Most people aren’t going to care about this, but I fought too long and too hard, and at an expense beyond just financial to myself, and my family, to get this small victory.
The Empty Zone trade paperback from Image Comics and Jason Shawn Alexander came out last week. What a lot of people likely won’t notice is that my name is in the credits as “With Story Contributions By.” See attached image.
Interestingly, they also gave a story contribution credit to the creator’s wife. I sure hope Mrs. Alexander didn’t have to go to the same lengths that I did to get mine. Of course, the real intent of her credit is to dilute the significance of mine.
To be perfectly clear, I lay no claim to the version of Empty Zone that was published. It just so happens that many scenes, dialogue, characters and plot elements from the four scripts that I wrote over ten months were used after I had left the project over ethical differences. It was not a work for hire gig, so the creator did not have the rights to my work.
Let this be a lesson to experienced and aspiring alike: Have a written agreement in advance, even just a rudimentary one. Even with those you consider your close friends. Especially your friends.
Lesson learned. I’m thankful to now be working with people who put craft before profit. And the result will be that much better because of that.
I will always go out of my way to treat people better than I’ve been treated. I believe in collaborations where all involved are equals. Because that’s how lasting relationships can thrive; where collaborators lift each other up and recognize that these stories are the result of all our efforts, not just an individual.
With several things in the works, I’ve decided to start a blog so that I can keep people informed about what my collaborators and I are up to, especially in regards to Visions from Punktown.
I thought it’d also be fun to post some of my work, published and unpublished. As a writer, I always believe my best stuff is ahead of me, so I keep plugging away.
I always enjoy talking about the creative process, so don’t be shy about engaging me. I’ve also got some ideas for some fun interactive creative exercises to make things interesting.
First up, my official foray into comics…
The cover for Creepy #6, featuring me as your typical homicdial, happy time fun-making clown.
I sold my first comic book script to Dark Horse Comics for Creepy #6, published in June 2011. It was actually on a whim. I had just made the semi-finals in a short screenplay competition and was planning to fully throw myself into screenwriting when someone asked me if I wanted to write a story for him to illustrate for Creepy.
I’d always wanted to write comic books. I had literally been reading them all my life, and had worked in comic book retail for a decade. I even self-published a crappy comic when I was 21. Comics are part of my DNA, having read them all my life. My uncle had even read them to me while I was still in a crib. So the answer was a hearty “Hell, yes!”
I sent them a few pitches, and they chose the as of then untitled “Commedia dell’Morte.” It was originally a longer idea I had come up with that the artist wanted to keep for ourselves, but we decided to use it as a means of getting my foot in the door and start promoting ourselves as a creative unit.
The idea came about from brainstorming what the artist might like to draw. I started with monsters, then monster hunters. I wanted a juxtaposition, so I landed on clowns. And with the element of children’s parties, the story and subtext just started coming together. I love playing with story devices, and the unreliable narrator in this case worked out wonderfully. Dan Braun, owner of Creepy, suggested a different ending that was a vast improvement over my own, and we had our story.
I write panel by panel scripts, but it’s never intended that the artists should rigidly follow my scripts without question. I value input and ideas from the artist. I’ve been working in film and television for ten years now, and cinema is a heavy influence on my mind’s eye, so I see things as if through a camera lens, like a cinematographer. The artist on Creepy #6 saw the same things I did and produced some amazing pages. It was also a blast because my wife and I posed as the parent characters, and I got to model for the front cover (which, incidentally, made it into Spectrum 19: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art).
I thought about scanning my hand-written notes to give some insight into my creative process, but the truth is they’re probably illegible to anyone but me. So here is the script for the story. Following the script will be the pitch that sold the story, with the original ending. As I mentioned, Dan Braun suggested a much better ending that really increased the story’s impact. Also, enjoy some page samples below. You can purchase this issue for $1.99 through Comixology: https://www.comixology.com/Creepy-Comics-6/digital-comic/277497?ref=c2VyaWVzL3ZpZXcvZGVza3RvcC9ncmlkTGlzdC9Jc3N1ZXM
Personally, I find great value in reading the scripts of other writers, studying their pacing and structure. So maybe one of you out there will get that same value from seeing my work. If nothing else, this keeps the brain muscles active.
Christopher A. Taylor 