If you are a comics fan, then you've probably seen that one quiet guy in the comics shop, who never says much, but is always very friendly whenever you see them. Jason is that type of guy. I think I first met Jason at the Comics Club where we were going to discuss the Kree Skrull war by Roy Thomas. We got talked to Roy Thomas via phone that evening, and he had a ton of great stories for us! After the meeting several of us went to Ruby Tuesdays for coffee and cheese cake. Jason sat across from me at that little soiree, and I don't think he actually said 3 sentences the entire time. I figured he was either shy, or was too worn out by the awesome Roy Thomas phone interview to really contribute to the after club meeting. This really didn't strike as that odd because I once knew a really shy guy who only talked when he was talking to his CB radio.
Well, over the past year, Jason and I have passed each other at the Comics Club meetings, or at HeroesCon, but to be honest, he was way low on my radar of people to consider ask to submit a Flashback story. I wasn't even sure he even knew what Flashback Universe was.
Well one day I get an e-mail from Jason asking if he can submit a Kondorr story. As fortune would have it, Chris Sims had *just* requested to write a Kondorr story a few days prior, with a very impassioned story pitch, so I had to tell Jason no. Sort of.
What I ended up doing was telling Jason that I *really* needed a GodSpeed story, and that since I've already established *some* sort of relationship between the two characters, why not have Kondorr in the GodSpeed story?
And then, I promptly forgot about Jason's request (I get a LOT of e-mails from people requesting to write for Flashback Universe. Usually I assign the requester an Action Item, and see how they do with that. If don't think about it until I get the response to the Action Item.)
Well, a few days later, Jason sends me what is probably the single best story pitch I've ever gotten! It was short and sweet (ALWAYS a plus with pitches) but most of all, it was CHARACTER driven. Jason had come up with a beautiful plot that involved both Kondorr and GodSpeed and played off of their personalities in a perfect way. I wasted no time in giving Jason the green light on his script.
Since then, Jason has been hard at work hammering out the plot details (which have been quite interesting.) He's also come up with some great new characters for the Flashback Universe that I'm sure everyone will enjoy! Just goes to show those quiet guys can really surprise you!
Here are Jason's answers to the Creator Survey:
What Flashback Universe comic did you work on, or are you currently scheduled to work on?
Godspeed (guest starring Kondorr the Killer)
Do you have a blog or portfolio site:
What comics from the 70's did you like when you were growing up?
I didn't really get into comics until about six years ago, so I missed a lotof great stuff growing up. I'm working on reading back through some 70'sand 80's stuff and I'm finding that I enjoy Roger Stern's writing on theAvengers.What writers/artists do you think you are most influenced by?Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, Marv Wolfman, Chuck Dixon, Peter David
Current trend in comics you hate now?
More than anything right now, I hate the over-the-top gore and 'mature themes' in a lot of modern books. It seems that there are a lot of attempts to 'shock' the reader with an extreme level of violence. I know that those things aren't what I look for in a superhero book and I don't think they're necessary to tell a great story.
Current trend in comics you like now?I love backup stories and anthology books.
Aside from getting new talent achance to get some work in, you get to read some stories without too muchdecompression. You also see the bigger publishers take more of a chance ona small backup or anthology story than you do in a full-sized book.
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