Part Five ~~ Writing Someone Else's Character (or, The Return of Insect Man!)
I've written both amateur and professional comics, and regardless of the comic's status, I always have that inner feeling of excitement as I wait to see what the artist "gives" me.
This has been the case ever since my very first amateur comic book story, an issue of the "Insect Man" fanzine title. Insect Man -- heavily "borrowed" from Lana Lang's "Insect Queen" in DC's "Superboy" stories -- was a character that That's Entertainment's Paul Howley had created in 1965, when he was a kid. Paul drew several issues -- several dozen, actually, spin-off titles included -- on what we then called "math paper."
(Do the modern schools use -- or even have -- "math paper?")
In the mid-1980s, once Paul was a (nominal) adult and his That's Entertainment was a thriving business, the title which had ended its run as "Insect Man's Weird Tales" was revived, and the under-sized, photocopied black-and-white comics were sold to the customers at That's Entertainment... and eventually, elsewhere.
Insect Man himself didn't return until a few issues later, when he was rudely yanked from "retirement" by Larry Young. After Young, a handful of writer/artists took a shot at the hero, but no one stayed with him for more than a couple of issues.
I wasn't working for Paul yet. I was still "just" a customer, but I was fascinated by the fact that Insect Man had a history that went back about twenty years (at that time, that is). I'd always wanted to write for comics, and although this was unpaid "fanzine" work, it seemed like it'd be fun. I was a writer -- even at that tender age, I had a handful of commercial writing jobs under my belt -- but not an artist, so I couldn't get my story past the script stage.
No problem! Paul said he'd do the art chores himself!
I did a tremendous amount of "research" before I wrote my first issue. Paul had a copy of every issue he'd ever done, and I read them all. I made extensive notes on Insect Man's supporting cast, his personal history, his enemies. I decided which stories "really" happened, and which ones were "apocryphal" (like the one where I.M. stopped a gigantic villain who was terrorizing a city by dropping an "atomic bomb" on the creature... right in the middle of said city!).
Insect Man had had a sidekick named Kid Secret. I decided to bring him back into the storyline. I established that the former sidekick was now an adult, so when I.M. brought Kid Secret out of his own retirement, the "kid" re-named himself "Mr. Secret." (I liked the sound of that. It reminded me of superheroes like Mr. Scarlet, and Mr. Terrific.)
Sometime soon after I'd handed the script to Paul, he informed me that his honest assessment of his own art was that it wasn't good enough, so he'd given it to another customer who'd expressed interest in drawing it.
That customer's name was Ken Carson.
When I got to see the completed artwork, I was very impressed. Ken's stuff was definitely of a professional caliber. I ended up doing several issues of "Insect Man" with Ken, and a few other artists, too, but Ken was always my favorite artist to work with in terms of what he contributed to the stories, and especially how he translated my ideas onto the paper.
At this point you may be wondering why I've interrupted my own narrative about the creation of my "Aero" character, to jump back six to eight years and write about Insect Man.
Well, I had to explain about Insect Man, so you'd get to learn about Ken Carson.
Plus, it never hurts to give Paul's store a plug.
Part Six ~~ The Package from White Plains
Back to 1994.
I should probably mention here that by this time, for various reasons, I'd all but given up on the idea of "Two Heroes Comics" and was focusing instead on selling the "Silver Age Aero" series as a solo act, so to speak.
After a handful of letters & postcards (remember them?), as well as a couple of actual telephone calls, Dick Ayers and I had made all the arrangements necessary for him to begin work on the last three pages of the seven-page Aero origin story, entitled "Pressed Between the Pages."
So I waited. It didn't take him long to get them drawn, and to send photocopies to me. After all, the man was and is a professional. Of course, it certainly seemed like it was a long time to me. I was like a kid waiting for Christmas.
When the three photocopied pages arrived, I was totally bowled over. They were even better than I'd expected them to be. Dick had given me everything I'd asked for in the script, of course, but he'd thrown in several little visual touches of his own.
Dick hadn't lettered the pages. We'd agreed on that beforehand. It would have cost me extra, and I felt sure that I could find someone willing to letter the pages.
And I did.
Ken Carson.
Ken agreed to do the lettering for free. (What a guy!) He didn't even do the work directly on the photocopied pages themselves, perhaps slightly intimidated by the thought of working right on Ayers' artwork... even though it wasn't Dick's original art. He wrote all the captions on a stiff sheet of paper, and gave me two or three copies of that sheet.
When Ken had finished the lettering and gave it to me, he remarked that all of the caption boxes Dick had drawn in the panels were exactly the size that Ken had needed for my text. Almost like Dick had done this sorta thing before, ya know?
Now all I had to do was draft up some sort of cover letter which would explain the series to prospective publishers, and start mailing our little presentation to those publishers. I decided, of course, to send "Aero" to those publishers who catered to creator-owned projects, like Dark Horse, Renegade, Eclipse, and others.
Dick suggested sending the submission package to Topps Comics, because he'd worked for one of their editors, Renée Witterstaetter. Topps Comics handled mostly licensed features, like "The X-Files," "Zorro," "Jurassic Park," etc., so I didn't think it would be worthwhile sending "Aero" to Ms. Witterstaetter...
But you don't argue with Dick Ayers. I wasn't about to, anyway.
As it turns out, she was the only editor who replied that her company was interested. However, Renée wanted to see all seven pages of art. I quickly wrote back that the first four pages of "Pressed Between the Pages" didn't exist, but I sent her the full script.
And now... finally... without further ado... what all of these publishers got to see!
Part Seven ~~ The Script and the Submission
What follows is the script for Aero's seven-page origin story, accompanied by the original cover letter describing the series itself, and three pages of never-before-seen artwork by Dick Ayers (lettered by Ken Carson)!
TWO HEROES COMICS #1
The Silver Age AERO
Story #1: “PRESSED BETWEEN THE PAGES”
Page One
Across the very top of the page, each creator’s name appears in its own, discreetly-sized block. For instance:
David M. Lynch
WRITER
This would be followed by the artist’s credit, and if additional people are used as inker, letterer, colorist, editor, (The latter two would depend on the eventual publisher.) etc., each person will receive his or her own “block” as well. There will be one final block in the line, reading, simply:
PRESENT:
Panel One
Panel shows a mostly-darkened bedroom. The only light is what filters in from outside, through closed Venetian blinds. A young man, Charlie, slumps dejectedly in a chair (medium shot), which faces the bedroom door on our left. He wears heavy boots. In his left hand he holds something, which could be a towel, or a washcloth, or gloves. (It’s a mask, actually.) What could be a coat, hanging on the back of his chair, is actually a cape. That’s for our information, to be used much, much later. The reader can barely tell what he or she is looking at, due to the poor lighting. Entering “through” the closed bedroom door is a word balloon, spoken by Charlie’s mother, on the other side.
Caption (Top): May, 1974.
Mother: Charlie?
Panel Two
Same as Panel One.
Mother: Charlie, are you awake?
Panel Three
Same. Mother has no “line.”
Panel Four
Same.
Mother: Aren’t you going to...? I mean, won’t Janice be waiting?
Panel Five
Same. Mother is silent.
Panel Six
Same.
Mother: Charlie...
Panel Seven
Same angle as before, but the “frame” has shifted slightly to the right. Charlie has risen from his chair. He walks to a bureau at the extreme right of the panel. Atop the bureau sits a portable record player. There are no separate speakers attached. The hard plastic unit looks something like a stylish, open suitcase, only not as wide.
Panel Eight
Medium close shot, side view, of record player’s turntable, with Charlie’s right hand in the foreground. Charlie’s actions are rather indistinct (due to the poor light), but he’s turning on the record player. Faint light from the window reveals that he is wearing a tight, seamed, suede glove, which touches and slightly overlaps the sleeve of his shirt. It’s not a normal shirt; it has no cuff.
Page Two, Panel One
Slightly different angle. Record player is almost directly facing us. Close shot of the record player’s built-in speaker, toward the bottom of the unit, in the center.
Music: “When I was young, I listened to the radio, waitin’ for my favorite song...”
Caption (Bottom)(small print): “Yesterday Once More,” © Almo Music Corp./Hammer & Nails Music/Sweet Harmony Music ASCAP
Panel Two
Caption (Top): I listened to the radio when I was a kid...
Charlie’s sitting in the chair again, in a medium shot as before, but now he’s facing us, as if we were standing in the bedroom doorway looking at him.
Caption (Bottom): And it used to be to hear my favorite songs...
Panel Three
Caption (Top): But now, it’s just to hear the news!
Close-up (still maddeningly indistinct, with no lights on!) of Charlie’s hands, neck, shoulders, and chest, as he attaches his cape to two snaps, sewn onto his shirt about six inches apart, at collarbone level.
Panel Four
“Splash” panel. Charlie, aged seven, is in his sister’s bedroom, standing in front of a nightstand. Every other piece of furniture (“every” meaning a bed and a bureau) is French Provincial. Charlie is staring at a similarly-designed (but much older and “boxier”) portable record player, which sits atop the nightstand. A short, fat piece of chalk is Scotch-taped to the tone arm, so records won’t skip. Charlie’s a short, skinny kid, with closely-cropped, sandy-colored hair, and he’s wearing a crew-neck shirt and shorts (not cutoffs). Beside him stands his sister, Marsha, six years older. She’s a bit chubby, with medium length dark hair. Marsha’s hair is pulled back in a ponytail, except for her bangs, which are curled. She stands about a foot taller than her brother. Both are laughing uproariously at the comedy record playing on the record player. A word balloon will be coming from the record player’s sole speaker.
Caption (Top): 1963.
“Free-Floating” Title (placed in most eye-pleasing location!):
PRESSED BETWEEN THE PAGES
...starring AERO!™
(The “AERO” logo should have a 1950s kind of “look” to it, like somebody’d made it out of “space-age plastic!”)
Word Balloon (from record player): And furthermore... Ask not what your parents can do for you, but what you can do for your parents!
Caption (Bottom): When your dad’s half Irish, I guess it’s inevitable that your whole family’s going to love everything about Jack Kennedy, even if it’s just a comedy record spoofing him.
Caption (Bottom, Below Other Bottom Caption) (small print): “Prez Conference,” © Beechwood Music Corporation BMI.
Page Three, Panel One
Charlie in his living room, back to the reader, standing in front of (and partially obscuring) a large TV set. The 3’ high black-and-white TV stands on short wooden legs. He ceremoniously holds up a glass of milk. The room’s light source is from the off-panel windows to the right of the scene.
Caption (Top): Every kid who watched “Big Brother” Bob Emery on Boston’s WBZ-TV, as I did, five days a week, would stand and toast the president... with his or her glass of milk.
Panel Two
Portrait of President Kennedy, shown on TV, complete with a seated Charlie’s reflection.
Caption (Top): My earliest memories of watching “Big Brother” included toasting President Eisenhower.
Caption (Bottom): Now JFK was the president. In fact, he had been for almost three years.
Panel Three
Charlie, medium shot, as seen from behind. He’s facing the living room wall to the right of the TV. He’s looking up at a (naturally) different portrait of JFK, which hangs about five feet from the floor. On either side of it is a window. Directly beneath the painting is a radiator that stands about two-and-a half feet high.
Caption (Top): We had our own painting of JFK. Whether it was because my Dad was Irish, or because my parents always voted Democrat, I may never know.
Caption (Bottom): All I know for certain is that JFK was a hero, to all the kids my age...
Panel Four
Charlie, in a schoolroom, sneaking a look at a comic book. In the background, thumb-tacked high on the classroom wall, are two-dimensional cardboard “busts” of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in silhouette.
Caption (Top): ...just like the astronauts, and like Washington and Lincoln...
Caption (Bottom): ...and like Superman and Batman...
Panel Five
Medium close shot of Charlie, at home, reading a Captain Aero comic from the 1940s.
Caption (Top): ...and Captain Aero.
Caption (Bottom): Yeah, that’s right, “Captain Aero!”
Panel Six
Medium shot of Charlie, as in Panel Five, in background. In the foreground sits Charlie’s Uncle Ted, watching Charlie indulgently.
Caption (Top): Y’see, Captain Aero was an aviator, in these cool old 1940s comic books my Uncle Ted had...
Caption (Bottom): Uncle Ted. Another hero. To me, anyway.
Page Four, Panel One
Charlie, walking down a road, slightly behind a boy and a girl, both in their mid-teens, both with dark hair. Charlie wears a plaid, button-down shirt (buttoned all the way to the neck), black sneakers, and light-colored slacks.
Caption (Top): Anyway... it was November 22, 1963. I was walking home from the bus stop, and my next door neighbors were talking to each other, ignoring me.
Caption (Bottom): (I was just a kid, y’know.)
Panel Two
Medium close shot of just Charlie, as in Panel One.
Caption (Top): I heard them say a few things about ... somebody... who’d done something, or had had something done to him, and what he had been doing before that, and where his wife had been...
Caption (Bottom): I really don’t remember any of their conversation distinctly, ‘cause I wasn’t involved in it.
Panel Three
Charlie, entering kitchen, on left. Charlie’s mother, seated at a round kitchen table on the right. She looks sad, he looks shocked.
Caption (Top): But when I walked in the kitchen door, and my Mom told me that JFK, “my” president, was dead...
Panel Four
Charlie, seated in front of the TV, back to the reader. He holds a pad of paper in his lap, and a crayon in his left hand, although it’s hard to tell exactly what he’s doing, from this angle. I don’t want any of the childish, “ghoulish pictures” Charlie mentions to actually be shown!
Caption (Top): ...I sat and watched the endless news broadcasts about the assassination, drawing my own ghoulish pictures of my president bleeding all over his limo....
Panel Five
Close-up of Charlie’s face. His eyes are wide, like he’s in shock. Tears begin to trickle from his eyes.
Caption (Top): I knew this was the worst thing that could have ever happened, EVER, in all of history...
Caption (Bottom): ...and nothing like it could be allowed to happen again!
Panel Six
Medium shot of Charlie, on the right, sitting in front of the TV, which is on our left. The paper and crayon have both been dropped to the floor. Charlie is yawning.
Caption (Top): I thought not of my real-life heroes, but of Superman, and Batman, and Capt. Aero...
Caption (Bottom): ...and knew that they could have saved my president!
Page Five, Panel One
(Charlie is dreaming.) Medium long shot of JFK’s limo. Against logic, it is the first car in the presidential procession. JFK and Mrs. Kennedy are smiling and waving, oblivious to the nondescript man standing in the street, directly in front of the limo, aiming a rifle at JFK. The man should look average and nondescript, but not like Lee Harvey Oswald! Charlie has no idea what the alleged killer looked like at this point, nor does he know that Oswald supposedly fired from the book depository. Charlie, raised on cartoons and comics, dreams a much more direct confrontation.
Caption (Top): I fell asleep wondering why, out of all the superheroes in the world, nobody’d saved JFK!
Panel Two
Medium shot of “Oswald” firing his rifle at the president. From out of nowhere, a young boy has flown into the path of the bullet, which bounces off the boy’s chest. The flying boy looks like Charlie, of course, wearing what is basically a perfectly-tailored Superman costume minus its chest insignia, with the addition of a domino mask a la Robin, although Charlie’s mask matches his “Superman” cape, boots, and trunks.
Caption (Top): Somebody could have! Somebody should have!
Caption (Bottom): I would have.
Panel Three
Medium close shot, Oswald’s point of view, as “Super Charlie” flies menacingly toward Oswald.
Panel Four
Medium shot of Charlie, wrenching the rifle from Oswald’s grip.
Panel Five
Medium shot. Charlie swings the rifle like a baseball bat.
Panel Six
Medium shot. The rifle wraps around a startled Oswald like a piece of rubber... (this is a seven-year-old’s dream, remember!)
Panel Seven
(Medium close shot.) ...imprisoning Oswald!
Page Six, Panel One
Medium shot of “Super Charlie” shaking hands with JFK, as Jackie looks on approvingly.
Caption (Top): The president and his wife were still thanking me for saving his life...
Caption (Bottom): ...when I woke up.
Panel Two
Medium shot of Charlie, on the floor, as in Page Four, Panel Six. He is obviously waking up.
Caption (Top): As I awoke, I again thought of Superman, and Batman...
Caption (Bottom): ...and Captain Aero. Like so many heroes before me, I knew what had to be done!
Panel Three
Charlie, back to us, running up a staircase. This staircase has no railing, but it has a wall on both sides.
Caption (Top): Superman had to travel from Krypton to Earth to become a superhero.
Caption (Bottom): I just had to run to my room!
Panel Four
Charlie stands next to his bed. On it are several comics, including a Captain Aero, which Charlie holds. The picture of Captain Aero shows him wearing a leather flight jacket, riding breeches, and a white scarf.
Caption (Top): The way I figured it, Captain Aero hadn’t been around for almost twenty years.
Caption (Bottom): (Besides, just like Superman and Batman, he was never really real, anyway!)
Panel Five
Charlie, rummaging through a bureau. He pulls out a pair of dark blue cut-off pants with one hand, and a short-sleeved, crew-necked pullover shirt with the other. The shirt is striped, with the stripes running sideways.
Caption (Top): So why couldn’t I be a new Captain Aero?
Panel Six
Charlie is kneeling in front of an open closet door, pulling out a pair of short, over-sized brown boots. In the back of the closet is a child’s ski set (two skis, two poles, all wooden).
Caption (Top): Well... maybe not a Captain. I’d only turned seven just six days earlier, so I was still pretty young yet.
Caption (Bottom): (Even younger than Robin!)
Panel Seven
Close-up of Charlie’s hands. From a top drawer in the bureau, Charlie pulls out a pair of tortoise-shell-rimmed sunglasses with his left hand, and a pair of bulky yard gloves with his right.
Caption (Top): The rising in rank could come later.
Panel Eight
Charlie holds up a square, black piece of fabric. Every so often, along its edges, the material is very slightly frayed. Charlie is pushing an open safety pin through one corner of the black fabric.
Caption (Top): For now, I could settle for being “just plain” Aero!
Page Seven, Panel One (inset in extreme upper left hand corner of page)
Medium close shot of Charlie’s bed. Atop the comic books shown earlier, Charlie has thrown virtually all the costume components he’s been accumulating (shirt, shorts, “cape,” boots, sunglasses, gloves, and one of the wooden ski poles).
Caption (Top): My earlier ambitions had included doctor and fireman...
Panel Two (inset in upper left hand corner of page)
Same as in Panel One, but all the clothes, plus the boots, cape, sunglasses, and ski pole, are gone (presumably now on Charlie).
Caption (Top): ...But this time I knew I’d found my life’s work!
Panel Three/Splash Panel
Charlie stands facing the reader, wearing his new “uniform,” looking somehow absurd and heroic at once!
Panel Four (inset, in lower right hand corner of page)
Extreme close-up of the “modern” Charlie/Aero’s gloved hands, as he looks at a small picture of Aero, 1963.
Caption (Top): May, 1974:
Caption (Bottom): Damned if I wasn’t right.
Panel Five (inset, in extreme lower right hand corner of page)
Aero, 1974, in a pose very similar to that of Panel Three’s eleven-years-earlier pose. He is now in full costume. His pants and shirt are dark-colored (red). His gloves are seamed suede, as is his mask, which resembles a ski mask. Both are a lighter red, as is his cape (which hangs to his knees) and the stylized “A” insignia on his chest. The mask has holes for his ears (a la Captain America), mouth, and eyes, although the eye openings are covered with hard, tinted plastic. Additionally, the mask appears to be open at the very top, showing Charlie’s hair, but it’s actually a black wig, sewn onto the mask itself! (Charlie’s hair is light brown). His boots are calf-high, black, heavy, “normal” boots. His uniform has no trunks, nor belt. His shirt attaches to his pants with several snaps, even as his cape attaches to the shirt with the two snaps mentioned in Page Two, Panel Three. Thankfully, he no longer carries a ski pole, either!
Caption (Bottom): Stupid kid.
Part Eight ~~ The Results?
Did you right-click on that thumbnail of page seven? If so, then you probably saw that bright red note from Renée Witterstaetter saying, "David -- I do like your story, but we aren't buying right now. Thanks, Renée." Umm, so, what, "right now" means "only as of, like, twelve minutes ago, since I told you a few days ago that I'd like to see more, which strongly implies that the reason I wanted to see more was to make a final decision as to whether or not we'd publish it?"
Okay, enough of that sour grapes crap. But really... !
So, the one publisher that had expressed any initial interest had turned us down. The next step was to assemble another small list of publishers and submit it to them.
Well, this was the time that a close friend died -- shortly after it, actually -- and there were even more bad things going on in my life at the time... stuff that you'll probably never hear about unless I "semi-fictionalize" it and write about it someday. (Note: Don't hold your breath.)
Simply put, my personal life was about to go all to hell. For several months, actually.
So... there was no second set of submissions. Ever.
Pardon the honesty here, but my creative projects didn't mean diddly squat during that period, moody Irish motherf**ker that I am.
And so I guess you could say that Aero died stillborn. Or something.
Sorry to end on such a depressing note, but you all know that my stories don't usually deliver any kind of an uplifting feeling any-freaking-way... so if you want sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, stick to Lesley Gore.
Next week: You get to learn about a related series of stories called the "Dover Street" stories... and read the first one. Oh, and if you're a fan of Leonard Cohen? You may get a kick out of the little tale I've entitled "Angelina."
No, silly, not that Angelina.
Thanks for your time, and your indulgence.
