This week, IDW Publishing is releasing the first issue of a four-issue mini-series of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Each issue features a complete tale of Moose and Squirrel in two parts with a brief adventure of Dudley Do-Right, both written by Yours Truly and expertly illustrated by Roger Langridge.
I'm doing this somewhat to scratch a long-held itch. For years and years, going back to the days when Jay Ward and Bill Scott were still around, I kept being approached — and in some cases, actually hired and paid — to write projects with characters from their studio. In fact, when Bill passed away, we were in the middle of one. He was, as you probably know, the head writer/producer of most of what Jay's company produced and Bill was also the voice of Bullwinkle, Dudley, Mr. Peabody, Fearless Leader, Super Chicken and so many more. At the time of his death in 1985, he and Frank Welker and I were writing a screenplay for a live-action Dudley Do-Right movie for MGM.
This had nothing to do with the one made by others in 1999 with Brendan Fraser. The actor everyone wanted for ours was Marius Weyers, who was so funny in the film, The Gods Must Be Crazy. He was never approached but he sure looked the part…and the idea was that his voice would be dubbed by Bill, and all the other actors in the film would be dubbed by June Foray, Paul Frees, Daws Butler, Frank Welker and other cartoon voice professionals. MGM bought the idea and was even willing to press on with it after Bill died but then we ran into a rights problem.
Having a deal with Jay Ward turned out to be not enough. Back then, the control of those properties was a morass of competing claims and partners, silent and otherwise. Most animation historians will tell you that the reason Jay Ward stopped producing cartoons was that he was fed up with having to deal with network interference. That was certainly a reason but another was that he didn't want to, or maybe couldn't deal with the lawyers and the various alleged owners if he wanted to do anything with his most famous properties…and that was all anyone seemed to want out of him.
Anyway, our project disappeared into that morass…and I'll tell you how messy it all was. A few years later, I was approached by a major animation producer who said, "We have the rights to Rocky and Bullwinkle, and we want you to write a special for us." I said fine, terrific, I'll do it. Before we got around to the part where I sign a contract and they pay me money, a different major animation producer called me and said, "We have the rights to Rocky and Bullwinkle, and we want you to write a special for us." I said yes to them, too.
For a brief time, I hoped I could get them both to pay me for writing the same script but the attorneys began duking it out and all plans were off. Much the same thing happened a couple of other times. It got so when someone called and asked me to write Rocky and Bullwinkle for something, I'd say yes and then think to myself, "Well, let's see how long it takes this one to collapse." Boris Badenov couldn't kill Moose and Squirrel but for a time there, the legal profession was doing a darn good job of it.
What's changed? Well, eventually, a wise and dedicated lady named Tiffany Ward stepped in, spent pots of dough on lawyers, and managed to free Rocky and His Friends from various claimants. Now, controlling her father's characters free and clear and alone, she licenses 'em to the right folks to do good things with them. I hope our comic proves to be one of them.
So that's one comic book I'm writing these days. Another is Groo the Wanderer, which will be returning to the comic book racks shortly. I'll post a message soon about that. And I'm still writing most (not all) of the Garfield comic book published by Boom Studios. Solicitors and dealers advertise it like everything in it's by me but a clever gent named Scott Nickel, who works for Jim Davis, pitches in when I'm swamped with other tasks or am just plain running low on lasagna jokes. I don't like to write too much about what I have coming out because I don't want this to be one of those blogs…but one of these days, I'll write a little more about this comic and why you should buy every issue of it. In the meantime, Rocky & Bullwinkle #1 comes out this week.