ATTN JMS: Top Cow?!

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: "Jacob Corbin" <jacobkosh at hotmail.com>
Date: 27 Oct 1998 10:37:32 -0700
Lines: 57

A masked & bearded avenger for freedom known only as JMS wrote:

> I'd actually heard a lot of good things about Top Cow, and my
> understanding going into this was that I would have total creative
> freedom, and it would be a writer-driven book.  The artist they've
> talked to is someone whose work I've admired, and this book is going
> to have a very different look from the rest of their titles.  The
> folks over there seem to really have their act together. They only
> launch about 2 new titles a year, and that means they have to be
> special...and they want this to be that kind of project.
>
> jms

     This is reassuring news, to say the least.  How closely do you plan 
on collaborating with your penciller--will he have much leeway in 
layouts/"camera" angles/etc. or do you script a page pretty tightly?

     I am, however, glad that you plan on maintaining a separate look 
from the other run of TC titles.  Judging by the sales figures, I'm 
probably in the minority here, but for at least ten years I've bitched 
about how comix superheroes and heroines have had their anatomies grow 
more and more out of synch with reality (coupled with the related trends 
of relying more on Volkswagen-sized guns as opposed to superpowers, and 
the reliance on gratuitous violence as a means to make the story appear 
"adult" when it's really as adolescent as they come).  These trends are, 
after all, part of what "Kingdom Come" was commenting on.

    (As Dave Gibbons once said about the so-called "grim and gritty" 
comix that were supposedly based on his "Watchmen" work, "These books 
aren't grim--they're *glum*.")

     So let the prepubescents who've made "Spawn" the #1 seller for the 
past three or four years running have their blood and their hilariously 
out-of-proportion T&A--if you seriously plan on bucking the System and 
producing a book that operates on the assumption that dialogue and 
characters are *not* interchangeable, I can guarantee you at least one 
regular reader.

     Jacob
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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 27 Oct 1998 18:32:37 -0700
Lines: 27

>How closely do you plan 
>on collaborating with your penciller--will he have much leeway in 
>layouts/"camera" angles/etc. or do you script a page pretty tightly?

I script pretty damn tight...as much as a half-page to describe a panel, in
great detail.  I'm doing those pages the same as I do my B5 and Crusade
scripts: hideous amounts of detail.

And yeah, we want to go for a much more realistic look to this book, because
it's essential to making the story work.

>if you seriously plan on bucking the System and 
>producing a book that operates on the assumption that dialogue and 
>characters are *not* interchangeable, I can guarantee you at least one 
>regular reader.

Done and done.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com




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