Rodney Barnes is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, and writer of comic book scripts. He has been the executive producer and screenwriter of such hit shows as The Boondocks. Rodney has also written several comic book scripts, including the popular Killadelphia. While he enjoys living in both worlds, he definitely prefers penning graphic novels over writing for television shows.
For one thing, there is not that much to write when it comes to a comic book script. This means there is less pressure to come up with filler or additional content. Also, Rodney loves the additional freedom he has when he is writing a comic book script. In fact, when he was first starting out writing graphic novels, the freedom he was given was overwhelming! When he got started at Marvel Comics, he wrote a graphic novel called The Falcon. There was so much freedom that he did not actually know what the boundaries were. In TV land, the opposite is true because boundaries pop up everywhere.
As time went on, Rodney became more comfortable with the unique relationship between words and art that graphic novels possess. This was evident for him when he started writing comics like Lando: Double or Nothing, as well as Quincredible. Even though he feels quite comfortable with the dynamic between words and art, he still acknowledges that it is a learning process.
Rodney’s deep love for comics has been with him ever since he was a kid. Back then, he couldn’t wait to go down to the local comic book store and get his hands on the latest Batman or Green Lantern. When he got a little older, his friend would drive with him from Annapolis to Baltimore to go into a larger store that has a massive selection of graphic novels. He loved them, along with the community, which led him to pursue writing them.
Now that Rodney has several graphic novels under his belt, he has taken the big leap into running his own publishing company, Zombie Love Studios. This has been a dream come true for him. It is also the natural evolution of his long journey in the world of comic books, from the time he was reading them, to when he was writing them, to now where he publishes and distributes them.
Rodney is not planning to stop writing graphic novels himself anytime soon. However, he has wanted to cement his legacy as an African American creative who can do it all, and do it well. We are bound to see a lot of exciting and engaging titles coming from Zombie Love Studios. For now, we have Killadelphia, Elysium Gardens, Monarch, Florence and Normandie, and Crownsville.
To learn more about his new publishing and film companies, you can head over to his website. You can also check out the latest from Zombie Love Studios by going to the official website.