Bon voyage to Moon Knight. How he – and my comic brain – developed

This week’s issue of Moon Knight – the conclusion of the Shadowland event – will be my last.

When Marvel asked me to consider tackling Moon Knight, I told them I’d only do it if I could do something really different, as the character’s last reinvention – at the hands of Charlie Huston (and taken over by Mike Benson) – had been solid, innovative, and clever. It had reintroduced Moon Knight to a new generation of readers while keeping a great, dark, street edge on the character. I didn’t want to do more of the same because I feared I would only be doing a pale imitation of what they had already done so well. So my decision was to do Moon Knight BIG, bigger than any comic I’d yet written. My early work focused on the Foolkiller, Punisher, and Wolverine – street-geared, noirish crime stories where the killer-hero toted a gun, a sword, or a samurai blades attached to his hands. This was a natural transition for me coming out of my novels, particularly off the Tim Rackley series, which I considered my action-meditation on vigilante justice.

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VA Beach, SEALs, Cheerleaders, and Book Gigs

I’m in Virginia beach, appearing at Symphony Fundraiser along with noted authors Mary Jane Clark and Jonna Doolittle Hoppes. I’ll be discussing research, writing, and Trust No One. VA Beach is a delightful place – check the view from my hotel room: .

I’m very pleased to be here, given that VA Beach sports the base for the SEAL East Coast Teams, so in my research with the crew, I’ve heard a lot of stories about it (hi, giant Poseidon statue). .

Between flights (I had a few more stops) I’ve been getting a lot of work and reading done. A few great pilots might be coming to TVs everywhere — The Event, The Cape, and No Ordinary Family. And I FINALLY started Marcus Sakey’s The Amateurs. What the hell’s wrong with me, waiting this long? Sakey is one of my favorite young writers and he’s certainly not disappointing here. (Note to aspiring writers: check out how he gets into characters quickly and smoothly and how nicely he trots out/reveals information. He’s good. Go buy some shit).

As for VA Beach, people are great, weather nice, and it sports the highest tattoo to flesh ratio of any town I’ve visited. I hooked up with a SEAL buddy last night for a few drinks and we’ll see if I can get onto a base to do some research tomorrow. The hotel I’m staying at is hosting a cheerleader convention, so everyone is quite perky and wearing T-shirts that say things like, “Those who say it can’t be done should get out of the way of those already doing it,” which strikes me as a bit too long to be T-shirt pithy. (Favorite overheard line on an elevator, from college-aged girl: “I thought cheerleaders were supposed to be good-looking”). I went to the pool this morning then for a walk on the beach, where I phone pow-wowed with the Great Steve Wacker of Marvel fame about Shadowland. The whole time we’re trying to talk Daredevil and Moon Knight, cheerleaders were doing flips and handstands and belting out slogans. I would have taken a picture of that too for you, but feared it was a bit too Humbert Humbert.

Latest Moon Knight covers

The latest Moon Knight covers from superstar artists Francesco Mattina and Bryan Hitch. We wrap up my Deadpool two-issue arc with Vengeance of the Moon Knight #8, SWEET SLUMBER, then we charge forward into the Secret Avengers, MK brooding along as a TEAM PLAYER.

  

New Comics and Bad-Ass Covers

Sorry I’ve been a bit behind schedule posting here – been busy in the writer’s room for V.

Here’s the skinny on new comics – I have a story called RED MERCURY in a Super Issue, art by CP Smith and one of my favorite covers of all time by Rafa Garres.

Marvel released a collection of Vengeance of the Moon Knight 1-3 so folks can catch up.

A new Moon Knight featuring Deadpool comes out next – pencils by Tan Eng Huat, Dan Brown on colors (and cover by Adi Granov).

And the last in the SHOCK AND AWE first arc of Vengeance came out – KNIGHT FALLS. Pencils by Jerome Opena (and Jay Leisten), colors by Paul Mount, cover by Leinil Francis Yu. I had a blast writing this arc, and I’m glad it’s come to its conclusion…Full steam ahead!

The Scarecrow vs. Moon Knight

The Vengeance of the Moon Knight #5. Today.

Breaking In To Comics (the inside word from a Marvel Editor)

Here’s some advice Marvel Editor Jody LeHeup offered a former student of mine on how to break in to comics. Since I get asked this a lot and never have a good answer, I thought I’d cut out the idiot middle man (me) and take readers straight to the source.

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First of all, it’s HARD. Just so you know that up front. Second, there are numerous articles online that go into much more detail than I can here. It couldn’t hurt to seek them out.

If you want to write for comics, I suggest you first decide what it is you want to do. Do you want to write super heroes? Crime comics? Slice-of-life stuff? Do you want to do creator owned work or work-for-hire? The steps you take to break in will be slightly different depending on what you want to do but for the most part what follows is a good way to get started. Let’s assume for the moment that you want to do commercial super hero work-for-hire since you wrote that Batman story. Well, the best advice I can give you is to either get produced or published in another medium (like novels or film or television, which is it’s own ball of wax) or you get published in comics and get an editor to notice your work. How do you do that? I suggest that you do some research and find some smaller publishers that are putting out anthologies. Study those anthologies and figure out what you can write for them. Once you get a sense for the kinds of stories they publish, write up a short story (Not only are shorts easy for an editor to read but shorts are very hard to do well and writing them will really train you to work within limitations. It will keep your storytelling tight and lean.) that’s along those lines, find an artist (this part is hard), get him to finish illustrating it (even harder), get it lettered, designed and packaged as a mini-comic and send it in as a submission to the editor of that anthology. Hopefully they are interested in publishing it. And to increase your chances you want to make sure that the story you’re submitting is as good a story as you can write and looks as good as you can possibly make it. Don’t settle for an artist. Find a good one that will make it sing. But at the same time, be reasonable. Jim Lee has no interest in drawing your comic. Once your short is finished you’re ready to show it to an editor. The reason I suggest giving an editor a complete comic is because reading scripts is work. Reading a comic is fun. And you won’t to make it really easy for editors (or producers even) to read your stuff. If the editor is not interested, that’s okay. Keep submitting it or keep it around as a portfolio piece then move on to the next short. If the editor IS interested then congratulations you’ve published a short comics story and you should be very proud of that. It’s no small feat, my friend. I know. I’ve been there. But stay humble. You’re work isn’t finished. Do it again. And again. Once you have some published work under your belt you can then begin to submit the published work (and only the published work) to big publishers like Marvel and DC. I recommend having at least two or three stories so that the editor can see that you’re serious. Hopefully by that point your work is impressive enough to turn some heads. If not, keep trying. Maybe a smaller press will be willing to give you mini-series which will build your audience and your portfolio. When it comes to dealing with editors, be persistent but not annoying. Be confident but not over-confident. Be professional but be passionate. Go to cons and talk to people. Network. You never know when a friend will be able to put your work on an editor’s desk. And most important of all, do not get discouraged and do not give up.

Wednesday Dec 16, All Hell Breaks Loose

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #4, cover thanks to Leinil Yu. Now we’re at my favorite part of an arc – endless kick-ass action.

Jump on it now since the first three sold out their first day.

Moon Knight #3: The Bushman Cometh

Recognize this purdy face from your childhood stack o comics? Well, he’s back – steel teeth and all – in comic shops today. Hope you enjoy. And for those of you snooty folks who only read well-reviewed comics, get a load of this. See – you can read comics AND feel good about yourself! (The other day I was stretched out in bed reading me some Goon and my wife came in and regarded me with cocked eyebrow and I remarked, “Not now, dear, I’m working.”).

I shall end comic book Wednesday with two Questions of the Day: From which comic is the following line (my new favorite line)?: “That thing don’t kill you….It mates with you.”

And the second question is thus: “Which famous performer gave his baby daughter the middle name CrimeFighter?”

Moon Knight 2nd Printing/Alternate Title

“MOON KNIGHT–?! BUT WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!”

“MAYBE I WAS, BOYS, BUT I’M BACK NOW…BACK WITH A VENGEANCE.”
–Doug Moench

On sale today, the David Finch variant. In case you missed the first edition/sell-out.

Punisher #75: The Swan Song

Double issue featuring short stories by Charlie Huston and Ken Lashley, Peter Milligan and Tomm Coker, me and Das Pastoras, and Thomas Piccirilli and (one of my favorite artists) Laurence Campbell. This issue will clear the decks, making way for Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon’s MAX relaunch. The cover art is staggering – I love the “Central Park as a grave” motif portrayed by the good Reverend Dave Johnson, and Steve Dillon drew a helluva variant. These stories go back to the source, playing on Castle’s origin. I was really goddamned excited to write a tale that touches on that fateful day in Central Park and the birth of the Man as we know him now.

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