Starting Company: Working with a startup company was a curse and a blessing. First off, DCP (DaChosen Publishing) loved the work and was willing to take the risk with such ‘militant’ themed literature (snicker). DCP was eager to find works; I was eager to supply mine. But startup companies can also be a haven for sharks. DCP was no different. God bless Tracey Wingfield for staying strong when so many tried to con her out of her company. However, staying strong did result in power struggles with people that were looking to take advantage of DCP’s growth, taking up time. The company made several moves, shifts in physical location and business dealing. I stayed because I didn’t want to go back on the search for another company, and I believed in what Tracey was trying to do for Black authors, which caused a stir with banks (for loans) and grants. She was making sure everyone got paid, including her, but most importantly, the artists.
The Cover: Two words: Unnecessary drama. It started cool, Star Wars posters as inspiration (look carefully, you’ll see the resemblance between The Ronin Poetz cover art and a Star Wars poster). Next came the setting: an apartment in San Francisco, California, a scheduled meeting with artist Raymond Cosico. Ray was unable to commit to a finished product. He was working for a videogame company and didn’t have the time. But he did agree to draw a sketch that another artist could work from.
Ray’s sketch was so badass that people at DCP wanted to go with it. It was really cool. But Ray considered it unfinished, artistically, and his artistic insight was respected. Unfortunately, he could not commit to finishing the project.
On travels to Louisiana to continue filming for Still Remains I met an art student at Southern University. This is where the drama begins. His artwork was okay. To be fair, he was following up the great Raymond Cosico, God of the Pencil. Ray’s work was just a sketch, but it was amazing. To the young guy’s credit, he made more than one sketch that was for use in a series of Ronin Poetz commercials. Tracey made the young man a generous offer for the artwork. When I returned home to New York, I made the commercials. They were great, backed up with music from my brother, Bryan Thomas. But people at DCP were infatuated with Ray’s sketch, high on his art. What I did like about this new artist’s rendition was that in the commercial sketches there was a visual of Tag and his diabolical weapon, made even more special by this artist’s imagination.
As luck would have it (good or bad), this new artist/client was emotionally unstable. Without giving up too many details, the artist was dropped. He has his story. And then there’s the truth. The incident almost had me dropped from DCP. It was chaotic. I still thanked him in the acknowledgement section, even after our climactic lightsaber battle on that volcanic planet. Years later I found out how grateful he was for the acknowledgement and the opportunity that was passed up. He cursed me out in an e-mail.
Anyway … I tried to put together a cover consisting of pictures of the idols of the 4 lessons: the word, the cup, the wand, and the sword. It was sloppy.
Ray Cosico stepped back into the picture to lend us the artistic abilities of a friend of his. This kid’s finished product of the cover was badass too. But it was too dark in theme. I loved it, though. Then there was a weird kaleidoscopic version of Ray’s cover presented to DCP. It was awful, and left everyone with a look of “WTF?” Ray started to feel obligated to finish what he started. In less than 2 days DCP had the cover that is now presented to the world. Ray, with some free time, buckled down and whipped up an amazing finished product. He also proved that when an artist says something is unfinished, they mean it. People at DCP (and even I) understood the difference between a sketch and finished product. Ray delivered well.
