5 minutes with ... Kyle Scher

What are you up to these days?

Several things, all of which keep me incredibly busy. I’m working as a Freelance Writer for a handful of companies. Perhaps the biggest one, is that I’m a Comics and Culture Contributor for The Daily Fandom. Here I do reviews of comic books, TV shows, movies, etc. I have even created several long running article series that I use to analyse some of my favourite pieces of pop culture media. I also co-host The Daily Bugle, the podcast ran by the crew of The Daily Fandom.

Though what I consider my crowning achievement in recent months is that I’m now officially a comic book writer. I recently put a four-page short comic online to view freely. I’m working with the artist very closely and we have even more comics in production. We are in talks to set up a Patreon so that we can fund our comics much more easily than we are at the moment.

Favourite Uni memory?

This is hard to choose, I have so many. My three years at Winchester were some of the best of my life. But I think the biggest memories I reflect on often come from my society. For those who don’t know, I was elected as the Chair of the University of Winchester Comic Book Society for two years in a row. While it was difficult to juggle so many responsibilities plus my coursework, I wouldn’t have changed it for anything. I met so many wonderful people that I’m still friends with to this day.

Perhaps the funniest memory to come from the Comic Book Society is the quiz I ran at the end of my final year. I had gained a reputation at that point for being something of a comic book encyclopaedia, and thus any previous quizzes were notoriously hard. I decided to take it a step further by making one of the rounds of the quiz all about my opinions on certain comic book storylines. Needless to say, there were many jokes and debates that spawned from that session.

Advice for new students?

I will attempt to echo the best advice given to me by one of my writing idols, Greg Rucka. Don’t ever stop writing. You may not want to write, but you have to. You are the only one that can tell the story in your head, so just write it down. The more you do this, the better your writing will get. Practice makes perfect, as they say, so not writing is a detriment to be avoided at all costs.

Best thing about UoW?

The teachers. Without a doubt the University of Winchester has some of the best and most inviting teachers of any uni. I formed so many great bonds with my teachers that I think of them all as great friends with sage advice. For instance, in my second year I was struggling to meet the requirements of the final writing piece of The Short Story module. The stories had to be grounded in realism, but I write very fantastical and out there fiction. I often write in and sometimes combine the genres of Sci-Fi, Noir, Superheroes, and Fantasy. Catherine Wild sat down with me and figured out a way to get my passion for what I write to fit into the module requirements. What came out of this is, in my opinion, one my strongest non-comic book pieces I have ever wrote.

Guilty pleasure?

I like Star Trek: Enterprise. Yes, it’s easily the weakest link in the Star Trek franchise, but it’s actually pretty good. You have to skip the absolutely awful first two seasons and go straight to season three. Sure, there are diamonds in the rough, but season three onwards is where it is at. Once the Xindi arc starts that show elevates itself to a quality that is just below Deep Space Nine. Considering DS9 is the best Trek ever made, that is a high compliment for Enterprise. At least in my opinion.

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