THE CHUK CHRONICLES #07
With appearances by Andy Xenon, Heavy Metal, Aristotle, Cuphead's brother and... Stan Lee?
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. Answering loads of questions this time, like where in the world is Andy Xenon? What’s his connection to Cuphead? What does a space opera on steroids look like? And what exactly did I learn from meeting Stan Lee?
Remember Andy Xenon? is finally in readers' hands. I've been seeing a lot of photos like those above. So much better to talk about the comic, now, when people can actually enjoy it this way! It's been especially great hearing how impressed people are with the production quality, because that took time to get right, from comparing printers and paperstock to evaluating proofs.
Even though it's been a long, winding journey to get to this point, Andy's journey is only just beginning in a lot of ways. I’ve already had a meeting with a streaming network to discuss a potential adaptation. Best not to get too far ahead of one’s self about such meetings, of course, but still, it’s a world of difference being able refer to a book that's actually out and can be held in your hands versus one that's still coming and might as well be a hypothetical.
Also, let me just say... being able to collaborate with artists from all over the globe is something I appreciate even more, right this moment. How awesome to have gotten to work with such top-notch talents from Greece, Spain, Turkey, Australia, Bosnia, Indonesia and all corners of America on this.
WRAPPING AND DRAFTING
I think my work on the TV show will be complete soon. Half the scripts are pending approval from the network, last I’ve heard, so my cut-off date really just hinges on how many get signed off on next versus how many have notes that’ll still need addressing. In addition to solo scripting, I also had more supervisory duties on the writing staff this time, which was more challenging, but also rewarding – and a hands-on reminder that any show is very much a team effort. As I like to put it, one writer may be credited on a given episode, but the whole staff’s fingerprints are still all over it.
I'm still in the thick of writing scripts for the comics I've mentioned in previous newsletters, too. A lot of art's coming in for one book already and each page gets me even more amped about the whole project. The most exciting part of the process for me is seeing a scene I've dreamed up become that much realer after an artist’s taken the baton. Somehow, the inks stage of this always feels the most visceral, which is where we are right now.
So, works in progress, still. I hate to send a newsletter without anything cool to share, though, so this time, I'll talk about one of my favorite projects, "Star Cycles," which I made with the incredible Italian artist, Denis Medri...
Don't remember where the germ of this idea came from. Somehow, profiling a pulp-era adventurer's descent into muscle-fortified madness in the format of ESPN's 30 on 30 felt like a natural mash-up?
Denis and I made this for Heavy Metal's comedy special, Soft Wood, and we had a blast on every page. One of the mag’s staff described it as like a "demented Don Bluth cartoon,” which was a comparison I appreciated. Much like seeing your script interpreted by a good artist, there’s something surreal about a good publicist totally getting what you were going for. In this case, the press release teasing how our short ends in a "completely avoidable blaze of glory" still tickles me.
What I loved most, however, was the way Denis rendered a suplex as a shocking horror. That's where I get my real jollies. You have to see it to believe it...
We experimented with a mockumentary format here, partly because we only had a six-page slot open. I reasoned we could pack a lot more story in this way. We could let a narrator guide things, jump through scenes faster, have more license for characters to speak off their minds, etc. Do it right and you can focus on only the highlights without it feeling truncated. We ended up liking the format a whole lot. I’d love to dive back into it with a bigger story. I’ve already laid one out, actually. Maybe I’ll get back around to it one of these days.
Anyway, Soft Wood’s a massive anthology with a lot more perverse fun in it. I especially like Sean Chen’s parody of the Seventh Seal. Hard copies are available at Heavy Metal’s store and the digital edition’s at Comixology.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM STAN LEE
Was reorganizing a photos folder recently and came across a pic of me and Stan that’s a real time capsule. For one, it was taken right before smartphones with unlimited camera rolls became ubiquitous. No chance to check and retake your snappy 30 times. Thus, this one ended up being out-of-focus, with Stan’s handler still stepping out of frame and Stan still composing himself. I kinda prefer it this way. Something Zen about it. Here’s the moment before the moment. Many have good photos with Stan, but how many have a botched one like this?
This was at both my first Comic Con and my first Hollywood party (put on by William Morris Endeavor at PetCo Park). I massively overdressed. People assumed I was an agent, not a writer. Some days, I look at this and cringe. Other times, I’ll remember how often I go all day in sweats and think any prompt to wear a suit is worth it. Anyway, I spotted Stan in a corner and asked one of his entourage if I could grab a photo. She said he was a little tired, but he’d still be happy to take one. The music was so loud, I realized I could only get a quick word in, so I told Stan simply that I’d been a Marvel reader all my life. He nodded and smiled appreciably, then we posed together.
Eight years later, I spotted Stan having a private moment outside another Comic Con party (this one put on by the Writer’s Guild at the Marriott Marquis) and I think that indirect encounter was more poignant, actually. He was down in a restaurant below, playing Pokémon Go with some young people at a table.
Entire books have been written about Stan, of course, so it's hard to say anything unique about him. He was so good at crafting the persona of Stan the Man, too, many fans can’t differentiate between that and Stan the (actual) man. I don't think people totally grasp how unusual that was, either – making the creation of comics sound exciting, too. Hyping the whole process up like a barker. Meeting every interview with high energy. Throwing fun catchphrases around instead of grouching about how much coffee he needed to simply face a blank page.
At the Marquis, though, I caught Stan in an unguarded moment. No cameras around. No persona for the press. He stepped up from that table with spring in his step, even in his 90s, as he searched for invisible critters. So many writers come off as (or even aim to be) Debbie Downer or Grumpy Gus, even when they supposedly have a job they've chosen because they love it. Yet here was a big kid with inexhaustible enthusiasm for new, fun things. Seeing such simple zest for life really struck me in that moment, because I've met so many sticks in the mud who’re a third or even a quarter of Stan’s age then. (Sometimes, I've even seen one staring back in the mirror!). Wherever he was, whatever he was doing, Stan loved what he did.
Now, speaking of new, fun things…
Five years on and Cuphead still inspires me a lot. I only played it once (and had to "rage quit" at the 97% mark) but even still… if a pair of Canadian's cockamamie idea to mash up Betty Boop and Contra can prove a blockbuster hit, then maybe there's hope yet for my weird, left-field ideas, too!
Considering Studio MDMR's insistence on animating the game on ones with the absurdly labor-intensive “rubber hose” style, I'll admit I was a bit doubtful when Netflix's TV adaptation announced it'd be animated all digitally. Having marathoned the whole first season already, though, I'm relieved to find the show’s still captured that elusive Cuphead feel with faux-analog artifacts like the added grain, scratched emulsion and, most impressively, the stereoscopic scenes with miniatures.
The show's most impressive asset, however, has to be my friend, Frank Todaro -- the voice of Cuphead's trepidatious brother, Mugman. Sharp-eared listeners will recognize his voice from various iterations of Transformers , but eagled-eyed readers should recognize Frank from his cameo in Andy Xenon…
Frank's brought so much personality to a character that was maybe only a shade or two beyond a blank canvas before. I like how Mugman and Cuphead have more of a Luigi/Mario or Chip/Dale dynamic, now, with Mugsy as the ever-skittish voice of reason. Frank's also given him such a specific accent, which not only adds even more personality, but also strengthens the Fleischer Studio homage, I think. It isn't general purpose "Nu Yawka" but something more specifically regional.
TIPS & TRICKS
"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder." Hitchcock had a lot of bon mots about storytelling, but that’s my favorite. Pithy, but it has a point. I think about it whenever I switch from writing in one medium to another, because so many storytelling conventions are shaped by arbitrary, but still important, outside factors.
Why do network sitcoms have three-to-five breaks? Because that's when ads must run. Why are periodical comics 22 pages long? Because that's the number of work days in a month. Why are classic cartoons 11 minutes at most? Because that's the maximum length of a film reel. And generally, movies run only up to three hours because most people can't give a film their undivided attention that long before needing to go relieve themselves.
One mistake that's easy to make is to assume all rules of one medium carry over to another. The assumption gets worse if you don't bother to do any homework on what you're getting into, either. I roll my eyes any time I pick up a comic and can tell the writer just chucked a screenplay over a fence and told the artist “go figure it out” instead of even just reworking its pacing to fit the page count first. Or if I play a video game with cut scenes that run so long, they render the basic concept of interactivity moot. Researching ahead of time what works in a medium and what doesn’t seems pretty basic, but many don’t bother, and it’s always to the audience’s detriment.
Now, while we’re talking research, two books on writing come to my mind. First, there’s Syd Field’s Screenplay, which is fantastic for learning how to write feature films. However, I’ve seen writers hit pitfalls when they take its model of story structure – which is specifically devised for movies of around two hours’ length, with plot points falling on specific pages – and try to force it into another format. But surely there are universal principles of storytelling that still apply everywhere, right? Climax, resolution and denouement? Beginning, middle and end?
Well, that’s what Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters by Michael Tierno does a great job of articulating. While the title might makes it sound as specialized as Field’s book, I think it’s more general in application. And its best feature is making a treatise on storytelling that’s thousands of years old (perhaps the first in the Western world) more accessible to modern readers.
The concept in Poetics I’ve latched onto most is that of “unities.” There are unities of plot, of theme and so on. Tierno does a better job of explaining it, but the general notion is that if you’re trying to tell a story, it needs coherence, like a well-formed circle, and you want to avoid any breaks in that coherence. One example the book uses is if you’re telling the story of somebody’s life, you want to avoid the one day they acted out of character. Even if that is technically realistic, it muddies the point you’re trying to make. This connects to later storytelling concepts like Chekov’s Gun, set-up and payoff, etc. Basically, if you raise a subject, you’ve got to address that subject fully, and if you don’t have room to address all the points you’ve raised, then cut some out so you can address one or two adequately.
Interestingly, even in his era, Aristotle acknowledges that there are different kinds of storytelling and he takes care to differentiate epics from lyric poetry and verse drama, (which he further divides into comedies, tragedies, and satyr plays). I was taking Philosophy 101 around the time I read this book, too, and connections to Plato’s notion of “ideal forms” and how they can still contain flaws were hard to miss. Anyway, Poetics, or at least Poetics for Screenwriters, is the book on writing I think back to most. Its storytelling concepts apply most widely (even to just telling a joke well), and from a pragmatic business perspective, I find a writing job well done often comes down to keeping the flaws/limitations of a form/medium in mind, not ignoring them – working with them instead of fighting against them.
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!