Graphic novels are currently all the rage in Hollywood as source material for movies (witness this summer – Thor, Priest, Captain America, X-men: First Class, Green Lantern), and yet the actual comic market is dwindling and appealing to fanboy (men in their early to late 30s and up!) and DC and Marvel (the two biggest names on the block for the past 70 years) are making a strong push for digital download comics to tablet like devices (iPad, Xoom, you know the drill).

In September, DC Comics relaunches all of its major titles with new “no. 1” issues, and basically starts the mythology and continuity over with its entire universe. This is a gamble (one that I’ll at least put money down on) to lure new readers to the fold (old readers will read, gripe perhaps, but still read, because they lover the medium and the characters are like best friends they’ve never met). It’s interesting, because 25 years ago DC did something similar with the now-famous Crisis On Infinite Earth maxi-series (which ushered in the plethora of mostly terribly company-wide crossovers); Crisis (as it is known in comic parlance) was designed to streamline the exponentially vast and unwieldy DC multiverse that grow over the prior 50 years (Crisis coincided with the 50^th anniversary of DC as a publishing entity).

WHAT CRISIS DID (or HOPED TO DO)

At the time DC had “infinite Earths” where there were different histories of the DC Universe, and it was just too unwieldy. For instance, Earth-1 was the current and primary Earth of the modern continuity. However, the older versions of Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Arrow, and the Justice Society of America (incarnations of the characters who first appeared in the 1930s and 1940s) couldn’t be “replaced” and banished to the archives… so they existed on Earth-2, and there were too many “Earths” to keep track of, and to enable new readers to actually thoroughly enjoy reading DC Comics. So to clean out the redundancies and unwieldiness, DC Editor-in-Chief Jeannette Khan authorized Marv Wolfman and George Perez to burn down the house and build it up new again (with some safeguards).

THE BIG CAPE WAS THE MAIN PROBLEM

The biggest revision was with Superman; maligned-at-the-time writer/artist John Byrne stripped down Superman of most his historic continuity and hit “reset” with his MAN OF STEEL miniseries. Was it a success? Perhaps because arch villain Lex Luthor was also reimagined as a corrupt politician looking to gain control of the world through financial dominance (this was the mid 80s, so that was part of the zeitgeist… funny how things don’t change), and that changed the dynamic of Superman and his continuity. Other big changes were the death of Barry Allen the Silver Age Flash (the man in the red suit, not to be confused with Jay Garret the Golden Age Flash with the silver, Hermes-esque helmet). I argued in a few letters to the editor that Barry Allen was killed because he represented a means to travel back and forth between the infinite earths by achieving a certain vibrational pattern (I’m soooo showing my inner comic fanboy/geek, but so what? I loved reading comics from like 20 years).

Crisis caused an endless series of debates among comic fans, and I wonder how many were actually driven from the market; but overall I think DC was better off, because there wasn’t a need to service 50 years of continuity that no doubt hamstrung writers and artists.

MARVEL’S ULTIMATE PLAN

A decade ago Marvel did something similar with its “Ultimate” line of books – centered around Spider-man; it was ostensibly done to make Spider-man more accessible to kids (all the FF characters in the Ultimate Universe were in their late teens or early 20s) and new readers because the Tobey Maguire Spiderman movie propelled comics into the front and center of pop culture. But other stalwarts of the Marvel Universe followed suit, like The Ultimates, The X-men, Hulk, and Fantastic Four.

DC ROLLS THE DICE WITH THE TAILOR

DC is going ahead with costume redesigns (courtesy of Geoff Johns and fan-favorite Jim Lee) and perhaps new (variations on) origins of the major and minor heroes… this isn’t new, again, because back when the Silver Age Heroes appeared there were costume revamps and some origin changes, too. Even Superman and Batman had changes, they might not be readily apparent to the casual observer, but fans (not just diehard ones) know the different; other characters like Hawkman, The Atom, Green Lantern and Green Arrow considerably changed. And some events like Superman’s entire time as Superboy was erased from the DC universe (damning all those really exciting Jim Shooter Legion of Super-Hero stories). But the thing to remember about that “reset” was, there was maybe only 15 or so years of historical continuity to abolish, since then the Silver Age has run for close to 50 years (because most of the major events of Crisis were gradually eroded away… even Barry Allen returned after close to a 20 year absence; that was kind of the last straw of credibility for me.

WHAT WE COULD EXPECT

So whatever happens with DC’s 21^st “Reset” of its dense, popular and beloved comic book heroes and universe, it’ll perhaps make comics more accessible. I stopped reading comics after close to two decades about four or five years ago… the weight of the continuity drained the excitement and unpredictable nature of the stories out of the medium. You know certain characters are just never going to die, and if someone happens to, then a semi-creative writer will come up with some eyebrow raising conceit to bring back a character. The old rule of, “if you don’t see a body, then they’re not dead” became a drama-killing joke in comicdom.

WHY RESETS ARE GOOD

Resets are necessary to keep a franchise fresh and accessible. J.J. Abrams reset STAR TREK, all for the better if you ask me. Everyone loves the Kirk-Spock-Bones dynamic, and since those actors can’t play those roles – in the prime of their storytelling lives – the reboot with new actors and changes in the history and continuity (e.g. the destruction of Vulcan) could signal that everything is fair game (even a new Star Trek TV series with Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty and Uhura). The big question mark with DC’s reset is will they stick with it? Will the creative teams yearn of the old days, old ways and old conventions, patterns and grooves? To be bold, you would hope that the editorial staff for the next decade at least is vigilant in vetoing the return of the old in the inner workings. The original Batgirl is returning with the paralysis inflicted upon her by The Joker in the seemingly at the time one-shot (and still masterful) “The Killing Joke.” I applaud this; don’t even make her Barbara Gordon; or if you do, don’t give her the personality of the previous one. Be bold like that. I’m most curious to see the costumes and see how events of the second decade of the 21^st century affect the origins and motivations of the characters.

WHAT IF… IT FAILED

Marvel used to have this really cool series called “What If…” in which certain primal events in the Marvel Universe history turned out differently (hence the genius title); but the re-imagined events only lasted for one issue, and they usually resulted in the retiring of the heroes or the events occurred in some other fashion. But this DC thing could be revolutionary for a very insular pop culture institution that has governed a great deal of pop culture beyond the pages of news pulp 4-color disposable diversions (consider that everything is on high-quality paper to accommodate the computer coloring that now goes on).

PIQUED INTEREST IN OLD FAVORITES

I might be tempted to start reading my favorites again; and they were many – Aquaman, Green Arrow, Teen Titans, Robin (which reminds me, will Dick Grayson be Robin again? Or will Nightwing be a character at the beginning or yet to come? And will the Teen Titans be the original or the “new”?), Flash, Justice League, Spectre, Detective Comics, Black Canary, the Legion of Super Heroes (which has been completely rebooted at least 3 times since 1990) and maybe a few others; not sure what those original 52 will consist of… the Black Batman, based in Africa, is going to be interesting, just like how Marvel’s Black Panther was interesting, when they finally gave him some teeth in the 90s, after 30 years of being as impenetrable as the GOP think Barack Obama is, and completely uninteresting (yet, with enormous potential).

More to come…

So what does writing original screenplays and original TV pilots actually get you? Not much, unless you’re a high profile writer… so what does that mean for those striving to craft a career in the writing game?

It’s never easy, because writers slave over their notes, keyboards and script print outs for months trying to get the right balance between explosive words and the page and a compelling, straight-forward story that makes sense to those who might not have the same patience, focus and imagination required to take a leap of mental faith with material and actually SEE what is trying to be communicated.

One of the things that Hollywood Execs seem to lose sight of (more often than not) is that a challenging story is THE best kind of story to be told around the magic lantern campfire — known as the cinema screen (or HD LCD these days). Everything starts with the story… yet it and the writer are typically second-thoughts, because the marketing people think (I presume) unexecuted concept is more of a viable indicator of a $100+ million project’s success in the commercial marketplace — especially from an idea that has already proven itself — than a well-crafted story with compelling and emotionally driven characters.

I mentioned in my last post that I was moving forward with several graphic novel projects, and I was toying with posting some of the penciled art pages as they came in… well, below is the opening page for DUSTED, a an IP we developed about 4 years ago and most recently wrote an original two-part TV pilot for.

DUSTED, the TV show, was created with a 5-season plan and a detailed bible for the first season (12 episodes) and thorough explanation of the characters and where they will be at the end of each season. We envisioned a sprawling sci-fi world that does what only sci-fi can do (true sci-fi, not the soft stuff on the SyFy Channel… why is every series on that channel, just a normal soap opera drama with a few doses of techno-magic thrown in?) and that is make commentary about the human condition of the current times by projecting out into the future an extreme state… Star Trek was great at doing this, so was SciFi Channel’s BattleStar Galactica (when they dumped that show, they rebranded themselves to appeal to women more… a notoriously anti-science fiction demographic, so other cable networks are prime locations to do more active and imaginative science fiction… Starz, HBO, Cinemax, TNT and AMC can do what SyFy opts NOT to do, and therefore beat them at their own game)… DUSTED the graphic novel will (hopefully) tell a tale that meshes with architecturally tight joints to the TV pilot.

As DUSTED is a versatile IP, the graphic novel approach should give us a certain amount of leverage to pushing the project into other media… other than the printed page.

The other two projects are moving ahead nicely too, especially EXTINCTION AGENDA — which is going to blow people’s socks off when you see the final art… this colorist who just agreed to work on the project is jaw-dropping with her unique talents. You, dear readers, will have to wait to see her stuff… I was considering posting samples of her online gallery art, but it’s better if it’s all a surprise… maybe by the beginning of the summer it will all be ready… yeah, 3 to 4 months out is a long time, but it’s ’cause we need to wait for the colorist’s schedule to open up — and I need to lock down the contracts with the penciler.

Have you seen Carl Rinsch’s “The Gift”? This little short, produced for Philips TV, has inspired me to take a new tact in moving my career forward… and that project — a funneling of an existing script’s concept and its inciting incident into a 4 minute teaser short is the next project that I’m developing. Hopefully, I can raise the money and pull the divergent strings together by  the mid summer, as my idea will raise eyebrows and re-raise our now-flaccid flag.

Other interesting news for me? I was elected the co-chairman of the Committee of Black Writers at the Writers Guild of America… my other co-chair David Wyatt and I are going to be doing great things (hopefully) with the committee; mainly redefining the purpose of the committee and broadening its reach and appeal. The first event planned under the new leadership is the inaugural panel of “Writing in Color”, a panel series that will discuss telling uniquely African-American stories in the broader context of a mainstream TV series. Wendy Calhoun, staff writer on F/X’s JUSTIFIED, will be featured along with actress Erica Tazel and (fingers crossed) showrunner Graham Yost.

Also, don’t forget to read CLEAN — the Serialized Novel…

I’m not a big fan of the November/December holidays… for a variety of reasons, but mainly there is a huge amount of unnecessary stress created by the gathering of family and friends. Family drama is always uncomfortable, and more often than not it spikes during the December holidays.

One of the good things about the November/December holidays is the intense films that get released… almost as if the high stakes drama of a movie trumps whatever you might be going through… if even just for two hours. BLACK SWAN was this year’s winner for intense film (although I still need to see BLUE VALENTINE), and I’m not really a fan of Aronofsky‘s work (not that he’s bad, far from it — he’s exceptional, just that I haven’t connected with his previous films… ever notice how when you tell some that you didn’t like a film or TV show, they instinctively decide that you didn’t like it for a reason that has nothing to do with the quality of the films? Aronofsky, as I see it, punishes his characters and therefore it’s hard for me to want to spend anymore than 5 minutes with them). So I wish beautiful and committed Natalie Portman all the luck with the Golden Globes tonight for her performance in Aronofsky’s minefield; incidentally, I can’t wait to see her in Tom Twyker’s CLOUD ATLAS… an impressively inventive novel that will challenge us as film viewers.

Also, I’m usually burned out creatively around Thanksgiving, although I still have plans and ideas emerging, actually executing those plans, ideas or inspirations seems like the hardest thing to do.

So as the new year begins, and I feel recharged I have to make sure that I focus my creative efforts on projects that CAN move forward. Ones that aren’t just “good”, but will be actionable.

I’m not sure if there’s much of point in writing original screenplays these days, because after recent meeting with an Oscar-winning actor’s production company it’s more and more pronounced that you almost required to have a pre-existing property. Better than solid writing doesn’t cut these days (just look at what’s in the multiplexes these days), so you gotta me aggressively creatively and imaginative with what you do.

To that end, two or three graphic novels properties are in the creative engine right now, and hopefully their promo materials will be ready by ComicCon in July. But you can see some of the material on our website (as each stage gets completed — script first, then character design sketches, page layout thumbnails, etc.); our site is www.shadowboxercinema.net. One is called THE EXTINCTION AGENDA, the other is called TAROT. Be sure to read up on the developments… we’re looking for an artist right now.

And we’re working on three (at least three) visual projects; one is a Environmental PSA, one is a photography project and one is a music video concept. More on those as they happen.

Also, I’ll be writing a novel… as serialized novel (I was reading up on Arthur Conan Doyle and said to myself, why not?) to be published on the web; it will be based on an unproduced TV pilot (and subsequent episodes that I’ve written and/or outlined for the first season of this cable-targeted show… it’s excruciatingly hard to agents to read and respond to the script, whereas the showrunners who have read were quite impressed, so I know/feel it has merit as a story and that the writing is solid); the show is called CLEAN.

You can read CLEAN here at www.whoisjonasmagnum.wordpress.com; it’s named after the main character Jonas Magnum… you’ll find out more about personal change, and the lengths that one must go through to achieve that kind of revolutionary change. It’s a dark thriller, in case you couldn’t guess from the title or premise… you’ll have to read it to learn more about it, and I welcome any and everyone’s feedback.

So I’m going to watch the Golden Globes, or just part of it, later tonight. And I might drop my thoughts on it this evening or tomorrow… hard to tell.

Until next time.

The last few weeks have been busy, busy, busy… outside of going to the Peter Benedek party (which was fun, btw, and I met some cool people) and getting our pilot script trounced at my writers group, I’ve been trying to watch as many of the new TV show premieres and all the old stuff I had been watching.

The surprise hit — for me — is the Ted Griffin (Ocean’s 11 and Matchstick Men screenwriter) down-on-his-luck private eye show on F/X  –”Terriers.” Donal Logue is the star of this funny, quirky, but captivating and engaging show, which is obviously what “The Rockford Files” revamp should have been (if you didn’t know, NBC was trying to revive that beloved series with Dermot Mulroney in the lead)… but painfully wasn’t. Which is too bad, because I loved that Jim Garner show; however, unlike with the creatively bankrupt choices of remaking movies, remaking TV shows has failed to been a successful venture. Maybe the problem is remaking successful shows; I’m sure there’s lots of great shows that didn’t last, but were beloved for their short fun (or didn’t make it past the pilot phase) that COULD be re-envisioned and then remade. There was a show called “Global Frequency” that was based on a DC/Vertigo comic by Warren Ellis (creator of the new Bruce Willis/Helen Mirren movie RED) that had a cool pilot, not great, but cool premise, that just didn’t work on The CW (which I don’t think at the time a scifi-y investigative unit was going to w0rk); it starred Michelle Forbes, one of my favorite actresses of her archetype and age. But for a show like that to work on The CW, now and then, the female lead – Miranda Zero (if memory serves me correct) — you need some super sexy chick with an edge to her. Someone like Maggie Q, who obviously turned heads and captured eyeballs for “Nikita.”

I’m not sure if TV Execs or the creator-types look to revive projects that failed as pilots or failed to catch on with the audience at a certain time in the landscape, but if there is a business model or creative mandate, then I’m saying, “at least try it” — as we’ve seen shows like Family Guy and Arrested Development get a second-life from viewers’ passion.

Michael Chiklis‘ new show No Ordinary Family is interesting, filling the void that “Heroes” failed to do since the first season. “Heroes” was nearly unwatchable in its last two seasons, and the promise it had after the first half of the first season was — skies the limit! Tim Kring and the others could have created their own superhero mythology, but I guess Stan Lee wasn’t consulted. Chiklis’s show has heart and merit, but it’s focusing on the family dynamics substantially instead of the largest mystery is why I think the show can last. It’s a little hard to see Chiklis as “nice guy” since he played a complete prick in “The Shield“, but he’s such a charismatic actor that he’ll erase the stain of Vic Mackey in no time.

The first casualty of the new season was Fox’s “Lone Star“… I happened to catch the pilot (on DVR) and it IS a show with potential, but we’ll never know what direction the creator wanted to go with it. A victim of our troubled financial times more than anything. And as they say, great television taps into the zeitgeist of the country, so a show about a con man with a double-life just ain’t gonna play well in that dreaded zone that somehow determines the fate of too many pieces of entertainment — Middle America (with its bastard Central Time Zone… see a previous post about why the Central Time Zone hurts Network TV). Followed by ABC’s “My Generation” and NBC’s “Outlaw“; I’m not sure why the brass at ABC felt the semi-docudrama style of “The Office” and “Modern Family” would work for “My Generation.” The context of the project and the fact that it was a drama ran cross-purposes. Obviously the herd-mentality of “let’s expand the docu-drama style to an actual drama” was ruling the day. There’s been a lot projects with narration to start off the show, and I guess we’re going to see that technique beat a dead horse’s skin off and then we’ll see some continued flogging.

The story begin the failure of Lone Star to catch on is interesting, as a critically acclaimed show it’s a surprise that the audience didn’t like the cut of its jib… however shows about professional fleecers aren’t going to fly in the fuq’ed economy that we’ll be living in for the next couple of years. Still, when you look at HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” you’re dealing with a fat cat who’s operating above the law and has the law in his pocket, and people have enjoyed that (I still need to watch my Third episode to see if I will give the show my time). Go scratch your head!

I miss some of my old shows that are had their run and no longer airing – Lost, Saving Grace, 24, Nip/Tuck, Damages(*), Battlestar Galactica, The Shield… and I look forward to the return of V (which UofM grad Scott Rosenbaum runs) and the prequel to Spartacus (too bad the continuing adventures just won’t happen).

(* Damages, while no longer on F/X, is supposed to return to DirecTv’s Channel 101 in January).

I’ve been watching F/X’s “The League” and NBC’s “Outsourced“, too, as we’ve developing a workplace comedy, which is a little more daunting than developing the several dramas that we’ve done over the last year or so.  Comedy is so damn difficult — making up jokes, specific comedy for the characters based on their wackiness, and sticking with a consistent comedic tone that is specific to a certain channel is part of the hurdles that we’re facing. And then creating and interesting show dynamics… yeah, lots of chainsaws to juggle to get it right.

The Leauge is hands down one of better comedies on the air — more accessible than many other shows, and since it’s an adult comedy on a cable network about some schlubs the language is borderline offensive ina hilarious sort of way; it has a low-rent and low-brow “Sex in the City”, and that’s why I think it has great appeal.

I just wonder how those guys pitched that to FX and got them to bite? One of the toughest things about presenting new creative narratives to the men and women behind the desk is knowing the most appealing way to present your material. Notice, how I didn’t say “best”, because there isn’t a “best” way to present your material; just a most effective way. You’ll never know how smart, creative or imaginative the people are on the other side of the table, and while most people in those positions can hang their hat on ONE of those categories, it’s usually not all three.

You shouldn’t confuse the fact that someone is smart, intelligent, clever, or what have you with someone who can provide great and elevating creative input – and that’s a hard point to recognize. Enabling people to contribute ideas isn’t necessarily about being smart, but being imaginative and seeing beyond what’s presented, being able to envision the final project. I remember when my brother and I were in the middle of post on our award-winning short film “F*ck You, Pay Me!” and our old manager wanted to see a cut of the film, and NONE of the CGI was complete (just green screen) and our manager couldn’t understand the film with the placeholder images in place. He was just asking these odd questions, like he couldn’t picture was going to be where — when the placeholder images had clear, bold text describing what the final shot was going to be/look like. It was right there and then that I said, “we have to find a new manager.” Was that harsh? Possibly, but it’s important to be able to SEE what can happen, what can be…

Okay that’s it for this week. Next week, I’ll bring back the Tinseltown Tips and my reaction to David Fincher‘s The Social Network (I wanted to watch all his previous films again, before commenting and I’m only at Panic Room right now).