This is What Happens When I Take a Playwriting Class

In the second semester of my first year of college I took a playwriting class because I had decided to test out being a writing major. I would later realize this was an awful idea for many reasons.

My class consisted of myself and six other people. I was the youngest of the group. In the first couple weeks of class I grew to hate it. I was in a slight “fuck school” phase so that only heightened my hate (for reference this class ended up being my favorite of the semester). It felt like we weren’t focusing enough on the actual writing on plays and were spending a lot of time talking about them.

When we finally got to the actual writing we were tasked with writing a ten minute play. For my first play I write a short crime story where a criminal tries to get his retired buddy back into the game. It took a turn when the buddy revealed he had told the cops about the criminal’s return to town, which led to the blackout and a few gunshot sound effects.

My play was not well received.

The Top 26 Comics I Read In 2011

2011 was a year where new comics were released. The following is a list of my favorites and what I believe were the 26 best things that I had the pleasure of reading. If you can’t tell, I don’t feel like writing an intro. Thrown in with the list will be some other general thoughts about other things related to 2011.

 

Change in Direction

This is my first post on this blog since October for two reasons:

1. School.

2. It stopped being fun.

I started off this blog to try and write things that I wasn’t seeing in the current state of comics journalism, which I feel focuses on reviews, news, and negativity too much. I wanted to make a blog which took a deeper look into the comics I was reading. I kind of did that for a while and I feel like I actually got there when I wrote my piece on the second volume of Casanova. Then I became determined to make this little blog into a thing. I craved hits and loved seeing the graph rise. Because of that I started to steer this blog into the direction of every other comic site. I talked about the news and people started to read my shit, which is funny because I wouldn’t have read it. I started off this blog to write what I wanted to read and then I stopped doing that and it stopped being fun.

I tried to get a piece out every week and putting that deadline on it kept it from being fun as well. Eventually it got to a point where school and work were taking up so much time of my life and writing for this blog wasn’t fun and I wasn’t getting paid for it, so why should I do it? The answer that I’ve come to is that I shouldn’t do it. The blog as it is now is done.

What I’d like to do from here on out is do what I wanted to do when I started. Fuck the hits, if what I’m saying has any value the readers will come.

The posts won’t be weekly or anything like that. They’ll just be whenever I feel like it. I think I’ll use this blog to talk about writing too. I’d like to crank out a script for a graphic novel that’s been clunking around my head for a couple of months now so maybe I’ll be posting stuff about that. You might ever see some personal essays pop up.

Sometime soon I’ll post a list of my favorite comics of this year. Yeah, everybody else does that, but I do love me some lists.

I probably should have discussed this with Justin before making the decision. Oh well, he’ll get it. Even though I kinda just fired him now. Huh… yeah, I feel like a douchebag.

If the grammar sucks or my spelling is off, sue me. This is just me talking, like it always should have been.

- Kelly

PS, while I’m thinking of it, go back and read my interview with JFX316. I enjoyed doing that a lot.

Thoughts on Arkham City

By Justin Schultz

Before I start the article, I just want to give a few disclaimers.  I will be talking about character appearances in Batman: Arkham City, so if you consider this information to be a spoiler, please read another article on this site.  Also, I am a HUGE Batman fan, so there may be some ridiculous geeking out, just a warning. 

 

For those of you who don’t know, Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to the hit game, Batman: Arkham Asylum.  The story picks up what seems to be a few months from the previous game, and during this time, a lot has changed in the troubled city of Gotham.  The former warden of Arkham Asylum, Quincy Sharpe, has been elected mayor of Gotham City, and with that power, he gave permission to portion off a section of Gotham City, renaming it Arkham City, a location where all of the inmate of Arkham are allowed to run free.  I know, not the brightest of bright ideas, but there is hope in sight! 

Interview with JFX316 about his new album Don’t Get Killed

By Kelly Harrass

I don’t know where Jared Whittaker finds time to sleep. With two podcasts to record and produce, a comic shop to help run, columns to write for Panels on Pages, and two musical projects, I just don’t know how he does it. In this interview Whittaker and I discuss the music he releases under the name JFX316. On Halloween, JFX316 will release his new album Don’t Get Killed. Let’s get into the interview where I do my best Marc Maron impression and make things all conversational.

album art by Rusty Shackles

Housekeeping and Links

by Kelly Harrass

As you may have noticed, posting has become few and far between. I’m trying to get new stuff up, but my time is limited with work and school taking up my free time. Expect posts to go up biweekly for the forseeable future. You should look for a new post this friday for a new interview.

Speaking of school, I need a little help with a statistics projects. If you could, please reply to this post saying whether you are a Male of a Female and what your favorite form of entertainment is: Film, TV, Books or Comic Books. Thanks!

Now onto the links!

At New York Comic Con it was announced that the next creator owned series by the team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips will be released at Image. The series will be called Fatale and it will mix the crime and horror genres. Fatale will feature the usual Brubaker/Phillips crime-noir feel, but it will also have monsters, death cults, and the living incarnation of the femme fatale. Each issue will ship with two covers (see below for the covers from the first issue) and will begin in January of 2012. Go to Sean Phillips blog (http://surebeatsworking.blogspot.com/2011/10/fatale.html) to see the two covers from the first issue and the three page trailer.

If you read my last post you know I talked about the newest episode of Community. This episode featured seven different timelines. Somebody on Youtube put all seven timelines on one screen. It’s pretty awesome.

Alright, that’s all I’ve got. Remember to come back Friday for a new post.

The Chaos of Community

By Kelly Harrass

Community outdid themselves with this week’s episode, Remedial Chaos Theory. It showed that they’re the smartest comedy on TV; sadly it also showed that it won’t ever have the audience that shows like Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory have.

If you know me at all, I’ve mentioned Community to you at least once, if not a lot more times than that. It quickly became one of my favorite shows. It has a fantastic cast, it makes me laugh more than any other show, and it turns the sitcom format on its side, cuts it open, and examines the insides.