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Monday, August 27, 2007
Commentary for "Whatevers" in Comic Foundry #1
Hey everyone, I'm back for a post about a story of mine that appeared in the inaugural issue of Comic Foundry. I hope you bought or will soon. There are all kinds of interviews and fun articles that will entertain you, yes you, the smart comics fan. The issue is special for me because it features my first piece of fiction ever published. I've decided to lend a "director's commentary" of sorts to accompany the piece.
A quick summation: "Whatevers" is about a young man getting serious about comics and his life at the same time. He starts of being a guy who reads whatever is big at the time to finding a book that really means something to him, namely the collection of "A Game of You" storyline in Sandman. Parallel to his taste in comics growing the dude, Jack, gets serious about his creative endeavors with a friend of his Dennis.
This was not what I originally had in mind for a story. I knew I wanted to do a fictional piece for Tim Leong because I was wanted to stretch out from journalism. You can cover topics in fiction in a way you can't with journalism, where everything has to be on the surface. The original thought I had was to critique the consumerism that comes with being a fan. I wanted to tackle the idea that, for some people, buying an endless supply of merchandise proves you're a fan of Buffy or whatever. The most I came up with that was a kid who switches between studying the Frankfurt take on economics and burying his nose in Diamond's catalog. I couldn't find a way to do the story without it becoming heavy-handed so I scrapped that idea to focus more on the characters.
I had always read writers say that "the characters just write themselves" which I never quite understood before. Now I have some idea. I started with the vague idea of a comic fan who works in a bookstore (not a comics store as the subhead to the story states) broadening his horizons but I had a solid idea about two of the characters. When you don't have much of a plot in mind but you do have solid ideas for characters the dynamics between those characters creates a lot of the story.
Jack I based off of a few people I know. There are plenty of guys around my age who are super-smart but surprise me when their taste in comics are just middle-of-the-road (I wouldn't be surprised if some of those guys think "Ian's not so smart, why the Hell is he such a snob?"). Jack is actually sadder than those guys. He has no idea what we wants so he's stuck with this crappy retail job. I must admit that a lot of this story came from working in a major bookstore, including the dialogue used in the opening.
The other character I had a handle on was Andrea, the fan who turns Jack on to Sandman. That's partly based on someone I knew whose tastes ran towards the Vertigo stuff. The person in real life is quite the feminist but I didn't want to stress that point. Still, it just sort of made sense that when Jack leaves the boys club atmosphere in the basement it would be woman who helps him. One of the earlier drafts of this story had Andrea only appear once, giving Jack the book. I have to credit both Tim and Savage Critic Graeme McMillan for convincing me to change that. Tim liked the character a lot and she does seem like the kind of person Comic Foundry is aiming for. Graeme made the point that the woman is just a fantasy figure if that's her only role in the story. I agreed and decided to have Andrea challenge Jack at the end of story. This also leads to a somewhat happier ending, whereas the first one was much more cynical.
To be honest I think the story could be a bit more focused. I don't think there's as much gravity to Jack's quest as there should be for a reader to care. There's something but I could've done a better job of giving you a reason why Jack needs to get serious about his life. I think I did a good job at transforming his taste in comics and in fact the scene where he reads "A Game of You" is very personal to me. It's just that I think the turn around between Jack and Dennis is a little too easy. But maybe you have a different take on the story. If anything I just have a reason to do better next time.
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