I have been on a mad streak with ideas of late after doing some consultations involving Fair Use and alternate histories as our regular history pivots.
I spent a chunk of the 2000s as a solicited writer, pitching to various publishers. Of late, I've been imagining a "not-obiographical" anti-memoir that draws from a mix of Extras, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Transmetropolitan on the one hand and Ready Player One and For All Mankind on the other. This would be as a comic book.
I'm sort of imagining my King Mob avatar upending popular culture with a series of modest hits and comedically large misses, including one that alters a U.S. presidential election and another that shifts media rights in a way that leaves nobody particularly happy.
We've only met a few times in passing in reality. I did work with Tom Peyer and Brian Augustyn in reality briefly. But I've been stuck on this one point as I break story:
I feel like it would be hilarious for my protagonist -- at a bit past the halfway mark -- to run into your alternate history counterpart in the narrative. Everyone associates you with metafiction already because of Animal Man, among other things.
At this point in the narrative, my protagonist has just cost Warner Bros. the rights to Superman, which reverted back to the Siegel estate, after persuading a temporarily insane DC publisher to give up the rights. Nobody is happy with him from fans to shareholders. He's at a low point following this and penning the reviled Totally Crisis and suffering a blow with the uncommercial Ultimate Warlock at Marvel.
I was imagining that, at this point, he encounters a Grant Morrison at a similar low ebb who has, for example, successfully reinvented Batman as a light hearted character. I'm trying to think of an adequate counterfactual circa 2010. Something you would set out to do, didn't actually do, and which would have unforeseeable consequences had you succeeded.
And the two proceed to have a conversation while hiding from an angry mob in a small deserted convention room. One which plays on metafiction and the multiverse, maybe with a light touch of parody of your interaction via fiction suit with Buddy Baker. But which also calls to mind Patrick Stewart's appearances on Extras.
Logistically, I'm not sure how to approach this conversation without having it or getting your approval for it or possibly bringing you onboard to cowrite a chapter.
It's set against the backdrop of Senator Obama challenging President Palin for the U.S. Presidency as Russian troops march on Ukraine and 2012 looks a bit more apocalyptic in the Mayan prophecy sense than our version, spurred by an alternate pop culture history as entertainment conglomerates have made increasingly erratic choices with the characters in their custody thanks to a different creative landscape.
It follows naturally that the comedy of errors of fiction changing reality in this alternate history would lead to a consultation with you.
If the idea has any appeal, I'd appreciate some inkling as to how to proceed, possibly with you...?
Hey Grant! Happy New Year!
I'm curious, with another year down, are you planning on producing any physical products from the Xanaduum project?
I believe you mentioned possibly the Tarot Cards and a square bound collection of the comics here.
But anything else planned? Like a collection of the essays from here?
Grant and Kristan!
I have been on a mad streak with ideas of late after doing some consultations involving Fair Use and alternate histories as our regular history pivots.
I spent a chunk of the 2000s as a solicited writer, pitching to various publishers. Of late, I've been imagining a "not-obiographical" anti-memoir that draws from a mix of Extras, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Transmetropolitan on the one hand and Ready Player One and For All Mankind on the other. This would be as a comic book.
I'm sort of imagining my King Mob avatar upending popular culture with a series of modest hits and comedically large misses, including one that alters a U.S. presidential election and another that shifts media rights in a way that leaves nobody particularly happy.
We've only met a few times in passing in reality. I did work with Tom Peyer and Brian Augustyn in reality briefly. But I've been stuck on this one point as I break story:
I feel like it would be hilarious for my protagonist -- at a bit past the halfway mark -- to run into your alternate history counterpart in the narrative. Everyone associates you with metafiction already because of Animal Man, among other things.
At this point in the narrative, my protagonist has just cost Warner Bros. the rights to Superman, which reverted back to the Siegel estate, after persuading a temporarily insane DC publisher to give up the rights. Nobody is happy with him from fans to shareholders. He's at a low point following this and penning the reviled Totally Crisis and suffering a blow with the uncommercial Ultimate Warlock at Marvel.
I was imagining that, at this point, he encounters a Grant Morrison at a similar low ebb who has, for example, successfully reinvented Batman as a light hearted character. I'm trying to think of an adequate counterfactual circa 2010. Something you would set out to do, didn't actually do, and which would have unforeseeable consequences had you succeeded.
And the two proceed to have a conversation while hiding from an angry mob in a small deserted convention room. One which plays on metafiction and the multiverse, maybe with a light touch of parody of your interaction via fiction suit with Buddy Baker. But which also calls to mind Patrick Stewart's appearances on Extras.
Logistically, I'm not sure how to approach this conversation without having it or getting your approval for it or possibly bringing you onboard to cowrite a chapter.
It's set against the backdrop of Senator Obama challenging President Palin for the U.S. Presidency as Russian troops march on Ukraine and 2012 looks a bit more apocalyptic in the Mayan prophecy sense than our version, spurred by an alternate pop culture history as entertainment conglomerates have made increasingly erratic choices with the characters in their custody thanks to a different creative landscape.
It follows naturally that the comedy of errors of fiction changing reality in this alternate history would lead to a consultation with you.
If the idea has any appeal, I'd appreciate some inkling as to how to proceed, possibly with you...?