Re: Aesop's fables, was Re: Behind The Scenes

From: Dan Drazen <drazen_at_andrews.edu>
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 1996 14:38:19 -0500 (EST)

Ken:

This post pushed a couple of my favorite buttons:

[snip]
> By this
> time, especially with the Saturday morning cartoon rating really high with
> the kids, it became clear that anything that featured SONIC and his pals was
> going to be scooped up by the kid crowd. If we had put out a KNUCKLES book
> aimed at an older teen crowd, the parents of the pre-teen set would be out
> for blood, because here they would've bought a product they thought was
> appropriate for their little ones. The people at Archie knew this and
> resisted efforts to push toward the older crowd. Mike and I were among those
> that supported Archie in this. Sure, it meant we couldn't do some things we
> would have liked to, but it did force us to get more creative in our approach
> to the material.
>

I've got no problem with that. What I think might be a concern with
some of us on the list is...well, I remember a statement that was made
in the context of a documentary on Elvis Presley's film career. Someone
was quoted as saying: "After 'Jailhouse Rock' they thought they could
put Elvis in ANYTHING and it would make money. They were right."

THAT, I think, is the concern: not that you have a core audience and
you're sticking with it, but that the level of the writing might start
drifting downward to the lowest common denominator. Glad to hear you're
working to stay creatively fresh. Speaking of which:

[snip again]

>
> If one chooses to, one can go back and reread the stories Mike and I have
> done on a number of levels. For example, "IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT", I had a
> number of mothers read this story to see if we handled the subject of death
> appropriately enough. Not one objected. Not one.

I don't know when I first noticed Sonic comics for sale, but I can tell
you that the first issue I ever bought was #18, BECAUSE OF "In The Still
Of The Night"! I was THAT impressed with your handling of the death of
Julayla. It was excellent writing: nothing "happened" in the sense of
plot, but the story was very well written. And I especially loved your
elegant solution to the problem posed in the old "Kung Fu" TV series!

Yet the best part of the story was the way it added depth to the
characters -- I've said as much in previous posts on this list, some
addressed to Paul Castiglia. It made such an impression that I went so
far as to incorporate Julayla into one of my fanfic stories set in a
time when the freedom fighters were ten years old: "Capture The Flag."
But enough about me.

There have been examples of strong writing throughout the series:
"Wedding Bell Blues" saved the twist until the end, to good effect.
"That's The Spirit" worked well, though I thought Sally wouldn't be so
dismissive of Tails' insistance that Sonic was still alive--she seemed
more empathetic than that. But then you have the two-parter "Growing
Pains" which started out with such promise, and which not a few of the
members of this list latched onto, only to turn into a train wreck in
the second half. I don't know what you have planned for the next 18
months, but I know a lot of fans wouldn't be disappointed if you brought
back Fiona and had her joining the Knothole gang!

Just the usual $.02,

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Received on Sun Feb 11 1996 - 15:17:33 PST