Bill And Ted Are Doomed

Well, this caught me by surprise. I woke up very late to find that Dark Horse Comics had announced the secret project I've been hinting at here. I thought they were announcing Wednesday, then figured it would happen next week. 

Anyway, so, here's the deal: I'm writing a four-issue Bill and Ted comic with art by the amazing Roger Langridge. Sarah Dyer and I are doing all four main covers, Roger's doing the first variant, we have art in for the next two variant covers by some excellent folks. 

Bill and Ted Are Doomed is a sequel to Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (which I adapted as a Marvel comic way back in time in 1991) and a prequel to the upcoming new movie, Bill and Ted Face the Music. It is...supposedly...going to be canon, picking up on elements established in the third film, and including some things not covered in Face The Music. I'm not guaranteeing it's canon, because I figure that can be quashed on a whim by whoever at any moment, but I met with Bill and Ted co-creator/screenwriter Ed Solomon a few months ago, and we have his blessing, as well as his creative oversight. 

It's been very exciting to be a part of this project, and the "bonus journey" has been getting to work with one of my favorite cartoonists, Roger Langridge. I've followed his work since Fantagraphics published his Art D'Ecco series (done in collaboration with his brother, Andrew). Hanging out with Roger at Heroes Con a few times has been a highlight of my travels in the industry. 

And, of course, it's just been kind of surreal to be back working with the characters again, for the first time since 1993 (and after coming very close to writing a series for BOOM a few years ago, which didn't happen because their page rate was simply insulting). The weirdest thing is not being able to dip back into the old Bill and Ted comics for anything -- in my head those comics "happened" but they don't jibe with the movie continuity and aren't canon, so I have to keep rejecting ideas that are based on the Marvel run. And the Bogus Journey adaptation was based on a script draft, which contradicts the final cut of the movie in many ways. And of course, we didn't know in 1991 when we started work on the adaptation that they were using a Bergman Death, and I drew the character as a skeletal grim reaper). So it's been a bit of a disconnect to be writing the "real" character while picturing the Marvel version in my head. 

And the third movie script had some revelations and twists that changed aspects of the story I originally wanted to tell with BOOM. I threw a new pitch together very quickly (and kind of on the fly) and was very happy everyone liked it and gave us the go-ahead. I was able to retain a sub-plot from the BOOM pitch but it's a completely different take, especially as how the Boom pitch involved a continuation of my Marvel run, including a lot of characters I had made up for the comics. But it's all up and running now, and we've been working very hard on a tight schedule to try to hit near the movie release (we only started a few months ago, and every step has to be approved by the film folks and Ed, et al) we're halfway done with the series, and I really hope everyone enjoys what we're doing, because if they don't, I will cry big sloppy tears of grief. Enough to drown myself in, yet.

I'll be back asap with a process post showing how the cover for the first issue of Bill and Ted Are Doomed came together.  But I have to get a lot of work done on the third script, along with some other things, so, maybe by Monday. 

Whew. All, right. See you soon. 

Remember to be excellent to each other.