July 23, 2004

Pitching Packages

by Greg

It occurred to me the other day that I'd really like to see Christopher Priest do a Batman/Ra's Al Ghul story with J.H.Williams III.

Priest spent more time working with Denny O'Neil than anyone currently associated with the Bat office, and Priest's tendency toward complicated plots and multi-layered motivations suits Ra's very well. And Williams is coming off a Promethea run that really marks him as a world-class artist who knows how to execute an artistically complex story well. Promethea also shows that he can nail the kind of world-beat look that a Ra's story should have. 120-pg hardcover, 3Q05. Waddaya think, DiDio?

I think all of us like to imagine we're agents at CAA--in our heads, put together a director, a star, and a project and pitch it to the studio. In the comics industry, what package--writer, artist, project--would you pitch to a comics company?

Posted by Greg at July 23, 2004 10:15 AM | TrackBack

Comments
#1 ::: Ralf Haring ::: July 23, 2004 10:35 AM ::: link

Williams is the artist and co-creator of the new Ellis monthly series, DESOLATION JONES.

#2 ::: Chad ::: July 23, 2004 11:21 AM ::: link

Has DC officially killed off Ra's in favor of a female counterpart (his not-Talia daughter) under the same name? I recall Greg Rucka in the mini-series, "Death and the Maidens" (I believe it's called), went out of his way to establish this new Ra's al Ghul and brush the old under the rug, but, of course, in comics continuity nothing is certain.

#3 ::: Marc ::: July 25, 2004 11:00 PM ::: link

My ideal pitch? Grant Morrison, Phil Jiminez, Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD.

Other artists could do better Steranko riffs or more creative page designs (Williams and Gray, for example), but I'd like to see Jiminez illustrate a Morrison SHIELD script exactly because I think he'd encourage Morrison's inclinations to do something more original than mere Steranko riffs. (And at any rate, Jiminez did some nice Sterankoesque op-art effects in one issue of The Invisibles.)

#4 ::: Shane ::: July 26, 2004 2:09 PM ::: link

I made some pics a good while ago here and here.

Legion of Superheroes by Grant Morrison and Phil Jiminez
Challengers of the Unknown by Warren Ellis and Geoff Darrow
Blue Beetle/Booster Gold by Peter David and Kevin Maguire
Superman by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immomen
Nick Fury by Andy Diggle and Jim Lee
Dr.Strange by Alan Moore and P. Craig Russell
Flash by James Robinson and Oscar Jimenez

#5 ::: Tom Galloway ::: July 26, 2004 5:27 PM ::: link

Yep, Ra's is officially dead these days, with Nyssa and a very brainwashed and screwed up Talia running things. While I liked the idea of Ra's having a child as an adversary as well as The Detective, I'm not convinced that Nyssa is a more interesting character than Ra's yet. Although with Ra's in a prominent role in the upcoming Bat-flick, I suspect he'll be back soon.

Dream comic pairing? Grant Morrison and Kevin Maguire (because Curt Swan definitely isn't available and Murphy Anderson probably wouldn't be up to a regular book) on Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Just tell Morrison you want a worthy successor to the 1960s Jimmy Olsen book and let him loose on those wild and wacky concepts.

#6 ::: Jess Nevins ::: July 26, 2004 6:46 PM ::: link

Warren Ellis and Phil Jiminez on...hmm...oh, Millie the Model or Our Love Story or one of the 1950s/1960s romance comics. Because I want to see Ellis forced to write a romance comic without his usual cynicism, without any cutting-edge scientific concepts, without any guns, without his stand-in character. Just straight romance. I want to see him write a genuine love story, happy or sad, starring two people, written as realistically as he can. I want to see him forced to write something completely unlike anything he's written before. I think he'd do a great job and create a heartbreaking story.

But I could be on the crackpipe again.

#7 ::: Mike Chary ::: July 26, 2004 10:30 PM ::: link

R'as al Ghul is the one character who I think you could bring back and reasonably say it was all some scheme of his. Well, him and Mysterio.

My pitches:

Priest and Bright on Batman and Robin
Tom Peyer and Richard Case on The Atom

Alan Moore and Alan Davis on Superman
Grant Morrison and Keith Giffen on Sandman

#8 ::: Shane ::: July 27, 2004 10:52 AM ::: link

"Tom Peyer and Richard Case on The Atom"

Make it so.

#9 ::: Johnny Bacardi ::: July 27, 2004 4:42 PM ::: link

The Adventures of Los Lobos by Jaime Hernandez. Five cool guys, in a cool band, each with distinctive looks, involved in danger all around the world. COuld be better than Super Globetrotters or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, it could!

Actually, I think I'd just get a kick out of seeing Xaime's rendition of the band.