Note from a student

This note came from Michael Glover, a many-time student of mine. I thought I'd answer him here. Tom,

Hey man, just wanted to drop you a line to say thanks for introducing me to the world of comics and for being a great inspiration! I believe you hold the record for the number of times I've taken a class with an instructor (4 times!) and that says a lot!

Seriously though, I really enjoyed taking your classes and learning from you. Learning comics opened up my artistic world and took my creativity to a new level that was unexpected.

I feel that fine art can only go so far as self expression and that it limits the individual in his or her ability to tell a story. And stories are the ingredients that make art unique and accessible to everyone.

Anyway, It's my goal to publish Milton someday and you better believe, you'll be on the credits of people who I'm indebted to and very thankful to have met along this creative path in life.

As I said in class, I wish I could make it to your going away party but I'm about to go to PA for the weekend to help my girlfriend with a wedding (she's doing the flowers) so, my apologies for missing out.

I wish you much success in starting you school. I think it's amazing that you are taking this on and I hope to be able to stop by there someday and say hello. My family lives in North Alabama, so I'm not too far away from Gainesville. I do plan on moving back to the south someday since my folks are there so who knows, maybe we'll cross paths again.

All the best to you and your family and thanks again for the inspiration!

Best,

Michael

Hey Michael-

Thanks so much for the kind words. I'm glad you're finally on a path with the Milton project-you seem to be, anyway. I know it's had a lot of iterations. You seemed to have renewed interested when you discovered the screenwriting ideas, which I'm glad about. You mentioned often The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler. I'm fond of this book too, and wrote a bit about it here, on my recommended books page.

In fact, I rarely discuss it, but I used it note-for-note to write one of my more popular stories, The Road To Self, which was in the first Hutch Owen collection. I wanted to test the formula. I feel like it worked, but I have an inherent distrust of formula, so I have since tried to forget it.

Since then, I always find myself coming back to certain moments in a story ("The Inner Cave", for instance, and the two major "thresholds" which are crossed in journey, from old world to new world and back again) as benchmarks for my own continued stories.

Anyway, I'm glad I can help. You know where to find me. Cheers

Tom Hart