Joshua Hale Fialkov

Purveyor of sheer awesomeness.

Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Harvey, Eisner, and Emmy Award nominated writer of graphic novels, animation, video games, film, and television, including:

THE LIFE AFTER, THE BUNKER, PUNKS, ELK'S RUN, TUMOR, ECHOES, KING, PACIFIC RIM, THE ULTIMATES, I, VAMPIRE, and JEFF STEINBERG CHAMPION OF EARTH. He's also written television including MAX’s YOUNG JUSTICE, NBC's CHICAGO MED and NETFLIX’s AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.

CBR writes up my yammering on Friday the 13th

February 08, 2008  /  Joshua Fialkov

friday_012_rgbad.jpg Comic Book Resources - CBR News: Fialkov Slashes His Way Through "Friday The 13th"

The main message of the book is simple -- "Stay the fuck out of Camp Crystal Lake," Fialkov told CBR News. "I think there's a bit of the revenge story in all of the 'Friday the 13th,' as Jason is constantly exacting his revenge for his own abuse, but I think there's certainly a parallel to be drawn between the main character of Maggie and Jason's mission, which finds the two so completely off base in their methods, even though what they're doing is justified. These characters and, hopefully, this book, are really about having a fucking blast being scared, excited, titillated, and enthralled. We've had horror has a literary form for centuries, it speaks to the very roots of our species, and all of the morality inherent within the execution, owes a big debt to that cultural touchstone."

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categories / Comics, Comics Business, Interviews, My Comics, Web

Tonight's Writing Soundtrack

February 01, 2008  /  Joshua Fialkov

Haven't done one of these in a while. Last 40 Tracks I've listened to whilst writing.  Been a weird combination of soundtracks and hip hop for this action book thus far. stick me for my riches 6:08 Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams sunlight 3:22 Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams gun will go feat sunny valentine 4:15 Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams wolves feat george clinton 4:16 Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams the heart gently weeps feat erykah badu dhani harrison and john frusciante 5:37 Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams unpredictable feat dexter wiggle 4:12 Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams Da Coach 1:20 K-JUSTICE 8 Diagrams rushing elephants 3:01 Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams get them out ya way pa 4:19 Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams Take it back 4:13 Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams Campfire 3:59 Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams Palmer's Theme 1:51 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack The Bomb Detonates 2:39 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack Jack Tells Kim He's Not Coming Back 2:12 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack Copter Chase Over L.A 2:32 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack Salazar's Theme 1:55 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack In Pursuit Of Kyle 2:39 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack Jack In The Limo 2:42 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack Kim And Terry's Escape From The Safe House 2:04 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack 8:48 PM Jack's Revenge At The Docks 4:02 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack L.A At 9:00 A.M 1:57 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack Up And Down Stairs 2:44 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack "24" Theme 4:39 Sean Callery 24 Television Soundtrack 01 - Out In The Street 2:30 The Who The Who Sings My Generation Days (Kinks) 2:56 of Montreal 2007-12-14 Lesinrocks.com acoustic session Dead Flowers 4:05 The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers Oh 4:06 Rza Afro Samurai (The Soundtrack) Afro's Father Fight 1:24 Rza Afro Samurai (The Soundtrack) Just a Lil Dude Who Dat Ovah There 3:29 Rza Afro Samurai (The Soundtrack) Certified Samurai 3:00 Rza Afro Samurai (The Soundtrack) Afro Intro 0:51 Rza Afro Samurai (The Soundtrack) Afro Theme 0:30 Rza Afro Samurai (The Soundtrack) Lieutenant Kijé, Symphonic Suite, Op. 60: 3. Noces de Kijé 2:37 Adolph Herseth, Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Claudio Abbado Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky; Scythian Suite; Lieutenant Kijé Rhapsody in Blue 16:29 George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue/An American In Paris 1812 Overture, Op. 49 15:32 Leonard Bernstein & New York Philharmonic Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Marche Slave, Romeo and Juliet, Capriccio Italien, Hamlet (Expanded Edition) In the Garden 2:32 Michael Giacchino Alias: Season One (Soundtrack from the TV Series) Tunisia 4:14 Michael Giacchino Alias: Season One (Soundtrack from the TV Series) Double Life 1:55 Michael Giacchino Alias: Season One (Soundtrack from the TV Series) Spanish Heist 4:32 Michael Giacchino Alias: Season One (Soundtrack from the TV Series) Red Hair Is Better 2:32 Michael Giacchino Alias: Season One (Soundtrack from the TV Series)

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categories / Comics, Music, My Comics, Writing

Things going on less than a mile from my house that I'm not aware of.

January 31, 2008  /  Joshua Fialkov

Mailings to Scientology sites probed - Los Angeles Times

Mailings of a suspicious white powder to 10 Church of Scientology addresses prompted the evacuation of dozens of people and the closure of a major thoroughfare Wednesday as hazmat teams were called to examine the packages.The letters were sent via the Postal Service to Scientology properties in Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley, Santa Monica, Glendale and Tustin. Police shut part of Glendale's busy Brand Boulevard for two hours before sounding the all-clear, while 60 people were cleared from buildings in Tustin, authorities said.

Welcome to Los Angeles, where crazy shit happens, and you never even know it.

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categories / Weird, World News

A Word About Formatting

January 29, 2008  /  Joshua Fialkov

Having been educated in traditional screenplay format, and then at some point drifting incredibly far away from it for my comic writing, I have what's become a constant back and forth on script formatting.  I'm one of those guys who finds that form can help dictate content, and so tend to morph what format I use to the project I'm working on. A few of the companies I do work for hire for have standard format (i.e. the Manga Adaptations I do) that I have to use, which is fine, and ultimately, that's become the 'voice' for that work.  Similarly, I began using a new, different format last month, which I sent over to Ms Marvel writer Brian Reed, and he found it totally unusuable, and today, after I asked him about how he formats he sent over a few samples of his formatting style.

What spurred it on is that I'm working on  a big action book for a publisher, and as I started working in my new 'standard' format, it just felt 'wrong.'  So, I applied Brian's more screenplay like style, and found myself humming along, more or less.  While working with Wheaton on our book together, I decided to use that comic book format because it's so radically different from screenplays, that I think it'll actually open him up to the uniqueness of the medium just by sheer nature of it being a different set of instinctual movements than using Final Draft.

I've been in that strange place as a comics writer where I'm working on books I wrote a few months ago, as well as stuff that's going out for the first time now, so I've really been going through these old scripts, and seeing the changes in what I do for either speed, clarity, or tone has been a bit of an eye opener.

There's also the issue of word processors.  I use four different word processors throughout my writing process.  I've been using Scrivener for projects with lots of research, or with a longer story arc, Pages for more 'straight forward' writing, Neooffice for formatting before sending, Final Draft for Screenplays or anything short in the screenplay format, and Office 2008 for drafting with integrated notes.  Now, ultimately, I'd prefer to be down to just one or two of those programs, but each offer some features that are unique.

The only one that technically could replace the bulk of them is Office 2008, but, thus far, I've found it to be a complete misstep in the old work horse of a program.  It's clunky, awkward, confusing, and managed to screw up my Mac when I installed it.  Hooray for Microsoft!  Lukcily, the track changes feature continues to be unmatched anywhere else, except maybe Final Draft, which is unfortunately not owned by most editors I work with.  Scrivener has an integrated screenplay format you can use, but, thus far, I've found it less intuitive than Final Draft, but, the research options make it a much more formidable program, and considering the tricks Brian showed me, it seems to really be getting the job done.  Pages is great for formatting... it does things in a way that's extremely intuitive, and frankly, I don't have to worry about it being wrong.  Neooffice seems to work well enough, but the tab system and general formatting usage ends up just confusing the crap out of me most of the time.  Both of them seem to not quite handle the track changes properly from someone working in Office.

It's still a bit strange to me that comics have yet to really settle into a style, but, I suppose as each writer's style and voice really do come through in their scripts (I mean, what other medium is it considered okay for a writer to draw in his script to describe something?), that's it's only neccessary.

The other thing that I've been noticing, at least for me, is that by using these different formats, it allows me to really distinguish, in my mind, between the projects.  As though, by switching up the how, it allows my brain to switch the what, and focus on the work I'm doing.

Mind you, I'm on deadline and writing about formatting, which might mean it's not quite working as planned.

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categories / Comics, Comics Business, My Comics, Writing