Alex G. Paman, Author: Diary of a Superhero Sidekick

Alex G. Paman, Author: Diary of a Superhero Sidekick
Jazma Online Interviewer: Amy Kneppel
www.jazmaonline.com
Distributed By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Esoteric Detective
HPI (Hegelianism Paranormal Intelligence) International
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Question: Alex, please tell us something personal about yourself. Your family life, schools you attended. Your favorite movies, TV shows, books. Your recreational activities, hobbies.

Answer: I’m a graphic designer for the State of California. I have two degrees in Art, one from Sac City College, and one from Sacramento State University. I’ve written two non-fiction books: Asian Supernatural, including Hawaii and the Pacific, from Mutual Publishing, and Filipino Ghost Stories with Tuttle/Periplus. When not designing, drawing, or writing, I love researching and collecting Asian and Pacific Islander culture, and working out and doing martial arts (time permitting). I’m also an ardent foodie, and love trying cuisines I’ve never tasted before. As a home chef, grilling and barbecue are my two passions. I’ve taught art and cooking classes in the past. I’m a huge fan of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and I generally like all the good standards. My favorite authors are Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson. On TV, I enjoy 70s and 80s retro sitcom reruns, Big Bang Theory, PBS cooking shows, and The Walking Dead series.

Question: Tell us about your new book Diary of a Superhero Sidekick?

Answer: “Diary” is a book I actually wrote several years ago. It was rejected by book agents, so I decided to give it a try again by self-publishing it through Kindle. It’s about a misfit boy named Max Mowers, who gets recruited by his middle school principal and counselor to try out to become a superhero sidekick. Passing the four prerequisite character tests, he ends up in Camp Justice to see if he has what it takes to become one. It’s a parody of the whole hero genre as seen through the eyes of a twelve-year old, sort of a cross between Married with Children and Family Guy. Due to some mature themes, it’s definitely more for older teens.

Its cynical tone is actually a response to getting rejected so often. I decided to write a book and do it any way I wanted, not caring about what people thought. The end result is pretty honest and very funny.

Question: How did you get involved with the comic book community?

Answer: I grew up reading comic books as a kid in the Philippines and here in the U.S. I wanted to become a comic book artist early on, because I loved the work of John Byrne, George Perez, Michael Golden, and John Romita, Jr. I wanted to draw like they did, particularly their style of paneling and anatomy. Besides practicing on my own while going to art classes and learning anatomy from books, I was also an apprentice intern for a former Marvel Comics inker who used to live here in town. That was how I learned about the business. I even worked for the old Comics and Comix shop in downtown for a few years as a cashier.

Question: What were your favorite comic books growing up?

Answer: I was a big fan of Marvel, DC, and Keystone comics. I didn’t follow any particular title, but I enjoyed the Superman comics by Curt Swan, the Justice League and Justice Society of America books, the Neal Adams Batman, the classic Claremont, Byrne, and Austin X-Men, and even the Dr. Solar and Turok, Son of Stone comics. It was a mixed bag, but if the heroes had cool costumes, I was hooked.

Question: I heard you wrote some Filipino ghost stories, can you elaborate?

Answer: I wrote two books on ghosts: Asian Supernatural, including Hawaii and the Pacific, from Mutual Publishing, and Filipino Ghost Stories from Tuttle/Periplus. Both books came about from my deep fascination on the subject. Asian Supernatural is an encyclopedia of ghosts, demons, and witches from the Pacific Rim. I’m OCD when it comes to research, so when I couldn’t find a book that listed all of those entities in a single volume, I decided to write it myself. The second book is a collection of my family’s ghost stories, and is a good overview of the ghost culture of the Philippines. I want my family’s descendants to keep telling them to our future generations. To me, family ghost stories are like family recipes; precious, valuable, and personal.

Question: How did you take off in your writing career?

Answer: I had always written short fiction as a kid, but it was sporadic. While taking graphic design classes at Sac State, we had to take a journalism course as part of the major. Much to my surprise, I did really well in class, and that eventually led me to become a freelance reporter for several community organizations after graduation. I wrote for the Philippine Review, the Philippine Fiesta, YOLK Magazine, and Filipinas Magazine, covering events and media personalities. “Journalese” enabled me to write my two ghost books later on. But while I did well in magazine articles, fiction writing was something I still wanted to pursue. To date, I’ve had two short stories published, and four novels that are sitting on my shelf.

Question: What do you think of the new Marvel superhero movies, do they compliment Marvel comic books?

Answer: Movies adapted from comic books are a mixed bag. I haven’t seen all of them, but the ones I have are generally pretty good. Of course, It’s every difficult to translate two-dimensional, illustrated characters into a three-dimensional medium with living actors. However, there are some issues at play here that people must understand. The commercial success of these movies has taken the creative control from comic writers, and has put them in the corporate boardroom. Monetary success now guides the direction of the stories, and not the love of the writer for the characters. They’ve even begun changing the existing comic characters’ mythologies based on the movies, and not the other way around.

Another issue is the “Frank Millerization” of virtually all comic-based movies, where everything has to be dark, gritty, and violent. Comic books are about heroes who represent the highest ideals of humanity, hence the term “hero.” There’s nothing wrong with them being campy or bright-colored at times. These are people who wear underwear on the outside, for heaven’s sake.

Lastly, Hollywood has taken over the sci-fi community. Anyone who’s ever been a comic geek can remember the time when this hobby was frowned upon by the so-called “popular” kids. But now, it’s the “in” thing to like, because good looking people are landing the roles and are professing that they’ve loved the medium from the start. Even beautiful models are using Cosplay as a means to get attention and jobs. At the end of the day, though, true fans will stick to comics whether it’s accepted or not.

Question: How can people purchase your books?

Answer: They can go to the Kindle Books section of amazon.com and purchase it there for $2.99.

Question: Do you have an email address or website address, where people can contact you?

Answer: I have a Facebook Author’s Page: www.facebook.com/Alex.Paman.Author

Question: If you had 6 dinner guests, 3 historic and 3 fictional, who would they be and why?

Answer: Fictional: Jar-Jar Binks, Elmer Fudd, and Pete Puma. I just wanna see how long it takes for Elmer Fudd to get frustrated and start shooting the other two.

Historical: Da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Salvadore Dali. Even for just one hour, I would love to sit down with those three, give them each a sketchbook, and see what masterpieces they can create.

Question: If you could bring 3 things with you on a deserted island, what would those 3 things be?

Answer: a big sharp knife, a solar-powered radio, and some sturdy tennis shoes.

Question: Do you want to discuss anything we missed?

Answer: Besides cranking out material to the best of your abilities, there’s no real formula for success. Creating your product, as difficult, tedious, or time consuming it may be, is actually the easiest part of the process. Everything else is out of your hands. Busting your hump does not guarantee success at all, but you’ll never know until you try. People always use Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling as an example, who was rejected 50 times before getting picked up. Well guess what? There are even better authors out there who have been rejected 10 times that, but are still unpublished. There’s no correlation between the number of rejections, versus later success. Also, be wary of people always telling you what their plans are for success. Chances are, people who blab about what they’re going to do are going to be in the same exact spot a year later. Don’t tell someone what you’re GOING to do, tell them what you’ve DONE.

Question: Do you have any words of wisdom for your readers?

Answer: Whatever field or interest you choose to pursue, be sincere in liking it. Don’t just jump on the bandwagon because everyone else likes it. Idiots and attention-mongers come and go. What you like defines who and what you are, regardless of who’s watching, clapping, or rolling their eyes. You do it because you like it, and everything else is secondary.

Also, just because someone self-publishes their work as an e-book doesn’t make them a better writer. It just means you got published without the benefit of an agent or an editor. If you don’t want to get laughed at and be automatically branded as an amateur when your work is posted, then please know when to use a comma and a semicolon, and you have to actually know what a run-on sentence is. If you want to be a good writer, then you have to be a good editor, too.

Notes at the interview: If Alex had a chance to be a Super Hero his name would be “ Mighty Mantis” (just so happens to be the character in his book) and his super powers he would be able to fly and breath under water.

The Diary is his test book. Alex has another book which he is in the process of converting into an e-book it’s already copy written. By having an e-book you have total control of the finished product, no one will change anything about your story.

Alex feels very strongly that Super Hero’s were not meant to kill. Now a days Super Hero’s seem to be involved in ultra violence.

BELOW ARE HPI UPDATES, NEWS AND GOSSIP!

EMAIL SENT TO PAUL DALE ROBERTS:
Hello. My name is Maureen Riddell Hawkins. I have lived in Mt. Shasta, CA for 23 years. My daughter Melissa worked for about a
year at a place called "Lilly's and Latte's". It was a florist, etc. It was located on Lake street just west of the
Burger King.

My daughter had many many strange encounters anything from hearing whispers, glasses breaking and a strange "plasma" substance in the freezer that she and her co workers could never seem to get rid of. This location has changed hands many times which I find is strange because it is located directly next to the I-5 on ramp (northbound). I am not sure who owns this building now, but it looks like it is used for storage or something of that sort. My daughter Melissa would be willing to talk with someone about all the strange things that she and her boss, Michelle experienced. They had heard rumors that local Indians had been killed on that land. All we can do is speculate here, but sure wish we could find out some answers.

I was not surprised to read about the Black Butte Saloon. I use to work at the College in Weed and a group of us would go to the Black Butte after work when the Saloon was open. I heard many stories and would always get a "creepy" feeling whenever I was there. In fact, all of downtown Weed and especially the old mill is just creepy and haunted.

If your investigation team get a chance to visit Siskiyou County again, check out Dunsmuir. There are many many haunted places there. My grandson lived in a house in Dunsmuir where he experienced many apparitions, shadow figures,etc.

Siskiyou County has a colorful, but dark past. I know the old Yreka Cemetery has finally dedicated a section to the Chinese immigrants who came here to mine gold, etc. You can see mounds with bricks placed on them. There are some grave plaques with Chinese markings that I had discovered about 10 years ago. When I went back there just recently I noticed that there is the "dedication" to the Chinese cemetery which is located across the road.

If you do plan to make a trip up to Siskiyou County again, I would be happy to meet with you and your team.Thanks!

Sincerely,

Maureen Riddell Hawkins

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