Year's End, and the Year to Come

I just wanted to post a few thoughts for New Year's, while I'm still coherent enough to do so. This past has been... tumultuous, to say the least. Every year has it's ups and downs, and 2013 was no exception. Somehow, this time around, the ups were higher than I'd expected, and the downs were much lower than I was prepared for. But somehow, with the kindness and support of many, I've made it through. Every year since I decided I wanted to write comics, and I was going to make it happen no matter what, I've managed to get closer to my ultimate goal. Slow going as ever, but I have no choice but to remain optimistic.

This was a good year for me comics-wise. I self-published 2 comics, had tables at three conventions. I learned a lot about what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong. I met a lot of very nice people, people very generous with their time and advice. It's pretty clear that 'breaking in' to the comics industry is a pretty tough thing to do, and the upside is that once you've 'made it', most people seem to have a lot of patience for people who are still on the path.

Something else that I've learned this year is that 'breaking in' is kind of a myth. It seems more like working your way to the front of a large, packed crowd. You don't just appear on the scene, and suddenly everyone's buying your stuff. You get some people interested in this book, and then the next one a few more people pay attention to, and maybe eventually you're making a little money on your books, or getting a bit of interest from editors. The trick seems to be to never stop moving.

Anyway, to recap, I had a table at Heroes Con in Charlotte, where Anonymous Nancy #1 debuted, and really I kind of did too. I attended San Diego, spending four days trying to network to the best of my abilities. That was when I decided I wouldn't be the guy harassing editors at the bar after the con closed. Next was Baltimore Comic Con, where I had Nancy and Lunatic Fringe, and I even managed to sell a few copies. After that was Pittsburgh, and then I travelled to New york for NYCC, my first time attending and I had a great time. Throughout I've been working on short scripts, and developing longer projects as well.

And what's in store for 2014? I have a feeling the coming year is going to be a good one. Busy, no doubt, but also very good. Anonymous Nancy #1 should be available on comiXology soon, and #2 shouldn't be too far behind. I'm going to keep plugging away on scripts and hopefully get moving on new projects. I'm already booked at Nittany Con in State college, PA, in March. With time and money being a big factor in the coming year, I'm planning to do mostly smaller, more local conventions, Central and Western PA, Ohio, West Virginia. I will, of course, keep posting when I have dates.

Beying that, it's just a matter of keeping moving. Keep working my way through that crowd. It's easy to get lost, or stuck, or just plain worn out. Lose interest and just stop. But then what?

So my New Year's wish for everyone is to keep moving, keep fighting, keep working for that thing you want more than anything. No matter how thick the crowd gets, no matter how much longer and harder it gets. Sure, you'll get sidetracked, you'll get lost and you'll get stuck. Even inching forward counts as progress.

If nothing else, I wish for health and happiness, and I hope that your downs are never lower than your ups are high.

Happy New Year

A less murder-y Christmas comic script

I had mentioned I wanted to do another Christmas comic, one that was more in the spirit of the holiday. I'd had an idea I really liked, but I couldn't really flesh out a story from it. Maybe next year. However, I did get an idea at pretty much the last minute. And once I had the idea the script practically wrote itself. It's very short, just three pages, and it's a much more uplifting and heartwarming story. I know, whatever. Anyway here it is.

Just to be fair, I put this one together really fast. Like, I got the initial idea somewhere between 10:30 and 11 pm. So I'll probably want to go back and give it a once over at some point in the near future, go over the dialogue and everything. Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow or the next day, but, you know, holidays and all, and I still haven't even got a second Die Hard viewing in yet. So we'll see.

Not much else to say, hope you enjoy. And I hope everyone has a great holiday!

New Christmas Script!

So I went ahead and finished up that Santa script, and here it is. I'm still not entirely happy with the dialogue (who knew an insane rant would be so hard to write?) but maybe that's my fault for writing a story where Santa meets a crazed murdered. Seriously, I should warn you, unless you're pretty desensitized you might find this one a bit unsettling. (It's hard for me to gauge because I actually am somewhat desensitized, so I can't tell if this is actually not that creepy or if it is and I just don't notice those things. So I thought I'd just add a little disclaimer.)

Anyway, yeah, I'd still like to write something a little more uplifting and less murder-y, so I might try to work that other little idea out over the next couple days. We'll see what happens.

That's all for now! Happy holidays and all that!

Die Hard!! ...and stuff

So with the holiday coming up I decided I wanted to watch Die Hard. Because it is the best Christmas movie ever and also the Citizen Kane of action movies. It turned out I didn't own a copy of Die Hard (I know!), so I went to Target. Looked around for about 20 minutes, no Die Hard! At Christmas! What were they thinking? They had the new one that I didn't even bother to see and most people insist shouldn't even count as a Die Hard. But they didn't have the original. So I went to Best Buy, which was just at the other end of the mini-mall. Looked around for probably closer to 30 minutes. No Die Hard! Come on!

So, long story short, I ordered it off Amazon. It actually came in the mail yesterday, but I had to work both jobs, so I had to wait until today to watch it. And watch it I did.

What a great movie!I could seriously go on for pages about how awesome Die Hard is, but I don't know that there's anything I could say about it that hasn't already been said somewhere. I intend to watch it at least twice more before the holiday season is over.

In other news, I wrote a Christmas comic. It's pretty dark, it's about Santa meeting a serial killer. I need to punch up the dialogue before I post it. I have an idea for something shorter that I might try to crank out real quick before going back to the serial killer one.

And in case you're wondering, yes Anonymous Nancy will still be appearing on comiXology, and from what I've been told it should be very soon. I'll post it when I have a definite release date, until then just know that it's soon.

That's all for now, hopefully have some new scripts up soon.

A Brief Interlude

I was at Target the other day, buying some Christmas gifts for nieces. I was wearing a Batman shirt. When I got to the checkout counter (and this is not the first time this has happened to me) the cashier, a young guy, late teens, maybe very early twenties, asked me how I felt about the casting of Affleck. I told him I wasn't really worried about it.

Of course he brought up Daredevil. I couldn't even tell you if I saw that movie. I don't really care much about it. We went back and forth, he seemed to be under the impression that Daredevil was made by the same people that have been making the current Marvel movies, and when I mentioned I didn't care for Man of Steel, he argued that that wasn't a Marvel movie. I was a bit confused about what his actual argument was.

It occurs to me sometimes that most people, out in the world, don't spend so much of their time reading about all this comic book and comic book movie and movie news. When they pay attention to the news, it's normal news sources, like CNN or the local news. The only news sites I frequent are comic book or "geek culture" news sites. Most of the people I follow on twitter or tumblr are in the comic book industry. I know all the details that are publicly available for most of these properties Most people don't do that. They have other things on their mind.

Still, I know I'd hate it if the only thing anyone ever remembered about me was some unfortunate incident that happened a decade ago, and every time I tried to accomplish something new, they just brought that one mistake up. People change, guys.

I don't really have a point to this. Just, the guy annoyed me. But hey, all my Christmas shopping is done!

That's all.

Random Wonder Woman Rant

In my last blog post I promised some thoughts on the new Wonder Woman casting announcement. I'm not going to recount the news, you're on the internet, look it up. anyway, I had some pretty strong feeling I wanted to relay, but it's been kind of a long, busy weekend and I didn't a chance to get my thoughts down, and now that I'm further away from it, I honestly don't care as much. So instead of an impassioned blog post, I'm just going to give you a few bullet points, in completely random order. Here goes:

• I didn't care for Man of Steel. Just didn't really care for it. And it wasn't the bit at the end. It wasn't that Superman killed Zod. I didn't care. And that's why. I didn't care about any of those people at any point. So when Superman snapped Zod's neck it wasn't some betrayal of the ethical core of Superman's character. It was a generic hero killing the villain and then whining about it. The end. Is that Zack Snyder's fault? I don't know (probably). It felt like he was trying to hit all the superficial bits of Superman that everyone knows about without ever actually trying to create characters. Anyway, moving on.
• Anyone who says Wonder Woman is tricky is wrong. Period. There is nothing more complicated about telling Wonder Woman's story than any other super hero. If you can write a Superman movie, and Batman movie, or a Captain America movie (set in WWII no less), you can write a Wonder Woman movie.
• I am, still, about 92% certain DC and Warner Bros are making this movie up as they go along.
• They keep adding heroes to this movie, and I think it means one of two things is likely to happen. The first is that, come SDCC '14, they'll announce that this was a Justice League movie all along. The second is that all these heroes will be in cameos, either peppered throughout the film or in some teaser capacity, or something like that. I read a comment on another site that mentioned a time-travel plot.
• Seriously. I wouldn't be surprised if Warner Bros execs are trolling comment sections for story ideas right now. (Scratch that, they'd make the interns do it.)
• I get that there's never been a Wonder Woman movie. And I absolutely agree that sexism is a part of that. But, at least in the last two years, Green Lantern is probably a bit bigger a part of that. Batman had three incredibly successful films before Batman and Robin killed the franchise, and then three more highly successful films. Superman has a similar series of successful films in the Christopher Reeves movies. Sure, they should have made a WW movie somewhere in there, but they didn't, and after Green Lantern tanked, I imagine they decided to only work with proven properties until they could get a proper franchise going again.
• Let's not forget that this is still MoS 2. So while you complain that WW is playing second fiddle to Superman and Batman, keep in mind that Batman, who's had at least twice the number of successful films, is technically playing second fiddle to Superman. Like I said, making it up as they go.
• Also, for those complaining that they cast an unknown as WW, she was in two incredibly successful action movies. And I had never heard of Henry Cavill before Man of Steel, so casting an unknown does not necessarily mean a lack of interest in the character. And I'm sorry that you really wanted Jamie Alexander (or whoever your personal must-have actor was), but she signed a contract with Marvel. Everyone gets mad when their dream cast doesn't happen. Personally I'm still holding out hope for the spinoff where Jane Foster and Sif team up to solve mysteries.

I had more, but I think I'm gonna stop now, as I'm getting pretty tired, and my list of bullet points is turning into a full-on rant. I don't think MoS 2 is going to be good. I don't think it'll matter, people will still go see it. (Unless 2015 is the Hollywood blockbuster apocalypse some people think it will be.) I think the actress has a good a chance to be a fantastic Wonder Woman as any of the more favored actresses. Even if DC announced a Wonder Woman solo movie tomorrow, they'd still have a long way to go to convince me they had any idea what they were doing and weren't just trying desperately to catch up with Marvel while having no idea how to do that.

My bigger question is, why do Batman and Superman have like 9 comic series between them, but Wonder Woman only has 1 (and a half if you count Superman Wonder Woman). I mean really, when I thought about it for more than twenty minutes I was able to come up with like three four solid WW story pitches.

And with that, I will call it a night.

P.S. - Matt Idelson, if by some weird accident you're reading this, I wasn't kidding about those pitches. Hit me up.

ASM2 thoughts + New Script

Posted a new script! It's seven pages, I was hoping to keep it down to five, but there was just too much going on, the last couple pages still feel a little cluttered. I might go back and revise them later (and I'll definitely be going back and revising the dialogue). Also I can't decide if I love the title or hate it. It's set in the late 17th/early 18th century, on a merchant vessel at sea. It plays on the whole "women on board are bad luck" superstition. Plus, fish-people!

While I'm here talking, I thought I'd mention the Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer, which I am feeling very positive about. I have to say, when I'd heard about all the different characters they were adding, I was very nervous. act is, I don't think Rhino's going to have too much screen time. I figure he'll have at most two fights with Spidey, one without the Rhino-mech, one with, and then probably he'll be approached in prison by one of the Osbornes, maybe even in a post-credits scene, to join the Sinister Six. I figure the main conflit of the film will be Electro, and I doubt Spider-Man will even meet Green Goblin, let alone fight him, in this movie. It's all just seeds for the larger Spider-Man movie-verse.

Just my thoughts, but if you haven't figured it out by now, I tr to be as optimistic about these sorts of things as possible. I feel a similar way about X-Men: DoFP. When they kept announcing more and more actors, especially from the old series, I was more and more concerned. But I figure they'll mostly just be brief cameos in the beginning, before Wolverine goes back in time. We'll see.

Anyway that's all for now. I have some thoughts on Wonder Woman in the new MoS movie, but I'll save that for later. Here's a teaser: whatever your opinion on the matter, I probably disagree with you.

Later on!

New script, job hunting, other stuff

Just posted a new script, give it a look-see. I actually wrote this a week or so ago. I posted it over at penciljack to get some notes, and then I plain forgot about it until just now. Anyway, it's a fun, kind of silly, five-page short. I ended up with three and a half endings for the story. I think I picked the best one, but if anyone can think of a better one, feel fee to let me know and I'll tell if it's one of the ones I came up with.

So, hey, I happen to be really good with grammar and spelling and stuff, and also story structure and characters and things, so if anyone is looking for an editor, well, I'm looking for jobs editing. I will charge a modest price, depending on long the work is and how deep you want me to delve. I'll look at just about anything, comic scripts, short stories, long stories, articles. I will have to draw the line at slash fiction. Just saying. So hit me up, brendanhykes@gmail.com, and we can discuss. Really, it never hurts to get outside eyes on a project.

Also, in a similar vein, I'm looking to do more writing, and I'll even do that for free, so if you have a story idea that needs scripted, or just want to chat with a writer and see what we can come up with, let me know.

Oh, and also, I was recently contacted by someone looking to purchase a copy of Anonymous Nancy. So if anyone wants me to mail them a copy of either Nancy or Lunatic Fringe, hit me up. It's $4 for Anonymous Nancy Issue One (B&W 22 pages) and $5 for Lunatic Fringe (Color, 24 pages). I also have a Lunatic Fringe poster (12x18 in, color) depicting the cover image, for $3. Prices do not include shipping. E-mail me your address and I will give you the shipping costs with my paypal info.

Since I'm talking, I thought I'd bring up very briefly the big, ugly news going around. I know that most of you can guess which I'm talking about, I won't go into detail. Suffice to say that some people are dicks, and some of those people are people I've looked up to for a very long time, who've even shaped my writing in some ways, and that just makes me sad. Please call people out on their bullshit. At this time, in this place, in this industry, this sort of thing needs to be stopped. Maybe in some future utopia, where everything is more or less equal, it'll be fine for you to go around acting like a pig and we can just point and laugh at how childish you're being, but right now that shit hurts all of us.

Okay, that's the end of that mini-rant (for now). And I think that's all I have for the moment.

Post NYCC thoughts (and 2 small rants)

Just thought I'd post some things now that I've (mostly) recovered from New York Comic Con. I had a blast, but it was definitely an exhausting weekend. This was my first time at NYCC, and my first time spending any real time in New York. It's an awesome city. There's so much to do, and I got to do very little of it. I did get to hang out with a couple old friends who now live there which was awesome.

The convention itself was also great, but, again, very busy and not a little crazy. I met some very cool people, including a number of artists and writers. I got to chat with some people I had met before, like Mark Sable and Paul Azaceta (Graveyard of Empires) and Rachel Deering (go back the In the Dark kickstarter!). I attended a few panels, mostly about breaking in, which were interesting, but I've been to so many of those panels in the last couple years it's starting to get redundant. I did go to the Bob's Burger's panel, which was hilarious. All in all I had a pretty great time.

Just cause I'm talking about it, I might as well drop in my two cents about the major complaints about NYCC this year. This first, and far more minor complaint, was regarding the RFID badges and the whole Twitter thing. Basically, when you got your badge you had to activate it through the website, and you could synch it to your twitter. No big deal. The badges all had RFID tags in them, and when you went to the convention, you had to swipe it to get it and out. Again, no big deal, I thought. Apparently, however, the convention would start sending tweets from your account, saying how much fun you're having, things like that. I did not experience this. I got one tweet sent, checking in, not unlike a foursquare or one of those things. Annoying, yes. Huge violation of my whatever? Not really. I'd probably be more upset if I was getting all the more annoying tweets sent, but since I didn't, I can't really speak to that. Even though I just did. I just think it's kind of a dumb gimmick.

The other big complaint, however, had to do with some pretty upsetting sexism. This article goes into some detail, and there's probably more information online. The cliff's notes are that 1) Arizona ran some pretty obnoxious ads in the program and in front of some of the panels, talking about their 'big cans' and showing a lot of busty women with gratuitous cleavage. (Get it? They sell their drinks in oversized cans, but cans can also mean breasts!) 2) Their were some severely skeevy guys wandering around with a camera and microphone, 'interviewing' female cosplayers and being just plain skeevy and gross. 3) Just a general level of inappropriateness from a number of male attendees towards female attendees.

As far that first point goes, quite simply, you guys should know better. You could feign ignorance ten years ago, even five years ago you could get away with a quick apology and pulling the ads, but gender has been such a visible issue over the last few years, anyone promoting a convention at this point should see something like that, realize it's going to make some people uncomfortable, and look for a different sponsor. Especially considering that something like this will directly inform those other two issues. Guys will think it's perfectly acceptable to go around making asking inappropriate questions and making inappropriate comments, because you've basically told them so.

And guys, seriously, grow the fuck up. The world does not need to be subjected to your eighth-grade mentality. If you can't behave like an adult, stay the fuck home. You're not welcome here.

And yes, I did read those accounts of people grabbing young women mid-'interview' and kissing them, and yes, I hope those people are prosecuted, because that shit is beyond unacceptable.

So yeah, I'll end the negative portion of this post here. All in all, I did have a really awesome time, and I hope to check it out again next year. I also stopped by the comiXology booth, mentioned that I had a book pending. The response was pretty much what  expected, that they're heavily backed up on books and are getting them out as fast as they can. I would complain, but the only way they could likely speed up the process is by accepting fewer books, and I'd rather wait longer than risk mine not making the cut. So we'll see when that happens.

One other thing I thought I'd mention, because I've encountered this at the last few bigger conventions I've been to. It seems there's a trend now of taking movie pitches, turning them into comic books, and clearly spending an assload of money to print out copies of that comic and distribute them at conventions. Don't do that. Just don't. The comic will turn out bad, always. It doesn't fit the medium, it's probably not a very good pitch in the first place, and you're likely only going to half-ass it anyway. Because the whole approach is half-assed. Comics (and movies, for that matter) are for creative expression, not for marketing gimmicks. And when you hand a shitty comic book, and I look at the back and see a mock-up for a movie poster, it just depresses me. Hone your craft. If you want to make movies, make movies. If you want to make comics, make comics. If there's one thing I've learned in that last few years, there are no short-cuts. There are plenty of ways to waste time and money looking for shortcuts, but they're always dead-ends.

Anyway, that's all I've got. Also, Blockheads has really good tacos (and margaritas, though don't get those at 4 in the afternoon when you've just been on a bus for eight hours and have a convention to get to).

NYCC and other stuff

A couple of things I wanted to mention. First of all I wanted to mention that I made some edits to the Raven script. The main difference is that the main character is now a woman. I think it adds a new dynamic to the story that I really like. Other than that I tidied up some of the pages. I was hoping to cut down the page count, ten seems a little long for a short comic like this, but to be honest, I really like the pacing on this. Most of these scripts I just write as practice, but I'm quite fond of this one, and I'd really like to see it get drawn (so if anyone's interested hit me up). Might even submit to Dark Horse, or somewhere like that.

Of course, I will be in New York this weekend for NYCC. I'll just be wandering around, so if anyone wants to hang hit me up. I'll mostly be stalking editors, and there's a few panels I'm planning to check out.

Also, I'm thinking of getting into flash fiction. It seems like a decent way to keep myself writing every day even when I can't get myself motivated to work on any of my bigger projects. And there's apparently a decent sized market for it online, so that's a bonus. I have a story I wrote last night, about 520 words, that I think is pretty neat. We'll see how long I can keep at this.

The only other thing I wanted to mention was the movie Gravity, which I saw over the weekend. In IMAX 3D, which was pretty awesome. And I mean the real IMAX, not those screens that are, like, a little bigger than a normal screen. That was an impressive movie. And while the IMAX 3D helped, I think it still would have been an excellent movie without it, it was just a very well crafted story.

That is all.

Post-Pgh Comicon

 Had a great time over the weekend at the Pgh Comicon! This is my local con, so it was cool to see it from the other side for a change. As always, I met a bunch of cool people, and I was able to catch up with a few people I'd met at previous conventions. I'll be attending New York Comic Con in a couple weeks, though I won't have a table, and that's all I have lined up at the moment. I'll be looking around for more conventions to get tables at, though, so keep an eye out for more info.

Anonymous Nancy Issue 2 is moving along quite nicely, and I have a few other projects that are beginning to take proper shape. Hopefully I'll have more updates in the near future on those.

That's all for now.

Pittsburgh Comicon

Just a heads-up, I will have a table in Artist Alley at Pittsburgh Comicon, that's this weekend at the Monroeville Convention Center. I'll have issues of Anonymous Nancy #1 and issues of Lunatic Fringe, as well as the Lunatic Fringe poster. Also Roy, the artist on Nancy, may stop by and sign a few copies, so keep an eye on my Twitter! Also, check out my tumblr, I promise to start posting more things there at some point.

Anyway, I think that's all I have right now. I've been revisiting a few older ideas, getting them closer to a place where I can start seriously outlining them. I'm always on the lookout for artists interested in collaboration, FYI! Also, I may post something later about the Agents of SHIELD premiere. But I might not. We'll see.

Thanks!

Post-BCC

Had a great time in Baltimore, once again I met some very cool, friendly people! I got some great advice from people who have been doing this longer than me, and I got to talk with a bunch of cool people. It's always awesome to get to spend time with other creators. I will try this week to get through all the stuff I picked up and get in touch with people I said I'd get in touch with. There were a lot of things I wanted to take a closer look at but didn't have time, and I'm looking forward to checking that out online as well.

If you didn't make it out to Baltimore, all I can say is that it's worth the effort, it's a great show. So a big thanks to the convention organizers and everyone that showed. Thanks also to everyone that stopped by my table and picked up a comic(s), I hope you enjoy it! Or if you just stopped by and said hi, it was great to meet you!

In other news that 'big announcement' I was teasing, I wanted to wait until I had a date, but it looks like that's going to be a bit further off than I thought so I'll just spill the beans now. Anonymous Nancy #1 has been accepted by comiXology Submit! Based on info from their website, I expect it will be available around the end of this month or the beginning of next, I'll have an exact date probably about a week before. So, yeah! Very exciting! We're trucking along on issue 2, as well as a couple other things I'm working on. Still looking to get Lunatic Fringe picked up by a publisher, so we'll see what happens there.

As always, you can follow me on twitter @BrendanHykes (I have like 4 followers, guys, so now's your chance to say you were following me before I was cool), and my tumblr is BrendanHykes.tumblr.com, I haven't posted too much, but I'm still getting my bearings there.

Anyway, that's all for now, thanks!

Baltimore

Just got confirmation, I will be at booth A206 at Baltimore Comic Con, that's September 7th and 8th. I'll have some copies of Anonymous Nancy issue 1, I'll have Lunatic Fringe posters, and I'm hoping to have copies of Lunatic Fringe as well, I should know from the printers soon. Check out Baltimore's site here, and the Artist Alley guest list here. I hope you can stop by and say hi!

And don't forget to check out my tumblr here. There's not much up but I've reblogged a few interesting things. And follow me on twitter. And keep an eye out here, I still have an announcement coming up!

UPDATE: barring any catastrophes, I will have copies of Lunatic Fringe for sale

Pointless Teaser

Big news on the horizon, keep your eyes out... ;)

Tumblr

I am now on tumblr! I have literally not posted a thing! Maybe I'll reblog something from someone else, or post something inane just to have something up. Anyway, here's the link: brendanhykes.tumblr.com. I'll still be using this for scripts and stuff, just that will be there also.

Post SDCC

Just got back from San Diego this morning! I am exhausted! I had a great time, I got to meet and chat with a ton of great people, I saw a bunch of interesting panels. I got to see Patton Oswalt live! Bought a bunch of comics!

Anyway, now I need a shower, and a shave, and I need to get caught up on sleep. Then I'll be writing a ton of e-mails. and then I begin the arduous task of sending out books to editors begging them for work, and also pitching Lunatic Fringe as a mini. Plus the day job(s).

I'm going to look into setting up something for people to buy Anonymous Nancy online as a .pdf, so keep an eye out for that as well.

That's all for now.

SDCC

Real quick, I will be at SDCC Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I don't have a table or anything, but I'll be around. I'll try and post some pics and stuff to my twitter, @BrendanHykes, so check me out there, or hit me up if you're around.

Brief update

Real quick update. Lunatic Fringe is finished, pages, letters. Have a few things to put together before it's ready to print. I will be at San Diego but only attending, I won't have a table, so I won't be selling copies there. I might try and come up with a way to sell it online, either digitally or through the mail (if anyone has any interest in something like that let me know), as my next convention won't be until September.

Anonymous Nancy #1 has been submitted to Comixology, but I haven't heard back yet. Finishing up the script for issue 2 as well.

I think that's all I have at the moment.

In a bit of a bind

So I managed to wrangle myself up a ticket to SDCC, but it was rather last-minute and now it looks like there are no hotel rooms left. So if anyone has an extra spot (I'm not picky, I have slept on floors before), or knows someone who does, I would be eternally grateful, and of course would pay my share of the room costs. Hit me up, brendanhykes@gmail.com, or on twitter @BrendanHykes.

Thanks guys!


Edit: Looks like I have a room, thanks!

Post Heroes Con

So Heroes Con was awesome, had a great time, got to hang out with some awesome people. I got a lot of positive reaction to the books, so thanks to those of you who stopped by, it was great to meet you.

Like I said, I got to meet a ton of cool people, including some incredibly talented artists and writers. I got to meet Beck Cloonan (yay!), though I may have creeped her out a bit because of how nervous I was (sorry!). I had some interesting conversations with Mark Sable and Paul Azaceta, writer and artist respectively on Graveyard of Empires. I also got to chat with Steve Seeley, one of the creators of Hoax Hunters. Chris Warton, creator of the book Giant, which is an awesome all-ages story, was at the table next to me, and was super-cool. And the next table down was Jeremy Whitley (Princeless), Dave Foland and Jason Struts, who were all kind enough to let me tag along with them after the con, thus saving me from a night eating pizza in my hotel room.

Speaking of, a big shout-out to the Econo-Lodge, the cheapest hotel in the Charlotte area whose reviews didn't mention hookers or drug dealers (seriously, it was a running theme, wtf Charlotte?). And, as promised (or rather not promised), there were neither hookers nor drug dealers (that I saw).

All in all, I had a fantastic time. Charlotte is a lovely city and everyone I met was incredibly nice and friendly. So thanks to everyone!

That is all.

Heroes Con!

so I'm in North Carolina now, getting all ready for Heroes Con! Just drove 7 hours straight, so I'm a bit wonky at the moment. Thinking I'll grab some dinner, maybe a drink or two, and try to hit the sack. Have to get up early tomorrow to set up my table!

Just a short one this time, lots to do!

Heroes this Weekend

Getting everything lined up for Heroes Con, coming down to the wire and I may, unbelievably, pull it all off. Files have been shipped to the printers, hopefully there will be no problems there.

If you're in the area, I will be at Artist Alley table AA-723. I will have copies of Anonymous Nancy issue 1, I will also be giving out a short, 5-page preview of Lunatic Fringe, and I will have Lunatic Fringe posters on sale as well. So stop by and see me!

In other news, I've started on the final script for Anonymous Nancy issue 2, and I'm also talking to a guy about a thing. I'm putting together a pitch package for another project, so we'll see how that goes. Figure I'll just dive right in.

So that's about all I have right now, going to be a hectic week, I know that much. Sleep deprivation here I come!

This one might get me in trouble

I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to talk about the whole race thing, since Michael B Jordan has been cast in the new FF movie, and people have been shouting about it, I wanted to throw in my two cents.

A couple things to mention first. While I am all for this casting, or at the very least indifferent to it, I want to say that I don't think that people who are against it are necessarily racist (of course some of them are, but anytime a discussion of race comes up, racist people will show up to spout their views). Simply put, comic book fans hate change. I've seen just as much vitriol directed at changing Scarlet Witch's eye color. That said, most of the people arguing against this are straight, white men, and it's very difficult for SWM to see the world from a minority perspective.

One of the more annoying things that has been said is that they should instead cast Mr. Fantastic or the Thing as black, that way it doesn't mess with the brother/sister relationship of Sue and Johnny. This implies that the filmmakers are just trying to inject a black guy into the FF, which is just stupid. Josh Trank has worked with Michael B Jordon before. From what I can gather, the only reason the casting choice was made was the only reason it should be made; he's the best actor for the role (I've only seen him in Chronicle, but he seemed like he'd be a pretty good Johnny Storm). This is not an issue of 'quotas' or anything like that. It's an issue of finding the best actor for the role. And if you don't think that Sue and Johnny can have as strong a relationship if one of them is adopted, I should point out that I know people who are adopted who are far closer to their families than I am with mine.

The most frustrating argument I see is when people argue "Well then let's make Luke Cage or Black Panther white. If it's okay to make white characters black then it should be okay black characters white, right?" Wrong. It's absolutely not the same thing. The obvious reason being that there is still a huge imbalance between the straight white male and basically all minorities in pretty much every area of the entertainment industry (or really anywhere). Sure, it's better than it was thirty or forty years ago, but especially in places like comics and movies, it's pretty much dominated by SWM characters, as well as creators. And while I agree that it would be more effective to create more minority characters (and hire more minority creators), just refer to my previous point about this casting decision being about the right actor for the role, not about filling a quota.

The main point is that most of these characters were created by straight white men, especially going back to the time the FF were created. Which is why most protagonists are straight white men. Not out of some intrinsic 'whiteness' of their character, that's just the default for these guys. I know this from experience, more often than not, when I'm coming up with an idea, it's about a SWM. Since these same creators were also responsible for most, if not all, of the minority characters at the time. What this means is that while the SWM characters were made that way by default, the minority characters were all minorities for a reason. It was integral to their character, a part of who they are. Being black is a part of Luke Cage's character, it affects how he grew up, how he looks at the world, how he chooses to use his powers.

Of course, the main argument is that they're different media, it's a new version of the story, it doesn't have to be exactly the same. If Michael B Jordan can pull of Johnny Storm, if Donald Glover can pull off Peter Parker, if the Rock can pull off Luke Cage, I'm okay with that.

A Long Overdue Update

Heroes Con is in just over a week, so I wanted to let everyone know where everything stands.

Anonymous Nancy should be pretty close to completion, all the pages are done, waiting on the final cover (I've seen the pencils and inks and it looks very good). So once we get that finished and get everything laid out we'll be set there.

Unfortunately, Lunatic Fringe will not be ready in time for the convention. However, we will be putting together a 5-page mini-preview, which I'll be handing out for free. So that's a like a bonus! Again, waiting on the final cover, but what I've seen of it so far, it should be pretty great.

Trying to get some other little things together, some postcards, stickers, maybe even a poster. You'll just have to stop by and see!

More details when I have them. Pretty exciting though, this will be my first convention as a full-fledged self-published writer!

I might post something a little later, regarding this whole race thing with the FF movie, just want to throw in my two cents and alienate anyone still reading this.

New Old Script, Iron Man 3

Posted a new script here. This is another old one I did for one of the pencil jack contests in the writing forums. I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Also saw Iron Man 3 last night. **Might be some minor spoilers??** I really enjoyed it, though I just realized that Shane Black really has a thing for setting movies around Christmas that have nothing to do with Christmas. Is that a spoiler? It really doesn't effect the plot at all. I'll put a warning up there anyway. I can't help but wonder if I'd have enjoyed it more if I didn't know so much about the comics. Like I'd think "Oh, that's like what happened in Civil War, that's kinda like in Dark Reign," or "That guy was in Extremis, but he didn't do any of that." Just can't shut it off. I think the thing it really proved, though, was that you can have a darker story, with a lot of pathos, bring the hero down to a low point, and still make a movie that's also a lot of fun at the same time.

Of course, my opinion could change completely upon a second viewing. That happens sometimes.

Anyway, that's all I got.

Art and Logos

So you may or may not have noticed that I now have a profile picture. That is one iteration of my comic book imprint, which I have chosen to call Zero Press. It was done by Dylan Todd, who is doing a few logos and some layouts for me and is awesome and very talented.

Speaking of awesome and very talented, Sloane has provided me the first page of Lunatic Fringe, and it looks amazing! Behold:

So things are moving along. The last few pages of Anonymous Nancy are getting finished, and the letters have been started. I also have to choose a logo for that one.

So that's my update. Mmmyep.

Slacking off (new script)

Finally got around to getting that second Blade short done. You can read it here. Had a rough time getting myself motivated this week. It happens. Just need to learn to fight through it.

Thought I had more to post here, but I guess not. Enjoy the script! Not sure about the closing lines, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

That's all, good night.

New Script Up

Just posted a new script. If the formatting is at all wonky, it's because I'm using OpenOffice now. With the new hard drive I no longer have MS Office, I don't seem to have the disks any more and I'm definitely not paying the hundred-whatever bucks to buy it again.

Anyway, this is a Blade short I did for an artist a while back. I rewrote the whole thing, it was pretty bad. Action scenes with 5 and 6 panels per page, and it was like eleven pages long.The story didn't even really start until page four. I kind of feel bad for the artist I did this for, I might look him up and send him the new version. I did do a second short (which I'll try and get touched up and posted tomorrow) for him that was much better, though.

I've had a bit of a rekindled interest in Blade lately. I think now would be a perfect time to see a new ongoing Blade series, possibly helmed by an upstart new writer? (Hint, hint, Marvel?)

Anyway, that's all I got for tonight.

Brief Update

It's kinda late (for me, because I'm old), but I really quickly wanted to mention some stuff.

So my hard drive broke. Like, it was apparent;y physically broken. And the only way to even get data off it now is to send it out to some hardcore lab where they have like hazmat suits and take it apart. Or something. I might be making that part up. Anyway, it doesn't work anymore, so I had to get a new one. I was without a computer for a whole weekend, it was like being in the middle ages.

My point being that I was planning on doing some serious writing, but was unable to. Luckily I've started backing up files on a thumb drive lately, so I have all my stuff, minus a couple outlines. Less luckily, I lost all my music, videos, and a ton of random stuff (I had like 200 recipes bookmarked, and now I'll never get to make any of them). Although it turns out that I never got around to removing any of the e-books I had on my Kindle, so those are all still there (including the Softest Shadow by Sloane, which you can find here, and which I highly recommend).

Anyway, the point of all this was that I wanted to get some short scripts up here, but haven't gotten around to it yet. It's been a kind of busy week, and it seems like it's only going to get busier as time goes on. I looked over a couple short Blade stories I wrote for an artist's portfolio what seems like ages ago. It's amazing how far I've come in just a couple years. I'd like to do some rewrites on those and post them, as soon as I can find the time.

So that's all. I'll try to get those scripts looking good (one's not too bad, the other is, well, a pretty big mess), and maybe if I can find a few minutes tomorrow I'll post some short reviews on the comics I picked up today (I almost didn't get Hickman & Dragotta's East of West and I'm really glad I did).

So, yeah... tired... bed...

New Script, Happy St. Paddy's Day!

New script here. I actually wrote this last year as a St Patrick's Day... thing. I sent it to Dark Horse a few months ago but never heard back. I really like the main character, and I feel like I could do a lot more with a character like that, a roguish leprechaun, causing trouble throughout Irish history. Anyway, I had him on my mind, what with the holiday coming around again, so I thought I'd pull him out and put him up here. The script is largely unchanged from the deviant art version.

I was watching with interest a discussion on Twitter today (instigated by Sloane) regarding the fact that artists tend to post a lot of sketches and such online, while writers don't usually have a lot up, and it inspired me to post something. I might go through some of my shorter scripts, make some revisions, and post them here. I've been pretty busy lately, trying to put together some pitches to have up my sleeve when I hit the conventions, and I've also been working a second job, so I haven't as much time for shorter, just-for-the-hell-of-it writing lately.

Since I'm updating, I got some logo options from Dylan Todd (here) for my comic imprint. They all look great, and I have the task of selecting one. I've been sent the thumbs for Lunatic Fringe, which is looking awesome so far, and Anonymous Nancy is about half done, plus the roughs for the other half. So that's where all that stands at the moment.

Anyway, that's all I got. Laterz.

SDCC Blues

I will not be attending San Diego Comic Con this year. I had planned to go for Friday and Saturday, but I was unable to get tickets, for the same reason that probably tens of thousands of other people were unable to get tickets.

This could very easily turn into an angry rant about the SDCC registration process, and had I been writing this 23 hours ago it very well might have. Instead I'm going to go the opposite direction, and point out that SDCC in an increasingly popular event, with probably hundreds of thousands of people trying to get a much smaller number of tickets (2010 attendance was at 130,000, I'm assuming that's the max capacity of the convention center). Of course there's going to be a mad dash for the tickets, no matter what method you use to sell them.

At least they've come up with a method that avoids scalpers. I've heard stories of tickets for popular concerts selling out quickly, and then half the tickets are on eBay for a thousand dollars.

Yes, it is absolutely frustrating to sit in front of your computer for an hour and a half watching a load screen only to find out that everything's sold out. There's not really anything else I can say to that. Sometimes things are frustrating.

There a few ideas I've had on how to alleviate the congestion, and most of them are band-aids at best.

• Some people have suggested switching to a lottery system. This would certainly solve the problem of sitting and staring at the load screen, but I don't think it would do much alleviate the issue of people who don't get a ticket feeling they've been treated unfairly. There are already complaints about the random nature of the process as is.
• The convention could be extended. More days would at least give people who only want to go for a few days a better chance of getting in. Again, really just a band-aid.
• Split up the convention. Have one for Movies and TV, one for Comics, maybe even a separate Video Game and/or Anime convention. This would certainly allow people who are mainly interested in one or two aspects of the convention a better chance at getting to see what they want to. However, I've always felt that one of the most positive aspects of the convention was the idea of exposing people to media they wouldn't normally encounter. People who are attending mostly for the movie panels brushing up against the comic book fans, for example. Splitting up the convention would kill that aspect.
• A similar option would be to have two conventions a year, and I don't even know if that would work. But if you can;t make the summer one, maybe you can make the winter one.
• Move to a larger convention center. San Diego's is big, and even if they could move to a larger one the demand for tickets is rising every year, but it would at least ease some of the pressure for a few years.
• Spread out. The convention is already beginning to engulf surrounding hotels, and even some of the nearby parking lots. If they moved more of the more popular attractions, panels, etc, to other areas they could probably sell more tickets. They'd still be limited by the convention center's capacity, and keeping track of who's inside and outside would be a logistical nightmare, but it might be worth it to explore that option.

Those are all my suggestions. None of them really solve the problem that there's too few tickets available and too many people wanting to attend, but some of them might help.

My real suggestion, not for the convention, but for potential attendees, is simply to go to other conventions. Sure SDCC is the big multimedia event, and most other conventions are mostly about comics. But there are dozens, and the more people attend, the better they'll get. I did Baltimore last year, and had a great time. I've been the Pittsburgh (my local convention) a few times. This year I'll be attending Heroes Con in Charlotte, and hopefully NYCC (which dies have a touch of the multimedia coverage, but is still mostly comics). I might even try to make it up to Toronto for Fan-Expo. There's also C2E2 in Chicago, Emerald City in Seattle, Comikaze in LA, and even Planet Comic-Con in Kansas City. There's plenty others that I've forgotten or don't even know about, but those are the more well-known conventions. They're all great fun, and you don't have to deal with nearly the amount of congestion and long lines of SDCC.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Probably a bit rambling, but whatever. (I'm such a good blogger)

It's Official!

So I just found out this morning that if you go to the Baltimore Comic Con's website (here), and you click on Artist Alley under the Guest header, and you scroll down, you will find my name listed. And if you click on it, it will bring you, well, here. I am officially a guest of Baltimore Comic Con's Artist Alley! It's very exciting for me (this may seem lame to people who have done this before, but this is a first for me). I've also registered at Pittsburgh CC, and Heroes Con. I'm hoping to get a table at NYCC as well.

In other news, I have enlisted John Burton to do letters on both Anonymous Nancy and Lunatic Fringe. He can be seen here. He should be getting started on Nancy as soon as I figure out how to reformat the files I have. I've also tentatively confirmed Dylan Todd (here) to do layouts on both books, as well as designing the logos for the books and for my imprint, which I intend to call Evil Genius Comics.

So there you have it, things are certainly moving along!

Project updates

Just a few updates on what's going on with my comics.

I've been given a full schedule for pencils and inks on Anonymous Nancy #1, so if everything goes according to plan I expect to have that ready in time for convention season this year. I'm very excited to see how this all turns out.

Lunatic Fringe seems to still be on track, nothing new on that front. I mentioned a little while that I wrote a feature for a character called the Leaf, I've seen the first four pages of that and it's looking really good. All in all things are shaping up quite nicely for the coming season.

Of course, I'm also looking for a second job so I can afford all the printing costs and especially the costs of going to all these conventions over the summer, but no-one ever said doing this would be easy. So if any of you know anyone looking for a someone to do some writing (especially if it's something like reviewing comics or ranting about pop-culture or something else that I already do anyway) let them know that I'm available.

That's all I have at the moment.