Maybe Channel Awesome has better management, butterflying away the Change the Channel controversy?
Trying to Please Everyone: Or Converting multiple Pop Culture Utopias into a Timeline.
- Thread starter Marco Incognito
- Start date
Less youtubers being exposed as not good people behind the scenes.
I'll wait until I see if there's an actual show before I decide that.
SCP Foundation, Death Battle, various Youtubers, Channel Awesome(including Nostalgia Critic and Atopthe4thWall), RWBY, Red vs Blue, Team Four Star, Game Grumps, and Harlan Ellison's Youtube Channel just to name a view. Also I can literally save Joan Rivers by making her do a Comedians in Cars getting Coffee Episode that she was offered to do but turned down because of a surgery, which may have been the one that killed her.
William S Burroughs: Father of the Beat Generation and the Graphic Novel(1971-1972)
Hello and welcome back to Deadbeats, today we are covering William S. Burroughs, Author, Beatnik, drug addict, murderer, and Comic Book writer.
Burroughs developed a desire to right when he was sent to the Los Alamos Ranch School in Mexico. The School was a boarding school for the wealthy, in his own words "where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens". It is here that that Burroughs met his first crush. In fact most of his first writings were erotic poems devoted to him, which now reside in his childhood home and museum. Burroughs moved to St.Louis with his then boyfriend to avoid persecution from his family, who was certain would not have accepted him. He began attending school at Harvard in New York and enjoyed the gay culture there. His parents, eventually coming to accept his sexual preference, supplied him with an allowance to keep him going until graduation.
After graduation, Burroughs headed to Europe where he became involved in the Austrian and Hungarian LGBT culture, that is until the rise of the Nazis. Burroughs had picked up plenty of homosexual men and became devoted to saving as many as he could from the regime, including a jewish woman that he saved by marrying and then divorcing. His family became worried for his mental health when he severed his finger to impress a boy, which inspired a short story by him "The Finger". Unfortunately, this event could not be anymore badly timed as The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, bringing the US Into the war, something which Burroughs had wanted but grew to believe wouldn't happen, and now he could no longer due to his missing finger. Burroughs tried repeatedly to sign up, meeting and befriending a young student named Lucien Carr and his boyfriend David Kammerer, who he would follow to New York.
Kerouac and Burroughs reenacting the Murder they witnessed in a Play of And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks
In 1944, Burroughs moved in with an apartment that included Joan Vollmer Adams, Jack Kerouac, Lucien Carr, David Kammerer and Kerouac's then wife Edie Parker. Then their lives changed when Lucien Carr murdered David Kammerer during an argument. Burroughs and Kerouac failed to report the body and in the aftermath, both began taking morphine to cope with having witnessed the murder, inspiring their 1945 novel And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks and were able to get it published. At the urging of Allan Ginsberg and Kerouax, Burroughs and Joan Vollmer Adams moved in together, finding an emotional connection that led to them getting married. Both quickly fell into their old drug habits, despite having two children, Julie Adams, and William S. Burroughs Jr. Sadly, the relationship would end in tragedy.
Burroughs and Adams were both intoxicated while living in Mexico City, a combination of drugs and alcohol. Burroughs decided he would play William Tell and Adams obliged by putting a shot glass on her head while Burroughs found a handgun. Burroughs fired. He did not hit the glass. His aim was too low.
Burroughs was arrested for murder and his children went to live with relatives. It was this moment that served as a wakeup call to Burroughs and he promised to sober up, writing the book Queer, while in Prison. The shock of the incident also awakened in Burroughs the desire to write not felt since his partnership with Kerouac. Burroughs wrote the novel Junkie on his own addictions. Upon getting out he would write wander through South America, trying a drug called Yage that was rumored to grant telepathic abilities. The result was published as The Yage Letters. He then travelled to Tangiers and the International Zone, where drugs were freely available.It was here were he began writing what would become The Naked Lunch. The Book was banned for its obscene content and got Ginsberg fired from his publication job when he supported it, though its release would lead many critics to praise it. After meeting Brion Gysin at the Beat Hotel in Paris in 1959, Burroughs became fascinated with the cut up technique collage style which would dominate his later work. Burroughs had actually mostly been going clean but his roommate in a stroke of bad luck was a career criminal and he was arrested when drugs were found, released partly due to writers being respected figures in France and The Naked Lunch just having been published by that time. He then moved to London in the 1960's and worked for several magazines, covering the 1968 Democratic National Convention. During the coverage Burroughs befriended novelist Terry Southern, also covering the convention. The two began collaborating with Gameshow host Chuck Barris on a film adaptation of The Naked Lunch which would be released in 1972 by David Cronenberg and be partly based on Burroughs's own life.
Burroughs and Cronenberg with members of the cast of 1972's The Naked Lunch
Ah Pook is Here graphic novel page
In 1971, Burroughs began collaborating with an art student named Malcolm NcNeill on a "Word/Image Novel" of Burrough's story, Ah Pook is Here. The result was one of the first graphic novels. While it was difficult finding a publisher, Burroughs was able to get it off the ground thanks to his film getting completed, as McNeill and Cronenberg were both students at the time and fans of Burroughs, who was gaining recognition as students discovered his work. Now Burroughs was a Comic Book Icon as well, along with McNeil. The two would work frequently together, their most notable collaboration being a take on Marvel's What if concept on a Meta scale What if William S.Burroughs wrote Tarzan instead of Edgar Rice Burroughs? The results are umm...
Burroughs had another influence on the comic medium and that was his occult beliefs. Burroughs believed in the power of stories, something which he would come to share with many writers including Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, who waged their own little occult war, where Moore subverted and destroyed fictional archetypes in his stories while Morrison attempted to elevate them, many of Morrison's works being answers or counters to the works of Moore, while Gaiman also shared such beliefs. In a way Burroughs fit right into this bizarre world of believers in magic(a group that also liked to indulge a bit in narcotics for inspiration). He can be seen as yet another example of authors who found themselves entering the world of comics along with the likes of H.P.Lovecraft. Burroughs remains an inspiration to many, counting Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph Bakshi, John Kricfalusi, and Kurt Cobain among his famous fans.
Notes
While it is a bit sad to keep the murder of Joan Vollmer Adams in. The event was stated many times to get Burroughs to write, and at least some people would be deprived a Utopia if he didn't. Some people's live seem to insane to really butterfly away too much so the big difference here is "How to get Burroughs to become a Comic Book writer?" funny enough that opportunity came in 1971 when an art student approached him to make a Graphic Novel version of Ah Pook is Here, which he tried for years. Frankly I quite think Burroughs would fit well as a pioneer of Comic Books. He's in pretty insane company as is. I originally going to cover his whole life but at least here its more open to future appearances now that he's had a boost with a film and inventing the Graphic Novel. New doors are opening for him.
Do you mean they're better people or they just don't get exposed? Because I'd much prefer the former to the latter.
The former, I'd rather have bad people go good/never go down that path rather than the inevitable alternatives...
Jhonen Vasquez(1995-2012)
I didn't plan to do two creator centered posts back to back. I just felt that covering the creator's comic contributions and divergences from OTL would have made the entry too short. The original idea was simply that Vasquez continues to come back to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac something he's wanted to do and teased he'd be doing in story but has never really had the chance.
Jhonen Vasquez
Jhonen Vasquez was born on September 1, 1974. In High School he would spend his class time sketching, even entering a context to design the school's mascot, though not winning anything. His first drawing was of a character named Johnny C. Vasquez became interested in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His High School newspaper published strips featuring Johnny C titled Johnny the Little Homicidal Maniac. After graduating in 1992, Vasquez became a film student, though would drop out to become a cartoonist. He would meet Roman Dirge, Rosearik Rikki Simons, and Simons' wife Tavisha in 1995. Simmons would go onto voice Gir on Invader Zim and did coloring work on Vasquez's comics I Feel Sick and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. Dirge was also a writer on Invader Zim.
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac follows the titular character Johnny C, searching for meaning in his life as people die around him, himself dying a few times. Vasquez's friend Leah England also appears in a filler strip that has become notorious known as "Meanwhile..." about a man trying to hide his explosive diarhea. Vasquez would return to Johnny multiple times, while doing a spinoff featuring the character Squee encounters aliens, Satan and the Antichrist. This was followed by Wobbly-Headed Bob and I Feel Sick. I Feel Sick follows a tortured artist named Devi, also previously from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and her dealing with her own dwindling sanity. Vasquez also did Fillerbunny, which was originally created to occupy extra pages in comics but when he was given more time to complete the strips, the quality became much greater.
Unexpectedly in 1999, the 22 year old Vasquez was approached by Nickelodeon producer Mary Harrington to create a TV Show. He accepted and created the concept of the show Invader Zim in an hour and barely toned down anything despite having never worked on animation or a children's show before. 40 episodes were contracted. The series concerned Zim, the member of a species called the Noyng. As the series went on new characters were introduced, including Skooge, the Noyng invader of planet of Hobo-13, and Mini-Moose, both of which joined Gir as sidekicks to Zim. This was thanks to Zim being able to leave Earth quite frequently, not being bound to the planet and spending episodes in space. The show ran for three seasons, concluding in 2003 with a grand finale. The Finale had Zim appear to be killed, only for it to be revealed that a Noyng's true brain was in their backpack and they can regrow their body. Zim learned he was assigned Earth to keep him busy and launches a plan to bring Earth to his own homeworld and destroy both, causing a rift in space and time known as a Florbus. It is revealed the Tallest, Miyuki and Spork, figureheads of the Noyng were actually quite shorter than Zim and were using robot bodies, making Zim have a higher authority then them as stature equals authority in Noyng society, making Zim the Emperor after he sends the Tallest to a hellish dimension, which turns out to be the Hell from Squee! and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, said character promptly murdering the Tallest. Zim's true plan turned out to be far more petty towards his enemy Dib Membrane with the Florbus plan being a more complicated distraction.
After the show ended, Vasquez received offers from Comedy Central and Adult Swim for a mature continuation of Invader Zim, but Vasquez admitted he honestly didn't cut that much out and there wasn't a super R Rated version of it because it was made with children in mind, though he accepted the offer for a Johnny the Homicidal Maniac series, which allowed him to write new stories.
At Comic-Con 2005, Vasquez announced he would work on his own comics for a time, later collaborating with others on 2007's Jellyfist, and several well received issues of Marvel's Strange Tales, along with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and later a reboot of TMNT for Nickelodeon. He moved to work for DC(and through connections Cartoon Network) in 2012, working on Beyond Fringe(A sequel of sorts to Fringe. By his own admission he has learned to "Play well with others" and grown to enjoy creating content for Invader Zim as well as his more mature work. Both Marvel and DC often grant him his own Comic Series free of continuity to bring his ideas to life. Vasquez is currently working on the Animated Series Pibby for Adult Swim and has given permission for his own characters to cameo in the series.
Jhonen Vasquez
Jhonen Vasquez was born on September 1, 1974. In High School he would spend his class time sketching, even entering a context to design the school's mascot, though not winning anything. His first drawing was of a character named Johnny C. Vasquez became interested in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His High School newspaper published strips featuring Johnny C titled Johnny the Little Homicidal Maniac. After graduating in 1992, Vasquez became a film student, though would drop out to become a cartoonist. He would meet Roman Dirge, Rosearik Rikki Simons, and Simons' wife Tavisha in 1995. Simmons would go onto voice Gir on Invader Zim and did coloring work on Vasquez's comics I Feel Sick and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. Dirge was also a writer on Invader Zim.
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac follows the titular character Johnny C, searching for meaning in his life as people die around him, himself dying a few times. Vasquez's friend Leah England also appears in a filler strip that has become notorious known as "Meanwhile..." about a man trying to hide his explosive diarhea. Vasquez would return to Johnny multiple times, while doing a spinoff featuring the character Squee encounters aliens, Satan and the Antichrist. This was followed by Wobbly-Headed Bob and I Feel Sick. I Feel Sick follows a tortured artist named Devi, also previously from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and her dealing with her own dwindling sanity. Vasquez also did Fillerbunny, which was originally created to occupy extra pages in comics but when he was given more time to complete the strips, the quality became much greater.
Unexpectedly in 1999, the 22 year old Vasquez was approached by Nickelodeon producer Mary Harrington to create a TV Show. He accepted and created the concept of the show Invader Zim in an hour and barely toned down anything despite having never worked on animation or a children's show before. 40 episodes were contracted. The series concerned Zim, the member of a species called the Noyng. As the series went on new characters were introduced, including Skooge, the Noyng invader of planet of Hobo-13, and Mini-Moose, both of which joined Gir as sidekicks to Zim. This was thanks to Zim being able to leave Earth quite frequently, not being bound to the planet and spending episodes in space. The show ran for three seasons, concluding in 2003 with a grand finale. The Finale had Zim appear to be killed, only for it to be revealed that a Noyng's true brain was in their backpack and they can regrow their body. Zim learned he was assigned Earth to keep him busy and launches a plan to bring Earth to his own homeworld and destroy both, causing a rift in space and time known as a Florbus. It is revealed the Tallest, Miyuki and Spork, figureheads of the Noyng were actually quite shorter than Zim and were using robot bodies, making Zim have a higher authority then them as stature equals authority in Noyng society, making Zim the Emperor after he sends the Tallest to a hellish dimension, which turns out to be the Hell from Squee! and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, said character promptly murdering the Tallest. Zim's true plan turned out to be far more petty towards his enemy Dib Membrane with the Florbus plan being a more complicated distraction.
After the show ended, Vasquez received offers from Comedy Central and Adult Swim for a mature continuation of Invader Zim, but Vasquez admitted he honestly didn't cut that much out and there wasn't a super R Rated version of it because it was made with children in mind, though he accepted the offer for a Johnny the Homicidal Maniac series, which allowed him to write new stories.
At Comic-Con 2005, Vasquez announced he would work on his own comics for a time, later collaborating with others on 2007's Jellyfist, and several well received issues of Marvel's Strange Tales, along with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and later a reboot of TMNT for Nickelodeon. He moved to work for DC(and through connections Cartoon Network) in 2012, working on Beyond Fringe(A sequel of sorts to Fringe. By his own admission he has learned to "Play well with others" and grown to enjoy creating content for Invader Zim as well as his more mature work. Both Marvel and DC often grant him his own Comic Series free of continuity to bring his ideas to life. Vasquez is currently working on the Animated Series Pibby for Adult Swim and has given permission for his own characters to cameo in the series.
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Heroic Publishing: 1987-2006
Heroic Publishing
The Champions are a superhero team that first appeared in 1981 as part of the Champions role playing game by Hero Games and the comic series of the same name published by Eclipse Comics as Champions in 1986 and then by Heroic Publishing as League of Champions in 1987. The Heroes of the line live in San Francisco.
The first four issues of the original Champions introduced the heroes individually, with the fifth revealing the threat bringing them together. The full six issues were 48 pages and focused on the solo stories and plot such as, The search for the new Giant, The Winter Wonderlass, and many others(OTL the character of Flare is butterflied away). The members were given their own solo titles such as Eternity Smith gaining a 16-Page 50-cent bi-weekly comic from Eclipse from creator Dennis Mallonee, who would take the character to DC. When the series was rebranded by Heroic as League of Champions, George Perez was brought on to write with a series revolving around Icicle being made.
It was around 2006 that Heroic Publishing introduced Fantastic Girl, a multi-media sensation intended to diversify their lineup with a Token Black heroine to appeal to old school fans of Blaxploitation fans, however, the campaign was not as successful as hoped(OTL the campagin failed due to Fantastic Girl being too similar to the character of Flare, who does not exist ITTL).
The first four issues of the original Champions introduced the heroes individually, with the fifth revealing the threat bringing them together. The full six issues were 48 pages and focused on the solo stories and plot such as, The search for the new Giant, The Winter Wonderlass, and many others(OTL the character of Flare is butterflied away). The members were given their own solo titles such as Eternity Smith gaining a 16-Page 50-cent bi-weekly comic from Eclipse from creator Dennis Mallonee, who would take the character to DC. When the series was rebranded by Heroic as League of Champions, George Perez was brought on to write with a series revolving around Icicle being made.
It was around 2006 that Heroic Publishing introduced Fantastic Girl, a multi-media sensation intended to diversify their lineup with a Token Black heroine to appeal to old school fans of Blaxploitation fans, however, the campaign was not as successful as hoped(OTL the campagin failed due to Fantastic Girl being too similar to the character of Flare, who does not exist ITTL).
I should have asked this earlier, but with the release of the 7-hour Youtube video analysis video on Utopia, what happens to that TV show ITTL?
Could I see this Youtube Video? I admit I haven't watched the show.
Alright I'll look at it but just a head's up I'm going on a trip all next week so I may not respond until I get back, especially given how long this video and the show are.
A History of Licensed Comics: 1939-1979
I'm going on Vacation for the week of Thanksgiving and at this time my documents are a very slow, so I'm clearing some room by placing this chapter here now, which will likely be revised a few times in the future. Credit to Eileen Gonzalez for this article and this one by Terry, as Licensed Comics lacked a concrete recorded history to draw from.
A History of Licensed Comics: 1939-1979
Movies and TV Shows based on Comics are everywhere these days, but what about the reverse? What about Comics based on film and television? Well I'll tell you. The practice goes way back. Such works are called Licensed Comics, in that the property was licensed out. The earliest of these were newspaper comic strips. There are a few out there starring the Tramp, the silent film character created by Charlie Chaplin. They contain almost no dialogue and read a lot like the later Tintin stories. Now Disney did a ton of these, turning all of their films from Snow White onward into comics with beautiful illustrations.
It was in the early 1940's, the comic book adaptations such as those of the Green Hornet and the Saint began to takeoff. Movie Comics was created solely to adapt Hollywood films. The Comic book company Dell Comics adapted the radio program Charlie McCarthy. In fact Dell quickly rose as the leader in licensed Comics, and may have invented the TV to Comics adaptation with their Howdy Doody series. Howdy Doody first came on TV in 1947 and the comics came out in 1949. The format changed so that the puppeteer was gone. Howdy Doody was more of a toon than a puppet. There are no strings on him.
Dell and Gold Key enjoyed a comfortable niche audience making licensed comics on Warner Bros, Hanna-Barbera, and Disney properties. By the 1960's they were making comics out of every property you can name and even the one's you don't(Ensign O'Toole anyone?). For the most part, Dell played the new medium to its strength. For example, the Beverly Hillbillies Comic took advantage to tell stories and jokes a show budget couldn't such as a scene in which an entire film studio is flooded and becomes a swimming pool. Then there were times when the owners of the licensed couldn't have seen the movie and were given a rough outline instead, the results were rough, you couldn't do Singin' in the Rain without singing. So what they tried to do here is capture the emotions of the characters with the lyrics matching the emotion in the panels.
When it came to TV show adaptations it was a bit easier since they could just write original stories for the characters, but sometimes this was tough. You had Star Trek comics where the usually calm and monotone crew would get overly emotional. Spock, the emotionless Vulcan would burst out in anger. Sometimes, the comic artists forgot what the actors looked like and just drew...someone. Gold Key stuck around just because of the runaway success of Star Trek.
However, by the early 1970's Marvel was beginning to gain steam with licensed Comics of their own. Marvel gained Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja, soon spawning other Sword and Sorcery series with Robert E.Howard's characters. Marvel experimented with the sword and sorcery genre in other settings by introducing Killraven, a series concerning a human gladiator in a world where the Martians from War of the Worlds invaded Earth again. In 1972, they gained the rights to the pulp character Doc Savage, to promote the upcoming Doc Savage: Man of Bronze. Savage was included in the Marvel Universe, including a team up with the Thing. The rights to Fu Manchu allowed Marvel to make him the father of the original character Shang-Chi. Their rival,DC gained the rights to Planet of the Apes and used it to introduce the character of Kamandi. Marvel would do something similar with 2001: A Space Odyssey, which would introduce the character of Machine Man.
Marvel and DC first collaborated funny enough on an adaptation of Wizard of Oz, as Marvel wanted to adapt the books while DC owned the license to the MGM Film, and so the two combined to tell a version of the story that could possibly open the door to later adaptations of the books. Marvel used this to introduce both comic adaptations of films and retellings of classic stories.
In the 1970's, Marvel, in order to pull itself out of financial problems, began making Star Wars comics. According to Jim Shooter, only Roy Thomas at the time thought it was a good idea, no one knew if the movie would be a hit, but a hit it was. It's success pulled Marvel out of bankruptcy. Marvel received six issues to adapt the original movie with, plenty of time, and the best part, when the film was finished, Marvel was allowed to go off script and create original stories until the sequel came along. They advertised these stories as "Beyond the Movie. Beyond the Galaxy". The original stories weren't always good. One had Han Solo pull a "Seven Samurai" and recruit warriors to defend a village from bandits which included a giant green Bugs Bunny ripoff, a Luke Skywalker(something acknowledge in universe), and a Don Quixote parody called "Don-Wan Quixote" because with little to go on, Marvel assumed the Jedis were...well basically knights. There's also the early installment weirdness of a deleted scene where Jabba the Hutt is depicted as a Walrus Man.
DC meanwhile gained the rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan and chose to continue that Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics runs that spanned 24 years. They would end up losing the rights to Tarzan and them going to Marvel, which restarted the series under Roy Thomas, then known for his work on licensed adaptations after his work on Conan. DC also adapted John Carter of Mars, which Marvel would later do as well. Marvel also gained Godzilla, the film the Deep and the Human Fly based on stuntman Rick Rojatt. An author, Bill Mantlo, because the go to guy for Marvel licenses.
Marvel introduced the Marvel Comics Super Special to adapt the likes of Kiss, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Beatles, Galactica, Meteror, Xanadu, Indiana Jones, Dragonslayer, Blade Runner, Annie, The Dark Crystal Rock & Rule, Krull, The Last Starfighter, The Muppets, Buckaroo Banzai, Sheena, Santa Claus: The Movie and Labyrinth. The band members of Kiss would draw blood that was used in the ink. Bill Mantlo adapted the series Man from Atlantis and another Robert E.Howard character Comarc Mac Art, who was teamed up in a Marvel Treasury Edition with Conan, Kull and Red Sonja. However, Marvel did miss out in the adaptation of Jodorowsky's Dune, which was done by the french comic artist Moebius, due to his work on that film's storyboards.
DC meanwhile had gained Star Trek, and James Bond among others. Gold Key, still hanging on, went through a revival when they received the license to Buck Rogers, which was later reprinted by Marvel in a Treasury Edition. Galactica was another big goal for Marvel. At around the same time in 1979, they also received the Japanese toyline Shogun Warriors, though the deal prevented access to other Go Nagai series). Meanwhile Marvel UK gained the Doctor Who franchise the same year of 1979.
A History of Licensed Comics: 1939-1979
Movies and TV Shows based on Comics are everywhere these days, but what about the reverse? What about Comics based on film and television? Well I'll tell you. The practice goes way back. Such works are called Licensed Comics, in that the property was licensed out. The earliest of these were newspaper comic strips. There are a few out there starring the Tramp, the silent film character created by Charlie Chaplin. They contain almost no dialogue and read a lot like the later Tintin stories. Now Disney did a ton of these, turning all of their films from Snow White onward into comics with beautiful illustrations.
It was in the early 1940's, the comic book adaptations such as those of the Green Hornet and the Saint began to takeoff. Movie Comics was created solely to adapt Hollywood films. The Comic book company Dell Comics adapted the radio program Charlie McCarthy. In fact Dell quickly rose as the leader in licensed Comics, and may have invented the TV to Comics adaptation with their Howdy Doody series. Howdy Doody first came on TV in 1947 and the comics came out in 1949. The format changed so that the puppeteer was gone. Howdy Doody was more of a toon than a puppet. There are no strings on him.
Dell and Gold Key enjoyed a comfortable niche audience making licensed comics on Warner Bros, Hanna-Barbera, and Disney properties. By the 1960's they were making comics out of every property you can name and even the one's you don't(Ensign O'Toole anyone?). For the most part, Dell played the new medium to its strength. For example, the Beverly Hillbillies Comic took advantage to tell stories and jokes a show budget couldn't such as a scene in which an entire film studio is flooded and becomes a swimming pool. Then there were times when the owners of the licensed couldn't have seen the movie and were given a rough outline instead, the results were rough, you couldn't do Singin' in the Rain without singing. So what they tried to do here is capture the emotions of the characters with the lyrics matching the emotion in the panels.
When it came to TV show adaptations it was a bit easier since they could just write original stories for the characters, but sometimes this was tough. You had Star Trek comics where the usually calm and monotone crew would get overly emotional. Spock, the emotionless Vulcan would burst out in anger. Sometimes, the comic artists forgot what the actors looked like and just drew...someone. Gold Key stuck around just because of the runaway success of Star Trek.
However, by the early 1970's Marvel was beginning to gain steam with licensed Comics of their own. Marvel gained Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja, soon spawning other Sword and Sorcery series with Robert E.Howard's characters. Marvel experimented with the sword and sorcery genre in other settings by introducing Killraven, a series concerning a human gladiator in a world where the Martians from War of the Worlds invaded Earth again. In 1972, they gained the rights to the pulp character Doc Savage, to promote the upcoming Doc Savage: Man of Bronze. Savage was included in the Marvel Universe, including a team up with the Thing. The rights to Fu Manchu allowed Marvel to make him the father of the original character Shang-Chi. Their rival,DC gained the rights to Planet of the Apes and used it to introduce the character of Kamandi. Marvel would do something similar with 2001: A Space Odyssey, which would introduce the character of Machine Man.
Marvel and DC first collaborated funny enough on an adaptation of Wizard of Oz, as Marvel wanted to adapt the books while DC owned the license to the MGM Film, and so the two combined to tell a version of the story that could possibly open the door to later adaptations of the books. Marvel used this to introduce both comic adaptations of films and retellings of classic stories.
In the 1970's, Marvel, in order to pull itself out of financial problems, began making Star Wars comics. According to Jim Shooter, only Roy Thomas at the time thought it was a good idea, no one knew if the movie would be a hit, but a hit it was. It's success pulled Marvel out of bankruptcy. Marvel received six issues to adapt the original movie with, plenty of time, and the best part, when the film was finished, Marvel was allowed to go off script and create original stories until the sequel came along. They advertised these stories as "Beyond the Movie. Beyond the Galaxy". The original stories weren't always good. One had Han Solo pull a "Seven Samurai" and recruit warriors to defend a village from bandits which included a giant green Bugs Bunny ripoff, a Luke Skywalker(something acknowledge in universe), and a Don Quixote parody called "Don-Wan Quixote" because with little to go on, Marvel assumed the Jedis were...well basically knights. There's also the early installment weirdness of a deleted scene where Jabba the Hutt is depicted as a Walrus Man.
DC meanwhile gained the rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan and chose to continue that Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics runs that spanned 24 years. They would end up losing the rights to Tarzan and them going to Marvel, which restarted the series under Roy Thomas, then known for his work on licensed adaptations after his work on Conan. DC also adapted John Carter of Mars, which Marvel would later do as well. Marvel also gained Godzilla, the film the Deep and the Human Fly based on stuntman Rick Rojatt. An author, Bill Mantlo, because the go to guy for Marvel licenses.
Marvel introduced the Marvel Comics Super Special to adapt the likes of Kiss, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Beatles, Galactica, Meteror, Xanadu, Indiana Jones, Dragonslayer, Blade Runner, Annie, The Dark Crystal Rock & Rule, Krull, The Last Starfighter, The Muppets, Buckaroo Banzai, Sheena, Santa Claus: The Movie and Labyrinth. The band members of Kiss would draw blood that was used in the ink. Bill Mantlo adapted the series Man from Atlantis and another Robert E.Howard character Comarc Mac Art, who was teamed up in a Marvel Treasury Edition with Conan, Kull and Red Sonja. However, Marvel did miss out in the adaptation of Jodorowsky's Dune, which was done by the french comic artist Moebius, due to his work on that film's storyboards.
DC meanwhile had gained Star Trek, and James Bond among others. Gold Key, still hanging on, went through a revival when they received the license to Buck Rogers, which was later reprinted by Marvel in a Treasury Edition. Galactica was another big goal for Marvel. At around the same time in 1979, they also received the Japanese toyline Shogun Warriors, though the deal prevented access to other Go Nagai series). Meanwhile Marvel UK gained the Doctor Who franchise the same year of 1979.
From what I’ve seen I would say that Utopia is probably called The Network ITTL and has at least one more season to wrap up the plot. Different real world events will likely be alluded to as part of the conspiracy. The series is also directly inspired by William S Burroughs since ITTL the first graphic novel is a trippy story up for interpretation with disturbing images. Something that fits quite well with the graphic novel in the series. Speaking of which at some point the graphic novel seen in the show is released in real life.
Once Upon a Time: Season One(2011-2012)
This started off as being purely based on Fables but expanded into something much bigger. This is due to both Grimm and Once Upon a Time coming from attempts to adapt Fables which failed. I intentionally chose to keep the actors vague in some parts for various reasons. For example is Wolverine is retconned as Russell Crowe as he was the original choice, then Hugh Jackman will play Bigby Wolf.
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Once Upon a Time: Season One
Once Upon a Time began life as a Comic series in 2002 by Bill Willingham, with Mark Buckingham during the pencils all the way to issue 110. It was launched under DC's Vertigo imprint. The plot concerned the idea that Fairy Tale characters, known as "Fables" live in another universe and that an invasion by an Emperor known as the Adversary forced many Fables to flee to Earth, where they reside in two locations, the first is a block in New York known to the inhabitants as "Fabletown" and the other is an area known as "The Farm" where Fables that cannot pass as human live. The Series followed many characters but largely Snow White, and the sheriff of the town, a reformed Big Bad Wolf, now going by Bigby. The first few arcs involved a murder mystery that Bigby Wolf was attempting to solve that turned out to be a ploy by Snow White's Sister Rose Red and her boyfriend Jack Horner(an amalgamation of every Fairy Tale character named Jack). Animal Farm involved the inhabitants of the Farm staging a rebellion. Storybook Love involved the characters of Bluebeard and Goldilocks hatching a plan to kill Snow White and Bigby while Snow White's ex husband Prince Charming runs for Mayor. March of the Wooden Soldiers has Fabletown finally face off against the forces of the Adversary, notably a group of Soldiers made of wood which Pinnochio realizes must have been created by his long missing father Geppetto against his will.
It was at around this point that Willingham was approached for the idea of a Television adaptation by NBC for the 2006 to 2007 season. Craig Silverstein wrote a script for it. A bidding war began between NBC and ABC for the idea of the show, which ABC won out, leading NBC to pul lthe plug on their plan for a similar series. With that settled, Once Upon a Time began a long process in development hell, warping to become something completely different. NBC had wanted a police procedural with the Big Bad Wolf while ABC wanted a series about Fairy Tale characters in the real world with flashbacks in the style of Lost.
The pilot premiered on October 25th, 2011. It was set in New York and began with a murder. Jack Horner ran into the office of Sheriff Bigby Wolf. He reports that his girlfriend Rose Red has been killed and shows an apartment room covered in blood with the phrase "No More Happily Ever After" written in blood on the wall. Bigby investigates the room and places Jack under arrest, obstensibly for resisting arrest, which Jack immediately tries to do only to be punched and subdued. The town's Mayorial assistant Snow White is contacted as Rose Red is her sister. The first episode covered Bigby Wolf's investigation of the apparent murder while he and Snow investigate possible suspects. The biggest suspect was Bluebeard, a serial killer back in "The Homelands" but was granted immunity along with other citizens. Bluebeard reveals he had plans to marry Rose Red and tries to kill Jack, which is prevented by Bigby transforming into a werewolf like form. A few scenes feature the pig Colin, who is staying with Bigby and brings up Bigby blowing down his house. Bigby insists he's changed and then offers Colin Bacon, leading the pig to give a raised eyebrow(Jim Henson's creature shop had a small presence in the first episode, though the third episode would feature them more prominently). Another subplot involves "Remembrance Day". A day in which the Fables recall the day when they had to flee the Homelands which includes a big feast(including cameos of french chefs implied to be the show's equivalents to the chefs from The Little Mermaid and the cast of Ratatouille, including a live action Linguine speaking to a blue mouse. There is also a scene of Colin being confused for a non sentient pig and nearly killed by The Little Mermaid chef). Snow White's ex husband Prince Charming bets his old position as Prince, entering it in a raffle, where it is revealed to be won by Jack. The Mayor of Fabletown, Old King Cole, gives a speech illustrated beautifully in animation of how the people of the land of Everrealm lived in harmony. When the Adversary's army rose up they ignored it, even as the animation shows the fall of Oz and Narnia, including the killing of Aslan), it then talks about how they came to "this new world" and hope for the future. Bigby reveals the culprit to be...Rose Red. Jack and Rose faked her death, context clues being given throughout the episode and in view of the audience, pointing out how nothing was broken in a supposed forced entry. Jack is forced to sell his newly earned title to pay off debts Rose Red owed to Bluebeard. The Episode is largely self contained and stand alone, justified given that it serves as a pilot.
The Second Episode adapts the storyline " A Two-Part Caper" in which a reporter discovers the existence of the Fables but believes them to be vampires, threatening to expose them. Bigby wolf laughs this off but then becomes worried that if the news is published the neighborhood would be surrounded by Vampire Wannabees and Goths and so they come up with a plan to frame the reporter and blackmail him into leaving them alone. While this is successful, Bluebeard, believing his way is always the best, murders the reporter.
The third episode introduced original characters to the show Emma Swan and her son Henry son. Swan is a police officer investigating the death of the report Tommy Sharp from the previous episode and brings her son with her to New York. While there are normally spells that prevent the detection of the Fairy Tale beings, Emma sees Snow White leaving with Rose Red, who as punishment for her role in the first episode's murder mystery is on probation working on the farm. The Pig Colin is loaded on the back of a truck and Emma sees it talk, thus choosing to follow. She therefore inadvertently discovers the Farm(AKA the part of the show that fed the Creature Shop for an entire year, as many different creatures from fairy tales are scene including Puss in Boots(looking a lot like his Shrek version), Chicken Little(based on a cancelled film design), The Cow that jumped over the moon(painted with stars on its body), the casts of Winnie the Pooh(stuffed animals), and the Jungle Book. They are led by another of the three little pigs, who complains the animals feel trapped because they are not allowed to leave. Snow White and Rose Red go to sleep at an apartment. Colin speaks to the other pigs. They ask him if he gained any information on the New York Fabletown and their defenses, along with any Fables that could be sympathetic to their cause. Colin reports that Bigby caught him almost immediately and he couldn't do anything. The next day Snow White and Rose Red find Colin's head on a pike.
Snow and Rose Red quickly discover that a coup is underway and are separated from each other. This also allows Emma and Henry to explore the Farm without being mindwiped and team up with Snow White, who recognizes her while Emma does not recognize her. Reynard the Fox finds and leads Snow White to safety as an animal resistance group exists, while being chased by Shere Khan, Reynard Fox reveals a weapon specialized for animal use, a turret meant to be placed on the back of a Tortoise shell with a hair controlling the machine gun. As Snow White and Reynard are forced to flee Shere Khan, who is seen arguing with Bagheera and being rude to him. Shere Khan had an intense scene chasing after Snow White, before she is barely able to grab the turret and fire at Khan as he lunges at her, shooting the Tiger point blank in the face, and causing him to fall to his death. An assortment of Jungle Book characters look on in shock and then begin cheering.
Reynard takes Snow White to Weyland Smith, a blacksmith and the one tasked with managing the farm, but he was captured and forced to build weapons for them. Rose Red is also revealed to have switched sides in favor of the rebellion. Snow White is imprisoned with Weyland until the arrival of Emma Swan. Weyland is revealed to have constructed a weapon that doubles as a key to both their locks and Snow and Weyland are freed. After sending out a signal, a small resceu party consisting of Little Boy Blue, the Flying Monkey Buffkin, Bluebeard and Prince Charming set out. The group comments on being the worse rescue mission ever, even stopping at a Drive Thru on the way and bickering with each other. Snow White reveals a race of giants forced to sleep nearby and awakens them, allowing them to takeover the town again along with the Animal resistance just as the Calvary arrives. Everything is fine.
And then Snow White gets shot in the head.
Don't worry she's not dead. She awakens in a hospital and it is revealed that the more popular a "Fable" is, the harder they are to kill. Unfortunately this is not without consequences as Snow White now has lost most of her centuries old memories, remembering only her original fairy tale. As a result, she does not know Emma Swan is now despite recognizing her earlier. However, sincd Snow White recognized her, the Fables are hesitant to just wipe away her memories and be done with it until they solve the mystery. The Two remaining little pigs are executed for their hand in the rebellion. It's pointed out that since the three little pigs is a pretty famous story, the three might end up being resurrected somehow. To stop this, the Fables have a Witch, Frau Totenkinder(your classic Green Witch who here was the same Witch in Hansel and Gretel and other stories). Totenkinder casts a spell to turn the giants into pigs, allowing them to live in the farm, which they are more than happy to. One of the Giants is played by Jorge Garcia, an actor from Lost. Emma is sen talking to Weyland and suggesting he keep making weapons like he was because its most likely they actually will have to fight the Adversary one day.
Oh and who shot Snow White?...Goldilocks.
Yeah Goldilocks is a hitman..err hitwoman that was helping the revolution and is in a relationship with little bear of the three bears(which is made even weirder when you consider these could be the same characters from Disney's Goldie & Bear, where the two became childhood friends after the fairy tale). Goldilocks is revealed to be working with Bluebeard. And that ends Episode 3.
The next episode is a self contained story starring Jack Horner during the American Civil War. Horner ends up meeting a devil as he is disguised as a man and beats him at a game or cards, winning a magic bag. He then meets a sick woman and offers to capture death for her using his magic bag. He succeeds but when the world becomes miserably because no one is dying, including a nearby Civil War battle where undying soldiers from both sides descend on Jack to punish him. Jack releases Death(Death here is played by Christopher Lee in reference to him playing the character in all his appearances in Terry Pratchett's Discowlrd adaptations. As such it is implied that the Death here is the same as in that series). Death is actually happy to have had sometime off and so happily says goodbye to Jack and leaves. The narration mentions that Jack eventually lost the magic bag.
The next episode is another seld contained. The episode tells us of the Lilliputtians, who learned of the adversary and set out to fight him with an army, only to realize they were actually much smaller than anything else in the world and so could do nothing. The army of men then ended up in the mundane world where there were no women with them until the arrival of Thumbelina. Thumbelina was uncomfortable being romantically pursued by all the men, until she brought up how she was born from magical barleycorn. A group of Lilliputtian men(joined by Thumbellina and Tom Thumb) then go on an adventure to obtain Barleycorn. After a long jounrey they succeed and bring the Barleycorn back, where women begin to emerge and greet the Lilliputtians. The story is revealed to be told by Bigby to the janitor Flycatcher, as Lilliputtian teenagers will occasionally try to repeat the original group's feet by stealing Barleycorn kep in the Mayor's office to "grow themselves a girlfriend".
The next Episode kicks off a two parter. A subplot involves Prince Charming deciding to run for Mayor of Fabletown against King Cole.A Set up is given where Prince Charming and Bluebeard will practice fencing with Bluebeard always winning. The next supblot has Bluebeard and Goldilocks attempt to kill Snow White and Bigby Wolf. Bluebeard places a spell on the two of them to have them both announce that they have fallen and love and are going on vacation and drive off into the woods, where Godilocks attempts to assassinate them. A Lilliputtian soldier riding an intelligent rat eavedrop on the two speaking and Goldilocks kills the rat with a thrown knife while the soldier escapes, but spends the rest of the time going through the inside of the building and fighting off the unintelligent rats. He is able to reach Prince Charming and reveal Bluebeard's plan. Because of having to wait 3 days to get a gun and Goldilocks not realizing this, the spell wears off, allowing Snow and Bigby to fight for their lives. Charming confronts Bluebeard with the two engaging in what turns into a sword fight. While bluebeard boasts that he's won everytime, Charming points out that now he has something to lose. After a close match, Charming kills Bluebeard, stabbing him in the chest. As Bluebeard dies he tells Charming he is too late. Goldilocks nearly kills Bigby with silver bullets before Snow White lodges an axe into her back before kicked her off a cliff. Due to her popularity, they cannot be sure she is dead. The final scene of the episode reveals that Prince Charming has been elected Mayor.
Episode 8 is a flashback. Emma Swan speaks with Boy Blue about the Fables retreat from their homeland. Boy Blue was there when the Adversary's forces overwhelmed. The episode becomes a flashback to "The Castle at the End of the World" where a group of refugees are being led through a portal while warriors including Robin Hood help to fend off the invasing army. Boy Blue is serving as the Bugle boy when he meets and falls in love with one of the refugees who arrived, Little Red Riding Hood. The two fall in love. This results in Boy Blue being commanded to grab the enchanted Witching cloak and oversee the fight until the end so he could tell their story. Boy Blue watches as all the fighters are killed. He then uses the Witching Cloak to teleport onto the boat, hoping to meet with Red Riding Hood, only to discover to his horror that Red Riding Hood left the safety of the boat to go and fight with him and he hadn't seen her, realizing she died in the battle after he left.
Due to wanting to save March of the Wooden Soldiers and the Battle of Fabletown for the season finale, An original two part episode plot was made to bridge the gap. The episodes are used to introduce changes implemented by Prince Charming, who discovers he can't actually keep any of the promises he made, not having checking before hand. For example he asked for spells to turn the animals into humans if they wished, but didn't bother to check if that was possible as the Witches don't have enough material for that as the magics works per individual. Neither Snow White or Bigby Wolf want to work with Charming and so Belle(Emma Watson) and Beast(Dan Stevens) take their jobs. However, shortly after Belle is abducted, forcing Emma Swan and the Beast to work together to try and find her. Bigby is not allowed on the farm due to the animals their not forgiving him for his attacks on them and so the group is also paired up with the Huntsman, played by Christian Hemsworth, the Huntsman was the previous Sheriff of Fabletown before stepping down and letting the Bigby take his place. The duo learn that the person who abducted Belle is Grimhilde AKA the Evil Queen of Snow White fame(played by Lana Parrilla). Grimhilde is revealed to be responsible for both hiring Goldilocks and Belle's abduction(accidentally as she actually intended to abduct Snow White, not knowing Belle had taken her role and simply broke into her office and abducted to due to being in a rush). They rescue Belle but Grimhilde escapes.
The last episode before the two part finale reveals Cinderella to be a secret agent. The episode plays out much like a spy thriller, ending with the reveal that the former Mayor of Fabletown, Ichabod Crane, helped Grimhilde sneak into the Mundane World with an army of the Adversary's soldiers, thus setting up the finale.
The next episode is entirely devoted to set up for the final battle of the season. Red Riding Hood is seen appearing through the portal and running to a security checkpoint which is then attacked by the Adversary forces as she flees. She is able to reached Fabletown and reunites with Boy Blue, though Red is angry at Blue, she eventually starts to forgive him and the two start to makeup. The Adversary forces are revealed to be wooden soldiers disguised as humans. They murder a gunstore owner when he points out that they cannot simply take or buy the guns and need a permit. Jack Horner sees this and tries to warn everyone but since he is a pathological liar no one believes him.
Snow White: Jack. Have you ever heard of the Boy who cried wolf?
Jack: Well, sure I have Snow. He lives on the 5th floor.
Red is revealed to be Grimhilde in disguise(in the comics, this role was taken by the Russian Folklore Witch Baba Yaga, but here they decided to make the Witch Grimhilde instead, not only because of Parrilla's audition, but also because the makers wanted to cast an actual senior Russian actress in the role, as well as needing less work from the Creature shop, and the fact that Baba Yaga is interchangeably a villain or an ally depending on if you cross her). The main focus is on three wooden soldiers named Hugh, Drew and Lou(a clear nod to the Huey, Dewey and Louie present in the original comic which the makers were more than happy to use). the three literally assemble the army as the parts arrive in boxes. Boy Blue is badly beaten and nearly killed but sent back as a warning by the soldiers. The soldiers also reveal that they consider Pinnochio one of their own and offer the chance to join them and live. Commenting that he is their brother in a way due to their creator Geppetto. Pinnochio realizes that his father Geppetto is alive and a prisoner of the Adversary. Fabletown is given a day to prepare and to surrender Pinnochio if they so choose. The next episode is the actual battle.
The season finale "The Battle of Fabletown" is exactly that. Every character returns, including Rose Red to aid in the final battle. All the Fables and characters are forced to set up a barricade as the massive army approaches. Magic users are put on trying to conceal the battle from the Mundane world. The battle plays out much like a Lord of the Rings style castle siege but in New York, with fire, oil and bombs dropped from the top of buildings and houses. As this is going on, Emma Swan and the Huntsman confront Grimhilde along with Frau Totenkinder, who is the one who ultimately defeats her. The Wooden soldiers are downed by barrages of guns and weapons. Weyland, running out of ammo, runs into the fraay with two axes and seemingly cuts them all down. He shouts "Is that's all you've got!" before being gunned down in a hail of bullets, revealing the wooden soldiers can still fight. The enemy bullets also kill Boo Bear. Snow White's final plan sets the entire wooden army on fire. However, the wooden soldier refuse to give up and instead begin to Kamikaze themselves. Pinnochio tries to run out and stop them only to be decapitated by the enraged leader of the group. Just as everyone appears to be about to die, the Big Bad Wolf summons his breath and decimates the entire army, putting out the fire, and leaving a massive pile of broken wooden figures.
And with that the battle is over. Fabletown mourns the dead. Mama Bear reveals that she is pregnant again as due to the popularity of her story, the must always be a boo bear. Grimhilde is revealed to be a prisoner, and the rest of Fabletown, having now one a major victory, celebrates while also preparing for the inevitable war to reclaim the Homeland. Boy Blue interrogates Grimhilde as to Red Riding Hood's location but she reveals nothing and Boy Blue leaves through a portal on his own with the Witching Cloak to try to find and rescue her. He also brings Pinnochio's wooden form with him in the hopes of finding a way to revive him. Several scenes set up for the next season, including a news reporter describing the battle was a "Block party that turned into a riot." Police detective Nick Barkhardt evidently saw the battle for what it actually was but his boss refuses to believe him. Barkhardt then leaves with his partner Hank and vows to find proof, starting with the missing reporter who previously investigated the area.
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Once Upon a Time: Season One
Once Upon a Time began life as a Comic series in 2002 by Bill Willingham, with Mark Buckingham during the pencils all the way to issue 110. It was launched under DC's Vertigo imprint. The plot concerned the idea that Fairy Tale characters, known as "Fables" live in another universe and that an invasion by an Emperor known as the Adversary forced many Fables to flee to Earth, where they reside in two locations, the first is a block in New York known to the inhabitants as "Fabletown" and the other is an area known as "The Farm" where Fables that cannot pass as human live. The Series followed many characters but largely Snow White, and the sheriff of the town, a reformed Big Bad Wolf, now going by Bigby. The first few arcs involved a murder mystery that Bigby Wolf was attempting to solve that turned out to be a ploy by Snow White's Sister Rose Red and her boyfriend Jack Horner(an amalgamation of every Fairy Tale character named Jack). Animal Farm involved the inhabitants of the Farm staging a rebellion. Storybook Love involved the characters of Bluebeard and Goldilocks hatching a plan to kill Snow White and Bigby while Snow White's ex husband Prince Charming runs for Mayor. March of the Wooden Soldiers has Fabletown finally face off against the forces of the Adversary, notably a group of Soldiers made of wood which Pinnochio realizes must have been created by his long missing father Geppetto against his will.
It was at around this point that Willingham was approached for the idea of a Television adaptation by NBC for the 2006 to 2007 season. Craig Silverstein wrote a script for it. A bidding war began between NBC and ABC for the idea of the show, which ABC won out, leading NBC to pul lthe plug on their plan for a similar series. With that settled, Once Upon a Time began a long process in development hell, warping to become something completely different. NBC had wanted a police procedural with the Big Bad Wolf while ABC wanted a series about Fairy Tale characters in the real world with flashbacks in the style of Lost.
The pilot premiered on October 25th, 2011. It was set in New York and began with a murder. Jack Horner ran into the office of Sheriff Bigby Wolf. He reports that his girlfriend Rose Red has been killed and shows an apartment room covered in blood with the phrase "No More Happily Ever After" written in blood on the wall. Bigby investigates the room and places Jack under arrest, obstensibly for resisting arrest, which Jack immediately tries to do only to be punched and subdued. The town's Mayorial assistant Snow White is contacted as Rose Red is her sister. The first episode covered Bigby Wolf's investigation of the apparent murder while he and Snow investigate possible suspects. The biggest suspect was Bluebeard, a serial killer back in "The Homelands" but was granted immunity along with other citizens. Bluebeard reveals he had plans to marry Rose Red and tries to kill Jack, which is prevented by Bigby transforming into a werewolf like form. A few scenes feature the pig Colin, who is staying with Bigby and brings up Bigby blowing down his house. Bigby insists he's changed and then offers Colin Bacon, leading the pig to give a raised eyebrow(Jim Henson's creature shop had a small presence in the first episode, though the third episode would feature them more prominently). Another subplot involves "Remembrance Day". A day in which the Fables recall the day when they had to flee the Homelands which includes a big feast(including cameos of french chefs implied to be the show's equivalents to the chefs from The Little Mermaid and the cast of Ratatouille, including a live action Linguine speaking to a blue mouse. There is also a scene of Colin being confused for a non sentient pig and nearly killed by The Little Mermaid chef). Snow White's ex husband Prince Charming bets his old position as Prince, entering it in a raffle, where it is revealed to be won by Jack. The Mayor of Fabletown, Old King Cole, gives a speech illustrated beautifully in animation of how the people of the land of Everrealm lived in harmony. When the Adversary's army rose up they ignored it, even as the animation shows the fall of Oz and Narnia, including the killing of Aslan), it then talks about how they came to "this new world" and hope for the future. Bigby reveals the culprit to be...Rose Red. Jack and Rose faked her death, context clues being given throughout the episode and in view of the audience, pointing out how nothing was broken in a supposed forced entry. Jack is forced to sell his newly earned title to pay off debts Rose Red owed to Bluebeard. The Episode is largely self contained and stand alone, justified given that it serves as a pilot.
The Second Episode adapts the storyline " A Two-Part Caper" in which a reporter discovers the existence of the Fables but believes them to be vampires, threatening to expose them. Bigby wolf laughs this off but then becomes worried that if the news is published the neighborhood would be surrounded by Vampire Wannabees and Goths and so they come up with a plan to frame the reporter and blackmail him into leaving them alone. While this is successful, Bluebeard, believing his way is always the best, murders the reporter.
The third episode introduced original characters to the show Emma Swan and her son Henry son. Swan is a police officer investigating the death of the report Tommy Sharp from the previous episode and brings her son with her to New York. While there are normally spells that prevent the detection of the Fairy Tale beings, Emma sees Snow White leaving with Rose Red, who as punishment for her role in the first episode's murder mystery is on probation working on the farm. The Pig Colin is loaded on the back of a truck and Emma sees it talk, thus choosing to follow. She therefore inadvertently discovers the Farm(AKA the part of the show that fed the Creature Shop for an entire year, as many different creatures from fairy tales are scene including Puss in Boots(looking a lot like his Shrek version), Chicken Little(based on a cancelled film design), The Cow that jumped over the moon(painted with stars on its body), the casts of Winnie the Pooh(stuffed animals), and the Jungle Book. They are led by another of the three little pigs, who complains the animals feel trapped because they are not allowed to leave. Snow White and Rose Red go to sleep at an apartment. Colin speaks to the other pigs. They ask him if he gained any information on the New York Fabletown and their defenses, along with any Fables that could be sympathetic to their cause. Colin reports that Bigby caught him almost immediately and he couldn't do anything. The next day Snow White and Rose Red find Colin's head on a pike.
Snow and Rose Red quickly discover that a coup is underway and are separated from each other. This also allows Emma and Henry to explore the Farm without being mindwiped and team up with Snow White, who recognizes her while Emma does not recognize her. Reynard the Fox finds and leads Snow White to safety as an animal resistance group exists, while being chased by Shere Khan, Reynard Fox reveals a weapon specialized for animal use, a turret meant to be placed on the back of a Tortoise shell with a hair controlling the machine gun. As Snow White and Reynard are forced to flee Shere Khan, who is seen arguing with Bagheera and being rude to him. Shere Khan had an intense scene chasing after Snow White, before she is barely able to grab the turret and fire at Khan as he lunges at her, shooting the Tiger point blank in the face, and causing him to fall to his death. An assortment of Jungle Book characters look on in shock and then begin cheering.
Reynard takes Snow White to Weyland Smith, a blacksmith and the one tasked with managing the farm, but he was captured and forced to build weapons for them. Rose Red is also revealed to have switched sides in favor of the rebellion. Snow White is imprisoned with Weyland until the arrival of Emma Swan. Weyland is revealed to have constructed a weapon that doubles as a key to both their locks and Snow and Weyland are freed. After sending out a signal, a small resceu party consisting of Little Boy Blue, the Flying Monkey Buffkin, Bluebeard and Prince Charming set out. The group comments on being the worse rescue mission ever, even stopping at a Drive Thru on the way and bickering with each other. Snow White reveals a race of giants forced to sleep nearby and awakens them, allowing them to takeover the town again along with the Animal resistance just as the Calvary arrives. Everything is fine.
And then Snow White gets shot in the head.
Don't worry she's not dead. She awakens in a hospital and it is revealed that the more popular a "Fable" is, the harder they are to kill. Unfortunately this is not without consequences as Snow White now has lost most of her centuries old memories, remembering only her original fairy tale. As a result, she does not know Emma Swan is now despite recognizing her earlier. However, sincd Snow White recognized her, the Fables are hesitant to just wipe away her memories and be done with it until they solve the mystery. The Two remaining little pigs are executed for their hand in the rebellion. It's pointed out that since the three little pigs is a pretty famous story, the three might end up being resurrected somehow. To stop this, the Fables have a Witch, Frau Totenkinder(your classic Green Witch who here was the same Witch in Hansel and Gretel and other stories). Totenkinder casts a spell to turn the giants into pigs, allowing them to live in the farm, which they are more than happy to. One of the Giants is played by Jorge Garcia, an actor from Lost. Emma is sen talking to Weyland and suggesting he keep making weapons like he was because its most likely they actually will have to fight the Adversary one day.
Oh and who shot Snow White?...Goldilocks.
Yeah Goldilocks is a hitman..err hitwoman that was helping the revolution and is in a relationship with little bear of the three bears(which is made even weirder when you consider these could be the same characters from Disney's Goldie & Bear, where the two became childhood friends after the fairy tale). Goldilocks is revealed to be working with Bluebeard. And that ends Episode 3.
The next episode is a self contained story starring Jack Horner during the American Civil War. Horner ends up meeting a devil as he is disguised as a man and beats him at a game or cards, winning a magic bag. He then meets a sick woman and offers to capture death for her using his magic bag. He succeeds but when the world becomes miserably because no one is dying, including a nearby Civil War battle where undying soldiers from both sides descend on Jack to punish him. Jack releases Death(Death here is played by Christopher Lee in reference to him playing the character in all his appearances in Terry Pratchett's Discowlrd adaptations. As such it is implied that the Death here is the same as in that series). Death is actually happy to have had sometime off and so happily says goodbye to Jack and leaves. The narration mentions that Jack eventually lost the magic bag.
The next episode is another seld contained. The episode tells us of the Lilliputtians, who learned of the adversary and set out to fight him with an army, only to realize they were actually much smaller than anything else in the world and so could do nothing. The army of men then ended up in the mundane world where there were no women with them until the arrival of Thumbelina. Thumbelina was uncomfortable being romantically pursued by all the men, until she brought up how she was born from magical barleycorn. A group of Lilliputtian men(joined by Thumbellina and Tom Thumb) then go on an adventure to obtain Barleycorn. After a long jounrey they succeed and bring the Barleycorn back, where women begin to emerge and greet the Lilliputtians. The story is revealed to be told by Bigby to the janitor Flycatcher, as Lilliputtian teenagers will occasionally try to repeat the original group's feet by stealing Barleycorn kep in the Mayor's office to "grow themselves a girlfriend".
The next Episode kicks off a two parter. A subplot involves Prince Charming deciding to run for Mayor of Fabletown against King Cole.A Set up is given where Prince Charming and Bluebeard will practice fencing with Bluebeard always winning. The next supblot has Bluebeard and Goldilocks attempt to kill Snow White and Bigby Wolf. Bluebeard places a spell on the two of them to have them both announce that they have fallen and love and are going on vacation and drive off into the woods, where Godilocks attempts to assassinate them. A Lilliputtian soldier riding an intelligent rat eavedrop on the two speaking and Goldilocks kills the rat with a thrown knife while the soldier escapes, but spends the rest of the time going through the inside of the building and fighting off the unintelligent rats. He is able to reach Prince Charming and reveal Bluebeard's plan. Because of having to wait 3 days to get a gun and Goldilocks not realizing this, the spell wears off, allowing Snow and Bigby to fight for their lives. Charming confronts Bluebeard with the two engaging in what turns into a sword fight. While bluebeard boasts that he's won everytime, Charming points out that now he has something to lose. After a close match, Charming kills Bluebeard, stabbing him in the chest. As Bluebeard dies he tells Charming he is too late. Goldilocks nearly kills Bigby with silver bullets before Snow White lodges an axe into her back before kicked her off a cliff. Due to her popularity, they cannot be sure she is dead. The final scene of the episode reveals that Prince Charming has been elected Mayor.
Episode 8 is a flashback. Emma Swan speaks with Boy Blue about the Fables retreat from their homeland. Boy Blue was there when the Adversary's forces overwhelmed. The episode becomes a flashback to "The Castle at the End of the World" where a group of refugees are being led through a portal while warriors including Robin Hood help to fend off the invasing army. Boy Blue is serving as the Bugle boy when he meets and falls in love with one of the refugees who arrived, Little Red Riding Hood. The two fall in love. This results in Boy Blue being commanded to grab the enchanted Witching cloak and oversee the fight until the end so he could tell their story. Boy Blue watches as all the fighters are killed. He then uses the Witching Cloak to teleport onto the boat, hoping to meet with Red Riding Hood, only to discover to his horror that Red Riding Hood left the safety of the boat to go and fight with him and he hadn't seen her, realizing she died in the battle after he left.
Due to wanting to save March of the Wooden Soldiers and the Battle of Fabletown for the season finale, An original two part episode plot was made to bridge the gap. The episodes are used to introduce changes implemented by Prince Charming, who discovers he can't actually keep any of the promises he made, not having checking before hand. For example he asked for spells to turn the animals into humans if they wished, but didn't bother to check if that was possible as the Witches don't have enough material for that as the magics works per individual. Neither Snow White or Bigby Wolf want to work with Charming and so Belle(Emma Watson) and Beast(Dan Stevens) take their jobs. However, shortly after Belle is abducted, forcing Emma Swan and the Beast to work together to try and find her. Bigby is not allowed on the farm due to the animals their not forgiving him for his attacks on them and so the group is also paired up with the Huntsman, played by Christian Hemsworth, the Huntsman was the previous Sheriff of Fabletown before stepping down and letting the Bigby take his place. The duo learn that the person who abducted Belle is Grimhilde AKA the Evil Queen of Snow White fame(played by Lana Parrilla). Grimhilde is revealed to be responsible for both hiring Goldilocks and Belle's abduction(accidentally as she actually intended to abduct Snow White, not knowing Belle had taken her role and simply broke into her office and abducted to due to being in a rush). They rescue Belle but Grimhilde escapes.
The last episode before the two part finale reveals Cinderella to be a secret agent. The episode plays out much like a spy thriller, ending with the reveal that the former Mayor of Fabletown, Ichabod Crane, helped Grimhilde sneak into the Mundane World with an army of the Adversary's soldiers, thus setting up the finale.
The next episode is entirely devoted to set up for the final battle of the season. Red Riding Hood is seen appearing through the portal and running to a security checkpoint which is then attacked by the Adversary forces as she flees. She is able to reached Fabletown and reunites with Boy Blue, though Red is angry at Blue, she eventually starts to forgive him and the two start to makeup. The Adversary forces are revealed to be wooden soldiers disguised as humans. They murder a gunstore owner when he points out that they cannot simply take or buy the guns and need a permit. Jack Horner sees this and tries to warn everyone but since he is a pathological liar no one believes him.
Snow White: Jack. Have you ever heard of the Boy who cried wolf?
Jack: Well, sure I have Snow. He lives on the 5th floor.
Red is revealed to be Grimhilde in disguise(in the comics, this role was taken by the Russian Folklore Witch Baba Yaga, but here they decided to make the Witch Grimhilde instead, not only because of Parrilla's audition, but also because the makers wanted to cast an actual senior Russian actress in the role, as well as needing less work from the Creature shop, and the fact that Baba Yaga is interchangeably a villain or an ally depending on if you cross her). The main focus is on three wooden soldiers named Hugh, Drew and Lou(a clear nod to the Huey, Dewey and Louie present in the original comic which the makers were more than happy to use). the three literally assemble the army as the parts arrive in boxes. Boy Blue is badly beaten and nearly killed but sent back as a warning by the soldiers. The soldiers also reveal that they consider Pinnochio one of their own and offer the chance to join them and live. Commenting that he is their brother in a way due to their creator Geppetto. Pinnochio realizes that his father Geppetto is alive and a prisoner of the Adversary. Fabletown is given a day to prepare and to surrender Pinnochio if they so choose. The next episode is the actual battle.
The season finale "The Battle of Fabletown" is exactly that. Every character returns, including Rose Red to aid in the final battle. All the Fables and characters are forced to set up a barricade as the massive army approaches. Magic users are put on trying to conceal the battle from the Mundane world. The battle plays out much like a Lord of the Rings style castle siege but in New York, with fire, oil and bombs dropped from the top of buildings and houses. As this is going on, Emma Swan and the Huntsman confront Grimhilde along with Frau Totenkinder, who is the one who ultimately defeats her. The Wooden soldiers are downed by barrages of guns and weapons. Weyland, running out of ammo, runs into the fraay with two axes and seemingly cuts them all down. He shouts "Is that's all you've got!" before being gunned down in a hail of bullets, revealing the wooden soldiers can still fight. The enemy bullets also kill Boo Bear. Snow White's final plan sets the entire wooden army on fire. However, the wooden soldier refuse to give up and instead begin to Kamikaze themselves. Pinnochio tries to run out and stop them only to be decapitated by the enraged leader of the group. Just as everyone appears to be about to die, the Big Bad Wolf summons his breath and decimates the entire army, putting out the fire, and leaving a massive pile of broken wooden figures.
And with that the battle is over. Fabletown mourns the dead. Mama Bear reveals that she is pregnant again as due to the popularity of her story, the must always be a boo bear. Grimhilde is revealed to be a prisoner, and the rest of Fabletown, having now one a major victory, celebrates while also preparing for the inevitable war to reclaim the Homeland. Boy Blue interrogates Grimhilde as to Red Riding Hood's location but she reveals nothing and Boy Blue leaves through a portal on his own with the Witching Cloak to try to find and rescue her. He also brings Pinnochio's wooden form with him in the hopes of finding a way to revive him. Several scenes set up for the next season, including a news reporter describing the battle was a "Block party that turned into a riot." Police detective Nick Barkhardt evidently saw the battle for what it actually was but his boss refuses to believe him. Barkhardt then leaves with his partner Hank and vows to find proof, starting with the missing reporter who previously investigated the area.
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Once Upon a Time: Season One
How much of Grimm was carried over into TTL?
At this point not much do the other two series dominating since the concept and setting needs more of an explanation. However I did a slight rewrite and now have the main characters of Grimm now be the ones who will be investigating the Fables in Season Two, this setting them up to appear.
however there are thematic elements from that show in here as well and scenes that would seem familiar. The search for Belle responds being done in the style of an episode of Grimm.