The curse of being a middle aged comic book fan

[demiurgent]

I just had the best idea for a comic book I've ever had.

It would star Billy Batson, as an actual 7-9 year old boy. It would be titled Billy Batson.

And it would treat his whole Fawcett City world the way it always should have been. The adventures that a little boy makes up, only there's a sense they might be real. He would tell his friend Freddy and his sister Mary about how he was brought down into the tunnels of a subway station, and he was given this awesome (in the old sense) power by an ancient wizard who disappeared underneath a boulder. And Billy, Freddy and Mary would have adventures -- and whether or not they were real or 'lets pretend' adventures would never be clear. Captain Marvel would appear, but sparingly. Sivana would appear often, but be made out to be a clear child's impression of an evil mad scientist.

The whole thing would be C.C. Beck meets Little Nemo in Slumberland. And because DC's completely screwed up right now, it would have to be a Vertigo book so that it could have a childlike sense of wonder without being written for subhumans. (Why people who grew up as children being delighted by comics that were written for smart people think that all comics for children need to be written like Spidey Super Stories was in the 70's is beyond me.)

It wouldn't be a kid's book, but any 8 year old could read it.

A land of talking tigers, of Billy's cousins who were all named Billy and who were Lieutenants, of the lovely (to a child's crush-laden eyes) Beautia, of giant machines with gears and tubes and a cackling madman in an old white lab coat behind them, shaking his fist... it would be beautiful, and it would be glorious, and thirty years from now people would still be talking about it.

There would always be some question of whether or not Billy was a radio reporter or if he was just playing.

This is what it was always supposed to be. C.C. Beck said as much.

There isn't a snowball's chance in Hell this would ever get published.

Ah well. Maybe it's worth writing a proposal. If nothing else, to get it out of my head.

Comments

[mckenzee.livejournal.com]

Please, please, please do it.

[bluelang.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's such an incredibly cool idea.

You must write the proposal. Must must must.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I know I'd read it.

Doesn't mean anyone will publish it, but I'd certainly enjoy it.

[ardaniel]

I'd read anything with talking tigers in it.

Besides, if you do that, maybe I can leverage it against one of my other friends to get him to propose his Iron Man series to Marvel. ;)

[chadu.livejournal.com]

Flawless Victory.

If you don't write a proposal and email it within two weeks, I will punch you so hard in my mind that you will go back in time.

Giving you another chance to hit that deadline.

Don't ask what I'll do if you miss it again.

. . .

Seriously, dude: you have to do it. Pitch it as a Vertigo/Elseworlds limited series, with an option for a series. Have all your t's crossed and i's dotted.

YOU MUST DO THIS. IT'S THE BEST COMIC BOOK IDEA I'VE HEARD ALL YEAR, INCLUDING THE SCRIPT I JUST STARTED WORKING ON (you bastard).

Not doing a proposal for this makes Baby Jebus cry.

Consider it an early b-day present for me: Chadtoberfest is later this month.

. . .

Please? I'm begging here.

A Muse just shat into your head and it's a fricking sin if you don't spread that holy Greek fertilizer around.

dammit

CU

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.

OK, I don't want to come off like a naysayer here, 'cause I do think it's a good idea and I would read it.

But I think I'd find it a little... hm. I don't know the word I want. Unsettling? Disappointing? No, neither of those is really what I want to say. Anyway, I can't find the precise five-dollar word I'm after, but I'd be a little bummed if this take on Cap was presented as the "main" version, rather than an alternate exploration of the concept. I like Captain Marvel too much to be 100% behind the idea that he might be completely imaginary in the main DC universe.

It would own as an Elseworld, though.

[demiurgent.livejournal.com]

Which is another reason to Vertigo it. Part of the point would be to make it all self contained, the way Cap always used to be. Not a part of the rest of the DCU.

Put another way, this would be Billy Batson. Shazam would be something else entirely.

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

Ah, OK. I wasn't aware that Vertigo did actual alternate continuity stuff; my impression has always been that it was just the imprint for things happening in the DC universe (Sandman Mystery Theatre for instance), but considered too weird to run under the regular DC banner.

D'accord! Run with it. But I don't care what Ard says, I'm still not inviting Joey Q to laugh at me. :)

[snowspinner.livejournal.com]

Actually, Vertigo doesn't do that at this point.

Vertigo and DCU right now have a strict firewall, such that Vertigo properties can't appear in DCU anymore, and visa versa. This is largely because Paul Levitz is dumb, but regardless, it's in place. So this probably couldn't be submitted for Vertigo, for exactly that reason.

Annoyingly, DC is also anti-Elseworlds right now, making this a hard sell in general, at least in terms of finding a publishing line for it.

That said, they do publish non-DCU and non-Elseworlds stuff. The All-Star line works, though of course they'd never put an unpublished comics writer on All-Star. And there's Justice, which isn't under a specific line. And Jeff Smith's upcoming Shazam.

Probably best to just pitch it, honestly.

[demiurgent.livejournal.com]

Ah well. It's not like it would have been published anyway.

[snowspinner.livejournal.com]

No, no - I didn't mean pitch it towards the trash. Pitch it to DC, see what happens. You have some (if not a great deal) of writing experience, you've got a good idea, you're capable of writing it. If they're taking pitches - which I don't know if they are - you're a sensible pitch to take. (Which you know.)

[forvrin.livejournal.com]

I really dig it, and think you should propose it anyway, but Jeff Smith is working on a Captain Marvel miniseries; I don't know much about it, but I know he's almost finished with it.

But that shouldn't stop you. :)

[ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com]

Oh Gods. I know you are busy, but please please write that one up and submit it. That would be so freaking awesome.

[demiurgent.livejournal.com]

I will do what I can. ;)

[snowspinner.livejournal.com]

I suspect that Jeff Smith's upcoming Shazam series will have a similar tone, albeit a different concept.

/sighs

Ah, comics writing. The one thing that could tempt me from academia some days.

[beanish.livejournal.com]

While I hate to merely say "me too," this is truly an incredible, and somehow right idea. I've always been slightly annoyed at the way Billy Batson's been glossed over by most writers who prefer to, instead, focus on Captain Marvel.

Somehow, I think this idea would just be perfect. Please, please, please, write the proposal.

[masonk.livejournal.com]

I'd love to read this.

On the other hand... *Jeff Smith* is doing a Captain Marvel script? I am *so* there.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

And have Mark Crilley do it. :)

[prodigal.livejournal.com]

Play it straight, and I would add it to my pull list sight-unseen. Further, I'd start pitching it to my fellow comic shop customers the way I sold one of them on the PS238 trades this afternoon.

[knives42ljk.livejournal.com]

I must admit I have very little idea of how comics get to be written. Would you be writing it (in which case I would buy it so fast) or, once the story proposal was accepted, would some other, established comics author do it (it which case it would depend)? The idea sounds interesting enough, but as I'm not already a huge Captain Marvel fan, the deciding factor would be the way it's written.

[inspectorzutto.livejournal.com]

I d'know, I like it.
Maybe write a little primer story, to try it out?

[shaenon.livejournal.com]

It certainly sounds like the right approach. But I'd have to see a script, or at least a plot synopsis, before I could say whether it'd be a good comic.

If you do have a plot, you might as well pitch it. Not that there's much room these days for superhero comics that are fun to read, but what the hell.

I just had the best idea for a Marvel comic ever, but I'm not going to tell Livejournal about it.

[prodigal.livejournal.com]

PS238 is the most fun to read of all superhero comics. It's totally full of awesome.

[glitchphil.livejournal.com]

Couldn't hurt.

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

Not to "me too" or anything...

but me too! Write that sucker up and pitch it!

[pretentiousfool.livejournal.com]

Sounds better than the current alternative.

Captain Marvel trapped in the Rock of Ages in the place of a dead Shazam.

Freddy grown up as the new Captain Marvel.

Mary Marvel....well, who know what DC will do with her. Probably turn her into a sexpot or something.

I like's me the grown up stuff, but where are my innocent comics as well?

[gwox.livejournal.com]

Dude. You so need to write this and pitch this. It's something that, if it flew, could get me back into the comics shop. (Admittedly, the same can be said of Jeff Smith and Shazam.)

And if not... could you file off the serial numbers, so to speak, and pitch it somewhere else?

Adding another vote...

[evilstoryteller.livejournal.com]

...to the 'write it and pitch it to DC' pile. When you can write this:

"A land of talking tigers, of Billy's cousins who were all named Billy and who were Lieutenants, of the lovely (to a child's crush-laden eyes) Beautia, of giant machines with gears and tubes and a cackling madman in an old white lab coat behind them, shaking his fist... it would be beautiful, and it would be glorious, and thirty years from now people would still be talking about it."

And write it so well a person can visualize these panels in their head (like I did while reading that), it's really good! :D

Do this.

[(Anonymous)]

Do this NOW.


Andy

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Go for it!

another vote for the "go for it" column

[glamazonwarrior.livejournal.com]

And I can visualize really cool art for it too (quasi victorian washed-out watercolors, like in old children's books).