"He gave up a job...": Chapter 5 The End?

I can't remember how but a letter bearing the insignia of the Center for Cartoon Studies came across my desk in '05. Something that can be described as a bug-like early-warning system began tingling in me. This is a story that had to be written! A comic book college, here in Vermont! No way! And just as I was beginning to delve into a Green Mountain comics scene that was vaster than I had expected.

Luckily the editor and a reporter in the Freep's Living department believed the same. Even luckier was they let me pitch in with the first article.

I wasn't only doing research for my part of the story. I was also checking this place out as a possible destination site.

Two years pass, (not to write the article!) I finally take the plunge. I send off an application package to CCS. Now, my rough, crudely drawn, six-page comic about robot wrestlers (yes, you read that right) has me a little anxious. I hope that my riveting, well-written essay on why I love comics and another on the meaning of "future/time" will win the review committee over.

I guess it does, because I'm accepted. After sweating over financing, housing arrangements and my family's state of mind, I enroll and start class in September, 2007. I've finally done it. The lifelong dream is finally coming to fruition. I'm going to make comic books.

Well. I made one. Any more remains to be seen. Why? Well, if this were a comic this would be the dramatic, series shifting, life-altering plot twist: I've had to put school on hold. The upheaval in the Kwanza household this summer has left me little time to deal with things directly related to my comics career (aside from buying comics as "research"). I've managed to squeak in a couple zines for my APA, comicopia. I plotted out some issues for Punk.
But as of the first day of class last week, I still didn't have a steady job, a loan for school or the certainty that all was back-to-normal at home.

How long before I return? Hopefully, just a year. What will I do in the mean? One thing is to be more consistent on the blog. It's supposed to be about my doings as a comics creator. School was just a part of that. A BIG, HUGE, GIGANTIC part -- but just a part. I need to keep writing. Keep honing my drawing skills. Stay in the mindset that I want to do this as a career; maybe a side venture, but not a hobby.

So, much like the Great Word Processor Crash of '94, my dream to make comics has taken a mortal blow. But hey, no one stays dead in comics, right? Stay tuned for more true believers. Stay tuned...

"He gave up a job...": Chapter 4

When last we left you, Modi had "come to his senses..."

While I had practically given up on my future in the comics field, I was encouraged by the success of others. Particularly independents and black/African-American comic creators such as ANIA in Atlanta. Milestone's arrival in 93/94 blew my mind.

I came across a Web listing for Reggie Byer's "Kidz of the King" a Christian comic book, but I couldn't get a copy. Maybe a year later, I'm packing up after teaching a Church School class when our superintendent comes up to me and hands me a copy of the first issue asking, "Have you ever heard of this?" All my oohing and 'Oh my god'-ing got me quite a few amused stares.
The kicker? The book was published by UMI, which makes our church school materials, and one of my back-burner ideas had been to approach UMI about doing a comic!

It was '03 and the flame was rekindled. Two years later, the news of a full-fledged comic book college coming to Vermont added the starter fluid.

PUNK #0 online -- sort of

Discipline.
Consistency.
Commitment.
Sounds like a sports mantra or military oath. But as my fellow comic creators and bloggers know, those are also important to us! I'm being reminded that I have to make the time for my comics career and not wait until I can get a moment to work on things. Part of it is scheduling. Part of it is not being lazy: "yea, you're tired, but we got work to do." Part of it is overcoming the fear that it's a waste of time.
Things come up, like illnesses out of nowhere. Life.
But I've got to be diligent. I've got to make it happen (with some help from the Almighty). My hesitation cost me a $500 illustrating gig.
That said, my promised update on the availability of Punk is long overdue. Here is the first half of the issue. As soons as Comcast fixes my Web issues, I'll have more for you.

"He gave up a job...": Chapter 3

From middle school through high school I read -- and bought -- more comics. I drew copies of my favorite covers; I designed characters and costumes and took a cartooning/comics class here and there.
But it was all on the periphery, off in the background. I was being steered to "serious writing" now. My dad gave me "Blame Me on History," the scathing anti-apartheid autobiography of a South-African writer/journalist named Bloke Modisane. See any message in that?

My journalistic tendencies were coming to the front. I nagged our neighbor Mark to let me be an intern at the Pittsburgh Courier. I wrote for a couple of school newspapers. I also voraciously kept a journal, chronicling the events of the day and my feelings about them. And now, I wrote short stories, not comics, about my crew's adventures -- going to parties, hanging in Oakland, fights/near fights, various episodes with the police, etc.

When it was time to go to college, I applied to the journalism schools at Ohio State and Northwestern. Didn't get in, but got accepted at Oberlin, go figure... For grad school, however, I majored in print journalism at Boston University. With my French degree from O.C., it seemed I was moving along on my path as an international journalist/correspondent.

Eventually even my drawing fell into the margins of my notebooks. Comics and art became a hobby, not a serious venture. A word processor crash in 1993 that wiped out my drafts/outlines for my Universe Comics characters seemed to be a sign to finally end my comics creating dreams.

"He gave up a job...": Chapter 2

What I was reading became what I wrote. Initially, I wanted to be a mystery writer. Why? 'Cause Encyclopedia Brown and the Hardy Boys were my favorite books to read. By the fifth grade I had written several Brown mysteries, come up with my own boy detective, and created Idom the Wonder Worm, who solved mysteries (and looked a lot like Richard Scary's worm character wearing a Sherlock Holmes hat).
Notice the inclusion of "wonder" in the title, a very comic-bookish term. Comic books still had a hold on me. So, it's no shock that my first original comic book superhero team was a group of super powered crime solvers, not necessarily crime fighters, called…The Detecters. Hey, I was young, subtlety was not my forte.
The Detecters remained largely character profiles until the seventh grade when my crew and I decided to do our own comic: we’d write it, draw it, mimeograph it at school – yes, I said mimeo not copy machine; our teachers even gave us some of the carbon paper to draw on – and sell it to our classmates. The selling idea quickly went by the way side and I didn't complete my section in time for the "press run." But going through the process and having a real-life book at the end of it, made the idea of creating comics as real for me as writing the next-great mystery novel. The seeds for the "Modi Comics Group" had been planted, but their germination period would be a long one -- like 9 years.

He gave up a job with benefits for this?????

Surprisingly enough, folks have asked to hear more about me: specifically, why comics?

It's a fair question because I've wanted to be a writer since childhood and my interests included fiction and newspapers as far as I can remember. So, having a degree in journalism and working at the largest newspaper in the Vermont, would seem to indicate that I had achieved my goal.

Not entirely. "Comic-Man," my alter ego, was begging to be free.

Sometime early on, I decided to start illustrating my ideas, either as standalone drawings or as a comics. I can't remember what made me start drawing. I can, however, remember some of the earliest things I drew: Underdog, Mighty Mouse, my own Peanuts comic strips and Spider-Man, usually just his webbed-head.

Obviously, I was enamored with cartoons, but it was comics that bridged my two loves. Three loves, actually, as comics also fostered my passion for reading.

It began with an issue of Superman. It was a story about a guy who was able to beat Supes because of a watch he had. I had to be pretty young, -- 4 1/2 - 5 years old -- because my comprehension didn’t pick up on the fact that the guy had kryptonite in the watch. "Ma," I remember saying, "I want to get more of these." "OK, learn to read," she answered. And it was on. (At right: The first comic book I "read." )

And finally, without the thunderbolt...

So, you're asking, "what has he been doing since the origin of this blog 10 months ago?" Well, I'd like to say that I was working on writing, drawing and publishing my first complete comic book.

And I can.

What you have here is the cover for "Punk" Issue #0 -- my first comic series. Published under the banner of Danger Zone, "Punk" is slated to be a 12-issue book. Issue #0 was my final project for my first year at CCS (Center for Cartoon Studies). And big ups to Sante for the sweet back cover ad!!

Stay tuned for updates on when and where the entire book will be available and/or how to get copies. How's that for a cliffhanger ending?