M. Rasheed - Author of Monsters 101 Elite featured member interview and bio

[LeahG]

The Official Website of Cartoonist M. Rasheed



Bio
My name is M. Rasheed, and I am a cartoonist.
["Hi, M. Rasheed!" "Hi, M. Rasheed!"]
Thank you. I'm glad to be here. It's been a long, hard road.

*ahem*

It all started when I was about seven years old. I started creating my own adventure comics (with my own little logo on them and everything lol) inspired by an episode of "The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour!" one Saturday morning, and the next thing I knew, I wanted to be a cartoonist when I grew up. I took up art school eventually and quickly abandoned the comics I was doing myself; school tends to slaughter the entrepreneurial spirit and make you think you're supposed to work for other people as a cog in their machine, and I was no exception. It wasn't until the spring of 2000 when I began the comic book version of my masterwork "Monsters 101" did I begin to reexamine the self-publishing option as anything other than insane.

I'd always enjoyed cartooning in all of it's forms. Newspaper comic strips, television animation, comic books, cereal box illustrations... it all held great appeal to my mind. When I was in school, I really didn't care which field or type of cartoon sub-industry I ended up in, as long as I could make my living being a cartoonist. I spent my after college years freelancing for local companies, maintaining my own state fair caricature booth (after working as a cog at one of the amusement parks first), and sending out submissions to syndicates, publishers, ad studios, greeting card companies, etc. At the time that was what at least half of my practice time consisted of: Create submission package, mail it out, wait, receive rejection letters, repeat. I remember reading a lot of success story testimonials from the Who's Who of the cartooning world. One that stood out particularly was from Bill Watterson, who said that it took him five years to finally become a nationally syndicated cartoonist after sending out continuous submission packages using the same formula I was. "I'm STILL not sure if that was the best way," he said.




Because he said that from the fan-favorite perch he was then standing upon, I decided to try something new. Instead of sending out one submission, I would create five different submission ideas, and bombard the top syndicates with them, reasoning that it would increase my chances 5x. Why not? I did it, and for the first time, I stopped getting the normal photocopied form letter rejections and the editors started sending me back personal hand-written notes scribbled on them. Across the board they all said that the strips were delightful, but the syndicates aren't looking for adventure strips anymore. They were looking for Far Side-ish gag-a-day material. They all advised me to try the comic book market instead.

I thought about this, chose my personal favorite of the five strips I made, and decided to go ahead and flesh it out into a comic book series. This was April of 2000, and the formulaic, newspaper strip idea called "Monsters 101" then became an entire universe filling up 8 sketchbooks worth of material in a matter of weeks. At this point it was clear that I was onto something really important regarding my life as an artist. I completed the first 14 chapters (22 pages each) and half-seriously sent out some submissions of it to creator-friendly publishers like Dark Horse and Fantagraphics, but even that made me uncomfortable.

Interestingly, as soon as I decided to self-publish was when the whole POD (Print-On-Demand) technology really began to take off, like God was showing me that this was what I was always meant to do. So today my life looks exactly the way it did when I was seven years old, creating my own stories the way I want with my own little logo on them.





GOALS
To date I am almost finished with the publishing chores for the latest Monsters 101 graphic novel, Book Six: "Pieces of the Puzzle." My goal is to wrap up the series completely by October 2012, and then publish a full-color, one-shot graphic novel featuring more characters and concepts that were birthed during that initial 8 sketchbook download back in 2000.

And then I have some other, less intense projects I want to publish too.



Training

I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in book illustration from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, and I also attend The Joe Kubert school of Cartoon & Graphic art, Inc. in Dover, New Jersey. I also took an Adobe Flash course a few years ago at a local community college.



Publications

Both me and my Monsters 101 story are showcased in this text book:

Second Sight Graphix is my creator-owned publishing company.

Favourite Cartoonists

Charles Schultz, Sergio Aragones, Sal Buscema, R. Crumb, Richard Sala, Walt Holcomb, Jeff Smith, Frank Miller, Will Eisner...

...just a whole bunch!

Location
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

[LeahG]

Awesome Bio, thank you for sharing!!

[LeahG]

And here's your badge code

Code:

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[MRasheed]

SWEET!! Thanks, Leah!

Already this site is starting to earn back the money I spent on it.

[Simon]

[Andries]

Already this site is starting to earn back the money I spent on it.

Didn't know you were Dutch too, Racheed!

[MRasheed]

lol A little bit on my mom's side.

[Simon]

Doesn't really matter which side you're on. We're all American or something here.

[Kathy]

Hey!!! What's a nice Michigander like you doing in N.C.? Come back, the weather is great today! (No guarantee about next week, though...)

Great interview, and really fun comics! Are you from Michigan, or just went to school here?

[Simon]

How's the new Job going Kathy?

[Kathy]

Meh. S'okay I guess. We're having lots of issues with the computers and the whole network, and the lady I am working with tends to have meltdowns if anything changes. It's all an uphill battle. But it's something different to try.

I really enjoy being able to buy groceries, so I'll keep going.

[Simon]

I'm the same. Might just get a Packing Job I applied for. Hold thumbs!

[Kathy]

Hold thumbs? Is that for good luck?

[Simon]

Yes but skill will get you further.

[MRasheed]

Why is this long-winded conversation going on in my fancy 'Featured' thread?

Are you two trying to mess up my portfolio?