What am I thinking?

2006-05-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

Guilty Secret #1

Or Roadhouse, how I love thee.

Of course, if you look at my list of favorite movies, you won't find it mentioned. That's because I never think about it until my old friend TBS or a movie channel like Encore decides to serve it up for my viewing pleasure.

But once I see it, like a plane hitting a train wreck, I can't look away. Sure, it has more cheese in it than the state of Wisconsin. Don't bother telling me that the characters are more thin than the toilet paper at a state park. I already know all that. If it only had a robot in it, it would be perfect MSTK3 fodder. But how I love it so.

Truly, this is a movie astronomically above the sum of its parts. You add one part bad dialogue, one part over-the-top acting, one part far too much melodrama in the directing, and you have a soup-de-jour of cinematic greatness.

If you can't stomach the whole thing, at least treat yourself to the few minutes surrounding the scene where Dalton rips out the guy's throat. The part where the guy stops his dirt bike to laugh at all the destruction he's caused is cinematic gold. As his his line "Prepare to die." when Dalton catches him. Did Patrick Swayze kill this guy's father and I missed it?

2006-05-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

School's Out for Summer!

Most people take an inventory of their life on New Years but I find myself usually doing it at the beginning of summer. The school year has a way of creeping up and wearing you down and, before you know it, you're sort of just sliding along instead of being active. I think I've been sliding along a little bit in my omnipresent quest and not applying myself to breaking in as much as I should have.

It's the same story that's plagued me throughout my writing life. I am very tenacious when it comes to writing. I usually write every day and get really antsy if I miss a day or two in a row. So sitting down and writing isn't the problem. Submitting is. Doing the things needed to get the work in the public eye is. So, I've done some reevaluation and, after I finish this entry, I plan to do some tasks that I've been putting off and get back to working hard on this career.

Cause I'm sure not getting any younger.

That's a good line to close with, isn't it? Succint, has that fatalistic quality you want in a cliffhanger. The only problem is, it's only partially true. I'm also getting busy as a reaction to a glitch in the plan that has me a bit depressed.

An artist friend and I completed an 8 page horror story and submitted it to a horror anthology series. We didn't make it in. Why? Because a similar story was already accepted. Ah, the bitter pill of bad timing. The news has me a little down because I keep thinking another missed opportunity. The best thing to do then is redouble my efforts.

So, if anyone knows of a anthology series needing submissions, drop me a line.

2006-05-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

Random Thoughts

Just like the title suggests, there will be absolutely no cohesion or coherence (are they one and the same?) to this entry. There'll be no segues either so you will be getting a brief look into the synaptic misfires that account for 90% of my total thought output.

I'm not a huge American Idol fan. In fact, other than Survivor, there isn't a show that I must watch every week. I spend a lot of my TV time watching reruns--Simpsons, Seinfeld, BTAS. I did get season one of Battlestar Galactica so that might be one I start checking out if I like it. Oh, and Doctor Who. If you don't watch that show, you've got to start. Now, all of that being said, even I, the epitome of the casual viewer, was surprised that Chris Doughtry (is that spelled right?) was voted off. I think he had the most Idol potential of all that was left.

Speaking of Survivor, I don't have anything against Aras, but is there anyone that doesn't think Terri should have won. Other than maybe slighting Dan a little, he played the game with the honesty and integrity that everyone throws around when facing the jury and no one has dominated challenges more. My string of having the person I want to win actually win stops at two seasons.

I believe that I'm going to HeroCon in North Carolina this June. Not as a guest, sadly not yet, but as a rabid fan that will approach his heroes like Warren Ellis and try to act nonchalant and cool only to come off totally inane and geeky. I'm hopefully going to meet Roger there (artist of Off the Grid) and we can shoot the bull. I'm going to read up on my networking notes and how to not to present submissions at cons.

Thanks to Brian K. Vaughn's Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/briankvaughan), I found this little tidbit (http://comiccreatorservices.blogspot.com/) a resource for beginning and up and coming comic book creators. I've not had the chance to check it all out it but you can rest assured that I will.

Baby Tera is doing great. She's gained 2 inches and weighs a whopping ten pounds now and can eat a little cereal from a spoon. Some would say that that's too soon to introduce cereal but she was still hungry after 4 ounces of milk and she sleeps like a log now at night. Yay!

2006-05-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

I almost let the blog go tonight even though it's high time I posted again. I'm tired, the clock won't quit ticking to doom (when I have to go to bed because there's work again tomorrow), and I really don't have anything to say.

Which hasn't stopped in the past, hasn't it?

I find myself really down on my job right now and that leads me, as ever, to thoughts of how great it would be to finally get to write for a living. Continuing on this thought train, I start to think about how many people hate their job (I don't hate mine, by the way, even though I am frustrated with it right now). Think about that for a moment: the thousands (heck this is the world wide web so millions) of people who go to work in a job they hate. Their job is such a major facet of life, one that they have until they're, at least, in their fifties if they're the average American. And they hate every minute of it. They count down the days until Friday and pine away the weekend minutes dreading Monday. They're stuck in a surreal rendition of Loverboy's "Working for the Weekend". It's not easy to get a good job in many places or even to get a job. For so many people, it's not like they can just go "I think I'll try something new". Or maybe they can but contemplating such a jump into the unknown makes them quake. I know it makes me nervous.

The problem: going to work, day after day, hating every minute of it. Wasting your life in a pursuit you could care less about.

The answer? If you know, post it. I haven't got a clue.

These are some depressing thoughts. I think I'll get back to writing and submitting.
___________________________

Issue #4 of Off the Grid is written and I've sent it to Roger for review. I've gotten issue #5 plotted and will start it tomorrow. It's going to be a hard one as it needs to sum up the series without being too wordy or didactic.

I've gotten the finished pages for Magic Bullet and now it's time to put together the submission packet. I think it's turned out really well. I'll try to post the first page here for my non-existent readers to peruse. ;)

2006-04-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a few days from my last post but I have a great excuse this time as I've been settling (a little) into fatherhood. I say a little because I can look at my daughter and it all still seems so surreal that she is mine--that I had anything to do with her creation.

Other parents will tell you that you can't imagine what being a parent is like and that it will change your whole outlook, your whole life. If you're anything like I was, you'll just politely nod your head and then roll your eyes when they're not looking.

Well, they're right.

I don't expect you to believe me either. Really, it's just something you've got to experience. No amount of words can get these feelings across to you. It's impossible to describe the amount of love you have for this little crying, sleeping, crapping, peeing baby. She'll reach up and touch my face and I become every stereotype of the goofy dad that I used to make fun of.

But that's all right. Sometimes, eating crow doesn't taste that bad.

______________________________

Off the Grid is going very well. I'm really excited about the direction the story is going in (even more so now as some questions I had in mind with the story are resolving themselves) and Roger is a dream to work with (and a great artist). I'm busy working on issue #4.

The other projects are coming along as well. It seems to be feast or famine with them. I'll go for days with nothing and then, boom, several emails coming in with some good news. If this doesn't teach me patience, nothing will.

2006-04-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is a rant. Probably one I'll regret at some point but, right now, I need to vent. Bare in mind that I'm not talking about any of the people that I'm working on projects with now. I'm very lucky in that regard. But I have had problems of this sort in the past and I've gotten myself worked up thinking about them.

I'm talking about the person that says they want to break into comics, may even accept payment for working on a submission and then...nothing. It takes them months to get the work done and only after email after email almost begging for them to send something--anything.

I don't think I'm an unreasonable person. I realize that writing a comic script is, in most cases, the quickest, least-time consuming part of the process. And I realize that these people have lives that sometimes interferes with their dreams. I have a life (and if you follow this at all, you know it just got much more busy). But to wait months for a sample to be finished seems a bit much to me.

This business is in no way easy to break into, even if you have the necessary talent. Tales of people falling into this business are few and far between (there is the current trend to take writers from other mediums such as movies and books but those people have worked hard and been dedicated in some medium or other). Far more the norm are the stories of people that worked, worked, and worked some more and were prepared when that break finally came.

I don't know, maybe I have a different work ethic than some. To me, it seems a good idea to hedge your bets in every way possible and that means to be prompt and act in every way the professional even before you are a professional. You can't expect editors to believe there's some magic switch that will flip once your hired. "Well, it's taken 5 months for these 5 pages but I bet if we hire him he'll deliver on time." If I'm working with someone and it's time for me to deliver a script, a pitch, a dirty limerick, whatever, I try to get it to them in the shortest time possible. To me that's the only way to work, the way to build that all important reputation.

I dunno. Could just be the OCD setting in.

2006-04-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

She's here!

I'm going to make this post short and sweet because I've just finished plotting out issue #3 of Off the Grid and I'm running low on sleep anyway because...

Tera Elizabeth Strunk was born Tuesday at 3:50 pm. Even though she was 3 1/2 weeks early, she weighed 8 lbs, 7 oz and was 20 1/2" long. If she had went full term, she would have slapped the doctor back.

Some really exciting events happening with my projects but I'll save that for a better run down next time. Now--Crisman sleepy.

2006-03-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

I don't really have any Earth-shattering revelations to reveal tonight but I want to keep my work on getting these things out in a more timely manner. So what's a poor writer to do? I thought I might review some of the trades I've read recently. Now I don't feel like knocking on anything I didn't like (which is why I would make a poor reviewer), so I'll just talk about the stuff I liked.

Sleeper--All False Moves (Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips)--The second trade of the series and one I enjoyed even better than the first (which I enjoyed quite a bit). Some nice character moments and plenty of action for the adrenalin crowd. I especially enjoyed Brubaker's exploration of the thin line between good and evil or at least the perception thereof. The writer in me always goes back and looks over the issues to see how Brubaker uses a nonlinear narrative to get the story across with just a little more tension. I still tend to write very linear so it's a technique I'm interested in to broaden my horizons. I also really enjoy Phillips' art and his inventive use of panel breakdowns.

Sandman Mystery Theatre--The Tarantula (Matt Wagner, Guy Davis)--The first trade of this series that (yes, I know, I know), I'm way behind in getting to. But please remember that I dropped out of comics for years and I'm having to slowly work my way through the best of what I missed. This certainly qualifies. I won't try to hide my bias--I'm a big fan of noir, the 20's and 30's era, and Matt Wagner so this was a no-brainer for me. Wagner does a great job with the script (I've got to start collecting some Grendel) and I liked his reinterpretation of Wesley Dodds. If I had read this when it first came out, I wouldn't have been hit so hard with how well Wagner is energizing an old Batman story in Batman and the Monster Men. My only suggestion is that Wesley should really work on his sneaking skills. He got caught quite a bit eaves-dropping in this one. Guy Davis did a good job on the art (it reminded me a little of O'Neil's work on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) although I would have liked to have seen some Wagner goodness on art as well.

Adam Strange--Planet Heist (Andy Diggle, Pascal Ferry)--Since I'm not even trying not to act as a fanboy, I'll go ahead and say I really like Diggle's writing too (plus he's all the time posting helpful stuff at The Engine). I was a little hesitant with this one because I've never been that big a fan of Adam Strange. I was a fan after this trade, however. Diggle succeeds in finding Adam's voice as a hero and committed family man and the voice works well. The series plays out like an old Saturday serial with lots of twists and turns and action. And, even though, this was a lead-in to the Rann/Thanagar mini, it read very easy as a stand-alone story. I usually read one issue of a trade and then read something else before coming back to it but this one I found myself reading through.

All right, here's some stuff I'm either reading or getting ready to read:

The Losers--Double Down
Fables--Storybook Love
JSA--Savage Times
Scars (Warren Ellis)

Plus I'm in book 2 of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

Hey, I just thought of a good post for next time. ;)

2006-03-13T11:51:00.000-08:00

Great Books

First a disclaimer: this essay probably won't answer any of the questions I bring up or, at least, not answer them well. It's more of an exercise to get me thinking. Maybe I'll come up with the answers later. Maybe there aren't any answers.

I was thinking a little today on what makes a great book or series. Now, naming great books or series isn't that hard a task. Most fans will point you to Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, and Sandman as examples of the high-water mark this medium can achieve. But what makes these works the benchmark by which all else is measured? Why is DKR almost universally praised and Dark Knight Strikes Again not?

I've been thinking about this because (as Warren Ellis and other writers have said) one of the tricks an aspiring writer should do is to take the books you love and find out why you love them. Take these stories and rip out their guts, find out what makes them tick. Why does Watchmen work? How does Moore used the traditional 9 panel grid as opposed to Ellis' "widescreen" approach on The Authority? And, in addition to the more technical aspects, there's the more intangible components as well. What is it about the story that makes you finish a book, put it down, and think about it? What makes you keep thinking about it days after you've read it? What separates it from a comic you read, like, and then bag up never to think about it again?

I ask a question in my Scryptic interviews of what does the writer think is more important: character, theme, or plot. Most answer (and rightfully so, I think) that the three are intertwined so much that it's almost impossible to separate them. Almost impossible. I think that one at least somewhat dominates the other two in any given work. And I think that different readers respond to different things. For instance, I am often drawn to character. One of my favorite Justice League United episodes is pretty lean on plot (simple track down a bad guy plot) and I don't think that there are any deep themes. Unless, of course, I just missed them. But there are so many character moments that are just gold. Birds of Prey is one of my favorite books and, while Gail Simone doesn't skimp on plot or theme, its the character moments in the book that I admire the most.

On the other hand, take V for Vendetta for example. It has some nice character moments sure but wouldn't you say that it's the theme of that work that makes it stand out? I think Alan Moore might since in his On Writing Comics he talks about the importance of theme.

The three elements are intertwined though and, even supporting the premise that one element stands out in any given story, the other elements have to be there and be well done for a book to be a classic. Hence, why there are so few classics.

There, a nice circular, little argument that proved nothing. ;) Maybe I'll return to this topic when I know more clear on what I'm talking about.

____________________
Every thing is humming along with my projects right now (which scares me a little in a neurotic way). Roger Stroud is sending me some fantastic pages for Off the Grid. We're talking the old story where the art is better than what you had imagined when you wrote it, so I'm really excited about that. The coloring for Magic Bullet is moving along and the inking for Chimera is moving too. It's a really exciting time for me.

2006-03-07T18:57:00.000-08:00

NEVER ENOUGH TIME

Finally got around to watching an episode of House tonight (half an episode really) and really liked it. Nice, snappy banter. The problem is that I don't watch that much television other than the odd Simpsons, Doctor Who, or JLU (oh, and Family Guy too). Now many people might think that this is a good thing and, normally, I would tend to agree with them but a lot of the writers I respect talk about how they watch shows like Deadwood and enjoy the great dialogue and such. I wonder if watching these types of shows helps with dialogue, pacing, and other writer thingies. Plus there's great shows on PBS and the History channel with a whole gold mine of topics that can be plundered for possible story ideas. So, seeing that we're all of limited time, what are the absolute essential shows that we, as writers, should all be watching?

And then there's reading. So many things I want to read--comics, novels, nonfiction, magazines. But there's never enough time to get it all in. If only there was a job where I could get paid to read this stuff. And, always looming, but in a good way, is the approach of the Crumb Snatcher. I've resolved to always make enough time to practice my writing but I know that it'll be hard at times.

In the totally without segue department, try to find the Natalie Portman gangsta rap video from last Saturday's SNL if you can. Great stuff. Their new video productions are about the only bright spot lately.

_________________________

Work wise, the inker for Chimera had email problems so she's back on the case which is good. The artist interested in Off the Grid has been sending me some sketches and they look great. Plus the colored pages for Magic Bullet have started to come in. Hopefully, one (or, better yet, all of these things) will take off. You can't say I'm not trying.

2006-02-27T12:24:00.000-08:00

Mail order vs. buying from your local shop, which do you go with? As for me, until recently, I made the 30 mile drive to the closest shop and bought my comics every Wednesday. A friend on a message board I'm a part of works in a comic shop and told me that he could give me 20% and free bags/boards, free Previews, and free shipping. Some of you may have better deals but for me, who wasn't getting any kind of deal, this was like comic book manna. The only drawback I can see is waiting until the end of the month to get one big batch until my monthly fix. And, sadly enough, that has caused some withdrawals. Plus, I have to stay away from any of the threads that deal with books I get. But I'm really stingy so I'll take the discount.

I do keep some books at the other store because I think it's good to have a relationship with at least one retailer if I'm ever published.

That's something I'm working on and will probably have in a later post: retailing. Many people (myself included, to a certain extent) feel that once you get a product finished, in your hands, then you've reached the summit. But that's just the first step. Next comes promoting it so that it can be a big enough hit that you get to do it all again. Retailing is a whole other animal and the right way to go about it is something I'm trying to learn.
________________________________________

So far, I have done really well in my goals of attending to this thing more regularly but, when you were posting something once a month, it's all relative I guess. This week is one of those slow weeks I've lamented on in the past. The colorist is working on the sample pages for Magic Bullet and a new inker is trying his hand on Chimera so everything is moving slowly forward . I've submitted Out of Time to a publisher and I have an artist looking at Off the Grid so maybe they'll be some news on those fronts soon.

I'll read a comic and think how I just want to be doing this and it's so easy to get frustrated. I have to have patience. Every body I've ever read in the business says that patience and perserverance is the key.

2006-02-19T19:31:00.000-08:00

Whoo-hoo! Two posts within four days of each other. I figure I better take advantage of what free time I have. In another two months, there's a little crumb-snatcher coming and she waits for no one.

First up, you might recall that I wrote about a little mental dispute I was having with myself. What it amounts to is this: I had a good concept come into my head. The kind that gets you excited right off the bat and you can't wait to work on it because it just "feels" like a good idea. So I started plotting the thing, finished the first issue script, and then it hit me. The device I had used to get my characters into the story was from an old Doctor Who show. The characters, the storyline, every thing else, was different except I had clearly been inspired by that episode in the general setup.

Talk about defeated. Here I had this great story going but had I crossed the line from inspiration over to stealing? I didn't think so but I couldn't be sure because I was so psyched about the story and was biased. I posted my dilemma on the Engine (great site by the way) and several people told me that they thought I was fine. It was just inspiration. So I've pressed on with the project but the nagging doubt remained.

Until the other day. It should have hit me earlier but it didn't. I was watching Seven Samurai and got to thinking about The Magnificent Seven. Clearly the second movie was influenced by the first. The same device (a village in trouble from bandits) is used to get our heroes in the situation. But no one considers the second movie a rip-off of the first. The first inspired the second. So now I don't feel so bad about my idea. I was inspired by the show but I've made the concept my own.

________________________

I've found a new colorist for Magic Bullet and things are going well on that front. Apparently, my inker has up and left for Chimera. I hope nothings wrong on her end but it's been a month and no contacts so I figure chalk it up to experience and move on.

I'm deep into the first issue script of that project I was talking about last time. It's going pretty good so far. I'm going to get the first pass out of the way and then go back in and see if I can beef it up some more. I want it to carry quite a bit of philosophical/political weight but I don't want it to get bogged down with it.

2006-02-15T07:28:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of trying to get these things out more on a reasonable schedule (and to mix things up a bit), I can't believe I didn't mention this last time:

STEELERS WIN! STEELERS WIN!

Yes, I'm one of those people. I jumped on the bandwagon back around '78 when I was too young to really understand what was going on but my Dad liked the Steelers. I like sports quite a bit (the bread and circuses aspect aside) but the Steelers is the one team that I live and die by their games. Really, it's unhealthy.

Like I said, the last time the Steelers won the big one I was really too young to appreciate it and this one has been a long time coming. Finally, they win a championship where I can appreciate it.

No, they didn't play all that great and Seattle fans have some legitimate gripes on the calling but I can't bring myself not to be ecstatic that another trophy sits at Heinz Field. I wore something related to the team the whole next week just to bug all the kids I teach.

________________________

Writing news is that I'm now busy on a political/suspense book that I think is coming together nicely. It's probably the most ambitious thing I've written and I'm trying to take my time so I can do the concept justice. It probably won't be everybody's cup of tea (if I can get it picked up) but I'm really excited with it.

An artist has expressed interest with my Out of Time script so I eagerly waiting to see some sample pages he's sending me. I really like the concept of that series and I think it could really be made into something special (don't I always though). ;)

There's some changes on the Magic Bullet front too but it's a little early to talk about right now.

So there, shorter and more sporadic but shot out there a little sooner than once a month. I still have some long diatribes to get out, so, if you like that sort of thing, you won't always be disappointed.

2006-02-09T13:57:00.000-08:00

It never fails. Everytime I write one of these things, I tell myself that I'm going to get the next one out faster. And, as you can see, the dates between the things keep getting longer and longer. I think it might be a problem with how I approach it. A lot of the blogs I look at are more like diaries, a couple of paragraphs devoted to whatever happened that day or went across the posters mind. Nothing that simple for me, thank you. No, I must complicate things by treating each post like an essay, designed to illuminate some topic under the light of my wisdom.

I'm sure you believe that last part.

So, instead of getting down my thoughts on a nifty inspiration vs. swiping thought I had run through my head, I find myself having to play catch-up on what's been happening again. First, Bounty was rejected by Image but it took a month for them to respond (which is a decent sign that it had some merit) and there were some positives to be taken from the email from Erik Larsen. It's off at another publisher now.

Chimera is moving along. Ferdie sent me the last 2 pages of the sample and they look great. I think I've got an inker/letterer for the project (I write think because she's not responded to my emails for a week but those things happen) so I hope to have the submission packet together in the next little while.

Bogdan Cheralu has got the pages done for Magic Bullet (I need to get some pages up on the site for that) and they are great. The lettering template is done and the colors are being added. I have high hopes for this one as well.

I've been putting the final touches on a story of mine called Out of Time and now I'm shopping around for an artist. I think it's some of the best writing I've done. Everything really came together for it. Plus I've got another concept that's gotten stuck in my head but, after thinking about it some, the influences on it are pretty transparent (hence my discussion on influence vs. swiping). I'm going to do some major tweaking to make it unique.

I've spend a lot of time typing on my novel lately (I usually have to write out novels/short stories in long hand first). Good concept I think (geez, do I like everything I come up with?). I have 2 novels already finished. One is a horrific horror story that would need to have a ton of revision to make it palatable and the other is more of a literary story that I desperately need to start revising.

One thing that's taken up some of my time is that I'm a news writer for Scryptic Studios now (www.scrypticstudios.com). I've started an interview column called 12 Questions with_________ where I interview a comic writer about the writing process. I've been very fortunate to have interviewed some really talented people so far and I have some exciting interviews lined up so keep checking that site out.

So, that's got the writing catching up done. Tera's still on her way. She's due April 23, but she's my daughter so I don't expect her until mid-May. ;)

2006-01-02T18:58:00.000-08:00

I was thinking today of what is the toughest part of this breaking into the business thing I harp about endlessly. I'm not talking of actual impediments such as a shrinking market or publishers hating to take a chance with an unknown. I'm talking about the whole mental game of the thing. Is it when you receive that rejection notice that tells you the project you spent so many hours on isn't going to sell at that company? Or worse yet, when you wait for what seems forever, only to never receive a reply?

These are certainly bad moments. I've experienced them with my short story writing and they're no picnic. What seems hardest for me (at least today) is those days where nothing seems to happen. No emails from artists working on your projects, no new leads on places you can get your work published. Just another day where you have to pull out pencil/paper (if you're old school) or sit at your computer and work on that new project, flesh out that new idea and, all the while, try to shut out that voice nagging in the back of your brain, is this ever going to see the light of day? Am I wasting my time here? Will I ever see this dream move forward?

What can you do? I guess you can give into the voice and go watch a rerun of Friends. But most writers who have made it, have done so with a little bit of luck and a lot of perserverance. So you perserve, push the nagging doubts aside, and wait for that break. I must admit that sometimes I seem Pollyannish on this thing. "Just do it.", "Never give up." But it is these maxims that other writer's have applied and made it. As trite as it sounds, you have to just do it; you have to never give up. Great my life has turned into a commercial or William Bennet's latest book.

Whatever works I guess.

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I've started writing news stories for Scryptic Studios so check those out. It's a great website for writers and not just comics.

2005-12-20T19:39:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

I'm in a good creator mood this week. Why you ask? Because I'm working with some really talented artists on a few projects that I think have a chance of seeing print.

Of course, being the person that I am, this means that I can expect a visit from Captain Killjoy. Captain Killjoy is the part of my mind that seeks to sabotage any good feelings or optimism that I have about something. The good Captain right now is whispering in my ear: Aren't you a little too old to be starting something like this? The Captain says this because I'm 33, might as well say 34 since my birthday is next month. I have a wife that I adore, a baby girl on the way, a teaching job, a mortgage. Shouldn't I be focusing on my adult responsibilities instead of trying to break into a industry notoriously hard to break into---when I'm 34?

Don't take what I'm about to write next as any kind of disillusionment with the stuff I mentioned earlier (well, maybe the mortgage) but why shouldn't I try this. I love writing comic books (why I do is probably another good topic for discussion) and I really feel that this is what I should be doing. Sure, it would have been easier to have grasped this simple concept 16 years ago when I was fresh out of high school but I didn't. So the question becomes should I pine away the rest of my life on missed opportunities or should I just get busy and keep the old axiom "Better late than never" in mind?

I've went with the latter choice. Right now, I suppose this could be considered as more of a hobby but it's such a great hobby to pursue. And if I ever get my big break, then I can work at something that I really love. If that big break never comes, I could be happy writing indie comics and, hopefully, reaching readers. The thing with all writing is that is, oftentimes, a lonely, frustrating endeavor, but once it gets in your blood, you'll have a devil of a time trying strain it out.

My wife says about my comic hobby (and my Mego hobby but, that too, is another tale) that she doesn't mind a bit. I could be spending my money on whores and crack. Same with my writing. What better way to spend my free time? I could be playing games or watching television shows about whores and crack.

2005-11-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

It's been a little while since I've written one of these and this one is on a little different track. Instead of discussing the continuing saga of my attempt to break into the comic book business, I've got a little bit of news: my wife and I are expecting a baby. She's now four months pregnant and, while the doctors say that it's a little early to tell for sure, they're reasonably certain that it's a little girl.

I really didn't care what the sex was as long as it is healthy and happy. We'll probably have another one and I'm no different than most people in that, if you have two, you'd like to have a boy and a girl. I hear girls are a little easier to raise (until the dreaded teenage years anyway) so maybe a girl will be a good one to break in the wife and I.

Since we've been trying for a little while, I've had a little time to wonder how I would react to the news of an impending bundle of joy. And to be honest, I've been a little worried what my reaction might be. I wasn't against having a baby, mind you, but, growing up as an only child in a rural area, I've come to value some time to myself and some quiet. With a baby, you have neither. I'm happy to report that I'm really excited about the whole thing. I saw a little baby the other day and thinking "I want one of those". That type of thought has never really happened to me before.

Now to tie this all in to the prevalent theme of this blog, writing comics. I worried a little on how our baby would effect my quest to break into the business. And I've come to this conclusion: it will only effect it as much as I let it. I waste a lot of time in the evenings. I can use that time a lot more wisely with my daughter and still have time to devote to writing. If Stephen King can write in a tiny wash room with an old typewriter, then I can write after the baby's asleep (and before she wakes up again).

I'm working on a comic with an artist that I'm planning to submit to all the indie publishers. If it's not picked up, then I was going to self-publish. With a baby, I won't have as much disposable income for self-publishing. What this means is that I might have to save a little longer or maybe do without some other non-necessities in order to publish our book. If that's the case, then so be it. This is not an easy business to break into, you have to be willing to plug away and make some sacrifices.

2005-10-16T10:12:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd take a break from my usual angst-ridden posts about trying to break into the comics industry to talk about a book that caught everyone's attention this week: Infinite Crisis #1. I'm not really going to do that much summarizing so there shouldn't be too many spoilers if you've not read it yet (and if you've not gotten your copy I imagine you'll be waiting until the second printing) but one may slip in so be forewarned.

First of all, I'm firmly in the Garth camp in that I fear change. Good change, bad change, indifferent change, it doesn't matter. I fear it. So, I've been one of those watching with mounting trepidation the goings on in the DCU. As a brief aside, I get a few snide comments every now and then on how I could let the goings on in "funny books" cause me any kind of emotional response. I point out to these folk that it's the same thing as worrying what's going to happen on your favorite soap, or worrying if who might die on Lost this week, or is your favorite on Survivor going to be voted off (which is a concern of mine as well). Anyway, the dark path the DCU has been traveling of late has had me worried. Not that I'm wanting a return to giant washing machines with a need to kill that are dispatched by happy-go-lucky heroes that chortle and call each other chum. No, I like a mixture: some grim and gritty balanced by some old fashioned heroics and humor tossed into the mix.

Plus, I don't know where I stand on the death of characters. I realize that there has to be the possibility of death. If you put all these characters in extreme peril all the time and no one ever gets hurt, then you've lost a vital source of dramatic tension. At the same time, I think that almost any character, probably more like any character can be made vital and reach an audience with the right writer on board. Catman, a 3rd stringer at best, has some new fans thanks to villains United. Look what Miller did with Daredevil back in the day. Even Detective Chimp is getting some props. So, in my mind, when you kill a character, you've lost potential. Of course, this is comics so just wait a few months and bring the character back, I guess.

Let's summarize: fear change, mixed emotions about character deaths. You know a book like Infinite Crisis is going to shake things up and you know characters are going to die. So, it was with mixed emotions that I started to read it. Guess what? I like it. I cringed at some of the deaths, sure, but I liked the story. I read it all the way through, quickly, and I found myself wishing I had issue #2 so I could read more. What else can you ask from a comic?

One more thing before I go. Geoff Johns, the writer responsible for Infinite Crisis, took time out to answer around 500,000 questions on Newsarama (not really that many, but a lot). He answered them as honestly as he could without ruining upcoming surprises, and rarely, rarely, fell back on the "See above for the answer" even though many of the questions were variations on a theme. Now, the man doesn't have to do something like that to be a good guy, but the fact that he did, shows his commitment and love of the fans and makes him a class act in my book.

2005-10-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd talk a little bit about perserverance. If I were giving a Valedictorian speech, I'd start out with something like "Webster's defines perserverance as..." Now, since I try to avoid cliches when possible and I'm too lazy to walk across the room and get my copy of Webster's, I'll just give you my own definition. Perserverance is trying to move forward even when it feels that you're not getting anywhere.

I think this is one of the greatest tools of the writer. There's also talent, sure-although many would argue that you don't necessarily have to have talent in order to become a successful writer (note the difference between successful and good). Good contacts are also frequently mentioned, which is bad news for people like myself that have the social graces of a piranha at a Denny's. And people say that you need a lot of luck.

Now getting into the debate of whether or not our lives are determined by the whims of chance or the laws of design is, in itself, a whole other post, and not one to be entered into at 11:46 at night. So let's just confine our thoughts to writing. Do you have to be lucky to make it as a writer? It's a different profession than most. Want to be a doctor? Go to med school and, assuming you can get through the classes, you've got a pretty reasonable chance at success. Not so with writing. There's no right way in and what works for one will not necessarily work for another. So the question has to be asked again, does making it as a writer require a lot of luck?

It seems that way sometimes. Some writers seem to just catch that break, just seem to be in the right place at the right time. But I like to think that they've been in the wrong place at the wrong time or, like Dr. John, were in the right place at the wrong time. They've had their share of setbacks: the times it seemed that publication was a sure thing but then went south, the contacts that fizzled. But they kept going. And finally, finally, they were in the right place at exactly the right time.

I like to think this way because it's what keeps me going. Even, like tonight, when I don't feel like I'll ever get there. Thinking this way keeps me trying to move forward even when I don't feel like I'm going anywhere. It even keeps me writing this thing even when I'm not even sure there's anybody reading it.

Because, someday, there might just be.

2005-10-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, this may be a little disjointed, as I've been sitting in front of this computer for quite a while, but bear with me. Future posts will prove that I love nothing more than running down a good tangent.

I've finally figured out enough HTML, FTP, LSH, and JLA to get my website up and running. Three evenings of total hell that resulted in my computer desk being less than pristine (from smacking it) and my tongue blistered (from laying my tongue to every curse word I could think of--including a couple last spoken by the ancient Aztecs).

So why am I doing this? Why am I spending my hard earned money and time creating a website? The question to that one is both pretty easy and dang hard to answer. The easy answer is to create a place to send editors and, hopefully, future fans to look at my comic work. Most writers I've spoken with say that having a web site is an invaluable tool to breaking into the business.

Now for the hard part of the answer. Every scrap I've read on the internet, every interview with a comic professional, all point to how incredibly, read incredibly, hard it is to break into the comic business. Especially for writers that don't draw all that well--a category in which I'm firmly entrenched. So why am I still pursuing this knowing how hard it is to get in?Because I love comics. And I love to write. And I can't imagine a better job than marrying these two things. I'm working with a couple of artists on some projects and it is such a thrill to see these images I've had in my head actually put down on paper (only better!). I can't imagine what it would be like to have that all the time-and maybe even getting paid for it.

So that's why I'm pursuing it. People do break in. It may read hokey or cliched, but if I don't try, then I never will be one of those people.

That's it for this time. I warned you it would probably read a little disjointed. Stick around, it'll probably get worse.