[B5JMS] JMS: Can we have a...

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: lisacoulter at hotmail.com (Lisa Coulter)
Date: 7 Jan 2003 12:19:07 -0800
Lines: 75

jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5) wrote in message news:<20030107012447.01930.00000207 at mb-me.aol.com>...
> >What and When is "Supreme Power"?
> 
> Supreme Power is an updating of the Squadron Supreme book done quite a while
> back by Mark Gruenwald.  It was one of the first books, possibly the first
> book, to really examine the role of the superhero in society, and as such is
> generally considered to have paved the way for such later works as Watchmen,
> Dark Knight, Marvels, Kingdom Come and others.

<snip>  re Supreme Power.

>> I think the first issue appears sometime in February or March.
> 

My husband will love this one.  I'll have to tell him to put in a
reservation for it at the comic shop he goes to.


<snip>  on Midnight Nation.


> There are no more MIdnight Nation single issues; it was intended as a 12 issue
> miniseries, and it's done.  I just learned (on this newsgroup, as it happens)
> that the graphic novel is finally coming out and now available for pre-order on
> Amazon.com.
> 
> Folks, I don't generally hock my stuff around here, because I think it's rude. 
> But in all honesty, in many respects, from a sheer writing perspective,
> Midnight Nation represents some of the best stuff I've ever done in the form. 
> It's something that I poured a lot of emotion into, a lot of personal feelings
> and history and beliefs, covering life, death, religion, god, how we achieve
> meaning...all balanced against a cross-country quest by two people, one out to
> reclaim his soul, the other a woman sent to help him or kill him, depending on
> how the story ends up.
> 
> It is also, oddly enough, a love story.
> 
> It's one of the things I'm proudest of as a writer, and I commend it to anyone
> who found the ideas in Babylon 5 of interest.  And the art by Gary Frank is
> just gorgeous, and evocative, and full of emotion.  
> 
> There's a great Cinescape review of the book at --
> 
> http://www.cinescape.com/0/Editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Comics&action=p
> age&obj_id=34965
> 
> -- which contains spoilers, however, so if you want to hold off on some of the
> surprises, you may want to just get it cold.  The key part of the review,
> though, says:
> 
> "MIDNIGHT NATION offered a unique twist on some very old cosmological concepts,
> and managed to make the idea that "love conquers all" the very core of its
> resolution without resorting to smarmy melodrama. That's a rare accomplishment,
> and all the more reason why MIDNIGHT NATION will be remembered as one of the
> most absorbing and emotionally moving sagas in modern comics history."
> 
> It's a nifty little story.  Honest.

It's really an incredible story, IMHO.  I don't know how you continue
to tell such powerful, moving, and insightful stories, but we're all
clearly better for it.  Do you ever get emotionally burnt out from all
the passion you clearly put into your writing?

Glad to hear it's finally coming out in TPB.  I've been looking
forward to getting the whole thing in a more durable format.

Lisa Coulter
> 
>  jms
> 
> (jmsatb5 at aol.com)
> (all message content (c) 2003 by synthetic worlds, ltd., 
> permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
> and don't send me story ideas)


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 08 Jan 2003 05:40:14 GMT
Lines: 31

>It's really an incredible story, IMHO.  I don't know how you continue
>to tell such powerful, moving, and insightful stories, but we're all
>clearly better for it.  Do you ever get emotionally burnt out from all
>the passion you clearly put into your writing?
>

Yeah, I do.  I tend to operate under the theory that unless you feel something
while you're writing, it's impossible to make the audience feel something upon
seeing it.  So in the actual course of writing a scene, or a story, I wind
myself up to whatever emotions I'm describing...usually by putting myself in a
similar place, using past experiences from my own life.

There were times on B5 when I was so whipped from the emotional roller coaster
of the show's story, not to mention the production requirements, that I was
just staggering under it...they used to just sort of point me from one place
where I was supposed to be, to the next.  

I think it's necessary to burn brightly when you write.  I also know it takes a
whopping big chunk out of you in return.  But I don't know any other way to do
it.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2003 by synthetic worlds, ltd., 
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
and don't send me story ideas)