Broken Frontier

Some comic fans hardly realize what goes into producing a seemingly simple 22-page comic book. Often dismissed by the broad public as mere ‘floppies’, the production process behind the monthlies we all hold dear is a stressful one. So stressful, it’s even difficult for creators to focus on much beyond honing their craft. One may be the next Brian Bendis or Jim Lee, but being able to write or draw someone’s socks off, doesn’t mean you know how to sell your game.

That’s where Shon C. Bury comes in. As the man behind talent agency Space Goat Productions, he’s all about putting his creators in the best situation possible, allowing them to focus on what they do best: be creative.

BROKEN FRONTIER: What’s the history behind Space Goat? How long have you been in the game?

SHON BURY: Space Goat Productions opened its doors in 2006. I had been working part-time as an artist rep for a Brazilian studio for about a year when I started seeing the potential of having an international talent agency that was also capable of packaging books. I was frequently being asked by clients about colorists and letterers and logos, and it killed me to turn away business solely because we only repped pencilers.

Since I had a writing and editing background, it was a no-brainer to offer those services to our clients as well. Once we started offering a full cadre of artists and designers and added custom comics along with a wide range of services (character design, commissioned art, script doctoring, pitch packages, logos, pre-press, editing, project consultation, and more) business really started booming on a lot of fronts.

By 2007, Space Goat was pretty much one-stop shopping for all your comic book needs.

When we opened our doors, we worked primarily with new talent, establishing them with projects at bigger and bigger publishers and working with them to set their career goals.  We now, of course, have a solid line-up of established guys working regularly for Marvel and DC, but we stay true to our roots when it comes to helping guys looking to break in to comics.

We can take an artist as far as his or her talent and work ethic allows. Marvel’s 2009 Young Gun Rafa Sandoval came to us after years of working in European comics and animation. We were able to quickly establish him as one of Marvel’s up-and-coming artists, culminating in a three-year exclusive contract and all the awesome gigs that come with being a Young Gun, like work on Mighty Avengers and a run on Avengers: The Initiative that is looking just MIND BLOWING.

It was Space Goat’s contacts that provided the opportunity, but it was Rafa’s bad ass art and work ethic that did the rest. Marvel’s talent manager Chris Allo deserves a huge shout out for recognizing Rafa’s potential very early on—and for stewarding Rafa to where he is now at Marvel. Chris really had Rafa’s back.

In just the last two years, we’ve landed work on such books as Avengers, Young X-Men, Nightwing, Spider-Man, New Exiles, Midnighter, What If...? Heroes For Hire, Hulk, Skaar – Son of Hulk, War Machine, Cable, a ton of Marvel Adventures books... Marvel’s been very kind to Space Goat Productions.

Knocking on wood here, but at the pace we’re moving 2009 should see Space Goat quadruple in size.

BF: When and why did you decide you wanted to become a talent agent?

SB: I backed up into it. I was a freelance writer for a good portion of the 90s. From about 1994 – 2001, I wrote regular superhero stuff like Superman Adventures, Impulse, Cable, Power Pack, as well as licensed properties and adaptations like Turok: Oblivion and Micronauts for Marvel. I also co-created NIO with Joe (Wolverine vs. Venom) St. Pierre for Acclaim. NIO was a great project about an AI samurai robot chick. How do you hate that?

I left comics for a while. When I returned I was most interested in working on my creator-owned projects.  The first project of mine that I wanted to produce was Nox, a self-aware low-fantasy based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero Cycle. It was my first go at working with comic-book budgets and managing talent. I got a taste for talent management on this project.

I was working with a Brazilian studio on the pencil side of things. One thing led to another, and I was offered the opportunity to work as a representative for the studio. At first, I was most interested in sourcing talent for my own projects, but quickly found that there was a lot of opportunity to help up-coming artists secure good work and to help them build their careers.

And then I realized I enjoy the work. A lot.

BF: What does an average day on the job look like to you?

SB: Chaotic? I try to have a structure when I get to the desk in the morning, but that is often thrown overboard by whatever emails lay lurking in my inbox.  I’m always neck deep in potential jobs, jobs that are ramping up, current jobs, invoicing jobs that have wrapped, interviews, new artists, working with our core stable of artists on various aspects of their careers...accounting...payroll...trafficking pages... repeat.

It’s a very email heavy job. I get anywhere between 100 and 250 emails in a day. Emails are like Tribbles. Feed them and they breed, rapidly. I’m at my laptop or rocking my BlackBerry between 10 and 15 hours a day.

Sometimes I find time to write...

BF: Is what you’re doing unique in the comics business?

SB: Yes.  And no.  There’s almost always been talent managers or agents of some type in the industry, dating back to the beginning of US comics with Jules Schwartz. Jules was an artist rep before he moved on to become a legendary editor at DC Comics.

There’s been a number of agencies throughout my career in comics. I was repped by Dave Olbrich’s Dogg Works throughout the late 90s, who also represented Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn,  and Charles Vess (among others). And today, I often find my artists working side-by-side with artists from other agencies on the same books.

The role of talent managers/agents (whatever) seems to be growing more prevalent as the world continues getting smaller and publishers continue to reach out to every corner of the planet for artists. Plus, it’s often easier for an editor to contact an agent with an army of artists to source talent, as opposed to finding individual artists themselves.  It can be a huge time saver for a publisher, especially after they’ve established a solid relationship with an agency.

What Space Goat does that’s a bit different than other agencies is this: In addition to having a large roster of talent from around the world, we are also a packager of comic books. I’ll say it again, Space Goat is the one-stop-shopping Fred Meyers of the industry. No other agency can boast a roster of artists working at the top rungs of the ladder AND the capacity to fully package numerous books a month.

We also do a fair amount of work, increasingly, outside of comics doing concept work on video games and movies. We’re always pushing to find new avenues for our artists.

So, are we unique? Yes and no.

To be continued tomorrow…