Jon Michael Lennon is the author, artist and creator of the Product Of Society books and of Cheese Lord Comics. Jon's a very interesting guy to say the least. Cliff and I had the pleasure of shadowing Jon and the director of Product Of Society Matt Zingale (which is a documentary about the creative force that is Jon Michael Lennon). As we followed Jon and Matt through their wandering and scoping out the Artist Alley of c2e2, I personally found myself thinking "These guys are my kind of people". Not in the fact that they enjoy comics, and stupid movie and pop culture references but because they can put up with over the top antics and situations that Cliff and myself can put you through.
Over the last month or so I volunteered to help Jon pass out postcards of his Cheeselordcomics.com site to help him promote. Jon always retweets my stupid tweets and comments on my Facebook so as a friend I thought I'd do him a solid. I don't think I owed it to him, I just thought I'd help a friend out and have some fun in the process. I started telling people that the comics were drawn and written by a cancer survivor, Jon is in good physical health.. Ok I'm going to rephrase that. Jon doesn't have cancer yet. At comic cons you get stuffed passed out to you all the time, so my cancer scheme helped sway those who initially turned down the offer of a post card. At one point Jon said "Can't you just say it's your awesome friends comic?" I turned his suggestion down and explained how everyone has an "awesome" friend, but a "cancer surviving" friend is much cooler. If any of you ever want to read Product of Society (which you should) you'll quickly find out that Jon is a "one of a kind" kind of guy. Handing out his post cards couldn't have been done any other way.
I missed a few panels by hanging out with Jon but it was worth it, I saw a side of a creator that many of us don't see. A human side. The guy will hang around Artist Alley and support his fellow indie creators and drop money where he can. I know he does it because he loves indie stuff, but a part of me thinks it's his way of paying it forward. C2E2 rejected Jon's application to have a booth, Jon responded by wearing a name tag with a caption citing he was "rejected but still here to chill". We went with them on a few cigarette breaks, talked about life and comics, and shot the shit with some cool dudes. Cliff and Matt ended up going to a Claudio Sanchez (lead singer of Coheed and Cambria) signing and I joined Jon as he had lunch. Sitting with Jon for an hour gave me some serious insight to a man that is risking everything to do what he's dreamed of doing. Making comics that express what's inside of him. Jon told me his story of college and past jobs he's held, Also of the creative process that he goes through. Jon falls in love with his work, he even went as far as saying that he gets a sort of Post Partum Depression when he's done with a story. The guy absolutely loves what he does and he won't quit. Jon gave me advice on how to continue my own dreams and made me feel like he'd even help me get on my way. Showing humility and respect for another artist while still being a guy who stays true to being himself, that's definitely a trait that has been lost in many people now a days.
Matt Zingale gave me a copy of his documentary to watch and review it. It's going to be hard to review a documentary of a man that I've already decided is a really good guy. Truthfully I'm kind of nervous to watch it because I don't want my opinion of him to change, but I doubt that would happen (unless there's footage of Jon beating a puppy to death with a spiked Nazi helmet). I asked Jon if he was going to try to get into c2e2 next year, I figured he'd say no and hold on to a bitter rebellious attitude towards it. Jon simply said "Yeah." even with the chance of being rejected by a convention that showcases his peers, he's willing to try again. The man is either a glutton for punishment or a fighter. I say fighter. I know we'll eventually see him there. After he beats Cancer again of course.
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