Hey Horskateers. As we roll into the future, I thought it would be a nice idea to talk a little bit about the past. What? It’s Thursday? WHATEVER!

Anyway, I was watching Tim Burton’s Ed Wood on Tuesday, and it got me thinking. First off– what an awesome movie. Second, and probably more important, wow– what a delusional guy. And such charisma! The man convinced so many people to get so involved with his projects, which one could probably tell were complete and utter crap from the get-go. And yet, the man held enormous sway over the people he loved. His charisma and the loyalty of his loved ones (well, except his first wife, but nevermind that) kept him not only afloat, but inspired! I’m not sure if the scene of him meeting Orson Wells was true or not, but that sheer moment where our “hero” is meeting his idol, the man who made arguably “the best movie ever,” is sitting and giving advice to arguably the worst director ever (I say “arguably” because, well, Uwe Boll does have his own distinct style), is so bittersweet! We want our hero to succeed, but we know he’d probably do better in politics or teaching, rather than “making pictures.” Wells gives him the courage and inspiration he needs to be the worst he can be. He learns the absolute wrong message, and is bolstered by the love of a good woman, and the loyalty of good friends.

Naturally, it got me to thinking about me.

I’ve been working on Horsemen longer than I honestly care to admit. We’re here, now, into its third “issue,” you might say, and the art has really kept the story afloat. Sure, I guess the premise is interesting. But let me tell you two quick stories:

Horsemen was once an animated series proposal. We had scripts and production art and designs and outlines– the whole schebang. Even had a short animated treatment ready to go. No dialogue or sound effects, but the animation was there. I presented this very concept to probably more than a dozen TV networks and production companies. All of them said no. ALL OF THEM. One company said they loved the idea, but they never returned phone calls, and it never got anywhere past that meeting. I’d call that a no.

Mike and I got set up and ready to make Horsemen a comic book series. Pitched it to, once again, more than a dozen different companies. NOBODY wanted it. And you know what really blew about that? Not a single word of criticism. Nobody said why they didn’t want it. The most common thread of advice that was given, honestly, was them recommending a company that had already rejected it. “Oh man,” one editor would say, “I’m sure Image would love it.” This would, of course, be after being rejected by Image about four companies ago. Actually, one indy publisher liked Horsemen, but wanted me to sign over nearly all the rights, and sign a contract which gave them exclusive control to change the characters, concept, artist, writer, and even co-creator credit as they saw fit. Didn’t sit right with me, so I’d count that as a no, too.

So you can imagine that weird, familiar feeling I might have had when watching Ed Wood sink his own self-inflated ships simply by virtue of his having designed them. It’s a scary thought. People I know love Horsemen, and enjoy the story. Hell, you know I love it! But once in awhile, I’m wondering if I should just get back to taking the GRE’s and get that Masters in Administration my family keeps suggesting.

Self-doubt can be really inconvenient.

Sorry to end this on kind of a weird downer, but it’s been on my mind. I’m really looking forward to 2010 for some reason, and I hope this feeling was cathartic enough to kind of force me to re-evaluate the story and concept, and even my own involvement in this industry. Hopefully, if it works out that I’m not being a completely self-delusional wackjob, it’ll make for better reading for you.

Happy New Year, gang!

Horskateers, I wanted to send you all a hearty happy holidays during this season. This is the first Christmas/New Years we’ve spent together, and I have to admit– it’s been a really rewarding experience. Horsemen as a work has never looked better, and I even feel like my writing is improving as we push onward and upward. It might not be GOOD, per se, but it’s better. You’ve gotta give me that!

On a creative front, we’re FINALLY out of the DMV, and we’ve FINALLY gotten some women in the story.

Very few people know this, but I shot a movie back in 2005 and had two female protagonists. I loved writing them, and I love writing for female characters. The problem I found with introducing them in the humble beginnings of the Horsemen universe was that, quite simply, it is a rare woman that would voluntarily spend time with these clowns. Now we have the opportunity to explore just what kinds of people will willingly participate in these jackasses’ adventures. I know we have quite a few female fans, and I have to say– thank you. Thank you for proving some of our naysayers wrong by enjoying this the way it is.

We finally have a store! This might seem like either a greedy ploy to bilk money from readers, but my excitement comes from just having Horsemen-related material. I love additional content in my pop-culture, and I want to satisfy that person out there who thinks something like a Skull plushie or a Firefly schematic would look completely awesome in their office. It’s slow goings putting together stuff that looks and feels authentic, but I think it’s worth it.

And since you haven’t seen the comic where Love & Craft Coffee appears, don’t worry. Next week sometime you’ll be introduced to the store in the strip. I wrote it awhile ago, and I loved the idea of having a coffee mug with a logo for one of my universe-centric businesses on it.

Horsemen finally had an unprovoked review, and it wasn’t half bad! I’ll be honest– when I had to find out about the review and wasn’t contacted directly about it, I feared the worst. Not for Mike. I was afraid what would be said was exactly how it began– the art’s fantastic, but the story and writing are complete crap. As the review went on, I think the people involved who got it, stepped up to the plate. I am extremely grateful for that, and I took some of their advice, as well. (Speaking of which, I really need to update that Archive.)

Mike’s art gets better every day, and I do my best to remind him of that every opportunity I get. I’m sure it sounds disingenuous saying it this much, but I really do need to stress how appreciative I am of his work, his talent, and his input. You can watch the art get better without changing the tone or entirely changing the comic. It just… grows. And of course, Supernormal Step is a testament to the creative, talented dude he is.

I’d like to introduce more blogging into the site. I know that can get boring, but I hate the fact that all I can offer is the written word. It sucks that once a week everyone gets to see the comic, and then for the rest of the time the site is just a gateway to Monday. I’d like to schedule blog updates, so I’m going to do that from now on. I think I’ll start on Wednesdays and see how it goes. Every Monday you get the comic, and Wednesday I’ll post a blog about something somehow related to the comic. I’d like to encourage as much commenting as possible, so we can connect with each other. I want to directly say “thank you” to as many fans as I can, and really open up the lines of communication.

Got a question? Email me! sal@horsemen-online.com. Want to comment? Just do it! You will not be flamed. That’s not what I’m about.

Maybe the comic version, but not me.

‘Til later, Horskateers! Thank you!

Took us some time, but we finally managed to get this out there before the Holiday:

http://www.zazzle.com/crivelliman

If anyone knows how to change the shop’s URL name without re-creating the account, I’m all ears!

Horsemen has officially joined the webcomic community group, known as The Rampage Network!

What does it mean, you ask?

For one thing, I’m part of a really creative team of people (including our  Supernormal cousin Mike Lunsford).

For another, we have our own self-contained forum.

It should allow us to have better navigation one of these days, more advertising to enable us to have some kind of merchandise, and more mutual exposure through the community.

Really excited about this opportunity! Be in touch!

Wow have I been remiss

I completely neglected to mention webcomic review podcast The Dish and their completely unexpected review of us from a month ago! Fair and balanced constructive criticism about the writing (ahem), and damn do they love Mike’s art. I happen to agree with them 100% on a lot of fronts, so I wanted to say a great big thank you to the crew over there. By the way– I would LOVE a dropdown archive menu.

I think they were actually really generous with respect to the writing and story, and honestly, I think Chapter 2 really does a lot to quell some of those issues (and man, if I can be a little egotistical here, I’m really happy with how Chapter 3 came out). As usual, I’m reminded how lucky I am to have Mike aboard, which is never a bad thing.

The Dish is welcome at Horsemen Online anytime (which is to say, they can come here… I’m not sure what I mean by that). Ever feel like chatting or anything, drop me a line you guys and gal!

If any Horskateers might have missed it, go to http://www.comicdish.com and check out episode #91. You should really listen to the whole episode because they talk about GWS (a favorite of mine) and their banter/insights are pretty spot-on.

That being said, we’re about 28 minutes in.