BLAST FROM THE PAST.
INKING, GARGOYLES AND AMANDA CONNER
It was around 1994 and I was inking an assortment of Marvel titles on and off, mostly Punisher, Deathlock, and so on from my humble 800 square foot apartment in Marine Park, Brooklyn. At this point I was taking on anything offered to me. Seriously. Working then, I was making $75 bucks a page, or $1,500 an issue. To live in New York and eat food that was not Ramen noodles and pizza for every meal, I had to ink about 2 ½ books a month. About 55 pages that comes to. Remember, royalties are hardly ever paid to people unless their books hit a threshold and even then, the entire team on the book only splits about 5% of those profits. So, as always, I just expected nothing. Some fun info- all those Marvel comics I inked and wrote, about 400 + books- I make about $250 a year TOTAL on the digital versions of them. Party on! Anyway, back to thresholds- It’s the same now, except the threshold [ or copies sold] is now much higher. Anyway, to hit my numbers, I was putting in around 85 hours plus a week inking. It got worse for me years later when I was also supporting my mother, but that’s another depressing and long story for another day. At this point I was in the extreme hustle part of my career. Work hard and play harder. I was about 30 years old and had way too much energy, so it went to good use, for a while.
So back to Marvel comics, at 387 park avenue midtown Manhattan at the time. I was lucky enough to have met one of the better and more talented editors up there, Hildy Mesnik. A total class act, knew her job and brilliant editor. We hit it off, had a mutual love for European comics creators, alternative music and so on. She was a pleasure to talk to, so whenever I was at the office, I would stop by and say hi and chat. She was mostly working on the Disney related titles like Aladdin, Lion King, and licensed books, which was the hell of comics back then since you had to answer to corporate people that had no idea how a comic worked. The good news is she was given an ongoing series called Gargoyles based on a Disney animated show to make a monthly comic out of and they were not the tight-assed overlords that she dealt with on the other licensed titles…they were open-minded and actually listened to Hildy. When she got the book together, Hildy assigned the first cover to a somewhat new artist Joe Madureira to pencil the cover and needed an inker and guess what? She gave me a call.
All about Joe Mad here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Madureira
I came into the office, grabbed the penciled cover and turned it around over the weekend. It was busy but fun to do but knew little of the characters. Hildy told me the interiors of the book were to be penciled by a newcomer in the business, a female artist named Amanda Conner. I thought that was cool and asked her if she will keep me as the cover inker. Hildy did just that and with the second issue, I got the call to make the trip into Manhattan to pick up the next cover for inking. Issue #2 of Gargoyles. Two train rides later I arrived at the marvel offices, hit the 9th floor where Hildy’s office was and walked into a room with her and the artist herself, the mazing Amanda Conner. Quick introductions and I was shown the cover piece. It was simple, clean and to be honest, refreshing in the way it was drawn. Not overdone, just solid art. I was so happy to get this cover gig. Even happier to meet Amanda herself since it was rare to meet the penciler of the work I did back then. What I remember at the time was she is beautiful, sweet and charming as well as talented, and married, as I was reminded a few times by Hildy.
Well, each month I got to ink another cover for the book and slowly watched Amanda’s work get better and better and we became professional friends along the way. Amanda started hanging out with a bunch of us after hours and we really had a great time getting to know this amazingly talented Kubert School dropout. As Amanda was finishing her run on Gargoyles, I was talking to her about what she really wanted to do in comics next and she said she wanted people to take her art more seriously, that she can draw much more than what she was given -like this title and Barbie and so on. She has something to prove. I listened intensely and started thinking about how I could not only help, but also work with her more. When you are an inker, you do anything to keep working with someone’s pencils you like, and Amanda’s style grew on me quickly. I didn’t want another artist to grab her up, so I put the feelers out there and was able to show her work to the crew at Harris publishing and recommended her and myself for their Vampirella title. Well- they loved her and we got hired. More about that in the next installment. One last thought:
I have been getting a lot of these books at signings of late and would like to point out how crazy the prices on these Marvel Comics Gargoyle books have gotten- go ahead and look at E-bay right now, it’s insane… and one big reason is that The Disney Channel started running the cartoons again and a new wave of fans are discovering these books and tracking them down once more. The other is maybe people also realized Amanda drew them as well. I always find that kind of thing so exciting being a comic collector and always looking through my back issues for gems like that that get a second life. I mean, how long before we start to see new titles being done?
Soon I hope.
Fingers crossed.
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Jimmy
DIGITAL COMMISSION OPPORTUNITIES
For those who have been paying attention and are interested, Zestworld has rolled out a new idea and option for those of you interested in getting a digital NFT commission from the team. You can see these options at:
https://www.zestworld.com/Paperfilms#commissions
This is a cool new avenue that many have been asking for so this is a great chance to take a look. Now we can't do any licensed properties (SORRY), however, you know the creative team and how they can produce. As a matter of fact, our own AMANDA CONNER produced a custom NFT commission for superstar tennis icon SERENA WILLIAMS and her daughter. The final artwork was displayed in NY Times Square! Check out these photos!
Pretty amazing, huh? So if you are interested, please, head on over and check out the options.