Wednesday, 22 January 2014

The Artist Unleashed: HOW TO LEARN FROM COMICBOOKS AND POP FICTION, by Matthew Wayne Selznick

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6 comments:

  1. Comic books – gotta love 'em. I grew up in the 60s and 70s and there was nothing sweeter than a brand new comic book and a bottle of Coca-Cola on a summer day. Read a ton of them and cherished their shiny covers and their all-caps world. Funny that you're posting about having the same place in many books – all my books (all two of them and the one that's just started!) happen in the same place. I always admired that about Stephen King's Castlerock.

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    1. Thanks for commenting, Cathy! Sounds like you're off to a good start creating a storyworld.

      Have you given any thought to the overall arc of your storyworld (which isn't necessarily the same as the arc of a series of books or stories within the storyworld!) Are you working little bits into your works that could serve as jumping-off points for new stories / novels written by you or others... or do you plan to?

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  2. Developing a world like that with multiple characters and storylines is a smart way to craft a career.
    And I was heavily influenced by comic books and Heinlein as well.

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    1. Care to share any examples of how you're planning a creative franchise with your own work, Alex?

      Thanks for commenting!

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  3. I love the idea of a storyworld - it's like a parallel universe in which all the really cool dramatic things happen, but since none of it's real, only fictional people get hurt. You can sort of imagine all of these random characters wandering around an alternate earth, mingling and having adventures - what a great concept! I am absolutely going to think about that when I start my next project.

    Incidentally, I think comics are vastly underrated as an art form. You absolutely have to have mastered the concept of "show, don't tell" to make a good comic.

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    1. I'm glad the storyworld approach resonates with you, Lori. And, unsurprisingly, I couldn't agree more about comics as art. Anyone who can read Moore and Gibbons' Watchmen or Gilbert Hernandez' Heartbreak Soup and claim comics are "just kid stuff" might want to turn in their library card.

      Comics aren't prose, and they aren't film... and handled correctly, the medium is capable of expression in ways no other media can match!

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“I'm using my art to comment on what I see. You don't have to agree with it.” ~John Mellencamp

“Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace” ~Judith S. Marin

“I don't ever try to make a serious social comment.” ~Paul McCartney

“I'd make a comment at a meeting and nobody would even acknowledge me. Then some man would say the same thing and they'd all nod.” ~Charlotte Bunch

“Probably what my comment meant was that I don't care about the circumstances if I can tell the truth.” ~Sally Kirkland

“We're not going to pay attention to the silliness and the petty comments. And quite frankly, women have joined me in this effort, and so it's not about appearances. It's about effectiveness.” ~Katherine Harris