Live Chat With Jim Shooter - Monday August 15th - 8:30PM EST

[Ladakh]

Well I am sure you can all thank Jim for "The Jim Shooter Project".

[Jim_Shooter]

RE: RAI. I had lots of plans for lots of generations of RAI.

RE: Stan signing everything: I think he's entitled to sign anything Marvel. Besides, he's 93. I give him a senior-senior citizen discount.

RE: Purrbinger. Very cool. Nice art.

[mramsterdam]

Do you still read comics and if so what titles?

[vikingspawn]

What was it that caused the delays between issues in your Dark Horse line of books?

Were you inspired by the movie "Apocalypto" while writing the "Turok: Aztlan" run?

[Jim_Shooter]

RE: ICON: They asked me to overhaul and write film treatments for some of their properties. I wrote a lot of character developments for "Holy Matrimony," aka Super-Wedding, Crush-O, "Girl Out of Water" and others, I forget. I also overhauled/developed a 12 issue comic book series called "Vampire X" for them. They paid me well, treated me fairly and were generally good folks. Adam Post in particular.

I pitched PLASM to TCFC's president, my good friend Ralph Schafer. We made a deal for TCFC to prototype some toys. We pitched to Jill Barad at Mattel. She, of course knew legendary Ralph (Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, many others. Jill knew me, too from various dealings. We were welcomed. Mattel bought PLASM on the spot. $9 million guaranteed. But Marvel sued DEFIANT over the trademark because they had a name for a character--no development, just the name--registered "with intent to use" in the UK. We prevailed decisively, but the delay caused us to miss our window with Mattel, so the deal died. P.S. The judge was Michael B. Mukasey, later Attorney General of the U.S. P.P.S. Winning cost us $300,000, which pretty much sunk our start-up, which was Marvel's MO. Mucasey lectured Marvel's lawyers about using his court as a "business weapon" and warned them not to appeal. They didn't. But we were dead anyway.

Favorite character? I'm partial to the Harbinger kids. But Spider-man and Solar are right up there.

[Jim_Shooter]

P.S. To Veronis and Suhler: They couldn't fund DEFIANT, as it turned out, because they had dealings with Perelman that posed a conflict.

[Ladakh]

Last 20 minutes, fellas... get those questions in!

[TheeBaldMoose]

Jim, I'm new to the comic book world, and have been devouring all things Valiant (old and new). What was/is your thought process for coming up with such fantastic stories/characters?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[Jim_Shooter]

RE: Comics I read: Usually things that are given to me at cons and such, or sent by people wanting crits, or things recommended by JayJay or others. Nothing steady. I read a series by Scott Kollins recently "Weird," I think. Great art. Jai Nitz sends me interesting stuff.

RE: Dark Horse delays: The scripts were way ahead of schedule. The art came in slowly.

RE: Apocalypto: Never saw it.

[Ladakh]

Jim wanted his characters to fly without effort unlike Superman where he puts his arms out to maybe control his speed???

VALIANT characters floated above the Earth independent of everything. And that is a new thing... floating.

[iggy101us]

Hi Jim. Thanks for creating VALIANT. I still re-read the comics from time to time, especially Pre-Unity and Unity. Have you had a chance to re-read your VALIANT issues recently? Which are your favorite issues and/or stories?

Thanks again.

[greg]

Clinton or Trump?

[vikingspawn]

Have you been contacted by Image, IDW, Boom or Dark Horse for any new comics work?

Can any of your custom comics be purchased anywhere? Or an online shop through your Illustrated Media site?

[Ladakh]

Clinton or Trump?

Trump is all but poised to drop out leaving a vacuum and a lot for the GOP to think about.

[Ladakh]

Last 12 minutes... get those last-minute question in now!

[grendeljd]

You are the rare kind of creative person who also has a sharp mind for business as well. Overall, what element of your involvement in the comics & entertainment industry feels more rewarding &/or appealing to you - the written creative work, or the business side?

[mramsterdam]

Is Solar unbeatable?

[vikingspawn]

What's your drink of choice?

Who would you cast as the lead in a "Fatale" movie?

Are you writing any screenplays?

I think James Cameron would make an awesome Plasm movie if he read the books...

[mramsterdam]

Solar vs Solar destroyer?Even though the real Solar died in the future.

[Jim_Shooter]

Theebaldmoose: I get some tiny hint of an idea, maybe a phrase that occurs to me or an event of some kind that might be interesting, whatever. Some snippet of a thought or a subject. Then I start writing lists of words related to the snippet. For instance, with PLASM, the snippet was "what if the biolayer expanded till it consumed the whole planet?" So I looked up all things organism-ish--terms, words, Each thing led to more things. Cells, bones diseases, recycling. Then it started to um, take on a life of it's own.

[Ladakh]

I believe the genie was caught in the bottle with VALIANT, which spawned Valiant which cut out out of the the picture you created and ultimately screwed you.

[Ladakh]

Last five minutes.

[grendeljd]

Last five minutes.

Are you going to let Jim go into 'overtime' to answer anything he hasn't yet?

[Ladakh]

Last chance, guys.

[vikingspawn]

Do you remember how many tests versions of Plasm #0 as a separate comic were printed?

I've seen one that's stapled and one I don't know how to describe but it's cut shorter than the regular versions from inside Previews.

Is Chuck from MileHigh still interested in pushing Daring Comics?