Sad Story

Several websites are reporting the apparent murder of comic book and animation writer Steve Perry down in Florida. Local news sources there report there has been a grisly homicide, Perry is missing and his roommates have been arrested. I don't believe authorities have officially said that the body, which is being found a piece at a time, is that of Perry, but folks who knew the writer and who are in touch with the police seem to be taking it as fact.

One of them is his friend Steve Bissette, who has posted what he can post at this time. Most of it's a lovely tribute to the presumably-deceased…and of great importance is that Bissette helps to untangle the mystery of the many Steve Perrys. There's a prominent musician by that name, as well as another Steve Perry who has worked in comics. I think there may even be yet another Steve Perry who dabbled in comics or animation back in the eighties. I had two separate encounters-by-phone, neither of them pleasant, with one or more writers named Steve Perry back then. I'm not certain which Steve Perry was on the other end of the line or even if it was the same Steve Perry both times. I suppose by now it doesn't matter but the potential here for confusion should be noted.

I have almost nothing to add about Steve Perry, the writer of Thundercats and the apparent murder victim but I have much to say about the roller-coaster-ride lives of those who freelance. The sadness of this Perry's story in the last week or so is obvious, but so is what preceded it. This Steve Perry had been a prolific and successful writer for some time…but his career took a downturn and he was in dire financial trouble in recent years. There is, sadly, a lot of that going around these days…

It can occur in any employment/business situation. The commerce is good. It looks like it will go on indefinitely…and then it doesn't. What has happened with our nationwide economy the last few years should make everyone painfully aware of that. Those who freelance should always be braced for the possibility, though in times when the work is flowing and you're even turning things down, it can be hard to believe, hard to remember. I have at least a dozen recent anecdotes I could toss up here — tales of one acquaintance after another who had a gig that looked like it would go on forever and so they were emotionally and financially unprepared to find out otherwise.

Writers and artists are often extremely vulnerable and prone to forget, or to perhaps shove into a corner, the concept that long-term financial security is necessary in this world. We often have an emotional response to opportunities, grabbing at bad (or non-existent) deals because some project looks like it would be fun to do, looks like it will allow us to produce what we think will be our best work. This lust on our part is often exploited — sometimes deliberately but sometimes innocently — by those who control the money end of our business. The unintentional exploitation can be the most damaging because that's the kind you really don't see coming.

Often, too often, we encourage our own exploitation by allowing ourselves to get desperate. There's a vicious cycle in the marketplace: When you're desperate, or at least when you look that way, you get fewer jobs and the ones you do get do not pay as well. And that, of course, only serves to keep you desperate…and we all know where that leads.

I am not suggesting that you need to make every possible nickel on every job while it lasts. That can be destructive in other, more immediate ways. But there is such a thing as undervaluing what you do and not making what you should or could, and there's also such a thing as having a Plan B in life. Over the years, I've encountered a lot of writers and artists who created something that was wonderful and successful…though not all that lucrative for them. The checks they got at the time seemed like windfalls, and perhaps they were in a way but they were also finite. And at some point ever after, they were like those gamblers in Vegas who build up a big wad of dough, lose it all and then think, "Well, I won it before. I can win it all back again." It's not always like Rocky the Flying Squirrel says — "That trick never works!" — but it sure doesn't work most of the time.

I'm rambling here and I apologize…and in truth, I know very little of what brought Steve Perry to the point where he had to rely on public charity and the often-elusive kindness of strangers. He may well have done everything humanly possible to not get to that point. But at some stage, something went very wrong with his career and everyone oughta keep that in mind. When you touch bottom, it's a lot easier to go down than it is to go up.