Monday, May 30, 2011
Red Vengeance Rough Pencils
Red Vengeance: Some Background Info
Apologies, this is going to be a bit long. For anyone who wants to know or cares.....
So back in about 1994 or 1995, I was working as an assistant at Artamus Studios, a consortium of comic book artists in Hillsborough, NC. There were about 8 artists there, with the lineup changing from time to time. Super talented and nice guys....I'm not sure how I got lucky enough to be a part of the gang there, but I've always been grateful for it. Jeff Parker (now a writer for Marvel Comics), Richard Case, Scott Hampton, Casey Jones, John Lowe, Chuck Wojtkiewicz, Craig Gilmore, and the late, great Mike Wieringo were all there. Even the ginormously talented Dave Johnson guest starred for a bit. I was there purely as a grunt (but not treated as one), to do things like spot blacks on pages, rule panel borders, make copies, maybe ink bits of background art if I was lucky. More fun than I could imagine. Being surrounded by nice, talented, funny guys, and more comics than any mortal could read was an amazing experience. But when I wasn't working, I could just hang out and work on my own art...which is how Red Vengeance came about.
I've always loved the 1950's....visually it's just cool. From the great graphic design, colors, and cars, to the fact that culturally, politically and socially there were lots of compelling things going on that are perfect storytelling fodder. I've always loved movies like "American Grafitti", "L.A. Confidential" and anything period, and I've always had a thing for pulp characters. So I figured if I was going to draw something, I might as well combine things I love. Batman has always been my favorite character. I'm also a big Indiana Jones and James Bond fan too. So I started by just combining all of those concepts, but then adding my own spin on them. Red Vengeance was the result. I started doodling, came up with the look of the character, and then got the attention of a small independent publisher at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC. With some guidance from some of my Artamus buds, I had my first Red Vengeance backup published in the summer of 1996. I went to the San Diego Comicon later that summer with issues in tow, and unexpectedly got the attention of Adrian Askarieh, who loved the concept and wanted to pitch it to TV as a cartoon. Total dream come true. I was floored, but stoked.
Only problem was. I had no idea how to pitch something. I had no proposal, no other characters. So, like a madman I went back to NC and furiously started coming up with back stories, supporting characters, villains, plot ideas for episodes....I was freaked, but excited beyond words. This is where having friends at Artamus helped a lot. They looked at what I had, made suggestions, and helped fill in the blanks. Soon I went from having a couple cool characters to having a fleshed out world. We pitched it to Fox, who loved it but who ultimately passed on it because they were also looking at developing a period "Captain America" cartoon that season. They didn't want 2 period shows on at once, and since Cap's a well known character who's been around since the 40's, RV got the boot. I was bummed, but not surprised. But now I had a lot of great ideas, so I kept drawing. I got another RV story printed in the "Negative Burn" anthology (which my friend Mike Wieringo was nice enough to pencil the cover for, that's just how he rolled), and just kept plugging along.
A year or so later, I got the chance to pitch it again. The Cap cartoon never went anywhere, and now I had an opportunity to do an even bigger pitch, maybe in person. Whoa. But I needed a better proposal. So, I took the original tiny 6 page pitch and turned it into a giant 20 something page bible, choc full of art, story info, toy friendly concept art, you name it. I spent a lot of time writing stuff (which my uber talented pal Jeff Parker was nice enough to help me improve), which left little time to draw. So Mike Wieringo, who again, being the hero he was, offered to take my character designs and draw them as gorgeous feature pieces on the character bio pages. It's always humbling seeing someone take your creations and draw them a billion times better than you, but I was grateful. Parker helped out on some killer art illustrations too, and soon I took all the pieces and made a kick ass bible out of them. I painted an illustrated cover, had it copied and bound and sent it all to Adrian, the guy who championed it from the beginning. He was floored by it all, and thought we had a great shot. I was cautiously optimistic, but excited. I worked my ass off. So I waited and got on with things. Soon, before I knew it, I was on the phone with people from Fox. They loved it. They had a few tweaks, which I expected and was fine with. There was a lot of "hurry up and wait", but the signs were good. More waiting. And more.
Before I knew it, Fox optioned it. Not for very much, but I didn't care. I was too excited to think straight. I couldn't believe I had made it this far this soon. It was insane. I tried not getting my hopes up, but it was tough. I knew it could still fizzle, but it was a rush thinking about the possibilities. They assigned a story editor, Michael Reaves. Many may not know his name, but I guarantee if you were a kid growing up in the late 70's through the 80's you knew his work. He's a legend in writing in Saturday Morning television. A lot of my favorite shows and cartoons from my childhood were written by him. He won an Emmy for his work on Batman The Animated Series. And I was going to work with him? Oh. My. God. So we wrote a pilot script together. He game me some sample scripts, with I followed for format and pacing. I'd write a draft, send it to him, he'd polish it up, make it better. I was expecting him to rewrite everything I did, but surprisingly he left a fair amount of my stuff in there. He actually LIKED what I was doing. Holy Cow. Fox dug our script. Bandai was talking about a potential toy line. Geez...this might actually HAPPEN! I was over the moon.
That summer we went to Comicon again in San Diego. This time we were going to Fox to talk things over. I was going to Hollywood! How freaking cool is that? I went there, met with two of the coolest guys ever, Dave and Dan, and they were talking about getting on the Fall schedule. Even got a little blurb about it in Wizard Magazine. This was it. Adrian was cool enough to take me to a party in Tarzana that night, at legendary writer Marv Wolfman's house....we had an awesome time. Marv took us up to the hill where Edgar Rice Burroughs would write from. Wow. Met great people, ate and laughed and talked all night. Flew back home, then waited some more.....it felt amazing.
Then not too long afterwards, I got the phone call. There was going to be a management takeover or some such thing at Fox, and everything on the schedule was going to be canned to make way for the new guard, Including Red Vengeance. This meant less new, expensive programming, and more inexpensive, premade Japanese Pokemon clones. This happens all the time in entertainment. For every movie and show you see on TV, there are hundreds at any given time that are optioned, go into development but get axed. Just the nature of the game. Everyone was cool about it, but I admit I was crushed. I swore I wouldn't let myself get carried away, but in the end I couldn't help it. So, 4 years of work and waiting ended in a 4 minute phone call. And that was that. To this day I'm eternally grateful for having the chance, and for the experience of working with all those amazing people, if only briefly.
So, I kept working my day job, and kept wanting to do more RV, but to this day, haven't had the chance to repitch it. Did a few more short stories, but nothing major. I'd still love to do it, I still believe in it, but for now it's still relegated to "labor of love" status. I've tried for several years writing and rewriting the "ultimate" RV story to draw and publish as a graphic novel, but realized I was wasting my time spinning my wheels on such an endeavor. There is no "ultimate" story. Just write something you like and get it out there. So that's what I'm doing now, and that's what these pages are ultimately going to be. Maybe one day I'll get another shot at Red Vengeance in another format, but for now, I'll just be plugging away at it on a grass roots level, and hopefully I can improve as an artist, writer, and entertain some folks at the same time. Keep your fingers crossed!
So back in about 1994 or 1995, I was working as an assistant at Artamus Studios, a consortium of comic book artists in Hillsborough, NC. There were about 8 artists there, with the lineup changing from time to time. Super talented and nice guys....I'm not sure how I got lucky enough to be a part of the gang there, but I've always been grateful for it. Jeff Parker (now a writer for Marvel Comics), Richard Case, Scott Hampton, Casey Jones, John Lowe, Chuck Wojtkiewicz, Craig Gilmore, and the late, great Mike Wieringo were all there. Even the ginormously talented Dave Johnson guest starred for a bit. I was there purely as a grunt (but not treated as one), to do things like spot blacks on pages, rule panel borders, make copies, maybe ink bits of background art if I was lucky. More fun than I could imagine. Being surrounded by nice, talented, funny guys, and more comics than any mortal could read was an amazing experience. But when I wasn't working, I could just hang out and work on my own art...which is how Red Vengeance came about.
I've always loved the 1950's....visually it's just cool. From the great graphic design, colors, and cars, to the fact that culturally, politically and socially there were lots of compelling things going on that are perfect storytelling fodder. I've always loved movies like "American Grafitti", "L.A. Confidential" and anything period, and I've always had a thing for pulp characters. So I figured if I was going to draw something, I might as well combine things I love. Batman has always been my favorite character. I'm also a big Indiana Jones and James Bond fan too. So I started by just combining all of those concepts, but then adding my own spin on them. Red Vengeance was the result. I started doodling, came up with the look of the character, and then got the attention of a small independent publisher at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC. With some guidance from some of my Artamus buds, I had my first Red Vengeance backup published in the summer of 1996. I went to the San Diego Comicon later that summer with issues in tow, and unexpectedly got the attention of Adrian Askarieh, who loved the concept and wanted to pitch it to TV as a cartoon. Total dream come true. I was floored, but stoked.
Only problem was. I had no idea how to pitch something. I had no proposal, no other characters. So, like a madman I went back to NC and furiously started coming up with back stories, supporting characters, villains, plot ideas for episodes....I was freaked, but excited beyond words. This is where having friends at Artamus helped a lot. They looked at what I had, made suggestions, and helped fill in the blanks. Soon I went from having a couple cool characters to having a fleshed out world. We pitched it to Fox, who loved it but who ultimately passed on it because they were also looking at developing a period "Captain America" cartoon that season. They didn't want 2 period shows on at once, and since Cap's a well known character who's been around since the 40's, RV got the boot. I was bummed, but not surprised. But now I had a lot of great ideas, so I kept drawing. I got another RV story printed in the "Negative Burn" anthology (which my friend Mike Wieringo was nice enough to pencil the cover for, that's just how he rolled), and just kept plugging along.
A year or so later, I got the chance to pitch it again. The Cap cartoon never went anywhere, and now I had an opportunity to do an even bigger pitch, maybe in person. Whoa. But I needed a better proposal. So, I took the original tiny 6 page pitch and turned it into a giant 20 something page bible, choc full of art, story info, toy friendly concept art, you name it. I spent a lot of time writing stuff (which my uber talented pal Jeff Parker was nice enough to help me improve), which left little time to draw. So Mike Wieringo, who again, being the hero he was, offered to take my character designs and draw them as gorgeous feature pieces on the character bio pages. It's always humbling seeing someone take your creations and draw them a billion times better than you, but I was grateful. Parker helped out on some killer art illustrations too, and soon I took all the pieces and made a kick ass bible out of them. I painted an illustrated cover, had it copied and bound and sent it all to Adrian, the guy who championed it from the beginning. He was floored by it all, and thought we had a great shot. I was cautiously optimistic, but excited. I worked my ass off. So I waited and got on with things. Soon, before I knew it, I was on the phone with people from Fox. They loved it. They had a few tweaks, which I expected and was fine with. There was a lot of "hurry up and wait", but the signs were good. More waiting. And more.
Before I knew it, Fox optioned it. Not for very much, but I didn't care. I was too excited to think straight. I couldn't believe I had made it this far this soon. It was insane. I tried not getting my hopes up, but it was tough. I knew it could still fizzle, but it was a rush thinking about the possibilities. They assigned a story editor, Michael Reaves. Many may not know his name, but I guarantee if you were a kid growing up in the late 70's through the 80's you knew his work. He's a legend in writing in Saturday Morning television. A lot of my favorite shows and cartoons from my childhood were written by him. He won an Emmy for his work on Batman The Animated Series. And I was going to work with him? Oh. My. God. So we wrote a pilot script together. He game me some sample scripts, with I followed for format and pacing. I'd write a draft, send it to him, he'd polish it up, make it better. I was expecting him to rewrite everything I did, but surprisingly he left a fair amount of my stuff in there. He actually LIKED what I was doing. Holy Cow. Fox dug our script. Bandai was talking about a potential toy line. Geez...this might actually HAPPEN! I was over the moon.
That summer we went to Comicon again in San Diego. This time we were going to Fox to talk things over. I was going to Hollywood! How freaking cool is that? I went there, met with two of the coolest guys ever, Dave and Dan, and they were talking about getting on the Fall schedule. Even got a little blurb about it in Wizard Magazine. This was it. Adrian was cool enough to take me to a party in Tarzana that night, at legendary writer Marv Wolfman's house....we had an awesome time. Marv took us up to the hill where Edgar Rice Burroughs would write from. Wow. Met great people, ate and laughed and talked all night. Flew back home, then waited some more.....it felt amazing.
Then not too long afterwards, I got the phone call. There was going to be a management takeover or some such thing at Fox, and everything on the schedule was going to be canned to make way for the new guard, Including Red Vengeance. This meant less new, expensive programming, and more inexpensive, premade Japanese Pokemon clones. This happens all the time in entertainment. For every movie and show you see on TV, there are hundreds at any given time that are optioned, go into development but get axed. Just the nature of the game. Everyone was cool about it, but I admit I was crushed. I swore I wouldn't let myself get carried away, but in the end I couldn't help it. So, 4 years of work and waiting ended in a 4 minute phone call. And that was that. To this day I'm eternally grateful for having the chance, and for the experience of working with all those amazing people, if only briefly.
So, I kept working my day job, and kept wanting to do more RV, but to this day, haven't had the chance to repitch it. Did a few more short stories, but nothing major. I'd still love to do it, I still believe in it, but for now it's still relegated to "labor of love" status. I've tried for several years writing and rewriting the "ultimate" RV story to draw and publish as a graphic novel, but realized I was wasting my time spinning my wheels on such an endeavor. There is no "ultimate" story. Just write something you like and get it out there. So that's what I'm doing now, and that's what these pages are ultimately going to be. Maybe one day I'll get another shot at Red Vengeance in another format, but for now, I'll just be plugging away at it on a grass roots level, and hopefully I can improve as an artist, writer, and entertain some folks at the same time. Keep your fingers crossed!
The Journey Of A Million Miles
So here it is, 2011 and I'm only now bumbling into what everyone and their grandmother's dog has been doing for at least a decade: blogging. Why now? Isn't there enough of these things already? Who cares, right? Well, all valid points to be sure, but....I suppose I'm tired of feeling invisible. Even if no one else notices or follows this, I guess I just need to start posting my art SOMEWHERE, not only as a document for myself, but in the hopes that once it's "out in the ether" it'll serve as self motivation to improve and keep plugging along. I follow tons of other entertainment, pop culture, comics and visual arts blogs but if I ever want to accomplish anything I need to throw my hat into the ring too and be counted, as unlikely as standing out in all the white noise may seem right now. I used to have lots of artist friends close by, and it became so easy to take it for granted that I could always have a slew of people much more talented than myself to serve as mentors, motivators, and inspiration. But now most have moved on to other cities and states, far away. The band broke up, as it were. That's left me with lots of drawing in isolation, which can be tough. The other thing....at some point along the way of getting married, having 2 kids, and changing careers....I got older. Weird how that happens. I'm now at the point where I'm in genuine mid-life crisis panic mode. If I want to do something with this life of mine, I better get to it. So there's no point in putting things off any longer. Even a journey of a million miles has to start with a single step (or so the fortune cookies tell me), so I guess I should start making steps, even if they're baby ones. So for better or worse...here goes!
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