Chapter 1: An Adventure in Every Bite

In which Ollie goes to a casino and straightens his necktie… click on the image below to download the .PDF file!  And don’t forget to read the prologue, “A Linen Forcefield!”

Whiz!Bam!Why?

The one area (among many) where I failed miserably during the IndieGoGo campaign was identifying a central problem that Whiz!Bam!Pow! solved. All great products or services solve a problem, and I believe that all stories or projects should as well. They shouldn’t add to the static – they should be a clarifying voice in a world filled with shouting.

I’ve had a long time since to ponder the “what problem does WBP solve” question. Throughout all of its metamorphoses as we work with one-fifth of the intended budget, the central problem has shown itself:

Whiz!Bam!Pow! aims to create an accessible line of stories by bringing comics back to escapist entertainment and creating an ever-evolving universe around that. The Golden and Silver ages of comics were brilliant in their “done-in-one” popcorn approach, and I want to recreate that with WBP. I want to recapture that feeling of going into a grocery store, grabbing a random numbered comic book, and being sucked in for 32 pages of bliss before moving on to the next one. And then re-reading that comic – not because I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on, but because I just had such a good time with it!

And then I want to take that feeling to all the other forms of media that make up Whiz!Bam!Pow! – radio, film, web serials, anything. It’s all pieces of a spinner rack.

Today, comics are overrun with continuity, big stories, and inaccessibility. The Big Two (Marvel and DC) constantly promote “nothing will ever be the same” events which aim to create a world where their stories will be accessible – only to get muddled again by even bigger stories where you have to read every issue or you’re LOST*.

For an industry trying to bring in new readers, it’s failing miserably, canceling under-performing yet accessible and wonderful series (Thor: The Mighty Avenger, anyone?) while pushing onward with continuity-laden events that leave outsiders scratching their heads and die-hard fans up in arms.

Granted, WBP isn’t just comics. It’s a transmedia project with a comic book at its core. That comic book will spur stories both in the universe of the Sentinel and in the universe of those who read his adventures. But each and every piece of Whiz!Bam!Pow! will be accessible to anyone who hasn’t read or seen or heard all of the other pieces. Where the Big Two have focused on continuity as a plot thing – WBP will focus on accessibility through character.

Over the past several years, my preferred manner of entertainment has shifted from film to television. In (good) television, character is everything. The chief job of a television writer is to create characters that an audience wants to welcome into their homes every week. It’s the same deal with the transmedia approach of Whiz!Bam!Pow!. Using Whiz!Bam!Pow! Comics #7 as the focal point, we’ll spin tales featuring characters both within the Sentinel’s world, and without.  Characters will cross over into other pieces, some will have their own adventures, some will live, some will die.

But each and every story will always be accessible to first-timers – and simultaneously rewarding for those who consume every bit of the project.

And that’s the answer to Whiz!Bam!Why? – to create accessible stories with a sense of fun, heart, adventure, and a healthy dose of character.

And to get Blair to draw robots.

*In spite of the dig, I love LOST. And I love LOST because it featured exciting stories with characters I cared deeply about (except Nikki and Paulo – screw them).

“The Whiz!Bam!Pow! Project” @ Comicbooked!

Many thanks to Andy Kirby of Comic Booked dot com for penning this wonderful article about Whiz!Bam!Pow! The article goes into a lot more detail about the future of the project (all the way up through Volume Three!).  We’re really blown away by Andy’s enthusiasm for the project!

I remember the day I came home from my first trip to the local comic shop.  I held in my hands the written story of my favorite super-hero, Spider-Man.  I had purposely waited to flip through it until I was at home.  Sitting on my bed with my door shut as to be totally immersed within Spider-Man’s world, I opened the comic book.  The pictures jumped out at me, and the words rang true to my soul with every word balloon and every thought bubble.  I felt Spidey’s guilt as he remembered Uncle Ben’s death.  I laughed at the Parker luck when it came to girls.  I winced as he lay battered and bruised by the crushing blows of that issue’s villain.  Then it was over.  To be continued.

I awoke from my trance, not knowing how long I had been a fly on the wall of Peter Parker’s world.  I sat there, on my bed—still.  I didn’t move.  I didn’t want to break the spell.  I had somehow managed to live within what would later become known to me as the Marvel 616 Universe.  And within that moment I was deeply and spiritually changed.

Read the complete article at Comic Booked!

The Whiz!Bam!Pow! Project

Tyler Returns to the Cutting Room Floor

Last Saturday, the final day of the IndieGoGo campaign, Tyler made a return appearance on Casey Ryan’s Cutting Room Floor for the last interview of the campaign. Casey and Tyler cover the CBCI Initiative, the crowdfunding campaign, and begin to answer the age-old question… What’s Next? Read more >>

WBP @ Deux Ex Machinato

Andrea Phillips, a noted transmedia designer whose work includes Routes Game, Perplex City, the 2012 Experience (for Sony Pictures) and True Blood wrote up this great blog post about WBP (and became a supporter!).  Thank you so much Andrea for this lovely surprise! Read more >>

Tyler @ Nightmare Sound Laboratory – Drive By Interview!

Tyler was the first of a new series at Terry Reed’s “Nightmare Sound Laboratory” site, the “Drive By Interview.” Rapid shot. Three questions covering Batman, Whiz!Bam!Pow!, and the future of storytelling. Many thanks Terry! Read more >>

Why?

by TYLER WEAVER.

The act of running a crowdfunding campaign is a study of what works and what doesn’t.  Neither phenomena are the same for each film (the only constant “doesn’t work” is “put your film out there, do nothing, and everyone will come because it’s so awesome.”) I evaluate what has worked on the Whiz!Bam!Pow! campaign and what hasn’t on a daily, sometimes hourly basis (they change that quickly). One thing I have seen is that while we have gone to great lengths to show you how cool this thing is, and give you some awesome incentives, I haven’t answered the question…

“Why am I making this project?” Read more >>

The Sentinel Sunday Comic Strip!

It’s not the final design of the Sentinel, but it is the thing that made us decide that Blair J. Campbell was the man for the Whiz!Bam!Pow! job!   Read more >>

The Incentives (with Snarky Cute Animals)

I’ve wanted to do a post on the Whiz!Bam!Pow! IndieGoGo incentives for awhile now, but I don’t think it would be very interesting. Instead, I decided to turn the discussion over to a Socratic exchange between two cute (yet snarky) animals. Read more >>

Fight Alongside the Sentinel!

The Whiz!Bam!Pow! tagline reads: “Everyone’s Got a Secret (Identity).”  And now, so do you. Read more >>