How Am I Doing With Those 24 Hopes?

At the beginning of 2024, I made a list of 24 hopes and wishes I had for my life in 2024. We are almost at the halfway mark of the year and I wanted to check in on those goals and give you all updates, which will be in green because green is good! Let’s dive in!

1. By the end of the year I hope I can say I wrote a healthy number of short stories, single issues, annuals, and other professional comic writing assignments of various lengths.

   As of the writing of this post, I have booked five writing jobs, and my goal for the year was six. So I am thrilled. So far most of those jobs have been short stories, which is very cool, I love doing them. If a single issue or annual came across my plate before the end of the year, that would be awesome too. I’m going to consider this goal on track.

2. It would be awesome to expand my professional relationships and work with at least two comic book publishers I have never worked with before.

   This has been accomplished, I wrote the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles story for IDW and I am writing a story for another publisher.

3. Everything I have done so far is solo writing. I have never had the experience of co-writing and I would be happy to have that experience. Whether it was with a more seasoned writer showing me the ropes, or a contemporary/friend of mine.

   This has not happened but I have started hanging out more with fellow comic writers and reaching out to them for advice/opinions on things.

4. I have largely written in the comic writing style known as full script. I would love to try to write something plot/marvel-style. I am always looking to surrender more control in the creative process. Also, I think it is good to be able to do things in a variety of different ways.

   The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles story I wrote for Riley Rossmo was closer to a plot style, but I haven’t gone full-on Marvel style yet. I am still open and looking forward to doing that.

5. Teaming up with an artist I have worked with previously on a project would be awesome. There are quite a few folks I have worked with before I would like to team up with again and give them an even better script with everything I know now.

   I reunited with Riley Rossmo for the TMNT story. And while this isn’t technically the same I am working with an artist who I worked with before on a story that will be out this fall, but I have never written for them. I was their editor before.

6. It would be a thrill to write a story for an artist I grew up loving. I got to do that with Scott Kolins, David Lafuente, and Mike Norton previously. I think it really made me step my game up. I have no shortage of comic artists I grew up loving I would leap at the opportunity to work with them.

   I think this is going to happen, I put in a request with a recent script, and we will see what happens but I feel confident we’ll get there.

7. Writing comics is my first love and primary goal, the vast majority of my effort is going into that. However, I had dreams of screenwriting at one point too but I got scared of it. I would love to try and write some short scripts and build my screenwriting confidence back.

   I have not attempted to do this at all. I have been completely focused on comic work, but I think for the sake of myself and being able to write as many different things as possible in the future I need to get more serious about this in the back half of the year.

8. To date, everything that I have published is in the superhero genre. It’s one of my favorite genres and one I know intimately. However, getting to write a project, or projects, in other genres I love would be a lot of fun.

   Everything so far I have gotten published this year has been superheroes, but with each of those stories I have tried to inject another genre flavor. I do have a creator-owned pitch I am working on that is not superheroes and it has been fulfilling.

9. I need new artistic influences. This year I am going to try to read more books by authors I have never read and see more films by filmmakers whose work I don’t know at all or don’t know very well.

   I can’t say I have done this actively. I am going to pick a few directors I am completely unfamiliar with and dive head-first into their work for the second half of the year.

10. Since 2006, I have been a podcast listener. I am a voracious listener and fan of interview podcasts and I would honestly love to be on some. I hope my comic writing projects this year lead me to do a few podcast interviews.

    Yes! I have been on two podcasts so far this year. I was on the fantastic Portrait of an Editor podcast as well as Gatecrashers. I had a great time on both and would highly recommend listening to them.

11. The Boston Celtics…2024 NBA Champions.

    The Boston Celtics ARE the 2024 NBA Champions. =)

12. In 2023 I had the great pleasure of talking at a comic book writing class. I have an itch to teach and share what knowledge I have. It would be great to speak to more comic writing classes or writing students in general.

    I was fortunate enough to speak to another comic book writing class and had a great time. It also reinvigorated me to work on my creator-owned pitches.

13. Growing up I went to a lot of punk shows. Live music was a big part of my life and that has faded away, unfortunately. This year I want to go to at least one live music show.

    This is going to happen. Early in August, I will be seeing Gaslight Anthem, Joyce Manor, and The Dirty Nil here in LA and I could not be more excited about it.

14. The other day I was eating lunch near Shawn Ryan, creator of the amazing TV show THE SHIELD. I have been very fortunate and met many of my comic writing heroes. It would be fun to meet one of my screenwriting and or comedy-writing heroes.

    This has not happened yet, but I hold out hope!

15. I have never had a table at a comic convention. This year I would like to do that for the first time. Sign some comics, meet readers, and just start getting used to that type of experience.

    Unfortunately, it is looking like I won’t be tabling at a convention this year, I may have missed my window for that goal. However, I am talking to a store about doing a signing near Christmas time, so if that happened, it wouldn’t be entirely the same but it would be a step in the right direction!

16. I want to see the Jeff Nichols movie The Bikeriders which was delayed from 2023 to 2024 and I hope it was one of my favorite movies of the year.

    This happened and I loved it. It’s my favorite movie this year by a country mile, and it really would have competed with The Iron Claw to be my favorite movie of 2023 if it had come out when it was originally intended to. More Jeff Nichols PLEASE.

17. Having the ability to do at least three unassisted pull-ups would be a nice fitness goal.

    Ehhhh, this one feels very far away, but a good reminder to try harder.

18. There are so many people from around the world I have worked with in my comic career, and the number of them I have met in person is smaller than it should be. Meeting more people I have worked with in person would be a thrill.

    I have met a few more people I worked with in person and it was absolutely lovely, I think I will definitely be meeting more people in the months ahead.

19. I want to meet a Boston Icon in person. Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Evans, etc. I want to take a picture with someone like that, send it home, and have my family and friends freak out.

    Heartbroken to report this one has not happened, but I’m open. UNIVERSE! Let’s make it happen.

20. I would love to be asked to work on a project that is creatively exciting and out of my comfort zone.

    Everything I have written so far this year has been creatively exciting, but I still need to work harder to push outside my normal comfort zone.

21. To write a comic for a property I love that is not currently a comic or has not been one for a long time.

    Not yet. I pitched for one, I don’t know if it will happen but I am trying!

22. To get a few creator-owned comic projects off the ground.

    Working on pitches all the time. I have a pitch with an editor right now and I am developing a few with artists. This one is immensely important to me and I don’t want the year to end without getting some creator-owned project set up.

23. I truly hope that this is an incredible year for comics. For creators, for fans, for retailers, for all of us. We could all use a winning year.

    I have been reading more comics now than I have in years. I truly think creatively the industry is in an amazing place, and we have so many amazing creators and books coming out. We need more readers, higher sales, projects to be more long-term, and more creative homes for creators, but I think we’re trending in a good direction.

24. I would be grateful to get to pay all my bills on time for another full year as a freelancer.

    Haven’t missed a bill yet. Grateful every day for it.

So of these 24, I have accomplished or am in the process of 16 of them. And 8 of them I either haven’t worked hard enough on, haven’t happened yet, or seem slightly out of reach. At the six-month mark of the year? Not bad. I can get closer to doing all 24 by the end of the year. This was a lot more encouraging than not, I’m glad I revisited the list!

Next week we’ll be off for Fourth of July but then I think I’ll have pretty consistent posts for the remainder of the summer.

Stay Safe!

—Dave Wielgosz