Hey Jared,

I understand what you mean by having that "fear of failure". I published my first comic book about two & a half years ago when I was 33 years old. I'd been drawing long before then and I had a ton of ideas at that time. So why did I never actually create my first comic book until so many years later? Fear of failing was one reason. I was afraid my work would be met with bad criticisms and ridicule. There were other reasons as well. For example, I got very little encouragement throughout my life on my cartooning. Family, friends, associates, teachers, and even total strangers verbally trashed my desires to be a cartoonist. They said things like: "Art is for woman and children and it's unmanly", "You'll never make any money doing that", "That's wierd", You'll never get a girlfriend drawing comics". They said more things but, you get the idea. It took years for me to shake all that nonsense off and realize that they were wrong. Their cruel words caused me pain, not my art.

And my fear of failure? I realized that the absolute worst mistake I could ever make would be not to try. That producing nothing was empty and meaningless. Better to feel the pain of rejection, than to feel nothing. Some of my old artwork is crude, lacking, and even embarassing, but it is not a failure. A failure is a blank page, know what I mean?

Remember, that nothing ventured is nothing gained. Work hard and and keep trying and I'm sure you'll produce some great stuff. I look forward to seeing it.

P.S. Several of my harsh critics and naysayers from my past are now fans of my work. Pretty cool, huh?

Hey Jared,

So far all of my comic book work has been published in the form of printed paper (the old fashioned way) and I have done no digital comic work yet. This is partly due to the fact that my access to up to date digital/computer technology is very limited at this time. The comic books I have made have been distributed locally in the town I reside in as well as a city not far from mine. I plan on distributing my work outside of my area once my website is finished and my fourth comic book is complete (which hopefully will all happen sometime later this year).

I will have my work displayed online starting this March. It will be a comic strip feature which will appear in a digital newspaper. A close friend of mine works for this newspaper that runs in his hometown and is owned by his father. My friend, who is a fellow cartoonist, runs a single panel cartoon strip in this paper and he just recently offered me the opportunity have a comic strip feature of my very own displayed in this newspaper. I happily accepted. This will be a superhero action/adventure feature. I've drawn a lot of influence from comic book works of the 1930' & 40's, as well as influence from comic book work that was produced when I was in my teens (the 1990's). Can't say more on it right now. I'll keep you posted on it's progress.

And what about you? Have you produced any comic book work (printed or digital)?  

Hello Jared,

I just recently joined the CCAS a little over a week ago and your's was the first friend request I've recieved since joining. I checked out your website and found it very interesting. However, I was unable to watch any of your videos that were on it. I'm assuming geek church is a site for geeks who serve Jesus Christ (Christian nerds gathering in other words) which I think is a fabulous concept. While I have no website of my own yet I do plan on having one on the internet by next month (if all goes according to plan).

And me? I'm a 35 year old cartoonist who is living his dream of creating his own comic books and comic strips. I've published two comic books so far (on a very small and local level) and I'm finishing up my third comic book. More on that as it devolops.

Well it's time for me to go now. Take care and I hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Ryan Negus 

Welcome to CCAS bro! hehehe