2010 - The Year That Was

So despite the fact that this blog has become horribly neglected, I still want to do my look back / look ahead posts as we approach the New Year. 2010 has turned out to be quite different than I imagined it would be last year.

I do take pride in the fact that DYNAMO 5: SINS OF THE FATHER hit every solicited ship date, as did the recently released DYNAMO 5 HOLIDAY SPECIAL. The reasoning behind our decision to switch a series-of-mini-series format was so that we could release the book on a more reliable schedule, and it would've looked really bad if we'd missed the ship dates on a mini-series. Fortunately for us, that wasn't the case. And as of this writing, artist Julio Brilha is already hard at work on our next mini-series, DYNAMO 5: CERTAIN DEATH. And I'll confirm right here, for the first time, that one of the five Dynamo kids is going to die. Who will be it? That's for me to know and you to find out!

As 2010 began, I really thought that I'd be focusing a lot more on prose. See, I've always considered myself a writer. Not just a comic book writer, or a screenwriter, or a prose writer. But a writer. Of lots of different things. In 2009 I wrote a TV pilot and a feature film and because things move so slowly in Hollywood I wanted to mix it up a bit more. To that end, I was determined to try my hand at prose. And I did. I wrote two short stories that I think turned out pretty well. They're both mystery stories, and maybe I'll put them online somewhere, sometime.

But in addition to prose writing, I had one more screenwriting-related goal. Many TV networks and studios have writing programs designed to train the next wave of TV writers, so I decided to apply to some of them. I ended up applying to the NBC / Universal "Writers on the Verge" program, the ABC/Disney Writing Program, and the Warner Bros TV Writers Workshop. I applied in May and then promptly put it out of my head and went back to work on comics and prose. But then in October I got a call that I'd made it to the interview stage in the Warner Bros program. So I flew down to LA, had my interview, and then flew home the very next day. Then the waiting began. I think it was only a little over a week, but it sure seemed longer. It was worth it, though, because I was accepted. Out of roughly 1,300 applicants, they chose 9 of us to be in the program. It started in early November, so I had to relocate from Washington state to LA in record time. Which I did. And I've been in the program for two months now and so far it's been an amazing experience. My classmates are all really nice, talented people and our instructors are awesome. As a comic book writer, I spend most of my time alone at my desk. So this is a really nice change, to be surrounded by like-minded writers who love TV as much as I do. It's really exciting. So if things go my way, I'll be on a writing staff for one of Warner Bros shows in the 2011 Fall season. But more on that in my next post, regarding what's ahead in 2011...