The script for the 27th issue of my superherovillain comic book, Rapid City, has just been posted. Read it here.

Panel 4. Shot of Icicle trying her hardest just to hold it together.

ICICLE

Piledriver’s dead.

Panel 5. Small panel of the milk hitting the ground and busting open.

Panel 6. As large a panel as the page will allow of Katy grabbing Icicle into an awkward hug. It is awkward because Katy is carefully keeping her spiky hands from poking Icicle.

KATY

Oh, Steph. No. You poor…

KATY

Come here.

ICICLE

He’s dead, Katy. He’s dead.

Read Issue 27 and all of the previous Rapid City scripts right here.

The script for the 26th issue of my superherovillain comic book, Rapid City, has just been posted. Read it here.

Panel 3. Icicle starting to walk again. This panel is too close to see it, but she is moving toward shore. There is a thin trail of ice crystals forming in her wake.

NARRATION
He has to know this loss.

Panel 4. Larger panel, she is clearly moving through more shallow water now.

NARRATION
He has to know this pain.

Panel 5. Largest panel of Icicle emerging from the still water in the moonlight.

NARRATION
He has to know first hand.

NARRATION
I have to show him what it feels like to die.

Read Issue 26 and all of the previous Rapid City scripts right here.

The script for the twenty-fourth issue of my superhero comic book, Rapid City has just been posted.

Panel 3. Glyph smiling and proud, Kinetic looking up at him curiously.

GLYPH
Audiomancy.

KINETIC
What?

GLYPH
It’s a way of letting the universe tell you things. Finding patterns, not predicting the future.

Panel 4. Glyph gesturing around himself.

GLYPH
In a random shuffle, your mind will make meaning out the order of symbols.

KINETIC
You mean a tarot reading?

Panle 5. Glyph holding up his MP3 player.

GLYPH
Not that kind of shuffle.

Read and discuss this issue of Rapid City, plus all of the previous issues, for free here.

The script for the twenty-third issue of my superhero comic book, Rapid City, has now been posted.

In this issue, Coil’s plan to steal an ancient artifact unfolds with terrifying consequences.

Panel 1. Everyone looking toward the Captain with surprise.

GUARD 1

Sir!

SCIENTIST 2

What have you done?

KINETIC

What’s wrong with you?

Panel 2. The Captain yelling back at Kinetic.

GUARD CAPTAIN

Not me. Them. Look what this scum does with the power they have now. They hurt, steal, and kill.

GUARD CAPTAIN

More power will mean more people hurt and more people killed. That’s not happening on my watch.

GUARD CAPTAIN

The vault stays closed.

Read and discuss this issue of Rapid City, plus all of the previous issues, for free here.

At the Boston Comic Con a few months back, I happened to pick up a supervillain comic book call Breakneck. It was an interesting concept, and a lot of fun to read. I always like hearing form other people who write super-comics, so I sent the writer some questions and tried to pick his brains.

Who are you?

My name is Mark Bertolini, I’m a comic book creator and writer who once upon a time
wanted to be a comic book artist, before I realized I didn’t have the technical skill or
patience to illustrate comics. I’ve been writing comics for several years, and only recently
have begun to have any success at it. I’m also the father of two awesome boys who are
also big comic book fans, and, at ages 7 and 4, have an encyclopaedic knowledge of
superheroes and comic book characters.

What do you write?

I’m the creator and writer of the 215 Ink supervillain title Breakneck, which centers on
self-professed D-list villain Ethan Shade, who is (was) a member of the world’s most
dangerous group of super-criminals, the Cult of Intelligence. He’s constantly relegated to
the background, which is why he was the sole survivor of the supervillain genocide that
claimed the lives of every other villain on Earth.

I’m also the writer on a few other upcoming titles. I have a 4-issue sci-fi/noir miniseries
called Ghost Lines that’s going to be published by Creator’s Edge Press, and the
4-issue apocalyptic end-of-the-world miniseries Long Gone, to be published by
Markosia Entertainment. There are also a number of projects in the works with various
exceptionally talented artists that I hope to unleash upon the comic world in the next year.

Why do you write?

Because if I didn’t, my head would explode. Seriously, though, I write because I have a
need to get all these stories out of my head. I’m constantly coming up with new ideas,
and these ideas mingle in with other ideas and suddenly I have the basis for another
project. I tend to write limited series, things with a definitive ending to them. I also write
comics that I, as a life-long comic fan, would want to read. I think there are certain gaps
in the comic industry right now that I try to fill with my projects. Whether that gap truly
exists or not is another matter altogether, but I still try and write things that excite me,
things that I would love to read.

How do you write?

One word at a time. Again, in all seriousness, I take the act of comic script writing very
seriously. Before I put a single word down in a script, I will have, at the very least, the
full issue plotted. I used to have to draw out 22 little pages and draw in what happened
in each panel, and then translate that into a script, but with practice, I can now hold most
of that in my head, so the plot starts at point A and finished at point Z and I fill in what
happens in the middle. I do a lot of my script writing at work (don’t tell my boss), and
once a script is finished, it gets filed away for a minimum of two weeks. After that two
week period, I will take it out again and read it, and make any adjustments I feel are
necessary. I’m also lucky enough that most of the time, I’m writing a script for an artist,
and I can gear the way I write to the artist. Parts of my scripts might look like an ongoing
conversation with the artist.

One of the main things I try and do, since a lot of my projects are finite, is to know
exactly where and when the story will finished, and work backwards from it. The last
thing I want is to get to page 22 and then run out of space to finish the script.

Now that you no longer draw thumbnails for your pages, do you feel the impulse to
rigidly control what the artist does? Has it been hard for you to learn to just trust artists
to do what they do?

I think, when I used to create the thumbnails for the scripts I wrote, I was probably
way too anal about how I wanted certain things to look, and I know that can be very
frustrating and restricting to an artist. Part of my love of creating comics is that feeling
of collaboration, and with me just directing traffic for an artist, it probably takes away
some of the enthusiasm they have for the material. I generally encourage feedback on the
scripts, if there is a different or better way to approach a certain scene then I’m all for it.
One of the artists I work with, Jerome Eyquem, is a big fan of many panels on a page. I
usually write for no more than 6 panels per page, but Jerome will take that and turn it into
a 9-panel page without disrupting the flow or the momentum of the page, and it always
astounds me how much better it looks with the increased panel count. It lets me add more
dialogue as well, and I’m a big fan of my own dialogue.

In what specific ways to gear your writing for a particular artist?

It really depends on the artist, and what their strengths are. With Ted Pogorzelski, the
artist on Long Gone, I try to put in a lot of detail into each panel description, because Ted
is like the second coming of Frank Quitely, his attention to detail is insane. The smallest
thing in the panel description will find it’s way onto his page. With Breakneck’s James
Boulton, I know he’s going to hit me with big, stylized images, so I make sure there are
lots of opportunities for these big, powerful shots. Also, James seems to really enjoy
architecture, so there’s lots of buildings and design work that I add in. With my Ghost
Lines collaborator, Carl Yonder, I usually try to find a balance of light and shadow, and
base scenes for him to illustrate with lots of both. Carl’s a genius at showing the passage
of time, and it’s a trick I work into a lot of our work together.

What format do you generally use, and when formatting do you primarily consider what
suits your writing style best, or what will be easiest for any given artist to turn in to
pages?

I studied a lot of comic book scripts, and took bits from a few that worked for me. I
don’t think my scripting style would work for another writer, I really don’t know. I just
eventually developed a style that was comfortable for me to write in, and it seems to do
the trick for most artists I work with. I haven’t heard any complaints, at least!

I have been pretty impressed with Breakneck. It is the story of a supervillain who finds
himself out on his own in a world dominated by big-name superheroes. As an indie
superhero writer, you are also a man out on your own is a world dominated by big-name
superheroes. How much of your experience of creating this book has found its way onto
the page? How much does his struggle to just do his own thing in that world reflect your
struggle to do the same?

I like that analogy, but to be honest, it never occurred to me that Shade’s struggles would
reflect my own. I know superhero comics sometimes get looked down on, which I think is
a shame, because for most readers, I bet a superhero comic was the first comic they read.
Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I don’t know, and it’s probably a statement on the
industry as a whole, but I love superhero comics, and I just wanted to create my own. I
don’t think that I’m competing in any way with any of the big books. I basically make
fun of the majority of the mainstream superhero books. If you read a cross-section of
my work, you might think that I hate superheroes, but nothing could be farther from the
truth. I just enjoy superhero comics that have a little more meat to them. Warren Ellis’s
original run on the Authority was probably the biggest influence on me in terms of telling
a superhero story. And I’m glad you’re enjoying Breakneck, be sure to stay tuned, there’s
some big things coming!

“Indie” usually means “anything goes”. Indie book can be, and are, about anything
under the sun. There is, however, a perception that the indie community turns up its
collective nose at superhero comics. If indie comics are the marginalized minority in
the world of comics, then the superhero indie is doubly marginalized. How have you
experienced this in your relationship with the greater comics community?

Personally, not really. There’s been a lot of love for Breakneck in the indie comics
community, both from readers and my peers. And while I’m always happy that comic
book readers are enjoying the book, when a peer, a fellow comic creator tells me
they’ve enjoyed it, I’m ecstatic. I think right now there is such a fantastic indie comics
community, some incredible work is being done, and for me to be a part of that in any
way, shape or form is amazing. I’m a fan of so many indie creators right now, and to
have them tell me they enjoy my work is a little surreal.

I think “indie” comics are sometimes badly stereotyped as low-budget, crappy, badly
illustrated comics that are Xeroxed and half-assed, which couldn’t be farther from the
truth. There is such depth and dedication to the medium in the indie community. I think
one of the best recent examples if FUBAR. When you look at the creators involved
in that project, it’s the cream of the crop of the small press, independent talent. Being
invited to write a story for FUBAR volume 2 was a highlight of my fledgling comics
career, but just to be in the same book as guys like Jeff McComsey and Stephen Lindsay
is a thrill.

I know that I am largely talking about stereotypes, which are usually not very accurate,
but how would you characterize the indie world’s reception of superhero work. Where
does it sit on a scale from “we are all brothers making comics, regardless of the content
or genre” to “we make indie comics, You make wannabe mainstream comics”?

I think with indie comics, the thought is “I can do anything I want with comics, so why
would I want to do superheroes?” And that makes a lot of sense. If you don’t want to re-
hash stories that have been around for 60 years, you can create something completely
off -the-wall and unique. But I believe you can still do the same within the superhero
genre, and I strive to put that uniqueness into my work. I unabashedly love superheroes,
I will never deny it. I grew up reading superhero comics. I still do to this day. But I can
understand the notion that, if I can create anything I want, why do superheroes? I’ve
wanted to create superhero comics for my entire life, so Breakneck breaking through was
literally one of my biggest life goals. And the idea of indie creators as brothers-in-arms is
absolutely true, regardless of the type of work you create. There’s so much support and
encouragement in the indie community right now. It was probably always there, but I’ve
only been a part of it for a little while.

Have you been surprised by how warmly or coldly your work has been received by non-
superhero creators? Are there any specific instances that have stuck with you?

Nothing makes me realize how fortunate I am that my work is being read as when
a fellow comics creator tells me they enjoy Breakneck. A lot of the support that
Breakneck has received so far has come from the small press community (which has been
dubbed “the Small Press Commandos”), as we all tend to circulate our work to each
other for help and guidance. I don’t think I’ve had anyone tell me they didn’t enjoy it. Of
course, there are certain parts that I’ve been taken to task over, but for the most part, the
book’s reception has been very encouraging.

One of the biggest things that stands out to me was when I approached Stephen Lindsay,
the creator of Jesus Hates Zombies, to write the introduction for the upcoming Breakneck
trade paperback. I gave him about fifty outs, just in case, but his response was “it would
be an honor.” That’s something that sticks with me. Stephen has no reason to give me an
ego-stroke, but he genuinely wanted to contribute in some way.

What things to do you see in other “indie” superhero comics that make you roll your eyes? Or, what do other indie superhero creators do that might give books like yours a bad reputation?

I think, with superhero comics, just about every possible scenario has been tackled. The
job is to take those scenarios, those archetypes, and turn them on their head. There’s
nothing wrong at all with doing superhero comics straight up, with a hero fighting a
villain. That’s the basis for hundreds of comics every month, but I like to take those
generic ideas and spin them 180 degrees and approach them from another direction. Plus,
there are so many clichéd, classic comic book moments that are just begging to be made
fun of. One of my favorites is in the opening pages of Breakneck issue 5. I took two
classic comic book scenes, and smashed them together (literally). I hope people like it as
much as I did when I wrote it.

What mistakes do you find yourself making again and again?

I’m a big fan of dialogue, so I try to avoid pages and pages of non-stop hero/villain
fighting. I’d rather have a couple pages of Ethan Shade getting his ass kicked, and then
take the next ten pages to have him complain about it, bitterly, over and over. That
may not interest everyone, but I love some good complaining, and Shade is the perfect
character for it. I don’t like things to stagnate, so I try and throw something new into each
issue. Even though the full series has been plotted fairly tightly, there’s always room for
something else to be thrown in the mix.

What do you think that you do particularly well?

I think I write a pretty good cliffhanger, if I do say so myself. I studied the art (and it
is definitely an art) of the cliffhanger in Brian K Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man and Ex
Machina. Vaughan is a master of the compelling cliffhanger, and I always strive to leave
the reader wanting more, wanting to know what is going to happen next.

And not necessarily in terms of the actual writing, but I think I’m a pretty good judge
of artists. I’m extremely fortunate to be working with some incredibly talented creators,
guys who I think will be stars in the industry in the next 5 to 10 years, if not sooner. In
almost every case, I’m more excited for the exposure the artist will get than for myself.
If I can do one thing in the comic book industry, it will be introducing people to these
artists.

I enjoy the Breakneck universe, will there be more comics set there?

Probably. The current series is set to finish as of issue 10, but based on how things go
once we reach that tenth issue, I’ll have to re-evaluate where it goes from there. I think
there’s a lot of stories to be told in the Breakneck universe. A dream of mine would be
to put together an anthology of other creators, writers and artists, creating their own
Breakneck stories.

We do have a Breakneck anthology coming out at New York Comic Con, with three
short stories written by me, with three different artists illustrating them. These stories
focus on some of the other characters in Breakneck, and I’m very much looking forward
to that, but having other writers tackle a Breakneck story would be fantastic.

What is up next for you?

I have a short story in FUBAR volume 2, and the NYCC Breakneck exclusive. I have
several other projects in the works as well. My post-apocalyptic survival story Long
Gone is nearing completion. I have a pair of short stories approved for the 215 Ink
anthology (and I’m hoping to score a hat trick with a third story soon). I have another
superhero series called Antihero that I hope will see a release before the end of the year,
and a sci-fi/crime story called Knowledge that we’re anticipating will be a 100-page
graphic novel. And one of the newest projects I’m working on is called Broken, and it
will be an 80-page graphic novel. Broken is my twisted take on the origin of Batman, and
how that traumatic experience early in life could have warped a young man, and taken a
much darker (yes, darker than Batman already is) path.

Below is the second installment of my interview series. Each week I will interview another with a comics creator on the art and craft of writing comic books.
This week I spoke with the creator of the very insightful and informative blog Superhero Nation, Brian McKenzie.
If you are writing superhero comics, I highly recommend you check this out, even if you already know everything there is to know about the genre.

Who are you?

I’m a blogger with a bit of editorial experience. In August, I’m set to start teaching high school English in Korea. Some random facts about myself:

My writing advice blog, Superhero Nation, has had ~300,000 readers, which means I’m still getting killed by autotuned cats, Newsweek and Rebecca Black.
My interests range from the nerdy (I’m a fairly high-level player in a few video games) to the profoundly nerdy (I’ve spent thousands of hours running a website about how to write superhero novels and comic books).
In high school, I was voted Most Likely to be an Abercrombie & Fitch Centerfold, which was probably the senior class prank that year. My friends still haven’t told me how they pulled it off. (I’m the guy on the right here: http://www.superheronation.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/headerjanuary63.jpg ).
My main writing experience is in nonfiction (mainly government communications and copywriting/advertising).

What do you write?

Mainly nonfiction, articles about how to write better novels and comic books.
In terms of fiction, I’m working on a comic book series titled The Taxman Must Die. It’s a wacky mix of an office comedy and a national security thriller. Two unlikely secret agents– an accountant and a mutant alligator–have to save the world. From themselves, mostly. (If you’re interested, you can see five illustrated sample pages here).

Why do you write?

I like interacting with readers. Compliments are nice, questions are better and witty insults are the best. I once did a writing contest to gently discourage would-be screenwriters from asking me for writing advice. (I do comic books and novels, not TV/movie scripts). So I asked my readers to fill in the blank: “Asking B. Mac for screenplay writing advice is like _________________.” My favorite response was “Asking B. Mac for screenplay writing advice is like having Michael Bay direct Titanic, the butler did it and was darn sexy while doing it, but it isn’t right for you because the butler was a robot…in disguise! Boom! Explodey!”

I would be immensely pleased if my fiction had enough readers that I could write it full-time. Right now, it’s just a hobby. However, I am not under any delusion that it will happen quickly. It usually takes years of practice to get professionally published and years more to build up an audience large enough to write full-time.

How do you write?

In nonfiction:

I usually start with a request from a reader on my website, a Google search to my website or an idea or concern based on a story I’m reviewing. For example, one Google search that showed up on my Analytics account last week how to introduce a new character. I thought that was an interesting idea, so I decided to write an article about How to Introduce Major Characters.
To fill out my articles, I brainstorm a list of ideas of problems that I’ve seen authors run into. For example, when it comes to introducing characters, I’ve read many stories where authors introduce characters with no connection to what has been going on in the story, drown readers in meaningless visual details rather than develop interesting information about the character, introduce too many characters at once, etc.
I finish the article by offering possible solutions to each problem and examples of published stories that I think handled the issue really well.

In fiction:
I’ll sit down for a certain period of time (usually 30-60 minutes) and keep writing until I have a page or two ready.
If I’m truly stuck, I’ll post what I have so far and ask my beta-reviewers for possible suggestions about where I could go from here. As soon as I have a first draft ready…
…I start rewriting savagely. I try to write the first draft longer than I will eventually need so that I have room to cut scenes that I later decide are not quite at the same level as the rest of the work. My philosophy is that you’re not actually writing a comedy unless you’ve removed scenes because they’re not funny enough.
I ask my reviewers what they think of the rewritten draft–is it easy to read? Fun? Coherent? Then I’ll rewrite until I’m confident that it’s ready to go.
Submit to publishers.
If I get published, celebrate. Otherwise, return to step 3.

How much does your Taxman comic draw from your life?

Subconsciously, perhaps. For example, it’s about a white-collar nerd (an accountant/IRS agent) thrown onto a super-SWAT team where everybody else is far more badass than he is, even the receptionist. I can sort of relate to that, having been probably the least competent cadet in the history of Air Force ROTC. Also, I was a communications intern for the EPA, which rivals the IRS as the least badass police agency in the world. (To be fair, though, both have armed field-agents and have lost agents in the line of duty).

I think I’m also subconsciously drawing on my dissatisfaction with Superman.

The Superman universe bends over backwards to make his life as easy as possible. For example, he’s an alien that not only looks like a human but an exceedingly attractive human.
He doesn’t have a personality (besides being perfect).
His superpowers tend to be ridiculous (like going back in time by flying around the world really fast or induce amnesia with a kiss). Also, he’s vastly more powerful than most of his nemeses, particularly the cinematic versions of Lex Luthor.
He talks about morals and ethics but acts like an ass. For example, he was a star football player, which is sort of a dick thing if you have a competitive advantage far beyond illegal steroids.

I notice that my other main character, Agent Orange, is very much an anti-Superman.

He’s not an alien, but he is a mutant alligator that looks, ahem, like a mutant alligator. (American alligator!)
I feel his personality and voice are lively. He is an extremely scholarly jingo dedicated to the pursuit of badassery. (For example, he whips out The Compendium of the American Alligator: A Treatise on Awesomeness to explain the key differences between American alligators and their various nemeses).
Besides incredible athleticism, his only superpower is the ability to turn off the lights for three seconds, courtesy of a billion-dollar defense research project that fell, ahem, seriously short of expectations.

When I first found your blog, I read it disingenuously. I was waiting for you to screw up. How could a guy who has made no super hero comics tell me how to write super hero comics? I was all set to feed my ego by correcting your misguided mistakes. But I couldn’t, because your blog is damn good. How did you get the cajones to do offer advice on a topic that you have no ‘PROOF that you know anything about?

Those questions sound harsh, the point I am trying to make is that I am impressed with the awesome pressure you have chosen to take on. Have you felt that pressure? Has it affected the way you write?

“Those questions sound harsh…” No, I think your question is entirely on the mark (and perfectly polite). I appreciate your honesty. I think my sparse credentials are definitely a valid concern–I myself would be wary of someone offering advice in a field in which he/she was not very experienced. Like you said, I’m not a published author, and I have only a few months of low-level comic editing experience.

I think it helps in my case that I tend to focus more on suggestions and things to think about than ironclad Orders from On High or Rules That Cannot Be Broken*.

For example, compare these ideas.

Suggestion A: “Characters with distinct personalities tend to be more interesting.”
Rule B: “If you want to get published, you must write characters with distinct personalities.”

They’re similar, but Rule B is demonstrably wrong. I think most readers could come up with a few examples of characters that have been published despite having bland personalities. In contrast, very few people would disagree with Suggestion A.

From there, I think it’s really easy to share with readers some of the characterization problems I’ve made and/or encountered. For example, one problem that sometimes makes it harder to build distinct personalities is that too many characters are introduced too quickly and/or the scenes have too many characters in them, so some characters get lost in the shuffle. If you think that’s a problem for your work, you might find it helpful to consider an approach like introducing characters more gradually, reducing the number of characters in scenes (so that each characters is fighting fewer people for the audience’s attention), and/or perhaps even merging characters or deleting them altogether. Even if you don’t think that’s a problem for your work, that part of the article will still hopefully help you identify the problem if it crops up later.

*Well, I do have some ironclad rules, but they’re matters of professionalism rather than writing style. For example:

Always be upfront/honest with your teammates. Don’t be the writer that tried to renege on a contract with his freelance illustrator by claiming that he had died. (No, really).
Always double-check the submissions guidelines and proofread your materials before submitting.

Your very public blog is, at least partially, a massive compilation of comic dos and don’ts.
1. Does that make you nervous about making your own comics?
2. Do you worry that you will neglect some piece of your own advice?

1. Not very. I will continue making mistakes for the remainder of my professional career. It’s part of the learning process. (My website’s tagline is “We’ve made every writing mistake so you don’t have to”– clearly it’s hyperbolic, but I feel like I’ve benefited a lot from my mistakes. Judging by the site’s repeat traffic, my mistakes are also helping others.

2. Definitely not. I’ve got a Superhero Nation drinking game based on drinking whenever I disregard my own tips. When I do so, I try to avoid the potential problem in some other way. For example, I’d generally recommend keeping the superheroes on a team roughly as powerful as each other unless you want the most powerful one to sideline the others. But the main character in The Taxman Must Die is an accountant without superpowers, whereas everybody else is a super-SWAT officer. Admittedly, the taxman probably won’t be much help in combat, but he’s good at cracking cases, which ends up mattering more than his combat skills. (After all, real supercriminals are too smart to just shoot up a bank in broad daylight–it takes skill to find them).

When you work on your own comics, what are you good at?

I feel that my main characters are interesting and my comedy is strong.

What mistakes do you find yourself making again and again?

First, my most glaring defect is that I’m not a very productive fiction writer. I get distracted extremely easily and I end up putting things off for months. When I do write, it tends to be less coherent than I’d like.

Second, I feel like my side-characters are a bit too two-dimensional. The Wild Cards and Harry Potter series and TV shows like The Wire and Dexter develop their side-characters in such interesting ways. For example, I think most readers could name 10+ side-characters after reading the first HP book because the characters have at least one trait or memorable moment to etch them into the readers’ minds.

If you could wave a wand and wipe a stupid beginner’s mistake from the face of comics, what would it be?

Superpowers do not by themselves make a character interesting. I think the most important thing about a character is personality, preferably something that distinguishes him from other comic book protagonists.
Superpowers are not a substitute for a personality.
An origin story is not a substitute for a personality.

What’s the most demoralizing part about writing for you? Harsh reviews?

Hmm. Some authors have a tough time dealing with tough reviews, but I find it relatively easy.

It’s impossible to write something that will please everybody, so you will have tough reviews. Some of them will help you identify potential improvements in your work.
Some of the people not pleased by your work are, for reasons beyond your control, unfriendly and insulting. I wouldn’t worry too much about them because they’re so rarely instructive or helpful.
Especially if you’re a young or relatively inexperienced author, I wouldn’t get discouraged by negative feedback because getting good at anything takes practice. Keep writing and it will get better.

Counterintuitively, I find it a lot harder to deal with really positive feedback. I feel like “I loved this–when’s it coming out?” puts a lot more pressure on me than “This is awful–go die in a fire.” I have no idea when it’s coming out and it’s harder to let down a fan than a troll. (Also, I feel like the compliments remind me more of how far away I am from being published).

Thanks a lot for a really great interview, Brian.
And to anyone reading this now, if you are serious about writing comics, do yourself a favor and check out his blog.

The script for the twenty-second issue of my superhero comic book, Rapid City, has now been posted.

This issue is the second part of story in the style of Crime Noir. Villains brought together to steal a powerful artifact face the lives they have chosen as they await the final heist preparations. Coil pulls Kinetic’s strings to push him into action, but for what purpose?

Panel 1. Kinetic over Coil and shouting down at him.

KINETIC
You don’t ask about her. After what you did, you don’t even get to say her name.

COIL
I did….

Panel 2. Close on Coil looking up at Kinetic. He is slightly sneering.

COIL
I did what I had to do.

Panel 3. Coil starting to stand, Kinetic still over him.

KINETIC
You set her up. Attacked her. You tortured her. That’s what you had to do?

COIL
They would have killed her.

Read and discuss this issue of Rapid City, plus all of the previous issues, for free here.

In this interview series I talk with writers about writing.
This week, I am talking with Champion City Comics honcho and writer, and my mid-west homeboy, Tony Doug Wright.

Josh: Who are you?

Tony: I am a husband, a father, a son, a brother, and a friend. I am an archivist, a writer, an instructor of history, and the founder of a webcomics community. I am addicted to caffeine and sugar, I am a fan of football, I am a semi-decent golfer, I am a fan of pop culture, I am a guitar player, I am a fan of literature, I am a daydreamer, I am a silly Midwesterner, and I am a lost soul of rock and roll.

Josh: What do you write?

Tony: Since 2009, I have written nine stories for Champion City Comics and have three more that are in development. Those stories range from crime noir to war tales to humor to sci-fi to superhero tales. There are three novels I have started on, but I find it impossible to dedicate enough time to those projects. All of the stories I write have some sort of connection to my upbringing in Springfield, Ohio or to my adult life living in the Dayton, Ohio and Kalamazoo, Michigan metro areas. I prefer to set my stories in the mythological cities of New Ravenwood, Ohio and Grand Harbor, Michigan. Since I was born and raised in the Midwest, then I feel my stories should be set there as well.

Josh: Why do you write?

Tony: Because I enjoy sharing stories with people.

Josh: How do you write?

There is no structure or reason behind my writing method. Some say to map out your story and that is something that does not appeal to me as a writer. I’ve tried it before, but I ended up discarding my story “road map”. There are a bunch of stories playing out in my head and I know how they begin and end. The middle is complete improv.

Josh: It is interesting to me that you use fictional stand-ins for real cities. I do the same thing. Rapid City is a stand-in for….strangely enough….Kalamazoo, MI. Why? Why don’t we just use the real places?

Tony: Kalamazoo and Springfield are cool cities, but they do not work for certain stories. For example, a superhero tale works best in a fictional city like New Ravenwood, Ohio, which is nothing more than Gotham or Metropolis in the Midwest. New Ravenwood is like a blank canvas for me because I can develop streets, parks, districts, and other locations which fit the story. Kalamazoo and Springfield can work for stories that are dramas or comedies rather than a superhero tale. But for those tales, I create a smaller version of New Ravenwood so that I can still have that blank canvas. When you use a real city then you are somewhat required to stay true to the city and not invent new locations, etc. Readers, in my opinion, would be disappointed if I created an alternate Kalamazoo.

Josh: What is it about the midwest? The rest of the country tends to over-look this region, but we are drawn to it. Are there stories that can happen there that could not happen anywhere else? Is it the geography? The people? The history?

Tony: Write what you know is my philosophy. I’ve lived my whole life in the Midwest and my stories are based on my experiences in Ohio and Michigan. In my opinion, the Midwest is viewed as some culture-less void in the Hee Haw universe. I see it as an area rich in creativity, plus there is something fascinating and unusual about an area where the rust-belt cities and the farming communities lay side by side. The End of Paradise, a webcomic I wrote for Champion City Comics, is a great example. That story is set in New Ravenwood, Ohio, a crime ridden metropolis, and the main character must travel the country back-roads of Ohio to hunt down some criminals in hiding. Could this story be set in Maine or Arizona? Yes, but I am not familiar with Maine or Arizona. I know Ohio and Michigan, so that makes the writing process easier. I know those country back-roads and the mysteries they hold. As far as characters are concerned, I want them to be Midwesterners. Growing up in Southwest Ohio, I encountered some of the most interesting people to walk God’s green earth. That part of the state is close to Kentucky, so we have this hillbilly blue collar culture that really inspires me as a writer. It’s hard to explain. You have to experience Ohio. You have to have that period in your life where you want out of Ohio and then you have that period in your life where you long to return to Ohio.

Josh: You cover a lot of genres in your work. What stays the same through all of these stories?

Tony: For me, it is all about history. It is not easy to explain, but drive down a street and pick out a building at random. Think about that building. Who built it and who worked or lived in that building? Every person has a story. There is a history and it is usually forgotten. I am developing a story about the last days of a video game arcade at a mall and how a group of video game playing misfits decide to hold one last hurrah to see who the best player is for certain games. It is the equivalent to the last days of Rome. You know the end is coming but you do not want to open the gates and let in the barbarians.

Josh: How do you organize your scripts? Do you follow a pre-existing format, or have you created your own?

Tony: I use the basic script format.

Josh: As a writer, what are you best at?

Tony: I would have people that work with me or read my work answer that question.

Josh: I think that you were involved in the onliine comics community for a while before you began producing your own comics. What happened? What changed that made that day the day you start making comics?

Tony: It was 2000 when I started reviewing independent music for a site called Erasing Clouds () and after a few years of music reviews, I asked the editor if I could review comic books and graphic novels. He said yes, I named my column Champion City Comics, and I had the chance to review comics from the majors and from smaller companies. I was amazed when the smaller companies sent me comics for review. One company, Candle Light Press, sent me book after book for review. Those guys are amazing. Their comics are unusual in a good way. Then there were some other publishers that were not so amazing. If they could get something published then I could do the same, but better. I told my wife that I was going to write a comic book and she said it was a great idea. She does not candy coat anything, so her words of encouragement were important. I started developing story ideas during the fall of 2004, and recruited my cousin, Joe Haemmerle, as my artist. From 2005 to 2007, I worked on the script that would become The Champion City Fire. I have no idea how many times I re-wrote the script. It was during that time that I wrote reviews and conducted some interviews for Silver Bullet Comics, which is now Comics Bulletin. I soon discovered that there were countless people developing their own comics because the majors were not accepting new talent. The cost for printing my own comic was not economically feasible, so I decided to submit to any publisher that would review my work. Only one, href=”http://www.topshelfcomix.com/”>Top Shelf Productions, responded to my submission. Top Shelf liked what we did, but it was something that did not fit their style which I understand and respect. By the summer of 2009, I had grown tired of playing the submission wait and see game. I had to get The Champion City Fire to the masses. Other creators were publishing their work online so I decided to do the same. There were websites that told you the rules and I decided, “I’ll do it my way”. Champion City Comics was launched during the month of October 2009 with one title and twenty or thirty page views. Currently, we have ten titles and something like twenty-three people from all over the world on our webcomics creative team. We had nine thousand page views during the month of June 2011, which was fantastic.

Thanks a lot, Tony.

Be sure to check out all of the great work that Tony is tirelessly and thanklessly cranking out over at Champion City. Including, strangely, Rapid City.

In going through some old emails, I came across this picture the internet sensation Paul Sizer did of my character Switchboard. This picture is great.

The script for the twenty-first issue of my superhero comic book, Rapid City, has now been posted.

This issue is the first part of story in the style of Crime Noir. Watch the lives of super-villains come together and come apart in Rapid City’s grimy under-belly.

Panel 5. Mostly focused on COIL and PILEDRIVER.

COIL
You know the plan. We need you in there.

PILEDRIVER
Yeah? And who are you? I don’t remember you when we were setting this up.

PAGE 17

Panel 1. Mostly COIL and PILEDRIVER again.

COIL
I’m the guy that’s getting the band back together.

PILEDRIVER
Then I’m the guy’s moved on with his life.

Panel 2. COIL looking around, indicating the meager surroundings. Smirking.

COIL
Yeah. Looks like it.

PILEDRIVER
Screw you, man. You don’t know me.

COIL
It’s been a few days since the job up-ended, right? So whatta you been doing? Sending out applications? Working on your resume? Monster dot com?

Read and discuss this issue of Rapid City, plus all of the previous issues, for free here.