B.D. Ce sont les initiales du 9e Art, soit, la bande dessinée.
 
Devenue un médium de masse depuis plus de cent ans à l’international et ce, dans plusieurs cultures locales, la BD va chercher ses racines dans les temps les plus reculés, jusqu’à illustrer la vie de nos ancêtres, les soient-disant hommes des cavernes et leurs vastes mondes de chasse et d’étoiles, de vie et de continuité.
 
Et si les tableaux de la chapelle Sixtine étaient une BD? Non!? Oui!?
 
Mirror Comics Studios est en quête de la bande dessinée parfaite, the perfect comic book. De plus, grâce à son personnel bilingue et ses associés d’ici, à Ottawa, et dans le reste du Canada, Mirror rêve de relier les mondes Comic  Books  et Bandes Dessinées. Let’s build a bridge!
 
Ce pont culturel se bâti maintenant.

Avec l’appui de l’ACFO d’Ottawa et du Gouvernement du Canada, Mirror Comics Studios vise à devenir davantage bilingue grâce au Projet Activation d’Ottawa Bilingue/Bilingual Ottawa, dénommé « BD Invasion chez Mirror Comics Studios » (BD Invasion).  
 
Ce programme a su voir chez Mirror Comics Studios la capacité et le potentiel de se rapprocher de la communauté francophone d’Ottawa et de la région et aussi d’énergiser le contenu et le dialogue culturel français-anglais, du 9e art, dans la capitale d’Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
 
Ce projet a aussi reconnu l’impact de Mirror qui, grâce aux réseaux internet, rayonnera à l’échelle mondiale avec l’adaptation en bandes dessinées francophones de ses graphic novels.
 
Visitez dès maintenant www.BDinvasion.com pour les grandes lignes, puis bientôt, pour les BANDES-DESSINÉES!!!!!! « YES!!! »
 
BD Invasion est un projet de traduction, d’adaptation, de design, de promotion, et de lancement de six histoires, présentement en graphic novels anglophones.
 
Ces graphic novels seront transformés en bandes dessinées francophones bientôt!!!  
 
WOW!!!

Les six graphic novels*  forment La Collection PopTerra chez Mirror Comics Studios [www.popterra.co], plus précisément...
 
*Treadwell : Journey into a Dream de Dominic Bercier, traduit par l’auteur. Nous sommes ici à la découverte de l’enfance de l’auteur, où il nous laisse pénétrer dans son monde intérieur, vaste - trop vaste. Chaque ligne est juste, chaque mot est mesuré. Perdre la casquette rouge de son petit frère dans un puits magique est une chose, mais perdre son petit frère, comme s’il n’avait jamais existé, c’est une responsabilité écrasante!
 
*Ghost King: A Book of Changes de Dominic Bercier, traduit par l’auteur. Une histoire créée par Dominic Bercier et J.F. Martel, avec trame sonore de Nicholas Bercier. Chiang Lung doit suivre une piste de destruction jusqu’au Roi des Fantômes, son ennemi formidable et terrible.
 
*The Bird Caller de J.F. Martel et Dominic Bercier, traduit par J.F. Martel, nous montre l’évolution de notre pensée présente, soit deux points de vue bien élaborés et toujours impossibles à réconcilier. L’informatique et l’intelligence artificielle d’un côté, et de l’autre, l’humanité simple dotée d’une intelligence cosmique plus grande que nos neurones.
 
*Mission Arizona de Kristopher Waddell et Dominic Bercier, traduit par Nathan Caro Fréchette.... Le Diable est « sur une mission! » Que fera la Mission Arizona pour se défaire des griffes du mal?
 
*Like Never Before & Like Never Again de Dominic Bercier. Une BD en 24 heures, traduite par l’auteur... la BD qui a tout changé, réalisée en 24 heures puis redécoupée par la suite. Un vrai régal pour tous ceux qui se trouvent davantage chez eux dans « le bois » que n’importe où ailleurs.
 
*Please Daddy, Hold My Hand de Bernard Aimé Poulin et Dominic Bercier, traduit par J.F. Martel et Bernard Aimé Poulin; l’histoire d’un père et de son lien avec son fils, dans la perspective de leurs mains. Une collaboration entre l’artiste et son mentor.
 
La traduction de ces six graphic novels est presque terminée. De plus, Mirror Comic Studios en fera un nouveau lettrage, un nouveau design de couverture et verra à l’adaptation nécessaire à ce nouveau marché.
 
Puis, ce sera la mise en vente en magasin et enfin, l’offre sur plateformes numériques importantes du web.

Restez des nôtres!
 
Découvrez les mondes de Mirror Comics Studios au www.mirrocomics.com. Abonnez-vous!
 
Mirror Comics Studios est une compagnie ottavienne menée par son fondateur et proprio Dominic Bercier. Dominic en est aussi le principal créateur. Il a été élève franco-ontarien médaillé du programme de CEAO à l’école secondaire De La Salle, à Ottawa. Il détient un degré en illustration du Ontario College of Art &Design de Toronto. Il est un professionnel de l’image, de l’illustration, du texte, du design et de l’édition, ainsi que survivant de la maladie mentale. Il fut nominé aux Prix Aurora Awards, aux Joe Shuster Awards et au Gene Day Award... tous des prix culturels nationaux canadiens importants.
 
Merci!
 
Prière de vous addresser à dominic[at]mirrorcomics[point]com pour toutes questions. Merci! Suivez @DominicBercier et @mirrorcomics sur twitter | Aimez /MirrorComics sur Facebook.

B.D. The initials of bande dessinée, what the French call The Ninth Art [le 9e Art].

A profession for more than a century, and developed, worldwide, into many local traditions, BD, or comic books, has roots drawn from ancient times, even as to suggest that the vast illustrations of our ancestors, so-called cave-men, were comics of hunting, stars, life and continuity.  
And what of the Sistine Chapel, is it not a comic? No?! Yes!?

Mirror Comics Studios is in search of the perfect comic book, la bande dessinée parfaite. Further, Mirror would love to link the worlds of comic books with bandes dessinées, by way of its bilingual personnel, and its associates across Canada, and especially right here at home, in Ottawa. Il est temps de faire le pont!  

This cultural bridge starts construction… now!

With the generous support of ACFO Ottawa, and the Government of Canada, Mirror Comics Studios will be more bilingual than ever before, with the Activation Project from Bilingual Ottawa / Ottawa Bilingue, named « BD Invasion chez Mirror Comics Studios » (BD Invasion).

This programme recognised the power and potential to make Mirror more accessible to francophones in Ottawa, to energise the city with world-class new story visuals, and a greater dialogue between French and English Comics and Bande Dessinée cultures present, and vibrant, in the national capital of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, without denying its possible impact in the vast networked world, and on the world stage, with the adaptation of graphic novels into proper francophone bandes dessinées!

So! What is this project!?  

Visit www.BDinvasion.com for the broad lines, now, and soon… BANDES DESSINÉES!!!!!!! “Oui!”

BD Invasion is a translation, adaptation, design, promotion, and launch project, surrounding six stories, currently six out-of-print graphic novels in English from Mirror, which will be transformed into proper bandes dessinées, en français very soon!!!

 WOW!!!

The six graphic novels form The PopTerra Collection from Mirror Comics Studios [www.popterra.co], specifically. . .

Treadwell : Journey into a Dream by Dominic Bercier and translated by the author, where we discover the author’s youth, as he shows us his inner worlds, vast – too vast! Each line is in the right place, each word is measured. Losing one’s brother’s red hat in a magic well is one thing, but to erase him from ever having been is a crushing responsibility.

Ghost King : A Book of Changes by Dominic Bercier and translated by the author, based on a story by Dominic Bercier and J.F. Martel, with soundtrack by Nicholas Bercier. Chiang Lung must follow the path of destruction to its source, his greatest enemy of all time, the Ghost King!

The Bird Caller by J.F. Martel and Dominic Bercier, translated by J.F. Martel, shows us the evolution of our thought, before it happens, the irreconcilable perspectives of artificial intelligence and a digital world, for one, and the other perspective, humanity, simple, intelligent beyond its neurons, a cosmic wisdom up for grabs now!

Mission Arizona by Kristopher Waddell and Dominic Bercier, translated by Nathan Caro Fréchette… The Devil is on a mission! What will the Mission Arizona do to break out of the grips of evil’s vile talons?

Like Never Before & Like Never Again by Dominic Bercier, a graphic novella in 24 hours, translated by the author…. The Comic Book that changed it all, drawn in 24 hours and redux designed afterwards, a true feast for those who feel more at home “among the trees.” 

Please Daddy, Hold My Hand by Bernard Aimé Poulin and Dominic Bercier, translated by J.F. Martel and Bernard Aimé Poulin, a father and son story as told by the point of view of their hands. A mentor-student collaboration!

These six graphic novels are almost all already translated, and Mirror Comics Studios will re-letter, design covers and adapt where necessary, their francophone equivalent.

We will then bring them to market, in stores, and on the best platforms and apps.

Stay Tuned!

Discover the worlds of Mirror Comics Studios at www.mirrorcomics.com. Sign-Up!

Mirror Comics Studios is an Ottawa-based company led by its founder and owner, principal creator Dominic Bercier, who was a franco-ontarian student from the Arts programme at De La Salle HS, in Ottawa, and has a degree in illustration from Ontario College of Art & Design, in Toronto. He is a visual arts professional in illustration, story and script, design and publishing, and a survivor of mental illness. He has been nominated in the Prix Aurora Awards, The Joe Shuster Awards, and in The Gene Day Award, major cultural symbols and peer recognition awards, in Canada.

Thanks!

Please address dominic[at]mirrorcomics[dot]com for all questions. Thank you so much. :) Follow @DominicBercier and @mirrorcomics on Twitter. Like /MirrorComics on Facebook.

#YourNewNormalisMyOldNormal
 
Alright..! 
 
I’ve got news about SIGNAL Saga #1, and The Ballad of Jimmy and Rose, and a book about hope which might just be appropriate for our bleak new isolation-age, and news on my français initiative, plus a lot of hope if you’re feeling the bleakness of being isolated right now. 
 
For this post, let’s be hopeful, and try to absorb art more intuitively, because not only is our health is at stake here, so is our humanity… 
 
Stay informed. 
 
Make decisions based on morality, ethics, and being good. 

And SCIENCE! God gave you science - use science!!!
 
I am self-isolating like a pro, and have only gone out for the essentials, which I aim to limit even more. I hope you’re being good out there… But let’s talk comics for a minute too. 
 
I had guessed that people were first, and that comics were 623rd, in rank, at the beginning of the pandemic, but as people have been posting and reading free comics online to combat boredom or cabin fever, it’s possible that the ranking of comics has gone up since the isolation-age began. . . 

Comic Shops are closed. Distro through them no longer exists! Kickstarters for comics are down by half! And various indie companies from Image Comics all the way down to me have all reacted in one way or another, from rally cry to digital distro to special shipping to making things free.

I have made things as accessible as possible!

Check the www.mirrorcomics.com site to see the free Easter Eggs!!!

[On Easter weekend, huh!]
 
I have a really cool new 24 hours comic you might have heard about, The Ballad of Jimmy and Rose, which I nicknamed “AGAIN,” as an inside joke on the fact that my first [and I figured always only] 24-hour comic was called Like Never Before & Like Never Again, in 2006. 

LNBLNA was highlighted in the event anthology and also published through Industry Image Creative Studios, where I worked as a designer. It was a limited edition of 240 copies only, and one hell of a launch party. 
 
That got me started up again after 10 years of in-depth art history and training, mixed with doing backgrounds for major artists at Top Cow, Image, Dark Horse and more, followed by 10 years of mental health woes that really threw me for a loop. 
 
After 2010, I was back on my feet!  
 
I released a 24-hour book’s 5th-anniversary REDUX edition, in 2011, as one of the first comics from Mirror Comics, which I co-founded in 2010, but which only saw its first comic book, Ghost King #1, in April of 2011, so 9 years ago this month!!! 
 
I helped local and international writers and artists by publishing creators with burgeoning careers, and we did 30 projects together, and finally, in 2015, the whole party got dangerous for me, as I really wanted to get more serious about my own comics, and so I decided to focus solely on that, which you know about if you’ve kept up with my news in the last, say… oh… five years... 
 
Mirror became a personal passion project for me, more in line with its original purpose, hence the birth of Mirror Comics Studios, on 06.06.2015, and so, in June 2020, I’ll be celebrating 5 years of Mirror Comics Studios!… Ah!!!

How cool is that!!! 
 
I’ll see what I can do about a self-isolation party, of some kind… maybe something really cool to read – it’s kind of my thing. ;) 
 
Mirror’s mission was to develop SIGNAL Saga, which I balk-launched in 2018 with “SIGNAL Saga #1 [Ashcan],” as I was unsatisfied with the webcomic format I’d chosen. 
 
So!? 
 
I mothballed it for a couple of years, secretly bringing several issues to completion, and kept hinting at the future, until now! 

This is the future!
 
SIGNAL Saga #1 will come out this April, at last!!! 
 
It’s done.

It needed a minor typo-suction [my brother’s expression, not mine], and after that it couldn’t wait!!! Plans are to release it on Patreon, Gumroad, ComiXology, and free on my website – at least, that’s the main of it to start.

Print editions will be reserved to collections, with SIGNAL Saga Volume ONE to be released later this year, I hope, and if things keep going well energy-mind-spirit-wise, which they are…   
 
But back to that new 24-hour book, for a minute, because it’s available now!! 
 
I drew it in 8 hours and wrote it in full, later that evening. 
 
It was only finished to that point because I figured that I’d have a heart attack if I insisted on lettering it early AM the next day [trust me, I tried]. 
 
I later edited, translated, colored and lettered The Ballad of Jimmy and Rose, aka AGAIN, which was far more reasonable than forcing myself to do something unhealthy like a 24-hour comic book – sheesh!!! 
 
What is super exciting is that I went super far with this – as far as I could – to push this, to the point that I am now finishing a français edition that will be available this spring also.
 
La Ballade de Jimmy et Rose, ready a mere month or two after the English version was released on Patreon, makes for the twin English-français editions to be virtually simultaneous!!!
 
The drawing style is bold, simple, clear, fun. 
 
Childlike, but not childish. 

I tried a more scratchy approach at first, but it was a complete pain in the ass to ink. 
 
I went with thick outlines, and facial expressions that were just right even if I was using a brush pen, and closed shapes as much as possible because it’s easier to use the magic wand tool in Photoshop [and yes… it’s cheating to use the magic wand tool, but it’s a technique that I learned working on animated cartoons, and it saved the studio I worked for much money and aggravation, so it’s pretty handy]! 
 
The thicker lines meant a visual minimalism, so it’s weird to think of Ballad within the context that I’m really a crosshatch guy most of the time!!! 
 
When I posted some of the ink pieces online, more than one person saw my reference to The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and I really pushed that, even more, when I later colored these pages. It reminds me of anime, especially certain pages. 
 
It’s… Bright. Colorful. There are chromatic explosions, sure, but it’s simple, peaceful! 
 
Pure.
 
It’s one of the least chaotic comics I’ve ever made. It’s simple because it’s about a complex idea – the reality of the empath – as in, certain people who don’t need to think to analyze a situation. After all, their emotions are so in tune with reality, or the people in the room, that many folk know the reality of a situation just by feel. 
 
No, I’m not even kidding. 
 
No I did not make this up. 
 
Yes, some people can do this, and they care more about you and all of us than most people can imagine.
 
Ballad / Ballade is 28 pages, cover to cover, with 26 story pages, including two end pages, which contain the introduction, at the front, and the conclusion, at the end. I’m so proud of how colorful I made it, and how it evoked the emotions of the characters almost perfectly. It’s super fun!!! But before you go reading this to your toddlers, you must note that there is a scene with blood!!! Ah!!! It’s not realistic, but it’s there!!! 
 
Bloooooood!!!! Um. Spoiler Alert!? Sorry!!
 
You may be asking if there’s a story at all!!! Right! It had been rattling in my brain for weeks! I wanted an allusion to how I saw my parents, if they were characters in a story, so… my father, the programmer, and my mother, who is a natural healer and leader, but whom no one listened to [which has been a great loss to the world, but, hey… there is still time]! 
 
So! 
 
Rose is an empath, but Jimmy is a jerk!!! He’s a real piece of work, man, and, after forgiving Jimmy for messing with her head, she decides to protect herself, and leave him. 
 
After that, fate takes its turn, and Jimmy is sent on a sensory-overload trip through time and space, but, you know, he’s clueless as to the mystical, so without Rose, Jimmy is basically hopeless. 

Empaths for the win! 
 
[Oh come on, I know some empaths are reading this!!!]… 
 
So I can’t say it’s a portrait, nor is it a reflection of my reality, per se, and it’s not autobiographical either. But my parents were the inspiration, and maybe that is all, but this story is a magical realist and trippy as hell, and it remains an ode to my parents! 
 
[And it’s weird, but charming!]… 
 
My mother loved it – she even helped with editing in both languages. 

I doubt that it’s everyone’s cup of tea, and my father will probably think I’m [still] nuts. 

Haha!! 
 
If you’re into cold hard facts, and don’t respect the emotion-heart-spiritual aspect of life, I’m sure it’s a tough read and there will be scoffing… scoffing, I say! 
 
My aunt also helped with revisions, and her mastery of French was a cornerstone for Ballade en français, making me sound, in writing, much more intelligent than how I speak in French on the day-to-day. 
 
So it’s all those things. I’m playing catch up to put it everywhere, but it’s available somewhere [Patreon, Gumroad, ComiXology, soon], but seriously, if all else fails, just go to www.mirrorcomics.com, and you’re all set.

A proper page for each Ballad and Ballade books are in the works, just playing catch up on all my sites – ah!!
 
But something else happened, didn’t it?

And it changed everything for me, and for you…
 

Boom!
 
Up until the pandemic, everything was on Patreon first, and I was looking forward to the first-ever Ottawa Comic Arts Festival, which was later canceled like the million-and-one other things in life, but was to occur in May, taking up a similar time slot to the void left behind by the now-fall edition Ottawa Comiccon, though it did not conflict with TCAF, which was really really nice. 
 
I felt strongly, once people felt the strain of being cooped up at home, that I had to alter my distro models, and quick, because folk around the world were suddenly going bonkers just by staying at home! 
 
Their workloads doubled or they got laid off, they suddenly had to home-school their kids, they still had deadlines, and they had to find new modes of communication and install the tech to make it happen! 
 
It was all extremely stressful, and it still is. 
 
These folk, not all, but most, are on edge, and it’s like a scary movie that never ends for them, ever, and the uncertainty is tearing away at their peace of mind, and at their souls!!! 
 
Personally, I love it. 
 
Staying at home and working from home is “home” for me, and it’s great when you get used to it, but some of you are losing their shit! 

So I went ahead and tore all barriers between me, my work, and what is accessible online. 
 
I made things 1$ or free on Gumroad, FREE on my website, and I promised to make it up to my patrons for circumventing the deal I had with them to have them see all books at Patreon first [and, honestly, so far I’ve seen nothing but support], but I basically completely altered the way and where my books are available.

What remains exclusive to patrons are all of the behind-the-scenes past and future, and of course the awesome upgrade options that I ship to people’s home, with a note that I’ll batch these rewards intermittently instead of each month, to limit exposure to other people as much as possible. 
 
My patrons are awesome, and many of them are awesome creators, and they get it. 
 
That’s why they’re my patrons!!! Everyone is on the same page, so…

I tore down all paywalls, slashed prices to free at all costs, and I did it fast. 
 
I did what I could to help by making most of my books absolutely free, and will continue to champion access, tearing down paywalls, clickbait measures, and email field entries, where possible. 
 
Access, access, access! 
 
My responsibility is to give people access, right now! 
 
I don’t need money, but my books, they need readers right now! 
 
And readers need them, I’m sure of it, because my tales were always so serious, and we are in a serious age now… people need depth, and a respite from the regular entertainment. 
 
They’re here to give hope, with characters doing the impossible to achieve miracles and to share other such lessons that I have found perfectly applicable to our new world of doubts and fears. My books and collaborations remind you that there is always hope!
 
The silver lining is the hope of a new world, after this is all over… 

My books talk to me like they’re my kids, and because people’s minds are so attentive right now, my books want to go out and play – but of course they can’t! They can’t wait to meet you via digital portals that can connect you to me and Mirror. 
 
My works are good wholesome kids, bright, chipper, and though some of them could use a haircut, they are good works, and are aptly suited to soothe your soul at this uncertain time. And if we suddenly have the entire world as an attentive audience, and thousands of cartoonists are giving access to their graphic novels for free, I won’t be left with an old model that may not best apply to our current reality. I want morality and ethics to be my guide.

So!? Well… my books are a hundred times more accessible, now! 
 
Access!!! 
 
Yes!!! 
 
I’m making the process as free and as fast lane as I can, because…
 
#YourNewNormalisMyOldNormal!
 
People are afraid for their health, their money, their loved ones, leading most to do the right thing and hunker down at home as a minority face heavy fines for not respecting official guidelines to protect the vulnerable and all of the front line health workers and essential service providers. 
 
As someone with asthma, this is scary! But as I am not tempting fate, and Canada is doing well to plank the curve, I figure being overly cautious is appropriate, and I’ll continue to be vigilant for myself and for all.

Remember that you can carry COVID-19 for weeks and not exhibit symptoms, some people not ever exhibiting symptoms but testing positive. 
 
Respect guidelines!! Respect SCIENCE!
 
But there is another health phenomenon at work, here, in our homes. 
I am doing well. Better than in a long time. 
 
Most people are pretty level, and have adapted rather admirably, given the circumstances. 
 
But I figured that maybe some people are going a little funny in the head, and, because I know firsthand what it takes to live in your bubble for extended periods, and combat anxiety and depression, I hope that I can offer solace in the form of free comics and graphic novels about just this type of dark and brooding mood, serious books about serious stories, with a human magic that was there the whole time shining bright at the end, and soundtracks and more that I’m making irrevocably available free at www.mirrorcomics.com, at least for the time being. 
 
But there is something else that I really want to try to do…

Though I haven’t stepped into this role in a major way just yet, it is my sincere desire to also offer people some – perhaps much needed – guidance on what one must contend with if you’re going to stay home like this, for the foreseeable future.
 
Here are some ideas, and I’m here if you need me! 
 
It’s quite difficult to stay at home, if you are not used to it.

You are alone with yourself for maybe the first time in your life!

We miss the water cooler talks, the drinks with friends, people we love deeply but cannot see in person – it’s eerie, it’s like we’ve been taken over by an ancient nightmare or something!!!  
 
This is where spoonies of all ilk, people who deal with chronic pain, are physically or mentally handicapped or have borne the brunt of mental health woes, can come in and really help during this crisis, I think!!! 
 
We are the natural leaders of this new world. 

This is not a joke : We are the natural leaders of this new world.

We are the backbone of the future because this is our home turf. 
 
Please understand something, fellow spoonies, all… 
 
The world isn’t used to the new era, but we are.

We’ve been in this era for years and decades.

And it is because we are COMFORTABLE with ourselves and with our houses and apartments, however cramped, that we are in a unique position to help and to lead people to better understand what they need to know about themselves, and FAST!!! 
 
This is a collateral emergency, and WE THE SPOONIES are on the front lines in this case, whether we choose to help or not, because we’ve been through self-isolation adaptations already, en masse, and now we rock our pajama-wearing crafting baking making journaling party each day. The truth is that it’s not like that for many others. 
 
Not even close! 
 
They’re freaking the eff out, and we need to help them because we can…
 
If I don’t get to that spot, let me say here that there is always hope [I’m working on a book about hope for soon, so hang on!!]. 
 
Let me add that the big questions linger whether you were aware of them before or not. 
 
These questions were there when you were busy, and they’re still there now, but now you have no choice but to look at them earnestly, so, ask yourself those questions!!! 
 
Who am I?
 
What are my talents and what skills have I mastered?
 
Is there anything that I desperately want to learn or master?
 
How can I help my family, my community, my world?
 
What the hell do people do at home!?
 
Hello!? Is anybody in there?
 
Do I still have imagination!? 
 
The only barrier to you and happiness is to answer these questions for yourselves, perhaps a few more. 
 
After that, your thoughts, emotions, and actions will define who you are – so ask yourself : 
 
where are you investing your energies!!!? I would say that. 

"Who you are" makes the world by virtue of where you invest your energies! 
 
Energy does not mean physical energies, only. Remember that your mind, your heart, your guts are all talking to you.

It’s time to learn who you really are because you’ll spend a lot of time with that person for the foreseeable future. And yes, it will be okay. 
 
I hope I can elaborate a little bit on those things in the book about hope! 
 
So in March I released The Ballad of Jimmy and Rose. 
 
This month, April, I’m releasing SIGNAL Saga #1.

Next month I release the French edition of the new 24-hour book – La Ballade de Jimmy et Rose – man, français is so beautiful!!! 

My next big project is tentatively called...

The Hope Book {an Antidote to Despair}.

It's a short inspirational non-fiction for people who are at the end of their ropes. 
 
So : eff depression, eff anxiety, eff being lost without a map. Eff suicide! 
 
My work is about intuition and hope, but that can take ten thousand forms. In that case, it’s prose. In most cases it’s comics. 
 
Sometimes though, it’s music, and my brother released an album that he and I made with a friend.

We’re called Scat, Lead and Best, and for the time being, our sketches [harmony based synth folk bluegrass of some kind], is available, here : 

www.soundcloud.com/scatleadandbest - check that out!!! 
 
It’s really far more beautiful than I’m describing. 
 
It’s perfect music for right now, I think. :)
 
Some of the songs are in SIGNAL Saga! 
 
I woke up from a twenty-year haze of mental health troubles and overmedicated states in November of 2019. The two-decades crucible finally saw its end with medications that counter the depression that comes with mood stabilizers. 
 
I started a monthly rapport with patrons again at www.patreon.com/mirrorcomics, and then I worried about exactly what to release on 01.01.2020, but I insisted on knowing the character of the year, first, and so I let the date pass. 
 
I had no idea what 2020 would really be like.
 
Then came the virus outbreak, the epidemic, pandemic, and ensuing lockdowns.
 
Suddenly people were attentive and alone – and connected at the same time – like never before in history! 
 
I saw a lot of promos on how to cash in on times of crisis and found it all despicable. To me, the only opportunity is to help, is to GIVE… not to get.

I’m not suggesting that every content publisher is in my shoes, but for me, FREE Access was the way to go. It was a big decision and I’m glad I did it because it gave people more access.

It’s as simple as I could make it, and I'm still perfecting the process!
 
My website is www.mirrorcomics.com, and my comics are free.  
 
If you want to find a book, check out the top-nav or footer site map, locate the book you want to read, and read it. If it could be made available without copyright issues, it’s there, man!!!
 
So there you have it. Basically everyone’s going through hell, and I’m just waking up and loving it!

And because I’m used to staying at home, it’s like everyone is coming onto my home turf, and I’m happy to be a guide to people who may feel a bit lost right now. 
 
And though we joked that extroverts and busy people are not doing so well right now, well, it’s not a joke, everybody. 
 
Some people are freaking right out, man!!

So for those of us who find comfort in solitude, and know how to craft and journal and write and occupy ourselves [hello 80’s kids!], we are the  leaders now. So let’s wake up and help people. 
 
If we are the Martians then everyone is on Mars now and they need immediate answers on what to do, what we should ask ourselves, and also answer for ourselves what is absolutely necessary at this time, from regulations to supplies to personal psychology. 
 
I want #spoonies to keep being a source of inspiration to those of us in our spoonie communities, but I cannot say emphatically enough how much our experiences, which we handled with grace and mastery, in the end, are now resources that regular folk need, desperately, and immediately. 
 
We know it’s not an easy – or even a pretty – process, but inner peace – or close – is feasible and we know it.
 
Good luck out there!
 
-Dominic, Mirror, Ottawa. :)

Dear alter egos. . .
 
I thought, what with a push on Patreon (details below), updated website content (Coming Soon, Resources, Submissions, Français, and more), and new newsletter (I finally found a system that I like… yay!), and all that, that maybe I could officially share my vision for 2020, given that certain dates may change, but that cornerstone elements will remain. So... Thanks. For sticking by me, and remembering your appreciation for my work, because this is it...
 
I'm calling on you, the powerful-individual-you, [yes : YOU!!!] as part of my family, and my community. What I want to share with you today is profoundly exciting to me, it bookends a ten year evolution, and I think you'll dig it so much. This is for you if you were ever-ever a fan or admirer of my work, ever.

So!!? Onwards and upwards! Check it...

[continued below image...]

Alright! So!!!
 
We've got the mental health coming out [from before the holidays] out of the way, and my continued monthly schedule on Patreon marks an indicative return to the scene (I just released all of the original ink drawings for my new 24 hour book there). After many a year cultivating my hermit mystique, I am returning from my mountain - that's academic, now.

Remain more Codename : Again behind-the-scenes things, exclusive to Patreon, as we look forward to the book itself, a surprising project that I spawned during the last 24hour comic book day. And, yes, it will indeed be printed too. I love the colors and the story so much!! Gah!!! I did the colors after the event and it was so worth it. You’ll love it so much too (see above and below!!).
 
I’d like to ask you something important. Something about the way I can best share my art with you. I know I'm still at the beginnings of the year 2020, but I know that this year is different from the entire genesis decade that I was on the scene in Canadian comics from 2010 to present. One ask...

One. Big! Ask!!!

[please see below...]

Here's my one ask [please open your mind, it's my best, I promise...] :

I want you to join my Patreon. Please. This is so the best. Everybody / you : I want you to consider the minimal sacrifice of your hard earned coffee money, and I'll bless you with an insider's look at my artistic process and drawings and designs, plus some nonfiction and songs too. I want you to think about this intrinsic value, which is to bring you into my studio, almost literally, and to share each victory in the process. For peanuts, man!

Pencils. Inks. Colors. All of it! And the final books. More even! It's the easiest AND best way for us to connect through the art. It's a secure monthly subscription like Netflix for all of your magical realism comic book needs, from the fantastical to the intuitive. By me.

I want to be your ambassador of the guts and soul stuff in the comic book sphere... Stand by me! Stand with me!!! Here's why...
 
I've learned a lot during my days as a hermit [#HermitMystique!!]. But as I walk out of my cave, and I start walking down the mountain, I see you, getting closer, waiting to see the new art. All the new art. It’s here man. It’s all here. Well… it's on Patreon first and all the BTS stuff is exclusive there also. Please look. It won’t hurt. It might help. :)
 
This is for real. This is the ultimate interchange between artist-patron, like in ancient times. It reminds me of the classic models between benefactors and inventors and painters of the old days, of the Renaissance. Of always. As innovation wanted, it's now available to you and me, to us.

So I give you my best, and all of it, sometimes raw and right from the drafting table, and you get all of it for a dollar or two, man. A coffee-drinking-dollar!!! It's a bit edgy, and I'm very passionate about the work, it's conceptually intense, but it's also beautiful and fun and you can share with your older kids too, and teenagers. This is me, who would have loved to read these books when I was that age. And I even show you how I did it. Ah! So awesome!
 
Please trust me. Press this link : www.patreon.com/mirrorcomics... Takes 2 minutes to join.
 
There's a lot to discover. See the latest, see the greatest. I'm back. I'm serious. And with your patronage, I could keep doing this forever!!! Ah! Life!!! Amazing!!!
 
My biggest takeaway, from the silence of the last few years, is that I do this art thing for readers. Not for me, even though it's completely fulfilling and is a reward in and of itself. The formative years have passed. Now let's walk, onward, and upward, together, into the sunset. I'm here. And I'm not going anywhere. Art is my home. Comics is my farm. And you are welcome here, anytime.
 
[More news below...]

Okay! Here's the news... :
 
The new newsletter sign up is easier, and you can find it at www.tinyletter.com/mirrorcomics. I hope you'll share It with your family and friends, in case someone you care about might like to explore my magic and mayhem laced comics.
 
It has been extremely difficult for me to write you emails in the past, mostly because the whole concept of sales funnels and turning a newsletter into several segments that target certain users, and not others, really upset me. I never did that. I always figured that I would share everything with each of you, everywhere that I could...
 
The new system - tiny letter - makes it as easy as sending an email, and does not confuse me at all, where the previous system was like a maze!! Ah! All is well now... Haha!!! It's not like I couldn't figure it out. That's not it. But the idea of becoming a professional email sender was never my goal (though I love writing emails... go figure). Ha!!
 
The publishing ambitions of the year have been talked about in the coming soon page at www.mirrorcomics.com/coming-soon.html, which went up recently. Make no mistake : I'm back on the scene and I'm eager to make, share, and talk comics... Let’s do this! But I can't do it alone!!!
 
The platforms I'll be using include both digital and print distribution cornerstones, including Patreon, Gumroad, ComiXology [soon!], Amazon, SoundCloud, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and others.
 
For now, until we can all retire in a commune on the Moon, the internet allows for all of this...
 
Sigh. It's not perfect, but...
 
Here, I can connect with family and friends, colleagues, fans, readers, critics, the press, and with you, through the dizzying choice of systems that permit for this, perfect or not!
 
But let's focus on one thing at a time!
 
The most exciting place, right now, as I've said, has got to be www.patreon.com/mirrorcomics, for me, with a slew of behind-the-scenes and main releases coming out more frequently than ever! It's a subscription service for creations by artists, like me... It's quite like your standard Netflix or Disney+. Except! The subscription model is much more affordable, and you get all my best indie comics - and other things that I'm making, in real time - starting at a dollar or two, and the premium bonus tiers offer really interesting - and collectable - physical art for your walls and polymer bags!! The feedback on bonus tiers is amazing! It's fantastic to be able to share such intimate details about the works with patrons first, and, often, exclusively...!!
 
I hope you'll join me! (Just last week, I was shipping out these really cool poster sets!)... Note that my Patreon includes all main books in the Mirror Comics Studios library, some new, some old, and exclusive content available only to patrons, like early access, behind-the-scenes, and it's basically like you're in the studio with me as the books evolve!!! So please check it out!!!
 
Okay. By now you should want to check it out, at least. You can also search for Dominic Bercier and / or Mirror Comics Studios on the main www.patreon.com page. Should show up! Go for it! It's exciting!!! Remember me as you discover the thousands of other artists on the site!! Patreon is powerful, intelligent and cool. If you want to see my new work. If you want to see how I assemble my projects... holy moly...

Click here to discover my page right right now!!!
 
But... maybe you're a little more... traditional, let's say, and you simply want to buy single products, finished and ready to read, one at a time!?!? Then www.gumroad.com/mirrorcomics is something you should definitely check out! I offer PDF editions of books, and songs. Note that all the main releases are available here also (just not the exclusive content available only to patrons)! Pricing is set at 1$ per chapter (NEW!), a recent price adjustment making access to digital content more affordable than ever. Enjoy!
 
Maybe you're even more traditional, asking... when can I buy physical books, already!?
 
Well... you can!!! You can already buy Hold My Hand on Amazon, right now.
 
[But, you know, that's like, one book, right!? Heh. Fair enough]... I give you!!! 2020!!!
 
Mark 2020 in your calendar!!! It's all coming at you, like in 3D!!!! I promise you it's coming!! It's coming in droves o wonder!!! It. Is. Coming!!!! Joining Patreon is the best way to be there alongside me as I create. You can even go back into the archives, and it will be like you never missed a thing!!!
 
As outlined in a recent blog post, you now know the hardships I've endured to get to this new place of comfort and Zen, and have thus returned to a positive and productive lifestyle that has me going ahead with all of this. So! In the end... I've made a huge decision, and have also chosen to… self-publish. Again. Ah!!!
 
Choosing this route was long, tedious and painful, but I always wanted to have control over my own creations (I've written about this quite a bit). I’ve had a lot of offers and have heard a lot of restrictions alongside them - I have often said NO. So… until I get the blank check to do whatever I want, I just... do whatever I want, until someone writes me a blank check. Haha!!
 
Where!? Somewhere that allows access to as many people as possible, a bridge between me and you... in person, in print, and mobile. Stay tuned!!! Ah! Awesome!
 
When!? On Patreon first, then on other channels.
 
Who!? It's just me (and my collaborators). As for the company proper... It's just me.
 
Why!? Why go down this road again!?
 
Systems have evolved. I have evolved. Tech has evolved. Etc. But one thing remains... I love books as I've intended them to be appreciated, both digital and in print, and so do others! And to do this all alone!? This means you get my vision, and the books in the shape that they want to contain! This way allows me to be the most authentic and allow the work to remain pure... and in this wild and crazy world, I would imagine that this is precious, and rare, indeed!
 
It doesn't look like much, now (The PopTerra Collection, a few months of recent releases of things I'd put out of circulation, plus the title and ink drawing reveals of the new 24 hour thing), but I know that with everything that I have planned and that I'm currently releasing, you'll see something evolve, including tons of behind-the-scenes things, frequently, monthly, and you'll love a more ambitious schedule for main releases than you've ever seen, ever, and I actually think it will be super exciting... for all of us.
 
For me, at least, it will finally look like the publishing projects I'd always dreamed of... SIGNAL Saga, a new 24 hour book, maybe some new nonfiction books and some songs. Whatever! Bring it!
 
For more details, please do me a solid, and check out, thoroughly and for one more time, all of the details at www.MirrorComics.com, just in case you missed something. Things have really grown. It’s pretty cool. I will be doing roundup type emails as frequently as I can, here :
 
www.tinyletter.com/mirrorcomics.
 
If nothing else, please subscribe here, and you’ll know the big picture at all times. :) It's free!!!
 
Thanks everyone! Thank you so much. :)
 
Best,
 
Dominic, Mirror, Ottawa. :)
 
P.S. : while you're there, be sure to check out my updated Resources page, Submissions (ooh la la!), the Fr tab where I propose a français initiative and dimension to Mirror, and a revamped navigation system and footer, at top and bottom, with easy to follow "who what when where why and how" classifications of several sections of the site to keep things organized [as the site grows].

P.P.S. : the full color illustrations on this post are from Codename : Again [not actual title]. These unlettered and full color images will be available very very soon on Patreon, exclusively, and to check out the art before I colored them even, again, check out Patreon. it's already there!!! Want to know the title!? It's there too!!!

Haha!!! This could be a lot of fun. Join me!!!
 
As always, thanks for your time. Merci beaucoup! :) -db. :)

[okay one final image...]

Bye! Thanks again! -d. :)

The early Christmas gift...

It happened to me this year.

A new brain.

[Yes, you read that correctly - a new BRAIN!!!!]

I've tried to explain my relationship to my illness for a few years now.

Stability means taking really heavy meds. And it's NOT a perfect science.

It also comes with the societal shaming and stigma perception that people with disabilities are less-than.

With a mental illness, you feel like an imposter.

Nothing is physically wrong with you, on the outside. But inside, you might (or might not even) realise that something is definitely not well. You don't associate your condition with a disability but you're not quite normal either.

The crazy inner worlds of mental illness mean access to the collective unconscious, a sort of mathematical equation that creates life. It's very common on psych wards to hear the phrase "I've cracked the code."

But with such insight should come an ability to leverage this in the so-called real world. And most cannot. It's the meds! For years I struggled to create.

Years, man.

I turned to blaming myself for not being able to process thoughts easily, as well as not being able to process trauma, either. I was profoundly affected. I suffered for decades.

Whilst ill, I turned to an inner magic. I studied symbols and their meanings, first, then applied this knowledge within... Intuition. Gut feelings. Scrying. Imagination. Feeling! Empathy. They were the faculties that remained, so I developed those. The meds make like a clamp on your head, and thinking, memory and cognitive functions are severely limited.

Mind you, my mind had always been overactive, and probably dyslexic and possibly adhd. I've always had trouble reading. I can do it. It just takes me longer than normal. And any time I learned something, my mind had already imagined the lesson from a hundred different angles.

But recently, things took a turn! It allowed me to reason, think, remember... better.

I had been coping, but not extremely well. I started to rely entirely on gut feelings, intuition and emotions. I had profound insight into any situation, but not the capacity to understand the obvious things on the surface. Sometimes, I had trouble following simple conversations!

Considering the severity of the symptoms of the illness and side effects of the medicine, it's amazing that I created at all. At one point, I had to relearn to draw from scratch. Later, I started drawing my own comics, things seemed to be on the mend. I managed to work on hundreds of comics pages. It was pretty good for someone who had lost it all. Career, wife, friends, skill, potential. Gone. But like coal into diamond, something changed!

I could feel! I remembered how to draw. Some friends stuck around, and I made new friends! Career got it in the teeth, though. Haha! I could draw in any style, still, and a writer's voice was emerging, but the productivity just wasn't there. So! What the hell was going on!?

After an abysmal summer with no answer in sight, I turned to my close friends.

I started meditating more seriously and walking more diligently.

I even discovered a mini Tardis-shaped library down the street! (Take a book / Leave a book)... So cool! I did everything right, and I felt better, but all of my projects would grow in short spurts and never look like magic overall.

I mean they were magical creations, but I see something bigger and better in my mind... . I made a new 24hour book and I did InkTober, sure. But beyond that my other projects were not keeping apace.

I was twenty years out of step with myself.

I was baffled. I had exerted tons of superhuman efforts, I grew spiritually, I tried so hard, I was strong, but sometimes, I could hardly get out of bed!! At long last, I turned to my doctor, pressing to feel good and put my life back on track, and, though it took a while, in November...

... miracle!

Long story short, I was trying new meds, and they effing worked!!!

Within minutes, I felt my memory, thinking, concentration, return. Within weeks, my drive and focus. "I" had returned!!!

I did not celebrate, not even! I got right back to work...

I discovered years of plans, a lifetime of dreams, a mountain of work! Ah!

I fixed a couple of things as I could, wrote out my projects and posted my plans to the wall, and got to it!

Drawing, inking, coloring, design, writing, planning, fixing, prepping, finishing.

But that's not all...

I reached out to people. I could talk, think and communicate better.

Everything was easier.

Even something as simple as cleaning the dishes... simple stuff, was hard before now. I guess I was depressed and didn't even realise it!!! I thought I was broken. I was so hard on myself for not living up to my harsh standards. I couldn't explain it.

But with the new meds came perspective and hope in quantities I haven't seen/experienced since I was a kid! So X-Mas this year is pretty damn impressive.

But I know I'm not alone! Millions of people struggle with illness, and the dangerous side effects of medicine, from weight gain to memory loss!! Or having a clear vision but not the right prescription to see it clearly. These are big heavy things!!

But it's life, right!?! Struggle in silence or share it with others, you're still struggling!! And it's terrible.

Illness rips people and families apart. And many don't make it. But that doesn't mean there is no hope.

Because hope exists, even if you can't see it. Maybe it's just your prescription!!

(Continued below...)

We have all lost something.

My stories usually start there. It felt like common ground.

This is why my heroes seek to reclaim their past and their future. In the most unusual ways.

Even if I'm illustrating a poem or writing a comic or non-fiction, drawing, whatever... It's about showing you that hope exists. It's about showing you that your superhuman efforts are what make you human - we are more than what we appear to be.

We can do so even, and sometimes because, we are disabled.

Each story is unique.

Even if you're a successful career person with a car, house and 2.5 kids, your story is still unique. And as long as you're grateful, I don't have a principled issue with this - good for you!

And yet, my story is tragic, but not a tragedy! Because tragedy is not being grateful. Tragedy is not trying to live up to your current best. A lot of able people seem to be coasting on their routines and pensions, not realising that they could be so much more... helpful, so much more... engaged, so much more... alive.

Don't take life for granted!! Don't fake it! We, the disabled, are not mindless and soulless zombies... If you're coasting, then YOU are the mindless-soulless zombies. And you are not alone. There are millions of you.

Either we are all human and doing our best possible, no matter what hinders us, or we are all living dead. You just have to take a stand about the whole thing. Try. Even if you don't succeed... Try.

Just TRY!!! This is enough.

I for one never stopped trying. I always wanted to make art, even when I just couldn't anymore. Because I have stories inside, and so do you... the way you see the world is uniquely yours.

So go back to your forge, well rested, ideally, and make something new.

One thing's for sure, we have NOT seen it all.

Happy holidays everyone!

Thanks for reading.

Best,

Dominic. :)

P.S. : New Digital Book Drop on Patreon, tomorrow. Watch for it!! Sign up now!

Please NOTE that... This blog post is part of a group of holiday blog posts by the friends of Renaissance Press, publisher of Diverse Canadian Voices.

IMPORTANT : The full list of posts until Christmas are posted here...

[or here] : https://pressesrenaissancepress.ca/2019/11/25/2019-holiday-blog-advent-calendar/

#hope #mentalillness #stigma #holidays #zombies #art #comics #Canada

Do you believe in miracles? I have come to accept them as part of my everyday life. It’s a rainy Easter weekend, so I thought I'd share this missive…
 
I set out to make SIGNAL Saga – and this was about 30 years ago, now – when I had no idea that its creation would be as much of an odyssey as the book’s adventures would recount throughout its pages. I have lived so much since then.
 
And now, so close to home, so close to self-publishing issue #1 in a final format via my own company, my sails have caught a wild wind and now I’m ‘lost at sea’ once again. For those of you who follow me closely, the expression ‘lost at sea’ may seem familiar… I grew up on bande dessinée, anime [Manga in motion] and American comic books, and have tried so hard to meld the lot into a cohesive – possibly Canadian – style. Being equally bilingual French and English, this makes sense, but it has also been a barrier to finding a proper publisher on any continent. My approach is all of these things and so it is none of these things.
 
And yet, finding a publisher is the new adventure I am seeking out at this time – yes… again. To some, this will seem shocking, or not, depends, as they know that I’ve been down this road before. I have come close to releasing SIGNAL, either alone or with a proper publisher, many times since the founding of Mirror Comics Studios in 2015. Many, many times.
 
My new secret ally wants to help me achieve just this. We found each other somewhat by chance, but it helped to have good SEO on www.mirrorcomics.com, and superior design throughout. Good comics helped too. This ally will help me bridge the gap between my dream of SIG reaching a ton of people and help make it a reality – which will ultimately be better for the comic book series in the long run. As much as I’m a comics purist, I still draw comics for people to actually read them.
 
I’ve been getting new inks from Marvel/DC inker Craig Yeung, lately, and I have to tell you that his work is stellar. I’ve been colouring pages, and even have a colourist in place if I can start to make some real money at this. I’ve ALSO been lettering pages, and I have to tell you that the characters are leaping off the page in strange, wondrous, realistic, exciting and human ways. They feel so real. They’re so real that it’s almost strange to imagine that they are only ink, colours and a few fonts in a formal composition. So far the feedback from my inner circle is all systems go. They love it – hopefully you will love it too.
 
I just wanted to clarify the above, as I know some of you are looking forward to ordering your copy of SIGNAL Saga this summer, but I’m here to tell you that it’s not going to happen this summer, but that it will happen, and possibly happen in a far more expansive context. Meanwhile I will continue to regularly publish works on Patreon and Gumroad. But if you don’t see me online, no! I’m not sick… and no I’m not dead… in fact, I’ve never been more alive!!!! I’m just in my dungeon studio finishing SIG so I can make a new effort to present it to world class publishers instead of trying to do everything alone.
 
During this time of waiting, please take advantage of the books that I am currently releasing under the banner of ‘The PopTerra Collection,’ which is set to finish releases in May… Ghost King [A Book of Changes], Treadwell [A Deeply Personal Journey into a Dream], The Bird Caller, Mission Arizona and finally the redux edition of Like Never Before & Like Never Again… these are tremendous books that built my reputation as a quality graphic storyteller and versatile artist all around.
 
In them, you will find sci-fi, fantasy, horror, weird western, folklore, alternate history… these various genres allowed me to stretch my wings and soar into the heart of Canadian comic book history, with two nominations in the Shusters and two nominations in the Auroras. These accolades remain elusive, but that’s alright, the nominations put me in great company.
 
And yet, I remain irrevocably ‘lost at sea’ between Europe, off one coast, Japan, off the other, and the USA, just to the south. I figure I’m hovering on the water somewhere above Atlantis. But Atlantis had better rise up again soon, because I’m going to need to reach dry land sooner or later. But then again, I am the one who believes in miracles… Right? Yes. Yes I do…
 
For now, I’ve got a mean dogpaddle water treading technique. Come on arms and legs, don’t fail me now! Still waiting on that dove with the olive branch!!!
 
Recently, I’ve sort of gone into hermit mode to finish SIG, but when I come back up for air, my news will surely be posted on social media, especially on www.twitter.com/mirrorcomics and www.facebook.com/MirrorComics!!!

Thanks for reading!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, and All Human Beings…
 
Ten years ago, I was putting final touches on my first graphic novel, Ghost King: A Book of Changes, which had started in 2001. Released in 2011 along with a soundtrack by my brother – it became an indie hit when print editions saw the light of day in 2012, at the very first Ottawa Comiccon. Special thanks to my collaborators J.F. Martel and Kristopher Waddell, and Allan Isfan, without whom it would not have been possible.
 
Followed four other graphic novels [and a children’s book] that I drew and sometimes wrote.
 
Treadwell was nominated for two national awards.
 
The Bird Caller made people think.
 
Mission Arizona made us face our inner demons.
 
Like Never Before & Like Never Again made us realize what is possible, what we can do, in 24 hours, if we really put our minds to it.
 
This is PopTerra, the newly minted collection of classic editions of graphic novels at Mirror Comics, a publisher that was active from 2010 to 2015 under my leadership as president and publisher.
 
Together with my collaborators and sometimes alone, I was able to build a small part of Canadian Comic Book History.
 
Then I became a studio and all of that changed, in 2015… It should not have, but it did. I tried something new with Mirror Comics Studios.
 
…
 
The books were suddenly not available, overnight, and my non-fiction attempts jazzed some while it left others wondering when more comics would arrive at Mirror Comics ‘Studios,’ if any! I created a number of short works for Canadian Publishers and Artists that I’m really proud of but weren’t at Mirror. And I started talking about a saga. I worked, and still the pond of Canadian Comics was left serene and undisturbed. I had vanished!!
 
Let’s be fair, that’s a trick in and of itself, but altogether not my long term dream at all. I want to make comics and graphic novels that shake the pillars of the Earth, that are memorable, that have amazing artwork and cool characters. I want to make people think about the nature of reality and time. I don’t want to be forgotten, a mere footnote in art history! I’m on the scene; people are just wondering… will he finally release his saga? And will I ever see the old books again? The answer is simple… yes.
 
I’m finishing my saga this winter. SIGNAL Saga, starting with #1, will be available in 2019, as a book series you can add to your growing library! Yes. The archives will be opened. Enter The PopTerra Collection : Ghost King: A Book of Changes, Treadwell, The Bird Caller, Mission Arizona, Like Never Before & Like Never Again: A Graphic Novella in 24 Hours – all will be made available in their original pristine digital editions online.
 
And SIGNAL Saga,  new, will follow, with its own digital editions, and in print.
 
Advertisement : For details, always refer to www.mirrorcomics.com, though for all the news, you can follow our social channels or even sign up for the newsletter – which would make me so happy.
 
I’ve been through a lot in the last few years. It was such an effort to draw SIGNAL, at first, and I worked so hard on comics that were published elsewhere and are available to you now, but they were not at Mirror, and somehow that always made me proud and sad at the same time. I also wrote some guides I thought would shed light on the mystery of art and comics, but, in the end, I just want to continue making books, and, publishing them, too. Yes, even promoting and selling them.
 
Mirror Comics Studios is a mighty gift to have, and I hope its new shape gives you the urge to invest in the brand, one book or soundtrack at a time. First up is Ghost King: A Book of Changes Graphic Novel and Soundtrack by the Bercier Bros.
 
Listen to it intently, read it out loud! We go to ancient Asia to discover the discord wracking the Middle Kingdom.
 
Adventure waits in the brand new #MCSbooks! Better Comics. And Movies for your Mind… Check out Ghost King : A Book of Changes next week!!

Dominic Bercier | Mirror Comics Studios
author | artist | designer | principal | owner : #MCSBooks : dominic@mirrorcomics.com
Site : www.dominicbercier.com | Facebook : @DominicBercier | Twitter : @DominicBercier 
Site : www.mirrorcomics.com | Facebook : @mirrorcomics | Twitter : @mirrorcomics
Site : www.signalsaga.com | Facebook : @SIGNALsaga | Twitter : @SIGNALsaga

I usually start by apologizing for taking so long between journal missives.
 
F—that!
 
Yes, lots has happened, but I can only tell you about half… here is that half…
 
First! The SIGNAL Saga #1 webcomic launch was a train wreck. For some reason, I got a bunch of pages mixed up and ended up with a bunch of wrong word balloons! Ah!!
 
Then for some reason, it occurred to me that I should approach publishers, for SIGNAL, for my archives, for a career in penciling.
 
A few interesting conversations ensued, but nothing concrete came of it.
 
What it did do was help me shed my fear of success. It also boosted my confidence in my abilities. I understand that what I’m offering is unique, and bankable.
 
Long story short… I returned to my own devices [yes again], and feel confident flying solo as artist and publisher and media company. I even started posting more often on social media and saw the dividends almost immediately.
 
Something else happened that I was not expecting. My provincial government declared war on francophone services, essentially declaring war on me, my mother tongue and my multi-cultural brothers and sisters brought together by an international language.
 
I am fighting how I can – with art and design – in fact my poster #NousSommesNousSerons [We Are We Will Be], was prominently and proudly hurled into the air at numerous protests around Ontario on December 1st, 2018. Tens of thousands protested against the Ford Government in Ontario, Quebec and across Canada.
 
As for 2019, we’ll try this whole SIGNAL Saga thing again.
 
There are also some very interesting discussions behind closed doors about what the heck to do with my comics beyond the books.
 
For that, I’ll ask you to stay tuned!!
 
Thanks for reading,
 
Dominic Bercier,
Mirror Comics Studios,
Ottawa, Canada. :)

In this age, we are all called on to be an open book, to become the so-called internet celebrity, and we all are, but it sucks. Because we’ve never been so alone. But hey, it makes for great artwork. Because solitude is great for art.
 
I met Neil Gaiman once, and I asked him a question he assured me he’d never been asked. We were hundreds present with our collections, in a long sinuous line surrounding the upper floor of an !ndigo book store in downtown Toronto, waiting to meet the master himself, waiting for a one minute signing session he graciously gave each and every one of us.
 
I asked him what it was like for everyone here present to know him, and for him to know virtually none of us in return – what does that feel like?... We had all connected with his work, he had shown us his rosy underbelly, he’d been open and vulnerable, but it was always through fiction [or non-fiction as the case may be], and now that I ask myself the same question, I can see how it’s an interesting question, sure, but I would have no idea, all these years later, how to answer that question myself. What is it like to be known to your readers without knowing who they are in return?
 
I’m not @neilhimself [Neil Gaiman's twitter handle]. I don’t have a billion fans. But still, I’ve put myself out there, and I can’t take it back. For years I woke up with night terrors at the very idea that anyone outside my family knew me, outside my closest friends. But somehow this phenomenon is plural.
 
They sold us the internet in zero to twenty-five years. They guaranteed us we’d be able to connect with people all around the world. And for the truly zealous, they promised fame and fortune. And we bought it boy, hook, line and sinker. And you know what!? The internet delivered. Either by friend, follow, like or connection, I’m linked to thousands of people the world over. The algorithms of social media helped me find like-minded people who share my passion for the arts, for comics, music, love, humanity and magic realism.

My life has become a joke of synchronicity, where I experience moments of gross coincidence on a minute-by-minute basis. And this isn’t because I’m some kind of time lord or shaman [though, you know… I dabble].

No. It’s because the connectivity is so fast that we can’t keep up with it, and when we do, the holographic nature of reality is reflected back into our lives a thousand fold. And if I wanted to, I could find out what @neilhimself is thinking right now. It’s positively unprecedented, but we find ourselves in simply greater circles of the riddle above… I know you. Do you know me?
 
Indie comics is not a glorious endeavor. There are friends, and fans, allies, enemies, challenges, victories, recognition, snobbery, there’s a bit of everything, but it’s not glorious. Not anymore. Everyone is an artist. Everyone is a writer. Everyone is an expert. And I’m trying to look up to the giants who have come before me but also connect with the people that read their work through mine. We’re all connected in a way that, I guess, I don’t fully understand.
 
You know, I pretty much stopped doing shows. I appear here and there, but after 10 years of concerted effort to ‘make it in comics on my own terms,’ I find myself on the verge of success and feeling, despite all of you who support me, terribly alone. It’s not your fault. It’s not even mine. It’s not even the fault of my mental illness, which I’ve started being more open about. It’s systemic. It’s society.

We’ve grown so dependent on the process of connecting with people, that if we were suddenly to experience a mass electrical surge, we’d all be desperately alone with our blank screen, phone, tablet, laptop or console. And that’s what worries me. That’s why I’m not so comfortable in just assuming a public persona, pitching you my products, and leaving it at that. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I want to meet your mother or anything, I just feel like the internet has yet to deliver on its promise to truly make us more connected.

It’s a military tool given to enslave us and make us divulge who we are, on a minute-to-minute basis, through our likes, our retweets and re-posts. Let’s put a bookmark there and return to it at a later date. It’s just something I’m watching.
 
Because ironically, people, I think, connect with me most through my work, and not by meeting me and shaking my hand and looking me in the eye. That’s great, but that is not where we connect. We connect through art, through my graphic novels, my short works, my comics. That is where the humanity comes through. That is where I’m the most open, and once the pencil line is down, I can either erase it, or go with it, and if you’re going to make comics for a living, you have to learn to go with it.
 
So I struggle. Do I tell you all of my amazing plans for the next few years!? Or do I tell you to sign up for my newsletter before Spring 2018 in order to get a free copy of my SIGNAL Saga Ashcan #0 on March 21? Do I tell you the regular series web comic edition of SIGNAL Saga is on its way? Do I promote the hell out of my $#!@? Do I tell you what I had for breakfast!? This part is so difficult for me.
 
But the work. Even though I’m alone drawing or writing, that’s where I connect with you. That is where I feel you most. I don’t do it for the likes or the follows, I do it because I can feel the magic between the creator and the reader, and it’s in the work. This is where the origin for the name Mirror stems from!!!
 
So I’m going to cool my heels in the heart on my sleeve department, and crank up the heat on the… “Here… I put all of myself in this… won’t you read it?” department. I hope that will actually increase our connection. Because the art object is a thing of magic.
 
After all these years, all the sales pitches, the ads, the flyers, the shows, the pomp and circumstance, none of these things compete with the work. This is where we’ll meet.
 
So sign up, follow, follow, follow, like, like, join, whatever. We’ll do this song and dance thing we call social media, but what’s amazing is that I have new work coming out soon, and you’ll be the first to know.

And if the internet only gave us that, then maybe indie comics ain’t so bad.
 
See you on the page, fellow seekers, it’s going to be truly awesome.

Dominic B. | Mirror Comics Studios
author | artist | designer | principal #MCSBooks
Site : www.dominicbercier.com | Facebook : @DominicBercier | Twitter : @DominicBercier
Site : www.mirrorcomics.com | Facebook : @mirrorcomics | Twitter : @mirrorcomics
Site : www.signalsaga.com | Facebook : @SIGNALsaga | Twitter : @SIGNALsaga
 
PS : I’ll be celebrating 3 years as Mirror Comics Studios on June 6, 2018!!

BE THERE!!! :)

My cousin FISH passed away last week, possibly after an epileptic attack, and then in his sleep, [can we say peacefully???], in his apartment in Shanghai, China.
 
He had spearheaded a multifaceted business called The Bridge Group, which brokered ties between China and Canada in the import-export sectors, but also did innovative web stuff – in fact FISH helped me design my first www.dominicbercier.com website about ten years ago. He loved the culture and people of China. But so was his nature – to explore, just like his namesake FISH would suggest.
 
Were it accessible I’m sure he’d be living on the moon, designing someone else’s web presence. He had been teaching English on the side. Life was good. But something was wrong.
 
Many years ago, FISH had had surgery on his brain, and though the initial cause for concern was now gone, there were indeed lingering side effects, such as epileptic-like seizures. He died at the age of 55 [and not 57 as some music industry sources are citing].
 
My cousin François Lavigne was my greatest mentor in the art of… transformation. When I got babysat at his house, I would always look forward to his waking up, so that I could hang out with my cool cousin, who was 15 years my senior, but more often than not, he’d been up all night playing music, and he’d sleep in to all sorts of crazy hours. Still, it did happen.
 
I remember one evening, after dinner, just as my parents were about to pick me up. We went downstairs to his music set up : microphones, stacks of synthesizers, and a drum set that dwarfed me but that I was encouraged to play all the same. I could not keep a beat, but I banged on every skin I could reach, and he would simply press, pull, twirl and modify knobs on a production board, and make my voice change. It was a watershed moment. Echo. Reverb. Distortion. It was amazing.
 
His high school rock band days gave way to an actual career in music. I’ve been to at least four Eight Seconds concerts. First When Ottava Roma / Ottava Rima was launched, circa 1984 esque??? Anyways the university hall was packed with 1980s-styled kids, the music was loud, and it was amazing. Another concert was outdoors, for a festival or for Canada Day. The lawn was packed. Also awesome. And, as I remember it, a day so beautiful and perfect that I’ve rarely seen its equal.
 
A more curious concert was in Lefaivre, Ontario, near the family homestead. This to me proved that no matter what your humble beginnings, you can be an artist, and you can be great. Again : Transformation!!! But perhaps my most memorable concert was at the NAC/National Arts Centre in Ottawa. It was a goodbye concert that would later come to inspire a scene in my current work.
 
Around the time Eight Seconds got signed to a NYC label, François changed his name for the first, but not the last, time. He would be Frank Levin now. This was important at the time, as stigma around being French Canadian in a pop group existed, and he simply did not want to deal with it on a day to day basis, or, at least, that’s how I understood it. The following LP, Almacantar, produced in the UK, was fitting of the 80s synth sound, but also radically ahead of its time, possibly by decades. Using a mix of hair rock, progressive synthesizers, smooth drum and guitar sounds, a clean set of voices, with a slight hint of what hip hop would come to sound like, they were a complete sound. Eight Seconds opened for various acts, including Bowie. I trust they worked hard and partied hard, but alas, the band disbanded shortly after their 1990 album Big Houses, the album art for which hung in his Shark Tank Studios in Ottawa, in the mid 1990s.
 
Meanwhile, I was going to an artistic high school where artists outnumbered jocks [sport types were not the norm], and I soon learned to play the guitar and write my own songs. I was thrilled when, circa 1995, my cousin, now called FISH, helped me produce a song I had written. He knew exactly what the song needed, and his fleshed out version far exceeded my own vision for the piece.
 
This made me understand why he was so instrumental [pardon the pun] in helping establish the early sounds of Alanis Morissette and even the theme song to the NHL expansion team The Ottawa Senators. Every time I hear the hockey club fanfare I think of him. He had also helped create musical data banks for local upstart Corel – yes that Corel.
 
I would later meet up with FISH in Toronto, where he was busy establishing the undeniable Indie Pool label, a sort of do it yourself music everything for independent musical acts, thousands or tens of thousands of which would sign up for their services. Given that we were in the same city now [I was studying at OCAD and working in Comic Book Studios], he and I would go for beers, he’d regale me with music scene war stories, and I’d try to keep up.

I found myself helping out at Indie Pool a few times, and it was in their offices that Fish and I both took to being tutored in the art of Flash Design, which would later lead to work opportunities for me and for him. He was ALWAYS learning and innovating.
 
As the online notes suggest, Fish was always jovial, always pleasant, optimistic, but he was also always very serious, dedicated to his work. Upon second reflection, I have come to understand that work and pleasure were one and the same for him. Such kung fu-like mastery of duty and humanity makes me better understand why Fish would set up shop in China of all places, on the other side of the world. The Bridge Group is the perfect name-metaphor for what he was, literally a bridge between the People’s Republic and our Northern Dominion.
 
A year and a half ago, I saw him for the last time. His short hair betrayed a zigzag of scars from his brain surgery. He had come for a visit to Ottawa, we shared a drink with friends, I showed him my new business card – it was square and strange and he marveled at it – and that was that.
 
On Friday we learned that FISH had passed away the night before.
 
The news did not hit me right away. His living so far away meant little difference to my day to day, but as the hours have since amassed I have come to understand something, that FISH transformed into, or rather onto, another plane of existence. My famous cousin, FISH, is gone.
 
I sometimes wonder what life would have been like without him… how would Alanis sound? Would the 80s style have evolved differently?? What would the Ottawa Music Scene really look like today? Would the Ottawa Senators still sound the same?? And then, there are the countless little things, which come beg me to ask, how would I, myself, have been different!? Would I have dared become an international artist without FISH pointing the way? I was a small time country bumpkin, like him – how did he/we ever shed our early shape/s to transform into something… beautiful???
 
As of right now, the shock remains a shock, and is not a properly formed emotion. When it hits I’m sure it will hit hard. Or maybe he’ll guide me from above, and the emotion will simply “transform.”
 
God Bless You, Fish. You were like a big brother, and there will never be another like you. And even if there are trillions of fish in this world, there will only be one You, FISH. Thanks for showing me the way.
 
Dominic Bercier,
Otta/Va, December, 2017.
 
PS : Now we may never know, why we were looking for Bula…

Also... check out my brother Nicholas' Remix for Eight Seconds' legendary pop love song... Kiss You When It's Dangerous : 

​https://soundcloud.com/ceiber-chronilas/kiss-you-when-its-dangerous-8-seconds-remix 

2015-2017 : I’ve done a lot in this time, both solo and collaborative. We Shall Sing Our Wednesdays with J.F. Martel, an illustrated poem collage work, a call to art, if you will, published in Experiment-O #09, by Angel House Press of Ottawa. Go Ottawa!! More recently, my short bande dessinée solo effort, Arboros, in PLANCHES magazine no.10 out of Montreal, told of a strange yet uplifting post-apocalyptic story about the evolution of humanity. But I think the biggest hit might have been my Dominion Jack : Mob Mentality collaboration with Jack Briglio for True Patriot Presents in numbers 02, 03 and 04, published by Toronto’s Chapterhouse Publishing, which Mirror Comics Studios reissued in print as Dominion Jack #0 at Ottawa Comiccon 2017, with their blessings. It was cool to sign at Jack’s table each afternoon. Thanks so much for stopping by!!! I also created images for a fundraising campaign by l’Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario, which you should really check out, about La défense des droits franco-ontariens. It’s cool. I had fun doing that. In fact I had fun doing all of these projects!!!

All the while I worked on developing and finding a home for my saga, which will get a proper official internet launch soon. The future is bright!!!

I want to thank you for your support for this new shape of Mirror Comics, your patience as short works trickled out, while sticking with me as the promise of big works on the horizon keep appearing as rumors, and especially for your eyes on both my French and English language works in Canada.

Stand by for news on releases, and enjoy your summer. Be sure to check back in the fall, it’s going to be amazing. Wait… for… it….

​Dominic Bercier, writer-artist-designer-author,
principal and founder, Mirror Comics Studios, Ottawa, Canada, 6 June 2017. 

PS : Let's keep up with each other on social media here. 

A year ago I was drawing up a storm. Then it stopped. Then I sobbed. Then I opened up to new opportunities. Then I smiled…
 
As if by magic, a series of clients and collaborators appeared out of nowhere, and suddenly I was busy up until the New Year just passed.
 
Among these projects was Dominion Jack, a Canadian Superhero capable of channelling people powers, created by my dear friend Jack Briglio and first visualised by Ron Salas who created a solid foundation. Jack only needed three short vignettes, but I would pencil, ink, colour, letter, design as well as create a whole new villain in the process, thereby illustrating a comics story with hundreds of figures. I drew so many people into this thing. I think one could turn this into a drinking game [that you would lose].
 
As time passed I jumped from drawing to inking to colouring to lettering to designing and all over again and again, but finally, this week, on Wednesday January 18, 2017, Chapterhouse Comics will release True Patriot Presents #2, the second issue in an anthology of Canadian superheroes by top Canadian talent. Jack Briglio and I have produced Dominion Jack : Mob Mentality Part One as part of it. I am honoured to be a part of this project. It’s available on ComiXology as part of a digital-first release schedule every other month. In March we’ll see TPP #3 where you’ll continue the Dominion Jack story by Jack Briglio and Dominic Bercier, and in May TPP #4 will showcase the conclusion of the three part story. It’s going to be awesome!!!! Really looking forward to this.
 
I am back I am back. Recently enough, I had released my Treadwell graphic novel [2014], which became a critical hit and double award-nominee. But I published that through my own imprint. Now it’s comics work through another publisher, also Canadian as it were. Chapterhouse has been around for a couple of years, but in Canada at least they have become ‘incontournables’ or “un-miss-able.” With a strong set of Canadian superheroes in its mainstream and classic superheroes lines, and a series of amazing creator-owned books, they are setting the stage for something truly spectacular. I’m so glad they approved my contribution to True Patriot Presents.
 
True Patriot has been around for a few years also. A crowd-funding gem, a Canadian Superhero anthology not once but twice, True Patriot is now in partnership with Chapterhouse under the regular series banner True Patriot PRESENTS. So check out the book on ComiXology and tell me what you think!! Actually, let’s play a drinking game – how many characters do you count in Dominion Jack : Mob Mentality Part One?
 
Enjoy responsibly.
 
See you Wednesday,
 
Dominic Bercier,
Ottawa, Ontario,
January 2017.

I have been meaning to change my blog style – I don’t think I can…
 
I usually compose an elaborate information session, even though my intellect tells me to write a brief encounter with a new project. Because of this, I have shelved a number of ramblings in the last few months, instead of letting you know where I was at with the many projects… it’s been busy!!!
 
If I were to be specific, I would tell you to check out Experiment-O Magazine issue 09 because Angel House Press's Amanda Earl invited me, along with my dear friend J.F. Martel, to create an illustrated poem, which we called WE SHALL SING OUR WEDNESDAYS, which is a text culled from an abandoned project, mixed with some of my illustrations from the last 20 years or so…
 
I would tell you to anticipate True Patriot Presents #2, #3 and #4 because it features the three-part Dominion Jack ORIGIN… a short comics story called DOMINION JACK : MOB MENTALITY, which I drew, inked, colored, lettered and designed from an Eisner Award-nominated writer Jack Briglio script. We didn’t plan the name… Jack-Jack / Dominion-Dominic, it just happened that way. I am coming in off a beautiful interpretation by Ron Salas, and because it was impossible for me to replicate his approach, I leaned into my own superhero style. I had a blast, though I sort of wish I could have worked with inkers and colorists to speed up the process. Ah!!! Not to say I did a bad job – I’m very proud of these three 6-page vignettes, and it’s some of the most exciting comics I’ve ever done, and in full colour to boot!!!
 
I would tell you to listen to brother Nicholas Bercier’s unofficial soundtrack for my 24 hour comic book LIKE NEVER BEFORE & LIKE NEVER AGAIN, which I drew in 24 hours almost exactly 10 years ago.
 
But I like it when I can just say what’s up and make you wait for it… but you don’t have to wait for it anymore... It’s all starting to emerge and it ain’t gonna stop!!!
 
Let’s wrap up 2016 at #MCSbooks, here…
 
October 2016 : Nicholas Bercier’s LNBLNA Unofficial Soundtrack [mix] from Mirror Comics Studios.

December 2016 : We Shall Sing our Wednesdays w/ J.F. Martel in Experiment-O Magazine from Angel House Press
 
And let’s look forward to 2017…
 
January / March / May 2017 : Dominion Jack [Mob Mentality] w/ Jack Briglio in True Patriot Presents from ChapterHouse Comics.
 
I also have other things scheduled for the rest of the year but I can’t talk about them yet! Ah!!! Meanwhile you’ll just have to enjoy new material about every other month for the next year!!!
 
So a few things are cemented and a few projects are in discussion, and, personally, it’s been a decent year, even though on the world stage things have been going from bad to worse, and we lost far too many icons this year [2016]. Strange how that happens. I hope 2017 turns around and we can all strive to be better…
 
I’ll be rearranging the website a little over the next few days. Pleased don’t be surprised if things have moved. It’s going to be cool. To deal with too many titles in the LIBRARY submenu I decided to divide it by publisher. Please be patient as I set up the pages.
 
What!? Gotta stop? Okay!! Bless you guys!! I’m out. –DB.
 
Dominic Bercier,
Ottawa, Canada,
December 2016. 

PS : I also wrote on HOPE in One Thing Too hosted by Amanda Earl, here : 

http://amandaearl.blogspot.ca/2016/11/one-thing-too-dominic-bercier.html

On October 7, 2006, my brother and I settled down for an epic all-nighter to end all all-nighters.

It was 24 Hour Comics Day, and I thought it would be a good way to kick start my return to the comics sphere…

10 Years Ago Last Month… Like Never Before & Like Never Again by Dominic Bercier and Soundtrack by Nicholas Bercier...

Only 5 years prior, I was assistant penciler on projects for Dark Horse, Top Cow, Image, CHAOS! and more. It was demanding but it was great and I loved it. I would show up at 10 am and work for 8 to 10 hours straight, draw fleshed out buildings in perspective, bullet casings flying everywhere, vehicles of all makes and models, and clouds, for example. I drew everything on the page that wasn’t a central character, and got little or no credit. I was invisible.

I was still a student at OCAD, studying illustration and design. But on days where I did not have class I was in the studio drawing. The lead [lead har har] penciler would scratch a few unintelligible lines on the 11x17 Bristol board, tell me what he wanted, and I went to work. The days were long but I was happy.

I was also hopeful that it would all lead to my own penciling gigs. But it was not meant to be. In 2001 I started Ghost King and abandoned it. In 2002-2003 I drew all of The Bird Caller. My home studio was riddled with drawings all over its walls. Think John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. I was consumed by it. But I never could find a publisher. 

In late 2003 I left Toronto and came back to Ottawa. I found a series of designer positions, and comics then took to the backburner. In my free time in 2004-2005, I drew Treadwell. Work kept me busy. Comics, my first love, I very much had the strongest passion for still, but try as I might, the shows in Canada and in the USA, the contacts… nothing gelled.

Finally, in 2006, I found the ultimate comic book challenge… Scott McCloud’s 24 Hour Comic Book Day Challenge! I figured that if I could draw 24 pages in 24 hours that I could do absolutely anything in comics. Anything!!!

So on 7 October 2006, the first Saturday of the month of October each year, I sat down at about  5pm and started drawing my shamanic version of La Chasse Galerie, a French Canadian legend about lonely lumberjacks longing for home, and the flying canoe that got them there. I modified the story significantly, made it my own, and I was off to the races!

In my version there is no deal with the Devil, just the magic of the forest, and I think it worked out alright.

As I drew at a feverish pace and planned the pages ahead, my brother Nico pressed me for plot points. He was in his studio producing a soundtrack for the thing! Long story short, after coffee, cigarettes and beer [thanks Mom!], he and I made our 5pm Sunday deadline, and then I sent it off to 24Hour HQ in California a few days later.

They liked it so much they wrote a blurb about our effort and cited one page in the 2006 HIGHLIGHTS Anthology!

Back in Ottawa, Industry Images Creative Studios printed an edition of 240 copies, we threw a party at Mercury Lounge and the Lafayette, and it was a big hoopla! Then I hit the convention circuit again… I had a few panels of Ghost King, some complete The Bird Caller pages and now Like Never Before & Like Never Again, oh and Treadwell too! It led to my doing the production art for the DEFENDOR film [Sony Pictures 2010] and eventually led to Ghost King getting edited by Chris Staros [thanks Chris!].

But again fate conspired against me as the economic crash of '08-'09 cancelled any chances of a USA publisher picking it up.

In 2011, I redesigned LNBLNA and finally released it proper through my imprint Mirror Comics [publisher]. And the rest is history.

My intention had been this : …Until 26 January 2017, when I turn 40 [ah!], both the original integral 10th Anniversary Edition [2006-2016] at Mirror Comics Studios and the 5th Anniversary REDUX Edition [2011], plus Nicholas Bercier’s unofficial soundtrack, would be available entirely for FREE on mirrorcomics.com.

However, it might just be possible that a prospective publisher might just be watching, and so I will NOT be posting the books. The silver lining!?!? You can still hear what I heard for that all-nighter with my brother Nico’s LNBLNA unofficial soundtrack. You will find it here.

How do you like them apples!?

We dearly hope you enjoy it! If you like what you hear, please show your appreciation by following @mirrorcomics and @DominicBercier on Twitter, and / or liking the Facebook Page for #MCS.

Note that this will be my last FREE offering for some time, and the next time you see my work published it will be by another publisher entirely, as I have begun work for various publishers across North America. For the same reason, I am removing TREADWELL as well. A fine comics store will have it sooner or later I'm sure!!

Tell your friends, tell your family, tell perfect strangers!

As the title suggests, it has been Like Never Before & Like Never Again…

Please celebrate with my brother and I, as we remember 7 October 2006, ten years ago last month. It was the first time I drew a comic in 24 hours, and it is likely to have been my last. Onward and upward!

Thanks for reading!!

Dominic Bercier, Ottawa, Canada, November 2016.

Again a long time between blog posts. Since we last connected I got over a major writer-artist’s block on my saga, and decided to open up to other opportunities and responsibilities. And it worked.
 
For the last two months or so I’ve been on a tear, trailblazing a path towards new work. I’ve been working on pitches…
 
I’ve pitched a story to a major publisher-specific line of books, and was promptly shot down. Despite a hopeful contact with the story’s creator, the editor would have none of it, so I moved on.
 
Eisner-nominated writer Jack Briglio and I have been cooking something up though. We have a tentative green light from a major publisher, the requested art has been sent in. Now we’re just waiting on a final go-ahead.
 
And finally, with regards to my saga #secretproject, I’m finally in a position to start pitching soon. I set the issue count to 24, divided it in half, divided that in 3x 4-issue parts and have something solid to present to publishers. I will start that soon. Wish me luck!!!
 
What’s more, I found an inker to help me out, a DC and MARVEL veteran I have known since our humble beginnings back in the OCAD art school days. He makes my work really pop and I’m over the moon to see how professional my pages look with his ink-slinging. It’s amazing to see a decent layout, idiosyncratic crosshatching and spare spot blacks come to life with such a consummate pro on my side.
 
I’ve assembled a pitch document with plots, genre, comparable stories, you know… the usual. We inked and lettered a number of pages, I did a color test, and I wrote some scripts 'MARVEL Style' [where you do the art first and then fill in the blanks with captions, dialogue and sound effects]. And it’s all turning out as good as I had originally hoped it would be when I created the first few characters 25 years ago. I know, I’m old. HaHa!!
 
Plus :  I want to share some of the ups and downs in creating this thing…
 
A couple of months ago, I wrote a pamphlet called X-RAY OF A SAGA. It delves into the psychological and spiritual facts of birthing a saga, starting with the premise that “everyone has a saga inside.”
 
X-RAY OF A SAGA is like a message in a bottle from a small island on the oceans of creativity. It speaks to the joys and hardships of working on something so important you might dare call it your opus. I hope you find the quick read inspiring. I am putting it in the BONUS section of the website.
 
Also! Some of you cool cats have been anxiously awaiting the inside track on how I go about creating a comic book or graphic novel. Enter INTUITIVE COMICS, a how-to guide in which I’ve written each stage of creation from idea through to print-ready script. Note that this is my process and it works for me but you are welcome to develop your own tried-and-true methods. Also make sure to read the recommended readings on the BONUS page as well…
 
INTUITIVE COMICS came about as a workshop I gave at Ottawa Geek Market a few years ago. I have since revised it. I even riffed on a made up project called THE GHOST AND THE TREE, about a boy delving into a mystical forest. Each stage is illustrated with the evolution of the page : script shape, thumbnail, pencils, inks, colors, letters, print-ready file. I hope you dig it. It too can be found in the BONUS section of the website.
 
Note that the BONUS section also has a number of links to books and websites which can prove useful, maybe even crucial, to your creation/s and professional development, links for writers, artists, designers and professionals.
 
So be sure to check out X-RAY OF A SAGA and INTUITIVE COMICS.
 
2016 is also the 10th anniversary of my 24 Hour Comics Day effort, LIKE NEVER BEFORE & LIKE NEVER AGAIN. It’s a psychedelic retelling of the CHASSE GALERIE or FLYING CANOE legend, a highlight in French Canadian Folklore. My brother and I stayed up for 24 hours back in October 2006. I drew and he created one minute of soundtrack for each of the 24 pages. I will be releasing both original comic and soundtrack in October 2016.
 
Some of you may have read the 2011 edition where I redesigned the layouts and tweaked the text into a graphic novella. The 10th anniversary edition has a new cover but the contents are gloriously only the original integral document. And it will be… FREE!!!
 
INTUITIVE and X-RAY are available immediately. Check the BONUS tab of www.mirrorcomics.com.  
 
The 10th anniversary edition of LNBLNA will be made available in October.
 
As for my project with Jack Briglio, we’re hopeful for a green light and would thus prepare the thing for the next year sometime.
 
I still have to draw the damned thing. I’m doing pencils-inks-colors-letters-design. Jack is on scripts. We both collaborated on the story and concept. In a way it is a treatise on literature and the visual arts, an echo to the mirror between writer and artist on a comic book, and I’ve never seen this subject matter broached quite this way before. I’m excited and I keep going.
 
As for my saga… the plan is to pitch it to major publishers until I get a proper green light. I’m grateful to a number of friends who volunteered to be beta-readers and ghost editors. The story is better than ever, I have 8 issues penciled, and I’m beginning to pencil issues #9 to #12 in the immediate future. It’s an exciting time to be me these days. My only hope is to impress the right people and see if I can land a major player in the industry. Hopefully, I will be lucky in this regard.
 
That’s it for now… until next time!!!
 
Best,
Dominic,
Ottawa, Canada,
June 2016.

PS : On June 12, 2016, I celebrated the creation of the first character in my #secretproject / saga. Onward and Upward. -db. :) 

Hey Gang!!! It’s been a while, right!?!? How is everyone doing??? Since the last time I wrote a blog post, I’ve discovered an error in my artistic recollection and my saga is going well… reached 200+ pages pencilled. Rewrote the second half of the entire thing. Drew 18 issues of thumbnail sketches [like a storyboard of each page, the size of a playing card for each page] – like a boss. And I have just recently roughed in issues #9 to #12. Next!? More drawings – of course. So we’ll see how that goes.
 
But to correct an egregious error, I did not create this comic [the saga I can’t shut up about] when I was 11 or 12 as I had originally thought. Recently I was spring cleaning in the winter and I found a binder with old drawings from the saga circa 1990s. And I also found the first EVER drawing of my main character. The date!? 12 June 1991. That means I was already 14, on a steady diet of Jim Lee and Dave McKean and I had yet to really delve into the works of Moebius, which I would discover a few years later.
 
Crazy right!?!? That means that THIS year, on June 12th, I’ll be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the creation of my saga. Ha!!! Oh man. I’m grateful that for a 14 year old the drawing is pretty decent. Yay! If I ever get this thing off the ground maybe I can include that drawing in a trade. Just thought I’d correct that. We can now officially say that I’m celebrating 25 years of my saga in 2016. Ha!
 
I’ve been tweaking the website! Have you noticed!? I keep dicing and splicing the HOME page and moved the comic book and graphic novel gallery to LOUNGE [About]. And I’ve finally been adding content to the long awaited BONUS section, which is an ensemble of links to resources for the writer, artist, designer, publisher and comic book and graphic novel maker or craftsman in you.
 
As of this writing there are about 30 links to various goodies in BONUS, either mentors and influencers to follow or books on art, writing, business et al. I think it’s pretty cool, and it’s designed for a younger me to have a place to go when I needed a breakthrough in my progress. I encourage you to check it out especially if you are in the creative arts and/or business – lots of cool stuff there. The more I learn, the more links go up. And hey if you think of a link I should have on there, please… suggest books, articles and links!!! Thanks!!
 
I’ve also been planning ahead. Documents outlining my pitch already exist even though I won’t need it for at least another year. I bought just the right inking tools to help me when I start that – it will likely be once I’ve finished pencilling the first 12 issues in a few months – my test drawings showed potential. I’ve been mulling over whether to get a colorist or do it myself. And I’m also seriously considering creating a mailing list so the fiercest friends can be up to date on all the really really important stuff – like – news we can celebrate, breakthroughs we can celebrate and FREE books we can celebrate! That’s right – FREE Books!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!
 
I’ve been working on these free incentives recently and I think it will prove promising. Samples, Art Books, new editions of old favorites. Could get crazy!!!
 
Don’t want to miss a thing NOW!?!? I encourage you to like and follow the Facebook page, here : www.facebook.com/MirrorComics - which has successfully been updated to Mirror Comics Studios! More into tweets!? Look no further than @mirrorcomics [www.twitter.com/mirrorcomics]! See you there!
 
So yeah. I’ve been drawing. I’ve been writing. I’ve been sketching and roughing new pages in. It’s been a good winter. Sure we got a couple of wallops of snow in Ottawa, but it’s been a nice winter considering some of the snow-nado winters we’ve had these last few years.
 
As for shows?!?! Right!? Well… we may cross each other on the Ottawa Comic Con floor in the main hall - but I’m very much enjoying my time away from the limelight for now here in my studio-bunker. No shows this year except maybe a few conferences where I speak on comics – no tables reserved for 2O16 – sorry!!! But I’m still here. It’s just me and my pages and it’s only for a brief period of time. Soon I’ll start doing shows again, hopefully with the backing of a great publisher who loves everything that I do.
 
It’s been impossible for me not to create new books and revamp old ones. If ever I get this newsletter thing rocking, and you sign up, you’ll see. I just want to be sure I know what I’m doing before I invite you to subscribe. All I want is to offer you a superior experience with email – and give you a good reason to sign up, not just more noise!!!! I want to offer you exclusive access to more art. If you believe in what I do – you’ll want to check back here – not saying when – just later… and we’ll get you more art.
 
Another thing I’ve been wrapping my mind around is the word PENCILER vs PENCILLER – you ever come across that!? !!? Seems that both are in common usage in the USA market, mind you it is technically ‘LL’ in UK/Canadian spelling and just one ‘L’ in USA spelling, proper. I usually have gone with double L – then again I’m a card carrying Canuck – ah!!! I used to know this, then I forgot, then the internet lied to me, now it’s all better – I think.
 
So that’s it for the MCS Super Show for today. Keep on creating!!!! I’ll be back when I have less to say. See you then!!!
 
Dominic,
Mirror Comics Studios,
Ottawa, March 2O16. :) 

PS : Seriously... check out the BONUS page!!!

I never thought I’d have to wait this long. But I did. When I was 11, I had a vision of the future… my future. It was like illumination. Enlightenment. It was an out of body experience that showed me, definitely, that I had control over my own destiny.
 
Soon after, a character came to me while having pizza with a friend. I drew him that very night. Soon other characters joined in, and I came up with other stories that I would combine into it. Spaceships. Suits. Mythical animals. Seers and wise men. Beautiful and powerful maidens. Maps. You get the picture…
 
So… I would make comics, no two ways about it.
 
“It's taken me nearly thirty years and my entire family fortune to realize the vision of that day. My God, has it been that long? Things have certainly changed around here. I remember when this was all farmland as far as the eye could see! Old man [Marvel-DC] owned all of this! He had this crazy idea about breeding [work-for-hire clones].”*
 
Skip ahead to today… In a few short years, my opus will be complete. But good lord, man. Did it really have to take this long? Sure I’m smarter, now. Faster. Better. But even in my innocence I had some skill. Guess fate has a strange way of manifesting sometimes.
 
Back to 25 years ago… it was 1990. I was 13 years old. My first published comic appeared in a student anthology assembled by a reputable French Canadian publisher. I thought to myself, it won’t be long now. 4 years later I met a Marvel Comics artist who had done work at Image, got his break through Jim Lee in fact. What a strange world [only two years prior, Lee was Marvel’s top grossing hired gun, only to defect and co-create Image Comics]. This artist said I could get work at Marvel. All I had to do was contact him. I was 17, still in HS, and paralysed with ego. I wanted to make my own comics. The propaganda against corporate comics was in high gear. No one wanted to work for Marvel at that time. It was a different industry back then, where Image Comics was king, and I soaked it all up. In fact it remains with me, still. I may yet work in corporate comics as a credited creator, we’ll see, but it’s not on my bucket list per se. I’m indie – flesh, bone and soul. I love the idea that an original idea can trump the big guys. On the comics shelves. In book stores. At the movies. I believe.
 
2 years later, I went to San Diego. I was weak, looking for any kind of work at this point, work-for-hire work. I came back home with nothing, except a few very special encounters with fellow artists. Dave McKean told me to go to art school, so I accepted my invitation to Ontario College of Art. It was with a heavy heart that I went to Toronto and attended the newly renamed OCAD [Ontario College of Art & Design]. I went from a perfect line and crosshatching technique environment, into a world of abstraction, broad brush strokes, design fundamentals, basically the other side of the coin. From tight to loose, full stop. It was hell, and did not help my drawings until years later. It helped me experiment with style. God, I must have tried over a thousand different styles, and hundreds of mediums. It almost broke me. I worked on some big projects from 1998 to 2001. Comics projects, while still in art school. But they were un-credited, and so I was doomed to lie in the shadow of bigger named artists. It was hell. When I left, I could hardly draw anymore.
 
Each new drawing after that was a radical experiment. More cartoony. More realistic. Ink washes. Crosshatching. Watercolour. Gouache. Oil. Scenery. The fantastic. Superheroes. Anti-heroes. Projects with zero commercial appeal that moved my soul. I was lost. So lost.
 
I ended my gig as an editorial cartoonist for a prominent weekly paper, and moved back to Ottawa, where I started looking for work. Any work.
 
I started by trying to become a waiter. That didn’t work. I’m quiet, I’m shy, and nobody wanted me. I finally got a job in a fruit and vegetable grocery store as a cashier. In two days I’d redesigned the code sheet for all of the items. I gave my 2 week’s notice after my first week.
 
I was losing my mind with grief that I had not made it in comics yet.
 
The grocery store staff was grateful I did not just leave them there in the lurch. I worked another 2 weeks, came back home, and redoubled my focus. Luckily, a friend was leaving a post as production designer for a local paper. I just slid right in. After about a year I was given an opportunity at another paper, then finally started working for Industry Images Creative Studios’ Ottawa location. They were young, hungry, sexy even. They did great work. I started in production there, and eventually became a full-time designer for major liquor labels, restaurants, magazines and other things.
 
When I took up the 2006 24Hour Comic Book Day Challenge, ‘ii’ was right behind me and helped me print a limited edition of 240 copies of Like Never Before & Like Never Again. We had a party, comics were sold, music was played; those were the good old days. It was grand. I was offered a promotion soon after that, but I turned it down because I wanted to return to comics.

Within a year I left and started working on my own books. I had 8 panels of Ghost King done. The Bird Caller was all drawn. I had tight pencilled the final art for Treadwell. But they weren’t finished. They weren’t lettered or designed or ready to print. It was a mess. I assembled a book chronicling this mess – a sort of ‘me’ anthology of comic book sketches. Then I headed to Baltimore Comic Con.
 
In 2008, a professional colorist friend of mine introduced me to a publisher. He liked Ghost King. We developed it together. It was ready to go a few months later in 2009, then the economy tanked.
 
I was that close to my big break but it never happened. After almost 20 years I’d done work for so many other people, but my own books were getting nowhere.
 
Then I started Mirror Comics, circa 2010. Good lord, man – please – when you start – self publish!!! For the first time in my life I was free to create my own destiny. Had I known I’d have done this years before!!! I was my own boss and I was hungry. The first proposed project was a film adaptation… it came real close but it was vetoed by some of the actors. Then I started my own thing. Ghost King was done, I just had to tweak a few things. I released it online through a comics platform and waited for the money to roll in, but it never did. So I printed a few books and visited the inaugural Ottawa Comic Con in 2012. And there I found my audience.
 
The rest is very much history, as they say. I published over 650 pages of comics through Mirror Comics, more than two thirds of it my own artwork. I lettered and designed almost every book. It was great. But it also created a beautiful paradox – I wasn’t drawing anymore. I was publishing. Designing. Lettering. Promoting. Marketing. And that was unacceptable. Sales were fine. We’d found distribution. But I wasn’t a publishing beast in my heart and soul. I had done it as a necessary step to getting exposure. It was not… me.
 
In March of 2015, I wrapped up Mirror Comics. I killed the publisher. But the dream remained. My last graphic novel, Treadwell, drew two award nominations, an Aurora and a Shuster, two very high visibility national awards. I didn’t win, but it was like an eye wink, saying ‘hey kid, you’ve made it.’ Or something like that. I’m on the map now. And all it took was 25 years of getting lost and found again.
 
6 months ago I recycled the name Mirror Comics and added Studios at the end of it. I didn’t sell a thing. All I’ve done, towards this project, since January 2015, was to draw that saga I came up with as a kid. Lately I’ve visited smaller shows. CAN CON was my favourite. The writer community is so supportive. So engaged. It’s amazing. I’m on deck to appear on a few podcasts. People know who I am. It’s fun. It’s like I’ve arrived. I could say so, now. But I won’t concede to this victory until I’ve gone and finished this next project. Until then, nothing has ever come close.
 
It’s been almost a year since I started drawing this project, over 25 years since the original idea. I’ve told you about it. It is all I talk about, while at the same time I keep mum about its specific contents. It’s okay. As soon as I can I’ll let the whole world know. Right now I’m still pencilling. Soon I’ll be inking. Colouring. Lettering. Putting it all together. Then, a copasetic publisher and I will let you all know what all of the hype is all about. Just a few short years. I’m almost there. “One point twenty-one gigawatts!!!”**
 
*attributed to Doc Brown in ‘Back to the Future’ [1985].
**ibid.

​When I wrote the final script for TREADWELL, I learned one thing : Readers like a confident narrator.
 
TREADWELL garnered two award nominations, so I believe this is true.
 
Last night I wrote a proposed blog post. It was good but it wasn’t great. Too much trepidation. Too many questions. Not enough umph. Not enough confidence. Just a meandering of what ifs, doubts and… questions.
 
So let me whittle it down. I asked why you willingly grant me support, encouragement and favour. The answer was not easy.
 
At first I thought that it was the human need for community, or a quantum interconnectedness. But it wasn’t complete.
 
Finally I landed on it. Alchemy. That together as creator and reader, we are making pages and exchanging energies through the pages I draw for you. We are in this together. My past affecting your future. Your future affecting my past. Like magic.
 
…
 
This magic connects us. I do not create [write, draw, design] in a void. We are part of a continuum.
 
I thought for a long time that I would create no matter what, even if I was the last man on Earth. But I have come to realise that there would be no point. That I create because there are readers. Either now or in the future.
 
A personal creation, something outside of state or church, is a very recent thing. Say the last 500 years or so. Nowadays, art is co-opted by big business, say the last 300 years or so. And yet personal creation thrives. For the last 100 to 200 years, artists have been set completely free. Free of the rich. Free of academia. Free to live like an animal in the wild. Free to move us, from heart to heart, without the interim of a gatekeeper.
 
Thanks to the web, we are now banding together, free, strong, able to affect the world with only our souls to guide us. And we don’t do it for approval. We do it for revolution. To change the way we see things. To change the world.
 
This makes us dangerous to the bigots of this world, those who would control everything.
 
…
 
I predict that within a hundred years, we free artists will be corralled and taken advantage of if we are not vigilant. Our minds are already pretty much at the whim of a spectacle put on by the super rich. They control our food, our entertainment, our governments and assail our religions. But they do not control our souls, and this drives them crazy, looking for, year by year, a way to colonise our spirit. We must not let them. Ever.
 
The artist is free after millennia of sculpting tyrants, painting fantasies for emperors and kings. Some artists still do. But it is a dying tradition. We love freedom too much. We just could not handle being in a cage anymore. I sure could not.
 
For twenty years, I drew what people asked me to. Designed logos and business cards. It was my job, I get it. But when I started publishing my own works, I realised I could create free of all of that. I don’t think I could ever go back. The constraints made me a better artist, technically, but now the freedom makes me a true artist, whether we like that term or not.
 
…
 
But this new tradition must persist despite opposition. Despite an evil that wants to control it.
 
You read because your mind and heart move you to do so. It’s the same with making a book. It is a continuum based on the hope that we can affect and be affected.
 
We must not lose this. Ever. Our favourite storybook heroes are brave. We must be brave also. In our choices. In our desires, in our wish for a better world. And we can make a better world. Books, education, storytelling and art help in this regard.
 
And it may not be us on the front lines of an eventual battle for our souls. Therefore we must lay the land for it, and tip the scales in our favour.
 
We must win. Our soul is in the balance.
 
Which reminds me… my dear friend J.F. Martel recently wrote a book that speaks to some of the themes above. You should read it. It is called Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice. It is an amazing account of the battleground that is art. It is an amazing read, highly recommended for the practitioner, the appreciator and the academic. It is beautifully written and speaks to a truth we often take for granted.
 
Be strong,
 
Dominic,
November 2015,
Ottawa, Canada. :)

It’s weird, you know. Writing and / or drawing, day in and day out, and still not having created my best work yet.
 
Ghost King is a great adventure. Like Never Before & Like Never Again is a great legend. Mission Arizona is a great cautionary tale about selling your soul. The Bird Caller is a great – if bleak – story about man and machine. And Treadwell is a great allegory about the many planes of existence.
 
At each new book, I created a distinct style appropriate to the story. Each one is different, and sets the tone for the progress of the characters.
 
It’s almost 400 pages of stories, each one unique, and yet I feel that I have failed to impress based on my potential. Sure, they sold, but that’s not what I mean. I mean a story with art and words that reflect me through and through. I feel that these stories point to it, like a finger towards the moon, but it isn’t the moon. I want to give you the moon. Once and for all.
 
…
 
I sincerely think that my current project is – so to speak – the moon I intend to offer you.
 
The art is fresh, angular, robust, simple yet detailed. I have grown so much since my first comics over 25 years ago.
 
The story is insanely complex, and yet I’ve managed to break it down into simple chapters.
 
I speak to humanity, elaborate on our universal essence, our history and our future as one. I broach the line between mysticism and quantum physics. I speak of Gods and ghosts, love, loss, power and responsibility.
 
Part of me wants to delegate the art to others, but I know I’ve reached a point in my path that makes me unique, and both simple and intense all at once.
 
I would love to delegate the dialogue, but I’ve lived with these characters for over a quarter of a century and no one know them as well as I do.
 
So I’m stuck in the unique quandary of creating something only I could come up with.
 
…
 
Even if I managed to gather my favourite writers and artists in one room, I could not properly convey my instructions, tone, hope and care. They would just do their own thing and it wouldn’t be the same.
 
I’ve hit a sweet spot, the moon, and I will finish this even if it kills me. Not that it will… I’m just saying.
 
What does that unique responsibility feel like?
 
... Frikking amazing.
 
It’s like I’ve distilled the approach of a thousand amazing creators and made them my own. I’ve been studying comics my whole life. And hopefully it will show in the final product. So far, so good.
 
I sometimes find it hard to sit down, ass-to-chair, and just work, but when I get over that, I’m... fast, I’m efficient. I create enough detail but not so much that it bogs you down. I’m happy with my layouts. My line work improves with each new page. My characters are like real people to me. They care. They love. They lose. They win. It’s very real to me.
 
…
 
Instead of extrapolating a style that is outside of me, I’m bringing all possible approaches into my mind and heart and focusing all my energies into my own best personal style. And it is so refreshing. I love  it.
 
Finally, I’m creating something not to please this-or-that segment of comics, but something that I myself could not live without. Artistic success.
 
Because of my versatility, some of my peers have ventured that I am an “artist’s artist.” And that is incredible. But I wonder what they will say when they see this.
 
I’m not aiming for flashy or erudite or classically trained or deep and profound or heavy or even ‘artistic.’
 
I want friends and fans to use simple modern expressions…
 
Awesome. Cool. Amazing. Sick.
 
That would please me most. Cool. Slick. Sick ass. Dope. I want to thrill my readers with what they see. I want to touch people’s hearts.
 
…
 
At long last I think I am achieving this.
 
I worry about the art sometimes, as this is what I’m working on these days. I wonder if it really is my best, and I hope to arrive. As my entourage of mentors tells me, it’s not a concern.
 
As my mother told me when I asked her about the art, she said the irony of comics is that people will READ it, not write an essay on the qualities of the art, not critique the art if it is decent. It all comes down to the story. [Funny enough, I feel the story IS good enough]. The visuals are a vehicle for the story, not an end in and of themselves.
 
Recently I arrived at a place I call ‘no-style,’ with my art, where it became impossible for me to discern any clear influence from this or that artist. It wasn’t Jim Lee or Moebius or Dave McKean or Sean Murphy or Kenneth Rocafort, all of whom are huge in my pantheon of favourites [among others]. It existed free of all styles – hence ‘no-style.’ When I reported this to my mentor, he simply said : “Welcome, you have made it.” The following drawings were all ‘me.’
 
When I tell my friends about my progress, they simply marvel at the fact that on a good day I can draw three or four or six pages. And they tell me to continue as is. There is no guillotine deadline. Just love and support.
 
…
 
The art has to be good enough. I’m there. The story has to be original. It is. And I have an infinite amount of time to create this… actually that last part is not true.
 
As the years passed by, I noticed more and more similarities between my concept and other stories appearing in pop culture.
 
I gather in 5 years someone will create something with a similar flavour. An exact duplicate is highly UN-likely but the flavour, well… it is almost upon us.
 
That is why I’m giving myself one to two years to finish this beast, this monstrous 700-800 page behemoth. And so I will.
 
By this time next year I hope to be done 95% of the pencilling. I’ll finish up, find an inker [I hope!] to do a few sample pages, create a lettered pitch and take my chances.
 
Some of my friends think I’m crazy NOT to pitch right away now that I’m 150 pages into it. And that is indeed traditional wisdom, so I don’t blame them for thinking this. But the truth is that I want to do my own thing, without editorial interference DURING the creation of it all. I want to communicate MY vision, this is not a potluck party. This is MY party, and I’ll adjust when I’m ready to have someone pick at my spelling and sentence structures.
 
…
 
Plus, an editor who meddles is someone I want to categorically avoid.
 
I want to find a true champion. Someone who loves what I’ve done and will help make it BETTER, NOT different.
 
As for the art, minor tweaks here and there to clarify the action is okay with me, but I don’t want to write and draw based on someone else’s tastes.
 
I’ve been around long enough that I’ve developed my own tastes, and I know they are rooted in a lifetime of learning, mistakes and successes. I am now a fine tuned machine.
 
I have faith that this publisher exists. I believe they are out there and will want nothing more than to give me ‘carte blanche.’ So I’m taking it now.
 
It’s not a freedom I take for granted. I will honour this blank slate with my best superhuman effort. And when we meet it will be as equals, nothing more, nothing less.
 
…
 
The point is that by all accounts… this is by far the best comic book story I’ve ever created. I love it, I hope you love it, and I trust that a publisher will see that creator and reader will connect for real on this one, and so will champion both the creative product and the final reading experience. It’s going to be awesome.
 
I’ve had to put aside many projects in order to focus on this one. In a way I feel bad, but not as bad as if I’d not done it at all. I know my priorities, and if friends and readers can be patient enough, we’ll meet on the page again soon enough.
 
In the meantime, I’ll keep updating you with cryptic messages, hinting at the story and art. It won’t be Alan Moore and it won’t be Dave McKean, it will be little old me and my little saga. But I think you’ll find it sufficiently complex and intricate, and hopefully, even if it’s just for a little while, it can become one of your favourite efforts by a comics creator.
 
Comics are my life. With this… I will prove it.
 
…
 
I will return to my pages and continue improving the no-style.
 
I will review my dialogues and make them even better than the last draft. I will finish the dialogues of the second half, even if it’s after I’ve drawn the pages, Marvel style.
 
It will be grand. It will be great. And I hope you’ll feel that you are a part of it as I share my journey with you from time to time.
 
I would also like to ask you for a favour during this time as I push through. Please send me good vibes, pray for me, and think good thoughts when you imagine me hunched over a page, drawing for you.
 
This is the biggest task I’ve ever tackled, and though I am creating it alone, technically speaking, I can feel the encouragement of those around me, both near and far.
 
Let’s do this.
 
All the best,
Dominic,
November 2015. 

I can’t. I can’t tell you my story. Not until it’s all drawn and lettered. I know asking you to wait a few years is not fair. I know. That’s why I’m trying to go faster. But sometimes you can’t rush these things. It’s like drawing or writing, sometimes you just have to wait for it. But when the time is right, boy, you better watch out!

So let’s go for a truce or middle ground here.

I’ll try to draw more and faster. And you practice patience. Nothing I’ve published so far will prepare you for the story I’m constructing now. It’s been though 25+ years of false starts, rewrites, edits, endless sketching and drawings, and mashing up with other stories I had thought were abandoned but were really just another side of the coin so to speak.

Those of you who follow my progress on Twitter and Facebook know I’ve been writing for 50 days. What a gift. I wrote out every scene of the next 14 issues, including a proper ending, which will make your brain explode. Truly. Just wait for it. It’s going to be great. Drawing is weird though. Sometimes it flows. Sometimes it makes you wait.

But while you wait, don’t wait idly. Please, send me good vibes so it’s just what you need to read and soak in with your eyes. Pray for it to be as awesome as we all know it can be. Not the spiritual type? Why not vote for TREADWELL in the Aurora Awards? You still have about a month [I haven’t voted yet either, I get it]. Haha!! That would be encouraging.

I so want to show you the whole thing in its entirety but we’re not there yet. I know it’s weird to go from something new each year for the past 5 years to suddenly having to wait. Sure I could have created something shorter, say a hundred new pages a year, but that era is behind me, and in the future I’ll return to that model I’m sure, but right right now I just have to do this. To prove that I can. To break your brain.

So what can I tell you while you wait is this… okay I’ll tell you as much as I can… I swear.

I don’t know the exact number of pages because each issue has a slightly different page count. On top of that sometimes while I draw I combine pages. If my math is correct it will be between 750 and 800 pages [technically between 650 and 850 pages, so guessing about 750 to 800 is a good guess].

It should be 26 issues, with the final issue being a jumbo double sized issue. Page count of each issue ranges between 24 and 32 pages.

If it were to be made into a movie, it would be 2 or 3 films, depending on the director. I hope 3. Hey don’t laugh. I know a guy who knows a guy who knows people. You never know!

I already have two spin-off books planned if you can believe it. Each being 12 issues. If I draw everything I’ve planned that’s a whopping 50 issues! Ah!!! That’s  roughly 1500 pages. But hey this is what I do. You never know!!

I have about 100 characters. All of them are powerful in their own way. I want to unite them again one day as a 100 card deck used as an oracle, like the Tarot or the I Ching. I have experience in such things. I’ve already imagined a video game adaptation. I know, I’m dreaming big with this one. But hey, I believe. You never know!!!

In fact I believe in this so much, and have figured out so many angles, and it’s been with me so long and is so complicated that I think it will be a pretty big deal. And it’s time has almost come…

For years I dreamed up the story, every year adding to the lore. And it’s become something that only a kid could dream up and only a grown-up could assemble.

It has elements of my favourite movies and comics, but it’s wholly its own thing. As time advances I have observed hints that similar ideas are emerging more and more frequently.

But not quite this. Not yet.

However if I don’t do it something like this will surely emerge in the future. I’m a fairly unique creator but I’m smart enough to know that these ideas I’ve assembled are out there for anyone to pick up on.

This particular combination, however, I have not seen yet. So I am still the teller of this tale. It remains original. I still have time.

But how much time? A year? 7 years? 50?? 100??? I’m aiming for 2 or 3.

Now if I told you what it was about, it would not do it justice and you’d connect the dots too easily. In the end it will be a complex tale told in as simple a manner as I can explain, but it will remain complex.

Lately, at night, when I sleep, I have the most elaborate dreams. When I wake up I’m overwhelmed and scared. It’s too much. Well so is this story, and that’s probably why I’m having these dreams.

But it all works out. It all makes sense. After working on a few dozen comics and creating some graphic novels, I have part of my brain rigged to figuring this stuff out. Don’t ask me to explain it, it’s just a faculty I’ve developed by trying to be both profound and direct while making funny books.

I don’t expect everyone to love it, but if you liked my past works there is something in here for you, and some of you will love it – a lot. Haha!

But as much as I took years to dream and to train, it’s time may come and I’m on it – like a wolf! So I’m drawing every chance I get, and writing when I need it.

I’ve never attempted anything this grand or insane, but tell yourself this, if it took 25+ years to get around to drawing it, it must be worth the wait.

What else can I tell you about it? Life. Life happened. When I was a kid I had meaningful characters but I did not know how important they were until I lived my own life. Until I really had something to say. Until they created a life full of surprises.

One such surprise was meeting Kevin Eastman at New York Comic Con a few years ago. He is, of course, co-creator of the Ninja Turtles, and he asked me to submit to his legendary magazine, Heavy Metal. It took me months to come up with a great story and the art was the best thing I’d ever done. He rejected it [with the note that the colours were beautiful], and it was a good thing that he did. When I mixed the concepts into my story it just started to sing, and I was off. This mixing of various stories must have happened a dozen times with half a dozen so-called ‘abandoned’ projects which were key to making this one work. At one point some characters melded one into another and it was like magic to discover that they’d been the same characters all along. Friends and lovers come in and out of your life, but your characters stay with you forever.

Your characters grow up. They go to school. They fall in love. They fall from great heights. They make mistakes along with you. Then they make good on their promise to turn things around and do good. They come to life and are there for you when the world seems hopeless.

And every stage in my life helped to create them.

I had, long ago, drawn one of my characters in a unique situation. I did not know what it was, I just knew what it looked like. So I drew it, right!? But it took 20 years before I figured out how this could come to pass. Now don’t get on my back that I should shut up and finish it. I set this story aside many times to give you other comics and graphic novels.

I gave you Ghost King and Treadwell and a 24 hour book, and I collaborated on a slew of others. I did things. They even looked like comics and graphic novels in every way. But this will be different, and, I hope, much much better. And I don’t especially care if it gets made into video games and movies, as long as I’ve done my work, I’ll be satisfied. Others can riff on it later if it’s as good as I hope it will be.

Let’s not forget the basic premise, here. I’m writing, drawing and designing this book so that one day you can read the whole thing. This, and the spin-offs, and hopefully many more after that. Graphic novels is my thing, and if there were no readers there would be no point. Sure I’d still make them regardless, but that’s only half the fun.

The other half is knowing that people read it, enjoyed it, cared enough to give me honest feedback, laugh at my stupid jokes, tell me their interpretation of the weird stuff I’ll put in there, recommend it to their friends, and the cycle starts all over again. And you will get that chance.

I will pitch it to a hundred companies if I have to, and I’ll self-publish it if I must. It will get to you one day. I promise.

But before I get back to drawing, here, I want you to know everything I can tell you about it, so let me press on, here…

You may ask... why 800 pages? How will you achieve this? Is it worth the wait?

Because I have that much story to tell and I would be cheating if I condensed it. Because I’ve wanted to do this since I was 11 years old. And yes it will be worth the wait. I swear, if it’s the last thing I do.

What will it look like when it’s done? It will fit snugly between Saga and Superman. It will feel like most any comic book out there, it will look like any full colour glossy series and then trade paperback, only at the end you’ll have read 800 pages and want more. But it’s not exactly your run of the mill superhero book though certainly there will be a touch of magic to it. It will be self contained, despite my ideas for a sequel. At this point I have no idea who will publish it. It could well be at the Big 3? Big 4!? Or another fine publisher. That’s future history and though I’m psychic sometimes I really have no idea. That too will be a surprise.

It is set in a fictitious city that is based on a real city. The people of this city inhabit an alternate country. This will all make sense in the end, and I’ve already told you too much. There are also lost cities. Way too much!

What else too much could I finally tell you?

How will you wait, knowing it might be great? So great that they will want to make cards and films and video games? So great you’ll want every issue and still buy the trade? So great you’ll lose sleep over it as I do!?

I don’t  know, but you could follow my adventure in creating it. I regularly post my daily progress as much as I can via @DominicBercier on Twitter, follow me and I’ll try to follow back.

Still too long? Why not read some of the free books on http://www.mirrorcomics.com/library.html? Vote for me in the Aurora Awards and get tons of amazing reading material? Pray for me. Send me good vibes. Just. Wait. For it.

I’ll work as fast as I can and we’ll meet in the middle. This may be my life’s work but it doesn’t mean it literally has to take a lifetime. Heck I have at least 20 other projects I want to get to before I die.

But while I’m still alive I’ll work as well and as efficiently as I can. I’ll make the best graphic novels possible.

And perhaps you’ll read them, and perhaps you won’t, but I’ll make them regardless, perhaps for future generations to enjoy if this one passes on it.

I know that in time it will find its audience, and I’m writing for each and every reader, I’m drawing for people to see it in their heads. I’m busting my ass to create a virtual storyboard to a movie that would surely cost millions to make.

Its memory will stay with you forever. Amazing powers. Beautiful drawings. And a story that makes you go ‘huh?’ more than once and then blows your mind in the end. Twill be grand.

But I’ve told you all I can for now. Time to either sleep or draw, now, they are two sides of a coin these days. Wish me luck!!

Here we go…

Dominic,
September 2015,
Ottawa, Canada... :) 

A few weeks ago, I sat down one day and wrote for 10 hours straight. I know it’s only one day but what a day a difference can make. I wrote in notebooks, 36 pages of outline for my saga – yes, the one I keep hinting at, that great big monstrous graphic novel I’m working on these days. It was a great day. I figured out the second half of my story and I’m thrilled with what came out [And yes, I did have an idea as to where it was going].

This was all according to the original plan… to have a few pages of notes that would be fleshed out later, when the time was right. Boy was it ever the right thing at the right time. It was just an outline, a scene by scene breakdown of my story, but it was a huge victory and a huge relief. I got it out of me and it felt just right.

In the future, I’ll return to my script outline and flesh out the dialogue, adjusting details as I go, but essentially just filling in the blanks.

If you’re writing anything these days I highly recommend this technique…

Start with your best idea. Then write out the numbers of bullet points that you want to hit on based on this idea. Then write the bullet points text based on those numbers. Congrats you have your notes. Then take these notes, put them in an obvious place [not a good place, it will get lost that way – emphasis on obvious, i.e. a cork board or something] and sit on them for a while.

When you’re ready, take out the bullet points and use those as a guide and write out a list of scenes or paragraphs based on these notes. You’ll notice things change a little – that’s normal. At this point you’re still writing just to get the idea down, this is hardly the time to flaunt your skills, you want to flaunt the quality of the idea and move along as quickly as possible to stay fresh and excited.

This, I do, in notebooks. The handwriting forces me to commit to what I am writing down. I am not showing off at this point. I’m being very clear so as to help in the next step. I admit that I took this notebook approach to heart when I learned that this is how George Lucas writes [wrote?!?] all of his movies.

Next, take your scenes list and allot a number of pages per scene. This corresponds to the number of pages in your book – or, as in my case – the number of pages in my graphic novel.

There. You have a solid structure to work from. Type it out. Next comes the stage I’m at myself : the dialogue.

You basically take each scene, numbers of pages related, and just fill in the blanks!

Things, again, maybe change along the way. Be sure to adjust your notes accordingly.

Note : Because I break down my comics pages from this dialogue I don’t need panel breakdowns to work. It’s my preferred method, however you may want to add the panel breakdown and description now. Being the writer-artist can cut out this stage, is all I am saying.

After that you reread what you wrote, all excited that you’ve done your writing. Again, sit on it for a while, an hour, a day, a week, maybe print it out and put it away.

When you can, return to it with fresh eyes.

And read.

Make notes on a printout of your manuscript. Return to your typewritten manuscript and adjust according to the chicken scratch notes in the margins.

If this will remain text, it’s time to edit, either conscientiously by yourself or with your editor. This is where you show off your mad skills. Write the best prose that you can muster with all of your talent.

If you, like me, are making comics, you can show your editor now, or, if you are confident enough [and trying to finish even before you show anyone], start making thumbnail sketches of each page according to your script, then rough it out on 11x17 comics art board, using the thumbs as guides, and, when you’re set, you start drawing, always leaving enough room for the word balloons.

You have one or two more opportunities to revise your text. You can go back into your script – or – tweak  it while you’re lettering. Then… it’s done.

Congratulations, it was a piece of cake, wasn’t it!? Well, sort of…

The idea is always to be filling in the blanks. Scrivener, I believe, is built this way, though I have never used it myself. Many writers swear by it because it documents your progress and organises things logically for you to keep writing and writing.

Working direct on the final product, from start to finish, remains an option, but it’s fool’s gold, if you ask me, and I do not recommend it. At all!!! However, know yourself, this may be just the ticket for YOU!

But I believe you have to work like a classical painter, using layer upon layer to build the effect of life.

Another similar way to work in comics, but with a twist, is called ‘The Marvel Way.’

In The Marvel Way, you have a rough outline or even scene breakdowns, and then you begin to draw right away, leaving room for word balloons to be filled in later on. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby often worked this way, and it’s been used in thousands of comics.

Once that drawing is done you look at the pictures and flesh out the dialogue and finally add the lettering with word balloons and captions and all of that.

Use the method that is most comfortable to you. The idea that you’re filling in the blanks holds true for both methods. Does that make sense to you? Hope this helps.

As I write this, I’m at the dialogue phase of the second part of my saga, which is hundreds of pages long. Don’t attempt anything like this unless you’ve produced and released a number of comics and/or graphic novels already. I can’t tell you why, you just have to experience that for yourself.

Your first few comics will feel a little unreal, and you won’t remember how you succeeded. But eventually you’ll hit upon a book you can look back at and remember – and analyse – what you did. You’ll be able to lord over your book like a map, and see the paths and trails and roads you took to finish the darned thing. This will arm you with the pieces you need to replicate its success in a new book. A more ambitious book. But really, any comics project is ambitious by nature.

As for attempting to create a 500 page plus behemoth, I strongly urge you to reconsider, to make 6 to 12 part series graphic novels instead – that’s plenty of story – and to forget something larger unless it’s episodic. My advice is that you really should NOT try it at all until you’ve done a number of books that lay the groundwork for such a monstrous project [yes, you’ll thank me for that later].

I’m making a super saga because I have 25 plus years of experience making comics. I know it will take me years before I’m done, but I don’t care. The story is inside my mind and soul like a child ready to come out into the world and I know I can do this.

I guess I’m experienced and maybe a little bit crazy too.

Know yourself. Know your strengths and your limits. Know where the confidence ends and the crazy begins, and use that to your advantage. “The good ones hide their weaknesses. The great ones use their weaknesses.” I heard that in a movie recently.

If you’re starting your first comic and you want to create the next Watchmen, you will surely fail. There’s absolutely everything to gain by being humble and starting small.

Let me give you the same advice a comics superstar once gave me :

"Start with one issue. One character. One story. Grow. In time you can attempt more ambitious things." [Note : I never listened to this advice at first, until much later. I failed many times and finally succeeded when I did end up taking the advice to heart].

A few single issues and then a few graphic novels completed is a million times better than a sprawling saga that makes no sense, is uneven, and looks like crap. Or worse… abandoned. Yes!?

And before you do any heavy lifting in the comics sphere, make sure you know your basics.

Train.

Thankfully, school is a pretty good place to learn WRITING, especially if you have a talent for it, a predisposition for it, if you will. You can further this training in college or in university, and by reading more than you should. All of this will help.

ART you’ll need to learn, formally, at some point, along the way. I trained in high school and then art school for ten years straight and I still don’t know it all, but I can crush 90%of the comics artists out there [yes, sure, I’m including stick men artists who make comics – sorry… haha!]. I am in the top 5 million because I know what I’m doing now. And yes, nowadays, there are that many cartoonists. This is a golden age whether you recognise it or not… this condensed comics field is a unique time in history. It is a boon for creativity and a kick in the ass to every talented kid who really really wants to make comics that bad. That said, it remains special, and you and I can say : I was there, man.

Both writing and art come naturally to me, but I still train to this day, getting better at both so as to create better comics.

Do you have the talent? Skill? Patience? Endurance? Strength? You’ll need all of these if your books are to make it in this Wild West of an industry we now work in.

You will reap what was sown.

Well. That was good. I hope I galvanised a few careers and scared off a few pretenders. Comics is insanely hard work. If you love it and have what it takes, Godspeed to you. If you love comics but don’t have the skill, believing is seeing, use your weaknesses, win! If you have the skill but don’t much care for the medium, move along… just move along.

’til next time.

Dominic,
August 2015,
Ottawa, Canada. :) 

PS : A Seven Nation Army could not hold me back...

It was weird finally seeing Jodorowsky’s Dune [documentary, 2014]. It was like meeting a beautiful woman and falling in love only to discover that she has fallen in love with you also.

To create the pre-production drawings and assemble the actors, Jodo said to himself: “I need my spiritual warriors!” And assemble them he did. Moebius, Giger, Foss.  O’Bannon on SFX. For actors he had his own son train in martial arts for two years straight to become Paul. He had Mick Jagger. David Carradine. Orson Welles. Even Salvador Dali was going to play the Emperor at $100,000USD per usable minute.

But when the French production finally pitched Hollywood… it hit a wall. This would change everything and Hollywood did not want to change. Everywhere they went was the same : “This is brilliant, but… no.”

And so the perfect relationship between America and Europe was vetoed every time. Like the father of the perfect woman saying “no, you cannot marry my daughter.”

This was a passion project at every turn. Jodorowsky’s spiritual warriors created countless drawings, illustrations, designs and paintings around his script adaptation. Heck they even had Pink Floyd slated for some of the music right after they’d recorded Dark Side of the Moon. It would have been the epic to end all epics. But it was killed before it could be born.

What’s worse is that countless films afterward would use Jodo’s ideas in their own production, which I think is simply criminal.

Without even being made, Jodorowsky’s Dune still spawned modern sci-fi and fantasy. Had it become what it was meant to be, it would have stood as the pinnacle of modern cinema.

And so, the artist and the beautiful woman would go their separate ways, like ships in the night.

I was incredibly inspired by this documentary on the non-making of an epic.

I myself am working on a space opera that, to me, seems original and perhaps ahead of its time. I, like Jodo, consider myself a spiritual warrior. I relate to this in every degree.

Once it is done, will I find an ally at a reputable publisher? Will it see the light of day??

Of course, this is the future. I can always self publish on the internet, and reach my audience thus, I can use KickStarter or Patreon, but it sure would be nice to have a champion help me along the way.

So is there a publisher out there able to help me? Does it exist? Will they be in my corner every step of the way? Are they ready for this?

Only time will tell. I’m not done drawing by a long shot. I’m at 80 pages of 600. At this rate it will take me three years to draw. If I speed up maybe two. And I’m okay with that. I’m doing everything myself. I’m in complete control of the vision.

So forgive me if I can relate to Jodo’s spiritual warriors. Had I been born 40 years earlier, perhaps I would have worked on this film too. Okay perhaps not. But I would have been jealous of everyone that did!!

Like DUNE for Jodorowsky, this saga is my life’s work. It is the river into which all previous projects flow and from which all future projects stem.

The difference is that in comics, I don’t need 15 million dollars to produce the thing. A few machines and maybe a thousand dollars in supplies and I’m good. And I’m done.

In a way the parallels are striking. In 1989 I came up with my core characters, and spent the next few years, my early teenage years, fleshing it out. But the project was too big for me.

Now I’m almost 40. I’m an old man. And I have thousands of comics pages notched into my belt. I’ve worked in all sorts of styles and genres and now I’m making a return to sci-fi, fantasy and superheroes. It’s how I used to think. How I used to draw. How I used to be. Rediscovering my youth along the way. It is an amazing feeling. It is an amazing time for me.

At this rate, when I finally do publish my epic, I will probably be able to say ’30 years in the making.’ In a way it’s embarrassing that it would have taken so long. But something happened along the way that made it worth it…

I lived.

I grew up. I fell in love. More than once. And got my heart broken countless times. I experimented with my art and grew as an illustrator to the point where I covered most all regions in Scott McCloud’s art pyramid [Understanding Comics, 1993]. I tried new things. I succeeded. I failed. I fell and got back up. Heck I even ran a successful publisher for five years. And all of this leads us to this time. My time…

Some of you know what it is like to lose yourself and find yourself again. Some of you will never know. It is a unique experience that has spiritual dimensions, mystical, metaphysical, philosophical parameters. It is a feeling for which I have no words. It exists inside and outside of me. Like how rain makes us sad and how a beautiful sunset makes us feel nostalgic. It is a collapsing of past and future dimensions. It is sublime.

Will I ever be an Elvis? A Beatle? A Michael Jackson? A Lucas, Spielberg, Scott? A Moebius, Jim Lee, Dave McKean?? A Stan Lee, Gaiman, a Jodorowsky??? I don’t know. I don’t think I have much influence in the plays of history except to do my best. And whether history says yes or no is hardly important at this point, because I feel that I am all of those things, well… in potential at least.

So far the public has seen me create some good artwork, collaborate on some great comics, even create a few graphic novels of my own.

But as I did this in myriad styles and using multiple approaches, something weird happened. People started asking me for a space opera. Imagine how surprised they were when I acquiesced.

Without ever overtly suggesting it, it was always implicit in my every pencil stroke, ink splatter, colour combination. Like a dream it permeated my work until I finally returned to my roots and said… “YES!”

With a thanks to the spiritual warriors that came before, I shall return to my own battles, to my pages, and hope to see you… on the dark side of the moon.

Dominic Bercier,
Ottawa, Canada,
June 2015.