Beginnings & Endings

Hi.

Well, preproduction on the next series of Times episodes continues. I think it’s a foregone conclusion that there will be no “summer” run, as I’d hoped. I never intended to lead you astray, and I hope you’ll forgive me and stay tuned when the episodes hit this fall.

Until then, I offer something that I hope will engage you: the very first SuperHuman Times script – for the SuperHuman Times graphic novel, "The Hot Property.". I’ve posted it on the Times web page, so you can download it as a PDF right here, right now.

There are three reasons behind my making this script available:
1) I want to have something legitimately Times-related “out here” while the shows are in production (branding, you see; it's a marketing thing);
2) all of the characters in the “The Hot Property” will appear in various episodes of the podcast in this run, and you may find it entertaining to compare the characters from the 2005 script to the way they’re portrayed in the new shows;
3) someday, if you get a kick out of this and let me know, I may post the Times radio scripts, too.

I think I mentioned this before, but if you're wondering why SuperHuman Times became a series of radio dramas instead of a series of graphic novels, the answer is easy: I can't draw. Used to, but can't anymore, even with a computer. Want proof?

The image at right would have been the cover to the "True North" online comic. It took me about a month to do in Adobe Illustrator and, as you can see, it's not a tough composition -- for an artist. If it took that long to do this, it would have taken me a few years to render Malvolio Nacht's attack. Thankfully, Steve Wilson offered me a spot in the Prometheus line-up, so this is all you'll see from my poison(ed) pen in terms of images. I'll leave those to your imagination. It draws faster and better than I ever will.

Enjoy reading "The Hot Property" – and, eventually, hearing the voices that came from it.

-- L.

Keep up with the Times here!

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In Memoriam: The ‘80s were a special time for me. They were my 20s. In your 20s, all things are possible. You’re young enough to start pursuing your dreams (in my case, scriptwriting, which brought me here; so much for my 20s) and, even though you’re an adult, you haven’t been out of your teens that long, so you can sit through movies about teenagers and still empathize with the characters. That’s why I enjoyed John Hughes’s movies with young actors so much when they came out. I knew kids who acted and talked like they did. (We were a TV generation. Parents taught us how to talk; sitcoms taught us how to talk back.) Hughes’s kids were all believable on some level (even Ferris). That’s what made his movies so much fun to watch, and that’s why I wanted to mark his passing this week. Thanks for making my 20s a little more fun, John. Can’t wait to see if your movies do the same for my son 11 years from now.