Tales of the Parodyverse

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Hatman
Mon Feb 28, 2005 at 01:22:07 am EST
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I suppose I had best get on with this interview thing myself...
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Hey, how's it going? I'm glad you could make it. I'll try not to take up too much of your time and we'll even see about making this interesting.

My name is Jay Boaz. I'm 21 and currently living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. That's in Canada for those of you unfamiliar with the Great White North. At the moment I have three jobs. I'm a server/bartender/Certified Trainer at the Olive Garden restaurant primarily, and have been there for about 2 and a half years. My second job is at Galaxy Comics and Collectibles, the source for all my comic book and gaming needs. And finally, I've just started a new position at the MTS Center, the brand new hockey arena/entertainment complex in the city. I serve in the executive boxes, and it's some of the easiest work I've ever done, though it probably helps that I've been in the hospitality industry for 6 years now (which is frightening when you consider I'm only 21). Hopefully this helps explain somewhat why I've been kind of absent as of late around here. That is a situation I intend to rectify, however.

I'm a comic book geek, and I have no problem admitting that. The day I got offered the job at the comic book store I was jumping for joy and phoning all my friends. I also collect DVD television boxsets; I'm proud to say I recently completed my Buffy/Angel/Firefly Joss Whedon collection. Video games are no longer the passion they used to be, but I still enjoy them. Between my roommate and myself we have 2 X-Boxes, a Playstation 2, a Gamecube, a Dreamcast, a Super Nintendo, a Nintendo, an Atari, a Sega Genesis, and I think there's a Gameboy or two lying around as well. They don't get played that often, but I think it's cool having vintage video game systems in the living room. If you haven't figured out by this point I'm a bachelor living the single life, well, think about what I've said already and the clues will add up. One of the things occupying my time right now is a collectible card game, Marvel/DC versus. It's similar to Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh, only cooler and with superheroes. It really captures the powers and personalities of the characters, which is one of the major reasons I find it enjoyable. Acting is also an interest of mine, though I realize I'm not good enough to do it professionally. I actually starred in a short film a couple of weeks ago for a friend who was entering a contest to put a film together in 48 hours. It was fun, and once I get my copy I'll see if it's feasible to put up on my website.

Since you're interested in comics, I can run down the list of what I'm reading at the moment. Superman/Batman, JLA, the Flash, Green Lantern Rebirth, Majestic, Hard Time, Phoenix: Endsong, Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill, Captain America, New Avengers, Thunderbolts, Spider-Man/Human Torch, Astonishing X-Men, and She-Hulk (though I now have to wait until October for more! ). Nightcrawler is unfortunately getting cut from my pull list as they're putting it on hiatus like She-Hulk (though not as long). I also collect Teen Titans and Daredevil in tradepaperback format. I probably missed a couple of titles, but that's the bulk of it. I work for store credit at the comic store and I get a 15% discount, hence the size of the list.

I suppose I had best fill you in on some Parodyverse information about myself. I came to the Parodyverse...years ago. To be honest I forget when, but I've been around a while. I used to write at a fan fiction board called Comicscorner, and when that got shut down I moderated a fan fiction board at Comicboard's called Written In Stone. That sputtered and died but somebody mentioned Baron Zemo's Lair (the former name of this place) and I've been here ever since.

Hatman is my character, and basically he's everything I want to be. He's brave, compassionate, smart, and he's got some killer superpowers. I like to think I share some of Hatman's better qualities, though I definitely don't have them all. Hatman's developed over the years to become the Captain America of the Lair Legion, which to me is just too cool as I've become a big Captain America fan recently. He's filled almost every position in the Legion except the leader spot, which is ironic when you consider how he's equated to Cap.

I like to think I'm a decent writer. I think I have skills above those of the average joe, but once you put me up against other writers I pale in comparison. Realisitically, I'm an ideas man. I have trouble executing, and especially finishing. I'm determined to finish my Quest storyline, even though I haven't written anything for it recently. But yeah, I have a ton of ideas (I like to think my Follies of Youth contributions show that) that I don't transfer into stories very well. Descriptions are hard for me, and my stories either end up being little but dialogue or with no dialogue at all. Ideally I think I'm better suited to be an editor than a writer, but if I want to see Hatman stories then I have to suck it up and do my best. I enjoy the end product of writing, but not necessarily the process of. Follies was great because we bounced things off of each other, and the interactivity of it combined with a great concept was what kept my interest.

When I write, the characters usually come to life and don't do what I intended them to do. I never plan an ending ahead of time because the characters react differently then I thought they would as I write, plus new ideas spring up as I go. It's a blessing and a curse, because I've been known to write myself into corners sometimes (like the Hatman/Alcheman team-up, where Killer Shrike saved my butt).

Looking back, I usually think my stories are terrible, but I'm very proud of my Hatman/Sorceress break-up story, which I wrote while on a personal retreat/vacation. I didn't talk to or see anybody for almost 3 days, and I wrote that story in that time. I'm also fairly proud of my Follies of Youth stuff (though the NTU story came way too late to have any impact at all), as I think I executed some great concepts. But otherwise, yeah, I'm not that great of a writer. If it wasn't for the feedback and enthusiasm here, I can pretty much guarantee I would've stopped writing a long time ago.

Not sure if there's anything else you want to know. If you do, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. Bye for now!

~Hat~


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