Writer. Creator. Large mammal.

Category: 16 Stuff and Nonsense

Technical Difficulties Defeated!

It seems a Black Hole warped cyberspace and absorbed a lot of entries I posted long ago. They just vanished. However, the Amazing JayJay, Blog Elf Extraordinaire, has dragged them all out of oblivion. They’re ba-a-ack! 

She can tell you what happened and how she fixed it if she wants. I prefer to believe it was Elf-magic.

The really annoying thing about the Black Hole was that it sucked up most of the How-to-Create-Comics posts!  The wisdom of the Ancients! Things I learned from Stan Lee, Mort Weisinger and a string of other all-time greats that I humbly passed along. The really, really annoying thing is that for more than a year, I’ve been referring people to posts that weren’t there anymore.

You see, after a long hiatus, I’ve been appearing at conventions again during the last year or so. Last year was the 30th anniversary of Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars, there was suddenly a lot of interest, so agent Spencer Beck organized a “reunion tour” featuring super-penciler Mike Zeck, star-inker John Beatty and what’s left of me. 

Happy Holidays

To anyone reading this and all ships at sea,

Merry Christmas or happy whichever holiday(s) may apply.

Thanks for the mostly kind attention and support you graciously gave me back when I had time to blog. And, thank you to the justifiably cranky folks who chimed in when the occasion called for it.  Blogging was fun and I’ll do it again someday if I can ever get my ducks lined up.

The Year of Storms is almost over.  May next year bring comfort and joy for all.

Whatever your conception of the gestalt of existence, I mean this sincerely, to each in his or her own way: God bless us every one.

Be well,
Jim Shooter

PS.  JayJay here. I’d like to add my holiday wishes to you all and thank you very much for everything!

More About Broadway and Fatale

First
On this, the eighth day of Christmas I have no use for maids-a-milking. These items, on the other hand….
 
Murder weapon as Christmas gift:
A gift I gave to a psycho-chicken Elf who remains at large. “Slay” bells ring….
 
The tentacles of power:
A gift I gave to myself. Power mad? Yes, I am.
 
 
Fatale
Fatale was an experiment in many ways. Fatale was created to be Broadway Comics’ answer to the “Bad Girl” trend, popular in the 1990’s. Being me, I wanted to do a Bad Girl who was every bit as extreme as those pneumatic vixens who led the charge but less puerile and more real.

Something Groovy

Years ago, comics creator and publisher David Miller asked Mike Baron, Roy Thomas and me to contribute to the Writer’s Block #1. Each of us was given the same six pages of a story to dialogue. We weren’t even told the plot or the premise. Here’s the cover of that comic book:

Dumb title, I think, one of those reach-for-any-familiar-pairing-of-words things, no matter how much of a stretch or how inappropriate. Like the local radio station that refers to people calling in from the road as “cell mates.” Good grief.
But I think the Writer’s Block results are intriguing. I was very interested in seeing how the other guys’ analysis and execution compared to mine, and to read the short interviews in which each of us explained his approach. I guess it was interesting to readers, too, because subsequently David did the same sort of thing with Peter David, Jo Duffy, Gail Simone, Roger Stern and Fabian Nicieza.
David informed me that there’s now a trade paperback that collects all the Writer’s Block work. I don’t often plug things here, but in case this unusual, experimental book sounds appealing, you can get a copy here:

It’s So Hard to Get Good Help These Days

JayJay here. Oops… I left a whole bunch at the end of the Dazzler story off when I first posted it. So if you read the Debut of the Dazzler before… please read the end. Here it is and it’s also been added to the original post. Sorry!

– Continued from below the People magazine cover…

Alice was CUT OUT of this picture!  She was walking beside Bo!

Bo Derek was fresh from the success of 10, with Dudley Moore.  She was the hottest star in Hollywood, top of the “A” list of “bankable” stars.  Bankable means that the mere attachment of such a star guarantees studio financing.

Suddenly there was a BIDDING WAR among the studios for the project!

Now, the bad news, part 1:  Marvel commissioned a screenplay by Leslie Stevens.

Why not me?  I was the horse who got us there.  But, suddenly, because it was Hollywood, for real and big time, I was “just a comic book writer.”  They decided they needed a screenwriter.

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blogcast…

From blog facilitator JayJay:
Deadline pressure has gotten to Jim and he’s started in with the funny late night emails to me.See what I have to put up with?  He’s mad as a loon.

Jim wrote this to me in the middle of the night, making me laugh, while I’m trying to paint the fires of hell for a heavy metal album cover, harshing my whole evil vibe! Argh!

Posting it is my revenge.”Dear Prunella Oddpot,

Inbreeniation has lept…leapted…jumped upon me, and I have become drunc…drunnch…tipsy.

I will continue working, as I am much better when I am…you know.

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