Have you got a Plan?
You know. One with a capital "P". A grand plan, if you will - a
masterplan.
Mine is to build a portfolio of comic strips and prose stories in the small press, finish a book, show all this to an editor, get an agent and then be published. After that, the idea is to live happily ever after, writing a mix of comics and prose until I die. I have no delusions that I will be the next Stephen King, although that would be nice. I just want people to read my stuff and quite like it. I know that's trite, but there you go.
Sometimes I get despondent, though, and wonder if there is any point to the Plan. Getting published isn't easy. Too many people have the same Plan and I think they are quite a bit better than me. But I'll try anyway - this stuff pops into my head and has to go somewhere!
So, the next steps in the Plan are:
THE COMMUTE
Matt Soffe has agreed to draw this four page horror strip. It's based on a 500 word micro-horror tale I wrote last year. I'm really pleased as Matt is an amazing artist, especially on nasty stuff, and I have no doubt he can turd-polish my script into something special.
He just agreed to do it this week, so there's nothing to show. Instead, here's a picture of a hand with a mouth in it that he drew for a prose story of mine (If Thy Hand Offend Thee, which made the Top 50 in SFX's Pulp Idol) that is to be published by Starscape.
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| If Thy Hand Offend Thee: "No! No! Not... the soap!" |
THE SECOND RINGER
A six page tale, mentioned in an earlier post, being drawn by Dave Thomson for Chris Cronin's Indie Pulp mag.
THE PRICE
A four page super anti-hero script being drawn by
Dan Cornwell. With a bit of luck this'll be on
Hadron Colliderscope.
PARADOX MAN
A one page comic based on a short story I did years ago (and which won
Futurequake's first and only short story competition). Again by Dan. This has no home, but Hadron Colliderscope's looking at the script just now so fingers crossed.
EVICTION
A one page Clint submission by Kyle Smart and myself. This will appear on Hadron Colliderscope in the next few weeks.
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| Eviction: Indian Head Massage Goes Wrong |
RICH PICKINGS
This six page Judge Dredd script has been accepted for
Zarjaz. I don't know when it will be printed or who is drawing it.
CONFLAGRATION
A three page M.A.C.H. 1, again accepted by Zarjaz. Again, I don't know anything else about it.
MECHANISMO
A twelve (count 'em) page script accepted by Zarjaz. I wrote six and they asked for six more. I'm really keen to see what this looks like.
THE ANSWER
Another one page Clint reject. But Mark Millar's loss is Hadron Colliderscope's gain! Art by
El Chivo. Lettered by
Jim Campbell.
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| When Gimps Attack |
MIDSUMMER'S EVE
This is something a little different. No monsters. No aliens. But it does have disembowelling. It's currently awaiting rejection from
Murky Depths.
SCHRODINGER'S HAT
I may write for another fifty years and not come up with a more unoriginal pun for a title. This is a Terror Tale that I submitted to the 2000ad slush pile last year. Every day I come home from work expecting the Big Brown Rejection Envelope.
MR TUESDAY
My graphic novel ('cos everyone who wants to get into comics is writing one, right?) Dave Thomson is working on this with me and one day, oh yes, it will be done. I recently finished a re-write of a chunk of it, and Dave is re-doing the first ten pages so that it can be pitched to folks.
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| Mr Tuesday: Unsung hero of Dyna-rod |
So, that's the scripts that are finished and being drawn at present. With any luck, these will start to see the light of day over the next six months or so. Meanwhile, I need to keep churning out scripts and stories. The current project is a prose story: "Harvest."
I didn't say it was a good Plan. I didn't say it was unique or realistic, either. But it's better than nothing and it's mine.
