saying “you are what you eat”. What you consume will translate into what you produce. There were two artists I wanted to study for this, Mike Mignola and Kevin Nowlan. I’ve loved both their work for a long time but I went to their stuff for specific reasons.

Mike Mignola

I recently realized the way I was writing The Strider was influenced by a lot of what I’d read in Hellboy. I write The Strider to be episodic with each issue so far containing it’s own little story that fits into the overall narrative. That way you can pick up a book and enjoy a tale in one issue. Issue three is a little different. It has two stories in it, The Hunt and The Flame. Not dissimilar from Hellboy books like The Chained Coffin and Others. I thought it would be fun to give the issue three a Mignola influenced cover but without doing a homage. I know they are popular but it’s not really my bag.

With Mignola I wanted to study his composition and graphic blacks. Mignola is a comp master. More learned individuals than myself may have a better name for it but I call it the triangle composition. Here’s a few examples.

Once you see these you see how much he loves it. When you combine that with what a graphic wizard he is it just hits me so hard.

Kevin Nowlan

With Nowlan what I was trying to learn is harder to quantify or break down. There is a level skill present in his work that I can only aspire to. My art had energy but I wanted to add a layer of polish to it. I wanted to execute it at a higher level. Kevin Nowlan is one of the absolute best. He’s as great at inking as he is at pencilling. As someone that pencils and inks their own work I knew I could learn a lot. I’m gonna share a few pages from his Marvel Heroes Artist’s Edition. I got this book last year to study and it lives by my drawing table.

Again the goal here wasn’t to swipe. It isn’t to look at the art and take how they draw a nose or hands. I was looking at his sharpness. As Yoda says “Control. Control. You must learn control!”

The Strider #3 Cover

So how was going to intentionally insert what I had learned into the work I was doing. Let’s start with the composition. As stated I wanted to pay tribute to Mignola without swiping his art or doing a homage. I wanted a triangle composition. The Strider also has a talking robot skull sidekick so I added a big robot skull.

This a very tiny drawing in my sketchbook. I just wanted to get my rough idea in before trying to go larger. The triangle comp is immediately visible even on a one inch drawing.

Here’s me blowing up the drawing to a page in the sketchbook. Normally I’d take the previous thumbnail and blow it up in Procreate but I really wanted to add one more traditional step in the process. Most of the heavy lifting is done. From here we go into Procreate for pencils and blue line so I can ink it traditionally.

Made big changes to the graphic blacks in the background. Made them more dynamic without changing the foreground comp. Also I am not a super clean inker like Nowlan. My goal is to keep the looseness I’ve had while trying to capture some of his polish.

What did I learn?

This piece ended up being one of my favorite covers I’ve done. Again the goal wasn’t to swipe their art or ape their style. I always want it to 100% look like me. My influences peaking out here and there is cool too. I accomplished what I set out to do with this cover and it’s already spilled over in to my other drawings. The study and work had the payoffs I was hoping for. I was better than before I started it.

Where can you find The Strider?

If you want to check out The Strider hit up the Kickstarter prelaunch page! All three issues will be available. Hit link below to get notified when the new campaign launches.

The Strider on Kickstarter ← Click It!!!!

Thanks for reading this far. This is the first time I’ve written in depth about my process and how I study so I hope you enjoyed it. Stick around for more comics and art.

Thanks!

-Jeremy

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The Strider issue 3 is in prelaunch on Kickstarter.

The Strider # 1-3 on Kickstarter ← click it!!!!

Your favorite retro futuristic space cowboy is back with a 28 page two part adventure.

The Hunt & The Flame

The Hunt will show Warlord Trall. There are several warlords after Strider’s weapon and he is the first one we’ll get a look at.

The Flame is a bit of a peak at Strider’s origin. I love mystery characters. This will be the first time we learn about his past. This will also show how Strider arrived on the hostile planet he’s stranded on.

Time for some art!!!

As a writer/artist I’m all about the pages. And I want full pages because this art is meant to be read

I appreciate you taking the time to check out these pages. I threw in a smattering from parts of the new issue. I hope you’re intrigued enough to head over to the Kickstarter prelaunch page and hit the Notify button. And if you’ve read the first two issues I hope you’re ready for more retro futuristic space cowboy fun.

The Strider # 1-3 on Kickstarter

Thanks!!!

-Jeremy

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Hope everyone is rolling on their holidays. This is a weird time for me comic wise. Definitely my slowest time of the year for any kind of work for hire. I switched heavily into The Strider last year and I’m currently drawing issue 3 which has been a blast. I had a bit of extra time and even did some sample pages, something I don’t really ever do.

This newsletter is pretty much about making comics and comics related art. It’s also a fun way to share pages and pieces directly with people. I was thinking of adding in a tips and tricks kind of section. I’ve been writing and drawing comics for a while now and thought it might be a way to share some of the things I’ve learned on the job. Let’s get rolling.

How many verbs fit in a comic panel?

One. That’s it. Comic panels are single images representing a single moment in time. Example: Panel (1) Wolverine walk into a bar, sit down, order a beer, light a cigar and chug his beer in one panel. Every comma in that sentence should be its own panel. I know what most of you are saying right now. “Jeremy there is no way anyone would send that to an artist.” I’m telling you I have been sent very similar things like that in scripts that were supposed to be ready to draw.

The above is an extreme example but one I see frequently and it causes way larger problems than one might think. Comic pages have extremely limited real-estate. Every single bit of positive or negative space is precious. If a script page has 5 panels written on the page and one of them needs to split into 3 panels now you’re talking about an 8 page panel. It’s something I’ve done quite a few time. So what happens if that occurs on a page that already 9+ panels? And yes it’s happened.

In addition to having a heavy effect on page space it also massively hits the draw time. I can’t speak to other comic artists but I personally invest a good bit of time in layouts. Having to rework 5 panels into 8 and make it all work a page is a lot of extra work before I spend 8-12 hours actually drawing that page. And we work from page rates we lose that time. My personal best case scenario is that only happens a couple times per issue with for hire experience.

Ok is this guideline flexible? Sure. Depending on the circumstances. I can have Spider-Man bouncing through a panel punching multiple enemies. You could have a character walking through a large area in a large splash style panel. The could be drawn multiple time in the same moving through the space, talking to someone or interacting with surrounding area.

It can also depend on how a creative team works. Full script or something looser? It will likely take some collaboration and time to execute. Basically use it until a specific scene dictates otherwise.

I use this thought process to keep things simple and make sure I’m focused on communicating all the required info Something to think about a bit. Most probably have their own version of the same concept. Now onto some art.

The Strider

Your favorite retro-futuristic space cowboy. Issue 3 is written and I’m pencilling away. I’ll throw a couple of the first pages here. These are rough pencils. I don’t go super tight since I ink myself.

I’ll add a lot of textures and ambiance in the ink stage. The pencils are more informational for me. My current plan for issue 3 is probably a March Kickstarter campaign. As usual the book will be completely done before the campaign kicks off. Issue 1 was 24 pages. Issue 2 was 40 pages but that ended up being a bit of a heavy undertaking for a single issue.

Kickstarter Commissions

I opened up a couple full sized commission slots for The Strider issue 2 Kickstarter I did over the summer. I don’t do many 11x17 commissions. I spend a lot of time on them so I have to balance it with making comics. With these slots I got 2 great requests. One was a Silver Surfer Fortnite style load screen. The other was a Stanley Kubrick portrait. Have a look.

Silver Surfer complete with Nikes, a cloud glider and shockwaves grenades. This was a blast. I wanted it to be super kinetic. This piece probably took me longer than any other commission I’ve done. A ton of work went into the layout.

Stanley Kubrick portrait. This one was a surprise. One of the most unique requests I’ve ever received. Also well timed because I love drawing people and was actively honing my likenesses. I really wanted to deliver a great likeness but not being photo realistic. Big sweeping brush strokes, fast line and tons of contrast. Love how this piece turned out.

Sample Pages?

I don’t normally do lots of these. 5 samples pages is basically 25% of a comic book that I could have made. I had a bit of down time about a month ago and decided to do some. Will anything come of these pages? Who knows.

That’s it for me on this one. Thanks for hanging out a bit and reading this issue.

Best,

Jeremy

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The Strider

The Strider issue 2 Kickstarter was a success. It fully funded in about an hour. Even though I was confident in the book and the goal I set was attainable it was still stressful. As of now the campaign is completely fulfilled and in people’s hands which makes me happy.

Comic Conventions

I recently tabled at my first convention since 2017. Why did I stop doing them? Well it was a couple of things. The price of tables was starting to go up dramatically. I’m also not a big fan art guy. I’m happy to do commissions for people but if you see me at a show I don’t have a bunch of prints of things like Spider-Man and Batman. Making a bunch of unlicensed merch just doesn’t appeal to me. I’d rather make a comic so that’s what I do. Plus around 2017 all my gigs were coming from Twitter. I was constantly working and every single gig was coming from there. It made it hard to justify the expense of tabling at comic conventions. Travel, merch, hotel, food, cost of a table… it adds up and makes it really hard to just break even. If I was getting gigs it might be one thing. But I would go to meet readers and make some new friends. Looking to leverage relationships isn’t really what I’m after when I meet new people.

Social media has definitely shifted in recent years. It used to be a great way to share my work and network. Now it’s practically useless. When you combine the algorithms with the way the world at large interacts with the platforms it’s been rendered useless.

I love making The Strider. It’s my favorite thing to work on. You have really entice me to get me to work on something else. Social media losing its relevance meant I needed a way to share my work. In person interaction just felt like the way to go. Round about this time I saw a post for The Oklahoma City Comic Arts Foundation. It had an appeal for a number of reasons. I knew and trusted one of the founders. That makes a big difference to me. It was a small show that was just comics. It was out of state so my wife and I could go on a small adventure to someplace we’d never been. It was still pretty close so the travel wouldn’t be brutal. The cost of the table was very accessible. It was a one day show so I could put a foot in the water without a 4 day commitment.

The show went great. The con was really well run and the attendees were incredible. I have never left a show feeling so much love and appreciation for my art. Already planning to hit it again next year.

Instinct & Intent

The above mentioned combined with some difficult life events left me with serious fatigue and exhaustion. It forced me to take some time to recuperate. In doing so I used to time hone my skills as both a writer and an artist.

The Strider is an unusual comic in that I’m not super structured with some aspects. If I look at a scene and think “it would be cool if this was a splash page” then it’s happening. My visual storytelling style kind of Manga pacing with Western storytelling and page design. If a Manga needs 3 splash pages for awesomeness then they do it. Since fun and joy is the primary motivator behind The Strider that’s at the core of the book.

I’m always looking to improve my skillsets so the necessary down time was a great way to wood shedding in. My goal was to add a good bit of polish to my work while keeping the energy. In that time I also added in a couple of new influences. I started studying an Italian artist from the 1700s, Giovani Piranesi. His fantasy architectural drawings are incredible. It inspired me to put the same level of energy into designing and rendering environments as I do characters and motion. The other recent influence is the great Kevin Nowlan. I picked up his Marvel Heroes Artist Edition. I really wanted to study his raw pages and covers. It has been incredible. It was the first artist edition I’ve purchased and it is so wonderful. Kevin Nowlan is an incredible storyteller and artist. His work with Joe Quesada on Sword of Azrael is top notch.

It’s the first time in a long time that I have put new intention into my art work. Admittedly I am flying by the seat of my pants getting pages done and learning on the fly. It also ended up applying to my writing. I began thinking a lot about the world the character was in, how did he get trapped there, why does he choose to wear that mask… The focus being applied to the art spilled over to the writing. Issue 3, which I am drawing right now, wrote super fast. I knew exactly where it was going. I just needed to lay it out so things like page turns and dramatic moments were in the right places. This new focus needed to blend with instinctual energy that the book has. The result with issue 3 will be 2 stories in one issue. Kind of like some Hellboy stories. Here’s the digital pencils for page 1.

WhatNot

In an effort to make getting The Strider physical issues accessible I opened a WhatNot store. Hopefully it gives me an avenue to get people some comics and original art.

Jeremy Megert WhatNot Store

That’s pretty much everything that’s been going on here. Working on The Strider issue 3 and working on some IRL hobbies with goal of relaxation.

Thanks for hanging out and reading my little newsletter. Hoping to make these a monthly recurrence.

You’re the best!

-Jeremy

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The Strider issues #1-2 are on Kickstarter

Lettered a super hero double feature that I wrote and drew.

Started drawing a promo poster for the upcoming issue of The Bone Herd Chronicles.

Started writing for some new issues of my first book, Space Beards.

The Strider on Kickstarter

The campaign went live on July 1 and funded in 75 minutes! That made me quite happy. It’s my second campaign so I’m still new to the crowdfunding scene. Plus any kind of success with indie comics always feels monumental.

That being said I’d like to share the covers for the book.

This is the rogues cover for issue 2. I had a blast creating cyborg law enforcers, Wale and Amelia Colton. Almost everything I cram into this book is there for the fun of it and these 2 fit right in.

The Strider cover for issue 2. This one was done by the excellent Marcus Jimenez. I always like it when artists have fun and that’s what I wanted here. Just have Marcus go to town and do whatever he wanted. He killed it.

I know a lot of people like to read and collect comics digitally so I did cover that is exclusive to the digital edition of the book. It ended up being one of my favorite covers ever. The graphic nature of the way it came out made me happy.

Since you can get issue 1 with the campaign here’s the original cover.

You've been given tremendous power at the cost of your memory. Was it your choice? Were you forced? What's your name? You put on a mask because you don't recognize your own face. Now you're stranded on a hostile planet ruled by warlords while carrying a mystical weapon that everyone is after.

The Strider issue 2 is a 40 page sci-fi western spectacular.

Do you remember the first time you saw a lightsaber ignite? What about the first time you saw a big robot turn into a truck? There are a ton of examples I could use but that's the fun I'm looking to channel in a super fun original sci-fi western package.Superhero Double Feature

Superheros?

I love them but I don’t work on them much.

A couple years back I did a couple super hero 10 page mini comics just for fun. I would usually do little books like this in between projects. I always liked these and wanted to do something with them so I decided to bundle them together. My plan is to print this book but I’m deciding on format. I kind of want to go newsprint or maybe ashcan sized? I don’t know.

The Crown 2099

My lovely wife was marathoning The Crown on Netflix. Without going into too much detail I had a funny idea of Queen Elisabeth being a kind of Batman Beyond kind of character.

Silver City Flyer

I really wanted to draw a shiny, metallic wing suit so I did. Plus I threw in an old school creature style monster villain that I hope has a bit of a Kirby vibe.

The Bone Herd Chronicles

We should be getting rolling on TBHC issue 2 here soon. If you like prehistoric survival stories then this is for you. Here’s a process peak at the issue 2 promo poster still in the pencil roughs stage.

Space Beards

What is a Space Beard? My first book was basically monster hunting in space. It had a kind of Supernatural/Firefly vibe to it. Space Beards was my joking working title that just kind of stuck. It also made people laugh so I ran with it. I always loved the book but I started getting paying gigs and just didn’t have the time for it. I had a ton more stories to tell with the characters and decided to hop back in. I’ve been writing away on these guys. Don’t know when exactly I can start drawing the pages. Here’s a peak at the first cover. 2015ish I think? Heh.

Well that felt like a lot. Lots of projects and lots of covers. New stuff and old stuff. Thanks for hanging out a bit and giving it a read.

You’re the best.

-Jeremy

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The Strider

You've been given tremendous power at the cost of your memory. Was it your choice? Were you forced? What's your name? You put on a mask because you don't recognize your own face. Now you're stranded on a hostile planet ruled by warlords while carrying a mystical weapon that everyone is after.

The Strider issue 2 is a 40 page sci-fi western spectacular.

Do you remember the first time you saw a lightsaber ignite? What about the first time you saw a big robot turn into a truck? There are a ton of examples I could use but that's the fun I'm looking to channel in a super fun original sci-fi western package.

Got comics?

The Strider #2 is in prelaunch on Kickstarter!! Launch day is July 1 but I need you good people to check out the campaign and hit that follow button.

The Strider Issue 2 Kickstart Campaign! ← click it!!!!

Here’s a few covers for your peepers to peruse.

I love this book.

I started making The Strider just for the fun of making comics. Issue 1 was successful and the highlight of what was probably my best year since probably 2019. It’s fun for the sake of fun wrapped up in a sci-fi western story.

I hope you check it out!!

Thanks for reading,

-Jeremy

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Ok it’s been a while since my last newsletter. Life’s been crazy but I’m up and running. This issue is gonna be all about the next installment of, The Strider. Let’s get rolling.

Where We Been?

The Strider issue 1 was titled “The Road”. We got see our masked foot bound traveler set upon by robot marauders.

Where We Going?

Issue 2 will be titled “The Town”. This book will pick up immediately after issue 1. Here Strider will get to a near by town that is run by two sibling cyborg law enforcers, Amelia and Wale Colton. They want The Strider’s mysterious weapon.

Rather than a bunch of yammering I want to throw down a nice preview.

One the many cool things about this issue is that the interiors are completely done and it’s a beefy 40 page spectacular.

So What’s Next?

Currently I’m doing a couple things. The first is I’m putting together the Kickstarter campaign. I had a few requests for some fancier tier rewards so I’m figuring that out. The Strider was my first solo campaign and I’m new to this party. Hopefully I can come up with some fun ideas.

Also I’m working on the front and back cover. I will be doing those traditionally and offering them as reward tiers. I had to replace my computer which has definitely slowed down that process.

I hope to have the campaign in prelaunch soon. Keep an eye out. I'll be posting lots more info and page peaks.

Thanks for hanging out!

-Jeremy

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Hello!

This is my first post on here of 2025!

How did 2024 go? I ended up shipping 3 titles and had my busiest and most successful year since before covid. I worked with a couple great people and launched a book, The Strider, that I did completely by myself on Kickstarter. I had a published title hit the direct market which despite all the work I put into it turned sadly out to be a disappointment. It lead to me making a pivot to crowd funding which was a huge win.

Last year I decided to pivot what kind of projects I made. I’m not really going to chase direct market gigs anymore. If an opportunity comes along I will happily consider it but my focus will be writing and drawing my own comics. I also started making some art that wasn’t focused on sequential storytelling. It ended up being freeing and really fun. With these things in mind my plan for this year is to make a graphic novel for The Strider and an a non sequential art book. Both will be crowdfunded at some point. I’m currently working away at both of these. I could really used like 10 more hours a day.

New Website!! - www.jeremymegert.com

I setup my first official website!!

It’s super simple right now. The current plan is to use it as a portfolio but hopefully I can use it for more later on. It’s way outside my skillset so getting the hang of it will take a bit of time.

I always relied on social media to network. The changing of the way people use the platforms combined with the lack of discoverability has lessened it’s value. There are also just so many platforms now that it’s impossible to keep up with all of them. With these things in mind I knew I needed more control over how and when my stuff is presented and is always available. My plan is for my art to be mostly on the website and here on Substack as kind of a preview. I’ll see how it goes.

What I’m Working On

I got two things cooking at the moment. These are personal projects and keeping it at two leaves me room to take on other things when opportunities present themselves.

I did a single issue for The Strider last year just for fun. I put the book on Kickstarter and it funded it in about 12 hours. The book was a joy to make and one of the most successful things I’ve ever done. It’s a sci-fi western with martial arts vibes and I want to make more. My plan is to do a big chunk of pages. I want to make something that sits on a bookshelf rather than in a longbox. Here’s a few pages of the new book

Right now I’m just calling it The Strider issue 2 even though I have a lot more planned.

The next project is a non sequential art book. Last year I started doing little head sketch studies. These morphed into color studies, compositional studies, and then quickly into illustrations. What I found was that I really liked making these pieces. I don’t have a title yet. I’m really just making these for fun and plan to collect them in a book format. Here’s a few for you to check out.

Two previews and a website!! I think that’s it for now.

Thanks for hanging out and reading!!!

I’ll have more for you soon.

Best,

Jeremy

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Jeremy Megert Website

Thanks for hanging out and reading another issue of this newsletter. Got a couple books to talk about as well as a poster I got to draw. Also wanted to say a couple things about the grind of making comics. Lets get to it.

Comic Making Grind

Saw a lot of chatter on social media and most of which uninformed nonsense. Now even though I write and draw comics I’m going to keep this confined to the art side as it’s the most labor intensive part of the process.

Deadlines and money. Those are the main causes of why creators have to grind. We’ll cover deadlines first. Single issue comics are in theory a monthly endeavor. The grind most people were discussing revolved around ongoing monthly books at big publishers so that is where we’ll break things down. Keep in mind I am using averages for these for easy math but it holds true in most cases

Deadline Grind

Single issue comic = 20 pages

Drawing time per page = 10 hours (average)

20x10 = 200 hours for one issue

4 weeks in a month so 200/4 = 50 hours per week.

50 hours a week doesn’t sound so bad right? A 6 day work week is 48 hours. So just to start we are already over that for just one single issue of a comic. How many months can you do that? 3? 6? 10? But don’t forget the publisher puts out 12 issues a year of that book.

That’s why people talk about how that level of output isn’t for everyone. It’s incredibly hard and not everyone can do it consistently.

This is the reality of drawing a monthly comic. It also assumes you had lead time and it wasn’t a last minute gig.

Money Grind

Page rates can vary but I am going to go with entry level at larger publishers.

$150/page

Single issue comic 20 pages = $3000

12 issues per year = $36000

Now many publishers are ok with hiring artists that are a bit slower which is great. But we get paid for finished pages and not a monthly salary so the issue that took almost 2 months to draw still only gets you $3k.

Also the majority of comic creators are freelance contractors. That means no paid vacation, no overtime pay, no sick days, no insurance. All those labor laws that protect workers don’t apply to us because technically we aren’t employees.

It’s easy to be mad at this stuff. I get why people are frustrated with these things and want them changed. But until big companies make broad changes this is the reality that comic creators deal with.

Comics

Ok I’m ready to talk about some books.

The Bone Herd Chronicles

The Bone Herd Chronicles - Yavin’s First Hunt recently wrapped on Kickstarter. I loved drawing this book. It’s a great prehistoric survival tale. My books don’t tend to have many animals so getting to do Wooly Mammoths and Sabretooth Tigers was a blast.

I also do a little poster for this book. Here’s a look at the process.

Layouts I do smaller so I can see how they read. Also easy for getting ideas down quickly.

Pencils is next. I do these digitally. Makes it easy for me to make changes which in this case was the character pose. Also helps the page clean.

I love inking so much. Brushes and pens are some of my favorite tools. I’ll share it with you once it gets colored.

Pots & Panels

This is a food themed comic anthology and cookbook. It’s currently live on Kickstarter right now. I got draw a wonderful 8 page story for this project. It’s beautiful slice of life story about 2 kids meeting in an ice cream shop. I also contributed a recipe which was super fun. Here’s a look at 4 pages

POTS & PANELS ON KICKSTARTER - CLICK HERE

Well that’s everything for now. It’s been a busy several months. I’m gonna go watch the World Series. Thanks for hanging out.

Best,

Jeremy

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Vacation

Ok lets kick this off with vacation. My wonderful wife and I recently celebrated our 7th anniversary. Upon deciding how we wanted to celebrate we also realized it had been 5 years since we took any real time off. It was time for a vacation. We did a fun few days together at Disneyland. One of the highlights was getting to go into Club 33 for the first time. Overall it was probably the most relaxing vacation I think I’ve ever taken. I definitely need to be better about taking time off.

Covid

Unfortunately the day we got back I started feeling a bit sick. The next day I tested positive for covid which coincided with needing to ink 8 pages. Not great timing. I finished the pages and handed them in. However upon looking at them later the inks were very subpar. Once I recovered a bit I put a bunch more work into them. It was definitely worth it. It’s a great story with a writer I’ve never worked with before. As of today I am starting to feel a bit better so it’s back to work.

Comics

Now onto the comic goodness.

Work has been great from about the middle of the year on.

The Strider

The Strider did great on Kickstarter. It funded in about 13 hours. Being my first solo go at crowdfunding I was relieved to see it succeed quickly. The books at this point are all out in hands of the backers so it is completely done and fulfilled. All in all I have to say it was my most reward comic making venture to date. Writing, drawing it and putting it right in poeple’s hands was a joy. My plan is to get a website and store up so people can still get the issue. Here’s the cover and a few pages

The Bone Herd Chronicles

This book is currently live on Kickstarter. It’s a wonderful prehistoric survival tale written by Jarred Trautman and I’m looking forward to it being out in the world. I was happy to get asked to bring this story to life. Click that link to have a look.

The Bone Herd Chronicles Kickstarter

Here’s a look at one of the pages and the cover by Walter Geovani.

Pots & Panels

I was stoked to get invited to take part in Pots & Panels. It’s a food themed comic anthology and cook book. I was fortunate to get partnered up with Brendan Deneen. He wrote a beautiful slice of life story that takes place in an ice cream shop. Click that link and have a look at all the incredible creative teams here.

Pots & Panels Kickstarter

Here’s a look at one of my pages and the cover by Shane Swank.

Well that’s pretty much it. Now that I’m feeling better it’s back to cranking out the comics. Thanks for hanging out here for a bit!

-Jeremy

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The Strider

As of today The Strider Kickstarter campaign is 100% fulfilled. All of the physical books went out today. I’m super grateful to everyone that backed or even just shared it on social media. This book was really unique for me. I wrote, drew and lettered this book in addition to running the campaign by myself. Whew did I ever learn a lot. I had to reacquaint myself with bleed and trim edges and working with a printer. I needed to figure out a way to letter the book in a manner that looked professional without using Photoshop. Even though 11 of the 24 pages of robot punching thunder have words I still wanted them to look good. Even if you separate being a writer and an artist having an understanding of lettering is a must. Even though the campaign funded in 13 hours there were some things I could have executed better. A more engaging campaign page is one for sure. I really just kind of mentioned a few things about the book put up a handful of pages. The next one will be better for sure. Pull quotes? Yeah I probably should have gotten a few of them. Having a few of my highly established comic creator peeps giving me a quote would probably have helped. While there isn’t necessarily a quantifiable benefit I believe creator endorsements are more valuable than say a viral social media post.

The goal is to make books I love for the people that want to read them.

The funny thing is I really just made this book for fun and after an endlessly terrible experience with the direct market I decided to try crowdfunding. And another thing I learned is that I really enjoyed making a book and putting it right into someone’s hands. With my direct market book, Working Class Wizards, the book goes from the creative team, to the publisher, to the distributor, to comic shops, and finally to the reader. The reader is the end goal. No comic creator wakes up and says “oh boy I can’t wait to make a comic for a distributor.” The goal is to make books I love for the people that want to read them. That going forward is gonna be the north star for me personally. I started following it and immediately found benefits both in happiness and financially.

The Strider Front Cover

The Bone Herd Chronicles - Yavin’s First Hunt

That is officially the longest title I’ve ever had on a book.

Jared Trautman wrote this comic and asked me to draw it. If you like survival stories, spears, woolly mammoths, sabretooth tigers and people eating Neanderthals then come on in. I get to draw some animals in this book which is something I don’t normally get to do. Another fun thing is the cover is drawn by Red Sonja artist, Walter Geovani. It’s rare that I get to see characters I helped create drawn by someone else’s hand so it was a treat. Head over to Kickstarter to check it out.

The Bone Herd Chronicles Kickstarter ← Click that.

Pots & Panels

Got something cooking here.

Throwing down a great little 8 page story for this upcoming food themed anthology. I’ve never really done a slice of life bit of goodness like this plus drawing food is something I found I enjoy. It’s in prelaunch so I’ll share more once it gets closer.

Heading Out

That’s it for me today. Gonna spend a bit of time drawing tonight will mostly be celebrating shipping out The Strider. This weekend will be fun too. Josey and I will be celebrating our 7th anniversary and will be taking our first little vacation in five years. We are ready for some fun and relaxation.

Thanks for reading!!

Be well,

-Jeremy

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The Strider Kickstart has wrapped and was successful. The campaign funded in the first 13 hours and ended up hitting 265% of goal. Since it was my first campaign I didn’t have any expectations for how well it would do in the end. It was very much a “let’s see how this goes” type of thing. So funding that fast and hitting that percentage felt good. My plan was to keep the campaign as simple as possible and to keep the goal low as possible.

When I made The Strider I really just wanted to do a book by myself. I love making comics with my fellow creators but I had just got done with a very stressful project and I really just wanted to make something just for fun to decompress. I also really wanted to letter the book myself too. I have experience lettering comics even though I hadn’t done it in a while. Between that and wanting the book to be black and white enabled me to keep the production costs down.

The other part was to keep it simple. I would love to have made enamel pins and action figures but with this being my first campaign I wanted to streamline the rewards with as few tiers as possible while still having a variety of price tiers for people.

What’s next?

Multitasking everything.

Gotta get The Strider off to the printer as soon as Kickstarter gets the funds transferred. That’ll be big. Self publishing that book and getting out to people is gonna feel like such a home run. Here’s a peak and a special piece I did for the back cover of the book.

This piece is special for me. I did 2 pieces of traditional art for the front and back cover of the book. This is the back. I’ve been wanting to get back to traditional art for a while and this is a huge step. It will be a big part of the idea of this newsletter for having art you can hold in your hands.

The project I’m currently drawing is The Bone Herd Chronicles: Yavin’s First Hunt. It’s gonna be a good book. I’m cranking full blast on the book now and I’m over half way. The writer, Jared Trautman, and I will be launching a Kickstarter towards the end of August. Here’s a panel from the book that I really like. The closer we get I’ll start sharing more.

Another fun thing I’m working on is a short comic for the Pots & Panels anthology. It’s a great slice of life story that I can’t wait to get into. I don’t really draw that kind of stuff so it will be fun. I don’t have anything I can really share from it yet. As soon as I do I’ll put some stuff in here.

That’s kind of it for me here. Thanks for hanging out and reading a bit.

You’re the best,

-Jeremy

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That’s the first line on page one of The Strider. Making even a single issue of a comic book is a lot of work and is a journey. Where you were in the beginning and where you are at the end are never the same. So making a book about mysterious wanderer on a journey was a joy.

While the purpose of today’s edition is to share the cover I want to take a moment to talk about The Strider. I love this book. It was 100% born from the joy I get from comics. I had recently finished a very stressful project and my desire to draw was almost non existent. I decided I wanted to just make something for the fun of making it. At the same time I was doing little composition studies from “Rendering in Pen and Ink”. In my tiny 1 1/4” x 2” studies I decided to put in a character wandering through the drawing. Now that small all you can really put in is the silhouette. The cowboy hat, cloak both read perfectly regardless of the drawing size. As did the little circle on a stick I put on the back. It was added only for the sake of it made the character’s shape more interesting. Later when I needed to figure out what it was I fleshed out a mystical shapeshifting weapon idea. I could ramble on this forever but lets get to the cover!

Ok I am sharing the cover like this of a couple reasons. Normally the black areas would appear solid, but not here. I did this cover traditionally and I really love the way raw inks look. Since it’s the first traditional comic art I’ve done in probably over five years I wanted to share like this. Plus I felt it kept with the whole “Art Between Your Fingers” vibe I’m shifting towards. My plan is to make this piece available as part of the Kickstarter.

This Sci-Fi, Martial Arts, Western journey kicks on June 26. I hope people come along as this is how I would like to continue making comics going forward. Lots of The Strider and lots of other books I want to do. Here’s link so you can sign up for prelaunch.

The Strider Kickstarter! (click me)

I appreciate you hanging with me here. I’m really excited about this new book and even though doing this Kickstarter by myself is daunting I can’t wait to share it with everyone.

You’re the best,

-Jeremy

Hope you’re doing well. The last few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster most of which has been pretty good. Almost the entire rest of the year is booked up for me. Covid practically hit the reset button on my comics career. Getting back here has been a lot of work but feels really good. Hopefully the sign of lots more to come. I’m currently working on two books with another kicking off in July. One cool thing all these projects have in common is all are heading to crowdfunding. Not a single publisher pitch which means when the books get made they go right in your hands after printing. I love that.

The Strider Preview

Ok now for the goods. I went and made a comic and I want to share the first 10 pages with you here.

Whew. That’s ten pages and I have another fourteen in the bag. This books exists for the sole reason of I wanted to have a ton of fun making something that would be a ton of fun to read. My plan is to crowdfund this book and if it goes well I will make a bunch more. I have six issues plotted and if people like it I will get cranking. Stay tuned here for updates. I’ll have one more newsletter go out before the campaign goes live. I’ll probably throw the cover in that one.

Thanks for reading and hanging out till the end!

You’re the best.

-Jeremy

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Hey Peeps!!!

Welcome to Art Between Your Fingers #1! A newsletter about making stuff. My inspiration for this came recently when the first issue of Working Class Wizards hit comic shops. My comps arrived and it was my first time seeing the book in physical form. The book had been completed for like 3 years and I was used to seeing in my Google Drive or various tweets, but when the book was in my hands I was floored. Seeing Nicholas Michael’s colors comic out so rich on the page was like a feast. Again I had drew this book a few years back but it was all of a sudden brand new on pages you could hold and smell. I loved it.

My goal going forward to make way more physical media. What does that mean? Most of what I do is centered around my love of making comics. A bit of this will be seeing what everyone likes but for the most part it will be things like comics, stickers, sketchbooks, original art and prints. I’ll test some things, see what people dig and go from there.

Ok so why a newsletter?

This lets me talk directly to you. Social media puts an algorithm in between us. They put up all these barriers and qualifiers up that result in buried posts. This goes straight to you.

Let’s get to the new hotness.

Ok so what’s new.

Working Class Wizards #3 drops 5/29! This double issue from Band of Bards is the conclusion of the series. Fun bit of info I drew and colored this cover which is something I don’t normally get to do. Some of you have a local comic shop but I’ll include a link down below where you can order the book. I’m working on ways to get books to people directly that want to get them straight from me. If that’s the case hit me up and I’ll figure it out until I get something official up and running. Here’s the cover.

WORKING CLASS WIZARDS issue 3 from Band of Bards!!! (click to order)

The Strider

Sci-fi, Martial Arts, Western. A masked warrior walks with a mystical weapon walks an alien landscape ruled by warlords.

Ok now let me tell you a little story and why this new book is dear to my heart. Earlier this year I wrapped up a very stressful project. It took a long time to get done and an even longer/harder time to get out in the world. Upon it’s completion I needed something new and fun to look forward to. Something new that inspired as insane level of fun for me and filled with things I love to draw.

My plan is do the first issue on Kickstarter in June. The cool part is I have the entire issue drawn. All it needs is letters and is ready to rock. I’ll have lots of stuff coming up here for you. The next newsletter will have a nice big preview. For now I’ll you page one and then some practice sketches I did to try out some new pencils.

These next few images are sketches. In the interest of getting back to traditional art I wanted to practice with a handful of drawing and inking tools. I wanted to show these super raw so they are unedited scans. You can see all the under drawings and the mess. Some artists don’t like sharing that stuff but I love it. There’s tons of energy and thought process to be found.

The Bone Herd Chronicles: Yavin’s First Hunt

Here is a small peak at something else new. I recently got asked to draw a new creator owned book written by Jared Trautman. I’m not gonna give away a whole lot here. I’m working away on the pages but I wanted to share a little peak at an early page panel.

We are gonna have a lot of fun making this book and I hope it ends up being one people enjoy. Jared wrote a great script. I’ll drop more for you soon.

That wraps it up.

Okie dokie I think that’s the end of my first issue of Art Between Your Fingers. I hope you enjoyed the first foray here. A bit of talking, some art to look at and some comics you can get your hands on. My plan is every couple weeks to have a new issue.

Until next time be well.

-Jeremy

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