My Letter Essentials

Hi everyone, it’s been a little while. I decided to do some writing, and as I’m working I wanted to put something out into the world. So I took the alphabet and took a letter that correlates to a word and explained its importance to me.

A = Art. Art is everything for me. Aesthetic could be it also. Comic art, album art, visual art. Making not just drawing art but creating art. Music, comic writing, all of it. My blood is just art. Aesthetics are essential to me, what is art without some direction. My current project I’m working on, I have thousands of pictures to influence me. Art saved my life, I love it. I consume so much art. Music, comics, games, movies, all of it. I don’t really read books, but I respect books. They just aren’t my speed, no matter how much I try. 

B = Batman. Batman is the best character that’s been created. The dual identity, the no kill rule, the romance, the Loneliness, the world he lives in and the way he operates opens an infinite amount of doors to explore him. He’s a hero to me. Him and Cat-Woman have the best fictional romance, and he has the best rivalries ever. Batman is incredible but what makes him the best is how he interacts with everything around him. Not only do I love him isolated, but he’s a character that makes everything so much more interesting, because of the situations he gets in, he’s adaptive but also has a few things that never change, if he’s being written well at least. I’m a complete nerd about him, He’s everything to me.

C = Comics. I’d also pick Concerts and Conventions. So I’ll say 3 C’s. Comics are me, but at events like that I feel the most alive. If you see me in the mosh-pits that’s the truest me. The most alive, honest, feels. Comic-con is where I absorb everything and meet new people. All of them have so much power. I could literally write 1000 words about each but I don’t want to, but they’re all essential parts of my life. If you are reading this, I’m sure you know how much all 3 mean to me.

D = Dimensional. To me, space is super sick. I’m not super into science, but I guess Sci-Fi. At the end of the day, I’m a Jack Kirby guy. New Gods, all that soap-esc Marvel and DC Space stuff in the 60-70s. That’s what I’m programmed by, to an extent. Sci-Fi, it’s very strong. Because when you just have Earth… In the present day. At least.. There are limits. But if I’m talking about other dimensions, like Else-World stuff, or Future stories, I can do anything. I’m writing 3 near future, sci-fi things right now. And to me, I also wanna be Multi-Dimensional in my music. I’m saying things, but I try to get across all facets that I can. If a beat is sad, and I’m rapping about a good situation… What does that say?

E = Electronics. I write my scripts on google docs. I record and publish all my music digitally. I run my website that way. If all electronics were pulled from under me, most of my creative endeavors wouldn’t work. 

F = Fashion. It’s really something I more-so see as important and something I could Pursue in other senses. I dress up in a way I like. A lot of graphic tee shirts and stuff, I don’t get as deep into it because money doesn’t grow on trees. But my main focus on fashion is creating cool stuff and dressing stuff up. I’d love to just be given clothes like legos and do styling. I also pay good attention to my character's clothes. Whether I’m drawing them or just scripting them, they have to have recognizable clothes. Think of the most iconic characters. They all have fashion statements. Charlie Brown. Mickey Mouse, No really. Part of their importance is there recognizable clothes. I see the overalls or the striped shirt when I close my eyes. And of course, Superheroes. It’s all fashion. Superheroes and Wrestling are really just fashion shows in disguise.

G = God. God is why I’m here, and through it all where I can look. Faith isn’t the easiest thing at all, but God is really important to me. And what’s always on my mind is how can I be better for him? I’m not holier than thou, I usually fuck it up, but it helps me try and keep things straight when I have that goal. 

H = History. I base everything off history. Whether it’s super super obvious or not. It’s always been my favorite thing to learn about, I still love it, and it’s one of the subjects I enjoy in school. I’m thinking about majoring in it. Whether I do or not, it’ll always be special to me. I also think it’s crucial for our society to understand. It’s very cliche about “understand history so we don’t repeat it” but I think for something to be said that much, there has to be some truth to it. I hope this generation makes leaps and bounds of progress in that sense.

I = Inspiration. We are what’s around us, we create from what’s around us, and we hope to be a thumbprint on others and be an inspiration and example. Every single project I do, I keep a vision board. Before I make my own world, I need to throw collages together and live in those. Think about it as a storyboard. If you undress my stories or music, it’s just something else in Matt’s Clothes. And to me, I grew up around a whole lot of nothing. Maryland is boring. We’ve all had to kind of create fun, unless we’re on vacation or something. My biggest inspirations creatively are probably Tom King, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Jack Kirby, Akira Toriyama, Mitch Gerads, MF DOOM, Alan Moore, Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Pusha T and so many others but those ones have been ones that are thru-lines. 

J = Jesus Christ. Pretty much what I said about God, but the difference is a deeper connection because he walked on earth, and saw everything through a mortal eye, so I feel like he understands why it’s so hard for us to be good. 

K = Ko. My last name, but shortened. Because the goal is to publish comics for a living. Or have them published, is a better word. But I want my name printed, but my real, very very Greek last name is impossible. So I shortened it for my signature and ease of getting my name out. But I’m proud to be a member of my family and lineage, I guess.

L = Love. Platonic, Self, Romantic, Familial. I love people, I love myself, I love the ocean, I love music, I love art. Life isn’t worth living without loving things and people. Everyone on earth deserves to love things and be loved. 

M = Me. You have to understand and work on yourself before you can start dealing with anything else. How can I expect to build a family,  hang with friends, do fun things, work, create passion projects and make money if my head isn’t screwed on??

N = No. saying yes and no are equally important. You gotta say yes and live life, explore and go off the walls and explore, just live like it’s your last day. But no is important also. If I said yes to everything I’d be in bad situations. Don’t say yes to something you’ll regret! 

O = Overtime. Your biggest enemy isn’t people who are better than you. It’s time. My leg up on my competition, with all due respect, is that I go overtime. My work hours can be any, because I’m racing to be better. It’s just running a marathon, and when they rest's, I run the fastest. 

P = Pusha T. He’s the best personality on the mic. He’s so animated without being corny. He uses his voice in a crazy way, his joker character on It’s Almost Dry, he’s the only artist that could do something like that and not make it corny as shit. He’s a real goat. 

Q = Questions. When I’m writing, I have infinite amounts of them. You can start at the core of something. I’ll make up an example. We have a guy named Jimmy. Jimmy wears leather shoes. Why? Well, it’s because he has a job at the University. Why? Because he’s always been inclined to teach. Why? Because in his life, he’s been frustrated by the lack of advancement in society, and what’s to be part of the change. Why? Because the society he lives in has been left stagnant in the scientific race. Why? Because after the war’s they’ve entered because of foolishness, they spent all they had on war. Why? Because the president of said society wants to conquer all of Humanity. Why?? Because he grew up spoiled rotten and even with a family fortune so much it can’t be counted, it was never enough. Why????? Because when he grew up, his family was so involved in money that he was neglected. And Why? Because years ago the Patriarch of the family first coming to America was given a palm reading that he would rule the world. So, I started with Jimmy’s leather shoes and I built a world around it. The world, fictional and especially real dies when you stop asking questions. 

R = Romance. Romance is what makes the world go around. It’s life and it pushes us, in all senses. It also is the heart of a lot of the best stories, fiction or nonfiction. We gotta Love each other, for real. 

S = Superheroes. What can I really say? I’m not sure. Sometimes I feel like we need to write a lot more of them because everything is so backwards, but I always seem to gravitate towards writing these psychological sob-stories, but I love superheroes. I wanna write more stories where a good guy prevails, because it’s important. Like stuff for the kids. 

T = T.K & T.S. Tom King and Travis Scott. My biggest heroes. My biggest influences. My GOATs. Their creations and attitudes and passion engineered me. They both saved my life and launched me forward and their art has given me joy and solace and awesome experiences and memories.

U = Universe. I have universes in my head, my life has just been living in fantastic worlds that I’d populate until I forgot it all and had to start again. I’ve always been creative, so whenever I had nothing to entertain Me, even when I was like a 4 year old, I’d just develop universes. It’s my company name. Mega Universe. 

V = Valid. It’s just a cool word written out that I use very often. Not a deep meaning. 

W = War. War is what I’m writing about, always. In my comics and music, everything I’ve written is war. Spray paint and aeon, they felt like wars to prove something to myself. Peace and love was a war of where I would put my love. Babylon is about real life war. Exosia was a war for truth and closure. Playing God (which never came out, but it’s still relevant) was a war against things you don’t have control of. This story I’m writing now, that I have a lot of faith in.. it’s about war, while being in a war, it’s really about people’s wars, but that takes place in a very American war. So it’s also about war crimes and whatnot. We’re all at war, for all our lives. It’s just about taking the wins and learning the losses, and showing up and seeing what happens. 

X = X-Factor. The best people have an X-Factor. It isn’t a gimmick, but it’s like another sense, it’s like a survival instinct in their field. When pressure is applied, The X-Factor comes out. I have an X-Factor. 

Y = Youth. Youth is what pushes the world forward. And also something so precious and deserves to be protected. I think some generations recently have lost sight of their youth in the world, and I hope my generation as parents protects our children’s youth and let’s them explore and love the world, but to do that we have to put the world together so they aren’t brought into an unraveled mess. 

Z = Z’s. It isn’t a word, but I couldn’t care less. I love sleeping. It’s important to refill your batteries.