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).

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