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Back in early 2000, Danny Sichel had the idea to create a comics anthology under the imprint of Haptic Press, and he asked a number of people to contribute stories to it (myself included). He'd take care of finding artists and doing all the business end stuff. I'd been reading a lot of comicbook scripts by Priest at the time, and felt like trying my hand at one.
My first pitch, Minuteman, was essentially "What if Captain America was a Chinese-American, and the government tried to hide that fact?" But it didn't really fit the theme Sichel was going for, so I tried again.
One thing I kept in mind with both Minuteman and the story that would get accepted was that while I didn't really feel the need to "break into comics", whoever was found to do the art probably was trying to make a go of doing this professionally. So I wrote the scripts with an eye towards letting the artist show off their chops as much as possible...dynamic panel layouts, various camera angles, a variety of character types, etc.
My second submission was tentatively titled "Patents Is A Virtue," but Sichel renamed it "Patents Pending." Here's the pitch and first 8-page story, here's the second issue. I never got around to the remaining four issues, something I occasionally felt a twinge of guilt over.
Today, though, Danny gave back the rights to these stories, on the grounds that he didn't think he was going to be able to get them published. So they're all mine again, copyrights and properties and all that. It's too bad he couldn't get Haptic Press to work out, as I would have liked to see my work in print, but writing is a hobby for me, not a career. The benefit to me is in the writing, publication is just gravy (I think I've made about $400 total for paid writing gigs in my lifetime).
Of course, as mentioned in my preface notes to #2, should some artist or publisher out there be interested, I'd be willing to finish off the miniseries for publication. I don't normally write in script form, as I don't think it's a good format for a presented work (it's something you give an artist, or give to actors, not to the public), but it does make for an interesting mental break from regular prose.
(Legalese: I retain all rights to this work save for any exceptions outlined in my LiveJournal user agreement, and note that I linked to the stories rather than posting them, so they shouldn't have any hold over 'em. My posting of links is not to be construed as an intention to place the works in the public domain. I retain all derivative rights to characters, setting and stories. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is either coincidence or for comedic purposes.)
My first pitch, Minuteman, was essentially "What if Captain America was a Chinese-American, and the government tried to hide that fact?" But it didn't really fit the theme Sichel was going for, so I tried again.
One thing I kept in mind with both Minuteman and the story that would get accepted was that while I didn't really feel the need to "break into comics", whoever was found to do the art probably was trying to make a go of doing this professionally. So I wrote the scripts with an eye towards letting the artist show off their chops as much as possible...dynamic panel layouts, various camera angles, a variety of character types, etc.
My second submission was tentatively titled "Patents Is A Virtue," but Sichel renamed it "Patents Pending." Here's the pitch and first 8-page story, here's the second issue. I never got around to the remaining four issues, something I occasionally felt a twinge of guilt over.
Today, though, Danny gave back the rights to these stories, on the grounds that he didn't think he was going to be able to get them published. So they're all mine again, copyrights and properties and all that. It's too bad he couldn't get Haptic Press to work out, as I would have liked to see my work in print, but writing is a hobby for me, not a career. The benefit to me is in the writing, publication is just gravy (I think I've made about $400 total for paid writing gigs in my lifetime).
Of course, as mentioned in my preface notes to #2, should some artist or publisher out there be interested, I'd be willing to finish off the miniseries for publication. I don't normally write in script form, as I don't think it's a good format for a presented work (it's something you give an artist, or give to actors, not to the public), but it does make for an interesting mental break from regular prose.
(Legalese: I retain all rights to this work save for any exceptions outlined in my LiveJournal user agreement, and note that I linked to the stories rather than posting them, so they shouldn't have any hold over 'em. My posting of links is not to be construed as an intention to place the works in the public domain. I retain all derivative rights to characters, setting and stories. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is either coincidence or for comedic purposes.)
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Chris