“Behind Enemy Linens” was a story that I wrote for Little Red Bird Press’ anthology titled BLOCKED. The idea behind BLOCKED was to tell stories about the world of online dating through sites such as Tinder and OKCupid, and specifically, the horror stories.
If anyone has followed me for any length of time, you may already know that I have a lot of horrible dating stories, so it was a matter of trying to decide which one I wanted to pitch. There was a submission process to go through so I looked for an artist to work with and attach myself through and began figuring what I wanted to do.
I decided to pitch a story about the time when a guy I was dating broke up with me over a blanket fort. I won’t get into that story in full here, but suffice to say that it was pretty ridiculous (and you can read the full thing in both script and completed comic form below).
I contacted Jenn St. Onge to work with on this project and she agreed to be a part of the story. Once we submitted, it was a matter of waiting to hear back to see if we were accepted into the project or not. Spoiler alert: we were accepted.
From there, we had almost a year to put together our script, the thumbnails, pencils, inks, colours, and letters. A very generous amount of time to complete our stories which were (if I remember correctly), a maximum of 10 pages long; my story was seven pages.
Since I already had the story in my head, it was a matter of pacing out the story and making sure that I could tell the entire thing in a coherent way. I wrote out all the major beats I wanted to hit and then figured out how many pages it would take to get there.
A guy breaking up with you over a blanket fort is a story that gets told a lot at parties so I was pretty familiar with exactly how I wanted this to go.
With my script, I included short character descriptions for the main characters which were me and the “Silver Fox”. Jenn had me on Facebook so I didn’t need to provide her with too much reference to be able to draw me. She had access to a ton of references. I provided her with photos and reference for “Silver Fox” though and gave her some images to work from (those images aren’t included in the script that you’ll see).
Outside of a few minor changes, I wasn’t given a ton of feedback here. Most of the notes came from trying to translate my script to the pages and ensuring that what I was conveying made sense to the reader. A lot of anthologies are ultimately pretty loose when it comes to editing, but there were definitely notes that helped make my script better than what I had originally pitched.
After the pencils stage was complete, Jenn started to get swamped as an artist with Jem and the Holograms, and other cool things. As such, she had to back away from the project with just one month to go before the deadline.
I got really panicky about the story and was sure that it wouldn’t be included in the book. I put a call out to artists to see if someone would be able to step in and work on the story, and thankfully one artist stepped up.
My pal, Katie Sawatsky easily has one of the most recognizable art styles that I have ever seen. She is a master of black and white comics, and she wanted to come on board, so she did!
While Jenn had pencils done, and Katie could’ve simply inked over what was there, Katie started from scratch with ONE MONTH LEFT to complete the work.
Katie knows me in real life so reference wasn’t really an issue. She hunkered down, and despite some hiccups along the way, we got the story finished at the last minute possible and turned it into the publishers.
The results of Katie’s work can be seen below. Some of the final lettering is missing from the sample pages here, but you can get the general gist of what it looked like and use the script (as linked above) to fill in the blanks.
In September of 2016, I entered Mark Millar’s talent search competition for a chance to write a “Huck” story within the 2017 Millarworld Annual. I had written an original script and submitted that into the contest. The prize was a writer’s page rate (as per Marvel/DC), being paired up with an up and coming artist for the story, and being published by Millarworld/Image Comics.
I submitted an entry for “Huck” and while I really enjoy that series, it was strategic in part. I thought that Millar’s fans would largely be drawn to bigger, more action-packed comics like “Kick-Ass”, “Nemesis”, and “Superior” etc. I had hoped that I was picking a property that wouldn’t have a ton of people lining up to write it.
I was SO wrong. “Huck” was the most popular of the properties by far and as I waited for the announcement to be made on who would win the coveted spot in the Annual, I started to realize this. Virtually every person I talked to about the project told me the same thing: “Oh yeah! I entered a “Huck” story!”
My anxiety was vast.
On December 16, 2016, I was out with a couple of friends and was frantically checking the Millarworld forums for any update on the winners. Finally, Millar posted up the names and I scrolled down. I didn’t see my name and was disappointed but okay with that. After careful consideration, I went back and looked to see who had won the “Huck” story and realized that I had been looking at the wrong thing. My name was there!
I was in a cafe with the aforementioned friends at the time and I stood up and started doing a little happy dance on the spot. A lot of heads turned and looked at me, but I can honestly say that this might be the one time where I didn’t give a crap about what other people may have been thinking. I felt amazing and validated and I was so excited.
Almost a full year after I entered the Mark Millar Talent Search contest, the Millarworld Annual arrived in stores. An event that also happened to coincide with my birthday. I received a lot of positive feedback for my story from Mark, comic fans, avid Millarworld readers (and others who applied to the contest), and critics– which all made my heart soar with happiness.
My story was eerily apt for the time. Hurricane Irma was wreaking its destruction, and my story (titled “Home Sweet Huck”) was about a family who lost everything in such a storm and how Huck helped them pick up the pieces and put their lives back together.
I’ve rambled a lot so far and I apologize but I wanted to give people an in-depth look at what it is that I did in order to get into the Annual.
I’ll get into what I submitted in order to earn my place as well as go into some detail about the process of returning my script into the final piece seen within the Millarworld Annual.
FIRST THINGS FIRST First of all, I followed the instructions provided to me on the contest page. I made sure to include everything that they required, such as my signed submission contract which, aside from the script entry itself, was incredibly important. I cannot stress enough: MAKE SURE YOU READ AND COMPLY when it comes to what you need for submissions. Some folks running contests like Millarworld cannot legally even look at your entry unless you have the right forms signed so this is very important.
THE PITCH Next, I sent in my pitch and script. I can’t honestly remember if a pitch portion was required but I decided it would look better to include something that encapsulated what I was trying to do with my story.
I included the following:
a short one-sentence synopsis that summed up my story
a longer two paragraph description of what my story would be about in further detail
short character descriptions (1-2 sentences)
And finally, I included my script. I have not included the original script, but you can get the gist from my pitch vs the final script (included later on) that my story changed significantly from start to finish.
The core of my story remained but over time with the help of Mark and his/my editor, Rachael Fulton, the mechanism in which I told the story changed. Characters such as Casey, Nana, and Papa were eliminated and replaced with simply Mr and Mrs Walker as well as various other townsfolk.
THE PROCESS After I received word that I had won the “Huck” spot, work began on fixing up my script and getting it to its Final Form.
Mark sent along a message with what he liked about my script, and made note of what stood out about it for him, which was wonderful and validating.
From there, Rachael Fulton took over primary correspondence with me and worked with me.
Initially I had written in characters like Nana, Papa, and Casey. Casey was the granddaughter of Nana and Papa – she was curious about how they came to have the big beautiful family home that the story is set in. Her Nana and Papa then tell her about how a terrible storm ruined the original house that was in place and Huck helped them rebuild and give them a home just after Casey’s mother had been born.
Both Mark and Rachael thought this wasn’t a great well to tell the story and took away from the core of the story. Since the stuff with Nana, Papa, and Casey bookended the Huck stuff, I cut that away and instead rewrote the script so that more of the Huck story was focused on.
In retrospect, it was something obvious that I should’ve done intuitively but sometimes you just don’t have the self-awareness at the time to realize.
Another thing that Rachael worked with me on was my panel count. The Millar way of things is 5-6 panels per page, maximum. I had a few pages that had more than this, and had really crammed things in. I thought it had worked, but I can see how trying to have fewer panels on the page, especially for a relatively inexperienced interior artist, would work much better.
Cutting off the Nana, Papa, and Casey portion of things allowed me to give breathing room to everything else. I was able to move around some panels and spread out the dialogue.
There were minor dialogue tweaks and suggestions that we worked at, but Rachael was patient and wonderful at offering up solutions to any problem areas that we came across.
I make it sound like there was a lot to fix but honestly, all of these things were done over the course of 2-3 drafts with minor edits spread over the course of those.
It should be noted that I didn’t work directly with my artist. I found out once my final script was turned in that I was paired up with the amazing Jake Elphick but I didn’t get to see any of his art until the book was literally in my hands on the day my comp copies arrived.
As an editor myself who works a lot with up and coming talent (via Toronto Comics Anthology), I understand not wanting to integrate inexperienced comics writers with inexperienced comics artists. You don’t want the editor’s feedback clashing or any unhappiness along the way. While I wish I could’ve been kept in the loop with that along the way, it makes complete sense to me.
THE FINAL THING Finally, the comps arrived on my doorstep and I opened up the FedEx box to hold the final product in my hands for the first time. I was completely floored with how amazing it had all turned out.
“Home Sweet Huck” acted as the finale for the Annual and I could not be more grateful to every single person involved with the process.
Mark Millar, Rachael Fulton, Jake Elphick– everyone who I got the chance to work with was an absolute star and I’m beyond happy with how it turned out.
I have no doubt in my mind that Mark and Rachael elevated my script well past what it originally was and made it into a perfect portfolio piece.
You can see my story below:
On episode 6 of Fan Fiction Friday on See Jurassic Right, you’ll hear some of host Steven Ray Morris’s friends and favorite performers read aloud his childhood Jurassic Park fan fiction he wrote when he was ten years old. Titled Jurassic Park: Hammond’s Other Secret, this week’s guest is Stephanie Cooke.
Q. What were your major influences or inspirations for Miss Monster?
A. A while back now, I got obsessed with RuPaul’s Drag Race and I wanted to write a fun story that capture the essence of that but with monsters. The people, the puns, the pageantry, the cattiness – I wanted to write something that incorporated it all!
I never really watched “real pageants” growing up. I think my first experience with them was probably watching Miss Congeniality (that’s how all pageants are, right??) and then in my teen years, being forced into participating in a pageant to be crowned the queen of my local county fair… which I did not win.
Q. What comics do you enjoy most–did any of these find their way into your story for Wayward Sisters?
A. I read a lot of comics—although admittedly lately, I have not been as on the ball with them. That being said, I love a little bit of everything and some of my favourites include Through the Woods, Runaways, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank, Velvet, Bandette, Lumberjanes, Giant Days, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, and Backstagers.
Light-hearted comics are my favourite, something I can just escape into, but good comics are good comics, and I try to keep up with as much as I can.
I don’t think much seeped into my story for Wayward Sisters but things like Lumberjanes and Giant Days are definitely inspirations that I want to use for projects in the future.
Q. How did you get your start in comics?
A. I started as a podcaster in comics where I would talk about my favourite things with three friends. I did that for several years and started working behind the scenes in comics as an assistant and editor.
I never thought I wanted to be a writer until one day, an artist basically pointed out that if I liked writing and already worked in comics, that I would be a dumb-dumb to not take advantage of that. I sat on it for a while and then realized that I should give it a shot so I started pitching to anthologies and such to practice and hone my craft and build up a proper portfolio.
Q. How has the comics field changed in terms of creator representation since you first got your start?
A. I got started in comics professionally in 2011/2012 or so, and even then, a mere 5-6 years ago, there was a lot of need to be the “cool girl” in the industry. People weren’t calling creators out heavily at that time— but it was pretty close to the start of big changes that really started to pave the way.
I’m incredibly grateful that I didn’t start working as a creator myself until the last couple of years, otherwise I may not have moved forward with my career. Diversity and representation in comics a long way to go, and I think we’re slowly getting there, but it can be discouraging whenever you see an announcement made for some BIG EVENT THAT’LL CHANGE THE UNIVERSE FOREVER and it’s the same old white dudes on the books time and time again. Dudes that can do no wrong despite their politics, their personal opinions, their behaviour and more while women and POCs aren’t being hired solely because they’re not these white dudes.
Honestly, that’s why we need more books like Wayward Sisters. We need to show the world that there are women here. We are working on cool projects. We’re doing things that anyone can read and enjoy and we have cool, fresh angles on things. More stuff like this can only help amplify what we’ve known all along: women make amazing comics.
Q. What is your idea of the perfect monster date? October 31? Because it’s not too hot, not too cold– all you need is a light jacket?
A. Oh man, I think you already stole my answer here, but my perfect monster date… HMMM…
You can’t go wrong with a beautiful dinner on a full moon. The moonlight perfectly lighting up each and every fur as you run through the forest, paw-in-paw (or claw-in-claw!) and howling in unison.
Stephanie Cooke cut her teeth in the comics industry as one of several hosts on one of the original comic book podcasts – Talking Comics. From there, she was able to work behind-the-scenes at many comic conventions, eventually becoming the personal assistant of some of the biggest names in the industry. Now, she has struck out on her own as the founder and editor-in-chief of Rogues Portal a pop culture review and commentary website. A writer in her own right, her work has appeared in the Toronto Comics Anthology, The Secret Loves of Geek Girls and more recently, Mark Millar’s Millarworld Anthology 2017 and the upcoming Blocked and Wayward Sisters Anthologies. In this conversation we discuss how she takes much of her inspiration for her work from her own life and what it was like working with Mark Millar (Kick-Ass, Kingsmen: The Secret Service, Wanted) and his team.
I’m Fred Kennedy, host of Issue Zero, this week we chat with Steph Cooke, she’s a writer. What I love about her is she’s so honest about what she’s doing. The trials and tribulations, we’ve talked to many established people, and creators in the industry so far, and Steph is one of those people that is bubbling under, has worked on a lot of things, done a bunch of smaller press things, and now is starting to break through. She started working at a vintage movie store, did acquisitions, podcasts, blogging, doing reviews, then started writing and working as an assistant to a writer, and now has work a talent search with Millarworld, and is having her first major work published. She also has write prose and has a literary agent, it’s cool and inspiring to have someone at that level talk about what inspires them, and it’s a different perspective than what we’ve had before now.
Read more at http://issuezeropodcast.libsyn.com/podcast#X7Yu9slvim4FAR1R.99
No, this is not a joke. Extreme pillow fighting is a very real thing and this week, I tried it. More accurately, I tried OUT for it at the Anchored Social Club in Toronto, which is kind of like where you’d expect a Canadian Fight Club to take place.
A friend of mine, Brandy Dawley, is the president of The Official Pillow Fight League, which is a worldwide organization that pits woman against woman in a match to the, uh, metaphorical death. Yeah. That. Ok, but really, no one dies, but my best comparison of what goes down in a pillow fight match is UFC meets Roller Derby. Anything goes as long as the pillow is the point of contact. This means that bitches get chokeholed (as long as the pillow is doing the work), punched, perform leg sweeps and MORE. It gets REAL SCURRY and I legit witnessed the world champion (yes, this is a real thing also) chokehold someone with a pillow, take them down and then straddle them victoriously until they tapped out. REALLY.
Brandy needed some women to come out to tryouts for the league since it had been on hiatus since 2011 or so and there is currently no active roster. Her and BJ (another member of Team PFL) have been trying to get things ramped up to make a comeback and they put the call out to get more women involved.
I saw the post on Brandy’s Facebook page and was like “Sure! This sounds like something I could do!” because it did… at face value. The call more or less made it seem pretty innocent and my initial thoughts about the whole thing were that it was going to be a bunch of ladies in a group beating each other up with pillows, but like, in the same manner that you would at a teenage slumber party of some sort.
I WAS SO VERY WRONG.
After I committed myself to the tryouts, I went to The Official Pillow Fight League page and watched some of the videos there. I went from being pretty excited about it to straight up terrified.
HELLO, TERROR.
I had a week to prepare and spent every moment of it training like I was the star of a Rocky training montage (but not actually because ew exercise). I did go to the gym, but it’s really hard to narrow down which exact exercises will help to prepare you for extreme pillow fighting. LOTS OF ARM STUFF (spoilers: it didn’t help me).
Let’s flash forward to the actual event because the rest of this story otherwise is a lot of me panicking and freaking out about stuff and having my friends all watch the video and text me “Wow, you’re gonna die. Can I have your art?” so THANKS A LOT, MORAL SUPPORT TEAM.
THE DAY OF…
I’m one of those people who typically HATES being late for things. Like, I get mass anxiety thinking about being late to a thing that I’m supposed to be at by a certain time. I had originally intended to go straight from work to the event, but I wound up going home and then making my way over to the event. I got there all kinds of stupid early, which was fine because I got to meet the crew, hang out with Brandy and meet BJ.
I was already incredibly nervous about the event but as the night went on, I got more and more nervous. No amount of reassurance from the people around me (EVERYONE BUT YOU, JAMES COOPER) was enough to help talk me down. Carmen Monoxide, a world champion (that I mentioned earlier) came by and taught me a few moves along with one of my opponents, Bailey in an effort to show me that this was in fact something that I could do. This somehow made me even more, MORE nervous.
The scheduled fights kept getting pushed back and finally, 8pm rolled around and we were ready to start. We got a pep talk and settled into our fates. I would fight Monique first and then my second fight would be with Bailey. Each fight is comprised of three rounds that are two minutes each. Let me tell you, THAT SHIT IS EXHAUSTING. Swinging a pillow is SURPRISINGLY hard to do for that length of time.
It was, however, totally baller to have a bunch of dudes fanning you and doting on you in between the rounds. Basically the best doting boyfriends I’ve ever had… you know, minus the boyfriend part.
I had to wear elbow and knee pads, and a mouth guard, which I was TOTALLY FINE with. I didn’t want to knock any of my teeth into the audience as a souvenir. Of course, that didn’t stop me from being the only one to ultimately end up in the hospital because of EXTREME PILLOW FIGHTING.
If you want to have a good laugh, seriously hurt yourself at a pillow fight and explain that to the staff trying to take care of you.
YEAH, so during the second round of my fight with Bailey, I wound up rolling my ankle and heard a crunch. I continued to fight because there was some serious adrenaline pumping through my veins but by the time that faded, my ankle was absolutely pooched. An awesome dude (sorry awesome dude but I don’t think I got your name but thank you!!!!!) found me some ice and made me a makeshift ice pack to put on my leg and made sure I was taken care of.
Anyways though, I thiiiiiink I did pretty freaking good for my matches and was full of sarcasm (my default language) during my post-fight interviews. The PFL says I MADE IT in the league when it’s up and running fully, but I’m up in the air on whether I’ll return or not. I think my current ankle injury is heavily influencing my opinion right now though.
Ok, real talk: I swear that this night was way funnier and more amusing than this blog is leading you to believe. I’m honestly not sure why I’m currently not compelled to make it sound better. IT WAS FUN, but also legit terrifying.
THIS WAS A TERRIBLE BLOG, I AM SORRY. I WILL WRITE A BETTER ONE ABOUT THIS EXPERIENCE SOON, OK? Look at me beating on poor Bailey (she destroyed me, so don’t feel too bad for her here) and the dude looking on here, which is obviously the highlight of this photo.
“Behind Enemy Linens” was a story that I wrote for Little Red Bird Press’ anthology titled BLOCKED. The idea behind BLOCKED was to tell stories about the world of online dating through sites such as Tinder and OKCupid, and specifically, the horror stories.
Stephanie Cooke cut her teeth in the comics industry as one of several hosts on one of the original comic book podcasts – 
No, this is not a joke. Extreme pillow fighting is a very real thing and this week, I tried it. More accurately, I tried OUT for it at the Anchored Social Club in Toronto, which is kind of like where you’d expect a Canadian Fight Club to take place. 
YEAH, so during the second round of my fight with Bailey, I wound up rolling my ankle and heard a crunch. I continued to fight because there was some serious adrenaline pumping through my veins but by the time that faded, my ankle was absolutely pooched. An awesome dude (sorry awesome dude but I don’t think I got your name but thank you!!!!!) found me some ice and made me a makeshift ice pack to put on my leg and made sure I was taken care of.
