The Spirit of Detroit

You’re nobody ’til somebody loves you, You’re nobody ’til somebody cares. You may be king, you may possess the world and it’s gold, But gold won’t bring you happiness when you’re growing old. The world still is the same, you never change it, As sure as the stars shine above – the sage-like wisdom of a terrible drunk

So I’m incredibly happy to announce that Shot in the Dark Comics has offered to publish Black Snow! Very exciting! Honestly, I was not sure this day would ever come. But it has, and I feel some redemption for all our hard work over the years.

There is one caveat…they want better art. Honestly, this did not bother me at all at first, and my immediate thought was “Who can we get?” Then I found someone I thought was perfect for the job, the publisher agreed, and…the artist said no. So we are currently on the search for a new, talented artist, and have several possible people for the position. It has not been finalized yet. If interested just contact me.

I’m not a selfish man, so my first thought was “What can we do to make this work?” But I am a prideful man, so my thoughts later turned to “Why can’t I make this work?” “Why was I so quick to not try to submit something of higher quality myself, and to instead look for someone else?” “Why shouldn’t I be the one to draw what I’ve been drawing for almost 10 years?” And so on. To settle or submit is outside of my general nature. These thoughts increased after I found that basically all the artists on these artist for hire sites insist on being paid up front, and don’t seem to have passion for their projects.

Well, yesterday I tried to draw something that might persuade the publisher that I was talented enough for the job, the results of which you see above. Black Snow smoking and drinking in front of my favorite Detroit monument, the Spirit of Detroit (In our movie script this is where the final battle would have taken place). So I placed a lot of pressure on myself, put my all into this drawing, and I await a response from the publisher today. But either way at least I tried my best. I don’t have to feel like I let Alex or myself down. I did what I could. So we’ll see what happens.

The plan, and this was a combination of what the publisher was thinking and what Alex and I wanted, is to redo Black Snow, turning the first six issues into a new graphic novel. Totally rewritten, streamlined, improved, and more gritty than ever. A very exciting opportunity to correct some things.

So once we have an approved artist attached the project is a go. Shouldn’t take too long based on the amount of interest we are seeing from people.

A second announcement, Shot in the Dark has asked us to take over the writing duties for the comic Brix. It’s the story of a reluctant superhero forced to become a realty TV star. Oh, and you may just see your favorite insane, egocentric superhero joining the cast! So look forward to that.

Beyond that I’ve gotten a ton of response back from all my submissions, and we may even have more projects (and staff) coming soon. Suddenly we are in high demand, and a lot of people want to partner with us/work with us. The connections seem to grow exponentially each day. My practice in futility turned out to be anything but.

So a lot of big things happening here at Black Snow Comics. And may I just state my surprise the Black Snow got picked up instead of I’m Famous! Oh, and I do still plan on drawing Famous, no matter what. At least until a publisher tells me someone else should… Anyway, great things to come!

And now let’s hear from the Black Snow of the lounge singer world.