Heya, folks!
I’m still finding my way with this newsletter, and I thank you for bearing with me while I hunt down a map and get oriented…
Why don’t I rewind some and start at the beginning? Or:
Here’s How I Became a Writer
I’m staring at the cursor on the screen, trying to figure out where I should say things started. Was it in high school, where I amused myself writing a movie column for the school newspaper, a humorous entry for competitive speech, and one-act plays just for kicks?
Maybe it was after I graduated and began to post stories on the internet for randos to read and comment on.
Perhaps I could say it was the copy I turned around while working in broadcasting? (Somewhere, there’s an Austin Powers sketch that I got on the air before The Spy Who Shagged Me hit theaters and the character got a little bit overreferenced by the general public.)
Those aren’t likely to be the answers you’re looking for. If you’re reading this, you’re probably most curious about how I got into comics.
It Started With Y2K.
Remember how I said I was working in broadcasting? As soon as the year 2000 rolled around, I was laid off. Being suddenly without a job, I found myself with a lot of free time. I used that free time the way any 22-year-old on unemployment would: by goofing around on the internet.
Since I didn’t then (and don’t now) live near a comics shop, I was way behind the times and relied on internet message boards to stay up-to-date. I eventually developed a group of friends, and we would often have large group chats on AOL’s Instant Messenger (remember that one?)
50% of these group chats would be talking (then current) comics. And 99% of that discussion was how the creators were doing everything wrong.
And then came the challenge.
“If you guys think you can do better, why don’t you prove it?”
Several of us decided to put up instead of shutting up, resulting in the Shooting Star Comics Anthology. A one-shot that became a series, as well as a company.
In addition to the anthology our little group published several other one-shots and miniseries, including Tom Waltz and Casey Maloney’s Children of the Grave, a horror comic that, as far as I know, is the first published comics work that Tom ever did.
It impressed the folks at the fledgling IDW Publishing, who wanted to publish the collected edition. Tom built a rapport with the folks at IDW, and not long after became a part-time editor. One of his first assignments was shepherding the Gene Simmons’ House of Horror anthology series.
Several of the Shooting Star creators were pitching stories, so I reached out to Tom via, get this, a message on ComicSpace, the social media site for comics creators. I could have called him, yes, but if I was going to get a no, I’d rather not make him give it to me on the spot.
Instead, he invited me to send some ideas. The one that was accepted was initially titled "Pieces of Silver” but hit print as "Wish Thief.” And, if the title wasn’t a giveaway, it was, in fact, a horror short (from a guy who had largely done comedy up to that point.)
That was my first gig.
From there, I was offered a tie-in to a toy that lasted one holiday season (Nanovor, which, if you can find the collected miniseries — titled Game Over — anywhere, was a lot of fun.)
After that, I had a quick-turnaround co-writing an A-Team prequel miniseries. (I got to write Murdock and B.A.!) And then things were quiet. I had bugged Tom about pitching Ghostbusters, and he’d let me send in a miniseries pitch even though they had their planned holiday one-shots set for that year. He instead just offered me up the gig writing the two-part Infestation tie-in, which got a good enough reaction to greenlight an ongoing series, at which point I became a full-time writer.
(Tom tells me no one thought Ghostbusters would last past issue #4. We overshot that mark by almost a decade.)
I’ve been fortunate enough to keep going ever since. (Knock wood, that’ll continue.)
Assorted Geek Stuff
Book Geekery
I’d been making my way through the massive oral history of Star Trek: The Motion Picture titled Return to Tomorrow —DeForest Kelley’s contributions have been the biggest hoot so far — when I accidentally discovered another Star Trek oral history, this one a companion piece to a documentary series. The Center Seat can’t do as deep a dive as Tomorrow can, covering the entirety of Trek as it does, but quantity, in this case, almost matches quality. If you love oral history books as I do and have yet to check these out, give ‘em a look.Music Geekery
I’ve read and been told that having a creative pursuit is important, and doubly so when your day job is in a creative industry. I finally started to do something I’ve wanted to do for 35 years: learn an instrument. And I picked… the baritone ukulele. (I figured 4 strings is all I could handle at present.) As I write this, I’ve come dangerously close to learning Fountains of Waynes’ song Hey Julie. I’ll be practicing shortly.Sports Geekery
Fans of Minnesota sports teams are always braced for the inevitable, heartbreaking end to the season of any given team. Currently, both the NBA and NHL are in the first round of their respective playoffs, and both the NBA’s Timberwolves and NHL’s Wild have secured a spot in the postseason. The Timberwolves had a rough opener, losing to the Denver Nuggets by 25 points in game 1. The geekery is on behalf of the Wild, who won their game against the Dallas Stars (formerly the Minnesota North Stars). The Wild took it during a second overtime. It was a heckuva game.TV Geekery
This week sees the finale for the third season of The Mandalorian as well as the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard. I look forward to seeing how plotlines wrap up. I would’ve gotten a big laugh if the last scene of Picard took place during the 1990 episode The Best of Both Worlds, part II, wherein Captain Picard is rescued from The Borg and returned to human status… he wakes up to find out everything from that episode on was a dream. While I know that’s not a realistic ending, I giggle imagining the fan apoplexy because sometimes you just want to see the world burn. As far as Mando? Baby Yoda better snatch the darksaber away from Katee Sackhoff and go on a spree of slicing things in half. That’s all I want for the finale. Let’s have that, Jon Favreau.
My Questions For You
I’ll be heading down to a comic shop for a signing this weekend. Do you have any recommendation for a book I might’ve missed? Let’s hear it!
Okay, that’s it for this edition.
Time to leave you with a Downside cartoon… take care, everybody!
—E.