SPACE in Columbus OHIO-H.I.M. Rules!!

I had the great pleasure to go to S.P.A.C.E. with Michael Marcus last weekend- March 19-20th In Columbus, Ohio. S.P.A.C.E. is a well known Indy comics cartooning convention that sports a unique talent of individual creators, comic artists, and publishers. Some stuff was rather rough and some stuff was beautifully well done. It was kind of all over the place as far as quality and variety of businesses and many of the attendees are fans in general. I sat at the booth with Michael Marcus and got to see how he worked the crowd. He featured H.I.M. (Hamtramck Idea Men) comics series IF-X, His games, Sudouko Tactics and his games pack(sorry forgot that name), and his well received and talked about Primer- "How to Publish Your Comic Without Losing Your Shirt". -I even bought a copy of that. It appeared that Michael knew the crowd and audience of the show and did not flinch in his sales game. I was especially impressed on the fact that Mr Marcus was able to publish his last two issues of IF-X using some of the tactics from his Primer... all in all it was a coup for Hamtramk Idea Men and Michael Marcus... Michael- when you get the chance send me some pics that you took from the con- oh here is one sketch I sold for $5....cheese

Inspirational meeting at Laurel manor/ Livonia

went to laurel manor for town hall meeting for tax incentive for michigan Film community- last Thursday- Feb- 24. It was Surprising!!!- the core Detroit tradecraft members That I knew about that were there was- Teon and Myself- I also saw Arvell Jones, and Desmond Jones and was alerted to it by Mike Winn who I suppose was also there with Keith Pollard ans maybe other i did not mention. It was basically a call for action from all creatives to contact their congress people and prep them not to vote for Govorner Snyder's plan to cap the current incentive at 25 million dollars and not support creating yearly changable referendum (i think that was the term- a way every year people would have to lobby back to keep the numbers the same and vote again on the industry)- we heard speakers like Mitch Albom, Emery King ( from the DMC commercials), Jeff Daniels-actor, Mike Binder actor(from Minority Report), university professors and film students.
The true fact was stated that the guys at the head of this push were conservatives as well as liberal in political leanings but all believed in getting creatives and support jobs here in Michigan and not just taking the money and running out of the state as it has been portrayed by many on the outside looking in.

So for my part- i wrote a letter to my State representative and senator- for this reason alone- inspite of all the rhetoric- Kieth Pollard one of my mentors and a fellow dispaced worker at Ford motor company had finally scored a job as head Storyboard artist at Maxar studios for films. Showing the incentive was bringing in permanent resident studios that could potentially employ artists and writers here in michigan- people in Detroit Tradecraft. But the full realization of these incentives may be lost before we could see actual residents forming their own services businesses and supporting the film industry- like i want to do as well...
So there you have it- I ask each member of to get out to their congressmen and women and make a stand for an industry that may help us all stay in Michigan and do the jobs and careers we always dreamed of doing...
thanks
C. Patrick Jackson