Who's Who in the CBU 2009

Name: Regie Rigby

Regie is a strange, almost ethereal creature. Who can plumb the hidden mysteries of his dark and murky past - a past which contains a terrible secret. A secret that taught him that with great power comes great responsibility, that criminals are a cowardly superstitious lot and just who exactly knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

By day, he assumes the appearance of a mild mannered teacher, bringing the joy of literature and the English Language to classes of enthralled and enthusiastic students. But by night?

By night he goes home and writes lesson plans. Sorry. That's as interesting as he gets. Really.

The rumours about rooftop struggles with underworld uberfiends, the gossip about the hidden cave filled with hi-tec equipment and the suggestion that his car might be fitted with turbo lasers are all nonsense.

When he's not teaching he reads comics. Sometimes he combines the two activities. When he's not doing that he's either playing computer games or asleep.

Why You Should Buy StarshipTroopers, And Why I Love Being Me!

By Regie Rigby

OK – several things to mention before we get started.

First of all, how’d ya like the new décor? Everything looks a bit brown to me, but I rather like the whole file motif. It’s been a while since we decorated the place, and I’d just like to thank Jason and the rest of the team for putting so much effort in with their metaphorical paint brushes. I confess that I’ll probably still be referring to the old place as “SBC” for a while yet, but that’s only because I’m very bad at change.

Secondly, can I remind you that the new creative team on Markosia’s Starship Troopers is due to take over shortly, and you should take active steps now to make sure you get your copy of their first issue.

Why?

Well, first of all because I’m telling you it’d be a good idea, and I am never wrong. If you need more incentive than that, well, consider that the new writer, one Cy Dethan got the job because the previous writer, one Tony “He’s only a Writer” Lee fired himself off the book because Cy was so good. Seriously. I mean, how good do you have to be for a guy who is turning out popular work (and Lee is a genius, as I have observed here already) to say - oh, hang on, you’re just so good you just have to take over…”

Trust me. The writing is going to be amazing.

But however good the writing is, I promise you the art will be even better. I confess that I’m perhaps a little biased, because the art will be provided by one Paul Green, who will shortly be putting pictures to the script I’m writing for my own comic book hero Sunset.

But that’s not why I’m so excited about his work on Starship Troopers. Oh no. I’m excited about his work on Starship Troopers because I’ve seen grown men drool after catching the merest glimpse of it. Honestly – and you know I don’t really buy comics for the art – this is artwork that will make your eyes feel privileged. It’s so good that I genuinely don’t have words to describe it adequately – you really are just going to have to buy it and see what I mean. Go and talk to your friendly comics dealer right away!

The really good news, so far as I’m concerned is that from what I’ve seen Paul’s art just gets better and better with every page he draws. Given how good his stuff is already, by the time he gets the final script for Sunset? Well, let’s just say I’m rather excited about it…

And it’s Sunset I want to talk about this week. I’ve not mentioned him for a while, and I think he’s beginning to feel a bit neglected. One or two of you have been good enough tie-mail and ask how the project is going, and the start of the New Year is as good a time as any to fill you all in.

The honest answer is “It’s going well, but slowly”. This is largely my fault. I had actually written the first drafts of all four issues, and was debating whether the action was too crowded and ought to be expanded into five parts when the memory stick I was storing them on disappeared. Were I a more paranoid type I’d probably be dreaming up all sorts of nefarious conspiracies but the truth is I’m just a bit crap and I lose things a lot.

I also always forget to back things up.

Yes, I know. I’m stupid. But all four issues are gone, and although the law of “sod” suggest that I’ll find the damn thing about three days after the final draft goes to the artist, I have no choice but to re-write them all. This is taking much longer than I though it would. I mean, the original four issues took me about six months, but that was because I was working out how to do it as I want along. You’d think that I’d have sussed that by now, and would be able to just sort of knock them out in a day or so the second time around.

No such luck, sadly.

Why am I telling you this? Well, partly because I want you to feel my pain but mostly because writing my little comic is a very steep learning curve which I hope is slowly turning me into less of a tosser. I’ve written before about how working with the insanely talented Paul Green has made me finally appreciate the full contribution an artist makes to a writer’s story*, actually trying to write a comic has made me appreciate the work of all those writers I’ve been so quick to criticize over the years.

The problems aren’t the ones you’d think either. Ideas aren’t the problem – at least not in a “can’t think of what to write” kind of way. The problem is in fact keeping control of the ideas and making sure they don’t run away with me. It turns out that “big ideas” are easy – it’s making them fit into twenty two pages of comic that is hard. I honestly don’t know how proper writers** manage it. Telling a story is easy - drunks do it all the time. Telling a story that stops every twenty two pages, at a point that not only makes sense but also makes the reader want to come back in thirty days time to see what happens next?

Easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle mate.

Still – it’s coming along. Obviously I keep having new ideas which have to be incorporated and old ideas that don’t quite work to be expunged. And then I e-mail a script to Paul and he points out that a different type of weapon would look really cool, and I agree, and so there’s a whole new bucket of stuff to fit in and so it goes on.

I haven’t had this much fun in my life before.

Bloody love being me!

Next week, on time, and less self indulgent I’ll be looking at something more interesting than me.

See you then?








*Because be in no doubt, when you finally get to read Sunset, a very large number of the best ideas will have come from chance remarks made by Paul.

**Make no mistake – I don’t think I’ve got any right to consider myself a proper writer yet. This isn’t false modesty, I just haven’t earned the right yet. If what I write turns out not to be shite, then maybe…