New York Times Books/Ender Companion News

Last night I was a guest on the podcast "Writing Excuses". We joked that I was filling in for regular host Brandon Sanderson who is currently out on a book tour promoting/signing his sequel to Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series. The book is #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List this week. It was a good time. I'd been invited by my pal and colleague Howard Tayler, and we discussed comics--both writing and the business of being a writer in comics. We recorded two episodes, the first of which is scheduled to be available for download, I believe, Monday.

In other New York Times Books-related news, "The Authorized Ender Companion" is supposed to be advertised in the Book Review section of this Sunday's paper. I hope it will be. I hope, of course, that the book sells a zillion copies. You can buy it here from Amazon (Kindle Version here), here from Barnes and Noble, here from Borders, Chapters (in Canada), or hit your local bookstore this Tuesday, November 10. I really hope this makes the New York Times Bestseller list, too...It'll be on the Nonfiction side of that list. Hulk Hogan's autobiography is currently at #12 on the Nonfiction list. I'm sure there are more Ender's readers than Hogan readers (I confess I bought Hogan's book...), so I'm optimistic that the more literary crowd will pick up the Ender book. It needs to happen this week, though, because Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" hits on the 17th, and that WILL be the #1 NYT Bestseller on the nonfiction side.

I'll be posting more about the Ender Companion in the next few days as we lead up to the release.

Another "Tales of the TMNT" #68 Preview Page Posted

Artist Jim Lawson has posted another preview page of my final TMNT comic. You can check it out here.

Nice Reviews on "Bizarro Halloween" -- UPDATED 11/2

Here are some nice review quotes on the DCU Halloween Special 2009 "Bizarro in Unhappy Halloween."

**UPDATED 11/2 "The frightening tales are bookended by a look into Halloween on Bizarro world by Jake Black and Ibraim Roberson. Healthy food and doing good deeds for others is the order of the day on this backwards planet. There’s even a group shot of Bizarro DC staff at the end including Senior VP Dan Didio. The entire issue is fun but it’s little touches like that that bring the holiday spirit home." -- The Nerdy Bird

"This framing story written by Jake Black is one of the more successful chapters of the comic. Though the whole opposite schtick gets old reeeeeaaaaal quick, the notion of Bizarro flying door-to-door giving other Bizarro-people fruits and vegetables as “treats” and mowing their lawns as “tricks” is pretty cute." -- Ain't it Cool News

"The issue is bookended by a tale of the Bizarro world, with Bizarro No.1 hating his worst holiday. Or something - I can never manage Bizarro-think. Anyway, Jake Black's script is delightful, never trying too hard, while Ibraim Roberson does a nice line in Bizarro-American Gothic. There's even a Bizarro Dan DiDio (presumably he allows a storyline to end)." -- Mart Gray

"The opening and closing sequences starring Bizarro were also pure gold. More so the opening than the closing but all the same they served as excellent bookends to the special. The opening with Bizarro playing a trick by beautifying the house got a solid laugh out of me." --Multiversity Comics

"We start and end with Bizarro, leading us around Bizarro World on Halloween, which is just as backwards and familiar as one could hope and expect." -- CineGeek

"The issue starts and ends with a Bizarro framing sequence that seems promising enough." -- Comic Book Resources (I guess this is good? ;-p)

"This year, the special is bookended by a Bizarro story by Jake Black (Ender's Game), and while it's difficult to understand the over use of the Bizarro language, I got the gist of the situation. Bizarro wants to make sure that everybody has a happy Halloween and at the end, we see DC editorial as Bizarro World citizens." --Newsarama (A little less sure about this one. :-D)

"The framing segment, by Jake Black and Ibraim Roberson, is set on Bizarro World and is my least favorite part." --Ray's DCU Megathread (Can't win 'em all!)

TMNT Comic Preview Art

Artist Jim Lawson has posted a page from my upcoming "Tales of the TMNT" comic "Heroes in a Half Cell." It's issue #68 of the series. You can check it out at Jim's blog here.

Fanning the Flames

It's been a week since the sale of the TMNT was announced. Since then there's been a lot of fan discussion on the message boards and on blogs, and an unsurprising amount of it is negative. I got some hate mail and noticed some shots taken at me on some boards, etc. for my previous blog post. But I stand by what I wrote. (Though I neglected to list Jim Lawson among those who have meant a lot to me during my time working with Mirage. Jim drew most of my stories in Tales, and I love his work! You can follow his blog from here...it's on the list to the right under "Boxburning.") The negativity I received from my post was nothing compared to the immflamtory remarks levied at TMNT co-creator Peter Laird on his blog.

I got a few emails from people associated with the TMNT/Mirage telling me I was right on point, too. Those were nice.

I just don't understand fan mentality in general. A person is a "fan" of something, implying that they love it. But (and this doesn't apply just to TMNT fans, but fans of lots of things) they are just so ready and waiting to pounce on EVERYTHING. I don't understand that line of thinking. Why can't people enjoy stuff for the sake of escaping and enjoying it? What's wrong with that?

On the Simpsons, the character comic book guy's attitude of "worst ____ ever" is so accurate it's scary. As is his condescending attitude. His statement "as a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me" is also so accurrate, and simultaneously so selfish (and so tragically lonely in its implications). I used to love comic book guy because he reminded me of people I knew. But I'm so tired of angry fandom that is ready to just crap all over everything they come across. If you truly like something why get all bent out of shape over everything related to it? Do you really think you are *owed* something? These are fictional worlds and money making endeavors. Let them be that. Over on bleedingcool.com, comic book legend Denny O'Neil (who appeared in my "History of Green Arrow" DVD feature) discusses that working in the entertainment field is, to a large degree, about the money. Fans, please remember that!

I like when people like my stuff. I don't mind when they don't like my stuff. It's just when EVERYTHING is negative to a fan, and they complain about EVERYTHING in their chosen mode of escapism that bothers me. Personal attacks against a creator are never okay. Ever. People like Peter Laird, Steve Murphy, myself, and others have families to feed. THAT, dear "fans" is our number one priority. We enjoy creating stories you like. But that's secondary to caring for our loved ones. It has to be. You can dislike the product. But why spend so much time, energy, and emotion railing against everything associated with something you "love" and personally attacking the creators? It might make you feel good about yourself--validated or something--but it's ultimately counterproductive. Why should Peter have *any* motivation to write anything in his comics rights when fans blast him for the sale and, like whiney children, attack him personally for wanting to take time off?

I just literally don't get what fans are thinking.

(PS I know there are good fans out there. I adore them! I think, though, that they are the silent majority. It's the vocal minority that make this business hard sometimes, and who I don't understand. I really adore those good, quieter fans.)

Thoughts on the Sale of the Ninja Turtles to Viacom

Yesterday it ws announced that media giant Viacom had purchased the intellectual property rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This sent shockwaves through the TMNT fan community, and was treated like it was as big news as the sale of Marvel to Disney. As one who has spent the last five years closely associated with the TMNT and their previous owners Mirage (the company owned by TMNT creator Peter Laird), I have some thoughts on the sale to share.

First, this news isn't actually as big as the Marvel/Disney merger or even the changes at DC Comics to make it DC Entertainment. I talked to a lot of people in both the animation and comics industries yesterday, and the overwhelming reaction was "meh." It barely got a mention on top comics sites Newsarama and Comic Book Resources. It wasn't a trending topic on Twitter. The reality is, and this was manifested so clearly yesterday, the TMNT just aren't that big. I know that will probably earn me the ire of the fan community, but try to look at this objectively.

I love the TMNT. I am so grateful for my association with the franchise, and the people at Mirage. The fundraising efforts on behalf of my family's medical bills in my cancer fight are enough to earn them a permanent place in my heart. I'm proud of the comics, kids books, encyclopedia entries, etc. I worked on. Really proud of them. But until I started working on them five years ago, my complete knowledge of the TMNT franchise came from the old 80s cartoon and video games. I pitched pizza and cowabunga in my first comic pitches. That might not seem like a big deal to mainstream readers, but to hardcore TMNT fans it's grossly offensive. However, that is reflective of the mainstream perception of the TMNT brand as a whole, like it or not.

I wrote some tremendously blood issues of the TMNT comics. Yet the reputation of the franchise is that it's something for kids. (I am haunted to this day by the fact that at a convention in Canada a couple of years ago, I sold one of the more violent issues of Tales of the TMNT to a family who were giving it to their seven year old daughter. I wish still today that I'd told them it wasn't age appropriate despite being TMNT....)

This reputation is so strong that it has impacted my career in writing for other comics companies. Marvel and DC editors see TMNT on the cover and have been pretty dismissive with the comics as being for mature audiences. As a result, I've had good success getting on licensed and kids' titles at the big two companies, but haven't been able to get on more mature books. One editor outright told me that my reputation in the industry--thanks in large part to doing TMNT (as well as Smallville)--is one of a licensed and kid's writer. That's okay with me, as I'm working in comics. But it is also reflective of the perception of the TMNT brand.

Consequently, this reputation made it a perfect fit for Viacom's Nickelodeon. What will Nick do with the brand? Well, they've announced a new CG series a la "Clone Wars" on Cartoon Network. But you can bet it'll be kid focused, and not the mature TMNT of the black and white comics. But this is, in my view, a good thing for the TMNT brand.

One of the great problems the TMNT have faced, in my opinion, is a lack of brand identity. There are so many versions of the comics and TV shows and movies and they are all so different a TMNT fan might like one version but not another. As a result, the fanbase is tremendously fractured, and no one genre/version is able to succeed for long, if at all. With the brand being under a corporate umbrella, and associated with another well-established brand (that being Nickelodeon) it will instantly be focused. Will the long-time comics fans like the new focus? Probably not. But that's not who Nick is trying to reach anyway. They have an established market/target audience, and are hoping TMNT will reach that audience. It's very specific. But it's also one of the biggest money making audiences there is.

That's the key to remember here. This is the entertainment BUSINESS. It's not about creativity. It's not about pleasing the fans. It's about what's the most marketable, money making endeavor. Viacom has stock holders, a board, executives, etc. to please. As a result, the TMNT have all those people to please. If the franchise doesn't sell well, it'll be mothballed. That's the nature of business. That's not to say it won't be revived from time-to-time. I'm sure it will. But how and to what extent remains to be seen. Again, it won't be to please the long time TMNT fans, regardless.

It reminds me a lot of the professional wrestling industry. WCW was a great company with great performers (like Ric Flair) that was absorbed by Turner Broadcasting b/c Ted Turner had loyalty to wrestling since it helped him build his media empire. When Turner sold his company to Time Warner and AOL, there were a lot of suits that didn't like wrestling, and made a lot demands on the creative forces of WCW that undercut the product and eventually saw the company's downfall and sale to WWE who did nothing with it, save exploit the brand a little bit through DVD and on demand video releases.

Perhaps an even better comparison is ECW. The TMNT and ECW have a lot in common. They are both small companies that achieved great (even national/international) success, but eventually collapsed under the weight of this very success. Paul Heyman and Peter Laird are creative people who didn't run good business--Peter simply didn't like the business side of things, and Paul had a reputation for not playing corporate games. As they saw opportunities, they sold their companies to media conglomorates. (Granted ECW went out of business, and Peter didn't sell Mirage but the IP rights to the TMNT, but I think the comparison still works...) WWE owned ECW and again didn't do anything with it save DVD and on demand video exploitation for five years, at which point it decided to revive the ECW brand. At first they marketed it to the original ECW fans, sort of. But it became apparent very quickly that WWE's vision of ECW was not the original ECW. It became what WWE felt was a more marketable brand than it was originally. The extreme violence and sexuality of the original ECW was toned down and then all but eliminated from the brand. It was a business solution, and I think it could/will happen with the TMNT. Viacom's TMNT will not be Eastman/Laird's TMNT. They'll have the same origin, names, and elements, but the presentation of the product will be different. It has to be based solely on the association with the other established brand, Nickelodeon.

There's been a lot of speculation as to whether Viacom will license TMNT comics. I'm almost 100% sure they won't. As part of the deal (as reported on fan forums) Viacom let Peter Laird/Mirage retain the rights to do up 18 black and white TMNT comics per year. While this is potentially good news for TMNT comics fans, I don't think there's any indication that there will be comics. I think it was a provision in the contract to let Peter finish his current TMNT series, "Volume 4" and do similar series if he so desires in the future. The rest of the Mirage crew will be out of jobs come the end of the year, and as such, there's no one there to make the comics. Peter would probably bring back the Mirage crew to work on future comics if he wanted to produce them, but that would be it. I've been told pretty explicitly that there won't be freelance comics produced by Mirage in the future.

What this says about Viacom's TMNT plans is huge, though. If they had interest in producing TMNT comics--licensed or otherwise--they wouldn't have allowed Mirage/Peter to continue producing them. From a corporate perspective, that's too much competition to allow for your newly acquired brand. Companies like Viacom have zero tolerance for competition on their brands, and have even alienated the creators of their own properties. I'm sure that Viacom, in exploring this deal, looked at the sales figures for the TMNT comics, which are about 2000 copies of each issue, and said "We don't want to pursue that failure of an endeavor." And, again, it's smart business. 2000 copies of anything is pathetic, particularly for a brand with the noterity of the TMNT. That 40 copies per state. (Even sadder when you take into account the international market...) Titan Magazines in the UK, which published a color, licensed kids TMNT comic series for a year, saw such poor sales figures that they didn't renew their license after the year. Viacom isn't stupid. They see these numbers, and figure that there's not a market for TMNT comics. (It's particularly sad when Boom Studio's licensed comics based on Pixar's "Cars" sell three times TMNT every issue.)

What they will undoubted pursue, though, is licensed books. Again, evidence from the last few days. While they will allow Mirage/Peter to publish black and white comics, they pulled the plug on the "Mirage Universe" book I've spent the last three years being the lead writer on. It was an encyclopedia of the TMNT characters based on the comics. Mirage simply doesn't have the rights to publish that sort of thing anymore. So, despite the book almost going to press and even having been solicited by Diamond Comic Distributors, the plug has been pulled. So too has a prose story I was tapped to write been canceled.

This, again reinforces my no Viacom TMNT comics feelings. Viacom is specific about its interest and exploiting the brand. They don't care/want to do comics. If they did, they would be more protective about Peter/Mirage doing them. But they do want to do other types of books. If they didn't they wouldn't care about the encyclopedia book. It's all about protecting the brand and their investment.

And this is all okay with me.

Again, that phrase might piss some people off, but I really am okay with it. I have one more TMNT comic coming out in March--a fun story where the TMNT fight an alien cancer. Coincidentally, I had applied to write for Nickelodeon over a month ago, just as I was finishing my cancer treatments and starting to try to rebuilt my animation career. (Nickelodeon said that if they developed something for which I was a good fit for my "Ben 10" "Batman Brave and Bold" style, they'd hire me...we'll see if they call...)

The TMNT are certainly going to change. Mutate, if you will. ;-) But it's all business. I think there's reason for optimism. It won't be the comics TMNT. It won't be the old movie TMNT. It won't be the familair cartoon TMNT. It'll be a new interpretation of a long-standing brand. Ironically enough, just as its always been through interpretation after interpretation.

Again, I love the TMNT and am so grateful for all they've added to my life and career. The Mirage guys have become lifelong friends, and I wish them only the best in their futures without the TMNT. I'm honored and touched that the last Mirage crew art was the fundraising print, the last Mirage-produced shirt was the fundraising shirt, and the last Kevin/Peter TMNT anything was the fundraising poster. It means so much to me. (The two fundraising prints/posters hang in our living room...) I owe a lot to Steve Murphy, Peter Laird, Dan Berger, and the rest of the Mirage gang.

Regardless, it's going to be very interesting to watch the TMNT evolve over the next several months and years.

Ultimate Fight Against Cancer

When I was at dinner with the wrestlers and MMA fighters on Sunday night, I learned about FightRibbon.com, a website that connects MMA fighters with cancer patients, and helps provide support to cancer fighters. It was very cool. Ultimate fighter Justin McCully is shooting a documentary semi in association with FightRibbon and I was interviewed about my cancer experience for it. Check out their website for more info on this cool dual fighting cause.

(Also, the pics are from their site, and were from that night. In the group shot, I didn't fit as the resturant door was right next to the group...the other picture is of me--though I think I look like crap--with fellow cancer survivors Sonya Van Dam [Rob Van Dam's wife; I adore her] and Henry "Dr. Chemo" who is the driving force behind FightRibbon.com.)