You are currently browsing the daily archive for July 8th, 2008.
The show is really extraordinary. Check out this clip for the masterful use of fantasy and music to achieve exquisite emotional depth.
Janis Joplin sings (and how!)
I can admit when I’m wrong. I posted a bit back an article I wrote, “Comic Book Heroes,” about Marvels and Kingdom Come. I was under the impression that artist Alex Ross was the principal developer behind both stories, as well as the later Earth X. I didn’t just go shooting my mouth off — my research into these books suggested as much. But Kurt Busiek, the writer of Marvels, has set the record straight. Many thanks to Nick Milne for catching this.
So shall it be written, so shall it be done!
Alex [Ross] and I worked up the concept of MARVELS together, as a context for stories about subjects Alex particularly wanted to paint. We worked up a proposal together, and it was rejected, with a request for revisions. I revised it heavily, solo, ran it past Alex and then past Marvel, where it was approved, and at that point, I wrote the scripts. Alex and I talked things over and he had input into the stories, but it was overwhelmingly my plotting (where it wasn’t, y’know, Jack Kirby’s) — just as I had input into the art, suggesting revisions and changes. It was a collaboration, idea-wise, but in no way did I simply script Alex’s plots.
Anyone who wants to read the actual proposals can find them in the 10th Anniversary hardcover edition.
Alex had much more to do with the plot and story of KINGDOM COME, but even there it’d be inaccurate to credit Alex solo with the plotting. But I didn’t work on the series, so I can’t speak to the details.
As to the other points — DC didn’t ask Alex to do KINGDOM COME, he pitched it to them. So he did it rather than me because he came up with the idea and pitched it, just as I pitched other things to other people. I didn’t work on it because (a) Alex needed someone who knew as much about DC as I knew about Marvel, and at that point that wasn’t me, and (b) he didn’t want to get typecast as working consistently with one writer.
EARTH X also didn’t come about because of something Marvel asked for — it started as something WIZARD asked for. They asked Alex in part because Alex was an art superstar by that point, with a reputation for doing terrific redesigns of characters. When the Wizard project came out, it was popular enough that Marvel asked Alex to do more with it. They wouldn’t have asked Mark instead of Alex, because it was Alex’s project.
None of this is meant to denigrate Alex’s work — he’s an enormously creative artist, and a pleasure to work with. It’s just inaccurate to claim either that he came up with MARVELS solo, or that KINGDOM COME or EARTH X began because the publishers decided who to ask for a new project.
Looks like my article requires some revision.
My buddy Ian is a pretty good comedian, trying to make his way in the world. I’ve debated with myself as to whether or not I thought his material was appropriate for this blog, but I think charity demands I give him whatever help I can. He’s a good guy, and a generous friend.
Anyway, the first line of his bit was accidentally cut. It begins “So I see someone wearing a teeshirt that says ‘Asthma Walk-A-Thon.’”
Give this guy some love. Warning, there’s some rough language.
