Jonathan Morel - Writer-in-Residence

As we round out his stint, many thanks must go to Luke Babad for gracing us with his lovely words and ideas.  Was a pleasure to have you round these parts.

And I must say that it is an equally great pleasure to have Jonathan Morel, our next guest, swooping in to spend some time amongst our roost.  I've known Jon a good long while, and he is one of the most intelligent people I know when it comes to dissecting narrative.  Whether it's film, television, comics, or anything else, Jon often hones right in on what's working, but more importantly why it's working.

I've had many a conversation with him on favourite series, episodes, issues, and the like, and he's always bringing in thoughts and ideas that I hadn't considered before.  It's for these reasons (and many more) that he's one of my trusted extra sets of eyes when I'm working on an important script and want to make sure it lands just right.

For all that, Jon hasn't necessarily spent much time scripting his own pieces, whether in comics or any other medium (although he is one hell of a Dungeon Master), so I decided to force him to do so by asking him to join up as our latest Writer-in-Residence.  To my delight, he has agreed, and I must say that I am excited to see what he comes up with.

Thanks for coming by, Jon.  We're pleased to have you with us for the coming fortnight.

Luke Babad - Writer-in-Residence

While this week ends Liam Meagher's stay with us, I'm happy to say that we're welcoming another talented musician to our circle.

Luke Babad is a longtime friend whose slowly been working away at his guitaring and songwriting over the past few years and is now starting to get some gigs around town at open mics and the like.  Like working at comics, it can be a long process, but it's been amazing to see his ongoing work and dedication and to see him advance and hit new milestones.

Of course, knowing he's been busting his chops at music, I couldn't help but wonder if he'd be interested in coming in to try his hand at some comic scripting.  Thankfully, he was all upons the question, jumping at the opportunity without hesitation.

I've been looking over his scripts to help him prepare, and thus far, I gotta same I'm pretty impressed.  I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I have.

Liam Meagher - Writer-in-Residence

After some internal membership shuffling and a week to help celebrate Deadpool's big return to the big screen, we're back on track with our very own Writer-in-Residence program, bringing you Liam Meagher in as our latest guest.

Liam is a good friend of mine and is a rather talented musician who plays with the slick group, Harea Band. We were talking storytelling a few weeks back and seeing as he mentioned wanting to check out a new outlet, I tricked suggested he come and join us for a few. He graciously agreed, and I am extremely eager to see how his guitar chops translate into our own comic book sphere. It's always about experimentation and I'm honoured Liam is coming to experiment with us for a while.

Please join me in welcoming him to our fine lab.

Nicholas O'Gorman - Writer-in-Residence

After a longer than intended hiatus, I am eager to announce that our Writer-in-Residence program is back into the swing of things.  And I am thrilled to announce our next guest as the talented Nicholas O'Gorman.

Eagle-eyed readers will recognize his name as the gentleman who put together the snazzy new Thought Balloons logo, but it's worth noting that Nick is far more than an ace graphic designer.  Indeed, he's an ace most everything when it comes to comics.

I've known Nick for a few years now and one thing that I've always been impressed by is his hustle.  The man is a machine who lives and breathes comics.  He's constantly working at his craft, looking for ways to improve and challenge himself.  If it has to do with the medium, he not only knows how to do it, he knows how to do it well.

With more than a few publishing credits to his name (that link is only a small portion of what he's done), I'm always happy to grab a drink with Nick to hear what he's been working on next, because he's also something of a fountain of ideas.

I'm delighted that Nick has found some time to join us for the next two weeks.  I look forward to seeing what he comes up with.

You should check out more of Nick's art over at his DeviantArt, as well as his words over at .  Please join me in welcoming him aboard.

David Press - Writer-in-Residence

Now that we've come to the end of our week of Corey Fryia and Doctor Crowe, we're moving to a slightly more familiar face for our next Writer-in-Residence - your friend and mine, David Press.  You've surely seen his excellent pieces in various Why posts these past few months, and considering how much work he routinely puts in, we were thrilled when he agreed to join us as our latest guest.

When asked, David had the following to say about himself:

David Press lives with his librarian/musician wife in New York’s Adirondack Park. By day he teaches writing, comics, and film at Paul Smith’s College. He’s been writing comics in one form or another since he was thirteen starting with Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo’s run on The Flash. He’s currently revising a novel called Emerson, which follows two high school students who realize that their writing can alter reality. He leaves his notes at davidpress.net.

Please join me in re-welcoming him to the site!

Corey Fryia - Writer-in-Residence

This week brings another talented wordsmith to grace our habitual haunt, the lovely Corey Fryia, who I first encountered through Nic Shaw's , but who has impressed me even more with some of his recent work.  Indeed, he has a pretty solid Kickstarter going down are the moment, but I'll leave that for a moment...

In the interim, I'll turn it over to Corey to tell you more about himself:

Corey Fryia is a comic book writer and occasional editor from Bowling Green, Kentucky. He’s the writer/co-creator of “Doctor Crowe” from 215 Ink, the co-editor of “Out of the Blue: A Collection of Strange Stories” and the upcoming sequel, “Out of the Blue: A Collection of Campfire Tales,” and has had shorts published in various independent publications. You can find more info on Corey's work by visiting coreyfryia.net and follow him on Twitter .

Watch out for his excellent pick - and his equally killer script - later today!

Perry Kent - Writer-in-Residence

Charlotte's wondrous wanderings with us have sadly come to their end, but happily we have another keen talent coming your way in the human existence that is Perry Kent.

Perry is yet another writer whom I met through Comics Experience, and I was such a fan of his scripts that I knew I wanted to have some of them grace our own pages.  Now, I can cheerfully say they will.

As Perry puts it:

Perry Kent is a writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest. He has been making up stories his whole life and has been putting pen to paper since the first time he fell in love with a book. After recently discovering that people actually want to read some of his stories, he has been earnestly clacking away at his keyboard. Still fresh to the cutthroat, swashbuckling world of serious storytelling, he hopes to be putting his work out into the world any day now. When he makes brief forays onto the internet he can be found on Twitter () stalking other writers and comic creators.

Please join me in welcoming him to our shores.

Writer-in-Residence - Charlotte Joyce Kidd

You didn't think we forgot, did you?

Perish the notion!  Good things come to those who wait, and I'm thrilled to introduce another goody for our readers, our next Writer-in-Residence, Charlotte Joyce Kidd!  Charlotte is a talented prose writer whose work I've admired for a good while.  In particular, I've always appreciated her precise diction: every word carefully selected for a specific purpose.  Their purpose may vary, her words invariably draw you in - but rarely in the direction that you're expecting.

I'm quite eager to see how she brings that style to the comic book genre.  Thankfully, she was just as eager to try her hand at the challenge.  Let's give her a warm welcome and see what she comes up with.

Should you (understandably) be interested in checking out her prose, some of her work can be found at her blog as well as at Word and Colour.

Colin Cheney - Writer-in-Residence

We've come to a new fortnight (people still use fortnight, right?) and with it a new writer-in-residence to join us here at Thought Balloons.

First, let me bid farewell to Liam Lachance.  It was a pleasure to have you aboard and we hope to see you around again someday.  And secondly, let me wish a warm welcome to Colin Cheney.

I recently took a writing course through Andy Schmidt's Comics Experience, and it was nice to take some time to focus on the basics of comic writing and consider the hows and whys of the medium.  It never hurts to get your craft game on, but the other part of the course that I thoroughly enjoyed was getting to know my fellow classmates.

There were plenty of talented writers, some who were wet around the ears and others who had been hustling for a good while.  It was a pleasure to get to know them and to throw thoughts and feedback their way on the comics they were writing - something that we're all about here at Thought Balloons.

Of all those scripts I read during the course, Colin's was one that jumped out at me.  From the beginning, his story idea seemed ambitious.  It had a young family struggling to deal with their new home in a foreign land, their own interpersonal conflict, and some fantastic elements sprinkled in for good measure.  It looked overwhelming, but I was amazed and impressed to see him tame and reign the story in, while maintaining all those original elements.

I figured he would be a good fit as our next Writer-in-Residence, and he graciously agreed.  I look forward to seeing what he'll come up with these next two weeks.

And for your reading pleasure, here's a bit more biographical info on Colin:

Colin Cheney is a poet and writer who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, with his wife and two kids. His book, HERE BE MONSTERS, was published in 2010 by the University of Georgia Press, and his poems show up every now and again in print and online magazines. Recently, he recorded some poems for a great little online project, FROM THE FISHOUSE. A lifelong comics fan, he’s been collaborating on a couple of comics with friends in Bangkok and elsewhere—and hopes to have them out in the world in the next year or so. Occasionally, very occasionally, he has been getting thoughts about comics up .

Liam Lachance - Writer-in-Residence

All good things must come to an end, and this week sees the conclusion of Shaun Richens' return guest spot.  Thanks so much for your time, mate.  It's been - and always is - a great pleasure.

While it's always difficult to bid old friends adieu, the blow can happily be softened by the arrival of our next Writer-in-Residence, Liam Lachance.  He is a man who chooses his words with care and concision (as his bio below will demonstrate), so let me simply take a moment to say that he is a talented writer whose work and hustle I have admired for a good while.

I was thrilled when he agreed to join us for a few weeks, particularly because his background is primarily in written prose and not so much in comics.  I greatly look forward to see what he does while experimenting with the medium and so should you!

When asked to describe himself, he offered me the following:

Liam Lachance is a writer at wordandcolour.com, a magazine that confronts systemic violence with words and colours.

His first novel, Blu Swag, raised controversy in his hometown of Merrickville, Ontario.

Thanks again, Liam. Excited to have you aboard and to dig into your scripts!

Writer-in-Residence - Shaun Richens

I'm happy to tell you all that Ben and his top shelf artwork isn't your only blast from the past this week.  As you've no doubt already gathered from the post title, your friend and mine Shaun Richens is back in town and is joining us for a few weeks as our next writer-in-residence.  But don't take my word for it:

Like all comic characters my death was never final, only a momentary absence from the scene. So once more I return to Thoughtballoons, and I can’t wait to write comics here again.

As with any returning character we’ll need to do a damn origin story -

So who am I?

I’m a dude who lives in London and thanks to it being so expensive to live here, I spend my evenings indoors making up stories and that I need try to convince much more talented people than I to bring to life with their art. So I am pretty much just you’re average comics writer. I’m lucky enough to work at Gosh! comics in London - so I’m pretty much 24/7 comics!

Why comics?

Because it’s the absolute best, right? It’s the only medium you can do anything in. Comics are the bastard love child of books and movies. They have all the best bits of both and the limitations of neither. If you want to do a universe spanning space opera you don’t need a hundred million dollars to make it. You want to do a slice of life story about running a factory you don’t need the greenlight, all you need in comics is the right collaborators and a vision and you’re away. With comics you don’t have to get permission to make something. It’s punk rock, it’s DIY - but at the same time it’s now the go to place for hollywood looking for the next big thing, but what they, and most people don’t realise is, it’s not the stories that are the next big thing - it’s the whole damn medium.

So that’s why comics - because it could never be anything else.

Where to find me?

We can find me Twitter - although I’m on a kind of self imposed exile from all social media whilst I try and break the back on my new writing schedule so it may be a bit of a Ghost town around there for a while.

I’d much rather you take a moment to read my previous work here at Thoughtballoons, just hit my name in the runs tab at the left and see my growth from amateur comics writer to a slightly better one.

Thanks for having me back.

And thanks to RKL for building the house we get to party in.

Shaun Richens.

Writers-in-Residence - Phillip Butehorn and Brian Harris

We're trying something a little different with our writer-in-residence this week.  Namely, that we're going for writers-in-residence this time around.  Indeed, we're happy to have Phillip Butehorn and Brian Harris join our band of merry men for a bit.  "But how can two people both be the latest writer-in-residence?" you ask.  Well, I'm glad you did, for you see, Phillip and Brian write together, so they will be collaborating on their scripts.  I think it will make for a nice change of pace, and while we're on that note, why don't I turn the microphone over to them: Phillip and Brian - The Illumi-Nerdi!

We are the Illumi-Nerdi. We are a coalition spanning decades, centuries, parallel universes and alternate timelines. Phil Butehorn is a time-traveling history junkie that spends his time in the late 1700s, signing Constitutions, joining slave revolts and rocking Midnight Rides before that son-of-a-bitch Paul Revere ever saddled up a horse. Brian Harris was born in the not-too-distant-future of 2146. He spends his time robot boxing, Venusian drag-racing and fighting for Nexus-6 rights. In our spare time, we also run a wonderful little blog in the “present” where we discuss comics, movies, television, nerd culture and the future of robot rights at The Illumi-Nerdi.

Happy to have you two aboard.  If your scripts are half as creative as that, we have lots to look forward to.

Writer-in-Residence - P. A. Nolte

We've had a most excellent time hosting Derek Adnams, but this week sees a new writer joining us: P. A. Nolte!

Another talented writer I came across through Nic Shaw's , P.A. wowed me with his scripts and ideas (and also his lettering, something that the man has down on lock).  Looking more into his work, I thought he'd be a fine fit with our motley crew and he thankfully agreed.  You may remember him from various play-at-home postings in the weeks leading up to his residency, but enough from me.  Let's hear what he has to say:

Who Are You?
------------------ 

P. A. Nolte. I cover art with words.  

Why Comics?
-----------------  

I love the collaboration. And the exploratory nature. And the rules. Which sounds stupid, but is totally true. If you're going to go exploring, it helps to know the constellations so you can orient yourself. If you're going to make comics, it helps to know the 180° rule so you can orient your readers. But, once you know what plants to leave alone, or how to use a page-turn effectively, there's no wrong way to go. And, if you're lucky, you get to do it with someone who shares that same passion for exploration as you do.  

Where Can One Find You?
 --------------------------------  

I'm on Twitter () and Facebook ( and ), I pop up over at David Brown's Fifth Dimension Comics from time to time, I just finished letters on Eric Palicki's Red Angel Dragnet, and I hope to have a new project or two of my own see release by the end of the year.

Wicked.  Welcome aboard, my friend.

Writer-in-Residence - Derek Adnams

Today we say farewell to Hansel Moreno's stay with us and welcome with open arms Derek Adnams to take his place.

I first encountered Derek Adnams' writings through Nic Shaw's and was intrigued by his work.  He threw interesting ideas and concepts down on his pages, which drew me in, and he was always on deadline, which kept me wanting more.

When I was looking for people to come join us here at Thought Balloons for our new residency stays, I knew that Derek was someone I wanted to have on board.  Thankfully, he was keen on the idea and took me up on it right away, even going so far as to play-at-home in the weeks leading up to his stay.

But who is Derek Adnams?  Why don't we let him tell us in his own words:

WHO ARE YOU?
My name is Derek Adnams.  I write pictures.

WHY COMICS?
The first thing I remember seeing is Aamazing Spider-Man number one hundred and eight-eight.  That was in nineteen seventy-nine.  Since then, I've kept stories locked inside my head for a long time.  They're escaping.

WHERE CAN ONE FIND YOU?
If you want to talk William Faulkner, lasagna recipes or collaborating on a project, I can be reached at [email protected] or on .

Keep making art! 

Thanks, Derek.  We look forward to your stay.

Hansel Moreno - Writer-in-Residence

Who is Hansel Moreno?

I'm glad you asked.

Hansel is a man who likes comics.  He is a man who makes comics.  Well familiar with the writing grind, he's been actively working away at it for the past few years, with a number of first-rate fruits for his labours.  His past (and future) projects can be found at his site, with some highlights including a couple of thought provoking stories with the talented Clare Connelly and his ongoing webcomic with Shawn Daley, Dick Whiskey, featuring the titular characters' ongoing struggles with self-destruction.

Of course, his latest jam is also well worth a look.  A successful Kickstarter with Jack Gross, Adventures in Nate's Perilous Challenge is described as "a boy trying his best to live a normal life in a world crawling with Heroes", which along with Jack's lovely art, looks to be a humdinger.

If asked what kind of stories he writes, he would respond that he often focuses on adventure, magic, detectives, and whiskey, among the many things that may pop into his head.  While this is objectively true, it's just as accurate to say that Hansel writes about people and the challenges they face.

These are all excellent reasons to know and like the guy, and they're obviously part of why we're so happy to have him join us for the next two weeks.  But the other reasons Hansel's here is that he's not afraid to try new things.  He's always experimenting, pushing himself and his work in new directions or approaching it from different perspectives.  That's an important and admirable skill to have as a creative set, and we look forward to seeing it on display here.

So please join me in welcoming Hansel as our newest writer-in-residence.  Look forward to his first script come mid-week!