Happy Monday, Everyone!
Nate here—bringing you the latest with all things me and Narrative Shack!
Before I begin, I just want to once more promote the New Year, New Stories 2025 anthology, which contains “A Singular Mentality” by me, Nicolò Arcuti, and Sean Rinehart. I’m really happy and excited to be able to hold the story in my hands physically, and to have it together with eighteen others from comics creatives of all corners of the industry.
Once the campaign is over and the story is out, I plan to share it here and give some thoughts on it and the process behind it—including original concepts, scripts, the other prior versions of the ending and how and why it shifted drastically, roughs and b/w pages, and more. But, for now, I’ll just say it was a joy to write and collaborate on this story and it’s something we’re all incredibly proud of.
Okay, that was the last plug for this since the Kickstarter closes in six days. Now let’s get to it:
What I’m Doing:
I’ve only got around a week left of break before I go back to school for my final semester of college. Going into this time off, the main thing I was excited about was getting a large amount of time where writing was the only job I really had to do. And that was absolutely incredible.
My plan was to finish Project Nightingale and Project Folklore’s scripts, as well as my own personal project with Project Scarlet. I did finish the first two scripts, and am so happy with them, but I didn’t even start on Scarlet yet. This is because I was so lucky and grateful to have other opportunities come up within this time. I got to work on projects that were incredibly exciting, and am so proud of the work I’ve done on them. So, even though I haven’t even added a thought or idea to Scarlet’s doc or started page one of the script, I still feel like I accomplished so much amazing stuff this past month. There are, as of now, at least five things in development that are going to be put out elsewhere, and that is just surreal to me. I also developed this substack and Narrative Shack in that time—which is something I had no real prior plans for whatsoever, but now has me invigorated and ready to create as much as I possibly can going forward.
Though the big project I was supposed to work on hasn’t even been touched, I still feel amazing about all I did this past month as essentially a full-time writer. It also taught me the value of flexibility, of looking for opportunity and being ready to change plans at a moment’s notice to make room for something incredible that may come in. And with each project, every script and story I write, I truly believe I learn something valuable and develop more as a writer. Because of that, when I do get to the Project Scarlet script—and others—in the near future, me and my work will be better off for it.
What I’m Writing:
Some updates:
Project Tarot: The script is now completed and approved. Now it’s onto the artist who will develop it all and take it to a whole other level. This project has me so psyched, and collaborating with people on it so far has been a joy. I can’t wait to watch it all unfold going forward.
Project Concrete: After submitting my script and having it considered among a large number of incredible writers, my submission was unfortunately not selected. I loved my story for this, but at the same time am excited for those chosen—which includes a good friend of mine, whose script was incredible—and can’t wait to see more with the property and the stories that come from this. I submitted my idea, but it didn’t quite fit with what they had in mind—it happens, and that’s how it works. Now I just move on to the next thing!
And, speaking of, introducing…
Project Three: Something that seems like an incredibly basic name, for a story with much more beneath than it would initially appear. No, it is not my third project in any way you count it, but the number has significance within the story. I love using the extraordinary to explore incredibly human concepts and themes—it’s what comics are perhaps best at in many ways, such as with superhero storytelling. This is not a superhero story though—and I’ve got one of those in development that does, in many ways, feel like it shares some common threads with this concept—but it is something that uses the fantastical as a lens to view something real and meaningful.
The first draft of the script has been written—way ahead of schedule—and I’m going to just fine-tune it a bit more before sending it to the artist to get started.
What I’m Reading:
I am still savoring 11/22/63, trying not to finish it too quickly. It’s just so incredible, and I don’t want it to end. I just finished an incredibly shocking and intense section, and look forward to getting back to it for more.
As for comics, I read some of last week’s new releases the other day and loved them. Aquaman #1 by Jeremy Adams and John Timms was a great start to a series that I am now so excited to get my hands on every month—and Timms’ art in this issue is next level, I’ve never seen stuff like this from him before. Batman: Dark Patterns #2 from Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman continues its evergreen detective story with an incredibly compelling villain. Kill All Immortals #5 wraps up the first arc well and has me psyched for what is to come in the next storyline—Zack Kaplan is a writer I’m just pulling everything from right now, his stuff is amazing, couldn’t recommend his Vault series Mindset more. But, if I were to name two favorites of last week’s new releases, it would be Absolute Batman #4 by Scott Snyder and Gabriel Walta and Lucky Devils #1 from the creative team behind Eight Billion Genies (which was incredible too), Charles Soule and Ryan Browne. Absolute Batman #4 is an interlude from the main arc to give this awesome version of Batman his Year One. It is such a great issue that continues the momentum of the series, not feeling like a fill-in as it adds to what came before and brings some amazing backstory for what we will see in future issues. Walta is also just one of the best, he and Tom King’s Vision series remains one of the best-ever Marvel stories in my opinion. As for Lucky Devils, it offers an incredibly fun concept that delivers commentary on the world around us in a fresh and amazing way, like what Eight Billion Genies did previously. This is going to be something special, and I am so happy to be along for the ride.
What I’m Watching:
The main thing I want to talk about is that the final episode of Creature Commandos season one has been released, and it brought it all to a fantastic conclusion. I am a huge fan of James Gunn and couldn’t be more excited for his new DCU, so getting this show as a first look into that universe was a joy over these past weeks. Each episode balances a compelling backstory for one of the characters with the forwarding of the present, compelling narrative. Gunn is taking these characters and making you care so much for them in a way he does best. This series has you laughing and tearing up within the same episodes, and the way all of these characters feel so real is masterful. I am so glad season two has been announced because I need more of this team and their stories as soon as possible—and I hope to see some of these characters pop up elsewhere in this DCU, maybe even in live action. If you love comic book TV and movies in any form, Creature Commandos is worth watching and amazing. I loved it so much that this review was initially WAY longer, and I had to majorly cut it down.
Okay, that’s all for this week. Thanks for reading and see you in seven days!
-NS
Wonderful! I’m looking forward to reading your projects.