Who's Who In The CBU Update 2008

Who are... Park and Barb?

Barbara Lien-Cooper writes the comic GUN STREET GIRL at Panel 2 Panel, was an original founder of Sequential Tart, is the managing editrix of the 2004 Eisner award-winning print magazine COMIC BOOK ARTIST, and was named by Mark Millar (The Authority, Ultimates, Wanted) as one of the three most promising new talents in the next wave of comics writing.

Park Cooper started writing about comics at the now-defunct DC FANZINE website.

Influences

By Park Cooper

I'm writing a comic series that's being drawn by my friend Matt Phillips, who has fought off an addiction to action figures to get back into his art again after an absence of channeling his creative energies elsewhere.

I keep getting into these heavy discussions with him about the various influences I'm drawing on... I thought that anything I talk about that much at such length, I shouldn't just waste on conversation, I should make into a column.

We're talking about a scene where a guy briefs some bounty hunters, and we start talking about Star Wars and... isn't there some sort of scene where Vader or Jabba or someone sets Fett and Bossk and people like that after Solo?

But the truth is, I borrow a lot from anime and manga.

My plot for my third issue, while original, would have fit very well into Rurouni Kenshin, for example. Or Saiyuki, or Naruto, or... oh, especially Trigun! Or other things, like Inu-Yasha, actually. Not just the fight scene, but the plot as a whole... there's a very anime/manga aesthetic of which I'm proud. You see it in the fight, too -- that tense/thinking-fast-while-fighting thing. And there's a little speechmaking all along, too, but you get that in all comic books.

I keep working to get Matt to use Netflix (www.netflix.com) to watch all the anime I want him to watch. If you don't know yet about Netflix, I highly recommend it. It's particularly good if you're the sort of writer who keeps saying things like "Go rent FAUSTO 5.0, there's a feel to the scene in the old hospital that I want you to capture..." ...and the artist lives in a town of less than 2000 or something.

Then, I'm always wanting to recommend songs, too, like my favorite track by THE KILLERS... the soundtrack to my beloved KUNG FU HUSTLE also plays a part in this current project. In the past, on an abandoned project, I've used Belle and Sebastian for inspiration as well...

Anyway, Matt and I (mostly me) got into this big anime/manga discussion next... There's two parts to the Trigun manga. The early Trigun manga is the best. In my opinion, the later stuff really loses its focus and immediacy. But it's hard to tell which is the early stuff and which is the later stuff. BUT, in my opinion, Trigun is one of those series where the anime is better. If you've seen the anime, you truly do not need the manga. With Rurouni Kenshin, the manga and the anime are both interesting, but the anime is superior. Saiyuki is in between... the anime is far superior. But you don't read Sayuki the manga and feel "well this was sort of a waste of my time, after the anime". You say, "ah, my old friends." On the other hand, I imagine that if you tried to read Saiyuki first, you really wouldn't see the point.

Then we got into discussing how the character who hired the bounty hunters was a villain that I wanted to create in a special way... at one point I described him as "50% a badder-assed Sir Guy of Gisbourne from ROBIN HOOD, 50% Scorpius from Season One, maybe a little of Season Two of FARSCAPE." I found myself thinking, what is with me insisting on revealing my influences?

I think perhaps it's part of the fun of being a writer. Barb likes to talk about influences, but I've never had the chance before now.

I also got ideas for character names from some of the students I met while teaching. In Texas, with the mix of cultures, too, you hear some really cool names. Not that my characters have much in common with the kids they share their names with. Oh, except one's hyper. But there's not that much resemblance otherwise.

Well, back to literary influences. Barb and I were talking about Fritz Lieber the other day. He came up because Barb found a great book of essays on horror and one was on his Our Lady of Darkness. But long before Barb, I read all of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, which Matt knew only from the Epic (the old Epic, the one that actually managed to get things done) Mignola adaptations. I'm a very, very critical person, but I must say I think Mignola did a good job on those, and Barb thought so, too. In the work I'm doing with Matt, two characters are slightly like the Mouser... one is the villain... he's like if the Mouser totally lost his playful side and was just nothing but deadly serious all the time -- the thoughtful, cautiously aggressive side.

We had a discussion about an anti-influence (Barb has lots of those), in this case John Byrne. I introduced some interesting minor characters, they left, and then I mentioned that I expected that we'd ever see at least one of them again. As in, interesting though they seemed, I didn't really plan to write them back in at any point. It was to suggest that, you know, minor characters are still real characters. It shouldn't feel like they were written into existence just to appear in this book. That's actually a fault I have with John Byrne. If we see anyone, ever, we know that he'll be getting back to them sooner or later, almost always sooner. It often makes it feel more artificial to me that he does that.

Well, what with this next bit that I plan to write, this column is long enough for right now, and I really should save some of this talk for future columns. So, fitting for a column about influences, here's two more Super-Condensed Comics Based Entirely On My Memory, one of which is ANIMAL MAN, as requested by my friend Gwalla. So beware of spoilers, if you don't want these comics spoiled for you, because there's some huge ones, particularly in the Animal Man one.

Oh, but first, by the way -- I hear there's some DC thing called VILLAINS UNITED in which all the villains get really serious about getting rid of all the heroes and we find out what would happen if that happened.

I'd like to point out that I wrote that ages ago and that it can be found here:

http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/pb/96650168267638.htm

Have fun. See you next time.












NEIL GAIMAN'S BLACK ORCHID

Lex Luthor: I can't help but notice that you, my dear, are the disguise-specialty minor heroine the Black Orchid. I must say, you're quite resilient. Allow me to burn your body to ashes before disposing of it.

[Elsewhere, in the greenhouse of a lonely botany professor who was the colleague of the likes of Jason Woodrue, Alec Holland, and Poison Ivy, a creature emerges from a plant-- the all-new, all-different Black Orchid.]

Black Orchid: I can fly, and I have a special smell that allows me to appear to anyone however I want.

Botanist guy: I had a girl I liked. She died, but I regrew her DNA and she became the old Black Orchid.

Black Orchid: Now she's dead, too.

Botanist guy: Oh. Hey, look, you've got one more little sibling emerging.

Little Sister Black Orchid: Do I HAVE to wait here?

Black Orchid: Yes, I have to go find out what we are.

Poison Ivy: You're a May Queen.

Black Orchid. Oh. What is that exactly?

Poison Ivy: It's a lot better than being a crazy toxic villainess, I can tell you that. Go away-- I'm jealous just looking at you.

Black Orchid: The bad men have stolen my sister. However, they have taken her to the rainforest, where orchids grow best. What a happy coincidence.

[Black Orchid rescues the little Black Orchid, destroys most of those who wanted to capture her. She makes it quite clear that, while no Swamp Thing, she's practically a demi-goddess of the Green, and that they really, really shouldn't screw with her nor hers ever again.]

THE END.





GRANT MORRISON'S ANIMAL MAN

Buddy: My animal powers were messed up by the Gene Bomb.

Yellow Alien 1: We'll fix

Yellow Alien 2: Your powers.

Yellow Alien 1: It's really the Crisis

Yellow Alien 2: That's confused your origin.

Old, forgotten villain: I'll steal that alien spacecraft for myself.

Yellow Alien 1: No, you

Yellow Alien 2: Won't. No one remembers you

Yellow Alien 1: And there's no reason for you to be here.

[They deconstruct him out of continuity.]

Buddy: Hey, there's that guy in the leather jacket that keeps turning up around the house and disappearing. Wonder who that guy is? Creepy.

Mirror Master: Bet you're surprised to see me, now, aren't yer, ya wee bastard. No one writes me like I'm from Scotland, but I am. I was sent to tell yer ter stay away from this animal-rights tripe, wasn't I?

Buddy: That was weird. I wonder what will happen if I don't heed that warning.

Thanagarian Destruction Artist: No time to worry about that, human-- this bomb will keep you all from worrying about your little Earthly worries ever again. We're invading, you know.

Buddy: Overly... sensitive... artist... lifetime... of... memories... overwhelming... How... do... I... stop... explosion...

[Click]

Hawkman: Sometimes all you have to do is just turn it off.

Professor Highwater: Um, Animal Man, is it? I need you to help me with this Psycho-Pirate guy in Arkham Asylum. He's trying to bring back everyone who died in that Crisis thing not long ago.

Psycho-Pirate: Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld! Commander Carrot and his Zoo Crew! Ultraman and Earth-3! Such wonderful continuities! Let's bring them all back! Look, Ultraman is insane from some sort of super-disease! And he's got a nuclear warhead with him! You never see that sort of plot in THIS continuity any more!

Buddy: Oh boy.

[With great difficulty, Ultraman is subdued. The yellow aliens show up again, and are uncertain if they should interfere this time and do anything about the nuclear warhead.]

[Click]

Buddy: I learned from a friend... sometimes all you have to do is switch it off.

Buddy: Wow, I really saved the day for once. I can't wait to tell the wife and kids about this one...

[Buddy finds his wife and kids dead in the kitchen]

Buddy: I am so freaked out right now. What good is being a vegetarian or not wearing leather?

Buddy: Wait... I know how to fix this. I just need a time machine.

Rip Hunter, Time Master: Hey, that Animal Man guy who came by. Did you give him Time Machine #97?

Rip Hunter's assistant: Yeah...?

Rip Hunter: Well did you warn him that #97's a bit wonky?

Rip Hunter's assistant: He'll figure it out. I'm on lunch break, man.

Buddy: Oh god. I'M the guy in the leather jacket that's been hanging out around the house and disappearing for weeks now. I remember startling myself when I was riding my bike when I was a kid. This is freaky. Time travel is a bad trip. I wonder if there's any other way for me to affect continuity besides time travel? Where else can I go?

[Buddy opens the door to his house and enters comic book limbo.]

Buddy: Oh God.

[Buddy wanders for ages amongst Mr. Freeze, Merryman of the Inferior Five, and more.]

Grant Morrison: Hello, there, Buddy. I'm the person who writes your comic book.

Buddy: This explains so much about Justice League Europe.

Grant Morrison: I hope you've enjoyed my time writing your title, Buddy. I've tried not to make it boring. It was fun revisiting every old hero that had anything to do with animal powers, like the B'Wana Beast and Vixen and Dolphin, wasn't it?

Buddy: You sick sadistic bastard.

Grant Morrison: I know, I know, Buddy, I seem to have written myself into a corner. A reader wrote in with ideas for some new villains I rather like...

[Two villains appear and start beating Buddy to death.]

Grant Morrison: Well I have a few people I'd like to thank before I go...

Buddy: Oh help they're killing me!

Grant Morrison: Oh, Buddy, Buddy. I guess I'm just a big softie.

[Buddy finds himself back at his house. His family is alive again-- continuity has been rewritten. Buddy is happy.]

Grant Morrison: Sigh. I miss my cat.

Barb: What about the Phantom Stranger? Wasn't he in there?

Park: Sure, he was in there, sitting next to Immortal Man. That was shortly after the big speech about how it doesn't matter if some DC continuities are inaccessible-- they're still there in our hearts and in our back issues. We can just read them again whenever we want.

Barb: Do you think anyone at DC read that before they went ahead with this Infinite Crisis Stuff?

Park: Oh, Barbara -- No one remembers Animal Man anymore.

THE END.