Consistency is the hobgoblin of… nah.

I don’t really have much blog content to put up; I really should update this, and keep it as a regular production journal, but there’s nothing really to write (or write home) about. I spend most of my time researching, writing, living life, and Twittering, so blogging keeps falling off the radar.

I know. Shameful, positively shameful. The early entries were so promising, but compared to others with actual published works under their belt, I have relatively little wisdom to impart in terms of writing. A lot of it’s just been things I’ve cobbled together here and there, little mental tricks, and studying at the feet of the masters.

Today? I spent a good forty minutes skimming through some trades from my comic collection, and compiling a small list of approaches to laying out five panels to a page. I like to think I have good instincts for visuals and layout, page-wise, but I find myself sticking very closely to < 6 panels with little deviance; in this way, learning from solid published work is the best approach to improving one’s skills at the little things.

There’s nothing terribly glamorous about blogging and saying, “today I studied five-panel layouts as featured in Sandman, Manhunter, Gotham Central, and Preacher”, “I spent half an hour looking for reference pictures of female MMA fighters, prominent Asian transgenders, and traffic in Beirut”, or “I almost completely scrapped a complete three-issue comic book arc, because I took a deeper look and realized it wasn’t as good as it could be. I have cannibalized it for what can be saved, and in the vein of the 6 Million Dollar Man, I will rebuild it. I have the capabilities. I can make it better. Stronger. Faster.”

I could be projecting all of this on you, lovely anonymous audience. It’s conceivable that you could thrive on this sort of thing, and love being privy to the man behind the curtain. But understand that – for the most part – it’s deadly boring.

You have been warned.

Dream Pencillers and the Quixotic Impossibility Scale!

Oh, grad school, I could get so much more done if I didn’t have to contend with you…

In any case, I’ve been working my nonexistent butt off for the past couple of weeks, and it doesn’t seem like that’ll change for the next few. I’ll try to post a couple things in the interim to liven this place up – such as the practice pages I was talking about, a sample from the Layer Zero comic I wrote, and a page or two of Project : Write Kind of Madness.

But, until then, I’ll settle on listing the three dream pencillers I’d love to draw it, appropriately accompanied with Saveedra’s Quixotic Impossiblity Scale:

1) David Aja (Daredevil, Immortal Iron Fist) : Four Windmills out of Four Windmills.
The impossible dream. A completely idiosyncratic style, and a personality that goes with it. Incredibly unlikely because he’s only done work for Marvel.

2) Gabriel Ba (Casanova, Umbrella Academy, Pixu) : Three and a Half out of Four Windmills.
Slightly more likely, if only because he has a working relationship with Dark Horse, which is one of the publishers I’m targeting. Otherwise, fairly impossible.

3) Joelle Jones (You Have Killed Me, 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, Dr. Horrible one-shot) : Two out of Four Windmills.
A remote possibility, but one I think would work out incredibly well.

Time to get back to work. This research proposal isn’t going to write itself.

-Brian

An Open Letter to Joe Quesada

Dear Mister Quesada,

I’d like to formally apologize for the snarky aside I made about “Brand New Day” in the panel, even though it’s not on YouTube yet, and according to the modern digital world, it doesn’t exist. I’m not a huge Spidey fan, and I understand the want to maintain character longevity. I just feel like there are different ways to go about it; after all, Daredevil’s been outed twice, disbarred once, and has had several of his girlfriends die on him, not to mention spending time in prison. Granted, there was that whole Clone Saga, but seriously – compared to Ol’ Hornhead, Spidey has it real easy, and not once has Matt Murdock’s life been in need of a retroactive continuity change.

But, through all of that, you see one shining attribute – persistence. Matt Murdock doesn’t give up. Matt Murdock is the Rocky Balboa of superheroes. Sure, he has a radar sense, but other than that, he’s a physically normal human being, trying to stand toe to toe with the Clubber Langs and Ivan Dragos and the Kingpins. He gets beat down, stomped on, pushed to the limits of his sanity – he knows what comes, and he still keeps going. At times, it’s heroic, like Rocky I or IV; other times, it’s tragic, like Rocky Balboa or Rocky II. Other, other times, it’s just plain cheese, like Rocky V. It doesn’t matter. He just keeps going.

I’m positive this is the way with Spidey as well, but to me, Spiderman’s always been emblematic of what young life is. You struggle to find your way in the world, you meet the girl, you get the job, and you make your hard choices. But, at some point, I feel like Spiderman should be changing diapers. That’s just how it goes. You marry the girl, Aunt May dies, and after a long night of tears, you move on. You try to make sense of your life, and that’s where the kid comes in. You find a new purpose to keep doing what you’re doing, until you reach a kind of Quixotic end, where you decide, “You know what? Maybe the best death for a hero is a normal death. A quiet one, with friends and family. Nothing spectacular. No saving babies from a burning building, no brilliant fight to the end. Just the people who matter most.”

That’s the way I feel Spiderman should be. While Matt Murdock is Marvel’s Rocky Balboa – the enduring warrior, persistence in the face of suffering, triumph in the face of adversity – Spiderman is the one who says, “Once you get through it all, and you’ve had your hard times – life is pretty awesome.” He’s George Bailey, right at the end of “It’s A Wonderful Life”. Scratch that – he IS George Bailey. He’s a smart-alecky, swing-from-buildings, fight-the-Goblin George Bailey. He has some rough patches, but either by himself or with a little help, he always gets to swing above the clouds and see the sun.

So, for Matt Murdock’s sake, let Spidey have the kid. Let Aunt May die. While some heroes are made to suffer, and to quote Glenn Danzig, are “born in the soul of misery”, Spiderman is not one of them. He’s the hero that deserves something resembling a happy ending, and I sincerely hope that he gets it.

All the best,

Brian A. Lynch
a.k.a Brian St. Claire

Full Disclosure.

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I was on a panel about Comics and Graphic Novels at Villanova University, that lovely establishment of higher learning that I’m attending for my Master’s.

For the past two months, I’ve been involved in putting it together, organizing it, deciding on questions, contacting participants, et cetera. It’s been my baby. It hasn’t distracted a terrible lot from my schoolwork, so I’ve been able to handle it simultaneously (along with the other projects I’ve been working on). And to see it come together was… awesome. The crowd had great questions, the panelists (Jon Maberry, Matt Phelan, and Mary-Beth Simmons, director of Villanova’s Writing Center) had great answers, and it’ll all be on YouTube in a few days.

The project I mentioned, which is currently making the rounds with friends and trusted associates, is best described as part Don Quixote, part Hunter S. Thompson, part Highlander. I mentioned it in the course of the panel, and briefly went into a discussion of it as a synthesis of elements that had always struck a chord with me; after SPX, I was cleaning my apartment, and my mind was occupied with news about Terry Gilliam’s latest project, “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”, as I was reading an old piece I’d written during the summer in a very Gonzo, stream-of-consciousness fantastical style.

In one moment, I was thinking about vague similarities between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Don Quixote – mostly, how you have the main characters, Don Quixote and Raoul Duke, who are uniform in their pursuit of an impossibility (in Quixote’s case, glory and the chimerical Dulcinea; in Duke’s case, The American Dream, and Real Truth), of similar description (both slim, gangly, awkward figures), and their erstwhile companions, Sancho Panza and Dr. Gonzo – both overweight, but where Panza has little benefit of learning on his side, both have a strong, aggressive sensibility of right and wrong.

I thought about that, and then, somehow, my mind inserted the Highlander movies, and it all fit together bizarrely well. One could say it was a kind of “eureka!” moment, but it was probably because I’d been listening to “Princes of the Universe” way too many times to be considered healthy. In any case, that was the genesis of it.

As mentioned, Self Made Villains might be in stasis for a bit. It all depends; part of me feels like I’m not capable of doing justice to it yet, and that there are still elements I’m missing. A couple of them came together over the course of this past semester – some directly from my class readings, wouldn’t you know – but I won’t know what’s missing until I find it. In the meantime (as in, waiting for more critiques to come in), I’ll be working on a six-issue arc of a noir-ish idea I had in my head. Something tells me that when it’s done, I’ll be ready for Self Made Villains.

“We come in peace…” is definitely going into deep freeze, at least for a few years. I’m not ready to write a novel yet, but furthermore, it’s a bad time to write a vampire story. Even one about a bald, donut-loving, lazy son of a bitch who gets shot into space.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be trying to put up a fun project I’ve been doing with a letterer I met on Digital Webbing. We’ve been going through blank “preview” pages that were released to the public on Comic Book Resources, and coming up with new stories and dialogue for them, albeit limited to however many pages we could find (3 in the case of “Nomad: Girl without a World”, 7 for “Doctor Voodoo”, 6 for the Free Comic Book Day “Avengers”). I think we did a fairly good job.

All the best,
Brian

A quickie before work.

I was in a panel yesterday that I’ve been putting together for 2 months.

It was amazing.

Also, I recently finished a three-issue miniseries that I started work on right after SPX, which is making the rounds for constructive criticism. Self Made Villains is still, temporarily, in stasis. I promise I’ll go back to it – just not yet.

More later.

-Brian

It certainly has been a while.

Almost three months, I see! What’s happened since?

-Put the book on hold (150 or so pages in, need to focus on school)
-Got right back in to writing Self Made Villains (am now 4 issues in, out of a planned 12 – writing comics is relaxing and fun, a great way to de-stress from school)
-Received the final version of “Fury” – I’ve now felt a small inkling of the joy I’ll feel when something bigger gets published!
-Attended Small Press Expo – Fun times, new friends, carousing, Oreos, and a thirty-minute escapade involving the worst map ever devised and a nonexistent karaoke bar (oh, and meeting incredibly cool webcomic people)
-Saw / had things signed by Marjane Satrapi
-Read more comics and books

Other things happened, of course, but you’re not interested in them. I have nothing new to offer you at this junction, but I promise that more writing will come.

I will also start attending more conventions, and possibly exhibiting (once I have the money to cover the costs, as well as some products to sell). Granted, there’s a lot of money involved, but I think it’s all worth it in the end.

-Brian

Whooaaaa, we’re half-wayy theeerreeeee….

I’m about halfway through writing the novel’s first draft, which finally has a tentative – yet abysmal – working title :

“We Come In Peace, And My, You Look Tasty”.

I really should get back to writing it, but my brain hasn’t been completely functional these past couple of days. I blame bad indigestion, not getting to sleep until 2 am, getting up at 6, and not enough caffeine to compensate.

In additional positive news, my first published comics work, “Full Disclosure”, which will be in Insomnia Publications “Layer Zero” anthology next year, finally has an artist – the fantastic, talented, and all-around jaw-droppingly-good Ben Bates.

Granted, I know that first draft’s going to be a long way from being complete, but I’m proud of hitting a milestone. Last year, writing a novel was a pie-in-the-sky hope; now, it’s looking more real by the day. Here’s hoping I’ll see it on shelves by next year, while I’m on to the next one. Or two. Or three.

Oh – when the first draft’s done, i’ve got a couple of short story ideas lined up to crank out, so you’ll have a little literary snack or two to tide you over until the book is done. Until then, keep the faith and read some guys I’ve been checking out lately – the great George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, John Varley’s Rolling Thunder, Haruki Murakami’s South of the Border, West of the Sun, and Paul Dini’s Batman : Streets of Gotham.

-Brian

Lots of writing going on.

There’s something inherently satisfying about seeing the beginnings of a new reality.

I re-wrote the first chapter of a novel I’m working on – again, a horrible non-secret.

All the same, it came out great. I’ve got a different, more powerful kind of mojo going back into this project – I intend to have it done and being shopped around before the summer’s out.

I’m also juggling about four other things at the same time, creative-wise. I’ve got a comic script being prepared for an anthology coming out next year, and writing for an additional website, on top of my comic book reviewing obligations.

Oh, and grad school. Yeah. That thing.

Note to self – maybe I should throttle back one of these days…

-Brian

Wow.

Gail Simone commented on my review of Secret Six #8.

I may or may not have been freaking out for a couple of minutes.

…okay, I did.

-Brian

News.

I’m joining the team over at Weekly Comic Book Reviews!

Yours truly will be the resident DC specialist on staff.

It’s something I’m particularly excited about, and I’m getting started today with a review of The Flash : Rebirth #1.

This should be fun…

-Brian