Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The blog that ate itself

I meant to post something about Joker: The Vile and the Villainous! a while back, but I didn't want to post anything before it aired, because I couldn't think of anything to say that wasn't spoilery (even the title itself is a little spoilery for my tastes), so I figured I'd post something after it aired. But then I got really busy, and this is the first chance I've had to sit down and blog, so here we go.


So anyways, Joker: The Vile and the Villainous - this was the first story written for Season 3, and according to Michael Jelenic, the concept for the episode was inspired by none other than this very blog, specifically this post! So that was nice to hear.

We (Michael, James Tucker, Jim Krieg and I) blocked out the structure of the story over the course of a morning, then James left us with one unresolved piece of the puzzle - who would the Joker team up with? So spent a lot of time (most of a full afternoon) trying to come up with a partner for the Joker, running through a couple of candidates that weren't quite right, until James saved our collective behinds by emailing in from nowhere with the Weeper.

This Friday, Night of the Batmen!, our adaptation of issue 13 of the comic book - after which, another blog post, featuring an apology from me to one particular fanbase that's sure to hate me when they find out what we've done (or rather, didn't do)!

Image ™ and © DC Comics

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you allowed to say which candidates were considered before the Weeper?

Monzo said...

I've got to ask - was Kamandi's weird outfit from the comics? It felt like a reference to something, but I've never actually read Kamandi.

This episode's cold opener was actually the most that Kamandi has clicked with me on the show. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood when I was watching his other appearances, or maybe he felt less... snot-nosed here, or something. I'd still like to see him team up with Thundarr the Barbarian, though.

By the way, Ben, have you seen Japanese Filmation Batman and the Italian Batman: The Animated Series opening? They're... something.

http://youtu.be/ItIXcpf6uhw

http://youtu.be/N4RvzmuDfYE

Ben Jones said...

Anonymous - I think I will have to wait until the end of the season, but then it should be fine.

Monzo - Kamandi's outfit is the one the Tiger people put on him when he was captured and kept as a pet in the comic. I don't remember which issue, but it's in the Kirby issues early on. It doesn't really fit in our story, I just liked it.

Those openings are new to me - I can't believe there's a market for 2 minute opening sequences, but apparently there is.

Anonymous said...

Hmm, the no answer is just as interesting.

But I'm 99% the outfit in question was from Issue 1 or 2 of the Kamandi series. It's also in the first Kamandi Archive. I know it's part of the story when he first encounters the Tiger Men, Dr. Canus, and Ben Boxer.

Ben Jones said...

I wish everyone was so satisfied with a "no comment" answer.

Anonymous said...

I like it very much!

Kike said...

I still cant believe The Joker destroys the planet Earth... just for laughs!!

Anonymous said...

So yeah, who were those candidates considered before the Weeper?

Why was Bulletman not identified as Bulletman in the episode or voice cast credits?

Ben Jones said...

Before the Weeper, we considered the Mad Monk, as a villain who predated the Joker, and the Mad Hatter, for reasons I can't remember.

We figured Standards & Practices might not like Bulletman's name, so we never submitted it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for answering so quick!