Poetry
Before I started to focus on comic books I wrote poetry and short sketches, prose poems. I published them in five booklets that I made myself. These were done on the college photocopier and stappled together, in the grand old tradition, starting from Jan 1989.
Contrary to what most people say about poems they wrote when a teenager or early 20s - 'oh, it's soooo embarassing!' - when I look back on the stuff I wrote when I was 18/19/20 years old, I think: 'What genius wrote this? It's brilliant!'.
That may seem rather big headed, folks - but that's honestly how I react. I feel almost as if it was someone else who wrote them, not me. Because I certainly can't do stuff like that now, so I'm wondering who was that guy? Where did he go?
Or rather I'm focused on a different type of writing now - long form, well worked out stories. Whereas the stuff I wrote when I was that age was all of the top of my head, emotional burst of the moment stuff. Even if I was to focus on writing poetry again now, I think I could not come out with stuff as good as that again. And it's interesting to reflect on why...
My main comic book, graphic novel, site is here:
http://seanmichaelwilson.weebly.com
"Sean Michael Wilson is a Harvey and Eisner award nominated writer, he has written more than a dozen graphic novels, published by a variety of US, UK and Japanese publishers. As well as writing 'western' style graphic novels, he often works with Japanese and Chinese artists on manga style books. The Japanese publisher, Kodansha, has published 3 manga books of his so far, and he has had work published in the keitai/mobile phone manga format in Japan - both very unusual for a British creator. He has tried to do comic books that are different from the normal superhero/fantasy brands in collaboration with a variety of 'non-comic book' organisations, such as charities and museums. His main influences include British and American creators, such as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Eddie Campbell and Harvey Pekar.
Sean is the editor of the critically acclaimed 'AX: alternative manga' (Top Shelf) , which was selected as one of the ten best comic books of 2010 by Publishers Weekly, and placed number 2 in their critics poll of books of the year, only behind Chris Ware. It was also nominated for a Harvey Award, a long established award for comic books in the USA. His graphic novel version of the classic 'A Christmas Carol' (with artists Mike Collins and David Roach) was in the Sunday Times Ten best books list in 2008, and his version of 'Sweeney Todd' won an award in the Stan Lee schools award, 2013. His collection 'Beautiful Things' won a 'best indepedent graphic novel' award in 2005. As a result of working closely with Japanese editor, Mitsuhiro Asakawa, he has given talks on Gekiga style manga and AX in the USA, UK and Japan, to try to increase knowledge of mature, literary style manga. He has received several grants from both the English arts council and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation in support of his Japan related publications. He studied Sociology and Psychology in Glasgow Caledonian University, then took a Masters in Social Anthropology in Edinburgh University, finally qualifiying as a college teacher in those subjects from the Institute of Education, University of London. But perhaps foolishly, he decided to focus on writing instead - here are the results..."
Before I started to focus on comic books I wrote poetry and short sketches, prose poems. I published them in five booklets that I made myself. These were done on the college photocopier and stappled together, in the grand old tradition, starting from Jan 1989.
Contrary to what most people say about poems they wrote when a teenager or early 20s - 'oh, it's soooo embarassing!' - when I look back on the stuff I wrote when I was 18/19/20 years old, I think: 'What genius wrote this? It's brilliant!'.
That may seem rather big headed, folks - but that's honestly how I react. I feel almost as if it was someone else who wrote them, not me. Because I certainly can't do stuff like that now, so I'm wondering who was that guy? Where did he go?
Or rather I'm focused on a different type of writing now - long form, well worked out stories. Whereas the stuff I wrote when I was that age was all of the top of my head, emotional burst of the moment stuff. Even if I was to focus on writing poetry again now, I think I could not come out with stuff as good as that again. And it's interesting to reflect on why...
My main comic book, graphic novel, site is here:
http://seanmichaelwilson.weebly.com
"Sean Michael Wilson is a Harvey and Eisner award nominated writer, he has written more than a dozen graphic novels, published by a variety of US, UK and Japanese publishers. As well as writing 'western' style graphic novels, he often works with Japanese and Chinese artists on manga style books. The Japanese publisher, Kodansha, has published 3 manga books of his so far, and he has had work published in the keitai/mobile phone manga format in Japan - both very unusual for a British creator. He has tried to do comic books that are different from the normal superhero/fantasy brands in collaboration with a variety of 'non-comic book' organisations, such as charities and museums. His main influences include British and American creators, such as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Eddie Campbell and Harvey Pekar.
Sean is the editor of the critically acclaimed 'AX: alternative manga' (Top Shelf) , which was selected as one of the ten best comic books of 2010 by Publishers Weekly, and placed number 2 in their critics poll of books of the year, only behind Chris Ware. It was also nominated for a Harvey Award, a long established award for comic books in the USA. His graphic novel version of the classic 'A Christmas Carol' (with artists Mike Collins and David Roach) was in the Sunday Times Ten best books list in 2008, and his version of 'Sweeney Todd' won an award in the Stan Lee schools award, 2013. His collection 'Beautiful Things' won a 'best indepedent graphic novel' award in 2005. As a result of working closely with Japanese editor, Mitsuhiro Asakawa, he has given talks on Gekiga style manga and AX in the USA, UK and Japan, to try to increase knowledge of mature, literary style manga. He has received several grants from both the English arts council and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation in support of his Japan related publications. He studied Sociology and Psychology in Glasgow Caledonian University, then took a Masters in Social Anthropology in Edinburgh University, finally qualifiying as a college teacher in those subjects from the Institute of Education, University of London. But perhaps foolishly, he decided to focus on writing instead - here are the results..."