#still haven’t gotten my card so i went to HR like ‘hey what’s up’

[j-esbian]

can just like. one fucking thing go right. please

[skippers-adventures]

Origin Story

Hi! My name is Rebecca, this is a blog for my horse, Skipper. He is a 12y/o walking horse. He doesn’t show or anything, but we trail ride. He has quite a few issues, and I’m hoping that this blog will help me keep track of everything I’m doing, since there is ALOT going on.

I bought Skipper almost 11 years ago when he had just turned two years old. I was 14 and a complete n00b. I had always wanted a horse, but I didn’t have any money or anywhere to keep him/her. My mother, on the other hand, had a horse growing up. He was a beautiful Arabian thoroughbred cross named Dennis. As a kid, I was so jealous that my mom was just given this horse by a man her father knew. I just knew I had to get one too. No matter what.

When I was around 11, my mom got a job as a supervisor for a company called Service Master. She oversaw the cleaning of fire and water damaged houses. The work was easy enough, and her employees weren’t the greatest, so she employed three of her best cleaners she knew. Her children. I didn’t mind working. After all, I was saving up for a goal. She started me at $5/hr. Which looking back, I should’ve asked for more but I was 11, so I couldn’t complain. I mean, how many 11 year olds do you know that have a job? Unfortunately, being that young, I wasn’t very good with the money I earned. I’d save up a bunch and then blow it all on littlest pet shop or Bella Sara trading cards (I still have to this day).

Fast forward two years, I finally got my shit together and saved every penny I earned. I had since been hired on, by my mothers boss, to come help out after school. I was bumped up to $10/hr, and it was all under the table. I was starting to get discouraged the closer I got to my goal. I had the money but still nowhere to keep a horse if I had ever gotten one. My parents knew that was my ultimate goal in life, but they didn’t seem to take me seriously.

Then one day, I came downstairs to my mom looking at horses online for sale! You can imagine my excitement. She found a beautiful grey(pure white) gelding near us, but the owners wouldn’t answer the phone. (Looking back I’m so glad I didn’t get a grey horse) then, we asked about a 10 year old mare. The owners kept raising the price everytime we talked to them, then wouldn’t stick to a day for us to go look at her. So we moved on to a horse a few counties down. He was black and very sweet, his name was Rebel. I liked him well enough, but he had a gash in his leg so we politely told the owner we would have to pass.

I was getting concerned I’d never find the right horse. I wanted that instant connection people talked about in books. Like love at first sight but deeper. A few nights before, I had prayed to God to help me find the right horse. Being 13, I was very specific. I wanted a horse like Sonyador, or Dreamer from the Dakota Fanning movie. After work one day, we were driving home and I was pretty depressed. Which for me, is pretty noticeable. I talk a lot, and I have a very big personality. So, when I stop talking and stare out the window, you know something isn’t right. My mother, the wonderful person she is, noticed. She looked back at me and said, “Hey, I think I saw a ‘horses for sale’ sign up the road. Wanna go check it out before we go home?” I was skeptical, but thought “what the hell” so we passed by the house and went down a road we only ever went on to go to the flea market every now and then.

Sure enough, there was the sign. “HORSES FOR SALE” The second I saw it, I got butterflies. Mom pulled over, called the number, and after a brief conversation, she pulled down the driveway. It was a beautiful little brick house, with trees surrounding the yard. As we pulled down the drive, mom said “it sounded like I woke him up from a nap, or he’s drunk.” So my first thought was a fat man around 40.

The man that met us at the gate, was not at all what I expected. He was very old for one, and very thin.He walked with a cane, so slow you thought he didn’t want to mess up his neatly combed grey hair. Watching him walk was almost painful, it seemed as if every step hurt him. When we got to the gate, he slowly opened it, and waved us through. As we passed through, he told us to go on up to the barn to meet everyone.

The barn was an old pole barn. Bright red with a newer white tin roof. All the horses were there waiting for us under the trees to escape the hot sun. When we got out of the car the old man had somehow caught up to us, and an old woman was close behind him. If I spoke to them that day, I can’t remember. The man’s name was Dale and the woman was Penny. Dale had the kindest eyes a human could have. Penny stayed back but she seemed a very kind person.

They walked me over to the pasture, opened the gate and told me to go in. The first horse that fought my eye was a tri color horse named Drummer. He was a tall bay horse with big white spots and a black and white mane that looks like a Halloween wig. He turned out to be their son’s horse. Disappointing but oh well. I turned my attention to the next horse, a chestnut mare with a white blaze and stare, named Cricket. She was the sweetest one. Kept nuzzling my arm so I’d pet her. We decided on her since she was so sweet, and I went home extra excited because it was finally happening.

A few days later, we get a call from Dale, saying he won’t sell me Cricket. His son went to ride her and told us, “I would’ve sold tickets if I had know she was gonna do that! So I can’t sell her to a yougin in good conscience. I’ve got another young horse, he just came back from training with his brother Drummer. He should be a good fit.” So we went down, since they lived down the road a bit, to look at the third horse.

When mom and I got there, Dale waved us down to the barn. He was watching someone riding a sorrel horse out in the field. He told us that his son, Stan was riding the horse he wanted us to look at to make sure he wouldn’t do anything crazy like Cricket. As they got closer, I noticed how small he was. He was just barely 14 hands. His coat was bright red and he had one white foot in the back. He had a small, gentle face with a white star and snip. He was beautiful. As soon as we made eye contact, I knew.

I walked up to him and pet his nose. The butterflies got worse then died as soon as I touched him. He was the one. I found my horse. I didn’t speak, I only looked at him. Then I heard Dale say, “His name is Skipper.” The rest is ancient history.

This is our origin story. It only dawned on me a few years later, that he in fact, looks like Sonya from Dreamer. (Not trying to get religious but that’s pretty cool if you ask me.)

So, fast forward to a few years ago, I moved 45 minutes away from him and I haven’t been riding near as much as I should. And last year I found out my spine is broken, then when I started getting better I got fourth degree burns in a grease fire. That’s a story for another time though. I was bed ridden for half a year due to my back and burns. This is the first time in a long time that I am physically able to seriously take care of him. He is EXTREMELY sensitive to bugs, gets itchy scabs on his legs every summer, and has SERIOUSLY bad thyroid issues. I start getting serious today. I’ll post a pic of him after I finish up at the barn to show just how fat he is 😖.

This was us in 2012. He grew to be 16 hands.

[wildstormoralhistory]

     At SDCC this weekend is a special WildStorm 25th Anniversary signing at the San Diego Comic Art Gallery. It looks to be quite the event and I’m looking forward to seeing many of the people I interviewed for Wild Times which has led to sad thoughts of how WS artist Oliver Nome won’t be there. Oliver passed away this past March.      He had a very fun journey getting to WildStorm and was an integral part of the book in that his early interview helped attract other WildStormers to see what the project was all about. Others knew him far better than I so I didn’t believe it was my place to post a sort of eulogy earlier this year so instead, in honor of Oliver during the biggest annual event of our industry, I am posting a large segment from Wild Times- Interlude VIII: Modern Age Secret Origin Stories.      It is a fun chapter that looks at three different artists that came to WildStorm during very different times and in the later era of the studio. It is one of the few spots in the book that has long, uninterrupted quotes from the participants as their stories were so great, I wanted to shine a special spotlight on them in their entirety. I hope you give it a read. Enjoy.

Oliver Nome (Artist): It all started in, gosh I believe it was maybe December of 2005 when the Wizard Magazine was still around, and they announced Jim Lee was doing a WildStorm talent search, which he hadn’t done in a long time. I’d been trying to break into the industry. Going to Comic-cons for a decade trying to break in, and I saw this and was at a crossroads in my life, quit a job, move to a new city? I was deciding, “I would try this one last time, if I don’t get it I am just going to go back to school.” I was applying to fashion schools, and I would just pursue that because I’m turning 28, and I haven’t broken in yet, so it’s probably not going to happen. But I told myself I’m going to do this contest, and I’m going to win it because this is my last chance.

I got the tryout assignment. I did the first round of tryout pages, and then I had turned them in. The first round of tryouts was WizardWorld LA in March of 2006, and I went to that, dropped off my sample pages from the sample script everyone had to draw from. So I dropped that off with Scott Dunbier at the DC booth at WizardWorld.

I went back the next day and stopped by to see Dunbier again, and he said, “Yes. I remember you. You’re here. Be in this conference hall at this time.” There was two separate stacks. Obviously one was no’s and one was yes’s. So I was on the yes stack, and that’s when I knew. I thought, “Okay, I might be one of the finalists.” It was only like five or six portfolios. So I’m like, “Okay, cool. I guess I’m up against five other people.”

So I went into the conference hall. It was pretty big and pretty packed. Up on the main stage were tables, and Jim Lee was up there, Scott Dunbier, Scott Lobdell, I believe Alé Garza and a few other people. And they had two big screens set up, and they did the introduction, and there was a lot of people in there. They said what they were going to do was call you up one at a time, you’re going to sit up here, and we’re going to interview you, and while we’re interviewing you, we’re going to start to show the five page tryout that we asked you to do and the audience will see.

So people went up there one at a time. I can’t remember what number I was, but I remember being nervous. “My God, I’m going to sit up there next to Jim Lee and these people.” And I said, “You know what, I’m an outgoing person, and I’ve got a personality. I’m just going to sell my personality.” Because all these other guys, no offense, but they all seemed pretty timid. So when I got up there—I don’t know, it was weird—I didn’t feel intimidated at all. I felt comfortable, even with all the people in the audience.

They started asking questions, and I was making them laugh and just selling my personality, telling them what I did and this and that. It was pretty quick, and I showed them the art. And then afterwards they’re like, “Okay, good luck you guys, and we’ll get back in touch.” Afterwards, we all disbanded and Dunbier came up to me right away and gave me his card and said to follow up with him.”

A few weeks later, this was about April, I got an email, and I guess they were trying to do it American Idol style and doing a second round in Philly, and then they sent me a script. They’re like, “Here, do this script because you’re going to go up against this other guy or these other people from Philly.” And I remember it being five pages from Authority #1. I was just like, “Damn it.” The last thing I wanted was to do a script from something like The Authority which Bryan Hitch had done, and I knew in my head and which was so amazing. I was like, “Oh God. How am I going to do this? How am I going to do my take on this?” It’s already there on the page.

But I busted my ass and did the pages and sent them in. It was a long process. I made sure I was emailing the editors, especially Dunbier, like, I swear every week. But there was a lot of personal stuff I had also going on at the time so the process took forever.

I thought it was over with or I didn’t win. By this time I had left my job in Austin and moved to Dallas and started a new job, and I was still applying to schools. But it was about six months later and Dunbier had called, and I said, “Gosh, finally,” and he did the whole spiel like you know, “You should be proud you made it this far,” and this and that, you know that whole spiel, “Don’t quit.” And I was thinking, “God, I lost.” But then he was like, “Just joking. You won. I’ll get in touch with the HR people, and we’ll do all the paperwork and this and that and head on out to San Diego.” So the process took a couple of weeks then I packed up and moved to San Diego.

Luckily, I really didn’t know anyone, but my friend from Austin had just moved there a few weeks before, so I stayed with her for a couple of weeks until I got my own apartment and then I started off as an intern. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I remember being there the first day right on time, at 9 o’clock. Of course none of the other artists starting showing up till normally 10, 11, 12. People started trickling in, and I’d never met any of them except for Alé, and I’d met Alé at a New York Comic-Con in January of that year.

Then Dunbier showed me around and introduced me to everybody, showed me the studio. I was just in awe. I was just like, “Well what do you want me to do?” He said, “I really don’t know. Just sit here and start drawing something. I don’t know.” And then it was lunch time and Jim still wasn’t there and the guys came in, and they’re like, “Hey, Jim wants us all to go to his place.” He’d gotten a new place and had lunch there, and I’m like, “My God, we’re going to Jim Lee’s house to have lunch,” and we went and had Chinese food. He had this really nice house by the beach. I was blown away.

So we just chatted, and then I interned for three months, and I ended up finding out my job was helping design the DC Online game that they had started. They’d already been working on it for a couple of months and then I got hired based off of—Jim was most impressed with my background skills, and that’s what they really needed, was people to design background environments for the video game.

I was just practicing all the time and drawing on the weekends. I learned the most from Carlos D’Anda because he was such a master, and it got to the point where to this day he still thinks I outdo him. He says, “I learned so much from you and your backgrounds.” I still think he’s amazing. It got to the point where he would ask me advice on how to do backgrounds, which is flattering.

From Jim I learned just dynamics and his way of thinking and even the way he does backgrounds. He’s like, “You know backgrounds. Don’t be so anal like some people. You know your perspective. Do what I do, just if you know it, eye it. That’ll save you a lot of time, and it looks more organic. It doesn’t look so labored and so stiff.”

I learned techniques from everyone. I think mainly JJ Kirby taught me the most because he’s a great colorist, but I learned little things from Carlos and Ed [Nuñez]. Everyone there pretty much colored so I learned techniques there. I learned that. It was a great time.

You couldn’t ask for a better location. We’re like a little brotherhood. We were the artists in the art section. There is a whole entire section in the office of editors and management and production people, colorists, all these other people in different parts of the studio, but we were working on the other end. We were also working with inkers like Sandra Hope, Trevor Scott and Scott Williams—three of the biggest inkers in the industry were pretty much there every day working too, and I would go hang out. Obviously I inked myself, and I started off, once I got my first gigs I was inking and people liked the way I inked, and I would learn techniques and ask them about what particular tools they use, and I learned a lot inking wise from them. I just tried to absorb whatever I could from the best people in the industry.

Obviously I’ve got to say that it opened a lot of doors just being there right off the bat. Once I got started being able to go on the blog, it opened me to a whole new audience. Just being under WildStorm got me into Comic-Con right off the bat when artists have to wait years to get in. I’ve been going to Comic-Con, this will be like my, seventh or eighth in a row now finally, thank goodness. And it opened a lot of doors. All of a sudden I had access to all these editors. Like any industry it’s all about who you know. So I took advantage of all that. Once I got to the point to where I was equal to everybody I started making my contacts and slowly trying to build my career. And that’s what I got from WildStorm.

The irony is even though I’d go to different comic events for years and years and years I would show every publisher my work and get, “No, no, no”, the only person I never would show my work to was Jim directly because I was like, “All the other people said no. There’s no way my idol and the reason why I draw comics [is] going to see anything in me and hire me.” And the funny thing is, he’s the one that ended up being the one to give me my first break, and he’s the one that saw something and gave me my chance and nurtured it, and that was that, so that played out in a nice little way. It all worked out in the end.