Tuesday, December 20, 2005
The end of the year is always a time to reflect and I thought I'd do a little of that myself--sort of a 2005 round-up on how my dreams of a comic writing career are coming along. Before I get to that though, it seemed a good idea to give a brief (and I promise I mean to keep it brief) account of how I came to this dream.
My aunt bought me my very first comics in 1976 when I was the tender age of five. A Batman ("Crime Stops at Midnight") and a Marvel Team-Up featuring Iron Man and Spider-man. From that moment, I was hooked. I kept reading and even started to get ideas of working in the industry, but, as a lot of eventual writers start out, I wanted to be an artist. The New Teen Titans were big at this time and, every month, George Perez knocked my socks off. So I would make my own little comics on notebook paper with the story mainly serving to provide me a chance to draw.
High school came and I began to think that I was too cool to read comics. Actually, I can remember the day that I made this decision. Or, actually, it was made for me. I was at the spinner rack of my local Piggly Wiggly (a grocery store for those not in the know) when two kids went to play the video games located nearby. I heard them whispering about how I was too old (I was twelve at the time, I think) to be reading comics and laughing at me.
So I quit. It shames me to say it now but I agreed with them. I was too old to be reading comics. So I quit reading them. Of course, this did mean that I missed out on some of the nineties stuff so it wasn't a total loss but I missed out on some quality stuff as well. And, most important, several years I could've been trying to break into the business.
Flash forward to the end of last year. A friend that had stayed big in comics would talk to me about what he was reading and I was always interested. I hadn't really grown out of comics, of course. I'd let the opinions of a couple of acne-speckled kids playing Asteroids make up my mind for me. I began to go with him to the comic shop (or the Geek Fort as we call it) and pick up some trades of comics that had come out in my reading years. It wasn't long before I had a pull list and an idea forming in my head.
I'd rediscovered that I liked to write (I'd tried my hand at a Tolkien rip-off when I was in the 7th grade). I'd worked on short stories for a while and even had a few published. Finally, it hit me. I liked to write. I liked comics. What could make more sense than putting these two together? If only I knew what I'd gotten myself into.
I've ran a little long so we'll save the state of the union until next time.
My aunt bought me my very first comics in 1976 when I was the tender age of five. A Batman ("Crime Stops at Midnight") and a Marvel Team-Up featuring Iron Man and Spider-man. From that moment, I was hooked. I kept reading and even started to get ideas of working in the industry, but, as a lot of eventual writers start out, I wanted to be an artist. The New Teen Titans were big at this time and, every month, George Perez knocked my socks off. So I would make my own little comics on notebook paper with the story mainly serving to provide me a chance to draw.
High school came and I began to think that I was too cool to read comics. Actually, I can remember the day that I made this decision. Or, actually, it was made for me. I was at the spinner rack of my local Piggly Wiggly (a grocery store for those not in the know) when two kids went to play the video games located nearby. I heard them whispering about how I was too old (I was twelve at the time, I think) to be reading comics and laughing at me.
So I quit. It shames me to say it now but I agreed with them. I was too old to be reading comics. So I quit reading them. Of course, this did mean that I missed out on some of the nineties stuff so it wasn't a total loss but I missed out on some quality stuff as well. And, most important, several years I could've been trying to break into the business.
Flash forward to the end of last year. A friend that had stayed big in comics would talk to me about what he was reading and I was always interested. I hadn't really grown out of comics, of course. I'd let the opinions of a couple of acne-speckled kids playing Asteroids make up my mind for me. I began to go with him to the comic shop (or the Geek Fort as we call it) and pick up some trades of comics that had come out in my reading years. It wasn't long before I had a pull list and an idea forming in my head.
I'd rediscovered that I liked to write (I'd tried my hand at a Tolkien rip-off when I was in the 7th grade). I'd worked on short stories for a while and even had a few published. Finally, it hit me. I liked to write. I liked comics. What could make more sense than putting these two together? If only I knew what I'd gotten myself into.
I've ran a little long so we'll save the state of the union until next time.
