CHUK CHRONICLES #08
Looking ahead, remembering the Voice Warrior, being candid on where ideas come from, and... the time Free Guy was basically pitched to me?
Perhaps you're a friend, a fan or even a foe. Wherever our paths have crossed, welcome to the Chuk Chronicles – my newsletter keeping the world-at-large up-to-speed with my comics, books, TV episodes and other writing. Work goes forward, but I’d like to reflect on past projects this time — some that could’ve been, would’ve been and never should’ve been — and how they bring one old writing question into more clarity.
First, though, I had some fun about a month ago. Note the date. Not sure why I’m always cleared to make announcements like this around the same time each year...
Second, Joel Gomez drew a really rad sketch of Andy Xenon for me. They say the day always comes when your characters start speaking to you…?
Now, some comings and goings since last time. The network approved all scripts for the TV show I was staff on. So, my part's done. It's all in the crew's hands, now. And I have no idea when it'll be airing. There's a crazy rhythm to writing for TV, as I’ve probably said before. You need to be totally on top of a script while its due date is looming, but once it's handed in, you've got to be at peace with letting it go... until it circles back one day? (There's another birdy writing analogy somewhere there).
The comics project I've hinted at over these past newsletters is in different levels of completion, all at once. I've finished drafts of each part. Some are still pending rewrites, while one just sped ahead. Totally drawn, colored and lettered, now. Real pleased with how it's come together. Keeping a lid on this one is taking a lot of self-control, right now, but I don't think I'll have to endure much longer.
Independent of that, another comics project has come up, too. Contract's been signed and I just had a Zoom meeting with editorial. Without saying too much yet, both this and the previous project are tied to some cool new technologies. (Focused on making good comics the old fashioned way first, of course). Anyway, later last year, I vowed you'd be seeing a lot more comics from me after my long sojourn into animation, and that promise looks to be proving out.
A fan, one Jordan Prime, put this together on my feed recently. At least somebody’s keeping track of my author’s portraits! I was surprised to see Iron Courage Voice Warrior Sam’s logo in the mix. It’s a nice reminder that little featurette has found its own little audience.
Years back, I was asked by a producer at VIZ Media's Neon Alley channel to make a series of shorts that'd serve as programming interstitials. Sort of like the Idiot Box or Liquid Television shorts on MTV back in the 90s. I proposed a quirky edu-tainment series on what it takes to be a voice actor. This producer liked it, and ICVW (as we came to call it) got rolling. We shot three short episodes at Anime Expo, BangZoom's recording studio and various spots around Burbank.
Then, halfway through post, Neon Alley shifted from a 24/7 video feed to an on-demand streaming hub, and these vignettes didn't fit anymore. We were all too proud of our orphaned project to let it simply lie in a hard drive, though, so we pressed on, reworked the mini-sodes into one long featurette and gritted our way through clearances (which took longer than any other part of the process, by far). And here it is...
Would've been cool to see this as segments on the channel, as originally envisioned, but c'est la vie. I think it still turned all right within the modest scope we were aiming for. Everybody on BangZoom's staff were such good sports, and totally grasped the tongue-in-cheek tone. I'm still impressed Sam was able to keep things straight in all the scenes where he's literally talking to himself. (Keep in mind, his audition at AX was live and could only have one take). Regan, our editor, did great work, too, stitching together footage that had to be shot piecemeal, and months apart.
Sitting in the director's chair was a lot of fun, too. I think often about how similar it is to editing a comic — supervising a creative team, trying to align their work into something cohesive, etc. One of these days, I'll have to sit in it again. So, thanks for the reminder, Jordan!
WHEN FREE GUY WAS PITCHED TO ME
Got around to watching Free Guy on Disney+. Been curious about this one since it was first announced... because I interviewed for a TV series with the same premise a few years ago.
No, I don't think anybody was "ripped off." Certain ideas just bubble up in the zeitgeist. Any of the millions of gamers who've playing GTA over even a casual session have probably — inevitably — wondered how bystanders in the game live the rest of their lives. Back when I was editing Anime Vice, every third or forth pilot I reviewed was about MMOs gettin' real one way or another. It was a whole sub-genre. Storytelling's about execution, of course, not premises alone, and my style of execution was what I interviewed with this production company about…
They had a premise and title and were looking for a showrunner to fill in the rest. I can't say how much my take might've differed from Free Guy's because I wasn't asked to think it too far through. My one meeting with the producer mostly consisted of us talking off-hand about what tone and themes could fit. We did differ about whether the series should be a satire about how violent video games coarsen society. I wasn't interested in that angle. Maybe that's why I didn't get the job.
We did still go down a checklist of conceptual/logistical questions, though. Do characters die for good in the game world? Or can they respawn? Would we show the real world, at all? Should health boxes be used? How literally? Would the lead be alone in his enlightenment, or would other characters become self-aware, too? Etc.
Because I went through some of this process myself, I could imagine the white board for Free Guy’s development while I watched. Some of its choices line up with mine. Some don't. The movie does fix some problems I hadn't even anticipated. I'd say the biggest difference is I would've taken the premise more into the territory of the Mask — the comics version — with the Guy-type's Id steadily taking over.
A nice Guy who stays nice throughout was probably the winning approach, though.
THE ART OF JOEL GOMEZ
I shared Joel’s take on Andy above — which was drawn inside a copy of his sketchbook I just got. Straightforwardly titled the Art of Joel Gomez, it collects a lot of cool pieces he’s drawn recently. Subjects range from Big Two superheroes to Alien, Elric, Ninja Turtles and even that movie Hidden Figures. The media Joel uses ranges wide, too, from tightly-rendered pen & ink pieces to more scratchy and energetic brushwork —and some collabs with his wife, Beth Sotelo, where it’s delightfully tricky to pinpoint where analog ends and digital begins.
Joel prides himself on leaping at rendering scenery when other artists would shrink from it, and there are such striking locations throughout this sketchbook, whether it’s the San Diego Convention Center, LV-426 or Gotham City in different eras. I think my fav pieces, though, are the moody, chiaroscuro takes on Game of Thrones and Star Wars. The former makes me think a comic about King Bran the Broken’s reign would be fascinating and terrifying, while the latter refreshingly returns to the gritty “used future” aesthetic that franchise strays from too often.
Anyway, Joel keeps drawing/inking some really cool art and I know he’s got even cooler stuff cooking (yes, he’s cooking it coolly) and this sketchbook’s a great showcase for all he can do.
TIPS & TRICKS
I was guest speaker at a friend's online film class at University of Rhode Island recently and one student raised a familiar question. "Where do you get your ideas?" The answer people want to hear is that it's some amazing and profound real life experience — every time — but the honest answer is that ideas come from everywhere. Yes, even other stories you've read.
I think some people take the advice of "write what you know" too literally. There are plenty of pop culture institutions whose creators are upfront about the inspiration coming from some earlier series they wanted to pay tribute to or flip upside-down. Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead were borne of frustrations with the endings to Lord of the Rings and Dawn of the Dead, respectively. Star Wars was reworked from a rejected Flash Gordon movie pitch. And those are only a few biggies.
My guiding principle is to put myself back in whatever seat I was sitting in when I enjoyed something. If I’m writing on a Y7 show, I don’t try to cater to some hypothetical seven-year-old, I get into the mindset who I was when I was seven.
Of course, there’s a danger in making something so much like what you enjoyed, it’s derivative. The middle ground I try to walk is drawing from stuff that’s not immediately in front of everybody's face. You may walk out of this year’s blockbuster with a valid idea for how to flip its premise. But if millions have seen it, too, odds are that even if only 1% of the audience has come to the same conclusion, that’s still an overwhelming amount of competition for your take. Look to something that came out in a previous decade instead, though? Those numbers start to come down.
Research is a whole topic of its own, but I find the dryer the subject I’m looking at is, the fresher the story eventually feels. In fact, some of my best ideas came while I was bored and daydreaming in a class or at a job.
Again, execution is the ultimate decider, anyway. I remember when the first Venom movie came out, and it coincided with three other major releases – Parasyte, Upgrade and Be More Chill – which all had roughly the same devil-on-your-shoulder premise. Three of the four were adapted from years or decades-old material, of course, but the coincidence was still there, and it said a lot about how any story’s the sum of its parts. Some were serious. Some were funny. One was for adults. The others for teenagers. In half, the devil is an alien parasite, while it’s a computer chip in the other half. In some, the theme’s about rejecting your Id, while the others were about learning to live with it.
I think doing a compare/contrast like this for similar stories in the same sub-genre can be useful, because it makes it easier to assess your own story. Which parts are inspired by your own experiences? Which from research? Which from other stories? Which character is the focus on? What’s the tone? What’s the theme? Etc. Asking critical questions like these makes you more aware of what you’re doing, or trying to do, and that’s how you hone your execution, really.
In the class, I think I just answered, “Anywhere!” and left it at that. So, there’s the more nuanced/rambling answer.
I’ll be sharing more Tips & Tricks in future Chuk Chronicles. If you have any writing questions, thoughts on my work, or bon mots, shoot me a message. You might get answered here. Next time, I’ll be back… with a vengeance!