ymmv .26 – Always Be Learning It’s closing time. And you don’t have to go home, but you can’t study here. And I hope you’ve been studying, because even figuring out what not to do, or learning from the past mistakes of others, is great stuff to take into your future. This column was never […]
ymmv – When Pages Go Better
ymmv .25 – When Pages Go Better Writing a page and drawing a page are two different things. Anyone who’s ever scripted a splash page knows this deep in their heart. But there’s a third option, and that’s collaborating on a page. When this happens, you sometimes get something no one saw coming. Or, maybe […]
ymmv – Everything Else
ymmv .24 – Everything Else I love that image you get of the reclusive writer, married to their pages, hammering away while the world falls apart around them. I grew up wishing I could find my own Overlook Hotel to tend for the Winter. I’d pack the Underwood, a suitcase full of books, a few […]
ymmv – Run the Game Solo
ymmv .23 – Run the Game Solo No one is going to ask you to make comics. At first, this idea fuels my desire to self-motivate and stay up late every night to kick ass. But soon it also becomes a way of life when you don’t have a dozen publishing deals lined up. Literally, […]
ymmv – Splash Pages in the New Millennium
ymmv .22 – Splash Pages in the New Millennium I was going to title this one ‘Do you even splash, bro?’ but decided against it. Anything to do with ‘Making a Splash’ didn’t even get a run. C’mon, this is serious business, let’s get down to it. Okay, splash pages, just the words no doubt […]
ymmv – Requiem for a Theme
ymmv .21 – Theme Theme is a tricky one. Hell, people have a hard time finding the theme of a work, they debate over it, ponder whether one exists at all, and sometimes it’s completely up to interpretation anyway. Sometimes a creator has no control over the themes read into their work, but I still […]
ymmv – thoughtballoons
ymmv .20 – thoughtballoons What do you write when you’ve got nothing to write? I mean, we’ve all always got ideas. There are always things you ‘can’ write, but what do you write when there’s nothing you ‘need’ to write? When you first start writing especially, you will fall into times where there are no […]
ymmv – Asking Permission to Use their Toys
ymmv .19 – Asking Permission to Use their Toys Lemme share a story about pitching some licensed characters with you. The tl;dr – it’s hard. Well, it is for me. But I’m going to share the following in the hopes it might make people feel better about themselves. I often feel like loads of other […]
ymmv – Character Flaws
ymmv .18 – Character Flaws A narrative that glides on rails, containing perfect characters that are faultless, is boring on every possible level. A story full of people doing dumb things– to move the plot forward because the writer is lazy or making poor choices because the writer isn’t smart enough to see the obvious– […]
ymmv – Exhaustion
ymmv .17 – Exhaustion I’ve seen more than one meme about not glamorising exhaustion and I’ve already had enough so I’m going to throw my hat in the ring on this topic. Open the Can o’ Rant…now. Look, I get it, self-care is important, super important, anyone who knows my history knows I get this, […]