99
While I foresaw the end of the local science fiction club's Quarterly
'zine coming, as the
writer's group had disbanded by the end of Nineteen Ninety, I was
disheartened that The Doctor Who Report was also not going to be
sustainable. At the end of Nineteen Eigthy-Nine I was waiting on the
artist to finish the drawings of the next comic serial installment.
The issue was otherwise complete and after a few days past due I gave
him a call and left a message on his answering machine. Five weeks
later of wondering what to do and leaving more messages, he finally
called me back. He told me that, when he had gone to the east coast
to visit family for the Thanksgiving holiday, his sister in-law was
in a terrible car accident. She was in the hospital for a while and
then died. As a result his trip to see his family was extended
indefinitely until they could finish dealing with the heartbreak and
he could attend the funeral. But he was now back and would have the
sheets finished by the following week. My own heart sank for him
given the story he told me.
As TDWR subscriptions were based on issue count, not calendar time
frame, I decided it wouldn't be a long term problem to worry about.
But as I supplied some issues to be sold at a friend's comic book
shop, I went there to see him and let him know the next issue, while
late, would be ready soon. With a smile on his face he said he
knew, he had heard how the artist had found himself an all
consuming new girl friend and spent the holiday season entangled with
her, but the brief relationship had come to an end and he was getting
his act back together. Oh really? I thought to
myself, not sure what to make of it as the artist's story to me had
been so detailed and solemn. Either way the comic book shop
owner was looking forward to having the next issue on his shelf...
While the issue ended-up being published six weeks late, I assumed it
was a one time delay only to discover for the rest of Nineteen Ninety
that the artist's work was now routinely several weeks late and as a
result we only got out four issues that year, instead of the intended
six. Clearly I had to notify the subscribers of the problems and
give them an idea of when they'd get the rest of their issues. While
I had originally seen TDWR as being a short term project, once the
artist had chosen a long story arc for the comic serial, I decided I
could keep cranking out the report for a few extra years until the
serial reached its conclusion. But now I wasn't sure if the serial
was even going to get there and requested a meeting with the artist
to discuss the matter and make a long term plan. He acknowledged the
problem and said that, in part, it was due to the seemingly never
ending story itself and he needed to see the end of the tunnel so
he'd know what he was aiming for. With my restored health and
reinvigorated writing skills at the start of Nineteen Ninety-One I
offered to write the rest of the serial's scripts in the coming month
so he could see where it all lead to. He agreed that would be a big
help and I cranked out the next installment as an acceptable, though
with loose ends, conclusion to the comic serial just in case the
artist lost interest and didn't wish to continue to the true end.
As I handed him the scripts I noted that, while the ending might be
sensitive territory for him to cover as the serial ended in a family
funeral, I thought he'd have the chance to use some of his own
experiences to enhance that section. Referring to the story he had
told me of losing his sister in-law the year earlier, I instead got a
blank look back as he didn't have a clue what I was talking about.
Apparently the comic book store owner had been right!
Despite that being the case, seeing the whole story come together
with the final scripts, the artist was reinvigorated and rather than
continue to parcel out the comic serial in four or five page
installments he wanted to complete it in just a few more, large page
count efforts. As a result, we determined where to combine the
smaller segments into larger installments and figured the last two
issues of TDWR would feature the giant sized climactic conclusion of
the story arc. With this plan in mind I worked out how many issues
would be left after each current reader's subscription ended, and
then sent each a letter informing them of the remaining issues that
would be printed and how much it would cost for that partial count if
they wished to complete their subscription with the full run. The
vast majority of them renewed, which was a great sign that they
were liking the content, even if the issues themselves had become
routinely delayed.
Still, by Nineteen Ninety-Two it had become clear that the final push
of drawing the comic serial was still going to take longer than hoped
for and I had to send out another batch of letters to the subscribers
to apologize, but assure them they would get those final issues once
they were done. For my part, I had finished the last of my content
for the issues except for the news pages which I updated from time to
time with fresh facts as the weeks and months went on. There were
only two issues of TDWR left to publish and I hoped to have them both
out by the end of the year. As it turned out, we only got one out
for Nineteen Ninety-Two and thus the final issue ended up being for
Nineteen Ninety-Three.
Still, with my part finished by Nineteen Ninety-two, I focused on
what I was going to do about my most recent speculative script for
'The Other Show' I liked. While designed to sell as there was
nothing in it that 'pushed the envelope' and would potentially make
the show's intake readers nervous, my agent had refused to send it in
given its plot focus. She had sarcastically said 'I could always
send it in on my own if I wanted', but made it clear it had no hope
of being accepted. At the time this came to light I was in the
middle of finding myself a new place to live and concluded I should
wait until I had. Once situated in my new apartment with my new
address and phone number now known, I decided I should go ahead and
mail in the script myself, despite my agent's comments. After
all, what was the worse that could happen as a result?
When I had put together my first script intended for the show three
years earlier, I had toyed with an idea to get attention for it
amongst the pile of other unrepresented scripts that they received.
But then, as I had found my first agent, I put that idea aside and
let her handle the submissions as she felt appropriate. Yet now,
once again facing the prospect of mailing in my script alone, I
decided to go ahead and use my 'attention getting idea'.
For those who wanted to submit scripts to the show, they had produced
a quick 'script writing guide' which included a one quarter sized
example page. My idea was to play dumb and provide the script in two
sizes: Normal script size and then a size matching the example page
with a humorous note stating I wasn't sure what size they had wanted.
The reduced size being too small for the traditional script binding
brads, I found some polished brass tack nails that looked just like
them in miniature and pounded them through the edge of the tiny
script from both sides to secure the pages in place and make it look
just like a little duplicate of the full sized script. Satisfied
that it would work, I sealed these into an envelope with a brief
cover page including my contact information and mailed it off...
After several months passed I concluded I wouldn't hear back from
them.
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