I'm on the home stretch of my final Muppet Show issue now. About one-third of the way through inking... so I guess it's time to think about what's next. (A bit of thinking out loud, really, so don't feel obliged to read through the whole thing - if you get something out of what follows, great, but this one's really for me, not for you so much.)
If we're talking about resolutions, and I guess I am, I'm resolved not to take on quite the workload I had in 2010. I never really got a chance to come up for air all year, and I need to keep a bit of flexibility in my schedule this year. So there's that.
I'm also quite keen to make time to work on my own stuff - as rewarding as this year has been in many ways, I've been concentrating almost exclusively on properties owned by Disney in one way or another, and that doesn't really do it for me as a long-term creative journey. "A refreshing detour" is how I've been thinking of it. More power to those creators who can find fulfilment working on a dead man's ideas for the bulk of their careers, I'm not judging them - but I'm not one of them.
Over the last few weeks a few people have expressed interest in having me do work for them post-Muppets and post-Thor, which is great. I'm leaning heavily towards the idea that the work-for-hire side of things should concentrate exclusively on scripting, keeping my drawing time for myself alone, for working on things I own - keeping that side of things pure, at least in terms of comics (illustration work might be another matter). If that's economically sustainable, of course. I do have a family to support, so that's always going to be a consideration.
So - what? Right now I don't know what I'll be doing this year at all. Various approaches are all at the "let's see if we can work something out" stage - for all I know, everything might fall through. The only things I know for sure I'll definitely be working on in 2011 are finishing the Muppet Show comic (counting the days!), doing a short piece for an anthology that I've committed to, and creating at least one mini-comic (that's a proper New Year's resolution, that one).
Oh, and finishing Mugwhump the Great. That will happen.
2011 - a year of infinite possibilities and uncertain terror. Works for me.
Well if you can manage that (keeping work for hire to strictly scripting) I really think you should.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think you should really explore the world of carnival grotesque that is so evident in your personal work.
A giant Big Top experience! Characters spilling into the audience from the highg wire of comical melaise!
But that's just me.
Good luck no matter what!
Hey, Matt! Thanks for the encouragement. Yeah, that would be the ideal, of course. Fingers crossed, eh?
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the wrap-up of The Muppet Show, and I hope Marvel lets you and Chris do another four issues of Thor.
ReplyDeleteVery glad to hear that you'll be doing some more solo projects, and I'm sure that you'll have no trouble keeping your workload exactly as busy as you'd like it to be.
Roger, during the course of my career, I've crossed paths with the Muppets people...and let me just congratulate you for cutting yourself loose from them. Seriously. You're doing the right thing. Have a great 2011.
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