Steven D. Forbes

It’s been a while, and during that time, things have been…interesting.

I stepped down from writing Bolts & Nuts and The Proving Grounds, in order to concentrate more on some private matters. However, I’ve felt that I’ve had a lot of free time on my hands. And it feels…strange.

There’s a writing project that I’m digging back into. I don’t own the property, but I have a stake in it. It’s a decent idea, and I see how I would do things differently on it, but there it is. I want to have this one done soon. It’s been haunting me–and not in a good way.

I want you all to go to www.thelegendoflionman.com and give me your honest opinion of it. Don’t hold back. If you want to send it as an e-mail, stevedforbes@gmail.com is best.

Oh! Because I’m loving Google, I also have a Google phone number. You can give me a call at 520-344-4633. I’m thinking about adding a widget, too. This will be my business number, and I’ve also added it to the signature block of my e-mail. Just didn’t want to forget that.

Back to comics!

Thanksgiving Day was a REALLY good day! I got a call from Harry Markos of Markosia, and he told me that he wants Bullet Time to come under the Markosia banner. I thought that was GREAT! I just needed to find an artist with the same sense of style and storytelling as Dave, and who didn’t mind back-end pay. Tall order, let me tell you!

Well, I found such an artist. He had submitted to me a few months ago for Lionman, and while his art was damned good, it wasn’t what I was looking for when it came to that project. I did think, however, that he would be perfect for Bullet Time. I didn’t want to approach him, however, because I didn’t have anyplace to publish it at the time, and while self-publishing is great, it’s also damned expensive. Not something I can afford at the moment. (But I have plans!) I wrote him up an e-mail, sending him over to BT to look it over, and he said he was interested. I told him about the money situation, and he was onboard. So, Robert Keough is onboard as artist, and Jeff Coney stays as inker. I have Cary Kelley to help with a new logo since this is going to be in b/w, and I’ll be doing the letters. Yes, I’m keeping the team small. I’d do the logo myself if I was seriously getting into lettering, but I’m not. Only enough for me to do a decent job on my stuff, and that’s it.

So, yes, I got a publishing deal on Thanksgiving. Nice, right?

How long did it take me to find an artist? Five days, I think. Now, I’m just waiting on the contract to come in from Harry, so that they can be gone over, signed, and sent, with work to be started either at the end of the month or at the start of the year. It’s going to be good. Yep, I’ll be busy again with lettering, which is kinda fun. And looking at new art for your own stories is always fantastic. Good times ahead.

Lately, I’ve also been getting more inquiries about editing. They’re almost coming out of the woodwork. Oh, no, I’m not complaining at all. Paid work is always a good thing. Right now, I have two writers that I’m doing project management for, and the pages that are coming in for one of them are just truly phenomenal. A painted look that’s just outstanding. When I saw the artist apply (he had also applied for the other writer’s project), I knew he would be the one. And so far, he’s great! Character sketches come in, he’s doing five pages for submission, and the damned pages look GOOD. He’s also pretty good about taking direction. Really, I couldn’t ask for anything more. When this is over, I’d like to hire him for one of my own projects. One that I’ll be re-writing in the next few weeks.

The other writer? Well, the artist for that project had to be fired. He wasn’t getting the work done, and he wasn’t communicating. Right now, we’re seeing about trying someone else out. Waiting to get the test page back from him before moving forward.

I’ve also got another writer that I’m just doing scriptwork with. We just finished up a script, and he may be sending me more work before Christmas. One can always hope.

There are also two writers that just came to me, asking about my rates and such. They both hired me for scriptwork, and one hopes to start on it this week. It’s a shortish script, but I’m not complaining about it. The other one looks to start in the new year, which will definitely be helpful.

Yes, I’m still “working” on Lionman. My invoice for work done is getting pricey. If things happen the way I hope they do, though…it will all be worth it. And if it goes REALLY right, in two years time…yeah. I’ll be able to look back at all of this and say “I lived through that, and I’m never going back there again.”

As for my other projects, Group is still on something of a hiatus, I haven’t heard back from two other artists for two different projects they signed on for (and yes, I’ve been sending out the e-mails, but I’m not overly concerned with one of them–him I can replace without really losing money, but the other guy? I want that art!), and I’m looking to get more things in the pipeline.

The Markosia deal, once inked, will give me some leverage for other stories to get seen. I have one artist right now doing up some test pages for a project I’d like to send to them, that would work really well in b/w. This guy is a really good artist who applied for Bullet Time, but he had no sequentials to show. So, I sent him over an excerpt of a script and asked him to do up at least three consecutive pages (I sent over six). I want to make sure his storytelling is as sound as his form and figures. I asked for pencils at least, and if he wants to do the inks, to send over the pencils and the inks for me to see. That was a few days ago, and I’m not worried about it yet. The pages were nice storytelling pages, but not penultimate to the issue I wrote. And if he does them AND it gets picked up, then that’s just another feather in my cap and another project to get in the hopper.

And just this morning, I got another e-mail in my box from an artist, asking for a true critique of his abilities and if I like him, to hire him for a job. Uneven, but he’s got something going. I may have something for him, which would either go up on the site (replacing Bullet Time), or something to submit to Markosia. I’ll send him over some test pages and see what he does with it.

As for real life…I’m coming to the end of having weekends off. It was really nice! Sundays, all I’ve done is sit in front of the television and watch football. I go to bed relatively late Saturday night, wake up late on Sunday, get showered and dressed, and then sit in front of the television and yell at it for about 10 hours. I generally watch the Fox doubleheader, and then the late game on CBS or ABC, whichever channel that is. Then it’s generally off to bed with Lenora after that. But all that ends on Jan 3. My work schedule changes, so I’ll be working on weekends, and having Mon/Tue/Wed off. No playoffs, no Superbowl. I’ll be asleep or at work. Generally asleep.

Lenora’s work schedule has changed back to nights, which is also nice. We get to spend more time together, since I work nights as well. That’s always a good thing.

Today is my cousin David’s birthday! I’ll be calling him. His is damned close to mine, though. I’ll be 36 in just over a month.  Oh, well. It’s a number. I may think more about it later.

That’s really about it for me. Go read Frankenstein. You’ll thank me later.

-Steven

This is probably the last post before the end of the year.

Got some interesting news today. Something I was pretty heartened about. Also have some things I have to do, and my non-comics life has been a pain the ass. Shall we get to it?

I’ve been writing a comic for Jamal Walton, and I think it’s coming along pretty nicely. Since I cleared things off my plate, I’ve been able to give it the attention it deserves, and I’m liking what I’m seeing. If things go the way I want them to, I should be finished with the first draft of it pretty soon here. I like the thought of that. Like I said before, it’s been haunting me.

The projects I’ve been editing are also coming along, which is good. The projects with artists attached should have strong showings, which I’m glad about. One of the artists is VERY good and VERY enthusiastic. I like working with him. Heh. I played a small trick on him concerning a couple of panels that he was asked to redo, dragging out the fact that I liked it. I made it seem like I didn’t, and that I didn’t know what to do with him. Made him sweat a little. It was fun! He got the joke, and we had a nice laugh over it. Can’t beat a good artist with a good sense of humor. I look forward to working with him on one of my own projects. Hopefully, that’ll happen in the coming year. We’ll see what happens.

The replacement artist for another project is also coming along well. I have to look at the thumbnails he sent over. I’ll be doing that today, and giving my thoughts on them. The writer seems to like them. I have to compare them to the script before giving my take.

I have to make a decision about something else, and it’s not something I’m happy about, but it will turn out making that something else stronger. It will also help my long-range plans, because when I make a proposal, it should have a better chance of succeeding. That, however, depends on other things, so it’s on the back burner.

I heard back from Lee today on about a cookbook proposal I sent him. It’s basically being written by myself, with my wife’s recipes, and I’m using her as a character in it. I wrote the pitch and a three-page script, which he sent over to his partners for review.  One of his partners is an editor and writer herself, and she’s pretty tough. Getting some things past Lee is hard enough–then she comes out like an editorial dragon and breathes fire all over things, sometimes leaving a charred husk of a script lying in her path. Yeah. Anyway, she said that the script was “awfully good,” and said what she liked about it.

That is validation that is hard to beat.

I’m going to tell you a little secret: I hate rewriting. I hate it with a passion. I understand the need for it, but I hate it with every fiber of my being. Especially if I have to start from scratch. I know that people say that writing is re-writing, but for me…it’s VERY difficult to break out of how I see something once I write it down. I think I’m pretty decent at writing what I see in my head, and getting that across.

Because I hate re-writing, I try to write as close to a final draft as I can get. I try to get it in one or two takes, changing a word or phrase here or there to be a LOT more direct than I am in this blog. Basically, I wrote that particular three-pager in one take, with a few tweaks. And it was “awfully good.”

Why am I happy about that?

Because I cannot get the same validation from my peers. I’m usually the one they come to in order to get an editorial eye on their stuff. If I write the way I edit, and people come to me for editorial review, how can I go to them for the same thing when they’re not editors? So, yeah, getting an attaboy like that from someone who is definitely my superior fills me with glee. The script has some problems with what it’s projecting, but NOT with functionality or storytelling. And there were a couple of typos.

Lee has also started up his own column over at Project Fanboy. Check it out, if you aren’t already. It is DEFINITELY worth the time. I’m learning things, as well, which only help to make me a better writer and editor. I think it compliments and surpasses what I was doing with Bolts & Nuts, and since it also runs on Tuesdays, I think it is a great replacement for it.

However, in reading the column, I find myself wanting to talk more and more about comics theory. It’s making me want to start up yet another column to do it, too. There are LOTS of niches to fill with comics, and while I don’t think I’ll ever fill them all, I’m definitely interested in learning and doing more and more in my chosen medium.

Anyway, that’s comics stuff. Real life? That’s been interesting this past week, as well.

On Tuesday, my car’s ignition switch broke. This was early Tuesday evening. Angie, my stepdaughter, had taken the car to the storage unit to put some stuff in it. The storage unit is just over a quarter mile away, if not a little less. Easy walking distance. She comes to get me at about 7:30 or so, and we go there, getting a ride from her boyfriend. Usually, when something like this would happen, all it takes is turning the wheel a little bit in order to get the tumblers straight and insert the key. Kinda like sex, really. Gotta sometimes coax it in a little.

Well, I tried that, with no luck. The gate locks at 9, it was cold and raining (one of the few nights it decided to rain in Tucson!), and I had to get back home in order to see if I could find a ride to work, and call in to work if I couldn’t. I couldn’t. So, it was taken as a Holiday day, not using vacation, since I had it to burn. Nice, right? I thought so.

Anyway, I went back the next morning. I walked. The rain had cleared up, and while it was chilly, it wasn’t cold. I put a hoodie on under my jacket, because I didn’t want to freeze my shaved-head off. I tried it again with no love.

Now, there was a nice thing about the situation. The storage facility is set back from the road. In front of it is a car care center. The garage was open, so I stopped in on my way back home. I wanted to get a ball-park estimate of the problem and the cost. I could take that home to my wife, and we could talk about it. (It’s not as if we have a lot of money.)

Well, they ball-parked it at close to $400. Not only that, but they wouldn’t be able to get to it until after Xmas, and probably not until the new year.  I kept a straight face at that, and took the figure and their timeframe home to my wife.

She didn’t want to pay it. I didn’t want to pay it. I then remembered that one of my friends is married to a mechanic. I got in contact with her about it (especially since I was going to ask her to go out of her way to take me home in the morning), and she told me that he could do it, but it probably wouldn’t be until Saturday morning, the day after Xmas. I was fine with that. Truly. He also had a suggestion about calling a locksmith.

I did that, and the first locksmith who answered the phone was a chick who acted like hers was the only locksmith in town. Not only that, but I’d have to wait until the next day to get someone out to see my car because her ignition guy was out of town. I didn’t like her attitude. I called someone else.

The next guy was TOTALLY helpful! He asked if I had squirted any lubricant in the ignition. I hadn’t. He said to do that, and if it works, to bring the car to his location. So, I walked my happy ass back to the storage, squirted some WD40 in the ignition, and prayed. It didn’t work. So, I walked my ass back home. I called him up, and arranged for someone to come out to the apartment to look at the car. He would send someone out later that day.

Then I called my insurance company in order to set up a tow. With that done, I walked my happy ass back to the storage in order to meet the towtruck driver, let him in, and get the car. With the car back home, I went back inside to find my wife sitting there. Imagine my surprise, because she was supposed to be at work. Well, now, I had someone to stay up and meet the locksmith when he came out, because I had work that night.

The guy came out, but couldn’t get the ignition freed up. The problem was the switch itself. The switch for my car is the same switch for the Ford Focus, and they were always going out. They went out so much that they stopped using that particular switch in the car, going to a different switch. The guy could do it for half the cost the garage was trying to charge, but it would have to wait until Saturday. Lenora went for it.

The next couple of days were interesting. I went to work by getting rides and borrowing my other stepdaughter’s car. Fun times. And then today rolls around, and the locksmith comes out and does the entire job in about 30 minutes. The garage was estimating 2 hrs worth of work.

Yeah.

So, the car is fine, I got some sleep, and now, to do some more editing work and spend some time with my family. I’m a little hungry.

Go watch Gone in 60 Seconds, just because it’s that kind of day.

-Steven

No, I don’t got you all in check, but times continue to be interesting.

Let’s see.

One of the Digital Webbing members wrote me last night, wondering if I was still interested and available for a writing job. A single issue, and it would be an adaptation of an existing story. How did this come about? Well, he said that I had responded to an ad he had put out a while ago. I didn’t remember putting out any ads…until I read the ad and the response, which he had so graciously thought to attach.

It had been over a year! Wow, right?! Just a few days over a year, too. But it’s a paying job, and I have the time, so I took it on. I’ve read the story a couple of times, and plan to read it once more, before starting to make an outline to send to him. I’ll be sending that tomorrow. If things go really right, I’ll be able to afford my iPhone for a late birthday present to myself.

I also had a chance to talk to Lee today. That was pretty interesting for me, as well.

I have to talk to Lenora about refining the focus of the book. I have to talk to her about it in her terms, and get her to think in mine, so that we’re all on the same page. But I already knew that.

The other thing, though, the thing he wanted to talk to me about, was a different writing gig. He’s got a guy who’s wanting to tell his life story, but Lee doesn’t think he would be able to help him write it effectively. So, he asked me if I would be interested in doing it. I accepted that gig, too. Why? Because I like keeping busy with work that’s going to get off the ground.

So, let’s see. As of next year, here’s what I’ll have accomplished, or on a burner somewhere:

-a paid writing gig that will add to my resume

-paid editing jobs

-my own book coming out through Markosia

-the possibility of my own book or two through The Pack is still there

-co-writing a biography of a living legend through The Pack

-being an integral part of Lionman

Now, a lot of that is just the START of my year. I don’t have much in the way of a plan for the rest of it. Not really. My friend is getting married in July, and I plan on going to the San Diego con. That’s really about it. Anything else that comes my way is just gravy.

Well, I do plan on doing SOME things. Once I get the book out through Markosia, I plan on trying my luck with them again. At least until Lionman does what I want it to do.  I have a very deep plan that hinges on Lionman. Or, you know, having a blockbuster movie made out of one of my concepts. But I’m banking more on Lionman than a movie. More of a chance of that happening.

I spoke to Grand Master O’Neal today, as well. He just celebrated his birthday, and is recuperating from the martial arts tournament he put on in conjunction with Disney. We’ll talk more about it tomorrow. It should be an interesting conversation.

As for real life stuff…nothing to report, really. Lenora called me from work, which isn’t something she does often anymore. It was nice. She ought to be home very soon. She got me the new Star Trek for Christmas, which was nice of her.  If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m something of a movie fanatic. I LOVE movies. I could go out and buy a few thousand dollars worth right now and call it a good start. You should see my Amazon list. It’s huge. It’s terrible. It’s great.

Oh! I’m reading a Hardy Boys mystery as a bathroom reader. It’s a book I’ve had for years–about 20 of them, if not more. I don’t recall exactly how I got it or how long I’ve had it, but I acquired a lot of books in my early teen years. Anyway, this seems to be a first edition book, and it’s been badly used. However, it’s the oldest book I have. 1943! I had no idea until I looked closely.

Well, I had another frustrating thing happen.

Not too long after we moved into the apartment, I told the kids that if I found my PS2 on again with no one around either playing it or watching movies on it, I was going to take it. I’ve had the thing for about 10 years, and I’d like to keep it in working order. That’s not too much to ask for, is it? Anyway, they nodded, they said yeah, they acted like it was no big deal to them if I took it or not. Or maybe they thought that I wasn’t going to do it. Doesn’t matter. I found it on again, with no one around, so I took it. And no, I didn’t say a damned word about it.

Well, last week, I go into the kids room for a moment, and I notice the Playstation in there. Isaiah tells me he asked Lenora to ask me, and she told him to just take it. That pissed me off, but there it is. No, I didn’t take it. I planned to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Well, last night, Tammy spent the night. She used the Playstation to play at least a movie, and fell asleep with it on. That happens. But then Isaiah comes into my room later today, asking me to play some games with him later. I say sure. It’s Monday night, though, and they leave to watch football. They were gone for a few hours. Lenora comes home, and we talk for a bit. I then get up, remembering that he asked me to play with him…and find my PS2 on with no one around.

So I took it again, and Lenora knows that they’re not getting it back.

Here’s my deal: these people are adults. They are NOT children. I shouldn’t have to treat them as such. If they cannot treat something that is not theirs with any kind of respect, then they don’t need to borrow it. They don’t have jobs. They can’t afford to buy me a replacement system because they burnt out this one. I don’t care if I’m not playing it. It’s mine to do with as I please. If they want to watch a movie or play games, go get your own. You’re an adult, and you can do that. If you cannot afford to do it for whatever reason, then learn to take care of things that aren’t yours.

But they’ll learn. One way or another. It just frustrates me that I have to friggin teach adults lessons in how to take care of other people’s stuff.

Okay, that’s all. I doubt I’ll watch Star Trek now. I’ll give Watchmen another try. You should, too.