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Matchett’s Musings: Working at Grayhaven Part V

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Matchett’s Musings

Working At GrayHaven Part 5:  You Are Not Alone In The Abyss

I spent 5 years with GrayHaven comics as a writer, editor and friend to the company.  In many ways I still consider myself the last of those things and I have many friends who still work with them.  I bother Andrew Goletz far too much on Facebook, speak to great friends and ridiculously talented people on a daily basis that I either met through GrayHaven or grew closer with through the company.  I also met people that I genuinely detest through my time there but I am very fortunate and grateful I met more good people than bad.

I’m not completely faultless, however.  I made mistakes and not just one or two.  I made a number of errors in judgment in ways I dealt with certain situations and dealing with people.  No one is perfect, least of all me.  However, the past is gone and it’s not coming back.  I hope in some ways the stories that I’ve told so far have been somewhat interesting as to my creative process but this article will be a little more educational.

This article will highlight two volumes that highlighted the best and worst of my GrayHaven experiences.  Ultimately I am very proud to have my name on both projects, they are both results of many hours of work that I think paid off in terms of output.  However, delivering a high quality book sadly isn’t the only mark of how successful a book is.

Before I get to them though, I realized there was one volume I forgot about last week.  So to prove that I am by no means perfect, I’m going to do a brief summary of the one GrayHaven story I did, that I honestly completely forgot about.

More than ever, let me stress that the following events I describe here are from my perspective only.  Other versions of events can and probably will vary.  I will do my best however to give you all the events as they happened.  Anyone who would like to offer a different perspective that either is similar to my own or differs from mine is invited to do so.

GrayHaven Presents: Sci-fi/Horror

So yes, this is the one I forgot about, although I’m not sure exactly why, as it is certainly memorable for several reasons.  The volume was a part of GrayHaven’s ‘Limitless’ line which was now looking to produce large, graphic novel sized anthologies which would even see some colour stories.  By and large, due to cost, GrayHaven rarely had done colour before (with one notable exception we’ll get to shortly) but these volumes had a healthy amount of stories with colour in them.

The first of these was ‘Sci-Fi/Horror’ which was taking GrayHaven’s most successful genre and adding in a large science fiction twist on top.  The volume featured a wonderful wraparound cover by longtime GrayHaven artist, Leo Gonzales who should be working on a big three book like 5 minutes ago.

When I was pitching my story, I had already delivered a few horror themed tales during my time with GrayHaven.  I wanted something this time that would really stand out though, something that would be genuinely creepy.  The first thing that hit me was an image of a man in a restaurant where all the people with him would be the same person.  It was an unsettling picture in my mind but I wondered how I could make it practical.  I literally built a whole story around this one image in my mind which is how the story that eventually became ‘REMWorld’ came to be.

Essentially REMWorld took place at a point in the future that (for an affordable price) you could customize your dreams.  Wanting to get away from it all for reasons that were outlined in the story, the main character chose this new fad to have a wonderful dreaming experience.  The trouble was that the tech started to malfunction and slowly but surely, the man’s subconscious turned the dream into a nightmare.  When I came up with the concept, I thought it was something really different that I could cram as much creepy stuff as I could think of in.  I could also use the advantage of the entire thing being a dream to give myself a certain freedom to do what I wanted and jump scene to scene with little or no explanation.  After all, what is a dream if nothing but random?

It was several months later when it was already printed when I realized the story bore some similarities to the movie Vanilla Sky, which in turn was adapted from the Spanish film ‘Open Your Eyes’.  I think however that REMWorld took the concept to a much darker place overall and I decided to never really let on about the similarity and hope no one noticed (until now, oops).

I thought the story turned out very well and it was really well illustrated by an artist named James Emmett.  I can’t honestly comment what it was like to work with James because I didn’t have any communication with him.  I wrote the story, I corrected the story after edits and poof it appeared.  Almost like magic.  I will say he did a great job and I hope to work with him more directly at some point soon!

The story also featured the debut of ‘Darma’, the virtual guide through REMWorld who took on a sinister personality as the story progressed.  I loved Darma, I really did and if I have my way, she’ll be back.

So that brings us to the main points of this article.  Sorry for the slight detour but now we’re about to dive in head first.  Abandon hope all thee who enter the Abyss.

Tales From The Abyss Vol. 1-4 (and maybe 5?)

It all seemed to be perfect, all the stars and the planets would align and all would be right with the world.  Like I mentioned above, horror was GrayHaven’s strongest seller and people wanted colour stories from us and existing creators wanted a shot at telling bigger and better stories.  When Andrew decided to start (at the time) the second spin off anthology to accompany the Gathering, a horror prestige anthology that would largely feature colour stories made the most sense.  We would even let people tell one story over multiple stories and we even had a top tier creator to tell such a tale over the books initial five volumes.

We had all the boxes checked, a big story for a pro lined up and more ongoing multi-anthology stories green lit from Erica J. Heflin and Inverse Comics super guru Kevin LaPorte.  It all seemed like it was going to go well.

Except it didn’t, it really didn’t.  Since I had edited the second and third volume of the horror books, I was the natural choice to take charge on this project too.  Since the workload was going to be nothing like none of us had ever attempted at the time before, I was joined in the editing chair by Erica J. Heflin.

Ultimately we produced four issues of the anthology that faced a multitude of delays, headaches and enough tales of woe to make anyone sit and wait for nurse to bring them their medication.  The first two volumes in my view, quality wise, were among GrayHaven’s best and they both overtook my long standing favorite of Vol. 6 as the best material GrayHaven had produced.  The third volume and fourth volumes were not quite as strong I felt but where of a really high quality I was very proud to be involved with.  I even had a story in Vol. 3 of Abyss which I’ll get it in a moment.

There was only one problem (on top of all the other problems the book faced).

No one cared.  We’d done everything right, we’d seen what people were buying, were requesting and had a pro on board and we gave it to them.  Still, no one cared and the four volumes of Tales From The Abyss which were produced were amongst GrayHaven’s lowest sellers.

Then there were the problems involved in actually getting the books out.  The book just seemed eternally cursed with problems that included but were not exclusive to the following

  • Writers being difficult
  • Artists being difficult
  • Writers not delivering scripts
  • Artists not delivering art
  • Writers refusing to change their stories for edits
  • Writers wanting their stories removed because they didn’t like another writer/artist in the same volume as them
  • Colourists being hard to come by, especially since GrayHaven were not paying talent at the time
  • Finding replacements stories/artists/colourists with sometimes not much time between the story needing to be done and the volume being printed

Of course, at the time anyone asked how things were going with the books, Erica and myself would smile and nod.  I wonder if we had perhaps pooled our efforts we put into trying to get this book chugging along that we would have accomplished something a lot easier, like say solving world hunger or curing the cold.

Honestly, it was just hellish trying to get the books out.  It seemed that the fruits of our labors were worth it because, like I said the volumes were great (by and large) and looked STUNNING but again…no one bought them.  Sales were so poor that when GrayHaven revamped their website earlier this year, the volumes were pulled from sale and Vol. 5 (to my knowledge) was never made available for purchase.

I often equate my time editing to like being in a room full of spinning plates.  My job was simple, don’t let the plates fall and I think I did that.  I think I was pretty good at that but the Abyss plates were like cutlery that fights back or cuts off your hands if you touch it.

I’m a big believer in cause and effect.  I think in retrospect that working on Abyss caused a domino effect that ultimately led to me leaving GrayHaven late last year.  Perhaps everything would have worked out the same but if Abyss had been handled by another editor, things may have been different.

I do hope that if you find a copy, you do buy it because the stories (by and large) are rather brilliant.  The talent that DID deliver and I COULD depend on, delivered in spades and did some of their best work.  It also featured the first pairing between me and my future Sparks collaborator, Kell Smith for a story that was in the 3rd Abyss issue.

I’ve complimented Kell a bunch but I can’t stress how much of a fan of her work I was by this point.  It was Erica’s idea to pair us together for the horror tale I wrote which was ‘Fasten Your Seatbelt’ and showed we had some creative charisma that would secure her place as part of team Sparks.

‘Fasten Your Seatbelt’, was something I conceived based on my absolute hatred of flying.  It’s not just not liking to fly (which I don’t) but it’s the overall experience of it.  Like I said in one of my earlier articles (available right here on Graphic Policy!!!!) I don’t like waiting.  Like at all.  To me, flying is just a constant state of waiting.

You wait to check in, you wait to get through security, you wait to get on the plane, you wait for the plane to take off, you wait on the plane, you wait to get off the plane, you wait for your luggage.  I just despise it and being a tall fellow, I get ridiculously uncomfortable when I fly.  I have often fantasized about being on my own on a plane but then kind of thought that would be rather horrible which is where ‘Fasten Your Seatbelt’ comes in.

I wrote a story featuring a man who woke up alone on board an empty plane.  I just poured all my hate of flying into the story and I think it was pretty creepy (even though Andrew and Erica kept calling it ‘Glenn’s Langoleers’, le sigh).  I think Kell did a wonderful job drawing the story and I think it stood proud among the usual high quality stories that Abyss delivered.

It was a shame that not many people got to read them.  It seems strange now that after all that effort to put out the books that they’re gone now.  All that time spent keeping those plates spinning I’ll never get back.  Still, I delivered what I thought were great comics and that was my job so I can hold my head high at least in that regards.

Sometimes though, there comes for a need for a comic where sales aren’t the primary force behind making them.  Sometimes you’re compelled to make a comic for something higher, something that sadly can emanate from tragedy.

You Are Not Alone Vol. 1 and 2

On December 14th 2012, America went through a great tragedy that is known as the ‘Sandy Hook elementary school shootings’.  I won’t the events of what occurred on that day because they are well known and you can find every opinion possible on the tragedy readily available online.

How it affected GrayHaven was down to how the tragedy affected our publisher, Andrew Goletz.  He felt compelled to do something in response to this heinous act and that is exactly where the concept of ‘You Are Not Alone’ came from.

The volume was going to be the biggest thing that the company had ever attempted.  It was going to be an anti-bullying oversized graphic novel that would help those that looked to help people that were treated differently because of their appearance, their race, their sexuality and other things that people can pray upon.  It also looked to help those that were dealing with issues that would perhaps lead to self harm or anorexia and who to call and/or contact in relation to these issues.

It was an extremely worthy project and one I was eager to be a part of.  I was heavily bullied when I was younger and wanted to help with the project that would hopefully help others get through similar experiences.  I wasn’t part of the initial ‘You Are Not Alone’ (or YANA as it became known) conceptual team but I was eager to offer any help I could.

Sadly, I was told that I wasn’t needed.  I’m sure Andrew wouldn’t mind me quoting him directly as he told me ‘I don’t think you’re a good enough editor’.

I was furious and I think that one sentence was another big contributor to me eventually leaving GrayHaven.  In retrospect I think I should have been more understanding and realizing that this was the most important thing that GrayHaven had ever done and it was much bigger than any of us.  I like to count Andrew as one of my closest friends and although we have had many, many arguments over the years about a number of subjects I don’t think he has ever done anything to intentionally hurt me.  Still at the time, I was angry and I just decided to pitch a story to the book in the hope that I could help someone with what I was allowed to contribute to the volume.

I wrote ‘00110001 (binary core for the number ‘one’) is the loneliest number’ which dealt with the very modern and real problem of Cyber Bullying.  I was tempted to tell a more personal take based on my own bullying experiences but I thought that there would be a lot of those types of stories.  I wanted to tackle an important issue that I didn’t think anyone else would think of (I was right).  I think I did a good job on the story and I asked previous collaborator, Paula Cob to do the art chores.  She did an exceptional job and I think the story hit all the beats that I intended it to.  In truth, You Are Not Alone is filled with many personal and harrowing tales that in truth nearly moved me to tears the first time I read it.  I think it truly lived up to its purpose and I was proud that my story was a small part of it.

There was a long gestation period for the project and eventually Andrew asked me to come on board and help get it out.  I can’t honestly remember what the problems were or how much work I did to help get the book out, all I remember is how I reacted.  I reacted like an utter ass who continually threw Andrew’s words about my ability as an editor back at him.

I did the job I was asked to do because I always did but looking back I should have just swallowed my pride and helped the volume (which again, was much bigger than me) get out but I decided to be difficult while doing it.

Eventually the book came out, it was a big hit and we heard a lot of stories from people who it helped.  We also got the most media coverage than I believe any other GrayHaven anthology and a follow up was soon seen as a necessity.

In a true 120, instead of not having me involved at all, Andrew gave me the responsibility of producing ‘You Are Not Alone 2’ all by myself.  Although it wasn’t quite as large as the first volume, the second one was due to be larger than any editor had delivered by themselves.

I was intimidated by this and knowing how important the project was, I wondered if I was capable.  Then, one of my fellow editors told me point blank that they didn’t think I could do it.  Like a bull that had seen a red flag, I swore that I would prove them wrong and worked my ass off to make sure the volume would be ready to go by September 2014.

Along with the other books I was looking after, I can honestly say that You Are Not Alone 2 took most of my attention.  I asked for help from as many artists and letterers that I could think of but never once did I contact another editor.  The gauntlet had been thrown down and I was going to deliver this volume over the finish line and I was going to do it by myself.

Which I did and I think I delivered a beautiful volume that featured great stories by a multitude of creators.  I was told to have it ready for production for September and I did that, only needing lettering done on a handful of stories but I had done everything else.  I had read through the hundreds of submissions, I had edited the stories, I had assigned artists, I had dealt with even more submissions once they reopened and I got as many stories lettered as I could without any budget.

In truth, I think the effort to put out You Are Not Alone 2 burned me out.  Other things happened after that, things were said about me and to me that along with everything else that had occured, caused me to leave GrayHaven.  It broke my heart because I had invested so much effort, time and finances into the company and I was now feeling I was no longer welcome.

Whether that was true or not, I’m not sure.  There are people I am still very close to there and there are those that after I left, decided to set fire to my virtual chair at the table and pretend I was never there at all.

On a final note, I want to talk about the story I wrote myself for YANA 2 which was called ‘Someone for Anyone’ that was wonderfully illustrated by Dan Laurer.  The story featured an old bear in a toy shop that was never paid attention to and was picked on by the more popular toys.  Finally, one day a little girl comes into the shop and takes him home.  I had long since been criticized by other editors for the amount of words I would use in a story and decided to tell this one without any words or captions.

I think the story met that challenge and Dan did a great job telling the story without one word of dialogue.  I had met Dan through chance when looking for an artist for a sc-fi ‘Alterna’ anthology where he delivered in spades on a story that I’m hoping sees the light of day very soon.

Dan has worked in the industry for years and is a great talent and I hope I am lucky enough to work with him again someday.

Still, I think it’s very ironic to look back at that bear, now my time at GrayHaven has come to an end.  It was a good toy but it still sat on a shelf, ridiculed by the other toys on a daily basis which caused it to feel undervalued and alone.

One day, the door opened and someone appreciated the bear for what it was.  I hope that one day, the door will open and someone will do the same for me.

Many thanks to Andrew Goletz for letting me do these articles and letting me say what I wished.  I’m sure I’ll be annoying him about something before you finish this.

Next:  The rise of Indie Comics

Got any comments, suggestions or questions? Let me know! Also follow me on Twitter @glenn_matchett

Matchett’s Musings: Creating Sparks Part 4

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Creating Sparks Part 4: Selling yourself

I was in high school at the time that the internet was really coming to prominence. I remember sitting in Economics listening to my teacher make the less than radical prediction that the internet would change the way businesses work. It would give small businesses a whole new potential customer base and give businesses a global market to play with.

The same applies to comics, the internet has given small press creators a whole new avenue to showcase their talents. Whether you sell comics directly from your own website (such as GrayHaven does) or market your talents by offering great free content via webcomics (for some exceptional ones check out GrayHaven regular Donal Delays ‘Daring Adventures’, Jason Snyder and Michael Sumislaski‘s ‘Horntoad Sam‘, Nathan Lee James ‘Moonlight Motel‘ & John Clerkin and Ann Harrison’s ‘Bunsen Bunnies‘) it’s now easier than ever to get your work out there if you have a desire to make comics.

The internet has also opened up the door to crowd funding like Kickstarter, Patreon, Indigogo and many more to creators who have the desire or the talent but perhaps not the resources to bring their product to market. Making comic is expensive and you will undoubtedly lose more than you gain but like I said to a fellow writer many years ago ‘if you’re in comics to make money you’re probably in the wrong game’.

When Sparks was released I already had established a few connections through GrayHaven and from my previous solo outing in ‘Living With Death’. I’ve never been to fond of convincing people to buy something from me but no matter what job you do, sales will have some aspect of it, even if you don’t realize it. It’s important in comics to push yourself out there because especially when it comes to super small press work with characters that no one care about but YOU then you’re hardly going to get people banging at your door to buy a copy.

I’ve been to conventions both big and small, some great while others weren’t so great. In both instances I saw small press people sitting watching literally hundreds of potential customers pass them by. Meanwhile I see others who have what my wife would refer to as ‘the gift of the gab’ which means they can draw the attention of people and get people to buy their product. It all depends on your personality of course but tables at conventions (big or small) are pricey and it’s a hard truth that you have to fight hard for every sale.

I won’t say I’m particularly good at it either, I’ve been behind that table and looking at people with an expression likely shared by deer’s moments before an encounter with a car. It takes me a while to get going but like I say, I know no one will come to me so I have to do it. Even top tier creators fight hard to make sure their books are brought to people’s attention. Space in comic shops is precious and creators will want to make sure their books get a spot.

So when Sparks was a released I took advantage of the connections I had and started e-mailing people. I had previously garnered a lot of positive press online and locally for ‘Living With Death’ so it was a little easier. Much to my surprise, people had enjoyed ‘Living With Death’ quite a bit more so were easier to convince to check out ‘Sparks’.

It wasn’t all easy of course. To get reviews you have to supply free copies and like ‘Living With Death’ there were review sites that said they would take the time to look at ‘Sparks’, were given a free copy and I never heard from them again. It’s to be expected because much like space in a comic shop, space on a website can be precious. You’re going to get more hits (and more revenue) talking about the latest Marvel or DC ‘event’ rather than a review of a small press comic. I can only assume the people that I didn’t hear back from didn’t care for the work.

I did get quite a few favorable reviews though thankfully. My efforts paid off as I believe as of this writing both Living With Death and Sparks are the most reviewed books that GrayHaven has produced. This is what happens when you make a little bit of a nuisance of yourself I suppose but like I say, people won’t come to you.

It also meant that Kell Smith got a little bit of a spotlight too. People last week could probably tell I’m a big fan of Kell’s and I want to see her get the success that her talent warrants. Every time I get into a working arrangement with someone on a book I am always eager to share other opportunities I spot for their creative expansion.

People bought the book and seemed to enjoy it. The moment I had worked 12 years for had come to pass. Hearing people’s reactions to the last page of Sparks is often a priceless moment and one I find incredibly gratifying.

Making comics is hard, it can be pricey and it’s something that I have more than once (or a hundred times) considered throwing the towel in on. I’ve lost friends, had people steal money from me, break promises and say things about me that aren’t true. It’s a messy world, even at a level where not many people know who you are.

Moments like the one I described above however make it all worth it. Even if one person read Sparks and demanded more, it means more to me than anything else. Now the book is out of course the journey doesn’t end. You think about what’s on the horizon and doing better than you’ve done before.

It’s easy to make a comic when people don’t expect anything of you. Try doing it when people expect it to be good. That’s the challenge myself and Kell face now and I can’t wait.

Next: I’m headed on honeymoon for a few weeks. When I come back I’ll be talking to Brett about what’s coming up. I’ll be talking women in comics, female characters, the rise of indie comics, Living With Death, editing, some of my GrayHaven shorts and more. Hope to see you all when I get back.

Got any comments, suggestions or questions? Let me know! Also follow me on Twitter @glenn_matchett

Matchett’s Musings: Creating Sparks Part 3

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Creating Sparks Part 3: Do you hear that?

Those that know me will probably be familiar with the fact that if you meet me and talk to me for a significant length of time, you’ll discover my passion for Doctor Who. I could write an entire article on that show itself but for now I want to use it for an analogy.

In the show, one of the Doctor’s foes ‘The Master’ was recently revealed to have a constant drumming in his mind. This noise was the explanation for his villainous ways by and large, I mention it because I too have a similar sound in my mind. It’s not a drum though, it’s more like this.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

Patience has never been one of my attributes. In an infamous issue of classic X-Factor, Peter David wrote a rather famous bit of dialogue from Quicksilver about how he constantly feels pissed off because compared to him, everyone moves so slow. I’m a little like that but I don’t have super speed to blame, I can sometimes just be an impatient jerk.

I’ve always done things fast in terms of deadlines. In University and in comics I heard people jest that I would have the assignment done before there was even an assignment due. I just liked to be early which was a trait I picked up from my mother who at times liked to be 5 hours early for a flight at the airport.

This expediency can be a blessing, I’ve never missed a deadline and people tell me I’m dependable. Of course it can also be a curse because I work at such a rapid rate, I expect everyone else to as well. I need everything done yesterday and in the world of comics, things tend to move at a general glacial pace. I’ve written scripts for volumes that have seen a year (or more) from me finishing my part to it being in my hands. There are still scripts I wrote back in 2012 that I’m still waiting to see published.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

My impatience has led me to make bad decisions, cost me friends and more negative things than I care to remember. It has also allowed me to be an editor at GrayHaven that has more output than any of my peers with regards to completed volumes.

It was this double edged sword of a trait that led to Sparks artist A leaving the book, or rather me asking them to leave. I think they worked on the book for 6-8 months (maybe more, maybe less) and produced 2 character sketches in that time. I tried to be patient with them (or as I could be) contacting them every 2 months or so for a progress update. Eventually I decided to tell them that due to the delay the project had been cancelled.

I did this so I could find someone else. The project of course wasn’t cancelled but I felt this was a decision that was best for the book. I wanted someone who could really dedicate their time and focus to Sparks.  As talented as artist A was, that wasn’t them.

Over this time things had expanded quite a bit at GrayHaven. When I went to Andrew to ask about a replacement artist, he told me that I had to look outside the group of artists working for the company. This made sense to me because since GrayHaven doesn’t pay its contributors, we had to make sure the artists we had were put towards putting out the volumes.

Also by this time, the money I had saved to perhaps pay an artist had been used on another project. I thought back pay was my best option.

The right and wrong of back pay vs. payment is something I will maybe talk about in future. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it here, I just know] what I’ve spent trying to break into comics I have never really gotten back. I’ve even had people steal from me and heard many stories from people who were stolen from. Sometimes making comics isn’t all its cracked up to be.

Along came artist B who said they had a day job, loved the project and back pay wasn’t a problem. A number of months later artist B then contacted me saying they had received an offer for a paying gig and would return ‘if they found the time’.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

Being frank, I found that artist B’s work wasn’t suitable to what I was looking for so for a change it seemed that things were in my favour. I needed someone who would care about the project, whose work I liked and someone I could trust. By this time GrayHaven had progressed on with more ambitious projects than my little British set one shot and it seemed to had been largely quietly forgotten. I don’t blame the company because you have to keep going forwards. If you spend your time on each problem project you’ll drive yourself insane.  I was largely left to my own devices and because of that, I went to the artist who I had wanted from the start, just like it was some sort of odd destiny.

I first became familiar with Kell Smith’s work when she did a cover for us for our 8th anthology that centered around the theme ‘myth’. It was a beautiful cover harkening back to the classic sword in the stone tale that featured King Arthur’s discovery of the mythical sword Excalibur. When I first saw the cover my question was ‘Who is this Kell Smith person?’

I was treated to more lovely covers, prints, pencils and colors by Kell who seemed to be a Swiss army knife of talent. I even had the fortune of working with her on the third volume of GrayHaven’s premier horror title ‘Tales From The Abyss’.

I contacted Kell with the story of my (at that time) over 2 years of headache’s and proposed she join me.  Given my misfortune to this date I didn’t expect a yes. I think Kell is immensely talented and GrayHaven was very fortunate to have someone like her, I didn’t think she would be interested in working with me.

It turns out I was wrong. Kell loved the idea and it seemed that fate had led me all the way back to her. She delivered in my view, beautiful work and brought Mel Sparks, Kathy Ericson and Barry Patterson to life. I was left speechless the first time she showed me the cover because I was brought back to that classroom where it had all been conceived and all the pain, disappointment and broken promises were suddenly worth it.

However getting a product in comics is one thing, getting people to buy it is another.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

Next: Release, Reviews and Marketing

Got any comments, suggestions or questions? Let me know! Also follow me on Twitter @glenn_matchett

Matchett’s Musings: Creating Sparks Part 2

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Creating Sparks Part 2: The Basics and Getting the Green Light

I remember in English class something my teacher said something to me which I feel is very true. ‘The moment you write something and consider it brilliant is when you should stop.’ In essence what she meant was ‘don’t get your head up your own ass too much.’ Indeed you see it all the time in comics, movies, music or any other industry you can think of. You see people struggle and fight for their spot, producing amazing work but then they get their big break. They become a sure-fire hit, they get told their work is genius and after a while that stops being true. The fire, the motivation to really deliver is gone because no matter what you do, people will buy it.

The reason I’m saying that is I never really think you stop learning to write, especially in comics. Literally every work, every project I learn something new. Sometimes it’s something small, sometimes it improves the quality of my scripts a great deal. However when I started out, after creating Sparks which was closely followed by a concept called The Immortals (more on that later) I had no idea how to put together a comic script. I wasn’t even sure how to structure prose properly and so I completed a lot of stories that went pretty much like this.

Turning to the audience, Glenn gives them a big smile.

Glenn: Hello audience!

Audience: Hello Glenn!

Taking a bow, Glenn proceeds to bask in the audience applause.

Around this time I also sent a full letter of ideas forward to Marvel. I posted it all the way to New York and even put in the legal form the big 2 make you sign anytime you want to submit work/ideas to them. Looking back it was so unprofessional and so deluded of me that the entire submission may have been done out in crayon with cute little backwards letters.

There are plenty of books on how to write comics or to write period. The likes of Stan Lee, Peter David, Brian Bendis, Stephen King, etc have all crafted books on how to write.

I’ll admit right now that I have read none of those. I certainly encourage others who would likely benefit greatly from it but I never did. I just learned through buying a lot of comics.

That might sound strange but one of the wonders of the modern age of comics is how much effort put into collected editions. With some of these collections you get an assortment of DVD/Blu-Ray type special features. You get sketches, pin-up art and sometimes you get scripts. Full comic scripts from the best in the industry and how I learned to put together scripts was by reading other scripts.

I also found a number of other writers putting their scripts online, what then has followed is some trial and error. I’ve included some stuff, ditched other things and tried my best to find my own way to do it. I learned the difference between full script and ‘Marvel style’, how to structure a page and some interesting things I never would have realized.

I found that there was no real ‘wrong’ way to do it. Every writer laid out their full scripts differently and I came across quite a variety of styles. I would probably call my own mostly a blend of Neil Gaiman, Ed Brubaker, J. Michael Staczynski and a little of myself.

Being an editor with GrayHaven I have the pleasure of reading literally hundreds of scripts for anthologies and I pick up interesting things here also. Little hints and tips I use to adjust my own style. If there is anyone out there looking to write comics or wants to learn how to do it better (we can all improve) I would highly suggest reading scripts from peers or pro’s. It’s astonishing what you can pick up. Often times whenever I green light a pitch for a GrayHaven anthology I sometimes get the writer going ‘This is great…now what do I do?’ I then send them some strong scripts I have received over the years.

I would like in particular like to mention GrayHaven vets Ray Goldfield, Doug Hahner, Sean Leonard and Jason Snyder who have great instincts when it comes to scripting. There are many others who I’ve found helpful but those guys are top-notch.

Something I really liked from Neil Gaiman’s scripts was the informal manner he wrote in. In her introduction to Absolute Sandman Vol. 3, Jill Thompson wrote how much of a pleasure it was to read Gaiman’s scripts because of this. I thought I would do the same and I do attempt to do so on a regular basis.

Now obviously it’ll depend on the artist and publisher. The majority of the latter I have worked with enjoyed it but others consider it a distraction. When it comes to your publisher, if they ask you to write the comic script standing on your head and reciting ‘Old McDonald’ then you must do so but…more on this later.

So I started to write comic scripts because mainly, I learn by doing. I first wrote a Booster Gold one I published on Facebook for fun. I was loving the comic series at the time and thought ‘Well, why not?’

I also wrote a script for artist Aaron Bir for his then website Sequential Stutter. I tried to find the story and can’t which is a shame because it was the first comic I had published anywhere.

Then came the beginnings of GrayHaven comics. I’ve told the story over and over so I’ll keep it as brief as possible. Good friend and fellow Jinxworld poster Andrew Goletz asked a bunch of us if we wanted to do a comic anthology for fun. It turned into Vol. 1 ‘The Thing With Feathers’.

I could probably (and will likely) craft an entire article on where I get the idea for some of my GrayHaven shorts but my first actual printed comic work was in there. The feeling I got when I heard that first book, saw my name on the back (which I still miss) is something I will never forget. I also got to work on with artist Brent Peeples who went on to much bigger and better things with Images Last Of The Greats and other work for IDW, Zenescope, Valiant, Dynamite. I loved working with Brent and hope that one day, our paths cross again.

Vol. 1 of The Gathering was a big hit commercially and critically. It wasn’t perfect but people liked the potential and what it offered. A publisher was willing to let unknown creators throw themselves out there, for better or worse. Having learned over the years that breaking in was very difficult to those who could only write and not draw, it was great to see somewhere that offered that.

I helped out GrayHaven the only way I could in the early days which was financially and with any advice Andrew was willing to take from me. Time passed, more volumes got released and we even had some great pro’s like Gail Simone and Sterling Gates help us out.

Soon we had over 8 volumes with more on the way. New volumes were being announced, I’d sent pitches and Andrew approved them along with another opportunity. Due to my initial support he granted me a one shot. It was quite something as back then, the only solo work GrayHaven had approved was Doug Hahner and Donal Delay’s My Geek Family which had earned it through winning a contest.

I was over the moon and my mind exploded with possibilities. I went back to the idea that came first, I went back to Sparks. I pitched it to Andrew who liked it but wanted one change, he wanted it to be set in Britain and not the US because back then in the days of 2011 when this all happened it wasn’t all that common. Nowadays we have quite brilliant crime dramas set in the UK like Sherlock, Luthor and Broadchurch but at the time it was a great idea so I was all for it!

He then asked me who I wanted to draw the story and I gave him a list of 4-5 names, the first of which in an interesting twist was Kell Smith. However Andrew went above and beyond to a secure an artist (here thereafter referred to as artist A) who was immensely talented and seemed to be on the cusp of real success.

It was all set! The car was there, the key was in the ignition and it was all a go. I had only one problem. I had an enemy I wasn’t fully aware of. An enemy that had operated in the shadows for years but it seemed that now, just when things were taking off for me they were about to become my archenemies and a frequent pain in my rear.

Sherlock Holmes has Moriarty

Batman has the Joker

Even the Powerpuff Girls have Mojo Jojo

It turns out that Glenn Matchett’s enemy was named ‘impatience’ and we were about to get very well acquainted.

Next: Artist A, Artist B and Kell Smith

Got any comments, suggestions or questions? Let me know! Also follow me on Twitter @glenn_matchett

The Covers of The Gathering Volumes 7 and 8 Unveiled

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GrayHaven Comics has revealed the covers to issues seven and eight of their anthology series The Gathering.  Volume 7: Myth has a cover by Kell Smith and debuts at the end of December which also marks the end of the second year of the anthology’s young existence. This issue also features the finale to Len Wallace (Love Buzz) and Brenda Lopez‘s first ‘season’ of The Zipper Club.

Volume 8: Sci-Fi features a cover by John Coker with Kell Smith debuts in January as The Gathering goes MONTHLY. The book also features a story by John Jackson Miller (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Knight Errant) and Mike Lapinski (Feeding Ground).

All six current issues of The Gathering and the first issue of the mini series Ever After are available: http://www.grayhavencomics.com/ghcomics/