Clerks.
Well, Space Cadets, this newsletter is about influences.
For AIRPLANE MECHANICS I keep saying that in many ways it was inspired by Kevin Smith’s CLERKS both in its soul and its ascetic.
Like Kevin, I grew up in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere for me was eastern Long Island. A place filled with farms, vineyards, and not much else outside of the summer.
Near my house was/is a small airfield. Most days you’d see the planes and skydivers dangling over your head as you hung out in the backyard. When you left our house and hit the main road you’d have the airfield right in front of you. It was a part of my day every day.
My brother and I are dreamers. We’ve been set on making movies together since we were kids and some of them actually turned out pretty good. One story we talked about a lot was of two beaten down brothers, closing up shop on their airfield, and fixing a plane they could fly out of there.
That story stayed with me.
I’ve always liked Kevin’s podcasts about the making of Clerks. It was always inspiring listening to how he pulled together what he could, took himself way too seriously, and made his dreams a reality.
When I started making comics that’s how I felt, like I was turning whatever fantasy I had into a perfect little piece of work.
Those Airplane Mechanics were still in my mind.
So, I finally wrote them.
With Jeff Manley as the enactor of my vision we got to work. I thought a lot about Clerks while writing this script. I kept thinking about what that story was really about. Two guys stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of changing their lives. At least my guys have an airplane.
The first time I ever heard about Clerks it was described to me by a kid in my Spanish class...neither of us really wanted to learn how to say como se llama anything so we talked nonsense. He told me about this movie about two guys wasting their time talking about star wars and blow jobs and I had to hunt it down. What followed became the second part of my cinematic journey.
Clerks lead to Reservoir Dogs then over to Chasing Amy, Four Rooms, Pulp Fiction and it kept going. My Freshman year of college took me from the gritty films of the 70s to the wild indies of the 90s. It was the point where the inner filmmaker crystallized.
The idea of the hang out movie always stuck with me. AIRPLANE MECHANICS! was a project that I always saw as a film but never had the means to pull it off. But, working in comics the past two years I've been able to take ideas that always lived in my head and brought them to life.
AIRPLANE MECHANICS! the very core of it wouldn't exist without that kid in high school telling me about this funny, angry movie about guys just hating life and their job.
Don’t forget to grab a copy…we’re working on something special as a stretch goal so help us hit our first mark!
AIRPLANE MECHANICS! on Kickstarter
PANEL X PANEL
In other news I got a nice little gig when Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou sent out a call for pitches for the FINAL THOUGHTS section of the comic criticism magazine PANEL X PANEL back in January. I tossed a few ideas at him and waited a few months, eventually forgetting about it, until Hass reached out to me and picked the pitch for one of my favorite new books, CHASIN’ THE BIRD by David Chisholm.
It was really fun writing this piece and seeing it come together. I focused on the idea of how Chisholm builds in the perfect rhythm to his storytelling that result in a gangbuster sixteen page sequence at the end of the story.
It comes out Friday as part of the Grant Morrison issue (which is a whole other exciting thing because of Grant’s influence on my life and work). Check it out. You might dig it. I think it came together perfectly.
Wow. What a great story man! Love the influences, and I can relate quite a bit. Can't wait to see how AIRPLANCE MECHANICS turns out. And I'll for sure be checking out the PANEL X PANEL piece because Dave is a an awesome creator and CHASIN' THE BIRD is a phenomenal book!
Congrats on all the amazing success dude!