About six weeks ago, I met writer Chris Ullrich in Pasadena to be interviewed for ComicMix. We talked for about two hours, and he ended up with a transcript that’s so long, they’re splitting the interview into three parts.
Part one is up today, and rather than excerpt it heavily, I’ll just quote my favorite bit:
[TokyoPop] asked me if I would write a Next Generation Manga, and would I write a Wesley Crusher story, and I didn’t want to do it because it felt to me like there was no way in that equation that I could return a positive result.
Ultimately, I’m just not interested in Wesley Crusher anymore. It’s been a long time and he’s sort of frozen in amber in a certain state. I don’t have anything to add to that. I don’t have anything new to bring to it at all.
CMix: No thoughts about killing him off?
WW: No. I’m way more interested in working on my own original stuff. And there’s a finite number of time/energy/creative units that I can gather on my “collect resources” turn. I would rather put those into building my own story than into repairing the Wesley Crusher building.
There are times in my life when I wonder if I spend a little too much time gaming. I frequently decide that there’s just no such thing as too much gaming . . . then I read something like this, a faithful recreation of my actual thought process, and I think I should just step away from the bag of dice for a few turns.
Wait. Not turns. Days. I meant to say days.
Sigh.
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Go ahead. Step away from the dice.
My boys and are are picking them up so the universe remains in balance.
My favorite part is the comment on the different ways creators and actors react to doing conventions.
@KRamsey – I was afraid that, without actually sitting with me while I said that, it really made me sound like a dick.
Nah, that’s not dickish at all. I think it’s a pretty fair sentiment that you want to move past the Wesley Crusher phase. You can’t have the rest of your life centered around it, especially since you’re looking to do your own creative things.
I always feel bad for actors like Screech and Urkle who will never be seen more than what they did on television ages ago.
*goes back to my dark lurking corner*
You didn’t sound like a dick, Wil. Just someone who has grown in his work and isn’t still living in a particular moment for the rest of his life. Its a healthy way to be in my opinion.
Sometimes we all have to set down the dice a bit as well. I’m setting down my proverbial dice as well for a while to concentrate on my work. It wasn’t an easy choice, but it was the right one.
That’s pretty funny.
I laughed for 2d6 rounds when I read that.
Now my brain is wandering through a spinoff storyline where researchers extract the DNA from the frozen Wesley Crusher and create a herd of WesleyCrushersaurs (which in my minds eye, are actually more like malformed zombies) that take over an island theme park. And of course, a search and rescue party eventually arrives and gets killed off one by one.
It’s just me, isn’t it?
Firstly, perhaps you’re in a digital world entirely too much and have forgotten what the sky looks like. As a computer programmer I never see games and never see sky either. That leads to soul destroying creativity depletion. As a hardcore geek that has been coding since, well since before you were born probably, I have to step away totally now and again. If you do stare at the sky, be very very afraid if you begin to question the resolution or if you see pixel burnout.
The fact that you can instinctively use the jargon of games for metaphorical talk is not something to back away from. It’s yours. So use it.
Its too bad you feel that way Wil. I mean, I understand the desire to work on new and interesting things – to not be stuck doing that one thing you’re known best for, but at the same time to totally turn your back on it..
Well I for one enjoyed watching you as Wesley Crusher – and even though its highly improbable I would really enjoy seeing it again some day. You *owned/own* that character, and its one that is very dear to myself and my childhood.
You give some of the most honest interviews I’ve read. And don’t be hard on yourself (I know, easier said then done). Like you say a lot, you’re just being yourself. And a lot of people are digging that, as you’ve noticed. Same thing with the geek/gamespeak, obviously people are just fine with it. There’s a lot of us, apparently. Or at least those who identify.
Also: Am I the only person that things Wil would be a great addition to the cast of Eureka?
I put a comment on the story at ComicMix (unfortunately, it didn’t like my use of <> symbols around the phrase “shakes head fondly” at the beginning). You’re such a geek, Wil – and so am I.
(I was going to make fun of dingosatemybaby for laughing for 2d6 rounds – but then I remembered that on my own blog, I called for 1d6+1 minutes of silence, 10′ radius, for Gygax’s passing…)
Oh, and I forgot to add also that Wil would be a great addition to Eureka, if only because he can already technobabble with the best of ’em – and has!!
Wil, have you seen this one?
Wonderkind face-off
http://chainsawsuit.com/20080609.shtml
No, you didn’t sound like a jerk at all. You explained yourself well and you obviously were aware it might rub some the wrong way and you explained that too. I think the most exciting thing for you is that you do have serious writing talent and people are taking notice while you’re still young. The world is your oyster,
Wil.
Sorry for posting yet again–I was just remembering the late Richard Biggs at a convention years ago. He really got into the cons and actually came to the parties and danced and socialized with everyone. Then it struck me–he also was a writer and talked a lot about that in his Q&A sessions. Died ridiculously young–what a great guy.
There is such a thing as too much gaming, but using it in regular conversation isn’t a sign of it. The sign of gaming too much is when the game infiltrates your every day thought. There was a time in the past where I was seeing Dr. Mario blocks everywhere. And recently I’ve been playing so much M:TG that I can’t help but think of people and events in terms of colored mana and the like.
@Kenyon: I used to do that with Tetris. When I was going all over the country for different Star Trek conventions every weekend in the late 80s, nearly every major metropolitan skyline turned into a potential Tetris board for me.
@twitter_wilw Yeah man Who Live @ Leeds is one of the all time classic rock n roll live records.
Ain’t no Cure for the Summertime Bluez. The Who, Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream — add a dash of Motorhead and early Black Sabbath and you’ve got your original !RAWK! right there.
BTW, dude how are you not following me on Twitter so I can just Tweet this back @you?
I am very curious to read the next bits of this interview because having just read that you rarely grant interviews and that I am now part of the select few journalists to whom you have granted an interview makes me feel pretty damn good.
However, I do wonder if you will ever talk about the TOKYOPOP contracts and how you feel about them as a writer. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out this link to get you started: http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=86408
Alas, the best stuff from comic book artist/creator Lea Hernandez isn’t available at this posting because LiveJournal’s down for emergency maintenance.
BTW Wil, I want you to know that I have now spent the entire day reading Questionable Content from beginning to end. I hope you’re happy.
(Yeah, it was awesome. What of it?)
You can step away from the dice bag Wil but in truth the dice are already in your head and that’s not such a bad thing.
Aw man, Vicki Vale in the Batcave. I’d managed to block that out, and now I’m pissed off all over again.
i confess to having a girlhood crush on wesley crusher, but keeping him going now would be way too truman show.
Glad you like your Hanners shirt, Wil 🙂
It warms the cockles of my heart to know are a total gaming geek.