|
To Be Continued #4
••• For you it's almost November, or possibly even later but for me it's still early October. In fact, as I write this, Psycomics.com has been on-line for a mere 14 hours. It's appropriate, I suppose, that a comic-book column should operate on what we in the business call "comic-book time." What this means, other than the fact that the events of this column all took place within the last 7 years (ten years if I'm talking about DC), is that at this point you know more about the column than I do. You've read three of them and you've had your horizons expanded. You've come to appriciate your new clarity of thought and purpose. You've accepted the truth of Dwayne McDuffie's First Law (chant it with me, "Dwayne is Right. I agree with him.") and suddenly, for the first time in your life, everything makes sense. By now, most of the statues are up and you're out raising money for the churches you're building in my name. And I appreciate it, guys. But what I want right now, is some feedback. Not that some of you aren't already on the ball. In the few, short hours since the premiere of To Be Continued... I've received a couple dozen e-mails, from as close as my brother sitting in the living room playing with my PowerBook, and from as far away as Israel (where my step-children, Angel and Abshalom live &emdash;but the letter wasn't from them. Do they write?). I've likewise received several applications for the Dwayne McDuffie Genius Grant of 5 bucks American for anyone with a workable plan to save the comic book industry (I'm still going through the early entries). Even the graft I've requested (free comic books from comic publishers in return for a mention in this column &emdash;e-mail me for details) has begun to trickle in. Although, I note that Marvel and DC have remained, thus far, mysteriously silent on the matter. It couldn't be ethical standards, so what's the hold-up? Oh, right. My attitude. Look guys, I can easily be bought, just throw in the hardcovers. What I thought I'd do is list a bunch of my plans for future columns &emdash;pitch them to you, sort of. Then based on your feedback, I'll make sure that the ones you most want to see will show up sooner, rather than later. So here you go, right from my notebook, in no particular order: • A personal profile of comics legend Walter Simonson. He's outstanding as a writer, a genius as a penciller and an unaccountably nice guy who used to come over to the Milestone offices and teach anybody who asked everything there is to know about storytelling. Then he'd tell us entire continuities of old newspaper strips. • A day in the life of a comic book editor. What do we do all day, besides piss off your favorite creators and make them quit? • I'll attempt to say something new about Alan Moore, probably focusing on his America's Best Comics line even though I'd rather talk about From Hell. Did you know he was going to co-write an Icon Annual? Oh, I guess that should go in the column. • A discussion of the women in comics organization, Friends Of Lulu and why it is that they make some folks so nervous (but not us). • The Melissa Joan Hart/Sabrina TV series contremps (as of this writing, the Publisher of Archie Comics wants her to be fired for appearing in some magazine photo spreads scantily clad). I briefly worked for Archie in the early 90's when they were attempting to be more contemporary. They changed their minds pretty quickly but not before a friend of mine slipped Betty a Black boyfriend. Hilarity ensued. • More comics on TV: Is Nightman the worst thing you've ever seen? Stop lying, it is too. • A profile of Christopher "The Godfather Of Soul" Priest and his remarkable, ground-breaking carreer. • Kid's comics. Why don't we make more of them? I'm going to ask Harvey and Star Comics editor Sid Jacobson and Disney Adventures-turned-Cartoon Network editor Heidi MacDonald. • 3 embarrassing secrets I know about Marvel Comics editor Tom Breevort that can remain secrets if I get to write The Avengers (2 of them can remain secrets if I only get Iron Man, instead). • An appreciation of the legendary Will Eisner and how I can love his stuff and still go nearly blind with rage whenever I see his drawings of The Spirit's humorous jig-a-boo sidekick, Ebony White. • A discussion of certain trends in comic book art, including why I'm an old fogy who prefers story-tellers to "kewl" pin-up guys. Is there middle ground? • Jim Shooter. Valiant. Defiant. Broadway. Valiant again? Why do people say such horrible things about him? He was nice to me. • My Semi-Annual Name-Droppers Feast, in which I serially use up several of my best anecdotes including; accidentally insulting Frank Miller; "making" John Byrne quit She Hulk; meeting my childhood idol Harlan Ellison (and thrilling to him complimenting my work, then getting really torqued at him when he "tested" me on my knowledge of Bessie Smith); and as always, more death-threats from Pat Gabrielle and Rich Buckler. I've got plenty more planned but this should give you enough of a sense of what I've got in mind that you can start heckling it with authority. So get going, I'll never be able to complete my plans for Total World Domination if my column isn't up to snuff (I know that seems unlikely, but if you were really capable of understanding these sort of subtleties, you'd be the cult leader, not me). Make no mistake, the Earth will be mine. But until then, this is To Be Continued...
Home • Dwayne's Comic Credits • Dwayne's Bio • About Milestone • The Company Line • Milestone Press • Damage Control • Hardware • Icon • Icon TPB • The Road To Hell • Static • Comic Book Scripts • Links
|
