The Future of Orange Circle Comics?
When I was in High School all I wanted to do was to draw comic books. As I grew older and responsibility set in, I decided that I would never cut it as an artist, but still wanted to make comics.
I tried creating a portfolio for art schools, but never really had any sort of guidance. Also, the art that I was submitting wasn’t art. It was cartoon drawings. Bad cartoon drawings. I was completely lost and ended up spending my life doing hourly jobs. The dream was all but dashed.
Somewhere in my soul lives a comic book artist. I may not be good at drawing, but I feel like my ideas are fun enough for me to want to pursue, refine and unleash.
I created Orange Circle Comics so that once one of my books is completed by myself and a collaborator, I can get them self published if a publishing company doesn’t want to pick up the book.
My ultimate goal for OCC is to make enough money so that I can create a comic book school. I want to create a place that supplies the necessary tools for kids who are interested in making professional comic books.
I would love to have classes for young artist who are interested in the field. I would encourage established creators to come in and mentor these kids through symposium sessions.
I would love for these kids to be able to create their own stories from scratch and see their books through completion. Once they have completed their book, I would then publish their comics digitally through a comic book app such as Comixology under the Orange Circle Comics banner. All of the profits from their books will go into a fund for their further education.
All of this is a pipe dream, but I hope that this website is the first stepping stone towards something that I wish I had when I was a young, wide-eyed kid who just wanted to draw cartoons.
Ralph d. Apel
