Professional Geeks is a series of interviews with some of the coolest people I know; people who pay their bills being geeks. Justin Jordan is the writer of multiple comic books from virtually every major publisher including The Strange Talent of Luther Strode for Image Comics and Green Lantern: New Guardians from DC. His latest work, Death of Love, comes out this week from Image Comics.
The Modern Gafa: How did you come to be a professional geek?
Justin Jordan: I've liked comics for literally as long as I can remember. And I do mean literally; probably my oldest memory is 'reading' a Popeye comic when I was maybe two years old. It had the Sea Hag.
I never really got away from them, and I always liked to write. Eventually, I realize writing comics was maybe something I could do, and I spent ten years doing small press and self pubbed work before Image picked The Strange Talent of Luther Strode.
After Strode got picked up, I basically instantly had a comics career and I've been doing that full time for the last eight years.
TMG: What is an average day of work like?
JJ: Usually, I get up around seven or so, feed and brush the car, screw around on the Internet for a bit, then go exercise for a while. After I come back and get breakfast, shower, etc, I check my emails and such.
Around noon, I shutdown the internet and do actual writing work for three hours. I basically work for 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break, rinse and repeat for three hours. After that I usually take a break for an hour (which, in practice, is usually screwing around on the internet) and then do a two or three hour stretch where I take care of whatever other stuff needs doing (which, there's always a lot of 'other stuff' in a writing career).
The dinner. In theory, my day should end there. In practice, a couple nights a week I usually have another hour or two of stuff to do. That's Monday through Friday. I try as hard as possible to not work on Saturday and preferably Sunday.
TMG: How has being a geek helped you succeed in your work?
JJ: Well, I'm a professional geek, so it's totally essential. But I actually find that my general knowledge of comics is even more helpful than you might expect in doing work for hire comics.
TMG: What is the best thing about your job?
JJ: I make stuff up for a living. It doesn't get much better. It's still a job, and there's still good days and bad days, workwise, but at the end of the day it's probably the most fun you're likely to ever get paid for.
TMG: Do you still love what you do? Or has your hobby becoming a job tainted the enjoyment of it for you?
JJ: If anything, I love it more. What is true is that I don't have as much time for geek stuff as I once did, which is kind of a bummer. But it hasn't hurt my appreciation of the stuff I love at all.
You can follow Justin on Twitter @Justin_Jordan. His latest graphic novel, Death of Love, is out now from Image Comics. Click here to order your copy or click here to check out my full review.
