Danny Allain is husband to Morgan and father to Ruby, who were featured on Sustaining Craft on my previous writing website. This was originally posted on June 12, 2017. I’ll be reposting some previous work here, including Ruby‘s and Morgan’s 2016 and 2020 features.

Danny Allain learned to read using his brothers’ comic books years before he started writing and drawing his own. The youngest of six, with two brothers and three sisters, Allain mainly stayed at home, drawing and playing in the woods of DeQuincy, LA. Comics made it easy to follow the story, even without knowing how to read. “You can know what’s going on,” Allain said. “The green guy is always mad.”

Art talent and interest ran in the family–Allain’s father, Gerald, creates portraits, and Allain’s brothers both draw as well. Allain started drawing all the time, but didn’t attend an art class until he moved away for college. He became a drawing major, and met his wife, Morgan. “She knew a character I was drawing, a dark elf character,” shared Allain. “She was like, ‘Hey, is that Drizzt?’ I was like, ‘F yeah that’s Drizzt.’ I was pretty oblivious to everything in the world. That’s how we met. Or at least that’s how I noticed.”

They got married and moved next to his parents, who live on 10 acres of land. After college, Allain taught elementary art for seven years, until ultimately deciding that teaching wasn’t for him. “It was a very controlling, micromanaging situation I was in,” Allain explained. “I got out of that and decided I wanted to do art. It was super stressful. I was on blood pressure and anxiety medication. I didn’t have any plans after quitting teaching. I had a mural, then got another one.”

Three years later, Allain is still painting murals, taking commissions, writing and drawing his own comics, making fences with his father and building houses with his brother. “Pretty much whatever I can do, to sustain art, is what I do,” Allain said. “Luckily, I married Morgan, who feels the exact way that I do. We’re hustling to do what we can to do this. I’m not saying I’m making baller money, but I’m making more now than when I was teaching. Teachers don’t make anything. It’s sad. You’ve got to sustain yourself.”

An artist herself, Morgan has painted several series and manages the Etsy for her own work and for Allain’s. Their four-year-old daughter, Ruby, also recently made over $50 selling her own watercolor bookmarks.

Their family creates together in other ways. Two years ago, Allain started a comic for Ruby. There are two volumes with 90 pages each, and Allain has planned out the third and final volume, which will have a big fight scene. Allain involved Ruby by asking what she wanted in it.

Allain’s father, Gerald, is a troll that was cursed with cuteness and manners. “He’s bright pink and flowers grow off of him and he wears a tutu,” Allain explained.

Allain’s mother appears a witch, the source of Gerald’s curse, and sports a wort on her nose. “She loves it,” Allain said. “She actually has a wort on her nose and I always make fun of her for it.” Morgan is a mermaid. Other family and friends also make appearances. As Allain was planning the last volume, he told Ruby that he was almost done and asked if she had any final requests, and she did: werewolves. Morgan suggested making them weresheep instead.

The pair has found other creative ways to share their art as well. Allain helped found Southwest Louisiana Art (SWLArt) with friends, and they organize an art market twice a month called LUNArt Sunday Art Market. “Every LUNArt, I do live art and make some weird thing or portrait,” said Allain. “One time I did the bones of a rabbit, and people liked it and bought it.”

Allain created an entire series based on his bones concept, and held his first solo show in May displaying his work. “Actual animal bones are fun to do, because you don’t see what’s in American bison,” shared Allain. “The big hump is their back bone. I thought it was muscle. Some of that is neat to find out. I like doing dragons, griffons, hydra. I did a breakfast set of a chicken, pig and cow.”

Allain plans to continue the series. “I want to do some more predatory scenes,” Allain said. “I have a fox and a mouse, pouncing. I want to do a sabertooth jumping on a mammoth or something. I have a bunch of ideas. I just have to get to the table. The hardest part is just getting to the table. Get to the table, with pencil and paper and the table is clean. After the first line, I’m hooked, and I’ll be there until I’m done. It seems like a chore to draw when I’m not drawing, but when I start, I remember it’s awesome.”

Allain considers himself a storyteller first, even as he continues to draw and paint. “I love writing little stories–not even writing them out, just thinking them,” admitted Allain. “Comics are an easy way to do all of it. I can draw it, and write it and do all the lettering and inking myself. It’s just one solid metal hoop and that’s just me.”

A few years ago, Allain came up with an original idea about a western bounty hunter, and he had created three issues and was selling them at cons. The comic revolved around an alien crashing in the wild west and strapping an alien band to a cowboy’s arm, which allowed him to communicate with an AI system. Then Allain saw the trailer for Cowboys and Aliens at the movie theater, which was almost identical. Discouraged, he quit his sci-fi western and decided to write a standard fantasy novel and make it his own. “It was not an original idea by any stretch of the imagination,” said Allain. “It’s fun.”

When Allain’s nephew asked him to run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, Allain decided to use the novel, Shadow Wars, as the story line. “There are five of them, 17-19,” Allain described his nephew’s friends. “They’re super preppy and stuff, from nice families. They pull up in their vehicles to my trailer house and we go into the shed and play. They are all about it. They rearrange their work schedules so they can play.”

Allain also started making figurines and props for the campaign, and now sells D&D starter kits on Etsy. He found that creating the props was a stress reliever, and the guys that participate in the campaign love his work. “They’re the tiniest little hot glue things that they freak out over,” said Allain, who uses hot glue, matchsticks, popsicle sticks and polymer clay. “That’s about it. It’s just how you put it together. It’s a lot of fun.”

Allain focuses on continuing to create, no matter the medium. “Ninety percent of the stuff I’m making is just art and stuff,” shared Allain. “I’ll make it. If someone buys it, cool. If it’s not a commission, I’m just making it for me. It’s lowbrow. I’m not the next big guy or anything. It’s just me. I make stuff.”

Danny shares his work on Instagram and sells prints through Morgan’s Etsy store.