Schizoid

I'm not saying it's easy being a comic book writer.  It's not.  The really, really good ones take time, do research, study, plan, make outlines, form extensive story lines, graph out character arcs, and do a bunch of other stuff that I would find really, really boring, all in the name of producing intelligent, thrilling, thought provoking comics material.  Which they then promptly put in the hands of an artist who will do one of two things 1) enhance their ideas significantly or 2) utterly wreck everything.  So, it's not easy being a comics writer.  But it is easier, in a way to be a comics writer.  Comics writing is faster than drawing comics.  A comics writer can easily (well, okay, maybe easy isn't the word) write two or three monthly comics.  Conversely, good luck finding a comic artist who can keep up with more than One Monthly Book (if that), let alone two (again, as always, John Romita Jr. is the exception).

Now, writing AND drawing more than one book at a time.  Well, that's where the rubber really hits the road.  I don't know how Kirby did it.  During the height of the Marvel Age he was Writing and Penciling a ton of books.  I'm not sure what the official count was, but during that decade Kirby was, at one point, producing the Fantastic Four, Thor, and Captain America FULL TIME, and at various points there was also the Incredible Hulk, Ant Man, Sgt Fury, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, the Rawhide Kid, the Avengers, and the X-Men.  And he did ghost work on Daredevil for awhile.  And provided cover work for other people's books.  The 70s were no better.  During the height of the 4th World Period, Kirby was running the show on 4 different books.  Admittedly, three of those books were bi-monthly, but still, that meant the King was producing a ton of material in less time than your average superstar artist nowadays can make one book.  And he was writing his comics as well.

Right now, I'm doing three webcomics and two non-webcomics, and the challenge for me is two-fold.  As a writer, I want to give every book its own individual theme and voice, and I want to give every character in each book their own individual personality.  As an artist, I want every book to have its own individual look.  I try to do different things with the inking and the coloring to try to ensure that none of my comics look exactly identical, despite the fact that there's only one guy drawing them.  It gets confusing after awhile, almost to the point where it's kinda like being schizophrenic, y'know?  I'm not sure what the answer for it is.  I suppose I need to... what's that word I keep hearing nowadays...compartmentalize more, I guess.

Because Lord knows, it's not like I'm gonna make fewer comics.  That would be silly.

Speaking of which, in the race to the 100th TORC Press Comic, it looks like "SDF" #3 is nearing the finish line, which would make it #96.  "Truth or Consequences Zer0" has almost been solicited online, but I still have to finish the back up features, so it will be a bit yet.  "Clown & Penguin" #2 is almost halfway finished.  Aaaand "Death Moth" #2 is bringing up the rear, with only 4 measly pages in the can.  Once all of those books are done, I'm a gonna concentrate my efforts on the landmark 100th TORC Press comic, which, I'm sure will be a whole lot of build up for not nearly enough pay off.  Such is life.

I've been lonely lately.