I was a comic book reader long before I picked up a book. I’ve told this story before, but I’ll tell it again now.
When I was about 6 or 7, my class was taken to the little public library attached to our primary school, to meet the new librarian, Mrs McAllister. We were all lined up by the teacher and made to tell Mrs McAllister what we liked to read.
Whenever one of my classmates rattled off the books they liked - ponies, cars, science, funny books, scary books, or whatever - Mrs McAllister would point them in the right direction.
And then it got to me. The teacher had made me go last because she knew full well what I liked to read and she hated it.
“Go on,” she urged, prodding me in the back with a ferocity that would likely have you arrested and the whole school shut down and/or burned to the ground these days. “Tell Mrs McAllister what you like to read.”
I sheepishly admitted to the new librarian that I liked reading comics. She considered me for a moment, nodded, then said, “Wait here.”
Thirty seconds later, she returned with the biggest pile of comics I had ever seen in my life. Beanos, and Dandys, and Busters, and Whizzer and Chips.
Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Hulk - anything you could think of, it was in there.
Mrs McAllister turned me into a reader. She lured me in with all this stuff, and gradually weaned me onto books. She also made me a writer, but that’s a story for another day.
Since then, though I’m mostly known for writing books, I’ve written my fair share of comics, too. I wrote 200+ strips for The Beano, including the Bash Street Kids, Bananaman, and Gnasher & Gnipper.
I wrote Power Rangers, DC Super Hero Girls, Minecraft, Angry Birds, and other stuff I have forgotten.
My four-issue mini-series based on the Supermansion animated series starring Bryan Cranston and Chris Pine landed me a job writing for the show.
Basically, comic books have been a big part of my life, one way or another. Recently, I started writing some new scripts and teaming up with artists to produce some more. I thought I’d share a few snippets here today.
The Sidekicks Initiative
This one is based on my superhero novel of the same name. Art by Gilberto Ferrel, Colours by Fernanda González, Letters by Marco Della Verde.
This is actually an extract from issue two, which is now complete. I expect the finished comic to be around 7-8 issues, covering everything that happens in the book, with some extra stuff thrown in, too.
Excitingly, the film chat I mentioned yesterday with the L.A. bods? That’s about a movie version of Sidekicks. Keep your fingers crossed!
Hotheads
Alexander Gordon Smith and I came up with this one while we were over in Serbia, on the set of the film we co-wrote. It’s a sci-fi horror set in a world where reaching an internal body temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit turns you into a violent, mindless monster.
Gordon and I plotted it out together, then I wrote the script. Art and colours on this were done by Federico De Luca, with letters once again by Marco Della Verde.
We’ve got a complete first issue for this one, and a plan for a 36 issue story arc, broken into blocks of 6. So, the first 6 issues would tell a full chapter of the overall story.
If and when it’ll ever see the light of day, though, I have no idea. Producing comics is A) expensive, and B) time-consuming!
The Bone House
This is a one-shot, single issue horror comic based on a short story I wrote several years ago. I’ve got printed issues of this one available, but am still not quite sure what to do with them. Conventions, maybe? I dunno.
Anyway, art by Federico De Luca again, letters by Marina Leon.
If you have any idea what I can do with this one-shot horror beyond chucking it up on Kindle and selling print copies direct, please do let me know!
That’s it for now. I’ve got two more comics in progress, one of which I am absolutely certain is going to be the best thing I’ve ever been involved in, but I’ll fill you in on that at a later date.
For now, let us just marvel at the fact that I’ve now finished the second day of my seven-day streak. A 100% success rate so far.
Go me!
I liked the Hoon strip.