Michael May's Blog, page 169

My first work as a writer about comics

About a month ago, Sean Kleefeld wrote a blog post called "My Short Career as a Letterhack," in which he talks about writing to comic book letters pages in order to get on the radar of editors. I can relate, because when I first got it into my head that I wanted to write comics, that was an approach I took too.




For me, it wasn't so much about being remembered by editors as it was simply a way of connecting to the comics industry on a deeper level than just reading the books. I started seeing some of the same names pop up on comics pages a lot (possibly even Sean's; I know I read at least those Marvel Knights issues he was published in) and figured that I could do that too. And since it would mean submitting a piece of writing to an editor and competing with other pieces of writing for print, I saw it as sort of a first step towards being published.




Sean posted a cover gallery of comics that his letters appeared in, so I'm doing that too. My time writing letters was much shorter than his, ended when I got reliable access to the Internet and was able to write about comics that way. But I had a good time with it and was able to figure out what kinds of letters editors were looking for.







Milestone had a Letter of the Month deal where they'd send one letter-writer a signed copy of the issue in which he or she was printed. I got picked for talking not only about Hardware, but Milestone in general and what it meant to me.











I grew up a Marvel kid, but tried a bunch of DC comics shortly after their Zero Hour event and wrote in to tell them about that.







I was a huuuuge Azrael fan, and loved getting to gush about that character to the folks making comics about him at the time. Sadly, the series didn't stay awesome it's whole run, but the issues with Barry Kitson on art were amazing.






I'm also really happy that I got to tell Peter David and Company how cool their Aquaman was.







My last published letter was the nerdiest of all as I expressed my appreciation that Malibu's Deep Space Nine series offered a more plausible explanation for the existence of Thomas Riker than Star Trek: TNG did on TV.

Day 32

Happy Halloween!

[Image trick-or-treated from the Grace Goods blog]



Have a safe night, everyone! But not too safe.

31 Werewolves | Red

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!



And here we are at the end, back where we began with Little Red Riding Hood. Only in ABC's Once Upon a Time she's not so little. And - SEASON ONE SPOILER - she's also the Big Bad Wolf. I have mixed feelings about Once Upon a Time, but making Red a werewolf was a genius move and she's easily my favorite character on the show. I've only seen about halfway into Season Two, but so far she's one of the more surprising characters (and not just because she occasionally gets hairy) and there's plenty to like and root for about her.



Thanks for reading along this month and a special thanks to those of you who shared your own thoughts with me here and on Twitter. If you enjoyed 31 Werewolves, be sure to dive into my pal Pax's werewolf month from a couple of Halloweens ago. We covered some of the same stuff, but from different angles and there's plenty there that I didn't mention.



And speaking of things I didn't mention, I'd love it if you shared some of your favorite werewolves with me that I didn't have room for. Doing this has made me want to finally check out some werewolf stuff that I've been meaning to get to for a while and I'd love to add to that list with your suggestions.

31 Scares of Casper #31

Happy Halloween!

31 Werewolves | Strangeways: Murder Moon

As much as I love werewolves, it's very rare when a werewolf story actually scares me. Mike Mignola's "The Wolves of Saint August" is one exception; Matt Maxwell and Luis Guaragña's werewolf Western, Murder Moon is another.



Murder Moon is the first volume in Maxwell's Strangeways series that follows cowboy Seth Collins as he encounters legendary monsters in the Wild West. It's werewolves this time and vampires in Volume 2: The Thirsty. You can read the first chapter of Murder Moon at Maxwell's site. If you're like me, you'll want Chapter 2 right away.



While I'm on the subject of werewolf Western comics, honorable mention goes to David Gallaher and Steve Ellis' High Moon . I'm ashamed that I haven't read it yet, but I hear amazing things about the former Zuda webcomic that came out a couple of years after Murder Moon. This one's about former Pinkerton detective Matthew Macgregor (a descendant of Rob Roy) who runs across a werewolf-infested town and goes to war on the beasts. It sounds more fun than frightening, but there's nothing wrong with that and there's certainly no arguing with Ellis' fantastic art.

31 Scares of Casper #30

31 Werewolves | The Astounding Wolf-Man

Dell may have failed to create a proper werewolf-superhero in the '60s, but Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard corrected the oversight in 2007. Kirkman - creator of The Walking Dead and a big fan of horror - came up with the idea of a man who's bitten by a werewolf, but determines to use his new abilities for good.



The man in question is named Gary Hampton and at first his story follows typical werewolf tropes as he's attacked while on vacation with his family in Montana. But then Hampton meets a vampire named Zechariah who offers to help Hampton control his werewolf form and save people rather than hurt them. Because it's a Kirkman comic, it doesn't stay that simple for long and there are lots of twists and turns as Kirkman and Howard marry superhero soap opera with genuine horror.



The series lasted 25 issues, but the character is part of the same world as Kirkman's Invincible and continues showing up in series like Phil Hester and Todd Nauck's Invincible Universe.

31 Scares of Casper #29

31 Werewolves | "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" video

The Flaming Lips' "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" is all about the abuse of power, so the video has lead singer Wayne Coyne as some sort of military dictator who amuses himself by torturing people.



The song suggests that human appetites will always kick in and take over, corrupting any powerful person, no matter how compassionate he or she began. The video represents these appetites in the torture sequences: a man is covered in burgers and then chased by ravenous fat dudes, then a woman has donuts taped to her body and is pursued by policemen. Finally, Coyne's character gets his comeuppance by being draped in raw meat and hounded by a werewolf, once again a symbol of unrestrained passion.



Here are the lyrics, heavily abridged because there are a lot of yeah yeah yeahs and other repetitions in there. I love it though.

If you could blow up the world

With the flick of a switch,

Would you do it?

(Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah)

If you could make everybody poor

Just so you could be rich,

Would you do it?

(Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah)



If you could watch everybody work

While you just lay on your back,

Would you do it?

(Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah)

If you could take all the love

Without giving any back,

Would you do it?

(Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah)



And so we cannot know ourselves

Or what we'd really do

With all your power.

What would you do?



If you could make your own money

And then give it to the poor,

Would you do it?

(No no no no, no no no no)

If you knew all the answers

And could give to the masses,

Would you do it?

(No no no no, no no no no)



Are you crazy?

It's a very dangerous thing to do

Exactly what you want,

Because you cannot know yourself,

Or what you'd really do

With all your power

What would you do?