Consider it our first outing as I’ll be gathering my bearings, as I set a course for the dark uncharted waters of untethered creation, I want to explore why we tell stories at all? What is it about particular stories that resonate with the human experience?
Anthropologists think storytelling is one of the core mechanisms most central to human existence. It’s common to every known culture. The exchange of information, and emotions, is a symbiotic exchange between teller and listener, between Creator and reader, this is an exchange so primal, we begin learning to negotiate the basics during our infancy.
Just as the brain detects patterns in visual forms such as those found in nature or sequential art -- a face, a figure, a flower -- or in sound, so too it detects patterns in information. Stories are recognizable patterns, and in those patterns we find meaning. We use stories to make sense of our world and to share that understanding with others. They are the signal within the noise.
We use stories to make sense of our world and to share that understanding with others.
My passion and enthusiasm for comics, novels, and storytelling started really early on in my life. I have always been a storyteller, but I never considered myself a storyteller until a near death experience, when I, pickled off cheap alcohol, rolled a Chevy Tahoe, going at least 90 mph, approximately 4:30 a.m., on a stretch of interstate that I had no business being on, as it wasn’t even in my state of residence. The plot deepens. Yes it does, but that’s a story for another time, rest assured, it will make you question everything.
Wake up Mr. Conine, would you like a little bit of Clarity?
Whether I wanted clarity or not, I was on the receiving end of a clarity beatdown.
Jump forward 28 days, and I’m in the basement of crowded church, but the smell said otherwise, like an ashtray and some stale coffee had been screwing all night, that lingering taste of nasty just hung in the air. This is where I first found God or Creation, or whatever floats your boat, by throwing myself at the mercy of a room full of strangers and submitting, “My name is David, and I’m an Alcoholic.” Admitting powerlessness, embracing acceptance, and after what I experienced, I had no questions, there were many powers greater than me. I began sharing my experiences, and things in my life changed drastically.
That was almost 16 years ago, and it’s been one day at a time, but walking into that church changed the trajectory of what was to come. My earliest memory of recognizing the innate power stories can contain, and just how potent they can be took place shortly after.
I was already a writer, but now I was forced to carry a composition journal always as the ideas never stopped coming, and I began to notice certain elements as I followed the stories in comics, paying much closer attention to the weight of narratives and certain characters.
I remember my second reading of Alan Moore’s The Watchmen TPB and for the first time, I could feel the magic between those Panels. I set the book on the bedside table, looking over, I could see the book breathing, the damned narrative is alive. The power of this was surreal. This experience gave birth to the terminology, Panel Alchemy & Panel Alchemist. I’m no longer blown away by strange things that happen in my life today. I’ll be the first to say I’m no saint, but I do work daily to be a better person, and God knows, I stay focused on my work.
I’m now going to develop two stories that I feel have been given to me for years in bits and pieces, so I’m in the process of building my creative team, writing my business plan, or Kickstarter campaign, call what you will.
I’m meticulous when it comes to detail, and I’ve even been told I’m too detail oriented. To me, I just keep try to stay on track, focusing on the next step. My professional life is Marketing Consulting, but I’m always working on comic related projects, prior to getting my books pressed, there was a mobile app, plus I was a founding member and press editor for a website that has come so far, a shout out to my good friends at Comic-Watch.com. I think I’ve found the elusive formula that allows man to transform a matters state of being.
I may sound like a lunatic, but where some choose not to see magic, I can’t help but see it.
AM I SUBSTACKING YETI?
lol. It’s a process, like anything else in life, and things will change a bit, most likely, more than one might imagine, before I nail down exactly what’s to expect in the next newsletter. Truth, Humility, Humor, and my story of writing stories and just how powerful stories can be. Eat that for breakfast!!
What Make’s Me Tick? (Abridged Version)
Creativity requires input, and that's what research is, the gathering material with which to build. My fascination with all genres of literature, the art of how to deliver a story effectively, and the various methods for delivering in-depth narratives in the most effective way has been a passion for decades.
All these elements depend on the Writer, and for me, the Comic Medium is the most efficient, versatile tool, capable of delivering rich in-depth narratives and characters.
Early on, one of my mentors said to read everything I possibly could get my hands on, which I considered this a given, already a given, I have always been a serious reader, reading as many comics and novels I could get my hands on! I’ve spent years thinking about imagination and how important it was too me as a child and how these days, I’m always writing down ideas as they come sometimes hitting me like barrage of bullets. I really have a love affair with the Comic Medium. It’s offers so much in the way of delivering, amazing ideas, characters, and often a much needed escape. I’m also a huge fan of artwork and the love and time spent studying the amazing cover art, multiple ways of paneling, inking, and such, it became evident that each is a major cog in this formula, but we will dig deeper next time.
So what’s next? I’ll share my last crash and burn and you will all say WTF? I did!
What’s My Answer?
That is the million dollar question that I’ll be addressing as I cover the development of at least two Kickstarter Campaigns and I’ll discuss the last attempt that died on the vine primarily due to COVID, but It taught me how not to start.
So I’ve got two completed scripts that I’ve run by some industry friends whom I trust and received promising feedback.
I also have stacks of composition notebooks full of pitch ideas, sketches and short stories as I move forward with this endeavor.
