In response to this post from Tenzil Kem, Gio made the following comment:

"I think one thing you may not understand about artists is that we're no diffferent than writers. We have families to support, we have other jobs that pay our bills that alot of us hate, just like you. Our dream is to be paid for our work and recognized for it as well. To make it look like we're money hungry is sort of unfair. Maybe that's not what you are trying to say here, but that's how it's coming off to me. And quite frankly, it's alittle offensive. If anything, I'm sick of people trying to get quality work out of me for absolutly free or nothing in return. Or CREDIT. Do you tell your mechanic you can't pay him, but you'll give him credit for fixing your car? How are artists any different? I understand you have to pay your dues as an artist, but still, that excuse will only go so far."

I wrote a typically loquacious reply, then realized that 1) it wasn't really germane to the topic TK was posting on and 2) I hadn't done a proper post round these parts (or anywhere else, for that matter) in some time and hey, this could be one. AND HERE IT IS!!!!

Gio: I think you're reading a subtext in to TK's post that isn't in evidence from its actual content. As far as I can tell, he's just saying, "We can't give anyone who participates in this project money right now. If things work out, that may change someday, but Foley's of the opinion that, statistically at least, that day isn't like to ever arrive and we need to establish that upfront so nobody gets into this with unreasonable expectations." It's not an attempt to browbeat anyone into doing something for nothing. It's an open invitation to do something for nothing (unless the satisfaction derived from doing something qualifies as something, in which case it's an invitation to do that instead.)

As for people trying to get quality work out of you for nothing in return:

If that is actually the case, and they want you to work for free in exchange for nothing, then you've every right to say "Not interested." Personally, I wouldn't get PO'd about it, as I'd bet money almost anyone who makes an offer like that means it as a compliment. They're just dumb/egotistical enough to think that their idea is so amazingly fantasticallly awesome that you should want to help them execute it for nothing. And while it is insulting to receive that particular offer, it's intended that way.

That's assuming that what they're actually offering you actually is nothing, which I'm assuming has been the case for you on occasion. However, as someone who regularly contacts artists with the hope of getting them to collaborate with me on something other than up-front payment, your comment got me thinking about the idea of "nothing" relative to compensation for creative work in the comics industry.

If someone offers me a royalty for future sales, that's not nothing. It's unlikely working under those terms that I would ever profit directly because of it, but it's not nothing. It's a recognition that I deserve compensation for my work, even if the other parties involved can't afford to supply it.

If they're offering me publication, that's not nothing. A finished product is a valuable thing to have inhand when trying to make inroads to more lucrative assignments. My artist and co-creator on DONE TO DEATH, Fiona Staples, would have been successful with or without me because she's an awesome talent who's professional, dedicated, and a pleasure to work with. As it happens, there's a direct sequence of cause and effect that starts with her illustrating D2D and ends with her drawing Wildstorm's THE AUTHORITY: JACK HAWKSMOOR and now NORTH 40. Having something out and about that someone with money can stumble upon is not nothing.

If someone offers me nothing but the chance to participate in a project that I believe would entertain me, even if there's almost no chance I'll ever have anything to show for it but a locally published minicomic with my name on it, that's not nothing. As it happens, I'm involved in just such a project right now, a comic that will be used as a fundraiser for a local roller derby league.

If someone offers me credit, even that's not nothing. I personally wouldn't accept an assignment for that if I believed someone else would stand to profit dramatically from work I produced at this point, but I've done it in the past, before I had PARTING WAYS, DONE TO DEATH, and THE HOLIDAY MEN to advertise my writing talents. When I believe it might impress someone (read as: movie and/or TV producers) I still mention that I wrote the official graphic novel follow-up to Showtime TV's Jeremiah series--even though artwork for the book was never completed and the story was never published (might as well get something out of it other than the one thousand dollars I received for what amounted to four months of my creative life {I would've made a decent royalty on the thing if it ever had been finished. Live and, eventually, learn.}) Having something to put on the resume/curriculum vitae still has value.

I haven't looked at the ownership arrangement for TK's project, but I'm assuming that artists are going to be treated as co-owners of properties they contribute to and will reap whatever financial rewards a given property generates at a level at least on par with the writer of the same property. If that's not the case, well, whoever's running the show should probably rethink their approach, because I doubt it's going to result in good or reliable artwork.

Even if the only thing I'm being being offered is a credit on a project I've no interest in whatsoever, I don't see any reason to take offence. Life's too short. If I don't believe the offer's good enough, I ask if they can better it. If they can't or won't--fine, that's their business and at least they didn't make promises they wouldn't keep (which happens all too often, at least to me.) Their not offering me what I feel I need or can get elsewhere isn't an insult to me, and my rejecting their offer shouldn't be taken as an insult by them.

To paraphrase the immortal bard*, "Don't walk away mad, just walk away."

A

(*Vince Neil's immortal, right?)

The following was originally intended as a reply on RPulfer's Busy Insanity post, following up on comments he and PsEliot made regarding "DaVinci sickness". >Ahem<:

I don't know who said it originally, but Neil Gaiman quoted them and I'm going to paraphrase from an interview of his I once read: "Writers don't like the act of writing, they like the feeling of having written."

DaVinci Sickness (great term) is very common among creative types. If one's writing, drawing, painting or whatever for the joy of it (and there's nothing at all wrong with that), it's fine. If one wants to pursue an artistic-oriented endeavour as a profession, I advise in the strongest possible terms not succumbing to the desire to work on something newer/more interesting until the current project is done (paid gigs notwithstanding.)

Even more than that--I know several very talented writers who are writing screenplays, novels, comics--all at the same time. I happen to be one of them, but I've got managers asking for them, producers and editors reading them, etc. etc. Though I was interested in all of them, I didn't seriously consider writing films, television, or novels until I had "people" of my own, invested in my success in non-comics media. My theory was that by splitting my time between three different media I was going to take three times as long to reach my desired position in comics (which I still haven't, but another part of being professional is recognizing and taking advantage of opportunities when you see them.)

So, my advice, for what it's worth: pick the medium you're happiest working in, and don't let yourself be distracted by other media unless there's money or some other tangible form of immediate career benefit (networking springs to mind, or a no-money-upfront publishing deal...there are almost certainly others). Inside your chosen medium, pick the story you most want to tell, and tell it as completely as you can before you move onto the next thing.

A comics editor will always read a finished comic before they read a finished script (many times before they'll even read a finished pitch--which doesn't show whether the writer grasps the idiosyncracies of comics storytelling.)

I'm not sure about producers/agents/managers, but I suspect they'd be more likely to talk with someone who showed them a finished piece of film, or at least talk to them faster than they would someone who sent a script.

Also not 100% on prose editors (Genrewriter knows more about that end of things than I do)--I have it in my head that they generally want a whole novel from a writer who doesn't have representation, or at least three chapters plus outline from someone who's brought in by an agent. In the case of the latter, I believe (and in this case it is a principle of faith more than knowledge) the faster you can turn the rest of the book around, the better you're going to look.

A few weeks ago, the blog Scriptwriting in the UK reproduced ten writing tips from Joss Whedon. Here's the first:

"FINISH IT
Actually finishing it is what I?m gonna put in as step one. You may laugh at this, but it?s true. I have so many friends who have written two-thirds of a screenplay, and then re-written it for about three years. Finishing a screenplay is first of all truly difficult, and secondly really liberating. Even if it?s not perfect, even if you know you?re gonna have to go back into it, type to the end. You have to have a little closure."

One other note before I finish this post: that closure Whedon mentions is critical, not just on a personal satisfaction level but on a very straightforward business one. This is like saying the sky is blue, but until you finish something, you won't know that you're able to finish something. Having to find that out when someone else is waiting on you is...not a good position to be in (Z2H is really good for writers in the sense that when someone wins a CCN or DtD, it's part of their editor's job to help them finish if necessary--most editors have a VERY different brief professionally).

An idea's fine, but everyone has those. It's the ability to execute the idea in a satisfactory way that separates those who have a shot from those who're just dreaming of a life of insecurity, poverty, and--er, I mean, dreaming of having a career as a writer.

A

(Taken from the ANDREW FOLEY WRITES THINGS blog. I haven't posted here recently and this seemed like something that might possibly be of interest to the community, hopefully in terms of generating a discussion on comedy writing methods, if nothing else.)

I'm semi-convinced the major reason the vast majority of comic books consist of people hitting other people (or things) is that writing fights is one of the easiest things to do in comic form. Even assuming the writer goes to the effort of coordinating the combat and describing it in sufficient detail that the page and panel composition don't rest entirely or almost entirely on the shoulders of the artist (which isn't safe to assume), it's still a lot easier to come up with something like:

HERO: YOU LITTLE %#*&, I'M GONNA KICK YOUR %#*&ING HEAD IN!
SFX: THWAMM!
VILLAIN: ARGH!

...than it is to make a page of talking heads (or even more active heads) say something interesting.

For whatever reason, the hardest material for me to write has always been comedy. When you're looking at a joke for the nineteenth time, it's difficult to remember why you thought it was funny to begin with. And the kind of comedy I tend to prefer, certainly as a reader--that of the Wodehouse/Adams/Pratchett variety--is all about the deft use of language for comedic effect. This kind of work isn't--or I can't imagine it being--off the cuff stuff. It's words that have been honed and refined, worked and reworked until they're perfect.

Frankly, it's not a lot of fun to write this sort of thing. But it's extremely rewarding when someone finds something I wrote to be funny. It's even better if I can find it funny myself, by viewing it through fresh eyes (usually eyes that haven't read the material for a couple years, run by a mind that doesn't remember writing it in the first place.)

When I'm writing something for which "being funny" is the primary goal, my approach is fairly simple: brainstorm as much stuff as possible, figure out if some of it's funny, try and figure out if some of it could possibly be funny with some work, toss the rest and then try and find a way to wedge the good stuff into a narrative framework (the looser the framework, the better.)

Which of course leads to a lot of material that never gets used.

As I was digging through the office a few minutes ago looking for something to write notes on, I came upon a few pages of stuff that appears to be the result of a comedy brainstorming session. And, as I've been exceedingly lax with the blogging lately but don't really have much I feel like talking about at the moment, I figured, hey, I wrote it, I might as well use it.

I can't be sure, but I'm guessing the following material was aimed at the script for a Platinum Studios project I created called JEST CAUSE (which remains one of my top five favourite scripts I've written to date). It might have been done for THE TOKEN GOBLIN, too...in any event, it reads as though I was aiming for comedic fantasy with it. I offer it unedited, warts and all, in the hopes that one of my half dozen readers will get some meagre entertainment value out of it. If you don't...well, you get what you pay for.

Here we go:

-All the fashionable lairs these days are built by Maurice, a former evil wizard whose fashion empire was built on a foundation of impeccable taste and bloodshed.

-It is said that history is written by the victors: Victor Conroy, Vic Hedges, and Victor Vincenzo were the heads of the historians guild.

-Not since pork chop leapt from frying pan has

-If all the world's a stage, then the gods are the director, writer, and largely the audience. The lives of the merely mortal are there to amuse and entertain them, but nobody but  the gods gets to take a bow when the curtain falls.
They're desperate for appreciation. "Didn't I do good?" they ask, and the person they ask damn well better give them the right answer, lest they be well-damned.

-All things are relative. Necessity is the mother of Inventtion, and Madness merely the weird uncle of Ambition.

-There's a place for people who defy the gods, a place specially designed to make them wish they hadn't.

-"No, seriously, three of them, and they could talk and build houses. Well, one of them could, the other two just kind of stacked wood and straw up and prayed for good weather."

A

In my never-ending quest to avoid writing the screenplay I'm supposed to be working on right now, I decided to flex my editing muscles a little. In this post, SheaKoshan links to her pitch for FINAL SNOW, says she's doing it to learn how to write a comic script, and says any help on that front would be appreciated.

Hopefully, the following helps. ITEMS WRITTEN IN BOLD that aren't NAMES and PANEL NUMBERS are the sorts of comments I as an editor would be making if I received the script.

Disclaimer: As a Z2H editor, I make it a policy to remain neutral when it comes to all Creation materials posted on the site. I felt like doing a little critiquing and SK's post was the first I encountered when the mood hit me. My doing this is not indicative of personal support for FINAL SNOW, nor is it intended as a personal attack on either SK or her pitch. I post it in the hopes that it might offer any interested parties insight into the craft of comic storytelling. And because I haven't posted much in a while and I desperately desire attention. I'm so very, very lonely...

FINAL SNOW

Page 1:  5 Panels

SEVEN, ACTUALLY.

PANEL ONE
CHASE pushes ADRIAN, who is still in bed, turning him over. Around him are scattered notes and dirty clothing, and an old box of takeout of some form that has clearly been stepped on a few times.

RIGHT OFF THE BAT, I?M ASKING QUESTIONS. THE ESTABLISHING SHOT OF THE ENVIRONMENT DOESN?T APPEAR TILL PANEL FOUR, WHICH MAKES ME WONDER WHERE WE ARE (SOMETHING I?M STILL KIND OF WONDERING AFTER WE SEE THE ROOM, BUT AT LEAST THEN I?LL KNOW IT?S A MESSY ROOM, EVEN IF I DON?T KNOW WHOSE IT IS.) HOW ARE CHASE AND ADRIAN DRESSED? IS THERE A WAY THE WRITER COULD HAVE ONE OR BOTH OF THE CHARACTERS IDENTIFIED BY NAME ON THE FIRST PAGE? HOW IS THE ROOM LIT? ETC. ETC.

A LOT OF THIS STUFF COULD VERY WELL BE HANDLED BY THE ARTIST IN THE THUMBNAIL STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT, BUT IF ANY OF THIS STUFF IS IMPORTANT TO THE STORY OR EVEN JUST THE WRITER, IT OUGHT TO BE INCLUDED IN THE PANEL DESCRIPTION.

CHASE
Hey, get up. It?s four. In the afternoon.

HERE?S AN OPPORTUNITY TO GET ONE OF THE CHARACTERS? NAMES OUT: ?HEY, ADRIAN. *ADRIAN*. GET UP. IT?S FOUR. IN THE AFTERNOON.?

I MIGHT ALSO CONSIDER USING A SEPARATE BALLOON FOR ?IN THE AFTERNOON? TO EMPHASIZE THE PUNCHLINE.

PANEL TWO
Close up on ADRIAN as he gives CHASE a death glare lying on his back now. CHASE is grabbing a jacked and shoving a wallet and phone into a pocket.

DRAWING SOMEONE SHOVING A WALLET AND PHONE INTO A JACKET POCKET GETS TRICKY, AS A PANEL IS A STATIC IMAGE. SO, IF YOU?VE GOT THE WALLET AND PHONE VISIBLE, IT?S GOING TO BE HARD (NOT IMPOSSIBLE, BUT HARD) FOR THE ARTIST TO INDICATE VISUALLY THAT THE POCKET IS WHERE THEY?RE GOING. ON THE OTHER HAND, IF THEY?RE ALREADY DEPICTED AS BEING IN THE POCKET (WHICH IS WHAT A LOT OF ARTISTS WOULD GO WITH, I SUSPECT, BECAUSE IT SAVES THEM FROM HAVING TO DRAW A BUNCH OF FIDDLY STUFF), OR GOING INTO THE POCKET, IT?LL BE TRICKY FOR THE ARTIST TO MAKE THE PHONE AND WALLET RECOGNIZABLE AS THE ITEMS THEY ARE.

ALSO, THE WRITER?S CALLED FOR A CLOSE-UP SHOT OF ADRIAN. CLOSE-UPS ARE GENERALLY FOCUSED TIGHT ON A CHARACTER?S FACE, WHICH IS GOING TO MAKE IT REALLY TRICKY FOR THE ARTIST TO SHOW CHASE?S ACTIONS AT ALL. ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO BE REFLECTED IN ADRIAN?S EYES?

CHASE
Just because you?re passing everything doesn?t mean you can keep moping in here.

I?M ASSUMING THE EVERYTHING ADRIAN?S PASSING IS CLASSES OF SOME SORT, BUT IT MIGHT BE HANDY TO GET A TOUCH MORE SPECIFIC.

PANEL THREE
ADRIAN reluctantly starts to get up and out of bed. CHASE, shadowed in foreground is leaving, putting on the jacket.

THIS IS A FUNCTIONAL PANEL DESCRIPTION, ASSUMING THE WRITER DOESN?T MIND THE ARTIST INTERPRETING HOW CHASE IS LEAVING. IS HE AT THE DOOR, IS IT OPEN, IS HE THROUGH IT? PROBABLY DOESN?T MATTER, AND IF IT DOESN?T, NO WORRIES.

CHASE
Can?t you just, you know, get out tonight or something?
 
ADRIAN
No.

PANEL FOUR
CHASE is fixing his jacket. Wide shot of the room as Chase turns to look over ADRIAN in his bed. The room is a mess from this perspective, ADRIAN?s side of the room a pigsty and like he hadn?t been bothering with it for months.

I THOUGHT CHASE WAS LEAVING? IF HE?S NOT ACTUALLY ABOUT TO EXIT THE ROOM IN THE PREVIOUS PANEL--WHICH THE DIALOGUE IN THIS ONE SEEMS TO INDICATE TO ME HE ISN?T--THEN I?D ADVISE REVISING THE PREVIOUS PANEL DESCRIPTION TO ACCOMMODATE THAT.

ALSO, I DON?T REALLY KNOW WHAT ?FIXING HIS JACKET? MEANS, EXACTLY. IS HE LOOKING IN A MIRROR, STRAIGHTENING THE LAPELS??

FINALLY, WE?VE GOT A PART OF THE ROOM IDENTIFIED AS ADRIAN?S SIDE, AND A BED SPECIFIED AS HIS, WHICH IMPLIES THAT THERE ARE TWO BEDS IN THE ROOM AND IT DOESN?T BELONG SOLELY TO ADRIAN. IN WHICH CASE I THINK A BETTER DESCRIPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT IS CALLED FOR, PREFERABLY IN PANEL ONE. GENERALLY, I INCLUDE RELEVANT SETTING INFORMATION FOR A SCENE IN PANEL ONE, EVEN IF IT?S NOT GOING TO APPEAR IN THAT PANEL--THAT WAY THE ARTIST HAS AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHERE THINGS ARE TAKING PLACE FROM THE START.

CHASE
Then can you at least do your laundry? Your clothes smell worse than you do. And that?s saying something.

PANEL FIVE
ADRIAN sits up and looks around at his sea of mess.

THIS IS DESCRIBED IN DYNAMIC TERMS RATHER THAN STATIC IMAGERY. IT?LL BE VERY DIFFICULT FOR AN ARTIST TO DEPICT THE ACTIONS DESCRIBED IN A SINGLE STATIC IMAGE.

ADRIAN
I?m sure there?s something in here.

PANEL SIX

NO PANEL DESCRIPTION?

CHASE
There isn?t. Look, take a shower, get out of the room and try to see a little daylight before it goes. And shower because you reek.

WHILE PEOPLE DO REPEAT THEMSELVES IN CONVERSATIONS, THE SPACE LIMITATIONS OF THE COMIC FORMAT REQUIRE THE CONSCIENTIOUS COMIC WRITER TO GIVE A LOT OF CONSIDERATION TO WHAT CAN FIT IN A PANEL, WORD BALLOON-WISE, AND WHETHER SUCH REPETITION IS NECESSARY (BEING REFLECTIVE OF CHARACTER, FOR INSTANCE.) IN THIS CASE, CHASE TELLS ADRIAN TO TAKE A SHOWER TWICE IN THE SAME WORD BALLOON. AS AN EDITOR, I?D ADVISE: CUTTING ?TAKE A SHOWER?; ADDING ?TAKE A? BEFORE THE SECOND SHOWER; AND CUTTING ?BECAUSE?, TO MAKE THE FINAL SENTENCE ?AND TAKE A SHOWER. YOU REEK.? THAT SAVES A COUPLE WORDS, AND YES, I WILL ACTIVELY LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO SAVE TWO WORDS, ESPECIALLY ON A SEVEN PANEL PAGE.

ADRIAN
What?s the poi-

PANEL SEVEN

CHASE
Just because she?s gone, and been gone for months? doesn?t mean you can stink bad enough for me to notice.

AGAIN, I?D BE LOOKING TO SHAVE A WORD OR THREE OUT OF THIS PIECE OF DIALOGUE IF I COULD. ?LOOK. SHE?S BEEN GONE, FOR MONTHS. THAT DOESN?T MEAN YOU CAN STINK BAD ENOUGH FOR ME TO NOTICE.?

WELL, I RECKON THAT'S ENOUGH EDITING FOR ONE NIGHT. HOPEFULLY SOMEONE GOT SOMETHING OUT OF THIS.

EVER UPWARD,
FOLEY

Has anyone out there pitched a comic to Z2H that has a self-contained 22 page story as its first issue?

And for those that haven't pitched something that has a self-contained 22 page story for its first issue...why not?

A

For context, you may want to check out the thread that this post is actually a part of. It starts here.

I believe discussions of what one can expect to deal with, the obstacles they'll have to overcome (or at least get around), when they try and make a go of the whole comics thing can have some value. And I think that conversations that are on the third page of blogs are likely to get missed by most. So, I'm continuing the conversation in a new post.

"Stuff in quotes" comes from SlayerFan666. The rest is me. And heeeere we go...

"I think first of all some people are assuming things."

It's possible. I wouldn't make assumptions about who's assuming them, though...

"I'm not quite sure where your coming from Mr. Foley."

I'm coming from the position of someone who doesn't like seeing someone who claims to want to work in the medium and presumably the industry actively shoot themselves in the foot by making ill-considered public statements.

"I don't understand the hostility."

Mine, or yours? If I've come across as hostile, I am sorry. Not my intent at all. As I've previously mentioned, you are coming across as negative, to the point of appearing hostile, at least to my eyes (that's not hostile to me, mind, but hostile in general.)

"I didn't mean to ruffle feathers here. You are clearly a Image supporter"

That's an assumption, but it happens to be accurate. I support any publisher that actively supports true creator ownership in a business that's built on creator exploitation.

"I didnt mean to offend anyone thats just how i feel. What i said wasn't a rally cry against Image."

For what it's worth, I'm not offended. More confused, really.

"What is Z2H dealing with? Who? I'd like to know. Do you know?"

I know some stuff, but not a lot--Z2H is fairly compartmentalized internally, and as an editor, when it comes to, say, Hollywood dealings, there's a lot I don't Need to Know. And what I do know I'm contractually prevented from discussing without getting permission from Z2H Central anyway--as are most of the people who post here who'd know that kind of stuff.

"I'm a curious person."

In my experience, ChiefZero (aka Z2H head honcho Matt Toner) has a fairly open-door policy when it comes to talking with people who contact him directly. If anyone can answer the questions you're posing, he can. Whether he would answer them or not is an open question--it's not sound business practice to, say, discuss which producer you're talking to about optioning Property X to until the official announcement is made by the agreed-upon party.

"I'm curious how i am burning a bridge. If you mean with Image then i dont understand. What has Image done for me lately?"

The question is, what might they do for you in the future, and what might they be disinclined to do for you in the future if they catch wind of you making unsupported claims of unprofessional practices about them in public places.

"I dont want to "explain" why i don't like them. It don't matter."

OK.

"But i will say this."

You really shouldn't. As you pointed out, it doesn't matter.

"Joe Blow on the street comes up with a idea for a comic. Do you think that if he put years of work into it, bad or good, that someone would listen for  say 10 min."

Someone would if he put it up on Z2H.

Someone might if it had good art attached to it. Someone might if someone they trusted recommended they listen. Someone might if they thought they could make money out of it. Someone--well, you get the idea.

"Probably not right. I would say a 99% chance Joe Blow don't get to make that pitch."

You haven't specified who this someone is they don't get to make that pitch to, yet...

"Why? People say its the way the buisness works right? Editors don't have time."

Oh, no, they probably won't get to make the pitch to an EDITOR. If they've worked ten years in isolation and haven't put effort into creating a network of connections in the industry and they have nothing tangible to show the editor to prove they've actually got the required skillset to make a comic...

Then no, they probably wouldn't get to make the pitch to an editor at a major company. Even a minor company. Because editors don't have time.

"Just curious though why this is then."

Because there are only so many hours in a day, and editors' hours are filled up with other things to do?

Seriously: most non-freelance editors have a slush pile with dozens, if not hundreds, of proposals sitting on their desk. And the vast majority of the creators of those proposals--while they're probably decent people who really, really want to be in the industry and believe they've got a million-dollar idea--simply either are not good enough at their craft to have their work published, or do not bring enough to the table in terms of an established audience/record of quality for an editor to take a risk on them when that editor personally knows dozens of people he can rely on to get the job done.

"Nicholas Cage the actor. He has a son that came up with this idea, not a good one, but an idea. Because he's Nicholas Cage's son of course he gets the book series with no questions asked."

That's a major assumption on your part. Of course being Nic Cage's son helps him out; you have no idea what or how many questions were considered before the book got the greenlight.

"If Joe Blow had the same exact idea as Cage's son then what makes Cage's pitch any better? Because his father has star creds?"

In a word, yes. The calculations on Virgin's part undoubtedly included the presumed impact the PR value of Cage's name on the product would have on sales. That's a business consideration, but publishers need to think like businessfolk if they're going to keep publishing for long.

"Wow! That always makes me want to run right out and buy a comic."

Really? It kind of depresses me...

"What i'm saying is yeah it could take some time to listen to someones idea but hey you never know you could find the next great thing."

And I've never met an editor who wouldn't love to come across the next best thing, who wouldn't love to have the time to look for it.

But they don't. Their primary job is not to find the next Alan Moore, it's to get the books they're assigned out and, if they're lucky, develop new ones , probably with creators they trust, and then, if they've got a few minutes on top of that, THEN they may just be able to wade into the slush pile looking for the next big thing.

Is that a desirable situation? No, not for the creators and not even for the editors. But that's the way it is.

Ever upward.

A

The Chief swooped in yesterday in responding to this blog post re: Rainmaker and the company's relationship with ReBoot fans, basically scooping me in the lengthy reply I had composed in response to it. Rather than subject everyone to my repeating his points with different wording, I've tossed that reply in the dustbin.

However, I would like to reinforce his point re: lack of updates, especially in regard to the new ReBoot movies, which are, as I understand it, more than a year away from release. Like the Chief, I am speaking solely on my own behalf and my views do not necessarily reflect those of Rainmaker, Z2H, or anyone other than the mildly deranged person who's typing them.

I was once involved with a company that issued a press release every time it looked like there might possibly be something happening with one of their properties. The company's higher-ups obsessively tracked mentions of their name online and put a lot of effort into trying to sway peoples' (generally low) opinion of the company. In short, they expended an awful lot of effort, energy, and resources talking about stuff they were supposed to be doing, or about what other people might do with stuff they hadn't actually done (it's Hollywood--you don't need to have a comic, script, or anything other than a title to claim you're developing a movie.)

Those resources could have been spent on producing the entertainment that was the company's official raison d'etre. And actually having that entertainment to show people would've done more for the company's image than all the spin control in the world. But they, like most companies, had finite resources, and they chose to use a lot of them to keep everyone who'd listen in the loop about how great things were going. In the end, maybe a tenth of what was included in their updates actually happened as they said it was happening (and that's being extremely generous.)

As a fan of ReBoot--of anything, really--a question that's worth asking is: would you rather have people spend time talking about making a movie (or comic, TV show, videogame, whatever), or would you rather have them spend that time actually making it? In an ideal world, there'd be time and space for both; regrettably, I don't live in an ideal world.

And, again, I don't know the situation at Rainmaker, but it seems to me they're putting substantial resources into trying to engage the fan community. They chose to offer fans a chance to write a comic with the characters via community voting (and on that note, Asclepius, if you're reading this, believe me when I say, whatever else Whizzywig may be, he is a HUGE ReBoot fan who is really delighted to have the chance to write a story with these characters in it). They chose to continue that story beyond the original 22 pages, and to provide fans with something new to chew on every week for around 20 weeks. They choose to encourage fanfic and other expressions of fan interest where the vast majority of companies would, at best, tolerate the unlicensed use of their intellectual property. And they're doing all of this while working on bringing ReBoot back to the medium it originated in, more than a year in advance of when they'll actually have a product they can sell.

That last point is critical. Maintaining a website, running a vote-based creative project, creating a weekly webcomic...all this stuff costs Rainmaker money, and it's money they absolutely don't have to spend and almost certainly won't see any kind of financial return on for more than a year. But they are spending it, and the impression I've received is they're spending it because they really do care about the fans.

Perhaps they're overthinking things? I'd hate to think they're putting all this effort into giving the fans new ReBoot stories at their own expense when all it'd take to keep said fans happy is updates on how many seconds of the movie were completed this week.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather have the comic now and news about the movies when there's actually something worth reporting--and I'd hope the majority of ReBoot's fans, or at least the webcomic's readers, feel the same.

Ever upward, Heroes!

A

Terrible, terrible post title, but I've been tryiing to fight off a cold for five days and frankly, I think the cold's winning, so cut Dayquil-Lad here a little slack, willya?

I know I haven't been as active in these parts as usual recently--there comes a time when one just can't bring oneself to discuss the same old storytelling issues over and over again, and that time is when production on the ReBoot webcomic is perilously behind schedule (it's to Diego's, Ed's, and the production team's credit that two new pages of Jeff Campbell's prize-winning storyline manage to continue appearing, like clockwork, every Monday. I certainly can't take any credit for it...).

However, today's Permanent Damage column on ComicBookResources.com by longtime comic writer Steven Grant merits a mention, as it deals in part with one of the thorniest issues writers must face and offers some solid advice on how to go about it. And no, I'm not going to tell you want the issue is or Grant's advice, you're just going to have to click through and look for yourself if you want to know. NYAHH!From where I stand, PD is always worth a read, but this week's seemed like it might be particularly useful to many of the up-and-coming writers we've got here. Check it out and let me know if I've overdosed on cold meds and really shouldn't be recommending anything in this state of mind.

Ever upward?

A

As we close in on the completion of principal photography--er, I mean, interior artwork for Beth Dillon's THE WEST WAS LOST #1, I thought it might be a good time to start a gallery for same. So I did. Because there's a time to think and a time to act, and this is no time to think.

And I'm trying to link to it now, and the #*&%ing blog won't let me! What's up with that? But it's there, people, I promise you. Page upon page of wonderful artwork by "Fenomenal" Frank Grau Jr., from luscious pencils to glorious paints, with a Foley rough thrown in that appears as a horizontal line across the previous image for reasons I can't even begin to fathom. Why, you ask? I can't even begin to fathom why. I just told you that. Pay attention, consarn it! I'm not typing this to hear my own fingers tapping, y'know.

I don't know how the other APTN books are coming along - Julian either got too busy with Comix 101 to hold the regular editor meetings we used to have when we were young and full of vim (not the floor cleaner, the kind of vim that doesn't kill someone who's full of it), or he wisely decided that I was simply going to keep repeating myself over and over again and stopped telling me when they happen.

The latter rationale has much to do with why I've been so uncharacteristically silent lately. When I've got something to say, I say it, usually in the middle of saying a bunch of completely unrelated crap, so people looking for the pearls of my wisdom have to dive deep into the ocean of my verbiage and penetrate the clamshell of...uhm, my metaphors or something. But when I have nothing to say, or, more accurately, I've got something to say but I don't want to get into another argument over whether North American readers are more comfortable reading left to right AGAIN, I shut up, put my nose to the grindstone and whittle it down to bloody cartilage. Because that's the kind of guy I am: quiet, with a gaping hole in my face.

So while I continue to make my presence felt on the Z2H site by popping up in blog comments threads and spreading my malign influence, I've not done a lot of blogging on TWWL. There really hasn't been a lot to blog about, come to think of it. The entire process has been so smooth that I don't know what I'm going to do for page notes. And nobody wants to hear about how swell things are going, they want the dirt. By "nobody" I of course mean "me." GIVE ME DIRT, PEOPLE! I COMMAND YOU!

Failing that, go read the ReBoot webcomic. Artist Diego Simone's really starting to hit his stride over there. I'd give you a link, but THE BLOG WON'T PASTE WHAT I AM SO VERY CERTAIN I COPIED! Curse you, blog program. May you die a much-deserved and ironic death, crushed beneath the mass of the collected, unused paper diaries you replaced!

Ever upward, heroes!

A

My thoughts on the first two hours of HEROES Season 3:

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

-First of all, someone owes Chris Claremont a HUGE royalty cheque. In almost every list of speculative fiction story submission guidelines I?ve read, there?s a point where the editors (or whoever wrote that particular list) says if you want to write this stuff, you should really read new material in the genre, because whatever?s filtered into popular culture, films or TV or whatever, is inevitably going to be ten years behind the literature. By my reckoning, HEROES is about 20 years behind modern superhero comics, storywise.

-And the same someone owes whoever wrote Cronenberg?s version of THE FLY a smaller cheque than the one owed Claremont.

-Ali Larter?s new character isn?t a psychotic killer or a pornographic webcam girl, but rather a high-powered political advisor. Who sleeps with her older boss and wanders around their hotel suite in lingerie. When did Frank Miller join the Heroes writing staff?

-Can we please declare a moratorium on use of the term ?the butterfly effect?? Or at least take it as given that anyone watching anything that involves the butterfly effect will have enough pop cultural and/or scientific knowledge to grasp what the butterfly effect is without having to endure the tedium of a character explain what it is? Please?

-Best line of the first two hours: ?I asked you not to open the safe!? No place to go from there but down. Someone should give George Takei his own show, on the condition that he be obviously pissed off for the entire thing. I?d watch that.

-Claire can?t feel anything! Oh, the non-humanity!

-Wait, Mama Petrelli is Sylar?s mother, too? Is there anyone on the show who hasn?t sprung from her loins? Maybe that?s her power, superhuman fertility.

-OK, now that I think about it, even with Sylar that?s still only three characters she gave birth to. I have it in my head there?s at least one more that?s been revealed, but can?t remember who it is, if it?s anyone at all. Even so: she gave birth to Peter and Sylar, which is one incredibly superpowered son too many for me to suspend my disbelief.

-Mind you, most of the dialogue is too much for me to suspend my disbelief.

-The guy who owes Claremont and the Fly writer? Also ought to send a cheque to M. Night Shyamalan, for using the Sixth Sense?s twist to get Malcolm McDowell back on the show.

-?Well, we don?t like her because she?s incompetent and her powers are uncontrollable, but she did manage to take down Sylar. I know, let?s fire her and let her walk out of this place where we imprison people with uncontrollable powers. Yeah! That?s a good idea.?

-Hiro?s nemesis can apparently run faster than time. When did Grant Morrison join the Heroes writing staff?

-In the future, everyone will be emo.

-I would?ve liked these episodes a lot better if it actually was the turtle talking to Parkman.

From the Arcana e-mail newsletter I got ten minutes ago:

"Jennica Harper Named Screenwriter of Clockwork Girl Film!

Arcana Comics is proud to announce that Jennica Harper has been named the screenwriter of the upcoming animated Clockwork Girl film, which recently received funding from Telefilm Canada.
 
Jennica Harper was born in North Bay, Ontario, grew up in Brampton, and now lives in Vancouver, BC. She works as a screenwriter and story editor in the Canadian film industry, and is also a published poet and occasional stand-up comic. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and a BA in English from the University of Toronto.
 
She will adapt The Clockwork Girl, the smash hit all ages comic series from Arcana created by Sean O'Reilly and Kevin Hanna, for the big screen. The comic tells the tale of a nameless robot girl and her friendship with an amazing mutant boy. The series was the first release from Arcana's new Arcana Kids imprint and has received critical acclaim for its artwork and touching story.  The Clockwork Girl hardcover book can be found at your local comic book store or book retailer (ISBN: 0-9809204-1-8)."

I started writing a long, involved blog post about something of great interest to Z2H editors and creators earlier in the week, when I thought to myself, "Self, there are people out there who might not be terribly keen on you blogging about this particular subject. Perhaps you should check with them before you spend an additional hour polishing this particular post."


So I e-mailed the aforementioned potentially less-than-keen folk, and sure enough, their enthusiasm for my publicly blogging on this particular topic was something else (something else other than enthusiasm.) So that was that post shot to heckuva job, brownie.

And then I realized something...


There's so much activity going on with the blogs right now that nobody's going to read one of my patented Epic Foley Posts, even if I had the time, energy, and permission to write one. And why should they, when they can read fine comic works like BLACK JACK O'BREEN and KNIGHTCAP: NOVEMBER'S SONG?

No reason at all.

So I tried and failed to post my rough thumbnail for a page of Beth Dillon, Myron A. Lameman, and Frank Grau, Jr.'s upcoming Z2H comic THE WEST WAS LOST. I followed this by successfully posting the pencils and inks of that same page. I take this as further evidence that computers have developed artificial intelligence at least to the point where they know they don't like someone, and they've, en masse, decided they don't like me.

Anyway. Hope you're all enjoying the books that are up, and looking forward to the ones we've got coming...

Foley

Not going to write much this week, because this week you've all got more entertaining things to read than this blog, don't you? Things to read and become Fans of...?

Yes. Yes, you do.

On top of that, I don't actually need to write much, because much of this post was written for me, by the various creators of BLACK JACK O'BREEN and KNIGHTCAP: NOVEMBER'S SONG. If you "flip" to the back of each of these fine webcomics, you'll find biographical blurbs for each of the involved creators. It was shortly after the books were finished that Z2H asked each of us to write a blurb for ourselves - something they surely regret and aren't likely to ask for again.

It's fairly easy to write about interesting fictional characters; it's also fairly easy to write about interesting non-fictional characters. I am neither interesting nor fictional (mostly), so writing about myself is one of the harder things I've had to do (still beats fence painting, though.) My problem, when faced with the challenge of writing a bio for myself, is coming up with something that doesn't reflect how utterly mundane a person I actually am. One normally lists accomplishments, but mine are few and far between. Yes, a former mayor of Red Deer's last official act in that capacity was being hugged by me. Yes, I graduated from art college with distinction - two distinctions if you count the tablecloth with the word "HEROIC" stenciled on it as a cape. Yes, I am the real-life inspiration for the Robert Redford character in The Horse Whisperer.

Actually, that last one's not true.

But since I hugged the mayor of Red Deer and ended a promising local political career, what have I actually done with my life that's noteworthy? Answer: Not a lot. And because I haven't done a lot, it's hard to come up with a bio that anyone would be interested in reading.

Let me rephrase that: it's hard to come up with a truthful bio that anyone would be interested in reading. In fact, it's very easy indeed to string together a bunch of untruths into something that, while it's complete BS, is still better than reading about how much I love my cats*. I still remember fondly the bio I wrote where I claimed my greatest goal in life was to become a female Vietnamese prostitute, and that it was only after achieving this goal at the age of fourteen that I moved into the comic-creating realm...

But I digress.

As it happens, many of the people I had the pleasure to work with on my Zeros 2 Heroes books took a similar, not-entirely serious approach to writing their bios. And we were, for the most part, ruthlessly edited by the higher-ups and made to look like decent, if bland human beings.

But as readers of this blog know, my posting philosophy is simplicity itself: if someone wrote it, I might as well post it. And so I present to you, the un-ruthlessly edited bios the various creators wrote for themselves. Because it beats writing a lengthy blog post myself.

Oh, bugger.

BLACK JACK O'BREEN writer John Michael Sullivan described himself and his comic writing endeavours thusly:

"John Sullivan is a Vancouver-based writer and journalist.  He has written science fiction short stories, screenplays and magazine articles, run web sites, edited multi-million dollar government contract proposals, and given subcutaneous fluids to a cat.  What the hell, why not a comic book?"

The paycheque probably isn't as good as running websites or editing multimillion dollar contracts, for one, but let's not go there.

Stephen Cmelak had this to say about himself:

"Stephen Cmelak is a writer-by-night, who by day poses as a mild-mannered middle-manager for a great metropolitan retail chain. In 2005, he contributed three pages to the Blank Label Webcomic Hurricane Relief Telethon, which raised over $28, 000 in donations for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He currently lives in Scarborough, Ontario, only two blocks from where he was born, which is somewhat akin to the thief who returns to the scene of the crime."

BLACK JACK O'BREEN (and THE WEST WAS LOST) artist Frank Grau, Jr. - ever the energetic one - gave us a number of options:









Letterer Ed Brisson said:

Actually, I better check with Ed and make sure he's cool with me posting what he said. Not that it was bad, but, you know. Better safe than sorry.

And, of course, there's yours truly. No Vietnamese prostitutes in this one, I'm afraid. In fact, I tried my best to write it "straight" but even so I found myself having trouble taking it entirely seriously:

"In addition to being the editor of this astonishingly well-edited comic book, Andrew Foley is also the handsome, talented, and above all modest writer of comics like THE HOLIDAY MEN, PARTING WAYS, and DONE TO DEATH. His online home is AndrewFoleyWritesThings.com."

A

(*Actually, I don't like my cats that much. One's so stupid it'll someday die horribly after it forgets to breathe, and the other regularly tries to suffocate me in bed by sleeping on my face.)

Lest you think the life of the comics editor is all wine and roses: I finished yesterday's workday at 12:49 AM the next morning, after a marathon realtime lettering session with letterer extraordinaire Ed Brisson* on - well, I'm not allowed to say, actually. But this was not a fun night, either for myself, or Mr. Brisson, who had an additional ten pages of lettering to do after he finished dealing with my nitpickery (12 rounds of revision over three pages wouldn't be so bad if it were spread out over a few days. A few hours? That's a heaping helping of kill me deadlinery). Even I wasn't finished, as it turned out. Thoroughly exhausted, I was nevertheless inspired to return to my Z2H bloggery. So here I am, my friends, taking you once more into the life of the Zeros 2 Heroes editor. Fools rushed in, and here I find myself...

But to the topic at hand...

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, or so Willliam Shakespeare's Juliet opined. But then, look what happened to her and tell me if you really think she's anything more than the Victorian England equivalent of a Girl Gone Wild. "Oooh, I'm going to slip out and do naughty things with that hot Montague guy. That'll show Daddy who's boss!"

So what's in a name, other than a potential lawsuit? Creator, new mother, and all around bon vivante Beth Dillon had to answer that question with her second CCN:APTN-winning project, NORTH WIND. Because, as it happens, Boom! Studios recently released a comic called NORTH WIND of their own.

Now, as I understand it, it's not actually possible to copyright a title (you can trademark them, though, and God help anyone who tries to get away with calling something Star Wars without the Almighty Lucas' approval.) However, when you've got a pre-existing comic of the same name, and it's already got a pretty strong web presence, and, you know, Hollywood entertainment lawyers behind it///well, if there's any other name that could possibly do the job, that's probably the name you want to go with, you know? And so, as artist supreme Frank Grau Jr. got to work on the pin-up for the now-untitled project, Beth hunkered down to try and come up with a new title.

I suggested adding something to North Wind: North Wind's Vengeance; North Wind's Journey; North Wind's Pounding Sinus Headache. But this would not do.

For awhile, it seemed that nothing would do. As Beth put it, North Wind was THE title, and finding another was an unwanted and difficult task. Eventually, the title RETRIBUTION was settled upon. Not a bad title, by any means, but one I think has kind of a generic quality that could be applied to a lot of stories. "In a world gone mad, only one man can save us all from those who would do us harm. He's not interested in vengeance. He's not interested in justice. All he wants...is RETRIBUTION. Coming this fall from Thirtieth Century Groundhog Studios."

Apparently, Beth agreed with me, at least insofar as she kept searching for a new title. And eventually, she found one.

Coming this fall (and not from Thirtieth Century Groundhog): THE WEST WAS LOST.

Ever upward, heroes!

But only after I go to bed.

A

(*Speaking of Ed Brisson: Did you know that when Ed's not lettering pretty much every Zeros 2 Heroes comic in existence, to say nothing of the numerous other lettering projects he's got on the go, he also runs his own alternative comic publishing company, New Reliable Press. It's true! The third in his series of YOU AIN'T NO DANCER Anthologies will be coming out shortly - it was in Previews last month, I believe. Check it out, and if you like what you see, give a fellow Z2Her as well as the small press comic industry a hand and preorder a copy at your local comic shop today.)