Angry Writer on the Loose!

Fully grasping the idea of how things are supposed to be is an idea that generally escapes and eludes most people. I can honestly say that it eluded me for a very long time. But times have changed. There’s an intelligent black man in the white house, instead of the ignorant whitey we had for so long. Sarah Palin is a villain. Marvel is making good movies. The Batman movie franchise is relevant again. The world is a pretty crazy place, clearly.

I’m here to tell you, it’s going to be OK. Global warming may ruin the planet for those unfortunate souls still alive in the year 2100, but that’s their problem, not ours. Be concerned with what you can control, not what you cannot. Now, don’t try and twist my words around and say “this guy is anti-environment”, no, wrong, stop it. Recycling takes NO EFFORT at all, and benefits the world incredibly. But I came across a facebook post today of a “friend” of mine who linked an article some woman had posted online talking about how they had “given up the fight” of being a vegetarian because she realized that her efforts were going unnoticed by the major food corporations. Ok, first of all…DUH! How stupid are you? I will quote from Community, “Believe it or not, I dropped out of High School because I thought it would impress Radiohead.” (Britta Perry) The same nonsensical idea applies to this woman’s article which I have refused to link in this blog because it is SO STUPID that it doesn’t deserve the readership of my faithful followers. The fact of the matter is that the machine of consumerism cares so incredibly little for the opinions and actions of the individual, and if you didn’t already know that, then you need to go to any gas station in America and attempt to barter over the price of your gasoline. Once they’ve stopped laughing at you they’ll probably ban you for life from the store.

The capitalist society is built on the idea of choice. You are free to have yours but maintaining a choice or even a belief because you think it’s going to affect society or events outside your sphere of influence (yes, typically this term is used in reference to nations and not people, but the rules still apply) then you truly need therapy for your MASSIVE FUCKING EGO. You cannot change the world. I don’t say that to be a defeatist, I say it to be a realist. The biggest things in the world that needed to have a world-changer have happened. You’re not MLK. You’re not Jackie Robinson. You’re not (whoever the first major professional popular athlete to admit being gay…or maybe you are). Stop thinking you’re important, because you’re just not.

Soap box conquered and squashed. On to more fun things!

So as some of you hopefully noticed I started posting articles on a new website as well last week, (www.8daysageek.com) and I will be posting another new article on this Friday as well. Last week I featured the much maligned 90s comic Cyberforce; truly unappreciated in its day. This week I will be featuring another rather unknown comic, Blue Monday. It’s an Oni Press book; creator owned, written and drawn by one amazing person (to be profiled in the feature). It’s a really great book and I hope you all check it out.

Hmm…what else…I had a really cool moment last Friday while working with Matt. We brainstormed an idea for about 2 minutes and within 20 minutes I had written the entire 1-page pitch. It was awesome. It helps that the idea itself is pretty amazing (more details to come once it’s in development).

Alright, that’s all for now. I should have another new post up on Friday!

Peace,

TB (JQ)

Catching up...

Hey everyone...sorry it's been like a week since my last post. It's part settling into the new job, part trying to be really productive and part trying to be restful in my downtime since it's such a different environment than I've been in for a long while. However, I will hopefully be more in-tune with my blogging in the near future, so for you faithful readers (of my spurtiness) I thank you, and for those of you who long for more of a constant stream of my blatherings, I am working to achieve that for you.

So for now here's what I can tell you...there's four pages of my script up on the Ape Entertainment web publishing page. If you click HERE it'll link you to the first page and you can click Next at the bottom of the page you can continue on through what's posted thus far. Rate it below the "About the Creators" portion of the page if you like it! I really appreciate feedback too, so any comments you have lay'em on me.

Ok, on to new business. I wrote my first pitch for an established comic this past week. I really like the concept I came up with and I think it could be really good for the property. Now, of course you're curious what property it is and all that jazz, but I'm not really able to share that here just yet. We'll see how it goes and then of course if it gets approved I'll have more to share! But I'd like to explore the concept. A lot of independent comic creators strive to reach the pinnacle of working for DC or Marvel. (note that DC gets a hyperlink where Marvel does not...don't really like Marvel these days, so they can suck it) I think indie people aspire to have works published with Image or Dark Horse or Oni Press because of the Independent Comics companies out there, those are three of the biggest. But they're different in the sense that they're more attainable. Each of them will, from time to time if not on a regular basis, accept submissions from outside creative teams to publish creator owned projects. Now, of course, they're only going to take the best of the best and those who fall short will feel slighted (since most creative people feel that their work is superior to all others and the opinions of those that disagree with them are flawed in some way) and that's entirely the wrong way to go about things.

I can't even tell you how many times I've sat in a room with Matt or Eric or any number of other creative people and discussed ideas for stories where we didn't all see it from the same perspective and we would sometimes even get to the point of arguing over how our take on it was better. Having an open discourse is key, that's number one. Number two is just as important and that's this: learn from those who have achieved more than you. Their advice may not be perfect and in the end it may not even help you, but if you refuse to even allow for the possibility that someone that's attained something you hope to could give you help by offering their perspective then you've already failed. Ask Questions. If someone doesn't like your idea, find out what they don't like and ask for their thoughts on how it could be better. Their specific suggestion may not work for you, but it's likely that having someone else provide input will get your creative juices flowing and you can build off it.

Man...I tend to get on a soapbox kinda often in these blogs don't I? Not really sorry about that, since blogs are supposed to be about expression of personal thoughts and ideas and this is the one I am having right now. But back to where I got kinda sidetracked: taking an established property and trying to make it your own, for at least an issue. It's important to have a good grasp on the characters, it helps if you're not trying to write Batman or Superman who have about a BAJILLION issues to their name with almost as many takes on their personality traits and skills and etc and etc. But when it's characters that are less defined it allows you to pick up on one or two key character traits and either work with them or work against them. In my concept I take the fact that the three friends are incredibly close and I explore what could drive them apart, if even slightly, and how that could happen and what the one that was on his own would do. The concept itself has a lot of potential and after bringing it to the creator of the property he and I had a great conversation about it. He had some ideas for tweaks to the story but overall he really liked it! So now...I move on to first draft scripting. Woohoo!

Hmmm...what else...uhmm...well, I got some new characters sketches for the project I'm working on with Shawn Atkins and the direction is good. We've got some work to do but overall I'm loving his stuff. More to come on that.

For now...hope you enjoyed today's post; hope you read my UFO story and hope you continue to be one of my readers. Share the love if you like it!!! I'm proud to say I've had readers from Russia now, I'm officially Global! Scary thought.

Peace,

Tim