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(06-27-2024, 09:46 AM)Drunk Monk Wrote: This only counts marginally because I'm randomly in the lead pic.

Quote:I’ve always been a storyteller. But my professors in prison taught me how to write.
[Image: Screen-Shot-2024-06-26-at-12.21.03-PM-e1...00x200.png]By Benjamin FrandsenJune 26, 2024
[Image: image0.jpeg]
Immortal Studios’ team (from left to right): Benjamin Frandsen, Charlie Stickney, Jen Troy, Rylend Grant, Payhuan Shiao, Hank Kanalz, Gene Ching, and Tomas Jegeus. Photo courtesy of Comic-Con.
One incredibly surreal day in 2003, I was arrested by the FBI, thrown in jail, and informed that I was facing the death penalty. I remember gaping in disbelief as my court-appointed attorney tried to convince me that facing life in prison was “a safer alternative to the death penalty.”
So how does a guy whose government wanted to kill him suddenly find himself standing on the main stage at the 2023 San Diego Comic-Con, being introduced as the newest graphic novelist at Immortal Studios, creator of the world’s first interconnected series of martial arts fantasy comics?
What could possibly have brought me out of despair and defeat and onto such an unlikely platform to share my harrowing tale? The answer is education.
My time in prison began in 2005, after being handed two sentences of life without possibility of parole — times two. Back then, there were almost no self-help programs, and the paltry few that existed were not offered to people who were “never getting out.” What was the point? But I stubbornly refused to let my brain turn to mush by slipping into the status quo lethargy of televised sports, movies, and endless Pinochle games. Lacking access to formal college classes, I realized I desperately needed a project.
I thought back to one of my earliest memories as a creator. I was five years old. My first “movie” was about to begin. My parents beamed as the dinosaur blanket curtain opened. “And . . . action!” I chirped. I knew precisely how many Star Wars action figures it took to defeat the evening’s antagonist, my gargantuan stuffed gorilla. Though my mise-en-scene would have inspired no envy from Peter Jackson, and the applause was more loyalty than admiration, I was hooked. I had witnessed the miracle — my audience had experienced my inspired thought. I had participated in that most sacred of rituals.
I had created a moment.
“I was proud of myself for the first time in nine years”
[Image: image1-1-1160x1863.jpeg]
Concept art by Immortal Studios intern Nicholas Wong.

Concept art by my former student.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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