On Friendship

I had three friends
close as brothers
yet today I grieve,
to these three men
I made a vow
I'd die before I'd leave.

One friend had rage
that would overflow
and spill out like a cup,
he took his neighbor's Jack Daniels
in hope to fill back up.

One seemed true,
but met a girl
and turned into another,
he'd pat my back with one hand
and tie my noose with the other.

The third's hard luck
broke him down
in self-pity he'd sit and wallow,
the drugs he took led him down
a path I could not follow.

Then there's me
the worst of all
my head hung down in shame,
I swore, my brothers, I'd never leave,
but left you all the same.

Summer Movies 2011

Just a quick list of the movies I'm excited to see during the summer. I know some people already disagree with me. This list is in order of release dates.

Thor - The Marvel take of the god of thunder. I'll be there in a week!

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Strange Tides - Taping the energy and fun of the first film, all without Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom? Sounds good.

X-Men: First Class- It's the X-Men! And it looks like an X-Men movie! This one might be a the new how to for X-Men movies! (See X-Men Origins: Wolverine for the "what-not-to-do" lesson)

Super 8 - This one looks like E.T. meets Cloverfield and I do love that kind of stuff.

Green Lantern - I would not be exited if it wasn't for the extended trailer released a few weeks ago. Nice save.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - I find the less I look into this, the more I excited I stay. I'm going to stay with that.

Another Earth - A new one for me, but it's the story of the discovery of an alternative earth and is being compared to the level of Moon. You tricky comparers, comparing to Moon!

Captain America: The First Avenger - I was less excited, now I'm excited. I'm like a roller coaster of emotions!

Cowboys and Aliens - Stop making fun of the title! Both are things we want to see!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - The trailer looks cheesy as all get out, but it has gorillas attacking helicopters and chimps sneaking into the capital.

Conan the Barbarian - I'm not sure how excited I am for this, but if it's anything like the Kurt Busiek comics I read a few years ago, it should be pretty good. Plus, Conan would fit right at home in a Savage World game.

I know these films all fall into the same type of films, but the summer is my time to enjoy them. You artsy film lovers get the fall and winter. I like my summer days full of superheroes and space odysseys. Plus, if you don't like any of these, odds are you're going to Harry Potter anyway and that will keep you talking forever.

If you think this is bad, wait until you see me 2012. Avengers, Spider-Man, Batman, Star Trek...Bad news for those close to me.

A Reading Fantasy

I’m going to start talking about what I like to read by talking about what I’d like to read. During the summer, I try to make a reading list to stay on task. For the most part, I cover the list well, though I do take rabbit trails and find other titles I wasn’t expecting. Last summer, for instance, was taken over by science fiction. This summer, I’ve got a lot of fantasy coming my way.

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie has recently come to my attention, during one of my many browsings on Amazon. The premise sounds cool; the stories of those partaking in a three day battle with all the blood, pain, and heroism that goes with it. One thing I am is a premise guy. I love hearing a great premise. I wish I could come up with better ones, but no such luck. Back to the book, it’s received a lot of great reviews but, as with most of the books on this list, it’s in hardcover only. And hardcover is worth its weight in gold.

One book that has me very excited is The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. It’s the second book in the Kingkiller Chronicles and I’m ready to be reading it. The first book, The Name of the Wind, blew me away (excuse the pun). It was the first book in a long time to make me tear up and have a near heart attack. The writing was great and the story was as complete as I could have hoped. The biggest problem was that it left me wanting more, which is why there is a second book. It’s also in hardcover only.

Brandon Sanderson leads the Writing Excuses podcast I listen to and his books are pretty good too. This summer I’ve got his Mistborn trilogy to read, and I want to pick up his newest tome, The Way of Kings. Both have received rave reviews and I know, having read Elantris, that Mr. Sanderson is a great writer. This Christmas, my mom gave me the entire Mistbord series, and I can’t wait to crack into them. The Way of Kings is the size of a small car, though, and a time commitment, so I have to wait. The other problem with this book? Hardcover only. It’s as if the stores don’t want me to read these books, penniless pauper that I am.

So, in the world of paperbacks, there are two book series I’m eying with interest. The first is Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. I’ve been hearing a lot of different things about this one, either highly positive or cautiously interested. It’s about thirteen volumes, and I’ve been lent the first book. I know Jordan has influenced Sanderson quite a bit, with Sanderson taking over writing duties after Jordan died. I’m more excited for this than I think I should be, especially with my fear of overly-long series, but we’ll see how I fair.

I’m also interested in reading The Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. I haven’t heard much about this one; mainly that it’s a little grittier and that HBO is making a series based off of it. I’ve had one person tell me they love it and that’s about it. It will probably stay at the bottom of the pile, if only from the lack of information I have. But, since it’s in paperback, it might move up sooner than later.

That’s my reading list for the summer, or, at least the fantasy books. I think next I’ll talk about the sci-fi books I want to check out this break. Either way, I’ve got my reading cut out for me.

What Do I Read?

What do I read? That’s not such a simple question. Most of my time is spent reading comics, especially during the school year. The reason for this is, basically, time. I can finish a trade paperback in one sitting, where a book will take more time. Not to mention the fact that my school’s interlibrary loan system allows for a constant input of comics, with no charge.

During the summer, I try to get my fiction intake, from both the local bookstore and library. Last summer, I had a great time reading all sorts of books, catching up on science fiction, fantasy, and other genres. It’s a lot of fun and I have the time to sit and read at my own pace.

When school is going on, my main reading comes in school books and my Christian literature (the latter I try to read all year long). I find reading my Christian books to be one the more refreshing things to do, helping me grow and keep my faith in mind. However, I can have a problem of reading only the literature and letting my Bible devotions take a hit. Not a good toss-up.

Now, when it comes to comics, I love my superheroes. No question, no argument. There are those, who for whatever reasons, stay away from superheroes and read all the world has to offer in other genres. Not me. I like my costume heroes fighting it out on rooftops. Sure, I have a few titles I follow with those in tights, but not much.

The summer reading, my fiction, is more varied, though I stay true to my geek roots. I love science fiction, my main source. I’ve been getting more and more into fantasy this year, mainly because of certain writers and books. I’m a bit ashamed how little I’ve read in the genre, but we’ll see how I fair after this summer. Michael Crichton isn’t a genre, but I love his stuff and usually read one or two of his books a year, though I’m running out of new stuff. I try to keep up a steady intake of classic literature, but fail more often than not.

This is such a small summary of what I read. Really, it all needs to be analyzed on an individual basis. Reading is very important to me. I stopped after I dropped out of high school and it was a sad, dark time. My vocabulary began to shrink and I couldn’t talk literature unless it had pictures. Over the past five years, I’ve really been making sure I read as much as I can and it feels great. I can’t wait to write more about it.

End of the Semester

The semester has ended (so I’m late commenting on this) and the grades are slowly coming in. Very slowly.

Before this semester started, I was iffy about some of the classes I took and stoked about others. I knew I had to take Time, Motion and Communication; it’s required for my concentration and it’s something I should take either way. I was worried that, it being an animation class, I was going to hit the grounds in flames. I’m not very good with the abstract. When I look at something, I tend to see it for what it is, not what it might be. If I create a video about two people playing video games, I’m not making it with the intent of something else. The basic idea is “Eric and Glenn play Final Fantasy VII”. If you find that the video might represent brotherly love or childhood nostalgia, great, but those thoughts aren’t with me when filming.

This is the big reason I was and tend to be worried. I’m definitely in a major where it helps to be abstract and think in hard to compress thoughts. What happened though is that I actually learned. The Eric that went into TMC was not the same Eric that came out of TMC. If you look at my first work with typography to my last, or compare my first animated short to my second, the jump is ridiculous. I’m still not where I wish I was, and it’s a pain in the butt to be in a class with so many talented people, because I’ll always be behind just scratching to get to the middle class, but it was great to see real progress in my own ability. It was even good to be surrounded by talented people, to have to push myself and learn from their success. It’s a really cool thing to write a script that reads “General Zaroff is on his giant riding mole” and know that I’ll see it.

Which is another thing I learned about myself; even with animation, I’m a storyteller. My work is abstract or symbolic because my work is very much a story-centered one. Yes, my stories tend to be sad excuses for the medium, but they’re still a beginning, middle, and an end type of project. When I animated “A Most Dangerous Game”, I went in on how to tell the story best; camera shots, dialog, scenes, end joke. All I had at my hands for animation was just a tool to tell a story I normally couldn’t tell. That was the great realization about animation, and about my own style. I’m not so ashamed by skills with After Effects or Illustrator anymore because illustration isn’t my focus. The story is.

I was going to talk about my other classes, but that might run this a bit long. I’ll finish them up for the next blog.

The Influences We Don't Admit

After writing my thoughts on influences and having been influenced in my writing, I realized I’ve limited myself. Obviously, what I’ve read is going to impact my writing a lot. But, in a big way, what I’ve been influenced in the most, is in my storytelling. Craft is important, but the stories I want to tell are always going to be the core. Instead of writing another essay on the authors who have influenced my storytelling, I’m just going to say that all the ones I previously mentioned count for this. Crichton, London, Applegate, Rothfuss, Adams, Lewis and others have all written great works that make me want to tell similar stories.

But let us not pretend that I’m not a child of my culture. I wish I could brag that it’s only been literary works that have influenced me, but that’s not the case. Movies, television, music, video games, and comic books have been working through my system for as long as I can remember. I really wanted to stop and look at some of the biggest examples in my life, which have really played a role in shaping my storytelling. So, knowing full many will read and scoff, here I go.

Final Fantasy VI is the first RPG I ever played, having bought it for the Super Nintendo very late in the game. I had no idea what I was I getting myself into. I could go on and on about the game play, style of graphics, music, and more, but that’s not what this essay is about. I’m here to talk about the story.

Final Fantasy VI has fourteen characters throughout the game and (with the exception of two) they all get character development and a story arch. Each character has a back story that is, especially for me, intriguing and elemental in their growth. You’re never confused by whose story we’re watching, because each is so different. Cyan having to lose his king and family (twice) and Terra’s birth the Esper World are among the most compelling, but they all get a great tale. I didn’t even remember Setzer having one until replaying it recently, and his short tale of losing the love of his life is quick, effective, and sorrowful.

From this video game, I learned that every character should be treated as importantly as the next. The biggest influence this gave me is that my characters must have a back story now; one that is as compelling and full as the main story. Now, I’m not entirely sure this is the best tactic, because it might come into info-dumping or bring to question why we don’t just tell that story instead. But I believe a great back story makes for a great character and creates a richer story overall.

X-Men will always be my favorite comic book series. I’m not going to get into an argument over it, my opinion is set. X-Men does so much, so well. It tells us a story that is bigger than itself, gives us characters richer than what we deserve, and stays cool while doing it all.

X-Men came about in my life almost the same time as Final Fantasy VI and I can say it had almost the same influence on me as that game (as well as Digimon). But X-Men did something else. It showed me the power of character interaction and hinting dialog.

Throughout the series, we have some amazingly interesting characters and they are always interacting with each other. Throughout my reading, I saw the power of these interactions; what they can tell us about the characters, what we can learn from throwaway lines. No character should interact with another character the same way as another. If two characters are talking, we should be able to know who they are, if only by the way the characters are talking to each other.

This interaction has also come into play with my writing. I make sure I know how each character sees the other one, even if it’s as simple as saying “Jace doesn’t like Doran”. This helps me understand how to write the dialog much better than I normally would. I’ve also gained the habit of making back stories interact, almost to the point of a hindrance, which I’m trying to reign back.

The Lord of the Rings, in which I’m talking about the movie trilogy, (sorry, book fans) was an epic eye-opener for me. I had never seen anything like it. I can think of no other term for it as these movies being the Star Wars of my time. I got pulled into this world with no resistance on my part and saturated my life in it. For three years, as these movies came out, my world revolved around the story of the One Ring.

I have to make sure to note again that I’m talking about the movies. I tried to read the books, made it all the way to the last one and hope to try again. But, the movies did something else for me. The epicness that Tolkien was trying to convey and failed to do for me was shown in fullness on screen. There are so many awe moments for me during these movies; Rivendell, the Mines of Moria, The Gates of Argonath, and these are only from Fellowship of the Ring.

Even with all these epic moments, though, the story never loses focus of the small moments and characters. When a character dies, we take the time to notice. When two character talk about their plans, we pay attention.

When writing my stories, I’m trying to write big, epic stories, because that’s what I love to read about. But if I lose focus of my characters, I get bored fast. Like Lord of the Rings, I’m trying to show how the smaller stories are interacting into a bigger story. Unfortunately, I’m not so good at this, but at least I have a goal so worthy of being followed.

There’s more of course; the cinametic nature of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s By the Way album, the episodic yet compelling style of the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica (take that, spell check), the amazing characters of Firefly, the world of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda or all that is Star Wars. All of these have effected how I tell my stories and what stories I’m trying to write.

Hey, look! Rowling didn’t have a thing to do with it…

A Return to Haverhil

I'm often hard on Haverhill. I grew up here, lived most of my life in the city, and didn't get out until I was 21 (and it was God's work, not mine that got me out in the first place). There isn't much to say about the city, it's not a booming town of industry, commercialism, or one of blissful residential life.
There is a comic book store, though, a great one that met my needs for as long as I started there. It's a beautiful place, boxes of comics on the floor, shelves of trades, pricier issues on the walls...a real place to love comics and get lost in their worlds.

Pilgrim Lanes is a decent bowling alley and I would be sorry not to mention it's where I discovered Dance Dance Revolution for the first time. My friends and I played that game for four hours straight upon discovering it, and I've never looked back.

Haverhill doesn't have a a real, gourmet restaurant, but if you're looking for pizza or Chinese food, go no further. If there's one business that's booming in this town, it's the small shops. Arie's, Athens, Giovanni's, that place in Bradford I never learn the name of but has great Chinese. Or roast beef? Welcome to Chicks.
I never knew we had laser tag while living here. How strange.
You can drive to the beach, ride the train to Boston, and shop in New Hampshire without going a few minutes down the highway.

...

That's about it.

Though, most importantly, my family lives here. As much as I could live without ever returning to this town, I will make the drive every time to come home and see them. I've learned this more and more having been gone, that when I'm home, I don't really leave the house. The town has nothing to offer me. It's my mother and siblings, my grandmother and uncles, aunts and cousins that cause me to come back. And I will keep coming back.