The Space Toast Pages

Matthew Rasmussen's "journal of journals" on various topics of interest, published here, there or somewhere since 1999.

We Heart Superman: Production Diary V

I didn't expect it to go anywhere as a project, but I liked what I'd written so I showed it to a few friends. I thought it would be fun to see it animated, but again I had no idea where to start. My friend Dan Miller suggested that I turn the script into a comic, but I didn't think I could do the art justice, nor did I know anyone willing to draw it for free. (I also didn't know if the jokes would translate.)

Enter Matt Rasmussen.

Matt had been talking about doing a radio show for podcast for a while. Like me, he had ideas, but nothing had panned out. Shortly after showing my Pink Kryptonite script around, I received an e-mail from him with a file attached. It was my script, adapted for radio.

I loved the idea. Superman has a history in radio. It was radio where Kryptionite was first introduced! (Plus, there was an overwhelming sense of "we could actually get this done.")

Things got underway...

Stay tuned for "We Heart Superman!"

-Troy Minkowsky, Writer/Director

We Heart Superman: Production Diary IV

Pink Kryptonite was a throwaway gag.

Wikipedia reads:
From Supergirl (vol. 2) 79, an alternate timeline in a 2003 Supergirl storyline by Peter David, this bizarre variety of Kryptonite apparently turned heterosexual Kryptonians temporarily and stereotypically gay; it was seen in just one panel, with Superman giving flattering compliments to Jimmy Olsen about his wardrobe and decorative sense. It spoofs the more "innocent times" of the Silver Age (Lois Lane is depicted in this story as not understanding what's gotten into Superman).

I don't know why this sent my imagination soaring. I blame my day job and the free time it gives me to think of trivial things.

I decided to tell a story of pink kryptonite, and make it work. I was more interested in what Superman would go through contemplating the change than what he would actually do as a homosexual. Being a heterosexual, I couldn't comment on being homosexual -- but I could comment on homophobia.

If you've ever been a highschool male who doesn't care about sports, you've had to deal with homophobia.

A HUGE influence on the writing was the Venture Brothers on Adult Swim. The show takes a bunch of pulp and comic book archetypes and makes them painfully human. I decided to take the same approach and make an "Adult Swim" version of Superman.

Instead of having Superman as a mythical, unknowable being (as I had in my first story) I had a Superman who was painfully human: trying to do good, but not always knowing what the right answer is.

Thus was "We Heart Superman" born.

-Troy Minkowsky, Writer/Director

We Heart Superman: Production Diary III

With dreams of becoming a comic book writer (something I've wanted to be, on and off, since I was twelve) I started work on my Superman epic. Without giving anything away (in case I do get a chance to work on it at some point) the project was very ambitious and time consuming -- even before I had committed anything to paper.

The problem was that I didn't even know where to begin, in terms of getting it published. I had been published once, in a college journal, and otherwise had only a trail of unfinished projects behind me. DC had to be the publisher since they had the rights to Superman. I couldn't shop my idea around.

I could have made up a superhero in place of Superman. A tribute -- or ripoff -- but it wouldn't have been the same. It had to be Superman.

So I set myself to the task of writing the damn thing just to get it out of my system. This was the seed of what would grow into "We Heart Superman."

-Troy Minkowsky, Writer/Director

We Heart Superman: Production Diary II

Growing up, I wasn't a Superman fan.

I hadn't yet gotten into comic books, and only knew of the TV series that played on Nick at Nite. I found Superman kind of boring. The show was in black and white. He only fought gangsters, never anyone on his level, and bullets just bounced off him, so he was never in any real danger. (Batman, on the other hand, was human, colorful, and fought crazy people.)

Even when I got into comics, for some reason I was more drawn to Spiderman and the Marvel universe. I'd pick up Batman once in a while, but Superman and the other DC characters held no interest for me. This was a time when Superman was killed, reborn, had long hair, and was turned blue and electric -- so jumping on was impossible unless you bought six titles a month.

As I got older, I became more interested in the myth of Superman, and how he had been portrayed differently in different eras. He was, after all, the model for all superheroes to follow. Superman has been deconstructed, pulled apart, dissected and analyzed. For a children's character, he's rather complex.

-Troy Minkowsky, Writer/Director

We Heart Superman: Production Diary I

On Thursday the 27th, well past midnight, a post appeared on Craigslist: Male Voice Talent: Ever phone in an audition? (Cambridge)

It described a podcast in the style of an oldschool radio show, for which auditioners were asked to call and read a line to voicemail. The writer/director, up-and-coming standup comic Troy Minkowsky, and the producer -- me -- were three days from recording "We Heart Superman: Crisis of the Pink Kryptonite," and did not have a Lex Luthor.

The first call of the day came at 8AM. Someone hadn't read the times closely -- but enthusiasm is enthusiasm. I fielded a couple of emails that morning and shut off the ringer for the 11AM to 9PM audition window, hoping that the wakeup call would be a good omen.

"13 MISSED CALLS"

The response was unreal.

Steno pad in hand, I slipped back into the routine of sorting through long messages followed by mumbled names and millisecond phone numbers. (Running the box office at a theatre a couple of nights a week is good practice for playing producer.) By the next evening, Minkowsky and I had whittled a remarkable set of readers down to four, run callbacks (literally) by speakerphone, and completed an amazing cast with one mysterious voice actor: Mike Devine.

Superman was ready to fly.

-Matt Rasmussen, Producer

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