Happenings

I've recently done my first interview, and I think it went very well.  It was an e-mail interview, and it should be up in about a month at Jazma Online.  I'll let you know when it's up.

It was kinda strange, being interviewed.  Some of them were generic questions, and some were more specifically about me.  I give props to Rich Vasseur for doing some homework before he sent in the questions.  It was an interesting experience.

I've been doing a LOT of work, if you haven't noticed.  I do the two columns, I edit, and I write.  Right now, I have the rest of the script for Annie O.N.E. to finish and get to Cristhian, and I have some e-mails to get around to sending out today.  

However, until doing this interview, despite the columns, I never really thought about people wanting to hear what I have to say.  About anything.  

You see, I don't do the columns for any other reason than to help writers get better.  Artists can go to art school to learn how to draw, but where do writers turn?  Comics has a very specific language, and even though formats may change, there are two basic methods to use.  Who teaches the writers how to succeed in this?  How many classes are there that teach comic book writing?  I've only run across one, maybe two, but that's it.  

So Bolts & Nuts is there in an attempt to help fill that gap.  I say a lot in it, and I'm thankful that people find it helpful, but besides telling the world I'm something of a long-winded jerk, what does it really say?  

Is that what interviews are for?  Getting to the person behind the words?  I think so.

I just heard a podcast interview that Cary did.  I wasn't overly thrilled with it.  It did its job of raising awareness of Fallen Justice, which is always a good thing, and while it was the Cary show (it was his interview, after all), I feel he didn't tell the full story of the genesis and changes to the series.  I was basically listed as the co-writer, and the person responsible for expanding it from four issues to six.  No mention of why, or what part I played in that restructuring.  Both of them.

I also take some objection with the interviewer.  He made it sound like Cary wrote the entire thing.  No question was asked about who did what in the story, or anything that could have gotten off the Cary show. 

I guess I should be happy I was mentioned at all.  Ross and Harold got some props, but Ken, the guy who edited the book, didn't get a single mention.

Sure, there was ample opportunity to be mentioned.  One of the questions was basically, how did everyone meet.  No real answers were forthcoming from that question.

Maybe it's just a case of me having sour grapes.  That's totally possible.  I won't deny it.  But I don't think so.  

I have a small head cold.  I hope to kick it by Saturday.  Lenora's birthday is coming, and I took off Sunday in order to spend the day with her.  We'll be going to the movies as part of the plan.  Friday the 13th.  Even though it's her day, she wants to go see something for me, not for her.  That's love for you, folks!  She first put Watchmen out there, but I said no.  I've seen most of the Jason franchise in theaters, and I didn't want to miss this one.  

I was about to close out, but that would have been wrong of me.  

The man who's responsible for me being in comics found me on Facebook.  Let's take a trip in the Way Back Machine.

It's the early 80s.  I'm in 3rd grade.  A new guy named Larry Thomas comes to school, and we become friends.  He introduces me to comics, my first one being a DC with no cover.  From there, I was hooked.

Larry was something of a troubled youth.  Pretty sullen, and kinda violent.  Something of a bully.  Hell, he even bullied me on occassion.  We took martial arts class together for a while, but he quit a couple of months in.  We'd be over each other's houses, and we'd trade comics.  He has a sister, who's name I cannot remember.  She was younger, and so, uninteresting to me.  I thought his mother was hot, though.  I still can't drive by his house without remembering some pretty good times.  This was all elementary school stuff.  But as a kid, Larry wasn't very happy.

We went to different schools then, and lost touch.  He found me once before, though.  I was in the Marine Corps at the time, and my mother gave him my phone number.  Surreal.

Now he's found me on Facebook, and from the conversation we had back when I was in the Corps to now, I'd say that he's done a complete 180.  And honestly, I couldn't be happier for him.

When I spoke to him those years ago (seven?  eight?), he sounded happy and calm, but also remorseful of things he did in the past.  He expressed that remorse to me, lightening his burden, and asked me to do something for him involving someone else.  I did that without any hesitation.  It was small, and cost me nothing.  However, those small things are often the most powerful ones.  

Larry seems to be doing well, and that's because he found religion.

I don't want anyone to misinterpret what I'm about to say here.  I'm religious.  I'm pagan.  However, I honestly believe that religion is a private thing, because it's not for everyone.  Being pagan, I also have problems with the dogma of Christianity.  The Bible, up to the New Testament, is a great history book, as well as rules for living for Jewish people.  The New Testament, however, has holes you can drive universes through (the OT does, too, but the OT technically isn't "Christian").  Go red Holy Blood, Holy Grail for a history lesson (just disregard the Plantard stuff).

I have rarely met a person who found the Jewish/Islamic/Christian God and was a better person for it.  (I only add Islam in there to be complete.)  Most of the time, they turn into unsmiling people who are trying to have their "sins" lifted, and aren't interested in much else except spreading the "good news."  They know what they've done, they know what they're missing, and they're pissed about it.  They want you to be miserable, too, which is why they harangue you with their beliefs, spouting it as "truth."

Go punch a brick wall.  Punch it with all your might.  Hard, right?  Broke your hand, too.  That's truth.  Air isn't invisible, it's translucent.  Fire is hot.  The physical world, the one that we know, is truth.  It can be proven, from the standpoint of our limited understanding of these things.  You KNOW you're going to get burned if you stick your hand in the fire.  You don't know if there's any such thing as a higher being.  The question can always be asked when it comes to first causes.  If there's a god, what came before it?  What came before that?  You can espouse theories all you wish, but in the end, it all comes down to belief.  Beliefs aren't truths.  

Like I said, I have rarely met a person who changed for the better when they found God.  However, I think Larry is one of them.  Positive changes.  I can look at the pictures he has up on Facebook, and see that his smiles are genuine.  He's happy.

And honestly, his happiness makes me happy.  I wish him continued happiness.  

Okay, I'm going to eat something, and then get started on this script and e-mails.  Like I said, go read Holy Blood, Holy Grail.  You'll ask all kinds of questions afterward.

-Steven