Writing the Challenge of Dreams and GoBots

Who remembers the GoBots? That show that was always in the shadow of the Tranformers? To think if it had aired only a few weeks earlier history would have been completely different. (Or not.)

I don’t have a lot of memories of the series, beyond the original “Challenge of the GoBots” mini-series, but it was fun. What I do remember is what resulted from watching it.

It was probably a few years after GoBot’s went off the air, though Transformers was still going strong, that I had a dream.

I’m not one to make a big deal out of my dreams, write them down or tell people about them, but from time to time a dream will be memorable enough that I eventually do something with elements of it.

In this dream the GoBot’s existed and somehow I was the human child of two of them. Strange, I know, but that was what I remember from the dream.

Sometime after that, weeks, months later, I began to write a story based on that.

Here’s rough synopsis of that story I wrote in Junior High:

Two giant alien races are at war and using Earth to fight their battles. As the story opens; the heroic ‘good’ aliens discover two elements of the villainous ‘bad’ aliens current plot. The first part is a massive machine that has ‘transmutative’ abilities that is able to transform one object or being into another. But the heroes have arrived to late, as one of the ‘bad guys’ has turned herself into a human so that she get close to a scientist who has invented a weapon that could either end the alien war or destroy the earth.

All they know is the scientist is on a cruise ship, and clues point that the villain is headed to board the ship. So the first officer of the good aliens becomes a human as well. He makes his way onto the cruise ship as one of the passengers. Then finds out who the scientist is he’s looking for and arranges to sit at the man’s table for meals. He also meets an extremely beautiful woman also at the table. They are polite but don’t get along, so the scientist’s wife makes it her missing to get the young couple together. Which by the end of the cruise does happen and they fall in love.

You guess it, the woman is the evil alien. Now neither can return to their original form, but convince the scientist to never build his weapon.

Not very good, I know, but what can you do I was a kid.

What’s important about this story is that it was truly the very first story I ever wrote that had a true beginning, middle, and end. I like to believe that I improved my writing abilities a little bit with each story I wrote from than on.

Even though it was very derivative of at least three shows I had been watching, it still was mine and it got me started.

And the fact that it originated from a strange dream I had longer before is also a good lesson for all writers.

Don’t dwell on everything that happens in your dreams, but recognize that your subconscious is sorting through millions of thoughts and ideas that go through your head. So when you remember something interesting from a dream, file it away because you might just well use it in that animated TV script you’re writing, or that novel, or feature film.

Your mind is a vast treasure trove of ideas, and sometimes they have to yell at you through dreams that they want to be told as stories.

Of course I’ve never been able to come up with a story from the dream I had when I was seven, where my grandmother turns into a giant spider with vampire teeth.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

“More Irish Than the Irish” – Review of IRISH MOON by Amber Scott

“More Irish Than the Irish”

It is a feeling I have every time I visit my cousins in Ireland, most of all in the North also known as Ulster. Though I am a second generation American, I feel so much like one of them, so much a part of the Emerald Isle that I never want to leave in though I know I must.

“More Irish Than the Irish”

It is an equally strong theme that runs through the pages of IRISH MOON by Amber Scott.

In an ancient Ireland that has ignores most of what goes on in the rest of Europe and where magicks still live and thrive in the shadows and trees of the land, a threat has arrived.

As a wedding approaches love and passion is in the air, but not for Breanne who is more concerned with her studies with the old druid. But when he turns up dead and a stranger arrives her life is turned completely upside down. For Ashlon, he only wants to finish his knight’s quest and put Ireland behind him. However he is drawn to the people and this magical land that he soon finds himself “More Irish Than the Irish”. Yet, destiny has greater plans for these two, pulling them together for purposes far greater than their burning passions.

IRISH MOON is the first ‘romance’ novel I’ve read and though the passions of our lead couple grow through out the novel until they can no longer contain it, this erotic passion never over powered the story, the adventure, or the characters themselves. The growth of their love is intricately tied to the quest they find themselves on.

Following Breanne and Ashlon as they struggled with their own goals and doing their best to avoid one another become an enjoyable character study of love and passion.

Perhaps it is out of pop cultural clichés, but I was pleased that I never caught onto who the true villain was of the story until the reveal. Excellent and well done.

My only complaint I have with the story is that three of the supporting character’s threads aren’t fully resolved by the end of the book. This appears to be leading towards the sequel novel ENCHANTED MOON for at least two of these, and yet I was hoping to discover more of the motives of the King.

Over all IRISH MOON is an extremely enjoy tale of love and the Irish that pulls at my heartstrings for my ancestral home where any visitor will find themselves “More Irish than the Irish.”

IRISH MOON is my latest exploit into reading an e-book. Like Mara Purnhagen’s RAISING THE DEAD before it, I read Scott’s novel on the Kindle app on my Android phone. Though I have learned how to alter the size and readability of the file in the app, I found a continuing. Through out the book apostrophes vanished or were replaced boxes, and some quotation marks were at the bottom of a line instead of above. This seems to be a problem with the app, and after a couple of chapter did not remain a distraction.

Here’s hoping you enjoyed my third attempt at a book review (fourth if you count the comics), I may be doing this more often but understand I’m not the fasted reader when it comes to novels. I’ll let you know what I’m reading and if it’s worth a review later.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

Comics From Last Wednesday

Comics From Last Wednesday

by Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

I don’t always get my weekly comics fix on a Wednesday, just whenever I can make it to the comic shop. Either at Cornerstore Comics in Anaheim, or House of Secrets in Burbank. Depending on where I’m at.

This past week I picked up just a few books, among them were:

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #50 and ACTION COMICS #900

Anniversary Issues can be great. You’re promised something special in them, more pages, more art, and more story. Sometimes this really pays off great, other times it just feels like they’re just filling pages, some only with reprints.

Many times the Anniversary issue is the big climax and ending of a story that’s been going on for many months. If they’ve planned it out, the conclusion will be perfect in the big issue, but sometimes a story ends up being cut short or stretched too long so they can end on the Anniversary issue.

What follows are my thoughts more then reviews of these two Big Anniversary Issues. You don’t have to agree with any of it, but please read along.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #50

Let me start with saying I love the Justice Society and have ever since the very first comic I read and became enthralled with all the citizens of Earth 2.

I really got into them with the All Star Squadron and then continued to read about the characters and collected earlier books as well. Infinity Inc. would follow, but I was more interested in the Golden Age characters.

Then came CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. The epic event crossover all others hope to be and fail.

The Crisis merged all the universes together into one “consistent” DC Universe. Supposedly it was done because the multi-earths were confusing readers.

It never confused my 12 year old mind.

Afterwards things really became confusing.

For one important point, Superman was no longer the first of the super heroes that would inspire all the rest. There had always been something in the older books that the heroes looked up to him. That wasn’t so any more.

On a personal note, several of my favorite characters ceased to exist, or their origins were thrown into chaos. The chaos struck the worst for Power Girl who was no longer the cousin of Superman. They tried to make her a descendent of ARION OF ATLANTIS. It didn’t work.

As for the missing characters, The Huntress, Helena Wayne, daughter of Batman and Catwoman.

What became a real problem to me was the modern age of characters sometimes acted as if they didn’t even know the earlier ones existed. Some stories were written about villains who hypnotized the entire world to forget the heroes. Just as they had forgotten the city of Keystone City was right next door to Central City (in this new world).

That never really worked for me.

Recently, Len Wein wrote the wonderful series called LEGACIES, which provides a great overview of the history of the DC super heroes. Though it also required time to be ‘squashed’ so that though World War II happened 70 years ago, the golden age of heroes didn’t seem to be that long ago. I can live with it so the great history of the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA still exists.

With all that behind us, I bring you to Issue 50 of their current series, written by Marc Guggenheim. The first eleven pages, drawn by George Perez, makes the purchase of the entire book worth the cover price to anyone who loves the DC Universe, and even more so to someone like me with such love for the Justice Society.

From his first appearance it was known that Barry Allen had been inspired by a comic book of the original FLASH. The same type of inspiration is the theme of this first story about the JSA and their Golden Age contemporaries, and is told from the point of view of all the Silver Age and modern heroes that are inspired by them. It is a beautiful and simple example how important those original characters still are.

(SIDE NOTE: The concept of the SILVER AGE doesn’t really exist any more as most characters seem to only have appeared in the last ten years. The exception being Martian Manhunter.)

We begin to get a glimpse of the ‘main story’ of this book as we get different shots of the villain Per Degaton as he has fought different incarnation of the JSA/ALL-STAR SQUADRON. But what’s important and fun to see is the first of these pages where we find ourselves on EARTH 2 or rather the NEW EARTH 2 that was created during the events of INFINITY CRISIS.

This Earth 2 was last scene a couple of years back in a JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA Annual where they meet their counterparts of the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF INFINITY. It’s a name that shows us just what’s different in the world that is extremely close to the original Earth 2. Here its obvious that Star Spangle Kid was not only able to have his Super Squad (from when ALL STAR COMICS was revived in the 70s) and that the children of the Society actually became members instead of forming INFINITY INC.

In that earlier story not only do we deal with the chaos of Power Girl’s life, especially now that she knows she is the cousin of Superman but of an alternate earth and died in the latest Crisis. On top of that I finally got to see Helena Wayne as the Huntress as she was meant to be and drawn by Jerry Ordway, one of the artists who worked on Infinity Inc and her own series in the back of Wonder Woman back then.

It’s great to know that version of the team exists, (that’s the team I really want to write for.)

The next story in this anniversary book is actually a tale that’s been told several times before. About when the Justice Society faced off with the House Un-American Activities Committee. Originally to explain why they had been missing for so many decades. This time it takes a personal look at the team members as they have to make the decision of turning their back on a government that has turned its back on them. I’m not a major Howard Chaykin fan, but his artwork really works for this sequence, and it’s an excellent telling.

With that the book brings us to present day and we discover what Per Degaton has been up to.

Truthfully, this part of the book, though tied to the others, it is the least appealing to me. And that maybe my own fault, as I have missed several months of both JSA books so somethings are not quite so clear to me. I certainly don’t like the new ALAN SCOTT/GREEN LANTERN costume, but as I said that’s me.

Even with that, if you have any interest in the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA and the DC Universe, this book is worth having.

ACTION COMICS #900

Over the last week this issue has gotten a lot of news coverage. You know about that, I’ll mention it briefly later, but let’s not dwell on it.

A special anniversary issue of a comic book should still be an issue of the series, and that is what we have here.

Here is the conclusion Paul Cornell’s great story focusing on Lex Luthor and his robot Lois Lane. It had been a great ride as Lex ran up against some of the greatest super villains of the DC Universe and now achieving his ultimate of goals and finally destroy Superman.

Yet as with all great egos, Lex brings about his own undoing, but not in any expected way. Even the reappearance of Neil Gaiman’s Death is welcome, and experiences the events of the story only in the way she could.

I have one complaint about this story, and only one, but it could appear to be major. I was looking forward to a conclusion to a great story, but was disappointed to find that we were being thrust right into the REIGN OF DOOMSDAY. I’ve never been into any of the Doomsday stories, he was one of those characters that served it’s purpose and should have been left to die, but came back time and again.

Even with that complain, I am very please to see Paul Cornell will remain at the helm as writer and I know will not be disappointed.

The next story in this anniversary book, entitled “Life Support” by Damon Lindelof, is a short quiet moment from a doomed world. Too bad one of the other stories in the book got all the news coverage, because this little tale speaks volumes far beyond any controversy. Forget the other story, pull out your copy of Action Comics #900 and read this story and I dare you note to shed a tear when its over.

“Autobiography” by writer Paul Dini is about Superman’s experience with alien worlds, and how someone like him will eventually be seen by other worlds. Not really a story, but just a conversation between being mightier than mortal men.

Geoff John’s story is surprisingly disappointing. A cute glimpse into Lois wanting to know Clark’s friends from the future, but it just doesn’t work for me.

Now comes “The Incident” by David S. Goyer. I don’t want to get involved in this non-controversy. It’s a very good story. Superman would do what he did in this story, because he helps people, any people that need help. As to the American issue, I’ll only say this: Over half of the original Justice League of America were not Americans, they were either foreigners or aliens, and two worked for intergalactic police forces who thought their jurisdiction superseded the local constabulary. (I’ll let you figure that all out for yourself.) My only question is where is this going to lead? Is there a story line planned out? Hasn’t Superman appeared to be an enemy of the state already, a threat to national security? Ask Lois’ dad. I hope we can get away from such stories. It’s rather tiring.

The Richard Donner script that follows is good, and though I’m a scriptwriter myself I found it hard to read in this format. sorry.

I really like the Brian Stelfreeze two page spread in the back of the book. Many years ago, Mr. Stelfreeze spent half an hour on the phone with me talking about working in comic and what I should do. I feel bad never staying in touch with him. He’s a great guy and a great artist.

So here we are, two very enjoyable anniversary comics out the same week. One gets more attention than it deserves, and the other should be read by many many more.

I don’t know if these are well written reviews of these comics or not, but I hope you enjoy them, and go buy the books and enjoy them for what they are. Good story telling.

Seven Subjects Over A BLOG

Last week I made a fool of myself with my blog. No doubt, I will make a fool of myself again this week. This certainly is not something I intend to do every week (unless you like it), but I did promise to write up seven ideas for a blog over the week and briefly write about them here. So let’s get to it… Oh, you really want me to do this?

1

One of the first ideas that came to me was while I was standing in line at a local restaurant. This is one of those ‘greasy spoon’ like places. It has a lot of business from the different car dealerships and repair shops around it. So you know it has to be good. Actually the restaurant has been there for at least fifty years. Far better then most in town.

Anyway, one of the usual things I like to order in this restaurant is a corn dog. But when I looked at the menu board I did a double take and had to check what I saw was right.

A Hot Dog is $1.95

A Corn Dog is $1.45

Exactly what’s in a hot dog that requires another 50 cents?

I know the meat in both of them isn’t really any different, and probably not very health, but what makes a bun more expensive than the corn meal dipped in hot oil? With a corn dog I get a free stick.

No answer to that, but have to say that corn dog tasted far better then the ones at a chain a few blocks away.

2

What I heard in the office? or A really bad pick up line.

“Are you a 501c?”

It’s a good thing I work for who I did.

3

Wednesday night I attended the Writer’s Guild of America west, Animation Writers Caucus Schmooze. We gather at a local restaurant and have a guest speaker. Some months it's a small group of us, and sometimes like this month the room can be packed. (It doesn’t help that there was another large party and they had stolen several of our chairs and tables.)

Last nights guest was extremely intelligent and interesting, and there was a lot of information he provided us. I could tell that even some of the more veteran writers around the table were impressed and learned something.

Maybe I’ll write about all that someday.

Around this table were writers I have known for years, some worked on shows that I grew up watching, others are writing some of the best animation on television today, others like me are struggling to find the next writing assignment. There were also those, who call themselves “aspiring”, who are just starting out or in school, but have the dream.

And all I could think about, seeing all these people is this: These are animation writers, I’m one of them, and I belong at this table.

4

The next few subjects I jotted down over the week are all comic book related. I’m really nervous to write about some of it because I worry about not being able to get work at a publisher because I’ve offended them with a comment about how they handle this or that, or why they did that, or why so and so is no longer on a book.

Well you know what, like all fears, we have to put them aside and be truthful. Don’t do or say something offensive on purpose, but you must still express your own true thoughts. Because only then can people really know what you are like. Even if they may not like what you have to say, they might still be willing to listen and converse. You might come out ahead because of it. But if you say nothing and hide behind your fear, then nothing will happen.

Pause, hiding behind my fear for another moment.

5

The very first thing I jotted down in my notebook after promising to write this list was this:

“Those Epic Events in Comic Book Universes”

I don’t really know what I want to say about these. I loved CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS when it first came out, and I followed several of the other events over the years after that. But recently (and this goes for both Marvel and DC) the Events seem to constantly overlap one another so that its one never-ending event. Lots of it confuses me, especially when I haven’t been reading certain books for a while.

I won’t deny that the events help sales of certain books, and that’s a good thing. But I’d like to have a pause between them from time to time. Would be nice. That’s why I like reading some of the smaller books that aren’t the flag ship titles or characters.

Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to be part of a massive company wide event sometime. I even have one such cross over story worked out in my head. I know who should write and draw the main series that would spin off into the other books. But with the way I write, this wouldn’t be some major Cosmic Apocalypse, which kill off a dozen characters to have them come back later. This would be a more focused story which would allow each character and book to show off what they really are all about and if a reader picked up an issue of SuchandSuch Men they wouldn’t have to worry about the rest of the crossovers. They would have a good story in their hands with out the rest.

That’s just me. There are far more experienced people out there who know how to make all this work. Just hope they will hire me someday.

6

I won’t jump on either side of a ‘controversy’ that isn’t one, at least not now. I’ll only say this. Superman isn’t real, people.

7

Final comic book note. The Justice Society of America. I love the Justice Society of America and all their related characters. I have from the very first comic book I ever picked up. So I feel guilty for not buying issues of their book over the last several months. I don’t blame the writer of the stories, I just couldn’t get into it. I probably should have, because I don’t understand Alan Scott’s new look. Not liking it, but that’s me. I know some artist worked hard on designing it.

I think I will be writing a review in the next little while of Justice Society of America #50 that just came out.

For now, just let me say again, I love the Justice Society of America.

*

There, done. Seven subjects for my blog. Each one could be expanded upon to fill an entire blog. Maybe two or three of them will become their own blogs. We’ll just have to see.

Lastly, a note to you and myself as I did last week: Whatever you do, don’t try to act silly and foolish to cover up the fact that you have nothing to write about in this week’s blog. It doesn’t look good. I should know. Look what I’ve been writing.

Next week, a blog I hope will be worthy of having the label:

FOUR NAMES OF CREATIVE PROFESSIONALISM.

These last two certainly weren’t.

Another Filler Blog - Go read my serial instead...

Sometimes it’s just hard to come up with ideas to fill this blog. I totally missed one a couple of weeks ago. I really hate when that happens. Feels like I have let my readers down, and maybe even more so I let myself down by not accomplishing what I have set out to do.

Coming up with ideas for non-fiction articles and blogs are much harder than fictional tales of giant worms that live in the sun—

[Hold on a sec, I better write that down before I forget—Darn, lost it.]

That’s exactly what I mean. You can come up with the wildest or most serious or most funny piece of fiction easier than it is to work up a worthwhile article or blog with substance that the audience can enjoy and get something out of and maybe learn from.

This blog is not going to be one of those because I’m already running out of steam.

Here’s what you can do, and what I can do, as a way to start working up better ideas for your blog and not just waiting to the last minute to fill space. (I'm not doing that; really I’m not doing that. Well, maybe, a little.)

Make quick notes to yourself through the day and through the week. They don’t have to of anything important, just a thought you had, a person you met, a funny sign you saw, a stupid commercial, a news article that intrigues you (that’s important, be certain to read and not just blogs like this one). Write down a few words about it. The act of writing, even those few words will begin the creative juices flowing. Maybe those juices will run dry and that idea won’t amount to anything, but that’s okay, keep making note. The more you do it, the more the ideas will grow and develop.

Apparently this one didn’t work out to well for me.

So here’s the deal, I’m going to be making notes of blog ideas through out the following week. Then next week I will show you the seven best of those ideas and actually write a blog about them.

There’s my blog for the week.

The “Space Worms From Hell” wasn’t very good either.

WEBCOMICS: What's Cooking?

I should have had this blog up two days ago. I should have had a bog up last week. Sorry.

I began writing this week’s blog about TAXES. About how I am very happy to be filling out my taxes this year, because it means that I’ve had a job this past year worth taxing. I know a lot of you out there hate paying taxes, but after so many years of not having a job, I am excited about having taxes.

I can now tithe to God and give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s

Putting that aside, I now know why this blog was delayed. So I can tell you about something that arrived in the mail today…

It was a large package, which came in USMail.

Inside the package were three smaller identical packages.

Inside each of these packages was a copy of a book.

Inside the book was the first every published FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY comic page.

Yay! We’re published.

Ego moment over.

So what was the book that published FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY.

“It’s a cook book!”

(Sorry, couldn’t resist the Twilight Zone references).

Really, our webcomic has been published in a cookbook along with dozens of others.

The book is called:

WEBCOMICS: What’s Cooking?

Inside 60 webcomic creators bring you not only their visual stories, but also their own culinary arts with special recipes of their liking.

For us we created our very own “Spicy Guacamole Spread”

Yum!!

Okay, joking aside, there’s a reason why all these great webcomic artist and writers got together to produce this cookbook, and that’s to raise money for local food banks.

As someone who volunteers with FIES: Fullerton Emergency Service; I know how important every single dollar, every single penny is that comes into food banks and other related community organizations. So the money raised by our little four-color comic cookbook will be well used and will help many.

You can order your own copy of WEBCOMICS: What’s Cooking? here: http://tgtmedia.com/

Go buy a cookbook, read FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY, and enjoy our Spicy Guacamole Spread. I know you want to.

“Don’t take NO for answer!” Right, but it is an answer.

“Don’t take NO for answer!” Right, but it is an answer.
by Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

The other day a friend was griping about being told NO by studio executives after he pitched them a show idea. He was really upset, and needed to vent.

In the back of my mind, I’m screaming, “You Got to Pitch a Show!”

One of the greatest entertainment industry experiences I’ve had so far was when I got to pitch my own television series to two of the cable networks.

The difference between his pitch and my pitch was that he got an answer.

For my friend he received the answer of “No.” For me, I didn’t get any answer at all.

After weeks went by I had to write e-mails and make phone calls until I finally discovered that they had chosen to “pass” on my show. Somehow everyone else knew that both networks had passed on my project except me. They didn’t tell me.

‘Pass’ is another word for ‘No.’

A ‘No’ hurts, but not hearing anything hurts a whole lot more.

I have waited days, weeks, and even months to receive answers from story submissions, art consideration, and even job interviews.

This is one of those places where “no news is good news” doesn’t work. For one reason or another, the person you made contact with just doesn’t get back to you. Yes, a lot of them are busy and even their assistants don’t have the time to respond to every entry that is sitting in their slush pile of scripts, art samples, and resumes. Others however truly don’t like to say ‘no’. That makes them the bad guy, and they don’t want that. If I don’t respond, just take it as a ‘pass’, I don’t want to hurt your feelings.

Whether that’s true for all of them or not, I don’t know. But a form letter would be nice from time to time. At that least that tells me that my manuscript made it to your office. And if it required coverage, there might be a check mark next to the reason you chose to ‘pass’.

It’s an answer.

It might not be the answer you’re wanting, but it is an answer.

Anything beyond a form letter with even the smallest explanations of why they said ‘no’ is also not what you want to receive, but it is what you need to receive.

Now that you have an answer, learn from it, so the next time you submit – whether it's the same pitch or not – you will be better than you were before.

Next, here comes the part where I will freely admit I’m not good at:

Get an answer! Follow up.

Write a brief thank you message to whomever you just met with: the studio executive or the hiring manager, or whoever it. Thank them for taking the time to meet with you and briefly remind them what it was about.

After a couple of weeks if you haven’t heard back, write another short note. Reminding them of you and your project, and you hope to meet with them again whether it is on this or another.

As I admitted, I’m not good at this, but I do my best. My networking skills need improvement, but the only way to improve is to do.

Don’t be rude, but fight to get an answer.

So “Take No for an answer.” Learn from it, find out what they didn’t like. Improve upon it for the next pitch, interview, drawing, or audition. Turn it around and make their next answer to you a ‘YES’.