Thursday, January 12, 2006

The Magic of Shazam!
I've been crunching the numbers and there's just no way I can reintroduce King Kull or introduce The Perfect or the Gnomes of Zurich before "The Red and the Black" starts in The Magic of Shazam! No. 45. I've got all but one or two issues between No. 1 and No. 58 assigned, and a few one-shot ideas I can install in those slots. There's just no time to tell all the stories I want to tell. To create a little breathing room, I've made No. 75 the start of the five- or six-part "The Conqueror Worm" instead of the conclusion, but even so I know the issues between Nos. 59 and 74 are going to fill up fast. Holy moley.

Of course, one way to take some of the pressure off would be to add an eight-page back-up feature, "Fawcett City Follies." That would be the perfect forum for the lighthearted misadventures of Uncle Dudley and Mr. Tawny or independent Bulletwoman and Spy Smasher tales (though I also have a couple ideas for a Spy Smasher mini-series or two). The Crocodile Mob would be perfect for the "Follies." I've got a story called "The Pirates of Lake Michigan" that is strong enough to fill up a couple issues on its own, but I wouldn't be able to get to it until at least the mid-60s, more likely after the conclusion of "The Conqueror Worm" around No. 80. Ghost pirates attack Fawcett City, a perfect premise to be chopped up into bit-sized eight-page nuggets.

Of course, all this assumes a) I'd ever get the chance to write the blasted thing and b) it wouldn't get cancelled after forty-seven issues like Jerry Ordway's The Power of Shazam! Oy.

No. 1 "Giant Atomic Robots, Part 1 of 5"
No. 2 " " "
No. 3 " " "
No. 4 " " "
No. 5 "Giant Atomic Robots, Part 5 of 5"
No. 6 "Faerie Tale, Part 1 of 3"
No. 7 " "
No. 8 "Faerie Tale, Part 3 of 3"
No. 9 "The Mechanical Man of Mystery"
No. 10 "The Crocodile Mob in... 'A Piece of the Action'"
No. 11 "Kristallnacht, Part 1 of 2"
No. 12 "Kristallnacht, Part 2 of 2"
No. 13 "I, Robot Marvel"
No. 14 "Ibac's Back"
No. 15 "The ODESSA File, Part 1 of 3"
No. 16 " " "
No. 17 "The ODESSA File, Part 3 of 3"
No. 18 "Night of the Crazy Chicken"
No. 19 "The Red Oni, Part 1 of 3"
No. 20 " " "
No. 21 "The Red Oni, Part 3 of 3"
No. 22 "Man of Science, Part 1 of 4"
No. 23 " " "
No. 24 " " "
No. 25 "Man of Science, Part 4 of 4"
No. 26 "It Came From Outer Space, Part 1 of 2"
No. 27 "It Came From Outer Space, Part 2 of 2"
No. 28 "Heck in the Pacific"
No. 29 "The Faerie Queene, Part 1 of 3"
No. 30 " " "
No. 31 "The Faerie Queene, Part 3 of 3"
No. 32 "Fight Club"
No. 33 "Manhunters Are From Mars, Worms Are From Venus, Part 1 of 5"
No. 34 " " " " " " " "
No. 35 " " " " " " " "
No. 36 " " " " " " " "
No. 37 "Manhunters Are From Mars, Worms Are From Venus, Part 5 of 5"
No. 38 "V for Vengeance, Part 1 of 3"
No. 39 " " "
No. 40 "V for Vengeance, Part 3 of 3"
No. 41 "The Red Oni Strikes Again, Part 1 of 3"
No. 42 " " " " "
No. 43 "The Red Oni Strikes Again, Part 3 of 3"
No. 44 "Captain Marvel vs. Sadie Hawkins"
No. 45 "The Red and the Black, Part 1 of 6"
No. 46 " " " " "
No. 47 " " " " "
No. 48 " " " " "
No. 49 " " " " "
No. 50 "The Red and the Black, Part 6 of 6"
No. 51 "The Revenge of Theo Adam, Part 1 of 2"
No. 52 "The Revenge of Theo Adam, Part 2 of 2"
No. 53 "From Here to the Rock of Eternity, Part 1 of 6"
No. 54 " " " " " " "
No. 55 " " " " " " "
No. 56 " " " " " " "
No. 57 " " " " " " "
No. 58 "From Here to the Rock of Eternity, Part 6 of 6"

And then after No. 58 is the logical place for "A Man of Righteousness," Xia Timur's bid to claim the Wizard's power as the Scion of Shazam... yeah, and I can revive King Kull after the Scion's defeated and/or driven off. And because Vandal Savage was created by Alfred Bester, I have to use him in The Magic of Shazam!, and to me it makes sense to pair Savage with the savage King Kull. And then I can do "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and "The Gnomes of Zurich," finally introducing The Perfect. Ooo, but somewhere in there I have to fit "Radioland Murders," one of the very first ideas I had for MOS!, which has been pushed back from before "Man of Science" to Bog knows when. There's just no time! And then of course "The Conqueror Worm" kicks off with No. 75 and I still need to introduce the new Red Oni and do some more with the Monster Society of Evil... plus, I have to find space to make Billy (Captain Marvel), Mary (Mary Marvel), Freddy (Kid Marvel), Veronica, Uncle Dudley, Mr. Tawny, Whitey, T.M.I. "Timmy" (Robot Marvel), Deanna (Bulletwoman), Avi (Spy Smasher), Mr. Sterling, Beautia, Beatrix & Benedict, Cissie, Aditi, Nick & Nora, Detectives Darling & Barnes, Inspectors Woolfolk & Pax, Joan, "Headline" Harry, and the Wizard fully realized, multidimensional characters, the one thing that makes any work of literature (even "sequential literature") worthwhile. Again, oy.

And there's just no space for "The Metropolis Marvel" or the "Wonders and Marvels" team-up/crossover. *sigh*

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