PORTAL INTO THE PAST: The very first one pager - 'BOOT HILL'
We teleport to a time before #TeamInsym's Steph created her first comic!
Now that #TeamINSYM has moved over to SUBSTACK, we've decided that, alongside of our current projects and appearances, we're going to take a look back at memorable events in our history. Why? For those that are our long-time supporters, it'll be a review and a reminder of what may have brought you into our fold. For those that are newer to our fanbase, this might be the first time you're hearing about certain releases and projects... and that's GREAT!
Today’s article focuses on Steph’s first one-page comic, BOOT HILL, and how it came into existence:
Some people toil over career decisions their entire lives - bouncing from one job to another, having multiple passions, and seeking out the best opportunities they can find. For others, there’s that nagging aspiration they’ve had for as long as they can remember, simmering in the back of their mind; always there, waiting to be brought to the front burner.
For me, I’ve always been the latter when it comes to creative writing. I tell this story often, but it’s because of how foundational the impact has been on my entire life. I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was 10 years old, when I won a short story contest put on by our local newspaper. It was held during Halloween, and the theme was, of course, scary stories.
Already a lover of horror, I jumped right in to creating a short, simple piece about a woman haunted by the dog who attacked her as a child. I didn’t expect to win - it was open to everyone, including adults, so I assumed that surely it would go to someone far older and more talented than myself. They picked my story, though, and featured it in an article, along with my picture and a short interview.
That’s all it took for me to be bitten by the writing bug. I was a voracious reader, and all I wanted to do was create tales and make people feel even a fraction of what I did when I was buried in a book. I went on to write for my high school newspaper, and later was an editor, and had hopes to continue on with Journalism.
Life got in the way, and the years passed, but my desire to create never waned. As I was busy raising kids, I’d often find my mind wandering on specific stories I wanted to tell. Horror, Westerns, Sci-Fi and Post Apocalyptic tales swirled in my head, waiting to be put to paper.
I remember speaking with a friend who was in the process of writing a graphic novel. That specific conversation was pivotal, because it was at that point that I realized so many of the ideas I had were already in comic form in my brain - I just needed to learn how to make them a reality.
I spent the next six months learning how to write comic scripts. I read books on how to put together a comic page by page, found examples of scripts online, and even learned about writing screenplays.
Already having an idea in mind, I began penning my first graphic novel script for a Post-Apocalyptic Western. It ended up being 104 pages in total, and I went through the process of finding and hiring an artist to begin drawing out the pages.
Anyone who is in the comic industry will tell you that as a writer who can’t draw their own stories, paying an artist to do it for you isn’t cheap. The longer the story, the more money you're going to have to set aside to fund the project.
Sometime during this process, I stumbled upon an online competition: Ghost City Comics. They had several different categories you could enter into, with one being for a one-page comic. I was immediately intrigued. It sounded incredibly challenging, but it also seemed very doable. I could certainly afford to pay an artist to draw just one page for me.
I had always wanted to make a Western/Horror story, with the two genres being some of my favorites. Within a day, I had a rough script for an idea, titled Boot Hill. I searched through Facebook forums and found Javi Laparra, an artist out of Guatemala, whose style perfectly fit what I had in mind.
Much like my expectations for the short story contest all those years ago as a kid, I didn’t anticipate much to come from entering Boot Hill into Ghost City. Not because I didn’t believe in it, but from a self-preservation standpoint, I didn’t want to get my hopes up and be left with inevitable disappointment. To my surprise, Boot Hill was chosen as a finalist, and I began to feel like I had found a new niche.
I loved writing short comics for their simplicity, but also for how they challenged me as a writer. I had a few others that were submitted and accepted for publication, including 'Hexed' for Alterna Comics’ It Came Out on A Wednesday #1, 'Bogey' (IF Anthology), as well as 'Light Reflected' (Corpus Anthology).
Boot Hill was always my proudest achievement. It was my first, after all, and was the catalyst to many other opportunities in the industry that would eventually come my way. Most important of those: Meeting Matt, who would go on to be my business and writing partner and other half of InSymmetry Creations - But we’ll save that story for another time.
For now, I hope you’ve enjoyed this look back and insight into what got me into content creation. Below, you can check out Boot Hill for yourself.
Until next time!
Steph Cannon (on behalf of #TeamINSYM)
www.linktree.com/insymmetrycreations