For the third interview in the BAD TIGER series, ALL PULP corners Writer/Creator/Marketing Director D. C. Golightly!
ALL PULP: Tell us about yourself, your personal background, and how you got into writing/art/etc.
DCG: I reside in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with my wife and kids. I love comics, cookies, and characters. Follow my freelance rumblings at http://dave-golightly.blogspot.com/. I’ve always been a huge comic fan, and growing up I really got into more adventure pulps as my comic collection grew. Since I wanted to weave a wonderful world myself, I started scribbling little stories. I’ve been lucky enough that some people are willing to pay for those stories. I always wanted to be an artist, but I lack talent. Therefor the pen is the only version of the brush that I can manipulate as a creator.
AP: What is your role at Bad Tiger?
DCG: I write The Skull, a bi-monthly strip, as well as the prose for The Black Kingdom. I’ve recently agreed to take on the role of Minister of Propaganda…or Marketing Director…or whatever you want to call the guy that advertises our junk.
AP: In our modern society, some would say that there’s nothing new or original anymore. What makes Bad Tiger stand out?
DCG: It’s a group of like-minded people that have a single goal: create awesome stories. We’re not doing this to get paid; we’re doing this because we love these characters and this genre. There’s a lot of work being put into this venture, and a lot of talent to recognize. This group is populated by people that are not only good enough to make it in the industry, but to an extent already are. We choose to take the time to build this initiative because we believe in it and want to get our stories told.
AP: What are your inspirations, influences for the work you do?
DCG: Jim Butcher is always on his game, and I would buy lunch for Mark Waid any day of the week. Jeffery Deaver can write a character out of any corner.
AP: What do you think appeals to the public about heroic/genre fiction and/or comic strips? Why will people come to Bad Tiger?
DCG: Bad Tiger Studios will quickly become a place fans recognize as a platform for creative talent, free of charge. We’ll toss incredible projects to the wall, see what sticks, and then turn them around for readers. The quality of the material is out of this world and the people interested in this genre will undoubtedly return after they get a sample of what we have to offer. These are the kinds of stories that people want to see, and we’re more than happy to offer them.
AP: Free response! Say whatever you’d like to about Bad Tiger, yourself, or the experience!
DCG: I’m flattered to be associated with such uniquely creative people. These people are putting in many long hours of work just to provide entertainment, and all they are asking for is a shot to be viewed.
All Pulp congratulates Al Bohl who won first place for best feature article “Tarzan: Lord of the Louisiana Jungle” at the New Orleans Press Club annual Journalism awards banquet. Al wrote the article for the Fall 2012 magazine of “Cultural Vistas.”
Al Bohl pictured with David Johnson, the Art Director who won first place for the layout and design of his article. Al accepted the award and gave the audience a RKO Johnny Weismuller Tarzan yell.
It’s Honey West and T.H.E Cat, in the first new Honey West novel in over 40 years, A Girl and Her Cat!
Following on the heels of the first ever Honey West & T.H.E Cat crossover comic, Moonstone’s “Death in the Desert,” comes the Honey West & T.H.E Cat novel, A Girl and Her Cat…
Cover art teaser! Initial concept sketch by the mighty Douglas Klauba!
When an exotic green-eyed Asian doctor hires Honey to recover a stolen sample of a new Rubella vaccine from a rival scientist, the blonde bombshell private eye—suspicious but bored—takes the case. But after she’s attacked not once, but twice, on her way from Long Beach to San Francisco to track down her quarry, she knows there’s more—much more—to her femme fatale client than meets the eye.
Along the way, Honey’s one-time paramour Johnny Doom—ex-bounty hunter and current Company agent—reenters the picture, and the gorgeous doctor’s insidious—and deadly—grandfather deals himself in. But when Honey questions whether Johnny’s playing her game, or just playing her for a patsy, she joins forces—as only Honey can—with the one man in Frisco who can help her recover the stolen vaccine-cum-bioweapon and prevent worldwide genocide by germ-warfare—former cat burglar-turned-bodyguard Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat: T.H.E Cat!
Join writers Win Scott Eckert and Matthew Baugh, and cover artist Douglas Klauba Artworks, for A Girl and Her Cat, a groovy, racy 1960s romp coming soon from Moonstone! (Stay tuned for ordering information!)
– Win Scott Eckert (The Green Hornet, The Avenger, Pat Wildman, The Domino Lady, Zorro, The Phantom, Sherlock Holmes, Wold Newton Origins, etc.) – Matthew Baugh (Zorro, The Avenger, The Green Hornet, Sherlock Holmes, Six-Guns Straight from Hell, The Phantom, the Cthulhu Mythos, etc.) – Douglas Klauba (The Phantom, Zorro, The Green Hornet, The Spider, Kolchak, The Black Terror, The Green Lama, Philip Marlowe, Doc Savage, etc.) – Moonstone: Classic & new heroes in thrilling tales of adventure, mystery, & horror!
In an interview at IGN that’s already raised many hackles and comments, the developer behind The Order: 1886 claims GameStop’s used games business model is hurting developers.
“Weerasuriya’s solution is simple: “I don’t think we should stop used games, but we should do something about getting part of the revenue back from GameStop and places like that. That’s not penalizing consumers; they’ll still get what they want.””
Small problem.
GameStop isn’t just going to “give” money to the companies. And I’ll go so far as to say that if they’re asked to, they’ll simply go out of business. If companies try and come up with some method to get said to get said money, Gamestop will not simply settle for less – they’ll raise the prices of their used games, which may well just get people to buy the new ones after all, which gets the developers what they want.
I think it’s safe to say their used games market is more profitable than their new one. They’ll sell thousands, millions of copies on day of release, but they make a lot more on the used ones they start selling two weeks later. Mainly because they pay outrageously low prices for them Oh, they might give you twenty or thirty dollars for a hot new game, but that’s credit – look at how much less you get if you ask for cash; more like ten ot fifteen. And that drops fast as time passes, far faster then the price they charge does. They they turn around and sell that copy for five bucks less then a new copy, less another ten percent if you’re a power member. So the used games make them a lot more money – no surprise they push you to buy the used end when you can. You save five bucks; they make an extra ten, easy.I’ve heard endless arguments about how developers are getting “shafted” by the used market. They argue that if everyone “had to” buy a used copy, they companies would do much better, and could even afford to lower their prices. Save argument – when’s the last time you ever saw a company voluntarily lower their prices cause they were “making enough money”? The only reason companies lower prices is when they aren’t making enough money. They lower prices to increase purchases, and “make it up on volume” as the cliche goes.
Books, records, CDs, DVDs, none of these have any limits on what you do with them once you’re done with them. And any attempt to TRY to do so is met with ridiculous (and justified) pushback. Anyone old enough to remember when DIVX was an actual machine, and not just a codec? Buyers are already very angry about the DRM, online codes, and all the other things companies added to their products right out of the gate. The famous users’ agreements you gleefully click all the time basically make you admit that you don’t own the program you just paid for – you bought a license to use the program, technically forever, but still rescindable by the publisher at any time. Luckily, that agreement is rarely enforced, but there’s nothing stopping them from doing so, save for the potential response of the public.
To a degree, the argument for buying used crosses the argument for pirating – “They’re trying to screw us out of too much money”. Used gamers just wait for the price to drop, or the used copies to appear, pirates go further and don’t pay at all. The end result is the same – the developer makes less money. Prices for new things (electronics, medicines, video games) are more expensive at first because the company is trying to make back the money it spent on its development, off what are called the “first adopters”. That money needs to be made back quickly, mainly so the company doesn’t go out of business, but more importantly, so they have money to invent the next cool thing. As the prices go down, the company makes less on each item, but by that time (presumably) it’s pure profit, save for the megligible cost of manufacture.
The rule is simple – when the list price of a new game drops, the company is making money. With a used copy, Gamestop makes the money. If you want to make sure the company benefits, buy a new copy on sale – GameStop paid the same amount for the game wholesale, they’re taking a hit on their side to get you in the store.
Author Rus Wornom is featured in the July/August issue of FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE with a story that harkens back to Pulp Adventures of the 1920s and 30s.
‘IN THE MOUNTAINS OF FROZEN FIRE’ features the mysterious adventurers of THE ENIGMA CLUB! The mysterious M4, master of espionage and disguise, travels to the frozen wastes of Ghutranh and encounters a diabolical trap set for him by his arch-nemesis, the nefarious Cobra! Trapped in an unearthly landscape of icy death, M4–Enigma Club founding member Commander Denis Cushing–discovers a terrifying secret, and must do battle with a team of assassins . . . and an unspeakable threat that has survived in the Arctic snows for millennia. There he comes face to face with a terror from beyond the seas of eternity . . . “In the Mountains of Frozen Fire!”
THE ENIGMA CLUB is a contemporary pulp adventure novel, currently being marketed by Wornom’s agent, Andrew Zack of The Zack Company. It’s the story of how the discovery of an obscure pulp magazine sends the novel’s hero in search of the Enigma Club, supposedly located on a forgotten island in the Gulf of Mexico.
What he discovers is a land forsaken by time–Cayo Arcana, an island forgotten by the world for more than sixty years–where the pulps are still alive. The Enigma Club is a haven for adventurers, explorers, heroes, starlets, scientists (mad and otherwise), warriors and spies, all members of a classic gentlemen’s club created by and for all the pulp archetypes from the Golden Age of Adventure.
THE ENIGMA CLUB recreates the pulp era of the ’20s and ’30s, and also makes an impossible tale and the impossible locale very real and almost interactive, integrating artifacts–photos, sidebars, excerpts from fictional books and pulps, telegrams, and even vintage postcards–to create a world that the reader feels could possibly exist.
Wornom’s original intent with THE ENIGMA CLUB was to include a sample pulp story for each of the Club’s charter members, as published between 1911 and 1953 in the Club’s pulp, The Enigma Club All-Adventure Magazine. However, the novel became too long, so he included only one story, “Sky-Gods of Ixtamal,” to represent the themes inherent with the pulp era: adventure, wonder, lost races, fantastic technologies, and everyday characters who embody the heroic ideal.
Two other stories were already finished, and the first of these, “In the Mountains of Frozen Fire,” is a tale of Commander Denis Cushing, Agent M4, whom he created as a cross between James Bond, Artemus Gordon and G-8. His inspiration for the story was a painting by Frank Frazetta, The Frost Giants, with a little Lovecraft and a lot of Robert E. Howard thrown in. Wornom’s goal was to tell a period story, using the tropes of Howard, Lovecraft and traditional spy fiction, while also serving up a dose of 21st Century humor–along the lines of Indiana Jones meets SNL.
“In the Mountains of Frozen Fire” will be published in the July/August 2013 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
The second completed story is “Hot Time at Bad Penny’s,” a tale of founding member Bucky Sniggles-Wooten—charmer, adventurer, and accomplished cad. It’s a saucy story of deadly gangsters, speakeasies, and super-science run amok. Wornom’s goal with this was to show today’s readers what the pulps’ saucy or spicy stories were all about, while also playing with some of the tropes of big city pulp stories (with a tip of the hat to ERB, Amazing Stories, and the classic Fleischer Superman cartoons). It is currently being considered for publication at F&SF.
ABOUT THE WRITER IN HIS OWN WORDS:
ERB andA Princess of Marswere my primary influences when I decided to become a writer.
Burroughs showed me that a writer is born in his heart, and that even a pencil sharpener salesman could tell stories of extraordinary people in extraordinary circumstances that could enthrall generations of readers. Once I read A Princess of Mars, I knew that I wanted to tell stories that could make people believe in worlds undreamed of.
Rusty is what my friends call me, but Harlan Ellison once yelled at me in a workshop, “Nobody’ll read anything by a guy named Rusty! It’s a kid’s name!” SoRuswas born, even though my given name, Howard, was used when my novella, “Puppy Love Land,” was published in the April, 1996Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The story was later nominated as Best Novella on the Preliminary Ballot for the Horror Writers of America awards. I was also the pseudonymous author ofSpelljammer: The Ultimate Helm, Dungeon of Fear,andCastle of the Undead,all published by TSR Books way back in the dim, dark ‘90s. Spelljammermade the Waldenbooks bestseller list . . . for a month. Since 1983, I’ve been published in such magazines asOmni, Premiere, Gauntlet, andStoryboard,and in newspapers and regional magazines, and contributed to The Stephen King Companion. I’ve participated in writing workshops with Ellison, Brian Aldiss, Gene Wolfe, and Kate Wilhelm. A spec teleplay got me in the door atStar Trek: The Next Generation,where I pitched story ideas four times. I’ve also acted on the Discovery Channel inThe New Detectives,although I was never credited. (Somehow, though, Buddy the Beagle got a credit.) I live in Virginia with my wife and a large, furry family.
So this is the story told in the Florida courtroom.
George Zimmerman looks out his window. He sees Treyvon Martin walking down the block. Zimmerman picks up his gun, goes outside, gets in his car, and hunts Martin down. Zimmerman finds Martin and confronts him. Martin is carrying a dangerous bag of Skittles. The two men get into an altercation. Zimmerman shoots Martin dead. Zimmerman tells the police that Treyvon Martin started the altercation and that he, Zimmerman, was “standing his ground.”
Can you pick out what is wrong in the story?*
• • • • •
As I was saying…
I started to regret ever taking on the whole assignment. I felt I was turning out crap. I was embarrassed. I was sad. I worried about my future as a comics writer. And finally…
I got fed up.
I will never forget the day it happened. I was arguing with Alan. And something in me simply exploded…
Mt. St. Mindy blew.
“Fuck you!!!! I don’t need this shit! I quit!!!!”
I slammed the door as I left. I walked out to the elevator. I pushed the button. I was fuming. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
I was done. But Marv (Wolfman) had followed me out to the lobby and there he talked me down, convincing me to keep going, not to quit. He walked me back to the office, and I apologized to editor Alan Gold, and he apologized to me. (And by the way, Alan is a terrific guy, and he and I got along beautifully when we weren’t discussing Wonder Woman.)
So I finished the run. If you can’t remember that far back, the series was ending to prepare the way for George Pérez’s relaunch, and I was responsible for only the last three or four issues. But to be honest, I don’t think I would have stayed on with Alan as the editor, despite our personal friendship, even if the series had continued. I think I would have been fired. Lesson here, boys and girls: never curse out your editor in a loud voice that can be heard everywhere and starts the office talking. Or simply, never curse out your boss. These days I would still want to yell and curse and scream, but I’m a little bit wiser and a whole lot older (not just chronologically) – meaning more mature (?) – and I would try to find a solution that worked for both my editor and myself. Or, if that didn’t work, take myself off the book.
So I was done with Diana.
Until November 1989, and Wonder Woman volume 2, number 36.
Wonder Woman had been rebooted in 1987. Not many people remember that Greg Potter was the original writer/scripter, by the way, with George co-plotting and penciling. But Greg dropped out after the release of Wonder Woman #2, and George became the plotter, with Len Wein writing the scripts until issue #18, when George took over the whole shebang.
This post-Crisis reboot was the one that did it for me. As I’ve stated previously, I have always loved Greek mythology, and my favorite stories about Diana were those involving the Amazons and their gods. Apparently, George and Greg appreciated the rich background, too. The inclusion of the Hellenic mythos and theology of gods and goddesses with supernatural powers but all too human personalities and foibles finally imbued Diana with her own raison d’être that brimmed with a new truthfulness for the character.
Responding to the heartache and prayers of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, who had led her followers to an island shielded in the mists from the patriarchal and brutal world in which they lived, (as the Isle of Avalon is in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists Of Avalon), the goddesses instructed Hippolyta to shape a baby girl out of the earth, and breathed the “gift of life” into the clay. (Hmm…in Jewish lore this makes Diana a golem. A golem is a figure made of clay upon whose forehead the Hebrew letters aleph, mem, and tav are written out to spell emet, which means “truth,” and doesn’t Diana have a golden lariat that forces those bound by it to speak truth? Boy, could I run with that one!)
The child was given the gift of beauty and compassion by Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love; the gift of wisdom from Athena; the power and strength of the earth from Demeter; the creativity, passion, authority, and energy of fire from Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth; and from Artemis, the Huntress, respect for all life and a mastery of weapons. Only Hermes, of all the male gods, bestowed a gift upon Diana – that of speed and the power of flight.
This Diana, though once grown a great warrior and unafraid to use force when necessary, was also a “stranger in a strange land” – not only an innocent in the ways of the world, but unable even to speak English when she first arrived here as an ambassador (or emissary) from Themiscrya.
Even the supporting characters made sense. Steve Trevor was still in the Air Force, but he was older and involved with Etta Candy, who was also more mature and with a realistic physique for her age. And Diana’s mentor in Patriarch’s World, a.k.a. Man’s World, was one Julia Kapatelis, an archaeologist and scholar of the ancient Greek world, who recognized Diana’s speech as a variant of early Greek, and who had a daughter, Vanessa, just about to enter her crazy ‘teens.
Working on this Wonder Woman with George and Karen was absolutely sublime. He was doing the plots, but it was definitely a partnership; and all the characters were so real, so defined – they were easy to write because I knew just what each one would say in whatever situation they found themselves.
The highlight of our work together, im-no-so-ho, was Wonder Woman #46, “Chalk Drawings.” It was ostensibly about Lucy’s suicide, but George and I decided to not focus on Lucy herself; instead, it was about the aftermath of Lucy’s final action. No one knew why Lucy had killed herself; everyone searched for an answer; everyone blamed him or herself. Even Diana, who went home to seek solace from her mother, only to learn from Hippolyta that even an Amazon is capable of committing suicide; even an Amazon cannot always find the answer or the way to help. And with the beautiful artwork of Jill Thompson and Romeo Tanghal, I believe it deserves to be a classic.
On a personal level, having had to deal with clinical depression throughout almost my entire adult life – it wasn’t properly diagnosed until my mid-30’s, btw, and don’t ever try to tell me antidepressants, especially the SSRI class, is more dangerous than the disease, because I will bite your face off – that issue was very special to me, and really emphasized what Wonder Woman, the hero made of clay, the golem, stands for…
Emet.
Truth.
* The truth about George Zimmerman is that he deliberately went out and hunted down and provoked, Treyvon Martin. The truth about Treyvon Martin is that he was the one who “stood his ground.”
TUESDAY MORNING: Emily S. Whitten
TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Michael Davis, if he’s recovered from SDCC
ALL PULP continues its series of interviews with BAD TIGER STUDIO! This time, we have co-founder Justin Ditzler in the hot seat!
ALL PULP: Tell us about yourself, your personal background, and how you got into writing/art/etc.:
JD: I live in Central Pa with my wife and we are expecting our first child in December. I have always been an artist, for as long as I can remember. My family still has drawings of mine from before I can even remember. I’ve always enjoyed working in pencil, black and whites, and inks. When I was in school, all of my best grades came from art class. I entered a few school based competitions over the years and usually place high if not on top. My home town is also the location of the county fair where the school would enter my work and I had quite a nice collection of blue ribbons as a kid. As I grew older, life kept pushing me further and further away from the artwork that I loved so I was forced to find other outlets for my creativity. Through this I discovered I could use a computer to create, so I took to some digital coloring for my drawings and scraps. Over the last decade or so, I’ve been learning about digital art and web design in my free time and squeezing in some drawing where I can. In the past I have created album art and logos for the various musical projects and the occasional tattoo design.
I am new to the world of comics and pulp, but I’m really liking what I have seen thus far.
AP: What is your role at Bad Tiger?
JD: I am the Co-Founder of Bad Tiger Studio, along with C. William Russette. Also, I am the web-designer/webmaster at www.badtigerstudio.com, the Co-Creator of Operator Zero and the colorist/letterer of Operator Zero. Furthermore, I have designed all of the logos for Bad Tiger Studio and Operator Zero and I am one of the Administrators of the Bad Tiger Studio Facebook Page.
AP: In our modern society, some would say that there’s nothing new or original anymore. What makes Bad Tiger stand out?
JD: In most cases, I would agree. Originality is something that seems to be very hard to come by these days. To me this is not a surprise. With the invention of the internet and social media it’s becoming harder and harder to come up with a truly original idea. Also, we have to consider the amount of characters and stories that are out there today. Our Genre is not a new one and there are so many Archetypes out there that influences and similarities are very hard to escape.
I think originality is found within the stories of the characters we create. As creators we spend amazing amounts of time figuring out the backgrounds and the stories of our characters. When we write our stories we need to know how our characters will react to the situations and why and what made them react in such a way. So we spend countless hours creating worlds, families, friends, foes and histories just so we can convey the best story and best character to our readers.
At Bad Tiger Studio, our characters and our stories make us stand out. From our writing to our character design and development, to our artwork and finished products, I think we have some great things to offer.
AP: What are your inspirations, influences for the work you do?
Considering I am quite new to the world of comics and pulp, I think my inspirations and influences are everywhere. I’ll spend hours in the local book store browsing the comics section, picking up book after book just to see the differences in style and technique. Sometimes I learn things and sometimes I get lost in the story.
JD: What do you think appeals to the public about heroic/genre fiction and/or comic strips? Why will people come to Bad Tiger?
I think hero fiction appeals to everyone’s inner hero. I think that all people have some sort of drive or urge to do the right things on one level or another. The hero fiction genre allows us to indulge our inner hero with the ability to put ourselves in the hero’s shoes, or cape in some cases. These small escapes give us the opportunity to imagine ourselves standing up for what is right and just. Thankfully for us, the creators, once a person is hooked on this feeling and finds our characters relatable, they keep coming back for more. I think as our stories unfold at Bad Tiger Studio, our audience will see just how intricate our stories are and they will keep coming back to find out where the story is headed next.
AP: Any last words?
JD: Thus far Bad Tiger Studio has been a great experience for me. I work with very talented people and we all seem to share a common interest. We all want to get our characters out there into the hands of the readers and we all want to tell our stories.
Best Short Story: “Moon 1969: The True Story of the 1969 Moon Launch,” by Michael Kupperman, in Tales Designed to Thrizzle #8 (Fantagraphics)
Best Single Issue (or One-Shot): The Mire, by Becky Cloonan (self-published)
Best Continuing Series: Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image)
Best New Series: Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image)
Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7): Babymouse for President, by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Random House)
Best Publication for Kids (ages 8–12): Adventure Time, by Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, and Braden Lamb (kaboom!)
Best Publication for Teens (ages 13–17): A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle, adapted by Hope Larson (FSG)
Best Humor Publication: Darth Vader and Son, by Jeffrey Brown (Chronicle)
Best Digital Comic: Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain)
Best Anthology: Dark Horse Presents, edited by Mike Richardson (Dark Horse)
Best Reality-Based Work (tie): Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, by Joseph Lambert (Center for Cartoon Studies/Disney Hyperion); The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song, by Frank M. Young and David Lasky (Abrams ComicArts)
Best Graphic Album—New: Building Stories, by Chris Ware (Pantheon)
Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
Best Graphic Album—Reprint: King City, by Brandon Graham (TokyoPop/Image)
Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips: Pogo, vol. 2: Bona Fide Balderdash, by Walt Kelly, edited by Carolyn Kelly and Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics)
Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books: David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil Born Again: Artist’s Edition, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW
Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Blacksad: Silent Hell, by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (Dark Horse)
Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia: Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa (VIZ Media)
Best Writer: Brian K. Vaughan, Saga (Image)
Best Writer/Artist: Chris Ware, Building Stories (Pantheon)
Best Penciler/Inker (tie): David Aja, Hawkeye (Marvel), Chris Samnee, Daredevil (Marvel); Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom (IDW)
Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art): Juanjo Guarnido, Blacksad (Dark Horse)
Best Cover Artist: David Aja, Hawkeye (Marvel)
Best Coloring: Dave Stewart, Batwoman (DC); Fatale (Image); BPRD, Conan the Barbarian, Hellboy in Hell, Lobster Johnson, The Massive (Dark Horse)
Best Lettering: Chris Ware, Building Stories (Pantheon)
Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism: The Comics Reporter, edited by Tom Spurgeon, www.comicsreporter.com
Best Comics-Related Book: Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, by Sean Howe (HarperCollins)
Best Educational/Academic Work: Lynda Barry: Girlhood Through the Looking Glass, by Susan E. Kirtley (University Press of Mississippi)
Best Publication Design: Building Stories, designed by Chris Ware (Pantheon)
Hall of Fame: Lee Falk, Al Jaffee, Mort Meskin, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, Joe Sinnott
In the Original Novel category: Robert Jeschonek for Rising Sun, Falling Shadows, a Tannhäuser book.
In the Adapted Novel category: Clockwork Angels by Kevin J. Anderson, based on the album by Rush.
In the Audio category: The Eternal Actress by Nev Fountain, a Dark Shadows story.
Acknowledging excellence in this very specific skill, IAMTW’s Scribe Awards deal exclusively with licensed works that tie in with other media such as television, movies, gaming, or comic books. They include original works set in established universes, and adaptations of stories that have appeared in other formats and cross all genres. Tie-in works run the gamut from westerns to mysteries to procedurals, from science fiction to fantasy to horror, from action and adventure to superheroes. Gunsmoke, Murder She Wrote, CSI, Star Trek, Star Wars, Shadowrun, Resident Evil, James Bond, Iron Man, these represent just a few.
Congratulations to the winners!
The nominees were:
ORIGINAL NOVEL
Darksiders: The Abomination Vault by Ari Marmell Pathfinder: City of the Fallen Sky by Tim Pratt Mike Hammer: Lady, Go Die! By Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins Star Trek: The Persistence of Memory by David Mack Star Trek: The Rings of Time by Greg Cox Tannhäuser: Rising Sun, Falling Shadows by Robert Jeschonek Dungeons and Dragons Online: Skein of Shadows by Marsheila Rockwell
ADAPTED NOVEL
Poptropica: Astroknights Island by Tracey West Clockwork Angels by Kevin Anderson Batman: The Dark Knight Legend by Stacia Deutsch Batman: The Dark Knight Rises by Greg Cox
AUDIO Dark Shadows: Dress Me in Dark Dreams by Marty Ross Dark Shadows: The Eternal Actress by Nev Fountain Doctor Who Companion Chronicles: Project Nirvana by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
Congratulations also to author Ann Crispin who was named Grandmaster by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.
The new Superman movie has been out for some time now and most folks who want to see it probably have and those who want to comment on it probably have. I shied away from Man of Steel as a topic simply because everyone has had their opinion but the questions I want to pose here are at somewhat an odd angle. If you know me, you’re not surprised. Still, there will be spoilers so, if you haven’t seen the film and don’t want to be spoiled, avoid the rest of the column.
I’ve written here and there that the character of Superman needs to be re-examined and re-invented every so often if it is to remain relevant to it time. I think I read the director (Zack Snyder) and/or its writer (David S. Goyer) and/or its producer (Christopher Nolan) say something to the effect that this was their intention. This wasn’t going to be a “comic book” Superman but examine him as if the character was new. Actually, I’m fine with that as an idea. I think any version of Superman still needs to be recognizable as Superman. I would have preferred they kept the red trunks but that’s not necessary to be true to the character.
If Superman is being invented for this time, what does this version of the Man of Steel say about our time?
It is, by design, a dark film. Superman’s costume itself runs dark – the blue could almost be black, the red “S” in his chest shield is more of a crimson. Not only does Superman not have red trunks, there is nothing yellow or gold in the costume. Nothing bright. And yet Superman claims that the sigil on his chest actually means “hope” in Kryptonian. Is this a hopeful film?
Pa Kent, as played by Kevin Costner, is morally ambivalent. He’s afraid that if normal humans know what Clark can do, they’ll reject him. When a young Clark saves a bus full of fellow students from drowning after the bus goes off a bridge, Pa Kent reprimands Clark who asks, “Was I just supposed to let them die?” Pa Kent’s reply is “Maybe.”
Pa later dies, not of a heart attack, but in a twister. Clark could have saved him but that would have meant revealing his true nature. Pa silently and sternly forbids it. And dies. The difference from previous versions is that then Pa dies of a heart attack; there’s nothing Clark could have done. In the Richard Donner film he says, “I have all this power and I couldn’t save him.” In Man of Steel, Clark could have and didn’t. I think that’s significant. The Donner version brings out the humanity in the superhuman and shows his limitations. In MoS, the fact that Clark obeys his father and lets him die when he could have saved him says to me that he has accepted his father’s paranoia. Ultimately, Jonathan Kent is wrong; Superman is accepted by humans, but only after killing a fellow Kryptonian.
That’s perhaps the most controversial element of the new movie. Superman winds up killing General Zod. Snaps his neck. Zod had said he wouldn’t stop killing humans and was in fact about to incinerate a small group of them with his heat vision. Superman begs him to stop but he won’t. So Kal-El kills Zod.
Are we supposed to view this as a no-win situation, to say Superman had no other choice? Does that make it acceptable? Superman immediately feels horrible but was there really no other way? Are meant to agree, to empathize, in this era of “acceptable collateral damage”? Or should Superman be better than that? He was in the past; does this make Superman more realistic? Is that what we want? Is that what we need? Is that who we are?
I was talking recently with Mary’s friend Sherry (a lovely person) and her ten year old grandson, Gavin Simpson. He had seen Man of Steel and I was curious about his reaction; ten years old is the prime time for becoming a Superman fan.
Gavin has seen the other Superman films and knows about the comics but this would be his Superman – the one he sees on the big screen when it first comes out. He liked it but he didn’t love it; he said that the fight scenes at the end went on too long (I agree). He also felt that Henry Cavill, the guy playing Kal-El, didn’t project enough of Superman’s essential goodness. That’s an interesting point.
Most tellingly, when I asked Gavin about Superman killing Zod, he didn’t care for it. When I asked him why, he was clear and firm: “Superheroes don’t kill.”
These days, evidently they do, including the first, brightest, and the most iconic. It makes everything more realistic. It makes Man of Steel the Superman for our time, according to those who made the film.
