MARC BERNARDIN’S DEVOURER OF WORDS
Devourer of Words 052: Resolved
Another New Year, another set of New Year’s resolutions that feel like bowling pins, set up to be knocked down. We do it every year: Declarations with no accountability … usually. This year I’m going to make accountability my first resolution, so let’s take a look at last year’s DoW resolutions and see how we did.
1. READ
I said: “For the past couple of years, I’ve been in an output mode—between comics and television and various day jobs, I’ve been producing content on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. And, to be honest, I haven’t made the time to put new literature in my brain. And that can be a costly oversight. I’ve been lax … time to correct.”
The verdict: Not so great. Not to make excuses, but I started the year deep in Oscar season coverage for the Los Angeles Times and in February went to work on Hulu’s new Castle Rock TV show. I went from multitasking like a mofo to deep immersion into the world of Stephen King. Now, while I did a lot of reading of the King canon, some of that was refreshing stuff I’d read previously and all of it was for work.
I read a lot, but precious little of it was comics. So, I’ve still got a long way to go.
2. SUPPORT
I said: “We—and by we, I mean mostly me—often complain about the lack of fresh perspectives, of new voices in the media we consume. It can too frequently feel like a closed loop. I want to stand behind the new. I want to find it on the newsstands and I want to enlist them as collaborators.”
The verdict: Harder to quantify. Because I didn’t do a ton of comics reading, I didn’t do a ton of first-hand discovery. But I will say that when I came across someone on social media that I like, I boosted. I contributed some momentum, such as it is, to hashtags like #VisibleWomen and #DrawingWhileBlack. Be an ally when you can is a decent way to roll.
3. CREATE
I said: “Put something new into the world, something that only you can make. Maybe it’ll sell. Maybe it won’t. Maybe people will love it. Maybe they won’t. But it will be YOURS.”
The verdict: I feel pretty good about this one. My collaborators—Adam Freeman, Rosi Kempe, and Brad Simpson—released a miniseries called Genius: Cartel, from Image/Top Cow. While you won’t get to see the Castle Rock show until later this year, I spent the better part of 2017 helping conjure something from nothing.
Could I have done more? Yes, for sure. Will I? Well, that gets to this year’s resolution…
4. KEEP CREATING
Not much more needs to be said about this, beyond the obvious as so expertly and succinctly put forth by Bre Pettis in his Done Manifesto: “Done is the engine of more.”
So, let’s get more done in 2018, everyone. Because the world needs more, not less.
Marc Bernardin’s Devourer of Words appears the third Tuesday of every month here on Toucan!