long is the way, and hard
Back in June my kid brother had a farewell show for his two bands. He had gotten a promotion at work and, in exchange for the big money and fabulous prizes, he had to move to to New Jersey. this meant that both Chicago based bands had to end. when the show ended i mentioned to my brother that he should really write a book about the adventures he had had with these bands. Ross countered, 'why don't YOU write it, asshole?'
i went home asking myself, yeah, why not?
a month later i handed the band members a script, a map if you will, for 22 pages of a comic book inspired by the stories they had told from the road and various gigs. i asked them if they would approve a comic like this where they were literally reduced to cartoon characters. one said, 'this is totally not what happened, but it's funny as hell, so go with it.' another said, 'i will only approve this if their merch girl is hot and [looks like this]'. the third said, 'you make me sound like an asshole in this! but you probably wouldn't be showing me this if there weren't some kind of character arc, so go for it.'
this left me in a position where i was forced to ask myself, 'what happens now?' i had never written in comic format before, i had no idea how long this thing would be and i didn't even really have any idea how it would end. so i teamed up with two artists and a technical adviser and started working, fully expecting this thing to flame out and die at 30 pages.
yesterday i finished. the story is 198 pages long. at this point i'm calling it a novel. it needs editing and the artists and i need to sit down and work out storyboarding and there are some pageflow corrections that need to be done, but the first draft is finished.
i cannot describe the feeling of getting it printed up and feeling the heft of this thing that has only existed in my head for a year. exhausting and liberating at the same time.
thank you to the two artists who helped more than they will ever know
i went home asking myself, yeah, why not?
a month later i handed the band members a script, a map if you will, for 22 pages of a comic book inspired by the stories they had told from the road and various gigs. i asked them if they would approve a comic like this where they were literally reduced to cartoon characters. one said, 'this is totally not what happened, but it's funny as hell, so go with it.' another said, 'i will only approve this if their merch girl is hot and [looks like this]'. the third said, 'you make me sound like an asshole in this! but you probably wouldn't be showing me this if there weren't some kind of character arc, so go for it.'
this left me in a position where i was forced to ask myself, 'what happens now?' i had never written in comic format before, i had no idea how long this thing would be and i didn't even really have any idea how it would end. so i teamed up with two artists and a technical adviser and started working, fully expecting this thing to flame out and die at 30 pages.
yesterday i finished. the story is 198 pages long. at this point i'm calling it a novel. it needs editing and the artists and i need to sit down and work out storyboarding and there are some pageflow corrections that need to be done, but the first draft is finished.
i cannot describe the feeling of getting it printed up and feeling the heft of this thing that has only existed in my head for a year. exhausting and liberating at the same time.
thank you to the two artists who helped more than they will ever know