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<font face="georgia"><font color="red">Over at rast, somebody (not one of the trolls, as far as I can tell), said:
"JMS says that he did the Rangers pilot just for fun, he didn't expect or want anything to come of it, he was just having fun. He said that at San Diego ComiCon last summer. I was in the audience."
I suspect this is utter BS, but I figured I'd ask. The above quoted words are complete fabrications, right?</font>
It's correct and not correct. I have this rule that the only things I do, are things I think will be fun. I did the Rangers pilot because I thought it would be fun. Note, however, the word "pilot." That's how it was always discussed, as a pilot for a series.
In that situation, you always hope it'll go forward, but you can't ever count on that, because if you get your hopes up, you'll go insane. So you do it for the fun of it, and you don't think about what comes after.
That was the substance of my comments at SDCC.
jms
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and don't send me story ideas)</font>
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<font face="georgia">Re: ATTN JMS: Your cameo role in B5 Sleeping in Light
I don't recall if I ever replied to this, but:
<font color="red"> At that moment, did you go blank and have to act, or was the somber glance-about for real?</font>
It was quite, quite real. What I'm saying, in my mind, as I make that look around, is "goodbye."
Two takes was all I could handle before I told the director to get stuffed.
jms
<hr width="75%">
Re: ATTN JMS: Your thoughts on LOTR the movies?
Loved the first one, still chewing on the second one...felt choppy to me in places, and I was paying too much attention to what had been changed to properly focus on what was there. I'll need to see it again.
BTW, the expanded DVD version of Fellowship is even better than the theatrical version. My hope is that the same will apply to Towers, on the theory that the choppiness the editor in me feels was the result of stuff being left out.
Nonetheless: visually breathtaking.
jms
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permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)
</font>
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<font face="georgia"><font color="red">I was just curious, does anyone here know what education jms has?</font>
BA Clinical Psychology, minor in Philosophy
2nd BA Sociology, minor in Literature
Both from San Diego State University.
jms
([email protected])
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permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)</font>
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<font face="georgia">Actually, ramming speed *is* a legitimate term, because it encompasses several
sub-sets of instructions, to wit:
1) Turn off or over-ride all safety mechanisms designed to protect a collision
2) Use full speed, without concern about fuel or other aspects (such as turning
away at the last minute).
Most big ships have safeguards designed to help prevent collisions; ramming
speed as an order over-rides those safety precautions (this per a Navy captain
who explained it to me a while back).
jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">Did you study Clinical Psych with an eye toward going into practice? Or, as we used to say in college, did you go in for psychology just to find out what was wrong with you?</font>
I knew I didn't want to get a degree in English, because I think if you want to be a writer, that's the LAST thing you want to do. You should go and play in other fields, learn outside your discipline. A good writer is a generalist.
When I'd first started going to college (at Kankakee Community College, Kankakee, Illinois), my first introduction to psychology was the whole Carl Rodgers/humanistic school of therapy, which attracted me enormously, enough to make that my major. I'd considered for a time that I could balance out being a therapist with writing.
But by the time I got through 3 more colleges, ending up at San Diego State, the psychology field had undergone a change to the mechanistic/Skinnerian/behavior modification/drug therapy/let's-run-rats-until-they-drop model, and that had zero interest for me.
So having finished that BA, I was trying to decide what to do next, and I had enough course work in other areas to go for a second BA in literature, philosophy and sociology, and chose the last one more or less out of inertia, since by then I was already making a fairly decent living as a writer.
My advice to anyone currently in college: take full advantage of the resources that you have there, from the college newspaper or magazine, to the theater department, the telecommunications department (if you have one) to get all the experience you can. It ain't about the degree, it ain't about just going to the classrooms, the lunch rooms, the parking lot and the rest rooms...it's about acquiring massive amounts of experience in a secure environment, where you can experiment and fail safely.
jms
<hr width="50%">
<font color="red">Just out of sheer curiosity, when? I was at SDSU in the early '70s (73 - 75). EE mostly.</font>
From around 1975-78. About a year in, I started writing for the San Diego State Daily Aztec, and ended up writing so many articles, reviews and columns -- sometimes 4-5 per week, sometimes twice a day -- that the paper became known on campus as the Daily Joe.
jms
([email protected])
(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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<font face="georgia"><font color="red">state of the Straczynski-verse update?</font>
On projects new and old...there's been a variety of happenings.
On Jeremiah, we're about to start on episode 7, "Voices in the Dark," and I just finished writing 8 and 9, "Crossing Jordan" and "Running on Empty." By the time we hit mid-week, we'll be halfway through shooting on the season, which should wrap around the first week of April, though post will take us through mid-May.
On Polaris...we got down to one of three projects of which one or two would be greenlighted for production. It went down to the wire, but finally SFC decided that the premise of Polaris was a little too science fictiony, when they were looking to go for ideas that had more immediate mainstream appeal. So even though they felt that Polaris was the best written of the projects they had in development, they went for a project about intergalactic (not interstellar, intergalactic) vampires called "Bloodsuckers." It is, to be fair, one of those concepts that, when you hear it, you get it, there isn't a lot of background needed.
It happens. Networks develop tons of shows but only green-light a handful every year. Showtime had something like 35 projects in development this past season, and picked 3. So at least we made it to the final cut, which is something.
We still feel strongly about Polaris, and once the turn-around period has expired, plan to bring it elsewhere.
But as one door closes, another opens. The thing about television is that you can only have x-number of projects in the works at one time as a show runner (as opposed to someone who EPs and just sells shows). For instance, on Jeremiah, I'm in first position, meaning MGM and Jeremiah have first call on my services. When Polaris was in development, it occupied second position, meaning that had it gone ahead, that show would've had call on me above any other projects, but second behind Jeremiah in case of any conflicts of priorities or schedules.
It's very difficult to sell or develop projects in third or fourth position, because it has the potential to compromise those productions if you get jammed up on shows with higher priority.
Which is a long way to say that, once Polaris went away, it cleared the decks to take on another television project in development, which is very new and I can't discuss it yet until we're further down the road.
On the comics front, I've turned in the first 2 issues of Supreme Power, and should have the third issue in sometime next week. I'm working with Gary Frank and Joe Quesada on the art and look of the book, which is very cool. Also working on issue 51 of Amazing Spider-Man, which I hope to turn in this week. (Issue 49 should be out in a couple weeks, I think.)
I've been told the writer/directors doing the dust-up on Rising Stars: The Movie are progressing well, and I keep hearing about this thing shooting sometime later this year, but that's strictly unofficial until somebody tells me on the record.
The text for the B5 Quote Book is nearly done, and I think that one will be out around April.
I'm also doing an 80-minute audio drama called "The Adventures of Apocalypse Al," for a company that will put the show out later this year.
<font color="red"> Bet you didn't take Christmas or New Year's off, did you? </font>
No, couldn't, too many projects to write.
jms
([email protected])
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permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)
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<font face="georgia"><font color="red">Personally, I'm not willing to set my jaw and endure 100s of years of terrorism. I (and my children) can if we have to, but I'd rather remove the root cause ASAP.</font>
But to assume that Sadam is the root cause of terrorism is naive and, most important, incorrect. He takes advantage of the situation, sure, and his reign is a symptom, but he ain't the root cause. Not by a long shot.
jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">What and When is "Supreme Power"?</font>
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.
Marvel said, basically, if you could take those characters, who were used at a time when comics were still quite a bit more restrictive than now, due to the comics code and other influences, and update them, recast them, free to do whatever you want...what would you do?
Hence, Supreme Power. While it has its moments of dark humor, it's a very intense, serious book. And because it's being done for the Marvel Max line -- which is aimed at mature readers -- there are very few limitations in terms of imagery and language. Marvel has said it wants me to take this book to the wall, and that's pretty much where I intend to go.
Interestingly, unlike the aforemtentioned titles, this isn't a limited series...it's intended to be an ongoing series, while trying to sustain the kind of intensity you get in that kind of limited edition. It's a massive writing challenge, though one of my main goals is to do right by Mark's original creation.
I think the first issue appears sometime in February or March.
<font color="red">So when can we expect RS:Bright? And do you plan any other spinoffs of Rising Stars?</font>
This one, by Fiona Avery, is due out in February, I think. I know that Top Cow is planning other follow-ups to the Rising Stars story, but I'm not directly involved in the writing of them due to my contract with Marvel. One of them may follow the events of Laurel Darkhaven, the teek who ended up a CIA assassin.
<font color="red">Also, when is the next Midnight Nation slated?</font>
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...e&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.
jms
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permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)</font>
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<font face="georgia"><font color="red">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?</font>
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
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permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)
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<font face="georgia"><font color="red">They sound interesting but I cannot see any mention of a commentary by Andrea Thompson. Did she decide to make one?</font>
There was never any discussion, or announcement, of Andrea doing a commentary, only an interview, which was done and is on the DVD. (Along with Mira, Bruce, Jerry, Claudia, Stephen, Richard and others.) The only cast commentary is by Claudia, Jerry and Bruce in tandem.
jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">I noticed with some amusement that the Midnight Nation graphic novel was released on 31st December 1969, according to Amazon. What astounding technological advances; to publish a book decades before it was written! Any idea when the *real* publication date is?</font>
As I'll note in a post elsewhere, it comes out next Wednesday (January 15th).
jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">I don't know if you've ever said, but just "approximately," how much did each Crusade episode cost to produce?
IIRC, B5 was around $1 million per episode. I guess the Crusade cost was about the same as B5??? Farscape was supposedly around $1.4 million per episode, and new Trek is around $2 million per episode. </font>
Yes, Crusade was about the same as B5, a tick under $1M per episode. We did it by long-term planning and having scripts well ahead of time, the same thing that has helped put Jeremiah under-budget in its first season.
jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">I had asked this question last October. But, now that the second season [Jeremiah] is official and half filmed. Has their been any new info on the show coming to dvd??</font>
I haven't heard anything new on the subject.
jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">In the reports about Odyssey 5's cancellation it said that Showtime wants to dump it's SF shows, but can't do that to Jeremiah because of some MGM deal...
A) any truth to this? How secure are you guys?</font>
I'd heard the reverse, that Sony had attached a number of conditions to the show that made it fiscally unviable for Showtime to pick it up. At least that's the word on the street among show runner types.
<font color="red">B) Are you going to be able to tell the FULL story with Jeremiah? Go the distance? etc...?</font>
Every series is season-by-season.
jms
<hr width="75%">
<font color="red">On the contrary, it is a observable fact that the psi corps trilogy has one tiny mistake in it - putting the Icarus incident and Mind War at the same time. The Centauri Trilogy has a whole host of minor timeline problems, like putting five months between the fall of Centauri Prime and Objects at Rest. The "In the Beginning" novelization gives all of Coplann's lines to Morann, (not to mention basically the whole technomage trilogy), but my point is made with the few previous examples.
So then, where is the quality control?</font>
So let me get this straight...based on those tiny errors, which creep in because perfection is much to be strived for but rarely ever achieved, especially when you're bringing in all kinds of different people into the process, on tha basis of a few months difference here and there, which 99.9% of the population wouldn't even notice unless they did a real dig-out of the dates...which only a rather obsessive kind of personality would do in the first place...based on THAT you dismiss the books out of hand? That they have "no quality control?"
And on top of that, as a newcomer here, you go around dissing people and insulting them because they disagree with you?
<font color="red">Understanding someone elses opinon makes it easier to show how they are wrong. Spare me your version of singing Kum-by-yah, I'll deal with facts.</font>
Does the phrase "ill-mannered boob" ring a bell with you?
Just checking, because I suspect you're either going to hear it a lot, or you already have.
jms
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permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)
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<font face="georgia"><font color="red">I don't value other peoples opinions because the vast majority of the time they are ill-informed, and lack any thought or logic behind them - is not my problem nor does it fall under the scope of manners. It does however fall under the scope of politically incorrect, and if anything that must mean I'm more right than I thought.</font>
1) You have just defined the very meaning and the psychology of a troll better than anything I have read online in the last ten years.
2) If you place no value on other peoples' opinions, then you cannot possibly derive anything from your company on this group, since it is contingent upon that premise. Nothing anyone here says can mean anything to you since you do not value their opinions.
As stated: a troll who only comes in to cause furors and annoy people for his own amusement without any interest in a real conversation.
Hey, Jay [newsgroup moderator...Wizz]...can somebody introduce this guy to the workings of a moderated group?
He may not like it much, but the thing about not valuing other peoples' opinions is that it gives them the right not to value yours.
Troll.
jms
([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2003 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)
[Wizzard...Not that it means a heck of a lot, but the first post this person managed to get in to the moderated newsgroup began with "Well lets see if this happy post gets through....", which tells me he's had a few unsuccessfull attempts. The newsgroup is, in my humble opinion, loosely moderated. Flames are doused quickly, personal attacks aren't allowed, but differing opinions are argued freely. Joe doesn't get into any of the arguements, and really for the most part doesn't say much in the whole of the conversation that takes place. While at first I thought this person had an interesting perspective, although somewhat negative, after reading all of what was posted I have to agree...he's a troll. If you (as a group) would like to see the whole discussion, (and obviously can't), let me know, and I'll reprint it all as posted in the moderated newsgroup]
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<font face="georgia">Just to bring folks up to date on stuff. Please forgive the crass commerciality of just dumping this information out in a blipvert like this, but people have been asking about the status of various projects for a while, so I figured I'd just do a brain dump of it all at once.
1) Midnight Nation
After various delays on the publishing side, the graphic novel/trade paperback version of Midnight Nation will be out in bookstores this coming Wednesday (January 15th). This is something I'm immensely proud of, and from my point of view represents some of my best work to date.
It's also available via Amazon at:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1582402728/qid=1042432838/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-3188390-0907960?v=glance&s=books&n=507846"]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1582402728/qid=1042432838/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-3188390-0907960?v=glance&s=books&n=507846[/ame]
2) Novels
I'm pleased to note that I've just signed a deal with iBooks/Simon and Schuster to republish all of my prior works of fiction, making them available both online and in major bookstores. This includes my novels Demon Night, OtherSyde, and Tribulations, in addition to a collection of my short stories tentatively entitled Straczynski Unplugged (which should make it just about impossible for readers to find it by spelling the title), which would include a number of my Twilight Zone stories, combined with stories published elsewhere but never previously gathered into a single collection (such as "Say Hello, Mister Quigley," originally published in Pulphouse, and "Your Move," originally published in Amazing Stories), and a number of brand new, previously unpublished short stories. I think they're targeting Spring/Summer for the books to come out.
3) Comics: Supreme Power
On new comics projects, I've just turned in issue 3 of Supreme Power, so I'm about 3 weeks ahead of schedule on the writing. The first issue, drawn by Gary Frank of Midnight Nation, is due to hit stores around March 16th. This is a very serious story, one of the most mature things I've written, oddly enough, given the medium. My scripts have turned into these huge, 50 page (for a 22 page book) Alan Moore-ish tomes that are designed to be visually dense. It's a rethinking of a number of superhero conventions that, so far, has turned out very well, I think. For various reasons we've kept a fairly low profile on this, until we could get a number of issues ready to go, and to avoid word getting out prematurely on what we have in mind, 'cause over the long haul it will prove to be kind of controversial. Once it hits stores, I suspect it'll move out pretty fast unless folks have dibs on copies.
4) Comics: Doctor Strange
Finally, I've turned an expanded, 35 page outline for a Doctor Strange limited series in to Marvel, and will be writing the script for that one as soon as I can get my head above water (easier on the keyboard that way). I wanted to bring the Doc into the 21st century and revisualize certain aspects of his character and his history. It's not intended to be as deep or as potentially controversial as Supreme Power, this one's for fun because I'm a longtime fan of Doc Strange, and want to do something nifty with the character.
I've also agreed to do a three-issue Spider-Man/Fantastic Four crossover, which should also be fun. (Which is the only reason to do anything, to be honest.) I think we've slotted that one to begin around issue 55 or so of Amazing Spider-Man.
Anyway, I think that's about it on the pubishing side...apologies again for the commercialness of this.
jms
<hr width="50%">
<font color="red">No apology necessary. Despite occasional evidence to the contrary, this IS a group of fans of your work. If anything, many of us would be upset if you DIDN'T tell us what was coming out!</font>
Thanks...actually, as it is, I forgot to mentoin that the next Spidey comes out next week (the 22nd).
jms
<hr width="50%">
<font color="red">Does the above mean that you'll be remaining on Amazing, instead of a new Spidey book?</font>
Yep.
jms
<hr width="50%">
<font color="red">Does this collection of short stories include anything in the B5 universe?</font>
No, that stuff was licensed via WB.
jms
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and don't send me story ideas)</font><font size="-4">
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 14, 2003 06:18 PM: Message edited by: Wizz ]</font>
