• Home
  • Releases
  • Blog
  • Design
  • Posters
  • Submission Guidelines
  • About
  • Privacy Policy

Loser City

Multimedia Collective

  • Home
  • Releases
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Art
  • Submissions
You are here: Home / Features / ymmv: Knights of the Round Table

ymmv: Knights of the Round Table

September 1, 2015 By LoserCityBoss Leave a Comment

ymmv Ryan K Lindsay

Two.

That’s how many Knights of the Round Table I have.

The Knights are peeps I can call upon for consideration and feedback on comic stuff – anything from ideas to full scripts – and I feel like they’ll assemble and have me feedback within a week, or earlier if there’s a specific rush.

You need to have someone sitting at your Round Table.

They have to be someone you trust. Do you value their opinion on things? Do they have a keen eye for how good comics are made?

No, they pretty much just cannot be family. Family will blindly love whatever you pump out, or they’ll go soft on you for fear of hurting you. Family is no good for guilt-free money, sexual favours, or writing feedback. These are the immutable laws of Midgard.

So, I advise you to hunt around and find people who know what they are talking about – because empty feedback is about as useful as someone scratching your foot and hoping it’ll chew your food for you.

 

For me, I met my Knights via Twitter and then a little site called thoughtballoons. Now, I’ll get back to that site in another post no doubt but for now, know that over time I bonded with different peeps and soon found a few who I gelled with. We were on the same page. We don’t necessarily write the exact same things, we aren’t carbon copies, but we care about making comics, we think about it a lot, and we do our best to do it.

We also want to help a brother out when they’re in need.

I have no doubt I could make good comics without my Knights. I’m no fool, but I also know there plenty of times these gents have given me a nudge in the right direction, or asked the probing question, and I’ve been able to level up.

It’s not cheating.

For so long, I thought if I asked for help [a Knight, the artist, the editor] then it was me admitting defeat. Me admitting I’m not good enough. That was the stupid ego-ball of burning helium and hydrogen in my brain getting it all wrong. I used to stew on scenes, take time with scripts, so that what I delivered would be ‘perfect.’

Newsflash, it was never perfect. Art so rarely is, but if it’s your best at that moment, that’s cool. It’ll probably be better in the future, or with more eyes, or once you truly collaborate. And that’s what I had to learn.

I thought the artist would think I was useless if I came running, trousers around my ankles, stumbling, ranting incoherently, asking for them to help out. I’m the writer, the script is my job, they should be allowed to focus on the art.

Hoo-boy, how wrong I was.

Obviously we all now know the artists LOVE to be in on the whole process. Hell, they’re amazing at it. I can’t tell you how much of Headspace was Eric Zawadzki kicking my ass, telling me there was room to improve, and then us shooting through the stratosphere.

Eric Zawadzki

Eric Zawadzki in action in Headspace

Once I learn to ask, or just jam, then I noticed things would improve. So your collaborator on the book, yep, they become a Knight.

But if I’m writing into the void on something then I will invariably end up calling up the Knights and asking for a pass and just their loose thoughts. No one has time to scribe essays about each scene, but overall feels on the idea/script/line help immeasurably.

You just have to step over your pride like you’d step over the fallen body of some alien soldier trying to incinerate your home with its mind-flames. You don’t pause, you don’t care, and you are moving forward.

Finding Knights is hard, good Knights, the ones you can trust, but once you have them [and you’ll know them when they saddle up] then you can’t let go.

I’ve been running my lexicographical detritus past these two Knights for years now. Everything from Headspace to my Australian Prime Minister shorts to some more recent licensed fare, they get a peep at it all because I always come away with something. Always.

Recently, I’d been blessed with a sniff at pitching a licensed character. And the one-page story pitch wasn’t due for another few weeks. So I assembled what I finally knew to be a killer synopsis/pitch. This sucker hummed, I was actually happy with it – which is insanely rare because I hate pitches, they are the padded room of writing, and I usually suck lemons at it. But this time I felt damn good [your first sign you are missing something].

But I sent it to the Knights anyway, hell, if they had nothing constructive to add then at least I got to humblebrag to someone that I was pitching THIS CHARACTER! So I sent it and you know exactly what happened. They came back with a few veins of gold they could see and I started mining harder.

The Knights took something good and made it great. They threaded this one little piece of theme home and I was crazy to have missed it, but it was right there, on the side, and they dished it up. This is why I love my Knights.

I heard a writer recently say they never ever share their work until it’s with their editor. Never, ever, and they stated it’s because they are too precious to have people touch, pick apart, ask, or sideye their work. I guess big ups for honestly, or maybe they were just being candid, but the thought horrified me. I mean, I remember that feeling, I still get it, you want it to be perfect and it always will be in your eyes, but if you wanna produce your best work, you’ve gotta get eyes on it before the big show. The editor is good [at least they used one, better than many] but to hide the work and the words away seems like insanity to me.

Your Knights have your back, they will be there for the purpose of helping. That might mean cutting off your arm when a zombie bites it, and that’ll sting, but it’s to save you. You wanna be saved, don’t you?

I would be stuck in 2008 if it weren’t for my Knights. And I’ll ride with them eternal, shiny, and chrome.


Ryan K. Lindsay is a comics writer who has logged time at Dark Horse, Monkeybrain, Vertigo and other esteemed publishers. He currently writes Negative Space, a comic we here at Loser Citylove quite a bit. You can (and should) pick Negative Space up from your local comic shop ordirectly through Dark Horse.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: comics, Eric Zawadzki, Headspace, Ryan K Lindsay, ymmv

About LoserCityBoss

It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

SOCIAL

FacebookInstagramTumblrTwitter

Buy Loser City Apparel

loser city T-shirt

Be a Loser

Sign up for Loser City's mailing list to receive weekly updates about the latest articles, shows, and releases.

TRENDZ

Anatomy of a Page art Austin CBS comedy comics Dark Horse DC DC Comics documentary Fantagraphics Film Fossil Records Games HBO hip-hop horror humor IDW Image Comics Indie indie comics jake muncy manga Marvel Marvel Comics Melissa Benoist Music penny dreadful Pete Toms punk Questionable Comics Review Ryan K Lindsay sci-fi Seattle Showtime Supergirl SXSW Television the CW TV video games Video of the Week ymmv

Top Posts & Pages

  • Below Her Mouth is Yet Another Disappointing Film About Lesbian Experiences
  • Fluid Exchange: I Roved Out by Rupert Everton
  • Codeine Crazy
  • Lost in My Mind: I Believe in Unicorns is a Gauzy and Inventive Exploration of Girlhood
  • Anatomy of a Page: Lone Wolf and Cub Omnibus Vol. 1 Pg. #672
  • Visual Domination: Angelina Jolie's Sexual Power in Mr and Mrs. Smith
  • Fluid Exchange: Stjepan Sejic's Sunstone
  • Trophies of Over Indulgence: A Look Inside the World of Gainers
  • All Things Must Change: Silk Rhodes' Debut is Delicious Audio Foreplay
  • Miss Stevens is a Film About Loneliness That Forgets it's About Loneliness

Follow Loser City

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
Instagram did not return a 200.

Follow loser_city on the Gram

Loser City is…

Comics, shows, a secret critical network -- we aim to fail big.

Danny Djeljosevic: Co-Founder

Morgan Davis: Co-Founder

Nick Hanover: Glorious Godfrey of LC

David Fairbanks: Creative Writing Editor

Kayleigh Hughes: Film Editor

Julie Muncy: Games Editor

David He: Assisting Consultant*

Contributors: Nate Abernethy, John Bender, AJ Bernardo, CJ Camba, Liam Conlon, Daniel Elkin, David A. French, Rafael Gaitan, Dylan Garsee, Stefanie Gray, Johnson Hagood, Shea Hennum, Zak Kinsella, Austin Lanari, Marissa Louise, Francesca Lyn, Chase Magnett, Justin Martin, Diana Naneva, Claire Napier, Joshua Palmer, James Pound, Mike Prezzato, Lars Russell, David Sackllah, Keith Silva, Nicholas Slayton, Carly Smith, Ray Sonne, Tom Speelman, Mark O. Stack, Dylan Tano, Mason Walker

Art

Why So Angry: Refusing to Forget Stories of Abuse

Poetry: My God, My World

Comic Cinema Club: Sorcerer by Rafael Gaitan and Mike Prezzato

Nonfiction: Progeny in Crisis by Kayleigh Hughes

The Persistence of Synergy: Scenes from the Stock Business Photo Prison Hellscape

More Art

Interviews

Dhani Harrison Plots His Own Path With Solo Debut In///Parallel

Boston Terriers and Desert Vibes: A Conversation with Jay and Sanders Fabares of “The Pale”

Questionable Comics: Becky & Frank and Rachael Stott

More Interviews

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in