Justice Directive Preview - Part I

Well, I'm back from my excursion in Chicago at Wizard World 2005 and I learned quite a bit. One of the key things that I learned (which I already knew going into the con) was that as a writer, you have to have a package ready to show, not writing. Cons really aren't the place to pitch a story unless you have something done that editors can see. And this I had.

I also employed a technique that I only got to use once, but once was enough.

I had an editor over at an independent comic company looking at our material. He said he wanted to see some of it and I asked him to do me a favor. Then I took out one of my business cards and asked him to write on it, "I asked for this." then sign it. At first I think he was a little taken aback but then I noticed a small smile on his face as he proceeded to do it. I believe he caught on to what I was doing

Now, what was I doing exactly? I was finding my way out of the slush pile and into the wanted pile.

For those of us in the business, the slush pile is the last place you want to be as a writer. It's where scripts and stories go that get ignored and unread, especially at the higher publishing houses. It's where unsolicited manuscripts go.

Before I went to the convention, I was thinking about ways to make sure any proposal we put together would bypass that pile and go to the solicited pile where stories get looked at and read. What better way than the editors own handwriting and signature.

Now, will this work? Not sure yet but it seems like it would. I'll let you know though when I put the package together and send it off next week.

Being at the con excited me to continue on the path I'm going with the projects that I'm working on.

Last week, I gave a little bit of a taste on two projects I'm currently working on. I'm going to focus this week on one of those projects called The Justice Directive.

The story is about a billionaire who forms a covert organization to prey on criminals who take advantage of the American justice system only to discover that he’s fighting against people who work for the justice system he’s trying to save. It's a gritty crime drama about vigilantes, assassins, terrorism, murder, and betrayal.

The story has been fermenting in my mind for a while and was basically inspired by news stories of known terrorists who are being painted in the media as victims for what blatantly appears to be political reasons. That got me to thinking about why someone would want to do that and what kind of skeletons could be in their closets.

Then other questions starting forming in my head randomly: How far will a person go to achieve power? Could a person with the resources really make a difference? What do people really think about vigilantes, especially police? Would there be public backlash? How bad? What would a patriot do if they had a lot of money?

As you can see, it went off in a flurry of directions but it was enough that I began to piece together the plot for a graphic novel. Because of the mood of this, I want it to be in black and white. I even want the cover to be in a glossy black and white with colored lettering for the title. Kind of Sin City-esque I know but that's really the feel I'm looking for. Whether an editor will buy it is another story.

I posted one of the sample pages last week but these are the first four in sequence. Simply start from top to bottom, clicking on each image to enlarge it. I'll be posting the last five after I feel that enough people have commented on what I have here. But please...be gentle.....

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