Issue 1

This is the script for the first issue of my monthly superhero comic book, Rapid City.

Read Issue 1 here.

Panel 5: Rampart powering down and looking around all exhausted. Similar high angle shot, but this time there is much more disarray. People are scrambling and cars are trying to back up or leave somehow. Some people are abandoning their cars if they are blocked in.

RAMPART

When people hear it, they'll be relieved. Like, "ok, BLANK is here."

I began this as an experiment in "jumping in". There are things that will need to be changed before print publication, but I wanted to preserve in the interest of the experiment.

Older entries.

This had been my comics review blog.
That was something I started doing to keep myself thinking about comics in a critical way, and writing. I stopped doing that because I fell behind on the schedule and was just not motivated to keep it up.

Then, a few months ago I read something on the editorial page of a recent "overnight sensation" comic book.

I don't even remember what it actually said, but I remember it made me feel like an idiot.

This guy was writing comics. I wanted to write comics, but I wasn't. Why not? Regardless of what the answer was at that particular moment....it was just another excuse. I wanted to write, but I wasn't writing.

That's when i got the idea to start this project. I don't need to worry about the drawing, or the marketing, or publishing...or any of that. I want to write. So I am writing.

...and, posting a issue's worth of script here in this blog.

First script test

This is a short piece that I wrote a while back a favor for a friend.

Red Lion: B-Sides

It is based on some characters from our Rapid City comic book and some of his daughter's toys. The germ of the idea came from her suggestion of "Red Lion vs Blue Zebra"

If you follow this link, please let me know if it works.

I would, of course, appreciate comments on the script itself, but I am mostly just testing to see if the basic set-up work.

Re-Launch

Everyone loves a re-launch, right?

I am re-purposing this blog to be a place in which I can publish my work on a regular basis.

I will explain as I go along. Right now I am just working out the mechanics of it.

Uncanny X-Men #508

Uncanny X-Men #508

Matt Fraction
Greg Land

The Fraction/Brubaker run on Marvel's flagship X-title continues. Messiah Complex and Manifest Destiny have left the X-Men with a strange new status-quo, but strange has always been the status quo for them.

What worked: Fraction's fast paced story telling is wonderful. Even in very talky moments, the story just clips along. He introduces each character with a quick intro caption that tell sthe name, the powers, and gives and adjective or two to describe them. No, I don't know every character from the X-Men's checkered history who shows up in the book, but thanks to these captions I know enough to get what is going on in the scene. Sure, I still have some questions, but I trust that anything I NEED to know will be told when the time comes for me to know it.
In the past, Greg Land's artwork has looked a little too static, too posed. Simply, the drawings looked a little too much like the photos they were referencing. I don't know what changed, but that quality is gone. Now all we have a lush, elegant, detailed renderings that look as vibrant as any comic on the stands today.

What did not work: Though there were some great reveals in this chapter of the story, it feels like it might be moving just a tad too slowly. Or, maybe it is just that I don't quite know enough about what is going on to sink the hook in.
Also, there is a scene where a seemingly shocking revelation is made to s certain character, but the next time we see him, he has not reacted to it at all, and seems to be busy on an unrelated errand. Nothing terribly unrealistic, but it does take some of the weight from the conflict when even the characters it is affecting don't really let it interrupt their schedules.

The Walking Dead #60

The Walking Dead #60

Kirkman
Adlard

Robert Kirkman's zombie epic keeps rolling along.

What worked:
60 creator owned issues? Clearly this book works. It is relentless. This book is not cute or fun or "awesome". There are no "Planet Terror" moments in this comic. It is all badness, all the time. SO when some of the characters seem to have found a possible respite, you really do feel for them. You really do want it to last, despite the fact that you know from reading the other plot line in the same issue that their peace is going to be very short lived.

What did not work:
After 60 issues with a fairly stable cast, Kirkman's characters start to sound a bit it their own cliches. But maybe that is just realism. After spending that much time ith the same people, I guess you really would get sick of the sound of their voives.

SeaGuy #1

Sea Guy #1

DC Vertigo
Grant Morrison
Cameron Stewart

After spending so much time architecting the new DC Universe, Grant Morrison seems to have needed some "me time". For Morrison, it doesn't get much more "me" than Sea Guy.
As the cover proclaims, this is the "long awaited return" of the comic and character that baffled and amused vertigo fans a few years ago.

What worked: Some might say "trippy", "bizarre", "surreal, or "messed-up" and they could all make their case, but the the term I would use is "dream like".
You know when you wake from a dream that was so absurd that you are embarrassed that you did not realize it was a dream? How could you not know? Well, that is because your dream brain just takes what it is given and rolls on to the next thing. That is how you have to read Sea Guy. Just take it a face value and move in to the next thing. If you can do this, the book becomes eerie, and hauntingly sad. It perfectly captures the sense you often find in dreams of "this is not right. this is not how thing should be".
Through the central action of the story, Sea Guy is repeatedly sidetracked from his stated goal. He is compelled by some sense of purpose, but he can not recall just what he was meant to do, or be. We, as readers, are far more lost than our amiable protagonist. Not much of what happens makes sense in a realistic way. What we do know for sure is just what we get an intuitive sense of. Whatever is going on, whatever Sea Guy is doing, things are NOT as they are meant to be.
Sea Guy is a likable character, and his actions, though strange, are linear and follow a certain trajectory through his bizarre world. This is just enough stable footing to lead through the story.

What did not work: Well, if this was intended to be clear and linear, then it flopped pretty hard on its face. But, I seriously doubt that this was intended to be a straight-forward story.
Sea Guy's amiable sincerity was enough to pull me through the vast suspensions of disbelief. I am sure, however, that are many readers in the world who need something a bit more firm to bring a story home. This book is clearly not for everyone. In fact, that may be the only thing CLEAR about it.

I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I would only recommend it if you are really willing to let a comic take you on a very strange ride.