We recently connected with Daniel Kalban and have shared our conversation below.
Daniel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
All creative works are, from the start, a risk.
The first big risk is actually taking a chance on yourself. I could have stuck with writing fan fic with friends, but that would not have gotten me towards where I want to be. If I didn’t (with some encouragement) start to write my own stories with my own characters, I would not have gotten anywhere.
The second big risk is finding out your team. I’ve been fortunate to work with good people. Others haven’t. People are the ultimate random factor.
The third big risk is either self publishing or signing up with a publisher. I have had to deal with publishers (not my current one) not doing what they promised or completely falling apart. Self publishing is a MASSIVE risk as it is more money upfront, but you can definitely control more factors that way.
Daniel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a Brooklyn based comic book writer best known for the Jewish superhero comic “American Dreams”, as well as the comics “Knightwrath”, “Rook & Knight”, and “Sherlock Holmes: The Phantom Masquerade”. I also have written for several comic book anthologies.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
As mentioned earlier, I had a publisher completely fall apart and a lot of us were taken by surprise. But I had to dust myself off and I started self publishing my comics. Now, my main comic has another publishing home that’s taking good care of it.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I want to work for DC or Marvel.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://danielkalban.com
- Instagram: dkalban
- Facebook: Daniel Kalban
- Twitter: @DanielKalban
Image Credits
American Dreams: Kyler Clodfelter and Marcus Jimenez
Knightwrath: Gabe “Eskivo” Santos
Rook & Knight: The Baggs Brothers
Sherlock: Jeremiah Schiek and Warnia K. Sahadewa