Inspiration for X-Men: Days of Future Past

             I’ve been reading X-Men: Days of Future Past for some comic book inspiration and it’s been pretty awesome. Two of the greats, Chris Claremont and John Byrne wrote the graphic novel with the story. I’m still reading it but in the graphic novel collection. I say collection because it’s a bunch of regular comic stories leading up to Days of Future Past which I believe is only two issues. The stories leading up to is so far are pretty awesome though. It goes into Wolverine, with the help of Nightcrawler, kind of or sort of patching things up with Alpha Flight in helping them track down the Wendigo. 

Also there’s a story where the X-men team up with Doctor Strange and go to a facsimile of Dante’s Hell. That was pretty neat. So anyway, I like how John Byrne can pack so much into a panel set in the danger room. This collection reminds me why classic X-men is so good!

The YouTube video expands on how potent a story can be in a minimum of two issues. He touches on Stan Lee’s The Coming of Galactus storyline in the Fantastic Four. Also, it touches on the inspiration for the story coming from a Dr. Who episode The Day of The Dalek’s. You never know where inspiration will strike. It also shows how much sci-fi and fantasy can inspire each other to make great stories. I also like how Claremont made the future outcome in question as opposed to a clear win. It’s fascinating. I hope by reading more great comics like this, novels and short stories, etc…I can learn to write good stories for my own characters and only time and work will tell. I'll continue to do the work against all real-world obstacles getting in the way.

Here's the link to Matt Draper's video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJdwFFpxKKM&list=PL-BkrJCWGrhwHJlwgazszUGxeVcwaC-T8&si=nC8SE_TTJFJK3eEJ

Movin' Slow but Movin'

 So things have been moving along at a pace. Not saying it’s a fast pace but it’s a pace.

I’ve finished about 12-15 pages of Rage #5 within 6 months if I had to estimate. You can check out one of the panel’s below…

It’s movin slow but I really wish it wasn’t. As you can see it’s a bit of a time-travel story, well kind of, back into our fictionesque type-time or is it? I’ll let you be the judge of that after you read it.

As par for the course there will be a couple of flashbacks in there, though I’ll try to keep them to  a minimum. Really trying to go for a self-contained story. Although I’m keeping the backgrounds to a minimum, I’m still struggling with drawing more than a page a week. On lucky weeks I can knock out 2 with the web-sized blue-lined paper.

I still need to perfect a system for drawing much faster without sacrificing the quality.

This is why drawing comic books is a real, job but when you don’t get paid for doing the job it’s a problem. I believe in what I’m doing and that I have a story to tell with the character but will more people read it and like it? That is why I’m putting together a super-sized issue such as Rage #5 and I’ll put together a compilation of the first 5 comics. All without really testing the market. As Jason Bateman said in Dodgeball “it’s a bold strategy, let’s see if it works out for them.”

All of this emphasizes an important point, ya gotta draw comics because you love to draw them, not because you think it will bring you millions.

Also, there’s an update, while this blog will stay Movin’ Slow I’m thinking of switching the name of the company from Movin’ Slow to Raging Comics due to my new website being called that. Some of you might be reading these blogs from my website ragingcomics.com.

I might change the logo to a Rage head or something like that or Rage & Sgt. Gray 

heads as a throwback to the old Marvel days or maybe I’ll make a RC logo like DC.

-

So there’s a lot of progress happening but not enough to quit the day job and go full-time into my comic to get it down to at least a consistent quarterly comic. What to do? My brain is scanning for ways to get paid doing the work, I could do a Kickstarter, but I would only do that after the book is completed, maybe there’s a way to do it where I’m getting funded by a sponsor kinda like Nascar, maybe find an angel investor? Maybe find another job that will pay more to allow more freedom to work on my comic. Just throwing out ideas out there.

The problem is that there’s no guarantee the book will sell when it comes out or that I can keep a fan base when it’s so long between issues. That’s a real struggle.

Meanwhile, a whole bunch of life events can happen during and in-between comics that can challenge my work goals. That’s why it’s ideal to move faster or more consistently on my book. 

If anybody comes up with any ideas be sure to let me know.