I really enjoy working on the stories that are about a comic I'm personally really excited to see. That was the case when I interviewed Jeff Smith about his new Captain Marvel series from DC. I enjoyed talking to him about what made those early Captain Marvel stories so great and how Smith is trying to bring back some of that magic. I certainly sympathize with the feelings John Jakala expresses here. I think this project offers something a lot of comic book fans have wanted to see in superhero comics but for the longest time haven't. Permanent Link: 12:15 PM |
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Monday, January 29, 2007
Mark it zero
There are few greater joys for a movie fan than when you see director John Milius (Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn) being interviewed and then realize "hey, that's John Goodman from The Big Lebowski!" Some examples:
Here is Milius speaking about the creation of Apocalypse Now.
Here is Goodman's Walter Soback explaining why he doesn't roll on Saturdays.
Here is Milius talking about being a conservative in Hollywood.
Here Soback "draws a line in the sand."
On some days, and this is one of them, I wear my "World of Pain Shirt" featuring an angry Soback pointing his gun. Once I guy talked to me about, asking why I have a shirt with Milius on it. The fact that this guy just assumed that people walk around with the faces of directors with cult followings pasted on their chests amused me.
Another quick anecdote, this one's actually interesting. In his book A Cinema of Loneliness Robert Phillip Kolker describes how Milius would be in a convertible driving wildly along Sunset Blvd. He was standing up in the back, firing of his shotgun. At the wheel was a topless Magot Kidder. I ask you, is this not the fantasy of every male who was a preteen in the late-'70s or early-'80s? Permanent Link: 8:29 AM |
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Friday, January 26, 2007
Batdance
School started so I couldn't get much done here. I will leave you with what has to be one of my all time favorite interpretations of Batman (it took America's Radio Sweetheart to remind me of it). Batman and Prince are two entities that are associated with quality work (Batman: The Animated Series, Sign O' The Times). But in both there is such a sense of the operatic, of the larger-than-life. Because of that things soon become very ridiculous. The above music video gives us an example of both the fictional character and the short guy from Minnesota succumbing to that ridiculousness. It's not "good" in any traditional sense but it is great. It takes a special kind of crazy to get all Composite Superman in your own music video. Permanent Link: 4:29 PM |
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Thursday, January 25, 2007
Now the trilogy is complete!
Just another example of how What If Vol. 1 Issue 34 predicted today's comic book world:
A while ago I wrote an essay on the education films of Lawrence, Kansas's own Centron Studios. The website for Wholphin DVD Magazine posted it a week ago for all to enjoy. I think it's actually pretty good if I don't say so myself. The Centron films directed by Herk Harvey (Carnival of Souls) have all the melodrama of a Elia Kazan film but contained in the shell of a midwestern 1950's educational film. The films I discuss are The Outsider, Cheating, The Gossip and the fantastic The Snob.
If you're interested in furthering exploring the strange, sometimes fun, sometimes scary world of educational films why don't you take a look at Ken Smith's Mental Hygiene, an informative and witty book. While you're at it check out the latest edition of Wholphin the DVD Magazine of Unseen Film. Permanent Link: 7:36 PM |
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Thursday, January 18, 2007
Joke and Dagger Dept.
Many have made note on how comics seems to be a R&D unit of major movie studios. Spider-Man is multi-million dollar franchise for Sony and big stars like Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow are part of the team to bring Iron Man to the big screen. Superheroes are fine stuff but there's one comic property that has proven itself for decades that is ripe for the big screen. I am talking about MAD Magazine's Spy vs. Spy.
Anotonio's Prohias's strip portrayed the Cold War in its most basic form. The world of White Spy and Black Spy is a Tom & Jerry cartoon where no side really wins or loses but plenty of destruction is metered out. Just like in real life the attacks perpetrated by one party often comes back to them in a form they could not foresee. It's one of the best concepts in comics history. The Cold War may be over but in these post-Patriot Act times anxieties over espionage have certainly not vanished. A film that uses slapstick humor to portray the futile nature of warfare, even the "little wars" of the intelligence community, is in order.
I've talked to the older and wiser Mike Sterling about this. There seems to be a few creative avenues the filmmakers could choose from. Mike was somewhat enthusiastic about a live action film starring Dave Thomas and John Goodman as the spies with Nicole Kidman appearing at the end as the inevitable Grey Spy. There was thought given to Angelina Jolie as Lady in Grey. Ultimately it was decided that would prove problematic as Goodman would surely come inbetween the Jolie/Pitt romance. We wouldn't the tabloids swarming around the production like the vultures they are. I think live action is also the way to go but I was pretty impressed with the look of these Mountain Dew commercials that starred people in Spy vs. Spy costumes (I've embedded one above). Throw in a few more millions of dollars and I think it could work for a film.
The narrative would be simple. One and one-half hours of two spies killing each other. The movie going audience would be treated to a wordless demonstration of inventive violence with no reason or rhyme to it. One spy would witness the obliteration of the other only for its target to reappear with the same mission: destroy what does not look like you. This mayhem would reach greater and greater proportions until Grey Spy arrives and destroys both of them. I envision all the visceral action of a modern day action film but filtered through influence of Franz Kafka and Rube Goldberg. Get Steven Soderbergh to direct it (have you seen Schizopolis?) and you've got a helluva picture on your hands.
I can only hope the pre-destined success of this film would lead to many of MAD's features becoming films. Mike suggests Fold-In: The Movie and I am ready to consult on The Lighter Side of...The Movie. Permanent Link: 1:19 PM |
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Proud as a pea-cork!
Congratulations to Alec Baldwin for his Golden Globe win for his role on 30 Rock. The show has already become one of the best comedies on TV. The collection of irresistible characters caught up in a manic pace has placed the show as the heir apparent to Arrested Development.
I have noticed a disturbing trend in the critical praise the show has been getting. John Powers's piece on Fresh Air is just the latest example of someone claiming Baldwin "saves" 30 Rock. Powers claims that without him the show is "a dead duck." Baldwin is wonderful but he is not the only wonderful actor on the show. Judah Friedlander, Jack McBrayer and the show's creator Tina Fey have all crafted characters that hold their own. There is one player whose performance I look forward to every week, more so than Baldwin. Tracy Morgan's Tracy Jordan has been a joy to watch right from the beginning. All the decadence and spoils of fame has fed Jordan's worst tendencies over the years. Now he lives only in his un-reality. It's tragic but tragedy creates the best comedy. Placed in the more subdued world of comedy writers Jordan cannot help but come in conflict with people. There's no malice to it, he's just being who he is. On 30 Rock Morgan has struck that delicate balance of being annoying to the other characters on the show but a delight to watch for the audience. To bring it back to Baldwin, the main dynamic of 30 Rock is Jordan and Baldwin's Jack Donaghy, two men from very different cultural backgrounds, being equally crazy and Fey's Liz Lemon stuck in the middle. That's when the show just works.
Thankfully in this modern age you don't have to read my ramblings to understand. To wit:
This is actually from the opening to a recent Saturday Night Live hosted by Baldwin. When Fey and Morgan join him they basically act out what I love about the show.
I really hope this becomes the next Internet sensation. Pendleton Ward's cartoon short is creative, funny and full of awesome stuff. It's hard to describe but for right now let's call it a post-anime, post-Nintendo Little Nemo. It's pretty easy to enjoy.
Reviewing First Moon from AiT/Planet Lar it's clear that writer Jason McNamara and artist Tony Talbert have enthusiasm for comics and some kind of talent for it. The problem is those talents haven't fully shown itself yet.
The first thing to notice in the book is that Talbert's art suffers from the flaws a lot of young artists have. There's stiffness in the figures, the storytelling isn't quite clear in places and faces change shape from panel to panel. The book opens in the 1580s when North America was being colonized by Europeans. The historic scenes are competently done but unimaginative. When the story switches to a domestic scene in modern day California and there Talbert's problems with character work became very clear. It was hard to appreciate what was being set up with these characters because of the flimsy look they are given.
McNamara's story is an interesting concept. First Moon goes back and forth from the 1580s and the present. In the past a culture of people discover the werewolves native to America while in the present a young boy, Ben, discovers the same. The difference is Ben himself is a werewolf, just like his parents. Unfortunately this parallel doesn't work because none of the colonists make an impression. The idea of colonists dealing with this mysterious woman who will not die loses its power when everyone with a speaking role is bland. We can't help see the colonists as anything other than the werewolves do: meat that isn't dead yet.
It's a shame because the moments where the colonists are in crisis over what to do with their captive are some of Talbert's best work. When he experiments with page design and the atmosphere of the endless night of Roanoke Island there's a certain beauty to it that I wish would have lasted longer.
Thankfully the story taking place in the present has some pathos attached to it. Ben sees what he thinks is an invasion upon his house by monsters. He runs away from home and falls into a strange world that time has forgotten. There's an intensity to Ben's escape that resonates in such moments as his ride on an old steam engine. The fatal flaw here is that the outcome of Ben's path is easy to foresee and McNamara still doesn't reveal it until near the end of the book. How Ben and his family is resolve their place in society with their "condition" is cute, though, and the most satisfying part of First Moon.
It's clear McNamara and Talbert have something in them. They just both need to polish up their skills before that something is displayed. Permanent Link: 12:05 PM |
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Thursday, January 11, 2007
More dead pilots
Yesterday's post featured an unaired pilot co-starring Mr. Show alumni so why not have some more of that? I once went to an Un-Cabaret show that featured pilots by Bob Odenkirk that for whatever reason never picked up. The best were the two episodes of Next done for FOX. It was basically Mr. Show but with sketches broken up between each other. There was a lot of funny stuff including what had to be one of the funniest sketches I had ever seen. I feared it would never be seen again but YouTube as always comes through. Here are three examples of what FOX passed over so they could air Cedric the Entertainer's show.
Both episodes ended with a music video. First is Jerry Minor's very funny take on post-9/11 patriotism
Next it's Odenkirk's pitch-perfect parody of Limp Bizkit:
This is that sketch that blew me away. I'm not even going to describe it, just enjoy it.
In the late '90s Jon Brion was packing them in at L.A. club Largo. Every Friday night he did (and occasionally still does) setlist free sets with other musicians that include songs in progress as well as reworking of other people's songs (remember when Nina Gordon's version of "Straight Outta Compton" was popular on the Internet? That was from these shows). VH1 thought it would make a good TV program and filmed a pilot.
The show featured Brion playing with Grant Lee Phillips, Elliot Smith, E from The Eels, Rickie Lee Jones (that's two people with "Lee" as their middle name for those keeping count), Robyn Hitchcock and Cheapo Trick. Greg Behrendt, Paul F. Tompkins and Mary Lynn Rajskub provide the laughs. Sounds good? Well, Brion didn't like it but you can judge for yourself. You've got a Quicktime video file there to see what has been unseen. Permanent Link: 3:35 PM |
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Monday, January 08, 2007
Writing for pictures (moving or still)
As I come up to my last few semesters in college I'm faced with what aspect of my budding writing career I want to spend most of my professional life concentrating on. Right now most of my time spent writing professionally is doing journalism and criticism for various publications. I enjoy that but don't want to do it for the rest of my life. I want to tell stories and for the most part I want to tell them in visual media. I'm seriously wondering whether I should start attacking writing for comics or writing for film. There are many that do both but those writers seem to come in two types. Writers like Joss Whedon and Allan Heinberg started in television and film and used the success they reached in that medium to write the characters they grew up enjoying. Then there's the opposite of that formula. Geoff Johns and Brian K. Vaughan have both taken their notoriety in comics to television gigs. I know there are other writers whose situations don't quite match the above examples but I chose those examples because it leads to the questions I have been asking myself, one I take to a public forum seeking advice for others: which trade shall I make my name in? Will I write comics, the medium most near and dear to my heart, and take on other gigs as the opportunity arises? Or shall I take my hustle to Hollywood and break into comics when my resume includes work you can put on your Netflix queue? I've laid out the cases for each based my impressions of both worlds. I'm sure I've probably gotten a few things wrong and if I have please correct me.
The case for comics: I think comics is the best medium to tell stories in. I don't mean "for me." I mean it is the best medium we as human beings have to tell stories in. It has the best aspects of film and literature combined into something that is completely it's own. The beautiful work of Alex Toth, Jack Kirby, Chris Ware, Grant Morrison and many others confirm this for me whenever I feel apathetic about comics. I often do because like many I love the form of comics but am bewildered by the industry. We can get to that later, though.
I would like to create with artists a book you could hold in your hand. Within that tome are visuals that fool the reader into think he/she has left reality and a story that makes them want to stay there. I would also like to create comics that gives readers reason to look at that reality they cannot escape from with different eyes. These are things I can do with film, of course. But in comics all that power of storytelling comes down to two parties (often they are the same person), the writer and the artist. They are telling stories only they can and, as Stephen King has wrote, are conducting a certain type of telepathy with the reader. If I'm writing a creator-owned project for a small company, which is what I would like most of my work to be, than the final product is all on me and the artist. I can feel confident having my name on the book. I would rather take criticism on something I am responsible for than take a compliment on a compromised project. That being proclaimed I realize when economic factors are to be considered some compromising has to be done, something that will strike in both comics and film.
Writing creator-owned graphic novels for small companies is artistically satisfying but it is rarely self-sustaining. To live off my income writing comics (and I should now note that I absolutely detest the idea of getting another job that doesn't include creativity to keep a roof over my head) I would probably have to do some work with a bigger publisher. That probably means Marvel and DC. Here there are more restrictions on what I can write, which I accept. Working in a corporate owned shared universe means story ideas get shot down and content can only go so far. Hey, if it pays for the more personal work I want to do that's fine. At least I'm still writing. I envy the career of Warren Ellis who splits time between work-for-hire and work he has created. Even his work-for-hire stuff like Nextwave has a definite "Ellis style" to it. I would like to reach that level some day.
The last reason to stick with comics is a more personal one. I can live anywhere I want and write comics. I love the Bay Area and would gladly live here the rest of my life. Still, I wouldn't mind giving New York, Dublin or London a shot. The power of e-mail and a laptop means no matter where I am I can still write comics. For film I would, at least while starting out, have to live in Southern California. I was raised near Los Angeles and while I enjoy some parts of the area overall I hate it. I believe that the dependency on personal automobiles and fossil fuels is one of the worst turns humanity has ever taken. I would prefer to live in a city where I can take public transportation and not be responsible for giving my grandkids an environmental calamity to deal with. I don't want to do deal with urban sprawl that yields traffic arteries clogged with SUVs and Hummers only headed to malls, mini- to mega-, that sell food clogging up the arteries inside the body. There actually is culture in L.A., the actual type that enriches the soul, but it requires anyone to spend so much time in a box on wheels it hardly seems worth the trouble.
The case for film: Let's get the big one out of the way: it pays better! The old adage is "Hollywood treats its writers like shit but pays them well to make up for it." It's a hustle filled with egos, be they bruised, inflated or some other mutation, but it can pay well if you stick with it long enough. I could find my myself in the position of working on a movie or running a TV show where my idea, which might otherwise have found itself in a graphic novel reaching only a few thousand people, reaches millions. I could live off that without having to imagine "what would Wolverine say here" in the meantime.
That graphic novel would probably reach less people but as I wrote earlier, it would be mine. Film, even for writers, is an extremely collaborative art. That leads to many projects that never reach a potential they posses. It could mean my name will be on something where most of the flaws are not of my doing. It could also mean my ideas would improve based on working with other writers, the director, producers, etc. I'd learn valuable lessons from working with people far more talented than me. In some ways that can be more rewarding than holding something in your hand and saying "this is me."
For all the stupidity in the television and movie industries, and there is a lot, we all know people will still watch movies and TV in the future. I'm not as pessimistic about the future of comics as others are but I pay close attention to the moves of publishers and distributors and I really wonder if it's a game I want to get in. I wonder if it's game I can get in. What if I hook up with a small publisher and they're the next Speakeasy comics? What if I want to tell a story in a genre that is already so flooded with crap that a retailer's eyes will just glaze over by the time they get to my book's solicitation (I pity anyone who actually has a legitimately interesting zombie story to tell!). I actually have ideas for superhero concepts but I agree with Larry Young here. Ideas that involve individuals with hyperreal abilities can lead to many great stories, I would use AiT/Planet-Lar's Demo as an example, but I'm hesitant to introduce them to the a conservative market run by the BIg Two. If I've got a superhero idea I'd be more likely to turn it into a film than a comic. There's a market for superheroes there but the concept hasn't really been explored yet.
The case for ending this post already: When I'm in a more negative mood I feel that I, a writer interested in stories that including elements of the superhero, sci-fi and horror genres, has two options. I can have my work barely seen in comics or seen in a diluted form in film (and then probably still barely seen). I don't want to be negative, though. I want to make a good decision about my future. Right now I'm leaning towards to film. For someone who just enjoys writing it seems better suited to me. I don't want to look for an artist, although I've found better success at that than I thought I would, pitch to a whole bunch of publishers only to have to pitch my product all over again to potential customers because the book itself barely gets promoted. All that effort leads to a handful of readers. Working with a development company and/or a studio can be a headache but at least it seems I can spend more time writing.
Call it ego, I certainly would, but I want to reach millions of people for years and years to come. I believe my stories are that good. I would even put up with the 101, the 10 and, yes, even the 405 for that.
