Broken Frontier

So… something like five years ago I wrote the first of a handful of installments for a Broken Frontier column called POW! Moments.

At the time, I had only recently published my first major comic book work—The Damned from Oni Press. I was still working a full-time at a job that didn’t inspire hatred, but also didn’t blow my socks off, either. (It was the kind of place where, when planning Christmas cards for the year, we were told, “We can’t send out cards that say ‘Peace on Earth’ because peace is controversial.) I was married, but I had no children. And more than anything I wanted to support myself and my family with my writing. If I’m being honest with you (and this column is gonna be all about honesty), I didn’t really think that would ever happen.

Now, I’m back again, and a lot has changed. I’ve published a few more comic book titles, including The Sixth Gun and The Tooth (from Oni). I’ve worked on books for the “Big Two.” And I recently signed an exclusive agreement to write for Marvel Comics. I’m writing full-time now, having dumped my job in marketing after 15 years. I have a son who has made it his mission in life to keep me on my toes. And I’m writing for Broken Frontier again.

This time around, my column is a little more “loose”, meaning I don’t know what in the Hell I’m going to write about. Sometimes I’ll write a little about process. Sometimes I’ll focus on books or movies or TV shows I’m enjoying (and how those things affect my work). Sometimes I might write about a convention I attended or some long lost treasure I pulled out of a quarter box. Sometimes I might even write about the crap that’s on my desk or the comic books I’d kill to write. Really, this column’s a lot like the toy in a box of Cracker Jacks—you never know what you’re going to get, but it’s probably cheap and flimsy. Hope you enjoy it!

It’s interesting. That first column I wrote for Broken Frontier was all about one of the first comic books that really made an impression on me. It was Avengers #154, a book that terrified me because I thought that Atlantean super villains Attuma and Tyrak the Terrible had murdered the Avengers. Nowadays, I’ve been working on a book for Marvel titled Fear Itself: The Deep. In that book, Attuma and Tyrak (along with a bunch of other nasties) are giving a new incarnation of the Defenders all sorts of Hell. I’m channeling the fear and excitement I felt when reading that issue of The Avengers into the book. Arguably, it was thinking about that issue for my old column that got me thinking of those characters for the new book. What goes around comes around, huh?

(I also wrote about The Micronauts, Dreadstar, Swamp Thing, Druid, and the Teen Titans in that column. Don’t be surprised if those names pop up here from time to time. What can I say? I like what I like.)

More than anything, I hope “Writer of Wrongs” gives me a chance to connect with readers in a new way. I really want to hear from you. I want to know what types of things you’d like me to write about. If you have questions or comments you’d like to see me address, please let me know! I’m pretty easy to reach. My website has a contact form and I’m on Twitter and Facebook. Give me a shout. I’d love to hear from you (unless you’re creepy… and you know who you are).

Speaking of creepy… next time around I’ll be reminiscing a little bit about the World Horror Convention Gross-Out Contest... which I have the dubious honor of winning more than anyone else.

See ya next time!

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Cullen Bunn is the writer of The Damned, The Tooth, and The Sixth Gun from Oni Press and The Fearless from Marvel. He is also the author of a middle reader prose horror novel, Crooked Hills, from Earwig Press.
 
Website: www.cullenbunn.com
Twitter: cullenbunn
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cullenbunn