| |  | I don’t really fancy (man, that’s a lame word) myself much of a writer. I do what I can to try and improve for the success this site but it probably still leaves most people wanting. Naturally I don’t want readers to cringe while reading my work because it makes no sense and is full of speeling errors. (Did you catch the joke there? Aren’t I just so punny?) ...Anyway, I respect writers a lot. It’s certainly not an easy thing to get good at. I’m doing my best but I will never reach the level of greats such as Jeph Loeb, Grant Morrison or Brad Meltzer. It’s just not in the cards for me. I know what you’ll say, “those are pretty lofty aspirations. You really don’t need to be that good.” That’s a fair statement; I don’t need to get that good. The truth is though; I don’t think I’ll ever reach a level where I should be writing anything other than articles where I can joke and fool around enough that hopefully people miss all the problems with them. It’s not a bad thing; don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It’s just one of those facts of life… I have other talents I can work with, plus I got that whole good lookin’ thing going on! …So what’s the point? Well my focus has always been art. I’m an artist, it’s what I do. It comes fairly easily and I love doing it. I also love talking about it. I can go on and on about color, form, texture, light and composition. Also, when I talk about my favorite talent in comics it will be people like Jim Lee, Ed McGuiness, Michael Turner, Alex Sinclair, Scott Williams, Dexter Vines and a great many others who fall into the ‘artist’ category. It’s not because I think good writing in comics is any less important than great art, I just focus on it more. I’m more likely to read a comic with good art and a bad story, than I am a good story with bad art. Sorry to say that, but it’s true. Comic books get a bum rap quite often for being “child’s things.” Little stories, for little kids, that don’t really know how to read. I don’t think this is fair. Granted the average comic book may only be 20-30 pages, but you’re talking about stories that continue on for, sometimes, hundreds of issues. No one feels that writing scripts for a television series is kid’s stuff, and if you ask me with the useless dribble that is on T.V. these days (with the exception of NBC’s Heroes) writing for television takes far less talent than comics. It has to be hard to take a character - that in most cases has been around for 50 or so years - and write something interesting about them. Even in the case of brand new characters, what can you write that hasn’t already been done? How do you create an interesting back story and environment for a market that’s already saturated with just about every idea under the sun? It can’t be an easy process. Readers are picky. I may not be a writer, but like so many others I demand a certain level of originality in each story I read. Originality is a thing in very short supply these days. Look at Hollywood and its seemingly never ending stream of remakes. Why do something new, when you can take something old and make it prettier? Many comic book writers have managed to come up with new and interesting stories though. Take Brian K. Vaughan’s: Y, The Last Man Standing. It’s a fantastically written story and it’s supremely original. You can’t tell me this series is kid’s stuff either. I know that it contains material that’s not suitable for children, that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean the story is complex, interesting and involved. The average child wouldn’t grasp it… frankly I know a lot of adults that wouldn’t grasp it. This isn’t the only case there are many other just like it. I think people outside our comic book culture don’t get it because when they think comics they think Archie, Peanuts and Garfield. They think about the comics from the 60’s and 70’s when the craft hadn’t been elevated to the level it is today. If these people took the time to read and look at most comic books out there now, they would realize they are no longer a collection of biffs, pows and blamos. These are ongoing and involved stories, with wonderful subplots, detailed characterizations and rich environments. It’s taken a long time for comics to evolve to the level they’re at today. I believe the people involved in creating them are talented professionals that bring a piece to the arts and entertainment industry that should be as respected as oil painting or film making. They should also be considered a large a piece of our literary history. Comics may be fantasy, but so was Homer’s Iliad, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. No one discounts the validity and impact on human culture from these works. Comics may be shorter, but you’ll get more soul and intelligence out of one than you will an entire series of trashy romance novels. I don’t deny it takes a little bit of the child in us to create and enjoy them, but most art forms do. And really, couldn’t we all use a little more child like innocence in our lives? 
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Posted: Monday, October 23, 2006