Sunday, November 20, 2005

I can't fall asleep. "No, sir, I don't like it."

The Magic of Shazam!
Probably tied in with the villainous Erlkonig and Captain Marvel's various adventures in the land of Faerie ("Faerie Tale" and "The Faerie Queene"), I have decided to use the gnomes from Christopher Moeller's JLA: A League of One in a story titled "The Gnomes of Zurich." I'll have to make sure it involves both the actual gnomes and the notoriously secretive bankers of Zurich, unkindly nicknamed "the Gnomes of Zurich" by former British PM Harold Wilson (not to be confused with my uncle, Harold "Skeezie" Wilson). And I'm sure fun and games would result should Station WHIZ be beset by a gremlin. I want the book to be called The Magic of Shazam!; so, I think I have an obligation to include a fair amount of magic. The problem there is that I hate most comic book magic (swirling colors and incantations that make time run backwards or blink entire species out of existence). Instead, I think I'll include lots of magical/mythological creatures like the fae, gnomes, gremlins, and, if I can swing it, the Swedish trollfolk. And there is the villain Red Oni, powered by a frightful japanese oni, not to mention long time Marvel Family supporting character Mr. Tawky Tawny, a stuffed toy tiger brought to flesh-and-blood life by demonic magic (though Mr. Tawny is a sweetheart); so, we might be in fair shape onthe magic front. (And that's without mentioning the wicked sorceror Xia Timur, the Scion of Shazam.)

Also, I'm starting to get a handle on the vainglorious villain The Perfect. With Billy and Mary's foster parents Nick and Nora Bromfield already in Switzerland for medical treatment and now both the gnomes and the Gnomes of Zurich, I might as well also locate The Perfect in the stunningly beautiful land of those damn, dirty neutrals, the Swiss. Perhaps Captain Marvel will stumble upon Perfect's villainy through the bankers of Zurich. Yes....

And maybe at some point I'll have the Marvels travel back through time and tour the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, if for no other reason that I greatly enjoy writing, typing, saying, and viewing the word Halicarnassus. Ooooo, Halicarnassus.

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