Take a listen to both a great comic book podcast with an interview with yours truly! Check it out through their website (http://comichistorians.webs.com/) or directly through this link: http://longbox.podbean.com/e/longbox-episode-12-heralds-of-galactus/
Enjoy!
So, after sending my (hopefully) last revision of The Opening Bell off to my publisher, I read some comic books because, well, duh, I like comic books. That made want to share the three currently published titles I keep up with. Well, to be fair, as I am a Starving Author, these are three modern titles I keep up with through the trades (trade paperback collections, for the uninitiated) when they are on sale at the comic shop.
For the past few months, I’ve been doing more than writing, reviewing, and fretting over publishing stuff. I’ve also been taken on as an editor for a comic book series. A small, independent one, but a comic book all the same. Originally today I was going to do a review of the series so far, but then I realized that would be an ethical morass from which I couldn’t extract myself. Le sigh!
However, what I can do, is point/direct you at said comic book series, both where you can buy it and where you can get news about it! I’ve mentioned it before, but said comic book series is Galactic Wrestling All-Stars, which combines classic pro wrestling action with a 1950s science-fiction kitsch to make a uniquely nostalgic reading experience. Add to that a format much like Golden and Silver Age comic books, complete with back-up features introducing characters and back-story and threads starting to weave some surprisingly deep characterization and …. DAMMIT! I’m reviewing it, aren’t I?
Okay, before I shove my foot deeper into my mouth, let’s get the links done so you can check it out!
You can buy the issues of the series HERE, and you can keep up with releases and previews of new issues HERE!
Until next time, good reading, good writing, and good luck!
Welcome to the first weekly installment of Monday Musings, where I shake off the hunger pangs of another hardscrabble weekend to bring you whatever crosses my addled brain. For this initial article, I want to tell everyone out there that they should really read some comic books already!
This may not be that left-field of a thing for me to say. After all, I write in the superhero genre, one born from the comic books. What’s different here is that I’m saying that you should read not superhero stuff, or watch comic-book-inspired movies, but to read actual, real comic books. Why?
Look, they aren’t all good. Many are actually pretty bad. However, there are some truly remarkable stories told in those four-color pages and, more importantly, they are our modern mythology. They are our Greek gods, our legend makers. It isn’t ‘David and Goliath’ anymore, as much as Spider-Man freeing himself to save his Aunt May in Amazing Spider-Man #33 (websearch it if you haven’t seen the pages before and don’t be surprised if you HAVE, just didn’t know the exact source).
Just open your eyes and see that quite a few superheroes ARE the gods of old. Thor, Hercules, Odin, Loki, Ares, and many more hobnob with the new colorful pantheons we have created. Even more are closely connected with the old mythology. Wonder Woman, Shazam, and countless others herald back to the Greek, the Norse, the Egyptian, and so many other collections of gods and heroes. Our comic books are inheritors of thousands of years of tradition, history, and introspection.
Don’t buy it? Comic books have been with us now for decades and those characters and stories that resonate with us have never faltered for that entire history. The archetypes, the parables, the lessons those pages hold connect with the same stories man has told in thousands of ways since the dawn of time. Comic books reflect the times they are written in, but still contain the same messages and characters they have held since their inception.
There must be something culturally vital for what began as children’s entertainment to still be so important to us over seventy years later. There must be something critical for us all to glean from something that was considered as indispensable to many soldiers during World War II as anything else in their care packages. Our culture, our history, our hopes, our dreams, and our nightmares are in the colorful pages you can get at any comic book shop. We just have to take the time to read them and sort the good from the bad.
I almost filed this under Book News for reasons that will become clear in the near future (MYSTERY! SUSPENSE! DRAMA!) but my good friend and the man responsible for all my wonderful book cover art, Felipe de Barros has started up a Facebook page that you can access from THIS LINK for showcasing both his latest art and news of his ongoing independent work. If you’re a Facebook sort of person, you should definitely check it out.
Even if you aren’t, however, you might want to glance at it every once in a while over the coming days. Felipe is going to be making a big announcement as to an ongoing comic book project in the coming week or so and it’s a project that I am deeply involved in. If you’re a fan of his art or my writing, you might want to watch for it!
Good luck and good writing!
As an author who writes superhero books, I have a long-held love of the comic book medium. I’ve been reading them since I was a little kid and still keep up with them in various formats. The other day, I came across a discussion of what people thought were the rights and wrongs of the latest Superman movie and what it boiled down to, in essence, was a talk about the difficulties of writing an interesting story for so powerful of a character. I came away from that forum mulling it over myself and decided to take the musings here to my blog. It’s time for another round of Looking at Character with today’s guest, the Invincible Hero.
At first blush, the Invincible Hero looks a lot like our other friend, the Ace, but there are some vital differences. Like the Ace, the Invincible Hero is the best of the best, a seemingly unstoppable force. Nothing seems to slow him down and even the rare setback is fleeting and temporary. However, unlike the Ace, who is a supporting character and used in various ways to interact with the protagonists, the Invincible Hero *is* the protagonist. Hercules, Achilles, Superman, Hulk Hogan … all of those characters in their prime certainly fit the bill. So the question remains: How do you write an effective plot about a protagonist that, by definition, easily overcomes any direct conflict?
There are a few ways to go about it. The first one is to go about deconstructing the myth of the Invincible Hero. In a deconstruction-based story, the conflict is generally not the obvious external one, but conflicts generated by the flaws and foibles that are hidden behind the shining facade of the Hero. Concepts such as alienation from the rest of humanity, hubris from his/her invincibility, loosing touch with one’s humanity, the burden of the expectations of the masses (realistic or not), and so on can be explored to shine light on the realistic problems of being put above the rest of the Hero’s peers and relations. In such a way, the Invincible Hero becomes relatable; though his problems may still be on a different scale, they are simply larger versions of issues everyone faces, allowing the reader to connect to him/her.
Another way to spark conflict and plot is the approach of ‘the bigger fish’. Yes, the Invincible Hero is unstoppable compared to his usual opposition, but that doesn’t preclude an even more awesome threat from existing, thus creating a new conflict where the normally triumphant Hero is faced with the prospect of being the underdog. As with straight deconstruction, this makes the Invincible Hero relatable by injecting all-too human feelings such as fear and a sense of inadequacy into the equation. The potential stumbling block, though, is the possible temptation to inject these feelings then quickly have them ‘overcome’. This is usually meant by the author as a show of the Hero’s true courage or what-not but it usually comes off as just another problem the Invincible Hero can shrug off, unlike the reader, causing an even larger rift in relatability.
The last way that came to mind to give an Invincible Hero a good story is to approach the primary conflict in a way that is outside of the Hero’s element. However unstoppable the Hero may be, there are undoubtedly areas and problems where his/her particular set of abilities and skills are not useful. Making the conflict revolve around some problem that cannot simply be directly confronted once more brings the Hero down to the human level, allowing the writer to showcase and develop the Hero’s character as he/she struggles with a problem instead of running it over as per the norm. Another facet of this that could be fascinating to explore is the Hero’s social and familial life. Again, it’s a source of conflicts, vital ones, that build character but cannot simply be approached by kicking down doors and beating up bad guys.
It’s not hard to see that all of these approaches revolve around finding ways to interject a strong dose of relatability into the Invincible Hero. As characterization is usually the heart of a good story, that ability to relate to the protagonist is vital. If we have no way to connect, we usually cease to care about the character in a short period of time and no amount of finely crafted action or well-rendered description will fix that.
What do you think? Have you ever had to write an Invincible Hero? If so, how did you tackle their relatability? Comment below!
J. B. Garner - Musings of a Starving Author 