Selective Darwinism

Here are five pencil pages for a short story, Selective Darwinism, written by me and penciled by up and comer Edwin Huang. I'll be inking and lettering it before much longer; the premise is that an organization of bad-ass monsters hunt down and thin the monster ranks of the wimpier specimens (guess which one we're taking a pot shot at this go-round...).

Keep an eye out for Edwin: I have a feeling comics will start seeing quite a lot of him in the next few years.

(c) 2010 Christopher Irving and Edwin Huang.

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Reflections in a Studio

I get reflective when it rains, and this rainy day sitting in the drafty studio in Gowanus is no exception.

As the year's winding down, I realize that while many things have changed, one thing has stayed the same. Last year, at this time, I was uncertain and hopeful for the next; Seth and I had just put the Graphic NYC book pitch together, I met a great girl, and things were looking bright. But Circuit City's downfall had been looming over all of our heads for months prior, and eventually toppled on top of us all, as hundreds of us were on the lookout for new jobs and (in my case) new home cities.

By the end of 2009, I'm hopeful towards the future of Graphic NYC, which has turned into an exceptional and unique blog. The work Seth and I have put into it has created an individual brand like nothing else out there, one which will hopefully jettison us even further than we've ever gotten before. The new book pitch, Leaping Tall Buildings, is the culmination of all our thought processes and creative pursuits this past year, and it'll be a honey of a book as things continue to develop with it.

But as Christmas comes up, my excitement levels rise for the new Doctor Who to debut (while simultaneously dreading the loss of David Tennant's excellent Tenth Doctor), and to hold my one year-old niece in my arms and spoil her with presents. It's easy for Christmas to lose meaning the older you get, but it is soon regained as soon as a child is introduced into the mix. The world's uncertainty is still there, with a crazy political and social landscape, people still out of work (making me enormously grateful for both my odd freelance gigs and unemployment), a well-meaning President who faces incredibly difficult decisions, an escalation of the War on Terror in an attempt to finish it once and for all, and continuing technological advances (as if some alien influence has flipped the "tech evolution" switch to "ridiculous speed").

The world of 2010 may be a beautiful thing. I hope it is, so that Taylor Marie will have that much more of a beautiful and hopeful world waiting for her next Christmas.

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Graphic NYC

My life has changed radically since the last posting in April; ironically, I've been too busy with my other blog, Graphic NYC, to even have time for this one. When Seth and I set out to put the profiles online, the plan and expectation was that the essays would go beta online, only to be edited up for the final book project. And then, something both daunting and wonderful happened -

People noticed us.

Graphic NYC has had its usual shares of praise, support, criticisms, and problems. It's bound to happen anytime you put something out there for the masses to see. For the most part, though, I feel like the site has been a success, getting linked up from major news outlets like LA Times, USA Today, and New York Times City Room. I've also gotten some really nice compliments from folks in the industry whose contributions I've enjoyed and who I've had immense amounts of respect for for some time. But, most importantly, I'm really proud of the work both Seth and I have done on it.

One definite thing I can attest for is the workload: Graphic NYC has been a labor-intensive labor of love for me, each piece taking an estimated five to ten hours of my time. Not only do I have to travel out to each subject for a one-on-one interview, but I also have to read as much of their work as possible, transcribe the 30 to 60 minute interview, send the Q & A off to the subject for clarification, and then write the darn thing, developing the thesis of the piece while trying to work the quotes together into a natural flow. My ideal word count per piece is 2,000 words, but several have expanded up to 3,000.

So, in roughly 2,000-3,000 words, I have to give an impression/description of the artist and their surroundings, order the quotes into sections that flow well and make sense, add my two cents in the interpretive department on their work, and touch on their background. While doing so, I also have to make sure the essays don't start to repeat themselves, and that the editorial package adheres to my self-imposed guidelines.

But, in the end, I have a finished essay that I'm proud of that's lavishly illustrated by Seth Kushner's lush photography. And, when you have a site that local cartoonists regularly pimp themselves out for coverage on...well, who could ask for a greater compliment?

I couldn't ask for anything better than that...except what's coming down the pike for Graphic NYC.

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The Evolution of Geoff Johns

As I sat in the audience of small folding chairs lined up in the downstairs of Jim Hanley’s Universe, waiting for Geoff Johns to come out for a panel, my mind wandered back to when I first interviewed Geoff:

It was the late ‘90s and I was interviewing folks for www.richmondcomix.com (my first “gig” as a journalist/interviewer, it paid nothing but a few free comics, high long distance bills and cutting my teeth and getting my feet wet in the comics industry), I got a hold of Geoff to talk about his new book, Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.. Back then, he was an assistant for director Richard Donner, and would come home after a long day at work to write Stars. I got in touch with him a few times after, for pieces for Comics Buyer’s Guide on Hawkman, JSA, and at some point, I remember chatting with him about his new run on The Flash.

Now, here’s where I come clean: while I really liked Geoff personally (as personally as you can get in interviewing someone), his earlier work was kind of lukewarm to me. Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. was great in the character department, but I felt that his pacing lacked a bit. Then, when he teamed up on JSA with David Goyer, it’s apparent that he learned some tricks from his co-writer because, pretty soon, Geoff became a much better writer, with a great sense of pacing tied in with strong character moments.

And then, Green Lantern happened.

And Geoff went up there (in my eyes) with Mark Waid and James Robinson. A couple of months ago, I sat down and read through the entire run of Geoff’s Green Lantern. At the risk of fanboying out, he’s not only made GL an important character (with the type of terrifying threats that justify the need for a Green Lantern Corps), but he’s also made me actually give a damn about Hal Jordan. You have to realize that, back in the dark days of the ‘90s, Hal was always a character we were told was important and that we should like, but were never given a reason to like. His glory days were behind him by about a decade. Geoff has brought Hal down a few notches (thanks to his time as the villainous Parallax, cleverly written off as the virus-like yellow impurity of the GL rings), so that he’s forced to build himself back up. Hal is an important character because he’s earned his importance once more.

Then, Geoff hopped on Action Comics, and has restored Superman to an accessible and iconic level, distilling him down to the best facets of the character from the past seventy years. I have one more Action hardcover to get, and then my collection of his run will (for the moment) be complete.

His Flash: Rebirth, bringing Barry Allen back into the fold, hasn’t impressed me as much, however. While it’s a really well done comic, Barry seems a bit too self-absorbed and out of character for me. But, I’m sure that Geoff and artist Ethan van Sciver are going somewhere with it, and that it’ll all make sense in the end.

But, back to sitting there, and getting Geoff to sign a copy of Flash for my pal, Patrick, and walking out of Hanley’s on a rainy evening, I felt like I’d gotten my ass kicked through no one’s fault but my own. Johns has gotten an amount of really lucky breaks, sure, but he’s worked his ass off in the past decade at DC. I look at how far he’s come in that decade, and realize that there’s no excuse for my not having gotten my shit together and really pushed to write comics again. Sure, I’ve done loads of history and journalism projects (from The Blue Beetle: His Many Lives from 1939 to Today to www.nycgraphicnovelists.com) to show for, but I haven’t really put myself out as a writer in a few years.

So, thanks to my own guilt and self-criticism, I’m finally going to make the leap this year.

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The Arrival to NYC and the unfairness of Clearwire

The past few months, to say the least, have been a wild ride.

Firstly, Circuit City went bankrupt and then into liquidation, leaving me amongst the throngs of jobless in the country, a victim of everything from a recession to a company that had made quite a few corporate missteps in its past, missteps that couldn't be recovered by a well-meaning CEO and his board.

So, with the remaining paychecks coming in, I've finally made it up to NYC. Well, not fully, but I'm close enough for now.

The past few weeks have also put me in touch with a few comics legends for Graphic NYC: Joe Simon, Jules Fieffer, and the ever pleasant Walt Simonson.

Sticking it out in a studio spot in Gowanus, Brooklyn, around a bevy of established creators that shame me into popping back onto the laptop to write comic scripts again, I know things are going to be nothing short of swell.

And then, there's Clearwire, the wireless internet service that, if you're around, I completely advise against subscribing to.

This is the gimmick with Clearwire: they have a wireless modem that you merely plug in and pick up a signal with. All it takes is a two-year contract, where they automatically draft your $33 a month from your bank account. The signal, from my old apartment in Richmond, was pretty good and the connection was admittedly strong.

But here's the kicker: In moving to New York/New Jersey, where I can not receive any Clearwire service, they stick strong to not letting me out of my contract. Unless, of course, I pay $200 to be let go.

Allow me to elaborate:

I currently don't have a job that will allow me to fork out $200 for something I can't get.

Clearwire doesn't serve the area I'm moving to.

They can still deduct $33 a month from my bank account.

I don't receive any service from Clearwire here.

They won't let me out of their iron-clad contract that, apparently, comes this side shy of including my first-born.

I can understand contracts in business, but something I'm also really steadfast on is good customer service. Part of that entails having a bit of compassion for your customers, particularly when you are no longer able to provide a service. Sure, they may be able to legally do this (I checked with the FCC, and have still issued a complaint), but they should also consider that good customer service can only result in great publicity.

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It's been a cold week, the type of cold that my toes can't shake, no matter how many pairs of socks I put on.

It has also been a mixed week, a series of ups and downs, pros and cons, each heaped one day to another.

On the downside of things, Circuit City, where I work as a copywriter, failed to find a buyer and is now undergoing liquidation. Basically, it means that I'll have a job for just a little bit longer, but it's pretty much all over for what is a great company run by great people who were truly doing their damnedest to fix it up from the formerly great company run by real jack asses. It's all pretty ironic for me: this is the first job I've ever had that I really enjoyed the people I worked with, and saw myself staying at for as long as I needed to. Fate has made the decision for me to go on a different path.

I'm going to move to New York, as soon as I find a job.

Grad school didn't pan out at VCU, thanks in no small part to issues with financial aid. I've been excited about returning to VCU's campus full time, but it doesn't seem it's in the cards for me.

www.nycgraphicnovelists.com has already garnered an insane amount of both praise and plugs, already getting me some mainstream media notice. The iron's hot right now, so it would be foolish for me to not strike.

Another downer: Final Crisis #6 came out, with the final fate of Batman. It was, sadly, the high point of the whole comic, seeing Batman go out like a total badass. Low points include Mr. Tawky Tawny eviscerating Kalibak, and Superman just having to carry Batman's corpse in a "yes, see, he's really dead, folks" gratuitious splash.

An upside: Geoff Johns' first Smallville episode, featuring the Legion of Superheroes, premiered. I had several geekgasms for the entire hour, with everything from the uber-cool Persuader (he's a dead ringer for the comics version), the Legion flight rings, and the incredible job the Smallville team has done bringing Doomsday to life...I've only been able to catch the season premiere and this one episode, but it's enough to tell me that fans finally have the Superman show they've deserved for decades. If they're smart, we'll either see a ninth season with Welling in the suit, or they'll spin it off into a new Superman movie. After the train wreck that was Superman Returns, I honestly feel like a Smallville movie will be the only way an audience could accept a new Superman so soon after the Routh version.

On another note, I think I have the honor of being one of the first people to interview Geoff, back when he was doing a short-lived comic called Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. I've always been happy to follow his successes in the comics field, and this episode of Smallville is up there with his work on Green Lantern and Action Comics. 

That new Superman movie? Let this man write it, Warners.

A mixed upside: Bush's televised farewell speech, giving new meaning to the term Idiot Box.

Another upside: Mr. Barack Obama is going to be our President in a matter of days. Despite being jobless, I can't refrain from the feelings of hope the man has given me for this country. 

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The crazy New Year...

Man, what a crazy ride.

Tuesday marked the launch of the super-cool kinda top secret project I’ve been working on with photographer and pal Seth Kushner. www.nycgraphicnovelists.com showcases the work we’ve been doing on the Graphic NYC book, the same book we’ve been trying to find the right publisher for. So far, we have a healthy handful of my essays completed for the book, and I’m going up to interview two more subjects this weekend (one contemporary, one legendary) in NYC. After that, there’ll only be about 42 to go.

We’ve already gotten a lot of love for the project. Heidi McDonald gave us a shout out on her blog The Beat, while Whitney Matheson of USA Today was kind enough to give Seth’s photography props. Also, Comic Book Resources (one of my daily news visits) mentioned us in this blog.

This all proves one thing to me: The $10 I spent on the domain name two weeks ago has already paid for itself.

For the first time in a long time, I’m on a project that I’ve put heart and soul into, with a partner who’s as into seeing this happen just as much as I am. Seth does more than just take the pictures: he’s been pounding the pavement, getting us an agent, doing the graphics work on the newly launched site, and also being the nexus for me to catch up with the interview subjects on my too-few and too-hectic trips up to the Big Apple.

While I’m hunched over the keyboard on long evenings after getting off of work, he’s busting his ass while I’m sitting in my cubicle with earplugs lodged in my ear canals, writing about home audio.

So, hats off to Seth Kushner!

After I pick the car up from the shop (new brake pads, struts, shocks, and rotors – yikes!), it’s off to Nostalgia Plus to get my weekly comics fix. I definitely need to pop in today, as the final part of Marvel Zombies 3 comes out.

I’ll admit, I’m burnt out on zombies, really. Couldn’t care less about them. I’m more of a vampire guy, really. But, Marvel Zombies 3 caused me to do something I rarely do with a monthly comic book, and that’s geek out like a middle schooler. Fred Van Lente’s script is eerie, spooky, and damned creepy. There are more than just a few moments that have caused my lunch to threaten a return visit.

That’s hard to do.

When the hardcover comes out in a few months, remember who wrote the sexy cover copy, all right?

The NY Con is early next month, and I’m scrambling to get a few odds and ends together for it, and also get caught up on work before starting my Grad School classes next week. If you haven’t been yet, it’s the best con out there. Period. Check it out.

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