Farewell 2011: The Year of the Comics
It’s the last day of what ended up being a pretty eventful year for me. I suspect that, looking back, I’ll remember 2011 as the year I figured out how damn much I love writing comics.
I’ve been focused on screenwriting primarily for the past few years, and I spent the first four months of the year finishing one screenplay draft and writing another. But then in May, I heard about the zombie comic anthology Dead Roots from a friend. I pitched a story, which was rejected for not being quite the right fit. So that same day, I sent a completely different pitch based on the notes for the rejection. That one was accepted.
That second pitch became the first of four anthology stories I wrote this year. Which inspired me to pull out some old attempts at comic book scripts and rework them into something decent.
Later in May, I heard about a comic anthology that was being put together for charity. An all-women anthology, in fact. It sounded like a fun little project, so I shot off an email to contribute a story.
That of course became Womanthology, which very quickly stopped being a “little project”. And Womanthology is one of the main reasons that 2011 has been so crazy for me. I went to New York for the first time to attend New York Comic Con and met Jim Lee, who was kind enough to take the time to talk to some of the Womanthology contributors. I was on my first ever convention panel (and my second a week later). I actually have followers on Twitter now, which is a strange and new experience.
But by far, the most amazing part of the year was all of the fantastic people I met and worked with. They say quality over quantity, but somehow I was lucky enough to end up with both. Jack Tempest, Adriana Blake, and Paula Cob have all been amazing artists to work with. And how many unpublished writers get to work with big names like Fiona Staples and Eric Canete in the same year? That’s insane. My life is insane.
And the funny thing is, I’m technically still unpublished. Everything will hopefully be coming out in 2012, which means this coming year could be the storm after the calm. Here’s hoping.
So what’s ahead besides stuff hitting the shelves? I’m currently finishing up world-building for a new fantasy comic series I want to start scripting this coming week. I’m planning to look into digital/print publishing options for collections of my silly little webcomics. I have a few screenplays I need to revise. A script collaboration with one friend and some web comedy shorts with another. And a multitude of little comic and video and writing and even drawing projects I want to tackle. My goal is to make 2011 look positively unproductive.
Here’s to an amazing 2012, everyone. Create like the world is ending!
