Nuclear Family

I just wrote a comic.

That's what the title is about. That's the name of the comic.

Just a short one. I'm submitting a short story to 2000AD's Future Shocks. It seems like a good place for new writer's to get a break. Also I'm hoping that producing more short works will help me get some momentum going to do something larger. Also I'm sure getting one published would help too. As soon as that happens I'll start calling myself an actual writer.

Got a little postcard from the BBC a few days ago to say they had received my script. So I'm doing better than last time. I did however remember that I still only had a first class stamp on the return envelope. So if that gets back to me there will be postage to pay (IF it gets back to me at all). I'm sure if they actually like what I wrote I'll get a call anyway so not to worry.

Still banging my head against the wall with the longer comic. The one about the supervillain who goes up against some other villains to avenge his brother (who was the world's greatest superhero) but it is tough going. So tough that I've actually come up with half a treatment for the exact opposite idea. One about a kid who through no fault of his own ends up becoming a hero. That one is actually going a lot better. I'm much more satisfied with the arc, the theme and especially with the ending. The way the forces of antagonism build and build. It all came so much easier than the absolute brain crusher that the supervillain story has turned out to be.

It is a much more complex story though, that was why it was so appealing to me. Every villain is the hero of their own story. That was what I started with, so then it was a case of coming up with a story where a person could make totally justifiable choices that when looked at from the outside appear to be the wrong ones. I ended up with a lot of it being about the way he refused to align himself with earth's governments and so they used the press to paint him as the bad guy whilst the hero was something of a "corporate stooge" and so they used their media ties to make him a hero. But that all seemed to be too political, not necessarily a bad thing but I wanted the story to be much purer than that and more of a saga about a family and the consequences their choices have.

I'll keep that one on the burner for now and work on the hero story.

That's a longer term goal. In the meantime I have at least 3 more Future Shocks to work on and send in. Hopefully the people at 2000AD will start getting a slew of submissions from me in the next 2 weeks and maybe they;ll get used to/sick of seeing my name and decide they should just give me a chance/shut me up.