Mississippi comic book author chasing his dreams
By M. Scott Morris
Daily Journal
PONTOTOC – Dreams are easy things until somebody wants to make one come true.
Bradley Golden was 14 years old when his brother brought “X-Men,” “Superman” and “Batman” comics home from the Jitney Jungle in Pontotoc. Golden devoured them.
A couple of years later, he put together his own six-page comic called “The Legend of the Power Stance.” It’s about a post-apocalyptic world where only the Japanese culture has survived and humans must fight for survival. “It was man against robots, pretty much,” he said.
He came up with the story, plotted it out and decided what the art should look like, but he didn’t draw it.
“I hired an artist to actually work directly from a script I worked out,” Golden said.
He’d gotten a job at Jitney Jungle by that point, and he funneled his earnings toward an artist he’d found on the Internet.
“I paid him per page. It was like $75 a page,” Golden said. “When it comes to comics, nobody will draw or put letters to a page without some sort of payment, either on the front or the back end.”
He was 17 when he tried to get his first comic into the hands of the industry overlords, DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Golden got used to hearing “no,” but he kept pitching his story.
The big boys left him alone, but Delta Comics, a small outfit in New Jersey, turned him into a published writer, creator and editor of comics.
“My first one, I think I sold a total of 30 books,” he said.
His dream could’ve died on truck stop and grocery store shelves along with leftover copies of “The Legend of the Power Stance.”
“The first one fizzled,” Golden said, “but the feeling of actually having something published kind of pushed me to keep going.”
The Pontotoc resident is 34 years old now, and he works as a computer consultant at Best Buy. Though he’s not on the DC or Marvel payroll, he’s building a comic book life for himself.
“I’m writing eight books right now,” he said.
He inked a deal with Insane Comics about four months ago. The company has a nationwide distribution network, and has been showing off Golden’s work at various comics conventions.
“I’m very happy with them so far,” Golden said. “They’re putting my books out bimonthly.”
He’s a writer for hire for Guerilla ComX. The company sends him the idea, and he plots it out for them. At the end of the year, he’ll do similar work for All Knights, a company based in England.
Golden’s also developing books for his own company, Second Sight Studios. And on another front, Spirit Rider Productions in Australia asked to turn his story, “Leave on the Light,” into a straight-to-DVD movie.
“They had somebody else write the script for it, but they used my idea,” Golden said. “Who knows what’ll happen with that?”
He tries to put in about two hours of writing a day, and his work commute from Pontotoc to Tupelo and back is often useful for figuring out tales he wants to tell.
“On the ride home tonight, I plotted out three pages of a book,” he said. “It’s a good time to think.”
A story begins with brainstorming, then he goes into the plotting phase and pulls the ideas together for a 24- or 32-page book.
The next stage is the script, the guide the artist uses to draw the comic book to Golden’s specifications. He lists the number of panels for each page, and explains what should be drawn in each one.
“You describe everything you want the artist to do,” he said. “After that, I email the script to the artist. He does a rough draft, a sketch, and gets it to me. I approve it, and then he goes into the detail.”
When it comes to personality traits, Golden’s creativity and his persistence would probably battle for the title of “Most Important.” But when it comes to physical tools, there’s a runaway winner: his smartphone.
“When I started, I used my mom’s Gateway computer to write,” he said. “Now, it’s my cellphone. Everything comes from my phone. I’m just so used to doing it this way. I just sit there – one-handed – and get it done. I’m comfortable with it.”
He doesn’t have a comic book empire, but he’s definitely building something, and it wouldn’t be possible without the Internet. All of his dealings with artists and publishers have been over the phone or through email and Facebook.
Golden uses his phone and Skype to stay in touch with fellow creators, wherever they may be. They’re an informal brotherhood with similar goals and problems.
“We critique each other and just help each other get better,” Golden said.
Some of his friends work for the big-time comics studios. Those are the guys who encouraged him to expand his portfolio.
Golden began by producing horror, and he still enjoys having fun with vampires, ghostly killers and zombie apocalypses, but he’s branching out to include superheroes, undercover agents and steampunk adventures.
Each finished book is its own, little revenue stream, so Golden’s efforts are paying off by degrees. Though not enough to let him leave his job, he’s more than covering the cost of hiring artists to bring his various visions to the printed page.
“You can always hope, you know, but I didn’t get into this to get rich,” he said. “I got into it because I love comics, and I love telling stories.”
His love has endured, despite setbacks along the way.
“There have been times when I wanted to quit, but family and friends encouraged me,” he said. “Sometimes, it gets really, really hard, and you just feel like giving up. That’s what that support group is for, to keep you going.”
He’s also keeping his kids in mind. Sanaa is 5 and Neimiah is 7, and Golden has dreams of turning them into comic book heirs someday.
“Right now, I’m just watching Second Sight and all the rest grow,” Golden said. “When I get ready to retire, my children can take over the business for me. Wouldn’t that be something? That’s who I’m doing it for. I’m doing it for my kids.”
scott.morris@journalinc.com