Make with the clicky to see The Future of Comics (I) Fiona Staples' illustrations of strange beasties, for Image Comics' GUTSVILLE (written by Si Spurrier and illustrated by Frazer Irving.)
Foley
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Heroic/Wasted Efforts
On a professional level, I've found myself... easily distracted, lately.
The same can pretty much always be said for my personal life. And given the health issues I've been experiencing for the last six months in general and the last two weeks in particular, I've been inclined to give myself a pass on it.
And why not? The work that really needed to get done (stories for UP1) have been taken care of on-time without much difficulty; Avril Lavigne rejected me (it's probably the painkillers talking, but phrasing it that way makes me giggle), so June's going to be a lot easier than I'd feared/hoped; only the INCURSION rewrite for Platinum has a solid deadline to worry about. And that's in July, which shouldn't be too hard to hit. Actually, it should be a piece of cake to hit, but thinking of it that way would align the cosmos in precise manner necessary to screw it up, so I'm absolutely not saying that.
Even the project for Small Press Publisher 01 (working title: ERSATZ) is supposedly paying something prior to publication. Not much, but something. So there's an argument to be made that working on ERSATZ is not completely unjustified. In fact, that is what I ended up working on for most of last week's fifteen minutes when I wasn't feeling sorry for myself or working out what I could make for dinner that could be eaten through a straw. The three issues are broken by page now, certain portions have barebones panel descriptions in place, and the last scene's dialogue is more or less written.
In fact, outside of the two page outline that's still three pages long, the last scene is the first thing I wrote for ERSATZ. I had a vision of how the story ended, which made sense from a plot/theme point of view, but still felt wrong, for reasons I couldn't put my finger on. So I started actually writing the ending, rather than writing about the ending, letting the characters talk with each other and do what they wanted to do. They told me how the story had to play out, and that energized me so much that I went back and started breaking panels and writing snippets of dialogue for the rest of the series.
I thought I was heading into another TITUS: HEROIC FAILURE scenario, and looked forward to writing the script for all three issues over the weekend and then writing the damn two-page outline for SP1. I'd get all that out of the way, go see the dentist on Monday, feel fantastic by today, and get to work on INCURSION and the revised 40-page story outline for my remaining UP1 commitment.
And then I got blocked on the first scene. And I can't seem to get past it. I don't want to write the rest of the damn book till I get that one worked out to my satisfaction, and the more I look at it, and tweak it, and worry over it, the less satisfied I become.
Into all of this waltzes Chimaera Studios' George Singley, the guy who created TITUS: HEROIC FAILURE's eponymous hero. George is currently neck-deep in putting together the Chimaera Superhero Universe with a number of different writers and artists, myself included.
Since my work on Heroic Failure, I've tried to keep my participation in the CSU limited to frequent conversations with George regarding overall direction and promotion--for instance, my idea for Chimaera's Free Comic Book Day book seems to have been generally accepted by the Chimaera Brain Trust. I'm fairly excited about the FCBD idea, as I think it stands a chance of really kicking awareness of the CSU up a notch if (if) everyone involved steps up on a local level. We shall see.
But up till now, I've generally resisted adding things to the CSU in the way of new characters or properties, for a couple reasons. I really hope this thing works, but if it doesn't, I don't want to be so wrapped up in it that its failure takes me off my game (and, let's face it, the success record for superheroes outside the Big Four is...not promising). I don't particularly like losing control of material/characters I created for nothing up-front (I'm giving the rights up for ERSATZ, but for that I'm also getting a creative team supplied, a guarantee of publication, minimal editorial interference/as much editorial control as I want, deadlines of my own choosing, and a nominal payment prior to publication--and I'm still less-than-thrilled, but in a lot of ways, it's the price of doing business at this level of the industry. C'est la vie), even when I don't imagine the stuff has much chance of a life outside of comics. And if all of that wasn't true, there's still the fact that...
I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS STUFF RIGHT NOW.
Even without the Avril gig, I've got a few thousand dollars of writing work I should be doing, work that a leaking roof and Revenue Canada and an infected tooth tell me I need to be doing.
So, of course, George comes along and says, "Hey, got any original supertype characters you want to do a story in the CSU with?" or "Hey, the CSU could use a Canadian superhero team, wanna come up with one?"
Well, no, not really--I mean, I do have some superhero ideas I'd like to explore, but...no time. I could come up with a Canadian superteam, but...no time.
Unfortunately, my mind's been making time. And in the last 36 hours, ideas about what I could do with some superpower concepts I haven't thought about for fifteen years have been rattling around my head, eventually setting up shop inside a three or four issue faux-EC-anthology type thing called SPOOKY ACTION, the characters from THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT was temporarily retooled as a Canadian superhero team, then that was ditched in favour of a more traditional patriotic superteam composed character ideas like Unity, The Happy Couple, Colonel Chinook, and The Phantom Mountie (the last of which I'm reasonably would infringe on someone's trademark...).
I love writing superheroes, I really do. And I love reading them, when someone does something interesting with them (someday I'll be taking Grant Morrison's DOOM PATROL run with me to a desert island.) Interesting, but not in violation of the tenets on which the character is built. Which makes writing long-standing icons like Superman, Batman, and Captain America a challenge few writers are up to. Myself included, I suspect.*
I look at the doomed super-universes of the early '90's and see missed opportunities galore--here were dozens of character concepts creators could have done literally anything with. The bulk chose, or were forced to, regurgitate the same tired superhero formulae of the previous thirty years, relying on collectible gimmicks rather than good or interesting or experimental storytelling to stay afloat.
"More of the same" didn't work for the smaller guys, and it seemingly stopped working for the Big Two eventually, as well. As never before, it feels as though nothing at Marvel and DC is sacred. The risks that could have been taken by those with nothing to lose in the '90's have instead been embraced by editorial regimes that, if the world made any kind of sense, would instead be striving to maintain the integrity and consistency of their trademarks--not just because there's cash to be made from having the comic versions of Spider-Man and Batman be recognizable to the audience that paid millions of dollars to see the movie versions of those characters, but because those characters should rightfully be part of the fabric of western (pop) culture.
Conventional wisdom is that non-Big Four superheroes are a dead end in the mainstream comic market as it currently stands. Chimaera and Arcana are challenging that wisdom. The success or failure of the Chimaera Superhero Universe will hinge on three elements: promotion, quality work, and an audience looking for something different than what they can get from DC, Marvel, and even Image.
I can't control the first, the last, or even the middle, outside of my own contributions to the line. I've been reluctant about getting deeply involved because if things don't work out, I don't want anyone, least of all me, looking at a failure on my part to deliver anything but the best work I'm capable of as one of the reasons for it.
I don't have time for SPOOKY ACTION. I really don't.
But I've got a feeling I'll be making some soon, if only because there's a story there that wants to be told, and it doesn't care about things like economic viability. And while I care very much about that sort of thing, at some point Spooky's going to interfere with paying work to the point where it's easier to just write the damn thing than try and fight it. And who knows, maybe the time is ripe for a new superhero universe, God knows the response George's gotten so far has been overwhelmingly (and considering some of the sources, surprisingly) positive...fingers crossed.
I blame art college for this. But then, I blame art college for most things.
Foley
(*It'd be nice to find out for sure someday, though.)
The same can pretty much always be said for my personal life. And given the health issues I've been experiencing for the last six months in general and the last two weeks in particular, I've been inclined to give myself a pass on it.
And why not? The work that really needed to get done (stories for UP1) have been taken care of on-time without much difficulty; Avril Lavigne rejected me (it's probably the painkillers talking, but phrasing it that way makes me giggle), so June's going to be a lot easier than I'd feared/hoped; only the INCURSION rewrite for Platinum has a solid deadline to worry about. And that's in July, which shouldn't be too hard to hit. Actually, it should be a piece of cake to hit, but thinking of it that way would align the cosmos in precise manner necessary to screw it up, so I'm absolutely not saying that.
Even the project for Small Press Publisher 01 (working title: ERSATZ) is supposedly paying something prior to publication. Not much, but something. So there's an argument to be made that working on ERSATZ is not completely unjustified. In fact, that is what I ended up working on for most of last week's fifteen minutes when I wasn't feeling sorry for myself or working out what I could make for dinner that could be eaten through a straw. The three issues are broken by page now, certain portions have barebones panel descriptions in place, and the last scene's dialogue is more or less written.
In fact, outside of the two page outline that's still three pages long, the last scene is the first thing I wrote for ERSATZ. I had a vision of how the story ended, which made sense from a plot/theme point of view, but still felt wrong, for reasons I couldn't put my finger on. So I started actually writing the ending, rather than writing about the ending, letting the characters talk with each other and do what they wanted to do. They told me how the story had to play out, and that energized me so much that I went back and started breaking panels and writing snippets of dialogue for the rest of the series.
I thought I was heading into another TITUS: HEROIC FAILURE scenario, and looked forward to writing the script for all three issues over the weekend and then writing the damn two-page outline for SP1. I'd get all that out of the way, go see the dentist on Monday, feel fantastic by today, and get to work on INCURSION and the revised 40-page story outline for my remaining UP1 commitment.
And then I got blocked on the first scene. And I can't seem to get past it. I don't want to write the rest of the damn book till I get that one worked out to my satisfaction, and the more I look at it, and tweak it, and worry over it, the less satisfied I become.
Into all of this waltzes Chimaera Studios' George Singley, the guy who created TITUS: HEROIC FAILURE's eponymous hero. George is currently neck-deep in putting together the Chimaera Superhero Universe with a number of different writers and artists, myself included.
Since my work on Heroic Failure, I've tried to keep my participation in the CSU limited to frequent conversations with George regarding overall direction and promotion--for instance, my idea for Chimaera's Free Comic Book Day book seems to have been generally accepted by the Chimaera Brain Trust. I'm fairly excited about the FCBD idea, as I think it stands a chance of really kicking awareness of the CSU up a notch if (if) everyone involved steps up on a local level. We shall see.
But up till now, I've generally resisted adding things to the CSU in the way of new characters or properties, for a couple reasons. I really hope this thing works, but if it doesn't, I don't want to be so wrapped up in it that its failure takes me off my game (and, let's face it, the success record for superheroes outside the Big Four is...not promising). I don't particularly like losing control of material/characters I created for nothing up-front (I'm giving the rights up for ERSATZ, but for that I'm also getting a creative team supplied, a guarantee of publication, minimal editorial interference/as much editorial control as I want, deadlines of my own choosing, and a nominal payment prior to publication--and I'm still less-than-thrilled, but in a lot of ways, it's the price of doing business at this level of the industry. C'est la vie), even when I don't imagine the stuff has much chance of a life outside of comics. And if all of that wasn't true, there's still the fact that...
I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS STUFF RIGHT NOW.
Even without the Avril gig, I've got a few thousand dollars of writing work I should be doing, work that a leaking roof and Revenue Canada and an infected tooth tell me I need to be doing.
So, of course, George comes along and says, "Hey, got any original supertype characters you want to do a story in the CSU with?" or "Hey, the CSU could use a Canadian superhero team, wanna come up with one?"
Well, no, not really--I mean, I do have some superhero ideas I'd like to explore, but...no time. I could come up with a Canadian superteam, but...no time.
Unfortunately, my mind's been making time. And in the last 36 hours, ideas about what I could do with some superpower concepts I haven't thought about for fifteen years have been rattling around my head, eventually setting up shop inside a three or four issue faux-EC-anthology type thing called SPOOKY ACTION, the characters from THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT was temporarily retooled as a Canadian superhero team, then that was ditched in favour of a more traditional patriotic superteam composed character ideas like Unity, The Happy Couple, Colonel Chinook, and The Phantom Mountie (the last of which I'm reasonably would infringe on someone's trademark...).
I love writing superheroes, I really do. And I love reading them, when someone does something interesting with them (someday I'll be taking Grant Morrison's DOOM PATROL run with me to a desert island.) Interesting, but not in violation of the tenets on which the character is built. Which makes writing long-standing icons like Superman, Batman, and Captain America a challenge few writers are up to. Myself included, I suspect.*
I look at the doomed super-universes of the early '90's and see missed opportunities galore--here were dozens of character concepts creators could have done literally anything with. The bulk chose, or were forced to, regurgitate the same tired superhero formulae of the previous thirty years, relying on collectible gimmicks rather than good or interesting or experimental storytelling to stay afloat.
"More of the same" didn't work for the smaller guys, and it seemingly stopped working for the Big Two eventually, as well. As never before, it feels as though nothing at Marvel and DC is sacred. The risks that could have been taken by those with nothing to lose in the '90's have instead been embraced by editorial regimes that, if the world made any kind of sense, would instead be striving to maintain the integrity and consistency of their trademarks--not just because there's cash to be made from having the comic versions of Spider-Man and Batman be recognizable to the audience that paid millions of dollars to see the movie versions of those characters, but because those characters should rightfully be part of the fabric of western (pop) culture.
Conventional wisdom is that non-Big Four superheroes are a dead end in the mainstream comic market as it currently stands. Chimaera and Arcana are challenging that wisdom. The success or failure of the Chimaera Superhero Universe will hinge on three elements: promotion, quality work, and an audience looking for something different than what they can get from DC, Marvel, and even Image.
I can't control the first, the last, or even the middle, outside of my own contributions to the line. I've been reluctant about getting deeply involved because if things don't work out, I don't want anyone, least of all me, looking at a failure on my part to deliver anything but the best work I'm capable of as one of the reasons for it.
I don't have time for SPOOKY ACTION. I really don't.
But I've got a feeling I'll be making some soon, if only because there's a story there that wants to be told, and it doesn't care about things like economic viability. And while I care very much about that sort of thing, at some point Spooky's going to interfere with paying work to the point where it's easier to just write the damn thing than try and fight it. And who knows, maybe the time is ripe for a new superhero universe, God knows the response George's gotten so far has been overwhelmingly (and considering some of the sources, surprisingly) positive...fingers crossed.
I blame art college for this. But then, I blame art college for most things.
Foley
(*It'd be nice to find out for sure someday, though.)
Thursday, May 24, 2007
No Steps Forward Feels Like Two Steps Back
Finally got word from my manager that Paramount didn't pass on PARTING WAYS but also didn't make an offer. This means I've got a bunch of work to do for free that I might've gotten paid for, or, even better paid not to do.
Two minutes after I get that e-mail, I'm informed that She Who Must Be Impressed elected to go with someone else's story.
(If you were curious, She Who Must Be Impressed was Avril Lavigne. I got into a weird headspace a few weeks back and became incredibly superstitious about all sorts of things, including having exactly thirteen unread e-mails in my inbox at any given time and absolutely not mentioning Ms. Lavigne by name in public. As it stands, the various things that would've been jinxed by failing to live up to my completely arbitrary rules have gone the way they're going to go, and I can now return to what passes for normalcy in my life.)
So June's only going to be pretty busy, instead of insanely, stupidly busy. It's also only going to be reasonably lucrative, which isn't as good as it could've been but is a substantial improvement over my average month.
The To Do List at the moment includes:
-finishing a two-page outline of the story for Small Press Publisher A
-revising outline for fourth story for Unusual Project 1
-begin work in earnest on the rewrite of INCURSION for Platinum
-get more script for THE HOLIDAY MEN done for Nick
-get to work on Happy Harbor script
There's probably other things to do, but those are on the top of the pile.
Foley
A
Two minutes after I get that e-mail, I'm informed that She Who Must Be Impressed elected to go with someone else's story.
(If you were curious, She Who Must Be Impressed was Avril Lavigne. I got into a weird headspace a few weeks back and became incredibly superstitious about all sorts of things, including having exactly thirteen unread e-mails in my inbox at any given time and absolutely not mentioning Ms. Lavigne by name in public. As it stands, the various things that would've been jinxed by failing to live up to my completely arbitrary rules have gone the way they're going to go, and I can now return to what passes for normalcy in my life.)
So June's only going to be pretty busy, instead of insanely, stupidly busy. It's also only going to be reasonably lucrative, which isn't as good as it could've been but is a substantial improvement over my average month.
The To Do List at the moment includes:
-finishing a two-page outline of the story for Small Press Publisher A
-revising outline for fourth story for Unusual Project 1
-begin work in earnest on the rewrite of INCURSION for Platinum
-get more script for THE HOLIDAY MEN done for Nick
-get to work on Happy Harbor script
There's probably other things to do, but those are on the top of the pile.
Foley
A
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Stuff and Nonsense
Struggled through some intense physical discomfort yesterday to get the first draft of the 12-page script for UP1 done and off. That only took a week longer than it should have.
Also got some minor notes off to Nick Johnson re: THE HOLIDAY MEN, which is going to be a fun little book if I can keep on top of it.
Also worked on the outline for a new three-issue series for a small-press publisher I've never worked with before that's coming together frighteningly quickly.
Also wrote some long-overdue e-mails, one of which got an immediate and surprisingly positive response. That one was to the aforementioned publisher, requesting a specific provision to a contract that I never really thought I'd get--basically, he gets control of the multimedia rights, but only if he actually publishes the book.
Not that I thought he'd actually try and avoid publishing the book, but at this stage I'm extremely leery of signing over rights without either some sort of up-front payment or contractual assurance that I'll actually have something in print to show for my effort inside a reasonable timeframe.
Two pieces of what I consider to be some of my all-time best writing, THREADS (co-written with Scott O. Brown) and JEST CAUSE, have been locked up at Platinum for years, and may never see the light of day until the rights revert back to me/us, which is still several years down the line. And then there's the other four or five projects that originated with me that are stalled out in various stages of development, and the five or six in-house gigs also in various stages of completion, including AGE OF KINGS, which artist Russell Hossain finished drawing years ago but is nowhere to be found on Platinum's publishing schedule, and JEREMIAH: THE LAST EMPIRE, an incredibly work-intensive project which took several months out of my life for less money in total than I'd make in a month of flipping burgers.
Speaking of which, one of the good things about Platinum's unfortunate run-in with Heidi MacDonald's THE BEAT last week was the discovery that the first fourteen pages of J:TLE have been posted online at Platinum's DrunkDuck.com webcomic site. It was nice to be able to show what remains of Jeremiah's fanbase (there don't seem to be that many left, but the ones there are are hardcore) at least some of what we did. I'm vaguely hopeful the remaining 25 or so completed pages will be made available, along with at least the outline of where we were going with the story. That wouldn't do anything tangible for me, but the fans deserve that much.
Not having those books on the shelves hurts in a greater number of ways than someone who isn't a low-level comic creator aspiring to become a higher-level comic creator would probably suspect. But as I said to Platinum VP in Charge of Something-or-Other and Generally Nice Guy Dan Forcey on the phone the other day, I'm not complaining. Anyone getting into this business post-Steve Gerber/Howard the Duck has no excuse for not knowing what they may be signing away. (Hint: if the contract includes a phrase along the lines of "in all the universe, known and unknown", it's probably a fair amount.)
To be honest, up until recently, it's been my policy to simply assume 1) with each contract I'm signing away the rights to everything I'll ever create including my first-born, and 2) that I'm going to get screwed by whatever publisher I get involved with at some point. The idea is that I'll then be pleasantly surprised if the other party actually does what it claimed it would.
I haven't been pleasantly surprised all that often, to date. But, again, I'm not complaining. I am just, as they say, sayin'.
Foley
Also got some minor notes off to Nick Johnson re: THE HOLIDAY MEN, which is going to be a fun little book if I can keep on top of it.
Also worked on the outline for a new three-issue series for a small-press publisher I've never worked with before that's coming together frighteningly quickly.
Also wrote some long-overdue e-mails, one of which got an immediate and surprisingly positive response. That one was to the aforementioned publisher, requesting a specific provision to a contract that I never really thought I'd get--basically, he gets control of the multimedia rights, but only if he actually publishes the book.
Not that I thought he'd actually try and avoid publishing the book, but at this stage I'm extremely leery of signing over rights without either some sort of up-front payment or contractual assurance that I'll actually have something in print to show for my effort inside a reasonable timeframe.
Two pieces of what I consider to be some of my all-time best writing, THREADS (co-written with Scott O. Brown) and JEST CAUSE, have been locked up at Platinum for years, and may never see the light of day until the rights revert back to me/us, which is still several years down the line. And then there's the other four or five projects that originated with me that are stalled out in various stages of development, and the five or six in-house gigs also in various stages of completion, including AGE OF KINGS, which artist Russell Hossain finished drawing years ago but is nowhere to be found on Platinum's publishing schedule, and JEREMIAH: THE LAST EMPIRE, an incredibly work-intensive project which took several months out of my life for less money in total than I'd make in a month of flipping burgers.
Speaking of which, one of the good things about Platinum's unfortunate run-in with Heidi MacDonald's THE BEAT last week was the discovery that the first fourteen pages of J:TLE have been posted online at Platinum's DrunkDuck.com webcomic site. It was nice to be able to show what remains of Jeremiah's fanbase (there don't seem to be that many left, but the ones there are are hardcore) at least some of what we did. I'm vaguely hopeful the remaining 25 or so completed pages will be made available, along with at least the outline of where we were going with the story. That wouldn't do anything tangible for me, but the fans deserve that much.
Not having those books on the shelves hurts in a greater number of ways than someone who isn't a low-level comic creator aspiring to become a higher-level comic creator would probably suspect. But as I said to Platinum VP in Charge of Something-or-Other and Generally Nice Guy Dan Forcey on the phone the other day, I'm not complaining. Anyone getting into this business post-Steve Gerber/Howard the Duck has no excuse for not knowing what they may be signing away. (Hint: if the contract includes a phrase along the lines of "in all the universe, known and unknown", it's probably a fair amount.)
To be honest, up until recently, it's been my policy to simply assume 1) with each contract I'm signing away the rights to everything I'll ever create including my first-born, and 2) that I'm going to get screwed by whatever publisher I get involved with at some point. The idea is that I'll then be pleasantly surprised if the other party actually does what it claimed it would.
I haven't been pleasantly surprised all that often, to date. But, again, I'm not complaining. I am just, as they say, sayin'.
Foley
Friday, May 18, 2007
And Then, The Crunch
Did I say June was going to be a bear? Man, was I getting ahead of myself. Getting to June is going to be an ordeal in and of itself.
Last week a small press publisher asked for some brief pitches--springboards, I believe is the generally accepted term, though I've started calling them logline pitches, a title, a H'wood "X meets Y" description, fifty words or less on the story (which I generally use to establish how what I'm talking about is different from X and Y.) Slammed together six of these things during breaks on scripting stuff for UP1, sent them off.
Got a response from the publisher yesterday: "These are all REALLY good." Which was nice to hear; at this point my ego is sufficiently swelled that I'm generally reasonably confident that, at worst, I won't look completely incompetent, even if I miss the boat in terms of what people are looking for. But positive feedback is always nice.
He especially liked two, had something similar going to one of the two already, so we settled on the other. Having done this, I stopped and actually gave the thing some thought, and decided that yes, this is something I could see myself doing even if I wasn't being supplied (as I am in this case) with an artist, a publishing deal, a nominal payment on completion and a 50% stake in the property.
On that last--I've frequently railed against small press publishers whose business plan revolves around something other than, well, publishing comics. I still think it's a dodgy way to deal with things. That said, I've got to live in the real world, here. I'm not averse to sharing ownership of a property, even with someone who doesn't have the connections in other media this guy does, I'm not even averse to losing control of a property, as I will with this one. It's all a question of whether what I'm getting (or, more frequently it must be admitted, supposed to be getting) from my prospective publishing partner is enough to make it worth the loss on my part.
For an idea that wouldn't exist without this publisher's asking for ideas last week, which I'm now excited about writing this week, getting an artist I don't have to find myself, a publishing deal, a nominal payment prior to publication and 50% of the property (along with the publisher's higher-powered than my manager agent repping it in The 'Wood) is worth it. And now I've got 84 or so pages of script to get to work on, in addition to everything else.
Speaking of everything else, I also got an offer for some paid rewriting work on an old script of mine this morning. Money would be good (good as in nice to have, not sure of how many changes are required to make the judgment on whether the pay is good), but the work comes with what might be an uncomfortably impending deadline. I'm waiting for the exact details on that, because I don't want to sign up and then leave someone in the lurch, but, as I've got a terminal case of Freelancers Disease, the primary symptom of which is an inability to say no to work that pays actual money, no matter how little the money or hard the work--I suspect I'll have that added to the 12-page script I'm hoping to have a first draft of this weekend and the revision to the 15-pager for UP1 in short order.
And that's assuming She Who Must Be Impressed is unimpressed with my proposals. If that gets tossed in...well, you might not be hearing a lot from me in the near future. And that would be a good thing (for me. It'd suck for you, of course.)
And while I was typing that, the details on the rewrite have come in and I've accepted that work (the deadline really wasn't nearly as onerous as it had been made out to be) AND a difficult situation seems to finally be resolved. One nod from the lawyer and after six hard months, I'll be able to start breathing normally again.
Foley
Last week a small press publisher asked for some brief pitches--springboards, I believe is the generally accepted term, though I've started calling them logline pitches, a title, a H'wood "X meets Y" description, fifty words or less on the story (which I generally use to establish how what I'm talking about is different from X and Y.) Slammed together six of these things during breaks on scripting stuff for UP1, sent them off.
Got a response from the publisher yesterday: "These are all REALLY good." Which was nice to hear; at this point my ego is sufficiently swelled that I'm generally reasonably confident that, at worst, I won't look completely incompetent, even if I miss the boat in terms of what people are looking for. But positive feedback is always nice.
He especially liked two, had something similar going to one of the two already, so we settled on the other. Having done this, I stopped and actually gave the thing some thought, and decided that yes, this is something I could see myself doing even if I wasn't being supplied (as I am in this case) with an artist, a publishing deal, a nominal payment on completion and a 50% stake in the property.
On that last--I've frequently railed against small press publishers whose business plan revolves around something other than, well, publishing comics. I still think it's a dodgy way to deal with things. That said, I've got to live in the real world, here. I'm not averse to sharing ownership of a property, even with someone who doesn't have the connections in other media this guy does, I'm not even averse to losing control of a property, as I will with this one. It's all a question of whether what I'm getting (or, more frequently it must be admitted, supposed to be getting) from my prospective publishing partner is enough to make it worth the loss on my part.
For an idea that wouldn't exist without this publisher's asking for ideas last week, which I'm now excited about writing this week, getting an artist I don't have to find myself, a publishing deal, a nominal payment prior to publication and 50% of the property (along with the publisher's higher-powered than my manager agent repping it in The 'Wood) is worth it. And now I've got 84 or so pages of script to get to work on, in addition to everything else.
Speaking of everything else, I also got an offer for some paid rewriting work on an old script of mine this morning. Money would be good (good as in nice to have, not sure of how many changes are required to make the judgment on whether the pay is good), but the work comes with what might be an uncomfortably impending deadline. I'm waiting for the exact details on that, because I don't want to sign up and then leave someone in the lurch, but, as I've got a terminal case of Freelancers Disease, the primary symptom of which is an inability to say no to work that pays actual money, no matter how little the money or hard the work--I suspect I'll have that added to the 12-page script I'm hoping to have a first draft of this weekend and the revision to the 15-pager for UP1 in short order.
And that's assuming She Who Must Be Impressed is unimpressed with my proposals. If that gets tossed in...well, you might not be hearing a lot from me in the near future. And that would be a good thing (for me. It'd suck for you, of course.)
And while I was typing that, the details on the rewrite have come in and I've accepted that work (the deadline really wasn't nearly as onerous as it had been made out to be) AND a difficult situation seems to finally be resolved. One nod from the lawyer and after six hard months, I'll be able to start breathing normally again.
Foley
Thursday, May 17, 2007
No News is No News
Checked in re: Unusual Project 2 yesterday and was told that She Who Must Be Impressed has not made a decision yet. But I'm still in the running. If I actually snag the assignment, June's going to be a bear, with a July 1 deadline for UP2 (which is going to be of some length) and probably another forty-page story for Unusual Project 1.
Which would be good. I tend to work more effectively when I've got a deadline someone other than me has set. Especially when the someone other than me is paying the someone who is me to hit it.
Yesterday was a wash, production-wise. Lots of e-mails, lots of phone calls. Putting out a couple of fires I'd inadvertently set, getting the lay of the land on a couple different fronts (in one case, the land is looking more and more like pure quicksand.) Today's not looking much better--got more phone calls to make, and I'm still bone-weary. My day started at 4:00 AM, much to my chagrin. Still, being up that early at least lets me get some work done before the rest of the world wakes up and starts distracting me.
Am currently working on a 12-page script for UP1. It's tricky--the short comic story is not a comfortable format for me. I like dialogue too much, and having a limited amount of space really inhibits how much character you an give develop through conversation. At the same time, UP1's higher-ups have recently decided that narrative captions are more or less verboten, because they're not hip enough. That's not what they said, exactly, but that's how I read it.
Losing that tool when you need to get a decent amount of information into a short story hurts. It's why I still haven't tried to revise my 15-pager, which relied a lot on narrative captions, both aesthetically and technically. In the case of the former, it allowed me to give the story a character and tone via the voice of the captions that I fear is going to fall by the wayside now. In the case of the latter, the captions also allowed me to relay information crucial to the story without having pages of characters dealing with minutiae.
"Show, don't tell" is the North American comic book storytelling rule these days, but I'll take talking heads that are saying something interesting or well-thought out captions over a page of What Bob Did At Work Today any day.
Foley
Which would be good. I tend to work more effectively when I've got a deadline someone other than me has set. Especially when the someone other than me is paying the someone who is me to hit it.
Yesterday was a wash, production-wise. Lots of e-mails, lots of phone calls. Putting out a couple of fires I'd inadvertently set, getting the lay of the land on a couple different fronts (in one case, the land is looking more and more like pure quicksand.) Today's not looking much better--got more phone calls to make, and I'm still bone-weary. My day started at 4:00 AM, much to my chagrin. Still, being up that early at least lets me get some work done before the rest of the world wakes up and starts distracting me.
Am currently working on a 12-page script for UP1. It's tricky--the short comic story is not a comfortable format for me. I like dialogue too much, and having a limited amount of space really inhibits how much character you an give develop through conversation. At the same time, UP1's higher-ups have recently decided that narrative captions are more or less verboten, because they're not hip enough. That's not what they said, exactly, but that's how I read it.
Losing that tool when you need to get a decent amount of information into a short story hurts. It's why I still haven't tried to revise my 15-pager, which relied a lot on narrative captions, both aesthetically and technically. In the case of the former, it allowed me to give the story a character and tone via the voice of the captions that I fear is going to fall by the wayside now. In the case of the latter, the captions also allowed me to relay information crucial to the story without having pages of characters dealing with minutiae.
"Show, don't tell" is the North American comic book storytelling rule these days, but I'll take talking heads that are saying something interesting or well-thought out captions over a page of What Bob Did At Work Today any day.
Foley
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY's Thomas J. MacLean reports on Platinum Studios' comics publishing plans.
'"This is the 10th anniversary of [starting] our libraries and acquiring all the things we needed to acquire in terms of properties and building up our deals with studios and creating our film slate deal," said Rosenberg. "So maybe it's our 10th, but it's also our first as well."'
Heidi MacDonald on Platinum's relationship with its creators.
'Let’s put it this way: signing away original material as work-for-hire is right up there with sharing needles with AIDS patients, eating blowfish liver, and not wearing a seat belt in a vehicle driven by a New Jersey state trooper our own personal DO NOT DO list.'
I probably want to say something about this, but it would of necessity be a lengthy post, my headache's back, and that stuff doesn't pay the bills, so it waits, possibly for some time (which is kind of apropos, considering the subject matter, ha ha.)
I really need to learn how to do that "pingback" thing...
***
Finally wrote to Nick Johnson, after he sent a mail asking for confirmation that I'd received his sketches. His mail was much more pleasant than the spanking I deserved, considering I was an incompetent yutz on this one. Sorry, Nick. I won't say it won't happen again, because that'll basically ensure that the cosmos align in such a way that it absolutely will happen again--but I'll try to do better in the future.
Foley
'"This is the 10th anniversary of [starting] our libraries and acquiring all the things we needed to acquire in terms of properties and building up our deals with studios and creating our film slate deal," said Rosenberg. "So maybe it's our 10th, but it's also our first as well."'
Heidi MacDonald on Platinum's relationship with its creators.
'Let’s put it this way: signing away original material as work-for-hire is right up there with sharing needles with AIDS patients, eating blowfish liver, and not wearing a seat belt in a vehicle driven by a New Jersey state trooper our own personal DO NOT DO list.'
I probably want to say something about this, but it would of necessity be a lengthy post, my headache's back, and that stuff doesn't pay the bills, so it waits, possibly for some time (which is kind of apropos, considering the subject matter, ha ha.)
I really need to learn how to do that "pingback" thing...
***
Finally wrote to Nick Johnson, after he sent a mail asking for confirmation that I'd received his sketches. His mail was much more pleasant than the spanking I deserved, considering I was an incompetent yutz on this one. Sorry, Nick. I won't say it won't happen again, because that'll basically ensure that the cosmos align in such a way that it absolutely will happen again--but I'll try to do better in the future.
Foley
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
What I Did and Didn't Do Today
1) Did some work on the script for 12-page short story for Unlikely Anthology.
2) Did not revise 15-page script for Unlikely Anthology.
3) Did not Contact Nick Johnson re: THE HOLIDAY MEN.
4) E-mail one of the various folks who are way overdue for an e-mail.
5) Work on brief pitches for Small Press Publisher.
6) Waited impatiently for critical e-mails regarding The Future and whether I've got one.
6a) One major thing that's been a thorn in my side for the last six months seems to be resolved. Papers haven't been signed, but everything including the language of the agreement's been agreed on by all parties. When this is out of the way, life will improve immensely.
Foley
2) Did not revise 15-page script for Unlikely Anthology.
3) Did not Contact Nick Johnson re: THE HOLIDAY MEN.
4) E-mail one of the various folks who are way overdue for an e-mail.
5) Work on brief pitches for Small Press Publisher.
6) Waited impatiently for critical e-mails regarding The Future and whether I've got one.
6a) One major thing that's been a thorn in my side for the last six months seems to be resolved. Papers haven't been signed, but everything including the language of the agreement's been agreed on by all parties. When this is out of the way, life will improve immensely.
Foley
ARGH.
I hate being tired. Because when I'm tired, my focus drifts dramatically. Rather than doing anything I ought to have been doing, I was sitting here, staring at the monitor and drooling, and suddenly a new wrinkle on an old concept came to me and all I want to do now is work on something which is of no immediate import whatsoever.
Sigh.
Still. At least I'm still capable of having ideas. That's something, isn't it?
***
X-Men...Retreat!
A fascinating 2004 account of the Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada reign at Marvel, and how the company could have made one giant leap for all comickind but settled for one small step for the bottom line by TCJ Journalista! newsblogger Dirk Deppey's.
It actually ties in with something I heard (second-hand) Chris Claremont said regarding his return to The Uncanny X-Men. Paraphrasing, it was something along the lines of Marvel's thoughts on the title being "Grant's gone. Change it all back now."
Foley
Sigh.
Still. At least I'm still capable of having ideas. That's something, isn't it?
***
X-Men...Retreat!
A fascinating 2004 account of the Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada reign at Marvel, and how the company could have made one giant leap for all comickind but settled for one small step for the bottom line by TCJ Journalista! newsblogger Dirk Deppey's.
It actually ties in with something I heard (second-hand) Chris Claremont said regarding his return to The Uncanny X-Men. Paraphrasing, it was something along the lines of Marvel's thoughts on the title being "Grant's gone. Change it all back now."
Foley
Things to do today
1) Work on script for 12-page short story for Unlikely Anthology.
2) Revise 15-page script for Unlikely Anthology.
3) Contact Nick Johnson re: THE HOLIDAY MEN.
4) E-mail various folks who are way overdue for an e-mail.
5) Work on brief pitches for Small Press Publisher.
6) Wait impatiently for critical e-mails regarding The Future and whether I've got one.
About the only thing in there I can see myself managing effectively today is #6. Last night was notable for many things, but an abundance of sleep wasn't one of them.
My longtime dream comic, THE TOKEN GOBLIN, is being pitched again. Hoping for the best, expecting the worst, which is the only sane way for someone in my position to deal with the world.
Foley
2) Revise 15-page script for Unlikely Anthology.
3) Contact Nick Johnson re: THE HOLIDAY MEN.
4) E-mail various folks who are way overdue for an e-mail.
5) Work on brief pitches for Small Press Publisher.
6) Wait impatiently for critical e-mails regarding The Future and whether I've got one.
About the only thing in there I can see myself managing effectively today is #6. Last night was notable for many things, but an abundance of sleep wasn't one of them.
My longtime dream comic, THE TOKEN GOBLIN, is being pitched again. Hoping for the best, expecting the worst, which is the only sane way for someone in my position to deal with the world.
Foley
Monday, May 14, 2007
The Way It Is (Till I Change My Mind.)
After some deliberation, I have decided to try and induce a psychotic break by separating Foley The Person from Foley The Writer, at least in terms of my online presentation.
This blog will focus on The Writer. I'm currently seeing it as part workblog, part shameless self-promotion (as well as promotion for people I like/work with/respect), and part place to philosophize about the comics industry and my place within it.
My LiveJournal and MySpace pages will be given over to the minutiae of my life outside of writing, with certain exceptions. If you want to know what they are...well, go there, where I've posted the exceptions.
Suffice it to say, what would be a thousand word tirade about the state of my sinus cavities over there would amount to something like "health issues slowed me down this week" here, while the previous post, which featured a complete press release here, would be something like "A book I'm working on got announced today. Yay." there.
I don't know how long this will last, but if I had to guess, I'd say, Not Long. But we shall see.
Foley
This blog will focus on The Writer. I'm currently seeing it as part workblog, part shameless self-promotion (as well as promotion for people I like/work with/respect), and part place to philosophize about the comics industry and my place within it.
My LiveJournal and MySpace pages will be given over to the minutiae of my life outside of writing, with certain exceptions. If you want to know what they are...well, go there, where I've posted the exceptions.
Suffice it to say, what would be a thousand word tirade about the state of my sinus cavities over there would amount to something like "health issues slowed me down this week" here, while the previous post, which featured a complete press release here, would be something like "A book I'm working on got announced today. Yay." there.
I don't know how long this will last, but if I had to guess, I'd say, Not Long. But we shall see.
Foley
TITUS: HEROIC FAILURE
TITUS: HEROIC FAILURE has officially been announced.
Well, kind of. In the link above, Newsarama actually has me as co-writing Chimaera Studios' LONEBOW, which isn't the case. I'm doing the four-issue TITUS: HEROIC FAILURE with Titus creator George Singley and an as-yet-unnamed artist. Well, he's got a name, but it hasn't been made public yet. Publisher is Arcana Studios. The basic pitch:
"They say pride goeth before a fall, and the once-popular, still egomaniacal superhero Titus is taking the mother of all plunges. HEROIC FAILURE chronicles his fall from grace, his attempt to claw his way back into the public's good books, and how that just makes things worse."
In terms of tone, the official soundbite is "Giffen/Dematteis Justice League for The Family Guy generation."
There's more to the series than that--in fact, I'm tempted to say that everything I just said is really kind of irrelevant to what we're really getting at with the book. But I'm going to resist temptation, because that other stuff sounds better and I want to have something to talk about eight months down the line when the series might actually be about to hit the stands.
Anyway. At the link there's an interview with George about his plans for the Chimaera Hero Universe (of which Titus is a part, albeit only nominally in THF's current script) along with some generally favourable response to the idea of a new superhero universe, which, being habitually cynical, kind of surprised me but which I maintain absolutely doesn't mean anything other than a few Newsarama readers took their happy pills this weekend. Optimism is for the weak.
Here's the official press release:
NEWSARAMA EXCLUSIVE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Arcana Studios
Chimaera Studios
contact@chimaerastudios.com
ARCANA AND CHIMAERA STUDIOS JOIN FORCES
“Chimaera Studios to publish new Chimaera Super Hero Universe line at Arcana Comics…Starting the line off with a Chimaera Universe Event mini series!”
May 14, 2007– Arcana Comics is excited to announce that it will be publishing the new and complete Chimaera Hero Universe line from Chimaera Studios beginning late 2007 and throughout 2008.
The Chimaera Hero Universe line will begin with a bang in the form of the Chimaera Event mini series Consortium Of Justice…that will shape the universe for new and old Chimaera readers alike…basically getting everyone in on the “ground floor” and up to speed for the new line of books.
Chimaera Universe new series slated for publication following the Consortium Of Justice event mini series include the titles, Blaze Anderson: Cosmonaut!, The Byzantine, Lonebow, Wargod, Titus, and last but definitely not least…George T Singley’s fan favorite series (previously from Image Comics) Hellhounds! The Hellhounds trade paperback collecting the first 5 issues will be released first then followed closely by an all new Hellhounds series written by George T Singley with amazing new art from Italian phenom Michele Bertilorenzi!
Sean O’Reilly, President of Arcana Comics stated, ”This has been in the works for some time now and we are really excited to be working with George, Chimaera Studios and its Creators. Chimaera Studios houses an extremely talented and professional group of creators, writers, and artists with fantastic stories to tell. The new Chimaera Universe also provides for limitless storylines with interesting Iconic characters…it is truly amazing to see all they have planned out.” He added,” We are proud to offer our publishing services and represent Chimaera Studios. It’s great that they approached us, it’s an honor.”
Says George T. Singley (Creator/Writer/Artist), and President/CEO of Chimaera Studios, “We are happy to call Arcana Comics home. Sean is doing a great job with Arcana and we are excited to add our Chimaera Universe of titles to such a creator friendly publisher…it feels like a perfect fit. I think fans will be excited and truly enjoy all the new series we have in store for them…we have an amazing group of creators working hard and pouring their hearts into these books…we are really pulling out all the stops for this universe line and I think it shows.”
For more information on the various titles being published by Chimaera Studios, including the Chimaera Hero Universe line, please visit… http://www.chimaerastudios.com
Also visit the brand new Chimaera Studios Forum and chat with all the Chimaera creators, see exclusive upcoming project artwork, and discuss all things Chimaera and comics…
http://chimaerastudios.freeforums.org/
Well, kind of. In the link above, Newsarama actually has me as co-writing Chimaera Studios' LONEBOW, which isn't the case. I'm doing the four-issue TITUS: HEROIC FAILURE with Titus creator George Singley and an as-yet-unnamed artist. Well, he's got a name, but it hasn't been made public yet. Publisher is Arcana Studios. The basic pitch:
"They say pride goeth before a fall, and the once-popular, still egomaniacal superhero Titus is taking the mother of all plunges. HEROIC FAILURE chronicles his fall from grace, his attempt to claw his way back into the public's good books, and how that just makes things worse."
In terms of tone, the official soundbite is "Giffen/Dematteis Justice League for The Family Guy generation."
There's more to the series than that--in fact, I'm tempted to say that everything I just said is really kind of irrelevant to what we're really getting at with the book. But I'm going to resist temptation, because that other stuff sounds better and I want to have something to talk about eight months down the line when the series might actually be about to hit the stands.
Anyway. At the link there's an interview with George about his plans for the Chimaera Hero Universe (of which Titus is a part, albeit only nominally in THF's current script) along with some generally favourable response to the idea of a new superhero universe, which, being habitually cynical, kind of surprised me but which I maintain absolutely doesn't mean anything other than a few Newsarama readers took their happy pills this weekend. Optimism is for the weak.
Here's the official press release:
NEWSARAMA EXCLUSIVE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Arcana Studios
Chimaera Studios
contact@chimaerastudios.com
ARCANA AND CHIMAERA STUDIOS JOIN FORCES
“Chimaera Studios to publish new Chimaera Super Hero Universe line at Arcana Comics…Starting the line off with a Chimaera Universe Event mini series!”
May 14, 2007– Arcana Comics is excited to announce that it will be publishing the new and complete Chimaera Hero Universe line from Chimaera Studios beginning late 2007 and throughout 2008.
The Chimaera Hero Universe line will begin with a bang in the form of the Chimaera Event mini series Consortium Of Justice…that will shape the universe for new and old Chimaera readers alike…basically getting everyone in on the “ground floor” and up to speed for the new line of books.
Chimaera Universe new series slated for publication following the Consortium Of Justice event mini series include the titles, Blaze Anderson: Cosmonaut!, The Byzantine, Lonebow, Wargod, Titus, and last but definitely not least…George T Singley’s fan favorite series (previously from Image Comics) Hellhounds! The Hellhounds trade paperback collecting the first 5 issues will be released first then followed closely by an all new Hellhounds series written by George T Singley with amazing new art from Italian phenom Michele Bertilorenzi!
Sean O’Reilly, President of Arcana Comics stated, ”This has been in the works for some time now and we are really excited to be working with George, Chimaera Studios and its Creators. Chimaera Studios houses an extremely talented and professional group of creators, writers, and artists with fantastic stories to tell. The new Chimaera Universe also provides for limitless storylines with interesting Iconic characters…it is truly amazing to see all they have planned out.” He added,” We are proud to offer our publishing services and represent Chimaera Studios. It’s great that they approached us, it’s an honor.”
Says George T. Singley (Creator/Writer/Artist), and President/CEO of Chimaera Studios, “We are happy to call Arcana Comics home. Sean is doing a great job with Arcana and we are excited to add our Chimaera Universe of titles to such a creator friendly publisher…it feels like a perfect fit. I think fans will be excited and truly enjoy all the new series we have in store for them…we have an amazing group of creators working hard and pouring their hearts into these books…we are really pulling out all the stops for this universe line and I think it shows.”
For more information on the various titles being published by Chimaera Studios, including the Chimaera Hero Universe line, please visit… http://www.chimaerastudios.com
Also visit the brand new Chimaera Studios Forum and chat with all the Chimaera creators, see exclusive upcoming project artwork, and discuss all things Chimaera and comics…
http://chimaerastudios.freeforums.org/
Fiona Staples Covers SHEENA
My DONE TO DEATH collaborator Fiona Staples is doing a cover for Devil's Due's SHEENA #2.
She has a skin bikini!
If you're interested, I'd consider it a personal favour if you ordered Fiona's specific cover, so as to hasten her inevitable rise to comic stardom (with me riding her coattails.) The order code is MAY073382.
Foley
She has a skin bikini!
If you're interested, I'd consider it a personal favour if you ordered Fiona's specific cover, so as to hasten her inevitable rise to comic stardom (with me riding her coattails.) The order code is MAY073382.
Foley
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Introducing the Wonder That Is Me.
Hi. Andrew Foley here. As the title implies, I write things, including, with this post, a blog on Blogger.
How did this happen?
I had an interesting discussion a couple weeks back, over a couple (and then a couple more) beers with a Successful Comic Artist, about, among other things, the importance of a web presence for professional comic creators in this highly virtual day and age.
I've had something in the way of a presence for a couple years now, on an irregularly, but fairly frequently, updated LiveJournal account. When someone roped me into joining MySpace, I started cross-posting there, too. "Good enough," thought I, at least when MySpace wasn't being frustratingly slow to allow me access.
The Artist was not convinced this was sound from a business perspective. If I recall correctly (and there's every chance I don't), he believed Blogger was the best online journal system for comic folk, from a professional standpoint. LiveJournal was for family and friends, MySpace was for people looking for dates, but Blogger was a respectable system for a professional, without the PR baggage and relatively easy to post images on.
Of course, my online presence consisting of LiveJournal and MySpace wasn't what really horrified the Artist about my public relations strategy (if something that doesn't in any real sense exist could be said to be a strategy). What really threw him (and several of my friends and professional acquaintances) for a loop was that I didn't differentiate my business self from my self self, and posted pretty much anything I felt like posting about pretty much anything I felt like posting about with minimal editing for content (spelling and grammar is another story--I waste a stupid amount of time trying to ensure that I'm saying what I want to say in the most effective way possible. "The most effective way possible", in my case, too often means "at tedious length." I've tried to change this tendency, but it's never stuck and doesn't seem likely to any time soon.)
This tendency has earned me a bit of a reputation in the comic industry (at least with those two to four people within it who can be bothered to keep track of the likes of me) as someone who doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut, and sometimes offers his thoughts when he really ought to just shut the hell up. To paraphrase the Artist, "If I didn't present myself different publicly than privately, I'd end up in a fistfight." Which might be true in his case, and may someday be true in mine, I suppose. God knows I inadvertently ended up in some pretty hot water early on in the LJ years.
Still, I don't much care for being spun, and I don't really care to do a lot of spinning, in real life or online. I try to maintain a "what you see is what you get" policy, if only because I'm too lazy to bother doing otherwise. I don't believe in online anonymity and think it's almost destroyed any hope the net has of being the communications tool it might have been; I've never posted anything under an alias; and have only once deleted my own statements when it became apparent I was inadvertently harming a friend. If my online personality differs from my real one in any substantial way, it's because I'm not a particularly fast thinker when I'm uncomfortable, and I'm generally uncomfortable around people I don't know. Or, to put it another way, I tend to be more verbose when I'm typing, and I don't mumble or stutter nearly as much then as I do when I'm actually speaking to someone.
So. Blogger. After fifteen minutes typing I can tell I like this thing much more than LJ and MS on a technical level--it's easier for a luddite like myself to handle, which is always a big plus. So I suspect I will be using it for something. I just don't really know what it is, yet.
It seems weird to simply cut and paste my regular posts to yet another location, but it may come to that, as it also seems weirdly arbitrary to separate posts of a business, personal, and humourous nature to me. That doesn't mean I won't give it a shot, though, just to test the waters.
In the meantime, here's where I can be found online:
LiveJournal
MySpace
Messageboard
Website - Coming Soonish.
I'm also on ComicSpace but have yet to do anything reasonably useful with it.
So that's me.
Next: Things I Write, or Have Written
Foley
How did this happen?
I had an interesting discussion a couple weeks back, over a couple (and then a couple more) beers with a Successful Comic Artist, about, among other things, the importance of a web presence for professional comic creators in this highly virtual day and age.
I've had something in the way of a presence for a couple years now, on an irregularly, but fairly frequently, updated LiveJournal account. When someone roped me into joining MySpace, I started cross-posting there, too. "Good enough," thought I, at least when MySpace wasn't being frustratingly slow to allow me access.
The Artist was not convinced this was sound from a business perspective. If I recall correctly (and there's every chance I don't), he believed Blogger was the best online journal system for comic folk, from a professional standpoint. LiveJournal was for family and friends, MySpace was for people looking for dates, but Blogger was a respectable system for a professional, without the PR baggage and relatively easy to post images on.
Of course, my online presence consisting of LiveJournal and MySpace wasn't what really horrified the Artist about my public relations strategy (if something that doesn't in any real sense exist could be said to be a strategy). What really threw him (and several of my friends and professional acquaintances) for a loop was that I didn't differentiate my business self from my self self, and posted pretty much anything I felt like posting about pretty much anything I felt like posting about with minimal editing for content (spelling and grammar is another story--I waste a stupid amount of time trying to ensure that I'm saying what I want to say in the most effective way possible. "The most effective way possible", in my case, too often means "at tedious length." I've tried to change this tendency, but it's never stuck and doesn't seem likely to any time soon.)
This tendency has earned me a bit of a reputation in the comic industry (at least with those two to four people within it who can be bothered to keep track of the likes of me) as someone who doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut, and sometimes offers his thoughts when he really ought to just shut the hell up. To paraphrase the Artist, "If I didn't present myself different publicly than privately, I'd end up in a fistfight." Which might be true in his case, and may someday be true in mine, I suppose. God knows I inadvertently ended up in some pretty hot water early on in the LJ years.
Still, I don't much care for being spun, and I don't really care to do a lot of spinning, in real life or online. I try to maintain a "what you see is what you get" policy, if only because I'm too lazy to bother doing otherwise. I don't believe in online anonymity and think it's almost destroyed any hope the net has of being the communications tool it might have been; I've never posted anything under an alias; and have only once deleted my own statements when it became apparent I was inadvertently harming a friend. If my online personality differs from my real one in any substantial way, it's because I'm not a particularly fast thinker when I'm uncomfortable, and I'm generally uncomfortable around people I don't know. Or, to put it another way, I tend to be more verbose when I'm typing, and I don't mumble or stutter nearly as much then as I do when I'm actually speaking to someone.
So. Blogger. After fifteen minutes typing I can tell I like this thing much more than LJ and MS on a technical level--it's easier for a luddite like myself to handle, which is always a big plus. So I suspect I will be using it for something. I just don't really know what it is, yet.
It seems weird to simply cut and paste my regular posts to yet another location, but it may come to that, as it also seems weirdly arbitrary to separate posts of a business, personal, and humourous nature to me. That doesn't mean I won't give it a shot, though, just to test the waters.
In the meantime, here's where I can be found online:
LiveJournal
MySpace
Messageboard
Website - Coming Soonish.
I'm also on ComicSpace but have yet to do anything reasonably useful with it.
So that's me.
Next: Things I Write, or Have Written
Foley
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