Archive for the 'Comics' Category
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Running out the door…
I had plans to blog everyday this week but that didn’t happen (clearly).
I’ve been rushing around getting a few bits ready as I’m just heading out the door for a few days in London with lots going on.
My main meeting is to receive my first round of feedback for my feature film treatment (blurrily pictured) mentioned in this post before I go onto write my first draft of the script. I’m also going to meet up with one of my absolute favourite writers and all round gentleman Mike Carey who not only writes comics (as discussed in this post) but, I also just discovered, will be writing for radio on a show created by the person who ran the writing for radio course I mentioned in this post.*
Nice bit of synchrnocity, huh? And considering that’s one of the main aspects of the feature film treatment I’m getting feedback on anyway…that’s got to be a good (if slightly weird) omen, right? 
Anyway, fingers crossed it all goes well and I don’t just miss my train and ruin everything the universe had planned!
(*Those writing for radio notes are coming soon, I promise. As a lot of what we were taught was based on specific examples we heard on the day, I am translating what we talked about into more general points)
Monday, July 27th, 2009
POLL: So why don’t you read comics?
And if not, why not, dagnammit!! 
As San Diego Comic-Con nerds its way to a close and Watchmen makes its way to DVD, I’m wondering why there is still such a stigma against the medium.
When a film is a labelled a ‘comic-book movie’ it is generally implied that it means it’s a ’superhero movie’. But there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with that in the public’s eye either as, while comic-book sales decline, the big summer movies of the last few years have mostly had Batman, Spiderman or Iron Man in them. So it can’t be that mainstream audiences think superheroes are just for kids.
But comics aren’t just about superheroes either. Comics are a medium - not a genre. I always find myself pointing out that the big-star movies below are also based on comics:
Often anything adapted into a film (ie - a novels, TV shows, comics) is not necessarily dumbed-down but is certainly simplified for mass consumption. That’s not a criticism, but comic book stories can be far more complex and detailed and they are designed to be read at your own pace.
I constantly rotate my comic book collection as half of it seems to be on loan at any one time. Mostly to people who don’t normally read comics who I’ve managed to convince to give certain series a go. One of the most popular lenders is definitely the award-winning ‘Y The Last Man‘. A series where a mysterious plague wipes out the entire male population of the planet except for Yorrick Brown and his pet monkey.
Similarly, the best new comic I’ve read in ages is ‘The Unwritten‘ in which Tom Taylor, whose father based the successful boy-wizard ‘Tommy Taylor’ books on, finds that his whole life might be a work of fiction and is the centre of a conspiracy connecting all stories from the Bible to Frankenstein. Click either of the links or pics above to read some of these comics and see what we’re all on about - before movies try and cram several years worth of stories into two hours.
Soooo… please vote in the poll below or leave a comment if comics have never done it for you. What has put you off? Is it the fact that a large portion of comic shops seem to be scary dungeons staffed by Avril Lavigne’s playmates? Are they too expensive? Do you just figure that all the good ones will be made into movies sooner or later anyway? If you do read comics, what do you think comics do better than other mediums? Do you think comic book collections are doing more harm than good to the industry in the same way that DVD box sets and TIVO are damaging TV ratings?
Looking forward to the arguments either way. Meanwhile, I’m off to smirk more at the picture of Rorschach squatting out the window at the top of this post. Tee hee hee 
Loading ...Monday, July 13th, 2009
Killing off Characters
TV characters die. Sometimes we even care too. Which ones hurt you?
For the record, I haven’t seen the last few episodes of last week’s Torchwood: Children of Earth five-nighter. The DVD should be in the post today but, despite somehow managing to stay SPOILER FREE, most of my internet haunts seem to be involved in various flame wars, upset at how it ended. A million possible scenarios are now running through my head, mostly involving the deaths of various characters (my brain is mean) so got me onto the subject of killing off members of your cast.
Now, as a comic book fan, I am used to seeing leading characters die only to be mysteriously resurrected later(currently both Captain America and Batman are ‘dead’ btw) . It’s not so much that I mind them coming back rather than that their deaths are largely ignored (or glibly acknowledged by self-referential writers). But comic writers don’t have to worry about season breaks or actors’ contracts plus TV shows do, more often than not, rely on a consistent format.
‘Why don’t we kill Mulder?‘ they always asked in The X-Files only to be told that they would risk turning ‘one man’s quest into a crusade’. Yeah, that and the fact The X-Files without Mulder just wouldn’t be the same show (and, indeed, it wasn’t - as much as I really really liked Reyes and Doggett).
It always feels a bit easy to go for the big dramatic death - especially if someone’s sacrficing themselves for the greater good in the final episode etc etc - but, sadly, as in life, Death is all the harder for those left behind. If Martin Sheen, Sarah Michelle Gellar or Tom Welling were leaving The West Wing, Buffy or Smallville early, chances are, the news would have broken early. But killing off more ancillary characters can be more powerful. The heroes of the series are always willing to sacrifice themselves but what if their friends and loved ones get caught in the crossfire? What’s special about all three examples above is that none of them were killed by the ‘baddies’ in the series. Even a President, a Chosen One and Superman were helpless 
Back in April I wrote this post about how supporting characters creep up and become the principal draw to the show while the protagonist props up the format. If we’re supposed to identify with the protagonist then won’t we feel the same grief if their friends or family die? Which deaths hit you most? And, if it wasn’t the main character, why does it even matter?
Maybe because endings define us? Maybe giving a character an epic death and letting them go out on a powerful high is the best tribute you could provide. For example, I’ll always ALWAYS remember Dr Romano!
I’m also thinking of episodes of House, Cracker, Angel, The Wire and even Scrubs that suddenly killed off characters I didn’t even really think I’d really miss until it was too late. While each one made me sad in the moment, the real power of this deaths wasn’t the loss but how it affected and changed the main characters - beyond just making them sad in the moment. In my opinion, the only bad deaths are the ones that don’t really alter the series (beyond that particular actor not being in it anymore.) What function did they have that new or existing characters will now have to perform?
While a TV death can certainly change or ’shake-up’ a show, do you agree its principal purpose should be to move the series forward? Your favourite examples are welcome.
EDIT: And maybe tomorrow we’ll do Resurrecting TV characters - I’m looking at you, Harold Bishop
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Trying to Create New TV Series Ideas
I’ve got some notes on what various drama commissioners might be looking for so I’m going to scribble a few pitches in the next few weeks. I’m not going to go into detail for now, but you might get a gist of what sort of genre avenues I’m heading down from this sample cover artwork I’ll be using below…
(Artwork by my best buddy Tom. Check out his blog where he is doing a new picture or painting every day - give or take - for the next year.)
It never seems difficult coming up with ideas for shows that *I* would like to watch on TV, but obviously I am aiming for a slightly larger audience than just me and my mates. Often I’m not even sure it’s down to story or content - rather a show’s success is down to the way the story is told. I’m talking here about the balance of series and serial elements, tone, character dynamics and how the audience finds their way into a series.
With a glut of US series being cancelled just as they start screening here in the UK, it puts me on edge that plotting a lengthy ongoing story-arc might be a waste of time if you get axed before you get to the good stuff. I read this article on Newsarama by two US writers concerned about the decline of fiction on TV but which makes me worry that creators are seeing their audiences divide:
“Comic book readers are the best audiences. They’re audiences who love with their whole heart, who pay attention with both sides of their brain, and when they get into a show, they give it their all,” Green said. “They almost rely on the idea of ongoing storytelling. It’s what they’re there for.”
As a comic book fan (no no, really! ;) I don’t really like the segragation of audience here. As mentioned, I don’t think CONCEPT turns off sections of an audience necessarily - just the execution. On the comic book front again, while the comic book is facing struggles as a medium, our summer box office receipts prove that mass audiences don’t mind watching people dressed up as Bats or acting like spiders
But then a friend was telling me about a colleague slagging off all of the Star Wars films - not because of George Lucas’ crappy dialogue or Jar-Jar Binks generally but simply because:
“Well it’s never gonna happen, is it!”
You can’t really argue with that, can you! So I guess the first thing to consider when trying to come up with series ideas is that I’ll never please everyone. So how hard should I try?
Friday, April 17th, 2009
‘100 BULLETS’ - Parting Shots
One of my favourite comic book series is coming to an end this week. ‘100 BULLETS’ has been running for a 100 issues so this post will mostly be a 100-gun salute. But the inevitable ending has inspired me to think about endings in general, especially for long-running series (including the controversial endings for shows like ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and ‘The Sopranos’) and how to plan for them when you’re still writing and plotting episode one.
I hope against hope that I’ll be adding 100 Bullets #100 to my ‘GOOD’ list of endings as soon as I’ve read it.
This title started nearly a decade ago with the high-concept of the mysterious Agent Graves appearing to several characters and offering an attache case with a gun and 100 untraceable bullets inside…as well as the irreputable evidence of someone who had wronged them. These ‘magic bullets’ cannot be traced. You have carte blanche to take your revenge. What do you do?
With this postmodern-noir head start, the series quickly evolved into a massive sprawling, centuries-old conspiracy. (imagine ‘The X-Files’ but if the writers actually had a plan where they were going with it) that consumes its characters and starts a war between secret rulers of America, The Trust, and their enforcers; The Minutemen…as well as everybody caught in between.
I think everyone who read comics as young ‘un has a lull in their buying when they discover new things to spend money on (dating, alcohol, plutonium etc). I never really stopped buying graphic novels (ie - several comics collected into one book) but it was ‘100 BULLETS’ that got me back collecting monthly issue again. I simply needed to know what happened next. And writer Azzarello knew what he was doing and where he was leading us. Not only was the plot ever expanding but the background detail drove me online to find those equally obsessed as to where the conspiracy would take us next.
So many background details would later come back to haunt you in this story. While the central plot was twisty and turny enough to keep the skim-reader satisfied, Azzarello and Risso rewarded you for loyalty and paying close attention. It’s not often as an audience that you feel the creative team isn’t spelling things out but making you work for it.
This was how I ended up as a Moderator on the Message Board section of Moose Harris’ brilliant 100 Bullets site. While we all gabble and guess our way to the story’s end, we’ve also been frequently joined by the creative team - more often than not, I’m sure, come to laugh at where we *think* the story might be headed. My personal best is being able to correctly pre-empt a mere TWO major events or twists in the tale (and one of those was accidental while I was making a joke - but a score is a score )
So while I’ve been patiently waiting for issue #100 to arrive (it comes out here in the UK two whole days after it does in America. Gah!) it was a very nice surprise to receive in the post a little memento from Brian Azzarello himself:
(Ahem…’Venkman’ being my online moniker, of course. Heh)
So I have basically been filling time with this little salute which, with my new shot glass, will become a salud, as the final issue should now be waiting for me at my local comic shop.
Please find out more about the series at the wonderful www.100bullets.co.uk or read the entire first issue for free here. It’s actually odd looking at those first pages now as it’s not really until the second graphic novel that we get our first glimpses of the big picture.
But now it’s time for me to go and collect my final piece of the puzzle 
.
Monday, April 13th, 2009
Men of Character
Hope everyone’s having a relaxing Easter break. Most of the tweets or facebook updates I’ve read seem to have been written as online friends prepare to tackle mountains of food, buns and chocolate…or they’re reeling from their various edible victories. Bravo
…..
EMPATHY NOT SYMPATHY
My protagonist, Cassie, was boring. Just trying to do her job as well as she could without stepping on any toes. Yawn. Now her first scene opens with her condescending the people that, as a Police Constable, she is supposedly trying to serve. Instantly we know that she’s not a particularly nice person - but the person she’s being rude to is an idiot. Superficially, we think she’s rude. But on some level we like her. Because we agree with her.
I hope you’re familar with Gregory House MD. If not…well, I’m just going to assume you are.
I’ve been busy writing and re-writing the script I was struggling with so much last week and, while I was fretting and over-thinking the journey of the character, my major breakthrough came when I focussed fully on the character’s journey. Not just what they did but how they changed doing it.
Why am I using House as an example then? It’s been over 100 episodes and he doesn’t seem to have changed much! Well that’s arguable, but how Gregory House helped me is that I’ve made my own protagonist far more empathetic by making her far less sympathetic. In other words, I only started liking her the second I stopped trying to make audiences like her.
‘IN THE SPECIFICS LIE THE UNIVERSAL’
I have borrowed this wholesale from writer Brian K Vaughan - creator of majorly successful comic series ‘Y the Last Man’ and currently one of the lead writers on ‘Lost‘.
The above quote is from Vaughan describing his creation of ‘Y the Last Man’ protagonist Yorick Brown who, along with his pet monkey, are the only male survivors of a mysterious plague that instantly kills every male mammal on the planet. This is how we first meet Yorick:
Despite being an (unemployed) recent English literature graduate, Yorick is also an aspiring escapologist. I don’t have specific feedback on who reads this blog, but I’m going to hazard a guess that not many of you can escape a straight jacket. But I will bet most of you have slightly incongruous/ weird/pointless hobby. Were he just a ‘normal’ guy, he wouldn’t resonate half as much.
But don’t just give your characters weird quirks. We need to know WHY your edgy action hero is a cross-dresser! For Yorick, his escapology becomes a major theme throughout the series (while being the only man in a planet of women might sound like a dream come true, it quickly becomes a nightmare). Gregory House isn’t just a Doctor who walks with a cane. He’s a Doctor who nearly lost his leg completely because of other Doctors’ mis-diagnosis.
Within the specifics, audiences will latch onto their own shared needs for acceptance, justice, altruism, freedom etc etc. In short, there you’ll find that particular character’s version of the Universal themes that drive us all. But do remember to have some fun with it too
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Interview and a Vampire
Just a quick post today (I know I know - only three days into my month of blogging and already I’m slacking )
Greg of the pop-cultural commentators The Outhousers decided to boost my ego a little by conducting an interview with me via email over the last few weeks. Reading it back, I realise that shorter sentences wouldn’t hurt my writing (or, in fact, how I talk generally) but, having talked about how I write or the sorts of things I’d like to do, it does make me think that this might be a nice place to not so much give tips on how to be a writer, but certainly how to survive being an aspiring writer.
Read the whole interview here.
I am also going to the cinema tonight to see a preview of ‘Let the Right One In’ which I am greatly looking forward to since I read the book at the beginning of the year. The story follows the friendship between bullied 12-year old Oskar and Eli, the girl who moves in next door, who seems 12 but is actually a centuries-old vampire. I was completely hooked by the book, even before the vampiric elements kicked in and strongly recommend it. I would usually be wary of seeing an adaptation of something I love so much but the stills for the film look so gorgeous I really can’t wait (the 97% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes has me quite excited too!) Will report back as to whether it’s as good as I hope it is.
I won’t always just be using this blog to post about what I’ve seen at the cinema, btw. I just thought I’d mention it as today’s post title seemed too good an opportunity to miss
Monday, December 1st, 2008
Mr Producer
It occurs to me that the better things go in post-production, the less exciting this blog might be. I’d like to pretend that we were invaded by pirates but or that me and director Chris had a big punch-up but we haven’t. Chris is working really hard and the only problems we’ve had is compatibility between various editing and post-production software (so I suppose that technically sounds like a fight!) There are also less photos to post (unless you want to see images if people sitting at computers?)
As this is my first real role in more of a producing capacity (as opposed to being ‘writer on set’ or just ‘writer on other end of phone if needed’) it has been very interesting getting the right work balance with people. As the one person overseeing all the different aspects of this project, I have to make sure they all fit together - but, on the other hand, I don’t want to tread on anyone’s toes and essentially want to let people do their thing too. As is always the best way in situations, a third way is usually the best way forward so what I have started doing is leaving very specific notes for Chris and Heather but then leaving freedom within it. This way, I know that the finished thing will fit right in but I also get a nice surprise when I’m shown rough cuts and versions of everything!
I have written drafts of all of the blogs by now but really need all of the pieces so that I can start putting the whole thing together. The one thing that is apparent already is that the blog entries are quite long. So rather than three days written by Verity and one day written by Tom, I have now re-written the blogs across five shorter days written by Verity and two shorter days written by Tom. Each entry now has a more specific point from the main Nigel plot and a main point from Verity’s own personal plot as well as a specific feature - be it a video clip or a link to one of our other sites. This has made the whole thing seem a lot bigger but, oddly, it now also reads a lot faster!
Oh, and I suppose there are still plenty of pictures to see. Cookie has done a classic job on illustrating Saxophone Deity to the point where (as promised) the panel below is now my desktop wallpaper on my laptop and will be for some time
There’s so much nice artwork going on on this site, if we get a chance at the end, I might actually get some of it turned into downloadable wallpapers. And maybe print a few novelty mugs, t-shirts and mousemats!!! Or…maybe just the wallpapers…
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Post (-Production) Apocalyptic
Hmmn. Well, all the tapes went to Chris for his editing purposes but already we’ve got problems. Not only do we have the dreaded boom-shadow in the Rainy Day Corporation video but due to some kind of tape error, virtually everything from Nigel’s abduction filming has corrupted. All we have left intact of Nigel actually being grabbed and Verity then haring after is the very first take. Nuts.
We’ll have a look at this and I’m sure it can be edited round but this is a real blow as I know Chris worked hard to get all the timings right with the Nigel-grabbing and the subsequent pursuit. Fingers crossed we can still put something together. (The boom-shadow can be digitally removed in the edit but I’m still annoyed with myself not to have seen it whilst filming!)
On the plus side, the first sketches of the Saxophone Deity webcomic are making their way too me. (If anyone is interested, here is my original Saxophone Deity Comic Script, pre-tweaks and polishes.) Although I still have a few tweaks to suggest, the pictures I got are everything I hoped for and knew that Cookie would come up with the goods! 
(Copyright of Richard Cookson/John Hunter 2008)
As I sit down to write Verity’s blogs, Heather has already begun constructing the web-pages, Cookie is scribbling away at the webcomic and Lucy is digitally spraying Sheffield graffiti. It has really hit home exactly how much the filmed aspects of this project really only are one aspect of a bigger picture. I’m now glad that I decided to leave actually fully scripting the blog entries until much later as there is still a big degree of flexibility in where I put things and how to describe or introduce them from Verity’s point of view.
As the Rainy Day site is such a standalone entity with several different aspects to it, I think it best to try and get it finished first as a milestone that’s then out of the way. Fingers crossed.
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
If someone asks if you want to draw a god, you say ‘Yes!’
Good news - I have managed to twist the arm of my good friend Richard ‘Cookie’ Cookson into illustrating the ‘Saxophone Deity’ webcomic for the project. A fantastic artist and excellent writer in his own right, I am pleased about this. Subconsciously I now realise that this entire project has been all about getting Cookie to draw me some original pictures so I can use one as my desktop wallpaper on my laptop
The webcomic will probably take the longest to complete so this will be the first part of the story I will actually sit down and script.
In other news, I have decided to remove the ‘treasure hunt’ aspect of ‘The End is Nigel’. Originally I was going to hide Verity’s blog all over the internet and only Day One would be unprotected by passwords. Little puzzles would then reveal the location of her next blog entry which you could only find having emailed characters who then email you the password. It’s just too confusing. Especially to send round as a promotional introduction.
As said in the last entry, I think this sort of thing would work fine in the big online version where you are updated every couple of days for a few months. But right now, I think it’s better to ease the audience in gently in the hope that they will sit down and click their way around this first chapter all in one go.
This is my biggest worry at the moment: with the attention span of us kids today, is half the audience going to have clicked away to a more interesting/illegal website before my story has even started?
