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 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 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 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

"To A Skyfarer"

..-. --- .-. .. .-. .- --

Morning clouds in disarray
Bright and cold, this is your day
Ten points off the rising sun
Tell me why I feel this way?
Tell me what you've been and done
Silhouette in solid space
Future's half-forgotten face

Stillness grudgingly withdrawn
Far off engines mutter dawn
Slow to wake and slow to thaw
You'd become my paragon
Hope that time could not withdraw
Gone too long, returned too soon
Stowed and moored by afternoon

Scrambling spotters, busy clerks
'Til this evening's fireworks
Dancing through the final song
Rubbing hair and other perks
Heart ungimbaled, stomach wrong
Ship returning, fortunes won
Voyage ended, and begun

Windy City: "To A Skyfarer"

Previously posted is a poem for the third draft of my feature screenplay "Windy City." Draft two borrows from a song by VNV Nation, but I thought it best to write something of my own as a backup. Here are the lyrics as they appear in situ:

A gust carries some equipment away and tugs at the cable. There is a loud SNAP. The workman turns his lamp away from the locks, toward the cable and finds -- a slowly lengthening CRACK.

Ashur sleeps.

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