Interview:Blackout

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RS: So you two haven't actually talked yet.

MS: No, no, only online. So it's good to meet you, Jason!

JB: You too, you too, man. Thank you for such a great, fun script.

MS: Well, thank you for what you did with it. Everything I've told you online and in our emails has been really true. I've been really, really happy with it.

JB: Thanks. It's just one of those things that's the nature of our art--I look back on our stuff and think, "Oh, more time! More time!" But there's never more time, so it is what it is!

MS: Believe me, I look at this stuff the same way. You did a tremendous job, especially considering how short the deadline was.

JB: Yeah, and I just really did a bollocks up job of managing my time this time. I've done bigger jobs in shorter time, but this time just alluded me. And you can tell because of the number of photos I used rather than just drawing backgrounds. Ah well, it was fun!

MS: It's definitely been fun for me. I'm excited, and I'm kind of sad, actually, because at least for now it's over.

JB: I'm sure there'll be more opportunities, man. Given the feedback on the boards, which has been great for you. It's some of the best comments I'm getting from people--that it feels like an in-continuity story, about the tone of what you wrote. Hopefully the people in the production offices will sit up and pay attention to that.

MS: I hope so, and thank you. Anyway, sorry, Ryan.

JB: Oh yeah, Ryan!

RS: Oh no, that's fine! I had a feeling I was going to sit back and just listen to you two talk most of the time, and that's just fine with me! [all laugh] You talked about the deadlines. What exactly where the deadlines, and the logistics of getting your work done?

MS: To back up a little, and I mentioned some of this online, Jesse Alexander and Aron Coleite had gotten in touch with me. Months ago, Jesse asked me if I wanted to do something for Heroes. I of course said yes. And then a couple of months went by I didn't really know what to expect. Aron called me and basically said that it had to be a Suresh story, two parts, ten pages. It gave me a very basic outline. He told me where Suresh was as a character--basically on a Professor X journey to find funding and people to help him with his project. He said Suresh should find somebody who has the same disease, or at least what we think is the same disease as his sister's, but then manifests to be another power. So that's sort of the assignment I was given. And then they threw out a power or two--which I won't say because they may use it again--and then I threw out a couple. I threw out one that I thought was killer and would have worked perfectly, but then they told me, "Oh, we're actually using it." It's actually something for the fans to look forward to. I wish I could say more about it. But they're going to do a better job with it than I would. So from that point I got frustrated because I thought I had the best power and I couldn't use it. So I ran this one by them. The story had pretty much been similar for both powers. To me, it was definitely a story about somebody getting sick as a result of their power and having a power that cost other people something and having that choice, and Suresh being in a place to help them. They okayed my next draft--that was a one page treatment. From there, they were like, "Just go right to script." They gave me basically a week for each 5-page chapter. Then I handed that stuff directly in to Aron and Chuck Kim, another writer who works there. I didn't have any contact with Jason, so he can take it from there.

JB: Sure. My liaison is Frank Mastromauro. One of the great things about the script is that both parts came in at once. Normally, I'll just get the first half, like with The Death of Hana Gitelman. With War Buddies, I was getting one installment every week. So it was great to read the whole thing and say, "Okay. What are we going to plan out? What has to work across the entire thing?" One of the great things about having the whole script is when he pulls the mountain bike out of the car in the end, I think, "It's gotta be a car you can put a mountain bike into." So it's just a little detail like that if I had drawn a sedan in the first one, well how the hell is he going to get a mountain bike in there? So it was great having the whole script. I had about five days to draw the first one and about seven days to draw the second one. I also cut into myself on the first one, coming right off another project. Two gross errors of mismanagement: On the first page in the second panel, you see a picture of Hiro holding the sword and Claire running out of the fire, which Mark wrote in the script. Well, I drew big, poster-size images--I got so carried away! [laughs] And the second thing I did which I miscalculated was--and I've never done this before--I miscalculated the time zone difference between Melbourne and L.A., and I came in a day late. But Frank was really cool with that. So both parts at once--it was great!