Discovering the Voice by Jayme Roxann Wright

When I first decided that I wanted to write a comic book, I was in my early 20’s. I had been collecting several titles at that point- ARIA by Holguin, More than Mortals, XFACTOR, and ANIMAL MYSTIC, anything by Joseph Linsner, LADY DEATH, and SANDMAN. I was tossing around an idea that I am still playing cat and mouse with to this day. This particular story is my baby, so giving it to just any artist scares the bejeesus out of me because I am very particular about how I want my visions to look. When I finally started finding artists, I had to make sure that their artistic style that fit the stories, and that was hard because art created the tone of each book. I feel that the biggest impact of the comic format is that the art drives the emotion and description that would have been written had the story been prose. Most of my stories are darker in origin, so Manga or cartoonish artists won’t fit the visuals. I developed a list of who I wanted to give life to my stories and looked for similar styles.

I was really lucky when Jason Craig approached me to help with his story which was at that time being pitched as a series to STARZ. I had about three weeks to write a TV pilot and Character Bible/Series Outline. It was quite an experience. When it was passed over at STARZ! , we decided that it would work as a new comic series and began to rework it. Writing someone else’s baby is a great experience because you have to literally write what they envision. It is a great lesson in interpreting what people want. It has been a great process, the late night arguing and the endless battles over tiny details, all the while creating a great story that started as a simple one to creating a universe. The creative process is exciting and bleeding some of my blood into it to make it my own is a great reward.

Men develop a comradery quickly with other men; however, a relationship in a professional realm between men and women can be tenuous. I find that there has to be a great degree of respect for each other, which isn’t necessarily needed in male working partnerships. Jason has always treated me with respect and understanding. We are both single parents and both raised in the south despite my Los Angeles location. There comes a deep understanding of how we were raised, and it helps us navigate the waters similarly. Good people attract good people.

The more I develop the voice that I want to have in comics the more I find that wading through the muck and the wide eyed excitement of the comic book business is necessary. It is also why I understand – writers keep to themselves.

Breaking into Comics as a Female by Jayme Roxann Wright

I begin writing this article on the heels of a momentous moment in Entertainment history where a woman (for the first time) has won an Academy Award for Directing. A likely ponderance ensues about all the areas where women are proving themselves “boss” in the good old boys clubs. Many women have blazed trails for a women like me to happily follow behind in so many areas of life. Yet, the hardest part of any groundbreaking moment for a woman is that not only do we have to be good in our own right, but we have to be BETTER than a man. Sometimes, even that isn’t enough.

When I first decided that I wanted to take my writing career seriously, it was as much a shock to me that people started sitting up and paying attention. From blogs to micro-fiction posted on Facebook, people seemed to notice that I had some talent. Yet, as a female, talent isn’t enough. You have to be more talented than a man, and in many ways are expected to approach a subject like a man would. If you can write like a man, conceive horrific or action packed imagery like a man, then you might have a decent shot. But what about the unique perspective a woman has on life? What about the diversity that we bring to the table for just being a woman? I don’t quite think we are there yet, and why? We are still forced to play by the men’s rules because they wrote them.

I have loved comic books since I was young, but then neglected the love for some years until I could afford to be a collector in my 20’s. It was discovering the DAWN comics by J.M. Linsner that pulled me back in. Comics to me was the great combination of imagery and dialogue, where a story could be told and the reader was spared trying to figure out what things looked like because it’s all on the page. The hardest thing to digest was the unrealistic way that women were written about, either portrayed as cold and heartless or overly emotional; a very bland portrayal in my opinion. When I envision comics, I want it to be a myriad of colorful characters not just colorful costumes. Dawn was complex and all woman, but wasn’t overly emotional. She was everything that a woman is from kind and compassionate to merciless and manipulative. Joe’s grasp of the feminine form in its reality -not its ideal-appealed to me. As I began crafting my stories, I leaned towards complicated feminine archetypes, not the one dimensional women that most men write.

So far, almost two years into the process, I feel that I have been shunned quite a few times, mostly for being a new unpublished writer, and then as a female. However, I am blessed that while there are many naysayers in the publishing ranks, the artists have been exceptionally willing to work with me, and genuinely intrigued by my ideas. I feel because I am considered an attractive female that it is harder to get to know publishers and editors professionally because they might prefer to deal with me on another level -Back to the boy’s club. The industry is such a close knit one, and because I am a female dealing with men, I find that people love to speculate on the nature of my relationships with others in the industry. I often want to pretend I am married just so I take any non-professional agendas off the table. However, there are women out there in the industry who are knee deep in geek/nerd-dom that are kicking butt and taking names while still being completely female. It can be done.

My current project that is in development is EVIL WAISE created by Jason Craig (Seven, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash), and art by Jason Craig, written by me. I am also working on three other projects currently shopping publishers, and a horror screenplay.

Bio: Jayme Roxann Wright is a freelance writer working on breaking into the world of comics. She is a single mother of a comic savvy 6 year old. Currently pursuing her masters/Ph.D. in Forensic Psychology, she lives in downtown Los Angeles. She is the assistant editor/reviewer for SheNeverSlept and writes for the LA Examiner website as well as has three blogs that she maintains: Contemplative Afflcition, The Subtle Charm, and Swordplay and the Single Mom. She is also a professional Belly-dancer at several restaurants in the Greater Los Angeles area.