Hey guys, it's Scott.
It's Tuesday, December 13th and it's a very special day because it is the birthday of James Tynion IV! he is currently flying back to New York from Singapore from a convention, but everybody should go over to The Empire of the Tiny Onion and subscribe on Substack so that when he lands, he has all kinds of new friends wishing him happy birthday, because he's amazing and he deserves it.
Over here though, at Our Best Jackett, we have a huge week. Live this Thursday night at 9:30pm ET, we're doing our very first class where we're going to be using your work. We're using the work by aspiring writers, students, people who have submitted work to us through our portal. So we're looking at a full length comic, a 20 page issue called Palooka.
And then we're gonna be looking at a short called The Cold Dark Secret of Titan Station.
And we're going to be talking a little bit about character, we're going to be talking a bit about character arcs and development, and we'll be looking at published work as a kind of counterpoint—Kingdom Come #1…
…and The Closet by the birthday boy himself, James Tynion.
So it's going to be a blast. I'm really, really excited about this one. I've said it before, but I genuinely feel that this is where the class is going to kick it up a notch. I loved the whole first semester, and all of it is archived for you, if you're thinking about signing up, in video and audio. We have a link (Ty, the best assistant in the world, can put it right here):
But we also wanted to evolve the class and make it something that we thought would be even more helpful, and this version of it, this kind of form that it's taking now, is the one that I'm even more comfortable with and confident about. So taking pieces that are almost where they need to be closer to where they need to be is something that I love doing. It's the joy for me of doing workshops. So I'm really excited to hear what you think. I've been practicing it. Ty can vouch for me that before every class, I get nervous, and I'm, like, “what if I blow it?!” But this is one of the few, now that we've moved into this mode, where I feel a lot more confident and a lot less worried and just excited to hear what you think!
So also today, Batman/Spawn #1 comes out:
And you should go pick it up, because it's fun and it's awesome and it's Batman and Spawn and it’s a crossover and it's all those great things. The story is really terrific and the art is out of this world because it's brother Greg, obviously. But I also hope you'll pick it up because, for me at least, it's like a testament to one of those rare creative partnerships and friendships that's lasted 20/30 years in comics.
I mean, I know Greg and Todd well, and their friendship is something that's really inspiring to me where they've helped each other through really hard times and their personal lives and they've celebrated together when things have been astronomically great. So to support that book in a way, for me at least, is to kind of tip your hat to one of those enduring relationships in comics that don't come along that often. I hope you'll go check it out also, again, because it's just fucking badass.
Alright, so the other things. I wanted to make one quick reminder—we're opening the Black Jackett Club, which is our highest tier membership, just for a little bit after class. Starting on this coming Friday the 16th at 12:01am. If you want to join, we're really only going to allow a few people because we're full, really, or basically at capacity. If you are somebody whose membership is about to be up, I would really encourage you to renew it as fast as possible, because if we have any openings, we really want to try and fill them because people have been asking to get in. So for all the kinds of perks that, Ty, you can put a graphic here for everybody to check over:
I won't waste your time now going back into why it's a fun thing to join, but I hope you'll consider it.
Okay, so I wanted to answer two questions. Again, Ty came up with the very cute idea of doing Two Question Tuesday. So here we go. He sent me two, I have not practiced them, just gonna go for it. But here we go. The very first question is:
LyndonR asks, “This might be an inside-baseball question, but is there an "appropriate" way to go about getting pull-quotes/blurbs from established creatives?”
So in case you don't know, when you do your first book, anything you're publishing, anything you're sending out to publishers, it really helps to have some support from established creators, artists, writers, anybody.
So the truth is about approaching them, there isn't an appropriate way. There's no standard way. But what I'd encourage you to do is avoid agents, avoid middlemen. It's one of those rare things where, honestly, being sincere but aggressive is the best way to be. You want to make a personal connection with them. If their DMs are open, reach out and make a personal appeal. Don't reach out to people who you don't know well, in terms of their work. Obviously, you don't know them well personally. But I mean, don't reach out to people with a form letter. I get those all the time and I see they've reached out to all my friends with the same exact letter. It's a complete turnoff. And I do this for people that I don't know that are up and comers sometimes. But what appeals to me is:
Dear Scott (or Mr. Snyder),
I'm a fan of your work. I've been following you for a while. It's been an influence on me. Here's some of my favorite stuff that you've done. And I'm working on my own stuff and I’m really excited about it. It's about this and it would mean the world to me if you would offer a word of support (or that kind of thing). Thank you, I know you're busy. It's a thrill just to have this on your desk.
Not to make me sound so great. That's, like, the way that I would write it to another creator, not the way you have to write it to me. That sort of a format. But you really want to go up to them at a convention, appeal in a in an email or a DM to them, whatever you can do without being pushy. If they don't respond, don't follow up. Maybe once if there's any movement on the book, like you're about to get it published or it's about to come out and you want to double check. Give them their space. That's it. There really isn't a way except, again, sincerity and aggressiveness. So, best advice I can give.
Alright, so second question. And sorry for the sound quality, by the way. My microphone that Tyler bought me got destroyed in that flood we had in our house, like completely drenched, so I have to get a new one. So Santa will bring me one for Christmas and the sound quality is going to jump a huge notch here. But:
Chronic Chronicler Rook asks, “How do you describe a project in such a way that it attracts the ideal artist for its unique characteristics?”
That's a great question. Again, my first advice would always be to approach every artist you can personally rather than post your work with a kind of description of what it is. But even if you're approaching an artist and you need good descriptors for the way that you're painting a picture of the story that you're going to tell and the book you're going to create. So first, I would say if you're posting something or you're doing an open call for work in some way, find descriptors that don't refer to other artists. I would never say “hey, I would like this in the style of Greg Capullo or Francis Manapul.” It makes other people feel derivative, it makes them feel like they're the second choice. Try and find really good adjectives that describe the work that you're looking for that are more about sort of the tone and the feeling of the story that you're going for.
So for example, if I wanted something that looked like Greg (not that there's anybody that can look like you, brother Greg), I'd say “muscular style, kinetic, big, bombastic, emotional, sincere,” all of that stuff. If I was describing, like, Bill Sienkiewicz, I'd say, “dreamlike painterly, layered, unconventional.” So if you can try and find adjectives that describe the work without literally using or name-dropping other artists, that's great. If you don't have the vocabulary for that—which isn't a criticism, because before I was a writer, I didn't have a vocabulary for describing other people's writing either)—go to reviews. Go look up good reviews of the people that you like and there'll probably be great descriptions of their work there. Or look up their books and look at the copy edit for their books. So again, try and find ways of describing the feel, the tone, the thing you're going for without giving literal name-dropping signposts for artists to follow. That's the best advice I can give.
Anyway, again—Thursday night, class, Friday, Black Jackett Club opens. Again, not to shill, but this class is the highlight of my month. It makes a great gift for Christmas, you can gift anyone an annual membership, a monthly membership, anything you want. That's the end of my pitch. I hope you guys have fun and a really good week. Talk to you soon!
S
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