By Alex Rodrik   At this juncture, I feel like it’s almost an obligation to help out new comers -- artists or those looking to create their first creator-owned property. I also enjoy using my contacts to help veterans re-establish themselves...like I found myself doing just four short years ago. AR: How do you view the business differently now that you’re an agent as opposed to a straight-writer? SCB: That’s a great question. Less singular? When I was a freelancer, I worried solely about my projects, my income, my career. Now I have well over thirty artists that I work with on a daily basis on dozens of projects in and out of the industry -- all those artists rely on me to get them work, advance their careers, and make sure they get paid in a timely fashion. My head used to only be full of story ideas...now it’s filled with production schedules and balance sheets... AR: How has this shift in mentality affected your ability to come up with a story? Has the business affected the craft for you at all? SCB: I have much, much less time to sit around and focus on story. Fortunately, I’m an extremely fast writer once I get my research done and am happy with an outline. Lower-case “business” has not affected the craft of writing for me, no. Upper-case “Business” has, especially as graphic novels and the push towards the book trade (or, alternately, the web) has continued to grow and grow. For my personal projects, anyway, I design my work to be more long form and pack fewer panels onto the page. It’s very liberating. Just wish I had more hours in the day to focus on it. AR: Who are among the ranks of the Space Goat Elite? SCB: We have a number of really great up-and-coming artists. We really only bring on talent that’s ready for the big league, I say, even though that statement is ridiculously subjective.   Spanish inker Roger Bonet -- long time inking partner of Rafa Sandoval -- is right up there with Rafa as a marquee Space Goat artists. Not only is he marquee Space Goat, he’s proving to be one of the finest inkers in the industry. If I could clone Roger a few times over, his work would be all over the House of Ideas. As it is, he gets around just fine. If Rafa penciled it, chances are awesome that Roger inked it.   Martin Montiel is a long-time veteran of comics that Space Goat has been working with for years. Martin’s been in the biz for almost a decade. His work has appeared in a long run of Darkness, as well as Witchblade, Megdalena, and most recently in the Legendary the Box graphic novel and on a new webcomic, Soldiers.   Allan Jefferson has proven to be ON FIRE. A penciler and inker out of Brazil, Allan jumped out of the starting gate, with work recently appearing in JLA and Teen Titans. As I write this, he’s wrapping up a two-issue stint on Marvel’s War Machine. Keep a look out for War Machine #6 and #7 to check out his mad chops.   Jheremy Raapack is also out of Brazil. And also a penciler/inker. Jheremy’s most recent work has appeared in Skaar - Son of Hulk and X-Men v. Hulk. We’re gearing up for a new project, but nothing we can announce just yet. Like Allan, Jheremy really hit the ground running. We’re really excited to be representing him.  .jpg) Gabriel Guzman is NOT Brazilian. Gabriel is an Argentinean penciler who worked for years at Avatar before joining Space Goat. His most recent work was on Image Central’s Amory Wars. We’re currently gearing up for a really great three-issue run on a Marvel comic. We’ll keep you guys posted on this project. It’s looking to be big. And we’re really thankful to be working on it, considering this is Gabriel’s first Marvel work.   Jason Metcalf is one of my few US pencilers. Jason’s work has appeared most recently in Wrath of the Titans. He’s currently working on a really cool promotional comic for the British metal band Eternal Descent. Space Goat is packaging the entire book, but Jason is really proving to be a force of nature on this project...pushing all artists involved to the next level.   And, of course, we have colorists. Javier Tartaglia is on the verge of doing really great things. Also out of Argentina -- and childhood friend of Gabriel Guzman -- Java colors almost everything Space Goat packages. His most recent work appears in Marvel Adventures Iron Man and Amory Wars. He’s also doing work on Eternal Descent and Soldiers. AR: What advice do you have for people trying to break into the business? Writers? Artists? SCB: Be your own worst critic. And be patient. It takes years to get good enough to be published. Due to the sheer volume of books published every month and the limited number of editors, it’s very difficult for a new artist to get their work in front of the gatekeepers. And it’s even more difficult to earn the gatekeepers trust enough for them to try you out on a book -- even when you are good enough to be published. Plus read this. If you’re not working on a paying project, always be working on new samples. It’s very important to show editors that you’re not only hungry, but working to improve your craft. Lazy, rushed, or old samples are not going to impress anyone. And, yes, portfolio reviewers can spot a lazy/rushed/old portfolio from a mile away. It’s practically written on the artist’s face. There are a lot of books being published every month. There’s no reason a new, hungry, competent artist can’t land one of those books, especially down in the lower tier of publishers. But be careful about how hungry you are. If a publisher is offering “backend” or “after-publication” payment for your services...be aware that you’ll most likely never see that money. Then you’ll really know what hunger feels like. That’s just reality. AR: So what can we expect from Space Goat this 2009? SCB: So Much! Space Goat’s been doubling in size every year since we opened our doors in 2006. This year to date -- if we keep with the Big Mo -- we’re on course to quadruple our business. I’m very excited about that, especially with the economic contraction we’re currently enduring. Comics have proven to be somewhat recession proof -- and Space Goat has proven to be a valuable resource to many publishers. Big and small. Artists are also discovering the advantage of having an established talent management company in their corner. An artist can do a lot for themselves, but there comes a time when one needs to evaluate whether they want to always be on the prowl for new work, chasing checks, reading contracts...or if it’s best to let someone else do that work for them. So they can focus solely on their art. As a result, we’ve been approached by a lot of established talent of late asking for us to represent them. To help out with the influx of artists (and other growth plans), we’re bringing on another talent manager who has decades of experience in the industry. We’re going to tease that out a bit. Suffice it to say, that it’s the closest thing to cloning myself that I could possibly do. This new talent manager is going to hit the ground running! Lots of plans in the works -- especially on some of our other services like lettering, custom comics, art commissions/art sales, and editing; areas that I have not taken full advantage of yet -- that’s moved beyond my ability to facilitate all on my own. I’ve been on the look-out for office support for a long time. The stars seem to be aligning.  AR: With regards to your personal writing career, what’s to come for Shon C. Bury? Are there any upcoming projects our readers should lookout for? Any “wink winks” you can give us about some still, “hush hush” projects? SCB: Not so much with the wink wink, no. I’m starting to ask around more aggressively about freelance writing, but nothing cool to hint about now. I’m pretty passive about reminding editors that I’m also a freelance writer at heart. It feels like a bait and switch. And I have an obligation to push Space Goat’s artists before I push my own writing. That said, I’m very hungry to start playing in the superhero sandbox again. Once could say that I’m actually starving to get back into it. This year will see Space Goat Publishing’s first -- and perhaps only -- graphic novel. Nox. I decided to self publish a long while ago, and have slowly been building towards that on my free time over the last year. I have no free time... |
