In 2003 I graduated Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Film with a concentration in Screenwriting.
Growing up, my catholic elementary school upbringing often clashed with my desire for attention. This led to poor grades, a lot of detention and me being grounded for a majority of my childhood. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t lacking any attention at home by any means. I was well loved. But I just loved making classmates laugh and making cute girls take notice no matter the penalty. So a lot of my childhood was spent glued to the television watching 80’s programming and playing videogames. I was always more attracted to the exaggerated action in cartoons like Thunder Cats, Silver Hawks, He Man, GI Joe, etc., but I did love me some Family Ties now that I think about it…
Anyway, in sixth grade I was told that if my grades didn’t improve I would be moved to public schooling and separated from my friends. And for some reason I was totally attracted to that idea. I mean I knew all my real friends lived in the neighborhood, and I never wanted to go to an all boys high school anyway – and when I realized that meant I could wear something other than yellow polo’s and brown corduroys, I was all about it. Plus, there was something romantic to me about having to prove myself in a totally new environment. I guess I was subconsciously thinking, “Awesome! A new audience!”
It was in seventh grade where I found something that totally spoke to me; a class called Performing Arts. That class led to an addiction to theatrical productions both dramatic and musical. I ended up doing three a year until I graduated High School in 1996. I loved it. It came easy to me, I landed lead roles, and at the end of each one I had audiences that numbering in the hundreds cheering for me. It was an attention addicts dream. And that outlet led me to focus on school, and get my grades up. Granted I was nowhere near valedictorian.
But in doing productions over and over I started noticing the quality of certain productions vs others. I started to read scripts and ask questions like, “Why would he say that there?” or “Why is this scene so damn long?” That eventually snowballed to me thinking that I should major in film over acting because I figured I’d try and Warren Beatty it by writing, directing, and casting myself in everything. But once I started film school, I realized why that is a rare thing to see. Each discipline takes so much time to do well, so it really is beneficial to just focus on one. So I chose writing.
That decision led to me finishing my schooling on the CBS lot of Studio City Los Angeles. I took part in an intensive 12 week on lot course that involved conceiving and writing a feature length script in the time given (El Nagual), criticism workshops, 1 on 1’s with Oscar winning writers, and numerous presentations from professional writers, agents, producers, and directors.
But while in LA I saw the film business rapidly merging over into the video game industry. That is when I decided to switch my focus from film over to gaming for I have always been a lifelong gamer, and more tech minded to be satisfied just with writing. Plus the politics and what you have to do to really make it in film wasn’t really working out for me. I thought I would have a higher success rate if I went the gaming route and it ended up working out for me thank God.
I started out as a tester for LucasArts, moved up to being a QA Lead at Midway Games, and am now a Project Manager for Jellyvision Games. Buy www.youdontknowjack.com!
But wait a minute… I thought I got directed here because you’re doing something with comic books?
Yes. That is how this whole thing comes full circle see? A few years back I was given a couple of comics written by Mark Millar http://www.millarworld.tv/. As I read them – images of all those 80’s cartoons came flooding back and I realized that comics were THE PERFECT MEDIUM for getting my big budget/high concept ideas out into the world. They were so well written and the power of the written word mixed with the power of striking visual art really floored me and spawned a new addiction.
So I have been dedicated to creating comics ever since. It’s been a labor of love and has been a slower moving process then I would have liked. But you can only do so much when trying to balance work, family, artist collaboration and other everyday life distractions like another love I have found – Improv. I graduated from The Second City Conservatory program, but that’s a whole other story. I am absolutely loving where I am in the process and look forward to evolving!
Anyway, I have some stuff to write.
Thanks for reading!
