Welcome!

My first post... I'm winging it here...

When I was in college, my friends and I all started writing newsletters that were primarily distributed to one another. Then we found LiveJournal and moved our email ramblings there instead. Mine was called “The Gerrence Chronicles”, and was written in a terrible old-timey style, reframing all of the goings on in my life as though I were a knight’s squire. It was bonkers… but if I’m being honest I’ve missed having a bunch of friends writing on the regular and pressuring me to do the same. I’m an undisciplined writer. I need the push.

Which brings me (and you) to my Substack.

If I can gather a group of people who are looking forward to my ramblings on a somewhat regular basis, I’m hoping it will provide me with that push. And so here you are, you wonderful people… thinking you’re here for your own entertainment… but really I’ve tricked you into becoming my muses! MWUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Why this, why now

I’m pivoting. I’ve been an unscripted television producer for most of my adult life. Over the last few years I’ve spent time learning the comics industry from my friends at Blue Juice Comics, and have worked on my storytelling through Scott Snyder’s Comics Writing Class/Workshop, which he runs through his own Substack, Our Best Jackett. Now I’m doing my best to build a community of people who are interested in the kinds of books I’ve been writing, to see if I can buck all the trends and make a living as a self-published, indie comics creator.

I’m going to use this space to keep you up to date on my work as a writer and as an editor, on what I’m reading and watching, and sometimes on random stuff from my life because I think you might be interested in that stuff sometimes too.

Thanks for joining me here. I’ll try not to spam you, and will make sure to write even when I’m not selling you something.

Recommendations!

Jujutsu Kaisen

I’m trying to educate myself about Manga and Anime, because I wrote a short story (the start of a much longer series) called Cicada Samurai, and the series artist, Mary Landro, is heavily influenced by the style. Check out her Instagram to see what I mean. When I sent her the script for one of the pages of our story, she asked me if I’d seen Devilman Crybaby. I had to look it up… Since I’m writing more issues of this series, I figured I should do a lot more homework in the genres that influenced my creative partner on the project, and so here I am diving into anime and manga in my mid-40s.

In this case, I started reading the Manga first and then started watched the series on Netflix. When comics are adapted for the screen, there’s always a group of people waiting to be pissed that the movie/show isn’t exactly like the comic. I don’t know if this is always the case in Manga/Anime, but for this show, the TV series is almost literally verbatim the Manga. At least for the first few episodes/volumes. So much so, that I stopped reading it in favor of watching the show - which is REALLY GOOD. A teenager swallows a cursed object (the decrepit finger of a 4-armed evil sorcerer who has been dead for 1,000 years). He discovers he alone has the ability to ingest the curse and control the power it possesses, and so he’s given a quest - to find and swallow/destroy the remaining 19 cursed fingers. The more he ingests, the more powerful Sukunu (that’s long-dead guy)becomes inside of him, and the closer he comes to losing control of his body to the monster forever. It’s SUPER violent, but also very approachable as a story if you’re used to western style comic storytelling. I found Devilman Crybaby a lot harder to get into, but I’m going to go back to it and try again soon.

Here’s the page of Cicada Samurai that made Mary ask if I’d watched Devilman Crybaby:

We’re getting ready to Kickstart the first full issue of Cicada Samurai. If you’re a Kickstarter person, please follow the campaign here:

OK I think that’s plenty for a first post, don’t you? Substack recommends that I use a lot of buttons to make sure you know you can subscribe and share. I’ve done that AND used a “custom” button above - so take that!

If you’ve enjoyed this, please do subscribe and/or share with someone who might enjoy it. Next time I post, I’ll give you a full rundown of what I’ve got going on comics wise and I’ll recommend some of my fellow creators’ newsletters.

Thanks for reading.

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