This week YA Author Terry Blas took over our Twitter as a part of our weekly Thursday Twitter Takeover. Terry Blas is the author of Lifetime Passes (See YEM’s interview of Terry Blas here.) See highlights from the takeover below.
Hi! I’m @terryblas and I’m doing a #YAauthorTakeover here today! I’ll be talking about my book Lifetime Passes and firsts! Firsts in the comics industry, how I got started, where my inspiration came from. Stuff like that. Join me and ask any question you like. (Keep it cute.) 😄 pic.twitter.com/HQvpLTER7d
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
Lifetime Passes is written by me w/ art by @claudiaguirre – It’s not the first book we did together! That’s Hotel Dare. It’s about 3 kids who get sent to live with their creepy abuela only to find that every room in her hotel leads to a different magical world! #YAauthorTakeover pic.twitter.com/B36OJ6xzJK
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
Working on Hotel Dare with @claudiaguirre was a dream. She brought so much life to the book and elevated my script to another level. I knew immediately I would want to work with her forever. #YAauthorTakeover pic.twitter.com/Hf1ZOfNETI
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
Lifetime Passes was the 1st idea I ever had for a comic, a long time ago when I was living in Southern CA. I loved going to theme parks and had a good friend who had worked for several of them. She told me some wild stories and a lot of those inspired the book. #YAauthorTakeover pic.twitter.com/e9wPJ8umih
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
Sometimes you have a few ideas and don’t realize that combining them might work. I wanted to write about costume design. I love @monamaydesign (I mean come on Romy and Michele and Clueless!) but I also wanted to learn more about Rita Riggs and Edith Head. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
And that was another lesson. People say write about what you know, but I don’t know a whole lot sometimes, so I prefer the saying “write what you WANT to know.” Cause then all you have to do is research. And research can be very fun and rewarding. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
So I combined ideas about theme parks and old Hollywood without knowing how they fit together. But I wanted the book to have teens and elderly people in it. I figured out what movies were released when someone in their late 80’s today, was in their early 20’s. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
If you don’t know, Lifetime Passes is about Jackie Chavez, a young Latina with some awful friends. She loves her local theme park, Kingdom Adventure and goes all the time. Her aunt runs a local elder care facility where she helps out. 1/4 #YAauthorTakeover pic.twitter.com/if71Jj4AC6
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
When her Tia Gina can’t afford Jackie’s pass any more, she’s devastated but she discovers that if a member of your party dies while at the park, the rest of your party will be awarded lifetime passes. So she and her friends come up with a plan … 2/4 #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
They decide to take the elderly to the park every week in the hopes that while there, one of them might conveniently…die. But of course, Phyllis, an elderly woman who lives at the facility knows exactly what they are doing and offers to go anyway. 3/4 #YAauthorTakeover pic.twitter.com/KKb0D0rC22
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
And once Jackie gets to know Phyllis and become friends with her, she doesn’t want anything bad to happen to her. So she wants to stop doing this. But her friends don’t want to stop and will say it was her idea if she does…that’s the basic set up. 4/4 #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
It’s been nice to see how people have responded to the book. Most think they are going to hate it because of the awful thing the kids are doing, but readers seem to be taken by surprise by how heart warming it actually is. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
I got started in comics by…making comics. I got an illustration degree and told myself I wasn’t going to be in debt for the rest of my life with a degree that I wasn’t using. So I had to make some decisions while I worked full time. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
I decided to do one page of comics a week. It doesn’t sound like a lot been when you work 40 hrs a week and you come home tired, it’s not easy. You also have to push through the tiredness and write, pencil, ink, scan, clean, color, letter and post a page. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
I figured if I did that, after a year I’d have over 50 pgs of comics. And if I could post them online, I’d be proving I could set goals for myself and meet them. So that’s what I did. I made a web comic. I printed it and took it to conventions. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
After that I joined @HelioscopePDX studio and started getting work doing covers and some interior pages. I wrote and drew an issue of The Amazing World of Gumball, and did covers for Adventure Time, Bravest Warriors, and Regular Show. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
But I also had a difficult conversation with myself. I wasn’t putting myself down but I knew my artistic limitations. I don’t like to, nor am I good at drawing cars, bikes, buildings etc and when you draw comics you have to be able to draw anything. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
But I also knew my strengths. I’m organized. I like scheduling and making plans. I like structure. I love telling stories. So I felt like I’d actually be good at writing. So while I would draw comics, I’d listen to every YouTube clip I could on writing comics. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
After that I started pitching projects. Dead Weight and Hotel Dare got picked up. And my career started moving forward the minute I started listening to and not resisting what the universe was telling me about my strengths. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
Since then I’ve written Rick and Morty comics, Steven Universe comics, a comic about Cesar Chavez, Educational comics about the terms Latinx and Latino and I also wrote a comic that was included for the R.E.M. fragrance package released by Ariana Grande . #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
I love creating stories. I like planning the set up and pay off. One thing I’ve learned is that a lot of people who are new to comics think you can just go straight to the page & start drawing. But gurl, you don’t build a house until you have a good blueprint. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
So make some plans. Write a synopsis, flesh out the problems. Ask yourself what your story is REALLY about. Lifetime Passes is about this theme park and these kids, sure – but it’s really about how the most important thing in our lives is our time. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
The themes of your story are the most important. Because in my opinion, stories aren’t plot and events, they’re emotions. If you think about the stories you love, you love them likely because you either connected to the story or characters, or felt represented. 1/2
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
And if that’s true, then that tells me that the function of story is to feel connected, to feel seen. So stories serve to make us feel less alone and I think that’s really powerful. 2/2 #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
Working with Abrams and Surely was fun. I got to work with @marikotamaki and help launch this great new thing. I never would have thought when I was a kid that there would be a company making queer centric graphic novels. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
One of my favorite things about Lifetime Passes is that inside the hardcover edition there is an awesome map of Kingdom Adventure drawn by the amazing @claudiaguirre – check it out! #YAauthorTakeover pic.twitter.com/HlaqTW9bYr
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
A common question I get asked by young people is “where do you get your inspiration?” And I tell them that I don’t have time to look for or wait for inspiration. I encourage them to be more concerned with discipline and motivation. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
When you work from home (as most people now know) there’s nobody telling you to get up, nobody forcing you to get dressed. And that sounds nice at first, but treating my fun comic work as work has helped me get things done and become a self motivated person. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
Some of my first comics were Bone by Jeff Smith and of course, X-Men comics. I’m also hugely inspired by @pvponline and hour long teen drama shows from the 90’s. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
Allow yourself to be inspired by more than just one thing. Creatives that inspire me to keep writing and making art are @BenjaminDewey @chucho_Q @jennizzles @themisscocoperu @hamishsteele @claudiaguirre @knifesystem @everythingloria @pvponline @moisesthewriter #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
More creatives that inspire me to keep writing and making art are @Roagui @davidtalaski @CCimoroni @Kingofsafari @ohheydj @mexopolis @seananmcguire @trixiemattel @backaof @ethanMAldridge @tanyasaracho @brettcarville @panginaheals @Tallychyck @ongina #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
But more than anything if you want to make comics you don’t need advice. Just make comics. All you need is paper, pencil and a stapler. My first comics were printed on copy paper and stapled together by me. You gotta start somewhere. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
And we have a saying in comics that “done is better than perfect.” Meaning: don’t spend forever worrying about your comic being perfect. Nothing is perfect. Nothing ever will be. It’s better to have something to show so you can move on and make more. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
Also, take care of your hands, your wrists, your back etc. Stretch so you don’t end up with tendinitis, back pain and a hunch, like me. I’m working to correct all of that now but it would have been easier to catch it and prevent it before it got to this point. #YAauthorTakeover
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
That's it, folks! If you have more questions about comics, writing or just want to chat about TV shows, send me a message! I love talking about these things and I’ll help however I can if you are looking for advice or tips: @terryblas #YAauthorTakeover pic.twitter.com/jcQVCQ5URD
— Young Entertainment Magazine (@YoungEntmag) March 3, 2022
