I feel nervous, but excited. Daunted, but confident.
I’ve been making comics for a long time, but since January I’ve put everything into writing them. I’ve read a bunch of books about it. Character, structure, theme. McKee, Field, Snyder, Maass, Moore, Egri, Mamet. Building up the knowledge.
And it MIGHT get tested 5 weeks from now.
You see, the 2000AD Talent Search for writers works differently to the artist search. Artists pre-submit their work, get shortlisted, and then attend the panel on the Sunday of Thought Bubble to receive the verdict. Artists are screened out at every step. But from the list of writers who put their name down, twelve names are picked at random, and those dirty dozen have two minutes on Sunday to impress. That means that I could travel from Dundee, Scotland, to Harrogate, England, and not have the chance to pitch. Which is honestly fine! I’m not claiming that anything about this is unfair. Furthermore, it’s actually more fair to do it this way.
However, I do need to guarantee some value from the trip, which is why I’ve spent the year writing comics and hiring friends to draw them in order to show what I can do.
The anthology includes work from Emma Oosterhous, Isaac Hirshfield-Wight and Tom Newell.
The first story is God Saw You Milkin’ That Vampire, in which a con artist steals the venom of a vampire.
Alt text: the first two panels of God Saw You Milkin’ That Vampire. Swindle offers her neck to a vampire. Right as the vampire is about to sink her teeth into Swindle’s carotid, she milks the vampire’s fangs like you would a snake.
Emma is a phenomenal artist who I met while on the Dundee Comics and Graphic Novels course. Along with Ollie Hicks, her spouse, she created the Grand Slam Romance trilogy, which you should buy and read immediately. Emma is one of the funniest, most talented people I’ve ever met, and she’s done me a huge favour in working with me.
The second story is Lonely Boy Roy. Roy is the last human in existence, but when he hears a siren from within a conch shell, he has one last chance at love.
Alt text: Roy Zeal is surprised to hear a voice coming from a conch shell.
Isaac and I went to the same comics course at Staffordshire University and lived in the same building for a year. He’s effortlessly funny and not only a talented visual artist, but he’s a talented musician too.
Go follow him on his Instagram here
I’ve already shown the third story in this newsletter, but feel free to go back and read it here
To round out the collection, a story entirely by me. I first met me when I was born and I’ve been stuck with me ever since. That story can be read here
If you’re going to Thought Bubble and see me there, feel free to ask for a copy of this collection. I will be reserving copies for particular people, but if you’re interested enough in my work to ask for a copy, it will make me so happy, so please do.
I rather enjoyed this week’s 2000AD, which I reviewed here