Today we’d like to introduce you to Devin Hodges
Hi Devin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Raleigh as a homeschooled child. Just like many children after finishing their school assignments for the day, I would spend my spare time playing video games, reading comic books, watching cartoons, and creating artwork. My earliest inspirations for art was creating paper cutouts of characters from some of my favorite TV shows and video games that lacked toys like “Static Shock” and “Super Monkey Ball”. I also enjoyed sharing stories and how-to-draw books with my older brother.
When I was 11 years old, I attended a local summer program called, “Bits, Bytes, & Bots”, where they taught courses in video game design, film making, and robotics. I considered taking the video game course, but ended up taking the film making course instead. After learning how to create an animated stop motion short film” from start to finish, I was inspired to pursue a career in animation. I also dreamed of creating a TV show for Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. When that summer program ended, I started a Vimeo account to host my early stop motion animations. A Youtube channel followed in 2012 with a transition to 2D rig animation. This aspiration led to me being known amongst my peers as “the animation guy”.
Entering my sophomore year of college, I’ve heard about a comic book store in Memphis looking to publish comic strips made by local talent. After reading their first published anthology, I noticed the publisher lacked in titles of varying genres and stories appropriate for all ages. Most comics featured adult oriented superheroes similar to the likes of “Deadpool” and “The Boys”. It inspired me rework one of my TV show ideas for the publication. This effort led the debut my comic book series, “The Common Days of Cade”.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There were some obstacles I had to endure when creating. I will use my comic book, “The Common Days of Cade”, as an example. When that series was published under the comic book publisher, it wasn’t popular among their reader base. However, seeing a mother and her son buy excited to read my story at a book signing event sparked a thought in my mind. It made me realize the comic and its characters had an audience, but it was never going to be reached by the publisher. This led to me going down the self-publishing route.
I cancelled the rest of the stories planned with the previous publisher to refine the idea for a stand-alone book. These plans were put into action during the 2020 lockdown. I had some people support me during the production of the first issue and others that doubted me because of the lockdown and the stipulation that 20-page comic books were obsolete in favor of manga and graphic novels. The first issue was completed when everything was re-opening back up in 2022 and I managed to sell out the first printing of 50 copies in 2 months.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Currently, I specialize in comic writing and illustration. I am most proud of my approach to character design. I like that I can make charming characters that are have their own unique appearances on the pages of my stories. What sets me apart from others is having the ability to present interesting stories ideas or characters that don’t feel too common. I don’t like following contemporary trends whenever I create something that is entirely my own. An example of this uncommon presentation is a short story I created called “Detective Konnie”. I wanted to try my hand at creating a more serious character without making a superhero, which are oversaturated right now due to the popularity of Marvel and DC comics and movies. While I do create comics, I also want to dabble back with animation and video game design in the future.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
*Looking side to side* I compete in weekly pinball tournaments. Those tournaments are fun, but can get extremely fierce when you have to compete against a very skilled player on a machine that is tough to play.
Pricing:
- The Common Days of Cade #1 ($2-$9)
- The Common Days of Cade #2 ($2-$9)
- Detective Konnie ($1-$6)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.diastcartoons.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/devinhodges_diastcartoons/
- Twitter: https://x.com/diastcartoons
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DIASTCartoons
