Hey all.
Been a while since we posted. I'm hoping this shows up as from me (Nunzio) and not us, but we had to recreate my account on blogger due to my own mistakes (forgetting passwords and not updating when we changed e-mail address - a fatal combination).
Anyway, Happy New Year.
I don't know about anyone else, but I've never been as happy to see a year end as I was to see 2007 go into the books, or at the very least, go away. It was a terrible year.
This was the year DC joined Marvel in forgetting that we exist - or perhaps in wishing they'd forgotten that we exist.
It was the year we started by watching my brother's marriage (the one that inspired the family feuds we chronicled in Maria's Wedding) end, and ended with watching Christina's brother's marriage end.
It was a year of family pain, medical complications and financial implosion.
And just when we came out of the woods, at least on the writing front (in the form of a TV movie and a second optioned film script, and also having a couple of big names attaching themselves to one of our comics in the hopes of making it a film - though that was just a possibility, unlike the other two), along comes the strike. If we can financially survive the strike, our careers will take an upturn. But the longer it goes on, the harder surviving it will be.
But there was one bright spot in 2007. I started teaching. And I'll be doing it again in 2008. Once this winter, in a class that begins in a week. And again in the spring.
I'm teaching a class on writing for comics, graphic novels and manga. And when I tried teaching last year, I really loved it. I only have the one class as a sample size, but it seemed at least they thought I was halfway decent at it, too.
The class is for UCLA Extension.
This winter, I'll be having Jason DeAngelis of Seven Seas, James Lucas Jones of Oni Press, and Greg Rucka (my best friend, and one of the best comic writers in the business - also the guy who taught me how to write for comics) as guest speakers.
And over 10 weeks, I'll teach the basics of writing for comics, and each member of the class will workshop into shape a 22-30 page comic script, either for an individual issue, or the first chapter or section of a larger manga/graphic novel.
If you live in LA and this sounds interesting, sign up. If not, this is just to keep you up to date. As I said, this class is providing much of my sanity of late.
The url is:
The site won't let me link to the actual class, but the course number is 409.2. Check it out for a full description (and of course, if you want to sign up).
Anyway, once the strike is settled, we'll be in good shape. A TV movie on Oxygen, two film scripts optioned, and maybe Oni can get that comic set up as a film.
But for now, 2008 starts as unsettled as 2007 was.
But at least I'm teaching.
Hope the New Year brings great things for all of you, and that the holiday season offered the best that the holidays can often bring, which is family, food and friendships (and something else that doesn't start with an f to avoid alliteration - gifts, I suppose).
