Hey guys, it's Scott.
It is Tuesday, June 25th, and I cannot believe that June is almost over. It has been a whirlwind here of college visiting and baseball card collecting, baseball game viewing, a lot of parenting, a lot of swimming, but comics as well. We are gearing up for an amazing summer. We've got White Boat going right now, and we've got some big announcements coming very soon. And I can't wait for you guys to see them, but I'm making a post today just to kind of load up the class this week. I really, really am excited about it. It's going to be about twists and turns. We're going to be looking at The Ultimates #1, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, we're going to be looking at a student script, and we're going to be looking at Swamp Thing. And I'll bring in some movies, some TV stuff, things we can look at on the fly. If you can read the material, it's always great. If you can't, I sort of summarize it and look through it with you. So don't worry. Don't be intimidated if you have too much work or family on your plate, we try and do the class in a way that's always really user-friendly and takes into consideration all the pressures and demands of everyday life.
So it will be this Thursday at 9.30pm, we'll send you a reminder. If you sign up now for the paid subscription, you can also do an annual or monthly subscription. Monthly is only $7/month. There's a discount if you do annual ($75/year), but it gives you access to all of the classes we've done so far, 20+ of them on everything from character building to conflict to endings and beginnings and everything. There's an archive of all of our videos, all of our guest appearances, and more. I'm going to see if Deniz Camp can come by to talk Ultimates at the end of the discussion this week, and we'll let you know. But it should be a blast.
What I'd like you to think about when you look at these comics is, or if you're just sort of thinking on your own or you're watching your favorite show and it has a twist or a turn, is what is the effect of this thing that just happened, this technique? Is it emotional? Is it plot driven? Is it both? What is the impact? What is the sort of utility of a plot twist versus an emotional twist? Which one sort of drives the story in which direction? How many are there per episode or issue? All of that. Because it's a technique that does very specific things and we'll be looking at that together. But it does different things when it's an emotional twist. And they can be good, they can be bad (meaning they can be a positive twist where we learn something enlightening). It can be a negative twist where we learn that we didn't know something horrifying that's about to get us. They can have components of both plot, emotion, all of it. But they do different things.
So what I'd like you to do is try and pick a part before the class starts. A couple twists and turns that you can come in and talk about because we always do interactive as well. You can comment in the chat and I'll try and respond to a couple things here and there when I can. We want it to be something that's a discussion, not just a masterclass, although it's predominantly me walking through some of the material. And so that you can join in. Anyway, really looking forward to it. We're going to have a date very soon for paid subscribers, also, to send in their two books for me to sign. And we're gearing up our breakfast in San Diego for Black Jackett founder’s tier members. So again, if you're a Black Jackett member, please email Tyler at bestjackettpress@gmail.com and let us know you're going to be in San Diego if you are so we can invite you to this breakfast where it's on us. And yeah, I can't wait to see you guys on Thursday!
Newsletter #187: A Twisty, Turny Prelude