Lean Into Dean

Will Eisner, Word Balloon, The Ringo's, Forces Of Geek + Ezra

Every year, "Will Eisner Week” celebrates the man who created The Spirit and practically invented the graphic novel. A champion of alternative and semi-autobiographical comix.

I had the good fortune of meeting Will Eisner thanks to Diana Schutz, who was walking him around the Small Press Expo (SPX) in the year 2000. She wanted Will to meet me and show my work. Will flipped through the pages and ogled my art. When he got to the last page, Will smiled and said "You're the future of comics, Kid!" as he pumped his fist. To say that it made my decade is an understatement. About five minutes later I heard Will pronounce the same decree to another young cartoonist in the far distance and I knew that it was his way of rallying the troops. Encouraging dreams.

When I was twelve years old, my dream was to draw The Fantastic Four.
It took many years of trials and errors, drawing and writing all kinds of comics for Marvel, DC/Vertigo, Archie, and a plethora of alternative comix publishers. Including webcomics. I was starting to carve my own lane when I finally got to draw The Fantastic Four. A dream come true. I was forty-six years old.

And that's when I realized I never dreamed bigger than a work-for-hire paycheck. I was more concerned with expressing myself, communicating my art and making human connections than making money.

And when I discovered that most publishers just pay the printers bill and, maybe, JUST MAYBE, promote the work you put your heart into while taking half your rights, is when I started to think about crowdfunding my personal work.

What would I make? Would anybody care?

Last year I successfully Kickstarted Covid Cop, and Billy Dogma & Jane Legit. And I've been living off the fumes of those two campaigns supplanted by a few freelance gigs. Just enough to squeak by but it told me to lean into Dean.

Right now I'm campaigning for THE RED HOOK x DEAN HASPIEL. Where I merge the two genres I'm best known for, superhero and memoir, and have been producing separately for the last 30+ years...until now.

For many years I saw print comics and books I worked on shoved between bookstore racks. When I was producing The Red Hook for Webtoon, I used to joke that my comic is in your pocket and on your phone for free. Now, I create comix that arrive in your mail box for the price of a few slices of pizza and coffee.

By crowdfunding, am I shooting myself in the foot circumventing an old school distribution system to stores that engenders impulse purchases? Alas, I am. By crowdfunding am I losing out on the potential for reviews? Indeed. But that stuff can be worked out. That will change.

These days, I dream for keen ways to communicate my art. Cool ways to grow a community. Smart ways to foment a better quality of life where I can occasionally leave my work desk to hang out with the people I love and indulge the stuff that thrills and inspires me. To live life, experience wonder, and report back the stories I desire to show and tell as a comix publisher.

Will Eisner recognized the spirit of talent, community and entrepreneurship at SPX 2000. He was passing a galvanizing torch to a generation of new cartoonists to ignite an autonomous path for our futures. Where the spirit of independent comix could one day be crowdfunded beyond the confines of hotel conference rooms.

Where my dreams were once small, people like Will Eisner dared to dream big. And so can we.


(Note: a version of this essay first appeared at The Comics Beat. Thanks, Heidi MacDonald!)

I caught up with the always great to talk to John Siuntres on Word Balloon. You can see/hear us talk turkey HERE or here:

Stefan Blitz at Forces Of Geek asked me and former roommate and forever friend, Nick Bertozzi, to interview each other about our comix grassroots to crowdfunding comix. Check out “Two Indie-Comix Veterans on Self-publishing in the Age of Authenticity.” It's a spirited parlay that could've gone on for days. Maybe someday I'll write a book.

Excerpt:

“The older I get the more I feel like life is a merge between fact and fiction. Our experiences. Our memories. Our dreams. Our stories. I was talking to my mother and she was lamenting about losing her new friends from the TV show, “This Is Us.” She binge watched all six seasons and was emotionally invested. I, too, have enjoyed those feelings with so many of my favorite TV shows, movies, books and comic books. These characters and situations come alive. And while Mom was watching the show the characters became real people. And when she watched the last episode they disappeared. Never to be seen or heard from again. That kind of thing leaves a hole in your heart. Even though they were fabricated, they were real. What is true? I’m not sure I know anymore.”

Click HERE to read the entire conversation.

Calling all comix makers and fans. Please nominate me for “Best Cartoonist” and my comix: COVID COP (and/or) BILLY DOGMA + JANE LEGIT for “Best Single Issue or Story” for the Ringo Awards. 

Please nominate me HERE.

It was a treat to meet Steven Pinker, a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. And Rebecca Goldstein, an American philosopher, novelist, and public intellectual, at the Sweet Lorraine Gallery opening of “2 1/2 D the stereoscopic photography of Steven Pinker.” (Group shot includes me and artists Mike Sorgatz, Janice McDonnell, and photo by artist Elizabeth Meggs)

Also, my pal/screen writer, Tony Spiridakis wrote a new movie called EZRA, directed by Tony Goldwyn, starring Robert De Niro, Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, WHoopi Goldberg, Rainn Wilson and Vera Farmiga. It comes out in theaters on May 31st (my birthday).

Here's the trailer: 

I will be wandering MoCCA Arts Fest 2024 this weekend. If you see me, don’t be shy to say “Hi.”

Meanwhile, we’re less than two weeks away from wrapping up my comix Kickstarter. If you haven’t checked it out, please do RIGHT HERE.

Thanks!

love, Dean

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