TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE June/07 - The Great Soap Sliver Analogy
I hope you enjoyed EVERFROST #1 - out at your LCS now!
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2021 -- beyond.
What’s next?
I’ve started pitching some new stories around. With Everfrost written, and Black Beacon nearly completely signed off on the scripts, I need to look to new things. As such, I’ve got 3 new ideas I’ve been kicking around all year, alongside a few old things I need to see if I can make happen.
One is [THE SHARP INK PROJECT] and I’ve pitched it to one publisher and when they passed I took it to another publisher. This dance is always the worst because it’s a culmination of a hell of a lot of creative energy, and now I feel in limbo while I wait to see if maybe this thing will never get made. Fingers crossed I can get it across the line, as I believe in it greatly and could see myself happily writing it for a few months. If the mini [that has aspirations of more minis to that world] doesn’t get picked up, it would be difficult to do on my own - using Kickstarter for a mini is a difficult proposal for me - but I could see me trying to swerve it into a graphic novel of some kind/description. The success of SHE has let me think in that direction - plus others going that route on Kickstarter, like Brisson with Murderbook, and Lemire with COSMIC DETECTIVE - so I’ll keep that as a future thought, but for now I’m pitching and waiting and hoping and all of the rest that goes with writing pitches and talking to publishers.
Beyond that, there are two ideas I’m kicking around with varying degrees of success. They are slowly taking shape as strange elements and moments and characters start to come together to fuse into something new. It’s always exciting, and somewhat akin to pulling teeth.
I’ve heard the great description of creating a story is like carving a statue. You start with the block, and the statue is inside, just waiting to be discovered. It’s a beautiful idea, as you shave away layers, just the right amount, the creative truth exposes itself to you and the world.
I also like my new analogy - you read this newsletter long enough, you get a million of ‘em - and that’s that story creation, for me, is like assembling all of the little slivers of soap, so eventually you have enough to get a good lather up. Hell, if you’re good enough, maybe the competing scents form something new that’s halfway decent. Maybe, if you get really lucky, it’ll allow you to enter a room later in the day and not smell like a sweaty dumpster. Just for one day. One day at a time.
I think the Soap Bar Mash Up is more my style than the “How the hell did they use stone to sculpt silk and abs?” approach. If you’ve read my work, I’m sure you’ll agree.
And, jokes aside, it really feels like this because as I break story I feel like I add little details along the way, some sticking, some peeling off, and most interacting in a way to build something new. I was listening to a podcast the other morning while exercising, catching up on THIS AMERICAN LIFE, and I was listening to stories about people’s daily rituals in lockdown and it gave me a little something to think about. So I ran into my office, wrote it on a Post It note, and ran back out.
That little seed is now working to redefine a whole slice of the worldbuilding for that story, so it’s an exciting, uncertain, and completely eclectic time to be alive.
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Everfrost #1 Launched
It’s a lovely warm feeling when you release a comic/story into the world. Everfost #1 has landed, and from all accounts, the comic has done well. Review have been favourable, as have the responses of mates, and I’m excited for people to read right through to the end of #4.
People have fallen in love with Van, and especially her longtail monkey sidekick, Eight, and they are intrigued by the world. This is exactly the kind of response I would hope for.
Some people are also left adrift in the world, some feeling like I raise too many questions, and unpack too many elements in a first issue. This is a completely fine and normal thing to feel, I do indeed pack a whole mess of story into my comics, especially my #1 issues. Is it too much? Well, that depends.
Our first issue is 26 pages, up from the standard 20 pages the Big Two currently do. That’s nearly 30% more comic for the same price - or a dollar less than many cases. I think 30% more comic should come with 30% more story, more world, more everything. But I’m aware that I also try to pack 30% more in just the first 20 pages, so it is a crowded affair.
I, personally, don’t mind that. Some people love it, feeling immersed, feeling delighted, feeling excited, feeling like their brain is abuzz with questions for the questions, and hopes for possible answers. Some people feel overwhelmed, and I completely get that, too.
All I can ever say [and think] is: this is the type of comic I’d love to read, and I appreciate when others love to read it, too, because it’s all I know how to write.
The second issue, out next month, definitely slows things down, it allows things to steep, but for now, we have our entry into the world, and I cannot wait for people to see what happens next.
For those who picked up the comic - thank you. It’s about the greatest thing in the world you can do for a creative person.
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EVERFROST Script Pages on my Patreon
For the month of June, to celebrate the release of EVERFROST #1, I’m going to release a page of script a day with annotations so you can see my thoughts behind writing this comic, and compare them to the pages as you read them, and that’ll give me a daily schedule for pretty much the whole month.
You can get in on this for just $1 for the whole month - sign up here and I’ll kick off June 01.
The first week of pages, so up to Page Five, will be free to view, and then the paywall kicks in. We hope some of you come along for the ride and enjoy it, and everything else I post up there. I usually write some process-type stuff, some short fic bursts, some D&D stuff, and the money genuinely helps me keep the lights on in this office.
Pages have been going up for a week now, so you can go and get all caught up.
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ASD&D.
Found out they’re going to release a Marvel role playing game handbook, and I’m so stupidly hyped for it - check the details here
I think this would be insanely huge fun to run at school. Just something a little different, building from a world of characters students know, and giving them another option for RPG fun that’s not fantasy based.
I will be hoping it’s not crazy expensive, and then I’ll be diving in to read this as soon as humanly possible next year.
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
Some interesting thoughts on depression - this is well written, seems fairly accurate/true to me, and the tips for assistance I think are things all people could consider in their lives.
A COMIC ABOUT COMIC BOOK EDITING BY SHELLEY BOND on Kickstarter - I want this book, but it’s $60 with postage to get it down here, so I’m going to cross my fingers that my LCS will get a copy and I’ll nab it from there, because this like a 100% addition to the Comic Making Curriculum, so I need it on my shelf.
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
SWEET TOOTH on Netflix - I started the first episode of this. Based on the amazing comic by Jeff Lemire, this starts off pretty strong with a really engaging voice for the narrator, and I’m excited to see where else it goes.
Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
Winter has indeed begun, and there’s a chance they think it might snow this week here because of what they are calling a “major polar event” so I’m looking forward to wearing many layers, checking the weather at 4am, and thinking about mugs of warm liquid, and blankets over my legs as I read.
I think I prefer the extremely cold to the extremely hot, so I guess this week will test that. In truth, as I’ve aged, I’ve learned to just love mild Spring weather. Enough for gardening, not too much for a walk, and you can still relax with a book. All the important daily activities covered.