Archives: March 2008
30/03 Update
As you can see below, I'm starting to get all my old posts back onto the Writer's Blog.Hopefully, I'll catch up to the present before this system suffers the same H@X0r/script kiddie problems the last one did.
30/03 10/26/05 Hero Happy Hour Script
10/26/05{excerpted from my Writer's Sketchbook}
The very best way to keep your writing skills up is just to write. Writing is not just an art, it is a craft. While a person may be gifted with the writer’s artistic spark, the craft must always be honed. That only takes place with practice.
This is a 4-page submission for a contest through Scryptic Studios sponsored by GeekPunk (http://www.geekpunk.com), the creators of Hero Happy Hour. While the script was not the contest winner, it offered a good chance to practice my craft. Artwork was provided by Brian Shearer.
HERO HAPPY HOUR
"Hero Honky-Tonk" (4 pages)
Script - Marty Blevins
Art - Brian Shearer
Page ONE
Panel 1
Exterior shot of SCOUT and NIGHT RANGER walking toward the Hideaway Bar and
Grill – (Establish the location in panel 1 or 2). SCOUT and NIGHT RANGER are
returning from a mission and should look appropriately worn out. NIGHT RANGER
is quietly determined to get in the bar and get a beer. SCOUT is picking
something gooey off of his uniform and complaining.
SCOUT:
Uggh... THIS STUFF IS NASTY.
WHAT WAS THAT GUY MADE OF?
NIGHT RANGER
HMMM
Panel 2
SCOUT starting to open the door to the Hideaway.
SCOUT
Remind me later to restock my sanitizer
NIGHT RANGER
HMMM
SCOUT
Right now I’m ready for a cold beer and a little peace and …
Panel 3
Large Splash-style panel. NIGHT RANGER and SCOUT are dumbfounded as they
look in on the new interior of the Hideaway. The normally quiet little bar has
been transformed into a bright and bustling retro honky-tonk with people
everywhere (human, superhuman and otherwise) laughing loudly and carousing. A
disco ball hangs from the ceiling and a mechanical bull can be seen in the
background.
SCOUT
Quiet?!? What Happened?
Panel 4
Close on SCOUT and NIGHT RANGER – SCOUT is looking around the bar,
obviously in shock. NIGHT RANGER is looking for the bartender. He is in
no-nonsense mode and is focused on finding out what has happened to his
favorite watering hole.
SCOUT
(Small) It’s like a redneck disco nightmare
NIGHT RANGER
RUSTY!
Panel 5
The bartender, Rusty, comes by SCOUT and NIGHT RANGER carrying a water jug
or something equally ungainly.
Rusty
Hey! Guys! Where you been?
NIGHT RANGER
Sewer.Monster. What happened?
Panel 6
Close on bartender for exposition.
Bartender
Don’t wet your tights. It’s temporary.
This is a project my niece is working on for her business
degree.
Page TWO
Panel 1
Distant shot of bartender to show off more of the "updated look" of the
bar. If you can work the niece into the panel, put her in silhouette or keep
her just out of clear view – maybe just an arm setting down a drink in
foreground.
Rusty
She’s got a week to improve an existing business and increase sales.
After that, it’s back to normal.
She thought Honky-Tonk was the way to go.
seems to be working. Sadly.
Panel 2
Medium on SCOUT and NIGHT RANGER. SCOUT has broken from his stupor and is
now angry. Use one or two panels as necessary.
SCOUT
THIS is her improvement?
NIGHT RANGER
Oh boy.
SCOUT
Look at this place -
these lights, the noise, the Smoke
NIGHT RANGER
(calmly) The line dancing
SCOUT
What kind of Sociopath could actually enjoy this?
Panel 3
Wide panel the width of the page showing a close up of the disco ball.
CRICKET-GUY appears, riding the spinning ball and wearing a cowboy hat. He
leaps from the right side of the ball in an arc into a standing position in
the middle of panel 4 in lower left. Make the descent obvious with a few ghost
images like an old-school Flash comic.
CRICKET-GUY
YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAWWW(text following descent Arc)
Panel 4
CRICKET-GUY lands on a table near SCOUT and NIGHT RANGER and shouts.
CRICKET-GUY
Isn’t this GREAT?!?!
Panel 5
CRICKET-GUY continues talking excitedly, oblivious that SCOUT is glaring at
him.
The bartender takes off to deliver his drinks and NIGHT RANGER casually
looks around for a table. (Whether this is explicit or implied in the next few
panels, I’ll leave to you.)
The dialogue can be made fairly small and run together to indicate that
CRICKET-GUY is just rambling excitedly about the changes
CRICKET-GUY
Oh man, you won’t believe what you guys have missed!
The place has been packed – X’treme was even here – Can you believe
it? He dominated the arm wrestling contest – I won twenty bucks
off him – He had this one guy…
Page THREE
Panel 1
SCOUT and CRICKET-GUY – continuing previous
SCOUT
Will You SHUT UP!
How could you let this happen? – this is our hangout.
This is where we go to drink and be guys. Not to dress
up and play cowboy
Panel 2
Close on CRICKET-GUY
CRICKET-GUY
(small) Says the guy in the Lone Ranger mask. Anyway, Rusty’s niece
says…
Panel 3
SCOUT
Oh, What? So some woman comes in and bats her eyes and
you’re ready to sell out the one good thing we have
and let her turn it into the BottomFeeder saloon? It’s a
travesty! It’s a mockery. It…
Panel 4
CRICKET-GUY, tired of this buzz-kill conversation and wanting to deflate
SCOUT a bit, points over his shoulder to NIGHT RANGER, who has seated himself
at a table and is motioning for the waitress. SCOUT is aghast to see NIGHT
RANGER sitting down rather than joining in his indignant tirade. This is a
reaction shot as much as anything and should be given some real-estate on the
page.
CRICKET-GUY
...Doesn’t seem to be bothering your partner any
Panel 5
Small panel tight on CRICKET-GUY jumping off panel with a self-satisfied
look on his face.
CRICKET-GUY
Oop – mechanical bull contest. Gotta Go.
Panel 6
SCOUT storms angrily over to NIGHT RANGER’s table. SCOUT is agitated, but
NIGHT RANGER is calm and relaxed.
SCOUT
What do you think you’re doing?
NIGHT RANGER
Just what I came here for. Having a drink.
Panel 7
SCOUT
But how can you…
NIGHT RANGER
Look, kid. Don’t get yourself all worked up. You heard the man. It’s
only a few days.
SCOUT
That’s not the point!
Page FOUR
This page will be broken out into 4 rows - use however many panels you
think are appropriate to convey the effect for each of the first two rows. Row
3 should be slightly larger (taller) than the others.
ROW 1
Close on SCOUT getting more worked up and more angry as he speaks. For the
last panel, SCOUT storms off and NIGHT RANGER, happy to be rid of the noise,
lifts his glass to his lips, and wishes SCOUT luck.
SCOUT
I spend 2 days crawling through the sewers chasing a
monster made of something my DOG wouldn’t touch to make the
city SAFE only to come back and find the ONE normal
thing in my life desecrated so some girl I’ve never even
seen can join the ranks of the corporate world and probably go to work
for some megalomaniacal billionaire playboy with a mad plot to rule the
world? NO! I’m going to find this lady and set a few things
straight!
NIGHT RANGER
(over his beer)Go get ‘er kid
Row 2
Multipanel side view of the table. This sequence should show the passage of
time as determined by either the amount of beer in NIGHT RANGER’s glass or the
number of glasses on the table. The final panel should indicate that SCOUT has
returned to the table.
Row 3
2 Panels of equal size and shape.
Panel 1
Wider view of the table with NIGHT RANGER and SCOUT sitting across
the table from each other. NIGHT RANGER’s general position and
appearance is unchanged except for a confused and/or bemused look on
his face, SCOUT is now wearing a cowboy hat and his costume is
sporting a new fringe look. He now looks like a Rhinestone cowboy
through and through. NIGHT RANGER is looking at SCOUT. SCOUT is
hunched in his chair and is sheepishly trying to avoid direct eye
contact with NIGHT RANGER.
Panel 2
Same as panel 1.
NIGHT RANGER
She was cute, huh?
SCOUT
Shut up.
ROW 4
Exterior down (crane) shot of the bar.
(from interior)
NIGHT RANGER
Cheer up kid.
You want to do some karaoke?
SCOUT
Shut up.
30/03 The Flash (Barry Allen)
10/20/05The Flash - Barry Allen
Since we're talking about my obsessions (and speaking of winning) - I figure this is as good an opportunity as any to talk about my longest-running (no pun intended) obsession - the Flash.
I can't fully explain it, but the Flash has always been my favorite superhero. And, of the Flashes, Barry Allen has always been my favorite. Now - there are probably a few folks out there for whom Wally West has always been the Flash, and fewer still for whom Jay Garrick is the alpha speedster - For me, though, Barry Allen was the best and brightest of the lot.
His origin is a simple one - He was a police lab-tech who, while working late one night on a case, was struck by lightning that also struck his chemists cabinet and bathed him in chemicals.
The resultant reaction with his body did not end Barry's life, but reshaped it. It gave him superspeed - a power which had belonged to HIS comic-book idol (the Golden Age Flash), and which he put to use for decades of conquering villains and entertaining fans.
I mark the first time I ever pierced the veil between childhood and adulthood as the day I sat, horrorstruck, with tears streaming down my face, reading Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 - wherein my comic-book idol, Barry Allen, quietly, and without fanfare, ran his last step.
I've enjoyed the Wally West run as the Flash... moreso since Mark Waid took him from self-centered womanizer and made him a hero again and Geoff Johns gave him roots... but Barry will always be the Flash to me.
So, when the opportunity came up in the form of a contest on Geoff Johns' website (the ComicBloc forum) to share the story behind my love of Barry Allen, I jumped at the chance. (The prizes were just a bonus)
The setup was basically this:
It's the BASH Contest: "For the love of Barry Allen!"
The contest is simple. Write a post (as long as you feel fit to write) on why you love and enjoy the Barry Allen Flash...
And my late-night entry was as follows.
Barry was a hero.
He didn't become a hero when a lightning bolt burst through his window and rained destiny down upon him - he simply was a hero.
Barry was everyman. He wasn't wealthy, he wasn't a thrill-seeking flyboy, he didn't (at the start) have powers beyond the pale of mortal man. He was simply a moral man who made a conscious choice to do his part to make the world a better place.
Like many of us, Barry received a significant amount of his sense of right and wrong from the four-color pages of a comic book - where justice prevailed and evil was punished. Unlike many, though, Barry took those truths to heart and then set about bringing those ideals into reality.
Barry was a gifted scientist with a mind for problem-solving in an age where science was king. But rather than use his gift to increase his own wealth and fame Barry chose to put his mind to work bringing criminals to justice. His work was not glamorous, but he did it well - often to the detriment of his own personal life.
It was that personal moral core that fueled his desire to do more - to be more - so that the world could be more. And it was that desire that (by some accounts) called the lightning to him. The gift of speed that Barry received that day did not make the man - did not change the man. His gift was an extension of himself - a tool to be used in service of justice.
Barry was not a victim of circumstance. It was not personal loss that spurred him to action, though his action cost him more than any one man should have to bear (his love, his life). What spurred Barry on was an abiding desire for justice - and a lot of faith.
Even in the darkest moments (and despite all evidence to the contrary), Barry had faith. He had faith in the justice system (even when it was used against him), he had faith in the people he fought to protect, and he had faith that, in the end justice could prevail through the actions of one good man.
Can you tell I love this character?
I won the contest, by the way.
30/03 He-Man
I can't go to any of the discussion boards I normally frequent because I haven't read Identity Crisis #1 yet and I haven't seen this week's Lost. If I am to ever have any hope of dramatic tension or surprise left when I do experience these phenomena, I should probably avoid the internet altogether. Or... blog.
I've detailed my He-man fascination and the tragic loss of my He-man collection in a Tales off the Drawing Board post (still available for reading on the GravyBoard for anyone who's interested), so I won't go into it again, but suffice it to say that I have always had a deep-seated He-Man fixation.
They've recently come out with a DVD set that contains the top 10 episodes of the first 2 seasons of the 1980's Masters of the Universe cartoon. Unable to find them myself, I borrowed the set from a friend of mine and tortured my wife by watching all those great old episodes again. I hear there are plans to produce the full seasons, soon. I love the DVD revolution.
The age of the internet has been pretty good for the He-Fan, also. He-man.org is the premiere spot on the internet for every incarnation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Val Staples, who runs the site, published and wrote a number of the He-Man comic series that accompanied the release of the new figures a few years back. Good stuff there.
And, if it's He-Man humor and Masters' myrth that you're looking for:
30/03 And You Are...?
Right. I guess I did just jump into this without realizing that some folks may be coming from somewhere other than GravyBoy.com and may have no idea who I am.Hi.
I'm Marty.
I write the family-friendly, fun-for-all, comic book tour-de-force that is "GravyBoy."
GravyBoy focuses on the life of Philbert Pharmac, standard-issue thirteen year old in a world where super heroes are as common as pop idols and destiny plays its hand through them. Philbert was meant to be one of those world-changing heroes (on par with the big boys in both power and heroism. A cosmic mix-up, though, landed Philbert with the wrong power and a bit of an inferiority complex. Philbert must still fulfill his destiny to be a world-changing super hero, but he must do so armed only with a heart for justice and a backpack full of gravy. You can check out the storyline and some preview pages here.
It's a fun little read and one that seems to appeal to those who like their heroes to be heroes. Check it out and let me know what you think. All the issues for sale through Comixpress if you're interested in grabbing a copy or 12.
I also write a little webcomic called Fanboy Almanac - a weekly comic celebrating geek culture and the joyous world of the fanboy. For those more interested in the free stuff, you can check this out every week at http://fanboyalmanac.com
Here's a sneak peek -
You can also sign up for the RSS feed to receive the comic through your favorite aggregator.
So, who is Marty? Apart from all that, I'm a father, a husband, a man of faith and a whole lot more. check back around these parts over the next few... whatevers... and we'll delve a little deeper into that question.
M-
29/03 Comic Books
Comic Books don't get the credit they deserve as a medium. When the Mensa Bulletin offered up an opportunity to write about our hobbies, I jumped at the chance. And now I'd like to share it with you.
The following article was published in the July 2005 edition of the Mensa Bulletin - complete with enough pictures to make it look like an ad for GravyBoy. I had to trim it quite a bit to get it to fit the space requirements for the magazine, but I still think it got the point across.
Enjoy -
M
Fanboy Confessions
“Can I have your autograph?”
I never expected to hear those words from anyone who wasn’t delivering a package or asking me for money. But the young man standing on the other side of my table was doing neither. He held in his hands a program booklet from one of the largest comic book conventions in America (with attendance measuring in the tens of thousands). My name was in that program – and this young man wanted my autograph because, much to my surprise, I am a comic book creator.
My fascination with comic books grew out of my mother’s fascination with flea markets. On any given Saturday, she could be found meandering down the dusty aisles of a flea market, picking through time-worn relics promising deeply discounted joy for the right buyer. It was in these aisleways that I discovered my first love. Hidden amongst the rows of cookware, glassware and pottery sat the key to my salvation from an afternoon of tedium; a simple white box filled with 4-color bliss, 10 for a dollar.
I sat enraptured for hours on end, reading illustrated tales of heroes with fantastic powers and mortal men with fantastic lives. Cowboys, robots, aliens, dinosaurs – worlds unfolded before me in page after page of endless story. Whether it was a tale of the Justice League battling yet another alien monster or Archie Andrews matching wits with his arch-nemesis, Reggie, I was hooked. I was thrown by each page into a world of childish delight – and, unlike some, I never grew out of it.
Comic book readers suffer many prejudices in mainstream culture. Don’t believe me? Try, as an adult, pulling out a comic book on a business flight, in a waiting room, or on a bus and watch the reactions of those around you. If you really want to have some fun, try doing it in a business suit. While these scenes are commonplace in other nations (notably, Japan), the concept seems ridiculous to many Americans. I will even confess to occasionally hiding my comic books inside a computer magazine so I could read in peace at lunch. While novels, newspapers and magazines are acceptable – regardless of content – the comic book is viewed by many as strictly children’s fare – again, regardless of content. For example, after an issue of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman became the first comic book to win the prestigious World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 1991, the rules of the competition were amended to disallow any comic book from winning again. This unfortunate discrimination has caused many to miss out on some incredible storytelling simply because of the medium in which those stories are presented.
The stories that can be told through the medium of comics are as varied as the creators from whom they come. In my early days of reading, I was drawn to the power and the primary colors of the simple, self-contained superhero story. As I grew, though, my tastes grew also. While I still enjoyed a good hero story, I wanted more. I wanted depth of character and story that could draw me in – that could speak to my concerns in a real way. Luckily, I did not have to leave my beloved medium to find either. Between 1984 and 1994, mainstream comic books went through a sort of revolutionary period. Comic book phenomena such as Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns deconstructed the superhero mythology, making room for a less idealized view of the world than had previously been allowed. In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud took an in-depth look at the artform of comics and helped many to realize that the “comic book” was not a kind of story, but a medium – almost a language – that could be used to convey meaning in a truly unique way. At the same time, increased public interest and speculation in comics opened up new opportunities for those willing to tell a new kind of story using the metaphorical medium. Notable amongst this new breed of creators was Art Spiegelman, whose anthropomorphic recounting of his father’s life as a Holocaust survivor in Nazi Germany, Maus, won him both the Pulitzer Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
In recent years, many ideas conceived in and for comic books have spread to other media. Many of the hottest movie properties coming out on the silver screen had their origins in the saddle-stitched world of the comic book. Some of these crossover hits are obvious pulls from the world of comics (Batman, Spiderman, Hellboy) while the comic origin of others may surprise the average viewer (Road to Perdition, From Hell, Sin City). Television shows such as the WB hit, Smallville translate some of comic’s most impressive icons into the world of the small screen, adopting and expanding the worlds from which they came.
Despite my longtime love of comics and my even longer interest in writing, though, it only recently occurred to me to make the move from mere reader to participant in my favorite art form. I have a close friend with a talent for art that tells a story. I have a passion for writing. When my friend said “we should do a comic book,” the previously foreign notion became a perfectly natural next step. We began a journey to self-publish a comic of our own. We worked together to come up with a concept. I wrote a script and he put the artwork together. We sent the finished product to a printer and, voila, instant comic (well… it wasn’t quite that easy, but those are the basics). The last several months have been a whirlwind – promoting the book, taking it to comic book conventions and meeting others who, like ourselves, have decided to use the comic medium to share their ideas. The whole process happened so quickly, and seemed so natural, in fact, that it never occurred to me that I was joining in the ranks of those creators who had made my young heart soar – until, that is, a young man stepped up to my table and sheepishly asked, “Can I have your autograph.”
Comic books have changed greatly since my early days in those flea market aisles. You’ll (almost) never find 10 for a dollar any more. The stories are deeper and more varied – but somewhere in that four-color world, the Justice League is defeating yet another alien, Archie Andrews is still matching wits with Reggie, and, somewhere, a boy is sitting in a dusty flea market aisle – discovering a whole new world.