Could Firefly Return?

Posted: March 19, 2011 in Firefly
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Okay, here’s a thought.

If someone at Fox could crunch some numbers and decide two things, what it would cost to produce a season of Firefly and what the network would consider a reasonable profit to turn on that season. Put those numbers together.

Whatever the figure is, announce it. Then start a campaign, selling subscriptions for the season. Credit card numbers are taken, but no money is charged yet. Consider it a secured pledge.

If the subscriptions hit the magic number (cost + profit) that makes Fox happy, cards are charged and production begins.

We get a new season of Firefly, Fox turns a nice profit and everybody is happy.

Sherlock Redux

Posted: February 15, 2011 in Writing
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If you haven’t seen the recent BBC series “Sherlock“, what follows probably won’t mean very much to you. So, feel free to skip over this. IF you have seen it….

Some time back, before the BBC show was announced and before I knew that it was happening, I had an (what I thought was a brilliant) idea that involved updating Sherlock Holmes. Bringing him into the 21st century. I talked to a couple of fine folks at a couple of small comic companies (who were also, apparently, blissfully unaware of the coming BBC show) and they both said to put together a pitch. Amanda (Hayes, my partner on The Invisible Skein) liked the idea and started working up some character designs. I put together a few pages of rough. 1st draft sample script (which you’ll find below).

Now, I’m not saying that Mark and Stephen (the creators of the BBC show) somehow read my mind or anything. I’m sure their show was well under way at this point. But damn. If you’ve seen the first episode… well, just read what’s below and you’ll understand.

 

SCARLET STUDIES REDUX

PAGE 1 (6 Panels in a grid, 2 across, 3 down)

Panel 1 – An outside shot of a bar in a dingy Baltimore neighborhood. It’s the corner business on the block and a cheap neon sign reading beer glows in the window. One of the “e”’s is out, so only BE R actually lights up.

CAPTION:  Baltimore, MD June 2010

Panel 2 – Interior of the bar, which is almost empty. Two men sit at a booth in the corner. One of the men is John Watson, the other is his friend, Stamford.

STAMFORD: You’re looking better, John.

Panel 3 – Close up on Watson.

WATSON: I wish I could say I was feeling better. My leg is killing me and I need to find an apartment soon. I can’t afford to keep staying at the hotel. I’ll be broke in a month.

Panel 4 – Close up of Stamford

STAMFORD: Yes, I’ve been thinking about that. I might be able to help.

Panel 5 – Slightly wider angle, but clear on Watson’s face. His face has perked up a bit.

WATSON: How?

Panel 6 – Same wider angle but with a view of Stamford’s face.

STAMFORD: I have a friend looking for a roommate. But I have to warn you, he’s a bit odd…

PAGE 2 (5 Panels, Similar grid, but the center row is all one panel.)

Panel 1 – Outside shot of the hospital morgue. A sign on the door reads Morgue nice and clear. Watson and Stamford are standing outside the door.

CAPTION: The next day.

WATSON: The morgue? Is he a medical man?

Panel 2 – Stamford opening the door and leading Watson inside.

STAMFORD: Not so much.

Panel 3 – Our first look at Holmes, gleefully swinging a baseball bat at the back of a corpse lying on a metal gurney.

Panel 4 – A closer shot as the bat hits the corpse with a thwacking noise.

Panel 5 – Reaction shot of Watson and Stamford. Watson looks horrified. Stamford looks amused.

PAGE 3 (6 panel grid, like page 1)

Panel 1 – Holmes smiling and laying aside the bat.

HOLMES: Dr. Watson, glad to be back from Afghanistan?

Panel 2 – Watson looking shocked.

WATSON: How the hell…?

Panel 3 – Holmes waving a hand, dismissively.

HOLMES: It’s nothing.

Panel 4 – Watson and Stamford. Watson is starting to look angry, Stamford is starting to look bored.

WATSON: You’ve been checking on me? Stamford told you I was coming?

Panel 5 – Holmes

HOLMES: Of course not. I had no idea who you were when you walked through that door. I see, I deduce.

Panel 6 – Watson

WATSON: Then explain yourself.

PAGE 4 (another 6 panel grid)

(Some of the panels should focus on Holmes as he speaks, others on the parts of Watson that he’s speaking about. Your decision as to which should be which.)

Panel 1

HOLMES: You carry yourself like a military man. It’s in the shoulders. But your hands are soft, well manicured. So not infantry. Leaves many possibilities, but you’re friends with Stamford and he’s a surgeon, so doctor is a fair guess.

Panel 2

HOLMES: Your cane is new. The ferrule is barely worn. So, a recent injury, perhaps one that would involve your release from active duty.

Panel 3

HOLMES: The pattern of the scarf you wear, while not unique, is common to the villages along the Afghan/Pakistan border.

Panel 4

WATSON: And my name?

Panel 5

HOLMES: Ah, that. There was an article in the paper last week about a returning war hero, a doctor who was injured, shrapnel in the leg, I believe. Saved a young woman caught in a crossfire just outside of Kabul.

Panel 6

HOLMES: With the deductions I had already made about you, it didn’t seem like much of a leap to conclude that you and that doctor were one and the same.

 

Talking Earp

Posted: February 5, 2011 in Weaponizer, Web Comic
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It’s time to discuss this in a little more depth.

As has been previously announced, I’m writing a new webcomic. It’s called A Wicked Little Town and it’s about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. It takes place in Dodge City, during the year before they lit out for Tombstone. It’s being drawn by Keith Perkins and shall be published at Weaponizer.

That’s what we’ve released so far.

What else can I tell you? Well, I’m glad you asked.

The project started a few months back. Keith and I had decided that we wanted to work on something together and I was casting about for ideas. We wanted to do something short, four or five pages, maybe a little science-fiction piece.

This is when I discovered something. Writing a short comic is not at all like writing a short story. There’s very little space to work with. I just couldn’t come up with anything interesting to say that would fit in five script pages.

I talked it over with Keith and he agreed that we ought to take a whack at a bigger project, something with a little meat on it. So, I went back to the drawing board, or, more precisely, back to the drawer where I keep all the notes about story ideas that I’ve come up with over the years.

Two jumped out as being good ideas for a graphic novel. I’m not going to tell you about one of them, because we may go back and try it someday. The other involved Wyatt. I’ve always thought it interesting that every story I’ve read or seen about Earp focused on gunfights. Earp was a lawman. He didn’t just shoot people. If someone committed a crime, Wyatt had to figure out what happened.

If someone committed a murder, and nobody was sure who did it, Wyatt would have to investigate it.

So why not do a straight forward, traditional, murder mystery, with Wyatt as the detective? It seemed obvious to me. Keith liked the idea, and when I mentioned it to Bram at Weaponizer, he liked it, also.

So, the planning began.

A Wicked Little Town is serialized graphic novel. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. It will run, weekly, in five page installments, at Weaponizer, beginning sometime in March.

Before it debuts, Weaponizer will be releasing the first issue of their print magazine, Weaponizer Quarterly. The magazine will contain a six page prologue / teaser story called Loyal Friends and Good Company. That short story will not be reprinted on the web. It will only be available in the magazine.

Until the story is finished, that is. Upon completion, A Wicked Little Town will be released in a single volume graphic novel. The prequel story will be included. As an added bonus, even though the weekly comic will be in black and white, when the graphic novel hits, it will be in full color.

More on that as time goes on. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy A Wicked Little Town.

Whitechapel Class of 2010-2011

Posted: January 25, 2011 in Warren Ellis, Weaponizer, Web Comic, Writing
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So, I belong to this odd little online community called Whitechapel. It’s a general forum hosted by Warren Ellis and named from the setting of his webcomic, FreakAngels. (Yes, I know Whitechapel is a real place, but it this context, the name comes from that comic.)

Anyway, I’ve met a lot of new friends at Whitechapel over the last couple of years and I just came to the realization the other day that many of us are doing webcomics now.

André Navarro has been doing the hilarious Pitch Black for some time now.

Chris Graves is doing a very hip job on Space Shark.

William Couper recently did Kink Walker over at Weaponizer.

Robin LeBlanc is writing the upcoming Remnants with artist Neil Struthers.

and I’m currently working on A Wicked Little Town with Keith Perkins.

A lot of other webcomics are coming out of that community as well, a startling amount to be honest, but these are the ones produced by my friends and I.  Rather astonishing.

Next on The Agenda: Wyatt Earp

Posted: January 19, 2011 in Me, Weaponizer, Web Comic, Writing
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So, I’m writing a new webcomic, in this case a serialized graphic novel, about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Can’t say too much at this point, other than the artist on the project is the amazing Keith Perkins and that it’ll be running over at Weaponizer.

What I can tell you is that this is an all new, fictional story set in Dodge City. It is not another rehash of the Gunfight at OK Corral. And, it’s going to be a blast.

A Week of Ups And Downs

Posted: January 7, 2011 in Weaponizer, Web Comic
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The positive this week is very positive. Something I’ve been working on for awhile finally came together and the official announcement came about an hour ago.

I’m writing a graphic novel about Wyatt Earp for Weaponizer. It’s being drawn by the uber-talented Keith Perkins. There will be a six page preview story in the first issue of Weaponizer Quarterly, which hits in February. The serial begins in March, to be collected once the story is complete, probably late in the year. The title of the graphic novel is “A Wicked Little Town” and it takes place, not in Tombstone, like almost every other story about Earp, but in his final day in Dodge City. More details will, of course, emerge with time.

The down this week has been me tentatively being diagnosed as bi-polar. Although there’s not much tentative about it, there’s just some hoops to jump through before it goes down on paper officially and I can start being treated with the proper medication. It’s something I’ve got mixed feelings about. Not the social stigma, that doesn’t bother me, and I can sure do without the heavy depressions. But mucking around with brain chemistry is a serious thing and it gives me pause, as it should.

Well, that’s my week. How was yours?

 

The Shovel

Posted: January 3, 2011 in Fiction
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Most people, when asked, simply and straightforwardly, if they had
ever committed the act of murder, could answer the question with a
simple yes or no.

I’m not most people.

I’m 39 years old and I don’t do, well, much of anything. I drift a
lot. Town to town, state to state. It’s a lot tougher than it used to
be, back in the day. Everything’s on paper. Driver’s licenses, income
tax, social security withholding.

But if you’re careful.

Use public transportation, work day labor, get paid in cash. Get
pretty good at playing pool. Lift a few wallets, find some willing
girls to let you crash a day or two. It’s a hard life, but not an
impossible one.

Especially if you manage to avoid being picked up. Christ, one trip in
a cop car and you can kiss you anonymity goodbye. They’ll have you
printed, stamped and numbered so fast it’ll make your life seem like
it’s running in reverse.

Not sure why I know that. I’ve never been picked up. I know that. I’m
clean as a whistle. Just because I can remember kicking my way out of
the back of that patrol car, doesn’t mean it happened. I mean, there’s
no memories before or after it, you know? No memory of getting
arrested, no memory of fleeing from the cops.

Just that kick and the door flying open. The feel of the leather
upholstery on the side of my face. The hard steel of the cuffs tight
around my wrists. The husky voice shouting, “Look out!”

Just an isolated moment that makes no sense in the context of my life.
I can’t even remember when it would have happened, when it could have
happened, So I chalk it all up to a particularly vivid dream.

Like the body.

I don’t remember killing anyone. Hell. I don’t remember ever even
wanting to kill someone. But I do have this vivid memory of standing
in the woods, digging his grave. Whoever he was,

But again, I’m pretty sure it never happened. I don’t own boots like I
was wearing in that memory. Never have, Same with the coat, one of
those long black trench coats. Looked cool, though.

So, it couldn’t have been me, right? Probably just dreams. I’ve read
about lucid dreams. Doesn’t feel like a dream, though. And I’m not
sure how to explain the shovel in my back pack.

It’s one of the folding ones, a trench digger, like they issue you in
the military. It’s like the one in that memory. And on the blade, just
a little, there’s what could be rust. But I think it’s blood.

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