Hero Filmmakers: How I learned to stop reading literary critiques and love pop culture.

While everybody else was in literary theory class, I was reading comic books, listening to Ozzy Osbourne, and watching horror movies. I was always an arts student, spending hours in studio classes covered in charcoal dust and intaglio ink. As not to say that I didn't read the classics growing up: Homer, Shakespeare, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Nathaniel Hawthrone, The Bronte Sisters, Charles Dickens. And when I say growing up, I do mean literally, growing up. As a child, especially between ten and fifteen, I was an autodidact. Sandwiched between books on Greek hero mythology, psychology, alchemy, cosmology, fairy tales and theoretical physics (you know, the stuff I read for fun), I was reading literature. I read so much literature that by the time I was in the throes of puberty, punching numerous holes in my ears and listening to metal until I blew out my eardrums and quite a few brain cells, I went back to what I loved from day one: comic books and movies.

Then college happened, and I was still studying art and film while everybody else was talking about prose form and theory. Not that I didn't write all the time, and didn't still read, because I did, and I still do. Obviously I still write, if you can't tell by the pages of crap I've filled this blog up with. But that's where I have trouble fitting in with other writers. I learned to write from visual mediums, strips of film and panels on pages. As a teenager, when I was drafting the first stupid idea I had for an alien cyberpunk mecha novel, I saw it in scenes and sequential illustrations. I picked real people to represent that characters in my head, with weight and physical presence, so I could get the hang of seeing people with gestures and quirks and facial tics, and train myself to write them in a convincing way. That way, when I started sketching them out on paper, they already had personalities to fill them out and familiar characteristics for others to recognize in them.

For me, writing was always a mixed medium of sight and sound, audio and visual. There was a time when I caught flack for it from other writers, who felt I should be reading and discussing proper literature before I try to writing any on my own. (Me? Writing proper literature? What blog have you been reading?) For a while, I bought it. I let them make me feel bad or inferior or "non-literary," just because I reading genre stuff and comic books, and taking a lot of cues from the filmmakers that inspired me. When other writers were talking about their "hero authors," I just had to be quiet in the corner and twiddle my thumbs. Nobody wanted to hear about Warren Ellis and Alan Moore. I didn't have any heroes as far as they were concerned.

But then I grew up a bit, started hanging out with more artists and genre writers, and realized that a hero is a hero is a hero. Whether your hero writes literature or horror novels or comic books, makes movies or writes scripts. So these are my hero filmmakers and writers, the guys whose work I love and admire, and has influenced the way I think and make stuff.

Rob Zombie : Musician : Director : Comic Book writer

Favorite films: House of a 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, Halloween, Halloween II

Why: I love the way he blends genres and themes within movies, and the grungy sensibility his settings and characters have. You may not like any of his characters, but you won't forget them either.

Guillermo del Toro : Director : Producer : Writer : Designer

Favorite films: Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, The Orphanage

Why: His amazing wealth of talent as a filmmaker/special effect makeup artist/writer, and his beautiful, wholly other-worldly character/set designs. I will basically watch anything this man has worked on in some capacity, and I'm always impressed

Robert Rodriguez : Director : Producer : Composer : Writer

Favorite films: From Dusk til Dawn, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Machete, Sin City, Planet Terror

Why:  This man has mastered making big movies on the cheap. He has a very specific vision for everything he wants to do and does it, even if he has to do it on his own. I can't say I'm wowed by every movie he's ever made (I don't watch kids movies, sorry), but his style and voice is so clear in everything he does. (As an aside, my cousin used to be a set-builder for Troublemaker Studios. I'm a Kevin Bacon degree from Robert Rodriguez, and this pleases me like you wouldn't believe.)

Quentin Tarantino : Director : Writer : Producer

Favorite movies: Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill Vol. I, Death Proof, Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds

Why: You'll either love Quentin Tarantino or you'll hate him, and I admit I have moments I'm not sure why I love him. I can't even really quantify why I keep seeing his films, other than I find them so ridiculously enjoyable, no matter how ridiculous they are. His characters and dialogue just fill me with stupid glee, and his visual style just hooks me in every single time.

Kevin Smith : Director : Comic Book writer : Screenwriter : Producer

Favorite films: Clerks, Clerks II, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Dogma, Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Why: I will fight anybody who tries to tell me why I shouldn't like Kevin Smith. No, I don't love or agree with every thing he's ever done, but I love his films. I love his characters, I love his style, I love his opinions on comic books and nerd culture. I grew up watching his movies and listening to his rants, and he just speaks to me on a lot of levels. That, and Red State. Red State Red State Red State. Add that and Divine: The Series to Magen's Summer Indie Horror Must-Watch list.

David Cronenberg : Director : Writer : Mystical Deity

Favorite films: Videodrome, M. Butterfly, Eastern Promises, The Fly, Dead Ringers, The Dead Zone

Why:  If you have to ask that, get off my blog. And can I just say, I'm counting down the moments until A Dangerous Method comes out? Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud and Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung? Excuse me, if anybody needs me, I'll just be in the corner, salivating uncontrollably.

I'm sure people out there will scoff at my list, or prepare long emails about why I'm wrong and these guys are all idiots. Such is the nature of the internet. But instead of doing that, I invite you to compose a list of your own. Then we can compare, and discuss our influences, or scoff just mutually. Whatever. A good time will still be had by all.

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