Writing is Hard: Character Actors

John Rozum has a cool post on "casting" his characters in his head before he writes them. Referring specifically to Adam and Julia Kadmon from Midnight, Mass. he talks about how imagining a specific actor in the role can not only help communicate ideas to comic book artists, but can also help solidify the character in your head as you're writing:

When I got to thinking about Midnight, Mass. again shortly before it finally became a reality I had an epiphany of Julia being Famke Janssen which really brought together all of the loose threads and ideas I had for the series and definitely cemented the character of Julia for me.

I've done this a couple of times and it was very helpful. I need to do it more.

The Return of Xombi

I said something earlier about BPRD's being the best horror comic ever made. I love that series, but there may have been some hyperbole going on in that statement. Certainly BPRD benefits from being so long-running in addition to the rest of its awesomeness. Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and Guy Davis have had a lot of time to include tons of fantastic ideas. There are other excellent horror comics that also are strong contenders for my favorite spot, but for various reasons don't have the benefit of the sheer quantity that BPRD's put out. I could name a few Steve Niles books, for instance. And I'd certainly list two John Rozum series: Midnight, Mass. and Xombi.

I've been planning to revisit Xombi for a while now. I just need to dig my Milestone collection out of storage in order to do it and that's a bigger feat than you know. But I'm going to have to get serious about it with the new series returning in February. I've been aching for more Xombi ever since DC first announced it was re-introducing the Milestone characters to its Universe. The news that it's finally coming needs to be celebrated.

Quotes of the Week: Someone Else's Characters

I had a great phone conversation with [Harlan Ellison] while I was writing THE X-FILES comic book series in which he expressed his extreme disappointment in the work I was doing there. Everything he said was right on the money and tied in to the usual restrictions that come with playing with someone else's licensed characters, especially when those characters are on what is currently the hottest tv show on. There's not much you are allowed to do with such a property, and my hands were tied. Again, upon hearing this he was equally as supportive as any other time I've talked to him. I didn't find his dismissal of my work on the X-Files to be a nasty rant, but simply the opinion of someone who was disappointed because they knew I could have been doing so much better. And he was right.
--John Rozum

I like being Politically Correct. If I'm saying something that is offensive, even unintentionally, then I want to be alerted. I don't, as a rule, blame the offended party for being offended. Yes, I know this PC stuff can go too far. But I don't want to get into that with this post. Mainly, I worry about PC just for the sake of staying aware. I like having a clue. I think PC protocols should often be broken, but I want to do it intentionally, with thought and for a particular purpose. I don't, generally speaking, want to be a jackass.
--Richard Beck