A long time ago, someone asked me why did I want to write. I found it a puzzling question at the time. I enjoy writing and sharing stories. I wanted to make people feel the way I do when I read certain stories. An indescribable excitement and elation of seeing a story well crafted and delivered is always something I will never get tired of.
I wanted to try to be able to provide that feeling for other people. I also love building up a certain payoff and then delivering. In my own personal writing terms I call this setting up domino’s and then knocking them over. Knocking over of domino’s as a reader and a storyteller is something I find very satisfying.However, this answer wasn’t enough. They wanted to know what I was trying to say as a writer. They told me if I didn’t have a message to convey as a writer then I wasn’t really a writer. It’s a statement I found puzzling and I dispute to this day. sometimes though after 20 years of heartbreak, let downs, doors shut in my face, theft and betrayal…I forget. I forget why I’m trying to write.
Then I read something like Unstoppable Wasp. For those that aren’t aware, Unstoppable Wasp is two series that ran in 2017 for 8 issues and 2018 for ten issues. On the initial volume, writer Jeremy Whitley along with artists Elsa Charretier, Veronica Fish and Ted Brandt expanded the character of Nadia Van Dyne. The long lost daughter of Hank Pym who had been kept captive by the Red Room for her whole life until she escaped. In the book, Nadia sought out other young girl geniuses and wanted to use their skills to try to save the world using brains, not brawn.The second volume, also written by Whitley had most of the issues drawn by the always remarkable Gurihiru along with some work by Alti Firmansyah. I found both volumes a joy with great art, great writing, awesome characters and a fun easy to read premise that readers young and old both new and experienced with comics could get a lot of pleasure out of reading.This comic I adored if you couldn’t tell and it reminded me that THIS. THIS is why I want to write comics. I want to make something or at least TRY to that is as GOOD as this.
Without a doubt the hardest part of making comics (apart from the money) is getting people to notice you. Like I believe I’ve said before, in comics there is an extraordinary amount of fans who think ‘hey, I could do this’ perhaps more than any other industry. Not everyone watching a film thinks they can do it or write a show or run a business or be a doctor. We can enjoy and respect these positions but you have to have dedication to actually do the majority of them.
Comics also requires dedication of course but I’d say 70-80% of fans reading comics also want to make them and half of them or more likely don’t know what that involves. The point I’m trying to make however is there’s a lot of competition to make comics. For every successful writer, there’s 100 hungry ones wanting that too. For every one of them there’s probably 100 more just wanting an opportunity. I’ve certainly learned the hard way over the years that publishing at a big company doesn’t always equal success. Even a book as high quality and with the insane level of talent as Unstoppable Wasp couldn’t survive past 10 issues. Getting people to give me or anyone else who is unproven a chance? It’s like wanting to win a best actor Oscar when you’re waiting tables in LA.
So reading something like Unstoppable Wasp helps me remember. ‘Oh yeah, it would be nice if I could get to do this for other people’. Is this just a long way of me saying read Unstoppable Wasp? Yes. Does it also convey why it is I write? To make people feel enjoyment and engaged in their fiction? It wouldn’t be a bad way to spend my days. I’m getting older all the time and I feel as I get older, the less chances I have but who knows….maybe one day I’ll get lucky.I did by reading Unstoppable Wasp and getting to remember.
More soon.
Glenn's Grumblings 