Saturday, July 11, 2020

"If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run..."
                                                        "If" by Rudyard Kipling

I first read Rudyard Kipling's poem in an issue of Secret Origins by DC Comics, focused on The Flash. "If" is a guide of virtues to aspire to as both a human being and as the epitome of a man in society. This one poem stuck with me from that very young age on and remains my guidepost through even the toughest of times. 

I've been running non-stop since, trying to pack as much into that "unforgiving minute" as humanly possible. My distance run brought me to an exciting career in academia--by way of comic book history, journalism, and even acting--and I feel like I'm still just waiting for the starting pistol to go off.

That motivation has fueled me since my first works of comic book history and journalism, and continues to drive me through an academic career teaching Visual Communication and media topics classes in Virginia Commonwealth University's Communication Arts department. I am also a student in VCU's Media, Arts, and Text PhD program. Past and present courses include Star Wars Decoded, Comic Book History, Batman in Media, Vampire in Film, Hayao Miyazaki, Star Wars Decoded: The Mandalorian, and The Superhero Decoded.

Outside the university's walls, I moderate for the GalaxyCon popular culture convention, take on a few acting gigs, write screenplays, serve as the story architect for the Eagle Force action figure toy line, and create projects with Madman comic book creator Michael Allred.

My work as a comic book historian and journalist has been published in the books Leaping Tall Buildings, The Blue Beetle Companion, Conversations: Larry Hama, Conversations: Mike Allred, and several magazines, from Comics Buyer's Guide to The Comics Journal and (my greatest magazine work) Comic Book Artist. Due out in 2023 is Cliffhanger: Superheroes in Movie Serials, a comprehensive look at comic book history and the low budget world of their first films in the 1940s.