Zub Tales

Some times it takes you 5 days to recover from the big show. 🙂

I’m actually feeling pretty good. This might be the first San Diego Comicon where I got home and didn’t instantly come down with a nasty cold/cough. I wanted to post my post-convention thoughts on Tuesday, but a flurry of work and correspondence after the show has kept me very busy. Stacy and I have had our heads down focused on work, work with a bit more work thrown in for good measure.

This is the year where it really felt like I was firmly established as a creator first and foremost. Last year I promoted Skullkickers quite heavily, but there was a muddiness to it as I tried to balance out administrative responsibilities at UDON with writing and promoting my own material. In 2012 that wasn’t a problem – Skullkickers, Makeshift Miracle, Sky Kid, Wonder Momo, Pathfinder… that’s what I was known for at the show. One of the strangest things was having people ask me about UDON as if I didn’t work there, asking me how I knew “those guys” or who to talk to there about submitting work. When I explained that I’ve worked at UDON for the past 9 years and have been a Project Manager at the company since 2004, they were shocked.

That’s the shift – in a year and a half I’ve tilted the needle from administration/management stuff behind the scenes to writer/creator. It’s a good thing and it’s where I want to be. Creating is far more difficult and comes with a whole lot of extra insecurities and stress, but the satisfaction level is much higher too.

I love handling projects at UDON and I love teaching at Seneca. Having creative outlets for my ideas feels like the missing puzzle piece that makes it all work, weirdly enough. It’s proof that I can handle client projects. It’s proof that I have things to teach about storytelling and art. It’s a series of escalating challenges that keeps me pushing my skills so I don’t get complacent.

Anyways, that was my biggest take away from SDCC this year. Sales were pretty good, social stuff was fun, my body ached after 5 days of work and late nights… after 10 years I go in expecting most of that. What changed this time was my perception of what I’m doing there. In the midst of grandiose pop culture chaos I felt like a storyteller and that was pretty cool.