Jason Aaron, author/creator of Scalped, The Other Side and writer of a handful of Marvel Comics, posted a very interesting read about writing and being a writer in the latest edition of his column over at CBR.com, a column called “Where the Hell Am I?”.
I usually do an excerpt of actual passages here, but this article has some great quotable lines that I’m just going to post instead:
“If you’re a writer, then you should always be writing.”
“You’re not truly a writer until you’ve had one of those moments where you suddenly stop whatever you’re doing and have to write something down before you forget it.”
“I do my best thinking in the shower.” (So do I.)
“Nothing is ever written in a vacuum.”
“And if you don’t first learn how to write in your head, then you’ll never be able to write on paper.”
Read the entire article here.
SIDE NOTE: I had previously thought about boycotting Mr. Aaron as a fair response to his boycotting and downight disrespectful words against the great Alan Moore in a past column of his entitled “The Year I Stopped Caring About Alan More”. For one, he doesn’t even know Mr. Moore, and two he totally took Moore’s various comments in past interviews out of context without personally knowing the man, where he was coming from, or what his experiences were truly like. Personally, I think Jason Aaron needs to pay the utmost respect to Alan Moore because without Alan Moore (and Karen Berger, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan and Jamie Delano) there would not be a VERTIGO imprint at DC Comics, and thus, Jason Aaron would not have the nice career he has as a successful comics writer. Also consider the fact that Alan Moore is offering to give his Marvelman royalties money to Marvelman creator Mick Anglo (whenever Marvel Comics gets around to publishing those, which they have not yet done since acquiring the rights nearly two years ago). Would Jason Aaron offer up some of his royalties to the creators whose characters he’s worked on and been paid that handsome Marvel Exclusive salary (despite the characters’ ownership by Marvel)? He could pay Len Wein and John Romita Sr. (hell, even Chris Claremont) for his work on Wolverine, for example. Or Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (and many others) for most of the other Marvel Comics characters he currently works on.
Just sayin’.
However, I chose not to be as petty as Mr. Aaron and will continue to give him default respect because I do not personally know him, but I’ve read some of his work and I respect him as a fellow writer, a fellow creative soul.
Lost Signal 