TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE August/01 - 60% of my brain is a post-apocalyptic landscape.
Also: Matthew Rosenberg. A bit of a dude.
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2022 -- bounce.
I let myself walk away.
This script was done, and it was okay, but I knew it was missing something. Whenever something feels okay [like, sure, it’s fine, but nothing special] you know it. You feel it in your gut, and you have a choice as to whether to accept that or not.
I had 20 minutes left in my writing time in the morning and I started to stare at this script, like I could pressure it into giving me what I want, as if intimidation could make it better, but I could feel I did not know what the missing ingredient to this sauce was…so I bounced.
I did some other office ephemera clean up [probably book launch prep, I don’t even remember] and then I exercised [while watching a film mentioned below] and suddenly it came to me. The soupcon of spice this story needed. I made a quick note of it, finished exercising, and was able to come back to it the next morning with a plan.
I’m always trying to assess when my brain is cooked for the day and needs to jog on and do something else. I’m not a procession line of “Good Stuff” so I need to know when I might be wasting time staring because I’m done for the day. I know knowing there’s a limit, and finding it, and respecting it, has been one of the better things I could do as I closed in on, and eclipsed, the age of 40.
Sure as eggs, though, that plan worked and I restructured a bit, and it was now really something…until it came unstuck on the final line. So I rewrote that final caption and panel a dozen times over the next few days and it finally clicked into place with Lego-powered clutch and, honestly, sometimes those are the moments I live for. Moments where my dedication [and luck, or whatever else we call it when the stardust that believes itself to be sentient inside my bone cage stumbles across something that’s narratively beautiful] and I come out with a great moment or line.
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Crowdfunding. Honestly, I love it.
There’s something about the immediacy and connection of a good crowdfunded comic that really gets my energy up high. Sadly, being in Australia often means I can’t back comics at the physical level I wish I could due to postage being a wallet destroying titan, but overall I find the process really creatively fulfilling from a backer standpoint, so I try to bring that energy to campaigns when I’ve run them.
Recently, I went to a new crowdfunding platform with Jen Vaughn to create our one-shot story of power and responsibility called BACKSTORY. We just crossed over the line, but it was a victory due to it being a new crowdfunding platform - getting people to sign up in new places can be really tricky - and due to us not quite having our whole campaign quite worked out at first - we discovered we could be part of the launch line up for the platform, and it rushed our deadline for launch a fair bit, but I guess it was worth it in the end.
We - two crazy kids with a dream - were able to make the comic we wanted to make on our terms and it’s always an incredible achievement in this world. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again:
When I started out writing, I just wanted to complete stuff, get my stories out there, collaborate with rad people. Many years later, and it’s still that dream when it happens. It’s still the best. Hell, I can remember when Kickstarter was just about the only place to go, and it was only available to North American peeps. I remember it opening up to other countries, Australia being one, and that was when I dove headfirst into crowdfunding and fell in love - that’s when I created DEER EDITOR.
I’d gone to Sami Kivela with a dream - to tell a B&W noir one-shot story with an anthropomorphic lead - and he trusted me to take it to Kickstarter, and what happened was we successfully funded 3 issues of this story, always gaining new readers, always over-delivering on our stories and enthusiasm, and it really opened my eyes to new ways of getting your work completed. Getting your stories into hands and minds.
I would go on to run 8 successful campaigns on Kickstarter. I’d also be featured in 3 different ComixTribe anthology opportunities, and they would eventually publish an OGN of mine through Kickstarter, SHE: AT THE TOWER OF ALL THAT IS KNOWN.
So many stories, and collaborations, and new readers, all because of crowdfunding. So to those of you who backed BACKSTORY - thank you. Jen and I were incredibly humbled to see our comic make it and we cannot wait to send it out to all of you.
To those of you waiting for more - ComixTribe have been turning the engines of awesome in their HQ for a while now so they can publish my latest OGN with Louie Joyce, and this book is a serious game-changer for me. It might be one of the most beautiful stories/products/collaborations I’ve ever been a part of and I cannot wait to share more, like this little teaser :]
ALSO: sidebar to this - in that fundraising home stretch for BACKSTORY, we got blessed by a lovely write up in Matthew Rosenberg’s newsletter - I know you know, but he’s a comic writer I really look up to. I could wow you by saying he’s written multiple rad titles at Marvel - incl. Uncanny X-Men, Multiple Man, Tales of Suspense, and even a Star Wars - or I could casually slip in how he’s just been announced as the writer on the Joker series, after writing multiple awesome tales involving the Joker, Grifter, and most other DC cape icons - but really I just want to geek out about how he wrote 4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK, which might be one of my top 10 comic making inspirations as far as voice, the use of comics, and sheer awesomeness goes, and his recent recollaboration with Tyler Boss is WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE? And it is the next trade I’m dying to read [as it sits next to my chromebook as I type, waiting for the right time - and I only waited on the trade because I’d preordered the comic through my LCS, but did it as the deluxe version with the LPs, and they never seemed to turn up, so I was left adrift, ADRIFT!].
Matthew Rosenberg is a phenomenal writer, but he’s also just a stand up guy. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Seattle at ECCC in 2017 and he took the time to let me fanboy on him. He openly told me he didn’t like talking about his own work, and felt weird when people came up and spoke about moments in his comics they loved, so I told him on the plane over I’d read his CIVIL WAR: KINGPIN mini on my iPad and loved [spoilery moment] because I’m a jerk like that.
Anyway, he wrote about enjoying my newsletter, and that I was crowdfunding BACKSTORY, and suddenly I hit our funding goal, and this newsletter got a dozen new subs overnight. I thought that was pretty rad, and something he didn’t have to do, but it’s like I’m always reminded - comics is full of the best people.
If you aren’t already a subscriber to his newsletter - GO SUB NOW! - it’s like this one, except he’s smarter about his personal stuff, and his comics are more successful, and he writes about chocolate milk [which I low key always love].
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
RKL interview at Comic Book Yeti - an oldie but a good one as Jimmy Gaspero goes on a deep dive into all things…well, me.
CHARLY AND THE FACTORY on Kickstarter - a new comic that’s ‘Charlie & The Chocolate Factory’ meets ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ and I’ve read this first issue and it’s bloody good stuff. Matt Dawson really does take this inspiration and launch into some rad stuff, and he’s got a knack for really good lines, and we all know Alex Cormack is an absolute beast and he brings all his grit and genius to these pages. Hit this campaign up to support an indie comic just kicking off!
The 50 best deaths in all of story history - ymmv, but there is a great variety of deaths in these examples and plenty to consider why they work.
10 Unappreciated Noir Flicks - an article/list by Andrew Nette and I had not seen nor heard of one of these flicks, and they all look intriguing.
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
A QUIET PLACE: PART II - well, damn, this was a good one. I loved the first flick - it took me ages to get around to it, but when I did it blew my socks off. A post-apocalyptic alien-invaded earth where the creatures hunt you when they can hear you - yes, please. The first flick was so perfect that I couldn’t imagine why they’d done a sequel, but I was intrigued. Cut to a few students telling me it was pretty rad and I made time to make it my ‘exercise flick’ of the week. I’ve gone from podcasts [which would sit neatly in my ears and not wake the kids next door at 6am, to watching stuff on my laptop because they’re older and it doesn’t wake them, and if it did, good, maybe go make me a coffee or something :]
Anyway, back to this sequel - it’s the goods. The opening sequence is a brilliantly structured and filmed slice of flashback tension. There’s a sequence later in the flick where three characters experience different tensions in three different locations and they’re all kinda interwoven in their beats and it was just a masterclass in making all three lines more heightened.
I found myself caring so much in this flick, genuinely invested in each character and their survival, and gut punched by many moments. This is just really good sci-fi/horror and I’m firmly keen to see what Krasinski does with his writing/directing moving forward as he has a definite skill for both.
BARRY - I finished all 3 seasons. Who knew Henry Winkler was going to come out as a completely boss actor in the pandemic years? What a legend! The way this show makes you care as much about the hitman/killing plots as the acting/Hollywood plots is insane. The way the show uses the tried and tested sitcom structure of having an A and a B plot in each episode, and then they find a way to reflect upon each other so a lesson learnt in one carries across to another is really smart stuff. Bill Hader has always been intriguing - hilarious, but not a headliner, a good looking rooster, but not in a Hollywood way - and he takes this dark satire, and these quirky/strange/intense faces and turns it into a real character study. The end of S3 has left me hanging and they’ve done it in a brilliantly built up way.
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Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
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Who is Ryan K Lindsay?
I’m an award-winning Australian [in that order] comic writer. I’ve been published by Black Mask, Dark Horse, ComixTribe, IDW, Mad Cave, Heavy Metal, Vertigo, and a few more. Kickstarter has been a home for many short comics. I often get to collaborate with great mates, and this brings me joy.
I write about balancing this creative game alongside a full teaching load [currently College English] and a lovely family load and the forever melting brain that is modern man. I think about a lot of stuff, I still don’t know if it’s the right stuff. ymmv.
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POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
60% of my teaching load right now is post-apocalyptic fiction of some kind - THE ROAD, and to a slightly lesser extent THE LEFTOVERS. Both books explore grief and hope in different ways.
I believe it’s important to study these things. So it’s been awesome to see students diving in and trying to explore the characters of both books and see what makes them tick and what they might represent and what the authors are trying to say.
I also firmly believe it is through these things that we discover ourselves.
Many students have said that Jill, the daughter in The Leftovers, isn’t a realistic character because after 2% of the world’s population disappears one day [including her “best friend” Jen] she just cuts her hair off - and no one thinks that would ever happen. I’m sure in their experience, they haven’t witnessed such a thing, yet, or recognised that they have, but I think they’ll soon come to realise that people manifest their grief visually quite often. The cliche of the ‘post break up haircut/gym routine’ is something I’m certain is waiting for them in the coming decade.
And that’s just a small moment. Their analysis of the wife in The Road, who is shown in a flashback to give up on life, is also gearing up to be an interesting chat in the class because it’s just something most of them can’t comprehend yet.
When people ask me why teaching English/books matters [and the question does come up], this is the stuff I point to. Expanding your perspectives on things opens up your empathy - and the world needs more of that. Always.
Dude. I can't wait for your book with Louie. Seriously so pumped!