THE NOW PART 2

So a lot of folks have asked the same question regarding mine and a handful of other Creators comments regarding Original Material.

That question seems to be, " Who is all this aimed at?" Well, at the Fan Collective, and mainly at retailers. Retailers who chose to a large degree what the put on their shelves for the Fan Collective to peruse on Wednesdays. This is a key point, and needs to be our focus. So I would invite YOU as a retailer anywhere on the Globe to reach out to me, or to Steve Niles, or Eric Powell, and ask us what we are thinking. Pick our Brains about promotion. Hell, share with us your ideas on how we can get our product in your store, or more of what's already there.

As I said in part one of this Blog, I am not running down the big 2, or there product, I am just saying thats not all there is. Industries, and companies of all types get stale and die, with fresh, new product, to peruse, sample, and buy. Thats a fact. Why do you think our industry is suffering? Its not because people don't wanna read comics anymore. Its largely because PEOPLE DON'T WANNA READ THE SAME DAMNED ONE EVERY TIME THEY BUY ONE.

But the ball falls squarely on our court as Creators. So I know I have put my money where my mouth is. So hey you. Creator, who is doing nothing but mainstream work ( but secretly have al these hidden away Ideas for new Characters, and books) , when are we gonna see them?

Again if you are a retailer, get in touch, and lets share ideas and talk. That's the main thing is talking Email me DIRECTLY at---shipwreck@cox.net and lets get this party started.

TONYFINGHARRIS

THE NOW

I think thats where we are in Comics. The "Now". Very few care about longevity. Leaving a creative voice that hopefully will be heard for decades after you are dead and gone.

Don't you wanna make a lasting contribution to the Industry you claim to love? Don't you wanna share your Original thoughts, Visuals, and Ideas with your Fanbase? Hell, with the entire industry and beyond? I do.

Like most of us who are working professionals I got into the business with high hopes. Hopes of getting to draw and work on all the cool characters. The BIG GUNS!! So that i could be popular. So that i could be famous? Respected? Revered? Envied? Maybe even hated?

My point is, that your short sight hopefully will get sharper, and interested in the long run instead of the sprint as you get older and wiser. Hopefully you have an original idea rattling around in your head. Maybe even 2 or 3! Or 10. I guess from early on, I was never content to just draw whatever I was offered. I was developing Original material before I ever got mainstream, or Indy work 22 years ago. But I took ANYTHING I could get. All of it. Did my best to provide my Editors with good material, and always strived to get better. All the while, scheming, and biding my time. Planning, and pushing the envelope as far as I could, without burning myself down. I had my share of success, and plenty of failure,, to be sure. But you never know what will work unless you try.

I think what I did was do as much mainstream work as I could get, as high profile as I could get, and then pushed those successes into attention for an Original Idea. A creator Owned Comic, in the parlance of our times.

And I have been lucky, and blessed. People liked what I did, and seem to like what I AM doing with my Original material.

But I am not saying that I dont wanna do anymore company owned work. That kind of work has been good to me, and my Family. But I guess I am saying It's never been enough. Imsaying that It's not enough to be the 435th guy to draw Batman. I know cause I have been that guy. I am always chasing that next new idea. The thing that rattles so loud in my head, that if I dont do everything within me to make it a reality, then I will go insane.

I also think that there is a big difference between the term Creator, and Artist. I know this isnt a popular notion but I don't care, you think about those 2 words and you figure out what you think they mean, and who does, and who does not deserve either title.

If I shopped at any given comic shop, or any outlet for your Comic Book purchases and all they EVER had were Superhero book after Superhero book, and little to nothing else to choose from, I think I would ultimately start seeking my entertainment elsewhere.

Wait! That is what's happening. For a long time now. So why haven't I sought my entertainment elsewhere? I love comics too much to leave. And I DO think that I can affect change, even in the smallest way. By doing new books that are Original material. And that people wanna read. Thats the other main point here. I am not abandoning the Big 2 to forge my own way in the world, and shit talk the mainstream. I have done my share of Creator Owned stuff for smaller publishers, but I have always pitched, and been lucky enough for DC to be open to Original material from me and take a chance. So I am riding the fence really. All I can hope is that with every Creator Owned book I do for DC, Marvel or whoever it may be, if it's successful, it'll make it just a little bit easier for someone else to get in the door. Or just make it easier for DC, Marvel or whoever to look with open eyes, and say , "Yes, I think we are gonna give your book a shot!"

TONY HARRIS

TONY HARRIS ORIGINAL ART

Hi all! been a bit. But mainly cuza holidays, and getting back into the swing of drawing interiors, after a break from it. Mainly doing covers, and commissions. But I forgot how much I missed telling stories until I started drawing THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE WHISTLING SKULL. for DC Comics!! we call it SKULL, or WHISTLING SKULL for short.

Anyway, I am selling my own art now, and as we speak, my amazing freind and VERY talented designer is putting the finishing touches on WWW.JOLLYROGERSTUDIO.COM that will go live in a few weeks, where I will continue, ( thru monthly updates to sell available originals there at the site) But for now, i will list the work here that is available for purchase!

Here goes. A few points. I am not putting up jpegs of pages or covers here. Just too many. But I will when we move it over to Jolly roger. Here, I will list the art, Book Title, page #ers etc... for pages, and I will send Jpegs of Covers upon SERIOUS inquiries only. All payments must through paypal @ stacieenv@yahoo.com first come 1st served. Shipping is additional as well as insurance. Email ALL INQUIRIES to me @

shipwreck@cox.net

COVERS

MACHINA DELUXE VOL. 2 PEN/INK COVER $2500

MACHINA DELUXE VOL. 4 PEN/INK COVER $3000

MACHIN DELUXE VOL. 5 PEN/INK WASH COVER $2000

MACHINA VOL.9 TRADE PEN/INK COVER $3000

MACHINA VOL.10 TRADE PEN/INKWASH COVER $4000

EX MACHINA COVERS 48,49, AND 50 ONE LARGE ILLUSTRATION

MEASURING 20X32 PEN/INK $4000

WAR HEROES #1 PEN/INK COVER $900

WAR HEROES #3 PEN/INK COVER $900

WAR HEROES #5 ( FORTHCOMING) PEN/INK COVER $900

SHADE #1 PAINTED COVER( FORTHCOMING) $4000

SHADE #2 PAINTED COVER( FORTHCOMING) $4000

JLI:GEN LOST #1 COVER PRELIM/MARKER $250

JLI: GEN LOST #1 COVER ROUGH/MARKER $50

JLI: GEN LOST #2 COVER PRELIM/MARKER $400

JLI: GEN LOST #5 COVER PITT PENS $500

JLI: GEN LOST COVER ELEMENTS ON 8.5X11 PAPER

(WANTED POSTERS)

BOOSTER GOLD-COPIC/PITTS $50

FIRE-COPIC/PITTS $50

ICE-COPIC/PITTS $50

CAPTAIN ATOM-COPIC/PITTS $50

PREDATORS MOTION COMIC ILLOS

FOR DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

BG ELEMENT $50 ANIMATION PAPER

PRED DOG SMALL- $50

PRED DOG LARGE- $100

HERO PREDATOR FULL FIG-$500

HERO PREDATOR FULL FIG2- $500

PREDATOR MONTAGE - $200

PREDATOR MONTAGE2- $200

LARGE PREDATO MONTAGE- $300

PAGES

MACHINA 49

PG.1--$225

PG.2--$300

PG.3--$300

PG.4--$150

PG.5--$150

PG.7-$100

PG.9--$300

PG.10--$250

PG.11--$200

PG.13--$350

PG.14--$400

PG.15--$175

PG.17--$200

PG.18--$800

PG.19--$400

PG.20--$200

PG.21--$150

MACHINA 50

PG.1--$500

PG.2--$300

PG.4--$400

PG.5--$200

PG.7--$100

PG.8--$200

PG.9--$125

PG.10--$200

PG.11--$275

PG.12--$100

PG.15--$150

PG.16--$250

PG.18--$250

PG.19--$100

PG.20--$375

PG.21--$350

PG.23--$350

PG.26--$200

PG.27--$300

PG.28--$275

PG.29--$350

PG.30--$350

PG.31--$350

PG.32--$275

PG.33--$200

PG.34--$100

PG.35--$400

PG.36--$400

PG.37--$400

PG.38--$400

PG.40--$800

PG.41--$800

PG.42--$400

PG.43--$200

PG.44--$200

PG.45--$1000

PG.46--$400

PG.47--$100

PAGES 24-25 DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

FEATURING MANY ALTERNATE

GREAT MACHINES ALL ON ONE PIECE OF

BOARD $3000

ALL ART IS PENCILLED INKED, PAINTED AND WASHED BY TONY HARRIS

Fuck-Wits

Hiya. I recently launched a massive fund raising campaign for a project that I have been developing for over 10 years. It is located here.

This is MY BABY, for my Baby. For my wife. Stacie.

I have been very fortunate and lucky in my 22 year career. I have weathered being fired, getting great jobs, personal tradgedy, winning awards, getting fired, being lied too, losing friends, having creative awakenings,, being fired, losing friends.. you get the idea. but I love what I do. i feel fortunate.

So when i am attacked publicly by Trolls who feel safe behind their monitrs, I attack back. Anyone who knows me, knows i am a bulldog. But i try to argue my point with intelligence. So i feel like after you go to the link I posted, and read ALL you see on that site. then read this:

GET UPDATES BY RSS

This is a must

Update #7 posted 41 minutes ago

edit this post

I hate to have to do this. But i feel it necessary. A friend pointed out a few sites where i am being crucified for being Smug, and Selfish. So I sat down ,and tried to think about all the question that people might have. Here goes.

"I am not a crook".

hey guys. Lemme clarify a few things i have tried to, more than once on Kickstarter. I guess i have failed.

To call me smug, or greedy is just, I dunno, kinda mean.
You DO NOT have to donate a single dime. BUT, I am asking you to, if you are a fan of mine, and you want this book, which has been hard to get placed, see the light of day.

WAR HEROES?? Kirkman and I are talking, It will finish. Follow me on Twitter @TONYFINGHARRIS and you will get weekly updates on that. The money is finally there to get it done.

Whistling Skull??? Coming out in 2011 from DC Comics. Painted all 6 covers. Just got first script approved, start drawing next week.

ROUNDEYE????

Heres the skinny? You asked for it? You got it. I was trying to be a gentleman and not spell everything out about my personal life, but if I am going to be blasted publicly for being selfish, to try and commiserate with like minded people, and as a public figure reach out to THOSE people, and ask them to help me make it happen and entertain them in the process, then i am gonna tell you, what is what.

I get paid $275 to pencil a page, I get paid $150 t ink a page, i get paid $125 to color a page. Thats $550 a page. Thats $52,800. I am foregoing the writing $$ altogether. I am paying out for lettering, which is usually $10 a page. Thats almost a Grand. So I take it to a publisher, finished. DONE. they DO NOT HAVE TO PAY OUT A SINGLE FUCKING DIME TO PRODUCE THE ART BECAUSE I ALREADY TOOK CARE OF THAT THROUGH FUNDRAISING ON KICKSTARTER( PLEASE GOD!!!) Hell yeah, they are gonna guy it. And publish it, with a big fucking smile on their face. NO I WILL NOT be paid all over again by said publisher. I will share in profits after the publisher makes back all their printing , and advertising, and administrative costs. Which by the way includes anywhere from a 40, to 60 % discount off cover price from Diamond Comic Distributors. Not to mention Tons of Advertising costs and unseen bullshit.

There isn't really a whole lot of profit to be made. Serious, ask ANY comic book guy, or girl, and they will tell you they don't do this for the money.
And, any other book you can think of, from X-Men, to Ex Machina to Y- the last man, to Superman, to Batman, and to whatever, they all cost the same to produce. And in most cases more. Because they have bigger names than me writing and drawing them, and their rates are a lot higher than mine. So I could go on, and I will if need be, but i hope that clears up a few things. you are not a fan. Dont donate, if you are? i will NEVER forget what you did. And I will shake your hand and sign your book an draw in it, and make you know that you made it happen. YOU.

I don't know how I can be any more transparent than this. I just wanna make beautiful comics. Thats it. if I wanted to be rich, i woulda gone into another field, If I wanted to be Famous, Comics would have been the LAST job I pursed.

I just wanna tell stories.

TONY

Im back! Quick update, and lots more...

Heres a quick update. ......

http://kck.st/fnMsfU

....Lots more to come as far as keeping you guys updated.

Old man Harris

MOVING ON

Hi all. Been a little bit since I posted, so i thought I would give a shout, and maybe share some art. First things first..... I dumped all my accounts on the Internet except this blog, and my website ( which is being rebuilt right now)which you can find HERE. I rolled up Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace, and all my memberships on message boards, and deleted them permanently. I was just spending too much time on those sites, and not at my drafting table producing art. Plus they are so full of Piss and Vitriol it's staggering. I mean REALLY staggering. I just couldn't take it anymore. So I wanted to focus my attention down to a fine point. I wanted to hyper focus on my coming and current projects, this blog, and the Jolly roger Studio website. I also am reducing the number and frequency of appearances at American Comic Book Conventions as I would like to travel, and meet some fans abroad. There is a huge string of European conventions that I want to visit, and see how our brothers in other parts of the World, live. So I am starting out by going to The Thought Bubble Sequential Arts Festival in Leeds, England in November! And my good Friend, and wonderfully talented Barry Kitson promises to hook me up with quite a few shows, including ones in Holland, and France.

My other big focus right now, having just finished my 50 issue run on my Eisner award winning series, Ex Machina, is my new Series. It's called The Further Adventures of The Whistling Skull. It is co-created and written by B. Clay Moore, and will be released through Wildstorm Comics. I will be pencilling , inking and grey washing all the art, and my dear Friend, and amazing talented colorist JD Mettler will be joining us on the trip along with Ex Machina Editors Ben Abernathy and Kristy Quinn. This will mark my return to 2 of my favorite things: The 1940's, and Traditional Painted covers. We are planning on using Mike Mignola's Hellboy as a model, and do Skull as a series of mini-series instead of a back breaking monthly. So the first arc will be 6 issues, and Clay has already turned in his masterful script. Ben has asked me to paint all 6 covers in advance of beginning the interior art for the series. I think this is brilliant as we will have fully painted art to promote the book as we near it's release date. Stay tuned here, and from time, I wil share what I can of the books creation with you. I am also involved in a super secret book being developed right now, that I hope will allow me to finally finish ROUNDEYE: For Love. My very personal graphic novelI have been developing for years. More on this, as I am allowed to . That's all for now. So stay with me here, and you can always reach me through my website, here or my email if you have it. Cheers.

Tony

AN ARTIST AND HIS PATRONS

I have wanted to have an Artist/Patron relationship for many years. The closest I have ever gotten is the rare Commission ( due to my busy publishing schedule) or the sketches I do at conventions for you guys. But never the connection with a true Patron until now.

After I finished my 50 issue, 6 year run on Ex Machina for Wildstorm/DC Comics, It was simply time for a break. So I decided to open up myself to be available for Private Commissions, and not to focus on published material for a short while. These are Not Con-Sketches, mind you, but Commissions. The same level of quality, thought, and dedication that goes into all of my published work over the years. Except with these commissions, they are conceived of by you, and designed, and executed by me, with the Patron acting as kind of an Editor. Not so much telling me to change stuff, but giving me points of interest that they would like to see included in the Illustration, or painting. Just 2 people, (Patron, and Artist), making pretty pictures.

It has been liberating. Not only creatively, but purely from a point of Stress levels. I find myself really loving my Studio Space again. Connecting with it in away that you can't when under the breakneck speed of constant deadlines.

And more often than not my Patrons have said, " I would like this character, but with your spin on it", or my favorite: " Do whatever you want". So it is pure joy picking up the pencil or paintbrush. That is the second thing about this that is so liberating, that I am being asked to Paint on board again. I haven't done it hardly at all since I adopted Photoshop years ago. But It's nice to pick up a brush again, and has re-invigorated me for traditional painting to the point that I will be painting my covers on my future projects ( mostly, as time allows).

Either way, I'm painting again, and my wife is thrilled.

Here is the first commission I took, of Lon Chaney ( The Man of a Thousand Faces), and his many creations. The Patron asked for atheme here. Whatever character I wanted to draw in a trophy room lined with appropriate villians, or what-not. So this is what we hatched at Heroes-Con one year. I have included the Lineart, and the Greywash. In the coming weeks, I will be posting, other commissions featuring The Shadow, Captain America ( Golden Age), Thor, Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, Zatanna, and the Golden Age Flash! Enjoy.