THE ORIGIN OF …STORYBOARD ARTIST!!

“For as long as I remember, I wanted to be a gangster…” Okay, I wasn’t Ray Liotta’s “Henry Hill” in “GOODFELLAS”, but, as far as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a comic book artist.

I grew up in Jamaica Queens, New York with two older siblings at home, both very talented artists. Mom was a teacher and then a guidance counselor, while Dad worked for the Board of Education and wrote electronics articles and manuals as well.

Being the wild eyed baby of the family – code name “geek” -, I was the one running around the house with his arms straight out pretending I was “GIGANTOR”. For those of you who are too young to remember this Japanese cartoon character, Gigantorpreceded “SPEED RACER” and was a distant ancestor to “THE TRANSFORMERS”.

Anyway, flash ahead years later, to The High School of Art and Design, I was dreaming of working for Marvel Comics, drawing Spider-Man and joining the ranks of Kirby, Romita and Buscema, all great comic book artists.

Sometime after college (NYC’s School of Visual Arts) I kind of realized that was not going to happen. Though a talented artist, I just was not good enough to be a comic book penciler . Anatomy had to be perfect. I kind of sucked at drawing fingers (ugh!) and did I mention perspective and architecture?

I even took an inking class taught by comic book artist Sal Almendola at DC Comics, but it was an uphill climb. Sal said I had the “wet noodle” style of inking. Not good.

Since my senior year in High School, I also caught the writing bug and I even studied screenwriting for 3 years in college. I got three A’s, but I was only a good, but far from great artist who needed money.

My attention was always divided between art and writing, which slowed my progress. I couldn’t focus on just getting better drawing skills as I had discovered Woody Allen and I found such great release writing my amateurish screenplays. My writing teachers always said I had talent, so I stubbornly kept at it.

I got a job at Bloomingdale’s which paid for little things duringmy college years and I figured something had to happen, right? I did illustrations for the hip hop magazine THE SOURCE, science fiction’s STARLOG and for GLAMOUR. Something had to happen.

Ten years later, I was a full time stockperson.

What the hell?! I was getting older, and the assistant managers stayed twenty-two. I was stacking towels and bathrugs when I wanted to be drawing. Ex-Coworkers would get promoted or leave and come back married with a kid and ask me “What are you still doing here?” It sucked!!

My art assignments were too sporadic. I got a little depressed, I must say. But I kept at it.

Things slowly turned. When I was at Bloomies (as co-workers called it), I met a co-worker named Oscar Nunez, who would later be a cast member on “THE OFFICE”. Oscar told me about an organization called “THE BLACK FILMMAKERS FOUNDATION”. It was run by the Warrington and Reginald Hudlin, who later did “HOUSE PARTY” and “BOOMERANG”. You never know what perseverance will do.

To be brief, aspiring black filmmakers (the name makes sense, huh!) got together once a month and discussed film, met professionals in the industry (“GOOD TIMES” John Amos spoke, as did Eric LaSalle before “E.R.” More importantly, writers like myself could have scenes of their scripts read aloud by a cast consisting by all the people in the workshop who wanted to act.

I was getting near thirty years old, and still worked at Bloomies, but I was at least with like minded individuals once a month. I was energized and in my element…one day out of thirty!!!Whohooo!!!

Okay, the storyboard artist part comes up next time.