I just had this smack in the face realization. On Feb 24th I will be participating in the POPGUN Vol 4 release party/signing event at Jim Hanley’s Universe (details here).

Now I’ve done some signings before for my books and worked the back-end tables at cons and all of this so I didn’t really think of it deeply. Until just now. It hit me, in a funny way.

See, I used to go to Hanley’s when I was in High School. I remember the original store, when they moved, all of that. They used t be where I went, week in and week out, to get my comics. Even after I stopped going there weekly, I would still drop in and I still do consider it the comics store in NY, though I do also love others. Hanley’s is the place, in my brain.

And on the 24th I will be there for a signing. Not the first time I’ve been to a signing at Hanley’s. I remember being the first in line for the kick-off of Warren Ellis’ Oktober Revolution tour (pure chance we were first in line, not planned) and often have seen other events there in the store.

But this time? I’ll be on the other side of that table. At the comic store I first think of when I think of comics stores. I’ll have other big moments in my career, if I’m lucky, and many of them will be memorable as fuck. Shit I’ve had a huge list of them already that I could go on and on about, but this. This.

I’ll be participating in a signing at Hanley’s. From the “person who is signing things” end. It really feels like “making it” on a whole new field. And yeah, I know it isn’t “making it” in any real sense of the word or whatever and I can dismiss it all I want and play it down and make sense rule the day. But…

For two hours on the 24th I’ll be watching people walk by (and, uhm, hopefully stop to buy Popgun and get shit signed) and see some of them think “One day I want to be there.”

And they can be, if they want it enough and put in the work and move toward that goal hard enough. They can be. I can be. I will be, in fact.

Wow.

I’m going to take you deep inside the world of collaboration. Sometimes I get asked about it. What’s it like to write with someone else, how does it work, all those little questions you just shrug at and keep moving. I do that a lot to people.

People will ask me things, or just say hi, but I shrug and keep walking. If I stop they might suddenly remember they don’t like me. It’s best to keep a brisk and steady pace so that no one has time to take aim, or remember things.

But I was discussing collaboration. D.J. Kirkbride and I write a bunch of comics together. I know you haven’t seen many of them, but if you buy Popgun vol 3 and 4 (when it comes out) you’ll see the short ones. The long form stuff is still in the pitch stages. But I digress!

So what is it like when we work together? It’s like this:

First we sit on the phone and bullshit about everything. We laugh and make fun of ourselves and bitch about rent and talk about Chuck and Dr. Who. Somewhere in there one of us says “Oh, right, so this story.” Which is when we shift gears.

Then we tell each other stories. Seriously, we just each start telling stories, putting together puzzle pieces. “What if they needed the money to buy a rhino?” “Yes! All right, and what if the rhino was mysteriously blue?” “Oh, so they’d have to find out why?” “Well, we could go there, but I was thinking it could just be fun to look at. Sure, let’s make that a mystery!” “So we have a missing child, four cars and a blue rhino?” “So far… so far…”

The important thing we each try to do is to never say no. Every idea is considered. You just never know where that stray, odd-shaped brick will lead you. So you check under every rock and play. This is play time. Remember that.

We then reach a point where we have enough story to deal with and we need to write it. This is when we go back to chatting about movies and comics and shoes and dancing. Eventually we get off the phone. In there, we’ve agreed who will do the beat pass.

I love beat passes. They’re, seriously, just a list of story beats. It’s like telling the story as a five year old. “And then… and then… and then…” tossing in dialogue when you think you have a great line and describing big scenes and so on. Just a sketch toward what this would look like. It’s 55% transcribing what we talked out and 45% smoothing out the edges and making it actually work for paper.

Whomever does the beat pass then sends it to the other person and that person does the first full pass. Panels, pages, structure, dialogue – the works. By the time we’re doing a first full pass we know what the story is we know the shape of it, how it should pace and what it could look like on the page. After that pass is done we’ll toss the script back and forth adding little things, removing and trimming until it’s done. Sometimes that’s one more pass, sometimes it can be four. Those passes are tiny, though, and don’t take up much time.

But the key thing here, to me, is that the first full pass is the first time this might even feel like work. Before that: the building of the story, the beat pass, laying the initial groundwork, those are all play time. They’re nothing but fun and hanging out with a friend And those are the moments where the magic happens. The first full pass can be work, but it’s also the end of the track. Well, the end of the scripting track. Then there’s the art and working with the artists and letterers and that’s more fun time, really. And it’s not just DJ and I, either. When I collaborate with a writer on comics? This is the sound of it. It’s glorious.

So yeah. What’s collaboration like? It’s a big fucking party where you hang out with good friends and create story and play. Yup.

Also: It’s kinda exactly like this, too.

Feb 16th @ 8pm come see me, Vito Delsante and Nick Tapansky whore it up and laugh it up at the Comic Book Club with hosts Justin, Pete and Alex. The Comic Book Club is a live, weekly show about, well, comics. It’s perfectly hysterical, to be honest. So I’m a bit excited to be able to announce this very special event. Details below, but short form: Feb 16th, 8pm, @ The PIT, tickets are $5. Real details and such are below. I hope to see some of you there!

COMIC BOOK CLUB: A Live Weekly Talk Show about Comic Books

Hosted by Justin Tyler, Pete LePage, and Alex Zalben

Featuring:
***Popgun Spectacular!***
w/ Adam P. Knave
Vito Delsante &
Nick Tapansky

Tuesday, February 16th @ 8:00 PM

Tickets: $5
Online: ThePIT-NYC.com
Phone: 1-800-838-3006
Questions? 212-563-7488

The Peoples Improv Theater
154 West 29th Street, 2nd Floor
Between 6th and 7th Aves.

Check out the website:
http://www.popcultureshock.com/comicbookclub

Check out the web stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/comicbookclub

The show is sponsored in part by Midtown Comics:
http://www.midtowncomics.com

Check out the podcast on iTunes:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=273148505

And we’re back with another list. This time out I gave comics a long hard thought or six. I wanted those stories that stuck with me, that fit what I think the medium can be, and that I really liked a lot. So here they are in no particular order:

All Star Superman
12 issues and it’s the only Superman story you need. It has everything, and doesn’t feel crunched for space. It tells you what you need, finds the heart of Superman, as a character, and also manages to make his supporting cast important. It combines the goofy times of the 50s with a modern deftness and comes out sheer magic.

New Frontier
Taking DC Comics whole timeline and shifting it slightly so it lines up with history, this story is just cool. Cooke’s art is wonderful and his writing really keeps up, bringing home the sense of style he wanted to get across. The story is fairly simple in essence but it is more about the characters than plot. A great fun ride.
Read the rest of this entry »

I give you advice. Don’t ask Batman what he got his parents for Christmas:

There’s a new Things Wrong With Me up today. Episode 87, in fact.

Also a new Interpretive Dunce went live, all about Two Princes by Spin Doctors.

Wait, did Kool-Aid Man just kill those kids? Hooray! They cheer! Hooray! They have air helmets but not space suits! Hooray for death!

And how did Kool-Aid Man get into space in the first place? Why haven’t his liquid guts frozen or evaporated in space? Why does he carry a smaller jug of his own guts with him everywhere? Is that Kool-Aid Baby? Is it?

I mean how is Kool-Aid man coming into the space ship at all? Bursting through the wall, unanchored, he would shoot right back out when the air went. Wooers! Oh, yeaahh! Oh, Noooo!

I also love the little girl. The boy is cheering and excited because Kool-Aid Man will kill them all save them. The girl points at the Thirsties, mocking them. She knows they will soon be tossed into space and die. She knows and she laughs.

Doesn’t matter though. Her pointing is useless. She’s going out the big hole to die as well. Kool-Aid Man sucks.

D.J. Kirkbride and I decided to write and draw two special comics for you this holiday.

The Abominable Snowman Attacks!

This first is a classic case of man versus beast. The abominable snowman silently stalks a man in a blizzard, waiting for the right moment to attack and devour his prey. Silently now, Mister Abominable. Silently.

Ninja are Always Lurking!

Late at night, in your house, all the lights are off. But right there, can you see them? No, over there! Fucking Ninja! Beware! OH NO!

So it seems in ‘97 DC comics and Nastle had a deal. A deal which produced this commercial featuring Hawkman shilling for Baby Ruth: