Meet Stanley Bostwick

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stanley Bostwick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Stanley, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I think finding purpose is something that a lot of people struggle with right now. I know from experience it can be easy to fall into a place waiting for purpose to find us instead of looking for it actively. For me, to get out of that place, it was instrumental to get to know myself. I know too many people that have incredible potential that aren’t comfortable with themselves. I had to learn who I was and who I wanted to be. Then it’s a daily struggle to become that person.
Ultimately I believe we must each decide what kind of influence we want to have on the world, and decide for ourselves how to accomplish it. It’s always been my goal and purpose to make the world a little bit of a better place. I spent a lot of time wondering how to do it or even being upset that I haven’t been able to do anything based on the limitations I placed on myself. Then I decided to look at what I had within myself and around me and do what I could with that. When we do this, it turns out we are capable of much more than we think we are. Comic books are something I chose to do to fulfill a greater purpose that I choose to pursue and have to keep choosing every day.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I organize an incredibly talented group of artists, writers, and other creative geniuses in order to create comic books and other media for Bleakheaven Comics. I got started doing this because I’ve always wanted to create worlds and characters, and telling meaningful stories with them. I created Bleakheaven with these goals in mind. Without question the most important work I do for Bleakheaven is co-writing and editing our young adult title, Credence. It’s a book we do in conjunction with Stand for the Silent, an anti-bullying and suicide prevention charity. We work closely with the founder to craft books that help kids and adults digest these difficult topics. Plus all of that is wrapped up in an action packed story with the Mothman fighting monsters.
I’m a big fan of monsters, mythology, legend, and cryptozoology. So all of our stories feature strange creatures to one capacity or another. We are working on a myriad of other titles including our flagship series Welcome to Bleakheaven that introduces characters and concepts of our world we use as well as our main web comic Brynoch the Destroyer, a DnD based comedy series. We are also working on a several other titles we’ve announced, plus another book based off an older computer game we haven’t announced yet.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Determination is the number one thing. It’s important to shift your definition of success. For me, every book published or even every social media post is a mark of success. As long as I keep moving forward and doing what I believe in, I know things will work out. It’s important not to let discouragement get the best of me.

I believe the most important aspect of writing is learning. Every great writer thirsts for knowledge. It has to become a need like water or air. The more you learn and know about a variety of subjects the better of a writer you’ll become. To go along with this, it’s important to be open to new ideas as well as having a firm moral belief system. Knowledge should be used to mold and shape ourselves to become better and move us closer to truth.

Learning who to trust is also a key element to making it through this journey. There’s a lot I can do on my own, but I wouldn’t have been able to publish anything by myself. As a leader, it’s important to find those with potential and common goals. A leader needs to encourage growth and learn who should and can be trusted to get things where they need to be. Also when these people are found and recruited, let them do what they do. They need to be guided so that what they do serves the vision, and at the same time, they were brought on for a reason. So let them do what they are good at and listen to them.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

There are quite a few books that shaped me. One of the most important is Heart of Darkness. It’s a perfect showcase of the duality of man. It shows how people are corrupted, The most important thing I realized from the book was the dangers of being “hollow.” If we don’t fill ourselves with morality and purpose, then the temptations of the world will ring within us and resonate like a bell. If we don’t chose our own fate, then the choice will be made for us. We will all be confronted with the heart of darkness someday, and we must be ready for it.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Artwork by Josh Bostwick, Gregory Titus, Rufus Zaejodeaus, and Pibby Peirce. Photos by Ashlee Bostwick

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