I had just arrived on campus at Cal State Fullerton today, getting ready for another day of working on comics and teaching young whippersnappers how to draw the nude, human figure (for animation purposes) when I received a text from my publisher, Ashcan Comics Pub, averring how hard Wednesdays seem to be. I responded in the commiserative affirmative; Wednesdays can be hard. Even when there are loads of new comics appearing that day, they can be tough.
And then he sent me this photo:
My first glimpse of Hush Ronin #1 in print.
I think perhaps you have to have made a comic to know what this feels like. I knew already what it felt like to muscle through 12 hours of touch ups and lettering. I knew what it was to format, format again and get the finished pages sent off for print. And I knew what it was to wait, with a solid idea in mind of what it was I was waiting for. But with all of the knowns, none of it—not ANY of it—prepared me for how excited, how gratified I was to see my work in print. Even as just a photo of the work.
Hush Ronin represents a herculean effort not just on my part, but on the part of Nate Lindley, publisher over at Ashcan Comics Pub, on my wife, who listened to me rant about this story from the initial germ of the idea to the sprawling, self sustaining mythology it is rapidly becoming.
I am immensely proud this day. A dream, really, THE Dream, has come true. This is what it feels like to be a published comic book creator.
I like it.
I want more.
J. Paul Schiek
1/30/2019