TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE May/17 - Like Taking Candy [Inspiration] From A Baby [Slightly Older Child]
Everyone else is doing newsletter contents sections...but you've read my comics, I'm rarely that helpful to my readers.
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2021 -- beyond.
Tired week means there was work to be done.
I’ve been prepping the back matter for the single issue release of BLACK BEACON #2, and I gotta say there’s some really awesome stuff going into it. The voice of it, the information, and the actual story contained within it all has me completely excited about it. These single issues are going to be beautiful and so much larger in scope than what goes into the magazine each month.
Hopefully people have preordered BLACK BEACON #1 at their LCS. Who am I kidding, of course you have :]
I’ve also finalised the EVERFROST #1 Script Annotations for the Patreon, so now we can drop one page a day for the month and you can read along with the comic and see what my brain was doing when I wrote this, and just see how the script changes to the finished page.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PATREON - you can get the first few pages for free if you click Follow and you’ll get those emails, and if you sign up for the bottom pledge [$1.50, I think] then you’ll get every page, and them all in a PDF at the end, and then you can just cancel your pledge after one month, so that’s a helpful way to keep it manageable.
Outside of those two things, I pitched a new project to a new publisher, and I don’t think I’ve named this one [or, if I have, I’ve forgotten, so…] - let’s call it [THE SHARP INK PROJECT]. I’ll know within a month. And if it doesn’t land then I’ll rotate the cannon a few degrees and fire again at a new target.
But I’ve been trying to script out the opening 5 pages to introduce one of the leads, and it’s taken me all week to think about how I’d approach it. I mapped out the 5 pages a handful of ways, asking myself questions in the notebook, moving on to try again, forgetting the night before’s notes and rediscovering them in the morning. It’s been a journey, and not one I was happy with. Until…
I was teaching on Saturday - a kind of creative writing class for gifted kids, if you will - and amidst all of that writing and thinking and energy and time, I came up with an angle on the scene/character that hadn’t come to me before, it felt fresh, and it excited me greatly. Sometimes being in a creative environment absolutely does increase your own creativity. I completely get why people work in studios with other people as it’s just more inspiration in the room to thieve from. There’s something about that environment that unclogs the brain and gets it flowing smoother.
My burst of inspiration was another way to show what I knew needed to be on the page for this character intro, and it wasn’t something I think I’ve seen before. Every other idea stalled because it worked, and was good, but it felt like we’d been there before, and I didn’t want good, I wanted great.
Knowing time was on my side, I opted to ride it out [always trust the process] and hoped for the best. Now, I haven’t scripted this plan, yet, but it feels good and I’ll let it continue to percolate and come out throughout the next week.
The mornings have continued to be productive, but I have found I’m wiped out by the end of the day. Which shouldn’t confuse me, by waking at 4am instead of 6am it means 9pm now feels like my 11pm, so I’m pretty tired, but before I’d be sitting up in my office having just had a coffee, but now I’m caffeine-free and slumped in bed, and I’m finding reading difficult. But I’m sleeping like it’s my job and waking well enough to walk outta the bedroom at 4 again the next day, so I’m calling it a win.
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Okay, so...BLACK BEACON, it’s out there.
BLACK BEACON was in Heavy Metal #306 - LAST WEEK!
My sci fi collaboration with Sebastian Piriz landed last week in the pages of Heavy Metal Magazine - pick up #306 and find the opening 24 page chapter of BLACK BEACON!
This is a huuuuuge sci fi story, and we’ll be in the next 5 issues of the magazine. Here’s a look at the first page:
You can pick up a copy this week, or tell your LCS to put it aside for you while you are talking to them about EVERFROST :] The cover looks like this:
Or, if you really wanna commit: BLACK BEACON is also getting a single issue release later in the year, and the first issue is up for preorder, so you can tell your comic shop to preorder BLACK BEACON #1 for you, it’s from Heavy Metal, with order code MAY211491 - here’s the cover:
This comic got some great support from some awesome places:
SYFYWIRE covers the launch of the Beacon
Screenrant spoke with us about the Beacon
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Everfrost Final Hype.
Okay, we crossed the Final Order Cutoff. I’m exhausted.
We got a really awesome review on Blake’s Buzz - click to read the goodness.
I also appeared on the Comic Book Workshop Podcast - and this was a huge and awesome chat. I’ve enjoyed the episodes Jason has recorded so far, with some very awesome names included, so it was an honour to be on.
We spoke about EVERFROST, and then BLACK BEACON, but then we detoured without filter and I spoke about the DC Writers’ Workshop, and what failure looks like and feels like and means to me, and how it’s pushed me further and higher in other places. We spoke about our writing, and our inspirations, and how it’s all therapy.
Definitely click that link if you want a solid 90+ minutes of me banging around your ears and brain. I’m really happy with how this one came out.
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What’s next?
Yes, with two comics coming out right now, and another in Feb, my brain is already asking me this dreaded question.
Let’s look 12 months into the future - whatta ya got?
Easy answer: I don’t really know.
But I’m scripting SHE Vol. 2 [second draft should begin this week], and I’m working on plans for [THE LADY KUNG FU PROJECT], and I’m pitching [THE SHARP INK PROJECT], and hoping to be able to do something with [THE MIDNIGHT MARS PROJECT], as well as [THE CROWN SHYNESS PROJECT], and beyond that I wanna keep trying to break story on [THE BLUEPRINT PROJECT] - so there are certainly think I *want* to happen.
Who the hel knows what could eventuate from it all, but I am trying. I wouldn’t mind having 1-2 more great story ideas, but I also am sitting on some stuff I love and want to get off the ground, so there’s gotta be room left to hustle for them.
The thing is, once a project gets picked up, I don’t have the bandwidth to continue to pitch 5 more things, or break down another 3 stories, because I don’t have the time. I almost kind of fall off the map writing the actual thing I’ve got picked up and ensuring it’s great [while still teaching, and life, y’know?] so once one of these gets a greenlight to start scripting and making, my blinkers kind of go up and I don’t think that’s a perfect way to do things, but it’s certainly how I know I operate, so I gotta work with what I’ve got.
My aim: get the next mini greenlit at a publisher, so I can start scripting it once I finish the SHE Vol. 2 script. That’s the target, and I’m drawing back the strong on this very long bow as far as I can get it.
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Oh, also, Patreon - script annotations.
Just an official announcement/place for this, in case you’re more of a headline scroller, 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.
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ASD&D.
Ran a fun campaign for a school group.
Also had a kid from the high school, an old student, come down to DM a group, and I love that someone is still so connected to it all. Makes me really bloody happy, honestly. If I can provide a slice within an education system where someone feels found or seen, then that’s just about the biggest goal to kick. This kid found some joy and passion and a highlight amongst their week. Years later, they still feel it, and work with it. He was telling me he has an assignment due in about 2 months for this D&D elective he’s studying, but he’s already finished the assignment, so now he’s just road testing it on the kids in my club, and refining what he’s got.
So. Goddamn. Cool.
I always say - teaching, when it’s at its best, is better than any other job.
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
The Storyclock for THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES - this is exceptional. Worth enjoying, or studying, the concept that beats in your story pay off in other “even/balanced” spaces in your story is so simply effective and rewarding. While not a hard rule, you can see here how things get the chance to establish, build, and pay off. I’ve downloaded heaps of storyclocks from their site, I bought the [digital] notebook when they Kickstarted, and I’ve made a few of my own storyclocks on flicks I’ve watched.
I’ve also found it useful after I’ve mapped out a story so do one on my own work to see how things are looking. Again: not a hard rule, but it’ll show you chances where you can tweak to improve pacing or pay something off harder.
TIGERBOY VERSUS on Kickstarter - this just looks intensely gorgeous, and fun.
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari - been diving back into this book, and I’m loving it. A history of humans over the many thousands of years we’ve been kicking around, and I read about The Agricultural Trap, and I’m fascinated by it. tl;dr it’s about how when you expand your means for production you usually just expand your means for consumption, and spending, and so it’s not much of a gain at all. It just makes people work harder, with more stress, for a tiny gain, and a whole lot more responsibility.
It’s something I want to keep thinking about, and searching for the in the world, because it’s something I consider in my personal balance. I consider the work in/work out balance in my writing and teaching and life. I could expand our backyard garden by triple its size, but how many more hours would it require from me, or would I need to hire someone to tend to it, thus removing any profit or gain?
If the extra work is used to benefit others, then I can get behind it, but when we seem to use it to prop up billionaires, well that’s just starting to rub me the wrong way. I have no solution, especially beyond my own boundaries, but the first step towards positive progress is knowing what you are working with and against.
Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
The cold is coming.
The other morning, when I woke up, I was freezing my ass off:
And the thing that made me laugh was there was still nearly 3 hours ahead of me where it would only get colder. Eventually, the temp dropped to nearly -5 degrees, apparently.
I’m all for Winter weather, I love a blanket and a coffee and a rugged up mentality. But waking to such frost is a little much, honestly. Alas, Winter in this town lasts for, usually, about 8 months, so I better get used to it.
And you wonder why I spent my time writing about a snow planet.