Indy Comics Writer

Sometimes a surprise twist ruins a story. Think of the first movie in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The kids appear to have defeated Freddie Krueger. The story has wrapped up on a clever note, with an enterprising heroine using her brains to defeat a seemingly unstoppable foe.

But then, at the very end of the movie, we see that Krueger has returned from the dead. And he’s captured the kids we thought defeated him.

The ending scenes do have shock value, but they cheapen what was until then a thoughtful, truly frightening movie. The sequels that resulted were junk.

But then there comes the twist that defines a work of fiction. Take Robert Kirkman and perhaps his most enduring creation, the superhero series Invincible, published by Image.

Invincible at first seems like a typical superhero story: A young boy gains super powers and struggles to learn how to control them or use them effectively. Sounds a bit like the early days of Spider-Man, right? But then, early in the series’ run a twist occurs that is so amazing and surprising, I won’t even hint at it. All I can say is, read the trades of Invincible. You’ll be amazed at the switch that Kirkman pulls.

Not all twists are created equal. Some, like Kirkman’s, can transform a series into something amazing. Others can make everything that happened before the twist meaningless.

I have a friend who loves Tintin. The first time I heard her going on about the comic, I thought she was talking about Rin Tin Tin, better known as the world’s most famous German Shepherd.

Of course, Tintin is actually a cub reporter of sorts who, along with his trusty dog Snowy, get into adventures across the globe. It’s quite popular in certain quarters, and the art is undeniably fetching. But ever try to read these stories? To say they haven’t aged well is an understatement.

Here’s an interesting story by the BBC News about what the news service calls the cult of Tintin. Steven Spielberg is beginning a Tintin film, so if you don’t understand the appeal, just wait: You’ll be hearing a lot about Tintin soon.

Personally, though, Tintin feels to me like Walt Kelly’s Pogo. I know as a fan of comic books and comic art, I’m supposed to like it. But I’ve never quite been able to get into Pogo, either. Some people love the comic strip Mutts. It barely makes me smirk. Then again, there’s something about Blondie that almost always makes me smile. Others would say that strip is old-fashioned and past its prime.

Maybe it’s the same way with Tintin; You either love it or you’re a bit bewildered by all the fuss.

You never know what you’re going to find in the daily papers.

Sure, you’ll certainly come across plenty of bad news — more housing foreclosures, more job losses, a tumbling stock market, violence across the world. But once in a while, you find a tidbit of information that you never expected.

For instance, you might be surprised to discover that Playboy Magazine founder Hugh Hefner considers a homemade comic book he made as a teen to have led him down the path to publishing that eventually gave us unfunny party jokes, a bewildering unabashed dictionary and plenty of airbrushing.

Yep, according to this story, America’s favorite dirty old man used to write his own comic based on the adventures of himself and his gang of friends. He eventually turned the project into a scrapbook, which eventually — this might be a stretch, I suppose — led to Playboy magazine.

See, comics aren’t only for geeks. They’re for guys who hang around in their pajamas all day, date three girls at once and every once in a while wear really goofy looking yachting captain hats.

So next time you’re working on your own comic, sure that it will never amount to anything, remember the fate of Hugh Hefner. Things worked out well for this former comic writer, right?

Sometimes writing for comics seems like a thankless job: No one wants to pay new writers. Artists are tough to find, and often disappear in the middle of a project. The industry is so dominated by two big players that it’s almost impossible to land a job anywhere as a writer in the comics world.

But for all the stresses and frustrations, comics writing is still great fun. For one thing, it’s creative. For another, the medium allows you to tell stories in a way no other medium can.

And, most importantly, it’s not commercial real estate.

Let me explain this: One of my major freelance non-fiction jobs involves writing for and editing a commercial real estate magazine. These days, everyone involved in the magazine is a bit touchy. If you’ve not turned on the TV or read a newspaper in the last year, you might not know that the U.S. real estate industry is suffering a major crash. For our magazine, this means it’s harder than ever to get those ads.

Because of this, the salesmen working on the magazine are taking out their frustrations on the editorial staff. For instance, last month, I held out a column written by an advertiser because we didn’t have enough space for it. Instead, the column is running in our January issue. You’d have thought I went to that advertiser’s office and set it afire the way the sales staff reacted. I’ve been dealing with the wailing and whining all day. In fact, I am ready to set an office on fire, the office of the magazine that I edit.

Anyway, this kind of aggravation makes the headaches that come with comic-book writing seem like a vacation to Hawaii. Remember this the next time you’re ready to toss those dreams of making it in this field.

I finished a big project today, rewriting a more than 80-page graphic novel for an artist. He was unsatisfied with the work of his original writer and he hired me to, basically, re-do everything.

The job wasn’t the easiest. Much of the original work was hard to decipher. It took me several readings of the story to understand exactly what was going on. On top of that, the original writer had made some mistakes, giving characters’ different names and changing their personality traits halfway through the story.

Still, I wasn’t complaining. The artist I was working for was understanding when I asked for more time. He understood that I wanted to do the best job possible, and that rushing through the story wasn’t going to help anyone.

And when I turned everything in this morning? He not only paid me through Paypal in about five minutes, he gave me a bonus because he was so happy with the work I gave him earlier on the project that he gave me a bonus.

I bring all this up because it’s rare in the comics field to find publishers or clients who actually do what they promise. This client not only did that, he exceeded his promises. He also said that he’d like me to work on future installments of his story. That’s good news. It’s rare to get paid anything as a new writer for comics. To get paid well and on time? That’s wonderful.

I received in my e-mail inbox this morning my first piece of happy comics news of 2009: A short strip of mine will appear early this year in MangaQuake, an anthology series published in the United Kingdom. This morning, I saw the final results of the drawn and lettered seven-page script.

Let me tell you, it’s fantastic. The artist, Triluz from Belgium, is amazing, and has turned in some fine-looking work on this script. I wish I could post a page or two here, but I won’t be doing that until the strip is actually published. I’m especially happy that Triluz is working on another of my short scripts, “Baby Button,” which will appear in a 2009 edition of IF-X, an anthology published by the Hamtramck Idea Men right here in the United States.

Finding Triluz has been a blessing. I’m hoping to have to her draw some of my other short scripts. We all know that it’s very difficult for writers to sell a comic script without any art attached. It’s even harder to sell a script when, in a fit of desperation, you hook up with an artist who isn’t really ready for prime time. (I’ve made this mistake. I’m sure many new comics writers, desperate to have at least some art with their scripts, have done the same.) But having a great artist illustrate your scripts increases your odds of publication in this field enormously.

So here’s hoping that my early happy 2009 moments bode well for the rest of the year. Last year was a tough one on the work front: I worked harder than ever, but ended up making a bit less money than I did in 2006 and 2007, my two best years of freelance writing. Of course, it could have been a lot worse. We’ve all seen, and many have experienced, the toll that the recession has taken on so many professionals.

I have my hopes, though, that 2009 will be a year we can all look back on fondly. Keep writing, and keep aiming for your goals. My friend, who works in the PR field and has to be positive all the time, says you only fail when you stop trying. So … keep on trying.

The sad truth about writing for the comics industry is this: Unless you’re a hotshot, famous writer, you probably can’t earn enough money to make a living. If you’re a novice, like I am, you’d be lucky to make enough money to treat yourself to McDonald’s once a week.

Because of this, I spend the majority of my writing time working on non-fiction stories for newspapers, magazines, trade publications and Web sites. Much of this is boring; I write for trade magazines that focus on topics such as erosion control, water treatment and real estate, after all.

But sometimes you hit upon a story that’s actually fun and actually pays well. In that vein, I am working now on a story for Phoenix Magazine about people who hunt Bigfoot, UFOs, ghosts and other mysterious creatures. It’s a fun story to write. And I’m talking to some people who are truly committed to what they’re doing, and you have to appreciate that, whether you believe in ghosts and UFOs or not.

It’s important to find stories like this. For one thing, they force you to be creative while writing nonfiction. That can be a challenge. As a writer trained in journalism school, it’s often hard for me to break free of the “just the facts” style of writing. Writing about a man who claims Bigfoot once chased him back to his truck three decades ago, though, begs for a more colorful, fun type of writing.

Don’t get down, then, just because you can’t always write for your favorite medium. If I had my choice, I’d spend my entire day writing comics. But I have a family to keep feed and sheltered. I try to remember that every story I write, no matter how boring the topic might seem, represents a chance to practice and, hopefully, improve upon my writing.

Even though I love comic books and graphic novels, and even though I’m striving to break into the business of writing for the medium, I still like to read prose novels and short stories. There’s a lot of great writing out there that doesn’t come with pictures, and if you’re ignoring it you’re not helping to develop your own writing skills at all.

For instance, for Christmas I received The Boy Detective Fails, the new novel by Joe Meno. If you’ve never read anything by Meno, you’re missing out. Check out his work and you’ll see: They all have their own distinctive style, and they’re all heartbreaking. But Meno’s not depressing to read. His work can also be heartwarming, and his characters will stick in your mind long after you finish reading one of his stories or novels.

If you ever read the adventures of the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew when you were younger, you’ll enjoy The Boy Detective Fails. The story concerns the exploits of a real-life (well, this is fiction, but you know what I mean) version of everyone’s favorite teen detectives. Mysteries are a bit more complicated in Meno’s world than they are in the works penned by the pseudonymous F.W. Dixon.

Like all the best writers, Meno can teach aspiring pros all about pacing, wit, style and, of course, hooking the reader. Just because he doesn’t write graphic novels and you want to, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check out his work.

Well, Christmas is over, and I can happily report that a trip to my local chain bookstore is on the horizon.

Yes, I received that most coveted of all gifts on Christmas morning: the bookstore gift card.

I know that some folks when they need to blow off steam head to the bars. Others jump off bridges or shoot themselves. Me? I go to the bookstore. I don’t always buy anything; In fact, I leave empty handed most of the time. But the big-chain bookstores — and they know who they are — are where I read most of my mainstream comics. You see, I don’t like to waste my precious bucks on Marvel and D.C.’s offerings when I can spend them instead on necessities, you know, baby food, gas, comic books from independent companies, the important stuff.

So tonight, I’ll head out to the chain store, find a seat and read through some comics by Brian Michael Bendis I’ve been meaning to read. I like Bendis’ writing, a lot. But I’m not quite as fond of his work with Marvel — outside of the consistently fun and witty Ultimate Spider-Man — as I am of his other work, such as Goldfish, Jinx and Sam and Twitch.

To me, a trip to the bookstore is a nice reward after a long and sometimes annoying Christmas season has come to a close. Besides, next week stands to be a busy week: We have friends coming from Texas. If it happens to snow in Chicago while they’re here, I’ll be busy pumping them with hot chocolate and coffee and wrapping them up in electric blankets. They’re not used to our “magical” Midwest weather.

I had a feeling this was going to happen: Frank Miller — Mr. Machismo himself — has ruined The Spirit for a whole generation of potential comics readers.

In case you don’t know –and as a comics fan, you really should know — The Spirit is one of the landmark works in graphic storytelling, told by comics giant Will Eisner in the 1940s. Eisner’s work is graceful, witty and somehow manages to be both lighthearted and noirish at the same time.

Miller’s movie, on the other hand, is boorish, violent and dimwitted. The violence is especially surprising. Yes, The Spirit did have its share of gunshot wounds, knocks to the head and other spurts of violence. But I’d never call the work blood-soaked.

It’s a shame, really, that Miller has created such a crap movie. The right film could have introduced a whole new group of readers to the genius that is Will Eisner. Instead, The Spirit will be an afterthought. That’s a real pity.