Messages

All of your moms thought my helmet was totally worth jeopardizing their marriages for.

And what we need to take from this, everybody, is... Roger's back!

Dang it.

Wish I'd seen this in time. I'd have been more than happy to help you two fine gents out.

It's one of the few crossover stories I've ever actually enjoyed - makes great use of Dredd and the Aliens!

Pretty much, that's my plan.

Absolutely NOTHING is off the table for the next few months. Clackin' away on the word processor as we speak...

Didn't we deja this vu somewhere else, Paul?

Nah - really, you're preaching to the choir here. I'm already hip deep in several different projects, which are aimed at all the different fields you mention. There's VERY little agonising going on here!

My curiosity about what's going on with Future Shocks submissions is just down to curiosity, really. I have a bunch of five pagers here that I can work on and send in at any point. But because my time is limited, I have to be a little bit ruthless about deciding which given project I focus on at any one time before moving to the next. So if there's a low 'hit rate' for the Future Shocks, I'm probably best off subbing that material somewhere with a higher chance of publication.

Just playin' the odds here, is all!

Thanks for that, Emperor.

Just in the interests of further explaining, my plan is (was) to have done the following:

I have a number of scripts right now (five, to be exact) , all worked up over time, and all in varying states of completion. They're all going to get put to use.

ONE of these will go to 2000AD.

The deal is: I may be new to the submission game, but I'm not new to writing by a long shot. I've had comic scripts read over by and critiqued by jobbing pros in the last six months who've told me that I'm doing a decent job, so I figure now is the time to start working on generating a body of work. I have to pay my dues the same as anybody else in my position, certainly. I'm just trying to aim the shots in my opening salvo a little realistically.

I'm hoping to muster a small list of achievements in print that I can fill out my resume with and trade on. The avenues I'm persuing are self publishing, small press and - GULP - the dreaded submissions to the big boys!

So, really, a submission to 2000AD wouldn't be my only iron in the fire. I'm just trying to guage whether it'd fall victim to the ever-absorbing slush pile or actually stand a spermatozoic chance of actually...er... fertilising an... editor?

Wow. Where the hell did THAT come from?

Okay - bump time.

Here's the thing:

I had it in mind to submit a Futture Shocks piece. But with zippah-dee-doo-dah in the way of other writing credits, and given that I'm hearing from plenty of folks that they've subbed pieces and heard nothing back (in some cases up to a year on from sending their scripts,) I'm wondering if there's much point.

Not to be defeatist here, but I wonder if anyone can offer some insight on that?

I just ask because I'm trying to work REALLY HARD to get more of my writing out there. I'm doing a fair bit of lettering and sometimes inking on indie comics right now, and I REALLY want to add some writing credits to my resume. But right now, I'm having a hard time finding spare time to actually write anything. So I want to avoid throwing any scripts I have 'down the drain' so to speak. I don't mind sending stuff away and making my peace eith it, but I'd like to think I was going to get something back from it, even if it WAS just a rejection letter.

What do you guys reckon?

Hi there KT!

If you could PM me with details about deadlines and all that other good stuff, I might be able to help you out.

Late to the party, I know, but I'll be posting reviews of five of the #1 isues over on my DeviantArt page over the course of the week.

If anybody wants to come on over and join in discussion, y'all are most welcome.

You can find it here: http://hde2009.deviantart.com/

I caved and bought Blue Beetle #1 today at the LCS.

Um... wow. What a disappointment. As a series opener it's formulaic on every level, and teh pacing feels much too frantic for my taste. We also get a glimpse of a Green Lantern to remind us that there are OTHER cool characters whose books we can pick up. Hints of crossover potential this early on REALLY don't sit well with me.

I think I'll give #2 a whirl, as the LCS seems to think they'll have shelf stock. But if I'm not feeling it by then, I think it'll be another easy pass.

I investigated a few of the other titles on the shelf today. I'm curious about Hawkman and MAYBE Birds Of Prey, but not in the same way I was about BB.

I once dreamed that I was a kitten living in a house with two GORGEOUS young women, who kept picking me up and tickling me under my chin and on my belly.

It was HORRENDOUS. In the dream, all I could think was 'Goddammit, ya crazy broads! Quit fussin' over me! I need a cigarette right now!'

And then they put me in my wicker basket with a pack of twenty and a cigarette lighter, and I was, like 'Wait... how do I work the lighter with these claws?'



The crazy thing is, I've never smoked, and never will.

On CBR I saw something called Blackhawks which I'd never heard of but looked rather spiffy.

It does look interesting. Blackhawks have a lot history with DC, but this current incarnation sort of looks like if GI Joe took place in the DC universe

That's the Mike Costa book.

I was semi-interested in checking it out. Mr Costa has co-written some apparently decent GI Joe material for IDW. But having picked up Blackhawks #1 and leafed through it in the LCS (with the owner's permission) I'd urge you to look before you leap. It was a VERY easy pass for me.

I can see Rogue Trooper making a brilliant movie!

Have to confess, I'm pretty lukewarm to it as a comic. My lst encounter with Rogue was (deep gasp) in hos Playstation 2 game, which was an insane amount of fun.

If they could put THAT on screen, I'd give 'em my money.

The idea of everything you purchase just being remotely stored in some cloud somewhere just sounds worryingly vague. If you buy a book in the non-digital world, it's yours for the rest of your life. The distributors can't just come round to your house and take it back again if they feel like it. But with this, it feels like they've effectively taken away your right to hold on to the actual media you buy for as long as you want, as they have the ability to just whisk it away from you at any time.

I don't know that any ethical publisher would do that, but it certainly IS a worry that parts of a collection could go missing for whatever reason. I mean, what if a publisher or comics provider goes bust?

Download to own HAS to be implemented for digital comics to seem like an attractive prospect to clued up customers, methinks.

But here's the thing: i'd buy it exclusively for comics. As soon as someone writes something to let it play .cbr files, or whatnot, i might conceivably buy one of those 'complete runs' we all see advertised, pop them all on a memory stick and read them on my kindle. There's nothing amazon can do there to stop me 'owning' my files, is there?

Not a damn thing - but that's what we're talking about - who owns things you buy from amazon. Ultimately, amazon do.

This is EXACTLY the sort of thing I was alluding to in one of my earlier posts.

Certain providers of digital comics downloads actually do NOT provide you with a file that you can download. They provide you with ACCESS the relevant file via your device. So, as PJ says, you get to dow what's expected (i.e. read it) but you don't get to add it to a collection of stored files.

And at this point, we've reached the absolute limit of my knowing what I'm actually talking about. So henceforth, I'll be shutting up!