Random Rejection: The Eclipse Comics Saga Part II

~ James Viscosi ~ 5 Comments

So after getting those encouraging letters from the editor at Eclipse, I had to actually produce the scripts. Fortunately that wasn’t a problem; I was pretty prolific back in the day. However, formatting was an issue. From reading reference books (in 1993, you couldn’t just hop on the Internet to find examples of comic book script layouts), I was aware that when submitting comic book scripts as a writer, you have to format them similarly to a movie script, with the action divided into panels. You have to supply POVs, camera angles, etc., and each line of dialogue is numbered; this is all so the artist will know how to arrange everything on the page.

As you can see from the Eclipse editor’s copious notes, in this early Night Watchman draft, I wasn’t very good at any of that yet.

Continue reading “Random Rejection: The Eclipse Comics Saga Part II” →

Random Rejection: The Eclipse Comics Saga Part I

~ James Viscosi ~ 14 Comments

So this week I pulled something really juicy out of my pile of rejections. I may have mentioned before that a number of my books, including Night Watchman and Dragon Stones, started out as comic book series proposals. I was working with an editor at the now-defunct Eclipse Comics on developing several of these. Unfortunately I’m not a particularly good artist, so I was submitting them as scripts that would be illustrated by others. How did it all work out in the end? Well, let’s just say I’ve lived in the San Diego area for eight years now and have yet to attend a Comic-Con.

Continue reading “Random Rejection: The Eclipse Comics Saga Part I” →

The Early Years: The Ultimate Reality Show Contestant Lineup?

~ James Viscosi ~ 8 Comments

Twoview: “Avatar” and “Food Inc.”

~ James Viscosi ~ 7 Comments

So in the last week we saw two movies, “Avatar” and “Food Inc.“. I decided to do capsule reviews of them together because they turn out to have a philosophy in common.

Continue reading “Twoview: “Avatar” and “Food Inc.”” →

Scene-Of-The-Month: Dragon Stones

~ James Viscosi ~ 4 Comments

The votes are in and the readers’ choice for the next scene of the month is Dragon Stones. Flipping randomly through the pages, I stopped at this scene, in which the kidnapped oracle Tolaria makes good her escape.

Continue reading “Scene-Of-The-Month: Dragon Stones” →

Random Rejection: Zoetrope

~ James Viscosi ~ 4 Comments

This week, I reached into the very back of my alphabetically-organized rejection list folder and pulled out this slip, from Francis Ford Coppola’s “Zoetrope” magazine:

Continue reading “Random Rejection: Zoetrope” →

The Early Years: You Forgot One

~ James Viscosi ~ 9 Comments

It’s never too soon to learn about the “five” senses:

Continue reading “The Early Years: You Forgot One” →

“Long Before Dawn” Now Available For Kindle

~ James Viscosi ~ 5 Comments

Not long ago, I announced that Dragon Stones had been ported to the Kindle e-book format. It has now been joined by Long Before Dawn, my vampire novel. Also, both Long Before Dawn and Dragon Stones are now available for Kindle for only 99 cents. Save a tree and a lot of money* and read electronically!

Continue reading ““Long Before Dawn” Now Available For Kindle” →

December Scene Of The Month: Do You Really Need To Ask?

~ James Viscosi ~ Leave a comment

The votes are in and for a while it looked like we would have a three-way tie for the next scene of the month, but at the last moment The Wolf pulled out ahead. So here, by popular demand, is the next scene from The Wolf!

Continue reading “December Scene Of The Month: Do You Really Need To Ask?” →

Review: “Drag Me To Hell”

~ James Viscosi ~ 3 Comments

So I finally got around to seeing Drag Me To Hell, Sam Raimi’s return to the horror genre after a lengthy detour through Marvel Comics territory with two of the best super-hero movies ever (Spider-Mans I and II) and one super-hero movie that kind of stunk (you know which one I mean). While not as loopy as Raimi’s earlier classics Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, and not as straight-up horrific as the original Evil Dead, DMTH is still a lot of fun — sort of like Darkman with maggots.

Continue reading “Review: “Drag Me To Hell”” →