I've mentioned this a couple other times, but this seems an appropriate place to kind of lay the cards on the table.
When I got into comics back in 2003 or so, my intention was to develop and get my own creative projects off the ground from the beginning. However, as the comics industry has always been extremely hard to get into, I found my opening arenas to be more on the business side. Unlike many of my creative colleagues, I am capable of putting on the 'suit' and thinking business; I sometimes even impress my current Business Manager and attorney. My accountant however still just looks at me and shakes his head, so, there you go.
As a result, my initial years were focused on building other studios and publishers behind the scenes. It also consisted of several situations where I discovered I was working with people, that upon getting to know them better, I realized I really didn't want to be working with them, so I moved on.
Part of those experiences led to me wanting to create something of my own, by way of a company to advance my creative career and make its own mark. This was when I then enlisted Charlie Hall and we co-founded Visionary Comics. Once again developing the creator-owned content was my primary intention. But Visionary very quickly became a fast growing, burgeoning business enterprise, and all of a sudden, there were a number of talented creators on board, a number of projects in development etc. Once again, the creator-owned stuff got shelved.
Over the intervening years as the studio grew and evolved, eventually becoming Visionary Creative Services, there was always work to do. Digital publishing lines to develop and get out (such that we're now the largest independent digital-exclusive publisher out there, I believe) licenses to pursue (as we launched Deadlands in 2011 with amazing talent), new markets to get into (as we've now published our first novels with Tor Books) and then a rising tide of freelance projects in prose, art, and comics.
Through it all, the creator-owned content kept getting put to the side.
But that is seriously going to change. I've now accomplished 80% of my goals when I got into creative work. I am full-time freelance, with actually more work coming at me than I can take (and yes, it was quite an emotional step for me to realize I had to start saying no to some things). Plus, my freelance has gotten to a level where I can bring in a decent salary without working crazy hours every day.
This means its time to focus on that last 20% and that is developing my own creative content, properties owned by Visionary that we develop as transmedia, in other words, the Visionary Creation.
Now one note, some of you may remember this was primarily referred to as the Visionary Universe for many years. For various and sundry reasons, that label no longer really met our needs for the whole. That setting will still be my primary focus, but, as other creators are now joining our little venture, we needed to grow. Those titles are not all set in one universe, as there was a general feeling of wanting to do some different kinds of things with the branding, so, we evolved, and are now, the Visionary Creation.
We have several projects in the pipeline, including bringing VISIONS back under our own banner exclusively, a line of digital prose and comics, and limited run, self-published print projects. We're also in talks with multiple collaborators and venues to put material out, so, I think this is going to be a new era for all of us!
Stay tuned, and more will be forthcoming soon! (Promise)