The Bill Show: Episode Five
Hi, I’m Bill. This is my show. Let’s begin.
Our Top Story
Bill Does a Sketchbook
Finally, when he’s at the twilight of his life, having attended one convention after another for the past forty years, wherein just about every artist there had a published sketchbook for sale (and often had a new one every year), Bill bravely decided to hesitantly dip his toe into the same waters. “Is it safe?” he said, like Marathon Man’s dentist, ready to bolt at the first sign of difficulty.
Wait. Why is this item in the Top Story section, rather than the, “Bill’s trying to sell you something,” section? Because the sketchbook isn’t ready yet. In fact Bill just the day before yesterday dropped all the material for it off at the printers, and then drove home in a panic, thinking of all the questions he should’ve asked and the instructions he should’ve given.
It’s not here yet, nor available for sale, but it’s close. The sketchbook is nigh.
Does it Have a Theme?
Yes. Most of those sketchbooks from other artists, to be found out there in the wild, do have a theme of some sort, so this one should too, right? Just like Frank Cho with his Apes and Babes, or William Stout with his annual dinosaur sketchbook, or Adam Hughes with his… let’s say pretty girls… and not how Adam has described them, when deep in his cups, “Adam Hughes’ Greatest Tits!”, this one has a theme of sorts. Not much of one, all things considered, but, like a pilfered rug, it’s something to tie the room together.
Bill Willingham’s Story Fragments, is what he’s calling it, and it’s about works-in-progress, and things that were begun and then set aside for later, or set aside forever, most of which were intended to be part of telling an interesting story.
Why Are You Telling Us Now?
Sure, why not wait until it’s out? Because, having gone back and forth, time and time again, over whether or not to include explanatory texts as part of the package, Bill decided to present the images clean in the book itself, without text. But Bill isn’t happy unless he’s explaining things, usually in much more detail than anyone wanted, much less requested. So then, in the spirit of having his cake and eating it too, though he eschewed text bits in the book itself, Bill will be providing them here, for those who like liner notes on albums.
Here then are some things about some of the things you’ll find in the book. In future installments we’ll provide a few other notes, about some of the other illustrations, until you’re so stoked up by the time it’s actually available, you can’t help but immediately snatch it up… at least that’s Bill’s insidious plan.
Elric vs Zombie Conan, Zombie Red Sonja, and Zombie Fafhrd
And one can assume a zombie Grey Mouser is lurking about the same catacombs somewhere, but didn’t shamble up in time to get himself into the picture. It’s on page 3 of the sketchbook. This is a work-in-progress commission Bill is doing for (one presumes) an Elric fan.
Bill mostly writes for a living now, but likes to keep his drawing hand trained, so, once in a great while he opens up his list for a few (a very few) art commissions. He only accepts single figure commissions, but will often add additional figures, and background details, for no added charge, simply because he wants to. “A good illustration should tell a story,” Bill often says, so he tries to make sure each commission tells a story – or at least suggests a story to be told.
Down Among the Hellhounds
Some of you will remember an eleven-issue ribald comic series called Ironwood. Many years ago Bill wrote and drew (and inked and lettered and painted the covers too, because it was such a low-pay operation he couldn’t afford to enlist anyone else to help do it. You’ll recognize the return of Dave Dragavon (whose name was actually based on a friend from college, whose name was Dave Dragavon – “That’s a perfect name for a character in a fantasy story,” Bill said at the time. “I’m going to use it someday.” And he did.
Bill drew this because he was in a mood to draw a pack of giant dogs, and figured they should be chasing someone. Dragavon seemed the type to be chased by hellhounds from time to time, and so this illustration-in-progress was born. You’ll find it on page 4.
Sheriff Stone vs Big Dog
Sheriff Stone is a superhero character Bill created some time ago and hasn’t yet used in a story or funnybook. But he will… someday. He’s the super powered (self-appointed?) sheriff of Farris City (which all of the locals call Feral City ™ because of the high crime rate), and he’s been at this job a long time.
In fact, he’s ready to retire, which is where the story begins. He’s looking for the right young hero candidate to train to replace him. He has a magic badge, which gives him powers, and he’s willing to pass it along to the new sheriff in town, as soon as he can find out who that might be.
In this illustration-in-progress, the good sheriff is finally having his showdown with a big, dumb (but strong) super villain named Big Dog. I wonder how it will turn out?
And will this ever become a comic book? Maybe. Depends mostly on finding the right artist to draw it. You’ll find this illo on page 7.
In Baron’s Deep, Where the Shadows Creep
Baron’s Deep (also called The Big Shady ™) is a fictional town that lies somewhere at the crossroads between many worlds. It shows up from time to time in some of Bill’s stories. This is an average street scene from Baron’s Deep, featuring a monster in a nice hat. It’s on page 12 of the sketchbook.
And that’s enough for now. We’ll do more of these next week, and the week following, and maybe by then the book actual will exist and magically find its way into Bill’s store. Speaking of his online store, we’ve been redesigning it. The new store is about to go live, chock full of original art for sale, not to mention some of Bill’s novels, art prints, other things, and soon… his sketchbook, bursting with Story Fragments.
What’s Good Today?
Said the lady to the butcher. Let’s take a moment to talk about the many novels and stories written by Roger Zelazny.
This posting is already running long, and I’m late posting it, so we’ll take up this subject again in more detail, but for now, let’s leave it at this: Roger Zelazny was a fine fellow and terrific writer. I’ve yet to meet anyone with something bad to say about him, and I wouldn’t trust the judgment, nor wish to associate with anyone who did have bad things to say about him.
I met Roger once, at a convention. I forget the year, but it was Lepre-Con (not Leper-con, as so many called it, tongue in cheek of course), in Houston. It took place over the Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, which is how it got its name. Roger was the Guest of Honor and gave a lovely keynote speech at dinner one night. Later, in the con suite party (Lepre-Con was oft called Food Con by its invited guests, as they always trotted out one hell of a food bag), I had a brief, shining moment with him all to myself.
We spoke of mythology. Roger wrote a lot about mythology as the underpinning of his fantasy/science fiction works. We talked about how the Amber books would make a great comic series (yeah, I was on the hustle). “What characters?” he asked me. “I’d do the adventures of someone who doesn’t play a big part in the novels,” I said. Then, vamping: “How about Random’s son Martin, and we call the series The Crown Prince of Amber?” He nodded and we moved on to other things. We discussed Celtic myth and why hasn’t he done anything with that yet? We discussed the possibility of doing something together in comic book form (still on the make, Bill? Yeah, I humbly reply). He’d write. I’d draw. And we exchanged contact information.
Shortly after returning from that show, one of my roommates borrowed that contact information and wouldn’t return it to me. “You should’ve copied it before giving it to me,” he said. “Or better yet, never given it to me, because now I’m the one who’ll get to work with Roger Zelazny.” Yeah, sometimes our business was just a wee bit cutthroat like that. Neither of us ever got to work with him. He died.
Let’s talk more of this later. In the meantime, read anything by Roger Zelazny, in almost any order. Some of his books I return to over and again: Roadmarks (pulp and adventure book heroes on the highway of existing time and lost time); Lord of Light (Hindu myth as far future planetary colonists); Creatures of Light and Darkness (Egyptian myth, with some Greek and other stuff); Dilvish the Damned (an elf escaped from Hell, out for revenge); A Night in the Lonesome October (Jack the Ripper, Frankenstein, and others, out to save and/or destroy the world, as told through their familiars). And so many others.
Who else out there writes like Zelazny? No one. Who could carry on his legacy? No one.
Our Writing Advice
Continuing our digression into how one navigates the rough waters of the business side of being a writer. Don’t be a sucker. Prepare to be a jerk when you need to be. One of so many examples of what I mean: I was once offered a contract to work with a new publisher. This was in the day of the Black and White boom, when everyone who’d ever done anything to create a single comic suddenly became a comics publisher.
The contract was stuffed to the gills with all sorts of wherefores and conditions, such as (I paraphrase from memory): “Because the reputation of the publisher is at stake, any lateness from the artist will result in the following monetary penalties (and there was an appended table of fines and penalties to be deducted from my page rate).
I returned the contract with my notes and additions. Some of my additions were: “Because the reputation of the artist is at stake, any delays in publication, or payment, or screw-ups in the printing, editing, and marketing on the part of the publisher will result in the following monetary penalties (followed by my appended table of fines and penalties).
Boy did I get an angry call from the publisher. “How dare you treat me like this!” he screamed. Yes, how dare I treat him exactly as he treated me? Herein is the lesson: Publishers will hate you for holding them to the same standards by which they hold you. In forty years of the business, it hasn’t changed too much. (There are a blessed few exceptions to this — not many, but a few.) On a new project, yet to be announced, I was offered a page rate (after many failed attempts to negotiate me down from my standard rate for work-for-hire) that included the same crap if I’m late, even though this publisher has never before paid me on time for any previous work.
In this case I dealt with the insult clause by ignoring the contract, which sits unsigned somewhere in digital limbo. Either they’ll pay me my exact rate or they won’t get to publish the six scripts I’ve written, before the artist has completed a second page of the first issue. My cause is just. My heels are dug in. My jerkitude is ready to manifest.
If you make them treat you respectfully they’ll think you a jerk, but you have to be the jerk. Always. In this business so many of those with whom you work can only think in terms of “Who can we bully, and who can bully us?”
Now then, if you decide to avoid all of that by self-publishing, and it turns out your publisher is still a bully and a dick, then I don’t know what to tell you. You’ve got a whole different set of problems.
The Part Where Bill Tries to Sell You Something
Since we mentioned it above, let’s talk this time about Bill’s art commissions (and Bill leaps in to mention there’s only one slot left in this round before the door closes again). Recently there’s been a lot of chatter on the Twitters about Bill’s days, way back in 1980 and 81, illustrating Dungeons & Dragons products for TSR (who used to own and publish the role playing game back then). It seems there’s a lot of lingering fondness for those old D&D pictures. Not just for Bill’s work, mind you, but for the art of all of the old guard D&D artists.
Jeff Dee, one of Bill’s colleagues from back then, has taken it upon himself to recreate many (most?) of his TSR art in new versions, which he then sells as prints and small portfolios to his fans. Since the TSR artists weren’t allowed to keep their original art, from which prints might be produced, recreating it, piece by piece, was a nice way to fulfill that desire from his fans to own a piece of his art history. You might want to take a moment to look Jeff up (he’s online somewhere), to see if he has any of those recreations left (or plans to do second or third printings). It’s well worth the effort.
Bill thought of doing something similar with his old TSR art, but then decided against it, due mostly to being too busy with too many other storytelling projects. But he’s tempted.
In the meantime, one of those fans from the old days took advantage of the recently opened list to commission a D&D(esque) warrior woman, which is still in progress, but shown here:
And while Bill has scant interest in recreating old work, he does share a fondness for continuing to do those types of illustrations, when he can find a spare moment. Here are some of the other fantasy RPG type illustrations he’s done, or is doing:
Now then, what to do with these things? Should Bill publish them in prints and/or small portfolios, as Jeff Dee has shown the way? Or, (once there are a few more of them, and once they’re finished) since they seem to be the sorts of monsters and characters one might encounter in a game, should he provide stats and backstory to go along with the illustrations? Or should they instead illustrate some small-print-run storybook Bill produces? Is there some fourth option he hasn’t considered?
Maybe you should decide. Or at least help him decide.
Our Moment of Hilarity
How many comic book editors does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Why does it have to be a lightbulb in this scene?
Our Parting Benediction
(Sung to the tune of Forever Young.)
May you read many comics and novels.
May you always leave honest reviews.
May you often read to your loved ones,
And let loved ones read to you.
May you stand for ink on paper.
May you stand for words of light.
May you live in a thousand fictional lands,
And stay forever in the fight.
All hail The Puppy Paladin....
Can't wait to see the new Sketchbook! At the risk of repetition, perhaps the other photos could be compiled into a new Sketchbook or "Fantasy Artbook"? Maybe a page of text to accompany each art piece. Could either be a short story or just process notes.