Somehow, despite making up a bunch of crap off the top of my head, I managed to complete a rough draft of a script for Hero House. So now the question becomes…who’s going to draw this thing?
Here’s the irony: My father is a professional artist. My brother is a professional artist. I am not a professional artist. I used to hand storyboard sketches into my editor-in-chief and he’d say he felt like he should be hanging them on his refrigerator.
Clearly I needed to find an artist. I didn’t feel like my dad or brother could devote the time I knew it would take, so I decided to hit them web – specifically the Digital Webbing message board, which I’d heard had an entire section devoted to writers trying to find artists, vice versa and etc. And that’s where I found Mike Dimayuga.
It was a total stroke of luck…probably the biggest single bit of luck that lead to the comic actually being able to come out. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but I knew I wanted someone who could draw superhero action, but who also had the character drawing skills to tell stories with the facial expressions of the characters – important, if I was going to try to do any sort of comedy.
That’s when I saw this piece of art that Mike had posted on the board:
I hadn’t known what I was looking for, but here was exactly what I was looking for: a Hawkman that had elements of Art Adams and Steve Dillon. A Harvey Birdman whose expression leapt off the page. If one guy could do both these figures, he could absolutely draw Hero House.
Luckily, Mike was just as excited about the project as I was for having him aboard. And over the subsequent five years, Mike’s enthusiasm and tireless dedication to the book have truly kept it going in its darkest days. It’s no exaggeration to say Hero House wouldn’t exist without Mike, and there’s no way it would look half as good as it does without him.
I know that Mike’s next project is something very exciting, and while it’s not for me to reveal it here, I’ll say this: keep your eye on Mike Dimayuga. Oh, and buy Hero House. I’ve gotta throw that in there, as well.