STANDARDS AND PRACTICES

After winning the Zuda contest, I was ready to get to work. It was exciting. I was now writing a comic for DC Comics. But the contract had to be signed first. That sounds pretty easy, but it was so much more complicated than necessary. They had to send me the contract from New York to Los Angeles. Then I sign it and mail it back to New York. Then they sign it and send a copy back to me in Los Angeles. If that sounds like it took longer than necessary, then just imagine the same process with Dani in Italy.

Meanwhile, I had the next chapter of the story demanding to be written. So I got to work. The next 9 pages poured out of me. The first 8 page story that I wrote for the contest had to be a complete story that set up the bigger story and created a cliffhanger that begged to be resolved. With the contest won and a contract to finish the story, Things were wide open. I wrote a 9 page scene about the killer torturing and crucifying a woman and her two children. it was cruel and brutal, but that's what this comic was always meant to be. Violent, gruesome and visceral.

And then I waited until contracts were complete. I'm not gonna lie, I got a little antsy. I wanted to make my comic book. When we finally got the go ahead, I sent my script to our editors for approval. The response was not what I was expecting. "It should be more Hitchcockian."

I wasn't so naive as to expect my editors not to have any input, but this seemed like they were trying to change the very DNA of the story. When I asked for clarification, I got tips such as:

• Allude to things, you don't have to show everything.
• create tension.
• Sometimes it's more interesting to not show things.
• Just.. You know.. Be more Hitchcockian.

This all still seemed very vague and counterintuitive to the story I was telling. So I asked for some examples of things that they thought could be more Hitchcockian in the script.

• I'm not gonna tell you how to write your script. Just make it more Hitchcockian.

At this point I was super stressed out. They had even said that it was unpublishable in its current form. I didn't know what to do. This was my first professional job for the company I had always dreamed of working for. I was happy to take feedback and make changes, but none of this made any sense to me. How do I tell my editors that they are wrong? On the very first pages delivered?

I crafted a very carefully worded and respectful email (I'm not being facetious, I worked very hard at being respectful.) That laid out my feelings about the story and pointing out, that this was never meant to be Hitchcockian. It was always meant to be graphic and hard to look at. The brutality should be on display. Then the truth came out.

• Well DC's Standards and Practices won't allow you to show a crucifixion. You can't even show a crucifix on a necklace around someone's neck. This is not allowed in any Comic that DC publishes.

My Mind was blown. But I was totally relieved because THIS I could work with! I hadn't even been specific about exactly what was and was not shown inside the panel borders. I left a lot of that up to Dani. Dani is a stellar artist with amazing instincts. Leaving the descriptions a little vague allows him to shine. So to fix this, I had questions.

• Can I show the cross on the ground without a person on it?
• Can I show it in silhouette?
• can we show part of the crucifix? Maybe cut it off below the knees and just show the feet?

to my utter astonishment, the answer to all of these questions was, "yes." So I changed the script and made it more specific about what was shown in the panels and we had an approved script that moved to Dani for art. I should point out the original contest story had a man crucified to a fence and that seemed to pass. I guess the combination of human and cross was where the line was drawn.

Dani got to work and there continued to be some back and forth about things that appeared in the panels. First, when they saw the crosses on the ground, they asked Dani to change them to posts by removing the crossbeams. 

They requested this from Dani directly without including me. But Dani showed it to me first and told me what they wanted. I asked him to not even show them this version. They had already okayed a cross on the ground, so we will move forward with that.

The next concern was over the silhouette.

It would have to be obscured.

Again, this was requested without including me, but I could see how that silhouette was pushing the line and I accepted it. However, it should be noted that the original version will be restored in my new edition that is available on Kickstarter right now. brokenoarcomics.com This is actually my favorite page in the whole book. This is the only page of original art that I have kept for myself, the rest are available as kickstarter rewards. Dani's depiction of the killer casually and coldly addressing a woman with thick spikes through her palms and feet is chilling.

We got through these pages with only minor tweaks and I still love them. As I continued to write new pages, I had a better understanding of DC's policies and never ran into any more problems like this. In fact, It seemed like our editors became fairly complacent and rarely offered any notes at all. Dani even decided to sneak in another partial crucifixion without anyone saying anything.

We were both surprised that this got through. This time Dani gave only the top of the cross, assembled with various pieces.

DC eventually changed this policy, but over the years I noticed a few examples of DC's Standards and Practices upholding this policy. Most notably with a boy hanging from the foot spike in DC: New Frontier by Darwin Cooke.

I think that EVERYONE involved with Zuda Comics will tell you that it was highly educational for them. It definitely was for me. My editors didn't seem to want to admit that Standards and Practices were an issue. I think they were afraid of a bad reaction from a very green, indie creator protecting their "vision." But once I knew what the limitations were, I had no problem working with them.

I'm thrilled that I am finally publishing this book in an amazing deluxe hardcover and I hope that you will join me on this gruesome adventure. The kickstarter will continue to run until November 2, 2025. Check it out at brokenoarcomics.com

Nick

 Zuda Comics was one of the most insane things that ever happened to me. DC Comics does not accept open submissions from creators. Zuda was a way to get your foot in that door and the indie comics community was eager for the opportunity. When DC announced the Zuda contest format of 10 8-page comics fighting for reader votes for a month, I decided that I would win the very first contest. They later surprised us all by saying that the first contest would actually all be solicited pitches and the open submissions would begin with the second contest. Minor Details.

I wish I could remember exact dates, but it has been 18 years. Regardless, PRAY FOR DEATH launched in the December 2007 contest. I remember having a weirdly calm and confident attitude about the contest. I did everything I could to get the word out and get people to vote. I sent emails to anyone and everyone, posted on message boards and even helped people find the website, then teach them how to use it. When the first rankings came out, I was number one. It was unbelievable.

This actually caused a bit of outrage from the burgeoning Zuda community. It seemed like the second place comic, THE CROOKED MAN, was the actual favorite. I took a lot of criticism, but stayed on top in the rankings. Dani's art was compared to a baby's diaper wiped across a computer screen. I'd been accused of being married to a Disney CEO that forced all of her employees to vote for me and a troll from one of the message boards that I posted on, followed me over to Zuda where he posted some messages that had to be removed by the moderators.

 A couple of days before the contest was set to end, PRAY FOR DEATH moved to second place. We stayed in second place until the morning that the results were announced. Somehow, that aforementioned calm confidence remained intact. "We'll be back in #1 before the end." I'd say. And I was right. I still wonder if the moderators changed it up just to create tension, but the end result was still sweet.

I won a contract with DC comics to complete a 60 page graphic novel. It was a dream come true. And it was bound to get more interesting. Check back soon to hear about how much things changed between our 8 page contest entry, and the first pages published with the Zuda Comics editorial team.

And don't forget, PRAY FOR DEATH is available in print for the first time ever, on Kickstarter! Support it now! brokenoarcomics.com

Nick

 I promised some behind the scenes stories here and it seemed to me like the best place to start is by telling you how Daniele Serra and I came to work together. So here it is, our origin story!

The first comic book script I wrote was a story called, JACK JR. It was about a modern day Jack the Ripper copycat. I rewrote and resubmitted this idea to just about every publisher that would take open submissions. I got a lot of kind rejections, especially from Penny-farthing Press. They actually bothered to give me some very useful and constructive feedback. I also got one of Erik Larsen's famous rejection letters. It's a good thing I don't take these things personally.

Eventually, a small publisher called Septagon Studios, responded favorably. But they wouldn't take on a project without an artist attached. They did, however, help to find artists. They asked a couple of guys to do sample pages and while they were very talented artists, I was young, arrogant and picky. So we kept the search going. Eventually, I think Septagon got annoyed with me for constantly passing on brilliant artists and just sent me a list of people to reach out to.

The list actually had about 15 artists that I really liked. I sent out a bunch of emails, but didn't get too many responses. It was surprising to me that I essentially had a publishing deal and couldn't get any artists interested enough to answer an email.

After a couple weeks of silence, I started to think JACK JR. was dead in the water. Then came a solitary email.

"Hi Nick. Did you get my last email?"

The sender was Daniele Serra. I immediately click on his website link because I sent so many emails that I couldn't remember who I was dealing with. "Holy crap! He's amazing!" So I email him back.

"NO! I DIDN'T GET YOUR LAST EMAIL!!! WHAT DID IT SAY?! WHAT DID YOU SAY!!???!!!

So now JACK JR. has an artist and Septagon is ready to move forward. They tell us that they will have their lawyers draw up a contract and then we can get started.

In the meantime, I had heard about DC Comics' new webcomic imprint, Zuda. I had decided that I would be the first winner and the first Zuda creator to have two series on the site. I was very serious about this. I wrote two 8 page scripts and for whatever reason, had no problem finding two artists to work on them. One of those artists was so slow, that I wasn't even able to submit the comic until the third or fourth contest. The other artist ghosted me until I sent an email asking point blank if he still wanted to do the comic. "I'm sorry, I just don't get it."

At the same time, Septagon is dragging their feet, so I asked Dani if he'd like to take a shot at this little story called PRAY FOR DEATH.

JACK JR. never happened and I'm pretty sure that Septagon Studios never even published another book after that anyway. But PRAY FOR DEATH was accepted into the second Zuda competition. I said I would be the first winner of a Zuda Competition and I maintain that I technically was. They made up the first competition entirely with solicited submissions. The second competition was the first to include open submissions. Dani and I won a contract with DC Comics to complete our story. It was an education for sure and an amazing experience.

Dani and I worked together again on a vampire story for the MONSTERS AND OTHER SCARY SHIT anthology, he illustrated two MONSTER ELEMENTARY stories for me and we collaborated on a new story with the name JACK JR. to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Zuda.

PARY FOR DEATH is currently funding on Kickstarter. The original pitch art for JACK JR is included in the book as well as the all-new, completely different JACK JR. story. Check out the campaign at:

brokenoarcomics.com

Thanks for reading. Check back soon for more stories about P4D and Zuda Comics.

PRAY FOR DEATH is back! And so is this ancient blog!

This blog has been dormant since December 2009! But I am reviving it to celebrate the return of PRAY FOR DEATH! That's right! I'm celebrating things that were cool in the early part of the century!

Here's a refresher! There's a serial killer with a grudge against God. Detective Abigail Jenkins has a history of closing high profile cases even if it means bending the rules and ruffling some feathers. To make things more complicated, Jenkins discovers a mysterious boy at one of the crime scenes. All this from the twisted, award winning minds of Nicholas Doan (The Kid and The Ripper, Monster Elementary) and Daniele Serra (Hellraiser, Dylan Dog)

PRAY FOR DEATH will be printed in an oversized hardcover with tons of bonus material. You can get a copy on Kickstarter starting tomorrow, September 20th, 2025! Just go to:

 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nicholasdoan/pray-for-death-0

Or brokenoarcomics.com

The other good news is that I will continue posting behind the scenes stories and art on this blog. Lots of stuff about PRAY FOR DEATH and my experiences working for DC Comics as part of their webcomics experiment, Zuda Comics.

For all the BTS info, subscribe to this blog. I mean, if you can remember how. Or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/brokenoarcomics/ or just search for @brokenoarcomics

Thank you for enduring all these links! Come back soon for some stories about P4D and Zuda!

Nick

NOMINATED!

While it is definitely an honor just to be nominated, you have the power to make us winners!

Pray For Death has been nominated for "Best Webcomic" in Comicmonsters.com's first ever horror comics awards. Our fate will be decided by public voting! Register on the website and then, between December 24th and december 31st 2009, cast your vote!

For us that is. Pray For Death. Best Webcomic. Don't waste your vote on those other guys. Vote for us.

http://www.comicmonsters.com

Nick

We Still Get A Little Press From Time To Time

Dani and I had the great honor of discussing Pray For Death with Esther Inglis-Arkell during our stay in San Diego. She reports for 4thletter.net and I must admit that I'm a little jealous that she can describe my own comic so much better than I can.

Check it out here: http://www.4thletter.net/2009/08/the-rocky-road-to-publication-an-interview-with-the-creators-of-pray-for-death

Daniele Serra Comes to California! And Signs Books.

Dani will be making the trip from Italy to California for the San Diego Comic-Con again this year. This time, he will have a couple of signing events! One in Burbank and the other in San Francisco. If you can make it, it's sure to be a blast! I will be hanging around at the Burbank signing, so be sure to say hello.

Nick