My Influences

I have a page at a failed social media site that I almost never check, but it still has a few good things that I am going to be transferring over to this site, which I plan to be much better at editing in the future. Here is the first import - a list of my influences, with a few more additions than was on the original. It may keep getting updated as I go along, but here it is at this point in time:

Influences:
Douglas Adams
Ben Avery
Johann Sebastian Bach
the Bible
John Bunyan
Kurt Busiek
John Byrne's 1980s oevre
Lewis Carroll
Johnny Cash
GK Chesterton
Chris Claremont's X-Men #96 to #200; New Mutants 1-22
classical music
Ray Comfort
classic fairy tales
my family
classic fantasy
Todd Friel
my friends
golden age comics
Ken Ham
Harry Houdini
hymns
Jesus Christ
Jim Kreuger
late 80's to early 90's Christian indie/rap/metal/industrial music
David Letterman
CS Lewis
John MacArthur
Scott McCloud
Megazeen
Alan Moore (not his porn, though...)
old-time radio
Denny O'Neil
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Edgar Allan Poe
Robert Ripley
science fiction
Secret Wars, issue #8, page 23, panel 5
Walt Simonson's run on Thor
The Simpsons (first ten years)
Star Wars (A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back)
Steve Taylor
Terry Scott Taylor (Swirling Eddies, Daniel Amos, Lost Dogs, et al)
JRR Tolkien
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Orson Welles
Charles Williams

Almost all of these come with a caveat, of course. Just because they influenced me doesn't mean that they are all good, and some influenced me in spite of not being very good at all. But that would be a discussion for another time.

Latchkey Studios

Hi everyone-

I wanted to let you all know about my latest venture: I'm now part of Latchkey Studios (latchkeystudios.blogspot.com)! We are "a group of working artists [which now includes at least one writer!] that have come together to help tackle 'The Industry'. We travel, critique, eat, drink and sell sell sell together." So, who knows, I might even get paid at some point!

For those of you new to me and this blog (coming from the Latchkey blogsite), I’m Steve MacDonald, the newest (for now) Latchkey kid…although calling me a kid is kinda stretching the definition to the breaking point! Unlike most of the others here, I’m primarily a writer (and editor, and story consultant, and collaborator, etc.), but hopefully that won’t get me kicked out of the sandbox. I have a lot of stories for you all, and I’ll get someone to draw them for me soon!

When it comes to story-telling, I like classic literature as well as comic books and strips, movies and even story-songs, as long as they are well-told and seem to have a purpose for having been told. Stories that have a strong underlying theme and accomplishable character goals capture my attention (depending on the goals and themes, of course), and I tend to prefer fantasy stories (including science fiction, fairy tales and superhero stories) for their applications of metaphors and allegories.

Fiction authors who have inspired me include (alphabetically) John Bunyan, Lewis Carroll, Chris Claremont, Charles Dickens, the Brothers Grimm, Norton Juster, Jim Krueger, CS Lewis, Edgar Allan Poe, JRR Tolkien, and Charles Williams. Finding where stories impact culture and faith is a large part of the thrill I get from them. Representing them visually so others can see through my eyes is a challenge, especially when another person is doing the actual art, but it is a challenge that I find worth the effort, and I hope you will too!

I have a new story in the works right now, and more details about it and the universe it inhabits will be coming soon.

That's 'MISTER Mr. Mom' to you, buddy!

Since I've been working from home (or attempting to work from home...sometimes I think of my self as 'self-unemployed'), I've heard the term "Mr. Mom" thrown in my direction more than once. John Hughes wrote the script and Michael Keaton and Teri Garr are the stars in the 80's comedy, and it has some humorous scenes (in fact, it's a wonder that no one has thought to remake it - and why aren't comedies remade as much as, say, dramas or action flicks? And what's the deal with all the parenthetical rhetorical remarks?), but ultimately resolves [SPOILER ALERT!] with Keaton regaining his job and Garr going back home to take care of the kids. True, my wife is now the main wage-earner, and true, I am in charge of the kids during the day (and nights sometimes, if Christa's work is especially harrowing that day), but I initially took offense to the term, until I decided to break down and finally see the movie.

Very traditional values for a Hollywood hit, and, I must say, one that I would prefer for our family (Christa COULD go back to part-time...or work from home...or they could just pay her the money she deserves for running the entire office single-handed), as the stress is compounding at my wife's job!

The problem with being a writer (okay, 'ostensibly being a writer', but that doesn't roll off the tongue as well) is that you kinda need to have something written to get paid, and unfortunately I didn't see the layoff coming soon enough to have something to roll with right out of the gate. And running a week-long Vacation Bible School (I played the part of Paul the Apostle - chained to a desk with writing his only past-time...hmmm, where did I put that chain?) while making sure three kids have a great summer vacation means very little writing time for me in the last few months.

Now it's getting down to crunch time (and hopefully I'm not the one who will be getting crunched!) so, since the kids are close to going back to school, I'll be writing much more often. I should have something to shop around soon, and other piecemeal sidelines should become more prominent in providing a few extra bucks.

So, while I'm nowhere near the basketcase Keaton became during his descent into madness, I can understand the sentiment offered by the well-meaning few who use the Mr. Mom moniker, perhaps not embracing it fully, and use it as an impetus to get back to a sensible family dynamic. I just won't be using it as my 'mom de plume'.