Sunday, May 17, 2015

WHY 5 YEARS?!



Five years ago (ish) I made the decision I was going to write comics.  I had written for TV and Radio before, but my heart was always with comic medium.  My ‘logic’ told me that it was a silly idea.  That there are too many people already trying to break in.  That there is no stability in that world (much like commercial radio, which I had just left).  But and email from Ryan Lindsay helped me in silencing those thoughts.

Thought Balloons is amazing.  I doubt my writing would be at a level it is today if it were not for the site.  Having a deadline every week, getting feedback from other eager and hungry young creators, typing run on sentences has been an invaluable experience.  Maybe not the run on sentences thing.

My point is, this site means a lot to me.  I have developed friendships here.  I consider some of the people on here my closest confidants and friends.  I have been exposed to works and comics that I would not have given a look at previously based on scripts from the site.

And let us not forget the careers some of the former tenures here are forging for themselves.  Dan Hill is not only self publishing his own fantastic stories, but has had editing gigs with Monkeybrain comics and IDW.  Sime McDonald is making waves in the novel publishing world.  And of course Thought Balloon’s founder Ryan K Lindsay has written My Little Pony for IDW, Headspace for Monkeybrain/IDW, shorts for Vertigo and an upcoming mini for Dark Horse called Negative Space (which you should all pre-order now.  Seriously).  And I have written some things for Man In Suit Comics and also over at benjum.com which you can read for free. 

There is even a series coming out c-written by four members of Thought Balloons!  Ryan Lindsay, Dan Hill, Grant McLaughlin (with others writers and artists) will be bringing you Curriculum! 



Thought Balloons is a way to get you writing, and get feedback on that writing to get you better.  To improve.  To level up.  And I can see it being around for many years to come!

As for this week, out new puppet dictator Grant has thrown the doors wide open – any character or topic from any previous week in the sites 5 years.  Not only that, but members of Thought Balloons past will also be making guest posts all this week. 
Moving forward, there will be more guest writers jumping in from week to week.  The first to be announced soon!

Although I may not be around much any more, I will always come back where I can.  Thought Balloons, you are one of the main reasons my writing is at the level it is now.  And if it levelled me up, it can for you as well!


Ben Rosenthal
Former Puppet Dictator and Adventurer.


4 comments:

  1. This here little site has had some damn great alumni. I can only imagine what some of the TB writers will be doing in another five years time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A great way to start the week, Ben. Look forward to seeing what you bring out next.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Grant McLaughlin was kind enough to invite me to "play along at home", so here's a story about a character that was already tackled a while ago: GALACTUS!

    ONE BYTE AT A TIME

    By

    Derek Adnams

    Page 1 – (5 Panels)

    1.1: Exterior, day, the sky above the alien forest on the planet Galactus will begin to eat in Panel 1.5. There are two suns in the sky and taking up the majority of the panel are two flocks of small pteranodon’s flying into each other. They are colliding and killing themselves, falling from the sky in epic numbers.

    Caption: The implosion of the pteranodove migration should have been a warning sign.

    Caption: No one noticed.

    1.2: Exterior, day, an alien forest populated by “Dr. Seuss” trees, the shadow of Galactus is creeping over the panel and the trees in its wake are dead or dying, the trees still in the light bending away from the shadow.

    Caption: Then the forests grew sick, their shrieks an avalanche of endings.

    Caption: No one cared.

    1.3: Exterior, day, a shore line on this world, the graveyard of a multitude of whales, or what this planet calls whales. They have tusks and antennae and have beached themselves in neat rows. Other than the corpses, the beach is empty.

    Caption: The seas began to vomit their dead back to the evolution of land.

    Caption: There were no more eyes to see.

    1.4: The screen of an iPhone, displaying the alien equivalent of a “cute cat video”.

    Caption: But the machines continued to do their jobs.

    1.5: Exterior, a Moebius inspired extraterrestrial Times Square, sunset on this planet of two suns, and Galactus standing in the background. He towers above the skyscrapers, a Kirby-esque machine at his side. In the foreground, a crowd of reptilian aliens, walking toward each other like pedestrians crossing a in New York City street at rush hour, every one of them looking down at their iPhones.

    Caption: Galactus arrived to devour a world that was already dead.

    Caption: No one noticed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So glad to have you, Derek!

    Also, killer script. I looked at a similar idea a few weeks back in my Ultron script, but your take is much more direct and the better for it. A brutal, bleak critique, with just the right amount of didactysm to it. Some excellent captions but maybe even better visuals. Thank you for contributing to the week.

    ReplyDelete

Feedback is what every good writer wants and needs, so please provide it in the white box below
-OR-
If you want to play along at home, feel free to put your scripts under the Why? post for the week.