I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway, laying it all out there for all the world to see. Ready?
I once saw Spider-man. He jumped from my parents’ bedroom into mine.
It was Christmas morning and I was no older than three years old. I remember playing with a new train set; puffs of smoke billowing out in miniature as it trudged diligently around the track. Then, I looked down the hallway. It was Spider-man. I told my mother and father but they both just laughed. In hindsight it was to be expected on their part, considering there is no such thing as Spider-man; not in real life anyway. But in my imagination, that was another matter.
Since the beginning, I have had a vivid imagination; dreams, stories, character, and emotion, that while make-believe, feel just as real —or sometimes even moreso—as whatever is physically right in front of me at any given moment.
My life has been a journey to cultivate this gift; one adventure to the next, whose purpose is to harness and focus it and find the best, most effective methods, means, and disciplines to channel these energies and direct them, shaping them as one would craft a story: Into something that is much greater than the random unfocused wild energy that was Spider-man at age three. Seeking out environments where this learning can be facilitated is key to the process of attaining the ultimate personal boon, where the state of living in a space and environment that encourages and ultimately gives expression to the hundreds and thousands of stories lurking in every corner of my mind is the rule of the day.
So…what is ActionStudioWorks anyway?
I’ve been doing this crazy thing since at least grammar school with my friends when we’d make up stories and storylines to play out during recess over the course of a school year.
In 1998 however, I got serious about giving life to the ideas and creations swimming around in my overactive brain. There were a lot of starts and stops, plenty of obstacles along the way, but eventually I was able to get it together and produce my first comic book Kurai Tenshi: The Dark Angels in 2002. A year later, while staring up at the ceiling, laying on my floor, the idea of The Paranormals popped into my head and it was on to the next thing. Along with my well-received screenplay E.A.R.S. I began to be well on my way.
And that leaves me here today. During the process of completing the first issue of The Paranormals, I began to ask myself “what if?” What if I had had a vehicle already in place to display my work? And that led to another even more important “what if?” What if other talented unknowns out there (artists, directors, animators, and writers), had a place to come to display their work? Sure, I want to sell my work and ride off into the Hollywood sunset with millions of dollars in my bank account but wouldn’t it be great if I could help others, in anyway I could, achieve their dream as well?
This made me reevalute just what ActionStudioWorks is, and what we’re all about. Community. Helping others is just as important and fulfilling as helping yourself. And helping dreams come true is worth more than its proverbial weight in gold. And well, if I can get some of my stuff going along the way, then that’s great too.
Are you with me?
Ready, set, go…
