6: The comic is the talking.
Greetings and Salutations!
Welcome to this month’s episode of The Lemon House Monthly, your home for all things weird and wild from the mind of comic book writer and karaoke expert Andrew Leamon.
Let's get down to business…
-/NEW NAME
-/WORK
-/MONOLITH
-/PUPDATE
-/SONG OF THE MONTH
/ NEW NAME
Notice anything different? I've been working on a fun name for this newsletter for months, and I think I will be settling on “The Lemon House” for now. You see, it’s clever because my last name is Leamon, which is a letter removed from Lemon. Get it?… GET IT?…
When I was little, only my bullies called me Lemon. But after 30 Rock, people started calling me Lemon affectionately. And yes, I know “lemon” is also a term meaning of negative quality, but I like the idea of reclaiming the word. There is a children’s book publisher already called Lemon House, so this may be only temporary, but I like the name for now.
/ WORK
CAMERA MAN #2
With Xander’s blessing, I sent the outline to Frank, our new editor, this week. I’m so excited to start scripting it! Like the first issue, I’m working off of Xander’s plot and getting great experience in writing a serialized story arc. This is the kind of work I’ve wanted to do for years, and I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity.
PRE-ECCC FEELS
I’ve been putting a ton of pressure on myself lately. I wanted to have more than just Camera Man #1 to show off at the con, but the project I was hoping to be ready to pitch to artists isn’t ready yet.
I can’t remember if I told this story, but between my first and second published comics, there were two other comics. One was fully written and had an awesome artist on board, but the anthology editor disappeared. The other was going to be my giant swing, experimental comic. I spent four years obsessing over it every single day. It stopped me from working on anything else. And after all those years, I barely had an outline to work with. Meanwhile, my peers were already onto their second or third books.
I was embarrassed with my inability to finish the big stories I wanted to tell. And I refuse to let that happen again here, so I’m switching my comic schedule around. Finish what I know I can finish this year, and let the bigger projects take as much time as they need.
Let me tell you… This was a hard decision to make for many reasons, but that’s what it means to be a writer sometimes. So, sci-fi/drama one-shot, it is!
/ MONOLITH
We're almost to the one-year anniversary of this silent comic being released, so I thought I would share it with you today. Unfortunately, it's never been more relevant than today.
I had the pleasure of working with editor Christa Harader AKA Cabbage on this and then looped an artist I had been DYING to work with since I first saw their work on Twitter, V. Gagnon. They somehow went above and beyond my expectations with jaw-dropping work. There were originally captions I had written to go over the art, but Christa and I ultimately decided to focus on V's art for the storytelling. I think you'll agree it was a wise choice.
Also, I’ve gotta shoutout the wonderful Buddy Beaudoin. I needed some iconic letters on the last page, and Buddy absolutely delivered. A truly talented and top-tier pro.
You should go follow all of them on BlueSky. They're wonderful and talented people.
As for the story itself, I don't want to say much as I think the story we crafted speaks volumes. As David Lynch (rest in peace to the big boy milkshake king) says, “The film is the talking.”
/ PUPDATE
Ruthie is doing great. We're all in hibernation mode over here, but she seems to be handling this winter amazingly so far. She was terrified of the snowflakes on her first winter. That's character growth.
/ SONG OF THE MONTH
In honor of Kendrick Lamar's incredible Super Bowl halftime show performance, I wanted to share one of my favorite songs off of his 2015 album “To Pimp A Butterfly”. This man has been one of the greatest artist poets for a long time.
Thank you for reading this month's “The Lemon House Monthly”!
Be sure to follow Andrew on all social platforms as @aleams.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send him an email at andrew.b.leamon@gmail.com.
See you next month for another exciting episode!