Bill Willingham's Blog, page 5

‘The Wolf Among Us’ Trailer

The trailer for the upcoming Fables game from Telltale has finally launched.

Here’s your first “Big” look at The Wolf Among Us:

The Wolf Among Us Trailer

The trailer for the upcoming Fables game from Telltale has finally launched.

Here’s your first “Big” look at The Wolf Among Us:

The Harvey Awards

We just wanted to share some news with all of you:

The @HarveyAwards is pleased to announce that the Host of the 2013 award ceremony will be Bill Willingham! @BillWillingham

— The Harvey Awards! (@HarveyAwards) August 7, 2013

So, who’s going to be in Baltimore in a few weeks?

Thank You Boston

Thank to everyone who came to visit the booth this weekend at Boston Comic Con. If you’ve been to see Bill at another convention, you may have noticed that this time around, we now have a banner at our table with art by the incredibly talented James Jean.

We also had a donation jar for the Hero Initiative. It was not necessary to donate to get an autograph, but for those of you who did donate, thank you SO much from us and on behalf of the Hero Initiative. If you aren’t familiar with the charity, check out their web site here.

We raised over $500

This is Stephanie, Bill’s assistant, rolling around in the Hero Initiative money.

Boston Comic Con Schedule

The rescheduled Boston Comic Con is coming up this weekend (August 3-4) and Bill will be in attendance at the show. It’s been moved to the World Seaport Trade Center and Bill really hopes to see you there.

He will mainly be signing at his booth for the weekend (table number is TBA), but outside of that you can find Bill at the following places:

Saturday August 3

4:00-4:45pm – Fables Panel with Phil Jimenez, Barry Kitson and Chrissie Zullo in the Waterfront Room

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That’s currently it for the weekend, it’s a pretty light one for panels and such, so if you are interested in getting something signed or meeting Bill in person, please make sure to swing by the booth over the weekend. We’ll be posting up exactly which booth once we know.

We hope to see you there!

The Blank Page Project

Unfortunately this year, Bill will NOT be in attendance at San Diego Comic Con. And even though Bill will not be in attendance, there still remains a TON of events that he wishes he could be there to support. Hero Initiative always does a ton of fantastic work at conventions and along with ComiXology, they will be working together on a huge charity project called THE BLANK PAGE PROJECT.

What is this project, you ask? Well let us tell you a bit about it so that if you happen to be at SDCC, you can support it…

The Hero Initiative and comiXology are sponsoring an event at Comic-Con International this year we’re calling THE BLANK PAGE PROJECT. This will be a charity event that Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner will also be co-hosting. Creators are invited to come and enjoy drinks while drawing or signing on to a gigantic 12×8 foot comic book page that will be auctioned off later for charity. Fans are invited to come by and watch the event take place.

Where: Hilton Bayfront Vela Restaurant (in the back of the hotel at the ground level walking distance from convention center. east side of Convention center.)

When: Thursday July 18th 5pm – 7pm

This will be a fully catered event, with free food and non-alcoholic drinks for all!

All of the proceeds from THE BLANK PAGE PROJECT will go to Hero Initiative, so please check it out and support the event. If you are a creator and want to learn more about how to participate in the project, contact Chip Mosher from ComiXology for more details.

Funerals to Begin a New Novel

This should become a real thing. The more I think about this, the more it makes sense.

Hold a funeral for a writer on the evening before he sits down to begin a new novel. Treat him as the departed, for he is indeed about to depart from you for a long time.

Just like the purpose of a real funeral isn’t really to do anything for the departed, it’s to comfort those he’s leaving behind. In this case, the pre-novel funeral can be a comfort for those about to be abandoned for two to four months.

More to the point, it’s an official way for the departed to remind each and every friend and family member that they won’t be seeing him and shouldn’t try to contact him, and shouldn’t expect to hear from him, but not to take that as a slight. After all, who can take umbrage at no longer receiving calls and visits from the departed after his funeral?

I’ve never been comfortable holding wrap parties and publication parties, because it smacks too much of, “Why don’t all of you get together and celebrate me?” which seems more than a bit too egotistical. Instead hold the party at the beginning of the ordeal, when its focus is not on honoring the writer, but on exalting all of the friends and family who are going to pitch in, sacrifice, and generally be such a wonderful help to the departed – by leaving him alone for as long as he needs to be left alone.

Just a thought.

The Never Ending Interview: Day Eleven

One question a day will be addressed, for as long as it remains interesting to me, and the questions keep coming.

Today’s question was asked by Matthew Wilson aka @COLORnMATT.

Matthew: How come you hate it (Zombie stories)?

Bill: For two reasons. First, zombies aren’t interesting villains. They’re mindless. They have no agenda, no plans, no hopes and dreams. They are bacteria, bent on world domination for no other reason than that’s the extent of their limited programming. A sprig of ivy is also programmed to mindlessly cover the entire Earth, only failing because of all of the competing forces arrayed against it. While that might be a mildly interesting fact, I’ve no desire to see any film, or read any book about ivy’s quest for world domination. It’s boring. Just like zombies.

Second, and this is the big reason, then, if the threat is mindless and boring, one would think the interesting story is to be found in those survivors fighting against the threat. To which my answer is: Yes, that would be nice, to see a story about clever and resourceful survivors determined to live, to defeat the zombie menace, and triumph.

The problem is, after any number of zombie films, TV shows and stories, I’ve yet to see one about clever and resourceful people. Every one so far has been about

idiots who don’t deserve to live, because they always do the stupidest possible things in the face of what should be, or could be, a manageable threat. Even in stories that posit there are groups of more clever and resourceful groups out there, fighting the good fight, we seem to be stuck in a genre in which we aren’t allowed to see those groups. We, for reasons beyond my understanding (other than it seems to be locked in as a staple of the genre), have to follow the exploits of morons. I quickly get tired of watching dramatic conflict generated by idiots doing suicidal things. Please, for once, tell me the stories of the better, smarter ones.

I’m not saying every zombie story has to be about stupid people. I’m only saying, so far, every one I’ve tried has been. After a while, one begins to trust the pattern.

To every rule, the occasional exception, which is why I haven’t abandoned all hope. In the opening scene of the very first of the Game of Thrones books, we’re introduced to the zombie threat, which will be hanging over our heads for (what looks like) the entirety of the series. My immediate reaction was to put the book down and forget it, for all of the reasons mentioned above. However, it was George RR Martin, who had a proven track record of delivering good stories, so I hung on long enough to see the first hints that the zombie menace wasn’t alone – that they were, and would be, under the direction of a group of really bad fellows called The White Walkers, who weren’t mindless, who did have a specific agenda and a plan to bring said agenda about.

Now that’s a fine new take on a tired old premise. Yes, there are mindless zombies, but they happen to be a weapon in the hands of intelligent villains. Good for you, George.

That took care of my first of the two objections to the genre.

There’s also some promise that, after a few terrible blunders in the face of an enemy the still living people couldn’t and quite bring themselves to credit (which is fine – since I don’t mind heroes that make terrible mistakes, but I can’t forgive those who are incapable of learning and adjusting to the early blunders), the doughty men and women of Westeros will be able to step up and deal with the threat in reasoned ways.

I’m also looking forward to the movie World War Z, which promises (or at least the trailers hint at the possibility) that this will be a story of smart people in the face of a nearly overwhelming calamity, which is a fine sort of story to tell.

We’ll see.

Now that I’ve told you what I don’t like and why, let me point you towards something I do like. For one of the best stories ever about an isolated group of men and women facing a seemingly overwhelming monstrous force read the book Legacy of Heorot, by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes. Before picking up this book I would have sworn that a story with three authors couldn’t possibly be worth reading (according to the always reliable “too many cooks and the resulting soup” rule), but it turns out I was not only wrong, but horribly so.

Heorot is about a group of us colonizing a new world and what happens when they encounter a monster. (Spoilers now.) They make a lot of mistakes at first.

As a result the first encounter with the monster nearly destroys the colony. But these characters aren’t zombie-story idiots. The survivors adapt, learn and overcome, because that’s what we do. And when their solutions create even bigger problems… well, that’s where the tale gets really exciting.

Niven, Pournelle and Barnes have written a template for monster stories that, if it magically became the template to replace the one currently dominating zombie stories, I’d be a much happier reader.

DC Comic ‘Fables’ Targeted for Film Adaptation With ‘Royal Affair’ Director (Exclusive)

David Heyman, who produced the “Harry Potter” movies,” is developing the fantasy project.

Fables, DC/Vertigo’s long-running and acclaimed comic book series, is being targeted for the big screen.

Nikolaj Arcel, who directed the well-received Danish film A Royal Affair, is attached to direct the fantasy adaptation, which will be written by Jeremy Slater. David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford of Heyday Films, the shingle behind the Harry Potter movies, are on board to produce.

Fables, created in 2002 by Bill Willingham, centers on fairy- and folktale characters ranging from Snow White and Cinderella to the Big Bad Wolf and Little Boy Blue, who are kicked out of their world and now live in a secret pocket of New York City. The series has won 14 Eisner awards for its storytelling and art.

In 2004, Warner Bros. tried to develop a movie with the Jim Henson Company but didn’t get to the writing stage.

In late 2008, the comic was getting the TV treatment via ABC and was going be written by Six Degrees scribes Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner and directed by David Semel (American Horror Story). That too didn’t take, although ABC went on to air the viewer favorite Once Upon a Time, also about fairy tale characters in the real world.

Slater worked on a draft of the Fox Fantastic Four reboot and is repped by UTA and Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment.

Arcel’s Affair was a period drama which starred Alicia Vikander and Mads Mikkelsen and was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign film category. The filmmaker, who also co-wrote the screenplay to the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is repped by WME and U.K.’s United Agents.

Article posted from The Hollywood Reporter

Vertigo Giants Combine as UNWRITTEN Visits FABLEtown

by Vaneta Rogers, Newsarama Contributor
Date: 30 May 2013 Time: 12:00 PM ET

Those meddling-yet-ingenious witches from Fables have really done it this time. They cast some type of spell that stole the characters from Unwritten and thrust them into the world of Fables.

It’s all part of the highly anticipated mash-up between the two popular Vertigo series, as Tom Taylor and other Unwritten characters visit the world of Bigby Wolf, Frau Totenkinder and their fellow Fables. It begins in The Unwritten #50, which celebrates the anniversary issue of the series created by writer Mike Carey and artist Peter Gross.

The story takes place entirely within the next five issues of Unwritten, but it has the expressed support of Fables creator Bill Willingham and some artistic assistance from Fables artist Mark Buckingham (as demonstrated by the art being previewed with this interview).

According to what Willingham recently told Newsarama, the universes will “collide in a big, damaging way, perhaps for both fictional universes.

The Unwritten tells the story of Tom Taylor, a man whose father has written a series of fantasy novels starring a boy wizard named “Tommy Taylor.” When the comic began, the world treated Tommy as if he’s the “real-life” version of the young hero from the novels.

But now that the comic is heading toward June’s issue #50, the story in The Unwritten has shown that there’s much more to Tommy’s “real-life” existence than meets the eye. Through the lens of Tommy’s adventures, The Unwritten has explored the amazing power of stories, and the close relationship between fiction and life.

As such, the Fables/Unwritten mash-up makes sense, because both series blur the line between fact and fiction.

But what does this meeting between Tom and the witches mean? How does it help to answer Tom’s questions about his own existence? And where does this take place within the Fables continuity? We talked to both

Newsarama: First off, Mike, did I read issue #49 correctly that Tom got pulled away before Pauly was able to look him in the eyes?

Mike Carey: Yes, he did. Yeah. Pauly was still steeling himself enough to turn around. And then the decision was taken out of his… paws.

Nrama: So that means Tom’s actions had nothing to do with his sudden appearance in the world of Fables. Was it the witches of Fables who have have summoned Tom to the world of Fables? And if so, why do they think Tom is special enough to pull into their world?

Carey: It’s a good question. Clearly, they have some urgent business.

Up until this point, Tom has been, at least as far as he was concerned, calling the shots. He had his grand plan to go even deeper, even though he’s already in the underworld, to go in the very bottom, the very source of the power that is seemingly being channeled through him.

At this crucial moment, he’s taken away. He’s taken into a completely different context.

I don’t want to say too much about why the witches have summoned him, or why he has appeared in response to the witches’ summon. But with issue #50, that’s something we address right out of the gate: Why is he there.

Nrama: As you said, Tom wanted to go as deep as it’s possible to go, so that he could learn more about his own nature. Does this tangent in his journey completely take him off track from learning what he wanted? Or will this teach him something about the nature of the power after all.

Carey: Very much the last one. Yeah, it may seem to be a detour, but it’s part of his quest. It’s part of his journey. In fact, it’s a vital part of his journey.

Bill Willingham: This isn’t just an interruption in what he was doing. This is a continuation of it. And it’s as much his powers at work here as the witches grabbing him at an inopportune moment.

Nrama: Bill, we know what’s going on in Fables right now. But solicitations mention Mr. Dark, which implies it’s in the past. When does this story in Unwritten take place in Fables continuity? Can you say when does Tom drop in on the witches and these other characters?



Willingham: No. I’m not just being coy, and I promise I’m not. But the structure of the story is such that — and it’s revealed pretty quickly, so it’s a mystery that will not take too long to unravel — by stating when it happens would really give away what this story is.

And I think that speaks well for the story in the sense that to reveal any part of it endangers revealing the whole wonderful surprise. It’s very rare you get a story that well built, that everything is needed intact. So I would like to beg off and say that I can’t say when it occurs in the Fables timeline, because it’s like, you know, a little bit of the camel’s foot under the tent that reveals the whole damn thing.

Nrama: Tom is alone now. What does that mean to this part of the story, and why did you choose that for the Fables crossover?

Carey: I guess because there’s almost like shamanic element to what he’s doing. He’s on a quest to discover not just truth about how the world works, but truth about himself — including the ultimate truth about himself, which is what is he?

There’s a time at which you can’t bring your furniture with you. You can’t bring your weapons or all the equipment. He just has to go naked into it.

Having said that, we will see other characters from Unwritten continuity, some of the core cast and some rather surprising characters popping up from Tom’s past.



Willingham: And really — and this is me being a fan of Unwritten here — regardless of how crowded the Unwritten book has gotten from time to time, can we not agree that Tom is just about one of the most alone characters ever written in any series, ever. I think it’s worked wonderfully in that sense. He is literally brought alone into this.

I think he’s alone all the time regardless.

Carey: Yeah, that’s true.

Nrama: I thought it was interesting that you said his ultimate truth he’s seeking in his quest is what he is. Once he enters the realm of the Fables, though, aren’t there differences in the nature of stories and characters and how they function in those universes? They seem to have a little different ideas behind the interaction between fiction and reality. Do you resolve that difference in this story?

Carey: Resolve is a very loaded word. We’re certainly moving towards a resolution.

Tom’s nature is hugely on the table in #50. It’s a very urgent question for him and for the people that he’s meeting.

Do we provide the full answer of what Tom is? No. No, we don’t. Not straightaway. But we’re definitely addressing that question. And we’re giving more pieces of the puzzle.



Nrama: Bill, as you mentioned, you’re a fan of Unwritten. When did you know about the series, and at what point did you want to have the Fables characters interact with Unwritten. Or was it Mike’s request?

Willingham: Oh, I’m sure it was early on that I wanted Fables and Unwritten to interact. But I was a fan of the book from the very first issue. As a matter of fact, I think I got the first issue early, because we ran preview pages in Fables. I got to look at the other before it was out. So technically, I was a fan of the book before it came out. It’s just wonderful.

I approached it entirely as a reader right away, saying, this is wonderful and people need to read this. The very first issue just established all the potential of it. Yeah, I had played around with some of the same themes and situations in Fables, and even pre-Fables, started a couple of book ideas that were close to Unwritten. But I couldn’t nail just exactly how it should be handled. And right away, when I saw the first issue, I saw that, yes, this is exactly how this should have been handled.

So yes, I was a fan of it from the get-go.

Carey: But to address the other side of that question, yes, there was begging on my side as well. There were a great many Fables characters that I was aching to write and aching to introduce Tom to. It’s a fantasy, a dream-come-true for me, to do this.

Nrama: Mike, as Bill said, Tom has been alone, and yet he’s been transforming through the series by letting in compassion and, I think, love, and he’s growing into a hero. Where might the Fables crossover challenge him in his continued growth in that direction?



Carey: I think — trying to avoid spoilers — he is going to be put in a position where more is being asked of him than he can easily give. He is going to be called upon to show a kind of courage and a kind of skill that he hasn’t been asked to show before. But then, the people who are asking this are making huge sacrifices themselves and are taking huge risks.

It’s definitely a turning point, I think, in his development as a character.

And yeah, we’ve seen him learn to let some of his barriers down. We’ve seen him become less self-centered. And we’ve seen him become, you know, more generous, I think, in his nature.

But I think he’s never been in quite such a perilous situation as this, and he’s never had quite so much weight on his shoulders as this.

Nrama: Much of his growth has been on a personal level. Does this story take it to a bigger level, because he’s helping a world that he doesn’t know? I know you mentioned that some other characters from Unwritten show up, but it would seem that most of the peril is among people with whom he’s not connected.

Carey: It’s still very personal, even though, yes, he is joining somebody else’s fight. But there’s a huge amount at stake for him, both in terms of what he finds out about himself in the course of the story and there are relationships that he enters into which have a lot of significance for him going forward.

So yes, it stays a very personal story.

I think one of the huge pleasures of working on this arc has been expressing those issues through Bill’s characters and through Bill’s world. It’s been a joy.



Nrama: Bill, what’s it been like working with Mike and seeing what he’s creating with these characters?

Willingham: I think this only occurs to writers or other creative people, that there’s this kind of simultaneous joy and brotherhood, and then a very malicious evil that rears its head, because when Mike — and this rose out of a conversation between Mike and Mark Buckingham in England — when he presented the premise for the actual story, there were so many things in it that opened by eyes, that I should have thought of this myself, that there was a good part of me that wanted to have him killed, so then these would be my ideas. And all that.

When I write books, for example Fables, I try to write the book that I would want to read, and that’s the only real morally authentic way to go about any kind of writing at all. Otherwise it’s some cynical motivation like, you know, what do I think will sell, or what are the kids buying right now. And in the Unwritten, from the first issue, I recognized, “Oh this book was written specifically for me to read.”

And it’s rare, but it happens. These things like, somehow, they must have designed it specifically for me to read.

That’s what this story is. This [Unwritten/Fables] story is someone else saying, “Here’s another thing you should be doing with Fables, and look, you could do this and this and this and this,” and every one of them, I was like, “YES! YES! That’s exactly the story that should be told with these characters.” And that was wonderful, in a very frustrating, “how-was-it-I-missed-that” sort of way.

Originally posted on Newsarama.