A couple of years ago, when I was just
getting back into comics after a long hiatus, I read an article on
Newsarama about a new small-press title on the horizon called Elk's
Run. I think at that time I was buying the Ocean
miniseries and maybe Y: the Last Man - just sort of
tiptoeing back into the folds of comic fandom.
So I saw this piece on Elk's Run,
and it had this incredibly moody, mysterious cover that immediately
made me want to learn more.
When I finally got my hands on a copy
and started reading it... wow! I never knew comics could be like
this. From page one, panel one, writer Joshua Hale Fialkov's voice
rings true, capturing the isolation and emotional desolation of a
teenage boy's life in a small town in West Virginia.
And the art by Noel Tuazon: I'd never
seen anything like it. It was loose, sketchy, and felt more real than
most of the more "realistic" comic book art I'd been exposed to
in my earlier days of comic collecting. The art in that first issue
of Elk's Run, just as the words, simply oozed emotion. Fialkov
and Tuazon, along with colorist Scott Keating, created in Elk's
Run what for me is a nearly perfect example of the power of the
comic book medium.
Elk's Run, along with Jack
Kirby's Kamandi (do I even need to say "Kirby's Kamandi,"
I wonder?) and the esteemed BKV's Y: the Last Man, was a
pivotal source of inspiration to me. It made me want to write
comic books, not just read them.
So naturally, when I decided to take
the plunge and start running up that hill toward the fabled land of
writing comic books, Noel Tuazon was at the top of the list of
artists I dreamed of working with someday.
Never did I dream I would actually get
the chance.
* * *
Over the course of the last year or so,
I started seriously looking for artists. I wanted to get to know some
guys whose work I liked, make some connections, sow some seeds for
future collaborations.
So when I saw an artist's work on
DeviantArt or Digital Webbing or PencilJack or wherever, and I really
dug it, I'd drop them a short email introducing myself and telling
them that I liked their work.
Sometimes that would lead somewhere;
often it didn't. But at the very least, it got my feet wet and helped
me to feel comfortable in putting myself out there a bit in the
godforsaken meat market known as "Writer Seeks Artist."
Not that I was hitting anybody up to
work with me at this point. No, I was just trying to get to know some
guys. I'm no expert by any stretch, but it seems to me that possibly
the worst possible way of finding an artist to collaborate with is to
post a "Writer seeking artist" ad on Digital Webbing (or
wherever).
(Okay, now I think I'm probably an
idiot for saying that, because I recall Drew Melbourne's success in
finding Yvel Guichet to pencil ArchEnemies for him through that very
method. So let me refine my previous assertion by saying, possibly
the worst possible way of finding an artist to collaborate with is to
post a "Writer seeking artist - no pay" ad on Digital Webbing.)
(Or my all-time favorite, "writer
seeking artist for verbal degradation and abuse." I'd love to hear
how that worked out!)
* * *
I don't know what possessed me to email
Noel Tuazon out of the blue one day last fall (September 26th,
to be precise). Since I started slogging my way up that fabled hill,
I find that my mood alternates between giddy optimism and smoldering
despair. I guess it must have been one of the former kind of days.
So, I Googled Noel, found his email
address, and sent him this email:
Noel,
I saw your post over on
the Boom Studios submission forum and was surprised as heck to see
that it was actually you! I am a writer in Little Rock, Arkansas
(USA) and Boom's forum is one of the places I look on occasion to try
and find artists to potentially work with.
Ever since that first
issue of Elk's Run (which seems so long ago now!), I have been a big
fan of your work. You are one of a handful of guys with a unique,
distinctive style that is all your own.
Your work on Elk's Run
was a bit of a revelation for me, actually. Prior to that book, I was
pretty much a traditionalist in regard to what I thought comic book
art should look like. Now, I feel I have a much more open mind and am
more interested in an artist's storytelling skills than in finding
someone with a certain preconceived look that is what I expect a
comic book should have (if that makes any sense at all).
Besides Elk's Run, I also
enjoyed your work on Paper Cuts and Redchapel. And I am very much
looking forward to your story with Antony Johnston in Postcards next
year!
By way of context, I
count Caleb Monroe and Jason Rodriguez among my comic book community
friends. Caleb has been a big help to me in learning some of the
ropes as I endeavor to launch my career as a comic book writer. And
Jason, I believe, will vouch for me as a diehard supporter of
Postcards and Elk's Run.
To make a long story
short, since I'm sure you have better things to do than read
meandering emails from people you've never met, I just wanted to
introduce myself to you and tell you how much I appreciate your art.
As I mentioned, I am a writer (though unpublished as of yet), so of
course I am always looking for artists to potentially work with. On
the personal front, I'm an astounding 40 years old (though you might
not guess it to look at me), happily married and the father of a
wonderful little boy. My day job involves programming web sites to
interact with databases and other such webby things.
I have a site at
www.EltonPruitt.com
which tells a little about me, as well as the proverbial MySpace site
at www.MySpace.com/eltonpruitt.
At the moment, I'm working on a submission for a comic titled
Descartes the Zombie, for which we have a production blog at
www.IntelligentZombie.com.
I'm also working on an 8-page story to submit to a new anthology
called Sequential Suicide, which I am hoping will be my first
publication. And I'm currently making plans for a self-promotional
book to have ready by next summer's San Diego Comic-Con, that will
contain four short stories written by me and illustrated by different
artists.
Anyway, I am glad to make
your acquaintance in that Internet sort of way. I hope you get some
work from Boom Studios -- you deserve it! And I am seriously looking
forward to finally getting to read the remainder of Elk's Run next
year...
Best regards,
Elton
Much to my surprise and elation, Noel
emailed me back the next day! Then from there, we exchanged a few
emails, and before too long, I broached the subject of us possibly
doing a short story together for my Anthology With No Name.
Now, at the time, I had recently read
some advice from a writer who suggested the best way to get an artist
interested in working with you is to ask them what they'd like to
draw. This made a lot of sense to me, so I posed that question to
Noel, and he told me he'd be interested in drawing a horror and/or
sci-fi story.
And the trap was sprung!
* * *
Over the next several weeks, I went
around in circles, starting a dozen stories in my head, but none on
paper. Any story I started imagining, that really resonated for me
and drew me into it, was quickly discarded when I applied the "horror
and/or sci-fi" litmus test.
And any time I sat down with the
objective of starting a horror and/or sci-fi story, I got nowhere -
I felt trapped within those genre restrictions and any idea I halfway
developed seemed trite and superficial and not at all in keeping with
the kinds of stories I want to write.
(These were days of smoldering despair,
not giddy optimism, for those keeping score at home!)
From time to time, I'd email Noel by
way of keeping in touch and reminding him that (a) I still existed
and (b) I still wanted to do this story with him. And we'd chat a
little about EC reprints or KISS or the upcoming Elk's Run graphic
novel (to be published March 27 by Random House's Villard imprint).
And the longer this went on, without me
having a script to send him, the more I felt like a chump.
* * *
Finally, a few days ago, I just
couldn't take it anymore. Here I had this nascent
friendship/acquaintance/professional relationship with an artist who
I held in the highest regard, and I was frittering the potential of
that away with each passing week that produced no viable script.
So I popped open a refreshing Natural
Ice ("Ice brewed for a naturally smooth taste. 5.9% alc.vol."),
set my MindSpace on "Giddy Optimism," and emailed Noel.
And I just laid it out there for him,
as honestly and no-bullshittedly as I could.
I'm nowhere on the story
we had discussed, but I still keenly want to work with you on a
story. I guess two things, besides this whole Twilife affair, have
been holding me back. The first is, I want it to be perfect, because
who knows when or if I'll get the opportunity to work with you again.
The second is, I feel I may have creatively trapped myself to a
degree by saying "what do you want to draw" and you coming
back at me with horror and/or sci-fi.
I know I should just
write a horror and/or sci-fi story for you, and maybe I need to just
buckle down and do that. So far, when a story idea comes to me and
starts forming, I follow it only so far and then start questioning
its genre -- is this really a horror story? -- and then it goes
nowhere.
After I hit Send, I felt both relieved
and anxious. For all I knew, this would be the final straw that broke
the camel's back as it pounded the last nail in my coffin. I felt
like an unpublished schmuckster extraordinaire, but I also felt I had
no choice.
I had to do something to get out of the
trap I'd so cleverly laid for myself.
* * *
Don't you just love a happy ending?
I sure do. Especially when I get to be
on the happy end of it!
Not an hour after I emailed him, Noel
emailed me back and basically told me he'd be up for whatever,
genre-wise, and threw out the suggestion of a silent story, like some
of the Moebius work he'd been reading of late.
And that, then, was my salvation. Upon
reading his email, I felt free at last of the box I'd unknowingly
constructed around my creative spirit.
Now, I realize it may seem a little
funny to shirk from the restriction of a particular genre but embrace
the restriction of a story with no (or very few) words. And I'm not
100% certain the silent story is what I want to do here.
But it intrigues me. It gets my
creative juices flowing. It suggests subject matter and theme and I
can see panels on a page and I can just feel how fertile the
concept is. And the thing with Noel's art is, it's expressive. It's
emotive. It's intuitive and beneath the surface and above all, it
serves the story.
The guy flat-out knows how to
tell a story with pictures.
So now, I'm giving myself an arbitrary
deadline of, let's see, March 10 to get this story written and edited
and into Noel's inbox. And I'm flush with giddy optimism (and, truth
be told, a couple of Natty Ices, but who's counting?) about where
this could go, and how good it could be.
Elton
Pruitt writes comic books. His first published story will appear in Sequential Suicide, due in early 2007. He likes to imagine that “the Ecto” is a cool nickname/nom de
plume. He hasn't smoked a cigarette in an astounding 782 days! And if you visit him
in EltonSpace,
he'll be delighted – particularly if you subscribe to his blog!
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