Johnny Murdoc

First of all, look at this awesome portrait of me that Topher McCulloch (aka Mugwumpian) made:

Topher’s a talented illustrator and designer, and runs a Tumblr called Make Something Awful Every Day. I, for one, do not think this portrait is awful, and I am incredibly flattered by it.

If there’s one thing I lack these days, it’s focus. I can’t pinpoint one reason that focus is hard to achieve right now, but everything, including writing, feels about ten times harder than usual. That’s why I was so surprised to find myself writing 1,000 words of script for a werewolf romance comic the other day. TJ Woods, the artist of Crash Course, had mentioned wanting to work on a werewolf comic months ago, and he reminded me the other day. Half way through thinking “But I don’t wanna write a werewolf comic—” I realized I had a plot for one. And characters. So I wrote nine pages of comic in one day, something of a small miracle. (If only the second issue of Crash Course would come so easily.)

Even if I magically write the rest of the comic quickly, don’t hold your breath. Comic-making is a long, drawn-out process. The first issue of Crash Course took almost a year to produce (although it shouldn’t have. A year isn’t normal, but circumstances—including but not limited to a hurricane in the Phillipines—made it so.)

I think a lot about how my writing is perceived. I worry, “Do I want to be known for writing werewolf comics?” When it comes to prose, I have a fairly literary style. At least I think I do. But I also love trashy, pulpy writing. I enjoy all different kinds of stories, so why shouldn’t I write all different kinds?

Does it matter to anyone but me?

McCulloch also made this wonderful little painting of my friend, Rob Wolfsham: