Robert James Russell

I just posted an interview I did with comic book mega star Evan Dorkin over on the Saint James blog. Evan is the creator/artist/writer of such fantastic comics as Milk and Cheese and the recent Dark Horse hit Beasts of Burden, as well as the writer for TV shows like Yo Gabba Gabba! and Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.

Check out the interview here and if you dig comics at all, pick up Beasts of Burden now.   Like, right now.

Gawker had a cool article up this week about how traditional journalism is dying, the journalists themselves being replaced with programmers who understand the importance of a digital presence in the media today. And, since I work closely with such delicious coding on a daily basis, I like what this article has to say.

Think what you want about digital content, e-books and the death of print (according to some, which I personally don’t believe in), but the digital age is here to stay.  Every high-tech gadget being released, every new website that’s a must-read, these things are drawing us closer together and making us even more dependent on the internet and our shiny new toys.

Anyway, I’m not a detractor, I love technology, just an interesting point to think about.  People want to praise how great print is (and it is pretty great), but it’s really subjective – a generation from now people will be far more familiar with non-print media, the same way writing a letter with a pen and paper is alien to me.  It’s the way of the world, and even with the onslaught of this new age of communication and content, I don’t believe print will fully die – and I’m saying this as a writer with some hopeful optimism, yes.  I mean, I don’t think I’d be too upset if my book got published in a digital format rather than printing.  Published is published, right?

Anyway, check the article out here if you’re so inclined.  Good stuff.

This is what happens when you’re bored and have access to photoshop.  Bad combination.

Eek! Terribly busy week, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be an easy day today. Yikes. Yes, I’m thankful to have a job, but that doesn’t mean I can’t complain about being busy. It’s the American way!

Anyway, I’m actively trying to get my novel Impossible Monsters published, which, at this point, means I’m attempting to get a literary agent interested in representing it. Daunting, to say the least. However, I have faith in my abilities as a wordsmith, and while my novel could be classified as literary fiction—a genre that, for some reason, scares the pants off a great many readers—I know it is only a matter of time before something happens.

So, I was perusing the book, just randomly reading sections, and figured I’d start posting some of it online, here and there, because…well, because I can. The book is narrated primarily by three characters, students of varying ethnicities and hang-ups passing their time at the fictional Wellington Ayers University (in jolly ‘ole England). In the following section we find Anthony, a nineteen-year-old American student, getting ready to meet his father for a quick bite at Heathrow during a layover. You really get a sense of who Anthony is in this section, of the strained relationship he has with his dad and how that seems to affect how he sees/interacts with the world.

Hope you enjoy.

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ANTHONY

Heathrow, early evening.  Sixish.  Sitting on a bench next to the Currency Exchange closest to the security check, not far from an escalator that seems to rise up and disappear into an abbreviated McDonald’s.  Waiting.  Listening to The Kinks on my MP3 player and humming along to the words, Long ago life was clean / Sex was bad and obscene / And the rich were so mean.”  Check my watch and realize I’ve been sitting here for an hour.  I have a clear shot of the departure/arrival screens and I know his flight is on time, so I decide I’m leaving in ten minutes if he’s not here.  See a threesome of Asian tourists walk by, a family.  Father: Visor, puffy navy jacket with brown fur-lined hood, exasperated look, skinny jeans, patchy beard, squinty eyes, no smile.  Mother: Long hair ponytailed, thick black ski jacket, green shirt that says Von Dutch in pink, dark denim with a high waist, all white skater-looking shoes, two bags on each arm from the Duty Free, camouflage bucket hat, thin lips, long nose, small breasts.  Daughter: Fuckable, pigtails, bowed legs, dark tight denim, shoes similar-looking to her mother’s, zipped up baggy blue hoodie with red flowers painted all over, green knee-length hooded puffy jacket, nude-colored tote bag with Japanese writing in black surrounding an art deco version of Hello Kitty, smiling, confused.  They pass by speaking sharply.  Disappear into a crowd of blond-haired Pan-Europeans waving their hands as they’re being counted off by a tour leader.  Yawn.  Look up to the ceiling and study the avant-garde pattern of the rafters.  The individual terminals for each airline.  The goddamn ants stuck in line. The looks on their faces.  My hands shaking.
Continue reading Grievances against demanding schedules, a chapter from ‘Impossible Monsters’

So, I’ve been writing most of my life, and at the same time been a fairly avid reader of comics, but it wasn’t really until this past year that I combined these two passions to become…(drumroll)…a comic book writer.

Sure, it helps that I started my own comic book company and all, but I’m aiming big time, and plan on pitching some ideas to established studios such as Image, Dark Horse, and Oni (to name a few), as well as nurture the series I helped establish at Saint James.

That being said, there truly is no greater feeling than walking into a comic book store and seeing something you wrote/created on the shelf (even better when you’ve been informed that the store sold two earlier that day).  I imagine it will be a similar feeling, seeing my novel in bookstores eventually, but for now, this is pretty damn cool.

The comic I’m holding is the first issue of the Saint James series Indego Blue, written by myself and Jesse Young, with artwork by Howard Russell (no relation).  Click here to see how you can get your very own copy.  Help a brother out!