Adult Writers, Child Readers?

For our next roundtable, let's look at being child readers and how, if at all, that influenced us as writers. 

Were you read to when you were a toddler/young child? Do you remember favorites that you continued to read alone once you learned how?

Ef Deal: I wasn't read to, but I learned to read very young, three years. I read in secret by the wedge of light from the bathroom after bedtime. Then I found the town library was on my street and ripped through the children's section in six months. Got a library card before I was five. My dad was a reader -- of trash. 

Elizabeth Donald: I learned to read when I was three (or so I am told), so I don’t have strong memories of being read to, but I know I was. My earliest associated memories are of reading to my parents. In fact, I recall sitting next to my mother reading her a Berenstein Bears book and she suddenly stopped me and summoned my father. I had no idea what was going on and wondered if I’d done it wrong. 

Instead, my mother asked my father to please get the box of Nancy Drew books from the attic. They were her books from her own childhood, those older 1950s blue tweed covers with the silhouette of Nancy and her magnifying glass (which I do not recall appearing in any of the books.) Mom realized at whatever age I was -- 6, perhaps? -- that I was ready for chapter books. I dove into Nancy Drew and never looked back. 

From there I discovered Judy Blume, Black Beauty and The Black Stallion, fought beside Johnny Tremain, explored the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, climbed My Side of the Mountain and attended Sweet Valley High. Then Lois Duncan introduced me to horror, which eventually led to swiping my mother’s Stephen King hardbacks which I wasn’t supposed to read but I left the dust jackets in their places so she wouldn’t realize they were missing. When Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered I was hooked into Trek, and started devouring every tie-in novel I could find. Then it was, “Hmm, I like this Peter David guy. I think I should see what else he’s written…”

Jen Mulvihill: Yes absolutely, my mother read all the horse books to me, International Velvet, Black Beauty, Little Nick, all of them. Then she read all the Laura Ingles books to me. When I got older I started reading L. Frank Baum, I still have not read them all yet.

Scott McCullar: I don’t remember my parents reading to me as a child. Perhaps my Mama did when I was a toddler, but I just do not remember it happening in my life. Instead, she would have conversations with me and would encourage me in my love for art. I know my Mama gave me the Little Golden Books before kindergarten. I think I was more infatuated with the illustrations. 

When I was a little older in kindergarten circa 1976, my Daddy started buying me comic books as an incentive to help me learn how to read. At that point, I was this little blonde-headed kid with freckles from Tennessee living in California who still retained his thick Southern accent. The school out in Fresno wanted to put me into speech therapy classes to lose the accent. The other kids in class made fun of me constantly with my Southern drawl – especially when it was time for me to read the “I See Sam” yellow children’s books. I was so infuriated at the time at the other kids that I refused to talk in class and it impeded my reading development at that time. With that, comic books solved the problem and I became a voracious reader. By second grade, I was reading biographies of historical figures like Babe Ruth, Davy Crockett, Abe Lincoln, and others. 

John Morgan Neal: I have no memory of being read to. First reads were Batman comics. And S.E. Hintons's The Outsiders.

Gordon Dymowski: My parents instilled a love of reading from an early age - according to family legend, my father purchased a copy of ONE FISH, TWO FISH, RED FISH, BLUE FISH the day I was born. Not only was I read to, but I was encouraged to head to the local library when I was a kid. Between Chicago Public Library and my Catholic school, I read several series multiple times: Alvin Fernald, Danny Dunn, Tom Swift Jr...and eventually, Sherlock Holmes.

Bobby Nash: I don’t remember being read to as a kid. I probably was, but don’t recall. My mom did like to read so that got me interested in reading. She used to get the Reader’s Digest collections. It was there I read my first novel, The Snowbound Six. I was hooked. From there I went to Han Solo’s Revenge and comic books. Plus, The Monster at the End of this Book with Grover was a favorite.

Brian K Morris: Yes, my mother read an assortment of Golden Books to me. My father tried to read some of my comics to me, but he grew bored with the task. I don't recall any of the books from back then, aside from The Night Before Christmas (which I own several editions of), but I loved them a lot.

Sean Taylor: Absolutely. Both my Mom and my MeMe (grandma) read to me. And they were both always buying my books. I was fortunate in that all my sets of parents and grandparents (as a child of divorce and remarriage I had "bonus" grands) supported me in being a reader from an early age. When I was able to read for myself, I always went back to the ones I remembered most and best -- The Pokey Little Puppy, Never Talk to Strangers, The Sailor Dog, and How to Make Flibbers, etc. : A Book of Things to Make and Do. I still own each of them, and they are still barely holding it together after all the years of love I gave them. I hope to pass them down to my own grandkids and build memories of reading them together. 

Susan Roddey: My mother read to me every day until I learned to read. It was always my favorite part of the day. My absolute favorite book was called "There are Rocks in my Socks," Said the Ox to the Fox. I bought a copy of it for my own kids... they were not impressed.

How often did you read as a child? Where were you on the spectrum that goes from "lock me in my room with my books" to "please don't make me read"?

Bobby Nash: I loved to read. Comic books became a huge favorite. Spider-Man, G.I. Joe, Space Family Robinson, Star Trek, and the big treasury editions of Captain America, Battlestar Galactica, and Star Wars were constant companions. I read novels. Those small paperbacks of the 70’s were a big influence on me.

I hated being told what to read. That’s probably because I don’t like being told what to do.

Brian K Morris: I grew up in the country, so books, comics, and TV were my real friends back then. I learned to read when I was three so throwing me into my room with my reading material proved to be no punishment for me.

John Morgan Neal: All I needed was to be in my room with my comics and my toys to reenact or create new stories from the characters I loved. School introduced me to The Outsiders, Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty Four, and such.

Gordon Dymowski: I read voraciously as a child, and my parents encouraged this habit. I read everything from catalogs and newspapers to books and comics. If there's a statement that describes my youthful reading, it would be "Go find a book and entertain yourself." (Keep your minds out of the gutter, people)

Susan Roddey: I started reading early, and have been a voracious reader ever since. I was the kid they punished by telling me I wasn't allowed to read.

Scott McCullar: After discovering comic books in kindergarten where I learned to read and moved on to other “real” books, I became a lifelong reader. I didn’t have to be “locked in a room”, I just instead took books with me wherever I went. To the living room on the couch. Outside under a tree. On the bus with me to school. Wherever I walked.

Jen Mulvihill: I read all the time. I would sneak books in school instead of doing my school work. I didn’t have many friends so I would almost always be reading. You could usually find me in an apple tree eating green apples and reading.

Elizabeth Donald: So I was the bookworm, the kid who had a book hidden in her lap for those long stretches of math class (and got yelled at by my third-grade teacher in front of the whole class for READING when I’d finished the math assignment. “You spend your whole day with your nose in a book!” It did not occur to me for years to question her priorities.) My parents gave up grounding me, as I didn’t watch much television and ordering me to stay inside and not go out to play? Gee darn. Being a shy bookworm with unruly hair and thick glasses, naturally I was a target for bullies (mostly male, the girls just ignored me). So hiding in the storage closet during recess (with a book) or staying inside instead of going to the park (with a book) was definitely me. Instead, if my parents needed to ground me, they grounded me from my books, which got my attention. 

Sean Taylor: I read every time I could. I would spend hours in my MeMe's front bedroom (we spent a lot of time with her) reading. The books got more complex and longer and I branched out more in non-fiction too. I would read every book I could get my hands on about sharks, snakes, spiders, or dinosaurs, and I devoured my set of Childcraft Encyclopedias too. And I went from re-reading the children's books to reading the illustration and abridged versions of classics (not to be confused with the Classics Illustrated comic book though I read those too) with an illustration every other page. I particularly enjoyed the Verne and Wells abridgments. That's also when I found my favorite book that I probably read at least 200 times between the time I was 7 and 15 -- The Adventures of Monkey by Arthur Waley. I was very much into adventure stories at the time. 

Mari Hersh-Tudor: We had a big family so we got sent to the library a lot to keep us out of mom’s hair. Alone with a book was infinitely preferable to getting bullied by sibs. I was reading Asimov and Tolkien by age eight. 

Did those early experiences help to instill in you a love of stories, and how did that reading stories bug transform into a telling stories and writing stories bug?

Susan Roddey: I've always loved everything about the written word. Even before I understood how to write stories, I would pretend to be a writer. It's always been a part of me.

John Morgan Neal: Not sure instill is the most accurate word. Awoked. Revealed. Because I think it was always there.

Brian K Morris: Being in the country, the only companions I had were imaginary. That's who I read to when I was younger. And the storytelling bug is still strong in me.

Mari Hersh-Tudor: Dr. Seuss first showed me what imagination can do. My imagination always took anything I read and made whole universes out of it. And never stopped.

Scott McCullar: By fourth grade, I was writing my own stories. I won a “Young Author’s” contest at school for my first story “Mice Wars” which was loosely based on the historical story of The Alamo with a cast of characters that were all mice. I would continue to write stories here or there in my spiral notebooks, but my other interest wanting to illustrate also pushed me in the direction of wanting to be a comic book creator who handled both the writing and art chores in his own work. 

I just loved storytelling in all forms. Whether it was books, comic books, illustrations, television, film, or even audio-only sources such as radio dramas, records, or listening to someone speak in a lecture, interview, or tell a tale around a campfire, etc.

Elizabeth Donald: I have always been a storyteller, in any form. From my very early childhood I was writing, way back to early-80s Smurf fanfic. I was never going to BE a writer, mind you -- you needed Dumbo’s magic feather and to live in New York for that, or so I believed. But books were absolutely integral to my childhood, developing my imagination, and entry drug after entry drug kept me in fictional magic. I wrote my first novel in high school and it was terrible, as most first novels are. And I rewrote it a couple of times in college, and it was still terrible. I wrote plays as a theater major and they were terrible. But that’s the gig, isn’t it? The more you write, the less terrible your writing. Every word you write -- and every word you read -- makes you a better writer, in tiny increments. Those baby steps start with the Berenstein Bears and Nancy Drew and end up with your name on the cover displayed in the front window at Borders. 

Jen Mulvihill: I really think it did have an impact on me. Especially when I became a teenager and started reading Science Fiction, I could not get enough. But now I see in my writing a little bit of influence of a mix of Baum and Heinlein. As a child and teenager, I used to make up all kinds of stories in my head, sometimes I wrote them down and sometimes I didn’t. I still have an old suitcase full of old short stories, songs, and poetry.

Bobby Nash: Oh, yeah. I started thinking of ways to do my own stories. I studied the books and taught myself how to write, how to create stories and characters, etc. That urge has not diminished over the decades.

Ef Deal: I couldn't separate reading from imagining, so I began writing early, and yes, because I was an avid reader.

Gordon Dymowski: Since I grew up as an only child, I relied on my imagination and curiosity to provide entertainment. One method was drawing stories on scrap paper my mother brought home from work. I think that experience shaped my ability to tell stories since I knew I could take characters from comics and translate them into rough narratives. It wasn't until college that I started writing short stories...and developed a large collection of rejection slips.

Fortunately, the past eleven years as an author helped me realize I have a knack for this whole writing thing. It's still a learning process., but I feel more confident in my abilities now than I ever did in the past.

Sean Taylor: I don't think there's any denying how important the stories I read were to making me want to tell my own stories. I did it with everything from paper to pencil to playing with my action figures. I never played with them correctly. Luke and Leia were never Luke and Leia. Nope, Luke was a swashbuckling hero while Walrus Man wore the Jawa's cloak and became an evil wizard who captured Leia (I was a kid. I hadn't learned yet women didn't need us men to save them.) and foiled Luke's plans with his giant robot (Mazinga) while keeping hidden in my Fisher Price castle with the secret trapdoor. That play became stories that still influence me to this day, hence my love of adventurous tales of heroes and heroines in outlandish situations. 

THRILL SEEKER COMICS ANTHOLOGY #1 NOW AVAILABLE!

THRILL SEEKER COMICS ANTHOLOGY #1 is now available on IndyPlanet to purchase either a print-on-demand copy of the comic that will be shipped to you and/or the option to purchase a digital copy. 

We appreciate the support from many of you this year so far with the release of the premiere issue and hope you’ve also been enjoying the THRILL SEEKER COMICS webcomic featuring MS. TITTENHURST: FINDER OF LOST THINGS that has been running each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Please check out the new book, the webcomic series, and the main Thrill Seeker Comics website if you haven’t visited lately.

Thanks!

Scott McCullar 

On the Dark Side (Yeah, Yeah) On the Dark Side...

For this week's roundtable, we're all going to take a walk on the dark side. (It's okay if you sang the Eddie and the Cruisers song just then.) 

Do you have limits to how dark you will allow your fiction to become? How do you determine those limits?

Sara Freites Scott: Yes I do have limits. I go by how it makes me feel when writing. I push it a little but if I start to feel too uncomfortable reading it back or even writing it I’ll scrap it.

John L. Taylor: Since my writing is mostly of a darker tone, I'll answer here. As to how dark I let it get, two things determine my limits:

1. The community standards of the publisher/platform, and 

2. the needs of the narrative and characters. 

Sometimes going needlessly dark works against you, but as a rule the less likable or "good" my protagonist is, the darker the antagonists need to be by contrast to still accept the point of view of the main characters. Stories like Blood Meridian and The Hellbound Heart wouldn't work with lighter treatments. But darkness isn't always just horrible deeds being done to someone for shock value. It's as much the way they process their experiences, beliefs, and traumas that's dark. There I wish community standards on platforms like YouTube were more context-flexible. I have a half-complete yet unpublished novel. The protagonist is someone who engages in self-harm behaviors and a big part of the plot is her overcoming her trauma and evolving beyond it. In no way does the work glorify this behavior or encourage it. Indeed, it takes a stand against self-harm. Still, any such descriptions are against Facebook and Amazon's standards, so the project remains unfinished because content platforms deem any depictions of such behaviors unacceptable without regard to context. That said, I do have hard limits on some content as both my wife and mother are survivors of abuse situations which I refuse to portray in a positive light or for rote shock value. Simply put, I'll write like Clive Barker or Dean Koontz, not Bentley Little or Aaron Beauregard. 

Lucy Blue: I write in two very clearly defined, very much opposite modes--light stuff like the Stella Hart books (which are downright frothy) and dark like The Devil Makes Three, which is very dark indeed. But yeah, there are limits. I'm good with disturbing or frightening my readers--I love it. I even enjoy the idea that my story might haunt them later. But I don't want to make them vomit. As a reader, I'm a total wuss, but as a writer, I blow right past my reader limits like I don't even know they're there. 

Ef Deal: There is a bottomless well of rage inside me. I have been to so many dark places myself that I have no choice but to go there when the story requires it, but I hate it, and I feel filthy with it afterward. 

Jason Bullock: I haven't tried to push my writing into darker elements in my writing anymore. As a storyteller doing tabletop RPGs for 20 years, I explored really dark themes often visceral in nature. Beyond what I would call sinister in my stories was what I now avoid. Imperfect man can perpetrate enough "evil" on his own not to involve external individuals or forces of a negative supernatural nature. There is a line I will not cross anymore. I had several personal encounters which shaded my own family life. I don't want to go down that terrifying part of my past again. So I take great effort to avoid it. Man and Science have enough order and chaos for me to write about.

Scott McCullar: I have an upcoming storyline in a future THRILL SEEKER COMICS story featuring Yellow Jacket: Man of Mystery as he attempts to retire by putting his guns in the ground so that he can finally find peace that gets REALLY dark. It was so dark for me to write and draw, I couldn’t even believe I was doing it… but the story demanded for me to do it and I could never escape not doing it. I finally completed it and I feel it is one of the strongest and most emotional stories that I’ve written and drawn. It’ll be in the next issue.

As for determining limits? I pushed beyond even what I was comfortable with but what was needed for the story to be effectual.

Bobby Nash: There are certain darker themes that I simply haven’t been interested in exploring. Never say never though. You never know when a great story will hit you that focuses on darker elements.

Danielle Procter Piper: Apparently not. I go deep, like Marianas Trench deep, into places most writers wouldn't venture into. I am all about disturbing people if it can make them think and/or at least entertain them in some way. 

John Hartness: Not until I start writing. Then I know how dark it needs to go.

Sean Harby: I write as dark as a story requires. As to how I decide that, I just kinda feel my way.

Susan H. Roddey: Oh, I can get pretty dark. The limit to how dark varies from book to book because different characters, just like us real breathers, have their own limits. There are a few hard stops for me personally - I don't like body horror, can't do terrible things to kids, and refuse to glorify assault - but beyond those, quite a few things can be considered fair game.

Jessica Nettles: I don’t have the limits written in stone and am willing to push when needed in a story. My stories and characters tend to let me know how far into the darkness to walk.

Raymond Christopher Qualls: The darkest story I wrote is "Manipulations." The daughter of a billionaire who needs multiple organ transplants, and he convinces members of a religious cult to kill a child so she can have pristine organs in his daughter's age range. It's in my Cosmic Egg for Breakfast and Six More Short Stories collection.

John French: There are some things I will not write about or do to my main characters. But when it comes to dark fiction, I recently found that just when I thought I'd reached my limit, I went further into the blackness.

If you are using the term “darkness” to refer to certain acts of violence, then I tend to avoid things like violence for the sake of violence or splatterpunk elements or slasher-style writing in my horror stories. It’s not my style.

Darin Kennedy: My stuff that is horror-adjacent typically is a lot darker. A little darkness, however, always makes the light stand out.

Sean Taylor: Not really. I like to go where the story needs me to go. If that means dark places, then I'll just light up a torch and make like Peter Cushing during the Hammer glory days. That's a kind of flippant answer, but it's true. Stories will let you know where they need to go to convey what they want to and need to say. 

TammyJo Eckhart: Most of my stories tackle something "dark" usually so that we can see success against it. The characters and the purpose of the story dictate how "dark" it should be.

Robert Bear: I'm in a sort of grim phase right now, and because it is specifically grimdark, I get it to where I start to feel uncomfortable with it, and then go a little darker. I think in my grim work, I'm exploring my own darker side... seeing just what I am prepared to experience (through storytelling)... because if you can't visualize, smell, or taste it... how can you write it? So, I have to research a lot of these things in order to get it right. So, 'how dark of a material can I stand to research' is what becomes the question.

Robin Burks: I like to push myself to go as dark as I can -- at least when I'm writing adult fiction (not YA, obviously). I love horror and the more uncomfortable it makes me, the better I think the scene is. However, there are some lines I won't cross, like rape, sexual situations with children, etc.

Dale Kesterson: I've noticed a lot of my short stories are considerably darker than my mystery novels, but I try very hard not to think about why. 

Jordan Leigh Sickrey: I feel like for me, I don’t like darkness for the sake of darkness. My main character in my fantasy novel was primarily built on the fact that female leads end up hardening themselves due to the “harsh realities” or they start off hard and maybe only dull their edges over time, and I wanted a female lead who could retain that softness and optimism. Yes, dark things happen. My prologue alone requires quite a few content warnings when I share it. But darkness isn’t the total story. It’s about finding the light in the dark and shining anyway.

Robert Lee: I once wrote a story, where the main character was a hitman and the very idea and notion of the story was everybody was a shade of gray and a level of hypocrisy for each person's position. The main character, The Hitman, tortured a gentleman by using a sharpened orange peeler, or maybe a lemon peeler. Yeah, I have no problems going in like that because it shows you the reflection of humanity's inhumanity toward others. I also abide by the concept that crime fiction at its darkest reflects society and humanity at its worst, but it also can show moments at its best but those moments are few and far between.

Teel James Glenn: I don't really write dark--for its sake. If I go dark it is to give my protagonists in the light balance and a challenge. Not a fan of nihilism.

Do you find writing darkness in your stories liberating? In what way? Or why not?

Lucy Blue: The silly thing is, I just write the story; I don't stop and think about how dark it might be. It's only later when my editor says, "geez, Lucy!" that I realize it might be darker than I thought. 😉 And that is liberating; that makes me feel like the story has taken on a life of its own that isn't limited by my own fears. 

Danielle Procter Piper: Is writing darkness liberating? I've never considered that...but it's as close to the rawness of my dreams as I can get, and I love dreaming. Many of my stories, screenplays, and pieces of art are dream-inspired. I suppose I'm hinting that the darkness in my stories is often a psychological mind-f*ck. Manipulating my readers' emotions is the highest pleasure I achieve with my work. 

Sara Freites Scott: Sometimes yes I do find it liberating! I’ll either find myself feeling thankful that I haven’t had such darkness in my own life OR share a dark moment in my writing from my past or someone else’s past that I know as part of the character's story that helps me to feel not so alone about it.

John Hartness: I haven’t thought about it in that way, so not currently.

Susan H. Roddey: I wouldn't necessarily call it "liberating," but there's definitely catharsis there. Going full dark is good for purging demons. It's how I work through things.

Dale Kesterson: Possibly cathartic? I do know I love 'killing people on paper' in the mysteries (third one came out very recently). I don't think I'll go overboard with it though.

Sean Taylor: It can be. But it can also be scary, not because of the content but because of the lack of outside edges to box me in. If I'm really free to go anywhere in a story, then I have to maintain a tighter grip on the reins of the storytelling itself. It can be too easy to go a step too far or let all that freedom go to your head and suddenly you're writing yourself out of a genre's or a publisher's and a target audience's good graces. When that happens, you have to make a choice. Keep the story going in a direction that might not be as marketable, or whip out that editing eraser. 

Ef Deal: It's not cathartic in the least; in fact, it feels more like wallowing, like picking at a scab until the blood flows anew: The wound never heals that way; it just gets worse. And no, I have no limits to the darkness I put on the page, although my publisher does, and she reins me back in.

Sean Harby: I do find it a little liberating. I had a Rockwellian youth, so darkness appeals to me.

John L. Taylor: Most dark stories emerged to sort out their emotions in bad situations. The very first recorded story, Gilgamesh, is really about the grief of losing your best friend. Yes, I do find writing darker material to be cathartic. Dark materials can both be a way to work through trauma and depression and to hold up a grim mirror to negative aspects of society. Some of my darkest work was either socially satirical or based on deep-seated anxieties. I've always had the philosophy that people flourish when they admit the darkness in their own subconscious and vent it. Take, for example, two very different works the hymn "It is Well with My Soul," and James O'Barr's The Crow. Both were written by men processing the senseless loss of their significant other. O'Barr's work took a much more visceral path to it than the hymn did, but both are lamentations of the human condition and attempt to reconcile a loving God with an indifferent universe. Each succeeds in its own way. I believe it is vital to the human condition that fiction be able to tackle difficult and disturbing subjects in an expressive fashion. 

Jessica Nettles: I mean, all good stories have elements of darkness, don’t they? I have never seen this as a factor for me.

Bobby Nash: I find something liberating about every story I write. Writing can be part therapy, part exploration of thoughts and feelings that are outside the norm for me, even a way to study and understand behaviors not my own.

Scott McCullar: I never thought about the word “liberating”. I think “cathartic” and “revealing” are more appropriate descriptions of what I have experienced.

Jason Bullock: Writing dark themes, I mean really dark themes, costs. The current chaos in our world tears enough at the individual but I don't feel liberated by diving into the truly abyss-level miasma. For me , crime, murder, and other such activities are about as far as criminal activity I would explore in my writing... well at this time in my life.

Are there advantages to writing darker stories that you don't have when writing lighter fare?

Sara Freites Scott: I think there are advantages! It can help connect a reader to a writer/character if there is some darkness because the world we live in is rather dark and we all have that darkness in us to some degree.

Sean Harby: Dark always seems more real to me.

Susan H. Roddey: I don't know that I can call it an advantage really, but I believe that darker stories are often more relatable. We've spent the last several years living in an actual dystopian horror show come to life, so we can relate to that kind of scenario. We all know what that despair feels like. So channeling that darkness into a situation where the good guy can win? Yeah, that's definitely going to draw people in and give them a sense of satisfaction at the end. Then there are some of us who sometimes just want to see the bad guy win.

Bobby Nash: There are certainly stories that benefit from darker themes or scenes. Evil Ways, my first novel, has some far darker stuff than I generally write today. It all depends on the story I’m telling and the audience I’m telling it to. Being able to delve into darker aspects when the story requires it is an advantage. Also, knowing when not to put the darkness on the page is an advantage.

Danielle Procter Piper: The only advantage to writing darker stories is the fun of taking the filters off, but it's also a dangerous thing to do because you may find your audience shrinking. Then again, writers always find their audience one way or another. Stephen King has gone to some pretty dark, weird places and still reigns in the world of horror. I'd like to write stuff that makes him squirm, though...is that too far? Maybe that's perfect.

Lucy Blue: I like knowing I can "go there" if the story demands it.

Jessica Nettles: Both can explore themes and characters in similar fashions. I see comedy and horror as different sides of the same coin, which is why they can work well together. The advantage could be in the audience you are trying to reach and what you want to say to that audience. For me, I don’t find an advantage in either. What I do find is a joy that I can write both and get a response from my audience that is positive.

Yes, I’m in it for the applause, folks. I ain’t gonna lie.

Scott McCullar: I like to balance both the light-hearted, fun, and loving as well as the darker opposites. There are advantages and disadvantages to both that I find. I have personally experienced death, despair, fear, darkness, and more in my own life and I think storytelling allows for those demons to be revealed just as much as the angels that need to show us the light (for example, in my MS. TITTENHURST Dame Detective stories… she is a guardian angel and not a femme fatale… which I wasn’t originally setting out to do when I began telling her stories in the THRILL SEEKER COMICS universe.)

John Hartness: I have to come up with fewer dick jokes on the darker works. Usually.

John L. Taylor: Piggybacking off of the last entry, darker subject matter leaves more room for whimsy than some lighter, but more serious fare. I'll hold up the works of H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński in this respect. Their works, despite being visual, were genre-defining works of darkness not matched since Bosch or Goya, yet there is an overriding sense of whimsy and a shadowy allure to their images. Authors like Clive Barker, E.L. James, and Brian Lumley accomplish the same effect in words. That alone makes darker tones worth writing to me. The room for innovation in processing pain and reckoning with our mortality can create some such beautiful art if you have the tenebrous vision to appreciate it

Jason Bullock: Many people make excuses in those instances as there can not be moments of lighter fare if they are not contrasted by darker fields around them. I find that they are indeed diametrically positioned elements of everything and or everyone now in man's existence at this point in history. Writing is no different. When writing about negative elements, I try to end with presenting a positive outcome. In that way, my catharsis is less myopic and rather panoptic in its results.

Sean Taylor: I think a lot of folks, both writer and readers, confuse "dark" with either "gross" or "horrifying details." That's sad, because true darkness in a story is more of a context than content. It's more the overarching something that makes a story feel uncomfortable, even without a healthy (or unhealthy) slathering of body parts or icky descriptions. It's more akin to the difference between an atmosphere of dread and a laundry list of creepy images or plot points. A dark story needs light moments to let a reader breathe, even if just for a moment. So, for me, it's hard to write lighter fair because if I have a motif to all my work thus far, it's this: Humanity doesn't learn anything from the fluffy, happy moments, because it takes tragedy or near-tragedy to make us stop and listen in order to learn anything. 

Scott McCullar: Bringing the Thrills

Scott McCullar is a Professional Graphic Designer, Writer, and Visual Artist currently working for the Illinois State Board of Education as a Principal Consultant (Graphic Designer) in the Software Solutions Department. Outside of his day job, Scott is also the creator-owner of THRILL SEEKER COMICS™ ANTHOLOGY Pulp Action & Adventure Series featuring The Yellow Jacket: Man of Mystery™ that he writes and illustrates under his independent publishing banner named Bandito Entertainment™.

Tell us a bit about your latest work.  

I just recently released THRILL SEEKER COMICS ANTHOLOGY #1 through my label BANDITO ENTERTAINMENT. This creator-owned, self-published independent comic book series was decades in the making after many false starts and stops due to roadblocks in my personal life that are now overcome. 

THRILL SEEKER COMICS is a pulp action and adventure series featuring various interrelated stories told in a non-linear manner jumping around in different time periods about a ragtag group of heroes fighting evil in globe-spanning adventures on Earth-24 (as seen recently in INDIEVERISTY – A guidebook to the varied worlds of the independent comics multiverse). At the center of these two-fisted tales is the Dust Bowl-era vigilante known as THE YELLOW JACKET: MAN OF MYSTERY, who pursued by lawmen, is conscripted into THE STAR-SPANGLED SQUADRON to battle Axis Powers during the outbreak of World War II. Alongside THE EMERALD MANTIS and other colorful characters encountered, their enduring mission to fight crime, crush tyranny, and protect the world is carried on by a generation of successors. 

It was just over 20 years ago my series first appeared as a cornerstone feature in each and every one of the six issues of SHOOTING STAR COMICS ANTHOLOGY and a few other sister titles.  Now rebooted, THRILL SEEKER COMICS returns in this relaunch with all-new stories alongside reprints of the original tales that have newly remastered and restored artwork in full color in printed comic book anthology format. New heroes also join the fray in the first issue that includes several short stories in this same shared universe.  

This series was inspired by Golden Age, Silver Age, and Bronze Age classic comic books and newspaper comic strips. The films of Quentin Tarantino. The Coen Brothers, and a touch of Akira Kurosawa also influence the stories. The genres in this anthology include superheroes, pulp detective and mystery, martial arts, and war stories with dashes of romance and humor to be injected in the tales. 

Spinning out of the comic book, I’m also currently co-writing and illustrating a related online comic strip web series based on one of the brand-new characters from the anthology comic. She is a rookie private investigator in the early 1940’s. The webcomics series is called THRILL SEEKER COMICS PRESENTS MS. TITTENHURST: FINDER OF LOST THINGS about the divorced, red-headed Dame Detective from Texas who is also a college student. This feature and the comic strip were co-created and co-written with my wife Jennifer McCullar. 

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?  

Personal struggles. Family. Friendship. Pushing boundaries. Sly humor. Combative violence. Repentance. Revenge. Adventure. Trying to escape from personal matters. Interweaving fiction with history. 

What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?  

I don’t view myself as a traditional writer though I’ve dabbled and written some fictional prose short stories here and there. Instead, I mainly moonlight on the side on and off as a comic book writer and comic artist. I don’t feel comfortable calling myself a professional writer as I would rather use the term ‘storyteller’ to identify myself as I combine writing and drawing together to tell stories. Plus, I like the term “Storyteller” and it is the title of a damn good Rod Stewart song collection. Every picture tells a story and for me it isn’t always words. 

What inspires you to write?  

I enjoy writing and drawing comics.  For me, creating comics is a bit of a release valve opening up all these stories out of my head to release and share them with others. My characters bounce around and talk to me in my head telling me stories that they want to share and let out in the world. I sometimes feel like I’m just transcribing events and bringing the visuals in my mind’s eye to view with the artwork. Hopefully I am entertaining a few folks along the way with the comic books and webstrips that I release. I think my life experiences and interests seep into my writing. I enjoy sharing and connecting with others with my work, but honestly, making comics is a creative and artistic expression done primarily to appease myself first and foremost and the audience second. Maybe that’s wrong of me, but it is my truth as to my satisfaction and why I do this. I love the creative process and seeing something tangible in front of me. 

What would be your dream project?  

When I was about to graduate from college around age 22, I wanted to become a comic book writer/artist with the goal of working for DC Comics. I especially wanted to write GREEN ARROW for DC Comics.  I worked hard at it. At age 32, I was given the opportunity for a few years to be and advisor to the writers and editor of the book, and just for one fleeting moment, I  wrote a story for GREEN ARROW SECRET FILE AND ORIGINS #1 (2002). For a brief time, I believed that DC Comics was going to hand off the monthly book to me after Kevin Smith and Brad Meltzer were done with their turns at bat, but instead, it went to Judd Winnick who held onto the writing chores for quite a while. That was my original dream project. 

I’m still thankful for the opportunity to have written that one GREEN ARROW comic that I felt hit the bull’s eye. Elements from that single story popped up in the ARROW television series that they borrowed from my writing. I’m proud of that. I even received a letter of thanks and a bonus check from DC Comics twenty years later for that. Again, I just wished that I had a long run on the book years ago, but I don’t imagine that will ever happen and I’m okay with that now.  

As for future dream projects… what I’m doing right now at age 52 with my THRILL SEEKER COMICS projects is my dream project that I am happy and content working on at the moment. Sure, I wish I could write, draw, and self-publish THRILL SEEKER COMICS as my only full-time job without the worries of having to keep a “day job”. I’m not there yet. I cannot do that financially with my bills that need to be paid, so working on these creator-owned stories is something that I do on the side on my own time and enjoy. 

I do want to take a stab at writing some pulp fiction novels in the future… probably start off with a few shorter novelettes to test the waters. I’d like to dabble in some of those pulp adventures in prose. 

I’d also like to work on Popeye as a writer/artist… or  I guess the term should be “cartoonist”. Sounds a little out there, but that was a dream that I has as a kid in elementary school. 

Other than that, my dream is to see that what I self-publish is well hopefully received and my readership grows.  

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?  

About 20 years ago, I wrote an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL that another artist illustrated (and actually Sean Taylor was the editor on).  And while that artist did a fine job, I wish I was the one who had illustrated it instead.  

Since A CHRISTMAS CAROL is in the public domain, perhaps one day if I have time, I just might self-publish a new version of this classic and illustrate it myself as it is one of my all-time favorite stories. 

What inspires you to write?

I really don’t ponder this question very much. I focus on putting out comic book stories and comic strips. For me, the storytelling is in both the script and artwork. I focus on that more as I’m handling both chores and trying to strike a balance that the written words will work hand-in-hand with the artwork to tell the proper story. I tell these stories out of enjoyment, passion, and the need to get them out of my head and put them out in the world. I’m not thinking about inspiration. It just comes to me. I’m concerned about finding the time to do the work. 

What writers have influenced your style and technique?  

The novels of Ian Fleming and Elmore Leonard greatly influenced my writing. Also movie script writers like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers have also been major influences on my storytelling. Comic book writers that include Denny O’Neil, Chuck Dixon, Mike Grell, and James Robinson had a strong impact on me.  

To tie this in with the visual arts, I was inspired by those who could do both write and draw like Mike Grell (GREEN ARROW, WARLORD, JON SABLE) and Mike Mignola (HELLBOY) as well as some legendary newspaper comic strip creators like Milton Caniff (STEVE CANYON) and EC Segar (POPEYE) who did both chores. I wanted to be like them.  

Where would you rank writing on the "Is it an art or it is a science continuum?" Why?  

I don’t think I’m qualified to answer that question. If I were to say what I’ve experienced… it is both an art and can also rely on formulas to some extent to work and thus be a science. I have kept in mind “rules to writing” that I’ve learned from writers such as Denny O’Neil, Chuck Dixon, Bud Sagendorf, and Elmore Leonard. I’ve read and listened to what they have had to say about writing and they’ve all sort of compiled checklists of do’s and don’t’s that I’ve found helpful. Those checklists seem to me to be more formula-driven science but it is also an art. 

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?  

Time management for me. Finding time to write (and draw). I have a 40-hour-a-week “day job” and thus writing and drawing take place when I can find those select moments to work outside of my day job and family life. 

How do your writer friends help you become a better writer? Or do they not?  

I’m inspired to see the passion and success of my writer friends. They inspire me to pursue my own creative passions and publish. I also occasionally bounce ideas off of them and they are my sounding boards when I seek private consultation. 

What does literary success look like to you?  

At this point in my life and with all the ups and downs that I have experienced, success for me is to follow through from start to finish on a project and have a tangible book in hand that also gets into the hands of others. If along the way I hear some positive feedback that someone enjoyed my work, then that feeds my soul and gives me the satisfaction that my work wasn’t done in vain. I no longer seek fame and wide recognition like I did in my youth when I was ready to take on the world. I had my Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame sometime around 2002. Those 15 minutes of fame are long over and I don’t need that again. Now I just want to enjoy peace in my life and to scratch some creative itches. 

 Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug? 

Currently, THRILL SEEKER COMICS ANTHOLOGY #1 was released during the holidays and is still available. You can purchase directly from me on my website and it will soon (any day now) be available as Print-on-Demand from IndyPlanet.com. Also, I am currently running a free online comic strip THRILL SEEKER COMICS web series that updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Again, the comic strip web series is co-written with my wife Jennifer.  

On May 1, 2024, I will be launching a Kickstarter Campaign for the 52-page THRILL SEEKER COMICS ANTHOLOGY #2 and a tie-in book THRILL SEEKER COMICS ADVENTURES #1 featuring the first collected MS. TITTENHURST: FINDER OF LOST THINGS web series “Case of the Missing Guitar”. If all goes well, THRILL SEEKER COMICS ANTHOLOGY #3 and THRILL SEEKER COMICS ADVENTURES #2 will be available for Thanksgiving 2024. The online comic web strips featuring the Dame Detective will also run weekly all year long in 2024. All are self-published through my label Bandito Entertainment. I also have a “secret” non-Thrill Seeker Comics project that I recently began working on that I’m aiming to release in January 2025. 

For more information, visit: 

My personal website is located at www.ScottMcCullar.com.  

The official website for my comic series is www.ThrillSeekerComics.com with links to our online store, additional information, the online comic strip, and has an onramp to our official Facebook page where I hope you will like and follow us there, too. 

Now available! -- The Premiere Issue - THRILL SEEKER COMICS ANTHOLOGY™ #1

A Pulp Action & Adventure Anthology Series featuring YELLOW JACKET: MAN OF MYSTERY™ and a cast set in the Golden Age of Comics!

ORDER YOUR COPY NOW! The premiere issue of Scott McCullar's self-published independent comic book series THRILL SEEKER COMICS ANTHOLOGY #1 is available to back on KICKSTARTER. Please take a look and purchase your copy. Ships in November.

This is the first issue of a planned ongoing series to be published twice a year. THRILL SEEKER COMICS™ was created by writer/artist Scott McCullar and first released just over twenty years ago in the acclaimed indy comic series SHOOTING STAR COMICS ANTHOLOGY™ as one of the regular features in every issue. Now rebooted, THRILL SEEKER COMICS™ returns in this relaunch with all-new stories alongside reprints of the original tales that have been restored with newly remastered artwork in full color.

Featuring the Return of YELLOW JACKET: MAN OF MYSTERY™, THE GOLDEN AGE EMERALD MANTIS™, THE SACRED SCARAB™, and introducing the Dame Detective MS. TITTENHURST: FINDER OF LOST THINGS™.

CLICK HERE TO BACK THE CAMPAIGN AND ORDER.

AYM GERONIMO AND THE POSTMODERN PIONEERS: TALL TALES’ NOW AVAILABLE!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ACTION! ADVENTURE! PULP! SCIENCE FICTION! MYSTERY! HORROR! DRAMA! SPORTS! ‘AYM GERONIMO AND THE POSTMODERN PIONEERS: TALL TALES’ NOW AVAILABLE!

Pro Se Productions proudly announces that an anthology years in the making is available in print and digital formats. Originally conceived as a comic concept and appearing in the Shooting Star Comics lineup, this modern pulp hero and her team of adventurers live again in a massive collection of tales from some of today’s best writers-AYM GERONIMO AND THE POSTMODERN PIONEERS: TALL TALES!

Headquartered in the Wonder Wall, a complex carved from a side of the Grand Canyon. the PostModern Pioneers travel to all corners of the globe and undertake dangerous deeds, discover the unknown, defy disasters, and defeat the diabolical using the advanced tools of technology forged by the brilliant mind of Ms. Geronimo and the prodigious skills of her comrades.

With a Preface by Chuck Dixon and all story introductions and character biographies written by AYM Co-Creator J. Morgan Neal, these modern-day tall tales are told by Sean Burnham, Rebecca Upson, Diane Colchamiro, Neil Sarver, Scott E. Hileman, Cliff Roberts, Sarah Beach, Corrina Lawson, Brenda Roberts, Danny Donovan, John David Bock, Bobby Nash, Sean Taylor, Scott McCullar, Tommy Hancock, and Eric Burnham.

AYM GERONIMO AND THE POSTMODERN PIONEERS: TALL TALES-Available from Pro Se Productions!

Featuring a stunning cover by Co-Creator Todd Fox and cover design and print formatting by Sean Ali, TALL TALES is available in print at https://tinyurl.com/3xh8568f for $15.99.

This pulpy anthology is also available on Kindle formatted by Antonino lo Iacono and Marzia Marina for $2.99 athttps://tinyurl.com/3s9srbf2. Kindle Unlimited Members can read these PostModern Pioneering adventures for free!

For more information on this title, interviews with the creators and authors, or digital copies for review, email editorinchief@prose-press.com.

To learn more about Pro Se Productions, go to www.prose-press.com. Like Pro Se on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProSeProductions.

What Are You Thankful For, Writer?

As we head into a holiday season that ranks high on the thankfulness meter, let's take this next Writer Roundtable to be thankful. What or whom are you most thankful for this year as a writer?

Lucy Blue: The space and agency to keep doing it. I might not be making big bucks, but I can write whatever I want however I want, and I have as much power to compete in the marketplace as I have energy and will to keep trying. So yeah, very grateful.

Derrick Ferguson: This past year I came into contact with so many people who have enjoyed my stories and even been influenced and excited enough by them to write their own stories and create their own characters. This past year has shown me that something I've heard most of my life is true; you never know how your actions will influence the actions of others and in turn how they will continue to influence others. This past year has shown me a lot about the spiritual side of writing, something I think I got away from for a while there. Thankfully, I'm getting it back.

J.H. Glaze: My full time writing gig.

Rory Hayfield-Husbands: The feedback I've got from members of my writing group and friends. Without them I would have been more unsure of my own skills but with their encouragement I'm starting to realise what I can do to fix problems.

Gordon Dymowski: The fact that I'm stretching myself in terms of what I write (both length and subject matter) and that I'm actually finding myself enjoying the process more.

Michael Woods: My team and my friends.

Martheus Wade: To be able to have the opportunity to write on a national level one more time.

Bobby Nash: This has not been an easy year, either personally or professionally, but especially on a personal level so being thankful hasn't been as easy as in the past. That said, I am thankful that my Dad's knee replacement went well and he is on the mend. I am thankful that I am here to help take care of him in the wake of my mom's passing and his surgery. It's not easy at times, but I am thankful that I can be here for him and my brother. I am tired but thankful to be here where I am needed.

Matt Hiebert: Spellchekker.

Scott McCullar: This year, I am thankful for the chance to revive my THRILL SEEKER COMICS series with the release of the archive collecting my very first stories. I am thankful for those Kickstarter supporters who contributed to the campaign and who helped successfully make a dream project come true. I just received the books fresh from the printer and they will be going out this next week in the mail to readers and fans. I appreciate the support from family, friends, and readers. I am also thankful for Erik Burnham for being my editor and encouraging me along the way. As a writer, I am also thankful this year that this revival sparked the chance for me to return to writing and drawing after an absence. I’m currently writing and illustrating new comic book stories and webstrips that will debut in the New Year.

Scott McCullar and His Thrill-Seeking Men of Mystery

Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fist Action would like to welcome one of pulpiest comic book creators around to the site -- Scott McCullar, the warped brain behind Thrill Seeker Comics and characters like The Yellow Jacket: Man of Mystery, The Emerald Mantis, and The Chrononaut.

And coming out soon you’ll be able to get your own paws on the new, all-color special graphic novel that collects all the Thrill Seeker stories from the fan-favorite Shooting Star Comics stalwart.

Thanks for sitting in with us, Shaft (to those in the know, that’s Scott’s other way of being addressed). Let’s get to it then. Why don’t we start with you telling us about the formation of Thrill Seeker Comics back during the days of Shooting Star Comics?

I actually had the germ of an idea for the creation of this comic book series going all the way back to when I was a young teenager in middle school when I drew pictures of a martial arts  character in my school note books that would become the Emerald Mantis during the age when Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow debuted in G.I.JOE comics and cartoons in the early-to-mid 1980’s.

I revived the idea of writing and drawing my own comic book in the early 1990’s as I was finishing college. I had an idea for a story that took place in New Zealand and would transition to a make-believe city in the deep south of the United States. One of the characters was a female hero called the Tricrüsta, originally based on my ex-wife all those years ago when we were newlyweds. The fictional southern city was named St. Franҫois de Port which exists halfway between Memphis and New Orleans on the Mississippi River where Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana meet on the map.

I never got around to writing that story, but the fictional city was further developed by me when I began to play the VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE roleplaying game sessions in the early 1990’s after I had graduated. By late 1997, I began to create a squad of characters called THE OUTCAST SEVEN which I was going to feature in this fictional series in my own independent comic. I began writing scripts and sketching concepts for the comic, but it got put on the backburner as I was also starting to do some work for DC Comics and West End Games working on writing for the DC Universe Roleplaying Game as well as Green Arrow projects, acting as a writing consultant for Kevin Smith and Brad Meltzer, and eventually writing a Green Arrow comic of my own.

I was looking for a vehicle to launch THRILL SEEKER COMICS featuring the Emerald Mantis, but just didn’t find the right time until SHOOTING STAR COMICS ANTHOLOGY came along…

And all that good stuff from SSC… how did all that get started anyway?

My recollection is that by late 2001, I was approached by some friends online who were also aspiring comic book writers that included folks like John Morgan Neal and Erik Burnham to join them on a venture to create an anthology comic book that would showcase our new talent with us all writing and drawing our own creator-owned stories. Many of the new collaborators on this project were regulars on Chuck Dixon’s message board called The Dixonverse at his website. This was the perfect place for me to launch what I would call THRILL SEEKER COMICS and I would feature the Emerald Mantis.

Except, I also created at the last moment for my first story what I thought would be a “throwaway” character that would prove to be more popular than what I had imagined. I introduced a pulp character with a trenchcoat, fedora, and attitude that began to take on a life of his own named the Yellow Jacket: Man of Mystery.

Just who is The Yellow Jacket, and what went into his creation?

The Yellow Jacket: Man of Mystery is what I would call a poor man’s version of the Green Hornet who is instead from the Depression era Deep South. He was inspired by just about every other comic book and pulp fiction book trench coat and fedora wearing vigilante toting a pair of smoking .45 pistols but being a southerner was my twist.

While influenced by characters like the Green Hornet, the Crimson Avenger, the Shadow, the Spirit, and even The Punisher…  he was actually inspired more by George Clooney’s role in the Coen Brothers film O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? with his portrayal of the character Ulysses Everett McGill. He does have a bit of influence from Clark Gable in some of his roles in films like MOGAMBO and SAN FRANCISCO as well as a few others. Maybe slight touches of Bruce Willis and Humphrey Bogart are in Yellow Jacket’s DNA as well.

There is even a bit of my own Uncle Junior or my late Granddaddy mixed into Yellow Jacket as I sometimes imagine his southern mannerism and his way with the gift of gab in how he structures together his words in a southern dialect and context. The character originates from yonder down there in the South. Same territory as George Clooney’s Ulysses Everett McGill or even Brad Pitt’s portrayal of Lt. Aldo Raines.

Yellow Jacket is a tragic figure of sorts. He faked his death during World War One and took on someone else’s identity. After the Great Depression, he became a wanted vigilante in the 1930’s on the run getting into adventures and mishaps. His is a story of redemption. He is humorous, tragic, deadly, yet heroic in the end. He has acted as judge, jury, and executioner yet has a heart of gold. By the tales that take place in the 1940’s and beyond with him, he embraces a rebranding of sorts in becoming one of the masked mystery men fighting the Axis forces during World War Two and other evil doers beyond.

I have many more adventures planned with him and his earliest adventures are showcased in the THRILL SEEKER COMICS ARCHIVE VOLUME ONE.

What can you tell us about the rest of the Thrill Seeker Comics universe?

In the pages of the SHOOTING STAR COMICS ANTHOLOGY, I was able to tell stories from different time periods with characters mainly focused on Yellow Jacket and different family generations of men who were the Emerald Mantis. You got to peek at a few other heroes like the Sacred Scarab. The Thrill Seeker Universe was conceived to be an alternate world in the multiverse that could easily crossover with characters you might find at DC Comics or Marvel. I do have my own fictional cities and other thrilling locations, but it is a variation of our world with heroes and villains.

I showcased a few heroes, but in my mind and in my sketchbooks and plans, it is a rich universe with many characters and stories to tell. I confess that part of my creation of this universe was that while I was just getting a chance to work for DC Comics when I began working on THRILL SEEKER COMICS, I was sort of frustrated that I couldn’t fully play in DC Comics’ sandbox with their toys.

I took archetypes and shook them all up with my own spin so that I would have my own toys to play with and break if I wanted to do so. Fifteen years later, now that I’m older, I’m actually much happier to play in my own toy box now and plan on reviving the series after more than a decade to write and illustrate new tales beginning next year.

I’d like to think that my Thrill Seeker Universe is where The Coen Brothers meets Quentin Tarantino meets Bronze Age Comics. My entire pulp universe inspired by hard-boiled noir tales, 1970’s kung-fu flicks, war films and grindhouse movie hijinks mixed with the feel of classic comic book sensibilities. While it isn’t intended for young kiddies, THRILL SEEKER COMICS is a frenetic mix of humor, bloody violence and reclamation of the soul aimed at mature readers that love blood and guts-style brutal action.

Tell us about this new book of Thrill Seeker Comics you’re putting together.

Friend and former Shooting Star Comics collaborator Erik Burnham encouraged me just over five years ago to collect all my Thrill Seeker short stories and put them into a collection. Originally, they were all drawn black and white. I admit there were a few panels that were rushed that I was not happy with that I wanted to redraw. I also had an unpublished story that was unfinished in what was going to be SHOOTING STAR COMICS ANTHOLOGY #7. With those tales and one published in a one-shot called JOB WANTED as well as an online comic web strip, I cleaned up the art and stories, colorized everything, and put in a sort of “DVD Commentary” in the back of the book along with some pin ups by artists. It is a really nice 128-page book that is completely finished and is currently running a crowdfunding campaign at Kickstarter that I hope many of your readers may check out and support.

Now, You know and I know how you got the nickname Shaft from your lifelong enjoyment and involvement with DC’s emerald archer, but your business dealings with him went deeper than mere fandom. What’s the skinny on that?

I broke into comics in the late 1990’s with the Internet being a new sensation due to my fansite dedicated to Green Arrow. Somewhere along the line, I got the nickname “Shaft” as you mentioned because of my love of Green Arrow, but also because I was a message board moderator at some sites for Chuck Dixon and others… and I was a hard-hitting no-nonsense guy.

When I was the Art Director at Shooting Star Comics when we were publishing independent books, there was a moment when one outside comic creator who wanted to work for us tried to bulldoze his way into something and I had strong words with him. I guess some of the other guys saw me take on a very superfly TNT and guns of the Navarone approach with him in my retort and thus I was “Shaft” forever after…

I later had a wallet given to me that said “Bad Mother Fucker” on it as I’m sure it was a nod to my love of Samuel L. Jackson… and somewhere along the line… many of the comic fans on Dixonverse and elsewhere gave me the nickname. It stuck.

Almost 20 years later, it still sticks in certain circles. But I’m much more chilled now in life.

Things were happening for you all those years ago. At one point, WIZARD MAGAZINE spotlighted you after Kevin Smith said he wanted you to take over writing GREEN ARROW comic for him at DC Comic. Then, not too long after that, you kind of disappeared on the scene. Glad you're back, but what happened?

I was always around on the peripheral, but a lot like John Lennon did in the late 1970’s before he came back with DOUBLE FANTASY album (um… and unfortunately was murdered), I sort of walked away from things too in order to deal with matters in my personal life.

To be frank, life threw me some curveballs with the end of Shooting Star Comics in 2006.

From there, I’ve spent my time raising kids, played bass guitar in a bar band, went to grad school to earn my master's degree, continued with my studies in martial arts and earned a few degrees with my black belt, went through a messy separation and divorce, lost a job when downsizing hit, lived in Japan for a while to figure things out, fought ninjas, got back on my feet here in America and found a new job, bought a home that I’m currently restoring, courted many fair maidens since I’m single now, and just going about and doing all sorts of other things.

I admit the separation, divorce, and aftermath took a huge toll on me. There was even a while there that THRILL SEEKER COMICS property was caught up for over a year in the legal proceedings of the divorce and frozen where my ex-wife would have owned half of this. Our lawyers worked out a deal and it actually states in my divorce decree that I traded the family dog and turned the pet over to her in order to keep full rights to THRILL SEEKER COMICS and be able to publish. I'm glad my kids got the dog and I got my intellectual property unfrozen and back.

It is true that life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. My son Mitch was born in 2000 when I was helping Kevin Smith on GREEN ARROW. When I began working with SHOOTING STAR COMICS, my son was just a year old. Now my son drives, has whiskers, is about to earn his black belt, and is in his senior year of high school planning on going off to the University of Michigan in 12 months.

How the heck did Shaft, Jr. grow up so fast? Not to mention that I have a daughter who is now 21 years of age.

Well, after this decade of preoccupation with other things, I'm now looking to get back to writing and drawing brand new comic book stories featuring my characters from THRILL SEEKER COMICS.

I miss working in comics and look forward to returning with new stories. And I look forward to the release of this archive collection that you can order now with a pledge on Kickstarter.

How can readers get involved in the Kickstarter and get copies of the TSC book?

I truly appreciate it once again if anyone is interested in buying the archive book, you please head over to Kickstarter website and pledge in one of the brackets fitted for you to order the book. We have a goal that we’re trying to hit by the last day of September but would love to hit it now and provide some stretch goals with cool items to be offered that you can find out about now if you take a look.

You can check out the Kickstarter page at:.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scottmccullar/funding-for-publication-of-thrill-seeker-comicstm

Remembering Shooting Star Comics: Gone But Not Forgotten

Note: As we approach the 15th anniversary of Shooting Star Comics, the indie comics publisher I served as EIC back in the beginning of this century, we've relaunched a website to help archive info and announce new outlets from former SSC members. The following is from that website. Join the Facebook group and share your own memories at https://www.facebook.com/shootingstarcomics. 

In December 2001, a group of online friends, all aspiring comic book writers, came together to produce a showcase for their talents. As readers who love the medium of comic books, they also had a desire to see their scripts given visual form. Since they were serious about their ambitions in this particular field, they decided to pool their resources, find artists (or in some cases, do the art themselves), and publish their short stories (all of it creator owned, original material) together in one book – and then to send that book out into the world, into the hands of the comic book reading public during the summer of 2002.

These friends are also not the least bit reluctant to acknowledge some of the main influences on their own progress in the medium. As a consequence, they decided to ask a couple of those influences to contribute to the endeavor. Chuck Dixon, whose articles on writing for comic books are almost as good as a writing course, was invited to contribute a Western story. And another of those influences, the legendary Denny O’Neil, was asked to write a foreword for the book. He very graciously agreed. The first issue of SHOOTING STAR COMICS ANTHOLOGY was the result of those efforts.

From 2002 to 2006, Shooting Star Comics expanded and became an independent publisher committed to releasing a wide variety of genres and styles in our books. Including both new talent and longtime legends in the industry, Shooting Star Comics produced a high-quality anthology series for six issues and a variety of one-shots and mini-series.

As the 15th Anniversary approaches, this website will expand in the days to come to document the history of our small independent publishing house and serve as an archive that recognizes the body of work produced. This site will also serve as a present day guide pointing to where you can work of the original creators now.

"Shaft"ed -- Getting to Know Scott McCullar

Scott McCullar (or Shaft to some of his closest friends) has been one of my best friends for years, even years before we launched Shooting Star Comics, LLC together with some other creative types. He's not only a great artist but an A+ story teller too.  And that's why you need to meet him.

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

I’ve been meticulously cleaning up all of my body of work that I produced a decade ago of my THRILL SEEKER COMICS series that was published by Shooting Star Comics. I’ve got just a few more final touches on putting together a 128-page archive edition to put out remastered in full color.

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?

I touch on noir pulp fiction-like stories and push my characters onto the road to redemption and understanding.

What would be your dream project?

I used to say that it would be a long run writing GREEN ARROW for DC Comics. I’d still jump at that opportunity, but for now, I want to kickstart my own independent creator-own series and have it be sustainably published as an ongoing series of projects.

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?

I would have liked to have done a few things differently in helping operate Shooting Star Comics, LLC to have kept it sustainable as a publishing company with my pals.

What inspires you to write?

The love of telling stories and entertaining… now while making income with writing and drawing.

What writers have influenced your style and technique?

The writers that most influenced me in comics are comic book writers Denny O’Neil, Chuck Dixon, Mike Grell, Kazuo Koike, and James Robinson. I’ve also really enjoyed the storytelling of Matt Fraction. As for other writers, I’m a fan of Elmore Leonard and Ian Fleming. I’ve also enjoyed the classics from Wells, Dickens, Poe, Hammett, etc. I will also that film and the screen writing of Quentin Tarantino and Akira Kurosawa have also influenced me.

Where would you rank writing on the "Is it an art or it is a science continuum?" Why?

A little of both.

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?

I’m about to release THRILL SEEKER COMICS ARCHIVE COLLECTION – VOLUME ONE later this year. You can visit my website at www.scottmccullar.com for more info. In the meantime, I do have a SAMPLER available with three stories from the Archive available for sale on my website.