#dacbw

[thinkingalexis]

Diary of an Aspiring Comic Book Writer, A week off

So after last week I decided that I was going to be chill about my writing responsibilities while family was over. Normally I commit to writing at least a chunk of an article a day, a bit of work on a comic every day, and at least a single issue worth of comic every day but for a week I took off that responsibility. I still did some work depending on the days but I really wanted to relax and enjoy my vacation this time of stressing myself out over things that I am not making money on. I adore writing, getting my thoughts out there for everyone to read but I only am going to get chances like last week maybe twice a year so I needed to chill.

That said thinking about relaxing makes me think of how little so many comic characters seem to get to do that. While some may argue it wouldn’t be fun to see I mean we see people do much lower stakes things on TV all the time, it doesn’t always need to be this giant battle. I think it’s really nice to see people be able to detox a bit and have a moment to breath. The moments they have to breath give so much more value to the intense moments. Like in Steven Universe we see a lot of the gems and Steven chilling with minor things maybe popping up. This makes when we get these bigger fights have so much impact. Similar Dragon Ball did a very similar thing where we got these chiller moments to go with the big action set pieces to make everything feel like it had more weight.

When chaos is the status quo you get stuck in a loop of raising the stakes or else it doesn’t matter anymore. This is one of the problems marvel has right now. The events add this constant state of chaos that makes them no longer feel like they have any impact. When making my stuff I try to keep that in mind too. For the monster of the week formula it’s about putting in the like look they have this more chill moment inside of the same story that fits. In a longer story format maybe giving a goofing around or lower stakes issue is the answer. I do think it is different from story to story but it’s something that has been in my mind.

Speaking of my writing this week I did do a bit of that. I worked with a friend from twitter on one of her superhero ideas a bit. Gonna do a full rewrite for her this week I hope but I did some editing and stuff. I also worked a bit on a few ideas, the RNC inspired an Angel hunters story and I did a dab of fan fiction stuff. Otherwise, I was pretty chill in terms of writing this week. I think I managed to pump out quality of quantity but I guess the far future will be the judge of that. Anyway, that’s it not even gonna put this in it’s own paragraph, hope you enjoyed, byyyye.

[thinkingalexis]

Retooling Diary of an Aspiring Comic Book Writer

Last week I missed my entry for Diary of an aspiring comic book writer because my Death Is Boring post was suppose to be an entry but went on so long I felt like I would have to force it. I’m going to be reframing this series and trying to focus more on discussing theme vs my own writing for the week. Before I had a pretty simple formula, Intro, talking point, talking point with my comic, what I wrote, comics I read with one or two sentences attached. I’m not sure what I want to switch the format too yet but I want to cut out talking about comics since I am starting my queerview series for comics reviews.

I may to talk about all the comics I don’t get to talk about in queerview launch some other new series of quickfire reviews but they would need to be longer than what I was doing for DACBW before. I didn’t like feeling like I had one comic to talk about way more than the others or that I couldn’t really pull anything of value from a lot of talking about these comics from how short the format was. It was mostly “This is bad, this is good” and sometimes i’d manage to not screw it up and write some better stuff.  Writing actual reviews, doing the wondrous webcomics series, stuff like that are more likely to keep it all smart, contained with more direct messages. If you got suggestions for what you would like to see i’d love to hear it out but otherwise i’ll just try thing on my own.

I’ve been slacking a little bit in terms of writing, I’ve found it hard to stay inspired despite actually having tons of things to write about. This will only get worse at my dad's although I am hoping have a new laptop will help mitigate that. Despite not feeling too inspired I think I’ve managed to bang out a few fun ideas inside of issue two of my angel hunters series and this pros experiment for my Sentai moms comic that I've been doing is panning out alright so far. I want to keep playing with the way I brain storm, craft ideas, start trying to bring my comics to life. Thinking of spending some time this or next week doing interview experiences where I interview my cast to try to get into their voice, unlock bits of their back story I hadn’t considered etc.

I think that’s gonna be it for this entry, short, simple sweet but I am still figuring all this stuff out. I would adore hearing what you all would like to hear about on this series. I am more into gaming at the moment then I have been in a while, maybe I should bring up how storytelling and stuff affects me there. After all video game writing was my first dream and comics and games are at least both visual mediums (although video game writing is generally wildly different from comic writing from what I hear).

[thinkingalexis]

Purpose Diary of an Aspiring Comic Book Writer

(From Jonesy issue 1)

I have written a lot about the recent events be the ranting on twitter or in an angry post here. Regardless I feel like it’s worth talking about an effect of these events on me. Yes there is fear, sadness, and anger all that come from the attack after attack this week on queer people but there is also the inspiration.I feel like now more then ever my stories are important. I feel now more then ever that I have a real purpose in putting out my content.  

I’ll be honest, I am afraid of putting out my work not because I could fail but the chance I really make it. It’s scary to think that something awful could happen to me for being a very visible “SJW” or something like that. Still I feel like my stories have a purpose and that they need to be released there. As I saw the shooting and saw the quick GOP turn around I was like “Where is my angel hunters when the world needs them to punish these asswipes.”  

I am making the stories I need and I know they will fit the needs of others as well. I want to make stories all that have awesome trans and queer heroes proudly displaying themselves. I want to show my stories where these people from all sorts of backgrounds get to be together and do fun things. These stories that “aren’t queer stories” but all kinds of stories. Action, card game comic, romance, sentai, super heroes, everything. I want to take part in the future that is gifted by queer comics. 

With my inspiration I started on issue 2 of my angel hunters script and that has been the main focus of my writing this week. I also wrote several new script concepts based on the recent events and my rage at them. Outside of that I worked a bit on Sentai Moms and a romance book so there is a lot going on with me right now. I am not sure what will end up being my Creators for Creators submission but I really want the win more then ever. I really need to get some cash so I can pay an artist so I can have more then one project in development at a time. 

This week I read The Whys 1-3, Princeless Make Yourself 3, Hellcat 7, Space Battle Lunchtime 2, Lumberjanes 27, caught up on shootaround, power read Vote for Loki and Civil War 2, 

The Whys is a pretty interesting webcomic about kids with super powers who get lured into becoming secret agents for a government thing. It’s well drawn, queer, and a lot of fun so far. Princeless Make Yourself 3 might be the best issue of the Princeless main series yet. It does a great job of talking about sexuality, creating tension between parents, and dealing with people your predisposed to not liking. Hellcat 7 was a nice finish for the arc that totally matches the feel the  book has been going for. A nice cute wrap up for a cute story arc. Space Battle Lunchtime is really great at displaying cooking action and making it interesting. Lumberjanes 27 is awesome to the max as per usual. Really hoping we are getting Barry exploring his gender more. Shootaround is amazing and has quickly become maybe my favorite webcomic. Civil War 2 was shit and Vote for Loki was interesting.  

[thinkingalexis]

Random Inspiration Diary of an Aspiring Comic Book Writer

I was sitting around working on my review for Chroma Squad when inspiration struck. I wouldn’t have thought writing a review of a video game would help me with comic book writer but it did. I suddenly knew exactly where to take one of my comics. This got me thinking about how important it really is to try to include some media and try things other than just comic writing to write better comics.

When I was reviewing that game I got to pull away at what things about Sentai stuff I enjoy and that formula that I can take into really fun places. I am always shocked at where randomly I can find a cool idea and it’s odd that it’s so rarely when I am reading a comic.  I think comics work as lessons to me and entertainment but I draw out from other media to bring new things into comics as opposed to trying to do something different but similar? I am not too sure if that’s exactly it but it works for me.

Now I am getting to work on a Sentai series of comics featuring a group of super moms. I still need to develop the characters more but now that I have the core idea I have a structure I plan to use for my issues and everything. Gonna be a monster of the week kind thing while piling up information for a battle against the bad bad.  Only the twist in that formula is going to be themed to typical mothers challenges and things. My first issue will be a dusty bunny battle I think. Also the kinds of moms I’ll be featuring are all different types to show the diverse spectrum of what it means to be a mother since it isn’t sitcom style only. I am really having fun crafting this more and I owe it all to just a bit of random inspiration.

 My writing this week outside of working on my angel hunters project. I started a rewrite for that and I also have been creating some new ideas for future stories even if I should be totally focused in on making the pitchable 5 issues. It’s been a major pleasure to do all the consulting work I have done because I feel like even not using the same writing format I am getting a better understanding for the mechanics of writing a comic. I also ironically for the topic began a comic that was inspired by Archie although it was inspired by a cover I saw as opposed to actually reading it.

Shutter vol 1, Shootaround some chapters , Steven Universe too cool for  school, and reading some more scripts.

Shutter seems like a more grounded Saga, it's a crazy world with all sorts of crazy things but not this space adventure. I enjoyed my read of it but I do have worries. Steven Universe Too Cool For School was a really fun read that just had so many cute moments. It also was a nice way to illustrate how Steven can get lonely. The scripts I read were grade A stuff and it may or may not have included @dressedtokillcomic stuff. I will say if it did you all should be super excited for that comic and prepare your wallets for a sexy, fun, and crazy good time.

[thinkingalexis]

Diary of an inspiring comic book writer: Collaborative writing

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about this week. That was until earlier yesterday when I started two different writing projects with friends in comics amino. Working together with someone when creating stuff is just this amazing feeling. I think it’s one of the reasons I decided I want to write comic books as opposed to novels, 

Writing as a team has always been an idea that I loved. I got in role playing on Gaia Online and I was totally awful. However, I loved it and I had fun doing it. To this day I do a little bit of that privately. I just love the feeling of making a story with someone else that is only designed for the sake of having fun. I have a history of some really amazing fun times from role playing and I have made some really great friends creating things with people. 

I’m having a very similar experience designing a few things for challenges with my friends. i think that’s what attracts me to the medium of comics so much.  As a writer I need someone to do art, I need that collaboration, it puts me in a position to always have to forgo my ego and listen to a partner. Writing with someone else in mind but making a grand design for the masses is a ton of fun. It’s also really cool to just be able to see someone get so excited about your ideas then getting excited back by theirs. If you want to work in comics I think attempting some form of this should be on your agenda be it a role play, making a story with someone, anything to teach you how to work with someone better. 

This week in solo writing  i’m still working on my Wish issue titled Meatneto for now. This issue will mark the first time Wish loses a fight and i’m having fun figuring out what ways I can weaponize meat.  The writing process itself is going really slow but I just have so much fun even thinking of this issue and it helps me just gush in my love for writing. I don’t really have much to say on that but like I mentioned earlier i’m crafting some new stuff.  Both the challenges i’m working on for Amino have story elements to them and i’ll also be able to design characters o it’s all really exciting stuff. 

This week I read: Loki Agent of Asgard 1-5, Monstress 1, and my chapter 1 of the Henchgirl webcomic.  I also power skimmed X-men 600 and Extraordinary x-men (I pretty much read everything but sorta glazed over some bits). 

I also finished watching Avatar the Last Airbender.

I finally read the beginning of Loki agent of asgard this week. I loved the last days arc and not too surprisingly I really loved these first 5 issues. Issue 3 I think was a bit weaker but it was a really funny comic that was serious at the same time. Monstress was a very serious comic that was just so caught up in grimness that I couldn’t enjoy it. I really wanted to get into it, it’s good by all means but not for me at all. The X-men books were not that good but I am not an x-men reader so ehh. Henchgirl was charming, cute funny, well paced, it had great art, check out this webcomic. Also physical single issues are apparently coming out but I didn’t see them at my comic shop. Avatar was so good and super inspiring I think we all need to write in people passing out from having to much angst. I think I still prefer Korra to the Last Airbender but both shows are brilliant. I’ll be starting the comics soon and I might release a review of the show now that I finished. 

[thinkingalexis]

Diary of an Aspiring Comic Book Writer: Harassment

So recently people have said enough is enough and finally stood to the faces of the evil people inside of these comic companies that are getting away with harassment as  we speak. I believe as comic fans we can’t sit ideally back and not start to address these larger issues happening behind the curtains. I rarely see these topics disused in the sites I will be posting this brief post on so I hope you all are willing to engage with what is going on. The series maybe will return to normal next week baring me finding another issue I really feel needs to be addressed. 

These discussions started in a real way when Marvel hired for X-men 92 a writer who as a “journalist” had harassed a woman working at marvel. I have the very recent follow up post you can read here but things went quite for a little bit as they do. However, a flood of new articles are coming out to hold the company to task in large part starting with Marcy Cooks article at the Mary Sue (Marcy is a brilliant person I totally believe every claim she makes here). Then we gained articles following up at comic beat  and an article about Scott Allie from Graphic Policy. These recent articles caused the man to come to publicly come out and say sorry (Little late bro) and their precedent to issue this half hearted statement that ends with “We at Dark Horse will renew our efforts to make sure that our company is never again mentioned with regard to this type of occurrence.” These statements honestly just make me think things are worse at Dark Horse then better given how shifty the words he used are as opposed to what we know.  Dark Horse obviously isn’t the only one with issues in harassment and it needs to stop.  The Writer of Red Wolf is also a Know abuser (and homophob) (Source)  so even new blood in the Marvel seas is coming with known hate along with all that.  Hell were already having a party have one more article where it talks about a ton of problems with ass holes working in the industry that are still getting new work.  Sad part is I could give even more sources but let's move on.

You can’t be an inclusive company if you allow harassers to work inside of it. This isn’t a political thing this is a human rights thing.  No one should have to feel like their job is a war zone. As an aspiring comic book writer this hurts me in many ways because well the place I dreamed of being a place of acceptance isn’t but even worse than that it shows that the medium hasn’t really made the steps forward it needs to. Hell it even makes me mad because calling them out here, on twitter, whatever means I’m even less likely to ever get published anywhere. That doesn’t matter to me though because I’ll just have to make Wish into a brand that stomps out any company that is living in the BC times and make a new line of comics that anyone can feel safe creating in. My main desire to be successful is to start a company that from day one isn’t okay with the status quo and lives to challenge it.

Moving on mostly let's talk about my writing this week. SoH my card game comic is actually just about to reach its section where were first get to see some mistreatment of our hero Silver as she goes to the back room to play for the first real time. Pure Wish writing went a little bit low this week Fashion Monster is proving a bit more challenging I sort of lost the idea of what I wanted to have happen but I really like the parts I have so I don’t want to scrap it.  That said I have a Wish Universe comic I’ve begun work on and I LOVE it. The concept is about a bunch of moms who suddenly gain superpowers and now have to deal with these baddies that all represent issues parents go through. As always I want to be as inclusive as possible so expect this cast to be very diverse and my attempts at comedy may be even stronger in this one since it’s really not trying to send as many heavy messages as ,my other books just that I got some situations I think would be funny.

This week I read Adventure Time Vol 1 (1-4), TMNT Adventures 2, Rick and Morty 6, Zodiac Starforce 2, and Storm 1.

I’m a bit late to save storm but I am still really glad I read this book it was really good. They did a fantastic job of showing someone with a ton of power dealing with these big scale issues. TMNT Adventures 2 was a really fun read it didn’t go in the direction I expected but I liked it. The real writing feat I think went to the back up story though told as a zine that shows how Michelangelo see’s himself as well as a cute pride moment from Splinter. Rick and Morty 6 is all about the ballcrushers (I think that’s their name) I didn’t love it but it worked as a sort of commentary of how we take in war and military violence really well. Zodiac Starforce 2 was a lot better to me then 1 but I still didn’t really love it. If it was totally up to me I think i’d drop it but it isn’t so maybe I’ll keep it up. So I’m finally reading Ryan North's run on Adventure Time as a way to fill in a little bit of the Squirrel Girlless gap. It’s really funny and charming like everything else i’ve read from him. I think Squirrel Girl is more of a perfection of this humor but it really is some great storytelling in the adventure time universe with some actual laugh out loud moments.  

[thinkingalexis]

Diary of an Aspiring Comic Book writer: Jamming to the words

Music is in our human life blood. It’s not if you like music but what kind of music do you like? Music is an art form that all art forms can, when used properly, benefit from. This could be a trailer, a scene, an infusion but for the sake of comics and this conversation maybe the most important thing music is for writing is a muse.

(Spider-gwen )

Music is actually a growing part of the comics industry and not even for marketing. Deadpool the musical, Bee and Puppycat, and more have found ways to infuse comics with music. People like Gillian and Stevenson create playlists for their comics to share with the readers. Hell Kate Leth create a hellcat playlist and none of us will even be able to read the first issue until December. Music has always been a big part of my creative process I’ll just jam out in my car when a song inspires scenes in Wish flashing through my head. This recent surge in creators making playlists and stuff inspired me to make playlists to inspire myself but also describe the characters and their arcs. I think it’s really fun just to close my eyes listen to a song for the second time make like an AMV in my head of how this relates to my characters and their future. Sometimes music even inspires totally new characters.

(Young Avengers Vol 1)

There is so many ways music can impact us as a creator and as people it’s insane. I’ve been attempting to expand my horizons, listen to more new songs. 8tracks is a great place to go for that just finding playlists based on your favorite characters and hearing all new songs. The right songs can have the perfect effects and it’s crazy and amazing. Like I love to listen to game music when I do tests just helps me not feel like i’m going to die of boredom while writing without distracting me too much (I assume classical would have a similar effect).

(Bee and Puppycat)

In my writing this week I did more than just make a playlist I also did real writing. I keep on writing into fashion monster for Wish. This story i’m trying to bring in more of the gender fluid parts of Seth have Fiona try and help them explore. It’s also an issue that highlights some of Seth’s flaws as well as an issue that FIona and Seth are almost always going to be together. I’m having a lot of fun crafting this one. That said I also began writing my Card Game comic Soul of The Hero. I’ve started with Silver our main character interacting with her mom then hitting up the card shop. It was flowing really well until I realized I hit a dead end when needing to create duels. I’ve only wrote out three decks worth of cards so I need to go design more stuff. I also really wish I could test the card game effectively to see if I can tweak rules and all that.

This week I read Diesel 1, Princeless: Vol 3, Fiona and Cake Card wars 3, Jem and the Holograms 7, Lumberjanes 18, Invader Zim 3.

This week was a fantastic week for my comic reading. Sadly I couldn’t pick up issue 3 of Raven the Pirate Princess due to a mix up at my comic shop so that wasn’t read this week. Princeless Vol 3 was an awesome read and I expect I’ll do a shining comics on it and vol 2 together. Fiona and Cake Card Wars once again was rather good although not a lot of card wars in this issue. I think it did a perfect job remembering that these niche thing comics need to also explore the characters real lives too. Lumberjanes was really good and fun with amazing mermaid action. Invader Zim 3 was a fantastic quick episode of the show that I think any fan of the show would love. Diesel number one was a surprise but actually really great.

[thinkingalexis]

Diary of an aspiring comic book writer: How Do I do?

The theme of this week is I don’t know anything. So as I work on some side projects in addition to my Wish scripts I find myself really wishing I had the same knowledge that i have while working on Wish. For Wish I know who my artist is going to be, how she will read a script, I can talk to her about ideas, were really creating a thing together as a team. This isn’t something I have for these future projects. I have Chesca still but she won’t be doing the art so her input is amazing but she isn’t the co creator. How do I get an artist on board on a project? I don’t have many artist friends, I don’t want to start trying to make friends with artists just to be like “OMG we could do a comic together” knowing good and well that’s why I jumped into talking to them at first. How do these things even work? 

Okay so I mean I guess one way would be to throw out some shortish pitches and see if maybe they catch someones eyes to work on with me. Obviously that’s a pretty shaky way to do business but hell i’d rather have an idea stolen then never try to make an idea. 1st. Card Game comic that talks about the experience of being a woman in this space and forming a team of woman to show their worth at this game. I want it to fit the tone of Yugioh or something like Cardfight! Vanguard but also to be working at tearing down male dominated table top geek culture. 2nd. Is a trans woman with super powers trying to investigate the mysteries of her super hero universe. We also uncover bits of her past while going through this story of exploring a larger universe (Ideally is something I would love to pitch to a bigger super hero universe, I have a ton of books i’d like to pitch though XD). 3rd. A group of nerdy people were in a comic shop away from civilization when the zombie Apocalypse hits. Now they only have one goal, restore the internet all else fails in comparison.  

That’s a few of my ideas and in very little detail but I hope you all enjoyed. In terms of my writing this week I did a little bit in my card game one but most of my writing was focused on Wish as per usual. I got down a couple of new ideas, did some file organizing, and worked more on my fashion monster script. I think it’s coming out really nice and I am finding good ways to start talking about Seth’s journey to gender discovery.  

This week I read Chain Mail Bikini, A-force 4, The Wicked + The Divine 14, Ms. Marvel 18 and maybe more but I can’t remember to be honest. 

I wrote a whole rant about A-force 4 so you can go on my blog and check that out if you want to see that. Chain Mail Bikini was touching, amazing, and wonderful. The Anthology really speaks to any gamer of any kind and illustrates all sorts of amazing personal stories. Ms. Marvel 18 was a really good issue and a really good way to show how Kamala has grown. When she comes back as an Avenger I feel like it is more then earned. The Wicked + The divine used art that was already created to tell this issue. It was an amazing feat and it was an amazing feat of having us follow someone we don’t like, still not like them, and still want to keep reading the issue. This week really showed me some amazing things in comics that only further push my desire to write them. That’s all for this weeks diary hope you check out more.