computer games and comic - jms

 Posted on 10/26/1998 by jmsatb5@aol.com to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated


I posted this accidentally to the UK group, had meant to post it here:

For a while now, every once in a while, one computer game company or other will
drop me an email note, and ask if I'd be interested in lining up with one or
the other to design games for them. I haven't said yes to any of them because
a) I'm not as familiar with the scene as I'd like to be corporately, c) I've
been busy mounting Crusade, and c) I've been busy working on the Sierra B5 game
to make it as good as possible. But the thought keeps occuring...hell, I could
put in the same amount of time I'm putting on the B5 game on a game of my
own....

So I figured...what the heck. Everybody I know who's in computer games is
online, and so I thought, all right, let's say I'm open to the possibility.
The B5 game is nearly finished from a design perspective, so that time is now
open. The filming on Crusade is going fine, we're ahead on scripts...it's a
good time to have some talks, broaden out the work a bit.

So to those who've inquired before (your info is long, long gone, I'm afraid),
and anyone who's looking on from one of the game companies, who might be
interested in a jms line of games...lemme know.

Also, I'm also pleased to announce that I have a new comic title of my own
coming out next year from Top Cow (a division of Image Comics, publisher of
Witchblade and Spawn)... something I've been quietly working on for the last
three, four months...and which I think may have a fairly considerable impact on
the field.

(It's the way I'm hardwired...if I don't have 2-3 projects going at the same
time, whether a book or a story of something else, I just get nuts....)

More info has been posted about the comic in various places, including
mania.com. The comic is called RISING STARS, and it's set to debut next April.
I've just turned in the first script (for the preview issue), and will be
getting down to writing issues 0 and 1 shortly.

The story follows the events after the small town of Pederson, Illinois, is
struck by a mass of energy from an unknown, but non-terrestrial source.
Everyone who was in utero at the time of the flash is affected, resulting in
113 individuals who develop abilities of a most unusual and highly individual
form. (The power is to some degree shaped by who they are, just as they are
shaped to some degree by the power.)

It is set in a realistic universe, timed to real-world events (it covers a span
of about 60 years, starting in about 1969), where there have never been
super-powered individuals before. It looks at how the world reacts to them,
and how they react to the world. We follow these characters through their
early years, into adulthood and to the ends of their lives, mapping all the
changes they go through, and how they change the world.

It's an extremely ambitious 24 issue miniseries (with the potential to go back
and further develop any of the stories presented earlier along the way).

jms

From: (jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com



Re: computer games and comic - jms

 Posted on 10/27/1998 by jmsatb5@aol.com to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated


>I'm not "tearing it down" as you put it. I am simply
>pointing out the fact that the idea is not original.
>In fact, it sounds like a direct copy from the films,
>although I'm sure JMS will make a LOT more
>interesting story of it than the films.
>

Sorry. Ain't the case. Damned was about a colonization effort by aliens,
achieved by getting human female pregnant, and the kids were strictly
telekinetic, and died at about age 7.

There is no alien colonization thing going on in the story, it only affects the
women who are already pregnant, and it follows their whole lives. You may as
well say that the Three Mile Island story is a Damned story because it charts
the effect of outside forces on pregnant women and their offspring.


jms

From: (jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com