One of the consistently successful role models of comics crowd-funding celebrated the new year by dropping some important news in my inbox. Coffee Table Comics sole proprietor Jason Brubaker, Xeric Award winning author of re:Mind and Sithrah, announced his resignation from his job at Dreamworks to pursue comics full-time.
Welp. There you go. This is either the smartest move ever, or the dumbest move ever, depending on how you look at it. Dude is giving up what would almost universally be considered a dream job, making over $100k in Hollywood, where he is working with celebrities, creating icons, and winning awards. He's walking away from home ownership in one of the most lucrative real estate markets in America to live on a farm in Idaho. He's giving up the security of working at a company that's a household name in an industry with growing international popularity to start an independent comics label.
That's nuts.
Unless it works. Then it's brilliant. And you know what? It actually might work.
After all, Brubaker has three successfully Kickstarted hardcover graphic novels under his belt whose demand exceeds their initial backers. He knows how to handle all aspects of production, and which parts to source to others to save time. He has a fan base that so far has been willing to follow him from project to project. He'll be focusing his considerable character-creating and world-building skills into generating all-ages stories and intellectual property he owns all the rights to. He knows his worth, and how to turn his hard work into money for the fam. If he maintains his links to Hollywood, he will be able to turn his most popular ideas into major projects that bring in major dollars.
It will be hard, especially since he's moving his family across country. I don't know how old his kids are, but that could be a culture shock. Still, as long as his wife is fully on board, he should be fine.
If you want to help Jason's movement go the right way, click here to support the production of his new comic Sithrah!
Peace,
-samax
Samax Amen draws people, places and things for fun and profit. He is the artist of many great comics you never heard of like Herman Heed, Champion of Children, The Brother and The World As You Know It. He even writes and draws his own comics, like Dare: The Adventures of Darius Davidson, Spontaneous, and Manchild when he gets around to it. Because making comics is hard and stuff, he started GhettoManga as a blog in 2006 and as a print magazine in 2008.
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If Dave Chappelle can do it, anything's possible
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Deleteprops to him!!! I'm seeing a lot of people give big business a kick in the nuts and role solo
ReplyDeleteWord. That's a BOSS move
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