Kenny Porter, '15, was always an avid reader. Whether they were novels like “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” or comics like Batman and Spawn, he could be found with a book in his hands.
His childhood home in Grand Haven was only a block and a half away from the local comic shop.
“I could run down there and throw all my pocket money at whatever I could afford,” Porter said.
That child's love of reading sparked a passion for writing.
He taught himself scriptwriting in high school and ghostwrote screenplays after graduating. When Porter first enrolled at Grand Valley, he planned to pursue a degree in film. But the more he considered his future, the more he kept coming back to comic books.
“It's always been there with me, loving comic art and writing,” he said. “I realized how much of a love I had for comics and that I could give back to the medium and explore it more.”
Breaking into the industry
While GVSU's writing curriculum did not specifically cover comic writing, Porter developed his talents by writing storylines as short stories and adapting them to a comic style. He said the writing workshops at GVSU were particularly impactful in his development as a writer.
“Those fiction writing workshops were really essential in learning how to take feedback and how to take other people's interpretations into account,” Porter said. “It was really helpful in that regard in terms of preparing [stories] that I would go on to pitch.”
Porter's break into the comics industry came while he was studying at GVSU. In 2012, he won the Top Cow Talent Hunt for Writing. As contest winner, Porter wrote an issue of “Artifacts,” a series by Top Cow, which is a subsidiary of Image Comics.
After the publication of his first comics work, “Artifacts No. 33,” Porter faced the question common to many: What's next?
It was fellow comic writer Jason Aaron who guided Porter to his next step. Aaron told Porter not to wait for anyone to ask him to write his next work and to get started on his own.
“In comics, it's considered necessary to create your own thing and put it out, because it shows that you can do it, you have the know-how of how making comics works and you can be trusted to take a project from nothing to completion,” Porter said.
So he began self-publishing. He created “Ink Ribbon,” a standalone crime story which was picked up and published by Visionary Comics. He created a project on Kickstarter called “Barnstormers,” a series about the misadventures of monster hunters. The project caught the attention of an agent who connected Porter with Scholastic to create a series called “Fearless.”
“That's when I started to catch the notice of editors at DC Comics,” he said.
His first opportunity with DC came as a horror short story starring Green Lantern for “Cursed Comics Cavalcade No. 1.” From there, he received more opportunities to write for DC, including series like “DC Mech,” “Superboy,” and “The Flash.”
Working with DC Comics posed a new challenge for Porter to write his own stories while fitting into a broader universe's continuity.
“It's the big writers' room collaboration sort of thing,” he said. “You're telling your own story, but then you also have to be cognizant of all the other stories people are telling. It's really fun, but it's also challenging.”
One of his more recent projects is “Superman: Father of Tomorrow,” an Elseworlds series set in its own universe that follows Superman's father as the only survivor of Krypton who travels to Earth.
“You get complete freedom. If you create a new universe, you get to do whatever you want,” he said about Elseworlds stories. “The problem is selling people on the fact that it's a new universe and getting them to buy into it.”
Receiving buy-in from his audience is something Porter has become more confident in as he has grown as a writer in the industry.
“I worry less about doing something cool as opposed to doing something that deeply, emotionally hits me,” he said. “The more I focused on what really resonated with me, the more it seemed like it resonated with other people.”
The surrealism of success
Porter said that he has been lucky to meet comic writers who he grew up reading. He particularly remembered receiving notes on one of his stories from Jim Lee, known for his works on X-Men in the '90s and DC stories like “Batman: Hush” among other works.
“[It's] insane to have a script come back with notes from somebody whose stuff you idolized when you were a kid,” Porter said.
Porter is helping to lead the “Power Rangers Unlimited” series alongside his work with DC Comics.
Throughout his success, Porter said he makes sure to remember how special his opportunities have been.
“I think about the joy I had as a kid taking [these stories] in. That I get to give that to somebody else makes me immensely happy,” he said.
