Monday, April 02, 2012

Ask Me Anything #19





It's time once again for "Ask Me Anything." This feature runs on the first Monday of every month and gives you the opportunity to ask me anything you might be wondering about me, my work, or anything else I might have a possible answer for. 

Head down to the comment section and post your question. I'll either post my answer in the comment section as well, or answer it in a special post all its own sometime later in the month.

Please take the time to view the previous questions so that we don't wind up with a lot of repetition. I've been asked a lot of good, thought provoking questions in the past as well as some really banal ones. all of which I tried to answer. You can see the previous questions by visiting Ask Me Anything  #1#2 ,  #3#4#5#6 , #7 , #8#9,  #10,  #11,  #12 , #13#14,  #15 , #16#17 and #18.  Answers not found following the questions can be found in the archives section for each associated month.

Now ask away.

6 comments:

HellBlazerRaiser said...

Do you hold ownership over MIDNIGHT, MASS? If so, would you be able to find a different publisher (ala Steven T. Seagle and THE CRUSADES) to have a TPB or HC released?

John Rozum said...

I do own MIDNIGHT, MASS.. Taking it somewhere else is something I have to clear with my lawyer, but printing the existing two runs of MIDNIGHT, MASS. as a trade paperback is probably out of my hands. At the very least I'd probably have to buy back all of the material from DC since they paid for it, and possibly the reprint rights as well.

Right now the best course of action is to let DC know you'd like to see MIDNIGHT, MASS. collected as trade paperbacks, and secondarily, if you haven't already done so, pick up XOMBI as either the recent (inexpensive) trade paperback collection or in digital downloads to support the idea that my work has an audience.

I would love to see it collected as well, and hope to return to MIDNIGHT, MASS. again at some point.

HellBlazerRaiser said...

I loved XOMBI!!! I have the individual issues, the TPB and the digital comics.

XOMBIE was crazy clever. Lots of fun.

Sean Cloran said...

I really enjoyed "20th Century Ghosts" by Joe Hill from your recommendations, and after finishing that book I immediately read the book "Horns" also by Joe Hill. Do you have any novel recommendations?

Robert Pope said...

Are Dash and Daph as crazy about Halloween as you are? I find that the kids definitely get "infected" by things that I am passionate about (cartoons, monster movies, Christmas season, Peanuts, ect.) I also wonder when they'll hit the rebellious stage and HATE everything I love...

John Rozum said...

Thanks, HellBlazerRaiser.

Sean, I'll take on your question in a separate post. In the meantime take a look at the post previous to this one for an answer to an old question of yours.

Robert -- Not as much. They've taken certain cues from my interests, but have moved away somewhat from what they've decided to adopt from me. Dash maintains an interest in Star Wars, Disney, cryptozoology, kaiju, superheroes, and recently has become somewhat interested in Alien and Predator (though he's too young to watch the movies and I never cared for Predator --both the movie and the monster). He has almost zero tolerance for anything remotely scary or suspenseful. He's become interested in hobbies such as fishing and archery. Fishing is something I've never been drawn to, or successful at. Archery was something I was good at and would like to take up again. Decades of city living kept that from being a practical hobby for me, though.

Daphne is very much into horse riding, but also maintains a fondness for Disney, and will occasionally watch a scary movie, though she thinks most of them are quaint now. She does like Doctor Who, but only the new ones.

The biggest success I've had with them, especially Daphne, is a receptiveness to recommendations, and both of them completely trust our parental judgement when we tell them that something's not appropriate for them to watch or read at their age. Probably this comes from us stretching in the direction of leniency on some things, such as an occasional R rated movie where the material isn't too objectionable.

While they both read comics, they've never really asked for more of them. Both really seem to like Halloween, but mostly when it's seasonally appropriate to do so. They do seem to enjoy the lengths I go to to put on a good show for the month, but I wouldn't say they are fanatics.

I don't know if the rebellious stage will really erase the stuff they enjoy as kids, at least not permanently. I find that with myself, and most people I've talked about this with in the creative fields, that the stuff I loved as a kid is the same stuff I love now and really fuels my work. This isn't to say I haven't picked up some more sophisticated interest along the way, but those formative interests really maintain a strong hold.