Tag: creator-owned comics

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Writing Batman

Nearly twelve (!) years ago, while I was promoting my first-ever published comic book, Footprints, my hometown paper did a story about me and my work.

I was 26 and didn’t know shit about shit (as it stands at nearly 38, I only know a little bit of shit about shit), but it’s always nice when your hometown gives you some recognition. Anyway, in that story I’m quoted as saying “I don’t need to write Batman—I just love comics as a storytelling medium.”

Reading between the lines, of course I didn’t ~*need*~ to write Batman… but I wanted to. Desperately. Of course I did! Who wouldn’t?

Batman: Urban Legends #20 art by Vasco Georgiev and Alex Guimarães

Even though I was green and just starting to embark on a career in making comics, I knew enough to know that one key element to surviving in this industry, from a mental health perspective, is having your expectations in the right place.

Nobody is going to show up at your doorstep because you’ve decided to make a comic book and be like, “Hey kid! We heard you put together one book that ~100 people read! Wanna write Batman?!” So I was just being realistic, tempering expectations. But inside? Of course that was always one of the goal posts I wanted to reach.

Cut to this month, and my biggest DC Comics story to date is finally out in the world. It’s a four-part arc kicking off in Batman: Urban Legends  #20 called “The Murder Club,” a story that will see the wonderful Urban Legends series through to its conclusion with issue #23.

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PAWN SHOP to be Published by Z2 Comics in the Fall

I’m so pleased to say that Pawn Shop, by me and Sean Von Gorman, is being published by Z2 Comics this fall, as announced by Publishers Weekly earlier today.

The book is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and at your local book and comic stores. If you were a Kickstarter backer or purchased one of the self-published editions from us at some point, your support means the world! If you enjoyed it, we’d love if you could continue spreading the word and get your local shops to order a copy or just tell a friend!

PawnShop_SeriesLogo

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The Power of Negotiation, or: You’re Worth It

I’m by no means a financially successful writer that should be giving any sort of contract advice to other comic book creators (though not for lack of trying), but I think it’s important for us all to share our experiences with these things and there’s far too little of it in the community (if you want great legal info on contracts from a creator-POV, check out Charles Soule’s posts on the subject; the man is a talented writer as well as a lawyer).

So, I’ve done a few things here and there: some work-for-hire for publishers I love, some work-for-hire that I wish would disappear forever and burn in Creative Hell, creator-owned books with indie publishers and creator-owned books self-published with the help of Kickstarter. I’ve done work I’m proud of (except for the aforementioned stuff burning in Creative Hell) and have plenty more in the works.

More recently I’ve been collaborating with the amazing Joe Badon on a science-fiction project that I’ve been pitching as CHEERS meets BLADE RUNNER, called SPEAKEASY. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, Joe’s art is stunning and weird, and pretty much every publisher has passed on it. And that’s totally okay. The style is definitely outside of the mainstream wheelhouse, and coming from two no-names, I get it. We did, however, have a long (year-long, in fact) conversation with a smaller publisher about getting it out there, possibly this summer/fall. I’m not going to say who because it really doesn’t matter. They put out books that I really like and I would’ve been happy to work with them.

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SPEAKEASY art by Joe Badon

 

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Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Page Process (Page 5)

Only two days left on the Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Kickstarter, and we’ve already explored the behind-the-scenes of Pages 1, 2, 3, and 4… onto Page 5!

This page is pretty straightforward. The only real deviation from the script is panel 5.3, which originally called for a medium shot or so of ‘Resa placing her bet. Smartly, Jonathan conserved space and changed it to a close-up with an off-panel balloon. It just wasn’t necessary to show that many details, not when the location has already been firmly established and we can infer what she’s doing from the context of the scene and her dialogue. Great example of an artist being economical with space.

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Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Page Process (Page 4)

We’re only a few days from the end of the Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Kickstarter, so I’ll be posting the remainder of these behind-the-scenes pieces this week! We’ve looked at Page 1, 2, and 3, so onto Page 4!

Jonathan more or less rendered this page as I wrote it aside from two notable changes: he added a panel that helps build the suspense of the gambling and he chose a different angle for that last panel, which definitely works better (and is less complicated) than what I wrote. But the thing I love about this page is something that you can’t see from comparing the script to the final art — you’d have to be privy to our emails back and forth to have any idea about it.

‘Resa’s line in the last panel, “Cash in your winnings and never come back” is a nod to one of the greatest movies of all-time, Casablanca. But it wasn ‘t written in the original script that way; it was originally just “Oh, Devil…” as she tried to grab his attention. Continue reading “Footprints: Bad Luck Charm Page Process (Page 4)”