MattBrady
05-19-2003, 09:40 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Epic2.jpg" width="200" height="304" border="0" hspace="2" align="right">by Mike San Giacomo
Like that?
I split my last name into two words, San Giacomo, Italian for St. James, for my first venture into the world of comic publishing. Since most people pronounce my last name as Sanggomockomo, or stammer and stutter helplessly until I pronounce it for them, I figured I’d make it easy and spell it the way my actress cousin Laura San Giacomo does. Okay, I don’t know for sure if Laura is really my cousin, but I tell people that anyway. Go on, prove me wrong.
In last week’s column, I had come up with a script for a one-issue special starring the real-world adventures of an Everyman newspaper reporter named Jack Baxter (after two of my dogs.) His “superhero” name, slapped on him by the media which he would never call himself, would be Jack Phantom.
The original script had the character called Nowhere Man, but I changed it to Jack Phantom at the last minute. I sent the script to Marvel Assistant Editor Stephanie Moore via Federal Express on a Sunday and waited for my rejection letter.
I mean, c’mon.
Bottom line is the comic is about a dude that can become invisible. Claude Rains, Kevin Bacon and Chevy Chase have already done it. Alan Moore really pulled out the stops with the Invisible Man in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Here I was given a rare opportunity and I squandered it on a “now you see him, now you don’t” character. And making him a reporter? How self-indulgent is that?
Does anyone really care about reporters? Maybe he should have been a cop. Yeah, an invisible cop. That would be cool.
I probably should have given Marvel what it really wanted. I got the hint that they are really horny for a new version of The New Warriors, God knows why. There were dozens of obscure characters wasting away in comic limbo that I could have picked.
Ah, why worry about that. I’m sure it will get tossed on the pile.
But the ones I liked, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, the original Human Torch, were already done so well that my version would just plain suck by comparison.
No, no. I’m going to rise or fall on Jack Phantom.
Probably fall.
If it gets printed, imagine what a field day folks would have nit-picking plot points. A chance to criticize the critic who’s been dishing it out for 10 years! Uh, Claremont, Byrne, DeFalco, Priest, you guys know I was just joshing in those nasty reviews, right? Right?
But just a couple days later I got an e-mail from Stephanie that she really liked the concept and wanted to talk.
Get out. Really?
We chatted about the character, but first thing she said was that the name would not work. There was a character by that name in Alan Moore’s Top Ten. Geez, of course there was. How could I have forgotten that? It’s only one of my favorite books of all time. Well, there were 987 characters in Moore’s book, so I guess I could be forgiven. Did I have an alternate name?
Sure did, the first one, Nowhere Man.
She liked it.
She would check with the boys in legal.
Now, back to basics.
She, and whoever else was reading over her shoulder at Marvel, liked the character and the storyline, but said it felt cramped.
“Would you want to expand the story into four issues,” she asked nonchalantly?
Hmmmm, let me think: Would I want to take a one-issue story and expand it into four comics, thus quadrupling my pay and my chances at fame and glory?
I think I said “Yes” before the question was out of her mouth.
“Give me the weekend,” I said.
The fun thing about the conversation was that she asked if I could change certain characters and situations one way or another. I’ve been writing news for daily newspapers for...a very long time. At the newspaper, when an editor says something like that it usually means that I have to go out and track down people and reinterview them, review more documents, do a lot more spade work. The actual writing is the easiest part.
It occurred to me that for “Nowhere Man” I just have to make it up, just like the guy at the New York Times.
What a concept.
Others have said Marvel made a big deal about secrecy in the Epic project. I don’t recall being told to keep my mouth shut, but I did anyway.
But when Stephanie told me she liked the work, I told two people at the office that I actually had a chance, a tiny one, to write a comic. And a couple friends outside newspaper. And the guys at my local comic shop. And my wife,of course, who was very excited about the idea. And my sister, who said that it was nice and could I make her son a character in the cartoon. And the guy who works on my car, who gave me a funny look and responded, “Yeah, now about this alternator.”
But those were the ONLY people I told.
And a couple of guys in the business, but that was it. Really.
As soon as I got home, I booted up my old, no-name computer, called up the script and did a “save-replace” again, which automatically converted each reference from “Jack Phantom” to “Nowhere Man.”
I didn’t get up for three hours.
It came easy to separate the story into four parts because there were four natural breaks in the story.
First, we introduce the main character, Clarion reporter Jack Baxter. He’s a damn good journalist who seems to be able to get stories others can’t. He gets into places, sees things and knows facts that no one else can. He’s bright, cocky and a little creepy. Most of his fellow journalists like him, but some are suspicious and resentful of his work.
Once Jack is established, we introduce the concept that there is an invisible hero rescuing people in Central Park from nasty muggers. The paper calls him “The Nowhere Man.”
I guess I’m not going to shock anyone by revealing that Jack is the Nowhere Man.
He gets a call from his brother, who is with the Army Reserves in Kuwait and he’s worried about his life. Remember, this was being written in December-January when the war was still a scary proposition. A few other things happen leading to the end of the first issue and a decision by Jack to help his brother.
I scripted the first issue, read it over, changed it, read it, changed it...until I felt it worked.
I roughed out story synopses of the last three issues, which would change like Skrulls over coming weeks.
Basically, issue two would end with Jackie boy slipping into Baghdad and running into some nasty characters and ugly situations that tested his bravery. He didn’t do very well. Issue three is one of discovery, self-awareness and the realization that real rescues- unlike the kind seen in the movies - take a lot of planning. He would learn that he is not alone, he has allies.
His origin would be revealed in issues two or three, as would a life-defining moment from his past that influences everything that followed. Issue four is the rescue, the resolution, some pontificating in the finest Peter David style about journalism and a set-up for another mini-series. I can dream, can’t I?
It was hard to believe that I crammed all that into one issue before.
I packaged everything up and sent “Nowhere Man version 2.0 off to Marvel.
And waited.
to be continued…
<center><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhere_Man.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhere_Man_t.jpg" width="350" height="108" border="0" alt="tentative logo design for Nowhere Man"></a></center>
(logo design by Mitchell Breitweiser)
Mike Sangiacomo, a freelance writer for Newsarama and other sources, was invited to share his experiences with pitching to Epic by Newsarama's editor, Matt Brady, in the interest of keeping readers well informed. Brady advises Newsarama readers that he is aware of the inherent conflict of interest presented by journalists working for a publisher they cover. Sangiacomo’s regular column Journey Into Comics has and will continue to be found in the Opinion/Editorial section of Newsarama. Brady has not, nor does he plan to pitch to Epic himself.
Like that?
I split my last name into two words, San Giacomo, Italian for St. James, for my first venture into the world of comic publishing. Since most people pronounce my last name as Sanggomockomo, or stammer and stutter helplessly until I pronounce it for them, I figured I’d make it easy and spell it the way my actress cousin Laura San Giacomo does. Okay, I don’t know for sure if Laura is really my cousin, but I tell people that anyway. Go on, prove me wrong.
In last week’s column, I had come up with a script for a one-issue special starring the real-world adventures of an Everyman newspaper reporter named Jack Baxter (after two of my dogs.) His “superhero” name, slapped on him by the media which he would never call himself, would be Jack Phantom.
The original script had the character called Nowhere Man, but I changed it to Jack Phantom at the last minute. I sent the script to Marvel Assistant Editor Stephanie Moore via Federal Express on a Sunday and waited for my rejection letter.
I mean, c’mon.
Bottom line is the comic is about a dude that can become invisible. Claude Rains, Kevin Bacon and Chevy Chase have already done it. Alan Moore really pulled out the stops with the Invisible Man in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Here I was given a rare opportunity and I squandered it on a “now you see him, now you don’t” character. And making him a reporter? How self-indulgent is that?
Does anyone really care about reporters? Maybe he should have been a cop. Yeah, an invisible cop. That would be cool.
I probably should have given Marvel what it really wanted. I got the hint that they are really horny for a new version of The New Warriors, God knows why. There were dozens of obscure characters wasting away in comic limbo that I could have picked.
Ah, why worry about that. I’m sure it will get tossed on the pile.
But the ones I liked, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, the original Human Torch, were already done so well that my version would just plain suck by comparison.
No, no. I’m going to rise or fall on Jack Phantom.
Probably fall.
If it gets printed, imagine what a field day folks would have nit-picking plot points. A chance to criticize the critic who’s been dishing it out for 10 years! Uh, Claremont, Byrne, DeFalco, Priest, you guys know I was just joshing in those nasty reviews, right? Right?
But just a couple days later I got an e-mail from Stephanie that she really liked the concept and wanted to talk.
Get out. Really?
We chatted about the character, but first thing she said was that the name would not work. There was a character by that name in Alan Moore’s Top Ten. Geez, of course there was. How could I have forgotten that? It’s only one of my favorite books of all time. Well, there were 987 characters in Moore’s book, so I guess I could be forgiven. Did I have an alternate name?
Sure did, the first one, Nowhere Man.
She liked it.
She would check with the boys in legal.
Now, back to basics.
She, and whoever else was reading over her shoulder at Marvel, liked the character and the storyline, but said it felt cramped.
“Would you want to expand the story into four issues,” she asked nonchalantly?
Hmmmm, let me think: Would I want to take a one-issue story and expand it into four comics, thus quadrupling my pay and my chances at fame and glory?
I think I said “Yes” before the question was out of her mouth.
“Give me the weekend,” I said.
The fun thing about the conversation was that she asked if I could change certain characters and situations one way or another. I’ve been writing news for daily newspapers for...a very long time. At the newspaper, when an editor says something like that it usually means that I have to go out and track down people and reinterview them, review more documents, do a lot more spade work. The actual writing is the easiest part.
It occurred to me that for “Nowhere Man” I just have to make it up, just like the guy at the New York Times.
What a concept.
Others have said Marvel made a big deal about secrecy in the Epic project. I don’t recall being told to keep my mouth shut, but I did anyway.
But when Stephanie told me she liked the work, I told two people at the office that I actually had a chance, a tiny one, to write a comic. And a couple friends outside newspaper. And the guys at my local comic shop. And my wife,of course, who was very excited about the idea. And my sister, who said that it was nice and could I make her son a character in the cartoon. And the guy who works on my car, who gave me a funny look and responded, “Yeah, now about this alternator.”
But those were the ONLY people I told.
And a couple of guys in the business, but that was it. Really.
As soon as I got home, I booted up my old, no-name computer, called up the script and did a “save-replace” again, which automatically converted each reference from “Jack Phantom” to “Nowhere Man.”
I didn’t get up for three hours.
It came easy to separate the story into four parts because there were four natural breaks in the story.
First, we introduce the main character, Clarion reporter Jack Baxter. He’s a damn good journalist who seems to be able to get stories others can’t. He gets into places, sees things and knows facts that no one else can. He’s bright, cocky and a little creepy. Most of his fellow journalists like him, but some are suspicious and resentful of his work.
Once Jack is established, we introduce the concept that there is an invisible hero rescuing people in Central Park from nasty muggers. The paper calls him “The Nowhere Man.”
I guess I’m not going to shock anyone by revealing that Jack is the Nowhere Man.
He gets a call from his brother, who is with the Army Reserves in Kuwait and he’s worried about his life. Remember, this was being written in December-January when the war was still a scary proposition. A few other things happen leading to the end of the first issue and a decision by Jack to help his brother.
I scripted the first issue, read it over, changed it, read it, changed it...until I felt it worked.
I roughed out story synopses of the last three issues, which would change like Skrulls over coming weeks.
Basically, issue two would end with Jackie boy slipping into Baghdad and running into some nasty characters and ugly situations that tested his bravery. He didn’t do very well. Issue three is one of discovery, self-awareness and the realization that real rescues- unlike the kind seen in the movies - take a lot of planning. He would learn that he is not alone, he has allies.
His origin would be revealed in issues two or three, as would a life-defining moment from his past that influences everything that followed. Issue four is the rescue, the resolution, some pontificating in the finest Peter David style about journalism and a set-up for another mini-series. I can dream, can’t I?
It was hard to believe that I crammed all that into one issue before.
I packaged everything up and sent “Nowhere Man version 2.0 off to Marvel.
And waited.
to be continued…
<center><a href="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhere_Man.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/sangiacomo/Nowhere_Man_t.jpg" width="350" height="108" border="0" alt="tentative logo design for Nowhere Man"></a></center>
(logo design by Mitchell Breitweiser)
Mike Sangiacomo, a freelance writer for Newsarama and other sources, was invited to share his experiences with pitching to Epic by Newsarama's editor, Matt Brady, in the interest of keeping readers well informed. Brady advises Newsarama readers that he is aware of the inherent conflict of interest presented by journalists working for a publisher they cover. Sangiacomo’s regular column Journey Into Comics has and will continue to be found in the Opinion/Editorial section of Newsarama. Brady has not, nor does he plan to pitch to Epic himself.