Brushing with Celebrity on the Floor.

The other night as I watched the Golden Globes with all those celebrities passing across the television screen, whether they were winners or just happy to be nominated or just plain seat fillers, I was reminded of something that happened this past summer.

Each year I attend the San Diego Comic Con International, and when there is somewhere around 120,000 people packing into the halls its hard to remember a face in that crowd, but a face did come back to me all these many months later.

I headed upstairs to attend a panel, though no longer remember what it was, and the line of people waiting to get in was already wrapped down the hallway and around two corners by the time I joined in at the back.

There were three guys just ahead of me, two were standing and a third was sitting on the floor (I know how he felt, read my blog on how much my feet hurt at the con). When I joined them they were in a discussion of DC Comic's New52. At that point in time we only had a vague idea of what was coming, each expressing their own opinions and how to do it better (fans you gotta love us).

Anyway, as the conversation lulled and changed, I eventually had an opportunity to talk about FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY. If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you'll know that FGHOG is the webcomic, which I illustrate and co-write with Shannon Muir. Click the link to the right to check it out; we're currently celebrating our 10^th Anniversary.

I was carrying with me business cards, some for myself, and some to promote the comic. They are small and can easily slip into your pocket (which you'll discover cleaning out your luggage when you get home, or turned into a mashed ball of wet paper when you pull it out of the washer), but they seem to work. What really worked for me was that I included a QR Code box on the reverse side of the card. (QR Code, you know, those strange little boxes filled with even smaller white and black boxes). People could use their 'smart phones' to scan the code and pull up our webcomic. If nothing else, it was a conversation starter.

While standing in line, it hadn't started to move yet; I gave a card to each of the three guys I had been talking with. After explaining about the code on the back, the one sitting on the floor pulled out his phone and scanned the card and checked out a few pages of the webcomic.

I got a polite "Cool," from him.

One problem I have at conventions is that nametags hanging from their lanyards and always turn backwards so I never can see a person's name. Not very helpful.

All I knew was the color of the nametag told me he was professional like myself. So just as the line began to move I asked him what he does? Figuring he'd be an artist or something.

He looked at me and simply answered: "I'm an actor."

The line moved on and I didn't get a chance to ask anything further. I had this feeling from his expression that I should have known who he was, but was also glad that I didn't know.

So, here I am, months later and watching the Golden Globes when it hits me.

I am more then ninety percent certain that the man who had been sitting on the floor, who took my business card, and looked at my webcomic, was the actor Seth Rogen.

Could be wrong of course, watching him now on the stage, and thinking back to the convention, he could have easily disappeared in to a crowd of geeks and nerds, and someone like me would never have been the wiser.

All the same I have to have a little thrill from this…

Seth Rogen thought FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY was "cool."

Influences to Glory - Writers and Artists

            Earlier today I was in the midst of a Twitter conversation that brought up our earliest comic book influences.

            Every artist, and writer, has their influences. Not all of us will agree as to who the greatest or the worst, the most dynamic, narrative, or the worst is. But we all know who influences us.

            For me, it goes nearly to the very beginning of reading comics. I had already read through a digest reprint of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #100 (written by Len Wein, another important influence to me), which introduced me to the world of the DC Universe that wasn't the SUPER FRIENDS of Saturday Morning Cartoons.

            Here was not only the Justice League of America, but also another team that called themselves the Justice Society of America. As a little kid, all I knew was that these were alternate takes on what I thought were well-established characters.

            Over the next few months I would beginning to pick up other comic books. One comic was THE NEW TEEN TITANS by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. The second was an issue of ALL STAR SQUADRON written by Roy Thomas and among many artists was Jerry Ordway.

            These two books would truly build my view of the DC Universe. The Teen Titans very 'science fiction' based modern stories with highly detailed artwork, while All Star Squadron showed heroes in the midst of World War II and had heroes with magic based powers.

            For a while I believe that Earth 1 took place in the modern day, and Earth 2 in the 1940s, so that even when they did a cross over story they were coming from two different points in time.  I soon learned that wasn't true.

            Anyway, back to my influences.

            For writing, I couldn't have picked any better writers to follow than Marv Wolfman and Roy Thomas. Yes, I'll hear people mention who they believe are better with more complexity to their writing, but for me these two men were the foundational influence to me that everything grew from.

            Where Wolfman knew who to emotionally grab me in one story and then tell great actions sequences in the next, Thomas knew how to handle dozens of characters sometimes at once.  Thomas also knows everything about what I was learning to call the 'Golden Age' of comics, and spent time in every issue telling something about it all.

            Because of Roy Thomas and the All-Star Squadron, I quickly became infatuated by Golden Age, and I saw out reprint books of the original stories (there was no way I could afford the originals, but I found the stories I wanted).

            As with most young comic readers I soon began to create my own characters. But I didn't want to create them in my modern world. I didn't fit in a New York that I saw through George Perez's detailed art. I created my characters influenced by Jerry Ordway that I felt had a more 'realistic' style. His faces were and are great.

            (Imagine my thrill later when Ordway was hired to ink Perez's work on CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTH. The two were so perfect together.)

            (SIDE NOTE: I would also discover in the back issue bings the John Byrne issues of FANTASIC FOUR, and I bought as many as I could afford over several years of collecting. The greats of these were those where Byrne's art was inked over by Jerry Ordway.)

            So I'm creating my own characters, refining them, turning them into something more than just sketches on a page. I gave them names, and origins, not just the basic how they got power origins, but why and who the characters are with out powers.)

            I was looking towards Roy Thomas and his interpretation of the Golden Age, that I began to emulate.

            Three characters that I developed the furthest were The Torchlight, Speedstar, and a heroine I called FLYING GLORY.

            I have written stories about all these characters, and as you all know, I took FLYING GLORY the furthest.

            I've told the story already as how publishers were interested in a FLYING GLORY comic, one really liked the story that I told, but eventually it became clear that I couldn't sells a Golden Age story when I was pitching it.

            So with the help of Shannon Muir I updated the Flying Glory character, made her the granddaughter of the original and gave her a group of friends that supported her. THE HOUNDS OF GLORY.

            Our webcomic FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY, currently celebrating its 10^th Anniversary of being online. Everything that I put into a script I owe to Marv Wolfman and Roy Thomas, and each panel of my art is so greatly influenced by Jerry Orway and George Perez (though I'll never be able to draw hi details and crowd scenes).

            Thank you Mr. Ordway, Mr. Perez, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Wolfman for you have made me the comic book professional that I am today.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

10 years isn't that long... if you're Flying Glory.

I don’t have to worry about coming up with anything to write this week.

This is a very important week. Not as important as some of course, but for me it is.

This week marks the 10^th anniversary of when our comic FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY went up on the web. (http://www.flying-glory.com)

Don’t know how many of you might remember an online bulletin board called GEnie. But back then, when the Internet was basically text and the only graphics you got to see was when you downloaded them (or when you were trapped with in the shell of AOL), I hung out in several boards had that had to do with writing: Science Fiction Round Table, Script Writing, Animation, and COMIC BOOKS.

With in the comic book writing board, the offered opportunities for people to submit (upload) samples of their writing for other members to read and review. There were many professionals on board and some of them took time out of their busy schedules to read the work as well.

So one day, I decided to participate and submit some of my own writing. This would be a script for a comic book of my own creation. I had previously been sketching out characters I wanted to write. So I chose one and sat at the keyboard and wrote.

I didn’t really know where I was going to go with the story, except that I knew that it would take place during the ‘golden age’ of the 1940s and was to have a slight different pov of events.

And so I soon submit what became the script for the very first FLYING GLORY comic book story.

I was quite surprised when the reviews that came back extremely positive. There was only one, that I remember, that have a major negative problem with the story. And that involved a character I didn’t explain well enough. This character was very important to the whole story, but I understood what the problem was and was easily fixed (though I certainly didn’t want to right then, I had written something good.)

It was a great feeling to have people say that my work was good, and so I knew something should be done with it.

So I printed up copies of the script (cleaned up and corrected, of course) put them in envelopes and passed them around to publishers at Comic Con International (San Diego ComiCon).

The very fact that I thought they would have the time to read my work really says something about me I guess. I don’t know if its faith or stupidity.

But again, surprise upon surprise, months later I get a phone call from an editor from a small, yet well known, publisher that I had given a script to. He thought Flying Glory showed promise. We talked more about it, and I sent him more samples of the comic. (Another dumb move, I guess.)

As fate would have it, nothing ever came about of my own comic book, as the publisher went out of business with in the next year. Have nothing against them; just wasn’t meant to be.

(Who remembers COMICO.)

Years pass, and another former member of the GEnie moves to Los Angeles, and a whole lot closer to me. (A good thing since we’re now engaged.)

Shannon will probably tell about different parts of this, but eventually I decided that Flying Glory needed to be an update. (No, not an reboot, my original characters are too important to me.) So I asked her if she’d be willing to help me come up with a story about the granddaughter of the original Flying Glory.

Debra Clay loves the spot light, believes that she’s going to become a really successful rock singer her friends backing her up in their band. Then things change one day when she discovers has inherited her grandmother’s powers.

FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY is born. A book about teenagers that struggle with their everyday lives and relationship, who just happen to be in a band and are super heroes.

Now we are celebrating our 10^th anniversary with a special Giant Size Issue 14 where we will discover a secret that has haunted Flying Glory for decades and will be a threat for many years to come.

Over the next year as the story progresses, I’ll be writing about different important things have made the Hounds of Glory the band to watch.

Oh, and remember that character my one critic thought I should change. Well he’s back in this story too. I wonder if you’ll know who it is.

Now sit back as we begin a ride through rocky life of Flying Glory and all her family and friends.

“Secret Origin of the Masked Ghost”

Secret Origins - Original vs Unique Characters

You didn’t really expect me to tell you the hero’s origin here did you? You’ll just have to keep reaching the chapters of “Revenge of the Masked Ghost” as I post them each week.

For those of you who aren’t following me on Twitter (@Kevinpsb00) or Facebook, I have begun writing a serialized novel which I am posting on my Facebook account entitled “Revenge of The Masked Ghost” You can find a link to it on the right side of this blog, as well as links to other important things in my online life. Check them all out.- - - > > >

‘Masked Ghost’, Ya, I know it’s not the most exciting name, but it says what it needs to. Like writer Mark Waid has admitted, I have a terrible time coming up with character names. Civilian names are actually easier to come up with than costumed nom de plumes. You try to come up with a really interesting name for a guy in a mask and tights that hasn’t been used a dozen times. At least this isn’t the 90’s when all I would have to do is find a way to use the words ‘Death’ or ‘Blood’. Only slightly a joke there.

I’m still proud of FLYING GLORY and her grandma I now call OL’GLORY.

Now on to the origin. Every kernel of a story idea isn’t always original. Especially if you want to tell a tale about mystery men and super heroes. Man puts on mask and fights crime, or avenges the murder of family members; whether he has super powers or just uses his fists, that’s basically it.

That character, his mask, tights, and cape, can be so much more than that depending on what the writer, and the artist, who brings him to life. What makes Peter Parker a great character? Is it his powers, or the death of his Uncle Ben teaching him to take responsibilities for his actions? The Fantastic Four are great team because they’re a family.

I could go on.

Each writer takes a shot at

Now I’m frightening myself, because there’s no way I can compare myself to the greatest writers of the last 75 years of super heroes. I wouldn’t dream of even trying.

The reason why I mention all is that I know at first glance the “Masked Ghost” will appear very familiar. I’ll admit that I really enjoy the original costumed mystery men like the Crimson Avenger, the Green Hornet, and the original Sandman. And my hero has the same type of business suit and fedora. Though he doesn’t have a stereotypical Asian sidekick like to of those did.

(Unimportant aside: The word ‘sidekick’ is in Word’s spell check. Did that word exist before the creation of masked heroes?)

I’ve wanted to write about one of these old style mysterious vigilante’s (realize that the term super hero wouldn’t come into existence for several years,) but didn’t want to do just any story. It had to have something unique about it.

Then about three weeks ago I had a thought; not about the hero himself but what would the family be like if they suddenly discovered he was a masked vigilante. That’s all I’ll tell you about that idea, except to say that from a single thought grew a whole concept. I first brain stormed for about a page, and then for three more pages I began to work out what the first story would be about. A day later I had worked out the beats for a 25 chapter long story. It grew quickly from there.

I don’t know everything about what’s going to happen to our hero and his family, and I know absolutely nothing about criminal he’s hunting. But it’s all coming together, and you will be discovering all his secrets as I do

So why this blog, besides promoting “Revenge of the Masked Ghost?” I want to tell all the new writers out there who want to get into comics and super heroes not to worry if your ideas aren’t a hundred percent original. Whether you get a chance to write for an existing mystery man (or woman) or create one of your own, make the story write come from your heart. That way your story will be unique and special. Make what’s been around for years new and make it your own. I’ve done that with Flying Glory, and hope I’m doing it with “The Masked Ghost.”

On a side note a ghost out of my own past showed up to haunt me last night…

Jordan Jennings (@JordanCJennings on Twitter) of CBO Productions did a review of the first issue of Image Comics SUPREME as part of his Field Guide To the Comic Book Bargain Bin series. He gives a very interesting look back at this character created by Rob Liefeld. What makes this a haunting to me is that comic was my very first professional job in the industry. I drew background and did color comps on several pages. I continued to work with Brian Murray on the next several issues of the series, and also did colors for other books as well. Thank you Jordan for reminding me of the great experiences I had.

Talk to you all next week.

KPSB