Great Writing is Great Writing

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TV

I don’t believe that great writing is restricted to Theatre or classical literature. I also don’t think that only Cinema as a modern medium stands up to those two. I think many mediums can challenge those three giants, but I’m not just talking about comics. Television can often fall a very long way short, but I do think TV drama can be ‘accessible theatre’. So I thought I’d quote a piece of telly. It’s not BBC Four high-brow, it’s a mass-audience police procedural, but this speech I liked, I liked A LOT (maybe because I secretly hope it could be written about me!)

I would like to propose a toast to my partner, Seeley Booth.

I know who he is but I forget sometimes because… because he never shines a light on himself. He shines it on other people.

Anthropology teaches us that the alpha male is the man wearing the crown, displaying the most colorful plumage and the shiniest baubles, he stands out from the others. But I now think that anthropology may have it wrong.

In working with Booth, I’ve come to realize that the quiet man, the invisible man, the man who is always there for friends and family, that’s the real alpha male. And, I promise that my eyes will never be caught by those… shiny baubles again. Happy birthday, Booth.

If you’re bored…

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bored

Here a few things that I particularly like at the moment, all are worth checking out and all are great time wasters, which if your day job is like mine is incredibly important…

Mobile Frame Zero – Looking for a new game? love making fun robots out of lego? When then this is for you, this brilliant table top strategy game was funded as a kickstarter project (that site alone is a massive time and funds sink) and once you’ve got your entry pack with the rules you can build your own units to play! They also sell lego kits which I just want for my desk if nothing else.

Looking for some new graphic novels but not sure where to start then check out, the always useful, CBR’s Top 100 novels of 2012. I highly recommend ‘Nao of Brown‘ and if you’re not reading it yet get on board with ‘The Unwritten‘

One of my favorite and most informative things to watch on-line is the penny arcade sponsored ‘Extra Credits‘. Now onto it’s firth season it’s a brilliant little show which explores the concepts, mechanics, themes, writing and psychology found in gaming. Most of the topics they discuss can be applied to most forms of media though and it’s 100% worth watching.

The final site I’m going to pimp today is io9 which frankly I’m sure most of you will know about. If you enjoy science, science fiction, TV, film or generally geeky topics it’s a great resource. Not many other sites cover universal origin theories, Joss Whedon myths, amazing concept artwork and animals that should be Pokemon. Well none quite so well.

Enjoy.

Classic Webcomics

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artists, Naniiebim, Penny Arcade, PVP, SMBC, VG Cats, web comics, XKCD

I thought I’d go ahead and add a few more links and make some recommendations.

Naniiebim I was lucky to meet at the Bristol Comic convention last year and pick up some of her work (Orange). The artwork is lovely and her blog gives a brilliant breakdown in the processes involved in producing and printing your own work!

One of the biggest problems with getting into comics, even small press, is the amount of effort and time it takes to produce physical products to sell. We submitted a story last week and it won’t see print for at least another 8 months, which is why web comics have become so popular. It might not be the same as holding the comic in your hand but for huge access, flexibility, low cost and creative control it can’t be beaten, so below are my recommendations to check out:

Penny Arcade – If you don’t already read this, the most successful web comic franchise of all time, I don’t even know what to say…

SMBC – Always funny and incredibly inventive

XKCD – Clever, far too clever for me sometimes, brilliantly nerdy and they get bonus points for there terrific ‘What if‘ scenarios

VG Cats – For all your gaming goodness, plus love the artwork (plus their pokemon themed comic Super Effective is genius)

PVP – An absolute classic webcomic with brilliant characters

Those are all the classic big hitters that jump to mind, I’ll add some obscure comics and hidden gems soon.

The best script submission guidelines ever!

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Submissions, The Psychedelic Journal of Time Travel

The Psychedelic Journal of Time Travel as mentioned before is a new publication the first issue of which is due out within the next couple of weeks.

The PJTT is open for script submissions (for issue 3!) and they’ve produced this brilliant set of guidelines.

If you ever fancy writing a comic you NEED to read this, but even if you don’t this is a very funny and clever piece of writing that will at least deter you from ever becoming a submissions editor.

Submission Tips (Don’t Do What Donny Don’t Does)

Enjoy!

We’re on a roll now…

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2000AD, Disconnected Press, The Psychedelic Journal of Time Travel

I thought I’d follow Richard’s example in his previous post and introduce some of the publishers/publications we’ve added to our We Greatly Admire… list over there =>

2000AD – do I really need to say anything about this? It is the ultimate comic. I’ve been reading for more than 30 years and wrote paragraph after paragraph extolling its virtues before deleting them. They weren’t needed. It’s 2000AD: if you don’t know it, then go get a copy, you won’t regret it.

Disconnected Press – I discovered them at the Bristol Comic Expo (which is worth a post of its own some time!) and was so impressed with the professional standards that they produce their products to. I afraid I only picked up Disconnected Vol 1, but was so excited by it. That particular title focussed on short stories set in small towns: because stories don’t just happen in big cities! What an array of artistic and writing talent, and easily the best printing/binding of any of the small press that at I saw at Bristol. They haven’t posted that they’re going to Bristol this year, but I’m really hoping they are!

The Psychedelic Journal of Time Travel – I guess to some this is a ‘replacement’ for Dr WTF! and maybe it is. But Owen who is behind both has, if his “promo rhino” (his words!) is to be believed, put together some amazing strips from some even more amazing individuals. The Journal hasn’t hit the streets yet, but the presses are rolling and the launch is imminent. I’m really looking forward to seeing issue 1. I should also say that I met Owen at the Bristol Comic Expo (yes, that again) and he seemed a thoroughly decent chap, and I think I’m now as big of a fan of him as I am of his comics – I hope he’s at Bristol in May too!

We would love to be associated with all of these titles, here’s hoping it can happen!

The Laminated Sewer

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Edward Zabkiewicz, Short Stories, The Laminated Sewer

Our good friend Mr Edward Zabkiewicz, after many moons writing solely for his own amusement and catharsis, has finally been persuaded to create a small home for his writing and expose them to the brutal expanse of the world. His stories are inventive, engaging, intriguing and often a challenge. He is a young man with much potential stretching his literary muscles and I quite frankly can’t recommend them highly enough. I admit I may be a little in love with the man but that shouldn’t dissuade you!

Check out his blog in our ‘We Greatly Admire’ section or follow the link directly here

The First Post!

Whoa, write the first post it says… like that’s not daunting!

Well, I guess this might be all anyone reads to start with, but a year from now, no-one’s gonna care because of the amazing content that will have been posted since this first baby step!

Okay, well in that case let’s keep it simple. fifthRifle is here to promote the works and ramblings of two friends just starting out writing comics. We’ve spent far too much of our time reading them, now it’s time to pay-it-forward and write exciting new stories for everyone to love, appreciate and generally alter their life’s course because of… well, maybe the latter aim may be a bit much, but hopefully we can write some stuff that people’ll like and maybe make them stop and think for a minute.

We already have one script accepted that will appear in Jarjaz #18, due in the summer. We’re so grateful to the guys at Jarjaz for giving us opportunity and for getting the wonderful David Broughton to draw it for us. We’ve seen the finished strip and it looks great! If Jarjaz start previewing it on their site you can be sure we’ll post it a link!

We have also submitted a second, much longer story to them just this week. We haven’t had the go ahead yet, but we’re hoping they’ll be happy and David will draw it again for us.

Right, I’ll leave it there. It went okay really, didn’t it? More exciting stuff soon. See ya!