Monday, August 24, 2009

Welcome to Spitball Press!

The best stories are conversations.

I mean, I love the Lone Traveler trope as much as anyone. "A stranger comes to town," as the feller said. But even then, it's not so much the silent man on the horse that makes a story; it's the conversations about him. The buzzing of the townspeople. The inevitable clash when the man apart comes in out of the rain.

It's not just the dialogue, though my favorite writers all share a great talent for it. A conversation isn't all words. But the meaty bits all come when one character finds another, and the verbs start coming in to play: talk, demand, ask, wonder, worship, adore, despise, embrace, destroy. These are all elements of conversation.

The blog you're presently visiting is the result of conversation. This blog, the publishing house that necessitated it, the story that necessitated the publishing house, the friendship that necessitated the story.

Manuel Martinez and I met working in a restaurant. We got along right away, but I remember clearly the moment I knew we were friends. Standing in the kitchen, waiting on food to come out or customers to come in, Manuel told me a story.

That story led to one of mine, which reminded him of one of his, and in short order we were in a bar with empty shot glasses and half-drank beers on the table between us and we were making up a new story.

Conversation: it's both the form and the substance of the best stories.

This is Spitball Press. We are new, and we make comics. We are:

* Manuel Martinez, who will shortly be one of your favorite new comics artists,

* Denise Auerbach, affectionately and fearfully known as The Boss, and

* Sean Murray, your humble writer.

This blog will, in the coming months, be a record of our struggles, a showcase for our art and a home base for our comics.

But most, I hope, it will be a conversation. Please, come make yourself at home.