New comic out in stores and a new crowdfunder

Yes, it’s true! I have a new comic that should be on comic shelves in finer comic shops across the nation today! (some shops might not see it until next Wednesday) I’m happy to announce that the first issue of my mini-series TRUMPS is available. And yes, I’m pretty excited about it. Here’s the cover, so you’ll know what you’re looking for when you visit your local shop:

So, I’m asking a favor of all of you within the sound of my voice who regularly go to comic shops: the next time you’re there, ask them if they have a copy of TRUMPS #1. Let’em know you know the guy who wrote it and you want to see it. Chances are, they might not have it. They’ll offer to order it for you—you can decline, of course, but what that does is put us on their radar. If people are asking for it and they don’t have it, they’re slightly more inclined to order the next issue. You have to let them know it’s published by Silverline Comics, an independent comic publisher!

Beah #2

And while we’re talking new stuff, we just launched the crowdfund campaign for the second issue of BEAH. The first issue went over really well as folks were enamored with Haley’s art—well, wait until you see #2. You can find it here if you are so inclined to back it: http://www.silverlinecomicscrowdfunder.com (or click on the image below)

Broken hand

If you follow me on social media anywhere, you probably know that I broke my hand. Ouch! Yes, it hurts. Check out my x-ray. They called it a boxer’s break. I’ve been using Word’s “dictation” function, and it actually does pretty good with my accent. There are a few things I just couldn’t get it to understand.

I needed something primarily because one of the key components of my daily job is responding to students and their work. 99% of those responses are typed! Typing with a brace is extremely difficult because this particular brace hits the right enter or shift bar anytime I try to type something with my right hand. I return to the doctor tomorrow to see if I need a pin. It would seem my pinky is now curving on closure a little-it’s trying to duck under my ring finger when I close it. Tomorrow, I guess we’ll see just how big an issue that actually is!

Anyway…thanks for reading along my journey… I hope and trust you are all well!

We need more well-written comics

As a college instructor who is fortunate to get to teach comic book writing every month, it’s extremely frustrating to me to hear so many of my students say “I didn’t understand what was going on.” As a fan and a creator of the medium, it’s disheartening.

Now, you might have the immediate reaction that some of them do: they just aren’t used to reading comics, so they don’t know “how” to read them …or maybe they’re just dumb.

No!

That’s a terrible attitude to have, but some of them actually feel that way and say so. And if you had that reaction, shame on you.

I always respond to them saying that with “if you don’t understand the comic you’ve read, it’s not because you’re dumb or don’t understand how to read comics, it’s because the writer of that comic is a terrible writer.”

There. I said it. Plain and simple, it’s the writer’s job to effectively communicate the story. When readers don’t understand, it’s not the reader’s fault, it’s the writer’s fault. Oh trust me, I know my fair share of writers who blame the readers for “not getting what they’re trying to say,” but that’s just so much bull-hooey. Write better, and they’ll understand.

Another problem, I think, and this is an incredibly mixed bag, so my own opinions are still not fully formed on this, is the wide embracing of “graphic novels” by the more literary publishing companies. Some of them have done very well, and many are embraced by the more … literary (read: snooty) community. But…are they really that good? I would argue that most of them are not, they just happen to be about topics that many who deem content to be “literarily good” find acceptable. Often, coming out stories, leaving the South because it’s racist stories, stories of “acceptance”—the kinds of stories that might not actually be good, but the content is acceptable.

If you look at the art for many of them, they’re often not very good at visually telling a story. Remove the text from most of them and you have no clue what’s going on. Comic sequential artists (and writers) are taught that the reader should be able to tell what’s going on in the story WITHOUT the words. Yeah… that’s not likely to be the case with most of the graphic novels published by non-traditional comic publishers.

The root of that, I think, is those publishers hiring editors who have no idea what a comic is and should do. They are “educated” in literary prose and so are hired to put together a line of comics. I’m sure they mean well, but they are simply not qualified (and this is not a blanket statement to suggest they are all that way).

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding as so many of my students will utter (or write) those words after having read them: I had a hard time following the story, or I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Well, that’s not their fault…it’s the writer’s fault.

So yeah, we need more better-written comics.

Adaptations? Yep, I’ve done those…

Generally, when you start off as a writer, visions of all your original ideas and properties being sold and produced (and now optioned by Hollywood these days!) fill up the dream space. Unless you’re an uber-geek and big fan of some particular property (say, like Star Wars or Walking Dead), you don’t dream of writing someone else’s work. The exception is for comic fans who desperately want to work on Batman or X-men…but that’s a little different…I think.

For those who aren’t quite sure, an adaptation is when one format presents a story previously presented in another format. So, if you buy the Twilight graphic novel, you’re buying an adaptation of the original novel. The graphic novel writer reads the novel, writes a script for the graphic novels based on the content of the novel and boom! Graphic novel adaptation. Adaptations can go all directions in the media: The Ender’s Game movie this past summer was an adaptation of Card’s novel of the same title.

So when I started as a writer, like many, I never said, “I want to be an adapter.” Over time, though, I see that I’ve done quite a few of them. It’s not difficult to see why companies want to do them; after all, what’s more recognizable, an original Roland Mann idea OR an adaptation of a classic Mark Twain book. Yeah—it’s about money. I get it and that’s one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed doing them—because I know folks love Huck Finn like I do!

My first adaptation job came from a time very early in my career. I had established a good working relationship with Tom Mason who was one of the top four dogs at Malibu. I called him and said I’d like more work if he had any. The answer he gave me—which I have since learned is THE standard answer when a freelancer asks that—was he didn’t have anything but would keep me in mind. A week or so later, he called me back and offered me to adapt a B-movie from the 60s into comic form. I jumped on the opportunity because I wanted the work. So, I watched the movie, broke it into three issues as requested—and there ya go! The odd part of this story is that a few months later, Tom called me back and asked if I wanted to do another one: “What?” I asked. “There were two of them?” There wasn’t…I got to make up an original follow-up! It was never published, but they paid me for the work. That work, for those who are deadly curious, was called She Devils On Wheels. Please don’t bother looking it up.

I later did an adaptation of Phillip Wylie’s 1929 Gladiator, which was the inspiration for Superman. Yeah, yeah, some argue that’s not the case, but I’ve read the actual novel and…well, yeah, clearly… Because the publisher wanted to reprint it in Europe, I broke in down in to eight page installments; three installments per issue for six issues. It also was never printed (though somewhere around here I have copies of the art for the first issue).

I did an adaptation for the PC video game Rocket Ranger, one of the coolest adaptations I’ve ever done. The publisher sent me the game and said “spend two weeks playing this and then send me a synopsis for a twelve issue series.” So…you know what I spent the next two weeks doing? Yup, playing Rocket Ranger. Interesting story on this one: I reached a part late in the game that I could not achieve. So I reached out to Chris Ulm (my editor) and told him. He called me back a day or so later and said the game maker also could not make it past that segment, so here’s what happens…and then he just gave me a summary of what happens after that point in the game. Issue #1 was published in color–the rest were black and white. Around my scripting issue 4 (maybe even 5), he called and said the series is now 6 issues, so wrap your story up now! YIKES! So I did…but the series was cancelled after issue #5 and #6 never saw print.

Not many years ago I did another film adaptation, this one for a Christian “horror” film called The Remaining. It’s the longest single script I’ve ever written, and probably the hardest, too, because they didn’t want me to actually watch the movie, wanted me to do the adaptation from the script alone. I did it–then they said, “oh no, we changed that all up.” One of the most frustrating experiences I ever had writing–they just didn’t know what they were doing.

Probably the most fun I had tends to fall under the adaptation category, but wasn’t really an adaptation. I did a Battletech mini-series back in the day, but it was original content. In a nutshell, FASA–Battletech’s owner–gave me a whole bunch of source material, told me to read it, then come up with my own story–to which I did and it was a lot of fun!

So yeah…I’ve done a few adaptations. Who knows…might do another some day…