A Doctor Who fan is embroiled in a row with the BBC after she published knitting patterns for the sci-fi drama’s monsters on the internet.
The patterns of Ood and Adipose were removed from her website after the BBC’s commercial arm complained that they breached its trademark.
But the woman said the corporation was “making an example of her”.
BBC Worldwide said it acted because finished figures were being sold by others on auction website eBay.
It also denied threatening legal action and said it had offered to consider marketing the designs itself.
The 26-year-old, who does not want to be identified other than as her online moniker of Mazzmatazz, said: “All I want is the BBC to be fair.”
“I’m just an ordinary fan, who happens to like knitting and sci-fi, and everything has just gone a bit crazy,” she said on her website.
Her case is being publicised by the Open Rights Group, a lobbying organisation which specialises in digital rights issues.
Executive director Becky Hogge told BBC News: “She doesn’t feel she’s doing anything wrong yet she’s being threatened with legal action.”
“In the offline world, what she’d be doing would be fine. But because she’s doing it online, which is a public space, it causes a problem.
Wayne Garvie, director of content for BBC Worldwide, explains the BBC’s actions
“The law is a blunt instrument - it doesn’t recognise the difference between someone hawking fake Louis Vuitton handbags, and someone doing what Mazzmatazz is doing. She’s not really infringing on the commercial interests of the BBC in any way.
“I imagine the BBC’s brand protection team are looking out all over the web for people infringing its trademarks and the e-mail they sent to Mazzmatazz was a stock one.
“The ripple effect of that e-mail was quite upsetting.”
A BBC Worldwide spokesman said it was not “heavy-handed” with “genuine fans of the show”, but that it had to act in the interest of licence-fee payers by protecting the Doctor Who trademark.
“If you don’t protect your trademark, it’s taken away from you. And Doctor Who is massive for the BBC. It’s up to us to earn money from it so we can re-invest it in the BBC,” he said.
He added: “It’s not that we don’t admire creativity from fans - most of the time, we take the view that if it’s small-scale and not for profit, then we turn a blind eye.
“This lady, with the best will in the world, wanted to share with friends, family and fans.
“But there were some unscrupulous people taking these patterns and using them on eBay to make profit for themselves. Unfortunately, we had to get to the source of the patterns - and that was her website.”
He said that Mazzmatazz was still welcome to get in touch with BBC Worldwide to discuss the issue.
“We were offering to take her ideas to our licensing team. While we don’t have any plans to offer any knitted toys, in the future, who knows?”
Ms Hogge said the case raised wider issues of intellectual property law, which is currently being reviewed by the government.
“The BBC have got a difficult situation here - the fans are a very important part of Doctor Who,” she said.
“This situation shows there should be some flexibility in the law - both for fans and for the BBC.”
So now that it’s illegal to show you how to do this… just look very closely and do like I do:
Regarded by fans as THE voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy has added his dulcet tones to the caped crusader in the award winning Batman Animated Series and Justice League series. In a major surprise move, Conroy will be once again be acting the part of the world’s greatest detective in the upcoming animated anthology film released on DVD this summer, Batman Gotham Knight.
Below Conroy discusses his voice acting history and his unique relationship with Batman.
Kevin Conroy Discusses Voicing Title Character In DC Universe Animated Original Film “Batman Gotham Knight” Kevin Conroy had studied for and starred on the stage, advanced his career through soap operas, and was featured in television series like “Dynasty” and “Tour of Duty.” He had no idea that stepping into a sound booth in 1991 to audition for his first cartoon voiceover role would forever cement his place in the annals of animation and help to extend the Batman legacy to untold legions of fans.
Conroy quickly became the Batman voice by which all others are judged – and rarely assessed as an equal. He has cast a loud shadow in voicing the Dark Knight and Bruce Wayne for 17 years, beginning with “Batman: The Animated Series” and continuing through 16 films, video games and animated series (covering more than 220 episodes). He reprises the role in triumphant fashion in “Batman Gotham Knight,” the highly-anticipated third film in the ongoing series of DC Universe animated original PG-13 movies.
“Batman Gotham Knight” will arrive July 8, 2008 on DVD and Blu-Ray disc, and will also be available that day On Demand via digital cable and for download through broadband sites. The film is produced as a collaboration between DC Comics, Warner Premiere, Warner Home Video and Warner Bros. Animation. The film will receive its world premiere at Wizard World Chicago in late June.
From his home in New York City, Conroy spoke at length about the film, his ongoing relationship with the character, and the surprising manner in which he first approached and procured the role of Batman.
Question:
What are your impressions of the film?
Kevin Conroy:
It’s a really rich experience. The artwork in this film is so beautiful, so amazing. I love the adult-themed animated shows like “The Simpsons” and “South Park” and “King of the Hill.” I love the appeal of their writing, the irony, the sense of humor. Those are great animated productions. But you forget just how rich animation artwork can be until you see a film like this. There’s just no comparison. I’ve never seen anything like this in terms of diverse and rich animation in the industry – it’s like getting six movies in one.
The story is very interesting, especially the way it weaves in and out of Bruce Wayne’s history – like the flashback to him training in India, learning to endure pain. It’s very well conceived story and I think it enhances a lot of the Batman mythology.
I don’t think there’s any question the fans will love it, because it’s such a deep animation experience, and it gives such great background into a character they already love. It’s a very positive piece.
Question:
After three years away from the character, what were the challenges of donning the cape once again?
Kevin Conroy:
Getting back into the Batman voice was not hard – after so many years, it’s so familiar to me now that it’s like putting on an old coat. As you live with a character over the years, you fill out the skin. You don’t even realize you’re doing it. Sometimes they ask during a recording session, “What sound would Batman make here?” or “What would he say here” and they trust me to do that. They know I’ve been living with him for so long, I know what he’d say, and how he’d react.
Question:
Batman Gotham Knight has essentially 12 different looks at your characters – nine of Batman and three of Bruce Wayne, varying in design and age range. Were there any challenges to maintaining the consistency of your performance despite voicing to so many different image variations?
Kevin Conroy:
In the past, we’ve always treated the shows like a radio play – we recorded the lines and then the animation took place. This time, the artwork came first, and that made the process interesting. Sometimes the artists put extra mouth flaps in, or they made the cadence different from the way I’d usually deliver a line. So we had to work within those parameters and try to time the acting to fill the space.
Interestingly, they originally they were going to cast another actor to do the younger Bruce Wayne, and Andrea (Romano) convinced them to let me take a stab at it. I had done the younger voice in a number of the “Batman: The Animated Series” flashbacks, so Andrea knew that I could do it. And once I got into the studio and gave them a sample, they were convinced. The challenge is making the distinctions – you have to make concessions for youth and give the character the sound of a younger man, while still believably being the same guy.
Question:
At its core, this film represents several different perspectives of Batman, providing many different layers to the character. Can you discuss that range of emotions the film explores, and to what depths you reach to capture those emotions?
Kevin Conroy:
It’s that delicate balance you get in voices. As an actor, it’s still the same job – it’s acting – except that you only have your voice, and you have to be a little more precise in finding the balance. You have to keep it very minimal and you don’t want to be too cartoony, but at the same time you only have your voice to tell the story – so you have to juice it up a bit. Sometimes the hardest acting is in the non-dialogue aspects of the performance. As an example, there was one long scream when Batman is falling down a series of ladders into a pit. They recorded that over and over and over again, trying to figure out how to do it just right, and not overdue it. I had to give them lots of variations and I’m sure they picked the best one later. Overall, it was a little challenging with the different artistic styles and the different stories, but it was still Batman.
Question:
The legions of Batman animation fans have hailed you as the definitive voice of the character. How did you originally settle on that particular voice?
Kevin Conroy:
To tell the truth, after reading the original script, I really went to audition for the character voices – like Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock. Like most actors, I really love to be challenged, and I thought they’d be more interesting and really push me. And then Bruce (Timm) and Andrea (Romano) said they wanted to hear me do Batman. The only exposure I’d had was the campy Adam West live-action series, and they said that wasn’t what they wanted. So I put myself into a very dark place in my voice, and my voice got deeper and darker and huskier, and it came out very mysterious. I really just took a stab at what I thought the voice would be, and then I saw Bruce and Andrea and Paul (Dini) running around the booth, so I knew I either was very good or very bad. That’s how it started — just me in a sound booth, them on the other side of the glass describing the character, and then the voice just came out of my imagination. And it worked. So initially I was much more interested in doing the character voices, but luckily they talked me into Batman.
Question:
Do you require a certain mindset to approach the voice of Batman?
Kevin Conroy: There’s an emotional place I go to – Bruce (Timm) says he see it in me in the booth. It’s much more a psychology than just producing the sound. Batman is very complex. The Bruce Wayne voice is the real put-on. This is a guy who saw his parents murdered in front of him, and nobody would be normal and together after that. He feels like a freak inside. So to do the voice, you have to take on all that drama.
That’s why everyone relates to Batman – because everyone feels like a freak inside. Everyone has ghosts that they don’t want to show anyone else. All of us feel like we have that inside us. For me, that’s one of the most interesting aspects of the character – that a super hero would ultimately be based on that inner-freak that we all feel that we have.
Question:
In your mind, what’s special about playing Batman?
Kevin Conroy:
I think what I didn’t anticipate about voicing Batman was the fact that I was playing an icon – I just didn’t take into account how much Batman meant to so many people. Coming from a very conservative background, and not having extensive exposure to comic books and the character, it just never occurred to me. So in the beginning, I only thought of it as an acting job.
Question:
And now … you’re an icon in the Batman universe?
Kevin Conroy:
I’m always flattered that people actually know who the voices are. It seems to me such an anonymous job. But periodically, somebody recognizes me – it happened in a furniture store recently. To me, that’s truly amazing – first that someone knows who does the voice, and it’s even more amazing that someone would know the face of the voice. I think a lot of the reason that I’m so linked to Batman is because I’ve been doing it for so long. Before “Batman: The Animated Series,” there really hadn’t been a voice aside from Adam West. People knew Batman from the campy live action series, and the fans knew the Dark Knight comic books, but there hadn’t been a voice associated with the character, and certainly not a dramatic voice. I think I just lucked out because I was the one who started with it, and people grew up with that voice.
ENIGMA THE FIRST: the lone survivor of an alien world, a nameless man of somber, impassive visage, garbed utterly inappropriately in garish blue-and-red. ENIGMA THE SECOND: James-Michael Starling, age twelve raised in near-isolation by parents who (he discovered on the day they “died”) were robots. ENIGMA THE THIRD: the link between the man and the boy, penetrating to the depths of the mind and body, causing each to question his very reality of self.
Acclaimed novelist Jonathan Lethem (The Fortress of Solitude) and independent comic book creator Farel Dalrymple (Pop Gun War, Caper) have joined forces in their re-imaging of Steve Gerber’s ‘Omega The Unknown.’
A bizarre and highly imaginative series first published by Marvel Comics in 1976, the series came to an abrupt end with a promise for a follow-up that sadly never happened. When series creator Gerber heard of the revival, he was outraged. Having been similarly mistreated over his creation Howard the Duck, he had good reason to be angry. However, a meeting with Lethem put his temper at ease as he discovered that the young writer had the best of intentions and a very good story to tell.
Interviewed by Newsarama’s Zack Smith, Lethem had the following to say about his relationship with comic books in general and Omega The Unknown specifically.
NRAMA: Do you currently read any comics?
JL: This and that. I haven’t managed to be caught up on this whole recent Captain America controversy or anything. I have to go back and acquire all the relevant issues and figure out what all that’s about. I’m reading more and more (comics) as a result of doing this work. It’s been interesting to get connected again.
NRAMA: Any favorites?
JL: Well, in different ways, there are things that have sparked my interest. I’ve found Y: The Last Man (to be a) very compulsive story, very enjoyable. It’s like a great…it’s like Lost, kind of mental chewing gum.
NRAMA: Well, you know, Brian K. Vaughan’s working on Lost now?
JL: Is he? I’m not surprised. That’s a very good fit. There’s all sorts of (comics) that I like. I just read a really great three-issue sequence of Adiran Tomine’s Optic Nerve. It was excellent.
NRAMA: I’d like to talk a little bit about your history growing up with Omega. The passage in The Fortress of Solitude (page 82 of the hardcover edition), where Dylan (one of the main characters) notices how James-Michael’s experiences reflect his own – I’m presuming that was similar to your own experience reading the book?
JL: Oh no, I was much more fond of Omega than that. Dylan is very tough on the comic, and if you look under the skin of his reaction to it, he’s very threatened by it. There’s something about the plight of the James-Michael character that’s getting under his skin. But that reaction is quite typical of that Dylan, and exemplifies his reaction to a lot of things. Dylan holds disturbing and stimulating material at arms’ length. He and I are very much different in that way. Though he’s an autobiographical character, the emotional armor that he wears isn’t so typical of me. I was much more emotionally wide-open and vulnerable. Omega floored me, but I didn’t resent it. I thought it was fantastic. Those first issues, when Gerber and Skrenes were really allowed to do what they wanted to do and were building this incredible story full of all sorts of weird implications and possibilities…I simply thought it was the best comic book I’d ever read. The problem for me as a reader, in the original experience, was of course that it was wrecked. The thing was totally derailed by circumstance, by sales expectations and corporate meddling. There wasn’t enough of a precedent for what the creators were doing, and no one trusted it, so they never really had a chance to realize the story they’d initiated. But that whisper of it – the first two issues above all, with all the possibilities inherent in what they’d begun, made it hugely meaningful to me. And though I’m not telling their story, not trying to continue or conclude their Omega in the least, part of my impulse was to bring a version of Omega to something like fruition.
So far the series has been a mind-bending visual feast the likes of which readers have not seen from Marvel Comics since… well… the original Omega The Unknown. Make sure to flip through an issue at the shop and keep an eye out for the collection to be released later this year.
A black feline, black space goo and a potential dark shift in a super hero’s attire spotlight several new challenges for “The Spectacular Spider-Man” in an all-new episode entitled “Persona” premiering this
Saturday, May 17 at 10 a.m. ET/PT on Kids’ WB! on The CW.
In the episode, Spider-Man learns the hard way not to judge a book by its cover, when another Spider-Man starts making headlines … as a crook! It’s the Chameleon, master of disguise, looting the city and laying the blame at Spidey’s feet. The Web-Slinger’s forced to team up with another crook, the lovely Black Cat, to stop his foe’s faux-Spidey crime spree and clear his name. The episode is written by Matt Wayne and directed by Dave Fausett. “The Spectacular Spider-Man” is produced by Culver Entertainment, a Sony Pictures Television Company.
Prior to the premiere of “Persona,” Kids’ WB! will air a repeat of “Natural Selection,” the episode which introduced Lizard, at 9:30 a.m. ET/PT.
Making the leap from the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man to the small scree, the Chameleon is one of the stranger Spider-Man villains simply because he is so ‘normal.’ With a rogue’s gallery consisting of lizard men, sand men and goblins, it’s surprising for a master of disguise to give old Spidey a run for his money. Personally, I think the villain was the invention of Steve Ditko who was very interested in the mob mentality and how easily it can be steered.
For “The Spectacular Spider-Man,” Halloween arrives early this year –in the all-new Saturday, May 10 episode – but it still comes with all the traditional goodies, including a goblin, lots of spiders, a very large tombstone and even a black cat.
“The Uncertainty Principle,” this Saturday’s premiering episode at 10:00 a.m. ET/PT on Kids’ WB!/The CW, presents a number of perplexing situations for Peter Parker and Spider-Man as they both try to find clarity amid the masks, mysteries and menace of Halloween. While Colonel John Jameson struggles to land his damaged space shuttle, Spider-Man continues his ongoing battle with Green Goblin, who also threatens Hammerhead and Tombstone. Still, Peter’s greatest challenge will be facing the awful truth when he finally learns the Goblin’s “true” identity.
This week’s episode was an all out blockbuster that was full of plenty of action as well as twists and turns that show how far this series has come. The revelation of the Green Goblin’s identity was a shocker, but nowhere near as interesting as the fallout. Peter Parker’s life is getting very complicated and with the special hint toward next week’s episode involving a certain outer space black ooze, it’s not going to slow down any time soon.
If you are a Spider-Man fan, you have got to start catching up on this series. Each week a new episode is paired up with a repeat, so it’s a perfect opportunity to see what is becoming one of the best super hero cartoons on TV.
AWARD-WINNING WRITER ALAN BURNETT
DISCUSSES “BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHT”
Alan Burnett has spent more consecutive years “in the Batcave” than
anyone in animation history.
Not counting his stint on “Super Friends” in 1983, Burnett has
constantly helped bring the Batman’s legacy to animation since 1991 –
when he began scripting episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series,” the
Emmy(R)-winning production widely considered a pivotal moment in
American animation.
This summer, the latest animated venture into the Dark Knight’s mythos
takes an altogether different approach than anything produced during
Burnett’s 17-year association with the character. Burnett served as
movie story editor and the writer of the anchoring segment of “Batman
Gotham Knight,” the third in the ongoing series of DC Universe
animated original PG-13 movies.
“Batman Gotham Knight” is a fresh and exciting new film weaving six
interlocking stories that reveal Bruce Wayne’s journey to The Dark
Knight, each with stylish art from some of the world’s most revered
Japanese animation visionaries. The film features stories written by
several of the most talented scribes of film, comic books and
animation, including Burnett, Academy Award(R)-nominated screenwriter
Josh Olson (”A History of Violence”), David S. Goyer (”Batman
Begins:), Jordan Goldberg (Associate Producer, “The Dark Knight”), and
award-winning comics writers Greg Rucka and Brian Azzarello.
Burnett, Azzarello and Josh Olson, along with producer Bruce Timm,
have already confirmed their participation on the panel following the
world premiere of “Batman Gotham Knight” at Wizard World Chicago in
late June. “Batman Gotham Knight” will arrive July 8, 2008 on DVD and
Blu-Ray disc, and will also be available that day On Demand via
digital cable and for download through broadband sites. The film is
produced as a collaboration between DC Comics, Warner Premiere, Warner
Home Video and Warner Bros. Animation.
An anime fan, Burnett said he was very intrigued and inspired by the
idea of allowing Japanese directors to have relatively free reign on
the animated look of Batman.
“From a visual point of view, this is the most stylized Batman that’s
come out of Warner Bros. — what they’ve done is really eye-catching,
and it truly expands his world,” Burnett said. “Their visualization of
Gotham City is stunning, and it’s very interesting to see how they’ve
envisioned Batman, his environment and his action and movements.”
Burnett’s stellar talents have merited four Emmy Awards, three Annie
Awards and two Humanitas Prizes. His work within the Batman realm
includes as a series producer on “Batman and Superman” and “Batman
Beyond,” and most recently as supervising producer and story editor
for Warner Bros. Animation’s four-time Emmy Award-winning series “The
Batman.” In the direct-to-DVD arena, Burnett co-produced and co-wrote
the animated feature film “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm,” was
supervising producer and writer for “Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman,”
and served as producer on the feature-length “Batman Beyond: Return of
The Joker.”
For “Batman Gotham Knight,” Burnett served as story editor for the
entire film, and writer of the sixth and final segment, “Deadshot.”
The segment ties together threads from all the film’s chapters as
Batman must thwart an unerring assassin whose love of guns and
disregard for human life lets him cross lines that even a Dark Knight
shies away from.
Burnett said having the opportunity to finally bring the villainous
Deadshot to the screen was instant motivation to pen the script.
First, “Batman Gotham Knight” provided the perfect vehicle for a
villain associated solely with guns – an attitude that flies in direct
opposition to Batman’s anti-gun approach to heroism. The anti-gun
theme is prevalent throughout the film. Moreover, because television
standards do not allow the use of “real” bullets in children’s
programming, Deadshot has been kept out of Batman’s animated legacy.
For Burnett, this was the first opportunity to portray Deadshot as he
is known in comics.
“I’ve always liked Deadshot as a villain, and I really like stories
with assassins,” Burnett explained. “The fact that they’re killers,
and what they do has impact, automatically heightens the energy of the
story.”
In addition to writing the script “Deadshot,” Burnett also
story-edited the film, ensuring all six scripts – from six different,
widely-acclaimed writers – worked fluidly together to interconnect
into one story. The ever-modest Burnett said his job entailed little
more than a few alterations for flow and continuity while he attempted
to maintain each writer’s individualism.
“I thought it was important to keep the integrity of each writer’s
words,” Burnett said. “The writers all pretty much had the same voice
for Batman, so I had to change very little dialogue – just small fixes
to tie up loose ends, and reinforce transitions and connections
between the stories. But I did as little editing as I could because I
respected what the writers wrote, and I thought it was important that
their voice was heard. Just as the artists made their segments their
own, so should the writers.”
Overall, Burnett is pleased with the final product, and excited to see
the fans’ reactions to the film – particularly the use of shorter
segments to tell great Batman stories.
“For my segment, I think the first Deadshot murder is quite good –
there’s a lot of eye candy within the cityscape. The artists added
fireworks and balloons and a lot of interesting elements to what
ultimately is a cold-blooded murder,” Burnett said. “I like the
short-form for Batman, because it feels almost like a 22-page comic
book story. In short form, the stakes are elevated from the beginning,
and it gives you a chance to really heighten the action quickly – so
you can make your points hard and fast and get out.
Is this the first glimpse of Aaron Eckhart’s Two Face from this summer’s Batman The Dark Knight film? Many are saying that it’s an early version of what will be the final effect mixing prosthetic make-up and CGI effects. Whatever the case, it’s sure to scare the living crap out of the auduence.
Introduced in 1942 by Bob Kane and Bill Finger as a new super villain to join Batman’s burgeoning rogue’s gallery, Two Face was a riff on the old Jeckyll and Hyde routine. Harvey Dent, a well-meaning district attorney badly scarred by acid thrown at him during a court case (bad luck, huh?), the scars went deeper than just his face. His entire psyche was scarred, leading him to see life in simplistic duality. At the flip of a coin, he would decide his fate. To match his visage, the coin was scarred on one side. If the coin landed scarred side up, Gotham City would be in for some trouble.
The character has enjoyed the status as the number two most loved villain (after the Joker), despite the fact that he seems to be used so sparingly in the comic book series.
Forgotten as a villain, it was Denny O’Neil that brought the villain back the fore during his run on the Batman comic book in 1971. An essential part of the third Robin’s origin, Two Face played a vital role in the story ‘A Lonely Place of Dying.’ It was perhaps Frank Miller’s brief homage to the villain in 1984’s classic Dark Knight Returns that made it apparent just how much power and relevance the character has. Matt Wagner developed the character further in his fantastic tale ‘Faces’ in Legends of the Dark Knight. Heroes TV series developer Jeph Loeb used Two Face as the lynch pin of his epic mini-series ‘The Long Halloween’ in which he retold Two Face’s origin, adding and changing certain details.
Animator Bruce Timm brought Two Face into a new light in his 1991 two-part story featuring the character’s origin. While DC Comics had recently published a story suggesting that HarveyDent was abused by his father as a child (at the flip of a coin), Timm presented another angle. As a young boy, Dent had kept his rage in check until a school bully pushed him over the edge. Young Dent struck the other boy who ended up in the hospital. The hospitalization had nothing to do with Dent (the boy was coincidentally sick from another ailment), but to Dent this made an impact. He kept his rage deeply buried until it developed into another persona, ‘Big Bad Harv.’ After being facially scarred, Dent accepted that he must make a pact with this negative aspect of his persona and allowed this violent monster to run loose… at the flip of a coin.
Whichever version of the character this summer film decides to bring us, I am sure it will be very impressive and leave a lasting mark on the comic book character.
Batman: Gotham Knight Trailer
( DVD release date July 8, 2008 )
EISNER AWARD-WINNING WRITER BRIAN AZZARELLO DISCUSSES WRITING FOR THE
UPCOMING DC UNIVERSE ORIGINAL ANIMATED FILM, “BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHT”
One of the most sought-after writers in comics today, Brian Azzarello is one of the six acclaimed scribes to pen a segment within “Batman Gotham Knight,” the third in the ongoing series of DC Universe
animated original PG-13 movies.
Unlike many of his past works, Azzarello’s segment – entitled “Working Though Pain” – takes a decidedly non-violent direction. The segment, which falls chronologically as the fifth of the six segments, explores
an early chapter of Bruce Wayne’s training as a mysterious and exotic Indian woman named Cassandra introduces Batman to techniques that would help him to conquer the physical and spiritual consequences of what he does.
Azzarello achieved widespread notoriety – and garnered multiple Eisner Awards – for “100 Bullets,” a collaboration with artist Eduardo Risso which was published by Vertigo for DC Comics. He has continually
broken new ground with offerings like Vertigo’s “Jonny Double,” “Hellblazer” and “Loveless” series. Azzarello is no stranger to Batman, having written for the character in “Broken City,” “Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire,” within the “Batman Gotham Knights” series and in “Lex Luthor: Man of Steel.”
A Chicago resident, Azzarello will travel across town to join fellow “Batman Gotham Knight” writers Alan Burnett and Josh Olson, along with producer Bruce Timm, for the film’s world premiere at Wizard World
Chicago in late June. “Batman Gotham Knight” will arrive July 8, 2008 on DVD and Blu-Ray disc, and will also be available that day On Demand via digital cable and for download through broadband sites. The film
is produced as a collaboration between DC Comics, Warner Premiere, Warner Home Video and Warner Bros. Animation.
Azzarello took time away from his Mac Power Book to discuss “Batman Gotham Knight,” the character of Batman, the motivations of a writer, and a little cooking, too.
Question: For starters, what was your overall impression of “Batman Gotham Knight,” and were you pleased with your segment?
Brian Azzarello says: I liked the film – it’s a very interesting take on the Batman character. It holds together cohesively, yet each episode is strikingly different. And I loved (my segment) – it’s great. I really liked the animation. It was fascinating seeing my words moving around. When I write, I see it in print – I don’t see it moving. So it was fun and it was a good experience.
Question: How did you find the translation from your written page to the vision of the Japanese director and artists?
Brian Azzarello says: I was surprised how seamless the translation was. I definitely got what I wrote. The hospital scene is almost exactly the way I thought of it, while the fight scenes – that’s where the animators really put their “wow” into it. But I expected that. Usually that’s where the animators just go crazy.
Question: Were there any particular visuals that struck you within your segment?
Brian Azzarello says: Seeing wounded Batman – now that struck me. I enjoy wounded Batman. It humanizes him. It showed a true physical struggle, and that’s something you can relate to. And the character Cassandra was a bit hotter than I thought she’d be … but that’s okay.
Question: When you’re writing for comics – and now for animation – do you put fairly detailed direction between the dialogue, or is it more of a collaborative process for you and the artist/animator?
Brian Azzarello says: I wrote the script and then I handed it off, and that’s pretty much the same relationship I have in comics. I really trust my collaborators, and I try to leave them plenty of room so they can bring their strengths to the work. I think that happened in this film, and definitely for my segment – the animation is just amazing. Really amazing.
I have more of an affinity for the stage than I do for the screen, so I’m very conscious of the dialogue. And because I’ve always worked with collaborators, I tend to leave the visuals up to them – on purpose. It’s my belief that if I get the dialogue right, and the artist understands what motivates the characters and what they’re saying, then the visuals will come.
Question: You’re fairly particular about the projects you accept. How’d you get involved with this film, and what made you say yes?
Brian Azzarello says: Gregory Noveck of DC Comics talked to my agent, then I had a conference call to discuss the story. They explained the film to me in broad strokes, and asked me to come up with an idea. I chose to focus more on Bruce Wayne, and they liked my pitch. As always happens, they needed the script yesterday, and I was I was on my way to Europe at the time. All I can tell you is that the hotel room in Barcelona was pretty nice, but I can’t tell you much about the city.
Question: You were quoted in a UGO article as saying “Hollywood is nowhere I aspire to be” … and yet, here you are. What happened?
Brian Azzarello says: Well, the production may be in Hollywood, but I’m in Chicago – and I’m going to stay here. Is that semantics? I’m not sure. I enjoy doing the work, and I really liked writing for this project – I’d like to do it again. And I know there are people that would kill to work in Hollywood. I’m just not one of those people. I’ll do it, I have done it, but the project has to be right. I’ve been asked to write a lot of
things that I’ve declined mainly because the projects didn’t interest me. If I were just writing to pull a paycheck, there’s a lot of other things I could be doing.
Question: What’s your motivation for writing?
Brian Azzarello says: If I have a story, if I have something to say, that’s my motivation. For this film, I had something to say about Bruce Wayne as a character, what his motivations are. That there’s something dark and wrong about what drives him. Batman is a super hero and he does good. But I think the Bruce Wayne part of the character’s motivation is slightly twisted. Bruce’s motivations don’t come from a good place.
He’s angry and, in that revenge is really his goal, he’s a dishonest character. That’s why he has to wear a mask. He’s doing good, but he’s not doing all the right things for all the right reasons.
That plays into this story. It should be a story about non-violence, but that’s the lesson that Bruce doesn’t learn. On the surface, Bruce is on a spiritual journey, but his spirit was corrupted when his parents were killed. And it’s not something that I think he’s even interested in fixing.
Question: How much research was involved in scripting a story set in India that focuses on the mind-over-matter theme of conquering your pain from within?
Brian Azzarello says: I spent a lot of time surfing (the Internet) – it’s a wonder how we all have libraries at our fingerprints these days. I needed to do research on India, and I gathered a lot of information on pain
management. What I learned is that a lot of pain management practitioners are con men.
Question: You’ve had some notable experience working on Batman – can you compare the differences in working on this Batman tale vs. “Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire” and “Broken City” or the “Batman:
Gotham Knights” comics?
Brian Azzarello says: Every time I approach Batman, I like to come from a different angle. In Deathblow, I saw him as a James Bond-type but on an urban level. For Broken City, he was the bitter private eye. On this project, I guess he’s lying to himself. He’s not intentionally conning Cassandra, but he does ultimately con her. He wants to learn what she knows, but he doesn’t want to know it for the reasons she teaches it. She finally figures out that he’s doing it for the wrong reason, but it isn’t until the end – and it’s not until then that even he understands that he’s been lying to himself.
Question: What are you reading these days?
Brian Azzarello says: I have a stack of books – The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz; one of Jason Starr’s novels; and then I’ve got Mario Batali’s Italian Grill cookbook. I actually read a lot of cookbooks – I grew up around cooking, and cooking really relaxes me. Nine times out of 10, I’m cooking something Italian, but the weather is turning, so my grill has been fired up a lot lately. I love barbeque – it’s great to cook
something for 8-10 hours. That’s such an American way of cooking, but I try to bring a lot of Mediterranean influences into that.
Question: So if you could hand-pick your next achievement, what would it be – win another Eisner, write the next Batman, or have your own show on Food Network?
Brian Azzarello says: Well, having my own cooking show sounds like no work at all. Winning another Eisner would be nice. But I think I’d have to pick writing the next Batman – that would be the biggest challenge for me. As a freelancer, if you’re not challenging yourself, nobody is. Every day I have to paint myself into a corner and then write my way out of it.
Batman: Gotham Knight is released on DVD July 8, 2008
Over on his personal website, classic comic book artist Stephen Bissette is displaying pages from Swamp Thing proposals that never saw print.
Back in 1999, the year I retired from the American comics industry for good, I did post a couple of the proposals on my original comicon.com website. They were at that point over a year old; simply put, once again, proposals sent to DC were met with indifference, and the post was my way of ensuring my ideas were at least ‘tagged’ as my concepts, should they ever surface in another guise (which is nothing I’ve experienced at DC, but did experience at Marvel first-hand, and saw close friends experience at Marvel).
It also put these out there; as I thought then and think now these concepts were as good as, and better than, much of what Vertigo/DC did publish (especially in the various incarnations of Swamp Thing since 1990), it seemed worth doing.
# Rich Handley found those 1999 posts, and incorporated their contents into his expansive, definitive Roots of the Swamp Thing website, which you should immediately check out and explore (here).
# Rich specifically worked my concepts for Swamp Thing Origins: Go With the Flow into the prehistory of the character, though I hasten to add this does not mean my concepts now belong to DC/Vertigo.
In any case, to provide here a context for my ongoing work this year on a project with the working title Swamp Angels (referencing the famous 19th Century bayou painting), I re-present that 1999 post here for your entertainment today.
An essential part of the horror genre, Swamp Thing was one of the first crossover concepts where a monster was also the hero. A giant in the world of sequential artists Bissette is also known for his formation of Taboo (publishers of both The Lost Girls and From Hell), and has also worked with filmmaker Lance Weiller on The Last Broadcast and Head Trauma (both of which I heartily recommend).
This presentation of material on Bissette’s website is a rare opportunity to see inside the process of a ‘lost’ classic. Take advantage!
For those of you playing at home, the Ood first appeared in the excellent Season Two story, ‘Impossible Planet.’ A sympathetic psychic slave race, the Ood were used by a strange disembodied evil force living at the edge of a black hole hell bent on… it was never quite clear what its goal was… but luckily the Doctor and Rose stopped it! Unable to save the Ood (I’m still screaming at the screen that the Doctor has a time machine), the Doctor clearly had a debt to pay the visually stunning alien race. The production team must have felt the pangs of guilt as well because there is no clear reason why this story was made other than to bring the Ood back.
To be honest, that’s fine with me. One of the more impressive aliens of the new series, the Ood look and sound very creepy and ‘classic’ Doctor Who… yet the story itself fails to deliver.
The problems start with the beginning where we see the Doctor and Donna sharing their exclamation pointed expositionary dialog (we’re on an alien planet! I can’t believe it! I grew up in the suburbs and here I am on an alien planet!!). This exchange of lines is so painfully drawn out that a death row inmate forced to watch this episode asked if the schedule could be stepped up a bit. The setting is quite stunning and it’s a change of pace to see the TARDIS land on an alien planet full of snow and ice.
The Doctor and Donna discover a dying Ood and are enthralled in a mystery. Say what you will about contrivance, but this is one of the few ‘classic series moments’ in this new Doctor Who… something that almost made me like this one. Nearby is a factory where Ood slaves are processed and sold as slaves to Earth colonies. The Doctor and Donna sneak into the facility (after a brief ‘we’re not married’ joke that just never works) and soon find that things are not as innocent as the company Ood Operations would like people to think. Given that the story opens with an enraged Ood and then a pathetic dying one, this is hardly a surprise.
The story progresses at a painful pace as excellent guest star Tim McInnery (of Blackadder) acts in one scene steering the evil plot and the Doctor and Donna wander around the factory uncovering random plot points that don’t really connect. We discover that the Ood are born with their brains in their hands (not one person in a read through laughed out loud at this??) and a gigantic brain has been housed in a secret storage facility for hundreds of years, trapped in an energy prison and thereby keeping the Ood prisoner.
This major plot point involving a giant brain fails miserably to connect up with the rest of the story. This is a shame, because the rest of the story is actually quite good. See, there is this splinter group of humans who call themselves ‘Friends of the Ood’ who have been working very patiently to free the aliens from slavery. One member of the group is the docile assistant Ood to McInnery’s evil Halpen. While McInnery has been thinking that he was being fed hair tonic throughout the story, it was actually a fluid that was slowly turning him into an Ood.
Okay, so that makes about as much sense as enslaving a race with a giant brain being kept in a warehouse.
Yet the Friends of the Ood storyline is the best bit of this story. Again the special effects department have risen to the occasion in producing very impressive masks, but the story itself is so flimsy and undercut by Tennant’s uninspired performance and terrible Catherine Tate who still fails to bring anything to the program.
During his second year as executive producer, Russell T Davies said that he was dead against setting stories on alien planets because it just looked cheap and unbelievable. This is very ironic because the stories set on other worlds have been quite good. Also ironic is that according to wikipedia, the initial drafts of this story by writer Keith Temple were deemed as being “too dark” and “too old Doctor Who.” Many fans have highlighted similarities between this episode and the classic 1980’s serial ‘Revelation of the Daleks.’ Both take place on cold planets, both stories operate almost entirely independent to the Doctor and his companion and both stories have an unusual amount of violence and gun play. Given a few tweaks in the right direction, this episode could have been quite good. As it happens, it’s only a slightly above par episode of a series that seems to be treading water at best.
Next week, the return of the Sontarans.
Doctor Who -Planet of the Ood premieres in the US this Friday on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Introduced in 1942 by Bob Kane and Bill Finger as a new super villain to join Batman’s burgeoning rogue’s gallery, Two Face was a riff on the old Jeckyll and Hyde routine. Harvey Dent, a well-meaning district attorney badly scarred by acid thrown at him during a court case (bad luck, huh?), the scars went deeper than just his face. His entire psyche was scarred, leading him to see life in simplistic duality. At the flip of a coin, he would decide his fate. To match his visage, the coin was scarred on one side. If the coin landed scarred side up, Gotham City would be in for some trouble.
