I could backtrack a long ways to get to “the” origin of SAVAGE ANGELS, but let’s set our marker down here:

SERENITY started life as a monthly magazine concept; each issue would have a 45-page Serenity story, a couple of short stand alone stories, and an ongoing serial.

HITS & MISSES was supposed to be the first of those serials, Savage Angels was to be a follow-up.

Well, things changed.  Magazine publishing plunged into the toilet just as I started looking for partners so, finding no takers for a monthly mag, I went the original gn route.

…but that’s another story for another time.

Savage Angels came about during a long idea generating period where I was trying to come up with as many ideas as I could for the tween-to-teen / YA market (Angels is just the tip of the iceberg; wait till you see what we have on deck!).

I’ve always enjoyed shipwrecked-on-a-desert-island stories.  As a child, my grandmother and aunt gave me a wonderful slipcover edition of Swiss Family Robinson; I still have that book even though I almost read it to shreds while growing up.

And of course there’s the great-granddaddy of them all, Robinson Crusoe.

And Island Of The Blue Dolphins.

And even Gilligan’s Island.

And, probably most importantly re the origin of Savage Angels, Lord Of The Flies.

William Golding’s book is a harrowing tale of young boys stranded on an island descending into naked feral savagery.  It’s a kill-or-be-killed tale, and it does not offer a comforting view of humanity.

So I wondered, would the story have been any different if it was a group of girls, not boys?

…and the gears started turning.

(to be continued)

George Liquor………………………………………………………….Mark Driscoll

This is a precursor post to a longer one
I’m going to do on intellectual property,
copyrights, etc., etc., and of course, etc.

To understand any media business you must understand this:
Mass media is based on the proposition of people cheating one another.

To hear any mass media company complain about online piracy is like hearing Jeffery Dahmer complain his victims were too fattening.  All the major mass media companies subscribe to a business philosophy that is designed to cheat users and creators.

Let me walk you through a typical mass media deal — in this case how a movie gets produced and distributed — and you can see for yourself.

(And while this is specifically movie related,
trust me, every other medium has a similar system;
this example, in fact, is fairly straight forward.)

Assume you are a producer.  You have an idea for a movie.  You have a good script, a top director and bankable stars have signed letters of commitment, you have a budget:  $100,000,000 (a fairly modest budget nowadays)

You go to Miracle Movies, specifically to their production arm:  Miracle Studios.[1] You show ‘em your project, they say, “Great!  We’ll loan you $111,000,000 to make it.”

“But I only need $100,000,000.”

“Yes, but we charge a 10% fee for loaning you the money over and above the interest.  We’re going to keep $11,000,000.”

Well…okay, whaddya gonna do?
This is standard Hollywood rules of accounting.

So you go off and make your movie; 3 months of pre-production, 3 of actual production (using Miracle Studios’ own production facilities and sound stages per contractual obligation; they’re good but pricey).

To your surprise, the studio takes $15,000,000 from you.  Seems the picture with the highest budget shooting on the lot pays all the studio’s overhead, so 3 months x $5,000,000 = $15,000,000 over and above what you’re already paying their prop / wardrobe / carpentry / make-up / craft services departments.

Luckily, your production manager figured this into the budget.  The shoot goes remarkably smoothly, post-production (contractually obligated to use Miracle’s post facility) comes in on time & within budget, you wrap, deliver a print for studio approval, get it, and now it’s distribution time!

Your friends at Miracle Studios walk you across the hall to Miracle Distribution,[2] a separate sister company owned by Miracle Movies but wholly unaffiliated (wink-wink, nudge-nudge) with Miracle Studios.

Miracle Distribution thinks your movie is great and budgets $150,000,000 for publicity and distribution (150% of production budget being the standard PR / distribution rate).

You gulp but whaddya gonna do?
You’re contractually obliged to use them.

So they loan you an additional $150,000,000 (bring your total debt up to $261,000,000 but hey, who’s counting?).

– and promptly shave 30% ($45,000,000) off as their distribution fee.

So the movie gets distributed and to your delight scores a whopping $600,000,000 at the box office!  Huzzah, huzzah!  Visions of sugar plums dance in your head.

Then Miracle Distribution reminds you of the cross-collateralization clause in your contract.

See, to make sure they don’t lose any money, Miracle Distribution is allowed to share the wealth among other films they release in the same time period.[3]

Seems Miracle Distribution had one smash hit (yours), two break-even releases, two minor disappointments, and one major flop.

So they dump everybody’s box office in one big pool then divvy it up so your $600,000,000 blockbuster is now reduced to $300,000,000.

Oh, well, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, right?

So they take their $150,000,000 PR budget loan back…plus interest (we’ll be generous and hold it at about 17% or $25,000,000).  That leaves you with $125,000,000 to take back to Miracle Studios.

At Miracle Studios they reclaim their $111,000,000 then tack on their own 17% interest rate for loaning you the money, which comes to about $18,000,000 (give or take a few hundred thou).

That means you, the producer, are still in the hole for about $4,000,000 (which Miracle will write off as an investment loss on their taxes) despite having a box office smash.

But don’t worry, your career in Hollywood isn’t over; in fact, it’s just beginning:
Miracle Studios is eager to sign you to a long term contract to make more movies just like this one.

At these rates, they’d be crazy not to.

.

.

.

[1]  “If it’s a good movie, you know it’s a Miracle!”

[2]  “If it makes money, you know it’s a Miracle!”

[3]  It’s a real kneeslapper how billionaires & their corporations are quick to ensure they stay rich by having those below them share the wealth, but consider it socialism if it’s suggested the money flow in both directions.

“Do you still smoke cigars?”

“Well, I haven’t had one since last year,
so I guess the proper answer is:
I don’t know.”

Man, posting stuff like this online is practically like hanging a “kick me” sign on the seat of your intellectual pants waving a red cape at me.

Can you spot the first, biggest problem with this chart?

The chart fails to define evil.  Instead, it seems to lump everything from the mildly unpleasant to the outright destructive under the heading of “evil”.

To make any sense of this chart, to determine the validity of its proposition, we have to first determine the nature of evil.

Can either good or evil exist without free will?

No; the ability to make a moral choice is what defines good and evil.

Is it moral to deprive anyone of the ability to make a moral choice?

No, because without the ability to choose between good and evil,
one can not be moral; if one is denied the ability to even consider
doing immoral acts, one can not distinguish between the two.
There’s a key difference — a moral difference — between being unable
to choose between good and evil vs. being restrained from actually doing evil.

Is granting a person free will so they have the ability
to choose between good and evil a moral act?

Yes; because it allows that person total freedom to decide what they desire.

Does God desire for evil to exist?

No.

Does God desire all humans to show compassion for
one another and avoid evil of their own free will?

Yes.

Do humans of their own free will disobey God and visit evil on one another?

Yes.

Who then is responsible for evil?

Who do ya think?

Evil = unjustified needless harm to human beings and other living things

Harm = actual negative impact on a person or thing.  The person harmed may not be the direct target.  If we scream curses at drivers we don’t like, even though those particular drivers can’t hear us, we cultivate a negative mental outlook that will eventually manifest itself in real life against an innocent person.  The self-righteous always end up hurting the innocent; it comes with the territory.

Unjustified = does not prevent a greater harm.  Vaccinating children from polio is justified because even though a tiny percentage of children will suffer from the vaccine, far more would suffer if the vaccine was not administered.

Needless = a thing may be needless yet justifiable.  It is justifiable to prevent a proven dangerous criminal from committing more violence; it is needless to execute that person because imprisonment achieves the same result at a lesser cost.  However, a jury that votes to sentence a proven killer to death is not necessarily acting in an evil manner, depending on other factors involved.

Human beings = any living thing born of human parents with a functioning brain stem

Living things = any biological organism.  There is a hierarchy:  Creatures capable of thought and emotions should be given preference over non-thinking creatures that can experience physical pain, creatures that can experience pain are to be given preference over creatures incapable of experiencing pain, any living thing should be given preference over non-living things.

“Wandering past vacant pews and pulpits among guidebook-toting spectators, I become briefly nostalgic for the cathedrals’ sacred past, until, opening my guidebook, I study that past and find nothing sacred. The glittering walls and shrines are decorated with ill-gotten gold, stolen relics, and war booty. The soaring domes and spires were raised to heaven not from piety but ambition, to outdo nearby cathedrals and show that Florence was better than Pisa, as modern Malaysian and Shanghai architects compete to build the tallest skyscraper. The niches are filled with the tombs of the rich, not because rich men were holy then but because they wanted to buy the best salvation for themselves, as today’s rich use their millions to nuzzle up to power and buy the best laws and policies for themselves. In the cathedrals’ history as opposed to their aura, I recognize the same political machinations, class inequality, greed, and immorality that rule the world today—the trademark signs of man curiously grafted onto religion. Life has left Europe’s cathedrals, but God was never there.” — Brian Jay Stanley, “The Empty Cathedrals of Europe”

He’s going off on another rant, folks.
Those of you who want to learn why & how The Church
is finally entering the 21^st century, read on.
For the rest, this cute kitty picture is for you.

Read the rest of this article »

The redoubtable Charles Brubaker passed along this YouTube link to the one & only episode of T.K. Ryan’s Tumbleweeds comic strip ever animated & aired.

I bring this to your attention because:

1. I was (& still am) a big fan of the Tumbleweeds strip
2. I wrote this particular episode
3. We animated & aired it without the knowledge or permission of Mr. Ryan

How can you do such a thing?  Easy, if you’re Filmation Studios…

Well, that’s my topic of the day…

Filmation in 1978 was my first writing gig in Hollywood.  I had been hired after luckily knocking on the right door at the right time & put to work on a show that had the dubious distinction of being cancelled even before the first episode was completed.

Nevermind, there was other stuff to do.

After writing several segments of the Tarzan And The Super 7 series[1], I was moved over to another show:  The Fabulous Funnies[2].

Frankly, it was a lousy idea for a show.  Almost all the comic strips they selected were old & anemic even at that time; I couldn’t imagine any kid being interested in them.

There were two exceptions:
Broom-Hilda, which at 8 years of age was the newbie in the pile, and Ryan’s Tumbleweeds, which began in 1965.

I’d been reading Tumbleweeds since junior high and had the first paperback collection.  While somewhat extreme in its stylization, it had a sly, savage wit and cartoonist T. K. Ryan filled it up with a cast of memorable eccentric characters, each a delightful off-beat take on Western cliches.

Naturally, I glommed onto Tumbleweeds the moment I was assigned to the show, eager to make full use of its wide range of characters and situations.

Only one problem:  The budget was so small we could only afford 4 voice actors on the show.

And to make matters worse, we weren’t allowed to use any of the Indian characters because the network would let us record their voices with non-Native American actors and at the time the only Native American actor anybody in Hollywood knew was Iron Eyes Cody[3], who was waaaaaaay too expensive for Filmation.

Fortunately there was a workaround for the Indian situation.  Two of the strips recurring Native American characters — Lotsa Luck and Bucolic Buffalo — were mute.  Further, in the strip Lotsa Luck communicated by scribbling notes for other characters to read, so I was able to secure permission from the network to use them.

The person whom we didn’t secure permission from was T. K. Ryan.

It seems Filmation sold the idea of the show to the network without first formally securing the rights to any of the comic strips.

Once the series was picked up, Filmation’s lawyer then went to the various strips & picked up the rights.  Most of the rights were granted through syndicates, but Ryan personally held all rights to Tumbleweeds.

So Filmation’s lawyer contacted Ryan and told him Filmation was interested in doing a Tumbleweeds segment of The Fabulous Funnies and Ryan said he’d like to see a storyboard first so he could tell if we knew how to handle his characters and Filmation’s lawyer said sure and then he called the producer and told him Ryan was okay with the idea.

So I started writing.

I was disappointed to learn there were only going to be four Tumbleweeds segments but I was determined to make the best of them.  The first was the short segment seen above, a brief intro to the characters and setting before getting ito the real character comedy.

So I wrote it and it was storyboarded and animated and produced and aired.

And the following Monday Filmation got a call from Mr. Ryan’s lawer, saying Mr. Ryan liked the episode very much only he wondered why Filmation never bothered to sign a contract with him…

Can you say “Oops!”, boys and girls?[4]

Anyway, long story short, Filmation quickly ponied up and, for reasons I could never fathom, opted to removed Tumbleweeds entirely from the show rather than run the segment again or make new ones.

They even went to the trouble of editing him out of the main titles.

Ryan kept the ‘Weed running for another 30 years, finally signing off in December 2007 in one of the classier endings of a comic strip.

I’m truly sorry we never got a real chance to do something with his characters; they were perfect for animation.

.

.

.

[1]  Yeah, yeah, I know:  No way is it possible to configure that show & end up with the number 7.  We figured if the network didn’t care, why should we.

[2]  Which was neither

[3]  Trust me, I am deeply appreciative of the irony here…

[4]  I knew you could.

Coming soon from Snokies Stories
Preliminary art (not final) by Drigz Abrot
Savage Angels (c) Buzz Dixon & Snokie