The Standard

This is a significant page in the history of THE STANDARD.  Way back in 2009, when I was first trawling the web looking for an artist to draw the book, I put an ad up on the Digital Webbing forums.  Over 100 people responded to the ad.  I made sure to look at all the submissions and reply to every single one.  Some we cut from the running right away.  Others from the remaining shortlist turned out to not be eligible, but I made sure to keep their name aside for potential future projects.  Then I was left with just a few contenders.  The artist we finally picked got the gig when he offered to draw up a sample page for us.

This was the page I selected.

And so, the first page of artwork I ever commissioned from a comics artist was this, albeit in a different form.  It was such a rush, seeing my script brought to life as comic book art.  I still have a framed version of that original page somewhere, kept because I felt it was an important milestone.  In the end, that artist didn’t work out, having to drop out from the book a few months after taking the gig.  But that ended up clearing the way for Jonathan Rector, and the rest is history!