Kibbles ‘n’ Bits 11/10/17: Doing better

§ Nice Art: Sometimes you just gotta quote the Onion. Courtroom Sketch Artist Has Clear Manga Influences

§ Kieron Gillen offers some solid advice on surviving work for hire in an interview with Jennifer De Guzman for Comics Experience

CE: Were there times in your career when you felt like you weren’t surviving, at least not in a healthy way? What was that like and what led to it? What did you learn from it?

KG: Oh, definitely. I got into an unhealthy cycle of writing my script in a day or two, and then being so broken I couldn’t do any decent work for the next few days, before then needing to do the next script in a day or two again. The worst thing was the perverse writer pride in knowing that you could do it like that, so a terrible part of ego was proud of it — and I suspect was the reason I did it. That was damaging to me, and damaging to the work.

§ And Michael Moreci writes about The Slow, Difficult Pursuit of Creative Success including some darkest before the dawn stuff:

Meanwhile, I couldn’t get anything else off the ground. Marvel and DC never even returned my emails, nor did really any comics company–and that meant I couldn’t get work for hire gigs that, at the very least, would help balance out the money I was bleeding on Hoax Hunters. I’d sent a good number of pitches to Image, and nothing got taken. I was, in short, stuck. All I had was a slowly dying book, a bunch of debt, and very few prospects for the future. And there I was at NYCC, wondering what in the world I was doing with my life. I remember standing at my artist alley table, kicking myself because I’d taken time away from my day job and my two year old son only to lose money at a comic con. I was terrified that my career was over. I’d put everything I had into Hoax Hunters, and it wasn’t enough.

BUT there is a happy ending and Moreci’s prose novel Black Star Renegades comes out next year.

§ The great Mary Fleener has a shiny new website.  It’s full of art including a gallery of her black velvet paintings!

§ Okay here is a “comic gets optioned story” about a comic, I confess, I didn’t even remember was published. Nacho Vigalondo will direct The Comeback, and Robert Kirkman’s Skybound will produce. The comic is written by Ed Brisson and illustrated by Michael Walsh.

The story is centered on two operators of an illegal venture that helps rescue loved ones before they die by going back in time. When one of them meets a future version of himself, they find themselves on the run from the FBI and their employers, who want to kill them to protect their own dark and deadly secrets. Lauren Abrahams is overseeing the project on behalf of the studio.

§ I also forgot that an Umbrella Academy adaptation was still happening at Netflix, even though it’s eagerly awaited. And Ellen Page will star so that’s a good start. 

§ The world is breaking apart and things long hidden are finally being revealed. And it’s not easy for anyone. Of course, a journalist has a much better time of it that women (and men) who were harassed and assaulted. But bringing these things to light is not as easy as firing up the old CMS and writing down some words. Jezebel’s On Rumors is a good reminder that just knowing that something happened doesn’t mean that you can write a story about it. Most importantly, many victims are afraid to come out because of the very real danger that their careers will be ended.

And up until the last few weeks, that was the case 90% of the time. But now suddenly there is an eye of the storm where it’s “okay” to believe women who talk about the very real, ongoing, mostly condoned harassment they’ve experienced. And it’s also “okay” to say the men who habitually harassed are perpetrators who should not be handwaved away or allowed to continue in their positions of power and influence. That this wasn’t always the case is heartbreaking and baffling, yet deeply ingrained into a patriarchal society.

But more is coming. A lot more. And it’s going to be hard. Here at The Beat we are going to do our best to cover this breaking news fairly, ethically and with respect for the victims a foremost priority. I don’t expect this to be the easiest path, but it’s basically the only path we can take.

I’ve written before about how the entire #MeToo phenomenon has been necessary but demoralizing. It’s upsetting to find out your hero was a creep. It’s painful to find out  women you love and admire were disrespected and violated. It’s easier to forget and sweep it all under the rug but you can’t. Because we all have to do better.

So this how we do better.