How To Succeed in the Business of Writing if You DON’T live in the Kansas City Area

Okay, maybe my last post was a bit unfair. For writers who do not live in the KC area or otherwise could not come to The Business of Writing - Success, here are a few nuggets of wisdom the 80 or so attendees got to hear from a few of the dozen experts:

• YouTube as a social marketing platform and search engine.  Are you aware that YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google? Neither was I. Younger generations, I was also surprised to learn, visit YouTube before Google. (This is valuable information for those of us who write for children and young adults.) Creating vlogs (video logs) is a great way to engage your audience. “People want friends and engagement,” said Leah Stella Stephens, a self-described YouTube junkie who posts videos as Stellabelle. “If you’re boring and dull, that’s fine. There’s a place for you on YouTube,” says Stephens, who is anything but boring and dull. (How can anyone who wears a green, feathered wig be either?) "Be yourself. No one is exactly like you. Take risks."

• Develop your brand and be consistent.  There’s a reason why Coca-Cola cans are red and white and why those colors resurface in every commercial Coke makes (including white polar bears), says Kelly Dobyns Ziegler, principal of ZiggyFranz Advertising. Your brand, which can include colors, symbols (Nike’s swoosh), or special fonts (Stephen King’s), identifies who you are to your customers. Your brand should have “one voice,” Ziegler said, and should be present on your author website, email signature, business cards, and so forth.

• What makes someone say, “I’ll have what she’s having”?  This question was posed by Cyndi Swall, who describes herself as an executive coach and bliss mentor. Her answer was authenticity. “There can’t be a disconnect between the work you have created and how you show up in the world,” she said. “Perception is reality. Who are you, and what do you want me to feel about your work?” According to Swall, the story you are telling is your own and what’s possible for you.

• Why aren’t booksellers just thrilled when you bring in your newly published book for them to sell?  Pat Worth, co-owner of River Reader in Lexington, MO, gave several possible answers. Are you coming in at a bad time and expecting the owner to drop everything to work with you? Did you do your research to find out if this bookstore caters to your audience? Are you selling your book at competing venues down the street? Any of these actions can turn off a prospective bookseller, said Worth. On the other hand, coming in prepared can make booksellers want to carry your book and help you promote it. “You must have a website,” she said. “What materials do you have to help us sell your books—posters, shelf talkers?  Would you be available for NPR interviews?”

• Worried about copyright issues?  Donald R. Simon, J.D./LL.M, president of Simon Business Consulting, Inc., gave practical advice for protecting yourself and others. When submitting to a publisher, said Simon, “make sure you don’t send out stuff unsolicited. Only send it to people who have requested it." Simon stressed that writers should establish relationships with publishers or agents before sending their work. He also discussed work-for-hire contracts and clarifying who’s going to own the property if you’re working with collaborators. “Get it in writing,” he said.

Developing relationships was one of the recurring themes of the day.  Authors need to build positive relationships with their audience, of course, but also with booksellers, publishers, literary agents, and each other. The Business of Writing - Success was all about developing relationships and being authentic.

So if you missed out, don’t fret. Seek out opportunities to learn from professionals in your area, and don’t be afraid of change. Cyndi Swall, the executive coach, could easily have been talking about writing when she said, “Coaching is always about forward motion.” She encouraged each writer to ask, “Is what I’m thinking and doing in support of my new story, or is it keeping me stuck in my old story?”

How are you moving forward?

How to Kill a Super-Hero: The Death of Invisible Kid

All characters and images™ and  © 
DC Comics Inc.

It’s a cliché these days: Super-hero X died, but he got better.

At least since "The Death of Superman," comic book deaths have been a valuable marketing tool—a way to lure mainstream media into paying attention to comics by suggesting that some iconic hero of our collective childhood is going to bite the dust permanently.

But for comics fans, death has become a joke. We know that sooner or later the popularity and cash cow value of characters such as Superman and Captain America, who was also killed off in a major media blitz a few years ago, will dictate their eventual resurrection.

Even for minor characters, death is usually a sales ploy—a reminder that characters are commodities to be bought and sold however the publisher sees fit.

And yet, if handled correctly, the death of a super-hero can be meaningful and moving, and can resonate with fans years, even decades, later.

One of the most memorable deaths for me was that of Invisible Kid, a long-time member of Superboy’s friends from the future, the Legion of Super-Heroes, in Superboy # 203 (July-August 1974).

"Massacre by Remote Control" was written by Cary Bates and drawn by Mike Grell, marking the latter’s ascension as regular Legion artist. (Grell had debuted the previous issue, inking a story pencilled by his predecessor, Dave Cockrum).

As a writer, Bates is seldom remembered fondly by Legion fans, and with good reason. He played fast and loose with established Legion continuity and expressed his dislike for writing super-team books by featuring only a handful of Legionnaires in each story. (In Superboy # 200, for example, he sends only four Legionnaires after the villain, even though the entire team plus wedding guests—a total of about 50 super-heroes—are present.) 

Nevertheless, Bates was a master plotter who weaved twists and turns in such a way that they seemed inevitable (as the developments in every a story should be). More, he could write a complete, satisfying story in a single issue—a skill all but forgotten in the modern era of story decompression.

Bates also deserves to be remembered for reinvigorating the Legion in the early ‘70s. Partnering with Cockrum, he updated the team with more dynamic stories and new characters such as Wildfire (a hero) and Tyr (a villain). But Bates also cleaned house by dumping characters whose powers were considered too lame for the ‘70s, including Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel (who married) and Invisible Kid.

But if Invisible Kid had to die, at least he died in style.

Massacre by Validus

The story begins as Invisible Kid (a.k.a. Lyle Norg) shirks his duty during a Legion training exercise by visiting a dimension he can enter while invisible. He has fallen hopelessly in love with Myla, a resident of the other dimension, and plans to marry her.  

But Myla has something to tell Lyle which proves so shocking it causes him to collapse and block her words from his memory.

Meanwhile, the Legion learns of an impending threat. One of their deadliest enemies, the mindless monster Validus, is barreling toward earth to attack them. The Legion can’t figure out how, since Validus can only be controlled by his master, Tharok—a half-man/half-robot—who is currently undergoing emergency surgery on his robot half in prison.

Validus lays waste to several Legionnaires, including Superboy, before Invisible Kid realizes what's going on: the monster is being controlled by a component of Tharok’s robot brain which the Legion kept as a souvenir. (Yes, super-heroes used to do that sort of thing. Batman had a huge trophy room in the Batcave, and Superman kept souvenirs in his Fortress of Solitude.)

Invisible Kid -- licked, but seeing
it through.

But just as Invisible Kid is about to destroy the robot brain, Validus bursts into the Legion Museum and grabs the hero. As Lyle crushes the brain with his bare hand, Validus, in turn, crushes the life out of him.

Grieving, the Legionnaires receive an unexpected visitor: Myla. The girl from the other dimension reveals she could not marry Lyle before because she's a ghost. But now that Lyle is dead, they can be together in her dimension forever.

So the story ends on a paradoxically positive note. The Legion loses a member, but they are assured he will, at last, be happy.

What Works: A Hero We Care For

Upon rereading this story, I was struck by how little fanfare was made of Invisible Kid’s passing. Nothing on the cover or splash page indicates a character is going to die. (Comics publishers are notorious for announcing deaths well in advance and dropping cover hints as subtle as bricks, as in the case of Ferro Lad, a previous Legionnaire who died.)  

As a result, Invisible Kid’s death is truly shocking and heart-wrenching.

Yet the story develops from a very traditional set-up and execution. Like most comics of that time, it is new-reader friendly. One can understand this story with very little prior knowledge of the Legion.

Bates also sets Invisible Kid up as a traditional protagonist—he’s the one we care for.  Lyle is in love and something (we don’t know what) prevents him from being with his love. Nevertheless, he wins our hearts by being determined to bring Myla back to our dimension as his wife.

Displaying his skill at weaving subplots, Bates develops not one but two mysteries. First there's the mystery of what Myla said that shocked Invisible Kid. (No jokes, please, about phantom pregnancies!) Then there’s the mystery of who or what is controlling Validus.  

The second mystery is particularly well played: The robot brain is visible in several panels, first disassembled and then in stages of self-repair—images that mean nothing to the reader until Lyle puts it all together for us (which makes it fun to flip back to previous pages and see that he was right). 

Then there’s the death scene itself. Alone and facing a gigantic enemy, Lyle stands his ground and does what he must, even though it costs him his life—the very definition of a hero.

(Side note: I’m currently reading Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, in which Atticus Finch tells his daughter, eight-year-old Scout, the definition of courage: “It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” In his own way, Bates made an equally profound statement by showing Invisible Kid's courage in action.)

What Doesn’t Work?

Very little, actually. “Massacre by Remote Control” is a product of DC Comics of its time, which means it offers little character development. Most Legionnaires serve the needs of the plot and do not come off as distinct personalities. (This is true even of Invisible Kid, who, to a degree, comes off as deep as a typical TV guest-star of the time.)

Is Superboy crying, too, or is he
just constipated?

The most obvious example is Phantom Girl, who, filling a typical role for a female character of that time, has little to do except give Lyle someone to talk to and cry for him at the end (because, you know, it would be umanly for Superboy and Mon-El to cry).  She doesn’t even get to use her powers, although she could easily evade Mon-El during the training exercise.

Some fans criticize the “happily ever after” ending as a sentiment that went out of style with the ‘60s. But I disagree.

If anything, the ending offers a bold, hopeful statement about the possibility of an afterlife. Bates never says Lyle went to heaven, but he leaves room for readers to interpret the ending through our own beliefs.

A Death to Remember

Killing off a beloved character always causes controversy, but these days such storms are often short-lived and hyped by a media that doesn’t know or care that comic book deaths are temporary.

(And even Lyle’s death proved somewhat temporary. A brief and ill-thought-out attempt to bring the character back floundered in the early ‘80s, and, of course, different versions of Invisible Kid have lived on in successive Legion “reboots”.)

But the death of Invisible Kid proved controversial for altogether different and more sustaining reasons. He died at a time when comic book deaths were rare enough to be permanent and in a way that left fans with mixed feelings. Yes, it was sad to lose him, but it would have been even sadder to bring him back and wrench him away from eternal happiness.

If you like this post, you may also like:

• One Writer’s Inspiration: Artist Dave Cockrum (1943-2006)

• Finding New Inspiration in Old Stories: Daredevil # 120-123

• Silliest Story Ever? What Writers Can Learn from Adventure Comics # 267

Playing the Game: How The Hunger Games Combines Adventure and Social Commentary

The Hunger Games (film)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jumping through hoops. Scratching someone else’s back. Tit for tat. Playing the game.

These are all terms young people face at some point in their lives if they want to succeed in the so-called adult world.  It’s not what you know—it’s who you know. It doesn’t matter how wonderful, talented, unique, and bright you are—you have to get people to like you.

And there is a lot of truth to these sayings. The world is run by imperfect human beings, many of whom got where they are by playing similar games. Yet most of us hope we can succeed on some level by being who we are, not by being forced to become something we’re not.

Enter The Hunger Games with its horrifying version of “playing the game” and what young people must do not only to succeed but to survive: kill each other.

In case you’ve been hiding in a cave for the last few weeks, The Hunger Games is the latest film franchise (based on a trilogy of novels by Suzanne Collins, who also co-wrote the screenplay) to be touted as the heir apparent of Harry Potter. (Succeeding a popular film franchise is, itself, a game, which makes The Hunger Games almost a parody of itself.) Like HP, HG is set in fantastic world in which young people must fight against overwhelming odds to survive and make a positive difference in the world.

But the differences between Harry Potter and The Hunger Games are more striking than the similarities. HG features a female protagonist (Katniss Everdeen). Instead of using a magic wand, she uses a bow and arrows. Instead of being helped along her journey by supportive friends such as Hermione and Ron, Katniss faces 23 youthful competitors whom she must kill or who will kill her. Instead of being guided by caring, powerful adults such as Dumbledore, she’s on her own, her every move observed by voyeuristic, decadent adults who get their jollies by watching kids kill kids.

Harry Potter, meet reality TV.

Of course, there’s much more to The Hunger Games than superficial comparisons to another successful film franchise. Indeed, the dark premise of The Hunger Games seeks to offer social commentary couched in the trappings of a Young Adult adventure story. It succeeds more often than not, and, for writers, it gives us a vivid demonstration of how to play our own game.

Just Another Adventure Story?

The Hunger Games is set in a future America called Panem, ruled by an effete, spoiled and insanely rich upper class. The Have Nots of this world live in 12 impoverished districts. Each district must satisfy the rich overlords’ annual lust for entertainment by offering up a male and female “tribute” between the ages fo 12 and 18 to participate in the Hunger Games, a violent Romanesque blood sport.   

Sixteen-year-old Katniss (played by Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to take the place of her younger sister, Primrose. Fortunately for Katniss, she has spent her young life sneaking into the forest outside her district and learning to hunt. She can use a bow and arrow (quite expertly, in fact, as she demonstrates to a group of would-be sponsors by shooting an apple out of the gamemaster’s hand). She can climb trees and track animals. These skills put the odds of surviving decidedly in her favor.

And it’s a good thing, too. Katniss finds herself facing not only 23 kids who must kill her but also a forest fire, mosquitoes whose bites cause hallucinations, and ravenous beasts conjured at the gamemaster’s whim. In short, The Hunger Games combines breakneck action and imaginative scenarios which are bound to lure viewers into theaters (and readers into books). 

(Bowing to the sensibilities of its audience (and perhaps to secure a PG-13 rating), the film glides over the violence aimed at children.  Most deaths are shown in quick cuts without blood and gore. Still, it is perfectly clear what is happening, which makes the deaths all the more disturbing.)

Mirror, Mirror . . . on the TV Screen

One of the films previewed before the start of The Hunger Games was Snow White and the Huntsman, a lavish retelling of the familiar Disney classic. Snow White uses a literal mirror as a character who tells the evil queen she’s “the fairest in the land” but forces her to face an unpleasant truth: her beauty will one day be surpassed by that of Snow White.

The mirror used in The Hunger Games is metaphorical but no less “in your face”. Every time the film shows the Capitol and it’s heavily mascaraed citizens clamoring for tributes, I couldn’t help thinking of our present-day immersion in celebrities and the growing divide between the super-rich and rest of us (the 1 percent/99 percent mantra). Corporations and oil companies rule the day, and presidential races appear to be nothing more than contests for rich people who don’t know (or care) what’s it’s like to work hard and still fall behind.

Whether The Hunger Games says anything meaningful about the current state of affairs is debatable. What it does is escalate these twin phenomena of celebrity immersion and income disparity to ridiculous extremes. But are they so ridiculous? In the age of Charlie Sheen, it’s hard to say yes. While people have sat glued to their screens, awaiting the latest mishaps of celebrities du jour, young people have spent the last ten years dying in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sure, we have “reasons” to justify slaughter, but so do the residents of Panem.

It’s to The Hunger Games’ credit that it doesn’t offer easy solutions (or any solutions, really—this is only the first film in the series). An uprising—evoking the Occupy movements—is shown briefly, but, in the end, Katniss learns to play the game as much as she learns to bend the rules a little (or, rather, to persuade those in charge to bend the rules for her benefit). Likewise, she does not come away with a new mission in life (as one might expect for the hero of an adventure story), but rather with a sense of “What do we do now?”

So it is in life.

This question does not have to be answered in a two-hour movie (nor even in a novel). Having the courage to ask the question is what elevates The Hunger Games and makes us—even writers—more fullly aware of the games we are all playing. 

A Blast From the Past: Top 10 Tips for Writers

Writer Wordart (Photo credit: MarkGregory007)

Time flies when you’re having fun (or not, sometimes). This post marks the first-year anniversary of this blog, and I can truly say it’s been fun (as well as occasionally brain-wrenching to come up with topics for posts every week). It’s been an amazing learning experience.

A deep thanks to everyone who’s dropped by. If you read the blog regularly or occasionally, or if you’ve just dropped in to see what this is all about, I appreciate it. A special thanks to those who have left comments, re-tweeted and re-Facebooked my posts, and referred this site to others. Your valuable input has helped keep this site going.

But this blog isn’t about me. It’s about you and this thing we share called writing.

Blogs of this type are meant primarily to promote the writer’s work, to create a buzz for forthcoming projects, and, sometimes, to sell the writer’s work. This blog aims to do all of these things (including now allowing you can purchase my comic book Gold Dust). But it also aims to do more: to explore this preoccupation we call writing, to share writing advice, and to analyze good and bad writing—particularly as it pertain to the often maligned but nevertheless popular genre of super-heroes.

I hope to continue to explore these interests well into the future; in the meantime, let’s take a trip through some of The Semi-Great Gildersleeve's Greatest Hits. In no particular order, here are my Top Ten Writing Tips: 

1. Write a Sloppy First Draft. This comes straight from Anne Lamott, author of the influential Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Don’t be afraid to let your first efforts suck — they should suck. Get your story down on paper, and then make it better through revision.

2. Face Your Writing Fears. My very first post was about this subject. Fears related to writing can come in any disguise: Writing something stupid. Exposing your work to others. Submitting your work to an agent or publisher. Taking on the responsibility of self-publishing. 

Fears never truly go away. They simply move from one target to another. The minute you conquer one writing fear, another pops up to demand all your reserves of courage.  But hang in there. Keep your goal(s) in mind.

3. Trust the Writing Process. Another early post was about letting go of your need to control every aspect of the story. Let it go where it needs to go. Who knows? It may take you on a better journey than the one you planned.

4. Narrow Your Audience. A constant problem for novice writers is the desire to write for “everybody” or to put as little thought as possible into who’s actually going to read your book. But no book (not even Harry Potter) appeals to everyone. If by chance your novel reaches a wide audience, consider yourself blessed. Knowing your primary audience will help you focus your story and reach the readers who are most likely to appreciate your work.

5. Critique Groups are Priceless. Not all critique groups work out, of course. But if you find a small group of people who are willing to read your work and give you honest, constructive feedback, hold on to them. They are your bridge between what’s inside your head and your eventual audience. 

6. Difficult Readers are Inevitable. Some readers just don’t get your work, or they have agendas of their own which they want to foist upon your book. Accept it. Deal with it. Move on.

7. Write about Your Passion. Some of the most successful posts in terms of pageviews have been those related to comic books, such as this one and this one. Funny thing is, I don’t currently read comics. They’re too expensive, and I’m frustrated by the never-ending, decompressed storytelling and reboots that have been in vogue for the last several years. But that hasn’t stopped me from writing about old comics and, to my surprise, discovering that others like to read these posts.

I also explore the world of super-heroes through novels, including writing one of my own.

8. Don’t Strive to be Too Original. Nobody wants to publish or read something that’s “unlike anything that’s ever been published,” even though, as writers, we yearn to write such a thing. Familiarity has a vital place in fiction.

9. Don’t Let Writer’s Block Stop Your Story. Two separate articles—here and here—give tips on how to ovecome writer’s block.

10. Don’t Wait for Inspiration.  Inspiration is fickle. Your real story comes from deep within you, not from the sprinkling of some magical idea that happens to land upon your head.

Thanks again, one and all, for helping to make this blog a success!  The best is yet to come.

Why Spell Check is Not Your Friend

Image via Wikipedia

The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.– Mark Twain

Ah, computers!  What wonderful tools for writers.  You type in your words and, if you make a mistake, your spell check corrects it for you.

But not so fast.  Spell checks are great for speed and efficiency, but they can also make us lazy.  Worse, they make writers ignorant of the skills we need to become better writers.  If you rely too much on a spell check, you can use the "almost right word" and not even know it.

Take these examples from recent student papers in my college composition course:               

If you are one of the few people who has savior acne problems . . .

Everyone may need some correction to becoming better at his or her weak arrears. 

Another stereotype that needs addressing is alcohol. Yes. There are tones of it. 

He believes rabbis will be the cause of the walking dead.

To be fair, the last one came from an in-class, handwritten exercise, not a computer-processed, spell-checked essay.  Even so, it reminds us why we should know the difference between the right word and the "almost right word."

I’m pretty sure the student meant “rabies” instead of rabbis.  As for the others, a close reading of the text makes it clear what word each student meant to use (severe for savior, areas for arrears, and tons for tones).

   

What went wrong?   Each student probably typed in what seemed to be the right word, and, when no red squiggly lines popped up to underline the error, he or she moved on.  (The words, after all, are spelled correctly.)   Or perhaps the computer tried to assist the student by offering suggestions after the first few letters were typed – suggestions that happened to be wrong.

Okay, so students make mistakes.  Big deal, right?  Why not just laugh about it and move on?

Because laziness and ignorance do not end at a few poor word choices.  They can cause major problems for writers who get into the habit of being lazy.  In The Writer’s Way, authors Jack Rawlins and Stephen Metzger describe a student paper that was supposed to be about jazz legend Duke Ellington.  As one of the authors puts it, 

[the student] simply did a global ‘search and fix’ before he submitted the paper to me.  Because his computer didn’t recognize ‘Ellington,’ he ended up with a paper about ‘Duke Wellington.’  I handed it back without reading past the first paragraph.

Now, imagine you’re not a student writing a paper for a composition instructor.  Imagine you’re a writer who wants to sell your story to an agent or publisher.  How would you feel if the manuscript you’ve worked hard and long on comes back to you with a rejection note (if you’re lucky) to watch out for similar errors?  What are the odds of that agent or publisher taking seriously anything you send them in the future?

Spell checks do have advantages.  They can help us with blind spots (for example, I often have to stop and remind myself whether "referred" has one or two "r's" at the end) and teach us how to spell unfamiliar words.

But relying too much on spell checks can bring disaster.  Their is know substitute four having god spilling skills yore shelf.

Work Cited:

Rawlins, Jack, and Stephen Metzger.  The Writer’s Way.  7^th ed.  Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2009.  Page 194.

Finding New Inspiration in Old Stories: Daredevil # 120-123

All images and characters ™  and © Marvel.
All rights reserved.

Every once in awhile, I like to revisit stories which inspired me to become a writer.  Do those stories still hold up?  What fresh insights can I glean from the choices those writers made?

This week’s offering: Daredevil # 120-123, April-July 1975, written by Tony Isabella and drawn by Bob Brown (who are both credited as “storytellers”) with inks by Vince Colletta.

I was never a huge fan of Daredevil.  Basically, he’s a costumed acrobat with the gimmick of being blind and having to rely on a “radar sense” to get around.  He also swings from rooftop to rooftop on a cable connected to a billy club, which makes him part Spider-Man and part Batman.

Nevertheless, my first exposure to Daredevil turned me into an unlikely follower of the series.  These four issues showed how good writing can win over fans with an exciting story, a multi-layered plot, interesting villains, and a sense of heroes belonging to a larger community.

“. . . and a HYDRA New Year!”

The premise of this arc, as indicated by the title of # 120, is as follows: Matt Murdock (Daredevil) and his lady love, Natasha Romanoff (the Black Widow) attend a New Year's Eve party which is interrupted by the forces of HYDRA, a green-clad army bent on taking over the world.  HYDRA wants to kidnap Matt’s best friend, New York District Attorney Franklin “Foggy” Nelson.

DD and the Widow intervene (reluctantly on her part, since Foggy previously gave her good reason to hate him – something to do with a trumped-up murder charge), and then Nick Fury and his agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a paramilitary spy organization and long-time enemies of HYDRA, show up to reveal why the bad guys wanted to kidnap Foggy: to prevent Fury from offering the portly D.A. a job on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s advisory board.

Of course, I didn’t fully understand or care what all this was about at the time.  What drew me into buying these issues was something far simpler: the villains.

Villains, Villains, and More Villains

Every hero needs good villains, and heroes with colorful rogues galleries – such as Spider-Man, Batman, and the Flash – benefit from recurring enemies who become almost as popular as the heroes themselves.

HYDRA at this point employed several super-villains as “division chiefs” – El Jaguar, Dreadnought (or Dreadnaught – it’s spelled both ways), Blackwing, Mankiller, Jackhammer, and others – a cornucopia of villains in one story line!  How could I resist?

Unfortunately, these villains never became a Daredevil rogues gallery – few returned to fight DD again – but the promise was there.  How can you not like Sal Buscema's cover for # 123, which shows the villains ganging up on our heroes?  We’ve just got to find out what happens.

But, after luring me into buying Daredevil with enticing villains, Isabella and Brown went further.  They made me care about DD and his circle of friends and associates.

Love on the Rocks

The Black Widow, then series co-star (her picture appears on the title banner, along with DD), provides much of the depth and drama of this arc.  I was too young to pick up on the nuances of their relationship, but it was clear things were not working out.  DD was constantly saying the wrong things – he had trouble accepting Natasha as a full and equal partner in their super-hero adventures. 

For her part, Natasha was used to being a strong and independent woman at a time when women’s lib was still a relatively new concept.  She was Mary Tyler Moore in blue spandex.  She felt she was losing part of herself by becoming DD's “sidekick”.

Yet Isabella affords us scenes in which the two lovers flirt, play around, and simply talk about their relationship.  We get a sense that they do love each other.  When DD realizes he cannot change to accommodate her, it’s heartbreaking.

Matt and Natasha struggling to work things out -- from # 121.

Not So Foggy After All

If any character qualifies as Daredevil’s sidekick, it’s Foggy Nelson.  He doesn’t know his best friend’s a super-hero, and he’s lovable, silly, and overweight – all the stereotypes of a sidekick.

Yet it’s Foggy who truly shines as a hero in this story.  He tries to make amends for the earlier animosity between himself and the Widow, and, when her life is threatened, he surrenders to HYDRA to prevent her from being killed.  Later, it’s Foggy who snatches a machine gun out of a HYDRA thug’s hands and uses it to blast away the chains binding DD and the Widow.  (Good thing Foggy’s a crack shot, but never mind . . .)

Foggy to the rescue -- also from # 121.

And Foggy has the good sense to turn Fury’s offer down.  After surveying the damage done by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s battle with HYDRA to Shea Stadium, Foggy decides that overseeing a super-spy organization isn't for him.

Nick, Ivan, and Spidey

This arc also makes good use of supporting characters who connect Daredevil to the larger community in the Marvel Universe.  Nick Fury and his own sidekicks (Dum Dum Dugan and the Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine) play significant roles, as does the Black Widow’s chauffeur and bodyguard, Ivan.  These characters bounce off each other, providing humor and interpersonal drama, as well as helping to advance the plot.

Though he does not appear, Spider-Man is referenced a couple of times.  When Daredevil senses El Jaguar climbing up a building, he at first thinks the newcomer is Spidey.  And HYDRA's mysterious new leader turns out to be an old Spidey villain, Silvermane.

In later eras, too many crossovers and references to past stories in other series could overwhelm comics stories, making them difficult for new readers to follow.  This story gets the balance just right.

And What of DD Himself?

If subsequent issues of Daredevil proved underwhelming, it’s because Isabella and Brown did such an outstanding job here.  This arc provides the turning point in DD and the Widow’s relationship – she would leave him and the series just one issue later, in # 124.  Daredevil on his own – as a self-pitying, self-accusing hero – was never as interesting as when he played off her.

But make no mistake: Daredevil stands out as the main character here.  We care about him, both as he places himself in danger to stop HYDRA and as he tries to work out things with Natasha.  The story turns on his decisions, and his choices ultimately bring about the resolution.

And though the story ends the way most super-hero stories do – the heroes win and most of the villains are captured – it leaves us with a sense that something more has happened.  Momentous decisions have been made, and the lives of our protagonists – Matt and Natasha – will never be the same.

What about you?  What stories do you now look at in a new light?

Are You Throwing the Reader Out of Your Story? Avoid Unnecessary Homages

Image via Wikipedia

So, I’m wrapped up in the latest superhero novel. The storyline is exciting, the characters are engaging, the action propels me along. It’s a real page turner. Then my enjoyment comes to a screeching halt when the action shifts to a fictional country called “Lieberstan”.

Lieberstan? Sounds familiar.

Wait – wasn't Stanley Martin Lieber the real name of Marvel Comics head honcho Stan Lee? Stan Lieber . . . Lieberstan.

Ah, I get it.

Unfortunately, I “get it” every time the country is mentioned – which, since a major turning point in the story occurs there, is quite often. I can’t help thinking of the wisecracking huckster persona of Mr. Lee, who has been so successful in promoting himself as well as the Marvel heroes he helped create that he’s practically a self parody.

As a result, every mention of “Lieberstan” throws me out of the story.

Homages – references to stories or creators which influenced the writer – can be fun. They provide an indirect way for the writer to acknowledge such influences. They also provide fans with the fun of searching for “Easter eggs” and with a feeling of being “in the know”. If you get the reference, you can call yourself a true fan.

But the wrong kind of homage creates an unnecessary association or image in the reader’s mind. Such an image can throw the reader out of the story like a horse which has suddenly decided to buck its rider.

Comic book artists, for example, often draw covers that evoke famous covers of the past, such as that of Fantastic Four # 1. But such covers are meant to make the reader think of the source, either as a parody or because the artist wants to capture some essence or feeling associated with Fantastic Four # 1. Any artist who draws a picture of heroes gathering around to fight a giant monster emerging from the ground and doesn’t expect readers to think of FF # 1 is fooling himself.

Sometimes an homage can mean the writer is merely trying to be clever. I fell prey to this vice myself: In grad school, I wrote a film script that included an investigative reporter named Jack Gittes. My professor immediately caught the reference to Jake Gittes, Jack Nicholson’s character in Chinatown, and chided me for it. Why on earth, the professor asked, did I want viewers to think of Chinatown in a film about a rock ‘n’ roll band?

Sometimes the writer draws so closely from source material that an homage can be unintentional. I fell prey to this vice, too. In previous drafts of The Power Club™, my club of super-powered kids elected a new leader every month. Why? Because one of my sources of inspiration, the Legion of Super-Heroes, elected a new leader every year.

A member of my writing group pointed out, however, that electing a new leader every month seemed artificial. I agreed, so I changed it.

What purpose is served by calling a fictional country “Lieberstan”? None, as far as I can tell. The writer may have intended for the reader to think of Marvel's epic super-battles. But this association destroys the uniqueness and seriousness of the writer’s own world.  As a reader, I don’t need to associate his world with Marvel to enjoy it. In fact, the name undermines suspension of disbelief by drawing attention to the fact that this is a made-up country in a made-up story. 

Homages can be fun, but, if you use one, make sure you have a good reason for wanting the reader to associate your story with its source of inspiration.

What do you think?  Do you have unnecessary homages in your story?