☀️The Skin Job
Advertising Saves Lives
Here’s what you get in every episode of Into the Storymaze: writing tips or a work-in-progress; something creative I’m digging; a highlight from my comics-writing credits; plus a quote that’s got me thinking — both about now and what’s next.
"We were thinking… maybe a little football game?"
These were my dear PR partners in ad agency life at Ogilvy & Mather, asking if I could help add a wee bit of digital magic to a new campaign they were bringing to life. It was ultimately about driving awareness of a nasty skin cancer called melanoma. Caught early it’s treatable. Left too long and it’s a death sentence. To help raise awareness in the kind of skin screenings required by “catch-early,” the team had secured a major gridiron personality as a spokesperson. So it was reasoned some kind of bright, shiny pigskin-themed distraction seemed like a natural value-add.
The extent of my football knowledge begins and ends with The Longest Yard. (The Burt Reynolds classic, not the Adam Sandler WTF.) So I couldn't be trusted with landing a hat trick during a full-court press swinging a nine-iron. The simple story would be to slap a logo on a pixelated football field, animate some Xs and Os, and invite the internet to "click to play." That's all that had been asked. That's all that was required. That's all it would take to make everyone perfectly happy. In a perfectly ordinary kind of way.
Instead, I assured those PR pals, “I'm pretty sure we can do more than that." Then I joined hands with a bunch of the creative team so we could venture forth together into the Storymaze.
Developing a narrative can be a straightforward affair, point A to point B. It's efficient… but lacks magic. A Storymaze is purposefully less direct. You give yourself over to explore its twists and turns. In return, you find a treasure trove of detail and possibilities that enliven an idea and deeply enrich the audience experience.
Everyone involved found something unique to bring back out — and up-up-up the ante on that "little football game." Google Street View to turn the visual backdrop into player-specific neighborhoods. A video avatar of that sport star to coach healthcare learning. A "wind based" physics engine to maximize the challenge when "kicking" a 3D field goal — with every point equaling new knowledge. And data feeds to share relevant health alerts with social media pals.
There was more — a lot more. Storymaze treasure can promote greed! If we weren't careful, what had become a hyper-interactive website could suffer from a "wealth" of clicks and call-to-actions. As a team we had to be hyper-selective to ensure we stayed the course on a story-focused journey that would be appreciated and meaningful to visitors.
How did it all play out when that URL loaded? As a key component of that larger PR campaign — ultimately called Melanoma Exposed — it helped inform thousands. And it would directly warn at least 200 of those people that they were at specific risk for a life-threatening disease. That’s a pretty good day to be a creative.
As a sweetener, at the launch party, the client pulled me aside. When we had first met, she was expecting no more than that “little football game.” So the unexpected combo of elements that we brought out of the Storymaze had her excited…but maybe a bit dubious. Now she expressed, with a bit of surprise, "I get pitched big ideas all the time. But then it's always less when it becomes real. You delivered just what you promised. No one's ever done that before."
In football, I'm think they call that a… touchdown. Did I get that right?
Know someone who’d enjoy time in the Storymaze? Ask them to join us…
That fact that Adrian Tomine's The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist comes in the form of a Moleskin-style notebook makes it seem even more like you're getting a secret look at this cartoonist's autobiographical retellings of the incidents that have formed his successful career — and comically fragile ego. In Tomine's sharp, short and relatable comic strips, every high (a breakthrough publishing deal) has a corresponding low (withering critics at a nearby table in a restaurant chip away at this art and originality.)
Tomine captures (or manufactures) just the right moments from his life, and ties it together with a witty and self-deprecating inner monologue that — for all its insecurity — is honest and wry. These comics are built on the "discomfortable comedy" model, the kind of awkward neurosis and foot-in-mouth angst that are the stock in trade of Larry David style shows. I was at first worried it would only be a series of cringe-inducing moments. But Tomine's warts and worries are the ups and downs and issues of self-acceptance we can all relate to, cartoonist or not. I found his anxiety, embarrassments and inferiority well balanced with sentiment, humor, and empathy. The notebook is, indeed, a mirror.
I know I’m not the only one with something to say or share. Jump in…
Marvel Comics' New Universe line was born — at least partly — out of the idea of a more reality-based set of adventures, an exploration of "What If" the "world outside our window" collided with fantastic and extra-normal characters. Several of the concepts had the mark of legendary creator, Archie Goodwin: my boss and mentor while I was on staff. Among those titles was "Justice," a power-blasting vigilante — with a mullet. Trapped in our plane of existence he was now focused on serving Earth's many evildoers a handful of — you guessed it — justice.
My co-writer at the time was Margaret Clark, and we were earnest students of Archie's concept document. In truth, as fledgling writers looking to make a sale, we read anything and everything that might give us a story an editor would buy. Thundercats, Defenders of the Earth…if it had a story bible we could mine and springboard off of, we were opportunistic page turners. But our idea for Archie's inter-dimensional knight wasn't so much “out there” as it was back-to-basics. The regular run of the title felt to us somehow…off. It didn't effectively embrace the character's core concepts. This seemed to be a problem with some New Universe titles, as they struggled to hold onto creative teams and find consistent footing.
We figured if anyone had a creative direction worth following it was Archie – so our pitch to editor Howard Mackie was tightly focused on Justice as Archie's original judge, jury and executioner. Our idea didn't set Howard's office alight with creative fire, but it did spark enough interest to get picked up as a fill-in. A fill-in was a standalone issue that an editor would commission, to hold in inventory. If (when) a regular team fell off schedule, the editor could slot in the inventory to keep the title on its regular publication schedule. Fortunately for me and Margaret, there was a gap in the schedule — and our tale of comeuppance went live.
Now here's the really interesting part of the story. And by "interesting" I mean kinda life changing. Several months later, as Margaret and I continued to fish after inventory issues…Archie choose to award Chichester & Clark the writing assignment for all three of his Shadowline titles, a shared universe he had just created for Marvel's Epic Comics line. While we never asked him directly why he choose *us* (possibly out of fear that he'd come to his senses) — we both felt it had a lot to do with the fact we'd kept a focus on his original intention for his other character. Maybe there's some (ahem) Justice in respecting a creator's vision.
Margaret and I generally referred to the title as "Juh-Vis-tice," due to the odd "V" shape of the "U" in its logo. My only defense for this would be that we were reserving our real creativity for the stories. Onward…
“One day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted. Do it now.” — Paulo Coelho
Amazing Times
Thanks for taking a break from the dark web to check out this share-out of projects I’m working on, plus things that have me jazzed. I’m D.G. Chichester. If that looks pretentious, feel free to just call me “Dan”, and have a go at the last name as Chai (like the tea) Chester (like it looks).
I earned my word-cred writing comic book titles like Daredevil, Terror Inc., Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, along with all manner of digital widgets in the world wide web of advertising. I keep my storytelling cred by trying new things — this is one, with more on the way. I like weird tales, so if things here bend that way — now you know why!
Folks seem to like the comic book adventures I’ve written, so if you haven’t checked one out — please do. Many are now available in fab collected editions.
For the lonely moments between these newsletters…
@dgchichester — 280 characters from the Twitterverse
@dgchichester — images + context via Instagramland