A Comic Book Writer Talks SOPA/PIPA

Originally posted 1/18/12 on my Tumblr.

This morning, Facebook pissed me off. A bunch of my friends were equatingcaring about SOPA to not caring a real problems such as AIDS, starvation, cancer, etc. I posted some snarky statuses to get across the point that being vocal about the dangers of Internet censorship doesn’t equate to being a heartless monster, but I was silly about it. EricaCV pointed out, though, that I may be better off using my “writerly influence to spread further knowledge and understanding about the situation.” She’s right - on Facebook I went for the lulz, and that was a bit of a mistake… because I think one of the fundamental misunderstandings about SOPA/PIPA and those of us who are against it is that we are merely scared of losing the Internet as a source of mindless entertainment.

It’s a hell of a lot worse than that.

Now, here’s where I stand. Piracy isn’t a shiny beacon of awesome, and I’m not for it. Obviously. I work as a writer in the comics industry, and it’s one of the most grating things to see how often our (incredibly cheap) books get pirated. Hell, take this for example. A few weeks ago, my latest comic (Grimm Fairy Tales: Holiday Edition 2011) came out, and I searched it in Google. (Yes, I self-Googled, I’m weak.) The first result wasn’t a fan’s reaction. It wasn’t a review. It was a site that offered an illegal download of the book that had literally only been out for a few hours. Bummer, right?

But.

I started thinking. I used to run a review site. On that site, I would talk about all things Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I would review the comics, I would post pictures of stuff that was coming out, and I would make stupid little parody images on Paint. I used Google images to pepper the site with covers from the comics to make the site prettier. That site is how I got noticed. By making friends with some of the people who worked on the Angel comic and showing that I cared about the character and that I could write, I put my foot in the door. I later wrote a story for that comic, and have since been building a career in the comics industry. The seeds for all of my current success grew from that blog… which would have been shut the fuck down in an Internet governed by SOPA/PIPA.

So would this Tumblr. Likely, so would your Tumblr. So would countless other sites that have provided entertainment, offered education, and decreased World Suck. Yes, it’s true that the pirates would get shut down, but I say this as a man trying to make it in an incredibly rough industry… it is absolutely not worth it.

For more information (and I can surely say more articulation) you can check out what Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, Steve Niles, and many other great writers are saying all over the Internet. Look around, and see if you agree with them. It’s your prerogative. Your freedom. My point is this: without a free Internet, I wouldn’t have published a thing. And I’d wager that I would be a hell of a lot less informed about the world as a whole than I am now.

The world is at your fingertips. Don’t let them snatch it away from you.

-Patrick Shand

My 2011 - A Retrospect

So, less than seven hours, 2011 will be over. It was... well, it was a strange one. It was the best year of my life in some ways, the worst in others. As I'm writing this, I'm trying to place how I feel about this year as my fiancee's cats run around the apartment, smashing into blinds, chewing on shoes, bouncing off the bed... and no, they're not even on catnip. They're just wonderfully strange.

I'm leaving this year with a lot more than I had last year. I have twelve publications to my name now, when last year I had... well, none. I have what appears to be a beard growing on my face, which makes me feel more like a writer than any of those publications. I have a fiancee. I have a bit more confidence that I'm going to be able to "make it" as a writer (lame as the phrase "make it" is), and a good deal more frustration that I haven't already.

WORK

At this time last year, I was working at Borders and preparing to teach a class at Five Towns College. I stayed at Borders until the bittersweet end in September, when the store closed its doors for good. I'll never really be able to articulate how much I miss Borders... not only my friends there, but the store as a whole. It has been my favorite store since I was eight or nine, and it's left a hole in the book industry that won't easily be filled. But yeah... I do miss all my wonderful co-workers.

And that sexy, sexy discount.

While I was day-jobbing it at Borders, I also worked as an adjunct professor at Five Towns. That's still going on. I teach Screenwriting and Script Writing classes in the spring semester and two Script Writing units in the Fall. Though the list of prose novels that I read this year is literally 1/5th of what I'd conquered last year, I think I read more this year than ever before... because the thing about being a writing professor is that you've got a hell of a lot of screenplays to read through multiple drafts. It was enlightening, rewarding, frustrating, and beautiful to see students grow as writers in my class, and it showed me that maybe I do have a future in teaching. I always thought of my career as "write or nothing." But now, I think I may have to amend that to "writing and..." I'm proud of the classes that I taught, and I'm excited to see what I can improve for next semester.

A student of mine drew this fine example of a storyboard

featuring yours truly

When Borders closed, though, I knew I needed another day job. I applied at all sorts of places until I was finally hired at Barnes and Noble. The pay was the lowest I've ever taken, and it was seasonal, but it was something. It turned out being the worst job I've ever had, but that came to an end today. They called me into the office on Wednesday and informed me that, as of January 1st, none of the seasonal employees (myself and two other really cool people) would be brought back. "You," they told me, "will be the first we call if we need someone to cover a shift!" Then, they expected me to work as scheduled New Years Eve, even though they failed to give me more than three days notice that I'd no longer be employed there. It's this marginalization of employees, seasonal or otherwise, that makes me look back and appreciate my other jobs, no matter how little they paid or how long they lasted. Even McDonalds is shiny in comparison.

But as of today, that's the past. It's behind me, and I already have a job interview lined up. I hope that the days I'll need to have day jobs are numbered, but until I can support myself with no assistance on writing and teaching, I'm going to keep workin' em.

A side note, just because I think everyone needs to know. Westley, a very large cat, is currently swatting at the chair, poking my butt in order to get attention. He's very important, after all.

Clearly

COMICS

Angel: Yearbook. Cover by David Messina.

In May, my dream came true. I wrote for Joss Whedon's Angel. My story, "My Only Friend," (illustrated by Stephen Mooney) was included in IDW's final installment of their five year long run on the title, Angel: Yearbook. I owe thanks to Chris Ryall, Scott Tipton, Stephen Mooney (of course), Dan Roth, and Mariah Huehner for making that dream come to beautiful fruition.

It was also great to see the story reprinted in the massive Angel: The End hardcover (pictured above), with a beautiful cover by Jenny Frison.

Grimm Fairy Tales Holiday Edition 2011. Cover by Stjepan Sejic.

Determined to use my story as a stepping stone to a career in comics, I contacted Zenescope Entertainment and have since worked with editor Ralph Tedesco on a number of projects. My first release with Zenescope hit shelves a week and a half ago. I wrote the 2011 Holiday Edition of their flagship title, Grimm Fairy Tales from a plot by Ralph Tedesco, based on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I'm incredibly proud of how it came out.

Double page spread from GFT: Holiday 2011. Art by Anthony Spay.

I got to work with a handful of wonderful artists, who brought out the sweetness and the horror in this story in big ways.

I also wrote five stories for their 1000 Ways to Die graphic novel, which should come out a few weeks into 2012.

I spent a lot of 2011 pitching, making connections, and assembling teams for creator owned projects. I'm working on more than ten pitches for graphic novels and comic books right now, and I hope to see a few of them released next year. I'm confident in the work I've been creating, more so than ever - and I'm thrilled to be working with such brilliant, brilliant artists.

Page from Blood Pong #1. Art by Ian McGinty.

Promo art for PLAYGROUND, an original graphic novel

with art by Matt Roscetti.

SHORT STORIES

2011 was the year of the short story for me. Between May and August, I wrote about two stories every week. I am currently recycling a bunch of these ideas into comic book projects, so more people will be able to see them, but I loved working with small presses such as Pill Hill Press, Rainstorm Press, and May December Publications on these strange pieces of prose. I really let loose and played with bigger ideas that I've always wanted to tackle in some way, and I think a lot of them came out really nicely. There are a few glaring typos, some from editors and some from me, in the earliest of the volumes, but that simply makes me want to be more attentive to the mechanics of proofreading.

I already have another short story set for publication next year, but I'll talk about that a bit closer to the release date.

PLAYS

A good chunk of my year was spent with the lovely folks of the Amios Company. I wrote six short plays for Shotz, their monthly festival of short plays, and a thirty minute play called Rosary which was performed five times in December for their LongShotz event.

From Rosary (Jennifer Le Blance, Alanna Wilson). Photography by Gregg Le Blanc.

There is really nothing like seeing your work performed live by people more talented than you can begin to imagine. I love all of these actors and directors, and look forward to another very Shotzy year.

Game Face, a play I co-created with Tanya Everett and Clinton Lowe, received a staged reading on my birthday. It had a few bumps, but it showed me that all of those bumps are worth working with people as creative and talented and badass as Tanya and Clinton. To the future.

OTHER

I wrote - get this - literary critique. I know, right? Weird. Five of my academic articles are going to be published in Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion: the TV Series, the Movies, the Comic Books, and More: The Essential Guide to the Whedonverse. I've never been in a book with so many colons, but I'm excited to branch out into (completely) uncharted territory in my writing. I hope to do more of this kind of work in 2012, because... well, it was a lot more fun writing scholarly articles than I could have imagined. Maybe I'm itchin' to be an English student again, who knows?

Also, I wrote the index for Brian Cogan's upcoming book, Deconstructing South Park. More info on that when it comes out. It has the sweetest index you've ever not read, I promise.

FILM

Sadly, my film company Stinky Burger Productions called it quits this year. Steve Wisnowski (President) and I are still planning on releasing our feature film, Besiegement! next year (now that we're able to edit it again), but SBP will no longer produce short films. Perhaps, in the future, there will be something else down the line. But for now... it was a good ride.

I wrote a short film called The Sucker for director Katie Carman (Eat Me, Off Season). I like describing it as "American Beauty with the chupacabra." Hopefully, in a few months, you'll see what I'm talking about.

LIFE

Had some good times with friends. Took my girlfriend to Mohonk, the most beautiful place in the world. Got engaged. Fell deeper in love. Spent a lot of time with my favorite person. Witnessed a miracle. Read some really, really good comics (here's looking at you, The Saga of the Swamp Thing, Nick Spencer, and Scott Snyder). Discovered a really, really good author (hi, Patrick Rothfuss). Opening up my own checking account. Opened up a joint savings account. Again, grew a beard.

Erica took this picture of me

before answering the question.

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed this year with me. Thanks to Erica. Thanks to my mom, dad, and the rest of my family. Thanks to Chris, Antwon, Charlotte, Rachel, Brian, Steve, Jenna, Kristina, and everyone else I saw on Christmas eve. Thanks to Tanya and Clinton. Thanks to Kibibi, a wonderfully talented woman who was unfortunately taken from us just a few days ago. Thanks to Scott, Brian, Mooney, Ryall, Jay, Ralph Tedesco, Suzanne Robb, Brian Cogan, Pill Hill Press, Rainstorm Press, May December Publications, the BiblioBabes, and everyone else who helped elevate my career. Thanks to Ian McGinty, Matt Roscetti, Jon Roscetti, Mike Hamlett, and everyone else I'm developing creator owned properties with. Thanks to Massey. Thanks to all of my students who put in the effort to learn, as well as those that pushed me to be better. Thanks to Rob Hille, Alanna Wilson, Jennifer Le Blanc, Zach Evenson, Kristy Powers, Mike Fulvio, Christian Haines, and everyone else who brought Shotz and LongShotz to life. Thanks to the cutest cats in the world, Cleese, Deanna, Westley, and Dagny. Thanks to Shannon, Ian, Sean, and... yeah, getting lazy, thanks to everyone who worked at Borders. Thanks to Scott Snyder, Nick Spencer, and Alan Moore - the work of these three writers pushed me to push myself this year. Thanks to everyone who made me think, made me love, and made me work. If I forgot your name, it's because I'm tired and anxious to spend New Years Eve the best way possible... doing absolutely nothing.

NEXT YEAR

I want to write more than I wrote this year. I want to publish more than I published this year. I want to spend time with more people that I love, I want to keep falling more and more in love with Erica, I want to exercise, I want to lose weight, and I want to try new things. I want to get a book deal. I want to create. And, as lame as resolutions can be, I'm going to start working on these tomorrow morning.

Happy New Year.

Mohonk Mountain House

I'm trying to write every day. That's what good writers do, right? I have a bunch of deadlines coming up, all of which I'm sure I'll make with time to spare. Getting shit done when it needs to be done has never been an issue for me. It's the day-to-day, honing my craft stuff that I need to stay on my feet to keep up with.

Right now, I'm on vacation with a beautiful girl who I am very in love with. She just laughed at a book that she's reading. I hear the birds through the door to our room, and I almost want to take her hand and go outside again. I say almost because we climbed a mountain, walked forever, and rowed a canoe today. Well, she did the rowing while I sat in what the man on the dock referred to as "the princess seat." She's badass, what can I say? My body is tired, but my mind and heart are filled to the brim with the loveliness of this place and the company with which I'm spending my time here.

From the last time we visited Mohonk together... Nov. 2010

I have a lot going on outside of this gorgeous get-away, but I think I'm going to let that all rest tonight. I'm here with my favorite person in the world. Everything else can wait.

The Romantic Gestures of Patrick Von Suave

Erica came home from France yesterday, and I wanted to be Mr. Suave and Romantic. I set a plan into motion.

1. She's been craving sunflowers for a while. "Craving" might be the wrong word, as she doesn't want to eat them (as far as I know), but she's been in a sunflower-getting mood recently. Everywhere I've been looking, however, has been completely out of sunflowers. I had some time before going to pick her up, though, so I called a bunch of places and finally found a spot that had these giant yellow buggers. So sunflowers, check.

2. I'd get to the airport super early with said sunflowers so that the first thing she'd see in the lobby waiting for her would be me and the bouquet. Then, we'd walk over to my closely parked car and drive off into the sunset (well, it would be an hour away from setting, but "drive off into the sun" evokes an entirely different image).

Turns out, her plane landed a lot earlier than we'd anticipated. Instead of parking and being the first thing she'd see, I decided to go to the pick-up area, where I'd wait until she got out. Clearly, I'm a "picking up girlfriend from airport" virgin because that doesn't fly. As soon as I pulled over, an enraged man came up to me and screamed, "WHERE YOU GO!?" and I said "Here" and he said "YOU PICK UP!?" and I said "I pick up" and he said "WHERE?" and I said "Here" and he said "CIRCLE AROUND!" and I looked sad. So, because Erica wasn't ready and this guy had something against little ginger men causing traffic jams, I had to circle around. But the airport is less circular and more labyrinthine, so my circling around led me back to the parkway going in a different direction. Mind you, Erica had to circle around when she drove there last week, and she managed to not get lost, but hey... I have the directional senses of a hunk of sharp cheddar.

So I finally made it back to the airport, figuring that Erica must be just about through with customs. I, however, didn't want to take any chances with the angry pick up area again, so I drove to the parking section. Upon seeing a line of cars parked directly across from the pick-up area, I rejoiced. This was clearly the section where people who were ready to leave parked! It was crowded, so I was thrilled to squeeze into a spot, pulling off a particularly sexy parallel park. Mr. Suave was back in business.

I saw a few people run out of the cars to greet their returning friends and family, so I did the same, flowers in hand. I called Erica, and she found me pretty quickly. I took a few of her bags, and presented her with the flowers... about the same time that I saw that all of the other cars that I'd parked behind had driven away, and that a tow truck had begun to lift my car. Much to Erica's confusion, I ran toward the truck, flowers in hand, pants slightly falling down, and began to haggle with the trucker who revealed that I was in a no parking zone. It was printed clearly on the area that all the other cars (that had sped away upon seeing the tow truck) were covering. Yay.

Erica took this flattering picture of me, the picture of romance, as I appealed to the truck driver.

Fifty-five dollars later, I found myself driving Erica home. She had her flowers, and I might have even had a so-small-you-can-just-about-see-it slice of my dignity. As I drove, I apologized profusely, and she told me that it didn't matter. "If we were suave," she said, "we wouldn't want to date each other."

So Erica is home, she's got some pretty and giant sunflowers, my car is no longer hooked up to the back of a car, and I'm dating the coolest girl in the world. I might not be Mr. Suave, but I think I've got it pretty damn good.

First Semester as a Professor

I was always scared of getting in front of my classmates to give a presentation. I know that public speaking is a pretty big fear of most Americans, so I'm not alone. While the fear never crippled me, I think it definitely affected the quality of my presentations. What I had in my head was often better than what actually came out. So clearly, I'm qualified to teach college classes where pretty much all I do is stand in front of a group of students, talking my oversized head off.

Getting the job teaching two classes at Five Towns College (Screenwriting and Script Writing) was pretty big for me. I'd never taught before except for a few guest spots I did in creative classes, but I knew the opportunity was too big to pass up. I was getting hired because of my experience in the writing field, and that was enough for me. Talk about writing, get money. Can't beat that.

It took a while for me to get into the swing of things, to be honest, but I guess that's true of anything. I met a lot of students who I feel I was able to positively influence, and it's pretty amazing that almost all of their final scripts were better than their first efforts. That makes me pretty proud. I can't say that I knew exactly what I was doing throughout, because I guess I approached teaching like I did my early writing--I was still trying to find my voice. And I guess, even with the semester ending today, I still kind of am. But I think that's okay. I was able to connect to some really great writers, fostering potential and, in some cases, intense talent. I've learned what works, what doesn't work, and what makes me crazy. Best of all, I've learned what to avoid in order to keep my sanity the next time I do this (which, sidebar, is this summer). At the end of the day, I'm happy about that.

I'm happy that I drew from the teachers that I loved in college.

I'm happy that there might be one or two students that will remember me the same way I remember the teachers that helped me along on the writerly path.

I'm happy that I tried to help everyone, even if some students didn't follow through. It happens.

I'm happy that I got a few laughs, because teaching a creative class is the closest thing you can get to stand-up comedy.

I'm happy that the wonderful girl I'm dating was able to calm me down when my stress levels went Genosha.

I'm happy that the semester is very, very over.

But most of all? I'm happy that one of my students drew this storyboard of me yelling at another student about grammar.

A goal for me is that, even with juggling two jobs again this summer, I will set aside the proper time for writing. I have to keep writing to keep sane, and if I don't set aside the time to do it, I sort of just start binge writing when I can, which I've found has a negative affect on my sanity and personal life. But I'm okay now. Not that I wasn't before, I was just overwhelmed. Now, though, I think I have something of a game plan.

Weird entry. But that's my first semester in a very cliche nutshell.

NEXT TIME: Comic Book Wednesday, covering SUPERMAN #707-711, SUPERGIRL #64, RICHIE RICH #1, and TINY TITANS.