Day 31
The month of November flew right on by, I cannot believe that it is December already. I hate to sound cliche but time flies when you are having fun.
This has been a fun month. I didn't ruin Thanksgiving this year and my creative juices have been at an all time high. This blog has been very rewarding, it is hard to believe that this is my 31st official entry. This challenge has been not only so much fun to write but also to read. I am following quite a few other people that have taken the challenge and it has been neat to get to know them and see how creative they have been so far. I appreciate the ideas I have stolen.
As I have blogged about many, many times already, this month was also NaNoWrMo. And not only did I complete the 50,000 word challenge, I also have completed my novel.
Yes, I got to write the words The End. I named my novel, "THE VESSEL" and the final word count is 65,817.
I am pretty proud of this achievement. Here is a short sypnosis of the novel:
A young girl holds the key to saving a parallel universe. Only she doesn't know it yet and every one is out to get her. The only person that is trying to save her is her basketball coach. Or was he the janitor at the hospital when she was born? Or perhaps the fellow church-goer when she was in elementary school? There seems to be more to her coach than it seems.
But this is not the reason for today's column. I wanted to take some time to write about some of my favorite comic book authors and how they influenced me. Each of the writers I have chosen have something that I think they are the best at and something that I try to emulate. I have included links to Amazon at the end so you can check out other reviews. I suggest if you are trying comics out for the first time, you should check out Orbiter or Brian K. Vaughan's Y-The Last Man.
WARREN ELLIS:
Master of the Imaginative Details
My favorite writer is Warren Ellis. Ellis does the small things that make things more memorable. With one written line of dialouge he can breathe life and create a memorable character. It is the attention to detail that makes Ellis a favorite of mine. He also has a crazy imagination that really inspires me to rethink things and think beyond the box. He can do it all too, he has written superhero books that are inspiring, horror comics that creep into your mind when it is dark, comics about crime that make you feel helpless and science fiction that makes you think of what lies beyond the stars. He is one of the few comic authors that I will follow anywhere.
FAVORITE WORKS: Orbiter, Scars, Planetary
GEOFF JOHNS:
Master of Continuity
He is known for his superhero work. Comic book writers either love him or hate him, I fall into the "love" camp more than anything. What I appreciate about this writer is his obvious love for continuity. He can take any storyline from the past, no matter how good or bad it is and rework it. He does not ignore continuity, he embraces it. His run on the comic Green Lantern is the best example. I hated that the original Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, was being brought back and I was against reading it but after years and years have gone by, I tried it out. And he made it work, he didn't ignore what had gone on before with Hal Jordan, he used it to further his story.
FAVORITE WORKS: JSA, Green Lantern
CHRIS CLAREMONT:
Master of the Subplots
When I was a kid I had read a ton of comics but none of the impacted me as much as Claremont's work on the Uncanny X-Men did. His first run on that title remains my all-time favorite run. A lot of readers do not care for his work, claiming that it is outdated and has too many subplots. It seems like today's audience wants stories that are told and ended, no various plotlines but I am not like that. I love subplots, it is what keeps me buying the books. I love subplots and I think he is the best at it. His later work is not as strong as his older stuff but I will still check his stuff out.
FAVORITE WORKS: Uncanny X-Men, WildC.A.T.S/Cyberforce, Wolverine
BRIAN K. VAUGHAN:
Master of the Cliffhanger
I like comics because I like the monthly serial. You can read Vaughan's stuff when they are collected but I think you miss out a bit with his monthly cliffhangers. BKV is a fantastic writer, his dialogue is very belivable and his stories are full of imagination. But his cliffhangers are the best. The first issues of Ex Machina and Y-The Last Man are perfect cliffhangers.
FAVORITE WORKS: Y-The Last Man, Ex Machina, Pride of Baghdad
There are other comic book writers that I like too. Alan Moore, Christos Gage, Jeff Smith and Alan Davis come to mind. But these are the ones that stick out to me the most.
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