INTERVIEW WEEK: FOCUSING ON THE CREATIVE WITH ARTIST JOHN HOBAN

I've been at a number of events with John Hoban, and find him to be talented, funny, handsome, and bright.  He is a welcome guest at MCBA's Spring and Fall shows, and he often attends in full zombie make up and more.  He is a talent, and someone who will make you smile.  Unless you are unsmileable.

What made you a creative artist?  Were you born to do it, did you find you had talents and worked to find the right outlet?

I think I was just born with the traits that make me want to draw and be creative. I was drawing pictures before I can remember….and I just never stopped. It’s a compulsion. If I’m not working on or within some kind of creative process for a length of time, I start dealing with feelings of frustration, anxiety, and depression. I’m pretty sure I would have to deal with those feelings anyway, but they’re compounded.

My mother always encouraged me to draw and thought that I was (or could be) talented. She signed me up for classes through the Duluth Art Institute from elementary school through high school. A few of those classes were taught by Peter Gross (Dr. Fate, Unwritten, American Jesus).

What is your pattern of creative activity?  Do you plan it, sit and work or, does it happen in a fit of activity?

I wish I had a pattern of creative activity. I’m finding it damn near impossible to establish one with a family and a full time job. I only get little pockets of time to to work on any projects and I have to be creatively inspired within those pockets to create anything worthwhile. I often find myself drained in those moments, so not much art work gets done. Fortunately, my profession as an art educator allows me the option of not working in the summer….therefore most of my artwork is produced in the summer.

Do you listen or watch anything while you work?  Do some media give you inspiration, or does it just give you company?

I listen to and watch many things while I work. I can not work in silence. I use Spotify to listen to almost anything I could want to listen to. The app also provides a discover weekly feature so I can check out new music while I work….it’s awesome. I also play shows and movies I need to catch up on in the background wherever I am. It keeps me rolling. I consistently used to get in trouble for drawing in class throughout my educational experiences. Even as an educator, I would drive some administrators crazy by drawing during staff meetings. I think and absorb information better while I’m drawing and the opposite is also true.

How did you move from having a talent, to having a project to actually arriving upon being published?   Is it an accident?  Did you have a business or creative art business plan?

I just decided to publish my work myself instead of waiting for a publisher to emerge from the heavens and see all the stuff I was working on in my basement. I had no business plan. I had thrice re-drawn my comic completely and I was ready to put it out there, sink or swim. I printed it first through Ka-Blam, which is an online self-printing service for comics. I ordered a hundred copies and bought a table at the 2011 Wizard World Chicago convention. In retrospect, that was a really big show to start. It went really well, but I didn’t have anything to sell but one book. I sold a lot (around 40 books), but didn’t even come close to making my money back.

What was your first published work, and how did it make you feel?  Do you look on that work now as being hopelessly juvenile or, do you find great pride in it as a work for the time that was good, even if you have now moved far forward?

My first self-published work was Apocalypse City issue #1. I do take pride in that book. I still cringe a bit at some of the art and dialogue, but you can’t improve if you don’t start somewhere. I think I got a lot right and it says most of what I want it to say. I’m planning on re-working it a bit and reprinting it with issue #2 & #3 as a graphic novel of sorts.

What works are you brewing, and what works are in print and on the way soon?  Do you have any long range hopes like licensed works of your creative property?

I’m almost done drawing Apocalypse City #4 and plan on printing it this summer. I used to have long range hopes, but I’m mainly doing this for myself. If anybody cares after that, then that’s gravy.

What would you recommend other people who seek to be creative do to get on the right track?

Don’t stop. Don’t compromise. I know it’s easier said than done ( and this is coming from a guy who found himself drawing furries for a whole convention) but it’s got to be somewhat fun and rewarding.

Find John on Facebook 

Who Is Captain Marvel?

A couple of friends of mine back when I lived in Darkest Iowa were comics fans who ran a gaming group. They mostly ran a super-hero role-playing game called CHAMPIONS, and the husband had designed character stats for most of the characters in both the Marvel and DC Universes. The first time I played with their group, he showed me his file, a large box containing about a thousand laminated character sheets. “Who would you like to play?” he asked.

I did not hesitate. “Captain Marvel,” I said.

My reply puzzled him. “Do you mean Captain Mar-Vell, the Kree Warrior? Or the black girl from AVENGERS?”

“No, no, no,” I chuckled. “The REAL Captain Marvel. Wisdom of Solomon. Strength of Hercules. Stamina of Atlas...”

“Oh, him.”

“...Power of Zeus. Courage of...”

“All right! I got it.” 

As it turned out, the character I wanted was one of the few he didn't have; so he gave me Superman's character sheet instead. “Just ignore the part about 'Vulnerable to Kryptonite' and replace it with 'Must Say SHAZAM to Activate Instant-Change'”

But my friend's confusion brings me to the question of Who Is Captain Marvel? It's a question with two levels: the obvious one about which of the many characters to bear that name is the One True Marvel; and a deeper question about the psyche of the World's Mightiest Mortal.

Let's begin, then, at the beginning. In 1939, Fawcett Publications formed a comics division to take advantage of the wave of costumed heroes that followed in the wake of Superman's debut. Fawcett's circulation manager wanted a character like Superman, but whose alter-ego was a 10 or 12-year old boy. Writer Bill Parker and artist C. C. Beck came up with a plucky orphan named Billy Batson who was recruited by an ancient wizard named Shazam to fight for justice. When Billy spoke the wizard's name, he became transformed into a mighty hero, imbued with the attributes of an eclectic pantheon of gods and heroes.

Say them with me, won't you?

Wisdom of SOLOMON
Strength of HERCULES
Stamina of ATLAS
Power of ZEUS
Courage of ACHILLES
Speed of MERCURY

Originally, the character's name was to be “Captain Thunder”, but it turned out that another company was already using that name; a situation which sort of became a theme for Cap. So they re-named him “Captain Marvel”. C. C. Beck gave the character a more stylized, cartoony look than a lot of contemporary rivals of Superman had and later recalled that he and Parker wanted to draw inspiration from old folk-tales and classic myths rather than the hackneyed formulas of the Pulp Magazines which many other comic books emulated.

Captain Marvel soon gained a large supporting cast of Marvelous heroes: Captain Marvel, Jr.; Mary Marvel; The Three Lieutenants Marvel; Mister Tawky Tawny; Uncle Marvel; Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. He also became enormously popular, becoming the first comic book hero to hit the big screen as the star of a Republic movie serial. At the height of his popularity, Captain Marvel's comics out-sold those of his predecessor, Superman.

This could not stand.

Detective Comics and Superman, Inc.; the companies which later formed National Publications and eventually became known as DC Comics, had previously sued Fox Feature Syndicate claiming that its character, “Wonder Man” was a rip-off of Superman. With their success going after Wonder Man, they went after the Big Red Cheese.

The case dragged on for years. National claimed that elements of Captain Marvel, (the super-strength, the invulnerability, the cape and long johns, the alter-ego as a reporter) were clear imitations of Superman. Fawcett argued that both characters were derived from super-strong heroes of legend and earlier comics, such as Hercules, Tarzan and Popeye the Sailor.

The initial ruling went in Fawcett's favor based on a technicality. National had at one point authorized a licensed SUPERMAN comic strip, and the syndicate producing the strip had neglected to put a copyright notice on some of the strips. Therefore, the court ruled, the character had fallen into the Public Domain.

National appealed the ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, presided over by the famed jurist Judge Learned Hand. (Yes, his first name really was “Learned”. He had a brother named “August” who was also a judge and who was involved with the original case.). The Appeals Court ruled that National should not be penalized by the syndicate's negligence and that they still held a copyright to Superman. Moreover, he ruled that Captain Marvel was indeed a substantial imitation of Superman and infringed on Superman's copyright. This has always seemed to me like a pretty superficial interpretation, but then, since I hadn't been born yet, Judge Hand never asked me. He sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.

Rather than go through yet more litigation, the two parties decided to settle out of court. In order for the lower court to rule on what kind of monetary damages National was owed, they would have to go through a decade's worth of both title to determine how much exactly Cap had swiped from Superman – and how much Supes had swiped from Cap, such as the ability to fly, or having a bald mad scientist as an arch-enemy. The only ones who would profit from this kind of panel-parsing were the law firms who would be paid by the hour to have their clerks scour the funnybooks; and both sides agreed that it would be more hassle than it was worth,

More importantly, by this time, a decade had passed since the suit was originally filed and in the intervening time, super-hero comics had dwindled in popularity. Captain Marvel was no longer the money-maker he had been previously, and Fawcett decided to cut its losses: pay a four hundred thousand dollar settlement and agree to cease publishing the character. They shut down their entire comic book division. 

Captain Marvel was still popular in Great Britain, where a company called L. Miller & Son held the rights to publish black & white reprints of the Fawcett comics. Now that no more reprint material was forthcoming, Miller & Son hired a comic packager named Mick Anglo to create a knock-off named “Marvelman”, who was similar to Captain Marvel in many ways except that he was blond and said the word “Kimota”, (“atomic” spelled backwards, sorta), in order to transform.

Another decade passed, and with the dawning of the Silver Age, the super-heroes returned. Fawcett was no longer in the comics biz, but another company, F. M. Enterprises, borrowed the Captain Marvel name for one of the weirder characters in comics history. This version of Captain Marvel was an android from a distant planet, sent to Earth to escape the atomic destruction of his homeworld and to protect his new planet. He had the standard portfolio of super-powers: super-strength, super-speed, and nigh-invulnerability; but he had one unique power: when he shouted “Split!” he could detach parts of his body from his torso to do stuff, re-attaching them when he shouted “Xam!” I suspect the creator of the character was thinking of possible Captain Marvel toys; but the character did not last long and the company quickly folded.

The Silver Age also saw Timely/Atlas Comics, the company which published CAPTAIN AMERICA back during the Golden Age, re-name itself Marvel Comics and revolutionize the whole super-hero comics genre, beginning with FANTASTIC FOUR, and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and exploding from there. Editor Stan Lee decided that Marvel Comics really ought to be publishing a character named “Captain Marvel”, and shortly after the demise of the “Split/Xam!” Cap, Marvel acquired the trademark for that name.

The Marvel version of Captain Marvel was a Kree Warrior named “Mar-Vell”, a soldier from an alien empire locked in an interminable war against the Skrulls. Mar-Vell is sent to Earth as an observer, but comes to ally himself with the inhabitants of our Small Blue Planet and defects from the Kree Empire to act as Earth's protector. 

After a while, the character was re-vamped by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane. Mar-Vell was exiled to the Negative Zone by the Kree's Supreme Intelligence. He was able to escape the Negative Zone for brief periods by exchanging atoms with Professional Sidekick Rick Jones, using special wristbands. This somewhat recalled the dynamic between Billy Batson and the original Captain Marvel, of a boy able to summon a hero at need and essentially switching places with him.

The character was re-tooled further when he was handed over to Jim Starlin, who made him into a more cosmic-themed character. Because Cosmic is what Jim Starlin does. It was for this version of Captain Mar-Vell that Starlin created the character of Thanos, the Mad Titan, who became a major villain in the Marvel Universe.

Starlin also made the character the center of Marvel Comics's first graphic novel, titled THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL. In it, Mar-Vell learns that he has developed cancer and must come to grips with his own mortality. The story is a thoughtful, introspective one without a lot of fights and explosions; and Starlin drew upon his own father's struggles and death from cancer in writing it. And in the end – not a spoiler; it's right in the title – Captain Marvel dies.

Not wanting to leave a good trademark unused, Marvel created a new character, a black police lieutenant from New Orleans named Monica Rambeau who could transform herself into any form of energy. She became a member of the Avengers, and for a time the group's leader. She eventually ceded the “Captain Marvel” name to Mar-Vell's son, Genis-Vell. Since then, there have been a handful of other Marvels, few with a whole lot of staying power. 

The current holder of the title is Carol Danvers, the former “Ms Marvel”: an Air Force officer who gained super-powers when caught in an explosion from a piece of Kree technology. She was created in the late '60s as a kind of token feminist; got written out of the Avengers in an incredibly ignominious fashion in the '80s; returned long enough to give the Avengers a well-deserved scolding and to give a portion of her powers to Rogue from the X-Men and then faded back for a while. In the last decade or so, she's become more prominent, though, taking on the “Captain Marvel” name and becoming an important player in the Avengers. Her current characterization plays up her military background and has her acting more in leadership roles, protecting the Earth from intergalactic threats and acting as a diplomat to alien races.  And most recently, starring in a big-budget blockbuster film.

But while Captain Mar-Vell and his successors where having cosmic adventures over at the House of Ideas, the Fawcett Captain Marvel wasn't quite dead yet. At the same time this was happening, Billy Batson was making a comeback. Or trying to...

NEXT: “With One Magic Word...” Crisis on Infinite Re-Boots

INTERVIEW WEEK: FOCUSING ON THE CREATIVE WITH MICHAEL MAY

A friend, Joltin' Joe Hilliard thought that I should meet Michael May.  We were both large Minnesota men, each interested in comics, horror, and we both spent a lot of time asking other creators questions in interviews.  Michael and I were rightly suggested as friends.   We worked together a few times and Michael also added a foreword to the book Lancelot which I was a creative on.  He has a buttload of talent, and he is truly one of the most kind people I've met, in life, and for damn sure the comics industry.  As a moody poet I don't do well with most places, and the comics industry is definitely another.  But I've watched as people swarm around Michael, he hasn't been a huge name yet, but if it was a result of being beloved, it'd be him at the top.  That isn't hyperbole.  (Yes I know what hyperbole is, and it isn't a hyper boil that requires a jackhammer to pop.)

Thank you Michael for being available and willing to answer my questions about creativity and the creative artist.

What made you a creative artist?  Were you born to do it, did you find you had talents and worked to find the right outlet?

It's definitely something that I felt called to as a kid. I was a huge reader and loved filling my head with stories of other worlds. My mom would take us to the library and I'd just load up on Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard, and whatever scifi adventure caught my fancy. At some point it was natural that I started making up my own worlds and stories and dreaming about writing them down. I liked to draw as a kid, too, and got pretty good at it, but my passion was always going to be writing. I'm terrible at drawing these days, but I love the craft of storytelling and keep working to get better at it.

What is your pattern of creative activity?  Do you plan it, sit and work or, does it happen in a fit of activity?  Do you listen or watch anything while you work?  Do some media give you inspiration, or does it just give you company?

Sadly, it mostly happens in a fit of activity these days. I'm a firm believer in setting aside a certain amount of time each day for disciplined writing and I'm working on getting back to that, but the reality is that I'm very deadline driven. I tend to work on whatever's due next. I'd love to get ahead of my own schedule though. That would be really nice.

I can't watch anything while I'm writing and I can't listen to anything with lyrics, either. I get too distracted. I work best in silence, but sometimes I'll try playing some instrumental music in the background to set a mood. It's not really for direct inspiration though. By the time I sit to write, the inspiration should already be there.

How did you move from having a talent, to having a project to actually arriving upon being published?  Is it an accident?  Did you have a business or creative art business plan?

I got started by teaming with a bunch of friends who were artists and writers and also hungry to publish stories. We put together a couple of anthologies and self-published them. I did have a plan, but it was super naive. I figured that I would just sort of move my way up the ladder. Self-publishing would lead to something at a very small press which would lead to something at a slightly larger publisher and on up until I was either writing the X-Men or my own, extremely hot creator-owned comics (if not both). Some of my friends had similar plans, but it rarely works that way. 

I mean, it CAN work that way. It's not a bad plan. But I've learned - in life as well as in creative endeavors - not to get too attached to one plan. It narrows your vision so that you can't see other opportunities when they pop up.

I ended up skipping a lot of steps in my plan and went from self-publishing my stuff to being published by Dark Horse. That was almost entirely thanks to Jason Copland (artist and co-creator of Kill All Monsters) and his relationship with Dark Horse. So maybe that's an accident? It's certainly not because of anything that I specifically did other than just make Kill All Monsters as good as I could when we were self-publishing it.

In other words, it's very useful and important to have a plan. But it's even more important to do good work and form relationships (real ones, not fake, mercenary "networking" relationships) and keep your eyes peeled for open doors.

What was your first published work, and how did it make you feel?  Do you look on that work now as being hopelessly juvenile or, do you find great pride in it as a work for the time that was good, even if you have now moved far forward?

It had some issues, but I still have a lot of fondness for it. I had a few stories in a horror anthology called Tales from the Inner Sanctum. It's the one I mentioned earlier that was self-published by a group of friends I was hanging out with online. I don't know if it was juvenile, but maybe it was. I definitely fell into the trap that a lot of horror short story comics writers do: going for those EC-style twist endings. Those are fun to write, but when you read an anthology full of them (and most horror anthologies are) they make the collection tough to get through. The most valuable lesson I learned from that is that I probably shouldn't be writing horror comics short stories.

What works are you brewing, and what works are in print and on the way soon?  Do you have any long range hopes like licensed works of your creative property?

I'm currently writing the sequel to Kill All Monsters, but I have a couple of other projects that should hopefully be available in the next year or so. One is a werewolf adventure story, but the other is too far away to talk much about. What's currently in print is the Kill All Monsters Omnibus from Dark Horse and a couple of adventure anthologies. There's a full list on my website: michaelmay.online.

As for licensing my creative property, Jason and I are absolutely willing to accept a couple of truckloads of money from anyone who wants to make a Kill All Monsters movie or TV show. I'll show you where to park it.

What would you recommend other people who seek to be creative do to get on the right track?

It's very old advice, but just do the work. I firmly believe that everyone is creative. It's what we are as humans. No one needs permission to create and there is no gatekeeper. If your goal is to be creative, just start working on stuff. 

If your goal is to make a living being creative, that's a whole other thing and I'm not the best one to ask. I do recommend that people do what I did though and get to know people who make their living as freelance writers and artists. I learned enough to know that that's not the job I want. Writing is a passion for me, but making a living at it and quitting my day job isn't. Freelance is a hard gig and it's not for everyone, but there's no rule that says you have to make a living off your creative endeavors. It doesn't diminish those endeavors even slightly if they don't pay the rent. For me at least, the work is its own reward.

INTERVIEW WEEK: FOCUSING ON THE CREATIVE WITH GRANT MIEHM

You might have heard of my friend Grant Miehm.  He is a great artist in the world of comics and general illustration.  He comes from Canada, he loves to bring stories to life, and, I have to say, he is one of my all time favorite humans.  I bless God for letting me have a person in my life so wonderful as Grant.  This week I am focusing on how creators create, and Grant was kind enough to share his thoughts with the answers to my questions.

What made you a creative artist? Were you born to do it, did you find you had talents and worked to find the right outlet?

I was born to it, and worked hard to develop the gifts God gave me.  Finding the right outlets has always been a matter of perseverance and the ongoing search for them.

What is your pattern of creative activity? Do you plan it, sit and work or, does it happen in a fit of activity?

In order to hit a deadline, the work has to be planned.  There can be periods where inspiration strikes, and that can help create a more successful piece.  The ‘fit of activity’ happens after mulling over what I want to do, and getting a solid idea about how I want to approach a given piece.  Then, I quickly set that idea down on paper while trying hard not to overthink it.

Do you listen or watch anything while you work? Do some media give you inspiration, or does it just give you company?

I sometimes have the TV on as background noise so the studio doesn’t feel like a tomb.  I seldom actually watch it.  I’m a nut for internet radio, and listen to that regularly.

How did you move from having a talent, to having a project to actually arriving upon being published? Is it an accident? Did you have a business or creative art business plan?

I went through the paces of studying at art school, graduating, and then putting my portfolio in front of people until I got work.  There are no guarantees of work to be had just by connecting with others, but it wasn’t an accident, either.  Looking for assignments as a freelancer is far too random to ever think that finding work can happen within any finite period.  Building a career happens over a lifetime, not by being ‘discovered’, generally.  Admittedly though, that does happen to people sometimes.

What was your first published work, and how did it make you feel? Do you look on that work now as being hopelessly juvenile or, do you find great pride in it as a work for the time that was good, even if you have now moved far forward?

The first published job was either the work I did on ‘Elementals’ at Comico, or a ‘Codename: Spitfire’ issue I did for Marvel’s ‘New Universe’ titles – I don’t recall which.  It felt like I was working out some old ghosts by finally having the chance to see if I could execute some of the ideas I had about storytelling.  While I find it hard to look at older work, I do chalk it up to experience.  It’s where I was at the time, and I don’t allow anything to qualify it other than that.

What works are you brewing, and what works are in print and on the way soon? Do you have any 
long-range hopes like licensed works of your creative property?

I continue to work very enthusiastically for the Boy Scouts of America.  Best gig in the universe as far as I’m concerned.  A legitimate blessing from God.  I’ve always got other ideas and projects on the ‘back burner’, as they say.  How they’ll play out or when they’ll see the light of day?  Only time will tell.

What would you recommend other people who seek to be creative do to get on the right track?

Keep digging.  Don’t stop.  Be kind, be courteous, and be respectful, but be persistent.  Only you can make your career happen.  Be honest, work honestly, and stay honest.  A career – or a life – full of regret because of taking corrupt shortcuts is worthless.  Being true to yourself and living by your convictions is worth more than gold.

An Interview with A.J. BENZA, author of '74 and Sunny, a memoir

Despite having read a great number of memoirs and autobiographies, I don't tend to enjoy the read, I am usually doing it for research or personal knowledge about the subject.  That changed when I learned that AJ Benza had written a memoir.  After reading it I was amazed at how moving the book was, teary eyed in parts, and blown away by the tenderness and subject matter.  I was taken into a different world than the one in which I'd lived. During the Summer of 1974 A.J. Benza's family had a guest.  His cousin, who happened to be gay, was sent to live with A.J.'s family, and certain things happened to change outlooks, perceptions, and understanding.  It made me laugh, cry, and smile.  It is a perfect gift for people who are dealing with revelations of orientation, or just for those who love stories about true family lives.

ORDER IT HERE

As books go I've bought this many times and shared it with people.  All of them reported back that it was a moving beautiful work.  A couple of those people said, hard to believe he was on Howard Stern. Well I like Howard Stern, for me how I understood their point was, this work is great, but who knew? I think it is a beautiful tribute to a family and a life well lived. I know I couldn't write nearly so great a book.  I thought, why the hell isn't there a paperback version. It'd sure save me money. So I asked A.J., over on his Twitter why not. This interview with A.J. is a hope to share it with more readers, and hope, even if only a few more sell, the publisher will get the hint, it needs more eyes, because such a work deserves more readers.

I was very blessed and scared to interview A.J. Benza.  He has lived numerous lives, lived them publicly, and I loved his presence on Howard Stern, and, enjoyed his E show about Hollywood lives and tragedies.  Blessed because he gave of his time and attention, and scared because I didn't want to screw up.

Was your motive for writing the work simply memoir as in a diary of sort, or did you go into it knowing it had a certain power, and wanted to share it for that? 

AJ Benza: I wanted to write something to document my family’s existence. I had a wonderful upbringing and many years of happiness at our home on Long Island, and I just wanted to get that era down on paper. I remembered that summer as something that stayed with me forever. Sometime around 2009 or so, I began playing with turning it into a screenplay. But I figured a book would be best first. And if someone liked it enough, it would get optioned and I could get paid to write the screenplay. And that’s exactly what happened. 

As a memoir did you write it primarily to link your work of reporting of other lives, to writing about your own life, and create a work to memorialize a life in print? 

AJB: This wasn’t about me. This was really a love letter to my family, mainly my father. I found myself the same age my father was back in 1974 and I was really tapping into what his feelings and insecurities and challenges were back then. At some point it hits and overcomes you – ‘Wow, I get it. I understand standing in my father’s shoes.’ This book is really about how my little cousin changed my father, and that is what changed all of us. 

Was the dichotomy of proper and normal versus criminal and feared what made this story particularly poignant, that is, if you’d been raised by a 3rd generation American family in the Midwest and had a cousin stay for the summer, do you think it would have resonated so powerfully? Why or why not? 

AJB: I think what makes this story poignant or very relatable is because of its commonality. Families all over experienced this. I never thought about families out in Tennessee or Colorado or even outside America when I was writing. I just told our true story. It was only after it was published that I began to get letters and calls from people everywhere telling me “This is exactly the way it was for me and my family!” And that made me feel great. But I think ‘74 and Sunny’ is bolstered by my father’s language and his passion. Every story is better when the subject’s are a quirky, passionate, dangerous and loving. 

You’ve said that you are working on writing the screen version of the work, is it written with a mind to who might make the film, act in it, or be the audience, or, do you simply write it thinking, on film this would work best by presenting it thus…?

AJB: As I was writing the book, I wrote it with one eye on a future movie script. I always felt this story was good enough to be a film. And the subject matter of gender and nature vs. nurture is so timely and important in our culture that it always screamed for a TV or film treatment. Now, that I am nearly done with the script I’ve come to the conclusion that – as sweet and wonderful y book is – I punched up some parts to make them ‘movie moments.’ Truth is, book and scripts are written very differently is style and structure. But I’m very happy with where the script is at. George Gallo was the first director I met when I came to L.A. in 1997 – he had me over to his house for dinner. It’s just another wonderful quirk of fate that he would be the one who wanted to direct the movie as soon as he and his wife read the book. 

Did your cousin change your own view regarding gay and straight, was the real transformation your own, or that of watching your father’s deeper honor and love for family rise to the surface in response to hate speech? 

AJB: My cousin didn’t change my view. Our time together that summer and subsequent summers basically formed my views on the world of gay and straight. I was young and my mind was still very moldable. The bigger thing that occurred was watching my father come to understand my cousin’s world. That summer sparked a compassion in him that obviously made a huge impression on me. 

In your personal experience, do you think the goal of any book should have a transformative evolution and resolution, or can it exist successfully as a simple memoir without any sort of moral evolution? 

AJB: Every book should change you. It may be subtle, it may be gigantic. But either way, every book should move the reader toward a resolution that wasn’t necessarily there before that book was cracked open. But in all honesty, I wasn’t prepared for what my book would do to people. I truly began writing it because some books and scripts have a gestation period in the writer’s body. ‘74 and Sunny’ had to come out of my body. I was gonna give birth to that book whether I wanted to or not. At some point, I didn’t have the control. The book did. I am aware of some people who didn’t truly expect such an emotionally rewarding book. 

Do you think perhaps your previous presence in the media as a gossip columnist, "punching bag for Chuck Zito", Stern show person, had an effect of lowering those expectations? 

AJB: People are gonna see me the way they see me. For instance, you bringing that up the Zito fight, I just have to laugh. On one hand, it shows just how little some people know about me. On the other, I get to change your short-sided perception. If they don’t understand that a man grows and his life is entirely different than it was 25 years prior, that’s a shame for them. Being knocked out by Chuck Zito was wonderful. Not that very night, but the aftermath and all the years since. For various reasons back then, I was in need of being humbled. And the universe has a way of sending down what is needed to correct that. In my case it was a one punch, strip club knockout in a janitor’s closet. Chuck and I are friends to this day and I respect what he did that night. If anything, it provided me more of a ‘tough guy’ image – as did my Howard Stern appearances and my Daily News column – so that when I wrote ’74 and Sunny’, it made a lot of people pleasantly surprised at who was underneath that gruff exterior. The world sees you the way it wants to see you. And eventually you are who the world says you are. But it’s always nice to show a softer side and have the public embrace it. 

This is not, NOT saying you aren't or weren’t a good writer, ever, asking if the world you moved in previously was less snobbishly literary, less “proper” less normal, than most of that of other memoir readers? 

AJB: I never connected with a literary crowd and never wanted to. I don’t do well with people who live with a stick up their asses. In many cases, a writer is as good as the stories he’s lived, the relationships he’s forged and the life he’s courageously carved out. My writing is good because I got off my ass and lived the life of 100 men. 

I truly enjoyed you on Stern Show, your appearances were wild. Did being on that show feel surreal, or, was it just really good radio? 

AJB: There were times when it felt surreal – like watching two sisters have oral sex right in front of us at 7:25 in the morning. Or having strippers wait for me in the green room so we could hang after the show ended. Or frankly, just shooting the shit with Howard during commercial breaks. It never felt like a job that’s for sure. I have only the fondest memories of Howard and the show. There was nothing bigger. It was the best radio of all time. But more than anything, sitting across from Howard, helped me be real and honest. What people don’t understand is being on that show there is this insane desire to make Howard laugh. It’s akin to how you wanted to please your father or mother. And in doing that, it made me understand that my straight-up honesty is what separates me from other story-tellers or writers. So that’ll never change for me. When you listen to me or read me…it’s always the straight dope. 

Do you have other works born from your life experiences such as that summer of 1974 in the works? Where will you take your many talents from here? 

AJB: Right now, I spit out countless true stories about my life in journalism or Showbiz on my daily podcast “Fame is a Bitch.” I’m also writing my third book, which will me another memoir based on my life out here in L.A. the last 22 years. Those stories have never been written down. My first book ended with my move to Hollywood. So there’s a lot more to say.

Thanks A.J.


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Life Lessons from the Kaiju

If you accept certain aspects of living, you might well understand, that the Kaiju do not provide simple minded entertainment.

Varan arose from a world not yet modern.  Even after modern wars, and nuclear development, we had areas of the world that were wild, savage, undefeated.  They were there, and whatever we might do, as modern men, nothing mattered.

Gojira/Godzilla arose from the nuclear tests, and challenged modern society and destroyed it.  Humans and their discoveries were useless, for even as the oxygen destroyer killed one, the knowledge it required, and the atomic powers of creation meant, Godzilla would endure.

Mothra, Radon/or Rodan, and King Ghidorah present the world with beasts that exist outside of our ability to control.  They cannot be defeated, not matter our efforts, they will return.  Rodan and his mate were destroyed, and he returned.  Mothra has evolved from larva to moth, and it has endured.  King Ghidorah, the monster from space, refused to die, despite being defeated.  We cannot defeat it, only hope to push it back, to slow it it down, to make it think before attacking once again.  We are human, we must be made extinct, or we will resist.

Not only do we not possess the ability to fight that which is eternal. we cannot hope to defeat that which is beyond our understanding. Yes, there are forces we are powerless to fight.  The concept of Kaiju is not foolishness, it is an awareness, of that which we can neither fight, nor destroy.

Modern society is Tokyo Bay.  How do we defend it?  How might we choose to  make our own world different?  Depth charges, bomb, laser beams, missiles even nuclear bombs do not matter.  What matters is, and it is said with humility, what matters is faith.  Faith is important, to other humans, and to the world in which we live.

I confess, I experience a religious experience when I view a movie that shares the world of the Kaiju.  I know, intellectually, that what I view is not the truth of human experience. And yet, yet, I know, there is a universal truth that exists whatever I believe, and the Kaiju are so great that I am a fool to think I might understand them.

I was wrong, but it is still not a best case scenario.

For a considerably long time I was of the opinion that producers and talent recruiters of television reality shows, court shows, talk shows have placed before the public members of minority groups, sexual orientations, and economic class who seemed deficient in morality, intelligence, and wisdom for a specific reason.  That is, for whatever sort of reason, they wanted to present a certain story and narrative to make Americans feel a certain way towards those groups.   (Some shows are better than others, regarding the presentation of other people).

I no longer think this.  As I taught a class as a teaching T.A. during my time at NDSU, I taught a course that would be called or considered to be an Introduction to Humanities.  It had a different name, but, frankly it was a how too class made for people who would not have otherwise taken a Humanities course.  One aspect of the course was to know what we were being taught, when diverse groups of people are involved.  First contact between cultures, how scholars reported to their own cultures the new culture, and what happens when cultures exchange products of their intellect, creative communities and industry, humans tend to bias the information they share.  For instance, the alien culture, so to speak, is presented to the visiting culture as being odd, exotic, or weird.  Presenting the exotic as commonplace is a way to make people interested, in the case of popular fiction and media, and exotic as commonplace is a way to label the alien culture as being quaint, cute, less than the base culture, or rarely, much higher.

That is a 140 or so word description of a fairly difficult concept.  But the point of it all, is that it is in our nature to present "others" in fashions that are meant to entertain, and probably, maintain any sort of bias or disadvantage the base culture has towards the alien/other culture.  In the case of television in America, Jerry Springer shows people in a light (whether fictional or some version of truth) that makes it easy to dismiss any of the more serious stages that a viewer would have to seek out to find.

I believe Judge Judy is bright, the show is well done, but almost all of the less than normal, or just plain idiotic cases feature angry members of various ethnic groups demanding ridiculous things.  By watching one can feel many things, justice is served, those darn sewer dwellers didn't get away with cheating, or oh look, the ugly welfare mom with 12 kids didn't win her case.  None of that is necessarily "wrong", but taken with the mass viewership, a certain view of humanity is presented.

The Maury Povich Show features women seeking to find the fathers of their children, and usually, the person has been seeking and the numbers of possible fathers is insane to the normal person of any normal community.  Here we are, this woman is 1000% percent certain that one of these five guys are the father... and then it isn't any of them.  Then we are entertained by the drama, and reassured that the ethnic group most often presented has a lot of partners and fatherless families.

I am not suggesting that we are doing it worse than ever before, this presentation of the other as distinctly wrong, alien, and not deserving to be considered seriously.  It has just now, in the present era, exploded with the masses having access to more and more professionally made exhibitions of the other as being exotic, different, and not worthy of this mass culture.

As far back as 1700s when books began to be spread about to more than the cultural elite there were books by westerners who were said to have visited China or Japan, and these travel journals reported the exotic world of the Orient.  Often the writers of these reports didn't visit the country in question, wrote using the descriptions of the lands from uncritical sources, and wrote to entertain, not to educate.  Even the great Marco Polo's works had deep chasms between observation and actual truth.

However, it could be argued that as Marco Polo had excited the west about the cultures east, so too I think we might find the mass entertainment featuring the ethnically diverse to be false, yet, it normalizes multicultural life in America.  I know of many people who grew up without even one person of different race, nor even different ethnic group, in their hometown. And they had/have views about the different races that are extreme, and wrong.  I think living among the many different people, you are confronted with the inability to maintain your hate.  Maybe mass entertainment isn't so bad. Unless of course, these mass entertainment tv shows reinforce the flawed beliefs that the isolated already have.  And that is my fear.

I had many diverse views, from ignorance. But after I lived in Charlotte North Carolina many of my views were shattered.  And when in 1994 I went in to help my wife Beth teach her classes after a long hospital stay following our ectopic pregnancy/miscarriage, she introduced me to her 1st and 2nd graders.  To my extreme surprise, and honestly, delight, many of the kids of various race, ethnic group, and economic class gave me an enormous hug, because I was the husband of their teacher.  It didn't matter that I was white.  It mattered that my wife loved her kids, and they figured I was worth loving too.  That was the moment that I stopped holding in reserve dark views of others.  Now I realize there are plenty of wrong doers in this world.  And some are wrong doing right now. But they are individuals.  Not a group.