TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE November/14 - An eyedropper full of adverbs
And a podcast that was manna for my mental health.
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2022 -- bounce.
Get excited when stuff drops.
I don’t need to read an ongoing story in a monthly format. I don’t need it weekly. I don’t think I really need my television like that, either. I don’t really care about consistent schedules, my reading and watching certainly doesn’t run on any kind of clear tracks.
I just want really good stories. I want craft I can sink my teeth into. I want the best someone can do, not just what was ready on an arbitrary deadline. It’s also no shock then that this is how I want to create. But I truly believe this is how the best stuff is forged.
And the reason I’m thinking about this…
FRIDAY #6 from Marcos Martin and Ed Brubaker just dropped, and you can pay what you want on the Panel Syndicate site. Every time a new issue appears, I get so excited.
Look at this cover. It’s insanely gorgeous, and so is the whole book so far.
The book is not set to any specific/regular schedule, and the creators have a good gig where they can afford that time and option to do as they please. Not all of us have that option - creators, publishers, more - pressures build up, so do bills, and sometimes things just have to get done. I understand it, but I don’t want to personally feed into it.
I want to be as excited about my comics releasing as I am excited about new FRIDAY dropping.
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Zeb Wells on the Ideas Don’t Bleed podcast.
Such manna for my mental health. You need to listen to this interview, and here’s why!
Zeb Wells is a phenomenal comics writer. He has done a lot, but his Elektra: Dark Reign mini will live forever in my heart for how bloody great it is. So to hear him talk on this podcast so openly about how difficult he found the lifestyle of making comics, and how much it wasn’t helping his brain was very interesting.
The guy was at a peak - he’s worked on Amazing Spider-Man, he was being offered an Elektra ongoing, and he just pushed it all away because his head wasn’t in the right space. Making comics wasn’t fun, and so it wasn’t manageable, and so he did something about it.
Zeb talks about it in a far more interesting and eloquent manner than I can, but I can confirm that listening to it while watering my garden was a good moment for my own brain. To know that even somewhat at that range can feel pressures of the job, and question what they are doing and why, and then do something about it gave me a new layer of insight on myself, and made me feel less alone with the weird thoughts I have about being a storyteller. It was so refreshing to hear someone being honest, and someone just wanting to make good comics, and someone willing to make the personal choice over the “must make the next comic straight away,” and suddenly I didn’t feel so crazy anymore [for about a minute].
Just wish I could write as well as Zeb.
Go have a listen, and subscribe, and stay on
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Using what I can of the week.
It’s been a mixed week. I’ve been working on a script and it’s been flowing well. I have it all mapped out across 24 pages and so when I sit down to write, most pages already have a decent plan baked into them. It pays to do the heavy lifting early, when you can, so the later stuff just becomes the fun stuff - the tinkering, the specific flow, the final words that’ll appear on the page.
This script is the final issue, so I’m getting to close little moments and character arcs and it’s coming out quite nicely.
Alongside this, I’ve dedicated some mornings to marking - students were tasked with creating a podcast review of a film and they are pretty good so far. Students coming up with hot takes on different films is fun to listen to.
I have a busy week ahead of marking and then it’s all due by Friday, so after that I should hopefully be seeing a lot of stress/pressure taken off me, and I can definitely dedicate my mornings to the work of writing, and maybe only the work of writing. Possibly even just the joy of writing.
I shall do my best to appreciate it for every minute I get.
Once I close up this issue’s script - which most likely will be done well before Xmas, then I can focus on what project comes next and what it needs from me.
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
I saw an article saying the global population just crossed 8 billion people. I remember when we hit 6 billion, and we thought that was huge, and I don’t know how I missed 7 billion, but now it’s 8 billion.
I haven’t linked any article because they’re all a bit…bleak in some of the particulars.
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE - I finally caught the film of this and it’s…definitely something. It’s a really emotion piece, full of slow sombre tones and colours and scenes and it’s complete brain fuel. I cannot imagine anyone under the age of 7 wanting to sit through it all, even with a short 90 minute run time, but for the kids who can muscle down for it all there is a lot to chew on.
The fact Max and all of the wild things are just so damn sad is really something. None of their wild ways truly brings them any peace, it’s all just distraction. And it usually just has a high chance of making everything worse. Unpacking that with kids is a valuable lesson, and parents can at least attempt to enjoy the brilliant designs and performances of these monsters, and dig into the way Spike Jonze really worked to make this something unique, and personal.
I always felt like the message of the book was that your family will always be there for you through it all - shown through the food waiting for Max after his nap. But the film is digging into the cause of the wildness, the fact it’s just a shield from the sadness and the loneliness. It’s the best distraction someone of Max’s age/intellect can put together, but it’s shown to be pretty ineffective, and mostly just exacerbates it in some kind of emotional vacuum.
JURASSIC PARK - hadn’t watched this in well over a decade, and am somewhat shocked by how very well it holds up. The script is tight, the plot races, the performances still delight, and the dinosaurs still look incredible.
Watched it with my kid and they felt like so many moments were cliche, but only because they’ve been referenced so many times and now in the film we can see how original and iconic they truly were.
Jeff Goldblum’s Dr Ian Malcolm still remains the MVP - even though from a plot standpoint he doesn’t do all that much, but from a quotable position he’s the best. I’ve dropped the below quote in various paraphrases thousands of times across my years of existence in classrooms, pub chats, parenting situations, and more. It’s a perfect line, and delivered beautifully.
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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 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
Noirvember marches on - writing these little pulp prompts of a story title and an intro has been so much fun because it allows me to just create a quick world and a person within it and peek into what might be their problem and then bounce out. I’m using some turn of phrase and some structure that’s purely experimentation, and any time I can find a chance to just experiment with words and see what creates something new [and risk a few sizzling and blowing up in my face] well, I’m all for it. An eyedropper full of adverbs and a shelf of jars housing some weird ideas and then just slamming science around until something pops. That’s the fun of this game.