I'm back

            Having two jobs can kick your ass, I should know.

            Just last week, I finally finished the polished draft of From Four Color to Silver Screen: The First Movie Superheroes, weighing in at a massive fifteen chapters. And it nearly killed me.

            The biggest hazard with juggling a full-time job with a writing career is that you often times find your arms getting really tired after a while. Add the normal happenings of life in general, as well as an unexpected business trip, and working to get another book project off of the ground, and taking in a kitten found underneath your sister’s friend’s car hood on a cold winter day, and playing Sheriff while aforementioned kitten tries to move in on older cat’s turf, and having to deal with the holidays, on top of the stress of seeing several of your friends laid off because of the recession…

            And you can understand how it can wear one out.

            But, at the end of the day, I have that warm fuzzy feeling inside, balanced with a euphoric anticipation at this new book coming out from a new (to me) publisher, and I’m reminded of why I started writing in the first place. Right now, we’re looking at a May to June release date on this full color book, with a stiff cover stock, coming out from Hermes Press. I am beyond looking forward to holding a copy in my mitts.

            I learned many things, good and bad, while working for TwoMorrows and writing and editing my first two books there. Getting that type of hands-on experience with everything from pitch to writing to editing to working with a designer to polishing up the final edits (not to mention getting the cover art put together) was invaluable to me. I ran into some limitations while there, sure, but the experience taught me to think in a broader scale while writing; rather than just focusing on getting the research and writing down, I now find myself visualizing the entire package as I go.

            Dan Herman, my publisher, is uber-excited about this one and promises to pull out all of the stops for it. Expect for us to have a few things going by San Diego, and expect me to throw a few more projects their way in the near future.

 

            The force is strong in Taylor.

            My niece is an irresistible chick magnet, guys. Every time I stand outside in public while holding her, she grabs the attention of any female within a 100-foot radius. So, when you find out your brother or sister’s about to reproduce, single guys, take advantage of your single status and the kid’s cuteness. Sure, babies just lay around, poop, sleep, and act like a comatose narcoleptic for the first month. But when they hit the second month and start smiling uncontrollably and making cute baby noises, it’s time to crack out the stroller and go for a walk.

            I love being an uncle, obviously. Having her around has taught me a lot about the immense responsibility being a father entails. I was reminded of this while holding her with my left arm a few weeks ago (she had a stomachache) and proofing my manuscript with my right hand. It has been a firm reminder that I have way more to do with my life and career before I can even think about kid-folks.

            Let’s talk about my new book project, the kind-of Top Secret one I’ve been working on four about eight months.

            Graphic NYC is a photo and essay book that New York photographer Seth Kushner invited me on to. Basically, Seth is taking (or has taken) portraits of approximately fifty New York cartoonists, and I am interviewing each of them and writing a critical essay about each of them.

            It has worked out beautifully, as this gives me a chance to take concepts and approaches from my aborted Comics Introspective series, but with better photography and in a better, non-censored format. If I have an artist that draws boobies, then dammit, we’ll be able to show boobies; if they say “shit” we can publish “shit” instead of the not-fooling-anyone “sh*t”.

            I can’t say much more about it, other than Seth and I hope to go a very long ways with our team-up. We’re both of the minds that we owe it to society to get comics in the hands of everyone, and to portray the cartoonists as personalities and real people rather than mysterious figures chained to drawing boards. It’s going to take a progressive and liberal publisher for us to do it through, and I’m jazzed at the possibilities already in front of us.

            More to come but, in the meantime, check Seth’s blog out at sethkushner.blogspot.com.

Which reminds me...

I love New York. And now I have another reason to love it even more...