Keith McCleary

This is extremely truehttps://twitter.com/ayahuascapub/status/1413605679076548608 …

PART 3: So apparently this is some full-on Twin Peaks shit up in here

PART 2: Hmm, I think that character died once already. Why is there a three-year time jump in the middle? Who even is this other character? Are they anywhere other than on this page?

First readthrough of manuscript rough draft (a thread) PART 1: Hey, pretty good. Could use some extra foreshadowing for a few plot threads. Wonder if some of the scenes here could have callbacks later?

Anyway. I don't have a great ending to this story. But you should probably know that while a bunch of the comics I read tonight ended up in a longbox, a few ended up in my neighbor's little library. And maybe one of them went straight into the trash. (24/24)

I mean, I still made comics. My entire teaching career (which I love) began with my comics portfolio, in fact. But sometimes I wonder how things might have gone if a buddy had emailed me back then with a genuine offer to write comics, instead of mining me. (23/24)

I've also done a lot of crappy stuff, and made enemies, and in general I probably have the same amount of scummy regret in my life as anyone else. But I am relatively sure (I think) that I have never crushed anybody's dreams. And for real? The Editor kind of crushed mine. (22/24)

Now, there's something I want to clarify: many times when someone pens A Long Twitter Thread, it is solely to heap blame and to declare one's own innocence/purity/etc. But listen: I was A Huge Jerk when I was in film school too. It was an unhappy place. (21/24)

But, yeah. I'm pretty sure the conversation got as far as me saying "Hey" and them saying "He-e-e-y," and then I was watching The Editor literally run across the room in the other direction. Shaking uncontrollably. Which, not gonna lie, kind of made up for a lot. (20/24)

You know how in old cartoons, when the overpowered bad guy would lose their magic stick or laser stone or whatever, and they get cornered? Wiggly lines would sort of erupt out of their body and they'd shake to pieces? I didn't know that happened in real life. (19/24)

This brings me to my top non-film school memory of The Editor. I'm at a con a year or two later -- NYCC or SDCC, schlepping books at an indie booth. Crossing the floor with my lunch, when all of a sudden I run into The Editor. (18/24)

"Probably they'd gotten that other writer already, but they coudn't meet the deadline. So your buddy had to find pitch ideas. It happens all the time." (They said this last sentence in a way that sounded like they wanted to say "WE do it all the time," but didn't.) (17/24)

A year or two later, I was talking with another editor who worked at The Other One of the Big Two. I explained what had happened. "Oh yeah," The Other Editor said nonchalantly. "They were mining you." (16/24)

At this point I did some things You Should Not Do. I deleted all my correspondence with The Editor. I deleted every scrap I'd written about the character. I felt completely powerless. I wanted it all gone. (15/24)

I never heard from The Editor again. They didn't respond to any more of my emails. Soon after, I googled the character I'd been pitching and learned that a one-shot had just been published reviving them. With a big name writer, and a blurb that sounded loosely familiar. (14/24)

"Not that we'd ever do anyone dirty like that," they said (that's the line I really remember), "but if you can just sign the standard 'promise not to sue us for intellectual property' form, that would be great. It's attached." So I signed it. Like an idiot. (13/24)

Some time later, I emailed The Editor to see what was up. Months had passed since the beginning of the process. They emailed back to say they'd been super busy, but had realized a silly thing: I'd never signed any kind of paperwork before I'd started submitting materials. (12/24)

By this point I was pretty confused, but this was still my first shot at the big leagues. I went through one more iteration of pitches, trying to attend to The Editor's suggestions. Sent the email off. Waited....a long time. (11/24)

So I took all of The Editor's new ideas, and came up with new pitches based on as many of them as seemed to be in my wheelhouse. Sent them out, waited. Got ANOTHER email, even longer, with even more ideas for what to do with this character. (10/24)