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ONE HAND CLAPPING

By Chris Ryall

October 3, 2005

I had good intentions of doing a weekly column here again, really. And then things got a bit derailed. First, I missed the out-of-town screening of Joss Whedon's SERENITY. Then, I'd planned to write up a Hurricane Katrina charity concert put on by TENACIOUS D and friends (Fiona Apple, Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, Sarah Silverman, David Cross, and others) and just lost track of time. Good show, though--everyone needs to experience the D at least once in their life (multiple viewings are recommended to really appreciate the force of nature that is Jack Black unleashed and away from crappy movies like ENVY). A highlight of the show, other than my hetero man-crush Dave Grohl, of course, was Fiona Apple, who at first seemed out of place amongst that line-up but was definitely a highlight of the show. And conspiracy theorists will be happy to know she played with Jon Brion accompanying her. This seems important to mention since her new CD, out tomorrow, features many tracks that were originally produced by Brion and then redone, leading to rumors that Apple and Brion had had a falling out.

At any rate, let's talk contests.

The contest we held last week, for some copies of the CORPSE BRIDE soundtrack, was really well-received. Nice to see so many OINGO BOINGO fans still out there. The question for this contest was pretty basic--tell me your favorite OINGO BOINGO song and why. As in all these things, the judging is tough, but since I'm limited in the amount of prizes (in this case, five copies), some hard decisions had to be made. As you'll see from some of the winners, there was a bit of a theme of "Wild Sex (in the Working Class)" in the responses... and those responses just happened to work for me, too. Although none worked better than our first winner:

Kristi Frisch, Memphis, TN:

"Pain" is my favorite Oingo Boingo song because makes me think of the drives home with my ex-boyfriend Scott Bowden after he got his ass kicked by Ms. Texas.

I KNEW it!

Jonathan Barrett, Murfreesboro, TN:

"No One Lives Forever"

This song does in three minutes what Tim Burton has been trying to do his whole career; it turns that which one would normally be afraid of into a rollicking jovial affair.

Ivy Bohnlein, Chandler, AZ:

After multiple enjoyable trips down memory lane through the "Best O'Boingo" CD, "Sweat" takes the honors as my favorite Oingo Boing song for its sheer urgency, from the very first guitar riff to the way it drags your heartbeat up through the RPMs to the abrupt climax of an ending - it's a song made out of hot musical sex.

PS: I always thought that "No Spill Blood" was about Animal Farm, but I can see the Dr. Moreau reference…

Yeah, the Moreau refrain is especially noticeable in the title: "No spill blood" was the good doctor's rule to his manimals, and he sent them to the "house of pain" if they broke it. That Danny, literate as can be, when he wasn't singing about loving little girls.

Incidentally, describing a song as being made out of "hot, musical sex" made you a lock to win, especially because I love the song "Sweat," too.

Alana Phelan, New Gretna, NJ:

My favorite Oingo Boingo song is "Flesh 'N Blood" for its great hooks, positive message, and its magical ability to make me to want to jump someone every time I hear it.

Tracy Edmunds, Yorba Linda, CA:

My favorite Oingo Boingo song is "Who Do You Want to Be Today" because there is not much better in this world than skankin' to Boingo ska.

So, that contest successfully behind us, it's time for another. For this one, I had five copies of the Boss's new MALLRATS X DVD. To sweeten the prize a bit, I dropped in on Kevin's signing at the LA Secret Stash comic shop. So now the prize is five autographed copies of the disc--each one is signed by Kevin, Jay Mewes, Scott Mosier, Renee Humphries and Ethan Suplee (sorry, I had another event to attend and had to leave before Jason Lee showed up).

Check out that contest right here.

Adaptation

During the past few months, it's been a bit of a struggle, finding the time to keep up with this column on top of everything else. And I've been fighting that a bit, especially since being down in San Diego has limited the access I have to column-worthy events or screenings.

And it recently hit me--rather than fight things, why not find a way to do something interesting that complements all the other work, notably the IDW script work and such.

Other columns here have looked at the development of things like indie zombie films. So how about a comic? Since doing SHAUN OF THE DEAD (and LAND OF THE DEAD and DOOMED and a few issues of the upcoming MASTERS OF HORROR, based on the Showtime show), I've been writing a lot of adaptations. And I've gotten more than a few e-mails, asking about the process, if it just consists of watching the movie and writing down scenes, or what.

So I think I'm going to answer that question, in the form of a column that follows my progress on a big project over the next year.

It's one thing to adapt a movie or a TV episode, where you have the script and the visuals of the show to guide you. But now I'm heading into a much larger project, the scope of which is beyond any of these others thus far.

Starting in February, I'm going to be doing a 12-part adaptation of Clive Barker's THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW. Now, adapting any 800-page book to comic form (with 12 22-page parts, I have not even a third of the total pages to tell the same story), but this book will be especially challenging. It's not exactly the most obvious narrative, with half-explained mysteries and ideas that mean one thing to one person and one to another. So it's pretty daunting, and also incredibly exciting. And doing a column about the development of the project will not only be a way for me to clarify what I'm doing with each chapter, but also explain the entire process and show some exclusive art as I go. So the next column will begin Part 1 of The (Hopefully) Great and (Not-So) Secret Show.

I'll still do my usual thing (whatever that is) here from time to time, too--I'm planning a CLERKS 2 set visit and some other things--but still, as regularly as I'm able, I plan to really delve into the process of adapting a book to comics, which is definitely much more than just taking the text and adding images to it. The first step in the process? Selling Clive on me being the person to write this adaptation.

/chris

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