38. A Matter of Collaboration
"This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward." - Charles Xavier, X-Men (2000)
Howdy Brave Being,
Welcome back, dear readers! I’ve got a special edition of A Matter of Fiction for ya. Today, I’ll be talking about the importance of collaboration related to the Dead Dreams team!
Collaboration is one of the top reasons Dead Dreams has come this far. Without every person on the team, this book would not exist, and I couldn’t be more grateful. You know how in X-Men (2000) it opens with Patrick Stewart’s voice, a.k.a. Professor Charles Xavier, and he says, “Mutation, it is the key to our evolution…”? Well I’d like to update that to, “Collaboration, it is the key to our evolution” because without it, Dead Dreams wouldn’t have evolved from a single-celled idea into the book it is today if it wasn’t for the people I’ve had the honor of working with: the Dead Dreams team.
I’m going to jump around in time (Days of Future Past style) to talk about how collaboration has contributed to making Dead Dreams.
Now
Over the course of the Zoop campaign, Dailen and I have been on a whirlwind virtual book tour, appearing on a dozen podcasts and interviewing with comic-book and pop culture outlets (recaps here and here). We finished our tour yesterday, in fine fashion, with Dead Dreams variant cover artist, Liana Kangas. We chatted about many wonderful things, and particularly how the team came together.
Then
Dead Dreams started as a short in 2016 and snowballed into a full-blown miniseries after a conversation with my friend and colleague Heather Ayres. I couldn’t help but ask Heather to edit it—her storytelling instincts are top notch, and she was a fantastic and patient sounding board.
In the interest of getting it published back in 2018, I then pitched it with artist Hari Conner, who designed characters and created the six pitch pages, and letterer Ariana Maher. One thing that came out of that collaboration was that the booth vendor Avae, who I originally wrote as female, changed after I saw Hari’s character design. I could no longer write them as such as they had literally taken on a new life. From then on, they became a nonbinary character, equipped with they/them pronouns. Next came lettering. Ariana was the first letterer I ever worked with (we were on The Intrepids series together!) and she was so patient with all my questions. She brought a level of professionalism to our collaboration that I hope to embody.
Since it took me time for me to build up funds to continue the book, it turned out when I returned to it that both Hari and Ariana had conflicts, as happens when making comics, but I didn’t give up. I rebuilt the team and through my connections in the comic book industry, I was introduced to artist Dailen Ogden, who brought on flatter Drew Wills, and letterer Gabriela Downie. They collectively used the designs and pitch pages as a jumping off point, interpreted my script, and created the beautiful book you see today. Here’s a close-up of one of the preview pages:
After meeting Dailen through our work on Riley Biehl’s Miranda in the Maelstrom, I had to ask them if they’d want to make comics with me. When I approached them, I had a fully formed script, and of course the pitch pages. As soon as I handed the reins over to Dailen, they blew me out of the water with their sixth sense, that is their artistic mind’s eye and wicked skilled hands. From the thumbs and inks to colors and the cover, they perfectly captured the parallel worlds and each character’s emotions while ensuring the doppelgängers had noticeably different personalities, despite looking the same in appearance. Dailen’s also a masterful colorist and they created such an incredible color story that I cannot wait for y’all to see! Helping her with color flats was Drew Wills, who also worked on Miranda in the Maelstrom with us, I learned a great deal more about his role and process (and you will too in the back of Dead Dreams).
Gabriela taught me that less is more (i.e., sometimes I’m verbose but that doesn’t always work out with the confines of a panel) and showed me the effectiveness and power of sound effects. While all of the art was happening, designer Sasha E. Head joined the team to create the logo, the book’s overall aesthetic, and the alchemic in-world logos, some of which were inspired by Dailen’s symbols above in panels two and three. Sasha created a marvelous motif for Dead Dreams, which perfectly captures the futuristic fantasy that’s the silver lining of this sometimes unsettling sci-fi triller.
After Sasha moved on from comics and into the gaming industry, I brought on AndWorld Design to help with the finishing touches, specifically the back matter—if you’re unfamiliar with comics, the back matter refers to the extra goodies at the back of the book.
Now
Speaking of extras, there will be seven pages of back matter in Dead Dreams, including interviews with the creators and fan art made by artist Adam Cahoon, who recently graced us all with this gorgeous magazine ad which has so many clever details:
When Adam asked me if he could make some fan art, I said yes and he replied, “That is excellent!…because I have definitely already started.” And he’s not the first to show such unbridled enthusiasm. Artist Seth Kumpf created the first Dead Dreams fan art to help promote it when the digital version was featured in Kat Calamia and Phil Falco’s Slice of Life Kickstarter. I love how he showcased the duality of our doppelgängers and split them up with a dream tonic, genius!
That's a free comic with 600 backers! 10 more to go at the time of writing!
Anyways, here's fanart of THAT story! kickstarter.com/projects/comic…
Recently, artist J. Pares also shared their inspired Dead Dreams fan art, a work-in-progress, and it’s absolutely fantastic! I just can’t believe the sheer talent and excitement that all these artists/fans have shown for our book. I’m honored and humbled.
Inspired by Orphan Black, Fringe, and Neverwhere, Dead Dreams a sci-fi thriller that's equal parts solarpunk and steampunk, available now on @WeAreZoop https://t.co/q6bwkcYCRR
Then
I’m also feeling incredibly grateful to everyone on the team. This whole campaign would be lost without marketing coordinator James B. Emmett, who has been a stalwart collaborator, leading the charge with expert marketing advice, helping me make decisions about how best to promote this book, and connecting me with comics outlets, podcasts, and more. One thing we talked about months ago was bringing on a variant cover artist. Enter artist Liana Kangas, who I couldn’t believe was available and interested. I’ve wanted to work with Liana for a few years and then the stars aligned, which is also fitting considering what happened next…
Through our collaboration, Liana suggested we spotlight Avae, the Dead Dreams booth vendor. While we threw around some ideas, I was particularly interested in incorporating nebula imagery, since it’s a key part of the dreaming experience, and Liana suggested to put Avae in an astronaut suit, to tie it together with one of Avae’s experiences in the comic. It was truly a marriage of our ideas and that’s how I see comics too, a combination of collaborators putting their brains together to make something beautiful.
There have also been some key behind-the-scenes folks who have contributed their brilliant minds and time to Dead Dreams, like comics writer, podcaster, and all-around Renaissance man Milton Lawson, who created our teaser below and the trailer on the campaign page.
Azza the Barbed artist Rio Burton also joined the fold as our resident portrait commissions artist, who will be turning supporters into their evil doppelgängers in a 4”x6” print. There are only 3 left as of this writing, btw…
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our lovely host platform, Zoop! I’ve been working closely with Eric Moss, Jordan Plosky, and Brett Schenker and they have been incredibly responsive and on top of everything from pre-launch prep, answering all my questions, and making me feel confident and reassured that things are going well (If you didn’t know, I’m a nervous nelly most of the time, haha). They’re juggling so much with all their amazing campaigns and still make me feel like I’m the only one they’re working with. I don’t know how they do it.
Now
Be sure to check out all our creators bios here and don’t miss the fabulous
testimonials from all the comic-book creators who took the time to read an advanced copy of Dead Dreams and write about it.
I can’t recall who said it first but making comics is truly a team sport and this team has been absolutely amazing, supportive, and putting so much love into this book. If you haven’t pre-ordered Dead Dreams yet, I hope you’ll consider doing so to support this dream team, each of whom I regard as superheroes. They poured their love and full hearts into it. Time’s running out…