Without Fear

I wanted 2013 to be a year where my comic writing started to mean something. I wanted to see progression. progression in my quality, and progression in what I got out there to the masses. This quick post is just a personal timelog for me to reflect on but someone out there might find it interesting.

2013 was the year I finally started to get published, in many different ways.

FATHERHOOD – the one-shot that started the deluge. 22 pages from Daniel Schneider, Paulina Ganucheau, Brandon DeStefano, and me. It sold well at cons, got good reviews, and I feel it was something that really represented what I wanted to be doing and where I wanted to be heading. I’m still really personally happy with this book. It is forevermore available for your peepers on ComiXology.

MY LITTLE PONY MICRO SERIES #2: RAINBOW DASH – a 22 page one-shot on the blockbuster comic licensed series from IDW, this sold in the Top 100 for its month and garnered strong prise. I think Tony Fleecs’ masterful art and colours helped that greatly, and ably assisted by Neil Uyetake’s letters. This issue is me tackling someone else’s characters – a whole fandom’s world – and trying to play in that sandbox while still keeping true to my own voice. It was hard, but complete fun.

GHOST TOWN #2-4 – my three issue arc on Action Lab’s Danger Zone imprint title all came out across the year. Each issue is 22 pages from Daniel J Logan, Brian V Dyck, Dave Dwonch, and me. This was a fun yarn to put into the world, I really love some of the moments Daniel and I cooked up as we collaborated. I can’t wait to get the trade of this arc next year in March.

OXYMORON: ALONE IN A CROWD – this 8 page short in the ComixTribe HC collection featured art by Daniel J Logan and was a sick load of fun to create. You can read it all snuggled up with one other short by Aaron Huston/Paul Allor on ComiXology for 99c.

HOME BREW VAMPIRE BULLETS ZERO + #1: THE MANY HAROLD HOLTS OF SPACE AND TIME – this 8 page slice of pulp fu from Louie Joyce, Nic J Shaw, and I was far too much fun to put together, and it was done in a very tight amount of time. I stand by this being the best short I’ve ever written. This is a really tight tale and it has gotten strong press in any reviews of the issues. This is the sort of thing I’ll use to showcase my short game whenever I can. Interesting that it took me so many short before it before I felt I finally got one past the keeper and into the net.

CAPTAIN HUMAN THE ROBOT: ALL AGES and AFTER HOURS EDITS – these small one-shots fro Jin Chan Yum Wai and I are two 8 page shorts that contain the same art but two totally different scripts. These issues are miles apart from each other – one peppy and kid friendly and the other pretty blue and adult – and both were insane fun to write. This is just making comics for the fun of it and collaborating with a mate. I hope to visit our old friend again some time soon.

For those counting at home, here’s how I’ve fared getting comic work published:

2011 – 0 pages

2012 – 21 pages

2013 – 142 pages

Damn, I’m very happy with that. That’s a huge step up. But it’s also a huge step up in quality, with Holt being an achievement I’m so proud of, Fatherhood being a personal tale, and MLP being successful on many fronts.

I should also mention, off the comic writing, I also managed:

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS: EXAMINING MATT MURDOCK AND DAREDEVIL – a book of essays about Marvel’s daredevil character that came out from Sequart. This book got good reviews and it was a dream gig to edit this book into existence and contribute about 30k of words, or so, to it. And from this stemmed the Sequart Single of my essay about Matt Murdock’s love life, BLIND DATES + BROKEN HEARTS.

SHOT IN THE FACE: A SAVAGE JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF TRANSMETROPOLITAN – a book of essays about TRANSMETROPOLITAN from Darick Robertson + Warren Ellis. I wrote: Caffiene In My Fingers: Journalism Of The Future Via Zapruder Tweets and Woodward/Bernstein Feeds – and it was crazy fun.

EXAMINING LOIS LANE: THE SCOOP ON SUPERMAN’S SWEETHEART – a book of essays about Lois Lane wherein I wrote Full Disclosure: A Statement of Love for Lois Lane, a discussion on ALL STAR SUPERMAN by Frank Quitely and Grant Morrison.

LEE – AND THE GUNSLINGER FOLLOWED: I had my first piece of prose fiction published in an anthology from Crime Factory. LEE is full of tales about and starring Lee Marvin. I got to write about old man Lee Marvin racing death. It was a real highlight.

CRIME FACTORY 14 – SCRIBBLES FROM THE UNDERWORLD – a very short story I wrote about a crime pub and what gets left behind there. This amused me and I was stoked that the good people behind CF would see it fit to print. I can’t imagine how many people have not found this tale. Yet.

SHELTERED: PREPCAST NEWSLETTER BACK UP ESSAYS – I’ve been writing the preper essays in the back of Sheltered by Johnnie Christman, Shari Chankhamma, and Ed Brisson. A whole mess of fun, though it’s warping my mind.

STRANGE NATION: HIGH LITERATURE + LOW MONSTERS BACK UP COLUMN: Paul Allor brought me on board his Monkeybrain Comics title to write back matter essays about pulp topics and their representation in media. This is the back matter I was born to write.

The plan now is to have 2014 be even bigger. I want to see more pages posted, higher quality attained, and I don’t plan on looking back. Here’s hoping I can do it.

As it stands, I already have solid plans to see 212 pages come along in 2014, with 79 of those pages already complete. One of these series I have seen a lot of and it is so damn fine. The other one, I also have all the faith in the world in. Here’s hoping in 12 months I post just as much praise.

I honestly hope your writing year has been just as fine, no matter the style of writing you are doing.