The Magnum Opus Complex

Exorcise that demon

BEHOLD!

My creation most grand.

See how it pierces through sacred land?

FORETOLD!

This monument of a shimmering mind, an uncompromising one-of-a-kind.

HOW BOLD!

This opus of magnum proportion, an auteur’s most compromising distortion.

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Alright, Comics People. Stop me if you’re heard this one before:

A storyteller has an idea. It’s a BIG one. The tale to end all tales. They’ve noodled on it off and on. It’s their baby. Stay tuned for the next great American novel (or comic book, in this case)… That is, if they ever actually make the dang thing.

They’ll tell ya: “I’ve got this KILLER story idea. Just need to finally commit to writing it. Some day!”

It’s their one and only. A singular path. The sole tale they’ll ever have to tell, and tell it they must!

A panel from ‘Wild Wes’, with artist Nate Walkington. I'll share more soon!

It’s an old story. You’ve heard a version of it or two, maybe even lived one…

It’s THE MAGNUM OPUS COMPLEX, and it’s locked up more storytelling than just about any other tale-weaving predicament this side of the staring-at-the-empty-page virus.

‘Finish what you start’. That’s the best mantra I can share, and the magnum opus complex (MOC) might just be its most powerful enemy. MOC has prevented countless would-be creators from ever completing even one singular work. It’s a demon to be exorcised.

A magnum opus is a pursuit of perfection. This can be an insidious path, and not just because perfection can stand in the way of ‘good enough’. But also because perfection is just too damn daunting. There’s nothing easier than putting off perfection. It’s a pursuit that prevents stories from getting done.

The daydream of a perfect story has precious little in common with completing a story. So get over it. Get moving and get that thing off your plate, especially if it’s your first story.

Work hard, of course. Take it seriously. Learn from great writing. Try your best, yada, yada, yada… Then put it out there. No more drafts. No more editing. Donezo. Make peace with what’s been sent out and pat yourself on the back for completing a tale.

Oh yeah, and guess what you can do after you evict that spirit?

Then you move along to the next thing. And this is often when the real magic happens.

Maybe that first magnum opus will be everything you’d hoped. So go ahead, serve up that tale you’d left to marinate in the ether. Knock it out.

Or? Shelve it for a beat to focus on a new tale. Something you can realistically complete.

A story you haven’t even begun to conceive might be lightyears more interesting than that heavy concept of perfection you’ve been lugging round. And you’ll never know if you don’t knock off that dead weight.

Will moving past your first case of MOC kill the complex dead? Nope. Your next project will be your child as well. But, once you exorcise that first demon you’ll be freed up to move. From here, you can create some forward-leaning muscle memory and ready yourself to be that much more capable of getting the work done.

Funny thing about making comics? It’s all for naught if you’re not actually MAKING COMICS (did I just blow your mind?!). So stop being overly precious with your first work, or any work that hangs you up for far too long. Get it done to the best of your ability, but get it done. Or just start something new, something you can confidently finish.

And yes. I get how this can feel like an impasse. Like, maybe you’re working towards creating comics as a writer, and you aren’t confident with your own art or don’t have an artist to collaborate with currently. This is just one example, but in such a case you could focus on writing something entirely prose instead. Write a short story. Shoot. Write some short poems just to get some practice in word feel and cadence, and they count as completing a short tale of sorts.

If you need a little nudge to get those spirits stirring, consider throwing this song on your exorcise playlist (as it happens, it’s a good tune for an exercise playlist as well). Let this one flow through ya:

(Note: that’s a track from Goose, not Geese. It’s getting confusing out there with two gaggling bands out there…).

Tell ya what, let me share something about my own experience in dealing with MOC:

As always, I gotta preface a bit and reiterate the fact that I’m not even going to pretend to be a master storyteller. Can’t pull that card. All I can really lay claim to is having completed a few comics and being motivated to complete a few more.

But I can tell ya with confidence that…

The first story that I thought was gonna be my magnum opus? It wasn’t. In retrospect, it was just a motivating opportunity to begin learning. It was an opus of lived-in experience.

I’m thankful for that bout with MOC, despite the tale that spurred it amounting to nothing outside my own mind. I never even got around to finishing it. What’s more, I can also confidently say that I wasted way too much of my storytelling time on it, much of which was unproductive daydreaming mired by that daunting aim for perfection. This all led to a few hundred pages of hyped-up concepts which, taken together, amounted to exactly one mess.

After much time wasted, I shelved that uneditable pile of letters, resolving to come back to it ‘later’ while shifting focus to some other tales, including a few of the short comics I’ve shared in previous posts. And those completed works? Their creation was precisely when I started finding true fulfillment in my writing practice.

I never looked back. Looking ahead and discovering the stories that engaged would-be collaborators was just too much fun, as was the process of inviting them in to make these tales their own.

Comics created on the other side of that first weighty magnum opus were way more fulfilling than daydreaming about perfection. I also believe that these experiences in actually finishing multiple projects taught me how to tell a complete tale. D’uh. Right? Not necessarily. In my case I was so lost in the dream that it really wasn’t so obvious. Somehow this wasn’t a blunt fact to contend with until I lived all the way through it. Reflecting on this reminds a dude that sometimes the obvious stuff is what needs to be said the loudest. It’s what bares repeating. So to reiterate:

Experience in telling complete tales is a prerequisite ahead of any work grand enough to be deemed an ‘opus’, magnum in scale or otherwise.

Fair point?

To close things out for this MOC exorcism, let’s communicate via comics for a few panels and take a journey into the mind of Dave Boguski, from Chicago’s indiest band, Broken Oar…

As seen in exhibits A-D, Mr. Boguski suffers from The Magnum Opus Complex. I love the dude. I understand the dude. I part of me is this dude. But there’s no denying it: he’s got a seriously bad case.

You could get to know Dave Boguski and the B.O. Boys in Big Shoulders #1 and #2 right here (link).

Next week, I’ll be sharing some insights about the comic project that really got my Making Comics ball rolling, and a few key aspects from that journey that might help other comic creators lock into their own forward-momentum. In my case, this larger-scale and motivating project proved to be a creative fulfillment of a lifetime. It’s a six issue comic series I completed with co-creator Don Cardenas. Next week, I want to tell y’all a thing or two about The Packs of the Lowcountry.

That’s a book I never would have had the good fortune to make if I didn't work through some MOC and got moving on something new. And I gotta admit, just because you beat a bout of MOC once, doesn’t mean it can’t come back. I’ve spent entire seasons barely writing for pleasure at all, and not finishing what I start. But the process of completing Packs of the Lowcountry flipped the script and opened this door. Now I knew I that I could lock in and complete a long-form story. It’s a door well worth opening for yourself, if writing a comic (or whatever your project) is a goal.

On that note, and with POTL’s creation journey firmly in mind, here’s a bonus track to add to your exorcise playlist:

Can you dig it?

Allllll righty then. This house. Is clean…

Cya next week. I’ll have a free comic on hand and more. Till then, get out there and complete what you start when you’re…