Sherman Alexie on Marvel Comics: Will it happen?

[Nitz the Bloody]

A while back I read a rumor that said that Sherman Alexie, the renowned Native American novelist/poet/director, was going to work on a series for Marvel Comics. I don't exactly remember where I read this ( I think it was Rich Johnston's column ), but I do remember that it was credited with a fair amount of certainty. However, I've looked on Alexie's official page, and it says nothing about any comic book writing ( aside from his new book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which deals with an aspiring cartoonist and has illustrations, but is not a comic per se ).

Does anyone know if this rumor has been actively discredited, or is there still a chance that Alexie will write comics? Because after reading The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and the recent book Flight, I have to say that comics would benefit greatly from his talents.

[Kid Q]

I hope that this is still going to happen. From what I remember Mr. Alexie is working on a Forge book and a Daredevil book. I don't recall any information regarding release dates, but hopefully we will hear more soon.

[sgt pepper]

That would be so awesome.

I hope he gets free reign because no one can write cursing as poetically as Alexie.

[Reptisaurus!]

Did I really not reply to this?

Yeah, this was posted on Lying in the Gutters a couple months ago, but I haven't heard the slightest whiff of confirmation from any source, anywhere.

Obviously I'd like to see it happen. :) Because new Sherman Alexie in any medium is pretty much gonna make my week. While some novelists fail to make the transition to comics (anyone read that STORM mini by Eric Jerome Dickie) SA's film work has been downright spectacular. Here's a dude who knows how to write dialog and think visually.

Obviously, being me, I'd rather see a project where he has a little more of a free hand. I can certainly see The House Of Copyright Continuation In Lieu Of Ideas* screwing up even a Sherman Alexie script.

On the other hand, there's a decent chance we get the best X-men story ever out of it. If it happens.

But I'm not holding my breath. (And, c'mon dude! You already wrote an introduction for a Fantagraphics book. Why not go with a publisher with a tech more class?)




* Joke stolen from BeaucoupKevin.

[Nitz the Bloody]

Didn't read Eric Jerome Dickey's Storm, but he'd fit right in with Charlie Huston, Orson Scott Card, Jodi Picoult, the infamous Brad Meltzer, and other contemporary novelists whose comic scripts were less than successful. Anyone have any theories why this is? Are they just not accustomed to the comic script format, do the Big Two actively ruin their stories, or is there a curse at work?

Of course, I have a lot more faith in Sherman Alexie than I do in most of those other writers.

[Reptisaurus!]

Didn't read Eric Jerome Dickey's Storm, but he'd fit right in with Charlie Huston, Orson Scott Card, Jodi Picoult, the infamous Brad Meltzer, and other contemporary novelists whose comic scripts were less than successful. Anyone have any theories why this is? Are they just not accustomed to the comic script format, do the Big Two actively ruin their stories, or is there a curse at work?


Probably not accustomed? Maybe? Or they could just have different skill-sets.
I can't think of any comics writers who have gone on to become extremely good prose writers, either. (Although I haven't read the prose works from either Alan Moore or Lynda Barry.)
[quote]
Of course, I have a lot more faith in Sherman Alexie than I do in most of those other writers.[/QUOTE}

Yeah, me too. Mostly 'cause Smoke Signals was so awesome.

And I have a feeling he's a significantly better prose writer than most of the folks listed, as well.

[Omar Karindu]

Of course, we haven't really gotten a non-comics writer with the kind of academic respect that Alexie has doing comics either. (Jonathan Lethem might be an exception.)

I'm not judging the merits of Picoult, Meltzer, Card, Dickey, et al., but in the main they're genre writers -- romance, legal thriller, science fiction -- and, Card perhaps excepted what with the upsurge of academic interest in post-WWII science fiction, not people likely to be considered masters of prose and dropped into literary anthologies twenty years from now.

Theoretically, anyway, I'd say that Orson Scott Card comics aren't so different a proposition than were Alfred Bester comics in the 1940s.

[sgt pepper]

Gaiman's a damn good prose writer. I didn't have high hopes, but read Anansi Boys a few months ago and it's excellent. He's as good as Adams, but with far better plotting, and he's miles and miles better than Pratchett.

[Reptisaurus!]

Of course, we haven't really gotten a non-comics writer with the kind of academic respect that Alexie has doing comics either. (Jonathan Lethem might be an exception.)


Trying to think... I've heard Toni Morrison's children's books described as "comics," although I've never read 'em. Other than that... I can't think of anyone. (And I could well be wrong about Morrison's books.)

I'm not judging the merits of Picoult, Meltzer, Card, Dickey, et al., but in the main they're genre writers -- romance, legal thriller, science fiction -- and, Card perhaps excepted what with the upsurge of academic interest in post-WWII science fiction, not people likely to be considered masters of prose and dropped into literary anthologies twenty years from now.


Well, upsurge in academic acceptance, sure.

But there's also the fact that Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead were reaaaalllly good. I'd say almost undeniably so.


Theoretically, anyway, I'd say that Orson Scott Card comics aren't so different a proposition than were Alfred Bester comics in the 1940s.

Huh. Good analogy. (Although obviously Card is a bigger name than Alfred Bester was at the time. And comics have more literary respect now than... well, comics of the forties, but probably Science Fiction of the forties as well.)

[Hatut Zeraze]

This would be really interesting.

He would really, really have to lower his aspirations, or Marvel would have to seriously unclench their tight asses for this to even be doable.

Marvel does not have much of a history of giving writers the kind of freedom that I assume Alexie would require for this to be worth his time.

Notable exceptions are Morrison's New X-Men run and, arguably, some of Ellis's work, such as what he is currently doing on Thunderbolts. Assuming that Marvel is willing to give Alexie that kind of freedom, I think this could be great.

[RonnieThunderbolts]

I went to college at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ, and I had the opportunity to hear Mr. Alexie do a reading/speaking at the Prochnau Auditorium there on campus. It was awesome, with a huge Native population in Flag year round, and including a large portion of the student body, he had a HUGE turnout, it was like he was a rock star, with the fire codes being totally ignored, people sitting on the floor in the aisles and all around him on stage. He even mentioned how he always wondered why Flagstaff, with such small market, was one of the highest box office sales areas for Smoke Signals, his film. He'd said he never understood how a small college town would be the third highest in ticket sales nationwide until that night, seeing the crowds of students/faculty and townspeople there to hear him. It was awesome, he read a few beautiful poems and one or two very short stories, but mostly he talked. It was very soon after September 11th, 2001, and he had talked a lot about the so called war on terror and a lot of topical and political issues. Most of these issues affecting Americans in general and Native Americans in particular are still being dealt with today. It was a very cool experience. I got to meet him afterwards, shake his hand and have him autograph a copy of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and thank him for Smoke Signals and his writing. Short stories like "Imagining the Reservation," and all of the material about recurring characters like Lester Falls Apart (frequents his stories and is refered to in the film Smoke Signals) are fantastic, and spoke to me. I feel like I know a lot of the people he writes about, having had the wonderful chance to get to know and live amongst Natives, Navajos, Apache and Hopi mostly, but to share in their culture, and learn firsthand many of their traditions. As an educator in Arizona I taught mostly Native students in the public schools in Flagstaff, with a vast majority of the population from one of many indiginous tribes.

I for one would love to see Sherman Alexie take on any number of comics properties.

[buttler]

Hey, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's a pretty terrific playwright, and he's been doing just fine in comics.