Dirty Desk: City Paper Review of A Film About Billy

dirtydesk:

-Link to article on CP site-

A FILM ABOUT BILLY. Daniel McCloskey’s unusual hybrid of a novel and graphic novel is classified by publisher Six Gallery Press as “apocalyptic YA.” It’s a coming-of-age story with sci-fi conspiracy overtones. The narrator is Collin Heart, a semi-reclusive recent…

dirtydesk: Pr-orders for my novel start tomorrow through kickstarter. Since I’m working 16 hour days selling beer pong posters to college kids to make $ to fix the heat at Cyberpunk before winter— I have to do double duty. I made a flyer for my book fromdamaged posters, and I’m posting this from my phone between customers. I’d like to thank Jim Rugg for really encouraging me to think of poster tour as a prequel to my upcoming reading tour with Nate McDonough. Jim has been an awesome mentor when it comes to my personal work. —gotta get back to posters. I’ll see you tomorrow.
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dirtydesk:

Pr-orders for my novel start tomorrow through kickstarter.
Since I’m working 16 hour days selling beer pong posters to college kids to make $ to fix the heat at Cyberpunk before winter— I have to do double duty. I made a flyer for my book fromdamaged posters, and I’m posting this from my phone between customers.
I’d like to thank Jim Rugg for really encouraging me to think of poster tour as a prequel to my upcoming reading tour with Nate McDonough. Jim has been an awesome mentor when it comes to my personal work.
—gotta get back to posters. I’ll see you tomorrow.

For Us By Us Juvenile Fiction

raw ink afabWe’re doing layout work for A Film About Billy right now, and it’s taking me back a bit.

I’ve hardly put this project down my entire adult life. I started the story when I was a teenager, and on the 6th of next month I’ll be 25. It’s hard not to feel crazy when I think about it—about how I came of age by writing a coming of age story—if you can call it that.

Recently I attended and indie comics expo in Columbus OH. After the first day I drank a few beers on a friend’s porch and got the chance to talk with a group of real life high school students for the first time in years.

Apparently I had given one of them a demo copy of my book the year before, because out of the blue one of the girls said that she liked my book. When I expressed surprise, a second student interrupted me to say, “Yeah, It’s really good.”

I was too surprised and abashed to do anything but confirm that they had in fact read the book. Making the total population A Film About Billy’s pre-published readership somewhere around 10.

Needless to say, this meant a lot to me.

This book has been a long time in the making. I’ve learned a lot about storytelling, about comics, and about myself over the course of these years. And the thought that the end product still registers on some level with people that are like I was when I started it—namely in high school and not particularly pleased with it—well, that’s…   It’s just wonderful.

Thanks to my 2 person secret teenage review team

-danny mac