Gratification & Gratitude

I got my comp copies of Hush Ronin, this week, and almost right away, I found myself humbled by the demand from friends and acquaintances wanting to support my work. I looked at my meager stack of comics and realized, rather proudly, that it would be not be enough. To be completely transparent, I handed over the lion’s share of what I had to SoCal Games & Comics in Temecula, California. Rachel, the proprietor there, had been kind enough to offer sometime back and now, finding that I had an actual physical book to represent my efforts, made good on her promise by letting me display my book alongside all of the other fantastic New Comic Book Day offerings this morning.

I came by about an hour into the business day and took this picture:

At that time, Rachel informed me, three copies had sold to two different customers. One of my cohorts from my day job was responsible for purchasing two of those copies. The other though, I was told, was one of SCGC’s regulars, and on top of spending their hard earned dollars on my book, had asked how they could get my content more regularly. The impact of this inquiry didn’t fully hit me until after I had made my own NCBD purchases and gotten into my car, bound for my secondary day job at Cal State Fullerton. But as I began thinking about it, what it would take to make Hush Ronin a monthly book, I thought of all the hard work, the writing and re-writing, the drawing and re-drawing (the finished comic is easily the fourth distinct version of these events and characters I have perpetrated in the past two and a half years) and I felt a simultaneous mixture of gratitude and despair.

Very recently, I made the decision to take on a Lead Writer to assist in putting the largely sprawling epic of the mouthless Ronin into script form, if only so that I can spend more time drawing. That writer is none other than my dear friend (okay, and brother-in-law), Mitchell Kopitch. Mitchell and I have collaborated extensively in the past, most frequently on YouTube videos like Zombie Slayer and various others.

When you're good at something, it's hard to walk away... Written and directed by and starring Jeremiah Schiek and Mitchell Kopitch. Music by Kevin MacLeod. Special effects and animation by Jeremiah Schiek.

Mitchell is very anxious to get started, and brings a LOT to the table. This past summer, he graduated from the University of Washington with his Masters Degree in Creative Writing. I’m extremely pleased to have him on board. Plus, as you saw, he’s no slouch when it comes to killing shitty, carbon copy NPC zombies.

Issue 2 of the Hush Ronin Saga is slated for July of this year, per Ashcan Comics Pub. If there is any chance it can be sooner than that, those of you reading me here or following me on Twitter will likely be the first to know. If you’re not already following me on Twitter, my handle, as of this writing, is @starshipronin76. You can also follow Mitchell at @MKopitch. We both look forward to bringing you LOTS more Ronin stories, both canonical and apocryphal. Thanks to everyone who has turned out to purchase Hush Ronin #1, either in person or online. There are still a few copies left in the Ashcan Comics Pub storefront. We are currently examining the possibility of a second printing, which may entail a new, variant cover to distinguish it from the first printing. Keep checking back, and stay awesome. Always.

Yours Sequentially,

J. Paul Schiek

Fullerton, California

February 6th, 2019

It's Here...

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

2019...

So far, this year is off to a fantastic start. For those of you not currently monitoring my Twitter and Instagram feeds, Hush Ronin is officially going to print next month (February 2019) through Ashcan Comics Pub. This new publishing entity is run by a gentleman named Nate Lindley, a talented artist and comicbook creator himself, who saw the opportunity to create a new and innovative way for new voices to be heard, and for those on the hearing end to align themselves with fresh new content every month (and the cool stickers that come included make it even harder to say no).

I’ve been out from my dayjob for the past 3-4 weeks attending to my wife after her recent surgery and hospital stay. She is doing well, but the pain still seems to kick her ass here and there, and when you throw a strong willed two year old into the mix, well…

But speaking of kicking ass, in addition to still tying down the final inks and tones on Tut, my collaboration with Stewart Bros Studios, and Harakiri Heaven with Michael Derrick (he and I collaborated in the past on I Played With Fire, available to read in full right here on my site), I’ve also entered collaboration with another creator for a longer, voodoo related book, and two short pieces. More details to follow soon, once all of the contracts are signed and I know specifically how much I can say without fear of goons in suits coming to the house and snapping all my pencils (not to mention my beautiful, beautiful fingers) in half.

In short, 2019 is going to be an exciting year. And if you’re not particularly fond of what I do, it’s going to be an obnoxious one because I plan on putting it out there, like, a lot. And by it I mean comics, and by a lot, I mean, like A LOT.

So, in summation, Hush Ronin will be available in print next month. Click here or on the link in the above text to find out how to get not only a copy of my book, but of all the other fantastic stuff coming out through the new Ashcan Comics Pub imprint. And would you look at that? I just linked it again. At this point, it would be harder NOT to click on one of them, even by accident, but do it on purpose anyway. And if you like samurai stuff, the first issue of the above mentioned Harakiri Heaven should be launching sometime in April. In keeping to the letter of the contract with the writer on HH, I haven’t put any of that work on the site as yet, but I do post the occasional piece on Twitter (see the link on this site and gimme a follow; I almost always follow back). In summary though, it is the story of a dishonored samurai, forced to commit seppuku and subsequently, to battle monsters in a very colorful Japanese afterlife to regain all the points he lost for Gryffindor. It’s a good time. A violent time, but a good one, nonetheless, and I’m very proud of the work I’ve been doing on that series. There will also be some news coming soon about the two shorter pieces and where you’ll be able to find them.

As always, thanks for stopping by, thanks for reading, and I look forward to sharing and interacting more with you in the very near future!

Yours Incongruously,

J. Paul Schiek