Why I'm Not an Editor Anymore

I’ve spoken before about how it took me awhile to make the jump from writing about comics to writing my own comics. I greatly enjoy and value the time I spent reviewing comics as it provided a great background as to what works in the medium, what I liked, and how I wanted to approach stories. It just took some time for me to get the courage to start writing my own scripts. One kick in the right direction came from editing.

Just before I made the jump, my buddy Mario Candelaria asked me to take a look at a pitch he was working on that later became Killchella. He wanted my POV on it given my experience as a horror comics review guy. I shared feedback and thought that was it, until he asked me if I wanted to edit the book. I will be honest and say I didn’t really know what that entailed. It sounded cool though. Why not?

As time went on and Killchella got picked up by a publisher, I reviewed the scripts, asked a bunch of questions, and gave feedback. As production started, I ended up jumping in to help coordinate the correspondence between everybody and try to create some semblance of a timeline. Fast forward a bit and Mario brought me on for some story editing on Devil Water and One True Love. In these cases, I was focused primarily on the script.

With One True Love going out to digital readers, I wanted to look at my experience as an editor. Another writer reached out to me this past week asking about this too so the timing is apt. I don’t do it anymore. I have moved only to writing. After the experiences with editing, even confined to these handful of stories, I realized this wasn’t for me.

This isn’t to say that it was a bad time. Sure, there were ups and downs. (I thought I cursed Killchella because right after one of my first emails, the artist quit.) It’s just that I didn’t get the same level of enjoyment of reading scripts from others as I did writing my own. I know this sounds weird coming off over a decade of reviewing comics where that’s literally all I did, albeit with the finished product, not scripts. Despite these being scripts from a friend and for stories I liked, I just wasn’t as invested in them.

The editing gig for Killchella was the kick in the pants I needed to start down the path I’m on now. It was a middle ground between the reviews and the writing. It allowed me to get into the process, see how the sausage is made, and have a hand in bringing a comic book to life. I can trace back a lot of the steps I’ve made since to that phone call and the work done there. If an opportunity had presented itself earlier in my press career, the outcome might have been different as my headspace was not the same back then as it was when I was thinking about leaving reviewing behind.

Since then, I’ve been solely focused on my own writing and working with editor extraordinaire,

James Powell

, who definitely has a talent for bringing out the best in stories. The experience was a valuable one as it helped me realize what I really wanted to do in comics so I’m glad that I went through it.

Have you had a similar experience where you tried something out and realized this wasn’t for you?

Continuing on my video game focus, I jumped into the TellTale Games edition of Guardians of the Galaxy. I’ve mentioned before how I’ve grown to appreciate these types of games as I got older. My first times through with titles like The Walking Dead and Heavy Rain were met with eye rolls as they felt boring. I was looking for more action-oriented games with a lot of button mashing, so I didn’t give these the chance they deserve. That has changed since as the TellTale titles are powerful stories that really immerse the player in these worlds.

More importantly, they force you to make decisions. Some are easy, like what kind of a reaction you give to a bad guy, but others are literally life and death. They are tough calls and they change the outcome of the game. What really stands out is how you cannot please everyone. You can try to play in the middle, but inevitably you will be forced to pick a side and that will piss someone off.

In this case, I found myself siding with Gamora a lot, but about halfway through, I had to make a decision that ultimately pissed her off. Although this is a relatively stress-free gaming experience, there would be a wave of anxiety when I made what felt like a good decision only to be met with a message like “Gamora will remember that.” Oh shit. Will she remember it in anger? Or in happiness? Did she like it? Can I do that over? You can’t. You power through.

I think these games are good reminders for how to push characters in stories. You can’t just make the easy decisions. You can’t keep everyone happy. You need conflict. You need compromise. It can get uncomfortable. You care about the characters, but you are forced to put them through Hell sometimes in order to make a compelling story and show real growth. If they were able to solve their problems without any challenges at the first pass, it wouldn’t be very interesting.