In terms of drawing I definitely need more work. If I drew every day Im sure it would come back and be like when I was drawing Image comics style in college. I dreamed of being a comic artist then but set it aside for many other things.
However my comic scripts are better than ever. I've written of ton of them and may have some new artists signing on to draw my favorite, most personal script yet. I'm excited about the future ahead.
Psycho-Killers First Arc is finishing up with the final page being worked on. Monster M.D. is coming out collected in all the different formats I've always wanted to try out. My new script Rerunman is developing nicely and may also be coming soon with an super human artist on it. Monster M.D. 2 is being fleshed but I still want to let the characters demand I write them so it's more real.
For now if you want to support me you can back MONSTER M.D. THE FULL DOSE on INDIEGOGO.
I tried AI for my character designs for the first time ever. I did it to help hit home the visuals I wanted without having to spend hours penciling, inking and coloring like I have in the past. It would take me weeks to do a full cast. Now it takes me a day. I kinda of like the results and how fast I was able to get a large cast ready for my artist in full color with the entire look I want for the book in full swing. They all look great together. Still,… I’m a bit old school and drew my own character designs for years so I feel dirty, but hopefully it can allow me to make more robust casts than I have in the past with quicker results so I can do more than one story at once. I think using it for concepts has been fun as a result. It will help my artist get what I’m gong for. You see, I’m addicted to writing at the moment.
It’s a good place to be. To be enjoying your stories more than any online drama. It seems people want you to be part of an online soap opera they participate in daily and I couldn’t give a shit. I’m too busy making stories so good they make me realize it’s time to hunker down and make my best work while I can.
And that’s my message to you. It’s time to focus and make your best stuff. Life won’t wait. I’m genuinely excited to share this with you guys. Sometimes I wonder if I won’t be able to make it happen with all the bad situations with artists, some that even took money from me and then bailed on the project. Really crazy cause this was an Ex-Marvel artist and that gave me trust in them and then I forgot what world we live in now. But it’s all part of it.
The other guys making comics know this road. It’s hard but somehow we’re really into the punishment to entertain you with still images like some old timey penny arcade except no animation. And yet, comics are where the best stories and art hang out as one rad vehicle for blowing your mind. They’re an American beacon of light reminding us to keep cheering for our heroes. I kinda like being part of that. My version of it is horror driven but it’s also fun as it gets. I’m trying to express how I feel about the world through some absolutely insane characters.
It’s what I like doing so thank you to those supporting me in that. It’s been an insane ride of dealing with more wild and brilliant artists than I’ve ever been around with in my life. It’s been a pleasure hanging with them. They’re pros who know how to make great books and are making the best things of their lives. It’s an honor to be some small part of that. That’s why I’m un ashamedly #Comicsgate. Time has proven us right and the shift is in the air now. A kind of vindication also flows around us. We were right about wokeness. Now everyone in America including their granny knows what woke is and they rejected it hard this election season. Hell, even California almost went red. The people are done letting woke ruin everything. We’re moving on, but we’re gonna need great art to help guide us.
We won. The left tried to culturally create a new America right out from under us. And it’s hard to forgive them for that, but I’m too busy hoping more of them wake up because the real deal shift has started. However there’s still a lot to do. People are going to get cancelled. Not that long ago Ed Piskor committed suicide and it’s surreal to type that. The cancel culture that killed an innocent guy right here in the heart of comics. And I wasn’t there for him. I feel like I failed him even though my tiny platform wouldn’t make a dent, at least I could have said something instead of falling for the claims. I’m sorry for that, Eddie P. We can’t let what happened to Ed happen again. It’s time to come out of the witch hunt era and into the best comics America can make era.
Cause there are so many comics to enjoy out there and now that the leftist lecture comics from Hell could be on the retreat, let’s fill the shelves with the new American standard in comics. Let’s win this for the fans, who deserve to be excited about comics again. Let’s inspire the new generations to make comics and love them like we do. Let’s do it through good art and respect for each other. Let’s forge something to be proud of later because it’s our of love of comics and entertaining you that we do this.
SETUPS and PAYOFFS: Always Be Paying Off
There’s nothing worse than an empty plate served to you at a restaurant. I was once served half a glass of wine at some random place in New Mexico and I still think about the bad feeling it gave me to this day. Payoffs are important. They help give the reader a feeling of satisfaction and to not have them
The rule is: Always payoff EVERY setup. Even seasoned creators will sometimes forget to payoff their setups and the audience notices that. A rule many writers have for redrafts is making sure every setup is paid off for a reason. They are more important than people realize.
So what is a set up and payoff? Think of it as a simple small piece of information that pays off later as something that helps move the plot forward.
EXAMPLE of SETUP and PAYOFF:
A character is shown to have some lock picking ability.
Later the character must use this ability to unlock a trapped room in a dungeon and save the party.
The more you focus on them the more they are fun to do, but more importantly it gives your audience the most satisfying meal possible. What movies are faves of yours? Ask yourself what some of the cooler payoffs were in that movie. Perhaps draw from the strengths of those to help give your scripts those big satisfying moments.
One technique I’ve been using as a writer is realizing something I’m writing in the script would be a great payoff, and then I go back and add a setup for it. And lucky for us, having a setup isn’t that hard. At the beginning of Pulp Fiction one of the criminals in the diner says, “Too risky.” and we immediately feel the set up of that. What is too risky? We discover along the way this couple are criminals. The scene finally ends in a payoff where the criminals decide to rob the diner for some quick cash. An opening scene that ended in a now very memorable payoff that gets us engaged with Pulp Fiction.
Use setups and payoffs to make a plot where we feel things HAPPEN in fun ways. In my own work I recently had a character get an autograph from a movie star she has a crush on. I decided she needed to think about her movie star crush 20 years after meeting him. So I had her find his old crinkled up autograph in her car. She thinks of him and decides from there to find out why he died suddenly 20 years ago just after interviewing with her. This was my way to help justify my character Sheena’s desire to chase of a story that hits close to home. It changes her plot and gives her purpose after losing everything.
So I went back in the script to their meeting and added that he autographs her notebook. Boom. You can do backwards setups and it’s fun and gives your story that interactive audience participation it needs to stand out in out minds as a satisfying meal.
I hope this helps in your quest to make better stories. I’ve learned to enjoy set up and payoff enough to where I want to make an effort to do at least one for every scene. I think that can be done in more subtle ways and I’m looking forward to trying it on my current scripts.
Thank you all for reading and I look forward to the time ahead making comics for you.
- Vonster
