The Standard

CHAPTER 2: CHILD’S PLAY

Writer: John Lees

Artist: Jonathan Rector

Colorists: Gulliver Vianei & Mike Gagnon

Letterer: Kel Nuttall

Editor: Steven Forbes

And here we are, already launching into the second chapter of THE STANDARD!

For you guys reading this online for the first time, it is a changeover of a mere day between chapters 1 and 2.  For the readers who followed the book in print on its Diamond release, it was a wait of 2 months, with the title’s original bi-monthly shipping schedule.  For me, it was a wait of a year.  Issue #1 was drawn in the summer of 2010, and as mentioned previously, I made a little print run of it as a black-and-white comic to take to San Diego Comic Con and pass out to publishers.  When that expedition bore no fruit, we made the decision that the book needed to be in color.  Cue us searching for a colorist and having the first issue colored up, which took us through the remainder of 2010 and into early 2011.

Somewhere into that time, Steven Forbes set me up with Tyler James, and the two of them talked to me about their plans of launching ComixTribe at the beginning of 2011.  At the time, the plan was to launch as an online resource for creators, with writing tutorials, articles on the intricacies of creating comics, and reviews of creator-owned books, but the intention was always to eventually branch out into publishing our own comics, and the proposal was made for THE STANDARD to be part of that opening lineup.  I gave it some consideration, and decided that I’d rather give THE STANDARD a guaranteed home than spend an eternity shopping it around from publisher to publisher with little hope of success.  It’s a decision I’m glad I made, as my partnership with ComixTribe has been very fruitful ever since, and I’ve made some amazing friends in the process.

But now that THE STANDARD had a publisher, the next step was to get a comic.  And so Jon needed to press on with drawing.  One problem was that I had originally only hired him to do the one comic, the first issue.  And since finishing that he’d taken up another gig, drawing a cool comic called THE HERO CODE for writer Jamie Gambell.  So, I signed him up to draw issues 2 through 6 of THE STANDARD, starting from when he was finished his current assignment.  And by sometime around late summer/early autumn 2011, the second issue was complete.  At my first experience exhibiting at a comics show – a mart at the Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow – issues #1 and #2 of THE STANDARD were what I had on my table.  And these were the two books I had to sell at my first visit to New York Comic Con a few short weeks later.  I’m sure that adventure will be fodder for another commentary segment down the line!

Speaking of stories for another time, note the SICBA Award Winner badge in the bottom corner.  More on that later…