Stop Him, He's Got a Pencil!
Yes, I’m writing again…some more…still. While I wait for responses to a couple of queries about comic book projects (one semi-approved, no word on the other), I’ve jumped into writing another miniseries proposal.
A writer friend of mind told me last month at San Diego that the hardest part of the job for him wasn’t writing scripts but lining up new projects. And I get that. But my thought at the time and since has been, “When in doubt, get started on something new.” So far, at least, the five-issue miniseries format has been ideal for me. I’ve written three complete proposals for projects of that length, with two more in process now.
Basically my thinking has been that if something gets rejected, I should be ready to respond by saying, “Hey, would you be interested in looking at this other proposal I have in my back pocket?”
The new one is a science fiction story. I had a few ideas floating around, inspired by a book by Isaac Asimov that I loved long ago, by an obscure character created by Jack Kirby, and also by something I heard over the weekend…which brings me to another turn in this tale.
Over the weekend I went to two signings for a new original graphic novel from my marketing client, THE LAB. Super Science Vol. 1, their new OGN, is just getting to market, and we had events at Golden Apple on Saturday and The Last Bookstore in North Hollywood on Sunday. Both were great, well-attended, and fun. The Sunday one had a panel discussion led by Chris “Doc” Wyatt, co-writer of their earlier book, Essentials Vol. 1, with Super Science writer, N. Alessandro K., plus Barbra Dillon of Fanbase Press, artist Bernard Chang, writer Adam Lawson, and The Lab’s Chief Creative Officer, Mike Zagari.
One thing that N. Alessandro K. – Nick to his friends – said during the panel resonated with me. That was that he loves satire, but it has to have a point. And that got me thinking about this science fiction project. S.F. can be one of those genres that reflects the world around us, and that’s the layer I’m adding to this story. There’s a lot of crazy shit – much of it extremely bad – in our world today, and while there’s so much of it that it’s hard to know what to do, there’s one thing for certain: We can’t ignore it. And yes, I’m aware that this platform has been feeding oxygen to some truly bad people. Getting off Substack has been on my to-do list for a while, and I will get there.
Back to the project…I started where I always seem to start: with characters. In this case, it’s a girl who’s on the cusp of understanding the big picture of what’s going on in her family and in her world. She’s empathetic to others, which causes her pain. She meets some people who can help her, some who want to stop her, and some who think like she does. Writing this all down, I realize these elements read like they came from The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler – not to mention various books by Joseph Campbell. And that’s okay, because that structure works. The structure is not important. What you do within that structure is.
Why did I gravitate to science fiction? It wasn’t exactly a decision made on purpose. My previous proposals all have been either super-hero, adventure, or satire – or a mix of those genres. As a person who can see sales trends in comics shops, I’m aware that after super-heroes the hottest genre in comics these days is horror. But the fact is that I grew up reading science fiction, with favorite authors including Asimov, Alfred Bester, and Arthur C. Clarke, among others.
Yes, Ray Bradbury, too.
I’m not a huge horror fan, to be honest. I’ve read a bunch of Stephen King, the original Dracula and Frankenstein novels, and not much else. Some E.C. Comics, some Warren magazines. Oh, and I love the Boom Studios series Something Is Killing the Children – mostly for its star, Erica Slaughter, bad-ass killer of monsters and bearer of unprocessed trauma. So when I came up with a science fiction premise, I ran with it. Maybe I’ll hit that horror vein another time – but not today.