There should be a comics creator reality show.

[lugaru]

I'm thinking this would rock... and if we have shows about people rummaging through trash in storage containers, we can for sure have one with comics artists. My one rule? No Stan Lee. I love "the man" but he is already really well known, we need to get some other veterans or better yet young creators out there.

A format I would like to see would be that you have a guest like Bendis or Kirkman or Johns or maybe an indy creator. Well they write up a one page story like two heroes in a fist fight or a funny thing happens to a guy on his way to work or whatever. The young artists on the show have a day to make a page, which is rought but not impossible. This could be unknowns or maybe it would be like Iron Chef and you have the "creme de la creme" competing. At the end the pages are shown (and posted online) and are judged by comics peers besides an online poll.

Either way would you watch something like this? What would a comics reality show look like for you?

[Steve Raker]

Gaimen's appearance Halloween night on craig ferguson was reality show material for sure......whacky!

[BobBretall]

I'm not sure that would be a riveting show.......sitting watching an artist drawing in their studio for 8-10 hours a day.....

By it's nature the only ones out doing interesting stuff are the guys slacking off in a way that will cause them to blow their deadlines.

Unless you just followed them around at conventions and left them alone at all other times.

You could always shift the reality show over to comics or original art dealers who wheel and deal to get collectibles at rock-bottom prices & then turn around and sell them at huge profits.  That's more of a reality show formula that is used in American Pickers, Storage Wars, or Pawn Stars.

[InspectorSpacetime]

if twitter is any indication, some comic creators only have interesting things to say in the pages of comic books.

[lugaru]

I'm not sure that would be a riveting show.......sitting watching an artist drawing in their studio for 8-10 hours a day.....

By it's nature the only ones out doing interesting stuff are the guys slacking off in a way that will cause them to blow their deadlines.

Unless you just followed them around at conventions and left them alone at all other times.

You could always shift the reality show over to comics or original art dealers who wheel and deal to get collectibles at rock-bottom prices & then turn around and sell them at huge profits.  That's more of a reality show formula that is used in American Pickers, Storage Wars, or Pawn Stars.

Yeah, but on shows like Cake Boss they dont put the camera in front of the oven for an hour. With some quick cuts of half finished work before it is "unveiled" would be cool. Also you can get some big personalities in comics, people like Jason Aaron, Grant Morrison and Rick Remender are positively demented and are always fun to listen to when interviewed. I think they are at least as fun as anyone on the A&E style shows.

[DGoodhart]

I'm thinking that a good comics creator-based show could run along the lines of what Bravo's doing with their Work of Art series or what SyFy did with their Face Off series.  You get a group of talented creators who are looking for the big break and have them compete in a series of challenges with the ultimate prize being getting a publishing deal (say with Image- something distinctly creator-owned) and a cash prize of say $100,000.00 (that's the cash prize on the abovementioned shows) that would readily finance them.

On both of those shows, all of the creators lived together while they were in competition, so they managed to get a lot of extra interaction with that as well.  Also, they didn't just have each creator do their own thing, some of the challenges involved teams as well, and that is most certainly something you could do on a comic creator based reality show.

(BTW, if you haven't seen Bravo's Work of Art, the new season just started recently and there's a new episode on later tonight- seriously, check it out, I think you'll easily see that this format could really work well for comic creators- Hell, I'd try to get on the show anyway...)

[BobBretall]

Yeah, but on shows like Cake Boss they dont put the camera in front of the oven for an hour. With some quick cuts of half finished work before it is "unveiled" would be cool.

Yeah, but on Cake Boss, Buddy seems to mostly order people around & put finishing touches on cakes.  He has plenty of time to mug for the camera.   I'm guessing the same is not true for an artist who is a 1 person show.  They need to draw all that detail & don't have a staff of people hovering around to help make drama.

I'm thinking that a good comics creator-based show could run along the lines of what Bravo's doing with their Work of Art series or what SyFy did with their Face Off series.  You get a group of talented creators who are looking for the big break and have them compete in a series of challenges with the ultimate prize being getting a publishing deal (say with Image- something distinctly creator-owned) and a cash prize of say $100,000.00 (that's the cash prize on the abovementioned shows) that would readily finance them.

This does sound more interesting.   Like all these shows you need to manipulate the casting so you get a couple of people who are real SOBs for the audience to hate and a couple who are just bat-shit crazy to add some flair.

[DGoodhart]

This does sound more interesting.   Like all these shows you need to manipulate the casting so you get a couple of people who are real SOBs for the audience to hate and a couple who are just bat-shit crazy to add some flair.

And really, there's no shortage of those out there...

[BobBretall]

Yeah, but on Cake Boss, Buddy seems to mostly order people around & put finishing touches on cakes.  He has plenty of time to mug for the camera.   I'm guessing the same is not true for an artist who is a 1 person show.  They need to draw all that detail & don't have a staff of people hovering around to help make drama.

In retrospect, you could probably do one of these focusing on a writer like Bendis.  I'm sure he could drum up a pretty healthy group of sycophants and hangers-on to orbit him if he wanted to.  Have each season focus on some intrusive event & how it's going to really screw over the ongoing story-lines in the books of writers who are not "Marvel Architect" status.

In each episode you could have a cut-scene to Ed Brubaker, completely unaffected, totally ignoring the whole thing and just going on with his business telling his stories.  Everyone else would be creating drama as their carefully crafted storylines are hosed up with event tie-ins.

[lugaru]

I really want to watch Work of Art.. I listen to the Slate Culture Gabfest and they seem to have really loved that show.

Personally I dont have cable, so I only watch shows off Hulu, Netflix or stuff I download. That is why the only Reality Show I ever watched much was Hells Kitchen (available on Hulu). All the people on the show here painfully normal (much like comics creators) and the show depended on Gordon Ramsey to be a total prick and create enough drama for everyone.

That said I think a show can survive without catfights and drama, so long as an episode is half an hour long. 

[DGoodhart]

Personally I dont have cable, so I only watch shows off Hulu, Netflix or stuff I download. That is why the only Reality Show I ever watched much was Hells Kitchen (available on Hulu). All the people on the show here painfully normal (much like comics creators) and the show depended on Gordon Ramsey to be a total prick and create enough drama for everyone.

That said I think a show can survive without catfights and drama, so long as an episode is half an hour long. 

Well, I don't know if I'd call the Hell's Kitchen contestants painfully normal, I've been watching the show since the start and I usually get the impression that most chefs have to be tough guys who look like they'd be more comfortable doing time than in the kitchen ( I kid)...

Work of Art and Face Off are more like what you'd want to see; there's quirky individuals on both show and conflicts without the "in your face" attitude that Hell's Kitchen thrives on (don't get me wrong, I love Hell's Kitchen, but I wouldn't want to eat any of the food that the chefs serve)...