This just sounds like such an awesomely cool, fun thing:

SERIALIZED

I may have to do this, even though all I can draw is stick figures.

In last week's Running Up That Hill, we learned all about Elton's love/hate relationship with Rejection.

This week, we'll learn the shocking truth about how Elizabeth Genco's butt inspired Elton to get serious about his writing.

Read Are You SERIOUS? today!

I needed to write a little profile for my new ComicSpace site, and this is what I came up with. I liked it, because it's short and to the point, so I decided to make it my new, official, Unified For All Sites Across Space And Time Bio. And here it is:

I love writing comic books.

It's about the most exhilirating, rewarding thing in the world for me.

My first publication will be in Sequential Suicide, to be published in 2007 by 803 Studios.

At the moment, I'm working on a self-published anthology to showcase my writing, as well as a couple of projects of larger scope.

Every Thursday, I write a column for Scryptic Studios called Running Up That Hill, in which I strive to share some of the experience, insight, and gut-wrenching fear of failure I've gained during my quest to become

Elton Pruitt,
Successful Comic Book Writer.

For more, visit:

EltonSpace | My ComicSpace

In last week's Running Up That Hill, we learned all about Elton and his first, failed shot at romance... romance comic book writing, that is. This week, we'll delve into rejection, and why it's such a wonderful thing for aspiring writers to experience – especially when it ultimately leads to Success (with a capital S)!

Rejection, Rejection, Rejection... Success! is only a click away.

I'm writing a column for Scryptic Studios (the writers' resource website) called Running Up That Hill. In it, I'll be sharing the knowledge, insights, and lessons in abject despair gained in the past two years of my five-year-plan to break into comic book writing.

This week's debut column, "By The Southern Grace of God is a Lovely and Wonderful Story", features:

• The bio that never was


• Your free beer recommendation of the week


• My first-ever submission to a comic book publisher, and what it taught me

In upcoming columns, I'll be examining my own experience as an aspiring comic book writer to see what might be helpful to others starting down that same path, interviewing industry professionals to seek their insights and recommendations, and talking about Luke and Laura as if I wasn't the only guy in the world who loves both comic books and General Hospital.

I hope you'll join me!

Roy Virgil Pruitt died last Thursday at the age of 90. He was my grandfather, but I always called him Pop.

He grew up on a farm, worked on an auto assembly line, went back to farming, and finally found his true calling when he became a barber.

Here's a pic of Pop giving me my first-ever haircut at his barber shop in Benton, Arkansas:



This was the first of many, many a haircut I would get from my Pop. In fact, I never got a haircut from anyone but him until I was maybe 8 or 9 years old -- and boy, was that a rude awakening!

My Pop regarded each haircut as a labor of love and craftsmanship. He was an absolute perfectionist in his work. It was the most comforting, soothing part of my world growing up, those seemingly endless minutes -- maybe it was a half an hour or more -- in the chair as Pop lovingly snip snip snipped, and combed, and snipped, and paused to appraise his progress. I almost always drifted off into a reverie just this side of sleep.

So when my dad took me to the East End Barber Shop in Searcy for my first "real" trip to the barber, I was shocked and frankly a little apalled at the whole experience. That man had me in and out of his chair in maybe 10 minutes, tops. It was a rude awakening to the world of hair cuts by people who are not your Pop.

In Pop's barber shop, he had a big red coke machine, the kind where for a nickel or dime you got the little tiny bottles that packed such a punch. He also had a ton of comic books! They were pretty well-worn, since every kid that came in there read them. Some had no covers anymore. But they were a treasure trove of entertainment on those days when I'd spend the day with Pop, all day long, reading comics, drinking cokes, eating potted meat on crackers and exploring the acre or so of undeveloped land behind his shop, where you could find old busted up pottery in many places.

In the photo of him cutting my hair, you'll notice he's smoking a pipe. He loved his pipes. But once I got to be big enough to really take note of the fact that he smoked, and started trying to emulate him with a little corncob pipe, he quit smoking altogether so as to not be a bad influence on me.



My Pop was by no means a saint. He had plenty of flaws and faults, and the waning days of his life, when my mom and dad had to care for him, were a hard time for all concerned. But there's one thing at least that he got absolutely right in his life: he made his only grandson feel like the absolute most important, most loved, and luckiest boy in the world.



I'm very thankful Pop lived long enough to meet my little boy. I know it meant a lot to him and brightened his last days, seeing this beautiful new life just getting started.

Goodbye, Pop. I love you, and I'll miss seeing  you.

Here are the first couple of pages from "Fall of the Triumvirate," an eight-page story I'm submitting to a new anthology, Sequential Suicide. It'll also be one of four stories in the as-yet-untitled anthology I'm putting together.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

American Virgin #4
reviewed by Elton Pruitt

American Virgin is one strange comic book.

Perhaps the strangest thing about it is why I don't get more excited about it. By rights, it should be at the top of my reading list each month. It's that good.

And yet, for reasons I can't explain, it's had to slowly insinuate itself into my consciousness as one of the best monthly reads on the stands. I forget about it – I forget how good it is, month to month. So the new issue languishes on my reading pile for several days, then I finally get around to reading it, and pow! It smacks me upside the head like it did last month, and the month before. And I smile, and say “thanks, may I have another?”

It's a strange little book, you see. It was billed as the story of Adam Chamberlain, a 20-year-old minister and modest celebrity whose book, Save Yourself to Save Yourself, launched a “virginity till marriage” movement. I didn't really know what to expect, but I definitely didn't expect the basic premise of Adam saving himself for his girlfriend, Cassie, to be completely blown up at the end of the first issue when she's murdered by terrorists.

The current issue (#4) concludes the first story arc of the series, and it goes out with a bang, as we see Adam and his sister, Cyndi, accompanying their mercenary guide to Swaziland in Africa, on a quest to retrieve his dead girlfriend's head. As the story unfolds, Adam continues to have erotic visions/hallucinations of Cassie and we witness his earnest struggle to come to terms with her death and its implications for his faith-based worldview.

It's compelling comic book storytelling, folks, and you should really be reading this book if you love comic books and want to see more non-superhero books on the market. Steven Seagle's writing style is perfectly matched with Becky Cloonan's art. Both are lean, sharp, and economical, focused on telling the story rather than wowing the reader with technical prowess.

Seagle's characterization of Adam is remarkably well-honed after only four issues. What appeared at first blush to be a one-dimensional, easily mockable character has evolved (although he would probably shudder at my choice of words) into a complex, unpredictable person whose world has remarkably more shades of gray in it than he ever expected.

And Cloonan's art reminds me, in a very good way, of Pia Guerra's work on Y: The Last Man. Like Guerra, Cloonan's style is not flash and dazzle and “God, if I only had a poster of that on my wall!” It's just clear, clean, simple visual storytelling that puts the story first and leads you along, effortlessly, into what comes next.

I can't recommend this book too highly. And now's the perfect time for you to jump on board, as a new story arc begins with the next issue.